Lakis Fourouklas's Blog, page 24

Book Review: Thomas Modford - Shadow of the Rock

Shadow of the Rock by Thomas Mogford is the first book in a series starring tax attorney and amateur detective Spike Sanguinetti (available August 7, 2012).

 



It’s a humid summer night in Gibraltar when lawyer Spike
Sanguinetti finds Solomon Hassan, an old school friend, waiting on his
doorstep. Accused of murdering a Spanish girl in Tangier, Solomon swears
his innocence. He has managed to skip across the straits, but the
Moroccan authorities demand his return.





Spike travels to Tangier in the hope of delaying the extradition.
Solomon’s boss, Nadeer—founder of a renewable-energy company called
Dunetech that is on the verge of financing an enormous solar-powered
site in the Sahara—suggests that if Spike can delay
Solomon’s trial until after the deal is signed, he will persuade the
governor of Tangier to bury the extradition demand. Complicating this
offer, Spike encounters a Bedouin girl who insists that Dunetech is
engaged in a nefarious scheme linked to the disappearance of her father.
As Spike uncovers the truth, he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper
into a world of secrets, corruption, and murderous lies.





First I’d like to give you advice: Don’t start reading this book late
at night. I did and I had to pay the price; that is stay awake until
early morning when I finally finished it.



I guess that I was surprised this happened to me with a book that’s not
a fast-paced thriller, full of twists and turns, car-chases,
explosions, and other cinematic elements. It has all the other qualities
that make a crime novel stand out: mystery, exciting settings, and a
hero who at first doesn’t seem to want to be one.



Continue at Criminal Element[image error]

Book Review: Sam Capra’s Last Chance by Jeff Abbott

We get to learn right from the start that this story takes place between the events of the novels Adrenaline and The Last Minute.

Well, that’s good to know, but also maybe at the same time not so good at all, since the author does such a good work with Sam Capra’s Last Chance that in the end he just leaves you hungry for more. Of course, the more you seek will come, but not until his new novel, The Last Minute, which I already have, but I didn’t get the chance to read quite yet.

To tell you the truth this is the first time I’ve read anything by Jeff Abbott and this ebook short just took my breath away. It’s not only its pace, it’s not just the action, it’s not even the troubled psyche of his protagonist that made me turn the pages like crazy; it’s the whole package.

The story starts with a bang: A rooftop chase during which Sam Capra, the owner of thirty bars all over the world, and ex-CIA agent, tries to avoid getting killed by the man whose phone he’s stolen and whom he’s just shot on the shoulder.

Sam thinks that the man’s phone holds the secret of the identity of the woman who has recently kidnapped his infant son, Daniel and he’ll stop at nothing in order to get him back. Well, the chase doesn’t last for long, as mysterious Mila comes to his rescue; she brings the man down with a hit on the head, and thus serenity for once again prevails over the night streets of Strasbourg, France, where the adventure begins.

A brief interrogation will reveal that the man is the member of an international crime ring, and Sam’s mortal enemies, called the Nine Suns. So, did they kidnap his son to get back at him or did they get the child in order to sell it?

Sam is not about to sit back and wait for the answers to come and find him. Following a tip by his hostage, whom he promised to protect, he’ll travel to London, where he’ll soon be followed by Mila, to find a woman that goes by the name of Anna.

While there they will both come almost face to face with the woman, but also have a couple of encounters with her goons, something that will, for some reason, scare her away. But where will she go next? And does she have Daniel with her?

The answers to the aforementioned questions will be found in The Last Minute, fifty pages of which you can read in this ebook.

In here we have a great plot, amazing pace and well-drafted characters for which I’d really like to learn more about. Normally I would have given it five stars, but I was so eager to find out what happens next in the end that I’ve decided that four would suffice; until I read the novel, that is.

Book Review: Dying Echo by Judy Clemens

Dying Echo by Judy Clemens, the fourth installment in the Grim Reaper Series, is a crime novel that’s both humorous and heartbreaking (available August 7, 2012).

 



It’s been years since Casey Maldonado visited her hometown, and the
only reason she’s returning now is to get her brother Ricky out of
jail, where he sits after being arrested for the brutal murder of Alicia
McManus, his girlfriend of several months. Casey believes in her
brother’s innocence, but proving that to the cops is a different thing
altogether, especially since she has her own murder warrant to worry
about.  Perhaps even more frightening than the law is Casey’s
confrontation with her personal demons—the home she shared with her late
husband and son, the resentment of her mother, and even the presence of
Eric, who wants to be more than just a friend.





