Mysteries Galore.com

Archive for May, 2010

Reviewed by Teri Davis

After spending six years teaching at Enfield College, Professor Karen Pelletier is finally seeing an opportunity for security, she is eligible for tenure. After publishing many articles, she feels that this should be a logical next step and that there should be no objections. She feels betrayed when she learns that she is not favored for receiving tenure, but that another professor who has published nothing will be the choice. He has one advantage that she does not have. Professor Joe Lone Wolf is from a minority.

What’s the logical thing to do now? She immerses herself in her classes and prepares her box for the tenure application process anyway. With her daughter traveling in Nepal and her fiancé in Iraq, Karen is grateful for her friendship with Earlene, the dean of students at Enfield to take away some of the loneliness. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Nancy Eaton

Supreme Justice is the sequel to Executive Privilege.

Supreme Justice opens with John Finley surviving an attack on a ship. The next chapter continues with Tom Oswald discovering the ship. That is not all he finds. There are several bodies and drugs aboard. The reader is then taken ahead in time.

Sarah Woodruff, a former cop, is on death row. She has been convicted of murdering her lover, John Finley. She has exhausted almost all means of trying to prove she did not commit this murder. Her last hope is a chance to be heard by the Supreme Court. To make matters worse, one of the Supreme Court justices retires and several interest groups try to get their candidate appointed to fill the vacancy. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Julie Moderson

Wow what an awesome book! This is the sequel to Presumed Innocent and Scott Turow does not disappoint his readers. You can read this book without having read Presumed Innocent and not feel you have missed part of the book because Turow does such a wonderful job weaving his story to get you up to date. It took me a few chapters to get used them each being from a different person’s perspective.

For twenty years Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto have been pitted against each other since Molto charged Sabich with murder and he was let off. Molto was charged with tampering with evidence in the first trial and was innocent of it and now Molto finds himself charging Judge Rusty Sabich with murder again and vows not to let Sabich off a second time. Sabich is sixty years old and his wife is found dead under mysterious circumstances. Sabich has had an affair and his wife had found out about it. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Douglas R. Cobb

Tubal Cain is fast on his way to becoming America’s most prolific and vicious psychopathic serial killer. But when he tries to make former military operative and ex-CIA agent Joe Hunter’s half- brother, John, his latest victim, Joe will do everything he can to make sure that John won’t be the next victim on Tubal’s ever-growing list. Finding John, in the first place, is a problem for Joe, since they’ve had a falling out with each other, and Joe only hears about his brother’s disappearance because Louise Blake, the woman he’s living with in Arkansas, writes to his ex- wife, Jennifer, telling her about it, and asking for help. Joe had told Louise “that if anything ever happened to him I had to send for Hunter because he would know what to do.” Dead Men’s Dust is Hilton’s debut novel, but you wouldn’t know it from the quality of the writing. Hunter has had to face down many bad guys in his career, including hardened criminals and terrorists, but now he’ll have to go against perhaps his toughest challenge so far – bowie-knife wielding Tubal Cain – and the question is, will even Hunter be able to stop Tubal from continuing on his bloody murder spree, or will Cain be able (yeah, I know – terrible pun) to claim yet another victim?

Matt Hilton’s Joe Hunter has been compared favorably to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. High praise indeed, but Hilton writes with a noir=ish gritty authority that comes with experience, the experience of having worked in private security and for the Cumbria police department, and in being an expert in kempo jujitsu and holding the rank of fourth dan.. The novel’s brief bio of him at the back also mentions he “founded and taught at the respected Bushidokan Dojo.” In other words, when he writes about Joe Hunter in an action scene (thankfully for action junkies like myself, there are plenty in the novel), kicking ass and taking names, he knows what he’s talking about. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

Anne Marshall is a court reporter and sometimes amateur detective. Anne has a secret weapon and that is her dead father who sometimes rides shotgun and gives her some inside information. Anne has promised that she will not get involved with any investigations since she almost was killed the last time she tried to solve a crime.

Shirley Williams is the court administrator and when Anne finds her crying Shirley tells her of the tragedy that has struck her good friend Kathy Spence. Kathy’s husband Elliott Spence has been killed. Elliott was struck down by a hit and run driver and the police are accusing his wife Kathy of killing him. Anne is very familiar with Elliott Spence. Anne is also attending law school and Spence was one of her professors prior to his recent death.
Shirley explains that Kathy and Elliott had a wonderful marriage and their only problem was the fact that they were unable to have children. Kathy had been in a deep depression over this fact but was attempting to pull herself out of the depression. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

Some people have labeled Joe Hunter as a vigilante and others have seen him as a hit man. One thing is for sure and that is if you have a serious problem, Joe Hunter is the man to have on your side.

When Kate Piers showed up on the Florida beach and revealed to Joe that she was the sister of Jake Piers, a buddy from Special Forces, Joe felt obligated to help her. Kate feared that her sister Imogen Ballard was in serious trouble. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Vickie Dailey

From an innocent meeting in a local grocery, Paul, meets Katia, the granddaughter of an ex cold war weapons expert. When Katia’s protector, Emerson Pike, is found murdered on the night she escapes from his home and police find her with Paul’s business card on her person. Paul is suspected of knowing more than he really does.

As Paul and his partner Harry start to clear Katia of murder, they soon discover they are in way over their heads. With FBI, a pissed off DA and an angry assassin after them, Katia injured on a prison transport bus and unable to provide Paul and Harry with any assistance in clearing her name. Paul and Harry soon discover secrets that not only endanger their professional careers but their very lives as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

Some people seem to have the knack to instantaneously know people. Kelly Flynn has that ability. She has successfully settled in Fort Connor, Colorado and is working as an accountant. She is successful enough that she has the time to pursue her interest in knitting and even helps out at the House of Lambspun. Her life is perfect, almost, except for her boyfriend being in financial straits and not accepting any assistance from anyone.

Kelly lives near a golf course and has an unusual incident one night when she discovered someone on her back patio who is not responding to any conversation. The young woman is hospitalized and treated for drug abuse. As the woman, Holly, attempts to change her life, she also becomes involved with the people at the House of Lambspun. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, Holly, is found dead near Kelly’s house. Why? Apparently she died due to a drug overdose. So, who gave her the drugs? Kelly is determined to find out. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

Roxy Abruzzo, is beautiful and sexy. Roxy has a soft heart when it comes to protecting the under-dog but if Roxy is crossed, she is a force to be reckoned with. Roxy runs Bada Bling Architectural Salvage in Pittsburgh. Her right-hand man is Nooch Santonucci. Nooch has had some problems in the past and has a parole hearing coming up soon. Roxy is hoping to find some respectable business people to speak up for Nooch at his hearing. The third member of Roxy’s company is Rooney, a pit bull she rescued.

Roxy also has a 16-year-old daughter, Sage. Sage’s father is Patrick Flynn. Flynn hasn’t been in Sage’s life until recently and Roxy is still trying to get used to the idea of his involvement. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Cy Hilterman

Mo, short for Maurice Ousley, is an NBA star. He is a star in every meaning of the word in basketball and is a boyfriend of Gabrielle (Gabby), both being very serious with each other. Being a star with fans wanting a piece of you in public or private can become quite a difficult task through life. Mo was voted to be on the All Star Team and was fully looking forward to playing in the game along with all the side events that took place in connection. One night before the game Mo and Gabby had a misunderstanding over a past relationship of Gabby’s and it resulted in Mo taking off with their relationship hanging. Read the rest of this entry »