Mysteries Galore.com

Archive for August, 2010

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

When teenager Jennifer Maidment is murdered and mutilated, Tony Hill, criminal profiler is called to Worcester to help with the case. It is revealed that Jennifer and her friends are fans of the social network Rigmarole. Jennifer left her friend to meet with someone she had connected with on Rigmarole and was not seen again alive. The person Jennifer went to meet is known as ZZ. Jennifer is the first teenager to disappear but she will not be the last.

Meanwhile back in Bradfield, Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan is still heading up the Major Incident Unit but has been put on notice by the new Chief Constable that her team is on a three month trial and at the end of the three months, there might be major changes in the unit. The Chief Constable also informs Jordan that Tony Hill is too expensive and if a profiler is necessary, she needs to request one from the newly trained profiling unit.

A teen-aged boy is reported missing in Jordan’s district. The boy’s body is found and he has been victimized in the same manner of Jennifer Maidment. The boy also has a connection to Rigmarole and has a special friend on the network who goes by just initials. Tony and Carol are both investigating along the same lines but unable to share information with each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Nancy Eaton

Nurse Bess Crawford is returning to England with a number of severely wounded soldiers from the battlefields in France. Among them was a severely burned victim, a pilot. His bandages had to be changed every hour and the way he looked would be enough to make anyone cringe due to the fact that he had several open burn wounds. It was believed that the one thing that kept this soldier alive was the photo of his wife that was pinned to his tunic.

While at London’s Waterloo train station, Bess notices a woman and a soldier. The woman appears to be very upset and crying. Bess could not get over the fact that the soldier did not seem to reach out to the woman to provide some kind of comfort. As Bess caught a glimpse of the woman’s face, she could not believe what she saw. There was no mistake about it. This woman is the same person in the photo the burn victim has pinned to his tunic. What is going on?

Almost by accident, Bess discovers that the mysterious woman has been murdered. The murder happened the same day that Bess saw the woman and the soldier at the train station. When her husband is told this tragic news, he commits suicide. Bess is granted leave to give her information to Scotland Yard. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Melanie Cooper, and her long time friend Angie DeLaura have opened Fairy Tale Cupcakes thanks to the financial backing of Tate Harper. They have done everything right. The décor is oh so retro with its pretty pink and gray. They’ve come up with a popular array of signature cupcakes such as Tinkerbells and Blonde Bombshells and are even offering classes in making specialty drink flavored cupcakes (think Mojitos). While more customers by the day are finding the cupcakes irresistible, the owner of the other bakery in town is not a happy. In fact, she is nearly stalking the place in her pink van. Unfortunately, that is not the only problem the girls are going to have.

When Tate convinces his fiancé to have cupcakes for their wedding, Mel and Angie have to work with the control freak perfectionist Christie. Christie wants exclusive cupcakes flavors for her wedding-five different kinds, and she wants samples to evaluate by the end of the week. When Mel goes to the meeting with her, she finds Christie dead. Immediately she becomes the number one suspect. Working to clear her name and save her business, Mel soon finds any number of other viable suspects. Despite her reputation as a top designer, Christie was not a popular person. The problem is, the evidence keeps piling up against Mel-or at least against someone connected to Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

In this the sixteenth book with Anna Pigeon as the protagonist, Barr takes a break from the wilds of the National Parks as readers are used to and puts Anna on administrative leave in New Orleans. Before even settling in to her friend Geneva’s guest cottage, Anna becomes involved in an incident retrieving a wayward dog for a strange young man. Jordan, the young man was not at all appreciative of the gesture.

But before readers get too comfortable following this plot line, they are whisked off to Washington State and meet Clare on arguably the worst night of her life. She returns home from a quick errand to find her two girls missing. What follows is not for the faint of heart.

Eventually, the two threads twist together creating a heart wrenching, though grim tale that could only take place in a city like New Orleans. Where costumed people wandering around at all hours are considered perfectly normal and voodoo shops abound. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Nancy Eaton

Richard Dean wants to hire Joe hunter for a job. The job is very personal to Dean since it involves his daughter. Dean believes her very rich boyfriend Bradley Jorgensen is abusing his daughter, Marianne. Hunter works with an ex-Ranger known as Rink.

Hunter decides to accept the job. Dean does not care what Hunter has to do to get Marianne away from Jorgensen. His main goal is for Hunter to accomplish this task any way possible. After a nonchalant meeting with Marianne, Hunter sees a woman who seems happy with no signs of abuse. Even after dropping a few hints that he could help her, Marianne did not appear to need anything from Joe Hunter.

Dantalion, a hired killer, has been contracted to kill Jorgensen and Marianne. Dantalion’s first attempt was unsuccessful because Hunter happened to be there and saved the couple. Who has hired Dantalion to kill this couple and why? Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

Miracle Cure is one of Harlan Coben’s earliest novels and it is somewhat different from the books he writes today. The story is about an Aids Clinic and a series of Gay Slasher murders that appear to be tied to the clinic.

The action starts with the brutal beating and eventual murder of one of the heads of the clinic. He had just arrived back in the States from their storage facility in Bangkok. The killer made the murder appear to be a suicide as the body was found outside the motel where the man was to have spent the night. A forced suicide note and busted out window made it look as though the man had taken his own life.

