THE TREATMENT by Mo Hayder

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"Midsummer: Brockwell Park, a pleasant residential area of south London. A husband and wife are discovered bound and imprisoned in their own home. They are badly dehydrated, have been beaten, and the husband is close to death. But worse is to come: their young son is missing." When DI Jack Caffery of the Met's murder squad, AMIP, is called in to investigate, the similarities to events in his own past make it impossible for him to view this new crime with the necessary detachment. And as Jack digs deeper, as he attempts to hold his own life together in the face of ever more disturbing revelations about both the past and the present, the real nightmare begins.

RATING:

Mo Hayder's second book and sequel to BIRDMAN featuring Jack Caffery -- dark, if not darker, than the first -- grim, creepy yet compelling (although I felt a tad too much emphasis was placed on Caffery's relationship with girlfriend Rebecca). Hayder is a true talent and easily can hold her own among the UK's best.

THE BLACK ECHO by Michael Connelly

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch -- hero, maverick, nighthawk -- the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personalized dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell. Now, Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city to the tortuous link that must be uncovered, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.Joining with an enigmatic and seductive female FBI agent, pitted against enemies inside his own department, Bosch must make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, as he tracks down a killer whose true face will shock him.

RATING:

I've been a huge fan of Michael Connelly's for several years and am now "backtracking" reading his earlier books as I find them and with the Harry Bosch series, in order as possible. THE BLACK ECHO was Connelly's first novel and it's easily understandable why it won the prestigious Edgar Award and why Connelly is one of the modern day masters of the mystery/thriller novels. Outstanding throughout! Highly recommended.

LIVE BAIT by P.J.Tracy

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are bored - ever since they solved the Monkeewrench case, the Twin Cities have been in a murder-free dry spell, as people no longer seem interested in killing one another. But with two brutal homicides taking place in one awful night, the crime drought ends - not with a trickle, but with an eventual torrent. Who would kill Morey Gilbert, a man without an enemy, a man who might as well have been a saint? His tiny, cranky little wife, Lily, is no help, and may even be a suspect; his estranged son, Jack, an infamous ambulance-chasing lawyer, has his own enemies; and his son-in-law, former cop Marty Pullman, is so depressed over his wife's death a year ago that he's ready to kill himself, but not Morey. The number of victims - all elderly - grows, and the city is fearful once again." The detectives' investigation threatens to uncover a series of horrendous secrets, some buried within the heart of the police department itself, blurring the lines between heroes and villains. Grace MacBride's cold-case-solving software may find the missing link - but at a terrible price.

RATING:

I thoroughly enjoyed this mother/daughter team's first effort (MONKEEWRENCH) but despite reading glowing reviews about this one, I just felt it fell considerably short. It's an okay read but I've read much better.

ON NIGHT'S SHORE by Randall Silvis

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It is the summer of 1840--for some in New York City a season of prosperity; for others, another season of desperation. This is the milieu of ON NIGHT'S SHORE, an amazing literary thriller from an author hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "a masterful storyteller."Randall Silvis's ON NIGHT'S SHORE opens with one of the most spellbinding scenes in contemporary writing. A girl tosses her baby from a warehouse window, then follows the infant into the Hudson River far below. The only witness to this desperate act is a ten-year-old street arab named Augie Dubbins, a boy who survives by the motto, "In calamity, opportunity." Augie does what he can to make a few pennies from the girl's tragedy. In doing so he encounters another of the desperate ones, a struggling young journalist named Edgar Allan Poe, a poet and critic and newspaper hack whose penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time has not only stymied his advancement as a writer but has earned him more than a few enemies.Poe, too, hopes to use the girl's misfortune to fatten his threadbare purse. His efforts to do so lead to the discovery of the body of yet another young woman, and the ensuing investigation of her murder soon entraps Poe in a mire of murder, greed, lust and power that stretches from the Five Points slums to the gleaming heights of Fifth Avenue. But ON NIGHT'S SHORE is much more than just a page-turner. Here we see deep into the troubled psyche of Edgar Allan Poe, the father of all detective stories. We see the darkness that drove him, the demons that plagued him. We also see the tenderness with which he treated his young wife, soon to die herself, and hisdevoted, stalwart mother-in-law, and the avuncular kindness he lavished on Augie Dubbins, who in ten short years has witnessed more brutality and perversity than even Poe could imagine. And we see all of these characters entwined in the tentacles of a power struggle to control the fate of New York City, the sleazy underbelly of a political and business elite that speaks as much to today's society as it did to Poe's. Seldom does an historical thriller so authentically recreate a time and place as does ON NIGHT'S SHORE. Not since E. L. Doctorow's RAGTIME have readers been treated to such a rich cast of characters, both real and imagined, or to a story so suspenseful and compelling-all of it rendered in some of the most luminous prose being written today. In this, his eighth book of fiction, Randall Silvis brilliantly bridges the gap between serious and popular literature. ON NIGHT'S SHORE is a stunning and haunting achievement.

