Thrillers Books

This was a book I could not put down.
It keeps you turning the pages.

The book is a great page turner. The writing is exceptional and the characters are so well defined - particularly the dogs. It's not a book that will leave you feeling good at the end - or really anywhere in between. I think that's typical of most classics....and this is....a modern tragedy.

I could not put down this book! The story appealed to me for its uniqueness: the unusual dog breed, its trainers and the training; the different kind of "handicap" for Edgar; the means of communication used by
Edgar and his fascination for words while being unable to speak; the Cain and Able relationship of Gar and
Claude; and the twist on a coming-of-age story. I found it startling yet sensitive, sad but strangely satisfying,
frustrating yet fulfilling, and edgy yet endearing. It was gripping right to the last paragraph.

This retelling of Hamlet is intriguing and compelling...and any dog lover will revel in the dogs! Edgar and his family draw you in and keep you there...

A debut novel with a haunting impact. Difficult to put down. Beautifully descriptive, tantalizingly frustrating in parts. Not a light fairy floss novel, it will be one of the few novels that I will reread again and I suspect again after that. David Wroblewski will be an author to watch. Highly recommended read.

Fiction is not my usual choice so I'm really not very conversant on authors in that field but the book review I read of __Moscow Rules__ enticed me and I jumped it. It reads like it was taken off the world affairs pages of any city newspaper. The characters are contemporary and the author weaves in just enough description of people and places that it "feels" real.
Occasionally Silva fits in an event the reader suddenly realizes has *not* happened and I find myself having to mentally back up and retrace where we've "been". That may be my weakness where I haven't read novels in any huge amount. Interesting reading though and I do like Silva's style.

Gabriel Allon just wanted some time to himself, but then is asked to have a secret meeting with a Russian newspaperman who has important information that he wants to share. Events lead Gabriel into a web of international arms deals, with advanced weaponry being furnished to terorists.

It is a well written book placed in the present day when a new elite has emerged in Russian. This is no longer the country of Karl Marx, but has become a country of well connected entrepreneurs out to make money by any means possible. The armaments created during the cold war are now a hot commodity in international markets. People have become adept at creating front companies and corporate shells.

The intrigue takes Gabriel to France and Russia, with side trips to the UK, USA, and Israel. The book provides a good picture of modern day technological dangers.

In my opinion, MOSCOW RULES, is Daniel Silva's finest book, beautifully crafted and an absolute pleasure to read. His principal character, Gabriel Allon, is one for the ages, complex but human who struggles to balance his freedom and his art with his duty and reverence for his mentor, Ari Sharon. Silva's craft gets better with each book, really a must read. This book goes far beyond just an adventure thriller.

Fred Campbell

Hard to believe but Daniel Silva keeps coming up with plausible plots and actions that just keep getting better. What could be better than to go back to the 'good old days' of the Cold War? Well, with Putin and Bush we are half way there. It is a sad truth that there is only 'managed democracy' in Russia, but Russians like to be told what to do. If it's a question of guns or butter, the Russians have always wanted guns. It's better to be strong and hungry than to be fed and weak.

Gabriel, who is on his honeymoon, is called away from restoring a painting for the Vatican, to meet with a Russian journalist in Rome. When the journalist is killed right in front of Gabriel and Eli, they know they are dealing with professionals who may be better than they are.

It's easy to guess that the bad guy is Russian and an ex-KGB wonderkin. But what is he really after. He's after money, money and more money. He's been selling guns and weapons to African and Asia revolutionaries and dictators for years. But, now he's gone over the line by selling shoulder launch missiles to Al-Quada. So it's time to call in everyone.

Though most of the real action occurs on the Cote D'Azur around Saint Tropez, Moskow gets thrown in for some good killings too. The British, US and French are brought in, and a good time is had by all; except for the dead and they don't have a vote.

Zeb Kantrowitz

This is vintage Daniel Silva, riveting and spellbinding from the very begining. His sense of geopolitical timing is uncanny, always preceding the news with his latest novel. In this book he also gives us a glimpse of his sense of humor.

I have never claimed that Kathy Reichs' books are high art, but usually they are pretty entertaining and a good bet for either a nice beach read or a rainy day read.

Let me just say that Devil Bones is neither. I plodded through this book and although I only started reading it about a week ago, it felt to me as though I had been reading it for 3 months!

