Thomas O'Callaghan - The Screaming Room

John Driscoll has laid the ghosts of his past to rest. He's ready to start over - both personally and as a NYPD homicide commander. But it seems that a serial killer has other plans for Driscoll.

The victims' bodies are found, brutally mutilated and carefully arranged for the world to see - grotesque visions to all except for the depraved killer, who considers them masterpieces. These blood rituals spell out a message to Driscoll.
And they are just the beginning...

Driscoll's investigation will lead him down the darkest of journeys, toward an evil beyond his worst nightmares. In a hellish landscape conceived by the all-too-clever mind of a twisted schemer, Driscoll must play a killer's deadly game. It's up to him to save his city - or die trying.

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The teenagers Cassie & Angus have been abused and tortured their whole life. Now that they are finally free, Angus clever mind knows how to trick the likes that made them suffer so much into their trap to take a gruesome revenge. What remains is a mutilated and scalped body.

While Lieutenant John Driscoll takes charge of the investigations of several murders, a huge pharmacy mogul has his own interest to get to the two teenagers first. His agenda is clear: they need to die for they hold secrets that should never be revealed.

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As nice as the books description sounds, it fails to deliver on a large scale. I wasn't particular impressed with the authors choice of wording but could have gone past that if the plot hadn't been such a boring experience.
Besides the characters own packages, a wife that was just buried and Driscoll's working colleague and love Margaret's struggles with the past it felt like a huge jigsaw where the pieces have been cut very badly.

Rating:
Visit Thomas O'Callaghan.

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Pinnacle (2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0739484303
ISBN-13: 978-0739484302

Lisa Gardner - The Neighbor

It was a case to spark a media feeding frenzy - a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect.
But from the moment Detective Sergeant D. D. Warren arrives at the Joneses' snug little bungalow, she senses something off about the picture of wholesome normality the couple worked so hard to create. On the surface, Jason and Sandra Jones were like any other hardworking young couple raising a four-year-old child. But it is just under the surface that things grew murkier.
With the clock ticking on the life of a missing woman and the media firestorm building, Jason Jones seems more intent on destroying evidence and isolating his daughter than on searching for his "beloved" wife.

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Sandra and Jason Jones have been married for almost 4 years, raising her four-year-old daughter Ree. Their marriage isn't what the average person would assume as normal but besides that they are both devoted to their child's safety.
One night Jason returns from work and finds his wife missing and his daughter sleeping in her bed. Police soon considers him their main suspect when a registered sex offender from the neighborhood enters the scene, a secret affair of Sandra's turns up and her estranged father, a judge from Georgia, claims rights on his granddaughter.
And what's wrong with Jason who's behavior and gestures are as cold as ice, calculating and only warm towards his daughter.

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At first I didn't really knew what to think about Gardner's newest novel until the suspense got me. The plot is slightly tied to the previous novel Say Goodbye and the "Burgerman" Gardner opens door after door after door with suspects, giving us a good glimpse of the characters and what they were thinking. I didn't really guess who's involved in Sandra's disappearance up until the almost the end.

I really enjoyed Sandra's flashbacks from the past, how she grew up with abusing parents, met Jason and discovered his terrible secret. The revelation in the end is shockingly twisted and rewarding with a conclusion that takes your breath away. It all fits and I for once closed a book I couldn't put away.

Rating:
Visit Lisa Gardner.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam; First Edition first Printing edition (June 16, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553807234
ISBN-13: 978-0553807233

Jilliane Hoffman - Plea of Insanity

The prosecutor -- Julia Vacanti. Young and ambitious, and facing a case that could launch her career.
The defendant -- David Marquette. A successful Miami surgeon and devoted family man. The victims -- Marquette's own wife and three small children.
The plea -- Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.

The perfect father and model husband, David Marquette seemingly just snapped. His experienced defense team claims paranoid delusions caused by schizophrenia drove him to slaughter his entire family.

But the state suspects Marquette's insanity defense is being fabricated to disguise murders that were cold blooded and calculated. Worse, Julia believes Marquette could be responsible for a string of unsolved, brutal homicides. Could he be one of the most prolific and elusive serial killers in the country's history? To bring him to justice, Julia must embark on a terrifying personal journey back into her own past-something she has struggled to forget for fifteen years. And this will lead her to confront a future so chilling, she's not sure she will ever be able to face it...

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Assistant State Attorney Julia Vacanti is appointed to her very first big case:
David Marquette has to stand trial for the gruesome murder of his wife and three children. His defense pleas he's not guilty by reason of insanity on the basis of his family history and his brother being schizophrenic.
In the midst of the trial Julia learns that her brother, whose whereabouts haven't been spoke of since years, is still alive and locked away in a high security facility for the murder of his parents while Julia was on a sleep over. He's treated as being schizophrenic.
Rekindling with her brother Julia begins to understand the difficulties of being schizophrenic and develops doubts in her own allegation against Marquette and that in fact might not be guilty.