RATING:

Interesting and thoroughly enjoyable read -- obvious comparisons to Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST -- definitely not quite up to that but still well written with extreme detail to the time period. Definitely recommended!

WELL-SCHOOLED IN MURDER by Elizabeth George

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad's housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child—and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers's cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew's death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds—and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making....

RATING:

Third in the series and once again, it's a wonderfully written complex mystery (this time with touches of the dark side of pedophiles, pornography at a well-bred academy) plus the personal stories of the regular series characters all take interesting turns. Highly recommended!

THE UNBURIED by Charles Palliser

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In THE UNBURIED, his compelling new historical thriller, Charles Palliser, author of the best-selling novel THE QUINCUNX, masterfully resurrects the world of Victorian England. Dr. Courtine, an unworldly academic, is invited to spend the days before Christmas with an old friend from his youth. Twenty years have passed since Courtine and Austin last met, but the invitation, to Austin's house in the Cathedral Close of Thurchester, is welcome, for reasons other than the renewal of an old acquaintance. Courtine hopes that the visit will allow him to pursue his research into an unresolved mystery, using the labyrinthine Cathedral library. If he can track down an elusive eleventh-century manuscript, the existence of which only he believes in, he hopes to dispose of a potentially deadly rival.
But as Courtine prepares to settle into his research, Austin tells him the story of the town ghost, a story of duplicity and murder two centuries old. The mystery captures Courtine's donnish imagination, as perhaps it is intended to do. Doubly distracted, Courtine becomes unwittingly enmeshed in the sequence of terrible events that follow his arrival, and becomes a witness to a murder that seems never to have been committed.

RATING:

Wonderfully written with complex characterizations and intertwining plotlines -- lovers of the English Victorian mystery novels will definitely enjoy. Highly recommended!

A DEDICATED MAN by Peter Robinson

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

A dedicated man is dead in the Yorkshire dales — a former university professor, wealthy historian and archaeologist who loved his adopted village. It is a particularly heinous slaying, considering the esteem in which the victim, Harry Steadman, was held by his neighbors and colleagues — by everyone, it seems, except the one person who bludgeoned the life out of the respected scholar and left him half-buried in a farmer's field.
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks left the violence of London behind for what he hoped would be the peaceful life of a country policeman. But the brutality of Steadman's murder only reinforces one ugly, indisputable truth: that evil can flourish in even the most bucolic of settings. There are dangerous secrets hidden in the history of this remote Yorkshire community that have already led to one death. And Banks will have to plumb a dark and shocking local past to find his way to a killer before yesterday's sins cause more blood to be shed.

RATING:

Second in the "Chief Inspector Banks" series (and better than the first) -- thoroughly enjoyable as always!

ORIGINAL SIN by P.D. James

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of baffling complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies - a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of whom apparently killed herself a short time before. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again. Original Sin is a detective thriller in the grand manner, profoundly enriched by P. D. James's ability to evoke an atmosphere of suspense and to create characters whose psychology is plausible and gripping. Nothing is simple about it - the mystery, the haunting symbolism of death and the river, even the interaction between Dalgliesh and his subordinates, Kate Miskin and Daniel Aaron. P. D. James has written her most accomplished novel yet.

RATING:

James never disappoints -- excellent read as always!

