Flawed, page-turning thriller debut
354610
Terry Hayes' debut novel, I Am Pilgrim, is a blockbuster spy thriller which shows all the author's narrative skills as a seasoned screenwriter. Seemingly written with Hollywood in mind, it is highly visual, and has multiple twists and turns to keep even the most reluctant reader riveted to the page (or, in my case, the iPad) until long into the night.

A lengthy 704 pages, the story ranges over settings as diverse as New York, Saudi Arabia, the Hindu Kush and Turkey. It combines an identity-troubled protagonist, reminiscent of Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne, with comic-book-like action typical of a James Bond movie. (There are probably better contemporary examples, but this isn't really my genre.)

The narrative is ostensibly told in the first person and jumps forwards and backwards in time, as motivations and back stories are filled out. The premise, a terror threat which could bring down the United States, if not the entire Western World, is alarmist and frightening; and Hayes' narrative manipulations make the scenario in all its permutations seem - almost - believable. With at times clunky foreshadowing, Hayes never lets the reader forget the magnitude of the imminent threat, and pointed references to genocide, such as the narrator's quote from an Auschwitz survivor, attempt to give the story an epic quality:

There was one thing the experience had taught him. He said he'd learned that when millions of people, a whole political system, countless numbers of citizens who believed in God, said they were going to kill you - just listen to them.

As well as telling his own story, Hayes' narrator retells events as if from the points of view of other pivotal characters, including the Muslim terrorist-antagonist. The built-in unreliability of the narrator, in my view, narrowly saves the story from being a crude exploitation of complex political, religious and ideological tensions between the West and radical Islam for entertainment purposes. Narrowly, I say, because the narrator's unreliability is only hinted at, rather than fully drawn. It could be easy for some - many? most? - readers to accept on face value the narrator's self-serving account of events, and to regard him as a hero, rather than the flawed, ethically and morally suspect anti-hero I would like to think Hayes intends him to be. (We might have to wait for another book featuring this narrator to judge what Hayes has in mind here.)

Who will enjoy this book? Anyone who likes morally ambiguous, page-turning thrillers. Who might hate it? People who don't buy my unreliable narrator argument and who can't bring themselves to switch off their critical facilities long enough to enjoy James Bond.

For me, I couldn't put it down.
3411702
Behind Closed Doors is the debut novel of B.A. Paris, reminiscent of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.  It is a thriller that one wants to plow through.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat, needing to know the eventual outcome.  I listened to the audio version of this and thought the narrator, Georgia Maguire, did a terrific job.

This book made me very uncomfortable, however.  The narrative is from the perspective of a psychologically abused wife, Grace, whose husband, Jack, meant physical harm to the Graces younger sister with Downs syndrome, Milly.  Grace is literally imprisoned by her husband who derives pleasure from the fear he senses in his victims.  She is locked in a room most of the time and cannot write emails or socialize unless under strict supervision of her husband.  Although this book invokes some real truths of domestic abuse, it really goes way over the top.  Jack, the psychopath, is absolute scum of the earth.  It was mind-blowing to me that someone could dream up this scenario, and the harm he wishes to inflict on Milly.

I found that the novel required the reader to take several leaps of faith to allow the wife to fall into this situation.  Jack and Grace have only a few short months of getting to know each other, and during this time have very little quality or intimate time.  Jack asks Grace to quit her job, handover the money from selling her flat, and convinces Graces parents to move to New Zealand immediately after the wedding.  He is whittling away her autonomy even before they are married.  He does not like the idea of having Graces sister, Milly,  in the wedding, and when Milly falls backwards down the stairs to the church (necessitating hospitalization for a broken leg), as he is walking alongside her, Grace is completely non-suspecting.  The wedding proceeds despite this.  Then, Jack disappears on their wedding night not to return until the next day just before their flight, sending a repugnant text message and then refusing to take Grace to visit Milly before heading to the airport as they had planned.  And Grace still agrees to go to Thailand with him!  These things were all hard to swallow!

