Mystery/Thriller – The Spine View

The Drop by John Anthony Miller

Set in Havana, Cuba just prior to Castro, this suspense/thriller The Drop, by John Anthony Miller, is a wild ride full of surprises. Written with great prose and meticulous attention to detail in both setting and characters, makes it a real winner.

A very interesting and diverse set of characters in The Drop. First there is, Jimmy Foster who is the uber wealthy Wall Street guy. He is married to, Darlene, who is gorgeous and a gold digger. He loves Havana, and he and Darlene come often to enjoy the sun, pool, music and sometimes the casinos in the city. They have everything going for them and should be the perfect couple. Yet some people are never satisfied, and the grass is always seems greener on the other side. So when Jimmy is kidnapped, she is not overly distraught.

There is another beautiful woman involved in this story, Ariana. She and her family where once wealthy until it was all taken away by Batista. Now she is out for revenge. However, revenge costs money, lots of money. Steal from the mob… no problem. Kidnaping, well maybe not so good.
Especially, when a wife has everything to gain from a missing husband and everything to lose if he is found.

Lastly there is the private detective, Harry, that has a mysterious air about him. Is he in Havana on behalf of a jealous husband or is there something else going on? He is definitely in the all the right places at the right times and seems better prepared than the police to find Jimmy.

So many little twists and subtle hints of what is to come as the story progresses. However, as I have mentioned in the past, I hate spoilers. Instead, I am leaving with this vague overview and hope that I have given you enough to peak your interest.

I loved the setting of this book; because, I am starting to feel worn out on historical books set either during WWI or WWII and this book felt like a breath of fresh air. Also, I am highly appreciative that the author took great care in the scene descriptions. It enhanced the story and allowed me to place myself in the characters’ shoes.

The characters were well done and there was a lot of subtly in their actions. I didn’t always understand their actions and that made the book more interesting. However, it all comes together neatly in the end and I got why the characters did what they did.

I can’t fail to mention just how good the plot was. There was a twist at the end that I never saw coming. Even after several days to noodle on the ending, I am still left shaking my head. It was alluded to; however, I never put two and two together, which is unusual for me. Well done!

This book had everything going for it and Miller has become one of my favorite authors. If you are looking for a historical fiction story in an unusual setting and a twisty plot, then this the book for you. I highly recommend you read it.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock

Bluff, by Jane Stanton Hitchcock, gives new meaning to the idea that revenge is a dish best served cold. Maud, the main character, not only serves it up cold but in a big heaping portion! Full of intrigue, wonderful characters and a nasty plot of revenge to pay back the bad guys, this book is absorbing from page one all the way through to the end.

Maud is a 50ish divorcee who is primed and ready for a fight. She has always suspected that Burt Skylar, an accountant to the rich and famous in NYC, swindled her mother out of over 100 million dollars. She has spoken against him for years and has earned the nickname “Mad Maud”. However, she has never been able to prove anything.

Finally all the right cards are in her hand and she sees her chance for revenge. She enters The Four Seasons, one of the swankiest restaurants in the city, and pulls the trigger and shoots Sun Sutherland, a wealthy and prominent businessman, who is dining with Skylar. Did she miss or is there more to this story than meets the eye?

Love, love, loved the character of Maud. She has a brilliant mind and is downright devious. I also loved how she played people like she played poker. Most everyone is totally taken in by the frumpy middle-aged woman act that she carried off better than a Broadway actress. I would hate to get on her bad side and can only pity those she plays poker against. The supporting characters also hit the mark with me. They helped round out the revenge plot nicely.

The plot has more twists than the Mississippi River and it was fast paced. I really appreciate the balance the author was able to achieve between pace and character development. I find that in this type of book one or the other is lacking. Brilliantly done!

I highly recommend this book to readers of mystery and thrillers. In addition, if you love strong female characters you will enjoy Maud and her story.

I received a free copy from the published in exchange for my honest review.

