COLD by John Sweeney

July 3, 2016

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John Sweeney’s credentials are such to cause a reader to assume that any novel he will produce will immediately grab the reader, pull him or her into the story and keep them there. The elements are here in the details, the action and an interesting plot.

The problem is a myriad of details that take Joe Tiplady, Sweeney’s protagonist, into a dizzying array of events that make him a priceless target but cause the book to become more than a little cumbersome for the reader.

The book opens with Joe walking his dog in London, in the snow, but shadowed by two men. He is then rapidly immersed into troubles that become overwhelming. A retired Soviet general is hunting for his missing daughter. A ruthless assassin is hunting something he lost that is so precious he will do anything to get it back. And in the background is Zoba ruler of Russia and master of the world’s darkest operatives.

The ending solves the problems but is disappointing for those that have waded through the book and expect something more to the point. The details are tied together logically, possibly allowing for future Tiplady novels to become tighter and more interesting for the reader. That is if Sweeney thinks a bit smaller and doesn’t try to solve too many problems in his books.

7/16 Paul Lane

COLD by John Sweeney. Thomas & Mercer (July 1, 2016). ISBN 978-1503934221. 398p.

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FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes

July 2, 2016

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A Dewey Andreas Novel, Book 6

Since Dewey Andreas’ first appearance in Power Down, Coes has brought him a long way. From a job on an off-shore oil rig in which his long dormant fighting skills acquired as a special forces operator reappeared when the rig was attacked by terrorists, to First Strike, where he has become a highly skilled counter terrorist agent, Dewey has come a long way. What hasn’t changed is the author’s talent for writing a novel in which the action is nonstop. And that is certainly the case here.

The Pentagon has created a scenario in which one handpicked man would emerge as the most powerful leader in the troubled middle east. But the individual selected turns the tables on the U.S.

Tristan Nazir twists the program to create the elite terrorist army of ISIS. When the U.S. is ready to send a final shipment of munitions to Nazir, it becomes suspect that ISIS is receiving the funding to pay for that delivery in order to use the material for their own ends.

Dewey Andreas is sent into Syria to find out what is going on and where the arms are actually being sent. Arriving in Damascus, Dewey is caught and held prisoner, but with the ingenuity he has always exhibited, escapes and returns to the U.S.

The second half of the novel is centered on an ISIS attack on America, which is geared to blackmail the U.S. into releasing the last shipment of weapons to them by a threat almost beyond belief. The action is rapid during the entire novel, but in this lengthy segment is staggering and does not let up. Dewey becomes involved with thwarting the terrorists, and his actions, as well as those of a force aiding him, will keep the reader breathless.

Coes has evolved during his five books involving Dewey Andreas into a master of writing the all nighter. Extremely well formulated and guaranteed to keep his readers awaiting the next book with bated breath.

7/16 Paul Lane

FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes. St. Martin’s Press (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-1250043177. 480p.

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DARK HORSE by Rory Flynn

June 30, 2016

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Eddy Harkness Novels (Book 2)

They call it Dark Horse and it’s a bit of an anomaly in the drug market: an almost pure heroin sold and darkened as though it’s not. And it’s deadly, resulting in death by overdose all over Boston. Eddy Harkness and his fellow Narco-Intel team members have had their eye on it for some time, but when a hurricane rips through the city a discovery of a large cache of the drug offers their first possible break in the case.

But while Dark Horse and Boston’s drugs are supposed to be the focus of their efforts, Eddy soon realizes there’s something larger going on in Boston’s neighborhoods – the Lower South End in particular. And when citizens of the neighborhood begin taking up questionably legal residence in Eddy’s old hometown, it’s inevitable that he’ll get involved.

I would love for more people to discover this fantastic series. Harkness is a man with a troubled past, much of which is covered in Dark Horse’s predecessor, Third Rail.

In this second of the series, Eddy has put much of that trouble behind him, regaining his place as head of Narco-Intel. He’s also in a much healthier relationship than his last and considering making it permanent.

A literal (and figurative) storm is brewing in Boston when the book begins, and Eddy finds himself caught in the very center. His actions have him branded a hero but it’s clear he may soon make some very powerful enemies.

This is a perfect follow up to Third Rail, another smart installment in what is a real standout series.

(I’d suggest reading them in order as there are some callbacks to Third Rail throughout Dark Horse.)

6/16 Becky LeJeune

DARK HORSE by Rory Flynn. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (June 7, 2016). ISBN: 978-0544253247. 240p.

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FIRST COMES LOVE by Emily Giffin

June 29, 2016

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Josie and Meredith are sisters with a lifelong, contentious relationship, like a lot of sisters. Added to their stress is the fact that their brother died in a car accident when they were young women.

