Escape by Robert Tannenbaum
Two stories with a VERY thin connection and way too much detail. Should have been two separate books instead of one 700-page book. I struggled to get through it.
Dark Summer by Iris Johansen
Do dogs have healing powers? Bad guy Danner thinks so and wants to kill the dogs Jude Marrok has to get the great panacea. Devon Brady is a vet Marrok meets on a search & rescue mission...typical guy meets gal scenario. An average story; nothing more.
Kay is summoned to New York because a guy in Bellevue will only talk to her and let her examine him. She goes, of course, and soon realizes she’s hearing a fake story from Oscar Bane and wonders about his self-inflicted wounds. He’s accused of killing his girlfriend. Kay can’t tell anyone, not even Benton, what she learned from Oscar, Lucy is called to figure out what’s what with the deceased’s laptops and who the emails are from, and the deceased’s neighbor is found dead. Obviously, the question is whodunit…which I figured out.
Benton and Kay are now married and she’s left Charleston to live with him in McLean VA, but they also work in NYC; Pete Marino disappeared from Kay’s life after an incident in Charleston and just happens to be back on the job at NYPD; and Lucy just happens to have opened a new business in the area. Just amazing how everyone managed to get back together again….oh, please spare me all these ridiculous situations. Lots of technical stuff could have been left out to make this 400 pages or less and it still would have been just an OK book.
Kyle McAvoy is editor of the Law Review at Yale and has a bright future ahead of him…until an indiscretion from college rears its ugly head. He is blackmailed by the mysterious Bennie Wright who has a video of the incident. Kyle must a) forget doing community law work and head right to a mega-big law firm in New York; b) get into the litigation section; c) steal documents from a big case and d) all his troubles will go away. Yeah, right.
No mystery or intrigue here; and the only suspense is who is Bennie and who’s he working for. I kept reading hoping for a good end, but was disappointed.
When new detective Moses Reed gets the call that a body has been found in LA’s Bird Marsh, he enlists Milo Sturgis’ help and they find not only the body of a pianist but the bodies of three prostitutes as well…all with their right hand missing. And, of course, Milo calls on Alex Delaware to throw in his two cents. Chief suspect is Travis Huck, the house manager of the wealthy Vander family whose precocious son got piano lessons from the recently departed pianist. If it all sounds a little too confusing, it isn’t. Who’s behind the killings is a bit of a surprise, but not much.
This was one of Mr. K’s better books of late, but certainly not a blockbuster. He used to write really good stories, but lately he seems to have gotten off that track. He needs to put some suspense and surprises back in his stories.
Police Lt. Ty Hauk and his daughter were in a convenience shop when a drive-by shooting killed the man behind them in line. This leads Ty on a hunt for the killer, the theory being it’s a revenge killing. This leads him to a gambling scheme at a popular casino up the road. But the more he delves into the case (against all warnings to leave it alone), the more problems he runs into and more people end up dead. Greed and power seem to have taken over everyone.
It was a bit of a struggle to get through this book. No twist or turns to keep me truly interested and no surprises.
Wes and Mary Grace Payton were successful attorneys in southern Mississippi. They hocked everything to represent a widow and her claim for the wrongful deaths of her husband and son against a big chemical company that polluted the town’s water. They won in the lower court, and it went on to the state Supreme Court.
Billionaire Carl Trudeau, the owner of the chemical company, is not about to pay any settlement, so he hires a guy to buy him a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court. Ron Fisk is their man; they run his campaign, they mold him as anti-liberal. Yes, he wins, but also incurs a heavy personal loss which may or may not influence his decisions.
There’s a lot of filler in the book; the Payton’s are too goody-goody; not all loose ends are tied up. It’s an OK story, but won’t get your blood pumping wondering whodunit.
Alexandra Cooper, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace are after the bad guy or guys again. Three young women are brutally tortured, murdered and left in deserted places to be found whenever. They get flimsy leads, think it’s guy A, then guy B. Then a call to the hotline brings them their big break in the case. Of course, Alex manages to get herself into a predicament she struggles to get out of.
This was another decent story, but these are getting to be all alike. The author needs to tweak each story a little bit so they aren’t all copycats.
This time Ben Kincaid is defending a radical Episcopalian priest, Father Daniel Beale, who’s on trial for killing a member of his church. Two other women had been murdered, but he was charged with just the one, and the whole church wanted him gone…to jail would be OK with the fine Christians. Surprises come out during the trial and the story doesn’t end with the verdict.
Ben has grown a tad as an attorney and is not quite as idealistic as in other stories, but he has a long way to go. I had my guesses about whodunit, but the surprises the author threw in were good ones.
