Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Click to purchase

The novel starts out like a good old fashioned Gothic story featuring one of the “Black” paintings by Goya. I’m not sure what a “black” painting is but the one referenced in this book has disappeared and is also  cursed bringing madness or death to the owner. The subject of the painting is Goya himself: a self portrait.  The ownership was held by the Morse family until it disappeared several years ago with no one knowing who took it.

There are four cousins in the Morse family who are not very close. They are summoned by their grandfather to his mansion and the expectation is that he wants to somehow reunite the family and  make amends for years of being apart.

All attend and suspect that the mystery of the missing Goya will be solved. They meet at the mansion and find that their grandfather has suddenly passed away. After this segment all pretenses of a good Gothic story disappear and it becomes a murder mystery. Attempts to find the missing Goya which may be worth millions cause both private detectives and lawyers to be hired by the four cousins. One neat little love affair starts during the search.

The story is interesting enough to warrant reading , but I found it was a bit over wordy and does cause the reader to  reach points that lose him or her. I did want to find out what happened to the Goya portrait and who did what to whom and I finished it.

Click to purchase

The prize in the title of this novel is one of the top awards in the world.  The Nobel prize to be exact.  It represents not only the monetary reward involved, but is one that  brings world wide renown for the recipient.   It is no wonder that it is a prize sought after by the people possibly  in line for it with every means possible. Cooper’s book features one attempt to win the prize and all that it means with a titanic discovery in the medical field.

Pam Weller is a research associate at a large private laboratory who has been working at finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.  Logically following protocol she leads the group she is working with into discovering a substance that arrests Alzheimer’s and actually reverses it in early stage cases. Decidedly Nobel Prize area and which will allow Pam to get tenure and promotion at her work as well as notice for those in her group.

Eric Prescott is head of his own lab and has been working on achieving success against Alzheimer’s with the idea of the Nobel prize and the world wide fame that goes with it.  He hears that Pam is getting ready to publish positive results on her findings and arranges a meeting with one of Pam’s assistants.  The results of that meeting are the meat and bones of the book.  How far will Prescott go in order to ascertain the Nobel prize for himself?  The answer makes for an interesting, riveting read and an introduction to the competitive world of medical science.  Very well done.

1/18 Paul Lane

THE PRIZE by Geoffrey M. Cooper. BookBaby (January 15, 2018).  ISBN 978-1543912173. 240p.

Click to purchase

Simon Riske, the principal character in Christopher Reich’s latest novel, has had a checkered past, to say the least. This includes imprisonment and the spending of months in solitary confinement as punishment for refusing to divulge information sought by the police.

Out of prison, he currently owns a garage in London, specializing in expensive limited edition cars. He does have another occupation which involves acting as a freelance industrial spy. He is hired to perform small scale jobs for banks, insurance companies and the British Secret Service.

The action starts when he is hired by the CIA to look into the matter of a lot of money and a confidential letter stolen by an old acquaintance of Riske’s: one Tino Colluzzi . Colluzzi stole a huge amount of cash from a Saudi Arabian prince and with it a letter hidden in a suitcase that is supposed to have the power to upset the balance of power in the western world.

Riske accepts the job to look into the matter of the theft of money and the letter when he learns that Colluzzi was the thief. Tino was once Riske’s friend and ally until Simon took the full rap for a crime both committed with Colluzzi getting away without any punishment.

Simon’s first stop is going to France, the scene of the crime, where he is matched up against his will with a female French police officer, Nicolette Perez, who has been assigned against her will to work with Simon and keep him on the straight and narrow. Nicolette is a tough, no holds barred police officer whose only interest seems to be in doing her job as best as she can. She also happens to be a pretty girl and it is no surprise that sparks fly between the two in the course of their joint investigation in spite of initial antagonism.

Another member of the cast involved is a Russian female assassin who is assigned to kill Riske at all costs and goes about trying to complete this assignment with a great deal of skill and dedication. The novel uses all these factors in a fascinating story of spy versus spy. What is in the letter that seemingly has the power to upset the balance of western power? Is the cash recovered? An all nighter it certainly is and does leave the reader with the definite feeling that this is the first of several novels featuring Riske.  Look forward to that.

Click to purchase

A Pike Logan Thriller 

Former Delta Force Officer Brad Taylor returns with another novel involving Pike Logan, Pike’s wife Jennifer Cahill and the rest of the mission impossible group known as the Taskforce. Col. Taylor’s formula for success is quite simple. Pike and company are tasked with completing a job assigned to them by their controllers; a top secret group at the apex of the U.S. government which includes the president. Their task is always to work outside of the United States per their charter (as it happens not always per Pike.)

