Review of The Survivor by Sean Slater

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: March 3rd

More Info: Amazon

Book Blurb:

Columbine. Dunblane. Virginia Tech. Winnenden. But Saint Patrick's High?

In his first hour back from a six-month leave of absence, Detective Jacob Striker's day quickly turns into a nightmare. He is barely on scene five minutes at his daughter's high school when he encounters an Active Shooter situation. Three men wearing hockey masks - Black, White, and Red - have stormed the school with firearms and are killing indiscriminately.

Striker takes immediate action. Within minutes, two of the gunmen are dead and Striker is close to ending the violence.

But the last gunman, Red Mask, does something unexpected. He runs up to his fallen comrade, racks the shotgun, and unloads five rounds into the man, obliterating his face and hands. Before Striker can react, Red Mask flees - and escapes.

Against the clock, Striker investigates the killings for which there is no known motive and no known suspect. Soon his investigation takes him to darker places, and he realizes that everything at Saint Patrick's High is not as it appears. The closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous his world becomes. Until Striker himself is in the line of fire.

And the violence follows him home. 

My Thoughts:

Slater has a knack for grabbing the reader’s attention and making them want to keep turning the pages. Although, the first chapter or two didn't grab me right off, but then I was drawn in and the story kept me engrossed. The funny thing was, I'd had it for several months but kept procrastinating. Once I started reading, I regretted procrastinating.

 I enjoy reading mysteries, especially ones where you think you know what's going on, but you really don't. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, Slater threw a curve ball. There are some cliches; the one that annoyed me the most was the cop, in this case Striker, who rebels against his superior and constantly clashes with him. But despite that, it worked and it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

In fact, I almost liked the lead shooter. We have some insight into his mind, thanks to the chapters written from his point of view. This worked very well, and made him more human to me. I felt sorry for him, or rather, the younger, child form of him.
 
The story is told in multiple view points, primarily Striker's, his daughter Courtney, and one of the killers, though it's a while before we learn his identity. Even when we learn his identity, we still don't know what is going on or what the motivation was. The story is complex and layered and while the ultimate reason for the shootings are fairly mundane, the back story and detours are detailed and fascinating.

The character development was strong in this book though I would have liked to see more development of Striker's partner, Felicia Santos. There's another book planned so perhaps we'll see it then.Overall, the characters feel real, people you might in your every day life.

The book does contain violence and some torture scenes, but they are not overly graphic. I think. I am a total wimp so I skimmed those but from what I read, they weren't too bad. Just too much for me.

Although I read mysteries regularly, I think this was my first that was set in Canada. That made it interesting for me, to see the similarities and differences between there and the USA, where I live. It was less of a cultural struggle for me than when I first started reading books set in the UK.

This paperback was provided by Simon & Schuster UK 

End of Month Giveaway! Open globally

So, to close out the month of murder and mayhem, I am having a giveaway. I may even do this every month, or every month where I have print books to mail. :)

Up for grabs are some of the books that I reviewed this month. Which ones? Well, the ones that I have print copies of :D A few are ARC's so the covers are different and there are some typos plus the final content of the printed book may differ; most are the final book. I'm having camera problems so for now, I'll use the cover pix from the posts. The winner can choose up to 3 of the listed books, and it's open internationally. April 1st, (no kidding, honest!) I'll use random.org to choose a winner.

Who is eligible to enter? If you commented on a review this month, then you will be entered. Sorry, only review comments count.

The Books:

1. Murder Takes the Cake by Gayle Trent
2. The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doetsch
3. The Survivor by Sean Slater (ARC)
4. Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (ARC - has different cover & title)
5. Swept Off Her Feet by Hester Browne
6. Altar of Bones by Philip Carter
7. Treachery in Death by JD Robb

ARC Review of The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Publisher: Harper Teen

Release Date: April 12, 2011

More info: Amazon

Series: #1 in the Darkness Rising series

Book Blurb: Maya lives in a small medical-research town on Vancouver Island. How small? You can’t find it on the map. It has less than two-hundred people, and her school has only sixty-eight students–for every grade from kindergarten to twelve.

Now, strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya’s determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya’s home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts experiencing “bad vibes” about certain people and things. It does’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret…and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark.