Sinner, Saint, or Serpent by John Anthony Miller

Sinner, Saint or Serpent, by John Anthony Miller, is a twisted murder mystery that will keep even the best sleuth in the dark until the very last page. The book opens and closes with a bang and the ending took me totally by surprise. I need more books like this!

No one seems very upset when August Chevalier, a prominent business man, is murdered, Mafia style, in his own home. After all, he was a ruthless businessman with questionable practices and even a few ties with the mob. No wonder no one seems too enthusiastic about finding the killer, including the police, with one exception being a local reporter named “Justice” Harper.

Justice earned his nickname by being a fair and honest reporter that always seeks the truth. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he wants to find the killer who committed this crime. He feels he owes that to the citizens of New Orleans. Of course the added benefit of solving the crime before the police is getting a big scoop for the newspaper.

Justice along with his colleague, Remy Moore, work together to discover who killed Mr. Chevalier. There are three prime suspects. The philanthropist Lucinda Boyd, known for her many charity efforts that benefit the folks of New Orleans, the wealthy businesswoman Blaze Barbeau with a questionable past, and the voodoo queen of New Orleans, Belladonna Dede. They all have motives for waiting him dead and all three can be placed close to the scene around the time of his death. So who did it?

Loved Mr. Miller’s descriptive prose of 1920s New Orleans. It was wonderful and I got a real sense of the vibe of the city. I could just imagine going to a speak-easy and listening to the jazz band play, then strolling the streets of the French Quarter. The city described had a mysterious air to it and that made it the perfect setting for a murder mystery.

The plot was superbly done. It opened with the murder; therefore, I was invested in the story right away. The tension in the plot slowly built so that I always wanted to keep reading to get the next clue and try to figure out who the killer was before the final reveal. By the end I was sitting on the edge of my seat and then when I finally arrived there I was totally blown away. Did not see that coming at all!

If you love mysteries you need to read this book. Great story and awesome execution! You will love it!

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau

Dreamland, by Nancy Bilyeau, is a historical fiction murder mystery. Set on Coney Island in 1911 before WWI when prejudice against immigrants runs high. A lovely tale of privilege during the time of robber barons. It is a glimpse into our past when women were considered fragile and more of a decoration than an asset.

Peggy Battenberg is a young heiress to a family that has made their fortune in mining. Her pears include names like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. You would think that with great privilege would come great freedom. But not in the world where women have as yet to earn the right to vote. The men still rule the women of the upper class as surely as past kings have ruled England.

Peggy is somewhat head strong and has managed to wrangle her family into allowing her to work at a bookstore. Her attempt at some semblance of freedom is swiftly brought to an end when her Uncle enters the bookshop one afternoon in a whirlwind. He demands her presence for the summer at the Oriental Hotel, just a short distance from Coney Island. Peggy has no choice but to pack her things and move to the grand hotel along with her sister, mother and other family members and leave behind the job she is fond of.

Once at The Oriental she discovers the allures of Dreamland, an amusement park, on Coney Island. At Dreamland she meets Stefan a young Russian artist that captivates her and she falls in love. Something that her family would not approve of if they knew. But things are not all fun at Dreamland and when young women are found murderer in the vicinity Peggy starts to see a connection between them and her. Then to her horror the police arrest Stefan for the murders. Peggy knows he is innocent, and she is starting to suspect she knows the murderer. Since the police are not interested in finding the real murderer, she sets out to solve the crime.

I loved the descriptive prose. The author vividly described, as if she lived it, the hotel and all its luxuries as well as the atmosphere of family and social pressures that young women felt during that time. She also shows you the differences between class and what anonymity money was able to buy the ultra-wealthy.

I also loved the characters. The main character of Peggy was strong and determined. Her younger sister Lydia that I felt so sorry for, even though she had so much in terms of physical comforts, her life was lacking in many ways. Even the characters with minor roles, like Ben and Stefan were thoughtful portrayed and their actions were true to the period.

