Mystery Crime Books

Superbly narrated by Martin Jarvis, "Silks" is the collaborative work of Dick and Felix Francis. This unabridged, 9 disk audio book is a compelling racetrack murder mystery set in Britain. Defense Lawyer Geoffrey Mason is not only a barrister in London's Old Bailey, but an amateur jock with a passion for horse racing. When a fellow jockey is brutally murdered by a pitchfork through the chest, Mason is called upon to defend Steve Mitchell, a fellow jockey and the most likely suspect. A story of violence, intrigue, and threats upon his own life, Geoffrey Mason is faced with a complex web of possibilities and unknowns that must be resolved if his client is to be cleared -- and his own life preserved. Dick Francis is an acknowledged master of race track mysteries, and this flawlessly recorded audio book edition of "Silks" is a 'must' for his legions of fans.

While I love Dick Francis books enough to buy them in hard-back and re-read them regularly, "Silks" seemed like Dick Francis 'lite'.

The lead, Geoffrey Mason, lacks the strength, character and intensity of main characters from earlier works, such as Kit Fielding in "Break In". The "Silks" storyline also felt lackluster and the ending left me wanting something more.

If you are a Dick Francis fan, by all means, read this one too. But I prefer some of the earlier works like "To the Hilt".

If you're not a fan of Dick Francis, then you really want to start with Straight (Dick Francis Library) or Reflex (Berkley Fiction), two of his very best. If you are a fan, this will will be another pleasant day out at the track, good weather, fine horses, and you'll win a few modest wagers on the Tote, but there won't be any stunning upsets.

This time, our protagonist (in Francis' trademark first person POV) is a barrister, a lawyer who argues cases in the British courts. We get interesting insights into his profession, and a very believable young thug as the First Villain of the piece.

The story proper starts with a murder (very traditional) and quickly spawns a complex web of witnesses, entangled lives and a great honkin' Clue. It is here that the story is weakest, as it bogs down a bit in the middle- there needed to be a bit more going on. We take a lengthy excursion into the character's personal life while not making progress on the mystery and waiting for something to happen in the rest of the plot.

However, after some slowness in the middle, it launches into a bang-up courtroom finish, with revelations and confrontations galore. This is considerably more polished and better paced than the first Francis and Francis outing, and if it's not first-rank, it's certainly enjoyable and recognizably part of Francis' greater body of work.

_Silks_ is a mid-range Dick Francis novel. It delivers the usual pleasures of Dick Francis novels: a racing background, a sympathetic protagonist, a scary villain, a little romance, and an interesting backdrop. As a long-time Francis fan, I was glad to get it and enjoyed reading it. Much as I'd like to, however, I can't give it more than three stars. It has an excellent start, and a good finish, but it lags in the middle.

It doesn't take long for Geoffrey Mason, our hero, to get into frighteningly credible hot water. That's good--but then he takes an awfully long time to do anything effective about it. The middle part of the book fails to build on itself. In a thriller/mystery tale like this one, the protagonist should always be getting more information, getting closer to the bad guys, using what he's learned to push one step further. The antagonist, meanwhile, should always be expanding the scope of his nefarious doings, upping the threat level, reacting to the hero.

Neither of those things happens very much in _Silks_. Mason goes down a lot of blind alleys, and fails to uncover many new facts during his rather desultory investigations. Ultimately, he gets the information he needs via a phone call from a third party. The villain, in turn, simply repeats his original threats over and over. (Part of the trouble is that the villain, when uncovered, turns out to be a somewhat peripheral character.)

Finally, because there's no chain of revelations, Francis & Francis have to rely on a gimmick to inject surprise. In a typical mystery, we readers know what the investigator has *seen*, but not what he *thinks*. Here, Mason explains everything to the other characters in the book--but not to us. Censoring the information given to the reader is one of the weakest of authorial tricks, and in this case it happens several times.

The best part of _Silks_ is Julian Trent, the brutal thug whose trial sparks the whole chain of events. Intimidation in the justice system is a very real problem, and it's all too easy to imagine ourselves in Geoffrey Mason's situation. _Silks_ is very effective in showing how fragile that system really is.

