L'Exil des Anges by Gilles Legardinier

A new favourite discovered in 2014, Gilles Legardinier is a French writer now known for writing humourous, touching novels, many of them dealing with love stories, most of them with incredibly funny situations reminiscent of the best rom-and-sitcoms. I devoured his four books last year at the suggestion of my wife and loved every single one of them. Before those humouristic books, though, Legardinier had made a name for himself writing thrillers. L’Exil des Anges is one of the better known, an award winner the year it came out. 

Following a small cast of characters caught up in a government conspiracy and dealing with fringe science and reincarnation, L’Exil des Anges was a bit of a disappointment. A world away from the sort of story he tells in his more recent books, L’Exil des Anges also failed to coalesce when it comes to the characters – I didn’t feel particularly interested or invested in either of the three leads. The plotline itself meanders, starting out with the story of two scientists before jumping forward in time. Legardinier’s trademark wit is also lacking and the writing was ponderous, long paragraphs that left the story dragging along. It is probably a good thing that I didn’t start with this or I am not at all sure I would have gone on to read his later, much better works. I’ll probably still have a look at some of his other thrillers, but I am much more interested to see what he writes next instead ! 

I gave L’Exil des Anges two stars.

Wrat-Up 2014 - Top Ten Mystery / Thriller / Horror Books

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

From my review:

"The Winter People is one of a number of books I have read since the beginning of the year split over two time periods and with either a crime/thriller bent or a supernatural one. It is also one of the best. Suspenseful, marvelously well-written, with a keen eye for detail in the historical sections and a great trio of female characters at its core, the novel stayed with me in the days after finishing it."

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

From my review:

"A "coup-de-coeur" as we say in France, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair will be one of those books I will remember for a long time. A great mystery, an exploration of writing and life, the book touches all the buttons I need to make me fall head over heels in love with a novel. I cannot wait to see what Joel Dicker writes next and I doubt I will wait for a translation of whatever it is."

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

From my review:

"Though few of the people we meet are necessarily likeable, nor the truths pleasant, it is impossible not to become enthralled and caught up in the town of Henbane and the secrets hidden there. Though the resolution of both mysteries do not hold many surprises, the revelations are handled deftly. More of a sweeping portrait than a true thriller, it was a great read that kept me hooked through to the end."

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R Carey

A cleverly written zombie novel, The Girl With All the Gifts had a fascinating cast of characters, a neat twist on the undead and a really kick-ass ending.

Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman

From my review:

"Edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting tension from the first page to the last, it is not the kind of book that I found myself laying aside without a tug of reluctance, wanting to read a little bit more to find out what would happen next or how a situation would resolve... At its heart, Ruin Falls is about motherhood and the lengths any of us (mothers or fathers) go to protect our children."

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

A fine example of historical mystery done well, Murder as a Fine Art serves up a Sherlock-ian anti-hero with a very personal stake in solving the rash of murders that are sweeping Victorian London. Using a real historical person as the main character is a risk, but one that pays off here.

Eden in Winter by Richard North Patterson

From my review:

"A family saga full to the brim with deceit and lies, Eden in Winter delves deep into the characters of the Blaine family and manages to create a page-turning yarn that is hard to put down. With hints of the political and legal thrillers that Patterson is well known for dribbled throughout, the book is a nice resolution to a departure trilogy for the writer. As usual, a great read that cements Patterson for me as a must-buy whenever he brings out a new book."

An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris

Another historical, this one more of a thriller, using the real-life Dreyfus Affair as a canvas to tell a story of racism, conspiracy and espionage. Harris is a dab hand at this kind of novel, which shows both in the strong - though plain - prose and the nail-biting pace.

The Fixer Series by T.E. Woods

From my review of Book Two, The Red Hot Fix:

"The Red Hot Fix was a good continuation of the Fixer series, bringing back a lot of what worked in the first novel and progressing both characters storylines in interesting ways. One plotline was more interesting and worked better than the other, but overall they both complimented each other nicely and set up an interesting finale. I will certainly pick up the next book in the series - I'm looking forward to see how Lydia puts her new skills to use in different situations."

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

From my review:

"A whirlwind tour of espionage, terrorism and murder, a globe-trotting thrill ride that also manages to delve into such themes as growing old, family, love and the cost of freedom. I loved the fact that while the entire story is told in first person, Terry Hayes manages to use that to segue into an omniscient third person at times, giving us a glimpse into the lives of various other characters along the way. I was hooked from the first page and it did not let up until the end. If you haven’t already, pick it up, read it and enjoy!"
 

