PICT/PBP tour : Angels Sing to Rest by Chrinda Jones

Synopsis: 

"Angels Sing to Rest" begins where "Darkness Knows Me" left off: after the investigation into the death of the Deep Ellum Killer, Levi Devereux. 

Detective Sergeant Olivia Gates returns from a two-month suspension, to find her team has gained a new member, her ex-husband is being released from prison, and a 10-year-old street kid has been murdered on her patch of South Dallas. 

Her ex she can deal with, even when he drags their young son into the mix or so she thinks. The murdered boy with the crushed chest, isn't so easily handled and weighs heavily on her as more street kids are killed with an unimaginable sadistic flare and no discernible motive. 

If the continuing body count wasn't stressful enough, Olivia's falling out with long time friend and colleague, Doctor Will Green, threatens any hope Olivia had for more than a friendship with the good doctor. 

Drugs, gaming, prostitution and sadistic murders lead Gates and her team on a trek through the seamy underbelly of living rough on the streets of downtown Dallas.

Genre: Crime 
Published by: Wing and a Prayer Publishing 
Publication Date: Sept 4, 2015 
Number of Pages: 206 
ISBN: 978-0-9898442-1-5 
Series: Olivia Gates and Will Green Crime Series, Book 2 
Purchase Links:    

My Review:

Angels Sing To Rest is book 2 in the Will Green and Olivia Gates crime series. It is supposed to be stand alone but one should read the first one in the series to understand the characters better. If you ignore that character aspect then you can enjoy it as the way it is.

The story is a bit gruesome with oo much killings at some places but I did enjoy it. I was totally involved in the novel after I got the hang of it. I had to go back and forth in the beginning but that did not detract me from finishing it.

The relationship between Will and Olivia was complex and but it only enhanced the reading. You can't really reveal much in a Crime Fiction novel. You either like it or you don't. I did. I love such Crime fiction which keeps me on my toes. 

Such a page turner...Crime Fiction lovers ought to pick it up!

Read an excerpt:

Chapter One

Vincent Rocha knew he hit her hard, but at the time he figured she deserved it. He paid her good money to do what he wanted and by God she was going to do what he wanted. He checked for a pulse at the side of her neck when she lay flaccid on the bed for too long. There was nothing. He didn’t think he hit her hard enough to kill her.

That he killed this woman with his own hands didn’t panic him. She wasn’t his first dead prostitute and she wasn’t likely to be his last. If he thought of prostitutes as human the whole scene might have played out differently. Her kind provide a service. They make themselves available to him and others like him to use up and throw away. His father told him it was the order of things. He believed him.

Vincent rolled the woman over so he didn’t have to look at her face and untied the scarf from her neck. He threw the silk bed sheets over her naked body, not out of any sense of propriety — he purely despised the look of her, with her dyed red hair and stubble covered legs. Experience taught him that her kind was always ready — for cost, a few extra twenties and a bottle — to do what the higher priced call girls wouldn’t.

He went to his closet to cover his own nakedness with a robe and picked up the phone beside the bed. He dialed. When someone finally answered, it was his second in command. “Martin, come to the loft and drive the van. I have some garbage for you to pick up.” Vincent purposefully hung up before Martin could ask questions and went to the utility room for the thick plastic drip sheet and masking tape the remodeling company left behind.

He returned to splay the drip sheet on the floor at the foot of the bed. When he pushed the body off the mattress, it made a sickening thud as it hit the floor, reminding him of a large tuna hitting the deck of a fishing boat. He rolled her up in the plastic, securing the bundle with masking tape. Vincent walked away leaving her in the middle of the room for his lackey.

He tilted his head toward his chest and opened the dressing gown, sniffing for the odor that nauseated him. She left her sex scent on him. The strong odor made him involuntarily gag. He covered himself again and entered the bathroom to shower off what remained of her humanity.

Back From The Dead by Peter Leonard

“We’re going to surprise them,” Harry said. “And if they’ve done anything to Colette, you’re the first one I’m going to shoot. Believe that if you believe anything. Take off your coat, throw it over here and turn around.” He did and Harry checked the two outside pockets of the jacket, found a parking receipt, and a pair of handcuffs. There was also a piece of notepaper that had an address on Crooks Road in Troy and a phone number. “This where they have Colette?”

Title: Back From The Dead\
Author: Peter Leonard
ISBN: (P) 978-1-61188-063-2 (E) 978-1-61188-064-9
Publisher: The Story Plant/2013
Pages: 282
Genre: Suspense

Back from the Dead is sequel to Voices of the Dead. Harry Levin, a holocaust survivor and Ernst Hess, a Nazi death angel again come to confrontation. Hess has supposedly been killed by Levin in Voices of the Dead but wakes up to a hospital bed. He knows he has to find Levin and kill him. 

Levin can't believe that Hess is alive but he cannot ignore all the signs that point him that way. He knows he has to stop Hess from killing more Jews and for that he has to travel all over the world to kill Hess, again.

Leonard does not disappoint. He takes us into a action packed roller coaster ride. With touch and go suspense, this novel is as good as Voices of the Dead. With a conclusion which is deeply satisfying. I look forward to read more from Peter Leonard. 

Sweat by Mark Gilleo

"It's a note."

Across his chest. in dark indelible ink, were the words "I am innocent. Let me explain"

~~~~Page 214

Title: Sweat
Author: Mark Gilleo
ISBN: 9781611880519
Publisher: The Story Plant/2012
Pages: 362


When Jake Patrick took a summer internship at his estranged father’s corporation, he anticipated some much-needed extra cash and a couple of free meals from his guilty dad. He would never have guessed that he'd find himself in the center of an international scandal involving a U.S. senator, conspiracy, backroom politics, and murder. Or that his own life would hang in the balance. Or that he’d find help – and much more than that – from a collection of memorable characters operating on all sides of the law. Jake’s summer has turned into the most eventful one of his life. Now he just needs to survive it.

From the sweatshops of Saipan to the most powerful offices in Washington, SWEAT rockets through a story of crime and consequences with lightning pacing, a twisting plot, an unforgettable cast of characters, and wry humor. It is another nonstop thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in suspense fiction.

My Views: 

I would like to review this a little differently. One can see from the above blurb that it is a political thriller. I loved the complex characters. They are very believable and the setting is very good. The language is a pleasure to read and the descriptions are too good. One thing I have to say that, the novel has taken the present into account and that kind of relates us to the story. I enjoyed the novel very much.

Jake is a very likeable character and he knows what he is doing. The bonding between family is a strong point and the crooked politicians make the book so plausible. The setting from Saipan to Washington D.C. is totally seamless and one does not want to leave it midway at all.....

I really liked the following passage:

Genetics was a strange thing, he thought. And while he looked like his father, he felt nothing. Jake didn't hold a grudge because his father was an alcoholic, workaholic, or womanizer. He may have been all of the above, but Jake didn't know. And it is hard to be upset about something you don't know or can't remember. He wasn't angry, hurt or disappointed-he wasn't close enough to the man in front of him to have any of those emotions. Everything happens for a reason and Jake tried to leave the past in the past, a skill he learned from his mother.

~~~Page 26 

All He Saw Was The Girl by Peter Leonard

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. 

The story jumps from one character to other but it is seamless and certain situations are so hilarious that I chuckled loudly while reading!! Here the black and white smudges into grey. No one is perfect and also no one is totally black, other than the mafia, of course! Seemingly distant situations are related in a such a way that one feels tickled by it.

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!!

Voices of the Dead by Peter Leonard

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