Category: Books-Fiction

The Moses Expedition – Juan Gomez-Jurado

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Book 23 of 2012, is on of the books that I picked up in Williamsburg several weeks ago, The Moses Expedition by Juan Gomez-Jurado.

 From the book cover of the book:

After fifty years in hiding, the Nazi war criminal known as the Butcher of Spiegelgrund has finally been found, and with him the candle covered filigree gold that was stolen from a Jewish family. But it isn’t the gold that Father Anthony Fowler,a C.I.A. operative and the Vatican’s secret service, is seeking. As he holds the flame to wax, the candle unveils the missing fragment of an ancient map that reveals the location of the Ten Commandments tablets.

Soon Father Fowler is part of a mission financed by a recluse American billionaire to the desert of Jordan to discover the tablets. Accompanying him is journalist Andrea Otero, whose life Fowler saved in Gomez-Jurardo’s  début novel God’s Spy. But not everybody wants the tablets found, including a terrorist group whose leader is hidden within the members of the mission, waiting for the moment to strike!

Juan Gomez-Jurado’s work has been published in more than forty countries and while this is my first of his books I’ve read, it will not be the last. It was a page turner for me. I enjoyed the characters and the history woven into the story. I think I would have prefered to have started with God’s Spy just to know the history between Father Fowler and Otero, but I will go back and catch-up before moving on to Gomez-Jurado’s latest The Traitor’s Emblem. Here’s what some others have to say about the book:

“A true masterpiece. A brilliant thriller-sharp, suspenseful, and engrossing” – Brad Thor

“Settle back and savor this perfect piece of entertainment” – Steve Berry.

“A perfectly balanced, fast-paced, and compiling thriller” – Booklist, starred review

So check it out! As for me, I’ve moved on to Book 24 of 2012 – Bleed For Me – from Michael Robotham! (I’m almost back to 3 books per month!)

Book 22 of 2012 – The Last Kind Words – Tom Piccirilli

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Book 22 0f 2012 is by Tom Piccirilli and it’s the first book I’ve read by this author and I can tell you it will not be the last!  The Last Kind Words   is a terrific book! But don’t just take my word for it here’s what some others think about the book:

“Mystic River set the bar for classic literary mystery, and The Last Kind Words is a novel on the same superb playing field. Compassionate, fascinating, and with an adrenaline narrative that is as gripping as it is moving, this book is pure alchemy.” —KEN BRUEN

 “The Last Kind Words is a story born of the dark legacies of family violence and loss. With vivid prose and palpable urgency, it succeeds utterly as a crime tale. At the same time, it reminds us that crimes can emanate from both the darkest and lightest of places, and renders the heart of a damaged family with clear-eyed yet fervent beauty.” —MEGAN ABBOTT

The narrator of the book is one Terrier Rand, member of a family small-time thieves and grifters living on Long Island. We meet Terry five years after two tragedies changed his life forever, the first was the miscarriage of his child by the love of his life Kimmy, and the second a senseless killing spree by his brother that left eight  dead, including a child and elderly woman. Terry couldn’t handle either tragedy so he ran away, from the woman he loved in her time of need, and a brother he now hated more than ever! But days before his brother’s execution, Terry receives a call that both his brother, Collie and his family need him. The call pulls him back into the life and troubles he left. Collie asks Terry to help him. He had admitted to all but one of the murders, the one he says he didn’t commit was the murder of a pretty young brunette, Rebecca Clarke. Collie is convinced that the true murderer of Rebecca is still at large and will kill again! So Terry sets out to discover the truth and what he finds may just destroy his family!

In the Rand family, Piccirilli has created a unique family, that’s criminal through and through, but they know their niche and stay in it. The whole family has their own set of problems from Terry’s father Pinsch, who has to deal with his father Shep’s Alzheimer’s, Uncles Grey and Mal, who are in trouble with mobster’s just a little heavier than the Rands, and little sister Dale who at fifteen is dating a 20 something wanna’ be mobster! So while the story is about finding the murderer of Rebecca for Collie it’s also the tale of a family that you care about Lisa Unger says:

 “You don’t choose your family. And the Rand clan, a family of thieves, is bad to the bone. But it’s a testimony to Tom Piccirilli’s stellar writing that you still care about each and every one of them. The Last Kind Words is at once a dark and brooding page-turner and a heartfelt tale about the ties that bind.”

