The Patriot Threat

by Steve Berry

            The tenth book in Berry's Cotton Malone series, this is another hit. As in all his Malone books, this one is carefully researched, using real facts to base his ‘what if’ scenario on.

            Cotton Malone is working as a contract worker for the Magellan Billet on a routine assignment to track and observe a payment being made. As anyone who has read Steve Berry knows, there is nothing routine if Malone is involved! What starts out simple, quickly turns complex as Malone encounters a couple of tax protesters on the run meeting with deposed North Korean leader Kim Yong Jim. Kim is intent on wreaking havoc on the U.S. to regain his country’s leadership. His weapon: proof that the 16^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was never legally ratified. If this is true, then all the Federal Taxes collected are illegal and the monies due back to the people. Additionally, no new taxes could be collected until a new Amendment is properly ratified bringing the U.S. economy to a screeching halt. Cotton Malone’s mission becomes to stop this proof, if it exists, from falling into Kim’s hands.

In Berry’s hands this ‘what if’ scenario is brilliant. His ability to use actual historical facts to create terrifying scenarios is what makes his books so believable. In the Patriot Threat he succeeds admirably.

Buy the book and buckle in for a terrifyingly plausible thrill ride. 

At The Water’s Edge

by Sarah Gruen

 

            Gruen’s latest novel, set during WWII tells the story of three vacuous socialites who travel from Philadelphia to Scotland in search of proof of the Loch Ness monster.

Madeline (Maddie) Hyde, her husband Ellis and their friend Hank embark on an ill-advised voyage to Scotland despite the danger from Nazi submarines. Why? Well, apparently a night of drunken revelry by the trio embarrasses Ellis’s father, who then cuts off all of Ellis’s money. Since Ellis is a vapid twit with no income, no job, and therefore no hope of obtaining money other than from his father, he’s in trouble. He needs to get back into daddy’s good graces. What to do, what to do.

Many years previously Ellis’s father discovered and photographed the Loch Ness monster but was accused of faking the photos. Ellis decides, in a eureka, moment to prove his father was correct. Surely this will redeem him in daddy’s eyes and thus restore his funds. All will be right with the world and the trio can go back to leading their insipid, wasteful lives.

Are you confused or simply don’t care at this point? I slogged through this book thinking that surely, surely it would get better. It did not. Billed as an historical novel, it has very little history in it. WW II was not even a backdrop to the novel. At several points in the novel the narrative would come to a screeching halt while Gruen threw in a paragraph or two about the war. It was as if the author thought, ‘oh, haven’t written anything about the war, better put something in here.’

None of the main characters in this novel are likable. None. Maddie is a pathetic lapdog to both her husband and Hank. Ellis is just a whiney brute. Hank is the best of the lot, and he’s a drunken womanizer. There is a hint that the relationship between Ellis and Hank is more than just friendship. The only redeeming thing in this novel are a few of the minor characters.

Pass on this book. There are too many great books out there to waste time reading this one.

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

The Bullet

by Mary Louise Kelly

 

What if during a routine medical exam you were informed you had a bullet lodged in your neck. What if you’ve never been shot? You would believe it was a medical error, a funny story to tell family, friends and at parties. That’s the reaction of Caroline Cashion, a thirty-seven year old professor of French literature. In fact, she’s having dinner with her parents that evening. They’ll all get a good laugh out of it. Except, Caroline’s parents don’t laugh. They get very quiet, and in the blink of an eye, Caroline learns she isn’t who she thinks she is. In fact, most of her life has been a lie. Kelly takes this premise and runs with it at breakneck speed, crafting a book that will keep you up at night.  

During the course of the novel, Caroline transforms into a woman who directs her life, rather than simply letting it happen to her, as she sets out to find out the truth of who she really is. It is Kelly’s ability to make this alteration in Caroline’s life believable that makes this novel work. The characters in The Bullet are well developed, even the minor ones. Yet, this does not slow the pace of the novel at all. The unique premise of this novel could have failed. Kelly makes it succeed admirably. There are more twists and turns in this book than in a Grand Prix race.

   This book gets a solid 4 stars, maybe 4.5. Buy this book with one cautionary note: don’t start it late at night and don’t blame me when you can’t put it down.

