Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

I did not realize that “Independence Day” was part of a series when I decided to read the book. I was about a chapter in when there were enough references that I decided to check and I saw that it is a few books in on the Dewey Andreas series. I often will choose to read a book out of order in a series to see if it can be read as a stand-alone book. “Independence Day” certainly is a book that I enjoyed immensely regardless of not having read the prior books. I enjoyed it so much, I plan to read the early books in the series. While it is a great action thriller, I realized that by going out of order, some of the earlier plots may have a bit of a spoiler for me.

The story involves Russian computer hackers, mobsters, CIA agents, and even a ballerina. There is an attack brewing against the United States and it looks like it will dwarf 9/11 and cause mass casualties. It is up to the front line of our service men and women to try to discover the plot, uncover its details, and try to stop it before it happens.

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“Little Black Lies: A Novel” is the first book by Sharon Bolton that I have read. I enjoyed it considerably and will certainly be looking for her future books as well as reading through her back list of novels.

The book is written in three primary parts; one each for each of the three characters that are most like the killer who is being hunted.

Catrina’s two young sons were killed in an accident because her best friend, Rachel, was negligent while watching them. Since then, Catrina has been just barely living life. She has lost everything that was most important to her and those loses have made the rest of life a pale shadow of what it once was.

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When I picked up “Paris Ransom”, I didn’t realize it was the third book in a series. I often do read books out of order in series to see if there is any problem in reading a particular book as a stand-alone versus reading it in order. While I did read and enjoy the book, I thought perhaps reading the older books would help me understand the characters better.

The book is told from three points of view: Robert Tarza, who is a retired lawyer who was extremely successful, Jenna James, his protege at his old law firm who has stopped practicing law to be a professor at UCLA, and finally, Judge Roland de Fournis, a powerful and inquisitive French judge.

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“Woman Without Fear” is the first of a series of books about Trinity Silverman and her unusual pet, Speedy.

She is an expert in her field of currency trading but is hamstrung by her overwhelming fears. She is a speaker at a conference in Las Vegas and meets a man at a bar who promises her that some pills that he can supply will overcome her debilitating fears. The price for the pills is that she must meet this man in his hotel room and agree to what he demands of her.

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I am a fan of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories as well as books, movies, and television series that are based on the original tales. I was happy to pick up “The Case of the Invisible Dog” on that basis alone. It was also the first time I had read a book by Diane Stingley, so I had no idea of what her style would be like.

I laughed my way through the book. I also chortled, guffawed, snorted through almost every speech Shirley Homes made in the book. Yes, speech, because Shirley does not merely have a dialog or a response or a question – no, she waxed poetic on every subject.

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Another great book in the Walt Longmire series. In this book, a Tyrannosaurus rex is found on the Lone Elk ranch. It turns out to be on of the largest and most intact ever found. Almost immediately, there is a fight for who actually owns the land and the dinosaur.

At the same time, Walt Longmire is caught up in the investigation regarding the death of the owner of the Lone Elk ranch. Danny Lone Elk is found floating dead in a turtle pond on his ranch. Due to the craziness that has erupted around the finding of the dinosaur, Walt decides that he needs to take a closer look at Danny’s death.

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While Ed James has written a number of books, “Snared” is the first of his books that I have read. It is a stand-alone book; however, I think that it has the potential to be the start of a police procedural series set in Scotland about DS Vicky Dobbs.

Vicky is a single mom of a four year old girl. She is juggling her hectic personal life with the increasing demands of her profession. She is having issues about not spending enough time with her daughter (though her mother and father are around to give her an excellent backstop) when a series of escalating crimes start.The book is quite long at close 544 pages. It makes sense if it is the start of a series as the book introduces a great number of characters. If it is truly a stand-alone book, there were a few more characters than necessary.

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This was a mile a minute cyber attack thriller. The story was pretty intense and required a little bit of suspension of reality. There was attack after attack making the US look totally unprepared for cyberwarfare. This doesn’t seem credible – I suspect that there are many areas where the US is vulnerable, but the author is making it look like it is in all areas and that, aside from a handful of heroes in the book, the country is unprepared and ill-equipped. So, suspend reality a bit as you read the book and then it becomes a fun race-to-the-end story.

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Invasion of Privacy” is the first book I have read by Christopher Reich. It was a really good read and definitely makes me want to go back and read some of his previous books. It was a very suspenseful thriller – with lots of action and plot twists throughout the book. I read it in one day because, frankly, I found that I could not put it down. The book is set in the Hill Country around Austin, TX, where I lived for a number of years and it was fairly accurate in its portrayal of the area and the individuals who would call that area home.

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