Tom Piccirilli has won two International Thriller Writers Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire. so check him out, as for me I have a lot of  Piccirilli’s award-winning writing to catch up on!

 

 

 

Book 20 of 2012 – Die a Stranger – Steve Hamiton

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In 2004 I read my first Steve Hamilton Alex McKnight novel, Winter Of The Wolf Moon, the second book in the series. The only reason that I read that novel first was that the award winning Cold Day in Paradise was checked out of the library! But after finishing Book 2,  Book 1 followed closely, and I’ve been a fan of the series ever since! Yesterday the 9th  book in the series Die A Stanger became book 20  of 2012! Alex McKnight is an ex-Detroit cop who, with a bullet lodged near his heart, rents cabins in Paradise, a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  This installment of the series focuses on Alex’s best friend, Vinnie LeBlanc. It started as a bad week for Vinnie, his mother the respected leader of the Bay Mills Reservation had died. On her death bed, she mistakes Vinnie for his father, who had long ago  abandoned Vinnie and his siblings. Later that night Vinnie a teetotaler because of this father, meets Alex at their favorite inn, The Glasgow and orders a drink, resulting in the first night he ever got drunk! But that same night, after parting ways with Alex….(from Hamilton’s website)

 A plane lands on a deserted Upper Peninsula airstrip, late at night. Five dead bodies are found the next morning.

And now Vinnie LeBlanc is missing.

Vinnie is an Ojibwa tribal member, a blackjack dealer at the Bay Mills Casino, and he just might be Alex’s best friend. He’s come through for Alex more than once in the past, and he never ever misses a day of work. So Alex can’t help but be worried…..

The next morning Alex finds a stranger in Vinnie’s cabin, it turns out to be Vinnie long lost father Lou, returned to find and help his son! Together Alex and Lou set out on a race against time to find and save Vinnie.

The book is written in Hamilton’s quick no nonsense style, full of wit and humor with plenty of twists and turns.  McKnight is the narrator and he knows his limits like in this passage:

N0, stay positive, I thought. You’re gonna find a way out of this. Even if you have to do something stupid, all by yourself. You’r certainly good at being stupid. 

I certainly think that you can read this book without reading the others, but I am sure that once you do you’ll find yourself wanting more of the series! Here’s a sample of Hamilton’s writing from the start of Chapter Two………

 

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Book 19 of 2012 – C.J Box – Force of Nature

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Nate Romanowski  is the kinda person I would probably not like I real life, but in the world of Joe Pickett, I do! Both are characters in C.J. Box‘s Joe Pickett series and Book  No 19 of 2012 is Force of Nature the 13th book in that series! Nate Romanowski is falconer and an ex-member of the special forces now wanted by the FBI. He lives in the hills near Saddlestring, Wyoming and he has saved Game Warden Joe Pickett’s butt more than once and several incidences has done Joe’s dirty work. After Nate survives an attack on his life by locals and hears from a dying team member that “they’ve deployed”, he meets with Joe.  He says knows who is after him his ex-commander and falconry mentor John Namecek and he’s leaving the area to find out what’s happening  moreover Nate doesn’t expect to win the battle! Now Joe has never known why Nate had to move and live off the grid and Nate can’t tell him now because it will put Joe’s life in even more danger!

So the rest of the book is Nate’s attempt to survive the attack from John Namecek  as his friends and former comrades are being eliminated one by one and even Joe’s family are threatened along the way the terrible secret that Nate has been carrying around is revealed and it all revolves around falcons and the force of nature!!

As I said previously, this is the 13th book in the series and I’ve read all except No 12 Cold Wind. I love all the characters obviously Joe and Nate and then there’s Joe’s family Joe’s wife MaryBeth, her mother Missy, who was the focus of the ast book and Joe’s children daughter’s Sheriden and Lucy and adopted daughter Alice. The kids have always been an important part of the series Sheridan, now a student at the University of Wyoming, has in the past learned falconry from Nate. April’s relationship to the family has evolved over many books! This book can be read and enjoyed without reading any of the other books, but after reading it you probably will want to go back and catch-up with Joe’s adventures!

