KN Magazine: Reviews
Room Full of Night by TR Kenneth/Review by Bill Hopkins
A Room Full of Night
By TR Kenneth
Oceanview Publishing
$26.99
ISBN 978-1608093229
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
BOOK OF THE DAY
A spy novel is the highest form of the thriller genre. A successful spy novel is one that slaps you in the face at the start, then throws you down a greased slide that twists and turns and never lets you go until the end where your destination is a surprise.
You’ll receive that treat when you read TR Kenneth’s first thriller novel, A Room Full of Night.
The premise is that a “determined gimp” winds up in a jigsaw puzzle of death and destruction left over from World War II. After a life full of misery, the point arrives when Stag Maguire “...should have stayed home and re-enacted the family tradition by slipping a needle in his arm and sinking into sweet oblivion.”
Things were horrible for Stag. Then they got worse.
Instead of giving up, though, he offers to help another loser in closing down his bar after it’s been foreclosed by the county sheriff. During the decision-making on what should stay and what should be stolen from the sheriff’s view, the two men find a secret message, crying for help. But the message is on a piece of silk, removed from the back of a picture of a nasty person who may be an ancestor of the bar owner.
The message leads Stag to an apartment in Berlin, where he finds that the National Socialists (i.e., Nazis) are still alive and as dangerous as ever.
Silk played an important part in World War II as a means of sending and receiving secret messages. (That’s explained in the book. No spoilers from me!)
After the discovery that the bad guys are still around, the race is on with the prize being a world free from nuclear war. And such a war would last years, not seconds. As one character points out, “A megaton ground burst [of a nuclear weapon] to the most fertile part of the Great Plains would ...disperse and contaminate the US’s [and Canada’s] most vital food source....”
Who doesn’t love the twists and turns of a conspiracy novel? And this one has a conspiracy going back to World War II that connects with conspiracy in the 21st Century!
That, my friends, is a platinum win!
Buy this book. Read it. Review it.
Bill Hopkins is retired after beginning his legal career in 1971, serving as a private attorney, prosecuting attorney, an administrative law judge, and a trial court judge, all in Missouri. Bill is a member of Horror Writers Association, Heartland Writers Guild, and Sisters In Crime. Bill and his wife, Sharon Woods Hopkins (a mystery writer!), live in Marble Hill, Missouri, with their dogs and cats. Courting Murder was his first novel and his second novel River Mourn won first place in the Best Novel of 2014 from the Missouri Writers Guild.
Learn more about Bill at his website, deadlyduo.net!
Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce / Review by Sharon Marchisello
Blood Orange
By Harriet Tyce
Grand Central
$27.00
ISBN 978-1538762738
Publication Date: February 2019
BOOK OF THE DAY
Reading Harriet Tyce's beautifully written debut novel, Blood Orange (Grand Central Publishing), is a bit like being a voyeur. Most of the characters aren't particularly likable, but they're fascinating enough to compel the reader to keep turning the pages.
The story is narrated by Allison Bailey, the protagonist, who has a successful career as a barrister but a messed-up personal life. Sometimes I just wanted to shake her. She drinks too much, and she knows it, and keeps telling herself she'll stop, but she doesn't. She adores her six-year-old daughter, Matilda, but doesn't spend as much time with her as she wishes she would.
Allison's husband, Carl, picks up the slack in a passive-aggressive manner, never failing to remind Allison what a terrible wife and mother she is. He obviously resents Allison being the breadwinner in the family, while he struggles with his practice as a part-time sex therapist.
In addition to binge-drinking with her coworkers after hours, Allison is having a sordid affair with Patrick, a colleague who doesn't treat her much better than Carl does. Another habit she keeps telling herself she needs to break.
Despite her shambles of a personal life, Alison's career is soaring. She is assigned her first murder case, and Patrick, as the solicitor, is co-counsel. The defendant, Madeleine Smith, has been accused of stabbing her husband to death, and she is ready to plead guilty. But something doesn't add up. And as Allison delves further into the case, she discovers many similarities in her own life.
The ending is shocking and only then will the title of the book make sense.
Harriet Tyce grew up in Edinburgh and studied English at Oxford University. She worked as a barrister in London for a decade before leaving the law profession to raise a family. She later earned an M.A. in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction and is now working on a Ph.D. Blood Orange is her first novel.
Sharon Marchisello (sharonmarchisello.com) is the author of Going Home, (Sunbury Press, 2014) a murder mystery inspired by her mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease, and a nonfiction book about personal finance, Live Well, Grow Wealth. She earned a Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and is a member of the Atlanta chapter of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Peachtree City, GA, does volunteer work for the Fayette Humane Society and the Fayette County Master Gardeners, and writes a blog about personal finance, Countdown to Financial Fitness https://sharonmarchisello.blogspot.com/.
