Lakis Fourouklas's Blog, page 21

New Bites: Seventy Times Seven by John Gordon Sinclair

Seventy Times Seven is the debut thriller by the acclaimed actor John Gordon Sinclair.



Danny McGuire doesn’t like his job, but he’s good at it. Since his
brother’s  murder eight years earlier he has become a professional
killer: a hit man for hire, bent on retribution.




The Job



Danny’s been contracted to eliminate the ‘Thevshi’ – the Ghost – the
most elusive informant that has ever penetrated the Republican movement
in Northern Ireland. But there’s a problem: the Thevshi claims to know
who’s responsible for his brother’s death. Danny’s never killed someone
he needed to talk to first.





The Target



When Finn O’Hanlon (A.K.A. the Thevshi) is attacked in a bar in Alabama
he realises that his past has finally caught up with him. Forced to
flee, he embarks on a desperate journey to find Danny McGuire before
it’s too late.





The Complication

 

But Danny and Finn are up against someone who’s spent years hiding a
secret, and it’s a secret they’ll go to any lengths to protect.





John Gordon Sinclair was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He moved to London
in the early Eighties and now lives in Surrey with his wife, Shauna, and
their two children. John’s first film won him a BAFTA nomination for
Best Newcomer to a Leading film Role. His first outing in London’s West
End won him an Olivier award for Best Actor. Seventy Times Seven is his
first novel.

Book Review: Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal by Jamie Freveletti

Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal by Jamie Freveletti is the ninth spy thriller in the Covert-One series (available September 11, 2012).

 



With U.S. intelligence agencies wracked by internal power struggles
and paralyzed by bureaucracy, the president was forced to establish his
own clandestine group—Covert-One. It is activated only as a last
resort, when the threat is on a global scale and time is running out.





Covert-One operative Colonel Jon Smith is attending a conference in
The Hague on infectious diseases, together with leading scientists and
political figures from around the world. Without warning, the conference
hotel is consumed in a bloodbath. Smith is caught in the crossfire and
barely escapes . . . but not before discovering a picture of himself and
two other targets in the pocket of one of the shooters.





Who is targeting them and why? Smith knows one of the other people in
the pictures is an MI6 operative, but who is the woman? And why did the
perps break into the safe of the hotel where some of the delegates were
staying but not steal any valuables apart from some scientific samples
in test tubes?



There are a lot of whys in this novel, but not enough time to think
about them, not only because the answers are too easy to find, but also
due to the fact that the action progresses so fast that there’s hardly
any time to think things through.



Continue at Criminal Element

New Bites: A Door in the River by Inger Ash Wolfe and The Dead Season by Christobel Kent

The Dead Season by Christobel Kent



Every August, Florence shimmers in the summer heat. But this year
the heatwave is fiercer than usual, and the city's inhabitants have
fled to the cool of the hills and beaches of the surrounding
countryside. So it is no surprise that amidst the shrubbery of a
normally busy roundabout, a corpse lies unnoticed, bloating in the
humid air.

Sandro Cellini will not be joining the crowds of
holidaymakers this year. The former policeman turned private detective
has a case: a man who seems to have vanished into thin air - leaving
his pregnant young wife alone in the city. Meanwhile, bank teller
Roxana Delfino is also stuck in the city for the season, with nothing
to do but worry for her aging mother and puzzle over the disappearance
of one her regular clients.

As all Florence sweats it out,
Cellini attempts as best he can to grapple with his case and the
complications it throws up. And when the weather finally breaks, it
brings with it a shocking revelation . . .



A Door in the River by Inger Ash Wolfe



Stinging deaths aren't uncommon in the summertime, but when Henry Wiest
turns up stung to death at an Indian reservation, Detective Hazel
Micallef senses not all is as it seems.  And when it turns out the "bee"
was a diabolical teenaged girl on a murder spree with a strange weapon,
a dark and twisted crime begins to slowly emerge.  The questions,
contradictions, and bodies begin to mount, as two separate police forces
struggle to work together to save the soul of Westmuir County.

The Hugo Awards

The Hugo Awards have been announced. The winners in some of the categories are:



BEST NOVEL




Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)




BEST NOVELLA




“The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, September/October 2011)




BEST NOVELETTE




“Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)




BEST SHORT STORY




“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2011)



You can read the full list here.

