Terminal Life: A Suited Hero- Richard Torregrossa

Terminal Life: A Suited Hero

Richard Torregrossa

Oceanview, Jul 1 2014, $26.95

ISBN 9781608091201

SEAL Luke Stark was in Afghanistan on his second tour when he learned that his wife Crissy was shot in the face during a robbery and their young son Jack is missing.  He suffered a breakdown and given a medical discharge while treated as an inpatient at a VA hospital.  As Luke begins to regain his senses, he leaves the facility with plans to visit Uncle Paulie in Brooklyn to learn who killed his spouse and find Jack.  However, Luke is running out of time as he also suffers from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Dissed by a receptionist, he slices her throat with a MetroCard and as he leaves two crippled security guards.  He has begun his quest to avenge his family.  Thinking he can get rid of one of this family punk annoying him, Uncle Paulie promises Luke answers and cash if he takes out the invincible chemist Mark Fister.  Dressed in sartorial splendor, “:The Suited Hero” enlists his Naval pal Suggs to join him and they leave behind a path of destruction as even gangbangers learn the hard way, anyone in Luke’s way, innocent or not, suffers or dies.

Not for everyone, Terminal Life is a gory violent urban thriller starring a fascinatingly macabre protagonist who refuses to accept sh*t from anyone in his search for his son.  Part of the fun comes from iconic pop names and references like Uncle Paulie, Luke and Laura, and Bond trivia, etc. sprinkled throughout the engaging storyline.

Harriet Klausner

Dead Float: A Cal Claxton Mystery-Warren Easley

Dead Float: A Cal Claxton Mystery

Warren Easley

Poisoned Pen, Jul 1 2014, $24.95

ISBN 9781464202681

In Dundee, Oregon, fishing guide Philip Lone Deer easily convinces his buddy former Southern California prosecutor turned small-town attorney Cal Claxon to join him as a guide on an angling trip on the Deschutes River.  The Portland clients include CEO Hal and Alexis Bruckner.  While fishing for salmon on the Klickitat in Eastern Washington, Cal and Alexis had a tryst last fall that he is not proud of though he enjoyed it.

On the river trek, someone slashes Hal’s throat.  Everyone who accompanied the deceased is considered a person of interest, but Cal’s missing knife makes him the prime suspect.  As such he investigates focusing on whether the motive rests inside the high tech firm that Hal ran.

The second Cal Claxton Oregonian Mystery (see Matters of Doubt) is an engaging tale that captures the beautiful essence of the state’s fishing area through the eyes of the protagonist.  The whodunit is fun but lacks depth while the odyssey of Cal’s daughter in the Sudan feels unnecessary and intrusive.  Still fans will enjoy touring the Pacific Northwest’s major fishing holes with Cal as our guide.

Harriet Klausner

The Sheikh’s Son-Kristi Gold

The Sheikh’s Son

Kristi Gold

Harlequin Desire, Jul 1 2014, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373733262

In a Chicago hotel lounge, American heiress Piper McAdams thinks her attraction to the handsome stranger is due to her long standing membership in the Unintended Celibacy Club.  He joins her at her corner table where she explains she skipped out of a party before meeting the guest of honor Prince Mehdi.  Introducing himself as A.J. with no last name and that he is the pilot for a rich family; he insists that Mehdi is the most grounded and handsomest of the three brothers (see One Night With The Sheikh and The Return Of The Sheikh).

Prince Adan Janal Mehdi knows how attracted he is to Piper when he asks her to take a walk with him outside rather than to his bed.  As she considers flying with him and the Mehdi retinue to Bajul, Piper learns who her host really is.  Before she can come to grips on trusting him, Adan’s no longer significant other supermodel Tania Thorpe pounces on him before dumping “it” on him; unaware she was pregnant she leaves him with his new son Samuel.  Adan persuades Piper to help him raise Sam though she expects the sunny days will end with her suffering a broken heart.

The latest Billionaires and Babies contemporary (see Baby For Keeps by Janice Maynard) is the usual entertaining Kristi Gold Sheikh contemporary romance.  Though Tania comes across as unrealistically vile in her brief appearances until she accepts the truth re mothering Sam, the lead couple and their baby make for an engaging storyline due to the interplay between the protagonists.

Harriet Klausner

Book Clubbed- Lorna Barrett

Book Clubbed

Lorna Barrett

Berkley, Jul 1 2014, $25.95

ISBN 9780425252574

In Stoneham, New Hampshire, Haven't Got a Clue bookstore owner Tricia “The Town Jinx” Miles finds her latest corpse when a bookcase in the cookery bookstore owned by her sister Chamber of Commerce president Angelica fell on the Chamber’s shrewish secretary Betsy Dittmeyer.  However, the cause of death is not from the bookcase, but instead strangulation. 

