2017 - Book 7 - The President's Assasin

The President's Assassin by Brian Haig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmm... this book was a let down, compared to the high standards that I had for Brian Haig. This was more of a police procedural rather than anything to do with Sean Drummond.

I agree with Freda (my GoodReads book pal) about how the complexity and the intrigue level of the plot has gone down compared to the previous Sean Drummond books. Haig pulls the oldest sleight of the hand with this one. I think the author tries too hard to follow in the mold of James Patterson by trying to layer and multi-fold various plot points.

I am not too chuffed about Haig loaning out Sean Drummond to different groups willy nilly. Last book Sean Drummond was in the corporate sector, his efficiency & ruthlessness in dealing with Lisa Murrows murderers saw him get loaned out to the CIA this time around. It seems like all the government agencies are playing pass the cocky, rub you the wrong way, sarcastic Drummond.

I miss solid characters like Imenda Pepperfield and the military JAG court environs. Also in this book Drummond comes across as more horny than most of the other books put together and as such misses vital clues and hints which the author tries to setup as the big reveal for the finale.

As far as plots go, I am docking a star, coz the plot was basically Meh! There were probably 15-20 different ways the author could have done this if the ultimate objective was what the plot revealed.

Considering the books title, the President was not seen even in a single scene; all we heard about the man was from his mouthpieces, we never even saw any hide or hair of the great Gumba. So much for the President being assassinated.

The pace of the plot is frenetic and the story moves fast, it would have probably been better suited to a stand alone novel rather than one featuring Sean Drummond. The book carried the weight of the previous books in the series on it shoulders and sadly those shoulders weren't good enough to hold it up.

I am giving this one 3 stars only due to the affection that I have for Sean Drummond and the previous books in the series. It is my sincere hope that the next book in the series returns to its roots rather than casting Drummond out further in the sea.

2017 - Book 6 - The Last Mile

The Last Mile by David Baldacci
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amos Decker # 2 continues the story of Amos Decker introduced in
 
by David Baldacci . Amos is now an consultant with FBI. The plot is good, but swings all over the place, most of the twists could be anticipated and the story meanders through the different plot lines...

Some of the connections made are far fetched and the plot moves from the realms of plausibility to impossibility pretty soon. Too many characters are introduced left, right and center and there are too many variances. But Baldacci still maintains the page turning aspect of the novel which has always been the USP for him.

Amos Decker was setup as a memory man in Book#1 but other than recollecting information and throwing it back, there is not much character development for him. The Joint consultant group turns out to be dud with the other members not being of much help other than being in awe of Decker.

The official status of the group goes and comes twice or thrice within the book. Overall it was just a exhibition of how much Amos Decker can remember and regurgitate from time to time. The connections were out there for any novice reader of thrillers to make them and it was easy to find out who the mischief makers are.

I would have ideally liked to see some history of the parents that Melvin Mars had murdered. It would have been a nice addition to the story line, it would have helped understand some of the motivations for the stuff happening.

Overall the book could have been a bit more concise, Baldacci spent a lot of time setting up the characters and the plotlines that things appeared to be finished in a haste in the end.

Still I would recommend that the readers give it a lookie loo. It was not a total waste of my time - reading this book.

2017 - Book 5 - Private Sector

Private Sector by Brian Haig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brian Haig is like a fine wine. He's maturing with each subsequent Sean Drummond books. I swear I like Drummond a bit more every series. Every Drummond book is a just a little bit more complex than the last, its like trying to solve a Rubix cube. All the pieces are there in front of you but they have to be put into the right places. They have to be aligned to get to the solution.

Sean Drummond as I said earlier is a wise ass true, but he's a nice wise ass. He's out of his comfort zone in this one by moving out of JAG cases to the corporate law side. The military says he needs to know how corporate law works.

In this book Haig delves into the murky relationship between corporate lawyers and companies. Drummond is out of his depth from the very first page when the Army loans him to a high flying corporate partnership. But he does not lose his pizzazz. He's the same wise cracking a-hole he was while handling criminal cases as he is while handling corporate cases.

The book opens explosively with Lisa Murrow murdered. 3 more women are brutally assaulted and murdered just when you think there is a serial killer on the loose, Haig twists the plot.

Everything is put together in the end but its messy. The shenanigans that's pulled in the name of investors, share holders and country leave you feeling a little dirty and a little bit in need of shower. Drummond pulls through in the end ensuring that Lisa is avenged but it is a close call for him. He almost succumbs to the pressure of choosing the nation over his personal thirst for revenge, but he finds a way out to keep both the parties satisfied while getting Lisa avenged.

