May I introduce: Stacy Juba "Twenty-Five Years Ago Today"

 

 "Twenty-Five Years Ago Today"

by Stacy Juba

 

 

 

Twenty-Five Years Ago Today:

Should we dig for the truth when Pandora's Box is a coffin of buried secrets? For twenty-five years, Diana Ferguson's killer has gotten away with murder. When rookie obit writer and newsroom editorial assistant Kris Langley investigates the cold case of the artistic young cocktail waitress who was obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology, not only does she fall in love with Diana's sexy nephew, but she must also fight to stay off the obituary page herself. A unique blend of literary mystery, cozy mystery, and romantic suspense. Get in on the secret - join thousands of readers in discovering who killed Diana Ferguson.

 

 

Bio:

Stacy Juba loves to write stories about Characters at a Crossroads: individuals who are finding themselves and getting on the right life path after overcoming obstacles. She has made numerous bestseller lists including GalleyCat's Barnes & Noble Bestsellers and GalleyCat's Mystery and Thriller Bestsellers. Stacy has written about reality TV contestants targeted by a killer, an obit writer investigating a cold case, teen psychics who control minds, twin high school hockey stars battling on the ice, and teddy bears learning to raise the U.S. flag. She has had a book ranked as #5 in the Nook Store and #30 on the Amazon Kindle Paid List. Stacy also offers the affordable Crossroads Editing Service for writers and teaches online writing and book promotion classes. Browse her website for more information on her mystery, romance, and contemporary fiction books for adults, teens and children.

 

 

Buy links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Five-Years-Ago-Today-ebook/dp/B003U4WVKA/ref

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twenty-five-years-ago-today-stacy-juba/1017979048?ean=2940011980930

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Twenty-Five-Years-Ago-Today/book-fc55-OLdikey2hFgy_jaDA/page1.html?s=ujwec_jtbU2U134hnmDkXA&r=7

Audible: http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_3?asin=B00B8VUQM2&qid=1359725371&sr=1-3

iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/twenty-five-years-ago-today/id643229089?mt=11

 

Author links:

Website: http://stacyjuba.com/blog/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stacy-Juba/100155471301

Twitter https://twitter.com/stacyjuba

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2988212.Stacy_Juba

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/stacyjuba/

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Stacy-Juba/e/B002OXLSDE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

 

Excerpt:

Cheryl came up behind Kris.  Her voice sounded sad and tired.  "Please don't tell my mother too much, even if you're making progress.  I don't want to raise her hopes."

Kris glanced back at Irene, who hunched on the couch, turning the locket over in her hand.  "I'll be careful with what I say.  My aunt would've been eager, too."

"How was your cousin killed?"   

"She was strangled, kidnapped by a neighbor while walking alone.  We were  twelve."

Cheryl heaved a sigh.  "I'm sorry.  I remember reading about that.  It happened locally, didn't it?"

"Yes."

"I know you're a terrific writer.  I couldn't have been happier with the business story.  I'm just concerned about my mother."

"I understand," Kris said.  "I won't let you down."

She trudged out to her car and brushed off her windshield.  She waited behind the steering wheel as the defroster warmed the interior. Not knowing Diana's whereabouts must have tormented Irene.  Kris's family had agonized over Nicole's disappearance.  As one day blended into the next, Nicole had seemed further and further away. 

Finding her was worse.

Kris had learned a new phrase that May, a litany that surged back into her mind, drumming to the beat of the windshield wipers.  If only.

If only it hadn't rained the afternoon Nicole had disappeared.

If only she hadn't climbed into the car with Randolph Coltraine.

If only Aunt Susan had been home when Nicole called for a ride.

Kris swallowed the metallic taste in her mouth.  If only I didn't trick her.

She chose the long route home, driving fast. She hadn't driven in New York and had forgotten the thrill of a climbing speedometer.  Her first week back, she'd landed a speeding ticket. 

  Kris skidded onto the Fremont State College campus, her tires kicking up tufts of snow.  She passed dorms, tennis courts and the library before parking in front of the deserted baseball field.  White trees cast shapeless shadows across the broad expanse of snow.