However, once Grace is fully secured as his prisoner, and the mind games begin, it is rewarding to see Grace begin to win some of these games, and eventually come out as a survivor.  It is also rewarding to find that Ester and Adam had connected the dots and would help her in the end.

In summary, for those who love a good edge of your seat thriller, you will probably really enjoy this.  The writing isn't spectacular and if you look closely, there seem to be flaws in the creation of the premise, but if you can let that go, it is enjoyable.  Again, I thought Georgia Maguire did an excellent job with the audible version, so you might want to give that a go.

For discussion questions:  book-chatter.com
2859059
This is a well-crafted, fast-paced thriller. Debut author McGugan fully inhabits her strong male protagonist, giving him equal parts macho and self-deprecation.  She's done her homework on both physics and locations, and imbues this tense page-turner with great atmosphere.  She is either playful with her ideas on death, bodily particles and spirit or she's nudging the reader to expand their ideas on all of it.  No matter, the reader can either cruise along soaking up the tension for pure enjoyment or gather some like-minded readers for a provocative group discussion.  I'm looking forward to McGugan's sophomore effort.
1999121
This is a very fine debut and a hugely enjoyable book until its conclusion. The atmosphere, the author's use of flashbacks, the lead character's enigmatic personality and past, and the execution of the Romanoff's all combine to create an engaging historical thriller. This period of history offers a tremendous backdrop given the confusion that the Russian revolution created. I found it a solid page-turner until it petered out to a ho-hum conclusion. It also clearly establishes that Pekkala and his protege will return for future Holmes and Watson-like installments.
4338048
<i><b>4-stars for deft plot construction by first time author</b></i></p>

Roger G. King's troubling fast-paced debut novel, <i>Affirmative Action</i>, envisions successful assassinations of both the "f__ing black president" and his Vice President in a failed violent attempt to overthrow the U.S. government. Code named "Affirmative Action," the Independence Day insurrection, initially might bring to mind the notorious 1978 novel, <i>The Turner Diaries.</i>

However, the narrative strategy of this 2014 potboiler differs from <i>The Turner Diaries</I> in two key respects: (1) In <i>Affirmative Action</i>, the story unfolds from the standpoint of two "good guys"  a Texas Ranger and an FBI agent; and (2) the book may be read as a cautionary tale about the danger that the federal government's fixed focus on international terrorism may blind it  to attacks by such home grown terrorists as the book's bad guys.

Convincing verisimilitude  especially with respect to the locations of key national security installations, explosives, guns, and aircraft  evinces a command  of the material and technical aspects of the novel's action and helps to propel its well crafted, if, sometimes over the top, plot. Character development presents the book's chief aesthetic problem.

Although racial hatred stands as a given of the insurrectionists' motives, the novel presents few clues about their inner lives. What made them both hateful and willing to act out their hatreds rather than getting in step with the march of time or reconciling themselves to lives of quiet desperation? That weakness is especially noticeable in the portrayal of the insurrection's African American contingent. Duped into fomenting urban race riots to cover the white supremacist aims of Operation <i>Affirmative Action</i>, Raven and his black marauders seem to serve merely as plot points.

One cannot help wondering  whether the novel's bad actors  are  an assortment of men like the news media's characterizations of such killers as the suspected Louisiana movie theater shooter, reportedly a deranged drifter, or like the alleged Emmanuel Nine shooter, supposedly a dissolute and rudderless youth, or like the fired black Los Angeles Police Department cop suspected of a rampage  of racially directed revenge killings, allegedly a disgruntled militant sociopath.

