Category: Branches Books

Book 27 – Arctic Chill – Arnaldur Indridason

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A freezing wind pierced Erlendur’s clothes as he stood by the swings where Elias had died, and his mind roamed over the mountains and moors to another child who had once slipped from his grasp and now followed him through life like a sad shadow 

Book 27 of 2011 is Arctic Chill by Arnaldur  Indriðason and is the 7th book featuring Icelandic detective Erlendur Sveinsson and his colleagues Elínborg and Sigurður Óli. (It’s actually the 5th book in the series that has been translated.) From Wikipedia:

Arnaldur’s books have been published in twenty-six countries and have been translated into Russian, Polish, German, Greek, Danish, Catalan, English, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese, Croatian, Romanian and French. Arnaldur received the Glass Key award, a literature prize for the best Nordic crime novel, in 2002 and 2003. He won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award in 2005 for the novel Silence of the Grave.

In this installment Erlender and his collegues are called on an icy January day to a garden where a body has been found: a young, dark-skinned boy Elias is frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood.  Elias is a ten year old boy, whose mother a native of Thailand, has married an Icelandic man and moved her family Elias and his older brother Niran to Iceland. As Erlender’s team investigates the brutal murder they uncover the racism faced by immigrants to Iceland like Elias and his family. The story is a good police procedural as Erlender,  Elínborg and Sigurður Óli try to piece together the events that led to the senseless murder. But I love this series, like many others, for the devlopment of the characters. They not only have to deal with work but their personal lives too. As  Elínborg deals with a sick child,  Sigurður Óli deals with the prospect of adopting a child and Erlender deals with the death of his long time mentor, his releationship with his adult children, and the spector of   his brother whose hand Erlender lost on the moors during a freak blizzard so many years ago.

While  I do think that you can pick up any of Arnaldur’s books and enjoy them, I think they are more enjoyable if you start at the beginning! So go find Jar City and get busy you won’t regret it!

 

 

 

 

The Snowman – Jo Nesbo

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Although I’ve visited Norway several times through the books of Karin Fossum, this is my first trip to follow the adventures of Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Police Department.

Book 26 for 2011 is Jo Nesbo‘s The Snowman. While I’ve heard about Nesbo for sometime I never seem to see his books at book sales or at the library. So last week when I saw this one at the library I picked it up and was certainly glad I did! This is the 7th book in the Harry Hole series and at times I thought I missed a little but for the most part I thought that the book stood on its own.

The story revolves around the disappearance of several married women with children in Oslo. The disappearances are accompanied by the presence of a Snowman. Soon Harry Hole an alcoholic inspector with the Oslo Police Department, who is one of the few if not the only policeman with experience catching a serial killer is drawn into the case, after receiving a taunting letter from The Snowman alluding to Harry’s past history tracking a serial killer!

The plot is riveting with several twists and turns throughout the book leading to a very tense last one hundred pages! I enjoyed the character of Harry Hole and will go back and read the other books that are available to discover his full history. I thought that the translation was good and the words flowed well. For me sometimes translations get choppy or overly simplistic!

So until I can pick up another Harry Hole book it’s off to Iceland and another favorite series by Arnaldur Indridason featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson. The book is Arctic Chill and  is the fifth book in the series that has been translated and the 7th overall.

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Book 26 – The Snowman – Jo Nesbo

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Although I’ve visited Norway several times through the books of Karin Fossum, this is my first trip to follow the adventures of Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Police Department. Book 26 for 2011 is Jo Nesbo‘s The Snowman. While I’ve heard about Nesbo for sometime I never seem to see his books at book sales or at the library. So last week when I saw this one at the library I picked it up and was certainly glad I did! This is the 7th book in the Harry Hole series and at times I thought I missed a little but for the most part I thought that the book stood on its own.

The story revolves around the disappearance of several married women with children in Oslo. The disappearances are accompanied by the presence of a Snowman. Soon Harry Hole an alcoholic inspector with the Oslo Police Department, who is one of the few if not the only policeman with experience catching a serial killer is drawn into the case, after receiving a taunting letter from The Snowman alluding to Harry’s past history tracking a serial killer!

The plot is riveting with several twists and turns throughout the book leading to a very tense last one hundred pages! I enjoyed the character of Harry Hole and will go back and read the other books that are available to discover his full history. I thought that the translation was good and the words flowed well. For me sometimes translations get choppy or overly simplistic!

So until I can pick up another Harry Hole book it’s off to Iceland and another favorite series by Arnaldur Indridason featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson. The book is Arctic Chill and  is the fifth book in the series that has been translated and the 7th overall.