Meredith ends up married to her brother’s best friend, and while the marriage seems great on the surface, she is afraid that she isn’t in love with her husband. She’s a successful lawyer, but hates her job. And while she loves her young daughter fiercely, she struggles with that relationship, too.

Josie is single, a teacher, and goes into a mild panic when one of her new students is the child of her ex-boyfriend, the one that got away, and his wife – who volunteers to be room mother.

Josie has a lot of guilt about the night her brother died. She also has decided to have a child via a sperm donor. Gabe, her best friend and platonic roommate, is the only one who is privy to Josie’s guilt and is also the most supportive person in her life.

As these women try and work through their individual problems, they are also trying to get past their own relationship problems. The story moves back and forth between their perspectives, making both characters empathetic.

Giffin’s a terrific storyteller and really brings these characters, and the peripheral characters as well, to life. This is a wonderful book about sisters, exploring both the joys and the heartaches that go along with that relationship. A very enjoyable read.

6/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

FIRST COMES LOVE by Emily Giffin. Ballantine Books (June 28, 2016). ISBN: 978-0345546920. 400p.

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WARNING ORDER by Joshua Hood

June 28, 2016

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Search and Destroy Thriller

Second in what should become a popular and successful set of novels about the US army in battle with elements of radical Islam, Hood’s book is nothing short of an adrenaline rush. Combat is present from start to finish keeping the reader glued to the pages and mesmerized by the action.

Mason Cane, on the US government’s Black List, strikes a deal with the CIA to clear his name and throws himself back into action. He finds that he is up against a radical cell of terrorists with possible roots within the US president’s inner circle.

Moving against the cell, Cane is joined by a group including Renee Hart, a DOD operative, and Special Forces soldiers. Action is constant with no let up. Renee was apparently set to become a love interest for Mason Cane in the first book by Hood, Clear by Fire, but there is no time in this novel for any private contact for the two.

The ending finds Cane wounded in action and taking a leave in order to recuperate from his wounds. He is contacted by the individual that guides his actions, and the book ends as Mason is ordered into his next action.

The book is for any reader that appreciates combat action written by a veteran of war who has the knack to describe military action and the weapons used in the fighting. This is a well done novel of war.

6/16 Paul Lane

WARNING ORDER by Joshua Hood. Touchstone (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-1501108280. 352p.

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TRACER by Rob Boffard

June 27, 2016

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Outer Earth, Book 1

Tracer is the first of a projected science fiction trilogy. It is set in a future where the Earth has been made uninhabitable due to the mishandling by the people living there. The survivors are living in a crowded space station orbiting above the former home to our species. It is at once dirty as well as overcrowded and with hardly any room for people to live.

Riley Hale is a tracer trying to survive by delivering material sent by individuals and receiving payment in food, water or other tradeable items in conjunction with the group known as the Devil Dancers, with whom she lives. Her group has built a reputation of reliable deliveries and no meddling with the products they carry for their customers. She is secretly loved by Parkesh, a laboratory worker. It would appear that Riley is unaware of Parkesh’s adulation.

Rob Boffard’s strong suit is his ability to bring to life the station in which the action takes place. In too many science fiction stories there are situations and products that are described as being present and not really traceable to anything known today. The space station contains people and materials that are believably products of a forced exodus from a dying earth. The conditions described are certainly attributable to an overcrowded situation that is due to huge masses of people forced to flee to an area many times smaller than they are used to.

With a similarity to other dystopian novels, the space station is ruled by a hierarchy of persons whose sole interest is in retaining power and adding to that by their actions. There is also a villain that has the idea that conditions can be made right if the humans on New Earth are eliminated and a new group allowed to evolve.

Boffard’s ending this first part of his trilogy is neatly done and presents the most likely problems to be taken up in book two, Zero G.

6/16 Paul Lane

TRACER by Rob Boffard. Redhook (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-0316265270. 448p.

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HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

June 22, 2016

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For three hundred years, the town of Black Spring has lived under the dark cloud of a curse. And that curse is named Katherine van Wyler, or The Black Rock Witch. Katherine, a Dutch colonist who lived in the village when it was called New Beeck, was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death after villagers claimed she raised her son from the dead. Since then, she’s wandered the town leaving fear and death in her wake.

Today, the townspeople of Black Spring have adapted, they even have a special office tasked with managing the witch and use an app to track her movements. Their goal is to keep Katherine contained and never to allow outsiders to discover her existence. In fact, Black Spring residents have to follow a strict set of rules meant to keep their secret from ever making its way across the town line. This is in part protection and preservation: no one knows what Katherine will do if her precarious peace is disturbed.