Walt Fleming, the Sun Valley sheriff from the Killer Weekend, is back. His best friend is missing and his friend’s brother is dead. Employees from a bottling plant are deathly sick. A young woman is dropped off at the hospital badly beaten. Walt desperately wants to find his friend while figuring out why people are sick and animal carcasses are being burned. And he’s still trying figure out how to be a good parent to his twin girls. (Get the divorce, custody and move on, for Pete’s sake.)
The author paints beautiful pictures of Idaho in early winter. But his character Walt needs to be more assertive…personally and professionally…if he’s really a sheriff.
Mega rich Alyssa Austin comes home to find blood on the walls and her daughter missing. She eventually asks Lucas Davenport’s wife to have Lucas look into the matter of her missing daughter who ran around with some Goths. As more Goths are murdered, and Lucas is shot at, Lucas gets madder and more involved. Who’s the Fairy that very few see and who only shows up now and then? Who’s the total nutcase? The subplot of Lucas and Del’s surveillance adds an interesting touch.
This was a pretty quick read. The author throws in a few twists and turns to keep your interest. There's an eerie, wacko bent to this book.
In short, Deputy Brynn McKenzie was sent to investigate a disturbing call received from a vacation house on Lake Mondac in Wisconsin. She gets there, finds two people dead, sees the killers, and they all escape into the woods…about 6PM on an April evening. The next twelve hours are hell for everyone involved and are the core of the story. And yes, there are several bodies left behind.
This is a quick, wild ride that Mr. D has written. His signature twists and turns are everywhere. He hasn’t written a bad book yet, although some of the forest scenes in the book are a little hard to believe.
Several families in the DC area are brutally murdered; one family member was an old flame of Alex’s. Alex gets a lead on the gang of thugs, led by the ‘Tiger’, that’s doing these dastardly deeds and thinks he needs to follow Tiger to Nigeria and Sierra Leone…oh really?? He ends up in tons of trouble along the way (mostly of his own making or stupidity); and when he finally makes it back to Washington DC, he finds his family gone.
This is one of Mr. P’s more gruesome stories, with an ending that will surely lead to the next Cross adventure. But Alex seems to be getting a tad old for all the beatings he takes in this one, not to mention that he never appeared to be the hotshot detective he’s been in other stories.
These Camel Club stories never end…and that’s GOOD! This one picks up where Stone Cold left off. Oliver has left Washington DC, running for his life, after killing two bad guys high up in the federal government. He befriends a young man on the train and ends up in the mining town of Divine, Virginia, with all of its murders and mayhem. His friends, as well as the Feds, come after him.
This was a quick read because it held my interest the whole time and includes a surprise or two. And, of course, I do believe the Camel Club stories will continue…or at least one more.
Quicksand by Iris Johansen is another Eve Duncan looking-for-her-daughter's-body story. Ho-hum. Will she ever get a life and move on? Montalvo and Miguel from the previous story show up to help Eve and Joe find Kistle, the guy who claims to have taken Bonnie. Of course, they all end up in unreal predicaments. Will Joe finally leave Eve after years of chasing after Bonnie's remains? Will Montalvo win Eve? Will anyone find Bonnie's remains? I'm getting rather tired of these stories and wish the author would find a new life for Eve.
Dead Time by Stephen White is a continuation of Dry Ice and a bit complicated. Alan and Lauren have adopted Jonas, Adrienne's son. Alan's ex-wife contacts him to find out what happened to the surrogate who's carrying her and her fiancé's child. This drags Alan into what happened when six friends hiked to the Grand Canyon floor many years ago, two of whom were her fiancé and the surrogate. There are many subplots, but I knew who the bad guy was. And, of course, Alan gets in all sorts of trouble he may or may not get out of. There are plenty of loose strings for the next story.
Blind Fall by Christopher Rice is a bummer. John Houck was a Force Recon Marine in Iraq whose captain, Mike Bowers, lost an eye saving John's life. Back in the States, John wants to see Mike and possibly repay his debt. But he finds him dead and pursues a man he thinks is the killer but who is really Mike's lover, Alex. Alex wants to kill Mike's killer, so John's mission to repay Mike becomes his mission to teach Alex how to take care of himself. Both men have many ghosts in their closets and the story drags on and on with a few surprises here and there. I didn't like the book, but managed to finish it. Don't waste your time or money.
