Chaotic Ninja

When you find yourself as tense and as fearful for your life as the characters in the book, then you know the author succeeded in bringing you into her world. Welcome to Deep Down Dead , where you chase after the bad guys who are also chasing after you. Well, of course, when I say “you” I mean Lori Anderson, the headstrong bounty hunter who has one seemingly simple job of finding a fugitive for a massive payday. Nothing to it, yeah? After all, that’s her job.  But nothing is simple when it’s your bounty hunting mentor’s ass you’re hauling back to court. With a sick daughter in tow, the risk multiplies faster than you can flip the pages. When you get to the last 30% of the book, it gets harder and harder to breathe. Add child exploitation ring and the Miami mob into the mix and you may never breathe again. There’s a bit of an issue with the believability of a couple of scenes, but nothing so big that it diminishes the overall impact of the story.   ...

Kim Stone. Middle name: Badass. She’s the fierce detective with a no-nonsense approach to solving crimes. She comes across as cold and calculating and emotionally closed-off, but reveals bits and pieces about herself and her real state of mind. This makes her a fascinating character full of contradiction and ambiguity.  Then, of course, there’s her team – a cast of characters with quirky personalities but work together with clockwork efficiency. A love interest that may or may not have a future cuts through the grittiness and gruesomeness of the crimes committed by a dangerously unstable serial killer. Play Dead  by Angela Marsons is a tightly written story with impressive forensic details that make you feel you’re really in the middle of a crime scene investigation and actually understand what’s going on. The dialogues and the banters are as natural as they come.  It’s an exciting read that gets the blood pumping. It’s a shame that it took f...

The second book in the series usually re-introduces characters only briefly so there’s always a chance of not understanding certain aspects of the character dynamics.  With that said, The Night Stalker by Robert Bryndza brilliantly presented the characters in such a way that I didn’t feel like I’ve missed out on important background details. On to the review… A serial killer is on the loose and it’s up to DCI Erika Foster to find the violent, heartless, totally deranged person who’s killing male victims. The killer operates by stalking the victims first with ninja-like precision then killing them mercilessly. The weapon of choice: Suicide bag . The victims never see the killer coming. I like that the killer is revealed a bit earlier than usual. Some would say it’s easy to guess who the killer is. But one has to realize that it’s the thrill of the chase that makes this book a wicked page-turner. Erika and her team have to outsmart the seemingly untracea...

See How They Run by Tom Bale   is what happens when regular folks get mixed up with a network of criminals so vicious, they wouldn’t think twice of committing a violent act if it suits their needs (or save their necks). Who would want to be in this kind of predicament? No one! But Harry and Alice French find themselves in such a sticky situation and they take the reader along with them. Just imagine the stress and exhaustion of being thrown into a bloody mess. Oh, by the way, there’s a baby tagging along. Crazy, huh? Though Harry and Alice are characters you’d easily empathise with, it’s the wicked bad guys that shine through. They are all convincingly evil! They are the kind of people you pray you don’t cross paths with in your lifetime. Although this a gripping story with non-stop action (physical and emotional), I feel that the writer held back on the resolution. It went to “safe” territory after treating the reader to one shocking event t...

After binge-reading on crime fiction for the past several weeks, I needed a change because I’m starting to look at my work mates as serial killers plotting their next kill. So, this particular book is free on Amazon. It’s written by the same author whose YA books I have read in the past. Only this time, she uses a pen name. Closed Off To You  by Rachel S. Rose  is categorised as Women’s Fiction and Inspirational . So, yeah, I could use some inspirational reading to take my mind off the blood and gore of crime fiction. So I dive in. The first chapter has a Chick Lit vibe to it and it’s hilarious! It had me in stitches the entire chapter. Melissa is such an endearing character from the get go. She’s funny, self-deprecating, and exciting in a blundering kind of way. Cute. Then the story takes a sexy turn. The funny bits turn to naughty to very naughty to full on dirty. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. My jaw dropped to the filthy floor. I’m not...

