THE EIGHT by Katherine Neville:  Somehow I missed this one when it was first released twenty years ago in 1988.  Katherine Neville's debut novel is a thriller with action divided between 1790 and 1972.  The action centers on a chess set owned by Charlemagne which ended up in a French monastery.  Supposedly players who use it can tap into incredible powers.  As the set is dispersed during the French Revolution, a young novice risks her life to safeguard it.  Alternating with her story are the present-day efforts of a U.S. computer expert and a Russian chess master to assemble the set and solve its mystery.  Kind of a precursor to Indiana Jones and the DaVinci Code, the book has withstood the test of time and will probably continue to be enjoyed for many years to come. 09/08 Jack Quick 

EIGHT IN THE BOX by Raffi Yessayan:  The television series Law and Order meets the city of Boston in this first novel, although at times it comes close to sounding like a legal spinoff of the TV show Friends.   I won’t bother you with all the details since I don’t remember most of them. In fact, I think it possibly was written as a cop/lawyer/serial killer/pyschopathic/urban life love story by a group of demented first year journalism students as a class exercise.  Too many main characters, too many side stories, and an Assistant District Attorney who  juggles hundreds of cases piled on his desk, puts the make on a fellow lawyer and in his spare time, helps officers and attorneys catch an elusive maniac serial killer who drains the blood from the bodies of his victims and carts off the now-empty body. Bleeh. 05/09 Jack Quick 

EAST SIDE by John Mackie: Who is killing the priests? There is enough evidence to connect the killings, but not enough to determine why. Detective Sergeant Thornton Savage and the Manhattan South homicide squad are in a race against time to catch a priest-killer before he strikes again. Nothing will stop the cops-not even if their efforts uncover something that could bring down the whole Roman Catholic Church. In the meantime they must care for their own. A well-written NYPD procedural similar to the works of Ed Dee, Dan Mahoney, and Leslie Glass. 10/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

EASY INNOCENCE by Libby Fischer Hellman: When a teenage girl is found beaten to death in the woods, the police figure they’ve got an open and shut case. A local man, a convicted sex offender, was found standing over the body, covered in blood and holding a baseball bat. Georgia Davis has been hired by the man’s sister to find the real killer. The man in question is mentally challenged and, according to his sister, has never shown any signs of violence. Georgia also believes the man to be innocent based on the alarming rate at which the cops have been moving the case to court. Georgia, a cop on suspension, investigated a case only two years prior where a group of teens had been participating in a hazing ritual in the same place this girl was found. Her investigation turns over some rather disturbing information about these teens and their extra-curricular activities. She’s also ruffling some pretty important feathers and someone will do just about anything to make sure she keeps her mouth shut. Easy Innocence is a quick and intense mystery with a clever plot and a tough heroine. Georgia Davis one I hope we see more of soon. Highly recommended. 04/08 Becky Lejeune

EASY INNOCENCE by Libby Fischer Hellmann:  It is always interesting to see how two very different writers approach a similar venue.  I had been reading and enjoying Stuart Kaminsky’s Lieberman series about two Chicago detectives before turning to Ms. Hellmann’s latest.  In Easy Innocence, Hellman begins a new series with Georgia Davis, a former cop-turned-PI in Chicago.  Her case involves a mentally challenged suspect, Cam Jordan, who was found clutching a bloody baseball bat at the scene of the murder of 17-year-old Sara Long.  Jordan’s sister is probably the only one in the world who thinks he is innocent and hires Davis to prove this.  Although Davis doesn’t walk the mean streets of Chicago to the extent of Lieberman and Hanrahan, there is still enough evil-doing to go around.  It will be interesting to see where Ms. Hellman takes Georgia Davis and whether there will be, in future outings, more interaction with Ellie Foreman, the heroine of Hallman’s other series. 05/08 Jack Quick 

Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray: This sweet book is a delicious break from life.  Sorry, the dessert metaphors just seem appropriate.  Ruth is a member of the sandwich generation; her oldest son is away at college, but she still has a teenage daughter at home and her mother moves in after she is robbed in the middle of a bridge game in her own home.  Her husband's company is bought out and he loses his job, and her estranged father has a terrible accident and no insurance and moves in, too.  Ruth's way to escape is to use visual imagery; her picture of solitude and bliss is not a mountain retreat or a deserted beach, but a cake.  Yes, Ruth visualizes herself surrounded by walls of cake and is comforted.  And when the going gets tough, Ruth bakes.  Cakes, of course.  Every day.  Sometimes in the middle of the night, when sleep just won't come.  As the family dynamic changes, they all must learn to adapt and adjust, and eat cake.  Recipes included.  Warning: do not read this book while on a diet.  

Jeanne Ray is one of my favorite authors, her books just touch the heart without being cloy or cutesy.  Her characters are genuine and people you can care about, her stories are simple yet hit home.  She still hasn't topped her first book, Julie and Romeo, which is on my top ten list of favorite books of all time, but this is a very enjoyable read.  Her daughter is pretty talented, too - she's Ann Patchett of Bel Canto fame.

ECHELON by Josh Conviser: Imagine where our technology can possibly take us in the future; imagine the best and then imagine the worst. Josh Conviser has done exactly that in this futuristic thriller. Echelon has consumed everything. The system controls all feasible outcomes and protects society from itself. If a threat is great enough, Echelon will weed it out and eliminate it. After years of dependence on the system, the world finds itself on the brink of global disaster when Echelon is compromised. Ryan Laing, and Echelon operative, has been engineered to be the perfect agent. When Laing dies in a climbing accident, Echelon agents use the latest in technology to bring him back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a matter of healing Laing. His body is inundated with drones, tiny machines that are constantly moving, thinking, and working inside of him. The drones can fix him when he is broken. They also keep him tied to the flow, a sort of 24/7 virtual reality that everyone is constantly tapped into (think The Matrix). This new existence has pushed Laing to the brink of insanity and is costing him his humanity. The drones can be turned off, though, by using the same information that can restore Echelon. Laing and his partner, Sarah, must find the key to setting Echelon back in motion and discover who is behind the sabotage plot before chaos overwhelms the Earth. Conviser’s action-packed debut should appeal to fans of techno thrillers such Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I will admit that while I enjoyed this book, there are some aspects that are just too intricate for me to fully grasp. I dare say anyone who is not at least a bit tech savvy will be completely lost in Conviser’s future. 11/07 Becky Lejeune

ECHO PARK by Michael Connelly: Harry Bosch is back and Connelly has proven that series fiction can get better with age; this is hard boiled fiction that would make Chandler sit up and take notice.  Working in the LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit lets Harry obsess over all his old cases, including the Marie Gesto file.  Gesto disappeared in 1993, her clothes were found in her car a week or so later, and that was the end of the trail.  Spring forward to present day Los Angeles and the arrest of Raynard Waits, who is found with body parts in his car and admits to murdering nine people.  His lawyer puts together a deal - his client will provide details on some of the open cases still on the books in return for avoiding the death penalty.  When Gesto is one of those cases, and it appears that Harry and his then-partner Jerry Edgar missed an important clue, Harry's guilt kicks in but eventually so do his suspicions.  As in The Closers, police politics rears its ugly head and nothing is quite as it seems to be in L.A., a "sunny place for shady people."  Connelly has elevated the art form by creating a plot as complex as the music his flawed hero listens to, which when combined with its evocative language, arguably makes Echo Park Connelly's finest novel yet.  10/06 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

EDENVILLE OWLS by Robert B. Parker: It’s hard to believe that Parker’s novel is actually meant for teens. With so many details about life in 1945, characters named after Parker and his wife, Joan, and personality traits that are Spenser’s, this book seems almost a prequel to the Spenser mysteries. If you’re a Spenser fan, you might find this book fascinating. Bobby Murphy is one of a group of five eighth grade boys who formed a basketball team, the Edenville Owls. The friends hang around so much that everyone knows them by that name, even the new English teacher. All the boys have a crush on Miss Delaney, so when Bobby sees a man threaten her, he’s curious. Along with a childhood friend, Joanie, Bobby tries to “figure things out” about the threat to his teacher. Bobby, an intelligent boy, has a great deal to “figure out” that year. Without a coach, the basketball team needs help, so Bobby studies other teams. He also has a hard time dealing with his feelings for his friend, Joanie, and his jealousy when a friend takes her to a dance. The fall of 1945 is not only a time of change for the country, but a time of great change for Bobby Murphy. Teenagers might not be too interested in this mystery. Spenser fans will find it intriguing. 09/07 Lesa Holstine

The Edge of Justice by Clinton McKinzie: Special Agent Antonio Burns, with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, is sent to Laramie to investigate what appears to be an accidental death from a fall while mountain climbing. Burns is suspicious, especially after seeing how inadequate the local investigation was.  The town is packed with reporters, there for the trial of two brothers accused of a racially biased rape & murder.  Burn's got history in this part of Wyoming, which isn't helping him any, and local politics keep getting in his way.  Bodies start turning up and the political climate worsens, but Burns plugs on, struggling with professional, personal and family issues, but also finding a bit of romance with one of the reporters.  These characters are strong and well-developed, and the story is as taut as the ropes used to scale the mountains, up through the cliff-hanger of an ending.  

EDWARD TRENCOM’S NOSE: A NOVEL OF HISTORY, DARK INTRIGUE AND CHEESE by Giles Milton: Edward Trencom has been blessed with the family’s trademark nose.  It is this nose that has allowed generations of Trencoms to run their renowned cheese shop in London.  Unfortunately, this same nose has also lead the Trencom men to their most unfortunate deaths.  As a child, Edward Trencom asks his uncle about the origin of the family nose.  His uncle promptly forbids him to ever speak of the matter again.  Years later, an odd occurrence leads Edward to discover a cache of hidden papers chronicling his ancestors.  This discovery, along with a mysterious visitor, may end up sending Edward on the same journey that killed his father, his father’s father, and so on.  Will Edward uncover the truth about the Trencoms or is he destined to the same untimely demise as his predecessors?  I truly enjoyed this quirky epicurean mystery.  I recommend a cozy chair, a nice glass of wine and a really good cheese to get the full effect of this highly original and fabulous fiction debut.  04/07 Becky Lejeune

EFFIGIES by Mary Anna Evans: The third book in Evans’ Faye Longchamp mystery series takes the archaeology student and her friend, Joe Montooth, to Mississippi to work as part of a team on a small dig before a road goes through. It’s land that has mounds, and has been owned by the Choctaw Indians in the past. However, the first day of the dig, Mr. Calhoun, a farmer across the road, decides to bulldoze his mound. As the team tries to prevent the loss of the mound, the sheriff is called in, and the residents of Neshoba County converge, with white residents and some black farmers on one side, the Choctaws on the other. There’s a realignment of citizens that same week at the county fair, when a black Congressman tells the story of his kidnapping as a teenager, the beating almost to death, and the rescue at unknown hands. Racism is still a strong element in the Mississippi county. But what is the reason for Mr. Calhoun’s violent murder? Is it connected to the archaeological team and the mound? What about the marijuana field where the man died? Is it connected to his racist past? All these elements provide plenty of work for the local sheriff, and for Faye, who doesn’t want to suspect her coworkers.
Effigies is Evans’ most complex and interesting mystery yet. 03/07 Lesa Holstine

THE EGYPTOLOGIST by Arthur Phillips: The unfortunate results of misinformation and the madness of unachievable ambitions are the prevalent subjects of this literary mystery. Harold Ferrell has been hired to find a possible descendant of a dying Englishman. His instructions are to track down one of his former lovers and determine whether or not an illegitimate child resulted from their brief union. Ferrell discovers that there was indeed a child, one Paul Caldwell. Caldwell was a precocious boy obsessed with ancient Egypt. He left home in his early teens and after a brief stint as a circus performer, Paul Caldwell manipulated his way into the military and a posting in Egypt. There, Caldwell befriended a British officer who also went missing in the war. Ferrell follows the trail from Australia to England and then to Boston and Ralph Trilipush. Ferrell believes that Trilipush may have information that will ultimately help him find Caldwell. Trilipush, however, is away in Egypt searching for the burial place of King Atum-Hadu. Not to be put off, Ferrell plans to follow Trilipush, but is waylaid when he becomes infatuated with Trilipush’s fiancé. The story is told through letters from Ferrell recounting his discoveries in the 1920’s and Trilipush’s journal detailing his discovery in the desert. I loved every minute of this intriguing tale. It’s a grand puzzle that slowly reveals itself to the reader. 03/07 Becky Lejeune

EIGHT IN THE BOX by Raffi Yessayan: Using his eleven years of experience as an assistant district attorney in Boston, and his current experience in private practice, Attorney Raffi Yessayan makes his debut with this combination police procedural/legal thriller. The title, Eight in the Box, refers to a term Yessayan and fellow prosecutors use in regards to district court jury trials - when a person is charged with a misdemeanor, they have the right to a jury trial. The jury consists of six jurors and two alternates, hence eight in the box. Eight in the Box primarily follows three individuals (two cops and a prosecutor with the District Attorney’s office) and their involvement with the case of the Blood Bath killer. The book begins with the killer’s second attack, an attack with such strange circumstances that it causes the police to consider that they may be dealing with a serial. In both instances, the killer leaves behind a bathtub full of blood but no body. The victims seem to have no connection other than the fact that they are both single women, and the cops have run out of useful leads. Then the killer strikes again. Yessayan’s expertise in the field allows for a realistic portrayal of the process involved in a case from both the legal perspective as well as the investigating officer’s perspective. At first, the book reads as dual storylines with a common link, we follow the cops on the case as well as the prosecutor in his daily routine. But, there’s much more going on than the reader is initially aware of. Yessayan’s interesting and tense debut has a great twist ending and some of the characters will be appearing again in a follow-up title. 07/08 Becky Lejeune  

EIGHT OF SWORDS by David Skibbins: When Richard Green was twenty-three, he was a leader of the Weather Underground. Thirty years later, he has spent his life with other identities, including that of Warren Ritter, tarot card reader on the streets of Berkeley. One of his workdays couldn’t get much worse, when a client is kidnapped after having a reading, and his sister recognizes him on the street. Although Ritter normally tried to avoid trouble, someone was trying to pin the kidnapping, and a subsequent murder on him. Ritter is a fascinating character, with his background, his different identities, and his manic-depressive state. Skibbins’ debut mystery introduces a reluctant hero who succeeds despite his problems. 08/06 Lesa Holstine

ELEVEN ON TOP by Janet Evanovich: I just love this series; every book makes me laugh out loud. This newest is no exception.  Stephanie has quit her bounty hunter job so it moves into somewhat fresher territory, but cars are still exploding, Grandma Mazur is feisty as always, and Stephanie is still torn between the men in her life. Don't expect more than Evanovich gives - fast paced, a little romance, a little mystery, and lots of laughs - and you'll be happy. I certainly was. Now if only I could understand what the title means or what it has to do with the book... 06/05

ELEVEN ON TOP by Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum, Trenton's favorite bondswoman, is having a career crisis. She decides she no longer wants to be threatened, beaten, shot at, burned or blown up as a bounty hunter so she resigns. Her first new job is at the button factory but she is fired before she starts as she is late on her first day. Then she is hired at Kan Klean, to the delight of everyone who wants her to take their dry cleaning in for them. That lasted two days. In the middle of her trying to get into a field with less excitement and more security, an old client is talking and scaring her, so, in essence, it's business as usual. The regular cast of characters remains in place and, as usual, Stephanie survives none the worse for her latest misadventure. Maybe she is the cat with more than nine lives. 03/07 Jack Quick

THE ELITE FORCE by Donna J. Henderson: Gritty, ugly, sci-fi crime fiction at its best. This is the story of an ancient sect of female Scottish warriors whose life span extends to hundreds of years. They are able to travel forwards and backwards through time via “portals” to apprehend those, primarily men, who would abuse animals, children, and women. Most of the adventures in this book occur in “current” time. On one level it reads like Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on steroids. But if you read the inside back cover first, the author says “As time passed I created warriors from the past to help me deal with the abuse, not only I suffered, but others. My fierce warriors would punish the tormentors and destroy them.” Thus it would seem the writing of this book has been a catharsis for the author well beyond that experienced by many writers. On a technical level, the book could have used better editing, i.e. “passed” for “past”, some reaction scenes out of proportion to the triggering force, and a few unresolved conflicts that may in fact be the basis of further adventures. On an emotional level the book is quite powerful and, for this reason one I highly recommend. The only other author I’ve read that goes this far is Andrew Vachss. 06/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn:  A charming story about a town obsessed with their namesake, famed for creating the pangram "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".   They have a statue in his honor, with the pangram at it's base.  One day the "z" falls off and life as they know it is over. The town government decrees that the letter may no longer be used.  Then another letter falls off, and soon another, and so on, forcing the townspeople to change the way they spell and write and live. This is one of the most creative, clever novels I have ever read and a must for anyone with a love of language.

THE EMBERS by Hyatt Bass: Ever wonder what can make or break a family? The Aschers know. As Emily, her mother, and her father look back on the past sixteen years, they each recall their missteps and mistakes, especially where the rest of the family is concerned. Though the death of Thomas Ascher (Emily’s brother) and a terrible misunderstanding were the breaking points, the cracks and fissures can be traced much earlier than that. And now with Emily about to get married and start her own family, all of the Aschers will finally be forced to face the past in order to move forward. The Embers is a debut that grips its readers and drags them along as one family falls apart and pulls itself back together. 08/09 Becky Lejeune

EMBRACE THE NIGHT ETERNAL by Joss Ware: With the second book of the new Envy Chronicles series, Joss Ware moves on to Simon Japp and Sage Corrigan. Simon, once a bodyguard for one of Cali’s toughest thugs, has been given a chance to start over and his time in Sedona has left him with the ability to become invisible at will, a power that will come in handy in helping the people of Envy. Sage Corrigan left Falling Creek years ago, looking for a new beginning as well. Falling Creek, just one of the many settlements that have cropped up since the Event, prescribes to some pretty radical beliefs and as a Corrigan, Sage is highly recognizable no matter where she goes. For this reason, she spends most of her time helping to build a new computer system that will hopefully reconnect the survivors and aid in the search for Remington Truth. Together, Simon and Sage will follow clues that lead straight back to Falling Creek. In order to breach the city’s walls, though, Sage and Simon will have to pose as a couple determined to do their part to repopulate the world at any cost. But for two people hiding so many secrets, the real challenge will be opening up to one another in order to play the part convincingly. Their lives may just depend on it. I just adore this series. Ware’s intricately wrought setting completely comes to life. 02/10 Becky Lejeune

EMERALD ENIGMA by C.J. Westwick: The last time Bret Lamplighter came to St. Martin in the Caribbean, people died and he was blamed. People are already dead when he returns to try to recover stolen emeralds but his arrival precipitates a bomb blast in his hotel room followed by a shoot-out that add to the body count. Speaking of bodies, in true techno-thriller fashion Brent is soon hooked up with the curvaceous Abby DuChamps of the French Surete. Together they tackle government corruption, terrorists, and organized crime lords in a fast paced mixture of action, mystery and suspense. Evocative of some of the earlier Ludlum offerings, Westwick has crafted a winner, in my humble opinion. Hopefully, there are more “gems” in his bag. Recommended. 11/06 Jack Quick

Empire Falls by Richard Russo: I loved this book about a small town in Maine and it's oh-so-interesting inhabitants.  Russo brings his characters to life as the book meanders along as it should, taking the reader on a touching and humorous journey to it's very dramatic finish.

