Category: Branches Books

Tell No Lies – Gregg Hurwitz – “Simply Brilliant”? – It’s True!

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STell No Lieso in keeping with the thought that one should write short I will give you my review of Gregg Hurwitz’s book Tell No Lies using the words of Anne Rice……“Simply Brilliant!”

So check it out of the library, buy it on Kindle, now you can by it in paperback just get you hands on it and see if you like me yell at Daniel Brasher  – “Don’t do it – Wait for the police!! But you see Daniel is the kind of guy that will not do that – he has to go for it, never, is he half in, never does he sit back and rest, he needs to be out there doing. He could just be sitting back and living the life of luxury like his filthy rich mother, but no he gave that life up and became a counselor to violent criminals, a position that he is about to leave to move into private practice.

Until a letter appears accidentally appears  in his work mailbox, threatening the lives of two people, telling them if they don’t “admit what they have done they will bleed for it” After Daniel reads that the first victim has been brutally slain, and the clock is winding down to the deadline for the second victim, who lives only blocks away from Daniel’ to admit what she has done, Daniel takes off to save her life! And you the reader know – this is not going to end well! True to form it doesn’t and soon……  there are more threats, including one directed at Daniel. So many questions, so little time…… could it really be one of his patients??  how are these seemingly random victims  related?  what are they to admit to, and does it all connect to Daniel?? All questions Daniel has to answer before his time is up!!

So now that I’ve used too many words to tell you about the book, I may as well give you the whole Anne Rice quote….

“Simply brilliant. Tell No Lies is infinitely more than a thriller, yet thrilling to the last page. Psychologically rich and often beautiful…A true page turner in which every phrase, every character, every little incident counts. Stylish, elegant, and absolutely riveting! An unforgettable read.” –Anne Rice, author of THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.

Yep, it is that good, it was one of those books that I didn’t want to put down. The characters are great, the plot is terrific and the book works on several levels. The themes that the book addresses are real! I don’t really want to say what they are because they deal with the whole storyline!

I read my first Gregg Hurwitz book in 2004 The Kill Clause the first Tim Rackley book. I read the second Rackley book The Program and then three of Gregg’s stand-alones. It seems I read one about every three years. It also seems that has to change!! (Memo to self – get on the stick – take that Trust No One off of your to be read shelf, and get reading!!) So go grab a Hurwitz novel and get cracking and if you don’t like regular novels try Graphic Novels, he writes those to including Batman:The Dark Knight. Bye, I’m off to Trust No One…..

Book 15 of 2014

2014 Reads – How to Write Short has an impact on reading Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone!

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Winter's BoneLast night with music from the Hank Mobley Quintet playing in the background, I finished Daniel Woodrell’s great novel Winter’s Bone. While the book is not classified as a mystery, the plot of the novel centers around a big one. Where’s Jessup?  Jessup is the meth cooking father of the book’s central character, 16 year-old, Ree Dolly. Ree has a big problem, if her Pa doesn’t appear for a court date, Ree and her two brother’s, and Ma could lose their family home,  which Jessup posted as collateral to make his bail. So Ree sets out, braving the bitter Ozark winter, searching the hills for her father. But many of the tight-lipped inter-related folks, who live in the hills, live on the wrong side of the law, and would rather fight than give up their secrets. But Ree needs to push on, for her home and the ones who are in her care,  but will she be able to live with the answer??

Now I could go on and on about the wonderfully  drawn-out characters in the book, from Uncle Teardrop to Ree’s Mom, and the various themes, but I want to focus on another aspect of the book and that is Woodrell’s prose.

I started reading Winter’s Bone (Book 12 of 2014)the day after I had finished Roy Peter Clark’s book How to Write Short: Writing ShortWord Craft for Fast Times.(Book 11) Clark’s book focuses on the need to write short in today’s fast paced world, of Twitter, Facebook and the rest of social media. The book is filled with examples of short writing including; tattoos, advertising slogans, epitaphs and Tweets! The first Chapter is Collect Short Writing, which I had no problem doing while reading Winter’s Bone. Throughout the book, I marveled at how Woodrell packed so much punch, in so few words! My awe started with the book’s opening sentence….

