The mystery world lost one of its greatest practitioners when Reginald Hill passed away earlier this year. A prolific author who wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including Patrick Ruell, Charles Underhill and Dick Morland, he is known primarily for his two successful series, the Joe Sixsmith books and the fascinating Dalziel & Pascoe cases.

He also wrote a significant number of one-offs, and his last published book, THE WOODCUTTER, is one of these. The title character, Wilfrid “Wolf” Hadda, is a phenomenally rich and successful international business magnate, with a lovely home and a beautiful wife and daughter. Then it all goes wrong when, in a high-profile raid, the police arrest him for possession of, and participation in, child pornography.

Hadda claims innocence, but the evidence looks rock-solid. In a misguided attempt to escape and clear his name, he gets out of the police station, and is promptly run over by a bus. After weeks of recuperation, his body is now mangled, his name has been ruined, his assets confiscated, his wife is beginning divorce procedures, no one believes his innocence, and Wolf Hadda goes to jail.

Psychiatrist Dr. Alva Ozigbo meets Hadda in jail and attempts to bring about an acknowledgement of the man’s horrid deeds. It’s here where the author inserts one of his clever little touches, as we alternate chapters for a while between reading Hadda’s therapeutic writing exercises, and Ozigbo’s interpretation of those writings.

The interplay between Hadda and Ozigbo, and between Hadda and all the other characters in the book is the cornerstone of the plot. When Hadda is eventually released, how do others interact with him? Ozigbo continues to be interested, and the parish priest is about the only other person who will chat with him. But when the priest discovers a large amount of money in Hadda’s cabin, one has to wonder if Hadda really has paid all his debts to society.

There is a lot more to this book and I don’t want to give too much away. Hill keeps you, and the characters, guessing as to exactly what is going on. His facility with depicting characters and making them full, realistic individuals is what made him so great as a writer. You begin to really like Hadda, and you can’t reconcile this with the child pornography charge, something that Hill works with so you are just never sure of who is guilty of what until much later in the novel.

Hill would be an excellent author for readers to collect. He has a large oeuvre, varied characters, intense plots and a rambunctious, yet cerebral style that holds up well. Sure, after you’ve put the book down and thought it about for a few days, there are a couple of holes, but the remarkable thing is that you’re still thinking about the story. —Mark Rose

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A number of stories intersect in William Dietrich’s BLOOD OF THE REICH, so a bit of plot exposition is in order. In 1938, Kurt Raeder is a good little SS officer in the Nazi hierarchy. He teaches at university but his career has become somewhat stalled. That’s why it’s a little surprising, and indeed scary, to be called to the office of Heinrich Himmler.

But Himmler has a special mission for Raeder: Return to the land of Tibet, where Raeder once undertook a scientific expedition, and discover the secrets of the lost city of Shambhala, secrets that may reveal untold powers which could be useful in, say, any potential war. Raeder leaves with a throng of tough men in tow to do as Himmler asks.

Somehow, the Americans get wind of these plans and decide they must also take action. So they recruit museum curator Benjamin Hood, who went on that earlier expedition to Tibet with Raeder, to revisit Tibet, find Raeder, and see just what the hell he’s up to.

In the present day, Hood’s great granddaughter is nearly blown to bits by neo-Nazis who have placed a bomb in her car. But she is saved by an intrepid, and highly unlikely, investigative reporter who has discovered her identity. Unbeknownst to Rominy Pickett, who was adopted, her real family included that old-time explorer Benjamin Hood, who has left an inheritance and very few heirs, except for Ms. Pickett.

In a whirlwind day, the reporter Jake Barrow saves the woman’s life, convinces her that she is the last heir of Benjamin Hood, and takes her to the bank where it is revealed that she has a nice little six-figure sum of money, and the deeds to a remote cabin. Hood and Barrow head there to see what happened in the past of Benjamin Hood that would cause neo-Nazis to hunt her down and kill her in the present.

As you can probably tell, this is the kind of novel that roars along at an improbable pace, piling insane story development on top of insane story development, but hoping to keep the reader enthralled. It’s pulp fiction, but sadly, not at its best.

This is strange, because Dietrich is a well-respected author of both fiction and nonfiction. I’m not sure if the infelicities of phrasing and the tortured metaphors are due to subpar editing or if this is Dietrich’s style, but going back and re-reading the first page (heck, the first sentence) made me grit my teeth.

The author excels at incorporating his historical research smoothly into the story, and he’s mastered the pulp style with harrowing cliffhangers at every chapter’s end, which forces one to read on. But one-dimensional characters and an outrageous story even for this sub-genre (Nazis, neo-Nazis, lost Tibetan cities, governmental conspiracies, powers of ancient civilizations, etc.) left me a little cold. It’s entertaining enough for a frothy beach read, maybe, but little more. —Mark Rose

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T. Jefferson Parker’s THE JAGUAR is the fifth novel to feature Charlie Hood, the stoic L.A. sheriff’s deputy who divides his time between local and federal assignments, and has recently been trying to stem the flow of drugs and guns running between the U.S. and the powerful Mexican cartels.

In this latest story, Hood actually shares the narrative with two other characters. The focus may be split, but the result is the most character-driven novel of the series, and easily among Parker’s career finest.
 

In the dead of night, a group of heavily armed men break into the home of sheriff’s deputy Bradley Jones and kidnaps his wife, Erin, a popular rock musician. Before they leave, the kidnappers confirm what Bradley feared: They are soldiers of Benjamin Armenta, leader of the Mexican Gulf Cartel, and the kidnapping is payback for Bradley’s years of service to and protection of Armenta’s main rival, Carlos Herredia, who heads the North Baja Cartel.

Armenta will return Erin to Bradley if he delivers a $1 million cash apology to Armenta in the next 10 days. Otherwise, Erin will be skinned alive.
 
Getting the cash is no challenge for Bradley, since his services to Herredia — unbeknown to everybody, including Erin — has made him a very wealthy man. But he does not trust Armenta to be true to his word, so Bradley enlists the help of his friend and fellow deputy, Hood. They quickly devise a plan: Charlie will deliver the cash, while Bradley tries to find where Erin has been hidden and attempt to steal her away from Armenta before the delivery deadline.
 
Meanwhile, Erin discovers that she’s been taken to Armenta’s castle, hidden deep within the jungle of the Yucatan peninsula. The building might be hundreds of years old, but Armenta has added every modern convenience, including a state-of-the-art recording studio with best instruments and equipment imaginable. It turns out that Armenta is something of a musician himself, and well-versed in the history and evolution of popular music of both is homeland and America.

After many conversations, where Erin constantly demands her freedom, Armenta agrees to release her if she composes a narcocorrido (a popular style of song that celebrates the feats of Mexican drug dealers) based on Armenta’s life. Writing the tune is just one of the many obstacles that stand in the way of her freedom, including a fierce hurricane and attacks on Charlie and Bradley from both sides of the Mexican law.
 
Parker unfolds the story through alternating chapters involving Charlie as he follows the complicated delivery orders; Bradley as he searches for where Erin has been hidden; and Erin herself as she explore the huge castle and learns more about the oddly contradictory life and work of her captor. In each instance, the author compellingly gets deep under the skin of his characters to reveal their strongest motivations and deepest regrets.
 
Two other characters figure in the narrative. One is Mike Finnegan, the shadowy, near-mythical, near-comical figure who appeared earlier in the series and here plays a more influential role. He assists Bradley directly and Erin indirectly thorough his seemingly supernatural amassing of information and insight. But Hood blames Finnegan for the death of two close friends, among other crimes, and is obsessed with his capture.

The other is Mexico itself, with its beautiful landscapes, ancient architecture and dense jungles, all contrasted with the shocking violence of its towns and cities locked in an unrelenting war between the cartels and the questionable loyalty of its police and military. Seldom has Mexico’s contemporary strife been presented in such stark detail as a place “cursed to be so far from God and so close to LA.,” as one character describes it.
 
There are moments, however, when the split focus and its many events seem to drag the story down under its own weight. But Parker valiantly prevents things from becoming too ponderous with abrupt, and mostly unexpected, spurts of violence or equally dangerous natural eruptions. These moments are where some of Parker’s finest writing shines through.
 
THE JAGUAR is a dark, but ultimately fitting addition to the Charlie Hood saga, bringing the hero and most of the other players to a sadder, but wiser place. Readers who have followed the series will have no trouble recalling all that went before. Readers new to Parker, or those who have enjoyed his previous works but missed this series, are urged to take up minimally THE BORDER LORDS or IRON RIVER in order to appreciate fully the depths of this latest entry. —Alan Cranis

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Prolific thriller author John Lescroart reveals more personal background about Wyatt Hunt in THE HUNTER than any of the two previous novels starring the San Francisco-based P.I. But there’s also plenty of mystery, suspense and unsolved murder to keep Hunt busy. Fans need not worry; his latest is not an attempt to go completely mainstream.
 
Wyatt Hunt has just finished a lunch meeting with a friend from the SFPD when he receives a cryptic text message on his cell phone from an unidentified sender asking, “How did your mother die?”

Orphaned as a child, Hunt never thought much about his birth parents, thanks to the love and support he got for so many years from Bob and Charlene Hunt. But the text message nags at his conscious, so he decides to research his early life.
 
Hunt learns that his name was originally Carson. What’s more, he discovers his biological mother was murdered and that his father was the prime suspect. After two hung juries, however, the man was never convicted. Not long after the second trial, the father left his son to the civil authorities and went off in search of a new beginning and a new life.
 
Hunt follows the story of his true parents though the many boxes of court records and interviews with those still alive who had anything to do with the case, or who might have known them. All the while, he continues to receive texts from the sender who refuses to reveal his/her identity or reason for suddenly invading Hunt’s life.
 
For an author celebrated more for his inventive plots, Lescroart almost seems to want to make up for all the years of missed character development with the opening chapters of this novel. Not only does Hunt spend a great deal of time pondering his past, but his present life is complicated by the break-up of a long-term relationship and his confusing attraction to the woman who works as his investigative assistant.

But the author has been at this game too long to completely forget what his readers expect. So before the novel reaches the midpoint, the plot intricacies kick in, including an intriguing connection between his parents and Jim Jones, who founded his Peoples Temple in San Francisco before moving his congregation to Guyana and the mass suicide that shocked the nation.
 
Lescroart’s prose is as easy-going and unpretentious as ever, even with all the newfound self reflection and introspection. As always, his writing truly sings when he describes his beloved San Francisco locale with its varied neighborhoods and altering weather patterns.
 
After all these years, and with more than 20 titles to his credit, Lescroart is commended for trying something a little deeper and different. It may not be indicative of a new direction, but if nothing else it proves he can get inside the skin of his characters as effectively as any other author out there — so long as there is also a good story to tell. —Alan Cranis

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Daniel Judson returns again to his wintry Southampton turf for VOYEUR, a paperback packing a dizzying array of deception, betrayal and greed into a story running under 300 pages.
 
Remer, the only name we’re given for the protagonist, was once a successful and effective private investigator in Manhattan. His specialty was spying on individuals while they took part in extramarital affairs, and providing the damning evidence for divorce trials as a result. During one such case, however, Remer was set up and captured by hired thugs. They tortured him and left him with a scar he still carries. And that was enough to cause Remer to retire from the P.I. business.  

Now he leads a comfortably dull life running a liquor store he owns in Southampton. On weekends, he numbs his mind with a homemade and mildly hallucinogenic concoction of herbs and extracts, while enjoying the company of a pretty female college student who stays in the apartment above his.

Just as Christmas approaches, Remer is contacted by a former operative and store employee. She wants him to help locate Mia Ferrera, the daughter of a wealthy Manhattan society matron. Mia was once the woman Remer loved, until she disappeared mysteriously with a load of Remer’s money. Still, he agrees to help find her, upon condition that he only has to report where she is and have no contact with her whatsoever.
 
But shortly after finding Mia, Remer witnesses what looks like a murder, pulling him into a whirlwind of chases, cover-ups, violence and a convoluted scheme that could set him up in ways worse than what forced him out of the P.I. game all those years ago. And, of course, Mia is at the center of it all.
 
Judson’s plot risks overcomplication at times, especially as it flashes back to events and memories occurring six years prior to the narrative. But he pulls us through, thanks to his very assured pacing and mostly to our emotional investment in Remer.
 
The author wraps this little holiday season tale in unmistakably noir tones. There are the chilly, snowy and damp Southampton settings, so palpable at times that they could easily be a character in the story. Then there is Remer’s ambiguous behavior. While a true professional at his work and a moralist at heart, we learn that he’s not above taking troubling matters into his own hands whenever threatened or wronged.
 
VOYUER is a very involving and satisfying novel, especially for those who like their stories and characters on the darker side. But be prepared to tap the thermostat up a notch or two as you get into it. —Alan Cranis

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Aaron Elkins is a near-legendary mystery author who seems to be able to create fascinating series characters at will (the Gideon Oliver, Chris Norgren and Lee Ofsted series are all worth checking out). In THE WORST THING, he tries a stand-alone approach featuring security and kidnapping management consultant Bryan Bennett.

Bennett works for a security firm, writing presentations for large-scale companies on how to avoid having their executives kidnapped for ransom. He himself was kidnapped at an early age, and it severely traumatized him. As an adult, he started work as a negotiator in hostage situations and while he had some success, one terrible debacle involved the death of two innocent girls. Now he prefers to stay behind the scenes, do research, write reports, stay out of the limelight.

But it won’t be possible for the next gig. An Icelandic fisheries company wants to hire Bennett’s company for the kidnapping presentation, but insists Bennett be the one to do the presenting. Crippled with claustrophobia and devastating panic attacks, he has refused to fly for more than five years, but his long-suffering wife really wants to go and so he agrees to the trip. I think you can guess what happens next.

Elkins is a master of brevity. He has no need to pad scenes with endless descriptions or pointless dialogue. He gets you into the scene, explains exactly what is going on in a crystal-clear fashion, and then moves you along in the story.

The author is at his best when he’s describing the panic attacks that Bennett undergoes. Anxiety disorders and panic attacks are probably less common than people believe, but for those who do suffer from them, they can be extremely debilitating, and it sounds to me like Elkins has his facts in order here.

There’s a little too much sheer coincidence for me in this book, but overall, it’s an affecting read. Elkins makes Bennett out to be a very believable character, trying to slay his demons for the sake of his wife and his own life. The settings of both Seattle and Iceland are spot-on, and the action scenes are quite well drawn, with a couple of wild twists thrown in. The book does seem to be rather sloppily edited with a couple of sentences repeated verbatim just two pages apart and other needed corrections, but that’s not Elkins’ fault.

