Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

A brilliantly conceived story about a psychopath and one that is a complete one. A fiend that preys upon young women, capturing them, torturing them, and then raping their bodies after he has killed them. The author has used Will Trent, a detective with a police department in The Atlanta Georgia area, and his girlfriend Doctor Sara Linton, who is the medical examiner for the same police force. This is the 10th book featuring the two in the series, and I must comment that I like Slaughter’s treatment of them. They are normal police personnel, not super-beings pulling solutions miraculously out of the air. Both are dedicated to solving cases and bringing criminals to justice by slowly, but surely obtaining evidence in solving the crime.

In the book’s opening, Will is visiting a prison to interview a prisoner when he is pulled into talking to another man that claims he is innocent of a murder of a young woman and should not be jailed. Will, in thinking over what the second man told him, brings the situation to his department head and they decide to look into the matter. Their investigations unearth a series of murders in an area around Atlanta going back several years.

Karin Slaughter describes what has happened to the girls in great detail and it is not light reading. The descriptions describe the torture inflicted on them and the reader needs to understand that it is not gratuitous horror but the author’s need to bring out what women can go through when sick men decide to “punish” them. In an afterward, Slaughter does indicate that it was one of her intentions to bring out this situation.

Will and Sara’s group begin unearthing similar crimes that occurred in areas to the north of Atlanta and judicious study uncovers similar physical damages to the women inflicted by the murderer and which betray a knowledge of anatomy. Sara rereads accounts of the previous murders and skillfully sets up a profile of the killer. In two cases the victim has survived but will never completely recover mentally.

Slaughter describes the attempts to interview them, with both Will and Sara devastated by the accounts. The book is absolutely one that must be finished in one mesmerizing period after which some relaxation is necessary and time out awaiting the author’s next novel.

A horrific crime that defies explanation, a rookie FBI agent in uncharted territory, and an extraordinary hero for the ages: an investigation spirals out of control in this heart-pounding thriller.

Odessa Hardwicke’s life is derailed when she’s forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn’t the tragedy itself — it’s the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent’s body after his death.

Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named Hugo Blackwood, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity’s best and only defense against unspeakable evil.

From the authors who brought you The Strain Trilogy comes a strange, terrifying, and darkly wondrous world of suspense, mystery, and literary horror. The Hollow Ones is a chilling, spell-binding tale, a hauntingly original new fable from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Chuck Hogan featuring their most fascinating character yet.

A novel diving deeply into an occult scenario and immersing the reader into various intellectual exercises throughout the book. The story involves two leading individuals; the first is Odessa Hardwicke a new FBI agent and the other is John Silence a man that comes when he is called upon for help. The calling upon him for help must be done by leaving a letter for him in a mailbox that doesn’t exist in a building in Manhattan, New York. How the mailbox is found is only if someone tells you about it.

The action begins when Odessa shoots her partner to death due to his becoming inexplicably violent and presenting a danger to her. Upon shooting him she sees an emanation leaving his body which is not explainable. Odessa is placed on Desk leave by her department while the shooting is investigated and to keep her busy is given the assignment to clean out a retiring agent’s effects. This brings her to learning about John via information in Agent Solomon’s (the retiree) belongings and eventually sending for him to help her.

We are taken to three different time zones and places by the authors during the course of the story. The first, of course, Newark, New Jersey the scene of the shooting by Odessa, back many years to the southern United States where Earl Solomon as a new FBI agent is investigating the lynching of a white man and also 450 years ago when John Silence, happily married runs into the evil that requires his presence through the centuries while losing his wife to the Hollow people. The Hollow Ones is the title of the book and are entities that are the epitome of evil and best left to the authors to explain during the course of the novel.

The writing stays on the dark side throughout the book and remains an adventure into the occult for the reader. My own feeling is that it strains the patience of the author’s fans and does become more than a little over-intellectualized. Nothing should stop their fans from picking up their next book but this one leaves something to be desired and is, in my opinion, not their normal five-star novel.

James Sheridan’s book is a fascinating look at certain scenarios existing in the world at the current time. The dialog he utilizes supports underlying beliefs that (a) the assassination of ex U.S. president John Kennedy involved an international conspiracy, not the approach that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin, and (b) the Pharmaceutical industry is rife with schemes to prevent known cures for diseases like cancer to become accredited. The industry promotes the sale of medicines that might even harm the patient in place of cures solely in the interest of making more money than a cure might bring in.

Dan Travis, an expert on several unsolved mysteries, is on a book promotion tour when a message unexpectedly received moves him into a secret war based upon a data file. He knows the person sending him the message and is also immediately galvanized into action when he is met by a lady purporting to be that man’s sister. She tells him that she is a government agent and will help him get the file and publicize it.

The action immediately accelerates with a man named Mr. Green, an agent of the U.S. government, and backed by many of his own people, begins to chase Dan and the girl now working with him. While moving forward in their search for the data file Dan learns about the reality of both the killing of John F Kennedy and the truth about big Pharma’s conspiracy to crush many cures in order to continue to rake in money. The key to the plot by the Pharmaceutical companies lies with another secret organization this time with doctors sworn to bring out the truth.

Whether Sheridan is exposing extremely high-level conspiracies or not does not detract from the sheer force of the author’s descriptions. The book quickly mesmerizes the reader and does not allow it to be put down until finished. Moreover, readers of the novel will not only be looking for future works by the author but also spending some time on the internet in attempts to ascertain the possibility or not of the conspiracies described being rooted in fact. I did spend some time searching for the possibility or not of the book is correct in its allegations but I leave my findings for readers to investigate on their own.

