Friday, September 30, 2016

Book review: Memory Man - David Baldacci





Memory Man (Amos Decker series Book 1) by [Baldacci, David]
















Title: Memory Man

Author: David Baldacci

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SN934U8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:  Amos Decker is a former professional football player whose career was ended by a terrible accident on the field which caused him to become the 'memory man' whereby he can remember everything to the finest detail.Now a police detective, Amos comes home from a stakeout to find his wife, young daughter and brother-in-law horrifically murdered. Obviously scarred and nearly broken, Decker has to use his skills as a detective and his unusual brain capacity to try and catch the monster who killed his family.

Main review: 

Amos Decker's life changed forever—twice.
The first time was on the football field. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good, and left him with an improbable side effect—he can never forget anything.

The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare—his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered. There was no clue or any reason for these murders.

His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator.

Over a year later, a stranger turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event involving the mass murder of high school kids and a few teachers nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. He must endure the memories he would much rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

MEMORY MAN will stay with you long after you read the final page.
Further reading suggestion: The Target - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HPYMVD8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Book review: The Obsession - Nora Roberts























Title: The Obsession

Author: Nora Roberts

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 7.5 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Obsession-Nora-Roberts/dp/0399175164

Summary:  Naomi Bowes lost her innocence when she was 12, the night she followed her father - Thomas David Bowes -  into the woods. In freeing ashley the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous. 
 
Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found in Sunrise Cove a rambling old house in need of repair, thousands of miles away from everything she’s ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the friendly residents keep forcing her to open up—especially the determined Xander Keaton. 
Naomi can feel her defenses failing, and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she’s always secretly craved. But the sins of her father can become an obsession, and her past is never more than a nightmare away.
Main review: 
Just before her 12th birthday, Naomi Bowes followed her father into the woods at dead of night and discovers that he was a serial killer, which sent him to jail for life. Naomi, her mother, and her brother, Mason, moved in with her uncle Seth and his partner, Harry, ultimately settling in New York City and changing their surname to Carson. But her mother never quite recovered from her husband’s horrid influence, and commits suicide.
She moves to Sunrise Cove, Washington State, into a rambling ramshackled house that she starts to renovate with local expert help - who become friends. Thanks to new friends, a lover - Xander Keaton, Tag a dog she reluctantly rescues, and Mason her FBI-agent brother, she might weather this dangerous situation, but discovering someone has been shadowing her gives her an appreciation for her own strength, resilience, and many blessings. 
Bestseller Roberts explores the experience of a serial killer’s family and, more subtly, the true natures of trust, friendship, and loyalty.
A little uneven and with an abundance of detail - especially about renovating an old huge house and the intricate aspects of expert photography - that occasionally slows the pace, this is still an appealing story from a romantic-suspense favorite.
Further reading suggestion: The Bay of Sighs - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bay-Sighs-Guardians-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B01B1Q3QCA/ref=la_B000APK6EU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475169536&sr=1-1

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Book review: The Shadow of Your Smile - Mary Higgins Clark

The Shadow of Your Smile by [Clark, Mary Higgins]




















Title: The Shadow of Your Smile

Author: Mary Higgins Clark

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003HTNCO2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:  When a deceased nun, Sister Catherine, becomes a candidate for sainthood , Monica Farrell, a 31-year-old Manhattan pediatrician, becomes the target of those who don't want her to inherit what's left of a fortune created by her unknown grandfather, Alex Gannon, with whom Catherine had a secret love child before she took up holy orders. That child, given up for adoption, became Monica's father. Monica must now testify whether a boy became cancer-free due to prayers to Sister Catherine so she can qualify for beatification. 

Olivia Morrow, Catherine's 82-year-old dying cousin, meanwhile wonders whether to tell Monica she's Alex's granddaughter. Spiritual questions are mixed with down and dirty deeds as Gannon Foundation funds are revealed to have been steadily siphoned off by greedy heirs and trustees who will stop at nothing, even murder, to hide their criminal misbehaviour.