The plot is a little slow, but then the book is really about the characters and the action took a back seat to them. Yet, there was enough going on to keep me interested and though I suspected who the killer might be the ending was unexpected.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you liked history fiction stories such as We Were the Lucky Ones and A Fine Imitation. The prose and characters make this book and you need to read this book sooner rather than later. I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Warehouse by Rob Hart

If you take the worst of mega companies like, Amazon and China’s Alibaba and give them ultimate power you will get The Warehouse. The author, Rob Hart, explores the idea of a dystopian world where one company rules supreme. This story hits so close to home it will make you shudder in horror and give you nightmares.

In the near future, the world is ravaged by global warming, food shortages, lack of clean water and jobs. Amongst this chaos one company rules supreme, Cloud. They tout themselves as nothing short of God. But they have a seedy underbelly that few ever see.

Zinnia has been hired by a wealthy individual, whose identity she does not know, to infiltrate Cloud so they can be exposed. This will be her most difficult job ever and the most lucrative, if she can complete it. Once she gets hired, she immediate starts looking for ways to break through their security. Cloud tracks all its employees, ALL the time, through a watch. The watch must be worn at all times and can only be taken off to recharge. She must figure out a way to take the watch off and not get caught.

The solution lies with Paxton who is already drawn to her. He is in security and knows things that will help her and he can go places she can’t. How can she dupe him? If he knows what is truly going on at Cloud, will he be willing to help her?

The author is obviously drawing parallels between Cloud and Amazon just as The Circle did with Facebook. As the CEO of Cloud says repeatedly throughout the book, the market decided. We as consumers want the cheapest product delivered right to our door yesterday. The company that can do that will be the winner in the end, not the consumer! The scariest thing about this book is, the world Hart imagines I can already see beginning to take shape.

The world building was not extensive because it did not need to be. Yet, what the author described was spot on. It was easy to imagine how bad things could get when control rests with one person. The pace of the story was excellent and it never dragged for one minute. Each reveal was thoughtfully executed so you wanted to reader faster as the story progressed.

The characters were especially well done. Zinnia and Paxton charters were easy to relate to. Though I must say, I did not like the character of Paxton because he was too much of a push over. Yet, I think this is what the author intended. Paxton represents the attitude I see a lot of in America today, that as long as I am doing OK ignore what is happening elsewhere. Don’t rock the boat and stand up for what is right.

I remember, in school, reading The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and Animal Farm. The Warehouse falls right into the same niche as those. If you liked them, you need to read this one. In addition, I think this book should be a must read for everyone. Highly, highly recommend!

I received a free copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker

The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker is a pager turner that is part mystery part thought provoking look at corporate culture and women’s rights in the work place. I predict this will be one of the most talked about books in the Women’s Fiction genre this year.

The story revolves around four strong, and resilient women who work for the Fortune 500 company Truviv, Inc. Three of the women, Sloane, Grace, and Ardie, are attorneys and part of the inhouse legal team. The fourth, Rosalita is part of the night cleaning crew. They have one thing in common, they have all been sexual harassed by Ames Garrett another attorney on staff.

Each woman, for their own reasons, have remained silent about his behavior. Then when the CEO of the company dies unexpectedly and it appears that Ames is the shoe in for his job, they decide it has to end. What starts as just adding Ames to the “BAD Men’s” list circulating around Dallas turns into a law suit and much worse. The consequences will be far reaching and will affect the entirety of these women’s lives.

Baker did an excellent job of telling a story that is very relevant today. I was especially taken with how thoughtfully the characters were portrayed in the book. They were human and made mistakes… lots of them and despite being strong they doubted themselves. They struggled with work and family demands. They felt guilty for not being the perfect mother and wife, something most every woman has felt at some point in her life.

The pace of the story was a little slow at first, but once it got going it was a page turner. The story had some twists in that were predictable. Still, this story really grabs at you because despite being fiction it is so very real. The book will resonate with many.

