From our Library
This is a page about books, many of them available from Kilcullen's branch of the County Library Service. Your Editor will review whatever he reads, but the page is open to any reader to submit their own comments on what they're reading at any time. New reviews will be added from time to time.
Enjoy ... and get involved.
Brian Byrne.
Flashpoint - Lynn S Hightower. American police procedural.
I haven't read Hightower's work before, but I will do again.
She very quickly finds out that the killer is a woman, and soon after that she herself becomes involved in the obsession which is at the root of what turns out to be a serial killer gone over the top.
As she fights to keep the victim's brother from joining the list of dead, she finds herself involved in a double relationship, one with a witness, the other with the killer. Her life and her career are both on the line, especially when the killer shows that she has no mercy for even innocent bystanders who get in her way.
It is fast moving, and Sonora Blair as a widow with two young children and an ulcer is well drawn. I suspect I'll be following her career further. She's right up there in the same vein as Connolly's Harry Bosch.
Worth a read for those of you who, like me, are crime novel junkies. BB
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Killer Instinct - Joseph Finder. American black comedy corporate thriller.
I don't normally make a positive decision on a book before finishing it. But this is an exception. And I've found a new author to look for.
Thankful for the man's services, and feeling an affinity with him because they share a wrong side of the tracks background, Jason facilitates him a security job with his company.
When Jason's medium level performance starts to rise towards stellar level, he doesn't immediately realise how it might be happening. As suspicion dawns, he tries to halt what proves to be an unstoppable situation. But not hard enough. Then he finds that success can come at a cost even if you've never actually made a Faustian compact, but just gone along with a one-sided offering. One which from the beginning of the story we already know could be fatal.
Which is why I'm writing the review at this point, halfway through the book. I don't yet know how it ends. And I surely don't want to spoil the rest of the story for you.
Check this one out for yourself. Julie will book it if it's gone already. Meantime I'll have it finished in stolen time by the middle of the week. BB
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Jack Reacher, former soldier and military investigator, lives and travels light; he always has his toothbrush in his pocket. He prefers to be invisible, but doesn't miss much that's going on around him. When he is asked to help find the kidnappers of a woman and her daughter, he finds himself reluctantly moving into a limelight that presents danger for the victims and for himself.
I haven't read Lee Child before, and was very impressed with his economy of language and pithiness of his dialogue. This is a fast-moving story, and one with some unexpected twists and turns. I'll search out other books about this character, because he's left me wanting to know more about him. And that's a good outcome of a read that was done in short order with a good deal of stolen time. BB
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Set in Ireland's Celtic Tiger time, this is well written and smart, but not this reader's cup of tea. Or sniff of coke. Or hit of Viagra, which is where the whole thing starts.
The story is about 'Ireland's most controversial TV host' and the hangers-on around him, as told by his PA Lee. And no, according to the author in a dedication, 'I am not Lee, thou art not he, and the rest are not important'. But when the book was introduced to me, the model on which the narrative is allegedly based was mentioned. Everyone can make their own guess.
As I said, it's well produced, but I didn't get beyond the first few chapters, mainly because even though I've spent a working lifetime in the Irish news media in one way or another, this is not my life, and I lost interest. Maybe I was also depressed at the notion that this is the life today? BB.
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Alex Cross is a lightning rod for danger. James Patterson's detective character has now joined the FBI and and his first case as a Fed brings him a brand new psychopathic killer to contend with, The Wolf.
And if you thought that his previous arch-enemies were evil, this former Russian KGB agent turned Mafia boss is definitely the worst so far.
The Big Bad Wolf is not a book for those of a nervous disposition. And not for queasy stomachs either. It is tough, cruel, and sadistic in a variety of extreme ways.
People are disappearing. To order. They're being bought by a number of individuals to feed their perversions. The Wolf is in the middle of it, controlling it, though it is only a sideshow to his main criminal activities.
Cross is finding the beuerocracy of his new employers difficult, and at the same time he's having home difficulties as a former girlfriend comes back into his life with a heart-rending demand.
Patterson writes in a crisp style, short words and sentences and short chapters. The action is fast, and twists rapidly. Since he tells both sides of the story, we always know what's happening from the perspectives of the good and the ungodly.
Or do we?
Once you start a Patterson thriller, it is compulsive from beginning to end. BB
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There are some writers whose name on a cover immediately draws me to their latest book, or maybe just one that I hadn't yet read. Michael Connolly is one of these. And with The Closers he's at his crime-writing best.
I've equally had a gra for Connolly's regular character, Detective Harry Bosch of the LAPD. He's a human guy, who has had more than his share of ups and downs, and even though he really is a good detective, he still makes quite a few mistakes. In The Closers he has rejoined the police force after having resigned some years previously following major difficulties with its management. He is teamed up with his old colleague Kiz Rider specifically to revisit old unsolved cases.
Their first case is a politically sensitive one, involving a DNA match that connects a white supremacist type to a murder ten years before of a teenager of mixed race. The complications involve a couple of Harry Bosch's old sparring partners as well as the ramifications of the case itself.
Connolly deftly weaves us into a labyrinth where many clues have been lost, in time or in the dusty recesses of the LAPD evidence archive. It is another compelling yarn, and while I'm pretty good at coming to the correct conclusion early in my reads of such books, I didn't get it right this time.
A writer who can surprise is always a good one. BB
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When a horrible murder is committed in a small town in Mississipi, the perpetrator is quickly caught and brought to justice. Nine years later, after his early release from prison, the revenge killings begin.
This story is good Grisham, who has mostly deserved his best-seller status if occasionally he faltered after his first blockbuster. For a change, his protagonist is not a lawyer, but the blow-in young owner of a small-town newspaper. Willie Traynor not only chronicles the murder case, but crusades to make sure justice is done.
I found this one impossible to put down. Not so much for the beginning and end stories, but the way that the writer bridges them with the life and development of Willie and his newspaper in between. It read not like a novel, but a really good autobiography of a small town publisher, and the local and external elements that matured him.
Like I said, an unputdownable read for some of us. BB
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I like James Patterson's work. His writing is crisp, almost sparse, but with just the amount of detail needed to cast his characters neatly. He favours the short chapter, very short sometimes. And his dialogue is to the point; his people don't do the small talk thing.
There's a paradox about Patterson's stories, too. They're good but forgettable. I'd already read this one -- it was published in 2002 -- but wasn't sure about that until I'd got well into the story. Which is not particularly a bad thing; there can be fun in rereading, and you could say you get better value.
Four Blind Mice has familiar people working through its pages, in the form of Detective Alex Cross and his family, as well as a number of colleagues and opponents from past stories. Cross is thinking of leaving police work, and this sometimes gruesome tale takes us through 'his last case'. The plot is US Army based, with retrospectives to the horrors of the Vietnam War and its latter day consequences. It has a decent share of unexpecteds, but we're clear from early on who are the bad guys. Well, most of them. And it is a Patterson ethic that when you think it's all over, that's the time to watch your back even more carefully.
Recommended for those who like a fast, and fast-paced, read. BB