My Thoughts:

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me, happy birthday to me!

What a great present to have a new book by one of my favorite authors released on my birthday (April 12). Kelley is a wonderful author who can really weave a story so when she announced the release date for this book, it was a fun coincidence that it fell on my birthday. Now if it just came with chocolate cake and Jonny Depp, it'd be a truly awesome birthday. :P

The Darkest Powers part of the trilogy is finished for now.  The Darkness Rising part of the trilogy - which starts with The Gathering (release date April 5th in Canada) is the second part.  This part will also consist of three books, like that Darkest Powers did.  There will be a third part to the trilogy after all three of the Darkness Rising story has had it's three books.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The story flowed right along at a brisk pace but never felt rushed, it grabs your attention from the first chapter and doesn't let go until the very last page, which ends in a cliff hanger (I'm already counting down the days until book two). There are twists and turns, some mystery, some romance, conflict, humor, all worked into an enjoyable story. Maya is smart, funny, realistic, and quite relatable. She's not a smart aleck (though she can be pretty darn funny) but neither is she perfect. There isn't a word or punctuation mark that I'd change.

The supernatural element is mild at first but Armstrong builds it up as the story goes along. Readers of her Women of the Otherworld series may recognize the name of the pharmaceutical facility, but you don't need to have read any of those books nor the books in her Darkest Powers YA series. The story is a stand alone in that regard though set in the same world as those. There are some similarities between Maya and Mercy Thompson in Patricia Briggs's "Mercy Thompson" series that readers of both series will spot right away.

Kelley's teenage daughter is her advisor for the YA books and you can tell. It's not just an adult writing what she thinks or hopes will interest teens and young adults nor does she talk down to them. There are several mysteries in the book that all mesh together and I think sustaining the three book story arc will not be a problem at all.


This paperback ARC was received from the publisher for review.

Dual Review of Quiet Anchorage by Ed Lynskey

Publisher: BooksforABuck.com


Release Date: March 28th, 2011


More Info: Amazon


Book Blurb:

Quiet Anchorage, Virginia, looks like paradise. When she's accused of murdering her fiance, however, the small town is anything but heavenly for Megan Connors. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon, it looks like an open-and-shut case, and Sheriff Fox, running for reelection and anxious to get credit for 'solving' a murder case, intends on ramming through charges and getting a conviction. Megan's only champions are her aging aunts. They don't believe she's guilty, but what can two senior citizens do against the powers of the state and the evidence against Megan?

Isabel and Alma Trumbo may be aging, even worried about memory loss, but they've read just about every mystery published in the past half-century. They're sure they've picked up the skills and knowledge they need to prove Megan's innocence. Starting with the town's gossips and loafers, then scaling up when the sexy ex-girlfriend of one of the Sheriff's deputies joins them, they search for alternate suspects, possible motives, and any evidence that might exonerate their niece.

Similar cozy mysteries are Anne George’s Southern Sisters and Rita Mae Brown’s Merry Minor Herristeen titles (also a series set in Virginia).



Our Thoughts:


BEA:


I like cozy mysteries, they can be a lot of fun. You get a mystery but it's as much about the characters as it is the mystery. Often, there's a theme to them - cooking, knitting, etc - but not always. "Quiet Anchorage" doesn't have the theme but it does give us cozy. We have the Trumbo sisters, no longer young, who now live together and take up sleuthing when their niece is arrested for murder. They are both avid mystery readers and waste no time putting to use what they have read. They have a lot of beginners luck, and the story gets very convoluted. There are some twists and turns, some believable, some less so and on occasion you could see that Lynskey is more used to writing more hard boiled detective stories .

I'm not familiar with the Southern Sisters series but I have read most of the Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen books and other than the fact that they are both set in rural Virginia and are both cozy mysteries, there's isn't a similarity. Why, you wonder, did I bold those words? Because, in the description, which comes straight from the email he sent us when he requested a review and is also the Goodreads blurb, he misspells the characters name. Bad form when you are comparing yourself favorably to them, and poor editing. As some of you know, that's a major peeve of mine and it cropped up periodically in the story. I'm not sure it would bug someone who isn't picky about that sort of thing, but if you are, you've been warned. :P

Overall, not bad but I'm not rushing out to get the next one in the series.