EMPTY EVER AFTER by Reed Farrel Coleman:  Not the author’s fault but I think I would have enjoyed this one much more, if I had read the previous four in the series.  In this, the fifth Moe Prager mystery the former New York cop and now PI has to endure the results of his previous investigation in the disappearance of Patrick Maloney, the brother is his ex-wife.  Although the events of the book bring Moe and Katy back together, you aren’t left with a truly good feeling about this development.  While this appears to be the end of the series, fans of well-written PI novels will hope to see more of Prager.  In the meantime, it’s better to start with the beginning and work up to this one. 06/08 Jack Quick 

THE END OF THE RACE by R. Godfrey: Return with us now to those unsettling days in the early 1970’s when an embattled US President is dealing with the aftermath of a “third rate burglary” that would have far ranging global consequences. Who would have though that William Hinton, newest driver for the leading ambulance company in Washington, DC would be involved. However, since Medical is owned by the President of the United States, it is obvious that politics will be involved, specifically dispatcher Bob Holsterman who is working for the President and following the efforts of the “The Plumbers” to obtain medical records of a government employee “Iceberg” who is thought to have leaked classified government information to the press. Its dirty politics combined with medical drama, action, conspiracies and highly classified information. In other words it is a political-medical thriller, and a pretty good one as well. I remember vividly the summer of the hearings which led to the resignation of President Nixon and Godfrey does a great job of capturing the uncertainty of that time which left you feeling at times that you wearing watching a soap opera, and not the changeover of government power that could have as easily gone as badly as it actually went well. Maybe if I had Dr. Godfrey’s book in that Columbia, SC motel room watching Nixon’s resignation on a black and white television, I would have felt better, but then again, maybe not. 06/10 Jack Quick

END WORLD: DAKOTA RUN by David Robbins:  Fifth in the post-apocalyptic series about a survivalist compound in Minnesota. (A prequel was added later). It is now 100 years after World War III in the place that used to be called America. On a solo scouting mission into South Dakota, Warrior Geronimo obtains valuable intelligence. After the Big Blast a local rancher formed a survival group called the Calvary. All went well until he died and his two sons inherited the leadership of the group. Unable to lead together they split the group into the Calvary and the Legion.  Both groups are about the same size and at an uneasy standoff.  Will this provide an opportunity for the Family?  First he has to get home, dodging the Calvary and the Legion as well as other surprises including giant red ants. 08/09 Jack Quick

END WORLD: DOOMSDAY by David Robbins: "Doomsday" is a prequel to the original "Endworld" series first published in the 80's/90's.  It deals with Kurt Carpenter’s vision of how humanity could survive after a global war to end all wars.  It opens with nuclear war in the Middle East and tracks the efforts of “Family members” to get to the Minnesota compound prepared by Carpenter to give the human race and civilization a chance to survive. If you intend to read the entire series (some 35 plus books) as I do, you really need to read this one first to lay the foundation. Nicely done. 07/09 Jack Quick 

END WORLD: THE FOX RUN by David Robbins:  Original first book of the now 28 book post-apocalyptic series about a survivalist compound in Minnesota. (A prequel was added later). It is now 100 years after World War III in the place that used to be called America. The Family have struggled to rebuild civilization inside a Minnesota compound they call The Home.  Outside the compound is a no-man’s land inhabited by strange more or less human creatures created by the effects of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons indiscriminately used during the War. Once such group, known as the Trolls, have captured some of the Family’s women and are holding them at their own compound in Fox, Minnesota.  It is up to the Alpha triad – Blade, Hitchcock, and Warrior – to rescue these women. It’s swashbuckling at its best in a post-apocalyptic environment that is frighteningly portrayed. 07/09 Jack Quick  

END WORLD: THE KALISPELL RUN by David Robbins:  Fourth in the post-apocalyptic series about a survivalist compound in Minnesota. (A prequel was added later). It is now 100 years after World War III in the place that used to be called America.  After three unsuccessful trips east toward the twin cities, the Alpha Triad warriors of the Family have ventured west toward Kalispell, Montana to attempts to find the medical supplies and equipment they need.  Actually only Blade and Geronimo are on this mission at the outset as Hickok has gone off on his own to try to rescue young Shane who has set out to “make his mark” by destroying Hickok’s nemesis, the Trolls.  Blade is missing his beloved Jenny and Geronimo is contemplating leaving the Family to join the remaining tribe of Flat Head Indians.  These types of issues make this series better than most escape fiction, and to me, quite enjoyable. 08/09 Jack Quick

END WORLD: THIEF RIVER FALLS RUN (2) by David Robbins: Second in the post-apocalyptic series about a survivalist compound in Minnesota. (A prequel was added later). It is now 100 years after World War III in the place that used to be called America.  The surviving Family leader feels they need to begin reaching out to secure supplies and information which may help them combat the reduced life span being experienced by their members.  The Alpha Triad - Geronimo, Blade, and Hitchcock – resume their mission to Minneapolis –St. Paul begun in the previous book, but once again are thwarted by events in Thief River Falls.  So far, an enjoyable series. 07/09 Jack Quick 

END WORLD: TWIN CITIES RUN by David Robbins:  Third in the post-apocalyptic series about a survivalist compound in Minnesota. (A prequel was added later). It is now 100 years after World War III in the place that used to be called America.  The third time is the charm as Blade, Geronimo, Hickok, Joshua and Bertha set out once again for Twin Falls. (Their earlier attempts were thwarted.) This time, they have Bertha as a guide as they seek to obtain medical supplies and equipment from the former University of Minnesota.  But the Horns, the Porns, the Nomads and the Wacks await and soon the adventurers learn that the Twin Cities is a zoo, in the most classical sense.  Pure escape and fun. 08/09 Jack Quick 

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan:  I received this as a gift from a dear friend this holiday season, and truly a gift it was.  It is so beautifully written, with wonderful characters and description that just transports the reader.  I suppose I will have to work my way through all his weird and wonderfully written books now, as if I didn't have enough on my plate!  

THE ENEMY OF GOD by Robert Daley: Police Chief Gabe Driscoll, Father Frank Redmond and journalist Andrew Troy all swam together at Fordham Prep. Now Redmond is dead, having jumped from or been thrown off a four story Harlem building. Driscoll and Troy are left to try to understand what led their friend to his death and whether it was suicide or homicide. A fourth high-school buddy, prosecutor Earl Finley, was murdered a year or so earlier in the wake of his aggressive prosecution of a Mob-connected politician. Driscoll and Troy learn that Frank's life had changed dramatically recently, and the change hinged on Earl's death. The roots of the current situation run deep, and began back at college. Daley, a former NYPD deputy commissioner writes with authority about a city and subject he knows well. 10/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

Equivocal Death by Amy Gutman:  Fast paced legal thriller a la Grisham, Turow et al.  She's in good company for a first time novelist and holds her own.  Worth a read.  Read an excerpt.

ERRORS AND OMISSIONS by Paul Goldstein: The Hollywood blacklist of the McCarthy era, circa 1950's, rears its ugly head in this modern day tale of a Hollywood power struggle and greed.  Michael Seeley is a hotshot lawyer on his way down with a drinking problem, on the brink of divorce, threatened with disbarment, all the usual lawyerly crappola.  He's forced to give up his pro bono work with artists to wrangle the rights to a mega-movie franchise that United pictures has precariously lost.  Or maybe they didn't.  Some interesting characters, a semi-interesting plot but it was slow going.  08/06 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

Everglades by Randy Wayne White: Whenever a new Randy Wayne White book comes out, I push everything else on my stack to one side. Everglades proved, again, that this preferential treatment is well deserved. I find myself getting seriously annoyed these days when the blurbs on anyone else's book covers talk about the author being "the new John D. MacDonald." There is only one legitimate heir and Mr. White is it.
    Per the MacDonald method, Everglades begins with a damsel in distress. (Remember the woman dropped from the bridge in MacDonald's Darker Than Amber?) In this case, it is Doc Ford's old friend Sally Carmel (hmmm-colored names) Minister.  Sally's husband has disappeared and she is being followed and terrorized.
    In an effort to find out who is following her, Doc gets involved in a tussle which evokes a thorough discussion of amateur wrestling which would do John Irving proud. (At that point, I had to e-mail the BookBitch to rave to her.)
    The bad guys prove to be the principals in a TV cult combining elements of the Bagwan and the Church of Scientology with canny real estate development and investing.
    Strangely, however, after all the elements for the quintessential MacDonald story were in place, the book seemed to drag. Mostly because Doc Ford is feeling sorry for himself, remembering long dead friends and drinking so much that even his hippy sidekick, Tomlinson, feels compelled to intervene.
    One of my favorite subplots has Tomlinson becoming an internet idol as a result of an essay he wrote as an undergraduate entitled "One Fathom Above Sea Level." To his dismay, the essay has recently become the subject of favorable critical acclaim internationally. Sample - "Pain is an inescapable part of the human experience. Misery, however, is not. Misery is an option." Some of the lighter moments in the book arise from his trying to flee those who are seeking wisdom from him.
    I am pleased to report that Doc eventually does have a moment of clarity in which he is able to put everything back into perspective again. It is an exciting scene and I don't want to spoil it for readers. In the process, Doc Ford pretty much fully becomes Travis McGee. The finish of the book is thoroughly satisfying.
    And of course, there is intellectual sustenance in Mr. White's writing as well. Discussions of marine life, the geology of Florida and the difficulties tribes face being recognized by the U.S. Government all have places in Doc Ford's inquiring mind.
    All in all, Everglades is a wonderful read and deserving of priority on your stack of books too.  ~This review contributed by Geoffrey R. Hamlin.

EVERGLADES ASSAULT by Randy Wayne White:  The few remaining Tequesta Indians live deep in the Everglades on a small plot of land separate from federal and state control.  Dusky MacMorgan’s friend Hervey Yarborough is a Tequesta and he comes to MacMorgan for help when someone is trying to drive the Tequestas off their cherished ancestral land.  Soon it becomes apparent that there are more dangers in the swamps than quicksand and gators – it’s big money and hired guns.  Count on Dusky to solve the problem, seduce a few dames, and all in all, turn this into another rollicking adventure. Not great literature, but good not so clean fun.  02/09 Jack Quick

EVERMORE by Alyson Noël: Ever was a normal teen until a terrible accident claimed the lives of her parents and sister. When Ever awakens after the event, she finds that she now has the ability to read others’ thoughts and see their auras. Her aunt takes her in and moves her from small town Oregon to sunny California. Unfortunately, as Ever attempts to put her life back together, she finds that she must distance herself in order to keep her sanity and shut out the thoughts that now surround her. As an outsider, she’s not exactly the popular girl anymore. All of that begins to change when Damen Auguste moves to town. In spite of everything, it seems that this gorgeous and mysterious new guy has a thing for Ever. But as she gets to know him better, she discovers that Damen is hiding something more than she could possibly imagine. Noël’s debut title in her new Immortals series is an interesting twist on the standard paranormal teen read. Elements of Eastern philosophy in this tale are both effective and refreshingly original.  02/09 Becky Lejeune  

EVERY FEAR by Rick Mofina: This is the second book in Rick Mofina's series featuring rookie crime reporter Jason Wade of the Seattle Mirror. Wade is under a lot of pressure to bring in a big story and he may have one. On an ordinary morning, Maria Colson takes her baby son Dylan to the corner store where he is abducted into a waiting van. Maria climbs onto the van, but is violently thrown to the road where she is left for dead. As she fights for her life the FBI and police across Washington State search for baby Dylan. It’s a bizarre case with pieces that just don’t add up: The Colsons are a hard-working couple, former high school sweethearts, no problems, no enemies. Then Jason and his dad, a private detective, discover the Colsons are connected somehow to the grisly murder of a young woman. Can the connections be made before time runs out for little Dylan? Is this a kidnapping for revenge and not ransom? A first rate read. 04/07 Jack Quick

Everyone Dies by Michael McGarrity: Michael McGarrity stands second only to Tony Hillerman among those writers currently setting their mystery stories in the western United States. If you are enjoying any of the lesser lights in that genre and some small part of your heart remains anywhere between Bisbee, Arizona and Billings, Montana, you owe to yourself to read McGarrity's Kevin Kerney stories.
    Kerney has settled in as the chief of police in Santa Fe, New Mexico in Everyone Dies. He and his wife, Sarah Brannon, a Lieutenant Colonel and a rising star in the U.S. Army, are expecting their first child shortly as the book begins.
    A vicious and cunning killer is on the loose. He begins his campaign of revenge by gunning down a gay attorney on the street in front of the courthouse. Other victims are killed in other ways. Soon, he leaves a message for Kerney that "Everyone Dies" and then makes it clear that his mission is to end the Kerney line, including not only Kerney, but his wife and his unborn son as well.
    The combination of good police procedure, western locale and ever-increasing suspense make this book a real treat.  ~This review contributed by Geoffrey R. Hamlin.

EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL by Katherine Center: Lanie Coates is kind of miserable. She and her family have left behind their lives in Houston to start fresh in Massachusetts after her husband earns a position at the university that offers free housing. Unfortunately that’s about all the job offers. Peter supplements his meager income teaching piano lessons while Lanie is stuck with their three sons all day. It’s not until another mother at the local park asks Lanie her due date that she decides its time for her to do something for herself. See, Lanie’s not pregnant at all, she’s just let herself go in lieu of taking care of her family. Soon she’s heading to the gym and taking photography classes and on her way to becoming a better Lanie, but it could end up being at the expense of her own marriage. Center has a great voice and Lanie is a charming leading lady. This touching and hilarious read will really open your eyes to what truly makes a person happy, what truly makes a person beautiful in the eyes of another. 02/09 Becky Lejeune 

EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL by Katherine Center: Lanie Coates is the mother of three young boys. Supporting her husband's dream to become a professional musician, she's agreed to leave everything behind in Texas and move to Cambridge, MS. For the past fifteen years, she's devoted her entire life to her family. Her passion with art and painting is soon replaced with diapers and crayons. Her body, much like her life, is unrecognizable. She's lost herself, and she desperately seeks to find some semblance of the person she was. She begins to devote time to herself, and begins going the gym each night, and even signs up for a photography class. This class helps her discover a passion that was unknown to her. Unfortunately, though passion is growing in the heart of someone else as well, and it's not her husband. Just as Lanie begins to feel at peace with herself, her world is turned over and she must struggle to fix it. EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL is a very honest look at hectic life of a mom. There are moments where you will laugh out loud, and moments where you will cry. As a mother of two boys myself, I could completely sympathize with Lanie's character. This is a must read of any mom, no matter the age of the child. 03/09 Jennifer Lawrence 

EVERYTHING BUT A BRIDE by Holly Jacobs:  The second book in Jacobs’ Everything But…series is just as charming as the first, Everything But a Groom. The curse of a Hungarian grandmother strikes again when Vancy Bashalde Salo’s grandson doesn’t even make it his wedding. She’d cursed her fiance’s descendants, saying they would never have a beautiful wedding until someone married for love, rather than the wedding, and, when she married her fiancé, it became a family curse. Noah Salo’s fiancée broke up with him at his stag party. When her younger step-sister, Noah’s friend, showed up to console him, he offered to take her on the non-honeymoon trip, so they could ski and enjoy themselves. What happens when best friends get away together? These are light romances, with likable characters. 07/08 Lesa Holstine

EVERYTHING BUT A GROOM by Holly Jacobs: When Vancy Bashalde cursed her fiancé in Hungary, she never expected to marry him and have the curse fall on her descendants. The curse followed her to the United States, and none of her children had beautiful weddings. Her granddaughter, Vancy Salo, planned everything so her wedding would be beautiful, only to have her fiancé run off with a waitress. With the media at her heels, she ends up running off to the home of Matt Wilde, a landscaper who just ended up with five-year-old twin boys on his hands. Matt’s brother has always run from his problems, and the boys were two more of his problems left for Matt to handle. As Vancy and Matt try to make two little boys comfortable, they find themselves enjoying the pretend family. Can Vancy Salo find love after a Hungarian grandmother’s curse? Everything But a Groom is a fun romance, the first in a proposed trilogy featuring Vancy Bashalde Salo’s grandchildren, and the story of that curse. 01/08 Lesa Holstine

EVIDENCE by Jonathan Kellerman: Evidence is Jonathan Kellerman’s latest Dr. Alex Delaware mystery. For those that are not familiar with this series Dr. Delaware is a psychologist who often assists the L.A. police force. As he puts it, “Milo calls me in when the murder’s interesting.” In this case, the murder is very interesting. The crime scene consists of two bodies wrapped around each other “in a sick parody of passion” in the turret of an unfinished McMansion in the very upscale L.A. neighborhood of Holmby Hills.

Milo is Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, a veteran homicide detective who for years has been shuffled to one side by the police bureaucracy because of his homosexual orientation but has been unleashed by the new Police Chief to focus on those “interesting” cases that no one else can seem to dispose of. There is a fair amount of this “Chief” in the novel and it is my guess that Bill Bratton is the model for this character. Although Mr. Bratton has stepped down now, he was extremely successful in both New York and Los Angeles and is a figure referred to with great respect by L.A. crime novelists like Mr. Kellerman and Michael Connelly, both of whom have used him to free up and inspire their maverick crime-solvers.

Milo, in his dogged fashion, and Alex, in his cerebral fashion, pursue the identities of the victims into a fascinating world of international architecture, eco-terrorism, banking and petro-bazillions. Unlike earlier books in this series, although Alex is doing the actual chauffeuring, Milo is in the driver’s seat with respect to the action. There is a wonderful scene where Milo, who is no mean trencherman, and Alex, meet a black detective named Irv Wimmer, who is working a related case, at “Ruby’s Theater of Turkey” where the specialty is “monumental birds dunked into deep-fryers” and served quartered or halved along with “biscuits the size of baseballs.”

But Milo’s real moment to shine comes near the end of the book where he interrogates a police crime scene investigator who they suspect of being an eco-terrorist. He goes slow, sets up his premises and ultimately destroys all her defenses, in the most gentle, likeable manner imaginable. It is a real tour de force on Milo’s part and some darn fine writing by Mr. Kellerman. I recommend this book. 10/09 Geoffrey R. Hamlin

EVIL WITHOUT A FACE by Jordan Dane: In the first of Dane’s Sweet Justice series, fugitive recovery agent Jessica Beckett goes up against a human trafficking ring that has its fingers in just about every corner of the world. It starts with Jessica’s vendetta against a man named Lucas Baker. Baker escapes and Jessica’s antics land her in the hands of the local PD who are less than thrilled about her rule-bending and breaking. They tell her Baker is off-limits, but Jessica neglects to reveal that she’s already stolen the man’s computer. Her assistant is unable to break into the computer’s system, but is able to retrieve notice of a package from Alaska set to arrive in Chicago shortly. They bug the computer so that they can trace Baker’s movements but Baker is killed shortly after it is returned to him. At the same time, Jessica’s friend Sam Cooper, a vice cop, is handling a missing persons case involving a teen from Alaska. When the link between Sam’s case and Jessica’s discovery is made, the two team up with the child’s uncle in order to track the organization and save the girl. This is Dane’s best yet, and that’s saying a lot. Characters from Evil will be returning in the subsequent titles. Book two, The Wrong Side of Dead, is slated for release this fall. 01/09 Becky Lejeune 

EVIL WITHOUT A FACE by Jordan Dane:  If Stephanie Plum is at one end of the female bounty hunter spectrum, then Jessica Beckett is at the absolute other end.  While Plum keeps her gun in a cookie jar, Beckett wears a Colt Python .357 Magnum with four-inch barrel and a trigger smooth as butter.  There are no giggles in this one as Beckett pursues a personal vendetta against child abuser Lucas Baker.  When Baker turns up dead and is linked to a multinational human trafficking organization, Globe Harvest, the cops tag Jess as a possible suspect.  Jessica is long gone however, backtracking a teen from Alaska who may have been a Globe Harvest victim.  Beckett is driven and the reasons why unfold in a series of flashbacks as she puts it all on the line.  Not for the faint hearted, but if you can take the heat, a great read.  04/09 Jack Quick 

EVOLUTION, ME & OTHER FREAKS OF NATURE by Robin Brande: This teen novel is funny and thought-provoking. It would be a terrific book for an adult book discussion. Mena Reece is having a terrible first day of high school. Her former best friend is snubbing her, she’s an outcast from her Sunday School class and her church, and her parents aren’t talking to her. So, she ends up in biology class with over a dozen of the members of the youth group that she alienated. Fortunately, the teacher is an eccentric, award-winning teacher, who won’t let students and the church push her around. When fourteen students demand that she teach intelligent design instead of evolution, Ms. Shepherd faces them down. Mena soon finds herself aligned with another student and Ms. Shepherd. Casey, Mena’s lab partner, an admirer of Ms. Shepherd’s, wants the two of them to win a place on her website. Mena’s afraid to let Casey know that her religious parents won’t even be happy knowing she’s partnered with a boy, let alone working on a project at his house. Brande’s debut novel focuses on the consequences of one action, and the changes that occur. 09/07 Lesa Holstine

EXACT REVENGE by Tim Green: Raymond White is in a maximum-security prison for a crime he didn't commit when he meets another lifer, art thief Lester Cole. White and Cole escape, with White surviving to use Cole’s stolen art to make himself a new man and to exact revenge on those who framed him. Of course, its been done before “Count of Monte Cristo”, “Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less,” etc., but it is a fast fun read and as Lester Cole says about revenge, “If you don't do it, you'll be a professional victim. You exact it and it's exact. Not just a reaction, but planned out. Precise. It needs to send a message." Root for the home team in this one. 03/06 Jack Quick

EXECUTIVE ACTIONS by Gary Grossman:  Teddy Lodge might have been elected President anyway.  After all, they were comparing him to Bobby Kennedy.  But after Lodge survives an assassination attempt in the small town of Hudson, New York, the campaign of the Vermont Congressman seems to have unstoppable momentum.   However, several people loyal to the defeated Republican President—especially Scott Roarke, a tough and resourceful agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency—begin to have suspicions about Teddy Lodge.  Is he really who he claims to be?  Although the narrative suffers from some choppiness it is a very nice first effort from the co-owner of a successful Los Angles production company.  This is a particularly timely read in light of the current U.S. Presidency.  I am not in anyway casting aspersions on President Obama, but his background has caused others to question whether there are other hidden agendas. 03/09 Jack Quick  

EXECUTIVE POWER by Vince Flynn:  CIA super agent Mitch Rapp is back at work after a brief honeymoon.  After his exposure in a previous mission, Rapp, as special advisor on counterterrorism to CIA director Dr. Irene Kennedy, is ready to fight the war on terrorism from CIA headquarters rather than the front line.  His plans immediately go astray as he gets involved with an American family kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in the Philippines, an ambush that costs the lives of two SEALs, and betrayal from the State Department.  While Mitch is sorting all this out, an unknown assassin working closely with the highest powers in the Middle East is bent on igniting war.  Can Rapp put out both blazes?  Of course, there is already a sequel out, but how he does it – that’s what makes this one worth reading. Recommended. 10/08 Jack Quick 

EXIT STRATEGY by Kelley Armstrong:  Nadia Stafford is a cop-turned-hit-woman in her first adventure with a killer vs. killer mission.  After being forcefully retired from a Canadian police force for shooting a suspect dead, Nadia becomes a temporary hit woman targeting smalltime career criminals for clients who are often their direct competitors.  Now, she's teaming up with her mentor, Jack, to apprehend another hit man–turned–serial killer known as the Helter Skelter killer.  Nadia soon learns that no one is to be trusted and nothing is as it seems.  Hopefully, this is the start of a long-lived series. 10/07 Jack Quick

