Tim Lebbon - 30 Days of Night

They have lived in the shawods.
They are the last of their kind and now their time has come.

Barrow, Alaska.
Preparing for the yearly 30 Days of Night most town residents left the town while around 120 people stay back to keep the town running or just enjoy one month without sunlight.
Some will survive while others surrender to death. The 30 Days of Hiding, crawling through the snow, freezing, starvation and fear have begun and there is only one person whose instincts might be able to save the last survivors until sunrise.

Finally someone wrote a book about the real nature of the vampire as a blood sucking monster. There is no mercy and who gets caught dies.

Scary, entertaining, Tim Lebon.

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9781416544975
ISBN-10: 1416544976
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publication Date: 9/25/2007
Pages: 336
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback

Patricia Cornwell - Book of The Dead

Another sad reading experience by Patricia Cornwell.

The title and the book description are missleading. The book of the dead is mentioned once. Shortly and briefly. It's not even relevant for the plot.
It is hard to find any good words for the book so I will focus on the bad things which by far were enough.
The book says it is a Cornwell but it could have been written by anybody else. (I remember myself saying the same on an Amazon review about "Predator").

Gone are times were the reader knew how Scarpetta thinks and feels. Gone are the times were the reader was capable to follow the crime and the main characters life through Scarpettas eyes. The writing in third person, and the focus on the wrong things makes the story boring, unplausible and unbearable.

The whole books focus seems to be of Scarpetta´s, Benton´s and Marino´s messed up lifes, worthy to make a soap opera about it.

I can not say much without spoiling the book but what the h... did she do to Marino ! ? And then there is Dr. Self, you might remember her from "Predator". What a bad choice to turn her (again) into one of the key personalities.

***

Obviously I´m not the only person that had some hopes left that Patrica Cornwell would get back to her own writing, her early, inspiring Scarpetta novels. After Predator and the last few Scarpetta novels I can only see one direction which is downhill.

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9780399153938
ISBN-10: 0399153934
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication Date: 10/23/2007
Pages: 416
Book Type: Hardcover

Robert B. Parker - School Days

When a boy is accused of a shocking mass murder, only his grandmother is convinced of his innocence. When she hires Spenser to investigate, the inquiry grows more harrowing with every unexpected turn.

Horrible !

There must be a secret to Parker´s success of mass publishing books. However, I was not able to find it.
First of all this was my first book by Robert B. Parker and certainly it was the last one. I just can´t be friend with dull writing and sentences that rarely contain more than 10 words.

Here´s a short excerpt:
"It had been a wet summer. Outside my office window, it was raining again. I was watching it. Pearl was resting om her couch. Later, when the excitement died down, I might read the paper. My phone rang. Pearl had no reaction. She didn´t care about phones. I didn´t either, but somebody had to answer, so I picked it up."

I rarely write bad reviews but this book deserved one.

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9780425211342
ISBN-10: 0425211347
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: 10/3/2006
Pages: 320
Book Type: Paperback

Peter Clement - The Inquisitor

A fine thriller that kept me guessing until after the last chapters.
Introduced to the killers mind from the first page, Clement spun a web of characters with important roles and you never know who might be the killer. Bouncing from one person to the others you will keep guessing because all of them might have had a reason, might have had the time and chance to be the killer of non-DNR (do not reanimate) patiens.
In the end the whole story makes sense and the reader closes the book with the thought that there are Angel of Deaths and that leaves you with a little bit of a worry in case you've ever have to be a patient in the next hospital.

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9780345457813
ISBN-10: 0345457811
Publisher: Fawcett
Publication Date: 12/27/2005
Pages: 384
Book Type: Paperback

Chris Mooney - The Missing

The first time Darby almost died was on the night of her sixteenth birthday. Out with her two best friends, she witnessed a horrible scene - a woman who was tortured and beaten and left for dead in the woods. After being chased by the criminal, Darby looked to her constant savior - her father, "Big Red," a local police officer, and her hero. As always, he made Darby feel safe by promising to find who did this and bring him to justice.

