Category: Books-Fiction

The World of a CIA Analyst Comes Alive in Mark Hanshaw’s Red Cell

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Red Cell – Mark Henshaw – Krya Stryker and Jonathan Burke Book 1

Mark Henshaw author of Red CellA week or so ago my wife and I completed watching the first five seasons of Homeland.So when I saw Mark Henshaw’s  The Fall of Moscow Station among the new releases at my library I was intrigued. Looking at the book, I saw that it was the third book in Mark’s series that features CIA agents Kyra Stryker and Jonathan Burke. So rather than start with the third book in the series, I found and checked out Red Cell  the first book in the series. Yesterday, Red Cell became the 32 book I have read in 2016. And now that I know Kyra and Jonathan I’m ready for their next assignment which is chronicled in Cold Shot.

About Red Cell

In addition to being the first book in the Stryker – Burke series Red Cell is also Mark Henshaw’s debut novel. And while Henshaw may be new to the world of books, he is not new to the world of the CIA. Henshaw was a CIA analyst for eleven years. He was a decorated analyst. His awards included the Director of National Intelligence Galileo Award for innovation in intelligence analysis, which he won in 2007. What does this mean for the reader, well, he knows what he is writing about!!

Here’s what some people in the know have written about Red Cell.….

“Red Cell is as smart as it is exciting, a thriller that makes you think from the edge of your seat. Mark Henshaw’s unique perspective from the inside makes it all feel terrifyingly real.”

– Howard Gordon, Co-Creator of Homeland and Author of Hard Target.

“Mark Henshaw clearly knows the terrain, from the geopolitical to the tradecraft in the shadows. I’ surprised this made it past the CIA censors. A rock-solid thriller as plausible as tomorrow’s headlines.”

-Brad Taylor author of One Rough Man and All Necessary Force

After Kyra Stryker’s  first assignment in Venezuela goes bad she is assigned to the Red Cell where she will work with the brilliant but somewhat eccentric analyst Jonathan Burke. Soon Kyra and Jonathan are smack in the middle of an international firestorm.

The firestorm is centered off the coast of China and includes a potential invasion of Taiwan by Communist China, a top CIA asset who has been discovered by the China’s MSS and a potential Chinese weapon the Assassin’s Mace that may tip power toward China. And it’s Kyra and Jonathan’s job to figure it all out and make sure everything turns out ok!!

Bottom-Line

: Red Cell is a 3.5 star book for me. The technical details concerning the operation of the CIA are certainly five-star. But for me Henshaw the first part of the book dragged and i didn’t get to really know Kyra and Jonathan until the second half of the book.

There were also a couple of things that bothered me in the second half of the book. Things happened during Kyra’s assignment in Beijing that bordered on unbelievable.

Overall though I enjoyed the book and look forward to Stryker and Burke’s next assignment. I’m sure that as Henshaw improves as a writer the books in turn will improve. I also think that as the characters are more fully fleshed out I will enjoy the books more!  Does anyone have any comments on  Red Cell or Henshaw’s books in general?

 

 

The Silent Hour – Michael Koryta

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The Silent Hour – Michael Koryta – Lincoln Perry #4

My first introduction to the books of Michael Koryta was via his Lincoln Perry detective series.I read books two and three in the series.Why I never read book one, I don’t know. Most recently I’ve read a couple of his stand-alone thrillers (A couple of the others are on my “to be read” shelves).

Frankly, I haven’t thought about Lincoln Perry for several years. That was until I spotted The Silent Hour book four in the series at my library a few weeks ago.When I saw it, I remembered how much I liked the books. I was not thrilled when he ended the series. Anyway, I checked it out and now it’s book 31 for 2016.

The Plot…..

The Silent Hour could be subtitled “the case Lincoln Perry didn’t want.” That’s because from the moment ex-con and self-confessed  Parker Harrison asks Lincoln to find the missing Alexandra Cantrell, Lincoln is not thrilled. Alexandra and her husband Joshua had provided a semi halfway house for ex-cons called Whisper Ridge. Alexandra and Joshua gave the ex-cons employment around their majestic  home and a chance to get back their dreams. Parker had been one of those ex-cons the Cantrells helped.

