Book Review: The Wild One by Nick Petrie @_NickPetrie_ @PutnamBooks

The Wild One
A Peter Ash Novel #5
Nick Petrie
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, January 2020
ISBN 978-0-525-53544-7
Hardcover

This is Nick Petrie’s fifth novel in the Peter Ash series. Ash has been likened to Lee Child’s character Reacher and there are some similarities. Ash, like Reacher, has a Military background. He was a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan but suffers from PTSD, which takes the form of what he describes as white static inside his head, along with a bad case of claustrophobia. But like Reacher, Ash’s efforts to help anyone in trouble often result in fistfights, and gunfights.

In this novel we find Ash on a plane bound for Reykjavik, Iceland. Planes are not his favourite form of transportation…and he grows agitated, feeling claustrophobic and panicky. He manages to fight through it, relieved when the plane finally lands. But his ordeal isn’t over, as he is taken to a small interrogation room, where a man from the American Embassy asks him why he has come to Iceland. After a brief exchange Ash is told he is not welcome in Iceland and must return to America on the next plane. The next flight to the USA, however, isn’t scheduled to leave for several days.

Ash leaves the airport wondering why so much attention is being paid to him. While he’d told them he was simply a tourist, in actual fact he’d been hired by Catherine Price in Washington, D.C. to find her son-in-law Erik Grimsson and her 7 year old grandson, Oskar. The police in America believe Erik murdered his wife Sarah a year ago and ran off with Oskar.

Unfazed by the fact that he has been ordered to return to the USA in a day or two, Ash is determined to find and talk to Erik’s cousin, Bjarni Bergsson. Ash visits the local Bar where Bjarni works and enjoys a drink while he waits. Bjarni doesn’t show and Ash, unaware his drink has been drugged, ends up being beaten and left in the snow.

Stubborn and annoyed at being duped, he continues his search and quickly comes to realize he’s not the only one looking for Erik and Oskar. But who is looking for them and why?

The winter weather in Iceland becomes a big part of the plot when a horrendous snow storm forecast for the area makes an appearance. Ash’s stamina and resourcefulness are put to the test in a plot that is both multi-layered and intriguing. You’ll be holding your breath as you turn the pages to its satisfying conclusion.

Respectfully submitted.

Reviewed by guest reviewer Moyra Tarling, May 2020.

Book Review: How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid @valmcdermid @LittleBrownUK

How the Dead Speak
The New Tony Hill and Carol Jordan Thriller #11
Val McDermid
Little, Brown (UK), August 2019
ISBN 978-1-4087-1225-2
Hardcover

If you are familiar with Val McDermid’s novels you probably know the characters Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. And if, like me, you are a fan of these two; Tony a profiler and criminal psychologist who works with Carol the head of a special Police team, you probably remember the outcome of their previous collaboration in the novel Insidious Intent where Carol’s and Tony’s lives changed dramatically.

In How the Dead Speak, the newest entry in the series, Tony is in prison and Carol has resigned from her job of running an elite Police Force ReMIT – Regional Major Incident Team. Tony is in a rather hostile environment trying to stay out of trouble, while Carol is suffering from PTSD unwilling to seek help.

When a construction company starting work on a project at a local Convent and School now closed down uncovers a gravesite with a large number of skeletal remains, possibly young girls, the ReMIT team, under new leadership, is called in to investigate. When a second gravesite is found on the same premises with more than six male bodies wrapped in plastic, murder is the most the obvious cause.

Meanwhile, Tony’s mother Vanessa pays him a visit, insisting he help her recover money stolen from her by a man using a Ponzi scheme. While Tony has no love for his mother, she orders him to ask Carol to locate the man who has run off with her money. Knowing Vanessa will use every means she can to further ruin his and Carol’s life if he refuses, he agrees to ask Carol to look into the matter. Vanessa then pays Carol a visit, relaying the message from Tony, leaving Carol with no option but to find the man Vanessa is seeking.

As the storylines kick into gear, chapters switch between multiple points of view, from members of the ReMIT team as they investigate the deaths of the young girls and the murdered men, to Tony as he tries to find a way to come to terms with his incarceration, and Carol in her search for the perpetrator of the Ponzi scheme.

Carol and Tony’s relationship has at times been tumultuous throughout this great series. In this novel we watch with interest as they each deal with the problems they face in vastly different circumstances. Though they are not working together this time, McDermid keeps the reader turning pages eager to reach the conclusion of the engaging plot-lines.

