You don't want to know Jack...

Title: The Jekyll Revelation by Robert Masello
Publisher: 47 North 477 pp
Genre: mystery, thriller fiction, historical, science fiction, fantasy
4 stars
Author:
Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, TV writer, and a bestselling author. A recent thriller, The Einstein Prophecy was # 1 in the Kindle store. Previous books include Blood and Ice, The Medusa Amulet and the Romanov Cross. He has authored two popular studies of the Occult as well as books on writing. TV credits include "Charmed," "Sliders," Early Edition," and "Poltergeist: the Legacy." He studied writing at Princeton University under Robert Stone and Geoffrey Wolff. This is my first exposure to him, chosen from netgalley for my obsession with all things literary Scotland.
Story line:
This book has two alternating storylines: in the present storyline are we introduced to Rafael (Rafe) Salazar, an environmental scientist, who discovers an old green steamer trunk with a flask and a journal that was written by Robert Louis Stevenson, so his past alternates with the present. In August 1888, as the stage play of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was taking London by storm, Jack the Ripper, perhaps the most notorious serial killer in history, struck for the first time. In reality RLS briefly was considered a suspect.
Masello weaves the different threads of action, gothic horror, history, science and science fiction together in a story that grabs your attention from the very beginning. It's more pulp fiction than I normally read, but it's a great action 'film'. I enjoyed the RLS journal entries more than the present day story which included methheads, rednecks, violence and clueless male egos. Perhaps it was also that the women are superficial. Having read several biographies of Fanny Stevenson, Maesello doesn't portray her well either. But, suspend reality for a day and enjoy the suspense.
Read on:
If you are a fan of Dan Brown, Lee Child, Douglas Preston
Quotes:
Opening paragraph
25th of November, 1894 From: Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima House, Samoa To: W.E. Henley, 18 Maybury Road, Old Woking, Surrey, England Dear Henley—What I must tell you now, I tell you with dread. It has happened again. What we thought—what we prayed—we had left behind us in the back alleys and darkened doorways of Whitechapel has, I fear, awakened from its awful slumber. It has struck again, right here, in what I had foolishly thought might be Paradise. And I have been the unwitting agent of its malevolence.
As a Field Officer with the Environmental Sciences Service, he had seen the canyon in all kinds of conditions, but he had never seen it this bad.
tall one with the scruffy gray beard; Alfie was built like a fire hydrant (and was just about as bright.)
Ever since he was a boy, Rafe had talked to animals; his little sister, Lucy, after seeing the movie of the same name, had called him Dr. Doolittle.
“Tell Stoker he doesn’t need to send any more emissaries. I’m sane as the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
In his hands, he held the journal, but with a kind of reverence now, that he had not initially felt. He hadn’t known at first whose initials they were—RLS—nor had he known who Louis, or Fanny, was. But then he’d read and deciphered more of the text, put it all together, and discovered that the author of the book was none other than Robert Louis Stevenson. The man whose books, like Treasure Island and Kidnapped and The Master of Ballantrae, he’d devoured as a boy.

Reading the book was slow-going—the ink had faded almost to the point of disappearing here and there, and he had to turn the pages with great care or they would shred and fall away from the binding. Stevenson’s handwriting was very peculiar, too—angular and slanted, with a lot of what looked like hasty pen marks, swipes and blottings. Rafe had read all the entries from the Belvedere clinic in Switzerland and he had been especially moved by the author’s attempts to protect the wolf he called Lord Grey from the cruelties of Yannick. On that score, he felt a real allegiance with Stevenson.
What I did not feel, and this was what astonished me even then, even in what should have been an utterly terrifying moment, was fear. I felt instead a burst of exhilaration, coupled with a sensation of freedom and power. I was not the scribbler Robert Louis Stevenson—I was the wolf Lord Grey.
“English gardens,” she said. “All weeds and no flowers.”

What he held in his hands—the seared covers and a handful of dust—was all he had to show for the last words of Robert Louis Stevenson. 


Received as an ARC ebook from Netgalley.

Welcome to Hell...Bay!

