Jeffery Deaver is the master of plot twists & turns. False summits. 😀

Fewer than usual in Watchmaker’s Hand (2023), but it’s still an excellent novel.

16th in the Lincoln Rhyme series.

When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and killing several people, Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are on the case.

A political group claims to be behind the sabotage and threatens another crane collapse in twenty-four hours, unless their demands are met.

With New York in a panic, the stakes are higher than ever for Rhyme and his team to unravel the plot before the timer runs out and more cranes crash down, reducing the city and its people to rubble.

Then Rhyme realizes that the mastermind behind the terror is his own nemesis—the Watchmaker.

Once again, it’s a battle of wits between Rhyme and the Watchmaker.

Technology plays more a role in this book. Drones. Artificial intelligence.

It feels like Lincoln is falling behind the times in some ways.

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The 2nd season of Reacher on Prime launched yesterday – Dec. 14, 2023.

This book is an early story of Jack Reacher, when he was still military police. Second chronologically of the books.

Having read them all, I’d call this one average. That still puts it into one of my top 10 novels of the year.

And this is the 4th and last Reacher book where the original author, Lee Child, will still have his name attached. From here on his younger brother Andrew Child takes over 100%.

A string of mysterious deaths. A long-classified mission. ….

1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention.
 
That attention comes from the secretary of defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. And he wants Jack Reacher as the army’s representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he’s a convenient fall guy.
 
But office politics isn’t Reacher’s thing. Three questions quickly emerge: Who’s with him, who’s against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind . . . or his own kind?

Amazon (2023)

Susan Juby, Nanaimo, B.C., teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University.

Her book set on a Canadian gulf island.

In this comedic (murder) mystery, Helen Thorpe is a former Buddhist nun who is fresh out of butler school. 

When a suspicious death takes place in an upscale spiritual retreat, suspicions turn to a quartet of suspects with a motive for murder. …

Susan Juby’s novel Mindful of Murder is a murder mystery full of humour and compassion

I many times laughed out loud. Though Judy is a Buddhist and clearly sympathetic to all things west coast, she pokes fun at hippies, flower arrangement, spiritual dance, and all things bohemian. 😀

She loves butlers. I wanted to go to butler school myself by the end of the story.

The book is told from the perspective of a number of interesting characters. My favourite was a stoner, slacker local teen brought in last minute as a general dogsbody.

Having spent time in Buddhist and Hindu ashrams myself, I could relate to the mixed feelings of the … inmates. 😀

Though a light read, there is quite a bit of philosophy, as well. I enjoyed reading about the Death Club. And their views on assisted suicide. The conflicts between Buddhist philosophy and the real world.

There will be two more books about Helen Thorpe, the butler who didn’t do it.  Planned for 2024 and 2025.

I made it through 41% of this romance novel — intrigued by the concept of a 5-STAR WEEKEND.

Organizing a get-together with 4 close friends from 4 different eras of your life: High School, College, motherhood, and … today.

Super popular as it is, this is not my kind of book.

I’m turned off by the 6 women constantly complaining about … everything

Actually, one I did like is Dru-Ann, a high level sport agent.

After a tragedy, a food blogger named Hollis Shaw brings four friends from different times in her life to spend a weekend in Nantucket. …

Chronicling the entire weekend is Hollis’s daughter Caroline who is interning with a famous documentary filmmaker.

During this trip, the women rediscover the meaning of friendship and overcome their personal struggles. Secrets are also revealed.

The Five-Star Weekend (2023) by Elin Hilderbrand