Article With Intro

Slow Horses

Jim Winter

When a bomb wrecks a train in one of London’s rail stations, the MI5 operative deemed responsible, River Cartwright, finds himself sent to Slough House. It’s where all MI5 agents who fail spectacularly go. Slough House has only one purpose: to drive the agency’s “slow horses” to resign. Only Jackson Lamb, the overweight, overbearing head of Slough House, cares to be there—after all, it’s his kingdom.

Things change, however, when British nationalists kidnap a Pakistani student and threaten to cut off his head live on the Internet. All of MI5 is on alert, including the Slough House misfits, who are dropped into the thick of it when it is discovered that one of their own is involved. Soon, Lamb and his agents are not only scrambling to find the kidnap victim, but dodging their own fellow agents.

The narrative is laced with the sort of dry, cynical sarcasm you’d expect in a story about people whose careers are finished. In Herron’s take on the spy thriller, parallels are drawn to Ian Fleming’s novels about the better-known and more glamorous MI6 and James Bond. The message here? MI5 is decidedly duller and more political than its sister agency, riddled by corruption and inefficiency. Herron’s MI5 lives in more fear of bad press and politicians than terrorists. Though the humor is subtle, Slow Horses’ verdict on Britain’s security service is blunt as hell.

Running Dark

Leslie Doran

In Running Dark Jamie Freveletti delivers an adventure reminiscent of a Clive Cussler thriller with a female heroine. Emma Caldridge, biochemist and über runner, is competing in the grueling South African Comrades Ultra-Marathon when a roadside bomb explodes and throws her in the air. While she lies dazed in the dirt, a stranger using an EpiPen injects her with an unknown substance that allows her to jump up and complete the contest despite her injuries. With the marathon behind her, Emma’s real race against bi-terrorism has just begun in this multi-plot novel where the action flows from Africa to Washington DC, and finally to the Gulf of Aden located between Yemen and Somalia.

In a timely move, Freveletti focuses on piracy on the high seas in Running Dark. Emma’s friend, Special Agent Cameron Sumner, along with a suspected store of a dangerous chemicals, is being held hostage aboard a cruise ship. The descriptions of combat on the seas pitting fast, armed cigarette boats against an unarmed cruise ship are taut, suspenseful, and explosive. In addition to Agent Sumner, Edward Banner, President and CEO of Darkview (a Blackwater-like contract security firm), and retired Major Carol Stomeyer, Darkview’s Vice-President, also return from Freveletti’s first novel, Running from the Devil. Add to this rapidly escalating action a strong cast of appealing secondary characters: Harry Block, the loud Texan; Alicia, the tattooed receptionist; and Lock, the drug running pilot; and Running Dark is one entertaining read.

Lethal Rage

Barbara Fister

Jack Warren has transferred from a relatively placid Toronto assignment to the notorious 51 Division, a downtown area that seethes with violence, vice, and temptation. Luckily, Jack has been teamed up with Sy Carter, a cop whose years of experience and encounters with the dregs of society haven’t loosened his grip on his moral compass. He guides the young man through the filth and the despair, keeping his young charge’s faith in justice—and his skin—intact, until tragedy makes Jack question everything he’s ever believed in.

Characterization is not a strength of this novel. Jack’s in-laws are cartoonish snobs who look down on his choice of career, and we get to know nothing about his wife other than that she’s chronically impatient with the demands of his job, but both beautiful and sexy. The story is a string of anecdotes that you imagine cops would tell in the bar after work. Some of them are touching, others a bit repulsive. However, it’s the realistic depiction of the day-to-day experience of uniformed police and their interactions with one another, and with the public that is the strength of this book. The author, an officer who spent 15 years in the district, knows his beat. In the best scenes, the reader gets a real insider’s ride-along experience and a short course in police work.

Think of a Number

M. Schlecht

Ok, think of a number between one and ten. Got it? Now keep that in mind as you read the next few paragraphs. John Verdon’s debut thriller plants retired NYPD detective Dave Gurney on an upstate New York farm with his wife Madeleine. An analytical legend and crime-solving superstar in his time, Gurney is having trouble getting in touch with his creative, nature-loving side. Then he settles on a hobby, spending hours indoors putting together digital portraits of serial killers for a local gallery owner. Madeleine is not pleased.