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

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What if you were called upon to investigate the perfect crime? What if you realized that the person who had committed that crime had used a book you wrote to achieve it? That is the situation facing Pilgrim, codename for a man who does not exist. Pilgrim used to be a spy. Now he’s retired. But his retirement is about to end… When a terrifying weapon threatens America, Pilgrim will have to begin a race against time that will take him from Mecca to Turkey to Alsace to the Hindu Kush in order to find a faceless man. A man who may be closer to him than he could possibly expect…

I Am Pilgrim has received a lot of hype over the past few months – even here in France, every time I go into a bookshop I find it on the shelves, showered in praise from readers and critics alike. I am glad to say that it more than lives up to the hype – in fact I would imagine that this book will be up there in my top-ten list by the end of the year. Opening in a hotel room in the US, the book starts out as a murder mystery before delving into the history of the main character, the man who introduces himself as Pilgrim. From there, we are taken on a whirlwind tour of espionage, terrorism and murder, a globe-trotting thrill ride that also manages to delve into such themes as growing old, family, love and the cost of freedom. I loved the fact that while the entire story is told in first person, Terry Hayes manages to use that to segue into an omniscient third person at times, giving us a glimpse into the lives of various other characters along the way. I was hooked from the first page and it did not let up until the end. If you haven’t already, pick it up, read it and enjoy!

I gave I Am Pilgrim 5 stars (because I couldn't give it any more)!

The Sixth Extinction by James Rollins

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After a military research station broadcasts a distress call ending with the order “Kill us… kill us all,” Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma are called upon to investigate. When they arrive at the lab, they discover a blight has destroyed everything within fifty square miles and that the blight is now spreading. An apocalypse is on its way, an event that might lead to the infamous Sixth Extinction. Forced to decipher an ancient threat rising from the distant past, the Sigma team will follow an ancient map rescued from the Library of Alexandria, one that points to Antartica and a prehistoric continent where a new form of life may spell death for an entire world. A true race against time begins, one that could spell the end of humankind if they were to fail…

As usual, James Rollins combines historical mysteries and cutting-edge science and technology to deliver a fast-paced thriller that starts with a bang and never let’s up! I’m a huge fan of Rollins’ work and have devoured every novel in the Sigma Force series and in the Sixth Extinction Rollins’ not disappoint. Once again, the team is forced to race against the clock to fight off the end of the world, taking the reader on a whirlwind adventure full of science and history. As usual, all of these elements are discussed in the end of the book, providing a glimpse into what is real, what is not and what may just be… Despite the fact that this is the 10th novel, it is easy to follow along with the storyline and the characters, though I would definitely suggest that anyone interested in the series start at the beginning with Sandstorm or at least Map of Bones.  While one of my favorite characters was absent from this one, all the other Sigmas are present and Rollins also manages to include a number of winks to some of his non-Sigma novels through some secondary characters. The Sixth Extinction works both as a thriller on its own terms and also as a continuation and evolution of the overall Sigma force series. Definitely a must-read!

I gave The Sixth Extinction 5 stars.

The Heist by Daniel Silva

 
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When one of Gabriel Allon’s long-term allies stumbles upon a murder, the Israeli spy is roped in to investigating the murder by the Italian art police. The victim, it seems, was not only a former British spy – he was also involved in the theft, forgery and sale of stolen artwork. And he may hold the key to the holy grail of the stolen art world: a Caravaggio that vanished decades before. But as he tracks down the movements of the dead spy, Allon begins to uncover a conspiracy that hits much closer to home, one that has allowed a brutal Syrian dictator to continue to kill his own people with near impunity. So begins a new game of cat and mouse as the legendary spy gathers friends, allies and former enemies to pull off what could well be the heist of the century…

Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series is one of the best thriller/spy series out there at the moment. Already clocking in at a hefty 14 volumes, our spy/assassin/art restorer hero does not show any signs of flagging, and neither does the man who has brought his adventures to life. In this latest novel, Allon once again finds two worlds colliding: that of the art theft world he has often been involved with in the past with the deadly world of international terrorism he lives in daily. What begins as an attempt to recover a lost masterpiece quickly becomes much more complicated, as Allon discovers ties between a worldwide criminal art ring and an unnamed Syrian dictator whose identity is very loosely hidden in Silva’s novel. Once again, Silva manages to create an exciting, tense thriller that crosses countries and continents, painting fantastic pictures of every city his hero visits and peopling them with both the good and the sinister. At the same time, Silva continues to force his character to grow and change – having accepted the post of head of the Israeli secret service, Allon begins to use his newfound position to great effect, pulling together a team of allies that begin to plan the sort of theft only Gabriel Allon could manage. Resonating even more due to the current events in Israel and Gaza, Silva’s novel gives us a hero for our age, one we wish was out there somewhere protecting us from the shadows.

I gave The Heist 5 stars.

Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

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Of all the cases that haunt Bill Hodges after he retires as a cop, none haunt him more than the lone driver who plowed into a crowd of job seekers in a stolen Mercedes. Known as Mr Mercedes, the perpetrator was never found. So when Hodges gets a letter from someone identifying themselves as the escaped killer, he enlists the help of an unlikely group of allies in order to track him down before he causes another tragedy. What starts as an obsession, though, soon turns into a race against time as Mr Mercedes prepares to strike again, this time with an attack that will kill or maim thousands...
 
