“MYSTERY”  By Jonathan Kellerman

         An Alex Delaware Novel  (New 2011)

2011 Book Review #121

Publisher’s Journal Review

When Lt. Milo Sturgis of LAPD homicide asks psychologist Alex Delaware to view the faceless corpse of a young woman, Alex is shocked to recognize the gunshot victim as someone he and wife, Robin, saw the night before in a restaurant bar.

A link turns out to exist between the dead woman and a sinister-looking man Alex and Robin observed outside the bar that night.

An anonymous tip leads to an online service that matches "sugar daddies" with "star-quality sweeties." The victim, who called herself "Mystery," had a "daddy," Markham McReynolds, whose wealthy, anything-goes family offers plenty of suspects, including McReynolds's wife, two sons, and two daughters-in-law.

Kellerman's bantering detectives make it look almost too easy as they put together the clues and possible scenarios, despite the unusual solution to the crime. 

My Thoughts:  I am a huge fan of Jonathan Kellerman and his wife, Faye.  This is his 26th Alex Delware/Milo Sturgis Novel.  It was just as good as all the others!

“Society”   By Michael Palmer

 Written in 2004....

2011 Book Review  #118

Book List Review

Moral outrage over how managed-care companies make medical decisions based on the bottom line rather than on patient need is the central issue in the latest medical thriller from popular physician-author Palmer.

No one knows the restraints managed care has put on the medical industry better than Dr. Will Grant. An extremely gifted doctor, Will is also an extremely vocal advocate for patients' rights; though admirable, this trait has caused him endless friction with the doctors with whom he works.

His dedication to medicine has also led to divorce and countless other personal woes. Worse, zealots who take extreme measures to keep the HMOs in line seek Will out as an ally. Should he align himself with these self-righteous activists? Probably not.  Especially when highly paid executives from some of the wealthiest HMOs begin to turn up dead.

On the case is rookie detective Patty Moriarty (well, she's second chair after almost screwing up the investigation completely), who reluctantly gets Will on her side. His knowledge of the issues is unsurpassed, but she fears her working relationship with him may put her in the killer's sites.

Relevant, gripping reading with a provocative moral dilemma at its center. 

My Thought:  I liked this book!  It is fictionally based on a potentially serious subject!

"10th Anniversary"
By James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
                A Women's Murder Club Mystery
2011 Book Review #97

         BookList Review

The tenth entry in Patterson's Women's Murder Club series opens with the wedding of Sergeant Lindsay Boxer to her longtime love, Joe Molinari. Soon after exchanging vows with Joe, Lindsay is on the trail of a missing baby whose 15-year-old mother was found wandering the streets in the rain, dazed and disoriented. 
  

ADA Yuki Castellano is trying an important case that could make or break her career; it involves a wealthy doctor accused of fatally shooting her unfaithful husband in cold blood. Yuki is none too pleased when Lindsay looks into the case at the behest of the woman's attorney, but Yuki has a secret of her own: she's started dating Lindsay's boss.

Reporter Cindy Thomas is working on a story about several women who have been drugged and raped in the San Francisco area, but the big lead she uncovers threatens to make her a target. 

My Thoughts:  The Women's Murder Club series is my favorite of James Patterson’s books.  Some have been made into movies and I hope this one is too!  Loved it!

“Reunion in Death”  

       By J.D. Robb

An Eve Dallas Mystery  Set in the year 2059

 

2011 Book Review # 91

Book List Review

Shortly after wealthy older men with no known enemies start being poisoned, Detective Eve Dallas determines that Julianna Dunne, a wily ex-con, is the perpetrator. The beautiful but chameleonlike murderess is using the killings to get to Eve, who had put her behind bars nearly a decade earlier.

Eve's pursuit takes her back to her own traumatic roots, thus providing fans of the series with a more detailed description of her horrendous childhood.

