Book ~ "Kidnapped" (2006) Jan Burke

From Amazon ~ Sociopathic killer Cleo Smith has just murdered a graphic artist, Richard Fletcher, who was a member of a large, bizarre California family, but Smith's motive for the killing remains obscure. Five years later, Fletcher's adopted son was wrongfully convicted of the crime and is in prison, and Burke's resourceful and compassionate reporter heroine, Irene Kelly, has written a story about missing children that has prompted a host of inquiries from desperate relatives who have lost their own children. When more bodies turn up and further clues point to involvement of Fletcher family members, Kelly, aided by her police detective husband, Frank Harriman, puts her life on the line to exonerate the innocent prisoner and uncover the disturbing secrets at the heart of the Fletcher clan.

This is the tenth book in the series of eleven (as of 2011) ... I'm rereading the series.

As with most in this series, I find that there are way too many characters and I have a hard time keeping them straight. This one was especially tricky because there were so many in the Fletcher family. A family tree would have been helpful.

Ethan from the last book is still staying with Irene and Frank recovering ... he had such a inconsequential role that I wondered why he was even in it.

There were a few twists that I found a bit hard to believe but they had to happen to tie everything in, I guess.

I usually find kids in books annoying but the ones in this one weren't.

All in all, it was a good story ... it wasn't until about halfway through the book, though, that once I could remember who was who that I got into it more.

Book ~ "Bloodlines" (2005) Jan Burke

From Amazon ~ In 1958, Conn O'Connor, a brash young reporter for the Las Piernas News-Express, is taken under the wing of veteran Jack Corrigan, who is nearly killed after claiming to have seen a blood-spattered car buried on a farm. In 1978, another brash youngster - Irene Kelly - in turn is taken under O'Connor's wing. By 1998, Irene is the veteran, mentoring two rookies. The sweep of events over such a long time span imparts a certain majesty.

There are murders, to be sure, but little mystery, since it's clear early on who is responsible. The deaths serve more as a tragic link across the years and to the heartbroken families who grow old awaiting resolution. Several secondary characters from Burke's earlier novels appear in part three, furthering the sense of events coming full circle.

In the end, it's the human relationships that stick in the mind and the heart. A few flaws - dangling loose ends, too many summaries and, most serious, a disappointing slide back into standard crime-fiction mode - don't diminish the book's overall strength and enormous charm. With its multiple rich story lines, dead-on newsroom atmosphere and friendships that deepen through the decades, this is an extremely satisfying work.

This is the ninth book in the series of eleven (as of 2011) ... I'm rereading the series.

This book is divided into three parts with 20-year intervals in between. We meet O'Connor as a kid and watch him grow and become a reporter, being mentored by Jack Corrigan. Two people have drowned and a couple and their baby have disappeared. Twenty years later, O'Connor and Irene Kelly start working together and the mystery of the disappearance couple and their baby is solved. Twenty years after that, Corrigan and O'Connor are long gone and the loose ends of the mysteries are finally solved.

I enjoyed this book. We get to know a lot of people in the past that we know now like O'Connor who died in the first book of the series and Lefebrve who was prominent in the last book. As with Burke's other books, there were a lot of characters but I was able to keep them all straight. I didn't find it dragged and I was okay with the ending.

Book ~ "Flight" (2002) Jan Burke

From Amazon ~ Flight is really the story of two men, Frank Harriman and Philip Lefebvre. Ten years ago, when businessman Trent Randolph and his daughter were murdered, Lefebvre was the officer in charge of the case. Moody and isolated, he became not only investigator but guardian angel to Randolph's young son, Seth, left clinging to life after the attack. His colleagues and the community were convinced Whitey Dane, a local mobster with grand ambitions, was behind the murders but when Seth was killed in his hospital bed and both Lefebvre and all the evidence against Dane disappeared, the department was left reeling in the wake of crooked-cop iniquity.

But now Lefebvre's apparently sabotaged plane has been discovered in the mountains, along with his bones. Harriman must ease through a maze of anger and recrimination as he pursues the possibility of Lefebvre's innocence. But if this cop was innocent, that means another one wasn't - and that individual will stop at nothing to protect his guilty secret.

This is the eighth book in the series of eleven (as of 2011) ... I'm rereading the series.

The book begins ten years ago with Lefebvre's story ... the murders of Trent Randolph and his daughter, Amanda, and Lefebvre's bonding with Trent's son, Seth, who survives the attack. When Seth is murdered and Lefebvre disappears, everyone assumes he took a payoff fromWhitey Dane to kill Seth.