The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley / Review by Liz Gatterer
THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD
By Alan Bradley
Delecorte Press
$26.00
ISBN 978-0345540027
Publication Date: January 22,20189
Book of the Day
Flavia De Luce is back and cleaver as always. This is the 10th installment by Alan Bradley featuring the precocious prepubescent private investigator, Flavia De Luce. Flavia and her father’s faithful friend (ok – valet, but that didn’t fit the alliteration pattern…) have begun their own professional investigation firm. Case number one: who stuck their finger in Feely’s wedding cake? Or rather, who stuck a severed finger in Feely’s wedding cake?
As ever, this little girl is too smart for her own good. But it is good fun! Bradley’s creation echoes back to Sherlock Holmes without being a tired recreation. If you haven’t read the early novels, you really should. But no worries if you haven’t -each book can stand on its own. Alan Bradley published his first Flavia De Luce novel (which won the Crime Writer’s Dagger Award) as a septuagenarian. Which gives me hope that I still have time to write my great novel.
Serial Justice by Danny Ray / Review by G.Robert Frazier
Serial Justice
By Danny Ray
Danny Lindsey
$26.95
ISBN 978-1732744103
Publication Date: October 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Perhaps the most surprising thing about Serial Justice, the new novel from Danny Ray, is its bad guys. They are, after all, supposed to be the good guys.
And before you worry about spoilers, don’t. The novel makes no secret about who is pulling the trigger in each murder or who is calling the shots behind the scenes. Heck, the book blurb itself spells it all out for you.
What Serial Justice does is turn the crime novel on its head by making vigilantes out of characters who should otherwise be sworn officers of law and order.
The two culprits in a rash of killings involving convicted sex offenders are, in fact, retired law enforcement operatives. Both are following the secret directives of the head of the FBI’s Sex Crimes Division, Cliff Nolan, a 40-year veteran who is dying of cancer, and later his two successors who he lets in on the plan. The plan, by the way, is simple: exact final judgment on sex offenders released from prison after serving minimum sentences.
The novel follows cops-turned-killers George and Penny as they crisscross the country in their RV seeking out their targeted parolees and plan their demise. Their expert skills and tactics enable them to carry out each execution with cold-blooded efficiency, leaving nary a clue nor witness behind that can identify them to local authorities. The pair even review their murderous exploits with detailed “After Action” reports to help make sure they left nothing behind that can be traced to them.
Of course, the trail of bodies eventually garners the notice of a pair of honest investigators in the FBI, Jim Dawkins, and Joan Kesterling. As they race from murder to murder in search of clues, Nolan and his partners quietly monitor them in case they get close. It’s not until the pair enlists the help of a group of computer analysts at the FBI that the pieces to the puzzle begin to take shape.
Lindsey, who won the Killer Nashville Claymore Award, has crafted a fascinating police procedural that will leave you questioning which side you should be on–justice or vengeance?
Fugitive Red by Jason Starr / Review by G.Robert Frazier
Fugitive Red
By Jason Starr
Oceanview Publishing
$26.95
ISBN 978-1608093144
Publication Date: November 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Jack Harper isn’t the brightest protagonist you’ll meet in a crime novel this year. In fact, he makes a lot of bone-headed decisions that serve only to get him into deeper and deeper trouble -- like being suspected of murder, for instance. Yet for all of that, readers of Fugitive Red, the new novel from Jason Starr, will want to stick with his story just to see if he gets what he deserves or if he can somehow wriggle way out of the fix he’s in.
Jack, you see, seemingly has it all: a great job as a high-end real estate salesman, an eight-year-old son he’d die for, and a beautiful wife, Maria. But beneath it all, Jack’s not as happy as he should be. He’s had bouts of alcoholism. He had to give up his one true passion, music. His downtown Manhattan apartment is small and claustrophobic, made all the colder by a widening rift with Maria.
Seeking something, anything, that can restore his previous happiness, Jack stupidly decides instead of trying to patch things up with Maria he’ll seek solace through a digital online dating site and a fantasy relationship with a woman known only as the titular Fugitive Red. At first, his “fling” amounts to nothing more than flirting. But the more he becomes fixated on Red, the more his desire for a real relationship grows. Red entices him further when she suggests a real-life, clandestine rendezvous, a proposal Jack readily accepts.
But when Jack gets to the arranged meeting spot, he’s shocked to discover the object of his affections has been brutally murdered. Panicked, he runs from the scene, only to learn he’s left a glaringly obvious digital footprint behind for the police. News of his illicit online affair and suspect status in the eyes of the police brings his real world crashing in on him as he is quickly fired and just as quickly kicked out of his apartment by Maria.
Desperate, Jack stumbles about in an effort to clear his name despite the best advice of his public defender and the dogged pursuit of the detective on the case. Starr, who has written fourteen previous crime thrillers as well as stories for Marvel and DC Comics, keeps the action quick and the twists plentiful in this suspenseful read.
