Category: Books-Fiction

Prince of Fire – Daniel Silva

  By

So like I said I didn’t put down the Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva yesterday until I finished what is Book 26 of 2010. Obviously like all of Silva’s books this one was a real page turner for me! But I think that in this book more than any of his books Silva based the storyline on the history of the Arab-Isreali conflict and why both sides fight as hard as they do! The enemy that Gabriel Allon faces is Khaled al -Khalifa who is the grandson of  Asad al-Khalifa.  Asad al-Khalifa  fought the Israeli’s and Gabriel’s mentor and boss. Ari Shamron in 1948 . While Gabriel assassinated Khaled’s father Sabri al-Khalifa for the later’s involvement in the attack on the 1972 Israeli Olympic Team. Both the Sheikh and Sabri were fighting for their Palestinian homeland and their home a village called Beit Sayeed (a fictional village created by Silva) that was wiped out under the Tochnit Dalet which was the real name for the plan to remove the hostile Arab population from centers from lands allocated for the new state of Israel. The characters of Asad and Khaled were based on a photograph of a young boy on the lap of Yasir Arafat at the funeral of his father in 1979. The father was terrorist Ali Hassan Salameh the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.

Anyway this book was great and really showed the humanity on both sides of the struggle and maybe for the first time Gabriel questioned the actions of his country. The book is highly recommended and while the book is part of a series that is best read from the beginning I think you could read the book by itself and still enjoy it!

Finally, I went to Borders Saturday night and used the gift card my son Peter gave me for Father’s Day to buy Karin Slaughter’s new book Broken. It’s great to be back in Grant County and the world of Sara Litton, Lena Adams, Will Trent and all the other great characters of this wonderful series! I’m already about a 1/3 of the way through the book and can’t wait to get back to it!

Daniel Silva – Prince of Fire

  By

The only two good things about this past week were that the weather broke on Tuesday night and the oppressive heat from Monday and Tuesday was gone and I had a chance to read a little during our first break in the morning and at lunch. Oh and once when the rig was broken down for about an hour yesterday. What I had taken with me to read was Daniel Silva‘s Prince of Fire. Prince of Fire is the fifth book in the Gabriel Allon series. This is one of those series that I usually am behind on and while I’m reading a book in it I realize how much I like the series and then forget about it and move on to something else, duh! But I really do love the series and the characters including Gabriel Allon, who is an art restorer and Israeli agent. The stories are very fast moving and usually have a little history  thrown in as is the case in Prince of Fire. Gabriel’s hatred of his Arab enemies has been fueled by the loss of his son and virtually his wife, who is in a catatonic state, from a car bomb in Vienna. Anyway in Prince of Fire Gabriel is chasing the son of a past enemy who Gabriel assassinated, who has directed several terrorist attacks including the bombng of the Israeli embassy in Rome.  But the question is really who is chasing who! I’m about 2/3 of the way through and probably won’t be able to put it down today until I finish!

Oh and it looks like I will be another book behind as his new book comes out July 20th in hardcover The Rembrandt Affair!

Never Look Away – Linwood Barclay

  By
Never Look Away - Linwood Barclay

 

Ok, so I really did like Linwood Barclay’s Zack Walker series but once again if he keeps writing books like  Never Look Away I guess I’ll have to forgive him

.Never Look Away centers around reporter David Harwood. Harwood has his life turned upside down and inside out after first his son is abducted at a theme park only to be quickly found and then his wife goes missing!

From that point Harwood’s life is shattered and as the story unfolds all signs put toward David as his wife’s murderer.

I loved the characters and the plot and overall the pages just flew by and I had to keep reading!

Like I said I started reading Barclay’s Zack Walker series and have read all of his stand-alones which include Too Close to Home which was awarded first place in the Best Novel category of the Arthur Ellis Awards, the top prize in Canada for crime fiction, Fear the Worst, and No Tine for Goodbye all of which were great!

