Dexter in the Dark

Third in the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay. This is the best yet. Dexter is in the middle of a very scary case. 2 girls are found dead, burned in a kiln and beheaded. Bull’s heads where their heads used to be. A college professor is under custody for the murders. What terrifies Dexter is that at the crime scene, the Dark Passenger inside him cringes and slowly leaves him alone. Dexter has never felt this alone and helpless. He is almost, god forbid, human in this book. He is funnier than ever. And is even looking forward to his marriage to Rita in some ways. The kids Cody and Astor are caught torturing their neighbor’s cat and Dexter has to discipline them and teach them the Harry way.
Amazing read. I cant wait for Lindsay’s next.

Death Du Jour

By Kathy Reichs.It’s the third book featuring the forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Tempe is in Quebec to help with the cases there. She has to return to her students in North Carolina soon. But what shocks her are a series of brutal murders of young women and an unsettling excavation of a mixed race nun who is a candidate for sainthood.The story moves from Canada to Charlotte but never loses track. There is everything to keep you hooked. A deadly fire that kills babies whose dead parents were members of a satanic sect. For Tempe this case is close to home, her sister might have joined this sect unknowingly. Result is a race to get to them before more people lose their lives.Detective Ryan and Tempe acknowledge their feelings for each other and try to work something out. Reichs’ books are gripping and detailed at the same time. You might take a week to get through her book but its definitely worth the work.

Deja Dead

By Kathy Reichs. The TV series Bones is based on the main character of Reichs’ books Temperance Brennan. Tempe is a forensic anthropologist, a middle aged divorcee with a teenage daughter staying away from her family in Montreal. She is caught up in a serial murder case where the women victims are tortured to death and then buried in shallow graves.
She along with detectives Ryan and Claudel unravel the clues to find the killer but not before she loses her best friend to the killer and is afraid for the safety of her own daughter.
Amazing book. She has written some 10 books with Tempe as the main character. Cant wait to read the next.

Dearly Devoted Dexter

By Jeff Lindsay. Second of the Dexter series, Dexter is no longer safe to carry out his dark hobby. Sgt Doakes knows that Dexter is not what he seems to be. Doakes shadows Dexter everywhere and cramps his style. So Dex plans to lay low for a few days at the end of which he finds himself engaged to Rita and in hot pursuit of a crazy doctor who turns his victims into living vegetables.
Stakes are high this time when Dexter’s sister is in love with a detective from “an agency” who has come to investigate the mutilations.
The book is amazingly fast and much better than the first in the series. There is more humour and the climax is as interesting as it can get. Must read. Cant wait for the next.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

By Jeff Lindsay. I heard about this book first when i saw an ad about a HBO series based on these books about a loveable serial killer who kills serial killers.
Dexter Morgan is a blood splatter specialist of the Miami Dade PD. But he has a dark side. He is a serial killer of serial killers. Dexter was adopted by a police officer who noticed this dark side and told him to use his dark urge to kill only those who deserve it.
Now there is a new serial killer who kills hookers cleanly, the way Dexter would have done it.
The book is interesting and written well. Incredible read.

Cat O'Nine Tales

By Jeffery Archer. Most of the stories in the book are based on the tales Archer heard when he was in Jail. He has still not lost his touch. Interesting book.

Tell no one

By Harlan Coben. An interesting and fast moving thriller. This guy is published by the people who publish Dean Koontz and Thomas Harris. David Beck is still recovering from the murder of his wife and his love since he was 7 years old, Elizabeth Parker. On the 21st anniversary of their first kiss, he recieves an anonymous email telling him to check a link. What he sees shocks him to the core, he sees his dead wife in a street camera looking up at him.

Then starts the search to find out if his wife is really dead or still alive. Beck gets shot at, almost killed by a homicidal asian, assaults a police officer and after a lot of twists and turns, we get an amazing climax. Good read.

Bad Luck and Trouble

By Lee Child. I was very sad when i finished this one..because now i have read everything Child has written and i have to wait for months before i can get my hand on the next one. Bad Luck and Trouble is about the reunion of Reacher's Special Investigators unit from the Army is not in the best of the circumstances. Neagley and Reacher are together again to investigate the killing of their team.
Fast moving and incredibly interesting...but all Reacher novels are. Must read.

Persuader

By Lee Child. Reacher is undercover in a drug lord's house. He is his usual unscroupulous and brilliant self. The book is about an off the books DEA operation that has gone awry. And when Reacher comes face to face with a man he thought he had killed 10 years ago, he is also sucked into the operation and decides to go undercover.
A DEA agent is missing and one of Reacher's task is to find out what happened to her and get her out of there if she is alive. But Reacher has other plans for Quinn. The man who worked for Pentagon 10 years ago and was involved in a weapons espionage case that Reacher and his team were trying to solve.
The book is an usual Lee Child offering with all the usual elements.

