“2 in the Hat” By: Raffi Yessayan
Yessayan introduces a complicated police procedural divided into three parts. He pulls on experience in the district attorney’s office in Boston to guide us through the various districts that make up the Emerald District. His characters and story are utterly believable as the passionate dark side of the serial killer is unleashed on the police and the reader.
The story follows the outline of a Pattersonesque thriller; short chapters with occasional inserts to provide clues to the anonymous Prom Night Killer. A very effective method, however the lack of a central protagonist to the story left me a little confused until the third section. The mix of point of views makes it so complex that I had to spend time flipping back to try to recall where the pieces fit to keep the many characters straight.
Just when you think you know who did it I guaranty a new clue will leave your head spinning. Once the story takes off in part three it really finds its pulse and surges ahead to bring a climactic ending that will leave you scrambling to keep up.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Blood on His Hands reviewed by Suspense magazine
Blood on his Hands by Mark P. Sadler
A hunt for payback—predator vs. prey—is the underlying electrical current coursing through this
colorful debut thriller by Mark Sadler. The movement of the storyline, written so vividly,
straddles the lines between dark thriller and in your-face horror, as Sadler’s descriptions spill
out with shocking intensity.
Michael Renton was just a typical working Joe with a wife and two sons and while his life was
not the pinnacle of excitement, he was proud of his accomplishments…their accomplishments
as a family. A hard worker, he understands that being away from the wife and kids was a strain
on the family unit, but it would have been much more difficult without the money from hours
of overtime. Unfortunately, all that time away made it tricky to appreciate his wife’s needs
and desires for more. Much more than Michael, a simple man, could ever
offer. Michael could never have prepared himself—even had he fully understood the
true toll his schedule had taken—for the day he walked in on his wife and her lover.
His American dream was over in an instant...within seconds of a shotgun blast.
Not for the faint of heart, “Blood on his Hands” can make your stomach roll as well as
a roller coaster while Sadler zigzags you on a frenzied chase across the country.
A hunt for payback—predator vs. prey—is the underlying electrical current coursing through this
colorful debut thriller by Mark Sadler. The movement of the storyline, written so vividly,
straddles the lines between dark thriller and in your-face horror, as Sadler’s descriptions spill
out with shocking intensity.
Michael Renton was just a typical working Joe with a wife and two sons and while his life was
not the pinnacle of excitement, he was proud of his accomplishments…their accomplishments
as a family. A hard worker, he understands that being away from the wife and kids was a strain
on the family unit, but it would have been much more difficult without the money from hours
of overtime. Unfortunately, all that time away made it tricky to appreciate his wife’s needs
and desires for more. Much more than Michael, a simple man, could ever
offer. Michael could never have prepared himself—even had he fully understood the
true toll his schedule had taken—for the day he walked in on his wife and her lover.
His American dream was over in an instant...within seconds of a shotgun blast.
Not for the faint of heart, “Blood on his Hands” can make your stomach roll as well as
a roller coaster while Sadler zigzags you on a frenzied chase across the country.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
“The Silent Places” - A review
John Reese has a personal vendetta against presidential candidate Senator Alan Preston, and why not, Preston had him thrown in jail on trumped-up charges.
Reese—a former CIA agent—was in jail for life on charges of treason when he was released into the custody of Federal agents. Not taking his moment of freedom lightly, Reese evades his captors to make his way to Missouri at the time Senator Preston is due to give a national speech.
St. Louis police detective George Hastings takes it personally when you commit a crime in his jurisdiction and he is on the security detail guarding the senator. As he digs into the background of both the hunter and the hunted he begins to realize that perhaps things are not quite what they seem. Who is the criminal?
With an ending that turns your understanding of everything you just read upside down, Hunt keeps readers enthralled until the last bullet.
Reese—a former CIA agent—was in jail for life on charges of treason when he was released into the custody of Federal agents. Not taking his moment of freedom lightly, Reese evades his captors to make his way to Missouri at the time Senator Preston is due to give a national speech.
St. Louis police detective George Hastings takes it personally when you commit a crime in his jurisdiction and he is on the security detail guarding the senator. As he digs into the background of both the hunter and the hunted he begins to realize that perhaps things are not quite what they seem. Who is the criminal?
With an ending that turns your understanding of everything you just read upside down, Hunt keeps readers enthralled until the last bullet.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
An Irish Jig Perhaps
Tim Madden awakens from a night of drunken excess, still groggy and unable to recall anything of last night.
As the hangover clears he finds his car's passenger seat sticky with blood, a new tattoo with an old flame's name and the discovery of not one but two severed heads in the nearby woods, next to his secret marijuana stash.
Was he responsible for the murder of two women, or was the crooked police chief setting him up? Madden, a failed writer, has the story of a life time to write if he can sleuth his way through it and live. A couple of ex-cons and a pissed off homosexual, his own former cell-mate, all want him dead.