It also delivers a good courtroom drama sequence. This has been done so often that it's something of a cliche. The Francises make this old standard deliver by actually giving an insight into a trial lawyer's mind; we get some understanding of Mason's tactics, his strategies, his worries, his analysis. The effect is to make the legal proceedings less of a circus and more of a high-stakes chess game. (It's also an amusing contrast for anyone who's a fan of Rumpole of the Bailey!)

If you're a long-time Francis fan, you'll probably enjoy _Silks_. Spending time in Francis territory is rather like visiting an old and familiar place: even if things aren't quite the way you remember, it's a pleasure to be among friends. If you're relatively new to Francis, however, you might want to start with one of his top-notch classics--_Risk_ is a personal favorite--where the pacing isn't quite so lax.

Julian Trent blames his former London barrister Geoffrey Mason for his initial assault conviction that was overturned on appeal. Mason thought his client got off soft on an overwhelming lost case. However, Trent believes his lawyer did not provide a proper defense and begins sending intimidating messages to Mason.

Although he has doubts bigger than Big Ben, Mason agrees to defend jockey Steve Mitchell against a murder charge. Evidence is strong that a crime of passion occurred as witnesses saw Mason's client and another jockey Scot Barlow arguing over the latter's late sister who was the former's girlfriend Millie when he was married with kids. Barlow blamed Mitchell for his sister's suicide while Mitchell blamed Barlow for informing his wife of the affair as his spouse divorced him, remarried an Aussie, and moved with their kids to Australia. Not long after that Barlow was found murdered with the means being a pitchfork. However, to his shock, unknown adversaries order Mason to lose the case or else they imply his septuagenarian father would be battered like his computer just was.

SILKS is a terrific legal thriller starring a barrister with a difficult case exponentially compounded by threats to lose and by Mason's problems to focus as he also believes Trent is involved. The story line is a fast ride around the track although racing is more background than usual in a Dick Francis thriller. Although the courtroom revelation seems out of Perry Mason rather than Geoffrey Mason, fans enjoy the latest collaboration from the father and son Francis horse racing mystery team (see DEAD HEAT).

Harriet Klausner

This book had a great, well-written start and a very interesting "hook." After a disaster, the protagonist realizes that his wife of 8 years is not really who he thought she was, and may not even really exist as he knew her. He sets off to find the truth and becomes involved in true James Bond stuff, complete with women with exotic accents, massively expensive cars, etc.

It becomes quite complex, with villains popping out on every side. But then it collapses into idiocy. Without revealing the plot, I'd say that it has the usual, by now hackneyed, set of villains: the US government and Christians. But what would a modern PC thriller be without these two forces of evil? Still, I resent having fattened Christopher Reich's bank account for this book.

The "liner notes" got my attention - so I bit. And it was a bad choice. Boring, uninteresting, not thrilling, no real surprises, and another average "intrigue" novel which never really got going. These things are a
"dime a dozeon" as my mother would say - sometimes a great plot overcomes lazy writing; sometimes great writing makes up for a ridiculous or dull plot line. I thought neither benefit came through in this book and I wish to hell I had paid $7 for a paperback so I could throw it out half way thru.

Excellent condition of book as stated. Shipping great. Good shopping expe from Amazon.rience in all ways

This is my first time reading Reich and I was drawn to the book after I saw him in a interview. The book kept me glued and I literally couldn't put it down. I recommend this to anyone looking for a smart,refreshing, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will leave you wanting more! 5 stars!

I enjoyed reading this book and read it fairly quickly. However. I decided to give it four stars instead of three because it kept me going and entertained. Here are some of my observations:

1. The book reads like a Dan Brown or Ludlum novel. Very short chapters, moving from one key player to another and back again. We see things happening simultaneously from three or four different perspectives. However, there are some surprises thrown in and some long pauses between some of the characters that didn't quite work timing wise. The boogeyman is always there ready to jump out and kill him and yet sometimes, he keeps his distance and we forget about him.

2. Like in a Ludlum novel, the main character, Dr. Jonathan Ransom, is constantly confronted with shocking and crazy things that plunge him deeper and deeper into a maze that seems like he will never find his way out. Can you imagine being in love with a wife who is actually leading a totally provocative second life?