Drummond comes across like a loser in most of the scenes. During a lot of the scenes I felt that Drummond was being dominated and he gave in alot easily than needed or did not come across as macho. Drummond gets the last laugh though. This book made me think about the importance of patience and waiting for the right opportunity to get things done. Drummond has it in spades.

I am a hardcore Drummond fan and I would definitely read the next books in this series.

My verdict: Read It

2017 - Book 4 - First Strike

First Strike by Ben Coes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dewey Andreas is human. His encounter against ISIS shows him as a human being who is afraid and is less than a bad ass. He fears the brutality seen from them and almost begs for bullet instead of being beheaded.

The plot of First Strike is a chilling possibility. The idea of terror cells being able to strike deep in the heartland of America is distinctly possible as the recent lone wolf attacks in Florida and San Bernardo has shown us. The idea that a group of fighters trained and ready to wage guerrilla war cannot be denied.

The story of First Strike tells how America created its new worst nightmare. This time by establishing and arming ISIS. Meant to be a counter balance against the radical spread of Islamic Jihad, they inadvertently back the wrong horse and in essence hand over arms to a megalomaniac who is inspired by the American struggle for freedom and choose to carve out his own swatch of country from Iraq and Syria using the same methods employed by Europeans against the Native Americans in the early 1600s when they colonized America.

The difference between that time and now is the almost instant gratification that Internet provides. In those days news took months if not years to be spread across, the awareness was not as instant as it is now due to the spread of Internet. The daily dose of barbarism that has been propagated by ISIS has in turn galvanized and horrified the world simultaneously.

First Strike also marks a significant firsts for Ben Coes and Dewey Andreas. Most of the time the main characters in a series appear indestructible. They are Superman like but not in First Strike.

In this book Andreas appears human, he hurts, he bleeds and he even loses consciousness while trying to crawl through a tunnel that is all too small for him. It makes him fallible, he does not come across as this all conquering bad ass against whom no force of nature can stand. This is a distinct departure from how Coes has written about Andreas in past. In the previous books we have always known that Dewey will prevail because he is such a bad ass, but in this one he falters, he fears for his own life and he even has a moment of weakness where he tries to take the easy way out. I loved this book for precisely that reason, it made me like Andreas even more as a character and my respect for Coes as an author increased due to this.

That said I am docking a star for Coes showing a relationship between Dewey and Daisy, for Pete's sake she's old enough to be his daughter. What is this fascination with always pairing up the lead character? So many women falling over themselves to get Dewey. I would like to see Dewey evolve but even he should have realized by now that relationships are not his cuppa.

Every strong hero needs a very strong villain to prop him up. Tristan Nazir is one such villain. The man with a clerical slightly nerdy appearance exudes menace by his deeds. He's not a Jihadi, he has a bigger endgame in mind and is playing for keeps. All the gory stuff put out by this version of ISIS is keeping Tristan Nazir's end game in mind. I thank god that we are dealing with a simpler Baghdadi in real life who is no less of threat than a diabolical Nazir for whom I am quite sure the geo politicians of this world would have no answer in the current context.

First Strike is definitely something that is worth a read to the fans of breakneck action and kickass storyline.

2017 - Book 3 - The Seventh Plague

The Seventh Plague by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

James Rollins comes back to the Sigma Series with The Seventh Plague based on the biblical plagues from the times of Moses. What drives me to Rollins time and time again is the sheer plausibility of what he writes as fiction. It could be so easily be possible and real.

The action is as always Sigma style - big and bombastic. The pace is frenetic and the plot moves along smoothly. A pandemic is breaking out across the world and it has its roots in the biblical story of the plague that took every first born in the ancient Egypt during the time of Moses.

Rollins puts a scientific twist to the whole story, coming at it from scientific angle rather than archaeological and the story gels. Regular Sigma characters make their appearances, the story between Gray and Seichan moves forward, the riposte between Seichan and Kowolaski is perfect.

A couple of Guild assassins make an appearance, I have always wondered what happened to the lieutenants of Guild, those who were not caught when the principals were caught. Rollins seems to have some plans for them bringing them out in bits and pieces combating the advantage that Seichan grants Sigma.

I will not go into the plot as that would be counter intuitive, it is something that the readers should enjoy for themselves.

Overall I enjoyed the take on the Plague and the approach dealt out by Rollins seems far more plausible that Gods taking an interest on how the earth should be shaped, it places a lot more importance on us humans which I don't think is the case at all..

If you love Science and you love action adventure this is something that I propose you pick up and blaze through a quite afternoon when you have nothing much to do... Worth a read.

