Mike and Tina Baye are worried about their son, Adam. He’s withdrawn from them lately, and it’s much more than the usual teenage, “leave me alone” behavior. His best friend recently committed suicide, and Adam has lost interest in all the things he used to love. Out of worry, Mike and Tina decide they need to know more about their son than he’s willing to tell them. So they install spy software on his computer and monitor who he talks to, what sites he surfs, what he reads. They discover that he’s involved in a crowd that does a lot of drinking and drugs. But what they learn that frightens them the most is the message someone sends Adam advising him to “just stay quiet and all safe.”

But Adam is afraid, and he runs off when he discovers his parents have been spying on him. Mike and Tina are frantic. They try to locate him using the GPS on his cell phone, and just as Mike gets close, he’s attacked and hospitalized by a group of men who don’t want him finding his son. And when they start to question all the people their son is known to have talked to recently, they come up against one stone wall after another. Mike and Tina soon learn that maybe Adam didn’t just run away. Maybe he was taken.

I liked this book quite a bit. I thought the diverse cast of characters that all seem to be separate and unconnected to the main plot were woven together smartly in the end. The book opens with a particularly gruesome event that seems to stand alone and make no sense to the major story. You wonder when it will come together, and how it possibly could when, just like that… it all does, and it makes sense.

I picture Coben with a giant plot board of sticky notes and string connecting them in front of him when he maps out his stories. He’d have to have some sort of system in place to keep it all sorted out. The guy’s great at plot, I will give him that. But I don’t think the writing was particularly great this time (word choices, phrasings, dialogue). But hey… I’ve read a lot of books that have been bestsellers that weren’t well-written. Goes to show you that it’s the story, the idea behind it all, that makes it a great read. You can be a technically gifted writer, have a way with words, but if you don’t have a story that grabs attention, you’ve got nothing.

This is a story about a woman named Grace Lawson who picks up her photos from a local print shop only to find there is a picture in the set that wasn’t taken with her camera. What’s strange about the picture is that when she looks closely at it, she thinks she recognizes a younger version of her husband Jack in it. And what makes it stranger still is that the woman he’s standing next to in the photo has a giant red X marked over her. When Grace takes the photo home and shows it to her husband to see if he knows anything about it, he reacts very strangely to it, claiming it isn’t him in the photo; then, excusing himself to take a phone call, he leaves the room and never comes back.

Grace is panicked. She’s part of a good marriage — her husband wouldn’t just leave her. She can’t believe a simple photo would just make him disappear. So she goes to the police, but they don’t believe her when she says her husband is in danger. They think he’s left her for another woman, perhaps the woman in the photo, and when she receives an ill-timed phone call from her husband telling her he needs some space just as she’s talking to the police, she knows they’ve written her off as the unsuspecting, cheated wife. But Grace knows her husband and can tell from the way he’s worded his phone message that he’s telling her he needs help and that the police shouldn’t be involved.

So Grace will have to find him on her own. And as she searches for him, she starts to learn that the photograph is much more dangerous than she realized. Her husband has already gone missing, and soon she receives the message loud and clear that she and her children are next if she doesn’t stop searching for him leave the photo alone.

And, as is usually the case with Coben novels, a whole cast of other characters (people in the neighborhood, long lost family members, even mobsters) become intertwined with the event depicted in that simple photograph of the crossed out girl and Grace’s younger husband. You get the sense that it’s a very small world out there.

I liked this book, but not as much as Coben’s other books. I felt the story clipped along nicely and that the suspense was thrilling enough to keep me reading through the night. I didn’t particularly care for the ending — I felt it came together too loosely in the end to justify all the connections between the characters. But hey, Coben isn’t a bestselling author for nothing. He can tell a story and he can tell it well. There’s just the right amount of gruesome violence, thrilling cat and mouse scenes, and twists along the way.

