Category: Branches Books

Damaged – Alex Kava

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Damaged – Alex Kava -(Maggie O’Dell # 8)

 

Damaged – Maggie O’Dell #8 – Alex Kava

Damaged is the eighth Alex Kava novel featuring FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell, and it’s another fast, compelling read. Like many of Kava’s thrillers, it weaves elements of real-world truth into the fiction — and in this case, it drops Maggie right into the eye of a hurricane.

The Story

When a sea chest containing dismembered body parts is pulled from the Gulf of Mexico, Maggie is sent to Pensacola, Florida, to investigate.

At the same time, Dr. Benjamin Platt is called to Pensacola to help determine why young soldiers are dying after otherwise successful surgeries to repair war injuries. Maggie first met Platt while being treated for Ebola exposure in Exposed, and now they have a tentative, evolving relationship.

Adding to the chaos, a Category 5 hurricane is bearing down on the Florida coast.

Among the standout characters here are:

  • Liz Bailey, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who recovers the chest.
  • Walter Bailey, Liz’s father, whose Coney Island canteen is a fixture on Pensacola Beach.

Thoughts on the Series

I’ve been an Alex Kava fan since A Perfect Evil, Maggie O’Dell’s debut, and every book since has been solid. The last three before Damaged — Exposed, Black Friday, and now Damaged — have tackled a wide range of threats: biological terrorism, suicide bombers, and now the grisly mystery of dismembered bodies.

While reading the series in order adds depth to Maggie’s character development and relationships, each book works well as a standalone.

If you’re looking for a smart, fast-paced thriller, pick up Damaged — or grab any Maggie O’Dell novel and enjoy the ride.

Ice Cold – Tess Gerritsen

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So I finished Book 37 for the year like I wrote early between naps and then staying up until 12:25! The book was Tess Gerritsen’s new novel Ice Cold. This is the eighth Rizzoli and Isles book and the first that appeared after the debut of the TV show that has been one of the biggest hits this summer! This book is a little different from some of the others in that there are no murders to solve, or serial killers to chase and it focuses on Maura. The novel opens with Maura attending a pathologist conference in Wyoming where she meets a colleague who went to college with and lusted for Maura from afar. Soon Maura is impulsively (not at all like her) on her way with the doctor and his friends and daughter. An accident on a mountain road leads them to a cult village Kingdom Come, where they find shelter and also find that all of the residents have vanished! Soon events transpire that will test Maura’s mettle and change her life forever! What happened to the residents and soon it becomes why are people trying to kill me!!

As always the characters are great, the pace of the book is fast and it keeps you guessing to the end what really happened! While the full development of the characters isn’t know until you read all of the books but you can probably pick this one up and read and enjoy it with having read the others.

One thing I noticed in the book that Maura’s hair is black not the color of Sasha Alexander’s hair in the TV series! But overall I think the TV series does a good job of translating the book to TV. Has anyone watched it?

Book 37 – Ice Cold – Tess Gerritsen

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So I finished Book 37 for the year like I wrote early between naps and then staying up until 12:25! The book was Tess Gerritsen’s new novel Ice Cold. This is the eighth Rizzoli and Isles book and the first that appeared after the debut of the TV show that has been one of the biggest hits this summer! This book is a little different from some of the others in that there are no murders to solve, or serial killers to chase and it focuses on Maura. The novel opens with Maura attending a pathologist conference in Wyoming where she meets a colleague who went to college with and lusted for Maura from afar. Soon Maura is impulsively (not at all like her) on her way with the doctor and his friends and daughter. An accident on a mountain road leads them to a cult village Kingdom Come, where they find shelter and also find that all of the residents have vanished! Soon events transpire that will test Maura’s mettle and change her life forever! What happened to the residents and soon it becomes why are people trying to kill me!!

As always the characters are great, the pace of the book is fast and it keeps you guessing to the end what really happened! While the full development of the characters isn’t know until you read all of the books but you can probably pick this one up and read and enjoy it with having read the others.

One thing I noticed in the book that Maura’s hair is black not the color of Sasha Alexander’s hair in the TV series! But overall I think the TV series does a good job of translating the book to TV. Has anyone watched it?

Book 36 – True Evil – Greg Iles

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Greg Iles is one of those authors that when I read one of his books I have one of those “What was I thinking?” moments for not reading his books as soon as they come out!! (Can you say too many books, too little time!) Anyway True Evil has been sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read for a long while and I’m glad I finally got around to reading it and at 637 pages it should count as two books! But like all of Iles’ books those pages just flew by!

