Archive for January 2018

The Enemy by Lee Child is a Jack Reacher novel that goes back to a time before Major Reacher left the army. He is a Military Police officer assigned to investigate the death of a two-star general in a motel in North Carolina. The case becomes complicated when the general’s briefcase is discovered missing and his…

Spencerville by Nelson DeMille is the story of a cold-war warrior who leaves government service after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He returns to his hometown and connects with his childhood sweetheart who is trapped in an abusive marriage to the chief of police. Soon he faces harassment by the entire police force and she…

The Last Mile by David Baldacci is a sequel to Memory Man. Amos Decker returns with his remarkable memory, a gift that allows him to remember everything, but also a curse that prevents him from forgetting the horrible things he has endured. Melvin Mars has spent twenty years in prison for murdering his parents. He sits on…

In The Late Show, Michael Connelly introduces Detective Renée Ballard of the LAPD. She works the night shift as punishment for unsuccessfully accusing her supervisor of sexual harassment. She likes to surf, sleeps in a tent on the beach, and carries a chip on her shoulder. Her tendency to stretch the rules and to ignore protocol…

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain is the story of a young woman who moves to Hickory, NC in 1944 to marry the stranger who impregnated her. It deals with the social taboos of that era such as the stigma of getting pregnant outside of marriage and the illegality of marriage between Negros and Whites. Much…

In A Stranger in the House. Shari Lapena has mastered another thriller. As in The Couple Next Door, she treats the reader to unexpected twists and turns and a surprise ending.

In The Snowman, Jo Nesbo creates an exciting mystery/thriller in which Oslo Police Inspector Harry Hole seeks to stop a serial killer whose trade mark is a snowman left at the scene of each murder. Surprises fill the novel, and the suspense builds as the villain targets Rakel, Harry’s on-again, off-again lover. I highly recommend the…

In The Final Detail by Harlan Coben, sports agent Myron Bolitar returns from a three-week vacation to find one of his clients has been killed and his partner and best friend Esperanza has been charged with the murder. As with all the Myron Bolitar books, Myron teams with Windsor Horn Lockwood III, his wealthy, sociopathic friend, to…

Backspin, published in 1997, is Harlan Coben’s fourth Myron Bolitar novel. As with the other Bolitar books, Myron’s friends Win and Esperanza plan prominent roles as Myron tries to rescue the kidnapped son of two golf pros. Many of the characters have secrets that determine their behavior and some lead to violence and murder.