Home Books Archive by category "By Genre" (Page 21)

Category: By Genre

The Rook – Steven James

So I spent  last night  watching the Eagles-Chiefs game and then the Phillies game up to the top of the tenth inning! I also finished Book 30 for the year The Rook by Steven James. The Rook is the second book in the series which features Patrick Bowers a special consultant to the FBI using his talents as an investigator Patrick tracks serial offenders using geospatial techniques. Place, location and time of the crimes versus motives.  In this novel Patrick and his colleague Lien-hua Jiang are called to San Diego to consult on a series of of fires being set around town. Patrick brings along his stepdaughter Tessa. (whose mother died of cancer about a year prior and Patrick and Tessa are still working on their relationship). Meanwhile the character of Creighton Melice is introduced client who is out on bail is given a “new girlfriend” and is setup by a mysterious benefactor Shade in San Diego where he can do what he does which is filming women as he drowns them. Additionally, a defense contractor billionaire Victor Drake, is being forced by the government to provide the prototype of a device that he is working on for the Department of Defense. Read More

The First Rule – Robert Crais

Book 28 of 2010 is the second book by Robert Crais that features Joe Pike as the lead character, The First Rule. Crais usual lead character is Pike’s partner and the self proclaimed “World’s Greatest Detective” Elvis Cole. There are eleven books in the Elvis Cole series in that series Joe Pike typically plays a supporting role. Pike is an ex-LAPD officer with a shady military past as a mercenary and it’s usually his job to appear mysteriously and save the day and he does it well! Read More

Broken – Karin Slaughter

Book 27 fo 2010 is Broken by Karin Slaughter and is the seventh book in the Grant County series and since Will Trent and Faith Mitchell are in the book I guess it’s kinda the second book in the Georgia series. The Georgia Series combines Slaughter’s two series – the Grant County Series with the Atlanta series and together Slaughter’s book list is notable and great! Broken opens with Sara Linton returning to her home town for Thanksgiving and she is quickly immersed in a mystery a synopsis of the book from her website: Read More

Prince of Fire – Daniel Silva

So like I said I didn’t put down the Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva yesterday until I finished what is Book 26 of 2010. Obviously like all of Silva’s books this one was a real page turner for me! But I think that in this book more than any of his books Silva based the storyline on the history of the Arab-Isreali conflict and why both sides fight as hard as they do! The enemy that Gabriel Allon faces is Khaled al -Khalifa who is the grandson of  Asad al-Khalifa.  Asad al-Khalifa  fought the Israeli’s and Gabriel’s mentor and boss. Ari Shamron in 1948 . While Gabriel assassinated Khaled’s father Sabri al-Khalifa for the later’s involvement in the attack on the 1972 Israeli Olympic Team. Both the Sheikh and Sabri were fighting for their Palestinian homeland and their home a village called Beit Sayeed (a fictional village created by Silva) that was wiped out under the Tochnit Dalet which was the real name for the plan to remove the hostile Arab population from centers from lands allocated for the new state of Israel. The characters of Asad and Khaled were based on a photograph of a young boy on the lap of Yasir Arafat at the funeral of his father in 1979. The father was terrorist Ali Hassan Salameh the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. Read More

Daniel Silva – Prince of Fire

The only two good things about this past week were that the weather broke on Tuesday night and the oppressive heat from Monday and Tuesday was gone and I had a chance to read a little during our first break in the morning and at lunch. Oh and once when the rig was broken down for about an hour yesterday. What I had taken with me to read was Daniel Silva‘s Prince of Fire. Prince of Fire is the fifth book in the Gabriel Allon series. This is one of those series that I usually am behind on and while I’m reading a book in it I realize how much I like the series and then forget about it and move on to something else, duh! But I really do love the series and the characters including Gabriel Allon, who is an art restorer and Israeli agent. The stories are very fast moving and usually have a little history  thrown in as is the case in Prince of Fire. Gabriel’s hatred of his Arab enemies has been fueled by the loss of his son and virtually his wife, who is in a catatonic state, from a car bomb in Vienna. Anyway in Prince of Fire Gabriel is chasing the son of a past enemy who Gabriel assassinated, who has directed several terrorist attacks including the bombng of the Israeli embassy in Rome.  But the question is really who is chasing who! I’m about 2/3 of the way through and probably won’t be able to put it down today until I finish! Read More

Never Look Away – Linwood Barclay

 Never Look Away – Linwood Barclay (Book 24 of 2010)

Ok, so I really did like Linwood Barclay‘s Zack Walker series but once again if he keeps writing books like book number 24 for 2010  Never Look Away I guess I’ll have to forgive him. I think I already mentioned the start of the book which centers around reporter David Harwood who has his life turned upside down and inside out after first his son is abducted at a theme park only to be quickly found and then his wife goes missing! From that point Harwood’s life is shattered and as the story unfolds all signs put toward David as his wife’s murderer. I loved the characters and the plot and overall the pages just flew by and I had to keep reading! Read More

Baja Florida – Bob Morris

Baja Florida by Bob Morris is the fifth book in the Zack Chastain series and is Book 23 for 2010. This series is always a fun quick read filled with interesting characters including Zack, former Gator, former Dolphin (well at least I can partially root for him), Zack’s wife Barbara and daughter Shula, and his right hand man Taino Shaman Boggy. Zack’s previous adventures have been chronicled in books with titles like Bahamarama, JamaciaMeDead, and Bermuda Schwartz! Some how most of what Zack does always turns out wrong! Read More

The Coil by Gayle Lynds

As a result of my computer that I usually work on is not working properly (what else is new!), so I can’t get on line to write, I have spent most of the last two nights reading and finishing book 21 for the year The Coil by Gayle Lynds. This is the first novel that I’ve read by Lynds whose books are well respected and have won numerous awards. From her website: Read More

Jericho’s Fall – Stephen Carter

So have you ever read a book that the pages flew by,  you really wanted to find out what happens, and then you get to the end which is not really satisfying and you say, did I really like this book? That’s how I feel about book 20 of 2010 Jericho’s Fall by Stephen L. Carter. The story revolves around the dying possibly crazy ex-Director of the CIA, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor  – generally Mr. Everything – Jericho Ainsley.  He is at home in a mountain fortress in Colorado dying from cancer and everybody is out to kill him before he can reveal his secrets! In steps Rebecaa (Beck) DeForde his former lover and the reason for his fall from power fifteen years earlier when she was a 19 year old student and he a professor! Beck sets out to discover Jericho’s secrets and where he has hidden them!  Here what a review in The Washington Post said about the book: Read More