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Author Margaret Coel was here Monday for a guest post. Today, I'm reviewing the two books in her Catherine McLeod mystery series. (My apologies, these reviews are two days late.)







title: Blood Memory: A Catherine McLeod Mystery

author: Margaret Coel

published: 2008

genre: crime thriller/suspense

pages: 305

source: sent by publisher for review

first line: The August night was perfect.

rated: 3 out of 5 stars







About:

Blood Memory is the first in the Catherine McLeod mystery books by author Margaret Coel.
Catherine is an investigative reporter for a Denver newspaper called the Journal. On one of her nightly routine walks with her golden retriever Rex, Catherine notices she is being followed. Narrowly escaping a brush with death, Catherine becomes involved in a crime investigation and realizes she is being targeted by a hit man. Being an investigative reporter has gotten her plenty of enemies, but she cannot think of anyone who would want to kill her. The hit man himself sends her an email, but it is basically a threat. From page one, Catherine is caught in a cat and mouse chase.



Catherine's rich ex-husband, Lawrence, insists she stay at his secluded family ranch up in the Colorado mountains until they find the man who is after her. Catherine reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile Bustamante, the detective assigned to her case is on the search for her would be assassin.

Catherine realizes there is a connection between her attempted murder and a story involving the Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians.





My thoughts:

Blood Memory is a suspenseful story that had me drawn in. I liked Catherine from the start. She's a strong woman with a mind of her own. The cast of characters is interesting and I was easily taken in by the storyline.



The Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians are involved within the plot and as the story unfolds you get to see how this is all connected to Catherine. This part of the story was a bit boring for me however, especially towards the end. I felt myself not interested in it as much as in the chase between Catherine and her would be assassin.



I liked police detective Nick Bustamante. He's your classic strong hero/good guy trying to save lives. I wanted to see if something would develop between he and Catherine.


I wanted Catherine to kick her ex-husband Lawrence in the 'you know whats'. He's your basic slimy guy who thinks he can get away with anything because he thinks he's entitled.


I also liked that Catherine's Golden Retriever Rex is involved the story, it gave it all a more realistic feel.




Author Margaret Coel wraps the ending up well and gives the story closure.







The Colorado setting was great, author Margaret Coel really makes it a part of the story. I could easily imagine the beautiful mountains and sky as the backdrop to the story.

There were scatterings of gray sagebrush and clusters of old cottonwood tress along the banks of dry creeks. The air smelled of dust and sage and outdoors. The great wall of mountains curved in the distance.
p. 43

Although the Arapaho and Cheyenne Indian aspect of the story dragged a bit for me, I found Blood Memory to be a good start to a suspenseful series.














title: The Perfect Suspect: A Catherine McLeod Mystery

author: Margaret Coel

published: 2011

genre: crime thriller/suspense

pages: 293

source: sent by publisher for review

first line: She never meant to kill him.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars







About:


David Mathews is a candidate running for Governor in Colorado. Journalist Catherine McLeod has been covering his campaign for some time. There are rumors of Mathews infidelities and shady business deals, but nothing has been proven. He and his wife seem to be the perfect couple.



One night Mathews is home alone and opens his front door to find his ex mistress Detective Ryan Beckman there. She insists on coming into his home and tries to convince Mathews the two can work things out.

When he asks her to leave, she shoots him dead. As Ryan leaves the crime scene, another one of Mathews mistresses sees her from outside the house. An eye witness.



Journalist Catherine McLeod is sent to the crime scene the next day to get the scoop. Ironically enough, Detective Ryan Beckman is assigned to the case along with her partner, Martinez.

At this point, Mathews wife is the prime suspect, the murder weapon is even found at her home, planted there by none other than Ryan.



Catherine receives an anonymous phone call from the eye witness/mistress, saying that she saw Detective Ryan Beckman flee the crime scene. She won't give her name or identity, being that she thinks she'll be ridiculed and possibly hauled in for questioning, since she is a private escort. Catherine has a gut feeling that this person is telling the truth and does all she can to prove who the real killer is.