Announced as Stephen King’s first entry in the ‘hard-boiled’ genre, Mr Mercedes is a cracking story, full of some of the most unexpected and original heroes he has ever created, going up against a truly twisted villain with some major mommy issues. While the echoes of Norman Bates are obvious, King manages to freshen the archetype, partly through a truly sickening opening scene that left me breathless. After a classic Stephen King slow start, the book picks up following the cremation scene and from then on it is almost impossible to put down – I for one stayed up way too late to finish it, especially considering some of the gut punch events building to the gripping finale! There are a few elements that might turn you off. If you’re looking for a non-King Stephen King book here, you’ll be disappointed: his inimitable style of writing is ever present, which you will either love or hate depending on your personal taste. As with most of his work, it is a book of its time: there are lots of references throughout to reality TV, terrorism and the Internet. And one character who is pivotable to the resolution of the plot only appears half way through. For me, though, this is a great King novel, written with all the skill the master can bring to the page. Apparently it is the first in a trilogy – I will be queuing up to get the sequel.
 
I gave Mr Mercedes 5 stars.

Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy

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When a group of terrorists carry out a brutal terrorist attacks on mainstreet America, three rookie operatives of a secret organization established off the books by former President Jack Ryan are set on the trail of the men who organized the attack. While two of them, the Caruso brothers, are trained killers (an FBI agent and a marine), the other, Jack Ryan Jr, is nothing but an analyst. As the scope of the conspiracy becomes clear, however, all three men realize that nothing they have been through up until now has prepared them for the reality of the new world order… and that their lives are about to become far more dangerous.

A follow-up to Tom Clancy’s beloved Jack Ryan series, this first book follows three members of Ryan’s family – his two nephews, Dominic and Brian Caruso, and his son, Jack Ryan Jr – as they become involved in a black ops organization that Ryan set up just before leaving office. Although Ryan himself does not appear, he is omnipresent throughout the book, his own actions leading directly to the situation the three younger men find themselves in. Clancy spends as much time as usual on technical description of the world of espionage, and he creates a very realistic situation here for his characters to encounter – an alliance between Columbian drug cartels and Muslim terrorists, leading to an attack on a series of malls. Clancy’s conservative politics and pro-espionage stance are once again obvious here, a fact that sometimes detracts from the likeability of his main characters. While there seems to be an effort to show both sides of the story, the Caruso brothers especially seem to be two-tone cowboy type characters, with a hint of racism and misogynism thrown in. The book moves at a fair pace, however, and the pages turn almost by themselves. I look forward to the follow-ups which bring the original hero of the series back to the forefront. 

I gave The Teeth of the Tiger 3 stars.

The Eye of God by James Rollins

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After a military satellite crashes, though not before releasing a final blurry glimpse into a catastrophic future where the eastern seaboard of the United States is a fiery ruin, the members of Sigma Force – joined by a pair of Vatican historians – race to recover the satellite before it falls into enemy hands. When this mission becomes tied to a centuries old mystery surrounding the fall of the Roman Empire and rooted in the story of Genghis Khan, Gray Pierce and his colleagues must find Khan’s undiscovered tomb before a weapon hidden for centuries can spell the final fate of humanity...

James Rollins’ Sigma Force novels have been a long-term reading project for the past few years; I read the first one on holiday in 2010 and have been slowly working my way through them ever since. The series is a well-written, well-plotted and exciting one, combining cutting edge science with historical mysteries and the occasional hint of more sfnal elements. The characters start out as the standard thriller fare, but they have developed throughout the books into more rounded, complex people, dealing with some slightly more thorny personal issues. At their core, though, the Sigma Force novels have remained pulpy, over-the-top, seat-of-the-pants thrillers, which are right up my alley. With The Eye of God I have caught up with the series just in time for the release of the latest, The Sixth Extinction, next month.

As with the other books in the series, The Eye of God combines a historical mystery with a cutting edge sf thriller. From the opening chapter, where we discover a military satellite carrying experimental dark matter able to peer into the future, the novel propels us into a race against time to track down the downed satellite while searching for the truth about Genghis Khan and his final resting place. Without giving away the heart of the plot, we quickly discover that finding Khan’s tomb may be the only way to save the Earth and the human race from a world-ending event – the stakes don’t get any higher than that! Along the way, the book takes encompasses quantum physics, alternate universes and the possibility of parallel lives.

The element that means the series just keeps getting better with every book is the way that Rollins has slowly built up the personal lives of his cast of characters, something that he continues to do here. The Eye of God allies the end-of-the-world stakes of the primary plot with a more personal journey for Gray and Seichan on one side and Vigor and his niece on the other. While Gray and Seichan start the book trying to find Seichan’s mother, thus affording us a glimpse into her past and the tragedy of her upbringing, the priest Vigor who has been an integral part of the series since the beginning, is dealing with a tragedy of his own. These more internal journeys provide the book with its heart, making The Eye of God the best of the series so far.

As usual, The Eye of God is an expansive, even epic book, both in geographical and historical terms. A true globe-trotting novel, The Eye of God takes us from Machau to Washington, from Rome to the heights of Mongolia. At the same time, we are introduced to the history of Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun, whose stories are integral to the plot. All of this combines to create a real page-turner, the chapters flying by at a great pace. This is helped by Rollins usual knack for descriptive passages and historical information – none of this is ever bogged down in overly long prose or pace-killing info-dumps. We get just enough information to create an evocative sense of place or time.