Jump ahead ten years and Lefebvre's plane is discovered along with this bones in the forest. It's up to Frank to investigate. The other cops get mad at Frank because he digs into the past and doesn't go along with the assumptions about Lefebvre.

I was really enjoying this book but found it got a bit draggy towards the end. I was ready for it to be over. And what I've found with some of Burke's books in the past, there are so many characters that I couldn't keep them all straight.

Usually the Irene Kelly books are written in first person from Irene's pespective. This one was different in that it was written in third person and focused on Irene's husband, Frank. It was a nice change.

Book ~ "Bones" (1999) Jan Burke

From Amazon ~ Journalist Irene Kelly is part of the investigative team on the hunt for serial killer Nicholas Parrish's many victims. Their graves are in California's Sierra Nevada mountains and Parrish, having entered a plea bargain, is there too, leading the team to the women's corpses in exchange for a life sentence instead of the death penalty. But Parrish has planned a surprise or two. When a grave explodes, most of the team are killed, Irene flees and the killer escapes. Back home, Irene continues to work at the behest of Gillian Sayre, the daughter of one victim. Her hunt for Parrish is made considerably easier by his growing obsession with her. A cunning psychopath with a calm demeanor, Parrish heavily resembles Hannibal Lecter. Rather than eat his victims, however, he tortures and dismembers them.

This is the seventh book in the series of eleven (as of 2011) ... I'm rereading the series.

The style of this one is different from the others. The previous ones are written in first person (Irene). The chapters in this one were written by either Irene (first person) or Parrish or the Moth (third person). And there were headers at the beginning of each chapter letting you know the date and location.

This seemed to be longer and darker than the other books. The first half of the book deals with the trek into the mountains with Parrish as a prisoner to discover where he has buried Gillian Sayre's mother. The second half deals with the hunt to find Parrish again as he torments Irene and continues to kill.

It was okay, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the others, probably given the subject matter.

Book ~ "Liar" (1998) Jan Burke

From Goodreads ~ Irene is numb with shock upon learning that her estranged aunt has been the victim in a brutal killing. But Irene's keen investigative senses immediately awaken when she discovers that she's the #1 suspect of foul play. With the police nipping fast at her heels, Irene searches for her aunt's missing son as she attempts to dig the dirt on her own family members, both past and present. This time it's personal--Irene has to solve the crime to clear her name and catch a killer who's still on the prowl.

This is the sixth book in the series of eleven (as of 2011) ... I'm rereading the series.

Irene's great aunt, Mary, informs Irene that her aunt Briana (Irene's mother's sister) has died ... she was run over by a car. As Briana's sole beneficiary, Irene becomes the number one suspect of the murder, even though she hadn't see Briana in over twenty years. This sets Irene and her friend, Rachel (a former cop, now a private investigator) on the trail to find Briana's son, Travis, which they do.

Travis' father, Arthur, recently died. He had brought scandal to the family years ago when it was discovered that he was married to two women ... to Briana but first to Gwendolyn, who was rich. This all came out when Gwendolyn was murdered about twenty years ago and, though the case was never solved, many assumed Arthur had done it.

So not only is Irene out to solve Briana's murder, she also must solve Gwendolyn's murder since they are probably linked.

I enjoyed this book. It moved along at a good pace and I liked the characters. One of the focuses was on Irene and Travis getting to know each other as long-lost cousins, separated because of a misunderstanding.

Book ~ "Remember Me, Irene" (1996) Jan Burke

From Goodreads ~ In this gripping addition to the Irene Kelly mystery series, a young reporter learns the hard way that a revered figure from her past is not the man she imagined he was.

In an unsettling encounter on the streets of Las Piernas, newspaper reporter Irene Kelly fails to recognize the homeless man who declares, "I'm not who I used to be." Only later does she realize that he had been her favorite instructor back in college -- Lucas Monroe. Once a gifted young academic with a promising future, Lucas needs her help, but he's gone missing. Now his name keeps coming up in association with charges of blackmail and possible homicide. Irene wants to know more but no one is willing to talk. And then she stumbles upon a dead body ...

This is the fourth book in the series of eleven (as of 2011) ... I'm rereading the series.

I found this one to be just okay, not great. There were a lot of characters and I had a hard time keeping them all straight ... so I gave up and focused on the main ones.

It's been a while since I'd read this one so didn't remember anything about it but it didn't take me long to figure out what happened to a couple of the key characters.

Considering it was written and set in the mid 1990s, it's funny to read about the reporters having to wear beepers ... do they still exist? And "cellular" phones were used sparingly because of their high cost.