My thoughts:


The Perfect Suspect grabbed me in from the first line and didn't let me go until the final page.
I read this book in one sitting and was really swept into the storyline.



I liked to see that Catherine and Nick (Blood Memory) are together and that she is moving on with her life after what happened in book 1.



The storyline in this one was great and the author does a wonderful job at getting the reader inside the minds of these characters. Detective Ryan Beckman is ironically assigned to a murder case for a crime of passion that she herself commited. She is hell bent on framing Mathews wife. She is also being very careful of what information she divulges, since she's been inside Mathews homes and knows her way around. She is very careful while interviewing suspects and friends of Mathews, even coming across one of his interns who saw the two together and knew of the affair.

Rumors swirled about the candidate-financial improprieties, shady business deals, extramarital affairs. She had never suceeded in running down any of them. They were like a dull throbbing in her head, elusive, maddening and persistent.

p.14

Catherine is on the prowl, trying to get as much information as she can, risking her life in the process.

There is plenty of suspense in this one, and I was really curious to see how it would all end. All in all, a great read and I do recommend this one to fans of this genre or for anyone looking to get swept up in a great thriller.






Overall, Blood Memory and The Perfect Suspect, are both suspenseful entertaining reads and I do recommend them. Although they are part of a series, they can be read as stand alone books.


Out of these two book, I enjoyed The Perfect Suspect more.







Special thanks to Kaitlyn over @ the Penguin Group for making this possible.

title: Sons and Princes

author: James Lepore

genre: crime thriller

published: 2011

source: sent by publisher for review

pages: 330

first line: Joe Black Massi's funeral had been a singular experience.

rated: 3 1/2 stars out of 5









About:


Sons and Princes is a gritty novel about family, betrayal, revenge, drugs and the mob.


Chris Massi's father was a mafia assassin and his ex-father in law is a mob boss.
Chris himself was an successful attorney and has been trying to live the straight and narrow life with is wife and children. A series of events had him disbarred, but Chris wants nothing to do with the mafia.



A now divorced Chris wants to keep his children out of the mob scene more than ever. His fourteen year old son Matt however, seems to be going toward a life of crime, and with a powerful grandfather it will be easy for him to be part of the mob.


Chris makes a deal with his ex-father in law, Junior Boy DiGiglio. He will kill someone for him if Junior Boy leaves his grandson Matt alone.




Chris' younger brother Joseph is a heroin junkie. Joseph has survived by being the boy toy of lonely rich women, in turn they pay him an allowance and ask him no questions.



Ed Dolan was Chris' best friend growing up, but when Chris' father killed Ed's, Ed has grown to hate Chris with a vengeance.


Michele Mathias is a heroin addict who will stop at nothing to get her next fix. When her roomate turns up dead however, she finds herself to be the next target.



Michele and Chris' lives become intertwined as these two try to find a way to save themselves and the ones they love.





My thoughts:



I am a fan of James Lepore's, having read A World I Never Made and Blood of My Brother.

When I began reading Sons and Princes, I had good expectations. I'm happy to say this book didn't disappoint.
The storyline takes twists and turns as it takes the reader into the seedy underworld of the mob. You see a world that's not pretty. Drugs, sex, revenge and violence are all weaved within the storyline set in New York and New Jersey.



Two of the main characters are heroin addicts and as you read Lepore really drags you into a harsh world where nothing is sugar coated.




I liked how the story would take a twist here and there that I wasn't expecting. Joseph, Chris' brother, really impressed me with his courage and sheer determination.
Chris himself was a complex and likable character. He battled personal demons and did what he felt he had to do to keep his family safe. He has a good heart.


The relationship between Chris and Michele had me intrigued. I wanted to see what would become of these two.


LePore wraps the ending up really well and I was satisfied with the conclusion as well as surprised with a few reveals.

