King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Undone

author: Karin Slaughter


genre: crime thriller

published: 2009

pages: 436

rated: 5 out of 5 stars







An older married couple is driving home when they hit what they think is a deer on the road. When they get out of the car to investigate further, they realize they have hit a woman. Once the dying woman is rushed to the emergency room, she is attented to by Dr. Sara Linton. They doctors soon realize this woman is on the brink of death, having not only just been hit by a car, but having been tortured for days. She is barely alive and Sara manages to get her name, the woman whispers 'Anna'.


Faith Mitchell and Will Trent work for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and are assigned to the case. Soon enough, they discover another victim and discover an underground torture chamber. They realize that the killer keeps two women inside at a time. Shortly after, another woman is taken and Faith and Will realize that there is a serial killer on the loose and time is running out. Sara Linton winds up also getting involved in the case and as the story goes on you get to learn a bit about her past as well as Faith's and Will's.






Undone took off from page on and didn't stop. I love when i'm reading a book and it feels like the author is taking me for a wild ride. This is what this book was like, a rollercoaster ride, fast, surprising and thrilling. The suspense slowly builds and I found myself absolutely hooked.

The plot was great and the characters were well written. They were multi dimensional, and I enjoyed getting to know them as the story went along. The ending was really good, and all in all, it was a fantastic read. This is the book I was staying up late into the night reading and neglecting some of my household chores to read just one more chapter..... At just over 400 pages, I finished it in 4 days.






If you're a fan of fast paced crime fiction pick up a copy of Undone, you won't regret it.







About the author:

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including Beyond Reach and A Faint Cold Fear, which was named an International Book of the Month selection; she contributed to and edited Like a Charm. She is a native of Georgia, where she currently lives and is working on her next novel, which Delacorte Press will publish in 2010.

Visit her on tour at:

UNDONE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR '09






Special thanks to Jaime over at
http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com/ for sending me this book.

title: House

authors: Frank Peretti & Ted Dekker

published: 2006

pages: 372

genre: horror/supernatural thriller


first line: He stood motionless in the entryway, staring at his own shadow splayed before him like a stain upon the floor.





rated: 4 out of 5






I love it when a book unexpectedly makes its way into my hands. That's how I got a chance to read House. I had never even heard of this book before and an acquaintance of mine passed it on after seeing that I read The Ruins and liked it so much.


In House, Jack and Stephanie are driving through Alabama, on thier way to see a marriage counselor.

After getting lost, thanks to a bullying sherriff, they wind up in the backwoods with flat tires and no service on thier cell phones. They decide to hike and see if they can find a nearby town and phone. Instead what they find is a lovely Victorian style house, oddly placed in the middle of the woods. They see a sign saying 'Wayside Inn'. Perfect eh? They figure they can use the phone here and stay the night.
Only problem is, the Inn seems to be abandoned. Once inside, they find another couple, Randy and his girlfriend Leslie. This couple has also had the same problem, flat tires and no cell phone service. What an odd coincidence...or not.




Soon enough, the lights flicker and go out. Then the couples find the strange 'innkeepers' inside the house. Betty, her husband Stewart and thier adult son Pete, all three of whom are not very bright or sociable. And nope, there are no telephones at this Inn. So the couples decide they need to leave, immediately. Only problem is when they try to leave, they see a large man standing outside wearing a trenchcoat, a creepy tin mask and holding a gun. They run back inside, and this stranger locks them all inside the house from the outside. When the guys try the doorknobs, they all fall off, shocker. The stranger then throws a tin can down the chimney with a message scrawled on it.




These are the rules:

1) God came to my house and I killed him.


2) I will kill anyone who comes to my house as I killed God.


3) Give me one dead body and I might let rule two slide.

I know, after reading that message, I was kind of creeped out. As you can imagine, things go from bad to worse. Before they know it, the couples are having to fight for thier lives. And they know something is seriously wrong with the house. They more they try to find a way out, the more lost they become. And as everybody who reads horror stories knows, never go into the basement.

Two sounds reached out to Jack as he sat in the black silence. The first was a distant scream. A woman's this time.

The second was the faint humming again. Closer, much closer thank the scream.

He flicked the lighter and stood, listening intently.

Could it be pipes?

He stepped away from the wall and stopped.

Hmm, hmm, hmm. No. Not pipes. The sound of a child humming, faint but clear.

House reminded me of a mix between the movies Saw, The Strangers and Vacancy. This book was a great read, full of scary moments and suspense. I like a good horror story and this one delivered. Word to the wise, don't read this while home alone or at night.

title: Heartsick

author: Chelsea Cain

genre: thriller/suspense

published: 2007

pages: 324

first line: Archie doesn't know for sure that it's her until that moment.

rated: 4 out of 5







Heartsick is one of the many books I have discovered through blogging friends recommendations. What can I say about this book? It was really good. Heartsick had me hooked from the start and had me cringing from chapter one.
This did remind me of The Silence of the Lambs.





While working on 'The Beauty Killer' case, detective Archie Sheridan is taken by the same killer he was searching for, Gretchen Lowell. She tortured him for 10 days.
Gretchen left Archie with her signature, a scar on his chest, shaped like a heart....after breaking his ribs with a hammer and nail, among other things. I told you, this book made me cringe. So naturally, Archie is forever psychologically scarred after his encounter with Gretchen. After torturing him, remarkably, Gretchen calls 911 and turns herself in, and ironically, saves Archies life as well. She is now in prison serving a life sentence.


Archie has left the force, become estranged from his wife and is addicted to pain killers. Only now, there is another serial killer on the loose, and his old boss wants Archie's help.

