Thriller

All posts tagged Thriller

AN EYE FOR AN EYE – Caroline Fardig

Posted by Daniel on October 2, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Ellie Matthews is a criminologist now working as a professor at a local college. She recently assisted on a high-profile murder case, garnering some unwanted attention and now he’s happy to just get back to teaching. Despite her desire to hide in obscurity she agrees to an interview with a charming young student who says he wants to make an impression on the school newspaper editor by landing the one interview that no one else can get.

Not long afterward, a family friend is found dead, murdered, in the bushes on campus and Ellie’s younger sister, Rachel, is missing. The only clue is a cryptic note that references an older criminal case – a case that has been closed due to a conviction.

Despite her close connection to victims of the crimes, Ellie is the bast at what she does and she is brought in to help solve the case.  Time is of the essence when the kidnapper gives Ellie and the police a deadline before he does to Rachel what he did to the family friend.

Under a great deal of pressure, Ellie falls into alcohol bottles and pushes away Detective Nick Baxter who is looking out for her as well as trying to solve the case.

I’m familiar with Caroline Fardig’s writing only from the more lighthearted Java Jive mysteries (which I’ve greatly enjoyed) and the darker nature of this book took me a little bit bu surprise. But a good surprise.

Fardig is a solid, quality writer and this dark thriller is nicely plotted. Ellie works swiftly, uncovering clues from the past with relative ease. She does occasionally make some assumptions (that prove correct) in order to keep the story moving along, but this is mostly forgivable.

There are a couple of moments when the suggestion of romance is brought forth, in particular, when Ellie takes note of a strong, handsome man, but of course she dismisses it because she’s busy trying to find her sister. Just the idea of her noticing it strikes me as a little bit off, but I recognize that this likely speaks to her larger reading audience.

Every once in awhile, when reading a book, a line or phrase really strikes me. In this case it was the simple phrase “…while knowing my only sister is waiting for us…”. I’m not sure why the adjective ‘only’ is used here.  If Ellie had more than one sister, would that have lessened the severity of the need to rescue her?

This is the second book in the Ellie Matthews series, but I never felt as though I missing something important to understand what was happening.  Anything that was needed to know from the previous book appeared to be

Overall this was a solid, quick, thriller read.  It ends a bit abruptly, but the journey is engrossing.

Looking for a good book? An Eye for an Eye by Caroline Fardig is the second book in the Ellie Matthews thriller series. It is a dark, tense thriller with just enough touch of gentleness, that this should appeal to many mystery/thriller readers.

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

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An Eye for an Eye

author: Caroline Fardig

series: Ellie Matthews Mystery #2

publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

ASIN: B078KC116Q

Kindle Edition, 334 pages

PAT SAVAGE: SIX SCARLET SCORPIONS – Kenneth Robeson

Posted by Daniel on August 26, 2019
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Okay… guilty pleasure time! I grew up reveling in the worlds of pulp action heroes and the greatest of these, for me, was Doc Savage.

And apparently I’m not alone in this appreciation for classic pulps – there are some keeping the characters alive by writing new stories, with full approval from the owners of properties, and they’ve built on Doc Savage’s coterie. Doc’s sister, Pat, is embarking on her own adventure in this book, Pat Savage: Six Savage Scorpions (under the house name of Kenneth Robeson).

Pat is accompanied by Doc’s faithful friend, Colonel “Monk” Mayfair, to his Monk’s home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma where Pat is looking to invest in oil and make some good money. Quickly Pat’s help has been requested and she insists on solving the mystery herself.  But things turn sour quickly (and often, of course) and both Pat and Monk find themselves wanted for murder. Now Pat has to solve the mystery and clear her name as well, and do it in secrecy.

The story is a classic Doc Savage style story, with ruffians and tough talk and plenty of guns a-blazin’. Our heroes appear to get out of one scrape only to find themselves with a bigger problem, until they can put all the pieces together in front of the honest, upright folks representing law and order.

This was definitely a fun read, taking me back to my early teen years when I was reading those early Doc Savage novels.

While the addition of Monk made the connection to Doc Savage even stronger, I would have preferred for Pat to truly strike out on her own and pull together her own team of associates. Should I read the next book in the series (and I’d like to) I hope that Pat will truly grow into her own series.

Looking for a good book? If you like the style of classic pulp heroes, then try Pat Savage: Six Scarlet Scorpions by Kenneth Robeson.

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Pat Savage: Six Scarlet Scorpions

author: Kenneth Robeson

publisher: Altus Press

ISBN: 1618272748

paperback, 358 pages

THE FINAL RECKONING – Robert Bailey

Posted by Daniel on July 30, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Are you about to read this Robert Bailey book?  You’d best put yourself on a strong exercise routine … find a good cardio workout … because this book will have your heart racing, your adrenaline pumping at high levels and you will want to be strong enough to finish.

