Best gift ever!

OK, so maybe my last gift suggestion was a dud. This time I have a gift idea for all those bacon lovers on your list, and really, who doesn’t love bacon?

http://www.gratefulpalate.com/index.php?p=Category_11

Introducing “The Bacon of the Month Club”! According to the website, here’s some of what you get: A different artisan bacon delivered to your door every month, one free bacon tee-shirt, Bacon of the Month Club pig ballpoint pen, the member’s only monthly bacon comic strip (because bacon is hilarious), a Bacon of the Month Club membership card, and a pig-nose. If you don’t want to spring for the club package (the prices are a little steep), you can check out the artisan gifts. I personally like the bacon toilet paper, pictured below.

If you can’t find something on this website for everyone on your list, you’re just not trying hard enough.

Abandoned

After reading a few duds I finally found a book that grabbed my attention. Abandoned by Cody Mcfadyen.

Smoky Barrett is a special agent with the FBI, leading a team that specializes in hunting down and capturing serial killers. While Smoky and several other agents are attending the wedding of one of their own, a woman is pushed from a vehicle in full view of the guests. The victim looks ghostly with a shaved head, pasty white skin, and an undernourished body. Staggering into the wedding party, she lets out a wail and doesn’t stop. The victim is Heather Hollister, missing for more than 7 years-just long enough to be declared dead. As details of Heather’s abduction and captivity are revealed, Smoky realizes they are hunting a killer more cold and calculating than any they’ve seen before.

Abandoned is the fourth in the series by Cody McFadyen, though this is the first that I’ve read. When I started this book, I thought it was a little over-the-top with more sex and violence than needed. Not Quentin Tarantino over-the-top, just a few more details than necessary. As I continued to read, and yes, I continued to read, I found myself drawn into this story and the lives of its characters. I started to believe that it was possible, probable even, that every member of Smoky’s team had a loved one murdered by a serial killer. I realized that it wasn’t really too far fetched that not only was Smoky’s first husband and daughter murdered in front of her eyes, but she was now raising the daughter of her best friend who was also a victim of murder. In other words, after the first few chapters of this book I was hooked and no longer questioned whether it was realistic or not. I just wanted Smoky to catch the monster before anyone else was killed or, “gulp”, lobotomized. If you like your thrillers with a little more blood and guts than usual, you’ll like this one.