And it’s not nearly the best of the Stone Barrington series.
Stone Barrington and Holly Barker pursue a master spy and murderer in a tropical paradise …
Rogue agent Teddy Fay has been considered dead for some time now. But President Will Lee thinks Teddy may still be alive. In a top-secret Oval Office meeting, Stone Barrington learns that he and his cohorts, Holly Barker and Dino Bacchetti, are being sent to the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Marks, courtesy of the CIA, to track down Teddy once and for all.
St. Marks is a vacationers’ paradise, but its luxurious beach clubs and secluded mountain villas are home to corrupt local politicians and more than a few American expats with murky personal histories. Stone and Holly soon discover that in St. Marks, everyone is hiding something—and that Teddy Fay may just be hiding in plain sight.
A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood on the walls, no body — and her college-age daughter missing. She’s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them — Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. …
But the police can’t find the girl, alive or dead, and the widow truly panics. There’s someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get her husband directly involved.
Lucas gets in only reluctantly — but then when a second Goth is slashed to death in Minneapolis, he starts working it hard. The clues don’t seem to add up, though. And then there’s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? …
Molly has been promoted to Head Maid and Special Events Manager of the Regency Grand Hotel.
She’s in love and looking forward to getting married.
But Molly’s entire existence is upended when a film crew descends upon the hotel to shoot the hit reality TV show Hidden Treasures, starring popular art appraisers Brown and Beagle.
On a whim, Molly brings in a shoebox containing a few of her gran’s old things for appraisal, and much to everyone’s surprise, one item turns out to be a rare and priceless treasure.
Instantly, Molly is both a multi-millionaire and a media sensation—the world’s rags-to-riches darling—until the priceless piece vanishes from the hotel in the boldest, brashest antiquities heist in recent memory.
The key to the mystery lies in the past, in a long-forgotten diary written by Molly’s gran. …
I don’t like thrillers and can’t recommend this one, though it is popular.
Actually, the premise and start of the book are excellent. Ambitious and inventive.
If you like Michael Crichton, you’ll probably like this book. And the 2 sequels.
Thirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door.
It is the world’s best-kept secret—and its most terrifying.
Trying to regain his life in the Alaskan wilds, ex-con/ex-cop Travis Chase stumbles upon an impossible scene: a crashed 747 passenger jet filled with the murdered dead, including the wife of the President of the United States. Though a nightmare of monumental proportions, it pales before the terror to come, as Chase is dragged into a battle for the future that revolves around an amazing artifact.
Once the characters left Alaska, I started to lose interest. The twists and turns didn’t do anything for me.
59 years is a long marriage — especially with such rotten kids. 😀
Dad’s decline had progressed rapidly over 4-5 weeks. But we were all accepting of the end.
Mom moved on to a new life. She had plenty of medical problems and frustrations, but was still living independently in her own house at age-96. I was her sous chef.
Unexpectedly, sharp pains in her legs began in the middle of the night. We called the ambulance at 7am. And Mom survived only 1 night in Nanaimo hospital. I was very disappointed hospital staff did not do a better job of pain management.
Mom was clear to everyone that she was ready to die at any time. She’d made peace with the eventual end.
But, in Parksville, we were shocked and depressed with how it happened so quickly. Dad’s end at home was much more peaceful.
Mom and Dad had outlived most of their family and friends. But they will both be missed in Parksville.
As Mom’s vision deteriorated over the years, happily, she was still able to play cards regularly. Use the computer and watch TV.
She and I both listened to audio books, non-stop.
In their retirement years, Mom & Dad traveled a lot, especially to Mexico. We had many excellent trips together. While Pete the Jack Russell was alive for 19-years, we always drove.
Baja
Mom was the administrator (and my boss) at Altadore Gymnastics Club. We had plenty of memories together of fun at the Gym and travel for competitions.
Her retirement gift from Altadore was a greenhouse — which she set up at our place at Crawford Bay near Kootenay Lake. Mom got into gardening there.
Due to winter weather and fishing ➙ Mom and Dad finally moved out to Parksville on Vancouver Island. Made new friends in the retirement community.
Rob and Yvonne later decided to retire to Parksville, as well. Randy, Val, and I started spending more and more time on the Island. Our family holidays were always in Parksville.
Mom’s main exercise was walking until mobility issues finally slowed her down.
Rest in peace, Mom.
Mom & Dad bought insurance in 2014 which paid for most of their funeral expenses. In fact, all we had to do was make one phone call to a 24 hour / day number and most of the arrangements were made for us. It simplified things immensely when we were grieving.
In addition, they’d simplified their estate as much as possible. We still had one investment that required probate, but the rest was very easy.
BUT … this book is not nearly one of my favourites. I found it too slow.
BUT I quite appreciate the mantras that run through Colter’s head, which he picked up from his survivalist father.
In the TV adaptation — Tracker — Justin Hartley plays Colter Shaw. A good pick.
When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive.
But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter’s urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it? Colter and Dorion must race against a ticking clock to uncover the truth and save the citizens before the village washes out completely, destroying everything and everyone in its path.
But I’ve been disappointed with most — and even more disappointed with The Grey Wolf (2024), 19th in the series.
Best are the people of Three Pines — and there is very little of that in this book.
The plot is too complicated and utterly unconvincing. It’s a bad thriller.
Even worse, the clues are nearly non-existent. There’s no way Gamache would have reacted as he did in this one.
Sadly, the next book is likely to be part 2 of this nonsense.
A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “this might interest you”, a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list―and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization.
Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.
Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends.
Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. …
The book Shaman or Sherlock? says “Perry makes both Whitefields credible—the native woman with a secure role in the tribal hierarchy and a deep-seated commitment to tribal values, and the highly competent modern professional, who skirts the edge of the law to do good in her community.”
The story is excellent.
As a hiker, I appreciated it when the chase got into the woods. On foot. By canoe.
Jane relies on both modern skills and her Native American heritage to guide her clients from their old lives into new, presumably safer, lives.
Jane’s clients are generally in danger, whether from abusive partners, criminals, or the law. Her services include both the practical – documents, transportation, money, and protection – and the philosophical – how to adjust to a new and strange life and how to become a new person.
She teaches her clients to think “like a rabbit, not a dog”. As she explains to a client, “This is like dogs chasing a rabbit. When the rabbit wins, he doesn’t get to kill the dogs and eat them. He just gets to keep being a rabbit.”
Rick McCharles 