The Associate

Title: The Associate

Author: John Grisham

Pages: 373

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Grade: B

Synopsis: In true John Grisham fashion, this book takes us into the life of a busy attorney working for a prestigious law firm. Kyle McAvoy was a star student at Yale Law School. His father wanted him to stay and work for his firm in Kyle's hometown, but Kyle had his sights set far higher. However, based on some incidents in his past, he is ripe to be blackmailed by some folks with deep pockets.

My Review: It's been a few months since I read this book.  I remember that I enjoyed it just as much as most Grisham books, but that it wasn't specifically memorable. Sometimes it's nice to read a thriller that sucks you in and doesn't let you go until you finish it.

Inferno

Title: Inferno

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 461

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Our favorite art history and symbology professor is back to save the world yet again.  I'm not sure what we would do without Robert Langdon.  This time Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with no memory of how he got there.  He has a bullet wound in his head and finds out that somebody is trying to kill him.  Lucky for him, there is a hot young doctor who was treating him and is conveniently interested and able to join him in the clue hunt to backtrack his steps and to find out what is going on and how he can stop a worldwide plague.

My Review: First things first.  I am a total sucker for Dan Brown's novels.  Sometimes the story is a little silly and a stretch to believe, but I just love the geographical, architectural and art descriptions that fill the books.  I often find myself with google open next to me to look up maps of cities, street views of locations, photos of the artwork and wikipedia articles on the locations that make their way into these books.  The world will be in a world of hurt when Robert Langdon retires.

Crimson Eve

Title: Crimson Eve

Author: Brandilyn Collins

Pages: 353

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Carla is a realtor in the pristine town of Kanner Lake in Northern Idaho.  She is showing an older British fellow a remote house outside of town when he pulls a gun on her in an attempt to kidnap her.  It turns out that the secrets that Carla has been running from have finally caught up to her.

My Review:  This was an enjoyable quick read, perfect for when you need a quick thriller.  I've only read one of the previous two books in the series which wasn't a detriment at all.  Aside from a few oblique references to situations in the previous books, this one stood on its own pretty well.

Confessions: The Private School Murders

Title: Confessions: The Private School Murders

Author: James Patterson

Pages: 7 discs

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B

Synopsis: Wealthy young women are being murdered in Manhattan and the police don't see any correlation between the cases. Tandy Angel fits the potential serial killer's target perfectly, but can she unravel the mystery before she herself gets killed?

My Review: Honestly, I read this book about 6 months ago and hardly remember it, so that may give you an idea about how awesome it is. I didn't read the first book in the series (I didn't even know this book was part of a series until sitting down to write this lame review). Maybe as a series they would be more memorable.

The Devil's Punchbowl

Title: The Devil's Punchbowl

Author: Greg Iles

Pages: 580

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Penn Cage is the mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, right on the banks of the Mississippi River.  The city has seen better days, and is currently relying on the economic benefits of the casino steamboats that float on the river in the city. When Penn is shown some damning photographs by an old high school friend that implies that illegal dog-fighting, prostitution and other vices have corrupted this town, he must decide whether to fight this battle or not.

My Review: I'm a sucker for page turning thrillers such as this one.  This one had all the usual qualities of a good thriller, crime, sex, drugs, torture and as an added bonus dog-fighting. I was on the edge of my seat, what can I say?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Title: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millenium #3)

Author: Stieg Larsson

Pages: 576

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A

Synopsis: This book picks up where the last one (The Girl Who Played With Fire) left off .  Lisbeth Salander is recovering from gunshot wounds to the head and shoulder in a hospital.  The police are keeping a close eye on her as they're expecting to charge her with the murder of three individuals.  Mikael Blomkvist is still convinced of Lisbeth's innocence and has put his heart and soul into proving her innocence and uncovering the story behind it.

My Review: After spending 9 or 10 weeks reading The Infinite Atonement, I was looking for a book that would be a quick read and hard to put down.  This one certainly fit the bill.  Just as with the previous two books, this one is well-written and full of unexpected twists and turns.

Disclaimer: There is a lot of language, violence and discussions that are sexual in nature.  This is certainly not a book for children.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Title: The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium #2)

Author: Stieg Larsson

Pages: 630

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A

Synopsis: Mikael Blomkvist, the publisher of the Swedish magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story about sex trafficking in Sweden and through the Baltics which will expose a number of high-profile individuals involved. Just before the story and an accompanying book are to be published the two reporters writing the stories are murdered in their apartment. The murder weapon is found in the building with Lisbeth Salander's fingerprints on it, who is Blomkvist's genius hacker friend. Blomkvist embarks on a journey to try and prove Salander's innocence.

My Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was certainly one that I couldn't put down or get out of my mind while I was reading it. Larsson's books are typically more complicated and deeper than many other books in this same genre, which I find to be quite satisfying.

Disclaimer: There is a lot of hard language and violence in this book. Not really and sex, but it is referred to often.

The Lost Symbol (Illustrated Edition)

Title: The Lost Symbol

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 513

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A-

Synopsis: I already reviewed this book once: http://tysquibooklist.blogspot.com/2009/10/lost-symbol.html

My Review: I was so excited when browsing at the DI when I found this book. I haven't yet read Dan Brown's newest novel (Inferno) and I thought this was it. I got about 50 pages into the book when I realized that I had already read this book, so I decided to buy a used copy of the Illustrated Edition of the book and continue reading that version.  I love reading Dan Brown novels when three are pictures and diagrams of the artwork and symbolism that is described in the book.

The Appeal

Title: The Appeal

Author: John Grisham

Pages: 496

Genre: Legal Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: There is a small town in Mississippi where the water is undrinkable and scores of people have died from cancer or have cancer.  In a related court case, a Mississippi jury hands down a huge verdict against a chemical company for polluting the ground, groundwater and contaminating the area, causing a huge cancer cluster.  The owner of the chemical company is a multi-billion dollar executive living large in Manhattan, who will appeal the verdict to the Mississippi Supreme Court.  His next task is to get a judge elected to the Supreme Court who will overturn this verdict.

My Review: This Grisham novel has generally not received very good reviews, although I found that I enjoyed it.  It preyed on the fact that many of our elected officials have to answer to the big money that gets them elected.  There probably are companies out that that act similar to the chemical company in this book, if there are, then they make me sick (both figuratively and literally).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Author: Stieg Larsson

Pages: 644

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Originally published in Swedish, this book is about Mikael Blomkvist who as a financial reporter got suckered into writing an article for which he was sued for libel and lost.  After taking a leave of absence from his magazine, he is hired to look into the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, who is the daughter of the very wealthy, long time CEO of the Vanger Corporation.  Blomkvist, along with Lisbeth Salander, a young genius hacker, take on the assignment of trying to figure out what happened to Harriet many years before.

My Review: Once again this was an excellent book to read while on vacation.  In fact, as I've purchased this book twice from the DI, I left a copy in Jamaica for the next traveler to enjoy. The story is engrossing and unusual, the translation into English is excellent and while the book is long, it was easy to follow along with the story.

Disclaimer: There's a lot of lovin' in the book as well as some rape/abuse, although it was mildly uncomfortable I don't recall it ever being explicit.

Red Rabbit

Title: Red Rabbit

Author: Tom Clancy

Pages: 13 discs?

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book takes place early in Jack Ryan's career.  At the time, he isn't yet an analyst for the CIA, but he has been offered a position as a freelance analyst in London to work as sort of a liaison between the CIA and the British Intelligence Agency.  The main plot of the story surrounds a Soviet KGB communications officer that learns of a top-secret plan to assassinate newly elected Polish Pope John Paul II.  The Russian defector (or "red rabbit") approaches a known CIA officer asking for help getting safely to the west in exchange for information about the assassination plot.

My Review: This was a fairly typical Clancy cold war spy thriller.  The plot was unique and full of the twists and turns that you would expect.

Delusion

Title: Delusion

Author: Peter Abrahams

Pages: 297

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Grade: B

Synopsis: Nell Jarreau witnessed the murder of her boyfriend and was able to finger the killer from a police lineup and he was sent to spend his life in prison.  After twenty years, additional evidence surfaces that exonerates the convicted killer Alvin DuPree.  Nell can hardly live with the guilt of sending an innocent man to prison and her sweet, caring husband is no help as he was the detective in the original case and has no desire to unearth the past.

My Review: The story was based on an interesting premise and the storyline jumped between Nell Jarreau and the falsely convicted felon Alvin DuPree which kept things interesting as the story unfolded.  I had no big complaints about the book.  The story wasn't predictable and there weren't too many unexpected twists and turns.  I would pick up another book by Abrahams in the future. (Edit: As I was typing in the labels for this post I realized this is the second book by Abrahams that I have read.)

Title: Hot Lights, Cold Steel

Author: D.P. Lyle

Pages: 325

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B

Synopsis: This books is a fast-paced and captivating thriller about the forensic criminologist Dub Walker. An old friend enlists his help in finding her missing 19-year-old daughter.  When her daughter's body and other bodies begin turning up in shallow graves, Dub Walker begins investigating the causes of their deaths.  Each of the deceased had gone through numerous highly technical surgeries prior to death, but the surgeries themselves were never the cause of death.

