Michael A. Draper's Blog, page 14

Killing unsoftly

When I first read the blurb on Robin Burcell's "The Kill Order," it seemed like a book with lots of action and entertainment. Fortunately, my assumption was correct and this was an action packed, first rate novel.

FBI Special Agent Sydney Fitzpatrick knew her father was involved in the theft of The Devil's Key twenty years ago and murdered as a result. But she didn't know much more.

Now, she rescues a young woman named Piper who possesses an eidetic memory. She read this list of numbers at her friend's home. He purchased a number of computers on sale from the FBI and one of the computers had this code left in the hard drive. Her friend tries to figure it out.

However, his interest kicks off an alert that someone is attempting to penetrate the code and the kill order goes into effect - where anyone attempting to explore this code is killed because the Devil's Key poses a threat to national security. It permits the user to observe private communications on anyone they want. This timely topic adds to my interest in the story.

Sydney and her partner have to protect Piper and learn why the Devil's Key is so important. There is a covert government group called ATLAS and they work together with the FBI against the criminal group wanting the Key for themselves.

I enjoyed the action and the story, Piper is a unique character with her pink hair and facial rings, she is also a pickpocket. Sydney is interesting as a character and we observe her attempting to more to her life with a relationship that is in jeopardy due to her work.

He's a devil in disguise

I looked forward to reading this book which promised to be a suspenseful debut. The book hit the spot, delivering  the suspense and provided a new voice in literary thrillers.

Ellie Jones is age 21 and a crime reporter for the "Free Press," in Toronto, Canada. She's haunted with the kidnap murder of Lianne Gagnon, her best friend. This happened ten years ago when both girls were age eleven.

Currently with Ellie's job, there is a great deal of publicity surrounding the arrest of Paul Bernardo. He's accused of being the Scarborough Rapist, a serial killer.

As Ellie is examining this case, she checks into the history of young girls who were murder victims. With her interest piqued, she gets on the trail of a chameleon, Robert  Nelson Cameron and his many aliases.

The story is tense as someone begins stalking Ellie and she's not sure where to turn for help. She's learned things about her mother's teenage years when Ellie's mother lived in a communal setting. Her mother admits to knowing Charles Manson and the reader's imagination spirals upward.

Through this dark story, we feel for Ellie's fear mixed with her inquisitive nature and desire to learn what happened to her best friend. There are a number of surprises as Ellie continues her quest.

I enjoyed this story although I felt it could have been shortened. Ellie's boyfriend didn't strike me as a likable character and I wondered about Ellie's attachment to him.

I give the story a 3 * rating and the literary writing 4*s

Legal mystery

A young woman named Charlotte King is robbed and murdered in New York. Police are on the scene quickly and get a description of her robber with Charlotte's last breaths. Then they spot a black man running down the street, dressed in the manner in which Charlotte described her attacker. Damon tucker is brought back to the woman and as she lay dying, she seemed to indicate, he was her assailant.

Arch Gold is appointed as the defense attorney. Tucker believes he's being set up and is outraged at his arrest.

Arch looks into Charlotte's past and learns where she worked and then her mother tells Arch that she had been seeing the president of her company, David Yates. Yates owns a PI firm that he expects to go public next year and it could make him millions.

Yates is a sinister character and we, along with Arch, wonder if he killed Charlotte or had her killed but will Arch be able to prove it? Will Damon be found guilty? There are interesting questions that the reader needs to learn for themselves. (I don't want to reveal plot elements).

The story is well written. The author is an attorney and he describes events in a realistic manner. The characters are well described, Arch with his determination and compassion, Damon with his anger and self righteousness.

Well done.

"Spectrum" A Special Novel of Suspense

In this exciting Karen Vail story, the reader follows Karen's graduation from the New York Police Academy as the first in her class. As a reward for her performance at the police academy, Karen is assigned to the detective bureau. She's assigned to ride with the highly regarded detective, Carmine Russo.

In the ensuing events, Karen and Russo answer a call in a dangerous area. Two hoodlums get the drop on Russo and there doesn't seem much hope but Karen shows her courage and ability to think outside the box and saves Russo's life.

A second story line follows the story of a woman from Greece. Lavania is in America with her husband Basil, her two children, Cassandra and Dimitri and their close friend Fedor and his son Niklaus. This group is together for an evening of enjoyment at a bowling alley. An altercation ensues leaving a victim blind and Basil arrested.

The victim is the son of a man with ties to the mob and this fight begins years of hardship for Lavania and her extended family.