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Plea of Insanity was not what I'd expected after I've read lots of raving reviews about Hoffman's previous books.
The plot idea itself is not that bad but not really unique either. It has been there in several novels and movies and unfortunately better done as well.
I don't want to call the book a legal thriller although it was meant to be just that and more.

In the end it was entertaining but probably not enough to make me a fan.

Rating:
Visit Jilliane Hoffman.

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Vanguard Press; 1 edition (April 10, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1593155077
ISBN-13: 978-1593155070

Warren Fahy - Fragment

In this powerhouse of suspense—as brilliantly imagined as Jurassic Park and The Ruins—scientists have made a startling discovery: a fragment of a lost continent, an island with an ecosystem unlike any they've seen before... an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards.

The time is now. The place is the Trident, a long-range research vessel hired by the reality TV show Sealife. Aboard is a cast of ambitious young scientists. With a director dying for drama, tiny Henders Island might be just what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders— -- and the ultimate test of survival begins...

For when they reach the island’s shores, scientists are utterly unprepared for what they find -- —creatures unlike any ever recorded in natural history. This is not a lost world frozen in time, an island of mutants, or a lab where science has gone mad: this is the Earth as it might have looked after evolving on a separate path for half a billion years.

Soon the scientists will stumble on something more shocking than anything humanity has ever encountered: because among the terrors of Henders Island, one life form defies any scientific theory— -- and must be saved at any cost.

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The research vessel Trident receives an emergency transmission from a 30-foot sailboat leading them to a remote island that hasn't been touched by humans before: Henders Island, where plants and animals together developed unaffected by human traces or today's flora and fauna.
Upon entering the island a team of scientists and cameramen suffers terrible losses during a live feed to national TV, leaving only two lone survivors: Botanist Nell Duckworth and cameraman Zero Monroe.
The area around the island is quarantined for further investigations and research and Nell is put in charge of the on-site observation team abroad of a mobile lab. But soon the astonished scientists discover that the island eco-system works as vicious as it can be with never before seen lifeforms not only attacking other lifeforms but also capable of finding their ways through metals and acrylics.
Unfortunately things get out of hands when the government recognizes how much of a threat the island inhabitants can get if it ever gets to the mainland.

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Fragment has this jurassic park feeling times four, spiked with difficult to comprehend creations of animals and plants. Luckily it also offers drawings of the animals at the same time which I thought is a wonderful addition to the book.
At times it gets a bit out of hands with unnecessary dialog between scientists that don't talk about the novels topic itself but luckily the reader stays undisturbed engulfed with the island terror after those two very distracting off-topics are done.
In hindsight of the prologue and its sense the book offers a very disturbing sight on what can happen and what has been happening for a long time to eco-systems if interrupted and that the chance of an ultimate extinction of the world we know today isn't as far fetched as one might think.

I believe this is a great effort by a new author one might keep an eye on.

Rating:
Visit Warren Fahy.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (June 16, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553807536
ISBN-13: 978-0553807530

Stephenie Meyer - New Moon (Twilight series, Book 2)

Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step.

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It is a paper cut on Bella's finger that drives the Cullens' out of Forks, promising to never to return. Bella never asked for them to leave, she didn't want them out of her life but she is left with a shattered world, nothing to do with herself and not enough will to live to move on with her life. So the months fly by until Bella remembers her old friend Jacob Black and their relationship intensifies.
For him she has always been his love, for her he is the brother that takes her around doing dangerous stuff. But Jacob has another secret soon to reveal. He's a werewolf trying to protect the people from a vampire that lately left tracks and dead people all around Forks and the reservoir. The vampire of course, is Victoria who seeks revenge on Bella for James' death.
In an attempt to feel something Bella tries herself in cliff diving which almost costs her life if it weren't for Jacob who once again saved her life.
The friendship between the two is put to the test when the frantic Alice, Edward's sister who saw Bella's jump in a vision, arrives to check on Charlie because she thought Bella died. But she's not the only one that thought the same.

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I've been wondering why I kept reading. There isn't really much happening in this continuation of the Twilight novel. It certainly aren't the characters. Each one of them is undeveloped and Bella's the most co-dependent person one can imagine. Her clumsiness, in the beginning kinda funny, hasn't changed and has become quite old. She still wants to become a vampire and it looks like that's her only goal.
I could tear at my hair for Bella's stupidity and have given up to explain why I in the end liked the book. The answer is pretty clear: I don't know.

It is quite irking that Meyer so easily describes depression like it is the normal process of heartsickness. It is not, plus, suicidal behavior might be a bit thoughtless to dish to young teenagers. It certainly needs explanation for some young readers.

Rating:
Visit Stephenie Meyer.
Review Twilight (Twilight series, Book 1).

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 576 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; MTI edition (September 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316075639
ISBN-13: 978-0316075633

Jeremy Robinson - Raising The Past

FROM THE ICE. . .
A mammoth, flash frozen in solid ice 10,000 years ago is brought to the surface by a team of scientists. An act of sabotage frees the giant from its icy tomb and reveals the secret held inside.