Main review: 

Mary Higgins Clark brings us another bestselling novel that she “prepares so carefully and executes with such relish” (The New York Times Book Review) about the search for identity by the daughter of a man adopted at birth, who may be the inheritor of his large fortune.

At eighty-two and about to die, Olivia Morrow knows she faces a tough choice: expose a long-held family secret, or take it with her to her grave. 

Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church—the final step before sainthood. In her lifetime, Sister Catherine had founded seven hospitals for disabled children. Now the cure of a four-year-old boy dying of brain cancer is being attributed to her. After his case was pronounced medically hopeless, the boy’s desperate mother had organized a prayer crusade to Sister Catherine, leading to his miraculous recovery. 

The letters Olivia holds are the evidence that Catherine gave birth at age seventeen to a son, and gave him up for adoption. Olivia knows the identity of the young man who fathered Catherine’s child: Alex Gannon, who went on to become a world-famous doctor, scientist, and inventor holding medical patents. 

Now, two generations later, thirty-one-year-old single pediatrician Dr. Monica Farrell, Catherine’s granddaughter, stands as the rightful heir to what remains of the family fortune. But in telling Monica who she really is, Olivia would have to betray Catherine’s wishes and reveal the story behind Monica’s ancestry. 

The only people aware of Olivia’s impending choice are those exploiting the Gannon inheritance. To silence Olivia and prevent Monica from learning the secret, some of them will stop at nothing—even murder. 


Clark’s riveting novel explores the conflict between modern medical science and religious faith, and the search for identity by the daughter of a man adopted at birth.
Further reading suggestion: Just Take my Heart - https://www.amazon.com/Just-Take-My-Heart-Novel/dp/141657087X

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Book review: Sanctus - Simon Toyne



Sanctus by [Toyne, Simon]


















Title: Sanctus

Author: Simon Toyne

FICTION

Genre: Mystery

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004R1PZW6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:  A monk, Samuel, throws himself off the top off The Citadel, an ancient sanctuary in the middle of Turkey with its own jurisdiction much like the Vatican. In fact it predates the Vatican.

His sister, Liv,  discovers that her that this monk is her long lost brother of eight years ago. She rushes from the US to identify him. In the process, the powers behind the Citadel want to capture her as they believe she is the key to their historic mission to resolve the Sacrament held in the Citadel for all those centuries.

Fortunately, Liv has a friend in Police Superintendent Arkadian and also in Kathryn, a charity worker, who is from an ancient tribe that are sworn enemies of these monks.  Her son, Gabriel, is an ex-special forces soldier, works with the police to help Liv outwit the monks.

Main review: 

A monk, Samuel, throws himself to his death from the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, a mountainous citadel in the historic Turkish city of Ruin. This is no ordinary suicide but a symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world.
For charity worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others in the know, it is what they have been waiting for. The cowled and secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel suspect it could mean the end of everything they have built – and they will kill, torture and break every law to stop that. 
For his sister, Liv,  the discovery that the monk is her brother who disappeared eight years ago is a shock. She rushes from the US to identify him. In the process, the powers behind the Citadel want to capture her as they believe she is the key to their historic mission to resolve the Sacrament held in the Citadel for all those centuries.

Fortunately, Liv has a friend in Superintendent of Police Arkadian and also in Kathryn who is from an ancient tribe that are sworn enemies of these monks.  Her son, Gabriel, is an ex-special forces soldier, works with the police to help Liv outwit the monks.

SANCTUS is an apocalyptic conspiracy thriller like no other – it re-set the bar for excitement and fascination, and marks the debut of a major talent in Simon Toyne.
Further reading suggestion: The Key - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006I1CH1A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Book review: Dreaming Spies - Laurie R King



















Title: Dreaming Spies

Author: Laurie R King

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 6.5 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-Spies-suspense-featuring-Sherlock/dp/0345531795

Summary:  Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes embark on a very long sea voyage to Japan, en route to California.  On board they meet all sorts of interesting people including a lady ninja (which - by the way - means a spy and not an assassin) and Lord and Lady Darley and his son Thomas.  Holmes suspects Darley is a blackmailer and this story entails him trying to blackmail the Crown Prince of Japan, who has assigned - not surprisingly - the ninja to recruit Holmes and Russell in foiling this dastardly plot.

