Suspense Archives - Page 2 of 7 - AudiobooksNow Blog

Secrets and Unexpected Discoveries…”The Fallen”, by David Baldacci

One would think of a small town in western Pennsylvania as being laid back, quiet, and safe. However, the town of Baronville seems to be anything but serene…….or safe. In the newest of the Memory Man series, author David Baldacci follows another case that is under investigation by the series team of Amos Decker and Alex Jamison.

On an ordinary visit to Alex’ sister, and during a conversation with his precocious eight year old niece, he is distracted by a flash in the neighbor’s window. Upon checking it out, they discover two dead male bodies, with no clear hint as to how they died. Little did they know that their finding was only the tip of the iceburg.
After discovering two bodies, the investigative duo must now battle extraneous forces to have a chance at solving the mystery murders. They are working in a very financially and economically depressed small town. The only hopeful business left is a huge, new Fulfillment Center. The town is hanging all hopes for an economic revival on that new Center. However, the discovery of the deaths leads to something very sinister, that may lead the pair of FBI Agents to certain destruction. The suspense is never ending, revealing secrets and unexpected discoveries…….the reader is hooked from page one.

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Desperate Choices are Made Which Will Change the Future of Several…”Accidental Hero’s”, by Danielle Steel

The new best seller by author Danielle Steel, Accidental Heroes, is a sort of compilation of the suspense of the 9-11 tragedy and the landing of the plane on the Hudson River. In this day and age of continual threats, you would think each situation would be taken very seriously. However, when TSA agent, Bernice Adams finds a postcard with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge with an ominous note written on it, her supervisor just laughs it off. Apparently, that supervisor either had forgotten the horror of previous tragedies, or she was too young to remember them. Bernice took it upon herself to call Homeland Security, who took it very seriously.

Two planes are departing from New York’s JFK airport on a beautiful spring morning, traveling to San Francisco. One is a huge 757, and the other an Airbus A321. Homeland Security is quickly trying to determine who left the warning, and which plane they are on. They are fortunate to have the expertise of veteran Homeland Security officer Ben Waterman.

Ben’s focus turns to the A321 Airbus with Senior Pilot, Helen Smith and her male Co-Pilot, who was showing vocal irritation at being passed over, especially for a woman pilot. He had also been overheard speaking racial slurs. Fortunately, Helen had an off-duty pilot on board. In a novel unlike other novels by Danielle Steel, she combines intense action with emotional stories and intertwined lives. Desperate choices are made which will change the future of several accidental heroes. The mental visuals are plentiful in this book…….such as getting the plane back under control at the last minute, including flying under the Golden Gate Bridge and landing the Airbus in the San Francisco Bay.

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A Recipe Made for Complete Chaos…”Red Sparrow”, by Jason Matthews

In such a timely manner, new author Jason Matthews has written an excellent spy novel about the continuing high stakes operations among the power nations. Matthews has been a veteran CIA officer, so his novel is based on personal experiences. Those stories are always the most realistic and the best.

Present day Russia is ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking Vladimir Putin, who has not really changed from his former KGB days in the Soviet Union. Most agencies have essentially just changed names rather than actual change in operation. It has been said…….if you think the cold war is over……think again. It is that startling revelation that makes the novel, Red Sparrow, so intriguing. Matthews assembled a remarkable cast of characters in Dominika Egorova, and Nathaniel Nash. Dominika is a struggling survivor in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle, and Nathaniel is a young CIA officer who handles the USA’s most important Russian mole.

Dominika was ordered to attend the Russian hidden “Sparrow School” located just outside of Moscow. It is there that, many times, unwilling participants are taught the espionage tool of “sexpionage”. Luring vulnerable foreign agents into the trap of personal intimacy has been a Russian espionage tool for years and years. Nathaniel is Dominika’s victim…..all this in the midst of careening out of control action among Russia, Finland, Italy, Greece, and the United States. A recipe made for complete chaos that could eventually lead to many country’s military secrets being compromised, or in death.

Jason Matthews is in a good position to become a major new American author. His first-hand knowledge of espionage, counterintelligence, surveillance, spy recruitment, cyber- warfare, and communications gives him a huge edge among his spy thriller peers. He can remove what is perceived, and without exaggeration, tell a thrilling story of what is lying under the veneer of that perception.

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton!

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Why is Roxy on the Run…”Look for Me”, by Lisa Gardner

In #9 of her series of D. D. Warren detective novels, author Lisa Gardner presents, Look for Me, another in the established series. Gardner also brings back a survivor character from previous novels. Flora Dane is a true survivor from having been abducted at one time for over 400 days. We are never quite sure how a person comes away from such horrific circumstances with all faculties intact. Flora possesses knowledge that only someone who has lived through abduction and captivity can know. She also runs a group for survivors. And, so their investigation begins.