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C.J. Box – Back of Beyond

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Back of Beyond. is C.J.Box’s third stand alone thriller..It was eleased soon after the 11th Joe Pickett novel Cold Wind  (which I started a while back and didn’t finish before it was due back at the library)

What the Press Says

“…timeless…gripping…resemble(s) an Agatha Christie closed-community whodunnit but with horses, bears, wolves, and hunting rifles.””
Sunday Times (UK)

AP: “…the new book may be his best yet…a roller-coaster ride of unexpected twists and turns, making “Back of Beyond” one of the most suspenseful wilderness thrillers since “Deliverance.”
Associated Press / ABC Ne

“…a taut tale…that hooks you.”
USA Today
“If Box isn’t already on your list, put him there.”
Toronto Globe and Mail

The Story

Back of Beyond was a fast and furious ride through the back country of Yellowstone Park. The novel’s main character is Cody Hoyt a divorced, alcoholic cop thrown off the Denver Police force and now stationed in Montana.

When Coty finds his mentor from AA dead in his burned out cabin, Coty knows it’s not the accidental death it appears to be but murder!

Soon clues link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a spectacular multi-day wilderness horseback trip into the remote corners of Yellowstone National Park

. Coty’s  son Justin is one of the tourist on the trip with his step-father to be! Among the tourists is fourteen-year-old Gracie Sullivan, an awkward but intelligent loner who begins to suspect that someone in their party is dangerous.

After accidentally shooting the coroner at the crime scene, Coty is suspended from the force and soon takes off on a chase to stop the tour and rescue his son from the murderer! The action is fast and furious and the book was a real page turner with lots of twists and turns.

Here’s what some folks are saying:

Final Thoughts

I agree with all of them. I’ve loved Box’s books from the first one I read ! I love the characters in this book particularly Coty and Gracie! So if C’.J.Box is not on your list of  “to be reads” put him there! I myself hope this is not a stand alone but that Coty has another adventure. Hey James Lee Burke has two main characters why not Box! Maybe Coty can meet up with Joe Pickett!

Book 24 – Fallen – Karin Slaughter

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So for seven years and six books, Karin Slaughter entertained her readers with her Grant County series, featuring Sara Linton and her husband Jeffrey Tolliver. Jeffrey was a cop and Sara a pediatrician and a medical examiner. In 2006, she started another series featuring a dyslexic Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) agent Will Trent and his partner Faith Mitchell. In 2009 the two series merged (I’m not telling why) in Undone. Book 24 for the year is the 3rd book in this series Fallen This book had me from the first page and I zipped through the book looking forward to what was going to happen next.

The story revolves around the kidnapping of Faith’s mother Evelyn Mitchell, former head of the Narcotics Division of the Atlanta Police Department and best friend of Will and Faith’s boss Amanda Wagner. I said the story got my from the first few pages that’s when Faith arrives late at her mother’s house only to pull up and hear AC/DC Back in Black blaring from the house and blood on the door handle! When she enters the house she sees it’s been trashed and blood is everywhere. There’s a dead man in the laundry room and a man with a hostage in her mother’s bedroom. Quickly things get worse as Faith kills one man and then the other as he is trying to escape! But where is her mother and why was she kidnapped!

This book is as much about the people as it is the storyline. Sara and Will, Faith and her children Jeremy and Emma, Amanda and Evelyn and their interwoven histories! It’s a story about family, and friendship and the effects of drugs. I have loved Slaughter’s books from the first one I read which was book two in the Grant County series Kisscut. That book was quickly followed by Book 1Blindsighted and all the rest and the books just keep getting better and better and I can’t wait for the 2012 edition!

Here’s an interview with Karin talking about Fallen Lena Adams was a very important and interesting character in the Grant County Series!

Back to Williamsburg and – Stealing Faces from Michael Prescott

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Barrett Hall

So the last couple of days have been hectic. Wednesday was a travel day down to Williamsburg, Va. to take my daughter back to college. Yesterday was spent lugging her stuff up three flights of stairs to her room. Fortunately, it was not quite as hot this year as last, but it was still hot! In addition to taking stuff from the car we also had to go and get the stuff she left in storage in the attic (the 5th floor) of a dorm a couple of dorms over from hers. That excursion included carrying the refrigerator and a large box down the stairs because they were working on the elevator! Then after we got her moved in it was time to go to Target and get the final stuff that she needed and then to The Home Depot for the rug  and the air conditioner!  But everything is moved in and her room looks great! Today was the trip home with a side trip to a cemetery in Baltimore to find some children of a distance cousin on my wife’s family tree. That trip was unsuccessful but I’m sure she took some good pictures!

 

Stealing Faces - Michael Prescott

In the middle of  all that I finished Book 23 for 2011 Stealing Faces by Michael Prescott. From his webpage:

In May, 1999,Stealing Faces became the first Signet book to make its debut as a downloadable electronic book compatible with Gemstar eBook technology (formerly Rocket eBook). In mid-September of 1999, six months after the electronic premiere of Stealing Faces, a mass-market paperback edition was issued by Signet Books. It’s now in its fourth printing.

