Review of Dark of the Moon (Hardcover)

Dark of the Moon is a new book by John Sandford, author of the great Lucas Davenport series. Sandford uses a co-author in this novel that features Virgil Flowers, a cop working with the Bureau of Criminal Aprehension where he is assigned the hardest cases. Flowers has been divorced a lot, is somewhat afraid of guns, and takes pride in wearing quirky t-shirts. The book opens as he is traveling south to investigate the murder of a harmless ederly couple when he drives upon a house being devoured by flames. The house was set on fire to cover up the murder of the ederly, feeble and hated Bill Judd. Virgil teams with Jim Stryker, an old buddy and the current sherriff, and they start investigating the crimes. A lot is going on in this novel. Stanford throws a lot at the reader.

Dark of the Moon reads just like a Lucas Davenport book. Incredible plotting, tons of characters in the small town, you get to know the town and the feeling that everyone DOES know everyone else. Virgil is a funny guy, all Sandford books have an underlying humor to them. You can tell Sandford is having fun when he writes.

Flowers hooks up with Stryker's sister Joan and has a good time with her, while at the same time wondering if Joan or Jim could be the killer. In fact, everyone Flowers encounters has a motive or a reason to be a killer. Sandford fans will love this book. It is fast pace and full of twists. Flowers' wit always keeps you entertained as well.

With a new Davenport book due in the spring, fans of the author won't have long to wait for another great book. Hopefully, Sandford can continue to write novels featuring Flowers as well.




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Review of The Prisoner of Guantanamo (Hardcover)

Baltimore Sun Reporter Dan Fesperman is not only a terrific newsman but a first-rate novelist as well (The Small Boat of Great Sorrows, The Warlord's Son).His stories are as current as this morning's news and while sometimes troubling also thoroughly entertaining.

Our setting is the Guantanamo base or Gitmo,the military originated slang name for this outpost. Gitmo,, as the world knows, is where suspected terrorists are incarcerated and interrogated.Life here doesn't amount to much as the suicide rate makes clear."There had been five attempts inside the wire in the last two weeks, none successful and more than thirty since the prisoners first arrived."

Revere Falk is a former FBI agent now an interrogator at Gitmo.He qualified for this posting because of his fluency in Arabic, and his desire to keep some secrets in his past.For company he has found a career military woman who shares his assignment.

Routine changes when the body of an American soldier, a reservist who was assigned to Guantanamo, is found on a Cuban beach.It's not long into Falk'sinvestigation of this death before he realizes that what he had hoped to keep secret may be revealed.

There a lot of action, much political maneuvering, and a wrenching picture of what can happen during the war on terror to be found in The Prisoner of Guantanamo plus, in this case, a riveting reading delivered by actor David Colacci.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke



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Review of Dangerous to Know (Hardcover)

First Sentence:It was a good day for a funeral.

DS Moira Baker took a tip from her ex-husband, acted on it and was embarrassed when it turned out to be nothing.Colin Granger, Moira's ex, is a classic underachiever, but he did love Moira.To correct the wrong he had done, he gave her a new lead.Charlie Radcliffe is the owner of gambling clubs and a big fish to the police in Hillford.Colin discovered Radcliffe kept two sets of books on his computers.

When Moira start to investigate, she is murdered and Colin realizes the trail of Moira's suspicion leads back to him.Colin has no one to whom he can turn except DI John Moore, Moira's new love and the man with whom Colin brawled at Moira's funeral.

Jane Adams is one of those many under-read, under-recognized authors I've been lucky enough to discover.Her books are usually more psychological suspense, but this was one very good police procedural.Adams creates a wonderful cast of characters.

The way she links the characters together is clever, but not contrived.They are very realistic and not over-the-top.I like the way the characters grow and change as the story progresses.

There is very good suspense that builds and kept me turning the pages.I particularly liked that when people get hurt; they hurt and don't just bounce back to continue.

The final ending is a big ambiguous but not damaging to the story at all.Overall, it was a very good, one-day read that I would recommend.




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Review of Don't Look Twice: A Novel (Hardcover)

This novel was a fun page turner that kept me guessing most of the way through. The plot has some depth and the story was interesting even though the characters were quite stereotypical of thrillers involving detectives, murder, gambling, crooked government and the requisite love interest. Along the way is the building body count, and the reader learns quickly that it's dangerous to trust anyone involved in the case.

