Thriller Book Reviews

Uptown by J. T. Riggen is a crime thriller telling a story of three parts: Mark Kennedy, now ex-detective doing a life sentence for a brutal mob massacre in conjunction with an underworld comrade in the spirit of what he considers rightful justice; Will Sutherland, working detective looking to do the right thing in a job that looks straight in the eyes of atrocity and the daily horrors of corruption, dirty money and innocent blood; and Rachel Davis, a girl about to face the dark side of the real and adult world on her first steps away from her privileged […]

The opening of The Grand Turk File, a leisurely description of the Turk and Caicos islands, the setting of the primary action of this novel, lets you know right away that you are in the hands of a competent and confident writer. It does not, however, suggest that you might need to fasten your seat belt for the wild ride to come, but that might be a good idea. Grand Turk is most definitely a thriller. However, exacting characterization, careful pacing, and good writing make this book much richer than the average thriller.

Lieutenant Liechester Jones, known to all […]

John Locke, partner in the detective agency Locke and Keyes Investigations, is in his office early one morning working on a letter to his landlord and business partner when Walter  Lewis, a potential client, arrives and asks him to investigate the twenty-five-year-old disappearance of Lewis’ father. The case involves witchcraft and sorcery and hints at some even stranger goings-on. Locke refuses the case, not because it involves the occult (an area in which, as it turns out, he has some experience), but because he sees no hope for solving a twenty-five-year-old mystery. Unfortunately for Locke, this is one case he […]

Brent Cossack is a former CIA member who has gone rogue. He takes his orders from a shadowy figure codenamed Sacco, and assassinates corrupt corporate figureheads. Then there’s Rick Clark, who’s working to bring the Cossack’s militant group EMMA to justice after a string of murders. As the novel jumps around in time, it pieces together Brent and Rick’s lives before putting them on a collision course with each other.

We like to think that a strong point of view is one of the traits of a good work of art. Be it prose, poetry, or even film, a distinct […]

What’s more terrifying than al-Qaeda run by Osama bin Laden? A terrorist organization that is organized, well-connected, and has resources.

Roger Hardy’s Flight Into Darkness takes place after bin Laden’s death. When a new hi-tech jet vanishes in the night over the Saudi desert not many people notice. The aircraft was touted as the safest in the world, so what happened? James Hayward is an air accident investigator for the Directorate of Aviation Security. Nothing about the crash has appeared on newscasts or on the Internet. Furthermore, no official report was filed. Who submitted an anonymous report, and more importantly, […]

It takes a certain kind of mystery or crime thriller to hold my complete attention. The cookie cutter plot lines of James Patterson make me laugh every time I see him hanging out on the New York Times Bestseller list. I enjoyed the occasional Mary Higgins Clark or John Grisham back in my high school days, but even they don’t do it for me today. Thomas Harris has always been a fav, but he’s written all of five books in three decades.  These days author Gillian Flynn has me screeching like a vamp crazed teen girl every time a new […]

Serafima Bogomolova’s debut novel, My Trickster, begins by throwing the reader off balance and continues to do so throughout this quirky novel. The story begins when the enigmatic Angela Moreuax summons her old business partner and lover Juan MacBride to Moscow to help with her latest project. When McBride arrives he finds the situation is not at all what he expected. The surprises continue to pile up, both for MacBride and the reader.

The story is told with dual and often overlapping points of view. We see the action from the point of view of Angela (La) alternating somewhat randomly […]