Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith

The book's synopsis from the publisher's website:

Furnace Prison ...
Where death is the least of your worries.
Escape is just the beginning ...

We thought we’d made it, we thought we were free. But we should have known there was no way out of Furnace.

All we did was slip deeper into the guts of the prison: into solitary confinement, where the real nightmares live - the warden, the Wheezers, and something much, much worse.

The clock’s ticking. Because if we don’t escape soon they will turn us into freaks - like them. For ever.

In the darkness of the hole your worst nightmares come to life.

This book rocked!!! I thought that maybe because it's a sequel, it wouldn't quite live up to the first book, Lockdown, but it definitely did and then some. Solitary has everything a reader may look for in a good, action packed thriller. It's full of nasty characters you just love to hate and want annihilated almost as much as the good guys do, it's very fast paced, almost not allowing a reader to surface for even one intake of breath, and  the protagonist, Alex Sawyer along with his friends (old and new), are such likable boys that you can't help but want them to succeed.

I have seen this series (Solitary is part two of the Escape from Furnace and there are apparently three more coming our way, yay!) being pitched as 'boy and reluctant reader' books and while it's certainly that, Solitary should be really read by all YA fans and even reader of adult thrillers. It asks important questions (How much authority is too much? How much punishment is too harsh?) and definitely makes a reader think. I like that there are some introspective passages in Solitary that were missing in Lockdown and that a little more is revealed about the Warden. It looks like the curtain of secrecy will be lifted every few inches with each book, until the grand finale. Besides the great, roller coaster fun, the secrets will make you want to come back for more.

BENEATH HEAVEN IS HELL

AND BENEATH HELL IS

FURNACE 

*******

Special thanks to Ksenia W. and Macmillan publishers for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Make sure you check out the website for Furnace Penitentiary and the author, Alexander Gordon Smith. They're both awesome, just like the series.

Strangers by Dean Koontz

About the book from the author's website:

THEY WERE STRANGERS A handful of people. From different backgrounds, living in different towns and cities across America, they had nothing in common—except fear.
THEY WERE VICTIMS Cold and stark, an unknown terror gripped their dreams and turned their days into living nightmares.
THEY WERE CHOSEN And they could not escape. Deep in the heart of a sprawling desert, a dark memory called out to them, drawing them to the Tranquility Motel—where the terrifying truth was waiting…

I enjoy Dean Koontz's writing more and more with each book of his I read. Even if there is one or two that I might not appreciate very much, there is always that extra special quality to his writing that makes me come back for more. And so it was with Strangers. Before I even got anywhere near the ending, it got me wondering why I read Mr. Koontz so rarely.

What is it precisely that I like so much? It's the emotional value, there's just something intangible in Strangers (as in almost every other book of his) that puts me in a very thoughtful mood. There's a lot of philosophical and existential issues in there which you'd normally not expect from a writer of horror novels. But that's what's so great about Koontz. No matter how scary and how full of thrilling action his books get, you'll probably be brought to tears and definitely be asking yourself some important questions. While reading Strangers, I did cry and a few things did make me wonder. As far as the subject matter goes, did he make me a believer? Not quite yet but he came closest to convincing me among all the theories I've heard.

Strangers is certainly a big in scope novel that actually isn't really a horror book, so if you are not a fan of horrors but would like to read a Koontz book, Strangers may very well be the one to try. All you need is an open mind and some taste for suspense, thrill and a little bit of paranormal (that's not scary). The only scary part is the evil that some people (not out of this world beings) are capable of. But even that Koontz beats with his strong faith in the goodness of mankind and our capacity to ultimately know good from evil. Even for a cynic like myself, it's refreshing to experience this.

2-in-1: Nightwalker & The Elephant Keeper

1. Nightwalker by Heather Graham *

This was my first encounter with Ms. Graham's writing. All I knew about her was that she wrote in a few different genres, including romance and thriller. Nightwalker is a paranormal thriller, taking place in Las Vegas. Jessy Sparhawk, part Native American, cares for her beloved grandfather while living paycheck to paycheck. One day she decides to try her luck gambling as she is really desperate for money. When she's done playing the biggest shock is yet to come. A body of a dead man with a knife in his back falls right on Jessy. Private detective, Dillon Wolf, is accidentally right in the same place and he takes it upon himself to figure out what exactly happened, not realizing that Jessy will be playing an important role in the whole investigation. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she is a stunning woman. Where's the paranormal, you ask? Ha! Mr. Wolf is part Native American as well and he is also a nightwalker, a person who sees and is visited by ghosts. One of these ghosts will help him solve the mystery that turns out to be a lot more than just a dead body in a casino. And it's a mystery that will cost lives.