New Bites: At the Edge of Walking by Holly Phillips, Wilderness by Lance Weller and The Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

At the Edge of Walking by Holly Phillips



With In the Palace of Repose, her debut collection of mostly unpublished work, Holly Phillips accomplished the improbable. The unknown Canadian author received critical acclaim and numerous honors including the 2006 Sunburst Award and nominations for the World Fantasy and Crawford Awards.



Her accomplished prose sang with a unique voice, seamlessly blending emotion, insight, and craft. Now, At the Edge of Waking presents her latest tales written with even more depth and range-including a new, never-published story.



Portraying human reaction to dire change or extreme circumstance, combining the real intruded upon by the fantastic or the fantastic grounded in reality, Phillips describes the world as it is, as it may be, as something impossible yet entirely acceptable, enthralling the reader with her words.



Wilderness by Lance Weller



Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain meets David Guterson's East of the Mountains in this sweeping historical novel of a Civil War veteran's last journey on the Pacific Coast.



Thirty years after the Civil War's Battle of the Wilderness left him maimed, Abel Truman has found his way to the edge of the continent, the rugged, majestic coast of Washington State, where he lives alone in a driftwood shack with his beloved dog. Wilderness is the story of Abel, now an old and ailing man, and his heroic final journey over the snowbound Olympic Mountains. It's a quest he has little hope of completing but still must undertake to settle matters of the heart that predate even the horrors of the war.



As Abel makes his way into the foothills, the violence he endures at the hands of two thugs who are after his dog is crosscut with his memories of the horrors of the war, the friends he lost, and the savagery he took part in and witnessed. And yet, darkness is cut by light, especially in the people who have touched his life-from Jane Dao-Ming Poole, the daughter of murdered Chinese immigrants, to Hypatia, an escaped slave who nursed him back to life, and finally to the unbearable memory of the wife and child he lost as a young man. Haunted by tragedy, loss, and unspeakable brutality, Abel has somehow managed to hold on to his humanity, finding way stations of kindness along his tortured and ultimately redemptive path.



In its contrasts of light and dark, wild and tame, brutal and tender, and its attempts to reconcile a horrific war with the great evil it ended, Wilderness tells not only the moving tale of an unforgettable character, but a story about who we are as human beings, a people, and a nation. Lance Weller's immensely impressive debut immediately places him among our most talented writers.



Lance Weller has published short fiction in several literary journals. He won Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A Washington native, he has hiked and camped extensively in the landscape he describes. He lives in Gig Harbor, WA, with his wife and several dogs.



The Bomb by Steve Sheinkin



In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents.



In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at Los Alamos.



This is the story of the plotting, risk-taking, deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

New Bites: Crime Novels by Janice Law, Cornell Woolrich and Michael Kardos

The Fires of London by Janice Law



A killer takes refuge in the blacked-out streets of wartime London, upending the world of one of Britain’s greatest painters in this chilling and captivating reimagining of the life of Francis Bacon



Francis Bacon walks the streets of World War II London, employed as a warden for the ARP to keep watch for activities that might tip off the Axis powers. Before the war, Bacon had travelled to Berlin and Paris picking up snatches of culture from a succession of middle-aged men charmed by his young face. Known for his flamboyant personal life and expensive taste, Bacon has returned home to live with his former nanny—who’s also his biggest collector—in a cramped bohemian apartment.



But one night, death intrudes on his after-hours paradise. When a young man is found dead in the park, his head smashed in, Bacon and the rest of London’s demimonde realize that they have much more to fear than the faraway scream of war.



Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich



In Woolrich's iconic tale, Detective Tom Shawn saves a lovely young woman from a suicide attempt one night, and later hears her story. She is in despair because the death of her wealthy father has been predicted by a confidence man seemingly gifted with the power of clairvoyance; a man whose predictions have unerringly aided her father in his business many times before. Shawn and a squad of detectives investigate this dire prediction and try to avert the millionaire businessman from meeting his ordained end at the stroke of midnight.

 

One of Cornell Woolrich's most influential novels, this classic noir tale of a man struggling with his ability to see the future is arguably the author's best in its depiction of a doomed vision of predestination.