Of course, other  possibilities exist. Noteworthy examples appear among the amoral, alienated, self-important ideologues of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's classic political thriller, <i>The Damned</i>, the story of another attempt at violent social change. <i>Affirmative Action</i> reaches no such depths of portrayal. Nevertheless, like some Tom Clancy novels, the book holds much of practical interest to federal authorities and others with more than passing interest in terrorism and law enforcement.
1136694
Gritty, coarse, rough; ideal descriptions for this debut thriller by a former actor/disc jockey/cab driver/probation officer, to mention only a few of Michael Simon's many careers. Now he can add successful writer to the list.

Sgt. Dan Reles, New Yorker by birth --- and nature --- is striving to assimilate well into life in Austin, Texas. But his current focus is dealing with the recent death of his partner, Joey, and his disturbingly inappropriate feelings for Joey's widow. She has become nearly an obsession, an obsession so blatant that it has earned him sneers and crude comments from fellow officers. He knows that if he doesn't shape up soon, he may be out of a job. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot of friends on the APD, being not only a bit of a loner but definitely not a team player when it comes to dirty cops.

On a scorching September evening, Reles catches the call for a possible suicide. But it smells funny to him. A fellow committing suicide by jumping in front of a bus right after a rushed breakfast at a taco stand? While on the scene, searching for body parts to complete the badly mangled corpse, Reles spies a bonafide homicide victim, no doubt about it. Regrettably, more parts are missing from this torso than the bus victim. The missing parts start showing up on the doorsteps of some of Austin's leading citizens, and the police start wondering why. What's their connection? The Austin PD is convinced that, as soon as they can identify the victim --- if they ever locate the hands or the head --- they might have a shot at figuring out motive and finding a suspect. But when the crucial parts surface, they trigger more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, Reles has a nasty run-in with an officer who harbors a dangerous loathing for him. A bad situation deteriorates, and Reles finds himself scheduled before a review board. Bringing the killer to justice is the only thing that will keep him on the force, but his dead partner keeps sidetracking him --- as does his dead partner's widow. Things don't look too good for Sgt. Reles. Then, making himself even more unpopular, he decides to investigate the suspicious suicide as a murder too.

DIRTY SALLY is packed with edge-of-your-seat action. Michael Simon adroitly grips you by the throat and doesn't let go. This book will keep you up all night.

  --- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
4617816
Author Chris Pavone describes a main character in The Accident as being more like a fast-food hamburger than a four-star meal.

Seems to me thats a pretty good way to talk about Pavones latest thriller, a somewhat tasty morsel, but without a whole lot of substance, nuance or lasting flavor. Not something you're going to savor long in your memory.

Day breaks and over the course of what to me is one stupendously contrived 24-hour period, an author-in-hiding in Zurich frets over the manuscript of his tell-all book. His is a book that  if truth wins out  represents a grave threat to world order as well as to some powerful individuals, corporations and governments.

The author-in-hiding was both an insider and participant in a mess of serious double-dealing that he has now chronicled in his manuscript, The Accident. But now hes the apologist, motivated by remorse, but more so by the soul-cleansing redemption that coming clean promises.

In Copenhagen, New York, and other global locales, CIA spooks along with power-brokers working in the media, literary and publishing world are also thinking  obsessing  over the manuscript. These government and publishing predators either hope to cash in on the books publication, or are threatened with ruin if The Accident makes it to print.

Two camps exist: those who hope to gain if the book is published and those who will kill to prevent its publication. For me, each camp is populated with characters as one-dimensional as cardboard cutouts. All of them are wily, witty and wise but all in the same manner, acting and speaking as if cut from the same cloth; as a result its difficult to keep straight whos talking. Theres a long list of characters. Nearly all the characters are expendable and too often for my taste someone seems to be introduced so he or she can be summarily erased, violently. I lost tab but theres an extremely high body count. (A fun exercise might be to tally the actual number of corpses. My guess is youll be surprised at how many there are.)

The one person we are led to care for most is Isabel Reed, a literary agent who is reading the final pages of The Accident as the book begins. Youll need to stick with the book until the final pages to learn if Isabel is among the survivors and if the manuscript that has already buried so many makes its way into print.