The Bishops Pawn by Steve Berry/Review by Danny Lindsey
BOOK OF THE DAY
Steve Berry’s latest in the Cotton Malone series (The Bishops Pawn, Minotaur Books, 2018) is a departure from the thirteen previous ones. This is his first foray in first-person and juxtaposes present-day, eighteen years ago, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., some 50 years past. The eighteen years harkens to Malone’s first case, which began as an assignment with a shadowy organization, a hazy mission, and an altogether improbable explanation for the existence of the newly formed organization and for the necessity of the mission itself.
A rare gold coin, a satchel of documents purported to be from Hoover’s FBI files, and a deserted island form the basis for Malone’s assignment, with the stated objective of recovering the coin and returning it to the Treasury, and a secondary mission of retrieving the documents. Although aware that something is missing from his new superior Stephanie Nelle’s explanation, Malone jumps at the chance to become anything other than a Navy attorney, his current assignment.
With Berry’s usual mixture of a little James Bond, some MacGyver, and a touch of Houdini, Malone is vaulted back to the events leading up to King’s assassination. Hoover’s shadow still hovers over a small group of rogue FBI agents, although what they are hiding is not immediately obvious. His investigation leads him to King’s most trusted associate, still alive and also concealing something after a half-century, and leaves him in possession of information which becomes a conundrum—reveal it or leave it buried.
Berry breaks new ground in this offering, but his penchant for thorough research remains intact. His locations and their descriptions are the results of his having been there, walked the streets and visited the establishments, and his treatment of fictional characters are obviously based on real people, not named. Some of the internal FBI documents quoted are authentic; some are fictional. Readers have to get to the author’s notes at the end to separate historical fact from fiction.
This one is better than good, and is more believable than it probably should be.
Danny Lindsey keeps trying to retire. After a 20-year Army career and a 25-year second one in the private sector, he’s finally settled down. His current gig is as the Veteran Employment Services Manager for a Huntsville, A.L. based non-profit, Still Serving Veterans. Both full careers were characterized by numerous writing assignments, from war plans to operating policies and procedures, then on to white papers, analyses of alternatives and competitive contract and grant proposals. Now his writing consists of blogs for the website www.ssv.org, podcasts for the local NPR affiliate, and a half dozen Pulitzer-worthy, albeit unpublished novels.
Update: Danny's 2017 Claymore Award winning manuscript Serial Justice is now available on Amazon!
Last Breath by Danny Lopez/ Review by G.Robert Frazier
The Last Breath
By Danny Lopez
Oceanview Publishing
$25.95
ISBN 978-1608092970
Publication Date: October, 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Take a deep breath and hang on. Danny Lopez’s new novel, The Last Breath, is a riveting, old-school whodunnit/private investigator novel that’ll leave you gasping for air.
Set on Siesta Key, one of the barrier islands off the coast of Sarasota, Fla., the novel once again revolves around down-and-out journalist-turned-investigator Dexter Vega, who made his debut in The Last Girl. Lacking a steady paycheck and desperate for work, Vega is easily convinced to turn his journalistic nose for news into investigative work for a private client, eccentric real estate mogul Bob Fleming, who believes his son, Liam, was murdered. Liam was an expert swimmer but apparently drowned in four feet of calm water while out on his kayak. Thing is, the police are satisfied Liam is an accidental drowning victim, have no reason to suspect foul play, and don’t like journalists poking around where they shouldn’t be.
Vega does what any good reporter would do, he asks questions and gets under the skin of a lot of folks. Of Liam’s quirky beach-bum friends. Of Liam’s mysterious business associates. Of Liam’s lovers. And he turns up clues. Clues that hint at illicit drugs and secret real estate deals, among other things. And as in any good mystery novel, the suspect list, and the danger grows exponentially with each new revelation. It’s not long before another victim turns up, in a similar water-related death.
Lopez’s prose is fast-paced and addictively fun. Vega comes across as a typically cynical journalist, a terrible father to his daughter, and is easy to dislike, but he quickly grows on you the more you get to know him. The novel’s setting immediately evokes fond memories of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series of books or, for TV crime lovers, the gruff and miserable James Rockford.
The Fallen by David Baldacci /Review by Danny Lindsey
The Fallen
By David Baldacci
Grand Central Station
$29.00
ISBN 978-1538761397
Publication Date: April 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
There are two immutable facts in David Baldacci’s latest in his Memory Man series (The Fallen, Grand Central Publishing, 2018). Amos Decker can’t forget anything. And he can’t catch a break. Even when he takes a week off and travels with his partner to visit her sister and celebrate her niece’s birthday, he manages to find dead bodies. They aren’t the first recent murders in the dying coal town, and predictably, they won’t be the last.
Baronville is typical of rust belt towns. Built a century ago to take advantage of a booming mining and millwork industry, the economy eventually went bust and with it the good jobs. What is left behind are empty storefronts, high unemployment, and a soaring opioid addiction problem. Decker’s partner Alex Jamison’s sister moved to Baronville when her husband was relocated to the new fulfillment center, an Amazon-like monstrosity that promised to bring employment if not prosperity to the town.