A chunk of ice slid off the roof, hitting the front window.  Kris jumped, her hand to her heart.   

"No one's out there," she murmured, gazing into the woods.  "Not now."

But once.

Beyond those trees, Diana had lain dead. 

Police had crowded the scene, their search over.

 

 

 

 

Review: Lee Child "Gone Tomorrow" (Jack Reacher #13) ~~ #JackReacher #Review

 



Publisher:  Bantam

ISBN: 978-0345541581

My Rating: 5/5




New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t.
In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice--and trigger an electrifying chain of events in this gritty, gripping masterwork of suspense by #1 New York Times bestseller Lee Child.
Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now.
Because a race has begun through the streets of Manhattan in a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. Susan Mark’s plain little life was critical to dozens of others in Washington, California, Afghanistan . . . from a former Delta Force operator now running for the U.S. Senate, to a beautiful young woman with a fantastic story to tell–and to a host of others who have just one thing in common: They’re all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or maybe just enough to get him killed.
In a novel that slams through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child unleashes a thriller that spans three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it’s a mystery with only one answer–the kind that comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.


My thoughts

He's done it again. This was a brilliant story resulting in some sleepless nights because I wasn't able to put the book aside.

Reacher travels in a subway late at night, when he witnesses one of the passengers acting 'suspicious'. Moments later he's involved in a murder and events unfolding that in true Reacher style,  he does not rest until he knows the reasons for her actions.

Brilliant. It's fast paced, it's a thriller / mystery at its best.

Highly recommend this one!

Review: Tana French "The Likeness"

Publisher: Viking Adult
 

ISBN: 9780670018864

My rating: 5/5

Six months after the events of In the Woods, an urgent telephone call beckons detective Cassie Maddox to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used. Suddenly, Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who she is. A disturbing tale of shifting identities, The Likeness firmly establishes Tana French as an important voice in suspense fiction. (www.goodreads.com)

My thoughts

What a brilliant read. I loved it.

This was my first book by Tana French and although initially I thought it was slow going, it (thankfully!) dawned on me very quickly that this isn't a "fast-food-read" which we get bombarded with from everywhere. It's well and truly over 400 pages, but each page worth the while.

A woman with the name Lexie Madison is found dead - it's the same fake identity Cassie Maddox used in an undercover case years earlier, but not only that, the dead woman looks exactly like Cassie as well.

So Cassie becomes Lexie once again and goes undercover and moves in with Lexie's four friends Daniel, Abby, Justin, and Rafe.

I loved the group, graduate students, who couldn't be any more different from each other, living together in an old house in the country, trying hard to escape the hectic daily life of the big city and the boundaries of society. Even Cassie finds herself getting attached to their life, to a point where her loyalties to her job and the police are tested. But, of course, their perfect life isn't perfect at all and soon cracks appear.

Tana French's writing style is beautiful with details and descriptions near perfect. I felt drawn into the story so much, I felt somewhat lost after I finished the book.

 

(No) Review: Lee Child "Bad Luck and Trouble" (Reacher #11)

Publisher: Bantam Dell Random House

ISBN: 9780385340557

My rating:  n.a.
 

From a helicopter high above the empty California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night…. In Chicago, a woman learns that an elite team of ex–army investigators is being hunted down one by one.... And on the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher—soldier, cop, hero—is pulled out of his wandering life by a code that few other people could understand. From the first shocking scenes in Lee Child’s explosive new novel, Jack Reacher is plunged like a knife into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends…and is on its way to something even worse.
A decade postmilitary, Reacher has an ATM card and the clothes on his back—no phone, no ties, and no address. But now a woman from his old unit has done the impossible. From Chicago, Frances Neagley finds Reacher, using a signal only the eight members of their elite team of army investigators would know. She tells him a terrifying story—about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his old team, scrambling to raise the living, bury the dead, and connect the dots in a mystery that is growing darker by the day. The deeper they dig, the more they don’ t know: about two other comrades who have suddenly gone missing—and a trail that leads into the neon of Vegas and the darkness of international terrorism.