THE ECHO by Minette Walters

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Minette Walters' shattering new novel unveils the secrets and betrayals, past and present, that come home to those who try to bury them. A destitute man is found dead on the property of a wealthy socialite. But the reporter investigating the dead man's identity - and the woman whose home became his deathbed - are swiftly ensnared in a web of deception as tangled and complex as the hearts and minds that spun it...

RATING:

Another excellent read from one of Britain's best -- rich, multi-layered characters in a complex story with lots of twists, turns & surprises along the way.

TO PLAY THE FOOL by Laurie R. King

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In Laurie R. King's Edgar-winning first novel, A Grave Talent, San Francisco homicide detective Kate Martinelli finds one of her cases has become, to her horror, tragically entangled with her personal life. In this third book of King's extraordinary series, Kate is involved in a nightmare that begins in her off-duty life and turns into a crime for which she feels herself responsible. As the story opens, Kate is alone, angry and bewildered, in the house she shares with her life partner, Lee. Lee, slowly - so slowly - recovering from the effects of the gunshot that crippled her in A Grave Talent, decides that she must spend time on her own, a move that Kate can only see as rejection. Lonely, Kate befriends the bright, quirky, twelve-year-old Jules. When the girl's parents go on a trip, Kate agrees to care for her. Rashly Kate decides to drive with Jules to northern Washington, to "drop in" on the farm where Lee is staying with an aunt. During the trip, in a rural area where a serial killer has been victimizing young girls, Jules disappears.

RATING:

Second in King's Kate Martinelli series -- nothing like the first -- disappointing.

PARIS REQUIEM by Lisa Appignanesi

DESCRIPTION:

Paris 1899. Capital of the crime passion.
Paris is electric with excitement. Everywhere preparations are underway for the universal exhibition and the new century - an age of speed and modernity. But the sensuous spectacle of the belle époque is shadowed by racial and social tensions. Street demos are rampant. Anti-Semites vie with the defenders of justice and the rights of man. Scientists propose hereditary explanations for the rise and rise of murder, madness and nervous disorders. The police force is embattled, exposed in a scandal-mongering press. How can they keep the order citizens want, if their accusers champion the individual liberties of even prostitutes and criminals?
In the midst of all this, the body of a beautiful woman is found in the Seine. Her corpse is not the first to turn up in river or canal or subway shaft. But she has a name. She is the performer, Olympe Fabre. She is also Rachel Arnhem, a young Jewish woman, whom gossip, back in Boston, has linked to one of its favourite prodigals, Rafael Norton.
James Norton, his elder brother, is charged with the task of bringing Raf and their high-spirited, though ailing sister, Ellie, home from the hotbed of vice and murderous entanglements. It is a mission he confronts reluctantly. He and Paris have a history - not altogether unlinked to the turbulent present which now confronts him.
A gripping psychological period thriller, reminiscent of Caleb Carr, PARIS REQUIEM has Lisa Appignanesi writing in top, chilling form.

RATING:

The book blurbs call it a masterpiece and compare it to Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST -- it's not but still a good story -- tedious in spots but worth it if you stick with it.

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS by Jonathan Kellerman

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past.This connection is only the beginning, a single link in a forty-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.

RATING:

The first of the Alex Delaware series that I finally came across and got to read -- enjoyable read as always from Kellerman.

BLACK WATER by T. Jefferson Parker

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Detective Merci Rayborn is back! From the bestselling, Edgar-nominated author comes a new novel crackling with murder, love, betrayal — and marking the highly anticipated return of detective Merci Rayborn.
Welcome to a cat and mouse game that only bestselling novelist T. Jefferson Parker could script. A beautiful young woman is dead in the bathroom of her home. Her husband — a promising young cop named Archie Wildcraft — is shot in the head but still alive. It looks like an attempted murder/suicide, but something tells Detective Merci Rayborn that there's more to the story. When the suspect vanishes from his hospital bed, he draws Merci into a manhunt that leaves the entire department questioning her abilities and her judgment. Is Archie's flight the act of a ruined mind, or a faithful heart? Is his account of the night his wife was murdered half-formed memory, or careful manipulation? Merci and Wildcraft head for a collision in a dizzying succession of cryptic clues, terrifying secrets, and painful truths. This sharp new thriller will satisfy Parker fans across the country — and leave first-time readers clamoring for more.

