Stay Close-Harlan Coben

Stay Close


Harlan Coben

Dutton, Mar 20 2012, $27.95

ISBN: 9780525952275



Ray Levine was once a highly regarded photographer until the incident that shattered his life occurred almost two decades ago. Fortyish, he now is a despondent sham paparazzo posing as such for his celebrity craving clients.



Megan Pierce has come a long way from the incident that changed her seventeen years ago when she buried that wild life in a shallow ditch. Now she is a bored suburban soccer mom with a teenage daughter Kaylie and a younger son Jordon; her spouse is nice Dave whom has no idea who the woman he has slept with for the past sixteen years really is; including her real name Maygin.



Police Detective Jack Broome remains haunted by the cold case he failed to solve though he knows his torment comes from watching what has happened to the missing’s person wife and children as their house is an untouched tomb. The spouse Sarah Green still leaves her husband Stewart’s slippers out for him while their kids Susie has been arrested for DUI twice and Brandon was busted for possession. Jack investigates the disappearance of Carlton Flynn and has found other similar husbands-fathers vanishing without a trace. Three people tied together with what happened to Stewart seventeen years ago will learn whether the truth sets them free.



With Bolitar taking a well-deserved time-out, Harlan Coben provides a superb stand-alone thriller. The key is the ensemble cast connected by the incident in which none of them is able to move on passed what happened though they disguise their trauma with seemingly “normal” behavior. Action-packed hooking appreciative fans, this is a taut suspense as the past has returned to shake up the lives of three people going through the motions of living.



Harriet Klausner

Born to Darkness-Suzanne Brockmann

Born to Darkness


Suzanne Brockmann

Ballantine, Mar 20 2012, $26.00

ISBN 9780345521279



The United States is spiraling into third world status as the Great Depression II wreaks havoc on most people due to policies that legalized unfair practices leading to the wealthiest doing great while everyone paid the price. For much of the increasing poor there is only one commodity they can sell: their preteen daughters. The Organization has created Destiny from the hormones of pre-puberty females; the affluent love the elixir that allows those with money to buy the perfect physical specimen at the cost of their mind.



The Obermeyer Institute opposes the sale of girls as a commodity and by extrapolation are against the use of Destiny. However, groups like the Organization own the media and the politicians so Obermeyer is considered by most a place for crackpots. With nowhere to turn, banished former Navy SEAL Shane Laughlin joins OI though he believes the media portrayal of lunatics especially the “Greater-Thans” philosophy to deploy otherworldly powers for the common good. He changes his mind when female Greater Than scientists half his size kicks his butt in. Shane and Greater Than Michelle “Mac” Mackenzie had shared a one night stand before he joined OI as a test subject. In Boston, they attempt to rescue a young girl sold for her hormones who appears to be a Greater Than.



Noted for Breaking the Rules of romantic suspense with her Troubleshooters saga, Suzanne Brockmann provides a powerful enthralling and dark paranormal thriller as the extraction of young female hormones is a capitalist commodity exchange item. The gripping premise extrapolates trends in economics, politics, journalism and pharmaceutical to paint a dark soulless future. The prime romance between the protagonists and a gay relationship enhance an exciting fast-paced rescue mission.



Harriet Klausner

Shatter-Michael Robotham

Shatter


Michael Robotham

Mulholland/Little Brown, Jan 26 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780316187428



Clinical psychologist Dr. Joe O'Loughlin teaches part-time behavioral psychology at the University of Bath. He lives with his beloved family in Somerset. His wife of two decades Julianne is a successful executive while both adore their daughters, twelve years old Charlie and three years old Emma. The only bight to their idyllic life is Joe's deteriorating health due to Parkinson's disease diagnosed four years ago.



The cops come to the campus to get Dr. Bruno Kaufman to talk down a potential jumper on the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Bruno sends his friend Joe to the scene. A middle aged naked female ignores everyone around her including Joe as she frantically talks on a mobile before leaping; her last worlds to Joe was he would not understand. Student Darcy Wheeler arrives at Joe’s home insisting her mom Christine would never commit suicide. Joe begins to realize the psychological pattern of a leaper does not fit Christine. When a similar suicide occurs, police Detective Inspector Veronica Cray leads the investigation. Joe and his friend retired Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz join the inquiry.



Shatter is an exciting psychological thriller as a master of mind manipulation successfully breaks the will of single confident females. The latest O’Loughlin thriller (see Suspect and The Night Ferry) is fast-paced with a cat and mouse contest between the psychologist whose wife wants him off the dangerous case and the villain a virtuoso playing with emotions. As readers learn why, Michael Robotham keeps the suspense tropospheric in anticipation of a showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist.



Harriet Klausner

Fall from Grace-Richard North Patterson

Fall from Grace


Richard North Patterson

Scribner, Mar 20 2012, $26.00

ISBN 9781451617054



On Martha’s Vineyard, internationally famous writer Benjamin Blaine is found dead at the bottom of a cliff overlooking the sea. Ben’s estranged son Adam returns home for the first time in a decade to attend his dad’s funeral. Others expected at the burial are the deceased’s widow Clarice, their other son gay Teddy, his mistress movie star Carla Pacelli and Ben former girlfriend Jenny Leigh.



