Fresh and Lively Summer Reading, THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER, by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“How could a former US President finally be able to take over an action-hero team? And what might the costs of that effort become? Or even, dare we imagine, the rewards?”

 

A fresh release of this lively thriller from master author James Patterson and presidential expert Bill Clinton comes just in time to add gusto to the summer reading stack. The President’s Daughter offers a quick and believable trip into the lives of a former President and his family, tucked into a secure compound in the White Mountains of New Hampshire—but no longer protected the way a serving President’s home would be, in any sense.

 

Bill Clinton’s humor and persistence peek through the narrative every couple of pages, making double-takes common all the way. For example, Matthew Keating is far from resigned to a quiet post-importance life, despite losing his slot to the maneuvering of the woman he’d brought in as vice president: “Unfortunately, I went into a tough presidential campaign with more experience as a Navy SEAL in battles overseas than in political wars at home. And I was still angry about it, so angry I was tempted a couple of times to resign and let her have the d*** office before she rode to victory in the November election. But I couldn’t do it. No current or former SEAL would ever give up before the job is one. And no president should, either.”

 

Between the pithy statements of a former President commenting on his own role, and the page-turning plot with James Patterson’s quintessential crime threats and villains, there’s barely room for the “President’s daughter” of the title to exert her own leadership. Off for a romantic hike with Tim, a possible long-term partner, Melanie Keating no longer has any Secret Service coverage—and a Muslim terrorist with a personal vendetta against Mel’s father can access other resentful global allies as he aims to torment the Keating family.

 

Still, Patterson knows the drill, and when Mel can finally take the lead in this action thriller, she does so from her own form of strength, having practiced and prepared in advance in case she was ever taken hostage: “Me feels the SUV stay on a dirt road for a good length of time, and she resumes counting one more time, going one thousand one, one thousand two, and keeping focused. The tears have stopped. No time for tears. Her legs and arms are cramped, her mouth is dry-raw with the cloth stuck inside, and she’s wondering how long it will be before Tim’s body is found.”

 

One of the delights of this partnership of authors is their expertise—there’s no moment of doubt about a proposed weapon or strategy, because Patterson is an established pro. And the insights into POTUS emotions and actions are surely as authentic. In The President’s Daughter the former President takes opportunities to spring into action himself (“former SEAL” = “always SEAL,” right?), which is worth a few chuckles, imagining that Clinton couldn’t resist putting himself into a landing party. In fact, much of the plotting for this exhilarating novel must have put that aspect front-and-center: How could a former US President finally be able to take over an action-hero team? And what might the costs of that effort become? Or even, dare we imagine, the rewards?

 

One small flaw to all this imagining is the way the book’s villains are painted as vulnerable in terms of emotion, intelligence, and insufficient planning. That’s the part that shouldn’t be taken as a portrait of the real world of global threat. War isn’t a game when real lives are engaged.

 

But that’s a minor complaint, compared the skillful and well-paced plot of this entertaining thriller. An easy and enjoyable summer read, this book from a pair of clever and often humorous authors makes a great addition to the summer reading menu, and leaves a bright lemony aftertaste. May every President’s daughter get to be the hero of a global interchange and family survival, despite the often soiled politics of American life.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.  

Terrific Sniper Thriller from Cara Black, NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS

[Originally posted at New York Journal of Books] 

“Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and Night Flight to Paris is one of the notable thrillers of the season.”

Cara Black, well known for her long Parisian series featuring PI Aimée Leduc, has come into her own. Her new series features a woman sniper who, in last year’s first book of the series, Three Hours in Paris, faced nightmares of capture and death as she works undercover for the British, on multiple assassination targets.

In the second book in this dramatic and fast-paced new approach, Night Flight to Paris, American Kate Rees thinks her failed mission (as she sees it) from 1940 will keep her in Britain as a sharpshooting instructor for the rest of the war. But in 1942 her former handler, Colonel Stepney, has pressing reasons to send her back to the occupied City of Light on a triple mission: a delivery, an assassination, and the exfiltration of one of her close friends, Margo, who's specifically demanded Kate's assistance.

But nothing's very clear in the rushed briefing to the mission, as Colonel Stepney seems to be more than a bit obscure, telling Kate: "‘A good undercover legend is like a diamond. Crafted to meet the four Cs—the carat, cut, clarity, and color. They sparkle so brightly you can't look past them.’ Diamonds were hard. Was Stepney saying something else here? ‘Much of your mission depends on what happens on the ground after you land, and how Margo plays it. We can't know anything for sure.’ Plan. Pivot. And re-plan. Hadn't Wilkes drilled that into the trainees? Or as her pa would say, ya gotta be ready to turn on a dime, Katie.”