Pavone sets out to take you on a thrill ride. And, okay, the pages did seem to flip rather quickly. But, depending on your tolerance for the implausible, he delivers a book thats hard to put down or one youll be tempted to throw across the room.
In a word: Far-fetched
282364
THE EDGE OF NORMAL is a thriller, a genre I've been reading more of this year.  I blame GONE GIRL.  It's not that I loved GONE GIRL (I just liked it), but that publishers are giving their thrillers more of a push.  And why not?  Thrillers have a wide ranging appeal.  They're fast, but have to be clever to deliver twists.  They're driven by plot, but often require psychological depth.

Reeve LeClaire was held captive for three years.  Her kidnapper was caught only because of a freak car accident.  Six years later, she's still recovering when her therapist asks her to travel across the country and speak to young girl, Tilly, who was recently rescued from her kidnapper.  He thinks it will help both Reeve and Tilly.  It does, but it soon becomes apparent that there's more going on in Tilly's case, and that it isn't as open and shut as it seemed.  There's two other missing girls, Abby and Hannah, and Tilly could be the key to finding them in time.

THE EDGE OF NORMAL switches between points of view, and it's a rare example of villain point of view done well.  The passages narrated by the villain reveal how he keeps staying one step ahead, when otherwise the plotting might fall apart.  The passages are also careful not to reveal his real name.  You know he's in other scenes, but it's often hard to guess which person he might be.

I also liked that the book wasn't overly sensational.  This is Carla Norton's fiction debut, but she has a background in true crime writing.  Reeve and Tilly have been through terrible things, but the focus on them is not that terrible things happened, but how they're moving on.  Reeve keeps a secret for Tilly perhaps longer than she should, but it's clear she wants the girl to have as much control and trust as possible.

I also like that unlike many thriller heroines, Reeve goes to the police pretty quickly.  (She's laughed off, because the plot wouldn't work otherwise, but I like that she went to the authorities like a normal person.)  Reeve gets a couple of potential romantic storylines, but they don't go very far since they aren't about perfunctory romance, but Reeve opening up to chance.

THE EDGE OF NORMAL will leave you at the edge of your seat.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and hope Norton keeps on with this fiction thing.  THE EDGE OF NORMAL has fascinating, complex characters, a twisting, fast-paced plot, and it lingers in the mind afterwards.  It's everything a good thriller should be.
617281
Skillful, exciting thriller with interesting, engaging characters. Pacing, Follet's strong suit, was superb as always.

Flaws included [spoilers]

(1) The characterization of Sandy Smith seemed unkind to the point of maliciousness;

(2) There was no real resolution to the Bogge subplot;

(3) It was not that plausible that Alex would need to carry around the key. The instructions provided for the first encryption suggest the rule was simple enough that the key could easily be memorized;

(4) Like in nearly all Follett's books, the plot winds up with a faintly implausible, complex climax. Here, I did not find Alex's kidnapping of Billy to be credible under the circumstances, although I suppose it is possible.
4706333
Written in the form of a letter to the narrator's missing sister, Rosamund Lupton's debut novel Sister is wonderfully written and very captivating.  It works remarkably well on two separate levels.  On the one hand, the book is a solid, fascinating thriller which kept me hooked as I tried to unearth the mystery.  On the other, it is a beautiful, touching account of loss and the bonds of sisterhood and family.

The narrator is Beatrice or `Bee', who is living in New York, with a steady corporate job and an organized life.  She receives a call from her mother in England advising her that her free-spirited younger sister Tess is missing.  She immediately returns home and begins to try to trace Tess' whereabouts.  When Tess is found dead, the police are convinced that she committed suicide, using the `facts' of her life (artist, unmarried, pregnant, possibly depressed) as substantiation for their belief.  Bee however, is just as certain that Tess would never take her own life - citing her sister's reverence for life and the bond between them as her evidence.