In addition, Eve mentors her protege, Peabody, with gritty advice: "And when you step down there, you remember you're one bad b..ch cop, and you drink blood for breakfast."

Fourteenth in the futuristic romantic suspense series, this novel takes place as the lusty marriage of Eve and her husband, the fabulously wealthy Rourke, approaches the one-year mark.

My Thoughts:   J.D. Robb is one of my favorite authors.  Unfortunately, the language and sex scenes put me off some.  I still read them because the characters and the plots still appeal to me!  I try to ignore the rest!

Warning:  Bad Language and sexual scenes abound.

“Rebel Island”   By Rick Riordan

       A Tres Navarre  Mystery

 

2011 Book Review #80

From both 

the Publishers Weekly Review 

            and the Booklist Review.

  

San Antonio’s PI Tres Navarre has just retired and married his longtime girlfriend, Maia, who's eight-plus-months pregnant.  Tres' wheelchair-bound older brother, Garret, has persuaded the couple to honeymoon together with him and other old friends on the Texas Gulf's Rebel Island.  This is the same island where Tres and Garret spent vacations with their dysfunctional parents.

The fly in the ointment is when the hotel's owner, (Garrett's old chum and Tres' nemesis), Alex Huff, and the desk clerk go missing. Actually, there are two flies in the ointment. The second is a series of mysterious goings-on that Garrett thinks Tres may be able to unravel.  To complicate matters, as the bodies begin piling up, a lethal hurricane approaches. 

Fans will enjoy the update on Tres' life as he prowls through secret passageways hunting down the ghostlike killer while the roof of the island's old hotel begins to shred and the seas begin to rise.

My Thoughts:  I found it hard to put this book down!  This is only the second book of Riordan’s I have read and I am ordering more from the library!

“A Prisoner of Birth”   

                           By Jeffrey Archer

 

2011 Book Review #77

    Danny Cartwright proposes to his beloved Beth Wilson who accepts.  The pair and her brother Bernie, who is also his best friend, celebrate.  Four drunks (Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer), who call themselves the Musketeers,  insult the trio.  A fight occurs and one of the quartet stabs Bernie killing him.  

The four Musketeers swear they witnessed Danny kill the man though he claims otherwise.  Since they are elite Cambridge University graduates and successful professionals who speak and dress like aristocratic gentlemen, while he is an illiterate slum scum, he is charged with the homicide as “clothing” makes the man.  His attorney the best one he can obtain with little money is slaughtered by the prosecutor.  Danny is convicted to serve twenty-two years at maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

In prison Danny shares a cell with Nicholas Moncrieff, who teaches him to read Dumas. When someone kills Moncrieff, look-alike, Danny pretends to be Nicholas and escapes his incarceration.  His goals are to destroy the Musketeers and prove his innocence.

The fun in this crime thriller is finding the numerous references to The Count of Monte Cristo as Jeffrey Archer pays homage to Alexander Dumas.  The story line is fast-paced from the moment of the first confrontation and never slows down as Danny works his revenge.  Although the key players including the hero are never fully developed beyond their link to the original novel, readers will enjoy this entertaining modernization of the Dumas classic.              Review by Harriet Klausner

My Thoughts:  I never read  “The Count of Monte Cristo” so….I didn’t make the connection!  But, I loved this book!  It is my favorite of Archer's books so far!   I couldn't put it down!  (Maybe I should have read the Dumas book???)

“THE RIVERS RUN DRY” 

          by Sibella Giorello

A Raleigh Harmon, Forensic Geologist Mystery

2011 Book Review # 74

         Booklist Review 

Raleigh Harmon, the Virginia forensic geologist and FBI special agent, is not having an easy time. Abruptly transferred to the Seattle office, she's finding that they do things differently here than in her native South and that her new boss seems hell-bent on seeing Raleigh fail.

But Raleigh doesn't have time to worry about personal squabbling: a woman is missing, and only Raleigh, with her unique investigative gifts, can find her before it's too late.

