Editing by Elizabeth

February 26, 2010

Exit Strategy by Michael Wiecek

Exit Strategy by Michael Wiecek is easily one of the most engaging, intelligent thrillers I’ve read in quite some time. The book gets off to a roaring start with a brash daylight assault on an internet company called Blindside that leaves eight people dead and the office destroyed. The killers, dressed as postal workers, unfortunately make the mistake of leaving two witnesses: Molly Gannon, a real postal worker (and former Military Police officer) who was in the building on her delivery route, and Blindside employee Jeb Picot, who was in the building, but out of the office, at the time of the assault.

Given that the killers were dressed as postal workers the police suspect Molly of having been in on the attack, and Jeb’s convenient absence from the office at the crucial moment raises the authorities’ suspicions about his possible involvement as well. Their suspicions are fueled by misinformation and half-truths strategically leaked to them by Dunshire Capitol, a front company for the National Security Agency.

Blindside, it turns out, specialized in cryptography and had made a monumental breakthrough in technology, which Dunshire desperately wants, that is able to crack supposedly uncrackable codes. Further complicating the mix is that Blindside was funded by an organization with ties to a Chinese triad, and now they and Dunshire both want to get their hands on Molly and Jeb, whom they believe have a laptop which contains crucial information.

So many players and competing interests in one storyline could be unwieldy in the hands of some authors, but Wiecek does a masterful job weaving everyone into the flow of the story without slowing things down when switching perspectives or making caricatures out of any faction. All the characters, good guys and bad guys alike, are intelligent and driven by clear, logical motivations. Wiecek also deftly intersperses plenty of cool tech speak throughout the story; if you know computers and coding you’ll love it, and if you don’t you’ll love learning about it.

Since it’s not a new release Exit Strategy may not be readily available in brick & mortar bookstores, but it’s well worth your time to track a copy down or order one online. Just don’t start unless you have time to finish, because you won’t be able to put it down.

To learn more about Michael Wiecek, visit his website.

February 03, 2010

Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone

Mr. Clarinet, the debut thriller from author Nick Stone, introduces Max Mingus, an ex-police officer/P.I. recently released from prison after serving 7 years for manslaughter. Unable to return to work as a P.I. in Miami, Max is persuaded to take a missing persons case in Haiti involving the disappearance of the son of one of the country’s wealthiest families.

The child, rumored by locals to have been taken by a bogeyman known as Mr. Clarinet, has been missing for 3 years and the trail long since gone cold, but the family wants resolution even if it means confirmation that the boy is dead.

Max’s search once he arrives in Haiti starts slowly, but the story has a subtle, almost insidious way of taking hold of the reader. Haiti itself is really the main character.

Stone’s descriptions of the country circa the mid 90s, its contrasting beauty and squalor, the hopelessness of the 80% of the population that lives in poverty, are beyond vivid… they are relentless, and the story that unfolds is grim.

But Stone never uses the (sometimes graphic) descriptions of violence merely for the sake of sensationalism; the brutality inherent in the daily lives of the people Max encounters is presented in very matter-of-fact fashion. Stone also presents the Vodou religion in a very respectful fashion, neither romanticizing nor demonizing it or its practitioners. →

January 14, 2010

Blackman’s Coffin by Mark de Castrique

Blackman’s Coffin is the first book in a new series from Mark de Castrique, author of the outstanding ‘Buryin’ Barry’ series. Blackman’s Coffin introduces us to Sam Blackman, a former Chief Warrant Officer in the Army’s Criminal Investigation Detachment who, having lost part of his left leg in Iraq, is currently rehabbing at a V.A. hospital in Asheville, N.C.

Shortly before he is set to be discharged, both from the hospital and the Army, he meets fellow vet and amputee Tikima Robertson during one of her visits to the hospital. Knowing of his investigative background, Tikima offers Sam a job with the security company where she works and promises to visit again in a couple of days. After several weeks pass with no word from Tikima, Sam follows up with her company only to learn that Tikima was murdered, her body having been pulled from the French Broad river with a gunshot to the head.

