cc4usmc
12-12-2007, 09:04 PM
Alright, my dad was going to get rid of some hardback books. I figured you guys here at Zilvia, being hug fans of reading :coolugh: , might be interested.
$12 shipped each book.
1: Above The Law by J.F. Freedman
Luke Garrison, a former D.A. who has abandoned the problematic morality of convincing juries to send criminals to the gas chamber, first appeared in The Disappearance, in which his old mentor wanted Luke to take on a sensational murder case that had the entire country abuzz. In Above the Law, J.F. Freedman continues to apply a successful formula: reluctant hero takes on a case that nobody, but nobody, wants. This time out, Nora Ray, the D.A. of Muir County, the least populated and poorest county in California--and a friend from Luke's law school days--asks Luke to help her investigate a recent police killing, which she believes may be a monumental government coverup.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has swaggered, guns blazing, into the forests near the White Horse reservation, intent on raiding the fortress-like retreat of Reynaldo Juarez, the notoriously reclusive leader of one of the biggest drug-dealing gangs in the country. Janet Reno herself has determined that he must be taken alive, so when the raid is blown, four DEA agents are killed, and Juarez himself dies after being taken into custody, questions and recriminations are par for the course. Nora and Luke must negotiate local hostility and pitched interdepartmental acrimony as they slowly unravel the tangled stories that surround the fiasco. But as he casts his investigative gaze from the poverty of the nearby reservation to the depths of the L.A. ghettos, Luke may be dangerously blind to the nearness of immediate treachery and deceit.
Freedman's strength is Luke's weakness: plagued by fears of failure, haunted by his decision to put job before family, Luke is an appealingly flawed narrator. While Freedman's engaging voice may not completely conceal his occasionally turgid prose, or his tendency to rely on coincidence as the shortest distance between two conundrums, it should be a sufficient siren's call to his loyal fans and those looking for a legal procedural with a conscience
2: The Disappearance by J.F. Freedman
After forays into the coming-of-age (The Obstacle Course) and PI (House of Smoke) genres, Freedman seems to have settled back, with last year's Key Witness and this new novel, into the sort of rambunctious legal thriller that made his reputation with his debut, Against the Wind. That book has been his high water mark, critically and commercially, and his new novel is unlikely to match it, despite a powerful premise, exciting plotting both in and out of the courtroom and Freedman's usual muscular prose. The opening here is immensely gripping: a teenage girl is apparently kidnapped from her Santa Barbara, Calif., bedroom during a slumber party, her wealthy family deals with the devastation of her disappearance, her body is found and, a year later, a hotshot TV newscaster is arrested for the killing. Freedman handles this sensitive material?obviously inspired by the real-life kidnap-slaying of Polly Klass?freshly and with appropriate gravity. He takes a turn toward the routine, however, when he introduces his hero, attorney Luke Garrison, whose very contrariness?he's a former DA who has fled to the woods in shame over a past failure, who rides a hog and sports a goatee and a ruby stud in his ear?makes him just one more dashing antihero. Luke agrees to defend the newscaster, plunging himself and his hot-blooded girlfriend/assistant into an adrenalized investigation and trial full of false leads, twists and brushes with death, all of which Freedman handles skillfully, other than pointing a blatant finger at the dead girl's father as the real culprit. So the ultimate unmasking of the killer comes as no big surprise, although Freedman's lurid handling of it is surprising?and, some might say, exploitative, as this talented writer turns what begins as a worthy re-imagining of a brutal tragedy into a histrionic page-burner. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selections.
3: Trace Evidence by Elizabeth Becka
Death is part of daily life for single mother Evelyn James, a forensic scientist in the Cleveland, Ohio, medical examiner's office. In the opening pages of this tepid debut thriller, Evelyn is called to the scene of a bizarre crime: a young woman has been drowned in the Cuyahoga River, her feet submerged in a bucket of cement. When a second victim, who escaped drowning only to be strangled, turns out to be the daughter of Evelyn's long-ago beau, Darryl Pierson (now Cleveland's mayor), Evelyn ventures beyond her job description to pursue the criminals behind the clues. Among those under suspicion: notorious mobster Mario Ashworth, the mayor's childhood friend and the first victim's employer; and overzealous hospital nurse James Neal, who once administered care to each of the murdered girls. As Evelyn inches ever closer to the killer, she fears for the safety of her own teenage daughter, Angel. Becka, a Cape Coral, Fla., forensic scientist, has created a frank, honest protagonist who loves what she does, but too many procedural details encumber rather than enliven the novel. While there's sufficient suspense to keep the pages turning, Becka's offering lacks the crisp prose and poise of Patricia Cornwell and Jan Burke.
