Thriller

All posts tagged Thriller

THE GIRL WITHOUT SKIN – Mads Peder Nordbo

Posted by Daniel on May 17, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

“Nordic Noir” has become an actual category of mystery/thriller.  Wikipedia has a page dedicated to the sub-genre. Although Nordbo is not yet listed among the authors mentioned, with this book it is clear (to me at least) that he is bound to be a very strong voice in the bleak landscape of horrific crimes.

Danish journalist, Matthew Cave, is sent to Greenland to research the story of a recently discovered mummified body. The expectation (and hope) is that this is a body from the Viking age of explorers. But shortly after Cave arrives a policeman who was guarding the find is brutally murdered and the mummified body is missing.

As an investigative journalist, Cave is accomplished at doing research and he soon discovers some horrifying similarities between the gutting and skinning of the policeman and a series of murders that occurred in a remote town nearby in the early 1970’s.

Although Cave manages to get the notebook of a policeman who investigated the 1973 murders, but of the locals seem to be pretty unmoved despite the gruesome nature of the killings and the local police help is tepid at best.  And so reporter Matthew Cave suspects a cover-up and takes on the investigation alone. But the closer he get to discover the truth to the mummified body and the decades-old murders, the more danger he finds himself in.

I’ve read a few books in this “Nordic Noir” sub-genre of thriller/mystery and there is something remarkable and  … I’ll say it … beautiful in the juxtaposition of horrible crime and stark, harsh landscape with the human drive to seek truth and retribution or closure.  This book fits so nicely into this category.  The crimes couldn’t be much more terrible.  The title alone brings to mind such a dark visual that you have to know going in that this will be pretty gruesome.

But the story here unfolds so nicely and we’re caught, like spectators driving past an accident, that the combination keeps us turning pages. It’s a great reading experience (if you can handle the cruelty).

This is a top-notch mystery and a thrilling read.  It is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? The Girl Without Skin by Mads Peder Nordbo is a wonderful read in the Nordic Noir sub-genre and well worth reading if you don’t mind a little gruesomeness in your mystery/thriller.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Girl Without Skin

author: Mads Peder Nordbo

translator: Charlotte Barslund

publisher: Text Publishing

ISBN: 1925603830

paperback, 356 pages

BEFORE THE FALL – Noah Hawley

Posted by Daniel on October 3, 2018
Posted in: MYSTERY, OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Artist Scott Burroughs almost misses the his plane. From Martha’s vineyard, a wealthy media mogul and his family are flying a private jet to New York.  The wife of the powerful family patriarch had befriended Scott not too long prior and had invited him to take the trip with them as long as they were heading to New York anyway.  But only a bout fifteen minutes later, the plane crashes into the rolling ocean.  Scott sees only the four-year-old child of the family still alive and struggling against the sea. He latches onto the boy and pulls him underwater to avoid the crashes of a wave, and then swims and pulls the boy in the direction he hopes is the shore.  It’s not an easy swim and Scott likely would have given up if he hadn’t now been responsible for the boy as well.  But the drowning death of his sister many years ago, and his subsequent swimming lessons have him determined to keep swimming.

But surviving the sea is only the first step in the aftermath of the plane crash.  Scott will face a barrage of questions and insinuations as to what exactly happened. Being a struggling artist with only the remotest of connections to the family, what was he doing on that plane?  Was he having an affair with the wealthy matriarch? And now, as he avoids the press and their questions and connects with the remaining family of the boy (who is set to inherit millions), is he trying to insert himself in the boy’s life in order to capitalize on those millions?

Author Noah Hawley has given us a truly remarkable, though sad, commentary on our modern society.  Every act of courage, every act of kindness, will be scrutinized and questioned by someone who is more interested in finding dirt and building ratings As a reading audience, we can’t help but sympathize with Burroughs, who shows us the remarkable things a human can do when pushed and when a very life is on the line. And because we connect with him in this way, it gets us angry when he is facing unnecessary (or so we perceive) negative publicity.  But Hawley does let us wonder, just a bit, if there isn’t something about Burroughs that we don’t know – something that might suggest he’s not quite what he claims to be.  And this is what drives us in the story.

