Out of Time is a great example of the wonderful treasures you can find if you get lucky. Despite the ‘paranormal romance’ subtitle, Out of Time is really more of a time travel romance with a paranormal complication as part of the conflict than an actual paranormal romance, since neither of the leads go bump in the night, but it is a really good time travel romance.

An accidental trip to the past, lands Professor Simon Cross and his graduate Assistant Elizabeth West in New York during the summer of 1929. Being stranded out of time with only each other to rely on, allows the unacknowledged attraction between the pair to come to light. (For those concerned with sensuality level, Simon and Elizabeth’s relationship does become physical and the first love scene is descriptive but not as detailed as most main stream paranormal romance and nowhere near the paint-by-numbers descriptions of the more erotic stuff). Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel Clay, a psychiatrist alleged to have worked with a child-abuse ring, is missing and presumed dead. His grown daughter, Rebecca, is being stalked by an ex-con whose own daughter is missing. Rebecca hires Portland, Maine, investigator Charlie Parker to protect her and dissuade her stalker, a former contract killer named Merrick who is intent on either finding his daughter or avenging her death.

The case leads to a very dark chapter in Maine’s rural history and to the still-operational remnants of a syndicate of highly organized child abusers. Connolly weaves elements of the supernatural into a disturbing, very dark tale. Parker is haunted by the specters of his late wife and daughter as well as an ephemeral embodiment of death who offers both advice and warnings as the detective ventures ever deeper into the darkness of the real world and his own soul. The disquieting subject, coupled with Connolly’s dark, lyrical prose, will leave unshakable images lurking on the edge of the reader’s consciousness. Read the rest of this entry »

In the Belly of Jonah is a fast-paced mystery with a likable protagonist and an intricately woven narrative brimming with bizarre yet believable twists. The first in a series, the book expertly lays the groundwork for Liv Bergen, amateur sleuth, and her love interest, FBI Agent Streeter Pierce.

Liv becomes involved in the investigation of the murder of Jill Brannigan, a summer intern at the limestone mine Liv manages near Fort Collins, Colorado (a breathtaking setting that unwittingly becomes an accessory to crime). In doing so, she inadvertently puts her friends, her family, and herself at risk of being swallowed in the belly of a madman bloated with perverse appetites for women, surrealistic art, and renown. Read the rest of this entry »

COLD WINTER’S KILL is a fast paced thriller that takes place in the scenic mountains of Lincoln County, New Mexico and throws Jim West into a race against time to stop a psychopath who abducts and kills a young blonde every Christmas.

It was one of those phone calls Air Force Special Agent Jim West never wanted to receive–an old friend calling to ask if he could drive down to Ruidoso, New Mexico to help locate his daughter who has disappeared while on a ski trip with friends. Jim found himself heading to Ruidoso even though he believed, much like the local authorities, that if she had gone missing in the mountains in December, her survival chances were slim. He didn’t want to be there when they found her, but still he drove on. Read the rest of this entry »

Mayan myth, including the much-ballyhooed 2012 doomsday theory, forms the backbone of this action-packed debut. Danielle Laidlaw, an investigator for a covert branch of the National Research Institute, sets off into the Amazon with a small group of mercenaries, renegades, rogues, and scholars to uncover the source of mysterious radioactive crystals, hoping to find an ancient Mayan city and a possible source for clean energy. Ruthless billionaire Richard Kaufman has his own plans for the technology and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means killing Danielle and her team.

There are other dangers lurking in the rain forests, including a cartoonishly savage tribe of natives called the Chollokwan and a mysterious man-eating creature. A few sections seem unnecessarily padded, but the fast pace and nonstop violence will keep readers forging ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

Buffy Season Eight Volume 6 showcases the first failure of the Slayer legion. Vampires have solid footing at the top of the totem and Slayers have been crushed to the bottom – in short, no one likes Buffy anymore… least of all this season’s mysterious Big Bad, Twilight, who is hot on her magical trail! Now that it’s the world against Slayers, Buffy must find a way to return the status quo to… status quo – and keep her girls alive long enough to do it! Enter Oz, the only person/werewolf Buffy knows who is down with the suppression of magic, and can take the Slayer army off of Twilight’s magic-specific radar.

With Oz’s assistance the Slayers and Wiccans try to become “normal” through meditation and hard labor – although, not everyone sees the advantage of being magicless, namely, Willow, Giles, and Andrew. Read the rest of this entry »

The Shadow of Your Smile, the latest thriller from Mary Higgins Clark, is in almost every way typical of her previous books. In The Shadow of Your Smile, worldwide bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark weaves a spellbinding thriller revolving around a long-held family secret that threatens to emerge and take the life of an unsuspecting heiress.

At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow knows she has little time left. The last of her line, she faces a momentous choice: expose a long-held family secret, or take it with her to her grave.

Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church—the final step before sainthood. In her lifetime, Sister Catherine had founded seven hospitals for disabled children. Read the rest of this entry »

Clive Cussler and Jack DuBrul have produced another riveting adventure in the Oregon series. For those who are new to this series, the Oregon appears to be a dilapidated freighter manned by a ragged looking crew when in reality it is a high tech and highly armed ship whose crew is known as the Corporation, and is led by Captain Juan Cabrillo, a former CIA field agent. He and the crew perform black ops for the CIA and also private security for different world leaders at handsome prices.

In this novel the CIA recruits Cabrillo and his teamates to recover something in the jungles of Argentina, which ultimately leads the Oregon to Antarctica and the discovery of some remarkable things that have serious political implications. Read the rest of this entry »

Shocking scenes of battle…unforgettable soldiers…heartbreaking betrayals…. In this stunning, fast-paced novel, a ruthless future war unfolds in a 21st century nightmare: Los Angeles is a radioactive ruin; Europe lies bleeding; and Israel has been destroyed…with millions slaughtered. A furious America fights to reclaim the devastated Holy Land.

The Marines storm ashore; the U.S. Army does battle in a Biblical landscape. Hi-tech weaponry is useless and primitive hatreds flare. Lt. Gen. Gary “Flintlock” Harris and his courageous warriors struggle for America’s survival–with ruthless enemies to their front and treachery at their rear. Islamist fanatics, crusading Christians, and unscrupulous politicians open the door to genocide. Read the rest of this entry »

In this dazzling addition to Deborah Crombie’s acclaimed mystery series, a disappearance, a murder, and a child in danger lead Scotland Yard detectives Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid into London’s legendary East End—a neighborhood where the rich and the poor, the ambitious and the dangerous, collide—to solve one of the most challenging and disturbing cases they’ve ever faced. Once the haunt of Jack the Ripper, London’s East End is a vibrant mix of history and the avant-garde, a place where elegant Georgian town houses exist side by side with colorful street markets and the hippest clubs.

But here races and cultures still clash, and the trendy galleries and glamorous nightlife of Whitechapel disguise a violent and seedy underside, where unthinkable crimes bring terror to the innocent.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in mid May, a young mother, Sandra Gilles, leaves her daughter with a friend at the Columbia Road Flower Market and disappears. Shortly thereafter, her husband, a Pakistani lawyer, is killed. Scotland Yard detective Gemma James happens upon the scene in time to witness the investigator making a mistake. Read the rest of this entry »