But Black Spring has grown lax. When a group of teens tired of the restrictions and rules begins to test Katherine, it sets off a chain reaction that could unleash an evil that will devastate Black Spring.

From the start, Thomas Olde Heuvelt carefully and quietly builds an atmosphere of utter and complete dread. When we meet Black Spring, they’ve grown a bit ambivalent and have started to take Katherine for granted. Some folks fear her, sure, but others mock the witch and flaunt the town’s centuries-old laws concerning her. This is due in part to the fact that no one has really witnessed Katherine’s powers for quite some time: the last real incident was back in the 60s, after all, and though everyone knows of the deaths that occurred then many of them have brushed it off.

It’s clear from the start of Hex that something bad is coming and that tension and suspense escalates fabulously throughout the book, bringing it to an eventual frenzied climax of some of the most awesome horrific imagery ever.

Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s US debut is exactly the kind of book any horror fan will delight in reading and I absolutely can’t wait to see more from this Dutch author.

6/16 Becky LeJeune

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Tor Books (April 26, 2016). ISBN: 978-0765378804. 384p.

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authorcuts: Terry McMillan

June 20, 2016

Terry McMillan’s first memorable writing

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At 17, Author Terry McMillan (I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU) composed her first unassigned piece of writing—a poem about a break-up. What it may have lacked in quality it made up for in honesty. Learn more about Terry’s writing here: http://bit.ly/1O64NfP

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ONE PINK ROSE by Julie Garwood

June 19, 2016

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The Clayborne Brides, Book 1

If this title sounds familiar, then you are probably a long time Julie Garwood fan. This is the first book of a trilogy that was originally published in 1997. I never read it, and now the publisher is making it available as an e-book with really lovely new cover art. Compare to the paperback cover on the right and you can see how almost ten years can really make a difference.

I didn’t know that Garwood had written some Western romance and this is an really fun example of the genre. This is a series of novellas and this one, printed, is only 120 pages so a really quick read.

Travis Clayborne is the youngest brother and always listens to his Mama Rose (I have to admit, the name threw me right out of the story, it’s one of the most iconic Broadway/movie characters from Gypsy!) Once I got past that, I was fine with Travis going off to help escort Miss Emily Finnegan to Golden Crest, Montana. Emily is a mail order bride from Boston who doesn’t have a clue what she’s getting herself into.

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Apparently Emily’s previous escorts – yes, there were more than one – have had really bad luck, even fatal luck, in escorting her, so Travis is a little nervous about the trek he’s making. It doesn’t help that when he meets her, she almost decks him. But he knows not to disobey his mama, so off they go. The short trip gets extended by a few days when the gully is too high to cross, giving Travis and Emily the time to get to know one another and fall in love.

By the time they are about to reach her destination, she realizes she can’t marry the man she’s promised to, but feels it best to let him know in person. Travis is not too happy about delivering Emly to her husband-to-be, but neither are communicating and all hell breaks loose once they arrive.

There is a lot of humor in this sweet romance, and I’m looking forward to finishing the trilogy. Stay tuned.

6/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ONE PINK ROSE by Julie Garwood. Pocket Star (May 9, 2016). ASIN: B010MH18KG. Print Length: 120 pages

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I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Iain Reid

June 16, 2016

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Wow.

The narrator of the story is a nameless young woman who is in a fairly new relationship with Jake, but she has some doubts about where it is going and is thinking about ending things. Their relationship is based on a shared communication style, which moves to the physical, but it is their philosophical conversations that truly maneuver the relationship along.

Jake invites her to go home to meet his parents and see the farm where he grew up in a remote, small village. The family dinner is odd, but the ride back home after dinner even more so, with detours to a Dairy Queen staffed by giggling girls to a dark, deserted old high school.

This is a genuinely atmospheric book, and the cold, snowy night really ups the creepy factor, and the story grows more diabolical and dangerous with each turn of the page.

Written in the first person, but interspersed with an occasional page from a parallel story with a different point of view, eventually the two start looking like they will converge. These characters are carefully developed and the story takes some frightening turns, leading to a shocking ending.

The construct of this book is brilliant and unusual, and should appeal to fans of psychological thrillers or even horror. This dark debut is a most uncomfortable read, but simply unputdownable. Even after you turn the last page.

I read it twice.

(For a peek at Reed’s writing style, check out You Sold Your Book! Please Sign This Contract in the New Yorker.)

6/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Iain Reid. Gallery/Scout Press (June 14, 2016). ISBN 978-1501126925. 224p.

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