The beginning and the ending here were quite strong, but the story sagged in the middle.  We really weren’t given enough new information or new story to keep us motivated and guessing through the middle of the book and it’s this that keeps it from being a truly outstanding novel.  It is worth reading however.

Looking for a good book? Before the Fall by Noah Hawley is a thrilling work of modern literature that captures the best and worst of humanity today.

I receive a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Before the Fall

author: Noah Hawley

publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 1455561789

hardcover, 391 pages

THE PROMETHEUS MAN – Scott Readon

Posted by Daniel on April 16, 2018
Posted in: MYSTERY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

CIA agent Tom Blake hustles in on the French police when a pile of bodies are discovered in Paris.  Blake has a lot of inside knowledge and works swiftly and deliberately, impressing the French.  But there is just one problem.  CIA Agent Blake is actually on assignment in Africa and the man in Paris using that identity is really Tom Reese … an American searching for the men who killed his brother.  At least one of the men behind the murder is a genetically modified man – a Prometheus.  But Reese has a few secrets up his sleeve.

Along the way, Reese, in between stealing cars to make a getaway and pursuit, picks up a woman who was in trouble.  And she happens to be the daughter of one of the men Reese is searching for.

The opening sequence – in fact the opening few chapters – really brings the reader in to the story.  Both the action and the intrigue are high and this looks to be a really exciting book.

And then Reese picks up Silvana.

Author Scott Reardon tries to keep the pace high, adding a little chase with the complication of Reese trying to protect the woman as well as continue with his goal, but the book gets bogged down with silly tête-à-tête between the two.  Though Silvana has no reason to confide or trust Reese, other than the fact that he rescued her from another situation, she does just that – trusts him.  In fact, the two have a goofy little teasing conversation about this:

“Of course I can’t really trust you, can I?”
“No, but think of it this way. I just saved you from two men trying to drug you and stick you in their van. How much worse could I really be?”
“No, see, what you were supposed to say was ‘You can’t really trust me’ and leave it at that. Then I’d at least know you were somewhat honest. Instead you were clever. And a woman should never trust a clever man.”
“So she should trust one who’s not clever? Who’s, what, some kind of refreshing simpleton?”
She didn’t say anything.
“You know, anyone who’s motivated enough to do what those men almost did is motivated enough to keep trying.”
“Berlin,” she said softly. “Would you take me that far?”

And much later, after they’ve been through quite a bit, she says:

“I don’t know what it is, but something about you keeps telling me you’re a good person even though I hardly know you and”—she laughed sadly—“I really have no reason to trust you.”
He went to walk past her. She shifted her bodyweight, leaning in his way.

Wow…do you think these two strangers will end up in bed together (written sarcastically)…

From the moment Silvana enters the book, we go from an action thriller that showed a lot of promise to a wannabe Bourne or Bond, but this clearly isn’t Reardon’s strength.  Reese has motivation to find his brother’s killers, and Silvana is not an obstacle that he needs to overcome to get to his goal – instead she’s a distraction and a distraction is not just a distraction for Reese, but for the reader as well.  A romance – even an unlikely romance – can certainly be exciting in a thriller, but this goes on too long to just be a little sideline action.

The ‘Prometheus’ aspect is interesting (though not a particularly new idea), but it gets lost behind the addition of the girl – though she does serve as a catalyst for Reese to dump a lot of info – which is an annoying way for the reader to suddenly get a lot of information.

I wanted to like this book, and I did at the beginning, but I grew bored once the initial action came to a halt.

Looking for a good book?  The Prometheus Man by Scott Reardon, starts out an exciting thriller with some secrets, but turns into something much less interesting the deeper we get into the book.