Robert Langdon is back with another mystery to solve. His good friend, the very wealthy philanthropist Peter Solomon, is hosting an event at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, and his keynote speaker has fallen ill. Robert is asked to fill in at the last minute, and is flown by private jet to Washington, where he is soon to discover that his friend actually did not invite him, but he is in urgent need of his help. Because instead of a glitzy event attended by Washington’s elite, Robert arrives to discover Peter’s hand, sawn off and placed strategically beneath the Capitol’s dome, with symbols tattooed on the fingertips containing a message for him to decipher. Robert realizes that he has been manipulated by a very sick man with the resources and cunning necessary to bring him to D.C. on an impossible quest to locate The Lost Symbol, an fabled icon of Masonic mythology. If Robert doesn’t help this man find what he’s looking for, Peter will die. Then, to make the matter even more urgent and mystifying, he is greeted with the arrival of the Central Intelligence Agency’s top agent, who takes Robert into custody and claims that he must do as this sick man requests, or the entire nation’s security will be compromised.

This all seemed a little familiar. And that’s because I could have been reading The Da Vinci Code instead. The similarities are many. TDVC: Old friend of Langdon’s found dead in museum with cryptic message pointing to clues which sets our symbologist hero on a seemingly impossible quest. TLS: Old friend of Langdon’s hand is found in museum with cryptic message (literally) pointing to clues which sets our symbologist hero on a seemingly impossible quest. TDVC: The security of the entire world depends on Robert keeping sensitive information from coming to light. TLS: The security of the entire world depends on Robert keeping sensitive information from coming to light. TDVC: rich with historical information about Opus Dei and architectural and art history. TLS: rich with historical information about the Masons and architectural and art history. TDVC: contains complex code to break. TLS: contains complex code to break. TDVC: Robert is teamed up with beautiful, intelligent scientist who has access to critical information. TLS: Robert is teamed up with beautiful, intelligent scientist who has access to critical information. Both books feature villains who are not averse to murdering to get what they need to achieve a goal that is “bigger than us all” and who would die for their causes. Both books take place in the same amount of time — one long, thrilling night.

Yes, Brown reused his formula here, and when you consider how wildly successful The Da Vinci Code was, who can blame him? Does it detract from the story and make it less of a good read? A teeny bit, yes, but perhaps only to those of us who read a book to appreciate its writing as much as its story. But does it matter in the end? Not really. This is still a good book. I appreciated the history in it, and, like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons before it, I found myself wanting to stop at certain points as I read to go look up things on the Internet to see if Brown really was accurate in the information he presented. So while I did find the story formulaic, and a few of the characters to be underdeveloped and underused, I am still impressed with the effort that is present within the details. This was not a book that was put together in a hurry. In fact, this is a book that was long overdue for fans of Brown, especially following the success of The Da Vinci Code. Originally intended to be published in 2006 under the title The Solomon Key, this novel was pushed back so Brown could keep working on it (and probably due in part to his legal issues at the time). I can appreciate that time was taken to make the novel better, despite the pressure he no doubt felt to publish so quickly after the bestseller that was The Da Vinci Code.

I can’t say that this is his best work, but it’s still a good read and a page-turner. Thanks to Victor at Special Ops Media and Doubleday for the review copy. (more…)

Myron Bolitar receives a pleading phone call from a woman he spent one passionate weekend with 10 years ago, asking him to fly to Paris to see her. He hasn’t seen Terese Collins since that weekend, but something in her voice convinces him this isn’t a booty call she’s asking for. He can tell she needs his help, and as soon as he lands in Paris and is pulled into questioning at the airport by the local authorities, he knows Terese is in bigger trouble than he ever could have imagined.

Myron soon discovers Terese is a suspect in the murder of her ex-husband, another man she hasn’t seen in ten years, but one who called her to meet him in Paris with the promise that she would learn something that would change her life forever.  When the ex was found brutally murdered shortly after, Terese becomes the prime suspect when it is discovered that Terese and her ex-husband had a child and that child’s blood was also discovered at the scene of her father’s murder, but the child is nowhere to be found. That’s not the problem though, the problem is that their little girl was supposed to have died in a car accident ten years ago; an accident that left Terese in a coma long enough to miss her daughter’s funeral. After waking up from the coma, and discovering she was responsible for the accident, the grief and guilt caused Terese to estrange herself from her husband and leave him. But it may now be possible that the girl did not die after all, but instead had been taken away and raised in a cult to become a domestic terrorist for an international ring that Myron soon finds himself entangled with, leaving him fighting for his and Terese’s lives as they search to discover what happened to her daughter and ex-husband.