But there is a pall hovering over Baronville. The gruesome scene Decker discovers only a few hours into his vacation are murders five and six in a town where murders usually occur only on television. He and Jamison are drawn into the investigation of seemingly unrelated killings of unrelated victims. With no suspects and few clues, even Decker is stymied.
The next victim is close to home, and Decker and Jamison are targeted as well. He becomes convinced that something bigger than Baronville is behind the killings, and the presence of a DEA operations team cements his suspicion. Whatever or whoever is pulling the strings has roots outside the town, but local talent at their disposal.
Decker’s infallible memory may be his only advantage, and at times he discerns a crack there, as well. Baldacci never fails to entertain, and with The Fallen, he has come through again. His Memory Man is cursed with a gift most think would be a blessing.
Danny Lindsey keeps trying to retire. After a 20-year Army career and a 25-year second one in the private sector, he’s finally settled down. His current gig is as the Veteran Employment Services Manager for a Huntsville, A.L. based non-profit, Still Serving Veterans. Both full careers were characterized by numerous writing assignments, from war plans to operating policies and procedures, then on to white papers, analyses of alternatives and competitive contract and grant proposals. Now his writing consists of blogs for the website www.ssv.org, podcasts for the local NPR affiliate, and a half dozen Pulitzer-worthy, albeit unpublished novels.
Update: Danny's 2017 Claymore Award winning manuscript Serial Justice is now available on Amazon!
Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi / Review by Sharon Woods Hopkins
Don’t Let Go
By Michel Bussi
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
$16.21
ISBN 978-1474601788
Publication Date: 2017
2019 Silver Falchion Candidate
BOOK OF THE DAY
“Don’t Let Go” is a thriller set in Réunion, a tropical island in the Indian Ocean, under French control. The plot, although interesting was convoluted at times, with points of view changing frequently. It was at times, hard to tell whose story it was. Each main character tells his/her story in a time-stamp-like narrative, and always under the watchful eye of the omniscient voice. It’s not a style which I’ve seen very often. However, the plot was compelling enough that I kept reading.
Liane, her husband, Martial and spoiled young daughter Sopha, are on holiday on this beautiful island far away from their home country of France. One day, Liane leaves the pool to go up to her hotel room. Later, Martial asks a nearby couple to look after Sopha while he checks on his wife who is gone longer than he thought she should be. Finding the hotel door locked, and himself without his key, he asks the hotel staff to open it. Upon entering there is no Liane, but the room is a mess, all her things have gone and there is blood. He calls the police, but then the timeline puts Martial solidly in first place as a suspect. As the police spread out a net, Martial takes his daughter to run away, then finds a message written in the dust on his rental car—a message which drives the two of them to go inland, in search of Liane, while the police are hunting Martial as a murderer.
The ending was a bit overdone, but still satisfying.
I kept wishing I could get to know the characters a bit better, especially since so many of them had a point of view, such as Martial, Aja, the female police captain, Christos, her older male partner, his girlfriend, Imelda, his daughter Sopha and several staff at the resort.
And finally, I was a bit confused as to why Martial chose to even go to the island, in light of the history he had there when he lived there before, which we, the readers learn about as the story and chase progresses.
The foreign language phrases that were explained with footnotes kept me flipping pages and pulling me out of the story. I would have preferred to have seen the phrases translated on the go, as to have to search the end of each chapter for the footnotes.
Sharon Woods Hopkins' mystery series featuring mortgage banker Rhetta McCarter and her '79 Camaro hits close to home. Sharon is a former branch manager for a mortgage office of a Missouri bank. She also owns the original Cami, a restored '79 Camaro like Rhetta's. Sharon's hobbies include painting, fishing, photography, flower gardening, and restoring muscle cars with her son, Jeff. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Guppies, Thriller Writers of America, the Southeast Missouri Writers' Guild, Heartland Writers, and the Missouri Writers' Guild.
Pandemic by Robin Cook/Review by Denise
Pandemic
By Robin Cook
G.P. Putnam's Sons
$27.00
ISBN 978-0525535331
Publication Date: December 11 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
This is not science fiction. A biologically active chimeric molecule -- CRISPR/CAS9 -- can modify the genetic makeup of living cells. The potential for use and misuse of this mechanism is quite promising on one hand and quite scary on the other. This story featuring forensic pathologist Jack Stapleton of the New York City Office of Medical Examiners focuses on the use of CRISPR/CAS9 in transplantation.
A young woman who had a recent heart transplant collapses and dies on the New York subway. Jack Stapleton performs the autopsy and is initially convinced that she succumbed to a particularly virulent strain of influenza. Worried about the potential for an epidemic, and because the woman has no ID on her, Jack begins an intense investigation involving testing of body fluids and specimens by specialists and goes into the field to attempt to isolate the virus that caused this death. There are no immediate new cases and that increases his confusion -- until the next woman dies. It is obvious to him that this particular virulent organism is something completely new and it proves difficult to identify. Can Jack figure out the origin and stop the spread of illness before more people die? NO SPOILERS.
