Perhaps I confused these novels at the library’s with Patricia Cornwell’s books about that other female forensic specialist, but after dutifully slogging through these to the finish line, I have to say I should have stuck with Cornwell. Johansen’s books start off with a decent premise and then go rapidly downhill from there. I thought I was reading about the hunt for a psycho kidnapper out for vengeance over the execution of his child-rapist and murderer son, and instead I got a bunch of cheap […]
A Double-Helix of a Crime Thriller
Lucky me! I thought I had read them all, and then I run across yet another Connelly, this one from 2001, that I had somehow missed. A Darkness More Than Night teams up two of Connelly’s “heroes,” my favorite LAPD detective Hieronymous Bosch and retired FBI profiler and heart transplant recipient Terry McCaleb, in a doubly-complex crime/courtroom drama that satisfies on all fronts. A man is found murdered in his own apartment, with no forensic evidence to pursue except for the weird way in which […]
A love story wedded to a tale of horror
Novels on the Holocaust are always difficult reading on an emotional level, and this one was no exception. Richman’s writing is simple and evocative, intimate and universal, and I got lost in the world of her two tragic lovers while sobbing at the horrors she depicted in the Nazi concentration camps Terezin and Auschwitz. Although told as a love story, Richman gives us a tale of genuine heroes, Jewish artists and musicians who struggled to keep their humanity amidst inhumanity, and who fought to […]
Family Secrets and Tragedy
This debut novel by Nigerian author Adichie is a haunting story whose impact lingers long after the last page is turned. It describes the lives of two teenaged children of a wealthy and influential Nigerian newspaper editor, who is revered for his courageous stand against a corrupt and failing government, for his unswerving rectitude and broad generosity as a pillar of the Catholic community, but who behind closed doors is a violent religious tyrant and abuser of his wife and children. All this against a […]
9/11 Conspiracies and Government Assassins
Baldacci turns in another action-packed thriller, bringing back government assassin Will Robie to thrill us with his deadly skills (and to make us wonder what the hell he is doing killing people for the government!) This time, Baldacci gives us double the excitement by giving us a female Will Robie in the form of Jessica Reel, another government assassin who had trained with Robie, but who has apparently gone rogue and killed several American government agents, including the number two in the CIA. When Robie […]
Chinese/U.S. Relations Viewed Through the Lens of a Murder Mystery
Flower Net is the first of a trilogy by this author, whose Snow Flower and the Secret Fan blew me away when I read it several years ago. This book travels back and forth between the U.S. and China in 1997, and is an incisive political commentary couched in a splendid if somewhat gruesome murder mystery. Liu Hulan is a beautiful young Chinese detective who has had to fight hard to achieve her respected status, but has to contend with the fact that is a […]
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