"Choke Point"

"Choke Point" is Ridley Pearson's second novel in his "Risk Agent" series and the third book, "The Red Room, is due to come out in June of 2014.  John Knox finds himself on his way to Amsterdam as an employee of Rutherford Risk.  The firm has been hired by a philanthropist to locate and shut down a shop that employs and enslaves young girls to make knotted rugs.  The shop came to the philanthropist's attention after its existence was revealed by an award-winning female journalist. 

Knox is once again paired with Grace Chu who uses her own unique skills to help him find the location of the shop so he can put it out of business.  Unfortunately, not everyone wants the shop shut down including some of the parents so Knox and Chu find themselves wondering who they can trust and trying to stay out of the way of an organized crime group that doesn't find it in their best interest to have the shop shut down.  In addition, the police aren't always that helpful either.   Once again they put their lives at risk and continue to "do the right thing" even after the assignment has been terminated.  Pearson weaves a complicated, engrossing tale -- as usual!  pazt

"Rough Country"

John Sandford's "Rough Country" is the third book he's written in the Virgil Flowers series and it is another great read although this time we don't know who the murderer is from the beginning of the book.

Virgil and his friend, Johnson, are out fishing when Virgil receives a call from his boss, Lucas Davenport, informing him that a very wealthy woman has been murdered nearby while on vacation and he needs Virgil to cut short his vacation and head to the murder scene to work the case.

As Virgil investigates, he learns that the resort where the woman was staying is an all-female resort often frequented by lesbians and the nearby town also has a lesbian band as well as a number of other lesbians.  Wendy, the leader of the band, seems to be pivotal to this murder as well as another murder that took place in Iowa a couple of years earlier.  Both women were offering Wendy the opportunity to go big time with her band but, before they could make good on their offers, they ended up dead.

However, the case is muddled when another local woman - an older married woman - is shot and severely injured while out biking and, initially, Virgil can find no reason that would link her to the case.

Wendy's younger brother, who was pretty much raised by Wendy (after her mother ran off with another man and abandoned her family) becomes Virgil's prime suspect.  A manhunt ends with the brother being severely wounded and in the hospital and a prognosis that doesn't look good.  When Virgil begins to look at the case again, some fresh ideas come to him and the whole case takes a new turn with a very unexpected ending.  Sandford is such a great mystery/crime writer and I can't wait to read the next book in this series!  pazt

"The Black Echo"

"The Black Echo" is apparently Michael Connelly's first crime novel and it is a terrific read.  In it we are introduced to Detective Harry Bosch, a former top homicide detective, who has been demoted to Los Angeles' Hollywood division after he killed a man in an officer involved shooting.  Bosch is called out to investigate a dead body found overnight in a drain pipe.  What appears to at first be a routine overdose case turns into a homicide investigation with ties to the FBI when Bosch recognizes the dead body as someone he once was a "tunnel rat" with in Vietnam.

Unfortunately, Bosch has generated a lot of hard feelings among his superiors and the internal affairs division (IAD) because of his unwillingness to be a "team" player plus his previous shooting of a high profile suspect.  When he gets himself assigned to work as a liaison to the FBI on an unsolved high profile robbery that might have ties to his dead body, an IAD investigation that has been quietly instigated previously is not called off.  The result - while he's working with female FBI agent, Eleanor Wish, his every move is being monitored by a couple of IAD men, Lewis and Clark.

Bosch and Wish are conducting a very thorough investigation and turn up some surprising leads but this case is full of twists and turns and multiple surprise endings.  It kept me guessing till the very end and I suspect (and am hoping) there are more Bosch novels out there for me to read.  pazt

"Many Lives, Many Masters"

