Russell Blake: JET II - Betrayal

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Jet flies higher and higher
Sit back and enjoy another unforgettable episode of over-the-top escapist romps featuring Jet, an unstoppable female cold-hearted killing machine. There have been a few fictional kick-ass female "heroes" before (notably Lizbeth Salander [Steg Larssen] and Vanessa Michael Munroe [Taylor Stevens]) but no-one as apparently cold-hearted, skilled and successful as Jet.

This time Jet adds Parkour (a combination of gymnastics and martial arts) to her  skill-set. With Parkour, Jet almost become a Spiderwoman, defying gravity and the laws of physics by climbing up unscaleable buildings and jumping from building to building in death defying acts of athletic skill.

Facing up to another challenge with the help of Parkour is easy for Jet: "Six men. Four buildings. One Jet. She liked the odds."

Despite being cold-hearted in action, at the beginning of the book Jet shows that she has normal emotions when she is allowed to live an everyday life, especially with her her 2 and a half year old daughter, Hannah. She also shows an ability to bond with her loved ones and forge relationships and friendships.

But for the first time Jet meets a situation that even she can't control - when Hannah goes berserk in the shops when she can't get her own way.

Once again Jet has to leave her daughter behind to cope with to some Russian nasties left over from Jet #1 and a potential terrorist threat that could spread panic and illness across the world. The express-paced action moves from Uruguay, to Argentina, to Russia, to Yemen and the US as Jet and an unexpected companion battle evil in all its forms. Some of the similarities in the Yemen episode to those in Nelson DeMille's recently released "The Panther" are uncanny.

In previous reviews I thought that the character of Jet was too over-blown, and not realistic enough. I now understand where Russell Blake is coming from in unapologetically and deliberately going overboard to create a series that would catch the imagination of his reader audience.  While I am still not a total convert, I was once again riding on his roller coaster with this book.

Blake's Jet production line in releasing 3 books in the Jet series in apparently less than 3 months and foreshadowing another 1 or 2 still to come is impressive.  With so much to think about I wonder how he sleeps at night and how he dreams up the twists and turns for such a complex series.

Jo Roberston: The Perfect Gift

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A charming Novella about family challenges
This was a charming short novella about the true meaning and importance of family, especially after tragedy. I needed to read something light but meaningful as a sorbet between my normal taste for heavy thrillers - and this hit the spot.

I think this quotation sums up what this book was all about - "Families are strange configurations.....They're like socks. They come in all different sizes and colors they hardly ever match up like you want them to."

You should read this book to find out how this family faced up to its future.
This was a charming short novella about the true meaning and importance of family, especially after tragedy. I needed to read something light but meaningful as a sorbet between my normal taste for heavy thrillers - and this hit the spot.

I think this quotation sums up what this book was all about - "Families are strange configurations.....They're like socks. They come in all different sizes and colors they hardly ever match up like you want them to."

You should read this book to find out how this family faced up to its future.

Tony Park: Dark Heart

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Rwanda Genocide Re-visited
It takes a very talented, confident and knowledgeable author to base an adventure/thriller story on the aftermath of the appalling 1994 Rwanda genocide.  Only Australian author Tony Park can do this successfully using his knowledge, love and understanding of Africa and his great storytelling skills for the unusual things that can happen on that Continent.

The Rwandan genocide happened in 1994 when the minority Tutsi tribe brutally massacred literally hundreds of thousand of the majority Hutu tribe, who then took similarly brutal retribution on the Tutsi. While Dark Heart briefly focuses on the brutality of  the time of retribution, it closely explores the lasting effect of the genocide on 3 members of the UN Peacekeeping force that was under orders not to intervene to curb the violence unless provoked.

Richard was a UK doctor attached to the Australian UN contingent who was involved in trying to save the lives of the multitude of injured.  Liesl, a South African magazine photographer saw it all through the lense of her camera and captured a photo that would haunt all of their lives many years later.  Away from the action, Carmel, an Australian Army legal officer had to cope with the stress of making sure that the UN rules of non intervention were followed. The emotional relationships between them was changed unalterably by what happened at that time.