I particularly enjoyed the brief and succinct paragraphs at the heading of each chapter, which are bites from one of Tony Hill’s books.

Grab this one… It’s a must read.

Reviewed by guest reviewer Moyra Tarling, December 2019.

Book Review: Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel @KT_Gabriel @BlinkYABooks @TLCBookTours

Every Stolen Breath
Kimberly Gabriel
Blink, November 2019
ISBN 978-0-310-76666-7
Hardcover

From the publisher—

The Swarm is unrecognizable, untraceable, and unpredictable—random attacks on the streets of Chicago by a mob of crazed teens that leaves death in its wake. It’s been two years since the last attack, but Lia Finch has found clues that reveal the Swarm is ready to claim a new victim.

Lia is the only one still pursuing her father’s killers, two years after attorney Steven Finch’s murder by the Swarm. Devastated and desperate for answers, Lia will do anything to uncover the reasons behind his death and to stop someone else from being struck down. But due to debilitating asthma and PTSD that leaves her with a tenuous hold on reality, Lia is the last person to mount a crusade on her own.

After a close encounter with the Swarm puts Lia on their radar, she teams up with a teen hacker, a reporter, and a mysterious stranger who knows firsthand how the mob works. Together, they work to uncover the master puppeteer behind the group. Though if Lia and her network don’t stop the person pulling the strings—and fast—Lia may end up the next target.

Inspired by the real-life “flash mob” violence that struck Chicago in 2011, Every Stolen Breath by debut author Kimberly Gabriel is a fast-paced and immersive thriller that shows just how hard one girl will fight back, knowing any breath might be her last.

It’s really hard to fathom how a vicious flash mob can happen, especially when you realize that 98% of the people involved would never do such a horrible thing on their own. The mob mentality is a very real thing and, yes, we can be sheep in the wrong circumstances.

What’s not hard to believe or understand is how a victim can be so messed up, mentally and emotionally, but also physically; Lia’s PTSD is almost a given but it has become a part of her, a part that she has to control as best she can while she pursues justice for her dad and for herself.

This is as intense a story as I’ve ever read and there were moments when I had to put the book down so I could catch my breath. Lia’s journey is frequently a train wreck but she is a girl who won’t be stopped and must be true to herself, no matter what dangers lurk seemingly around every corner. While I’ve never experienced anything even close to this situation, Ms. Gabriel drew me in with a tale I won’t soon forget.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, November 2019.

About the Author

Kimberly Gabriel is an English teacher who writes every chance she gets and struggles with laundry avoidance issues. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s enjoying life with her husband, her three beautiful children, and a seriously beautiful boxer in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

Connect with Kimberly
Website // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

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Book Review: Forty Dead Men by Donis Casey

Forty Dead Men
An Alafair Tucker Mystery #10
Donis Casey
Poisoned Pen Press, February 2018
ISBN 978-1-4642-0937-6
Hardcover

This latest of the Alafair Tucker mysteries sees Alafair’s son, Gee Dub, home from WWI.  Unfortunately, although he reconnects with his large family and puts on a good face, Alafair knows something is wrong with her strong, quiet son. When he finds a young woman in a field behaving oddly and brings her home to his mother, the situation only grows worse. Alafair befriends the woman, but then a murder is committed and suspicion falls on Gee Dub. Even Alafair has her doubts when she finds an ammunition case that generally holds forty bullets, but now holds only one, which then goes missing.

Soldiers have always suffered from PTSD. In WWI it was called shell shock and Gee Dub has more reason to suffer from it than many. He often struggles with what is real and what is not, but even so, this story holds some surprising twists and turns.

This is a powerful story of family, love and kindness, and hardship, too. Not to be missed.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, July 2018.
Author of Three Seconds to Thunder, Four Furlongs and Hometown Homicide.

Book Reviews: Infamy by Robert K. Tanenbaum and Robert B. Parker’s The Hangman’s Sonnet by Reed Farrel Coleman

Infamy
A Butch Karp-Marlene Ciampi Thriller #28
Robert K. Tanenbaum
Pocket Books, March 2017
ISBN 978-1-4767-9321-4
Mass Market Paperback

This novel is not up to the usual standards of the author.  Usually, the first half of the book recounts a situation which sets the stage for the other half, which, ordinarily, few do better than Mr. Tanenbaum: a dramatic courtroom scene.  So it is with Infamy.  Unfortunately, however otherwise well-written the novel is, the courtroom scene is flat and perfunctory.