Ree Dolly stood at the break of dawn on her cold front steps and smelled the coming flurries and saw meat.

So what did that sentence tell me. First, it’s morning, it’s cold, it’s going to snow and I’m somewhere meat hangs on trees, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more!!

Several of the examples of writing short that I noticed opened chapters….

She became ice as she walked.

The needed skill was silence.

Hillsides knit with ice came apart.

Then there were longer sentences that just blew me away….

A picnic of woods fell from Gail’s mouth to be gathered around and savored slowly

Ree waited kneeling for several minutes, kneeling as raised hopes fell to modest hopes,slight hopes, vague hopes, kneeling until any hope at all withered to none at all between her pressing hands.

I guess the question is would I have noticed these short gems, had not just read How to Write Short. probably not, so thank you Mr Clark!!

Summarizing, great book, full of unforgettable characters, and fine writing, read it!!  If you do read, it be on the lookout for those powerful short sentences

Book 4 of 2014 – Plainsong – Kent Haruf

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PlainsongAt the beginning of his novel Plainsong author Kent Haruf provides a definition of Plainsong

the unisonous vocal music used in Christian church from the earliest times; any simple and unadorned melody or air

And that is just what Haruf’s 2000 novel Plainsong (and Book 4 of 2014) is the simple unadorned story song of a period of time in the lives of seven main characters living in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. These characters are: the Guthrie’s, schoolteacher Tom Guthrie and his two boys, Ike Bobby who are nine and ten years old respectively, the pregnant seventeen year-old Victoria Roubideaux,Raymond and Harold McPheron, and Maggie Jones.

The story chronicles a time in their lives from the fall in the year the Victoria discovers that she is pregnant to the spring when the baby is due. During those months these characters and their lives intertwine in ways as they face problems and situations like one would find in any small town in America. Tom and his boys are dealing with a wife and mother who is so despondent that she spends her days in her room and eventually leaves their family. Victoria, after she discovers that she is pregnant is thrown out of her house by her mother. The McPherons are two elderly farmers who have spent their entire lives, alone together on their farm 17 miles away from town. Maggie Jones is a school teacher at the same school as Tom, is dealing with a father slowly sinking into dementia. Victoria after being thrown out by her mother turns to Maggie, Maggie takes her in,but things don’t work out because of her father she turns to the McPherons, who in turn take Victoria in. One of the treats of the book for me was the development of the relationship between the McPherons and Victoria,from the early days when they explained futures and pork bellies to her, to the buying of her crib and to their worry when she leaves.

Once again this is a book that I am reading as part of my attempts to read more deeply and get more out of a book than just a good story. As such I’ve read several of the available book club study questions, which I again struggled with, however, I did look at some study guides which spoke about the themes of the book. Two of them stood out to me one was the loss of innocence, which certainly applied to Ike and Bobby, Victoria and also the McPhesons, who were innocents when it came to having a woman around particularly one who was seventeen and pregnant! The other was family which I think is certainly a strong theme in the book! At Barnes and Noble’s website I found this quote in a piece about Kent Haruf!

In a 2000 interview about Plainsong. “What I want to suggest at the end [of the book] is that at this point, at least this day and this point in their lives, all these people have found a place in a small community — it may even be an extended family — in which they can connect with other people and find solace and communion.”

So I have to wrap this up now and get to work at Target. If you’ve read the book and would like to add a comment, please do, and if not give it a read while I move on to Eventide!

A Tap on the Window – Linwood Barclay

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A Tap on the Window - Linwood Barclay

 Several years ago, well to be a little more accurate back in 2007 I read Linwood Barclay’s first Zack Walker novel Bad Move  That book came to mind when I read the first line of Book 34 for 2013 Barclay’s latest thriller A Tap on the Window 

The Story

A middle-aged guy would have to be a total fool to pick up a teenage girl standing outside a bar with her thumb sticking out. Not that bright on her part, either, when you think about it But right now, we’re talking about my stupidity, not hers.