4: Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille
Welcome to the Custer Hill Club--an informal men's club set in a luxurious Adirondack hunting lodge whose members include some of America's most powerful business leaders, military men, and government officials.Ostensibly, the club is a place to gather with old friends, hunt, eat, drink, and talk off-the-record about war, life, death, sex and politics. But one Fall weekend, the Executive Board of the Custer Hill Club gathers to talk about the tragedy of 9/11 and what America must do to retaliate.Their plan is finalized and set into motion.That same weekend, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force is reported missing.His body is soon discovered in the woods near the Custer Hill Club's game reserve.The death appears to be a hunting accident, and that's how the local police first report it, but Detective John Corey has his doubts.As he digs deeper, he begins to unravel a plot involving the Custer Hill Club, a top-secret plan known only by its code name: Wild Fire.Racing against the clock, Detective Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, find they are the only people in a position to stop the button from being pushed and chaos from being unleashed.
5: The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
aldwell and Thomason's intriguing intellectual suspense novel stars four brainy roommates at Princeton, two of whom have links to a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. This rare text (a real book) contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. The four seniors are Tom Sullivan, Paul Harris, Charlie Freeman and Gil Rankin. Tom, the narrator, is the son of a Renaissance scholar who spent his life studying the ancient book, "an encyclopedia masquerading as a novel, a dissertation on everything from architecture to zoology." The manuscript is also an endless source of fascination for Paul, who sees it as "a siren, a fetching song on a distant shore, all claws and clutches in person. You court her at your risk." This debut novel's range of topics almost rivals the Hypnerotomachia's itself, including etymology, Renaissance art and architecture, Princeton eating clubs, friendship, steganography (riddles) and self-interpreting manuscripts. It's a complicated, intricate and sometimes difficult read, but that's the point and the pleasure. There are murders, romances, dangers and detection, and by the end the heroes are in a race not only to solve the puzzle, but also to stay alive. Readers might be tempted to buy their own copy of the Hypnerotomachia and have a go at the puzzle. After all, Caldwell and Thomason have done most of the heavy deciphering-all that's left is to solve the final riddle, head for Rome and start digging.
6: Bleedout by Joan Brady
aldwell and Thomason's intriguing intellectual suspense novel stars four brainy roommates at Princeton, two of whom have links to a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. This rare text (a real book) contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. The four seniors are Tom Sullivan, Paul Harris, Charlie Freeman and Gil Rankin. Tom, the narrator, is the son of a Renaissance scholar who spent his life studying the ancient book, "an encyclopedia masquerading as a novel, a dissertation on everything from architecture to zoology." The manuscript is also an endless source of fascination for Paul, who sees it as "a siren, a fetching song on a distant shore, all claws and clutches in person. You court her at your risk." This debut novel's range of topics almost rivals the Hypnerotomachia's itself, including etymology, Renaissance art and architecture, Princeton eating clubs, friendship, steganography (riddles) and self-interpreting manuscripts. It's a complicated, intricate and sometimes difficult read, but that's the point and the pleasure. There are murders, romances, dangers and detection, and by the end the heroes are in a race not only to solve the puzzle, but also to stay alive. Readers might be tempted to buy their own copy of the Hypnerotomachia and have a go at the puzzle. After all, Caldwell and Thomason have done most of the heavy deciphering-all that's left is to solve the final riddle, head for Rome and start digging.
7: Key Witness by J.F. Freedman
Wyatt Matthews, a wealthy corporate lawyer, quits his job and signs on as a public defender in this latest from Freedman, whose House of Smoke.
