Murray McDonald: Divide & Conquer

Click to see in Amazon

Enjoyable and fast paced escapism
This is well written, page-turning escapism which grabs the attention and never lets go. The plot is complex and far fetched but made for good and entertaining reading.

Sean Fox, an ex CIA operative, returns from several years in Afghanistan as an independent contractor looking forward to some well deserved R and R. He is detained at the airport because official records show that he was visciously killed by a Mexican drug cartel 3 months before. Even more surprising, he learns that he is survived by a wife and small son who he has never met.

The son is kidnapped and very quickly Sean is fighting the Mexican cartel to release the son and protect the wife. Not only does he have to deal with the cruel and powerful Mexicans, but his return has triggered actons by intelligence agencies in both the U.S. and Russia. Before long Sean's struggle becomes an international one that will affect the future of the major world powers.

One reviewer pointed out some mistakes in US English usage but they were minor and didn't detract from the impact of the story.

Murray McDonald writes exciting thrillers. I enjoyed Critical Error and look forward to reading Scion.

Mark Gimenez: Accused

Click to see in Amazon

Super-riveting legal thriller
Within pages I was hooked by this page-turning legal thriller by Mark Gimenez. In his clear, concise style he sets out the major characters, their background and history in the first chapter and without missing a beat jumps straight into the action. I really enjoy legal thrillers and this was among the best I have read. It is a long time since I read a book that I had difficulty putting down.

A. Scott Fenney, a talented and dedicated Dallas lawyer, has not recovered from his beautiful wife, Rebecca, leaving him without warning 2 years before for Trey Rawlins, a rising star on the pro golf tour.  He thinks about her continually. His life centres around keeping his struggling small practice and loyal staff afloat, and lovingly caring for two 11 year olds - his daughter and an adopted African American daughter.

One morning he gets a call "Scott - it's Rebecca. I need you" asking him to defend her when she is accused of murdering the man she left him for. The evidence is damming as her fingerprints are found on the kitchen knife that killed Trey, and the police found her covered in his blood.

Fenney takes on Rebecca's case because he would never be able to live with himself and his daughter if Rebecca was sent to prison for years because of a poor defence. He gradually uncovers the real story behind Trey's golfing, financial and personal life, and the secrets he kept from Rebecca. Fenney delves into the financial rewards and the sexual temptations of the world of professional golf to find the answers.

The plot has as many twists and turns as a roller coaster in an earthquake, culmininating with one of the best a courtroom dramas I have read with many unexpected and surprising outcomes.

Gimenez is a talented writer with amazing character development skills and legal knowledge. I will definitely be reading more of his books.

Chris Almeida & Cecilia Aubrey : Countermeasures

Click to see in Amazon

Am I reading the same book as the other reviewers?
I read this book because it had a lot of good reviews - I can't imagine why there are so many 5 star reviews. The start was a promising techno/suspense but soon it changed into a pretty tame romance/suspense, and not a very good one at that.

Some parts of the plot were unbelievable. A small example; Cassandra James, a private security consultant (former CIA) and Natham (still CIA) visit the extremely secure NSA headquarters and express surprise when they have to hand in their guns before they are allowed entry. Then they are allowed to enter the most secure part of the NSA and talk to an analyst, Trevor Bauer, at his confidential workstation. Oh dear...

When Cassandra meets Bauer it is immediately clear that there will be a romantic tension between them.  When this happens I detected a clear change in style which suggests that the co-author has written the romantic and slightly steamy scenes. One reviewer thought the book was steamier than Fifty Shades of Grey. I haven't read that book but if this is correct then Fifty Shades must be a pretty tame affair.

I struggled to 60% and skipped to the "happy ending" and hints of future books in the same series. I won't be reading them.

Melissa F Miller: Irretrievably Broken (Sasha McCandless #3)

Click to see in Amazon

Disapointing compared with earlier Sasha McCandless adventures
Melissa F Miller's previous books showed great promise of developing Sasha McCandless into one of the better legal heroines around. After this book I felt disappointed that Sasha had not gained strength of character from her previous adventures, both legal and personally. At the end I didn't know where the character was heading.

Sasha McCandless is a skilled female lawyer who in previous books was able to face up to and overcome a range of legal and personal challenges. I had expected that this experience would have matured her character into a confident independent legal operator with the strength to choose her battles where she had the ability to stand on her own feet.

In this case, while she has limited experience of criminal law she allows her powerful former bosses to lure her into taking on a major homicide defence. The case is shonky and far fetched from the beginning and becomes more far fetched as the story progresses.

In previous books Sasha was helped by and became romantically involved with Leo Connelly, a Federal Aviation Marshal, who not only gave her personal support but used his investigative skills and clout to help her solve her cases. This time Sasha operates on her own because she was unable or prepared to make a commitment to this special relationship.

The ending was hurried and there were several evidence issues that were not fully explained. Without giving a spoiler, I believe that there was one very serious legal issue left outstanding at the end that should have been addressed.

While this was easy and well written it was not a memorable book. I was going to give it 3 stars but when I started wondering if my interest in reading further books in the series might be "Irretrievably Broken" I could only give it 2 stars.

Jack Higgins: The Eagle has Landed

Click to see in Amazon

Golden Oldie - Top WWII thriller
I have recently read a few top ranked novels written in the 1970's and 1980's and enjoyed them all - this is one of the best. It was first published in 1975 and sold 50 million copies across the world. It was also a successful movie, starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duval and achieved a bit of a cult following.

Normally WWII stories are mostly about the Allies - but this one centres on the Germans at a time when it is clear to most that they are losing the war. It also focusses on how a small quiet remote English community reacts when the war is unexpectedly brought to their doorstep.

During one of his temper tantrum brainstorms, Hitler challenges Admiral Canaris (his espionage chief) to capture Winston Churchill. While Canaris tries to forget the challenge, he asks one of his staff to plan a commando raid when he finds that Churchill will be spending a weekend in remote part of Norfolk, very near the coast. Heirich Himmler never forgets and takes over the planning in his normal ruthless and chilling way.

The raiding group is led by a charismatic Lt. Col. Kurt Steiner, the son of a German general and his American wife, and a small group of war hardened but disgraced paratroopers. They are helped by a key IRA operative Liam Devlin and long term local resident but undercover Abwehr agent Joanna Grey.

While the raid starts according to plan it rapidly goes downhill - surprisingly partly because of the humanity of a German soldier who saves a local child from drowning. The normally heartless Devlin is vulnerable when he loses his heart to a local teenager.

Some say that this is Jack Higgins' best book and is in the same league as the classic Frederick Forsyth thriller "The Day of the Jackal". I agree with them.

Steve Gannon: Kane (A Kane Novel)

Click to see in Amazon

Kane's stand together again, no matter what

Once again Steve Gannon has written a very powerful, exciting and challenging page-turning novel, which is both spine chilling and personally emotional. Gannon has written a book which mixes intense family issues successfully with a well crafted police procedural/serial killer plot. Be warned - it is very much an adult novel with vivid scenes of sadistic serial murders but they are needed because they are central to the story.

In his first book "A Song for the Asking" (which I am glad that I read first) Steve Gannon introduced us to Dan Kane, who is a top Homicide Detective at LAPD who dominates his family like a marines training Sergeant.  Despite this his sons and daughter live in a family environment full of love and respect. They follow their father's strong beliefs that "Kane's stand together, no matter what"

When tragedy happens and his eldest son is killed in a climbing accident, Kane is the one who cracked and cannot stand together with his family.  At the start of this book, Kane's inability to cope with and share his grief impact seriously on his marriage and he is unable to help others in the family who also have to cope with the loss and have deep secrets that they are unable to share.

As an escape, Kane buries himself in his work - tracking down a clever and sadistic serial killer.  Kane is a rough and tough experienced detective who likes to do things in his own way and has little respect for bureaucracy.  While this helps him to progress the case it also eventually endangers himself, and also his family. In "Song for the Asking" Kane's police work was peripheral to his relationships with his family.  While family relationships are still important, this time Kane's police work takes precedence and threatens to impact on the family.

In the middle of all of this Gannon gives us a magical musical interlude when Kane's wife, a cellist with a symphony orchestra, has to take over a solo performance of Dvorak's Cello Concerto.  Gannon describes this with feeling and emotion - reflecting a saying from the earlier book -  "Although music can be many things ... music is the power to command emotion."

Kane is a non-stop action thriller, with surprising twists, and unforgettable conflicting scenes of horror and family love. It is a great read which I recommend strongly to anyone who likes a challenging story.  As I said after reading "Song for the Asking" - after a powerful book I need to read something lighter next, like a sorbet to cleanse the palate between courses.

Gannon's next book in the Kane series - "Allison" - also highly recommended.

Ward Larsen: Fly By Wire: A Jammer Davis Thriller

Click to see in Amazon

Another winner by Ward
This was an easy reading and fast moving terrorist/air crash thriller that kept me absorbed to the end. Once again Ward Larsen has written a thriller with a completely different plot from his previous books - "The Perfect Assassin" and "Stealing Trinity" - which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Larsen introduces us to Jammer Davis, an ex military pilot now working with the National Transportation Safety Board, who joins a multinational investigation team into the unexplained crash of an innovative cargo plane. Jammer is not a good team player and doesn't tolerate bureaucracy so he barges ahead on his own and quickly uncovers more about the crash than his team members.