When Stepney issues Kate a cyanide suicide pill, that confirms how risky this mission will be. And it's complicated by the mess Kate left behind two years earlier since there is a warrant out for her arrest in Paris, and she'll have to be in heavy disguise as a result.

Black ramps up the tension in every plot twist, and offers an unforgettable experience of both wartime Paris and the sheer guts and creativity needed for undercover work. 

“She'd walked into a setup. Her own damn fault. ... Under her Red Cross Cape, she slid her 9mm Welrod's 12-inch cylinder, containing its bolt, barrel and baffle, down her sleeve. It took seconds, during which she never broke eye contact with the Nazi.”

In contrast to Black’s Leduc books, this new series avoids swaddling the action in romantic questions, which in turn leaves Kate Rees clearer about her own capacity, able to plan swiftly, and incisive in questioning what’s coming at her and responding from strength, despite some obvious flaws in her preparation:

“In the garage, Kate opened her bag in the creaking cabinet, ready to change into the Wehrmachthelferinnen uniform. Sickening Nazi symbols decorated the sleeves. Would it fit her big-boned frame? With this uniform and the stolen ID, she’d have credentials and blend in unnoticed. But the few phrases of German she’d picked up left a lot to be desired. Face it: the moment she opened her mouth she’d be dead.”

Overall, Black shows that her transition from the Leduc detective series to this thriller format is an excellent choice. Although there are a few inconsistencies at chapter jumps—maybe from all the adrenaline in crafting this high-suspense, high-threat adventure—Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and Night Flight to Paris is one of the notable thrillers of the season.

 PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Swedish Noir: Second John Adderley Thriller #2 from Peter Mohlin and Peter Nyström

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“It all comes together in a grimly satisfying series of events, showing more clearly than ever that Mohlin and Nyström understand costs and penalties. The finale of the book sets John reeling with the consequences he’s set in motion.”

 

This second novel by the Swedish friends and co-writers Mohlin and Nyström more than lives up to their 2021 debut in The Bucket List. Like the first novel, The Other Sister is told in alternating chapters, this time by a murder victim’s sister and by former FBI agent John Adderley. The harsh crescendo of revelation adds both suspense and depth to a very dark tale of bad choices leading to crime and consequences.

 

John Adderley, who previously gave up the security of American “witness protection” in order to return to Sweden to try to salvage his half-brother’s life, isn’t doing well in a Swedish County Criminal Investigation Division—his boss lacks management skills, making it tough for John to investigate at his best. Protecting his family members added stress to his police connections in the earlier book. Now things get much worse: The other man who’d tackled undercover work with him, Trevor, is in Sweden to beg John to extend a different kind of protection, a video that insures John’s safety from the Nigerian drug cartel he and Trevor infiltrated back in Baltimore. John’s rightfully hesitant—is Trevor actually working (unwillingly) for the cartel?

 

Meanwhile, the crime John’s supposed to be investigating on behalf of the Swedish team is much more complicated than it first looks. The reader learns the secrets and twists of this through the eyes of Alicia, sister to murder victim Stella—the sisters own a high-tech online dating site, with Alicia leading the computer underlayer, and Stella being the public face. In fact, Alicia’s face is exactly the problem: She’s scarred, horribly, and nobody would buy a product linked with her appearance. Alicia’s also abusing alcohol at a shattering level of danger.

 

Alicia is the one with the worst secrets. The narrative style means readers absorb the horrors of her life, while John is still struggling to survive the international crime syndicate that’s located him. That barrier of knowledge morphs The Other Sister into a high-stakes thriller, as Alicia’s drunken manipulations and John’s half-blinded efforts tear into each other.

 

John is, of course, the ultimate focus, and Mohlin and Nyström (with deft translation by Ian Giles) grant him clarity to see that “Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong—and now he was trudging around in the trees without knowing which way was up.” While Alicia’s awful choices come from both alcohol and simmering rage, John’s add up to violating the loyalty he owes to both the law and his team.