Then the Cantrells suddenly disappeared abandoning the multi-million dollar mountainside home. Two aspects of the case made it less than attractive for Lincoln. First the Cantrells had been missing for twelve years and secondly Alexandra was the daughter of a mob boss! Ex-cons and  mob bosses – what could go wrong?

Lincoln was ready to walk away from the case when he discovered that the bones of Joshua Cantrell were found in Pennsylvania. They had been found at about the time Lincoln was first contacted by Parker. Why hadn’t Parker mentioned the bones being found?  Hmm, the case was getting more and more intriguing.When a PI shows up from Pa. asking Lincoln’s help in finding out what happened to Joshua. Lincoln is sucked into the mystery! But will the case be the last case for Lincoln?

Bottom-line

The Silent Hour is certainly a four-star book for me. The plot twists and turns and just when you think you’ve figured it out- you haven’t! I have enjoyed the interplay between all of the main characters in the series, Lincoln and his girlfriend Amy Ambrose and his partner Joe Pritchard. This book is no exception, even though Joe is in Florida miles from Cleveland. From The St. Petersberg Times….

The inventive plot of The Silent Hour surprises right up to the end, and in Perry, Koryta has created a classic tough detective—a man with enough dark passages in his own past to recognize them in others, a bulldog who just can’t let go until the ending of the story is told, no matter how close to hell it takes him.”

Final Thought

I  wrote earlier that I have enjoyed this series and was sad to see it end. however having checked back in with the books of Michael Koryta I discovered that he has a new PI series featuring. Mark Novak book one Last Words  was released in  August of 2015 and book two Rise of the Dark will be released on August 16th of this year. I just went to Amazon and bought the Kindle Edition for $2.99  Check that out here. I look forward to checking them out! Once again though, those two standalones are waiting to be read! Too many books too little time!

2016 Reading Challenge Update: July 2016

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2016 Reading Challenge Update: July 2016

 

So I haven’t written much about my reading this month. The main reason is that while I have been reading it seems that I have only finished one book, John Verdon’s Think of a Number, this month. Hopefully, I will finish at least one more book before the end of the month.Right now I have finished 29 books this year. My goal for the year is 60 books, so I’m about half the way there.

Currently Reading

Currently, I am reading The Silent Hour by Michael Koryta. the fourth book in his Lincoln Perry series. Over the last few years Michael Koryta has written many stand alone thrillers and while I have enjoyed these books. I have always liked the Lincoln Perry series, too.So far I am enjoying this book.

I am also reading Howard Blum‘s Dark Invasion:1915 Germany’s Secret War and The First Terrorist Cell in America. This is a fascinating book about the chase to catch the German terrorist who were attacking US ships during the year leading up to America’s entry into World War I. I was totally unfamiliar with almost all of the things presented in the book, including bombing of the US Congress.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish this book and the Koryta book before the end of the month. Finishing these books would at least make my monthly total of books read respectable.

2016 Reading Challenge Update

 

The 2016 Socialstudious Reading Challenges TBR Library Total Goal % of Goal
         
2016 Literature Reading Challenge
General Fiction 0 3 3 6 50.00%
Classics 0 0 0 6 0.00%
NY Times Bestseller List 0 0 0 6 0.00%
Award-Winners 0 1 1 6 16.67%
2015 Mystery/Thriller Reading Challenge
Mystery (Series) and Thrillers 1 18 19 10 190.00%
Women Mystery Book Authors 0 0 3 10 30.00%
2016 Science Fiction /Fantasy Challenge 0 0 0 6 0.00%
2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 1 2 3 10 30.00%
Totals 0 0 0
29 60 48.33%
2016 TBR Pile Challenge 2 25

 

Projected August Reads

 

As you can see, while I have read enough books to have reached  48% of my goal, over half of the books read are Mystery Series or Thrillers!! If I take the nine books I am over in that challenge away from the totals I have only read completed 33% of the challenge total (20 of 60 books). So I have some work to do regarding the various challenges!! So here is a potential reading list for August.