JAX: Mysteries are not my genre of choice, but I do occasionally like to pick them up. Not to solve the who-done-it, but just to watch the story unfold: the false leads, multiple suspects, etc. This story in and of itself wasn't bad, but I found somethings distracted me from it. Odd scene changes, awkward turns of phrase, and I spent half the book trying to figure out why the Sheriff's name changed suddenly when both names were finally used together, solving a mystery that had my attention more than the  murder at hand.
But, like Bea, I find some of the littlest details to be enough to jar me out of a story.

Outside those things, I think that the plot was good, and I liked the characters. There is a very clear set up for future books, and I can see the potential for the sisters to get out of their little town and into more trouble. I'd be willing to catch up with them on their next caper, see if they can use their small town wiles in a wider world.

The PDF was received from the author for review.

Review and Giveaway: Real Murders by Charlaine Harris

Congratulations to Jennifer! According to Random.org,  you are the proud new owner of the Aurora Teagarden series.

Jax here. It's Mystery Month! Not a genre I read often. So I pulled out one of the few mystery series that I've read to share. I really enjoy Charlaine Harris' Aurora Teagarden Mystery Series, and I thought it would be fun to share it with one of you!  Leave a comment by midnight CST March 31st, and we'll draw a name to win all 8 books!

Here's a bit about the first book, Real Murders.

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Published: December 2007

Book Blurb:

THE "MURDER OF THE MONTH" SUDDENLY TOOK A VERY REAL, VERY VIOLENT TURN

Every month, Real Murders, a society of crime buffs in Lawrenceton, Georgia, met to discuss a favorite infamous murder. Its members were an eccentric lot: Gifford Doakes, the massacre specialist; Jane Engle, lover of Victorian horrors; Perry Allison, a Ted Bundy fan....

The night of the last meeting, town librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden discovered Mamie Wright's mutilated body in the clubhouse kitchen. She felt certain the killer was a fellow member, for the crime bore a chilling resemblance to the club's "murder of the month."

And as other brutal "copycat" killings followed, the only motive seemed a horrifyingly bizarre sense of fun....

My Thoughts: I'm not usually into mysteries, but this is a fun, quick read. I think one of Charlaine's greatest talents as a writer is her ability to create a realistic cast of people and places, a great balance to the improbable events that happen. Roe is a likeable main character, with a quick wit, funny foibles and an odd hobby. I love seeing the world through her eyes, everything from the way she notes the strengths and weaknesses of her friends, family, neighbors, and even herself to the her fondness and exasperation for the life she lives.

The story moves along nicely, with great details about real murder mysteries sprinkled throughout, and good reasons to suspect just about everyone you meet. There's even a bit of romance, because, really there's nothing like a good death to make you want to live to the fullest! With summer coming, this is a great beach book.

This book is owned by the reviewer.

Review of The Zero Dog War by Keith Melton

Publisher: Samhain Publishing


Release date: December 23, 2010


More info: Amazon


Book Blurb:

The first bullet is always free. After that, you gotta pay.

Zero Dog Missions, Book 1

After accidentally blowing up both a client facility and a cushy city contract in the same day, pyromancer and mercenary captain Andrea Walker is scrambling to save her Zero Dogs. A team including (but not limited to) a sexually repressed succubus, a werewolf with a thing for health food, a sarcastic tank driver/aspiring romance novelist, a three-hundred-pound calico cat, and a massive demon who really loves to blow stuff up.

With the bankruptcy vultures circling, Homeland Security throws her a high-paying, short-term contract even the Zero Dogs can’t screw up: destroy a capitalist necromancer bent on dominating the gelatin industry with an all-zombie workforce. The catch? She has to take on Special Forces Captain Jake Sanders, a man who threatens both the existence of the team and Andrea’s deliberate avoidance of romantic entanglements.

As Andrea strains to hold her dysfunctional team together long enough to derail the corporate zombie apocalypse, the prospect of getting her heart run over by a tank tread is the least of her worries. The government never does anything without an ulterior motive. Jake could be the key to success…or just another bad day at the office for the Zeroes.

