No Child of Mine
Kelly Irvin
Five Star, Oct 12 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781432825300
In San Antonio, U.S. Attorney’s Office Investigator Daniel Martinez and his estranged wife Nicole attend the wedding of Ray and Susana (see A Deadly Wilderness). The bride’s son Marco Acosta asks Police Detective Deborah Smith where his Tio Daniel is. The upset child explains to his Tio and Deborah that Daniel’s foster son, eight-year-old Benny, is missing. Evidence points to a kidnapping.
While Daniel desperately searches for Benny before the lad is trafficked or killed, Deborah and her police partner Alex Luna find a child’s skeleton on Ray’s ranch. While the two cops try to find the child and to solve a cold case homicide that has become hot, Daniel, also investigating the abduction knows time is running out for his Benny.
This sequel is a gritty police procedural that looks deep into the visible underbelly of the city and the more discrete but as ugly rural areas. Besides the urban gangbangers, there is also plenty of drug and other illegal trafficking on the back country roads. Although the romantic subplot seems out of place and rushed, the condemnation is for an under staffed overworked foster care system in which politicos only give a sh*t when a media incident occurs. Readers will enjoy this dark Texas thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Night Moves-Stephanie Tyler
Night Moves
Stephanie Tyler
Dell, Sep 27 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780440423058
In Chihuahua, Mexico Shadow Force operatives Kell and his foster brother Reid target for execution two Mexican drug lords when a tall blonde flees as if the devil is chasing her. Her path is right down the middle between the drug lords and the operatives. They get Teddie out of the way before completing the job.
Kell knows he needs to ignore her, but though a loner except with Reid, finds he cannot. He promises to escort Teddie to safety, which he assumes should not prove difficult, especially with Reid having his back. However, Teddie fails to inform her knight that she left the Witness Protection Program on an avenging mission to kill those who massacred her family. Thus she shot a man in the back in nearby Juarez. That person and U.S. marshals want her while another adversary targets the agents of Shadow Force.
The fourth Shadow Force romantic suspense (see In the Air Tonight and Promises in the Dark) is an exciting action-packed thriller as Kell and Teddie fight, argue and fall in love while fleeing Mexican drug lords, the Feds and their respective hearts. Though the lead couple’s actions seem doubtful with all that is going on against them, Stephanie Tyler provides a taut thriller that grips readers from the moment Teddie enters the kill zone and Kell’s heart.
Harriet Klausner
Stephanie Tyler
Dell, Sep 27 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780440423058
In Chihuahua, Mexico Shadow Force operatives Kell and his foster brother Reid target for execution two Mexican drug lords when a tall blonde flees as if the devil is chasing her. Her path is right down the middle between the drug lords and the operatives. They get Teddie out of the way before completing the job.
Kell knows he needs to ignore her, but though a loner except with Reid, finds he cannot. He promises to escort Teddie to safety, which he assumes should not prove difficult, especially with Reid having his back. However, Teddie fails to inform her knight that she left the Witness Protection Program on an avenging mission to kill those who massacred her family. Thus she shot a man in the back in nearby Juarez. That person and U.S. marshals want her while another adversary targets the agents of Shadow Force.
The fourth Shadow Force romantic suspense (see In the Air Tonight and Promises in the Dark) is an exciting action-packed thriller as Kell and Teddie fight, argue and fall in love while fleeing Mexican drug lords, the Feds and their respective hearts. Though the lead couple’s actions seem doubtful with all that is going on against them, Stephanie Tyler provides a taut thriller that grips readers from the moment Teddie enters the kill zone and Kell’s heart.
Harriet Klausner
Death of the Mantis-Michael Stanley
Death of the Mantis
Michael Stanley
Harper, Sep 6 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780062000378
In the Kalahari in Botswana, Maguasehube ranger station office manager Thebe Ndoli and Maguasehube ranger station head Peter Vusi find one of their game rangers Tawana Monzo dead in a desert locale way beyond their duty station. Detective Sergeant Phinda “Detective Stone Wall" Lerako arrests three Bushmen who were at the murder scene.