I highly recommend this to any women working today. In addition, this would make an excellent book club read because the issues it addresses. I received a free ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Out of Season by Antonio Manzini

Title: Out of Season
Author: Antonio Manzini
Pub. Date: 2-Oct-2018
Ratings: 4 Stars — Title: Out of Season
Author: Antonio Manzini
Pub. Date: 2-Oct-2018
My Rating: 4 Stars

Out of Season is the third book in the Rocco Schiavone mystery series by Antonio Manzini (originally published in Italian). The book reads well as a standalone. I am grateful for this since I have not read the first two books in the series. It is a fast paced and entertaining mystery/thriller set in a small town in the Italian Alps.

The story follows Deputy Chief Rocco as he tries to solve the mystery of a missing girl by the name of Chairia Berguet. She is the daughter of a local business man who owes a lot of money to the wrong people. The story opens when the kidnapper is killed in a freak car accident.

At first the reader does not know the accident and the disappearance of Chairia are connected. Then as the investigation moves along, the reader realizes that the only person who knows where she is being held is dead. When Rocco makes the connection he is desperate to find her. He will do anything to location her including bending and breaking the rules.

My favorite thing about this book is the MC, Deputy Chief Rocco. He is driven and relentless when on a case; yet, as a human being he fails miserable. He is moody, difficult, rude and arrogant and yet it worked with the story and I loved his character despite all the flaws. The author really did an outstanding job with him. I found the plot to a bit slow in the beginning but it was not enough to deter me form pushing forward. Then as the story unfolds, and the pace picks up, you are rushing to the end to see if he can find Chaira.

Even though this book is a mystery/thriller it is not heavy handed. In fact, it contained a lot of humor. Rocco is very good at handing out insults and one liners that will have you chuckling. So instead of a dark, heart pounding thriller, that are a dime a dozen these days, you get a weirdly funny thriller/mystery and I found it very refreshing.

If you are looking for a mystery/thriller that is on the lighter side, this is the one for you, make sure to put it on your TBR list! I thoroughly enjoyed and I look forward to reading more in this series. I am keeping my fingers crossed that more will be published in English.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Honour the Dead by John Anthony Miller

Title: Honour The Dead
Author: John Anthony Miller
Pub. Date: 3-Nov-2018
Rating: 5 Stars

Honor the Dead, by John Anthony Miller, is a cleverly written historical murder mystery that will hook you in the first page and all the while keep you guessing right until the end. It was so good, despite grand kids visiting, I read it in three evenings. Granted, the third evening I read until 2:00AM because I HAD to finish.

The book opens with a death reported at Lake Como by the Milan, Italian newspaper. The reader is given only the basic facts, no names are released. Skip backward two months to a sanitarium at Lake Como where Penelope Cavendish, a wealthy English aristocrat, has just been admitted after a recent suicide attempt. Only, Penelope insists that someone is trying to kill her.

Dr. Joseph Barnett is a well-known and respected doctor who is taking on Penelope’s difficult case. He is sure with time he can help her recover. She is severely depressed over the death of her mother, at a young age, and then her brother during the Great War. She also is delusional at times and feels threatened by those around her.

Her father, Wellington Jones, is at Lake Como to lend Penelope, the only child he has left, the support she needs to recover. It seems he will do anything to protect her. Her husband, Alexander Cavendish, is also a wealthy aristocrat and war hero and also wants his wife better. So who would want her dead?

Nothing is as it seems and Mr. Miller is adept at weaving half-truths, lies and using misdirection to keep the reader on their toes. There are plenty of suspects and ample motives to go around. The facts are revealed slowly and the tension builds as the police work to solve the crime. Do the police even have the right suspects? So much was running through my mind when I was trying to work out who the killer was. I kept second guessing myself and you will to. I suspect, in the end you will be truly surprised.