RATING:

Okay read -- not his best.

LISTEN TO THE SHADOWS by Danuta Reah

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Searching for missing six-year-old Lucy, police find more than they bargain for when they discover the body of a young woman in a park nearby. While they have no clues, Lucy, now safely at home, does. There are monsters in the park, and they are getting closer, she warns. No one takes the child seriously, except for next-door neighbor, Suzanne Milner. As she becomes unwittingly drawn into the girl's nightmare, Suzanne is plagued by demons she thought she'd successfully buried.
When another body is found, detective Steve McCarthy understands that his straightforward homicide is eerily becoming something much more horrifying and complex. And unless he can find his way through a maze of lies and evasions involving Lucy and Suzanne, he won't be able to stop a clever killer before he strikes again.
Combining heartstopping terror and nail-biting suspense, Danuta Reah's chilling page-turner is filled with puzzling secrets, memorable characters, and unexpected twists that will keep readers hooked from beginning to end.

RATING:

There have been blurbs comparing Reah to Minette Walters, P.D. James, etc. but I feel she falls considerably short of their talents. An okay read but not great.NOTE: This is the US titled edition; UK publication is SILENT PLAYGROUNDS .

RAIN FALL by Barry Eisler

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Enthusiastic publishers around the world have become enthralled by John Rain, a strikingly fresh new thriller hero destined to be one of the most talked-about of the season. Born of an American mother and a Japanese father, Rain is a businessman based in Tokyo, living a life of meticulously planned anonymity. There are few who know who he is or what he does. Trained by the U.S. Special Forces and a veteran of Vietnam, he is a cool, self-contained loner-and he has built a steady business over the past twenty-five years specializing in death by "natural causes."After the assassination of a government official in a crowded subway car, Rain's carefully ordered world comes under siege. Agents within and without the international intelligence communities have been circling him for some time and, having connected him to the subway incident, may now have the scent they have been seeking. At the same time, Rain is drawn outside his private world by an alluring jazz pianist, the dead man's daughter, who is the key to the very secrets her father was trying to reveal when he died.

RATING:

Impressive debut novel -- first of a series -- definitely recommended!

THE SINNER by Tess Gerritsen

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered in the early morning hours at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the sanctuary walls of the cloistered convent, now stained with blood, lie two nuns - one dead, one critically injured - victims of an unspeakably savage attacker.
The brutal crime appears to be without motive, and the elderly nuns in residence can offer little help in the police investigation. But medical examiner Maura Isle's autopsy of the dead woman yields a shocking surprise: Twenty-year-old Sister Camille, the order's sole novice, gave birth before she was murdered. Then the disturbing case takes a stunning new turn when another woman is found murdered in an abandoned building, her body mutilated beyond recognition.
Together, Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Maura Isles finds herself drawn inexorably toward the heart of an investigation that strikes closer and closer to home - and toward a dawning revelation about the killer's identity too shattering to consider.

RATING:

Third of a series (THE SURGEON & THE APPRENTICE), Gerritsen has scored again. Recommended!

THE SOUL CATCHER by Alex Kava

FROM THE BACK COVER:

In a secluded cabin in rural Massachusetts, six young men stage a deadly standoff with FBI and ATF agents. When dust from the flying bullets finally settles, three agents are wounded, one fatally, and five suspects are dead.

In a wooded area near the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C., the body of a senator's daughter is discovered. Dead by strangulation, the young woman is left artfully posed, her clothes folded neatly beside her.

For FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell, there is nothing routine about being called in to work these two cases. As an expert criminal profiler, Maggie provides psychological insight on cases that involve suspect serial killers. She can't understand then, why her boss, Assistant Director Cunningham, has assigned her to these two seemingly unrealted crimes.

