The story wasn’t bad but not anywhere as good as the Colter Shaw novels.  I liked the hint of future potential pairing with Lincoln Rhymes.  However, the ending overall was poor.  Not a real ending, just left me hanging. This story is also included the recently released anthology called Deceptions.  I thought it was the worst in the anthology, a mix of mostly previously published material.

A few of the stories were good, a couple were not.  What I find very frustrating with most of Deaver’s short story collections is that many or most of the stories were previously published, either individually or in another collection.  In this book, seven of the nine stories were in the last collections book, Dead Ends.  Three of the stories were in at least one other collection.  Beware future collections, check the story list before buying.  This book was not worth it for 2 short stories.  I still really like his books but wish he would stop this practice of including old work in new collections.

In work

I thought the book was pretty good.  The story was different than all the other books in the series.  It held my interest but I wished that it had more art history in it.  Gabriel or anyone connected with him was never in any danger which is one of the reasons I don’t think this book was as good as most or all of the other books in the series.  The author’s dislike for the current American president comes through loud and clear again and I find it unnecessary.  While Gabriel is retired, i wish there was more connection to his past Israeli intelligence work.  Despite all that, I still recommend the book.

I listened to this book.  I think if I had to read it, I would have rated it even lower.  The story had no flow and not sure there was even a story.  Maybe if I read this book 50 years ago, I would have appreciated it.  I don’t recommend this book.

I very much liked the story despite the main crime of children being killed.  Cosby really made me understand and feel the ongoing racism in small Southern towns.  The main character, Sheriff Titus, was believable and I wanted him to succeed and overcome his past failures.  So, I would recommend this book but wish I could offer some suggestions to improve his future books.  First, I thought there were too many characters or too many that were not described adequately.  The bad guy totally comes out of the blue, not preferable for a mystery where the reader is always trying to figure out who done it.  Doesn’t seem like 3 sadistic people working together in such a small town is realistic, especially mixed races in a rural Southern town.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Couldn’t put it down, I think because it was fast paced, and I was rooting for the main character to survive. I could feel her heat and loneliness. I thought the book was fast-paced and held my attention. However, if I could give some advice to the author, I would say that the crazy strength and other survival actions from a non-in shape woman were unrealistic also reduce repetitive information, like that the Antarctic winters are so much more harsh than summer. I felt there were some personal agenda items from the author related to global warming and “the current president“ (implied) that I personally am tired of. Even with this, the book kept my interest, and I plan to read his next book.

Later

Well, the book was pretty good in the end.  I disliked the two main characters, especially the husband.  I was routing for the detective.  Despite this, the story kept me interested and there were lots of surprises.  I especially liked the ending, definitely did not predict.  

While I had trouble getting through the book, it dragged on sometimes, it is a must read.  It is depressing but many concepts related to Big Brother watching and controlling all aspects of our life sometimes feel valid to current times.  Consider watching the movie, pretty good adaptation and much shorter.

The story revolves around Lachlan (Lockie) Kite, a poor kid from Scotland who somehow gets accepted at an expensive and prestigious boarding school, Alford.  He is recruited into Box 88, a covert US/UK espionage group while in school.  The book alternates between Lockie in school and his current middle aged version which starts at the funeral of his best friend from Alford. I found this technique very effective in holding my interest.  I also liked the way the story weaved in real life events like the downing of the plane in Lockerbie Scotland and fatwa against Salomon Rushdie in Iran.  The character development is outstanding.  The author clearly gets across how Lockie grows from a naive boy in school to a skilled spy.  I highly recommend this book.  Lots of suspense and it keeps you hanging for the next novel in the series.

Overall, I liked the book.  This story comes at a time when everyone is frazzled with all aspects of life, job, family, house etc. and artificial intelligence is now a reality.  Everyone is really afraid of this technology taking over so the story is very timely.  Hurwitz does a great job developing the characters and I especially liked his description of the autistic daughter.  The family decides to procure an advanced AI robot to solve all their problems.  The book kept my interest throughout, but my only complaint was the ending was too predictable.

This book was just ok.  I thought the characters were not developed early enough or in enough detail for me to be invested.  The main characters behaviors were inconsistent with what you would expect from seasoned assassins in their 60’s.  They behaved like teenagers which made the story less believable.  I also found the ending part of the story unbelievable.

I found this to start very slowly but it was okay by the end.  If I didn’t know this was a good series from my reading friends, I might not be continuing.  I still recommend reading to get character backgrounds, etc. 

I think it was not a bad novel, considering it was her first, but not up to the hype.  The story was interesting in that everyone (after they are past teenage) is a Mono ( can only remember the past 24 hours) or a Duo (that can remember 48 hours).  Interesting story but left me with so many questions how that world could even function (like how they remember prior schooling).  Told from separate points of view from 4 main characters which was interesting and kind of held my attention.  I also liked the twist of the ending which I did not see coming.

Not the best of the series, but still a good story where the Chinese are the bad guys trying to destabilize Thailand with a bomber (a for hire former seal) blowing up different several locations around the country while making it look and feel like the bombs are being created by Cambodia.

