Book Review: TRUST YOUR EYES BY LINWOOD BARCLAY

Genre:  Thriller

Published:  Orion Books 27 Sept 2012
Source:  BookDagger RealReaders


About the Book:

A schizophrenic man spends his days and nights on a website called Whirl360, believing he's employed by the CIA to store the details of every town and city in the world in his head. Then one day, he sees something that shouldn't be there: a woman being murdered behind a window on a New York street. Suddenly Thomas has more to deal with than just his delusions, as he gets drawn into a deadly conspiracy.


Linwood Barclay is one of my favourite thriller authors, I couldn't put down No Time For Goodbye or Too Close To Home - they were both psychological thrillers that kept you guessing whodunnit and what happened until very near the end whereas this book is more of a thriller where you know fairly early what Thomas sees in the window and it is more about the aftermath.

Thomas (35 years old) is an interesting but vulnerable character, he spends his days on the computer travelling the world, he calls it his work.  He has a gift, a talent, and is obsessed with maps and learning directions, and has the ability to remember everything he sees while on Whirl360 (which sounds very much like Google Street View).  But he's not capable of living on his own or looking after himself so, after his father dies in somewhat mysterious circumstances, his brother Ray comes to look after him.

Unfortunately, due to a set of coincidences and bad luck, they become involved in a political cover up which endangers their lives ...... all because Thomas trusts his eyes ....

I thought this was a good all round story, with an original plot, some stereotypical characters, unexpected surprises, quite a few murders, political ambitions, the CIA, unlikely assassins, plus a touch of romance, which all made for a thrilling (but not a page-turning) read.

This book is available from 27 September 2012 from Amazon.co.uk.

Book Review: STAY CLOSE BY HARLAN COBEN

Genre:  Thriller
Published:  29 March 2012  (Orion Books)
Pages:  387  (Hardback)
Source:  BookDagger RealReaders

About the Book:

Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she's got two kids, a perfect husband, a house with a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at the age of forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Broome is a detective who can't let go of a cold case - a local husband and father who disappeared seventeen years ago - and spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man's family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them.

Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past never truly fades away. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realisation that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream - the boredom of suburban life, the thrill of temptation, the desperation that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades - they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper thin as a heartbeat...

Harlan Coben is the 'master of the hook-and-twist' ... as the blurb says and this book does hook you and twist you till you don't know which turn it's going to take....which I love in a book!

The three main characters all seem to be living normal lives, seemingly unrelated to one another, but they all have secrets from their past which will just not stay hidden.  When a man goes missing, their memories are taken back to one night 17 years ago when another man went missing but is there a connection?

The writing is fast and slick, sometimes a little too complicated, and there are some unsavoury characters, including a couple of bible-bashers called Ken and Barbie who are definitely NOT like their namesakes!  

This is the kind of book where you have to keep turning the pages as there are so many cliffhangers and I didn't guess the ending which is all good.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys a good thriller.

Book Review: NO MARK UPON HER BY DEBORAH CROMBIE

Genre:  Thriller/Murder Mystery
Published:  William Morrow  (Feb 2012)
Pages:  369  (Hardcover)
Source:  Publishers
My Rating:  8.5/10

About the Book:

Olympic rowing hopeful and senior Metropolitan Police officer DCI Rebecca Meredith goes out alone to train on the river in Henley on a dark afternoon in late October – and doesn’t return. 
When a desperate search by the police and a K9 team reveals the possibility of foul play, Scotland Yard wants one of their own on the case. Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, returning from celebrating his marriage to long-time partner Detective Inspector Gemma James, is called to Henley to investigate. 
He soon finds that the world of elite rowing can be brutal, and that Rebecca Meredith’s ex-husband was not the only person with good reason for wanting her dead. Then, when a search-and-rescue team member is threatened, Kincaid realizes the case may be even more complex and more dangerous than he believed. 
But it is only when he enlists Gemma’s aid that they find that the answers lie closer to home than they could have imagined – and are infinitely more deadly. It seems that more than one innocent life depends on their ability to track down the killer.    

This is the 14th novel in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James detective series......I haven't read any of the others so I can't compare it with any of those.......but if any of them are as good as this then I wish I had read them all!

There is a wonderful map inside the front cover which details the area that the story covers which I loved, I found myself constantly checking this to see where the characters were and it made it all the more believable while I was reading.  I really appreciate it when authors have maps in books!