If you’re a fan of his series work, this will be a nice addition to the shelf. I can’t imagine he’ll take Bennett any further than this novel, so enjoy the one-off as you wait for his next series installment. —Mark Rose

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After 15 novels, Lee Child must have felt it was high time he present the origin story of his best-selling series character, Jack Reacher. Oh sure, we caught a glimpse of Reacher’s early career in THE ENEMY, and even Reacher as a boy in Child’s online short story, “Second Son.” But how did the former Army military police officer become a drifter with no baggage we first met in KILLING FLOOR?
 
The answer is part of what’s in store for us in THE AFFAIR. The year is 1997, and 36-year-old officer Reacher is assigned to the small town of Carter Crossing, Miss. A woman has been found murdered, and evidence points to the nearby Fort Kelham military base.

An officer has been assigned to investigate the matter; Reacher, however, is to impersonate a civilian and look into the murder where it happened, while doing his best to keep suspicion away from the military.
 
Reacher soon meets the town sheriff, Elizabeth Deveraux. A former Marine, she immediately sees through his cover, but reluctantly agrees to help him investigate the murder. Together, they uncover the truth about the victim, how she was killed, and how the murder is connected not only to previous, similar killings in the town, but also to suspected military activity in Kosovo. As the evidence mounts, Reacher decides to catch the killer by setting a trap, using himself as bait.
 
Child presents the entire novel as a long, first-person flashback. Reacher constantly reminds us how different the Army and indeed everything was back in the relaxed security days of pre-9/11. This gives the story a sad, subtle foreboding of how the world will change. Longtime Child readers will feel this same foreboding for Reacher himself when, for instance, he describes a visit to the Pentagon as “the last day I walked into that place as a legal employee of the people who built it.”
 
The investigation itself is full of the unexpected twists and surprises that distinguish the best of the series, with accusation and suspicion constantly shifting until the perpetrator is revealed. Child’s structure uses mostly short chapters filled with mega-detailing of almost every movement and thought. Newcomers might be put off by this relentless precision, but fans will delight in discovering details like the first time Reacher finds the pocket toothbrush that will later become one of his few personal possessions.
 
It’s never been necessary to read this series in strict sequence, so THE AFFAIR is not only recommended to Child’s huge readership (who already have made it a hit), but also to new readers wondering which novel with which to start. Either way, this latest addition ends with Reacher hitching a ride along a long stretch of highway in the southern part of America — exactly where we first found him almost 15 long years ago. —Alan Cranis

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Rome isn’t just a character in the Nic Costa series of novels written by David Hewson; it’s really the main character. And as much as Costa can’t imagine living outside of Rome, I can’t imagine this series being so entertaining and successful if Rome itself weren’t the star.

This series, now in its ninth installment with THE FALLEN ANGEL, would be a perfect companion for your Roman vacation. You could twirl around the ruins, churches and monuments while reading exciting and captivating murder mysteries. Sounds like a plan.

This one gets a little hairy, though. An Englishman is found on the streets after seeming to have fallen from the scaffolding surrounding his apartment. His seventeen year old daughter is understandably distraught, and Costa, affected by her vulnerability and beauty, wants to help. Her brother shows up waving a pistol, utters an enigmatic phrase, then disappears into the crowd. Slowly, details begin to emerge that put this English family into a much more glaring light. Could it have been possible that the dead man was abusing his daughter?

The family vehemently disagrees with this theory, and the book recounts the painstaking, and seriously flawed, investigation that Costa and the other members of the Questura undertake in order to solve what at first looked like an accident, but now seems to be murder, and more deaths are to follow. Multiple twists are present, and they’re surprising enough to keep you reading.

These historical thrillers often tend to the cheesy and predictable. But Hewson will have none of that. He’s a smart writer, concise with dialogue, generous with historical detail but never overbearing, and someone with a truly profound feeling for the story’s setting.

While his plots may wander into the highly unlikely realm every once in a while, you believe in the humanity of Costa and how Costa interacts with the world around him, and you believe in the reality of that world because Hewson writes about it so well. This is top-notch police procedural/thriller fare. —Mark Rose

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I’m not sure why we needed THE COUNTESS by Rebecca Johns. It’s a fictionalized account of one Báthory Erszébet, or Elizabeth Bathory, who came to be known as The Blood Countess, because she was convicted of killing at least 80 servant girls under her care.

Set in early 17th-century Hungary, this is a chilling story of perhaps the most active serial killer we know, and indeed, at least four books have been written in English about her, including Tony Thorne’s COUNTESS DRACULA, to which the author acknowledges her indebtedness.

The only reason for the novelization must be because the book is told from Báthory’s point of view, and Rebecca Johns is good at showing the level of the Countess’ entitlement, how she progresses from someone who feels wronged by incompetent servants to a bloodthirsty monster who doles out ultra-severe punishments that often end up with the servant dead.

But it’s not enough. As historical fiction, the lengthy descriptions of Hungarian scenery and the depiction of Hungarian culture are alright, as is the dialogue. But since we already know the outcome from the first page of the book, there is no tension, just the tedium of waiting for the Countess to be caught. If you have a fascination for Hungary, then by all means pick this up, but if you’re really interested in the story of Báthory, then I would recommend getting one of the nonfiction works about her. —Mark Rose

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Patrick “Shep” Shepherd is having a bad decade. The former rookie pitcher for the Boston Red Sox turned gung-ho Marine has been deployed to some of the worst spots in the world. He hasn’t seen his wife and daughter in 11 years. His left arm has been blown off below the bicep. And if that weren’t enough, the Black Plague is about to be unleashed on his current home of New York City.

Author Steve Alten is primarily known for his man-vs.-prehistoric-shark series MEG. Now, in the new-to-paperback GRIM REAPER: END OF DAYS, he ventures into a potential end-of-the-world scenario: What if the U.S. government tried to weaponize the bubonic plague, and what if it then fell into the wrong hands? The last time the Black Plague ran rampant back in the 14th century, nearly half the world’s population perished as a result. But what if it were unleashed on a population of 7 billion with access to faster means of travel?

GRIM REAPER starts with an interesting premise and several equally compelling subplots, like Shep’s post-traumatic stress disorder and his struggles to remember his life before the military. There’s the Armed Forces propaganda machine that wants to use Shep for its recruitment drives. There’s also Mary Klipot — in charge of Scythe, the program to develop the bubonic plague as germ warfare — who believes she has immaculately conceived because she’s oblivious to the fact that her lab assistant got her drunk one night and took advantage of her.

Oh, and there’s the “Society of the Nine Unknown Men” (or just “the Nine” to their friends), a group of super-genius ultra-people who work to safeguard humankind from itself (like a stuffy version of the Justice League). There’s also …

And now you begin to see where GRIM REAPER goes off the rails. Alten crams so much into it, like Dante’s INFERNO, the physical and historical manifestation of the Grim Reaper, 9/11, the lost diary of Guy de Chauliac, the Kabbalah, quotes from the Bible and former U.S. presidents, song lyrics from the Rolling Stones and The Doors … oh, and did I mention that the bulk of the novel takes place on Dec. 21, 2012? Yes, Alten even works in the supposed Mayan prophesized end of the world.
  
A few of these high-concept plot points in bite-sized chunks would have made the whole thing palatable, but taken together in one lump is akin to watching a full season of THE X-FILES in one sitting: compelling at first with revelations that are interesting, but after a while, severe disbelief sets in and the constant rolling of your eyes makes it hard to concentrate on the overall story.

The author had a good idea and a great start, but it’s a case of too many ideas, too much research that he felt had to be included in the exposition, and too many WTF? moments (Noah from the Bible was also Jim Morrison? Um, okay …). Shep is an interesting protagonist, although he has the irritating habit of constantly dreaming in flashbacks, but what starts as an interesting story of a traumatized vet is soon lost in an avalanche of sci-fi/fantasy concepts that even Fox Mulder would have found difficult to swallow.

Final note: I generally don’t read other reviews or comments on books that I’m reviewing because I don’t want to be unduly influenced; however, curiosity got the better of me on this one. I wanted to see how Alten’s fans were receiving this novel and if they found it too much of a departure from his past works. I was surprised to see so many positive reviews. One person said, “This will not be one of the best books you will read this year. This will be one of the best books you will read, period.”

Really? So this book belongs on my shelf next to Chandler, Dreiser, Dickens, Fitzgerald, Goodis, and James? It’s so great that I should spray it with bug spray, seal it in plastic, and bury it in my backyard for future generations (or space aliens) to read as an example of the pinnacle of our generation’s literary achievement on the off chance that some cataclysm wipes away our present culture? Really? It’s that good? I think someone’s been sipping the hyperbole Kool-Aid.

My point being, if you’re already an Alten acolyte, you’ll probably love GRIM REAPER and what I say won’t matter. But if not, and you want to read a generally scary book about the possibility of a modern-day plague wreaking havoc on our society, check out Richard Preston’s nonfiction THE HOT ZONE. —Slade Grayson

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Peter Spiegelman created a niche for himself with his series of John March mysteries rooted in the world of Wall Street and banking. THICK AS THIEVES also takes place in the world of high finance, but this work is a stand-alone novel, and shifts the focus from solving crimes to instigating them.
 
The protagonist is Carr, an ex-CIA agent and leader of a crew of highly skilled thieves. The crew is several days away from launching the biggest heist of their criminal careers: a complex scheme to steal millions of dollars in cash from an international money launderer. If they succeed, each member of the crew will be set for life.

But as the plans slowly unfold, Carr becomes increasingly worried. Months earlier, some essential intel for a robbery proved faulty, resulting in the death of the crew’s former leader; a man who was also Carr’s friend and mentor. Carr can’t help but wonder if the source of that misleading information came from the crew’s highly paid and deeply placed source, or if members of the crew betrayed their leader hoping for a bigger cut.

His suspicions increase to the point where he questions the trust he previously held for each member of his crew, including their sole female member, who is also his lover. But the heist is already under way, and holds revelations and dangers Carr never imagined.
 
Earning the reader’s sympathy for a lead character who is essentially a criminal is always a challenge. Spiegelman succeeds by first immersing us in all of Carr’s endless responsibilities and worries in planning and executing the heist, as well as his personal concerns caring for his ailing father. Then this portrayal of ironic leadership becomes a haunting exercise in solipsism, as Carr realizes he has no one to trust but himself. Needless to say, this is also the source of the story’s suspense that winds tighter as Carr and his crew draw nearer to the wealthy and comprehensively protected target of their scheme.

The inner workings of banking, investing, money-laundering and other matters of high finance are often very complicated for the layman to understand and follow. Here, as was often the case in his previous novels, the author provides details and explanations that come dangerously close to dry exposition. Fortunately, he pulls out of these before the reader nods off and charges back into the conflicts of the characters and the story.
 
Spiegelman deserves high praise for breaking out of a successful and comfortable format and taking such dangerous risks with his first stand-alone. It was worth it, as THICK AS THIEVES is a wonderfully involving thriller with an unexpected psychological depth not often found in such stories. —Alan Cranis

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Meg Gardiner’s THE NIGHTMARE THIEF goes off the trails she blazed herself in previous novels. Her readers will immediately notice that she brings the main characters from her two ongoing series, Evan Delaney and Jo Beckett, together for the first time. The bulk belongs to Beckett, but here, too, Gardiner takes an unexpected turn by having Beckett rely on skills other than those in previous stories. It’s all a little disorienting, even for the most faithful of her fans. But a wildly inventive plot basis and some genuine mounting suspense make up for all the unfamiliarity.
 
Autumn Reiniger’s 21st birthday is approaching. Her father, a wealthy and successful hedge fund manager, has already given her the expensive car, the fine apartment and the acceptance to a private university. For this birthday, however, he has something really special in mind.

It’s a game for her and her friends from Edge Adventures, which specializes in realistic, role-playing scenarios acted out in urban locations, with the advance permission of the local police. Her father has used Edge Adventures before to test the character strengths of his employees, and he has secretly added a surprise element to Autumn’s prison-break game that he hopes will help his daughter confront a phobia she’s had since childhood.

What Autumn and father don’t know is that a group of criminals has hacked into the Edge Adventure plans for her. Members of this group quickly capture and pose as the Edge Adventure coordinators, and then kidnap Autumn and her friends for a multimillion-dollar ransom.
 
Meanwhile, freelance reporter/investigator Evan Delaney meets with forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett to discuss the mysterious death of a certain lawyer. Delaney is researching the story for an article she is writing, and Beckett has already determined that the lawyer’s death was not due to natural causes or suicide, which leaves the possibility of an accident or murder.While Delaney continues her research in San Francisco, Beckett and her partner, Gabe Quintana, a pararescueman for the California Air National Guard, explore the wooded area way north of the city where the lawyer’s body was found.

Driving on a desolate road through the mountain woods, Jo and Gabe spot a limousine stalled out on the roadside. Unaware they have stumbled upon the kidnappers and their hostages, Jo and Gabe stop and offer to help. Soon, suspicions flare, and Jo and Gabe find themselves captured along with Autumn and her friends.

As they continue toward their rendezvous with the rest of the criminals, a fight breaks out and the limo crashes into a steep ditch. Jo, Gabe and most of the youngsters survive, but now must flee before the rest of the kidnappers, including the one who was thrown free of the crash, find them again.

As that summary indicates, Gardiner has devised a somewhat outrageous scheme to bring not only her two series characters together, but to finally get Jo and Gabe into the thick of the story. Amazingly, she makes it all work by moving the plot forward at near-breakneck speed while peppering bits of backstory in the midst of the action.
 
Gardiner also prevents her story from descending to a predicable “survival in the wilderness” tale by periodically shifting the focus to the other group of kidnappers as they search for the crash victims, and to Evan as she continues her investigation and eventually searches for the suddenly missing Jo. The victims themselves, not surprisingly, rely on Gabe’s rescue training as they slowly make their way out of the woods. Before long, Jo’s insight into behavior is also utilized to reinforce the group of friends as they learn to call upon resources they never knew they possessed.
 
On top of all of this, that surprise element Autumn’s father added to the game scenario becomes a major complicating force in the narrative, while Delaney’s effort reveal that the motive for the kidnapping is something deeper and more complex than ransom money. These additional features also help prevent us from dwelling too much on the outlandish foundation that launched the story.
 
Good as it is, THE NIGHTMARE THIEF is not recommended as an entry for those new to Gardiner. Instead, choose one each from the previous Delaney and Beckett novels to fully appreciate the risks the author has pulled off in this work. Gardiner fans: Grab it immediately and enjoy. —Alan Cranis

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New in paperback, ON THE LINE is another entry in S.J. Rozan’s off-and-on series involving New York P.I. Bill Smith and his sometime partner and near-girlfriend, Lydia Chin. Here, however, Rozan employs a different narrative structure that unfortunately does not serve her well.

