Number 27 in the entertaining Lucas Davenport series.

I wouldn’t call this one of the best — but I still enjoyed it.

Thanks to some very influential people whose lives he saved (including the President), Lucas is no longer working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, but for the U.S. Marshals Service, and with unusual scope.

He gets to pick his own cases, whatever they are, wherever they lead him.

… A Biloxi, Mississippi, drug-cartel counting house gets robbed, and suitcases full of cash disappear, leaving behind five bodies, including that of a six-year-old girl.

Davenport takes the case, which quickly spirals out of control, as cartel assassins, including a torturer known as the “Queen of home-improvement tools” compete with Davenport to find the Dixie Hicks shooters who knocked over the counting house.

Things get ugly real fast, and neither the cartel killers nor the holdup men give a damn about whose lives Davenport might have saved; to them, he’s just another large target.

Over past months, the author I’m reading most is John Sandford.

Saturn Run (2015) is a big departure from his usual murder mysteries.

It’s Science fiction, co-written by photography expert Ctein.

The year is 2066. …

The USA and China send spaceships to investigate what appears to be some kind of object near Saturn.

The race is on.

… an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond.

The alien technology revealed is fascinating.

And the plot — I found — quite original.

Certainly there was too much scientific mumble-jumble for this reader.

And the pacing was too slow for me. I wish the book had been shorter.

But it’s worth reading. Especially for fans of Science Fiction.

I enjoyed the last few paragraphs. Sandy had been arrested and sentenced to five years in prison — but …

Spy thriller. Set after the murdering dictator-for-life invaded Ukraine.

A very good book. This is the kind of writer that other authors admire.

It is a little … long.

Published January 28, 2025.

Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who can seemingly predict his every move.

Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana—unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several US intelligence agencies. Now, to save his own life, Paul must unravel a decades-old conspiracy that extends to the highest reaches of the government. …

josephfinder.com

Joseph Finder was born to be a spy.

Much of his childhood was spent living around the world, including time in Afghanistan and the Philippines.

Capable of speaking multiple languages, Finder began learning Farsi as a child navigating the streets of Kabul.

From an early age, Finder was placed in extremely stressful environments with many unfamiliar faces surrounding him.

Eventually, Finder’s family settled permanently just outside of New York.

Finder was born into the Cold War era of detente and mutually assured destruction with Russia.

Consequently, it is no surprise that someone as cultured and well-travelered as Finder became interested in the Soviet Union, the KGB, and Russian history. From high school to college at Yale, Finder devoted his studies to anything and everything Russian From history to politics to the government, Finder became an expert on Russian affairs.

JOSEPH FINDER BOOKS IN ORDER

by Catherine Mack

Funny. But a piss poor murder mystery.

I enjoyed the humour. The pop culture mentions.

It’s mockery of the cozy mystery genre. Makes fun of the authors.

And we readers don’t come off too well, either. 😀

All that bestselling author Eleanor Dash wants is to get through her book tour in Italy and kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next in her Vacation Mysteries series—is that too much to ask?

Clearly it is, because when an attempt is made to kill the real Connor—the handsome but infuriating con man she got mixed up with ten years ago and now can’t get out of her life—Eleanor’s enlisted to help solve the case.

Contending with literary competitors, rabid fans, a stalker—and even her ex, Oliver, who turns up unexpectedly—theories are bandied about, and rivalries, rifts, and broken hearts are revealed. But who’s really trying to get away with murder?

Catherine Mack is the pseudonym for thriller writer Catherine McKenzie. Her other books include Have You Seen Her, Hidden, Smoke and The Good Liar. She is currently based in Montreal. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. The start of the audio book.

A formulaic thriller that ranks with Quirk’s lesser efforts.

This is only my 2nd Quirk book — but I’d call both silly non-stop action thrillers with very little else to recommend them. He’s not my kind of author.

Suspend your disbelief.

As a Secret Service agent, Nick Averose spent a decade protecting the most powerful men and women in America and developed a unique gift: the ability to think like an assassin.

Now, he uses that skill in a little-known but crucial job. As a “red teamer,” he poses as a threat, testing the security around our highest officials to find vulnerabilities—before our enemies can. He is a mock killer, capable of slipping past even the best defenses.

His latest assignment is to assess the security surrounding the former CIA director at his DC area home. But soon after he breaches the man’s study, the home’s inner sanctum, Nick finds himself entangled in a vicious crime that will shake Washington to its foundations—as all the evidence points to Nick.

He knows he’s the perfect scapegoat. But who is framing him, and why? To clear his name, he must find the truth—a search that leads to a dark conspiracy whose roots stretch back decades. The prize is the most powerful position in the world: the Oval Office.

Matthew Quirk

Neon Prey (2019) is 29th in the Lucas Davenport series.

This author has loyal fans. Including me.

Clayton Deese looks like a small-time criminal, muscle for hire when his loan shark boss needs to teach someone a lesson. Now, seven months after a job that went south and landed him in jail, Deese has skipped out on bail, and the U.S. Marshals come looking for him. They don’t much care about a low-level guy — it’s his boss they want — but Deese might be their best chance to bring down the whole operation.

Then, they step onto a dirt trail behind Deese’s rural Louisiana cabin and find a jungle full of graves.

Now Lucas Davenport is on the trail of a serial killer who has been operating for years without notice. His quarry is ruthless, and — as Davenport will come to find — full of surprises…

Not as good as usual.

I couldn’t get into the nonstop pursuit. It seemed absurd to me that the villains didn’t simply start breaking vials of toxins throughout the chase.

Toxic Prey (2024) is John Sandford’s 33rd book in the Prey series.

Lucas Davenport and his daughter, Letty, team up to track down a dangerous scientist.

Climate change activists want to release a deadly virus to reduce the world’s population. They hope that fewer humans would result in the Earth rebalancing.