Warning: Contains explicit language, intense action and violence, rampaging zombie hordes, a heroine with an attitude and flamethrower, Special Forces commandos, ninjas, apocalyptic necromancer capitalist machinations, absurd parody and mayhem, self-deluded humor, irreverence, geek humor, mutant cats, low-brow comedy, and banana-kiwi-flavored gelatin.

My Thoughts:

I was intrigued by the premise, and enjoyed the story and the characters, but didn't love it. The comedy felt over the top at times though we are warned up front that it contains sarcasm and parody (and oh, does it ever! :D). The team is made up of  wise ass, joking misfits who seem mostly unacquainted with the concept of discipline. There was so much comedy that the jokes started to get tiresome. Still, the story moves along at a brisk pace and there are some very funny lines - "The scene drowned in cloying cuteness...and yet the show didn't come with an airsick bag."; "A woman needs a man like a corpse needs Viagra" ( I cracked up at that one), "Hell, a rampaging horde of menopausal lemmings would be more of a challenge." and perhaps my favorites, "God, she was awesome. Of course, she'd come here to kill him, which put a bit of a damper on his hard-on." and "Let's face it. Evil people need love too." :P Melton does have a knack for using humor to show us insight into a character or point out the asburdities in a genre.

Most of the story's tension does not come from the bad guy as he was more of a comedic bad guy. He never felt like a real threat but I did like his geekiness. He wasn't your typical "Dark Overlord" and I did like that, even if he never felt completely believable. The main tension comes from the Zero Dog's captain, Andrea Walker, and the US government advisor, Captain Jake Sanders. There's professional tension as there's the ever-present possibility that Jake might replace Andrea as leader of the Zero Dogs and personal tension as they deal with their attraction to each other and all the complications that entails, including the professional ones.

Overall, The Zero Dog War is a fun book, easy to read, a little light on characterization but definitely worth picking up and I will most likely read the next one when it comes out.

PDF was received from the author for review.

Guest Review of JD Robb's Treachery in Death

Publisher: Putnam

Release Date: February 22, 2011

Series:  #32 in the In Death Series.

More Info: Amazon



Today we have a guest review from an acquaintance I'll call Nifty. I met Nifty at Patricia Briggs' discussion board. Nifty is an avid reader and when she's not reading or working, she is playing with her dog, Bandit.

Book Blurb:

In the latest from the #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon, Eve Dallas tracks down those who break the law-including the ones sworn to uphold it.

Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a senseless crime-an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks for nothing more than kicks and snacks. This is Peabody's first case as primary detective - good thing she learned from the master.

But Peabody soon stumbles upon a trickier situation. After a hard workout, she's all alone in the locker room when the gym door clatters open; and-while hiding inside a shower stall trying not to make a sound-she overhears two fellow officers, Garnet and Oberman, arguing. It doesn't take long to realize they're both crooked-guilty not just of corruption but of murder. Now Peabody, Eve, and Eve's husband, Roarke, are trying to get the hard evidence they need to bring the dirty cops down-knowing all the while that the two are willing to kill to keep their secret. 

My Thoughts:

Unlike other books in this series, Treachery in Death is light on the mystery - we know who the bad guy is, and what the crime is, from the first chapter – and doesn’t seem to have the heft and evilness of some previous plots.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as sometimes the plots of the In Death books can be over-the-top – not just evil, but eeeevil – and in this case, it’s a straight-forward police procedural that brings the focus back on the team, their skills, and their principles.  Merely knowing who the bad guy is isn’t enough.  Eve still has to gather evidence and build a case and move with care in doing so, considering that the bad cop is a ranking officer of the NYPSD and the daughter of a highly respected former commander. This investigation has to be 100% above-board and air-tight.

Most of the story moves at a lightning pace.  Eve uses the homicide of one of the bad cop’s weasel as her foot in the door, and from there it’s just connecting the pieces.  And if she has to shake a few trees to see what kind of rotten fruit falls down, so much the better.  We all know how much she loves to get in the face of the villains she has targeted.
Eve's personal story doesn't get a whole lot of attention, but there's a humorous scene with Eve, Bella, and Mavis – who is tagged for a bit of con-work -- and a sweet scene between Roarke and Eve. The most significant personal aspect for me was actually professional also: Eve muses on how the type of woman she is sets the tone for the type of cop she is, but also the type of BOSS she is.  Also, every In Death story comes with at least a little focus directed at one of the (many!) secondary characters, and in this book, that particular spotlight is focused on IAB rat Don Webster.