My Review:: The Prince of Patliputra by Shreyas Bhave

The Prince of Patliputra (Asoka trilogy, #1). by Shreyas Bhave
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genre right along side mythological fiction and thrillers. The bar for Indian historical & mythological fiction is quite high with authors like Ashok Banker, Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi making this their forte.

Shreyas Bhave in his debut book The Prince of Patliputra (Asoka trilogy, #1). stands up and asks to be counted among those illustrious names mentioned earlier.

Ashoka Maurya is a historical figure whose life is shrouded in mystery for the contemporary Indian. The man who is honored by India with the Ashok Chakra, the Ashok Stambha named after him remains an enigma. Shreyas Bhave has embarked on a journey to part some of the curtains surrounding this enigma with his ambitious 3 part trilogy chronicling the journey of this mighty warrior turned pacifist Buddhist King which turned a 1 among the 100 children of Samrat Bindusara into the 3rd Chakravartin Samrat of the Maurya Dynasty and man who took the Maurya kingdom to unprecedented heights.

The Book 1 starts strong, the story flows smooth from page to page, chapter to chapter. The action never ebbs, you never get the feeling that this is a debutant author and I can pay no higher compliment to the author other than saying that "You, my friend have arrived in the annals of Indian literature"

I strongly recommend to readers who like historical figures and historical fiction.

My Review :: The Revelation Code by Andy McDermott

The Revelation Code by Andy McDermott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

he Revelation Code by Andy McDermott

Got my hands on a ARC courtesy of Net Galley. My humble thanks to the publisher & author for making this avaible to me in exchange for a honest and unbiased review.

Now, since I read the last two books in this series back to back I have a better understanding of the relationships between the two main characters. Wilde and Chase are back and this time they are dragged back into relic hunting unwillingingly when a crazy evangelist kidnaps Chase in order to force Wilde to work for him. He's sicced on Wilde and Chase by an older foe one whom they thought was put away a long time ago.

We also see the return of Mossad agent Jared Zane in this book. He's becoming a replacement in the Wilde-Chase team for Henry Castille. At the end of book#10 it was revealed that Nina is pregnant and the new book picks off a couple of months after the incident in New York with the escaped Nazi.

The story revolves around the coming of the end of the days when the 4 Angels from Euphrates are released as foretold in the Book of Revelation. Ezekiel Cross - the main baddie, comes across one of the angels in the marshlands for Iraq and seeing the chemical gas released from the Angel when it explodes while under fire from the Iraqi gunship has a revelation that he is chosen by God to bring out the coming of the 7th Angel and the day of reckoning.

The story moves along typical of a Wilde/Chase story, Chase escapes, finds Nina, helps her out, baddies set off a sample of whats to come, Wilde/Chase try to head them off, the bad guys look like winning and then Wilde/Chase pull out a amazing out of the blue stunt involving all the set pieces laid out by the author in advance and in the process causing untold destruction of property while finding a new archeological site of extreme relevance.

In this book, Wilde & Chase find the Tebernacle from the time of Exodus containing the ten commandments, the rod of Aaron, the manna from heaven and the 4th angel in the temple of God containing 24 chairs of elders surrounding the chair for God. I think the Book of Revelation was a moot point here, the purpose would have been better served if Andy McDermott had gone with the quest for the Tebernacle with some fictional history revolving around it rather than the Revelation quest.

The quest seemed very easy, the deciphering of the codes involved nothing more than a map, some locations from the book of revelation and viola super archeologist Wilde finds it immeditately, in a course of 2 days she finds all 4 angels. The threat from the angels was plausible, but never really was there any doubt that the plot would be stopped in time. The only intriguing twist was the emergence of an older villain from the previous books. Too bad the character did not go anywhere.

I would rate this one from McDermott a 3 star. The story worked but looked like the same old, stuff done a hundred times before in the previous books.

My Review:: The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fox & O'Hare are back for their 5th adventure. This time the book picks up from the cliffy at the end of book 4 where O'Hare arrives to find Fox missing. Apparently our thief extraordinaire has been kidnapped.

What the kidnapper fails to realize is where Fox goes, O'Hare chases, pretty soon our dynamic duo and their group of misfit geniuses are working to stop a bio terror threat with a aim of making money. They meet with a villain prone to theatrics but whose sense of fair play does not exist at all, who will double cross them as soon as his purpose is served and who is using them as a pawn in this own game of one upmanship OR is he???

