The Chase

Crime

chaseA follow-up to Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg’s THE HEIST from last summer, the duo’s THE CHASE picks right up with the exploits of internationally known thief Nicolas Fox and FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hara. For those who enjoyed the first entry, know that this continues with the fun, and actually is a more enjoyable ride with not just one con, but four, each more daring than before.

The reason for these little excursions centers around a former White House chief named Carter Grove, a man who makes Dick Cheney look like Mister Rogers. Grove is now in charge of a firm called Black Rhino, a private army for hire à la Blackwater.

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The Midas Murders

Mystery

midasmurderIt’s wonderful to discover an author new to me writing in a language from which I haven’t seen many mystery practitioners (Flemish), in a book set in a country that also seems underserved by the genre (Belgium). Pieter Aspe is a prolific author with more than 30 books to his credit, but seemingly only two of which have been translated into English.

Aspe’s series character is Inspector Pieter Van In, and he made his debut in THE SQUARE OF REVENGE, originally published in 1995 and published in English by Pegasus just last year. The second book in the series is the one under review, THE MIDAS MURDERS.

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Ice Run

Mystery

icerunICE RUN, the sixth title in Steve Hamilton’s popular Alex McKnight series, newly available in trade paperback, takes a different, more personal approach than the preceding novels. While this undoubtedly distinguishes it, the results are far less satisfying.

Retired Detroit cop and now part-time P.I. McKnight is looking forward to getting away from the resort cabins he runs in the upper-Michigan peninsula town of Paradise to spend some quality time with Canadian police officer Natalie Reynaud. When a massive snowstorm hits, they alter their plans slightly and agree to meet at a luxury hotel located between Paradise and the Canadian border.

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Strange Bodies

Sci-Fi

strangebodiesjpgOne of the tricks of a certain strain of horror emerges with what Marcel Theroux in this compelling novel calls “dislocation.” Readers are stricken by a feeling that the depiction of familiar events and settings, like a word repeated until it separates from sense and becomes a discomforting babble, suddenly slips into something more perverse and deeply strange. The world is recognizable, but — wait! — not.

Theroux’s STRANGE BODIES delights in the way repetition pulls the rug out from under the real, opening up hidden, dizzying drops into the fantastic.

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Orison

Fantasy

orisonDaniel Swensen’s debut novel, ORISON, is not your typical fantasy novel. Or rather, it is … sometimes. Or perhaps Swensen does typical things in atypical ways. Let me explain.

There’s an orphan with a destiny. Her friend is a mysterious wizard living in obscurity. Enter the stalwart warrior with a keen blade and a keener sense of honor. A queen rules over all of them, her heart troubled for her people. She has a deadly bodyguard, unswerving in his loyalty. A pantheon of weird and terrible gods pull them in multiple directions. Intrigue is rife between fictional empires and war threatens to tear the world apart. Also, thar be dragons.

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