Mysteries Galore.com

Archive for September, 2010

Reviewed by Jud Hanson

Twenty-four years ago a young girl was abducted and killed. The alleged perpetrator, Jason Jessup, was sent to prison, all the while claiming his innocence. New DNA evidence has now allowed his conviction to be overturned and face a new trial. Mickey Haller, a well-known defense attorney in L.A., has been asked by the State to prosecute Jessup in this new trial and he reluctantly accepts. Together with his ex-wife as second-chair, Haller must reexamine the evidence and figure out how to present a convincing case to the jury. It won’t be easy, because Jessup has hired one of the city’s most manipulative defense attorneys and he is loaded for bear. With Harry Bosch at his side as an investigator, Haller will have to use all the tricks at his disposal to outthink the defense. Can Haller burrow thru before it’s too late? Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Julie Moderson

David Rosenfelt is a true dog lover. He and his wife established the Tara Foundation that rescues dogs, mostly golden retrievers. He is an excellent writer and seems to like dogs as characters in his stories.

Dog Tags is about a wonderful German shepherd named Milo. Milo witnesses a murder that his owner is accused of. Billy Zimmerman is Milo’s owner and he wants to protect his dog. Andy Carpenter is asked by a friend to defend Milo and he ends up protecting Milo and defending Andy Carpenter. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Since Floodgates, there have been a few changes in Faye Longchamp’s life. She’s finished her PhD, gotten married and started her own archeological consulting firm with her husband Joe. And she’s expecting her first child. Even though she is quickly approaching her due date and is uncomfortably awkward, Faye decides they can’t turn down the first big project offered to their firm. So as Strangers, the sixth book in the series, opens, Faye and Joe are staying on a huge estate in St. Augustine, Florida where the owners, Daniel and Suzanne Wrather, would like to put in a swimming pool for their guests. Because of the long history of St. Augustine, no one dares to start a project without having some sort of archeological study done first.

Almost immediately, they do find things-and not all of them are old. There are of coarse possible Spanish artifacts, but an odd display of baby items is also found and it does not appear to be particularly old. Probably the most interesting item found though is a bone-which may or may not be from a human’s finger. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

It’s the Christmas season in Nashville but a few people aren’t feeling joy, peace, or goodwill towards men. Greg and Jill McKenzie, husband and wife, are partners in McKenzie Investigations. The company has been hired by a local attorney to investigate a group that seeks to bring an NBA basketball team to Nashville. McKenzie’s client represents a group that feels the NBA promoters are not on the up and up. The client also feels that there is just not room in Nashville to support both pro hockey and pro basketball.

The investigation is barely underway when Greg receives a phone call from Arnold Wechsel. Arnold asks Greg to meet him because he has important information for him. When Greg questions Arnold, he will only say it is about the National Basketball Association matter. Greg goes alone to the meeting place as requested but finds Arnold’s body but is too late to help Arnold. The first officer to arrive on the scene is not fond of Greg and suggests he might have something to do with the murder. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

Preparations are underway for the wedding of Alex Cross and Bree Stone. Alex’s family is excited and happy about the wedding. Kyle Craig, Alex’s sworn enemy, is thinking about Alex’s wedding and determined to do whatever is necessary to make Alex’s life miserable. His plans to disrupt the wedding sound perfect.

Alex’s wedding is put on hold when a gunman begins a killing spree. The killer’s victims include people whose names are well known in Washington not only for their positions but also for their corruption. Max Siegel of the Washington field office steps in to assist with the investigation. Alex is not pleased with this arrangement and has an immediate dislike for Siegel. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Hubert Schuze, the Albuquerque shop owner who specializes in Native American pottery and who is also known to some as “The Pot Thief,” returns for his third mystery in The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein. As with the first two books in the series, the author ties the mystery which Hubert becomes involved in with a mathematician.

Hubert is offered $2500 to do an appraisal of a privately held pot collection, he agrees even though the circumstances are unusual to say the least. He is picked up by a driver, blindfolded, driven to the site and again blindfolded when driven home. Should be an easy job right? However, when he gets back to the store, he discovers the cash fee has been removed from his pocket. Obviously Hubert is unhappy about this and is determined to get the money back. Besides the blindfold and being cheated out of the fee, there was another odd thing about the job. While looking the pots over to assess their condition, age and whatnot else, Hubert realized some of the pots in the collection were actually copies that he had made!

Hubert sets off to locate the house with the collection again and either get the money or get the pots. The problem is, the house is empty and dead bodies start piling up.