Title: Hell Bay By Will Thomas
Publisher: Minotaur Books 304 pp. October 2016
Genre: mystery, English historical, series,  fiction
4.5 stars
Author:
This is the 8th in the Barker and Llewelyn series written by Will Thomas, an author from Oklahoma.  I have avidly followed this historical mystery series, eagerly awaiting each installment. I have never been disappointed from Some Danger Involved to the last Anatomy of Evil and would recommend reading them in order. This is not the usual gritty crime ridden streets of Victorian London tamed by Barker, but a well written closed room mystery with personal development.
Story line:
Private enquiry agent extraordinaire and scotsman Cyrus Barker agrees to his least favorite assignment,  security.  A secret conference at the private estate of Lord Hargrave on a remote island, Godolphin, off the coast of Cornwall will negotiate a new treaty with France. The cover story for the gathering is a house party--an attempt to introduce two unmarried sons to potential mates. Nothing like a little intrigue to determine true colours.

But almost immediately Lord Hargrave is killed by a sniper, and the French ambassador’s head of security is stabbed to death. Trapped in the manor house with no means off the island, Barker and his Welsh assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, must determine which among them is the killer(s) while also uncovering family secrets and motives. It has a satisfactory ending, with rapid page turning!

Read on:
If you like Sherlock Holmes, or manor house mysteries.
Quotes:
Everything was falling into chaos everywhere. Standards were no longer being met, and so they lowered the standards, rather than getting at the root of the problem, which was lazy boys.

Quite probably, he died feeling no pain whatsoever, which, considering how much he had inflicted on others during his many years, doesn’t exactly seem fair.

We all make mistakes, of course, even the best of us. Some of us are famous for them. 

We’re like that, Cyrus Barker and I: chalk and cheese. If something interests one of us, it probably won’t interest the other.

One cannot go anywhere without being questioned about everything. One is asked about one’s relatives, one’s political views, private history, and personal references. One engages in small talk. Do I look like the sort of person who enjoys engaging in small talk?....If I have to endure a week of sweetmeats and polite conversation, I’m liable to set back Anglo-French relations all by myself.”

The colonel smiled, revealing a full set of ivory teeth that had looked better on the elephant.

To my mind, nothing said that we were staying in an actual castle more than the fact that the dining table seated twenty. It was not a number of tables put together, or even two smaller ones abutted, but one table...

“The bullet passed right through my hand,” Fraser said. “That will not improve my rheumatism.” We were impressed. The man at seventy-three was making jokes about having just been shot.

Nobody ever talks about a brooding Pole or a brooding Chinaman, but Scotsmen are known for it. It was good that the weather was too warm for a fire to stare into or there would be no word from him all day.

You work for a man for six years and then one day he hands you a death sentence. I recalled the Llewelyn luck: everything bad that can happen to one probably shall, and yet one will not die from it, as that would end the torment too quickly.

No self-respecting Scotsman would be without his skean dhu.

She could have given the sun lessons in how to shine.

Received as an ARC ebook from Netgalley.