The collaboration between Lee Goldberg and Janet Evanovich is pretty amazing, the books are furiously paced and the plot moves along without getting side tracked. There is enough character development within the story for the user to keep wanting more. The chemistry between the lead pair positively sizzles but the auxiliary characters have enough page time as well.

All in all Evanovich & Goldberg have delivered another winner here.

My sincere thanks to Net Galley, the publishers Headline and the authors Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg for making an ARC available to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

My Review:: A Gentleman's Game: A Queen & Country Novel by Greg Rucka

A Gentleman's Game: A Queen & Country Novel by Greg Rucka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My book pal book of the month. Well the first book anyways. This was on my to read shelf since I don't know when. So thanks Diane for California Ming up with that innovative way of picking books for us to read.

Tara Chace is Minder One. A highest trained SIS operative who can carry out government sanctioned assassinations. She's quiet possibly the deadliest woman alive. When London gets bombed, the government clamors so for assassinating those responsible for the atrocity in a tactical response. Chace carries out the mission with elan; but when an terrorist aiding, philandering Saudi junior prince gets caught up as collateral damage in the attempt, the same government that wanted the deed done agrees to hand over Chace to Saudi's so that the terrorist camp being operated inside Saudi can be dismantled.

Chace goes on run with limited options and not too many choices. Her options are waging a 1 person war against the training camp in Saudi Arabia or leading a life on the run as a PNG (person non grata) forever. Needless to say which option is chosen by Chace. The end is quite good and Chace suffers a personal loss at the end of the mission, leaving her questioning herself. It sets up the second book in the series quite well.

I quite liked the female protagonist in the book. In one the scenes she asks “I drink, I smoke, I swear, I can’t cook, I don’t do laundry, I won’t clean, and I don’t like children,” this sums her up very eloquently I must say.

I liked the premise, the plot and the way the book flows, the pace is good and the author holds the interest. Overall it is a very good look at the spy business which no thanks to the MI & Bond franchise always looks like a glamorous and picnic-y job. This one throws that out into the garbage bin where it belongs go and shows the real day to day stuff that happens behind the an op.

I rate this one a solid 3.5 stars and would like to read the next one in the series.

My Review:: Kingdom of Darkness by Andy McDermott

Kingdom of Darkness by Andy McDermott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I absolutely hate Wilde & Chase for what they do to the ancient monument, treasures that they discover; but I always come back wanting to read their next adventure. Andy McDermott has got the balance perfect in catching my interest and holding it throughout Wilde & Chase's multiple adventures all through these years.

The Kingdom of Darkness involved immortality in the form of an chemically amalgamated water deep in the mountains of Iran which was discovered by Alexander without recognizing it's importance and then rediscovered by his cook Andreas who left behind clues in his fantasy novel Alexander Romance for his descendants to follow.

A minor part of those clues end up at the hands of hidden group of Nazis who emerge from woodwork 70 years after WW 2, looking like 40 year old and wanting to replenish their dwindling source of water forever, this time be finding the source and using it to establish a New Reich.

The plot is the usual Wilde & Chase story, Wilde gets kidnapped, Chase rescues... this time though there is an added element of doom around Wilde as she was poisoned by the eitr at the end of the last novel. It is said that true character is revealed under duress, sadly Wilde disappoints, her constant woe is me, I'm gonna die sometimes gets on the nerves.

Chase tries his best to keep her motivated, but it is soon clear that Wilde is one of life's takers. She's always wants things to go her way, at her command, at her will. I did not like her much in this one, she came across as selfish and plain bitchy... One of the more redeeming qualities was, once they were in pickle and reunited, she does appreciate all the Chase does for her and realizes that her blinding thirst for knowledge and leaping before looking is causing a lot of strain in her relationship with Chase.

Honestly I am not sure a real life couple behaving in such a way would ever survive. McDermott needs to work on bringing his lead characters on a same plane in their relationship. Perhaps a few more pages to develop the characters relation would help...

Overall the book is a good read and the blurb for the next book also looks interesting. I would give this a try if you have read this series, it keeps the fun going.

My Review:: Misdirection by Martin Link

Misdirection by Martin  Link
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Misdirection - A classic sleight of hand or rope a dope. A trick pulled by master magicians to make us believe that magic is real or con men to pull of grandiose heists. In Martin Link's book it is the latter. A scheme, a conniving plot to steal $48 million from a newly launched, highly touted security truck under the noses of the most sophisticated intelligence agencies in the whole world: MI 5 & FBI.

Talking too much about the plot will give it away and I would like the reader of this review to enjoy the experience of reading the book for no plot outlines. For a debut novel it is reflective of the research done by author that it does not seem outlandish. The technology is sophisticated but certainly not out of the realm of today's modern world.