Alicia is, or rather was, as mysterious as they come. She showed up out
of the blue in a small town in Colorado, where most of the action takes
place, and managed to get a job as a waitress and to rent a house
without too much trouble. She didn’t really like her job, but it was
better than no job at all.



Continue at Criminal Element

Book Review: Death Benefits by Nelson DeMille

Death Benefits is yet another story that will come out as an ebook short tomorrow.

This is the story of Jack Henry, a once best-selling author, who lately doesn’t do so well; in fact for the past few years things seem to get from bad to worse.

Jack has written a few critically and commercially successful novels in the past, but his last two books failed miserably, with the results best-felt in his pockets; his empty pockets. He owes half a million dollars in taxes, while he has to pay up to ten thousand dollars a months for his grand mansion in New York City, and to add to that he employs a woman for the house work and a secretary. But these are not his only expenses, as he also has to pay alimony for a couple of ex-wives, while he also rents a summer house in the Hamptons for the mere amount of 140 thousand dollars for the season.

The poor man can’t help to wonder how did he come to that, but not for long, as he already knows the answer: It’s his manager’s fault. Stan Wykoff is to blame for everything, or, at least, almost everything, since he no longer gets him the deals he thinks he deserves. And then his publishers are no better, since they don’t know how to sell his books.

What is a man to do? He can avoid most of his creditors for a while, but from the IRS there’s no escape; he needs to find some money and find it as soon as possible. But where? And from whom?

Suddenly he remembers something, and that thing can prove his salvation. All he has to do is commit a murder and make it look like an accident. Oh, that wouldn’t be so difficult, not for a man of his wit, would it? The question is: Does he have the nerve to see his plan through?

Well, there’s only one way to find out, so he will invite Stan, his intended victim for a weekend of leisure in the Hamptons. The final act is about to be played, but what the finale will be, it’s not my business to reveal.

As for my verdict for the story, in my eyes, it could have been much better if the author had put a little more effort into the drawing of his characters. There’s much potential wasted here because of the lack of complete psychological sketches of his heroes, but this is, nevertheless, a pleasant read.

The fans of the author will have the chance to get a preview of his next novel The Panther that comes out on October 16 at the end of this ebook.

Graphic Novel Review: Sunset by Christos Gage and Jorge Lucas

Sunset by Christos Gage and Jorge Lucas is a noir
graphic novel featuring Nick Bellamy, a 78-year-old army vet who’s out
for revenge (available July 31, 2012).

 



Sunset  comes with a warning:





“If you are reading this on any kind of e-device, Sunset protagonist, Nick Bellamy would most likely punch you in the throat, just on general principle.”





Ouch! I did read this on an e-device, but I had no choice since it was a
galley. I just hope and pray to live long enough to see this article
published.





Joking aside, Nick Bellamy is as cool and as tough as they come, a real
badass. He currently lives in Palm Springs, California, with Ellen, his
wife of thirty years, who has for some time now been lost in the
dreadful world of dementia. Nick is not a man of today’s world. He seems
to have escaped from a noir movie of times long gone or, as the author
likes to put it, from a novel written by Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane .



Continue at Criminal Element

Book Review: Lake Country by Sean Doolittle

Lake Country by Sean Doolittle is a thriller featuring an ex-soldier out for revenge (available July 31, 2012).

 



Five years ago, successful architect Wade Benson killed a young
woman when he fell asleep at the wheel. His punishment: two days in jail
for every year of his probation. But for one friend of the victim’s
family—an ex-marine named Darryl Potter—this punishment isn’t enough.
Potter sets out to even the score by kidnapping Benson’s twenty-year-old
daughter. It’s a bad, bad plan, and only Mike Barlowe, Potter’s former
combat buddy, knows how to stop it. With a beautiful news reporter, the
cops, and a bounty hunter on Potter’s tail, Barlowe races to head off
his troubled friend before innocent people get hurt. The hunters and the
hunted plunge north into Minnesota’s Lake Country, each with their own
ambitions and demons, each headed for a violent collision—and for one horrifying moment of life or death.





What I mostly liked about this book, I must admit, is its size. What do
I mean by that? I mean that the author did a great job working on the
economy of the novel. There’s not a single word out of place here, there
are not too many subplots to make it a doorstopper, and thus less
enjoyable, and there are no wild stretches of the imagination in order
to surprise the reader. All Sean Doolittle seems to want to do is tell a story, and that he does well.



Continue at Criminal Element

Book Review: The Thing about Thugs by Tabish Khair

I wouldn’t call The Thing about Thugs simply a crime novel, at least not in the traditional meaning of the term; it is so much more: a historic novel, a literary mystery, a meeting between the present and the past, and kind of a fairytale.