Two good friends of the Clinic’s doctor/owners happen to be a professional basketball player, Michael Silverman and his wife, Sara Lowell, who is a television reporter. They are not only remorseful about the death of the partner but also shocked at the recent deaths of several patients of the clinic. They were killed in what appears to be homophobic murders. And the surviving doctor/owner, Harvey Riker, is completely devastated by the three deaths.
A U.S. congressman and a holier than thou preacher also become quite involved in the dealings as they are attempting to shut down the clinic completely. Although their reasons are different they both are adamant about the hoped for results.

Max Bernstein, the homicide detective assigned to the case, is an acquaintance of both Sara and Michael. As he begins to get into the investigation of the murders/suicide Michael suddenly becomes violently ill and is diagnosed at first with hepatitis. However later testing shows that he has Aids that most probably was contracted from a transfusion that he had to have when he was injured in a boating accident in the Bahamas.

Throughout the story the hired killer is going about his business of “taking care of business” and the police are trying to figure out all the connections.

There are many twists and additional subplots woven into the master theme all of which holds the reader’s attention but doesn’t give up the mastermind behind the endeavor until the end.

Somewhat unusual for Coben is the appearance of a bit more foul language and sex as opposed to his later writings. Perhaps he felt that they were unnecessary and he decided to just write without the use of those tools.

The ending is pretty much a surprise for the reader as of the possible suspects the actual culprit is pretty much a true mystery though an integral part of the story.

Reviewed by Allen Hott

A well-written political thriller that brings forth many of the corrupt happenings that occur in the political arena. Hopefully the killings and beatings that happen in this telling do not actually occur on a daily basis. But the other shady dealings do without question and none of us are sure about the more gruesome aspects. Who knows?

Lincoln Bowe is an ex-U.S. senator who is now missing and strangely enough few people seem to be concerned. He is estranged from his wife, Madison, and though she still feels for him she is more concerned about Arlo Goodman and his Watchmen. Arlo is the governor of Virginia and wants to be at least the Vice President of the United States and Madison Bowe believes he will do anything to get that position.

Jake Winter is a published writer of political happenings. Also he is a veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan and now along with his writing he works for Bill Danzig, the President’s Chief of Staff. Jake has a great reputation for knowing his way around Washington. His military background has kept him sharp mentally and physically, despite a limp from shrapnel that ended his military career. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Gina Metz

Joe Hunter returns in Matt Hilton’s Judgment & Wrath. He has now moved to Florida where he has partnered up with his buddy, Jared “Rink” Rington in his private investigation business. Some would call Joe a vigilante although he just thinks of his work as helping those in need.

Joe meets with Richard Dean who wants to hire Joe to rescue his young daughter, Marianne, from her mega rich boyfriend, Bradley Jorgenson. He tells Joe that Bradley is physically abusing Marianne and produces a police report as proof. In the police report Marianne refused to name her attacker. Dean wants Marianne returned to him and any threat from Jorgensen eliminated. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Fire and Ice brings together Jance’s two most popular protagonists uniting Seattle’s J.P. Beaumont and Cochise County, Arizona’s Joanna Brady. When they were last pulled in on the same case, there was a bit of electricity between the two both professionally and personally leaving readers wanting more. And now we have it.

Beaumont’s case involves a string of brutal murders of Hispanic women killed, then dumped and burned. Brady is investigating a cold-blooded attack on the caretaker for an ATV Park located in a Dunes area. Was the attack random or by an environmentalist group? There is also quite an ugly eldercare issue involved. Unlike their first joint venture in Partners in Crime, Jance takes her time merging the separate cases together in this book, leaving readers with a constant shift between two seemingly unrelated cases being handled by two very different departments. The shift between the two cases often occurs within the same chapter as well, giving readers the feeling that they are literally reading two books at once until quite deep within the book. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Cy Hilterman

In 1987 Keith Sutter, age 27, was working on high temperature super conductors knowing he had discovered a new source of energy that would revolutionize the worlds power supply and reduce the dependence on current sources such as coal, oil, and nuclear methods that have been strangling the worlds population. Keith decided he would keep this new source to himself. He did not want to have to share this great energy source at this time since all his work and the income from it would have to be shared with the government and the university that they backed. He wanted all the credit and income for himself. He would wait until he was free of all that bound him to his current employer.

Twenty years later in 2007, all the plans that Keith had been mulling over started to take shape. He had brought Phil into his plans even though Keith felt he was running the show. They started advertising for employees to work in a new factory working on electrical semi-conductors. The old factory they bought was in a bad section of town and they re-configured the insides to their needs. No one but Keith and Phil knew what the factory was researching and physically working to produce.

Katherine Murkowitz needed a job. She had experience in the electrical field so she applied when Keith and Phil advertised for a person with such experience. She was so tired of applying for jobs but with the economy being so terrible, the jobs in most fields were non-existent. When she was called back for a second interview she was elated and then was finally hired to a job description she didn’t know much about but Keith and Phil were happy with her interviews. Read the rest of this entry »