Category: Branches Books

Book 26 – The Snowman – Jo Nesbo

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Although I’ve visited Norway several times through the books of Karin Fossum, this is my first trip to follow the adventures of Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Police Department. Book 26 for 2011 is Jo Nesbo‘s The Snowman. While I’ve heard about Nesbo for sometime I never seem to see his books at book sales or at the library. So last week when I saw this one at the library I picked it up and was certainly glad I did! This is the 7th book in the Harry Hole series and at times I thought I missed a little but for the most part I thought that the book stood on its own.

The story revolves around the disappearance of several married women with children in Oslo. The disappearances are accompanied by the presence of a Snowman. Soon Harry Hole an alcoholic inspector with the Oslo Police Department, who is one of the few if not the only policeman with experience catching a serial killer is drawn into the case, after receiving a taunting letter from The Snowman alluding to Harry’s past history tracking a serial killer!

The plot is riveting with several twists and turns throughout the book leading to a very tense last one hundred pages! I enjoyed the character of Harry Hole and will go back and read the other books that are available to discover his full history. I thought that the translation was good and the words flowed well. For me sometimes translations get choppy or overly simplistic!

So until I can pick up another Harry Hole book it’s off to Iceland and another favorite series by Arnaldur Indridason featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson. The book is Arctic Chill and  is the fifth book in the series that has been translated and the 7th overall.

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The Snowman – Jo Nesbo

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Although I’ve visited Norway several times through the books of Karin Fossum, this is my first trip to follow the adventures of Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Police Department.

Book 26 for 2011 is Jo Nesbo‘s The Snowman. While I’ve heard about Nesbo for sometime I never seem to see his books at book sales or at the library. So last week when I saw this one at the library I picked it up and was certainly glad I did! This is the 7th book in the Harry Hole series and at times I thought I missed a little but for the most part I thought that the book stood on its own.

The story revolves around the disappearance of several married women with children in Oslo. The disappearances are accompanied by the presence of a Snowman. Soon Harry Hole an alcoholic inspector with the Oslo Police Department, who is one of the few if not the only policeman with experience catching a serial killer is drawn into the case, after receiving a taunting letter from The Snowman alluding to Harry’s past history tracking a serial killer!

The plot is riveting with several twists and turns throughout the book leading to a very tense last one hundred pages! I enjoyed the character of Harry Hole and will go back and read the other books that are available to discover his full history. I thought that the translation was good and the words flowed well. For me sometimes translations get choppy or overly simplistic!

So until I can pick up another Harry Hole book it’s off to Iceland and another favorite series by Arnaldur Indridason featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson. The book is Arctic Chill and  is the fifth book in the series that has been translated and the 7th overall.

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Book 19 – Misery Bay – Steve Hamilton

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So I was all set last night to write about my run. How another rock band Voodoo Circle and their new album Black Heart Syndrome was the soundtrack for the 4.2 mile run complete in just under a ten minute per mile pace (which was not bad because I went uphill for parts of the run), but alas that was not to be! I sat down started to read Book 19 Steve Hamilton‘s latest Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay and continued reading until I went to bed,(except for that 1/2 hour nap). I finished the book at lunchtime today.<u> Misery Bay</u> is the eighth book in the McKnight series and the first since 2006 and is a worthy addition to the series.

The story starts when Alex gets a visit from an old nemesis Sault Ste. Marie police chief Roy Maven, who has appeared in past books. Maven asks Alex to do a job for his friend Charles “Raz” Razniewski. Razniewski and Maven were on the State Police force years earlier and recently Razniewki’s son had committed suicide. Razniewski wants McKnight to go to his son’s college and talk to some friends and generally try to find out why his son killed himself.  Alex does just that and when he returns he really doesn’t have any reason for the suicide. When he goes to report his findings to the senior Razniewski, who is staying at Maven’s home, he finds Razniewki laying on Maven’s kitchen floor with his throat slashed! The FBI soon sends two agents to investigate “Raz’s murder because he is now a U.S. Marshall. The agents soon determine that the murder is probably retaliation for some of the unsavory, well connected criminals Raz has put away. But Maven and Alex don’t think so and set of to investigate the suicide and murder. Soon they  connect another police officer’s son suicide to the case and the story moves on from there!