But as Maggie and her partner, Special Agent R.J. Tully, delve deper into the two cases, they learn that there is a connection between the crimes: Reverend Joseph Everett. The charismatic leader of a high-profile religious sect, Everett has cultivated a devoted following that is growing in numbers daily. The young men holed up in the cabin were members of Everett's church, and the murder of the young woman took place following a religious rally Everett held in the capital.

Is Everett a psychotic madman who uses his position of power to perform heinous crimes? Or is he merely a scapegoat for a killer more cunning, more disciplined than he?

RATING:

Not up to par with the first two of the series but nonetheless, still a good read.

NO SECOND CHANCE by Harlan Coben

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"Marc Seldman awakens to find himself in an ICU, hooked up to an IV, his head swathed in bandages. Twelve days earlier, he'd had an enviable life as a successful surgeon, living in a peaceful suburban neighborhood with his beautiful wife and a baby he adored. Now he lies in a hospital bed, shot by an unseen assailant. His wife has been killed, and his six-month-old daughter, Tara, has vanished. But just when his world seems forever shattered, something arrives to give Marc new hope: a ransom note: "We are watching. If you contact the authorities, you will never see your daughter again. There will be no second chance." The note is chilling, but Marc sees only one thing - he has the chance to save his daughter. He can't talk to the police or the FBI. He doesn't know whom he can trust. And now the authorities are closing in on a new suspect: Marc himself. Mired in a deeping quicksand of deception and deadly secrets - about his wife, about an old love he's never forgotten, and about his own past - he clings to one unwavering vow: to bring home Tara, at any cost.

RATING:

Another rollercoaster ride of a novel from Coben with many twists, turns & surprises. Recommended!

THE ROTTWEILER by Ruth Rendell

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"The first young woman murdered had a bite mark on her neck, prompting the media to dub her killer "The Rottweiler." As the number of killings grows to two, three, and beyond, that nickname sticks, even though it has become clear that the original bite was incidental. The Rottweiler is a serial garroter, distinguished by his habit of taking a small trinket from each victim as a macabre souvenir." The strangled young women all lived in the same ethnically diverse London neighborhood near Lisson Grove, so it is here that the police focus their investigation. Soon their suspicions lead them to an antiques shop, where items taken from the victims start turning up amid the clutter. As we get acquainted with the odd assortment of characters who work in and pass through the shop, we sense that one of them will be the Rottweiler's next victim... unless the meticulous killer makes an uncharacteristic mistake.

RATING:

Not my favorite Rendell offering but still quite enjoyable.

KILLING THE SHADOWS by Val McDermid

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

A killer is on the loose, blurring the line between fact and fiction. His prey - the writers of crime novels who have turned psychological profilers into the heroes of our times. But this killer is like no other. His bloodlust shatters all the conventional wisdom surrounding the motives and mechanics of how serial killers operate. And for one woman, the desperate hunt to uncover his identity becomes a matter of life and death.
Professor Fiona Cameron is an academic psychologist who uses computer technology to track serial offenders. She used to help the police, but vowed never to work with them again when they went against her advice and subsequently botched an investigation. Still smarting from the experience, she's working a case in Spain when her lover, thriller writer Kit Martin, tells her a fellow crime novelist has been murdered. It's not her case, but Fiona can't help taking an interest. When the killer strikes again Fiona finds herself caught in a race against time - not only to save a life but also to find redemption, both personal and professional.

RATING:

I am a HUGE fan of Val McDermid and this sadly was a HUGE disappointment -- it just seemed as if she was trying too hard and putting too much in one novel with the writing suffering tremendously.

SCAREDY CAT by Mark Billingham

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"It was a calculated, vicious murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station, followed her home on the tube, and then strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time the dead woman is found, a second body is discovered at the back of King's Cross station - killed in identical fashion. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murders of two other women, both stabbed to death months before on the same day." Introduced in Sleepyhead, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne sees the link and comes to the horrifying conclusion that it is not one serial killer the police are up against; it is two of them. Now each time a body is found, Thorne must live with the knowledge that somewhere out there is a second victim, waiting to be discovered. But while the methods might be the same, the killers are very different - one submissive and terrified, the other ruthless and in control. To stop them both, Thorne must catch a man whose need to manipulate is as great as his need to kill; a man who will threaten those closest to Thorne himself; a man who will show him that the ability to inspire terror is the deadliest weapon of all.

