Border Crossings (A Catherine James Thriller) - Michael Weems

A classic thriller of the good guys working (killing) their way up through the ranks of a Mexican drugs cartel on the hunt for the top man, who unsurprisingly has done something a bit evil. The story runs parallel to another,  a victim of the Mexican immigration and  sex slave trade and her route to revenge. Normal I don’t like duel story books as one is usually better that the other but this one worked very well although they could have joined up better towards the end.

The lead characters were great in this book although perhaps it needed a better baddy – or to bring him into the story more. Either way a good read - and it is shame the author needed to publish this one himself. It is a dotted I and a crossed t from feeling like a best seller.

4 Stars

Generation – William Knight

 

This is a great book, slow start but a great book. I don’t do horror really but this is the best thing about the free list, I fall on books like this. I guess it is best described as believable horror but this follows a theme of gene therapy gone wrong, and the medical giant behind it pushing on despite the dangers and side effects. And what side effects the are… monsters in the body farm, the smell of death..or is it life and a handful of hair raising scenes pushing along a very good story with a good couple of lead characters, one a journo for a crank ghost publication, the other head of research in a body farm in remote Northumberland. Final strange fact being that one scene appears to have been set on or near my street!

5 Stars

Killing Share - Ben Rawlinson

Excellent English set private eye book this one. Reminded me of a good Dick Frances story. Told humorously through the eyes of an ex-army private detective, this is the story of a murdered client. The victim, a very wealthy businessman was convinced he was being followed and had gone to the PI for help. So naturally after his death the PI follows up on the story and gets sucked into a story of stolen guns, dodgy detectives, horny widows, and general chasing around London.

A good read only adversely affected by a few of the character traits of the P.I. You won’t find jack Reacher obsessing about the shoes he wears or the watch he has on, let alone the merits of not wearing Chelsea boots with a suit. The author just made the guy sound a bit of a ponce really. And what is the obsession with authors in general going on about how great their characters’ food or cooking is – I don’t care how he cooks his pasta!!

4/5 (not five cos of the cowboy boots!)

Sandman – Morgan Hannah MacDonald

Book starts well, some dude is surfing Trestles – this should be right up my street – being a surfer. Then “surfing  is his religion”, he is “at his church” …oh oh surf clichés, maybe not so good…but it quickly recovers and turns into an excellent serial killer yarn. There is the rough tough cop with..wait for it, wait for it..a sad back story, i.e. a dead wife and an alcohol problems. Seriously is there a literary cop in the world who is just normal, nice wife, couple of kids and piles. No thought not.

Anyway, this turns into a really good serial killer book, there is a girl, maybe the one to turn this cops life around, she just happens to be fit of course. And the serial killer is after her. The story rolls along at a great pace and comes to a good climax.. actually the climax bit sums up the end very well!!

So in summary, many of the usual serial killer angles, but a really good book. Would read more in this series.

5/5

Tangled Web - Ken Mclure

Book opens with a disabled baby going missing in a small Welsh village and the parents promptly getting done for the murder. The good news is that the local doctor, who is Scottish (and has a back story!!!! woohoo) thinks they are innocent and sets out to prove the case.

Naturally it being a fictional book no one agrees with him and he soon gets cast out for siding with the evil child killers. At the same time another story comes to light about a baby's body going missing and our clever doctor puts the two stories together and fights for the truth and justice - along the way falling for a vary tasty doctor who is attached to his investigation team.

This book is essentially a story of a very dodgy IVF clinic and some evil people with some very nasty plans, all excellently delivered in another quality British thriller.

Hopefully more of McClures work will turn up on the free list. I'll be buying more of his work once my 89 free book masterpiece is complete.

5/5

Trauma - Ken McClure

Another day, another freebie - this time set in Edinburgh it features a priest and a young female doctor (they fancy each other...) unravelling the dissapearence of a young child's body, dug up from the graveyard. Lots of death follows and plenty of sinister goings on, with a hint of witchcraft. I liked this one, a good classic murder story getting solved not by the police - why do these people never talk to the police when it is clear they should be talking to the police...
Liked it so much I started another of McClures books straight after - ohh another child's body has gone missing in this one - must be McClure's fave story line.

Only minus point was the ending which I thought was a bit lame.

4/5

Flee - J.A Konrath

This books takes off at million miles an hour. Simple story, highly trainined female government assasin whose cover is blown and they are all out to get her. She has to escape the killers, save the world and be a general double hard bastard all the time. The opening sequence when she needs to escape her own flat is excellent, as are the rather familier girls that keep trying to kill her. Randon sex scene in the middle of the book, so don't read it out loud to your gran.
Fun dumbed down holiday read slightly ruined by her annoying sense of smell and the cazy save the world side to the story but otherwise a good yarn.

4/5

Alone - T.R. Sullivan

This is the kind of story you think up in your head whilst sitting on the loo. Some dude in the States wakes up one morning and all is quiet. Turns out he appears to be alone in the world, everyone has disappeared. It plays out pretty much as expected but is still a good read, going through the process of losing day to day facilities. His faithful dog is the only other character but fortunately has more personality than the basketball from Castaway.
A great fight scene with the rats and I never really understood how the animals escaped from the nation’s zoos but the author clearly needed to have something to add a bit of danger. It meanders a bit towards the end, got the impression the author had finished with the excitement of the guy being alone and wanted to get the thing finished. Still I liked this one.

4/5

Fire and Ice - Dana Stabenow

Disgraced demoted Mounty gets posted back to remote Alaskan town where before leaving the airport he stumbles across a murder and his ex who he promptly shags in her pick up. Quite liked this one, although the last 20 pages I thought were a bit lame.
One extremely cool and pacy light aircraft flying sequence and some yoga bits that were very random. Good characters though and a nice story.

4.5/5

The Pawn - Steven James

Very good american serial killer book with a decent lead character. All set in the Blue Ridge mountains (iirc) whcih created a really good atmosphere to the book. Strangely the second book in a row to have a character called the Father. As usual with these types of stories the cop has a back story of death and misery, but this one is quite well played out, bringing in his step daughter who becomes (predictably) involved in the case

4/5