Tricia investigates the murder of the town’s most unpopular person and quickly uncovers an anomaly as the victim possessed plenty of money with no obvious source.  Betsy’s computer reveals the most likely basis for this income is Betsy’s incriminating files on Chamber of Commerce members.  As she continues her inquiry, two males no longer acceptable in her life (ex-husband Christopher Benson, and her on and off boyfriend Police Chief Grant Baker) pursue Tricia.

The latest Booktown mystery (see Murder on the Half-Shelf and Not the Killing Type) is an engaging tale due to the entertaining small New England town blather that includes series-running questions re the bookstore owning siblings.  The amateur sleuthing is fun with plenty of family and professional suspects though the whodunit takes a backseat to the disclosures of top personal secrets; while the two males chasing after Tricia needs to be shelf under stale.

Harriet Klausner

Vengeance Is Mine: A Red River Mystery- Reavis Z. Wortham

Vengeance Is Mine: A Red River Mystery

Reavis Z. Wortham

Poisoned Pen, Jul 1 2014, $24.95

ISBN 9781464202605

In 1965 hit man Tony Agrioli met newlyweds Center Springs Constable Cody and Norma Faye Parker while they were on their honeymoon in Vegas.  He liked what they said about their small Texas town and thought if he survived his job he would retire there.

Two years later, defying the Family by failing to kill two Cuban tweeners, Tony wants out of the murder business after falling in love with Samantha Chesterfield.  She accepts his proposal of marriage and they agree to move to Center Springs to raise a family there.  However instead of a peaceful town as the Parker couple once told him; nothing goes right especially when the Family arrives, but apparently not for him.  Soon Cody’s Uncle Ned, also a constable, leads an investigation into a homicide, counterfeiting and bank robbery with the sheriff interfering in the inquiry and his teenage grandson Top and the lad’s cousin Pepper adding chaos to the pandemonium.

The fourth fantastic Parker clan historical police procedural (see The Right Side of Wrong, The Rock Hole and Burrows) is a great 1960s period piece thriller in which segregation remains strictly enforced and border issues are not on the radar screen.  The Parker crew is solid as they deal with hell arriving in Center Springs.

Harriet Klausner

The Vampire’s Wolf-Jenna Kernan

The Vampire’s Wolf

Jenna Kernan

Harlequin Nocturne, Jul 1 2014, $5.75

ISBN: 9780373885992

In California while on the run from vampires, Leana-Sidhe Feyling Brianna Vittori places her survival hopes with werewolves, a species she never encountered.  Thus she drives into the mountains where the shapeshifters apparently live.  However, vampires reside there too as she learns firsthand when they capture her.

Stationed at the Marine Mountain Training Center, werewolf Captain Travis MacConnelly’s orders are to hunt down vampires.  He rescues the hybrid from the vampires and escorts her to the base; but Mac breaks military protocol when he fails to turn her in.  Instead he protects her while educating her as to who she is and why the vampires want her.  At the same time their attraction grows out of control and her stalking enemies are his adversaries too.

As the Trackers (see Beauty’s Beast, Soul Whisperer, Ghost Stalker and Dream Stalkers) take a breather, Jenna Kernan provides her fans with a fabulous urban (mountain) military romantic fantasy.  The key to the strong storyline is the four prime species (werewolves, fae, vampires and humans) are all realistically deadly; with the heroine possessing a unique way to kill as nobody turns out to be Mother Teresa goodness. 

Harriet Klausner

Monster Hunter Nemesis-Larry Correia

Monster Hunter Nemesis

Larry Correia

Baen, Jul 1 2014, $25.00

ISBN: 9781476736556

In Vegas, a week and a half has passed since the Top Secret first annual International Conference of Monster Hunting Professionals and the SHOT shooting industry show converged into open combat.  Part of the neon lights urban warfare, rogue Monster Control Bureau Agent Franks cooperates as he explains his invincibility origins to an agent assigned by POTUS to interrogate him.

He explains that alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel created the Elixir of Life that worked well on the dead but not on the living.  When he escaped Dippel’s hell, he made a deal with the Creator to kill the evil but to leave humans alone though he admits to interpreting their contract rather loosely.  Franks further clarifies that he replaced a virginal sacrifice and destroyed the cult but lost an arm to a demon he ultimately pinned to a ship deck until the leviathan destroyed this malevolence.

The fifth MHI urban fantasy (see Monster Hunter Alpha, Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta) is a pleasurable thriller that ties very closely to the recent events in Monster Hunter Legion; so much it behooves the audience to read that tale first.  Although no major threads are climaxed and more seemingly begun, the insight into this enigmatic rogue with his different value system (than that of the majority of humans) is action-packed fun

Harriet Klausner