Gone for Good

By Harlan Coben. Its been a long time since i felt the thrill of reading a new author whose books are amazingly fast and thrilling. Lee Child was the last author who made me feel this way(no matter how pathetic that sounds, i stand by my statement). This book is amazing in its speed and language.
The book is about a social worker who runs a safe house for runaway children in New York, Will Klien. Will has a history of his own, his brother Ken is wanted by police for the murder of Will's ex-girlfriend. Ken has been missing for 11 years. The book begins when Will's mother dies and he finds evidence that Ken had been communicating with his mother. The book moves at an amazing speed and none of the suspense are predictable and dull. It makes you want to finish the book in one sitting. I cant wait to read the others this guy has written.

Without Fail

By Lee Child. Another thrilling Jack Reacher novel you could devour in a day. The situations are fresh and the characters are new. Reacher finds himself in Atlantic city protecting a couple of old singers from the manager of a club where they are performing. Reacher is all set to move to the next city, when M.E.Froelich shows up unannounced. She is the head of security detail for the Vice President of USA and she has a very disturbing request and challenge all rolled into one.

And Reacher is never one who could stay away from challenges. Thus starts the rollercoaster ride which has some very intersting twists and turns. And Child is not an author who disappoints his loyal readers. Reacher does everything that makes his character one of my favourites.

Amazing read. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read an action packed thriller.

BTW...i was just wondering...if one of Lee Child's book were to be made into a movie, who would I want to play Reacher? If it had been some years back, i would have wanted a full haired Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson. In moments of insanity, I wonder how would it look if Stallone played Reacher. Hmm..maybe be could just pull it off.

One Shot

By Lee Child. By now everyone knows that i am a lunatic fan of Jack Reacher...a level above crazy. And he never disappoints me. I had to take a day off from work to sit at home and just finish this book. Its just awesome.
Its 5 o clock friday evening and 6 shots are fired onto a crowd of people leaving a DMV building in Indiana and 5 people are dead. The killer is captured immediately. James Barr. One small hiccup. Barr denies being involved and asks for Jack Reacher.
The books follows its on incredible twists and turns and ends with an incredible stake out. All's well that ends well and Reacher is off on his own journey never doing the same thing twice.

Running Blind

Jack Reacher again. This is the book after Tripwire. After Jodie, Leon Garber's daughter and Reacher have fallen in love and practically living together. Reacher is restless, 2 things keep him in New York. Jodie and Leon's house in Garrison that came to Reacher.

Reacher is clueless and relieved slightly when he is in the middle of a bizzare investigation. 3 women have been killed...with the same MO. Killed in their own bathtubs filled with army camouflage paint. The weirdest thing is that there is no evidence in the house to indicate that someone other than the victim was even there. And weirder still, the coroner can't find how these women died. No poisoning, no shooting..nothing. Just dead women.

First the FBI thinks Reacher had something to do with the murders but then they realise otherwise and ask him to come on board as consultants. Reacher agrees reluctantly.

Incredible book with amazing final sequence. And just proves once again that i am hooked on Reacher in a big way!!

February woes

No..thats not the name of a book...just that i have ignored the books in February. I read maybe 2 books only the whole month!!! Thats my worst average in a very long time.
You know the way you just go off stuff you love for a spell..well..maybe you dont but i do that a lot. Thats how i went off books in a major way. I would sit in the bus, knowing i had a book in my bag..but would not take it out and read. I was content to just sit there and think.
Okie...so the books that i did manage to finish are readable and forgettable.
The Family Daughter-Mailey Meloy
What does an author do if she has met a writer's block and just cannot think of a new story. She re-writes her first book with a twist. Family Daughter is this author's second book. The first one(which i have not read, thankfully) is called Liars and Saints...it has all the classic elements of an "exciting",abnormal family...a daughter who cant find her roots or her self, a mother who is a wanderer and has never grown up in the real sense, a dead father, a load of guilt, an incestous relationship...a lot of stuff to help us keep turning the pages. The first book was supposedly a third person narrative about Aby Santerre and her family. This time around Aby is spilling the beans...Interesting..but not good enough.
Angel's Flight-Micheal Connelly
This guy is the Nora Roberts of mystery..whenever i go to the library i find his books all over the place..he must have written hundreds of them. I figured since the guy has made such a big attempt..i mite as well give it a try. Its kind of ok. A tired, over-worked and emotionally broken detective Harry Bosch is faced with the case of his life the same night his wife leaves him. An african american laywer is shot dead. What makes this case more important is that this lawyer Howard Elias has made a life of suing the LAPD and now the suspects in his death are also officers from LAPD. The books is a long series of twists and turns and more twists,leaving us heaving a sigh of relief when its finally over. Readable but not exceptional. I have read better Police Fiction.

