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Danny Lynch is floundering since his return from Afghanistan, where he worked for a private company feeding the troops. He gets fired after witnessing a deadly riot.

Afraid to say anything, he meets with one of the corporate big shots who assures him all is well as long as he keeps his mouth shut, and offers to help Danny find a job. He is grateful for the job as a prep cook in a fancy midtown Manhattan restaurant; he is settling in, his girlfriend is happy he found a job and things seem to be looking up.

While looking out the kitchen window into the restaurant one afternoon, he sees a man who looks familiar. Very familiar. In fact, it is like looking in the mirror. Teddy Trager is the mega-successful founder of Paradime Capital, and Danny becomes obsessed with his doppelganger.

Eventually they meet with devastating results, and then things really start spiraling out of control. Suspend your disbelief and go along for a really fun, really fast rollercoaster ride with Danny.

Glynn wrote The Dark Fields, which was adapted into the movie and television series “Limitless.”

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

8/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

PARADIME by Alan Glynn. Picador (August 2, 2016).  ISBN 978-1250061829. 272p.

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Hanne Wilhelmsen Novels, Book 5

Hanne Wilhelmsen is a middle-aged lesbian detective in Oslo, Norway who has a problem case fall in her lap. The Chief Prosecutor’s wife has been murdered – she was decapitated by her own antique sword, with her husband’s fingerprints all over it. Plus he’s offering up an alternative suspect who happens to have died a few weeks earlier.

Nonetheless, Wilhelmsen doesn’t really believe he’s guilty but even with her deputy, Billy T, helping, she has a hard time finding another suspect. Then a reporter is also decapitated and Wilhelmsen needs to figure out how the two deaths are related.

Meanwhile, her long time partner at home has been diagnosed with cancer and the stress of her home life and these cases is definitely taking its toll, all played out against the bleak Norwegian backdrop. The pacing is leisurely, especially for a Scandinavian thriller, but the character development almost makes up for it.

Holt is Norway’s former Minister of Justice. Readers who enjoy Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series or Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer series will feel like they are back in Scandinavia.

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

7/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

DEAD JOKER by Ann Holt. Scribner (July 26, 2016).  ISBN 978-1501123269. 368p.

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Nick Heller has appeared several times in previous novels by Joseph Finder. He is a private spy for hire, an intelligence operative that works for lawyers, politicians, and in some cases for foreign governments.

Nick has been well fleshed out, a person that is addicted to doing things his own way and with a record of getting tough chores done. In this novel, Nick is called to Washington to help prevent a scandal enveloping the Chief Justice of the Supreme court.

A reporter has uncovered facts indicating that the Justice was involved with an “escort”, a young lady that is paid for her services. The reporter has indicated that she will publish the story in 48 hours, something that will ruin the Justice’s reputation as well as involving the Supreme Court, an elite institution in the government.

Complicating the matter is that Nick arrives just as the “escort” is found murdered and doubt is cast on the Chief Justice. The case has taken a very dangerous turn with possible repercussions echoing throughout the government. Heller has just 48 hours to find the actual mastermind of the conspiracy before others fall victim to the scandal sweeping the government and ruining many reputations in its path.

Finder is a master craftsman and is in his element setting up the story, the characters and the twisted path to the truth.

7/16 Paul Lane

GUILTY MINDS by Joseph Finder. Dutton (July 19, 2016).  ISBN 978-0525954620.  400p.

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An Eve Duncan Novel, Book 21

The action starts on page one as Eve is pregnant, Joe Quinn is hovering about, and they are protecting a young girl, Cara, from her murderous mother. They are all hiding in Scotland; Jock is keeping a close eye on the girl, Eve’s daughter, Jane, is there as well, helping MacDuff look for Cira’s gold.

Eve’s deceased daughter, Bonnie, still speaks to her, Jane hears things in the Scottish mists, and Caleb can do things to people’s blood from killing men to making Jane lust for him. There are a lot of paranormal elements going on in this story that moves from Scotland to Russia as Cara is snatched by her mother, Natalie, a complete sociopath who is planning her demise. Jock is hot on her trail, Eve is too, and all confusion is laid to rest by novel’s end.

Iris Johansen fans will undoubtedly enjoy the conclusion to this story arc in the Eve Duncan series while new readers will be best served starting with book 19, Shadow Play, where this story arc begins, or even book 20, Hide Away.

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

7/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

NIGHT AND DAY by Iris Johansen. St. Martin’s Press (July 19, 2016).  ISBN 978-1250075833. 352p.

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Linda Conrads is agoraphobic, suffers from depression, anxiety, hallucinations and panic attacks, and hasn’t left her home since her sister was murdered eleven years earlier.

Fortunately, Linda is a very successful novelist so she has the means to live her life isolated on a luxurious estate. Unfortunately, Linda had discovered her sister’s body, caught a glimpse of the murderer as he left the apartment, and been haunted by the scene for years.

Her only links to the outside world are her editor, her part time assistant, and the television. She is watching the news when she suddenly realizes the reporter, Victor Lenzen, is her sister’s murderer.

She decides to set a trap; she writes a thriller utilizing all the details of her sister’s murder, then arranges for her first interview in twelve years – with Victor Lenzen. Linda hopes to maneuver him into a confession, but her careful plan goes horribly awry.

A fast, twisty read for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn. Not for me.

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

7/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE TRAP by Melanie Raabe. Grand Central Publishing (July 5, 2016).  ISBN 978-1455592920. 352p.

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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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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.

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

(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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Scott Burroughs is a painter in midlife who has really never made a name for himself in the art world;  he is alone and apparently will stay that way. He meets Maggie, a woman in a store where he is buying supplies for work. They strike up a conversation and it comes out that Scott has to go to New York the next day. Maggie tells him that she and her family, along with several other people, are flying to New York from Martha’s  Vineyard, and since it is a private plane Scott is offered a ride. He accepts, and the next day joins Maggie, her family and some other people on the plane.

Others on the flight include wealthy people with different backgrounds thrown together by chance for the trip. There is the stewardess, Emma Lightner, a man facing arrest for  fraud perpetrated against his company, an Israeli bodyguard, and a last second replacement co-pilot, who claims that he is a substitute for the regular man who became ill at the last second.

With the characters drawn up, the book enters into a plot that moves with the speed of light. The plane crashes into the ocean. Scott manages to get free of the wreckage, and picks up J.J., Maggie’s little boy.  He then performs a herculean feat by swimming to shore, many miles from the site, holding up and saving J.J. in the process. The press picks up the event and Scott becomes the hero he deserves to be.

Investigation by the authorities into the cause of the disaster paints a picture of all on board. Could the crash have been caused on purpose? Who would have done so and why?

Scott is, of course, initially looked upon as a possible suspect.  J.J. is placed in Maggie’s sister’s custody, with access to the fortune Maggie and her husband have in order to maintain J.J. while a child and later to pass on to him.  The boy insists on being with Scott and Scott feels a bond with him.

Eventually the bodies of the other passengers are recovered, with the exception of the Israeli bodyguard. Bullet holes are found in the locked door to the cockpit where the co-pilot is found dead.  What happened, who caused the crash?  Where is the bodyguard, and why were bullets fired at the cockpit door?

If this is not an all-nighter for anyone picking it up, nothing will ever be.  A very different novel and certainly whetting the reader’s appetite for more by Noah Hawley, hopefully as fast as possible.

6/16 Paul Lane

BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley. Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (May 31, 2016).  ISBN 978-1455561780.  400p.