8: The Inside Ring by Michael Lawson
The Washington conspiracy thriller is a publishing evergreen, and while Lawson's debut may look like others in the genre, it's in a league by itself. Joe DeMarco has a Capitol building office and the title of "Counsel Pro Tem for Liaison Affairs," but he's really an all-purpose legman for John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, Speaker of the House. In DeMarco's words: "If a politician thinks his wife is cheating on him, I make sure she's not screwing a journalist. That's the kind of stuff I do, sir. Little stuff." But he's pushed into a much bigger game after Mahoney lends him to the director of homeland security, who wants DeMarco to investigate a recent assassination attempt on the president. Of particular interest to the director is Secret Service agent Billy Ray Mattis, who predicted the assassination attempt. All the stock government types are here, but Lawson's craft, intelligence and humor turn these ho-hum regulars into characters worth savoring. DeMarco himself is perfectly human, prey to all the species' frailties and tremendously appealing. The bad guys are sufficiently evil, the plot properly labyrinthine, the solution to the mystery completely satisfying. This is high-level entertainment from a writer who could soon rise to the top of the thriller heap.
9: Chain of Command by Caspar Weinberger
Starred Review. Two term Reagan Secretary of Defense Weinberger collaborating with Schweizer (The Next War) turns in a debut political thriller crackling with a chilling authenticity and riveting dirty dealing. When Secret Service Special Agent Michael Delaney, a longtime member of the presidential security detail, awakes blearily one morning at Camp David, he discovers that someone's swapped guns with him—and within minutes, the president and vice president are shot with Delaney's own Beretta. Before the wounded VP is taken to surgery, he's sworn in as president; moments later, multiple cities get hit in small but lethal coordinated attacks. The new POTUS, who sees opportunity in disaster, declares a state of national emergency, putting the entire nation under martial law, then prepares to take out a right-wing militia on whom he has pinned the attacks. Before a highly skeptical Delaney can catch his breath, he finds himself accused of being complicit in hitting the president and VP. The novel tracks, over nine days, the particulars of the White House power grab and Delaney's desperate attempts to derail it, both in the District and in some tense encounters with the Appalachia-based right-wingers. Despite some stilted dialogue, Weiberger and Schweizer have delivered a superbly paced, tightly plotted winner.
10: The Sanctuary by Raymond Khoury
Here is one of those novels that spans centuries, interweaves stories from past and present, and involves a brave hero trying to uncover the truth behind an ancient conspiracy that unnamed individuals will kill to protect. It's hardly a new premise, but here's the good thing: in Khoury's hands, it feels fresh and exciting again. When archaeology professor Evelyn Bishop is kidnapped, her daughter, Mia, vows to find her and to find the secret behind the artifacts that apparently led to Evelyn's abduction. Her odyssey takes her into unexpected corners of history, quickly putting her own life at risk. The action takes place mostly in Iraq but also journeys to eighteenth-century Italy and present-day Lebanon. The large cast of characters includes plenty of villainous types, including "the hakeem," a doctor whose grisly medical experiments seem linked to a centuries-old mystery. There are dozens of ways this novel could have collapsed under its own narrative weight, but Khoury makes the conspiracy feel utterly believable and imbues his characters with infectious passion for finding the truth. A surefire hit with fans of conspiracy-based historical thrillers
11: Power Play by Joseph Finder
If Jake Landry, a tough guy with an understanding of airplane engineering and an innate grasp of corporate politics, is too good to be true, he's still fun to watch in this sleek thriller from bestseller Finder (Killer Instinct). A junior executive at California's Hammond Aerospace, Landry possesses a remarkably flexible intelligence, which lands him on a high-end corporate weekend at a lodge called Rivers Inlet, where the new CEO, Cheryl Tobin, discreetly asks Landry to help her identify corrupt executives. Almost immediately, the lodge is assailed by five men who at first appear to be hunters turned vicious at the sight of the weekend participants' enormous wealth. As they interrogate the executives, however, it becomes clear that they know quite a bit about Hammond and its workings. Landry's job, then, is to figure out their purpose as well as rescue the entire crew. Tight, fluid writing more than compensates for the occasional plot implausibility.