Smith is practicing a Brahms sonata at the piano early one morning when his cell phone interrupts him. The ringtone says it’s a call from Lydia, but when Smith answers, he hears an electronically altered voice on the other end, telling him that Lydia has been kidnapped, and if he wants her to live, he must play the kidnapper’s game of hide-and-seek and follow a string of clues. Oh, and Smith has 12 hours to find her, or she’s dead.

Smith immediately enlists the help of Lydia’s cousin, Linus, a former hacker who now runs his own security firm. Together with Trella, Linus’s friend and security firm receptionist, the three set out for the first location at which the kidnapper has hinted. It’s a deserted bar in Brooklyn, where they discover the dead body of an Asian woman just before the cops arrive to arrest Smith for murder.

He narrowly escapes, but now he’s not only racing to save Lydia’s life, but on the run from the law. He reconnects with Linus and Trella, and the trio desperately continues the search for the clues left by the kidnapper. Along the way, and as Smith begins to realize the identity of the psychopathic kidnapper, more murders are uncovered.

Rozan wastes no time, shifting the pace into high gear from literally the very first page. The immediate tension and high speed are without question the novel’s greatest strengths, as is the story being conveyed through Smith’s first-person narration.

But soon, the weaknesses reveal themselves. Most glaring are the characterizations, as thin as onion skin. We learn nothing about any of main players, except perhaps for the kidnapper’s backstory as his identity are eventually revealed. This will come as a surprise to those familiar with Rozan’s earlier works, which always showed much more depth.

Owing to the race-against-the-clock format, the characters here are quickly dashed off with no interiority. This is especially true of Linus, whose speech — punctuated by “dude” every other word — quickly becomes stereotypical and irritating. Even Smith’s emotional ties and true feelings for Lydia — beyond his professional bond — are kept curiously vague.

Then there is the collection of oblique clues and situations set up by the kidnapper as he runs Smith through his maze. They start off odd and only distantly related. Before long, they become more strange and disconnected. By the time, the novel reaches its final confrontation, it is near impossible to accept that such far-flung clues could lead anyone to any kind of coherent conclusion. Rozan obviously intended these to add to the suspense, but they end up confusing and disorienting.

The author is to be commended for trying something new. But the results, as shown in ON THE LINE, are disappointing. As a novelist, Rozan is much more compelling and memorable when, as in any of her earlier works, she allows her characters a bit more breathing space, and her readers the opportunity to know them better. —Alan Cranis

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Daniel Silva’s PORTRAIT OF A SPY continues the saga of Israeli intelligence agent Gabriel Allon, the character Silva created almost 12 years ago. Since his debut in THE KILL ARTIST, Allon’s popularity with readers has dominated Silva’s career and catapulted him into the ranks of national best-sellerdom. Fortunately, he’s managed to keep the series both lively and relevant, as is certainly the case here.
 
Allon has officially retired from his role as one of Israel’s most revered and deadliest intelligence agents, and has retreated to Cornwall in Great Britain with his beautiful, young wife, Chiara. There, he hopes to live out the rest of his days as a renowned art restorer — the cover he used for so many years as a spy. As he quickly learns, retirement is simply not possible.

Islamic suicide bombers have caused a wave of death and fear in Paris and Copenhagen. Meanwhile, Allon is called to London to view a painting recently acquired by an art dealer and gallery owner he has worked for over the years. During a lunch break, Allon takes a stroll through Covent Gardens, where he spots a suspicious man he suspects as another bomber. His suspicion is correct, but before Allon fires off a shot to kill the bomber, he is tackled by British police officers.
 
Not long afterward, Allon is summoned to Washington, D.C. The CIA has reliable information about an Islamic extremist believed to be the source of the recent suicide bombings, and they want to hire Allon to stop the extremist and permanently disable his network. Allon, having received the blessings of his former employers in Israel, quickly assembles his team of agent specialists and devises an intricate plan to destroy the terrorist network from within. But the success of the plan comes to rest upon a woman whose life was permanently altered by one of Allon’s past assignations. And this same woman might use his trust to carry out her own personal revenge.
 
Silva’s style is subtle, cool and at times detached. It’s the same seemingly simple technique he has honed and sharpened over past Allon novels, and conveys both the overt and quiet nuances of the story with amazing effectiveness.
 
Equally striking is the author’s inventiveness, which often allows him to ironically comment on the vast differences between the West and the Arab world. This is especially true in the scenes involving the woman Allon entrusts with his mission. She is a wealthy, successful businesswoman. But she must subvert every once of her independence and worldliness when dealing with the orthodox Islamic extremists, who view women as little more than potentially embarrassing possessions. Then, too, there are memorable scenes involving the world of fine art, whose jealousies, greed and behind-the-scenes, cutthroat double-dealings fly in the face of its façade of quiet erudition.
 
Faithful readers will recognize several characters Allon enlists from many of the previous novels. It might feel at first like an annoying lack of imagination, but Silva is merely underscoring the fact that the world of espionage — for all its danger and technical sophistication — is in truth a very small world.

Silva wisely does not call upon any of these familiar faces to carry the narrative beyond their immediate and interspersed duties. Additionally those new to his world are provided enough essential background on each character to make them immediate accessible.
 
Don’t let Silva’s residence on the best-seller list fool you. He is not one of those who haphazardly slap together a novel a year featuring some invincible secret agent whose superhuman powers are once again enlisted to prevent world destruction. His Allon novels are nuanced, believable and as full of page-turning suspense as any spy thriller can hope to be — all among the reasons why PORTRAIT OF A SPY is such a joy to read. —Alan Cranis

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Is it possible for an author to have a “distinguished career” with only three published books? It is if you are John Hart, whose first three novels — THE KING OF LIES, DOWN RIVER and THE LAST CHILD — were all popular and critical successes, earning him an unprecedented best novel Edgar Award for consecutive books.

IRON HOUSE, his fourth thriller, is another triumph. This time, however, the theme of family — which occasionally appeared in his works — is emphasized more intensely than ever before.

Michael and his younger brother, Julian, were abandoned as babies and raised in the North Carolina orphanage for boys known as Iron House. Physical and emotional abuse was rampant at the orphanage, and Julian, the smaller and weaker of the two, was often the target of attacks from a gang of bullies. Julian kills the leader of the gang, while Michael, ever his brother’s protector, takes the blame and flees in the dead of winter.

Years later, Michael grows up to become a deadly and feared enforcer for a New York mob boss. He falls in love with a beautiful woman named Elena and longs to leave “the life.” The ailing crime boss, who is more like a father to Michael, grants him his wish. But immediately after the boss dies, his son, Stevan — an impulsive and ineffective criminal who was always jealous of his father’s affection for Michael — vows to kill Michael and his family.
 
Michael and Elena escape New York for North Carolina to once again protect his bother. Julian, adopted by a successful senator and his wife, has become a renowned author of children’s fiction, but is frail and sickly. When the siblings reunite, long-held family secrets rise to the surface, including murder, leading back to Iron House. As Michael searches for the truth, Stevan and his killing horde track him down and begin to enact their vow.
 
Hart effectively shifts the point-of-view between Michael and the other main characters throughout. Events sometimes overlap, but never long enough to become repetitive. Instead, each shift adds essential information and action while progressively increasing the tension.
 
Yet the most notable feature of IRON HOUSE is the varied ways Hart utilizes the concept of family. As orphans, Michael and Julian yearn for the security and definition a family provides. Michael finds it; Stevan feels neglect that motivates his hatred. Finally, Julian’s adopted family has worked relentlessly over the years to hide the secrets of their clan — secrets that could destroy both the senator and his wife.
 
But this is not a tear-soaked, generational soap opera. At its core, IRON HOUSE is an undeniable thriller with plenty of violence, close calls and enough masterly constructed suspense to please the most devoted thriller fan.
 
There was a time when mainstream authors who periodically wrote thrillers or crime fiction felt obliged to label such works as “entertainments” to separate them from novels of more important worth. Recently, authors like George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman, Daniel Woodrell and several others have eliminated the need for such segregated labels by producing crime fiction with the kind of emotional depth and insight to rival any mainstream work. Hart is certainly among these authors, and IRON HOUSE will undoubtedly do much to enrich his short but already distinguished career. —Alan Cranis

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It’s been a while — about six years and four stand-alone novels — since acclaimed crime writer George Pelecanos has taken on a series. Now, he introduces Spero Lucas in THE CUT, the first in a projected new cycle. If this debut is any indication, we can look forward to some truly compelling and memorable stories.

Spero Lucas, a former Marine who served in Iraq, works as an investigator for a defense attorney in Washington, D.C. As the novel opens, Lucas is compiling details that will lead to an acquittal for his boss’ young client arrested for stealing a car, then learns the client is actually the son of a notorious drug dealer currently in prison for a trafficking charge.

The dealer tells Lucas that a large delivery of marijuana was stolen during a recent operation, and wants him to either find it or the cash it sold for. Lucas agrees, once the dealer agrees to the 40-percent cut that he expects for finding stolen property.
 
Lucas then sets out to follow the trail of the missing weed. It isn’t long before he suspects that it might have been taken by the two young men who work for the imprisoned dealer as transporters. But then they are found murdered, and Lucas discovers that the robbery was part of a far more complicated scheme involving a rival crime boss with connections in weapons and influence with local law enforcement.
 
Pelecanos readers will immediately sense vigor to the prose that hasn’t been experienced since his early series work. The author seems comfortably at home, almost expansive, as he sends Lucas through the varied, ethnic neighborhoods and little-know landmarks of his troubled yet beloved city.

Then there are the numerous references to popular music, cars, clothes and cuisine, and even a subtle recommended reading list (including Daniel Woodrell, Elmore Leonard and Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark) that also fondly recall moments from Pelecanos’ Derek Strange/Terry Quinn novels, and even earlier works featuring Nick Stefanos.

Lucas himself is a fascinating character. His methods combine contemporary Internet research and cell-phone photos with old-school note-taking and hand-drawn maps. He seems driven primarily by money, but there is also a nagging morality to his makeup — no doubt the result of his Greek parents — that can’t allow him to let a seemingly senseless murder remain unresolved.
 
Several scenes throughout the novel seem at first to serve no other purpose than Lucas’ character exposition. But Pelecanos knows better, and we eventually see how each moment contributes to a surprisingly complex plot with plenty of unexpected twists, all the while acquainting us with Lucas’ background, techniques and behavioral traits.
 
If THE CUT were a stand-alone, it would still shine as yet another triumph for Pelecanos. Knowing, however, that it is the series premiere makes us admire it even more while we impatiently wait for Lucas’ next case. —Alan Cranis

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Whenever he uses the “Michael Marshall” version of his full name (one of Michael Marshall Smith’s three active pen names), readers know the work at hand is crime fiction with no small amount of suspense. That’s certainly the case with his latest, KILLER MOVE. It’s a thoroughly contemporary story that, despite several faults, is among those that demonstrate how dependent we’ve become on the digitized portions of out identity — and how little control we have over it.
 
Bill Moore seems to have everything: A good marriage, a lovely wife, a beautiful house and a lucrative job as a Realtor selling condos in the Florida Keys. But he’s driven by ambition for more success and eventually his own real estate business. Then, one morning as he arrives to work, he finds an envelope on his desk containing a card bearing a single word: “MODIFIED.”

Moore ignores it at first, thinking its some kind of advertising scheme. Then things in his life and his business routine start to go wrong. It starts with subtle annoyances, like a book of softcore porn that arrives from Amazon; he never ordered it. Then the recipients on his business email list receive a note containing an off-color, slightly racist joke. But Moore insists he never sent it. He concludes that someone has hacked into his online accounts, and seeks to correct the bothersome situation.
 
In the midst, things take a deeper and more threatening turn. Business appointments go seriously wrong. Shortly thereafter, Moore’s wife finds incriminating Peeping Tom photos of his attractive female Realtor partner on his laptop. Not long afterward, Moore’s wife mysteriously disappears, and others he knows also go missing or turn up dead. Clearly, someone is seriously messing with his life, and he is desperate to know why, and find his wife before she is killed.
 
Marshall makes a genuine effort to involve us in Moore’s life as things unravel. Unfortunately, he paints a less-than-sympathetic portrait of his protagonist. We definitely understand his professional drive for greater success, and along the way learn a great deal about the machinations of Florida real estate. But we never genuinely care for him. We stay with the narrative more out of interest for how things go wrong than any real concern for how Moore will resolve them.
 
Then there is the novel’s awkward structure. First-person chapters of Moore’s life are alternated irregularly with third-person accounts of a man named John Hunter, recently released from prison, who might be connected with what’s happening. But Marshall keeps the Hunter story at arm’s length from Moore for too long, with long-winded and distantly related recollections from both Moore and Hunter occurring at odd moments. As a result, we see the Hunter chapters as unrelated distractions before Marshall eventually connects the two stories, as well as the numerous other loose ends left dangling.
 
When revelations and resolutions finally arrive, they are way below our expectations and unsatisfying. The manipulating forces prove even less interesting than Moore himself, and include a reference to an earlier Marshall work that will leave the uninitiated scratching their heads. The results are nothing less than frustrating, as though Marshall simply ran out of ideas.
 
Still, the parts in KILLER MOVE where Moore’s life slowly unwinds are what readers will enjoy most and probably why they will stay with it. They show Marshall at his strongest … and might even result in massive revising of online passwords. —Alan Cranis

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Paul Malmont demonstrated both his love of early pulp fiction and his lush imagination in 2006, when he united authors Walter Gibson (The Shadow) and Lester Dent (Doc Savage) in an adventure worthy of any of their stories in his debut novel, THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL.

Malmont’s latest, THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, AND THE UNKNOWN, continues this wonderful trend by speculating the results of the factual joining during the Second World War of two titans of science fiction’s Golden Age: Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

As Golden Age historians know, Heinlein recruited Asimov in 1942 to be part of his research group within the Philadelphia Naval Yard, a gathering Heinlein called his “Kamikaze Group.” Along with fantasy author Sprague de Camp, the two were asked essentially to develop some of their fictional ideas into military realities: paint to make battleships invisible, weather control, and force fields and other fantastic devices that could be used as weapons.

Then a German spy is found washed ashore near an abandoned energy facility in Long Island. The U.S. military learns that the Germans were searching for the secrets to a “wonder weapon” that was developed and clandestinely tested by Nikola Tesla, the legendary inventor and chief competitor to Thomas Edison in the development of the electricity current. Tesla’s work may have resulted in a death ray powerful enough to destroy bomber planes in mid-air.

The Kamikaze Group, joined by L. Ron Hubbard (an alumnus of Malmont’s earlier novel), an elderly Walter Gibson and several other factual and imagined characters set out to find Tesla’s secret weapon before the Nazis seize it. Their adventures take them through tunnels deep below Manhattan to battles in the North Pacific and various other far-flung locales in a classic race against time to control the future.
 