Killing Floor

Reacher is minding his own business in Margrave,Georgia when he is arrested at Eno's Diner. For murder.

Thus starts the mind blowing Jack Reacher escapade, the first book of the series. Reacher is passing through the town famous for a jazz artist Blind Blake when he decides to find more about Blake...and before he sees it coming he is in smack middle of a murder mystery. The chief of detectives Finlay and an attractive officer Roscoe assist Reacher in solving the mystery that suddenly becomes very important for him. I am not going to tell you why and i am also going to warn you not to read the summary of this book. But if you have read some of the later books in this series you might just figure it out for yourself the way I did. Anyway the book, as any in the series does not need too many words to describe it. Just awesome. I am a true Reacher fan!!!

The Hard Way

I borrowed this sentence from a review on Amazon because it tells exactly what i think about Jack Reacher..."As far as I'm concerned, the tight-lipped, human arsenal Jack Reacher is the most compelling figure in contemporary escapist thriller fiction. " [Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States)]
The Hard way is the 10th Reacher Novel by Lee Child and its incredible from start to finish. Reacher is doing nothing but sitting on a side walk cafe having an espresso and the next thing he knows he is yet again involved in an investigation...to help a distraught husband find his kidnapped wife and daughter....Reacher has a new heroine...Lauren Pauling..a retired FBI agent who helps him in the search for the truth...
My lips are sealed about the plot...all i can warn u is that you are not going to put this book down from start to finish...it will hook you like all the others before it....
No other hero...except Kenzie/Gennaro pair has captured my imagination like Reacher...he is quiet...does not believe in staying in once place...leaving a trail...and at the end of the book...there is no settling down...the perfect hero to write 10 books and more about...

Echo Burning

Another great book by Lee Child. Jack Reacher is drifting again and this time finds himself in Texas in the middle of summer. He hitchhikes and is picked up by a young and beautiful woman who confides in him that she is looking for a person who can murder her husband who has been abusing her for years now. He is now in prison and releasing very soon. Reacher is very sckeptical at first but decides to go home with her to keep an eye on her in case her husband tries to hit her.
The book is fast moving, has lots of action and enough twists and turns to make you want to see what happens at the end. Readable and interesting.

Black Dahlia

Its a very disturbing book about a murder of a young woman and how its investigation is shrouded by lies and deciet. How the murder affects the lives of people involved in the case. Its an incredible book by James Elroy who wrote the screenplay for L.A Confidential. The book is based on the real life unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short. The young girl was murdered brutally and disemboweled. The book describes the journey of two detectives who work the case. They are haunted by the horrific way she has been murdered.
The book takes us through the investigation when many layers of truth comes to light. As they investigate a more or less hazy picture of the girl emerges. A startlet who had a dark side. The porn movie she acted in, a friend who acted as her pimp, her lesbian liasons with the daughter of a very powerful man with underworld connections all come to light. This just makes the detectives Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and Lee Blanchard more driven to find the killer.
The storyline is very interesting and unsettling. A very interesting read.

Tripwire

Another Jack Reacher novel. I cant say anything about this book other than i have become a fan of Child and Reacher. I am going to go slowly but surely through the entire Reacher series.
I think he is my second fav after Kenzie-Gennaro team.
Tripwire happens after Reacher is out of the army and is drifting. doing odd jobs. Till a guy comes lookin for him and ends up dead soon after that. Reacher heads out to New York to find out more about the guy who came looking for him and the mysterious client Mrs.Jacob who sent the guy in the first place.
He is in for a shock when he comes to know that Mrs.Jacob is none other than Jodie Garber, General Leon Garber's daughter. Reacher ends up in Garber home to see that Leon is dead...
Jodie and Reacher try to unravel the mystery surrounding Garber's last queries about the only son of the Hobies. He was supposedly missing in action during Vietnam.
The remainder of the story is fast moving and interesting. I like the hunour and primitive man like instincts of Reacher which makes him different from the other fictional heros.

Some books i missed out on...

The past 2 weeks...i got loads of time to read....these are the books i have finished...

• Mad River Road - Joy Fielding. An enjoyable and predictable thriller with lots of women characters.
• Not that kind of girl - Catherine Alliot. A easy to read..chick lit..funny book..but feels like you are reading Going Too Far again.
• The Enemy - Lee Child. A Jack Reacher novel.My first Lee Child. Interesting read.Incredibly fast moving with a very tight storyline.I think i will read more of Lee Child's works.
• Confessions of a Shopaholic - What can i say about this book other than it seems like Bridget Jones got a new Vice...shopping. The characterization and circumstances remind you so much of Bridget Jones. Thats the reason its a decent, readable book.
• The Devil Wears Prada - Incredible book. The way Miranda Priestly has been potrayed is just mind blowing. She is devil incarnate. Makes us want thank god that our bosses are not as sadistic as she. The book is definitely better than the movie.