12: TripTych by Karin Slaughter
Bestseller Slaughter departs from her Grant County crime series (Faithless, etc.) with a stand-alone thriller notable mainly for a jolting mid-book twist similar to one Ira Levin used with more subtlety in A Kiss Before Dying. The case of a prostitute's brutal murder provides a welcome break for Michael Ormewood, a cynical, world-weary Atlanta cop weighed down by dealing with the city's underclass and the heartbreak of a mentally impaired son. Since the victim's tongue was severed, linking the crime to several other recent outrages, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation intervenes. Suspicions focus on a recently paroled sex offender, John Shelley, who viciously butchered a neighbor more than a decade earlier. Slaughter unexpectedly switches the narrative's perspective, but the shock value garnered by the plot twist isn't matched by the predictable denouement. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
13: Report From Ground Zero by Dennis Smith
In words as devastatingly heartbreaking as the photo on the book's cover, Smith uses his skill as a writer to capture the horrors of September 11, 2001. Smith is a retired New York City fireman and author of the bestselling Report from Engine Co. 82, so he is able to convey the mind-set of this "brotherhood." The firefighters, rescue workers, and police personnel who responded to the World Trade Center attack all went into this cataclysm to do their job-to rescue as many people as they possibly could. The author captures the raw emotion of the event as seen through the eyes of people who survived and also as a participant during the search and rescue mission. A cast of actors present the testimonies of survivors, making this work even more gripping. Excellently performed, Report from Ground Zero is highly recommended for all libraries.
14: Fire Lover by Joseph Wambaugh
All John Leonard Orr wanted to be was a policeman, but when he was turned down, he became a fireman in Glendale, California. In a perfect ironic twist, he was also one of the most prolific arsonists the United States has ever seen. Ken Howard narrates this sordid tale with a straightforward, tough, and aggressive voice. His diction is somewhat sloppy, but it works because this is true hard-boiled crime. His pacing is keen, and he keeps us interested through some technical court transcripts. The fact that this is a real event makes it that much more engrossing.
15: Hide by Lisa Gardner
Starred Review. In bestseller Gardner's first-rate follow-up to Alone (2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified female bodies in clear garbage bags. A silver locket with one of the corpses, which may be decades old, bears the name Annabelle Granger. Later, a woman shows up at the Boston Homicide offices claiming to be Annabelle Granger. Her resemblance to Catherine Gagnon (whose life Bobby saved in Alone) helps stoke a romance between her and Bobby both subtle and sizzling. The suspense builds as the police uncover links between patients at the hospital and long-ago criminal activities. Through expert use of red herrings, Gardner takes the reader on a nail-biting ride to the thrilling climax
$12 shipped each book.
1: Above The Law by J.F. Freedman
Luke Garrison, a former D.A. who has abandoned the problematic morality of convincing juries to send criminals to the gas chamber, first appeared in The Disappearance, in which his old mentor wanted Luke to take on a sensational murder case that had the entire country abuzz. In Above the Law, J.F. Freedman continues to apply a successful formula: reluctant hero takes on a case that nobody, but nobody, wants. This time out, Nora Ray, the D.A. of Muir County, the least populated and poorest county in California--and a friend from Luke's law school days--asks Luke to help her investigate a recent police killing, which she believes may be a monumental government coverup.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has swaggered, guns blazing, into the forests near the White Horse reservation, intent on raiding the fortress-like retreat of Reynaldo Juarez, the notoriously reclusive leader of one of the biggest drug-dealing gangs in the country. Janet Reno herself has determined that he must be taken alive, so when the raid is blown, four DEA agents are killed, and Juarez himself dies after being taken into custody, questions and recriminations are par for the course. Nora and Luke must negotiate local hostility and pitched interdepartmental acrimony as they slowly unravel the tangled stories that surround the fiasco. But as he casts his investigative gaze from the poverty of the nearby reservation to the depths of the L.A. ghettos, Luke may be dangerously blind to the nearness of immediate treachery and deceit.