For now, Reacher can only react. To every sound. Every suspicion. Every scent and every moment. Then Reacher will trust the people he once trusted with his life—and take this thing all the way to the end. Because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them. (LeeChild.com)

 

 

My thoughts

 

This is kind of very hard to write ... but there won't be a review for this book. As hard as it is to admit, this books was not for me.

The reason I'm posting it, is simply for continuance as I've written about the previous ten books on my blog. I didn't want to leave a "gap".

 

Review: Janet Evanovich / Lee Goldberg "The Heist"

Publisher: Bantam

ISBN: 9780345543066

My rating: 4/5

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world’s most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years, the only name she’s cared about is Nicolas Fox—an international crook she wants in more ways than one.
Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail—particularly Kate O’Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there’s no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: he convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O’Hare.

Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who’s hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O’Hare’s patience and Fox’s skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate’s dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first.



My thoughts

 

I picked up the book because of Janet Evanovich's name.

 

BUT it isn't Stephanie Plum.

 

BUT it isn't bad.

 

Okay, the blurb says it all. There's Kate O'Hare, FBI agent with the need to proof herself all the time, and Nick Fox, charming, funny and clever conman. Kate's been on his heels for years and when she finally catches him, he makes a deal with the FBI top level.

 

Initially boring, I got interested once the story moved to the Greek island of Athos and then to Berlin. And from then on it was a constant move to different locations while the next con was cleverly executed.

 

The characters are interesting and the banter between Kate and Nick quite funny. The story is very cleverly written, scenes beautifully described in detail, and every character introduced to detail so the reader has a clear picture and wouldn't get confused with the amount of characters involved in the book.

 

Loved Jake, Kate's father! 

 

@_Iris_B Thanks for the rave review, Iris. I hope you'll like THE CHASE in February even more!
— Lee Goldberg (@LeeGoldberg) November 10, 2013

Review: Carla Neggers "Cold Dawn"

Publisher: MIRA Books  

ISBN: 13:978-0-7783-2824-7
 

My Rating: 3/5

The small town of Black Falls, Vermont, finally feels safe again—until search-and-rescue expert Rose Cameron discovers a body, burnt almost beyond recognition. Almost. Rose is certain that she knows the victim’s identity…and that his death was no accident.

Nick Martini also suspects an arsonist’s deliberate hand. Another fire killed an arson investigator in California months ago. Now the rugged smoke jumper is determined to follow the killer’s trail…even if it leads straight to Rose. Nick and Rose haven’t seen each other since they shared a single night of blind passion, but they can’t let memories and unhealed wounds get in the way of their common goal—stopping a merciless killer from taking aim straight at the heart of Black Falls. (carlaneggers.com)


 

My thoughts

My first book by Carla Neggers and I am aware of the fact that this story is part of a series, but still ...

 

It took me an awful long time to get into the story. It was drawn out and loooong and lots of people involved in many places. Confusing. For a little summary you need to go by the blurb, I wouldn't have a clue how to write one.

 

All in all, the plot was okay and kind of different from other books I've read, which made it interesting for me, but as I said above ... IMHO it needed a bit more oomph to pull me in more.

 

I wouldn't recommend it as such and I have to admit 3 stars is generous, but the plot was okay.

 

 

Lee Child - One Shot (Reacher #9)

Publisher: Bantam Books

ISBN: 9780440423010

My rating: 4.5/5


Jack Reacher is working on his tan with a Norwegian blonde on the beach in Miami. The weather is hot and he is so cool you could skate on him. But he doesn’t like to stick around. He likes to be on the move. He was in the machine his whole life. Then the machine coughed and spat him out. Now he takes it easy. He’s not looking for trouble. But sometimes trouble looks for Reacher.
A lone gunman hides in a parking garage and shoots into a crowd in a public plaza in a small Indiana city. Five random people die in a senseless massacre. The shooter leaves a perfect trail behind him and the police quickly track him down. His name is James Barr. It’s a watertight case. After his arrest, James Barr refuses to talk. Then, to his lawyer, he utters a single phrase: “Get Jack Reacher for me.” But Reacher’s already on his way. What could connect this obvious psychopath with our wandering ex-army cop?
By the time Reacher hits town, Barr’s been beaten badly enough to forget everything about the day in question. So Reacher begins to piece together the wealth of evidence; he does the math and comes to a few conclusions of his own. (LeeChild.com)


My thoughts

What can I say .... I admit, I saw the movie on the flight back to Australia. I succumbed. *sigh*

So #9 was on top of my TBR list when I got home and I hesitated not wanting to read it, because the previous story had been confusing and I didn't like the movie at all.

