Interrupt-

Interrupt
Jeff Carlson
47North, Jul 23 2013, $14.99
ISBN: 9781612183640

In 27,000 BC in what is now France, Nim leads his Neanderthal tribe as they tracked reindeer. However, he soon finds the Dead Man Cro-Magnon also hunting the reindeer. Nim knows the enemy has reach and size but his people have stamina. However, the magic of what happens in the sky tips the war towards the Dead Man.

In present day Los Angeles, biologist Emily Flint struggles with an auto accident, her upcoming wedding and an argument over the use of prenatal vaccine and existing conditions. However, also in California, Emily’s woes seem irrelevant when Marcus Wolsinger discovers an increasing level of solar flare activity not seen in several millenniums assaulting the earth. At the same time in the South China Sea, Naval Lieutenant Commander Drew Haldane flies his fighter jet to investigate a Chinese electromagnetic pulse weapon. As the world stands on the brink of total collapse into a new Ice Age, Marcus begins to lose control between being a modern man and a Neanderthal throw-back; while Emily’s eight year old autistic nephew P.J. suddenly becomes the Southern California Neanderthal leader.

Interrupt is an exhilarating end of the world thriller that takes a whack at science drawing absolute conclusions by filling Grand Canyon size theoretical gaps with speculation. The storyline is fast-paced though the transitions are not smooth. Still readers will enjoy the dawning of a (not so) new dominant species as survival of the fittest takes a strange twist in Jeff Carlson’s exciting Ice Age thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Yesterday’s Echo-Matt Coyle

Yesterday’s Echo
Matt Coyle
Oceanview, May 7, 2013
ISBN: 9781608090761

Eight years ago in Santa Barbara someone murdered Colleen Cahill. The media and the police suspected her husband Rick, a cop. Though never convicted of any crime, feeling guilty Rick was forced to leave the police as pariahs like him never receive back-up.

In the present, his wife’s homicide has become a cold case while Rick co-owns with Turk Muldoon’s Steak House in La Jolla. When Rick meets TV reporter Melody Malana, he believes he has a second chance until she is arrested for murder. Melody pleads with Rick to help her, but he knows he must say no. Instead, he tries to help her only to become once again the prime suspect in a murder with cops and others hunting him like a rabid dog.

Yesterday’s Echo is a terrific thriller starring a protagonist who understands first hand déjà vu. Rick’s options are surrender, die or find the killer as his ex-peers salivate with a second chance to destroy him; the woman he loves he distrusts; and clues lead him to people who wants secrets kept buried along with him. Readers will enjoy Rick’s investigation that also takes him back eight years.

Harriet Klausner

Dead Wrong-Allen Wyler

Dead Wrong
Allen Wyler
Astor + Blue, May 1 2013, $12.99
http://www.astorandblue.com
ISBN: 9781938231179

As an antiterrorism tool, neurosurgeon Dr. Wyse experiments with transplanting brain tissue from one person to another so that information can be transferred. Confused Seattle resident Bobbie Baker learns the hard way when she panics over her missing baby while her husband Trent says they have no children. At Doctors Hospital also in Seattle, two OSD agents confront neurosurgeon Dr. Tom McCarthy over stealing top secret DARPA experimentation documents. Totally confused by the accusation, he escapes from the Feds.

The CIA want Tom captured or dead while SPD seeks him over the death of a male found in his office. Tom inadvertently drags Dr. Sarah Hamilton, who is treating Bobbie with the wrong medicine, into his mess as the pair eludes law enforcement while wondering why the deadly pursuit.

Dead Wrong is an adrenaline pumping medical thriller that hooks the reader with Bobbie’s belief she has a son that her spouse denies they have. Fast-paced, the gripping storyline focuses more on a cat and mouse chase rather than delving deep into the fascinating concept of brain matter and accompanying stored data transference. Still readers will relish Allen Wyler’s taut tale.

Harriet Klausner

Not By Sight-Kathy Herman

Not By Sight
Kathy Herman
David C. Cook, May 1 2013, $14.99
ISBN: 9780781408042

In Arkansas, Jimmy Dale Oldham goes out hunting as a sign of passage though he loathes killing anything. However, a bearded older man tells the lad he shot and killed a person. The man tells Jimmy Dale to go home while he cleans up the mess.