3. So the plot thickens, the world is about ready to experience world war three, while Jonathan is dodging bullets, gets lucky over and over again and escapes death and being arrested by the Swiss police, all while having just lost his wife in a skiing accident. A little too much Hollywood here. And yet, like Hollywood, it's fun. That said, I would enjoy it even more if he'd read a little LeCarre or Len Deighton and incorporate more plot plausibility, a little subtlety, a little more real spy stuff and a little less harrowing and exaggerated story lines. Not that the story lines themselves are bad. But they're too quickly put together and too immediate and I felt, too unbelievable, which makes the story not quite as gripping as it could have been.

All and all, it's worth the read, and like "Da Vinci Code," moves along quickly and in short readable chapters with characters you like and care about. It's a great airport novel but with a little work, could have been even better.

Instead of calling it a comic book, it's called a "graphic novel." I thought this was an Odd Thomas book that I had missed hearing about. The description of the book as a graphic novel makes me think of a book that has some illustrations. Not so in this case. So if you want to actually read a book about Odd Thomas, this is not the one.

Like many other fans, I was intrigued by Odd Thomas, this Pied Piper of other-world residuals, including Elvis, Ol' Blue Eyes, and furry Boo. Through "Odd Thomas", "Brother Odd", and "Odd Hours", the likable, well-mannered young hero is induced by some irrestible urge to right the wrongs of both tangible and intangible evil committed against innocents--who, having been rendered purgatoried, speechless spirits tossed prematurely from their vital human bodies--require an intermediary to intervene on their behalf and render justice served via a formulaic, good-ultimately-trumps-evil, mystical who-done-it. Ahhh, the latest novel is served...er, or is it? The package I received in the mail seemed kind of thin to be a Koontz novel; nevertheless, I anxiously ripped it open, ready to dive in to the latest "Odd Thomas" fare. There it was, the most recent and anticipated, red-coated dish. Wait a minute...it was the size of a pamphlet. Oh my, even shorter than the previous "Odd Hours" by 93 pages. I leafed from the back of the book to see the number of pages (190--if you don't count the 14 page introduction to his first book, "Odd Thomas"), and I was somewhat distracted by cartoon pictures at the end of the book. I then leafed from the back through the whole book to the front cover. What...? I read the front cover again--sure enough, it was "In Odd We Trust" and the author was Dean Koontz. But...this wasn't an adult novel, it was a comic book! And not just any old comic book like Superman or Prince Valiant, oh no, it is rendered in Japanese anime, like the Pokemon my young son watches on the Cartoon Network. I was speechless. I felt like I had unsuspectingly sat on a Koontz whoopie cushion. At what point/who/when/why did Koontz decide to turn a promising character novel along the vein of "Fear Nothing" and "Seize the Night" into a juvenile-male, video game fantasy? It's as if Koontz got his fans hooked on his usual full length novels for the first two in the series, then decided he no longer needed to be bothered by exhausting his well-paid brain in the process of extending subsequent storylines into full novels. Surely his loyal fans would gratefully feed upon whatever meatless bone he graciously tossed them in order to keep up with their paperback hero. (I unknowingly did).
As you can most likely observe, to say that I was disappointed with this tripe is an understatement. Not knowing what to do with it, now that it had been purchased and shipped (I didn't even want to handle it, as if the mere touching of it defiled my better sense), I put it on the shelf with my greater-than-two-dozen-strong Koontz collection, knowing that I could take it to a used paperback book exchange and trade it for something readable, like, perhaps, a reliable Cook novel. It appears as if, at least from my standpoint, my hero Odd Thomas passed on to finally be reunited with his one true love at the end of "Odd Hours," that is, if Koontz continues to insult his loyal fans by giving less (no) quality with each subsequent offering. (And at the rate of decline in volume itself, for one, the next in the series will be what, a 35-page picture "brochure"?) If you a a loyal Koontz fan, save your money (and your shock and disappointment) as this usually consistent and entertaining captain of wordsmiths has jumped ship, leaving the reader behind, with an unusable rope tied to a brick.

