Category Archives: Mystery/Thriller

October 14, 2014 · 9:09 am

Review: Fallen by Leslie Tentler

I received an Advanced Review copy of this book from the author, Leslie Tentler

My Review:
FallenRyan Winter is a detective on the Atlanta Police Department and has just been assigned the toughest case of his career.  There is a killer on the loose who seems to be targeting police officers.  He suspects that it might be gang related but there are very few leads to go on.

Ryan is also struggling with recent events in his personal life as he has just recently gotten divorced from his wife Lydia.  Lydia is a doctor in the emergency room and their jobs make it so that they keep running into each other.  From the very beginning Leslie Tentler makes it clear that there is still some electricity in the air when Ryan and Lydia are in a room together.  Are things really over between them?

There were several plot lines going on at the same time in this book and I was puzzled a few times where the author was going with them.  But the end was definitely a surprise for me and all of the various stories were brought together cleverly and cohesively.  The book is definitely worth the read just for the ending alone.

The other aspect of the book I really appreciated was all of the research that went into the book about police procedurals and medical terminology.  Leslie Tentler immerses the reader into the fast-paced, high anxiety world of cops and emergency room doctors.

If you enjoy a good mystery with some good old-fashioned romantic chemistry thrown in the mix then FALLEN by Leslie Tenter is definitely worth the read.

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About The Author:
Leslie TentlerLeslie Tentler is best known as the author of the Chasing Evil trilogy (Midnight Caller, Midnight Fear and Edge of Midnight). She was named as a finalist for Best First Novel at ThrillerFest 2012 for Midnight Caller, and as a finalist in the 2013 Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense for Edge of Midnight. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Maggie Award of Excellence. Her newest novel is titled Fallen.

Leslie is a member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild and Novelists, Inc. A native of East Tennessee, she currently resides in Atlanta.

Visit Leslie and sign up for her newsletter at www.LeslieTentler.com

 

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August 21, 2014 · 12:00 am

Review: Mean Streak by Sandra Brown

Mean Streak is  a riveting book and kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last page.  I resisted the mystery/suspense genre for a long time but I have read 3 great books this summer in this genre that I really enjoyed, and Mean Streak is among them.

Mean StreakThere is so much content to the plot of this book that I am eager to write about, but I also don’t want to give too much away.  At the core of the book is the story of Emory Chardonneau, a well-respected and hardworking physician who likes to run marathons.  One weekend while she is training in the remote hills of North Carolina, Emory suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in a remote cabin with a man hovering over her that she has never seen before.  Can she trust this man to help her or is he a threat?  This stranger will not give her any details about his life, not even his name.  Emory spends four days with this unnamed man and her experiences with him challenge her very neat, well-ordered and uncomplicated life.

Sandra Brown has the ability to provide us with entertaining characters who range from heroic and likeable, to downright bad and morally bankrupt.  The two police officers who are investigating Emory’s disappearance seem, on the surface, like simple cops who don’t know how to conduct an investigation.  However, they are much more savvy than their southern accents and laid back investigating techniques make them seem.

We also find in Mean Streak the typical characters a reader might expect in a suspense novel such as the tired FBI agent addicted to his job, the suspicious husband that is having an affair, and the unpredictable scary bad guys with no morals or scruples.  But the way in which Sandra Brown slowly unravels the plot and intertwines each character into that plot, makes the characters anything but ordinary or mundane.

If you want a great book that will keep you guessing until the very last page, then make Mean Streak one of your final “must-read” summer books.

*Thanks so much to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book through Netgalley.

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August 11, 2014 · 12:00 am

Review and Giveaway: The Yankee Club by Michael Murphy

I am very excited today to welcome author Michael Murphy to the blog with his mystery The Yankee Club. You can read my review, enter to win a copy of the book, and visit other stops on the blog tour.

My Review:
The Yankee ClubDo you know what a gumshoe is? I have to admit that I had never heard the word until I read Michael Murphy’s novel The Yankee Club. A gumshoe is a slang word used in the 20’s and 30’s for a detective like Jake Donovan, the main character in the novel. Actually, Jake is a former detective, turned mystery writer and when we meet him he is returning to New York City after two years of a self-imposed exile.  I love it when an author uses the correct slang and turns of phrase to put the reader in the mindset of the time period like Murphy does in this noir mystery.

