Dark Horse

I haven’t read anything by Tami Hoag since Thin, Dark Line, and I’m glad that I picked Dark Horse to go back to. It features dark characters to be sure, but it’s an oddly satisfying read. Elena Estes is a former police officer drowning in guilt over her part in the death of a coworker….

Summer of Storms

When I opted to review this book, I thought it was romantic suspense. It’s not; it’s a straight mystery/thriller, so if you’re looking for love, this’d be one of the wrong places. I enjoy straight suspense, and though Summer of Storms is a page-turner, had the heroine been a bit more on the ball (along…

Dead Run

I have been on a mystery reading kick lately, finally catching up with all those authors I always meant to read but never had the time to. In the case of Erica Spindler’s Dead Run, however, all I discovered was how an interesting and timely plot can be marred by boring characters and less-than-stellar prose….

The Survivors Club

Lisa Gardner has become one of my favorite suspense writers. I thought The Third Victim was fantastic psychological suspense, and while The Last Accident wasn’t quite as good, my faith is restored with The Survivors Club. It kept me absorbed and drew me into the story while I was trying to figure out the mystery….

Body of Lies

Ms. Johansen’s latest has got it all…and then some. And that’s still not saying much. Murder and mayhem in the bayous of Louisiana, explosions, poisoning, car chases – all the thriller elements are here, and yet this latest Eve Duncan opus falls remarkably flat. Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan first appeared in The Face of Deception,…

Grace Notes

Grace Notes starts out at a very leisurely pace and never quite gets beyond that. As I read I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was a book-long wait. Grace Loring is a successful writer with domestic abuse in her past. That abuse prompted her to write her own story in order…

Hush by Anne Frasier

I don’t read a lot of suspense novels. I like books that are driven by characters, while most suspense is driven by plot. Hush by Anne Frasier is not a romance; it’s straight suspense. Still, it features characters who are more interesting and compelling than those in many of the romances I’ve read lately. And…

Every Move You Make

It’s hard for a reader to get involved with a work of fiction when she doesn’t care about the characters. Fictional characters needn’t be nice, but there has to be something about them to draw the reader’s interest. Unfortunately, I was never drawn to the characters in Jill Jones’ Every Move You Make. The problem?…

The Devil’s Code

A couple of things occurred to me as I sat down to write this review. First of all, (and this is something you’ll notice very quickly) the review is going to be primarily about plot. There isn’t much I can do about that because the book is all about plot, which kind of goes with…