Claire is pushed to the brink when her son Billy went missing. Though there’s hope that Billy is still alive, the fear and the uncertainty are enough to drive Claire into “madness”. She goes through frightening psychological episodes that had physical manifestations. That part of the story is brilliantly depicted with great emotional impact.   The writing is somber and the story, while understandably a psychological thriller, is rather short on thrills. But it’s because  The Missing   by C.L. Taylor  is   more of a family drama than a straight up crime thriller. Despite this, the author is able to deliver an engaging story of a family crippled by secrets and deception.   I wouldn’t say the story is predictable, but this is one of the rare times I was able to guess an integral twist of the story before it was revealed. Despite the lack of thrills, I thought the characters are well developed and readers can easily sympathize with them. ...

In fantasy stories, Book #0 is usually the big set up with an even bigger cliffhanger; the characters are introduced and the fantasy world is established. Escape from Zandell  by Dale Furse  has managed to do that, but it was a bit of a confusing set up and it’s a challenge to keep up with the characters early on. But once you get to the second act, things start to make sense and you begin to understand the characters and their respective motivations just a little bit (there are still questions though).  One problem here is that it’s not clear (at least not to me) who the real main character is. It seems to shift depending on the circumstance. But  I like that there’s always this feeling that something ominous is lurking and any second, some character will die or will be in grave danger. It’s that kind of storytelling that piques my interest. Surely, it’s worth following the series, in the hope that this is just the start of something epic to come.   ★★★...

Third book in the series. Tough to review but e arly reviewers have already raved about it here , here , here , and here .  Not that you need more convincing, but instead of a review, I'm giving you my Top 10 reasons why you should read "The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows " by Marnie Riches . 1.    Confident writing. So confident it can be brutal. You know, the in-your-face kind of brutal that leaves a black eye in the morning. Get some ice. 2.    Bursting at the seams with fascinating and flawed characters:  from the morally ambiguous to the sordidly immoral to the sexually fluid to the emotionally crippled. (The author could be talking about my family, but I digress.) 3.    Unrelenting suspense. So tense that you might find your heart fibrillating. Okay, that may be a tad too much, but it can happen, yes? 4.    Reading it is like assembling the most difficult jigsaw puzzle while playing “Where’s Wally”. (And ...

Time To Die by Caroline Mitchell is a chilling read with an interesting cast of characters whose lives intersect; but not always in the best of situations. I personally like my crime/mystery thriller to be as close to reality as possible. Injecting a paranormal and supernatural twist makes it a little tricky because it could blur the line between what is plausible and what is not. And it’s a question of whether you’re willing to go on board or not. Well, I’m on board and completely gripped! DC Jennifer Knight and a team of specialists with extraordinary skills set out to catch a killer who may or may not have supernatural abilities. Given how elusive he is, he could very well be a mystical creature who commits the most unthinkable crimes. I am impressed at the character dynamics and interaction of the Moonlight Operation squad and fascinated at how they handled the investigation. This is a brilliantly executed crime thriller with a remarkable main character ...

LIKE. SHARE. FOLLOW . . . DIE       How can you resist such a killer tagline? There’s a disturbance in Twitterverse and the person goes by the name @Apollyon. A faceless and seemingly harmless entity has gained notoriety when the “Following” count becomes a tally of victims. The elusive suspect becomes a viral twitter sensation  the police scramble to identify, but fail miserably. Enter Freddie Venton, the spunky but down on her luck wannabe journalist who’s been waiting for the right break to come. The opportunity presents itself when she reconnects (fortuitously) with an old friend Nasreen Cudmore, now a police officer. Using an underhanded tactic, Freddie gets to her first crime scene and becomes involved in it when the police hires her as a consultant because of her social media “expertise”. While this is an entertaining read for its unique plot, it’s hard to ignore how ridiculously inept the police are. And this hurts the story...

  Welcome to TWO REVIEWERS, ONE BOOK.  Once in a while, I invite a reviewer, a blogger, an author, or a random character to sit with me in this very comfortable couch and share our views (opposing or otherwise) on a chosen book that caught our fancy. My review partner for today is   Leisl Kaberry .  She’s the author of the Titanian Chronicles Series . The book that intrigued us is   ' The Winged Turban '  by  J oshua Grasso . Synopsis Beatrice is the victim of an arranged match to the Duke of Saffredento, who hastily abandons her to an estate full of forgotten traditions and curses. When the portrait of a strange woman begins turning up in the house, she summons the great sorcerer, Hildigrim Blackbeard, to investigate. The portrait, it seems, has traveled through time to find her—and bring her back by any means necessary. For she can no longer be Beatrice of Saffredento, but a young woman who died two-hundred yea...