Alpabetical Summary Books Read in 2007

Authors first name first.

A
Alex Kava - Whitewash
Alice Thompson - Pharos

C
Chelsea Cain - Heartsick
Chris Mooney - The Missing

D
David Hewson - The Sacred Cut
Douglas Clegg - The Infinite
Douglas Preston - Tyrannosaur Canyon
David Ignatius - Body of Lies

G
Gayle Sanders - Mummy's Witness
Gordon Ramsay: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection

J
Jane Yolen - The Devil's Arithmetic

Jim Thompson - The Killer Inside Me
John Saul - Black Creek Crossing

M
Mark Billingham - Scaredy Cat
Michael Prescott - Stealing Faces

P
Patricia Cornwell - At Risk
Patricia Cornwell - Book of The Dead
Peter Clement - The Inquisitor
Philip Hawley Jr. - Stigma


R
Ray Garton - The Loveliest Dead
Robert B. Parker - School Days

S
Scott Chandler - Ghostkiller
Steven Womack - By Blood Written

T
Tim Lebbon - 30 Days of Night

David Ignatius - Body of Lies

Subtly framing a highly elaborate plot, Ignatius tells the story of idealistic CIA agent Roger Ferris, newly stationed in Jordan after being wounded in Iraq. After a failed initiative to flush out a terrorist mastermind known as Suleiman, Ferris, who's dedicated to forestalling further al-Qaeda attacks, develops an intricate scheme modeled after a British plan used successfully against the Nazis.

Ferris's plot to turn the terrorists against each other by sowing seeds of suspicion that their leaders are collaborating with the Americans puts his personal life in turmoil and threatens his professional relationship with the head of Jordanian intelligence.

Honestly, I am not sure if I would have enjoyed the story written in a book. I listened to the audiobook which made it certainly easier. This is a political thriller about a driven CIA agent, determined that 9/11 won't happen again. He would give everything for his country. Everything certainly means he's endagering the women he loves.
A lot of spy, a lot of deaths and a lot of CIA mumbo-jumbo.

For me the narrator, Dick Hill, gave the story a whole new flair. His capability to speak in different accents and even in different languages filled the audiobook with life.

For those who might be interested in purchasing the audiobook:
Amazon's selling the unabridged version for about $26.95. audible.com sells the same version for about $17.49 downloadable on your PC.

Rating:
Visit David Ignatius.

Audio CD
Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged edition (June 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400104432
ISBN-13: 978-1400104437
Length: 12 hours and 22 min.
Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780393065039
ISBN-10: 0393065030
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Publication Date: 4/16/2007
Pages: 320
Book Type: Hardcover

New Releases 1. Quarter 2008

Michael Prescott - Stealing Faces

Michael Prescott's second novel is a fast paced thriller that keeps you awake for quite some time. Don't begin reading it in the evening. You won't get much sleep because you won't be able to put the book down.

Kaylie is running from her past. She's become a shadow, knowing if she's discovered, she will be put back there where she fled 12 years ago. She is a hunter, hunting the man who killed 12 women. If he gets her no one will ever discover Kaylie's secrets and knowledge about the cruel animal.

John Cray is a well known author and psychologist. He's leading an institution for mental disabled people. He also is a hunter, stealing the faces of his killed prey.

They both hunt and both become prey, running against time where it always seems Kaylie's one step beyond and on the unlucky site.

Will the faces finally tell their story ? Read for yourself but be warned, they might have to tell a frustating, tense story.

Michael Prescott's written 9 books so far. If you'd like to read an excerpt visit his homepage.
If you've read the book, go there anyway, you will find a little surprise as he's publishing what has been cut off the book from the publisher.

Rating:
Visit Michael Prescott.

ISBN-13: 9780451198518
ISBN-10: 0451198514
Publisher: Signet
Publication Date: 10/1/1999
Pages: 432
Book Type: Paperback

David Hewson - The Sacred Cut

The snow is falling on the ancient streets of Rome. And in the heart of the city, under the Pantheon’s great dome, a woman’s body lies on the marble floor, carefully positioned with a gruesome carving on her back....In David Hewson’s ingenious new thriller, this horrific murder hurtles Rome’s police force into a collision with U.S. agents–and a secret that has festered for fifteen years, now unraveling in the world’s most enigmatic city.

When Detective Nic Costa arrives at the scene, he is unprepared for what he finds, or for the ambush that leaves his only witness vanished into the night. The dead woman was American. Within hours, U.S. agents descend with a take-no-prisoners style and a shocking story to tell: the killer has struck before, in monuments all over the world, leaving the same cryptic message carved onto the bodies of the victims.

