Author: ekkarn

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!!!

 

Book 8 of 2012 – A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland

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Imagine a presidential candidate is accused of fathering a child out of wedlock! Oh, yeah, we had that with John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. Only this candidate admitted paternity, the child was named after his best friend and he still was elected the 22nd president of the United States! The story of this scandal and others form the foundation of Book 8 of 2012, Charles Lachman’s  A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland. The book claims to reveal for the first time the true story of Maria Halpin the young woman, who according to the book was raped by the future president, give birth to a son,  had her baby taken away from her and  finally was thrown in an insane asylum when she tried to get the child back. While the book may be a little short on proof on all that went on it is still a fascinating read. It is easy reading and provided a look into the politics of 1880’s, as Cleveland rose for a one term sheriff of Buffalo, to governor of New York, and then candidate for President. He was even supported by several staunch Republicans!  Needless to say, I don’t think he’d have a chance of getting elected in today’s political arena!!

For me one of the most interesting aspects of the book was the acceptance of the

English: Portrait drawing of First Lady of the...

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forty-nine year old Cleveland’s marriage to 22 year old Frances Folsom, the daughter of his late best friend Oscar Folsom. Cleveland had known and doted on Frances from the time she was a little girl, climbed on his knee, and called him “Uncle Cleve”!!

The book also touches on his sister Rose’s time serving as First Lady prior to Clevelands marriage and her secret sex life. As well as, Cleveland’s secret cancer operation.

So if you enjoy history, a little on the light side, then this is a book for you. Through out the 1884 campaign, the cry was “Ma. Ma, Where’s my pa!” , when Cleveland won the phrase was turned into “Ma Ma Where’s my Pa, went to the White House, ha,ha,ha!”. I don’t think that would happen today!

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The Genesis Secret – Tom Knox

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The Genesis Secret-Tom Knox

 According to his website, Tom Knox became intrigued with the Turkish archeological site Gobekli Tepe several years ago. The site which is over 10,000 years old just felt like the basis for a good historical thriller only problem was Knox did not write thrillers at the time.

When his finacial situation changed, he returned to the idea and after a couple of years of hard work The Genesis Secret was born. I picked up the book at last fall’s book sale at the Cinnaminson Library and it’s Book 7 of 2012 and it was a good one!

As frequent readers may know, one of my favorite types of books are ones with an historical basis, like  The DaVinci Code or James Rollins and Steve Berry books. The setting of this book is Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?  

The Story

Rob Luttell is a journalist who recently survived an attack by a suicide bomber in Iraq is given a cake assignment to visit Gobekli Tepe, take a few pictures, and write a fluff piece. But the fluff piece soon turns deadly, as the leader of the dig is killed.

Soon Rob and Christine a compatriot of the leader of the dig are on a quest to figure out what happened.  Meanwhile, a second story is unraveling in England as Scotland Yard detective D C Forrester is trying to solve a series of brutal, sadistic murders across England that seemed to be tied to the Hellfire Club.

My Thoughts

I must say that I was not in love with the first half of the book, but as the stories started to blend, and the action picked up (some of it very grizzly and graphic) I became entrawled and couldn’t wait to find out the Genesis Secret.  And when the Secret was finally unraveled it really gives the reader something to think about!!

After finishing the book, I went to Knox’s website and read about all the aspects of the book that are true,  including all of the graphic and grizzly stuff. So if you enjoy historical basis and aren’t put off by graphic violence you’ll enjoy this book! As for me I’ll be on the look out for more books by Knox!

 

Book 6 of 2012 – Eaarth – Bill McKibben

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Book No 6 for 2012 is Bill McKibben’s book Eaarth:Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. The book is written in two parts for first tells us that the planet that we live on is not the same anymore. The climate has changed and made changes to the physical Earth leaving a new planet Eaarth!The second part gives us some hope for the future if we transition properly! One thing that he points out that in order to keep the Earth where it is now we have to reduce the carbon dioxide level to 350 ppm. You can check out Bill’s organization at 350.org! So if you are concerned about our planet check out this book!!

Here’s Bill speaking about the book. He can tell you about it better than I can!

Book 5 of 2012 – American Emperor – David O. Stewart

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So most tines when I read non-fiction I start out well, then get bogged down and end up only reading a third to half of the book. Well, I decided to stick with Book 5 for 2012 American Emperor:Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America by David O. Stewart and I finally finished it tonight! I renewed the book from the library about three times! The book follows Burr’s life basically from the duel with Alexander Hamilton through to his death and focuses mainly on Burr’s plans to conquer the Spanish possessions in Florida and then invade Mexico and set himself up as Emperor. The book was a little slow in parts but overall it was well written. While I have read before about Burr’s treachery and his association with that weasel General James Wilkinson (see another non-fiction book setting on my shelf An Artist in Treason about Wilkinson which I have stopped about a third of the way through) I had not read much about Burr’s trial for treason which I found very interesting. A couple of other parts of the book that I found interesting included a discussion of the Louisiana Purchase most times I just think, oh Jefferson bought this area in 1803 and never think about the assimilation of the people  who lived there into the US! It was hard for the Creoles to adjust. The other was the time it took to get from place to place. The description of Burr’s return trip to Washington from New Orleans in 1805 took from July to November and the description of having to almost cut your way through the forest as you traveled made me realize what an ordeal it was to travel! It took Wilkinson three months to get from New Orleans to Washington for Burr’s Treason trial!

All in all it was a good read and recommended for anyone who likes reading about the history of that time period!

Here’s a video of Stewart talking about the book