The Pawn by Steven James

 (The Patrick Bowers Files #1)

427 pages / 13 hrs, 6 mins

"Special Agent Patrick Bowers had only met one man who made him truly afraid. Until now. When he's called to North Carolina to consult on the case of an area serial killer, he finds himself in a deadly game. Cunning and lethal, the killer is always one step ahead of the law, and he's about to strike again.

"It will take all of Bowers's instincts and training to stop this man who calls himself the Illusionist. And just when the pieces start to come together, Bowers realizes they're not quite adding up. Can he unravel the pattern and save the next victim? Or will the Illusionist win the game by taking one of his opponent's pieces?" --from the publisher

It was good, but somewhat disjointed for me. There were a lot of characters, and the relationship between Bowers and his stepdaughter was not well developed, in my opinion. I'll definitely try the next in the series, though. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Past Tense by Lee Child

Past Tense: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child --- 382 pages

Jack Reacher drifts into a small, unremarkable  New Hampshire town called Laconia and --- inevitably --- walks straight into trouble in this 23rd entry in the best selling series.  This time though there is a personal connection: Laconia was where Reacher’s father, Stan, grew up, until he enlisted in the Marines and never looked back.  Reacher knows almost nothing about his father's past or his family, so this is a chance to see what he can find out, if for no other reason than he may never get another opportunity.

Coincidentally, not too far away, a young Canadian couple in a broken down car stumble on an isolated motel being refurbished by four friendly young men who offer to help them out. Too late the Canadians --- Patty Sundstrom and her boy friend Shorty Fleck --- discover Mark Reacher and his friends have big plans for them.

Patty and Shorty are not just stock victims for Reacher to save, however. They’re interesting characters in their own right, determined to save themselves. Their part of the story has an urgency that is missing from the more leisurely exposition of Reacher's search through old census records and property files to find his father's family home at an old, abandoned tin mine operation called Ryantown. The suspense builds as the reader watches the the two plot lines converge. The climax is brief, brutal and intensely satisfying to that atavistic sense of justice that lives in the hindbrain.

At the end of the story Reacher finally finds the answers he was looking for, when a Laconia detective puts him in touch with an old man who was a cousin of his father. Someone who can tell him what his father was like as a boy, and why he left Laconia behind.

"He was a nice person, back when that meant something. But you better not mess with his sense of right and wrong. Underneath he was a bomb waiting to go off. . . He had a rule. If you did a bad thing, he would make sure you only did it once. Whatever it took. He was a good fighter, and he was brave as a lunatic."

The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Click HERE for the * review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from the UK Independent.

Click HERE for a review from the New York Journal of Books.

Click HERE to view a Youtube trailer for Past Tense.

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson

The Darkness: A Thriller by Ragnar Jónasson; translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb --- 310 pages

A gripping new thriller by the author of the celebrated "Dark Iceland" series. This is the first volume in a new trilogy called "Hidden Iceland," and Jónasson is upping the ante by choosing to write the  three volumes in reverse chronological order.

The body of a young woman, a Russian asylum-seeker, is discovered by hikers washed up in an isolated little cove, halfway between Reykjavik and Keflavik.  After a cursory investigation by the Reykjavik police, the death is declared a suicide, and the case closed.

Over a year later Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police has just learned that she is being forced into early retirement at 64, to make room for a new hire, a much younger and less experienced man. Hulda is furious; she has been dreading compulsory retirement at age sixty-five, and now she is being forced out a year sooner. But before she leaves she bargains with her boss for two more weeks to clear her desk and a chance to solve a one last cold case of her choosing. Hulda knows which case: the Russian woman whose hope for asylum ended in the icy waters. Soon Hulda discovers that another Russian emigre vanished at about the same time, and that no one seems concerned or even interested. Even the other detectives in her division seem more determined to discourage and obstruct her efforts to reopen the investigation. Meanwhile the clock is ticking.

It's rare to find a woman in her sixties featured as the protagonist in a suspense thriller. Perhaps Jónasson  is being influenced by his background as the person who translated a number of Agatha Christie's classic mysteries into Icelandic. But his Hulda is not an Icelandic Miss Marple. Readers will find themselves rooting for Hulda as she battles the latent hostility and dismissive attitudes she has had to overcome as a woman in a male-dominated field. 

As in Jónasson's other books, the Icelandic landscape is an ever present "character" lurking throughout The Darkness. Readers will experience both Iceland's compelling beauty and its unforgiving nature.

In the "Nordic Noir" tradition, the plotting is precise, winding tighter and tighter as the suspense rachets up to a bleakly ironic conclusion. Only when looking backward can the reader see the tragic inevitability of a web so expertly woven to deceive. 

Click HERE to read an interview with the author from the Reykjavik Grapevine.

