DCL Book Chat

The Cut is the first title in a gritty new series by Pelecanos, featuring freelance investigator Spero Lucas, an ex-Marine who has returned to his hometown of Washington, D.C. after serving in Fallujah, Iraq. Lucas is a man with morals, but the case he takes stretches those boundaries and puts him, his family and close friends in danger. The author gives you a great sense of the neighborhoods around the nation’s capital and I got hungry reading about the many restaurants Lucas visits. It is also full of music references. The story is very character- driven and fast-paced. I look forward to reading the next in the series and would recommend it to readers who enjoy Robert Crais, Lee Child and Michael Connelly.

Allison

Keye Street is a former FBI profiler and recovering alcoholic working as a bond enforcement officer/investigator in Atlanta. When her friend, APD Lt. Aaron Rauser, realizes there is a serial killer loose in Atlanta, he calls on Keye to help him find the monster behind a series of violent and sexual killings before there are more victims. As Keye hunts for the killer, she soon finds herself and her loved ones in danger. Keye, who is Asian-American, is a strong and independent protagonist who is often sarcastic when dealing with others, especially her doting adoptive and very Southern mother. This is a very fast-paced and character driven novel. There is witty dialogue, but the book includes many scenes of very graphic sexual violence and is not for the squeamish. Williams is a former journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This is her first book in a planned series featuring Keye Street.

Allison

Love you more is the latest installment in Gardner’s series featuring Boston cop D.D. Warren and Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge. Brought together across jurisdictional lines and with awkwardness as former lovers, the two must work together to find a missing six-year old girl and find out why the girl’s mother, State Trooper Tessa Leoni, is claiming she killed her husband in self-defense when all the evidence points in another direction. I loved the chemistry between the main characters and their differing approaches to solving the crime. This book is very fast-paced and character driven.

Allison

I listened to the audio version of this suspenseful noir thriller with elements of the paranormal. The story takes place in 1935 during the Great Depression. A group of CCC workers are on a train headed to the Florida Keys to build a bridge when Arlen Wagner sees impending doom. He tries to get the workers to get off the train when it stops at a station. Only one of the men, young Paul Brickhill, hears the warning in Arlen’s voice and gets off the train. When the immense Labor Day hurricane of 1935 destroys the Keys Paul and Arlen are alive, but find themselves in great danger when they arrive at the Cypress House. This is a gritty story of good and evil and Koryta does a great job describing the suffocating atmosphere at the lodge, caused not only by the weather but by raw human emotions.

Allison

The Sentry is the third in Robert Crais’ series featuring Joe Pike, a former Marine and cop, sometime mercenary and friend of P.I. Elvis Cole, the main character in Crais’ other series. Pike comes to the aid of a sandwich shop owner as he is being beaten by gang thugs. He finds himself attracted to the woman who claims to be the owner’s niece, so he goes out of his way to protect her when the shop is vandalized in what Pike thinks is gang retaliation. Pike, with the help of his friend Elvis Cole, soon finds out that the shop owner and his niece aren’t who they seem. They are on the run from some very violent people; violent people who are now after Pike as well. This is a fast-paced thriller that will appeal to readers who like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series or to those who enjoy Harlen Coben.

Allison

Corte (no first name) is an agent for an anonymous government agency who safeguards high profile citizens. His current assignment is to protect a DC detective from a man who will do anything (i.e. torture) to extract information from him. Corte has a personal reason to stop this man: he murdered his mentor. Jeffery Deaver offers plenty of twists and turns pitting two very intelligent opponents against each in an intriguing battle of wills. In addition he gives readers a thoughtful, rather scholarly hero (who doesn’t brood or overanalyze as much as Lincoln Rhyme) in what readers can only hope is the first in a new series.

Dedra

Tess Gerritsen takes her main characters out of Boston for this fast-paced mystery/thriller. Maura Isles is in Jackson, WY for a medical conference and meets up with an old college friend who invites her to go with him, his daughter and another couple to a cross-country ski lodge after the conference. They end up stranded in the middle of nowhere when their car goes off the road during a terrible snow storm. The story follows Maura as she and her traveling companions stumble upon a strangely deserted community and evidence of foul play while trying to find shelter. When Maura doesn’t return to Boston when she is expected, Jane Rizzoli, her husband Gabriel Dean and Maura’s lover Daniel Brophy travel to Wyoming to find her.

Gerritsen does a great job describing the isolation and fear Maura and her companions feel, as well as their growing tensions with one another about the choices they have made. The fact that the now deserted community belongs to a polygamist cult adds another facet to the story.

Allison

Prostitutes are being murdered in the parks of Berlin and female police inspector Armina Treffen is determined to find the sadistic killer. Set in 1930, this dark, intriguing novel reveals the dangerous atmosphere in Weimar Germany where information is bought and sold, unlikely alliances are made, and it is impossible to know who to trust.

Fans of The Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo might find this thriller a good read.

Marsha

Lee Child’s character Jack Reacher, is a former military policeman and loner extraordinaire. In this 14th outing, Reacher has hitched a ride on a tour bus traveling through South Dakota with a group of senior citizens. He awakes from a nap when the bus spins out of control and slides off an icy road during a snowstorm outside Bolton, SD.
Bolton is a town with lots of trouble. Perfect for Reacher, who once it is decided he isn’t a bad guy, is asked by the local cops to help protect a witness from a group of bikers and the crime mob they work for. As the clock ticks down to an unknown event, the tension and action build. Child is a great storyteller; his characters are all fleshed out and we can feel the bleakness of the icy South Dakota winter. Get set for a page turner and one to follow. Child’s next book Worth Dying For, is set to be released in October.

Allison

A jumbo jet has crashed for no apparent reason and the NTSB has sent a crack team of experts (called “crashers”) that include a pathologist, an engineer and a voice recording specialist, to investigate. They quickly learn that this was not pilot or mechanical error and that other planes may soon be targeted. Think CSI + 24 + beautiful, deadly spy + dedicated doctor with something to prove and you’ve got it.

Dedra