Their memories of their experience in Rwanda had a permanent post traumatic effect on all of their future lives, including inabilities to form long term relationships, and alcohol and drug abuse to cover their memories. Frighteningly the past becomes the present again for all them when their lives are threatened when they become witnesses to the final legal investigations into the main perpetrators of the genocide.

This is work of fiction based on real life and Tony Park weaves a tangled web of action and intrigue moving from Thailand to Australia, South Africa, Zambia and finally Rwanda. Park's love and knowledge of Africa. its peoples and wildlife shines throughout the book.

I found it hard to give an appropriate ranking for this book. As always the African context was superb but  the storytelling was not as taut and realistic as his other books and at times I had difficulty following the lives of the major players and some of the action was a bit unbelievable. I ended up just giving it a 4 star rating because, despite some shortcomings, it was a story that few authors could even start to tell.

I am a great fan of Tony Park's books (even keeping print copies of some in my post Kindle bookshelf).  I must praise Pan Macmillan Australia for supporting Park (and other superb Australian novelists like Peter Watt) and hope that they can promote his work more widely internationally, especially in the US where the more historical African adventures of Wilbur Smith have long been best sellers.

David Baldacci: The Forgotten

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John Puller - Baldacci's new Jack Reacher
Now that Oliver Stone and the Camel Club are over, David Baldacci is looking for a key player for a new series. Welcome to Military Criminal Investigator, John Puller Jr, who some of you will have met first in "Zero Day". Puller is basically a military policeman, over 6 feet tall, very athletic and powerful but with battle wounds from active service, great with weapons and a diligent and brilliant investigator. After the traumas of "Zero Day" Puller went off for some post stress R & R -  "He had no map, no plan, no destination".

Does all of this sound a bit familiar, a bit like Jack Reacher? Of course it does. We all love Jack Reacher but after so many iterations his adventures are getting a bit thin and repetitious. So let's see what Puller can offer. Firstly he is still in the military although this adventure starts out as a personal investigation. His aunt who raised him sent a letter saying "people are not being who they seemed". When Puller arrives in Florida he finds that she has been drowned in her back-yard fountain, which the police think is accidental. Puller he gets involved with the local police in trying to convince them that it was murder. Like Zero Day, a simple investigation quickly uncovers  something far more sinister and dangerous.

The finale is fast and furious escapist nonsense with a team of unlikely goodies, including some kick-ass females, taking care of almost a football team of nasty baddies.

Did I enjoy it? Yes because I like Baldacci's page-turning style and characterisation, with well thought-out plot. Did I worry about the Jack Reacher similarity? Yes, because Baldacci should be able to create a new character without apparently having to plagiarize another one. What is my greatest concern? That someone might have plans for a John Puller movie with Tom Cruise in the lead role.

I worried over an appropriate rating and came up with 3.5 stars (somewhere between Amazon's "OK" [3 stars] and "I like it" [4 stars]. In the end because I did enjoy it I rounded it back to 4 stars. Would I read the next Baldacci book, even if it was John Puller again. I think so.

PS (EDITED) Someone who commented pointed out that Lee Child gets a bit of revenge in his latest Reacher book "A Wanted Man", by introducing a dim witted deputy named John Puller. I'm sorry I missed the connection. When Reacher met Puller and found he was a dim wit, he said "Were you dropped on your head as a baby?" ROFL!

Nelson DeMille: The Panther

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Top class, intelligent, realistic and amusing terrorist thriller
This is one of the most intelligent, realistic and surprisingly amusing terrorist thrillers I have read this year. I have been a fan Nelson DeMille's books for a long time and "The Panther" will be one of the more memorable of his books. It also marks the return of Paul Brenner, well known to many of you as the investigator in "The General's Daughter. Brenner and Corey make a formidable combination.

In "The Lion" John Corey, former NYPD Homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, with the help of his partner and wife Kate Mayfield, killed 'The Lion', a notorious Libyan terrorist. They also stopped a plot by rogue elements in the CIA for a nuclear Armageddon of Muslim countries. Because of their success with the Lion, Corey and Kate are asked by the ATTF to become bait for "The Panther", a feared and brutal al-Qaeda terrorist leader in Yemen. What is realistically scary is that The Panther is a second generation, well educated and very intelligent American citizen of migrant Islamic parents, who becomes a terrorist when he is dismayed with the differences between Western and fundamentalist Islamic values. What is even more scary to Corey and Kate is that they find that the project is masterminded by the CIA.

