I’ve been out of town and some new books showed up while I was gone! First up, Gianrico Carofiglio’s A Fine Line: When Judge Larocca is accused of corruption, Guido Guerrieri goes against his better instincts and takes the case. Helped by Annapaola Doria, a motorbike-riding bisexual private detective who keeps a baseball bat on hand for sticky situations, he discovers that… Read more
This was a great airport book – totally took my mind off delays, screaming kids, annoying airport tv, etc. Instead, while I was reading Baggage by S.G. Redling, I could spend my time yelling (just inside my head) at Anna, who really hates February: Over the years, terrible things keep happening to Anna Ray on February 17. First, there was the… Read more
The Undoing by Averil Dean begins with one drastic action and no explanation. Julian is alone and does something nearly unthinkable. The interesting thing, for the reader, is that it is entirely out of context – there is only the vaguest of hints about how we came to this point. Then we jump back a day, to see what brought… Read more
The Missing Piece by Kevin Egan is a different sort of courtroom drama. It revolves around the Salvus Treasure: a collection of silver pieces, bowls and plates and urns, dating back to ancient Rome. Together, the pieces are worth more than $70 million dollars, but their ownership is in dispute and the case will be tried in a Manhattan courtroom. Violence… Read more
Has anyone ever counted the books James Patterson has published? Holy cow! That is one prodigious imagination. And he is not only a prolific writer, he does good things for the cause – he gives away books, he promotes reading, he supports independent booksellers. All good things. I’ve enjoyed a number of his previous books, but The Murder House I did not love. My mother… Read more
As soon as I read the description of James Rollins’ The 6th Extinction, I was hooked… A military research station buried in the remote Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California broadcasts a frantic distress call that ends with a chilling order: “This is sierra, victor, whiskey. There’s been a breach. Fail-safe initiated. No matter the outcome: Kill us … kill us… Read more
This just in from Harper Collins! Waiting for me on my Kindle, Spy Trade by Matthew Dunn: When a mission goes awry in Syria, senior CIA officer Bob Oakland is captured by aspiring members of ISIS, who demand the release of one of their own, Arzam Saud, in U.S. captivity. When their hands are tied by Washington’s refusal to negotiate, the… Read more
This was an odd one. I knew it would be odd as I sat trying to sort out the cover of the novel, a photo of a hallway turned sideways; it’s a great way to set the tone for the rest of the book. A Head Full of Ghostsby Paul Tremblay is the story of the Barrett family – Mom, Dad,… Read more
“Any resemblance to persons living or dead…” The disclaimer has a neat red line through it. A message she failed to notice when she opened the book. Sometimes a novel really speaks to you – really seems to hit home. You can see yourself and your struggle in those pages. But what if it really was you? What if someone… Read more
In Cane and Abe by James Grippando, Miami’s top prosecutor becomes the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. Is she the victim of a serial killer? Or is there a connection to the women in Abe’s past? Abe Beckham is a prosecutor in Miami, married to the lovely Angelina but still hung up on his first wife, Samantha. The relationship… Read more