Years later, Darby is now also a cop, having designed her career after her late father's. She is investigating a serial killer who has already slaughtered several young women. There is something eerie about this case from the beginning, and Darby is dismayed when she learns that two of the victims are her childhood friends - the same girls she was with the night she saw the woman in the woods. Soon, it becomes clear that this is no coincidence. Darby is targeted as the next victim, and this time Big Red is not around to save her. Instead, Darby delves further into the investigation, and quickly discovers evidence linking her father to the killer. With no one to save her and not knowing who to trust, Darby struggles to preserve her father's memory as she fights to defend herself against a ruthless killer - one with an unknown motive and a clear plan for murder.

I really enjoyed reading this flawless thriller. Even if the story as itself isn't new to me and won't be to other readers, it never lost it's pace and kept me guessing.

Early from the beginning the reader is introduced to Daniel Boyle, one of the serial killer, his way of thinking and organizing his own cover while the second one's revealed almost at the end of the book.

The end lacks a bit of excitement especially where the story should be at it's top and Darby McCormick finally learns who's the second serial killer.

However, people that like reading about serial killers and mystery friends will enjoy this read that keeps you turning page after page.

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9780743463805
ISBN-10: 0743463803
Publisher: Atria
Publication Date: 3/20/2007
Pages: 400
Book Type: Hardcover

Philip Hawley Jr. - Stigma

In southern California, a young Mayan boy with a blue-crescent-moon tattoo on his chest dies mysteriously. In central America, a puzzling illness is spreading among tribal villages. And soon—very soon—Luke McKenna, a pediatric E.R. physician in Los Angeles, will discover the link between these events and demons from his dark past. The secrets that haunt Luke are about to pull him and the woman he loves into a terrifying house of mirrors. The realm of science and the realm of death are colliding with devastating force, and the stakes couldn't be any higher—the future of the human species.

Time is running out, and only by reawakening the ghost of Luke McKenna's past can they discover the truth.

This is a great debut novel !
I couldn't stop reading it. This fast paced story keeps you sitting in your chair and jumping by the sound of a mosquito.
Keep breathing, this story's more then breathtaking and frightening at the same time.

Hawley is definitely a name one should keep in mind.

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9780060887445
ISBN-10: 0060887443
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: 3/1/2007
Pages: 496
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback

Scott Chandler - Ghostkiller

The description of this book doesn´t exactly match the real content because it only tells us something about Nancy Greenbaum or better, Nancy Greenbaum´s body.

The Ghostkiller died after suffering from terrible burns in the emergency room. Simultaniously, just on the other side of the curtain, doctors are fighting for the life of Nancy Greenbaum, suffering from a brain trauma.
The Ghostkiller dies and while the real Nancy´s too weak to fight against an intruder in her body, the Ghostkiller takes her body and Nancy´s soul is pushed out of it. Like a ghost, floating above the events, she witnesses what happens and sees her own body opening her eyes. Like a ghost she follows her former body to discover terrible homicides when she is suddenly dragged into the body of a dying 14 years old teenager. Her soul in the new body she begins her fight against something older then she or anyone else could ever imagine.
Finally she´s able to get in contact with the detective which was responsible for the death of the Ghostkillers former host.

***

The Ghost Killer´s a well written horror-suspense-mystery mix with a lot of peaks and twists. I really enjoyed the run against time.
In 1998 there was a movie with Denzel Washington named "Fallen" and these two stories are quite similar. I really was surprised to learn that the book was written three years later and almost is read somewhat like the movie tie-in. At least the reader gets the impression the movie was based on this book. I knew the movie and that took quite a lot of my usually fun in reading good stories.
However, the book as itself is worth a read as long as you aren´t too familiar with the movie. It still has different incidents and characters and of course a somewhat different ending.

Since 2001 and "Ghostkiller" Scott Chandler hasn´t published another book but I´ve got this author on my watchlist to give him a second try if there should be another book.

Rating:

ISBN-13: 9780425181003
ISBN-10: 0425181006
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Pages: 288
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback