This book opens with a scene in a nightclub in which a drug deal is interrupted by four thieves.  The thieves end up getting away with $400,000 in drugs and cash but in the process they wind up killing an innocent victim.  A double-cross occurs and one of the thieves winds up escaping with all of the money.

The story then introduces us to Anna and Tom Reed who own a duplex in Chicago. They're heavily in debt trying to cover their mortgage and have maxed out their credit cards in an attempt to have a child (IVF treatments are expensive). In an attempt to obtain some much needed income they recently rented out the bottom part of their house to a tenant who's unfriendly, secretive, and turns out to be the member of the gang who had run away with all the loot from the club robbery.

An accidental overdose of drugs kills the tenant and leads to a fire.  This brings the Reeds downstairs who eventually stumble upon packets of money stashed away in various places in the tenant's apartment. With the tenant dead and gone they decide to keep the hidden money and put their lives back together.  The chain of events that result forms the basis for the rest of the book: the couple is now in the crosshairs of not only the remaining armed robbers but also the drug dealer whose drugs were stolen from the club.  Additionally the police suspect they know more about the robbery then they are letting on.

The book follows at a breakneck speed towards the conclusion; turn the pages with great anticipation until you finish the book. "Good People" is a "Good Read" that mystery readers will certainly enjoy.

Robert B. Parker has proved yet again with Rough Weather that he is a force to reckon with. The narrative is full of tension, the characters are crisp and the dialogue is razor sharp.

The Story:

The main character, Spenser, gets asked by a wealthy client to accompany her to her daughter's wedding. The reason? She's recently divorced and wants Spenser to act as a combination escort and bodyguard. Since the wedding will take place on Tashtego Island (a lush and beautiful private island), his expenses will be covered, and his lady love Susan will accompany him, he agrees to the gig. However, being the great private eye that he is, he wonders if there's more to the story than his client is revealing.

Sure enough, during the wedding he spots Rugar, his old nemesis. Rugar, known as "The Gray Man", is an ex-CIA hit man and a cold hearted killer who has crossed Spenser's path twice before. The Gray Man almost killed Spenser during their first encounter so Spenser knows he has to keep his guard up around him. Spenser wonders why his old arch enemy is in attendance at the wedding. Is he there to kill Spenser?

The Gray Man does indeed have a plan in mind but it doesn't involve Spenser. He's there for the bride. And he's not going to let anyone get in his way.

It's here that the action begins. The Gray Man successfully kidnaps the bride but ends up killing several people in his attempts to escape the island. Spenser is unable to stop him because he's primarily concerned with protecting Susan. However, he's soon back on track and on the trail of The Gray Man.

Parker is a master at action-filled narrative and fast paced dialogue and Rough Weather is no exception. Although the reader might be able to solve the mystery before the book's conclusion, Parker's writing style is so captivating that it doesn't matter. I was hooked on this book from the very start and I'm certain that other mystery fans will love this as well.

The Messenger is a wonderful paranormal thriller by Jan Burke that is sure to grip you in the strong jaws of its narrative right from the very beginning. The pace of the narrative is steady even though the settings switch from the Napoleon era war zone, to a deep sea rescue, and to present day America. The three main characters are written in a believable manner that's not easy to accomplish given their supernatural abilities. The Messenger is a strong and appreciable horror tale with just the right ingredients.

The Story:

During the battle of Waterloo, Tyler Hawthorne, a 20-something English officer, is lethally wounded. Lord Adrian attempts to save him by giving him a magical ring. With a few stipulations of course. Although the ring grants immortality to its bearer the wearer must spend eternity providing comfort to those nearing death. Tyler is also given Shade, a cemetery dog, for protection.

