Red War by Kyle Mills and Vince Flynn

Mitch Rapp teams up with the former Russian version of himself, Grisha Avarov to save the world from WWIII.  The Russian president, Maxium Krupin develops an inoperable brain tumor and invades Latvia which causes a NATO mobilization.  The aggression is designed as a ‘wag the dog’ style cover while Krupin secretly receives medical treatment.  But the war quickly escalates and the use of nuclear weapons is pondered.  CIA director Irene Kennedy finds out about Krupin’s condition and motive and sends Rapp and Avarov to find and ‘neutralize’ Krupin before he pushes the red button.  Scary stuff and a little too close for comfort in our modern world.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the advance copy.

In the Galway Silence

In the Galway Silence is the 14^th novel in the Jack Taylor crime series by Ken Bruen, and I’ve read most of them. Taylor bounced in and out of sobriety over the course of these novels, but he certainly was deep into the drink and some uppers over the course of this book. This is a dark crime novel, so if you haven’t read Bruen, I’d start with his first book, The Guards. He is a unique crime writer – has a grasp of the English language that few authors ever find. No question that Bruen is one of my top 10 authors of all time, but I hope Taylor’s deep dive into unhealthy substances is not a clue that the author has also been on that same path. He writes like someone who knows that life course all too well.

Robicheaux by James Lee Burke

The author takes a deep dive into the soul of his favorite character, Dave Robicheaux in his latest novel simply titled Robicheaux.  A detective in small town Louisiana, Robicheaux is grieving the loss of his recently murdered wife while fighting the alcoholism that threatens to destroy him.  During one night of regression, a man is murdered and the next day Dave is assigned to investigate the death.  Evidence points to his own involvement in the crime but he had blacked out and can’t remember why he was even present at the scene.  Fortunately, his boss believes in him and reassigns the case.  But Dave can’t let go and his unofficial investigation leads him to an unusual and eclectic collection of characters and motivations.

I’ve read several James Lee Burke novels but found this one particularly hard to follow… too many characters and subplots to fully develop.  It took me many sittings to finish... just didn't hold my interest.    

Death by DNA

Please note that I’m following the blog’s recent trial policy of doing book reviews with no more than six sentences. The reviewers have kept reading and listening to books on tapes, but our style of review which in some cases was appropriate for the Sunday Times book review section (both NY and LA), became too burdensome and we’ve fallen way behind doing the reviews. So, for now, we’re going to try this abbreviated style. The point is that we’re trying to let one another know if a book is worth while to read, a thumbs up or thumbs down is the pithy message you may be looking for.

I’m not sure how I came by this book in my Kindle, Death by DNA by Pierce Roberts, but it has been a very worthwhile read. Tom O’Dell was a hard working large animal veterinarian in rural Wisconsin, and when there was an unexplained worldwide die off of big numbers of a variety of animals, he was drafted by the USDA to be a CDC trained field investigator. What if one of the Nazi scientists, a brilliant person with no consciousness for anything other than the master race, had escaped to the Amazon jungle where he had been doing research on both a way to kill without being detected and a way to extend his own life through the use of various plants? This is both a thriller and a love story. There are excellent characters who are well developed by the author. I enjoyed this one, so it gets a thumbs up.

The Other Woman

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Following the blog’s new trial guideline, I’m keeping this review to a maximum of six sentences. 

If you’ve been following the blog, then you’ll know I’m a fan of Daniel Silva, and he’s done it again. Gabriel Allon, after serving as Israel’s most important intelligence officer and assassin, is now the head of the Office, the unofficial name of Israel’s international intelligence agency. He was in the process of bringing in his most important asset from the Kremlin when the man was brutally murdered in Vienna, the site of so many of Allon’s prior traumas. That murder led Allon to begin the hunt for the mole that had to be inside British intelligence. As usual, the plot involved all the usual characters that have been developed over the course of the 18 Allon novels. The plot is excellent and contemporary, and if you like espionage stories, this book will keep you engaged until the last page.

Borderless

Following the blog’s new trial guideline, I’m keeping this review to a maximum of six sentences. This is a prepublication review, and I’ll add the cover art when it becomes available:

In February 2018, I raved about Eliot Peper’s book Bandwidth, and if you haven’t read that one yet, then you’re already falling behind this prolific author. Now, he’s about to release the next novel, Borderless, continuing this near future look at the power behind those who control “the feed,” access to the internet which has only become more critical to everyone, to every government, and every company world wide. Commonwealth is the company which now owns and controls the feed, and the company has decided to impose a carbon tax. Immediately, the carbon tax became de facto international law – no one could risk opting out, but many hated this new tax and many wanted to make such global decisions. As the overheated climate began to favorably respond to reduced emissions as the result of the tax, one might ask, what could go wrong? Have a look at this story because Peper just might be the hottest young author who is writing today.

The Travelers

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The Travelers by Chris Pavone was recommended by author Eliot Peper, It’s Pavone’s third espionage novel. Will Rhodes is a travel writer for a longstanding New York high-end travel magazine. His wife, Chloe, had worked there until their marriage three years before, but she quit apparently for fear that their careers might suffer while working for the same company. As a travel writer, Will continued to travel the world, and he wrote about the best of luxury travel, about great places, great wines and great food. He was deeply in love with Chloe, but he kept bumping into a very hot woman who kept trying to recruit will to work for her, allegedly a CIA operative. She got Will into bed and then threatened to provide Chloe with evidence of their liaison if he did not do what she wanted. Would the CIA really have it’s operatives use sexual blackmail?

So, all was not as it appeared, either at the Travelers agency, or at the CIA, or with Chloe. This was a complex plot with lots of characters and action that moved rapidly around the world. It was a captivating read to the end. Now I’m tempted to jump into Pavone’s earlier books, but I do have a couple other books that are calling to me from my reading queue. Thanks Eliot for the recommendation. You haven’t steered me wrong yet.