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Allen
Allen
Sworn To Silence by Linda Castillo
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Ohio’s Amish country serves as the bucolic backdrop for romance novelist Castillo’s consistently chilling mystery debut. Kate Burkholder grew up in idyllic Painters Mill, where many residents drive buggies, shun electricity, and distance themselves from the complications of modern life. The presence of a serial killer shatters the stillness of the town, leaving its citizenry terrified and on guard. During this time, young Kate’s life takes a fateful turn when she is sexually assaulted by an Amish man named Daniel Lapp. She shoots Lapp in self-defense and, seeing blood splattered across the floor, is certain he’s dead. (Her father drags away the body, and the family banishes the incident from their memories, never reporting it to police.) With Lapp’s demise, the area murders cease. Rattled residents rest easily once again. Fast-forward 16 years. Kate, now chief of police in Painters Mill, is faced with a series of brutal crimes in which the female victims are tortured and raped. Could Daniel Lapp still be alive? Kate battles her inner demons as she tracks down a killer who shows no sign of letting up. Can she come clean about her past without losing her job? Deeply flawed characters in a distinctive setting make this a crackling good series opener, recommended for fans of T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Ellis, whose books take place in very un-Amish settings but who generate the same kind of chills and suspense."
Very good start to a new series.
*Starred Review* Ohio’s Amish country serves as the bucolic backdrop for romance novelist Castillo’s consistently chilling mystery debut. Kate Burkholder grew up in idyllic Painters Mill, where many residents drive buggies, shun electricity, and distance themselves from the complications of modern life. The presence of a serial killer shatters the stillness of the town, leaving its citizenry terrified and on guard. During this time, young Kate’s life takes a fateful turn when she is sexually assaulted by an Amish man named Daniel Lapp. She shoots Lapp in self-defense and, seeing blood splattered across the floor, is certain he’s dead. (Her father drags away the body, and the family banishes the incident from their memories, never reporting it to police.) With Lapp’s demise, the area murders cease. Rattled residents rest easily once again. Fast-forward 16 years. Kate, now chief of police in Painters Mill, is faced with a series of brutal crimes in which the female victims are tortured and raped. Could Daniel Lapp still be alive? Kate battles her inner demons as she tracks down a killer who shows no sign of letting up. Can she come clean about her past without losing her job? Deeply flawed characters in a distinctive setting make this a crackling good series opener, recommended for fans of T. Jefferson Parker and Robert Ellis, whose books take place in very un-Amish settings but who generate the same kind of chills and suspense."
Very good start to a new series.
True Blue by David Balacci
I loved his latest book. It is about Mason(Mace) Perry was a firebrand cop on the D. C. police force until she was kidnapped and framed fora a crime. She lost everything-her career- her freedom- her badge. and spent two years in prison. Now she's back on the outsideand focused on one mission: to be a cop once more.
Very interesting and exciting. I reccommend to all who like suspense.
Very interesting and exciting. I reccommend to all who like suspense.
Top Producer by Norb Vonnegut
From Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Vonnegut's debut meets the gold standard for financial thrillers as it puts the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street's best stockbrokers (aka the top producers) on brilliant display. Ripples from the bizarre murder of Charlie Kelemen, wealthy hedge fund operator, quickly reach his best friend, Grove O'Rourke. A top producer at the boutique investment bank Sachs, Kidder and Carnegie, O'Rourke tries to help Kelemen's widow sort out some financial questions. This process leads him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. As fallout from Charlie's death and dealings start to taint O'Rourke, the sharks, inside and outside his own firm, smell blood and begin to circle. O'Rourke won't go down without a fight, and not all the blood in the water will be his. Vonnegut, himself a veteran fund manager, handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story. 100,000 first printing."
Very good debut.
"Starred Review. Vonnegut's debut meets the gold standard for financial thrillers as it puts the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street's best stockbrokers (aka the top producers) on brilliant display. Ripples from the bizarre murder of Charlie Kelemen, wealthy hedge fund operator, quickly reach his best friend, Grove O'Rourke. A top producer at the boutique investment bank Sachs, Kidder and Carnegie, O'Rourke tries to help Kelemen's widow sort out some financial questions. This process leads him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. As fallout from Charlie's death and dealings start to taint O'Rourke, the sharks, inside and outside his own firm, smell blood and begin to circle. O'Rourke won't go down without a fight, and not all the blood in the water will be his. Vonnegut, himself a veteran fund manager, handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story. 100,000 first printing."
Very good debut.
In Their Blood by Sharon Potts
From Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. At the start of Potts's debut, a red-hot suspense novel, a midnight intruder murders D.C. Stroeb, an economics professor at Miami Intercontinental University, and his CPA wife, Rachel, in their exclusive Lotus Island, Fla., estate. Oddly, the killer takes only the couple's laptops. Their 16-year-old daughter, Elise, who was home at the time, suffers emotional trauma in the aftermath. Their 22-year-old son, Jeremy, who can't believe anyone could kill his parents, returns from backpacking abroad to assume the guardianship of Elise, against the wishes of his lawyer uncle, Dwight Stroeb. Jeremy connects with a sympathetic Miami detective, gets a job at his mother's CPA firm and enrolls at his father's university, where he becomes involved with his father's female graduate assistant, a Peruvian-French sexpot. The clue hunt sizzles in a plot driven largely by shifty accounting. By the end, the dangers of creative number crunching are all too apparent."
Good debut.