Once D. D. and Flora get rolling, they play off of each other throughout the novel. The storyline is very heart wrenching, but there is still some levity as the two provide humor, snarky comebacks, and their dynamics as they work together. A family of five is brutally gunned down, but one person is missing from the group. Roxy, a 16 year old girl was not found with the rest of the family. That begs the question……is she a victim or a perpetrator? D. D. and Flora find a lot of clues to the personality of Roxy through different essays she has written on her ideas of the perfect family……and what the reality is of the family she was currently with. Why is Roxy on the run? The answer may not be what is expected.

Look for Me is a story of brutality, but also has much to say about the foster care system. According to readers who are Lisa Gardner fans, the book is a well-written, well-paced and cleverly plotted storyline that is told in the voices of the three main characters. Roxy’s thoughts are most thought provoking, as she told many secrets that came from her life as a foster child. Readers were sad, shocked, and angered by the foster home in this story…… a clue in itself.

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The Populace has Become Jaded…”Iron Gold”, by Pierce Brown

From New York Times bestselling author, Pierce Brown, comes another in his series of stories from the dark side of war among the planets. In his complicated story lines, with complicated characters, it is common to see references to world’s (plural), not just one world as in reality. Imagine taking the many problems we have among all different factions in our one world, and spreading them among several worlds. Worlds that you can traverse to and from at will. Think of how gigantic those one world problems would become.

Iron Gold is the beginning of a whole new universe. Along with that universe comes a whole new saga of tragedy, triumph, and transformation. The reader will find Iron Gold to be dark, filled with betrayal, war, violence, lost hopes and dreams…….just about everything at one time that can destroy the spirit of any being. Author Brown definitely pushes his characters to their limits by exploring their power and inner strength. One reviewer felt that all Pierce Brown books are dark, but that Iron Gold is especially grim. This new book is placed in time ten years after book 3. Those years brought more disillusionment and more broken promises. The populace has become jaded.

Pierce Brown is known for creating stories within one book that have several different point of views. It follows several different characters to describe the events of the past decade. Nobody is completely good or completely bad. One returning character, Darrow, is the ultimate tortured hero, and author Brown spares nothing in giving him great struggles. Darrow has sacrificed so much in the series of books, and Iron Gold is no exception. Some readers were saddened by the way Darrow puts so much blame for the ills of the world upon himself.

A general consensus of some reviews is that Iron Gold is a “setup” for bigger things to come in following books.

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Living in a Artificially Perfect World…”Little Fires Everywhere”, by Celest Ng

The subject of Mother/Daughter relationships is complex at best, but add the usual components to a very unique, over-structured environment, and a very exciting novel can be written. This is exactly the premise of author, Celeste Ng, in her current novel, Little Fires Everywhere. There is much to be learned about the idyllic community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. It is a community planned with every detail in mind. At first thought, it seems like a great idea, but in this novel, the reader will see that such over-planning can cause a whole host of problems.

The Richardson’s are one of the leading families in Shaker Heights. The matriarch, Mrs. Richardson, is always at the forefront of everything community. She lives in an artificially perfect world…….wealthy husband, four children, beautiful home, rental properties……who could ask for more. She is so structured, she prefers to be called Mrs. Richardson by everyone. She is very selective in who she chooses to rent to in the community of rules and regulations. So, when Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl are interested in her house, she agrees to rent to them. She always uses her rentals to try to give back to those who are less fortunate than her. She fails to see that Mia and Pearl are not ones to comply with the ordinary rules of family structure in the organized community.

Author Ng, through her story, explores the thought that being a mother does not mean you are a perfect person. Reality is that each one of us is full of angst that we all have flaws and cracks, no matter how good we are at hiding it from prying eyes. Mia has secrets in her past that she keeps buried, and has lived a gypsy-like lifestyle in an attempt to avoid close relationships. But now, Pearl has been welcomed by the Richardson kids, so how will Mia handle this unfamiliar situation? When the ultra-structured Mrs. Richardson collides with the free spirit Mia Warren, their lives will become intertwined in ways they could not have imagined.

“Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-handled secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood, and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak.

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What is Legitimate and What is Not??…”Two Kinds of Truth”, by Michael Connelly

There are very few authors who could continue a series about the same main character for 22 episodes, but author Michael Connelly has done just that with his Harry Bosch series. His newest in the series, The Two Kinds of Truth, is another page Turner for Harry Bosch fans. For someone who retired from the very stressful LAPD job, he stays very busy with the San Fernando Police Department, comprised of just three detectives.

Harry’s new position has him tackling a stack of cold cases. However, as he was delving into the cold cases, a new case came up. A father and son, both pharmacists, have been murdered. Harry is immediately thrown into an undercover position and must enter into a very dark world of drug dealing by script. As if illegal drug dealing is not enough, now it is difficult to distinguish what is legitimate and what is not.