Freedman's strength is Luke's weakness: plagued by fears of failure, haunted by his decision to put job before family, Luke is an appealingly flawed narrator. While Freedman's engaging voice may not completely conceal his occasionally turgid prose, or his tendency to rely on coincidence as the shortest distance between two conundrums, it should be a sufficient siren's call to his loyal fans and those looking for a legal procedural with a conscience
2: The Disappearance by J.F. Freedman
After forays into the coming-of-age (The Obstacle Course) and PI (House of Smoke) genres, Freedman seems to have settled back, with last year's Key Witness and this new novel, into the sort of rambunctious legal thriller that made his reputation with his debut, Against the Wind. That book has been his high water mark, critically and commercially, and his new novel is unlikely to match it, despite a powerful premise, exciting plotting both in and out of the courtroom and Freedman's usual muscular prose. The opening here is immensely gripping: a teenage girl is apparently kidnapped from her Santa Barbara, Calif., bedroom during a slumber party, her wealthy family deals with the devastation of her disappearance, her body is found and, a year later, a hotshot TV newscaster is arrested for the killing. Freedman handles this sensitive material?obviously inspired by the real-life kidnap-slaying of Polly Klass?freshly and with appropriate gravity. He takes a turn toward the routine, however, when he introduces his hero, attorney Luke Garrison, whose very contrariness?he's a former DA who has fled to the woods in shame over a past failure, who rides a hog and sports a goatee and a ruby stud in his ear?makes him just one more dashing antihero. Luke agrees to defend the newscaster, plunging himself and his hot-blooded girlfriend/assistant into an adrenalized investigation and trial full of false leads, twists and brushes with death, all of which Freedman handles skillfully, other than pointing a blatant finger at the dead girl's father as the real culprit. So the ultimate unmasking of the killer comes as no big surprise, although Freedman's lurid handling of it is surprising?and, some might say, exploitative, as this talented writer turns what begins as a worthy re-imagining of a brutal tragedy into a histrionic page-burner. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selections.
3: Trace Evidence by Elizabeth Becka
Death is part of daily life for single mother Evelyn James, a forensic scientist in the Cleveland, Ohio, medical examiner's office. In the opening pages of this tepid debut thriller, Evelyn is called to the scene of a bizarre crime: a young woman has been drowned in the Cuyahoga River, her feet submerged in a bucket of cement. When a second victim, who escaped drowning only to be strangled, turns out to be the daughter of Evelyn's long-ago beau, Darryl Pierson (now Cleveland's mayor), Evelyn ventures beyond her job description to pursue the criminals behind the clues. Among those under suspicion: notorious mobster Mario Ashworth, the mayor's childhood friend and the first victim's employer; and overzealous hospital nurse James Neal, who once administered care to each of the murdered girls. As Evelyn inches ever closer to the killer, she fears for the safety of her own teenage daughter, Angel. Becka, a Cape Coral, Fla., forensic scientist, has created a frank, honest protagonist who loves what she does, but too many procedural details encumber rather than enliven the novel. While there's sufficient suspense to keep the pages turning, Becka's offering lacks the crisp prose and poise of Patricia Cornwell and Jan Burke.
4: Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille
Welcome to the Custer Hill Club--an informal men's club set in a luxurious Adirondack hunting lodge whose members include some of America's most powerful business leaders, military men, and government officials.Ostensibly, the club is a place to gather with old friends, hunt, eat, drink, and talk off-the-record about war, life, death, sex and politics. But one Fall weekend, the Executive Board of the Custer Hill Club gathers to talk about the tragedy of 9/11 and what America must do to retaliate.Their plan is finalized and set into motion.That same weekend, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force is reported missing.His body is soon discovered in the woods near the Custer Hill Club's game reserve.The death appears to be a hunting accident, and that's how the local police first report it, but Detective John Corey has his doubts.As he digs deeper, he begins to unravel a plot involving the Custer Hill Club, a top-secret plan known only by its code name: Wild Fire.Racing against the clock, Detective Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, find they are the only people in a position to stop the button from being pushed and chaos from being unleashed.
5: The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
aldwell and Thomason's intriguing intellectual suspense novel stars four brainy roommates at Princeton, two of whom have links to a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. This rare text (a real book) contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. The four seniors are Tom Sullivan, Paul Harris, Charlie Freeman and Gil Rankin. Tom, the narrator, is the son of a Renaissance scholar who spent his life studying the ancient book, "an encyclopedia masquerading as a novel, a dissertation on everything from architecture to zoology." The manuscript is also an endless source of fascination for Paul, who sees it as "a siren, a fetching song on a distant shore, all claws and clutches in person. You court her at your risk." This debut novel's range of topics almost rivals the Hypnerotomachia's itself, including etymology, Renaissance art and architecture, Princeton eating clubs, friendship, steganography (riddles) and self-interpreting manuscripts. It's a complicated, intricate and sometimes difficult read, but that's the point and the pleasure. There are murders, romances, dangers and detection, and by the end the heroes are in a race not only to solve the puzzle, but also to stay alive. Readers might be tempted to buy their own copy of the Hypnerotomachia and have a go at the puzzle. After all, Caldwell and Thomason have done most of the heavy deciphering-all that's left is to solve the final riddle, head for Rome and start digging.