Sam subsequently receives a call from Tikima’s sister informing him that her sister’s apartment has been ransacked, and that she thinks she knows what the intruders were looking for… a journal from 1919 which recounts, among other things, the murder of the Robertsons’ great-great-grandfather, Elijah, who was also found in the French Broad river. Tikima had hidden the journal under the dust jacket of another book and left a note on it indicating that the journal was intended for Sam’s review. Feeling a sense of obligation to the woman who had reached out to him, Sam agrees to help investigate Tikima’s murder.

The plot, which deftly interweaves the modern day murder of Tikima with that of her great-great-grandfather Elijah, manages to include a great deal of history about Asheville, the Biltmore Estate and Thomas Wolfe (an Asheville native, and who does factor into the story), all without ever slowing down the pace of the story. As with his Barry Clayton series, which is also set in North Carolina, the characters in Blackman’s Coffin are so well written the reader immediately feels as though they’ve known them forever, and both the behavior and dialog of even the most bit player rings true.

If you’ve never read Mark de Castrique’s work before, Blackman’s Coffin is a great place to start.

To learn more about Mark de Castrique, Sam Blackman and Barry Clayton, visit Mark’s website

December 17, 2009

On Edge by Barbara Fister

Traveling while on leave after being injured in the line of duty, Chicago cop Konstantin Slovo finds himself drawn into the investigation of a serial killer who is preying on children in a small Maine town, first by being picked up as a suspect, then being grudgingly consulted by the local PD.

Slovo finds himself torn between wanting to help and wanting to get out of town as fast as he can, a decision made more complicated by the wildly varied reactions (suspicion, hatred, friendship, both professional jealousy and admiration) he receives from the locals. In the end, Slovo finds that confronting the town’s demons is the only way he will be able to confront his own and move on.

I found the writing to be refreshingly “real” and straightforward; all the people have believable reasons for their behavior and motivations, things don’t always go well for the “hero”, and there are no wild caricatures or stereotypes to be found.

To learn more about Barbara Fister and her books, visit her website.

November 29, 2009

City of the Sun by David Levien

City of the Sun by David Levien Though this was a good read and I don’t regret having picked it up, ultimately there was just something…. lacking. The premise is obviously a gripping one – child disappears while on paper route and the parents’ attempts, with the help of PI Frank Behr, to find out what happened – but the way it unfolds is rushed and somewhat hackneyed.

The early scenes between the husband and wife post disappearance are well done, but later scenes with just the wife come across as afterthoughts or throwaways. As does, in fact, the presence of many of the secondary characters, especially Behr’s former boss at the police department.

It was as if Levien was following some formula that “required” there to be a petty, semi-competent, vindictive authority figure for his lead to bang heads with. The romantic aside was equally by-the-numbers and forced. If this is indeed to be a series, there will be more than enough time to delve into Behr’s romantic / social life.

Frank Behr definitely has promise as a series lead, but I believe the gushing comparisons reviewers have been making to Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole are a bit premature. A better comparison in my opinion would be Lee Child’s Jack Reacher (complete with Behr’s 6’6″ size), though Behr has in no way proven himself (yet) to be as emotionally complex or intellectually sharp as Reacher.

The bottom line is that Behr simply did not have enough of a chance to shine in this book, with the secondary characters taking up more space than necessary, at the expense of Behr’s development. There has been a second book in the series published, but I can’t say I’ll be rushing out to get it.

October 25, 2009

The Noticer by Andy Andrews

The Noticer by Andy Andrews Maybe this book just wasn’t my thing, but I found it to be an incredibly simplistic, thinly veiled rip-off of books like The 5 People You Meet In Heaven (which I wasn’t so fond of either). The book is basically a collection of scenes / stories that involve the mysterious character “Jones” – The Noticer – visiting people at different times in their lives when they are experiencing difficulties of one sort or another to help them “step into the light” and get on the right path.