Scot and his team are there to find and stop the bombings with the help of the US embassy staff in Bangkok. The action was fast paced and a quick read. I wish the book had more involvement from several significant characters from previous books like Nicholas and his new wife and baby.  Still loved the book and look forward to the next one.

This book was cyberpunk which I don’t normally read but this fit the tomorrow category of the Goodreads ATY challenge.  Overall, the author did a great job building the dystopian world of Pittsburgh and the characters.  In this world, everyone was hardwired with adware in the brain and constantly received news and ads related to their location.  Solving a few related murders was the theme and it held my interest.  I downgraded my rating because I thought there was way too much pornography and violence throughout.

“George" and "Lennie" are wandering day laborers traveling together.  They travel from one job to another, leaving due to trouble caused by Lennie. George is cunning whereas Lennie is a giant and retarded. George shows great loyalty to take care of Lenny despite the burden. Their dream is to save enough money to buy their own farm and be their own boss.  A place where George can work the land, and Lennie tend the rabbits. You will root for them to realize their dream, but in the end Lennie's innocence and unintentional brutal behavior cause too many problems. It is dark and depressing but a very good novella.  Worth the read.  

A short but very memorable read from the famed Pulitzer winner John Steinbeck. A little 100p novella about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, and the cruelties of a sometimes hostile rural world.

I enjoyed the book very much.  While touted as mystery/thriller, it was not a true thriller.  It was so easy to read, it was filled with tongue in cheek humor.  The main character, Edison Bixby, is a former LA police detective with a brain injury that makes him spout uncomfortable truth whenever he opens his mouth. Certainly not at all politically correct, not sure if some of it is intentional.  His sidekick is an infrequently employed character actor, Walter Nash, who tells the story, hired to keep Bixby out of trouble for his mouth.  It was a strange character pairing but somehow Goldberg made it work.  I look forward to the next book and plan to read his other series.  

My first (and possibly last Scottoline).  There was a lot of useless information that was just filler.  With that, the story also did not flow.  By the end, I almost didn’t care who the “bad” guy was.  At least it was not who I suspected.  If you are going to read the series, you probably need this first book but I hope you don’t find it as bad as I did.

Pretty good for a debut novel.  Fast paced, kept my attention.  I would have liked to see a few of the characters more developed.  The plot is similar to Grisham’s The Firm.  Not as good but I still liked it and will read the sequel.  Other reviewers have stated this would be better as a movie, which I think is true.  

The book was predictably somewhat dated since it was published in the 60’s.  The main character was a contradiction, being both a knight in shining armor and a womanizer.  Not politically correct to today’s “standards”, but what should we expect.  This book had a far fewer number of characters to keep track of which was a nice change.  The story itself was good and I plan to continue reading the series to see how the main character grows.  

The book was straight forward and predictable but somehow I also found it addictive.  So, overall I liked the book and was rooting for the characters.  I also liked the leadin to the next book which I did not predict.  I plan to read the subsequent novels.

I really love Michael Connelly books but I don’t like the Stilwell books as much. It is not the character, I like Stilwell.  This novel had two parallel cases which keeps you interested.  The chapters were short and  jumped back and forth between cases but I thought it flowed well.  I recommend reading, it will hold your interest throughout but I didn’t really like the way either case ended due to lack of details and downgraded my rating.

I’ve read all the Jesse Stone novels and find them easy to read and very enjoyable.  This Spenser novel, my first read in this series was also easy to read.  The Spenser in this first book is a wise ass and somewhat lacking in moral fiber.  Not yet the character/hero type portrayed in the TV series but there are many more books for him to grow.  There were also a couple scenarios that were totally unnecessary, like the satan worshipers.  Overall, I still liked the book and plan to keep reading the series.

Overall, I liked the book.  I liked the way the author shifted back and forth in time to develop the story.  The story was somewhat predictable but there were a couple of twists near the end.  Even though I liked the book, I didn’t really cheer for the characters, they were too rich and privileged.

I liked this novella. It was my first read of Gillian Flynn. I don’t ordinarily like any horror but found this short 40 pages suspenseful with unexpected twists for such a short story. 

This book definitely has a horror element to it.  It starts slow as it develops three different characters that are seemingly unrelated.  It speeds up as the stories intertwined but I think the story is unnecessarily gory/ gruesome in description.  Despite my dislike for this, I liked the overall story.

Overall, I liked the book.  Easy to cheer for the main character despite her infidelity.  I liked that she eventually confessed to her husband and they worked to resolve her problem.  My biggest beef is that the fight with the big bad brute sent to kill her was not realistic.  Would have been better if husband or Private Investigator friend came to her rescue.

Overall, I liked the book.  I liked that it got right into the action.  The book was basically revenge based where the main character created his “terminal list” of those he had to kill for killing his Seal team, family, and friends.  The action carried through the whole book.  I found it was weak in character descriptions for some of the characters on the list, the details of why they were included on the List.    Could have reduced some unnecessary details also.  I do plan to read subsequent books in the series, this was his first novel and have heard the author has improved in subsequent ones.

