I’ve got mixed feelings on this absurd 1996 thriller.

The premise is interesting.

But the storytelling bogged down with far too much geeky detail.

FBI Special Agent and counterterrorism expert Sarah Cahill doesn’t know the man she’s tracking. But the so-called “Prince of Darkness” knows her—intimately. So when Sarah is summoned to Wall Street to investigate, little does she know that she’s the one under surveillance… until the terrorist infiltrates himself into the deepest, most desperate corners of her life.

Soon Sarah is plunged into a deep labyrinth of intrigue and catastrophe as she races to uncover a diabolically clever conspiracy…before time runs out…and the clock strikes THE ZERO HOUR.

JosephFinder.com

Criminal Record is a British crime thriller television series …

… premiered on Apple TV+ on 10 January 2024.

Two detectives, one a seasoned veteran and the other early in her career, clash on an old murder case after an anonymous phone call draws them to it.

Very good.

Peter Capaldi as DCI Daniel Hegarty should win all the awards.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Odd Hours (2008) is the fourth novel in the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. 

I liked the first 3 books in the series, but can’t recommend this one.

I can barely recall the plot, it seemed so random and disjointed. Coyotes, nuclear weapons, murders in a church, an angry ghost of Frank Sinatra.

Odd Thomas is a fictional character who first appeared in Dean Koontz‘s 2003 novel of the same name, Odd Thomas. He is a twenty-year-old man who lives in the fictional desert town of Pico Mundo, California, and is able to see the spirits of the dead. He is able to make himself heard to them but they cannot speak to him, although they may make signs or mouth words. This fact complicates much of the books. …

Wow.

What a book.

Twist upon twist.

She’s Not Sorry (2024) by Mary Kubica

Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom and working full time as an ICU nurse, when a patient named Caitlin arrives in her ward with a traumatic brain injury. They say she jumped from a bridge and plunged over twenty feet to the train tracks below.

A shocking revelation.

When a witness comes forward with new details about Caitlin’s fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was a crime committed? Did someone actually push Caitlin, and if so, who… and why?

No one is safe.

Meghan lets herself get close to Caitlin until she’s deeply entangled in the mystery surrounding her. Only when it’s too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims…

I noted again that the DRAMA in all these psychological thrillers with “Girl”, “Woman”, or “She” in the title are caused by lying. One lie leads to the next. And the next. Then the murder.

Not recommended.

It’s a variation of the dystopian zombie / vampire / pandemic genre.

If you like those — you MIGHT like this one, as well.

Personally, I feel it was poorly done.

Set over about 4 hours, it’s plodding.

Nats is annoying and not a believable character. To suspend disbelief, you must attribute her weird actions to the virus.

Survivor Song is a 2020 horror novel by American author Paul G. Tremblay. …

… centers upon people struggling to survive while a highly infectious virus decimates Massachusetts.

… hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with both virus victims and their regular capacity.

People are terrified and it is only a matter of time before the emergency protocols become inadequate.

The novel follows Natalie, a pregnant woman, and her friend Ramola “Rams” Sherman, a pediatrician, as they try to fight their way to the hospital to obtain the rabies vaccine.

Natalie has been bitten by an infected neighbor while unsuccessfully trying to defend her husband, who was (killed).

It was written before COVID-19. Published July 7, 2020.

I’m thinking the author did some late edits, reflecting what was going on with our real pandemic.

I’m surprised I got through this crime fiction, murder mystery as there are almost no likeable characters.

I won’t continue with the series.

Gemma is a good cop. A bad parent. A horrible human being.

The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind’s student years and then again when she returned to teach drama.

As much as Rosalind’s life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town’s richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her?

Rosalind’s enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets–an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past. …

Amazon

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The 7th book (2013) in the Virgil Flowers series ➙ Storm Front.

Very entertaining.

In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat.

In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You’re about to get a visitor. It’s an Israeli cop, and she’s tailing a man who’s smuggled out an extraordinary relic—a copper scroll revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon.

Wait a minute, laughs Virgil. Is this one of those Da Vinci Code deals? The secret scroll, the blockbuster revelation, the teams of murderous bad guys? Should I be boning up on my Bible verses?

He looks at the cop. She’s not laughing. As it turns out, there are very bad men chasing the relic, and they don’t care who’s in the way or what they have to do to get it. Maybe Virgil should start praying.

Another excellent book, well researched.

Some might find it a little slow and too painstaking.

Upgrade is a 2022 novel by Blake Crouch. It is his tenth stand-alone novel …

The novel explores the ethical and existential ramifications of genetic engineering, set in a near-future world where humanity grapples with the consequences of advanced human genetic enhancement. …

In the late 2060s, Logan Ramsay is a law enforcement official working for the Gene Protection Agency (GPA), an organization established in the aftermath of a global famine known as the “Great Starvation”, which resulted from an attempt to genetically enhance crops.

This catastrophe, which caused the death of 200 million people, was led by Logan’s mother, geneticist Miriam Ramsay.  …

It was thought that Mom died — BUT was secretly working on a genetic “upgrade” to improve our species, hopefully helping us last longer on earth.

The plot has as much to do with genetics as it does the relationship between Logan, his sister, and their Mom.

I did like the end of the book. Nice touch, Blake.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes is an excellent book. A super popular best seller.

The premise sounded unlikely to me.

Sam’s day takes an unexpected turn after she picks up the wrong bag in the changing room of her local gym. The bag, a genuine Marc Jacobs unlike Sam’s designer knock-off, belongs to Nisha, an American in London and pampered second wife of billionaire businessman Carl. Sam, who works for a printing firm and who is the sole breadwinner in her family, has meetings straight after her gym visit and so has no choice but to wear Nisha’s red crocodile-skin Christian Louboutin heels. The shoes seem to have a hypnotising effect on clients and lead her to land a series of new contracts.

Nisha, meanwhile, declines to wear the tatty flats she finds in Sam’s bag, and leaves the gym in flip-flops and a robe. When she arrives at her hotel for a lunch date with her husband, she finds two men at the door of her room who inform her she is not welcome. Carl, it transpires, has called time on their marriage, cancelled her bank cards and begun a romantic relationship with his assistant. –

Guardian Review

Weirdly, it works. The oddball plot somehow believable.

A feel good book.

Moyes became a full-time novelist in 2002. She had many novels rejected before finally making the jump to NY Times Bestseller lists.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I liked her historical fiction, The Giver of Stars, even more.