Thanks to Nightwalker I fell under Heather Graham's spell. It's a great thriller for cold winter days when you really don't feel like doing anything but curling up with an engaging story that will keep you occupied enough to forget about an ugly day outside. The author wove the plot so skillfully that I literally couldn't put the book away and as a result I read it in one day. Thank goodness I was sick in bed and had an excuse to do nothing but read. The thing that really got me to liking Ms. Graham's style was that the romance part was tasteful and that the character of Jessy was not predictable at all and for once I got a heroine who acted the way I imagine real life people act. No such cliches as saying 'no' when you mean 'yes', or being superficially coquettish. I have to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jessy and Dillon were such likable characters. Every element in Nightwalker was blended nicely (romance, thriller & paranormal) so I didn't feel overwhelmed or confused about what the story was really about. I am definitely stocking up more of Heather Graham's books for next year.

2. The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson **

I am usually not a big fan of books with animals as main characters. I decided to break away from this pattern and read The Elephant Keeper, especially that the description mentioned it to be 'a magical adventure'. The novel is set in 18th century England and the story is told by Tom Page, a keeper of two elephants he named Timothy and Jenny. By pure accident, Tom found himself to be their main caregiver since the day they arrived in England. The elephants were still pretty much babies and on the verge of dying. However, under the careful eye of Tom and his undivided attention, Timothy and Jenny survived. And Tom's life took an unexpected turn as he falls in love with the two animals and slowly but surely removes himself from the world of people.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Well, it was okay in the beginning even though the style of writing (Tom's weird grammar with author's attempt to use the language as it may have been used in the times the story was set) took some getting used to. It also took me a while to get interested in the story of raising two elephants, the way Tom recounts his life as elephant keeper seemed emotionally distant to me and therefore I couldn't quite believe that he was all that devoted to Timothy and Jenny. But still, there was something in the story (probably the novelty of reading about elephants) that kept me going. Unfortunately, when I got about half-way through, the relationship between Tom Page and his female elephant, Jenny became just plain weird to me. I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who might want to read it but when a man starts talking to an animal and receives answers and the conversations take on an intimate character, and when that same man starts having sexually suggestive dreams featuring the animal I have to start questioning the sanity of the whole novel. Which by the way, was not pitched as a fantasy but historical fiction. I did finish The Elephant Keeper because when I am already half done with a book I go on until the end, but it left me feeling slightly put off.

* I received Nightwalker as an autographed copy from the author during the BEA'09 signing.

** I won The Elephant Keeper from Library Thing Early Reviewer program of which I am a member.

A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi

Psychological thrillers have got to be one of my favorite books to read. And yet for the past ten months or so I feel like I have completely abandoned them for the sake of discovering and getting familiar with other genres. In the end, my guilt and my ‘favoritism’ drove me to reach out for A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi and right now I am reminded of what a feast I was missing out on by putting thrillers on a back burner.

The book starts off with a murder of a ten years old girl and it keeps you in its grips from then on. Newbury, CT is a seemingly quiet, peaceful town and the murder is all the more shocking because of that. We have an FBI agent Leia Bines, a child psychiatrist Peter Gram, who is also a nephew of a local senator, and a score of law-enforcement people trying to find a killer who not only murdered the girl but did it in a very twisted way. Dr. Peter Gram also has a new patient, a seven-year-old Naya whose inexplicable nightmares seem to have no medical basis and all of a sudden turn out to be too important to the murder case to be missed. And so, the race to find this brutal killer before he finds another innocent victim starts.

I was really taken by A Circle of Souls and its author Preetham Grandhi. It is his debut work and I think he did an excellent job. I have read scores of thrillers, especially psychological ones, and therefore I do consider myself an amateur expert on this subject. I can tell you that it’s no easy task to write a gripping tale that will keep the reader with their nose in the book until the tale is over. And I can also safely tell you that Mr. Grandhi accomplished just that. There aren’t too many characters which keeps the picture simple and clear enough for the reader to concentrate on the main plot and follow it without getting confused about who’s who and who’s done what. When I write simple, I don’t mean a story with not much depth to it. Quite the opposite, there is a lot happening but it’s easy to follow all the events and I think it’s a plus that readers are given a few main characters to think about without being blindsided by a parade of people who bring nothing to the table and their only purpose seems to be confusion. I think that most of you know what I’m talking about. Many possibly good thrillers got ruined this way. A Circle of Souls is thankfully not one of them. For a debut novel and beyond that as well, it’s a very good, sometimes even scary and full of action thriller. I enjoyed it from the first page to the last (I know it sounds a little cliché but in this case it really is true) and I am already waiting impatiently for what Mr. Grandhi produces next because he certainly is a skilled author that knows how to give us good thrills.

