A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci - Atlee Pine #2

Atlee Pine is back and this time she is going home in an attempt to find out what happened to her twin sister who had been abducted years ago while the assailant had left her for dead. But in small town, America, people have secrets and many do not like it when a stranger comes around asking questions. To make things worse, there is a killer loose and Pine is dragged into this investigation.

I loved this story. It is a real who-done-it and we’re not sure who the killer is until the last pages with a ton of switch-backs to make any reader dizzy. Baldacci once again shows that he is the master of suspense and tension.

Sunshine by Morrene J. Hauser

Sunshine is a delightful story about a young girl’s first horse, Sunshine. In this beautiful story, we get to see the joy and excitement of getting such an incredible new friend. Together both the rider and the animal have to learn from each other to become a team.

The artwork is beautiful and quite breathtaking. The story would be a great fit for a child who is learning to read or for the family whose parents read to their children.

Book Review: The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake

It didn’t take long to be drawn into this story.

FBI Special Agent Elliot Cooper has been assigned to track down and find five children who have been abducted in a rural community in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania. It doesn’t take him long to find a satanic ritual being played out in the mountains. During the confrontation, Cooper is possessed by a monster.

Cooper’s love interest, Special Agent Lauren Chambers rushes to help him and together they attempt to try to find out more about this cult, what they are planning and a way to free Cooper from this demon.

This story grabs you by the throat and shakes you like an attacking dog. The horror is excellent, and the suspense is terrific, but then it morphs from a horror story to something entirely different.  I will not say what it transforms into as it would mean releasing spoilers. It was a wild ride, but I would have preferred to see the story unfold within two or three books rather than told much of the end story, especially because the first 2/3 of the book was fantastically written.

Have said that I would still recommend this book.

Book Review: The Bishop's Pawn by Steve Berry

Steve Berry is a new author for me.

As it happens, this title introduces an earlier story (origin) of Berry’s hero Cotton Malone and his first mission with the Justice Department. Malone is asked to recover a coin from a sunken boat off the Florida Keys. From that moment on, people are trying to kill him as he finds himself mixed up with a 30-year-old conspiracy that ended the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

The story is a fast moving, thoughtful recollection of the history of the Human Right movement during the 1960s. The mixture of fact and fiction is seamless, and the storytelling is perfect.

I’ll definitely be watching more stories by this incredible author.

The Last Odyssey by James Rollins Sigma Force #15

When an ancient ship is found in the melting ice of Greenland, it exposes a horrible weapon and a secretive society will kill to gain. Sigma is on the trail but they are one step behind and the enemy continues to attack them at every step. All they know is that the myth of Odysseus’s fated travels from Troy to his homeland may have actually happened. They need to figure out the secret if they hope to save their friends and mankind.

As with most of his books, the author mixes fact with fiction to bring a tale that race at Mach 5 with more explosions, gunfights and monsters.  The story will appeal to all thriller readers as well as historical speculative addicts.