RATING:

Another excellent offering from Mark Billingham -- gripping, intense study -- I think I liked it even better than the first of the series, SLEEPYHEAD.

PAYMENT IN BLOOD by Elizabeth George

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

The career of playwrite Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an eighteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain's foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships, while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart.

RATING:

Second in the series, as always, another wonderful read by one of my favorite authors.

THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS by Caleb Carr

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends - high-living crime reporter John Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime - have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case. But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara's aid, the team reunites to help find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. Their investigation leads the team to a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children.

RATING:

Sequel to THE ALIENIST, one of my all-time favorites -- Carr succeeds in writing a richly textured, gripping story with wonderful characters told this time from a different narrator's perspective than in the first. Great read!

THE HEARSE YOU CAME IN ON by Tim Cockey

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Introducing a clever and gripping first mystery novel featuring an unconventional undertaker—who also happens to be one of Baltimore's most eligible and charming bachelors.
"I was going along just fine, solemnly chaperoning the dead into their graves and pretty much otherwise minding my own business when the woman calling herself Carolyn James stuck her halfway pretty face into my life and scattered all hell to the wind."
What self-respecting undertaker would allow himself to get involved in a murder investigation, a series of dirty videos, a case of political blackmail, and police corruption, as well as one of the worst amateur theater productions in recent memory? None, unless your name happens to be Hitchcock Sewell, the most charming suspense hero to come along in years. And who knew an undertaker could look so good? In this fast-paced and enormously entertaining mystery, Hitch has gotten himself into more trouble than any self-respecting undertaker should. This funny, offbeat new mystery series is bound to delight fans of Elmore Leonard and Janet Evanovich.

RATING:

Entertaining read -- anyone from the Baltimore, Md area will particularly enjoy but is not as good as compared authors Evanovich or Leonard.

DISSOLUTION by C.J. Sansom

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It is the winter of 1537, and England is divided into those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar general, crusades against the old Church with savage new laws, rigged trials, and a vast network of informers. Queen Anne Boleyn has been beheaded and the monasteries are being dissolved - their treasures pillaged and their lands eyed greedily by courtiers and country gentry. But having put down one people's rebellion, Cromwell is afraid another might topple the realm. So when one of his commissioners is murdered in the monastery at Scarnsea on the south coast of England, he enlists his fellow reformer, Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," to head the inquiry." When Shardlake and his young clerk and protege, Mark Poer, arrive at Scarnsea, the two uncover evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason. And when two other murders are revealed, Shardlake must act quickly to prevent the killer from murdering again.

RATING:

Sansom's debut novel is superb -- richly layered in characterizations and story. Highly recommended!

CONFESSIONS OF A DEATH MAIDEN by Ruth Francisco

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In the heart of modern-day L.A., Frances Oliver practices the arts and skills of the deathmaiden. Four years of intensive training at the Institute for Eternal Living and membership in the Society of Deathmaidens have well prepared her for the role. But the woman who knows so much about helping the dying cross over is about to discover just how little she knows about life ... when someone uses her - and all she stands for - to commit cold-blooded murder.
He is only a little boy, a Mexican child by the name of Tomas Gomez. Left in a persistent vegetative state by massive head trauma, he has been sent home from Abbot Kinney Medical Center to die. Yet from the moment she touches him, Frances senses that Tomas is not brain-dead at all, but only too frightened of something or someone to wake up.
Elated at the possibility of bringing him out of his coma, she briefly leaves his bedside. It is a lapse in judgement that will haunt her for the rest of her life. For when Frances returns, she bears witness to Tomas's final breath. And then, before she can even begin to get over the shock of losing him, a frantic doctor and his medics descend upon Tomas's small body and spirit it away.
As a deathmaiden, Frances saw into the boy's future. She knew that it wasn't his time to die. Who would kill an innocent child and why? Filled with rage and aching regret, Frances vows to uncover the truth. It will be a shattering journey fraught with danger and betrayal that will take her from the sterile corridors of a state-of-the-art biogenetics lab to the dense jungles of Mexico and back. There she will learn what they never taught her in school: Instincts can fail you, passions can blind you, and evilcan wear the most noble face.

