Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

“The Lady from Zagreb” is the first book I have read by Philip Kerr. I was hoping for a fast-paced whodunnit with lots of twists – which is my favorite type of mystery. Instead, the book has a lot of information about the atrocities and the lack of morals which abounded in Germany and surrounding countries during both World War II and the time leading up to it. The characters were both fictional and real (though used in a fictional manner to progress the story.) As I am not a student of WWII, I wasn’t able to easily determine which was which.

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“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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“Quicksand” is the third novel in the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery series. The third book is perhaps my favorite so far but then again, it may be that it is the most recent that I have enjoyed, too. The books are all very good. While you can read this book stand-alone, I highly recommend reading the entire series as you will enjoy the characters and understand the nuances best if you have the back history.

Lane Peters, Jaya’s illusive boyfriend, makes a strong comeback in the third book. He wasn’t quite as present in the second in the series and I even wondered if he was going to be phased out. That is certainly not the case – he’s back and he and Jaya work together to solve the treasure hunt mystery in this story – that of a long lost treasure of India.

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“Pirate Vishnu” is the second in a series of mystery by Gigi Pandian. The series features Jaya Jones, a young Indian-American history professor. I really enjoyed the first book in this series “Artifact” and was hoping the second would be almost as good. Actually, it was even better. This whodunnit chases all over the map from San Francisco to India and back again.

Jaya is once again joined by her friends Lane, Nadia, and Sanjay. Along the way, we get a brief history lesson about San Francisco at the time of the Great Earthquake of 1906, some of the signs of struggle of the Indian people against the British colonial rule, and also about magicians and the “spiritualism” trend of the turn of the last century. In addition to the friends we already know, we get introduced to several new characters that I hope to see in future books – Tamarind the librarian (a kind of goth meets punk lady) and Naveen, an unpleasant fellow professor who is Jaya’s competition for tenure at their university.

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“Basic Law” is the first book I have read by J. Sydney Jones. It took me a few pages to get caught up in the book but once I did so, I really could not put it down. I wonder if the use of present tense interfered with my initial enjoyment of the book – it is a recent trend that I have noticed in suspense/mystery books and one that I am not entirely comfortable with as yet.

The story is set in primarily Germany during the early to mid 1990s. I mention this because I had to gleam it from the book as I read along. I thought at first that it was set in the present but that would make the protagonist a man in his sixties and that didn’t match his actions and physical abilities. The action races across Germany, Austria, Crete, and the Czech Republic and back again.

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“Artifact” is the first book I have read by Gigi Pandian. I have been a cozy mystery fan since my early teens when I first discovered mysteries by Elizabeth Peters (under all of her aliases), Georgette Heyer, and others. Back in the day, having a female protagonist in a mystery was unusual and I was immediately captivated by Ms. Peters’ Amelia Peabody and have read every book since. When Ms. Peters recently passed, we lost a great mystery writer.

The heroine of “Artifact” Jayla Jones, reminded me of Amelia Peabody but in a much more updated and sassy sort of way. It may be that the subject of archeology is common to both characters but I think it has as much to do with attitude. While Jayla brought Peabody to mind, she is very much her own character. In one individual, the author brings together Asia and the New World and then promptly plants her in the wilds of Scotland. Truly a global character.

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“Where They Found Her” is a multi-layered mystery that kept me in suspense for most of the book. While there were elements of the story that I solved very early on, there were others that were a complete shock and surprise to me. The clues where there when I looked backwards but I never expected so many “whodunnits” to be tied together in one book.

The author expertly wove the various story lines together using a variety of written works, including an old journal, a newer journal, online newspaper articles, and first and third person narratives. It didn’t take very long to understand the reason for the various sources as they started forming a single story. It was kind of like seeing a painting being painted from the outer edges in toward the middle.

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I have read most of the books in this series. In some ways, “Deceptive Measures” reads almost as a conclusion to the series. I hope that is not the case as I have enjoyed reading it. It is as equally fast-paced as its predecessors and packs a lot into a fairly short novel.

In the story, the protagonist (Rachel) is chasing clues about her daughter (who was kidnapped years before.) She is convinced that she will find her daughter and is tenacious about it. This tenacity is one of the most outstanding, and to me believable, parts of this series. I can’t image any loving parent giving up on find their child. It is interesting that Rachel has taken her search and created not only a career for herself but also a fairly substantial business who are dedicated to finding individuals who have been snatched.

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