Book Review: An Acceptable Sacrifice by Jeffery Deaver

If there’s one thing I really like about Jeffery Deaver’s short stories, is that they always manage to surprise the reader, one way or another. An Acceptable Sacrifice is not the exception to that rule.

It all begins with the meeting of two partners in crime, or rather law-enforcement. An American agent and his Mexican counterpart set house in the city of Hermosillo in Sonora, Mexico, with a single mission in mind; to stop a terrorist attack from happening.

They, and their respective agencies, suspect that a local drug lord is planning an attack on a tourist bus to mark the anniversary of the local government’s war on drugs. The man behind the planned attack is someone who’s so clever, and looks so clean and respectable, that no one ever managed to find a single clue that he’s involved in any illegal activities.

The two agents have their doubts that he’s indeed a criminal mastermind, but they have no choice but to carry on with their mission. The order is simple and clear: take him out before he takes anyone else out.

But how can they do that? The man lives in huge house, behind thick walls and bulletproof windows that looks like a fortress. They have to find a way to get in and plant a bomb, but in order to accomplish that they first need to spot his weakness, and he doesn’t seem to have one. Or does he?

Well, everyone has a weakness, and since this eBook belongs in a series consisting of Bibliomysteries it makes sense that his is books. He likes to collect old and valuable tomes from all around the world and he’s an avid reader. “That’s it,” the agents think and they start planning the attack; an attack that won’t be so easy to carry out; not only because their target is a very suspicious man, but also because timing is of the utter importance. Will they make it or will everything go wrong? And what if the man isn’t who they believe him to be?

As one would expect from a master storyteller, when it comes to the crime genre there are no easy answers to questions like these. Read the story, enjoy the plot, and prepare yourselves to be surprised time and again, by its few but yet great twists and turns.

By the same author:

XO
Edge 
No Rest for the Dead

Book Review: XO by Jeffery Deaver

I will start by saying that XO is so far the best installment in the Kathryn Dance series.

I’m sure everybody knows what XO means so I’d better cut to the chase. Kinesics behavior specialist and traditional music enthusiast Kathryn Dance takes a few days off from her job at the California Bureau of Investigation and heads out into the countryside to record the work of some not so famous musicians from Mexico.

At first everything seems to work out fine for her. She finds her musicians, she records their songs and starts going through them to decide which ones will end up on her website, from which users worldwide can download them for a fee, most of which ends up in the pockets of the musicians themselves.

However, as one would expect, where Dance goes trouble follows, or in this case precedes her. As she arrives in Fresno where she’s scheduled to meet her good friend and country-pop music idol, Kayleigh Towne, she finds out that the latter is in trouble.

A man that goes by the name of Edwin Sharp, and who’s been stalking her for a long time, is in town and the woman feels really scared. Things get even worse when one of her technicians turns up dead, in what at first looks like an accident but is later ruled as a homicide.

Dance is fast to the scene of the crime, but the locals don’t really make her feel welcome there. Kayleigh is the little town’s star and they are willing to do anything to help her out, but that doesn’t include enlisting Dance’s services.

The main suspect for the crime is of course Sharp, whom they call in for a friendly chat, which doesn’t really help their case. The latter is not only sharp by name and at the point where they think they can break him they achieve nothing. Even Kathryn, who’s observing uninvited from behind the mirrored wall, cannot get a read on the man. He’s either extremely clever and has the situation under control or, unlikely as it may sound, he’s innocent.

The local cops really don’t know what to do with the situation, but there’s at least one thing they are certain about: they don’t want anyone messing with their case and with their town’s most precious child.

As one would expect sooner rather than later things will start getting ugly and they’ll mess up big, time and again; so, like to or not, they’ll have to ask for some help. By that time though things will become so complicated that no one, including Dance, will be able to tell for sure what’s really going on.

All the leads they have show Sharp is the perp, but there’s no real evidence to back up their suspicions. What if more than one person is involved in the case? And who would be clever enough to pull it off without raising any red alerts?

As the questions accumulate the answers become all the harder to find. And that’s exactly when the helper decides that she also needs some help so, in comes the cavalry, in the faces of Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs.