Educated Bushman Khumanego finds his plea to the detective ignored. He asks his Botswana Criminal Investigation Department Assistant Superintendent to look into the murder case. CID Director Jacob Mabaku approves Kubu’s inquiry but admonishes him not to cause problems for the local cops. However Kubu finds evidence proving an unknown person was also at the murder scene while his immediate supervisor Detective Sergeant Phinda Lerako demands he backs down until a second similar murder of a Namibian “tourist” in the same arid area occurs.
The third Detective Kubu mystery (see The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu and A Carrion Death) is a strong police procedural in which Botswana plays a major role in the investigation. The whodunit is entertaining and very different in outlook than the whimsical cases of Precious Ramotswe (by Alexander McCall Smith). However, like Mr. Smith’s protagonist, it is the profound look into the country; in the Kubu case how law enforcement deals with the nomadic Bushmen that make this a superb mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Michael Stanley
Harper, Sep 6 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780062000378
In the Kalahari in Botswana, Maguasehube ranger station office manager Thebe Ndoli and Maguasehube ranger station head Peter Vusi find one of their game rangers Tawana Monzo dead in a desert locale way beyond their duty station. Detective Sergeant Phinda “Detective Stone Wall" Lerako arrests three Bushmen who were at the murder scene.
Educated Bushman Khumanego finds his plea to the detective ignored. He asks his Botswana Criminal Investigation Department Assistant Superintendent to look into the murder case. CID Director Jacob Mabaku approves Kubu’s inquiry but admonishes him not to cause problems for the local cops. However Kubu finds evidence proving an unknown person was also at the murder scene while his immediate supervisor Detective Sergeant Phinda Lerako demands he backs down until a second similar murder of a Namibian “tourist” in the same arid area occurs.
The third Detective Kubu mystery (see The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu and A Carrion Death) is a strong police procedural in which Botswana plays a major role in the investigation. The whodunit is entertaining and very different in outlook than the whimsical cases of Precious Ramotswe (by Alexander McCall Smith). However, like Mr. Smith’s protagonist, it is the profound look into the country; in the Kubu case how law enforcement deals with the nomadic Bushmen that make this a superb mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Friday, September 2, 2011
Sorry-Zoran Drvenkar
Sorry
Zoran Drvenkar
Knopf, Sep 22 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9780307273550
In Berlin, four twentyish friends (Kris Marrer, his younger brother, Wolf, Tamara Berger and Frauke Lewin) create Sorry, a company that provides apologies for businesses who mistreated employees and individuals who did likewise to others. Their business proves much more successful than they anticipated as customers come to them in droves.
Sadistic serial killer Lars Meybach learns of the quartet and their firm’s mission. Using the threat of adding their family members to his death count, he hires Sorry to apologize to his dead victims, absolve him of residue guilt and clean up any mess he caused. Reality hammers the Marrer siblings who relook their business values when they meet their first corpse nailed to a wall by their client Meybach.
This superb psychological suspense thriller grips the reader from the onset and maintains its hold until the final clarification as to who the true victims are. The four partners are fully developed with diverse personalities while also representing metaphors of the modern business ethic. However, the tale belongs to Meybach; whose business vision is when normal people think of serial killers they think of Meybach.
Harriet Klausner
Zoran Drvenkar
Knopf, Sep 22 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9780307273550
In Berlin, four twentyish friends (Kris Marrer, his younger brother, Wolf, Tamara Berger and Frauke Lewin) create Sorry, a company that provides apologies for businesses who mistreated employees and individuals who did likewise to others. Their business proves much more successful than they anticipated as customers come to them in droves.
Sadistic serial killer Lars Meybach learns of the quartet and their firm’s mission. Using the threat of adding their family members to his death count, he hires Sorry to apologize to his dead victims, absolve him of residue guilt and clean up any mess he caused. Reality hammers the Marrer siblings who relook their business values when they meet their first corpse nailed to a wall by their client Meybach.