Title: Shadow Play Iris Johansen
Publisher: St Martin Press. 337 pp
Genre: mystery, thriller, suspense, fiction,
4 stars
Author:
Iris Johansen is a New York Times best selling author whose genres include romance, mystery/suspense and crime/thriller. She is writing the Kendra Michels series with her son, the Edgar award winning screenwriter and novelist, Roy Johansen. Her daughter Tamara is her research assistant.  Shadow Play is part of the Cara Delaney mini series within the well written Eve Duncan series (first published in 1998). Her next stand alone is No Easy Prey (April 2017);  Nightwatch (October 2016 with Roy).
Story line:
Shadow Play is the first book in a trilogy, within the Eve Duncan series (and book 19 of that). The other two have recently been published, Hide Away and Night and Day, which is why I am reviewing now. Each of the books ends on a cliff hanger, and to me was not complete. Each installment is very good, there is satisfactory character development, action, adventure and more than a few sociopaths.
Eve Duncan is a world renowned forensic sculptor who has helped many families find closure. Early books focused on the kidnapping and death of her young daughter Bonnie. Her quest for justice with her police detective, now love, provided fascinating, all too real,  and compelling reading. They now live in rural Georgia but head to California to solve this crime (and over to Scotland and Russia for the next two books).  There are elements of paranormal/supernatural in this series, communicating with the dead, seeing ghosts or understanding animals. It is still a relief to not have graphic sex or violence (although there are plenty of gruesome details) with a mystery, and the detailed relationships between Eve and Quinn as well as Jane, Margaret, Cara, Jenny and Bonnie are lovely. The series looks to continue strongly, with additional developments.
Read on:
If you like Kathy Reichs, Lisa Jackson, Kay Hooper, JD Robb, Karen Robards, Beverly Connor, Heather Graham
Quotes:
This child’s killer might only have been a shadow-figure, but it was malignant and evil and Eve felt as if she could reach out and touch him.
Out of the blue, out of the darkness, those words had come to her. Weird. Imagination?
...When I work on a skull, it doesn’t usually want to have a conversation.” She shook her head. “Well, that’s not quite true, it did happen to me once before, and that may be why I got a little nervous. I was working on a very nasty, vindictive man who only wanted to bring me into his world and hurt me.
“And I’ll tell Joe Quinn what you’ve said if it will make you feel better. I’m sure that dossier you have on me stressed Joe’s importance in my life. He’s very good at eliminating threats, real or otherwise.”
How could she tell him that it wasn’t his competence but her own fear that she’d be responsible for something happening to him? Joe was like a force of nature when he was on the hunt.
Margaret nodded. “Okay, here goes. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been able to communicate with animals. I can kind of merge and read them.” Silence. “Read them?” Nalchek repeated. “Read their minds?” “No, not usually. Oh, sometimes. It depends on the species.
His voice was soft, urgent. “I have so much love for you, Eve. I’m full of it, you’re my center. You always have been and always will be. If your Bonnie drifts away from you, I’ll just pour more of that love toward you. I’ll find a way to stop you from hurting. I promise you.”

Chilling summer thriller

Title: Pop Goes the Weasel by MJ Arlidge
Publisher:  Berkley 426 pp (2014/2015)
Genre: mystery, thriller, Helen Grace, psychological thriller, series, serial killer
4.5 stars
Author:
Arlidge (b 1974) has spent 15 year's writing high drama, prime time crime series for ITV, British television. He recently started the Det Helen Grace series, now into 6 books. Pop goes the Weasel is the 2nd, and I confess I couldn't wait and read right through five, (Doll's House, Liar, Liar, Little Boy Blue) eagerly awaiting the publication this autumn of Hide and Seek. His writing is terse, spare  in these dark, fast paced, gritty thrillers. The character development improves with each novel and secondary characters play wider varied roles. I find these addictive, in a most unpleasant way. These are not cosy mysteries as realistic events happen that will cause nightmares. They are all psychological thrillers that provide fresh angles to some truly horrible serial killers and their gruesome crimes. Although I think the first book was the most original.
Story line:
In Pop goes the Weasel, as in all, Det Helen Grace is committed to her job, still largely dysfunctional in society, keeps secrets, remains respected but not liked in the Southhampton Force, and can be trusted to never quit.  These mysteries must be read in order for the personal history, character development and escalating tension. As it's a series, I know she will survive, but each book represents a challenge as to what happens next. There are great narrative twists. Read collectively they are a roller coaster! It's always a race against time to find the killer before there is a next victim. They are very fast paced, short chapters, with vivid descriptions of time and place. I will continue to read them to see Det Grace grapple with her life.
Read on:
Ruth Rendell, PDJames, Peter Robinson, John Connolly, Stuart McBride, Peter May
Watch Luther, Dexter, MI5, Broadchurch, The Tunnel
Quotes:
Opening line The fog crept in from the sea, suffocating the city.


Received as an ARC ebook from Netgalley.

