The Poisoner’s Ring by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong is one of the most versatile writers working today, comfortable in any number of genres. Labels aside, The Poisoner’s Ring (Minotaur), is a terrific mystery that kind of spans time.
I say “kind of,” because while the book features only one timeline, our hero is homicide detective Mallory Atkinson who actually hails from contemporary America and not 1869 Edinburgh. The means and manner of Mallory’s time traveling is exquisitely laid out in the series’ debut entry, A Rip Through Time. The latest title plants Mallory as assistant to the local undertaker when a spate of poisonings roil the city and it’s left to her to solve the crime without any of the modern tools she’s accustomed to using.
The Poisoner’s Ring is great fun from beginning to end, reminiscent of the pop culture movie hit Time After Time. Armstrong challenges her stalwart hero with obstacle after obstacle in fashioning a character of rare depth and likeability. Not to be missed!
The Block Party by Jamie Day
The Block Party, a sterling debut from newcomer Jamie Day, features a high concept that lives up to its promise every step of the way.
Our setting is affluent suburbia, a town not unlike the one John Cheever famously portrayed in his classic short story The Swimmer. Friends and neighbors out enjoying a summer block party with family in a safe, bucolic setting. Or, maybe, not so safe, since the reverie is interrupted by sirens, and suddenly the attention of the people of Meadowbrook turns from the barbecue to a murder. What follows is a complete and clever skewering of the norms and mores of contemporary suburban culture that never fails to satisfy.
In sociological terms, Block Party compares best to the equally effective Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe and the Nelson DeMille classic The Gold Coast. I might also mention the seminal Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, but that might be a stretch. What isn’t a stretch is calling Day’s debut a riveting exercise in entertaining fiction.
Total Empire by A. J. Tata
The best thing about nuke-the-world tales like Failsafe is that we read or watch them from the safety of our homes. A. J. Tata’s Total Empire (St. Martin’s) is the best to emerge from that thriller sub-genre in years.
The United States and China are on the verge of signing a cooperation agreement that will dramatically alter the state of the world, especially from an economic standpoint. Somehow that agreement is connected to the death of a military figure in battle the man’s daughter is was no accident. Good thing that daughter is acquainted with General Garrett Sinclair, who has a knack for preventing catastrophes and there’s a big one on the offing if the US-China deal isn’t signed.
Call Total Empire a thinking man’s action thriller, as fast-paced as it is cerebral. Tata, the former Supreme Commander of NATO, knows of what he speaks, as well as how to tell a great story, which makes for a solid combination in all respects.
Trial by Richard North Patterson
Perennial bestselling author Richard North Patterson is back after too long an absence with a return to his legal thriller roots in Trial (Post Hill Press).
A traffic stop of Black 18-year-old voting rights worker Malcolm Hill quickly morphs into what appears to be a trumped-up murder charge. Was Hill framed? And what does the accusation have to do with rising political star thousands of miles away, in Massachusetts Congressman Chase Brevard? The multi-layered tale that follows spins from twist to twist and turn to turn, as lives collide toward the revelation of a terrible truth.
Trial is reminiscent of both Greg Isles’ superb Penn Gage books, as well as John Grisham at his level best. The apparent controversy of a white author daring to write a “Black” story is as overblown as it is politically misplaced. Perhaps those who’ve stoked those flames forget that a white woman penned To Kill A Mockingbird, a book to which Trial reads like a contemporary companion. A great legal thriller and novel wrapped into one.
Check out this interview with Richard North Patterson.
The Comanche Code by Mike Pace
The Comanche Code (Foundations Book Publishing), the second book in Mike Pace’s Belle Bannon series, is entertaining from start to finish.
It’s also deeply personal since Belle’s sister is kidnapped for reasons directly associated with what’s to come. Belle pulls out all the stops and stops at nothing to track down the force behind the plot. In the process, she finds herself following the trail through Texas, New Mexico, and the Louisiana bayou in quest of the clues that will ultimately bring Belle to her sister. What follows is an action tale worthy of Jack Reacher, as she proves herself to be someone you don’t want to cross.
The Comanche Code also includes the presence of a mysterious jade box at the root of the villain’s plot, and likely the disappearance of Belle’s sister in the first place. Solid pacing and solid characters distinguish this book from the pack, further establishing Belle as a butt-kicking heroine who we will hopefully be seeing more of.
Burning Distance by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Politics abound in Joanne Leedom-Ackerman’s superb historical thriller Burning Distance (Oceanview).
The book is steeped in tragedy too, as young Elizabeth West’s life is further uprooted in the wake of her father’s death when the family relocates from Washington, D.C. to London. Elizabeth ends up with a stepfather and pair of stepsisters and is thriving at her school when her boyfriend’s Muslim father is deported. Being an arms dealer suggests a connection with a nefarious German industrialist, leaving young Elizabeth to sort through the morass at the risk of her own life.
At its heart, Burning Distance is a love story, but it has the soul of a political thriller as it weaves in the events leading up to the Gulf War of the 1990-91 Gulf war. Ambitious in scope and beautifully realized.
Between Two Strangers by Kate White
I’m partial to books that feature writers and other forms of artists, so it should come as no surprise that I found myself drawn to Kate White’s Between Two Strangers (Harper Collins).
After all, the book’s hero is an artist struggling to recover her mojo after suffering a tragedy. Gearing up for the first exhibition of her paintings in years, Skylar Moore finds herself suddenly wealthy after a man she enjoyed a very brief fling with years before bequeaths her a fortune. This, not surprisingly, doesn’t sit well with the man’s widow who pulls out all the stops to claim the money for herself, even as Skylar seeks to find out why little more than a one-night stand has made her a millionaire.
White has never better in fashioning a taut and terrific thriller with gothic and nourish overtones in perfect combination.
Check out the review and this interview with Kate White.
The Bucharest Legacy by William Maz
William Maz has penned another outstanding international thriller in The Bucharest Legacy (Oceanview).
Jaded CIA analyst Bill Hefflin is back on the trail of an asset he once handled known only as Boris who, by all accounts, has switched back to the Russian side of things. Why else would he have infiltrated the Agency? Since Hefflin was responsible for Boris, suspicions turn his way as well. His only hope to set things right is to head to his Romanian homeland to find the truth amid a city riddled with the last people in the world he can trust.
The Bucharest Legacy makes for a terrific John le Carre-like, thinking man’s thriller where secrets are like currency to be spent wisely and never squandered.
Check out the review.