Box has written several stand alone novels the latest being  Back of Beyond, which was very good! Box has won several awards including:  the Edgar, Anthony. Macavity,Gumshoe and Barry, as well as, the French Prix Calibre .38 and a French Elle magazine literary award.  So check him out!

When I was looking for some pictures today of Saddestring I came across this article Running in the Bighorns perfect. (Note to Edward start running again!)

Karin Slaughter – Criminal (Will Trent #7)

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So hot in the heels of a great read James Rollins’ Bloodline, Book 18 for 2012 Karin Slaughter’s Criminal  may be even better. The book is the seventh in the Atlanta series featuring Will Trent and Sara Litton. I’ve written before that I put off reading the first book in this series Triptych for a long time because I loved the Slaughter’s Grant County series so much I didn’t think that this one could match up! Silly me! After a couple of books in this series the two series merged (for reasons not discussed here) and since then the series has been wonderful!

This book is set both in current time and flashes back to Atlanta in 1975, when Amanda Wagner, Will’s current boss at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and his partner Faith Mitchell’s mother Evelyn were working their first case, while they were members of the Atlanta Police Force.

The Story

The case involves missing, prostitutes, a murder of another prostitute who is miss identified by the missing girl’s brother!! In the present time Will Trent faces demons from his past when a college girl is reported  missing, and  Will discovers  his father has been released from prison after serving 30 years! Will is convinced that the abduction of the missing girl is the work of his father and Amanda agrees.

Soon the two cases are intertwined and the reader learns the secrets of Will’s past and his connection to Amanda.

 Final Thoughts

The reason that I love Karin Slaughter’s work is that she pours her heart and soul in the characters that inhabit her books. While the story lines are always great ,it’s the characters that make the stand out from the crowd.

In Criminal,  Slaughter outshines herself, as we learn about: the prejudices that Amanda and Evelyn overcame to be accepted as police officers, the demons of Will’s past as he faces what and who his father and mother were,  the ever developing relationship between Will and Sara and the continuing relationship between Will and his estranged wife Angie, that was forged in the orphanage where they grew up! Wow! All that in 428 wonderful pages!!

So check it out!!

The Shadow Patrol – Alex Berenson

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So throughout June I’ve been reading three books, The Last Great Senate by Ira Shapiro, Even Steven by John Gilstrap,  The Shadow Patrol by Alex Berenson. I finally finished Book 16 for the year and it was ta-da The Shadow Patrolby Alex Berenson. The Shadow Patrol is the sixth book in the John Wells series. Now I usually zip right through Berenson’s books, but this one, not so much. Before I wrote this review, I went to Goodreads.com thinking that I’d be reading some not so complimentary reviews. However, when I got there I found out that most people loved the book! Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly said about The Shadow Patrol:

 It’s this riveting duel between good and evil that will keep readers blazing through the pages, while several other more mundane plot lines get lost in the background. More

What do I know! As I read the book, I really kept waiting for the hook to catch me and reel me in. Sadly,  for me it never came. To me the book seemed like a thriller without the thrill! It just seemed that a lot of the book was focused on setting up the story and not on real action.

The story is set in Afghanistan and Wells returns to the place where it all started for him. He is called out of retirement to help find a mole in the CIA  bureau. The bureau is still reeling from a double agent returning from a meeting with al Queda who turns suicide bomber and decimated the bureau. Meanwhile, a major drug trafficking operation is being run in the northern provinces with members of the military dealing with the Talibs. So John steps into this mess and with the help of his boss Ellis Shafer has to unravel the threads that hold the operation together and ultimately leads back to the mole!

Bottom Line

Now with all that said, I did find the book overall a good read. I just thought it was not up to what I’ve come to expect from Berenson.  I still like the character of John Wells and will read more of the books! Now, if you never read a book in the series, maybe you’d be like the folks at Goodreads.com and love the book. But I recommend that you start out with one of Berenson’s earlier books.

Now it’s back to the other reads for the month. Oh wait, I have the new James Rollins novel Blood Line sitting here. Sorry Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Gilstrap. I think I’ll start Mr. Rollins’ book now!!

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Book 15 of 2012 – The Paris Vendetta – Steve Berry

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So this evening was spent in Paris, as I raced to the conclusion of Book 15 for 2012 The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry. The Paris Vendetta released in 2009  is the 5th book in Berry’s Cotton Malone series and once again follows Berry’s successful formula of mixing historic fact with Berry fiction. In this installment the historic facts include Rommel’s Gold, Napoleon’s lost treasure and his exile at Ebla and St. Helena.