**********

Special Thanks to the author, Preetham Grandhi for sending me a copy of his book for review.

Please make sure to visit his website which dedicated to the book and looks really neat.

Threshold by Bonnie Kozek

Honey McGuinness is the main character in Threshold. She is young, but the life her deceased mother served her and how Honey decided to live in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide were nightmarish and left her feeling emotionally drained. Now, all Honey wants to do is disappear, become anonymous and blend in with the crowd of hundred other anonymous, invisible people. She now lives alone, works for the pastor and his family, serving food to homeless people. All is well until the area becomes infested with drug dealers and addicts, and Honey’s friend, Billy gets murdered. Seeing that the police won’t do anything and there is no one she can turn for help to, Honey takes it up herself to find the killer and get her revenge. She enters the world she tried to escape for so long, the world of depravity, drugs and hopelessness. And maybe she’ll get more than she bargained for.

I should have known that this was no walk in the park when I read that Threshold was a hard-boiled thriller. I had never read one before and honestly just thought that a thriller’s a thriller and I’d have fun reading it. I did enjoy Ms. Kozek’s book but it was just so unexpected in its violent nature that I still catch myself thinking, ‘Did I read what I think I did?!’. Honey is a very sad character. Sad and tragic. She had a horrendous childhood, being abused by her mother and constantly prepared to commit suicide with her. When only Honey’s mother dies, Honey goes through life self-inflicting the abuse and perpetuating the violence as if in punishment for abandoning her own mother at the last minute. When she enters the world of drug lords to find the killer of her friend, things only get worse and Ms. Kozek spares the reader no details. The language and descriptions of what Honey subjects herself to are crude, brutal and shocking. If you are looking for a true roller-coaster ride, you’ll definitely find it in Threshold.

I said I enjoyed this novel despite the fact that it was so violent. The fact is that the author definitely knows what she’s doing. The writing flows smoothly, there are no real glitches anywhere and certainly no clichés. You probably won’t find much of character development as far as secondary ones go but you’ll get a pretty clear picture of Honey and how she comes through the horrid experiences in the end. All I can say is don’t let the 118 pages of this book fool you. They deliver enough punch to last quite a while and are not for the faint-hearted.

Blood on His Hands by Mark P. Sadler

As some of you know, I have performed very poorly as far as reading goes in the past couple of months (*gasp* is it really months?! Yes, I guess it is!!!). I started to reevaluate my reading choices and finally decided to switch to a genre that I really favor and that usually delivers fast paced, easy to read books. I reached for Blood on His Hands by Mark P. Sadler and it did turn out to be just the remedy for my faltering reading.

On the pages of this book we meet Michael Renton, his wife Bonnie and Bonnie’s family. Michael’s marriage is failing because in order to support his growing family he works away from home all week long and doesn’t give his wife as much time and attention as she would have liked. So what’s Bonnie’s solution to the problems? She goes off and finds herself a lover, Ian Walker and slowly (also in a very calculated and methodical way) removes herself and their children from Michael’s life without his knowledge. Her parents, who happen to consider themselves good, church going people, have no problem with accepting Ian as their daughter’s true love and a better father to their grandsons, while their son-in-law busts his butt as a blue collar worker so his wife can have a better life. One can imagine Michael’s shock when he accidentally discovers his wife in bed with a stranger. The shock was so huge that it ended “with a bang”. In a split second Michael decides to shoot Bonnie and Ian, and so end his own life as he knew it. He now has to run, run from authorities, family and from himself. The escape takes him to the Appalachian trail where he plans to die. Unbeknownst to him, Michael is being hunted by someone who wants revenge and won’t stop until it’s executed.