This superb psychological suspense thriller grips the reader from the onset and maintains its hold until the final clarification as to who the true victims are. The four partners are fully developed with diverse personalities while also representing metaphors of the modern business ethic. However, the tale belongs to Meybach; whose business vision is when normal people think of serial killers they think of Meybach.
Harriet Klausner
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Sweet Revenge-Christy Reece
Sweet Revenge
Christy Reece
Ballantine, Sep 27 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345524058
The maniac abducted and sold Jamie Kendrick to Stanford Reddington and his even viler son. The Last Chance Rescue team quietly enters Reddington’s home in Bustarviejo, Spain. Naked and battered Jamie leaps onto the back of LCR operative Dylan Savage threatening to kill him. Admiring her guts, he explains he and the team came to extract her from this beast.
However using his affluence, Reddington remains free. Jamie needs to take him down so he asks LCR boss Noah McCall to train her as a pawn on a mission to destroy the pervert. McCall assigns Dylan to pretend to train her to obtain information about her kidnapper; as LCR plans to go after her abductee without her. As Dylan earns her trust, they fall in love but he believes she deserves better than his DNA.
The latest Last Chance Rescue romantic suspense (see Sweet Justice) is an exhilarating thriller as aptly named top gun operative Savage and avenging angel Kendrick make for a terrific pairing as he needs to obtain data from her anyway he can but feels guilty for doing so. Kendrick’s vendetta obsession overwhelms her mentally adding depth to the tale but her inane fight over flight actions seems improbable. Still she proves revenge is not a cold dish but one very sweet especially with love as one of the benefits.
Harriet Klausner
Christy Reece
Ballantine, Sep 27 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345524058
The maniac abducted and sold Jamie Kendrick to Stanford Reddington and his even viler son. The Last Chance Rescue team quietly enters Reddington’s home in Bustarviejo, Spain. Naked and battered Jamie leaps onto the back of LCR operative Dylan Savage threatening to kill him. Admiring her guts, he explains he and the team came to extract her from this beast.
However using his affluence, Reddington remains free. Jamie needs to take him down so he asks LCR boss Noah McCall to train her as a pawn on a mission to destroy the pervert. McCall assigns Dylan to pretend to train her to obtain information about her kidnapper; as LCR plans to go after her abductee without her. As Dylan earns her trust, they fall in love but he believes she deserves better than his DNA.
The latest Last Chance Rescue romantic suspense (see Sweet Justice) is an exhilarating thriller as aptly named top gun operative Savage and avenging angel Kendrick make for a terrific pairing as he needs to obtain data from her anyway he can but feels guilty for doing so. Kendrick’s vendetta obsession overwhelms her mentally adding depth to the tale but her inane fight over flight actions seems improbable. Still she proves revenge is not a cold dish but one very sweet especially with love as one of the benefits.
Harriet Klausner
Believe Like a Child-Paige Dearth
Believe Like a Child
Paige Dearth
CreateSpace, Jun 22 2011, $11.99
ISBN: 9781461105671
Not long after the death of her maternal Grammy, her protector Uncle Danny sexually abuses his seven year old niece Alessa by placing his fingers into her vagina. She becomes confused and very frightened. Over the next decade, Uncle Danny visits her with impunity. She told her mother that Uncle Danny was sodomizing her, but Caterina called her a liar; while her dad might as well not have existed. The little girl assumed her brother Anthony and her two older sisters (Rosabella and Anna) knew, but did nothing to end the incestuous rapes.
When friendless Alessia turned fourteen, Rhonda in her gym class invites her to a party. When she was sixteen, Alessa was at Rhonda’s house when a visitor fires shots and kills her only buddy. Alessa’s mom bans her from the funeral. After her parents leave for the weekend, Uncle Danny informs his niece she will be friendly to his poker buddies. Instead she leaves hell house for the mean streets of Philadelphia where more Uncle Danny types stalk teens like her.
This is not an easy read as Paige Dearth does not attempt to hide or lessen the ugliness of predators like Uncle Danny and their silent by hiding in the sand supporters like her mother. Alessa is an incredible individual whose over all life from the day Uncle Danny moved in is a living hell. Her trek from hell house to the big city is filled with more ugliness. Yet Alessa lives up to her name as the Defender of Mankind when she reaches out from the darkness as a light to others like her under the bridge young “roommate” Lucy until the past returns in anger.
