reviews

Finally Finished! Dead on Demand is Done!

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OK, from the last time I posted, no one else was killed. So I think the body count was at 6, and Edwin’s small world started closing in on him as the connections through the darknet were followed, and there were little trails of evidence all over the place, someone just needed to look for it. So Ed got away with nothing, but there really was no closure of “He was sentenced to death” or life in prison or anything else of the sort. There was an interesting almost afterthought at the very end. Ed really wasn’t the “mastermind” behind it. Yes, he did orchestrate it all, but the idea was put into his head, on an alcohol-fueled binge, and he doesn’t even recall that it really was never his idea to get rid of his wife.

 

It was his brother-in-law’s.

Friday Fun Facts!

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Author: E.B. White (Elwyn Brooks)

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Born: July 11, 1899

Died: October 1, 1985

 

Fun Facts: He was a contributor for the New Yorker, co-author of “The Elements of Style”, and writer of “Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2, Call of the Wild, and others

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Quote: “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

― E.B. White

 

Many have grown up with Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little being some of the first books we were introduced to as children. I wish more children today still felt the enjoyment and wonder of walking into a library and seeing nothing but shelves full of adventure, mystery, heartbreak, and miracles.

So, to cut to the chase……

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Barry offed Vanhi. Ed set up another, yes, another, double-deal (how many does that make now?) and is going to have Peter Sudgen kill Barry, therefore eliminating that connection. Unfortunately, Barry is more of the murdering type than I would have first suspected of him. As Peter meets Barry at the docks and is going to inject him with a needle full of insulin (and then toss him over the railing into the ocean) Barry sees the needle before it gets near him, and wrestles with Peter, knocks him over the railing into the ocean below, and that’s that for Mr. Peter Sudgen(-sometimes-Jones).

Ed catches this information on the news, and realizes he now has a bigger problem than he first thought. Really Ed?

So now Yosef is in the picture, trying to find someone to kill his tay-sachs disease-riddled son; he is suffering way too much. So Yosef just tosses himself right into the middle of this web, along with Anthony (known as Ant), remember, he spent 3 years in prison and came out with a really bad attitude, and HIV to boot (maybe I didn’t mention him?? He took the fall for the drug bust at the college…..ahhh, nevermind, he is likely to get it before the end of this story too).

So Ed’s got several people on the line waiting to kill someone in return for their target being killed. There is also an issue of money being involved now; because Ed needs money.

So, I did get a good chunk of this book read, and will give the final update on whose left standing at the end, who’s in jail, and who didn’t make it.

Confused yet? Yep. Me too!

Back To London, and the Mess Edwin is Making

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Well, the bodies are definitely piling up now. With many more to come, by the looks of it.

Mr. Racist Peter Sudgen and his wife are invited to a housewarming party at their foreign neighbors, and he vows to get rid of them by Christmas. Edwin gets questioned, spits out “I didn’t kill her!” as well as “I have an alibi!” Way to play it cool Ed, way to play it cool.

We find out Peter is doing some shady trading in the market for his clients, and I am wondering how long before he is on the top of someone’s list.

Ed decides Vanhi needs to be taken care of as well, because since she uses the darknet, she could possibly track him down and confess everything if she ever got caught.

Barry wants Ed to take care of Jessica and her new boyfriend, and Ed still needs to get rid of Vanhi’s hit; remember, Mr. Pockmarked-Face? So Barry stabs Mr. Pockmarked-Face (apparently he was Emanuel Richard) to death, and then Ed tells him he has to kill another as well, since Ed is killing 2 for him.

So Barry buys an illegal gun, meets Vanhi and tries to get to know her since he is an utter failure at following her. Edwin decides he needs a rock-solid alibi for when Vanhi is killed, so he gets himself chucked into jail for the night.

Detective Morton is noticing the bodies beginning to pile up. From page 81, “…members of the public were randomly killing each other and not leaving evidence, and without there being any apparent motive.” (Campbell & Campbell, Dead on Demand). I have to say, that actually made me laugh out loud.

There is no way I will get this book finished over the rest of my short weekend. I am only on page 88 of 265. Yes, that much has happened in 88 pages. Honestly, the story is starting to give me a headache, but I really do want to find out how many people end up doing each other in, and if Ed ever gets caught for starting this whole fiasco.

What are you reading this weekend?

 

Casting Call For Dead on Demand

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Before I get any further into this story, I thought I would put out a list (I was going to say short list, but that would be a huge lie) of all the characters who seem to be somehow tied together in this little London town because of Edwin’s urge to off his wife. So here goes:

 

Edwin: master plotter (Can we just call him Ed, already? Thanks!)

