patti, Author at Nightstand Book Reviews

“The Fixer” by Joseph Finder

Leave a Comment / Bestselling Author, Suspense, Thriller

In typical Joseph Finder fashion, “The Fixer” is a barnburner of a book. There is lots of action, jaw-dropping twists, and moments when you wonder if our hero, Rick Hoffman, will live through it all.

Former legitimate journalist and recently fired media man, Hoffman, is down on his luck, demoted to an almost non-existent freelance job except for the press passes that haven’t yet been canceled. His girlfriend has thrown him out and he has to sleep on a couch in his dad’s old house, a house that has been neglected for years. He wants to sell it for quick cash, but in its present rundown condition nobody will pay him even what the land is worth. He makes an agreement with a quasi friend/contractor to split the profits after sale, but in the process of chasing squirrels, discovers a secret in the attic – a $3 million stash.

Hoffman, true to his former investigative style, starts to research what his father might have been doing at the time before his stroke twenty years earlier. A stroke that was so severe that his dad can no longer communicate. Where did the money come from? How could a solo attorney in a rough section of town ever make that much money? Hoffman asks questions that bring the wrong kind of attention to himself and the bad guys start tripping over each other in “The Fixer” to keep Hoffman quiet, including car trunks, plastic ties, tracking devices, and assorted other scare tactics.

Hoffman is so frightened that he goes into hiding – his decisions are naïve and comical at the same time, but who among us honest folks in mainstream life would be able to do it any better? Finder has a genius for making his heroes real and as un-Bond-like as possible, yet with enough smarts to solve as many of the puzzle parts as necessary to get them out of trouble. Hoffman is a great character – part professional, part loyal son, part one-scared-human-being, part reckless in the face of all he sees and learns, not always staying ahead of his enemies.

The reason behind the $3 million is absorbing, frightening, and serious at its core. “The Fixer” is so well written that Finder made me wonder if the plot was based on a real-life incident. Only Joseph Finder and some of the citizens of Boston know the truth for sure.

Finder gives us some great scenes between father and son, despite the seemingly one-sided conversations. Other supporting characters are slithery, nasty, and their behavior is worthy of the cover up that Hoffman unravels bit-by-bit.

I met Joseph Finder at Bouchercon (the mystery fan convention) last year. He signed my copy of “Buried Secrets,” and you can read my review of that book here.

“The Fixer” is a pulse-pounding page turner, a great addition to my library, and one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year.

For more information about Joseph Finder, his work, and the movies based on his books, please visit www.josephfinder.com

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“Simon Said” by Sarah R. Shaber

Award Winner, Historical, Mystery

“Simon Said,” the first in Sarah Shaber’s Professor Simon Shaw Mystery series, is set in 1996 Raleigh, North Carolina. Simon Shaw is a history professor at an area college, and needing a distraction from his personal life, takes on a cold case investigation. The body of a woman, possibly someone who has been missing for 70 years, is discovered during an archeological dig on the campus. And, it is a body with a bullet hole in her skull.

Shaw is called in to help the police with possible clues as to her identity, but because of his previous study of the famous local family, he knows immediately who she is. Heiress Anne Bloodworth was thought to have run away in 1926, but Shaw isn’t so sure that the old rumors fit the facts. His determined search for the truth behind the Bloodworth girl’s death uncovers details about the disappearance that were kept hidden at the time by those who knew her. Those revelations have far-reaching consequences affecting the present in startling ways.

Shaber has written Shaw as a flawed, but tenderhearted and gifted man, stunned by his wife’s departure from his life, and unconcerned about rivalry within his own department. Shaw’s position at the college, his continuous presence in the limelight, his academic success (a Pulitzer Prize) have all combined to make him a target of gossip and threats. He dismisses the internal college politics with alarming results and we wonder if he will stay alive long enough to solve the absorbing Bloodworth mystery.

There are fascinating characters in “Simon Said,” engaging dialogue, a possible new love interest, a good friend who has Simon’s back, and outstanding research into the 1926 era in Raleigh and the historic neighborhood surrounding Cameron Village. Against this wonderful backdrop, the beautifully developed, multi-layered plot is a treat.

In 1996, Sarah Shaber won a Malice Domestic/St. Martin’s Press Award for “Simon Said” (in manuscript form) as the Best First Traditional Mystery. It’s been in print ever since and this year is its 20^th anniversary. There are five titles in the series.

For more information about Sarah Shaber and her other series, please visit her Amazon author page.

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“Cold Feet” by Karen Pullen

2 Comments / Debut Author, Mystery

“Cold Feet,” Karen Pullen’s debut novel, introduces us to ambitious Stella Lavender, a North Carolina SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agent. Lavender is working as an undercover drug agent, wearing skimpy outfits and making drug buys in questionable neighborhoods. She’d rather switch to homicide investigations.

Lavender and her free-thinking grandmother attend an almost wedding that never takes place because the bride is found dead before she can walk down the aisle. Stella is pumped. A homicide dumped into her lap and she’s the first one on the scene? She’ll have the chance to prove that she’s ready to transfer out of the unpredictable narcotics scene.

But wait…why would anyone want to kill the bride? And poison her with such a grotesque result? The secret that Stella uncovers about the bride will pull the family apart and challenge the belief system of all those who knew her. But, was the secret worth killing for? As a bonus, the investigation reveals more than one secret during the search for the murderer.

Lavender teams up with a local detective and the autopsy discloses a fact about Justine (the victim) that creates a list of likely suspects longer than they thought possible. Nobody is beyond suspicion – even the groom is on the list. Jealousy, rage, old boyfriends, and cover-ups all play a part in the expertly crafted, multi-layered, adult plot threads. Not the least of which is that Stella’s day job is still ongoing, so she must balance the druggies with the murder, while saving herself and protecting her grandmother from the crazies in both arenas.

