Archive for January 2018

In Darkest Fear, Harlan Coben has an old girlfriend inform sports agent Myron Bolitar that he has a thirteen-year-old son. The boy has Fanconi anemia and will die unless he receives a bone marrow transport. Unfortunately, there is only one match. He has disappeared and possibly may be a serial killer. Myron is confronted by moral…

One False Move is the fifth book in the Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben. In this thriller, Myron helps Brenda Slaughter, a female black professional basketball star, search for her father who has disappeared. He also must protect Brenda from people who wish to kill her. Soon bodies pile up, and Myron faces mobsters and…

Lawrence Wright in The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State gives an excellent accounting of the evolution of Islamic terrorism in the middle east and its spread to the rest of the world. Much attention is given to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi founder of al-Qaeda: Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who succeeded bin…

The Book Case by Nelson Demille is a short mystery in which John Corey, a NYPD detective who appears in multiple Demille novels, is called to the scene of a death of a bookstore owner caused by a falling bookcase. At first it appears to be an accident, but Corey soon suspects murder. The entire novel…

Breaking Point is C J Box’s thirteenth novel featuring Joe Picket. Joe is a game warden in Wyoming who tends to find trouble in every chapter. This book deals with abuse by bureaucrats in government agencies to punish people with whom they have disagreements. It is based upon an actual incidence of such overreach by the…

In The Break Down, B A Paris creates a psychological thriller about a woman who fears she has become insane. Fear and panic dominate her life as she tries to convince her husband and friends that she is not impaired. Throughout the book, the reader is unsure what is happening until the surprise ending.

The Midnight Line is Lee Child’s latest thriller. Jack Reacher, ex-military police drifter, finds a woman’s West Point ring in a pawn shop. He assumes the woman has fallen on hard times and begins a quest to find her. What he finds is an illegal drug network and lots of troubles, including a disabled vet with…

Ruth Ware creates another exciting novel in The Lying Game. It involves four women who had been forced to leave an English boarding school years ago following the disappearance of the school’s art instructor who was the father of one of the girls. The discovery of the man’s body creates a crisis for the friends…

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine is the story of two women and one man. Daphne marries a wonderful wealthy man who turns out to be a monster who abuses her. Amber pretends to be her friend as she tries to steal her husband. It is a tale of deceit and treachery with interesting…

Don’t be Cruel by Barbara Vortmann relates the adventures of Melanie, a teenage girl who runs away from home. She takes the bus to Memphis where she hopes to form a band and to become a star. Flat broke and with little more than a pair of drum sticks, she befriends another runaway girl who…