So if you like great writing and exciting interesting stories were a normal guy is thrust into extraordinary thrilling situations try Linwood Barclay! From the back cover of Never Look Away

What Other Authors Say ABout Linwood Barclay’s Books

 

“If you like Harlan Coben, you’ll love Linwood Barclay” – Peter Robinson author of All the Colors of Darkness

“Fear the Worst holds the reader in a tight grip as good and evil match wits and wiles. Barclay pushes the edge of suspense to the edge and beyond” – Steve Berry the author of The Paris Vendetta

About No Time for Goodbye equally applicable to Never Look Away

“You won’t get up until you’ve turned the last page” – Michael Connelly

I certainly can say that’s what I did tonight and then I fell asleep (a late four mile run may have had something to do with the sleep part) which is why this post is so late and Twang Tuesday will be reported tomorrow!

iWebsite
Orion Books
Amazon
Wikipdianks

Linwood Barclay

About Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay continues to be a prolific author, releasing new, critically acclaimed thrillers annually. Known for his high-octane plots and relatable characters, his recent work has solidified his status as a master of contemporary suspense.

Visit the Linwood Barclay Page

If you like standalone Mystery/Thrillers…….

Here are three Authors whose books might enjoy:

Charlie Donlea
Charlie Donlea
Michael Koryta/Scott Carson
Riley Sager
Riley Sager
  • Charlie Donlea — tightly plotted thrillers often built around cold cases, missing persons, and strong female leads, with twists that keep coming
  • Michael Koryta / Scott Carson — blends crime, suspense, and sometimes the supernatural, with a darker tone and strong atmosphere
  • Riley Sager — modern psychological thrillers with big twists, often centered on isolated settings and unreliable pasts

Baja Florida – Bob Morris

  By

Baja Florida by Bob Morris is the fifth book in the Zack Chastain series and is Book 23 for 2010. This series is always a fun quick read filled with interesting characters including Zack, former Gator, former Dolphin (well at least I can partially root for him), Zack’s wife Barbara and daughter Shula, and his right hand man Taino Shaman Boggy. Zack’s previous adventures have been chronicled in books with titles like Bahamarama, JamaciaMeDead, and Bermuda Schwartz! Some how most of what Zack does always turns out wrong!

In this installment, Jack’s longtime friend Mickey Ryser, who is dying  pays Zack a visit and asks him to find his daughter Jen, who Mickey has not seen for twenty years and bring her to his island in the Bahama’s. Jen is a recent graduate of the College of Charleston and has set out on a cruise to the Caribbean with friends, only now she can’t be found and it appears that the detective that Mickey has hired is not doing well at finding her, hence the visit and request to Zack. So Zack and Boggy set off to find Jen and bring her to Mickey. Pretty easy huh, well not in Zack’s world!

Like all the books was a short 242 pages and relatively quick read but is a good fast paced story that keeps your interest, with good characters who have developed nicely over the series. There was more Boggy in this book than the last and that’ a good thing!

This is a series that while the characters have developed over the course of the series, I really don’t think that you have to necessarily read the books in order to enjoy them. So pick up the one nearest you, dive in and enjoy!

Bite Me – A Love Story – Christopher Moore

  By

‘kayso, my new word from Abby Normal – so begins Book 22 for the year Bite Me by Christopher Moore.  In the words of Abby Normal:

The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency backup mistress of the Greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public.

Like You Suck this book is a riot as Abby Normal, Foo Dog and their gay friend Jared are confronted with a vampire cat invasion of San Francisco. While vampires Tommy Flood and the Countess Jody are encased in bronze in the Love Lair and the cops Riveria and Cavuto are wondering what’s happening. Soon Tommy and the Countess are accidentally freed and the well you have to read it and roll on the floor with laughter like me!

In the words of Carl Hiaasen

“Christopher Moore is a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word.”

From the Harper Collins website

The undead rise again in Bite Me, the third book in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore’s wonderfully twisted vampire saga. Joining his farcical gems Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck, Moore’s latest in continuing story of young, urban, nosferatu style love, is no Twilight—but rather a tsunami of the irresistible outrageousness that has earned him the appellation, “Stephen King with a whoopee cushion and a double-espresso imagination” from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and inspired Denver’s Rocky Mountain News to declare him, “the 21st century’s best satirist.

Everything that I have read by Moore is very funny! Check him out!

