Mystery Book # 65 The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer

Before reading The Seven-Per-Cent Solution I thought... hey the author has the same name as the guy that directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. And after a quick look at Wikipedia I found out it's the same guy!

The book is presented as a lost manuscript by Dr. Watson about a Sherlock Holmes mystery that he couldn't publish until certain people involved in the story had passed away. The first half deals with Watson getting Sigmund Freud to help Sherlock get over his cocaine addiction. The second half involves Freud and Holmes teaming up to solve a mystery about a young woman that was found wandering the streets.

I thought the book was entertaining but nowhere near as good as one of the original Holmes novels. The first half was interesting in that it provided some insight into Sherlock's character and why he is the way he is, but the mystery of the second half wasn't that compelling and solved way too easily. I'll give it a B.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

Finders Keepers is the sequel to Mr. Mercedes and like its predecessor it isn't a horror novel at all. It isn't even like Mr. Mercedes at all either. Whereas the previous book was the usual "catch a serial killer before he kills again" story, this book is about a bunch of stolen journals and the way that people become obsessed with their favorite series (of course there are some murders along the way but it is never about anyone trying to solve them). The first two thirds of the book aren't even particularly suspenseful but it is entertaining and I wanted to know who would end up with the journals... the obsessed criminal that stole them originally? or the boy that finds them years later? The epilogue hints at a supernatural twist for the next book in the series, so the next book might be a more typical King type novel. I'll give this one a B+

Also, a bunch of novel mentions: Huck Finn, Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, Catch-22, Frankenstein, and To Kill A Mockingbird.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I continue my sampling of Discworld novels with the first in the series The Color of Magic. It follows Rincewind, a wizard that knows only one spell, and Twoflower, the first person to ever visit Discworld as a tourist, as they have comic misadventures that involve the usual fantasy tropes... dragons, trolls, barbarians, etc... Maybe I was just anxious to get on to reading another book but I just didn't seem to get into this one as much and it seemed a bit tedious. I'll have to give this one a C+.

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Mr. Mercedes is one of those rare Stephen King books that wouldn't actually be classified as "horror", but somehow I still found it to be one of his scariest books. The plot revolves around a retired detective's search for guy that ran over a bunch of people for no reason and trying to prevent this killer from blowing up a bomb at a public event. I found it a bit unnerving because one- I've actually been hit by a car and two - there are crazy people out there that set off bombs and kill lots of people for no reason. So unlike most King novels... this one deals with bad things that can actually happen.

The middle part of the book was a bit slow and the detective seemed a bit generic but overall I enjoyed it and it built up to a suspenseful ending. The killer was only kinda interesting... I'm a bit conflicted by King's need to make the character realistic versus interesting. He's portrayed as the kind of mundane young man that would actually do these horrible things due to his own inadequacies and problems growing up instead of as an over the top character like the Tooth Fairy from Red Dragon. But then I guess not every cop versus serial killer book can be as good as Red Dragon.  So I'll give this one a B.