 

“After the shooting at Bergvik, John simply had to recognize that the law—in the strictly legal sense—was no longer his guiding principle. Instead, he was deploying his own homemade moral philosophy, which seemed to take it for granted that most things were allowed if you were trying to secure your own liberty and survival. He comforted himself with the fact that this was probably the rule most people adhered to when their own existence was at stake.”

 

This cuts him off from his best allies, a lousy position. There will be no happy endings. Yet it all comes together in a grimly satisfying series of events, showing more clearly than ever that Mohlin and Nyström understand costs and penalties. The finale of the book sets John reeling with the consequences he’s set in motion.

 

It looks like there will be a third John Adderley thriller. John may survive, through his pragmatic deceptions. But where and how will he hide next?

 

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

HUNTING TIME from Jeffery Deaver: The New Colter Shaw Thriller Is Well Worth Reading!

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Diversions like this add the layers of human interest that make a Jeffery Deaver novel so much more than a page-turner. The final twists of Hunting Time turn it into a masterful adventure.”

 

Cracking open a new mystery from Jeffery Deaver means relaxing into the hands of a master thriller author—relaxing, that is, until the tension of the chase ramps up. Hunting Time is a compelling thriller, with astonishing twists, landing the “reward seeker” and combat-skilled security consultant Colter Shaw in a cascade of demanding adventures.

 

Start with a trap that Shaw triggers, “accidentally on purpose.” Add a Russian espionage agent looking for the same stolen invention theft that Shaw’s been hired to foil. Complicate it more with a couple of quick switchbacks in who’s really doing what to whom.

 

Meanwhile, there are two alternating points of view: that of star inventor Allison Parker, who’s under threat from an ex-husband … and that of the ex-husband as he emerges early from prison and heads immediately for Allison’s place. When she takes immediate escape action, with her teen daughter, Shaw receives an added assignment: Catch up with Allison and protect her and the teen.

 

Deaver, of course, jacks up the action (and chases!) in Hunting Time when more hunters add themselves to the race, some looking for Allison, some for her ex. And some, of course, for the technology.

 

But there’s still time for this expert author to spill insight into Colter Shaw, in this fourth in the suspenseful series: for example, the rule Shaw learned from his father: Never break the law. But of course, there are laws and laws, “and occasionally survival required you to redefine the concept of legal prohibitions.” So, for instance, if Allison Parker’s house door isn’t locked, why shouldn’t he open it? On the other hand, he’s not going to make himself a target of Parker’s ex, is he?

 

What none of these three know is that the most deadly hunters of all haven’t been identified yet. Deaver gives enough clues for an alert observer to guess at some other players, which constitutes “playing fair with the reader,” but the best and most surprising twists in Hunting Time come with almost no warning. Could her parents have guessed the teenager was so much smarter than she seems? Well, Deaver plays fair on that one, too. Her mother Allison, for all her brilliance, is still working out what her daughter Hannah means with a sleepy reply of “Love you too”:

 

“For the next fifteen minutes, until sleep unspooled within her, she tried to analyze the meaning—not of the words themselves … but of the tone in which her daughter had spoken them: sincere, a space filler, an obligation, an attempt to keep an enemy at bay, sardonic? Allison Parker, the engineer mother, approached this question as if she were facing a mathematical problem that was aggressively difficult, involving limits and sine waves and integrals and differentials and sequences and variables … But her analytical skills failed her, and the only conclusion she could draw was that the calculus of the heart was both infinitely complex and absurdly simple and, therefore, wholly insoluble.”

 

Diversions like this add the layers of human interest that make a Jeffery Deaver novel so much more than a page-turner. The final twists of Hunting Time turn it into a masterful adventure that will repay both quick reading and relaxed (at least, as much as the pace allows) re-exploration of the clues, red herrings, and insights so precisely laid out, and the trail that Colter Shaw must both follow and comprehend.

 

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Teen Crime Fiction from Francesca Padilla, WHAT'S COMING TO ME

Drugs, crime, poverty, and a dying mother—17-year-old Minerva Guitiérrez has a job at an ice cream shop that comes with off-the-books payments, a creepy boss, and, as this fast-paced thriller opens, a terrifying attack by violent thieves attacking the cash business. So how can she possibly cope with all the lousy cards that life has dealt her?

Francesca Padilla's writing arrives with enormous integrity and realism: There are no easy solutions to Min's problems. Just as her mother is definitely going to die, Min is definitely going to suffer from the bad choices she makes, typical at first of any other teen, then increasingly dangerous. 

