Difference between revisions of "Newest Thrillers Reviews"
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| + | |author= Gore Vidal | ||
| + | |title= Thieves Fall Out | ||
| + | |rating=3.5 | ||
| + | |genre=Thrillers | ||
| + | |summary= If you look at history it is very easy to think that human nature never changes and that we are forever cursed to live through the same mistakes. Unstable regions remain unstable; atrocities are still being carried out. 1950s Egypt was as tricky a place to live as the modern equivalent is; a sense of revolution in the air. However, rest assured that in Gore Vidal’s ‘lost’ pulp novel you will be reading more about gun fights and scantily clad women, than politics. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781167923</amazonuk> | ||
| + | }} | ||
{{newreview | {{newreview | ||
|author=Samantha Hayes | |author=Samantha Hayes | ||
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|summary=A man that risk management consultant Ray Campbell knew a lifetime ago is found dead on the streets of New York. It's not just the fact that Ray knew him that's intriguing, it's where Ray knew him from: the African country of Lubanda where Ray once worked for an NGO. This death reminds him of another that happened out in Africa: that of a native Lubandan named Martine Aubert whom Ray loved and still loves. There must be a connection and Ray will investigate till he finds it, no matter what he finds or what he remembers along the way. | |summary=A man that risk management consultant Ray Campbell knew a lifetime ago is found dead on the streets of New York. It's not just the fact that Ray knew him that's intriguing, it's where Ray knew him from: the African country of Lubanda where Ray once worked for an NGO. This death reminds him of another that happened out in Africa: that of a native Lubandan named Martine Aubert whom Ray loved and still loves. There must be a connection and Ray will investigate till he finds it, no matter what he finds or what he remembers along the way. | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081655</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081655</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 16:25, 13 April 2015
Thieves Fall Out by Gore Vidal
If you look at history it is very easy to think that human nature never changes and that we are forever cursed to live through the same mistakes. Unstable regions remain unstable; atrocities are still being carried out. 1950s Egypt was as tricky a place to live as the modern equivalent is; a sense of revolution in the air. However, rest assured that in Gore Vidal’s ‘lost’ pulp novel you will be reading more about gun fights and scantily clad women, than politics. Full review...
You Belong To Me by Samantha Hayes
Isabel is a Brit abroad who is running away from something, or someone. There are a lot of these about, in my experience, but few who have such an intriguing, and worrying, history. She left the UK to escape a controlling ex but now has to return suddenly, for family reasons, even though she swore she would never go home again. Full review...
Acts of the Assassins by Richard Beard
The rebellious cult leader is executed so that's that. Then someone steals the body. The police appoint Cassius Gallio to investigate but it all goes terribly wrong. He not only fails to find the body, the police informant from the initial conviction is killed in a way that mimics suicide. Gallio's career and life both stall until the case is secretly re-opened and he's deemed the man for the investigation as he's already comparatively invisible. It seems straightforward in that Gallio must uncover the truth but the people he needs to speak to are being culled one by one by the most innovative and bloodthirsty means. Full review...
Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. Nicole, known as Nick, and younger sister Dara, have their lives and relationship torn apart by a serious car accident. Once extremely close, Nick and Dara now barely speak to each other, both sisters weighed down by feelings of guilt. Full review...
The Khazar Codex by Graham Fulbright
It's a brutal introduction to the story as a man is killed in the way that they did it in those days: two trees were pulled to the ground and the man lashed between them and then the trees were released. But that's only the background to the story which is set in the here and now and most of it is in The Kemble, a rather rundown theatre, which is presenting a revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. On the opening night there's apparently a fire, but whilst most of the hostages are shepherded out of the theatre a group of seven members of the audience, two cast members and the prime minister's son, Nigel Hastings, are taken hostage. The 'terrorists' (for what else can you call people who take others hostage?) represent New METRO, a group of activists who are campaigning for disused underground stations to be converted for use by the homeless. Full review...