The novel opens with an intelligence raid by a secret U.S. Army unit in Syria which was supposed to capture at least one suspect.  Instead, they find the suspect had shot and murdered other important enemy subjects and obtained important documents which point to a conspiracy to evade sanctions on ISIS and Iraqi oil.  Butch Karp, the New York DA and protagonist of the series, enters the plot when a U.S. Army Colonel is shot and killed in Central Park, and slowly a conspiracy begins to unfold.

There are all sorts of subplots and side issues which add little to the tale, except to make it more complicated than it really is.  This reader was clearly disappointed, especially when the author decided to vent his own political views, sometimes crudely or bluntly chastising those holding conservative views.  It’s too bad, because basically Infamy began with a solid idea, but lost its way along the way from front cover to back cover.

Reviewed by Ted Feit, December 2017.

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Robert B. Parker’s The Hangman’s Sonnet
A Jesse Stone Novel #16
Reed Farrel Coleman
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, September 2017
ISBN 978-0-3991-7144-4
Hardcover

This is the fourth Jesse Stone novel Reed Farrel Coleman has written in the series begun by the late Robert B. Parker.  And he has kept the faith.  Moreover, he has done something the master never did.  He brings in Spenser to play a minor role in solving the mystery which begins with the death of an old woman, a member of the founding family of Paradise, and the ransacking of her home.

Jesse, still reeling from the death of his beloved Diana in his presence, is slowly drinking himself into oblivion.  But that doesn’t stop him from performing his duty as Police Chief, despite the hindrance of the Mayor and her hatchet woman.  The plot basically revolves around the recovery of a supposedly long lost tape made by a now has-been rock star in time for his 70th birthday party.

Coleman performs up to the standards of the late master, while offering a clever plot of his own, written in a slightly different style (few can duplicate the pithy sentences of a Parker novel).  He gives us a deeper insight into Jesse’s personality and presumably shows the force of his iron will.  Well at least let’s hope so.  Presumably we’ll find out in the next volume in the series.

Recommended.

Reviewed by Ted Feit, December 2017.

Book Review: The Other Widow by Susan Crawford—and a Giveaway!

The Other Widow
Susan Crawford
William Morrow Paperbacks, December 2016
ISBN 978-0-06-236289-6
Trade Paperback

From the publisher—

Everybody’s luck runs out. This time it could be theirs . . .

It isn’t safe. That’s what Joe tells her when he ends their affair—moments before their car skids off an icy road in a blinding snowstorm and hits a tree. Desperate to keep her life intact—her job, her husband, and her precious daughter, Lily—Dorrie will do everything she can to protect herself, even if it means walking away from the wreckage. Dorrie has always been a good actress, pretending to be someone else: the dutiful daughter, the satisfied wife, the woman who can handle anything. Now she’s going to put on the most challenging performance of her life. But details about the accident leave her feeling uneasy and afraid. Why didn’t Joe’s airbag work? Why was his car door open before the EMTs arrived? And now suddenly someone is calling her from her dead lover’s burner phone. . . .

Joe’s death has left his wife in free fall as well. Karen knew Joe was cheating—she found some suspicious e-mails. Trying to cope with grief is devastating enough without the constant fear that has overtaken her—this feeling she can’t shake that someone is watching her. And with Joe gone and the kids grown, she’s vulnerable . . . and on her own.

Insurance investigator Maggie Brennan is suspicious of the latest claim that’s landed on her desk—a man dying on an icy road shortly after buying a lucrative life insurance policy. Maggie doesn’t believe in coincidences. The former cop knows that things—and people—are never what they seem to be.

As the fates of these three women become more tightly entwined, layers of lies and deception begin to peel away, pushing them dangerously to the edge . . . closer to each other . . . to a terrifying truth . . . to a shocking end.

I think one of the pitfalls of focusing a story on infidelities and their consequences is that it’s difficult to feel much empathy for the adulterers and I did, indeed, have a distinct lack of connection with Dorrie and the dead Joe. Besides the issue of what they’re doing to their families, you have to wonder why people in such a situation would rather follow such an unproductive path than either end their unhappy marriages or try to repair whatever is wrong. Certainly having an affair solves nothing.

Dorrie puzzled me, too, because of her immediate response to the accident. Blind panic sets in, largely because she’s so afraid of being found out and that’s understandable if weak, but she seems to be so unaware of the evidence she left behind. Still, I did sympathize with her to a point, kind of even more than Karen, Joe’s wife who studiously ignored all the signs and has her own secrets. Not knowing about a spouse’s affair is one thing; pretending it doesn’t exist is something else.