Harriet Klausner
Paige Dearth
CreateSpace, Jun 22 2011, $11.99
ISBN: 9781461105671
Not long after the death of her maternal Grammy, her protector Uncle Danny sexually abuses his seven year old niece Alessa by placing his fingers into her vagina. She becomes confused and very frightened. Over the next decade, Uncle Danny visits her with impunity. She told her mother that Uncle Danny was sodomizing her, but Caterina called her a liar; while her dad might as well not have existed. The little girl assumed her brother Anthony and her two older sisters (Rosabella and Anna) knew, but did nothing to end the incestuous rapes.
When friendless Alessia turned fourteen, Rhonda in her gym class invites her to a party. When she was sixteen, Alessa was at Rhonda’s house when a visitor fires shots and kills her only buddy. Alessa’s mom bans her from the funeral. After her parents leave for the weekend, Uncle Danny informs his niece she will be friendly to his poker buddies. Instead she leaves hell house for the mean streets of Philadelphia where more Uncle Danny types stalk teens like her.
This is not an easy read as Paige Dearth does not attempt to hide or lessen the ugliness of predators like Uncle Danny and their silent by hiding in the sand supporters like her mother. Alessa is an incredible individual whose over all life from the day Uncle Danny moved in is a living hell. Her trek from hell house to the big city is filled with more ugliness. Yet Alessa lives up to her name as the Defender of Mankind when she reaches out from the darkness as a light to others like her under the bridge young “roommate” Lucy until the past returns in anger.
Harriet Klausner
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Deadly Little Lies-Jeanne Adams
Deadly Little Lies
Jeanne Adams
Zebra, Sep 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9781420108835
In San Francisco billionaire Davros Gianakopulos is happy for his business partner security expert Gates Bromley who married former CIA agent Ana Burton. However, their happiness has Davros looking within his soul to see what he wants in life as he misses his home in Greece. He decides it is not what but who and that is art gallery owner Carrie McCray.
He asks her out and she accepts a lunch date. However, their first time out together with Gates no longer running his security turns nasty when thugs grab both of them. Dav considers all that Gates taught him in a hostage situation but none included having the woman you want to make it with being held too. Meanwhile the lead kidnapper his brother Niko has waited years for this opportunity to serve up the cold dish of revenge by dumping his two captives in an overseas hellhole prison. Gates and Ana make a frenzied search for them as each knows time is running out on the prisoners.
The sequel to the superb Deadly Little Secrets focuses on the previous novel’s secondary character Dav and the woman he adores as they struggle to survive the ordeal of an abduction that is fueled by angry vengeance. The story line is action-packed from the moment the kidnapping occurs and never slows down as readers will be hooked on this gripping taut romantic suspense.
Harriet Klausner
Jeanne Adams
Zebra, Sep 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9781420108835
In San Francisco billionaire Davros Gianakopulos is happy for his business partner security expert Gates Bromley who married former CIA agent Ana Burton. However, their happiness has Davros looking within his soul to see what he wants in life as he misses his home in Greece. He decides it is not what but who and that is art gallery owner Carrie McCray.
He asks her out and she accepts a lunch date. However, their first time out together with Gates no longer running his security turns nasty when thugs grab both of them. Dav considers all that Gates taught him in a hostage situation but none included having the woman you want to make it with being held too. Meanwhile the lead kidnapper his brother Niko has waited years for this opportunity to serve up the cold dish of revenge by dumping his two captives in an overseas hellhole prison. Gates and Ana make a frenzied search for them as each knows time is running out on the prisoners.
The sequel to the superb Deadly Little Secrets focuses on the previous novel’s secondary character Dav and the woman he adores as they struggle to survive the ordeal of an abduction that is fueled by angry vengeance. The story line is action-packed from the moment the kidnapping occurs and never slows down as readers will be hooked on this gripping taut romantic suspense.
Harriet Klausner
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