FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS
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THE FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEW is the place to come
to find out what to read next. Want to know what readers are saying
(as opposed to critics) about the books you see around you? You’ve
come to the right place! And, if you appreciate a critical review
we’ll have those, too. Come in, sit down and see what’s
write with the world! (Or, right in the world of write!) New reviews this month from: . Dr. Cynthia Clark . Harriet Klausner . Cerri Ellis . Christine I. Speakman |
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April 2009
Precious Blood
Jonathon Hayes
Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, $7.99, 434 pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-073667-5
Through some personal traumas former medical examiner Edward Jenner has been regrouping until a friend asks him to do a personal evaluation of a murder of his niece's roommate. And that places Jenner up against his nemesis medical examiner Whittaker. The crime scene is a mess. The young lady was nailed to the wall. Her roommate, Jenner's friend's neice is missing. Could she have escaped this maniac? The question is answered shortly when she shows up at Jenner's apartment with a rather serious would to her abdomin. She has quite a story to tell of this man who tortured and killed her roommate and almost her. Jenner cleans and takes care of her.
His duty to the roommate's father is done, but then a second murder occurs. What is motivating this guy? How does he pick his victims? Why do they have to die so violently? What is that writing on their neck and back? Why did Whittaker miss so many clues? Of course missing those clues doesn't help Jenner's case when he needs access to the morgue! And could a case in another county be related to these?
PRECIOUS BLOOD is a riveting read. I was spell bound immediately. I hated putting it down. From page I was hooked. The characters are flawed making them real and human. They could be any one of us. Jonathon Hayes has written a believable serial killer scenario. Great job. I only have one complaint — I am a rap up kind of girl and one thing was left undone — nothing to do with the main story, just a little side story. I would have liked a complete rap up or some inkling that it would be rapped up in book two — but that is my bug-a-boo. Other than that, excellent.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5!
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., MHt
Homicide in Hardcover
Kate Carlisle
New American Library, a division of Penguin Group, $6.99, 289 pages
ISBN: 978-0-451-22615-0
Brooklyn Wainwright has begun her own book restoration business having left her mentor Abraham Karastovsky. It was a tense separation. So she was surprised to get his invitation to the private showing at the Covington Library.
Brook and her friend Robin go the showing and find Abraham waiting with open arms. He asks Brook to meet her in his office. He has something exciting to show her. But before she can go she sees her true nemesis, Minka. Minka has been evil since their school days when she tried to stab Brook in the hand hoping to ruin her skills. Luckily she missed all valuable parts. What was Minka doing here?
On the way down to meet Abraham she finds her mother running up. What is her mother doing there? Too many questions. Brook continues on to find Abraham in a pool of blood. He is clutching a book and barely hanging on. He gives her the book, FAUST and whispers, "Remember the devil." Then a voice booms get away from him "it's the man that made a face at her earlier and smiled at Robin, Derek Stone. And then she faints.
Ian, Brook's ex and the curator of the library asks Brook to finish the restoration Abraham had been working on. Brook agrees and not only works on the book but on who killed him as well.
Who is the devil? And why was Abraham killed? And Derek Stone, will he ever stop making faces at Brook?
HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER is a delightful cozy mystery. And there are even tips about book care. For example, if you get silver fish (as I do), oil of cinamon is supposed to keep them away from the paper! Great to know. I enjoyed this book. It is a fast, easy read. It flows. It's fun. There is only one issue left at an odd, I guess you are supposed to fill it in yourself issue—who is the real owner thing. Personally, I like to know what the author means; clearly. I don't want to guess. Other than that, I really liked it!
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give a 4.90.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., MHt
20TH Century Ghosts
Joe Hill
William Morrow, October 2007, $24.95, 316pp.
ISBN: 9780061147975
This short story collection by NY Times bestseller Joe Hill is at turns horrifyingly surreal, yet also winsome nostalgic.
Space does not permit me to offer glimpses at each of the fifteen stories in the collection, so I will highlight a few to illustrate the diversity of the anthology.
Homer Feltz is an emotionally troubled boy in the short fiction, "Better Than Home."
His father, Ernie, is the hot-headed manager of a pro baseball team. The son's impression of people and his relationship with his dad, is at the heart of this unique vignette.
The title story, "20th Century Ghosts," tells the tale of Imogene, a young and beautiful woman who loves everything about movies and is very knowledgeable about the silver screen. She's also the spirit haunting the Rosebud Theater.