Dark Eye by William Bernhardt is a good one! When Susan Pulaski, a Las Vegas PD behavioral psychologist, became a widow, she started drinking way too much and eventually lost her home, her job, and custody of her niece. When a sicko starts killing young women, her boss asks her to return as a consultant on the case. The sicko's nastiness and the autistic savant who helps Susan get the guy form the story. It full of twists and turns and will keep your interest.
I've missed some of the books previous to Capitol Conspiracy by William Bernhardt. The Director of Homeland Security is tortured and killed, a Senator is poisoned, and the First Lady is killed by a sniper. After the sniper attack, the President wants an amendment to the Constitution temporarily taking away everyone's rights in a time of emergency. Ben Kincaid agrees to try to push the amendment through, but has second thoughts. It's a good story; I'm sure there'll be a sequel.
The First Commandment by Brad Thor was the first of his books I’ve read, and I’ll probably read more. Scot Harvath is a counterterrorism expert who fights for truth and justice…his way. Near and dear friends of his are killed or seriously wounded and that puts him in high gear to get whoever is taking their revenge out on him. He gets help from a strange character.
Ten years ago, socialite Susan Stanhope Sutter shot and killed her Mafia don lover, Frank Bellarosa. She and her husband, John, divorced; he sailed around the world for three years and lived in London for seven years. She moved to Hilton Head near her domineering parents.
John is back in the US, on Long Island specifically, because he’s the attorney for an old lady, the last half of the former gate house couple, who’s near death. Frank’s son, Anthony, tries to recruit John back into the Mafia. Susan has recently moved back to the guest house (her former home with John and the kids) on her parent’s former mega-estate and she and John reunite as lovebirds. Will John work for Anthony? Will Anthony avenge his father’s death?
The story is long and the middle is a tad boring, but it reads quickly, especially near the end. The author’s dry, sarcastic wit is present throughout the story and had me smiling or laughing the entire time.
Lots of characters to keep track of while trying to figure out who’s doing all the killing. Fifteen years ago, Tom O’Brien was convicted of killing his wife and her lover. Now he’s a fugitive back in Sacramento trying to prove his innocence and reconnect with his grown daughter. FBI agent Mitch Bianchi befriends Claire O’Brien under false pretenses to try to recapture her dad. A law student who was reviewing Tom’s original case finds errors in the proceedings and ends up dead. Claire and the FBI try to follow the law student’s leads and the twisted plot eventually unravels.
I had never read this author before and won’t rush out to buy any more of her books. There are several subplots that the author eventually ties together after jumping around from plot to plot.
I’ve enjoyed past books by this author, but this one is a tad weird in my opinion and definitely not a favorite. Tying the Cain-killed-Abel story with the death of the father of Superman’s creator (in the 1930’s) and a secret society that wants the weapon Cain used (present day) is a big stretch and a big mess of characters. Somehow the author tries to tie these events together…and left this reader wondering why he bothered.
This is the unbelievable true story of Cory Friedman, Hal’s son, who was cursed with Tourette’s syndrome and OCD. The story starts shortly before Cory turned 5 when the first symptoms showed up and continues through his senior year in high school. He went through hell on earth with assorted doctors and tons of drugs, including alcohol, trying to get his tics, noises, and body movements under some semblance of control. His school years were something no child should go through, and you’ll wonder how he made it.
Cory had the unconditional love of his family to see him through his good days and bad days. They all had courage and hope, and Cory persevered because he knew he could do anything. For them to share their story is an education and an inspiration to all.
Jack Reacher and Jodie Jacobs, Chester and Marilyn Stone, and Victor (Hook) Hobie are the main characters in this two-plot story that comes together. The whys and wherefores of each plot are too much for a short review, but this will give you a hint: Jack was enjoying anonymity in Key West when an investigator from New York came looking for him. Soon the investigator was dead and Jack’s curiosity (and guilt) got the best of him. So he’s off to New York to find the Mrs. Jacobs who was looking for him. Chester Stone is up to his eyeballs in debt to Hobie who plans to take everything from Stone, including Marilyn.
The author created a truly wicked character in Hobie; put a bit of action into the story here and there; and left a few loose ends for the next book.
Laurel Shields’ life fell apart in the course of 24 hours. She did a home pregnancy test when she got up; who’s the father of the baby? Her husband, prominent physician Warren, hadn’t been to bed all night. He was still tearing through his study when she came home from her job as special ed teacher. However, by then he had found a love letter to her, went ballistic, and demanded to know who the guy was. When he pulls a gun on her and ties her up, she realizes he’s not the man she married. The resolution of this tension takes the rest of the day and the book.
This book is too long, as most of this author’s are, and loaded with lots of melodrama and over-the-top, unbelievable scenarios.