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

The Safe Room

by B. A. Shapiro

 

          

            The Safe Room is two parallel stories. The first, told through her diary, is that of Sarah Harden, the daughter of a Massachusetts abolitionist whose home is a stop on the Underground Railroad.  The second story is of Lee Seymour, the modern day descendant of Sarah. Lee is helping her grandmother rehab the ancestral home Hayden House to be included on the Harriet Tubman Network to Freedom Park.

            Sarah’s diary details the attitudes, prejudices and times she and her father live in. It is also a chronicle of her affair with a runaway slave hidden in Hayden house and the consequences of that affair.

            Lee’s story of rehabbing Hayden House becomes a search for more of the history of her family as events come to light that have been hidden for over a century. As Lee delves deeper into her family’s history she begins to think she’s hearing ghost. Then she sees one.

            Billed as a paranormal suspense, this is absolutely not a book I would normally choose to read. Actually, I only read it because I received an invitation from the publisher to review an ARC copy.

            This is a really good book. The diary of Sarah Harden is worth the read in and of itself. When Lee begins hearing noises and actually seeing a ghost, Shapiro pulls this off so well that it’s not at all unbelievable. The alternating narrative between Sarah and Lee’s story is also very well done. Novels that jump back and forth in time can sometimes be confusing and not cohesive. Not so with The Safe Room.

            This is a book that fans of historical fiction and mysteries will enjoy. The paranormal parts do not detract from it in any way.

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

Endangered

by C. J. Box

            The 15^th installment in Box’s Joe Pickett series is a good, solid story. Joe’s ward, 18 year April, has run off with a rodeo rider. Not just any rider, but a local boy that Joe intensely dislikes. Dallas Cates is a local boy, a rodeo champion, and the youngest son of a family that Joe suspects of breaking the law frequently. Joe’s concern for April proves well founded when she is found alongside a rural road, badly beaten and barely alive. Who beat April? Dallas or someone else? Joe plans on finding out and quite possibly meting out his own justice.

            This novel differs from the last few novels in the series since Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski does not figure as prominently as he has. I believe this is a nice change and allows the story to move in some different directions.

            Box does a good job of character development in all his novels without sacrificing the fast pace readers come to expect in this genre.

            Borrow this book from your library for a quick enjoyable read. 

The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand

by Elizabeth Berg      

      

            Elizabeth Berg’s newest book is a fictionalized story of the life of George Sand. Told in first person narrative, the story documents a woman who was perhaps the most unconventional person in her day.  This is a fabulous book, classic Elizabeth Berg.

            I confess to not knowing anything about George Sand before reading Berg’s novel. Born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin in 1797 in Paris, her parents were a French lieutenant from the aristocracy and his courtesan lover whom he married. This unusual beginning for the young Aurore, as she was called, was to set the tone for her entire life. While Aurone/Sands did marry and have children, she also left her husband, built a successful career as a writer and sued her husband to get her fortune back. She wore men’s clothing, smoked in public and took multiple lovers without apology. A truly gifted writer, Sands was a woman who was centuries ahead of her time in advocating for women’s rights.

It is Berg’s ability to bring this complicated and unorthodox woman to life that makes this novel shine. This is a huge, luscious novel to be read slowly and savored.  

Victor Hugo said this about George Sands upon her death: “George Sand was an “idea.” She has been released from the flesh, and now is free. She is dead, and now is living.”

In The Dream Lover, Elizabeth Berg has indeed set Sands free and she is once again living.

Scheduled for publication on April 7^th, this is a book to buy, read and then read again.

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

The Night Crew

by Brian Haig

            Just when I had given up on ever seeing Sean Drummond again, Haig returns with a new novel, and it may be his best yet.

            This novel again pairs Lt. Colonel Drummond with his old law school rival, Katherine Carlson. First appearing in Mortal Allies, Carlson and Drummond do not play well together. In The Night Crew they are the co-council of a young female army soldier accused with committing atrocities against Iraqi prisoners in Iraq. To further complicate their defense are pictures of the atrocities. Lots and lots of pictures.

            As they interview the other four defendants in the case, a picture of depravity emerges that Drummond wonders how they can defend against. While Carlson sees this case as a chance to put the Army on trial, Drummond begins to sense there is more to this case. With key witnesses dead and documents suddenly missing, Drummond believes someone is covering up. The question is who, and what.

            Haig’s books are always good, but he has outdone himself with The Night Crew. His characters face moral ambiguities that are all too plausible and real. Well done, Mr. Haig.

            With an expected publication date of March 10^th, this is a book to buy and lose sleep over.  

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