From the very first paragraph I loved her descriptive words - this is from the first page:

Heart thumping, she moved across the cottage's shadowy garden and through the gate that led out onto the Thames Path.  Tendrils of mist were beginning to rise from the water.  The river had a particular smell in the evenings, damp and alive and somehow primeval.  The gunmetal surface of the water looked placid as a pond, but she knew that for an illusion.  The current, swift here as the river made its way towards the roar of the weir below Hambleden Mill, was a treacherous trap for the unwary or the overconfident.

You can almost feel as if you're there by the river watching the victim Rebecca Meredith as she takes her final row on the Thames.......

The main characters of Detectives Kincaid and James have recently married and we share in their domestic situation as they juggle the difficulties of police work with looking after three children.

The main problem I had when I first started reading was the number of characters that were introduced quite early on which I found very confusing ….. I had to write their names down and keep referring to them throughout the story …. otherwise I would not have known who was who.

But, that aside, I was soon engrossed in the lives of rowers at the Leander Club in Henley (a town about 35 miles from London), the Boat Race, search and rescue teams and their dogs, all of which I found fascinating.

The story started slowly as I got to know the characters in depth....there were the Search and Rescue members, Kieran, an ex-soldier (combat medical technician), veteran of the Iraq war, and struggling with vertigo, who lives in a boathouse on an island in the middle of the Thames and Tavie Larssen, a small blonde, elfin like Scandinavian, Freddie Atterton, Rebecca’s ex-husband, to name but a few.

This is a gripping story with lots of suspense and surprises, a complex plot that is not too complicated, well-rounded characters, vivid descriptions, and I would definitely recommend you add this novel to your reading list.


A full list of Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series can be found here.


Special Thanks to the Publishers for sending me this book.

Book Review: A MEANS OF ESCAPE BY JOANNA PRICE

Genre:  Thriller

Published:  Aston Bay  (Oct 2011)

Source:  BookDagger RealReaders

My Rating:  8.5/10

About the Book:

A grizzly and cold November morning. Detective Sergeant Kate Linton is called on Glastonbury Tor where a young woman has been strangled. Twelve holes are found at the scene, surrounded by wax, evidence of garden flares - the only connection to two other unsolved cases. When another young woman and a TV celebrity go missing, Linton is in a race against time to find the serial killer before he strikes again. But, when her journalist ex-boyfriend is singled out as a chief suspect, Linton feels that events are heading a bit too close to home.

This is a very promising start of a new police series set in Glastonbury featuring DS Kate Linton who  has a challenging task -- to find the killer of three young women and a third missing girl who has been kidnapped, possibly by the killer.

Just to make her job more complicated, a reality TV star also goes missing in Glastonbury at the same time, but is this just coincidence or has the killer now kidnapped two women as well?

Kate, newly single since her split with her boyfriend, is confronted with the embarrassment of a past liaison in the shape of a local journalist who becomes a suspect.  Her strained relationship with her male colleague changes as the case progresses which adds an interesting light touch to the dark storyline.

As the police search continues we are given several tantalising glimpses of just what's going on in the head of the kidnapper by the way he talks to his kidnap victim, which didn't make any sense until the reveal.

Joanna Price kept the suspense building until the very end when all the answers to the questions are neatly tied up -- I didn't guess the ending!

Altogether, an unpredictable storyline that features characters that I'd like to read about again as this series develops.

Book Review: THE COLOUR OF DEATH BY MICHAEL CORDY

Genre:  Thriller

Published:  Transworld  (Aug 2011)
Pages:  381  (Paperback)
Source:  Part of the Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge
My Rating:  7/10

About the Book:

In a residential neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon, an unknown young woman uncovers a shocking crime scene by inexplicably sensing the evil within its walls. To the police, she is a mystery. She can’t even tell them her own name. They christen her Jane Doe.

Suffering terrifying hallucinations, Jane is assigned to Nathan Fox, a forensic psychiatrist struggling with his own demons. Together they must piece together the jigsaw that is Jane’s identity.Then a sequence of brutal killings terrorizes the city and Fox learns Jane is the only cryptic link between the unrelated victims. To solve the murders, Fox must discard his black and white preconceptions, look beyond the spectrum of normal human experience and confront the dark truth of her past…and his own. 


This is my 3rd read of 4 books in the Transworld Book Reading Challenge.


I was really engrossed in this book at the start as we first meet Nathan Fox as a young boy when his mother, father and young sister are brutally murdered during a gas station robbery ...... but Nathan can't remember anything about the traumatic incident or why his life was spared.