Yet Min's strikingly clear-sighted about how she's boxed herself in:

If I'd told Mom about the hiring process and the cameras back when I first started at Duke's and she was still home, she would've stormed Anthony's office and dragged him into the street. She and Nicole always swore the women in our family have a secret brute strength in times of great distress.

But I have never told her how messed up my job or Anthony truly is. I was too relieved to have found a job at all—and even though she never said it out loud, Mom was relieved, too.

So she can't risk losing her job, can she? You already know, even if she doesn't, that the only solutions available will need her to collaborate with her friends and allies. But for a prickly teen, that's going to be almost as dark and risky as the crimes surrounding her.

Teens tend to "read older" than they are, so go ahead and share this or buy it specifically for the teen in your life. Then make sure to fit in some discussion time. We need less nightmares in our lives as we grow up—Min needs to open up, and so do the young readers of this well-written and challenging novel.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

From Larry Beinhart ("Wag the Dog"), THE DEAL GOES DOWN

Tony Casella's dream life may be a lot more satisfying than the awake part. He's just been pitched a job as a hit man, while riding a train to a funeral. It's got him confused, but also tempted, because his finances have never been worse. But his thinking is pretty messed up, even in a dream about someone he's sure is dead:

I meanwhile had an ordinary, pleasant, live person's conversation with Owen. He said business was good, but not as good as it had been, big companies largely created through national security money were moving in and everything was going digital. By then, some of my own ghosts were sneaking in, some to taunt, some to make me mourn ... my wife and my son ... to tear my heart out if I'd still had one.

Part New York noir, part unexpected hero, and a big part dark caper novel, this satirical thriller is a lively return to publication for both Larry Beinhart (his previous book was in 2013) and his long-time private eye, Tony Casella. Despite a solid series of detective fiction, Beinhart's probably best known for the film adaptation of his book Wag the Dog (with an all-star cast). So it's good to see THE DEAL GOES DOWN as a solid book-on-paper, with an August 9 release date (time to pre-order it).

This will especially suit Donald Westlake and Walter Moseley fans, as well as readers who've discovered Rory Flynn. Restoring Manhattan Noir is well worth the effort! Brace for a quirky ending ... but then again, why not?

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Sixth Jeremy Logan Speculative Crime Fiction from Lincoln Child, CHRYSALIS

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Fans of this series will enjoy the extended romp with Logan and his demands for revelation; newcomers can relax into Lincoln Child’s lively narrative.”

It’s not unusual for crime suspense to incorporate cutting-edge technology—from DNA to facial recognition to global databases, many a novel has hung its plot on a radical change that hasn’t quite come into real use. In Chrysalis, the sixth Jeremy Logan thriller, Lincoln Child pushes this cutting edge into a whole new dimension, as he spins together media, medicine, and moguls. Buckle in, because the warp speed of this ticking-clock plot gives no relaxing interludes.

Jeremy Logan isn’t a conventional crime solver. He’s an enigmalogist, a nearly psychic investigator of inexplicable phenomena. His ability to make unexpected connections in data, including among human motivations, makes him particularly valuable.

So when Chrysalis, a technology and advanced science company embedded in its own city-like compound in western New England, falls victim to a blackmailer and significant individuals among the company’s projects suddenly die, the pressure’s on Jeremy to move swiftly. Even aided by Chrysalis’s own outstanding virtual reality, it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to outmaneuver the demand for a billion dollars in cryptocurrency. Because if the blackmailer’s not paid, thousands more lives and the company’s entire future are at stake.

But payment alone couldn’t persuade Logan to immerse himself and risk his life on such a mission. It’s who’s asking him—a living phantom of entrepreneurship, John Christie IV himself, who tells Logan, “The work being done here is precious. It’s the future of technology—the future of man. We have our own people looking into this tragedy, but the time element is critical. … You’re the only person in the world I felt comfortable contacting. You’re our Hail Mary, Jeremy. You’re our just in case.”

The pressure to solve both the technical and the human forces arrayed against the company is enormous, and Child maintains the race against time for all of Logan’s efforts. That said, there’s little room for character development, and as the mechanics of the threat are gradually unraveled, they lead to a shorter fuse and more compressed action. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that the ending falls a bit flat—nobody’s sacrificed anything of value (other than a couple of quickly ended lives) and there’s no growth or deep resolution that will light up a reader’s energies afterward. Yet Child is adept at tying together all his threads by the finale, with a neat and not expected solution.

