Blood Game by Iris Johansen

Book Description
Eve Duncan returns in a thriller that pits her against the most evil mind she has ever encountered: a ruthless killer who taunts her with his every move…and who has a special affinity for blood. When a Georgia senator’s daughter is found murdered, and her body drained of blood, Eve Duncan is drawn into the web of Kevin Jelak—a serial murderer who is on Eve’s short list of killers who might know something about her missing daughter Bonnie. When a goblet of blood is found in Eve’s refrigerator, she knows the taunting is over…and the games have begun. As Eve and Jelak engage in a dance of death, Eve must call upon those she loves and trusts the most…even if it means bringing them into the game as well.

My thoughts
Iris Johansen is back with another Eve Duncan mystery with “Blood Game”. I have admired the ghostly relationship that Eve has with her murdered daughter Bonnie, but now that Joe Quinn has conversations with the dead, it put me off. It makes it another paranormal story that is somewhat unbelievable. Johansen’s writing is superb and keeps me reading but the confrontation at the end with the villain is quite unreal and not worthy of an Eve Duncan story.

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

Book Description
A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derrick Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest. PulitzerPrize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.

My thoughts
For those who watch “Castle” on ABC, this is the book that the lead character, Richard Castle released in one of the episodes. For those who do not watch “Castle”, the premise is that of an author who shadows a female detective of the NYPD, so that he can create a new character for his novel. “Heat Wave” is that story based on that detective. So it’s a fictional character writing a book based on his experiences with the NYPD only real in the world of television. An entertaining premise, gimmick, tie-in, whatever you may want to call it. Fans of the show will enjoy it; those looking for a complex mystery may not.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin

Book Description
It's late in the fall in Edinburgh and late in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on his desk: a dissident Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong.
Rebus discovers that an elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to expand its interests. And as Rebus's investigation gains ground, someone brutally assaults a local gangster with whom he has a long history.
Has Rebus overstepped his bounds for the last time? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, controversial career, will Rebus even make it that far?

My thoughts
This is the first Inspector John Rebus mystery that I have read. “Exit Music” by Ian Rankin is supposedly the last story to involve the inspector. Rebus is retiring from the Edinburgh police force, but must deal with the death of a Russian poet, politics, new policemen, an old rival, another murder and his retirement. Not knowing the character, it was hard for me to appreciate some of what was going on, but the mystery aspect is quite suspenseful and entertaining.

The Muppets: Ringing of the Bells

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer Book Giveaway

Hello Everybody!

Michael Palmer (author of many medical thrillers) has graciously offered to give away ONE signed copy of his latest novel, THE LAST SURGEON which is being released on February 16, 2010.

Here is a synopsis of the book:
Michael Palmer’s latest novel pits a flawed doctor against a ruthless psychopath, who has made murder his art form. Dr. Nick Garrity, a vet suffering from PTSD—post traumatic stress disorder—spends his days and nights dispensing medical treatment from a mobile clinic to the homeless and disenfranchised in D.C. and Baltimore. In addition, he is constantly on the lookout for his war buddy Umberto Vasquez, who was plucked from the streets by the military four years ago for a secret mission and has not been seen since.
Psych nurse Gillian Coates wants to find her sister’s killer. She does not believe that Belle Coates, an ICU nurse, took her own life, even though every bit of evidence indicates that she did—every bit save one. Belle has left Gillian a subtle clue that connects her with Nick Garrity.
Together, Nick and Gillian determine that one-by-one, each of those in the operating room for a fatally botched case is dying. Their discoveries pit them against genius Franz Koller--the highly-paid master of the “non-kill”—the art of murder that does not look like murder. As Doctor and nurse move closer to finding the terrifying secret behind these killings, Koller has been given a new directive: his mission will not be complete until Gillian Coates and Garrity, the last surgeon, are dead.

And you can read the prologue here: (This is a PDF file).

Michael Palmer has lots of great interactive content on both his Facebook fan page and Twitter account.

He’s hosting weekly Q&A's, book giveaways and other exclusive contests, so be sure not to miss out.

You can check out his website at: michaelpalmerbooks.com


Now to enter the contest:

I am asking you to let me know what Michael Palmer novel you have enjoyed the most, and if you haven’t read him, that’s okay too, just let me know which previous novel you would like to read (the new one does not count).

Also leave your email address in your comment, so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

This contest ends Friday, January 8th, 2010.

Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2009

Amazon.com has posted their top 100 books of 2009

Customers' Bestsellers – I read only 13 of these books

Editors' Picks – I read only 5 of these books

Most I hadn’t heard about. Guess, I will have to attempt to read them in 2010.
How many of them have you read?

It's In The Eyes by Charles Toftoy

Book Description
A PSYCHOPATH IS STALKING CO-EDS IN WASHINGTON, DC

It's spring in Washington, DC - a beautiful time of year in the nation's capital, yet its citizens are uneasy. Their heightened restlessness is reminiscent of the recent 9/11, sniper, and anthrax scares. But this time the enemy is a psychopathic killer responsible for the deaths of four local university co-eds - raping and murdering them using rituals practiced by the Thuggees, killers for the Goddess Kali who were responsible for the deaths of more than two million travelers in India in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It's up to Lars Neilsen, a college professor and part-time sleuth, and his highly skilled Alpha Team to find out who is committing these atrocious murders. But Lars and his team are in for a few nasty surprises along the way...

My thoughts
“It’s In The Eyes” by Charles Toftoy is a thriller set in Washington D.C and someone is killing beautiful, blond co-eds. Unhappy with the police’s progress, one family hires Lars Neilsen and his Alpha Team to locate the murderer of their daughter. As the story progresses and as the Team goes where the police can’t, they find that they are chasing not one, but two distinct murderers, but why? Toftoy has written a story that shows potential yet misses in several areas of believability.

EXIT MUSIC by Ian Rankin Book Giveaway Winners

The winners of my EXIT MUSIC by Ian Rankin Book Giveaway are:

Aliya D
justpeachy36
melydia

Congratulations!

7th Heaven by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Book Description
The Women's Murder Club faces not one-but two-terrifying cases that may tear it apart. The teenage son of California's ex-governor has mysteriously vanished-and the pressure on Detective Lindsay Boxer to find him is overwhelming. When she finally does get a lead, it's devastating. At the same time, Lindsay and her partner, Rich Conklin, must investigate mysterious fires that are destroying some of San Francisco's most beautiful homes-and leaving their owners dead in the debris. But when Lindsay enlists her friends in the Women's Murder Club to help uncover the arsonist, the blazes suddenly rage much too close to home . . . and the detective's life may go up in flames.

My thoughts
“7th Heaven” is another chapter of the Woman’s Murder Club, where four women get together and try and solve crimes in San Francisco. As I’ve mentioned before, I liked Patterson, but when he collaborates with other authors, the books just don’t seem to hit their mark. It’s like he just puts his name on a book, and doesn’t care about the substance of the story.

Fiona Robyn is organizing a BlogSplash

Fiona Robyn is going to blog her next novel, Thaw, starting on the 1st of March next year. The novel follows 32 year old Ruth’s diary over three months as she decides whether or not to carry on living.

To help spread the word she’s organising a Blogsplash, where blogs will publish the first page of Ruth’s diary simultaneously (and a link to the blog).

She’s aiming to get 1000 blogs involved – if you’d be interested in joining in, email her at fiona@fionarobyn.com or find out more information at http://www.fionarobyn.com/thawblogsplash.htm.

Bit-O-Honey

It’s hard to believe that a dollar store can not survive in this ailing economy if ours. But the one in our shopping plaza folded up and the landlord (the grocery store) decided to sell off the remains (probably to get back some lost rent). We went there looking for some aluminum trays, but they were out. My wife and daughter went searching down the aisles for other items, as I waited empty-handed on the long line to the register. I figured by the time they get finished, we wouldn’t have to wait long to pay.

As I was waiting on the line, I noticed a box of Bit-O-Honey sitting on a shelf. When my daughter came up to me, I asked her to grab it. She picked up one bar and brought it to me. I said “no, the whole box!” She went back and got them. They were marked 50 cents a piece and there were 17 bars left.

I remember eating Bit-O-Honey bars as a kid and it has been a long time since I enjoyed the taste of that chewy candy. It was one of my favorites – right there with Mary Jane’s. The memories of childhood came flooding back as I thought about the candy.

Big surprise when I got to the counter, they only charged me 25 cents a bar. What a bargain. I still can’t remember what my wife bought that day.

Now that I’ve got some of you candy lover’s mouths salivating, tell me what your favorite childhood candy was.

P.S. Just yesterday, I walked into a room and caught a sniff of some fragrant odor that reminded me of B-B-Bats candy (taffy on a stick). Got to search for them now!

