Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

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Overall, a fairly routine serial killer novel, only this time the murderer uses fire to cover his crimes.

Unfortunately for him, one of his victims is the sister of Emmy Dockery. an FBI researcher. Now all she has are the newspaper clippings that wallpaper her bedroom, and her recurring nightmares of an all-consuming fire.

Not even Emmy’s ex-boyfriend, field agent Harrison “Books” Bookman, will believe her that hundreds of kidnappings, rapes, and murders are all connected. That is, until Emmy finds a piece of evidence he can’t afford to ignore.

More murders are reported by the day–and they’re all inexplicable. No motives, no murder weapons, no suspects. Could one person really be responsible for these unthinkable crimes?

I found the interplay of chapters “written” by the killer and the search for him to be off-putting. Not a good Patterson.

8/14 Jack Quick

INVISIBLE by James Patterson & David Ellis. Little, Brown and Company (June 23, 2014). ISBN 978-0316405348. 432p.

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Commandant Servaz is a top-notch investigator for the city of Toulouse, France, at the foot of the Pyrenees, who relies more on his gut than on science. Servaz is annoyed when he is called away from an investigation to a new crime scene at the hydroelectric plant of Arruns, so high above sea level that the only way to reach it is by cable car.

A body is hung on the upper deck, stripped and beheaded. However, it is not a human body, but rather a thoroughbred horse hung high above the Pyrenees. This disturbing scene only gets more disturbing when the DNA of an inmate at Institute Wargnier, the nearby psychiatric prison, is found on the horse.

This case gets priority as the horse belonged to Eric Lombard, CEO of a multinational company and member of a very influential family with strong political ties to the area.

In a parallel story, Diane Berg, a new psychologist, has arrived at the Institute Wargnier and is not entirely welcome, especially as she finds many inconsistencies and flagrant mistreatment of the prisoners.

The pervasiveness of evil makes for very compelling reading, with the suspense bordering on horror. It is a very tense and disturbing story coupled with interesting and well developed characters, and is a true page turner. Translated from the French. Should appeal to readers who enjoyed Pierre Lemaitre’s Alex or like Scandinavian thrillers.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

8/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier. Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (August 12, 2014). ISBN 978-1250045539. 496p.

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This latest in Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery series kicks off with a stray dog. A little girl’s frantic parents finally find her after she’s wandered off to follow a dog in the woods. The dog was wearing a note, one the girl couldn’t read on her own, but after the response to her straying she doesn’t raise the issue with her parents. She’d left the dog in the hands of a man who promised to find its owner and that was fine with her.

That is the man Jack knows as the Walking Man. The note reads “Help Us.” In exchange for Jack’s help in finding the people who own the dog, the Walking Man promises to finally share key information on the disappearance of Jack’s brother. For Jack, it could mean closure to something that has haunted him for so long. But the case with the dog turns out to be more complicated than he could ever imagine. As Jack searches for clues that will lead to the identity of the hand behind the message, one family is facing down a nightmare that could end in all of their deaths.

I have truly enjoyed every chilling new book from Mo Hayder. The Jack Caffery series is one of my all time favorites and one I highly recommend to anyone looking for intricate and tightly plotted thrillers and isn’t afraid of the darkest of dark details.

Wolf is no exception in any of those regards. I did mourn the absence of Flea in this outing but I have to admit that the final scene between Jack and the Walking Man – one that’s been coming for a few books now – makes Wolf truly outstanding. A warning to anyone who may not be current with the series, I don’t suggest reading Wolf until you’ve caught up. The ending here is definitely not going to be as effective if you haven’t read the books in order.

7/14 Becky Lejeune

WOLF by Mo Hayder. Atlantic Monthly Press; First Edition edition (May 6, 2014). ISBN 978-0802122506. 352p.

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Bob Lee Swagger’s war was Vietnam and now the former sniper has been out of the game a long time, and, sadly, nothing has ever replaced what he’s appalled to call the killing fever.

Then his friend Kathy Reilly, Moscow correspondent for the Washington Post, sends Bob an e-mail asking for his help in researching a story about legendary WWII Russian sniper Ludmilla Milli Petrova, whose name mysteriously disappeared from the historical record around 1945. Why was she expunged from both German and Russian records? Will Swagger help Reilly track the story?

As Swagger and Reilly slowly unravel Milli’s past they discover that, even 70 years after the fact, there are still people who don’t want the story told.

Perhaps most memorable of all, though, is Hunter’s vivid re-creation of the carnage on the Eastern Front, where, as Milli notes, the Russians’ only advantage over the Germans was numbers: If they kill us five to one, we bring six to one . . . we shall prevail because, all things being equal, we can outbleed them. May be Hunter’s best ever.

8/14 Jack Quick

SNIPER’S HONOR by Stephen Hunter. Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (May 20, 2014). ISBN 978-1451640212. 432p.