3rd book in the Amos Decker series.

Again, very entertaining.

Our hero is 6′ 5″ and an obese 350 lbs.

Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters.

A man shoots a woman execution-style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself.

Even with Decker’s extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter — a family man with a successful consulting business — and his victim, a schoolteacher.

davidbaldacci.com

I kind of enjoyed Memory Man, the first book in the Amos Decker series.

Happily, I enjoyed Last Mile, 2nd in the series, more. Interesting and entertaining. Though it bogged down towards the end.

Decker is 6′ 5″ and an obese 350 lbs.

He has perfect memory.

Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution–for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier–when he’s granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime.

Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars’s case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men’s families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth. …

Last Mile

The audio book has two narrators. That normally doesn’t work for me. And it didn’t work this time.

Click PLAY or watch an interview on YouTube. Baldacci writes more books / year than just about anyone.

Excellent.

#2 in the Sean Duffy series set in northern Ireland.

Sean Duffy knows there’s no such thing as a perfect crime.

But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.

Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo.

This book is set during the Falklands War 1982. Duffy gets involved with the John DeLorean cocaine trafficking scandal. Recall the doomed DeLorean Motor Company set up in Belfast,  Northern Ireland to reduce sectarian violence. Create jobs.

This was during The Troubles.

Listen to the Audible version so you can enjoy the Irish accents.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory was published 2005.

A highly fictionalized version of the life of Catherine of Aragon and her rise to power in England.

Catherine was the first wife of Henry VIII, divorced after 20 years of marriage. Daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

My fear is that history is boring. That royal intrigues are boring.

Not so in the case of this book. It’s very fast paced. Most entertaining.

It’s part of what the author calls the The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels.

Though Philippa has a PhD in history, another of her books seemed to me more Romance / Bodice ripper.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2001) was not as good, IMHO.

But the plot still fascinates. Instead of focusing on the 2nd wife of Henry VIII — Anne Boleyn — the lead character is her younger sister — Mary Boleyn.

The other Boleyn girl.

In fact, Mary was the king’s mistress while Catherine was his wife. Though little of accuracy is known about Mary, she did have a roller coaster of a life. Mary died aged 43–44.

King Henry had Anne beheaded at the Tower of London at age 28–35.

In any case, if you like historical fiction — check out Philippa Gregory.