Extra special stuff today – the first review from my new associate reviewer, Christine Linial! She’s a long-time on-line pal who also loves books, and I am sharing some of my bounty with her (and getting more reviews on my pages at the same time). If you’re a baseball fan who loves intrigue, Hang A Crooked Number is your next… Read more
The easiest way to tell that Jo Nesbo is not an American author is that in the US, you could never get away with naming a character Harry Hole. That’s just one of the things I love about this series. Harry is such a great character, and I think Nesbo is a fabulous writer, so I was thrilled to get… Read more
I’ve been doing a lot of driving lately, which is always a good time to catch up on my audiobooks. I’ve got a stack of great audiobooks that the good folks at Macmillan Audio sent me, and I’ve been putting them to good use. I finished this novel sitting at home, warm and cozy with a cup of coffee —… Read more
Sometimes a book tells you things about the author. Douglas Nicholas is an award-winning poet, and some of that poetry seeps into his novel, Something Red. There is a certain lyrical quality to it that I appreciated, and I found that quite interesting, mixed as it was with a tale of murder and mayhem. The story is told through the eyes… Read more
Oh hear us when we cry to thee For those in peril on the sea. — William Whiting I start off every book wanting to love it. You don’t choose books to review because you think they’ll be bad. But sometimes they are. Wilbur Smith’s Those in Peril would make a pretty decent spy novel. The problem is, he tries to… Read more
Father Night is the fourth book in Eric van Lustbader’s Jack McClure/Alli Carson series. These are spy novels with a bit of a supernatural twist. Jack McClure, Department of Defense special agent, has some curious abilities: he’s dyslexic, which has to be a detriment for an agent, but his unusual way of thinking lets him see things others miss. He can… Read more
I wanted to read Buried on Avenue B as soon as I read the premise: When a home health attendant, Paulette Williamson, appears at Homicide South in Manhattan, she’s introduced to the NYPD’s Detective Darlene O’Hara and skeptically reports the confession of a senior citizen struggling with Alzheimer’s. Gus Henderson, a former junkie and petty criminal, claims he murdered and buried… Read more
When I received the offer from the folks at Galaxy Press, I was a little reluctant. Great writing isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name L. Ron Hubbard. But the audiobooks sounded like fun and I love old science fiction, so I figured I would give it a try. The books are a hoot!… Read more
This is a tough review to write. The Code, by sportswriter G.B. Joyce, has a lot of things that I love — a good mystery, a flawed hero, and a bit of action. But it is all somehow a bit awkward. First, the story: Brad Shade is a former hockey player with a sad-luck story, now a scout for the team… Read more
Shake Bouchon was livin’ the dream. For years, he’d been a wheelman for the Armenian mob, but he’d gotten away clean. He bought restaurant on the beach in Belize, where he hoped to start fresh. The location was postcard-perfect, sea breezes and tiki torches and tourists with credit cards. Should have been everything he needed for a perfect retirement in… Read more