The book is a comic book style of writing. I didn't enjoy reading it as well as I would have a book. The read is much faster as a comic book.

I like Dean Koontz very much and his story in comic form is a well done approach. I like it very much and I am looking forward to further issuse form Odd...

I really enjoyed "In Odd We Trust!" It was so interesting to "see" Odd and Stormie as they solved the case and caught the "butcher." I would recommend it to everyone. It really doesn't read like a "funny book" as we used to call comics, or that style. It was a real page turner as are all of Dean's wonderful, sometimes terrifying tales.

When I selected this item, it did indicate that it was a hard cover, but I was a little disappointed to receive what looks like a Doubleday hard cover and not a hardcover that would have been sold in stores. Other than that, the book was in excellent condition.

This was the 7th book in the Womans Murder Club, easy fast reading.
Excellent!!!!

I enjoyed this book tremendously. I love the whole Womens Murder Club series, books and the TV show based on it. I am definitely a fan of ALL of James Patterson's books. And I am very glad that new 'bestsellers' come out often.
FOREVER A FAN

The Woman's Murder Club is made up of Detective Lindsay Boxer, Assistant D.A. Yuki Castellano, Medical Examiner Claire Washburn and Reporter Cindy Thomas, so when these girls sink their teeth into a crime in San Francisco, Criminal lookout.

In this outing popular and well liked Michael Campion, son of the past Governor of California has been kidnapped. We learn fairly soon that hooker Junie Moon was present when Michael was killed, but did she do it?

Meanwhile some guys named Pidge and Hawk are burning down the houses of the wealthy, while the wealthy are still in them, and that'll get the attention of the SFPD real quick, crispy rich people.

So there you have the crimes the gals are going to dig into when you dig into this fast paced book (and the pace is made even faster by Mr. Patterson's short chapters: 376 pagers cut up into a whopping 125 chapters. You can do the math, they're short.) I read the book in one sitting, just couldn't put it down.

I like that the chapters are short and well written. There is always the twists and turns that keep you interested in the book.

For those of us who write stories and are occasionally published, we are constantly told to never open a fiction piece with either a dream or the weather. The reasoning being, according to agents and writing experts, that such an opening is either clichéd or weak and makes the submission worthy of the instant rejection. That and the stigma of having ignored the current expectations of the publishing coasts and by doing so, showing that the writer is oblivious to doing things correctly. Ironic then, that James Lee Burke opens the latest novel in the Dave Robicheaux series doing both and it works well.

Two years after Katrina ripped apart New Orleans, Clete and Dave and his family are spending the summer in Montana. The "Bobbsey Twins from Homicide" are far older these days physically and mentally and both are in deep mourning. Not only in regards to their lives and the choices they have made or had forced on them from time to time, but they also still deeply mourn the city that exists no more. Unlike heroic and flawed gunfighters of old, they haven't literally run off a cliff, but emotionally they have and are still in free fall with no landing in sight. The current plan is to heal body and spirit as they stay on a friend's ranch and to ignore the rest of the world around them. If only it was that simple and with Clete Purrel nothing is simple.

Clete literally lost his way the night before and end up camping on what he thought was vacant land but wasn't. Instead, he has spent the night on the Wellstone ranch and has drawn the interest of two of his security goons. Goons that used to work for a very bad mob guy who died a few years back in a plane crash. The goons are bad news and should have been splattered all over the hillside years ago where the mob guy died.

Instead, they are working for a shady and very rich man, Mr. Wellstone, who happens to own the property virtually next door to their friend, Albert Hollister. That may or may not have something to do with the fact that within hours of Clete being asked to leave his campsite, two brutally murdered college kids are found nearby. Knowing they are in the area and have knowledge and experience that could help, the local sheriff asks Dave to advise him.

Something that probably would have happened anyway because neither Clete nor Dave can leave things alone when there are degenerates in the neighborhood. And there are a lot of them in this 402 page long winding navel gazing novel. While much better than the slit your throat depressing ode to New Orleans also known as "the Tin Roof Blowdown" this novel is another book that spends an inordinate amount of time going nowhere.