Five years have passed without a word since the Cummings patriarch Micah and their youngest daughter Riley Jo vanished; leaving behind his wife Kate and three other children. Kate runs the Flutter’s Café though she has given up hope of her spouse and child coming home and like her kids suffers from a lack of closure. Her oldest child sixteen year old Abby sees a girl who looks like Riley Jo. She takes a picture of the girl just before a bearded man hustles her away. Abby tries to convince her mom with the cellphone picture, but Kate rejects the premise that Riley Jo lives nearby. With her BFF Jay, Abby makes inquiries but soon someone threatens the pair to back off or else.

The first powerful Ozark Mountain inspirational tale is a terrific tense thriller that readers will relish as the incomparable Kathy Herman combines a family tragedy with survivors who gave up on their “unkind God” for abandoning them. Action-packed with a fabulous twist, fans will enjoy Not by Sight as the Cummings brood lost their faith, but Abby, with a foxhole mentality of praying for divine help, refuses to give up on finding her sister and her Daddy.

Harriet Klausner

State of Emergency-Marc Cameron

State of Emergency
Marc Cameron
Pinnacle, Apr 30 2013, $9.99
ISBN: 9780786031801

Someone viciously murders agents, Russian Mikhail Polzin and American Riley Cooper in Uzbekistan. In Seattle, college student Taylor Bancroft dies at a hospital from radiation poisoning that she carried inside her when she agreed in Helsinki to deliver drugs back to the States to make some easy money. Less than two minutes apart, bombs explode almost simultaneously at the Embarcadero BART station in San Francisco and at Vikebsk Station in St. Petersburg, Russia; both sites leave many dead and panic of terrorism goes stratospheric. Espionage agencies fear that a cold killer has control of the dreaded mythical Baba Yoga which means cold war nuclear bombs are next.

Air Force OSI agent Jericho Quinn and his unit search for the sinister genius who has gained control of at least two nukes; their mission is to eliminate the threat by retrieving the bombs and killing the adversaries. Aleksandra the Russian operative joins the team who end up in South America where as part of his mission, Quinn rides in the 6,000 mile Dakar Rally motorcycle race.

The latest Jericho Quinn thriller (see Act of Terror and National Security) is an exhilarating over the top of Nevado Sajama tale as time is running out even before the hero, his squad and the Russian begin countermeasures. Fast-paced, readers will enjoy Quinn’s sprint to prevent a calamity from two ice-cold terrorists who early on watch the sunset together while Cooper slowly dies at their feet.

Harriet Klausner

The Jericho Deception-Jeffrey Small

The Jericho Deception
Jeffrey Small
West Hills Press, Apr 30 2013, $15.95
ISBN: 9781933512440

Dr. Ethan Lightman and Professor Elijah Schiff hypothesize that the brain’s left temporal lobe creates religious phenomena. The Yale University pair builds Logos to test their theory. The
“God Machine” as they call Logos emits electrical pulses into the part of the brain that Lightman and Schiff believe control religious thought especially extremist behavior. The Neurological Advancement Foundation’s Dr. Allen Wolfe funds the project.

Not long after Wolfe provides the money, someone murders Schiff and kidnaps grad student Rachel Riley. Ethan ends up in Egypt where he learns that a Dr. Wolfe, working for the CIA, has deployed Project Jericho using a Logos “clone” to convert Muslims into Christians and end seemingly eternal religious conflict.

The Jericho Deception is a super thriller in which the real scientific research is so compelling, at times overwhelms the action scenes. The cast is solid but it is the references to real experiments that bring a sense of genuineness to this exhilarating tale. Readers will enjoy this taut religious suspense while looking up those factual entities that make Jeffrey Small’s saga superbly fresh.

Harriet Klausner

Stolen-Daniel Palmer

Stolen
Daniel Palmer
Kensington, Apr 30 2013, $25.00
ISBN 9780758246660

The three avid Massachusetts mountain climbers are working the West Ridge in Tibet when an avalanche sends David Clegg and Brooks Hall over the side. The third climber John Bodine quickly realizes he cannot save both men; failing to cut one of their attached lines means all three die. He must choose between Brooks married with no kids and David married with two kids. Twenty-nine years old John knows he will hear the scream for the rest of his life.