I love everything about this series. The setting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which sounds like a wonderful place to visit (maybe for the three days of summer), the characters Alex, Maven, Alex’s friend Vinnie, Leon Purcell and Jackie, owner of the Glasgow Inn. The stories are always interesting and the pages usually fly by! While this the eight in the series, I think that it can be read alone and then the reader can go back and find out about some of the earlier events. Like how Alex’s cabin burned down and what happened to Alex’s love Natalie Reynaud:

Before I lit the match, I took one f the slats of wood and I rubbed the spot where the blood had seeped in forever. I said good-bye to Natalie Reynaud one more time. I kissed the wood once and then put it back on the pile.

So go and visit Alex and the residents of Paradise, Michigan and I’m sure it won’t be your  last visit!!

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Book 16 – Gideon’s Sword – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

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Book 16 is the latest book from the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lee Child Gideon’s Sword.The book is the first book in a proposed series featuring Gideon Crew. I go back a long way with Preston and Child to the first book in the Pendergrast series Relic published in 1995! Unfortunately, I only read the first book and parts of the second Reliquary. That series is now up to book ten and I have several on my Mount to Be Read pile! Anyway rather than go back and catch up I thought I move forward with the new series! At twelve years old Gideon sees his father killed in a hostage stand-off involving his work for the government. On her death bed his mother his mother reveals that his father was a scapegoat concerning a failed project that left twenty six CIA agent s dead! Gideon sets out to clear his father’s name and does that rather quickly in the book. After revenging his father’s death Gideon returns to his favorite fishing hole and thinks he will just resume his normal life. Soon he is contacted by a subcontractor for the Department of Homeland security and offered an assignment to steal the plans for a new weapon from a Chinese scientist who is entering the country. This plunges Gideon into a whole new world, but he may have the talents for it because along the way the reader discovers that he is a master of disguises and a former Art Museum thief. The action is fast paced with several twists and turns. I enjoyed the read but in places found some events very implausible, but sometimes that in these types of books, so you just suspend belief and go along for the ride. The ride is pretty damn good so check it out! I enjoyed the character of Gideon Crew and along the way I learned a few things particularly about the Falun Gong and the Potter’s Field at Hart Island in Long Island Sound. So again check it out as for me I guess I need to go back and read some of those Pendergrast books!

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Book 13 – Vince Flynn – Consent to Kill

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Yeah finally finished Book 13 for 2011 Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn. Constent to Kill is the sixth book in the Mitch Rapp series by Flynn, The series is now up to Book 11, so I have some reading to do to catch up on the series! Mitch Rapp is a  CIA assassin working deep Black Ops. in the book prior to this one Memorial Day. Rapp saved Washington from a nuclear holocaust and along the way made some very powerful enemies! Now those enemies have put a price on his head and hired a very savvy assassin to do the job!

Overall I enjoyed the book like all of the Rapp books. I thought this book moved a little slow in the beginning and I kinda knew what was going to happen, but once “the event” occurred the book picked up and moved well from that point on! I enjoy Rapp’s character well as the supporting cast of Irene Kennedy, the Director of the CIA and Mitch’s friend Scott Coleman. I’m looking forward to the next adventure Act of Treason (#7) which is on my bookshelf along with books 8 and 9!!  But I’m sure I’ll find something else to read before diving into them!

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The Secret Soldier – Alex Berenson (John Wells #5)

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Ok, quick quiz , Who is the current King of Saudi Arabia? Who is his son? Brother? Dis everyone get it right! I wouldn’t have! But they are all main characters in Alex Berenson‘s new John Wells adventure The Secret Soldier. This is book 12 for the year, (boy am I way behind!) and the fifth in the Wells series. After several terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, King Abdullah contacts new ex-CIA operative John Wells to determine if his brother Saed and Saed’s son were involved in the attacks. Saed thinks that he is the rightful heir to the throne, while Abdullah wants his son Khalid to succeed him, and Saed is none to pleased with that.   Soon Wells is immersed in a mission not only to make the determination, but also to save US and Saudi relations!!

I enjoy the character of John Wells and have liked all of the previous adventures. I thought that this book started a little disjointed and slow but once it got rolling there was no stopping the action until the last page was turned!