Along with the contemplation of the wrath of Katrina made worse by political incompetence and the concept of aging as what you knew ceases to be now, the old theme of evil that has been a constant spine of James Lee Burke's work is considered again. It is considered constantly because Burke, through his characters, attempts to determine if people are born into dark evil or instead through fate, exposure to others such as family, war, friendship, etc descend into evil. Is one made evil at birth or born into evil and corrupted? While not a religious novel in that sense, there is a certain religious pondering that runs through the novel as the topic is considered. It is no mistake that at least one character is saved by the love of a flawed woman and in essence, reborn and able to change his ways and find peace.

That consideration of evil and the beginnings of evil can go on for pages at a time and further slows down a slow work. A work made slow by far too many characters who are described in detail and used in story lines to stand as testimony to salvation and rebirth through the love of a flawed woman.

It would be easy to deeply analyze this book on religious grounds and write a college level paper for some English or psychology class regarding all the deeper level of meaning in the book. On that level, the book succeeds as it slowly works through several different themes and concepts. Read as a mystery tale, it doesn't hit the mark as too many characters have little relevance to the primary story line in a read that hardly goes anywhere for more than 300 of its 400 pages.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2008

We listened to the audio version while traveling cross country. The reader was talented but the story was so raw and brutal it was hard to take. I have never read this author before and probably won't again. If stark brutality is your thing you may like it but be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The only thing we really enjoyed was the outlandishly descriptive language which was sometimes so over the top we had to laugh. The author must write with a text book of over blown adjectives with the object of using as many as he can cram onto the page.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dave Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and sidekick, Clete Purcell, leave ravaged New Orleans for some R&R, peace and quiet and some fishing in Montana. But where Dave and Clete are, tranquility is rarely, if ever, present. No sooner do they get there then trouble finds them--in spades.

While fishing, Clete is accosted by two men telling him he is trespassing on the land of a wealthy Texas oil family, the Wellstones. Soon, Dave and Clete are in the middle of not one, but two, double murders. Clete's past association with a mafia don comes home to haunt him. Then Clete finds himself amorously involved with the wife of one of the Wellstone brothers, among other entanglements. Meanwhile there are subplots involving other characters, and it all becomes very complicated.

Written with the accustomed smoothness of a Robicheaux novel---this is the 17th in the series---the setting enables the author to pay tribute to one of his two homes--Montana--where he lives in addition to the one in New Iberia, LA, Dave's normal domicile. It all comes down to an astounding finish. Don't miss this one!

Fans of James Lee Burke will love this latest book about murder in Montana and the foibles of sidekick Clet Purcell.

My wife and I have been reading James Lee Burke since he started being published. His descriptions of his surroundings, and his prose in general have become increasingly impressive and delightful, suggesting he may be studying the Masters. Indeed, in this book, if prose can be rated on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, this book should be rated a 10! Further, I suggest that readers beware: if you have other pressing "gotta-do's" on your agenda, don't start this book because you likely will not put it down until you have read the last sentence.
I rated this book a 3.5 vs a 5.0 because, along with being more prosaic, Burke seems to me to be increasingly base, ugly and disgusting in some of his characters who have barely graduated from animals to humans. The details of one man raping another could not bave been more repugnant, and, I believe is a first for Burke. A backhoe operator digging deep graves in which he intends to deposit newly created human corpses is also a first. As Burke has said, in this and previous books, worms and snakes crawl through his mind in all phases of daily living & sleeping --- lonliness, fear, exhilarations and on and on. There are just more pages of this kind of repugnances than I care to read.
In summary, this is a book that is well worth reading keeping in mind these caveats.

Since my review is number 82 I'm just going to say if you are a fan of True to the Game you will like part III. I'm just unsure if you will love it...I read it in 5 hours just because my curiosity would not let me put it down, but overall I was not blown away...