Almost 2 centuries later, a salvage diver finds Lord Adrian’s remains on a vessel believed to have sunk around 1815. Once on shore, Adrian comes back to life and asks the diver to assist him in looking for Tyler. He's able to track Tyler to LA where he's continuing his mission to assist those nearing death. For the last 200 years this has been Tyler's existence. However there is one bright spot - Tyler has finally fallen in love. His love interest is Amanda, an heiress who was a survivor in a horrible accident that killed her family but left her with the ability to see ghosts. Though she is suffering from guilt for having survived, she has begun to feel attracted to Tyler as well. Unfortunately, Lord Adrian has an evil agenda in mind and could cause trouble for Tyler, Amanda and Shade.

Best known for her mystery series featuring Irene Kelly, a southern California reporter, The Messenger is a new venture for Jan Burke. It is a very well crafted supernatural story where the living and the dead come together to avoid an ultimate evil. Though different, this book is a promising departure from Burke’s usual style. The book has enough paranormal references for those looking for fantasy and mystery. Though a bit elaborate at times, the love story is good too. I can't think of a better way to spend a cozy evening alone.

While reading the last book in the Rebus series it's obvious that the character of John Rebus has developed dramatically over 20 years spanning 17 books. It is hard to believe that the Rebus has officially been retired and that he won't be revived in one way in future books. And although we've shadowed Rebus’s career in the police department over the last 20 years with great interest we've also seen Ian Rankin grow as an author and storyteller. From the underdeveloped mysteries in Hide & Seek and Strip Jack, to the latter novels with thick plots and complex characters, Rankin has grown along with the series.

The Story:

In Exit Music a Russian poet from Edinburgh is found brutally murdered in a street ‘you rather not walk alone at night’. The murder looks like a mugging which went wrong; at the same time an important delegation of Russian businessmen is visiting town wanting to do business with Scotland. Bankers and politicians are looking to solve this quickly. However, as they begin looking closely, Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke, his colleague, find out that it is more than just a mugging! An equally brutal second murder follows.

In the meantime a brutal assault on a gangster ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty puts Rebus on the suspect list – has he gone too far this time? Just a few days from the end of his career, will he even make it to retirement?

Ian Rankin’s prominent presence in the world of crime fiction is indisputable. His mysteries are laced with subtle themes and the books often address social issues.  The protagonist of his series, Rebus remains one of the most realistic and well rounded characters in crime fiction and mystery.  As such Rankin is perhaps the modern torchbearer for the modern British troubled cop who feels misunderstood, underpaid and underappreciated.
 
Though Exit Music is not the best book in the series it does a great job bringing Rebus' story to a close.  Exit Music is a well written ending to a beautiful series.  Here's hoping Rankin will provide something new for Rebus in the future.  

Bad Luck and Trouble is Lee Child’s 11^th book in the Reacher series and it is no doubt the best in many ways. To begin with, the effortless minimalism in the book is more effective than it has ever been in any of his previous books. Unlike his previous works, in this book Child uses a taut language completely avoiding long sentences, minimizing use of commas and italics and refraining from any weather talk.

The daunting Paul Reacher is a wanderer who travels lightly and is known to simply carry his toothbrush, some funds and his passport with him. As a matter of fact, when some thugs trash his room in a motel, the only material harm they did was to throw his toothbrush on the floor crushing it.

Lee Child's signature use of mathematical logic in the book is depicted in the scene where Reacher is at an ATM in Oregon and finds a deposit has been made to his account. This leads him to think about certain number combinations which in turn allows him to decodes a message telling him that Neagley, a tough no-nonsense woman, is looking for him. Yes, it's a bit convoluted but Child does a great job making this seem logical.

When Reacher finds Neagley, she tells him about one of their former comrades being thrown out of a helicopter. Her friend was on a team of army investigators and now the team wants to reassemble as a unit once again. They want to find out what happened and take revenge for their comrade’s loss. Soon Paul and Neagley's investigations lead them to the widow of the dead man and their son. Once again Reacher’s logic draws everybody’s attention towards small incidents which later play a role in solving the mystery.

