Saturday 28 May 2016

Hope to Die (Alex Cross #22) - James Patterson













What do Marcus Sunday and Alex Cross have in common?  Thierry Mulch!

Sunday is a psychopath who has kidnapped Cross’ wife, two sons and daughter along with Nana Mama.  He is taunting Cross and has a list of tasks he wants Alex Cross to do before releasing his family members back into the fold.

Will Dr Alex Cross save his family?  Will he follow the instructions completely or will he ignore and do his own thing?  This is Alex Cross after all.

John Sampson, Alex Cross and a new detective are in the thick of it and determined to solve this and Alex needs to rescue his family.

This is the follow up to Cross My Heart and despite possibly being able to be read as a standalone read, I would suggest you read Cross My Heart and then this to understand the story.

James Patterson does it again with the Cross series and had me hooked and turning the papers rapidly to find out how this progress and what the end story is.

 
 










An introductory novella book, introducing you to John Milton.  The opening of the book had me confused as to how the story was going to develop.  What and who is John Milton?

The book delves into a bit of his background, Group 15 and a snippet of who they are, the way Milton deals with day to day situations, from the personal traumas of dealing with blackouts (his), each one more severe, to the constant name changing and new identification documents that each one brings.

This is a good introduction to Milton and with each book I have had the pleasure of reading, (I’ve read a fair few now), the character has gone from strength to strength and the author has developed and is now ranked as one of my Top 10 authors.

I chose to go back to the beginning of John Milton as this book has been in my TBR (To Be Read) pile since 20 September 2013 and despite reading other books of Mark’s and knowing the character, I thoroughly enjoyed going back to the beginning and understanding a bit more of John Milton and what makes him tick, and the methods that he uses in dealing with situations.

Mark Dawson’s books can all be read as standalone reads and I look forward to reading more John Milton books as well as Mark’s other books shortly.

15th Affair (Women's Murder Club) - James Patterson










 

This book was chosen to read and review from own personal collection, as this author is one of my all-time favourites.

Lindsay is back.  On route to a crime scene at the Four Season hotel, where a man is dead, shot at close range, no ID to be found.  Next room along, a young man and woman are also dead have been shot!  How? Why? That’s what Lindsay and her partner Rich Conklin must find out.

However, this is just the start of a week of horror, a plane crash, a missing husband, a gang out for revenge and taking it out on Lindsay. 

As with the last couple of WMC (Women’s Murder Club) books, the WMC group seems to be either having no feature as a group, or when they do feature it has lost that magical spark, that kept the reader guessing and hooked at the same time.

However, despite that I still enjoyed the book and will read future books by JP and hold out hope that the next Women’s Murder Club book brings back what they and it is all about!

Heavenfield - L J Ross












Another excellent book by L J Ross.

This is the third book featuring D I Ryan and one I enjoyed as much as the first two in the series!

DI Ryan becomes the prime suspect, a man who needs / wants to clear his name when a familiar face is found dead in the church at Heavenfield. 

This book had my heart racing and beating inside my chest to get out!  Can Ryan whilst still on suspension prove he didn’t kill?  Can his colleagues D I Lowerson, D I Mackenzie and D S Phillips help to prove their friend and boss is innocent? 

As per usual Louise does a fantastic job of weaving doubts, theories into the story, as well as teasing you along the way, planting those seeds, only for you to end up gasping in disbelief as you turn a page to realise you are wrong (or are you)!

As mentioned previously, this is the third book in the series, and I would suggest you read the first two beforehand. It helps to understand the characters, "The Circle” and also enables you to get to share in the delights of knowing there are two more books to read, each as good, if not better than the previous one.

My thanks go to L J Ross for letting me read and review a copy of this book.  I seriously cannot wait for the next installment.