The Coil by Gayle Lynds

  By

As a result of my computer that I usually work on is not working properly (what else is new!), so I can’t get on line to write, I have spent most of the last two nights reading and finishing book 21 for the year The Coil by Gayle Lynds. This is the first novel that I’ve read by Lynds whose books are well respected and have won numerous awards. From her website:

Her first Gayle Lynds novel MASQUERADE, was a New York Times bestseller and a People magazine “Page-Turner of the Week.” Publishers Weekly, the bible of the industry, recently compiled a list of the best espionage fiction. At the top were works by le Carre, Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, and Graham Greene. MASQUERADE was number eight, following Ken Follett’s classic The Eye of the Needle, which Gayle loves.

Other of her novels have been prize winners. THE LAST SPYMASTER won Best Novel from both the American Authors Association and the Military Writers Society of America. THE COIL won Best Contemporary Novel from Affaire de Coeur. MOSAIC was Thriller of the Year at Romantic Times. MESMERIZED was a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist. About her work reviewers have written: “superb,” Chicago Tribune; “immensely satisfying,” Wall Street Journal; “a potent storyteller,” Denver Post; “teeth-grinding suspense,” Publishers Weekly; “roller-coaster thrills,” Los Angeles Times; “terrific,” Cosmopolitan magazine; and “authentic,” Chicago Sun-Times.

The Coil revolves around Liz Sansborough again from Gayle’s website:

Liz Sansborough thought she had left her past behind forever. A former CIA field operative as well as the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Cold War assassin — the man known to the world only as the Carnivore — Liz is now a university professor in Southern California, specializing in the psychology of violence. Then her dead father’s legacy sweeps back to overtake her.

Someone, somewhere, is claiming to possess the Carnivore’s secret files and is using information from them to blackmail prominent world figures to promote some clandestine agenda. Files that Liz swore her father never kept. When Liz’s cousin is kidnapped, the only ransom they’ll accept is the assassin’s records, and if Liz is to save her cousin, she must somehow resurrect her old tradecraft skills and, in a desperate hunt across two continents, locate the files and uncover a dark and dangerous conspiracy linked to a shadowy group known only as the Coil.

I enjoyed the book and the characters. I thought the first half of the book was a little confusing until you got to know all of the players. Since both sides appeared to be after or controling Liz’s attempts to find the files, you didn’t know whose side sone of the chasers were on!  But once things were better established the book moved quickly and
I finished the second half on two nights! Now I have to go back and read The Masquerade which was the story of Liz and her father “The Carnivore” an assassin who killed for good reasons. (kinda like Dexter) And I know I will read more of her books!

POST UPDATE: Sadly I have moved away from Ludlum, Fynn type of thrillers and have not any more of Lynds work. Mistake on my part which I will try to rectify so stay tuned!

Need a Laugh Grab A Christopher Moore Book!

  By

So there are several authors who make me laugh out load as I read. One of them is Janet Evanovich, others include Terry Prachett, Douglas Adams and Christopher Moore

.

Checking back on my Goodreads Bookshelf, I see that the first Moore book I read was Coyote Blue which I read in 1994. Then I kinda forgot about him and didn’t get around to reading Practical Demonkeeping until 2002 since then I’ve read about half of the books he’s written.(Note to self go back and read more Christopher Moore)

I haven’t read more because I usually am busy with mysteries, but when I need a good laugh I turn to Christopher Moore!  My favorite is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal which is hysterical! A Dirty Job where Charlie Asher inherits a new job as DEATH comes in second, but it’s a close second!

Here’s a quote about A Dirty Job:

“To keep a straight face while reading this book, one would have to be dead already and in the final stages of rigor mortis.” Rocky Mountain News

Here’s some quotes from the back of Bite Me

“Everything I’ve come to expect from Christopher  Moore. It’s wildly funny, it’s touching, it’s unexpected. I think his imagination grew up next to Area 51 ” Charlaine Harris author ofr the Sookie Stackhouse novels

” Few things get the blood moving like a Christopher Moore tale about vampires.. Moore makes this trip a joy, filled with absurd characters who allow people in the dark laugh and see the light” Plain Dealer Cleveland.

So if you need a good laugh and enjoy as the Denver Post says ” the joke a minute comedy of The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, and the old screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40s with a touch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer then You Suck and Bite Me are books you’ll love along with all of Moore’s other work! So check him out!