Harry also gets pulled back into an old LAPD case where an inmate on death row is claiming that Harry planted evidence on him. The reader will find both cases intertwining as Harry works on both.
“The two unrelated cases wind around each other like strands of barbed wire. Along the way Bosch discovers that there are two kinds of truth: the kind that sets you free, and the kind that leaves you buried in darkness.”

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Plague, Chaos, Death, Destruction, with some Supernatural Thrown in…”Year One”, by Nora Roberts

Who would be your first guess as an author of a book which begins with the plague, chaos, death, destruction, with some supernatural thrown in for good measure? It is an apocalyptic end of the world scenario. My guess would immediately be Stephen King. But, I would have been way off the mark. Usually known for her feel good, comforting books, author Nora Roberts has ventured into a different genre which includes all of the above mentioned subjects. There is no one central character, or no immediate love story, but some current oriented topics with several interesting characters involved.

Reviewers have been pleasantly surprised by Robert’s ability to transition into a darker world than any of her 200 previous novels have entered. Readers were happy that she did recover the book in the middle to show the new beginning of the survivors, after the assault on the population from several different directions. There are many happy, bright scenes as the new beginning takes place. Roberts follows the various characters who lived to carry on. There are still dark spots to be dealt with, but nothing as terrifying as they already survived.

Year One is the first in a new trilogy. For those who may have been left wondering about some subjects at the end of this book, there are two more books on the horizon that may have your answers. With book one of the trilogy by author Roberts, “the end has come……the beginning comes next”.

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Snakes, Professional Grave Robbers, 90 Year Old Grandmothers, and a Plethora of Corpses…”Hardcore Twenty-Five”, by Janet Evanovich

Hard Core 24 is the most current in the Stephanie Plum series of books by author, Janet Evanovich. Having written 23 other episodes, the 24th has proven to be in keeping with the hallmarks of her writing. Her new offerings come out about every Thanksgiving time, and her reading fans are never disappointed.

Meandering through a Stephanie Plum mystery may take you down many roads before you reach the final page. In the 24th book, Plum arrests a looney professional grave robber, but before she can take him in, he requests that she babysit his boa constrictor, Ethel. She tells him that she will do it, but if Ethel gives her any trouble, that she does own a stun gun. It would take more than a stun gun for most of us to agree to watch a huge snake that is capable of killing. As if that were not enough on the bizarre side, things turn even darker.

Plum is confronted with headless bodies being spread around town, discovering that they are coming from a funeral home and morgue. But then, a homeless man is found murdered and dumped behind a church. Now, time is of the essence in finding the killer. Plum is very capable of tracking down this killer, but learns that she has competition from bounty hunter, Diesel, who knows no limits when he is in pursuit of a perpetrator. The locals who are interested in competing bounty hunter, Stephanie, are not pleased that Diesel has appeared out of nowhere.

What sounds like a very serious murder mystery is actually filled with humor. Stephanie’s 90 year old Grandma Mazur gives hysterical scenes that will have the reader chuckling, and Lulu adds to that humor with her antics. It is a successful author who is able to peak the interest of her readers with characters whom they know very well from the previous 23 books. It takes talent to combine big snakes, professional grave robbers, 90 year old grandmothers, and a plethora of corpses into a #1 New York Times bestselling novel. Readers have already exclaimed that they are eager to read #25.

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Struggling Against the Ticking Clock…”The People vs. Alex Cross”, by James Patterson

American author, James Patterson, has come under great criticism as of late, for pumping out more Alex Cross series books without any particular order, or what some critics call the completely wrong order. He is accused of being more interested in increasing his ever-increasing bank accounts than being interested in pleasing his loyal series readers. However, his newest offering, The People vs Alex Cross seems to have reinstated his place in the eyes of his most loyal fans. With the new twist given to his newest installment, series fans have given kudos to Patterson for finally getting the series in sync.

Alex Cross, that person who with psychiatric training, has been the one to solve the deadliest crimes and find those whom others had no chance of finding. But now, Alex Cross finds himself on the wrong side of the law, and is being accused of being a trigger-happy cop who has actually committed murder. He has been put on suspension, and has decided to fill his free time by counseling others on the police force who needs advice or assistance in working through their problems. His first consult is with a fellow cop, Samson, who was one of his former partners. Several young blonde girls have disappeared, and among them is Samson’s daughter. He is desperate to find her, as he feels that her life is hanging by a thread. Alex Cross puts his own career in jeopardy to help this terrified father find his child, and therefore find the serial killer behind this string of disappearances. At the same time, Cross is fighting his own battle, preparing for a court case that will determine his fate.

As Cross struggles against the ticking clock of a serial murderer, and grows less and less confident in his own case, he must rely on his own psychology training to get himself through his most challenging times. As one reviewer commented……the end of Cross’s trial is absolutely mind-blowing!

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