The basic story would lead you to believe it is about witchcraft and devil worship and actually, the first few pages were creepy - I liked the description of Tempe crouching in a scary basement, all dark and gloomy.

However, it went downhill from there. There is some nice interaction between Tempe and her two police friends (and a bit of a twist related to this) but otherwise, this book has no direction, no plotline and more importantly is boring, boring, boring.

I got to a point where I was skipping pages just to get to something "good" and I never seem to get to the "good" part. The ending has absolutely nothing to do with the beginning and was ridiculous.

I can suspend my disbelief quite a lot if I am enjoying the storyline and a thriller does not have to be high art for me, but a book must be entertaning!!!! and the ultimate sin was committed here!!! the book was BORING.

I love Kathy Reichs' stories and would give her five points. I won't talk about the story here.
The quality of CDs from Simon and Schuster use is extremely bad. Almost on every single CD you here scratches, stuttering, lost words and sentences. I had also bought a copy of "Bones to Ashes" and had the same problem there too. Somehow Amazon shipped the article twice to me and I had to use both copies to put together a usable set of dics.
I own hundreds of both music and hearbook CDs and I have nether come across these problems. Why do they use such an inexplicable bad CD production?

I have to come to expect so much more from the series than this book was able to offer. The historical background is dry and uninteresting, not the usual transfer of intriguing information by the author. It is not that the topic is not interesting to me as I am a practicing member of an earth-oriented religion. However the intellectual areas do not mesh with the interpersonal on a level I have come to expect from the author. The use of ending a paragraph negating all that was just written in terms of dire future events became annoying. Bringing an new romantic character and then not developing him at all was a letdown and the coming of Andrew Ryan into the storyline seem trite and contrived as if he was there as a useless appendage. His part was also never developed to satifaction. Lastly we have he ex-husband and dragging in all THAT involves with the half his age fiance' and again the developement was left undone. I think the book would have been better served to leave off so many personal demons, including the off the wagon drinking binge that happens and then is treated as if there were no physical effects and fewer mental ones. All in all it was an OK read, but not up to standards of the other Tempe Brennan novels.

If you are a long-time fan of this series, I've written this review for you. You can skip this book if you want to. In terms of series continuity, I'm sure Dr. Reichs will be able to put in two sentences near the start of the next book to handle what happens in this one.

If you haven't read any books in the series, don't start with this one. Start with Deja Dead, a much better book.

If you like mysteries that are hard to solve as a reader, you will like Devil Bones much better than most readers. That's also true if you are fascinated by pagan religions and cannot get enough information about dead bodies.

On the other hand, if you want an entertaining story that's an easy read, you will probably think this is a two-star book. The book also features an easy-to-hate politician who makes the story less appealing. If you like to see Dr. Tempe Brennan's love life get somewhere, this book is pretty close to a zero.

Let's face it. We all have bad days. Tempe seems to be having one throughout this book. That also makes the book more of a downer than it had to be.

Tempe is called out when an apparent root cellar turns out to contain a human skull, associated with what looks like some sort of pagan religious rite. Tracking down the rest of that body becomes the focus of much of the story in Devil Bones. Soon thereafter, a body is dumped that displays satanic signs. Are the two events connected? How?

The investigation has many unexpected twists and turns, most of which wouldn't have happened if Tempe had been a little sharper in assessing one of the clues. If you are quicker than Tempe, you'll unravel the mystery faster than she did. But you'll probably miss the real criminal until all is revealed unless you have ESP.

I learned way too much about pagan religions and medical details from this book, but I liked the mystery being difficult to solve. So I rounded up from two stars to three.

I'm a long-time Reichs fan, and have enjoyed her books with the glaring exception of "Cross Bones" (which I reviewed when it came out).

I won't bother rehashing the story line, as you can see that in the publishing reviews, other than to say Tempe Brennan finds herself again involved in murder most weird, this time involving off-stream religions (Santeria, etc) as well as the gay chickenhawk underworld.

Many of Reichs's trademark stylistic touches are here in full glory to be enjoyed: her wit, her fast-paced plotting, and deft character portrayals. The story moves right along, and there's really not a dull moment.

But I had one fairly major problem with this book. There comes a point in the book at which she and her partner are trying to decipher some clues in the form of notes left in a personal shorthand code by one of the murder victims. Further, several of the players - victims and suspects - are also known to be using aliases.