Thank goodness I like routine; I picked up the book on the top and started reading. I struggled through the first few pages, because I couldn't get rid of the image of Tom Cruise's face in my head. Frustrating! But then, it was page after page after page ... and quite a few early mornings.

The story starts when a sniper shoots five random people. With forensic evidence so obvious, it's within a very short time that police arrest James Barr. He's silent only requesting for them to get Jack Reacher.

It's a great book, it's interesting, fast paced and very intricate with all the characters, yet easy to follow. The plot is slightly far fetched, but hey, it's a fiction book! All characters clear and well developed.

Okay - here my two cents about the movie. Having worked in the film industry (though only for a brief period of time) I am aware that a script needs to be cut down, but this one was cut way too much - in the end nothing, or little, made sense. I've heard Tom Cruise took on the role because it was his company producing the movie. Shame on him to be selfish and ruining the movie and any further movies. This movie deserved better! *rant off*

Kathy Reich - Deadly Decisions

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781448106608

My rating: 3/5


The third gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones. A nine-year-old girl is killed in crossfire on her way to ballet class. Soon afterwards, the body of a teenager killed in North Carolina is found hundreds of miles away. Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan knows she must stay professional, but when the young girl's body is wheeled into the morgue she cannot help but react. And when an exhumation reveals the bones of yet another innocent in a hidden grave close to a biker gang headquarters, Tempe begins a lone and risky investigation into the lawless underworld of organised crime.

 

My thoughts

Number 3 didn't really rock my world.

It's all about Motorbike gangs and the accidental death of a young girl. I have to admit, it took me a while to get my head around the story. As much as I like the extra details Reichs gives in regards to pathology or in this book blood spattern, IMHO there's right and there's too much. I thought it was all a bit too much. Everything was in too much detail, I thought.

The rest of the story is the same as previously - add a family member (BTW - the nephew Kit is a hoot!) and put Brennan in a dangerous situation - voila, another Brennan story. Well more or less.



#1 Kathy Reichs - Deja Dead

#2 Kathy Reichs - Death Du Jour

#4 Kathy Reichs - Fatal Voyage

Tara Moss - Fetish

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

ISBN: 978-0843956337

My rating:  2/5

Tall, blonde and beautiful – It’s no surprise that Canadian Makedde Vanderwall is a model. What is surprising is her street-smart ways and her own recognition that modeling is only a stopgap career, a lucrative means to fund her tuition for a degree in forensic psychology.
But more surprising – and disturbing – is that while on assignment in Sydney, Australia, Makedde finds herself in the middle of a grisly, sensational hunt for the “Stiletto Murderer” – a serial killer who brutally murdered Makedde’s best friend – and may see Makedde as his next fashion victim. Who is this murderous monster with the penchant for sexy shoes?
The world of fashion takes on sinister tones – a photographer who get off on snapping photos of dead bodies; beautiful women with rich but mysterious sugar daddies; and bottom feeders who cruise the murky ocean of high fashion and low morals. And now, seemingly deserted by the one cop who can save her, Makedde is a girl on the edge of unimaginable terror, in a place where perfect beauty is transformed into darkest death… (TaraMoss.com)


My thoughts

Okay - first mistake was listening to the audio version, which is narrated by Tara Moss. Without wanting to be over-criticising, it was irritating to listen to. Everyone sounded the same, which was confusing, there was hardly any difference in the accents either.

Second clue - my friend, who likes these kind of books, couldn't really remember the story. Bad sign.

Makedde Vanderwall (love the name!) is a psychology student who works as a model to pay for her tuition. Soon after she arrives in Sydney, she finds her very good friend Catherine dead at the beach. Murdered by the so-called "Stiletto Killer".