I think that for a debut novel, Mark did a darn good job. Blood on His Hands is a solid, engaging read for thriller fans. The action was flowing smoothly and the story did pull me in quite quickly, I must say. I started reading the book in the morning and finished it in the evening the same day. It obviously wasn’t boring in the least. The thing I liked the most was the way Mark introduces the reader into the whole broken family situation and gave me a new perspective on the killer, with whom one usually does not sympathize. Not in this case. Maybe I’m just evil, but I couldn’t help but feel for Michael and understand the reasons behind what he did. I also found myself despising Bonnie’s parents who instead of advising her that maybe cheating on her husband wasn’t the best way to go about the whole ‘unhappy and stuck in a hopeless marriage’ situation, supported her lying, her unfaithfulness, and her misleading tactics. I am leaning towards Mark Sadler’s writing skills, rather than my evil self :).

Another really nice and really unexpected thing for a thriller, was Michael’s internal dialogue and struggle with what he’s done and where that one tragic decision left him and his sons. It wasn’t over the top, I never once thought, ‘Enough of the whining already’, and instead I wanted to find out how he’ll end up. I rooted for Michael because it was clear that he wasn’t a cold blooded psychotic killer. He simply made a very, very bad decision that changed him and people around him forever. And don’t think that it’s all seriousness all the time either. The author skillfully managed to insert humor into Michael’s life on the Appalachian Trail and I was smirking quite a few times.

Of course for a debut novel, there were a few plot glitches here and there. I think that the book could actually be longer. I was looking for more insight into how the two little boys dealt with their mother’s death and their father’s abandonment and instead it seemed like the sons were just necessary props but nothing more. There were a few editorial errors but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed next time around. Overall, I think that if you’re a fan of mystery/thriller books that are a fun and quick read, you should definitely give Blood on His Hands a try.

*************

Special thanks to the author, Mark P. Sadler for sending me his book for review.

If you want to find out more about him and Blood on His Hands, please visit Mark's website

www.markpsadler.com

Worst Nightmares by Shane Briant

From time to time I really like to read something that will truly scare me. That’s why early Koontz and King are my favorites. I also like it when a horror fiction doesn’t involve supernatural beings but instead is very much grounded in reality because it then makes it so much scarier. As I read these kinds of book, I think that what’s written in there may very well happen or has already happened. Worst Nightmares by Shane Briant is that kind of book.

The main character, Dermot Nolan, is an accomplished, award-winning writer who is also struggling with a writer’s block. He and his wife have pretty much spent the fortune that his previous bestseller earned him and Dermot cannot deliver another smashing work of fiction. Things are looking really gloom for him as his agent and publisher growing impatient and the million-dollar advance is gone without one page to show for it. Only Dermot’s beautiful wife Neela and his best friend Nick know the desperate condition Dermot is in. Therefore, when a mysterious manuscript lands in Dermot’s hands, they all see it as a possible means to end the financial and creative troubles. The manuscript, titled My Worst Nightmares – My Delicious Memoirs, is truly horrifying and gives gory, nightmarish descriptions of each victim’s death based on his/her worst nightmare. The author’s mind is truly sick and twisted but that’s not what’s bothering Dermot and Neela the most. The whole memoir is written in a crude but strangely authentic voice. So authentic that they decide to dig a bit deeper and see if by any chance all those deaths are not imaginative but real. What they discover is at once chilling and inconclusive. Dermot finally decides that the incidences were not real and goes ahead and submits the improved manuscript to the publisher as his own. And that’s when all hell breaks loose.

Let me just get what I didn’t like about Worst Nightmares out of the way. I figured out who the murderer was one third of the way. In that sense, it was unfortunately pretty predictable. The most disappointing thing about it was not even that I figured out who it was so soon, but why it happened shortly after (probably half-way through the novel). I don’t know whether it was due to the way the book was written or the fact that I read so many horror/suspense books that it’s very difficult to get a shock reaction from me.

Now that that’s done, let me move on to what I really enjoyed. Mr. Briant is a very skilled writer as far as character development and portrayal go. He managed to put the main character, who we are supposed to sympathize with, as really bad things happen to him, in a very bad light. Maybe I am just a little sick in the head, but I couldn’t help thinking that maybe Dermot deserved what he got in the end. He is a self-absorbed, greedy and egotistic person who at the core will do what it takes to get to the finish line. On the surface he might seem to be struggling emotionally and morally with what he’s about to do, but it’s really all superficial. I have to say that I wasn’t prepared to dislike and not sympathize with the main character so much. That was my element of surprise and I loved it. Besides that main factor, Worst Nightmares is really good. The premise is, in my opinion, fresh and quite shocking. The book starts off fast and the action doesn’t slow down until the end and it’s all written very convincingly. Suffice it to say that, while reading it, I decided that I better not have any worst nightmares (even though I do) that I could tell anyone of just in case…

*********

Special Thanks to Imran J. for sending me a copy of this book.