In effect, no one believes Bee - not the police, her boyfriend or even her own mother.  As she comes up against the wall of their disbelief, Bee works harder and harder to find proof that Tess was murdered.  Much of the conflict of the book comes from this determination, as Bee struggles against both the doubts piled up by everyone connected with the case, as well as against the things she thought she knew about her sister's life.  In the end, Bee discovers that she wasn't wrong about the bond that existed between them. Instead she finds that she had looked at Tess' life as though it were the counterpoint of her own, and had judged her accordingly.  In the process of understanding her sister's life and death, Bee rediscovers her true self along the way.

In order to find the evidence to support her conviction that Tess was murdered, Bee pretty much steps into Tess' life - living in her apartment, taking a job that she'd once held, visiting the people and places that had been important to her, even wearing her sister's clothes.  These actions both allow Bee to understand her sister much more and also lead her to suspect several different people who were part of Tess' life.  Raising these multiple suspicions to the police, Bee appears to have become even more unstable, with almost everyone thinking that she is becoming unhinged by her sister's death.  Bee is written so believably however, that it was clear to me from the beginning that there was much more to Tess' death, and I found myself rooting for her to find the truth.

The best thing about the book for me though, was that just when I thought I understood where the story was going - though not how it would end - the author slipped in an unexpected twist.  This little gem was what elevated `Sister' from being a well-written thriller to being a stunning, captivating book that resonated with me and one that I will be hard-pressed to forget.  The book is fast-paced, but the author's elegant writing style keeps it from feeling rushed.  I must admit, I hurried through the last third of the book, when it became apparent that Bee had been keeping something important back from the story she was telling her sister.  Revelations follow one after the other in this last section of the book and both the suspense and the language made for an enjoyable and satisfying read right down to the very last page.
616310
This is one of the strangest thrillers I have encountered, still very readable for all its faults. Once accepting the incredible naivet&eacute; of the protagonist, Will Innes, it is possible to temporarily buy into an unlikely scenario that involves a missing woman, a renegade FBI agent and a lucrative criminal enterprise that originates from within the Mexican drug cartel. The biggest obstacle is Will Innes, at attorney in the southwest whose wife goes missing on her way home one night from her job near the Mexico-Arizona border. Clearly Rachael Innes has been abducted, the violence attending that disappearance an indication of the seriousness of her predicament. And as detectives eventually turn suspicious eyes on the spouse, Innes decides to flee to places unknown with his young daughter.

Devlin has cystic fibrosis, the disease currently contained by specific treatments. Will refuses to take the chance that he might be arrested and separated from his child, leaving Devlin without the comfort of either parent. Living under assumed identities, father and daughter are fairly secure until FBI agent Kalyn Sharp appears on their doorstep in Colorado, convincing a reluctant Will to return with her to Phoenix to identify the man behind Rachael's disappearance, Javier Estrada. This is where the leap of faith comes in, Will's belief that Kalyn can shield him from the consequences of his flight and solve the case with Estrada's arrest.

The rest is a crazy quilt of on-the-fly plans to hit Estrada through his family and force him to reveal the bizarre excuse for Rachael's abduction. Devlin, now sixteen, refuses to leave her father's side, as Will joins forces with Kalyn and the three develop an elaborate plan that takes them across country, through Canada and finally into a remote area of Alaska, where the horrible truth is laid bare. There is no shortage of villains in Crouch's Adventures in Criminal Land, part Dan Simmons (Carrion Comfort) minus the social context, part just plain outrageous enough to make a good thriller. While the plot is certainly a reach, Innis the weak link in agreeing to this misadventure, the result is a shocking and brutal contretemps crawling with killers, man and wolf. Crazy enough to keep me reading. Luan Gaines/2010.
4750723
In what may be the year's best mystery, this legal thriller quickly captures the reader's attention and holds it, riveted, until the end, not because of issues involving legal procedure, secret information, or questions about the client's guilt, all of which are at issue here, but because the client and his lawyer are ultimately engaged in a chess game in which the lawyer loses if the client wins.