Some people might find Corey's observations and inimitable humour irrelevant and annoying, but I love them as it helps to take the strain off what could otherwise be pretty tough reading. Corey is at his best and most amusing in this book:

1. Shit happens but in Yemen it happens hard. In Yemen even the good guys are bad.
2. The Yemenis have the highest birth rate of any Arab country ..... so something was happening when the veils came off.
3. "Zamo is also a martial arts expert."  "You draw soldiers?"
4. "Where's Mohammed?" "Getting fitted for a suicide belt."
5. "How is he?"  "Bullet passed through his brain. No damage."

For thriller fans this book has a bit of everything - blackmail, corruption, kidnapping, assassination, bombs, gun-fights, drones and hellfire missiles, all laced with large doses of double and triple-crossing. The book is mostly set, very realistically, in Yemen, one of the most remote and undeveloped third world countries. DeMille's well researched descriptions of Yemen are memorable and it is easy to see why al-Qaeda can have a refuge and strongholds in this country and similar ones in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Many years ago I visited Aden on a passenger liner and even with such a short visit I agree with Corey that "If the earth had an anus it would be located in Yemen".

I gave the book 4.5 stars (marked down because it was a bit lengthy and slow in the early stages) but rounded it to 5 stars because it really was a good read.

Russell Blake: JET II - Betrayal

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Complete escapism - if you don't give it a reality check
If you like complete escapism with your action fast and furious and don't care about giving it a reality check then this book is for you.

Jet is a female assassin with superhuman killing skills - pistol, automatic weapon, knife, sharpened bamboo poll, wire garotte and even bow and arrow. She has killed more people than I have had hot dinners and shows no remorse. Remarkably she also has strong maternal feelings for the baby that was stolen from her. Also for victims of child slavery forced into prostitution in Thailand from 10 years of age.

At the start of Jet 1, I recall that Russell Blake said that Jet would not be involved directly with official agencies like the CIA and Mossad. This is not the case in this book, where the CIA has a more direct role and few of their operatives can be trusted.

Russell Blake stresses in the preface that this is a work of pure fiction. I took that approach with Jet 1 and thought that it was a good kick-ass escapist thriller. I am not so sure whether I can continue to take the same approach with the increasingly fantasy world of this female assassin in this the sequel.

I gave this book 3 stars - an OK rating by Amazon standards - on the basis that this time I didn't give it a reality check. As all other reviews so far are 5 star and in the "must read" category I seem to be out of step. Maybe I like some kind of reality check in the thrillers I read.

Steve Gannon: Allison (A Kane Novel)

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Highly recommended - emotionally charged and well written
After "Song for the Asking" and "Kane" I wondered how Steve Gannon could keep up the pace with a book about Allison, Kane's only daughter. The answer is that Steve has written a somewhat different book which is one of the most emotional and compelling books I have read in a long time. While this book can be read as a stand-alone story, you will appreciate this book more if you read the earlier books in order.

The Kane series takes you on an emotional roller-coaster with an apparently dysfunctional family dominated by Dan Kane,  a tough and uncompromising homicide detective with LAPD.  Despite Kane's autocratic dominance (Allison calls him "Godzilla"), the family is glued together by shared experiences, love and respect, and they all follow without question the family dogma that "Kane's stand together, no matter what".

Allison, the only daughter, is approaching her 20th birthday and wants to spread her wings outside the family influence.  While she has a great strength to succeed instilled by her father, she is tortured by terrible emotional wounds from a violent sexual assault that she keeps hidden deep within her.  When by chance she gets offered a job in a local TV newsroom she comes head to head with her father's distrust and hatred of media interference with his work. At the same time the family faces what could potentially be its most devastating event since the death of Allison's elder brother.

While "Allison" contains a great homicide police procedural story, the main story is an emotional and adult coming of age story where Allison battles for independence from her family and to overcome her deep emotional wounds. Her dilemma is clear when her older brother Travis says to her "It's time for you to ask yourself what's really important. It's not school or work or any of these other things. It's family. It's the people you love and who love you."