Coming For Money by F.W. Vom Scheidt

Book Description
How much money is too much? And how fast is too fast in life? Investment star Paris Smith steps onto the top rungs of the corporate ladder, only to discover he is caught between his need for fulfillment and his need for understanding, between his drive for power and his inability to cope with his growing emptiness where there was once love. When his wife disappears from the core of his life, Smith s loneliness and sense of disconnection threaten to overwhelm him. When he tries to compensate by losing himself in his work, he stumbles off the treadmill of his own success, and is entangled in the web of a fraudulent bond deal that threatens to derail his career and his life. Forced to put his personal life on hold while he travels non-stop between Toronto, Singapore, and Bangkok to salvage his career, the embattled financier is deprived of the time and space he needs to mourn the absence of his wife and to objectively assess his future options. In the heat, turmoil and fast money of Southeast Asia half a world from home and half a life from his last remembered smile Paris Smith finds duplicity, comradeship, and power. He also finds a special woman who might heal his heart.

My thoughts
In “Coming for Money” author F.W. Vom Scheidt uses his experiences as an international investment banker to bring us a story of versatile individuals in the international banking industry. Paris Smith is an investment broker who travels around the world and back to protect and close a multi-billion dollar bond deal. Trying to save his career while coping with the sudden death of his wife, his integrity is challenged as there are deceitful and devious people working against him. This book is a fast paced, emotional trip.

7th Heaven Book Giveaway Winners

The winners of 7TH HEAVEN by James PAtterson and Maxine Paetro Book Giveaway are:

Moushka
Margie
Bethie

Congratulations!

How To Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall

Book Description
The lives of four individuals—a dying painter, a blind girl, a landscape artist, and an art curator—intertwine across nearly five decades in this luminous and searching novel of extraordinary power. With How to Paint a Dead Man, Sarah Hall, "one of the most significant and exciting of Britain's young novelists" (The Guardian), delivers "a maddeningly enticing read . . . an amazing feat of literary engineering" (The Independent on Sunday).

My thoughts
“How to Paint a Dead Man” by Sarah Hall is the story of four artists, seemly unrelated until you delve into the story and find the connections. Each story takes place in different times and different locations with different narratives. At first, I was a little confused, but as I continued to read I began to understand Hall’s writing which is highly ambitious.

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell

Book Description
It is the week before Christmas. A tanking economy has prompted Dr. Kay Scarpetta—despite her busy schedule and her continuing work as the senior forensic analyst for CNN—to offer her services pro bono to New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In no time at all, her increased visibility seems to precipitate a string of unexpected and unsettling events. She is asked live on the air about the sensational case of Hannah Starr, who has vanished and is presumed dead. Moments later during the same telecast she receives a startling call—in from a former psychiatrist patient of Benton Wesley's. When she returns after the show to the apartment where she and Benton live, she finds an ominous package—possibly a bomb—waiting for her at the front desk. Soon the apparent threat on Scarpetta's life finds her embroiled in a surreal plot that includes a famous actor accused of an unthinkable sex crime and the disappearance of a beautiful millionaires with whom Lucy seems to have shared a secret past.

Scarpetta's CNN producer wants her to launch a TV show called The Scarpetta Factor. Given the bizarre events already in play, she fears that her growing fame will generate the illusion that she has a "special factor," a mythical ability to solve all her cases. She wonders if she will end up like other TV personalities: her own stereotype.

The Scarpetta Factor, the seventeenth in the series, finds the familiar cast of characters together again in New York. Marino is working for the NYPD; Benton Wesley uses his forensic psychological expertise at Kirby and Bellevue; and Lucy continues to dazzle with her expertise in forensic computer investigations as she works yet another case with NY prosecutor Jaime Berger.

My thoughts
Kay, Marino, Benton and Lucy are all back “The Scarpetta Factor”, the seventeenth book in the series written by Patricia Cornwell. This long novel takes place in New York City and deals with the disappearance of Hannah Starr and the murder of another young woman. But with long series, the characters have outplayed their usefulness and didn’t hold my interest and there was nothing really new to learn from them. They storyline was okay but some parts dragged. Nothing like the earlier Scarpetta stories.

The Dolphin People by Torsten Krol

Book Description
Shortly after the end of WWII, sixteen-year-old Erich Linden and his family have fled Germany and joined Erich's uncle, Klaus, in Venezuela, where they will begin a new life. But, en route to Klaus's outpost further inland, they encounter a storm and their plane crashes in the middle of the jungle. Stranded deep within Amazonia with no hope of rescue, they are discovered by the Yayomi, a violent and superstitious Stone Age tribe. The Yayomi believe the strange-looking foreigners are freshwater dolphins in human form—and the Lindens believe that as long as they can keep up the bizarre ruse they'll be safe. But the jungle is a dark, mysterious place, and no place for a family of sham dolphin-people who are ultimately left with only two choices: to escape or to die trying.

