Book #2, in the Gemini series
This series is a spin off to the main series “The Warriors”.
“Defending Cain” is the second role played by twin sisters Beth and Meghan Peterson as main characters. The twins in this episode will get involved in a search for Calliope Minter, missing and presumed killed by Cain, a vicious serial killer who is terrorizing New York.
Of course those who are fan of Mr. Patterson will know that the story will feature kick ass players, ones who will provide never ending action to entertain us till the very last words. To keep us captive and turning pages, the author never forgets to weave some kind of conspiracy into his unique and complex scenarios. The story is never a single story, multiple threads will eventually connect but meanwhile we are kept on our toes. This latest is a thrilling ride from the beginning to the end. I agree this is another brain teaser that brings layers of clues, many red-herrings and many dead ends…..
Again no fancy style here, words are rather plain and down to earth, the characters are good but not out of the ordinary, the story line may be over the top for some but I found it quite entertaining. Looking forward to see what comes up next.
Book #2, in the Alex Troutt Thriller series
This book can definitely be a stand-alone but I would suggest reading “At Bay” book 1 first so you can better place the characters and where they come from.
Mr. Mefford writes novels full of intrigue, suspense and thrills and undeniably his style will evoke an emotional connection to his characters. In “At large” Alex is thrust into a bizarre string of murders. She partners with a CIA counterpart and together they chase a killer up and down the east coast. Victims are both male and female but how are they connected and what is the killer’s end game…..
Alex Trout is an intrepid character, while fighting her internal demons this FBI Agent entertains us with non-stop action while the investigation goes on and more mutilated bodies pile up. Yes, the story goes on at a rapid pace, is rather graphic, has a decent language and a pretty good plotline to entertain us. What it does best is keeping us on our toes: guessing who may be next, wondering if Alex is up to the task and will she get her man…..or will he get the better of her….The story is well-crafted but isn’t memorable, soon read soon forgotten…but so much fun to read.
Entertaining
The darkest days in the history of Nazi Germany through a woman’s eyes
Reading about the atrocities during WW11 is never an easy read. Of course Emilia story is severe and at times even horrific nevertheless it is compelling account of a life under the Nazi regime. This is a fiction where the author has poetic license and uses it quite well, focusing only on the Nazi atrocities.
This powerful story takes us on a journey of lost innocence, hardening hearts and finding love as we follow a young girl wishing for a normal life, only to be sent to a concentration camp, finally liberated at the end of the war and a few years later finding peace. Emilia tells the darkest tale honestly drawing us into her harrowing life, a life that countless victims were subject to. What a nightmare she tells, page after page of horror: rape, abuse, sadistic handlers at every corner. All the while this young woman was desperately trying to survive. The description of what was done on the population in the camps is very graphic and will undeniably touch the reader’s emotions. Of course this book is sad and hard but the story is so well-written without any fluff and long prose and is said with such frankness and raw emotions that I found it very hard to pause and stay away from this wonderful story of survival for too long. Excellent.
I received this ARC for review from the Publisher Ellie Midwood via Netgalleys
This novel is set over four days during the September 1938 Munich Conference where an agreement was signed between Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier to settle the fate of Czechoslovakia.
“Munich” is a tantalising game of “what if” and a glimpse on how things might have turned out. The story is told through the eyes of two men who were friends at Oxford but are now in opposite camps. The main players are Hugh Legat, private secretary to Chamberlain and Paul Hartmann, a diplomat in the German foreign office. With a unique style, Mr. Harris skilfully weaves a gripping fiction with historical events and looks at those four days from both sides. Taking us behind close door is quite an achievement especially when taking something well documented and showing us something else. In this dramatization, both Legat and Hartman’s machinations affect the course of history.
The story is quite slow to start with. The first third of the book is hugging the actual facts with grave-faced men coming in and out of their offices and minutia details involving the procedural of the two parties as they navigate the diplomatic path towards the summit at which the Sudetenland would be handed back to Germany. In the later part, when the dual plotline converges and we inch closer to the center of powers we discover Hitler’s true agenda….and more melodramatic scenes occur giving “Munich” a tad of suspense. Even with some excitement the story never reach the level of a high-octane page-turner I love to read. The tale nevertheless brilliantly evokes a sense of place and its vivid descriptions leading to the main event highlight why Mr. Harris is a master novelist who focuses on events surrounding the Second World War.