Giorello, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, has made the transition from journalism to fiction writing smoothly: the novel reads as though it were written by a veteran of the genre. Raleigh is a strong, assertive series lead, and, if these first two novels are any indication, she should be around for quite a while.

My Thoughts:  This is my first time reading this author…it won’t be the last!  I loved the characters and the writing.  Even male readers will enjoy this one.  It has a fresh approach to the mystery genre and a more believable one. 

“The Sixth Man”   By David Baldacci

2011 Book Review #70

 Library Journal Review

  

Something is rotten in the state of U.S. intelligence.  Baldacci's fifth Sean King and Michelle Maxwell novel opens with the investigative duo headed to a federal prison for the criminally insane. Jailed there is Edgar Roy, an IRS employee, accused of killing six men and burying their bodies in his barn.

Called in by Ted Bergin, King's old professor and Roy's lawyer, the two find their case quickly becoming personal when they discover Bergin shot to death in his car. Was Bergin killed because he was defending Roy? Did Roy murder those six men? The more questions King and Maxwell ask, the more lethal obstacles they face. Their questions begin to lead them into the most deadly places of all-the highest echelons of U.S. intelligence organizations.

Baldacci builds a suspenseful story with appealing characters that will have the reader guessing their loyalties right to the very end.

Verdict:  Highly recommended for all fans of Baldacci and similar authors like James Patterson and John Grisham.

My Thoughts:  Just as I was becoming impatient with the author’s slow pace, the book started to move along much faster and I couldn't put it down.  Never for one moment did I suspect the surprise ending!

“OBSESSION”  by  Jonathan Kellerman

  An Alex Delaware Novel

 

2011 Book Review #67

Publishers Weekly Review

The 21st Alex Delaware novel from bestseller, Jonathan Kellerman, contains fewer twists than usual for this contemporary thriller series. Once again, Delaware, an accomplished psychologist, teams with his friend Milo Sturgis, an LAPD detective, to probe a mystery, though this time there's considerable doubt as to the nature of the puzzle.

Teenager, Tanya Bigelow, whom Delaware treated as a child for obsessive-compulsive disorder, consults him because her aunt Patty, who raised her, conveyed a cryptic message just before she died, apparently confessing to a crime.

Shortly after Delaware and Sturgis start investigating, one of Patty's former neighbors turns up dead, the first in a series of corpses that appear, possibly as a result of the duo's turning over old rocks. Since the identity of the killer is revealed relatively early on, the final sections are short on suspense. 

My Thoughts:  Jonathan Kellerman is one of my favorite authors. This is not one of my favorite Kellerman books, but a good one anyway and worth reading!

"Without Fail"   By Lee Child
A Jack Reacher Adventure

2011 Book Review #62
Booklist Review

Jack Reacher, former military police, is in Atlantic City running a little pro bono interference for an elderly husband-wife lounge act worried they might be cheated by the local Mob.

Then he's contacted by M. E. Froelich, a Secret Service agent in charge of protecting vice-president-elect Brook Armstrong, the one-time amour of Reacher's late brother, Joe. Froelich hires an initially reluctant Reacher to test the security coverage around Armstrong, and Jack compromises the system with ease, prompting Froelich to hire him to develop a better system.

Armstrong, it turns out, has been threatened, and it may be an inside job. Reacher and an old military police crony run up one blind alley after another until Jack finds a single clue in the vice president's background that leads him to believe the threat may be personal rather than political.

This sixth Reacher novel is a stunner, packed with extraordinary detail regarding executive protection and overlaid with a genuine mystery that will baffle even the most astute armchair crime buffs. The suspense becomes nearly unbearable as Reacher closes in on his prey, leading to a brutal conclusion.

Mix in a touching romance between Reacher and Froelich, based mostly on their shared affection for the late Joe Reacher, and one has a thriller of unequaled emotional depth.

