Search this site    Bait Author: Abel, Kenneth ISBN: 0-385-31190-7 Pages: 345 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Delacorte Press Published: February 1, 1994 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 From Publishers Weekly: Abel's brisk, sparely written thriller reads more like an accomplished 10th novel than a debut. Jack Walsh, a cop who has been hitting the bottle since his partner died in an aborted drug bust, wakes up in a Boston hospital after an automobile accident to learn that the other car's driver--the only son of local crime boss Johnny D'Angelo--is dead, which means Walsh is as good as dead himself. After resigning from the force and serving time in a state medical facility, Walsh holes up in his hometown, Athol, Mass., to wait for the Mafia hit he knows is coming. Unknown to Walsh, the DA's office has him under surveillance; they're using him for bait, hoping to get evidence against D'Angelo when the mobster comes gunning for him. So begins a cat-and-mouse game that involves Walsh's family and neighbors, D'Angelo's future son-in-law and the DA's office. Walsh has very little chance of surviving unless he can get someone to listen to his suspicions about a crooked cop who might be responsible for the death of his partner. Abel skillfully makes several potentially cliched characters quite believable, and delivers his complicated plot with the simplicity of screenplay stage directions. Unlike many first novels, this one is delightfully free of authorial excess. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: The best way to describe this debut novel is dark . Detective Jack Walsh thinks that his life has hit rock-bottom the night his partner is shot, but the incident only presages hard times to come. In response to his partner's death, Walsh begins to drink, and that's when his real problems begin--he kills the son of a mob boss in a car accident. Walsh finds himself under suspicion from the bereaved father's organization and the police department at the same time. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Walsh finds that his only escape is to stick his neck out even further (becoming bait) by agreeing to serve as a kind of informant on the underworld that is trying to kill him. Despite the novel's grim story line and gritty writing style, Abel does not overdo the violence. Recommended for public libraries where crime novels are popular. - Jim Cunningham, Illinois Mathematics & Science Acad., Aurora Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Blood Music Author: Bear, Greg ISBN: 0-7394-6854-5 Pages: Format: Hardcover Publisher: SFBC Published: 2006 Condition: Price: USD $5.99 Pretend You Don't See Her Author: Clark, Mary Higgins ISBN: 0-684-81039-5 Pages: 320 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Simon & Schuster Published: April 28, 1997 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 Amazon.com: Lacey Farrell, the heroine of Mary Higgins Clark's 15th novel, is having a bit of an identity crisis. While working as a real estate agent in New York, Lacey witnessed a client's murder, and now she's in hiding with a new name and a new life. But changing her identity doesn't completely remove Lacey from the web of danger and deceit that surrounds the crime; new clues keep popping up that suggest some kind of link between Lacey's family and the murder. Meanwhile, a new man comes into the heroine's life, further complicating an already murky situation. As any fan will tell you, Mary Higgins Clark never fails to deliver plot twists and turns that are as unexpected as they are thrilling. From Library Journal: Clark's lucky 13th novel shows that falling in love is hard work when you're in the federal witness protection program. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.   City of Gold Author: Deighton, Len ISBN: 0-06-017937-6 Pages: 375 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Harper Collins Published: June 1992 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 From Publishers Weekly: If the author of The Ipcress File is not at the very top of his form here, he nevertheless produces an absorbing and well-crafted WW II thriller. In January 1942, infamous Gen. Erwin Rommel is making a seemingly unstoppable march on Cairo, the "city of gold." Former Glasgow police detective Bert Cutler, now an Army captain, has been charged to uncover the spy who is feeding the Desert Fox information enabling him to thwart all British strategies. En route to his new post, Cutler escorts fellow Scotsman Jimmy Ross, accused of murder, to the military prison in Cairo. When Cutler dies of a heart attack in their private train compartment, Ross assumes his identity. Readers might expect that Ross's efforts to carry off the impersonation and capture Rommel's agent will be the focus of this 24th offering from an acknowledged master of espionage fiction, yet Ross is only one member of an intriguing ensemble cast, which includes a society girl turned undercover agent, a British deserter heading up a band of renegades, an exiled Russian prince and King Farouk himself. Story lines concern not just the war but also black-market activities and the efforts of Jewish operatives to arm themselves for the anticipated battle for a homeland. Directing his varied characters and juggling his many subplots, Deighton demonstrates enviable legerdemain. Literary Guild main selection. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews: Abandoning present-day intrigues (MAMista, Spy Sinker, etc.), Deighton journeys back to WW II (SS-GB and XPD)--and a terrific return it is: a rich drama of heroes and villains awaiting German General Erwin Rommel's attack on Cairo--the ``city of gold.'' The plots here are many, but central among them is the attempt by Special Investigation Branch Major Bert Cutler to unmask the spy who's been leaking British secrets to Rommel. The kicker is that Cutler isn't Cutler; he's really Jimmy Ross, a British corporal who was on his way to Cairo to be court-martialed for killing an officer when his escort, Cutler, keeled over from a heart attack. Quick-thinking Ross switched IDs with Cutler and now finds himself in Cairo with an office, full staff, and carte blanche to turn the city upside down in pursuit of the spy--that is, if he doesn't betray himself first to any of the marvelously realized characters who crowd the pages here, from his leathery assistant to a manipulative Jewish nationalist, a White Russian prince, two young and beautiful Englishwomen, an upper-class British deserter turned grand thief, a too-caricatured American reporter (all tough pose and cocky action), and King Farouk himself--fat, decadent, imperious. It's the deserter who--by committing a murder that Ross must investigate--turns out to be Ross's main foil; and it's he who pulls the narrative--the first half of which springs forward mostly on perfectly pitched dialogue--into the desert and shattering action as Rommel attacks an armored caravan carrying Ross and several others, precipitating a crisis that movingly strips these men, good and evil, down to their bare selves. At one point, Ross is likened to Bogart--appropriate in a novel so reminiscent in spirit to Casablanca. And if this is the same old story, a song of love and glory, at least it's told here with consummate skill. Play it again, Len. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. The Scorpio Illusion Author: Ludlum, Robert ISBN: 0-553-09441-6 Pages: 534 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Bantam Published: May 1, 1993 Condition: Price: USD $2.99 From Publishers Weekly: If you took the bite and humor out of a Richard Condon novel, the result would be very like Ludlum's ( The Road to Omaha ) 18th book. As a child, beautiful Amaya Aquirre, witnessed the brutal murder of her Basque parents, after which she adopted the name of their killer, Bajaratt; the motto, Muerte a toda autoridad (death rules over everything); and the profession of mercenary terrorist. When her husband, a Palestinian terrorist, is killed, Bajaratt sends a signal to an underground organization named the Scorpios, to take "the heads of the four great beasts," i.e., the leaders of France, England, Israel and the United States. A mistress of disguise, this "pathological genius" takes the plum assignment of killing the U.S. president. Cutting a bloody swath through the Caribbean, Florida and Washington, she finally wangles a private meeting with him. But British and French Intelligence have hired her nemesis and one-time lover, retired American Naval Intelligence officer Tye Hawthorne, to follow her bloodsoaked trail and, inevitably, nail her. Instead of conveying tension, the book has the elements of a soap opera: lots of shouting, too much psychobabble, some grief therapy and plenty of misunderstandings. Despite the huge body count, as a thriller it falls flat. Major ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: Ludlum fans who perhaps were frustrated by the author's last three novels (e.g., The Gemini Contenders , Audio Reviews, LJ 4/1/93) have a genuine treat in store with this one. The master of international intrigue is back, make no mistake about it. The producer offers an excellent abridgment, and the story is enhanced with music and read expertly by Robert Lansing. This is a riveting, fast-moving thriller full of violence, sex, thrills, and electronic wizardry--all the things one imagines for today's terrorists and intelligence agents. The story concerns Amayra Bajaratt, a beautiful terrorist, whose goal is nothing less than death for the heads of state of England, France, Israel, and the United States. Enter Tyrrell Hawthorne, ex-naval intelligence operative recruited by British military intelligence to stop "Little Girl Blood." Recommended for all popular adult collections. - Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., Ohio Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Detachment Bravo Author: Marcinko, Richard Weisman, John ISBN: 0-671-00071-3 Pages: 342 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Atria Published: May 1, 2001 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 From Publishers Weekly: Unabashedly testosterone-addled, the ninth installment in the Rogue Warrior series cuts another swath through posturing bureaucrats and waffling military brass. Capt. Dick Marcinko, a Navy SEAL black ops specialist, teams with British SAS special ops Brig. Mick Owen and a select few men to stop a London bombing by an IRA splinter group. Too many screwups endanger the mission, cause a big PR snafu and land Mick and Dick in hot water with their bosses. Then they're assigned to track another splinter group, the Green Hand Defenders, who are brewing a plot to kill huge numbers of U.S. and British citizens in one hit. Snubbing the higherups, Mick and Dick follow a lead to Argentina, where Dick abuses an old nemesis who's now a CIA station chief when the man rejects Dick's warning of an attack on the American Embassy. After word gets out, the boys find themselves persona non grata in their own agencies, but remain committed to finishing their jobs any way they can. The ensuing roughshod romp over land and sea is a military vigilante's fantasy. The authors' habit of addressing the reader adds to the tongue-in-cheek downplay of the superhero action, but make no mistake these irreverent characters skewer the establishment and trumpet opinions on what's wrong with the world today (e.g., political correctness, environmentalism) while upholding their pledge to defend it from terrorists. (May)Forecast: Copious vulgarity and violence, with an emphasis on male bonding and military lore, define the Rogue Warrior franchise when WWF fans read, chances are Marcinko is one of their picks. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From AudioFile The Rogue Warrior, Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko joins the Celtic craze in his own way: He kills them. In this episode of his popular series, the Navy SEAL takes on a splinter group of the IRA that is working to undermine the most recent peace accords. Teaming up with some Brits, he takes on tangos (bad guys) in London, South America, and finally off the coast of Spain. He also has to deal with some unfriendly desk weenies in his rear. Marcinko is a natural for a story full of action, details of weapons and equipment, assault tactics, and the traumatic effects of ballistics. Be warned: The delicate of ear should pass on this one. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Deck the Halls Author: Clark, Mary Higgins / Clark, Carol Higgins ISBN: 0-7432-1200-2 Pages: 208 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Simon & Schuster Published: October 24, 2000 Condition: Price: USD $1.69 From Publishers Weekly: On her own, each Clark has written reliably entertaining mystery/thrillers that occasionally exhibit storytelling magic. The authors' first collaborationDwhich also sees a collaboration by their respective publishers, as well as the teaming of two of their best-known sleuthsDis only middling, however, though it will please their many fans. Three days before Christmas, Luke Reilly, who owns a string of funeral homes, and his young female driver, Rosita Gonzalez, are kidnapped for ransom. Luke is the husband of Nora Regan Reilly, a bestselling mystery writer based somewhat on Mary Higgins Clark; both are parents to Regan Reilly, Carol Higgins Clark's series detective (Twanged, etc.). Regan gets on the case at once, but she doesn't make much headway until she pairs up with Alvirah Meegan, the cleaning woman who turned private eye after winning a $40-million lottery in Mary Higgins Clark's Weep No More My Lady. (Here, Regan and Alvirah make each other's acquaintance at a dentist's office.) Meanwhile, Luke and Rosita remain chained on a small boat offshore from New Jersey as their two bumbling kidnappers plan, execute and bobble a ransom run. The boat starts to sink. Will Luke and Rosita drown? There's probably not a reader alive who thinks they will, and it'll surprise no one when Regan and Alvirah trip over clues as big as Christmas trees to save the day. But if the novel generates little suspense, it does go down like roasted chestnuts, and fans will greatly enjoy the pairing of two favorite detectivesDand two popular writersDin a lightweight but amiably lighthearted Christmas ornament of a book. (Nov. 1) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist: It's Christmas time, but C. B. Dingle has no Christmas spirit. His departed Uncle Goodloe left his fortune to the Sod, Plant, Bloom, and Blossom Society, and Dingle is distraught. He's so upset, in fact, that he's bent on revenge. The plan is to kidnap Luke Reilly, owner of the funeral home that set dear old Uncle on the garden path. But Dingle's partner, Petey, accidentally drops the ransom in the drink (the East River, to be exact), which gives the assorted investigative types--including Reilly's daughter, the PI star of several Carol Higgins Clark novels, and Alvirah Meehan, the amateur detective featured in a few Mary Higgins Clark books--a second chance to find dear Dad, which they do just in time. Happy Christmas to all. This first collaboration by the mother-daughter team is a lightweight bit of fluff that readers will speed through in no time. The writing styles mesh seamlessly, but the goofy goings-on and the coincidences (a detective name Jack Reilly--no relation!) add a layer of comedy that isn't quite in tune with the suspense, leaving readers to wonder if it's all supposed to be a big joke. No matter. Clark, the prolific mom, and Clark, the daughter, who now has several books to her credit, have enough loyal fans between them to gather a hefty readership, even if the product is a bit thin. Stephanie Zvirin Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Just One Look Author: Coben, Harlan ISBN: 0-525-94791-4 Pages: 384 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Dutton Adult Published: April 26, 2004 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 From Publishers Weekly: Just one look at Coben's latest stand-alone thriller (after No Second Chance) highlights the author's customary strengths (swift pacing, strong lead characters) but also his weaknesses, including limited originality and, in this case, a plot so complicated that many final pages are devoted to sorting it out. The premise is simple enough: suburban housewife Grace Lawson collects some pictures at the local Photomat; inexplicably, one is an old print depicting her husband, Jack, with other college students; when Grace shows the photo to Jack, he drives away-and disappears. Grace's hunt for her missing husband, whom we learn has been kidnapped (but why? and Coben fans will note that the author's last novel also hinged on a kidnapped family member), sweeps her back into a nightmare she thought she'd escaped: the evening years ago when she survived a rock concert rampage, occasioned by a shooting that left many dead. Meanwhile, Eric Wu, a-dare we say?-inscrutable martial-arts killer who has snatched Jack for reasons unknown, menaces assorted folk. Eventually Grace, aided by a Gotti-like mobster whose child was killed in the rampage, gloms on to Wu, as well as on to Jack's sister, a high-powered attorney who, it turns out, is representing the guy who started the rampage by firing his gun. Only he didn't start the rampage after all, and then there's the rock star who vanished after the shooting and resultant mayhem-what's he now doing on Grace's doorstep? This is all as complicated as a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle and about as hard to figure out, although in the midst of the murk there are some wonderful character touches. Coben can write thrillers that lift readers off their seats; this one, alas, will have them slumping. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Vector Author: Cook, Robin ISBN: 0-399-14471-4 Pages: 404 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: 1999 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 Robin Cook's latest plot--the threat of an anthrax [bacterium] turned loose in a New York government building and in Central Park--is ripped straight from the headlines, and as such it may be charitably described as having a certain lumpish quality in the prose and an overabundance of cuteness in the lead characters. Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, the dueling forensic pathologists who bounced off each other in Cook's Chromosome 6, collide and combine once again as a mad Russian cabdriver, who used to work in a Moscow bioweapons factory, comes up with a plan to punish America for not welcoming him with open arms. The cabby forms an unlikely alliance with two firemen who happen to be white supremacists; they fund his anthrax research to further their own lunatic schemes. Cook is, as ever, best at creating scenes of perfectly realized medical terror which plug into the paranoia of the moment. But if you want deep characters and sensitive description, read Fay Weldon. --Dick Adler From Publishers Weekly: In this age of lethal bioweapons, there's a frightening logic in the idea that your next breath might kill you. Alas, Cook's latest, about an impending bioterrorist attack in New York City, is more ho-hum than horrifying. The premise has promise: cab driver Yuri Davydov is a disillusioned Russian immigrant haunted by his involvement in a tragic accidental release of government-produced anthrax that killed hundreds, including his mother. Armed with hatred for America and practical skills in how to build a biochemical weapon, he's joined forces with Curt Rogers and Steve Henderson of the People's Aryan Army. This catastrophic coalition aims to attack the Jacob Javits Federal Building and the Upper East Side; but for starters, Davydov tests his weapons on his own much-maligned wife and random, innocent rug merchant Jason Papparis. When medical examiner Jack Stapleton (last seen in Cook's Chromosome 6) does an autopsy on Papparis, the first of a series of plot-deadening coincidences occursAhe meets Davydov, who just happens to be cruising by to see if Papparis is dead. Too much "just happens" throughout this novel; worse, the investigators maddeningly bumble around obvious clues the reader has long since pieced together. Stapleton just happens to play basketball with the brother of Davydov's murdered wife; when autopsying the body of Aryan Army informant Brad Cassidy, he has a contrived hunch, and tests the body for anthrax poisoning. The whole plot, including the finale, hinges on happenstance, and Cook seems to know itAhis characters say things like, "What kind of weird coincidence could this be?" Cook's biotechnology research is rewarding, the pace is as pleasingly hectic as you'd expect from the author of Toxin, etc., and some of the characters are well drawn. But in the end, this potentially spine-tingling premise is undermined by a disappointing plot manifesting authorial machination rather than authentic, character-driven events. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Mind Catcher Author: Darnton, John ISBN: 0-525-94662-4 Pages: 416 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Dutton Adult Published: August 5, 2002 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 Amazon.com: A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but neither pioneering neurosurgeon Leo Saramaggio nor Warren Cleaver, a brilliant researcher seeking to unravel the mystery of the soul and recreate it in a microchip, has any intention of letting that happen to Tyler, a 13-year-old boy whose brain is all but destroyed in a freak accident that leaves him closer to death than life. John Darnton, the author of two previous scientific thrillers (Neanderthal, The Experiment), offers a provocative glimpse of what lies beyond the frontiers of both medicine and artificial intelligence in this clearly well-researched and tightly plotted thriller that's bound to provoke comparisons to Robin Cook and Michael Crichton. Unlike them, Darnton is able to tell a gripping story without dumbing down the science or shortchanging the characters, even those who aren't central to the plot, like Tyler's father, Scott, or Kate Willett, a neurosurgery resident who suspects that her superiors have gone way beyond the boundaries of ethical practice in their treatment of Scott's injured son. This is a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller that demonstrates Darnton's increasing command of the genre and holds out the possibility that in his next book, he'll surpass it. --Jane Adams From Publishers Weekly: At Manhattan's renowned St. Catherine's Hospital, brilliant neurosurgeon Leopoldo Saramaggio does pioneering research on healing the damaged brain by linking it to computers that can take over its functions temporarily. Unbeknownst to the imperious Saramaggio, colleague Dr. Warren Cleaver, a fame-hungry mad scientist in the Hollywood tradition, carries out illegal experiments with mentally ill patients at run-down Pinegrove Hospital on Roosevelt Island. Cleaver's experiments take Saramaggio's work to dangerous extremes. Thirteen-year-old Tyler Jessup is rushed to St. Catherine's after a piece of rock-climbing equipment gets lodged in his head. His distraught father, Scott, a famous photographer and single parent, agrees to let Saramaggio try his new technique on Tyler, convinced that it's his son's only chance. Second thoughts quickly follow and, assisted by beautiful Dr. Kate Willet, new on the staff at St. Catherine's, Scott battles to get his initial consent reversed. The story sags as Scott and Kate grow closer, a development dictated more by literary convention than logic or character chemistry, but it quickens again when Tyler's bodily functions fail and evil Cleaver whisks him away for his Frankenstein experiments. Darnton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of Neanderthal and The Experiment, writes elegantly, but maroons the novel in no-man's-land: too short on action and suspense to fully succeed as a thriller, it lacks the character depth to convince as serious fiction. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Metro Girl Author: Evanovich, Janet ISBN: 0-06-058400-9 Pages: 304 Format: Hardcover Publisher: HarperCollins Published: November 2, 2004 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 From Publishers Weekly: "Just because I know how to change a guy's oil doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life on my back, staring up his undercarriage." From the word go, Evanovich delivers her usual goods, albeit in a different vehicle. After 10 Stephanie Plum novels, each more successful than the last, Evanovich introduces Alexandra Barnaby, aka Barney. Barney hails from Baltimore rather than New Jersey, but she's from the same slice of working-class life as Stephanie; she donned mechanic's overalls in her father's garage during summer breaks from college. Her younger brother, Wild Bill, shares her passion for cars, and now he's disappeared from Miami, along with NASCAR star Sam Hooker's boat, the Happy Hooker. Evanovich doesn't mind showing her romance roots, as Barney and Sam start off snarling at each other; as any reader can tell, they have to team up (a) to save Bill and (b) to enjoy delicious sex. As in the Plum books, plot takes a back seat to riffs, roughups and dialogue--and in the last lies the book's most notable distinction. If Stephanie bids fair to be New Jersey's Dorothy Parker, Barney is Baltimore's echo of Robert Parker. Conversation is terse and coded, full of sexual innuendo, with a high premium on toss-away lines uttered under duress. Despite the amazing quantity of physical jeopardy, there's little tension; it's all about hanging out with Metro Girl and NASCAR Guy--which may be just what millions of Evanovich fans will want. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library Journal:  A comic misadventure from the start, this mystery is a good combination of light thriller and fast-paced action. Alex Barnaby receives a late-night call from her brother that ends in mid-sentence with a woman screaming in the background. Being the dependable sister that she is, she catches the next flight down to Miami to find out what happened. Alex soon discovers that her brother has gone missing with a recent Cuban immigrant who may or may not know the location of a warhead and a fortune in gold. She cuts down the inept bad guys with her wit and a few well-placed accidental kicks and moves. For fans of the author's "Stephanie Plum" series, the book is a letdown as there are moments when readers have to suspend disbelief and accept contrived plot twists. Evanovich is better at dialogue than description, which may frustrate some seasoned readers, but the dialogue is what keeps the story moving and is, ultimately, the novel's saving grace.–Erin Dennington, Chantilly Regional Library, VA The Fat Man Author: Gee, Maurice / Ulriksen, Mark / Chomowicz, Lucille ISBN: 0-689-81182-9 Pages: 192 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Published: November 1, 1997 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 From Publishers Weekly: Of this "seamlessly crafted psychological thriller" set in 1933 New Zealand, PW's starred review said, "Gee gives the proverbial victim-turns-villain myth several spellbinding twists.... Readers with a hearty appetite for the diabolical will get their fill here." Ages 12-up. (Mar.)r Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From School Library Journal: In this engrossing psychological thriller, a devious man, embittered by the taunts he endured as a child, returns to his hometown to seek revenge on the family of one of his tormentors. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. The Fifth Angel Author: Green, Tim ISBN: 0-446-53085-9 Pages: 384 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Warner Books Published: March 2003 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 From Publishers Weekly: Like Green's previous thriller, The Fourth Perimeter, this book opens with an engaging premise that becomes less credible as the novel unfolds. Jack Ruskin, a senior partner in a prominent New York law firm, is beside himself with rage; his 15-year-old daughter is semicatatonic after being raped by a repeat sex offender, and the criminal has gotten off with a minimal sentence. Jack decides to take the law into his own hands. He hunts down and kills a randomly selected sex offender in upstate New York. Driven by bloodlust, Jack then embarks on a series of similar vigilante executions as he travels around the country on business for the firm. He falls in love with Beth, an empathetic young counselor at his daughter's hospital, but there's a close call when Beth nearly catches him surfing the Web for likely victims. He offs another criminal while the he and Beth are on an idyllic getaway in the Adirondacks. As the bodies pile up, FBI agent Amanda Lee is assigned to track down Jack. Amanda has her own interest in the case-her partner was recently killed by a child abuser resisting arrest. The briskly paced thriller culminates in a revealing showdown when Amanda traps Jack on Long Island. The action is engaging, but between the lurid goings-on and the lurid prose ("His little girl was a shell with scars on her body and holes punched in her veins to feed her drugs"), the story verges on bad pulp. Fans of Green's earlier novels will be satisfied with this one, but some may wish he had brought a bit more craft and restraint to his compelling premise. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: This is an avenging angel: when an ex-con with a history of sexual offenses attacks his daughter, temperate lawyer Jack Ruskin gets mad enough to take the law into his own hands. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. The Last Juror Author: Grisham, John ISBN: 0-385-51043-8 Pages: 368 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Doubleday Published: February 3, 2004 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 In 1970, small town newspaper The Clanton Times went belly up. With financial assistance from a rich relative, it's purchased by 23-year-old Willie Traynor, formerly the paper's cub reporter. Soon afterward, his new business receives the readership boost it needs thanks to his editorial efforts and coverage of a particularly brutal rape and murder committed by the scion of the town's reclusive bootlegger family. Rather than shy from reporting on the subsequent open-and-shut trial (those who oppose the Padgitt family tend to turn up dead in the area's swampland), Traynor launches a crusade to ensure the unrepentant murderer is brought to justice. When a guilty verdict is returned, the town is relieved to find the Padgitt family's grip on the town did not sway the jury, though Danny Padgitt is sentenced to life in prison rather than death. But, when Padgitt is released after serving less than a decade in jail and members of the jury are murdered, Clanton once again finds itself at the mercy of its renegade family. When it comes, the dénouement is no surprise; The Last Juror is less a story of suspense than a study of the often idyllic southern town of Clanton, Mississippi (the setting for Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill). Throughout the nine years between Padgitt's trial and release, Traynor finds acceptance in Clanton, where the people "don't really trust you unless they trusted your grandfather." He grows from a long-haired idealist into another of the town's colorful characters--renovating an old house, sporting a bowtie, beloved on both sides of the color line, and the only person to have attended each of the town's 88 churches at least once. The Last Juror returns Grisham to the courtroom where he made his name, but those who enjoyed the warm sentiment of his recent novels (Bleachers, A Painted House) will still find much to love here. --Benjamin Reese From Publishers Weekly: Grisham has spent the last few years stretching his creative muscles through a number of genres: his usual legal thrillers (The Summons, The King of Torts, etc.), a literary novel (The Painted House), a Christmas book (Skipping Christmas) and a high school football elegy (Bleachers). This experimentation seems to have imbued his writing with a new strength, giving exuberant life to this compassionate, compulsively readable story of a young man's growth from callowness to something approaching wisdom. Willie Traynor, 23 and a college dropout, is working as a reporter on a small-town newspaper, the Ford County Times, in Clanton, Miss. When the paper goes bankrupt, Willie turns to his wealthy grandmother, who loans him $50,000 to buy it. Backed by a stalwart staff, Willie labors to bring the newspaper back to health. A month after his first issue, he gets the story of a lifetime, the murder of beautiful young widow Rhoda Kasselaw. After being raped and knifed, the nude Rhoda staggered next door and whispered to her neighbor as she was dying, "Danny Padgitt. It was Danny Padgitt." The killer belongs to an infamous clan of crooked highway contractors, killers and drug smugglers who live on impregnable Padgitt Island. Willie splashes the murder all over the Times, making him both an instant success and a marked man. The town is up in arms, demanding Danny's head. After a near miss (the Padgitts are known for buying themselves out of trouble), Danny is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. As he's dragged out of the courtroom, he vows revenge on the jurors. Willie finds, to his consternation, that in Mississippi life doesn't necessarily mean life, so in nine years Danny is back out and jurors begin to die. Around and through this plot Grisham tells the sad, heroic, moving stories of the eccentric inhabitants of Clanton, a small town balanced between the pleasures and perils of the old and the new South. The novel is heartfelt, wise, suspenseful and funny, one of the best Grishams ever. Copyright © Reed Business Information  All rights reserved. The Rainmaker Author: Grisham, John ISBN: 0-385-42473-6 Pages: 448 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Doubleday Published: April 1, 1995 Condition: Price: USD $2.99 The Street Lawyer Author: Grisham, John ISBN: 0-385-49099-2 Pages: 352 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Doubleday Published: February 4, 1998 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 John Grisham is back with his latest courtroom conundrum, The Street Lawyer. This time the lord of legal thrillers dives deep into the world of the homeless, particularly their barely audible legal voice in a world dominated by large, all-powerful law firms. Our hero, Michael Brock, is on the fast track to partnership at D.C.'s premier law firm, Sweeny & Drake. His dream of someday raking in a million-plus a year is finally within reach. Nothing can stop him, not even 90-hour workweeks and a failing marriage--until he meets DeVon Hardy, a.k.a. "Mister," a Vietnam vet with a grudge against his landlord--and a few lawyers to fry. Hardy, with no clear motive, takes Brock and eight of his colleagues hostage in a boardroom, demanding their tax returns and interrogating them with a conviction that would have put perpetrators of the Spanish Inquisition to shame. Hardy, a man of few words and a lot of ammunition, mumbles cryptically, "Who are the evictors?" as he points a .44 automatic within inches of Brock's face. The violent outcome of the hostage situation triggers an abrupt soul-searching