Vail's career continues to show her abilities and she comes across her first involvement with a murder victim. The killer eventually is given the name the Hades Killer and Vail develops a lifelong interest in profiling and the FBI.

Other cases come and go and we view the dangers that law enforcement personnel experience in a suspenseful and dramatic manner.

The trail of the Hades Killer and Karen's career are portrayed in a realistic and thrilling manner. Thrills continue as Karen gets closer to the serial killer and Lavania and her extended family continues to have problems.

Karen's bravery in the face of danger reminded me of Kate Murphy, the first year cop in Atlanta in Karin Slaughter's "Cop Town.

New York is also well described with various restaurants, traditional foods and a view of the horror that police and firefighters faced in the 9/11 terrorism strike.

I highly recommend this book. Although I felt it could have been a bit shorter, it held my interest throughout and the characters jumped out of the pages with their realism. I will look forward to the next novel by Alan Jacobson and the exploits of Karen Vail.

Edgar winner by a master story teller

In the 1990 Edgar Award winning novel, "Black Cherry Blues" Dave Robicheaux is mourning the death of his wife, Annie.

Dave's troubled college roommate Dixie Lee Pugh tells him that he (Dixie) overheard two men discussing two men they murdered in Montana.

When Dave checks into it, the two men become aware of Dave's interest. They make a mistake in threatening Dave's six-year-old step daughter Alafair. Dave reacts with a rage that he's known to release at times like this and he is arrested. He's charged with the murder of one of the men and the other is the main witness against him.

We follow Dave's actions as he travels to Montana. He runs into his old homicide partner Clete Purcel who is currently working for a minor gangster, Sallie "Sal" Dio. Sallie has Dixie Lee purchasing land deeds and there is a conflict with AIM, the American Indian Movement.

Dixie is an interesting character who is an accomplished musician and tells of being such places as Brooklyn, New York where he appeared at a concert with Chuck Berry. Clete Purcell is memorable for his idiosyncrasies and loved for his fierce loyalty to Dave. Dave's adopted daughter, Alafair, is a sweetheart. She wonders why her fellow students and teachers think it's odd that she speaks with a Creole dialect.

Dave Robicheaux is a troubled character who fights against his alcoholism, his bouts of rage, and his torment of letting down people in his past such as his murdered wife.

Burke is one of our most talented suspense writers. "Black Cherry Blues" was his first commercial success. Dave is a defender of the defenseless and is often pitted against big business and governmental bureaucracy.
He's also a highly literate author.

Memories are made of this

In "Remember Me Like This," we follow the Campbell family from a different point of view. Many novels conclude when a kidnap victim returns home. In this well conceived story, it is the start. Justin Campbell went missing at age eleven.
There were 'missing' posters placed around the area and law enforcement searched everywhere, even divers searched under water but with no findings. Townspeople in the community outside of Corpus Christi, Texas, were compassionate and supportive but less so with each passing year.

Then, Justin is found.  He's returned and his kidnapper arrested. But, how did the family adjust? His parents reacted differently and his younger brother, Griff, now age fourteen, has his world turned upside down once again.

Many families split up when a child dies or goes missing. Unjustly, they often blame themselves for what happened. They'd give anything to change back to life before their loss.

We observe what happens to Laura and Eric, Justin's parents. There is bitterness with the kidnapper but eventually there seems a betrayal at the legal system.

Griff has a new girlfriend and a teenager's life that is filled with changes encounters more as some people wonder why Justin didn't attempt to escape from his captor.

With Griff and Justin being teenagers experiencing how cruel life can be this writer was reminded of the young characters in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

This would be a great read for a book club with unforgettable characters and a dandy plot. One of the best books of the year.

Die trying

Tess Gerritsen, a physician, has written a long string of well written and entertaining novels about the exploits of Boston Homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner, Dr. Maura Isles.

In "Die Again," a group of tourists on safari in Botswana come upon one calamity after another. Their bush guide warns the group not to stray from their camp at night.
His warning doesn't work for their tracker whose screams awaken the group. They rush to where the sounds were coming from and find his dead, maimed body.
Then, their vehicle breaks down and another member of the group is killed by animals.

In Boston, six years later, Rizzoli and Isles are ordered to the scene of a sinister murder. They find a noted taxidermist who was killed and his body left as if a leopard had killed him and left the body hanging for a later feast. The many animals that the taxidermist had on display in his home added to the macabre image of those who entered his home.