Chilling Summer Read

Title: Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge
Publisher: NAL/ Penguin 422 p (June 2015, USA)
Genre: thriller, suspense, police procedural, British mystery, England,
4 stars
Author:
Arlidge is a British author who worked in television for 15 years (Torn, The Little House, Undeniable and Silent Witness). Eeny Meeny is his debut, but several others are planned in this series. It was the UKs best selling crime debut (2014).  The second mystery will be released in October Pop Goes the Weasel followed by The Doll's House and Liar Liar.
Story Line:
This murder mystery is set in Southampton, a typical English inner city. Bodies appear, but worse are the traumatized survivors. It is a race to uncover clues before the next victim, while also dealing with police procedures. DI Grace is driven to see justice done for the victims as she is also a survivor, damaged but determined with a complicated past. A cop I'd like to be working for me, on my side.
There is a good supporting cast, each well described and pertinent. I will look forward to their expanding roles and developing personal relationships as the series continues. These are thinking characters and complicated monsters. It says something that with his level of violence and terror, the worst of human nature, that it is all too believable.
The writing is taut, spare and visual.  Each chapter is short (several pages, but on the kindle I didn't notice this. I was also turning the pages faster and faster.). There are several twists and turns and unexpected, truly frightening sequences. It is a terrifyingly compulsive read. You won't forget this book and the series for a long time.
Don't read this if you are kept awake by gore, psychopaths, abuse and violence. I was glad I was on a plane in a safe environment, during the day with all the lights on.
Expect nightmares. What would you do?
Read On:
Ruth Rendell, PDJames, Peter Robinson, John Connolly, Colin Dexter
Watch Luther, Dexter, MI5
Quotes:
Opening: Sam is asleep. I could kill him now....would he just be glad that this nightmare was over? I can't think like that. I must try to remember what is real, what is good. But when you're a prisoner, the days seem endless and hope is the first thing to die.
There is no peace for those who shed the blood of those closest to them.
For the first time in her life Helen Grace couldn't answer. Yes or no, guilty or not guilty, Helen Grace always had an answer.
Sometimes in life you have to bite the hand that feeds you. 
She had chosen the name Grace because of its redemptive association and Helen because of her maternal grandmother. It would feel profoundly odd and unsettling to have anyone call her by her real name.

Place a hold now, the library has a copy.

Read as an ARC from Netgalley. Thank you! Except that I will have nightmares and won't ever reread this. Still, is the next one available for review?

Chilling thriller

Title: A Song of Shadows by John Connolly (448 pp)

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton Atria/Emily Bestler (Sept 29,2015)

Genre: mystery, thriller, suspense, supernatural, Maine

5 stars

Author:

Irish author John Connolly studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, and began working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper. He continues to interview authors, which are on his website, http://www.johnconnollybooks.com.

I will never forget reading the award winning (Shamus) first story, completely hooked by the first chapter. Every Dead Thing (1999), took five years to write. It introduced the anti-hero Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. Dark Hollow (2000) The Killing Kind (2001) The White Road (2002) The Black Angel (2005). Charlie Parker has since appeared in five additional novels: The Unquiet, The Reapers (where he plays a secondary role to his associates, Louis and Angel), The Lovers, The Whisperers, and The Burning Soul, The Wrath of Angels (2013). A Song of Shadows is the 12th Parker novel.

Other works include: The Book of Lost Things, non-mystery novel, a stand-alone book - Bad Men (2004) and Nocturnes (many read of BBC Radio4), a collection of novellas and short stories Night Music, a second Nocturnes will be published this year. His YA books: The Gates (2009) launched the Samuel Johnson series, followed by Hell's Bells (UK)/The Infernals (US 2011) The Creeps (2013). He is also the co-editor, with Declan Burke, of Books to Die For, an anthology of essays from the world's top crime writers in response to the question, "Which book should all lovers of crime fiction read before they die?" This book won both the Agatha and the Anthony Awards for best nonfiction (2012/2013). 

Story Line:

This is one of the most impressive crime series, meticulous researched. The writing is superb, every page lyrical and well crafted. The characters are richly detailed, personal and anticipated. I want their stories, their histories, their interactions. You cannot start with this book. 

I read the British version seconds after overseas shipping arrived, exceedingly grateful a lovely friend knows my reading passion. I read the Netgalley e-version to savor the story again. I will perhaps never reread the previous novel (Wolf in Winter), having barely survived the first intense reading. The sequence of events is so much more poignant, traumatic, unexpected and unnerving when these books are read in order. I rejoice at this new installment as well as its future promise.

Charlie Parker is gradually recovering from the traumatic injuries sustained in his last case, but is now a man with a mission and a greater understanding of his role in the world. Parker investigates local murders that are connected to a WWII Nazi concentration camp in Lubko. Seven decades have passed but the crimes still haunt and tragically carry forward. I am delighted Louis and Angel still have his back. That his daughters are central to his being. That Parker exists in our world. Connolly is a highlight of my fictional year.

Read On:

Connolly recommends Ross Macdonald, James Lee Burke and Ed McBain as inspirational.

