Category: Move Books

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!

Library Book Sale Treasures!

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Well my Mount To Be Read pile just grew this morning! On my way home from seeing my mother at the home, I was going to drop off some library books. I was surprised to see that the Used Book Sale that I thought was a few weeks away was actually today! So here’s what my ten bucks got me (actually $9.50 but I told them to keep the change! Big of me huh!)

Paperbacks

Storm Front – Jim Butcher – The first book in the Dresden File series. I’ve started this book several times only to find something else to read and then having to take the book back to the library unread!

The Traveler – John Twelve Hawks – I looked at this book a while ago at Borders when I was looking for Sci-fi books to read it looked interesting but I bought something else! (Old Man’s War I think which was very good!)

The Coil – Gayler Lynds – one of those authors whose name I always see and just haven’t read yet!

Blood Work – Michael Connelly – Since I’m currently reading The Narrows and enjoying it. I thought it would be good to read about some events that happened in this book that are referenced in The Narrows

The Codex – Douglas Preston – I’ve read a few of the books Preston has writen with Lincoln Child and enjoyed them and this one looks good!

Hardbacks

Don’t Look Twice – Andrew Gross – I read and enjoyed his book The Blue Zone so I am looking forward to this one!

Winter House – Carol O’Connell – a Mallory novel which is a favorite series, and the next book after Dead Famous which is already on my Mount to Be Read. Maybe knowing I have this book will motivate me to read Dead Famous!

Hell’s Bay – James W. Hall – A Thorn novel having read Red Sky at Night . I look forward to another visit to Thorn’s South Florida world!

DVD

A.M. & P.M. Yoga conditioning for weight loss – Giam – always looking for yoga videos to add new routines !

All in All a great visit to the Book Sale. Tomorrow is a half price sale so I may go back and see if a couple books that I was looking at but didn’t pick up are still there!!

Fear the Worst – Linwood Barclay

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Fear the Worst - Linwood Barclay

 

So there was no time to start another book during the time I was reading Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay. Simply because I couldn’t put this book down!

I guess I’ll forgive Mr Barclay for not writing any more Zack Walker books if he keeps writing books as good as this one.

The Story – Fear The Worst

The story starts one day when a divorced father Tim Blake questions his daughter, who is staying with him for the summer  about some Versace sunglasses that she has. He questions her because he fears she may have stolen them.

The result of his questioning  is that she storms out of the house leaving the receipt on the kitchen table. Well, that night his daughter doesn’t come home and after receiving no phone calls or informationas to where she is! Tim sets out to find her and starts at her job a  motel in town.

When he asks about his daughter he is told that his daughter has never worked there!  Soon the police locate her car abandoned in a mall parking lot in a neighboring town!  The rest of the book revolves around Tim and his ex-wife’s frantic search to find their daughter!

My Thoughts

As usual I love all of the characters in the book. But I particularly Tim, who as a desperate father fighting to find his daughter faces a Herculean task! As I said the book moves along quickly as the tension builds and I was up past my normal bedtime to finish the book!!

Definitely a 4.5 to 5 out of 5 stars and I can’t wait to read his current  book Never Look Away

So if you’ve never read a Linwood Barclay book, check him out! As for me I’m number 12 in the que at the library to get the book , so I’m off to Wyoming and the new C.J. Box book Nowhere to Run!

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

Mixed Blood – Roger Smith a South African Crime Thriller

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Mixed Blood Roger Smoth A South African Crime Thriller

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!  

The Story

Mixed Blood 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.

What I likes abourt Mixed Blood

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 all are a full well developed characters.

Final Thoughts on Mixed Blood

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!

No Time for Goodbye – Linwood Barclay

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No Tim,e for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay

 Orinally posted April 2010 – Revised and Updated April of 2026

What would you do if one day you were a normal fourteen year old with a mother, father and brother. You get caught with a boy in a car at the mall drinking, your father pulls your butt out of the car. you go to bed, Then you wake up the next morning and YOUR FAMILY is GONE! no note, no evidence of a fight or struggle they are just gone! That what happens to Cynthia Bigge in Linwood Barclay’s No Time for Goodbye.

The Story

The story picks up 25 years later, Cynthia is now married to Terry Archer and they have an eight year old daughter Grace. She has lived with this mystery for twenty five years and now things are happening that are opening all the wounds. Is the brown car really following her family? How did her father’s hat get in the house? What’s happening?

My Thoughts

I loved this well crafted well paced book. I have enjoyed Barclay’s books for a while now and have read all four of the Zack Walker books and Too Close to Home also highly recommended) another standalone.

In No Time for Goodbye the characters are believable and story line keeps moving and the suspense building toward the surprising conclusion!

In this book, I really enjoyed the character of Terry Archer, who narrates  the story. His character was a little like Zack Walker, someone, who at times is in a little over their head!

Anyway the book was great and rates at least a 4.5 if not a 5! Go find it and enjoy!

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

Forgotten Books – Bill Granger -November Man

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Bill Granger -November Man

I have seNovember Man - Bill GRangeren other bloggers post about Forgotten Books and I’ve done Forgotten Music. So here is a post about forgotten books. I started keeping a book journal in 1987. I also recorded the date I read the book and some thoughts, Occasionally, I added ratings. ratings. Anyway,  going back through the early book, I came across a series that I really enjoyed the November Man series by Bill Granger. Looking back at March of 1988 and 1989 I read a November Man novel in each year. In 1988 it was the 8th book in the series The Infant of Prague, which I gave 3 stars and said it was better than the previous book I had read  Hemingway’s Notebook. The brief blurb I wrote says Devereaux tries to bring a defector from Czechoslovakia. My comments says the story kept moving and the ending was satisfying! Here is the synopsis at Amazon.