JimBone Wheeler is about as bad a human being as a man can get.  He’s a killer without remorse and he’ll delight in defiling a body – preferably before the victim is even dead. And JimBone has a grudge against Tom McMurtrie since it was Tom who put Wheeler behind bars.

The absolute worst kind of killer is one with charisma and is able to convince others to do his bidding.  Wheeler has that charisma and elicits help from the prison nurse and manages his escape from the highly fortified prison, not long before his scheduled execution.  And with JimBone Wheeler on the loose no one with even the most remote ties to McMurtie are safe. JimBone Wheeler doesn’t want revenge … he wants his ‘reckoning.’

I am absolutely exhausted!  This book is one breath-catching moment after another (though author Robert Bailey does manage to give us just enough pauses between high-anxiety moments to let us catch a breath before the next assault).

This might be the perfect legal thriller.  Tom McMurtrie is about as clever and good as Wheeler is charismatic and bad.  They are perfect foils for one another and this is their ultimate showdown.  I think it is safe to say that neither will come through unscathed.

Bailey’s characters are a unique combination of being a bit stereotypical and having a great sense of uniqueness (they stand out from one another quite well) and depth.  It helps, I suspect, that I’ve read a few of Bailey’s books now and I can follow the characters better.

The story is quite singularly focused.  There’s a brief little sub-plot but we don’t spend much time with it.  The JimBone Wheeler story is our only real focus here (Wheeler wouldn’t have it any other way), but there’s all we need, and more, with this single story.  Wheeler’s reckoning is all we know at the start – how he will achieve that is the question that keeps us going, and how McMurtrie will survive. If he survives. McMurtrie is likely on death’s door (we experience a few doctor’s visits with him) and it looks as though he’ll take that knowledge and make of himself a sacrifice to save others.

This book is a phenomenal reading experience. It is a thrill ride that is made more exciting because the characters are created so solidly that we connect with them as if they really are our neighbors and friends.

Looking for a good book? The Final Reckoning by Robert Bailey is a tremendously exciting legal thriller that you really must read.

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

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The Final Reckoning

author: Robert Bailey

series: McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #4

publisher: Thomas & Mercer

ISBN: 1503902269

hardcover, 416 pages

MISTER TENDER’S GIRL – Carter Wilson

Posted by Daniel on June 24, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I wish I could remember what it was about this book that attracted my attention in the first place.  Because I am so far behind in my ARC reading I’ve been very judicious in what I ask to read, so something, somewhere along the line, this book seemed like something I would really enjoy.

But I didn’t.

The book follows Alice Hill who, as a young teen, was attacked and nearly killed by two classmates who claimed that Mister Tender had ordered them to attack Alice as a sacrifice. But Mr. Tender doesn’t exist … he was a fictional character, a pop culture icon, created by her father for a series of graphic novels.

Now, years later, Alice has learned to protect herself in a variety of ways, including martial art self-defense.  But her biggest means of protection is to become reclusive.  With only her unhinged brother as a friend, Alice lives and works under assumed names. But now someone has found her.  Someone who is stalking her, someone who knows more about her than should be possible, someone who refers to himself as Mister Interested.

This should be a strong psychological thriller, but instead it almost becomes a comedy with our main character acting outrageously in order to represent ‘terror.’

**WARNING : POTENTIAL SPOILER AHEAD**

There was one particular moment on which this book really hinged and the story took a turn that we couldn’t ever leave….

Alice approached on the street by someone.  Maybe a stalker, maybe not. She is about to defend against him when her brother shoots the man. There is blood all over the snow outside her home.  They bring the man (not dead) into the house where they shoot him again. In front of a neighbor. As he begs for his life.

And I actually have no problem with this (in terms of being a part of a thriller story). It’s the complete lack of reaction about killing this man from any of the three people involved (Alice, her brother, her neighbor). It’s as if it never happened once we move on.

And from that point I lost all interest in the book.  I hoped for something that never came and what did come was just a let-down.  Yes, I was a little surprised by the ending … but only a little … and it definitely wasn’t worth the wait.

I was definitely underwhelmed.

Looking for a good book? Mister Tender’s Girl by Carter Wilson is a psychological thriller that requires a fair amount of willing disbelief on the part of the reader to get to an ending that is ultimately unsatisfying.

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

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Mister Tender’s Girl

author: Carter Wilson

publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

ISBN: 149265650X

paperback, 400 pages

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