I thought the tightness of the story suffered just a bit at the very end - the last 70 pages or so - and the climax could have used a bit more punch. But overall I found this one to be really enjoyable and kind of rewhetted my appetite for these characters and this series (which had begun to wane in the last couple years). 

Review of The Mysterious Lady Law by Robert Appleton

Publisher: Carina Press


Release Date: January 31, 2011

More info:  Amazon

Book Blurb: 


In a time of grand airships and steam-powered cars, the death of a penniless young maid will hardly make the front page. But part-time airship waitress and music hall dancer Julia Bairstow is shattered by her sister's murder. When Lady Law, the most notorious private detective in Britain, offers to investigate the case pro bono, Julia jumps at the chance—even against the a
...moreIn a time of grand airships and steam-powered cars, the death of a penniless young maid will hardly make the front page. But part-time airship waitress and music hall dancer Julia Bairstow is shattered by her sister's murder. When Lady Law, the most notorious private detective in Britain, offers to investigate the case pro bono, Julia jumps at the chance—even against the advice of Constable Al Grant, who takes her protection surprisingly to heart. 

Lady Law puts Scotland Yard to shame. She's apprehended Jack the Ripper and solved countless other cold-case crimes. No one knows how she does it, but it's brought her fortune, renown and even a title. But is she really what she claims to be—a genius at deducting? Or is Al right and she is not be trusted? 

Julia is determined to find out the truth, even if it means turning sleuth herself—and turning the tables on Lady Law...

My Thoughts: 

I have not read much steampunk but this one sounded intriguing, a mix of steampunk, mystery and romance by a new to me author. I like mixed genre stories, when done well. This one comes off okay but I think Appleton may have been overly ambitious. Though, I have to give him credit for trying and for taking chances.

There's action, steam powered weapons, giant artificial planets, steam powered automobiles, and lots of other technical gadgets that I couldn't quite figure out but I have never been a very technological person. The technical gadgets end up being essential to the story, which, since it's a steampunk, they should be. At first, they didn't seem necessary and I wondered why Appleton chose to make it steampunk but in the end it worked. The action scenes, though usually exciting, were hard for me to visualize with all of the technical things thrown in; trying to visualize it all was difficult for me. The story line was intriguing but I would have liked to have seen more character development. This might have worked better as a full length novel.


It's primarily a mystery with a side helping of romance. The romance, between Julia and Al Grant, the constable investigating her sister Georgy's murder, happens slowly. It starts with him providing comforting words and reassurance after Georgy's death and builds up as the investigation progresses. At first, Julia doesn't know whether or not to trust him. Neither she or her sister are of any importance socially  thus fall low in the priority list of the police yet he is dogged in pursuing the case, and she knows that he does not like Lady Law, who has offered her services, gratis. Grant is determined to investigate, but has been unsuccessful and Julia fears that his dislike of Lady Law is impeding his ability to accept help in the case. She is unaware, initially, that Grant and Law have a history. While I appreciated that Appleton didn't have Grant and Julia immediately jump all over each but let their attraction build over the course of the investigation, I do wish that he'd either spent more time on it or skipped it all together. At times, it feels as the romance was added purely to attract more female readers. I don't know that that's what happened but it felt that way to me.


Julia is willing to accept any help she can get, even though she wonders why Law is so willing to help. On the one hand she admires Law's independence and her ability to succeed in a man's world but she is also suspicious of Law's generous offer. She ends up accepting Law's help but has misgivings about the results. With Al's willing help, and that of semi-retired adventurer Sir Horace Holly, who also has an interest in the investigation into Georgy's death, they unearth Lady Law's secrets and find out the truth about Georgy's death.

The story gets a bit convoluted and there are some deus ex machina moments, but it's a fairly quick read and both Grant and Julia are likable, as is Sir Holly.



**This review has been edited and revised from the original version that appeared on this blog**


This eARC was received from.NetGalley.