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The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith – Book Review

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The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith – Book Cover

Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott, are up against a ruthless religious cult. In The Running Grave, the seventh installment of the Cormoran Strike series, the private detective duo is on a mission to rescue a young man from the clutches of fanatics. But the stakes are higher than ever, especially for Robin, who’s thrust into more danger than she’s ever faced before.

The Running Grave is Bursting with Skeletons

Charismatic conman Jonathan Wace—aka “J Papa”—and his exceptionally diabolical wife, Mazu, hit the jackpot when they founded the Universal Humanitarian Church. Their brainwashed followers are completely devoted, eager to fulfill even the most twisted desires of their beloved leaders.

Once this pair sinks their claws into someone, they don’t let go until they’ve wrung them dry. Saving the well-meaning but easily influenced Will Edensor is no small task for Cormoran Strike and his small but dedicated team.

Robin’s Up for This Too!

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Firestarter by Stephen King – Book Review

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Firestarter by Stephen King – Book Cover

Oh, we know all about the CIA and the likes of them, don’t we? Of course we do! If some genius over there comes up with the idea to inject shady concoctions into unsuspecting college students as part of an experiment, well, they don’t hesitate. They just go for it. And if a few people drop dead in the process, they probably figure it’s not too steep a price to pay for developing psychic abilities… Of course, messing around with the secrets of the universe always comes with a side of danger. You can bet the real trouble only begins if the experiment actually works. When the genie’s out of the bottle. Or when someone shows up who can set things on fire. With their mind. Easily. And on any scale. A Firestarter, if you will.

Firestarter Walk With Me

Stephen King has never shied away from the supernatural. (There. We said it.) The pyrokinesis that serves as the basis for Firestarter may have been heard of before—if nowhere else, then at least in connection with so-called spontaneous combustion. And it’s no secret that during the Cold War, both the Americans and the Soviets were digging into the mysteries of the human mind. (With, let’s say, varying degrees of success.)

Still, having a real, living, breathing fire mage? That’s a whole different level!

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Ordeal by Jørn Lier Horst – Book Review

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Everyone has pretty much given up on the missing taxi driver by now—everyone except the media, who are busy accusing the police of negligence. (Hyenas.) But the safe belonging to a recently deceased old gangster boss—who “passed away peacefully” by tumbling down the stairs—suddenly brings new information to light. And what’s more, it ties the disappearance to a high-profile murder case. The ordeal of uncovering the truth falls to Inspector William Wisting.

So who is this William Wisting guy, anyway?

He’s hands down the most likable detective in all of Norway.

If you hate the cops (and honestly, who doesn’t?!), but you’re thinking it might be time to change that, Jørn Lier Horst’s crime novels could be a good place to start.

Wisting is the textbook example of a dedicated and conscientious police officer. He’s also a devoted dad.

And if his professional track record somehow doesn’t win you over, you can always root for him to hit it off with the charming prosecutor—or maybe patch things up with his ex, who recently dumped him for NO REASON. (Fingers crossed it wasn’t because she found the poor guy boring!) … Either way, there’s something quietly compelling about the way Horst gently nudges these two love-starved characters toward each other.

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Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner – Book Review

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Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner – Book Cover

Frankie Elkin is a skinny, petite white woman—with a complicated relationship with alcohol and a massive savior complex. In Boston’s immigrant-populated Mattapan neighborhood, she stands out like a lighthouse on a dark sea. So what the hell is she doing there?!

Well, Frankie specializes in missing persons—specifically, cold cases where the police have already failed. So far, she’s found fourteen people. Every single one of them dead. But with Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who disappeared eleven months ago, maybe—just maybe—things will be different this time…

Before She Disappeared is the first book in Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series.

The Power of Personality

If you’re not a towering, unstoppable muscle-bound force like, say, Major Jack Reacher (see: Lee Child’s Die Trying), who typically extracts information from reluctant witnesses and suspects with a well-placed, bone-rattling punch, then you’ve got no choice—you’ll have to rely solely on the power of your personality.

