Fool Me Once

by Harlan Coben

            I’m not sure how I’ve never read a Coben novel until this one, but if this novel is any indication, I’m a fan! This story has more twists and turns than a mountain highway, plus an ending that will shock you.

            Maya, a vet with PTSD is trying to put her life back together after the murder of her husband, Joe. Trying to hold her world together by day for her young daughter and suffering from nightly flash backs to a battle gone horribly wrong, Maya has her hands full. When a friend gives Maya a nannycam, she sets it up, never expecting to see anything shocking on it. But she does; a video of her dead husband playing with their daughter. Is Maya having hallucinations? Is Joe really alive? Who do you trust when you can’t trust anyone? As she works to find out what was really on that video, Maya will uncover far more lies and deceit than she ever expected. Will the truth set her free, or push Maya over the edge?

            This is a novel that WILL fool you. Not once, not twice, but many times over. Whatever you believe the truth to be, you will be wrong. A great beach read, this book will keep you guessing right up to the end.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Burning Fields

by Nathan Brown

Burning Fields is Brown’s first novel, and the author shows promise.  The story revolves around Jacob Fields, a CIA agent presumed dead, whose first act upon returning to the US, is to kill his ex-partner. When the CIA sends agents after Fields, it is with the directive to kill, not apprehend him. What follows is a chess game with hidden agendas, plots and sub plots. Brown does a good job of keeping the tension up, allowing the story to flow and keep the reader’s interest. There is an unresolved issue at the end that hints at further books from Brown.

                This is a good first novel, albeit a little short. The character development could have been better. There is a back story involving Fields that could have used more development and elaboration. I will be watching for future novels from this author since he shows promise.

                Buy this novel and watch for future offerings from this author.

Coal River

by Ellen Marie Wiseman

            Since reading Wiseman’s novel, What She Left Behind, I have been eagerly anticipating her next novel. Coal River has a great setting and premise. Unfortunately, it never lives up to its potential.

            The coal industry in the early 1900’s in Pennsylvania was a time of forced child labor, little to no safety, and mine owned stores. Into this setting, Wiseman drops nineteen year old Emma, an orphan coming to live with her aunt and uncle. Her uncle, an evil little man, is a supervisor in the mines and lives very well. Emma’s aunt is a flighty, nervous caricature who is never fully developed. Predictably, Emma is horrified with the conditions of the mine workers, children, etc. and sets out to change matters. The rest of the story is just too predictable. Even a secret revealed at the end cannot save this novel.

            I wanted to like this novel. I slogged my way through it. I put it down, I picked it back up. I hoped it would get better. It never did. The characters in Coal River are just too one dimensional, and unlikeable. Emma in particular comes off as dull, whiney and weak. The bad guys are spectacularly bad, and the good guys are saints with halos.

            Let’s hope Wiseman’s next novel is better. Leave this one at the library.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Drifter

by Nicholas Petrie

            In his first novel, Petrie has created an interesting protagonist in Peter Ash, a veteran suffering from PTSA that manifests itself in extreme claustrophobia. His solution; live outdoors in the wilderness. When Ash receives word that his friend and former sergeant Jimmy has committed suicide, he feels that he has somehow failed his friend. He should have visited, called. Ash’s solution to his guilt is a visit to Jimmy’s widow offering to help with home repairs. When Ash finds a suitcase filled with money and C4 under the porch he is repairing, he wonders just what his old friend was involved in. When Ash traces his friend’s last days, he finds that all is not as it appears, and finding out the truth just may get him killed.

            Billed as a thriller, this book does not quite live up to that. It is, instead, an excellent character driven book with plenty of suspense. This is not a page turner kind of book. However, it is a very good first book with excellent character development.  I will be looking for more from this author in the future.

            Borrow this book from your local library and watch for more from this author.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Bone Labyrinth

by James Rollins

            James Rollins has the ability to blend an edge-of-your-seat thriller and cutting edge technology (with a touch of sci-fi thrown in) into a white knuckle ride that will leave you breathless from start to finish.

            The 11^th installment in his Sigma Force series deals with two geneticists: twin sisters, Lena and Maria Crandall who are researching the origins of human intelligence. When one sister goes missing, Sigma Force is tasked with finding her. On the other side of the globe, the other sister is attacked. What is so important about the sisters research that someone is willing to kill for it, and who is that someone?

            Rollins offers the reader a heady brew of ancient mysticism, the lost continent of Atlantis, the bible, the lost minutes of a moon landing recording, numerology and some giant hybrid apes. If this sounds too far-fetched, rest assured that James Rollins knows how to make all these elements work together to create a wholly plausible story.

            Buy this book. Turn off your phone, tell your family you’re out of town and prepare to lose a weekend to this excellent thriller.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Hours Count

by Jillian Cantor

          

            The Rosenbergs, Julius and Ethel, cold war spies who betrayed their country to the Soviets and were executed, guilty beyond all doubt of espionage. Or were they? Cantor’s novel uses the voice of a fictional neighbor of the Rosenbergs, Millie Stein to relate the story that shocked a nation, and resulted in the execution of both Julius and Ethel.  

            It is Millie’s voice that shows us who Ethel, and to a lesser extent Julius, Rosenberg were. They were the neighbors down the hall, the friends Millie came to love, the friends who introduced some light and gaiety into Millie’s life. Ethel was the mother of two boys who joined Millie and her son on outings to the park. The Rosenbergs were friends, lovers and parents. Were they spies? Maybe, maybe not. In Cantor’s capable hands, the Rosenbergs are many things, but most importantly, perhaps, they are human. They become someone who you might know, and like. They are no longer some heinous couple who may have betrayed their country, no longer an evil pair of spies whose names conjure up revulsion.  

            While this is a work of fiction, the historical details are, for the most part, very accurate. Using Millie to tell the story of the Rosenbergs allows the reader a glimpse into who this couple was, how they lived and the distinct possibility that Ethel was innocent. The book also does an excellent job of giving the reader a glimpse into what it was like to live in that time period, from the ‘killer fog’ to the suspicion that McCarthy ignited and ferociously fed. It was this climate of fear, that one’s neighbors might be communists and spies, that led to the conviction and execution of what was quite possibly at least one innocent person. Cantor shines a light into a period of xenophobia that destroyed many lives, while accomplishing little. Perhaps this is a lesson we as a society have yet to learn.

                Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Radiant Angel

by Nelson DeMille

            The seventh book in DeMille’s John Corey series is a breath of fresh air after last year’s, in my opinion, flop, The Panther. Being a longtime fan of both the author and the Corey series, I was afraid the series had run its course. I can happily report that the real John Corey is back and in fine form in Radiant Angel.

            In Angel, Corey has been relegated to a dead end and boring job with the Diplomatic Surveillance Corps keeping track of Russian diplomats. It’s a job with little responsibility other than to follow the diplomat he’s assigned to, and report in. Nothing heroic or taxing here. Right. John Corey has never simply followed orders, nor has he ever been accused of being trusting. When Corey’s instincts tell him that attending a simple weekend party is not all his assigned diplomat is doing, he throws the rule book out the window and proceeds according to John’s Rules. What follows is a roller coaster ride that will keep readers on the edge of their seat, and up til the wee hours of the morning.

            Buy this book and settle in for the kind of great thriller that fans of DeMille have come to expect. John Corey is back!