What one mostly enjoys in this book is not the suspense, even if there’s plenty, and it’s not the fast-pace, since it reads like a stroll in the park; it’s the setting, the writing and the characters that make all the difference.



The author doesn’t seem to be very interested in the mystery, since he lets the reader know who is who and what he or she does right from the start. He is mostly preoccupied with the themes of love, racial prejudice, social status, the rich and the poor.



He paints a pretty bleak picture of Victorian London where most of the action takes place, and it’s exactly this picture, this background that grants his tale its validity, which makes it sound a bit outlandish, but nevertheless true.



His characters are sophisticated and fools; men of means and women of leisure; thugs and murderers; servants and dreamers. And most of them are either hypocrites or liars.



Amir Ali, one of the major characters, falls into the latter category. He made up a story to escape his past and find a passage from poor and illiterate India to rich and enlightened England; a story that he almost came to believe himself; or rather a story that defined him: “In some ways, all of us become what we pretend to be,” he says.



He was supposed to be a thug back in his homeland. At least that’s what he said to Captain William T. Meadows, the man who saved him from a life of danger and chaos. But the truth is that he was only a novice, a protégé of a real thug, his uncle. He had to lie in order to avoid killing or being killed, and now, living in London, in a new world that he more than less likes, but doesn’t really comprehend, he comes to realize that his lie will come back to haunt him.



As a series of brutal murders start to take place in the city, during which the heads of the victims are stolen, all the suspicions of the police, largely thanks to the yellow press, fall on the immigrants. People talk about ancient, barbaric rituals being practiced in the dark alleys of the city, and a veil of fear seems to linger over it.



Amir is the prime suspect and he can do nothing to prove his innocence, not without betraying the trust of someone he loves. So he’s left with no choice; he has to become a fugitive of the law in order to survive and make things right. In this battle he’ll not be alone, as the other poor souls of the streets will hasten to his aid: a Punjabi woman, who’s a queen bee in her corner of the world, a mostly drunken Irishman, a few of his compatriots, the thugs and the poppers and the Mole People of London, the crowd that lives underground. They know that he’s a victim of the circumstances, and if they don’t want to become victims themselves they have to take things into their own hands.



This is great book in more than one ways, as it copes with many of the issues of that past -and this present- world, and puts them into perspective. The myth is rich, the plot more than interesting and the writing quite exquisite; a joy to read.

Book Review: Deep Down by Lee Child

Deep Down is yet another of the ebook shorts that, for some time now, always come out a couple of months before the publication of a major novel by a crime writer.



The good thing is that Lee Child doesn’t take them lightly as some other authors do, so after the Second Son, we take yet another brief look into the younger life of his popular hero, Jack Reacher.



The events of this story take place in 1986. Back then Reacher was still a relatively new MP stationed in Germany, but he had already made a name of himself for being able to handle tricky situations.



And it is exactly that, a tricky, or rather complicated situation that calls for him to return, if for a brief amount of time, to Washington D.C. His boss, Military Intelligence Colonel Cornelius Christopher, asks him to take on a mission that at first he doesn’t like, since he has had no time at all to prepare for it.



But, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures, so Reacher, whether he likes it or not, will do what he’s told. So he’ll put on a custom made and seemingly well worn suit and head for the Capitol building, where a committee is meeting to discuss as to whether or not to allow the manufacture of a new sniper rifle.



The military authorities suspect that a member of the committee is leaking out secrets to the enemy, whoever that may be, and it’s up to Reacher to discover who the guilty party is.



The main suspects are four female officers, political liaisons, each of which is on the fast-track to yet another climb in the hierarchy. They are all ambitious women, who are destined for great things, so the question he has to ask is: which of those would dare jeopardize her entire career in order to sell military secrets?



Things are not easy for Reacher to figure out, but after studying the files of the four women he decides who the most likely suspect might be. An accident though will shred his suspicions to pieces and a couple of small twists and turns will make him change his mind for good.



In the end he just has to use his intellect to find the mole and, spoiler alert, his fists to save himself from the enemies.



A well-crafted story that delivers the goods and which also serves as the means that justify the end: the promotion of Child’s next novel A Wanted Man.

Book Review: A Brewing Storm by Richard Castle

One could argue that A Brewing Storm is kind of a hybrid for our era, since it’s the first volume in a serialized novel in eBook format. The second volume A Raging Storm is already out, while the final A Bloody Storm will be published in August.