The narrator is Cal Weaver, a private investigator who lives in Griffon, New York. Weaver makes the decision to pick up the girl, who identifies herself only as Claire, only after she recognizes Weaver and says Cal’s son Scott was a friend of hers

. See Scott killed himself by jumping off of the roof of a furniture store in town, after taking a hit of X. The first thought going through Cal’s head is that Claire may be able to provide him some information that will help his quest, which is to discover who supplied the X to his son only two months earlier.

Soon Cal’s words ring true as he is drawn into a plan hatched by Claire and her best friend Hanna that leaves both girls missing and Cal’s life a mess!

Not that his life hadn’t been a mess before that. After Scott’s suicide Cal and his wife Donna’s marriage has been on the rocks as Cal can’t give up his quest to find out answers surrounding Scott’s death, and Donna deals with the loss by spending her time trying to draw the perfect portrait of Scott, Claire turns out to be Claire Sanders the mayor’s daughter.

The mayor is in a battle over the use of excessive force that seems to  be prevalent on the force.Oh by the way, Cal’s brother-in-law Augie, is the police chief!!

My Thoughts

Like all of Barclay’s books the pages turned fast on this one, as I tried along with Cal, to figure out first where Hanna and Claire were, who they were pulling their scam on, and what does any of this have to do with Scott’s death??

Overall, the plot of the book twisted and turned and the final resolution of the various interwoven storylines was not what I expected.

The book was a little darker than Barclay’s other books, and lacked some of the humor, that I thought was coming based on the first few lines of the book!

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

Book 33 for 2013 – James Rollins – The Eye of God!

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The Eye of GodWith all the music listening and writing this week, I totally forgot to write about Book No. 33 of 2013, James Rollins The Eye of God. I have been a fan of Rollins’ Sigma Force novels since I read my first Map of Bones in 2005, and have enjoyed Rollins blending of science, history and of course a lot of action into 9 terrific reads!! It’s interesting as I write this that characters that first appeared in Map of Bones play a central part in this latest novel.

Like Harlan Coban’s Six Years this book is also a quest well actually it is several quests rolled into one action packed story. The most important quest is to find the satellite IoG2 which was studying dark energy surrounding a comet that is approaching the earth. While IOG2 (Eye of God) was preparing to perform and experiment evolving the transfer of dark energy back to its sister satellite IOG the satellite became unsteady and crashed to earth before its crashed pictures of the earth were transfer to the command center where Jada Shaw an astrophysicist  whose theories of dark energy were being proven correct and Director of Sigma Force Painter Crowe were watching. The pictures showed a destroyed eastern coast of the US and more amazingly they were dated four days in the future!! So began Sigma Force’s quest was first to find the satellite whose final resting place was somewhere in Mongolia and then find out what the hell was going to happen and can it be stopped!!

Meanwhile in Italy those characters that previously appeared in Map of Bones Rachael Verona and her Uncle Vigor a priest were about top embark on their quest, which also involved saving the world, but involved another priest Father Josip a priest that Vigor thought was long dead. Josip sends Vigor a skull and the Book of Thomas bound in human skin. The message hidden in these artifacts was clean to Vigor and it pointed to the end of the Earth in FOUR DAYS. So they set off to find Father Josip and a quest which also involves Ghengis Kjan and Attila the Hun!! Mongolian, eh??

And finally former assassin Seichan now in a quasi-relationship with Sigma Force Commander Gray Pierce is on a quest to find Seichan’s long-lost mother. It is a quest that has taken them to the underworld of Macau, China. Only when the trio Seichan, Gray and Kowalski meet an informer who is going to tell Seichan about her mother turns out to be someone who wants to capture and sell Seichan (a large bounty is on her head due to her past) All hell busts loose and Seichan ends up in North Korea and Gray’s quest becomes her rescue!!