Book Author Reading Challenge
Life of Pi Yann Martel Award-Winners
The Everything Box Richard Kadrey General Fiction
The Night Season Chelsea Cain Women’s Mystery
Orbus Neil Asher Science Fiction
Connectograohy Parag Khanna Non-fiction

 

About The Projected Reads

 

Life of Pi won the Man Booker Prize and is on many must read lists. It is a book that I have always wanted to read, but somehow have never read.

I picked up The Everything  Book at the library early this week. After reading the following on the jacket of the book and seeing a quote from Christopher Moore on the back of the book, I figured this would be a book I will really like1

2000 B.C.
A beautiful, ambitious angel stands on a mountaintop, surveying the world and its little inhabitants below. He smiles because soon, the last of humanity who survived the great flood will meet its end, too. And he should know. He’s going to play a big part in it. Our angel usually doesn’t get to do field work, and if he does well, he’s certain he’ll be get a big promotion.
And now it’s time . . .
The angel reaches into his pocket for the instrument of humanity’s doom. Must be in the other pocket. Then he frantically begins to pat himself down. Dejected, he realizes he has lost the object. Looking over the Earth at all that could have been, the majestic angel utters a single word.
“Crap.”

I have seen Chelsea Cain name for a while now and The Night Season has been on my TBR pile for far to long. It’s time it was read and I enter the world of Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell. Hopefully, it won’t matter that I am jumping into the series at book #4!

Last year I entered the Polity universe of Neal Asher reading Dark Intelligence book one in the transformation series.Orbus is also set in the Polity Universe but is the third book in Asher’s Spatterjay series. Once again I hope I can enjoy a book in the middle of a series.

My final read for August will be Connectography:Mapping the Future of Global Civilization by Parag Khanna. I have already started this book and it is a fascinating analysis of the global connection of communities. It discuss the ways modern technology is connecting areas beyond the made up borders of countries!!

If finish all of these books I may be back on track to come close to my goal of 60 books and take a little bite out of my Reading Challenges – Wish Me Luck!!0

Think of a Number – John Verdon – (Dave Gurney # 1) – A Great Series Starter!

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Think of a Number - John Verdon - Dave Gurney Number 1
Think of a Number – Dave Gurney #1

Originally posted on July 20, 2015. Updated October 2025 with new links, images, and reflections after reading additional books in the Dave Gurney series.

John Verdon’s  debut novel Think of a Number has  been on my To Be Read bookshelves for a very long time. Each time I pass the book, I say to myself “you know you should read that book”. Until last week, my answer was “I’ll get to it one of these days!”. Well, one of these days came last week and now I can kick myself for not reading it earlier!! Maybe I should have just taken the time to read the David Baldacci quote on the cover:

“Remarkable…The writing is haunting and quotable. the twists expertly placed and infinitely plausible… You can read the book as a game of cat and mouse, a ride of chilling suspense or a literary repast, since it provides all in abundance.”

All of the above is true.. the line he left out is you’ll feel like kicking yourself if you don’t read it!!

The cat and mouse in the story are retired, NYPD Detective Dave Gurney and the mouse a meticulous and diabolical serial killer.

The Plot

The story begins when Dave receives a call  form an old classmate who is panicked. He has received a letter that asks him to ‘think of a number any number up to a thousand – the first number that comes to your mind. Picture it. Now see how well I know your secrets. Open the envelope”.  When the envelope is opened and the number 658 is revealed the classmate is panicked. He can not believe that the letter writer guessed correctly. What else may he know! What did he do to anger this man!

Soon additional poetic letters arrive one requesting money. The classmate of course pays. Soon the letters become more threatening, culminating in the ritualistic murder of the classmate. He is stabbed multiple times in the neck with a broken bottle of Four Roses whiskey. The minimal evidence left at the scene, a folding lawn chair, cigarette butts and tracks in the snow, all lead nowhere and Dave and the police are left baffled!

When another victim turns up in Brooklyn murder in a similar fashion, Dave knows that its the work of a serial killer. But with no evidence of significance found at either crime scene how will they catch this killer!  But catch him they must or more will die!!

What I Thought –  Rating 4.5 out of 5.

