Source: Purchased

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Ex-Heroes

Ex-Heroes

Ex-Heroes is an interesting mashup of two very different book sub-genre’s, super-hero action and the zombie apocalypse.  What is even more surprising than the mashup even existing is that it actually works. It seems the difficulty level of this is pretty high, but Clines pulls it off. The story is set after the apocalypse has already happened, so naturally Cline has to spend a lot of time in flashback explaining what happened.  Thankfully this doesn’t break up the pacing and works in the narrative fairly well.  Most of the books I have read that relied on flashbacks for exposition it did hurt the pacing, so the fact that this book still flows well is a credit to the writer. I found the use of heroes particularly interesting in Ex-Heroes.  First is the fact that, even with all their superpowers, they were unable to stop the apocalypse from happening.  Superheroes in… Read more »

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A Wanted Man

A Wanted Man

The 17th full novel in the Jack Reacher series, A Wanted Man continues the series formula, which has worked for Child so far and works again here.  Reacher is a solid protagonist and you never go wrong reading on of these books. The first thing that struck me in this book is that it carries over some threads from the previous novel in the series, and leaves some threads at the end for the next novel in the series.  This may not seem that odd, but for a Reacher novel it is.  Except for three books early in the series that were also mildly connected, the Reacher novels are fairly stand alone, never referencing the events of previous books.  You could pick up a novel in the middle of the series without ever reading any of the others, and the experience of reading it would be the same.  That isn’t… Read more »

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The Devil’s Code

The Devil’s Code

I was happy that Sandford revisited the Kidd series even after seeing success in his Prey novels.  Kidd isn’t the normal type of hero you see in these books and that is what I like about it.  With a criminal for a main character, a group of hacker as backup, and a cocaine addicted love interested, Sandford is able to come at the thriller in a unique angle we don’t get from a lot of other books of the genre. The story itself isn’t overly unique, but it is well done.  Evil company CEO has pulled the wool over the US governments’ eyes and is using the technology he sold them to his own end.  To keep his activities from being noticed, he frames Kidd and his cohorts and sic’s the government on them as a distraction.  We’ve all seen this plot before.  Where the story takes a twist is… Read more »

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Two for the Dough

Two for the Dough

Two for the Dough is another installment in the Stephanie Plumb series continues the mix of mystery and humor tinged with hints of Evanovich’s history of writing romance novels.  Don’t get me wrong, while this does have the undertones of a romance novel it is not that.  The sense of humor in the book along with a half-way decent mystery really elevates out of the chic lit arena into a fun read for everyone. The best thing about this book continues to be the characters.  All of the cast of supporting players are back and you can’t help but love all of them.  Plumb herself is incredibly endearing and the way the book revels in her complete ineptitude as a bounty hunter really wins the reader over.  You really want her to succeed. The mystery plot line in this is not quite as good as the first book.  While chasing… Read more »

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Easy Prey

Easy Prey

What starts off as a dicey crime scene and a dead supermodel becomes more confusing when the cops find a second body stuffed in a closed.  Drugs, artists, angry families and socialites make Easy Prey one of the more confusing of the prey series, but in a good way. While the last several installments of the prey series have been more action/thriller based this book swings the plot back towards the mystery side of the street.  While previously we have known exactly who the bad guy was in Easy Prey, Sandford keeps that information not only hidden but completely obfuscated with a truck load of red herrings.  Honestly I am torn between the two styles this series seems to jump between and each has their merits.  I will say it took me longer to really get pulled into this book then it has with his previous work.  I am not… Read more »

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One Rough Man

One Rough Man

A former black ops commando working for a secret taskforce struggling through a personal tragedy stumbles upon a major attack just days away from happening.  This is the first book in the Pike Logan series following a group known as the Taskforce as they try and stop terrorist attacks from before they happen. I am a fan of the military thriller genre, especially one that focuses on tactical fights and the “man on the ground”, so this book really worked for me.  To be clear this will never win any awards for being high art but it does succeed at being fun and captivating. The main character is fairly run of the mill for this type of book.  On the edge, a little bit angry, bucking the system and highly capable, pretty much what you always get in a military thriller.  The addition of Jennifer however manages to push On… Read more »

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The Fools Run

The Fools Run

In The Fools Run Kidd, the artist, computer expert and sometimes criminal, is hired to retrieve stolen technology and destroy the defense contractor responsible for the theft.   With a thief named LuEllen backing him up Kidd finds that there is much more at play then simple industrial espionage. This book involves computers and was written very early in the digital age, something that might bother a lot of people reading this book years after it was written.  While it doesn’t bug me I can see how the dated technology could throw some readers.  It is important to note that the computers in the book are a plot point and not the real focus of the book.  Like Sanford’s other work The Fools Run is more about Kidd’s ability to think his way around situations. This book really gives you what readers of other Sandford titles have come to expect; an… Read more »

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