I purchased the book at the Kindle store for .99 cents and it was worth every penny of it.

About Stealing Faces

The book is a taunt psychological thriller. John Cray is a psychiatrist who is also a serial killer. Cray kidnaps women then sets them  loose in the desert, stalks them and when he catches them before he kills them he slices off their face and shows it to them!

But now the tables have been turned and Cray is being stalked by a woman. When Cray turns hunter and catches the women he finds that she is from his past and knows his secret……..now the question is can he control her and keep his secret

. The book unfolds like an onion and with the turn of each page another layer of the story is exposed and becomes more tense!   Overall I thought that the book lagged a little in the beginning but the pace certainly picked up as the storyline became a little clearer. I enjoyed all the characters and am certainly looking forward to my next Prescott book

Post Update: Since I wrote this posts Michael Prescott has has written two series. The first was the Abby Sinclair & Tess Macallum series .Abby Sinclair is a freelance security consultant who hunts stalkers, and Tess McCallumm is an FBI special agent, in Los Angeles , California. There are five books in the series

The second series is Bonnie Parker, PI. Obviously, Bonnie is a Private Eye. There are six books in the series. The first book Cold Around the Heart is currently free on Kindle Unlimited! I think it’s time to revisit the books of Michael Prescott!!

Author’s Book Gallery

About Michael Prescott

After twenty years in traditional publishing, novelist Michael Prescott found himself out of work in 2007, his career apparently over. On a whim, he began releasing his older titles and some new novels in ebook form. Much to his amazement, sales took off, and by 2011 he was one of the bestselling ebook writers in the United States, profiled in USA Today and sought after for interviews. To date he has sold roughly four million books (both print and digital).

His latest full-length thriller is TEARS FOR THE DEAD, the fifth entry in a continuing series that also features COLD AROUND THE HEART, BLOOD IN THE WATER, BAD TO THE BONE, and SKIN IN THE GAME. A complete list of his books can be found at Amazon Author Central’s Michael Prescott page. Please be aware that more than one writer uses the name “Michael Prescott,” and sometimes the works of these other writers show up in Amazon searches or on Amazon sales pages. If a given book is not listed at Author Central, it is the work of a different author. From Amazon

Michael Prescott – Amazon Page

 

Book 19 – Misery Bay – Steve Hamilton

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So I was all set last night to write about my run. How another rock band Voodoo Circle and their new album Black Heart Syndrome was the soundtrack for the 4.2 mile run complete in just under a ten minute per mile pace (which was not bad because I went uphill for parts of the run), but alas that was not to be! I sat down started to read Book 19 Steve Hamilton‘s latest Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay and continued reading until I went to bed,(except for that 1/2 hour nap). I finished the book at lunchtime today.<u> Misery Bay</u> is the eighth book in the McKnight series and the first since 2006 and is a worthy addition to the series.

The story starts when Alex gets a visit from an old nemesis Sault Ste. Marie police chief Roy Maven, who has appeared in past books. Maven asks Alex to do a job for his friend Charles “Raz” Razniewski. Razniewski and Maven were on the State Police force years earlier and recently Razniewki’s son had committed suicide. Razniewski wants McKnight to go to his son’s college and talk to some friends and generally try to find out why his son killed himself.  Alex does just that and when he returns he really doesn’t have any reason for the suicide. When he goes to report his findings to the senior Razniewski, who is staying at Maven’s home, he finds Razniewki laying on Maven’s kitchen floor with his throat slashed! The FBI soon sends two agents to investigate “Raz’s murder because he is now a U.S. Marshall. The agents soon determine that the murder is probably retaliation for some of the unsavory, well connected criminals Raz has put away. But Maven and Alex don’t think so and set of to investigate the suicide and murder. Soon they  connect another police officer’s son suicide to the case and the story moves on from there!

I love everything about this series. The setting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which sounds like a wonderful place to visit (maybe for the three days of summer), the characters Alex, Maven, Alex’s friend Vinnie, Leon Purcell and Jackie, owner of the Glasgow Inn. The stories are always interesting and the pages usually fly by! While this the eight in the series, I think that it can be read alone and then the reader can go back and find out about some of the earlier events. Like how Alex’s cabin burned down and what happened to Alex’s love Natalie Reynaud:

Before I lit the match, I took one f the slats of wood and I rubbed the spot where the blood had seeped in forever. I said good-bye to Natalie Reynaud one more time. I kissed the wood once and then put it back on the pile.

So go and visit Alex and the residents of Paradise, Michigan and I’m sure it won’t be your  last visit!!