Some of the jarring things that I noticed was that the book tends to jump around a bit with the characters. The lead character is introduced and immediately all his colleagues as well, the readers are just expected to know them all which is a bit of high expectation as the lead character has not been established himself. The background for the characters, the wheres, the whos and the hows are missing in the character definition, but this could be because the author maybe planning to reveal more about the characters in the later novels.

The interaction and the camaraderie between the characters is natural, but again I came off with the feeling that everybody knows everybody here, right from the start. Well there is certainly too much of coffee and food involved in every meeting. The lead character is certainly addicted to them to be sipping it all the time.

The plot is impeccable, none of the shenanigans pulled by the con men seems over the top. The situations flows one after the other and the cat and mouse game between the cops and robbers is titillating.

I would definitely read the next book in the series involving Lucas Norton. My only feedback to the author would be to spend some more time in character buildup. At 165 pages it is almost a novella, a few more pages with the backstory for some of the important characters including the robbers would have definitely helped.

I breezed through the book but due to the lack of backstory could not really connect with either the cops or the robbers and that IMO is a shame because it would lifted this into a straight 5 star story.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book courtesy of Martin Link in exchange for discussing it freely and fairly for the Book Of The Month (BOTM) challenge on the GoodReads group A Good Thriller.

My Review:: Mortal Allies by Brian Haig

Mortal Allies by Brian Haig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sean Drummond gets played!!!

In the first book of the Sean Drummond series Sean was this big shot, yuppie wiseass. Well he still is a wise ass in this book, but he gets played by almost all sides. The only reason he does not end up as a patsy is coz he ends up bursting the whole case open.

Fun aside, the book deals with the taboo subject of the heterosexual world - Gays in Army. Don't Ask Don't Tell refers to the army's view on Gays in its ranks. But this comes under immense scrutiny when a Army Captain is accused of rape, necrophilia, homosexuality and a bunch of other things when a south Korean Katusa is found dead at his apartment with him next to it.

The fiction OMMG springs into action by appointing a high profile lawyer who incidentally happens to be Drummond's colleague from their law school days... And I say colleagues in the most polite of all ways. Poor Drummond gets recruited as a co-counsel and sparks fly... literally!!!. In his own way, antagonizing everybody around him by airing his opinion - welcome or not, asked or not - Drummond stirs the pot in a way that leaves everybody including his friends and foe alike frustrated and seething at him.

With the inimitable Imelda Pepperfields by his side, Drummond is literally thrown into fire. With the deck stacked against him, the alliance between America and South Korea at risk and of course a client under all sorts of attack, things don't look good for Drummond at all. In his own brash, cocky, antagonizing way Drummond ends up saving everybody's bacon and then some... only to realize that he got played right from the start to get the very same result by the most unlikeliest of all people.

The series is entertaining to say the least. The dialogues between the characters are funny with the right dose of sarcasm and pretty much similar to what real people talk about. It deals with the serious issue of Gays in the army in a way that does not come off as homophobic, almost with respect and that's the point that the author strives to make: Gays are humans they are just wired different than heteros, as long as people keep that simple thing in mind, there should not be any friction at all. The dialog that points out the irrelevance of people being gay, straight or any type you prefer to choose is this "Is this country so rich in patriots that it can afford to turn down any Americans who volunteer to spend a few precious years of their lives in its service?"

Kind-of hits the nail right in the head doesn't it?

My Review:: The Bone Labyrinth by James Rollins

The Bone Labyrinth by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SIGMA FORCE!!!!! Right... whew!! So where do I start....

I am huge James Rollins fan, if you did not know that there the profile that I did of Rollins a couple of years back when I started reading the Sigma Force Series from him after stumbling upon  .

Rollins is head and shoulders above his competition. What makes him so unique is his ability to spin a spine chilling story using the current facts in such a real way that at the end of the book you are left scratching your head as to what is fact and what is fiction. Talk about scaring yourself reading a fictional novel. The scary part is that it could be all real and we would be too late to stop a disaster scenario.

Humans have always been too curious about where we came from. Curiosity is a good thing, but it is also the thing that killed the cat. In our curiousness and our game of one upmanship we have the potential to wipe ourselves off the planet and be none the wiser for it.

The search or rather the research to perfect the super soldier is race that is being run by many countries. In their quest for the being the first to unlock the secrets of human genome and to be the first to perfect the super soldier, there is almost no oversight and no ethics which binds or stops them.