When he lay down on the sofa to sleep on Saturday night, Chris smiled as he stared up at the shadowy ceiling. He had forgotten completely about the things that had been so pressing on his mind and his heart in the lifetime prior to the one he had just begun: his disbarment and so-called public disgrace, the devil's bargain that Junior Boy had offered him, the anxiety about what to do for a living. After reading Joseph's letter at La Luna, he had stepped into a new world where there was no room for such mundane worries. Such are the blessings of big trouble: it puts little trouble in perspective.

p. 244

I recommend Sons and Princes for anyone looking to read a good crime thriller with memorable characters and a suspenseful, fast paced plot.




Special thanks to Lou Aronica for making this possible.

title: The Shepherd

author: Ethan Cross


genre: crime thriller

publish date: available March 16, 2011

pages: 326

source: ARC/sent for review by author

first line: Jim Morgan watched as reflections of the patrol car's flashing lights danced across the front window of the remote gas station.

rated: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars








Marcus Williams and Francis Ackerman Jr. both have a talent for hurting people. Marcus, a former New York City homicide detective, uses his abilities to protect others, while Ackerman uses his gifts to inflict pain and suffering. When both men become unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of our government, Marcus finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse trapped between a twisted psychopath and a vigilante with seemingly unlimited resources. Aided by a rogue FBI agent and the vigilante’s beautiful daughter -a woman with whom he’s quickly falling in love- Marcus must expose the deadly political conspiracy and confront his past while hunting down one of the most cunning and ruthless killers in the world.




When author Ethan Cross contacted me about a possible book review, I jumped at the opportunity. Now, after reading his book, I am very glad I did. The Shepherd is a thrill ride that takes off from page one, with plenty of twists and turns that do not come to a halt until the final page. Once I started reading, I really couldn't put this book down. I found myself reading it while doing everyday things like sitting at my kitchen table having my breakfast or sitting in my car waiting for my kids to get out of school.



About the book:


Marcus Williams is a former NYC homicide detective with a haunted past. After wanting to leave that life behind him, Marcus moves to a small town in Texas where he inherited a ranch from his late aunt.


On his first day in town he meets and helps Maggie, the Sheriff's daughter, out of a dangerous situation. Soon enough he meets the town Sherriff who informs Marcus about a killer on the loose.




There is a serial killer named Francis Ackerman Jr. who has escaped from a mental hospital and has been on a murder spree. Suffering at the hands of his demented father as a child, Ackerman was almost 'trained' to become the monster that he now is.



His latest victim happens to be a woman named Maureen Hill, Marcus' neighbor. When Marcus stumbles upon the gruesome crime scene, he soon becomes a suspect and finds himself having to run for his own life.



What ensues is a hunt for the serial killer with a conspiracy that spreads further than Marcus could possibly have imagined. Marcus does not know who he can trust or if he will be able to stop Ackerman and save innocent people, let alone clear his own name in the process.

The book's storyline goes from Marcus to Ackerman and ends with the two finally facing off, good vs. evil.





I liked Marcus from the get go, he's your everyday good guy. I wanted things to turn out alright for him. He was going through personal struggles due to his past actions and often questioned himself.



Ackerman was very creepy, especially the way he would play mind games with his victims often giving them false hopes of escaping. This is the type of villain that will give you nightmares.



Author Ethan Cross keeps the story going at full speed until the final page. This one has a shock ending that really took me for surprise.

He also creates interesting characters, each with a story of their own and as you read you get a sense of the rhyme and reason behind their actions.




I get a kick out of reading books where the characters visit places or talk about places that I'm familiar with.
Early on in the story, Marcus remembers how he loves the red velvet cupcakes at The Magnolia Bakery in NYC. I giggled at that one, since going to Magnolia's for their awesome cupcakes is my yearly birthday tradition.




Reminiscent of Dean Koontz, who is a favorite of mine, Ethan Cross' writing had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. Well written and full of action, I really enjoyed this one.

Highly recommended for fans of this genre or for anyone looking for a thrilling read. The Shepherd is the first book in a series of thrillers. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next book in this series.

"We're two sides of the same coin. So you see, Marcus, I am the darkness, but you...you are the light."

p.233, The Shepherd

Special thanks to the author for this opportunity. Stay tuned, author Ethan Cross will be stopping by my blog on March 8th for a guest post!