While Jammer is larger than life he is not the super hero of many thrillers of this genre.  His wife died in a recent accident and he suffers the stress of being a single father of a teenage girl. He is not totally alone in the investigation when an undercover CIA operative on the investigative team (of course an attractive female) seeks to recruit his assistance.

While the crash investigation proceeds, simultaneous terrorist suicide attacks destroy medium sized petroleum refineries throughout the world. How could this be linked to the crash of a cargo plane?

I find it difficult to give a book 5 stars and had got to 4.5 stars when Jammer said something  unforgettable that pushed it up to 5 stars. In a crucial phone call after Jammer finds the reason for the crash he says, "I am talking to a goddam paper pusher who needs to go piss up a rope! Now go and do something about it and call me back in 10 minutes." You will need to read the book to find out who he was talking to and what he needs him to do.

Larsen's experience as a fighter pilot in Desert Storm  and a trained aircraft accident investigator comes through strongly in the flying and technical content of this book. He is one of my favourite thriller writers to watch and I look forward to reading the next Jammer Davis book, Fly by Night.

Connie Brockway: The Other Guy's Bride

Click to see in Amazon

One star for an imaginative plot
A romantic adventure must have a good plot - but this one was so far out of this world I had to give it one star for imagination.

Mildred Whimpelhall (what a name), a very ordinary aristocratic spinster is travelling to Egypt to get married to much older Colonel Lord Pomfrey. Unfortunately Pomfrey is holed up in an outpost the Egyptian desert.  So he asks American soldier of fortune and family outcast Jim Owens (who Pomfrey thinks is a scoundrel and really doesn't trust) to escort his "bride" to the fort through hostile territory.

Ginesse Braxton, banished by her Egyptologist parents to boarding school in England for being too free spirited, is returning home to Egypt by ship when she befriends poor seasick Mildred. When Mildred leaves the ship in Rome to journey on by land, Ginesse takes over Mildred's identity so that she can go to an ancient Egyptian site near to the Colonel's outpost without her parents' knowledge.

Just think of what can happen if Jim and Ginesse lose their escort in the desert and have to ride on a camel together or, even more romantically, share a tender moment while sheltering in a cave during a sandstorm. You just have to read the book to see what happens - the mind boggles in anticipation.

Melissa F Miller: Inadvertent Disclosure (Sasha McCandless #2)

Click to see in Amazon

Great legal thriller - read this before Grisham
I really enjoyed the first Sasha McCandless story, but this one was an even better. If you like legal thrillers, forget higher-priced Grisham and read Melissa F Miller - you won't be disappointed.

Sasha is a diminutive lawyer who gets inadvertently gets involved in adventures associated with her legal work. This time Sasha has left the large legal firm where she served her apprenticeship and has set up on her own. During the course of a minor court appearance in a rural community outside of her home base of Pittsburgh she is cornered by the local Judge to represent an old man to prevent  State guardianship for senility. This brings her into the middle of a previously peaceful rural community which has been invaded by shale oil gas developers, with associated environmantal activists and corrupt locals putting pressure on senior citizens to share in the financial bonanza.

This time Sasha's skills as an attorney take precedence over here powerful self-defence skills.  She is involved in a developing relationship with Leo Connelly, who  she met in "Irreparable Harm", who continues to provide counsel and assistance from his sources as a Federal Agent.

The plot is action-filled, page-turning and mostly believable. While there were a couple of  lost threads in the plot and the finale was a bit quick and confused, I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend the book.

I am looking forward to the next Sasha McCandless book and have registered with Melissa F Miller's website to be told when it is released.

Murray McDonald: Critical Error

Click to see in Amazon

Surprisingly good page-turning thriller
I really enjoyed this fast paced, page turning thriller by Murray McDonald. The action, sometimes very violent, is non-stop, the plot is most devious, and the ending is unexpected, almost unbelievable but extremely satisfying.

The story involves a retired CIA assassin whose his own family is slaughtered in a bungled attempt on his life. His brother, a leading candidate in an upcoming US presidential election, is also a target of a group of rich and powerful businessmen with major influence over the President and Vice President. Mix this with a beautiful and dangerous female Mossad agent, Palestinian terrorists, stolen nuclear bombs, and an Israeli government trying to stop the bombs being set off in their homeland and in the US and you have a very explosive mixture.

I loved the book and give it 5 stars because it was so audacious and well written. My only bad mark is for editing - how could the editor miss 15 occurrences of "Whitehouse" in a book which features a US President?