In "You Will Hear The Locust Sing," Francis is an unhappy eighteen-year-old boy—well, he was a boy until the day he woke to find he'd turned into a giant locust. His old school will never be the same after he pays them a visit.
"The Black Phone" is a frightening short story about a teenager named John Finney. John is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead.
20th Century Ghosts feels like a nod from a son to his father. A sort of, "Hey, look what I can do," compilation which narrowly misses its mark. Perhaps it's unfair and too early to compare Joe Hill to his famous father—not that most reviewers won't have that comparison hidden in the back of their heads whether they admit to it or not. I have a feeling that one day the acorn will far surpass the tree. But this is not that day. Still though, the stories are solid even if some overreach, certainly well worth the purchase price.
Death and the Devil
Frank Schatzing
William Morrow, November 2008, $15.95, 400 pp.
ISBN: 9780061646614; ISBN10: 006164661X
Cologne, Germany in the year 1260 plays as much a character in DEATH AND THE DEVIL as the main protagonist. In this debut novel by author Frank Schatzing, readers are witness to the construction of one of the most spectacular buildings of the age, the great cathedral of Cologne.
But below the architectural masterpiece, a deadly struggle for power is played between the archbishop of the city and the wealthy merchant classes. Witness to the murder of the building's architect is petty thief Jacob the Fox. Street-wise, but ignorant to the games within the city's circles of power, he gathers a team of unlikely allies against a killer who may be the angel of death himself.
DEATH AND THE DEVIL is reminiscent of both Ken Follett's Pillars Of The Earth and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Richly textured, powerful, and entertaining, readers of historical fiction have a new voice worth following.
Innocent as Sin
Elizabeth Lowell
AVON, May 2008, $7.99, 408pp.
ISBN: 978-0-06-082984-1
Kayla Shaw's day is shattered when she barely escapes a brutal kidnapping attempt and finds herself accused of illegal money laundering. Framed and set up as a scapegoat, the winsome private banker is trapped with no place to run.
Rand McCree has waited for five years to uncover the name of his twin brother's murderer. He accepts a job that allows him closer access to the killer, but it also places him temptingly close to Kayla.
The man responsible for his brother's death now has his sights set on Kayla, targeting her as his next victim. Trust is in short supply between Rand and Kayla, even as they realize they will need to work together to stop the spread of violence from a man hell-bent on power and control.
Ms. Lowell's book teases readers with ever increasing tension. We see inside Kayla Shaw's mind, her personal dislike of the Bertones, and the struggle she faces knowing she must help a man she despises or risk her life. The heroine is smart, strong, and more than a match for Rand McCree. The pace builds into a furious storm with only a scant few moments to catch your breath before you are right back into the action. I love seeing authors craft tough, intricate characters, and I have nothing but applause for Ms. Lowell's strong addition to the St. Kilda series.
Strike Force
Dale Brown
Harper, May 2008, $9.99, 530 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-06-117369-1
When a disgraced former Iranian military chief of staff engineers an insurgency that threatens to destroy the theocratic regime in Iran, a new era appears to be dawning in the Middle East.
On the run from the Pasdaran, the theocrat's terror army, and unable to count on support from his friends in the regular army, Iranian rebel leader General Hesarak al-Kan Buzhazi desperately turns to his old adversary, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant-General Patrick McLanahan, for help.
Unwilling to commit American forces in an Iranian civil war, and with time running out, the U.S. president authorizes McLanahan to utilize a new, top-secret fleet of globe-crossing spaceplanes, the XR-A9 Black Stallions, led by test pilot and astronaut Captain Hunter Noble. Within hours, McLanahan's Air Battle Force turns the tide, possibly changing the course of history in the Middle East for generations.
The advent of almost instantaneous global reach, along with the reactivation of America's first military space station, Silver Tower, has rekindled fears of a space arms race, and the growing insurgency in Iran is threatening to erupt into a worldwide jihad.
But McLanahan finds himself embroiled in even more bitter battles at the White House, between those who support his space-based military initiative and those who are working secretly to undermine it.
When McLanahan is forced to concentrate on his political and personal battles back at home, it's left to Hunter Noble and his team of young American space engineers to keep the fires of freedom in the Middle East from exploding completely out of control.