She is also less than thrilled when, inevitably, her husband is pulled back into detective mode. An old friend, Mark Mellery, has been receiving threatening letters that refer to his alcohol-fueled past misdeeds—and they promise retribution. But what really has Mellery scared is a number: 658. It’s the number he came up with when his unwanted correspondent requested that he think of a number between one and a thousand. When it arrives written on the next piece of mail delivered, it means Mellery’s number just might be up.

Parlor tricks do not a good thriller make, however. So Verdon has supplied Gurney with a second puzzle, a interstate serial murder investigation. As Gurney is increasingly drawn back into his familiar surroundings, his marriage suffers. It is this domestic conflict that puts the glue in Think of a Number’s spine, and allows the reader a deeper knowledge of what makes our protagonist tick. We’re connecting more than the dots of a procedural drama here. Verdon knows that the key to a good story is to learn as much about the detective’s demons as the criminal’s. And the number that you had in your head? Now multiply that by zero. Which is how many times you’ll put down this book before finishing.

Faithful Place

Barbara Fister

Tana French burst on the scene with her talented, but (for some readers) frustratingly ambiguous and highly literary first novel, In the Woods. Now, with her third novel, she’s thoroughly at home in the top ranks of crime fiction.

Frank Mackey runs undercover operations in Dublin. He’s a competent and no-nonsense cop who hails from a rough, hardscrabble slum where poverty is pervasive and nobody talks to the police. He left home as a teen, planning to head for England with the love of his life, Rosie Daly, but she stood him up. He hasn’t been back since—not until someone discovers Rosie’s suitcase shoved up the fireplace of an abandoned building. It seems Rosie didn’t betray Frank after all, and now he wants to know what really happened that long-ago night.

Faithful Place is a terrific book, full of richly-developed characters, a knotted tangle of close but badly frayed family ties, and a neighborhood that’s real down to every brick. Frank’s voice is funny and fierce, as down-to-earth as a lump of peat, and complicated to boot, but heartbreakingly true. French proves it doesn’t take serial murders, high-level conspiracies, or the world’s fate teetering in the balance to create a compelling, absorbing story. The lives of ordinary people on a single city block, observed closely with heart and skill, holds all the mystery anyone could ask for. Absolutely brilliant.

So Cold the River

Hank Wagner

Although filmmaker Eric Shaw has an intuitive sense of storytelling, and for presenting provocative, resonant images, his career trajectory has not gone as planned. Starting at the top, he now finds himself mired in the middle, reduced to creating mini-documentaries shown at funerals. It is at one such funeral that he is hired to create a film about hard-nosed businessman Campbell Brown, who hailed from the small Indiana town of West Baden Springs. Armed with minimal background, and a preternaturally cold bottle of mineral water, he travels there, unknowingly enabling a long dormant supernatural force to act on ancient grudges. Finding himself in the middle of increasingly bizarre happenings, Shaw struggles to maintain his sanity and to stay alive.

One theory about purchasing hardcover books at today’s inflated prices is that they yield more value than a similarly priced meal at a good restaurant, providing many more hours of enjoyment in comparison. That theory certainly holds for Koryta’s second standalone novel, a true literary feast. Already an outsized talent, Koryta continues to grow and improve with this eerie and engrossing supernatural mystery. Shaw is an ideal protagonist, reacting to strange events in exactly the way many of us would, initially with skepticism, then slowly responding more forcefully. Koryta makes him believable and credible, grounding his tale solidly in the real world before introducing more outré elements, creating a novel which compares favorably to such horror classics as Stephen King’s The Shining and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story.

Fragile

Debbi Mack

Fragile starts on a dark and stormy night, but the story is anything but clichéd. It centers around a family—Maggie Cooper, a psychologist; her husband, a cop named Jones; and their son, Rick—living in the small upstate New York community of The Hallows. When Rick’s girlfriend, Charlene, disappears Hallows residents slowly realize that the girl didn’t run away, she was taken, and possibly killed. This dredges up memories of a similar incident in Jones’ past—a story that gets seamlessly woven into the modern day narrative.

Using multiple points of view, including Maggie’s troubled teen patient, Marshall, who appears to be involved, as well as various close-knit friends, relatives, and newcomers to the neighborhood, Lisa Unger does a masterful job of depicting small town claustrophobia, dysfunctional family dynamics, and the dark secrets that haunt people.