Bottom line, it was an okay story. The plot was interesting, but the story had more downs than ups. Too much information about the modeling scene, too many condescending remarks. The relationship between her and the lead investigator Andy Flynn was iffy and somewhat confusing how they went from not liking each other to being in bed together. Lastly, I couldn't really figure out, how the killer's interest had moved onto Makedde.

Not my kinda read - sorry!

Lee Child - Persuader (Reacher #7)

Publisher: Bantam UK

ISBN: 9780553815856

My rating: 3/5


The ultimate loner. An elite ex-military cop who left the service years ago, he’s moved from place to place … without family … without possessions … without commitments. And without fear. Which is good, because trouble—big, violent, complicated trouble—finds Reacher wherever he goes. And when trouble finds him, Reacher does not quit, not once, not ever. But some unfinished business has now found Reacher. And Reacher is a man who hates unfinished business. Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour and Francis Xavier Quinn got away with murder. Now a chance encounter outside Boston’s Symphony Hall brings it all back. Now Reacher sees his one last shot. Some would call it vengeance. Some would call it redemption. Reacher would call it justice. (LeeChild.com)



My thoughts

I can without a doubt say that Lee Child is one of my favourite authors, and I look forward to yet another Reacher Novel. Yet, this one was a bit disappointing I have to admit.

First of all, it's written in the "first person" and that threw me a bit. Secondly, the book starts straight with the action of a shooting ... and it took me a while to understand the storyline.

Reacher goes undercover for the police to get to Francis Xavier Quinn - but it's more about revenge for him then helping out.

It was a rather confusing story and I had a hard time to follow, especially with the backstory in between. Love Reacher, but that wasn't one of my favourites.

Lee Child - Without Fail

Publisher: Jove Books

ISBN:  978-0515144314

My rating: 5/5

Reacher is approached by a Secret Service agent who makes a highly unusual request. "I want to hire you to assassinate the Vice President of the United States," she says. She's the newly appointed head of the VP's security detail and wants Reacher to try and penetrate her team's shield, testing its efficacy against a genuine attack. Reacher has the skills and the stealth, and he's totally anonymous - how better to check security? What she doesn't tell Reacher is that a very determined and deadly team of assassins already has the VP in its sights. These men are skilled killers, but they've overlooked one key element - the presence of the equally lethal Reacher. (leechild.com)

 

 

My rating

O-M-G ... what a rollercoaster ride. Loved it! Though in a way short on action, it's a page turner from start to end.

Joe Reacher's ex-girlfriend, M.E. Froelich from the Secret Service asks Jack Reacher for help. Help in form of trying to kill the Vice-President Brook Armstrong. And he delivers - he finds the weak points in the protection of the VP.

Only then he learns that the threat is actually real and the hunt for the bad guy begins.

Mix a little bit of romance, yes, Reacher in a suit (!) and a twist I didn't see coming and you have a good book. Ok, IMO the bed-hopping gets a bit too much for me!

But most interestingly, add another character: Francis Neagley, a colleague from Reacher's Army days. She is a great character and let's hope that she will be back in any future stories! Or even her own?

Lee Child - Echo Burning (Reacher #5)

Publisher: Jove

ISBN: 978-0515143829

My rating: 3/5


Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport. In temperatures of over a hundred degrees, you're lucky if a driver will open the door of his air-conditioned car long enough to let you slide in. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up.

He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She's alone, driving a Cadillac. She's beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who is in jail. Who will beat her senseless when he comes out. If he doesn't kill her first.

Reacher is no stranger to trouble. And at Carmen's remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of it: lies and prejudice, hatred and murder. Reacher can never resist a lady in distress. Her family is hostile. The cops can't be trusted. The lawyers won't help. If Reacher can't set things straight, who can? (LeeChild.com)


My thoughts

One could summarise the first half of the book with these few words: Reacher said nothing - and honestly that is what you get at least once a page if not more often!

Reacher #5. Reacher is on the road again and gets picked up by Carmen. She tells him about her life, her daughter Ellie, her husband Sloop, who's currently in jail and the abuse she suffered through his hands. With nowhere else to go Reacher promises her to come with and keep and eye on things for the next few days when Sloop is supposed to come back home.

And this is when Lee Child speeds up from second to fifth gear. Finally it gets interesting and putting the book aside is a bit NO NO.