Something in the victim's home leads investigators to another body. Rizzoli and Isles continue to look for connections between the victims and Dr. Isles finds records of murders around the country where the victims were left in the same manner as the taxidermist.

More is learned about the safari party. There was only one survivor, a woman who followed a river and a herd of elephants until she came to a civilized location.

This is a novel that is best to read slowly and savor the puzzle that the author has provided. How she links the murders of members of the safari to the victims in Boston was cleverly conceived.

There is a surprising plot development and the suspenseful story line is well paced. It displays the author's literary talents and story telling ability.

"Deadline" a call of the wild

Virgil Flowers, chief investigator of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, is asked to come to Tripton, Minnesota to investigate a scheme where someone is stealing dogs. Many of these dogs will be resold to regular people but many others are sold to medical laboratories.

 This isn't the kind of case Virgil normally investigates but he does it because the caller requesting him is a friend from college.

While looking for a place in the hills where the dogs are being hidden, Virgil comes across a hidden meth lab. He calls a friend in the DEA and they stage a raid.

A major change in the story occurs when a country reporter who was researching a major theft by members of the school board, is murdered.

Virgil is generally an easy going detective. Instead of hard knocks, he gets results from befriending people who might be involved in criminal activity and they often confess to him.

This is an enjoyable story with a number of surprises so that the reader can't guess the next part of the story. It reminded me of a Stephen King novel where the character doesn't know who to trust.

I enjoy Virgil's down home style as seen when he takes time out from chasing criminals to just watch life along the Mississippi and see the fishing boats pass by.

The reader also observes the activities of the school board and their panicked reactions as they try to save themselves.

The dog owners are a colorful group as many of them are hunters in the Minnesota countryside. There is also a group called the Minnesota Woman's Anti-Vivisectional Group who I wouldn't want to cross. If you get these ladies mad, watch yourself!

One plus one passes my test with flying colors

I thank my wonderful wife for recommending this entertaining book.

It tells the story of Jess Thomas, a gutsy woman with a never say die attitude about life.

Jess is divorced and raising her ten-year-old daughter Tanzi and her teenage stepson, Nicky, who wears wears eye makeup and is bullied because of it. Norman is the family dog, a big slobbery gas hound who leaves a trail of dog hair wherever he goes.

Jess tries to run the household with her job as a cleaning woman and with her part time work at a neighborhood bar. Her former husband, Marty, failed at many job attempts and finally left Jess. He hasn't sent any alimony and claims he's too depressed to find a job.

Ed Nicholls is a part owner of a software company but under investigation for insider tracing.

Jess learns that there is a scholarship offered to a prestigious private school but Tanzi has to take the exam for the Math Olympics and Ed offers to drive them.

Their trip to Scotland was the trip to hell. One thing after another happens along the way, Tanzi gets carsick if Ed goes at high speeds, they can't find nighttime accommodations because of the dog, Ed gets food poisoning and on and on.

Unpredictably, a romance develops between Jess and Ed and the family comes together in a manner which will make the reader cheer.

I credit Jill Moyes for her imagination and story telling ability.

A thriller about weapons of mass destruction

Army Captain Ben Hawkins is ordered to follow up on a report of possible missing material from the Tupelo Chemical Research Facility. He thinks it's going to be a simple matter but he's wrong. Some of the deadly chemicals that were part of a weapon system and were gradually being destroyed, have gone missing.

He speaks to the commander of the facility and a report is written to higher up personnel in the FBI and other government agencies.  Soon, officials verify the missing chemicals.

As officials search for answers, one of the army handlers goes AWOL and Ben knows there is a bigger problem.

We also learn of an Iranian named Mahmoud who has thought up a plot to give the United States a payback since the U.S. supplied Iraq with weapons in the war against Iran. Mahmoud's father was in the Revolutionary Guard and he suffered from the chemical weapons Iraq used in the war. Mahmoud has also recruited a young Iranian woman who wants revenge against the U.S. for shooting down an Iranian passenger plane that was flying toward a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf in 1988. The woman's parents were passengers on the plane.

The plot thickens and we see events in Iran where Colonel Kashani is made aware of the plot and considers the repercussions against his country if the plot succeeds.

The action moves swiftly and the suspense mounts. It is a story that made my heart beat faster and faster.
Ben is well described but for an officer involved in an intelligence operation, he reveals quite a bit of information to his girlfriend. There is also a surprise toward the conclusion that didn't seem logical based on the information about the character involved.

D. C. Hampton knows about chemical warfare and tells a good story. I look forward to his next novel.