Maggie is a sympathetic protagonist, despite her tendency to over-mother Ricky (as she calls him). The prose is elegant, mesmerizing even—enough to lull the reader past a minor crack in the plot structure. Highly suspenseful, Fragile is about more than a missing child. It’s about weird twists of fate, life decisions, regrets and wondering how things might have been.

The Search

Helen Francini

On a sleepy, wooded island off the coast of Washington State, Fiona Bristow heads a canine search and rescue team and trains dogs for a living. Her idyllic lifestyle is a reaction to a deeply traumatic event: years ago, a serial killer brutally murdered her policeman fiancé and his dog, and almost killed her too. Due to the evidence she gave at the killer’s trial, he is now jailed for life, but now a copycat killer is coming after Fiona.

A hybrid thriller-romance, this book provides a pleasant change of pace from the relentless action found in so many of today’s hardboiled suspense novels. Although not slow, it is more leisurely than most, with plenty of time given to the relationship between Fiona and her new love interest, Simon, a recent addition to the island. When we meet Simon he is comically and endearingly exasperated with his new puppy. It is in no way love at first sight, but their romance develops over time, slowly and naturally.

As the book progresses and the serial killer closes in, Fiona proves she is no damsel in distress; she is a survivor, a strong, sensible and refreshingly capable woman who recognizes danger and does not lose her head. Animal lovers will revel in Fiona’s rapport with her dogs, and in the information on puppy training.

The Wolves of Fairmount Park

Tim Davis

Ed McBain, famous author of police procedurals, once described the process for writing his 87th Precinct novels: “I usually start with a corpse. I then ask myself how the corpse got to be that way.” This prescriptive analysis perfectly describes the power of Dennis Tafoya’s approach in his second Philadelphia mystery. Here is how it all starts: “Michael Donovan and George Parkman Jr. were shot in front of the dope house on Roxborough Avenue on a Thursday night in June, [and] Mia and Tisa were standing on the stoop at Pelchin Street [. . . while taking] a little break before the next johns[.]“

Building upon that attention-grabbing opening, Tafoya shows readers what really happened to Donovan and Parkman by interweaving four distinct narrative voices (two fathers of the victims, one detective, and one junkie) in a complex tale that is much more than a routine whodunit crime story. The Wolves at Fairmount Park is a dark portrait of a harrowing world inhabited by characters threatened by addictions, passions, and secrets. Readers discover along the way that the police and the families of the shooting victims will have a difficult time maintaining a delicate balance between rage and grief in their “rough and tumble” quest for justice. Much like Tafoya’s superb first novel, Dope Thief, the carefully crafted plotting, the deftly nuanced characterizations, and the compelling themes combine to make The Wolves of Fairmont Park a highly recommended novel.

Following Polly

Lynne F. Maxwell

Following Polly is a murderous romp featuring a clever and gently unhinged protagonist. Author Karen Bergreen, a professional comedian, exercises her comedic skill in creating New Yorker Alice Teakle, a perpetually underemployed (now unemployed), Harvard grad. Alice harbors unresolved resentment toward her former dorm-mate, Polly Linley Dawson, who has developed a wildly lucrative career as an entrepreneur in the fashion industry. With time on her hands, Alice takes on the bizarre task of stalking Polly and discovers the usual sexual indiscretions; however, nothing too dramatic occurs—until Polly is murdered, and Alice is named the prime suspect. Alice goes on the lam and seeks to identify the actual murderer. Along the way, she develops an unusual relationship with Charlie, the object of her college fantasies. Despite the screwball nature of this mystery, it works, and memorably so.

Moreover, one of Bergreen’s major strengths as a writer is her ability to create witty repartee. The quick, ever-sarcastic Alice is highly entertaining. Also, Alice has an uncanny ability to navigate various strata of society, from the extraordinarily wealthy to the homeless. Her incredible resourcefulness and ready wit are guaranteed to entertain.