The story then moves 19 years to the present day as Nathan is now a psychiatrist helping people though he can't help himself with his loss of memory.  He is detached and has learned to distance himself from pain and loss.


He is then entrusted to a young woman who has total memory loss and, because Nathan is the right colour of indigo, she trusts him and no-one else.  I found this side of the story very intriguing as both the woman and Nathan shared a special kind of sense.....Nathan could feel someone else's pain and Jane Doe had other senses as well, which are slowly revealed and which could be the reason for her memory loss. 

The story becomes even more intriguing when a series of murders occurs and Jane's picture is found with the victims and she is persuaded to use her other senses to help identify the killer .....the police are sceptical...... but Nathan believes in her.

I liked Nathan and so did Jane who thought he was a hard man to get to know well even if you were a friend, though she doesn't find him aloof or cold, he was too compassionate.  I liked their developing relationship, it seemed real and natural.

Up to this point in the book I was getting involved with the characters and enjoying the storyline but when it moved on to a cult who lived deep in the woods and who's charismatic leader has three beautiful devoted wives I'm afraid my interest started to wane a little.

It was still quite gripping but it wasn't the same book for me and I found myself not rushing to finish it to find out what was going to happen. 

The other books I have read for this Challenge are --

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

and

The Secrets Between Us by Louise Douglas

My next (and final) read will be 

The Water Room by Christopher Fowler

Book Review: AGENT 6 BY TOM ROB SMITH

Genre:  Thriller
Published by:  Simon & Schuster (July 2011)

Pages:  543  (Hardback)
Source:  BookDagger RealReaders
My Rating:  8/10

About the Book:


Former Soviet Secret Service agent Leo Demidov has built himself a new life as a civilian with his wife Raisa, and their two teenage daughters, Elena and Zoya. The Soviet Union is a country trying to reassert itself after the murderous excesses of Stalin and the chaos of the following years, and as the Cold War continues powers inside Russia seek to topple their great enemy, the United States of America. Communist allies within the United States will prove vital players in this game of intrigue and revolution. Raisa and their two daughters travel to the United States on a diplomatic mission, but a horrifying tragedy destroys everything Leo and Raisa have built. Leo must get to the States somehow and find out what happened. Exiled from the Soviet Union and separated from his family, Leo's quest takes him through the stark wilderness of Afghanistan, reawakening all his old instincts and forcing him to confront his demons. But whatever it costs, wherever he must go, he will find Agent 6. 

Set in 1965 onwards, this is the final instalment in the story of Russian secret agent Leo Demidov, following on from Child 44 and The Secret Speech, neither of which I’ve read.  I didn’t feel that I needed to in order to understand Leo’s past life as early on we are given an insight into the brutal regime in 1950’s Soviet Union.

Leo is no longer an agent, he has a mundane job and is now married to Raisa.  When she and her two daughters are invited to New York as part of a delegation of students performing concerts to improve relations between the two countries Leo has to stay at home and worry....... with good reason!  As something terrible happens there that will change all their lives forever.

The slow build up to that terrible event was incredibly gripping, you knew something was going to happen but you had no idea what it was.

We next meet Leo 8 years later as he is shot and badly wounded trying to cross the Russian border into Finland …............  he is desperate to leave the Soviet Union and get to the USA for revenge.

The story then jumps to 7 years later in 1980 in Kabul, Afghanistan where Leo is a soviet advisor providing counsel to the Afghan communist regime. Doing a job no KGB officer wanted.  He is disillusioned, addicted to opium and the USA seems further away than ever.  He just lives for the night-time when he can forget everything and fill his body with the opiate.

I did feel that some of the writing dragged a little here and I found it hard-going for a while until the action picked up again.

I had a lot of sympathy for Leo, I think that deep down he was a good man, the drugs helped to block out the reality of his situation as he couldn’t find a way out of his sad and lonely life, and he had forgotten what his goals and incentives in life were.

Since returning from the arrest of the deserting officer, Leo had smoked for several hours in an attempt to suppress an almost unbearable sense of restlessness.  Listening to the plans hatched by the two lovers hoping to embark on an impossible journey reminded him ........ of his own thwarted ambitions to reach New York. 

I enjoyed the writing style, it flowed very easily and apart from the few chapters in the middle, I was engrossed in the story.  I look forward to Tom Rob Smith’s next book, his website can be found here

Thank you to BookDagger RealReaders for my copy of this book.

