FOE (Iain Reid) - January 26/24

 The problem with this book is that it's obvious, super obvious, that there's a twist involving the main character but we don't find out what it is until the end, so basically everything that happens is missing a key piece of the puzzle, which makes it impossible to really care about what's going on. The book is, as a result, kind of boring for the most part. I liked the twist at the end that Hen had herself replaced with a robot, at least. **1/2 out of ****

FOUR BLIND MICE (James Patterson) - January 17/24

 This decent but unremarkable Alex Cross thriller has all the ingredients but somehow it never took off for me. The ongoing emphasis on the Vietnam-era crimes didn't help, but I still enjoyed it well enough. Samson got married! **1/2 out of ****

RELIC (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) - January 8/24

 I started this one months ago but had to return it. This is just absurdly overlong. It's got way too many characters and there are paragraphs and paragraphs of description after description. I was barely able to keep track of all the characters, and the authors even botch the monster-focused stuff. (So much happens offscreen! It's ridiculous.) ** out of ****