Personally, I thought this book was a good read, though it did sort of fall apart for me with the whole terrorist ring and its ties to 9/11. I think that sort of thing just isn’t my kind of reading. But that being said,  I did read it all in one go, something I haven’t done is a very long time, especially not since the birth of my baby boy a year ago, so it was thrilling enough to keep me engaged from start to finish. However, I wouldn’t say this is the sort of book that makes you think or work your brain too hard the way good suspense and complex details found in something like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code can do, but it’s an entertaining read and has some fun characters in it, particularly Myron’s eccentric friend, Win, and their co-workers at his legal agency.

I haven’t read many of Coben’s books, and this is my first of his Myron Bolitar novels, but I can see myself picking up more of them for some quick, entertaining reads. (more…)

Anita Blake is known as “The Executioner” in St. Louis. She’ll occasionally hunt down vampires who have broken the law for the local police force, and she raises the dead for her day job. However, she finds herself in a position where she must help the master vampire of the city locate someone or something that has been killing vampires. You see, in Hamilton’s world, vampires are an accepted part of society and are even gaining legal rights for their existence and fair treatment under the law. And while Anita doesn’t particularly like vampires, and therefore doesn’t want to search for the killer, she doesn’t have much choice when the master vampire of the city, one who is a few hundred years old and very powerful, forces her to assist them. How? Powerful vampires are able to get into your head and read your thoughts or plant visions and feelings that can make life either very painful, or very pleasurable. In order to force Anita to help them, the master vampire makes it very clear that her life will be very difficult if she doesn’t. So Anita decides she will help… but she’s also going to take down the master vampire if it kills her.

This is book one in the Anita Blake, Vampire hunter series of novels. I thought I’d give the series a try because my husband is a fan (he bought the series) and because when I worked in a library, I noticed that Hamilton’s books were very popular (particularly the Anita Blake ones). But I have to say that this first novel didn’t impress me very much. The storyline is interesting and Hamilton is pretty good at the macabre details, but the writing can be a little too repetitive (I’m not sure how many times she has to let us know about the sound air conditioners make, or the way Anita’s sweat “gels”), and her characterization lacks those small details that can really bring a character to life. I’m hoping that, like I found with Twilight, the series will get better as it goes on, and that Hamilton’s writing improves with each novel. However, I’m only a few chapters into book two in the series (The Laughing Corpse), and already have encountered enough references to the A/C and Anita’s sweat to discourage me from continuing the series.

Joe Carpenter lost his wife and two daughters to a horrific plane crash with no survivors that authorities blamed on a mechanical error. He accepts the explanation, but can’t accept his family’s deaths. For a year, Joe has shut himself off from the world, locked up in his apartment, grieving his losses. On the first year anniversary of their deaths, Joe visits their graves and finds a woman there, photographing their tombstones. The woman claims to be the sole survivor of the plane crash that had killed over 300 others on board. But before she can explain how this is possible, she is chased away by two men intent on keeping her quiet. Joe’s curiosity is piqued, and he starts to think that if it’s possible she survived, perhaps others did too… perhaps his own wife and daughters could have survived. Using his skills as a former crime journalist, Joe starts investigating the two men trying to keep the sole survivor quiet, and begins to learn things about the crash that suggest all is not as it seems, and perhaps there is hope that his family will be returned to him. (more…)

Ben is a young college student just a few semesters away from graduating and becoming a geologist. He agrees to work as a guide and take a businessman and hobby hunter named Madec out into the desert near his hometown to hunt the elusive bighorn sheep. Though Ben doesn’t agree with Madec’s desire to shoot the bighorns, which are slowly dwindling in numbers, he is a poor man with no family and he needs to earn money to continue his studies.

The two men set out on a week-long hunting trip, and when Madec sees a movement off in the distance through the barrel of his .358 Magnum rifle and shoots, he tells Ben he saw the antlers of the bighorn before he made the shot. They go towards the sheep to collect it and bring it home, only to discover that it was no sheep Madec shot: it was an old prospector, shot dead straight through the chest by Madec’s rifle.