And that’s exactly what Frankie Elkin does.

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The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff – Book Review

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The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff – Book Cover

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy—better known as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series—put Scandinavian crime fiction on the global map in the mid-2000s. The books, which were later adapted into film and television, became so wildly popular that even after Larsson’s death, the adventures of the eccentric yet unstoppable hacker and her loyal (though occasionally unfaithful) collaborator, Mikael Blomkvist, continued. Karin Smirnoff’s The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons is now the seventh installment in the series.

The Controversial Past of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

What started as a crime series quickly evolved into something more. Something bigger. The protagonist, Lisbeth Salander—a woman who, even with the bed included, barely weighs 40 kilos—soon became an action hero. More than that, she transformed into a vengeful angel, a strong, independent woman who made life a living hell for the men who deserved it.

Then came the sequels by David Lagercrantz, and… well, I have no idea. In my humble opinion, Lagercrantz is one of the weakest among the ever-brooding Nordic crime authors. I haven’t been able to finish a single book of his that I picked up. Naturally, that includes the three Millennium installments he cobbled together.

But let’s see how Karin Smirnoff approaches the iron-willed, tattooed girl—who, after two decades, is undoubtedly a tattooed woman by now.

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The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk – Book Review

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The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk – Book Cover

At the White House, a secret phone line can ring at any moment. FBI agent Peter Sutherland, sidelined to the fringes, has spent the past year working the night shift, waiting for a call that may never come. His only task: to answer and pass it along to the right people. When the phone finally rings, and a young woman in mortal danger begs for help, Peter follows his conscience. And just like that, he finds himself caught in a life-threatening conspiracy.

The Night Agent is Impossible to Put Down

It’s rare to come across a book that pulls you in with such ferocity as Matthew Quirk’s spy thriller—at least for the first 80 pages. Quirk sets the stage with an immediate sense of tension, relentless action, and a merciless antagonist, making the pages fly by.

Action, life-or-death stakes, a covert power play inside the White House. Spies operating under the radar. And to top it all off, the Russian GRU makes an appearance—an agency that, compared to them, even the FSB (the successor of the old KGB) seems like a bunch of Girl Scouts. At least, according to Matthew Quirk. And once the GRU shows up, they waste no time hunting down anyone who gets too close to the fire.

That’s about the first 80-100 pages of The Night Agent. If you don’t want to be disappointed, stop reading right there! And that applies to both the book and this review.

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The Fort by Adrian Goldsworthy – Book Review

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The Fort by Adrian Goldsworthy – Book Cover

During Emperor Trajan’s reign, Rome fought multiple wars against the Dacians, who inhabited what is now Romania. The tribes united under Decebalus posed a constant threat to the empire—just as the Romans did to them. Flavius Ferox, centurion and protagonist of Adrian Goldsworthy’s City of Victory trilogy, takes command of the frontier fort of Piroboridava. If the Dacian armies, preparing for war, decide to march, this fort will be the last line of defense before the provinces.

Through the Eyes of a Historian

Following his Vindolanda novels, Adrian Goldsworthy continues the adventures of his British-born Roman officer, who now finds himself on the empire’s opposite frontier, accompanied by his warrior-queen wife, Claudia Enica. Despite being far from the City and focusing on the relatively low-ranking officers of a minor fort, Goldsworthy still manages to paint a complex picture of how the Roman Empire operated—particularly from a military perspective.

As Flavius Ferox strengthens the fort’s defenses against the looming war, all while dealing with the resentment of the tribal warriors under his command and the rightful anger of his warrior-spirited wife—historian Goldsworthy, too, demonstrates his expertise.

However, if you’ve already prepped for Roman history by devouring classics—say, Colleen McCullough’s brilliant Masters of Rome series—and consider yourself something of an expert, you might still find the sheer volume of Latin terminology overwhelming, from military ranks to soldier slang.

