A couple more that were good but, did not make a huge impression. The Odds by Kathleen George. She did a good job of tying several story lines together. Four siblings have been abandoned and are surviving on their own, a teen boy dies of a suspicious overdose, Nick Banks is just our of prison, trying to work off a debt and has given food to the 4 kids, the narcotics police are tracking down leads. All this gets tied together by Colleen and her partner which would be fine but the author throws in some personal story lines that seem totally extraneous-Colleen's in love with her married boss who has just been diagnosed with cancer, her partner's marriage is on the rocks and will Colleen and her partner hook up?

The other one is Awakening by S.J. Bolton which I did enjoy. It's an English vet which always hooks me right off the bat. Disfigured by a childhood accident she is a recluse and the author does a good job of dropping hints about the accident without explaining it in full until towards the end. The plot revolves around snakes who seem to be swarming and deaths from snakebites where the concentration of venom is many times one snake. And we'll also throw in a couple of exotic, highly poisonous snakes. There is a lot of really fun info about snakes which seems to be mostly accurate.

A couple of weeks ago I read The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. It's not a short book-268 pages but I finished it in one day-mostly because, while it was fascinating, it was also so disturbing that I just didn't want to have to spend any more time with it than just that one day. It's a dystopian society, although set in a current time frame. At the age of 50 you have to present proof that you are "needed" by someone-a husband who loves you, children who need you, and siblings don't count. If you cannot provide that proof then you are collected by a bus and taken to The Unit where your every need-food, shelter, entertainment, arts, medical, etc-is taken care of quite lavishly and to keep you in the best health possible. In exchange for this end-of-life care you agree to be used in medical experiments and harvested piece by piece to be donated to the "neededs" until, ultimately, your final donation. At the end we find out that the pool of childless men and women is decreasing and protected professions, such as teachers amd medical personnel, are now being taken if they were childless. And there is talk of even lowering the age limit. A very scary book.

Another Jane Haddam with her Gregor Demarkian Holiday mysteries. One of my favorite series-I just worry that she'll run out of holidays and there won't be any more Demarkian and Bennis Hannaford! I came to this series late and this is one of the earlier ones that I had not read. It's always satisfying to fill in gaps in the characters' histories. This holiday is Thanksgiving and is set on an authentic replica of the Mayflower-a pretty awful place to spend 2 or 3 days.

Here's another quick, pleasant, unimportant series-Mystery bookstore owner Annie Laurance and her new husband P.I Max Darling by Carolyn G Hart. It reminds me an awful lot of a grown-up Nancy Drew! The one I just finished was Honeymoon with Murder. Nothng I'd recommend as wonderful but a pleasant way to spend a few hours when you really don't want to engage too much brain power.