At the end of The Charlemange Pursuit , Malone, having just returned from Antarctica, is awaken by the sound of someone ascending the stairs of his apartment. The intruder is a young Secret Service Agent Sam Collins, who is being followed by two assassins. Collins is bringing a request for help from Malone’s friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. Soon Malone is pulled into Thorvalsen’s “vendetta” against Lord Graham Ashby, a wealthy Brit who was partially responsible for the murder of Henrik’s son. Ashby is a treasure hunter and is on the trail of both Rommel’s gold and Napoleon’s treasure. Ashby is also on the Justice Deartment’s radar because of his involvement with The Paris Club a cabal of billionaires who are set on manipulating the global economy.  As Thorvaldsen pursues his revenge against Ashby, and Stephenne Nelle (Cotton’s old boss) is using Ashby and his pursuit of Napolean’s treasure to get to a terrorist in the employee of Ashby, Malone is caught playing both sides against the middle!!  The book is fast paced like all the others and the characters are all great. I thought this book moved and “hung together” better than the others. Here’s what James Rollins said about the book:

So I picked up his latest book, The Paris Vendetta, and eyed it again with a bit of jaded skepticism. Surely he must have run out of steam. Who could keep producing masterworks of such precise plotting, complicated characters, and heart-pounding adventure year after year? So I settled into my favorite chair and turned the first page of The Paris Vendetta. Within a matter of paragraphs, I was riding with Napoleon through the scorching Egyptian desert, climbing the Great Pyramid for a midnight rendezvous, and discovering something earth-shattering was afoot. But what was it? A few pages later, his main character, the resourceful Cotton Malone, struggles to survive a firefight in his bookstore in Copenhagen. I found myself holding my breath, wincing as the suspense grew as taut as an assassin’s garrote, and quickly became embroiled in a conspiracy that trailed back centuries.

As I read that book, the hours vanished. Pages continued to fly by. And once again I was hooked. No, more than hooked… I was lost. In the end, that is the true magic and mastery of this man’s writing, the true reason he has become the king of intrigue. You don’t just read a Steve Berry novel. You live it. –James Rollins Read the full review here

Yeah, that was what I said only he said it JUST a little bit better, but then again he is a great author in his own right!! Anyway the poin is the book is very good and  I’m looking forward to reading another Malone adventure but first it’s back to the world of John Wells in Alex Berenson’s latest The Shadow Patrol!

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Book 14 of 2012 – Steve Berry – The Charlemange Pursuit

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So I picked up three Steve Berry books a couple of weeks ago at the library’a used book sale one of them,  The Charlemange Pursuit is Book 14 for 2012. The novel is the 4th in Berry’s Cotton Malone series. So far this is only my second Malone book the other being the current book (7) in the series The Jefferson Key.  I have read one other Berry book The Amber Room, which is not a Cotton Malone book, which is probably why I don’t remember him in that book, ya’ think!  Anyway I do really like Berry’s novels and the mixture of historical fact with some Berry fiction mixed in. The Charlemange Pursuit includes some historical information about the Carolingian period of European history, secret US submarines and a highly advanced civilization that may predate any civilization that we know! Oh and the search by the Nazi’s for their Aryan forefathers.

The story starts when Cotton Malone is given papers that prove that his father a naval officer died not in an accident in the North Atlantic but rather on a secret submarine on mission to Antarctica !  To discover how and why his father died Cotton must solve the Charlemange Pursuit based on information provided by the daughters and wife of a German  businessman Dietz Oberhauser, who was also on the submarine. Malone’s mission is made more difficult by the actions of the Director of Naval Intelligence Admiral Ramsey Langford, who is out to stop any discovery of what happened  on that mission! So while Malone is in Europe figuring out the Pursuit, Malone’s former boss Stephanie Nelle is in the US battling Ramsey whose bent on eliminating everyone associated with the mission!!  So there’s lots of action and twists and turns as Cotton deals with the twin daughters and wife of Oberhauser and Stephanie Langford’s hired assassin!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book maybe even more than The Jefferson Key and will certainly expect to spend more time discovering the world with Cotton Malone. I have books 3 The Venetian Betrayal and 5 The Paris Vendetta and the question is  do I read them or go back and start at the begining. Since both of the books I’ve read stand pretty well on their own, I think I’ll go with the ones I have, and then I  will fill in with the others later!! But now I think it’s time for a Janet Evanovich book Smokin’ Seventeen!