Malmont’s structure is overly complicated at first. An opening chapter sets the stage for a long flashback that recalls the main narrative. (Sadly, those players we finally recognize in the opening chapter never reappear at the very end to tie everything together.) Then several cross-cut scenes take place before the action finally focuses on Heinlein and his cronies.
 
Once there, however, the characters and events move smoothly and effortlessly forward. Malmont’s research and affectionate devotion to science fiction shines through as he seamlessly incorporates the plausible science that motivates the fiction, just as Asimov or Heinlein would do. The pacing is vigorous and full of delightful cliffhangers that propel us through each “Episode” within the “Issues” (Malmont’s playful substitutes for sections and chapters).
 
In the midst of this, Malmont also allows time for us to glimpse the personal doubts and conflicts of the main characters. The young Asimov, for example, struggles with the challenges of his newly married life and the private realization that he knows more about the behavior of robots than humans. Heinlein, earlier declared the best author in the new but wildly popular field of science fiction, has given up on writing, convinced that it’s more important to make the future happen than dream up stories about it. Then he meets the woman who will later become his second wife and reignite his career as the genre’s most essential practitioner.

Occasionally, Malmont includes brief vignettes that tug at the heartstrings of genre cognoscenti, such as a train ride where Heinlein gives a pile of pulp magazines, along with a tossed-off comment (“So it goes”), to a young soldier from Indianapolis whose name happens to be Kurt.
 
THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, AND THE UNKNOWN is a must-read, and without question one of the best and most enjoyable novels of the year. Reading it is as close as we’ll get to the thrill of being completely swept away in the kind of stories and heroic deeds those early pulp magazines provided.

But we’re lucky. We don’t have to wait a whole month before we find out what happens next. —Alan Cranis

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Karin Slaughter’s crime novels have never been for the faint-hearted. They always pack a visceral punch. But even her most devoted readers won’t be prepared for the physical and emotional wallop of FALLEN.
 
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Faith Mitchell tries not to worry as she returns late from a training seminar to pick up her infant daughter. Her mother didn’t answer any of the phone calls she placed on the way. Faith’s worst fears are confirmed when she finds the door of her mother’s house partially open, and a bloody hand print above the knob. She finds her baby hidden in a shed behind the house. Entering the house, Faith finds a dead man in the laundry room and a hostage situation in the bedroom. Faith’s mother, however, is gone.

The standoff turns violent, and Faith shoots the two invaders as they flee the house. The police arrive, along with her GBI partner, Will Trent, and their domineering boss, Amanda. Suddenly, Faith finds herself not only a witness to the crimes, but also a suspect in the resulting deaths.
 
Before long, the investigation focuses on Faith’s missing mother. It’s well-known that her mother, a former law enforcement executive, retired while a drug task force she supervised was being investigated for embezzlement. The police conclude that the home invaders were once members of that force and have kidnapped Faith’s mother and holding her hostage for her share of the embezzled money.

Will, on the other hand, notes that key elements of that scenario don’t fit. He suspects there is something more complicated, and far more dangerous, behind the kidnapping.
 
From the frantic, opening moments of the first chapter, Slaughter ramps up the suspense and action, maintaining this relentless pace through the entire novel. There are moments where you think you can pause to catch your breath, such as when Will coincidentally meets trauma doctor Sara Linton at a pizza shop. Their faulty flirtation lasts only a minute before he is scooped up into the GBI van and rushed to the scene of the crime.
 
When the action slows down, Slaughter still keeps applying pressure through the emotional complications of her central characters. Faith’s upheavals are more than obvious as she tries to care for her family while searching for her mother. At the same time, Will copes with the complications of his beautiful but errant and frighteningly co-dependent wife, along with his utterly confusing attraction to Dr. Linton. We even discover another side to the ball-busting persona of Amanda, when we learn that she and Faith’s mother are friends who clawed their way up the law-enforcement ranks together for many years.
 
Greed, at first, seems the motivating theme of the story. Yet as the narrative progresses, with its numerous complications and short-term distractions, we see that personal and professional loyalties, as well as closely guarded family secrets, carry equal weight. Slaughter’s prose style is seductively easy-going as it lures readers into some unexpectedly dark moments. Especially memorable is Will’s prison interview with a gang leader that rivals the intensity of Agent Clarice Starling’s first encounters with Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Thomas Harris’ THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
 
Faith, Will and a few other central characters have been featured in many of Slaughter’s earlier novels. Yet the author makes it easy for first-time readers to quickly acquaint themselves and then get thoroughly involved in this one.
 
FALLEN is another satisfying success for Slaughter: the kind of suspense/crime novel you’ll want to swallow in a single, sustained gulp. That makes it perfect for summer reading, even though its bleak mood is perhaps more suited for a dimmed reading room than a bright, sunny beach. —Alan Cranis

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With THE WRECKAGE, thriller author Michael Robotham expands his focus to include international locales and contemporary political events. What’s most impressive, however, is that he manages to maintain the psychological character depth that distinguished his earlier works in the midst of all this expansion. The result is certainly his most ambitious novel to date, and also one of his best.

Luca Terracini, a rogue journalist stationed in Iraq, investigates a series of bank robberies in Baghdad, in which employees have been brutally killed and millions of dollars in cash have disappeared. As Terracini digs deeper, he finds his career and his life threatened by Iraqi officials.

Meanwhile, in a London pub, retired police investigator Vincent Ruiz (an alumnus from Robotham’s previous novels) breaks up a brawl between a young girl and her abusive boyfriend. Ruiz takes the girl home; the following morning, he discovers he’s fallen victim to the couple’s robbery scheme. He’s determined to recover some of the more personal and irreplaceable items stolen, but when he catches up with the couple, Ruiz finds that someone else far more deadly is also looking to retrieve stolen items.

Also in London, at this same time, Elizabeth North frantically searches for her missing husband, Richard, during her final weeks of pregnancy. She suspects he is having an affair, but knows that Richard, who works as a high-ranking executive for an international finance firm, may have stumbled upon information that placed his life in danger.
 
Robotham concentrates mainly on the Terracini and Ruiz storylines for most of the novel, eventually bringing in Elizabeth’s search in the second half. From that point on, he alternates back and forth between all three apparently separate stories until he finally brings them together in the final chapters.
 
This would ordinarily be a serious strain on our patience, yet the author keeps us willingly moving forward while he slowly builds the suspense mostly by letting us know his characters intimately — his previously mentioned trademark — and through the perceptive and insightful descriptions of his various settings. This is especially true of those scenes with Terracini in the corrupt and graft-laden world of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. The cynicism and fatalism is palpable in every paragraph, and ranks among the most effective and unforgettable depictions of this war-weary nation.
 
THE WRECKAGE proves that Robotham can easily hold his own amidst those numerous thrillerists who specialize in stories based upon current world events. Whether he continues on this path or returns to the more personal, less political suspense of his earlier works remains to be seen. For the moment, THE WRECKAGE is a fine introduction to his work and a very satisfying example of how, in the world of thrillers, separate lives in the most unrelated circumstances can unexpectedly come together. —Alan Cranis

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There’s reason to believe that the world is finally taking notice of Duane Swierczynski. His last novel, EXPIRATION DATE, earned an Edgar nomination for Best Original Paperback. For the last few years, he’s been an energetic narrative light at Marvel Comics (Cable, The Punisher, Deadpool and others), while also writing short stories (included in PHILADELPHIA NOIR and recently the ebook anthology tie-in to the new video game L.A. NOIRE) and thoroughly entertaining, sometimes genre-splicing crime novels (THE BLONDE, SEVERANCE PACKAGE and others).

Now he’s among the impressive list of authors helping to launch the Mulholland Books imprint with his latest, FUN & GAMES, the first in a shortly forthcoming trilogy. It’s a killer of a novel, and perhaps his best to date.

Charlie Hardie makes his living as a professional house sitter. He used to be work with the Philadelphia cops until the family of his former partner was murdered. Hardie blames himself for the killings, and knows his own family is at risk, so he hid his wife and children, and began bouncing around the country, living temporary in houses whose owners are away for a while. Once arriving at his assigned destination, he usually drinks himself into a stupor while watching old movies.
 
Hardie’s latest house-sitting gig is the home of a film composer in the Hollywood Hills. No sooner does he arrive when he is attacked by a bruised and enraged woman. Turns out, Hardie recognizes her. She’s Lane Madden, an actress who has starred in several light comedies and action films he’s seen.
 
Lane’s story — once Hardie can calm her down long enough to tell it — is that she is being pursued by a group of killers who forced her car off a winding nearby road until she fled on foot and found shelter in the vacant house. What’s more, these killers she claims are The Accident People, a lethal group of experts skilled at making people, or people-related problems, disappear without a trace.

Hardie is dubious at first, but when he is almost killed by simply opening the front door, he realizes that there are indeed a bunch of killers after Lane. And now that he has interfered with their plan, he is also in The Accident People’s crosshairs.
 
Swierczynski’s novels have often been noticeable for their breakneck pacing. Here, however, he literally floors it from the opening sentences, pushing you back into your seat with hardly a moment to catch your breath. Utilizing cross-cutting, flashbacks and other cinematic techniques, Swierczynski amazingly crams the entire series of inventive, riotous events into a single day.
 
His style is hip, but inclusive, rather than overly esoteric. It’s laced throughout with sarcasm, balanced with a light, non-demeaning sense of humor. It evokes both the late Donald E. Westlake and — with its alternating funny and dark moments — Don Winslow; the latter especially in Swierczynski’s dead-on presentation of the scenery and indulgent homes of the Hollywood Hills. (Not bad for such a dedicated Philly boy!)
 
And the ending, well … it’s a rare thing that makes you wish summer would pass quickly. But as we’re told that HELL & GONE, the second title in the trilogy, is not due until October, the intervening days until fall are already moving way too slow.
 
Then again, if FUN & GAMES is your introduction to the wildly talented Duane Swierczynski, you can easily pass the time reading his other books. Proceed immediately. —Alan Cranis

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THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES from Marcus Sakey impresses as mightily as it disappoints. It features some of his most powerful, memorable writing, as well as his laziest and most frustrating. That it also loses sight of its main conflict doesn’t help, either.

A man wakes on a rocky, abandoned beach, naked, near-drowned and freezing. He pulls himself out of the water and crawls into a BMW parked nearby. Once inside and recovered somewhat from the cold, he realizes he has no recollection of how he got there or who he is.

Inside the car, he finds clothes and shoes that fit, a wad of cash, the car keys and an auto registration form in the name of Daniel Hayes with an address in Malibu, Calif. Having no other clue to his identity, the man drives from the remote town in Maine, where he awakes, to California.

As he makes the long drive, certain vaguely familiar thoughts take hold. He seems fascinated by the lead actress in a television drama series called CANDY GIRLS that he watches each night in various motel rooms. But other than the fact that the actress is achingly beautiful, he does not understand why he cannot get her out of his thoughts.

Eventually, the man finds his way to Malibu and learns that he — or the man named Daniel Hayes, whoever he might be — is a successful television writer whose latest project was CANDY GIRLS. Not long after, he discovers why he is so obsessed with the actress and why she might be an important missing piece of his identity.
 
As the man tries to determine who he is, two other people are on Hayes’ trail. One is Bennett, the resourceful and lethally dangerous criminal we met in Sakey’s last novel, THE AMATEURS. The other is an unnamed woman who might be a former associate of Bennett’s. Hayes owes both of these individuals something, and they will stop at nothing to find him.
 
The opening scenes, where the man wakes to the shock of his physical and mental alienation, are among the finest Sakey has written. Each painful sensation and each moment of the utter confusion and lack of any comforting understanding are vividly portrayed.
 
Then suddenly, the author makes a jarring stylistic switch and would have us believe that the man’s experience watching TV — and the disturbing dreams that haunt his sleep — are best relayed in screenplay format. Sakey repeats this method throughout the novel, including a long flashback sequence involving the man and the unnamed woman. Perhaps Sakey felt this was a subtle insight into the man’s possible identity as a screenwriter. Unfortunately, the experiment fails and reads more like a lazy way to avoid the detailing of many critical moments.
 
To make matters worse, a painfully convenient shift in the role of the unnamed woman transforms the novel’s narrative thrust from a search for identity to a blackmail scheme and an eventually showdown with Bennett. The pacing and suspenseful encounters along the way are all fine (and reminiscent of Sakey’s earlier works), but the conflict of the man’s lost identity fades into the background until it is unsatisfactorily explained at the end — again in screenplay format.
 
Sakey must have reasoned that a screenwriter who makes a living creating fanciful realities, and the SoCal setting being notorious as a location for personal reinvention, were perfect for a story about lost identity. It might have worked, especially following the promise of the stunning opening chapters. Then Sakey discovered that he had a wonderful theme, but no real plot. So he fell back on his crime-fiction experience and the temptation to resurrect his Bennett character.
 
It’s tough to knock a writer as talented as Sakey for taking thematic and stylistic risks, but THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES is nowhere near as profound as his earlier, more traditionally structured works. If nothing else, he should never forget that he is writing a novel, not a screenplay pitch. —Alan Cranis

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Michael Koryta’s THE RIDGE is full of incongruities. There’s a lighthouse in the middle of a dense forest, a big-cat sanctuary in remote eastern Kentucky, a man in love with the woman who shot him in the back, and a 100-year-old curse. This grab bag of oddities is a bit had to swallow at first, yet Koryta makes most of it work in what is his finest supernatural-tinged novel to date.

While driving early one morning to the state prison to visit the woman who almost killed him, Kevin Kimble, deputy sheriff of Sawyer County, Eastern Kentucky, receives a disturbing call on his cell phone. Wyatt French, a local eccentric and alcoholic who lives in a lighthouse he inexplicably built in the middle of the woods, sounds suicidal.

Shortly thereafter, Kimble is called to the lighthouse, where he finds French dead from a self-inflicted bullet to his head. Also at the scene is Roy Darmus, a reporter for the local newspaper that is about to shut down. Kimble and Darmus discover a collection of photographs, maps and a list of names in French’s living quarters. It all seems to relate to the county’s history, but neither man can figure out what French was studying for so long.

A series of strange events happen near the lighthouse. Another deputy, a friend of Kimble’s, loses control of his car on an icy road. The accident should have killed him, but he walks away from it with hardly a scratch. Then, in the preserve nearby, the animals become highly agitated after dark, as if they see or sense something threatening deep in the woods.
 
Upon Kimble’s urging, Darmus researches the photos and names found in French’s house, eventually finding a connection. He and Kimble discover an evil force rooted in the county’s past. It was dormant for a while, but is now active again.
 
