"Another Life", by John J. Gaynard

“Another Life” is a murder intrigue telling the story of a family returning to rural Ireland to find a better life. But it doesn't work that way, their dream soon is destroyed by the religiosity of the mother, by a son involved with a radical religious group and by the raging feud between the two brothers. The story takes place against the backdrop of the rural landscape of Erris in West Mayo, in the small towns of Bangor Erris, Ballina and Castlebar.

This overview was copied from bookadda.com:

“When Peter returns home to his farm house in Mayo he is surprised to see two policemen sitting at the front door. They accuse him of attacking his mother and brother and leaving them for dead. He visits them in Castlebar hospital, under police guard, and one of them dies. Peter is accused of the killing. He protests his innocence, but there is evidence that he cannot explain away. Peter has to defend not only himself from a charge of murder. He also has to protect the woman his brother deceived. Three people alternately accuse him and try to help him: Charlie Dempsey, a former IRA man who travels around Ireland to help former prisoners Sergeant Patrick O'Mahony, who is dealing with his own fall from grace, Father Patrick Keane, who cannot forgive the sins of the Catholic Church, three men who participate in the quest to find the killer. “

My thoughts:

This was a hard novel to rate, hovering between being very captivated in the intrigue and skimming over paragraphs during the long myriad of religious overtones and of the numerous sidebars that kept interrupting the flow. Leaving me with mixed feelings and wondering what could have been the real essence behind the words other than to highlight how zealous religious beliefs could destroy a person and affect family and community. On one hand I loved the way the author has creatively shaped the murder investigation by gradually inserting a variation of twists to derail us from guessing the outcome, IMO he did this expertly. Another high point is the memorable characterization, long after reading the story I still see Brian, Peter and the terrible mother. On the other hand too much focus was put on the effect of radical ideas and the repetitiveness became an annoyance thus I felt many times dropping the book. Although in retrospect this wasn't a bad book by any means, it surely will not make it to the top of my best read for this year..

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"The Black Box", by Michael Connelly

Book 18, in the Harry Bosch series

After 18 novels over a 20 years span one would think Mr. Connelly would ran out of ideas for this series, but it seems this challenge is a no-brainer for a prolific author. “The Black Box” it is both a story of police procedural and one that continues the saga of the protagonist personal life. Harry has aged well through times, now in his 60s he has been working cold cases for years and has become a man sworn to speak for the dead.

This latest opens with a chilling portrait of the war zone that L.A.’s South Central neighborhood became during the riots in the spring of 1992. When the body of Anneke Jespersen, a Danish journalist, is found in an alley, shot to death, Harry investigates, but amid the turmoil the case is not solved.

Fast-forward to 2012, the 20th anniversary of the riots is coming up and there will be a great media attention to unsolved murders. Marty Maycock, the current chief of police assigns Harry to the daunting challenge of closing the Jespersen case.

Of course there are few pieces to go by and Harry never failing zeal and his strong sense of guilt for not having solved the case in the first place provides the spark to get him started. He retrieves the archived boxes of Anneke’s belongings and the investigative file. There's not much to go on, but some tantalizing leads develop before the nitwit lieutenant in charge of the cold-case unit tells him to drop it and work another case. It doesn't take long before the tenacious detective finds himself caught in a maelstrom of departmental politics and personal danger as he searches for the “black box” (piece of evidence, fact, etc.) But Harry never fails to amaze us and will eventually discover the truth…..

Mr. Connelly excelled as always in building added tension into virtually all of Harry’s decisions. He also pays attention to police procedural details while giving his protagonists lots of leeway. There are moments in the novel when the action goes into high gear and Harry transforms himself into a warrior, even in his 60s he still kick butts…all this for our enjoyment, of course I could not stop turning the pages to see what came next. The dialogue and narration are quite lively and fast moving exactly what we expect from the author. The result is a complex tapestry of plots, deftly crafted suspense and well-rounded characters.

Even after all this time Mr. Connelly still manages to keep me a loyal fan…

"The Wild Beasts of Wuhan", by Ian Hamilton

Book 3, in the Ava Lee Mystery

“The Wild Beasts of Wuhan” brings Ava, a forensic accountant and martial expert to the glamorous underworld of art forgery. This quick-witted, pure class and sexy Chinese Canadian sweetheart is savouring in the opening of this installment the good weather with her family on a Caribbean cruise near Curacao. When Uncle called in an urgent favour, Wong Changxing, one of the most powerful men in China, is livid after discovering his collection of Fauvist painting are forgeries. He has mandated them to get his money back.

With the help of her mentor, Ava traces the provenance of the meticulously forged paintings to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Dublin, New York and London. She infiltrates prestigious auction houses and uncovers a massive web of corruption. As in the previous books, Ava and her client see things in a total different scope, this time she faces the meddling May Ling, Wong’s manipulative wife, who threatens to interfere in the investigation…

This is another great caper although not as exciting as the two previous. It has far less action and by far more hopping around: lot of plane flights, hotels stays, restaurants meals, and clothes shopping…etc. This aside, the plot is nevertheless, an entertaining dip into the worlds of artistic trickery and as Ava worked through all the clues, we have a tad of suspense for our entertainment. This time around, Ava never seems to be in great danger, no mucking about, no risking life and limb and no kick ass…..all missing incentives to make it a pulse racer. Having said this, I still was hooked from the start and simply zipped through it in no time. Mr. Hamilton has won my heart with this series and looking forward to any of Ava Lee’s escapades.