All in all, The Eye of God is an excellent addition to an excellent thriller series. Perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Steve Berry or Indiana Jones, The Eye of God combines pulpy action with an evocative sense of place, enhanced by a keen eye for historical detail and cutting edge, even sfnal science. The pages seem to turn by themselves, building as usual to a corker of a finale, with the very survival of the Earth at stake. Yet throughout, Rollins never loses sight of the personal core of his characters, giving us a truly internal journey for many of them. I gave The Eye of God 4,5 ancient skulls out of 5.

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

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When her father, a writer who has become obsessed with the idea of writing a novel about coincidence, vanishes from Austria, where he is supposed to be doing research, Laureth Peak is convinced that something has happened to him. Unable to convince her mother of the danger, she decides to follow up the only lead she has – her father’s notebook which has mysteriously appeared in New York – on her own. Stealing her mother’s credit card and ‘enlisting’ the help of her little brother Benjamin, Laureth sets out to solve the clues left in her father’s notebook. The obstacles facing any 16-year old girl alone in New York, though, are made all the more challenging by one single fact – Laureth Peak is blind.

I’ve heard a lot about Marcus Sedgwick over the years on various blogs and websites – an eclectic author who has written both literary and more genre works, I have always heard good things about his writing and the plots he develops. So when She Is Not Invisible appeared on a “Books-to-Watch-Out-For” post on a blog I frequent, I decided to pick it up and give it a go. And after reaching the end, I am glad I did. She Is Not Invisible is a wonderful, quirky, intriguing novel, which only just fails to reach perfection due to a sloppy execution of the conclusion.

The first and key thing that works in She Is Not Invisible is Laureth, our narrator. Laureth is our guide through the novel, especially since the whole thing is told through her eyes. As such she is an intriguing and completely original narrator, one who manages to portray an entire world despite the fact that she is blind. Although her blindness is an obvious and ever-present factor, it is not allowed to become her only defining characteristic: Laureth is a quirky, strong, uncertain and slightly unhinged character who carries us along with us through the strength of her personality and the power of her convictions.

The strength of her character makes up for what could have been some major problems with the beginning of the novel, which probably means that your own reaction to the book will be dependent on how you react to Laureth. Considering that she is able – as a blind sixteen-year old girl on her own with a seven-year old brother she has basically kidnapped – to con her way onto an airplane and travel all the way to New York, where she is then able to carry on an investigation that constantly forces her to interact with people who may or may not realise she has a disability... Well, if you allow yourself to be dragged in by Laureth’s voice, the chances are that the various parts of the plot that require a certain suspension of belief will work as well for you as they did for me. Otherwise, your mileage may definitely vary!

Those elements aside, She Is Not Invisible provides us with an intriguing and tense mystery, one that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout while I was reading it. As Laureth puts together the elements of the puzzle left behind in her father’s notebook, we start to get a hint of dark forces at work, all centred around her father’s new obesssion – coincidence. Through these sections, Segdwick takes us on a journey through philosophy and physics, using such historical figures as Einstein and Edgar Allan Poe to explore the mysteries surrounding coincidence. Thanks to some well placed diversions into Laureth’s father’s notes, we gain an insight into a field of which I knew little, but which definitely left me intrigued to learn more.

This mystery, unfortunately, is let down by a clumsy conclusion that seems to be unsure as to what it is trying to do. While it wraps up the mystery of her father’s disappearance and brings Laureth full circle with her family, it also seems to wipe away everything that has happened up until now and relegates everything that Laureth and her brother have achieved to an almost farcical trip down a rabbit hole. Her father’s sudden change of heart as to coincidence and the banal explanation of what happened to him are disappointing, and it is difficult to see where Sedgwick is trying to go with his novel by the last few pages.

This does nothing to take away from the journey up until then. Sedgwick creates some great characters besides Laureth – her brother Benjamin and the extremely quirky Mr. Walker especially stand out. As in many YA novels, the adults are either a hindrence or non-existence – Laureth’s parents do not come off particularly well at any point in the story, though they do get their happy ending in the conclusion. A handful of other elements stood out – I really enjoyed the recurring joke about the father’s earlier ‘funny’ books, and the constant reference to the number 354 and the lengths Laureth takes that too through the book were excellent.

All in all, She Is Not Invisible is an accomplished YA mystery with an engaging and original narrator. While building up an extremely interesting philosophical puzzle, the novel is let down by a confusing and clumsy conclusion that does not live up to the expectations of the earlier plot. Requiring a certain amount of suspension of belief at times, it is nevertheless a taut, well-told story that kept me on the edge of my feat. I will definitely be picking up the next book Mr Sedgwick releases.

I gave She Is Not Invisible 4 electricity-cancelling brothers out of 5.

The Red Hot Fix by T.E. Woods

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After the deadly events of The Fixer, Morton Grant and Lydia are trying to rebuild the shattered pieces of their lives. Lydia has spent a year in rehab, attempting to regain her confidence and to put the truth about her connection to the Fixer behind her, while Mort is embroiled in an investigation into a prostitute serial killer who only kills the men who pay her to sleep with them. As they both try to regain badly damaged confidence and find a way of moving on with their lives, the truth about what they both did threatens everything they have built...
 