"Starred Review. At the start of Potts's debut, a red-hot suspense novel, a midnight intruder murders D.C. Stroeb, an economics professor at Miami Intercontinental University, and his CPA wife, Rachel, in their exclusive Lotus Island, Fla., estate. Oddly, the killer takes only the couple's laptops. Their 16-year-old daughter, Elise, who was home at the time, suffers emotional trauma in the aftermath. Their 22-year-old son, Jeremy, who can't believe anyone could kill his parents, returns from backpacking abroad to assume the guardianship of Elise, against the wishes of his lawyer uncle, Dwight Stroeb. Jeremy connects with a sympathetic Miami detective, gets a job at his mother's CPA firm and enrolls at his father's university, where he becomes involved with his father's female graduate assistant, a Peruvian-French sexpot. The clue hunt sizzles in a plot driven largely by shifty accounting. By the end, the dangers of creative number crunching are all too apparent."
Good debut.
Last Night in Twisted River -John Irving
Well Irving fans are happy. From the Amazon.com review:
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: A long, delicious trip to the land of Irving is hands-down the best way to begin the month of October. A trio of tragic events (though the prize for most hell-shocking goes to the third) exiles widower and camp cook Dominic Baciagalupo and his son Danny from a mid-century logging outpost called Twisted River. They leave behind the Bunyan-esque lumberjack Ketchum--a gruff, eccentric, dyed-in-the-wool Yankee--who remains their sole connection to the past. What's next neither father nor son knows: their rootless existence moves swiftly in and out of New England, tied ostensibly to jobs for Dominic and schools for Danny, but it seems one foot is always back in those New Hampshire woods. Theirs is a restless, richly observed journey, crowned by a reckoning no one could predict. Few writers can match John Irving's knack for denouement, and in Last Night in Twisted River, his extraordinary ending is made all the more powerful by a story that feasts on language, life, and love.
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: A long, delicious trip to the land of Irving is hands-down the best way to begin the month of October. A trio of tragic events (though the prize for most hell-shocking goes to the third) exiles widower and camp cook Dominic Baciagalupo and his son Danny from a mid-century logging outpost called Twisted River. They leave behind the Bunyan-esque lumberjack Ketchum--a gruff, eccentric, dyed-in-the-wool Yankee--who remains their sole connection to the past. What's next neither father nor son knows: their rootless existence moves swiftly in and out of New England, tied ostensibly to jobs for Dominic and schools for Danny, but it seems one foot is always back in those New Hampshire woods. Theirs is a restless, richly observed journey, crowned by a reckoning no one could predict. Few writers can match John Irving's knack for denouement, and in Last Night in Twisted River, his extraordinary ending is made all the more powerful by a story that feasts on language, life, and love.
Handle with Care ..Picoult
This lady surely is able to crank these out....and does it well.
This is about a trial...A child with major disabilities is born and the trial and the story is how this impacts on the 2 families.
Picoult does her homework and asks such a lot questions that leaves the readers always wondering what would I have done..
This is about a trial...A child with major disabilities is born and the trial and the story is how this impacts on the 2 families.
Picoult does her homework and asks such a lot questions that leaves the readers always wondering what would I have done..
Mind Game
This is #2 in a Series by Christine Feehan. The characters have been experimented upon by a scientist trying to enhance their psychic abilities. First with little girls, then with two groups of military. In this book, Lily, one of the little girls is grown and the scientist, whom she thought was her father, has died. She inherits everything including his lab and all the records and finds video tapes of her and the other girls when they were children. She is working on tracking one of them down and finds one who can manipulate energy. She sends in her team - being one of the military groups who call themselves and her Ghost Walkers. The leader goes in advance and arrives just as her home is being attacked and foils an attempt at assasinating her. Her "handler" is kidnapped and her "nurses" are killed. Thus begins the rescue attempt and the search for who is trying to kill her so they can get her back to Lily and safety. In the process, love blooms.
A Beautiful Place To Die by Malla Nunn
From Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Set in South Africa in 1952, Australian filmmaker Nunn's stellar debut explores a divided society through the frame of a classic murder mystery. When Det. Sgt. Emmanuel Cooper, Nunns tortured sleuth, investigates white suspects in the fatal shooting of Afrikaner police captain Willem Pretorius, he immediately encounters resistance from the victims family. Before long, brutal investigators from the Security Branch offer a politically expedient solution. Cooper must fend off their threats as he pursues a link between the murder and an open Peeping Tom case that Pretorius had been probing. The detective finds no shortage of people who might have had a motive for killing the captain. Fans of Charles Todds Inspector Rutledge series (A Matter of Justice, etc.) will note some parallels, in particular Coopers being haunted by the spirit of his old sergeant-major. Smooth prose and a deft plot make this novel a welcome addition to crime fiction set in South Africa."
Good debut.
"Starred Review. Set in South Africa in 1952, Australian filmmaker Nunn's stellar debut explores a divided society through the frame of a classic murder mystery. When Det. Sgt. Emmanuel Cooper, Nunns tortured sleuth, investigates white suspects in the fatal shooting of Afrikaner police captain Willem Pretorius, he immediately encounters resistance from the victims family. Before long, brutal investigators from the Security Branch offer a politically expedient solution. Cooper must fend off their threats as he pursues a link between the murder and an open Peeping Tom case that Pretorius had been probing. The detective finds no shortage of people who might have had a motive for killing the captain. Fans of Charles Todds Inspector Rutledge series (A Matter of Justice, etc.) will note some parallels, in particular Coopers being haunted by the spirit of his old sergeant-major. Smooth prose and a deft plot make this novel a welcome addition to crime fiction set in South Africa."
Good debut.