If you like science and medicine, this is a medical thriller that will keep you absorbed. I couldn't put it down and read it over the course of a couple of hours. I loved the details about the chimera and all of the forensic pathology and epidemiological investigation. It's just as well that I could focus on the science because I can tell you that I can't stand Jack. His personality is so annoying and fortunately, I was able to ignore him most of the time while reading. Considering what benefits to medicine and health that could be achieved with CRISPR/CAS9 is mind-boggling. Alleviating organ shortage is just one possible positive use but there are many other indications. But using it will come with a cost and it would be easy for ethical boundaries to fall making it dangerous in the wrong hands. How to control something so revolutionary that almost makes the user a god-like creator. And because of the way the world is now, it's quite worrisome. This particular book may be fiction, but the science of gene-editing is and will be, at the forefront of huge changes affecting everyone on the planet.
I've read all of Cook's novels despite not liking anything about his main protagonist, Jack Stapleton. Medical thrillers are my favorite genre and I can highly recommend this to like-minded readers.
Watching You by Lisa Jewell/Review by Melissa
BOOK OF THE DAY
A clever play on perspective, taking things out of context and assumptions—something most of us are quick to make—collide in this compulsively readable watchable storyline.
The central theme of being watched or being the watcher is what elevates this novel from what I consider typical suspense to something much creepier in feel. There’s a host of participants running rampant throughout, the mystery found in deciphering which of the watchers/watched are in fact driven by dark motives.
Is it the headmaster, Tom Fitzwilliam, a man that garners way too much attention?
Or maybe it’s his young newlywed neighbor, a woman with a crush who tends to put herself in precarious situations.
Is there some modicum of truth to the nonsense the crazy mother of one of Mr. Fitzwilliam’s students is constantly spewing outside of the painted houses of Melville Heights?
And what about Freddie, Mr. Fitzwilliam’s teenage son—is it possible he’s guilty of more than just watching all of his neighbors and chronicling their every move?
One thing I’ve come to expect from Lisa Jewell, an oddball cast; my thoughts and feelings for said characters typically running the gamut. This time, not so much. Instead, I wallowed in neutral territory where this nosey bunch was concerned—not particularly enamored or filled with disdain—finding them just interesting enough to keep me engaged.
Naturally, as the majority of suspense novels tend to, Watching You starts off with a dead body. A woman's lifeless corpse strewn across a kitchen floor, accompanied by one piece of pivotal evidence lying in a pool of blood. Something not easily explained away by the owner, yet in hindsight, maybe too obvious?
For those readers that fancy themselves part-time literary sleuths, this is one sure to keep you guessing. Lisa Jewell—and just about the entire cast—put in quite a bit of work, the goal being to throw readers off the scent. Unfortunately, I figured things out earlier than I would have hoped to. Don't worry, the answer is not blatantly obvious and in no way did figuring things out hinder my experience. In fact, of the four Jewell novels I’ve read to-date, this is the one I struggled the most to set down for any length of time. Meaning, I had to force myself to put it aside to play pretend at being a functioning adult.
Oh, and did I mention the short chapters? Creepy vibe + murder plot + short chapters = reading frenzy.
*Thanks to Atria for providing a review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Verses for the Dead by Preston & Child/Review by Liz Gatterer
Verses for the Dead
By Preston & Child
Grand Central Publising
$28.00
ISBN 978-1538747209
Publication Date: December 31, 2018
New Release
BOOK OF THE DAY
Verses for the Dead is Preston and Child’s 18th thriller featuring FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast. There is a “new sheriff in town” so-to-speak; Special Agent Coldmoon has been assigned by the new New York City FBI field office assistant director to partner with Pendergast in an attempt to bring the rogue agent to heel. The two investigators head to Miami Beach, where a human heart has been left on the grave of decade-old suicide victim alongside a note from a mysterious Mister Brokenhearts. Of course, there is much more to the story, including all of the supernatural elements that must be part of any Pendergast novel, but there are are some interesting twists that should please even the most jaded reader. Needless to say, Agent Coldmoon is not the controlling influence on Pendergast that the Assistant Director Picket was hoping for.
One of the biggest challenges in writing a series that has 18 (and hopefully more) installments, is keeping the story fresh while still including all the familiar parts of the characters that fans expect. Preston and Child are masters of writing contemporary tales that feel familiar. Even if you start at this point in the series, you will enjoy the ride.
Liz Gatterer attended Tulane University while living in New Orleans. It was there that she first began working with authors in the printing industry. Originally from Upstate New York, she moved to Nashville with her husband to pursue their careers (his being music). Three (absolutely fabulous) children later, she has returned to the working world in the industry she loves. She currently lives in Spring Hill with said husband and children, dogs, cats, and various other creatures. The necessity of multitasking has led her to an addiction to audio books – but, when able to, she still prefers to curl up with a good book (and a child in her lap).