Click HERE to read the *review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the Washington (DC) Times.

Unsub by Meg Gardiner

Unsub by Meg Gardiner - 571 pages

Caitlin Hendrix has been a Narcotics detective for six months when the killer at the heart of all her childhood nightmares reemerges: the Prophet. An UNSUB—what the FBI calls an unknown subject—the Prophet terrorized the Bay Area in the 1990s and nearly destroyed her father, the lead investigator on the case.

The Prophet’s cryptic messages and mind games drove Detective Mack Hendrix to the brink of madness, and Mack’s failure to solve the series of ritualized murders—eleven seemingly unconnected victims left with the ancient sign for Mercury etched into their flesh—was the final nail in the coffin for a once promising career.

Entertaining with twists.

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE by Linwood Barclay

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE by Linwood Barclay - 642 pages

Very interesting story about how a teen wakes up one morning and her family has disappeared.  25 years later....a tv show contacts her for a followup and strange items begin to happen until the truth finally comes to light.  It was a page turner.

Matchup edited by Lee Child

Matchup edited by Lee Child --- 445 pages including an Introduction and Author Biographies.

Another entry in a series of short story anthologies organized by the International Thriller Writers. This one is edited by Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels. In this anthology, Child has invited twenty-two best selling thriller writers to work in pairs --- one female and one male author ---
and collaborate on eleven short stories that combine iconic characters from both fictional worlds.

The results are a delight to read. Child also contributes an Introduction explaining how the concept for the book evolved, as well as short intros to each story, giving a behind-the-scenes peek at how each pair of authors came up with their own unique methods of collaboration. Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan and Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Lisa Jackson's Regan Pescoli and John Sandford's Virgil Flowers, Karin Slaughter's Jeffrey Tolliver and Michael Koryta's Joe Pritchard were my favorites, but there's not a bad story in this bunch.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers' Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from The Real Book Spy web site.

Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham

Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham - 467 pages

This was not a story that appealed to me all the way.  We have a killer aboard a ship, people who can see ghosts and agents trying to figure out who the Archangel killer is.  Archangel killer is known by this title because of the way his victims are displayed in churches or out in front of churches.
I was never very good at Who Done it mysteries but if you like them this is a good one to read.

Lockdown by Laurie R. King

Lockdown: A Novel of Suspense by Laurie R. King --- 383 pages

Laurie R. King is best known for her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series but she has also written a number of contemporary mystery/suspense novels, including the Kate Martinelli series and several other stand alone novels.

In Lockdown she sets up a nightmare scenario that has grown all too familiar in real life: a struggling small town California middle school is sent into lockdown in the midst of Career Day when it becomes the target of a mass shooter acting out his fantasy of retribution and vengeance.

King says in her Acknowledgements at the end of the book that this is an idea she has been working on for twenty years, and that the structure of the story is in part created by a series of previously published short stories written over that period, and here linked together to create a multiple point-of-view narrative, jumping forward and backward in time. This allows her to show events from many perspectives and to build suspense through foreshadowing.

It's a compelling theme, playing to our worst fears and secret hopes. I found it very different from King's other novels. While she does a good job of building the suspense, the plot is convoluted. Perhaps it would have been tighter and more focused if she had not tried to include some of the short stories? The ghost element seemed rather awkwardly sandwiched in.

But even one of King's minor efforts is well worth the time spent reading.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

No Middle Name by Lee Child

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories by Lee Child --- 418 pages

This book includes all eleven previously published Jack Reacher short stories plus a bonus: the lead story in the book, "Too Much Time," comprises the first three chapters of Child's 22nd Reacher novel, The Midnight Line, due to be published next November.

Through these stories we get to see Reacher grow, from boy to man. In the story "Second Son," Reacher's father Stan, a Marine captain, wonders what his son will become,

"The kid was going to be huge. He was going to be an eighth of a ton of muscle. . .He had no trigger either. . .Reacher was permanently jammed wide open on full auto. . . The smart money brings a gun to a knife fight. Reacher brought a hydrogen bomb."

In "High Heat," 17 year-old Reacher, on his own in New York City, goes to the aid of a federal agent and helps get the evidence to arrest a mobster; has a memorable close encounter with a co-ed from Sarah Lawrence; and comes up with key evidence that will help identify the Son of Sam Killer --- all during the night of the famous 1977 blackout.

If it were anyone else by Jack Reacher, you'd be rolling your eyes by now, but Reacher is a well-established brand in macho fiction. Most of all he's just so much fun to read. No matter where he happens to be Reacher is a magnet for trouble. In the years since the series began he has grown older. Experience has left its marks on him, body and soul. But as a force of nature --- uncompromising, predatory, honest, principled  --- he remains simply irresistible. This is escapist fiction at its best.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Trapped by Irene Hannon

Trapped by Irene Hannon - 526 pages

This was a good story.  I enjoyed the author's style very much.