Watch for quirky scraps of humor, like the moment when the “Alexa” figure in the programming absorbs Jeremy Logan’s orders quickly so he can take action. As he rises, he tells the voice of the software, “Grace, you’re a peach.” Her reply: “No, Jeremy. I am a virtual assistant.”

Fans of this series will enjoy the extended romp with Logan and his demands for revelation; newcomers can relax into Lincoln Child’s lively narrative and marvel at how a little stretch of current technology can create a scary world of possibilities.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

High-Stakes Summer Thriller, THE LIES I TELL by Julie Clark

Most of the great confidence men (con artists) of mystery and thriller fiction are exactly that -- men. In THE LIES I TELL, Julie Clark establishes two powerful and compelling women willing to play any necessary game to achieve their goals, and turns the tables on the classic form. Moreover, Clark lets these women address us in alternating first person, telling their own stories. Yet she still manages to hide her final twists until they become startling and irredeemable.

Meg Upton is obviously out to manipulate situations and set up her targeted men for pain and loss. She's blunt  about her methods:

I spend hundreds of hours on observation and research. Profiling the different people in your life, finding the one I can befriend, the one who will lead me to you. When I'm done, I know everything I possibly can about you, and most of the people around you. By the time you're saying nice to meet you, I've already known you for months.

Does this worry you? It should.

Kat Roberts, an investigative reporter, has been watching for traces of Meg's operations, and hopes to save her finances through an exposé of the high-rolling criminal. But Kat's life has stresses that make her career increasingly difficult, even hazardous. The closer she gets to Meg -- who knows herself well enough to say "I was born to be a grifter" -- the more Kat's got to face her own mistakes and the way she's allowed life to run another sort of con on her.

Still, it's the conniving Meg who most often puts it all on the line:

I'm not a fool. I know Kat plans to write about me, exposing who I am and what I do. I see beneath her soft sympathy ... I have a plan too, and Kat will be a useful part of it. It's easy to pull her in and feed her the pieces I need her to have.

Does Kat guess this? Her boyfriend warns her: "A con artist isn't going to just let you walk away. She's going to want to make you pay."

Clark's gift lies in holding each character's needs so close to the surface that a surge of empathy for either is immediately countered by a wave of concern over what threat each of these women will impose on the other. As with her earlier suspense, The Last Flight, this author pulls the threads of tension tighter with each new action and revelation, until, like a deck of cards cut and arched upward against the fingers, the patterns suddenly rearrange in a shattering set of revelations.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Emotional Thriller, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by Lisa Scottoline

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Scottoline’s flawless plot twists create a bond with this scrambling, desperate dad in his new-found courage and hastily recruited allies.”

Lisa Scottoline’s thrillers are always tight, taut page-turners, packed with action and risk and suspense. In What Happened to the Bennetts, she crafts fresh intensity because of the powerful emotions at stake, reassembling like kaleidoscope pieces with every fresh scene.

The opening chapter presents a parent’s nightmare: Jason Bennett, a court reporter with a specialty in lip reading, is headed home with his wife and two kids in the family car after his daughter Allison’s lacrosse game. When a truck begins to tailgate them, he’s ready to pull over and get out of the way. Instead, a couple of men attempt to carjack them, and of course Jason yields—anything to keep his family safe!

But instead, despite the family’s scramble out of the car, one of the criminals fires at them, a shot that will be fatal Jason’s daughter. Before the Bennetts even have a chance to face what’s just happen, FBI agents scoop them up, convinced that the criminals are part of a dangerous gang of drug traffickers. And for the rest of the Bennetts to survive, they’ve got to enter witness protection. Right. Now.

Special Agent Kingston pounds the urgency into them: “A carjacking usually occurs for one of three reasons. Number one, the car is stolen to flee the scene of a crime. Number two, the car is stolen because it’s a specific make, as part of an auto theft ring. Number three, the victim is in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In this case, the FBI concludes, is option number one. Except that since one of the criminals killed the other during the attempt, there’s going to be a lie circulated that Jason Bennett shot the second criminal, and in a gang like this one, revenge will already be in motion.

So that’s enough pressure to put the family into hiding in a rural back woods, with protection. But WITSEC doesn’t have what they need to process Allison’s death (they can’t even be at her funeral!) or deal with rumors circulating about them (Jason’s wife was having an affair, Jason is killing anyone involved). Let alone the emotional distress of Allison’s younger brother, who’s blaming himself and spiraling down rapidly.