The Burglar by Thomas Perry /Review by Danny Lindsey
The Burglar
By Thomas Perry
Mysterious Press
$26.00
ISBN 978-0802129000
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
BOOK OF THE DAY
Elle Stowell 20s, diminutive, attractive
Describe for yourself the perfect burglar. Think for a minute. How about small enough to wriggle through a pet door? Shinny up a drainpipe? What about appearance? Maybe female, young (20ish), attractive and in good shape? Able to fit in as a co-ed home from college back east somewhere?
Thomas Perry may have invented the perfect thief in Elle Stowell. She fits right into all those categories, and she is a professional. Adept at spotting the tell-tale signs that a house is empty, she can be found running through upscale neighborhoods early and late, sporting expensive running shoes and college sweatshirts. No one gives her a second look as she blends into the scenery, just another fitness nut pursuing her passion.
What Elle is really doing is pursuing her livelihood, and she is very, very good at it. But things go off the rails suddenly when she opens the door to the master suite in the home of an art gallery owner and finds three bodies, shot while enjoying a three-way. The only thing Elle takes from that house is a camera, still running, which may or may not have captured her image as she entered the room.
The action accelerates as Elle becomes the quarry of – who? Someone is stalking her. Someone obviously had other cameras running in the house, and it quickly becomes apparent to Elle that she must solve the murders to prevent becoming the next victim.
The pace is fast and the plot, while seemingly “out there,” is believable. Elle could be the next jogger coming down the sidewalk. The Burglar could be the first in a good series.
Danny Lindsey keeps trying to retire. After a 20-year Army career and a 25-year second one in the private sector, he’s finally settled down. His current gig is as the Veteran Employment Services Manager for a Huntsville, A.L. based non-profit, Still Serving Veterans. Both full careers were characterized by numerous writing assignments, from war plans to operating policies and procedures, then on to white papers, analyses of alternatives and competitive contract and grant proposals. Now his writing consists of blogs for the website www.ssv.org, podcasts for the local NPR affiliate, and a half dozen Pulitzer-worthy, albeit unpublished novels.
Update: Danny's 2017 Claymore Award winning manuscript Serial Justice is now available on Amazon!
In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin/Review by Jerry Ridger
In a House of Lies
By Ian Rankin
Little, Brown and Company
$27.00
ISBN 978-0316479202
Publication Date: December 31, 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Isn’t it wonderful when an old friend comes back into your life? That’s is how I felt after reading Ian Rankin’s last DI John Rebus novel, In a House of Lies. It was time well spent and I have hope that it won't be the last we hear of him.
To catch those new to the series up… would be a waste of time. The quick version is that retirement is just as boring Rebus thought it would be. Getting older, giving up your bad habits (and dealing with the effects of those habits) is not going to work for him.
So, when he hears of the discovery of a car in the woods with a body in the boot of a man that went missing over a decade before he reaches out to his old friend, Siobhan Clarke to help solve this cold case file. Never mind that Rebus has been retired for several years, in his heart he’ll always be a copper. It’s in his blood. And he still has plenty of scores to settle.
I love that all of the old gang is still around - Malcolm Fox, Big Ger Cafferty, and even his dog Brillo. It is incredible how Rankin can get all of the stories were woven in together so tightly, with no loose threads. He is a master of his art.
Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts/Review by Annie Oneonta
Of Blood and Bone
By Nora Roberts
St. Martin's Press
$28.99
ISBN 978-1250122995
Publication Date: December 4, 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
There are so many ways the society might come crashing down around us... and so many more that can be imagined. Thirteen-year-old Fallon Swift is part of the generation that came after The Doom sickness. After everything fell apart. She has only known this world. Where she is hunted for being special. But, the time is coming where she will no longer be able to hide.
This is a world of witches, fairies, and magic. It is wonderful. As the sequel to Year One, we are once again part of Katie and Fred and all of what the wonderful characters from book one. But, we also get to meet some new and not so nice characters. If you haven't read Year One, stop. Go to your local bookstore and start there. But certainly, pick up Of Blood and Bone while you are there because you will want to read it right away.
This is a really great series. Plenty of supernatural creepiness - and not a blindfold in sight.
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch / Review by Emma Boyd
Lies Sleeping
By Ben Aaronvitch
DAW
$26.00
ISBN: 978-0756415136
Publication Date: November 20, 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch is the 7th book in the Rivers of London Series - and is probably one of my favorites thus far. Peter Grant, Detective Constable, and apprentice wizard is once again trying to save London from destruction and bring The Faceless Man to justice. Peter's former best friend/colleague, Lesley May is back (with her face) and Peter is going to have to trust her again if he has a prayer of everything working out. And then there is always Mr. Punch.