A librarian's sister runs away then she's abducted by a madman....who traps her in a room in the basement.  Very much a suspense, mystery.  The sister hires a P.I. to investigate so all ends well but not until after a lot of intrigue.

After the Storm by Linda Castillo

After the Storm by Linda Castillo - 446 pages

A tornado comes through a small town and exposes a 30 year old skeleton.  A lot of the story is set in an Amish community.  It kept my interest enough to finish but wouldn't want to read it again.

Night School by Lee Child

Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child --- 369 pages

Child's 21st Reacher novel takes us back in time to 1996. Major Jack Reacher, U.S. Army MP, is awarded his second Legion of Merit for the precision strike that took out two war criminals from the 1992-1995 Bosnian Genocide. Swift, summary justice, Reacher style, 

Meanwhile, recently reunited Germany is experiencing a resurgence of Fascism amid the first stirrings of Islamist extremism among its growing immigrant population. A double agent embedded in a terrorist cell sends a warning: an "American" is negotiating the sale of something to the leaders of a group that sounds like Al Qaeda hiding out in remote tribal country in Afghanistan. Whatever the American is selling, he wants one hundred million dollars for it and the mujahideen are willing to pay his price. 

Reacher is part of an elite team the National Security Council is hoping can identify the American and stop the sale, Hamburg is where the transfer will occur once the money has been deposited in the American's Swiss bank account. Unfortunately the local neo-Nazis are also keen to snatch the prize. And of course in 1996 secret agents still have to operate without benefit of the World Wide Web or cell phones, much less smart phones or CSI technology.

Night School is a little subdued at the start but the story grows on you as it unfolds. Child keeps his style lean and sharp, his hero bigger than life, 

Click HERE for a feature story on Lee Child from the New York Times.

Click HERE for a review from the London Evening Standard.

Click HERE for a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from the Washington Post.

Escape Clause by John Sandford

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 392 pages

Virgil Flowers started out as a supporting character in Sandford's Prey series of crime thrillers starring Lucas Davenport, lead investigator in the Minnesota Department of Criminal Apprehension.

But Flowers was too intriguing a character in his own right and eventually Sandford spun him off in his own series of crime thrillers.

In this the ninth adventure in the Flowers series, Virgil is in charge of tracking down the miscreants who have stolen two rare Amur tigers from the Minnesota Zoo.  The clock is running, because Virgil quickly realizes the likely reason the tigers were taken is their value as ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. So he needs to find them before the criminals (literally) put them through the grinder.

Sandford's villains are always interesting, and the villain here is a doozy: Winston Peck VI, a doctor who lost his license to practice because he couldn't keep his hands off his female patients. Peck has reinvented himself as a purveyor of traditional herbal nostrums.  He's popping Xanax like candy and that's not helping his mental processes.  He has two henchmen, the Simonian brothers, plenty of brawn but very little brain, supplied by his very wealthy Chinese backer on the west coast. The backer's angry and alienated son is the go-between for his father and Peck.

Virgil quickly picks up on Peck, but the sociopathic ex-doctor is hard to pin down as he systematically eliminates everyone who could tie him to the crime.  Virgil also has to deal with the rest of the Simonian brotherhood, who arrive in Minneapolis breathing vengeance for the deaths of their brothers, and prepared to preempt the law.

As always Sandford doesn't pull the punches when he describes the crimes committed; but at the same time, he uses the mordant humor of his cops to deal with the gruesome details.

There's also a subplot involving Virgil's now established relationship with Frankie Nobles and her family.  Is it possible that the wily Virgil has met his match at last?

A solid hit in a great series.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the Huffington Post.

Before The Fall by Noah Hawley

Before The Fall
by Noah Hawley
391 pages









A truly compelling summer sizzler:

On a foggy summer night, eleven people--ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter--depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs--the painter--and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family.

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers' intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage.

Extreme Prey by John Sandford

Extreme Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 406 pages

The 27th book in the Lucas Davenport series; and just when you'd expect Sandford to be winding down the adventure, he ramps it up instead.

Following on the conclusion of Gathering Prey (2015), Davenport has finally had enough of internal politics in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and walked away from his job. Since he's independently wealthy, he can afford to do so, and seems happy enough to spend his time remodeling his getaway cabin on the lake.

When his friend and mentor, Governor Elmer Henderson, calls from the Presidential campaign trail in Iowa to report disquieting encounters with some erstwhile supporters, Lucas agrees to assess the situation. But instead of being able to reassure Henderson, Lucas is soon convinced the amorphous threat is real. When people start dying, it doesn’t take Lucas long to identify possible suspects; but stopping a political conspiracy is a tall order for a man operating sans badge, back up or even a gun. Lucas finally figures out where and when the asasssins will strike ---who has never been in doubt --- but HOW they plan to pull it off in the middle of a massive public venue crawling with security is still a question --- and the clock is ticking.