In this book FBI agent Alexandra (Alex) Morse is called to her home of Mississippi when her sister Grace is struck down by brain hemorrhage. On her death bed she tells Alex that she was murdered by her husband and asks Alex to save her son from his father. Soon Alex, who is having one of those when it goes bad it goes bad all at the same time periods as her father was killed in a robbery attempt gone bad (Dad the ex-cop and now PI), her mother’s dying of ovarian cancer, and she has been demoted at the FBI from her position as a top hostage negotiator when a hostage situation went bad leaving her face scared and a fellow FBI agent dead, sets out to find out how her brother-in-law killed her.She soon finds that Bill Fennel had visited a divorce attorney in Jackson, who seems to be providing a service whereby clients seeking a divorce are saved losing their money, or children by having their spouses mysterious die of cancer! Alex enlists the aid of Dr. Chris Sheppard whose wife Thora has visited the same attorney and Alex is convinced Sheppard is the next victim!

Iles writes good thrillers with believable characters that keep the action moving until the last pages of the book are turned!

Raves about the book:

“A pulse-pounder…… A fresh twist on the cat-and-mouse game between an FBI agent and a fiendishly clever serial killer…. Smooth prose, psychological depth and crafty plotting” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Fascinating…. The medicine and science at the heart of this book are chillngly real” Bookreporter.com

So if you’ve never read Greg Iles pick up one of his books and I bet you won’t be able to put it down, and maybe you won’t be like me and wait too long until you read the next one!! Where is that Devil’s Punchbowl hum, I think there’s a copy up on son Andrew’s bookshelf. But, oh wait, maybe Tess Gerrritsen’s latest is still waiting for me at the library, damn!

True Evil – Greg Iles

  By

Greg Iles is one of those authors that when I read one of his books I have one of those “What was I thinking?” moments for not reading his books as soon as they come out!! (Can you say too many books, too little time!) Anyway True Evil has been sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read for a long while and I’m glad I finally got around to reading it and at 637 pages it should count as two books! But like all of Iles’ books those pages just flew by!

In this book FBI agent Alexandra (Alex) Morse is called to her home of Mississippi when her sister Grace is struck down by brain hemorrhage. On her death bed she tells Alex that she was murdered by her husband and asks Alex to save her son from his father. Soon Alex, who is having one of those when it goes bad it goes bad all at the same time periods as her father was killed in a robbery attempt gone bad (Dad the ex-cop and now PI), her mother’s dying of ovarian cancer, and she has been demoted at the FBI from her position as a top hostage negotiator when a hostage situation went bad leaving her face scared and a fellow FBI agent dead, sets out to find out how her brother-in-law killed her.She soon finds that Bill Fennel had visited a divorce attorney in Jackson, who seems to be providing a service whereby clients seeking a divorce are saved losing their money, or children by having their spouses mysterious die of cancer! Alex enlists the aid of Dr. Chris Sheppard whose wife Thora has visited the same attorney and Alex is convinced Sheppard is the next victim!

Iles writes good thrillers with believable characters that keep the action moving until the last pages of the book are turned!

Raves about the book:

“A pulse-pounder…… A fresh twist on the cat-and-mouse game between an FBI agent and a fiendishly clever serial killer…. Smooth prose, psychological depth and crafty plotting” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Fascinating…. The medicine and science at the heart of this book are chillngly real” Bookreporter.com

So if you’ve never read Greg Iles pick up one of his books and I bet you won’t be able to put it down, and maybe you won’t be like me and wait too long until you read the next one!! Where is that Devil’s Punchbowl hum, I think there’s a copy up on son Andrew’s bookshelf. But, oh wait, maybe Tess Gerrritsen’s latest is still waiting for me at the library, damn!

Vermilion Drift – William Kent Krueger

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It’s been a busy day at the College of William and Mary a nice luncheon on the grounds near the Wren Building and the President’s House and then a rout of Villanova that turned into a nail biter that ended ok as W&M won 31-24!

So there was not a lot of time for music, but I did finish Book 35 last night William Kent Krueger’s latest Vermilion Drift. The Cork O’Connor is one of my favorite series. The books all ways have much more than just a mystery in them as Krueger explores the complexities of life through Cork O’Connor.

The Story

The story opens with Cork being hired by Max Cavanaugh the owner of  Vermilion One a mine that the government is considering as a nuclear waste deposit site, hiring Cork to find his missing sister Lauren. Cork has also been called in by the mine officials to investigate  threats against the owners of the mine. Soon forty year old bodies are found in the Vermilion Drift (horizontal mine shafts)and they lead back to The Vanishings that occurred on the reservation forty years ago and the solution to the murders leads Cork to explore his past!

My Thoughts

Vermilion Drift is the tenth book in this series and while it may not be necessary to read all the books in order you may want to read Heaven’s Keep book 9 before this one to know what’s gone on in Cork’s life . But like all the books the characters and the stories are both great and I hope that Krueger keeps the series alive!

…

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Book 33 – Me of Little Faith

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Book 33 for the year is a collection Lewis Black’s thought about religion Me of Little Faith. The book is hilarious and at times makes me laugh out loud as Black takes on all religions including his own!  I’ve said before that Black is one comedian who consistently cracks me up and I can watch the same concert performance over and over and laugh all the time “If it wasn’t for that horse. I wouldn’t have spent that year in college”.  John Stewart and George Carlin’s praises on the back of the book cover are so true!