RATING:

Francisco's debut novel shows much promise for the future -- she has a rich style of writing but the plot and supporting characters fall short from the wisecracking best friend to the mysterious lover.

CROSSROAD BLUES by Ace Atkins

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Where in mystery fiction is a blues hero? You can find him in New Orleans, Louisiana, living in his battered 1920s warehouse or playing harmonica at JoJo's Blues Bar in the French Quarter. His name is Nick Travers, an ex-New Orleans Saint turned blues historian at Tulane University. And this time he's headed deep into the heart of the blues - the Mississippi Delta. In August of 1938, the most celebrated figure in blues history, Robert Johnson, was murdered in Greenwood, Mississippi. Some say a jealous husband poisoned him at a juke joint. Others believe his death had something to do with selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads. Almost sixty years later, a college professor disappears into the Delta while following rumors of nine unknown Johnson recordings. Travers leaves Tulane to track the professor. Clues point to everyone from an eccentric albino named Cracker to a nineteen-year-old hitman who believes he is the second coming of Elvis Presley.

RATING:

Music lovers will particularly enjoy this one -- a glorious trip down south rich with the blues, colorful characters and locale. Great debut!

A COLD DAY IN PARADISE by Steve Hamilton

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

The bullet has been lodged next to Alex McKnight's heart for fourteen years now, the police officer who was his partner is fourteen years dead, and the borderline psycho named Rose, who shot them both, has been shut up in the state penitentiary since he was caught a year later. So how is it that in a small town named Paradise, on the shore of Lake Superior on Michigan's Northern Peninsula, the man named Rose seems to be stalking Alex McKnight? There is no doubt that Rose is still in prison - he has neither seen nor spoken to anyone on the "outside" in all these years. But McKnight, returning to his cabin in the woods late one night, finds a rose - the killer's calling card - in the snow at his doorstep. He'd been called out earlier by Edwin Fulton, a wealthy acquaintance and a compulsive gambler, who unilaterally thinks of McKnight as his "best friend." Fulton had gone to a local motel to pay off a bookmaker and found the man murdered with his throat cut. In his panic, he called ex-cop McKnight to extricate him. The bookmaker's murder is only the first of what becomes a series of killings, and Fulton's domineering and semihysterical mother engages McKnight, now a private detective, to ensure her son's safety. McKnight accepts the job reluctantly, knowing he will suffer the recriminations of Fulton's beautiful, dissatisfied wife, with whom he had a brief liaison. And all the while, there are the constant reminders that, impossible as it seems, somewhere nearby is Rose - his namesake flower at McKnight's door, his ghostly phone calls, his insane letters that remind the ex-cop of things done and words said that only McKnight and the killer could know. It's a double mystery that plagues Alex McKnight - how could Rose be in Paradise, and what is he planning to do to Alex?

RATING:

First time outing for author Steve Hamilton and it's a well-written mystery that ends all too soon only wanting to read more! (Winner of the Edgar Award)

A SHARE IN DEATH by Deborah Crombie

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

There is surely nothing more peaceful than the Yorkshire Moors in autumn, or so Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid supposes when he takes on the unlikely role of time-share holder at stately Followdale House in northern England. Newly promoted, weary from overwork, Kincaid opts for a holiday "incognito," relaxing with just a few good books. Some of his fellow guests have been to the time-share hotel before. Others are newcomers. One is a killer. Kincaid's anonymity comes to an abrupt end when a new acquaintance is found murdered in the hotel's whirlpool bath. It's convenient that a Scotland Yard man should be on the scene, but not so serendipitous for Kincaid. With help from his clever, down-to-earth Sergeant, Gemma James, Kincaid searches for a hidden connection between victim and suspects. Could the murderer be Cassie Whitlake, the provocative time-share manager with a unique social-climbing agenda? Or one of the MacKenzie sisters, eccentric spinsters on holiday from their goat farm in Dedham Vale? Or Graham Frazer, the brash insurance salesman who is accompanied by his unhappy fifteen-year-old daughter? Or does one of the other guests or staff have a secret worth killing for? Kincaid, at odds with the local officer in charge of the case, also struggles with his developing friendship with the intriguing scientist Hannah Alcock. When the killer strikes again, Kincaid and Gemma must pool their knowledge as together they move toward a startling confrontation with the murderer. A Share in Death places author Deborah Crombie among the gifted new crime writers who add freshness and vitality to the traditional detective novel form. Readers everywhere will love the compassionate and engaging Duncan Kincaid and his associate Gemma James, a heroine for the nineties.