EXPLETIVE DELETED edited by Jen Jordan:  What do Laura Lippman, Ken Bruen, Charlie Huston, Nathan Singer, Anthony Neil Smith, Jason Starr, Sarah Weinman, John Rickards, Libby Fischer Hellmann, and Reed Farrel Coleman have in common?  They all talk dirty and is that ever great.  Maybe there has been a previous book devoted to the f word, but if so, its probably out of f***ing print.  Who gives a f***, when you have this collection of really neat short stories all tied together by that one little f***ing word.  Not for the faint hearted, but if it don’t bother you, read on. 11/07 Jack Quick 

EXTREME INDIFFERENCE by Stephanie Kane: Second outing for Denver defense attorney Jackie Flowers whose client, a federal judge, is accused of the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Amy Lynch, a college student and daughter of a wealthy businessman. Complicating the task is the fact that Judge Ballard is one of Flowers’ former law professors, who once told her she would never make it as a lawyer. Flowers is dyslexic and has had to struggle her entire life to attain her goals. Her coping skills are extraordinary but now she may be in danger of losing the most important case of her career, while in the middle of trying to decide whether to continue on her own or attempt to link up with one of Denver’s larger law firms. Well written and interesting, particularly in seeing how Flowers perseveres in spite of her dyslexia. 07/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

AN EYE FOR AN EYE by Irene Hannon:  The second installment of the Heroes of Quantico series, this was billed as romantic suspense.  Frankly, it just didn’t work for me. FBI Hostage Rescue Team member Mark Sanders is sent to St. Louis to work as a field agent after he accidentally shoots a teenager at a tense standoff.  Just weeks away from returning to Quantico to resume his work on the HRT, Mark has a chance encounter with an old flame, Emily Lawson. But their reunion is cut short by a sniper. Now Mark must find the shooter, keep Emily safe, and rekindle a long-dead relationship at the same time. With lines like “While Emily’s faith gave her obvious spiritual comfort, he suspected her emotional needs went unmet,.” I seem to have missed the suspense part.  01/10 Jack Quick 

AN EYE FOR MURDER by Libby Fischer Hellmann: Chapter One, Paragraph One, ten year old Rachel to Ellie Freeman, her single parent documentary filmmaker mother, “Have you ever had oral sex?”  You sense this one may be a little different.  This mystery begins in World War II in Europe, and results in the death in 1946 of Kurt Weiss, a GI returning home to Chicago. Decades later Ben Sinclair, a pre-WWII friend of Ellie’s father, recognizes Ellie’s name in a television documentary but is killed before he can contact her.  Next to die is Sinclair’s landlady. A drive-by shooting critically wounds a young man who has been helping Sinclair use the computer in the library.  Ellie’s home is burglarized and more threats surface.  Then Kurt Weiss’s son contacts Ellie and the plot gets even thicker.  This is the first outing for Ellie who seems equal to all the challenges thrown at her, except perhaps those presented by her somewhat precocious daughter, who, by the way, is the only girl in 4^th grade who doesn’t shave her legs. Lots of action, and its Chicago, so there has to be politics. Recommended. 06/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by David Ellis: Ellis is one of my favorite thriller writers, and this new one didn't disappoint.  In 1989, prosecuting attorney Paul Riley had the case of a lifetime fall into his lap.  Two college students and four hookers were murdered in the space of a week, and the first suspect they looked at confessed, had overwhelming physical evidence in his home, and eventually was executed for the murders.  Except fifteen years later, a similar spree of murders is happening, and the murderer is sending undecipherable messages to Riley, who parlayed that first case into a private multi-million dollar practice.  The book bounces back and forth between the two cases, which feels repetitive in parts, and causes Riley to question what happened.  It's a great story that leads to an intricate, twisty ending that just sends the mind reeling.  08/07 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

EYE OPENER by Michael Lewin: Lewin, an Indianapolis native who now lives in Britain, has written a series of mysteries all set in Indianapolis, involving an ensemble cast. In Eye Opener, PI Alfred Samson finally has his license restored and is ready to prowl. He soon realizes that the funk he had been in over the loss of his license was deeper and darker than he realized. He worries about his mother and daughter, both of whom seem to have grown away from him during his period of moping and drinking and being at loose ends. He begins to make up with former best friend Captain Jerry Miller who played a major role in the loss of his license. Before it’s over all of Lewin’s characters have made at least a cameo appearance – Samson’s ex-wife Adele, her new policeman husband and even the retired Lieutenant Leroy Powder. Samson gets back into the PI game, with a new girl friend, solves his first new case, and gains renewed respect for his mother and his daughter, who just may be the central character in the next Lewin adventure. As usual Lewin captures the heart and mood of the city perfectly. A good one. 06/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

EYES OF PREY by John Sandford: I feel like I came in on the very end of an orgy here....Having not read one of the previous novels,( I picked this one up in the Hospital gift shop,) I'm at a loss to explain what it all means. 
However, as a stand-alone crime novel, and police procedural, It holds it's own.  Lucas Davenport is a burned out, near suicidal, Minneapolis detective who ends up being handed a mission, which he accepts...Like all of our reader ilk. we like our hero's complicated...The more so, the better. This guy truly fits the bill. Great villains....Doc Bekker took more drugs than any villain in History...and "Druze" became Doc's willing oaf.....and an ending that will kill 'ya. 
Got to read more of these to find what led up to this.  01/06 DOC

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: This book is a gift for anyone literary on your list.  One of the most creative and clever genre-defying books to show up on a bookshelf in a very long time, encompassing murder and mystery, time travel and other elements of sci-fi, along with enough literary references, both obscure and popular, to make any literati feel smug.  Don't miss it.

THE EZEKIAL OPTION by Joel C. Rosenberg: Also known as the book that is impossible to describe.  On one level it’s a thriller not unlike some of the later ones written by Tom Clancy.  Presidential adviser Jon Bennett and his fiancé beautiful CIA agent Erin McCoy are in the middle of the action - a coup in Russia, war in the Middle East, oil driven terrorism. All are familiar.  However, there is also Dr. Eliezer Mordechai, former head of the Mossad and now a Christian, who opines, "The Scriptures were coming alive."  He prepares a 37-page Bible-based brief known as "The Ezekiel Option," which postulates that supernatural powers will eliminate Israel's enemies.  Is it the Apocalypse?  Is scriptural prophecy being fulfilled in today’s newspapers?  To sum it up succinctly, disturbing. 02/07 Jack Quick

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THE FACE by Angela Hunt:  Sarah Sims was born with Treacher Collins syndrome. Her case was actually worse than most and she could not survive without a series of painful surgeries. Her mother died in childbirth and her father died working for the CIA; Sarah was told that she had no one. Twenty years later, after the death of her mother, Renee Carey discovers that her niece, thought to have died in birth, survived. Renee is determined not only to meet Sarah, but to help her have the life and love she should have had all along. It’s not as easy as it would seem, though. Sarah has lived with and worked for the CIA all her life. For Renee to gain access to her niece, she has to jump through multiple CIA hoops and eventually gets a job with the agency. After they are united, Sarah agrees to undergo a very experimental facial implant, but meanwhile, the case they are working on has become more intense and dangerous to everyone involved, including even Sarah. Hunt, a prolific Christian author, has produced what is at its heart an intense thriller that should appeal to readers of all genres. The book is thoughtful and thought-provoking, but is not at all a heavy read. A page-turner through and through. 11/08 Becky Lejeune

THE FACE OF DEATH by Cody McFadyen:  In McFadyen’s debut thriller, Shadow Men, FBI agent Smoky Barrett was faced with a ruthless killer who fancied himself the heir to Jack the Ripper’s legacy. She’s lost her family and her best friend and she’s endured brutal torture. Everyday she must face the mental and physical scars left from her ordeal, but ultimately she has survived and she is still damn good at her job. Smoky has taken some long overdue vacation time with the intention of spending quality time with her adopted daughter and allowing herself to finally say goodbye to her murdered family. Her vacation is interrupted, however, when the only survivor of a multiple homicide has asked for her at the scene. The survivor, a teenage foster child named Sarah, thinks that Smoky is the only person who might believe her story and want to help. Sarah claims that a man she calls The Stranger killed her foster family just as he killed her own parents ten years ago. According to Sarah, The Stranger is grooming her for a very special purpose, a twisted plot of revenge that Smoky and her team must unravel before it’s too late. Smoky Barrett is a tough-as-nails investigator with some serious demons to battle. McFadyen seems to have no sympathy for his heroine, but each ordeal only proves to make her that much stronger. To top it all off, McFadyen twists some crazy original and relentlessly paced stories. If you’re a fan of Silence of the Lambs, and other such psychological thrillers, you need to add Cody McFadyen to your list. 08/08 Becky Lejeune

THE FACE OF DEATH by Cody McFayden:  McFadyen's second outing turns into three books in one, that probably would have more appeal for the causal mystery reader than the more devoted one.  First there is a fairly detailed text on forensics complete with discussions of blood spatter patterns, evidence gathering, use of technology, transference between attacker and victim, etc. – all the stuff you have already learned about on CSI.  The next part is an extensive discussion of the psychological make up of the serial killer interspersed with numerous segments on depression and how to deal with it.  Lastly, interspersed with the above is the tale of "The Stranger," a serial killer seeking revenge for a miscarriage of justice, who has targeted 16-year-old Sarah Langstrom.  It is up to Smoky Barrett and her outstanding L.A. Violent Crimes Unit to catch this monster who inflicts pain on Sarah by systematically killing anyone she loves.  Actually the writing is not bad, but I found myself wanting to tell McFayden on occasion to shut up the lecturing and get on with the storying on far too many occasions.  I understand the third book in this series is better. I hope so. 11/08 Jack Quick  

THE FACE OF EVIL by John McPartland: first published in 1954, this pulp tale is now available as a free download e-book from www.blackmask.com. From the opening fight in a Newport Beach, California saloon to the final moments, it is exactly what you would expect from a good pulp read. Bill Oxford was a war correspondent in the Big War, then a LA Times journalist. Now he is a fixer – for those in and around Hollywood – of problems that others might not want to touch. After all the stench of those problems has begun to settle on Oxford and he is no longer as welcome as he was once was where the beautiful people play. Now he is just hired help. But still lethal.  11/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

FACE TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan: Charlotte “Charlie” McNally returns in the sequel to Prime Time, another fast-paced mystery set in the world of investigative reporting. Eight months after her previous adventures, Charlie is still working for Channel 3 in Boston, once again facing a ratings sweep and a deadline for a dynamite story. She’s also coping with her mother, who is hospitalized following plastic surgery, while trying to get to know her boyfriend’s eight-year-old daughter, Penny. She’s a typical working woman in her forties, trying to juggle life. When the Constitutional Justice Project approaches Charlie, they want her to investigate a wrongful conviction. The biggest hurdle is that Dorinda Keeler Sweeney confessed to her husband’s murder, although there’s evidence she might not have actually done it. Dorinda refuses to cooperate, and the state attorney general’s office is throwing up roadblocks. Charlie can look at her own life, Dorinda, and the ambitious people in the attorney general’s office with the same question. “When it comes to ambition, politics, and love, how far would you go to get what you want?” It’s another successful story for Ryan, and her character, Charlie McNally. 10/07 Lesa Holstine

FACE TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan: Reporter Charlotte “Charlie” McNally is back in this follow-up to Hank Phillippi Ryan’s debut, Prime Time. In the news world it’s all about ratings, and it’s up to Charlie and her producer, Franklin, to make sure that they are first to get the next hot story. This time a connection Franklin has with a local activist group could not only lead them to a prime ratings headline, but could also free a woman who’s been wrongly convicted of murder. Dorinda Sweeney confessed to killing her husband and has been serving a life sentence for the crime. Now, new evidence proves that she is innocent, but Dorie is sticking to her story. Can Charlie crack the case or will her involvement land her in the crosshairs of a killer who’s determined to stay out of the limelight? Charlie’s second outing is even better than her first. Hank Phillippi Ryan’s series is a great blend of suspense, wit, and lighthearted fun. 09/09 Becky Lejeune 

FACES OF THE GONE by Brad Parks: Carter Ross is an investigative reporter for a Newark, NJ newspaper who is assigned to look into the execution of four drug dealers that the cops are blaming on a bar robbery. Ross doesn't buy it, and does his own investigating, putting himself, his cat Deadline, and pretty much everyone else he interviews in harm's way. The characters are strongly defined, from the go-go dancer's mother to the editor with a ticking biological clock. The Newark projects and their inhabitants come to life as do the local politicians and the cops. The newsroom rings true, especially the budget issues and there are some funny moments with the competition between the newspaper journalists and the TV news reporters. New Jersey seems to produce some of the funniest mystery writers, and Parks joins the ranks of Janet Evanovich and David Rosenfelt with his gritty, humorous debut. 01/10 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FACES OF THE GONE by Brad Parks:  Its take a very good “newspaper” story to keep my attention and Parks has a great one here. Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner, doesn’t buy the police story that 4 bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot is payback for a local tavern robbery.  Determined to uncover the true story, he enlists the aide of Tina Thompson, the paper’s smoking-hot city editor, to run interference at the office; Tommy Hernandez, the paper’s gay Cuban intern, to help him with legwork on the streets; and Tynesha Dales, a local stripper, to take him to Newark’s underside. It turns out there is a connection between the four victims but it isn’t something as minor as a bar robbery.  Carter starts out looking for a story and ends up looking for a way to save his life.  Nicely done. 02/10 Jack Quick  

FADE TO BLONDE by Max Phillips: The second offering from Hard Case Crime (September 2004) shows they can still write ‘em like they used to. Ex-boxer/failed screenwriter Ray Corson is as tough talking as any classic gumshoe. Blonde bombshell Rebecca LaFontaine is a classic damsel in distress ("I’m really a good girl who was made to do bad things.") She hires Corson to protect her from murderous rejected suitor Lance Halliday, a Hollywood porn producer. Corson's investigation of Tinsel Town's tarnished underside uncovers drug dealing, gangland activity and evidence that LaFontaine just may not be exactly who she says she is. Classic pulp at its finest, typed out two fingered on a battered Remington with sheets of carbon paper separating the pages. Don’t need no stinkin’ word processor. 08/06 Jack Quick

THE FAITHFUL SPY by Alex Berenson: CIA agent John Wells, the first Western intelligence officer to penetrate the upper levels of al-Qaeda, is assigned a mission on American soil by bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Wells, now a devout Muslim (for real), finds his years spent in deep cover have left him conflicted. Has he been turned? The scrutiny intensifies when two bombs go off in L.A., killing 300. Although a bit clunky, the mounting suspense, a believable scenario and a final twist add up to a compelling tale of frightening possibilities. It's not for the squeamish, though: the torture sequences and bombing descriptions are graphic and chillingly real. 08/06 Jack Quick

FAITHLESS by Karin Slaughter (Bantam Dell 8/1) – The publicity blurb says Faithless will be (Slaughter’s) breakthrough hardcover bestseller.  It’s the same cast as Slaughter’s previous Grant County, Georgia novels with Coroner Sara Linton, ex-husband Sheriff Jeffrey Tolliver, and Detective Lena Adams.  Sara and Frank find the body of a young woman who had been buried alive in a wooden box with a breathing tube, but then poisoned with cyanide.  The autopsy reveals she is pregnant and, it turns outs she is part of the Church of Greater Good, associated with a soybean cooperative that uses Atlanta homeless people as workers. Each character is involved with no single focus, which makes for very interesting reading. With sentences like this one -“(Lena) wasn’t used to being around religious people unless they were down at the police station.” - I agree with the publicity blurb.  This is the best one yet. 07/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

FALL OF A COSMONAUT by Stuart Kaminsky:  It’s the thirteenth outing for Moscow’s version of Ed McBain’s Steve Carella.  The three cases that occupy Rostnikov this time provide a sad picture of a country thrashing about in search of an identity.  He and his son Iosef, now a fellow policeman are searching for a missing cosmonaut who happened to mention Rostnikov’s name on a tape recorded before the cosmonaut came down from the Mir space station and then disappeared.  Iosef's lover, Elena Timofeyeva, and her partner, Sasha, are involved with a nasty and pompous film producer, whose life is in danger and Emil Karpo heads the investigation into the murder of an unpopular scientist at the Center for the Study of Technical Parapsychology.  As usual a satisfying conclusion is reached for all three, and our heroes all appear ready for further adventures. 03/08 Jack Quick 

The Fall of Light by Niall Williams:  Romantic historical Irish family saga, a little slow but worthwhile.

THE FALL OF TROY by Peter Ackroyd: In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann took over the excavation site at Hisarlik, in Turkey. The site was believed to have been the ancient city of Troy. Schliemann, his expedition, and his eccentric nature all play out in Ackroyd’s latest novel. Upon receiving his proposal, and generous dowry, Sophia Chrysanthis’s parents gladly give their daughter’s hand in marriage to German archaeologist Heinrich Obermann. It is to be a prosperous marriage, one that will secure Sophia a comfortable place in society. Soon after the wedding, Obermann carts his new bride off to Turkey where he has been laboring diligently, or more appropriately, obsessively, to uncover the once famous city of Troy. Sophia leaves her home with some trepidation but soon comes to love the excitement of discovering the remains of this lost civilization. Before long, Sophia comes to realize that any evidence that would contradict her husband’s theories – those supported by the writings of Homer – soon disappears or is coincidentally destroyed. She also discovers that her new husband has neglected to reveal certain important facts in regards to his past. Obermann’s mania reaches a dangerous peak and Sophia is forced to decide just where her loyalties lie. This slim novel is interesting if a bit anticlimactic. The real Obermann (Schleimann) and his exploits are a fascinating bit of archaeological history that makes the story much more appealing. Unfortunately, the fact that this story is partially true is only briefly mentioned on the flap of the dust-jacket, and Schleimann’s name is not mentioned at all. 11/07 Becky Lejeune

FALLEN by Lauren Kate: Luce learned long ago that talking about the shadows around her would get her into trouble. Her somewhat “normal” existence is shattered, though, when a fellow student dies in a fire. Luce can’t remember the events surrounding the boy’s death, but that doesn’t matter when judgment is passed. Now she’s a new student at Sword & Cross, a reform school for trouble—and troubled—teens. In spite of a quite rude first encounter, Luce finds herself drawn to Daniel Grigori, a mysterious boy she feels a certain connection to. In fact, Luce can’t shake the feeling that she’s met him somewhere before. But Luce can’t begin to understand the bond that she and Daniel have. And if she were ever to guess their shared past, history could quite possibly repeat itself… again. Fallen is yet another fallen angel tale for teens. This one, however, had a deliciously dark and gothic feel to it. My one complaint is that although the build was fantastic, the end was very abrupt: a great premise with great development, but the conclusion just felt rushed.  12/09 Becky Lejeune 

THE FALLEN by T. Jefferson Parker: Homicide Detective Robbie Greenlaw has a gift from an unfortunate accident - he was thrown out a sixth floor window.  He survived, but suffers from a rare neurological disorder called synesthesia, which causes him to visualize different colored shapes coming out of a speaker's mouth, coordinating with the emotions of the speaker; lies are red, jealousy is green and so forth.  He doesn't tell anyone but his wife about it, fearing reprisal, but it turns out to be a somewhat useful tool for a detective to have a sort of built-in lie detector.  Greenlaw is assigned to case involving a former cop who is murdered.  Things get really complicated when he uncovers a prostitution ring with political and police connections and the story just flies.  Parker has achieved the Holy Trinity of starred reviews - Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus, and those stars are well deserved.  This is an extraordinary story, told by an extraordinary writer.  Don't miss it.  03/06 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FALLING IS LIKE THIS by Kate Rockland:  Ending a relationship is never simple, but moving on proves to be a little easier for Harper Rostov when she meets guitarist Nick Cavallero on the same afternoon that she finally walks out on her current boyfriend, Andy. Cavallero, a member of Hitchhiker’s Revenge, a punk rock band that Harper has been a fan of for ages, is the exact opposite of Andy. He’s older but not necessarily more mature. Just different. And it only takes a day for Harper to begin to fall for him. But is a rock star boyfriend and the punk scene really all it’s cut out to be? Can a whirlwind love affair with the poster boy of punk turn out the way Harper hopes it will? And is it all worth it in the end? Rockland has a quirky style and an interesting way of viewing things that translates well through her main character. There are moments when the new “love” and heavy flirting can become a bit overwhelming, but even that’s as it should be, I think, when reading about a young relationship.  05/10 Becky Lejeune

FALLS THE SHADOW by William Lashner: Defense attorney Victor Carl in his fifth outing as a “Philadelphia Lawyer”, which you soon learn is somewhat different from being an attorney elsewhere. Like voting in Chicago, Philadelphia lawyers are involved early and often in various political matters. In this one, Carl takes on the task of getting a retrial for a convicted murderer. His efforts uncover some strange connections, with the usual Philadelphia political overtones. Along the way he befriends a young client assigned by Child Services and unveils a different side of Carl. Without spoiling the plot, I will say for Lashner fans that Carl does survive the various attempts on his life, so he should be back for another case. Recommended. 05/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

A FALSE DAWN by Tom Lowe: Retired homicide detective Sean O’Brien wants nothing more these days than to relax, work on renovating his new home and boat, and hang with his dog, Max. Then Sean discovers a woman who has been beaten, abused, and left for dead in the woods near his home. As the woman lay dying in his arms, Sean promises her that he will find the people responsible. Unfortunately, one of the locals seems to have an agenda of his own and pegs Sean as his number one suspect. As Sean’s investigation leads him to the heart of a human trafficking ring, connections to some of Florida’s most prominent business folk cause him to wonder just who is on the take and who is really interested in solving the case. Soon Sean finds himself tangled in a mystery that leads him back to one of his own unsolved cases from his Miami days. This is a great debut. O’Brien is a character readers will really root for, and even given the circumstances of the tale, I’ll bet you’ll be planning a Florida vacation thanks to Lowe’s descriptions and setting (I’ll avoid the gators, thanks.) 04/09 Becky Lejeune  

FALSE FACES by Seth Margolis: Ostensibly, Linda Levinson had no enemies but she is murdered one balmy summer night in yuppie Seaside Harbor, N.Y. When Police Office Joe DiGregorio begins to dig into the case he learns that Linda is quite a character. To her roommate, Linda was a good though moody friend. To her latest one-night stand, Linda was a castrating bitch. To her boss, the dead woman was "quiet...sweet...didn't go out much." Digging further, Joe finds that Linda was running a stock market scam and her partner becomes the chief suspect in her slaying – but then he becomes a homicide statistic. Even Joe almost falls victim to the killer. When its all over, you may be left with a less than satisfactory taste in your mouth because of the shallowness and crass materialism of some of the characters, but still a darn good read. 10/06 Jack Quick

FALSE PROFITS by Patricia Smiley: L.A. management consultant Tucker Sinclair has been accused of helping a client obtain $11 million using a fraudulent business plan. When Sinclair begins to defend herself she finds the original files missing out of her office. So she goes to the office of the client neurologist, Milton Polk, and discovers not her elusive doctor but a policeman with a Polaroid of the dead Polk. From this point on, its up to Sinclair to save her reputation and livelihood by finding out who and why, and staying alive during the process. Sinclair is smarter than Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum but no match for Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone in this, her first outing. It will be interesting to see how she develops in subsequent adventures. For now, not too tart, not too sweet, and an okay read. 11/06 Jack Quick

A False Sense of Well Being by Jeanne Braselton:  I loved this book about a woman having a mid-life crisis which manifests itself in fantasies of her husband dying in various ways.  Black comedy for sure, but so much more!  The characters are well defined and sympathetic, even in their neuroses.  This is a book that begs discussion.  And single-handedly, Ms. Braselton has opened my mind once again to Southern fiction.  A reading group guide, interview and preview chapter from Braselton's next book are available in the Ballantine Reader's Circle edition or online.   Click here for more info.