Lots of confusion. Lots of "he said / she said" situations. Lee Child at his best.

Definitely a 'not to be missed' for Reacher fans, yet for those who start out with this one, be patient through the first half. I promise it gets better!

Lee Child - Running Blind (Reacher #4)

Running Blind by Lee Child

Publisher: Jove

ISBN: 978-0515130973

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It's tough being a high-flying woman in the Army. Very tough. When Sergeant Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cook are found dead in their own homes—in baths filled with Army-issue camouflage paint, their bodies completely unmarked—Jack Reacher is under suspicion. He knew them both—and he knows that they both left the Army under dubious circumstances, both victims of sexual harassment. A former U.S. military policeman, a loner and a drifter, he matches the psychological profile prepared by the FBI, and is arrested by ambitious Special Agent, Julia Lamarr.

But when the body of another woman, Sergeant Lorraine Stanley, is discovered, killed with similar precision, Reacher is released. Everyone fears there is a serial killer on the loose. But the FBI have strong persuasive powers, and before long Reacher finds himself heavily involved in the murder investigation. What have these women got in common and why is someone out to do them harm?

In this magnificent and utterly ingenious thriller, Reacher once again saves the day, proving that he is a unique hero, capable of holding his own in any situation. Running Blind confirms that Lee Child is more than capable of challenging the established names currently writing in this genre.(leechild.com)

My thoughts

You either love or loathe the story, I guess. I haven't decided yet, so I settle in the middle.

Reading "Running Blind" was a bit like a emotional rollercoaster - interesting, pageturner, you're kiddin' right back to interesting.

The book starts with a bang and Reacher being picked up by the FBI as a "person of interest" in a serial murder case. Women are being killed and nobody can figure out how and why, but an FBI profile states it's someone like Reacher ... and he ends up working as a "consultant" for them.

Personally I think the plot is great, brilliant and well executed into a story, even though I had an inkling half way through about the killer.

Parts I wasn't really convinced about were: the FBI characters were lousy. For me as a non-US citizen sometimes to the point that it was unbelievable. Perhaps naive thinking on my behalf, maybe not. Also, the relationship with with Jodie made me grinch. She came across very selfish and even though Reacher hadn't been a "good boy" himself, he, IMHO, deserved better.

Lastly - I didn't like was Reacher's openness to violence. Though I "know" he's no angel, I didn't like his (as it seemed to me) more aggressive nature in this story.

All in all, I wasn't really convinced, but I loved the Reacher in this one as well. Lee Child has created such a great character smooth and edgy. Can't get enough of him!

Reacher #5 next !! :-)
















View all my reviews

Lee Child - Tripwire (Reacher #3)

Tripwire by Lee Child

Publisher: Berkley Trade

ISBN: 978-0425206225

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Tripwire, Child pits ex-military policeman Jack Reacher against his most deadly and merciless adversary yet. Kirkus Reviews noted that "Reacher swashbuckles with the best of them" and Booklist called Tripwire "edgy, exciting reading."

Jack Reacher washes up in the Florida Keys with his savings running out; he spends his days digging pools and his nights as the bouncer in the local strip club. But a private investigator intrudes upon his tropical refuge, seeking Reacher out. When he discovers the PI's lifeless beaten body lying in the street, Reacher heads north to determine who is trying to find him and why.

Tracing the dead man's trail to New York, Reacher discovers the PI was working for Reacher's former commanding officer, mentor and close friend Leon Garber. Reacher teams up with Garber's daughter Jodie, a sharp Wall Street lawyer, to find out why Leon needed Reacher's help and they find themselves embroiled in a life-threatening search for the truth—and the deeper they dig, the more dangerous and twisted their path becomes.

In this third novel featuring Jack Reacher, author Lee Child masterfully intertwines the domains of the underworld and the bureaucracy of the U.S. Army. Reacher and Jodie uncover 30 years of deceit—and their love for each other—in a thriller that reaches its heart-stopping, plot twisting climax on the 88th floor of the World Trade Center. (www.leechilds.com)

My thoughts

Another great book! BRILLIANT. Right from the very beginning I was hooked on to the story and found myself picking it up again and again for "just another few more pages". So much so, I will need to catch up on sleep and life now. :-)

Jack Reacher has taken on two jobs, but his daily life gets interrupted when PI Costello is looking for him. When he finds Costello dead in the streets, Reacher heads to New York to find out who is looking for him and why. And that's when the rollercoaster starts and won't let go of the reader until the very end.

