Suspense/Thrillers Recent Picks

December 2010/January 2011

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

The reversal / by Michael Connelly.
"When Mickey Haller is invited by the Los Angeles County District Attorney to prosecute a case for him, he knows something strange is going on. The high-profile case of Jason Jessup, a convicted child-killer who spent almost 25 years on death row before DNA evidence freed him, is an intriguing one, particularly since the DA's determination to re-charge and re-try him for the same crime seems doomed to failure. Eager for the publicity and drawn to the challenge, Mickey takes the case, with Detective Harry Bosch on board as his lead investigator. But as a new trial date is set, it starts to look like he's been set up, with the renewed prosecution merely a tactic to prevent Jessup from successfully suing the state and county for millions of dollars."(Amazon UK)

Edge / Jeffery Deaver.
"When Washington D.C. police detective Ryan Kessler is targeted by Henry Loving, he and his family are immediately put under government protection. Loving is a ruthless 'lifter', hired to extract information from his victims, and he will use whatever means necessary including kidnapping, torturing or killing their family. Assigned to the Kessler family is protection officer Corte: uncompromising, relentlessly devoted to protecting those in his care and a brilliant game strategist. He also knows just how brutal the lifter can be, six years earlier, Loving killed someone close to him." (Amazon UK)

Gas City / Loren D. Estleman.
"Gas City, once known as Garden Grove, has enjoyed stability as a result of understandings among the politicians, the police and the local gangsters. An enclave known as the Circle serves as the community's vice outlet, while the rest of the metropolis is virtually crime free. Police chief Francis Russell, after his wife's death, begins to question the devil's bargain he'd struck years earlier with mob boss Anthony Zeno. When Russell resumes acting like a lawman, virtually everyone in town feels the repercussions." (Amazon UK)

Painted ladies / Robert B. Parker.
"Spenser is approached by Ashton Prince, an art professor who wants him to help recover a stolen painting. The thieves will return the painting in exchange for a ransom, and so the professor wants Spenser along in case things turn nasty. The exchange goes seemingly without a hitch, but as Prince emerges carrying a rectangular object wrapped in brown paper and heads for the private detective's car, the package explodes and makes a dreadful mess of the hapless professor. Spenser isn't going to let anyone get away with killing one of his clients, but first he's got to figure out who did it and why." (Amazon UK)

On the line / S.J. Rozan.
"Receiving a sinister phone call informing him that his sometime partner, Lydia Chin, has been abducted, private investigator Bill Smith is forced to participate in a psychologically brutal cat-and-mouse game during which he is framed for a murder." (Book cover)

Tough customer / Sandra Brown.
"Dodge Hanley, a grizzled investigator who used to be a cop. Dodge is awakened one morning by a call from Caroline King, a woman he hasn't seen in 30 years, since the day their daughter, Berry, was born. Now Berry is the target of a frightening stalker who has just broken into Caroline's house and shot Berry's co-worker, Ben Lofland. Dodge reluctantly agrees to travel from Atlanta to Texas to help the police hunt down Berry's tormentor, the vengeful Oren Starks." (Amazon UK)

A night of long knives / Rebecca Cantrell.
"Journalist Hannah Vogel has vowed to never again set foot in her homeland of Germany while the Nazis are still in power. She has good reason: three years ago in 1931, she kidnapped her 'son', Anton, from the man claiming to be his father, Ernst Rohm, head of the Nazis' SA. A powerful man not to be trifled with, Hannah knows that Rohm will never stop searching for them. Hannah is asked to write about a zeppelin journey from South America to Switzerland, but Switzerland turns out to be too close. The zeppelin is diverted to Munich, where Hannah and Anton are kidnapped and, to Hannah's horror, separated." (Amazon UK)

Nobody move / Denis Johnson.
"Jimmy Luntz is an innocent man, more or less. He's just leaving a barbershop chorus contest in Bakersfield, California, thinking about placing a few bets at the track, when he gets picked up by a thug named Gambol and his life takes a calamitous turn. Jimmy owes Gambol's boss significant money, and Gambol's been known to do serious harm to his charges. Soon enough a gun comes out, and Jimmy's on the run. While in hiding he meets up with a vengeful, often-drunk bombshell named Anita, and the two of them go on the run together, attracting every kind of trouble." (Amazon UK)

In the name of honor : a novel / Richard North Patterson.
"Captain Paul Terry, one of the army's most accomplished young lawyers, must defend Brian McCarran, a general's son who recently returned from a harrowing tour in Iraq. In the high-profile court-martial, Terry is joined by Brian's sister, Meg McCarran, who leaves her practice in San Francisco to help save her brother. Before the case is over, Terry will become deeply entwined with Meg and the McCarran family, and learn that families, like war, can break the sturdiest of souls." (Book cover)

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