The lawyer, Michael "Mick" Haller, an ethical man, is determined to do right by his client, but he, like many other attorneys, is looking for a "franchise case," one for which the client can pay for all services and appeals, and thereby subsidize his pro bono work for indigent clients. The defense of Louis Ross Roulet, a young man engaged in the family real estate business, on charges of assault against women, may be Haller's "franchise case."  His other cases involve a biker arrested on drug charges and a prostitute arrested with possibly planted drugs. An old case involving Jesus Menendez, a man who pled guilty to murder while insisting on his innocence, also becomes important, since some of the evidence in the Roulet case resembles that of the Menendez case.

Living and working primarily from his Lincoln Town Car, Mick, both vulnerable and  tough, wants to do what is right but sometimes finds himself caught between competing demands on his time.  By the time the trial of Louis Roulet begins, Haller knows that two of his cases overlap, and someone he likes and respects has been murdered.

The give and take of the legal profession, the compromises and agreements made, and the legal slang feel natural in Connelly's hands, conveying the tension and tactics of pre-trial maneuvering.  The relationships among defense attorneys, private attorneys, district attorneys, prosecutors, bondsmen, the press, private investigators, and politicians and judges in various court districts are clearly spelled out and show how things work in real life.  Though the cast of characters is not large, the case becomes extraordinarily complex as the past and present merge.  Roulet and Haller engage in a high stakes chess game of move/countermove, and the conflict becomes intensely personal, challenging Haller, morally and legally.

Fascinating on the level of plot and character, the novel also offers intriguing glimpses of the ethical conflicts of attorneys who defend the sometimes indefensible and challenge the sometimes "cooked" evidence of prosecutors.  This novel raises the ante of the legal thriller, revealing the emotional complexities underlying the defense attorney's commitments to his clients. n Mary Whipple
2894644
Just Fall by Nina Sadowsky is a so-so debut thriller that tells the story by jumping between "Then" and "Now" chapters.

The novel opens with our beautiful, desirable, blond newlywed, Ellie, killing a man. Apparently she needed to kill him to save her dashing but mysterious husband, Rob, who she loves more than is prudent, or certainly beyond common sense, and decency. On their wedding day, immediately after the ceremony, Rob told her that he is a killer. Subsequently, some men showed up at the reception to beat Rob up, take him hostage, and force Elle to kill a man if she wants to see Rob again.

She is sent to St. Lucia to kill the man in the opening. In St. Lucia there are also children who are going missing, which is consuming the thoughts of a local policeman, Lucien, even as he is sent to investigate the man Elle killed.  And then more stuff happens now and we learn more about the past of both Rob and Elle.

Elle and Rob are not very sympathetic or engaging characters. This really isn't remedied when we learn more about their past in the "Then" chapters. The character development that does take place never brought me to the point where I cared what happened to these people. In fact, I actually cared less about their well-being. They lacked credibility as characters and were both annoying and unbalanced. What I was curious about was more of Lucien's story and what was happening to the missing boys.

This is a quick read, so you can quickly jump from one absurd plot twist to another. Don't expect a resolution to all the plot elements and be prepared for frequent changes in the points of view as chapters flip back and forth without following any time sequence.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Random House via Netgalley for review purposes.
2472931
A perfectly decent fast paced read - I would actually give it 3.5 stars if I could, it is one of the better thrillers I've read lately (although Karin Slaughter's "Pretty Girls" wins title for the best one). Are some of the characters cliched? Sure - and I'm okay with that. Honestly, I imagine that an aging prostitute probably does have a nicotine habit and not the best dental care. The one cliche' that stands out, a bit too much, is DCI Foster - she's a bit TOO "Olivia Benson" or "Clarice Starling" without being quite as interesting. Her backstory really doesn't add anything to the actual plot and was one of the more uninteresting parts of the book, for me. I love a good strong female protagonist who breaks the rules to follow her gut, don't get me wrong, but she needed something more interesting about her to set her apart from the wave of aforementioned cliches in this type of genre.