This a very good thriller that comes along with the lyrics of a whole album written by the author, who, right now, as I’m reading in the web, is on tour performing with singer Treva Blomquist.

If there wasn’t a twist too many I would have given this five stars, but it’s a great read anyway.

Book Review: Edge by Jeffery Deaver

Is Edge going to be a stand-alone novel for Corte, the hero of Jeffery Deaver’s latest outing? Well, if I can judge from the character I’d say no. Corte, plain, simple Corte, seems to have in him a lot of stories, too much juice, and I really wouldn’t mind if he came to replace Kathryn Dance who, unlike Lincoln Rhyme, his other favorite hero, seems to have run out of steam already.
     Corte works at a witness protection service, a private company. His latest assignment is to offer protection to Ryan Kessler, a decorated police officer, who seems to be the target of a yet unknown hitman. He and his family seem, for no apparent reason, to be in a life-threatening situation and Corte has to work really hard to save the day. But he has more than one reason for taking this assignment, since the man posing the threat is none other than Frank Loving, an expert interrogator and remorseless killer, who was behind the murder of Corte’s mentor, a few years back.
     The two men, during the long and fascinating course of the story, seem to involve themselves into a game of cat and mouse, exchanging roles time and again. As each of them works hard to get into the head of the other and guess his next moves, the pace gains momentum and the twists and turns just keep the reader guessing about what’s coming next. However, Loving definitely has the upper hand in this game and Corte, even though he hates him, finds himself every now and then, admiring the criminal for the analytical capabilities of his twisted brain; capabilities that are not quite out of his league since he’s quite familiar with them; an extra bonus of playing strategic games.
     As time goes by, painstakingly slow for the Kessler family, the heat keeps rising and a lot of secrets and lies come out in the open. As it seems one of them has a secret history, while the rest are so stubborn and obviously clueless that it looks like they want to die. Thus Corte, having no another option, just needs to rush from the one place to the other, in order to keep the fragile bonds between the members of the family tight, while at the same time trying to find Loving, and also figure out who’s the person working so hard to get him fired. In this fierce and lonesome battle, he only has two people he can turn to: Dubois, his highly intelligent assistant, and his boss, who despite everything still has his back.
     From the first explosive moment until the very last, everything seems to hang from a weak thread: Corte’s career; the Kessler family’s survival; the wishes for revenge and redemption of some of the heroes. Deaver looks deep into the psyches of these people and what he sees is a world made of glass that could explode and turn into pieces at any given moment. The psychological portraits he creates are nicely crafted, and the characters really seem to come alive on paper; with all their faults and their never-ending passions.
     Perhaps this is one of the very few books by the writer that could make a good movie. His world is not easy to adopt for the big screen, but maybe, just maybe, this is about to change.
     Deaver’s new book will be coming out soon. The title is Carte Blanche and with it, as you probably already know, the good author will be taking a free dive into the 007 world.

Coming soon, at a bookshop near you

Last Tuesday The Guardian published an article about The best books for spring 2011. Since I couldn’t share it through here, I thought I’d just give you the titles of the books suggested by Alison Flood.

1.    At Last by Edward St Aubyn
2.    Ghost Milk: Calling Time on The Grand Project by Ian Sinclair
3.    A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
4.    There But For The by Ali Smith
5.    The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

As much as I’m a fan of literary fiction though I also like crime novels and thrillers, and most of my favorite American writers have new books coming out soon; too soon actually. It’s like someone told them that they just have to produce two or three novels a year. For how long can they stay at the top of their game at that pace though? That’s the big question. Maybe everyone is trying to imitate the James Patterson industry. Anyway, here’s the list:

The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly (This one is out already. It received very good reviews by the professional critics, but the fans absolutely “buried” it at Amazon for its expensive price as an eBook)

A Drink Before The War by Dennis Lehane (paperback)

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver (The new 007 novel. I hope Mr. Bond gets a new life…)

The Sixth Man by David Baldacci

Yet another Baldacci creation One Summer, will be coming out in June, as well as No Rest For The DeadNo Rest for the Dead, a novel co-authored by no more no less than 25 crime writers, and which comes with a forward from, yes, David Baldacci.