In Tough Guys Don't Dance, Mailer gives us many colorful characters, in his usual descriptive style, but don't be fooled. Through all the hard-nosed Irish and Portuguese on the streets of Cape Cod this book is worth the read for the flowing narrative language alone, and besides Madden is a tough guy, so why not give him the last dance.
As the hangover clears he finds his car's passenger seat sticky with blood, a new tattoo with an old flame's name and the discovery of not one but two severed heads in the nearby woods, next to his secret marijuana stash.
Was he responsible for the murder of two women, or was the crooked police chief setting him up? Madden, a failed writer, has the story of a life time to write if he can sleuth his way through it and live. A couple of ex-cons and a pissed off homosexual, his own former cell-mate, all want him dead.
In Tough Guys Don't Dance, Mailer gives us many colorful characters, in his usual descriptive style, but don't be fooled. Through all the hard-nosed Irish and Portuguese on the streets of Cape Cod this book is worth the read for the flowing narrative language alone, and besides Madden is a tough guy, so why not give him the last dance.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Wise Words: BLOOD ON HIS HANDS - The debut novel from Mark P S...
Wise Words: BLOOD ON HIS HANDS - The debut novel from Mark P S...: "Blood on His Hands is one man's tale of the inner struggles that we all deal with in our lives. Mike Renton struggles between doing the righ..."
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Mighty Quinn Exposed
In what amounts to a tell-all-expose John Quinn describes his life for us all to read about... and what a story!
Growing up a cop's son in Detroit, Quinn was one of three of seven siblings that were born with a medical disorder - in his case cerebral palsy. His parents... treated John and his affliction like a normal kid. His Dad knew life would be hard and so gave John the mental tools to deal with his future.
Quinn wrestled his way through high school while wrestling on how to fulfill his dream of joining the Navy. He never won a wresting match and flunked his first attempt at the military's physical but this never-say-die character took life as it came at him, shook it off and found a way to dig deep and conquer his fears and physical inabilities.
Fourteen years later, after serving on board a battleship and working out with the elite Navy SEALS Quinn finally retired and not until writing this book did he ever tell anyone in the Navy that he suffered from cerebral palsy. That's right, he hid his disability from the Navy, toughed it out and became an exemplary sailor and human being.
Are you having a tough day, work getting you down? Have a read of John Quinn's "Someone Like Me' and get over yourself!
Growing up a cop's son in Detroit, Quinn was one of three of seven siblings that were born with a medical disorder - in his case cerebral palsy. His parents... treated John and his affliction like a normal kid. His Dad knew life would be hard and so gave John the mental tools to deal with his future.
Quinn wrestled his way through high school while wrestling on how to fulfill his dream of joining the Navy. He never won a wresting match and flunked his first attempt at the military's physical but this never-say-die character took life as it came at him, shook it off and found a way to dig deep and conquer his fears and physical inabilities.
Fourteen years later, after serving on board a battleship and working out with the elite Navy SEALS Quinn finally retired and not until writing this book did he ever tell anyone in the Navy that he suffered from cerebral palsy. That's right, he hid his disability from the Navy, toughed it out and became an exemplary sailor and human being.
Are you having a tough day, work getting you down? Have a read of John Quinn's "Someone Like Me' and get over yourself!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Review: Midnight on the Line
Tim Gaynor is a British journalist for Reuters, based in Phoenix. His beat is immigration issues on the US-Mexican border.
His book Midnight on the Line is an in-depth look at the border issues as they came to a boil before the current (July 2010) Arizona enforced laws that have half the country up in arms.
From the beginning chapter, where Gaynor pulls a George Plimptonesque move by personally started in the Mexican border town of Altar, and together with his photographer Tomas Bravo, walked across the border and into America to personally experience the hardships that the illegals and smugglers suffer as they start for the `promised land' to the issues at the Tijuana border with California and how the cartels are influencing and bribing border guards Gaynor caste his journalistic vision on how and why the border is an insurmountable problem.
Without offering solutions or alternatives Gaynor's approach is that of the eagle-eyed journalist giving us the straight skinny on a variety of issues from discussion on the men and women whose jobs keep them on the line to the Predator drones in the air, the potential threat of terrorism and drug smugglers tunneling under our borders. While nothing he offers is ground-breaking it is top notch investigative reporting
His book Midnight on the Line is an in-depth look at the border issues as they came to a boil before the current (July 2010) Arizona enforced laws that have half the country up in arms.
From the beginning chapter, where Gaynor pulls a George Plimptonesque move by personally started in the Mexican border town of Altar, and together with his photographer Tomas Bravo, walked across the border and into America to personally experience the hardships that the illegals and smugglers suffer as they start for the `promised land' to the issues at the Tijuana border with California and how the cartels are influencing and bribing border guards Gaynor caste his journalistic vision on how and why the border is an insurmountable problem.
Without offering solutions or alternatives Gaynor's approach is that of the eagle-eyed journalist giving us the straight skinny on a variety of issues from discussion on the men and women whose jobs keep them on the line to the Predator drones in the air, the potential threat of terrorism and drug smugglers tunneling under our borders. While nothing he offers is ground-breaking it is top notch investigative reporting
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