FALSE TESTIMONY by Rose Connors: Marty Nickerson & Harry Madigan are law partners and life partners.  In this fourth outing of the pair, they each have a client whose story doesn't hold water.  Nickerson is defending the Massachusetts senator whose aide has mysteriously disappeared, and Madigan is defending a very young parolee accused of murdering a priest - which he admits to doing, but claims it was in self defense against attempted sexual assault.  Connors brings home the stark winter of Cape Cod in this bisecting tale of truth or consequences amid great courtroom scenes with great style and great writing. 07/05

FALSE WITNESS by Randy Singer:  Bounty hunter Clarke Shealy gets an ominous phone call—a Chinese mafioso has taken Shealy's wife hostage, and if Shealy wants to see her again, he must track down a missing Chinese mathematician, who has discovered an extremely valuable algorithm that could change Internet technology forever.  That’s part one.  In part two, three students at a prestigious law school in Atlanta become involved with a couple in the witness protection program.  The students, an African-American ex-jock, a feisty liberated woman, and an endearing math nerd, are saved from being caricatures through the excellence of the writing.  At the end, all the loose ends are pulled together so nicely, one would hope to see a sequel to follow the story even further. 01/08 Jack Quick

FANGLAND by John Marks: As an associate producer for the television news program, The Hour it Is, Evangeline Harker's job to feel out a potential story and decide if it will make the cut and become an actual piece. Newly engaged, she grudgingly agrees to go to Romania to meet with someone who may have information regarding regional crime lord, Ion Torgu. Torgu has become a mythical figure whose existence is questionable. When Evangeline is late for her interview, she believes the whole story is blown. She's surprised though when Torgu himself shows up. From the set meeting place, he takes her to a remote hotel in the mountains where she discovers his grisly secret. Months pass with no word from Evangeline. Hours of almost blank footage arrive from Romania. Editors begin to suffer from a strange sort of viral depression and everyone at The Hour has reported hearing strange whispering throughout the halls. This modern adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula is cleverly modified for a post 9-11, media driven world. Marks twists the literary classic to make it his own.  02/07 Becky Lejeune

FAST LANE by Dave Zeltserman: As cold and unforgiving as an alleyway off East Colfax Avenue in January, Johnny Lane is Denver’s premier private eye. He stays that way by solving the difficult cases and then writing about them in a monthly column “Fast Lane” in the Denver Examiner. Not one to mince words in print or in public he responds as follows to a red head who questions his sad expression in a local watering hole. “I just found out that I won’t qualify for this year’s Miss America contest. I guess you must have been told the same thing years ago.” The redhead, Marge, becomes another chapter or chapters in the legend of Johnny Lane. As Zeltserman says in the forward, “Hope you like your crime fiction dark and disturbing.” Whatever happened to Mickey Spillane? Now we know. He changed his name and moved west. 08/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

Family Orchard by Nomi Eve: This is a fictionalized account of the author's family history that goes from her father's journal to what I believe to be her version of how events happened.  I found the two different voices distracting and unnecessary.  There was a snippet about each character but not enough depth about anyone until the end. The first six pages were the best. 

FAMILY SECRETS by Judith Henry Wall: Wall took a typical women’s novel, and threw a twist into it by adding a suspenseful element for the last quarter of the book, and it just didn’t work. Vanessa, Ellie and Georgianna Wentworth are women still grieving over their father’s death a year later, so it stuns them when their mother announces she’s moving to France. When she hands them a letter addressed to the aunt who raised their father, they realize they have one last chance to do something for him. They can find his birthmother and tell her what a wonderful son she gave away. Their trip to Montana could be ruined by the powerful, ambitious woman who doesn’t want her past discovered. Up until this point in the book, Wall’s premise is perfectly sound, but the outlandish twist provided by the story the Wentworth’s grandmother tells, and the resulting actions are beyond belief. Wall just went a little too far in the wrong direction in an attempt to keep Family Secrets. 07/07 Lesa Holstine

A Farewell to Legs by Jeffrey Cohen:  This is the second entry into the terrific Aaron Tucker/Hemingway series (Tucker is the protagonist, Hemingway supplies the titles.)  This time around Aaron goes to his high school reunion, and so does the girl everyone had the hots for, Stephanie Jacobs.  But while they are catching up, someone kills Stephanie's husband back in Washington D. C.  Louis "Crazy Legs" Gibson was a womanizing political right winger with lots of enemies and his wife is the number one suspect, but she has an ironclad alibi.  Using her political connections, she arranges for a magazine to hire Aaron to write a piece about the murder and hopefully solve the crime, and the fun and games begin.  It's the wonderfully written characters that really makes these books shine, but there are also lots of nice twists and a real surprise ending in this humorous whodunit.  12/03 Bookbitch

A FAREWELL TO LEGS by Jeffery Cohen: Called a combination James Bond and Bart Simpson, Aaron Tucker-is looking for the killer of a conservative politician who was once a classmate of Tucker’s, while also handling family matters and pursuing his ambition of becoming a successful screen writer.  Other words that come to mind are quirky, adorable, and downright funny.  Maybe he’s more of a Woody Allen, the master anti-sleuth. 12/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

Fat Ollie's Book by Ed McBain:  Long before Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue, Ed McBain was turning out what are almost universally conceded to be the best police procedurals of our time.  His close-knit team of characters in the 87th precinct know their jobs and they perform them well.
       But what characters!  From Meyer Meyer to Burt Kling to the protagonist Steve Carella himself, each is richly developed over the series and absorbing in his own right.
       In Fat Ollie's Book, McBain has elevated a peripheral comic character from earlier books to center stage and done so in a way that humanizes him without losing his humorous aspects.
       Detective First Class Oliver Wendell Weeks, aka Fat Ollie, is an officer from the adjoining 88th Precinct who in a previous book saved Carella's life twice.  Once by shooting a lion.  In this volume, Detective Weeks has written a book which he has entitled Report to the Commissioner.  Unfortunately, his manuscript is stolen from his police car while he is at the scene of the murder of a local politician.  Both investigations proceed simultaneously and manage to entwine.
       This story is yet further evidence of McBain's complete mastery of this field.  It is interesting, convincing and funny.  If you haven't read McBain, this would not be a bad place to start.  This review contributed by Geoffrey R. Hamlin

FATAL ENCRYPTION by Debra Purdy Kong:  A non-geeky computer mystery, well, at least a minimally geeky computer mystery.  Alex Bellamy, AKA Kermit the Frog on Halloween night is only a few miles away from where Zachary Ternoway is stabbed at his front door.  Alex is hired to help catch a computer prankster at McKinleys' Department Store.  It gets serious when the cracker threatens to permanently encrypt the company’s data unless he is paid million in ransom for the means to preserve their data.  One of the suspects is the brother of Zachary Ternoway.  Is there a connection?  Alex thinks so and he has less than two weeks to solve both the murder and the threatened extortion.  He also has to deal with current about to be former girlfriend and former, wants to become current, girlfriend as well as family.  Set in Canada and nicely done. 06/08 Jack Quick 

FATAL FEBRUARY by Barbara Levenson: Mary Katz thought her little fender bender in the car wash parking lot and the results of that fateful meeting would mean the end - the end of her relationship and the end of her career. Well, it did, but in a good way. After meeting the suave and handsome Carlos Martin, Mary is discovered holding a special meeting with him in her office. She calls off her engagement, breaks up with her boyfriend (who discovered them), and quits her cushy job at his law firm. Other than the fact that her ex seems bent on exacting revenge for his hurt ego, things in Mary’s life are going great. She opens her own practice and is involved in a high profile murder trial that could really help her if it all goes her way. Levenson, an attorney and now judge, debuts with this light and funny legal thriller. An uncomplicated read that’s perfect for someone looking for a little suspense and a lot of entertainment. 01/09 Becky Lejeune 

A FATAL GRACE by Louise Penny: Penny won Dagger and Arthur Ellis awards for her first mystery, Still Life. Her second, A Fatal Grace, brings Inspector Armand Gamache back to the small Quebec town of Three Pines to investigate the murder of a dislikable woman. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, surrounded by townspeople watching a curling match. She left a husband and daughter behind, but no one, not even her photographer lover, seemed to mourn the loss of the woman who was universally cruel to people. Gamache knows that the story behind a murder usually started years ago, so he sets out on the trail of that story. Who was CC de Poitiers, and who hated her enough to kill her? Penny has written a thoughtful, beautiful traditional mystery. The setting is gorgeous. Once again, she has written a satisfying story, for any students of human nature. A Fatal Grace will be on my list for best books, not just mysteries, of 2007. 05/07 Lesa Holstine

FATAL LAWS by Jim Hansen:  Third in the Laws series (NIGHT LAWS and SHADOW LAWS), and hopefully there will be a lot more to come.  Beautiful women surround Denver homicide detective Bryson Coventry.  Unfortunately, some of them are dead.  Why are women disappearing and where are they between the time they disappear and when their bodies are found?  Since one of the victims is an attorney, lawyers are involved as well.  Another well written combination police procedural and “attorney book” that keeps ratcheting up the ante.  Definitely recommended.  06/07 Jack Quick

FATAL LEGACY by Elizabeth Corley:  By all accounts, Arthur Wainwright is not a likable fellow.  But did he deserve to be killed in a manner that suggested suicide?  Then comes the classic English “reading of the will.”  Not only was the Wainwright estate far larger than thought, the bulk of the estate, to the dismay of his other kin, was bequeathed to his nephew Alex, and Alex’s wife Sally.  So was the murder Alex’s doing or that one of the disgruntled heirs?  Sally starts to look into the matter when the financial controller for the Wainwright firm is brutally murdered.  Enter Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Fenwick and what starts out kind of cozy becomes a first rate police procedural.  If you enjoy Stephen Booth, Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson et.al, then add Ms. Corley to your reading list.  I have.  03/08 Jack Quick 

THE FAULT TREE by Louise Ure: Ure returns to Arizona with her second mystery, following the Shamus award-winning book, Forcing Amaryllis. This time, a blind auto mechanic, Cadence Moran, is the only witness to a murder, hearing the end of it as she walked home from work one night. She’s reluctant to get involved, because she still blames herself for the auto accident that killed her niece and blinded her eight years earlier. However, Detective Dupree thinks she might help identify the killers, with the few clues she has. Suddenly, Cadence is targeted by a killer, who doesn’t realize she’s blind, and doesn’t want to leave a witness. This powerful mystery is told from three viewpoints, that of Cadence, one of the killers, and the investigating officers. Each of these voices makes mistakes, and fumbles towards a riveting conclusion, that leaves the reader breathless. Ure has once again created a unique character, and a powerful, suspenseful mystery. 01/08 Lesa Holstine

THE FAULT TREE by Louise Ure:  While walking home from work one evening, Cadence Moran is witness to a horrible murder. Cadence has no idea what has occurred, though, because Cadence is blind. Wanda Prentice, creator of Wanda’s Story Hour, a show loved by a generation of young baby boomers, is murdered in her home when she interrupts two robbers. The two escape after killing Wanda and attempting to run down Cadence, the only witness to the event. Of course the killers have no idea that Cadence is blind and they will stop at nothing in an attempt to tie up this one loose end. Cadence is far from helpless, however. She has spent her time honing her skills as an auto mechanic. Her sightless world is full of sounds and smells that go unnoticed by many. She may not be the ideal witness for the police on the case, but her tenacity and plain stubbornness make her one witness these killers will wish they never messed with. My first introduction to Louise Ure’s writing was through her guest blog on Muderati.com. I look forward to reading her entries and was very excited to read her new release. She did not let me down. Cadence Moran is certainly one of the most original characters in modern mystery and Ure’s ability to “show” readers Cadence’s world through scent and sound is magnificent. This fantastic mystery is not to be missed. 01/08 Becky Lejeune

FEAR THE NIGHT by John Lutz: Although not one of Lutz' best, Fear The Night is still quite good. It's a cat-and-mouse game between retired NYPD Detective Vincent Repetto and the "Night Sniper", who only strikes after sunset. While the main characters are almost stereotypical, it is in the portrayal of the various victims that Lutz shines. Each victim from whatever situation is brought to life and becomes an individual that we feel we really know, when the Sniper takes them out. Maybe this is what Lutz intended, to show the true horror of such crime by making the victims real, even if the villain isn't quite in focus. Recommended. 08/06 Jack Quick

FEARLESS by Tim Lott:  Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this book is that it is marketed as being Lott’s first for younger readers.  Little Fearless is one of the inmates in City Community Faith School in a future world that is safe from terrorists, where the streets are clean, and girls labeled "juvies" or "mindcrips" have been hidden away.  Birth names have been replaced by a letter and number, and all work long hours with no prospect of future change.  Her faith and conviction spur Fearless to pursue a bold and unthinkable plan of escape that will either assure her freedom or her demise.  Think George Orwell’s 1984 for children.  I found it unremittingly bleak and not a book I would recommend for my grandchildren at all. 01/08 Jack Quick

FEARLESS FOURTEEN by Janet Evanovich: If you haven't read this series, go right out now and buy One for the Money.  Go ahead, I'll wait.  If you are all caught up and just waiting, money in hand, for the newest one, read on...and the only money I'll save you is to tell you that all the chain bookstores will discount like crazy the first week it goes on sale, so plan to shop on Tuesday for the best deal.  Every June, Evanovich releases the latest Stephanie Plum book and I have enjoyed every one.  She's taken a lot of hits the past several Junes that the books aren't as funny, as well written, as well plotted, etc. etc.  Some or all of that may be true, but the thing is, I know what to expect from these books.  A light mystery, none too taxing.  A light romantic threesome - will she go for Joe Morelli, the hot cop she's had an on-again-off-again engagement with, or Ranger, the hunky bounty hunter with commitment issues?  Explosions, be it cars or funeral homes.  Some of the craziest and most loveable characters - it wouldn't be a Stephanie Plum adventure without Grandma Mazur and Lula.  And laughs.  Lots of laugh-out-loud-so-your-family-will-wonder-what-the-heck-you-are-reading laughs.  If you expect more than that, you will be disappointed.  If that works for you, as it does for me, enjoy this latest romp where Lula gets engaged (!), a dead body turns up in Joe's basement, Stephanie's skip is a single mom who leaves her graffiti-artist teenage son in Stephanie's care, and oh yeah, he's a distant cousin of Joe's, as is his uncle who just got released from prison for armed robbery to the tune of $9,000,000 that some people think he still has hidden.  In Joe's house.  Convoluted?  Sure, but who cares with characters as warm and funny as these, a Trenton that every New Jersey-ite will love to call home, and lots of laughs.  Enjoy. 06/08 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FEARLESS FOURTEEN by Janet Evanovich:  I’m afraid Stephanie is “plum worn out.”  It had to happen eventually and this appears to be the one outing too many.  All the familiar faces are there – bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, ex ‘ho Lula, Morelli, Ranger, Tank, Grandma Mazur and even a teenager (named “Zook”) who may in fact be Morelli’s son.  But all the jokes are beginning to wear thin.  Stephanie sleeps with Morelli and flirts with Ranger.  Tank and Lula are going to get married in a ceremony to rival that of Princess Diana.  For half the book Stephanie is blue, literally, after opening a booby trapped brief case that gave her, Lula and aging diva Brenda an unplanned facial.  Actually her blue face goes well with her “Zookmobile” which the teenager has tagged with fluorescent spay paint.  Anyway, while there are a few laugh out loud lines, an implausible plot and repetition of the older jokes leaves this one kind of flat.  I’ll try Fifteen Whatever, but if not better then I will confine Stephanie Plum to history. 08/08 Jack Quick

FEED by Mira Grant: Shaun and Georgia Mason are undeniably the product of their generation. The year is 2040—twenty-six years since the cure for the common cold combined with the cure for cancer to create an outbreak of incomparable proportions. The dead no longer stay that way. Everyone carries the infection, but for most, death is the catalyst that sets it loose. Mandatory blood tests are administered at every turn. Patio dining and public assembly are almost nonexistent and entire cities are now inhabited by zombies. In this day and age, bloggers are the new newshounds, telling the truth behind events the real media would otherwise take the safe and government approved approach to. Georgia and her brother are two of the best. Their reputations have earned them the much-coveted position of campaign journalists for the Republican party’s would-be nominee for the next presidential election. Georgia and Shaun believe that their time has finally come. What they’ll discover will change everything, and it’s too soon to tell whether they’ll live to see the story go live. Awesome. Fantastic. A post-outbreak, futuristic zombie tale that feels like it could actually happen. Feed is a totally creepy page-turner and first in the Newsflesh trilogy.  04/10 Becky Lejeune     

FEEDING GROUND by Sarah Pinborough: London had been overrun by giant flesh-eating spiders. Blane Gentle-King might have been a typical thug until he discovered a way to control the beasts. Now he’s become a force to be reckoned with in the desolate remains of the city. His second-in-command, Charlie, is worried that this tentative hold on the spiders may not last and that there will be hell to pay when it all falls apart. Meanwhile, two separate groups of kids are trying desperately to survive and find a way out: one, teens hiding from King and his minions, the other a group of kids on a school trip. All of their stories will collide as they fight to beat the creatures that have infested the streets and buildings around them. I’d hoped for a sequel to 2006’s Breeding Ground after the way it left off. Although this is not that sequel, it is a great companion piece. Feeding Ground will definitely satisfy horror fans, it hits all the right notes. 10/09 Becky Lejeune 

FEELERS by Brian M. Wiprud: Brian Wiprud writes very funny stuff. Not the tightly plotted Elmore Leonard funny stuff. More like Timmy Dorsey's Serge character on a rant. Sort of like a Marx brothers' movie. Each book sort of starts out in left field, takes all its clothes off and runs around through the stadium with cops and bad guys both chasing after a wacky hero - like his forensic taxidermist character, Garson Carson in his earlier books - Tailed, Stuffed and Pipsqueak.

In this case, the hero, Morty Martinez is a "feeler," from Brooklyn. Fortunately, he explains right at the outset that a feeler is a person who contracts to clean out old homes, where he suspects the former occupants may have stashed away cash. The book begins as Morty hits the mother lode, a stash of 32 "tight ones" under an old couch. "Tight ones" are rolls of bills, often stashed in something like an easily-hidden peanut can, coiled so tightly as to resemble, well, you know. In this case, the total comes to over $800,000.

As you can imagine, sums of money like this most often are the result of illegal activity. In no time at all, Morty is being pursued by the sole survivor of the heist gang, the retired cop who put him away, real cops, newspaper men, and infamy of infamy, his very jealous fellow professional feelers who get wind of his amazing find.