OUT OF THE MAMMOTH. . .
The body of an ancient woman, cloaked in furs, slides out of the mammoth's belly. But it is not the woman that holds the team's attention...it is the object she is clutching...a device created by an advanced civilization.
THE HUNT IS ON. . .
The device is accidentally activated, summoning forces who seek its destruction. It is the key to mankind's salvation and freedom from the men behind the curtain, pulling the strings and leading humanity towards destruction.

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A mammoth is found deep in the Canadian Arctic, completely preserved for the last 10.0000 year. Eddy Moore is the expert in paleontology who is hired and the one to be trusted to retrieve an object this size but while the mammoth is lifted the discoverer and one who pays for the whole operation secretly starts the thawing process in the hopes to retrieve mammoth DNA. What they discover is even more amazing. Out of the belly of the mammoth falls an ancient woman holding a device in her hands that very much looks like Star Trek equipment, especially when it opens and sends out a red light.
Up in space a small black orb makes it way to fulfill what it was built for: Keeping the device from being used. It triggers a huge snow wall to cover the dig site under a thick, icy layer of snow, leaving only a few survivors that desperately need to try to find their way back to civilization.
The crew of 7 gathers what they can find and make their way back in snow mobiles when they are approached by 5 men, claiming to be Inuits who have come to help them. The crew doesn't trust them and at night they make a run for it.

What follows is a chase through the arctic winds that causes more human losses, especially after the device lets of a message for humanity. They are holding the key to a secret citadel that hold a beacon to call for help because the men following the crew are out to kill them. A race from outer space that wants to make sure that Earth is going to be destroyed.

Things get difficult, and whom is ultimately to believe ? The evil race called Ferox, who want to make sure Earth destroys itself one day or the good-natured Aeros, who will come to safe humanity and cleanse Earth from Ferox corruption ?

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Raising The Past is an arctic adventure that promises a lot of excitement. The promise is kept up until the book slips into a sci-fi war between humans and two alien races. My cup of tea emptied there.
The whole citadel part was just too unimaginable and certainly lacked a more detailed description and plot development.

An ok beach read for the soft sci-fi fan.


Rating:
Visit Jeremy Robinson.
Jeremy Robinson on YouTube. (includes book trailers)

Paperback: 308 pages
Publisher: Breakneck Books (September 15, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0978655117
ISBN-13: 978-0978655112

Michael Baden and Linda Kenney Baden - Skeleton Justice

The case begins with New York City on high alert for a most bizarre serial killer - a strange kind of thief who stalks his victims for the purpose of extracting a vial of blood, earning him the tabloid nickname the Vampire. As the attacks become more and more vicious and escalate to torture and then to murder, Jake and Manny begin too suspect there is a connection between the killer's seemingly random victims.
But what is the link between the Vampire and a case Manny's been working for a kid, whose high school prank-gone-wrong has earned him the moniker the Preppy Terrorist and an FBI electronic bracelet ?
Jake's careful forensic examinations, Manny's courtroom tenaciousness, and an unusual clue suggesting that a high-ranking politician has risen from the grave take the pair from the bowels of the morgue to the world of international intrigue.
At the heart of this story is a tragic tale of corruption interlaced with cover-ups, conspiracies, death squads, and dictators who committed crimes that to this day go unpunished.

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New York has a new killer on the loose who ether induces his random victims unconsciousness. At first he left them unharmed, drawing just a vial of blood from them but lately his attacks have become more vicious and he's left his victims tortured and dead.
Deputy chief medical examiner Jake Rosen seems to be drawn to case, eager to find the connection between the victims.

Manny Manfreda is a civil rights lawyer. Her newest case involves a teenager who's taken into custody after a makeshift bomb exploded under a mail box and wounded a passing by federal judge. With Jakes brother Sam's help Manny tries to uncover why only her client was taken into custody but not the boys who were with him.
When the boy later vanishes, witnesses Sam's just talked to are found dead and a strange connection between the Vampire and the bombing is found, it soon becomes clear that someone wanted Jake and Manny on the cases for a reason.

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I'd like to give this novel the name of the biggest disappointment of the year. I just can't find anything positive in this suspense novel.
I'd expected so much more and got what most would consider a cozy novel, lacking the forensic science for the most part. Not that it isn't mentioned but wouldn't you expect from a forensic expert at least some interesting details ? Fact is, the forensic pathologist in this novel doesn't really do much of the work and when he does, you learn about it in a short sentence.
The characters are just sad, not even funny. There is not much development during the novel and I didn't really care for them at all. Nor did I think the protagonists were very clever but mere average investigators.
Skeleton Justice is the second (Remains Silent being the first) installment in a series I won't follow up with. It really must be nice to have friends like Cornwell, Rule and Reichs in the business. They'll recommend you, probably without having read what you've written.

Rating:

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Knopf (June 16, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400044324
ISBN-13: 978-1400044320