This was the second book in a series featuring Lt. Ty Hauck and I did not read the former, The Dark Tide, so am basing my analysis of the character on this novel only. He's the typical man without a family - estranged from an ex -- and his current love interest is lukewarm, so he's the solitary voice of truth and justice fighting against the rich and powerful. This type of character has become a cliché of detective novels - probably because it works. It would be hard for a man with any type of family or home life to rarely sleep, eat or interact with anyone but those involved in the case. He has a daughter, brother and father and those all make brief appearances in the story but his relationships are never fully fleshed out. The reader doesn't really get to know Ty although he certainly seems to have a conscience even as he displays a lapse or two in judgment that almost compromises the investigation.

All in all -- an entertaining, if somewhat convoluted, tale of murder, greed, and corruption. I will most likely read another installment in this series in the future.



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Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

A 24-year-old computer hacker sporting an assortment of tattoos and body piercings and afflicted with Asperger Syndrome or something of the like has been under state guardianship in her native Sweden since she was thirteen. She supports herself by doing deep background investigations for Dragan Armansky, who, in turn, worries the anorexic-looking Lisbeth Salander is "the perfect victim for anyone who wished her ill." Salander may look fourteen and stubbornly shun social norms, but she possesses the inner strength of a determined survivor. She sees more than her word processor page in black and white and despises the users and abusers of this world. She won't hesitate to exact her own unique brand of retribution against small-potatoes bullies, sick predators, and corrupt magnates alike.

Financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist has just been convicted of libeling a financier and is facing a fine and three months in jail. Blomkvist, after a Salander-completed background check, is summoned to a meeting with semi-retired industrialist Henrik Vanger whose far-flung but shrinking corporate empire is wholly family owned. Vanger has brooded for 36 years about the fate of his great niece, Harriet. Blomkvist is expected to live for a year on the island where many Vanger family members still reside and where Harriet was last seen. Under the cover story that he is writing a family history, Blomkvist is to investigate which family member might have done away with the teenager.

So, the stage is set. The reader easily guesses early that somehow Blomkvist and Salander will pool their talents to probe the Vanger mystery. However,Swede Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is no humdrum, formulaic whodunit. It is fascinating and very difficult to put down. Nor is it without some really suspenseful and chillingly ugly scenes....

The issue most saturating The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that of shocking sexual violence primarily against women but not excluding men. Salander and Blomkvist both confront prima facie evidence of such crimes. Larsson's other major constituent elements are corporate malfeasance that threatens complete collapse of stock markets and anarchistic distrust of officialdom to the point of endorsing (at least, almost) vigilantism. He also deals with racism as he spins a complex web from strands of real and imagined history concerning mid-twentieth century Vanger affiliations with Sweden's fascist groups.

But Larsson's carefully calibrated tale is more than a grisly, cynical world view of his country and the modern world at large. At its core, it is an fascinating character study of a young woman who easily masters computer code but for whom human interaction is almost always more trouble than it is worth, of an investigative reporter who chooses a path of less resistance than Salander but whose humanity reaches out to many including her, and of peripheral characters -- such as Armansky -- who need more of their story told.

Fortunately, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in English translation will be followed by two more in the Millennium series: The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Air Castle that Blew Up. I can't wait. Larsson also made a 200-page start on a fourth book, but sadly he succumbed to a heart attack in 2004 and his father decided the unfinished work will remain unpublished.

I recommend this international bestseller to all who eagerly sift new books for challenging intellectual crime thrillers, who luxuriate in immersing themselves in the ambience of a compellingly created world and memorable characters, who soak up financial and investigative minutiae as well as computer hacking tidbits, and who want to share Larsson's crusade against violence and racism.



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Review of All the Dead Voices (Hardcover)

This well told tale casting light on the dark side of Dublin both startles and intrigues.All the Dead Voices rings with tough authenticity; it is Irish crime fiction at its best.After some 20 yearsin the theater as both director and playwright Hughes turned to fiction and created Dublin based thrillers, which brought him not only a host of readers but a Shamus Award as well.

Private investigator Ed Loy is one of his most absorbing creations.Loy is, as he sees himself in All The Dead Voices, a man with "dead eyes telling me that my race was run, that there was nothing new under the sun except the next job of work, the next faithless woman, the next empty glass."

Well, his next job of work is rife with complexities and challenges.He's approached by a woman, Anne Fogarty, to find her father's real killer - a murder that was committed 15 years ago.She believes the police found the wrong man guilty.Steve Owen who was having an affair with Anne's mother was sent to prison and then released following an appeal.Anne has her own trio of suspects.

At the same time Loy is investigating the death of a soccer star, Paul Delaney, who may or may not have been selling heroin.As it turns out Delaney may also have been connected to one of the men Anne suspects of killing her father.It's quite one thing to solve a recent killing but another when one must dig into the past for answers.

Once again Declan Hughes has penned a compelling, plot and character driven narrative that's hard to put down.

- Gail Cooke



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