After The Crash by Michel Bussi
It’s December 1980, almost Christmas time. But, for many families this won’t be a special festive time. A plane, carrying 169 passengers en route from Istanbul to Paris crashes in the mountains during a terrible storm. There’s no hope of survivors and yet, miraculously, there is one passenger who lives. A 3 month old baby girl is found close by the wreckage, apparently unharmed. Her parents have perished in the crash but she is a miracle, a ray of hope for her family… whoever they may be. For there were 2 young babies on board the flight, and although a mother would surely know her own child, it’s harder when it’s grandparents who need to identify and lay claim to a child they have never met before. Both families believe the little one is theirs and in the days before DNA testing and when it’s harder to access medical records across borders, it’s left to a judge to decide who should raise her, the wealthy and powerful de Carvilles or the less fortunate but loving Vitrals. In each case, the baby will have a young sibling with whom to grow up, but will she ever feel like she truly belongs? Full review...
Before He Finds Her by Michael Kardos
The newspaper reports at the time were unanimous: in September 1991 Ramsey Miller held a party for all his neighbours and then, when it ended, killed his wife Allie and toddler daughter Meg, then ran away, remaining a fugitive from justice. The newspapers were wrong. Meg isn't dead but has been kept hidden by her Uncle Wayne and Aunt Kendra, had her name changed to Melanie and has led a sheltered life. No photos, no internet, no friends after school, no holidays away from home. That's no way to live and now she approaches her 18th birthday, Melanie/Meg wants to end her half-life in order to live fully and yet to do that she must risk any form of life. She must find her father before he finds her. Full review...
Influx by Daniel Suarez
We are told to never judge a book by its cover and that certainly includes any quotes that should adorn the front. Since his debut novel, all the Daniel Suarez books I have read had a quote suggesting that he was the legitimate heir to Michael Crichton. To compare your work with one of the best techno thriller writers of all time is never going to be easy and time after time, Suarez fell short. That is until Influx, a book that finally puts Suarez in the same illustrious company as Crichton. Full review...
Second Life by S J Watson
Julia lives two lives. Life 1: the wife of surgeon Hugh and adopted parent of her sister Kate's son Connor. Life 2: Secret erotic dating site surfer. It seems a bit extreme but she has good reason as Julia is searching for information while posing under an assumed name. This is the same site on which Kate hung out. Past tense? Yes, Kate's dead and Julia wants to find Kate's killer. Be careful what you wish for, Julia. Full review...
Nothing Sacred by David Thorne
Just over a year ago I described Thorne's first book East of Innocence as Raymond Chandler meets Ray Winstone. I gather that an eight-way auction saw Tiger Aspect securing the option rights for a TV series. I'm looking forward to it. Can't help wondering if they roped Winstone in (and if I'm up for a cut of the agent fees?). Full review...
Killing Time: True Fiction by Marcus Dalrymple
English university graduate James Cooper Brown is travelling around the US with his friend Toby. When Toby returns to England on family business, James decides to visit Mexico. Soon after arriving he's kidnapped by a local drug baron. Elsewhere in the country Monica Gonzales, a doctor, is looking forward to an evening of good company and pizza but it turns into an evening of other things as she too is taken. Behind each of the 402 kidnappings in Mexico during 2003 there is a story. This is the story of James, Monica and the people fighting for their return; sometimes literally. Full review...
A Trick of the Mind by Penny Hancock
Ellie doesn’t know what happened on the road that night. She felt her car bump something, but it was only slight. But now the newsreader on the radio is telling her there was a hit and run on that stretch. Can the two things be connected? Could she really have knocked down and injured an innocent man and not even noticed? Full review...
The Ice Twins by SK Tremayne
Angus inherits a Scottish island from his grandmother that holds fond memories from his childhood. Although it's totally remote Angus, his wife Sarah and daughter Kirstie decide to move there from London. Yes, daughter singular but they haven't always only had the one child. Kirstie used to have a twin, Lydia, till 13 months ago. Lydia died in a tragic accident, the circumstances of which have never fully been revealed. At least everyone believes it was Lydia who died but what if…? Full review...