Book Info:

Title: Worst Nightmares

Author: Shane Briant

Published in: 2009

By: Vanguard Press

Twenty Seven Bones by Jonathan Nasaw

I usually don’t review audio books. I like listening to them as a preferable form of entertainment while I’m driving or working out (however rarely this happens :O) but I find it quite difficult to write about character and places especially if I am not sure what the correct spellings might be, if the names I would want to talk about are not mentioned at the back cover of an audio book. This was one of the issues I had with reviewing Twenty Seven Bones by Jonathan Nasaw, albeit not the reason why I didn’t like the book.

Twenty Seven Bones is supposed to be a bone-chilling thriller (note the ‘is supposed to be’) taking place on St. Luke island. This small, quiet place is being shaken by the discovery of two mutilated bodies with their hands chopped off. A retired special agent Pendergast is asked to come to the island to help the local police solve the murders before the news of a serial killer gets out into the open and potentially ruins the tourist commerce. Soon however, the rumors spread as there are more victims popping out and the serial killer gets nicknamed “The Machete Man”. As it turns out, it’s not one but two serial killers working together. The murderers are a married couple, obsessed with the mythical power of the last breath. Soon, Phil and Emily are joined with a sneaky well known and rich inhabitant of the island, Lois (at least I think it’s Lois, might be Luis, for all I know). From that moment the events seem to spin out of control and Pendergast saves the day!


I really did not like this book. It was boring and there was nothing shocking or chilling about it. Let me just start with saying that I dislike thrillers in which the murderer is revealed at the very beginning and there is no suspense whatsoever from that point on. This was such a book. I kept waiting for the shocking ending, and kept waiting, and waiting…and it didn’t come. Let’s face it, unless a book is a grand literary achievement, with captivating writing, you need a good plot and a healthy dose of mystery for a thriller to work. Twenty Seven Bones was not a literary piece of art and it had neither a good plot or any mystery. The only good thing about it was the narrator, Dion Graham, who did a splendid job with the Creole (I think)accent. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him, impersonating all characters and it was the only thing that kept me going to the end. At one point I stopped caring about the plot and just listened to the narrators voice. All and all, if you are in for the chills and thrills while listening to thrillers on audio, skip this one or you’re in danger of falling asleep at the wheel.

'The Reincarnationist' by M.J. Rose

Do most people learn from their mistakes and I am one of the few that fall for the “oh, so fantastic” blurbs printed on the covers of books time and again? Or do we all stubbornly buy books just because other writers supply the words of praise? One thing is certain: when I read blurbs such as “M.J. Rose delivers a tale that goes beyond chills and thrills” or “One of the most original and exciting novels I’ve read in a long time, with a premise so delicious I’m sick with envy I didn’t think of it myself”, I question literary skills of authors who wrote them. The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose does go beyond “chills and thrills” straight into boring and disappointing, and its premise might be “delicious” but if it’s one of the most original and exciting novels the author read, then he must reading some really awful books.

The thought behind The Reincarnationist is, admittedly, original. Josh Ryder, who is a photojournalist, falls a victim to a bomb attack while working on an assignment. He barely escapes death but he also starts experiencing déjà vu’s and flashbacks to ancient times where apparently he is a pagan priest in love with a Vestal Virgin. The flashbacks intensify when he visits a newly discovered tomb in Rome. They become really violent and Josh, in his desperation to find answers, turns to a research facility that deals with past-life experiences and reincarnation. So far so good but then it really gets unnecessarily complicated, with many other people starting to experience the same sort of flashbacks and Josh, having apparently not one past-life but two.

I was sorely disappointed by this book. Because the premise appealed to me a lot, I thought I was up for quite a good ride. But it wasn’t meant to be. Up until about 2/3 of the book I kept waiting for the real action to start happening, around midway through I figured out who the mysterious villain was and the ending was completely anti-climactic. Sure, there was a lot of running around, plenty of different characters but they were not exciting at all, actually they fell rather flat. The worst part was the ending. Not only was there no big surprise as to who stood behind the killings and the theft, but also it had the wait-for-the-next-installment, to-be-continued ending. If there is a thing I hate about books, it is this type of ending. If a writer is good, a reader doesn’t need to be tricked into buying another book of theirs. If on the other hand, an author feels insecure about their book to be a stand-alone one or simply knows it needs trickery to encourage further sales then I simply say, “Thank you very much but I think I’ll pass”.