This time the job is a simple one merely to determine whether or not a merchant in the Israeli Diamond Exchange is involved in a scheme that could potentially embarrass the state of Israel. As we know from being drawn into Col. Taylor’s novels centering on the Taskforce nothing is ever simple and the plots always delineate Pike’s ability to think and act outside of the box.  An American arms dealer may or may not be attempting to sell components of nuclear weapons to the highest bidder which is up to Pike and Company to determine.

At the same time characters from a previous Taskforce novel appear and alter the Taskforce’s  mission to include aiding them. These are former mosad members Shoshana and Aaron now husband and wife and working as independent contractors. Aaron gets himself captured by the people he is tracking for his current assignment and Shosana goes after him to get him away from their enemies. She is by nature a killing machine with I’d hate to have her coming after me personality. The Israelis are drawn into Pike’s assignment due to the probability of their goals overlapping. And, guess what they overlap.

As in all the Pike Logan books action is mercurial and combat situations described by a long time veteran of such actions vivid. Scenes shift from Israel to south Africa. A planned coup in a small African nation becomes a real factor in the plot and the place of the Taskforce of importance to the group fitting in neatly to the story.

Action, action and more action is the keynote to the plot and will be in future novels featuring Pike and Company.  The stories are always interesting, even though similiar, and do draw in a faithful following.

1/18 Paul Lane

OPERATOR DOWN by Brad Taylor. Dutton (January 9, 2018).  ISBN 978-1101984819. 464p.

Click to purchase

Krentz has successfully published a multitude of well written novels utilizing three separate pen names. Those that I have been fortunate enough to read are all concisely written, capture the reader’s attention, and retain it throughout the book. No problem with “Promise Not to Tell;” it offers a well thought out and interesting plot, principal characters that are right on the money and an adventure that will definitely keep the reader intrigued and unable to put the book down.

Virginia Troy, an owner of an art gallery in Seattle, was one of many children caught in the machinations of a cult in their childhood. Her nightmares don’t leave her as she relives a narrow escape again and again from a fire set by the Cult founder to a small building with cult members in it. Her life and the lives of others were saved when a bystander uses an auto to smash into the building and save some of those imprisoned there. Now she is jolted when an artist featured in her gallery commits suicide, but not before sending a painting to Virginia. The painting causes her to doubt that the death was a suicide and additionally to further sink back into her own past.

Virginia decides to hire Cabot Sutter to look into the suicide. Sutter is a private investigator and another of the children that survived the long ago fire. Krentz portrays the hunt for answers in a logical progression towards solutions. The investigation proceeds quite realistically and in no way presents impossible actions.  Both can be physically hurt, and if so do not wake up and seconds later move forward as if nothing has happened.  That there are sparks between the two is not an impossibility.  Both have the mental scars of the long ago fire and each has the patience and inherent wisdom to understand that such an event and proximity to death just doesn’t go away.

A very well done addition to this author’s long list of good books.

1/18 Paul Lane

PROMISE NOT TO TELL by Jayne Ann Krentz. Berkley (January 2, 2018).  ISBN 978-0399585272. 336p.

Click to purchase

A brilliant novel about time travel, but not the usual book found under the Science Fiction category.  It is one that might best be categorized under social commentary similar to “Gulliver’s Travels.”

It opens in the year 1348 with the pestilence known as the “black death” rampant throughout the known world. Brothers John and William, residents of England, and frightened for their lives, as well as seeking redemption before death, are given a strange choice by an unknown entity. They can either go home and die with their families or seek redemption during six days. These six days to be spent moving forward in time by 99 years each day. Both brothers agree that they would rather travel in time than go home and die.

They suddenly find themselves in the year 1447 and notice the differences between this period and the one they came from. There are small changes, but noticeable ones and so it is as they move forward 99 years every night. A calendar based on periods BC and AD is utilized by all, clocks are invented. Guns as weapons of war are evolving, the new world is discovered and most important things that they took for granted in 1348 prove to be short lived. They interact with people in each period and find them the same but different due to the influences prevalent in the time period they are living in.

Mortimer, a noted historian in his own right, has succeeded in bringing each period visited to vibrant life allowing the reader to experience that time and the people living there.  A memorable novel and a fascinating read.