from 11/2005 thru 02/2006
"Telling it like it is!"
November 2005
Day of the Dead by J. A. Jance
The heat of the day and the agony of each victim is felt in J.A. Jance's Day of the Dead. Rich with characterization and plot, Jance's suspenseful story is about the...
Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva
What is the preoccupation with assassins these days? Lawrence Block's "Hitman," Barry Eisler's "Rain" series, and now Daniel Silva's Israeli assassin/art restorer. Assassins with...
December 2005
Techno-Noir edited by Eva Batonne and Jeffrey Marks
Eighteen stories, 223 pages, with a cover showing a sultry redhead sitting on a laptop keyboard, this collection of short, dark mysteries proves that technology works for both crime and detection. I enjoyed every story in the book...
Killer Takes All by Erica Spindler
If you want a corkscrew thriller, Erica Spindler's (MIRA) June 2005 release leaves you spinning. In Killer Takes All ex-detective Stacy Killian discovers the bodies of her neighbors. Are the women victims of the White Rabbit...
January 2006
Twisted by Jonathan Kellerman
In Twisted, a 2005 Ballantine Mass Market edition, his heroine, Detective Petra Connor, deals with a lot of old issues. Her life, well..sucks. Her boss treats her like an rookie, her lover is as illusive as a politician on the take, and the case she's working on is riddled with empty clues. If she wanted to move forward, she couldn't.
White Knight Syndrome by Jochem Van der Steen
Van Der Steen says on the back cover of his book that his “main influences include the old guys like Hammett and Chandler, as well as wit slingers like Harlan Coben and Robert B. Parker.” Sadly, his efforts in White Knight Syndrome do not reflect the best attributes of these influences.
February 2006
Random Access Memory by Stillson Graham
Although a many-years veteran of the police department in Serbia, Detective Drazny Rivac is working like a rookie in Santa Cruz County when he moves to America. His new partner, Natasha Carleson, has solved 19 of the 26 cases in the last five years, isn’t liked by their boss, Azevedo, and is assigned as the foreigner’s partner for “administrative reasons.”
The Finishing School by Michelle Martinez
Once again Michele Martinez, author of Most Wanted, makes use of her intimate knowledge of combating drug dealers and the intricacies of prosecuting hardened criminals to tell a powerful and compelling story. This novel stars the protagonist of her first book, Federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas, and a cast of characters that includes many from that same novel but also introduces some new players.
Whiteout by Ken Follett
Ken Follett's November 2005 release Whiteout is set in a snowy Scottish village with a chilly Victorian mansion for the action. Heroine Antonia Gallo, an ex-cop, takes her job as Oxenford Laboratory's security director dead serious. An employee's death is traced to a security breach. Toni not only faces tough questions from old collegues threatened by her astute investigative skills, she may well lose the respect of Oxenford's owner and medical director.
For all reviews from March 2006 issues and later, check the archived issues in The Morgue.
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