Hailey’s War

Betty Webb

Hailey Cain has washed out of West Point and now makes a hand-to-mouth living as a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. Although oddly unemotional, Hailey begins each morning by walking along the pedestrian pathway of the Golden Gate Bridge in order to dissuade would-be jumpers. This daily routine changes when old chum Serena, now the leader of a Los Angeles girl gang, hires her to escort Nidia, a young Hispanic woman, to Mexico. During this ill-fated trip, Hailey is shot and Nidia is kidnapped. After recovering from her wounds, Hailey enlists the gang’s help to rescue her charge, but first must get “jumped in” and become a gang member herself.

In this wonderfully oblique thriller, patriotic West Point values are thrown into conflict with gangsta girl bonding, although at times, they don’t seem all that far apart. Bravery and loyalty are the hallmarks of both organizations. Hailey, for all her emotional blankness (and perhaps because of it), is a series-worthy character, often calling to mind Barbara Seranella’s popular Munch Mancini. She never runs from a fight, and at times, seems to actually provoke one. This is a mystery within a mystery until the final pages, when we discover the reason Hailey left West Point. Harrowing and uplifting, Hailey’s War calls for a dozen sequels, because once you meet this ex-cadet, you’ll want to hang out with her for a long, long time.

The Amateur Historian

Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

When York policeman Rick Rounder fails to save a young girl from her suicidal father and is injured in the attempt, he decides to leave the force and move to Australia. Ten years later, now married, he returns to the area and sets up shop as a private detective, much to the dismay of his older brother, who is now a Chief Inspector in the York constabulary. While Rick works on his first assignment, spying on the young wife of a suspicious older man, a young girl is kidnapped, but neither case is as uncomplicated as it first seems...and the two brothers eventually find themselves working together in an attempt to save a young girl from harm.

As one might expect from the title, history plays a major role in this novel, both recent history and that which goes back more than a century. Revenge, “a dish best served cold,” is also a major factor. This is a difficult book to read, in part because it involves crimes against young girls, but also because it alternates between three different time periods: 1901, the present day, and ten years ago, and several different crimes.

Having said that, it’s a book I can recommend as well worth the effort, both for its compelling prose and the intricacy of its plot. Julian Cole, a journalist and columnist, spent three years researching and writing this, his first novel, and it shows. I do have one minor quibble, however: A particular incident set in a hospital and concerning someone out for revenge seemed like unnecessary overkill.

Rock Paper Tiger

Kevin Burton Smith

In her bold, deliciously off-kilter debut, Lisa Brackmann sets up a dizzying itinerary, jostling readers back and forth in time and space from the war-torn Iraq of “a rough six years or so” ago to contemporary China. But just in case anybody gets too complacent, she tosses in a few Stateside flashbacks and excursions into the virtual world of online role-playing.

Still, readers have it relatively easy—it’s Ellie Cooper who has to live it. She’s a 26-year-old ex-pat American vet still recovering from wounds sustained while serving as an EMT in Iraq. Having been abandoned in China by her cheating husband Trey, Ellie is marginally employed, estranged from her born-again Stateside mother, and racked with guilt over her reluctant participation in possible war crimes. Ellie is adrift, barely hanging on—a loose cannon without a country. And then, while visiting her sometime-boyfriend Lao Zhang, a young artist with a growing international rep and “suspect” politics, she meets one of his friends, an Uighur—a member of the barely tolerated Chinese Muslim minority—and Ellie finds herself a pawn in a game of political and corporate cat-and-mouse. Suspected of being a terrorist—or at least a potentially valuable double agent—and pursued by both the American and Chinese governments and other, more shadowy entities (including the private “American interests” that now employ Trey), Ellie has no idea what’s going on.

When Lao Zhang disappears, Ellie takes it on the lam herself, in a frantic trek by bus and train through a polluted, paranoid China that Western readers rarely see: a restless place of grungy Internet cafes, jet-setting art collectors, greasy noodle joints, Starbucks-strewn suburbs, under-the-radar activists, faceless cities of millions of people, disco parties on the Great Wall, desolate outposts, and most incongruously of all, a vibrant world of online gaming fanatics who may—or may not—be trying to use the game to contact Ellie and thus avoid what Ellie derisively calls “the Great Firewall of China.” In this truly post-modern mash-up of Hitchcock, National Geographic, Reds, G.I. Jane, John le Carré, and Tron, Brackman covers more ground in one thriller than some writers do in a career. Recommended.