Book Review: THE ORPHEUS TRAIL BY MAUREEN DUFFY

Genre:  Crime, Thriller
Published by:  Arcadia Books  (Aug 2010)
Pages:  210  (Paperback)
Source:  From the Publishers
My Rating:  8/10

About the Book: 

When the body of a child is found among the charred remains of a pier fire - surrounded by a ritualistic fire basket and items associated with the cult of the Greek god Dionysus - detective inspector Hildreth calls in the local museum's curator, Alex Kish, to help him decipher the mysterious symbolism. Soon after, an ancient Saxon amulet is stolen from the museum and the dead bodies of other young boys begin to turn up arranged as grotesque works of art with components of the gold amulet around their necks. The enigmatic detective inspector draws the curator into a strange web of ancient secrets, pagan ritualism, and the illegal trafficking of young boys. Hildreth and Kish are caught up in a race against time to interpret these ancient codes and clues before death claims another young life.

This is a decent thriller, and at just over 200 pages long I thought it was just long enough to keep my interest but not too long that I got bored.

The main protagonist is Alex, a museum curator in a seaside town, who comes across as quite likeable and very imaginative if a little indecisive.  He is taken into the confidence of the local Detective (an armchair archaeologist himself)  who trusts his judgement and knowledge on the Greek myths which seem to be a recurring theme in the young boys’ murders.

It seems that there is somebody with a knowledge of ancient beliefs who is killing boys in bizarre circumstances.  Together with Hilary, an expert from the London museum, they try and discover who is carrying out these killings.  

Maureen Duffy is a poet and her descriptive writing paints a wonderful picture of a cold and miserable seaside town just after Christmas and the aftermath of the discovery of another body -

The town decorations were still up but the chains of light swinging in a cold wind from the grey edgy sea looked exhausted and forlorn.  The party was over.  The millenium that had begun with such optimism in a glittering firework of hope and energy, of relief that the bloody 20th century was behind us, had been eclipsed almost at once by the choking fumes of despair as the juggernaut rolled out again in all its trappings of torn flesh and bloodied wounds.

Alex and Hilary discover that there is more to the boys' murders than first suspected and it seems that someone is watching them.......  

This was an intelligent thriller that wasn’t exactly a page turner but I enjoyed it overall.

Special Thanks to the Publishers for sending me this book to review.

The website for Maureen Duffy is here

Book Review: THE ALTAR OF BONES BY PHILIP CARTER

Genre:  Thriller
Published by:  Simon & Schuster  (May 2011)
Pages:  640  (Hardcover)
Source:  Received from the Publisher
My Rating:  9/10

About the Book:

Siberia, 1939. Pregnant with her first child, Lena Orlova plans a daring escape from a brutal Soviet prison camp to the one place she knows is safe: a cave containing the legendary Altar of Bones, hidden behind a frozen waterfall deep in the icy wilderness.
San Francisco, Present Day. Zoe Dmitroff discovers that she is the last in a line of women who have been entrusted with a secret so great many have died preserving it. Propelled into a dangerous quest to discover exactly what she was born to protect, Zoe is soon running for her life from a vicious assassin and an all powerful businessman with chilling plans. Only ex-Special Ops soldier, Ry O'Malley, can help her survive, but with time running out and the web closing in, Zoe will have to make a devastating decision that will transform her forever.
From the frozen wastelands of Russia, to the winding maze of Paris's backstreets, from Washington D.C, through America's mid-west all the way to San Francisco, THE ALTAR OF BONES is a gripping global thriller that spans the generations and unearths the dark secret behind one of the biggest conspiracies of all time.

Think Jack Reacher meets The Russian Sopranos meets Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and that will give you some idea of just what sort of a roller-coaster ride you’re in for.

Ry O’Malley, battle-hardened ex-soldier learns of his father’s death bed confession to ‘the big kill’ and of a film that he took many years ago and which someone is desperate to find.  So desperate that they’ll stop at nothing to find it.  His father wants Ry to find the film or they will kill him.  But who are they and what is on the film?

Then he meets Zoe, a tough and smart lady, who discovers that she’s The Keeper of The Altar of Bones, and the inevitable romance ensues.  But what is the Altar, where is it and what is the connection with the film of ‘the big kill’? 