Think of the Number is  a well-crafted debut novel. I thought the storyline was original and intricate. I enjoyed the characters, particularly Dave Gurney. During the time that Gurney served in the New York Police Department, he caught more serial killers than anyone else in the history of the NYPD.

Now even though he is retired from the force, he can’t stop doing what he does best – Catching Bad Guys!! Of course Dave is caught between a rock and a hard place though.

His wife Madeline wants Dave to stay retired and out of harms way. She knows though, that Dave’s not going to let this one go, especially since the victim was a friend. Of course there is the other reason, too. Dave is a cop who loves to solve cases, and this one is one intriguing cases to crack!! So Check it Out!

As for me, I am now set to move on to book two in the series Shut Your Eyes Tight. The good part is that the book is already on my Kindle!! I bought it a while back, when Amazon had it on sale for $1.99!

I also have book four Peter Pan Must Die on the Kindle, bought in a similar fashion!!

Now all I need is for book 3 Let The Devil Sleep to go on sale before I finish book 2! My guess is that will not happen. But there’s always hope – and the library!! Oh no Book 5 Wolf Lake was release on July 16th!!

Update (October 2025): Since first posting this review, I’ve continued with John Verdon’s Dave Gurney series — reading Book 2, Shut Your Eyes Tight and Book 3, Let the Devil Sleep. Both build on Gurney’s analytical mind and Verdon’s knack for psychological tension. I’m looking forward to diving into Book 4, Peter Pan Must Die next.

Links

Author’s Website
Goodreads
Amazon

John Verdon

John P. Verdon is an American novelist. In 2010, Crown/Random House published his first mystery thriller, Think of a Number, the debut novel in the Dave Gurney detective series. Wikipedia

Born: 1942 (age 83 years), The Bronx, New York, NY

Education: Fordham University, Regis High School

Here is the trailer for Think of a Number.…..

Visit Shut Your Eyes Tight – Dave Gurney Book #2

Smorgasblog Episode 1 – Books, Music and More….

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A Tasty Smorgasblog Episode 1

 

So what the hell is a smorgasblog?? According to the Urban Dictionary  defines a smorgasblog as….

A blog entry in which the writer writes about several different, often unrelated topics.

In yesterday’s smorgasblog he wrote about everything from global warming to what he had for breakfast to how he hates golf to his travel plans for next summer.

A blog entry in which the writer writes about several different, often unrelated topics.
In yesterday’s smorgasblog he wrote about everything from global warming to what he had for breakfast to how he hates golf to his travel plans for next summer

It seems that the word is perfect for a blogger whose thoughts and interests are all over the place! Uh, that would be me! So if you are here looking for a little bit of everything – Welcome!!

A Little Family Update

Now what’s been happening! Well, this week is the second week that I have not been babysitting my grandson Oliver at least one or  to days a week. I have been doing that since he was he was four or five months old. (He is now 27 months old and is going to daycare now five days a week, and while it is a good change from the physical side, mentally I miss him! So my wife decided that we should pick him up early on Wednesday and spend the early evening with him, which we did yesterday and it worked out well! And before you think I’ve had a bunch of time on my hands over those two weeks, think again, because our babysitting duties with our granddaughter Zoe have increased now that he mommy’s job went from part to full-time and her great-grandmother’s sitting time has been limited. But babysitting for both of them is a joy!

The Books

Even with the increase in babysitting Zoe,, I have been able to finish three books over the last three weeks bringing the total of books read for the year to 28! So I am on pace to read 56 books in 2016.and while that is two books off of the pace to read 60 books, it is still ahead of last year’s pace. Last year’s total number of books read was 51. The last three books I have read are

Small Move, Big Change - Smorgasblog 1 BookBook 26. Small Move, Big Change: using microresolutions to transform your life permanently by Caroline I. Arnold/ – I thought that this was a really good book and one that I will need to go back and investigate more in-depth and try to implement some of Ms. Arnold’s ideas. I totally agree we her basic theory that small measurable resolutions are much better than big sweeping resolutions. It may be easier to say I will read five books a month than 60 in a year. The goal of reading 60 books seems so unreachable but five per month, well, maybe I can do that. Here is a good summation of the book.