What can I say. It was simply good, and IMHO even better than the first one. Fast flowing, interesting plot, great characters - Reacher is becoming more 'likeable' as he ponders more about life, about whether there's more to just live life on the road. Great development and with Jodie in his life now I can't wait to see where Lee Child's going with it.

About 3/4 into the book there's a lot of backstory all of a sudden. At the time it seemed long but probably only because I was so eager to get to the end, to find out about mystery, yet without really wanting the book to finish. For me it killed the flow of the story a tiny little bit, though I admit it's necessary!

The end seemed quick and we never find out what actually happened to Marilyn and Chester Stone who I thought were important characters in the story. But I would have also loved to know more about Tony - Hobie's sidekick. With such a detailed backstory I would have imagined there'd be a paragraph about him.

So I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars. Is the above really enough to lower it to 4 stars when I spent the last three days eagerly reading?

This was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it!




View all my reviews

James Lee Burke - Rain Gods

Publishers: Simon & Schuster

 

ISBN:  9781439128244

 

My rating: 3/5

 

 

When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily. As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.
With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail, it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart (goodreads.com)

 

 

My thoughts

 

My first book by James Lee Burke. Bottom line - great story. Why only 3 stars? Well several reasons.

 

The story has so many characters and story lines I won't even try and give a brief summary.

 

It took me quite a while to actually get into the story and a few chapters I had to re-read to remember the plot from the previous chapter and the characters. Once I  got hooked, I really enjoyed the book.

But it's a looooong book. Just short of 400 pages, I initially enjoyed Burke's detailed descriptions, "show not tell" paragraphs, but in the end, it was just too much and repetitious. The characters are interesting, but again the constant analysis of their past, emotions or behaviour was at times too much.

 

Not sure whether I started with the wrong story, but I will probably not add another book by James Lee Burke on my TBR file.

Lee Child - Die Trying (Reacher #2)

Publisher: Bantam

ISBN  9780515142242

My rating: 3/5


A Chicago street in bright sunshine. Jack Reacher, strolling nowhere, meets an attractive young woman, limping, struggling with her crutches, alone. Naturally he stops to offer her a steadying arm and then they turn together—to face twin handguns held level and motionless and aimed straight at their stomachs.

Chained to the woman, locked in a dark, stifling van racing 2,000 miles across America, Reacher needs to know who he's dealing with. The kidnappers are saying nothing and his companion claims to be Holly Johnson, FBI agent. She's fierce enough and tough enough, but he knows there must be more to her than that. And at their remote, hostile destination, they will need to act as a team and trust each other, pitting raw courage and cunning against insane violence and seemingly hopeless odds, with their own lives and hundreds more at stake. (leechild.com)


My rating

Eerie comes to mind! Yet not as good as the first one. Unfortunately not.

So, there's Jack Reacher, he's at the wrong place, wrong time - kidnapped with the handicapped woman (Holly) he helped carrying dry cleaned clothes. By some militia group as it turns out and they take them to some remote spot in the Montana forests. And then ... it gets complicated and weird and Child lost me.

Still interesting, but I had to put the book aside waaay to often, because it was too detailed ? boring ? complicated ? I don't know. It just didn't grip me like the first book.

The story in itself would have been much better if it had been edited down to a few pages less. Reacher still a kick-ass hero you'd like to have at your side when in trouble or not. (PS - I did like the scene when we find out about his weakness - nice touch indeed!) Holly's character a bit "underdeveloped". I would have liked to have more of her. The whole bunch of FBI agents and other agents way to confusing. The leak / mole obvious half way through the book.

Worth a read - betcha it is. It's a Lee Child book. Haven't read any of his yet? Don't start with this one!