Quotes:

Opening line: Winter dead, spring dying, and summer waiting in the wings.

One tall and black, the other shorter and whiter, although Soames thought he might have been Latino, or part Latino, or parts lots of things, most of them problematical. (Security consultants, Louis and Angel)

You drive like you got Miss Daisy in the back, said Angel, as they made stately progress west. ....the internal combustion engine is wasted on you.

They (the townspeople) became strangely protective of him...perhaps it was something to do with his past: he was a man who had lost a wife and child, and had suffered grievous injury just for doing his job which, as far as anyone could tell, largely involved putting his mark on the kind of men and women without whom the world was a much better place.

What man offers in heroism on the field of battle, woman equals with unending perseverance and sacrifice (quoting one of Hitler's maxim)

...beyond (the reach of) any written law, any human justice. But that was not the only Justice.

Read as an ARC from Netgalley. Thank you!

  

 

Old Knives Cut Deep

A Real Page Turner
Title:  All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer
Publisher: Minotaur Books, Macmillan (March 10, 2015)
303 pp
Genre: espionage, mystery, spy novel, thriller, intrigue, political thriller
4 Stars ****

Author: Olen Steinhauer is an award winning American author of espionage fiction. His Milo Weaver trilogy (The Tourist (2009), Nearest Exit (2010) and An American Spy (2012)) were NYTimes best sellers and among my favourite spy novels. The Tourist has been optioned by George Clooney, which raised his profile and increased his readership. His first novel, Bridge of Sighs, (2007) was nominated for many awards, and continues to be an excellent place to start his works (it's also a series, aka Ruthenia or Yalta boulevard). I get excited with each new publication, and make time to read these, generally in one sitting. How can you wait for the denouement? His addictive writing and characters are engaging and complex. The books are well crafted with multilayered plots. Interestingly, this novel had its origins in another literary work, a narrative poem by Christopher Reid called The Song of Lunch, a BBC Masterpiece production Steinhauer saw in 2010 (starring Emma Thompson and Alan Reichman. I want them to appear in this book/movie!).
He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. All the Old Knives is his 9th novel and a stand alone.  His interviews are also fascinating. "A writer should write the book he would want to read." "The real pleasure of reviewing has been discovering new voices."  And "If a writer's central subject is human nature than politics is beside the point."

Story line:
This is an unusual spy thriller in that all the action takes place over dinner in Carmel, CA. Flashbacks slowly reveal multiple suspects and unreliable memories. The story is complicated by betrayal and guilt of ex lovers, not just ex CIA field officers. Many glasses of wine, exquisite food do not blunt the deception, betrayals, loss of trust and the complicated, complex, manipulating world of spies.
We know Muslim terrorists blew up a plane in Vienna 6 years ago, killing everyone. This also ended the relationship between two agents Celia Harrison and Henry Pelham. She left the service and lives a very different life (wife of a GM executive Drew Favreau, campaigning for Romney). Henry is still looking for the mole responsible for the disastrous day that changed his life, assigned to the European Desk. The story and the people evolve, but they are caught in the past. Their voices narrate different chapters expressing disparate views, each are master manipulators, to each other and the reader. I had a hard time liking either character, in this all too real novel. (And still think he should have been called Harry, but why?!) There is no black and white in the world.
This is still an intense, taut, quick read. Where the ending makes you rethink everything.  The finale was not unexpected, with foreshadowing and subtle, well placed clues. Who did you believe?  Would you survive the night? You might have to reread it. I can't.
This is a good introduction to his work and you will find yourself drawn into his European theatre.

Read on:
Alan Furst, John LeCarre, Eric Ambler, Len Deighton, Joseph Conrad
If you like Charles McCarry's The Miernik Dossier
Watch: MI5 or Spooks  and The Song of Lunch

Quotes:
Another day, another delay.
I keep my phone locked away, after 15 hours flying 6000 miles, then suffering through the mass psychosis of American passport control, the precise time of my arrival feels unimportant.
Besides never having to look her in the eyes would certainly make my job, and my life, a lot easier.
Perhaps strangers are our best friends.
I've known him my whole Austrian decade and he uses sighs the way others crack knuckles or chain smoke.
I'm entirely air-conditioned now.
Romantic love is cute. Passion is just a little game.

Read as an ARC from Netgalley