The Three Day Affair by Michael Kardos



The first debut novel from the newly relaunched Mysterious Press intro¬duces a phenomenal new voice in the realm of crime fiction. Will, Jeffrey, and Nolan have been friends since college. Each has gone their own way while forging new lives. Will is a part-time drummer who spends his time in recording studios, Nolan is happily unmarried, while Jeffrey is wealthy and has a baby on the way. They have no reason to believe anything extraordinary will befall them. Until one shocking moment changes everything.



One night on a drive they stop at a convenience store for Jeffrey to pick up cigarettes. Within moments, Jeffrey comes out of the store dragging a young woman with him. He shoves her into Will’s car and shouts a single word: “Drive!” Shaken and confused, Will obeys.



Suddenly three ordinary men find themselves completely out of their ele¬ment, holding a young girl hostage without the slightest idea of what to do next. They are already guilty of kidnapping and robbery; it is only a matter of time before they find out what else they’re capable of. For these four people, three days will decide their fate—between freedom and prison, innocence and guilt . . . and life and death. The Three-Day Affair marks the emergence of a truly talented new crime writer.



The aforementioned novels come out tomorrow September 4, 2012.

Book Review: Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King

Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King is the twelfth
book in the traditional mystery series featuring Mary Russell and
Sherlock Holmes (available September 4, 2012).

 



In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I?
She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and
soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hive-like streets, she
discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld,
escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is
clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper on
which is written a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass
ominously north.





Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant
relation into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt
led by Emir Abd el-Krim, who may be a Robin Hood or a power-mad
tribesman.





And thus the action begins. This is the first novel of the series that
I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. The author not only seems to know her
subject well, but also is quite capable of creating a compelling
background for the story. As for her eye for detail, well, I’ll let the
writing do the talking:



Continue at Criminal Element

New Bites: L: A Novel History by Jillian Becker

A charismatic sociopath orchestrates a reign of tyranny in England during the 1980s. L: A Novel History, documents how distinguished political theorist, Louis Zander, or "L", uses art, artifice and ideology to enchant and captivate millions of English citizens. He then ups the stakes and slowly, with heart-pounding inevitability, turns his followers from democracy-loving citizens into willing participants in his collectivist dictatorship. This skillfully composed and well-researched novel could be a fictionalization of the Cloward-Piven strategy or Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

Ms. Becker has written a page turner that unveils the step-by-step process by which one evil man seduces, perverts and then destroys an entire nation. "L" could be Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or even the next Prime Minister or President.  Read this book at your peril.  In this age of charismatic leaders, the vulnerability of our society is all too real.

Ms. Becker was inspired to write this novel while researching her best selling, non-fiction work, Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.

New Bites: Bootlicker by Steve Piacente

Bootlicker by Steve Piacente is a crime novel that begins life at the end of the 1950's in America.



An unholy union exists between a racist U.S. senator and the candidate poised to become South Carolina’s first black congressman since the Civil War.

The year is 1959, the setting, rural South Carolina. Poor, black teenager Ike Washington stumbles on a Klan lynching led by a white judge. Caught, he must choose: join the dead man or begin hustling black support the ambitious judge needs to advance. In trade, Ike is handed a life of comfort and power. Decades later, as he is poised to become the first black SC congressman since Reconstruction, guilt-wracked Ike winds up alone in the same forest, a long rope in his fist. Rookie reporter Dan Patragno uncovers the truth just before Election Day.

New Bites: A Thin, Dark Line by Emma Elliot

A Thin, Dark Line by Emma Elliot is a crime novel.



When Cormac O'Malley-Dogwood, Ohio's former bad boy and a man just released after spending fifteen years in prison-returns and shows up on her doorstep, librarian Eloise Carmichael hires him as a handyman despite her family's warnings and her own misgivings. Inexplicably drawn to Cormac, Eloise begins to form a tentative friendship with the tortured, aloof man and unknowingly becomes ensnared in his quest for vengeance.


When a body is found at the library, suspicions center on Cormac, and Eloise finds herself in the role of his defender, pitted against the most powerful men in town. As the threats against Cormac escalate, Eloise becomes obsessed with the mysteries surrounding a murder that took place fifteen years ago and begins the task of delving into the past in hopes of discovering the source of the present danger.



As the body count rises and family secrets are brought to light, Eloise and Cormac are forced to realize that the only hope for redemption-and love-lies in each other. But when doubt is cast on Cormac's innocence and her very life is threatened, the one man Eloise isn't certain she can trust is the only one who can save her.