‘I  love this book! From page one, Small Move, Big Change is filled with wisdom. insight, and whip-smart “micro” suggestions that you can I actually implement to change your life” – Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

I am in total agreement with Ms Chua assessment of Small Move, Big Change. By the way all those who are familiar with Amy Chua, raise your hand. I know you can’t see them, but my hands never left the keyboard!! So I went to Amazon and then to the Burlington County Library and here’s what  I found out about Amy ….

An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother’s exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way.

All decent parents want to do what’s best for their children. What Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reveals is that the Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that. Western parents try to respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions and providing a nurturing environment. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect your children is by preparing them for the future and arming them with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, her way-the Chinese way-and the remarkable results her choice inspires.  Read More

Hmm, to late for thoughts about how to raise my kids…..but there’s always that grandchildren….I may have to check this book out!

Books number 27 and 28 were both thrillers. One from an author that is new to me Chris Carter and the second from one of my favorites James Rollins. I will write more about both books soon, but here are some initial though about each book

An Evil Mind

 

 

Book 27. An Evil Mind – Chris Carter –  (Robert Hunter #6) This may be a 5-star book for me. I thought it was extremely well crafted. I loved it! From Amazon….

.A freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the Sheriff’s Department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide, but further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery – a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years.

The suspect claims he is a pawn in a huge labyrinth of lies and deception – and he will now only speak to Robert Hunter of the LAPD.

Just a riveting read, that will certainly send me scampering to find other books in the series! Maybe Books 1 and 7 so I can stay current and also find out what has gone on before!

War Hawk

 

Book 28 War Hawk – James Rollins and Grant Blackwood. I am a big fan of James Rollins’ Sigma Force novels and this second installment of the Tucker Wayne series has all the makings of being just as good. Roliins and Blackwood offer the same blend of cutting edge science and technology with great characters (one of them in this series is a K-9) and action!

Former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his war dog Kane are thrust into a global conspiracy that threatens to shake the foundations of American democracy in this second exciting Sigma Force spinoff adventure from New York Times bestselling authors James Rollins and Grant Blackwood.

Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She’s on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist—a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government. Read more

Another winner!!

The Music

So to wrap up this first Smorgasblog how about some of the music I’ve been listening to….(music listing has been somewhat limited I am afraid I  just have too much to do!) Two of the albums that I have really enjoyed over the last couple of days are the latest from Sherry Finzer, Darin Mahoney and Will Clipman Trialogue.  A New Age tour-de force! You’ll be ready more about this album in the future! And the new album from jazz trumpeter Marquis Hill The Way We Play. So check them out!

Here’s the opening track from Trialogue

Jack 1939 – Francine Mathews

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Jack 1939 – Francine Mathews’s story of JFK in Europe in 1939

 

The inspiration for the historical novel Jack 1939 came to author Francine Mathew after seeing a photograph of John Kennedy on a street in Germany in 1937. She writes this about the picture..he was….

….wearing clothes he’d probably slept in for a week, tousled hair, head thrown back , mouth opened in a grin. He was  juggling fruit for the camera. He looked like a wild and free street busker without a care in the world; he was also rail thin, the bones in his face painfully prominent I forgot completely that he had ever been that young. The image haunted me for weeks. I wanted to know more about that boy….

So Francine read several books about Jack Kennedy and the Kennedy family. Based upon the facts, she wrote Jack 1939, a novel of speculative fiction that tells a tale of Jack in Europe in 1939, ostensibly traveling through Europe for the purpose of gathering information for his thesis. While actually gathering information for President Franklin Roosevelt about Hitler’s spy rings and plans as the world braces for the war to come. In the novel Jack is confronted by a sadistic killer, meets a beautiful married woman, encounters the Enigma machine and searches for a ledger stolen for a charity with information that could bring down the House of Kennedy!!

