Hide in Place by Emilya Naymark

 A former NYPD undercover detective suddenly finds her son missing. Frantically, she searches the kids at the school and runs into trouble with privacy and the local cops. But she must dig deeper if she has any hope of finding her son, including into a botched drug deal from her past. All her detective skills in the world aren’t enough without a little luck, and the day she’s having she might have to throw in the towel.

Very fast paced and scary as all hell if you are a parent. This is a debut novel, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this talented author.

The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow

 

The Power of the Dog is basically a history of the War on Drugs between the 1970s to the 90s. Nothing is sugar-coated and the bodies fall from New York City to the Columbia jungles. Guilty and innocent fall in the power struggle for the head of the Mexican Drug Trade. Art Keller, a DEA agent will sell his soul to catch the Barrera brothers and they’ll kill anyone who stands in their way

The story has the ring of truth and could be a memoir of the failed U.S. war on drugs. There are no winners, and the struggle continues. I found the story heavy at times and had to take breaks in between reads. Not because the story was bad, but rather it was too intense. It is the first of three novels.

Beyond the Cogs a Steampunk Anthology by C Vonzale Lewis, Nicholas J. Evans, and Elle Beaumont

 Jump on board a wildly imaginative ride in worlds powered by steam. Imagine a world where machines are driven not by electricity and polluting power plants but by clean, powerful steam.

Ms. Lewis imagines the old west infested with vampire-like creatures and her heroes must use what is on hand to defeat the ancient foe. More action than any modern story!

Mr. Evans’ character is trying to save his destroyed world by stealing resources from another. The concept is as sharp-edged as the weapons he needs to challenge the rightful rulers, and

Ms. Beaumont looks at the creation of an autotomic machine that a character uses to capture the soul of the women he loves who has died too soon.

Fans of wild imagination, new worlds, and tons of action, will love this anthology.

False Witness by Karen Slaughter

 OMG!

To date, this is the best Karin Slaughter story I have ever read. It is raw! It is monstrous.

Kaley was thirteen when she babysat Andrew. His father was abusing her. When she found the camera that he had filmed her during all his sexual treatments, he knew she had to die. While defending herself, she ended cutting his femoral artery. Her sister raced to help her and helped finish the pedophile. They were able to make the monster disappear. Lee would become a defense lawyer while her sister would fall under the influence of heroin.

Years later, Andrew, who has been accused of a brutal rape arranges to have Lee represent him. This is where the games begin because he knows she and her sister killed his father. This cat-and-mouse game keeps escalating, so there seems to be no way out. One of those few books you can’t wait to see how it will end but hate for it to finish.

The Day After Tomorrow by Allan Folsom

 

I had read this story when it first came out in the 1990s and had loved the story. So, when I found it at the local used book story, I figured it was time for a re-visit, and I’m glad I did. For lovers of conspiracy thrillers similar to Robert Ludlum, you find this story right what the doctor ordered.

The story follows Dr. Paul Osborne, who has been haunted from the day he was ten-years-old and watched a stranger kill his father. Now, thirty years later, in a Paris café, he finds the man sitting across from him. Thus starts the frantic run through Europe to find why his father was killed and who ordered it done. With fanatics and police on his trail, Osborne cannot afford to make a mistake or trust anyone. The pages do not stop until the horrifying last page.