But one agent, beautiful, blond Emily Deacon, has yet another story to tell Nic–about a stunning act of deception that may lead back to the U.S. government, and her own chilling, personal connection to the killer. Now, as the first murder leads to more grisly slayings and a motley crew of veteran Roman cops jousts with the Americans, Nic is pulled into a woman’s harrowing search for the truth…a search that will take them both into the mind of a madman, into a shocking conspiracy–and into a dark episode in a nation’s long-forgotten past.

It's a bit difficult to write something about this book.
The book is likeable but then it isn´t. I enjoyed the plot but got distracted too often by the writer´s picturesque writing about Rome. I thought this is boring.

Good but in my opinion not remarkable.

Rating:
Visit David Hewson.

Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Dell (August 29, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0440242185
ISBN-13: 978-0440242185

Steven Womack - By Blood Written

Nashville: 2 girls are found murdered in a tanning salon. The murderer left two letters written in blood at the wall.

Manhattan: Author Michael Schiftmann and his soon to be fiancee, Taylor Robinson, celebrate his 6 million dollar contract for a series of books about a brutal, sadistic serial killer everybody is about to love.

Nashville: An old women reads the newspaper and enters the Nashville police department with a tote bag in the early morning hours. In it books written by Michael Schiftmann. She´s got a lead and no one´s going to stop her from telling that she know´s and who´s the Alphabet-Man.

Washington, D. C.:
FBI profiler Hank Powell receives a call from Nashville and listens to a crazy, almost impossible story that will begin the investigation to nail a killer without having anything at hands then four books. A recreation of the sociopathic Michael Schiftmann´s steps begins and his connection to the Alphabet-Man´s 14 killings begins to form but still they´ve got no evidence.

A race against time begins and sucks you up... you are going to love the killer and his fiancee. At least for a while.

A fantastic, thrilling novel I couldn´t put down. Bewildering and hardly to put in words the reader get´s a sense of the actual writer Steven Womack, his fictional character Michael Schiftmann and the fictional character Michael Schiftmann´s using in his novels.
It is difficult and intriguing to determine how much Womack put of himself into this novel. Especially in the beginning when Michael tells Taylor about his beginnings as a writer and praised novels he earned nothing from and how hard it was for him to get anything published at all.
Having read Steven Womack´s homepage I found out that it took him 5 years to find a publisher that was willing to publish this too edgy and too out-there book as a Hardcover edition in 2005. It is a success outside the usual crime-fiction, thriller and mystery genre. Compelling and an insider tip for everyone that likes to take a few steps out of the comfortable box.

Rating:
Visit Steven Womack.

ISBN-13: 9780061137709
ISBN-10: 0061137707
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: 11/1/2007
Pages: 416
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback

Gordon Ramsay - Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection

Lovely !

I rarely read a biography almost impossible to put down. There is a honest way of writing there and you will learn about Gordon as a child until now and you really will understand what drove him to the top and keeps him reaching higher.

I now understand his temper and why he sometimes is the chef he is. There is a man that climbed from washing the dishes up to a multi millionaire. He literally worked his ass off in the worlds most famous kitchens, treated like a piece of shit. The man is adorable inside and outside.

Rating:
Visit Gordon Ramsay.

ISBN-13: 9780061191985
ISBN-10: 0061191981
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: 3/1/2007
Pages: 288
Book Type: Paperback

Chelsea Cain - Heartsick

A Living Nightmare

Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful and brutal serial killer. In the end, she was the one who caught him -- and tortured him -- and then let him go. Why did Gretchen spare Archie's life and then turn herself in? This is the question that keeps him up all night -- and the reason why he has visited Gretchen in prison every week since.

A Deadly Obsession

Meanwhile, another series of murders is tearing up the Portland streets. Archie seems to be getting closer to solving this high-profile case -- until he finds himself in a fatal collision course with the killer -- one that inevitably leads him back to his former captor. Gretchen may be the only one who can help do justice. The only thing she can't do, this time, is save Archie's life.

-

Heartsick was announced as compareable to "Silence of The Lambs" and it keeps what the publisher promised.

Archie Sheridan is a disturbed cop. After surviving 10 days at the mercy of a female serial killer, trying to kill him slowly, his life and mind are all messed up. Two years after his torture he´s still depending on pills and can't forget what happened and what his secret feelings are.
Back into law enforcement he's dealing with a serial killer once again until everything makes one huge picture and finally sets him free from his obsession.

I couldn't completely compare Heartsick with Silence of The Lambs. The story might have similarities but doesn't focus on the conversations between offender and victim.

I've heard this is the new beginning of a series and I will definitely follow it.

Rating:
Visit Chelsea Cain.

ISBN-13: 9780312368463
ISBN-10: 0312368461
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Publication Date: 9/4/2007
Pages: 336
Book Type: Hardcover