Here’s what some others say about the novel…

“A triumph: an exciting thriller, an intriguing exploration of a troubled time, and an absorbing take on the early history of one of America’s most iconic figures. Highly recommended”. Iain Pears author of An Instance of the Fingerpost

” Like JFK  himself, this book is smart, sexy and unafraid to take risks. With nimble prose and easy charm. Francine Mathews leads us beyond the frontiers of history to make us believe in her version of a young Kennedy at large in a dark-world of prewar spies and secrets”. – Dan Fesperman, author of Lie in the Dark

In the Afterward of Jack 1939 Francine says that she roughly used the actual times and places that Kennedy was as he crossed Europe in 1939, gathering information for his senior thesis. For me that made this novel a whole lot better.

The book did provide a great glimpse into the early life of JFK and for me his medical problems were particularly interesting. I never knew about how fragile his health was. They did a great job of hiding that both during his Presidential campaign and his years as President.

Bottom Line: I thought that the descriptions of Jack and the Kennedy family and even Roosevelt, Hoover and Churchill were better than the storyline. I had so trouble getting through the middle of the book, but the last half of the book was better than the first half. Overall, I liked the Jack 1939 but it was not a page-turner for me. So it is a 3 star out of 5 book for me!! But well worth checking out!

Book 25 for 2016

Robotham and Donlea End April on High Note

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Starter House by Sonja Condit Starts May Right!

Over the last several weeks I have finished reading several books and over the weekend I added several to my “to be read” shelf. Here are the books that I have finished….along with the date finished and the book’s number on my list of books read in 2016……

20. Close Your Eyes – Michael Robotham (April 27th) Book Joseph O’Loughlin #8

From Goodreads….

When a former student bungles a murder investigation, clinical psychologist Joseph O’Loughlin steps in to face a ruthless killer.

A mother and her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote farmhouse, one defiled by multiple stab wounds and the other posed like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince. Joe O’Loughlin is drawn into the investigation when a former student, trading on Joe’s reputation by calling himself the “Mindhunter,” jeopardizes the police inquiry by leaking details to the media and stirring up public anger.

With no shortage of suspects and tempers beginning to fray, Joe discovers a link between these murders and a series of brutal attacks where the men and women are choked unconscious and the letter “A” is carved into their foreheads. Read More

Along with the above there is a secondary storyline the book. Joe is asked by his estranged wife to move back into their cottage with his family which includes his wife and their two daughters. Joe is thrilled at the prospect of reuniting with his wife and daughters only problem is that his wife has cancer. And once again Joe is faced with the problem of balancing his work and his family!!

Bottom Line: Close Your Eyes is another excellent book from Michael Robotham. This series is one of my favorites and like many of them it keeps getting better which is very hard to do because Robotham set the bar really high with his early books!! I will even forgive him for joining the ranks of William Kent Krueger and Karin Slaughter Ratings: Goodreads **** (4.15)  *RGrandad **** 1/2 (4.5)

Summit Lake a recent reads21. Summit Lake – Charlie Donlea (April 29th)

From Goodreads…..

Set in a small, picturesque North Carolina town, Charlie Donlea’s suspenseful debut novel tells the haunting story of a murdered law school student, the reporter assigned to her story—and the intimate connection that comes when the living walk in the footsteps of the dead.

“No suspects. No persons of interest. Just a girl who was alive one day and dead the next.” Read More

This is Charlie Donlea’s debut novel and a smashingly good debut it is! The murder victim is Becca Eckersley a first year law student and the daughter of a powerful attorney who is about to become a judge. After Becca is murdered investigator Kelsey Castle is sent by her employer Events magazine to Summit Lake to find out what happened. Once she arrives Kelsey discovers that the murder appears to be more complex than the theory that the Feds are promoting that it was a random robbery gone bad. The story is told by both flashbacks which chronicle the last year of Becca’s life and Kelsey’s current investigation.

Bottom Line: Summit Lake was a very good read. It took me a while to get into the story and I must admit that I found some aspects of the story somewhat implausible. Particularly the willingness of the county police chief to give police files to Kelsey. But the overall story more than made up for those minor dislikes.  Ratings Goodreads **** (4.07) RGranddad ****

 

Starter House a recent read22. Starter House –  Sonja Condit  (May 8th)

From Goodreads…..