Well, these two issues work in conjunction in advancing the plot, and in all honesty, I found it EXTREMELY confusing. I felt like I needed a schematic diagram to keep track of what was going on. By the time we reached the denouement and the identity of the killer was revealed, I was totally at sea.

So.... Four stars for style, two stars for clarity, ending up with three stars.

Reviewed at The UnGraphic Novel at WizardUniverse.com: the official web site of Wizard Magazine for comics (http://ungraphic.wizarduniverse.com/2008/08/30/the-book-of-lies/) I give this book 3.5 stars (out of 4).

Here's a clip of the review: "(Meltzer's) presentation of this alternate and little known history has gained attention from national media ... It seems poised to rewrite comic book history, or rather correct it. This could be a major turning point in the entire Superman franchise. As our perception of the Man of Steel changes, hopefully so too will our understanding of the character ... Forget the fictional elements and the transparent DaVinci knockoff for a moment. This book is worth reading because of how it will forever change the way we look at Superman."

Having read all of Mr. Meltzer's other novels and most of his comic books, I was thoroughly looking forward to his new book, which aims to connect Cain's murder of Abel with the creation of Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. I wasn't disappointed at all. If you're a fan of Superman, if you're a fan of a good mystery/thriller, if you're a biblical scholar, then you'll likely enjoy this book. And then, hopefully, you'll want to get involved in the action and help save the house where Superman was created.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R88L32NETHRJS Don't Like to Read, Then Don't, Listen!: How to Turn Any Type of Text Into Audio Files That Can Be Read to You! (isbn 1438252455)

Unfortunately, the book's marketing contention that Mitchell Siegel was murdered by bullets and that this tragic event was a direct inspiration for his son's creation of the man of steel, is false. The senior Siegel died of a heart attack resulting from the stress of the robbery of his secondhand clothing store. "Book of Lies", indeed.

Meltzer's feel for character and emotion are what make this nail biting thrill-ride worth every moment. Once you pick it up you won't want to put it down. Great concept and story made all the better by a tight plot, human characters and overall great writing.

Horrible, unreadable, jingoist propaganda. I certainly didn't expect Faulkner when I bought this book, but what I got was so subpar that I quickly arrived at the point where I continued reading just to see if it was possible for the plot, characters, or dialogue to become any more contrived. In this way, at least, this book never failed to disappoint.

I didn't read anyone else's review (so I'm sorry if there's any duplication of the opinion that follows). But I think this book smells too much like a Da Vinci code spin-off and too much in the brew of National Treasure and thus too banal to give Thor any real credit for an admittedly quick and clear read that might garnish some quick profits -- small chapter increments, the foundations of a major-world religion under attack, the same pedantic dialogues, a religious-zealot ever-present heartless-hitman, clarion-imputed explanations for historial characters or world events (like Thomas Jefferson's study of Islam or the Muslim riots in France), sophisticated code-machines from days of old, and even setting the stage in France -- come on! Hence, the "Jefferson Code" would have been a more apt title perhaps. As long as you read it too quickly to start thinking about it, I guess you'll probably enjoy it more than I did.

The dialogue is often unrealistic and the characters, shallow. And, of course, the same sex and violence formula that we've had since Homer. Don't forget the periodic and, indeed, obligatory insertion of profanity (otherwise, how could we suspend our disbelief?) And all of it dumbed-down just in case we couldn't read between the lines. Let's be more original shall we? I take that back -- maybe this book isn't meant be be judged as a real work of literature, but just as an attempt to garnish quick profits after all and have no real lasting value. Still it's a little "headier" than television.

But you can't deny the oh so surreptitious self-cameo on page 217, can you? Give me a break Thor!

One star.

I chose this book for our book club and I was thrilled that it turned out to be an exciting and interesting book. I read it in two days and couldn't put it down. The chapters are short so I kept reading "just one more chapter" until I had finished the book. I learned so much about Thomas Jefferson that I ended up buying a book called,"Jefferson Writings" and I might even venture to say that he just may be my favorite President now that I know more about him. I also bought two books on Niccolo Machiavelli. I was constantly checking the internet to read up on some of the inventions mentioned in the book. The writing style of this book reminded me of DiVinci Code. I was a little apprehensive at first that it would be anti Muslim, but it described the difference between being Muslim and being Islamic. If you want a fast paced book to read on the plane, vacation, or just to inspire your intrigue, Brad Thor's, "The Last Patriot" is the book for you.