“Lewis Black is the only person I know who can actually yell in print” – Jon Stewart. (Whenever you read those statement in all  caps throughout the book you can hear him yell!)

Whenever I’m asked, “Who makes you laugh” or “Who would you pay to see?” I don’t hesitate for a moment. Lewis Black! Period. He’s got it all: brains, balls and chops.” – George Carlin

Book 34 is a book off the Mount to Be Read Laurence Shames Virgin Heat. Time for a quick easy fun read – a lot like Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiassen! Going quickly so far!

The Codex – Douglas Preston

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The Codex - Douglas Preston

So last night I didn’t do whole lot of music listening rather I was caught up in the jungles of southern Honduras finishing Douglas Preston’s latest solo book (Preston being one-half of the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) The Codex.

Some once asked why read fiction well aside from being exciting and mysterious it also takes me places I’ll never go and then sometimes teaches me about the culture.  This book takes you to the jungles of Honduras and a lost Mayan city.

The Story

The story revolves around the family of Max Broadbent, an Indiana Jones type Tomb raider whose life has been spent collecting rare artifacts legally and illegally.

The story opens when his three sons, Phillip a professor at an east coast college, Tom a veterinarian in Utah and Vernon, a hippie living in a commune in California with “The Teacher” are called to their family home.  When the sons arrive they find the house a shambles and all the artifacts gone having been packed up and taken somewhere.

They find a tape from their father which opens with “Greeting from the Dead” and tells them that he has taken his stuff and had himself buried somewhere in the world with their inheritance and because he really thinks they are failures and never worked for anything, if they want the inheritance they have to find it.

One of his treasures is a Mayan Codex containing thousands of pages listing all the medicinal uses of the jungle plants. Soon others are interested in The Codex because of the money making potential and historic significance. The rest of the story is the quest to find their father and maybe themselves in the process!

My Thoughts

The action and suspense on the quest are good and I liked the characters. I read this morning that Tom Broadbent had appeared in Tyrannosaur Canyon Preston’s previous solo novel and that he has future plans for the character.

All in all it was a good read and maybe will make me read some of the other Preston and Child books that are on my Mount to Be Read!

Douglas Preston

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About Douglas Preston

Douglas Jerome Preston (born May 31, 1956) is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child (including the Agent Pendergast series and Gideon Crew series), he has also written six solo novels, including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney. He has authored a half-dozen nonfiction books on science and exploration and writes occasionally for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and other magazines. Wikipedia

 

Book 32 – The Codex

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So last night I didn’t do whole lot of music listening rather I was caught up in the jungles of southern Honduras finishing Douglas Preston’s latest solo book (Preston being one-half of the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) The Codex. Some once asked why read fiction well aside from being exciting and mysterious it also takes me places I’ll never go and then sometimes teaches me about the culture.  This book takes you to the jungles of Honduras and a lost Mayan city.

The story revolves around the family of Max Broadbent, an Indiana Jones type Tomb raider whose life has been spent collecting rare artifacts legally and illegally. The story opens when his three sons, Phillip a professor at an east coast college, Tom a veterinarian in Utah and Vernon, a hippie living in a commune in California with “The Teacher” are called to their family home.  When the sons arrive they find the house a shambles and all the artifacts gone having been packed up and taken somewhere. They find a tape from their father which opens with “Greeting from the Dead” and tells them that he has taken his stuff and had himself buried somewhere in the world with their inheritance and because he really thinks they are failures and never worked for anything, if they want the inheritance they have to find it. One of his treasures is a Mayan Codex containing thousands of pages listing all the medicinal uses of the jungle plants. Soon others are interested in The Codex because of the money making potential and historic significance. The rest of the story is the quest to find their father and maybe themselves in the process! The action and suspense on the quest are good and I liked the characters. I read this morning that Tom Broadbent had appeared in Tyrannosaur Canyon Preston’s previous solo novel and that he has future plans for the character.

All in all it was a good read and maybe will make me read some of the other Preston and Child books that are on my Mount to Be Read!

End of Story-Peter Abraham

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Book 31 for 2010 is End of Story by Peter Abrahams. This is the second book I’ve read by Abrahams the other Oblivion I read in 2007 so you can see he is not really a favorite author, but I did enjoy this book and will probably pick up his newer stuff.

The main character in the novel is Ivy Seidel a would be author with a MFA and a stack of rejection letters from The New Yorker. Ivy takes over a part time job teaching writing in a prison in upstate New York. When Vance Harrow enters her group she is impressed by his writing ability and soon begins to look into his background. She finds that he is serving time for a robbery at an Indian Casino near his home town. Ivy is convinced that he is innocent and is taking the fall to protect his wife. Overall the pages flew by.  I liked the characters although  some of the actions in the story seemed to stretch reality a little much. The last hundred pages were really good and overall I liked the book.  I  will be on the lookout for his other books – maybe at the fall sale at the County Library!