'BoneMan's Daughters' by Ted Dekker

When I find out that one of my most favorite authors comes out with a new book I am both very excited and anxious. That was the case with BoneMan’s Daughters by Ted Dekker. Among the contemporary thriller writers he holds the top spot and I truly couldn’t wait to read this book. But I also had some second thoughts, a reader angst I would call it. I expect from Mr. Dekker always the best and before I started BoneMan’s Daughters I had thought about what was going to happen if it was not as good as his previous ones, if somehow it would leave me disappointed or not quite sated. Well, having read it I now can tell that my worry was, as usual, for naught.

The story starts with Ryan Evans, naval captain being kidnapped and held hostage after one of the intelligence missions near Fallujah went awry. The hell he’s put through left him mentally damaged, with a severe case of post traumatic stress disorder. But it also gave him a renewed sense of love for his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bethany whom he pretty much abandoned and neglected long time ago for the sake of his job and his country. He comes home, ready to do what it takes to repair the damage and hurt he caused his beloved daughter. He has no idea how much really he will have to do to get Bethany to love her father back. BoneMan, a serial killer who murdered six girls in search for that one perfect daughter, is on the prowl again and Bethany is the daughter he was looking for all this time. He kidnaps Ryan’s daughter and gives Ryan seven days to get her back. Now Ryan has to go after BoneMan on his own because the FBI and DA think he’s the killer.

From the first pages I was taken for a spin ride. Ted Dekker’s talent for writing a meaningful thriller really shines through. I write meaningful because he not only plots an awesome suspense, but also manages to make me think through the difference between good and evil, the ends people will go to and means they will and will not use to get what they want in their desperation. The questions put forth in BoneMan’s Daughters are many: How much is one life worth?, Who decides which people die and which live?, How far can a person go to retrieve love they sacrificed long time ago?, and Mr. Dekker knows how to make you think and analyze them all while being caught up in the whirl of events that do not stop happening until the end.

BoneMan’s Daughters was honestly a book I could not put down. It is over 400 pages long and I read it within one day and a little bit of night. Probably the best part was that just when I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, it of course didn’t. It usually wasn’t anywhere near what I thought would end up happening. I finally gave up guessing and let the book do its amazing job. And that it did to the last page.

******

Special Thanks to Miriam P. from Hachette Book Group for providing me a copy of this book.

'Gauntlet' by Richard Aaron

For the past few years the writing market has been flooded with counter-terrorism thrillers. There is a multitude of authors who either want to get in on the writing scene with what’s almost a guarantee for reaping financial rewards, or who are already established writers but switch to this popular genre nonetheless. Among this cornucopia of “doom & destruction” books, there are a few gems worth paying more attention to. One of them is Gauntlet by Richard Aaron.



The plot seems familiar enough: another jihadist is plotting an attack on the U.S. and this time the threat is going to be bigger and better planned than anything that’s happened so far. During the operation of destroying 660 tons of Semtex in the Sahara desert, 4500 kilos of this highly capable explosive gets stolen. A few days later the world gets a first message out of the total of six transmitted via Al Jazeera network, promising a destruction of “the Great Satan”. And so the race against time and hell-bent terrorists begins. On the American side, we have a newly established TTIC agency, with top intelligence specialists and one very unique autistic young man, who also happens to be a mathematical genius; there is a CIA agent, Richard Lawrence, who is a broken man but also the only person best qualified to work undercover on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan and two Canadian law enforcement officials fighting drug trafficking. On the Middle East, there is Yousseff, a very powerful drug lord with his loyal but cruel and murderous friends scattered around the globe and “Emir”, the main guy behind the plot, who hates America and is bent on destroying it.


The beginning of Gauntlet is a little difficult to get through. There seems to be too many technical and medical descriptions that for an average reader might seem unnecessary and could be skipped. Fortunately, there is also enough action going on from the first pages. So much so that I wanted to keep reading in anticipation of what was coming next. And I definitely was not disappointed. The ending is truly shocking, even for a seasoned thriller reader like myself. The plot is not monotonous, the thinking and acting is quick and I could just sense the energy and anxiety coming off the pages.