This, Jones makes it sound so unrealistically easy, is just a matter of getting “perspective” on life… well, if it was that easy no one would need it pointed out to them, would they? And while Jones does make some valid observations to those he encounters about the things he “notices”, they all seem more like common sense than any great insight.

The Jones character, who never ages and who appears as “Garcia” to Hispanics and “Chen” to Asians, is obviously supposed to reflect how Christ / religion can be all things to all people but, again, I found it to be presented in a very simplistic, almost condescending manner.

I think the underlying goal of Andrews’ book, to get people to “notice” things around them, understand how their actions impact others, and to show their appreciation to those who make or have made a positive impact on their own lives is a laudable one. I just found the book itself to be something more suited to grade school age children than adults given the simplistic way it goes about delivering its message.

September 09, 2009

Cold Heart by Chandler McGrew

Cold Heart by Chandler McGrew At the book’s opening Houston cop Micky Ascherfeld survives a brutal shootout with two heavily armed robbers; her partner does not.

Burned out and full of self-doubt, Micky visits a remote Alaskan village to recharge & ends up staying. Her refuge turns into a nightmare when one of the town’s residents goes on a rampage that threatens to wipe out the village unless Micky can stop it.

Great wintry Alaskan setting, smart character behavior, amazingly well portrayed opening shootout, and there’s even a nice map of the village included for you to follow the characters’ movements as they play their deadly game of hide-and-seek.

To learn more about Chandler McGrew and his books, visit his website.

August 17, 2009

Obedience by Will Lavender

I had read so many great reviews about this book when it was published that I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the hype. The writing is decent, and the premise is very intriguing:

When the students in Winchester University’s Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term in six weeks, she will be murdered.

However, I was unable to suspend belief to the level necessary to really “buy” this story for several reasons:

1) I just don’t see 18-20 year olds actually caring as much about the fictional Polly presented in a college course as would be needed to get as sucked down the rabbit hole as they do.

2) The advancement of the plot depends on WAY too many “coincidences” / events happening at just the right time, in just the right location and, on at least one occasion, something most would consider logical behavior NOT happening.

3) As involved as the students get in the mystery, they leave several very obvious avenues of inquiry unexplored (because, of course, doing so would derail the whole story).

4) There is no way as many people could be “in” on things as are required without someone tripping up or, conversely, no way as many people could be clueless to such elaborate events unfolding in (supposed) secrecy around them.

5) There are several events that, even after the book is wrapped up, don’t make sense in context of the given explanation / conclusion.

Perhaps others will not be as “demanding” as I am about characters’ behavior and the suspension of belief required, but I was disappointed that a premise that could have delivered so much came up so short.

July 06, 2009

Benjamin’s Parasite by Jeff Strand

At any given moment, the human body contains millions of parasites. This is the story of just one. A really, really nasty one.

There may well never have been a bigger understatement in the history of official book summaries. Combining horror and comedy in such a way that neither overpowers the other is a delicate operation, but it’s something author Jeff Strand has demonstrated time and again he is a master of doing with surgical precision. And you gotta know when a book starts with a meat cleaver rampage that things can only go in one direction intensity wise, and Strand doesn’t disappoint.

After attending the funeral of one of his students, the perpetrator of the meat cleaver rampage in fact, high school teacher Benjamin Wilson begins to feel, well… odd. At first the changes affecting Benjamin are merely an inconvenience; namely, the inability to control his cravings for sex and candy. But hey, how can more sex and candy really be a bad thing, right? There are also stomach pains, however, which Benjamin initially writes off as the result of the massive candy consumption.

Except that the pains don’t go away when he goes cold turkey on the candy, they actually get worse. Considerably worse. So much so that, after collapsing at work with incapacitating pain, Benjamin ends up in the hospital, where he receives the news he has an intestinal parasite… one that x-rays reveal looks like “a squid monster” much to Benjamin’s horror. Surgical removal being the only option, Benjamin is prepped for surgery and whisked to the OR. And this, folks, is where business picks up and things go seriously awry. →

Editing Services

Featured Reviews & Interviews

Anticipated Reads