Quotes are from an Advanced Reading Copy of this book and may not reflect the final, printed version.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Prometheus Man

author: Scott Reardon

series: Prometheus Man #1

publisher: Mulholland Books

ISBN: 0316310921

hardcover, 352 pages

CHURCH OF SPILLED BLOOD – Jesse Miles

Posted by Daniel on December 29, 2017
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Jack Salvo is a part-time philosophy teacher at a community college in Los Angeles and a part-time private investigator.  When he signs up to work as bodyguard for the Russian Ballet who’ve come to Los Angeles, he figures he’s in for some pretty easy work and the bonus is that he’ll get to hang around some beautiful women – and get paid for it. But when one of those women is kidnapped on his watch, he takes it personally. Salvo ducks the FBI and dodges bullets in order to take on the Russian mafia, risking his life repeatedly to return one woman – a woman he happened to have been developing a relationship with.

His search brings him to Russia where he’s arranged for a swap – the woman for a set of valuable diamonds.  The swap is to take place in a town that is most noted for The Church of Our Savior Built on Spilled Blood. And ‘spilled blood’ is precisely what happens when the swap goes wrong.

I really enjoyed author Jesse Miles’ writing style.  The book was smooth and I bought in to the characters right away – which is essential to buying in to the story (which I also did).

The book had a classic PI/Thriller feel about it.  Tough but smart American PI and Russian ballet dancers kidnapped.  This could have come straight from the 1970’s crime fiction section!  In fact the book made me think about Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series – in a very good way.

This is just a good PI Crime Thriller and I really liked the character of Jake Salvo .  I will happily read more of these stories.

Looking for a good book? Church of Spilled Blood by Jesse Miles is a throwback to the classic tough-but-intelligent Private Investigators (like Spenser) and a thrilling read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Church of Spilled Blood

author: Jesse Miles

ASIN: B01LA5IZ96

Kindle Edition, 218 pages

THE VERY SECRET WEAPON – Tillman Gilson

Posted by Daniel on October 19, 2017
Posted in: MYSTERY. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Every once in a while you run across a book and you just wonder: Why?

I’m working hard on clearing out my backlog of ARC books and this stood as one of the oldest books in my queue.  I hadn’t gotten around to reading it – for no particular reason – and decided I should give it a read. The idea sounded pretty interesting – essentially a female James Bond character.  Upon reflection, I couldn’t think if there was such a character in literature (there must be, but I don’t know of any) and this sounded like a great idea.

But an idea is not a book.

From the very beginning I was not engaged in the story or the characters.  I struggled to stay with the story because the quality of the writing was weak.  This was a classic case of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ (Writing 101: Show, don’t tell).  I stopped highlighting examples of this after just a couple of chapters in.

In typical Bond-like fashion, our main character, Alex, is as comfortable between the sheets as she is behind a Glock.  Possibly even more-so than the popular Bond.  This book included sex scene after sex scene, most of them (though not all) rather pedantic.

Alex travels the globe, sleeping around, and somehow performs some secret agent-y work along the way.  But really, we don’t care.

Looking for a good book? The Very Secret Weapon by Tillman Gilson should remain secret.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Very Secret Weapon

author: Tillman Gilson

publisher: BASCOM Hill

ISBN: 1935098012

paperback, 235 pages

THE STRIVERS’ ROW SPY – Jason Overstreet

Posted by Daniel on June 30, 2017
Posted in: HISTORICAL FICTION, MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The Strivers’ Row Spy is the debut novel for author Jason Overstreet and is a hit from page one all the way to the end.

Sidney Temple is one of the first black men to graduate from Middlebury College in 1919 and he’s driven to make sure that the sacrifices his mother made in order for him to go to school will be repaid.  His accomplishment at graduating college, along with his war service brings him to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover who recruits Temple as one of the first blacks to be a spy in Hoover’s Bureau of Investigations.

Temple is set up in Harlem by Hoover’s Bureau.  Temple’s assignment…? Get close to, and find evidence of corruption or illegal activities of Marcus Garvey – a radical, black, ‘back-to–Africa’ extremist.