for the young lawyer, and Hardy's mysterious question continues to haunt him. Brock learns that Hardy had been in and out of homeless shelters most of his life, but he had recently begun paying rent in a rundown building; that means he has legal recourse when a big money-making outfit such as Sweeny & Drake boots him with no warning. When Brock realizes that his profession caters to the morally challenged, he sets out on an aimless search through the dicier side of D.C., ending up at the 14th Street Legal Clinic. The clinic's director, a gargantuan man named Mordecai Green, woos Brock to the clinic with a $90,000 cut in pay and the chance to redeem his soul. Brock takes it--and some of the story's credibility along with it; it's hard to believe that a Yale graduate who sacrificed everything--including his marriage--to succeed in the legal profession would quickly jump at the opportunity for low-paying, charitable work. However, Brock's search for corruption in the swanky upper echelons of Sweeny & Drake (via the toughest streets of D.C.) is filled with colorful characters and realistic, gritty descriptions. In the The Street Lawyer, Grisham once again defends the voiceless and powerless. In the words of Mordecai Green, "That's justice, Michael. That's what street law is all about. Dignity." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. The Testament Author: Grisham, John ISBN: 0-385-49380-0 Pages: 448 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Doubleday Published: February 2, 1999 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 Troy Phelan, a 78-year-old eccentric and the 10th-richest man in America, is about to read his last will and testament, divvying up an estate worth $11 billion. Phelan's three ex-wives, their grasping spawn, a legion of lawyers, several psychiatrists, and a plethora of sound technicians wait breathlessly, all eyes glued to digital monitors as they watch the old man read his verdict. But Phelan shocks everyone with a bizarre, last-gasp attempt to redistribute the spoils, setting in motion a legal morality tale of a contested will, sin, and redemption. Our hero, Nate O'Riley--a washed-up, alcoholic litigator with two ruined marriages in his wake and the IRS on his tail--is dispatched to the Brazilian wetlands in search of a mysterious heir named in the will. After a harrowing trip upriver to a remote settlement in the Pantanal, he encounters Rachel Lane, a pure-hearted missionary living with an indigenous tribe and carrying out "God's work." Rachel's grave dedication and kindness impress the jaded lawyer, so much that a nasty bout of dengue fever leads him to a vision that could change his life. Back in the States, the legal proceedings drag on and Grisham has a high time with Phelan's money-hungry descendents, a regrettable bunch who squandered millions, married strippers, got druggy, and befriended the Mob. The youngest son, Ramble, is a multi-pierced, tattoo-covered malcontent with big dreams for his rock band, the Demon Monkeys. Will Nate get straight with Rachel's aid? Do the greedy heirs get theirs? What's the real legacy of a lifetime's work? The Testament is classic Grisham: a down-and-out lawyer, a lot of money, an action-packed pursuit, and the highest issues at stake. It's not just about great characters; it's about the question of what character is. --Rebekah Warren Silence of the Lambs Author: Harris, Thomas ISBN: 0-312-02282-4 Pages: 352 Format: Hardcover Publisher: St. Martin's Press Published: May 19, 1999 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here--driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief. Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? --Barbara Schlieper From Publishers Weekly:  In this thrillingly effective follow-up to Harris's masterful 1981 suspense novel Red Dragon, the heroine is new, but the villain isn't: Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the evil genius who played a small but crucial role in the earlier novel, returns, to mesmerizing effect. When a serial killer known as Buffalo Bill (he kidnaps, slays and skins young women) begins a crosscountry rampage, FBI trainee Clarice Starling tries to interview Lecter, a psychiatrist whose brilliant insights into the criminally insane are matched only by his bloodlusthe's currently imprisoned for nine murders, and would like nothing more than the chance to kill again. Lecter, a vicious gamesman, will offer clues to the murderer's pattern only in exchange for information about Clarice, analyzing her with horrible accuracy from the barest details. When Bill strikes again, the agent begins to realize that Lecter may know much more, and races against time and two twisted minds. Harris understands the crafting of literary terror as very few writers do; readers who put themselves in his good, coldblooded hands will lose sleep, and demand a sequel. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. Afterburn Author: Harrison, Colin ISBN: 0-374-10205-8 Pages: 416 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Published: January 10, 2000 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 Amazon.com: This tour de force by the author of Manhattan Nocturne is a genre-bending literary thriller that deserves all the pre-publishing buzz it's received. From the prologue, set in the closing days of the Vietnam War, to the denouement 25 years later in the meatpacking district of Manhattan, it crackles with electricity and keeps the reader pinned in place; this is a book that's truly impossible to put down. Harrison's three protagonists are so well drawn that their individual obsessions rather than his complex plot seem to drive the narrative. Former fighter pilot Charlie Ravich is a wealthy telecommunications CEO desperate to perpetuate his name by any means, including a surrogate mother; his only son is dead and his daughter is infertile. Christina Welles is an Ivy League-educated