The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley ------------- 3 Stars

I read The Hunting Party was a great "who dunnit" story from the other side of the pond. And, while I was actually pretty engaged with the book (which ultimately saved the rating), I thought the story was a mess and pretty frustrating by the end.

The book is a few years old and it fits in that genre of what I've read too much of lately: mystery type novels, often involving a death, with a bunch of potential characters who may be guilty. This one reminded me so much of a mix of The Girl on the Train (much better; review here) and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (yes, a classic). Like Girl on the Train, alcohol and other devices made it difficult to know what was reality and what was a person's misremembering - what a simple (and maybe lazy) way to confuse the reader. The setting was a secluded farm in rural Scotland with about 8 potential murderers, which reminded me so much of the 10 suspects on the island in Christie's book. 

I really did think the story was a mess. Besides having 7 or 8 different narrators, timelines jumped all over the place. And, while some replaying of scenes from different POVs made it more interesting, some were repetitive and/or didn't provide any new information. The characters were also really oddly shaped. Some had great depth and others minimal; again, all with different timelines sharing that information. I won't even go into the ending, but it was a let down for me.

On a positive, it's an engaging read, especially for the first half when things were making a bit more sense. Many chapters left the reader curious what was going to happen next and the author didn't strike out totally with the back and forth descriptors of things. I did find myself often wanting to continue reading the next chapter; though, oddly, I didn't find myself wanting to continue to read the book after I put it down.

Ultimately, I've read a number of books of this type that were simply better; more creative, more logical with better formed characters and plot. However, you could do a lot worse this summer if picking this up. It's an easy read that likely will hold your attention and it might remind you about all the ways some other books are superior.

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest - Candice Millard -------------------- 2.5 Stars

  The River of Doubt sounded like a really exciting book to read. As Amazon describes it, "At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait—the bestselling author of River of the Gods brings us the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth." Well, from that description, I thought it would be a really exciting and enthralling novel to read. Unfortunately, it fell well short of my expectations.

And, to be clear, there were parts of the book I really enjoyed. Some of the biographical pictures offered about all the other characters besides Teddy were particularly interesting. Learning about his son, Kermit, was something new, and the leader of the Brazilian contingency. I also appreciated the lead up and set up the eventual adventure in the Amazon. Learning about how the trip came together, why Roosevelt wanted to take part, and how undiscovered this area was (a little more than a hundred year ago) was worthwhile. Learning about the Native Brazilians who lived in the Amazon, and truly understood how to live in harmony with the jungle, was great. Finally, I really appreciated his vivid and detailed descriptions of life in the Amazon. While I knew that it was a beautiful and unique place, I really didn't appreciate all the dangers and threat that existed; especially as you tried to navigate an unknown river with the technologies that existed a century ago.

Unfortunately, I found the book flat on the whole. While there were some highlights, as noted above, I didn't find the writing all that captivating. I also thought the author could have used a better editor, especially in the middle of the book. With hundreds of pages dedicated to the specifics of their time in the Amazon, it became draining and dragged on. Too many chapters seemed repetitive to the chapter before. And, while I appreciate that I'm sure that's what it felt for those on this incredible journey (times a million), as a reader in my comfortable home, I am most looking to be entertained. I also wish I got more about Roosevelt. Perhaps there weren't enough specific details that could be used (or his journal was lacking), but learning about one of the most famous presidents of all time thought about things would have been illuminating.  

Overall, it's a decent book and one a reader would like if fascinated with adventure stories and/or the life of Teddy Roosevelt. And, while much of the book is a bit slower than desired, it's still a great story about one of the most surprising pieces of unknown (at least to me) history from the past century. 

Don't Believe It - Charlie Donlea ------------------- 3.5 Stars

Been on a bit of a role lately reading these "modern" thriller books with typical plot twists near the ending. Don't Believe It can be added to the laundry list and is pretty similar to the rest of them. Not a super deep book with a lot of meaning on life. Rather, it's a pretty engaging page turner that is pretty hard to put down. Unfortunately, I found this one really struggled to nail the landing.

This one is a typical murder mystery type with an aggrieved girlfriend put in prison for the death of her fiancee. The book's main protagonist is a documentary filmmaker who's rise to fame is based on getting innocent people out of jail. So, she hears the story about this woman in prison and works to tell the world about her case. The story is told in parts as a typical fictional narrative while being interspersed with text from her real time "documentary" airing about this crime. As the story moves along, you get more details revealed throughout the book which helps you begin to piece together what happened. Of course, you get a typical twist ending, and the nice pretty bow of everything explained by the end.

As you can tell from my fairly annoyed commentary, I really didn't love the book. And, I actually found a couple parts in the past quarter of the story, particularly annoying. I won't go into the specifics of what they are and spoil parts of the book for you, but I found the author took some shortcuts to get to the ending and made some odd choices around character and plot. And while I understand it's a book of fiction, the book is based in reality yet a couple of things near the end seemed so unrealistic that I found I really didn't enjoy how it concluded.

Yet, even with those challenges, the book still earns 3.5 stars as I couldn't put it down when reading it. Even from the start, I found it an engaging read that had a great pace. The characters were pretty flat and, honestly, pretty dislikable across the board. Nonetheless, my rankings are based on level of engagement, and I found it a fun, albeit frustrating, novel.