—Kevin Burton Smith

The Burning Wire

Jackie Houchin

Police routinely apprehend felons wielding guns, knives, and even bombs, but what about a criminal whose weapon is electricity? It’s everywhere, it’s invisible, and it takes only a tenth of an amp to stop a heart. When a spectacular arc flash destroys a Manhattan electrical substation, fries a bystander, and plunges a section of the city into darkness, finding just such a criminal is the challenge faced by quadriplegic forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme. Heading a task force of personnel from the NYPD, FBI, and Homeland Security, Rhyme sends his top investigators to search the still-smoking crime scene for evidence.

In his townhouse lab, each fiber and element is dissected and examined by the methodical investigator. How was it done? Who is responsible? When and where will he strike next? Tried and true methods of investigation run by veteran cops and agents are pitted against the changing world of modern technology and communications used by Homeland Security and FBI hotshots. Can the “tortoise” and “hare” work together? When a message from the killer arrives, demanding an immediate power outage or more people will die, the deadly countdown begins.

On the other side of the country the California Bureau of Investigation and Mexican Police are pursuing “The Watchmaker,” Rhymes’s old nemesis. As the criminalist tries to monitor both operations, the strain takes its toll on his fragile health. Meanwhile setbacks stall the New York investigation and more lives are lost.

As fans of the previous eight Rhyme thrillers know, this series takes suspense to the highest level, setting desperate situations and ticking clocks against micro-detailed studies of evidence. As soon as the solution is in sight, Deaver twists the story in a new direction and the race is on again. The author’s knowledge of electricity and forensics is fascinating, but his extensive use of initials and acronyms slows down the action.

Teri Duerr

2010-06-24 15:31:40

The Pull of the Moon

Oline Cogdill

Teenagers in an isolated situation have been fodder for countless novels. Raging hormones, no adult supervision and, often, a bit of alcohol and drugs, can lead to just about anything. Evan Hunter made the most of this in 1969 Last Summer and so did Donna Tart in The Secret History. British author Diane Janes brings her own spin to this timeless setup in her tightly plotted debut, The Pull of the Moon. More than a simple cautionary tale about good kids going bad, it is also a testament to the influence of one’s past, and the corrosiveness of secrets.

Retired teacher Kate Mayfield has tried to forget the summer of 1972 when she shared a remote country house in Herefordshire with her boyfriend, Danny Ivanisovic, and Danny’s college friend, Simon Willis, but a letter from Danny’s dying mother forces Kate to re-examine that summer and the person she has become.

The pleasant routine of their days is shaken up when the trio of friends encounter the enigmatic Trudie Finch. Trudie quickly becomes the newest member of their household. The boys are fascinated by the lithe newcomer, who refuses to talk about her past, and who makes sumptuous feasts. Kate just finds her annoying and is especially irritated with Trudie’s fascination with a ghost story connected to the house. Friendships and sanity begin to unravel when a fatal accident occurs. While The Pull of the Moon is predictable in spots, Janes eases in myriad twists that keep her plot moving towards its stunning finale. In the end it is Janes’ insight into her characters (Kate’s bristly nature hides a wellspring of emotion and regret, and the teenagers’ awkwardness with each other parallels each’s unease with him- or herself), that elevates The Pull of the Moon.

The Liar’s Lullaby

Barbara Fister

Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett is back, this time performing a forensic autopsy on country singer Tasia McFarland, whose theatrical entrance at a sold-out show ends in disaster. Either she committed suicide, died accidentally in a stunt gone horribly wrong...or her paranoid delusions came true. It’s a complicated case, not just because she was a star battling bipolar disorder—being the ex-wife of the president of the United States raises the stakes. Soon things threaten to get out of control as rumors of conspiracy spread, fanned by incendiary Internet postings and right-wing anti-government extremists.

Jo Beckett and her colleagues provide the story with more depth and nuance than the breathless, twisty, anxiety-fueled plot. If you like thrillers that start out with a bang, where the fate of the nation hangs in the balance, and where the pages fly by too fast to let plausibility get in the way, you’ll enjoy having the smart, courageous, and resourceful Jo Beckett at your side.

The Devil Amongst the Lawyers

Sue Emmons

The “devils” of this intriguing Appalachian Mountain mystery are the exploitative and unscrupulous yellow journalists of the 1930s. When comely school teacher Erma Morton is accused of slaying her father in 1935, the trial draws national press attention, including the interest of small-town rookie reporter, Carl Jenkins, from Tennessee. Jenkins is quickly disillusioned when he discovers that getting ahead demands that “truth should never stand in the way of a good story.” And while the media circus seems taken by the lovely defendant, the locals aren’t so sure of Morton’s innocence.