mathematics whiz who went to prison for her role in a Mafia theft ring. And Rick Bocca, Christina's former lover, is hiding from the mob boss who has arranged Christina's early release to regain the millions he believes she stole from him. Harrison's observations are acute: he can describe the most horrific torture as deftly as he can write a tender love scene. But his ability to weave the separate stories of his main characters together without sacrificing a bit of momentum is truly dazzling; all three of them live in the mind long after the novel's harrowing climax. This is the real "afterburn" of the title, although it may get a second definition if the book makes as rapid an ascent to the top of the bestseller lists as it deserves. --Jane Adams From Publishers Weekly: Writing like an angel, Harrison in his new thriller (after Manhattan Nocturne) casts human existence as demonic, in a scenario as fierce as any imagined by Goya. The horror begins as American pilot Charlie Ravich is taken prisoner in 1972 in Vietnam, to be rescued by GIs who maim him in the process. Jumping to the present, the narrative focuses on another prisoner, Christina Welles, suffering behind bars in upstate New York for her role in a mob-directed theft ring. Charlie, too, is in pain; though now a wealthy electronics mogul, he's under attack both professionally, by larcenous contractors and a rival firm (like Harrison's Bodies Electric, this is a finance thriller as well as a crime novel), and personally--his wife is exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's, and he mourns the death of his only son. Then there's Rick Bocca, Christina's lover, inadvertently responsible for her imprisonment; he's hiding from the mob on Long Island, good as dead. When the mob, looking for $5 million that Christina stole from them in her final heist, engineers her release in hopes of snatching her to retrieve their loot, Harrison sets in motion a daringly complex tale of chase-and-hunt, of villainy, sacrifice and redemption, that unites these three main figures, and the gangsters who will go to any length--including monstrous torture, detailed by Harrison to the point of sensationalism--to get their money. As smartly orchestrated as the action is, it's Harrison's achingly real characters who empower the novel, as well as his prose: is there a noir novelist alive who can match his wattage? That's not always a virtue, though, as Harrison too often lets rip passages that, though rhapsodic or acutely observant, retard narrative flow. If not always expertly paced, however, the novel astonishes throughout, as much for its moral force as for its storytelling dazzle. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. A Firing Offense Author: Ignatius, David ISBN: 0-679-44860-8 Pages: 333 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Random House Published: April 29, 1997 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 Here's a thriller that provides plenty of exercise for the brain as well as the viscera, as Ignatius ingeniously explores what happens when a reporter crosses the line between information and covert action. Looking into the secret life of a respected colleague, hotshot journalist Eric Truell finds a much better story than he expected--and a huge moral dilemma, which gets bigger the more he digs. Ignatius's equally smart and exciting The Bank of Fear is available in paperback. From Library Journal: In this crisply written, fast-paced espionage thriller, an up-and-coming journalist finds he has made a Faustian bargain when he takes information from the CIA. New York Mirror foreign correspondent Eric Truell's expose of French governmental corruption leads him to probe the dynamics of power behind a pending French-Chinese communications contract?a deal that could mean the loss of billions for American businesses. Truell's CIA sources use their information to lure the ambitious but naive reporter into playing their own dangerous game in the murky new world order, where real power resides not with governments but with private enterprise. Ignatius (The Bank of Fear, LJ 6/1/94) brings to this novel his own experience as a reporter and editor. The writing is clean and straightforward, and the situations both in the newsroom and on assignment ring true. Altogether, an exciting book; for general collections. - Linda Lee Landrigan, New York Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. Firestorm Author: Johansen, Iris ISBN: 0-553-80340-9 Pages: 336 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Bantam Published: March 30, 2004 Condition: Price: USD $2.29 Arson investigator Kerry Murphy has a unique talent for sniffing out the cause of fires like the one that killed her mother years ago. She also has a secret, known only to the mysterious stranger named Silver, a "consultant" who needs her cooperation in stopping the psychopath who burned his brother alive and who's holding national security hostage to his own demented ego. Silver has an uncanny gift for getting under Kerry's skin, which is both the good and bad news--good because it doubles their chances of finding the man behind the terrifying weapon of the title, and bad because Kerry can't afford to be vulnerable to Silver or any other man. Johansen has written a taut thriller that's not quite as combustible as its title but one that will keep readers fired up enough to stick with it to the last page. --Jane Adams From Publishers Weekly: Two psychic firefighters confront a slew of dreadful deaths in this rip-roaring thriller by Johansen (Dead Aim, etc.). As a little girl, Kerry Murphy spent two years in a coma after losing her mother in a home fire. Kerry grows up to be a firefighter and then an arson specialist who uses her dog Sam as a cover for her remarkable psychic ability to telepathically sense fires. Kerry considers herself adjusted, at ease with her career and her talent, but she still suffers painful nig