Honor the Dead is not your typical murder mystery. Largely because of the way in which the plot was executed. Which, by the way, is ingenious. There are more reasons and I want to tell you all of them. Yet, if I do, it will spoil the fun for others. I hate spoilers and I refuse to do them!

The cast of characters is wonderful, with a lot of depth, and they fit the plot splendidly. I love it when an author is mindful of the characters and plot. This attention to detail allowed me to become deeply invested with the characters, both good and bad. It is ones of those rare books that has you rushing to the end to see what happens, then disappointed when you get there because there is no more to read.

In short, the book exceed my expectations. It should appeal to a variety of readers. Therefore, I highly recommend it to lovers of murder mysteries, thrillers and historical fiction.

I received an ARC from the author in exchange for my honest review.

The Devil’s Son by Charles Kowalski

Title: The Devil’s Son
Author: Charles Kowalski
Pub. Date: 27-July-2018
Rating: 4 Stars

The Devil’s Son by Charles Kowalski was not the spy thriller I expected. I loved his first book Mind Virus and was expecting something like that again. I liked this one but it was not entirely to my tastes. That said, I think I will be in the minority and I will go into further detail shortly.

The story opens in Argentina in 1960 with Azriel Horowitz, a Jew and member of Mossad (the Israeli version of the CIA), attempting to capture two high ranking former Nazi fugitives. You see, for him this is personal, very personal. He is the sole surviving member of his family from Auschwitz and the two fugitives are Karl Weiss and Josef Mengele who were the deputy commandant and doctor, respectively, of Auschwitz. As luck would have it, the two manage to evade capture by the Mossad team.

Skip forward to the present day and Rachel Horowitz, the daughter of Azriel, and a member herself of Mossad, is being tasked with seeing that Henry Hale is not elected to the Presidency of the United Sates. She expects to achieve this by proving that Hale is actually the son of the famous Nazi Karl Weiss. She is also out to show that Weiss has passed on his Nazi views to his son.

Once in America this proves to be more difficult than she imagined and she will need the help of someone on the inside. When a near fatal car accident caused by Secret Service Agent Emmett Miller’s loss of focus turns out to be a blessing in disguise, Rachel manages to gain his attention and uses him for her own ends. Little does she know just how dangerous a game she is really playing.

There is a lot of action in this book and unexpected plot twists. However, the best part of this book is the suspense. I loved how the author set the reader up and then slowly resolved an issue only to have some other little twist come up for the heroine to deal with. Speaking of heroine, I loved the main character. Rachel is fierce, strong and resourceful, I just wished that her character had been a little more developed.

The story is good; however, I felt it a little far-fetched and it has a lot of political undertones. Personally, I am so over anything to do with politics. Another thing I want to mention, I felt the story in places was a bit Hollywood. In other words, a bit overdone. Without giving anything way, roughly ¾ through, a couple of things happened and I was like… really? Lastly, as much as I loved the main character, I felt things just came a bit too easy for her.

Despite the few things I mentioned above, I did enjoy reading The Devil’s Son. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to those readers who like fast paced thrillers and especially to those who like a strong heroine.

I received a free copy of the book, from the author, in exchange for my honest review.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry

Title: Melmoth
Author: Sarah Perry
Pub. Date: 16-Oct-2018
Rating: 1 Star

I was expecting much more for Sarah Perry’s new book Melmoth. I was particularly excited that it was a gothic style novel since Halloween is right around the corner and I was in the mood for a spooky read.

First off, I did not get any spooky. I would call it more muddled than anything. The characters were lack luster and I was never able to connect with anyone or the plot for that matter. Thinking of plot, a turtle moves faster and there was not enough meat in the story to hold me interest. Despite three attempts, I have to mark this one as DNF (did not finish) at a little over 100 pages.

Here is the synopsis given:

For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction.

It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy.

But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . .

I recognize that I am the odd man out here. It was just not to my tastes. However, if you liked her first book then you might enjoy this one.

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.