A Brewing Storm starts with its main protagonist, Derrick Storm, sitting on the shores of a stream in Silver Creek, Montana, and trying to fish.  Storm is a retired CIA agent, who, according to the official records, is dead. His death apparently is the only thing that keeps him alive, since during his time at the Service he’s managed to create a lot of enemies.

However, something will happen that will make him return to Washington, whether he likes it or not. His ex-boss Jedidiah Jones, the head of the National Clandestine Service needs him, and Derrick knows all too well, that if he invited him that’s only because he had no other option.

At the beginning though he declines to follow the agents who’ve been sent to pick him up and lead him to the country’s capital; that until they tell him a word that changes everything: Tangiers. He owes his life to Jedidiah, he’s reminded, so now he’s called in to return the favor.

Thus he follows the agents and upon his arrival in Washington he finds out that his return to action has to do with the abduction of the stepson of a very powerful senator called Thurston Windslow. The FBI which was heading the investigation has messed-up badly, the life of Matthew Dull, the missing man, seems to be in eminent danger and they all expect Storm to save the day. And everyone, with the exception of his ex-boss, seems to be suspicious of him, with FBI agent, April Showers, as leader of the pack.

So Storm will find himself coming back to action with a bang and then a few more. As he starts investigating the case, he comes to realize that there’s more to it than what they let on. For starters both the CIA and the FBI have him followed, then he finds out that there’s more than a suspect involved in the kidnapping, while a lot of other people seem to be circling around, trying to find out something; a secret that he himself would love to know.

The more he gets into this cat and mouse game the more he feels that he can’t really trust anyone, even Jedidiah. He only has his instinct to depend on, but even that will not prove enough to help him through the hard times to come. If he wants to understand the game he has to get ahead of it, and that won’t be such an easy thing to do.

There’s plenty of action and twists and turns here to keep the reader alert and asking for more. Every end is a new beginning, the author seems to say, and the end of this volume promises exactly that.

Book Review: The Empty Glass by J.I. Baker

As far as conspiracy theories go the one described in The Empty Glass seems quite valid.

It’s not that the author offers -fact wise- something new when it comes to the death of Marilyn Monroe; it’s that he takes that incident and turns it into an exciting novel, rich in twists and turns, that keeps the reader guessing from first page to last.

Did Marilyn kill herself or did someone have her killed in a way that looked like suicide? The author and his hero, Deputy Coroner Ben Fitzgerald, have no doubt whatsoever that her death was in no way an accident. And there are a lot of facts that support their theory, facts that are buried or distorted by the police and the feds.

If I had to describe this book with just a few words I would say that this is the story of a man with an obsession. And then a man with a mission. And then a man on the run.

Ben Fitzgerald is one of the first people to arrive at the scene, after the police has been belatedly called in and he’s really not happy with what he sees: sloppy police work, too many people contaminating the scene and the placement of the body in such a way that suggests that it’s been moved. To make things even worse he spots a reporter inside the house as well.

He does find though a thing that he likes: Marilyn’s diary. He takes a brief look at it, before he goes away, and not long after he returns to retrieve it, as he believes that within its pages lie the secrets behind the star’s death.

As time goes by, things start to become more hazy than clear. As it seems the authorities are determined to rule Marilyn’s demise a suicide, even if they have to plant evidence to do so, and Ben feels at a loss.

Why? He asks himself. Why is everyone in such a hurry to close the case? But that’s not the strangest thing that happens: all of a sudden, one after the other, all the people who were involved in the investigation, start leaving on holiday, and people who in the recent past were eager to talk about the incident, now keep their mouths shut.

In the end it’s just Ben who’s left behind to investigate at his own time and expense the case, along with the journalist he met at the scene of the crime. And the more his higher-ups are trying to bury it, the more he becomes obsessed with it.

Thus he starts moving from one place to the next asking questions, he reads the diary again and again, he replays in his head like a movie all the events and keeps wondering what the hell is going on?

Everybody seems to lie and everybody seems to have an agenda. It’s obvious that same very powerful people are pulling the strings behind the scenes, but who and why? Could someone really benefit from the death of the star? Does the mob have something to do with it? But, if it did, why would the government want to protect them?

His investigation, his obsession, will lead to his fall, and this is no spoiler since we know that from the very beginning. What we don’t know are the facts that will pave the way for this fall and that’s exactly where the author has put the most emphasis.

This is one of those novels that can be read in a single sitting and which can offer the reader a few hours of pure (thoughtful) entertainment. I’d say that if Baker is a gambling man and he’s placed a bet with himself that he can make his story work, he has won that bet.