Three Mysteries and a Historical Fiction Highlight My March Reads
In March, I mainly focused on exercise. I worked hard to increase the intensities of my workouts. In addition to adding more movement to my morning exercise routine, I added anywhere from five to fifteen minutes of dance to the beginning of the routine. I also continued to run. However, because of the weather and some other commitments, I ran less days in March than I did in February. The good news is that I lost five pounds! The bad news is that I didn’t read as many books as the previous two months!
Still, I managed to read four books, which brought the total number of books read to 17. That kept me two books ahead of pace to reach my goal of 60 books for 2017. Below are the four books that I read…..
Chris Holm and Ward Larsen authors of Red Right Hand and Assassin’s Silence are authors who I discovered this year. While Michael Koryta author of Rise the Dark has been a favorite of mine for several years.
If we were to play a game of which book is different from the other, The Last Days of Night would win. While I enjoy historical fiction, it is a genre that I only dabble in! But, because Moore did such a great job bringing the feud between Edison and Westinghouse alive, I may need to do more dabbling in the future.
March Reads – Mysteries……
Rise the Dark (Mark Novak #2) – Michael Koryta
Author’s Website
I must admit that I had a little trouble getting into this novel.The story starts with two story lines. First there is a kidnapping of a young wife in Montana. Meanwhile in Florida, the main character Mark Novak finds out that the man the he believes murder his wife is being released from prison. The man, Garland Webb, who was never tried for the murder of Novak’s wife had been serving a prison sentence for assault of a different woman. Upon his release he sends Novak a note concerning the murder of Mark’s wife that sets Mark on Webb’s trail with revenge on this mind!
Soon the ransom for the wife is that her husband a high-wire electrical worker must do a task for a Eli Pate, an environmental fanatic that will create havoc in the western states of the US! Soon Webb and an associate are off to Montana to join Pate with Novak on their trial. Can Mark stop them before Pate releases his havoc??
When I started reading Rise the Dark I forgot that it is the second book in the Mark Novak series. I had pre-ordered the Kindle edition of the book several months before its release. I figured I had plenty oof time to read the first book Last Words before Rise the Dark was released. Wrong! But Last Words is now on my to be read bookshelf!!
Anyway back to Rise the Dark. I really did like the book and found it to be a real page turner right up until the end. I liked the main character Marcus Novak and his dysfunctional family. Once the story got going it was great! I thought the end, which has a sad surprise was done well. I also look forward to reading Last Words, because even though Rise the Dark stood on its own, I am interested in seeing what happened to Mark in his first adventure,
Rating: Four Thumbs Up out of Five!
Red Right Hand (Michael Hendricks #2) – Chris Holm
Author’s Website
Unlike Rise the Dark , Red Right Hand started off with a bang – literally! Moments before a tugboat loaded with explosives crashes into the Golden Gate Bridge a young family set out to make a video as an anniversary present for their parents and grandparents. They asked a disheveled man to take the picture. When he starts the video he has the camera backwards filming himself first. He then turns the camera around and films not only the family but the terrorist attack.
When the video goes viral FBI Agent Charlene Thompson realizes that the man in the video is a major informant against the crime organization the Council who had stumbled into the Phoenix FBI office three years earlier. He claimed was the Red Right Hand and he was set to bring the council down. But prior to his testimony he was thought to have been killed in an explosion at the FBI office! So now Thompson turns to killer for hire Michael Hendricks to find and save the informant before the Council can eliminate him!
Unlike Rise the Dark I have read The Killing Kind book one of the Michael Hendricks series and I do believe that it really helps to have done so before reading Red Right Hand. The Killing Kind establishes the relationship between both Charlene Thompson and Hendricks and Hendricks and the Council.
The bottom line though is that Red Right Hand is another winner from Chris Holm. The Killing Kind won several awards including an Anthony Award. Red Right Hand should bring him more awards, accolades and fans!
Rating : Four Thumbs up out of Five!
Assassin’s Silence (David Slaton #3) – Ward Larsen
Author’s Website
Assassin’s Silence like Rise the Dark took some time to get into.. Similar to Rise the Dark, two story lines open the book. The first story line revolves around the purchase and reconditioning of an abandoned airplane in Brazil. The buyers obviously plan use it in a terrorist attack. While in the second ex-Mossad assassin David Slaton’s is leading a quiet life as a stone mason after the events that transpired in Assassin’s Game. But his quiet life is disrupted, by an elite special forces team that is sent to kill him!
Soon Slaton is fleeing across Europe with the team hot on his trail! David fears not only for his own life, but for that of his wife and son who for their own protection think that David is dead. So to protect them he asks a follow ex-Mossad agent to stay with them and protect them. But that may not be a good to do!!
Eventually, both stories intertwine and it’s a wild ride to the finish! Assassin’s Silence is book three in the David Slaton series. I have read and enjoyed both of them. I still need to read book one The Perfect Assassin though because I still think I’ve missed something. Like how did it come about that, at the start of Assassin’s Game, an Ex-Mossad assassin was living life as a stonemason in Virginia!
Bottom line is again that Assassin’s Silence was a page-turner for me once the story got crank up. I like the character of David Slaton. Like Michael Hendricks he is a man who does what he does. He may not like what he does but he knows that he has to do it to survive. I also liked that Larsen brought a character Jammer Davis, from another of his series, into the story. As an aircraft crash investigator, he fit right into the story!!
Rating: Four Thumps Up Out of Five
So now it’s on to April’s reads. I just finished my first book in April The Blood Strand -(Faroes #1) by Chris
Ould and like the above it was a good one! I am also about 30% through a science fiction book The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu that I am also enjoying!!
March Reads – Historical Fiction…..
Last Days of Night – Graham Moore
Author’s Website
Since I have rambled on for far too long in this post I will tell you that you can find my full review of Last Days of Night here. Last Days of Night is a novel about the rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. It brought alive their legal battle over electricity that I knew very little about!
The Collapsing Empire
The Lives of Tao
The Fifth Element 
