Author Archives: Iiiireader

“Signal” is the first book I have read by Patrick Lee. I will shortly rectify that by purchasing at least four of his prior books, including “Runner” which is the first in the Sam Dryden series. I had no problems whatsoever picking up the action in this second book in the series. I had no idea there was a prior book and nothing in this book appears to have relied too heavily on “Runner.” I often read books in the middle of a series and most of the time, it takes a considerable part of the book to catch up. I was extremely pleased that that was not the case here.

I read this book in a single afternoon/evening – not because it was short – but because I simply could not put it down. The main character, Sam Dryden is ex-military and ex-special ops. He has left that world behind and is trying to pick up the pieces of his life after personal events that almost crushed him. He gets a call from an ex-comrade, Claire Dunham, and is asked to drop everything and meet her at a certain place. As he trusts her implicitly, he does has asked. At that point, everything starts to go haywire. I don’t want to provide any spoilers to the plot as I feel it is so unusual and compelling. While there are elements of almost science fiction thrown in, they are written into the plot in a way that makes you feel that the unbelievable can actually be true.

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I recently discovered C. J. Box and his Joe Pickett series so I was thrilled to get an opportunity to read “Badlands”. This is a stand-alone novel but one which I hope will be developed into a series of its own.

The story revolves around two individuals, Kyle Westergaard and Cassie Dewell. Kyle is a small for his age twelve year old who has some learning issues due to fetal alcohol syndrome. People are inclined to think of him as somehow slow when in truth, he just doesn’t see the point of talking as most people don’t understand him. Cassie is a detective who has been on the trail of the “Lizard King” for years. This criminal has been involved in the abduction and murder of many women over the years. Cassie takes a new job as Chief Investigator in the new wild west of the North Dakota oil boom country in Grimstad in Bakken county. Turns out that Kyle is a resident of Grimstead, too.

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“Six and a Half Deadly Sins” is the first book in this series that I have read. I often read books in the middle of a series. In some, it is fairly easy to pick up the action and move forward and with others, it is a little more difficult. This book is one of the latter. It took me a bit to understand what was going on and it was evident that had I read the earlier books, that would not be the case. That is not a detractor for me, just something that I feel I should comment on as a reviewer. My suggestion is to read this series in order to get the most from the story. If, on the other hand, you jump in as I did, expect there to be a slight learning curve.

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