A review of "Kane" said "Well done, Steve Gannon, you managed to emotionally flog me!"  This time the emotions were not so gut wrenching, but I do admit to "tearing up" a few times as Allison faced up to the challenges of her life and her relationship with her family. There are not many books that can have that kind of effect on me.

Well done Steve Gannon. You are an outstanding author who can outshine many of the most popular best-selling authors of the genre.

Russell Blake: JET (International Action / Adventure Thriller)

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Fast action kick-ass escapism

If you like action-packed escapism without a reality check then this book has everything for you. Russell Blake introduces us to a beautiful but dangerous female assassin (Mossad operative name Jet). She can be the focus of all eyes a Monte Carlo Casino, but in an instant can act like a viper and kill at the drop of a hat using guns, knives, bombs and even her own hands.

In the prologue Russell Blake explains that this is pure escapism and he has only used Mossad and the CIA for scene setting. He has written this book in roller coaster mode from one exciting action scene to another. If you like your action fast and furious this is the book for you - Moscow Mafia, guns and knives, assassinations and torture, bribery and corruption in high places, bombs and explosions etc, etc. etc. - all in ever changing international settings and sometimes with a side-serving of romance.

In comparison with other escapist books I have read recently, Jet no longer has the backing of a covert organisation (like the Primal series) and most of the time is forced to act on her own. At the start of the book she has staged her own death to escape from the world of a government backed assassin but gets dragged back into danger when she is attacked by a group of hired mercenaries (of course she kills most of them).

If you like pure escapism then this is the book for you. Blake succeeds in his objective and has written a fast action kick-ass adventure introducing a deadly female hero who he promises will return in later books. I like the concept and enjoyed the book but have given it 4 stars as I do like a reality check from time to time. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up the pace in the several sequels he has planned.

Peter James: Dead Simple

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Good UK Police Thriller
Peter James writes good UK police thrillers but this one is not as gripping as other police thrillers I have read recently. Interestingly, in the book Inspector Grace says that he doesn't watch UK police thrillers on TV because they are not very exciting and full of police procedurals and prefers US police thrillers because they can do more and have more action. That comment is relevant to this book until the last chapters.

I liked the book (that's what 4 stars means) but didn't love it. The police characters were very realistic, but the baddies were a bit difficult to understand. In the early chapters I found things a bit tedious but things warmed up towards the ending.

The plot is intriguing - an out of control stag party where a bridegroom's 4 friends bury him in a coffin to get back at his practical jokes in the past. Things go really wrong when all 4 are killed in a traffic accident and no-one appears to know what has happened to the bridegroom. The bride and his business partner are extremely distressed.

One major hangup for me is the name of the main character. A friend has difficulty with the Phryne (fry-knee) Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood because she can't cope with the first name. Here I have difficulty with Detective Superintendent Roy Grace's last name because it is also a female first name. Throughout the book the main character is often just referred to as Grace and I kept thinking "how did that female character get involved".

Kerry Greenwood: Death by Water: Phryne Fisher #15

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First Class Phryne Fisher adventure
This is another charming adventure with The Hon Phryne Fisher, a unique, beautiful, stylish, sexy and larger than life private investigator who romps through life in Melbourne in 1928 and 1929.

This time Phryne is bored because her long time Chinese lover, Lin Chung, is away and the peace and quiet of her house is disturbed by a long term visit by her sister and lady friend. She decides that it is a good time to take a cruise to New Zealand courtesy of P & O to investigate a serial jewel thief active on the last few voyages.

The descriptions of First Class on a 1920's cruise liner are delectable and as usual Phryne finds herself in the midst of intrigue and eventually murder. The scenarios of the South Island and Milford Sound are still reminiscent of the area today.

Of course Phryne solves the mysteries with her normal aplomb and also finds time to leave a satisfied lover in her wake. I missed the atmosphere of Melbourne and Phryne's household and Lin Chung, otherwise I would have given it a higher ranking.

After 15 Phryne Fisher books you would think that Kerry Greenwood would be running out of steam and ideas - possibly so but I still enjoyed this book and have a few more that I look forward to reading.