False Convictions / Review

Author: Tim Green
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing;
1 edition (February 10, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0446401528

Book Description:

Casey is counting on an open-and-shut case, a sure success for her first effort with the Freedom Project, the renowned charity group dedicated to helping exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners. Not only is the Freedom Project giving Casey the chance to help innocent people, but its founder, Robert Graham, is offering Casey a one-million-dollar annual pledge to her legal clinic for taking on just two jobs a year.

Her first assignment is to revive the case of Dwayne Hubbard, an indigent black man serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a college student seventeen years ago. Using DNA evidence, Casey expects to easily prove Hubbard's innocence. Yet when she arrives in rural Auburn, New York, she meets immediate and aggressive resistance.

Tormented by death threats and assassination attempts, Casey investigates a prosecution apparently rife with lies. From the judge, the lawyers, the jury, to the police, she traces a web of corruption surrounding the destruction of one young man. But in all the chaos, Casey's hardest challenge may be just staying alive.

My Review:

The storyline was excellent. The writing is as easy to read as ever. Green spins another wonderful thriller that will keep the reader on the edge throughout the entire book.

(Thanks to Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

The 8th Confession / Review

Author: James Patterson

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing;
ISBN-10: 0446561347

Book Description:

Someone is killing the richest people in the city - and the Women's Murder Club will pay a high price for hunting him. At the party of the year, San Francisco's most glamorous couple is targeted by a killer - and it's the perfect murder.

While Detective Lindsay Boxer investigates the high-profile killings, a saintly street preacher is brutally executed. Reporter Cindy Thomas inquires into this neglected case and discovers the victim may have had very dark secrets. As the search for two criminals tests the limits of the Women's Murder Club, Lindsay sees sparks fly between Cindy and Lindsay's partner, Detective Rich Conklin. The Club now faces its toughest challenge: Will love destroy all that the four friends have built?

My Review:

The eighth installment of the "Women's Murder Club" series is another example of James Patterson's prolific writing ability. It is a quick read with some exciting moments. Rarely is a Patterson novel a disappointment. 4 stars****

(Thank you to Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

Forbidden Passion / Review

Author: Rita Herron

Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Forever; 1 edition (April 1, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0446199494

Book Description:

Fueled by her family's murder years ago, Dr. Marlena Bender has devoted her life to understanding violent criminals. But when a serial killer in this small Southern town starts taking the lives of women in diabolical ways--leaving trophies of his kills on Marlena's doorstep--it all hits too close to home. Terrified, Marlena turns to the only man she can trust...the man who saved her life.

BUT HIS SECRET IS HER WORST NIGHTMARE....

Sheriff Dante Valtrez would move heaven and earth to keep Marlena safe, but he's not the savior she thinks he is. A dark legacy runs through his blood and a dangerous secret lies within him. Now a fierce, hot, ruthless desire draws Dante and Marlena together--as a demonic force from his past threatens to rip them apart, destroying everything they hold dear.

My Review:

Herron provides the reader with romantic chemistry, intrigue, and surprise. This book has the non-stop action readers look for.

(Thank you to Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

Private / Review

Author: James Patterson

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company;

1 edition (June 28, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0316096156

Book Description:

Former CIA agent Jack Morgan runs Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe. It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion. The secrets of the most influential men and women on the planet come to Jack daily--and his staff of investigators uses the world's most advanced forensic tools to make and break their cases.

Jack is already deep into the investigation of a multi-million dollar NFL gambling scandal and the unsolved slayings of 18 schoolgirls when he learns of a horrific murder close to home: his best friend's wife, Jack's former lover, has been killed. It nearly pushes him over the edge. Instead, Jack pushes back and devotes all of Private's resources to tracking down her killer.

Jack doesn't have to play by the rules. As he closes in on the killer and chooses between revenge and justice, Morgan has to navigate a workplace love affair that threatens to blow the roof off his plans. With a plot that moves at death-defying speeds, Private is James Patterson's sleekest, most exciting thriller ever.

My Review:

I have reviewed many James Patterson novels, but I would place this one among his best. If you love a good mystery, this is certain to please. 5 stars*****

(Thanks to Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

Cemetery Dance / Review

Authors: Preston & Child

Mass Market Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Vision; Reprint edition (April 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446618691

Book Description:

Pendergast-the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent-returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.

William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor-a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private-and decidedly unorthodox-quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.

My Review:

I couldn't stop reading; couldn't put this book down once I started to read! This one is a real thriller!

(Thank you to Hachette Book Group for my review copy!)

Built of Books: How Reading Defined The Life of Oscar Wilde / Review

Author: Thomas Wright
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1 edition (April 27, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805092463


Book Description:

This intimate account of Oscar Wilde's life and writings is richer, livelier, and more personal than any book available about the brilliant writer, revealing a man who built himself out of books. His library was his reality, the source of so much that was vital to his life. A reader first, his readerly encounters, out of all of life's pursuits, are seen to be as significant as his most important relationships with friends, family, or lovers. Wilde's library, which Thomas Wright spent twenty years reading, provides the intellectual (and emotional) climate at the core of this deeply engaging portrait.
One of the book's happiest surprises is the story of the author's adventure reading Wilde's library. Reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges's fictional hero who enters Cervantes's mind by saturating himself in the culture of sixteenth-century Spain, Wright employs Wilde as his own Virgilian guide to world literature. We come to understand how reading can be an extremely sensual experience, producing a physical as well as a spiritual delight.


My Review:
An excellent overview of the life of Oscar Wilde. 5 stars*****


(Thank you to Henry Holt and Company for my review copy!)