Tuesday Book Review

 

Five-star review of  Deep Sleep by Steven Konkoly

 

This is the first in a conspiracy series in which Devin Gray, a counterespionage agent, is tasked by his mother after her death with following up on her work to unearth a huge Soviet sleeper cell in the US. He doesn’t work on it alone. The characters are mostly fleshed out and some progress is made in this first book on finding second and third generation members of the cell, a few in positions of power, but there is obviously a huge amount for Devin and his crew to do in the sequels. Great action sequences but the quieter ones are also well-written. I look forward to spending more time with Devin and his friends. 

 

Five-star review of From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz

 Suspense, horror, murder mystery, paranormal thriller, romance, literary family saga and more. This book has it all. It’s filled with wonderful characters from the psychotic, delusional murderer to the disfigured but spiritual cop with a strange ability, from the generous pie lady to three miraculous children, from the preacher’s wife and daughter to the doctor, and many more. This is the first Koontz book I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. Although at first I thought he spent more time from the warped viewpoint of the psychopath with too much horror elements for my taste, I realized this character indirectly became the reason all the others met and became a large found family. Novels as long as this one usually take me months to read, but I read this one in less than four weeks when I was busy with so much else. Koontz’s command of craft is apparent in every word, carefully chosen.

 

Tuesday Book Reviews on Wednesday

 

Five-star review of The Last Lie Told by Debra Webb

 Very good first book in a new series about lawyer Finley O’Sullivan who currently works for the family friend, Jack Finnegan, for whom she is named. We get smatterings about her past, her family, her husband’s murder and other issues I’m sure will be addressed in future novels in the series. This one focuses on a case Finley and Jack, her boss, are investigating, where the man serving a sentence for murdering a Nashville music mogul, and actually confessed to the crime, is now accusing the mogul’s daughter of killing her father. The mogul’s widow hires them to clear the name of her daughter, one of a set of twins. I figured out one of the final twists, and there is more than one, but that didn’t stop my enjoyment of the book.

Tuesday Book Reviews on Wednesday

 

Four-star review of Aeon Rising: The Apocalypse Rises by Matthew Mather

 

Watching the effects of Aeon (a supernova or maybe hypernova) on the Brazilian rainforest with Max Carver, on the western US with his very pregnant wife Talisha, at an Antarctic research station with Dr. Xin Rou and on D.C. with Senator Copeland and Colonel Buchannan was interesting enough. Then throw in the conspiracies, the experiments at the Colony Max was sent to, and assorted other complications to deepen the plot and raise the tension throughout the novel. Although there were some positives at the end, there were also still so many unanswered questions and possibilities of what would happen next, that I’ll definitely read the second in the series. That lack of a clear-cut ending led to me giving it four stars instead of five.

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

Four-star review of The Peacekeeper (The Good Lands book 1) by B. L. Blanchard

 

Chibenashi is a Peacekeeper in the village of Baawitigong in the Great Lakes Ojibwa nation of a never colonized North America. Twenty years earlier, his mother was murdered during a Manoomin celebration and his father admitted to killing her, so Chibenashi has raised his sullen, withdrawn much younger sister. Now, a woman who has helped him and his sister has been murdered during the same ceremony. His father cannot be responsible since he’s incarcerated in a Shikaakwa prison. The world-building in this novel is commendable including all the cultural differences from life in the US as we know it. I can see why Chibenashi didn’t figure out who the murderer was until near the end of this story, but those around him should have been able to. It was obvious to me. And the true nature of the killer, though a sudden reveal, was predictable. 

Tuesday Book Reviews

 Three-star review of Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

So far in the series, this fifth one was my least favorite. As usual too much unnecessary description, of course, but also, the focus on Rand and his internal struggles confirms he’s my least favorite character. I like all the women, but they’re all becoming too negative. The dream world was a good way to have the women meet up. Mat’s become a two- or at most three-note character, his gambling, womanizing and fighting his destiny are defining him. And where was Perrin? We spent more time with Siuan than Moiraine and almost none with Lan. It’ll be a while before I start book six, mainly because I don’t care about these characters as much as I did in the earlier books. After the interesting parts about the Aiel in the previous book, they just seem to be there. Yes, the maidens are guarding Rand but their part in the battles is minimal. All in all, a disappointment.

Tuesday Book Reviews

 

Four-star review of Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott

 

Overall good start to a cozy mystery series with a few characters that bear further development. Addie Greybourne has inherited her great aunt’s mansion in Greybourne Harbour, as well as her father’s and aunt’s book collection, so she opens a bookshop in the small New England town, that, like all those British small towns, has more murders, and murderers, than residents. And, of course, Addie gets involved. Even the deaths of her father and aunt come under suspicion. This was a quick read.