Eleanor: unfortunate wife to Ed, who bit the dust fairly early

Drew: Ed and Eleanor’s son who passed away

Chelsea: The daughter who is now motherless

Betty: Ed’s secretary

Derek Wood: Newspaper owner, and former employer of Ed, until he let him go

Caroline Flack: Ed’s newly hired divorce attorney (talk about a bad day; divorce papers, then getting canned)

Wood’s personal assistant: so-far unnamed, but the way this story is going, likely to be the plotter of someone else’s demise or a poor sap to get offed pretty soon

Mark: Ed’s brother-in-law, Eleanor’s brother

Palmer: another employee of the paper, in the advertising department (so-far unimportant, but why else did the authors’ give him a name?)

Jeremy Kyle: television news reporter, and by Ed’s comments, Eleanor’s boyfriend?

Yosef Gershwin: father to a son with tay-sachs disease, who vows he will not let him suffer

son: not yet named, but obviously on the wrong end of his father’s plot to “not let him suffer”

Vanhi: prostitute in London, and killer of Eleanor

Jaison: Vanhi’s boyfriend

Mr. Pockmarked-Face: dweller in Vanhi’s nightmares, she is determined to get rid of him for good (which is how Eleanor ended up dead, and Ed finds himself in quite the pickle)

David Morton: Detective Chief Inspector, trying to solve one murder, likely to have the bodies piling up on his desk fairly quickly as things seem to be getting out of hand

David’s technician: another unnamed, but who knows, he may have a whole chapter to himself in a few pages, so I am mentioning him

Dr. Jensen: A psychologist who suspects everyone, he is right to think Ed has something to hide from studying his phone conversations and interviews

Peter K. Sudgen (Jones): Racist Bigot Idiot (my words, not the authors’) who is determined to get rid of his foreign neighbors (His name was Sudgen-Jones for a minute in the book, then it disappeared. Honestly, I am not lying)

Mrs. Sudgen: apparent wimp of a woman and enabler of her Racist Bigot Idiot husband

Barry Chambers: lovelorn fool who is going to propose to Jessica, if she ever shows up for their dinner reservation

Jessica: Dumper of Barry by the next weekend, and likely to be on the receiving end of someone’s poorly-planned execution plot

 

So there you have it, less than halfway done with this story and it has more characters then a quiet game of “Guess Who?”

 

I will have this book finished before the weekend is out. I have to say, I am rather curious now how Ed is going to get himself out of this mess (or try to, I should say) but it is still a bit of a difficult read.

Another New Character in Dead On Demand

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I’ll get to that person in a minute. I didn’t get a lot read last night, I spent about 6 hours working on z-scores, t test, and null hypothesis.

So, Where was I? David Morton (police) had his technician sifting through all of the CCTV (closed circuit tvs) from the park where Eleanor was killed. He saw her going in, passing some cameras, and did notice that while she had a key around her neck while jogging, they did not find it on or near her body.

Edwin still has messages pouring in concerning his “ad” he placed, and he starts thinking that he is just going to find someone to take care of Vandi’s problem for him, he will completely screw that person, and he will technically not physically kill anyone (sounds to me like he has his hand in a whole lot of deaths though!)

And now we meet Barry Chambers. Was he mentioned already? I honestly can’t remember, and if he was I lost him somewhere in the crowd of characters in this story. So Barry is sitting in a restaurant, 3 hours alone, waiting for his girlfriend Jessica to show up. With a ring in his pocket, anxious to propose. She never does show up. By the next weekend he finds out why. She says they just aren’t working, and can they at least be friends? This is the last we hear about these two for the moment, but I have a strong suspicion that Barry is going to be looking for a way to get rid of Jessica.

Edwin finally gets called in to ID the body of Eleanor, unknowingly being videotaped by the departments top psychologist. Everything he has said on the phone has been taped as well. The psychologist is already seeing some things that do not add up. Cry and sob all he wants, I don’t think he is going to get away with this for too long.

I am only on page 58 of over 260, and I cannot even guess how many more people are going to get tangled up into this web. I got a good jump on my statistics homework, I think, so I should be able to get through a good number of pages, and likely a few more bodies, in the next day.

Have a happy Sunday, with sunshine and a great story to read!

Dead on Demand – and on we go……

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We catch up with Edwin on a flight to Vancouver, where his job prospect in Human Resources is located.