Reacher is probably the most loved character ever with his bizarre interest in codes, cube roots, probabilities and factions. Some fans may question the change in writing style but I found the book to be an entertaining read.

Patricia Cornwell has proven herself in forensics and suspense once again with this entertaining and enthralling book. The Book of the Dead is the 15th book in the Kay Scarpetta series and has won the BCA Crime Thriller of the Year! The book brings all the familiar characters back again and after a couple of forgettable books, this book has surely done wonders for her fans.

Dr. Scarpetta has relocated to Charleston in South Carolina with an independent forensics lab and morgue. She takes referrals from the law agencies that cannot provide the level of research or lack appropriate funding. Her niece, Lucy, handles security for her; Benton is around too but working in Boston;  Dr. Scarpetta’s loyal secretary Rose has followed her to South Carolina as well and so has Pete Marino, her associate and former cop friend! Everybody is back again including characters like Dr. Marilyn Self who envies Kay.

Dr. Marilyn Self was an over-the top television psychiatrist who blames Kay for an unfavorable court decision. She seems to be following Dr. Scarpetta wherever she goes in this case.  She invites Drew Martin on her show; turns out she's receiving letters from a killer.  However Kay and her friends are exasperated as to her Dr. Self’s intentions.

With the change in pace of life in South Carolina, Kay however, enters a new fight all together – a fight with the local politicians and someone specifically who is trying to sabotage and run her out of town. These series of events begin even before the deaths and murders actually begin in the city. We soon find out about a young man from an affluent family who has jumped off a water tower; a ritual murder of a woman is discovered in her multimillion beach home; and the body of an abused boy is found in a mars.  Though Kay has faced many brutal crimes before, never have they been as terrifying as these.

The two dimensional characters in the book will be a bit confusing for new readers as character development is a bit lacking in this book as compared to the early books in the series. By the end of the book, even the regular fans may think that some critical pages and scenes from the story are missing.

The Scarecrow sees Michael Connelly return to form and this must be his sharpest novel since ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’. The book moves from one subplot to the other but returns to the newspaper world with affection. The book visits the crime plot like a routine laying more emphasis on the press rather than on the investigation. Soon after there is a heightened suspense as the story unfolds towards the works of the scarecrow and his sinister internet prowess! However the book again falls into a familiar line and diminishes towards the end with the ending of the book.

The Scarecrow involves serial sex crimes where women are abducted, assaulted and stuffed in the trunks of cars – and this is not even the scary part of the story! These seem like routine crimes when compared to the sinister Scarecrow.

The main character of the story is the reporter Jack McEvoy who was at his prime in ‘The Poet’ (1996). Back then Jack was working with the Rocky Mountain News and now he works with The Los Angeles Times – the death of the former newspaper and the slow end of the latter provides quite an ominous backdrop to the story.

Jack is Connelly’s perfect anti hero with ex wives, authority problems and a conscience. Once laid off from the paper in the beginning of the book itself, Jack begins tracking down the Scarecrow on his own with some good reporter experience and legwork! The book is largely about Jack getting it right but the comic relief with a young protégé, Angela Cook who has all the newfangled journalism in her veins is fun. Jack refers to her as the Mojo –“a mobile journalist nimbly able to file from the field by any electronic means.”

Just like in ‘The Poet’, computer technology and its insidious powers is the menace and threat. The source of this evil internet mayhem is an underground desert bunker called the Farm. The narrative makes it so frighteningly plausible with the hacking, spying, identity theft and other similar privacy violations.

The main plot of the book – the Farm is where the Scarecrow presides over hordes of data storage equipment. Wesley Carver is a threat engineer who specializes in data collocation; but he has been getting involved in a lot of side hobbies without his boss’s knowledge. He spies on other employees, moves through chat rooms to target his next victim and begins to mess with Jack once he figures that The Times has been investigating into the trunk murders.

The story seems a bit incomplete but fans of the series may really like it.  Nonetheless, the next installment "Nine Dragons" is due to hit the streets in 5 months.