It’s funny!  I wrote a couple weeks ago, that I picked up Vince Flynn’s Constent to Kill a Mitch Rapp adventure and Saed was also a character in that book! Because I was confusing the plots I stopped reading that book, but now that I’m finished I’ll go back and complete that adventure!

Oh, one more question do you know where the largest clock in the world is??

Here’s a picture of it! It sits atop the  Abraj-al-Bait hotel in a Saudi Arabia city! But you’ll have to read the book to find out where and how it ties into the storyline!!

 

Book 10 – The Breach – Patrick Lee

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Book 10 of 2011 was Patrick Lee’s The Breach.

The Breach is the first book of what’s now a two book series featuring Travis Chase, Paige Campbell and the Breach. The second book, which I read first is Ghost Country. The book is an action adventure book with some sci-fi thrown in.

The Breach itself is an anomaly, like a ripe in space, through which entities are sent to Earth from some other vastly more intelligent world. The entity that is the focus of this book is The Whisper.

The Whisper knows all and it’s mission is to cause trouble and in the book it certainly does! From the opening chapter when a plane carrying the Whisper and the First Lady of the United States goes down and the Whisper is stolen, to the last pages where the home of the Breach Border Town run by a group known as Tangent is attacked the action is fast and furious with lots of twists and turns.

I really liked both of the books and I’m looking forward to more books featuring the likable team of Chase and Campbell!

“It’s all here: brilliantly devious enemies; nifty, innovative gadgets and weaponry; hang-on-to-your-hat action; and razor-sharp plot twists aplenty.”
—Publishers Weekly (read the full review here)

Book 8 – The Ark – Boyd Morrison

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So this time a scientific word that was not coined until 1982, (well after my high school and college days were over and parenting was in year three of son number one and we were waiting for son two), is the center of Book 8 for 2011! The word is prion and the book is Boyd Morrison’s debut novel The Ark. So what is a prion? From Wikipedia:

A prion is an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form.[2] This is in contrast to all other known infectious agents, which must contain nucleic acids (either DNA, RNA, or both) along with protein components. The word prion, coined in 1982 by Stanley B. Prusiner, is a portmanteau derived from the words protein and infection.[3] Prions are responsible for the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in a variety of mammals, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”) in cattle and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. All known prion diseases affect the structure of the brain or other neural tissue and all are currently untreatable and universally fatal.[4]

The novel The Ark combines a little history revolving around Noah’s Ark and a lot of action adventure involving a madman whose plan is to destroy mankind except for those he has handpicked to save and restart civilization!

The action starts when archaeologist Dilara Kenner is contacted by Sam Watson an old family friend who says he has information about her missing father.  When Dilara meets Sam at the LA Airport rather than speaking about her father Sam starts talking about Noah’s Ark (her father’s archaeological obsession) and the possible death of billions! Before he is able to fully explain Sam is killed by a mysterious woman. With his dying breaths Sam tells Dilara to find Tyler Locke.

Two days later Dilara finds Locke on an oil rig off Newfoundland. After an attempt on Dilara’s life (her helicopter crashes) and an attempt to blow up the oil rig Locke is convinced that Dilara is in need of help and agrees to help her discover the secret behind Noah’s Ark and her father’s disappearance. Oh, and they also have to save the world from that madman! The more they find out and link together other attacks the more they realize that they have a short time to find this monster and save billions!  And how do prions fit into all this?  Well you ‘ll just have to read the book to find out!

The action is fast and furious and the pages flew by. I liked the lead characters Dilara and Tyler and Tyler’s associates.  The back cover is riddled with quotes from some of my old favorites like James Rollins and Douglas Preston along with  new favorite  Chris Kuzneski. Here’s what James Rollins says:

“Boyd Morrison’s novel is a stunning thriller with a premise as ingenious as it is flawlessly executed. Lightning Paced, chillingly real, here is a novel that will have you holding your breath until the last page is turned. One of the best debuts I’ve read this year.”

So if you want a good read that mixes, history and science and leaves you slightly concerned about the future of mankind,  read The Ark!