In addition to the murder trial itself, McCrumb’s tale is laden with several intertwining plot threads, including a mountain girl with intuitive “sight,” an examination of the anti-feminism that prohibits women from serving on the jury, the culture of hard-drinking reporters, flights in new-fangled airplanes, and even a tie to the mob in New York City.

Devil Amongst the Lawyers is the eighth in the author’s Ballad series, and veteran mystery writer McCrumb sure-handedly conveys the tenor of the times. She falters occasionally with her courtroom scenes, but the 1930s atmosphere along with its roster of delightful characters (like a scrappy photographer and both the lawyers on the case) makes this an enjoyable courtroom mystery.

Asia Hand

Oline H. Cogdill

Navigating Bangkok’s dark sidestreets and myriad underground cultures requires keen insight as well as the courage to look at corruption but see the hope that lies beneath. Vincent Calvino, a disbarred American lawyer turned PI, has been doing that for years as Christopher G. Moore shows in his award-winning series.

Bangkok’s Year of the Monkey celebration turns sour when Vincent is called to Lumpini Park where the body of American freelance cameraman, Jerry Hutton, has been pulled out of the lake. His body is found wearing wooden amulets used to ward off evil spirits, but which may have been used as the murder weapon. Obscure in life, Jerry is famous in death thanks to his untimely end and a provocative video of an execution he shot near the Thai/Burmese border now airing incessantly on CNN.

In Asia Hand, Moore delivers a gritty view of Bangkok, a city of “contrasts” where “things that are never done happen just about every day.” Vincent’s investigation brings him in contact with Asia Hand, a secretive group of foreigners with shady reputations and powerful friends. Bangkok seems exotic to outsiders, but to Vincent, the way high-ranking criminals and politicians run the city makes Bangkok more akin to Brooklyn or Los Angeles—only the accents are different. Moore, who was born and raised in Canada, has lived in Bangkok since 1988. Although Asia Hand is the second novel in his Bangkok series, it is the fourth novel to be released in America. Moore’s novels have been translated into German, Japanese and eight other languages, and have won the Deutscher Krimi Preis, Germany’s most prestigious award for crime fiction.

The Bohemian Girl

Lynne F. Maxwell

I can’t begin to do justice to the complicated plot of this wonderfully atmospheric mystery that recreates the seamier side of turn-of-the-century London, but it starts when ex-military man, adventurer, and successful author, General Denton returns from traveling to his London house—only to discover his latest manuscript has been stolen. This is only the beginning of his skirmishes with a mysterious stalker who, it turns out, has appropriated the book for bizarre, sinister purposes. The plot becomes more complicated when amongst his mail, Denton finds a two-month-old message from a woman requesting his help. Curious, he traces her to a Bohemian art studio, but, alas, she has disappeared. With the assistance of Mrs. Stryker, ex-prostitute and love of his life, and his faithful sidekick Atkins, Denton sets out through Bohemian London to solve the mystery—but not without risking grave danger.

Cameron’s recreation of the art world is fascinating, as is his rendition of the shifting mores of the time, as exemplified by Denton’s extramarital relations with Mrs. Stryker, an ex-prostitute. For these reasons alone, readers will wish to experience The Bohemian Girl for themselves.

Savages

Bob Smith

With taut, dialogue-driven action as fast-paced as an MTV video, Savages is a spectacular gem of a book from Don Winslow. Employing an unorthodox style (one word chapters, sentences that run vertically the length of the page, and an abundance of earthy, modern day vernacular) Winslow vividly brings to life the drug world of Southern California and its connections to the Mexican cartels. Savages is a bloody, sexy, funny, crisp, exciting, no-holds-barred experience, and likely Winslow’s best work yet.

