The 11th book in the Lucas Davenport Prey series is quite good.

… the strangulation victim is Alie’e Maison, she of the knife-edge cheekbones and jade-green eyes: as models go, one of the biggest.

… there are a few small complications. Such as the drugs in her body and the evidence that she had recently made love to a woman. Such as the fact that one of Lucas’s own men had been at the party, and is now a suspect. Such as the little surprise they are all about to find when they search the house: a second body, stuffed in a closet, with a deep dent in its skull.

The whole case is going to be like this, Lucas knows — secrets piled upon secrets, the ground shifting constantly under his feet. …

JohnSandford.org

13th book in the series, Fresh Disasters (2007) is entertaining. All of the books with the village idiot, Herbert Fisher, are hilarious.

Stone Barrington has even more problems with women than usual. The excessive sexual content is entirely unnecessary — but I imagine the majority of readers have come to expect it. 😀

A chance encounter with a small-time crook sends Stone Barrington straight into the heart of New York’s mafia underworld …

It started out as just another late night at Elaine’s, but it ended with Stone on the horns of a dilemma. Forced to represent a sleazy but clueless con man, Stone finds that what could have been a throwaway case instead leads right to Carmine Datilla, a powerful mob boss with a notoriously bad temper and long reach.

With the help of his ex-partner, Dino, Stone investigates “Datilla the Hun,” and the rest of the mob family, encountering intrigue and danger at every turn.

Will Stone finally take a stand, or will he end up at the bottom of Sheepshead Bay?

Robert Crais is a terrific detective fiction author. Often listed with Lee Child and Michael Connelly.

Sadly there’s only one of his books available in audio in my 2 libraries. I’ll have to PAY MONEY if I want more.

L.A. Requiem (1999) is 8th in a series of linked novels centering on the private investigator Elvis Cole. …

Elvis Cole is contacted by business partner and friend Joe Pike to accept the request of Frank Garcia, owner of a tortilla company. The old tycoon wants the two to look for his daughter Karen Garcia …

Karen’s body is found by the police on a jogging trail in Lake Hollywood. …

The police are trying to cover facts about this murder. About half way through, Joe is charged with murder of a suspect in the case.

Things look grim for Elvis Cole.

I very much recommend this book.

Dark Harbor (2006) is another fun, quick read.

Stone Barrington hasn’t heard from his cousin, Dick Stone, in years.

Then, an otherwise pleasant meal at Elaine’s is interrupted by the CIA with news of Dick’s death—apparently by his own hand.

It seems that Dick Stone, a quiet family man who doubled as a CIA agent, methodically executed his wife, daughter, and then himself…or did he?

Appointed executor of Dick’s will, Stone must settle the estate and—with the help of his ex-partner Dino and friend Holly Barker—piece together the elusive facts of his cousin’s life and death as a CIA operative.

As usual, womanizing gets Barrington in a lot of trouble.

Two-Dollar Bill (2005) is one of the most unlikely plots in the Stone Barrington series.

Not long after Stone and his ex-partner Dino make the acquaintance of Billy Bob—a smooth-talkin’ Texan packing a wad of rare two-dollar bills—someone takes a shot at them.

Against his better judgment, Stone offers Billy Bob a safe haven for the night but almost immediately regrets it. The slippery out-of-towner has gone missing and someone has been found dead—in Stone’s town house no less.

Now, Stone is now stuck between a stunning federal prosecutor and a love from his past, a con man with more aliases than hairs on his head, and a murder investigation that could ruin them all.

John Sandford’s introduction of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers was an immediate critical and popular success …

Indeed, he’s my favourite of the Sandford characters.

It’s a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives (the second one, if you’re keeping count), when the phone rings. It’s Lucas Davenport. There’s a body in Stillwater — two shots to the head, found near a veteran’s memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth.

Exactly like the body they found last week.

The more Flowers works the murders, the more convinced he is that someone’s keeping a list, and that the list could have a lot more names on it. If he could only find out what connects them all . . . and then he does, and he’s almost sorry he did. …

JohnSandford.com

Excellent writing. Lyrical prose. Modern literature.

I believe I’d read this in the past. The story seemed so familiar.

All the Colours of the Dark (2024) by Chris Whitaker is a …

• missing persons mystery
• serial killer thriller
• love story

Late one summer (1975), the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who will risk everything to find her best friend.

But when she does: it will break her heart.

Patch lies alone in a pitch-black room – until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she lights their world with her words.

But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed.

Left with only her voice and her name, he paints her from broken memories – and charts an epic search to find her.

As years turn to decades, and hope becomes obsession, Saint will shadow his journey – on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them – and set free the only boy she ever loved.

Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever…

LindasBookBag review

Both Patch and Saint are unforgettable characters.

As a teenager, Charlotte, is even more entertaining.

Their story ranges over a quarter of a century — but I still found the book too long. And somewhat too complicated.

I’m OK with the ending, however. Something like the end of Shawshank Redemption.

Not the best Stone Barrington book. But I still found it entertaining.

Reckless Abandon (2004)

… now that Stone Barrington, on a Florida trip, has helped nail the guy who killed Holly Barker’s fiancé, Orchid Beach police chief Holly comes to the Big Apple to involve him in her hunt for a mobbed-up fugitive from her brand of justice.

Even though he’s a killer many times over, second-generation criminal Trini Rodriguez (Blood Orchid, 2002) can’t be brought to book because he’s an FBI informant who’s repeatedly called on to testify against higher-ups presumably even worse than him …

A skeletal thriller, evidently written on the back of a series of cocktail napkins, that’s most notable, like Woods’s other recent novels, as a pretext for bringing his stable of stock heroes and villains …

YES you should ignore the plot. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.