Book 13 of 2012 – Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs

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So last night was a horrible sports night for Philadelphia as the Flyers Stanley Cup quest ended in flames, the Sixers lost ugly in Chicago, 26 points in the first HALF! and the Phillies continue their plunge to the bottom. But the good thing was that I could pay more attention to the book that I was reading than the games! As a result, I finished Book 13 for 2012 Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs. Reichs character forensic anthropoligist Temperance Brennan is the basis for the lead character in the TV series “Bones”. Break No Bones is the 9th book in the series, but is the first one I have read.  I was expecting the character of Temperance to be similar to the character in the series, but really the only similiarity is her occupation, oh and her budding relationship with the detective she works with. Now with that said I did enjoy the book! The story began with” Tempe” teaching a field class on Dewees Island near Charleston, South Carolina. The class was conducting a cultural resource survey to determine if an old Native American burial site was significant enough to stop a proposed development on the island. In a shallow grave a fresh skeleton is discovered. Soon Tempe is asked to assist with the investigation by the local coroner and old friend Emma Rousseau. Soon bodies are piling up, Tempe’s former husband arrives investigating the disappearance of a local young woman and her connection to a local clinic. When Tempe’s current beau Ryan arrives Tempe’s love life gets complicated. The book is fast paced and has some good forensic moments and I enjoyed the characters. I wouldn’t put Reichs writing up there with other writers like James Lee Burke or Dennis Lehane, but I will read more of her books!

Feast Day of Fools – James Lee Burke

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Feast Day of Fools - Ja,mes Lee Burke Cover

Book 12 for 2012 Feast Day of Fools is book three in another of Burke’s series featuring Hackberry Holland,  and I must say that this series is just as good,  if not better than the Robicheaux

Looking back through my Goodreads.com bookshelf,  I see that I read my first James Lee Burke book, The Neon Rain and was introduced to the world of Dave Robicheaux in 1990!

Now 22 years and 17 books later, I still can’t wait for the next book Creole Belle which is due out in July! In the meantime, I figured I’d read a book from Burke’s Hackberry Holland  series!

Hackberry Holland first appeared in Burke’s 1971’s Lay Down My Sword and Shield and didn’t appear again until the release of Rain Gods last year! Holland is the sheriff in a small southern Texas border town and in this book he faces some pretty nasty villains!

 The Synopsis from Burke’s website:

When alcoholic ex-boxer Danny Boy Lorca witnesses a man tortured to death in the desert and reports it, Hack’s investigation to the home of Anton Ling, a regal, mysterious Chinese woman whom the locals refer to as La Magdalena and who is known for sheltering illegals. Ling denies having seen the victims or perpetrators, but there is something in her steely demeanor and aristocratic beauty that compels Hackberry to return to her home again and again as the investigation unfolds. Could it be that the Sheriff is so taken in by this creature who reminds him of his deceased wife, that he would ignore the possibility that she is just as dangerous as the men she harbors?

Danny Boy Lorca is only one of the many memorial character in a book that is loaded with them. Others include a Mexican named Krill. and his comparde Negrito, Reverand Cody Daniels,  an evil Russian mobster, but perhaps the most memorial one is Preacher Jack Collins, Holland’s nemesis in Rain Gods. Collins was thought to be dead  at the end of Rain Gods, but he is far from dead and he and his Thompson machine gun rip it up in this book. It seems that the majority of characters including Hack are flawed, and they are haunted by their past, as they battle for the future!  Overall, this is one of the best books that I’ve read in a long time!!

Again from Burke’s website!

 Praised by Joyce Carol Oates for “the luminosity of his writerly voice” James Lee Burke returns with his most allegorical novel to date, illuminating vital issues of our time—immigration, energy, religious freedom—with the rich atmosphere and devastatingly flawed, authentic characters that readers have come to celebrate during the five decades of his brilliant career.

If you’ve never read a James Lee Burke book this is a great place to start and if you do read it,  I know you’ll be back for more!!!