I really like Hurwitz but I did not enjoy this book anywhere near as much as his others.  The story seemed very slow developing the characters.  Once into the action, it held my interest.  However, the  story that a 30 something nurse, not particularly in shape, and injured could outrun, outlast and outsmart an international jungle terrorist was too far fetched for me.  

I really enjoyed this book (listened on audio).  While it was easy to figure out who the villain was, it really held my interest waiting and wanting the main character to figure it out.  I liked the flow of the story in that she described why key people behaved the way they did after the main event with only hints in the main body.  I plan to read more of her books.

Another solid thriller from Taylor.  He brings back a nemesis from the past in “the Ghost”.  The plot had the terrorists developing multiple attacks in multiple countries with diversions.  As always, lots of action particularly for the second half of the book.  I liked that the details of the planned attacks were vague as it keep me more interested until the real action started.  I also liked that that while the main character, Pike Logan is a hardass, he also cares about his team.  

Overall, I thought the story was decent.  The story held my interest and had a good lead-in to the next book in the series.  However, for the described potential of the Omnimetal, the story seemed unrealistically “local”.  A couple relatively small companies fighting for mineral rights where something with so much financial and military value would be universally fought for.  The characters were well described and defined, but they were not all a necessity in the story and distracted me.  I would have liked to have the action scenes to be longer.  It was like this nice lead up and then, “bam”, it was over.  I am not sure I will continue with the series but I just might to find out if and how the story goes national and/or global.

Thought it was a good story.  Straight forward, no real surprises.  Charley Stevens and Kathy Frost were the main characters, Mike Bowditch was not part of the story.  Charley was still a warden and Kathy was very early in her career so this should be much lower than #15.5 in the series.  Worth the read.

The book held my interest, not sure if the main character would live or die, whether his wife would leave him, whether his family would survive, or whether he would stick with the life of crime.  So, while I liked the book, I am conflicted at the end of the book whether I liked the main character with all his criminal activities.

This was my first book by Grippando.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The story line was very interesting involving stock market manipulation and algorithms that made many individuals and banks rich beyond belief.  It was a good, believable story what they might do when threatened to lose their golden goose egg.  I also liked that one of the bad guys was a surprise.  I plan to read more of his books.  

Reading the first book in the series, Nash Falls, is a necessity before reading this sequel.  I really like all of Baldacci’s novels.  While not the best series, it is still a very good book and I recommend reading it.  I find them easy to read and kept my interest throughout.  I really liked the several “surprises”.  Overall, the story is full of lies, betrayal, and intrigue.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  Read pretty quickly.  I liked the new character, John Sherwood, and his banter with Lucas.  Not the best of the series as it was pretty straight forward without surprises but I still recommend reading the book.

Listened to audiobook.  Narrator has strong Australian accent and was difficult to understand at first (I was playing at 1.66.  Slowing down to 1.33 helped quite a bit.  Overall, I liked the book.  Good cast of bad characters and buildup to make it difficult to predict guilty party.

Overall, this book was a disappointment.  I also did not like the earlier Le Carre books with Smiley but was hoping this one would be good as it is in the 1001 must books to read before you die.  I found it slow and difficult to follow.  Maybe the movie would be better.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  I liked the main character and his wisecracking personality.  Reminds me of Harlen Coben’s Myron Bolitar.  The story was easy to follow and had some nice unexpected twists.  My only complaint would be it could have been shorter, there was a fair amount of unnecessary info.  I listened to audio book, the narrator was excellent.

I tried to listen to this book on audio but found it very difficult to follow as the narrator spoke with a very strong English accent.  I highly recommend reading versus listening unless of course you are English.  I had to stop listening, first time ever.

I enjoyed the book.  While not a traditional thriller, it was suspenseful and held my interest the entire book.  There were many characters but the author did a great job developing each and had no trouble keeping track of the various stories.  I really liked how the author intertwined the character stories, all of them with many unexpected twists.

Another really good Peter Ash book by Nick Petrie. The book had the usual action.  While you definitely want the bad guys to be stopped and punished, the basis for their actions related to disparity in pay, lack of control of decisions, and losing control to technology like artificial intelligence were all real concerns of all current citizens.  Their attempted solution clearly unacceptable.  

I thought the first half of the booked dragged as it took 200 pages for character development and some unnecessary info.  However, it picked up in the second half and was hard to put down.  So overall I enjoyed the book.  This was my first book by Finder and I plan to read more.

I really enjoyed 5 of the 6 short stories. The only one I did not was “True Story”.  The writing approach was different and at first interesting but quickly jumped around too much.  I thought the other stories were excellent, good stories and writing.

I listened to the audio book. Many times, I found it difficult the narrator’s French accent for Poirot.  The English accents were hard to understand at times. I suggest reading the book. I would guess I would rate it higher in this format as the story itself was pretty good. 

I really liked the story even though many of the actions by the title character were unrealistic for a young boy.  

As usual, I really enjoyed the book.  I liked how the characters and relationships continue to grow.  I generally don’t like books with this type of crime but the author avoided gory descriptions of the crime.