It’s Jason’s point of view that carries the book, and his self-blame, as the dad who should have been able to protect his daughter, is enormous. He could spiral down, too—but he’s already shown his courage and devotion in many small ways, so when he takes things into his own hands, determined to confront the criminal gang and somehow get his remaining family members out of this nightmare purgatory, he’s acting from love and determination. And his suspicions soar sky high when he puts together his wife’s nearly accidental affair with the law team for the criminal consortium. She hadn’t even realized this … and now, Jason finds, “I couldn’t say another word. I couldn’t stay in the room with her.” Because it’s starting to look like there’s been nothing accidental in all of this, but the FBI isn’t “getting it,” and it’s up to Jason to find a way.

“I had to get back and tell Dom [an FBI agent] everything. My family wouldn’t be safe outside the program until the conspiracy had been exposed.”

Nothing’s really prepared Jason Bennett for this kind of mission. But he has the most powerful possible reasons for pursuing it. And Scottoline’s flawless plot twists create a bond with this scrambling, desperate dad in his new-found courage and hastily recruited allies.

Clear the calendar before you start reading; What Happened to the Bennetts is so good, you may not want to put it down until the hard-won and well-earned finale.

 PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

DNA Matching Can Be Thrilling—THE MATCH by Harlan Coben Shows Why

The March 2022 release from Harlan Coben, THE MATCH, is a taut and fast-paced thriller charged with dangers and dark deeds -- and underlaid with honest affection and a craving for justice.

That makes it one of the best mysteries of the year so far, worth buying, reading, then waiting a bit and re-reading, because it holds up so well in terms of human value.

THE MATCH begins as a sequel to The Boy From the Woods. Wilde (his only name) survived as an abandoned small child in the woods north of the New Jersey suburbs. In the earlier title, his survival skills assist TV lawyer Heather Crimstein in finding, and finding justice for, a missing girl.

There's no need to read The Boy From the Woods before THE MATCH, though. Wilde's strong bond and interdependence with Heather come through clearly from the start, along with his loyalty and love toward others in Heather's family. And he is understandably determined, at this point in his adult life (post military service), to discover his own roots if he can.

Wilde's submission of his DNA to the online databases, however, opens a door to life-threatening danger. The man identified as his father by the database claims a long-forgotten one-night stand; the man pinpointed as Wilde's cousin may have committed suicide; his other presumed cousins cover a range of misleading to nasty. And in opening the gate toward what may have resulted in his being abandoned, Wilde crosses paths with a powerful faction that doesn't shrink from abuse and murder.

Threaded through the book are tech surprises ranging from password tricks to vicious vigilantes, classic material for Coben, whose thrillers skate along the edges of military secrets, surveillance, and stalking. But when real danger crowds up against Wilde and the people he cares about, it comes from a significant betrayal that could cost him ... everything.

Highly recommended. And if you are new to Coben, the surprises he provides about both New Jersey and cybercrime will add to the delight of discovery. 

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

THE LIGHTNING ROD, Fresh Light Suspense from Brad Meltzer

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“The Lightning Rod will suit readers of James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and John Gilstrap. Don’t look for character growth or deep revelation about how government and military operate—stick with light thriller expectations, and The Lightning Rod will provide rapid-paced entertainment.”

The Lightning Rod is the second in Brad Meltzer’s new thriller series that features “Zig and Nola”—where Zig, Jim Zigarowski, is a mortician but no longer working for the government, and Nola is a government-contracted artist. And, incidentally, a dangerous and damaged person with limited interpersonal skills.

That would be enough on its own to establish peril and risk. Add in the slain Lieutenant Colonel Archie Mint and his colleagues, and the chase scenes feel like a packed party favor, aching to explode.

Mint’s family appears to have no idea the officer had a second military assignment, working at Dover Air Force Base, which for Zig has been home base also: “home of the mortuary for the U.S. government’s most high-profile and top secret cases.” It only takes Zig a few minutes of attempting to restore the corpse’s facial makeup to realize there are some very peculiar things going on. In fact, being called into the mortuary work for this funeral is peculiar in itself.

When Zig discovers that the unpredictable and ferocious Nola—who is also an orphan who’s suffered in the foster system—documented in her drawings this murdered officer and two others, one of whom is already dead, he realizes there are no coincidences here. Only deliberate hunting and shooting, not to mention cutting of throats, when the hired help of the dark net get involved.

