The 15th book (2016) in the Charlie Parker series is not his best.
Too long. Too slow.
The most interesting characters are Charlie’s sidekicks/bodyguards, Angel and Louis. They are not given enough time in this book. Nor is lawyer Moxie Castin.
John Connolly is an excellent author. But his story telling skills are far inferior to Stephen King, for one example.
Connolly writes gritty crime fiction with supernatural elements. Much violence.
In this book, one of Charlie’s clients is killed.
His investigation leads him to weird, creepy, cult-like group who call themselves the Cut.
Now age 84, he’s determined to finish his William Warwick series.
Nothing Ventured (2019)
Hidden in Plain Sight (2020)
Turn a Blind Eye (2021)
Over My Dead Body (2021)
Next in Line (2022)
Traitor’s Gate (2023)
An Eye for an Eye (2024)
William begins his career, after leaving university in 1970, as a constable on the beat. You follow the lives of William, his friends, family, colleagues and adversaries over five tumultuous decades, until William finally becomes Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 2022, not without many setbacks along the way.
He first becomes a detective in the art squad, and through his career moves through drugs, murder, royal protection, Olympic Games security and finally counter terrorism – with several triumphs and a few disasters in between.
A backdrop of colourful characters, including his remarkable wife Beth, The Hawk, his boss, Inspector Ross Hogan, his closest friend, and often the cause and sometimes the solutions of his problems, Princess Diana, The Crown, and Miles Faulkner, a brilliant and resourceful criminal who dogs his path and chance of promotion at every opportunity.
An Eye for an Eye is a drama revolving around a potential arms deal between Saudi Arabia and Great Britain. William is now Scotland Yard’s Chief Superintendent.
The arms deal is complicated by a murder — and international intrigue.
Meanwhile, villain Miles Faulkner has been released from prison, intent on ruining the lives of William and his wife Beth.
Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.
Córy Doctorow might just be the smartest tech pundit. And he’s incredibly well spoken.
I started the sequel — Homeland (2013) — but only made it about 30% through the audiobook.
The start at the Burning Man festival was entertaining. But I found it increasingly too geeky. The decision whether or not to release leaked data was not a compelling enough plot to keep me going.
Jeffery Deaver is probably my favourite author these days.
Especially his Lincoln Rhyme series, a quadriplegic detective, and NYPD Detective Amelia Sachs.
This 2024 book is NOT Lincoln Rhyme. It’s intended to launch a new series featuring Carmen Sanchez, a tough Homeland Security agent and Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert.
The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favour — and she drags him into investigating a series of murders across Southern California.
Deaver Fans like it. But, for me, this book was inferior to his usual work.
There are some plot holes.
And a lack of fact checking. One character is a Rhythmic gymnast on scholarship in the NCAA. There are no scholarships for Rhythmic gymnasts.
She has been obsessed with a large number of fires in which a single person always died, including one involving her sister.
Local authorities, finding no foul play, ruled all these fires were accidental. …
… a preliminary investigation is launched by the FBI …
The New York Journal of Books provided a positive review, saying, “Invisible is a difficult book to read because of the sheer horror and mayhem, but it’s even tougher to put down.”
Connolly is Irish, but these books are set in the USA.
In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child.
Everyone—ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk—has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty.
But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife’s guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old, twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built.
Reviews said the first third of the book was confusing — but finally started to make sense towards the end.
True. But — for me — this stand alone book was a big letdown after Osman’s excellent Thursday Murder Club series.
It’s somewhat amusing. Slightly entertaining as an absurd cozy mystery.
BUT I never did start to care much about any of the characters.
AmyWheeler is a private security officer for Maximum Impact Solutions, a private security company, currently protecting Rosie D’Antonio, “the world’s bestselling novelist, ‘if you don’t count Lee Child’”.
Her husband, Adam Wheeler—Steve’s son—works in finance and also spends most of his time traveling; they view their relationship as a long-term bet and don’t mind not seeing much of each other for now.
Amy’s father-in-law, SteveWheeler, is a widower and retired police officer who loves to stay at home. Talks to Amy by phone every day.
The plot’s confusing. Somebody seems to want to kill Amy. She’s under suspicion in the deaths of others who have been killed in 3 separate incidents, each murder occurring when Amy was nearby.
Amy’s suave boss, Jeff, seems to have disappeared. His former partner and best friend, Henk, might be responsible.
The foibles and eccentricities of the characters are interesting. But ultimately I can’t recommend this book.
31st in the John Sandford Prey Series featuring Lucas Davenport.
Ocean Prey (2021) is interesting in that the author brought in his other book series character — Virgil Flowers — to investigate the murder of three members of the Coast Guard in Florida.
Personally, I like Virgil much better than Lucas Davenport.
I found the book too slow. But it was interesting to see how the murdering drug smugglers operated in moving their dope from South America into the USA.
The novel reached number one an Amazon’s Most sold list April 24, 2021
Virgil’s love interest Rae is the most interesting character of all.
Click PLAY or learn about Sandford on YouTube. He didn’t publish his first book until age-47.
Rick McCharles 