POWER PLAY (Joseph Finder) - December 26/16

This one started out as a slow but interesting Crichton type drama but eventually morphed into an all out Die Hard homage. It's pretty fast paced past a certain point, although I never was able to keep the periphery characters straight. *** out of ****

HIDE AND SEEK (Jack Ketchum) - December 6/16

This typically brisk Ketchum book is maybe a little too descriptive and the story does end kind of abruptly (I wasn't even immediately sure if Casey had survived or not), but it's a good setup and I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into a movie. *** out of ****

LOST DOGS AND LONELY HEARTS (Lucy Dillon) - December 1/16

Holy shit, Dillon. Why is this book about three times longer than it needs to be? It literally felt like two books crammed into one. Why has brevity become such a bad thing? There were aspects to this book I liked - the smattering of developing romances, for example - but they were mostly lost underneath a meandering, padded-out story that grew increasingly tiresome. Jesus. *1/2 out of ****