The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost

Rating: 4.0

The Six Messiahs, sequel to the fabulous The List of 7, is a good mystery with plenty of action.

Arthur Conan Doyle is back and on an American book tour with his brother Innes. There, he meets up with Jack Sparks, but it's not really the same Jack Sparks from the previous book. The Jack in this book is a broken man. After his near fatal fall from the last book, Jack turns sour and bitter and has lost everything I loved about him. This was disappointing for me but I guess it's part of the story and adds some suspense around whether or not Doyle can bring the old Sparks back. Along with Doyle, Innes and Sparks, there are several others characters they meet up with. Some of them seem to be having the same dreams about a black tower in the desert and a river of blood. So five characters are having this crazy dream but the real surprise comes when we learn who the sixth one is. Let's just say it's a blast from the past....meaning someone from The List of 7. And this mysterious number six has mad plans. It's one of those good versus evil scenarios that I've seen one too many times. But the characters are good and the way it all plays out is interesting.

So, overall I enjoyed this book. The story wasn't nearly as good as The List of 7 and the characters were not quite as fun. There wasn't as much humor. It's a decent follow up though and worth a read.

Gerald's Gamy by Stephen King

Rating: 4.5

Gerald's Game is a pretty terrifying book. Not necessarily in the way many of his books are though. It's a different kind of terror, more of a claustrophobia I guess.

It starts with a middle aged married couple, Jessie and Gerald, at their cabin in the woods. They are getting a little kinky, with Jessie handcuffed to the bed, when Gerald has his heart attack and drops dead on the floor. That's when the terror starts.

This book really made me cringe. Just reading the blurb, before I even started reading the book, I think I cringed. It's a horrifying scenario to imagine! The book flashes between Jessie trying to escape the cuffs and Jessie as a little girl, during the solar eclipse, when something happens to her that she has never gotten over. And if being handcuffed to a bed in the middle of nowhere isn't scary enough for you, King wrote in a little nighttime visitor that would give anybody goosebumps.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Rating: 5.0

The Scarlet Letter is a wonderfully written romantic thriller. I found it full of suspense and mystery.

This book really starts with a bang. Hester Prynne, along with her baby, Pearl, are put upon the scaffold as acknowledgment and punishment for her adulterous affair. She is forced to wear a large letter A on her chest so everybody can see her sin. She refuses to announce the man with whom she sinned. That's where the mystery and suspense starts. What do the Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale and the newcomer Doctor Roger Chillingworth have to do with everything? Lots.

This book really held my interest. I'd read it before, a long time ago, and had forgotten how good it really is. I had a hard time putting it down. The writing is beautiful and really conveys the Puritanism of the story. The synopsis from Barnes & Noble says it perfectly. "The landscape of this classic novel is uniquely American, but the themes it explores are universal—the nature of sin, guilt, and penitence, the clash between our private and public selves, and the spiritual and psychological cost of living outside society. Constructed with the elegance of a Greek tragedy, The Scarlet Letter brilliantly illuminates the truth that lies deep within the human heart."