Oct 09
06

Touching Evil by Kay Hooper

Posted by Reader | , , | Science Fiction | No Comments

touchingevil_coverYou have to love how Kay Hooper integrates the paranormal into her novels. Her characters are perfectly normal people with faults and foibles just like the rest of us, but with an added “something”.

In this novel, we are introduced to Maggie Barnes an empath whose strength increases with each victim she helps get over being touched by an evil that has come down through time to re-enact it’s killing spree.

At first it leaves them alive, but blind. Now it has discovered that leaving them alive leaves it vulnerable to the psychic forces aligning against it and so it begins killing it’s victims after perpetrating unspeakable acts against them.  Unexpected help comes from one of the victims of his first killing spree as well as one of the victims from this spree who miraculously gets her sight back by virtue of transplanted eyes from an accident victim. As Hollis is recovering from the surgery, she begins communicating with Annie, the dead sister of the killer.

This intricately woven tale will keep you intrigued throughout.

Touching Evil by Kay Hooper
Bantam Books 2001
ISBN 0-553-58344-1

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Aug 09
12

Ricochet by Sandra Brown

Posted by Reader | , , , | Mystery | No Comments
Cover of "Ricochet"
Cover of Ricochet

Sandra Brown brings us another great read with Ricochet. Set in Savannah, GA, the main character Detective Duncan Hatcher is a complicated mixture of moralist and tough cop. His partner, DeeDee Bowen and he have been trying without success to catch and prosecute a local drug lord named Robert Savitch. Mr. Savitch is nothing if not canny and manages to keep out of the clutches of the law and above prosecution, often by way of one Judge Cato Laird’s rulings in his favor.

The latest encounter with Savitch and Laird have seen Duncan put in jail for two days for contempt after Judge Laird orders a mistrial on the basis of one of the juror’s not disclosing that her son was enrolled in the Police Academy and Duncan’s subsequent loss of composure in the courtroom.

When Duncan and DeeDee are called to the Judge’s home to investigate a homicide, it’s pretty apparent that the story they are given is full of half-truths and outright lies. The Judge’s beautiful wife, Elise Laird has killed an intruder. She cites self defense, but some things just aren’t adding up.

To further complicate the whole case is Duncan’s strong attraction to the beautiful Elise.

Despite his upbringing as the son of a preacher and his adherence to a high moral ground in his dealings with perpetrators and victims alike, Duncan succumbs to his baser self with Elise all the while doubting everything she’s ever told him and knowing he’s likely compromising any case he and DeeDee might bring against the woman.

Ricochet by Sandra Brown
Published by Pocket Books 2006
ISBN: 978-1-4165-2332-1

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Aug 09
10

Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen

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Cover of "Silent Thunder"
Cover of Silent Thunder

I’ve read some of Iris Johansen’s work before and greatly enjoyed them, but have not read any of Roy Johansen (who is her son). If this collaboration is any indication of the quality to be found, I’ll have to hunt his books up.

Silent Thunder is one of those books that gets you from the start. Hannah Bryson is a smart and talented naval engineer who has been hired along with her brother, Connor to inspect every inch of the decommissioned USSR submarine the Silent Thunder before it goes on public exhibition.

From the get-go, there are unsettling events that mark this job as one fraught with danger and intrique. When Connor uncovers a cryptic message behind one of the ship’s panels, a firestorm is unleashed which kills Connor and sets Hannah on a search for his murderer.

Along the way, she finds the enigmatic Kirov who sweeps her into his own quest for justice against the evil Pavski.

Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
Published by St. Martin’s Press 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36800-5

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Aug 09
07

Spare Change by Robert B Parker

Posted by Reader | , | Mystery | No Comments

Spare Change is a Sunny Randall novel.

Twenty years ago, Sunny’s father Phil had a series of unsolved murders where the murderer left his victims with a signature of a scattering of coins — never the same coins, but always three of them, he was given the name of the Spare Change killer.

Now he’s apparently resurfaced as victims who exhibit the same M.O. are turning up in all the wrong places and Phil has been brought back out of retirement to head up a task force and asks Sunny to work on it with him. Together the father-daughter team must ferret out who the killer is and stop him.

Sunny comes up with the idea of closing off the area of the last killing and processing everyone present; getting names, addresses, and doing comprehensive investigations of any who fit the profile of the killer. She comes up with several likely suspects and when she personally interviews Bob Johnson, her instincts set off major alarms, but he’s smart and cagey and doesn’t give too much away, so it’s back to careful policework to get him tripped up and caught.

Spare Change by Robert B Parker
Published by The Berkley Publishing Group 2007
ISBN: 978-0-425-22192-1

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