Most difficult to manage is the entanglement one of Nola’s family members (and Zig is astounded to find that she had one), Roddy LaPointe. Roddy brings more potential explosions, but also some clarity:

“’From what I could find, all three were in the same unit,’ Roddy explained, swiping back to the painting [done by Nola] and enlarging the photo to enhance the logo on Mint’s jacket. A hand grabbing two lightning bolts. Semper Vigiles.

‘Army Security Agency,’ Roddy explained, again checking over his shoulder. This time the street was quiet. ‘Dates back to World War II, when they did high-end investigative work—top secret and above—stuff they didn’t even trust to the Army intel folks.’”

As Zig and his collaborators dig into what the investigators had uncovered, he finds many who are determined to keep the facts buried. If it weren’t for the way Nola is coming apart at the seams, and her dangerous brother, Zig might back out—especially because his ex-wife is tugging him toward a very different investigation.

The action and entangled threads make this a page-turner, with big doses of both military weaponry and tech complications. Meltzer’s habit of very short chapters and many points of view does chop the flow, and there are multiple flaws in “continuity” among the rapid scenes. Red herrings and McGuffins abound, too. So read this one as quickly as you can, surfing the classic thriller ambience and not asking too many deep questions.

The Lightning Rod will suit readers of James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and John Gilstrap. Don’t look for character growth or deep revelation about how government and military operate—stick with light thriller expectations, and The Lightning Rod will provide rapid-paced entertainment.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

In the Mood for an American Dystopia Thriller from John Gilstrap?

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“This all adds up to why a John Gilstrap thriller, crammed with violence and testing of the soul, might be the perfect work of fiction to sink into, in a tough time for the real world.”

Global pandemic. Rising sea levels. Powerful nations making threats. When all that news of the moment seems too much to handle, it’s time to pick up the newest in the Victoria Emerson thriller series from John Gilstrap, Blue Fire.

Gilstrap’s most extensive series, with protagonist Jonathan Grave, took the action to both international escapades and American militia terrain, always featuring the explosive skills of Grave and his main sidekick, Boxers, aka the Big Guy. Connected unofficially with American government, Grave and his team applied skills that mirrored expertise Gilstrap acquired himself in explosives safety and hazardous waste.

In 2021, Gilstrap’s first Victoria Emerson thriller proposed an America on the brink of nuclear war. Emerson’s a U.S. congressional representative for the state of West Virginia, and when she’s ordered to enter a safety bunker without her three teenage sons (she’s a single mother), she refuses and finds other shelter.

As Blue Fire opens, Victoria Emerson’s running a survival-based town where she’s never without both a handgun and an M4 rifle. Her former government status isn’t well known, but her leadership skills have made her essential, and she’s maintaining the safety of a growing population there.

You know how it is: If you’re doing better than the folks around you, someone wants in. This time, for Emerson’s town of Ortho, West Virginia, invaders jealous of the community’s relative prosperity launch a coordinated attack. The process of holding them off demands that each of her sons become a leader, too—and face dangers that no mother wants near her family. But if they’re all going to make it, Emerson’s got to both let go, and teach skills like crazy.

Her oldest son, Adam, is out there on his own, probably headed toward the family’s home farm. But Emerson and her younger sons can’t get there until they’ve straightened out Ortho, and maybe some adjacent towns as well.

Check out Victoria Emerson as she endeavors to combine leading, acting as judge, and being true to herself, with Mr. and Mrs. Sable, called on the carpet for theft:

“Victoria felt heat rising in her ears. ‘Society may have collapsed, Mrs. Sable, but civilization has not. At least not here. Not on my watch. … We’re rebuilding from nothing here. Months from now, some of our residents will be thriving, and, alas, some of our residents will have a very long winter. Perhaps their last, but I certainly hope not.’”

Count on plenty of the firefights and explosions and team infiltrations that Gilstrap’s become noted for, a rapid pace of action, direct frontier justice, and hints that the ex-government hiding in a bunker could be a problem—but then again, there are clearly more books in this page-turning series, in which Victoria Emerson can continue to test her strengths against the grim aspects of dystopia, and seek a few minutes (or longer) to savor loyalty, friendship, and perhaps a bit more. If there’s time before her world ends.

This all adds up to why a John Gilstrap thriller, crammed with violence and testing of the soul, might be the perfect work of fiction to sink into, in a tough time for the real world.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.