Sabine Thiesler - Hexenkind

In an old, lonely and remote farmhouse in the midst of the Tuscany, a mushroom collector finds a horribly mutilated body: Sarah, the German wife of restaurant owner Romano, throat has been cut through.

This brutal killing is only the beginning of the doom that began years ago in Germany, and now reaching into the future to take it's hold over a whole family until it reaches a final, most gruesome ending.

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Romano Simonetti worked in an Italian restaurant in Germany when the battered and abused Sarah stood in his doorway, holding a crying infant in her arms. A friendship developed soon and they fled to Italy to open Romano's dream: a small restaurant.
They marry, they become children but you can not hide from your past.

Sarah's passion for other men, a mentally disabled son, an intelligent daughter with jealousy issues, a mean mother in law, and the daughters father are a mean mixture made to explode sooner or later.

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The book begins with the discovery of Sarah's dead body by one of her former affairs and her husband learning that his wife has been killed. From there on we learn about Sarah and her family through flashbacks placed very nicely. Actually the whole book is more flashbacks than "real time". The reader learns how the family developed and how the disaster was built brick by brick by the victim.

Whatever it was I felt like a bystander watching a families doom slowly develop in front of my eyes. I saw through Sarah's and Romano's eyes. I saw through the eyes of daughter Elsa and those of the abusive ex-boyfriend from Germany.

All in all you won't get a real thriller, nor will you get a family saga. There will be things you will be able to predict, but there will also be things that surprise you.

I for myself couldn't put the book down and loved it from the beginning to the end.

Sabine Thiesler is a German author, who's novels unfortunately haven't been translated yet. Her first novel, Der Kindersammler was a major success. Hexenkind, different but unique in it's own can add to that. Her third novel Die Totengraeberin was published in the beginning of 2009 and I won't wait much longer to pick it up.

Let's hope at some point they are going to translate the books. It really would add to the international list of very good writers.

Rating:

Paperback: 580 pages
Publisher: Heyne Paperback (October 1, 2007)
Language: German
ISBN-10: 3453432746
ISBN-13: 978-3453432741

Robin Cook - Intervention

It's been more than thirty years since New York City medical examiner Jack Stapleton's college graduation and almost as long since he'd been in touch with former classmates Shawn Doherty and Kevin Murray. Once a highly regarded ophthalmologist, Jack's career took a dramatic turn after a tragic accident that destroyed his family. But that, too, is very much in the past: Jack has remarried - to longtime colleague and fellow medical examiner Laurie Montgomery - and is the father of a young child. But his renegade, activist personality can't rest, and after performing a postmortem on a young college student who had recently been treated by a chiropractor, Jack decides to explore alternative medicine. What makes some people step outside the medical establishment to seek care from practitioners of Eastern philosophies and even faith healers?

Jack's classmate Shawn Doherty is now a renowned archaeologist and biblical scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose taste for good wine and generally deteriorating health are taking a toll on his career. He has recently obtained permission for a final dig beneath Saint Peter's, and despite his long-standing grudge against the Catholic Church, begins his research - which eventually takes him to Jerusalem and Venice - only to make a startling discovery with ecclesiastical and medical implications. And when Kevin Murray, now Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, gets wind of Shawn's findings, he's desperate to keep them from the public. Kevin has strong political ambitions within the Church, but his association with Shawn threatens to undermine them. Kevin turns to his old friend Jack to help protect an explosive secret - one with the power to change lives forever.

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I've always been intrigued to try one of Robin Cook's novels and decided Intervention might as well be the first one. The audio book unabridged audio edition lasted
11 h and 6 long minutes in which I was tempted to just leave it be and listen to another audio book. The plot, strongly reminding of Dan Brown, is intriguing but unfortunately neither the revelation of bones that possibly belonged to the virgin Mary, nor the sparsely detailed research in it's mitochondrial DNA, nor the critis into alternative medicine took a hold of me.
Truly, Cook's way of writing seems very fluent after almost 30 published novels.

The narrator's voice was an ok voice, less memorable than those I am used to but in the end it suffices the purpose. Obviously Intervention isn't a book written for newcomers to Robin Cook. Probably the reason I longer feel tempted to try one of his books.

Rating:
Visit Robin Cook.

Audio CD
Publisher: Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (August 11, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 014314457X
ISBN-13: 978-0143144571

Jeff Carlson - Plague Year

The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the machine plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.

The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out. There is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line.

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As much as I tried the book felt like a flatliner. Having read a tad more than the first third I was hoping for some more sci-fi details and much more excitement. Instead I got the story of some survivors who live above the surviving altitude of nanoprobes which have turned badly against humanity, eating them from the inside out.
A few of the survivors make their way to another camp where they are obviously needed, as a barely surviving visitor told them. He promised them food and shelter and most of all safety.
I never read to the point if he spoke the truth or not.

Sounds interesting but believe me, the story develops flatter than a pancake.

Plague Year is the first in a series of three (Plague War, Jul. 2008, and Plague Zone, Nov. 2009).

Rating:
Visit Jeff Carlson.

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Ace; First Printing edition (July 31, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044101514X
ISBN-13: 978-0441015146

Barbara Delisnky - Finger Prints

Once upon a time she was Robyn Hart, a journalist who saw too much and wasn't afraid to expose it. But that courage nearly cost Robyn her life. Under the protection of the Witness Relocation program, she now has a new identity -- Carly -- and a new job. But the terror of the past still lingers, and Carly lives in fear that her enemies will find her.

Though she tries to wall herself off from the world, one determined man breaks through her defenses -- successful young attorney Ryan Cornell. And though she yearns to give him her heart, Carly doesn’t know if she can. While loving him offers a happiness she thought she'd forever lost, trusting him could cost her everything.

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Carly Quinn left her old life months ago to finally enter the witness relocation program 4 months ago. Having survived an attack on her life in a dark alley she fears for her life and lives a secluded life as a teacher when attractive lawyer Ryan Cornell moves into her building. She desperately tries to keep to herself but falls for his charm and persistence to come into her life. Not without the reassurance of her friend and person responsible for her protection, Sam Loomis, she gives in to Ryan and their relationship grows.

Things become difficult for Carly when the man she brought to jail files motion for a new trial and she might be called back to the witness stand. On top of that Gary Culbert seems quite assured he might be acquitted.
Then there is Sheila, whom Carly got to know before the huge trial. Sheila was responsible for Carly's security and they developed a deep friendship. But since Sheila moved to Cambridge she seems distracted to the dismay of her new boss Sam. Loomis.

Ultimately Carly's is going to be betrayed by a person she loves.

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Finger Prints was first published in 1984 and seems to be one of Delinsky's earlier novels. I couldn't quite figure out if or under what title the book was published before it got named Finger Prints. Today the author seems to no longer like to be associated with her pseudonyms Bonnie Drake or Billie Douglass. Fact is some of her older novels written under her pseudonyms are republished under the name Barbara Delinsky.

Coming to the book I believe it flopped. The writing style is very fluent and easy to read but the plot itself was too much romance, too little suspense. It was pretty clear in which direction the book is going from the beginning and besides all of the romance I was just waiting for something suspenseful to happen.
I'm not excited about the book but it wasn't too bad either. Just reading time I could have spent on something more interesting or a book whose cover description matches the plot.

Rating:
Visit Barbara Delisnky.

Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: HarperTorch (April 1, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061041807
ISBN-13: 978-0061041808

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