Make that, I was just readin'

By Glen McAdoo

My wife has read about 10,000 books during her lifetime. She reads mysteries, espionage, biographies and fantasy books. Ah, fantasy. So it was no surprise that I found myself in Wal-Mart at midnight on July 20. It was her birthday. Harry Potter is her son. Will he live? She had to know. She knew by Sunday.

I'm not into fantasies. Harry Potter is not my cup of tea. I read mostly mysteries, historical fiction (Michener, Uris, Wouk), and an occasional biography or non-fiction that catches my eye.

Ah, mysteries. If you haven't read the books by Janet Evanovich you have missed a treat. Stephanie Plum, the main character in her books, is a bounty hunter. Well, sort of. She has a least one car blow up in every book. Her pet is a hamster, Rex, which sleeps in a soup can. Evanovich paints the characters surrounding Stephanie in glowing, rich, outlandish colors. Grandma Mazur is a gun-toting, Spandex-wearing hoot whose favorite pastime is going to viewings at the local mortuary. She drives Stephanie's mother to drink and her father into unspoken rage.

The men in Stephanie's life are Joe Morelli, a cop, and Ranger, a mysterious hard-body bounty hunter in black. But the winner is her sometimes companion in catastrophic captures, Lula, a former "ho" who squeezes into everything she wears and has a mouth that brings tears to your eyes, when it is not being stuffed with burgers. It's Evanovich when you need a laugh.

Nelson De Mille, my favorite author, has a character in several of his books, John Corey, who is a slightly disabled former policeman now working for an anti-terrorist task force. John Corey never met a smart-ass remark that he could let go unsaid. All of De Mille's books are great. If you like to read they are well worth the time. You might be familiar with "The General's Daughter," a De Mille book.

Richard North Patterson's new book, "Exile," is an excellent novel that uses an implausible premise as a way to tell his version of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Richard North Patterson is a fine author who should not be confused with James Patterson, a very popular writer who gained his reputation writing about a New York psychologist/cop named Alex Cross. I don't think his recent co-authored works are up to the standard set by the Cross novels, but they're OK.

If you like your mysteries sprinkled with a lot of sex, you'll love attorney Stone Barrington (a great name), another former cop, who eats nearly every meal at a restaurant called Elaine's, with his buddy, NYPD detective Dino Bacchetti. Bacchetti's wife is a mafioso don's daughter, making it interesting. Woods also writes about Holly Barker, a police chief of a small town in Florida, Orchid Beach, who becomes an FBI agent. I love Stuart Woods. You can't put his books down; you might miss something.

J.A. Jance splits her time between Tucson, Ariz., and Seattle and writes about two very lovable people. Sheriff Joanna Brady of Cochise County, Ariz., is a wife and mother who is elected sheriff after her husband, a deputy sheriff, is shot and killed. The books about Joanna Brady are as much about her personal life as mysteries. They are a little like a continuing soap opera, but I think you'll enjoy them.

Her other main character is J.P. Beaumont, a Seattle cop and recovering alcoholic who eventually goes to work for the governor of Washington as a member of the Special Homicide Investigation Team, the acronym of which is a laughing matter among law enforcement circles. J.A. Jance is worth your time.

We have every book written by those authors and many others. Among them is one of our favorites, Stephen White. White writes about Alan Gregory, a psychologist, in Boulder, Colo., and his friend Sam Purdy, a Boulder police detective. Gregory's wife is an A.D.A. who suffers from multiple sclerosis. They have a daughter and a couple of dogs, one, a big black Bouvier, shakes the house when he barks.

Everyone's favorite, and why not, is John Sanford's, "Prey" series. Lucas Davenport, detective extraordinaire, tracks down serial killers in a concatenation of books by Sanford that now numbers 17. They are riveting, if you like that kind of stuff, and I do.

Not to be left out are some other mystery writers whom I enjoy. David Baldacci, Scott Turow, Robert K. Tannenbaum, a terrific writer, and forensic pathologists Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. Reichs is not for the squeamish. Two sisters, Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy, writing under the pen name Perri O'Shaunessy, cover the exploits of Nina Reilly, a Bay Area attorney who sets up practice in South Lake Tahoe. The familiar setting makes these fine books even more interesting.

How about Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, Steve Martin, Sue Grafton, Jeffery Deaver, Clive Cussler, Earl Emerson, Robert Parker (Spencer series), Iris Johansen, Tami Hoag, William Bernhardt, Nevada Barr, Dick Francis, and Sara Paretsky? Whew. They're all good. We have all their books along with all of Tom Clancy's stuff. And, although he's rather commercial, I still think John Grisham is worth the time and is a very easy read. Oh my, I've ran out of space. Did I mention Robert Ludlum? Agatha Christie?

Read. Enjoy. Encourage your children to read. They might like "My Pet Goat." Some people can't put it down no matter what is happening around them.

Glen McAdoo, a Fallon resident, can be contacted at glynn@phonewave.net.