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Title: The 12th Victim
Author: Katia Lief
ISBN: 9780091944780
Publisher: Ebury Press/2012
Pages: 368
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Back Cover:
The police call him the working girl killer. But no woman is safe…
The 11th victim is found only a short distance from Karin Shaeffer’s house. At the crime-scene she discovers a local prostitute stabbed to death, the knife left embedded in her body.
It is the signature of the ‘Working Girl Killer’ – a serial killer who has terrorised New York City for the last three years. The police are clueless but when Karin’s best-friend becomes the lead investigator, she finds herself drawn into the investigation as a consulting detective.
But as she struggles to understand the dark twisted mind of a murderer, next time the killer is going to strike all too close to home…
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My views:
The 12th Victim is the second novel featuring Karin Schaeffer. She seems to have recovered from the dark phase of her life with her second husband, Mac and son Ben.
A local prostitute is killed with a knife, Karin finds the body and then the body count keeps adding up. When her son's part time nanny too is found murdered, it is too close home
for her. She is not new to murders or serial killers.
When her best friend becomes a suspect, Karin cannot keep still. She has to find the killer at any cost. And unravels something sinister which involves children. She makes it her goal to protect Dathi, her son's nanny's child.
Just when one thinks that the killer has been identified, there is a twist. With a good, racy pace, the novel takes us into a roller coaster ride and keeps us totally engrossed. We also like the single minded way of Karin to achieve her goal to nab the killer.
Katia Lief gives us great moments too despite the grisly murders and grim situations. She also tries to tell us about cultural differences and the common thread running between those. I am going to read more of her novels....
Title: Arctic Fire
Author: Paul Byers
ISBN: 9780615504070
Publisher: Fortress/2011
Pages: 377
When there is a water shortage, Nigel Cain decides to get it from Arctic in the shape of Massive icebergs. He builds a 5-star hotel and casino in an iceberg and invites the media and important people to witness the event. He hires Gabriel Pike, an Engineer to make it viable.
Pike feels privileged but after sometime, he finds sinister going on's in the form of a double homicide. Now Pike's main work is to save his own skin along with others.
The novel was a bit slow in the beginning but picked up pace after some time. Cain's madness can only be controlled by Pike. And he does it with aplomb. Then there is this question of man trying to play God by controlling nature. The novel makes us think.
With a cover like that, Arctic Fire beckons one to pick it up. The premise is not for everyone. However, once one picks it up, he/she will not leave it halfway through.
"Two sons and two fathers now," he said. "plus one girlfriend. McKnight, I think we've something terrible going on here."
~Page 92
Title: Misery Bay
Author: Steve Hamilton
ISBN: 9780312380434
Publisher: Minotaur books/2011
Pages: 304
On a cold miserable night, a college student hangs himself from a tree in the middle of a snowy, deserted field called Misery Bay near Lake Superior. He doesn't leave a note, but then suicide victims seldom do. The boy's father, a federal marshal and who happens to be an old friend of Alex McKnight's rival Police Chief Roy Maven, asks Alex to look into his son's suicide. But what appears to be a simple suicide, gets them embroiled in something sinister. Alex and Chief Maven find themselves working together, trying to find and stop a cold-blooded killer, who is hell bent on targeting law enforcement officers via their children. Meanwhile Alex tries to put the demons of his past behind him.
Hamilton’s drawing of characters or plot-line is superb and very believable, Alex McKnight’s relationship with police chief Roy Maven changes to grudging mutual respect as the novel progresses. The twists and turns in the story line keeps the reader on the edge. WE observe that the victims are the real focus, and although McKnight and the FBI search frantically for that elusive link that might lead them to the killer, we do see a hopelessness and bleakness in the characters.
Alex McKnight is one of the best fictional investigators that has been created in a novel. I am going to read as many books I can, written by Hamilton.
Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham
The story starts with Sienna. Sienna cuts herself. “you want to know the reason? you want to know why someone would want to bleed in secret? it’s because i deserve it. i deserve to be punished. to punish myself. love is pain and pain is love….you think you understand me. you don’t. i bleed for you.”
This book gets right to the business of sucking you in as a reader as any good crime fiction should. Ex-detective Ray Hegarty is found in a pool of blood in his teenage daughter Sienna's bedroom. She is found covered in his blood. It looks like a clear cut case of the daughter murdering the father. The protagonist, Professor Joe O’Loughlin is made investigating psychologist on the case. Sienna happens to be his daughter Charlie's friend. When Joe starts his work of analyzing Sienna, murky details start coming up, with the murderer being someone totally unexpected.
Professor O’Loughlin is battling the onset of Parkinson’s disease, along with battling separation from his wife and daughters. Parallel to the main story, we also get to know about the trial of a boy who has been accused of burning an entire family of immigrants to death. It seems like a racial hate crime. There are many issues dealt with in the book, e.g., psychopathic murderers, child abuse, and racism all dealt in a very plausible manner.