Ben, a botanist, has created a superior marijuana blend, and along with his friend Chon, an ex-Navy Seal, has successfully marketed it. The two, Ben the brains and Chon the brawn, run a lucrative business in Southern California, but a Mexican drug cartel now wants to take it over. Although Ben thinks he has made enough and is ready to retire, Chon knows that the cartel is too blood thirsty to just let them walk away. They are ordered, under the threat of decapitation, to run the business but turn all profits over to the cartel. In order to force them to do their bidding, the Mexicans kidnap O (short for Ophelia), who shares a love/sex relationship with both Ben and Chon. To free O, they must use their wits to battle an army of Mexican drug dealers. And what a battle it is! Savages will grab you from the get-go, shake you up, disgust and enthrall you, and not let go until the very last word. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Silent Scream

Oline H. Cogdill

Many Americans’ first introduction to British author Lynda La Plante was her brilliant BBC series Prime Suspect. Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, as portrayed by Helen Mirren, set a high standard for TV series and, more importantly, for the depiction of women police detectives. La Plante has been bringing the same thoughtful insight to her novels about young police detective Anna Travis. While Anna’s career is just getting started—and she shows much promise of rising in the ranks—La Plante is careful to make Anna her own woman, not a younger Jane Tennison.

Anna’s latest case is the murder of rising film star Amanda Delany, who was becoming as famous for her promiscuity as for her roles. The actress’ life was lived in the tabloids, from her affairs with married co-stars to her drug addiction. As Anna digs into Amanda’s life, she finds a frightened woman who used people, but who was also used by everyone in her life: former roommates wallowing in their failures; ice-cold parents embarrassed by their only daughter’s antics; and a money-hungry agent.

Silent Scream, the series’ fifth novel, finds Anna at her most insightful professionally, maturing as a detective, more savvy to the machinations of office politics. She’s now confident enough to follow her own instincts, even if it gets her in trouble with her supervisors. On a personal note, Anna still struggles with the aftermath of an affair with her former boss, Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton. La Plante balances her heroine’s professional and personal turmoil, showing the detective’s flaws and strengths, while contrasting Anna with an incisive view of Amanda who is vulnerable, spiteful, and uncaring. The police procedural elements give Silent Scream a firm foundation while La Plante keeps the suspense high.

Baked

Bob Smith

Miro Basinas may look like a nerd but he is actually one of Los Angeles’ best, if unknown, underground botanists. When he goes to Amsterdam to enter his new blend of high-grade marijuana in the world famous Cannabis Cup competition, he not only wins first prize but also meets the love of his life. He’s on top of the world, but it all crashes down on him back in L.A. when someone shoots him and steals his precious marijuana seeds. It’s mostly downhill for our hero from then on.

Baked (i.e., “stoned”) chronicles Miro’s efforts to get back his prized seeds, reestablish his reputation, and win over the pregnant Portuguese scientist he loves. But it’s not an easy task, especially since he is forced to camp out on his parent’s sofa while recovering from his bullet wound. This delightful madcap novel is filled with quirky characters and wacky situations. Among those who keep the action moving are a young Mormon missionary who ties his wrists to the bed post at night to keep from fondling himself; a violent half Irish, half Salvadoran drug dealer with a couple of dim witted henchmen; a female EMT with kinky sex practices; a faded movie starlet with an overdose of silicon; an owner of a string of legal medical marijuana cafes; and a couple of cops who haven’t a clue as to what is happening. Readers will have lots of fun with this agile caper and might even learn quite a bit about the newly legalized marijuana business in California.

Dead Sleeping Shaman

Lynne F. Maxwell

This mystery begins innocently enough with reporter and aspiring mystery writer Kate Kincaid ambling through the northern Michigan woods to gather material for a news story. As she strolls, she passes a woman asleep beneath a tree, but on her return trip, notices that the woman is in fact...as you’ve surely guessed, dead (and soon discovered to have been murdered).

Of course Emily, who often collaborates with local cop Dolly Wakowski on murder cases, sets out to investigate—and what an investigation it is. The murdered woman turns out to be a healing shaman, and Emily suspects that there is a connection between the victim and a doomsday cult that has taken up residence in town. It’s not an easy investigation, as the end of the world supposedly approaches and the body count grows.

Emily’s routine, but unorthodox collaboration with Leetsville officer Dolly is highly unrealistic; but to fans, that’s beside the point. The relationship between the two friends, as well as the dynamics between Buzzelli’s other characters is where the author really shines. The local color and small-town dynamics are alone worth the price of admission. Definitely, you won’t sleep through this one.