Brad Thor has done it again with THE LAST PATRIOT. This book continues his series of political thrillers set in modern day. Fast moving - good character development - logical considering the state of the world today. A good read!

Although not a real fan of "political" thrillers...this book had me riveted from the first few paragraphs. Well done, Mr. Thor!!!! I'm sure there's a lot more truth to this than any of us would like to believe.

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

i must commend and thank lora leigh for another beautiful love story to end all love stories.

i can't get into the story too much bc i just about loved every minute of this book and if i start i wouldn't be able to stop..

i laughed, i cried, i got HOT with a capital H!!!, and i fell in love with both sabella and nathan/noah.

and i fell in love all over again with ms lora leigh!!

the way she crafts a story is almost like magic.. everything just comes together and then BAM.. one of the best love stories i've read in a minute..

this one is definitely a must read!!!

Who'da thought that a writer of erotica would come up with a modern romance about everlasting love?

Did I say I absolutely loved the things I hated in so many of the author's previous novels? The small-town politics. The southern melodrama. The screaming hysterics. Well. I absolutely loved them all in Wild Card.

But most of all I loved that Sabella could commit forever to Nathan and mean it. And vice versa.

I'm not saying the book is perfect. By any means.

Hotness afficienados might say that the hotness takes a while to get going and that it's just slightly repetitive. It would have been nice if Bella had swallowed just once. Or that exactly the same phrases occur in different places in the novel. And really why on earth would the bcm want Sabella's auto repair shop. But that's it. That's where I stop.

This story is going straight on my keeper shelf.

Nathan Malone joined the SEALs; eventually he fell in love with Sabella and they marry. Several years later his Uncle Jordon informs Sabella that Nathan died.

Two years have past since Sabella buried Nathan. He thinks back to the mission that led to his funeral. He was captured by a brutal Columbian drug cartel, who broke every bone in his body and subjected him to tons of Whore's Dust, an aphrodisiac that keeps males hard; but for the eighteen months of his captivity he refused to break his vow to Sabella. He was rescued and healed physically though his body was changed, but mentally Nathan Malone is dead. He left the SEALs and joined Jordon's "dead men" special operations team as a cold killer.

Jordon gives Nathan a file that focuses on Sabella and the Black Collar Militia that hunts illegals to kill, rape, and sell their babies. Almost everyone in his hometown of Alpine, Texas deserted Sabella who after a two year mourning funk has tried to make a go of Nathan's garage. Nathan still loves Sabella, but refuses to tell her he lives as he believes Malone died in Columbia. Mechanic Nathan Hawke obtains work at the garage. His eyes which remind her of her Nathan and his first name disturb Sabella. Worse she is attracted to him. He is stunned to watch his pampered southern belle work as hard as she does as a blue collar mechanic as he never knew she had such skills. As they fall in love, she begins to put together his HIDDEN AGENDA while he and his team seek the Black Collar Militia.

The premise of a Martin Guerre like spouse coming home after being buried is superbly handled leading to the prime couple gaining reader empathy early on. The action is fast-paced and the suspense high. Although the militia at times comes across as inane and the audience never learns why they want the garage, fans will enjoy Lora Leigh's engaging romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner

I don't even know where to start. I have read just about every one of Ms Leighs books, but this one takes the cake. I had no idea how she was going to have a "new" romance in this story, but boy she accomplishes it and good.
Ms Leigh is known for gut renching emotional stories, but this one just tore my heart out. This is about Nathan Malone which we read some about in the previous book about Ian and Keira. Hes tortured horribly and is finally rescued but is really messed up and doesn't feel he is the same man that is wife Bella knew and didn't want to put her through his recovery, so they told her he died and inside so did she.
Finally 6 years later she is tring to move on, and in walks Noah Blake who is undercover and there to protect Bella.
She can't understand why she feels this instant attraction and need to be with him and of course the guilt she feels. Oh man you just have to read this story. To me its like an onion, and I know that sounds corney, but there really are so many layers to this story and how it slowly is peeled away and they find out they are totally diffrent people than they were and thats ok because there love never died.
I just can't encourage you enough to read this book, it definatly was one of her very best, and I can't wait to read the rest of the broken men find their true love that will mend their broken soul.

I really enjoyed this book. I can't wait for the next in the series. The only issue I had with this book is that Sabella was pregnant when he "died" in a book of a linked series. This book seemed to have more of a plot than some of Lora's other books which was nice although I don't buy LL books for the plot.