Visit the author's website here: http://www.ethancross.com/

You can find out more about the author and his book.

title: Blood of My Brother

author: James LePore


genre: crime thriller

pages: 313

published: 2010

first line: In July of 1967, Jay Cassio, who would be turning five in September, started a prekindergarten program at St. Lucy's School on Sheffield Street in Newark, New Jersey's oldest, largest, and about to be most turbulent city.

source: ARC from author

rated: 3 out of 5 stars

When Jay Cassio’s best friend Dan is murdered in a job clearly done by professionals, the walls that he has built to protect himself from the world of others begin to shatter. Now Jay, a successful lawyer, must find out why Dan died and find a way to seek justice for his murder. Isabel Perez has lived a life both tainted and charmed since she was a teenager in Mexico. She holds powerful sway over men and has even more powerful alliances with people no one should ever try to cross. When Jay catapults into her world, their connection is electric, their alliance is lethal, and their future is anything but certain.

I was very happy when author James LePore contacted me about reading his latest book, Blood of My Brother. I was introduced to his work when I read and very much enjoyed his first novel in 2009, A World I Never Made.






Jay Cassio and Dan Del Colliano grew up together in the mean streets of Newark New Jersey. The two boys were best friends. Jay grew up to be a lawyer, while Danny who was more of a 'bad boy' grew up to become a private eye. Danny however has debts and owes money to a local shark.

Jay's female client turns up dead and her husband is the prime suspect. The husband however, soon turns up dead himself. While Jay is trying to put together pieces of the puzzle, Danny's body is found brutally murdered in Miami.




Isabel Perez is a beautiful woman who has lived the hard knock life. As an orphan living in a nunnery in Mexico, she was adopted by a man who called himself Senor Hermano and who sold her into prostitution at a young age.
Isabel lived this life for many years, not knowing anything else.

Isabel last 'assignment' involved Danny. The people she is working for know she knows too much and plan to kill her off after this final mission.




On the quest to find Danny's killers, Jay tracks down Isabel. After getting to know the truth about her, he slowly begins to fall for this dark beauty. When she meets Jay, Isabel develops genuine feelings for him also. Soon enough, the two work together. Isabel wants to free herself from Hermano's clutches once and for all. Jay wants to avenge Danny's murder.




Blood of My Brother is a suspenseful read and I did enjoy it. There is passion and drama within these pages, and I enjoyed reading about Isabel and Jay as their relationship develops. Being a sucker for romance, that was my favorite aspect to this story, this crazy, on-the-run, dangerous love affair.

Books with a plot twist that can truly shock me are few and far between. There is a shocking revelation in this book that had me saying 'no way!' Secrets are revealed, truths come to light and the plot takes twists and turns as the suspense builds.



I also got a kick out of the setting during the first part of the story. It takes place in my hometown of New Jersey and as I read I would tell my husband about the different familiar locations within the story.
I'd say things like 'Hun, the Newark cops just found a head in the Passaic River.' And he'd say something along the lines of 'That's cool honey.'




I do want to mention that there are flashbacks throughout the book, the story goes from past to present and vice-versa. I know some readers would want to know that. Personally, I don't mind flashbacks and they didn't deter me from enjoying the book nor did I find them confusing.



I do recommend Blood of My Brother to those who enjoy a good crime thriller with plenty of suspense and plot twists. The book was unputdownable toward the end.

Love does not come alone. It brings a host of other feelings with it, feelings that long neglected, assert themselves with a startlingly persistent energy: demons, it might be said, who will have their day in the sun. Perhaps it is to confront these demons that we fall in love in the first place. Perhaps facing them squarely is the price we pay for love.

p.232

Special thanks to James LePore and Lou Aronica.

title: Silent Partner

author: Jennifer Chase

genre: thriller

pages: 308

published: 2011/ARC

first line: The rain abruptly stopped on the thirty-sixth consecutive day of torrential downpours.

rated: 3 1/2 out of 5

One Cop, One Serial Killer, One Witness
Who Will Survive?