I teach young girls like Sienna and Charlie. At certain points, the novel scared me. It does deal with teenage issues, like anguish, conflicted emotions and confusion. The novel resonated with me. Yes, I recommend this novel. To all crime fiction readers and also for teachers as well as parents. Do you really know what goes inside your child's mind?
"I hated it when he gave me the Cutter Shark name. Even if it is catchy. I have to admit, he does get results. He's already been on Fox, CNN and the BBC."
~ Page 247
Title: Cuts Like A Knife
Author: M.K. Gilroy
ISBN: 9781936034697
Publisher: Worthy Publishing/2012
Pages: 410
Cuts like a Knife is totally a character driven novel. The psychopath has killed 47 people in six cities, mostly females before he arrives in Chicago.
The book opens with the voice of the psychopath, who speaks how he is going to be after his victim. How he is going to use his knife on the victim. Then there is a Vlogger, who kind of taunts the authorities for not catching the killer. He questions the police and the detective. And he is the one who names the psychopath as Cutter Shark....
Kristen has a weird family, one of her sisters is the wife of a pastor, the other sister is a model and their mother keeps inviting her so-called boy friend even after she tells him off. When Kristen is not doing anything interesting, she works as a soccer coach for her 7 year old niece's team. Kristen is no way perfect, she has anger issues and a wry and dry sense of humour. She has to keep her wits around to deal with her madcap family. All this while investigating the serial killings.
Slowly it dawns on Kristen that he is setting his sights on having her as the next victim. It becomes doubly important for her to identify him and catch him. There is that nail biting tension, yet there is humour. It sets a good pace for reading.
Title: Sons and Princes
Author: James LePore
ISBN: ISBN: 978-0984190522
Publisher: The Story Plant/2011
Pages: 332
Chris Massi is the son of legendary Mafia hitman Joe Black Massi, who has been murdered. Chris has stayed away from organized crime despite his family affiliations to it and also he had been married to the daughter of Anthony “Junior Boy” DiGiglio, who is the last of the Mafia dons. Ed Nolan, a U.S. attorney, and former childhood friend of Chris, has a grudge against him and falsely indicts him in security fraud which gets Chris disbarred from practicing law. When his former father-in-law offers Chris a chance to take revenge on the man who got his father killed, Chris has to choose between his law-abiding existence or live up to his legacy.
Before he can make a choice, his son seems to be enamoured by the mafia and organized crimes. And it is his job to get Matt out of it. Without taking help from anyone, he plunges into the midst of it all. All this leads him into snuff films, and drugs, which somehow connects to his ex father-in-law. The plot thickens with lots of murders, shoot outs, double crossing and totally unexpected revelations.
The line between good guy and bad guy gets blurred. James LePore has created believable characters, realistic, and those who hurt or can hurt. The plot has many twists and keeps the reader on the edge. The loyalty and honour within the mafia is commendable. Outside of it, is what is disturbing. LePore has the ability to make us think what is good about the bad and vice versa. I have read all his novels and he has mastered the craft of keeping his readers enthralled.
"She died maybe a day before she entered the water. And she was thrown in the water naked," Millard repeated.
~~Page 233
Title: Cut Short
Author: Leigh Russell
ISBN: 978-1842433546
Publisher: No Exit/2009
Pages: 352
DI Geraldine Steel has been recently promoted and arrives in the town of Woolsmarsh with a lot of baggage. As soon as she arrives, she is called to investigate in Lyceum Park where a body has just been found in the bushes. The victim is Angela Waters, a woman in her early 20′s with long blond hair. She gets headlong into the case and it soon becomes obvious that the first strangled victim will not be the last, so it's a race against time.
Geraldine Steel, is part of a team and not the leader. DI Steel does not enjoy a simple domestic life but has various problems of her own. DI Steel is assigned to listen to the messages from the public responding to the appeal. Nothing offered appears to have any relevance to the murder. To add to Geraldine’s problems, she is being stalked by someone whose appearance is vaguely familiar. She is on the fast promotion track, a route that encourages jealousy and resentment. She is too new to the town and to the Murder Investigation Unit to know if the stalker is someone from her personal life or someone who wants to unsettle her in her professional life.
This is not a really a whodunnit. We get to know the killer as he hides the body of the first victim and we are let inside his head, which isn't a good place to be.
The strengths of this novel lie in the author's powerful ability to get you up into the story and produce a cast of cameo characters that feel so real. The chapters are short and we may not dwell upon each victim's family or each witness's circumstances, but what we get is enough to feel the reality of a police investigation.
