Saturday Finishes

Finished off a few books on Saturday. Mike was out for most of the day and at the autoshow in the evening, so I even finished off an audiobook while I did needlework.

A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read
This was an unabridged audiobook on 9 CDs, 11 hours. It was read by Hillary Huber.
Madeline Dare comes from an upper crust family background, which her parents opted out from for the most part. She lives in Syracuse with her husband Dean, a welder who travels a lot for work, and writes puff pieces for a local paper. She is a bit mouthy and knows how to use a gun. When her father-in-law gives her a set of dog tags found near a decades old unsolved double murder, she is drawn in. The dog tags belong to her favourite cousin and she can't believe he is involved in murder. The search for the truth leads her back to the state fair, to the ex-cop who originally had the case, and to her cousin. Her best friend Ellis tags along, and they get into plenty of interesting situations. Thoroughly enjoyable.

By The Time You Read This by Giles Blunt
This is a Detective John Cardinal mystery, set in Algonquin Bay, a small city in Ontario. While John's wife Catherine has battled depression for years, even being hospitalized a couple of times, it comes as a complete shock to him when she kills herself. He can't believe she would actually do it, but everyone else does. As he looks deeper into her motivation, he finds some things that don't make sense to him. He also gets hateful notes in the mail about Catherine's death and begins to suspect someone else may be behind her death as an act of revenge. Meanwhile a big case involving child pornography is keeping his colleague Lisa Delorme busy as well.
I was completely drawn into this story. John's emotions are brought to the fore and your heart goes out to him.

Rescued: Saving Animals from Disaster by Allen & Linda Anderson
This books looks at the situation of animal victims in disasters in the United States and while giving first-hand stories of real situations, also gives suggestions for changes to make future disasters less hard for animals.
As an animal lover I found some of the stories difficult, but the overall tone of the book is one of hope for the future. The authors discuss the nature of the bond between humans and animals and talk about situations where people have refused to leave without their animals, and how animals were taken from people who had already lost everything. As they say, there is not only the importance of saving animals lives, but also a morality in the saving of lives as it affects both the humans and the animals. They give information on a lot of volunteer organizations active in this area for more information.