Now, let me go and find Reacher #3 :-)

Janet Evanovich - Explosive Eighteen

Publisher: Bantam Books

ISBN: 978-0-345-52771-4

My rating: n.a.

 

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 from Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, she’s flying back to New Jersey solo, and Sasquatch is snoring in row 22. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. The FBI, the fake FBI, and guns-for-hire are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photograph– Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of a FBI sketch artist Stephanie recreates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.
Over at the Bail Bonds Agency it’s business as usual– until the bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke, Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their “largest” FTA yet, lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment, and everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?!
Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is…it’s complicated. (evanovich.com)


My thoughts

Not my cup of tea - 'nuff said!

Lee Child - Killing Floor (Reacher #1)

Publisher: Bantam Books

ISBN: 9780553505405

My rating: 5/5

Welcome to Margrave, Georgia—but don't get too attached to the townsfolk, who are either in on a giant conspiracy, or hurtling toward violent deaths, or both.

There's not much of a welcome for Jack Reacher, a casualty of the Army's peace dividend who's drifted into town idly looking for traces of a long dead black jazzman. Not only do the local cops arrest him for murder, but the chief of police turns eyewitness to place him on the scene, even though Reacher was getting on a bus in Tampa at the time. Two surprises follow: The murdered man wasn't the only victim, and he was Reacher's brother whom he hadn't seen in seven years. So Reacher, who so far hasn't had anything personal against the crooks who set him up for a weekend in the state pen at Warburton, clicks into overdrive.

Banking on the help of the only two people in Margrave he can trust—a Harvard-educated chief of detectives who hasn't been on the job long enough to be on the take, and a smart, scrappy officer who's taken him to her bed— he sets out methodically in his brother's footsteps, trying to figure out why his cellmate in Warburton, a panicky banker whose cell-phone number turned up in Joe's shoe, confessed to a murder he obviously didn't commit; trying to figure out why all the out-of-towners on Joe's list of recent contacts were as dead as he was; and trying to stop the local carnage or at least direct it in more positive ways. Though the testosterone flows as freely as printer's ink, Reacher is an unobtrusively sharp detective in his quieter moments—not that there are many of them to judge by.

Despite the crude, tough-naïf narration, debut novelist Child serves up a big, rangy plot, menace as palpable as a ticking bomb, and enough battered corpses to make an undertaker grin. (leechild.com)

 My thoughts

An "OMG" wouldn't even be near how I like to express what I think of this book. A page turner? Definitely! Gripping? You bet! A must read? OH YES!

So I accidentally stumbled over this book. The cover was .... nahhhh .... the blurb was ..... nahhhh, but I wanted to read something different than the usual romance, a little break so to speak! And boy oh boy did I get a break.

So there's this guy Reacher who one day ends up in this little town called Margrave in Georgia. Out of the blue, really, because his older brother once mentioned that a famous guitarist, Blind Blake, died at that place. But there's a lot more he finds out and gets himself into in quite some trouble.

I honestly loved it. I found myself sneaking into a corner of the house at any given moment just to read another two or even five pages. The characters are interesting and well developed. The story was different to what I had read before (which doesn't mean too much due to my love for romance), but well explained and believable. Jack's great and in his own way very likable from page one onwards.

Verdict: hooked to the Reacher series and want more.

PS - Nice touch with the old lady at the end!

.

James Patterson - Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross #2)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 978-0446601245

My rating: 4/5


First came the stunning number-one bestseller Along Came a Spider. Now comes the scariest, most unforgettable novel in several years. In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. Washington D.C.'s Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing—and they are working coast to coast. (www.jamespatterson.com)


My thoughts

Woohoo, what a page turner. Okay, it did take me a few pages to get into the story, but once I was hooked, I was really reading non-stop. I liked this one much better than "Swimsuit", which I had read recently.

It's a story about two serial killers: Casanova and The Gentleman Caller, both terrorising both US coasts at the same time. When Alex Cross' niece is taken as well, he travels south to North Carolina and investigates as well.

IMHO, this was truly well written; the characters well developed, the setting of the scene brilliantly described, though gruesome at times and explicit in details, Patterson has a skill to keep the reader  on the edge of their seat.

And the ending was a nice surprise as well!

Great Read!!