And a merry chase it is. This book is a lot of fun and I actually think that Wiprud's writing is getting better every time out. Summer is coming and this would be a great book to take to the beach. You will meet a lot of new people asking you "What are you laughing at? How can anything be that funny?"  05/09 Geoffrey R. Hamlin

FEET OF CLAY by Ruth Birmingham:  Atlanta private investigator Sunny Childs is helping her younger sister, Lee-Lee, make a documentary about a death row prisoner.  Convicted of the brutal sex murders of two local women, Dale Weedlaw is scheduled to be executed in a few days.  When Lee-Lee arrives in Pettigrew, the small Georgia town where the killings took place, looking for an interview she's arrested on false charges and thrown into jail.  With Sunny’s help it becomes clear that there are likelier suspects for the murders still at large.  Steel magnolia Sunny has to kick some butt before they get to the bottom of this one.  May I have another one of those mint juleps, please. 07/06 Jack Quick

Feint of Art by Hailey Lind: Enter the madcap world of art collecting and art forgery in the debut mystery by two sisters writing under the pseudonym of Hailey Lind. Annie Kincaid meant to go straight after being arrested at the age of 17 as a forger. She opened a studio called True/Faux specializing in faux finishes. Suddenly “Two fakes, two forgers, and one murder were adding up to one big boatload of trouble.” When Annie evaluates a painting at San Francisco’s Brock Museum, and identifies it as a fake, everything explodes. A security guard is murdered, a curator disappears, and Annie finds herself neglecting her business and her new landlord as she runs around town looking for drawings, a forger, and a murderer. This screwball mystery has an explosive ending that might remind movie buffs of “What’s Up, Doc?” or “Foul Play.” Feint of Art is a fun caper novel for art lovers. 01/06 Lesa Holstine

FELONIOUS JAZZ by Bryan Gilmer: Jeff Davis Swain is an investigator for a Raleigh, North Carolina, trial law firm. Mickey Reuss, one of the firm’s clients, a real estate developer, has his suburban Rocky Falls home burglarized and his new wife’s dog left dead in the kitchen. Then they discover that the home of one of his sub-contractors has been burglarized and the family cat killed. Swain, after talking with a newspaper reporter, suspects that the two crimes, obviously related, might be connected to a development that Reuss is building. Another oddity is that both pets had previously been saved from fatal diseases through intensive veterinary intervention. We know early on that the culprit is a hand sanitizer drinking washed-up jazz bassist named Leonard Noblac who is creating an album of crime and destruction in Rocky Falls. It becomes a personal challenge between the Swain and Noblac with potentially fatal consequences. This is a well-written book and the author captures the Raleigh-Durham area quite nicely even though he moves thing around a bit, I presume, for legal protection. The good guy is complex and the bad guy, also complex, is quite evil. The only jarring note for me was the animal cruelty, which is my own personal hang-up. 09/09 Jack Quick  

The Fencing Master by Arturo Perez-Reverte: Intriguing mystery set in the late 1800's in Spain against a backdrop of political upheaval and romance.  A fascinating look at fencing as well.

FEVER by Bill Pronzini:  Bill and Runyon and Tamara are at it again in another great outing for the Nameless Detective.  The primary case involves gambling addiction.  Mitch Krochek hires Nameless to track down his wife Janice, who has disappeared for the fourth time in four years.  Meanwhile Jake Runyon is working a pro bono case involving a young computer expert who has been beaten.  Are the two cases related?  Only in that addiction can take many forms.  On the plus side, Tamara is beginning to get over her former boyfriend, and even starts to build a better relationship with her father, and Runyon may be starting to have closure from the death of his wife. .  No one does PI’s better that Bill Pronizin, and the San Francisco setting is absolute icing on the cake. 09/08 Jack Quick  

FIDDLE GAME by Richard Thompson: Convoluted plot involving Herman Jackson, a former Detroit bookie who now resides in St. Paul where he leads a respectable, low-profile life as a bail bondsman, while keeping a watchful eye for any connection to his past.  The problem starts when young Amy Cox leaves Jackson a priceless antique violin as security for her brother’s bail bond.  She is murdered in front of Jackson’s place and the police like him for the crime.  With his criminal past, Jackson can’t afford to even be a prime suspect for jaywalking, much less for murder.  He hits the road trying to solve Cox’s murder pursued by one real and one crooked cop, a band of urban Gypsies who claim to have first rights to the violin, and an unknown killer who also wants Jackson dead.  Nobody is who he claims to be, nothing is what it seems, and the violin, which is reputed to carry a 400-year-old curse, begins to take on a life of its own.  Maybe Herman should have stayed in Detroit. 01/09 Jack Quick

FIDDLERS by Ed McBain: You almost think that Ed McBain knew he was at the end of the 87th Precinct when he wrote this, the 55th and last one before his death. A killer is shooting his victims in the face at close range with the same 9mm Glock. Since the 87th caught the first one, they are also assigned the following ones. While the whole cast of the 87th is stretched thin trying to track down clues in geographically disparate killings McBain gets everyone involved in the chase – Fat Ollie, Steve Carella, Bert Kling, Meyer Meyer. Maybe not his strongest, but certainly a fitting finale. 12/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

FIDELITY by Thomas Perry: Is anyone ever who you think they are? Los Angeles PI Phil Kramer is shot dead. His wife Emily and his staff set out to solve the crime and unearth more about Kramer that anyone suspected. Meanwhile, Jerry Hobart, the killer hired to eliminate Kramer decides he might be better off learning the secret of his client that Kramer allegedly held, a secret that his principal is now willing to have Emily killed for. It gets complicated but provides an interesting insight into how certain actions can be viewed so differently by different people. Not as spare as Robert B. Parker, but approaching Parker’s economy of detail. 12/08 Jack Quick

FIELD OF BLOOD by Denise Mina: Memo to self. After 40 years in the media business, do not pick up any books featuring perky young reporters or kooky DJ’s solving world-class crimes while effortlessly going about their daily routines. The exception is Denise Mina whose Paddy Meehan, an aspiring journalist in Glasgow, Scotland, is really a natural detective but doesn’t realize it. Her first “case” involves clearing the name of an eleven- year old boy already “convicted” in the press for the murder of a three-year old child. Her family has “shunned” her because they think she is responsible for the news story that caused everyone to believe him guilty. Mix in the story of her namesake, a safecracker who may or may not have betrayed the British to the communists years earlier and its a double handful. Well written and recommended. Grab a half-pint and packet of crisps and settle in for a great read. (Release date 7/11/05). 06/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

FIELD OF DARKNESS by Cornelia Read: Madeline Dare can trace her roots back to the founding of America, but lives with her husband Dean in Syracuse, New York and works as a journalist on the small town newspaper.  She hears about a twenty-year old double murder dubbed the "Rose Girls" because their bodies were left with a crown of roses, one white, one red, in a bizarre tableau.  Dare's interest is piqued when she finds out her cousin, Lapthorne "Lappy" Townsend, may be a suspect - his dog tags were found at the site.  She decides to investigate and prove his innocence but twenty years later, her investigation is prompting more murders. Read  weaves a tale that is both complex and sinister, and certainly deserving of all the accolades this book has won.  07/06 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read: Read’s debut mystery is a dark story for those who like strong characterization. Madeline Dare is a reporter in Syracuse in 1988, a very unhappy reporter. Although Madeline isn’t wealthy, her family background includes wealth and breeding. Syracuse is lower class and dirty in Madeline’s opinion. Her opinion doesn’t change when she learns about the nineteen year old murder of two girls, but she’s shaken when she finds her favorite cousin’s dog tags were discovered at the murder scene. With her beloved husband working in Canada, and a family she can’t count on, Madeline is dependant on a network of friends to help her interpret the meager clues she uncovers in her attempt to prove her cousin innocent. Read makes a strong entry into the mystery field with Madeline, a lost character searching for answers and family. 05/06 Lesa Holstine

FIELD OF FIRE by James O. Born: Can you judge a book by its cover?  Not always, but in this case you can.  The cover is a large police shield and is very reminiscent of Joseph Wambaugh, and so is this book, a police procedural and a dark departure from the terrific Bill Tasker series (Walking Money; Shock Wave; Escape Clause).  Our hero is Alex Duarte, an ATF agent (Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) in south Florida.  Alex is Paraguayan (yet doesn't speak Spanish) and lives in an apartment that he shares with his lawyer/brother that's above his parents' garage.  He doesn't trust food that his ma hasn't cooked, and his hero is his father, a hard working, honorable man who expects the same from his boys.  When a car bombing kills a young boy, Alex is assigned the case because of his experience as a bomb expert in the military in Bosnia.  There is suspicion that the bombing may be linked to possible labor issues that have resulted in bombings in Seattle and California, and Department of Justice attorney Caren Larson is assigned to work with Duarte.  The intended victim of the bombing is Alberto Salez, a bad guy who thwarted the ever vigilant Duarte.  Lots of action and a high body count move the story along, but it is the enigmatic Duarte that offers the most intrigue.  Originally conceived as a stand-alone, I'm happy to say that a sequel is now in the works.  It's not a requirement that only cops write police procedurals, but as Born proves yet again, it sure does help. 02/07 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FIELD OF FIRE by James O. Born: This first of a series features Alex Duarte as a laid back Hispanic former combat engineer and explosives specialist now working for the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms section of the federal government. (Think Jack Reacher, but still working within the establishment.)  The plot is interesting – a Florida migrant-labor camp bombing kills a child, and ATF agent Alex Duarte is assigned the case.  The Justice Department links the incident to a series of union-related bombings across the country.  Duarte is partnered with a DOJ lawyer Caren Larson to solve the case.  Unfortunately Duarte is so laid back he tends to get lost among the other characters including Alberto Salez, the intended victim of the Florida bombing, who is himself a murderer.  Hopefully Duarte can grow in subsequent books to become a protag that brings you back for more.  07/08 Jack Quick 

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon: I loved this historical romance/fantasy series that starts out in England in the 1940's then transports us back a couple of hundred years and miles.  The chief complaint I read in the reviews of this long awaited fifth installment was that there was no time travel involved.  It didn't bother me a bit.  There were amusing references enough to be in keeping with the basic storyline.  FIERY CROSS reminded me most of OUTLANDER, the first book in the series, mostly due to the amount of violence and war involved.  It is a fascinating look at what life was like in America's infancy.  Each book in this series is excellent!  Read them in order: Outlander; Dragonfly in Amber; Voyager; Drums of Autumn; The Fiery Cross. 

THE FIFTH FLOOR by Michael Harvey:  Harvey is as Chicago as Wrigley and deep dish pizza and hot dogs served only in poppy seed buns.  In his second outing, PI Michael Kelly starts with a simple domestic violence case and ends up with murder and major scandal.  The fifth floor is the location of the office of the Chicago mayor and Kelly’s client is the wife of one of the mayor’s “fixers”.  Kelly follows him to a grisly murder scene from which unfolds an interesting story.  Did Ms. O’Leary’s cow start the Chicago Fire of 1871 or was it the work of two of Chicago’s most prominent families conspiring to rid the city of Irish immigrants by burning down the city’s slums?  .Kelly vows to get to the bottom of this even if it kills him, and that’s a real possibility given the power and wealth involved.  Add Michael Kelly to the list of great hard-ass PI’s.  10/08 Jack Quick    

THE FIFTH VIAL by Michael Palmer: The lives of three individuals converge in this pulse pounding, morally driven tale of medical suspense. Natalie Reyes trained as an Olympic hopeful until a devastating injury ended her running career. Now a med-student in her mid-thirties, she has been dealt a second potentially career ending blow when she is kicked out of her residency program and placed on academic probation for insubordination. When one of her mentors sends her to Brazil to attend a medical conference on his behalf, she is kidnapped and shot, left to die in an alley. She survives the ordeal but loses a lung in the process. Meanwhile, private detective Ben Callahan has been hired by Organ Guard International – an agency established to investigate potentially illegal activities in the organ trade. The body of a young, unidentified man was been discovered in Florida with marks that appear to be the result of a bone marrow donation. Similar markings had been previously discovered on woman in the northeast who claimed that a couple in a mobile home kidnapped her and held her prisoner. Callahan’s investigation leads to a shocking discovery. The third character, Dr. Joe Anson, has been working in Camaroon to develop a life saving drug he calls Sarah-9. Anson suffers from a life threatening debilitation that could prevent him from seeing his work through to completion. Palmer’s thrillers have always been tension driven, quick reads and The Fifth Vial is no exception. I did find, however, that the end left something to be desired since everything was wrapped up just a little too neatly and abruptly. 02/07 Becky Lejeune

Fifty Cents for Your Soul by Denise Dietz, published by Delphi Books: If you like hot sex with demons, Fifty Cents for Your Soul is your book!  If, however, you are interested in dialog, plot development, and some of the other characteristics that make a novel hang together maybe this isn't your book?  Thrill seekers will love the action and the fast pace of a horror flick filming plagued with suspicious problems.  The characters can be stereotypes but, they are the kind of stereotypes that really move the action along!  There is lots of suspense, and when our heroine reveals the mastermind murderer it is indeed a surprise.  The body count is high. The comedy is black.  The sex is varied.  PS:  Interesting note - - the author's sister played some of the demonic scenes in The Exorcist.  Many mysterious events plagued the filming of that movie. ~This review contributed by Ann Nappa

FIFTY-SEVEN HEAVEN by Lonnie Cruse: Will Ann Lloyd was a poisonous person, and everyone had been on the receiving end of her criticism, especially her family. That doesn’t mean they would have strangled her and stuffed her into the truck of Jack Bloodworth’s restored ’57 Chevy. Jack’s wife, Kitty, just knows it couldn’t have been a family member. At least she knows it, until she’s run off the road, spends the night, injured, in her car, and loses the last two weeks of memories. Now, Kitty has to start all over again, since she knows the Paducah, KY police have the wrong suspect. Cruse’s new mystery marks an enjoyable debut of a traditional series featuring Kitty and Jack Bloodworth, retirees trying to enjoy their golden years with their children, grandchildren, and their classic car. If someone lets them live long enough to enjoy them. 12/07 Lesa Holstine

FIFTY TO ONE by Charles Ardai:  For the 50^th release from Hard Case Crime Charles Ardai has penned a 50 chapter master work with each of the chapters titled after one of the books in the series.  Together they spin a great yarn about the early days of pulp fiction with a supposed non-fiction account of a heist at a Mob-run nightclub, actually penned by an 18-year-old showgirl, and the renegade publisher who puts it before the public.  Both the cops and the crooks are after him and it’s a chase to the finish.  A special bonus - a full color gallery of the covers of the 49 previous books in the Hard Case Crime Series.  A fitting fiftieth from a master of mystery fiction. 11/08 Jack Quick

FINAL EXPOSURE by Steve Carlson: David and Rebecca Collier have a great life. A relatively young and vibrant couple in their forties, David has just retired his career as a very successful defense attorney to pursue his writing and Rebecca is about to publish a book of photography featuring California mansions of the thirties. All that comes to a screeching halt when Rebecca is gunned down and David is injured in what seems to be a home invasion. Then David is targeted again while recovering in the hospital and it’s discovered that Rebecca’s photos are missing. What at first looked to be a tragic but random event now seems to have been something much more sinister. David tries lying low while the police investigate, but every day reminds him more and more Rebecca and the life they had together. And so, David begins an investigation of his own, uncovering what is beginning to look like a huge and complex terrorist plot. Final Exposure is a quick and intense read. There are some slightly unbelievable aspects to this story, but overall it’s pretty fun. The quick action and an interesting plot make it easy to overlook any inconsistencies.  10/08 Becky Lejeune  

FINAL FINESSE by Karna Small Bodman:  Nicely done thriller featuring an unusual main character. Samantha Reid is the White House Deputy Director for Homeland Security, who grew up in the Texas oilfields, with her oilman father.  When a natural-gas pipeline explodes in Oklahoma, she senses there is more to the story and tries to get official attention.  Failing that, when there are repeat explosions she teams up with Tripp Adams, Vice President of GeoGlobal Oil & Gas, owner of the pipelines, to investigate.  Inevitably the two become more than “work partners”.  Then the stakes are raised to an even higher level and it falls to Reid to break all the White House rules to save Tripp and prevent further disaster. Bodman’s six years service within the White House are nicely reflected in the details of this third offering from Bodman.  I hope to see more in the future. 05/09 Jack Quick

A FINAL JUDGMENT by Michael A. Black: Private detective Ron Shade returns in the third book in this mystery series set in Chicago. Many other protagonists might be ex-cops turned private detective, but I don’t think any others are competing to become the International World Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion. Shade reluctantly takes on two cases for friends, while also trying to workout in preparation for a match in Las Vegas. He’s a little uneasy about both cases, one involving a wrongful death, and the other involving two young people. Shade knows there’s more to the wrongful death case. The previous detective committed suicide so Ron’s scrambling to pick up the pieces since the opposing counsel is pushing for a speedy resolution. He also thinks the girl involved in the other case is more involved with the young man than her father realizes. However, the parents are always impeding his progress. Even preparation for his kickboxing match leaves him uneasy. He’s lost two previous title matches, and he’s leery about the third one. A Final Judgment gives Shade one more chance, in more ways than one. It’s a compelling story, even if you never thought you’d enjoy kickboxing. Black moves the story along quickly as Shade works to unravel two mysteries.  11/06 Lesa Holstine

FINAL SECONDS by John Lutz: The eighteen year career of NYPD Bomb Squad member Will Harper ends with a bang – that costs him part of his right hand. Former FBI profiler Harold Addleman lost his FBI job in a bottle. While Harper is in Florida visiting his former partner, Jimmy Fahey, who works for a Tom Clancy^-like writer, a letter bomb arrives and the resulting explosion kills the writer and Fahey. Addleman thinks this is the first of a series of celebrity bombings and he and Harper are the only hope to stop the imminent death of one of the world’s most famous women. Well-written with tension ratcheting page by page as Harper and Addleman battle both uncooperative officials as well as the bomber, who seems to always be one step ahead of them. 08/06 Jack Quick

FINAL TARGET by Stephen Gore: Steven Gore spent his career as a private investigator in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His international thrillers draw on his investigations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.  In FINAL TARGET, private investigator Graham Gage is trying to help his closest friend Jack Burch, who is lying unconscious in a hospital bed, the victim of a violent assault the police are calling "road rage."  If he recovers, prosecutors are waiting to indict him for conspiracy, eager to send him to prison for the rest of his life.  Gage believes Burch had no part in the ever-widening criminal conspiracy surrounding the collapse of defense contractor SatTek Industries, but his search for the truth is rocketing him to hot spots around the globe and making him the target of lies, greed, and terror perpetrated by an assortment of traitors, killers, and international gangsters.  The body count rises quicker than the plot but eventually we learn the FINAL TARGET is not Burch, but instead the entire country. 02/10 Jack Quick 

FINAL THEORY by Mark Alpert:  What if there was a weapon much more powerful than the atomic bomb?  You don’t have to be a physicist in order to enjoy this break neck thriller.  It starts with one of Albert Einstein’s assistants, 79 year old theoretical physicist Hans Kleinman being tortured.  Columbia University professor David Swift is at Kleinman's bedside when the old man makes a few cryptic statements, imparts a string of numbers, and then dies.  Soon governments and mercenaries seeking Einstein’s proposed Unified Theory – a set of equations that could explain all the forces of nature and revolutionize our understanding of the Universe, are pursuing David.  Up until now, the conventional wisdom is that Einstein never completed his work.  But if he did, whoever can gain that knowledge will hold power beyond imagination.  With the help of another physicist, the beautiful Monique Reynolds David manages to stay just one step ahead of his pursuers.  This is The Da Vinci Code of science and nicely done. 07/08 Jack Quick

Final Verdict by Sheldon Siegel: This newest installment in the Mike Daley & Rosie Fernandez series is terrific and has to have one of the best opening chapters (“Assault with a Deadly Chicken”) of any legal thriller in recent memory.  A first chapter sets the mood of the book to come, giving the reader the impetus to keep reading, and this book will not disappoint.  It clips along briskly with Siegel's good natured humor shining through the murder and mayhem: while questioning a potential (and not very helpful) witness, we hear Mike thinking, "If he can spew clichés, I can spout bullshit."  Lines like that just make this a most compelling and enjoyable read.  

Former client Leon Walker got Mike & Rosie's fledgling legal firm more press than they ever dreamed of when they got him off a felony murder charge on a technicality - but it also broke up their marriage.  Ten years later he's been accused of murder and begs Mike to take the case.  He's dying and will never make trial, but wants his name cleared.  Rosie is none too happy with the situation, and the cops & District Attorney all have long memories about former defendants who they feel have gotten away with murder.  All the evidence points towards Walker, bringing those wonderful "Perry Mason moments" to the courtroom.  San Franciscans will love the local color and politics too.  Don't miss it.

Final Witness by Simon Tolkien: Legal fiction from the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien with nary a hobbit in sight.  This Tolkien is a barrister, and his legal background is at the forefront of this debut novel cum dysfunctional family saga.  A young man witnesses his mother's murder, but is convinced that his father's new wife has masterminded the whole thing.  Daddy doesn't agree of course, and the story unfolds as the trial progresses.  The characters all speak for themselves as this book seemed to consist of mostly dialogue, which grew wearying after a couple of hundred pages.  But it's all neatly resolved just in the nick of time, making for a good page turner. 