This is a novel that has all the ingredients to keep the reader glued to the pages. It is high adventure played out in exotic parts of the world and by people with titanic fortunes at their disposal and greedy to add to their wealth.

This is Christopher Reich’s third book featuring Simon Riske, now a private spy, formerly ex-convict, and a man that takes on problem-solving wherever and whenever the mood strikes him. He has the wealth to do so and to also ensure that the ability of a client to pay him has nothing to do with taking on any challenge.

Rafael de Bourbon is a friend of Riske’s and had once literally saved his life. He is also married to a woman that Riske was once in love with. He is in Thailand and in the process of opening up a luxury boutique hotel. While working at finishing up the work on his proposed hotel he is subjected to a raid by Royal Thai police and charged with blackmail and extortion. With no evidence produced, Rafael is thrown into Bangkok’s worse jail. In desperation, he manages to contact Simon Riske who feels obligated to travel to Thailand and work on getting his friend freed.

Simon quickly discovers that Rafael is somehow mixed up in a plot of immense magnitude and incidentally finds himself mixed up in the problem. In working on the solution, the Israeli Mossad, a world-famous financial lady author, and more friends of his join in the proceedings with Simon to come to grips with joining into the search for answers.

The format of the book is continued action, action, and more action with trips undertaken to various countries that have a place in the scheme of things. Needless to say, there is no rest on this one. Another all-nighter for readers of the book, and of course awaiting the next novel by the author.

Michael Dominic, an American Jesuit priest is a well-prepared expert on ancient writings who has been assigned to work at the Vatican in Rome. His expertise to be used in the categorization of documents stored which have not been classified as of yet. His assignment would have him assigned to the special Vatican secret archives section. At the same time Hana Sinclair, a reporter for a Paris newspaper and whose family owns a prominent Swiss bank is working on a story about Jewish gold stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Millions of this gold look as if it was stored in the vaults of the Vatican bank.

Michael’s searches lead him to the discovery of a document that may have been written by Mary Magdalene. In his investigations to translate and carbon date the document as well as authenticating its source, he is thrown together with Hana through her cousin, who is a Swiss Guard. The Swiss guard are specially assigned to guard the Pope and protect the Vatican. Hana’s story causes both her and Michael to also solicit and obtain the expertise of a Jewish writer who has special permission to use the Vatican library for his own investigations.

McAvoy, in addition to writing a mesmerizing novel, provides descriptions of the inside of Vatican City. His explanations of Michael’s expertise in investigating ancient writings and the work of the Church hierarchy are well delineated and indicate a good deal of research into the subject matter. The selection and training of the dedicated Swiss Guard is treated and is the first time that I have read anything about this unique group. Michael and Hana develop feelings for each other in the course of their investigations and McAvoy does not shy away from discussing Michael’s ambivalent approach to this subject.

The ending of the book solves the immediate problems of investigating the document written by Mary Magdalene and handling the transfer of millions in gold bullion to groups that are seeking to identify and reimburse families that have legitimate claims to it. It also sets up problems that will require the attention of the protagonists introduced in this novel and have them work together again.

A clandestine war on the desert border of Mali and Algeria. Murder and kidnap on the suburban streets of West London. A Moscow CID police inspector investigating the assassination of four of her fellow officers by the Russian Mafia. A young MI6 officer facing the possibility that a long-running operation has been fatally compromised.

Connecting them all is the Englishman: Dan Raglan, outsider, exile, one-time member of the French Foreign Legion, fully trained killer.

Raglan’s quest for answers will become a quest for vengeance. It will lead him to the winter-ravaged wasteland of the Sverdlovskaya Oblast and Penal Colony #74, a place that holds Russia’s most brutal murderers. A place of death and retribution.

How will he get in? More importantly, how will he get out?

David Gilman has given his readers many books filled with action and war. The current novel is no different; on the contrary, there is no rest from the action throughout the book. The story opens six years prior to the main part of the novel when Dan Raglan was with the French Foreign Legion in action at the border of Algeria and Mali. Due to the actions of black ops teams, Raglan’s unit was compromised and all except him were killed.

Six years later a former comrade of his driving in London with his son is kidnapped. He has the time to tell his son a few things and then has him escape. Dan is called in by a member of England’s MI6 who was with both men in the Legion. He is asked to look for and rescue the man kidnapped. MI6 cannot do all the work as they are tied up with the killing of four Russian CID officers in London and have little personnel to spare to do the searching for the kidnapped man.

A Soviet female police officer has been sent to work with MI6 and is searching for the man that killed the CID officers. When it turns out that the same individual murdering the Russian officers has masterminded the kidnapping she starts working with Raglan. Between them they find out who did both the murders and the kidnapping, locate him and stage a raid at the house where he is hiding. Although all of his confederates are caught or killed the main man gets away but not before killing a young woman assigned as Raglan’s driver.

Raglan is of course determined to find the killer and assassinate him. Information is obtained that the killer has fled to Russia and is hiding at one of that country’s toughest Penal colonies and living well while doing so. The problem is simply put: how does Dan get to him and if successful in killing him how does he get out and back home. Hint on getting in – he and the Russian police officer have hit it off.

The action is fast and furious and keeps the reader glued to the pages. There is some character development involved and while nothing major it is sufficient to allow the reader to picture the individuals involved and understand their place in the proceedings.