I received this ARC for review from Penguin Random House Canada via Netgalleys
“Book #3, in the Warriors shorts
This 3rd novella is a fast-paced adventure filled with action introducing two wonderful characters Bear and Chloe. These two have charmed and entertained us numerous times in the main series “The Warriors”. It was nice to see where they came from, how they met and when they joined the elite group lead by Zeb Carter.
Bear is hired to protect a high profile criminal, a routine job….or so he thought. Excellent storyline of only 56 pages, packed with never ending action, suspense galore….and of course captivating to no end. Mr. Patterson knows how to tell a story in ways that can only hold us captive till the last page. This novella compliments beautifully the main series.
I never was one for short stories till I received novellas from Mr. Patterson they are tremendously well-done…….
This story is a bit of everything, a mystery at its base, a tad of political shenanigan to captivate us, some known historical figures to pique our interest (Kennedy, Hitler, Churchill and the French physician Nostradamus) oh…to put a smile on our faces, thinly disguised are our 2 maverick and colourful leaders in a cameo role. To top it all off which is the base of this novel is a conspiracy to keeps us on our toes. With a soupçon of reality and a big dose of fiction we have one ambitious novel that should please most readers.
The setting mainly plays out in Moscow but changes locations between London and Alaska. The mystery features Larissa Klimt, who is a professor of Geopolitical History and her twin brother Lev, who works in Alaska monitoring the oil fields. The plot comes to life when Lara (Larissa) is asked to translate six audio recordings done in the 1940’s from English to Russian and find the book, subject of the recordings. What she hears is just the beginning of her troubles…the book (Bible) contains a false prophecy of all time. Through a series of circumstances Lara and Lev become entwined in the hoax and are pulled into danger and the world of espionage…..
I have mixed feeling about this book. In great parts I liked it a lot and in others I found it dragged so much I was losing interest. It took too much time to get going although I do admit lots was happening but everything seemed to turn in circle then suddenly action and suspense kicked in and voilà you just reached the end. As for the characters they missed colours but were OK in their roles but lacked the credibility and motive to push the mystery forward and make it captivating. I liked the premise, the story is great and interesting and some of the side bars are also very good “ the Bookworm mystery”, “Conception Day”, “King takes Queen”, Lara’s events with her ex-husband the Russian spy just to mention some…..(I let you discover all this).
This novel may not have been my favourite of all times but it was worthwhile passing time reading it nevertheless.
I received this ARC for review from Pegasus Books via Netgalleys
Book #2, in the Warriors shorts
This second story may be short 52 pages or so but is packed with suspense from the opening page and keeps us glued to every word till its final sentence. Zeb Carter is in poverty stricken area of Cape Town, South Africa when he is approached by a child…. a gang is harassing his family, he needs help ….
Of course this is a fast read, action packed and well- written. It has a very interesting subject matter around drugs and child trafficking organisations and a warrior to save the day. This short story fits well between the main Warriors series and I enjoy squeezing it in my spare time. Till next time “In the Shadow”, enjoy….
The Shining #1
“The Shining” is the story of Jack Torrance, who is employed as the caretaker of the gargantuan Overlook Hotel in Colorado one winter. With his wife and son they hoped to spend the winter season in peace and stitch up their fractured family.
The book was first released in 1977 then made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson, just the best choice to play the main character here. I haven’t seen the movie but in the book Mr. King goes to great pains to show Jack as a good man that is simply pushed into fantasy or hallucination. Because I received its sequel “Doctor Sleep” as a gift I needed to know how this horror all started.
For 416 pages, the tense and atmospheric story centers on the family saga. Their encounters with apparitions are very visual, leaving a picture in the mind that may be scary for some and totally ridicule for others. Not only it is a very dark story, with every turn of the page things get worse and worse in the haunted resort, it also borders on the fantastical with plenty of over the top scenes rife with violence and supernatural. For some, Mr. King may be a master entertainer no matter how ridiculous his tales are or how frightening they may be, well perhaps for them but this horror did not gel with me, I simply had trouble getting through this mess. The author gets so bogged down in tedious descriptions and exposition, the story is so overwritten I fast lost interest. Don’t forget, pay attention, not only does the narration rotates between the three members of the Torrance family it is also taken over by many other characters, some human and some not so human.
I didn’t think this book was scary at all despite the considerably large cast of ghosts and creepy critters and the great amount of violence at every page. This is a tedious read, it just drags on and on, so stubborn was I nevertheless made it to the end even if I was bored to death…..evidently not my type of book.