Dear You 12

For the first time in a long time I’ve spend a few days doing absolutely nothing. Ok, nothing is not exactly the right word, but that’s what it looked like to me since I haven’t been able to write. It seems that my “writer’s block” still has some way to go.
The good thing is that probably by the end of the month I will be signing a contract for my latest novel to be published in Greece. The given title is “A second life” but that probably will change.
As for my every day life there’s not much to say apart from the fact that for the first time in ages I now read two different books at the same time; David Baldacci’s “Saving Faith” and Philip Pullman’s “The Golden Compass”. I enjoy them both a lot. Apart from that I spend my time watching the EURO 2008 games and some movies. Maybe I’ll just have to “empty my head” before start working again.
By the way, I have to say that I’ve really loved reading Jeffery Deaver’s “The Sleeping Doll”. It looks like Mr. Deaver hasn’t lost his touch as Michael Connelly did. The book is a fast paced, well documented, agonizing thriller, with lots of twists and turns; quite cinematic really. I now look forward to the writer’s new novel that just came out in the U.S. if I’m not mistaken.
Well, that’s all for now, since I can’t think of anything else to write.
Be well and read well.

Books for the summer

I’ve finally came back to Cyprus after two months in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and right away I found myself in a dilemma; a nice dilemma, that is: What should I read first? You see I’ve brought with me a lot of books, a few of which I’ve wanted to read for some time now, and so I don’t really know where to start. Maybe I should flip a coin over and over again:)
Anyway, here’s the list:

Wilbur Smith – The Quest
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Children of Hurin
Thomas Harris – Red Dragon & The Silence of the Lambs (in one volume)
Michael Connelly – The Overlook
Michael Connelly – The Narrows
Michael Connelly – The Lincoln Lawyer
David Baldacci – The Simple Truth
David Baldacci – Saving Faith
Philip Pullman – The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman – The Subtle Knife
Philip Pullman – The Amber Spyglass
Jeffery Deaver – The Sleeping Doll
C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia (all seven books in one volume)
Christopher Berry-Dee – Talking With Serial Killers
Various – The World’s Worst Murders

I guess this is going to be a long but exciting summer…

Dear You 10

This is a very sad but yet happy man that writes to you today from Chiang Mai. Sad, because tomorrow morning I’ll be leaving my beloved city for Cyprus; happy, because I just found out that my last novel will probably come out in Greece by the end of the year, by a big time Greek publisher.
Will I miss Chiang Mai? Well, I cannot say for certain. The last time I was here I said I would return never again, but yet a hundred days later I was on my way back; and that is that. What I usually say that I like about this city is the slow pace of life. The truth is though, that I follow exactly the same pace back home. In the end, maybe I just need to move from the one place to the other, every now and then, to find inspiration and make the changes that I often need in my life.
Did I get here what I came for? I think I did. I wish I got or rather did more though; meaning I wish I wrote more. But, nevertheless, writing 55 thousand words in less than two months is not so bad I’d dare say; and reading 19 books is not bad either.
Talking on a more personal level I did meet a few very interesting and quite inspirational people here. No! Not Thai ladies. That’s not why I come here. I do have some female Thai friends I go out with and have fun every now and then though. The main problem that an “eccentric” so-called writer has to face when hanging out with Thai ladies is that when you tell them that you need some time for yourself, they really don’t seem to understand what you are talking about. I do agree with them on one thing though: “Thinking too much is bad for you!” But yet again, how can you stop your self from thinking?
Anyway, it’s time to move on to another subject, and this is quite important. The quiet nights at the pub came to an end as the EURO 2008 cup matches began. The funny thing is that most of the people watching the games, cheering, getting drunk and aggressive are English, whose team did not qualify!
Oh well, I think I’ll leave things at that. If all goes right and I don’t get stuck in Bangkok or Bahrain I shall write to you again on Friday from Nicosia.
Until then, take care and read well.

p.s. I’ve got over my flu
p.s.s I’ve finished reading Michael Connelly’s “Blood Work” and started with the “Void Moon”. Jeffery Deaver with “The Sleeping Doll” will follow.