Fallen by Karin Slaughter 388 pages

Georgia Bureau of Investigations Agent Faith Mitchell arrives at her mother's house and finds the front door open and blood on the doorknob. Inside she finds a dead body and a hostage situation unfolding in the other room. However, her mother is nowhere in sight. When the scene turns even deadlier, Faith becomes a suspect and relies on her partner Will Trent and doctor Sara Linton to make sense of what happened at her mother's home. Will and Sara work with the GBA on a parallel investigation with the Atlanta PD which is not sharing crime scene information. Will and Sara’s attraction to each other grows and their brain storming about the case helps formulate theories on motives and suspects. The Faith and Will books by Slaughter are always fast paced and intriguing but Fallen seems to move more quickly than normal. Many threads are pulled and secrets revealed before the answers are found and everyone is safe.

A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block 319 pages

Matthew Scudder sits with a long time friend and reminisces about the first year anniversary of his sobriety. Matt tells his friend about running into Jack Ellery, an acquaintance from grade school, at an AA meeting who is later found shot to death. Matt was asked to investigate by the Jack's sponsor and the investigaion, in usual Matt Scudder fashion, becomes an involved journey through Jack's life before he joined AA. Matt, too, battles his demons. He remembers his struggle to understand his alcoholism and fight to stay sober. Matt is not alone in his search or struggle for sobriety. He calls on some old police buddies to check back stories of some of Jack's associates and partners in crime. He checks in with a former confidential informant of his to see if there is any chatter on the streets. Matt works through the end of a long-time relationship with another alcoholic and finds a few more friends while working the case. Matt Scudder is one of my favorite Lawrence Block characters. He could be a real person with real problems that he tries to work through. Matt slowly unravels the mystery leading the reader through the process making one feel like a participant.

Smokin Sebenteen by Janet Evanovich 387 pages

Books by Janet Evanovich are a delight, quick read ( I can’t usually put them down) and hilarious! Smokin’ Seventeen is no exception. Stephanie Plum is my favorite Evanovich character. She is intelligent without but hides it well. She has a knack for getting herself into trouble with the bad guys she tries to apprehend as part of her job as bounty hunter for her cousin Vinney. Stephanie also finds trouble with the two men in her life. Ranger, the secretive security expert waits patiently while Joe Morelli, the cop is busy with bodies being dumped on the site of the old bail bonds building. Stephanie’s mother and Grandma Mazur are trying to get Stephanie married off by inviting an old school mate of Stephanie and Joe’s to dinner. The former high school football star looks like the perfect fit and Stephanie’s mom encourages her to dump both Joe and Ranger for a more “conventional” type of man. As usual for Stephanie, a car is demolished, more dead bodies are found and some of the skips for whom she is trying to “reschedule” a missed court appointment are strange but typical for her New Jersey town. You cannot help but laugh out loud when you read the Evanovich books and Smokin’ Seventeen is no exception.

Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder 388 pages

Nick Heller is called by an old friend of the family to find his daughter who has been kidnapped. Nick drops everything to find Alexa Marcus only to discover that her father is lying to him at every turn. Nick has few clues to go on. Alexa was supposed to be out with her best friend but when Nick tries to ask Taylor Armstrong about what happened to Alexa her US Senator father puts up roadblocks. Nick calls in favors from friends with covert backgrounds to try to track Alexa’s last known movements. He finds South American drug dealers and Russian oligarchs who have interests in the business dealings of Alexa’s father. This book is fast paced and full of surprises. Nick is involved with the FBI and a former member of Russia’s KGB. The rush is on to track Alexa’s captors and find where she is being held before the monster charged with holding her is released to do his worst. It is always a pleasure to read one of Finder’s books. They never disappoint.

The Sixth Man by David Baldacci 416 pages

Michelle Maxwell and Sean King are hired by an old friend of Sean’s who is representing Edgar Roy in a multiple murder case. Michelle and Sean drive to northern Maine to meet Sean’s friend when they find him dead at the side of the road on the way to the meeting place. The police and FBI are called. The FBI suspiciously arrives within minutes of the call. Sean and Michelle begin by trying to investigate the death of his friend and the charges against Edgar. Without the lawyer of record the begin the process of trying to defend the client. Once started thy find that there is much more going on in the background than any one person is aware of. Six bodies are found buried in Roy’s barn, people connected to Roy’s case are being murdered and answers are not easily found. Things get more complicated when the CEOs of two private intelligence agencies meet with the Secretary of Homeland Security and one becomes the target of the conspiracy. Next, Roy’s sister appears and brings some background intelligence to the hunt. As usual, Baldacci keeps adding surprises and just when you think you may have the whole story untangled he throws in a few more knots. Lots of Fun!

