Category: Books-Fiction

Daniel Silva – Prince of Fire

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

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

Never Look Away – Linwood Barclay

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Never Look Away - Linwood Barclay

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Other Authors Say ABout Linwood Barclay’s Books

 

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

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

About No Time for Goodbye equally applicable to Never Look Away

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

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

iWebsite
Orion Books
Amazon
Wikipdianks

Linwood Barclay

About Linwood Barclay

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

Visit the Linwood Barclay Page

If you like standalone Mystery/Thrillers…….

Here are three Authors whose books might enjoy:

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

Baja Florida – Bob Morris

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

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

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

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

Bite Me – A Love Story – Christopher Moore

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

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

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

In the words of Carl Hiaasen

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

From the Harper Collins website

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

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

Need a Laugh Grab A Christopher Moore Book!

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

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

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

Here’s a quote about A Dirty Job:

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

Here’s some quotes from the back of Bite Me

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

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

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

Christopher Moore Books Read

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

Favorite Series – The Body Farm Books

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So I am currently reading The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. This is the fifth book in The Body Farm series and I have enjoyed everyone of them. Let’s play the if then game. If you like Kathy Reich’s books and the TV show Bones, then you will like the Body Farm Books. The Body Farm is the Forensics Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee where they study decomposition of the human body. The Body Farm was founded in 1970  by one-half of the writing team Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Bass. What others say about the Body Farm and the novels:

“Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place—forensic anthropologist William Bass’ Body Farm.”
— CNN.com

There is a patch of ground in Tennessee dedicated to the science of death, where human remains lie exposed to be studied for their secrets. The real-life scientist who founded the “Body Farm” has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics . . . and now he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.

In the Body Farm books the fictional Bill Bass – Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady have been faced with a variety of cases to solve two of which involved women that Brockton had relationships with! With a great cast of characters which include Brockton and Miranda along with defense attorney Burton  “Grease” DeVreiss, Medical Examiner Eddie Garcia, fingerprint guru Art Bohanan and other’s  coupled with unmatched forensic detail (who knows more about the body farm’s work than the founder!) this series has become a real favorite of mine!

I just started The Bone Thief and the story opens when Brockton and Miranda are called to exhume a body to get DNA for a paternity test. When they open the coffin they find that both of the arms have been surgically removed and the story sets off from there!!

This is a series that in my opinion should be read from the beginning because each case has added to the development of Dr. Bill Brockton’s character and well they’re just all good reads!! So check them out!

1. Carved in Bone

2. Flesh and Bone

3. The Devil’s Bones

4. Bones of Betrayal

Book 17 – The Narrows – Michael Connelly

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Ok so the last book I read Nowhere to Run by C.J.Box was the 10th book in the Joe Pickett series and now book number 17 The Narrows by Michael Connelly also the 10th book in the series featuring  Harry Bosch only difference is that I have read all the books in the Pickett series and this is my first Harry Bosch book! I had started The Concrete Blonde book # 3 years ago and for one reason or another couldn’t get into it so I never tried to read another Connelly book (the series is now up to 14). What was I thinking! I enjoyed this book, liked both the writing style and Bosch’s character and will certainly read more, having picked up several last week at the library book sale.

The book starts with Harry Bosch, asked by the widow of his former friend Terry McCaleb to investigate what she feels is the murder of her husband. McCaleb’s heart medicine (he had had a heart transplant -the storyline of the book and movie Blood Work)  had been switch with shark cartilage pills leading to a heart attack.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Rachael Walling receives a call that she has dreaded for eight years! Eight years earlier she had been involved in the chase to track done a serial killer known as The Poet, who turned out to be her former mentor at the FBI Robert Backus. The Poet is back and operating in the Las Vegas area. Harry’s investigation into McCaleb’s death quickly puts him on to the trail of The Poet and soon Bosch and Walling must join forces to catch Backus!

Like I said I enjoyed this book and the final pages flew by and I am certainly going to read more Bosch novels. I have a lot of catching up to do!!