Sidney does make it into the inside of Garvey’s massive and extremely protective empire, but Temple manages to play it close to the vest and keeps his eyes open for other opportunities.  While he disagrees with Garvey’s vision, he’s not convinced that Hoover has the best interest of America’s blacks in mind.  And so Sidney anonymously passes along highly sensitive information to W.E.B. DuBois who is organizing the NAACP.

Author Jason Overstreet has written a highly compelling spy mystery with an authentic presentation of history of the period, capturing the exciting social extremes of the times.  Just when everything seems to be going Sidney’s way, and perhaps just as the reader is forgetting that our protagonist is a black man in the 1920-30’s, we get a stinging reminder of the racism that once (and still) oozes through our country.

Overstreet moves the story along beautifully, creating high interest in the story and giving the reader a strong desire to know what happens next.

I’ve written before that I much prefer character-driven stories and here Overstreet excels.  Sidney Temple is absolutely fascinating.  I believe in him, I believe that I understand him, and I trust him to do just what I would do given the circumstances.

The last ten percent of the book is as exciting a thriller as any James Patterson or Lee Child or …well, you name the author and Jason Overstreet can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him/her.

If there’s one portion of the book that doesn’t live up to the rest – and keeps this from getting an even five stars – it would be the scenes with Temple’s wife.  I can understand the need to have Sidney be a married man at times, and I can understand why she needs to be out of the way at other times, but the few moments when the story is on the two of them I really just wanted to get back to Temple’s undercover work.  And the dramatic scene between the two of them came out of nowhere for me and felt like simply a device for some necessary action later in the book, rather than organic character development.

Still, this is a very well written historical thriller and I’m looking forward to Jason Overstreet’s next book.

Looking for a good book? The Strivers’ Row Spy by Jason Overstreet is a political, historical thriller that is tremendously compelling and highly recommended.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Strivers’ Row Spy

author: Jason Overstreet

publisher: Dafina

ISBN: 1496701763

hardcover, 448 pages

KILLING MAINE – Mike Bond

Posted by Daniel on May 22, 2017
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Killing Maine is the second book in the Pono Hawkins series by Mike Bond.  I reviewed the first book, Saving Paradise, here. I was a little nervous about going in to this one, given my feelings about the previous novel. Fortunately, I enjoyed this story much more.

Although Pono Hawkins embraces his life in Hawaii, when a fellow Special Forces comrade calls needing help, Pono packs up and hustles to Maine, where sub-zero temperatures will be the warmest reception he gets.   Bucky Franklin isn’t necessarily a friend – he’s the man who sent Pono to military prison – but the Special Forces bond is strong and when he’s accused of killing a local politician, Pono comes to help.

What Hawkins finds in Maine … a state with some of the most corrupt politicians in the country according to the story … is a wind-turbine industry that is forcing locals out of their homes, causing low property rates, and generating more of a cash flow to the businessmen behind the turbines than actual energy. And stepping in to the fray, finding him suddenly accused of vandalism and murder, is Pono, who’d much rather be back in Hawaii with his dying father.

I enjoyed this book much more than the previous novel.  Despite the side story of Pono’s dying father, I found this book to have a much better focus and clearer language (though there were still times that the grammar needed some stronger editing). I’m not a big fan of political thrillers and this is certainly more of a political thriller than a mystery.  Still, I found it easy to follow Pono and root for him to find success.

There is some romance but it is pretty much a failure from the get-go.  The problem here is that Pono isn’t set up to be a character that gets involved romantically, so anything along those lines is like canoeing upstream without a paddle.  You are going against type, making it more difficult for yourself before you even begin.  And then it never feels natural either.

All in all, this was a decent book with a focused story, but ‘m not going to be looking for a sequel and my only recommendation is that it’s pretty average fare.

Looking for a good book? Killing Maine by Mike Bond is pretty average fare for a political thriller.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Killing Maine

author: Mike Bond

series: Pono Hawkins #2

publisher: Mandevilla Press

isbn: 1627040307

paperback, 391 pages