When author Jennifer Chase contacted me about reading her latest book Silent Partner I was delighted. I'm a fan of this genre and always enjoy sinking my teeth into a good crime thriller.




When Megan O'Connell was just a child, she and her sister Teresa witnessed her father brutally murder their mother in their own home. Since then the girls were raised by their grandparents.


Now Megan suffers from agoraphobia and is barely able to leave her home. When her sister Teresa is brutally murdered in their shared home, Megan is a suspect.



Officer Jack Davis works for the Monterey County Police Dept in California.
His partner is a police canine named Keno.



Jack and Megan are childhood friends and ex-lovers reunited once again due to the tragic events in Megan's life. When Jack sees Megan again after five years of separation, he realizes he still has feelings for her. He doesn't want to leave her side and hopes to help her through this difficult time in her life.



Darrell Brooks is a psycho killer who has been evading the police for some time. This sick man has his own motives for going after Megan.

When events take a turn for the worse, Megan begins to question her own sanity.



With plot twists and turns, interesting characters and a surprise ending, Silent Partner made for a great read. The ending gave me chills.


I liked Jack's character the most. He is your classic 'good guy'.

I enjoyed the role the dogs played in the story. I hadn't expected dogs to be an important part of the book, it was a nice surprise.
You really get to see how these officers had a strong connection to their dogs.



All in all, Silent Partner is a face paced thriller, I read it in one sitting. I really had to know what was going to happen next.



Special thanks to author Jennifer Chase.




about the author:

Jennifer Chase is an author, freelance writer, and criminologist. She has authored three thriller novels "Compulsion", award winning "Dead Game", and "Silent Partner". In addition, she currently assists clients in publishing, ghostwriting, book reviews, copywriting, screenwriting, editing, research, and writer's assistant.


-quoted from the authors website.

title: Relentless

author: Dean Koontz

genre: suspense/thriller

pages: 428

published: 2009

first line: This is a thing I've learned: Even with a gun to my head, I am capable of being convulsed with laughter.

rated: 2 out of 5 stars

As a writer, I succeed by deceiving readers into accepting that the story I'm telling as true is as true as their lives, that what happens to my characters should intellectually and emotionally involve them no less than they should be concerned about their real-world neighbors. But I have never been good at self-deception.

Relentless is about an insane book critic, it caught my interest right away.



34 year old writer Cullen Greenwich is married to Penny Bloom, has a 6 year old six-year-old prodigy son named Milo and a dog named Lassie.

Literary critic Shearman Waxx gives Cullen's latest book a bad review. Cullen is really upset by this, even though his wife keeps telling him to just let it go.
When Cullen finds out what restaurant the book critic frequents, he goes there for lunch with his son, and runs into Waxx. After an odd run-in in the men's room, Waxx takes notice of Cullen and says one word to him on his way out...'Doom'.



Soon after Cullen spots an intruder in his home, and identifies him as being the book critic. What ensues afterward is an all out terrorizing of Cullen and his family by this book reviewer. The family ends up on the run, not wanting to inform the police because of the media circus that would develop. With the help of friends and various connections, they are able to stay at different homes, but somehow Waxx keeps finding them.



You do need to be willing to suspend disbelief for this read. I just didn't feel like this book critic had enough motive to become hell bent on killing Cullen and his family.


Before you know it, Waxx is after the family, there's explosions and shootings and it's all kind of 'over the top'. Authorities don't notice all this mayhem?


I felt like the methods Waxx was using were just plain absurd. He was almost like a larger than life villain finding Cullen and his family no matter where they went.

The longer Waxx waited to speak again, the more I wondered what his game might be. I had no doubt that he had come here to harm us. That he wanted first to terrorize us seemed obvious, as well. But his boldness, the risks he took, and his eerie patience in the dark gave me the impression that his purpose was more complex than the psychotic thrill of torment and murder.

I also felt like two parents who are on the run from a psychotic maniac wouldn't be so calm and collected about discussing it in front of their 6 year old.