That said, this was a very fast paced read that actually had me surprised at the end, which is a nice change. I was very surprised to find that this was the author's first crime thriller. That alone almost makes me want to bump it up to 4 stars.

Constructive criticism for the author:

The beginning is very good, and very polished. I thought "wow this is way better writing than I expected from this genre"- and then somewhere about 30 pages in, it changes, maybe with the introduction of more characters. "The Figure" part I struggled with, to  which I understand not wanting to be gender specific (for obvious red herring reasons), but somehow that noun just doesn't work and becomes too repetitive. I think you could have safely used a pronoun and thrown in a red herring in another way, so that maybe The Figure wants to hurt DCI Foster but isn't the one committing the crimes per se, maybe it's his or her boss?

In addition,the Father's dialogue felt cheesy and forced, and in fact I think his part could have been omitted entirely. I understand the need for backstory for character development (and potential future books?) but him saying things like "lass" and "love" after every very short sentence made him read more like a cartoon.

That said, despite me being picky, it was a good read overall and a definite steal of a discount- I would have easily paid $7 bucks more and not minded :)

I would definitely read the next book in the series because, again, the plot was very good in this one.
1104228
"Discretion"  is David Balzarini's first novel. It's not a bad novel but does seem to be a novel in search of an identity. I was given a copy to read and provide an honest review without any prior knowledge except a brief plot outline.  "Discretion" aspires to be a suspense thriller, with a touch of the supernatural,  but it's basically a novel belonging in the Christian literature section.

The first 70 pages read like a promising thriller.  Colin Wyle is boating with his girlfriend Natalie and his father when she disappears while he and his father nap in the boat on the lake. Where is she? How did she leave without waking them and why? Was she kidnapped? Has she drowned?  Colin and the authorities search diligently for days with no trace of Natalie. And yet suddenly it seems Colin has a new ally. He begins hearing a voice talking to him in his mind which he names Christel. The voice seems to know things about Colin's life that no one should know. Eventually the voice leads Colin and a friend to a large boat still on the lake where a gunbattle ensues, a stranger is killed, and Natalie is found down below deck. To this point, "Discretion" has kept the readers interest piqued and the suspense has been palpable.

"Discretion" then fast-forwards 15 years and Colin is now a highly successful  financier and is engaged to Marisa, a beautiful woman.  Colin and Natalie  inevitably went in separate directions after her kidnapping and rescue but they remain friends and in occasional contact. But from this point on, the novel focuses on the philosophical inner battle between good and evil, right versus wrong, free choice and will versus doing the right thing or the convenient thing.  Christel has made Colin into a highly successful stock trader with inside knowledge and future predictability that seems impossible for anyone to know. Who or what is Christel? Is she good or evil? Should Colin pay exclusive attention to her commands and desires? When Christel orders him to do some very questionable things, Colin is faced with exercising free will. In other words, between the philosophical musings of Balzarini and the biblical interventions of Colin's friend Jamal, the reader is hit over the head with the religious symbolism of doing the right thing versus doing something that makes us successful and happy.

Indeed, the Colin in the beginning of the book is much more interesting than the Colin of 15 years later. This older Colin  is colder, more distant, and certainly more selfish and focused upon himself. Apparently, that is part of the intended lesson for the reader. Success in life without God means the person is soulless and aimless. Find God and you become a person of good and wonder again. But none of this is particularly new, but it is heavily ladled onto the reader in "Discretion".

