Day: October 1, 2013

4.5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, E-Book, Edelweiss, Fiction, H, RATING, Read in 2013, READING CHALLENGES 2013, Review Book, SERIES

2013.41 REVIEW – Darkness First by James Hayman

Tara

Darkness First
by James Hayman

Copyright: 2013
Pages: 346
Rating: 4.5/5
Read: Sept. 27 – 30, 2013
Challenge: RIP VIII
Yearly count: 41
Format: E-Book
Source: Publicist/Edelweiss

Darkness FirstBlurb: In the dark shadows of a summer evening a young woman is brutally slain by a remorseless killer’s razor sharp blade. Learning that her closest childhood friend was nearly killed in the same incident, Portland Detective Maggie Savage rushes to the scene to join the State Police investigation. Maggie soon discovers the killer’s name is Conor Riordan.  There’s only one problem.  Conor Riordan doesn’t exist.

The only person who can provide a clue as to who Riordan really is, is the victim’s eleven-year-old sister, Tabitha. And now Tabitha has turned up missing.  Soon Maggie and her longtime partner, Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe, find themselves in a desperate race against time to find the missing child before she becomes a vicious killer’s next victim.

Taut, twisting, and starring two unforgettable heroes, DARKNESS FIRST is a gruesome thriller about a small town rocked by a savage crime.

Review: I was made aware of this book through Danielle Bartlett, publicity director for HarperCollins. They are starting a new digital imprint: Witness. This is just one of ten books starting the line, which will focus on digital first suspense and thriller books.

Having had to put aside two books this month already for not catching my attention, I was really feeling the start of a slump coming on. All I can say is, thank goodness for this book!

I was enthralled with it from the first page. It’s a really good book. I must warn you, this is apparently the third in the McCabe and Savage series. However, it’s the first book that features Savage as the protagonist. I had no idea it was part of a series; it wasn’t until after I finished it and was looking online for information to write up this review that I discovered it. So obviously, it reads quite well as a standalone.

The pacing in this book was very well done in my opinion. It moved rather quickly, I was pushing the button on my Nook as fast as it would allow me to! The writing is exceptional and the characters very well-developed. Overall, definitely an author I will keep an eye out for in the future. I’m very interested in not only reading the back story of McCabe and Savage from the previous two books, but also finding out what happens in the future with Emily and Tabitha, McCabe and Savage, Harlan and their father. Overall, a great cast of characters I’m looking forward to meeting again.

The only reason I can’t bring myself to rate this book a 5/5 is that I had the bad guy pegged within the first 100 pages. While not necessarily a buzz kill for the book itself, it was a little disappointing to not have the big reveal at the end be a jaw-dropper.

Overall definitely a book that I would highly recommend and I am definitely looking forward to some of the other books Witness will be releasing in the coming weeks!

About the author: James Hayman spent more than twenty years as a senior creative director at one of New York’s largest advertising agencies. He and his wife now live in Portland, Maine.  He is the author of the acclaimed thrillers The Cutting and The Chill of Night, both international bestsellers.

Click here to go to Witness’ homepage.

3.5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, E-Book, Fiction, L, NetGalley, RATING, Read in 2013, Review Book

2013.32 REVIEW – Top Down by Jim Lehrer

Tara

Top Down 
by Jim Lehrer

Copyright: 2013
Pages: 246
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: July 19 – July 23, 2013
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 32
Format: E-Book
Source: NetGalley

Top DownBlurb: In a riveting novel rooted in one of American history’s great “what ifs,” Jim Lehrer tells the story of two men haunted by the events leading up to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

November 22, 1963. As Air Force One touches down in Dallas, ambitious young newspaper reporter Jack Gilmore races to get the scoop on preparations for President Kennedy’s motorcade. Will the bubble top on the presidential limousine be up or down? Down, according to veteran Secret Service agent Van Walters. The decision to leave the top down and expose JFK to fire from above will weigh on Van’s conscience for decades. But will it also change the course of history?

Five years after the assassination, Jack gets an anguished phone call from Van’s daughter Marti. Van Walters is ravaged by guilt, so convinced that his actions led to JFK’s death that he has lost the will to live. In a desperate bid to deliver her father from his demons, Marti enlists Jack’s help in a risky reenactment designed to prove once and for all what would have happened had the bubble top stayed in place on that grim November day.

For Jack, it’s a chance to break a once-in-a-lifetime story that could make his career. But for Van the stakes are even higher. The outcome of a ballistics test conducted on the grounds of a secluded estate in upstate New York might just save his life—or push him over the edge.

A page-turning historical novel with the beating heart of a thriller, Top Down could only have sprung from the fertile imagination of Jim Lehrer. Drawing on his own experience as an eyewitness to the events described, one of America’s most respected journalists has crafted an engrossing story out of the emotional aftershocks of a national tragedy.

Review:  I received a e-galley of this book through NetGalley.

Here’s the deal, guys, I am a JFK junkie to the core. It’s nearly an obsession, really. So with 2013 being the 50th anniversary of the assassination, you can imagine that there are a ton of books coming out this year that have to do with JFK and the assassination – both fiction and non-fiction. Already this year, not including this book, I’ve read one fiction book (The Man from 2063) and I have another non-fiction book lined up through Edelweiss. I am in hog heaven! Okay but seriously, I guess I need to get to the actual review of this book.

This book definitely has a different feel from any other book I’ve read recently. I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to describe. Part of me felt as if I was reading a memoir at times. I actually had to look up the info on it after reading the first chapter to see if I was reading fiction or non-fiction. But don’t let that scare you off, because the book reads quite easily. And it is fiction.

The cast of characters in this book, oh what a great bunch. First you have Jack, who is a reporter who actually reported on the Kennedy assassination from Dallas. In the beginning he describes a conversation he had with a Secret Service agent, Van, the day of the assassination regarding the bubble top on the presidential limo. Van made the call that the bubble top was to be removed (I must add that this is where I originally thought I was reading a memoir). That was the beginning of the end for Van. From there you meet his daughter, Marti, who is convinced her father is dying because of that one decision and how it affected him. All she wants from Jack is to help her prove to her father that his decision had nothing to do with Kennedy’s death – Oswald still would have taken that shot and Kennedy still would have died.

What this book really and truly is about is human emotions. Van is a broken man after the assassination. He blames himself for Kennedy’s death. But it doesn’t just end there. It turns his wife into an alcoholic and his daughter gets pushed away to boarding school. One little psychological break doesn’t just affect the person who has had the break … the whole family is impacted. Guilt is a very powerful emotion. And being through something as traumatic as a presidential assassination would do a number on any person.

Overall I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys anything JFK. Those who like historical fiction would probably enjoy this one as well. Past that, it might not appeal to just everyone. But overall definitely a book that I enjoyed to feed my JFK obsession.