Several years later, the love of John’s life, his wife Ruby suffers from late stage cancer, but the insurance company refuses to pay for the lifesaving expensive treatment; as it is not included in their plan. Desperate, John learns that Elliot Uretsky has the right insurance so he steals the man’s identity to pay for Ruby’s treatment. However, serial killer Uretsky orders Bodine to play his game or watch his beloved die while he remains behind bars for insurance fraud. John plays the dangerous contest until he says enough leading to his ruthless opponent killing people he cares about until he rejoins the game.

This is a taut thriller due to the three protagonists coming across as real even with a surreal triangular relationship. Readers will relish this tale as a ruthless Uretsky tests a desperate Bodine’s pledge to do anything to save his beloved.

Harriet Klausner

Taking Eve-Iris Johansen

Taking Eve
Iris Johansen
St. Martin’s, Apr 16 2013, $27.99
ISBN 9781250019981

With help from beyond, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan solved the murder of her daughter that haunted her for years (see Sleep No More). Finally feeling some closure, Eve and her lover police detective Joe Quinn escape to Lake Cottage in Atlanta while her adopted child Jane MacGuire is coming from London to join them.

However, Joe has to leave to testify at a trial and Jane detours to San Juan when her dog Toby suddenly became ill and Seth Caleb offered her a private jet. With his plan coming together to isolate his target, Jim Doane takes advantage of Eve being alone. He abducts her and demands she uses the skull of his deceased son Kevin to reconstruct his child’s face. Eve cooperates while plotting to escape. Joe learns from CIA agent Venable that Doane recently vanished from the grid.

Taking Eve is an exhilarating taut thriller as an insane evil kidnaps her. Fast-paced, fans will appreciate the setup but be frustrated by having this be a trilogy as the audience will want closure. Still readers will enjoy Eve Duncan’s latest tale (see Sleep No More) as she is snatched by a brilliant but crazy tactician.

Harriet Klausner

Leaving Annalise-Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Leaving Annalise
Pamela Fagan Hutchins
SkipJack Publishing, Mar 15 2013, $5.95
http://www.skipjackpublishing.com
ISBN: 9781939889010

Thirtyish attorney Katie Connell left Dallas for San Marcos after a melt down in court and her love life tanked (see Saving Grace). She has become a chanteuse singing with her partner Ava Butler and seeing owner-chef Bart while having her home, haunted by Annalise the jumbie, renovated. However, she ends her relationship with Bart when the love of her life private investigator Nick Kovacs arrives from Dallas to explain what happened. Nick says he protected his sister Teresa and his infant nephew Taylor from the lad’s violent father Derek.

Nick returns to the States to keep Taylor safe while Teresa attends college. However, obsessed Bart stalks Katie on San Marcos; and Derek goes after Teresa and Nick in his obsession for custody of his son. Soon murders occur at both locations.

The second Katie and Annalise thriller (see Saving Grace) starts somewhat slow as readers meet the cast, but once the stalking begins in earnest, the engaging storyline accelerates into a taut suspense. With a touch of the jumbie adding a distinct flavor to the mix and the romance perfectly kept on the backburner while dealing with predatory psychopaths, fans will enjoy Leaving Annalise.

Harriet Klausner

Daddy’s Gone A Hunting-Mary Higgins Clark

Daddy’s Gone A Hunting
Mary Higgins Clark
Simon & Schuster, Apr 9 2013, $26.99
ISBN: 9781451668940

Retired Gus Schmidt meets CPA Kate Connolly at four thirty in the morning at her family-owned Connelly Fine Antique Reproductions in Long Island City; where he once worked. An explosion leaves Gus dead and Kate unconscious. While Kate lies comatose and unable to defend herself, rumors abound as to why she met with a former employee before the place was open.

Her sister, fashion designer Hannah, wants the truth, which she believes will exonerate her sibling. Clues lead to the disappearance almost three decades ago of an aspiring actress from Illinois whose attorney brother has just moved to the city and to a two years old cold case murder of a Barnard student.

Readers who can ignore the quadrillion happenchance plot forwarding moments will enjoy this suspenseful tale; as Hannah, bungling her amateur sleuthing endeavor, brings tension to the entertaining storyline; more than the villain and the felonious few abetting the culprit. Though not one of Mary Higgins Clark’s stronger thrillers, fans of the author will want to know what is going on in this exciting mystery.

Harriet Klausner