Genre: Mystery/Thriller

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Holy War

Holy War has an interesting premise, and Mike Bond seems to have a much stronger understanding of the region, both through the lens of understanding terrorism and the understanding the culture in general, than most of the thrillers set in the Middle East that I have read previously. The story structure is one that I’ve seen before in more general fiction, but not nearly as often in Thrillers. The jumping between protagonists or in some cases antagonist and not just giving you their POV but presenting it in a way that is sympathetic to that character is something I enjoyed. I should give a word warning that some of the characters and viewpoints might turn off some readers. I, however, read a lot of thrillers and was happy to get characters outside the usual cookie cutter mold. I should also say that the structure, while interesting, has its issues. The… Read more »

The House of Memory

The House of Memory is a suspense filled ghost story, and a mystery rolled into one. It’s a combination I’ve seen before, but done with a degree of skill that is often missed in this type of book. While the mystery part of ghost story/mystery was done well, it is the ghost story portion that really made this book an enjoyable read. Too often books that focus on ghosts either concentrate on the supernatural aspects to the exclusion of all else or go the horror route and make the undead seem as gruesome and scary as possible. One of the things I really liked about House of Memory is, while ghosts were the major aspect of the book, the world the story lives in wasn’t solely focused on them. The way ghosts are introduced as part of the world, existing next to everyday mundanity, made them feel somewhat more real… Read more »

Frappe Today Dead Tomorrow

Frappe Today Dead Tomorrow is the definition of a ‘cozy mystery’. It has a crime, in this case an assault that puts a young woman in a coma, the hero who isn’t an investigator but is thrown into the role, and a villain with shady plans, and little on screen violence. I will say this had a nice twist to it, in that Star, the girl in the coma, joins the investigation in a supernatural way by being able to communicate with Emma, the main character, and minimally affect the world around her. It is sort of like a ghost side kick, with the exception that the person isn’t actually dead. There is a lot of supernatural/metaphysical stuff in this book that I did not expect when I first started reading it. Not that it’s a bad thing. The subject is generally well handled and while a bit to new-age… Read more »

Rise of the Phoenix

Rise of the Phoenix is a fairly standard action thriller that, while it has issues, gets a lot of things right. You have the two main characters, both excellent in their field, mixing humor and action as they seek to stop a terrorist threat. Formulaic? Sure, but it’s a formula that works, so why mess with it. The action is what this book gets right. Once you get past the setup and introduction, which I will address in a moment, the action is high paced. For the lovers of adrenaline fueled thriller action, Gibbs hits the right marks. The main characters are also well developed, but as individuals and with their interaction with each other. They are believable as characters with enough backstory to keep them from being just stereotypical stand-ins, which is a problem in many books in this genre. I do have two issues with the book, one… Read more »

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 »

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 »

Spy for Hire

Mark Sava, John Decker and friends must protect a small orphan being used as a pawn in a turf war between governmental agencies. Spy for Hire is a straight up action thriller and for fans of the genre it ticks off all the boxes you would expect. The story itself is about as cookie cutter spy/action thriller as you get. It isn’t bad mind you, just a bit ho-hum. The good guys are clever and often manage to outwit their adversaries and there is some good action with a few plot twists thrown in to keep you on your toes. The only real problem with the plot twists is that they are completely telegraphed. You see where the twists are going almost as soon as they are introduced and readers of the genre will find very few surprises. Additionally there are problems with the sub-plots. Mayland introduces events and side… Read more »

Runner

In Runner, Patrick Lee takes the standard military thriller and manages to add some new twists that elevate the book beyond what is expected from the genre. Since I am a fan of the thrillers and read a lot of these types of books it is pretty rare that I am surprised by them. I was really pleased that this one managed to surprise me by the second chapter. This book is an interesting mixture of the standard ex-special forces hero comes out of retirement to save the girl type of story and adds a light sci-fi element giving the plot a nice spin. What is better is that the twist isn’t held until the end of the book but instead put up front in the first few chapters. The other thing that really helps this book is the pacing. A lot of thrillers claim to be “fast paced” but… Read more »

Red Hook

Red Hook takes the police procedural style and switches the genre from focusing on large events and monumental cases to the mystery of one of the little guys so often forgotten. I commend Cohen for trying to take an area so well-trodden and bring its focus down to a level so often ignored. This book had the potential of opening up a new front for the detective mystery alongside the chase for serial killers and psychopaths. Unfortunately it doesn’t live up to that potential. While the crime isn’t something we see in most mystery novels, strangely because it is so mundane as to be ignored, the characters we have seen thousands of times. A hard bitten detective, disillusioned by the job but drawn to one case everyone else ignores and estranged from his family. It’s like Lightner and his supporting case were pulled out of some detective fiction mold. To be… Read more »

The Janus Legacy

The Janus Legacy explores the ethical landscape between cloning and the push to advance science and medicine. This book falls in a weird space between medical thriller and science fiction and brings up interesting questions about the future of humanity. I am generally a fan of both science fiction and medical fiction and have spent time reading up on the ethics and science of cloning, so the idea behind this book is something I was into. While the angle von Biela takes is interesting the execution of this book falls short. Taking the idea of human cloning, which has been explored by authors before, and giving the main character a motive to push for it yet a personality that fights against it was an interesting angle. This dichotomy in Jeremy’s motivation allowed for a lot of potential with real possibilities for both external conflicts with the other scientists as well… Read more »