Koryta’s formidable skills at characterization and mood are why we eventually accept all of the various weirdness of his story. This is especially true of the sanctuary. At first it seems to serve no other purpose than for the animals to demonstrate their innate sense of approaching danger (as well as something for the locals to complain about), but thanks to the sympathetic depth the author brings to the sanctuary owner, employees and even the cats themselves, the absurdity mostly fades while remaining the one element that is not related to the novel’s resolution.
 
As the seemingly desperate pieces fall together, THE RIDGE becomes one of the more inventive and surprisingly convincing ghost stories to appear on a long while. The suspense takes over just prior to the middle of the novel, and from that point on, it becomes damned difficult to stop reading.
 
With eight novels to his credit, Koryta, like Dean Koontz and a few others, has become an author who defies easy categorization. THE RIDGE is his third shot at a supernatural thriller. Recent interviews indicate that his next work might be a straight-ahead crime novel, like those that first established his reputation. Whatever the case, it ought to be something well worth looking forward to. —Alan Cranis

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Sometimes I wish writers would stick with a story and spend less time setting a mood. That is my major complaint about LAST TO FOLD, the debut novel from David Duffy. On more than one occasion, my attention waned due to extraneous passages that made me put the book down.

The plot — when it does get going — involves former KGB Col. Turbo Vlost, who now makes his living in New York City as a finder of things … for a price. Be it an object or a person, he calls his business Vlost and Found. The job in question is finding a missing 19-year-old stepdaughter to a financier.

Now here comes a whole lot of cramming into the plot. See, not only is the 19-year-old the real daughter of a Russian mobster, but her mother was married to Vlost many years ago.

We are also given Vlost’s backstory, which involves his mother’s time in a gulag, where he was born, and how he reached his position in the KGB years ago. With all this information jumping around, it really wears on the reader. The missing girl is pretty much window dressing, since the story then gets bogged down by a computer holding a cache of incriminating evidence against the Russian mobsters.

While the characters are well-defined, they have names that became alphabet soup to this reader. If Duffy could handle some trimming, the story would really click for readers. Hopefully, his second novel will drop all the extra bits that kept this from hitting a stride. —Bruce Grossman

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There’s nothing like a great follow-up to a great debut novel. THE PRESIDENT’S VAMPIRE, the sequel to the surprising BLOOD OATH, does not go into cruise-control sequelitis. A brief recap: Nathaniel Cade is a different kind of vampire: in service to the current sitting U.S. president — a job he’s held for about 140 years.

While the previous book laid a great foundation, this novel continues to fill in the backstory of Cade and his exploits, hitting H.P. Lovecraft territory in a big way, as he and human handler Zach Barrows deal with an outbreak of lizard-like humans who pass along their powers readily.

Their efforts go as smoothly as one would expect when a shadow conspiracy is also involved. Again, we have “the company,” as they were referred to in the first book, under a new alias, but still controlled by the same people. Their leader, Graves, has a plan for a new world and it involves finding a way to spread the lizard people as far as possible.

Christopher Farnsworth’s novel is filled with a great conspiracy vibe, with Cade being central to solving the problem. His fellow vampire, Tania, is willing to help out, especially since she can snack on a human or two along the way. It builds into a giant action piece that takes up the last fourth, which is fine by me since THE PRESIDENT’S VAMPIRE is a total page-turner from the start.

The author has this series mapped out well, with some great little chapter openers. (A personal favorite is his Hunter S. Thompson impression.) Fans of the first book will have a great time revisiting this world, while new readers should grab BLOOD OATH since this one is a bit spoiler-heavy. Now, “bring on book three” will be my rallying cry. —Bruce Grossman

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Gary Braver’s TUNNEL VISION starts off in a somewhat plodding manner, as college student Zack Kashian has a bicycle accident, striking his head, and going into a deep coma. The resultant medical byplay and the grief of his long-suffering mother become almost pedestrian as each tiny detail is recounted for the reader.

But be patient. After 20 or so pages, the pace picks up as Braver fires off vignette after vignette in short quick-cut chapters, adding to the strange story bit by bit until you’re hunkered down in the armchair and turning pages as fast as you can.

As Zack drifts slowly back and forth between his coma and semi-consciousness, he begins to speak strange words. A nurse’s aide does the unthinkable and films his utterances, posting them on YouTube. Overnight, multitudes of people flock to Zack’s bedside, believing him to be speaking in tongues and capable of healing the afflicted.

His mother is furious and arranges the hospital to move her son. But she is flustered and puzzled when she is told that Zack is actually speaking the Lord’s Prayer in the ancient Aramaic language — a language he certainly had not known before the accident.

OK, that’s strange enough. But there’s also a series of unexplained suicides amongst the homeless, and most intriguing, a former hitman who visits the Catholic Church to confess, only to be recruited to return to his former ways and start killing off blasphemers. Now that’s a neat twist. The hitman, one Roman Pace, finds his new targets of interest and he begins to interrogate them to find out why the church would want them dead.

The intrigue and behind-the-scenes machinations are all well done, but there’s a certain level of artlessness to the writing that can be jarring. It seems way too easy for the modern Catholic Church to all of a sudden be employing professional hitmen, even if it is in their cause.

And the writing has a step-one/step-two feel to it that lacks color. Here’s a sample innocuous sentence: “The third floor opened onto a spacious office crammed with desks, computers, shelves of manuals, books, and the like.” Thud, thud, thud, and that “and the like” is inexcusable. So the style needs a bit more punch, but the idea of the novel remains strong.

And the plot manages to repeatedly double-back on itself in unusual and unexpected ways. Braver explores the world between faith and belief, positing a neurological confirmation that God exists, that one’s consciousness (or soul) can exist outside the body even after medical death.

The book combines a spiritual essence with science-fiction trappings and wraps it all in an exciting thriller, which is certainly enough compensation for a few leaden sentences. If you do not fear God in your readings, then you may want to add this book to your reading list. —Mark Rose

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Harry Hole is perhaps the most unfortunately named detective in all of mystery fiction, but he is a classic type: committed to his job, hard-nosed, damaged by both the stress of work and emotional attachments, a complete bastard sometimes, and a damn good detective at all others. In Jo Nesbø’s THE SNOWMAN, the seventh of the Hole novels (not all of which have been translated), he is confronted by a mysterious killer, the eponymous villain of the title.

This individual annually manages to kill a married woman who has had children, always when the first snow of the year falls. He builds a snowman to commemorate the event. It takes us quite a few pages to even find out this amount, but I tell you that now because there is so much I cannot tell you.

Every trick that Nesbø uses to keep the story rolling is a good one, and if I blab about this or that character, or this or that clue, you will lose the feeling of shock — and satisfaction — when you read this novel and see how well the author has drawn the veil of mystery over your thoughts. Because I do want you to read this book and all of Nesbø’s output. He is one of the kings of Scandinavian detective fiction, perhaps the heir apparent to Henning Mankell.

In THE SNOWMAN, Hole is at his most irritating: annoying as hell, but almost always right. He gets a companion character whom we hope to see more of, the cold-as-ice Katrine Bratt, who has her own very dark secrets. As the murders mount, Hole, Bratt and all of the force are confronted with numerous red herrings, convincing circumstantial evidence, and a creeping despair and fear that the killer may be centered on Hole and his family.

The murderer seems to always know their next step, and Hole begins to fear that the killer has somehow infiltrated his police family, that he or she knows what’s happening because they’re on the inside.

And then the killer is discovered. But you realize you’re only halfway through the book, so what gives?

Ah, that’s where Nesbø’s genius lies. You can make a good guess at who the killer really is fairly early on, but the author convinces you (convinces!) that you’re wrong. This is masterful writing, emotionally felt, strongly depicted, with beautiful fully drawn characters and a heart-racing plot.

Sure, on deeper reflection, there’s a lot of weird-ass behavior (the actions of a certain officer would not be so tidily dismissed), intricate coincidences (plot lines may be a bit too convenient for some), and even unexplained dangling threads, but you don’t notice that when you’re reading. All you notice is how much you care about Hole and his colleagues, and just how damn scary a snowman really is when it’s built in your front yard. —Mark Rose

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For those who read Lee Child’s previous Jack Reacher novel, 61 HOURS, I’ve got some bad news: In the new-to-paperback WORTH DYING FOR, you get no closure as to how it all turned out.

Let me amend that: You get a passing sentence which will not satisfy you. It seems Child wrote himself into a corner and just figured, “No one will mind if I stick Jack Reacher in a deep mess in a new location right away.” This novel is the 15th in the series, but feels like it could have been the second or third, since former military policeman Reacher is once again a loner just walking to Virginia. Too bad he is actually in Nebraska when the book begins.

Once again, Reacher’s playing the white knight who will save the town. See, the setting is one of those mythical towns where one family has been in control for years. You know the type — they base movies on such ideas, like ROAD HOUSE. That’s not to say this book isn’t readable; it is. It’s even super-fast for its page count.

The town is ruled like a kingdom by the Duncan family. Reacher becomes involved by coming to the defense of a woman who is the wife of the youngest Duncan, Seth. This does not sit well with the family, since they are involved with some illegal activities. You will not get the full story until much later, but that does not stop Child from putting Reacher through some paces.

Now here is the point where most people are going to be like, “Are you kidding me?” Child has literally made Reacher into some sort of superhero who can kill a man with one punch, and is always ready to tackle former college football players after being knocked out for a few hours. Where does he get the stamina?

Throw in townspeople too scared to cross the Duncans, and you pretty much have the whole story. WORTH DYING FOR teeters on the point of several “give me a break” moments — enough to make me think perhaps Child should take a break from this character and come up with something different so he can recharge his batteries. This one reads as if he watched a few too many ’70s exploitation films and bad ’80s TV. —Bruce Grossman

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Now in paperback, ICE COLD belongs in Tess Gerritsen’s long-running thriller series featuring Boston-based homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and forensic pathologist Maura Isles — the basis of the hit TNT series, RIZZOLI & ISLES.

Depressed and weary from her secret and doomed affair with a priest, Maura takes advantage of the change of scenery and other distractions offered by a medical conference in Wyoming. She soon reconnects with a former college classmate and — going completely out of character — takes him up on his offer to join him, his teenage daughter and a few other friends on a skiing trip. But an accident on the icy mountain roads sends them searching for shelter.

They take refuge in the small village of Kingdom Come, comprised of 12 houses almost identical in structure and minimal furnishings. Before long, they discover that whoever lived there suddenly deserted their homes in an unexpected hurry, leaving food on the table and their few possessions behind. Maura and her friend set out to find help, but she is soon captured by a young boy who was a former resident of Kingdom Come, and is in a desperate rush to put his former life as far behind him as possible.

In the meantime, Jane learns of Maura’s disappearance and sets off to Wyoming to find her. In the midst of her investigation, she eventually learns the sad history of the religious cult that occupied Kingdom Come, and then is shocked when she discovers what appear to be Maura’s charred remains.
 
Echoes of every contemporary religious cult headline story — from Jonestown to the Branch Davidians, and even Heaven’s Gate — are heard and referred to throughout the novel. But Gerritsen adds her own spin to the premise, keeping it from being too familiar and far from predicable.
 
Her style maintains its usual and dependable straightforwardness. Characters and action are conveyed with adequate, economical description and insight. The pacing gathers effective momentum after the start, and, as is the case in any Gerritsen work, there are plenty of unexpected twists and shocks to keep readers from falling into a lull.
 
While it breaks no new ground for the series, ICE COLD delivers exactly what it promises, and what Gerritsen’s fans expect: a few hours of well-written, involving, suspenseful entertainment. New readers — perhaps generated by the freshman TV series — would do well to choose an earlier title to learn more about these two women and sometime partners, and then proceed immediately to ICE COLD. —Alan Cranis

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It’s all building to something. With FATAL ERROR, the penultimate Repairman Jack novel, more loose ends are tied up while also building to whatever is to come. In other words, new readers should start at the beginning of F. Paul Wilson’s series, as this entry is more about exposition than suspense readers would expect.

The book picks up a few months after the events of GROUND ZERO, while also tying in Wilson’s young Repairman Jack YA series. If you want to stay spoiler-free from those works, stop reading now.

FATAL ERROR follows two separate storylines that, of course, are connected. First we have the return of two of Jack’s oldest friends, siblings Weezy and Eddie. Weezy is still paranoid that The Order is still out there to get her, and now Eddie is a full member of it and has questions of his own. The Order has a master plan to bring the world to its knees, and the book’s title gives you somewhat of a hint of how it will try to do so.

The second plot focuses on an Arabic man named Munir, who is in dire need of Jack’s help. Munir’s wife and son have been kidnapped by a psychopath, to put it nicely, who is making Munir go against everything in his religion, from eating pork and drinking beer, to making him a criminal of sorts. The psycho sends him Polaroids of his captives with written threats.

Elsewhere, another storyline is finished, with the birth of a child who will play a central role in events to come, while also answering a mystery that has been staring readers in the face since the character was introduced. You’ll do a face palm when you see how Wilson has hid the fact all this time.

FATAL ERROR really feels like old-school Repairman Jack in the way he is pushed to the breaking point. Again, people need to learn to never screw with anyone connected to him. For those expecting everything to tied up in a bow, you’re going to be sorely disappointed, as the next book is the final entry in the series and will do all that. —Bruce Grossman

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Serial-killer fiction is generally not one of my favorites for the simple reason that I find it to be more formulaic than other genres. The killer is usually a cardboard construct with as much dimension as the cast of FLATLAND. The author gives the killer quirks, but very little personality or background. The focus of the story stays on the protagonist as he tries to figure out the killer’s motives and thereby prevent future deaths.

Even the protagonist is a cliché: a workaholic with a tragic past, an outsider among his/her co-workers, but who is determined to do his/her job and protect the civilians, etc. When the story falls back on the killer, it’s to show how clever the killer thinks he is as he outwits the hero and stays a few steps ahead of the law.

Sound familiar? Because I just described 99 percent of every piece of fiction that is about a cop or FBI agent on the hunt for a serial killer. Major exceptions are, of course, RED DRAGON and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, to which I’m positive every author of a serial-killer story aspires.

Unfortunately, even the author of those works outdid himself: Thomas Harris’ follow-ups failed to reach the heights of its predecessors. Harris, probably unduly influenced by the pop-culture success of Dr. Hannibal Lecter after the Oscar-minted movie version of LAMBS, transformed the villain into an anti-hero in HANNIBAL, and a sort of romantic lead in HANNIBAL RISING. But I digress …

Gregory Funaro’s THE IMPALER offers nothing new to the genre. The killer, who switches between different personalities (Edward Lambert, the Prince and the General) likes to impale his victims in the style of Vlad the Impaler (aka the real-life historical Dracula).  