Ultimately, as you may have guessed all the quest come together and become a race to save the world from the destruction that was witnessed. The final resolution ties all the threads up in a whirlwind of action.

As always the characters are vividly drawn and while some characters are absent like Monk’s wife Kat and Lisa Painter’s love interest there are new members introduced including the aforementioned Jada Shaw and Duncan Wren who has magnets in his fingers that pick up minuscule oscillations and vibrate in the presence of an electromagnetic field!! and maybe in the presence of dark energy!!

So if you are like me and enjoy books that teach you stuff …. like Attila’s murder, and Genghis Khan’s mother’s birthplace and the quest for Genghis’ tomb, and blends that with cutting edge science and plenty of action, you’ll love The Eye of God… is it a little hard to follow and have a little too much happening maybe, is the action a little over the top with too many bodies, maybe. But the bottom line is that when you turn the last page… you learned something and had a great time doing it!!!

Here’s a cool trailer about the book! And if you’re already a fan of Rollins you can listen to an interview here

Tess Gerritsen – The Silent Girl

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The Silent Girl

Note to Self: DO NOT PUT OFF READING TESS GERRITSEN BOOKS! Which is what I did with her book The Silent Girl, which sat on my bookshelf for a long time before it became Book 28 of 2013!

The Beginnings

I started reading Tess Gerritsen books back in 2003 with The Surgeon, which I absolutely loved!  I quickly went out and read two of her early medical thrillers and then The Apprentice (Rizzoli and Isles #2) another winner,

Since then I’ve read all the Rizzoli & Isles books. Why I put off reading The Silent Girl I can’t say, because once I started I became totally absorbed in the book and rarely put it down until I was finished.

The Story

This mystery involves Boston’s Chinatown, A severed hand is found in an alley, the body it was formerly attached to is found on the roof of the building next to the alley. The hand was attached to a red-haired woman dressed in black, her head nearly severed from her body.  Two strands of silver hair – not human – are found on her body. The murder pulls her into a mystery appears to revolve around a murder-suicide that occurred nineteen years earlier in a Chinatown restaurant. A cook in the restaurant inexplicably lost it murdering four patrons and a waiter at the restaurant James Fang, James’ wife Iris is a mysterious martial arts instructor who believes that the cook was innocent and now she may be the bait to draw the real killer out! Was that woman found on the roof of Iris; studio an assassin sent to kill Iris?? Jane and Maura set out to discover how all the pieces fit together and what really happened during the night of the murders. Along the way, they are aided by a new Detective Johnny Tam and confront the mysterious Monkey King of Chinese folklore!


My Thoughts

As always the characters are well-developed and believable  and the plot has lots of twists and turns that keep the pages turning. Side stories include an appearance by Julian “Rat” Jenkins  a teenager who had helped save Maura six months previously in the Wyoming mountains. “Rat” has come to spend the week with Maura and a new development in the relationship between Jane’s mom and Jane’s retired partner Vince Korsak! But the most intriguing character in the book may be martial arts teacher Iris Fang!

So check it out and I’ll leave you with these words from The Hartford Book Examiner:

The Silent Girl represents an author at the pinnacle of her storytelling abilities. Gerritsen’s plot is complex and flawlessly executed, with elements of fable ambitiously interlaced throughout. further, she explores her beloved characters in intriguing and meaningful ways. Combined with her trademark knowledge of forensics and razor-sharp dialogue, the result is a page-turner that delivers on style and substance.

Where is Tess’ latest – Last to Die: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel released in paperback in June!!

Post Update 2026

Trust Your Eyes – Linwood Barclay

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Trust Your Eyes - Linwood Barclay

Ok so I’ve written before that I loved Linwood Barclay‘s Zack Walker books and wished that he kept writing them. When I questioned him about that he said that while the books received critical acclaim  they just didn’t sell well., Then he started writing standalone thrillers and his career took off!