The New York Times bestseller, "Many Lives, Many Masters," by Dr. Brian L. Weiss is the true story of a prominent psychiatrist who practiced traditional psychotherapy until a young female patient showed him a new path.  This young woman had many fears and traditional psychotherapy was not helping her at all.  In desperation Dr. Weiss decided to try hypnotherapy and what he discovered (her past lives) changed not only her life (and rid her of her fears) but changed his life and practice as well.  At first he was reluctant to share his experiences in book form because he was concerned about how other professionals might view him.  My undergraduate degree is in Psychology but I've always been open to many types of experiences and I devoured this book.  I picked a copy up at the library but I'm thinking I need my own copy now plus I want to read some of his other books.  If you're open and prepared to be fascinated, this book is for you.  pazt

"After The Armistice Ball"

"After the Armistice Ball" is Catriona McPherson's mystery introducing society sleuth, Dandy Gilver.  The war is over and Dandy's husband has returned from the front along with all the other men who survived the war.  She and the other women who did their bit at home are now back to twiddling their thumbs at home while (in Dandy's case) her boys are off to boarding school.

When Dandy's friend, Daisy, asks her to do a little sleuthing (for which she'll gladly pay her) to uncover a fraud scheme, little do either one of them know that they'll end up in the midst of murder, kidnapping, theft, deceit, and general mayhem.  At times this book is a little hard to get into and/or to follow but once it got going, I was hooked. pazt

"Christmas Pudding" and "Pigeon Pie"

Two of Nancy Mitford's novels, "Christmas Pudding" and "Pigeon Pie" have been re-released in one paperback volume with an introduction by Jane Smiley.  Nancy is one of the 6 well-known Mitford sisters and she is the eldest born to Lord and Lady Redesdale.

"Christmas Pudding" is similar to "Highland Fling" in that a group of "characters" are together in one area over the Christmas holiday.  Paul Fotheringay, our sometime hero, is there under false pretenses as a tutor to the son of the Bobbins family so he can gain access to some papers he wants to use to write a book about a Bobbins' ancestress.  While there he falls in love with Philadelphia Bobbin, his pupil's older sister, but there is a slight complication because she has already received a proposal of marriage that she has yet to accept.  What to do?  Paul is penniless and her mother is likely to cut her off without an allowance if she marries him while her other suitor is totally in sync with what her mother would approve of.  The course of true love runs crooked in this book and with some challenges along the way.  Will love or practicality win out?

"Pigeon Pie" was written in late 1939 as war was looming in Europe and Mitford wrote it as a satire but maybe with poor timing.  Her heroine, Sophia Garfield, is married but both she and her husband have chosen to remain married - her for economic reasons and he because she is a more suitable hostess than his mistress.  She, too, is having an affair with an old friend and both lovers are in and out of the household with the mistress currently residing openly there.  As I have found in Mitford's previous books, this one, too, is full of rather interesting (or in some cases absurd) characters.  Sophia inadvertently gets caught up in uncovering a conspiracy while doing her bit for the war effort.

Although I didn't find either of these books a quick read -- at least not like my sitting down with a good mystery and not being able to put it down -- but they were amusing and give a glimpse of English life during the times they were set in.  pazt

"Dead Watch"

"Dead Watch" is another stand alone novel by John Sandford.  This book's hero is Jake Winter, an army veteran left with a limp and using a cane.  His expertise in Intelligence has led to his specializing in "forensic bureaucracy."  When something needs looking into at the government level, he is the expert who is often called in.  This time it is the President and his staff asking for his help in finding a missing politician (Lincoln Bowe who used to be a U. S. Senator.)  Bowe is a member of the opposition and his wife (Madison Bowe) is making waves by blaming a vigilante group, the Watchmen, for his disappearance and she suspects his subsequent murder.  She's also blaming the Virginia Governor, Arlo Goodman, because he's the one who put the Watchmen group together.

Jake is brought in to either find Lincoln Bowe or discover what has happened to him.  Along the way he makes a number of surprising discoveries about Bowe's private life and falls in love with his wife.  There is a conspiracy afoot but the surprise is who is behind it. 

As usual this Sandord book has a number of twists and turns and a few murders on the way to Winter's unraveling the mystery.  And...Winter and Madison Bowe also find their lives in danger.  Another great read by Sandford that was hard to put down!  pazt