There are twists galore in this absorbing plot, just when you think ‘how are they going to get out of yet another tight situation with the baddies literally breathing down their necks’ somehow they always manage it!  From hair-raising car chases to machine gun toting men they have to be one step ahead or they're dead.

The main characters of Ry and Zoe were incredibly likeable and the bad guys/girls (of course) were not!

This book has everything you would want in a conspiracy thriller, and I highly recommend it.


Apparently, the author, Philip Carter is the pseudonym of a best-selling international female writer of romance stories.....I have no idea who it is.  Do you?


At the time of writing the publishers have a great competition to win an iPad2 - but you have to read the book to discover the answer!  The link is here.

 

BOOK REVIEW: LONG REACH BY PETER COCKS

Genre: YA Thriller

Published by: Walker Books (Jan 2011)

Pages: 416 (Paperback)

My Rating: 8.5/10

LONG REACH BY PETER COCKS

About the Book: (Taken from the blurb at the back of the book)

Eddie Savage makes two shocking discoveries in quick succession.

One: his brother, Steve, has been working undercover for the police.

Two: Steve is dead.

Eddie refuses to believe that his hero elder brother killed himself, and there's only one way to find out the truth: follow in his footsteps.

My Thoughts:

First Line:

"We found him face down in the mud at Long Reach"

When 17 year old Eddie learns about his brother's untimely death and is offered the chance to work undercover for an organisation who "operate somewhere in the gap between the police and the more covert government agencies" he doesn't hesitate. Especially when he has to 'get to know' the pretty teenage daughter of the local ruthless killer and psychotic crime lord and try to infiltrate their notorious gang!

This is a real Boys Own adventure story with a likeable hero in Eddie Savage, beautiful but possibly dangerous women with a thrilling storyline and murderous gangsters.

There was a good pace to the story, a nice steady build up in suspense, with good characterisations.

A compelling and exciting read, recommended for readers aged 14+

Book Review; THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO BY STIEG LARSSON

Genre: Crime, Thriller, Mystery

Published by: Quercus (2008)

Pages: 542 (Paperback)

ISBN-10: 1847245455
ISBN-13: 978-1847245458





THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO BY STIEG LARSSON

This intelligent mystery centres around the disappearance of 14 year old Harriet Langer nearly 40 years ago. Her elderly uncle wants to discover once and for all exactly what really happened to her and he employs disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist, together with his unusual sidekick Lisbeth Salander to try and find out.

The story started incredibly slowly building up the characters back stories and the events leading up to Harriet's disappearance. But once these were established and Blomqvist delved deeper and deeper into the family's dirty secrets the story was gripping, and the complex character of the under-estimated Salander was the main reason this story has such a clever ending.

I will definitely be reading the other books in the trilogy.

Book Review: TOO CLOSE TO HOME BY LINWOOD BARCLAY

Genre: Crime, Thriller, Mystery
Published by: Orion (2009)
Pages: 466 (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1409102092
ISBN-13: 978-1409102090

TOO CLOSE TO HOME BY LINWOOD BARCLAY

1st Line:

Derek figured, when the time came, the crawlspace would be the best place to hide.

When the Cutters' neighbours, Mr and Mrs Langley and their young son Adam, are brutally murdered in cold blood everyone is shocked and when the police discover that 17 year old Derek Cutter was hiding in their house at the time of the killings he then becomes the prime suspect. His friend Adam's computer is missing; what has that got to do with his mother's boss; and could a young man's suicide somehow be linked to the novel that was on the missing computer? Did the killers go to the wrong address - should they have been looking for the Cutters house instead?

Derek's father, Jim Cutter, is determined to prove his son's innocence and it seems that everyone has secrets to hide, even Jim...........

This is the 2nd Linwood Barclay book I've read - his debut novel was No Time For Goodbye which was a Richard & Judy pick. This is very similar in many ways: it starts with a mystery and the reveal is very slowly and tantalisingly uncovered with twists and turns along the way. The main narrator, Jim Cutter, was incredibly likeable, honest, protective of his family, talked in mono-syllables, and did not suffer fools lightly; sounds like my kind of guy!

I always think that with these kind of books (suspense, mystery) that the reveal is never going to match up to all the build-up throughout the novel, and Too Close to Home is no exception. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it, Linwood Barclay's fast writing had me hooked from the start, and I didn't guess the plot, but I just felt there was something missing and I'm not sure what it was!

However, if you enjoyed No Time for Goodbye or Sophie Hannah's books then I think you'd like this just as much.