Buried Prey by John Sandford 390 pages

Old houses are being torn down to make way for a new development when the bodies of two young girls are found under the concrete floor of a basement. Lucas Davenport arrives and discovers that the bodies are those of girls gone missing twenty years before. The missing case was one of the first Lucas was assigned to as a detective and the fact that neither the girls nor their killer was found had always bothered Lucas. The case belongs to the Milwaukee PD but Lucas gathers his team from the State Behavioral Unit and begins to follow the leads left years before. Lucas has much more experience investigating murder and is able to look at the crime from a distance giving it perspective that was not present when the girls first went missing. As usual, “watching” Lucas and his team sift through the evidence, listen to what witness say or leave unsaid and “hearing” him churn all of the information to give him a focus is stimulating. One feels the frustration of leads that go in the wrong direction and the interest as some information sparks and understanding. Buried Prey is another in the long list of entertaining stories about a team of law enforcement officers that are dedicated and walk the thin line between legal and criminal acts in order to find the criminals.

Mobbed by Carol Higgins Clark 255 pages

Mobbed is a light funny mystery set at the New Jersey Shore. Nora and Jack Reilly plan to spend the weekend with Nora’s parents when Nora receives a call from her mother asking her to arrive early to help her monitor the garage sale being given by her friends unpredictable mother. The mother has advertised that she is selling items belonging to a famous actress who had rented her home and left them behind. The actress disappears after dead roses are thrown at the rented house. Unable to contact their daughter, the actress, Cleo’s parents hire Nora to find her. There is also a disreputable boyfriend of one of Nora’s friends who Nora and Jack witness becoming engaged to one of the women running the garage sale. Nora is following leads in every direction while trying find Cleo. The leads sometimes become tangled.

Treason at Lisson Grove by Anne Perry 306 pages

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt are back in Treason at Lisson Grove. Thomas is tricked into following a supposed anarchist from London to France where he and his “partner” at Special Branch set up a watch over the house the anarchist visited and those who joined him. In the meantime, Victor Narraway who is head of Special Branch is framed for embezzling money that was to be paid to an Irish informant. The result of the embezzlement was death to the informant. Narraway is relieved of duty and heads to Ireland to try to find answers. Charlotte decides that Victor is unable to enter Irish society without his past becoming a deterrent to the investigation but that she could meet with Irish Society. She is afraid that, should Victor fail to exonerate himself, Pitt would be blamed or charged. There would be nowhere for future employment. Treason has treason, murder and treachery woven into a very entertaining story. Charlotte, Thomas, Victor and Lady Vespasia (Charlotte’s aunt) join forces to try to stop the anarchists before the Queen is threatened.

10th Anniversary by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro 395 pages

It’s coming up on the 10th anniversary of the day that Lindsay Boxer and Claire Washburn from the ME’s office first met. Lindsay is finally marrying Joe and everything is going well until Lindsay and Joe return from their honeymoon and Lindsay’s first assignment is to check on the report of a teenage girl who has possibly just given birth is found wondering in a remote area. Lindsay and her partner Richard Conklin find the girl at the hospital but she seems to be drugged. There is no sign of the baby and the girl insists that she doesn’t know what happened to him. There is a rush to find the baby that is fraught with twists and turns while tracking down clues that are really just lies. In the meantime, Yuki Castellano is beginning the prosecution of a prominent doctor who is charged with murdering her husband. This could be the most important case in her career. Cindy Thomas, the intrepid reporter and fourth member of the Women’s Murder Club is accidentally brought into a serial rapist case by an old friend working in one of the city’s hospitals. The cases are separate but the Murder Club share info and brainstorm. Clues from one case trigger ideas for investigation on one of the other cases. Lindsay has trouble adjusting to married life and a new boss. Things are just a bit off kilter. 10th Anniversay is another fun book by Patterson

Savage Nature by Christine Feehan 367 pages

Saria Boudreaux lives in the Louisiana Bayou on the edge of the swamp. She is a photographer and spends many nights in the swamp trying to photograph wildlife in their natural habitat. One night she sees the lights of 2 boats, hears the screams of someone in pain then hears a large cat growling. Saria stays silent until she is certain that everyone is gone then quietly rows her boat to where she heard the sounds. She finds a body that has been stabbed then sees the telltale bite marks on the neck of the man indicating the kill by a Leopard. This is not the first body she has found and decides that she has to call in the owner of the land for help. Jake Bannocanni sends his friend and head of security, Drake Donovan to investigate. Drake discovers a lair of shifters and senses that Saria is also a shifter. The two of them begin investigating the murders. Drake discovers problems within the lair that had been established among seven families hundreds of years ago. Drake teams up with Saria’s brothers and brings in his own team to help solve the murders and dig into the underlying problems plaguing the lair. Romance, intrigue, danger and a sense of the history of the Bayou are intertwined within the story. Savage Nature is part of the Leopard Series by Christine Feehan.