"Discretion" plays out as a private investigator hired by Colin's father to help search for Natalie when she was initially missing has continued to search for who kidnapped Natalie 15 years ago. Now he has found evidence of a criminal ring that seems to have kidnapped women to force him into sexual slavery. The FBI is also into this conspiracy at this point. However, the novel ends in a very forced and unsatisfying conclusion regarding the conspiracy and the kidnappers. The message of finding religion and finding one's own relationship with God becomes the overriding focus of the last three quarters of the book. All in all, "Discretion" is a somewhat muddled novel that does show potential for David Balzarini. As he sharpens his focus in future efforts, and ties together stronger characterizations wrapped in believable plot lines, he may have a great deal to offer.  Equally, this reader would prefer to make his own choices about the type of literature to be read with books like "Discretion" clearly labeled as Christian literature.
2532244
Ghostman is a very good debut novel told from the first-person POV of the Ghostman, whose real name no one really knows, though some refer to him as "Jack." He's a master criminal who lives way, way off the grid and specializes in disappearing. He only emerges when a job especially interests him.

Five years earlier, "Jack" was part of a crew that attempted to pull off a huge heist in Kuala Lumpur that was organized by another master criminal named Marcus. The caper blew up in spectacular fashion and the score was lost. Jack managed to escape and disappear, though other members of the team were not so lucky.

Jack blames himself for the fact that the job went south and, more to the point, so does Marcus. Now five years down the road, Marcus wants payback. Marcus has organized a hit on a casino in Atlantic City. He sends two men to hit an armored car that is delivering 1.2 million dollars to the casino. But one of the robbers is killed during the holdup and the other escapes with the loot. Marcus tracks down the Ghostman and instructs him to recover the money. If he does so, Marcus will finally consider them even.

Naturally, the cops and some other bad guys are also searching for the money and all sorts of crosses and double-crosses ensue. To add insult to injury, the 1.2 mil is shrink wrapped into a bundle that will explode and render the money useless in only a few hours. Needless to say, the Ghostman has his hands full, and we watch intently as he attempts to cope with all the obstacles placed in his way. At the same time he gradually reveals the back story of the job in Kuala Lumpur that got him into this mess in the first place.

There's an enormous amount of detail in this book and some of it, like the way the money is packaged, is pretty intriguing; one wonders how Hobbs managed to learn all this minutia. After a while, though, the detail begins to overwhelm the story itself and starts to be a distraction. Also, his screw-up in Malaysia notwithstanding, Jack the Ghostman seems, finally, to be just a little bit too damned good and you get (or at least this reader did) to the point where you just can't take him seriously any longer.

That said, this is still a very entertaining book and Roger Hobbs is clearly a writer to look for. It will be interesting to see how he follows Ghostman.
1674708
I approached this book with much anticipation and high expectations since Kimberly McReight's debut thriller --- RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA --- was outstanding.  Though readable and containing some likeable characters, this novel falls well short of her previous effort.

WHERE THEY FOUND HER deals with  the uncomfortable subject of infanticide. The death of children is always hard to depict but the murder of newborns is that much more challenging to tackle.  A reporter for the Ridgedale Reader, Molly Sanderson,  is asked to cover a story about a murdered baby found in the woods outside the town's prestigious university.  Was this the work of a frightened student who opted for this heinous act over legalized abortion or is something more sinister at hand?

Making matters that much more interesting fact is Molly's own personal history that involves the death of an infant.  Flashback passages and short chapters deal with this part of Molly's past.  Also, interspersed throughout the novel are flashback chapters on several other characters.  This also is forced into a parallel narrative about a young girl named Sandy who's mother is missing.

Eventually, Molly and Sandy's paths cross and the connection between the two of them --- along with a few other peripheral characters --- is slowly revealed.  What starts out as a potential thriller steeped in a controversial subject matter quickly devolves into a disjointed narrative that dilutes any suspense and does not really contain any earth-shattering revelations.

The saving grace of this novel is that Molly and Sandy are such well-created characters that you cannot help but root for them (and wish you had more of them to focus on).  WHERE THEY FOUND HER is a readable thriller but misses the mark overall.

Reviewed by Ray Palen for New Mystery Reader