Ben says he knows it was an accident and that the authorities will understand, but Madec doesn’t want to take any chances with the law and tries to work out a deal with Ben: he’ll pay for the rest of his schooling if they just bury the body and tell no one about the accident. But Ben refuses and insists on doing what is right. As he turns towards the Jeep to get a blanket to bundle the body in, Madec takes Ben’s Hornet rifle away from him. Then, with both guns in hand, Madec gives Ben two choices: he can shoot him dead now, or Ben can take all his clothes and his shoes off and try to make it out of the desert with no food or water. Either way, Madec knows Ben will die, but if Ben takes the second choice, Madec will get the sadistic pleasure of spending the next few days hunting Ben through the desert, making sure he has no chance of making it out alive.

Ben’s survival instincts set in and he takes choice number two. He flees from Madec with nothing but his undershorts to protect him from the scorching sun. Over the next few days, Madec follows Ben as he tries desperately to escape him and find water to survive the trek across the desert. But nothing seems to go Ben’s way — any time he gets too close to anything that could help him, Madec drives him away from it with a spray of bullets aimed near his feet. What follows is a thrilling survival tale as Ben desperately attempts to save himself while dehydration and the sun and rocky desert strip his body apart — all while Madec watches him dying a slow, painful death.

This book was absolutely riveting and suspenseful — there is not much dialog, but full of raw and often-cringing description of Ben’s painful fight to survive his mad hunter and the elements that seem to work against him every step of the way. An adventure about one boy’s sheer courage and determination to survive even against a sadistic and calculating man bent on destroying him to save his own reputation. A fantastic, quick read.

Timothy Carrier is sitting in a bar one night when a man comes in, sits down next to him, slides over an envelope full of cash and a picture of a woman, and tells him he’ll get the other half of the money after he kills the woman. At first, Tim thinks the man is joking, but it quickly becomes apparent to him the man has mistaken him for a killer-for-hire. The man leaves before Tim can explain he isn’t a killer, and before he can go after him, the door opens again and the real killer walks in and takes the vacant seat next to Tim. Realising the killer and the man who hired him don’t know each other, Tim decides to pretend he is the man who hired the killer. Removing the picture from the envelope, he slides the cash over to the hitman and tells him that he’s changed his mind, he doesn’t want the woman killed after all, and he should take the money as a no-kill fee for his troubles. (more…)

Mitch Rafferty believes he has the perfect life: he owns a small gardening business, and lives a quiet, happy life with his wife in their little bungalow. It’s a particularly beautiful summer day and he’s busy planting flowers at a client’s house when his cell phone rings and his tranquil life is given a shot of pure adrenline from the moment the caller tells him his wife Holly has been kidnapped and will only be returned to him alive when he produces $2 million cash in only 60 hours. If he doesn’t produce the money in time, they will kill her. To prove the seriousness of their demands, a sniper places a shot through the head of a man walking his dog just down the street from where Mitch is working. (more…)

This book is very good. I’m tempted to leave it at that and ask you to take my word for it because there is so much happening in this story that it’s daunting to even think about how to review it well enough to give those of you who haven’t read it a good sense for it. But I’ll try.

This is a novel that combines true science with thrilling story-telling. It addresses the way the media, environmental agencies and government institutions can manipulate scientific facts to perpetuate a state of fear about something that need not be feared over at all. This is a novel about politics, science, and terrorism; three things I admit that I don’t care much for thinking about. So I never thought I’d pick up a book like this, let alone enjoy it, but I did (if you’re wondering what made me pick it up in the first place, it’s because it showed up on many “If you liked The Da Vinci Code, you might want to try…” lists. So I did and I didn’t bother reading the jacket, I just jumped in. That, plus I’ve liked Crichton’s other books).

Let me just say however, that I don’t want to lead anyone to believe I’m throwing my personal beliefs behind the theories presented in this book. I do think that his theories and ideas are well-documented and are certainly not unbelievable, but at the same time, I don’t know much about global warming beyond what I hear on the news and read from time to time. Reading this one book is not going to give me all I need to know to make some informed opinions on the matter. (more…)