Book 3 – The Lost Throne – Chris Kuzneski

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By Chris Kuzneski

Book No 3 for 2011The Lost Throne by Chris Kuzneski is the fourth book of five in the Jonathan Payne David Jones series and it’s a good one.  I love books that are based on history and teach me something! This one certainly did!  After seven monks are brutally killed at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Greece, Nick Dial, head of Interpol’s Homicide Division is called to investigate the crime. Video footage of the murders reveal that the murders appear to have been commited by Spartans!! Meanwhile ex-special forces officer Jonathan Payne receives frantic calls from a Richard Byrd in Russia who is afraid he is being followed and will be killed! After Byrd is murdered Payne reaches his assistant, a graduate archeology major at Stanford, Allison Brown. Brown, Byrd;s assistant was set to meet Byrd and leave Russia when he was killed. Payne sets out to rescue Brown and discover why Byrd was killed. The remainder of the story revolves around Byrd’s search for the The Lost Throne of Zeus and that puts Payne and his partner on a collision course with the murderers in Greece! The story was great the characters believable and likable and I am certainly going back to catch up on the series! But what did it teach me?

Well, while the story was set in St Petersburg I learned some facts about that city, including the fact that because of  all the rivers and bays it is known as the “Venice of the North” and that because of the geology and water the subway system is the deepest in the world!! Part of the action took place in the Nevsky Prospekt Station. (See photo). Another setting was the St Isaac Square where Jon and Allison where Allison was telling Jon about The Bronze Horseman statue when they were confronted by Russian soldiers and Allison was told to tell the soldier something he didn’t know about the city and she responded by telling him  that Peter the Great opened the first museum in St Petersburg but was afraid that no one would come so he offered a free shot of vodka when they reached the exit of the museum a tradition that continues to today! But back to the statue which stands in the middle of  St. Isaac’s Square and honors Nicholas I, the former emperor of Russia. The statute depicts Nicholas riding into battle. The statue was hailed as an architectural marvel when it was built because it was the first equestrian statue ever with only two support points, the rear legs of the rearing horse! When I was looking for the picture of the statue I saw in Wikipedia that the station rests on a pedestal created by the largest stone ever moved by man!! you can read about it here.

The majority of the story though takes place in Greece, where the monks were killed at the Holy Trinity Monastery one of the six monasteries of the Meteora (suspended rocks) of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Greece, second in importance only to Mount Athos. The description of this monastery took me immediately to Google to look for images and they are breathtaking. You can read more about them here The final action of the book takes place at Mount Athos the most important center of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Greece. The Mount is located at the end of a peninsula in the northeastern corner of Greece. There are twenty monasteries spread across the peninsula and only males are permitted and access is limited it is a self-governing territory like the Vatican!

So when people me ask, why do you read fiction? I respond that it takes me to places I’ve never been and teaches me! That’s why I love the writing of James Rollins, Clive Cussler, and Dan Brown and others of this genre. Hopefully, I can say the same about Boyd Morrsion whose debut novel The Ark I started this morning! So I hope I peeked your interest and you’ll pick up The Lost Throne,,,,,,,,oh yeah remember the guy in Russia was looking for the lost Statue of Zeus…… wonder where it could be????????

Book 1 – 2011 – Crush – Alan Jacobson

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WooHoo! Finally I finished the first book of 2011 – Alan Jacobson’s Crush. It was another book read on the Kindle. I am also reading on the Kindle The Devil We Knew by Robert Baer a book about Iran that we gave to Peter for Christmas, that is really good! Anyway back to Crush. The novel is set in the wine country of California and is the second book in the Karen Vail series. Karen Vail is a profiler who works tracking serial killers. The first book is The 7th Victim, which I saw at Barnes and Noble a while back and made a note on my phone about to look for at the library. But when I got the Kindle I checked out some of the books that I had made notes about and there it was it was for a good price but Crush was a better price FREE! So I’ve read the series out of order!

Like I said the series revolves around Karen Vail a FBI profiler and single mother, who was on vacation in the California wine country, with her boyfriend Robby Hernandez. A mutilated body is discovered in a Wine Cave and soon Karen isn’t on vacation and more but working with the local police to track down the killer. It’s a thriller because you know the killer but it’s one of those, what will he do before you can catch him books! Karen is a likable character and the action is pretty fast paced with a few twists and turns and more dead bodies!

I will certainly read more of Jacobson’s books my question now is, do I go back and read the first book, which available on the Kindle or do I go and get the third book out of the library! Jacobson left so many threads hanging at the end of the book that I think I’ll go read Book 3 Velocity next and then go back and read The 7th Victim!