Sam Markland, the FBI agent on his trail, is work-obsessed because his wife was murdered two years ago in a botched rape attempt, and now her family meets regularly with the killer on death row in order to forgive him. Markland is not interested in doing so; instead, he’s busy dissecting all of the red herrings that the author throws in his path: Are the killings connected with Islam? Is it an obsession with Dracula? Do the readers really care?

The answer to all three is “no,” because Funaro overanalyzes each theory, which is probably the way the FBI would really do, but that is boring to his audience. Yes, I get that he did lots of research and wants to use it in the story, but it’s overdone. He also shifts perspective quite a bit, from Markland to a victim to one of the killer’s personalities. There’s also a mantra of sorts that the killer likes to recite: “Nine to three, three to one, one to three, three to nine” — it’s an interesting tic at first, but quickly wears on the reader’s nerves as it is repeated over and over.

Although the killer’s methods and motivation may be unique, there really isn’t anything in this novel that hasn’t been done before. And done better. —Slade Grayson

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The blurb on the cover of THE GOOD SON calls the novel “smart, entertaining, and beautifully made.” And despite the fact that the ripped-from-the-headlines summary of the book doesn’t suggest that Gruber’s latest will live up to this promise, it does.

THE GOOD SON follows the story of Sonia Bailey, a controversial Muslim writer, as she heads back to Pakistan and her in-laws to host a conference on finding peace in the Middle East through psychology. When she and her fellow conference attendees are taken hostage, her son, Theo, goes on a mission to save her.

Of course, it’s not nearly that simple, but luckily for Gruber, THE GOOD SON is much more than a story of hostages in the Middle East. He has clearly done his research, and his writing delves deep into both the culture and pyschology of the people of Pakistan.

In Theo, readers are offered a direct comparison between the culture of Pakistan and the culture of America, the mindset of a Pakistani and the mindset of an American. In Sonia and her fellow captives, we are granted insight into the theology of both Christianity and Islam; an analysis of Jungian psychology versus traditional therapy.

In Sonia’s captors, we see the militant Islam of so many news stories, but that is not to say that all of Gruber’s terrorists are by default “the bad guys.” Unlike many cookie-cutter thrillers, the lines between “the good guys” and “the bad guys” here are blurred. Both — or rather, all — sides have families, histories, stories, loves, religions, traditions, beliefs. All are well-rounded, well-developed characters, both as players in a novel and as people in their own right, a product of their environments, holding firm to a personal belief in what is right and what is not.

THE GOOD SON is a novel of subtleties, tying in terrorist threats, theology, psychology, circus history, Special Ops, nuclear weapons, dream-reading, card-dealing, family relationships, marriage and a dash of everything else for good measure. In it, Gruber has successfully taken this seemingly incongruous mix of ingredients and churned up a near-perfect thriller.

Those looking for a ripped-from-the-headlines plot will get it, but those seeking a read with more depth than a traditional thriller will be pleasantly surprised by the breadth and depth of subjects offered up here through the lens of fiction. —Kerry McHugh

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By the time THE FIFTH WITNESS arrives in stores, Matthew McConaughey will be most readers’ image of Mickey Haller, thanks to his starring role in the movie adaptation of THE LINCOLN LAWYER, the novel that introduced the character. Michael Connelly, in the meantime, continues with this series character who, in notable ways, shares the same ambiguous but dogged devotion to his profession as his best-known character, police detective Harry Bosch.

THE FIFTH WITNESS is, for the most part, an extremely competent, well-written legal thriller. Ironically, that is both its strongest and weakest asset.

The collapsed economy has even made times tough for lawyers, so to make ends meet, Haller has expanded his business to foreclosure defense. It’s a very lucrative field in Los Angeles these days, but soon he receives notice that Lisa Trammel, one of his foreclosure clients, has been arrested for the murder of the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. Suddenly, Haller is once again defending a murderer — the kind of case that earned him his reputation as the hated but acknowledged “Defender of the Damned.”
 
Haller pulls his legal team together and they immediately begin to examine the collected evidence and witnesses to find weaknesses in the prosecution’s case. Along the way, he quickly learns that Trammel has been both active and very vocal in protests against the cold-hearted procedures of corporate banking companies and their rapid foreclosure procedures.

Haller even ends up in the hospital when a couple of thugs attack him in a parking lot shortly after the trial begins. Through it all, however, he eventually finds substantiation for what Trammel has insisted all along: that she has been set up as the fall guy by the victim’s real killers. But the challenge is to legally include much of this last-minute evidence into the already prepared trial, and convince the jury of Trammel’s innocence.
 
Almost immediately after finding himself back in the murder defense game, Haller forsakes doing business from the backseat of his driven Lincoln Continental and secures office space for himself and his associates close to the courthouse. That’s the first indication that Connelly has stripped his protagonist of the maverick trademarks that previously separated him from countless other fictional lawyers.

From that point on, the work is taken up with the expected courtroom presentations, accusations between the two main counselors, sidebar and chamber confrontations with the judge, and other familiar legal interplay. While these succeeding chapters are, for the most part, skillfully written and effectively presented, they are, at heart, completely indistinguishable for countless other courtroom dramas.
 
But whenever Connelly takes us out of the courthouse proceeding, his exceptional skills at character, locale and suspense burst through, and the book begins to shine. Not surprisingly, the scenes where Haller discovers or confronts dangerous new witnesses or evidence, or when he quietly but desperately tries to restore his life with his divorced wife and their daughter, are far more memorable than the endless, formulistic courtroom exchanges.
 
Readers who love legal thrillers will find THE FIFTH WITNESS not only satisfying, but downright exemplary. And while Connelly’s success has already been established, this latest novel will no doubt race his name right back to the top of the national best-seller lists.
 
But perhaps Connelly himself recognizes the inherent restrictions of the form, since he ends the novel with not only Haller’s sudden realization about his client, but also with him contemplating a serious new direction in his professional career.
 
Let’s hope that if Connelly continues in this direction, he has Haller maneuverings his new career from the backseat of his Lincoln. —Alan Cranis

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RECKLESS, Andrew Gross’s fourth solo novel, now available in paperback, solidifies his reputation as a thriller author of note. There’s plenty of frightening conspiracies and global intrigue to please most thriller fans. But Gross goes the extra mile to attract those readers not normally drawn to such stories.

Formerly a police investigator on a career fast-track, returning protagonist Ty Hauck now works for a private security firm with a high-profile client list. As a new week begins, he sees a TV news item about the home invasion of wealthy investment banker Marc Glassman that ended with the shooting deaths of Glassman and his wife, April.

There had been other break-ins near the Glassman neighborhood, but they did not result in murder. What’s more, Hauck was once a close friend of April when they both were going through difficult periods in their lives and sharing their pain in group therapy. Hauck contacts former colleagues from his policeman years and conducts his own, very unofficial investigation of the murders.
 
In the meantime, it is revealed that Glassman made numerous false investments before his death. Now his bank, once a solid fixture in the financial world for many years, has collapsed. Not long after, another investment banker, whose actions also lead to a bank failure, is found dead of apparent suicide. Now, Naomi Blum, an investigator for the U.S. Treasury, is looking into both the failures and the deaths.
 
Eventually, Blum and Hauck join forces when they discover a man who is linked to both dead men. As they follow the trail of the shadowy man’s false identity, they uncover an international plot to bring down the financial infrastructure of the U.S. and eventually the rest of the world.
 
It is to Gross’ credit that he manages to make most of the otherwise esoteric details of banking and finance understandable to the uninitiated. Thus, he generally avoids long-winded passages of exposition to help us understand how the banks and financiers are destroyed and the resulting effects. This, in turn, helps move his narrative along effectively as it shifts locations and momentary focus on other characters.
 
But the characterizations are where Gross separates himself from many other thriller authors. Hauck, as we learn, has gone through moments of severe personal loss and doubt that almost ruined him. While he has seen his way though most of these setbacks, and moved on with his life, he is still at heart a street-level police detective. Blum, however, could have used a little more personality and a little less detailing on her subtle good looks and taste in clothes.
 
Thrillers are meant to grab you by the throat early on and seldom let up. RECKLESS proves Gross has perfected this technique while taking full advantage of contemporary events and turning them in to accessible and thoroughly entertaining stories. Let’s hope he continues to add those moments of character depth. They’ll distinguish his thrillers from the rest of the “world on the brink of destruction” pack. —Alan Cranis

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If for nothing else, we can thank reality TV for the creation of J.C. Harrow, the character making his second appearance in NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU by Max Allan Collins and his longtime collaborator, Matthew Clemens. Following YOU CAN’T STOP ME, this sophomore series entry breaks no new narrative ground, but manages to provide some appealing, believable characters and unexpected twists to make it worth the reader’s while.

A serial killer, who fancies himself something of an actor, chooses his victims from among the countless beautiful young women hoping to become movie stars in Los Angeles. He poses as an independent producer, luring his victims to his apartment for a peek at the script that has a role he knows would be perfect for the girl. Once there, he gets them into bed and, after sex, brutally kills them with a long knife.

He also records the entire gruesome scene on videotape, which he sends to the popular, crime-solving reality series CRIME SEEN and its host, J.C. Harrow. The tape comes with a demand that the submissions and their sender, who dubs himself Don Juan, immediately become the show’s featured attraction. Once past the shock and revulsion, Harrow contacts the LAPD.
 
But the LAPD Sex Crimes Division, headed by Lt. Anna Amari, already has their hands full with what looks like another serial killer, with men found dead in hotel bedrooms, minus their genitalia. Hence, this perpetrator has been nicknamed Billy Shears. Still, when Amari is approached by Harrow and the Don Juan tape, they agree to form an unusual partnership: Harrow agrees to devote the immediate and top-drawer resourses of his show to track down Don Juan — in an unofficial capacity, of course — while at the same time highlighting the Shears killings on CRIME SEEN.
 
Don Juan is outraged by what he feels is an outright slight by Harrow, and vows to increase the number of his victims. Meanwhile, more Shears victims appear. Amari and Harrow dig deeper into both cases, tracking down the methods, possible motives and, surprisingly enough, if there might be some slim connection between the two murderers.

The pacing throughout is impressive, even as Collins and Clemens juggle the two main murder storylines and various minor characters who drift in and out of the various scenes. Chapters flow evenly into each other and even the occasional backstory tangent is kept at a minimum.

Impressive, too, is the added depth the authors bring to Harrow, whose tragic personal losses keep him in something of an emotional straightjacket. Yet he displays an uncanny ability to balance the dual responsibilities of his law-enforcement experience with the greedy demands of TV executives. Probably most impressive are the exceptions taken with the killers themselves, who noticeably break both the statistical and fictional mold for serial killers.
 
All of this would be near-stunning, breakthrough stuff in the hands of some other author. But for a writer as creative and prolific as Collins, even with all its playing against type, it seems a bit too customary. Not “dashed off,” and by no means sloppily written — Collins is way too professional to allow that. It’s just that with his name on the top of the cover, we can’t help but hope for something beyond a better-than-average serial-killer novel.

As long as you don’t expect the kind of über-satisfying chills that come with Collins’ Quarry novels, or the intricacies of his Nathan Heller work, you’ll do fine with J.C. Harrow and this latest mystery. —Alan Cranis

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J. Robert King is not a neophyte writer. He is, in fact, author of some 20 epic and historical fantasies. So why, then, is DEATH’S DISCIPLES so disoriented and sophomoric? Probably because it tries to be a supernatural thriller with a very contemporary premise, and this abrupt shift in style and focus has King completely discombobulated.

Susan Gardner, a young executive, is suffering through her flight to another business meeting when something terrible happens and she finds herself waking up in a hospital bed. She is told that she is the sole survivor of the plane crash that was caused by a terrorist bomb. But Susan has no recollection of the flight, let alone who she is or how she ended up in the hospital.

All she knows is that a man calling himself Sgt. Steve Krupinski of the FBI wants to ask her thousands of questions about the exploding plane and how she survived. More importantly, Krupinski insists, he wants to protect her from those suspected of planting the bomb on the plane — a terrorist group calling itself Death’s Disciples.

Suddenly, she experiences what feel like acute dreams in which she is on the doomed plane as it begins its fall. And she can communicate with her fellow passengers, even though they are essentially ghosts.

She escapes from the hospital, but Krupinski soon catches up with her. As he urges Susan to revisit the dead and learn what they might know about the bombing, he discovers how deeply the members of Death’s Disciples have infiltrated themselves,and why they will stop at nothing to kill Susan and him in the process.

King begins the novel as a first-person narration from Susan, but after the first few chapters, he shifts the perspective to a third-person overview of Krupinski and his investigation. This back-and-forth shift continues, often within a single chapter. It is obviously intended to give a fuller sense of the story, but it ends up confusing and irritating.
 
Adding to the awkwardness of the POV changes are the equally abrupt changes in style. King tries for a hard-boiled sensibility when dealing with Krupinski, but his thoughts and dialogue are forced and read like very bad, “tough-guy” pulp prose. Susan’s narration, by contrast, strives for a more sympathetic and sensitive effect, but here again, the author tries too hard and his stylistic reach exceeds his grasp.

An example can be found in the prologue, where Susan describes the plane crash “like tigers tearing me apart.” Tigers? It certainly doesn’t help when she so immediately accepts both her amnesia and her sudden ability to communicate with the dead, as though these were everyday occurrences that come with the territory.
 
There is a fascinating story to tell with the idea of the ghosts of a terrorist attack urging the lone survivor to discover how and why they died, and even help avenge their deaths. But if DEATH’S DISCIPLES is any indication, King is sadly not the one to tell it. —Alan Cranis

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A valuable treasure stolen by the Nazis and hidden for generations … a mysterious Catholic sect tied in with the Vatican … an archaeological excavation … a charismatic hero and a beautiful woman along for the ride … an ancient legend that if true could mean a shift in world power … and the end result could be the discovery of … wait for it … the Ark of the Covenant!

Okay, come on, we’ve read this book before at least 15 or 20 times. Heck, we’ve even seen the movie starring Harrison Ford, haven’t we? So why does Juan Gómez-Jurado insist on writing another “captivating thriller” in THE MOSES EXPEDITION with the same plotline as just about every other religious thriller based on antiquities research? (I believe many brick-and-mortar bookstores have entire rooms devoted to this genre.)

Well, he does it better than most, I have to admit. His use of short chapters, differing viewpoints and story angles, and even different forms of documentary evidence (transcripts, audio recordings, even illustrations by Eduardo Paniagua) combine to drag the reader quickly through the story.

But it’s the overuse of all these elements that we have seen countless times before — the aged multibillionaire funding the investigation, the Islamic terrorist threat, brilliant computer hackers, the super-powerful priest who has a mysterious past — that finally make you gag and say, “Enough already.” He does get points for not once, not even once(!), mentioning the Knights Templar.