My Thoughts:  I love Jack Reacher mysteries!  No exception here!

“Pandora’s Daughter”  By Iris Johansen

2011 Book Review #61

Booklist Review

"Dr. Megan Blair has been living a lie. She heard voices up until her mother died in an accident. Raised by her mother's half-brother, Megan managed to live a normal life, became a doctor, and now works in an Atlanta hospital. But, once her car is run off the road and Neal Grady enters the picture, nothing is the same.

Neal helps her realize that her mother's death was no accident. In fact, she was murdered because of her psychic ability, the very talent Megan inherited. Molino, an underworld kingpin, wants to see Megan, and everyone else he calls freaks, dead because he blames her mother for his son's death. Supposedly Megan's mother's mere touch caused Molino's son to kill himself. She may have possessed the rare gift, just like the mythological Pandora, that magnifies a person's psychic ability, power that can either open someone's mind or cause madness.

The hunt for Molino takes Megan and Neal through Europe in search of a ledger that traces a family of powerful psychics from the time of the inquisition to the present, keeping one step ahead of their enemy while trying to destroy him.

Johansen delivers an exhilarating thriller, filled with her trademark paranormal elements, truly heinous villains, and intriguing, multidimensional heroes. This is romantic suspense that will keep the author's fans on the edge of their seats."

My Thoughts:  This is very different from the Iris Johansen books I normally read.  (The Eve Duncan Mysteries)  I don't usually read science fiction,  but, I found this book well written, very interesting and entertaining to read. 

“Gone Tomorrow”  By  Lee Child

A Jack Reacher Mystery

 

2011 Book Review #60

Publishers Weekly Review

All good thriller writers know how to build suspense and keep the pages turning, but only better ones deliver tight plots as well, and only the best allow the reader to match wits with both the hero and the author. Bestseller Child does all of that in spades in his 13th Jack Reacher adventure.

Early one morning on a nearly empty Manhattan subway car, the former army MP notices a woman passenger he suspects is a suicide bomber. The deadly result of his confronting her puts him on a trail leading back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and forward to the war on terrorism.

Reacher finds a bit of help among the authorities demanding answers from him, like the NYPD and the FBI, as well as threats and intimidation. And then there are the real bad guys that the old pro must track down and eliminate. Child sets things up subtly and ingeniously, then lets Reacher use both strength and guile to find his way to the exciting climax.

My Thoughts:  There is no better suspense writer than Lee Child.  I love the Jack Reacher character and though this book has a complicated plot, I loved it!

“The Midnight Club”   

by James Patterson

 

2011 Book Review #54

 Booklist Review

Organized crime gets a new, more sinister face as a psychotic killer seizes control of a drug ring called the Midnight Club. The killer is Germain, wealthy and powerful, fond of kinky sex, and never happier than when he is wiping people out (``wet work'').

Stefanovitch is the detective Germaine leaves crippled and widowed, Parker is the Harlem cop left brotherless, and Sarah McGinniss is the journalist whose son was kidnapped by the club and who falls in love with Stefanovitch.

All three are intent on revenge. Although the novel is uneven, it boasts a compellingly kinetic narrative that combines nonstop violence with glittery sexual goings-on. The characterization isn't always particularly realistic, but Stefanovitch is extremely likable.

Unfortunately, when the author allows him to walk again in the final few pages, much credibility is needlessly lost. A flawed yet spirited thriller. 

My Thoughts:  Good book but, not the easiest story line to keep straight.  Not James Patterson’s best, in my opinion

“EVE”  by Iris Johansen

The first of a new Trilogy about Lt. Eve Duncan

2011 Book Review #52

Library Journal Review

Shedding light on forensic sculptor Eve Duncan's past, Johansen's latest thriller brings to the forefront the father of Eve's missing daughter.