The Fixer was a surprising hit for me earlier this year - a thriller that I picked up on a whim but which worked really well and pushed all my mystery/thriller buttons: an intriguing mystery, a couple of damaged heroes, a twisty-turny plot. When I saw that the sequel was coming out later this year I added it to my To Read List, and when it became available on Netgalley I requested it immediately. Once it was approved I jumped it towards the top of the ever-growing pile of books to read, looking forward to returning once again to the world of the Fixer.

Due to everything that happened in the previous novel, it was inevitable that The Red Hot Fix would be a very different animal. The mystery of the Fixer - while still relevant - is no longer an issue for the main two characters, so Woods introduces a new mystery killer in "Trixie", a prostitute killing her "johns" who is the latest criminal to go up against Detective Mort Grant. While Grant investigates the Trixie murders with his son, Lydia is trying to find a way back into her life now that she has given up her Fixer persona. As the book progresses, though, she begins to realise that giving up her old life may not be as easy as she thought, especially when she is faced with a clear injustice.

The way Woods dealt with Lydia's storyline was very well done. We see her struggle to decide what to do when she meets a little girl whose father is abusing her and planning to sell her through his sick website, afraid of going back to her Fixer ways, but even more terrified of not doing anything. The way the story is wrapped up was excellent, showing that Lydia may be able to use her skills and the mindset she developped as the Fixer, but in a new way that might keep her out of the sort of trouble she found in the first book.

I much preferred this storyline - despite the disgust factor created by the girl's father and his plans - than Mort's cat-and-mouse game with Trixie. The surprise factor was missing, it was pretty easy to figure out who Trixie actually was and the situation was wrapped up very quickly. It felt like the storyline then went into a holding pattern while Lydia's story caught up, which took some of the tension away from the final scenes.

The Red Hot Fix was a good continuation of the Fixer series, bringing back a lot of what worked in the first novel and progressing both characters storylines in interesting ways. One plotline was more interesting and worked better than the other, but overall they both complimented each other nicely and set up an interesting finale. I will certainly pick up the next book in the series - I'm looking forward to see how Lydia puts her new skills to use in different situations. I gave The Red Hot Fix 4 tied-up johns out of 5.

The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry

 

Abraham Lincoln kept his temper under control, but the woman standing across from him was taxing his patience.

When a plot to secede from the Union drags Cotton Malone's on-again, off-again lover Vitt Cassiopeia into danger, Malone agrees to once again assist his former Magellan Billet boss. Paired up with a young agent with secrets of his own, Malone's investigation leads him into conflict with the Church of Latter-Day Saints and a centuries old secret hidden within the US Constitution. As the bodies begin to pile up and more revelations are made, Malone comes to realise that the entire conspiracy revolves around the truth behind one of the United States' most beloved presidents...

The Lincoln Myth is the ninth book in the Cotton Malone series, which follows the eponymous hero through a number of historically orientated thrillers, pitting him against larger than life villains and putting him on the track of some of history's most enduring secrets. Up til now, Malone has investigated the Templars, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Elizabeth I. All of the books are great fun, with slightly less of the over the top vibe that characterise Dan Brown, and with more of a historical bent. Malone is an interesting character, one with scars and hidden depths that Steve Berry continues to plumb even nine books in. As such, any new Cotton Malone book is a shoe-in for my To Read List and this year I was lucky enough to get an advance look at the latest thanks to Netgalley.

Nine books in it is difficult to see how Berry can still surprise, but he does an admirable job here by throwing a wrench in the growing relationship between Malone and Vittoria Cassiopeia, his paramour for the past few books, and putting them on opposing sides of the growing conflict. Berry also manages to layer an interesting commentary on current events throughout the book, forcing his characters to face the growing dissatisfaction in the United States and the ever-present threat of secession.

The plot itself revolves around two main arcs - on one side, a historical maguffin in the form of a secret adendum to the Constitution that allows for the legal right to secede from the union, and on the other a plot within the Church of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons, to use said adendum to secede from the United States and build their own Eldorado. Though obviously far fetched, there are some startling arguments for both of these arcs that make the book seem less out there than it otherwise might. Laying aside the Mormon aspect, it is certainly true that there are some in the current US who would like nothing better than to force government out of their business and see each state make its own decisions. And the adendum to the Constitution, while an invention of Berry, seems like something that could easily have happened when one takes into account the historical context of the times in which the Founding Fathers wrote it.

As usual, Berry does a great job of balancing the action portions of the thriller with the necessary information that he must impart. Anyone who writes this kind of book needs to be a master at feeding the reader information at the right pace - too fast and it becomes nothing more than an info-dump, too slow and you risk alienating the reader who feels like the author is holding back. Berry has had a lot of practice and he does it with a steady hand. The revelations come just when they need to and each character is forced to make choices and face consequences for gaining the information they want.

The relationships take centre stage in this book - not only the rocky romance between Vitt and Malone, but also the relationship between Malone boss, Stephanie Nell, and Berry's president, Daniels. Daniels has been a growing presence in recent books, and Berry does a good job of showing how the pressures and weight of the presidency have come to drag on him. He is coming towards the end of his final term in this book and it is clear that his actions in The Lincoln Myth are a direct result of him worrying about the inevitable question of 'legacy'. His relationship with Nelle is also advanced, and we see another side of him as he handles a difficult reunion with his nephew, the young agent mentioned in the summary above.