Jake was admittedly running away from his former girlfriend Laura who refused his marriage proposal in favor of focusing on her career as an actress.  His first stop when he returns to New York is The Yankee Club where he reconnects with his old friends.  This novel is well-researched and  with its speakeasies, dames, tommy guns and gangsters and transports the reader to early 1930’s New York where the Great Depression and Prohibition are in full swing.

As soon as Jake steps foot off of the train in Grand Central station he regrets his decision to return to New York.  Laura, the love of his life, is engaged to a banker whom Jake does not trust and his best friend Mickey, who is also a gumshoe, is gunned down in front of his office building. Jake is determined to find his friend’s killer and the hunt to do this puts Jake’s own life at risk several times throughout the novel. Jake finds himself entangled with a group of very dangerous people and discovers that Mickey’s murder was part of a more dangerous conspiracy than he originally thought.

This novel is a fast-paced, exciting mystery but it also has a serious side. At one point in the book Jake walks through Central Park and notices the shanty towns that sprung up because of the Depression. He also encounters destitute families at the bus station and a soup kitchen. Michael Murphy adeptly interweaves the destitute circumstances of Great Depression into the backdrop of the narrative.

It was amusing to see so many famous characters from the time period make appearances in the story such as Babe Ruth, Cole Porter and Ethel Merman. But the author doesn’t just throw them into the story as some sort of literary name-dropping, he cleverly and seamlessly weaves them into the scenes at appropriate points.

For a long time I resisted reading mystery novels, but Michael Murphy’s book has completely changed my mind about how entertaining this genre can be. Do yourself a favor this summer and pick up a copy of Michael Murphy’s The Yankee Club. I enjoyed this book so much that I signed up to be part of Michael Murphy’s next book tour for his forthcoming mystery All That Glitters.

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About the Author:

Author MurphyMichael Murphy is a full time author and part time urban chicken rancher in Arizona. He lives in Arizona with his wife of forty-one years and the four children they adopted this past year. In August, Random House Alibi will publish his ninth novel, a historical mystery set in the prohibition era, The Yankee Club.

 

Giveaway:

Do you want to win your own copy of this book?  Giveaway ends 8/29.  Click Here To Enter

Please click on the TLC Book Tours logo to visit the other stops on The Yankee Club Book Tour:

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July 23, 2014 · 12:08 pm

Review: The Curse of Van Gogh by Paul Hoppe

The Curse of Van GoghWhen I saw this book on NetGalley the title stood out to me.  I will admit that, yes I do oftentimes judge a book by its cover.  Although I usually don’t read very many thrillers, the chance to read about a high stakes art heist that involved Van Gogh’s paintings made me hit the “request” button and I am glad I did.

Tyler Sears had other plans for his life, but one thing led to another and now he is an art thief.  Not only does it pay the bills, but it gives him an adrenaline rush and allows him to meet some “interesting” people.  But when a heist goes bad in Madrid, he finds himself on the wrong side of a jail cell and he vows to get out of the thieving business once he is released.

As Tyler is trying to keep a low profile and get his life back on track after his 18 month stint in prison, he is approached by a wealthy Japanese business man who wants him to pull off the greatest art heist of all time, which of course, involves stealing the self-portrait of Van Gogh which famously has a curse attached to it.  Although Tyler has sworn off the art heist business, Mr. Imasu will not take no for an answer and is threatening not just Tyler’s life, but also those of his family and friends.  Imasu’s thugs are an entertaining part of the book and are your typical gun toting, trigger happy gangsters.

And in the midst of all of this we need an interesting love story, so Tyler meets and falls head-over-heals for Lucy, who is a marketing director for the Guggenheim.  I liked her involvement in the plot and as the story evolves we are left wondering if she will embrace Tyler’s lifestyle or if their relationship is doomed from the start.

THE CURSE OF VAN GOGH is a fast-paced, high-octane read that is perfect when you want something entertaining to read on the beach.   As we follow Tyler through shootouts, car chases, and encounters with Interpol agents we are left wondering if he will end up doing 20 to life or dead.  Will he also become a victim of Van Gogh’s famous curse?

 

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