( Criminal Minds 5x14: Parasite )

On a quick note before the review, I will be without regular internet access until at least December :(

When Moses Reed transferred to West Hollywood's Homicide department, he thought he had left Caitlin Frostig behind.

Caitlin was the first dead end case he pulled as a detective; twenty-something college girl who just disappeared. There was no real evidence of foul play. Moses followed all the routine lines of questioning, but considered neither her boyfriend nor her long-widowed father to be suspects. With no leads to follow, or evidence to process, Moses was more than happy to leave the case behind.

Unfortunately, his higher ups still consider the case to be his and they are renewing pressure on him to close it.

Going back to it after so long, at first nothing seems to have changed; her father and boyfriend still don't have a clue where she could have gone. But then he seems to catch a lucky break, it seems like Caitlin's boyfriend is now working for actor Mason Book, who happens to be friends with the sons of crazy filmmaker Lem Dement. Both have reputations as partiers and drug users. He also learns of the murder of Adella Villareal, currently being worked on by Petra Connor. Is this the work of the same killer? Could this be the breakthrough that he needs?

Making the case more difficult for Moses, is the news that his brother, private detective Aaron Fox, is also looking into Caitlin's disappearance. It turns out that one of Aaron's regular clients just so happens to be Caitlin's father's boss. Because of the lack of police time and effort he sees given to his daughter's case, Aaron has been hired for a new perspective.

Unfortunately, given the brothers less than stellar relationship with each other, co-operation doesn't exactly come easy. Will they be able to put aside their differences to solve both Caitlin's disappearance and Adella's murder?

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to. I've never really been a fan of Kellerman's books that haven't been part of the Alex Delaware series, but I think this book really worked.

I'm kind of conflicted about the flashback scenes into the brothers' past. On the one hand, I think there should have been more, because I would have liked to have more insight into their relationship. We were given a fairly good glimpse of what the issues were between the two of them, but I would have liked to have had more. On the other hand, I also find it kind of unfair that in one book I found out more about the brothers than I have about Rick in 20+ books (okay, old issue. I'll let go of it now).

I liked the resolution of the case, even if there was one aspect of it that I found a little too coincidental.

It was nice to see, even in passing, Del Hardy again. Didn't really make up for the fact that Petra was also in the book (boo!), but it was a nice aspect.

I also liked that Moses knew that Milo was gay in this book and that it wasn't an issue for him. Of course, I would have liked a scene where Milo was the one who told him, but it guess it makes sense that he would have heard it through word of mouth.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read.

Grade: B

Before she was the Wicked Witch of the West, threatening poor little dogs and chasing after lost farm girls for their  shoes, she was Elphaba, daughter of Frex, a Munchkinlander preacher and his wife Melena.

At least Melena thinks Elphaba is Frex's daughter. Marrying Frex was a great idea, in principal, seeing as her family didn't approve of him. But in reality, it's more than a little boring. So when that traveling salesman stopped by, Melena just couldn't help herself. She had managed to forget all about it until Elphaba was born green.

The Oz that Elphaba grows up in is undergoing major changes. The Wizard has just deposed the rightful rulers of Oz and he has started passing laws limiting the rights of Animals.

All grown up, Elphaba attends Shiz University. Her roommate is Galinda - a.k.a. Glinda the Good Witch of the South. But even the curriculum at Shiz University hasn't been spared from the Wizard's meddling. When the headmistress tries to recruit Elphaba, Glinda and Elphaba's younger sister - Nessarose, the Wicked Witch of the East - for ... something, it is too much for Elphaba, who runs away and ... does something.

This book was a really, really hard read. Hard to get into, hard to care about the characters, hard to figure out what was going on.  Nothing happened, for the longest time. And the things that did happen didn't seem to fit into a larger picture.

Actually, if there was a larger picture at all, I never saw it. I never understood what Elphaba's journey was supposed to be about in this book. If it was just supposed to be about how she ended up as the character we saw in the movie then, in my opinion, it wasn't a success, especially because in the end the author just ignores how Elphaba dies in the movie and re-writes his own death scene.

Disappointing read, but the concept was so interesting that it kept me reading a lot longer than I normally would have.

Grade: D