Eugenics is a dangerous thing. We do not understand where we come from or the Great Leap Forward in human evolution. Some 60,000 years ago humans who were on the brink of extinction started making giant strides forward by using tools, mastering the fire, agricultural patterns. From a wandering, scavenging race we started becoming a race of explorers, conquerors and laying the foundations of civilization. So what changed?? This is a question that has been puzzling the human geneticists for many years now.

Rollins has come up with a fictional yet plausible story in the latest Sigma adventure - The Bone Labyrinth which postulates that humans evolved into their current avatar by interbreeding with Neanderthals and an unknown third race of people which allowed for the development of our brains into the patterns and thoughts which allowed civilization to flourish.

The quest here is to engineer the next generation of the humans who will be take the evolutionary story a step further. The Chinese are aggressively chasing the specimens found in Croatia, a hybrid gorilla reared in the lab in US by a pair of twin geneticists who are experimenting with alternative genome sequencing and some bones found by the Chinese themselves in Rakshastal in Tibet around 40 years back.

The Sigma Team tries to unravel the motives behind the Chinese plot while chasing leads in 3 fronts while being hounded by the Chinese the entire time. Gray and Seichan are in Croatia where a site with prehuman bones have been discovered along with the footprints of advances beyond what was possible during that era. Bones rumored to be those of Adam and Eve the first humans. Kowalski is kidnapped by from the US along with the hybrid Gorilla and taken to a Chinese lab in Beijing zoo with Monk hot on his heels to get the team out.

The plot flows furiously, the various threads bind together a tapestry of masterful proportion and the truth when revealed - leaves you feeling scared for the future.

We have evolved that is true, we are the most dominant species on this green earth and there is none to challenge our supremacy but we are our worst enemies. Society when it grows beyond reason tends to self implode, that is the real message in this book and one that must be taken seriously because we are not every far from the tipping point where one step further in the wrong direction would be reason why we no longer exist.

Some reference for those interested in reading more about the great leap forward in human evolution is available here

My Review:: Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was the first book that I read by Kathy Reichs. I started off the series Bones on Netflix first and I had picked this book up from my local library on a lark. Being the slow starter that I am it took me sometime watching the initial episodes of the Bones and looking at the producer name to place any connection between the author and the show and the book. Talk about being dumb.

Reading through this one while watching the series in parallel, I have realized that there is a world of difference between the two and mostly people will prefer either the show or the book. I prefer the show, only due to the fact that I start it first and am more in sync with the characters in the show that those in the book. The thought while reading the book was how would Hodgins have faired here, or Angela or Sweets for that matter. I even missed Booth in the book.

The major difference between the show and book is that the book is the poorer cousin, the setting is definitely real life as there are no high tech lab or interns available and Dr. Brennan has to definitely do her work on her own without relying on other colleagues other than Larabee.

The books do move at a different pace than the show and the author has made every effort to the reader to understand the field of forensic anthropology. The murder mystery of the missing bones found at the start unravels at a moderate pace and the setting and the socio-cultural settings are established every effectively.

I would definitely like to come back to the series as a whole once the show goes off air so that I can put the show out of my head and then do justice to the book as a separate entity in itself. Right now they are too closely tied together in my head to make the differentiation for now.

My Review:: The Foundation - Jack Emery 1 by Steve P. Vincent

The Foundation: Jack Emery 1 by Steve P. Vincent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first of the Jack Emery series, this was on my to read shelf for a long time. I started this one coz I got approved for the 3rd book in the series by NetGalley and while trawling through my kindle I realized that I had the first two books in the series already, so it was a good place the start a new series.

This one is a bit different from the military hero thrillers abundance that we have out there these days. The hero is this is a journalist and he is aware of his own mortality and his shortfalls, so there are absolutely no heroic shennanigans from him. Yes he is like a dog with the bone when he starts sniffing around a story but that's about it. It is a refreshing change where these days every normal man suddenly becomes militarique when in danger. Our hero bleeds, breaks under torture and tries to stay out of the fight by allowing the authorities to do their thing.

The plot is about a think-tank trying to remodel America in its vision. To do that they take the smart route, they try to get their people elected in the Congress and from there start a sweeping change in policies towards the neo-right. The group is ruthless with its own private military, espionage and sub societies and very loosely affliated with the Republicans. Problems arise when they try to control the media conglomerate owned by Ernest McDowell who is caught in a scandal a-la Rupert Murdoch and chooses to use his influence to propagate their own agenda. The agenda includes setting off a terrorist attack in China and pressurizing America to launch a War against China.