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Written in Blood by Chris Carter – Book Review

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Written in Blood by Chris Carter – Book Cover

When we started this blog, I was somewhere around book four or five of Chris Carter’s Robert Hunter series. And honestly, I was getting tired of it—the formulaic structure and predictable elements were wearing thin. Then An Evil Mind came along, introducing a villain so unimaginably evil that it changed everything. It reinvigorated the series, giving new life to the detective duo who dive headfirst into the most horrific murders imaginable. But by the time we get to Written in Blood, that energy seems to be fading again.

Crime Series, Written in Blood

Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia, the seasoned two-man team from LAPD’s Ultra Violent Crimes Unit, have an uncanny knack for running into California’s most deranged criminals. About 99% of them just so happen to be serial killers.

And these aren’t your run-of-the-mill, discreet murderers. No, these guys leave crime scenes so drenched in blood it’s practically dripping from the ceiling. And Chris Carter? He revels in the grotesque details, delivering long, painstakingly detailed descriptions of crime scenes.

That’s really the essence of Chris Carter’s books: sheer, almost unimaginable horror. The kind that makes readers shake their heads in disbelief, thinking, “Dear God, this is awful! I could never do something like this!”

But Written in Blood does something different. Those drawn-out, gore-filled descriptions? They’re almost entirely missing.

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Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott – Book Review

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England in Peril

By the year 1199, England had gone to the dogs. The knightly king, Richard the Lionheart, had left for a crusade in the Holy Land. In his absence, his corrupt and unprincipled brother John ruled in his place. Society is torn not only by unjust laws but also by the tyranny of the Normans, who had previously subjugated the Saxons. Robber knights terrorized the land, while outlaws prowled the forests… In such dire times, only a brave and noble-hearted knight could set things right—someone like Ivanhoe.

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott – Book Cover

A Dash of Romance…

Sir Walter Scott, the pioneer of the historical romance genre, perhaps achieved his greatest success with Ivanhoe. The chivalric romance, deeply rooted in English literature since the Arthurian legends, provided a solid foundation for the emergence of a noble-hearted hero. And the ever-popular Robin Hood legends, passed down through the centuries, only added to the book’s success.

The readers’ emotional investment is secured by identifying with the oppressed Saxons suffering under arrogant tyranny—after all, who wouldn’t sympathize with the undeserving victims of injustice?

Of course, no historical romance is complete without a heroine—one who must be adored from afar, and, inevitably, rescued. Scott doesn’t settle for just one; Ivanhoe gives us two such heroines. Naturally, both are stunningly beautiful, but more importantly, they are also strikingly independent for the era in which they live. Cheers to strong female characters!

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The Defense by Steve Cavanagh – Book Review

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The Defense by Steve Cavanagh – Book Cover

Defense attorney Eddie Flynn receives an offer he can’t refuse—from the Russian mafia. He must smuggle a bomb into the courthouse. Little Benny is about to testify against his former boss, the ruthless Volchek. The Russians’ plan is simple: send Benny—along with the witness stand—flying into the air. Then feign surprise. “Who, us? No idea what happened. Total shocker!” … To ensure Eddie’s cooperation, the mob kills his business partner and kidnaps his daughter. Eddie’s time is running out—and he has to find the defense method that will save him and his family.

Defense Attorney and Con Man

The Russian mafia overlooked one crucial detail: Eddie Flynn isn’t your typical defense attorney. Throughout most of his life, he’s been swindling people—reading them like an open book. On top of that, he’s an experienced boxer. And his best buddy? Jimmy the Hat, the head of the Italian mafia.

Suddenly, things aren’t so one-sided, are they?

But there’s still a bomb strapped to his back and weapons constantly pointed his way. Eddie must wait until night falls and the mafia settles down. Then, as quick as—ahem—a cockroach scurrying across the floor, he starts putting his counterattack into motion.

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