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Live Wire – Harlan Coben

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Live Wire – Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar #10)

 Live Wire by Harlan Coben.starts when  Suzze T a former tennis star and client visits Myron and asks him to find an anonymous Facebook member, The Facebook member  left a post questioning the paternity of her unborn child. She also wants Myron to find her husband Lex Rider. Rider is also one of Myron’s clients.He is a member of the famous rock band HorsePowe. Horsepower is  fronted by, the looks to die for, but reclusive, Gabriel Wire. Suzze tells Myron that Lex ran off after seeing the post.

When Myron finds Lex he also finds someone he wasn’t looking for: his sister-in-law Kitty Bolitar. Kitty and Myron’s brother Brad are estranged from the Bolitar family. They ran off years ago and now live a nomadic life roaming the world. As the story unwinds Myron, Kitty and Suzze and Lex’s lives becomes entwined. As everyone faces lies  they’ve told, that have upset their world! Myron is also confronted with his past and sometimes doesn’t like what he sees!

Thoughts about Live Wire

Live Wire is a fast paced read with lots of twists and turns. The conclusion left me a little misty eyed! I love the characters in the Bolitar book’s: Myron, and his best friend Win. along with his business partner Esperanza and receptionist Big Cindi. Add to these characters Myron’s parents Al and Ellen and his nephew Mickey, throw some gangsters the Ache brothers and hit man Evan Crisp, stir up their lives, and what you have is a great book. I don’t know whether you want to pick up the series at Book 10 but I think you could and still enjoy it!

The book also sets the stage for Coben’s first young adult book Shelter which will be released in September. So check it out!

As for me I’m off to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula  via  Steve Hamilton’s new Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay. It’s the first McKnight novel since 2006’s A Stolen Season!

Book 17 – Dog On It – Spencer Quinn

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Book Number 17 is the first in a series featuring the detective duo of Chet and Bernie Little, Dog On It. Chet, the narrator of the private eye mystery, is the dog who is on it, on it being a case involving a missing fifteen year old girl, Madison Chambliss.

The story is told from the point of view of Chet and is wonderfully entertaining. Chet works along side Bernie, a small time private eye. Chet flunked out of K-9 school…(it was that incident with the squirrel at graduation, that he’ll tell us about later) and is a true dog, who loves to bark, hunts for food on the floor on  visits to suspects, hates cats and sometimes he doesn’t realize that the sound he hears is actually his tail wagging.

Throughout the book the reader never loses sight of the fact that Chet is a dog! While the story was ok and had some twists and turns and Chet had a big adventure, it was truly the characters that made the book Chet, Bernie, Suzie and all the rest! Here’s what some others say about the book:

“I love this book. I devoured it in one night. It was so much fun. It was like Phillip Marlowe working for Mma Ramotswe from the No.1 Ladies Detective agency spun by Charlotte on her beautiful web” – Cathleen Schine “Sit and stay! You’re going to love Dog on it as musch as i did, because it confirms what every dog fan has long suspected – that our dogs are not only more fun than we are, they’re smarter!” – Lisa Scottoline

I couldn’t agree more! If you’re an animal lover and love mysteries this is your book, so check it out! As for me I’m ready for book 2 in the series, Thereby Hangs a Tail! A copies checked in at the library… soon as I finish Oh, by the way Spencer Quinn is a pseudonym of author Peter Abrahams. whose novels I’ve read and enjoyed!

Book 16 – Gideon’s Sword – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

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Book 16 is the latest book from the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lee Child Gideon’s Sword.The book is the first book in a proposed series featuring Gideon Crew. I go back a long way with Preston and Child to the first book in the Pendergrast series Relic published in 1995! Unfortunately, I only read the first book and parts of the second Reliquary. That series is now up to book ten and I have several on my Mount to Be Read pile! Anyway rather than go back and catch up I thought I move forward with the new series! At twelve years old Gideon sees his father killed in a hostage stand-off involving his work for the government. On her death bed his mother his mother reveals that his father was a scapegoat concerning a failed project that left twenty six CIA agent s dead! Gideon sets out to clear his father’s name and does that rather quickly in the book. After revenging his father’s death Gideon returns to his favorite fishing hole and thinks he will just resume his normal life. Soon he is contacted by a subcontractor for the Department of Homeland security and offered an assignment to steal the plans for a new weapon from a Chinese scientist who is entering the country. This plunges Gideon into a whole new world, but he may have the talents for it because along the way the reader discovers that he is a master of disguises and a former Art Museum thief. The action is fast paced with several twists and turns. I enjoyed the read but in places found some events very implausible, but sometimes that in these types of books, so you just suspend belief and go along for the ride. The ride is pretty damn good so check it out! I enjoyed the character of Gideon Crew and along the way I learned a few things particularly about the Falun Gong and the Potter’s Field at Hart Island in Long Island Sound. So again check it out as for me I guess I need to go back and read some of those Pendergrast books!

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