As in any plot, there are allies and enemies and then there are allies turned enemies. When the Foundation betrays it soldiers one time too many, there is an unlike ally available for Jack Emery to put a stop to the plans made by the Foundation.

It is a fast paced read, the plot motors along at a fairly decent pace and the diabolical women villain is as bad as she is made out to be. A cunning, shrewd and ruthless manipulator she uses every tool available at her disposal to make sure that her agenda is achieved.

The ending ties up neatly and leaves the door open for another adventure from our truth seeking journalist...

My Review:: Secret Sanction by Brian Haig

Secret Sanction by Brian Haig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sean Drummond is a wise ass. I picked up the first book in the Sean Drummond series on a lark. I was interested in reading something different than the usual action/adventure thriller for a change.

Legal stories have always interested me and A Time to Kill by John Grisham remains my favorite. The book was a very easy read. The humor in the book is a combination of situational, sarcastic and even personality based. But the book was very well written. It had the right amount of bluster, investigation and tying up of loose ends to make it an engaging read.

Even though the book is based on the Serbian War, the situation can be easily adapted to fit into today's world. Sean Drummond's story is also told by the author in drips, a fact here, an anecdote there... overall it brings a lot of insight into a Combat Major turned into a JAG lawyer - a very elite and special breed.

The politics of the army, the pressure from the government and the overall situation on the ground with the fringe players like NSA, the White House and the Army Corps bringing extra pressure to play into the investigation of an entire Army unit gone rogue is a story that has been told before, but the story telling in this one is absolutely the best.

I have already picked up the next book in the series to read. I recommend this to the fans of legal thrillers, especially military law thrillers. There is very few of those written and this one is at the top of the list.

My Review: Ashoka - The Lion of Maurya by Ashok K. Banker

Ashoka - The Lion of Maurya by Ashok K. Banker
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Series -  Itihasa - Ashoka
Book#1_2016

The first book of 2016. What a start it is. Ashok Banker is India's mythology man. Now add history or as Banker likes to say Itihasa to his cap. Ashoka - The Lion of Maurya is the first of the series of books based on the greatest Indian Emperor ever - Ashoka Maurya. The 3rd in the Mauryan Dynasty, the man who laid the foundations of modern day India, a man whose deeds are still seen in various facets of Modern India.The Lion of Maurya is a bloody tale, it is a tale of war and the emergence of a single power through fratricide and bloodshed. History is witness, the empires of great men have been build on the blood of the people they have spilled to conquer and retain the throne. Nobody knows this better than the greatest modern day preceptor to have ever lived Chanakya, a man whose treatise and policies known as Chankyaneeti and Arthasashtra form the foundations of mordern politics and economics. A man comparable to Aristotle, Socrates and Sun Tzu. Now living in his old age Chanakya is seeing the very empire he forged for Chandragupta Maurya being torn apart by relentless machinations and greed of Samrat Bhindusara's chief queen and step-mother.

The heir apparent Prince Sushim is too indulgent in living a life of debauchery and wine. The only person capable of assuming the reins of the throne has vowed to keep himself away from it to protect his mother from the machinations of the palace politics. What will happen when enemies of the empire strike from within.

Every man has his limits and Ashoka's limits lay with his mothers well-being. When the same mother is imprisoned and tortured by the chief queen with the tacit approval of the King himself and when the King allows for his own son to be broken and left for dead what will Ashoka do?

This is where the Banker leaves us at the end of the Lions of Maurya, more questions unanswered than ever and the long tantalizing wait for the next book in the series.

Dear Ashok, you have me hooked to his new series.

Book Review -- Ghosts in Macau by H.N. Wake

Ghosts in Macau by H.N. Wake

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thanks H.N for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review...You rock!!!

H.N. Wake turns up the heat with this short Mac Ambrose novella. China - a rising dragon from the east and the Macau is its Las Vegas.

Amid the glitz, glamor and lights of Macau is set the thrilling story of old school espionage, retrieving an hiding an asset deep from the heart of the country. It is a thankless job, never acknowledged or credited, the op goes south - the agent is left hanging in the wind, the op delivers on what it promises, the bosses at the top take all the credit for a job well done... And there is a third way - The bosses dump the op because it is too risky and you are left stranded again...

China and Mac Ambrose have a turbulent history as hinted by Wake in the previous book, she is a fearless operator, but this time around we see the emotional, the human element of Mac Ambrose. I will not get much into the story line for the fear of giving out too much and spoiling the story for  others, but one thing I would say for Mac Ambrose she is a gritty operator with her head screwed on at all times.

She differentiates between right and wrong; God have mercy on you if you are on her wrong because she definitely won't.

