Recent Reads

Crash and Burn by Lisa Gardner is a review I will save for later, as it isn't to be released until February, but I am going to mention that I liked it a lot, and just returned from the library with a couple more books by Gardner.  Crash and Burn is a page-turner from NetGalley.

My name is Nicky Frank. Except, most likely, it isn’t.  

Nicole Frank survives a car crash...that may not have been an accident.  In fact, Nicky has had several mishaps recently, and Sergeant Wyatt Foster finds a number of things problematic about Nicky's accidents.

An intriguing mystery with lots of suspense; I can't wait to get started on my library copies (Say Goodbye and Catch Me) from two different series by Gardner.
  
NetGalley/Penguin Group

Mystery/Suspense.  Feb. 3, 2015.  400 pages.

The Red Room:  A Risk Agent Novel by Ridley Pearson is the third in a series featuring John Knox and Grace Chu, operatives for Rutherford Risk, but this is the first one I've read.  Hmmm.  Knox and Chu are assigned to a case/mission that is considered NTK (Need to Know), and nobody seems to know much.  Danger-Escape-Danger-Escape, and so on. 

I gather that fans of Pearson's other series were not impressed with this one, and I can see why.  Maybe I'll try one of his other books at some point, but this one didn't do much for me.

Library copy.

Thriller?  2014.  400 pages.

Last year, I received The Ninth Girl by Hoag from NetGalley.  The suspense and the characters both appealed to me, so when the publisher offered Cold, Cold Heart, the latest from Tami Hoag, I was up for it!

The detectives I liked in the previous novel make only a brief appearance in this one, but the mystery and suspense are every bit as engrossing.  Dana Nolan was an aspiring television reporter before her abduction by a serial killer.  (Her abduction is mentioned in The Ninth Girl as a kind of side-bar.)  Her horrific injuries include brain trauma, and even after a long recovery, she struggles with the after-effects of her experience.  There was the Before Dana, beautiful, cheerful, confident, and going places.  And there is the After Dana, suffering from the effects of PTSD and brain trauma, scarred, dealing with gaps in long and short term memory, and angry.

The residual problems from her brain injury feel real and watching Dana struggle with her memory is intense in itself, but as Dana finds focus in her determination to discover what happened to her high school friend who disappeared the summer of their senior year, the tension increases. What happened to Casey?  What she an early victim of the serial killer who later abducted Dana?

Just a warning, though, the prologue is violent; it sets the scene for the injuries (physical and psychological) that Dana will have to live with after escape.

Another compelling suspense novel from Tami Hoag.

NetGalley/Penguin Group/Dutton

Suspense/Mystery.  Jan. 13, 2015.  390 pages.

The Second Guard  from NetGalley won't be published until April, and my review will be scheduled for closer to that time, but it was a YA fantasy from Disney-Hyperion that I enjoyed.

Another NetGalley offering that I'll review later, Doctor Death is a historical mystery by Lene Kaaberbol.  Kaaberbol is the co-author of several novels with journalist Agnete Friis, including The Boy in the Suitcase which won a number of awards:

The New York Times Book Review Notable Crime Book of 2011
Strand Magazine Critics Award Nominee
Indie Next List November 2011 Pick
Barry Award Nominee for Best First Novel
Harald Morgensen Award for Best Danish Thriller of the Year
Glass Key Crime Fiction Award Nominee

She has also written a number of children's fantasy novels and won the Nordic Children's Book Prize in 2004.

Set in 1894 in Varbourg, France, Madeline Karno is the daughter of an early forensic pathologist and assists her father when he deems it appropriate.  Not even her father feels that a young woman should be involved in some of the aspects of his work.  A mysterious death of a young girl, the murder of a priest, and several unusual characters.  

NetGalley/Atria Books

Historical Mystery.  Feb. 17, 2015.  304 pages.