As a beach or airport read, when you’re just looking for a quick thrill, the book passes muster. It’s not memorable enough, or different enough, to keep on the shelves forever, though. —Mark Rose

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SHAKEN is the second-to-last entry in the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series. And it shows that author J.A. Konrath has left the trademark humor for gore and one long setup to the final book.

The gimmick here is nothing new and has been done in countless other books: telling the story in three separate timelines. He goes back to Daniels’ early days on the force in 1989, tracking down a killer of prostitutes, while the second story line takes us to 2007, where they have been hunting a serial killer by the name of Mr. K. The sadistic Mr. K taunts the police to the point of giving them all the clues to take him in.

The third story line takes place in the now, with Daniels captured by an unnamed assailant, and all fingers pointing to a killer from her past. SHAKEN relies more on shock value than police procedural. Though it’s a fast read, please note that it leads toward all the big reveals, only to pull the rug out from under you, saying you have to read the next book for the conclusion.

That’s a major tease for an author to do. I can understand he’s leading to a giant showdown, but still, it’s going to disappoint countless fans, especially when the book feels like torture porn at certain points. —Bruce Grossman

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Welcome to Salutations USA, a seemingly perfect American township located in rural Florida. The land was once owned by Edmunds Army Base and Bombing Range, but minimal use has left the forest and wetlands in pristine condition. Bought by Berg Brothers Studios, the entertainment company has built a thriving town and has plans to develop more of the land.

There’s just one problem: Dogs are starting to disappear from homes that border the development. So Berg Brothers call in Fish and Wildlife Services employee Ron Riggs to investigate. He determines that it must be the work of an alligator or python, but before you can say JURASSIC PARK 4, he discovers there’s something much older and much more dangerous at work.

At the center of THE FLOCK by James Robert Smith is a story about two dozen dinosaur-like Phorusrachids: big, predatory, ground-dwelling carnivore birds that can run up to 40 mph, have incredible hunting skills, and possess superior intelligence. In other words, raptors, like what you saw in the JURASSIC PARK movies, but smarter and faster — so smart, in fact, that a chunk of the story is told from their viewpoint.

Over the years, as man has slowly intruded upon their land, the Flock has learned to adapt. They no longer hunt — or even move, for that matter — during the day. They are in hiding, roaming the forest at night and hunting small game. They prefer to keep to themselves and stay as far away from man as possible. One of their own, however, has gone rogue.

Scarlet, named that because he is red all over (yes, the dinosaur birds have names for each other … bear with me) has gone against the Flock and is hunting during the day (including dogs and the occasional man) and is putting them all at risk of being caught. Scarlet wants to break off and start his own flock. The leaders of the Flock, Egg Father and Egg Mother, along with their chief of security, Walks Backwards, realize the danger Scarlet is creating, and decide that Scarlet must be killed if the Flock is to survive.

Meanwhile, back in the human camp: Vance Holcomb, billionaire and environmentalist, has rights to 100 acres adjacent to Salutations and has begun building a “research park” at the same time Salutations was being developed. Turns out Holcomb has known about the Flock for several years, realizes their rarity, and wants to protect them and keep anyone from finding out about them. Holcomb doesn’t want Salutations to expand because he knows it will affect the Flock. Although Holcomb appears to be the poster boy for Prehistoric PETA, he really has his own interests at heart, namely money.

Also in the mix is retired Marine Col. Winston Grisham, a right-wing extremist/racist who also owns 1,000 acres of land directly in the path of Salutations’ expansion. He is butting heads with Berg Brothers, the environmentalists and Holcomb. After Berg Brothers finds out about the Flock, they convince Grisham to hunt and kill the Flock, as well as anyone else that interferes. Grisham’s price: a huge sum of money and a guaranteed chunk of property all for himself.

The remainder of the book is a massive hunt and chase, as everyone is out to kill everyone else. Which is a problem for the book because with so many characters and subplots to go around, there are times when the story becomes unwieldy, and the cast becomes hard to keep track of. There are literally times when you’re asking yourself, “Whose side is this person on again?” There are mutinies and double-crosses, and even a love triangle of sorts.

And let’s not forget the part of the story that is told from the viewpoints of dinosaur birds Scarlet and Walks Backwards.

I could have done without the interpolitics of the dinosaur birds, and maybe just stuck to the human factor of the story, but the author has thrown out all the stops here. It’s both a blessing and a curse; although the novel is action-packed and moves along at a good clip, some chapters are confusing and the shifts back to the Flock’s POV were more annoying than compelling. If this were to be made into a movie, I could see that whole section of the story being jettisoned with none the worse for wear, as far as the story goes.
 
Smith has a crisp writing style and a flair for keeping the reader engaged. It’s a good action tale, although the too-pat ending might have you rolling your eyes and saying, “Oh, give me a break.” I just could have done without the birds’ side of the story. But that’s just me.

Now, let the “What the flock?” jokes begin.  —Slade Grayson

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New Peter Rabe? You read that right. This collection from Stark House Press presents material never before published. On top of that, it wasn’t even written until Rabe was teaching, long after his career as a published author. One thing is made clear: He never lost a step. In fact, he actually improved upon his own style.

THE SILENT WALL / THE RETURN OF MARVIN PALAVER might feature two titles on the cover, but the first is the real meat, taking up the bulk of the book at close to 200 pages. A short story, “Hard Case Redhead,” acts as a respite before MARVIN PALAVER.

THE SILENT WALL is a straight-up thriller that gets claustrophobic as the pages go by. World War II veteran Matty Matthews goes back to the small town of Forza d’Aguil, where he was once stationed and had a relationship with a woman he never got to say goodbye to. Early on, Matthews relates a tale of a fellow soldier who once crossed the line with a local, foreshadowing the rest of this novel.

Once Matthews arrives, he crosses a man by the name of Pino, the local Mafioso, leaving our hero with nowhere to turn. The whole town turns against him, except for a innkeeper and a woman named Sophia. Rabe never lets up the pressure on Matthews until the very end, and the actions of our protagonist has deep repercussions. It’s amazing how the noose tightens around him.

In “Hard Case Redhead,” two robbers take a girl hostage who was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time. The story is super-brief and ends up a little unexpected, but also fitting. This plays like a great palate cleanser before THE RETURN OF MARVIN PALAVER, a comedic supernatural tale narrated by a dead man who relates the story of how he died and the comeuppance that he finally sees happen to an associate.

It deals with swindles and double-crosses. But how can a ghost get his satisfaction? That’s the plot, but I can’t go into detail without ruining the payoff. It helps make for another fine collection from the publishing house that can do no wrong. Included is a new introductory piece by Rick Ollerman, who covers Rabe’s career as a writer, and a lengthy bibliography that details Rabe’s work writing under pseudonyms. —Bruce Grossman

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Crime novelist Wallace Stroby didn’t make us wait near as long for COLD SHOT TO THE HEART as he did for last year’s fine GONE ‘TIL NOVEMBER. Like that novel, this one features a female protagonist caught up in the responsibilities of her profession and the complexities of her personal life. This time, however, the woman is not a cop.

Crissa Stone is a career criminal, and a very good one, too. She has to be, since women are a rarity in her filed. But she is a good as she is thanks to a strict set of rules she follows. Like never working a job too close to her New York City home, never rushing a job, and never working with the same crew.

These and other rules she learned from her lover, Wayne, who took the fall for a heist gone bad and is now in a Texas prison. Wayne is up for parole, and Crissa needs to pull together a huge amount of cash to pay a lawyer who could influence the parole board and insure his release. That’s why she agrees to take on a job she might otherwise have refused.

The target is a high-stakes poker game in a classy Florida hotel. The inside information says that there could be as much as $1 million in cash on the table. So Crissa agrees to pull together a crew and help plan the robbery. But one of the crew members gets jittery during the heist and shoots one of the card players. Suddenly, the robbery becomes a murder, and Crissa and her crew rush to divvy up their take and disappear both from the scene and from each other.
 
As it turns out, the murdered poker player was a made man. Soon, Eddie the Saint, a psychopathic hit man recently released from prison, is hired to hunt down and kill those who shot the poker player. It isn’t long before he has Crissa in his sights.
 
Stroby evokes memories of the best of Richard Stark’s (aka Donald Westlake) Parker series, especially in his main character and the scenes where she and her crew assemble and plan the knock-over. But Crissa is not simply a “female Parker.” She is driven more by her devotion to Wayne than just a dwindling cash supply.

Earlier, Crissa gave up a baby daughter to the care of a close cousin, and now must watch the child grow up without her. Unlike Parker, Crissa longs to put her criminal life behind her and live out the rest of her days in quite, fairly law-abiding normality.
 
COLD SHOT follows a similar narrative structure from Stroby’s previous novel. Crissa and Eddie’s storylines are presented separately and inch closer together until their inevitable confrontation. The characterizations are strong and convincing, and the pace is swift and assured, with just enough pauses to allow us to catch our breath and prepare for what comes next.

With only four titles to his name, including this one, Stroby has nonetheless shot right to the top of dark-tinged crime authors worth noting and following. If you haven’t picked up on him yet, COLD SHOT TO THE HEART is an excellent place to begin. —Alan Cranis

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Daniel Judson returns again to his wintry Southampton turf for VOYEUR, packing a dizzying array of deception, betrayal and greed into a story running under 300 pages.
 
Remer, the only name we’re given for the protagonist, was once a successful and effective private investigator in Manhattan. His specialty was spying on individuals while they took part in extramarital affairs, and providing the damning evidence for divorce trials as a result. During one such case, however, Remer was set up and captured by hired thugs. They tortured him and left him with a scar he still carries. And that was enough to cause Remer to retire from the P.I. business.  

Now he leads a comfortably dull life running a liquor store he owns in Southampton. On weekends, he numbs his mind with a homemade and mildly hallucinogenic concoction of herbs and extracts, while enjoying the company of a pretty female college student who stays in the apartment above his.

Just as Christmas approaches, Remer is contacted by a former operative and store employee. She wants him to help locate Mia Ferrera, the daughter of a wealthy Manhattan society matron. Mia was once the woman Remer loved, until she disappeared mysteriously with a load of Remer’s money. Still, he agrees to help find her, upon condition that he only has to report where she is and have no contact with her whatsoever.
 
But shortly after finding Mia, Remer witnesses what looks like a murder, pulling him into a whirlwind of chases, cover-ups, violence and a convoluted scheme that could set him up in ways worse than what forced him out of the P.I. game all those years ago. And, of course, Mia is at the center of it all.
 
Judson’s plot risks overcomplication at times, especially as it flashes back to events and memories occurring six years prior to the narrative. But he pulls us through, thanks to his very assured pacing and mostly to our emotional investment in Remer.
 
The author wraps this little holiday season tale in unmistakably noir tones. There are the chilly, snowy and damp Southampton settings, so palpable at times that they could easily be a character in the story. Then there is Remer’s ambiguous behavior. While a true professional at his work and a moralist at heart, we learn that he’s not above taking troubling matters into his own hands whenever threatened or wronged.
 
VOYUER is a very involving and satisfying novel, especially for those who like their stories and characters on the darker side. But be prepared to tap the thermostat up a notch or two as you get into it. —Alan Cranis

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ON THE LINE is another entry in S.J. Rozan’s off-and-on series involving New York P.I. Bill Smith and his sometime partner and near-girlfriend, Lydia Chin. Here, however, Rozan employs a different narrative structure that unfortunately does not serve her well.

Smith is practicing a Brahms sonata at the piano early one morning when his cell phone interrupts him. The ringtone says it’s a call from Lydia, but when Smith answers, he hears an electronically altered voice on the other end, telling him that Lydia has been kidnapped, and if he wants her to live, he must play the kidnapper’s game of hide-and-seek and follow a string of clues. Oh, and Smith has 12 hours to find her, or she’s dead.

Smith immediately enlists the help of Lydia’s cousin, Linus, a former hacker who now runs his own security firm. Together with Trella, Linus’s friend and security firm receptionist, the three set out for the first location at which the kidnapper has hinted. It’s a deserted bar in Brooklyn, where they discover the dead body of an Asian woman just before the cops arrive to arrest Smith for murder.

He narrowly escapes, but now he’s not only racing to save Lydia’s life, but on the run from the law. He reconnects with Linus and Trella, and the trio desperately continues the search for the clues left by the kidnapper. Along the way, and as Smith begins to realize the identity of the psychopathic kidnapper, more murders are uncovered.

Rozan wastes no time, shifting the pace into high gear from literally the very first page. The immediate tension and high speed are without question the novel’s greatest strengths, as is the story being conveyed through Smith’s first-person narration.

But soon, the weaknesses reveal themselves. Most glaring are the characterizations, as thin as onion skin. We learn nothing about any of main players, except perhaps for the kidnapper’s backstory as his identity are eventually revealed. This will come as a surprise to those familiar with Rozan’s earlier works, which always showed much more depth.

Owing to the race-against-the-clock format, the characters here are quickly dashed off with no interiority. This is especially true of Linus, whose speech — punctuated by “dude” every other word — quickly becomes stereotypical and irritating. Even Smith’s emotional ties and true feelings for Lydia — beyond his professional bond — are kept curiously vague.

Then there is the collection of oblique clues and situations set up by the kidnapper as he runs Smith through his maze. They start off odd and only distantly related. Before long, they become more strange and disconnected. By the time, the novel reaches its final confrontation, it is near impossible to accept that such far-flung clues could lead anyone to any kind of coherent conclusion. Rozan obviously intended these to add to the suspense, but they end up confusing and disorienting.

The author is to be commended for trying something new. But the results, as shown in ON THE LINE, are disappointing. As a novelist, Rozan is much more compelling and memorable when, as in any of her earlier works, she allows her characters a bit more breathing space, and her readers the opportunity to know them better. —Alan Cranis

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Meh. I’m afraid that’s all I can muster to say about Rebecca James’ debut novel, BEAUTIFUL MALICE. This psychological thriller features one 17-year-old Katie Boydell, who is attempting to reconstruct her life after a horrible incident where her younger sister was raped and murdered. Boydell’s story is told through three timelines: the past, which involves her sister; the near-past, which concerns Katie and her new friends, Alice and Robbie; and the present five years on, where we learn that Katie has a 5-year-old daughter and all seems relatively well.

Katie’s new friendship with Alice at first seems to be heaven-sent, enabling her to break out of her shell and live life once again. But fairly quickly, we realize that something is mentally wrong with Alice and it takes waaayyy too long for that to sink in with Katie and Robbie. It’s kind of a variant of SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, and about as interesting as that movie.

While the writing is certainly adequate, and the handling of the timelines is deft (something at which many writers fail), the characters and most of their actions are completely unbelievable. These are supposed to be teenagers, but they don’t act it. Alice is supposed to have some kind of almost hypnotic hold over her friends, but we can’t really see it. She causes immense damage to relationships, and yet people still fawn all over her. The main character is immensely frustrating in that she is almost completely self-absorbed, and yet unwilling to do (or think) anything about her own self-preservation.