My bookshelf at Goodreads.com now holds 796 books – 4 more to 800!! Next up the new Body Farm book by Jefferson Bass The Bone Thief another favorite series featuring Bill Brockton and the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and while I root for Bill Brockton, this Florida Gator can’t root for the Volunteers!

Book 16 – Nowhere to Run – C.J. Box

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Nowhere to Run is my 16th read of the year and the 10th book in Box’s Joe Pickett series, which keeps getting better and better. This books opens with Joe in his last week of temporary assignment in Baggs Wyoming. The assignment has lasted a year and Joe will be returning to his wife and family soon. But Joe goes into the mountains to investigate some strange happenings, which include camp lootings, tents being slashed, and an elk butchered before the shooters can even collect it! There was also the case of a female Olympic class runner going for a run into the woods and never coming back! On the hunt Joe runs into two twin brothers Caleb and Canish Grimm, who appear to be the men who butchered the Elk! When Joe asks for their fishing license and gives them a citation for hunting without a license their wrath is taken out on himand he barely escapes the mountain alive, but not before he potentially sees the Olympic runner……and the rest of the book revolves around finding out who the Grim Brothers are and was that really the lost runner!

Like all Box’s books the characters are great from Joe to his wife Marybeth, Marybeth’s golddigging mother Missy. the kids Sheridan, Lucy and April to Nate Romanowski and the Brothers Grim! Coupled with the characters is Box’s great descriptive writing about the beauty of the mountains that form the setting of the story!

The pages in this book flew by and overall it was a very enjoyable read! The series can probably be read out of order because the story stands on its’ own but to get the full effect you need to know Joe and his past! So get busy because you have nine books to go to catch up but it will be worth the trip!

Roger Smith – Mixed Blood

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So this is the fourth country visited in my quest to read twelve books sent in different countries. So far I have read books set in Canada, Russia, and Australia and now Mixed Blood by Roger Smith set in South Africa, by far the least favorite place to visit of the four!  Book 13 of the year is a gritty book filled with murder, drugs, crooked cops, poverty and despair! The story opens with Jack Burn his wife Susan and son Matt on the run in South Africa after Jack becomes involved in a bank robbery which goes bad leaving a policeman dead. One night two black gangstas climb into their rented home.  To save his family, Jack kills the two men and his life goes downhill from there.

The book is a real page turner and the characters including Benny Mongrel a harden each con working as a watchman in a neighboring house under construction who witnesses the thieves going into the Burn house, Rudi “Gatsby” Barnard the crooked cop who rules by killing and Disaster Rondi, the good cop are a full well developed characters. Like I said the book is gritty and not for the faint of heart with lots of references to drugs, abuse and prostitution. I found that there weren’t a lot of good guys in the book to cheer for, but that did little to detract from the overall effect of the book.

Overall, I liked the book  four stars out of five and will look for more by the author.  But I will stay away from South Africa at least the Cape Flats!

Parnell Hall – You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled (Puzzle Lady #8) Book 11 of 2010

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You Have the Right to Remian Puzzled 2 Book No. 11 for 2010 is the 8th book in the Puzzle Lady series by Parnell Hall, You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled. Now I read my first book in the other series by Parnell Hall featuring Stanley Hastings in 1991 and have loved that series. I read the my first Puzzle Lady book,  Book 1 A Clue for the Puzzle Lady of the series in 2000. Why I’ve waited ten years to read another I don’t know! Maybe it’s like being an Mets fan and not being able to root for the Yankees or the Giants and the Jets anyway to hell with that, I loved this book!

I really enjoyed the character of the Puzzle Lady and the book is written with the same sharp wit that Hall displays in the Hastings series.  The writing will never be confused with great literature, but who needs that when they can enjoy a good mystery and get a lot of laughs too!!  So it’s Tolstoy or Evanovich or Dickens or Hall. I’ll take Hall and Evanovich every time!! So go grab a Puzzle Lady book and enjoy!