Amazon.com Review

Nick Morrelli is the Platte City, Nebraska, sheriff who must be smarter than he appears, since there's a framed Harvard law degree hanging on his wall. Not that appearances don't count. The reader is treated to a number of descriptions of his sexy, lady-killer looks and his charismatic effect on even the most hard-bitten woman character in this somewhat muddled, serial-killer thriller. Nick is investigating the kidnap-murders of two young Platte City boys when FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell shows up and all but takes over the investigation. Several years earlier, the former sheriff-Nick's father-capped his own career with the arrest of the last serial killer in the neighborhood, who abducted and tortured three boys in an eerily similar crime spree. When Antonio Morrelli returns from retirement to meddle in the investigation, and when Nick's own sister uses her connections to advance his career, Nick hardly raises an objection. And that's the central weakness of what would otherwise be a good, first effort.

When the FBI comes to Lincoln Rhyme with the news that a mysterious assassin is targeting him, the detective is not particularly concerned. With his long career putting away criminals, he is accustomed to threats on his life, and has designed his Upper West Side townhome to be secure against nearly any threat. But when the assassin gets too close for comfort, shadowing Rhyme and his wife Amelia Sachs as they go about their daily life, Rhyme determines to find out why this person is after him. He must put himself inside the mind of a killer in order to save his own life, and possibly the lives of those he loves most.

A woman is found dead, raped and covered obscene graffiti. This is unremarkable; London is a world of elaborate technology, violence and squalor, and serial murder has reached epidemic proportions. A new killer emerges, however, who has other targets, ones which have alarming consequences for the government. Chief Inspector ‘Jake’ Jakowicz is put in charge of the investigation, which will require all her powers of reason and intuition.

There has been a breach in the security of the Lombroso computer system, which screens people for their predisposition to violent criminality. Aided by Chung, a computer expert, and Dr Jameson Lang, Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, Jake begins to build a profile of a criminal mind that has adopted the name (and the thought processes) of one of the world’s greatest thinkers. In an age where faith is lost and reality is mutable, logic has become the killers driving force. His voice emerges: sharp, engaging and dismayingly rational. ‘The concept of killing: the assertion of one’s own being by the denial of another. Self-creation by annihilation.’ His name is ‘Wittgenstein’. A chilling philosophical dialogue ensues between Jake and the murderer, where concepts of meaning, logic, and of consciousness are endowed with the importance of life and death.

A Philosophical Investigation is a powerfully gripping and thought-provoking thriller which takes the reader on a terrifying journey into the head of a serial killer, and to the heart of murder itself.

The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco's A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix.

But how much did Maya Townshend – the beautiful socialite niece of the city's mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop – know about what was going on inside her business? And how intimate had she really been with Dylan, her old college friend?

As another of Maya's acquaintances falls victim to murder, and as the names of the dead men's celebrity, political, and even law-enforcement customers come to light, tabloid-fueled controversy takes the investigation into the realms of conspiracy and cover-up. Prosecutors close in on Maya, who has a deep secret of her own – a secret she needs to protect at all costs during her very public trial, where not only her future but the entire political landscape of San Francisco hangs in the balance, hostage to an explosive secret that Dismas Hardy is privilegebound to protect.

Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig never should have met. One evening, Danny, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his fianceé up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. He crosses the path of Spencer Craig, a West End barrister posed to be the youngest Queen's Counsel of his generation.

A few hours later Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison, thanks to irrefutable testimony from Spencer, the prosecution's main witness.

Danny spends the next few years in a high-security prison while Spencer Craig's career as a lawyer goes straight up. All the while Danny plans to escape and wreak his revenge.

Thus begins Jeffrey Archer's poignant novel of deception, hatred and vengeance, in which only one of them can finally triumph while the other will spend the rest of his days in jail. But which one will triumph? This suspenseful novel takes the listener through so many twists and turns that no one will guess the ending, even the most ardent of Archer's many, many fans.

A shooting incident at a private school just north of Edinburgh. Two seventeen year olds killed by an ex Army loner who has gone off the rails. As Detective Inspector John Rebus puts it, 'there's no mystery'… except the why. But this question takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community. Ex Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone. Army investigators are on the scene, and won't be shaken off. The killer had friends and enemies to spare ranging from civic leaders to the local Goths leaving behind a legacy of secrets and lies. Rebus has more than his share of personal problems, too. He's fresh out of hospital, hands heavily bandaged, and he won't say how it happened. Could there be a connection with a house fire and the unfortunate death of a petty criminal who had been harrassing Rebus's colleague Siobhan Clarke? Rebus's bosses seem to think so…

Becca Healy always believed she understood the shameful circumstances of her mother’s death — until the night her mother’s spirit whispers a simple message out of the static of a radio: “Not true.” Becca turns to the terse Dr. Joanne Call, an expert in Electronic Voice Phenomenon — ghost voices — to unravel the mystery of this decades-old tragedy. Joanne can coax messages out of the silence of the grave, but coping with this feisty, emotional Healy person might be completely beyond her. Together, Becca and Jo must tackle childhood grief, a serial killer, Xena withdrawal, and a growing attraction between the two most mismatched women in Seattle.