Book ~ "Dear Irene" (1995) Jan Burke

From Goodreads ~ When a strange letter signed "Thanatos" -- the ancient Greek name for death -- lands on Irene Kelly's desk, the intrepid reporter doesn't think much of it; she gets crazy mail all the time. A less cryptic message is sent when a body turns up the next morning. As more letters roll in, the death toll mounts...and Irene fears that her mysterious pen pal has cast her in his own private Greek tragedy as Cassandra, the seer whom others refused to believe. It's the killer's dream to challenge Irene to follow his ancient blueprint for murder. It's his ultimate desire to make her face the inevitable -- that she is the next to die.

This is the third in the series of eleven (as of 2011). I read it years ago and am rereading the series.

This one was okay. Irene and Frank are now engaged and living together and expanding their family.

Irene is just getting back to work after the beating she had in the second book. Frank is very protective and its driving her crazy.

She starts getting cryptic letters giving her clues to murders. Working together with the police and other reporters, she goes down the path of solving the mystery.

The "whodunnit" was an interesting twist that came and ended quickly.

Book ~ "Sweet Dreams, Irene" (1994) Jan Burke

From Goodreads ~ Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult. The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay.

This is the second in this series of nine (as of 2011). I'd read it years ago and am now rereading the series.

I enjoyed this one. It's been a while so I'd forgotten whodunnit so the mystery was still there for me.

I like the characters of Irene and Frank ... they are nice people who have recently found each other and care about each other. The other characters are secondary and there's no one annoying.

There is a kidnapping and beating situation that I thought was a bit extreme ... if anyone had taken that kind of punishment, there's no way they could have survived.

I am looking forward to rereading the third one!

Book ~ "Goodnight, Irene" (1993) - Jan Burke

From Goodreads ~ For thirty-five years the identity of the dismembered woman found under the Las Piernas pier has remained a mystery. What secret did she take to her grave? Southern California reporter Irene Kelly has uncovered a maze of forensic records and confidential files that suggest a motive far more sinister than anyone imagined. The discovery has brought her close to Detective Frank Harriman, and closer still to exposing a killer who will resort to anything to keep his secrets buried -- and Irene silenced forever.

I'd read some of the books in this series years ago (and then forgot about it for some reason) and the latest one, Disturbance, in January. Reading the last one reminded me how much I'd enjoyed this series so I thought I'd go back and rereading them again. This is the first one in the series.

We meet Irene Kelly. Her newspaper friend, O'Connor, has just been murdered. Irene teams up with old acquaintaince, Detective Frank Harriman, to solve the case.

Sparks fly between Irene and Frank as they rekindle their friendship while solving the who dunnit.

I enjoyed the writing style and the characters and look forward to rereading the others in this series.

Book ~ "Disturbance" (2011) - Jan Burke

From Amazon ~ Despite her reporter’s nose for trouble, Irene Kelly’s life has almost returned to normal—the Las Piernas News Express wobbles along in defiance of its financial woes, and with the help of her husband, Frank, and a good therapist, she’s recovered from the debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder that haunted her after her near-fatal encounter with notorious serial killer Nick Parrish. Until she receives some unwelcome news: Parrish, once thought permanently paralyzed by the injuries he sustained fleeing recapture, is walking again. And the rumor among the Moths, Parrish’s online fan club, is that he’s coming after Irene.

Suddenly Irene is on the other end of the microphone, being hounded by the media for interviews and plied with questions she’d hoped never to have to answer again. She tries to believe that she is safe from Parrish, who is imprisoned in a maximum security facility, and that the growing stream of threats from the Moths is all just talk. But an unnerving prank soon lets her know that someone, at least, wants her to be afraid. And when a young woman’s body turns up in the trunk of a car near her home—naked, frozen solid, and decorated from head to toe in elaborately painted moths—it becomes clear that Irene will once again find herself pitted against a brutal murderer. She knows the twisted hunter who is stalking her all too well . . . or does she?

I'd read a couple in the Irene Kelly series in the mid/late 1990s and enjoyed them ... then forgot about the series for some reason.

I read about this one in the newspaper last month and it reminded me about the series so I checked it out.

Though it has been a while since I've read the first couple and more have been added since then, I didn't feel lost. If you haven't read any of them, you can pick this one up and go with it. There are enough references so you know what's going on and who is who.

I liked the style of the writing. It's fast paced and gritty. The characters are likeable (at least those who are supposed to be likable) and believable. I bought the ending.

It has inspired me to start at the beginning and reread the books and keep going with the ones I've missed.