If you haven't read the series, you should start from the beginning with Midnight Riot. There is a ton of backstory that helps to explain some of the more complex storylines that I love Aaronovitch for weaving. At its heart, these stories are procedurals - with a kick. There is magic, not the Harry Potter sort, exactly, more science-based than that, but still powerful magic. There are ghosts and supernatural events, gods and goddesses and of course, the Rivers of London.
For fans of urban fantasy, procedurals, and modern English culture, these books are a kick! For an American, you may have to break out Google to define a few of his colloquial terms, but for me, that adds to the fun. Reading these books has certainly added to my vocabulary. I am grateful to Ben Aaronovitch for helping to keep the magic alive in these very unmagical times.
The Warriors by Paul Batista / Review by Henry Hack
BOOK OF THE DAY
Slide over John Grisham and Scott Turow and make room on your narrow bench for Paul Batista to join you as a fellow top legal thriller author. The Warriors contains everything necessary to keep you turning pages, anticipating the next surprise plot twist until sleep finally overcomes you.
The story is immediately relevant when a female senator from New York State, whose husband was a former president, must stand trial on charges of foreign campaign contributions and misuse of those funds. The comparison to recent events surrounding the last presidential campaign is obvious, but not at all trite as the story takes us into unchartered territory far beyond mere political corruption. Powerful and deadly drug lords, two strong, intelligent, beautiful women locked in a life and death struggle, and an assortment of crooked cops, businessmen, jurors, and politicians combine for a terrific ride in the City of New York and its environs. The killer known as The Blade of theHamptons may inhabit your dreams long after this book has been devoured.
Author Paul Batista brings thirty years of legal experience to his fifth novel, and that experience and his intimate factual knowledge of Manhattan streets, enable him to create well-drawn characters who perfectly fit within their environs.
As a writer, and reader, I ask myself two questions after reading a book by an author new to me: Was I satisfied that the author knew his material and conveyed an exciting story? And, Would I buy another book written by that author? In Mr. Batista’s case, my answers are a resounding, Yes and Yes! Pick up a copy of The Warriors and I’m certain you will agree.
Henry Hack is a lifelong New Yorker who served in the Nassau County, NY Police Department for twenty-two years, including fourteen years in the Detective Division. He commanded the Scientific Investigation Bureau and was qualified as an expert witness in several forensic fields including blood, narcotics and trace evidence. He also commanded the Eighth Precinct, Uniform Force, and resides in North Carolina with his wife, Lorraine.
After attending public schools in Queens and Brooklyn, Henry received a Bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University and a Master’s in Criminal Justice from Long Island University. In addition to his public service on the police force, Henry served as Vice President in charge of Security at Cablevision. Now an empty-nester with seven children and step-children scattered around the country, Henry devotes his time to writing fiction.
His novels Danny Boy, Cases Closed, Mommy, Mommy and Forever Young feature homicide Detective Danny Boyland. Cassidy's Corner, The Last Crusade,The Romen Society andElection Day feature Police Officer Harry Cassidy.
Portraits inBlue is a collection of fourteen stories.
The Second Goodbye by Patricia Smiley / Review by Tim Suddeth
The Second Goodbye
By Patricia Smiley
Midnight Press
$15.99
ISBN 978-0738752365
Publication Date: December 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
In The Second Goodbyeby Patricia Smiley, we are gifted with the third installment of her Pacific Homicide series featuring LAPD Detective Davie Richards of the Pacific Homicide Division. Davie may be petite and have coppery orange-brown hair, but she’s no-nonsense with her catchphrase: assume nothing. She’s also quite able to handle herself whether it’s dealing with gangbangers, con men, hit men, or attractive stud-muffin detectives. Well, one out of four.
During a lull in the homicide cases in their district, Davie receives two cold cases to follow up on from the list her boss keeps and hopes to complete before he retires. One is the death of a possible gang member, the other a strangulation whose only suspect, the victim’s husband has committed suicide. While she holds little hope on the strangulation, she quickly has some ideas to investigate in the gang shooting. On her way, she’s giving another case to look at involving a possible suicide in a pawnshop.
We are taken on the journey with her as she tries to unravel these cases before a new homicide occurs and takes priority. When you add in false identities, a serial killer stalker, and witnesses whose statements aren’t always reliable, you have a very engaging read. Top it all off with a partner returning from her past, and it becomes a book you can’t put down.
Smiley has put her own stamp on this classic genre. You can feel the tension of the contemporary streets of LA, always under the threat of wildfires. You experience the desperation the detective feels while she is trying to learn the truth. Davie is the type of detective you want on your case: smart, able, and one who refuses to give up until she has all the answers.
Although this is the first book I’ve read in this series, that didn’t hold me back any from getting engrossed in the story. It only makes me want to go back to the others so I can get more of Detective Richards and Smiley’s stories of Los Angeles.
Tim Suddeth was the 2017 Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship Award winner. He’s currently working on his fourth novel. He currently blogs for The Write Conversation and is trying to make a dent in his to-read bookcases. You can follow him at on his blog at timingreenville.com or on Twitter @TimSuddeth.