The Swimmer by Joakim Zander
'On a remote Swedish island, a little girl, Klara, grows up without a father. Now, twenty years later, she discovers a secret: a secret that powerful men will kill to keep hidden.'
The Swimmer begins in 1980, with a bombing in Damascus, and a tragedy that can be felt across decades. Full review...
Quarry's Choice by Max Allan Collins
If you are fed up with reading books about a hit man with a heart, why not try one of the Quarry series? This is a man who is hired to kill and does not think too much about it; it's just a job. Usually Quarry arrives in a town, makes a hit and gets out immediately, but there is something about the world of the Dixie Mafia that is making him stay a little longer. Is it the blackmail, the attractive young women, or the sense of revenge? Full review...
Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties there's a temptation to believe that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistake. The first of The Saint novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection of stories is dated 1930. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but not the subtleties of the slightly world-weary man of the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (and women) can sink, but they're all there. Admittedly the Saint is more boisterous and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this book. Full review...
The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
Many years ago, a tragedy shook an English village. A whole family wiped out with no warning, a whole family, that is, except for one of the daughters who was, unbeknown to the assailant, upstairs at the time. Esme was that girl, but she is no more. She has a new name, a new identity, a new life, far away from that terrible place. As Alison she flies under the radar, not attracting any attention, with a menial job to fill her days. And she has every intention of staying that way, no intention of ever stepping foot in Saltleigh again. Full review...
After the Storm by Jane Lythell
Rob and Anna are nearing the Honduras leg of their South American travels. Here they meet Kimberley and Owen, an American couple who charter out their own boat for sailing trips around the local islands. Rob persuades Anna it will be a fun way to end their holiday but Anna isn't so sure. There's something about Owen and Kimberley that makes her hesitant about being shut away on a boat at sea with them. Perhaps it's the way that he never sleeps or the mystery as to why there are no knives in the cutlery drawer. Rob thinks Anna's just overly imaginative, but time will tell. Full review...
The Wolf in Winter (Charlie Parker Thriller) by John Connolly
Private investigator Charlie Parker is surprised when Jude, a bum he's befriended and worked with in the past, is found hanged in a basement. It looks like suicide but Jude has been looking for his daughter Annie to rekindle their family relationship and has just raised over $100 to help find her. Odd time for suicide? It becomes an even odder prospect when Annie herself goes missing after heading for the small Maine town of Prosperous. Charlie decides to drop in on the good citizens of the small town and starts poking beneath the respectable veneer. It doesn’t take him long but there is a downside: this investigation may have a body count that includes Charlie. Full review...
The Man With A Charmed Life and his part in saving the planet from WWIII by Graham Fulbright
Englishman Henry Wright is employed by the Common Market (which would become the European Union in 1993) in Brussels and he's not entirely satisfied with his lot: he should be an interpreter but he seems to be restricted to more administrative duties. He could refuse the offer he gets, but the chance to actually use his expertise in Russian, move across to the USA and make a point to his employers is just too tempting. He's also rather taken by Alexy Geary, the attractive woman from the intelligence-gathering agency who makes the offer, and it's not long before he's on his way. Before he does he's peripherally involved in a shooting - and that's not something which usually happens to someone like him. Full review...
The Saint Closes the Case by Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
On the way back to London with Patricia Holm late one night, Simon Templar saw a strange pulsing light and couldn't resist going to investigate. What he discovered was a demonstration of a weapon which could well bring the world to war a mere twelve years after the end of the Great War. Templar and his confederates concluded that the weapon could not be allowed to come into the public domain - and if necessary the inventor (who could easily recreate the weapon even if he gave assurances to the contrary) would need to be, er, sidelined. Unfortunately Templar and friends are not the only ones in search of the weapon: his old nemesis, Rayt Marius, has his own plans. Full review...