RATING:

First in Crombie's series, not the greatest but still an easy and enjoyable read.

GALLOWS VIEW by Peter Robinson

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Former London policeman Alan Banks relocated to Yorkshire seeking some small measuer of peace. But depravity and violence are unfortunately not unique to large cities. His new venue, the quaint little village of Eastvale, seems to have more than its fair share of malefactors—among them a brazen Peeping Tom who hides in night's shadows spying on attractrive, unsuspecting ladies as they prepare for bed. And when an elderly woman is found brutally slain in her home, Chief Inspector Banks wonders if the voyeur has increased the awful intensity of his criminal activities. But whether relatied or not, perverse local acts and murderous ones are combining to profoundly touch Banks's suddenly vulnerable perosonal life, forcing a dedicated law officer to make hard choices he'd dearly hoped would never be necessary.

RATING:

I have read other Robinson books so was anxious to go back and read the first of the series having received this as a "Secret Santa" gift from another group that I belong to. I'm a huge Robinson fan but feel he definitely has improved since this debut -- still an enjoyable read however.

THE SCULPTRESS by Minette Walters

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Everyone knows about Olive Martin, the huge and menacing woman who was found five years ago with the carved-up bodies of her mother and younger sister. Everyone knows how she pleaded guilty to murder at her trial. And everyone knows not to anger "the Sculptress" even now that she is safely locked in prison for a minimum of twenty-five years. When journalist Rosalind Leigh accepts a commission to write a book about Olive, she finds herself wondering what lies behind all these facts that everyone knows. When Roz first visits her in prison, she finds that Olive is not quite what she expected. And if - as Roz is repeatedly warned - Olive lies about almost everything, then why did she confess so readily to two hideous murders? Roz may well wonder. The deeper she is drawn into the shadowy, disturbing world of the Sculptress, the more firmly she is convinced that Olive is hiding something - perhaps even her innocence. But whom could Olive be protecting, and why? Desperate to forget the tragedy in her own past, Roz hurls herself into the investigation with a determination bordering on obsession. And when she finds herself attracted to the very policeman who arrested Olive, she begins to wonder if perhaps the case hasn't taken over her life. But nothing can shake Roz from her purpose - not a community that wants Olive locked away and forgotten, not an attack on her own life, and not the thought of what might ultimately happen if she helps to set the Sculptress free...

RATING:

I'm a huge fan of this talented author but this particular title was the first that I read that I actually kept fighting the urge to skip pages -- just not one of her better efforts in my opinion.

BIRDMAN by Mo Hayder

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Detective Jack Caffery - young, driven, and seemingly unshockable - catches a career-making or career-breaking homicide in his first case as lead investigator with London's crack murder squad. A young woman's body has been discovered, dumped on wasteland near the Millennium Dome site in Greenwich, England. It's the most brutal degradation of the human form that the squad has ever uncovered. Caffery's well-deserved reputation is that of the most stoic of detectives, but his initial inspection of the corpse will forever scar his pysche. One by one, four more corpses are discovered only steps away from the first. Five bodies, all young women, all ritualistically murdered with cunning precision. And when a postmortem examination reveals a singular, macabre signature linking the victims, Caffery realizes that he's facing the most dangerous offender known to the force: a sexual serial killer. In the murky recesses of his own mind, Caffery harbors the haunting legacy of a loved one's slaying. What baffles him is that not a single missing person's report has been filed for any of the five young women. How has the Birdman chosen these seemingly perfect victims?

RATING:

Impressive debut by Hayder! Well-written and at times just plain creepy. Looking forward to reading more.