It hops right back to Vanhi, in the middle of a nightmare, seeing nothing but a pockmarked-faced man who has her bound and gagged. Waking up, and finding no cocaine to ease her nerves, she decides to get on her darknet account and find an anonymous dealer. Of course, she finds Edwin’s posting about needing a problem taken care of. Vanhi decides she has a problem that needs to be taken care of as well; Mr. Pockmarked-face. She quickly replies with her own message.

And we are back again to Edwin, who nails his interview for the HR position, and returns home to see his computer flashing with a received message.

OK, now here is something that really bugs me when I am reading. When something seems to just fall out of the sky and right into the story. Like facts, or information. Here is the next part I read, word-for-word.

‘Seems like a fair swap. What is your problem?’ he read.

Did she understand what she was proposing? Was she an undercover cop? Did it make a difference even if she was? He was, after all, anonymous (Campbell & Campbell, page 30).

How does he know that the person replying is a woman? (I re-read this section several times thinking I had to have missed something where she identified herself to him as a woman. Nope). Did she sign her name? Attach a picture of herself? This is the kind of thing that bugs me. I am used to the grammatical errors that seem to be in every single book I pick up lately (Do we not hire editors anymore people?) but random stuff like this is just ridiculous.

…….OK. Putting my soap box away…….

Back and forth Edwin and Vanhi continue to message. It seems like they can both close on this deal. Vanhi has a picture of Eleanor and her morning jogging schedule. Edwin decides to hang out in Vancouver for a while longer; not only for an alibi, but also because he needs to start getting used to his future home.

Vanhi preps a hypodermic with cocaine and ethanol, enough to get the job done. She starts staking out Eleanor’s morning jogging path, vowing to herself to take care of the problem the first clear chance she gets. She has a week to get it done and over with.

Dead on Demand..I continue on

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The beginning of Chapter 2 introduced Yosef, and his first born son. We learn that as time passes, at a very young age, his son is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease. It is incurable, and his son will slowly lose his sight, hearing, and the ability to move and breathe on his own. He will die very young. They will make him as comfortable as possible, but he vows to himself he will not let his son suffer in agony. (We all see where this is going, right?)

Back to Edwin, who decides to not off his wife, because of course he is going to get caught. Yet as the debt piles up, he again revisits the idea, and posts a straight-to-the-point post looking for someone to do the deed for him. He gets a reply rather quickly, and starts figuring out how he would pay for this service. In between all of this, he is job-searching, and has a great prospect lined up.

Realizing he cannot pay cash or touch any money in his bank, he decides the best option is to trade one favor for another. He now has to post a new advert on the internet.

At the beginning of chapter 4 we are introduced to Vanhi, a prostitute in central London. (Did I forget to tell you that this story takes place across the “big pond”? Sorry about that.) After she takes care of a client, she cleans herself and her apartment up before Jaison, her boyfriend?, gets back from work. He is a cleaner.

I am sensing an Alfred Hitchcock story going on here. Strangers on a Train, anyone? I love that movie 🙂

So I will keep plodding along on this story. Apparently it was written in less than 90 days (intentionally) and has seriously mixed reviews online. Apparently numerous spelling and punctuation errors as well, which I haven’t seen yet.

Did I Miss Something?

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Okay, truth be told, it is 5 am, I cannot focus on my statistics book, and it is Friday, which is when I usually search for and find free books for my Nook. Which I am on right now (Friday fun facts will post later; I need my actual laptop for that!) 

Always a critic of electronic readers, I do still buy books. But, I cannot just walk into Barnes & Noble and take several (or even one) book home without paying for it, right? Right. And I have discovered some great authors through these free books whose other works I will now be purchasing for my bookshelves.

With that being said, what is up with all of the books about BDSM (or whatever the hell its initials are), women falling in love with ghosts, and people are really still writing about women falling in love with werewolves? Still? Yes, I read through all of the Twilight books like a crazy person and I’m not embarrassed to admit it; and yes I also read the 50 Shades books.

But good gracious, is no one capable of coming up with an original idea anymore? Have all the good storylines and plots been used up? Is this what we have to look forward to? Recycled and regurgitated stories with new names for the characters, a different city, and the same ol’ same ol’? 

This is one of the reasons I read To Kill a Mockingbird at least once a year. And luckily, there are still a few classics out there that I haven’t gotten to yet. And if you read these type of same storyline/different author books and I just pissed you off, I would apologize but this is nothing more than my humble opinion, and no; I will never apologize for my opinion. 

Is it really just me who gets annoyed by this type of writing? What annoys you (other than this post) about books?