In the vein of Heart-Shaped Box and The Thirteenth Tale, Starter House is a haunting and skillfully told debut novel about a newlywed couple and their first home — a home that seems to be haunted by a very malicious ghost. Read More

This was a Dollar Tree purchase and I have to say that the were more aspects of this book that troubled me than in Summit Lake.  The first thing that bothered me was that after meeting that little boy and feeling a presence that pushed her down the stairs resulting in almost losing her baby.,Lacey Miszlak didn’t just say I’m not staying in this house. Secondly, is that she never really tells her husband what’s going on in the house! Poor Eric! But as the storyline progressed those things seemed less and less important and I enjoyed the unraveling mystery.

Bottom Line : While I liked Starter House it never really that scared me . I did get engrossed in the book about two-thirds of the way in and really liked it from then on until the end. While I enjoyed the characters I never really connected all that much with them particularly Eric, whose character I really did not like that much at all. So over all good but not great for me! Ratings Goodreads: ***+ (3.16) RGranddad *** (3.00)

Ok so I was going to discuss the three new books that I added to my to be read pile in this post, but I think that I’ll save that for another post!!

Entry Island – Peter May

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Peter May’s – Entry Island  A Read for Mystery Lovers and Lovers of Genealogy

 

I always say that I love to read because books take me to places that i will never visit. One such place is the Outer Hebrides islands off of the western coast of Scotland. I have visited these islands four times thanks to the books of Peter May. The first three visits came via May’s Lewis Trilogy. That trilogy is composed of Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. Each of these books is a terrific read. The last visit was through another of May’s books Entry Island. The setting for the trilogy is modern-day Scotland and features Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod. The dual settings for Entry Island are contemporary Entry Island in the St Gulf of St.Lawrence in Canada and the Outer Hebrides of the mid-19th century. The one thing that one gets from all the books is the life is rough in the Outer Hebrides!!

A Brief Synopsis

Entry Island begins when police detective Sime MacKenzie is sent to the island as part of a team investigating a murder. The main suspect of the murder is the victim’s wife and when Sime first meets her he swears he knows her! As he mulls over why he may know her, Sime begins to have vivid dreams based on the stories that his grandmother used to read to him and his sister when they were little. The stories came from Sime’s great-grandfather’s dairies. They focus on the his life in Scotland and eventually Canada in the mid-1800s.

Entry Island works as both a fine mystery novel with many twists and turns before the final murderer is revealed and a historic tale about the adversities faced by residents of the Outer Hebrides.The novel also paints a grim picture of the conditions that many of our ancestors faced as they made their way to a new land. Reading the novel  made me stop and think about what it must have been like for my ancestors who came to America in the 1800s. from both Scotland and Ireland.

Here’s what some others say……

“Told with exceptional clarity and a fine eyefor the clausrophobia of island life, it weaves a hypnotic spell as it jumps between generations and proves that May is a writer to be cherished” – Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

“May is the master of painting a vivid picture of his chosen landscapes and weaving a fascinating plot. The research he has packed into this well-paced dual tale is impressive…. An absorbing tale from a writer at the top of his game.” Daily Express

Bottom Line:

Entry Island is another fantastic read from Peter May. It works for both mystery lovers and those who love genealogy! Entry Island was named the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2014, and it also won the ITV Specsavers Book Club Dagger for the Best Read of the Year 2014, So Check it Out!!   Rating **** Book 19 of 2016

Links for Further Exploration of the Books of Peter May

Website
Goodreads
Amazon

The 6th Extinction – James Rollins

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The 6th Extinction - James Rollins

Originally posted April 2016 Revised and updated April 2026

I don’t think there are many authors who blend science, history and action together better than James Rollins. I read several of his early stand-alone novels before I read my first Sigma Force novel Map of Bones and since then I don’t think I’ve missed an installment in the series.

One thing I love about James Rollins is that at the end of his books he always discusses the truth or fiction of  the science or history contained in the book,

In the6th Extinction that discussion  covers ten pages! The science discussed ranges from XNA, Jumping genes, De-Extinction, Extremophiles to Antarctic life and geology. While the history discussed includes Darwin’s Voyage on the Beagle and the Germans in Antarctica!….

