Jan 14 2012
The Border Lords
The Border Lords: A Charlie Hood Novel
thriller
Feb 8 2011
In the Mail: Agent X
Agent X by Noah Boyd
From Booklist
Steve Vail, once an ace FBI agent, now a bricklayer (The Bricklayer, 2009), arrives in Washington to take Kate Bannon, the bureau’s assistant director, to an embassy soiree. But his romantic mission is sidelined by an urgent summons from the bureau: a Russian embassy staffer, code-named Calculus, is offering to name Americans feeding sensitive information to Russian intelligence. But no sooner than the bureau accepts the Russian’s terms, he is spirited off to Moscow, presumably to be tortured into admitting what he has done. Steve and Kate must identify the moles and reel them in before the Russians snuff them. But before that can happen, Vail must solve the many puzzles that Calculus uses to conceal information. Thriller fans get an endlessly twisting plot strewn with chases, gun battles, and explosions. Calculus’ puzzles are engaging, and the bureau’s procedural and bureaucratic thickets sound real.
Feb 6 2011
In the Mail: The Nearest Exit
The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer
From Publishers Weekly
Milo Weaver, a former field agent with the CIA’s clandestine Department of Tourism, returns to action after a stint in prison for alleged financial fraud in this intense sequel to The Tourist. His handlers want Weaver to pursue a mole rumored to have infiltrated the CIA’s black-ops department, but with his loyalty in question, he must first undergo some test missions, one of which is to kill the 15-year-old daughter of Moldovan immigrants now living in Berlin. Such a horrific assignment further weakens Weaver’s already wavering enthusiasm for his secret life, and he becomes increasingly preoccupied with reconnecting with his estranged wife and child. When bombshell revelations rock Weaver’s world, he vows to somehow put international intelligence work behind him. Can he do so without jeopardizing his and his family’s safety? Steinhauer’s adept characterization of a morally conflicted spy makes this an emotionally powerful read.
Dec 20 2010
In the Mail: Bitter Legacy
Bitter Legacy (Matt Royal Mysteries) by H. Terrell Griffin
Booklist Review
Griffin’s Matt Royal novels may be the closest approximation we have today to John D. MacDonald in his pulp-fiction prime. Griffin’s characters are as stark as a man in a trench coat under a street light. They all have backstories that give them depth, and they possess that lovable quality of players in radio-era dramas with which MacDonald infused the characters in his Travis McGee series. In Griffin’s latest, the slightly over-the-top action, also characteristic of MacDonald, begins when Royal’s friend is gunned down in broad daylight by a sniper. The assassin, however, is really stalking Royal, who soon enough must contend with Glock-wielding fisherman and a particularly nasty biker gang. All this takes place in or near Sarasota, Florida, MacDonald’s adopted home town. Griffin captures the mood and tone of the McGee novels nicely, as the amiable Royal dispatches his adversaries with ?lan, eager to resume his casually hedonistic lifestyle. Good fun.
Dec 1 2010
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan
I am a big fan of the Poke Rafferty series by Timothy Hallinan so I try to keep up with the latest release but for various reasons I have been falling behind.
My mother-in-law bought me the latest in the series, The Queen of Patpong, and I read it in early September. But work and life intervened and I never managed to post a review here. Allow me to rectify that now.
I won’t leave you in suspense. I loved the book as usual. But it wasn’t neccesarily a foregone conclusion. This book is different as a big chunk of the story centers on and is told from the perspective of Rose rather than the central character Poke Rafferty.
As in the earlier books, however, this one places the reader smack in the middle of the heat and intrigue of Bangkok/Thailand. Hallinan offers an exciting plot but also gripping insight into the plight of young women forced to move to the city and act as pawns in the sex trade in a desperate attempt to make money and save their families.
This social drama is seamlessly weaved into the story so that it doesn’t come off as preachy or pedantic but simply reality.