Mycroft and Sherlock by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / Review by G.Robert Frazier
Mycroft and Sherlock
By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Anna Waterhouse
Titan Books
$14.99
ISBN 978-1785659256
Publication Date: October, 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Mycroft Holmes may have gotten short shrift from his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is well on his way to changing that with Mycroft & Sherlock, his second novel featuring Sherlock’s older brother. This time, as the title suggests, he’s brought the slightly more renowned Holmes, albeit a teenage version of him, along for the journey.
The book opens with news of the grisly death of a Chinese man in the heart of London, 1872, in what the papers have dubbed the Savage Garden Murders. The seventh such victim of the killer, he has been savagely mutilated, though with uncanny surgical precision. All of the victims, including six of Chinese descent, had been proprietors or frequent clientele of opium dens.
The case isn’t exactly high on the list of priorities for the War Department, where the 26-year-old Mycroft serves as special counsel to the Secretary of State for War. Mycroft is more preoccupied with his friend, Cyrus Douglas, whose trade ship has mysteriously run aground on its way to Australia.
Nor do the murders immediately grab the attention of Mycroft’s younger brother, who proclaims them “a colossal bore” with their “pedestrian” motive to teach a moral lesson. Sherlock, rather, is more fascinated by a young orphan with evidence of needle marks on his body. The destitute youth would hardly be able to afford drugs administered in such a fashion, convincing Sherlock that something more is afoot. When the youth is later found dead, Sherlock takes up the case with even more vigor.
Needless to say, the brothers ultimately wind up matching wits and, in some instances, trying to outdo the other, in their effort to solve their cases.
Abdul-Jabbar, who is ably assisted once again by screenwriter Anna Waterhouse, has crafted an entertaining look at the early life of the Holmes brothers. The interactions between the Holmes men, as well as the brief glimpses of characteristics and skills Sherlock will become renowned for, provide ample fodder for Holmes fans.
Robert Frazier writes about other writers and their works on his blog and other sites such as BookPage. He has served as a script reader for both the Austin Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival screenwriting competitions and is a member of the Tennessee Screenwriting Association.
The Drowned Girl by Sara Blaedel/Review by Laura Hartman
Long Road to Mercy
By Sara Blaedel
Grand Central Publishing
$9.99
ISBN 978-1538759851
Publication Date: December 24, 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
Officer Louise Rick travels an hour out of Copenhagen to a small town to help the Unit One Mobile Task Force investigate the horrific murder of a young girl. She was found submerged in the bay by a local fisherman. Suicide is out of the question as she was tethered to a concrete block. Was this an act of random violence? Was she killed by someone she knew? Or was this an honor killing?
The dead teen is Muslim. Her parents live by the rules of their religion, which makes the investigation much more difficult due to their lack of cooperation due to fear and tradition. Unfortunately, information comes to light that may point to a private side of the young victim. Her parents may have found out about her secret which could have brought dishonor to their family.
Enter crime reporter Camilla, a close friend of Louise. She jumps into the story and latches onto the honor killing theory. Her editor wants more of this angle, but the deeper Camilla dives into the lives of the Muslim families, the more she wants to help them by finding the truth. But her articles are stirring up a hornet’s nest of preconceived notions that will result in a bigger divide between Danish and Muslims. Will this lead to more violence?
Not only is this a solid mystery, but the thread of prejudice that affects the different groups of people is woven throughout the plot. This multilayered story makes the reader pause to think about listening more and learning more about others they may fear or dislike without foundation.
Some books that are translated from a different language are difficult to read. The Drowned Girl is not one of those books. The flow and read were perfect. Even though this is the first novel I’ve read by Blaedel, it is not the first mystery featuring Louise Rick, but I never felt as though I didn’t know enough about the characters to fully understand the story. Actually, it was quite the opposite. Not only were the main characters shown doing their jobs, but personal lives, hopes, and dreams are woven throughout to bring them to life and enrich the story.
This intriguing mystery is entertaining and thought-provoking. The plot kept me guessing until the last chapters. Just when I thought I knew who the killer was, my theory would be debunked in the next chapter. This is a perfect multilayered book. If you like Jodi Picoult books, you will love Blaedel’s writing style.
Sara Blaedel is a prolific Danish author, who now resides in New York. She is the recipient of several awards including the Golden Laurel, Denmark’s most prestigious literary award.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from the publisher/author in connection with Killer Nashville in return for my review. Copyright © 2018 Laura Hartman
Laura Hartman is a short story author and book reviewer. She has work appearing in A Woman’s Touch: 11 Stories of Murder & Misdemeanors and The Killer Wore Cranberry, A Second Helping. She began reviewing books for GenReviews in 2011 and currently reviews for publicist Maryglenn McCombs, Penguin First to Read and NetGalley. She is a writer by day and a reader by night.
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