The character that really meant something to me is Maggie, the insurance investigator who becomes involved because of the large policy on Joe. This is a woman with a lot of baggage but she’s also intriguing with her background in the military and law enforcement. Her intelligence and sense of something being wrong are what made me want to keep reading, to go along with her as she searched for the truth behind Joe’s death.

Generally speaking, the plot was a bit clunky and had a few too many threads but, on the whole, I wanted to stick with it because I did want to know what really happened and how things would be resolved, plus there were a number of leads to follow to get there. While the ending left a few things hanging and some of the characters were unlikeable, The Other Widow is an interesting read.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2016.

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Purchase Links:

HarperCollins // Barnes & Noble // Kobo

Amazon // Indiebound

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About the Author

Susan Crawford grew up in Miami, Florida, and graduated from the University of Miami with a BA in English and a minor in psychology. She later moved to New York City and then Boston before settling in Atlanta to raise three daughters and work in the field of adult education. A member of the Atlanta Writers Club and the Village Writers, Susan teaches at Georgia Piedmont Technical College and dabbles in local politics. She lives with her husband and a trio of rescue cats in Atlanta, where she enjoys reading books, writing books, rainy days, and spending time with the people she loves.

Find out more about Susan at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Follow the tour:

Tuesday, December 6th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Wednesday, December 7th: Buried Under Books

Thursday, December 8th: Books and Bindings

Friday, December 9th: A Literary Vacation

Monday, December 12th: A Bookworm’s World

Tuesday, December 13th: Kahakai Kitchen

Wednesday, December 14th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Friday, December 16th: Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, December 19th: Tina Says…

Wednesday, December 21st: 5 Minutes For Books

Thursday, December 22nd: FictionZeal

Wednesday, December 28th: Laura’s Reviews

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To enter the drawing for one of two print
copies of The Other Widow, leave a
comment below. The winning names will
be drawn Friday evening, December 9th.
Open to residents of the US and Canada.

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Book Review: Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

Little Black Lies
Sharon Bolton
Minotaur Books, April 2016
ISBN:  978- 1-250-08067-7
Trade Paperback

From the publisher:The remote Falkland Islands serve as the setting for Sharon Bolton’s chilling new standalone novel.  When a young boy visiting the islands with his family goes missing, a sense of dread settles on the isolated, tight-knit community.  It’s the third young child to go missing in as many years.  While the previous two were assumed to be accidents, the third disappearance sends an ominous message to everyone on the islands:  A killer may be living among them:  “The chances of three boys between the ages of seven and three disappearing in three years” cannot explained by coincidence.

The first of three points of view in this novel is that of Catrin Quinn, a marine biologist who has her own form of PTSD after the accidental death of her two sons three years ago, the result of the utter carelessness of her childhood best friend, Rachel, and the ensuing years have seen her emotions go from grief to a determination to seek revenge in an as-yet undetermined way.  The events described take place over the space of several days, the most fraught of those on November 3, 1994, when a solar eclipse occurred (although not at the precise time of day that it actually happened, we are told in an author’s note).  As the book opens, it is approaching the third anniversary of Catrin’s boys’ deaths, a date of which all and sundry are well aware.

The second p.o.v. is that of former Second Lieutenant Callum Murray, who first came to the Falklands during the 1982 UK war with Argentina in its 74 days of occupation, still suffering from the more severe sort of PTSD resulting in severe panic attacks and flashbacks as a result of that horrific time.  And the third and final p.o.v. is that of Rachel, the aforementioned best friend of Catrin, who describes herself as “something of a ghoul on the islands.  No one looks at me and doesn’t think: woman who killed two kids.”

The Falklands are described thusly:  “When you’re hundreds of miles away from the rest of the world, when news from outside is always too little, too late, then the world you inhabit, however small and sparsely populated, assumes a terrific importance.  In the Falkland Islands, everybody knows everybody else’s business.”    There is infidelity and jealousy and suspense aplenty here.  The gorgeous writing is particularly vivid in glorious descriptions of the islands and their natural beauty.  There is a lot of death in these pages, both the human and animal variety.  But the twists and shocking turns of events, and the suspense as the three narrators converge in the local constabulary in the final pages, are well worth reading, and the novel is definitely recommended.

Reviewed by Gloria Feit, April 2016.