From Goodreads – The Story

A remote military research station broadcasts a frantic distress call that ends with a chilling message: Kill us all. When soldiers arrive to investigate, they discover everyone in the lab is dead—not just the scientists, but every living thing for fifty square miles is annihilated: every animal, plant, and insect, even bacteria. The land is completely sterile—and the blight is spreading.

To prevent the inevitable, Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma must decipher a threat that rises out of the distant past.  A time, when Antarctica was green and Earth’s life balanced on a knife edge. Following clues from an ancient map rescued from the lost Library of Alexandria, Sigma will make a shocking discovery involving a prehistoric continent, and a new form of death buried under miles of ice. Read More

The Bottom Line:

The 6th Extinction is scary good, because most of the technological stuff is real and it’s scary!! The book gets 4.5 stars out of 5. Next up on the Rollins front is The Bone Labyrinth the latest Sigma Force adventure!

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James Rollins

About James Rollins

James Rollins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers. His writing has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than 20 million books. The New York Times says, “Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together.” NPR calls his work, “Adventurous and enormously engrossing.”

Far From True – Linwood Barclay

  By

Far From True – Linwood Barclay (Promise Fall #2)

(Book 16 of 2016)

Far From True is the second book in the Promise Falls trilogy from Linwood Barclay and once again Barclay has hit it out of the park! The book picks up where its predecessor Broken Promise leaves off, only  now there’s more upheaval in the quiet town of Promise Falls, leaving Detective Barry Duckworth with his hands full! The new trouble starts when a bomb goes off  on the closing night of the Constellation Drive-In and its big screen comes tumbling down and wreaks havoc on the town. Two of the people killed are Adam and Mariam Chalmers.The couple were crushed in Adam’s prized Jaguar when said screen came tumbling down.

The next morning, Private Investigator Cal Weaver receives a call from Adam’s daughter. Someone had broken into her parents house, She hires Weaver to investigate the break-in. When he discovers a secret room in the basement used for sex parties, complete with cameras to record the action, he figures someone may have taken some incriminating DVDs from the home. But who and why is the question??

Meanwhile Barry Duckworth is still trying to figure out who killed two Promise Falls women three years apart. First Olivia Fisher three years prior, and most recently Rosemary Grayson who along with her husband were central figures in Broken Promise. Both women were killed in a similarly brutal manner.

As if all of the above is not enough, another Promise Falls resident Samantha Worthington has her own problems. Her in-laws have been attempting to take her nine-year old son Carl away from her, any way they can, legal or illegal! In Broken Promise she was photographed in a compromising position, which her in-laws have tried to us to have her give up Carl. Now they are in Promise Falls to apologize??

I could probably add  more telling you about the disgraced ex-mayor who wants to run for reelection and his campaign manager, who by the way was the other person photographed in that compromising picture, or that several incidents in the town including the drive-in explosion have revolved around the number 23, but let’s just say that there’s a lot going on in this sleepy little town. Which is probably the reason that Barclay has needed three books to tell the tale!

But wait the tales of many of the residents of Promise Falls didn’t start with Broken Promise, they started back in Too Close to Home when readers met Derek Cutter and his family. Then readers met David  Harwood and his son Ethan in Never Look Away and although he wasn’t living in Promise Falls at the time, they met former Promise Falls police officer now private investigator Cal Weaver in A Tap on the Window. Each of these Promise Falls residents have played pivotal roles in these last two books.

I can’t think of any other authors who have taken characters from several stand-alone books and blended them into a series like this Promise Falls series. I for one can’t wait until November when the final book of the trilogy will be released!

Bottom Line – Linwood Barclay is a master of telling stories about common people facing extraordinary problems whether it’s a missing child (Never Look Away) or trying to discover why your son committed suicide (A Tap on the Window)  Now Barclay has now returned to his roots and made a series from his Promise Falls characters. I say return to his roots, because his first four books were a series, featuring the original common man facing extraordinary circumstances – Zack Walker! For me Far From True is one of Linwood Barclay’s best books, like C.J. Box he just keeps getting better and better!!

The New York Times Book Review writes…..

“Some days, all you really want is for someone to tell you a wicked good story. Linwood Barclay answers the reader’s perpetual prayer”

I for one say thank you Linwood Barclay!!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Linwood Barclay

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