6: Bleedout by Joan Brady
aldwell and Thomason's intriguing intellectual suspense novel stars four brainy roommates at Princeton, two of whom have links to a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. This rare text (a real book) contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. The four seniors are Tom Sullivan, Paul Harris, Charlie Freeman and Gil Rankin. Tom, the narrator, is the son of a Renaissance scholar who spent his life studying the ancient book, "an encyclopedia masquerading as a novel, a dissertation on everything from architecture to zoology." The manuscript is also an endless source of fascination for Paul, who sees it as "a siren, a fetching song on a distant shore, all claws and clutches in person. You court her at your risk." This debut novel's range of topics almost rivals the Hypnerotomachia's itself, including etymology, Renaissance art and architecture, Princeton eating clubs, friendship, steganography (riddles) and self-interpreting manuscripts. It's a complicated, intricate and sometimes difficult read, but that's the point and the pleasure. There are murders, romances, dangers and detection, and by the end the heroes are in a race not only to solve the puzzle, but also to stay alive. Readers might be tempted to buy their own copy of the Hypnerotomachia and have a go at the puzzle. After all, Caldwell and Thomason have done most of the heavy deciphering-all that's left is to solve the final riddle, head for Rome and start digging.
7: Key Witness by J.F. Freedman
Wyatt Matthews, a wealthy corporate lawyer, quits his job and signs on as a public defender in this latest from Freedman, whose House of Smoke.
8: The Inside Ring by Michael Lawson
The Washington conspiracy thriller is a publishing evergreen, and while Lawson's debut may look like others in the genre, it's in a league by itself. Joe DeMarco has a Capitol building office and the title of "Counsel Pro Tem for Liaison Affairs," but he's really an all-purpose legman for John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, Speaker of the House. In DeMarco's words: "If a politician thinks his wife is cheating on him, I make sure she's not screwing a journalist. That's the kind of stuff I do, sir. Little stuff." But he's pushed into a much bigger game after Mahoney lends him to the director of homeland security, who wants DeMarco to investigate a recent assassination attempt on the president. Of particular interest to the director is Secret Service agent Billy Ray Mattis, who predicted the assassination attempt. All the stock government types are here, but Lawson's craft, intelligence and humor turn these ho-hum regulars into characters worth savoring. DeMarco himself is perfectly human, prey to all the species' frailties and tremendously appealing. The bad guys are sufficiently evil, the plot properly labyrinthine, the solution to the mystery completely satisfying. This is high-level entertainment from a writer who could soon rise to the top of the thriller heap.
9: Chain of Command by Caspar Weinberger
Starred Review. Two term Reagan Secretary of Defense Weinberger collaborating with Schweizer (The Next War) turns in a debut political thriller crackling with a chilling authenticity and riveting dirty dealing. When Secret Service Special Agent Michael Delaney, a longtime member of the presidential security detail, awakes blearily one morning at Camp David, he discovers that someone's swapped guns with him—and within minutes, the president and vice president are shot with Delaney's own Beretta. Before the wounded VP is taken to surgery, he's sworn in as president; moments later, multiple cities get hit in small but lethal coordinated attacks. The new POTUS, who sees opportunity in disaster, declares a state of national emergency, putting the entire nation under martial law, then prepares to take out a right-wing militia on whom he has pinned the attacks. Before a highly skeptical Delaney can catch his breath, he finds himself accused of being complicit in hitting the president and VP. The novel tracks, over nine days, the particulars of the White House power grab and Delaney's desperate attempts to derail it, both in the District and in some tense encounters with the Appalachia-based right-wingers. Despite some stilted dialogue, Weiberger and Schweizer have delivered a superbly paced, tightly plotted winner.
10: The Sanctuary by Raymond Khoury
Here is one of those novels that spans centuries, interweaves stories from past and present, and involves a brave hero trying to uncover the truth behind an ancient conspiracy that unnamed individuals will kill to protect. It's hardly a new premise, but here's the good thing: in Khoury's hands, it feels fresh and exciting again. When archaeology professor Evelyn Bishop is kidnapped, her daughter, Mia, vows to find her and to find the secret behind the artifacts that apparently led to Evelyn's abduction. Her odyssey takes her into unexpected corners of history, quickly putting her own life at risk. The action takes place mostly in Iraq but also journeys to eighteenth-century Italy and present-day Lebanon. The large cast of characters includes plenty of villainous types, including "the hakeem," a doctor whose grisly medical experiments seem linked to a centuries-old mystery. There are dozens of ways this novel could have collapsed under its own narrative weight, but Khoury makes the conspiracy feel utterly believable and imbues his characters with infectious passion for finding the truth. A surefire hit with fans of conspiracy-based historical thrillers
11: Power Play by Joseph Finder
If Jake Landry, a tough guy with an understanding of airplane engineering and an innate grasp of corporate politics, is too good to be true, he's still fun to watch in this sleek thriller from bestseller Finder (Killer Instinct). A junior executive at California's Hammond Aerospace, Landry possesses a remarkably flexible intelligence, which lands him on a high-end corporate weekend at a lodge called Rivers Inlet, where the new CEO, Cheryl Tobin, discreetly asks Landry to help her identify corrupt executives. Almost immediately, the lodge is assailed by five men who at first appear to be hunters turned vicious at the sight of the weekend participants' enormous wealth. As they interrogate the executives, however, it becomes clear that they know quite a bit about Hammond and its workings. Landry's job, then, is to figure out their purpose as well as rescue the entire crew. Tight, fluid writing more than compensates for the occasional plot implausibility.
12: TripTych by Karin Slaughter
Bestseller Slaughter departs from her Grant County crime series (Faithless, etc.) with a stand-alone thriller notable mainly for a jolting mid-book twist similar to one Ira Levin used with more subtlety in A Kiss Before Dying. The case of a prostitute's brutal murder provides a welcome break for Michael Ormewood, a cynical, world-weary Atlanta cop weighed down by dealing with the city's underclass and the heartbreak of a mentally impaired son. Since the victim's tongue was severed, linking the crime to several other recent outrages, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation intervenes. Suspicions focus on a recently paroled sex offender, John Shelley, who viciously butchered a neighbor more than a decade earlier. Slaughter unexpectedly switches the narrative's perspective, but the shock value garnered by the plot twist isn't matched by the predictable denouement. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
13: Report From Ground Zero by Dennis Smith
In words as devastatingly heartbreaking as the photo on the book's cover, Smith uses his skill as a writer to capture the horrors of September 11, 2001. Smith is a retired New York City fireman and author of the bestselling Report from Engine Co. 82, so he is able to convey the mind-set of this "brotherhood." The firefighters, rescue workers, and police personnel who responded to the World Trade Center attack all went into this cataclysm to do their job-to rescue as many people as they possibly could. The author captures the raw emotion of the event as seen through the eyes of people who survived and also as a participant during the search and rescue mission. A cast of actors present the testimonies of survivors, making this work even more gripping. Excellently performed, Report from Ground Zero is highly recommended for all libraries.
14: Fire Lover by Joseph Wambaugh
All John Leonard Orr wanted to be was a policeman, but when he was turned down, he became a fireman in Glendale, California. In a perfect ironic twist, he was also one of the most prolific arsonists the United States has ever seen. Ken Howard narrates this sordid tale with a straightforward, tough, and aggressive voice. His diction is somewhat sloppy, but it works because this is true hard-boiled crime. His pacing is keen, and he keeps us interested through some technical court transcripts. The fact that this is a real event makes it that much more engrossing.
15: Hide by Lisa Gardner
Starred Review. In bestseller Gardner's first-rate follow-up to Alone (2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified female bodies in clear garbage bags. A silver locket with one of the corpses, which may be decades old, bears the name Annabelle Granger. Later, a woman shows up at the Boston Homicide offices claiming to be Annabelle Granger. Her resemblance to Catherine Gagnon (whose life Bobby saved in Alone) helps stoke a romance between her and Bobby both subtle and sizzling. The suspense builds as the police uncover links between patients at the hospital and long-ago criminal activities. Through expert use of red herrings, Gardner takes the reader on a nail-biting ride to the thrilling climax