That Night by Chevy Stevens
It’s been 17 years since Toni went to prison for the murder of her sister. 17 years since she last saw her boyfriend Ryan, also convicted for the murder, since she had a meaningful conversation with her parents, since she went to a coffee shop or walked on the beach. Sent down when she was still a teenager, she’s been incarcerated for virtually half of her life and though she’s now coming up for parole, it’s not as easy as simply going back to her old life from before. Full review...
Forty Days Without Shadow by Olivier Truc
After an important Sámi relic is stolen from a museum in Kautokeino, a small, isolated village in the middle of the snowy tundra, tensions begin to rise between the residents. Local detective Klemet Nango and new recruit Nina Nansen are called upon to investigate the disappearance, whereupon they discover a second crime: a local reindeer herder has been brutally murdered. Nina soon suspects that the two events are linked, and, together with Klemet, embarks upon a journey full of secrets, mystery and brutality. Full review...
The Vanished Ones by Donato Carrisi
Room 13 in the basement of the state morgue is where the sleepers are kept. These are the unclaimed bodies that have been classified as PHVs. Potential Homicide Victims. They are kept indefinitely, because they are evidence that a crime has been committed, possibly the only evidence. Full review...
Loser's Corner by Antonin Varenne and Frank Wynne (translator)
Meet Georges Crozat. He's a policeman in Paris, who boxes on the side. After a bout that leads to an almost embarrassing victory, he is made two offers – one from a clearly corrupt man behind the scenes in the sport, who seems to offer a few thrown fights for Georges, then some kind of status as assistant – training, guiding, profiteering; the other comes from a man known always as the Pakistani (or an unkind abbreviation of that), who has a friend of a friend who wants someone to do an enemy a mischief with their fists. Georges doesn't take too long to choose the latter. In alternating chapters, however, we're in the 1950s, and a rookie to the forces, Pascal Verini, is being shipped out to Algeria to work on the civil war causing the republic to break away and become independent from France. Like Georges, he finds his situation one which also causes what may be misguided violence, even if he has a very different attitude to it. Full review...
Unmanned by Dan Fesperman
Unmanned, the title of Fesperman's latest thriller, refers to the drones, the Predators, that Captain Darwin Cole flew over Afghanistan, from a shed somewhere in Nevada.
It also refers to the state that those missions left Cole in, after one of them went badly wrong. A poor call-down led to a misidentified target, a house destroyed, civilians killed, including two kids lying out in the open running away, and a girl, not dead but wounded. Cole could see her from his thousands of miles away, moving, agonising, separated by a considerable distance from the arm she would never use again.
A one-armed girl would haunt his dreams for a long time to follow. Full review...
Shiver the Whole Night Through by Darragh McManus
Aidan Flood's life is miserable; he's not only bullied but he lost his girlfriend to someone who works at the local carnival and even heard that from someone else. Life is just rubbish and needs ending totally. This is something he almost manages to accomplish as well if it wasn't for a do-gooder passer-by. The next morning while coming to terms with the fact he's still alive, he hears that Slaine McAuley, a girl he knows vaguely, has killed herself. The only thing is that Aidan knows she hasn't – she told him herself after she'd died. What did happen to her and why does she choose to tell him, of all people? Aidan is on a mission: he will find out. Full review...
A Dancer in the Dust by Thomas H Cook
A man that risk management consultant Ray Campbell knew a lifetime ago is found dead on the streets of New York. It's not just the fact that Ray knew him that's intriguing, it's where Ray knew him from: the African country of Lubanda where Ray once worked for an NGO. This death reminds him of another that happened out in Africa: that of a native Lubandan named Martine Aubert whom Ray loved and still loves. There must be a connection and Ray will investigate till he finds it, no matter what he finds or what he remembers along the way. Full review...