Moscow Sting

Daniel Luft

Moscow Sting begins with aging but powerful MI6 agent, Adrian Carew, pondering his own knighthood and thinking about murder. There is a Russian thug-turned-politician Carew would like to see assassinated for killing his fellow British spy Finn. Sympathetic Russians offer Carew justice—if he turns over Finn’s now missing widow, an ex-KGB agent named Anna. At the same time, disgraced CIA member Logan Halloran, private security entrepreneur Burt Miller, and hulking killer-for-hire Lars, also want the elusive Russian defector, Anna, who may be the key to intelligence worth killing for.

Dryden, who is a journalist and fact-checker based in Eastern Europe, has created a complex cat(s)-and-mouse story full of secret meetings, chase scenes, and local details from England, Finland, France, Russia and America. Both his strength and his weakness is that Dryden writes like a fact checker: His descriptions of cities and cars and wines and gentleman’s clubs and the inner workings of Putin’s Russia are terrific—and far more solid than his characters, who often remain two dimensional. Too many thinly-sketched agents over 300 pages may exasperate and confuse the reader.

That said, he’s an adept omniscient narrator who gets inside some heads while leaving others a mystery to the reader. Dryden will no doubt write deft, ominous, and suspenseful spy fiction some day. But he’s not quite there yet.

Rizzoli & Isles: an Intelligent Crime Drama

Oline Cogdill

Fans of Tess Gerritsen’s novels will find much to like in the new TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, based on the author’s long-running series.

But even those who have never heard of Gerritsen’s novels about Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles will find much to like in this gripping, well-plotted and intelligent crime drama.

Rizzoli & Isles launches Monday, July 12, at 10 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific time; 9 p.m. Central time).

Unlike most of the crime dramas on TNT that rely on the characters’ eccentricities to add texture to the plots, Rizzoli & Isles is a straight-ahead, serious cop show.

The focus here is on the crime detection that springs from the working relationship between the cops and the medical examiner’s office. Rizzoli & Isles sparingly uses humor, springing from the characters’ witty and smart conversations.

Rizzoli & Isles is an adult crime drama that is more like Law & Order – without the endless reruns.

The first two episodes I screened feature well-devised plots that are realistic and intriguing. Some scenes are a bit graphic, but actually are quite tame when compared with some of the current network crime shows such as the CSI’s, Criminal Minds and the Law & Order franchise.

And the analogy to Law & Order has some merit. Rizzoli is played by Angie Harmon, who played Law & Order’s assistant district attorney Abbie Carmichael from 1998-2001 and was, for my money, the best ADA the show ever had. Harmon is an intelligent actress who always brings a degree of sophistication to her roles. Those high standards continue in her role as the independent Rizzoli.

Sasha Alexander also brings a sense of refinement to her role as Isles. Alexander is best known for her role as Special Agent Caitlin “Kate” Todd in the first two seasons of the drama NCIS. She also was a regular on Dawson’s Creek, Presidio Med and The Nine.

The friendship and respect that Rizzoli and Isles have for each other will be a major part of the series, as it is in the novels.

The two women are the ying and yang – Rizzoli with her close-knit Italian roots and Isles with her blue-blood background. Isles is always impeccably dressed while Rizzoli is more comfortable in torn jeans and isn’t bothered by a dirty shirt. Both women are intelligent and know the value of deep friendships. Their respect for each other won’t preclude them from having disagreements.

Rizzoli & Isles also features Lee Thompson Young as Rizzoli’s new partner Det. Barry Frost; Lorraine Bracco in a throw-away role as Jane’s mother, Angie Rizzoli; and Bruce McGill as Rizzoli’s former partner and now mentor Det. Vince Korsak. (For trivia buffs, McGill’s played D-Day in National Lampoon’s Animal House, one of my favorite movies.)

Here’s hoping that Rizzoli & Isles runs for years; and that it draws new readers to Gerritsen’s novels.

Rizzoli & Isles begins on TNT at Monday, July 12, at 10 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific time; 9 p.m. Central time) following the sixth-season premiere of The Closer.

Admin

2010-07-11 00:00:00

Fans of Tess Gerritsen’s novels will find much to like in the new TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, based on the author’s long-running series.

Page 60 of 250

Current Issue

Latest Tweets

Most Popular

Our Awards