Pullen has written some great dialogue, in addition to interesting characters in “Cold Feet” that balance each other nicely. Stella herself is a well-drawn young woman with her own set of issues, and has the appropriate training, attitude, and skill set to carry off the lead role in an investigative series.

Interwoven with the action, “Cold Feet” presents an interesting look at a modern Southern value system – part religious, part political, part historical – that outsiders encounter whenever they enter the world graced with languid days, unspoken corruption, and slowly changing standards. Pullen describes the beauty of the countryside and the cherished traditions, while at the same time gently exposing the pull/push between the realities of the Old and New South.

Big takeaway from “Cold Feet”: The past will out and come back to trip you up. It may even get you killed.

Whatever you do, get Pullen’s next book, “Cold Heart,” out in 2017. For more information about Karen Pullen and her work, please visit www.karenpullen.com

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“The Heist” by Daniel Silva

Adventure, Bestselling Author, Suspense, Thriller

Israeli top spy/art restorer, Gabriel Allon, would rather be working on a major art restoration in Italy, but a blackmailing member of the Italian Art Squad is able to tear him away from his project with a threat. In “The Heist,” a corrupt British spy who had been selling stolen artwork to an anonymous art collector winds up dead and a famous painting has gone missing. Enter Gabriel with his special expertise. In order to get an art dealer friend and associate cleared of suspicion for dealing in stolen goods, Gabriel must agree to do the impossible.

A plan is devised to lure the real thief (and murderer) into the open in order to find and recover a masterpiece that has been missing for decades – Caravaggio’s Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence. But, Allon, next in line for the job as the head of Mossad, has friends and enemies in high places and it will be tricky to keep all the parties, himself included, alive and focused on the end game.

As we expect in Silva’s riveting series, the stakes in Gabriel’s personal and professional lives are higher than ever. In “The Heist,” Gabriel bends the laws of more than one country, enlists the assistance of men that specialize in assassination and special ops, and adds an additional layer of danger in order to help a survivor of a brutal attack years before in Syria. Returning characters create continuity for the series and keep the pages turning in true Silva fashion.

Silvia’s books give the reader a look at the world of politics and spies from an Israeli understanding, but we are always presented with multiple views of each of the conflicts addressed. “The Heist” is no different. This is a serious novel that tackles the Syrian turmoil, the effect of a country at war with itself, and its place within the context of the larger Middle East complexity.

As Gabriel is called upon to help his old friend, he is torn between duty to country and the price he has paid for it over the years. The excitement of the caper unfolds on the pages, but there is also a more cerebral feel to “The Heist ” – perhaps a nod to an aging Allon looking back over his life and taking stock. The action is less physical than in the previous book, “The English Girl,” as we are enmeshed in the worlds of art restoration, high finance, bank transfers, and politics, but there is plenty of action nonetheless.

“The Heist” is the fourteenth title in the sixteen book (so far) Gabriel Allon series.

Please visit www.danielsilvabooks.com for more information about Daniel Silva and his work.

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“Drizzled with Death” by Jessie Crockett

“The Longest Yard Sale” by Sherry Harris

“Cuff Lynx” by Fiona Quinn

Adventure, Military, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Thriller

Lexi Sobado is back in Fiona Quinn’s fourth book in the Lynx series, “Cuff Lynx.” Lexi has mostly recovered from her last mission and on the first day back at the Iniquus office, senses something is not quite right with the headquarters of her top secret world. Iniquus is under attack and she needs to figure out how and why even though she’s not yet 100%.

Lexi’s regular role at Iniquus is to ‘puzzle’ the plans and tactics of field missions. She has the unusual skill of ‘knowing’ when something isn’t what it should be. She has a sixth sense, a psychic sense that becomes heightened well beyond the norm in the presence of evil.

Her skills are put to the test when she hears that Ops are failing, the founder of Iniquus, General Elliot, is in a coma, clients are losing confidence, valuable art is involved, and to top it off, Striker Rheas, Lexi’s heart’s desire, is teamed up with a gorgeous woman with few scruples. What else could go wrong? In “Cuff Lynx,” quite a lot.

Lexi has out-of-body experiences that help her gather Intel about the location of other people without having to leave the office or use a computer, and when she goes ‘behind the Veil’ at great risk to herself, we believe it. Quinn’s descriptions of those psychic missions are absorbing and keep the pages turning. The concept underpinning the use of the ‘Veil’ raises questions about how intelligence is gathered in the real world. If fact-gatherers were able to use this technique, would the Intel be of better quality or be obtained more quickly? Fascinating futuristic talking points.

The problems multiply, the evildoers abound and in “Cuff Lynx,” we’re not sure if the good guys (including her lover) are on Lexi’s side. Our heroine is a mix of sweetness, naiveté and single-mindedness unusual for an average person her age and that mix is what makes Lexi Sobado so refreshing as a central character in a thriller. The supporting characters are dedicated Special Ops professionals and Lexi’s softer character makes an intriguing contrast to the hard-core military types.

Over the course of the series, she is widowed, stalked by a killer, held in captivity, chased, scarred, loved, and trained in special skills that not even her Iniquus team can know about – all at a break neck pace.

“Cuff Lynx” can be read as a stand alone, but it’s much more fun if you read them all to experience the development of Lexi’s character and her relationship with the various members of her team. Quinn told me recently that she plans to feature the other characters in their own books. Cool.

Please visit www.fionaquinnbooks.com for information about the rest of Quinn’s work in fiction and non-fiction.

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