Oil and water. Fire and water. Those are the stuff that don't mix; and the same goes to cops and robbers. 

Micayla "Mick" Lange is a cop in Karen Robards' Sleepwalker. When a family friend, "Uncle" Nicco Marino hires her to house-sit his house while they spend their week in Palm Beach for the New Year, Mick agrees since she has broken up with her boyfriend after finding him cheating on her. Her elder sister, Jenny, has her own family and she doesn't want to impose on them. She isn't in good terms with her father and her mother was murdered when she was a girl. Till present, the death of her mother shook her and she hopes to catch the murderer one day. 

Unlike Mick, Jason Davis steals things for a living. On New Year's Eve, he decided that he would break into a gangster's house. He has planned for this robbery and knew that the house would be deserted with New Year just around the corner, but he never expects that he would run into a sexy young woman, let alone a police officer. 

Mick is equally shocked to find a robber in the house, but what most shocking is finding incriminating photos in "Uncle" Nicco's safe that indicate he might be connected with the murder of the city councilman. Unfortunately, their presence in Nicco's office was captured by a security camera and Mick knew she has no choice but to "escape" with Jason, for she doesn't want to take any chances when her life is at stake and who knows what "Uncle" Nicco may do to them once he finds out what they have seen. On the other hand, Mick doesn't like the thought of "helping" Jason to escape, especially he has a bag full of Nicco's money and her cop instincts keep nudging her. 

As Mick and Jason race for their lives across Michigan wilderness on speedboat and snow-mobile, Mick begins to see a new light in Jason the more they spend their time together but would they be able to escape from the pursue of Nicco's men? What's more, being a law enforcer Mick has to turn Jason in if they managed to escape from Nicco and his men. Torn between her profession and love, what is Mick to do?

I have to confess I love reading stories when the protagonist is caught in a dilemma/situation and I want to see where the author is taking them. In a plot like Sleepwalker, one would think it is impossible (and unthinkable) to have a cop and a thief to fall in love with each other but Karen Robards did a great job in creating the two characterisations and allowed me to believe in the relationship they have come to develop during the run. 

Also, I find the plot intriguing but I have to admit that the beginning of the story is a tad slow and then it speeds up towards the end, which I didn't find it very convincing for some scenes. All in all, I enjoyed reading Sleepwalker and it made me feel good to read Karen Robard's book again as I haven't read her books for a while. I really liked her older titles such as Forbidden Love, Dark Torment, To Love a Man, just to name a few. 

The first time I read Gillian Flynn's first release, Sharp Objects, I knew I have found a new favourite author as I find her writing simply mesmerizing and   her plot totally blown me away. So it was no surprise I bought her next release, Dark Places, when it released in October 2010 but I put this book aside as I tried to catch up with some of my TBR books as well as a few other books which were raved by my blogging buddies. Dark Places remains in my TBR pile until Gilian Flynn's next book, Gone Girl was released three months ago and I decided to read Gone Girl first after reading so many starred reviews on it. 

And it is no surprise why this book has received such tremendous great reviews as I find the premise to be so clever and well crafted! One plus one equals to two but this logic doesn't always seems to be the case in Gone Girl. An overview of this story is about the disappearance of a wife on her fifth wedding anniversary but what made this story such an unputdownable read is the characterisations and how these two narrators draw you in from their perspectives and you just don't know who and what to believe. 

At its core, this is a psychological thriller that seems bizarre but strangely I find it to be believable and yes, scary in a sense that it makes you think about humanity and what someone would do under certain circumstances. I wish I could elaborate more but this is a book that should be relished without any prior knowledge of its plot; it is best that you don't read the blurb printed on the flap of the book jacket either. Excellent prose, great suspense and even greater psychological insight, this is one of the very best thrillers I read thus far and I hope Gillian Flynn will have a new release out soon. Meanwhile, I have Dark Places to be devoured during the waiting. 

Broken Harbour is the 4th installment of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad Series. Her first book, In the Woods, has received many good reviews from readers and up to now, I still couldn't get that plot out of my mind. 

This time around, Tana French brought us to Brianstown (formerly known as 'Broken Harbour' to the residents living there); a ghostlike town where the residents would rather mind their own business and stay locked at home than going outdoors.  

Brianstown is supposed to be quiet, but now that peace is disrupted after a family was murdered. Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead, while the wife, Jenny is in intensive care. Detective Mick Kennedy and his rookie partner, Detective Richie Curran are assigned to this case and they learnt that Patrick was laid off. Their initial speculation is that Patrick was stressed and decided to kill them all before killing himself, but there are a few things that they have found and couldn't explain. For starters, why there are so many baby monitors lying around the house and why are there holes in the walls? Did someone break into the house and killed them all? If that is the case, then why didn't the Spain family reported to the police? Did they have something to hide, and what is it?  

As Mike investigates the case, he couldn't help but to think of his mother's suicide back in Broken Harbour when he was a boy when they went there for a summer vacation. He has been trying hard not to think of that past but this case has once again opened up his wounds and have his sister, Dina, off the rails as her mental state is a little unstable. 

Last year hasn't been a favourable year to me, at least when reading is concerned. Thus, I make it a point to read more books this year and unlike the past years, I won't be participating in too many reading challenges but the following three challenges fall into my most-read category so needless to say, I'm a participant for these three. Here they are:

Here are the rules:

The Merely Mystery Reading Challenge will last the entire year (January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012), giving participants a chance to read at their own pace. In addition, to make things easy, participants can complete one of two levels. One is for those of you who want a more relaxed challenge while the other is for those more serious about exploring the various sub-genres (click here for more info on the sub-genres):

*Cross-genre books are perfectly fine.

For this reading challenge, I'll be choosing the option of "Down on Her/His Luck Gumshoe".

Here are the rules:

For this reading challenge, I'll be choosing "The Mini YA Reading Challenge".

Well, I hope that I'd be able to complete all the reading challenges this year. What reading challenges did you join?