Archie was high. He stood at the river's edge, hands in his pockets, a fine mist of rain settling on his shoulders. One of these days, he was going to get one of those waterproof jackets everyone kept recommending. It was nearly two o'clock in the morning. But he wasn't tired. The right does of Vicodin kept him in a state of perpetual in-between. Not tired, not awake. It wasn't such a bad state of mind once you got used to it.

Archie agrees to come back to work. This new serial killer is dubbed 'The After School Strangler', and as Archie works on the case, he is being profiled by journalist Susan Ward. Susan has her own personal demons to battle. She starts to spend time with Archie during the investigation and tries to learn more about him, in order to write articles on the case for the newspaper.





As the story unfolds, the reader gets flashbacks, seeing a glimpse of what was happening to Archie while he was held captive by Gretchen.





I really enjoyed this book, I found Gretchen to be the creepiest characters i've ever read. I liked reading about Archie and Gretchen more than the other characters, I really wanted to see what was going on with them. He has such an odd fascination with her. And what she did to him made me cringe...yikes!



They have such a twisted relationship, even at the end, I didn't fully understand it. I liked Archies character, you can't help but feel bad for him. I liked Susan too, there's more to her than you think. The storyline was good and so was the ending. Gretchen is a female Hannibal Lecter, minus the cannibalism. She also reminded me a bit of psycho nurse, Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's 'Misery'.



If you are looking for a good, creepy thriller, pick up a copy of Heartsick. You won't be dissapointed. However, this one is not for the faint of heart.



Heartsick has a sequel! It's called 'Sweetheart', and yes, I will be reading that one too.




About the author:

Chelsea Cain lived the first few years of her life on an Iowa commune, then grew up in Bellingham, Washington, where the infamous Green River killer was "the boogeyman" of her youth. Her first novel featuring Detective Archie Sheridan and killer Gretchen Lowell, Heartsick, was a New York Times bestseller. Also the author of Confessions of a Teenage Sleuth, a parody based on the life of Nancy Drew, several nonfiction titles, and a weekly column in The Oregonian, Chelsea Cain lives in Portland with her family.

this book has also been reviewed by the following: (let me know if you have reviewed it too, i'll link you here)

ladytink

cheryl


melody

title: The Silent Man

author: Alex Berenson

genre: thriller/suspense

pages: 418

first line: A weaker man would have found Shamir Taghi's pain unbearable.

release date: February 10, 2009

rated: 4 out of 5

The last two years haven't been easy for John Wells. Missions in Afghanistan, China, and America have taken a heavy toll on his body, his psyche, and even his soul. Now he is living quietly in Washington, trying to gather his strength and build his relationship with his lover Jennifer Exley. But his past is about to reach out for him, and for Exley.


Meanwhile, almost 6,000 miles away, terrorists are trying to steal a nuclear weapon, hoping to use it to provoke an all-out nuclear war between the United States and Russia. When the two plots come together, Wells will be faced with the most wrenching choice of his life -- and have the slimmest of chances to prevent Armageddon

CIA agent John Wells has made many enemies in his line of work, and one of those men holds a grudge against Agent Wells and will stop at nothing to get revenge. This Russian wants Wells and his girl dead. Wells is living with his fiancée and co-worker, Jennifer Exley. He and Exley are driving to work one day, when they are stopped in heavy traffic. In a moment, they are being shot at, Wells in uninjured but Exley is severely wounded. Wells finds out these assasins are sent by his old enemy Pierre Kowalski. While Exley is in the hospital recovering, he plans to head off to Russia to kill Kowalski.




Wells has to go undercover, so he gains weight and tans before leaving on his mission. He follows the killers to Russia, once there, his plan goes awry, his cover is blown and he returns to the States. Before he knows it, Kowalski contacts him, he knows Wells is after him and wants to set up a meeting.


Turns out Kowalski, an arms dealer, has a lead on a man who is buying the tools to create a nuclear bomb. He will give Wells the name, in return for a truce. He wants Wells to leave him alone. Wells agrees, and Kowalski gives him the terrorists name.

Wells wished he could be certain why Kowalski had come to him, wondered if there was some double or triple-cross he wasn't seeing. Most likely not. The simplest explanation was usually the best, and the simplest explanation here was that Kowalski feared he'd be sent straight to hell if a bomb went off and the United States found out that he had information that could have stopped it. So he'd decided to give Well's the name, get Well's off his back, two birds, one stone.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Silent Man . This book was fast paced and exciting. Once I read a few chapters, and got a feel for the characters and storyline, I was good and hooked. This is the type of book that you really need to pay attention to as you are reading. There are several characters involved and different things going on.


This would make a great film, it reminded me of the Bourne Identity movies. I know those were based on books too.







About the Author:

As a reporter for The New York Times, Alex Berenson has covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans to the travails of the pharmaceutical industry. His novel The Faithful Spy won the 2007 Edgar Award for best first novel. A 1994 graduate of Yale University with degrees in history and Economics.

Okay, I can rest easy, j.kaye is hosting the Suspense & Thriller Reading Challenge again this year.
*yay* last year I completed it.

Rules of this challenge:


* Read TWELVE (12) different sub-genres of thrillers in 2009.


* You do NOT need to select your books ahead of time. Also, you may change as you go.


* Your books can crossover into other challenges.


* You don't need a blog to join in this challenge. For those who do, this is important. When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your S/T books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed.

1. The Silent Man : Spy thriller

2. Heartsick : Serial Killer thriller

3. House : Supernatural thriller

4. The Broken Parachute Man: Medical thriller


5. The Secret Keeper: Crime thriller


6. A World I Never Made: Conspiracy thriller


7. Undone: Murder Mystery

8. Just After Sunset: Horror Thriller