Paula Longhurst's Blog, page 15

Missing American, Kwei Quartey

Introducing Emma Djan; her father was a decorated police officer and Emma hoped to follow in his footsteps; but Ghana's police force is now rife with corruption and Emma is relieved of her boring duties when she refuses do a 'favour' for a senior colleague. Now employed by the Sowah detective agency Emma takes the case of Derek Tilson, an american who is searching for his missing father. Gordon Tilson, who met a beautiful Ghanaian widow online, flew over to surprise her and has now vanished without a trace. Emma's investigations will take her into the weird and dangerous world of fetish priests, online scammers and double dealing at the highest levels.

Long Bright River, Liz Moore

The Fitzpatrick sisters weren’t always at odds with each other. Kacey works the streets and do does her sister, Mickey but Mick is a cop with a four year old son and Kacey is held hostage by her addiction to opioids.
As a bizarre series of murders rocks Mickey’s Philadelphia beat, Kacey vanishes and Mick risks her job and her life to locate her sister. Soon she’s questioning whom she can really trust.

The God Game, Danny Tobey

Come and play with G.O.D, by invitation only!
This mysterious AI is said to be loaded with everything mankind knows about the big guy upstairs. At A.B Turner High School Charlie, one of the group calling themselves the Vindicators is invited to play the game, he's still reeling over the loss of his mom. The game starts him off easy with pranks, harmless, supposedly and soon the other Vindicators, firey code girl Vahni, student journalist Kenny, transfer student Peter and Alex, who lives for pranks and not much else these days have joined in.
What they haven't realized is that this G.O.D is the old testament variety but with hi tech rewards and punishments and they may be nowhere they can hide if/when the AI turns vengeful.

Treachery, S.J. Parris

A shipboard murder and a mysterious religious document put Giordano Bruno and his close friend, Sir Philip Sidney in the company of Sir Francis Drake. England is on the brink of war and Drake’s fleet anchored in Plymouth is ready to put to sea and ambush the Spanish but morale is fragile and the expedition cannot sail under the murderer is caught. However, there are many suspects and one of them could be a Spanish spy.

Just Watch Me, Jeff Lindsay

From the creator of Dexter comes another anti-hero we can cheer for. Riley Wolfe targets a very narrow sliver of the population, the 1%. He’s not above killing them if they get in his way. 

Riley needs an outrageous challenge and stealing the Iranian Crown Jewels might well be it. Helped by a beautiful art forger and pursued by a relentless FBI agent can Riley pull off the impossible, or will he die trying?

Andromeda Evolution, Michael Crichton & Daniel H. Wilson

Project Eternal Vigilance is nearing fifty years old It’s mission - to detect further Andromeda strain outbreaks - is now looked on as a budget item to be red-lined.
But then...
Deep in the heart of the Amazon rain forest a structure appears containing traces of AS1 and the plastic eating AS2 that slowed down the space program. An elite team of scientists is sent in to contain the outbreak, including roboticist James Stone, the son of the scientist who saved Earth from AS1.
Not only has the virus returned, it has evolved and no one is safe.

Sandworm, Andy Greenberg

Everything we rely on for our modern lives is controlled by computers and cyberspace is now at the forefront of a new war, one whose effects we occasionally feel rather than see because the US hasn’t suffered a real cyberwar. Unlike Ukraine, who have been hit with wave after wave of cyber attacks that have devastated that country’s economy to the point of collapse. It could be a taste of things to come. Greenberg’s investigation into the team of hackers known as Sandworm is gripping, terrifying and should be read alongside a copy of the Mueller report.

Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow

I don't tend to read true crime, this is worth making an exception for. As many people need to read this book as possible. It is both a thriller, and a brilliant piece of well-researched (and fact checked) investigative journalism.
 2017: Farrow was working at NBC on a routine investigation when he started hearing rumours of a powerful movie producer whose predatory behavior was an ‘open secret’ in Hollywood. As he began to dig, Farrow found the bones of stories like his that had been suppressed for years, he talked to actresses afraid to go on camera for rear of ‘retaliation’ all with stories he began to find sickeningly similar. In the middle of this conspiracy of silence one name, Harvey Weinstein, a man who doesn’t seem to understand that when a woman says ‘no’ she means it. Weinstein’s attempts to kill yet another story about him included a shady security firm staffed by ex Mossad operatives, private detectives shadowing Farrow from New York to Los Angeles and staking out his apartment, phone hacking (possibly using Pegasus software), The National Enquirer and even intense legal pressure from his own network brought to bear on Farrow and his producer to bury the story. Farrow, to his credit kept going, defying NBC (who do not come out of this smelling of roses) and eventually taking the story to The New Yorker where the public finally got to read it.

Butterfly Girl, Rene Denfeld

Naomi is the child finder but there’s one child she hasn’t found, her sister. Naomi's guilt at leaving her behind on the night she managed to escape their prison by running barefoot into the night won’t be assuaged until she finds her younger sibling.
The search takes her and Jerome to Portland where homeless children, runaways like Celia, walk the streets, bellies empty, easy prey for a killer with an eye for young girls. Naomi agrees to help hunt the killer alongside her personal search. Is she too distracted to realize that Celia could be next on the killer’s list.

The Furies, Katie Lowe

An exclusive girl’s school. A feminist teacher. Some dabbling in witchcraft. What could possibly go wrong?
Violet, homeschooled up to this point, enters the privileged halls of Elm Hollow Academy. Drawn into a clique with Robin, Alex and Grace she begins private lessons with Annabel the group’s art teacher. Elm Hollow has a dark past, the founding headmistress was burned as a witch. The Furies are just fairy tales they don’t exist, they can’t be summoned, especially buy a group of teenagers. Or can they?