A quick read, whetting the appetite for the next book in the series. If there were any grouse I had it would be that it ended too soon...

Book Review -- The Kill Switch by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood

The Kill Switch by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Kill Switch is the first in a new series starring Tucker Wayne and Kane whom we saw first in the novella "Tracker" and subsequently as a part of the Sigma Force team in Bloodline. Rightfully getting their own marquee, the odd pair of man and dog head up into their first solo missing for Sigma.

Tucker and Kane are best buddies, the know each other well and are living extensions of the other. They don't need nobody else in their lives. In Russia on a protection gig for a Russian business oligarch, Tucker is drafted by the wily Sigma boss Painter Crowe for a side mission to escort and protect a pharmaceutical tycoon out of Russia who is being chased by a Russian General who used to run Soviet Unions bio labs.

The hullabaloo is all about a ancient pest in the form of fungus or plant which has the capacity to either revolutionize the world or wipe it out depending on which way you use the pest. The discovery is too significant for it to fall in the hands of the Russians (who knows what havoc they may wreck with it) and since there is no counter agent or "kill switch" in military parlance, it becomes a issue of utmost importance that the Sigma Force protect it at all costs. The only fly in the ointment is that the path to the pest is known only to the Russian tycoon who is being chased by the Russian secret service.

Enter Tucker and Kane, the delta and the MWD. What I liked about this book is that Rollins and Blackwood spend time on the level of bonding between Tucker and Kane and how they are essentially so tightly coupled that they really are extensions of each other. Kane understands what Tucker wants from him and is trained enough to override his basic responses.

The book uniquely also contains a POV from Kane's perspective as he dives into the various caves and tight spaces based on Tuckers command. The reader is taken into Kane's mind, his senses and essentially made to feel what he feels in such scenes. It is a refreshing concept and the authors rightly using it sparingly to retain the effect of the POV switch.

Overall the book is a good read, nothing too outstanding, Rollins's background as a veterinarian comes through in scenes involving Kane and though process behind it. The plot twists are a bit too convenient and at some places the situation appears to be contrived to generate more difficulties for the lead pair. I would rate this book 3.5 stars rounded off 4. The blurb for the next book in the series appears interesting, but so many more interesting things available to read, I would say the next book will be spending some extra time on my waiting list unless it is mind boggling in its own right.

Book Review -- The Bleiberg Project by David Khara

The Bleiberg Project: A Consortium Thriller by David S. Khara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Net Galley, the publishers Le French Book and the author David Khara to have provided me with this free edition of the book in exchange for an unbiased and an honest review.

This book is the first of a series about something called as The Consortium and another one of those gems which has been translated from French to make its debut in the English market. With the sheer number of languages spoken and being printed in the world, what we may be missing boggles the mind. But then that is a story for another day as they say…

The novel opens in 1942 Poland with an SS soldier reminiscing of about a Germany free from Hitler's paranoia and ambition all the while awaiting the arrival of Heinrich Himmler himself to the camp that he is guarding. All his reminiscing is for nothing as he is soon dead… an official victim of an assassination attempt against Himmler.

Fast forward to the present day, we are presented with Jeremy Corbain or Jay Novachek as he calls himself a high flying, self pitying Wall Street broker who is greeted with the news that his estranged father is dead. Suddenly thrust into a shadowy world where he no longer knows the good from the bad, Jeremy seeks to make sense of what's happening around him.

The Bleiberg Project takes to the times of writers like Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy who could spin a mean conspiracy thriller of shadowy organizations, secret cabals. The Bleiberg project gives us a shadowy group going by the name of Consortium which wants to redesign the world in its shape. The storyline moves back and forth in the past and present and is tied together effectively with various POVs from the main characters in the stories - Jeremy, his father, Eytan Morg.. The pace is frentic and the story holds your interest in the premise that is monstrous to consider but somehow looks implementable given the state that the world is in right now - genetic mutation on humans.

The quintessential Nazi quest for the perfect Übermensch and the Consortiums quest for creating a new World finds perfect partners in each other and years on clinical trials on humans give them a perfect specimen a child - number 302. When the child escapes from the its captors and with fall of the Reich, the Consortiums returns to the background continuing with its research and pulling the strings from behind.

The novel has its moments of humor with the interaction between the various characters and the dialogues which are alternatively funny, cynical and sarcastic in turns. All kudos to the translator for retaining the humor and the integrity of the dialogs in the process of translation.

A solid 4.5 stars. I would love to read the follow to this ASAP. Ohh… Wait I do have the follow up novel courtesy Net Galley. Well I must get started...