The ending does not hold many surprises for anyone who has read any other books in this series (or in any other similar one), but Berry does a fine job of showing consequences. We get the feeling going forward that Malone and Vitt's ongoing relationship will have been irrevocably changed by what happens here and that may have a domino effect on his willingness to get involved in the future. Like Jack Bauer, soon to enjoy his own revival, though, we can be sure that Malone's adventures will not end here.

The Lincoln Myth is a historical thriller done right. While not holding many surprises, it does a great job of combining historical speculation with a taut action thriller, while not flinching from the relationships and characters that make the whole thing hold together. A true page-turner and a great book for the beach, it shows that Berry is still a master at this form and that there are still many ways in which he can make the Cotton Malone series work. I gave it 4 crazy angel-seeing killers out of 5.

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The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

 

The first time I saw a sleeper, I was nine years old.

Ever since her father died of a heart attack, Ruthie's mother has been overly protective of her and her sister. For an eighteen-year old girl, though, this protection quickly becomes stifling. When her mother vanishes one night, though, Ruthie is forced to take responsibility for herself and her younger sister. As she searches the farm house where they all live, though, she begins to realise that her mother's disappearance may be due to something much darker and more horrific than she could imagine. Something linked to an old diary that she finds hidden beneath the floorboards in her mother's room...

The Winter People was an Amazon pick of the month, but also a book that had come up on multiple blogs as a book to look out for. The hugely atmospheric cover is really eye-catching and the blurb seemed to indicate that it would be a thriller with a historical bent. Since that is definitely my kind of book, I picked it up and delved into it as soon as I could. What I found, though, was not at all what I had expected. It was better!

Set in the same house but in two different time periods, The Winter People tells the story of two women - Sara, a young mother who loses her daughter in tragic circumstances and whose story is told through a diary she left behind after her own death, and Ruthie, a young daughter whose mother has vanished, leaving her alone with her young sister. Both stories intertwine and eventually collide, bringing with them a number of other women whose lives have been affected in one way or another by Sara's story. Secrets are revealed on both sides of the temporal gap, building to a terrifying and troubling conclusion.

Although I was expecting a thriller that would combine the two time periods together, The Winter People actually has much more of a horror vibe. As I was reading the first few chapters of the modern section, Stephen King came to mind: a small town with a number of past secrets and crimes, strange disappearances revolving around mysterious part of the nearby forest, a young protagonist struggling with her family's rules. Where Stephen King - whose work I am a big fan of - would probably have developed this into a sprawling epic with a dozen different viewpoint characters, McMahon keeps this story very closely focused on three women - Sara, Ruthie and another woman called Helen, who has recently lost her husband. While a handful of chapters are told through the eyes of Sara's husband, it is this triumvirate of women who form the core of the novel.

The horror elements are very low key, hinted at in the historical parts through Sara's aunt and her stories of sleepers. Right from the start, we understand that these are some kind of zombie, though it is not until later in the novel that we discover how much of what Sara's Auntie has told her is true. Most of the historical section is devoted to the mystery of Sara's death - McMahon does a good job of playing with expectations as we hear the rumours in the modern part that have evolved out of what happened back at the beginning of the century. Not until the conclusion of the novel do we understand what really happened and all of its implications. These historical chapters are extremely well done and it is clear that McMahon has done her research.

In the modern part, Ruthie and Helen are very well drawn characters, though I found Helen's storyline to be especially touching as she tries to make sense of her husband's seemingly senseless death in a car accident. Fearing that he was having an affair, Helen abandons her entire life and moves to the town where Ruthie lives. The two storylines are entirely separate until much later in the novel, where we discover the unusual and unexpected links that bind them.

The book ends with a creepy-as-hell confrontation in a cave system in the woods, and while I won't give away any of the great surprises and twists, I will say that I found the ending for Helen to be particularly haunting! I promise that you will be thinking about the final couple of paragraphs of her last chapter for hours after closing the book.

The Winter People is one of a number of books I have read since the beginning of the year split over two time periods and with either a crime/thriller bent or a supernatural one. It is also one of the best. Suspenseful, marvelously well-written, with a keen eye for detail in the historical sections and a great trio of female characters at its core, the novel stayed with me in the days after finishing it. At its heart, The Winter People has a lot to say about the relationship between mothers and daughters, and beyond that the relationships between us all. It is the first book by Jennifer McMahon I have read, but will certainly not be the last! I gave The Winter People 5 skin-peeling sleepers out of 5.

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From the Blogosphere:
Beth Fish Reads
Caffeinated Book Reviewer
The Lost Entwife

From the Author's Mouth:
Interview over at the Quirky Bookworm

Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman

 

The children had never been this far from home before. Liv had spent most of yesterday driving around, hunting for no-mess Crayola coloring books, praying they weren't too juvenile to keep a six- and eight-year-old occupied in the car, then running up and down the supermarket aisles in search of bars and snack pouches in case they couldn't find food on the road. Or in case they did find something, and Paul wouldn't allow the kids to eat it.