Live Wire by Harlan Coben 371 pages

Myron Bolitar who is a sports agent, friend, problem solver and involuntary private eye is once again pulled into the unhappy lives of his clients. Suzze T is a former tennis star and married to Lex, a rock star and a client of Myrons. Suzze receives a strange post on FaceBook and asks Myron to try to find who made the post and what it meant. Myron, being Myron starts asking questions and things get complicated. He finds Kitty, his long estranged sister-in-law, a nephew he had never met and searches frantically for his long lost brother. Suzze is murdered but the murder is made to look like a suicide keeping the police out of the mix but Myron is on the hunt. Win Lockwood joins Myron using his almost unlimited rather nefarious skills and extensive contacts to search for the person who made the post on FaceBook then a long reclusive but charismatic member of Lex’s rock band. Myron’s parents become involved, an incarcerated mob boss and his brother become integral pieces of the puzzle before the story is told. As usual, Coben’s story includes unexpected twists with seemingly unconnected characters involved.

Sixkill by Robert B. Parker 293 pages

Zebulon Sixkill is a Cree Indian who was hired by Jumbo Nelson as a body guard. Jumbo is a movie star with little talent, a foul mouth, a drunk, a drug addict and who is grossly overweight. His value is that his movies are used to launder mob money. Jumbo is a sexual preditor who uses his fame to attract young girls/women or boys/men. While engaging in sex games, alcohol and drugs one of the young women dies. The police and ME are unable to determine whether her death is accidental or homicide. The press is calling for Jumbo's arrest which motivates the politicians to push the police into action. Detective Quirk asks Spencer to look into the death and try to find some answers that are not available to the police. Spencer begins with speaking with Jumber then has an altercation with Sixkill. As usual, Parker's dialog is suscinct. His characters rarely use paragraphs when a short sentence or a word will sufficed. Even without the word count, the reader sees the action and is able to follow the logic as if sitting in the room. Spencer reveals hints along the way to help the reader "solve" the case. Rarely is one able to solve it correctly without missing a hint or two.

Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly 421 pages

Mickey Haller is once again embroiled in a murder defense case. Lisa Trammel is charged with the murder of the banker responsible for foreclosing on her home. Lisa has led protests against the bank which then got a restraining order against her. Her protests are so high profile that the media uses stock video of her when reporting on foreclosures. Haller had been taking foreclosure cases and Trammel was one of his clients. The police collect some evidence against Trammel but Haller taking his normal approach when defending in a murder case, starts digging up questionable actions by others. There is the missing husband, the company contracted by the bank to handle the foreclosure, a suspicious movie producer and an attack on Haller that seems out of place but all fits into the picture. The reader gets the sense that Mickey is not viewing murder defense as he once did without him actually missing opportunities or failing to score points against the prosecution. As usual, second guessing Connelly or trying to solve the mystery early on is nearly impossible.

Wicked Lies by Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush 446 pages

Wicked Lies is the second book in a series by sisters Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush. “Lies” returns to residents and former residents of The Colony at Siren Song. The Colony is made up of a group of women who are blood relations and most of whom are daughters of one woman and different fathers. The women all share the same blond hair, blue eyes and ESP. Their talents vary but are related. Justice Turnbull is one of the few living male descendents from The Colony and was never allowed to live at Siren Song because of his gender. His talents are similar to the female family members but his also turned evil. He stalked and killed before he was sentenced to a hospital for the criminally insane. This should have been the end of Justice but he plans and executes his escape from the hospital and begins to kill anyone in his way. His target is Laura Adderley, a nurse and former Siren Song resident. Justice tracks Laura by linking telepathically with her. She develops a strong barrier to him but finds it difficult to keep Justice out of her mind. Laura meets Harrison Frost, a reporter, who does not fully believe her telepathic connection to Turnbull but does feel protective toward her. Jackson and Bush lead the reader through family dynamics and interaction with police. Adderley and Harrison use the metal connection between Laura and Justice to help police track the killer. There is suspense at every turn and a budding romance beginning to bloom. A great read!

Devious by Lisa Jackson 439 pages

Devious by Lisa Jackson begins in St Marguerite’s Convent in New Orleans. Sister Camille is dressing in a bridal gown and dream walks to the chapel where she is strangled to death. Detective Rueben Montoya and his partner Rick Bentz are called to the scene where Montoya recognizes Sister Camille as his high school sweetheart and her best friend, also a novitiate, was the girlfriend of his brother in high school. Another novitiate is murdered. Camille’s sister was a former police detective in Texas and she starts investigating Camille’s murder. Valerie, the sister, is estranged from her husband who shows up to try to reconcile and becomes involved in the search for the murder and some truths that are just beginning to surface. The police are frustrated THEN a prostitute is murdered following the same MO used by a serial killer impersonating a priest several years ago. The cases become confused, the nuns and priests try stonewalling the police while Valerie and her husband run a parallel investigation. In typical Jackson style, the pieces of the puzzle twist until they start fitting together. A great read for mystery fans.

Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward 489 pages

Lover Unleashed is the ninth novel in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. The Brotherhood’s members are vampires who live close to a city just outside New York, NY. They roam the city at night looking for and killing the undead known as Lessers. Throughout the series the history of each brother is revealed along with the history of the Brotherhood and the reason the vampires moved from Europe to the U.S. “Unleashed” is the story of Payne, the Scribe Virgin’s daughter (technicality here), who escapes from her mother who has imprisoned her for centuries. One of Payne’s duties is to spar with Wrath, the king of the vampires, and during a sparring session Payne is badly injured. Payne’s twin brother, Vicious is mated with a surgeon. Payne’s injuries are too complicated for Jane so she finds her old boss in the human world and brings him to the Brotherhood mansion to operate. Needless to say, sparks fly between Payne and her healer, Manuel. If there is interest in reading the Brotherhood series I suggest starting with Book 1. Each novel stands on its own but the progression of stories helps build a knowledge of the lives and histories of the charactes.

The Sentry by Robert Crais 306 pages

The Sentry by Robert Crais is another chapter in the Joe Pike/Elvis Cole story. Pike accidently interrupts what looks like an extortion attempt gone bad when he walks in on two gang-bangers beating up a sandwich shop owner. The police are called and the “niece” (Dru) of the shop owner (Wilson) arrives and throws Joe off balance. The story weaves through gang affiliations, a Mexican drug cartel, a Bolivian drug cartel and the professional assassin hired by the Bolivians to find and kill Dru and Wilson. The assassin is searching for the shop keeper and his niece. Joe and Elvis try to head off the gang-bangers and find that Dru and Wilson are not who they said they were. Representatives of a Federal agency are on the periphery of the investigation then Cole discovers that they are not real Feds. The story twists and intertwines until all characters are accounted for and the real underlying story is revealed.

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts 472 pages

The setting for “Chasing Fire” is Missoula, Montana. The characters are Smoke Jumpers – the Zulies. Roberts once again, researches her subject and drops her characters into details describing the training, selection and actual jumps into the fire fighting. Rowan Tripp is an experienced jumper and has been for several years. Her father, Iron Man Tripp, is a legend and her closest support. This year, as rookies follow the rigid training required for smoke jumpers a few drop out and some filter to the top of the class. Gulliver Curry is one who moves to the top. He also has his eye on Rowan. Mingled in with fighting dangerous forest fires and the budding romance there is someone murdering people from town. He/she/they also sabotage the equipment the jumper’s drop with them into the fire fight. As expected of the hero and heroine, Gull and Rowan start looking into the crimes during their downtime. One man living in town becomes a suspect but the intrepid duo doesn’t buy the reason behind the suspicion. Robert’s stories always tell how things work. She develops her characters so they flow together only leaving a slight discord around the possible criminal.

Breaking the Rules by Suzanne Brockmann 507 pages

Suzanne Brockamnn is one of my favorite authors. Here characters are well defined. They “interact” with one another to weave an interesting story. “Breaking the Rules” is the latest in Brockmann’s list of stories about members of SEAL Team 16 and their families. Dan Gillmann is wounded in Afghanistan and Izzy Zanella gives him a field transfusion (from himself to Dan) while under fire. Both are sent to Germany then home for medical leave. Dan had met (in a previous book) Jenni lyn LeMay. They fall in love with reservations. Jenn flies to Germany. Then Dan, Izzy and Jenn fly to Las Vegas where Dan’s little brother is being threatened with being sent to a camp that turns gay teens to strait. Dan’s sister, Eden (Izzy’s wife) is trying to get custody, move to San Diego and save Ben from his alcoholic/addictive mother and step-father. Throw in a 14 year-old Korean girl who escapes from a group running an import sex slave business right in Las Vegas who is befriended by Ben (the little brother) and the story gets complicated. Lots of intrigue to keep you guessing all through the book!

Dark Prince - Author's cut special edition by Christine Feehan 484 pages

Dark Prince is the first of the Dark Series rewritten and enhanced by Christine Feehan. The prince of the Carpathian race has lived for centuries and is almost to the end of his lonely dark endurance. The Carpathians are immortals with special skills able to dissolve into mist or shape shift into any animal. Mikhail, the prince, is on the brink of walking into the sun to end his life when his path crosses with Raven. Raven is human with psychic abilities and is Mikhail’s lifemate. She is able to link with Mikhail and becomes his salvation. Vampire hunters try to kill them and a true vampire abducts Raven and tries to kill Mikhail. The Dark series follow the plights of several Carpathian males through countries around the world as they fight vampires and search for their true “lifemate”