FINDING FATHER CHRISTMAS by Robin Jones Gunn: On impulse, Miranda Carson went to England, looking for the father she never knew. She’d had a gypsy childhood, with a mother who was an actress, but she only came across her birth certificate when she was nine. After her mother and the woman who took her in both died, Miranda closed up, and found herself unable to trust. Her trip took her to a charming village, Carlton Heath, where she stumbled into a tea shop, and friendships. When she accidentally finds out the truth about her father, she’s leery about revealing it. Will all of her new friendships bet destroyed? This is an enchanting little book, with a very naïve young woman, who is only looking for her background, and finds much more. 12/07 Lesa Holstine

A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Landsdale:  A Fine Dark Line is a change of pace from Mr. Lansdale's recent beat 'em up, blow 'em up, shoot 'em up adventure mysteries featuring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine.  It is a gentle coming of age story set in 1950's Texas.  It takes place during the summer when young Stanley Mitchell, Jr. not only learns that there is no Santa Claus, but more than he wants to know about sex and racism.  Fortunately, he is guarded and guided by his wise father, loving mother and equally curious older sister.
       At the heart of the story, there is a mystery, an old death and a haunted house.  Tutored in the ways of Sherlock Holmes by the Black Indian projectionist at the family drive-in, young Stanley gets to the bottom of the mystery and discovers the truth about old families and their twisted offspring.  He will have a heckuva paper to write about "how I spent my summer" when he goes back to school. 
       This is a nice change of pace for the jaded reader as well.  ~This review contributed by Geoffrey R. Hamlin.

A FINE NIGHT FOR DYING by Jack Higgins: This is a 2007 re-issue of a 1969 Higgins sequel to The Bormann Testament. In this tale Special Agent Paul Chavesse is investigating the murder of a gangland boss by going undercover as an Australian criminal attempting to get smuggled into England. In the process he finds an international conspiracy led by some very powerful men. They aren’t about to let Chavasse interfere with their plans. Don’t worry, however, you can sense there are more adventures coming, so Paul will make it. In fact, the book reads almost like “James Bond Light”, complete with “M”, “Moneypenny.”, and a beautiful woman in peril. With Higgins, you know what you’re getting, and I, for one, like it. 05/07 Jack Quick

A FINE RED RAIN by Stuart Kaminsky: This new tale finds Inspector Rostnikov trying to save a young circus aerialist from the killer of her two fellow performers. He himself is working without a net as he is the target of both a jealous supervisor and a serial killer. In addition he is trying to help his colleague Karpo, catch the knifer of eight prostitutes and foils a plot by a Soviet official threatening his young policeman friend, Tkach. It’s a thrill a minute under the Moscow Circus Big Top and another fine outing for Rostinikov. 12/05 Jack Quick

FINGER LICKIN' FIFTEEN by Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum is back, along with Ranger, Joe, Lula and the rest of the gang.  This is an edgier story than most; Lula accidentally witnesses a man get decapitated and for some reason, the guys who did it don't want witnesses.  Lots of shooting, firebombing and the usual mayhem ensues, but not as many laughs this time out for me. If you haven't read this series, don't start here, but if you're looking for some light summer reading, go for it.  06/09 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FINGER LICKIN’ FIFTEEN by Janet Evanovich:  There is an old joke about buying Playboy Magazine “for the articles.”  In that same vein, don’t buy Evanovich for the well-hidden almost invisible plot.  It’s the one-liners and unique characters that make this bubble gum series so much fun.  Lula is witness to the beheading of culinary TV star Stanley Chipotle in a Trenton, N.J.  Enter Stephanie's on-again off-again boyfriend, cop Joe Morelli.  Meanwhile, Lula and Grandma Mazur enter the same barbequing competition Chipotle was in town to promote, hoping to lure the murderers out of hiding. Let’s face it. These two have no business being around fire.  Then there is Ranger who generates the inevitable sparks between himself and Stephanie, with Morelli grumbling on the sidelines.  All is well that ends well and thank goodness this one ended before I was totally laughed out. A fun read. 08/09 Jack Quick  

THE FINISHING SCHOOL by Michele Martinez: Manhattan federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas returns in this entertaining sequel to Martinez’s debut novel, Most Wanted.  This time out Melanie’s separation from her cheating husband has made juggling the demands of her job and her one-year-old daughter even more complicated.  Two Park Avenue prep school girls overdose on heroin and a third girl goes missing, prompting a middle-of-the-night page from Melanie’s difficult, politically scheming boss. Melanie’s assignment: get the dealer and get him jailed, pronto.  One of the girls is the daughter of a candidate for U.S. senator and things heat up even more when FBI hunk Dan O’Reilly gets assigned to the case.  But there is more to this story than fast times at Holbrooke High and the twists keep coming.  The romance is hot and the suspense is high in this absorbing, fast paced novel.  Highly recommended. Copyright © 2005 Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.  Reprinted with permission. 

THE FIRE by Katherine Neville:  Thirty years ago, Cat Velis was thrown into a game of epic proportions, a game that had been playing out for almost as long as man has walked the earth. It is said that King Charlemagne was gifted with a chess set that hid a secret so terrible that he parted with the set as quickly as possible. Charlemagne gave the set to a knight who in turn hid the set away. Years later, the nuns at Montglane Abbey are faced with moving the set and separating the pieces to ensure that the wrong people can never obtain them. In 1972, Cat and her friends are forced into the same game. Their pieces were scattered and buried, but it seems that the game has begun anew and this time it’s Cat’s own daughter who must find them. It begins with the death of Aleksandr Solarin just moments after he sees the Black Queen – a piece that he and Cat thought was buried with the others. Ten years later, Alexandra, Cat and Solarin’s daughter, is invited to Colorado for her mother’s birthday. She arrives to find that Cat has disappeared. It is at this point that Alexandra learns of what occurred all those years ago. Like The Eight, this long awaited sequel also has a duel story line. Alexandra and her adventures begin in 2003, but Neville also tells a tale that begins in 1822 in Albania. Readers familiar with The Eight will love this twenty-years-in-the-making sequel and the story of Cat’s daughter. Those who are unfamiliar with the story won’t be left out of the adventure either, it is not necessary to have read The Eight (although I would highly recommend it) as their tale is somewhat recapped in the beginning, when Alexandra learns the story herself. The Fire shows that Neville is still at the top of her game, and reigns supreme as the master of literary puzzles. 10/08 Becky Lejeune  

FIRE PRAYER by Deborah Turrell Atkinson: Atkinson brings the Hawaiian island of Molokai to life, with all of its beauty, and all of the ugliness due to conflicts over land, in this third mystery in the Storm Kayama series. Storm, an attorney, plans a vacation with her boyfriend, and her aunt and uncle. Ian Hamlin, her boyfriend, just has some business to look into the disappearance of the younger son of a wealthy client. Storm looks up the ex-wife of an old friend, so she’s shocked when the woman is murdered, the young son disappears from the hospital, despite his diabetes, and her friend also disappears. When Storm’s family finds a body, and it turns out to be the son of Hamlin’s client, the two cases seem to intersect. Somewhere in the past is the link. Ten years earlier, a group of men protested a land development, and the protest ended in a fire and a death. Lives and reputations were ruined at the time, and those actions seem to have repercussions in the present day. Storm’s own story is skillfully woven into the story of a small community, and the results of violence and greed. Fire Prayer is the strongest book yet in Atkinson’s series. 08/07 Lesa Holstine

FIRE SALE by Sara Paretsky: V.I. Warshawski gets talked into returning to her old high school to fill in as basketball coach.  She tries to obtain financial support for the team from William “Buffalo Bill” Bysen, the school’s most notable alum and founder of By-Smart, perhaps the only true competitor to Wal-Mart.  One thing leads to another including arson and murder.  Mix in some personal problems, and a headstrong grandson “Billy the Kid” Bysen and you have another strong performance by our favorite south Chicago ethnic female detective. 09/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

FIRECRACKER by Ray Shannon:  Raygene Price, a tight end out of Florida State and the next All-pro signs with the Dallas Cowboys for a chunk of change, much of which he promptly loses in various bad business ventures.  Raygene is equally careless about birth control as he's impregnated several women who have later made financial demands.  One of them also has the Super Bowl betting slip that Raygene ("Gene the Dream") bought in serious violation of league rules and gave to her as a seduction gambit.  Everything comes to a head in Las Vegas on Super Bowl Sunday, and there's loads of action and double-crossing.  Sounds too real to be fiction, doesn’t it? Well done, Mr. Haywood, eh, Shannon. Note: Shannon is a pseudonym for Gar Anthony Haywood. 04/06 Jack Quick 

FIREFLY LANE by Kristin Hannah:  Hannah, the author of On Mystic Lake, has a new novel meant for women who shared a friendship. Firefly Lane will resonate most if you grew up in the seventies or eighties. Her book is filled with the music and hairstyles of those decades. Tully Hart lives with her grandmother, but longs for the mother who deserted her when she was little. Cloud drifts in and out of her life, but, in the most important period, she moves her to Firefly Lane, where Tully befriends another lost teen, Kate Mularkey. Kate always seems to move in Tully’s shadow, even after Tully becomes part of the family. Kate follows Tully to college, and career. It’s only when Kate chooses to marry that she departs from Tully’s plans. Through over thirty years, love and heartbreak, Kate and Tully remain “best friends forever,” until Tully’s ambition drives a wedge between them. It takes tragedy to bring the two friends together in this enjoyable novel. 02/08 Lesa Holstine

THE FIREMAN by Stephen Leather:  The narrator, a nameless reporter, was once a “fireman:” i.e., a trouble-shooting journalist who covers global hot spots.  Now booze and stress have reduced him to second fiddle on the crime beat of a London newspaper when he receives a call that his younger sister, trying to follow his career path, is dead in Hong Kong.  It’s during that uncertain period before 1997 and all of the territory is on edge because of the pending reversion to Chinese rule.  The police call her death suicide but the fireman thinks his sister’s death was arranged as the result of stories she had been working on that may have implicated Chinese international gangs.  Although a decade old, Leather’s writing still rings true as he portrays the hubbub that is Kong Kong, and the strange alliances that occur routinely in international journalism.  Nicely done.  06/08 Jack Quick

FIRES RISING by Michael Laimo: The turn-of-the-century Church of St. Peter has finally been scheduled for demolition. The last holdout of its block will soon be transformed into yet another office complex and apartment building like every other in New York City. Then, demolition crews unearth something evil in the process of tearing down the church; something the church’s forefathers had hoped would stay hidden forever. A war between good an evil is about to be waged in the city and only one man, the sinless one, can stop it. Laimo’s somewhat disappointing read is amusing for an afternoon with nothing else to do. The apocalyptic storyline is interesting but unoriginal. In fact, the gore factor is the only great thing about this book. It was satisfyingly and gratuitously violent for a horror novel. Perhaps more back-story could have saved the whole thing. 03/08 Becky Lejeune 

The First Counsel by Brad Meltzer:  Go backstairs at the White House and find drugs, blackmail, backstabbing and ultimately murder.  This is Meltzer in top form.

THE FIRST CUT by Dianne Emley:  Nan Vining is a 34-year-old single mom and detective on the Pasadena, California police force.  A year ago, she was, for two minutes and twelve seconds, the force’s fifth ever officer killed in the line of duty.  Only this time, they saved her.  Now on her first case back, she is looking for who killed LAPD Vice Cop Frankie Lynde, a young blonde who got  “too close to her work.”  Nan now seems to have the ability to hear the dead.  Is this connected to her own near-death experience or a symptom of post-traumatic stress?  In any event it leads to cracking the Lynde case and provides a clue to her own unknown attacker, whom she and her 14-year-old daughter, Emily, have dubbed T.B. Mann or "The Bad Man."  An enjoyable read in spite of the touch of woo woo. 12/07 Jack Quick

FIRST DAUGHTER by Eric Van Lustbader:  A potentially great thriller flawed by errant attempts to inject religion to the point you wonder what the book is really all about.  The plot: - Nineteen-year-old Alli Carson, daughter of the U.S. President-elect, is abducted just before her father’s inauguration.  The current President has become a born-again Conservative who believes God-less atheists are responsible and is seeking an excuse to have an all-out Holy war on non-believers, sort of a Christian Jihad.  Dyslexic ATF agent Jack McClure is chosen to lead the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding school roommate of his now deceased daughter, Emma.  Jack has his own issues since he feels his devotion to his job cost Emma her life.  Throw in McClure’s ritualistic abuse as a child, because of his dyslexia, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group and you have the makings of what could have been an excellent book. Regrettably, the pauses to preach sermons and espouse various personal beliefs reduce the action to a crawl.  First Lustbader I haven’t liked. 12/08 Jack Quick 

First Degree by David Rosenfelt:  The Edgar Award nominee for his first novel, Open & Shut, has penned another winner.  Andy Carpenter, loveable lawyer (no, that's not an oxymoron,) is back and suffering from a severe case of "lawyer's block."  When you've inherited $22 million dollars, it takes away your incentive to represent any old criminal who walks through the door.  But things change when a cop of questionable ethics is killed.  The same cop, Alex Dorsey, that Andy's lover, PI Laurie Collins, turned in when she was on the police force.   Then a man strolls into Andy's office, confesses, and asks Andy to represent him.  Meanwhile the police have arrested someone else, someone Laurie is sure is innocent.  One suspect after another fizzles out until Laurie becomes the chief suspect.  Circumstantial evidence abounds, and Andy finally has a client he can get behind.  It's personal now and the stakes have never been higher as Andy has to find the real killer and exonerate Laurie.  Somehow the laughs keep coming as tension mounts and the bodies pile up, no easy feat but a sure testament to Rosenfelt's skill.  This fast, funny read will keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you wanting more.

FIRST DROP by Zoe Sharp:  Charlie Fox is a no-nonsense, former British Army soldier (and survivor of a gruesome gang rape) who has joined the protection agency run by her ex-lover, Sean Meyer.  Her first assignment is guarding 15-year-old Trey Pelzner, son of Keith Pelzner, a computer whiz working for a small software company specializing in accounting and data manipulation.  After an attempt is made on Trey's life, Charlie discovers that not only has Keith has vanished, but Sean has disappeared as well.  Charlie is on her own to try to save Trey’s life and to find the missing men.  Its non-stop action and Charlie is one kick-ass broad. Can’t wait for the next one.  10/07 Jack Quick 

FIRST FAMILY by David Baldacci: Baldacci lets out all the stops in this fourth Maxell and King outing.  Former Secret Service agents Michelle Maxwell and Sean King have been engaged to solve a kidnapping.  The victim – a 12 year old girl.  The connection – she is the niece of the President and First Lady (daughter of the First Lady’s brother).  The villain is introduced early on (62-year-old Sam Quarry, an obsessed man from north Alabama) but his motivation remains unknown for much of the book.  Meanwhile, there is also a murder or two involved, high stakes financial dealings involving Homeland Security, turf battles between the FBI, the Secret Service and the agents, while Maxwell is also dealing with issues surrounding her mother’s death.  Carefully plotted and tightly written, the suspense ratchets up from page to page as Baldacci keeps you off balance until the end, even while revealing so much in the process. Recommended. 08/09 Jack Quick 

FIRST KILL by Michael Kronenwetter: A small Wisconsin town is the setting for this first novel and winner of the 2004 PWA/SMP Best Private Eye Novel [interesting note: there was no winner selected for 2005.]  Hank Berlin is a private investigator with a small practice that barely pays the bills.  He's divorced and has shared custody with his high-powered ex, so his son is living with him while his wife is in France on business.  He gets a surprise visit from his high school sweetheart Liz, who dumped him to marry his best friend Jack.  Jack's been murdered and Liz isn't happy with the police investigation, so Hank, who was never able to deny her anything, agrees to look into it.  Interesting characters keep this story believable even when stretched to the max, and there is enough suspense to keep the pages turning until the surprising ending.

From the truth is stranger than fiction file...King County Journal, Bellevue, Washington: A resident called 911 at 4:15 p.m. Oct. 20 to report seeing a handwritten note in a car window at the Safeway on Northwest Gilman Boulevard. The note read, "First Kill Michael Kronenwetter.'' An investigation revealed that "First Kill'' is the name of a novel by author Michael Kronenwetter.  03/06 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FIRST PATIENT by Michael Palmer: President Andrew Stoddard is the fabulous fictional "first patient" except his doctor seems to have disappeared.  So he asks his old buddy, Dr. Gabe Singleton, to leave his ranch in Wyoming and come take care of him at the White House, but he neglects to mention that he is having some very mysterious health problems.  But Gabe is on it, and along the way he falls for Nurse Allison, tries to figure out what happened to his predecessor and what is wrong with the President.   Throw in a little high tech medicine and some Secret Service secrets, and you have one terrific thriller.  03/08 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

THE FIRST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins:  Before Lawrence Block’s Heller and Dot there was Quarry and the Broker.  Killing is a young man’s game and this Hardcase Crime number 48 provides the backstory for Collins’ likable hitman.  Quarry comes home from Vietnam and finds his wife in bed with another man. A couple of says later Quarry sights the man working on his car so Quarry drops the jack on him.  This leads him to the Broker and finally to his first job in December 1970. The person of interest is a college professor who spends more time “counseling: coeds than he does teaching.  A first rate read, and the start of a great series. 10/08 Jack Quick  

FIRST RULE by Robert Crais: In this book, the "first rule" refers to a code lived by organized crime members of the former Soviet Union. The code is simple: one must forsake all family members, wives, mothers, children for his crime family. They come first, and if this rule is broken, it means death. Frank Meyer is murdered, along with his wife and children, in what appears to be another in a string of home invasions. The police believe he was involved in something shady, but Joe Pike does not. Frank was one of Joe's team back in the day when they were mercenaries, but Frank left the life to marry and built a successful business, and had a happy family. Pike determines to find out who did this to his friend, and bucks the police, the FBI, and some scary gangsters to do so. Pike may not have much to say, he is the strong, silent type for sure, but he gets the job done. Elvis Cole, his partner, is just a minor character in this taut, complicated thriller - this is Pike's story, and it is an excellent piece of crime fiction writing. 01/10 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch 

THE FIRST RULE by Robert Crais: “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape” and when Serbian mobster Michael Darko and his gangbangers hit the house of garment importer Frank Meyer and execute his family in their Los Angeles home, Darko has definitely screwed up.  Meyer was one of Pike’s guys, and ex-policeman, ex-mercenary, now PI Joe Pike may be more dangerous than any caped crusader. Pike discovers that Frank's nanny and her family have ties to Eastern European organized crime which leads him to Darko. With the help of PI partner Elvis Cole (the lead in Chasing Darkness and eight other books), Pike engages in a dangerous—and not always legal—game of cat and mouse with some of the city's most dangerous crooks.  You know Pike is gonna win, but the journey getting there is filled with excitement. Maybe the best Crais yet. 02/10 Jack Quick

A FISTFUL OF CHARMS by Kim Harrison: Book four of the Hollows series picks up in the spring following the events of Every Which Way But Dead.  Jenks is still refusing to return to Vampyric Charms and Rachel is getting desperate until the pixy’s wife turns up one afternoon begging for her help.  It seems that Rachel’s ex-boyfriend Nick is a professional thief and he’s dragged Jenks’s oldest son Jax into the mess.  Rachel and Jenks set off to Mackinaw, Michigan to save Jax, but first they have to make the trip a bit easier for the pixy by making him big.  With his new height Jenks is able to make the trip and provide protection for Rachel as they infiltrate an island full of angry werewolves.  Rachel soon discovers that Nick has stolen a valuable Were artifact that has been hidden for centuries.  If the Were packs were to gain possession of the item, it would cause an all out war between werewolves and vampires.  With multiple packs of pissed off Weres now on their trail, the gang has to figure out how to clean up Nick’s mess before they can safely return home.  Kim Harrison is the Janet Evanovich of urban fantasy.  Each book is a combination of dark humor and steamy sex appeal.  A warning though, this series needs to be read in order. 04/07 Becky Lejeune

FIT TO DIE by J. B. Stanley:  I don’t do many “Cozies” but as a life-long dieter, I had to try this one, particularly since each chapter is titled with a food item.  The Flab Five diet group in Quincy's Gap, Virginia, is stuck between Chilly Willy’s Polar Pagoda, a new ice cream shop serving praline caramel kiss sundaes, and the Witness to Fitness weight loss center, run by the fanatical Veronica Levitt.  Maybe Veronica's "take-no-prisoners" approach can keep them out of the Pagoda.  In the meantime, when an arson investigation turns into a murder investigation, the Flab Five have a full plate they must tackle.  But enough of the food jokes.  Grab a bowl of celery sticks, hoist a can of diet soda and have at it.  Oh, didn’t someone say that chocolate consumed while reading has no countable calories, something about the energy consumed turning pages effectively negating the effect of the “soul food.”  If you need to lose a few more pounds, and have some leftover chocolate, this is the second in the Supper Club series, after Carbs and Cadavers. 05/07 Jack Quick 

FIVE DAYS IN SUMMER by Kate Pepper:  In this debut, Emily Parker, devoted wife and mother of three wants the end of her visit to her mother’s Cape Cod retreat to be special, but she disappears without a trace from the supermarket parking lot.  Her husband Will tries to get the local police to begin a search but 24 hours are lost before FBI profiler John Geary now retired and writing a book on serial killers who were never caught, identifies a connection between Emily's kidnapper and a killer who resurfaces every seven years.  The story takes off at this point and eventually reaches a satisfactory conclusion.  Apparently this works for Ms. Pepper because she has repeated the “disappears without a trace” theme in ONE COLD NIGHT and SEVEN MINUTES TO NOON.  Apparently the major thrust of each, other than the disappearance, is the frustration factor for those left behind.  All in all, above average, but not the best ever. 02/07 Jack Quick

