2015 Reads Archives -

Posts tagged "2015 Reads"

The Stranger- Harlan Coben Thrills Us Again!!

The Stranger – Harlan Coben Book 27 of 2015

In 2001, Harlan Coben‘s first stand alone thriller Tell No One was released. I read the paperback version in November of 2002, it was terrific and since then I haven’t missed one of his thrillers! There are few authors, who can take an ordinary person, and turn their world upside-down like Harlan Coben. He does just that in his latest thriller The Stranger.

Adam Price is living the American dream in his wife’s hometown of Cedarfield, NJ (While locales in Coben’s books are typically real, Cedarfield is a fictional town!). . He is a successful attorney with a beautiful wife,Corrine a school teacher. They have two great boys, Ryan and Thomas, who both play lacrosse, while mom serves as the treasurer of the local lacrosse organization. But on the night of the draft and the selection of the traveling team, Adam’s life starts to spiral out of control, when a Stranger approaches him and reveals a startling secret. Two years earlier Corrine had faked a pregnancy! The Stranger tells him “You know you didn’t have to stay with her” Adam eventually confronts Corrine who suddenly leaves her husband and kids telling Adam not to search for her, she needs time to sort everything out! Yeah, like that’s going to happen!! Soon Adam is on a quest to find his wife and put the pieces of his shattered life back together again!! read more

The Martian – Andy Weir

The Martian – Andy Weir – Book 27 of 2015 No 4 of Science Fiction Reading Challenge

One of my resolutions for 2015 was to read more science fiction. It is a genre that I have read and loved in the past I have read the classics by authors like Frank Herbert, Arthur C Clarke and Robert Heinlein along with authors like David Brin and Orson Scott Card, but through the years that amount of SciFi that I read dwindles down to almost nothing. I say almost because I have read several boos by John Scalzi. Anyway, back at the beginning of the year I went looking for new science fiction to read and one book that kept appearing on several of the list of the Best Science Fiction was The Martian Andy Weir’s. The Martian became the 27th book I’ve read in 2015, and the fourth in the science fiction genre. Now I know what everyone has been raving about! The Martian is a terrific read!. It is by far my favorite SciFi read of the year and up there among my favorite overall reads! My current SciFi read Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher is a close second! read more

Brimstone – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Brimstone – Preston & Child – Pendergrast and D’Agosta chase down the Devil?

Preston & Child’s FBI Agent Pendergrast investigates those curious cases, so when Brimstone opens with art critic Jeremy Grove found burnt to a crisp in a locked and barricaded room in the attic of his mansion in the Hamptons, you knew Pendergrast would be there soon. Grove is found burnt to death from the inside out, amid the smell of brimstone. And next to him is the devil’s hoof print burnt into the floor! Soon the question arises: Had Grove really made a Faustian pack with the devil and he came to collect??? read more

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell and 1855 London Perfect Together!

David Morrell has been a top mystery and thriller author since his debut novel First Blood released in 1971, introduced the world to John Rambo! I have enjoyed Morrell’s books since 1984’s release The Brotherhood of the Rose. All total Morrell has written twenty-eight novels, and his work has been translated into twenty-six languages While I have enjoyed Morrell’s books through the years, I never thought that any of them were as good as The Brotherhood of the Rose or the novels that followed like The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog, that is until 2013 and the release of Murder As A Fine Art. Murder As a Fine Art was a wonderful historical murder mystery set in 1850s London featuring Thomas De Quincey, known as The Opium-Eater and author of an essay titled “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts” and his daughter Emily. In March of 2015 the second book in the series Inspector of the Dead was released and this week it became the 24th book I’ve read in 2015 and one of my favorites of the year! read more

Dance of Death – Preston & Child

Dance of Death – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Book 6 of Pendergast Series Books 2 of Diogenes

So I am not sick that often so when I am I really hate it!! The last two days have been spent nursing a bad cold. Yesterday I flt like I had been run over by a Mack Truck, Today I was better and the damage was done by a pesky little Mini-Cooper which I believe just keeps circling the block and running me over just about the time that I think that I have this thing knocked!!

The only good thing about yesterday was that I finished Book 21 of 2015 Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Dance of Death is Book # 6 of t the Aloysius Pendergast series and the second book to feature his twisted sibling Diogenes. Dance of Death, along with The Book of Death and Cemetery Dance. I thought were the books in the trilogy that features Diogenes Pendergrast. Aloysus’ evil sibling.. Not!! In actuality, while Dance of Death is Book 6 and The Book of Death is Book 7, Cemetery Dance is Book 9!! read more

Endangered – C. J. Box

Endangered – C.J.Box – Joe Pickett Series # 15

Stealing an idea for a friend of Goodreads, I am going to start this review with the first paragraph of Endangered the latest Joe Pickett novel from C.J. Box….

When Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett received the call every parent dreads, he was standing knee-high in thick sagebrush, counting the carcasses of sage grouse. He was up to twenty-one

That simple paragraph sets the stage for the whole book and tells the new reader a lot about Joe Pickett. For those who don’t know Joe it lets you know that he lives in Wyoming and he is a game warden, but it also tells you that he is a caring parent Throughout the fifteen plus books in the series, Joe’s wife Mary Beth and children Sheridan, Lucy and April have been there, along with Joe’s mother-in-law Missy.now Templeton and Joe’s right-hand man and the families protector Nate Romanowski..If you do know Joe you know that the presence of those dead sage grouse will not make Joe happy and he won’t quit until h discovers who killed them. Oh and also that their slaughter may be associated with the book’s title Endangered. read more

Island of the Sequined Love Nun – Christopher Moore

Island of the Sequined Love Nun – Christopher Moore – Book 17 of 2015

So the question of the night is: Who is Your Favorite Author of humorous books?? Janet Evanovich? Carl Hiaasen? Terry Pratchett? Douglas Adams? Tim Dorsey?? Dave Barry?? The question arises because one of my goals for April was to read a book on happiness or a funny book. I chose to read a funny book and one book that fit that description that was on my TBR pile was Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore.

The first book that I read by Christopher Moore was Coyote Blue, which I read way back in 1994 (Good gosh – 21 years ago)since then I have read most of his books. with Lamb being on of my all-time favorite books. i will say that I have had a hard time getting into his last three books Fools. The Serpent of Venice and Sacre Bleu. I guess I wasn’t in the right mood when I tried to start both Fools and Sacre Bleu. Anyway when I picked up Island of the Sequined Love Nun at the fall library book sale, I knew it was one that I would enjoy. And who wouldn’t, it has everything you could want in a book. There’s the hapless protagonist Tucker Case who destroys his boss’s pink plane during a drunken airborne romp with a prostitute which causes Tucker to hurriedly leaves the US to protect his hide. He ends up flying shady missions for a doctor on the island of Alualu in Micronesia, Other things to love in Island of the Sequined Love Nun include: the doctor’s wife aka the Sky Priestess, the natives of the Island the Shark people, including an ostracized cannibal, a cross-dressing navigator and of course your proverbial talking fruit bat!! And I love them all!! read more

Dreamless – Jorgen Brekke

Dreamless (Book 2 – Odd Singsaker Series)

Dreamless is the second book from Norwegian author Jorgen Brekke and it’s a good one. The setting of the book is Trondheim Norway and the main character of the series is Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker. The book follows up where book one Where Monsters Dwell left off. Odd is still recovering and ,dealing with the effects of his brain tumor. He is now married to former American police officer Felicia Stone. All of the characters are still dealing with the aftershocks of the prior murder investigation, only to be immersed in an even more bizarre investigation, The new investigation starts when a young woman is found murdered, her larynx has been removed and a music box stuffed in its place!! The music box is playing a beautiful lullaby that no one has ever heard! read more

The Chessmen – Peter May

The Chessmen Book # 3 in the Award-winning Lewis Trilogy from Peter May

The Chessmen is the third and final book in Peter May’s outstanding Lewis Trilogy. The trilogy follows the life of ex-Detective Inspector Fin MacCleod as a returns to his home on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Through the outstanding writing of Peter May the reader is swept away to that rugged landscape and given a glimpse of the life of the people of live there.In this final installment Fin has left his former life and is temporarily living with his childhood love Marsaili. Fin has taken a job as head of security for Red River Estates. The Estates are experiencing problems with poachers and one of Fin’s first assignments reunites him with his childhood friend John Angus Macaskill, known as Whistler, who both poaches and lives on the Red River Estates. One night while pursuing Whistler across the rugged hills of the estate, they are forced to take shelter in a cave, The next morning they awake to find a loch in the valley of the hills has drained and a small aircraft is visible within the loch. The plane is the missing plane of a former friend Roddy MacKenzie, lost seventeen years earlier. When they explore the plane they find a decomposing body of a man who did not die in a plane crash but was murdered! Discovering the who and why of the murder will turn the lives of some of Fin’s closest friends upside down!! read more

Breaking Creed -Alex Kava

Breaking Creed – Alex Kava Introduces Ryder Creed to Thriller Readers

Alex Kava has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read A Perfect Evil, the first novel in the Maggie O’Dell series.That was one helluva great debut novel. Ms Kava has written 10 addition novels featuring and each one has been a wild ride! Now Ms’ Kava has introduced a new character for us fans to enjoy, Ryder Creed, The first book in this new series is titled Breaking Creed and like A Perfect Evil it’s a damn good debut.

Ryder Creed is a retired Marine who trains homeless dogs to sniff out contraband and hunt criminals. Ryder is called to help search the Choque Azul a ship suspected of carrying drugs. Ryder using his Jack Terrier Grace searches for drugs below the ship’s fish catch. The search results – no drugs, instead, children being trafficked were found. The discovery ultimately will upset Creed’s life. read more

Tag: 2015 Reads