In the end, it’s a lot of overwrought emotional angst. Sorry. —Mark Rose

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It’s books like Gianrico Carofiglio’s THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY that make me glad I write for this site, since I probably would never have heard of this Italian import. This novel originally came out in 2006, was translated back in ’07 and recently — finally — hit our shores. The novel easily could be classified as some sort of child of Patricia Highsmith’s output, as it’s clearly influenced by her work.

THE PAST centers on Giorgio, a young lawyer who, during a card game where he knew he was over his head, meets a new acquaintance who will shape his immediate future. Francesco is young, charismatic and slightly dangerous. Their friendship, if that term applies, starts off easily enough.

Throughout the card game, Girogo barely survives, until the final hand where the stakes hit a point that he is sure to win. It’s easily explained, because Francesco dealt him a hand he could not lose, starting a turn of events Giorgio would never have have predicted.

Intrigued by this new companion and his ways, Giorgio becoming more interested in card games than his studies as a lawyer. He slowly drops out, to the point of barely having any interaction with his family. The pair continues to fleece other card games, while we get small glimpses of how dark Francesco really is. Giorgio slowly realizes his life is headed in the wrong direction, but there is no clear sign of him wanting to change.

Carofiglio has created a great character in Francesco, who we know is a total sociopath, but can’t help but become drawn to him. The author’s style makes THE PAST a great read, and I’m guessing Howard Curtis’ top-notch translation helps immensely. He shows his influences clearly, with one character torn from Highsmith’s Ripley-like cloth, while mixing in enough Jim Thompson-esque grifting.

The title will make perfect sense to the reader once he or she finishes, since it’s only then that we discover all the book’s secrets. This is deserving of a wider audience, and just goes to show that some of the best crime fiction is not all homegrown. —Bruce Grossman

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The teaming of LAPD Detective Harry Bosch and defense attorney Mickey Haller, teased at in THE BRASS VERDICT (and to a far lesser extent in NINE DRAGONS) is finally fully realized in Michael Connelly’s THE REVERSAL. But while these two series characters share equal billing, the results ironically demonstrate the strengths of one character’s narrative format over the other.

During lunch at a swanky downtown restaurant, the L.A. District Attorney offers Haller an unusual opportunity. Twenty-four years ago, Jason Jessup was arrested and convicted of the abduction and murder of a 12-year-old girl, but recent DNA evidence reversed the conviction and Jessup is about to be released. The D.A. wants Jessup retried, and he wants Haller to “cross over” and prosecute the case.

Haller, the renowned “Defender of the Damned,” refuses at first, but the killing of a young child doesn’t sit well with him, so he agrees, providing he can select his own prosecuting team. The D.A. agrees, and Haller immediately chooses Maggie McPherson, his ex-wife and a seasoned prosecutor, for his second chair. Haller’s choice for lead investigator? His half-brother, Harry Bosch.

Their work is cut out for them, as most of the witnesses from the first murder trial are either dead or too ill to testify again. Plus, the defense lawyer, Clive Royce, aka “Clever Clive,” is a grandstander who manipulates the media at every opportunity.
 
Even more disturbing is Jessup himself. Not long after his release, a police surveillance squad keeping a secret vigil report Jessup making strange, late-night visits to various public parks in the hills above L.A. Bosch wonders if Jessup is visiting the hidden burial sites of former victims. One night, Jessup is found outside the house Bosch shares with his teenaged daughter.
 
Connelly alternates the story between first-person chapters involving Haller and third-person chapters following Bosch (in keeping with most of their individual series format). It doesn’t take long before the Bosch chapters prove superior to Haller’s. The characterization is more probing, especially as Bosch struggles with his new life as a full-time father (following the conclusion of NINE DRAGONS) and realizes how his job makes his daughter so vulnerable. As Bosch traces the suspected murder on his nightly visits, the ambience and suspense is reminiscent of the best moment of earlier Bosch novels.
 
The Haller chapters, by contract, follow a more routine format of a any hundreds of court-case stories. There are the usual courtroom dramatics, arguments and challenges with the presiding judge, pages and pages of testimony (many from the earlier case, read out loud from transcripts by Haller and Bosch), and the occasional (and often confusing) legal maneuvers meant to either stall or advance the case. Connelly tries for character depth here with asides from Haller personal life, but they are quickly dismissed once the case continues.
 
The weaknesses of the Haller sections are all the more disappointing when you remember that the previous Haller novels (starting with THE LINCOLN LAWYER) hardly followed such courtroom formulas, and were appealing especially to readers who otherwise hated legal thrillers. Perhaps knowing this, Connelly injects an unexpected upheaval in the book’s resolution, and then plays a heavy irony card intended to emphasize the unanticipated frailty of the legal system. But by these late chapters, we are near beyond the point of caring, so such last-minute sprints come off somewhat desperate.
 
Haller was far more compelling as a defense lawyer who sometimes had to face the difficult and challenging reality that his client might actually be innocent. And Bosch, over a long series of mostly excellent novels, is best at, well, being Bosch, with all the emotional and procedural obstacles to his personal mission.

So if THE REVERSAL proves anything — other than the fact that even second-rate Connelly is still mostly worth the time — it’s that these two should be left to their separate lives and stories, with only an occasional and brief intertwining. —Alan Cranis

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John Lescroart fans haven’t seen San Francisco attorney Wes Ferrell and SFPD homicide investigator Abe Glitsky together since 1995’s A CERTAIN JUSTICE. Both return, along with a few other characters from previous novels, in DAMAGE, the author’s latest legal thriller. Revenge and misplaced suspicions are its driving themes.

A little over a decade ago, Ro Curtlee, the reckless young heir to SF’s wealthiest family, was convicted of rape and murder and sent to jail. During that time, his clan used its power and influences to subtly punish those they felt were responsible for Ro’s conviction. Included among those was lead homicide detective Glitsky, who was reassigned to the police department’s payroll office.

Now, almost immediately after Ferrell won the D.A.’s office, Ro’s lawyers have secured him a retrial. No sooner is Ro released on bail when serious trouble begins: A house fire kills one of the original trial’s star witnesses. Glitsky, who has finally worked his way back to homicide investigations, is certain his family is threatened when Ro make an unexpected visit to his home. Then, a second fire kills another person related to the case.

Glitsky is positive that Ro is responsible for the murders and must be put back behind bars. But, as Ferrell and others point out, there is no real evidence linking him to the deaths. Frustrated by the very laws he must protect, Glitsky fears others will die before Ro is finally stopped, but until he and the prosecutors come up with solid evidence, it appears that they are the ones bent on revenge for the damage Ro created.

Lescroart’s style is straightforward and a tad bit prosaic, except when describing the climate or locations of his beloved San Francisco. Often, however, he can’t help but bog readers down with an abundance of legal procedure and exposition (a common ailment in legal thrillers) in an effort to move the story forward.

Yet, Lescroat impressively keeps Ro from being the overly obvious murder suspect. As loathsome and overly protected as the young Curtlee is, there is still way too much convincing evidence of his innocence. This, and a few other surprises Lescroat tosses in along the way, keeps us wondering where our sympathies should go, fueling the suspense that keeps us reading past all the legalese and other slow spots.

Lescroart is one of several popular and prolific authors whose plots are more memorable than any of his characters. So if you are looking for something that will keep you second-guessing the legal system, with only a minimum of character depth, DAMAGE is just the thing. —Alan Cranis

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Michael Koryta has been impressing readers and reviewers alike since the 2005 publication of his first novel, TONIGHT I SAID GOODBYE, at the tender age of 21. Then, after five fairly straightforward crime novels, he changed directions last year with the addition of a supernatural element in SO COLD THE RIVER. He continues that trend with his latest novel, THE CYPRESS HOUSE.

It is late August 1935, and the country is suffering the ravages of the Great Depression. Arlen Wagner is on a train headed for Key West, Fla., where he and his 19-year-old friend, Paul Brickhill, hope to find work at the Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Then Arlen sees death approaching.

It’s visions he’s been having for most of his life, where he suddenly sees gray smoke swirling in the eyes of people around him, and then sees the skeleton underneath their skin. Arlen is certain that every passenger on the train will soon die. So he convinces young Paul to get off at the next station and let the train continue without them.

The two set off on foot, heading south in search of the nearest town and transit to another government sponsored camp where they might find work. Then a stranger driving by offers to give the two travelers a ride. After several brief stops, they arrive at an isolated Gulf Coast boardinghouse called Cypress House. A fierce storm is headed their way, so Rebecca Cady, the beautiful but elusive owner of the home, agrees to let them stay until the bad weather blows over.

The storm becomes a hurricane, causing extensive damage and death to Key West. The roof and adjoining buildings at Cypress House are also victims, so Arlen and Paul offer to stay and repair the damage in exchange for whatever cash Rebecca can pay. Soon, they meet the local sheriff and Solomon Wade, the county judge. These men are immediately suspicious of Arlen and Paul, and submit them to questioning and brutal beatings at the county jail. The men are eventually returned, but kept under watch.

Arlen wants to leave, but Paul has fallen for Rebecca and refuses to abandon her. Then Arlen learns the ominous and criminal truth behind Solomon, Rebecca and the goings-on at Cypress House. In the midst of this, Arlen sees more gray smoke and skeletons, and knows that death is soon approaching.
 
Koryta struggles to effectively weave the supernatural through the full fabric of his novel. It appears literally in the first pages and immediately propels the action, but fades into the background and seemingly disappears as we learn more about Rebecca, Solomon and the mysterious past of the boardinghouse.After several chapters, Arlen’s ability to foresee death reappears, takes on an additional dimension, and dominates the last quarter of the novel.
 
What overcomes this uneasy imbalance is Koryta’s masterful prose. He effectively portrays the period and characters with convincing internal desperation and striving. His humid Gulf Coast location, with its abrupt shifts from beaches to swamps and wooded jungles becomes downright creepy. While his villains, especially Solomon, are never physically imposing, Koryta portrays them with an unmistakable sense of threat and foreboding.

It remains to be seen if the author will continue to combine crime stories with otherworldly components. For the moment, he remains one of the most notable young talents working today. And THE CYPRESS HOUSE is both impressive and highly recommended, even in the face of its shortcomings. —Alan Cranis

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Picking up after the events of LOSER TOWN is this BABYLON NIGHTS, Daniel Depp’s second novel in the David Spandau series. Like the previous one, I’ve got problems with the book. This time, at least it’s not as Elmore Leonard-esque in its plot, but there are way too many characters mixed up in the narrative. Going from one chapter to another, I was not sure which plot I was following. It does not help that a good amount of them are so nondescript, you might want to give up.

The main plot deals with David being hired by an aging actress of all of 40 years, who bought a deadly toxin. She figures her career is over and she will do herself in. But after a luncheon where it’s discovered that her scarf was sliced by a razor, she goes into a panic, worried she might have a crazed stalker.

Actually, she has a young Filipino after her named Vincent Perec. He’s molded after the other psychos who have come before, like having hookers dress up like the actress and having a bizarre shrine in his home.

But this is not BABYLON NIGHTS’ only plot in the book. We are also treated to a group of pimps and hookers Perec ripped off. These parts never kept me wanting to see what would happen next, and for a thriller, that is not a good sign. Once everyone ends up in Cannes for the film festival, I just wanted to close it and never come back, especially with how easily these people all travel in the same circles. Because you know pimps are wizards at detective work to find that some guy they never met went to Cannes.

Yes, Depp explains it away, but it’s too much a grain of salt for my tastes. This is, of course, just my opinion, as others might gravitate toward this tale of the film scene in Cannes. Those not in Hollywood circles might want to look elsewhere. —Bruce Grossman

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T. Jefferson Parker’s THE BORDER LORDS continues the saga of ATF agent Charlie Hood that started three novels earlier with L.A. OUTLAWS. It includes and pulls together many of the events and surviving characters from the previous entries into what is probably the best novel of the series to date.

Hood is the main contact for Sean Ozburn, a friend and fellow ATF agent who many months ago went deep undercover to infiltrate the notorious Mexican North Baja Cartel. But suddenly, Ozburn has gone dark — no longer checking in per schedule, nor responding to urgent pleas to connect with Hood.

Then, a group of young cartel gunmen is murdered in a nearby safe house under surveillance by the ATF. And videotapes of the surveillance show Ozburn as the likely murderer. Has he gone rogue? Hood is determined to find out and launches an investigation into the days and contacts made before Ozburn went off the radar.

In the meantime, we learn Ozburn is secretly brokering the sale of some custom-designed and highly dangerous guns to the rival gang of the North Baja Cartel. It looks as though he intends to tip Hood and the ATF off on the sale so that they can bust the gang and keep the guns and the cash off the Southern California streets.

But Ozburn’s behavior has been alarmingly unpredictable and erratic since the time he and his wife, Seliah, took a brief vacation in the midst of his undercover activities and made friends with a mysterious, hard-drinking Irish priest named Father Leftwich. Hood traces the details of the gun sale and hopes to not only prevent more bloodshed, but also rescue Ozburn and get him into a hospital for treatment of what he suspects is the cause of his strange behavior.
 
Parker shifts the point-of-view back and forth between Hood, Ozburn and a few secondary characters who also figure into the narrative. Yet he keeps the pace moving at near-breakneck speed, pausing only long enough to fill the reader in on events from previous novels or to take in the unique beauty of the High Desert area that figures some prominently in these stories.

But THE BORDER LORDS suffers from the same curse of its predecessors, in that it desperately tries to incorporate far too many unrelated topics into its storyline. Parker nonetheless incorporates most of the characters from the previous Hood novels into — for the most part — a logical and coherent whole. Chief among these characters is Bradley Jones, a young and highly ambitious member of the sheriff’s department who uses his contacts with the cartel members to advance his own career.

Then there is Mike Finnegan, a shadowy figure introduced in the last Charlie Hood novel, IRON RIVER, whose creepy omniscience continually frustrates everyone he meets. And it’s Finnegan who provides the biggest challenge to Parker here. Although we discover he has a major influence on the characters and their actions, his spectral presence and seemingly instant yet comprehensive knowledge of their lives seems horribly out of place with the realism that permeates the story. We are never certain who (or what) he is, and what his true role is in the narrative. But, if we are to believe the final moments of the novel, we are likely to meet up with him again.
 
Prior knowledge of the earlier Hood novels is not essential to the enjoyment of THE BORDER LORDS, although those who have followed the series from its beginning will undoubtedly have a richer and more rewarding experience. For the most part, it’s Parker in mostly full command of his narrative talents. And that alone makes it more than worth the reader’s while. —Alan Cranis

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