Main review: 

After a lengthy case that had Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes roaming all over India, they are on their way to California to deal with some family business that Russell has been neglecting for far too long. Along the way, they plan to break the long voyage with a sojourn in southern Japan. The cruising steamer Thomas Carlyle leaves Bombay for Kobe. Russell is looking forward to a change of focus—not to mention a chance to travel to a location Holmes has not visited before. 

Aboard the ship, intrigue stirs almost immediately. Holmes recognizes the famous Earl of Darley, whom he suspects of being a blackmailer. And there’s the lithe, surprisingly fluent young Japanese woman who befriends Russell and quotes haiku. She agrees to tutor the couple in Japanese language and customs.

Once in Japan, Russell’s suspicions that all is not what appears on the surface is proven to be correct. From the glorious city of Tokyo to the cavernous Bodleian library at Oxford, Russell and Holmes race to solve a mystery involving international extortion, espionage, and the shocking secrets that, if revealed, could spark revolution—and topple an empire, with the Darleys on one side and the Crown Prince of Japan on the other.
I have enjoyed all of Laurie's books on Mary Russell and this is no different.  However, I found the first third on the long sea voyage slightly slow and tedious.  There are all sorts of diversions, only some of which are germane to the main plot. But the rest of the book is set at her normal pace with the usual twists and turns and compensates for the slow first third.
Further reading suggestion: The Beekeeper's Apprentice - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250055709/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1535524082&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0345531795&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=D520X6K5SZ4K6FQNE9G5

Friday, September 23, 2016

Book review: White Lies

White Lies: The 11th Spider Shepherd Thriller (Dan Shepherd series) by [Leather, Stephen]



















Title: White Lies

Author: Stephen Leather

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 6.5 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Lies-Spider-Shepherd-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00J379GTC

Summary:  Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. So when one of his former trainees is kidnapped in the badlands of Pakistan, Shepherd doesn't hesitate to join a rescue mission. But when the plan goes horribly wrong, Shepherd ends up in the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists as well. 

Shepherd's MI5 controller Charlotte Button is determined to get him out, but to do that she needs to bring in America's elite SEALs  in a do-or-die operation to rescue the British captives.

Main review: 

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line - for his friends and for his job with MI5. So when one of his former trainees is kidnapped in the badlands of Pakistan, Shepherd doesn't hesitate to join a rescue mission. But when the plan goes horribly wrong, Shepherd ends up in the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists as well. His SAS training is of little help as his captors beat and torture him, along with his protoge. 

Shepherd's MI5 controller Charlotte Button is determined to get him out of harm's way, but her only hope is to bring in America's finest - the elite SEALs - in a do-or-die operation to rescue the captives.

This mult-layered plot alternates between the very bloody torture sequences of Shepherd and the difficulties Charlotte has in getting the American SEALs involved in going in to rescue Spider. She also brings a British special agent in from Thailand secretly to the UK to try to establish exactly where Spider is being held and to do this he has to engage in some very unorthodox methods. 


Stephen Leather is from a journalistic background and meticulously researches the background to all his books and it is very reassuring, reading facts and background details to his stories and knowing that they must be authentic. 
Further reading suggestion: Spider Shepherd: SAS - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spider-Shepherd-SAS-1-ebook/dp/B00QWGVDY8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&linkCode=sl1&tag=stephenleather&linkId=3ed6de9b013ba48b5a5fc02ca9b017df

Book review: Cometh the Hour


Cometh the Hour (The Clifton Chronicles Book 6) by [Archer, Jeffrey]


















Title: Cometh the Hour

Author: Jeffrey Archer

FICTION

Genre: General

Ranking: 7.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0142UM8HG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:  This is the sixth volume Jeffrey Archer's Clifton Chronicles. 