Liv Daniels and her family leave on holiday for the first time in years on a trip to see her husband's parents. When they stop for the night in a hotel, everything seems to be going well. But when Liv wakes up the next morning, she finds her two children missing. The police are called and a search begins, but it soon becomes apparent that the person responsible may be closer than Liv thinks...

Ruin Falls showed up in a Most Anticipated Books column on one of my go-to blogs, and the atmospheric cover caught my attention. The blurb seemed to promise a tense thriller so I added it to my To Be Read list. When it showed up on Netgalley I requested it and was pleasantly surprised when it was accepted - one of the first ARCs I asked for and received! I decided to wait until shortly before the release date to read it and devoured it in a single day. Ruin Falls is a thriller novel done right and I loved it!

Set over a two week period, Ruin Falls tells the story of Liv Daniels. A mother, wife and business owner, she shares a farm with her professor husband and two children. Following her husband's eco-friendly lifestyle, they avoid consumer culture as much as possible. Leaving on vacation, Liv's world is torn apart by the disappearance of her children. But it is the identity of the kidnapper that really sends Liv reeling as she is forced to reexamine everything she thought she knew and every belief she held dear in the light of a horrendous betrayal.
I don't think I will give away any major spoilers if I reveal that the kidnapper is Liv's husband, Paul. The reveal itself happens very early in the novel, an  the true mystery is not who took the children but why and where he has taken them. The fact that Paul is the one to be behind the abduction allows Milchman to play around with the standard kidnapping storyline as the police relegate it to a domestic dispute, leaving Liv alone to try and recover her children.

Milchman does a fantastic job of creating tension - right from the first page we are dragged into Liv's frame of mind as more and more events ramp up her feeling that something is wrong. Even before we discover the kidnapping, Liv is stressed, convinced that something is wrong or about to happen. From an agressive truck driver to her son disappearing in a crowd, Liv is constantly on tenderhooks and so is the reader.

Having your children taken is any parent's ultimate nightmare and Milchman does a fantastic job of portraying that in Ruin Falls. That is made even worse by the aforementioned fact that the police will not do anything because the father is the one who has taken them. Liv's feeling of helplessness fills the pages and it is great to see her slowly gain the confidence she needs to save her children. She really develops through the course of the novel, and I loved the fact that despite the presence of a male character who assists her, at the end Liv is totally alone when it comes time to face the true villain of the piece.

Of the supporting characters, most are well developed, though unfortunately Paul comes across as a bit of a cipher whose aims and motivations are left quite fuzzy. His parents are much more interesting characters, and the truth about his past is done in a very nice way, keeping you guessing and putting together the various pieces all the way through. I would have liked there to be a little more closure to his storyline, though what does happen to him is definitely well deserved.

As I mentioned above, the conclusion is worthy of the build-up, pitting Liv against everything she has feared and forcing her to stand up and fight for her children. The book ends with a hopeful twist, though one that remains bittersweet when you consider the implications of everything that has happened.

Ruin Falls does not break any major ground when it comes to this kind of family-in-danger thriller, but it does do what it set out to extremely well. Edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting tension from the first page to the last, it is not the kind of book that I found myself laying aside without a tug of reluctance, wanting to read a little bit more to find out what would happen next or how a situation would resolve. The mystery was well done and did not ever feel drawn out, and the conclusion was worthy of everything that had been set up until then. I felt for and related to Liv and the other characters. At its heart, Ruin Falls is about motherhood and the lengths any of us (mothers or fathers) go to protect our children (although I have to admit that Dads do not come out of this one particularly well!) I will definitely be adding Jenny Milchman to my Must-Read List. I gave Ruin Falls 4 shoemaking psychopaths out of 5.

Ruin Falls will be released on April 22nd.

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From the Blogosphere:
Loveinwrittenword
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From the Author's Mouth:
Interview carried out by fellow author Cynthia Lott

The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier

The young men completed their training row in record time.

All her life, Diana Morgan has been obsessed with Amazons. Told stories of these empowered female warriors by her grandmother when she was a child, she has devoted her career to proving that they actually existed. Dismissed by many as a deluded fool, Diana jumps at the opportunity that is presented to her by a strange old man who claims to need her assistance at an archaeological dig that may just prove all of her theories. What she discovers, though, will take her on a journey from Algeria to Greece to Turkey to the far north on a quest that includes bronze bracelets, a secret society and the truth about the Trojan War...

Although the cover for The Lost Sisterhood did not really catch my attention, when I read the blurb describing Amazons, Troy and a quest that spans the globe, I couldn't resist giving it a go. And boy am I glad that I did! Combining historical fiction and a thriller-type quest, The Lost Sisterhood is a sprawling novel set in two time frames and filled with great twists and exciting set pieces.
 
The modern part of the novel follows Diana Morgan as she chases clues left behind for her by her grandmother across the world in search of the 'real' Amazons. Caught in the middle between two powerful men - each with their own reasons for trying to find the mythical warrior women - Diana must stay one step ahead of them at all times, with the help and support of Rebecca, her best friend from childhood, now an archaeologist, and Nick, the obligatory love interest, a man who is at first antipathic to her and her quest but gradually becomes an ally and more. The love story between the two, while well done, was the least interesting part of the novel to me, mainly because the thawing out between the two of them did not strike me as all that realistic based on what happens to them.