When Catherine Ducane disappears in the heart of New Orleans, the local cops react qui ckly because she's the daughter of the Governor of Louisiana. Then her body guard is found mutilated in the trunk of a vintage car. When her kidnapper calls he doesn't want money, he wants time alone with a minor functionary f rom a Washington-based organized crime task force. Ray Hartmann puzzles ove r why he has been summoned and why the mysterious kidnapper, an elderly Cub an named Ernesto Perez, wants to tell him his life story. It's only when he realizes that Ernesto has been a brutal hitman for the Mob since the 1950s that things start to come together. But by the time the pieces fall into place, it's already too late.

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Peters brings back beloved Egyptologist and amateur sleuth Amelia Peabody in an exciting tale set amid the ancient temples and simmering religious tensions of Palestine on the eve of World War I…

August 1910. Banned from the Valley of the Kings by the Antiquities Service, Amelia Peabody and her husband, Emerson, are relaxing at home in Kent, enjoying the tranquil beauty of summer. But adventure soon beckons when they are persuaded to follow would-be archaeologist Major George Morley on an expedition to Palestine, a province of the crumbling, corrupt Ottoman Empire and the Holy Land of three religions. Searching for the vanished treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem, Morley is determined to unearth the legendary Ark of the Covenant.

The skeptical Emerson wants no part of the scheme until a request from the War Office and Buckingham Palace persuades him to reconsider. The Germans are increasing their influence in Palestine and British intelligence insists that Morley is an agent of the Kaiser, sent to stir up trouble in this politically volatile land. Emerson can't believe that the seemingly inept Morley is a German spy, but could he be mistaken?

Determined to prevent a catastrophically unprofessional excavation that could destroy priceless historical finds as well as cause an armed protest by infuriated Christians, Jews, and Muslims who view the Temple Mount, also known as the Dome of the Rock, as sacred, Amelia, Emerson, and company head to Palestine. Though it is not to her beloved Egypt, the trip to Jerusalem will also reunite her with her handsome and headstrong son, Ramses, working on a dig at Samaria, north of the holy city.

Before Ramses can meet his parents, however, he is distracted by an unusual party of travelers who have arrived in Samaria, including a German woman archaeologist and a mysterious man of unknown nationality and past. Unfortunately, Ramses's insatiable curiosity and his knack for trouble lead him to a startling discovery: information he must pass on to his parents in Jerusalem – if he can get there alive.

Once again the Peabody-Emerson clan must use all their skills and wiles to find the truth, prevent a bloody holy war, and save their son from the clutches of a nefarious enemy in this wonderfully engaging tale chock-full of thrills, mystery, and daring from the inimitable Elizabeth Peters.

Stone Barrington is looking forward to some quiet time in New York City, until he is asked to transport precious, top-secret cargo across the Atlantic. Taking on the challenge, Stone flies off unaware of what — or who — he is bringing with him.

But his plans to lie low are quickly spoiled when a dangerous dispatcher tracks down Stone and his tantalizing mystery guest, intent on payback — and silencing anyone who poses a threat. From the English countryside to the balmy beaches of Key West, Stone is on an international mission to hide and protect those closest to him.

A country house whodunnit introducing Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James. Kincaid's holiday in Yorkshire turns sinister when one of the hotel guests is found murdered in the hotel's whirlpool bath. Ably assisted by Gemma, Kincaid sets out to track down a surprising killer.

A SILENT VOW

Spain, 2020. When ex-pat fugitive Jack Cleland watches his girlfriend die, gunned down in a pursuit involving officer Cristina Sanchez Pradell, he promises to exact his revenge by destroying the policewoman.

A SILENT LIFE

Cristina’s aunt Ana has been deaf-blind for the entirety of her adult life: the victim of a rare condition named Usher Syndrome. Ana is the centre of Cristina’s world — and of Cleland’s cruel plan.

A SILENT DEATH

John Mackenzie — an ingenious yet irascible Glaswegian investigator — is seconded to aid the Spanish authorities in their manhunt. He alone can silence Cleland before the fugitive has the last, bloody, word.

After the loss of his family farm, John Moon is a desperate man. A master hunter, his ability to poach game in-season or out is the only thing that stands between him and the soup kitchen line. Until Moon trespasses on the wrong land, hears a rustle in the brush, and fires a single fateful shot.

Following the bloody trail, he comes upon a shocking scene: an illegal, deep woods campground filled with drugs, bundles of cash and the body of a dead young woman, killed by Moon’s stray bullet.

Faced with an ultimate dilemma, Moon has to make a choice: does he take the money and ignore his responsibility for the girl's death? Or confess?

But before he has a chance to decide, Moon finds himself on the run, pursued by those who think the money is theirs. Men who don't care about right and wrong and who want only one thing from John Moon: his body, face down in a ditch.

Matthew F. Jones’ A Single Shot is a rare, visionary thriller reminiscent of the work of Tom Franklin, Ron Rash, Daniel Woodrell, and Cormac McCarthy.