Here's Cullen speaking to 6 year old Milo about what the book critic threatened:

"All right, all right. He says he'll cut out your heart and feed it to your mother, Are you both happy to know that? Mmmmm?


"Don't worry, Milo," Penny said. "I absolutely won't eat it."


"What else did he say?" Milo asked.


"Then he'll cut out your mother's heart and feed it to me."


"This guy," Milo judged, "is a major sicko."

It's been a while since I last read a Koontz book. Years actually. And I've been meaning to pick him up again. Koontz is a favorite of mine, I tend to feel like he won't disappoint.


I'm really, really sorry to say I didn't really enjoy this one more.
I was curious as to what would happen next, and at 428 pages, I'm surprised I finished reading it. I kept putting it away and considered making it a DNF. I was set on finishing it though, because I hoped it would get better. He did make me laugh a few times while reading.

I have a 20-gauge pistol-grip shotgun. It'll stop any book critic ever born.

I still love Koontz anyway and will continue to read his work. This is my first time reading this author where I've been disappointed.




I think Koontz puts his heart and soul into his writing and I did find a few passages I enjoyed. As I read, I would find him throwing glimmers of hope into the storyline.

Among other things, my past had taught me that the very fact of my existence is a cause for amazement and wonder, that we must seize life because we never know how much of it remains for us, that faith is the antidote to despair and that laughter is the music of faith.

This book has been read as part of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge

title: A Circle of Souls


author: Preetham Grandhi


genre: mystery/thriller


published: 2009


pages: 341


first line: The slaaf stumbled along the shore of Willow Lake.


rated: 4 out of 5










In A Circle of Souls 10 year old Janet Troy disappears one day after getting off the school bus. As a short cut walking home, she takes the path along Willow Lake and is never heard from again.



Dr. Peter Gram works at the hospital and specializes in pediatric medicine. Late one night a 7 year old is brought into the ER and they page Dr. Gram to evaluate her. Naya Hastings has been having vivid nightmares and has been sleepwalking dangerously. Her parents are in fear of her hurting herself during her dream states.
Meanwhile agent Leia Bines has been called back to work from her vacation in Hawaii to investigate the dissapearance of Janet Troy in Connecticut.


The story gets very creepy once Naya's dreams become more vivid, and take a paranormal aspect. She begins to see and speak to Janet Troy in these dreams. Janet gives Naya tips and clues about her death and murderer. Naya then passes these clues on to Dr. Peter Gram through vivid drawings.






I found A Circle of Souls to be a page turner. The story took off from page one and just kept on going. It was a fast paced thriller with plenty of plot twists and turns to keep me hooked until the very end. The story had some great, well developed characters. I found myself trying to figure out who the killer was and hoping Leia Bines would finally arrest him. I liked that there was a strong, female investigator on the case. The reader also gets a look into the killers mind and finds out why this person is so sick.




This was a great book, I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good, suspenseful thriller with a bit of paranormal twist to it. Like I said, it got very creepy once Naya starts to talk to Janet in her dreams. I got goosebumps while reading. I felt like the author did a good job when writing about Janet and what happened to her, it wasn't overwhelming to the reader.

"I wont be scared," Naya said, trying to put on a strong facade. "Would you like to lie down next to me?" Janet asked, changing the subject.


The two girls lay down next to each other. Naya wondered why Janet only wanted Dr. Gram to help her. She was a little scared to ask.


"Why the doctor?" Naya whispered into Janet's ear.


"Because he knows what the big, bad man has done," Janet whispered back.

special thanks to Preetham Grandhi for sending me a signed copy of his book!



about the author:

Preetham Grandhi, M.D. immigrated to the United States from Bangalore, India to pursue a career in child and adolescent psychiatry. After his graduation from Yale he has been the chief of service for House 5 at Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Center. He is devoted to helping young children gain insight into their emotional and behavioral needs and empowers them to maximize their inner potential. He also has a private practice and resides in Westchester County, New York, with his family.

-quoted from the authors website: http://www.acircleofsouls.com/about.html