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Eve Rossi, Book 2

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is at the center of this New York City thriller. A riot breaks out the night before the parade and Police Commissioner Logan Donovan is shot.

Luckily, it’s not as serious as it first appears, until he realizes that during the confusion, his thirteen year old daughter has been kidnapped. Fearing for her life, he turns to the FBI, specifically to Eve Rossi.

Rossi heads Vidocq, a strictly undercover team of ex-cons with specific skills that can be put to good use here. Then another child is kidnapped, one with serious medical issues.

The kidnapper has several demands and Eve and her team scramble to meet them all, but panic ensues when they realize there may be more than just a kidnapping at stake. This appears to be a personal vendetta against the police commissioner, with possibly horrific consequences for the thousands of people lining the streets for the parade.

This is a worthy follow up to the first Eve Rossi thriller, and should appeal to Linda Fairstein or Meg Gardiner readers.

Copyright ©2016 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

9/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

CITY ON EDGE by Stefanie Pintoff. Bantam (November 15, 2016).  ISBN 978-0425284452. 400p.

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Jack Reacher Series, Book 21

In this 21st entry in the hugely popular series, Jack Reacher is still in the Army as it is 1996. That means he’s not wandering and he’s following orders. It also means no internet, no cell phones, no 9/11.

Reacher has been given a medal for his mission in the Balkans, and immediately is ordered to attend night school. But when he gets there, he realizes this is not school at all, but a secret mission.

There are rumors that an American traitor has something to sell to Islamic terrorists for $100 million. Reacher is working with other government agents from the FBI and CIA, along with Frances Neagley (Without Fail.) Of course Reacher takes lead on the case, despite being low man on the totem pole, and eventually figures out what’s going on. This involves an extended stay in Hamburg, Germany with a variety of bad guys popping up.

I found this to be one of the slowest moving books in the series, the action doesn’t really take off until beyond the half way point. It’s an interesting story, especially given the time period, but I’m sorry to say it is not my favorite Reacher book.

11/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

NIGHT SCHOOL by Lee Child. Delacorte Press (November 7, 2016).  ISBN 978-0804178808. 384p.

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A powerhouse story of men against the sea in the tradition of authors that pioneered the genre such as Jack London. Russia launches the world’s largest supertanker on a secret mission during it’s maiden voyage. The only person with knowledge of what is to be accomplished is the captain.

An engineer discovers a minor defect in the ship’s mechanism and informs the captain. But in spite of attempts to correct the problem a fire erupts and in spite of efforts to control it, it spreads to engulf the entire ship.

Two hundred miles from the stricken vessel, Sonny Wade, the owner of a failing salvage business, is telling his crew that a salvage attempt just completed has not produced any money. The business is not able to continue operations.

Just after he has dismissed his men including his daughter who sails with him and attempts to keep the business going a mayday is received. It is from the Bennkah, the 700,000 ton Russian tanker that is aground and filled with petroleum worth a fortune. The name Bennkah is Russian for Goliath and that is also the Herculean task Sonny seizes as his way out of the financial doldrums his business is in.

Sonny quickly gets the crew together and goes out at an attempt to pick up the Bennkah and in so doing collect the huge amount of money salvaging the ship will bring. But sailing also to grab the prize is Dan Sharp, Sonny’s former employer and currently his nemesis.

The novel is a tale of men arising to great heights in fighting the eternal sea for the prize. The book moves with a rapid pace and is guaranteed to keep the reader transfixed. Sonny’s knowledge and understanding of the ocean and problems and solutions it brings is showcased. A new member of the crew picked up before sailing due to his knowledge of underwater welding provides a love interest for Sonny’s daughter who has had a bad relationship with Dan Sharp’s captain. She fights her attraction but it does let her come to understand that things have a way of working out.

Excellent book and hopefully the beginning of a series.

GOLIATH by Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid. Center Street (October 11, 2016).  ISBN 978-1455530441. 384p.

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The third book in Linwood Barclay’s series set in the town of Promise Falls, New York. All of the people described in the first two books are present and following the patterns set previously. But this novel dives right into a problem never before encountered in the small city and devastating for the people living there. It is Memorial Day weekend and suddenly hundreds of people become sick with flu like symptoms rushing to the hospital, with many dying almost at once. The water supply quickly becomes the culprit and it is found to be so. Who would poison the town’s drinking water and why? Private investigator Cal Weaver starts to look at the situation and investigating who would benefit from this catastrophe and what would be gained by it.

Meanwhile Barry Duckworth, a detective with the Promise Falls police department has another set of problems. A coed at the local college has been murdered. Duckworth sees the same pattern in the homicides of two other women in the past. Strange recent happenings in Promise Falls begin to make sense; bloody mannequins found in car 23 of an abandoned Ferris wheel, a fiery out of control bus with the number 23 on the back and the same designation on the hoodie of a man accused of assault. The number 23 seems to represent the reason for the harm brought to the townspeople with both Weaver and Duckworth looking into the situation as quickly as possible.

Barclay has succeeded in making a variety of people in the stories lifelike, with characteristics that are painstakingly followed through in the three books. All of the principal characters continue to act in accordance with the personalities and interests inherent in them from the beginning. And while the Promise Falls books seemingly were to be a trilogy, some factors coming out in the end of book three point to another novel coming up. I certainly would look forward to reading more books centered around the people and town of Promise Falls in the near future.

11/16 Paul Lane

THE TWENTY-THREE by Linwood Barclay. Berkley (November 1, 2016).  ISBN 978-0451472724. 464p.

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