There are so many things to like about this series. Hubert Schuze, pot thief, potter and shop owner is a person who has a strongly developed sense of what is right-even though what is right is not always completely legal. The supporting characters have enough quirks to make them realistic. The books are set in Albuquerque and all of the crimes deal with the Native American culture of the Southwest. The added tie in to a mathematician is an excellent addition. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

Baldacci has done it again! Or perhaps I should say Oliver Stone and the Camel Club have done it again.

Oliver Stone a former do-everything type of problem solver who worked for the government until he had a falling out due to a botched operation. Botched by Oliver in some eyes at least. The Camel Club is a small group of patriots who united with Stone have battled for justice against some in our government and some who were against our government.

Hell’s Corner is the area right around Lafayette Park across from the White House. Part of the area is policed by D.C. police, part by the Secret Service, and part by the Park Police. It is an area where tourists, protesters, and others tend to congregate in Washington D.C.

One evening Stone is sitting in the park and contemplating a new assignment just given him by the President of the United States. Sort of a pardon for his past but with strings attached.

Suddenly all Hades breaks loose! There is a tremendous amount of rapid gunfire and then a horrendous explosion in that part of the park close to Stone. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Douglas R. Cobb

There’s a seriously twisted serial killer stalking his teen victims through an interpersonal meeting and blogging site, Rigmarole. He uses doubled initials as his alias, like ZZ, KK, and JJ, and threatens to reveal some dark secret about each of his victims, one that only he knows, and which would be devastating if the world knew about it. But, as Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan discover in Val McDermid’s sixth installment in her series featuring the duo, the murderer is not a pedophile out for kicks. He has other reasons, cold and twisted ones, despite his denial to the contrary:

Not that you take any pleasure in the killing itself. That would be twisted. And you’re not twisted. There’s a reason for what you’re doing. This is about healing your life. This is about you needing to do this so you can feel better.

Dr. Hill is a loner with a damaged past, raised by an uncaring, hostile mother, and seemingly abandoned by his rich father. His upbringing is the perfect recipe for becoming a serial killer, and he shares some of their traits–but he’s turned his talents at criminal profiling to tracking down serial killers, instead of potential victims. Carol, the ambitious and dedicated leader of the Bradfield Metropolitan Police’s Major Incident Team, rents Hill’s basement flat. There’s definite chemistry between the two, but Hill is afraid of commitment and he has told Carol of his problem with impotence. Still, the two are close, and Carol has used Dr. Hill’s considerable skills several times in the past to help catch murderers and to close cold cases.
Besides trying to catch a killer before he strikes again, the two are struggling with their own emotional baggage and psychological scars. Carol is becoming a little too reliant on using alcohol as a crutch to deal with the pressures of her job and the insecurities in her life. Tony’s childhood was a mess, as I’ve previously alluded to, and he’s hit with the news that his father’s passed away, leaving him a substantial sum of money and a mansion which he intends to sell. He’s become a wealthy man overnight, which should be enough to make most people happy; but, Carol’s new boss, Chief Constable James Blake, thinks Hill’s only gotten the job helping Carol solve cases because they’re banging boots with each other. Blake wants Carol’s Cold Case task force disbanded, and for policemen trained in forensic psychology to take over the brunt of the cases. The irony is that Hill is one of the main psychologists who has been training the very policemen whom Blake wants to use to replace him with. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

Joe Pike is back! And yes, Elvis Cole is back with him. They become involved with gang members from the old Soviet Union. These gangs have immigrated to the United States and now are doing their tricks in the Los Angeles area. While in the old country they were governed by the “Vorovskoy Zakon” or thieves’ code, which was made up of eighteen rules. The First Rule basically was that all members had to forsake family and become family with the gang.

In his own way Joe Pike somewhat honors that rule but for different reasons. While working as a mercenary for the United States he became extremely close with the members of his crew. He and each of the members would do whatever it took to take care of the other members or if necessary avenge the hurts that may have been inflicted upon any member.

As the story opens Frank Meyer a former member of Joe’s crew is murdered. And not only is Frank Meyer but his entire family and a nanny who was living with him were killed. When Pike and Cole begin looking into the massacre they cannot find the reason for the killings. The police believe that it is a gang related event because of some of the evidence and they believe that Frank was somehow involved with these Eastern European gangsters. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Vickie Dailey

NYPD Detective Jack Kanon is on an unsactioned mission to catch the PostCard Killers. He travels through Europe one step behind the killers – until he hooks up with Swedish Reporter Dessie Larsson.

They put into motion a plan to draw out the killers which too easily appears to work – or does it. While incarcerated, another murder happens. Which results in the two suspects being released.

Jacob and Dessie split up with Jacob seeking background in LA and Dessie going on to the next murder site. Both reconnect and set about following the killers to Finland. With the help of Dessie’s criminal family, they ultimately track down the killers at the World’s most northern IKEA store. Read the rest of this entry »