The best part of the book, which is also what distinguishes Gauntlet from other fiction centered on fighting with terrorism, is a personal insight in to the minds and lives of both the heroes and the villains. Aaron skillfully weaves in Yousseff’s childhood, teenage years and his rise to power and wealth. Surprisingly enough, I found myself extremely interested and drawn into the mind of this anti-hero who’s a working force behind the attack. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have “the good guys”, who in many instances are not perfect at all. They are not being glorified, in fact their actions and their thinking gets to be quite frustrating. I found myself thinking: “Are kidding me?!”, “It’s right in front of you, you dummy!” or “Why can’t they just do something?!”. The book certainly got me emotionally involved.


Mr. Aaron’s approach to his characters is quite unique. Not one person is portrayed as “pure evil” or “pure gold”. The fact that the CIA agent is addicted to opiates, the top-notch counter-terrorism experts make questionable decisions or that the top scientists with their intelligence, knowledge and resources still scramble for answers to the last minute makes the book more approachable, the characters more endearing and realistic. By the time I finished reading the book, I knew that I would be getting the next installment since I want to know how they all will fare, both the terrorists and the superheroes.

***

Special Thanks to Lisa R. from Online Publicist

and

Carrie W. from Glass House Press

for providing me with the copy of this book.

CHALLENGES: 999 Reading Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge, 2009 Chunkster Challenge

'Slip & Fall' by Nick Santora

I have never been really crazy about legal thrillers. The ones that I did read tended to be a little too boring for my taste and with so many suspense and thriller books on the market nowadays, I just concentrate on reading what I really enjoy. Because I already had Slip & Fall by Nick Santora on my bookshelf, I decided I would give this genre one more try. I am glad I did.

Slip & Fall tells a story of one guy, who’s a product of his environment. It tells a story of how the cost is not worth the value, and one mistake can ruin and erase everything good and proper done before. Robert Principe is a personal injury attorney, fresh out of Columbia Law School. He managed to make his family of blue-collar workers proud by attaining a graduate degree and getting away from the snares of break-neck life his father led. He seems to finally have it all: a beautiful wife, a private practice, a wonderful and committed office secretary, who also happens to be his supportive friend, and parents, who are extremely proud of him. Yet, it all starts to fall apart, as he gets into financial troubles because his legal practice does not bring in enough money to cover expenses. Robert has also a bad luck to have an Italian mob cousin, who’s out to make some profit off of Rob’s career. One wrong decision puts Robert on the path to destruction and to life, where striving for a reputation of a stand-up and honest attorney has no value.

I have to say that the book was surprisingly enjoyable. It is Nick Santora’s, who is a co-executive producer of Prison Break, first novel and proves his skill at writing a fast-ride thriller. The action is quick, the characters are very well portrayed, both the good and the ugly and the intricacies of legal system quite gripping. If I had the time for it, Slip & Fall would definitely be a one-night read. There’s a good balance between the dialogue and descriptive passages, so that a reader does not get a chance to feel bored but will rather want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

For me, the best part of any book I read is some kind of insight and deeper truth that the author leads me to discover. I look for it in any genre and I wasn’t disappointed with Santora’s book either. He is able to make us think about the familial bonds, ask the question of how devoted we should be to our own family, no matter how distant and what we are ready to give up for them. Most importantly, we get a chance to see the struggle between achieving success by all means necessary and choosing the moral, ethical way of living, even if it means it might get us homeless one day.

Favorite quote:

"I started thinking about the working man’s curse. The working man wants his son to never have to make a living the way he did, so he works long and hard for years. Eventually, proudly, he sends his boy out into the world to make his fortune, a fortune that is not dependent on a strong back and good knees. What the working man doesn’t know is that he is pushing his child into an unknown world - a world where his son doesn’t know the rules. The other sons in that world, the fifth-generation white-collar kids, the kids whose grandparents captained the Mayflower instead of stowing away in the boiler room, those kids knew the rules. They knew how the game was played in the world of suits and cigars, of polished shoes and sit-down lunches."