Christopher Moore Books Read

TitleYear PublishedDate Read
Noir20182022/10/27
Secondhand Souls (Grim Reaper, #2)20152015/11/09
Island of the Sequined Love Nun19972015/04/20
Bite Me (A Love Story, #3)20102010/06/15
You Suck (A Love Story, #2)20072007/03/23
A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper, #1)20062006/03/04
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal20022005/08/25
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (Pine Cove, #2)19992002/02/26
Coyote Blue19931994/05/20
Practical Demonkeeping (Pine Cove, #1)19921994/05/10

Jericho’s Fall – Stephen Carter

  By

📚 Journal Flashback: Jericho’s Fall by Stephen L. Carter

So… have you ever read a book where the pages flew by, you really wanted to find out what happens, and then you get to the end—which isn’t satisfying at all—and you think:

Did I actually like this book?

That’s exactly how I felt about Book #20 of 2010: Jericho’s Fall by Stephen L. Carter.

The story centers on Jericho Ainsley—former CIA Director, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor… basically Mr. Deep State Everything—who’s dying of cancer in his Colorado mountain fortress. Everyone is out to kill him before he reveals his secrets.

Enter Rebecca “Beck” DeForde, his former lover and the reason for his downfall 15 years earlier when she was a 19-year-old student and he was her professor. Now she’s back in his life, trying to uncover his secrets before it’s too late.

—

📰 From The Washington Post Review:

“Thus begins Stephen L. Carter’s Jericho’s Fall, an odd but readable mixture of spy thriller, literary novel and haunted-house mystery. In an author’s note, Carter declares that the book’s ‘only purpose is entertainment,’ and he provides plenty of that. When the book fails, it is because the author, who is a professor of law at Yale, tries too hard to entertain us. Even for a novel about a Machiavellian, possibly mad, ex-CIA director, this novel contains an alarming number of unsolved, probably unsolvable mysteries.”

—

🤔 My Take

Did I like the book? I guess… I liked Beck. The story moved along well. But like the review said, there were just too many unsolved mysteries by the end.

I originally gave it a 3 out of 5—but looking back, it might really be a 2.

From what I’ve read, Carter’s other books are better, so maybe I’ll give him another shot someday.

Book 19 – The Bone Thief

  By

So today was not a big music day more a sports day. Go Roy Halladay and Flyers. But I did finish book no. 19 for 2010 The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. The Bone Thief is the fifth book in the Body Farm series by the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass founder of the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and Jon Jefferson. The series  follows the activities of Dr. Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady and others in exploits surrounding the Body Farm.

This book opens with the exhumation of a body involved in a paternity suit. The request for exhumation was made by attorney Burton “Grease” DeVriess who has been on the bad and good side of Bill Brockton in other books! Anyway when the body is exhumed both arms have been surgically removed!  Soon Bill is thrust into the world of black marketing of body parts. The FBI soon asks Bill to help in an undercover sting operation to bring down the dealers!

The plot of the novel also includes a storylines from the last novel Bones of Betrayal as Dr. Brockton deals with repercussions from his relationship with Isabella the librarian! Eddie Garcia the medical examiner who lost his hands after handling radioactive material in the last book is also dealing with that  terrible l tragedy and researching ways to get hands back either through total hand transplants or mechanical hands!

I don’t know if I liked the overall plot in this book as much as the others but still the characters of Bill Brockton and Miranda as well as all the others more than make up for it and while the book did not deal as much with the forensic details from the Body Farm the information presented about the black market for body parts and the development of artificial bones was interesting. Overall it was a very satisfying read and I look forward to the next Body Farm adventure!

Book 18 – Nothing Sacred – Lewis Black

  By

So Book 18 is Lewis Black’s book Nothing Sacred. Even though it’s a short book it’s taken me a while to get through, mainly because I only read it while I’m waiting for the computer in the back room to either boot up or load a webpage something that may take a long time and I need a laugh, and Lewis Black makes me laugh! Whenever I see him on TV either on The Daily Show or his own Comedy Specials, he makes me laugh. I could hear the same stories over and over and I’ll still laugh. Whether he’s talking about halftime at the Super Bowl with Britney Spears and Aerosmith or a Starbucks across from a Starbucks I’m laughing, And while some of the stories in this book I’ve heard before the book I’m still laughing out load. In very short chapters he tells his life story (which makes it convenient to read while you’re waiting for a computer) from his early years, through college and the start of his stand-up career!  So now I have to go find his next book Me of Little Faith because while the computer is working ok now I know it won’t last and I’ll need some good laughs!