The potboiler runs at a steady clip, with tension and suspense fuelling the story's engine. Filled with the latest cutting-edge weaponry, geopolitical intrigue, high-flying suspense, and a colorful cast of characters, STRIKE FORCE is Dale Brown at his best.
The Witches' Hammer
Jane Stanton-Hitchcock
Harper, May 2008, $7.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-6-128421-2
THE WITCHES' HAMMER by Jane Stanton-Hitchcock seemed vaguely familiar as I began reading it, so I did a little research and realized why. I'd reviewed the novel back in 1995. Rather than simply replicate that first review, I decided to read the book again and see if time had rewritten my opinion.
The story begins by introducing us to John O'Connell, a rare book collector in New York City, who decides to share his excitement over his latest find with his daughter and a long time friend and fellow book collector, Signor Antonelli. We soon learn the book is a grimoire, a medieval book of black magic.
The next evening, as Beatrice O'Connell arrives home, she learns her father has been murdered and the grimoire is missing. She suspects the book is connected to the murder and sets out to investigate. Soon, she realizes that there is a dangerous conspiracy connected to the ancient grimoire as well as to another old tome, an infamous 15th-century book concerning the eradication of witchcraft, the Malleus Maleficarum, also known as the Witches' Hammer.
Beatrice's search for answers leads her in interesting directions, one of which confronts her long-dormant sexuality, leaving a wake of burning desire in its path. This unsettling novel explores both the misogyny of our Western culture and attitudes, especially that of the Catholic Church.
After reading the book a second time, I realize that time does make a difference. I once found the mystery and the conspiracy surrounding the story very riveting; the dialogue exceptionally clever and telling.
On a second read, I realized that the book leans toward tiresome and, on occasion, even triteness. Also, I wasn't as forgiving this second time around of the author's continual equation of grimoire as black magic. So while I may appreciate the author's desire to bring her thinly disguised feminist take on the Catholic Church and witchcraft (equaling persecution of women) to readers, I believe Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code did a better job, and with more success.
Tell Me Lies
Jessica Shin
Electronic book Publication: 2009
Cost $5.95
ISBN: 9781419918377
Publisher’s website: www.cerridwenpress.com
Within 150 pages of this eBook is a story that will shake you in your seat, have you cheer the ‘bad’ girl and leave you wanting more.
Adrian Ennis is the number one assassin for crime boss Ezra Drake. She’s tough, smart, gorgeous, and extremely dangerous. Since the age of eight Drake’s world is the only world she has ever known. That’s about to change.
Just how much of her life has been built on lies. What is in the shopping bag that haunts her dreams?
Drake puts her to the ultimate loyalty test by ordering her to kill her lover. He expects no less than unquestionable obedience, and even though Adrian is like a daughter, she is his killing machine. Tony, her lover, knows his time is up and even makes it easy on her by ‘helping’ her kill him. Just one last favour – find his son and don’t let Drake turn another innocent child into an assassin.
Sure, maybe “Tell Me Lies” is a little unreal; however, isn’t that why we read books to begin with…to escape from reality and immerse ourselves into someone else’s adventure. “Tell Me Lies” delivers.
This fast-paced story demands your full attention and never lets you go. Yes, I couldn’t stop reading. I’m hoping for more Adrian Ennis.
Underdead in Denial
Liz Jasper
Electronic book Publication: 2008
Cost $6.99
ISBN: 9781419917929
Publisher’s website: www.cerridwenpress.com
Science teacher Jo Gartner is back and she’s still underdead.
Honestly, Jo had nothing to do with a small theatre actor’s death…even if it was her gingersnaps that killed him. At least Will, leader of the local vampire family, has left her alone…okay, spoke too soon. He and the jealous Natasha are back. Where’s Detective Gavin Raines when Jo needs him? If Raines was that disgusted with her near vampire status, why the knee jarring kiss?
Jo is one of those comfort characters. You know the ones you can’t wait to revisit, the ones that leave you smiling and nodding as you race through their newest adventure. Jo’s still fighting her attraction to Will; her nervousness around Natasha; Raines, well he’s still a mystery.
“Underdead in Denial” is a simple straightforward cozy mystery – can Jo find the killer before the killer finds her. However, the continuing cat and mouse between Will and Jo is becoming more dangerous. Don’t miss the ending in “Underdead in Denial.”
Yes, another favourite and keeper.
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