Title: All He Saw Was The Girl
Author: Peter Leonard
ISBN: 9780571255740
Publisher: Faber and Faber/2011
Pages: 304
After reading Voices Of The Dead by Peter Leonard, I decided that I was going to pick all his books. So when I was offered to review All He Saw Was the Girl, I was thrilled. I was notdisappointed at all!
I had a roller coaster ride throughout the novel. It has the ingredients of an action movie. Drug Mafia, kidnapping, car chasing, and a love story. And all that happens in Italy, that too due to a misunderstanding! One American exchange student is kidnapped by mistake and ransom is paid for him. He feels bad about that and decides to get back the money. Without any help from anyone, he takes on the kidnappers and gets involved with the drug mafia, all by himself.
What appealed to me most was the sarcastic way of thinking by the various characters. That alone makes the novel very delightful!! I am going to read all of Peter Leonard's novels!!
"But for now it would wait till tomorrow's funeral. We'd bury Stephen in peace, without a father, the way he was born."
~~~~Page 185
Title: Murder in the Ashram
Author: Kathleen McCaul
ISBN: 9780749953638
Publisher: Piatkus/2011
Pages: 320
Stephen Newby's body is found in River Yamuna. His best friend and flatmate, Ruby Jones cannot understand the reasons. She goes sleuthing on her own to find out. As the title suggest, it is supposed to be murder mystery, which should keep the reader in tenterhooks. But no such thing happens. Ruby Jones, who aspires to be an international news journalist, is not interesting enough. Her musings do not do anything for the suspense element which should have been there.
As ashrams go, this shows the dark side of a well known one. Stephen and Ruby were regulars there, both in love with a wannabe Guru, Rani. Stephen was in search for his unknown father. The reader can make out, who is his father right from the beginning.
I live in Delhi, and the geographical descriptions left much to be desired. There are major discrepancies. Wazirabad bridge is no where near Dakshinpuri. Mckaul did not do much research in that arena. This fact alone made me want to shout!!
One can read it as a travelogue if one is so interested, but I say don't waste your time. I am not going to pick any other book by this author. EVER. Unless you pay me million dollars!
"You saw her that afternoon - the day she disappeared - you picked her up in the car."
The Dilated irises would have been evidences enough that there were secrets here. "Well?"
Title: Love Thy Neighbor
Author: Mark Gilleo
ISBN: 9781611880342
Publisher: The Story Plant/2012
Pages: 438
Love Thy Neighbor deals with terrorism, which is a hard reality in the current times. No country is immune from it. It exists all over the world in one form of the other. And the neighbors we think are harmless might turn out out to be terrorists, in guise.
I live in India, our neighboring country is Pakistan. We have had too many terrorist attacks. And those are not going to stop anytime soon. The novel appealed to me as I could connect with it. Terrorist activities might go on right under our nose and we choose to ignore those. We turn a blind eye thinking it is not going to affect us.
Clay Hayden comes home to his mother Maria, who is suffering from Dementia. It is Maria who notices strange men in her neighborhood and calls CIA. No one listens to her initially. FBI follows and also a person from IRS who is looking out for tax discrepancies regarding Maria and her deceased husband. Clay finds himself in the midst of it all.
Not going into much detail, I would say, it scares us. It makes us ponder, if we can prevent terror activities by being vigilant. It does not seem that way here. Based on a true story, this work of fiction makes us question ourselves and our Govt. agencies. (For me it is the Indian Govt.)
He put the pen on the desktop, picked up the coffee mug and took a sip.
"A foreign diplomat kills an American citizen and there's nothing you can do about it. Is that what you're telling me?"
~~~Page 21
Title: Voices of the Dead
Author: Peter Leonard
ISBN: 9781611880328
Publisher: The Story Plant/2012
Pages: 296
Set in 1971, Voices of the Dead takes us back to the horrors of the Holocaust. Harry is scrap dealer. His daughter is killed in an accident caused by a drunken German Diplomat. The diplomat has immunity and can't be prosecuted. Harry wants justice at any cost and follows the diplomat to Munich. Harry is Jew who has survived a Dachau, a concentration camp. When he revisits Munich, he relives the horror and finds links of it with the German Diplomat. There are random murders of Jews and somehow all these are linked. Harry slowly unravels all that but he cannot prove anything. How justice is meted out is the highlight of the novel. The writing is good, and Leonard can do dialogue excellently.
It might appear to be a thriller but has so much pathos about Holocaust. It cuts deep into the reader's mind and heart. The pace is such that, one does not wish to put it down at any point. It is a dark book, which might not gel with everyone. But I think all of us should read everything ever written on/about the holocaust. We owe it to those who died because of it, and survived despite it.
Voices of the Dead made sure that I read more novels by Peter Leonard. And that of his father, Elmore Leonard.
Posted for Partners In Crime Tours