Where the novel excels, though, is in the historical part of the story. Following two young women from the deserts of modern-day Algeria, this section of the book - with chapters interspersed with the modern-day ones - combines what little is known about the Amazons from ancient sources with a masterful retelling of a number of ancient myths and legends, primarily the fall of Troy and the Trojan War. Fortier does a fantastic job of reinventing all of these stories and characters, giving them a new twist. What she does with Paris and the story of Helen was especially well done.

I found the beginning of the love story between Myrina and Paris to be slightly more believable than that between Diana and Nick, although the way it develops caused me problems. Myrina's willingness to - at first - take on a more submissive role in the relationship grated with her personality as seen up until then, and yet Fortier was able to make sense of it as the story progressed and bring Myrina back to the strong female character she had been in the earlier chapters.

The Lost Sisterhood does a great job of combining historical fiction and a modern thriller, bringing some neat twists to age-old stories and reinventing them for a new audience. Overall the female characters are worthy of the subject matter - each one of them is an Amazon in her own right, although the love stories for both main characters tarnish that slightly by taking away some of their freedom and power. Still, a fantastic read and I will be looking out for the next book Anne Fortier may write. I gave The Lost Sisterhood 4 bronze bracelets out of 5.

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From the Blogosphere:
Tangled in Pages
Historical Novels Review
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From the Author's Mouth:
Video Interview on the Author's Website

Eden in Winter by Richard North Patterson

 

For three days, Adam Blaine and his family had entered the Dukes County Courthouse, a modest two-storey brick structure with white trim and doors, and passed through a double door to a spiral staircase that rose the courtroom itself.

In the aftermath of his father's apparent suicide, Adam Blaine has taken it upon himself to hide the truth - that the man who raised him was in fact his uncle and that his real father is the murderer who pushed his own brother off a cliff. As he struggles to protect those he cares about from the fallout, Adam also begins a relationship with his dead father's mistress. With the police and a journalist closing in on the truth, though, it seems that his dead father's reach may extend beyond the grave...

Ever since I read Balance of Power back in the early 2000s, Richard North Patterson has been a writer whose books I devour as quickly as I can. Though many of his earlier works were more straight-up legal and political thrillers, in the past few years he has been releasing a loose trilogy that depart from his status quo. Called the Martha's Vineyard Trilogy and starting with Fall from Grace back in 2012, these three books are more literary than what Patterson has written up until now. Following the fates of the Blaine family and those they have affected, Patterson has slowly developed a family saga with complex characters and a tangled web of lies and betrayals.

Eden in Winter is the final book in the trilogy and returns to "modern" day after the flashback to the 1960s presented in Loss of Innocence. We find the Blaines caught up in the immediate aftermath of the events of the first book as Adam's "uncle" - his real father - and brother are called to court in order to give their versions of what happened the night Benjamin Blaine ended up at the bottom of a cliff on Martha's Vineyard. As their testimony is given, we see how Adam has been manipulating events in the background, giving us a glimpse into just how good Adam is at what he does. As the story progresses, we follow Adam's struggles with his own life, and see as he tries to change it. A large part of that change involves Carla, his father's mistress, pregnant with his child. What begins as Adam wanting to make sure that his baby cousin has a better life than he does turns into much more as he and Carla draw closer.

Adam as a character develops in some interesting ways throughout the novel and we get a front seat to that as a large part of his storyline is taken up with his discussions with a psychiatrist friend. Forced to look into his relationships with his parents, his brother, his lovers and his job as a CIA contractor in Afghanistan, Adam comes to some major realisations about what he wants out of life and most of the impetus that keeps the pages turning revolves around seeing how and if he will be able to make different decisions than his father did.
Patterson's writing is crisp and at times lyrical. The skills gained writing more thrilling material in the past transfer well, making sure that what is at its heart a character piece delving in to the complex relationships of this - admittedly screwed-up - family is also a page-turner. Being so heavily invested in these characters from the previous novels also helps, obviously.

The one negative is that the final resolutions are a tad pat, especially when it comes to the relationship between Adam and Carla. Although the set-up is such that the ending seems in a way logical, it also demands a suspension of belief on the part of the reader that what should be such a totally dysfunctional and even slightly twisted relationship should work. Patterson lays the ground work, though, especially thanks to Adam's conversations with the psychiatrist throughout the early chapters.

A family saga full to the brim with deceit and lies, Eden in Winter delves deep into the characters of the Blaine family and manages to create a page-turning yarn that is hard to put down. With hints of the political and legal thrillers that Patterson is well known for dribbled throughout, the book is a nice resolution to a departure trilogy for the writer. As usual, a great read that cements Patterson for me as a must-buy whenever he brings out a new book. I gave Eden in Winter 4 bodies at the bottom of a cliff out of 5.

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No reviews that I could find

From the Author's Mouth:
Interview and article for the Boston Globe