My thoughts
In “The Dolphin People” Torsten Krol has created an unreal situation where a family of four has to survive in the Amazon with a tribe of local natives “The Yayomi” who believe they are dolphins in human form. Set in post WWII, the Erich Linden and family have come to Venezuela to join Uncle Klaus. Their plane crashes in a river, and they are discovered by the Yayomi and are revered as special because of their dolphin status. With little chance of getting back to society they try and assimilate into the native culture with the assistance of Gerhard, another German who has lived with the tribe for eleven years as research for a book. Krol has written this book through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Erich and we observe him grow and change while here. His family has their own issues to take care of. As events unfold we learn more and more about everyone. Some parts are a little disturbing. “The Dolphin People” is a challenging and strange book; yet an enjoyable one.

Easy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Book Description
Removed from the gritty streets of Chicago, the residents of the North Shore sleep easily in their million dollar homes. Easily, that is, until a local girl is discovered bludgeoned to death in the woods. Quick to blame the man with the bat, the North Shore returns to its version of normalcy. But the accused's sister isn't so willing to forget and hires Georgia Davis, former cop and newly-minted Pito look into the incident. What Georgia finds hints at a much different, darker answer. It seems that some privileged, preppy schoolgirls on Chicago's North Shore have learned just how much their innocence is worth to hot-under-the-collar businessmen. And while these girls can now pay for Prada, iPhones, and Jimmy Choos with their earnings, they don't realize that their new business venture may end up costing them more than they can afford...

My thoughts
Sara Long, a local teenager is clubbed to death with a baseball bat and the man holding the bat is arrested. Closed case, but not really. The accused’s sister hires Georgia Davis, former cop, now private detective to find the real murderer. What she finds is teenage prostitution and more. Libby Fischer Hellmann’s “Easy Innocence” is a mystery that keeps on surprising the reader. Life in high school and at home is not always what they seem. I found this book compelling and the character of Georgia Davis a fascinating one. I hope there will be more stories with her.

A Storm in the Blood by Jon Stephen Fink

Book Description
Based on a true story—a brilliant, compelling, and provocative novel of the roots of terrorism and the perils of the immigration experience set in turn-of-the-century London.

On December 16, 1910, three unarmed London policemen were killed by a gang of Latvian revolutionaries. Among the most sensational crimes of the era, the Houndsditch Murders sparked an unprecedented manhunt across the capital, and then exploded into the gunfight that entered history as the Siege of Sidney Street. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, assembled by then home-secretary Winston Churchill, descended upon the gang. After hours of bloody battle, the police broke into the hideout and discovered the corpses of two men. The ringleader they had expected to find—an urbane and charismatic revolutionary known as Peter the Painter—had mysteriously vanished, along with his mistress, Rivka, a young refugee and Yiddish music hall singer.

Based on a compelling true story, A Storm in the Blood is a gripping tale filled with strange and disturbing echoes, violence, ethnic unrest, political subterfuge, and terrorism—as shocking today as the original events were in 1910.

My thoughts
“A Storm in the Blood” by Jon Stephen Fink is a novel based on true events. In 1910 London, three policemen were killed by Latvian revolutionaries and became known as the Houndsditch murders. Fink takes this event and brings it to life, creating a historical novel where the reader gets to know the characters and learn why they did what they did. Remarkable stuff.

The Gate House by Nelson Demille Book Giveaway Winners

The winners of THE GATE HOUSE by Nelson DeMille Book Giveaway are:

Karen K
jacabur1
Carol M

Congratulations!

Exit Music by Ian Rankin Book Giveaway

Thanks to Valerie at the Hachette Book Group, I am hosting a giveaway for EXIT MUSIC by Ian Rankin. Three winners will be picked at random on Friday, December 18th and notified the following day.

Contest Rules:

Open to U.S. and Canada residents only.
No Post Office boxes
Must leave a comment with your e-mail address.
Followers and Subscribers will get additional entries.

Book Description
It's late in the fall in Edinburgh and late in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on his desk: a dissident Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong.
Rebus discovers that an elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to expand its interests. And as Rebus's investigation gains ground, someone brutally assaults a local gangster with whom he has a long history.
Has Rebus overstepped his bounds for the last time? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, controversial career, will Rebus even make it that far?