While after finishing his latest book Trust Your Eyes, I will never again question his decision and I will eagerly awaiting his next standalone!!  For me Trust Your Eyes is the best book he has written yet and I am not alone in the opinion:

“Dazzling. Barclay brings a classic Hitchcock premise into the twenty-first century, with the power of an artist at the top of his game…. This book deserves to catapult him to the top of every bestseller list” Joseph Finder

“The best Barclay so far, a tale Hitchcock would have loved…riveting, frequently scary, occasionally funny, and surprisingly, wonderfully tender… great entertainment from a suspense master” Stephen King

The Story – Trust Your Eyes

The plot revolves around two brothers, Thomas and Ray Kilbride. Thomas is a map-obsessed schizophrenic, who lives at home with his father and his maps.

Through the website Whirl360.com Thomas travels the world not only studying maps, but also the buildings and shops, kinda like Google Earth street view.

Thomas thinks he’s studying maps to save the world when all the paper maps are gone and a catastrophe hits on-line and all the maps of the world are gone!

When Adam Kilbride their farmer dies in a freak accident, Ray an illustrator, who lives in Burlington, Vt comes home to Prinse Falls, NY to settle the estate and see to the future care of Thomas.

One night, Thomas calls Ray into his room. He shows him what appears to be a murder on Orchard Avenue in New York City.

While not totally clear it seems to be a woman with a plastic bag over her head being suffocated. Soon Ray, to placate Thomas, is off to NYC to see what may have happened. While his half-hearted investigation didn’t really shed much light on what happened, it did put them in the center of a deadly conspiracy, that threatens their very survival!

My Thoughts

The book like all of Barclay’s books, is a well written page turner, with lots of twists and turns. It really is a book that’s hard to put down. All of the characters are well drawn and you really feel for them and need to know what happened not only to the woman in the window but their Dad!

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.

Update: There is now a sequel to this book – Linwood Barclay’s No Safe House – new problems for Terry and Cynthia Archer when their daughter becomes involved in a possible murder.Check out my review here

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

Wild Fire – Nelson DeMille Book 31 0f 2012

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 Wild Fire – Nelson DeMille (John Corey #4)

 

So it’s been 22 years since I read my first and only Nelson DeMille book The Charm School, and in the intervening years DeMille introduced the main character in Book 31 of 2012 John Corey. Book 31 is Nelson DeMille’s 2006 release Wildfire. To be precise, John Corey was first introduced in DeMille’s 1997 novel Plum Island. Wildfire is Book 4 in the series. Corey is an ex-NYC Homicide Detective working as a special contract agent for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, under the supervision of his wife FBI Agent Kate Mayfield.

In this installment, John and Kate are sent to the Adirondacks to investigate the disappearance of their colleague and friend Harry Muller. Harry was sent to perform survellience on the Custer Hill Club an exclusive hunting lodge whose members include some of America’s most powerful business, military and government leaders.  Prior to his disappearance, Harry is captured and forced to sit through an emergency meeting of the Custer Hill Club’s executive board as they make plans to active a US government retaliation plan known only as Wild Fire! Wild Fire involves nukes and ELF waves and John and Kate have to figure out the plan to be launched by the Club’s leader Bain Maddox before the it’s implemented, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance!

Again, this is my first meeting with John Corey, whose antics leave both his wife and his supervisor at their wit’s end. I really enjoyed his character and look forward to going back to Book 1 in the series Plum Island and catching up on Corey’s other adventures! Overall the book had a lot more humor than I thought it would have and just the right amount technology and policy injected into the story to teach me something and to scare me! Here’s what DeMille says about the book:

“This work of fiction is based on a rumor, repeated on the Internet about a government plan very much like the one I call Wild Fire. Hopefully, the story I am about to tell will play out only in these pages….”

If you want to start at Book 1 and you have a Kindle, the Kindle version of Plum Island   is only 99 cents!!

 

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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