Ben thinks someone pushed his larger than life father off the edge. He knows the revised will is a powerful motive for those who gained wealth and for those who lost wealth. Carla receives $10 million; Jenny gets $1 million; Adam inherits $100,000; and Clarice and Teddy were left out of the new will with each obtaining nothing. Using what he learned as an agricultural envoy in Afghanistan, Ben investigates.



This is a great thriller filled with stunning but plausible twists as Ben’s training and experience in duplicity comes in handy when dealing with the extended Blaine clan. As the protagonist uncovers secrets he wished he never knew, readers will relish his exhilarating investigation. Fall from Grace will be on most short lists for mystery of the year.



Harriet Klausner

Force of Nature-C.J. Box

Force of Nature


C.J. Box

Putnam, Mar 20 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780399158261



In the Saddlestring, Wyoming area Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski are friends though the former knows the latter has concealed something from him. In 1991, Nate was assigned to a Special Forces unit when the “Five” led by Lieutenant John Nemecek did something terrible. He walked away, but knew one day they would come for him. That day of reckoning arrives when a gutted Large Merle tells Nate in his last breath: “The Five. They’ve deployed.”



Nate understands no one stands in the way of Nemecek’s rising political career especially those who witnessed the atrocity. He knows the tactic Nemecek uses to kills those on that infamous patrol. His goons will get at him but won’t go directly; instead they terrorize friends and family. The Five will assault the Pickett family. Upset for what has come to his friends and concluding there is Nowhere to Run, Nate believes that the only way to defeat the enemy is outside the law, but doubts his game warden friend can walk the crooked path. Joe has his friend’s back though he prefers not going “rogue” but a High Noon confrontation with Nemecek’s minion is imminent and he must choose between life and the law.



With a nod to the movie Red, bestselling author C.J. Box has written a fresh fantastic Pickett thriller (see Cold Wind) as fans of the series finally learn what recurring support character Nate has hidden though numerous books. The villain has a powerful network in Wyoming and Idaho that informs him who is where and identifying their loved ones so he can arrange their deaths. It is Nate’s turn through the Pickett clan is a Force of Nature that is not to be trifled with. Each book in the series is better than the one before.



Harriet Klausner

Finding Our Way Home-Charlene Ann Baumbich

Finding Our Way Home


Charlene Ann Baumbich

WaterBrook, Mar 13 2012, $13.99

ISBN 9780307444738



Sasha Davis left Wanonishaw, Minnesota on a scholarship to Juilliard when she was seventeen years old. Twenty years later after starting on the road to becoming an international star as the principal dancer at the Boston-based Mid Central Festival Ballet, Sasha’s career ends in a horrible accident. Depressed, she returns home to allow herself to have a self-pity party as she cannot lift her legs without immense pain; her career is over and perhaps her marriage to her dance partner Donald Major too as she refuses to see him and he refuses to visit her.



Sasha finds encouragement from her optimistic caretaker big boned nineteen years old Evelyn Burt, who has family issues of her own, but refuses to let them get her down though she knows she will have to choose between loved ones. However, the former prima ballerina’s comfort comes from the snow globe of a dancer that her mother gave her when she started the odyssey.



Readers will enjoy this contemporary character study in which Charlene Ann Baumbich enables the audience to understand what each key player, especially the disabled dancer, thinks. Although the audience learns rather late the cause of the estrangement and why the teen feels trapped, patient fans will enjoy the latest wonderful Snowglobe Connections saga (see Divine Appointments) as two female opposites forge a sisterly bond that helps both of them.

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl-Stephanie McAfee

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl


Stephanie McAfee

NAL, Feb 7 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780451236494



In Bugtussle, Mississippi, schoolteacher Graciela (Ace) Jones looks forward to the annual Spring break trip to Panama City with her BFF teacher Lilly Lane. However, nine hours before the drive begins, Lilly cancels. Angry Ace knows it is because of the mysterious Gentleman her friend is seeing. Ace is further mad at Mason McKenzie who is the love of her life though their relationship died three years ago. Thank goodness the size-sixteen teacher has the love of her loyal companion Buster Loo the canine.



While Ace rages, Lilly is accused of having an affair with a student. Their other buddy Chloe Barksdale (Ace hates her friend’s married name) is married to womanizing, abusive Richard Stacks IV, who is a paragon of the community. Ace and Lilly stalk nasty Richard to prove the rat cheats on pathetic Chloe; while Mason is back in town wanting a second chance with the love of his life.



This entertaining small-town Southern sisterhood tale is a fun frolic over the top of Woodall Mountain as readers will wonder how the teachers, who enter boob bars, point guns at male anatomy, try to take down their boss Catherine “bitchy Hilliard, and get arrested, keep their jobs as role models. The title character tells the tale of the tape as she and her comrades take down the skunks of The Magnolia State.



Harriet Klausner