I think the first book was the best but the others had more detail; there all good books, the story ended the way it was suppose too

after reading all of the negative reviews i was kinda of skeptical about reading true 3,but once i started reading i could not put it down.i must say i enjoyed it

Although part III is much better than part II it is still a far cry from the original "True to the Game"...Now II left us believing that Ms. Woods actually made a "Young & the Restless" move & brought Quadir back to life so it was no surprise to learn the identity of Gena's savior...I've always LOVED Quadir & envied the love he had for Gena...So if u read I & II then u might as well read III...Ms. Woods I'm now looking forward to the completion of the "Angel" & "Deadly Reigns" series....can u please make it happen?!

True to the Game III begins where part 2 left off. Gena wakes up in a unfamiliar surroundings all bruised and bandage. Wondering who saved her life from the brutal attack which was caused by Jerrell. She receive the shock of her life when she comes face to face with her true love and savior Quadir, who was suppose to have been shot and killed.

There are so many unanswered questions that Gena is looking for answers from Quadir. Of course she is highly upset because how could he go this long without letting her know that he was still amongst the living. Quadir takes us back to the night he was shot up and how he survived, his rehabilitation with the help of Dr. Amelia Hopkins, and how he was the one behind keeping her safe when she thought someone was following her. The question is has Quadir moved on with his life or is Gena his one and only true love?

True to the Game III is a pretty good read, but not one of Mrs. Woods best. The book did keep my attention. The book also went different ways, there a few people after Gena including some crooked cops but in the end will justice prevail?

Tangerine, Reviewer
Reader's Paradise Book Club

Darnton has done it again...created characters and a plot that entertain, inform and surprise. If you like your murder mysteries with a dash of humor (incredibly improbable murder weapons and situations) and plenty of reality from the standpoint of where print media is headed, this book is for you. The hero is described as protean and that's how I describe the book, chock full of facts and history about the newspaper trade yet delivering all of the basic elements of a great, traditional murder mystery, plot twists, false leads and surprise ending. Plus this guy's writing is so darn good, real page turner...best beach read of the summmer...loved it.

This was a Kindle romp!

I read the review in the NY Times and decided to download it to my Kindle. It was a delicious read from start to finish - - full of outrageous puns (not a lot of groaners though) - and the character names (oy!) Dinah Outsalot is the Food Critic if that gives you any indication of character names!

The plot moves quickly, the newspaper barbs are fun and you won't guess whodunit very early.

Buy it - it's a fun read!

The slug: slay
The lede: Respected reporter and noted author John Darnton is charged with suffocating characters and burying them in disparate plots in his latest novel "Black & White and Dead All Over."
This reviewer could only lament, "And to think, the ink wasn't even dry."

"Black & White and Dead All Over" spins a murder mystery that revolves around the vicissitudes of the newspaper business. Grisly murders are committed at the NY Globe - a NY Times surrogate. Jude, a scrupulous reporter at the Globe, is tasked with investigating the crime for the paper. He sleuths through leads that become frustrating dead ends. He encounters invective suspects and colorful confidants whose real crimes are being too stereotypical. Like a hungry shark circling in on flailing prey, Jude steadily navigates the unfolding drama -- darting in for a nibble or two before the final lunge. Jude ultimately reveals the big not-so secret, uncovers the forgettable killer and secures his job at a failing newspaper.

Darnton succeeds in recreating the acerbic atmosphere at a pre-eminent newspaper in the throes of internet apoplexy, financial convulsions and tabloid seizures. The nicotine-addicted, hard-drinking neurotics of the Globe suffer their deadlines confined in a smoke-free office sobered by the realization that the local bar runs them a tab. The duality of these characters is the real story. The reason Darton uses murder as the vehicle to connect the storyline is the real mystery.

I have read several books about newspapers but none have given me the inside feeling of the paper in operation as Black & White has done. One sees the stereotypes of the reporters and management. The portrayals are entertaining and very funny.

That would have been enough for a great read. Fortunately, Mr. Darnton has added to this a really good mystery that kept my interest. It is an old fashion mystery when many have a motive. Even the ancillary characters have a great story.

In short this book is a treat.

What a fun book; a great plot that keeps you guessing and laughing to the end. However, the author introduces so many characters in the first one hundred pages, I had to make notes to keep track of them all. While many of the characters were merely "charicatures", I would love to meet the ones that were well developed in a sequel.