CHALLENGES: 2009 Suspense & Thriller Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge, 2009 Ban On Sending Challenge

'Deadly Decisions' by Kathy Reichs

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs was my first try at both forensic thriller and Reichs’ writing from which TV series ‘Bones’ arose. The thriller wounds around a ‘new millennium mafia’, the biker gangs first created in the U.S. and then branched out to Canada. Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, who volunteers her help to the Montreal special unit created to fight the bike crime. Tempe is shocked and pushed to action after a little girl is accidentally shot to death in the rivaling biker gangs’ shootout. She swears to herself that she will get the people responsible for it behind bars. It doesn’t take long for Tempe to realize that she might have gotten more than she bargained for.

When I started reading Deadly Decisions I was really excited. I have heard a lot of good things about her novels. The reviews promised at lot of thrills and action so I really looked forward to indulging myself. However, I quickly became skeptical of the whole spin. Maybe because it’s a forensic thriller, but I did not like the dry tone the book was set in. Almost no emotions coming from any of the characters, including the main one, Tempe Brennen. Definitely too many medical and technical explanations on how the process of blood spatters or bone restructuring work, so many in fact, that whole chapters could have been taken out and the book would lose nothing of its main content. The action did pick up towards the end and there were even a couple of surprises, but it only left me wishing that the book were as interesting from the beginning. I have to say I was really disappointed with the book. I only hope that it may be due to my inexperience in forensic fiction or the fact that it was one of Ms. Reichs’ early novels. I still own one more book in the Tempe Brennan series and even though I am not quite looking forward to reading it, I am looking forward to giving it a second chance.

CHALLENGES: 2009 Ban On Spending , 2009 Suspense & Thriller Reading Challenge , 100+ Reading Challenge

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

You would think that after months of exclusive study of Shakespeare’s work in college and years of reading I would have a better idea of the Bard himself. As it turned out during reading The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, I have no clue. And that might be one of the reasons why I liked this book so much.

The Book of Air and Shadows is a great mystery. It starts with Jake Mishkin, an Intellectual Property lawyer hiding in a cottage in some remote place and writing down the events that brought him to the point of fearing for his life. The events were triggered by the letter written in the 17th century by Mr. Bracegirdle. The letter revealed clues to finding a play by Shakespeare that the world didn’t know existed. Of course if found, the treasure would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and there are many dangerous people who will kill to get it. The narrative switches between Mishkin’s recollections and the following of Albert Crosetti, a movie geek who happened to be the first person to lay his hands on Bracegirdle’s letter. The plot may seem complicated but even as such is easy to follow.

I have to say that The Book of Air and Shadows is no ordinary mystery novel. Gruber is very skilled on many levels as a writer. He created a great, action filled chase after the treasure, enough suspense to really keep the reader guessing till the end and also managed to inject just the right amount of clever humor into the story. I think this was actually a first for me, laughing while reading a mystery. But that’s not all. The characters of Mishkin and Crosetti are surprisingly complex and despite their many flaws I couldn’t help but like them. Both of them were complete laymen in regards to Shakespeare, yet managed to produce a lot of enthusiasm for the legendary writer during the course of action. Which brings me to my opening point. I am not positive about it, but the book certainly made me stop and wonder if Shakespeare’s personal life is indeed a mystery of the literary world. I will certainly do some more digging.

My personal favorite parts of the book were the documents written by Bracegirdle. For a literary geek it was a lot of fun and pleasure to try and read the 17th century language. Gruber managed to make them sound like originals to the point where I actually caught myself several times thinking that I was reading things written by a Shakespeare’s contemporary. I didn’t even mind the deciphering parts, which were crucial to the action but to me sounded like mathematical mumbo-jumbo at first (you can tell I am no fun of mathematics) but then it turned out to be another fun and intriguing side of the novel.

The Book of Air and Shadows is a fantastic read, never boring (Gruber manages to insult everything and everybody, yet because it is so fairly dispensed, I didn’t mind) and quite educational as well. Michael Gruber is a skilled writer, with great sense of humor and I will definitely be reading more of him.

My favorite quote from the book:

"against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain"

CHALLENGES: Winter Challenge, Ban On Spending Challenge, Chunkster Challenge 2009, 100+ Reading Challenge

'Compulsion' - Jonathan Kellerman

I am done with my first title from FROM THE STACK CHALLENGE '08. I had read other books by Kellerman before so I thought that this one was going to be ok but it really wasn't that great. I was actually disappointed because if I remember correctly I did like the other ones.
This one was a little boring and also confusing at the same time: too many plots going on, too many characters, hard to keep track and the ending wasn't very shocking or anything that would justify sticking with reading the book to the end.