No One to Trust (2002) by Iris Johansen is a kinda dumb, easy to read, fast paced thriller.

The story follows Elena Kyler, a trained military sniper and assassin on the run from Rico Chavez, a ruthless Colombian drug lord and the father of her five-year-old son.

Desperate to keep her son from being raised in Chavez’s image, she turns to Sean Galen, a mysterious and capable operative.

Together, they flee across the country, facing a trail of murders and a final showdown as they realize there is truly “no one to trust”. 

Not bad.

Rough Justice is a legal thriller by Lisa Scottoline.

Published 1997, it serves as the third book in her popular Rosato & Associates series, which centres on a dynamic, all-female law firm based in Philadelphia.

Criminal defense attorney Marta Richter is just hours away from securing an acquittal for her client, Elliot Steere, a wealthy real estate mogul on trial for killing a homeless man in what he claims was self-defense during a carjacking.

However, right as the jury leaves to deliberate, Steere lets slip the chilling truth: he is completely guilty and completely unrepentant. 

Infuriated by the manipulation, Marta turns against her own client.

She races against the clock to uncover the evidence needed to convict him before the jury returns a “not guilty” verdict. To help her search, she recruits two young associates from the local firm Rosato & Associates—Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier.

This book is aimed at children aged 7 to 10.

But I enjoyed it.

Akimbo and the Elephants (1990) is the first installment in the beloved Akimbo series, which follows a brave ten-year-old boy living on a large wildlife game reserve in Africa.

Plot Overview

• The Setting: Akimbo lives on the edge of a vast African game preserve where his father works as the head ranger to protect wild animals. 
• The Conflict: Illegal ivory poachers are killing the grown elephants for their valuable tusks, leaving the helpless young calves behind to perish. 
• The Turning Point: After coming across the devastating sight of a mother elephant killed by poachers, Akimbo becomes determined to stop them. 
• The Plan: Realizing the reserve is too massive for the rangers to police effectively, Akimbo hatches a dangerous plan to go undercover, posing as an elephant hunter to infiltrate the poachers’ network.

Excellent.

Legal Tender (1996) is Rosato & Associates, Book #2.

Super high energy. Plenty of action.

Smart dialogue. Interesting characters. And humour.

In Legal Tender, maverick civil rights lawyer Benedetta “Bennie” Rosato is wrongly accused of murder – and goes on the run to prove her innocence and find the real killer. 

Publishers Weekly awarded it a “star” and raved that “Scottoline’s rambunctious legal thriller may change the way readers think about lawyers. Bennie, a delightful heroine, deserves an encore; and, again, Scottoline merits a big round of applause.”

The ending is super entertaining — and as highly improbable as any legal thriller you’ve ever read. 😀

Not bad.

Tears of the Giraffe (2000) is 2nd in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Botswana, which features the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe.

A cozy mystery novel continues the heartwarming and slow-paced adventures of Botswana’s premier female private investigator.

• The Missing American: Her primary case involves searching for a young American man who mysteriously vanished into the African plains ten years prior. 
• The Wayward Wife: She tracks a local man’s wife to determine why she remains away from home for long stretches each day. 
• The Unscrupulous Maid: An administrative plotline unfolds involving a deceitful maid working for her fiancé, which ultimately ends in a prison sentence for the culprit

Kate Shugak, is an Aleut woman in Alaska, a private investigator alongside her fierce, half-wolf, half-husky companion, Mutt.

Though Not Dead (2010) is 18th in the series. Entertaining.

The residents of Alaska’s largest national park are devastated by the passing of 87-year-old Old Sam Dementieff, a beloved community patriarch and Kate’s uncle.

The Inheritance: Sam leaves his entire estate to Kate, along with a cryptic, one-sentence letter instructing her to “find my father”.

The Mystery: Sam’s father was an outsider who vanished decades ago, taking a priceless tribal artifact—a Russian icon—with him.

The Danger: Within days of launching her investigation, Kate is threatened by unknown entities who are tracking her every move.

King Sorrow is a 2025 horror novel by American author Joe Hill …

Arthur Oakes, an American college student in Maine, faces an evil dragon who coerces him and his friends into offering a sacrifice every Easter.

Though I’m not normally a fan of horror, the dialogue and long time span in this novel made it feel fresh and original.

Some humour, as well.

The Forever War is a 1974 landmark military science fiction novel written by Joe Haldeman that uses an interstellar conflict to deliver a powerful allegory about the senselessness of war and the isolation felt by returning veterans.

Drawing heavily from Haldeman’s personal experiences as a drafted combat engineer who was wounded in the Vietnam War, the book is widely considered a foundational classic of modern science fiction.

Plot

The narrative follows William Mandella, a physics student drafted into an elite United Nations military unit tasked with fighting the Taurans, a newly discovered, enigmatic alien species. The core mechanic driving the book’s psychological tragedy is time dilation.

• The Physics of Travel: To engage the enemy, human soldiers must travel through collapsars at near-light speeds.
• The Cost of Dilation: While a mission lasts only a few months or years for Mandella, decades or centuries flash by on Earth.
• Alienation: Every time Mandella returns from battle, Earth’s society has evolved dramatically, rendering it unrecognizable. Language, currency, global economics, and even basic human sexuality shift entirely, making the soldiers biological and social relics out of time. 

It’s an anti-war story told from the soldier’s point of view.

The Witness (2012) is an excellent read, even if you don’t normally like Romance.

Plot Overview

• The Rebellion: At 16, studious and obedient Elizabeth Fitch temporarily rebels against her strict, controlling mother. She sneaks out to a Chicago nightclub, where she is lured to a house on Lake Shore Drive. 
• The Crime: That same night, Elizabeth accidentally witnesses a brutal mob hit tied to the powerful Volkov organized crime family.
• The Escape: When official witness protection fails to keep her safe, she vanishes on her own terms. She spends the next twelve years constantly on the move.
• The New Life: Now known as Abigail Lowery, she lives a highly isolated life in the Arkansas Ozarks. She works from home as a freelance security systems designer. Her property is fortified with high-tech security, firearms, and a fierce guard dog named Bert. 
• The Complication: Her eccentric, reclusive lifestyle immediately draws the attention of the local police chief, Brooks Gleason. As Brooks tries to untangle her mysterious past, their growing romantic connection threatens her safety. The dangerous men from her past begin closing in.

Nora Roberts 200th novel. 

Everywhere That Mary Went (1993) is the Edgar Award-nominated debut legal thriller by bestselling author Lisa Scottoline.

It introduces Mary DiNunzio, a hardworking associate at a cutthroat Philadelphia law firm.

The book functions as the first entry in Scottoline’s highly successful Rosato & Associates series.

PLOT OVERVIEW

Grieving the loss of her late husband, Mary’s focus is entirely on her career — until she begins receiving sinister crank phone calls and hate mail.

Carrying on a track for partnership while simultaneously trying to discover her stalker is the conflict.