My Review: I have had the book "Hot Lights, Cold Steel" on my to-read list for years, so I was excited when I found this brand-new copy at the local library.  I enjoyed the book, but I couldn't figure out why it was on my to-read list.  It turns out, there are two books with the same title and I had picked up the wrong book.  It turned out to not be a big deal as I enjoyed the unexpected thriller of this book.  It was a little gruesome, but an easy read.

Panic

Title: Panic

Author: Jeff Abbott

Pages: 368 pages

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Evan Casher is trying to find his niche as a documentary filmmaker in Houston, Texas when he gets an urgent phone call from his mother in Austin.  Evan speeds to her help where he finds her murdered in her kitchen with the assailants waiting to knock Evan off as well.  After he escapes the initial attack, he starts to unravel details of his and his parent's lives and realizes that his whole life was an elaborate ruse.

My Review: Every once in a while it is fun to pick up a well-written thriller that is hard to put down and takes unexpected turns around every corner.  I try to limit my intake for these types of books, but when I'm reading them I find myself really enjoying them.  This book was no exception, The CIA, KGB and an underground spy network called the Deeps are all featured as Evan Casher attempts to untangle his life story.

Disclaimer: If you're looking for violence and language, they're all here.

The Rainmaker

Title: The Rainmaker

Author: John Grisham

Pages: 14 discs

Genre: Legal Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Rudy Baylor is finishing up law school at Memphis State.  He has a job lined up with a decent firm downtown, but three weeks before he is supposed to graduate and start work, his firm is swallowed up by the most prestigious firm in town.  Rudy finds himself jobless and without any prospects, but with a potentially lucrative case against an insurance company that refuses to pay out a claim for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant.

My Review: I'm a sucker for John Grisham's books.  I thought that I had read this one before, but I probably hadn't.  This book, while a bit lengthy never seemed to overwhelm with legalities, and the main case selected was one that was very easy to understand.

Along Came a Spider

Title: Along Came a Spider

Author: James Patterson

Pages: 12 discs?

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This is the first Patterson novel with Alex Cross (It's also the first Patterson book that I've read).  Cross is an African-American detective working in the poor areas of DC.  He is pulled into a case where the son of The Secretary of the Treasury and the daughter of an American movie star are kidnapped by a deadly psychopath teacher at their private school. 

My Review: Sometimes you're just in the mood for a thriller and this story did not disappoint.  It's not a book for the fainthearted as the kidnapper is a major psychopath and doesn't hold anything back. 

Mockingjay

Title: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages: 390

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This is the third and final book of The Hunger Games trilogy. Young Katniss Everdeen remains the face of those who oppose the Capitol and the Capitol has declared an all-out war on the residents of District 12 and those throughout the remaining districts who are loyal to the opposition.

My Review: My personal favorite book of the trilogy was the first one. However, I thought this book took the most unexpected turns. Just like the others, it was a fun read and a satisfying conclusion to the series.

Catching Fire

Title: Catching Fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages: 391

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This book is the second in The Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss and Peeta somehow made it through their first Hunger Games, but now they are the poster boy and girl for a rebellion that they never meant to lead.

My Review: Once again this is a book that is hard to put down. It's quick-paced and full of unexpected twists. The book does, unfortunately, feel a little bit like it's the filler between the first and third books, but it's not one that you'd want to skip.

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Pages: 374

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A-

Synopsis: The Hunger Games take place in the nation of Panem, which is located on the North American continent, long after the United Stated and other nations in the area have fallen. Panem is ruled by a capitol with 12 outlying districts spanning the continent. As punishment for previous uprisings against the Capitol, each year, each district must send 1 boy and 1 girl to fight to the death in an arena for the Capitol's entertainment. Katniss Everdeen's younger sister is chosen as District 12's girl, and Katniss steps forward to take her place, realizing that it is a death sentence.

My Review: This is the book/series that everybody has been talking about. While the general premise of the book is disturbing (kids killing other kids and fighting to be the last one standing), the book is well written and certainly manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. After reading this book (the first of a trilogy) it was hard not to dive right into the second book.

The Hunt for Red October

Title: The Hunt for Red October

Author: Tom Clancy

Pages: 480

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The Red October is a brand-new Soviet submarine with a new quiet propulsion system. The captain of the Red October has hatched a plan with his officers to defect to the United States, with the new submarine. When the Soviets realize what their captain is planning on doing, they send every available submarine, battleship and anything else that floats to try and track her. The Americans, including Jack Ryan, see the whole Soviet navy racing to their shore and are trying to piece together their intelligence on the matter to find out whether or not they are under attack.

My Review: I read this book back in high school, but I didn't remember a lick of it. It's a fast-paced thriller with lots of twists and turns and eye-opening to the life of a submariner. The premise is realistic (at least it was during the cold war) and the submarine chases and battles are intense and dramatic.