FIVE LITTLE RICH GIRLS by Lawrence Block: "Five Little Rich Girls," is the third in a series of novels about Chip Harrison, teen-age assistant to the world famous detective, Leo Haig. (Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin??) Harrison answers an ad which reads "Resourceful youth wanted to assist detective. Low pay, long hours. Familiarity with tropical fish helpful but not absolutely necessary." Chip answered the ad because he was on the lookout for a job with a future. Chip believes the death of a girl from an overdose of heroin was murder. She was one of five rich girls (sisters), four of whom die in the novel. Were their deaths related? Were they all murders? Chip and Haig believe so. 05/06 Jack Quick

THE FIVE LOST DAYS by William Petrick: Documentary producer Michael Burns and his team travel to remote Belize in an attempt to capture the “magic” of the last curandero (healer) on film. It is Burns hope to unearth some yet undiscovered medicinal property found native to the rain forest. He meets Kelly Montgomery, a ethnobotanist that is stationed in Belize with her husband. Burns is instantly drawn to her strength, her natural beauty. Burns and his crew discover that they have gotten themselves into more than they expected and soon find themselves in the middle of a local political battle. THE FIVE LOST DAYS is a thrilling tale of ancient beliefs and local politics that will keep you begging for more. 01/09 Jennifer Lawrence     

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom:  I've been wrestling with how to write this for more than a week. When I finished it, my first thought was it was good, but not as good as I was expecting - hoping - from the author of Tuesdays with Morrie, which I loved. But the more I think about it, and I do keep thinking about it, the more of an impact I realize it made. 
    The story is relatively simple.  Eddie is an 83 year old maintenance man at Ruby Pier, an amusement park at the shore. He's worked there all his life, like his father before him, and he dies there trying to save a little girl's life as a ride is about to drop on her. He arrives in heaven and is told there are five people he needs to meet, some he may know, some he may not, who will explain his life to him. Eddie thinks of himself as just an ordinary guy who's life hasn't made a difference, and he learns how one life interacts and entwines with another on this journey.
    Most reviews have been conjuring up images of Dicken's A Christmas Carol and another Christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life", and those comparisons are justified. The book is sweet and sentimental and I cried more than once while reading it, yet somehow it is never cloying. The Five People You Meet in Heaven is thought provoking, life affirming, and utterly charming. Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

THE FIXER UPPER by Mary Kay Andrews: Dempsey Jo Killebrew is a young, naive aid to a Washington DC lobbyist who gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar.  He promptly throws Killebrew under the bus, and she is out of a job.  Her future isn't looking too good either - the FBI is investigating her.  In a panic and out of money, she agrees to move to Guthrie, a small town in Georgia, to fix up an old house her father had inherited.  What her father didn't know was that a distant cousin is squatting in the house with her little dog, and that the house needs way more than a coat of paint.  Leaving her Manolos in the closet, Dempsey literally steps into her dead relatives shoes, and overalls, and begins a major renovation of the house.  She gets some help from the father/son attorneys who are handling the inheritance, and they introduce her to some of the local townsfolk who can help with the renovation.  In this case, hard work is good therapy for the confused and desperate Dempsey, especially when the FBI and DC reporters come knocking on her door. With a little help from her new friends, and a little romance from her lawyer, Dempsey and the house undergo a remarkable transformation.  Another terrific, charming Southern tale from one of my favorite authors - I couldn't put it down and read it in one delightful afternoon.  07/09 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FLAWED by Jo Bannister: In the seventh book of the series, Brodie Farrell finds herself in an inconvenient situation - she’s pregnant. She knows that she will be unable to care for a new child and still devote the time necessary to her business, Looking for Something?, so she decides to take on an employee. Fortunately, her best friend Daniel Hood volunteers for the task. On one of his first days alone in the shop, a young boy approaches him and asks for his advice. The child is the one and only son of well-known solicitor Adam Selkirk. Hood believes that Selkirk is physically abusing his son and vows to help the boy and his mother. Meanwhile, the Serious and Organized Crime Agency has launched an investigation against Terry Walsh, a self-made man whose business practices are rumored to be not so ethical. Walsh’s lawyer just happens to be none other than Selkirk himself, and the police plan to use Hood’s suspicions to force the man to turn evidence over on his client. This is a great series for readers who enjoy those fringe cozies – the ones that are barely on the edge of being a more serious and gritty mystery. Bannister’s style is smooth and easy to read and her characters are easy to identify with. I would recommend, however, starting with book one, Echoes of Lies. Readers would be doing themselves a great disservice diving into a series that is this well established. 09/07 Becky Lejeune

FLESH HOUSE by Stuart MacBride:  Just when you thought it was safe to go out and play, along comes Detective Sergeant Logan McRae in MacBride’s fourth and latest novel.  When human remains are discovered first in a shipping container and later in a local butcher shop, McRae's superiors send him to round up Kenneth Wiseman (aka the Flesher), who terrorized the city 20 years earlier but was released on a technicality.  McRae’s nemesis, Detective Inspector David Insch was involved in the original investigation.  In spite of Insch’s continuing involvement, McRae soon realizes that the police have been looking in the wrong direction.  McRae is left with a grisly puzzle and random body parts.  MacBride’s writing skill makes this one less a stomach turner and more of a page turner.  McRae is becoming a classic alongside Rebus, Dalziel and Pascoe.  01/09 Jack Quick

Flesh Tones by M. J. Rose:  Genny Haviland is on trial for the murder of her lover, famed artist Slade Gabriel.  Her defense is a tad unusual: assisted suicide.  Rose writes these terrific books that just defy categorizing.  This one is her best effort yet, a psychological/legal thriller based in the art world, with more passion than found in most romance novels, and enough twists along the way to make this a real joy-ride.  Don't miss it.

FLIRTING WITH FORTY by Jane Porter: Porter started out writing romance, switched to chick-lit (The Frog Prince) and now seems to have found her niche with women's fiction, that catch-all for other genre-defying books that are definitely aimed at the female reader.  Our heroine, Jackie Laurens,  is celebrating her fortieth birthday, not that she feels like she has much to celebrate.  Jackie is a divorced mom of two kids and a growing design business, yet she's lonely.  She wants to be paired up like all of her friends are.  Her friend Anne coaxes her into a birthday weekend in Hawaii, but at the last minute married Anne has to cancel so Jackie goes off by herself.  The pool is full of hopeful middle-agers, but it's a young surf instructor, Kai, who gets her attention.  Romance blooms but life intrudes, making it difficult for the single mom to juggle her life in Seattle with her romance on the big island.  This is the perfect book to read surfside or poolside, frozen drink in hand.  Enjoyable.  07/06 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

Flood by Andrew Vachss:  I've been wanting to read this book, the first in the Burke series, for a while now.  The timing was right and I ripped through it.  Dark and gritty enough to leave sand in your bed.  Or maybe I brought that home from the beach...

FLY PAPER by Max Allan Collins: “The mob couldn’t kill him, the cops couldn’t catch him, and even time can’t slow him down.”  “Him” could be Nolan or “him” could be Max Allan Collins, still churning them out today.  This classic from 1981 features bullet riddled bloody strongbox stealing action with one hundred fifty grand for the winner and certain death for whomever comes in second.  Can you believe it all started with a parking meter scam?  There’s no cellphones or Internet, just lots of old fashioned gun totin’ action.  I read it in one sitting which may have been all it took Collins to write it, but like an occasional extra slice of pie, it was still darned good. 07/06 Jack Quick

Flynn's World by Gregory McDonald: Speaking of Fletch, Gregory McDonald has just put out a new book about Fletch's fellow crime-solver, Boston "Inspector" Francis Xavier Flynn. As was the case in Skylar in Yankeeland, McDonald takes dead, but hilarious, aim at New England pretense. In Flynn's World, he zeroes in on Harvard University and what passes for "thinking" on a politically correct campus these days. Flynn is ably supported by his incredibly gifted and mischievous family, his retired police friend Cocky, and even the clueless Grover in responding to a request for help from the University President. This is simultaneously a good story and a broadly painted satire of academic life that will keep you laughing from start to finish. ~This review contributed by Geoffrey R. Hamlin.

FOLLOW ME DOWN by Marc Strange: This one starts with a bang – actually, its more of a swish, as a man is impaled by two arrows into the abdomen and left hanging from a tree at the edge of the forest that surrounds Dockerty, Newry County, Ontario. Orwell Brennan, Dockerty’s chief of police, wonders whether it is a hunting accident when a sergeant tells him it’s been ruled a murder. Although outside his jurisdiction the case becomes a bit of an obsession for Orwell who wants it solved—no matter whose toes he steps on.   This one proves that there are secrets to be found everywhere if you just know where to look.  Not a bad police procedural with some interesting twists. 05/10 Jack Quick 

THE FOLLOWER by Jason Starr: Katie Porter has been having trouble meeting the right man. All that is about to change though. Peter Wells knows he is perfect for Katie. He’s been planning for months, following her and getting to know her very well. Katie doesn’t know it yet, but she and Peter are going to be very happy together. All Peter has to do now is eliminate the competition. Nothing is going to get in his way. Starr’s chilling tale of a stalker and his prey is enough to keep any reader up all night checking their windows. 08/07 Becky Lejeune 

THE FOLLOWER by Jason Starr:  Stalking in New York City.  Katie Porter thinks her health club encounter with Peter Wells is pure chance.  She doesn’t know he once dated her sister back in her hometown and has elaborate plans to marry her.  In the meantime, her current boyfriend, Andy Barnett, a twenty-three year old single guy on the prowl in Manhattan, is about to dump her.  When Peter decides he needs to eliminate the competition, this Looking for Ms. Goodbar suddenly becomes a very funny, dark social satire.  If you are into yuppies and the New York singles scene, this one is for you. 01/09 Jack Quick  

FOLLOWING POLLY by Karen Bergreen: Alice Teakle has been laid off. Unsure what she wants to do with her life, her mother suggests therapy. Her therapist suggests a life goal. Then, out of the blue, Alice runs into a former—and hated—college classmate: Polly Dawson. Polly Dawson has everything— money, class, great husband. But Polly is not a nice person. In an admittedly poor spur-of-the-moment decision, Alice begins to follow Polly: certainly if Polly has it all, she must be doing something right. Maybe in following Polly, Alice can discover the secret. Unfortunately for her, someone has it in for Polly and Alice is the perfect scapegoat. On the run and unable to turn to family or friends, Alice starts following someone else. Someone who may be in a position to help her discover Polly’s killer and clear her name. Honesty, I wasn’t sure about Alice Teakle in the beginning. By the time Polly is murdered, though, and the unlikely heroine goes on the lam, she’d won me over. Following Polly is a witty mystery with an eccentric cast of characters. It’s a debut that definitely makes you take notice. I’d love to see what Karen Bergreen does next. 06/10 Becky Lejeune 

FOOLS RUSH IN by Sunny Frazier: The premise of this first mystery was a little off-putting. Why would an undercover narcotics cop involve his ex-girlfriend and a civilian police employee in a dangerous investigation of a meth distributor? Not only does James Wolfe, AKA Wolfman, ask Christy Bristol to cast the dealer’s horoscope, but he takes her along and has her put it in the dealer’s mailbox. Wolfe endangers her, and then she is abducted by men working for Lloyd Parr, the dealer. Christy is very lucky that Parr is so interested in his daily horoscope that he doesn’t allow his partners to kill her. Despite the initial problems with the storyline, the reader is soon caught up in Christy’s situation as she plays up to Parr, and tries to string out his need for her until help can arrive. Christy actually has psychic abilities, and she tries to use her knowledge to work on each of the members involved in Parr’s gang. Christy’s life is in danger from the time she is kidnapped. Frazier does an excellent job keeping the reader on the edge of the seat. If you can accept the initial premise, this is a page turner. 11/06 Lesa Holstine

FOOTBALL’S BEST SHORT STORIES, edited by Paul D. Staudohar: Can’t really add much to what the title says. Stories are by Grantland Rice, John Updike, Damon Runyan, Ellery Queen, Michael Chabon, Don DeLillo, among others, all revolving around the sport of “American football”. As a fan of the game I had been saving this one until this first week of the season as a way of getting into the mood, so “Yea, White, Yea, Blue, Go, Team, We For You” On to victory, strike up the band, hit ‘em high, hit ‘em low, stand up and yell…..Oh well, it’s a pretty good book. 09/06 Jack Quick

FOR EDGAR by Sheldon Rusch: For years, Illinois State Police Special Agent Elizabeth Taylor Hewitt has been haunted by the suicide of her college roommate. That death continues to bother her as she investigates the odd murders by a killer the press dubs The Raven. Each of The Raven’s victims is displayed to resemble a death in an Edgar Allan Poe story, as homage “for Edgar.” This story dragged along, lulling the reader into complacency. There was one section of the book that was thrilling, but by the time the ending came along, the killer was so obvious that this reader’s reaction was, well, of course that’s who the murderer is. This was a story with an intriguing premise that bogged down in intellectual discussion. 08/05 ~This review contributed by Lesa Holstine.

THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER by Shobhan Bantwal:  Isha and her husband, Nikhil, are expecting their second child. Their first was a daughter and Isha is desperate for her second to be a son. When the sonogram reveals that Isha is having another daughter, their doctor suggests the possibility of a selective termination. Not only do Isha and Nikhil refuse, but Nikhil files a complaint with the authorities. Threats are made, but Nikhil won’t back down. He even goes as far as to steal information from the doctor’s computer as proof of his illegal practices. Unfortunately, Nikhil’s efforts result in his death and Isha is left a widow with another child on the way. Her in-laws have made it clear that she’s a disappointment to them and their superstitious beliefs lead to their blaming the unborn child for all of the ill events that have befallen the family. Isha flees, taking her two children with her, and attempts to make a life for herself without their support. Bantwal’s novel is an eye-opening read. In India, it’s currently illegal for the parents to even know the sex of their child before its birth. Statistics on selective abortion are startling. Isha’s dilemma as a young widow in a traditional Hindu family is heart-wrenching at times. Her struggles to survive and do right by her children without a means of support are admirable. Bantwal’s keen insight, not only into the current generation of mothers, but into the elder generation and their beliefs will help readers to understand an issue that is completely foreign to us here in the States.  09/08 Becky Lejeune

THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER by Shobhan Bantwal:  Isha Tilak and her husband, Nikhil, have just discovered that the child they are expecting is a girl. What would be wonderful news to just about any couple is a curse to the young couple. Young Isha and Nikhil live in India, in a society where male heirs are sought out above all else; female children are viewed as burdens. When they are urged to have an illegal abortion, Isha and Nikhil are furious and adamantly refuse. Soon after, Nikhil is found brutally murdered. Isha decides that living with her oppressive in-laws is detrimental to the life and safety of her young daughter, Priya, and her unborn daughter. She leaves with a small amount of money and just a few belongings. Isha and Priya seek refuge at a local convent. It is there that Isha gives birth to young Diya, and where they meet Harish Salvi, a doctor that treats the children at the convent. Isha ultimately receives the life insurance money that she and Nikhil kept hidden from his parents and is then able to purchase a more appropriate residence for her and her young girls. She discovers that her husband has left her with evidence of the selective abortion trade, and suddenly her life, and the lives of her children, is in danger. FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER tells a difficult story of the treatment and value of women in India. The characters were very compelling as was the storyline. It has it all: love, bribery, murder, blackmail, kidnapping. Isha is an amazingly strong woman who will stop at nothing to protect the lives of her daughters. 11/08 Jennifer Lawrence

THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan: Generations ago, something terrible happened. Mary does not know specifics, but she does know that she and her family are safe behind the fence. The Guardians take care of the fence and the Sisters take care of everyone within; order is very important in Mary’s world. But even with hordes of the undead surrounding her home, Mary longs for a glimpse of the world beyond. When her mother is bitten and becomes one of the Unconsecrated herself, Mary is forced to join the Sisterhood. While living within the walls of the Cathedral, Mary witnesses something the Sisters are desperate to keep secret — a girl from beyond the fence has entered their community. Mary will do just about anything for a chance to speak to the girl, but the next time she sees her, the girl has been forced out with the Unconsecrated. Mary sees her chances of escape dying before her very eyes, until the town is overrun and she and a small group of others are forced to flee. Will they find salvation beyond the fence, or are humans destined for extinction? If George Romero wrote and directed The Village, you would get The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Unlike most teen titles, which are surely fun escapes for adults, it is easy to forget that this amazing and horrifying debut is a teen read. This book is wholly appropriate for teens, but I have no doubt that many adults will find it as engrossing as I did. Ryan says her following release will take place in the same world as The Forest of Hands and Teeth. 03/09 Becky Lejeune 

The Forgotten by Faye Kellerman:  The newest installment in the Peter Decker series touching on teenage angst and anti-Semitism amid the murder and mayhem.  Good read.

THE FORGOTTEN MAN by Robert Crais: The Forgotten Man is an unforgettable tale of intrigue and angst.  Crais really knows how to build a series, giving us more insight into his characters in each outing, and he continues the trend here.  Elvis Cole receives a middle-of-the-night phone call from Los Angeles Police Detective Kelly Diaz, saying that a man has been murdered, and his dying words were to find his son - Elvis Cole.  Elvis never knew his father so his response is immediate.  Working with the LAPD, Elvis and partner Joe Pike ferret out the truth in their own inimitable style and in the process, Elvis learns more about himself and his family.  Former bomb squad technician turned detective Carol Starkey (Demolition Angel) helps out too, mostly because she has a crush on Elvis but he’s too enmeshed in memories of Lucy Chenier (The Last Detective) to notice.  Quirky characters bring some dark humor to this finely written yarn of suspense, with creepy killers, praying prostitutes and enough surprises to keep the pages turning until the harrowing and extraordinary ending. 02/05 Copyright © 2005 Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.  Reprinted with permission.

THE FORGOTTEN MAN by Robert Crais: If you are an Elvis Cole fan, buy this book. It’s the best yet. If you are not yet an Elvis Cole fan, rent or borrow this book while saving money to buy the other seven Elvis Cole books. A man dying from a gunshot wound in a Los Angeles alley tells police he is the father of Elvis Cole. Elvis never knew his father and sets forth to learn all he can. In the process we learn more about Elvis, but it gets curiouser and curiouser. Although the body count doesn’t mount until the end there is abundant action with cops and hookers, blackmail, and re-opening of old hurts. Thank goodness for friends like Joe Pike who saves Elvis’ life for adventure number nine. To say more is to spoil it. Definitely recommended. 05/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom: If you were expecting something as magical as Albom’s bestsellers, Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, you’ll be disappointed in his latest book. Albom tries, with this story of a man who has reached bottom, and tries to commit suicide, but the book fails to leave much of an impression. Chick Benetto was a failed baseball player who spent his life ignoring his mother’s love, and striving to please the father who left the family. He dropped out of college despite his mother’s pleas, in order to play professional baseball. When he was injured, he continued to bum around, trying to make the grade. He was a failure in his job, in his marriage, and, as he saw it, in his life. He even failed to be there when his mother died. When he tries to kill himself, he’s given one more chance to spend time with his mother. Chick is a dislikable person, and the reader doesn’t even care what happens to him, after the way he treated his mother. I found this book to be one of the biggest disappointments of the year. 10/06 Lesa Holstine

For Whom the Minivan Rolls by Jeffrey Cohen:  Another funny mystery writer, just in case you couldn't tell from the title of the book, and he's from New Jersey where this gentle suburban mystery is set.  I'm not sure what is in the water in Jersey these days, (actually, I don't think anyone is) but it's working for me, à la Harlan Coben, Janet Evanovich, Steve Lopez, David Rosenfelt, and now Jeffrey Cohen.

Aaron Tucker is a free lance writer, which means he works at home while his wife, who he has the perpetual hots for, works outside the home as an attorney.  Their two kids include a precocious little girl and an adolescent boy with Asperger Syndrome, which is handled with grace, dignity and apparent honesty.  When the town's most prominent citizen's wife goes missing, Aaron is hired to find her - but why, he doesn't know.  After trying mightily to get out of the assignment, power prevails and he finds himself investigating the disappearance.  It's a mystery indeed, but it's the characters that bring this story to life.  They are endearing people, the kind you want to spend time with.  And I'm glad I did.

