Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

The Sentry: Robert Crais.
A masterful book by a masterful writer. Focus is on Joe Pike, I will offer that he could choose his girlfriends better. (A)

Dead or Alive: Tom Clancy
Vintage Clancy. The book has all the techno know-how, the spycraft, the right wing rants. Not many can tell a tale like him though, and this time he brings back much of his Ryan novel cast to join in the hunt for Bin Laden (thinly veiled). If only we privatized terrorist hunting, we would do so much better (B+)

The Bricklayer: Noah Boyd
A first novel, and a great start. I would categorize this as the plotting of Deaver with the characters of Rozan, strengths for both. Steve Vail is an ex agent who just could not get along with authority, but certainly could solve a case, and the FBI had a case that needed to be solved. If I had to fault the author for something, it would be the amount he had to dumb down the FBI. I won’t fault him much though. (B+)

Buried Alive: JA Kerley
Reading this brought into focus some feeling about the Boyd that I had not solidified. The Kerley was excellent writing coupled with excellent plotting. The Boyd was excellent writing, but the plotting could be improved. Kerley has so many little surprise bombs hidden in this gem that it is hard to describe without giving something away, so I shall not. Let us leave it with this being typical of the most wonderful Carson Ryder series. (A)
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Coming Back: Marsha Muller
With the previous book seeing Sharom McCone badly hurt, this novel provides a mystery to test her mettle, and see if she still can control her agency. (B)

Deliver us from Evil: David Baldacci
Not Camel Club, but with the Camel Club protagonist, Shaw. I liked this better (quite a bit better) as the story had complex lines that made both the path and the outcome unclear for much of the book. The basic story- hunting for evil men. (B+)

The Outlaws: WEB Griffin
Techno, and much like Clancy, Griffin has decided that the government is not sufficiently competent to handle the big terror threats, so well minded ex-operators must take over. He does it in good fashion, with all of the trademark plotting and most of the interpersonal relationships we have become used to (B+)

Black Wolf: Dale Brown
Once a modern metal type of techno thriller, the series has changed in to a high tech spy series. I liked it better the other way, and am giving this series up. (B)

Nightwalkers: PT Deuterman
Cam Richter and his fuzzy friends are back, trying to buy a life in the antebellum south. We move from mystery to thriller to suspense as the antebellum south decides it does not want Cam Richter. (B+)

Corruption of Blood: Robert Tannenbaum
Tannenbaum actually was Deputy Chief Council for the Congressional investigation in to Kennedy’s death. Unlike in real life, he solves the mystery of the assassin, but it is not in anybody’s interest to see the truth. If it were up to me, I’d tell you, then we’d both know, but what would be the point of that? (B+)

Down Here: Andrew Vachss
Burke again, as paranoid as ever, as righteous a criminal as you could ever hope to find, working to clear the name of the good prosecutor (Wolfe) he has long been associated with. True to his style, but the style is getting a bit long in the tooth. (B)

Vodka Neat: Anna Blundy
Billed as a Thriller on the cover, I would call this a mystery as much as anything. Written in a conversational style, this adds to the body of work written about crime in Russia, but from yet another viewpoint, that of a foreign journalist, which Blundy was. She spends the better part of the novel in an alcoholic stupor with herself as her prime suspect in the murder she investigates. (B)

The Rackets: Thomas Kelly
NTMA, not quite a mystery, but a look at the seedy side of union and mob influence in New York. A good deal of suspense, a good deal of action, and I would not get too attached to any particular character. (B+)

Bloody Waters: Carolina Garcia-Aguilara
My nod to chick lit this month, a Cuban-American PI in Miami trying to find an adoptive kid’s birth parent for a bone marrow transplant. (B)

I should be getting my library hold of The Sentry soon. While I was online checking the status, I just had to reserve Dead or Alive (lol - it's all your fault, Barry). Looks like a good one!

Barry wrote: "The Sentry: Robert Crais.
A masterful book by a masterful writer. Focus is on Joe Pike, I will offer that he could choose his girlfriends better. (A)

The Rackets: Thomas Kelly
NTMA, not quite a mystery, but a look at the seedy side of union and mob influence in New York. A good deal of suspense, a good deal of action, and I would not get too attached to any particular character. (B+)

Totally agree about The Sentry, a really good book.

I also liked The Rackets. Thomas Kelly really seemed to know the whole big city corruption game inside out. I also listened to Payback by the same author and thought it was very good too.

The friend that loaned me The Rackets told me I was in for more from him.

Nice month Barry - I am enjoying (finally got to it) Carson Rider in Little Girls Lost!
Re: Vodka Neat - Well that is certainly unique!
Barry wrote: "Vodka Neat: Anna Blundy .... She spends the better part of the novel in an alcoholic stupor with herself as her prime suspect in the murder she investigates. (B) "

Glad you liked The Bricklayer. The anti-authority character worked well in this one, but it will be interesting to see if he can work it as well the next time.

Oh dear..just added more to my tbr pile (The Bricklayer, Rackets, and the Kerley series)!!!