“Crucible” by James Rollins is a thrilling story about the Sigma Force characters fans have grown to know and appreciate, Gray Pierce and Monk Kokkalis and their families, and what happens when a young woman creates an artificial intelligence (AI) being whose intelligence and ability far surpass anything created previously.
In “The Fifth Doctrine,” author Karen Robards takes an action-filled plot that has a few twists and turns and creates a book that is gripping, touching, and ultimately an extremely satisfying read. There are a lot of chase scenes and a lot of mistrust and chicanery, and this third book in “The Guardian” series about Bianca St. Ives is a really fun read. Continue reading
“Freefall” by Jessica Barry is an action-filled thriller that is about a daughter who has left home, lost her job, lost her compass, and in the process of becoming a hero is also in huge danger. While Ally is literally running for her life, her mother, halfway across the country, is mourning her daughter’s supposed death and also investigating who her estranged daughter had somehow become.
Between Ally and Maggie’s alternating first-person narratives, the reader learns the story of the past and what happened to estrange the mother and daughter, and the present. The present is that Ally is supposedly dead in a plane crash that killed her and her fiancé, but the reader knows Ally is really on the run after surviving the plane crash. Through Ally’s narrative, the reader learns about Ally’s inner strength and her determination to survive.
“The Outwalkers” by Fiona Shaw is a tough read, but not because it’s not a fabulous story. In fact, the book is intriguing from the first page and emotionally heartrending to the last. It’s dark and depressing, but at the same time it’s filled with hope and the promise of a better world. My heart beat a bit faster from the beginning to the end of the book — I was that worried about the main character, Jake, and his incredibly loyal and wonderful dog Jet.
“The Secretary” by Renée Knight portrays the perfect British secretary. Christine is circumspect, loyal, devoted, and willing to give up marriage and her child to comply with Mina Appleton’s every whim and need. And Mina is a generous and caring employer — until she isn’t.
Story within a story, play within a play, movie within a movie. Authors, playwrights, and screenwriters — usually clever ones — do it often. But Lee Goldberg takes the concept several crazy steps beyond that relatively simple technique in his latest novel, “Killer Thriller.” Here, the stories wind around and through the main narrative like a long river running and twisting through a countryside. Novels inside novels, movies inside novels, movies inside movies — it’s downright dizzying — but incredibly entertaining.
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, authors of “Undying,” have done a spectacular job writing a two-book sci-fi series in which both books are completely filled with action, two very likable and admirable characters, great settings, and over-the-top suspense.
Like any good mystery — suspense novel, Charles Soule’s “The Oracle Year” is filled with thrills and chills, twists and surprises. But Soule’s work here takes us far beyond those classic characteristics. Its science-fiction elements raise, once again, the “big questions” that have fascinated and frustrated many of us virtually since the birth of our species. Is my destiny pre-decided or do I truly have free will? What would I do and how would I act if I could accurately predict the future? Are human beings fundamentally good or evil? How and why might we eventually cause our own extinction? Are there gods or is there a God or have beings from other worlds created and formed us?
While “What Doesn’t Kill Her” is the sequel to “Dead Girl Running,” author Christina Dodd completely fills in the reader in a manner so natural that this book could be the first in the series. Former US Army Captain Kellen Adams is living at the winery where her daughter lives with the man who was Kellen’s boyfriend before her accident, her coma, and the missing year of her life.
In both books, Dodd gives the reader three statements narrated by the main character, Kellen Adams. In this book, the statements are:
-I’ve got the scar of a gunshot on my forehead
-I have willfully misrepresented my identity to the US military
-I’m the new mother of a seven-year-old girl
“Dead Girl Running” by Christina Dodd is an action-packed mystery novel in more ways than one. Not only is there the mystery of who, at the fancy Washington State resort, is the head of a smuggling ring, there are also mysteries aplenty about the main character. Her name is Kellen Adams, or that is what those around her believe. In reality, the truth is much different.
“Caught in Time” by Julie McElwain is a thrilling action mystery featuring Kendra Donovan, an FBI agent who was thrown into the past, to 1815 Regency England. It’s a far cry from the 21st century and her life as a profiler for the FBI, but in each of the three Kendra Donovan mystery novels, Donovan manages to get embroiled in a murder, and she’s the best chance at getting the real culprit found.
In “The Perfect Candidate,” debut author Peter Stone uses Washington, DC as the perfect backdrop for a young high school graduate from rural California who becomes enmeshed in a murder mystery. The story is actually a thriller as Cameron Carter, the small town Congressional intern to charismatic Congressman Billy Beck, discovers that the Congressman he admires might be guilty of murder to keep a scandal from ruining his career.