FORESTS OF THE NIGHT by David Stuart Davies: Davies’ first Johnny Hawke mystery introduces a likeable new detective who works in World War II London. Hawke was just a young police officer went he joined the army, but a training accident left him blind in one eye, and at loose ends. With no way to earn a living, he started his own detective agency. Even then, he lived from hand to mouth until a couple asked him to find their twenty-seven-year-old daughter. He soon discovers the young woman led a double life, living under a different name, until she was murdered. Since he doesn’t believe the police suspect actually killed her, he continues his investigation, with an odd clue from a runaway boy. Hawke is a detective in the traditional vein, a loner with a heart of gold, and a tragic past. With its dark overtones, moments of humor, and likeable protagonist, the first Johnny Hawke novel makes a strong debut. 02/07 Lesa Holstine

FORESTS OF THE NIGHT by James W. Hall: Cherokee Indian Jacob Bright Sky Panther is number eight on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. It is no wonder that Coral Gables Police detective Charlotte Monroe is shocked to find him in conversation with her husband Parker and daughter Gracey. Before the SWAT team can respond, Panther hightails it with Gracey. It turns out Parker, who is a lawyer, is friends with Panther’s uncle. Charlotte must come to grips with aspects of her husband’s life that were previously unknown while also trying to rescue her daughter. The action ventures into the mountains and North Carolina and deep into the past of Parker, Panther and the entire Cherokee nation. It will take all of Charlotte’s skills including her uncanny ability to interpret facial expressions to accomplish her objectives. No Thorn, but still first rate Hall. 04/07 Jack Quick

THE FORGERY OF VENUS by Michael Gruber:  Chaz Wilmot is a commercial artist in New York City living a modest life when his former roommate from Columbia, Mark Slade, offers him $150,000 to come to Venice and restore/reproduce the collapsed ceiling in a Venetian palazzo he has bought.  What happens is not pretty as Wilmot is sucked into a bizarre world in which he begins to question his own sanity – or is he being manipulated for a purpose.  Intelligent, literate, and unusual – I only wish I knew more about art in order to appreciate the nuances about which Gruber writes so knowledgably.  Very nicely done. 06/08 Jack Quick  

FORGET ME KNOT by Sue Margolis: Somewhere between chick-lit and romance falls this latest tale of love betrayed and new love found. Abby Crompton is a small but successful florist in London. Her business is hot-hot-hot since the local rag named her of the trendiest florists in town. Down the street is one of Britain's oldest and stodgiest department stores/grocers. Abby shops there for the fond memories, but is frustrated by their lack of style. She's engaged to Toby, British nobility, and is finally to meet the mother he's been afraid of all his life. On the way she gets stuck in an elevator and gets sloshed. Needless to say, dinner with the mother-in-law-to-be don't go well, and shortly after things end. Meanwhile, a low budget movies plans to shoot in her shop for a week and how can a romance not flourish in a flower shop? There's high drama with the gay shop assistant that puts Abby in the middle of a feud with his ex-lover/boss, another florist, not to mention lots of laughs in this light, humorous, fun read. 09/09 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch.

Foul Matter by Martha Grimes: Ms. Grimes, normally the author of the solid Richard Jury mysteries, obviously has something to get off her chest about the business of publishing authors. And she does it with a vengeance (so to speak) in Foul Matter. Her new book can easily be thought of as The Bonfire of the Vanities of the publishing oligopoly which currently victimizes both authors and readers.
    After she gets done making sure that the reader fully appreciates what self-indulgent, amoral scum are running the book business these days, Ms. Grimes tells a funny tale reminiscent of Donald Westlake or Lawrence Block.
    The starting point of her story is an author who is guaranteed, on the strength of his name, to sell millions of copies of his next book, no matter what it says. But the author, Paul Giverney, wants more. He wants to secure the services of the editor who he feels will make his book be taken seriously. He agrees to sign for what is a huge advance, of course, only if the publisher can get rid of the author that the editor is currently working with. The publisher, and his minions take their marching orders to "get rid of" that author, Ned Isaly, who is a fine writer and innocent chap, all too seriously.
    And that it where the fun begins. The initial set of hired killers are very fussy about their victims. They want to get to know them first. They follow him. They read his books. Meanwhile, remorse is setting in at the publishing house and concern is rising in the author's friends. Killers, detectives and bodyguards begin to proliferate. This all culminates in a trip in Pittsburgh that is like the Marx brothers cramming people into a stateroom on an ocean-liner.
    This is a nice change of pace for Ms. Grimes and a lot of fun for readers who share her concern about the publishing industry.  ~This review contributed by Geoffrey R. Hamlin.

FOUL PLAY IN ACADEMIA by Geohn C. McAmby: This is what I would term a “commuter read.” It’s short, lively, and not so intense that one would miss their getting off spot. Professor McAmby of Nunnery College discovers the body of a colleague in the basement of the campus theatre resting on the platform that is used to raise and lower flats from the basement storage area. There is no indication she fell, suicide is unlikely without an accomplice, so is it murder? If so, what is the motive? This is a classic puzzle mystery and the third in this series. Kind of like half a candy bar – good, but not totally satisfying. 05/07 Jack Quick

FOUND YOU by Mary SanGiovanni:  Dave and his friends thought that they had killed the creature they called the Hollower. They thought they were safe. They were wrong. Their Hollower had friends and one of them has returned to seek revenge against the humans that killed its companion. Dave’s sister Sally is the first to die. It was Dave’s job to keep her safe and he failed. Now, a whole new group of people are being terrorized by this otherwordly stalker and it’s up to Dave and Erik to gather them together for yet another battle, hopefully the last. This follow-up to the Stoker nominated The Hollower proves once again that Mary SanGiovanni is a fantastic addition to the horror genre. I hope that her hints at other weird phenomena in the Jersey area will hopefully lead to many more scary tales. 10/08 Becky Lejeune    

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS by Cherie Priest: Eden Moore has spent her life haunted by the past: long hidden family secrets, and ghosts that only she can see. The three women—sisters Mae, Willa, and Luanna—have been dead for decades, but their story is one that Eden will have to understand in order to survive today. Eden was just a girl the first time her cousin came for her. She was able to outrun him and he was institutionalized. But he escaped and now he’s after her again, convinced that she is a wicked spirit returned from the grave. As she learns her ancestors’ tales of dark magic, madness, and revenge, Eden will be faced with a task that many before her have failed: to defeat her enemy or die trying. This first of the Eden Moore series is a great spine-tingling story. An utterly perfect debut in every way. Priest creates magic with intriguing characters and dark and mysterious settings. I’m so glad that there is more to follow. 12/09 Becky Lejeune  

Four Blind Mice by James Patterson:  I didn't like Roses are Red, I hated Violets are Blue (I couldn't even read it, I just skimmed it) so this one is definitely the best Alex Cross book in years.  Unfortunately, that's not saying much.  The story revolves around Army vets being set up as murderers by a for-hire group of assassins leftover from the Vietnam War.  The weaknesses here are the writing and the plot; the suspense builds nicely and these are the characters we expect them to be after all these years.  I didn't enjoy it much - I've guess I've had enough of this series.  His next book, The Jester, (03.03) is a complete departure for Patterson - it's set during the Middle Ages. 

FOUR QUEENS by Nancy Goldstone: Goldstone’s history of four sisters of the mid-thirteenth century is a fascinating examination of medieval Europe. Four sisters, daughters of the Count of Provence, had enough family connections and beauty to marry men who became rulers of western Europe. Marguerite, the oldest, married Louis IX of France. She accompanied him on Crusades, participated in the politics of the time, and helped to rule France. Eleanor married Henry III of England, schemed with her relatives, and played a key role in that country’s civil war. Sanchia, was a reluctant queen, the sister who married the man who became King of the Romans (Germany), perhaps the wealthiest man in Europe, but she didn’t live to enjoy it. And the youngest sister, Beatrice, inherited Provence, hungered for her older sisters’ power, but soon after being crowned Queen of Sicily, died. This is an intriguing look at four accomplished women, sisters who wielded power and influence throughout Europe during the middle ages. 06/07 Lesa Holstine

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde: This is the second mystery in Fforde’s Nursery Crime series of books, featuring Jack Spratt, Inspector in the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department. Fforde’s mysteries are fascinating stories of politics, corruption and murder for readers who can suspend disbelief. If you can accept Jack Spratt and Mary Mary as police, then you can accept the Gingerbreadman as an escaped homicidal maniac, Goldilocks as an investigative journalist, and Punch and Judy as marriage counselors. Terry Pratchett fans might want to try Fforde’s fun police procedurals. 08/06 Lesa Holstine

The Fourth Hand by John Irving:  Irving is probably my favorite author, and this newest effort was certainly an enjoyable read.  The story is about a TV news anchor who has his hand chewed off by a lion, broadcast live all over the world.  Eventually he gets a hand transplant, and a romance.  The book felt incomplete to me, like it was missing something (no pun intended).  The depth of the characters that his books usually delve into was missing here.  On the other hand, it is my understanding that many people have been daunted by the sheer length of some of his previous novels, so perhaps this book of just a few hundred pages will inspire new readers to discover the magic of John Irving.

THE FOURTH PERIMETER by Tim Greene:  Kurt Ford left the US Secret Service and became a very successful businessman.  His life is shattered when he is told his son, following in his own steps as a Secret Service agent, has committed suicide.  Ford can’t believe this and soon finds evidence that supports the likely assassination of his son and other agents who have apparently been unwitting witnesses to a Presidential meeting from which they should have been excluded.  Ford vows he will avenge his son, even if it means taking on the President of the United States.  Unlike no other previous Presidential assassin, Ford is also determined to escape.  Green knows how to ratchet up the suspense and you can’t help but imagining the movie, with Harrison Ford playing the role of Kurt Ford. 08/08 Jack Quick

THE FOURTH WATCHER by Timothy Hallinan:  Ex-pat Poke Rafferty, American travel writer turned investigator, has been in Bangkok, Thailand for more than two years – enough time to adopt the Bangkok Glide, the energy efficient and peculiarly graceful way Thai people have of getting themselves from place to place without melting into the sidewalks during the mid-day heat.  He has also been there long enough to fall in love with Rose, a former bar girl who is now his fiancé and with Miaow, his newly adopted precocious daughter (Think Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon).  In this second outing, Poke variously faces: Chinese gangsters, a rogue American Secret Service Agent and a North Korean counterfeiting operation.  Delightfully twisty from beginning to end that gets even more complicated when Poke’s father Frank and half-sister Ming Li are added to the mix. 07/08 Jack Quick

FRACTURED by Karen Slaughter:  Dyslexic Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective Will Trent is caught up in a crime situation as complex as Atlanta’s freeways with enough plot complications to support two afternoon soap operas.  Atlanta matron Abigail Campano comes home to find what she thinks is her daughter’s bloody body with the killer standing over her.  She manages to kill the young man, only to discover that: a). he has also been stabbed and was probably trying to help rather than being the killer, b), the body is not that of her daughter Emma, but Emma’s best friend, Kayla. c). Emma, has, in fact been kidnapped, d) Emma’s father was in foster care with Will many years ago d) the Atlanta Police detective assigned to the case is Faith Mitchell, daughter of an Atlanta police supervisor forced to resign as the result of a investigation into police corruption by Will, and e) the son of Faith’s out-of-wedlock son is apparently the nephew of Will’s supervisor, Amanda Wagner.  If you can keep all this somewhat straight, you will find that Ms. Slaughter has done an excellent job of portraying Atlanta, as it exists today, and writing a pretty decent suspense novel.  Thumbs up. 08/08 Jack Quick

THE FRAILTY OF FLESH by Sandra Ruttan:  Another great outing from Sandra Ruttan who is building her cast of Canadian constables into a winner of a series.  A child is found beaten to death, his brother names their sister as the killer.  The entire family is obviously dysfunctional and an impediment to solving the crime.  A cold case continues to haunt the department and jeopardize current activities.  Nolan, Hart and Tain are strong personalities, yet Ruttan successfully blends them together so each is a major player.  One of the few authors who can manipulate multiple plot strings and keep it all together. Definitely recommended. 01/09 Jack Quick  

FRANNIE IN PIECES by Delia Ephron: Frannie’s parents were divorced, but at least she spent time with both of them. When she finds her father dead in his house, two weeks before her fifteenth birthday, she scared, worries about everything, isolates herself, and finds herself jumpy. It’s only natural for a teen who loved, and identified with her artistic father. When she finds a handmade jigsaw puzzle, in a box with her name on it, she believes her father was thinking of her when he made it. She absorbs herself in the puzzle, until her absorption becomes so complete, that she’s completely sucked into the picture itself. Frannie sees her father in that puzzle, and it’s one way of finding him. Ephron tackles the subject of death in an honest, beautiful way in her first teen novel. Frannie in Pieces is a thoughtful book, filled with love and longing. 11/07 Lesa Holstine

FREEDOM by Daniel Suarez: I would heartily recommend you not open the cover on this one until you have read Suarez's Daemon (2009), as the two books form one continuous story about the  late, mad-genius game designer Matthew Sobol who launched a cyber war on humanity.  In this frightening, near-future world, Sobol's bots continue to roam the Internet, inciting mayhem and siphoning money from worldwide, interconnected megacorporations out to seize control of national governments and enslave the populace.   FBI special agent Roy Merritt is dead, but still manages to make a dramatic comeback, while detective Pete Sebeck, thought to be executed in Daemon, rises from the supposed grave to lead the fight against the corporations. Other characters from Daemon include disgraced NSA cryptanalyst Natalie Phillips, the hacker Jon Ross, and Loki, the bloodthirsty Master of the Darknet.  Daemon and Freedom together form the cyberthriller against which all others will be measured. 03/10 Jack Quick 

FREEZE FRAME by Peter May:  Parisian journalist Roger Raffin has written a best selling book featuring seven cold cases from around the world.  Forensics ace Enzo Macleod, a Scot who's been teaching in France for many years, rashly boasted that he could solve all seven cases.  He was successful with the first three and now tackles the fourth. He begins at the study which the dead man's heir has preserved for nearly twenty years.  The dead man left several clues there designed to reveal the killer's identity to the man's son, but ironically the son died soon after the father. On the tiny island off the coast of Brittany in France where the murder occurred, Enzo must deal with hostile locals who have no desire to have the infamous murder back in the headlines.  Throw in an attractive widow, a man charged but acquitted of the murder, a crime scene frozen in time, a dangerous hell hole by the cliffs, and a collection of impenetrable messages, and you have as Ollie would say, “a fine kettle of fish.” 03/10 Jack Quick 

FRESH DISASTERS by Stuart Woods: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Woods' suave hero, attorney Stone Barrington tried to hire a photographer to take pictures for a potential divorce case. The photographer wasn’t available but persuaded Barrington to use the photog’s nephew, one bumbling Herbie Fisher, who fell through the apartment skylight over the bedroom occupied by the couple he was supposed to be photographing. Now attorney Herbert Q. Fisher is in hock to the mob and gets taken out of Elaine’s in front of Barrington and police pal Dino. Fortunately for Fisher, and unfortunately for Barrington, Dino stops the mayhem, before Fisher is killed over his gambling debts. Now Barrington, against his will and better judgment, has the unenviable task of representing Fisher in suing Mob boss Carmine Datilla, aka Datilla the Hun, for personal injury damages. No one will serve Datilla so Barrington has to do it himself. The response is his being thrown through the glass door of Datilla’s coffeehouse out on to the sidewalk, where only Dino saves him from Fisher’s would be fate. On the positive side, this episode leads Barrington to Celia, a tall and beautiful masseuse. All this in the first fifty pages of what another reviewer calls “light escapist fare.” I say ROFLMAO, if you know what I mean. 05/07 Jack Quick

THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB by Kate Jacobs:  I can see why this first novel was so popular, especially with reading groups.  I don't knit, but despite the title and setting, this isn't a book about knitting; it's a book about women.  Georgia Walker is a single mom in Manhattan with a precocious daughter just entering her teenage years.  Her best friend gave her the seed money to start her business, a yarn shop.  Some of the regular customers also become friends, especially when they decide to form the knitting club.  It isn't always about the knitting though; it's about life and all its struggles.  The writing style is breezy and engaging, but also manipulative.  If you enjoyed Angry Women Eating BonBons by Lorna Landvik or The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards, then this is your kind of book. Not my favorite, but still an enjoyable read.  04/09 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

FRINGE BENEFITS by F.M. Meredith:  If you are going to commit a murder, it can be helpful to be a cop.  Officer Cal Sylvester’s affair with Darcy Butler, wife of a fellow policeman, is going into the deep freeze.  Only money will rekindle the flame and Sylvester thinks he knows how to get it, by collecting his wife’s life insurance.  Of course, there is one little detail that needs to be taken care of.  Enter sixteen-year-old Adler “Patch” Costello, who runs away from home and right into trouble.  In the meantime there is a dangerous rapist on the loose who strikes every Wednesday.  The third of Meredith’s Rocky Bluff P. D. series.  Lets hope there are many more. 02/07 Jack Quick

THE FROG PRINCE by Jane Porter: Holly Bishop led a fairy tale life, married her Prince Charming and planned on living happily ever after. Except it turns out Prince Charming didn't love her and really didn't want to have sex with her, so she left.  We meet Holly as she  is going through what amounts to be a pretty damn amicable divorce, but she wallows in self pity while she whines about it, repetitively, through an annoying 300 pages.  The other 70 pages or so have your usual chick-lit stuff going on, like dieting, the blind dates from hell and the trendy new job with a bitch of a boss.  There is a terrific ending, but after a complete whine-fest of a book, who cares?  Porter has made a successful transition from traditional romance to chick-lit, but unfortunately, it just didn't work for me. 05/05

FROM BLACK ROOMS by Stephen Woodworth: Ten years ago, Natalie Lindstrom left the North American Afterlife Communications Corp (NAACC) for good. Her work, calling the dead forward to live out their own murders before the courts, became too much when Violets themselves became the target of a sadistic killer. A Violet is a person born with the ability to channel the dead. They are known by their violet eyes.  Today, the Corp has blacklisted her from any means of employment in hopes that they can force her to return and hand her daughter over for training as well. In Black Rooms Corps scientists have found a way to turn an average people into Violets. Unfortunately, there is a flaw in the experiment. Plagued by guilt, Dr. Bartholomew Wax tries to end it all by killing himself, but not before murdering each and every test subject. Now, Carl Pancrit has struck a bargain with the one man Natalie fears the most, the real Violet Killer – Evan Markham. Through Markham, Pancrit will try to force Dr. Wax to continue his work on the experiment. In exchange, Pancrit will give him Natalie. Woodworth’s supernatural thrillers are incredibly original and smart. I look forward to each new installment in this series with great anticipation and am never let me down. I can’t wait to see where he takes the series next.  11/06 Becky LeJeune

FROM THE GROUNDS UP by Sandra Balzo: Maggie Thorsen is back and she needs a new location for her coffee house after a freak snowstorm took it down.  Maggie's real estate agent and friend, Sarah Kingston, has the perfect spot: the old train depot. A new partnership is born and they get to work on renovating the old building. But then strange accidents start happening and Maggie is convinced someone doesn't want her to open up again. Her boyfriend, Sherriff Jake Pavlik is worried too, but Maggie pushes on until she figures out who is leaving the bodies behind. Another great installment in the series and a delicious read to enjoy with a cup of your favorite coffee. 03/10 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

THE FRONT by Patricia Cornwell:  Let me start off by saying that I’m a devout fan of Cornwell’s work. I loved her Kay Scarpetta books and typically her work is amazing. However, something was lost when Cornwell created a new slate of characters. The Front is the second in this new series starring Win Garano, Massachusetts state investigator. Garano has been ordered by his boss, District Attorney Monique Lamont, to investigate information on an unsolved sexual homicide case that is four decades old. Lamont believes that this individual may be the first victim of the Boston Strangler and believes if this case is solved, it will send her career soaring. The plot and story line don’t appear to go anywhere. Perhaps if this book was expanding beyond the 192 pages it would have had potential. I kept going back and rereading chapters, thinking I missed something, but to no avail. It seemed that the ending was rushed, everything wrapped up in just a few pages. I read the prequel, At Risk, and was hopeful. Normally, I’m pretty excited when I hear that one of my favorite authors has started off on a new adventure, but I’m upset that I wasted my time and money on this one.  06/08 Jennifer Lawrence

THE FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH by Ed McBain: Fat Ollie (aka Detective Oliver Wendell Weeks), Steve, Cotton, Kling, Hawes – they are all here in this funnier 87th precinct novel which includes in its cast of characters divas, dumb and dumber crooks, and cops who are legends in their own mind. Leave it to the 87th to bulldoze through the muck until everything so tangled or untangled that the mystery is solved. Despite its funky title, another good outing by McBain.  11/05 ~This review contributed by Jack Quick.

FUGITIVE by Phillip Margolin:  Charlie Marsh was a former prison inmate who reinvented himself as the Guru Gabriel Sun when he saved the warden’s life during a prison riot. His newfound wealth and fame soon dissipate when he was suspected of murdering a U.S. senator. Charlie was having an affair with the senator’s wife and he disappeared after the murder, hiding out in the People’s Republic of Batanga, a small African country with no extradition that's run by a cannibal dictator. The dictator's wife is tortured and killed when he finds out she is having an affair with Charlie. Charlie knows his days are numbered and he seeks help from an American tabloid. They smuggle him out of Africa and home to the US, where he will have to stand trial for the senator’s murder. The senator’s wife had been acquitted of being an accessory years earlier when Frank Jaffe defended her, and his daughter, Amanda, will now defend Charlie; that is, if Batanga’s secret police don’t get to him first. The pages fly in this violent, twisty tale of one man’s journey through the legal system. 06/09 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch. Copyright © 2009 Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.  Reprinted with permission.

FULL MOON RISING by Keri Arthur: Riley Jensen and her twin brother Rhoan are something different. Having been banished from their pack, the half vampire and half werewolf twins struggle to keep their secret safe from the world. Brother and sister are both employees of the Directorate of Other Races, a group that polices others and protects humans. Rhoan is a guardian, or field agent, in the Directorate while Riley works in the actual Directorate office. Riley wants no part of the field action. Unfortunately, she’s about to be forced into it. First, a naked vampire with amnesia shows up on her doorstep looking for Rhoan. Then, someone tries to kill her with a silver bullet. Finally, when Rhoan does not return from one of his missions, Riley is forced into action. Keri Arthur’s action packed and sexually charged debut, is full of werewolves, vampires, secrets and conspiracies. Paranormal romance fans are in for a real treat. 03/07 Becky Lejeune

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