A long-established series that still delivers is taking a new twist.
Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the San Diego Examiner.  

Click HERE to read Harry Levins' review from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King

The Murder of Mary Russell: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King --- 359 pages

The fifteenth book in the brilliant series featuring Sherlock Holmes and his wife Mary Russell.  It's 1925 and Russell and Holmes are just returned to their quiet Sussex home after thier latest international intrigue. Holmes is away and Mrs Hudson, the housekeeper, has gone out to do the shopping, leaving Mary home alone to enjoy the peace and quiet.  Then a stranger arrives at the door, claiming to be Mrs. Hudson's longlost son from Australia.  Mary didn't know Mrs. Hudson had a son; that's the first clue that something about this situation is wrong.

Sometime later, Mrs. Hudson arrives, to find the house empty, the smell of gun powder, signs of a struggle, blood pooled on the floor in the parlor, and --- Mary missing.

Sherlock Holmes knows the key to his wife's fate lies in a deadly secret hidden in the long-buried past of his respectable housekeeper.

Once again, King takes a few minor threads from the Holmesian canon and weaves together a whole new perspective on the tale of the world's first consulting detective.

Click HERE to read a review from the Christian Science Monitor.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.



 

The Wrong Man by Kate White

The Wrong Man by Kate White, 322 pages

I saw Kate White on the Today Show a few months ago promoting summer reads, and she just happened to be promoting her new book, The Wrong Man. This was a pretty good summer read.  I have never read anything by Kate White before, but I probably will again.   The Wrong Man was a suspense novel that follows interior designer Kit Finn to the Florida Keys on a business trip as she yearns for more adventure in her personal life.  She definitely finds this as she hooks up with a mysterious redheaded stranger who is not the man he says he is.  Back in New York City, Kate finds herself involved in a suspenseful murder mystery involving the redheaded man. I could not put this down until I found out who the wrong man really was.

Gathering Prey by John Sandford

Gathering Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 407 pages

This is the 25th book in the Lucas Davenport thriller series by John Sandford, and I would say it is one of his best ever.  There have been indications from the author that he is wanting to "wrap up" the Prey series, and this is that wrap up but also --- good news for Davenport fans --- hints of a new direction to come.

Davenport's adopted daughter Letty, now attending Stanford University in California, is the catalyst for his involvement in this case.  Letty befriends a young woman and her boyfriend who she meets in San Francisco. Skye and Henry are Travellers, people who choose an itinerent lifestyle, supporting themselves by panhandling, odd jobs, occasionally by petty theft; an essentially invisible group of perpetual wanderers existing on the fringes and living by their wits. On impulse she gives them her phone number and tells them to call her if they ever get to Minnesota.

Skye considers herself to be street-smart, but even she is not wary enough to avoid becoming the target of a gang of thrill seekers under the spell of a Charles Manson-like killer who calls himself Pilate. When Henry disappears in South Dakota, Skye panics and calls Letty for help. Letty arranges for Skye to get to Minneapolis, and persuades her father to listen to Skye's story.  Lucas believes Skye and gets involved. From there the story becomes a blood-soaked juggernaut careening across three states to the final showdown. I started this book at 6 o'clock in the evening and finished it at 1 a.m. after a fast, furious and viscerally satisfying read.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read a review from the Huffington Post,

Click HERE (SPOILER ALERT) to read a review and Sandford talking about Davenport's future.

Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, 393 pages

Swimsuit is a typical James Patterson novel (this one written with Maxine Paetro). This book was the first full novel I have ever downloaded from the library's e-book collection onto my Kindle and actually read.  The Kindle is a light and easy way to read some of the thicker books character to James Patterson.

In Swimsuit, reporter Ben Hawkins has to uncover who is killing swimsuit models in Hawaii and other women around the world. The murders are committed in shocking and gruesome ways (typical James Patterson).  What follows is twists and suspense that will definitely have you wanting to read to the end.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, 336 pages

I was on the edge of my [train] seat this whole book. Paula Hawkins has written a very engrossing and suspenseful story with The Girl on the Train. Rachel is a divorced and well-meaning, but seemingly disillusion, out-of-a-job drunk who rides the train into London every day. The highlight of the trip every day is watching what she thinks is the perfectly married couple whom she has named "Jess and Jason." This couple turns out to be not what she imagined, and between Megan, the mysterious couple, and Rachel's ex-husband and his new wife, this story will have you pulling out your hair, yelling at the characters, and mentally exhausted. What a train wreck, I mean, train ride.