When Eve tries to find out if John Gallo had anything to do with Bonnie's disappearance, she ends up as bait in a perilous game between Gallo and dangerous ex-military men. Helped by her boyfriend, Joe Quinn, and CIA agent friend, Catherine Ling, Eve escapes with her life, but the answers she seeks are elusive.

Whereas earlier works danced around the details of Eve's personal history, much is revealed in this satisfying first entry in a forthcoming trilogy. If Quinn ( due out Jul. 2011) and Bonnie (due out in Oct. 2011) provide as much background and pieces of the puzzle as this one does, fans are sure to be pleased.

The suspense and action will entertain all, even those new to the series.

My Thoughts:  I love the Eve Duncan books but, I was unaware this new one was part of a trilogy which left me with a “cliff-hanger” ending.  I can’t wait until “Quinn” and “Bonnie” come out!

“Straight Into Darkness”  By Faye Kellerman

2011 Book Review #51

Book List Review

Kellerman, perhaps best known for her Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novels, takes a hiatus from things contemporary in this ambitious historical mystery, in which politics, prejudice, and revenge form the backdrop for murder.

The time is 1929, the place is Munich, and Hitler and his thugs and sycophants are gathering momentum for the horrors to come. Kommunisten, Social Democrats, gays, and, especially, Jews are the targets of Brown Shirts, who are increasing in number and viciousness.

 Even Munich's Homicide Unit has its Nazi sympathizers. Inspektor Axel Berg, however, isn't one of them. He hopes to steer clear of politics, especially on the job. But when the murders of three women and a young child spawn rumors of a serial killer, the pressure to find a scapegoat (the Jewish husband of one of the victims will do as a start) intensifies, and Berg finds himself fighting not only for fairness for the accused but also for his own career.

This is a complicated novel, and its mystery occasionally flounders under the weighty political backdrop. But suspense gradually mounts, and the ironic ending is worth the wait. As for Berg, he is one of Kellerman's richest creations--an intriguing protagonist, flawed yet compassionate and heroic, forced to confront enormous odds in brutal times. --Stephanie Zvirin

My Thoughts:  If you like mysteries and you like history, this book is for you.  This is very different from what Kellerman usually writes.  It is frightening because the horrible history is real even if the story is fiction and Kellerman takes you directly into that history.  The surprise ending is extraordinary.  It is a well written story and I’m glad I read it.  BUT…I prefer Kellerman’s  Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novels.  History can be very cruel and hard to read about!

"The Sentry"  By Robert Crais
   A   PI Joe Pike Mystery


2011 Book Review #44

Near the outset of Crais's impressive third thriller featuring L.A. PI Joe Pike (after The First Rule), Pike notices two suspicious characters enter a Venice, Calif., sandwich shop. Pike, an ex-Marine and former LAPD patrol officer, walks into the shop just in time to rescue its owner, Wilson Smith, from a vicious assault. 

Pike soon takes an interest in Smith's niece, Dru Rayne, whose "smart eyes" and warm smile lure him into a lethal gangland battle involving La Eme, the Mexican mafia, and a Bolivian drug connection. The LAPD and the FBI both try and fail to warn Pike off, but PI Elvis Cole, the lead in nine other Crais books, is as ever ready to support his pal. 

Heartbreaking ironies, frustrated desires, and violent nonstop action make this a standout. Crais just keeps getting better at giving depth to the laconic Pike and the anguished Cole, who still pines for his lost love, Louisiana attorney Lucy Chenier.

My Thoughts:  I liked this book.  There is a lot of action going on and sometimes it is confusing to keep up with, but, the characters are interesting and BUSY!

“Tripwire”   by Lee Child

2011 Book Review #41

 Booklist Review

After spending 13 years in the military police, Jack Reacher is perfectly content to dig swimming pools by day and bounce at a Key West strip club by night. A man named Costello comes looking for him but, is found dead the next day.