In March of 1989 I read Henry Magee is Not Dead. The synopsis says that Henry Magee is an agent who crossed over in Alaska and there is a complicated plan to ruin R Section (the secret organization that Devereaux heads), a bomb on the Alaskan pipeline and Devereaux and Denisov (Soviet spy defector) end up in Alaska.  There was something about that writing style that made for difficult reading at times but overall a good read! Amazon has a synopsis from Publisher’s Weekly that is a little bit (an understatement) better than mine here

You can see more about Bill Granger and his work at Fantastic Fiction

Final Thoughts

All I remember is that the books were some of the best spy novels I read. They were always exciting  and I loved the title character Devereaux.  These books set me on a course that led to authors like Brad Thor, Vince Flynn and Alex Berenson! If you ever see an old  copy at a library book sale or you online, pick it up. You won’t be disappointed.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Bill Granger

Bill Granger Page

Amazon

AbeBooks

ThriftBooks

The Midnight House – Alex Berenson (John Wells #4)

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So, four weeks plus later and two books read in between, I finally finished Alex Berenson‘s The Midnight House. The Midnight House is the fourth book in the John Wells series and I loved the first three. The story lines were good and John Wells was a well developed character who I liked. So I had high expectations when I picked up this book, unfortunately, the book fell short of those expectations. It’s not that the book was bad, it’s just that there really was no hook that brought me into the story and made me want to keep reading.

The novel revolves around interrogation unit 673 that operated in Poland at what they called The Midnight House. After their operation ended, the majority of the soldiers have been killed and John Wells is called in to find out the whys and wherefores. The story goes back and forth in time to tell the story of what happened at the Midnight House and at times that seemed awkward and confusing. The last one hundred or so pages were better than the first two hundred some and overall the ending was satisfying. But the story lacked any personal development in Wells’ character, though some things were touched on. Overall this book rates a 2 out of 5 stars for me. Maybe it would be more enjoyable for first time readers of the series. Those with no expectations. But will I be waiting for the next John Wells book, yes I will,  because Berenson may just knock one out of the park next time!

Reed Farrel Coleman – Redemption Street-As Good as It Gets!

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Redemption Street -Reed Farrel Coleman

While I am still working my way through The Midnight House I finished book 9 of 2010 Reed Farrel Coleman‘s Redemption Street.

Redemption Street is the second book in Coleman’s Moe Prager series and my first read of this series. Prager is a retired New York City police officer, now running a wine shop with his brother.

The Story

The story opens when a vagrant Arthur Rosen  comes into the shop and wants Prager to find his sister Karen, only problem is that his sister died in a fire in the Catskills sixteen years prior, with two other girls and sixteen other guests. Rosen, his sister and the other girls all went to the same high school as Prager, with one of the girls being a major crush of Prager’s.  Rosen is convinced his sister is still alive.

Prager brushes him off as a crazy and when he goes to apologize a few days later, Rosen finds him, shortly after he has committed suicide and Prager’s name written in blood on his wall. So Prager sets out to set things right and find out what really happened the night of the fire.

Thoughts About Redemption Street

I really enjoyed Coleman’s writing and Moe Prager’s wise-cracking attitude. Most of the story takes place in the Catskill town of Old Rotterdam and Coleman captures the “”sense of the town” and the last gasps of the Catskills after the demise of the Borscht Belt.

The story line was interesting and the characters all believable. Overall a definite  4 out 0f 5. and I will go back and find Walking the Perfect Square the first book in the series and then catch up with the three books that follow.

Reed Farrel Coleman

Links

Author Website
Amazon
Facebook
Instagram
Goodreads;

About Reed Farrel Coleman

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times-bestselling author of thirty-one novels—including the Nick Ryan series and six in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series—short stories, poetry, and essays.

In addition to his acclaimed series characters, Moe Prager and Gus Murphy, he has written the stand-alone novel Gun Church and collaborated with decorated Irish crime writer Ken Bruen on the novel Tower.

Reed is a four time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories: Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Short Story. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.

With their kids moved away to far off Brooklyn, Reed, his wife Rosanne, and their cats live in the wilds of Suffolk County on Long Island. Read More

BornMarch 29, 1956 (age 69)
New York City, U.S.
Pen nameTony Spinosa
OccupationPoet, crime fiction writer
NationalityAmerican
GenreCrime fiction
Years active1991 to present
Notable worksMoe Prager series
Notable awardsAnthony (2006)
Audie (2013)
Barry (2006)
Macavity (2010)
Shamus (2006, 2008, 2009)

A Whisper to the Living (Porfiry Rostnikov #16) – Stuart Kaminsky (Book 6 – 2010)

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A Whisper to the Living

A Whisper to the Living may have been the last novel in Stuart Kaminsky’s long-running Porfiry Rostnikov series, and reading it felt like returning to old friends. Kaminsky once again blends mystery, Russian politics, and family drama into a tightly woven 256 pages.

The Story

In this entry, Porfiry tracks the Bitsevsky Park Maniac, a serial killer seeking notoriety, while his team splits across parallel cases: Sasha and Elena protecting a British journalist investigating a prostitution ring, and Arkady with Iosef pursuing a heavyweight boxer wanted for murder. As always, Kaminsky mixes crime with the human side of his detectives—their families, flaws, and loyalties—set against the backdrop of a changing Moscow.

My Thoughts

At just over 250 pages, it’s not War and Peace, but Kaminsky never needed that. He gave us believable characters, intriguing cases, and a window into Soviet and Russian life. Spending time again with Porfiry and his circle reminded me why this series has been a favorite—these characters will be missed.