Review by Travis Starnes Combat Doctor was written by a Canadian doctor who served in one of the field hospitals in Afghanistan and details his experiences.  I will say up front that I am really impressed by what these guys do and was really looking forward to reading this book.  I have read several war memoirs from both support (medical, etc.) and front line soldiers and generally always enjoy these types of books. This is essentially Dauphin’s thoughts on the war told in a series of events and anecdotes.  There are some scenes that you can’t help but be affected by, such as the story near the beginning of the book about the guy trying to save his kids arm.  As far as it being a glimpse into the world of the military field hospital, the book is brutally honest about what really happens to soldiers. While the events can… Read more »

Review by Travis Starnes With how direct and clear they make story synopsis these days it is rare I am surprised with the direction a book takes, but The Heavens Rise took some turns I didn’t see coming.  I did noticed when I started reading this book it was tagged by the author as both a Mystery and Science Fiction, yet by the time I was half way through I was pretty sure it was just a mystery.  It is the tale of a small group of contemporaries, I won’t say friends since they aren’t all so friendly, and a tragedy that affects their lives. This book is written very well.  Christopher Rice manages to create tension and suspense expertly, even in situations that aren’t themselves very suspenseful.  This isn’t a horror story and there isn’t a killer lurking around the corner but Rice creates the same tension that you… Read more »

Review by Travis Starnes Diner Impossible is the third book in the Rose Strickland series about a diner waitress who through happenstance ends up investigating and solving crimes for her friends. I will be honest; I had never heard of the Rose Strickland series before reading this book and was not familiar with the character, her exploits, or her friends.  In fact when I got this book I didn’t even know it was a series at first, although the fact that it is becomes readily apparent while reading it.  I will say I am happy I found this series and I plan on going back and picking up the first two books.  I might know how those end, because they are both mentioned in this installment, but I am sure I will enjoy them all the same. This book falls squarely in the “madcap non-investigator mystery” style book that I… Read more »

Review by Travis Starnes Little Demon in the City of Light promises a gruesome crime and sensational trial, and that is exactly what it delivers.  The book focuses on a murderous couple, Gabrielle Bompard and Michel Eyraud, their murder of a wealth Parisian, and the novel defense that Gabrielle was hypnotized into committing the crime. This book reminds me heavily of Devil in the White City.  While it isn’t quite as good as the Pulitzer Prize winner, it gets very close.  The similarities strike me not simply because the book follows a gruesome murder, but in the narrative way the events are told and the tone that is used throughout the book.  Levingston is a skilled writer and it shows as he manages to weave together the story in a very compelling way.  True crime novels has a tendency to get a little lazy and let gruesome events try and carry… Read more »

Review by Travis Starnes The Survivors Club is a fairly classic detective story set in Arizona near the border between the US and Mexico.  While investigating an apparent drug cartel murder detective Tess McCrae begins to see a disturbing pattern. As mysteries go this one is solid.  It has pretty much everything you could ask for from a “who done it” and avoids a lot of the pit falls I have seen in other mysteries lately.  The mystery itself is very well conceived.  There is just enough information to keep you guessing but a tough enough puzzle that you don’t figure it out till the very end.  I particularly liked how the various murders were all connected together and I doubled back on my guess several times as parts of the story were revealed. J. Carsen Black is not an author I was familiar with prior to reading this book,… Read more »

Review by Travis Starnes Orbital Decay is a mixture of classic science fiction and cold war era fiction.  Construction workers on a space instillation learn that the bases real purpose is to spy on Americans and they decide to take matters into their own hands. Overall this isn’t a bad story and reading it as someone living 20+ years after it was written it is easy to see parts of the book that are almost prescient.   It shows how the public consciousness concerned about government surveillance is not limited to recent events and has been a concern for a very long time. While the moral of the story does hold up the rest of the book feels highly dated.  This is definitely a work from a Cold War mindset and you can feel that throughout the story.  There are also many references that were topical at the time but no… Read more »