Tracking Costello's employer takes Reacher to upstate New York and Jodie Garber Jacobs, the daughter of Jack's old commanding officer, Leon Garber. His dying request was to meet with his protégé.  Why Leon needed to see Jack so desperately is a mystery, but an attempt to kill Reacher and Jodie clarifies the situation.

People serious enough to commit a daylight double murder want Reacher and Jodie dead. The question is why? The motive lies in a $100 million Long Island land swindle, and Reacher's opposition is wealthy, ruthless, and as cunning as Reacher.

The third entry in the Reacher series is a solid thriller that brings to mind the knight-errant adventures of John D. McDonald's Travis McGee.

My Thoughts:  Another favorite.  This book is  edgy, exciting and a must  read. 

"Running Blind"   by  Lee Child
A Jack Reacher Mystery

2011 Book Review #33

Booklist Review

Jack Reacher fits the profile of a serial killer being tracked by the FBI. Plus, he's connected to the victims, all of whom filed sexual harassment cases against the military. (Jack was the military policeman who investigated the women's cases.) 

The Feds don't think Jack did it, but they force him to help them find out who did. 

The crime scenes are elaborately bizarre yet bereft of clues. Reacher, skeptical of the official profile portraying the killer as a resentful anti-feminist, looks for other possible motives. One of them hits pay dirt, sending Jack on a deadly cross-country race with the killer. 

This fourth Reacher thriller is easily the best. The plot is a masterpiece of misdirection, red herrings, and veiled motives. Reacher himself is an evolving, ever more likable moralist who sometimes gives in to his inner thug. He belongs at the same table with the genre's leading tough-tender sleuths: Parker's Spenser and Burke's Robicheaux among them. 

My Thoughts:  Child is another one of my favorite authors and the Reacher stories just get better and better.  There is a surprise ending and I love those!

“The First Rule”  By Robert Crais

 

2011 Book Review #37

 Publishers Weekly Review

When garment importer Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home, at the start of bestseller Crais' adrenaline-fueled second thriller to feature PI Joe Pike, LAPD detectives soon connect Meyer to Pike, who knew each other from their days as military contractors.

 Pike is convinced that Meyer, who left soldiering to start a family, wasn't dirty, even though his murder is the seventh in a series of violent robberies where the victims were all professional criminals. Determined to clear his friend's name, Pike discovers that Frank's nanny and her family have ties to Eastern European organized crime.

With the help of PI partner, Elvis Cole (the lead in Chasing Darkness and eight other books), Pike engages in a dangerous…and not always legal-game of cat and mouse with some of the city's most dangerous crooks. Pike emerges as an enigmatically appealing hero, whose lethal skills never overshadow his unflappable sense of morality. 

My Thoughts:  This is a new author for me and I really liked the characters and this book.

“The Vanished Man”   by Jeffery Deaver

            A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

2011 Book Review #27

 Booklist Review

Often, it's the details that help solve crimes, and no one does detail better than Deaver, particularly by way of the forensic expertise of Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, most recently paired in The Stone Monkey.

When a student is found dead, the clues lead Amelia and Lincoln on a hunt for a magician--an escape artist, no less, who also happens to have the talents of sleight of hand and illusion on his side.

Amelia and Lincoln enlist the aid of Kara, who studies under the mysterious master magician, David Balzac. As more dead bodies pop up accompanied by the same calling card, the team homes in on the perp, dubbed the Conjurer. As Kara tells it, all magic comes in two parts: effect and method. The effect is what you want the audience to see, and the method is the technique used to elicit that effect.

This theme continues throughout the novel; wheelchair-bound, introspective Rhyme compares this duality to his crime-solving process, and the bulk of the book is divided into two like-named parts. Well-researched and exciting, this has all the elements of good crime fiction: likable leads, a colorful supporting cast, fascinating scientific analysis, and a look at the secrets of an otherwise unknown world.

My Thoughts:  I love Lincoln Rhyme and all the other characters in this series of books.

This one is complicated and has a surprise ending!  Even better!