Harry makes a determined effort to free Russian writer Anatoly Babakova from the Soviet gulag. Sir Giles rescues his East German lover, an ex-Stasi agent. Lady Virginia Fenwick, an utterly corrupt schemer once married to Sir Giles, gets her hooks into a Louisiana cannery heir. Sebastian—"gone were the rough edges of greed"—copes with a stiff upper lip when his bank’s owner, Hakim Bishara, is framed, arrested, and tried, a scheme engineered by a group of forgettable villains. After a tragic love affair with a beautiful young Indian woman, Sebastian reconnects with long-lost American love Samantha thanks to their precocious preteen daughter. 

Main review: 

Cometh the Hour opens with the reading of Major Fisher's suicide note, which has devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia.
Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin an ex-Stasi spy, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. 
Lady Virginia is facing bankruptcy, and can see no way out of her financial problems, until she meets Cyrus T. Grant III from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who's in England to see his horse run at Royal Ascot.
Sebastian Clifton, now Chief Executive of Farthings Bank and a workaholic, has personal life is thrown into disarray when he falls for Priya, a beautiful Indian girl. But her parents have already chosen the man she is going to marry. Meanwhile, Sebastian's rivals Adrian Sloane and Desmond Mellor are still plotting to bring him and his chairman Hakim Bishara down, so they can take over Farthings.
Harry Clifton remains determined to get Anatoly Babakov released from a gulag in Siberia, following the international success of his acclaimed book, Uncle Joe. But then something unexpected happens that none of them could have anticipated.
Cometh the Hour is the penultimate book in the Clifton Chronicles.

Further reading suggestion: Mightier than the Sword - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MENCEAU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Book review: Blood of the Innocents - Michaels Jecks

Blood of the Innocents: The Vintener trilogy by [Jecks, Michael]




















Title: Blood of the Innocents

Author: Michael Jecks

FICTION

Genre: Historical

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0151VOGFC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:

Ten years since the battle of Crécy in 1346 and the English are still in France, laying siege to cities, towns and even small villages. Meanwhile the Prince of Wales raids across France to draw King John into a battle for sovereignty over disputed lands in France.

Berenger Fripper, captain of a company of mercenaries, move to Uzerche. his path crosses that of the Prince and his men as they embark on their chevauchée to bring death and disaster to the King of France's subjects.

Enlisted as Vintener (commander of 20) under Sir John de Sully, Berenger finds himself drawn into a new struggle. Can the English defeat the much larger French army, or will they find themselves finally defeated when their weary feet bring them at last to the field of battle near Poitiers.

Main review: 

France, 1356: Ten years have passed since the battle of Crecy, and the English fighters are still in France, laying siege to, burning and pillaging cities, towns and even small villages. They slaughter the men and boys, after raping the women, sometimes capture them to act as help behind the lines. 

Meanwhile the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward - also known as the Black Prince, raids across France to draw King John into a battle for sovereignty over disputed lands in France.

Berenger Fripper, having lost everything to the plague, is now captain of a company of mercenaries, but treachery and deceit dog him when his travels with the company lead him to Uzerche. And then his path crosses that of the Prince and his men as they embark on their latest chevauchée to bring death and destruction to the King of France’s subjects. (Note: chevauchée was a raiding method of medieval warfare for weakening the enemy, primarily by burning and pillaging enemy territory in order to reduce the productivity of a region, as opposed to siege warfare or wars of conquest.)

Enlisted as Vintener (commander of 20) under Sir John de Sully, Berenger finds himself roped into a new struggle. Can the English defeat the much larger French army, or will they find themselves finally overcome when their weary feet bring them at last to the field of battle near Poitiers.

Historically this was the second major battle, followed by the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The three forming what is known as the hundred years war.

Michaels Jecks has been renowned for his Knights Templar series featuring Sir Baldwin Furnshill and his friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford. In this third of his Vintener Trilogy, he weaves his magic taking us to a time when lives were of no real value and brutality was the norm. We could almost be there at Poitiers in the dust, sweat and gore before and during the battle, such is his power of narration.

Further reading suggestion: Blood in the Sand - http://www.michaeljecks.co.uk/sand.html