Saturday, July 25, 2015

The Murderer's Daughter, by Jonathan Kellerman

First I would like to thank the Publisher and Net Galley for making a review copy of this book available to me in exchange for a review. This book will be released in mid August and can be preordered on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

This intriguing story is written in two time periods. One time period is the growing up phase of Grace Blades life where things were anything but normal. The second time period is Dr. Grace Blades life as a Psychologist.

Grace Blades was born to a family of dysfunction. Her dad drank way to much and abused his wife and daughter at times, her mother was an escapist who tried to stay out of her husbands way. Grace was left to fend for herself most of time. Due to a tragic circumstance both parents die and Grace is placed in the Foster Care system where she goes from home to home until a final destination secures her destiny.

Grace is brilliant, a genius, and learns by just reading and absorbing. At her last stop in the Foster care system she is introduced to Malcolm who is a Psychologist specializing in children and he feeds Grace’s appetite for learning.

While in her last Foster Home Grace observes a set of three children who come in and appear as totally dysfunctional. A death happens, then another and Grace is left on her own.

But Malcolm and his wife Sophie come through and bring Grace home to their mansion and raise her as their own.

Grace using her intelligence to the max graduates from Universities with a PHD in Psychology and sets up practice.

She then comes in contact with a young man who eventually is murdered. This sets off a mystery that Grace is bound to solve and solve it in a way that no one would imagine. As the daughter of a Murderer does she have a part of her father in her that leads her to harsh judgment and action?

Well, read and find out. It is very interesting. I think at times it slows down a bit too much and has too much detail that is unnecessary, but all in all it is a fun read.


Enjoy!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Homeland, A Justin Hall novel, by Ethan Jones

Canadian's most successful operative, Justin Hall, is loose again and gunning for Terrorist from Saudi Arabia to Yemen to Russia and back to Canada. His target this time is ISIS and a top leader in the Islamic group. The reason, well, the terrorist are planning attacks in Canada and Justin's intel tells him that it will be bad.

In this seventh book in the series we have the luxury of already knowing Justin Hall, Carrie O'Connor and many of the other characters in the book. That makes it easy to jump quickly into the fight and into the gathering of intelligence. The story starts quickly and picks up speed throughout. While Justin is traveling through Europe, Russia and the Middle East his real focus is on Canada. There is a plot at hand to target a major metropolitan area and Justin needs to find out who, what, when, where and how.

But to make things interesting he is also trying to find a person looking into the background of the Russian Oligarch, Romanov, whom Justin has a relationship with. Romanov has asked Justin to find out who the person is so that he can eliminate him. That adds some issues for Justin as he tries to do his job and pay back a favor to the Russian.

To make things work Justin and the Canadian Intelligence Service will have to accept some help from a few Terrorist themselves, men who want to eliminate some of their own so that they can consolidate their leadership of the ISIS groups. But the question is, do you want to get involved with a Terrorist even if it will help your side prevent a major event in your home country? Can you get their help but still not have to return any favors to them?

Ethan Jones has done a great job in developing this series and this story just builds upon all that he has written in the past. He will further develop his characters and in the process actually address current events in our world today. While this is taking place with a Canadian Operative when most of us think that the U.S. and the CIA are the only ones doing anything, you will find that the Canadians have as much skin in the game as anyone else. So, with the help of the U.S., England, Yemen and others you are in for a wild ride as Justin and Carrie do their best to thwart any terrorist attacks on Canadian soil.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The Kill Box, by Nichole Christoff

This is the third book in the Jaime Sinclair, Private Investigator, series. I think each of the books has gotten better as the series progresses.

I want to thank the publisher and Net Galley for making a review copy of the book available to me. The book will be published on October 20, 2015. You can pre-order it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.


In this case we start with Jaime Sinclair and Lt. Colonel Adam Barrett at her home in the Washington D.C. area. Lt. Colonel Barrett is still recovering from a broken leg that he sustained in the last book. Jaime has been taking care of him. Their relationship, well, it’s still complicated. They care for each other, but they have not yet plunged into the sexual side of things, for which I give the author great credit for keeping their relationship away from that entanglement at this time.

With just a couple of days to go before Adam gets the cast off his leg an old friend of his from home, Vance McCabe, shows up. His entrance is a bit different in that he comes holding Jaime’s housekeeper hostage with a gun to her head until Adam agrees to go with him back to their hometown to save a friend, Eric Wentz, from committing suicide.

Adam leaves and Jaime has no idea what is happening. Then Adams grandmother calls to ask Jaime to come to Fallowfield to bail Adam out of jail and make sure he is doing OK.

This starts a chain of events that will lead to old secrets, old loves, old hatreds and a murder to come to the surface. In all of this Adam doesn’t look too good. Especially when Jaime finds that he has been drinking and brawling and even punched out his old friend Luke who is now the town Sheriff.

Now as Jaime shows up things really start to unravel. First there are a couple of hikers found dead. Then Adam’s friend Eric commits suicide, or is it murder. Then more death and rumors of drug trafficking start to surface. Then Marc Sandoval, the DEA agent from Jaime’s last adventure shows up in town, undercover.

So, what is going on? Who is on a killing spree? Why does it seem that Adam is at the center of it all? And further, why is Adam telling Jaime that they should call it quits and she should leave town?

Through 260 pages of thrills, mystery, death, drugs and old history you will find that you are constantly wanting more, constantly second guessing everything and then you find yourself believing that you have it all figured out, when low and behold, nope, it was totally different that you thought, or at least sufficiently different that you can’t believe how the story ends.

This truly was a great piece of writing and one that I totally loved. Now I can’t wait for the next Jaime Sinclair novel.


Enjoy!