Return of the Spider by James Patterson

Description from Amazon:

Along Came a Spider introduced Detective Alex Cross to readers around the globe and delivered an unsurpassed rivalry: Cross—named the “human superhero” by The New York Times—versus Gary Soneji, who the Lexington-Herald Leader called the “most deliciously wicked character since Hannibal Lecter”. But that wasn’t their first meeting ...

Police discover that Soneji kept a murder book, Profiles in Homicidal Genius, detailing his transformation from substitute teacher to hardened serial killer—including clues that imply missteps that Alex Cross may have made a rookie homicide detective.

Now, Alex must retrace the steps of that long-ago investigation and face ... the Return of the Spider.

 

I decided to try an indie book again and picked one randomly on my Kindle. On the first page a character bashes a cat against a wall to see if they have psychopathic tendencies. Well that book got closed quickly. So I thought I’d see if James Patterson was still writing (and I say that tongue in cheek) mass-produced generic stuff. I used to love Patterson and thoroughly enjoyed his books until they became predictable as he churned them out so quickly. Even the Amazon description seems to have an error in it!

 

I didn’t read the back of the book, just picked it up as it was new. Oh dear. It seems it was a prequel of sorts to Along Came a Spider, which was written way back when. It doesn’t start off as a prequel though, so I felt cheated when I was expecting a new story and it lands up taking you back to how Gary Soneji started his reign of terror; and since we know how it ended, it felt like a backstory that was not necessary.

 

Sure there were clues here and there that were quite clever to have used to frame the guys he managed to make the fall guys, but there were also timing issues. If I remember Along Came a Spider correctly, Alex was a well-established detective by then, but according to this he was a rookie and making a lot of mistakes. Plus I think he mentioned an iPad in the 90s? Yeah, no.

 

I read it, closed it, and then said no more Patterson for me. Once upon a time they linked and had good ideas in them. Now they just follow a formula where it feels like drop-down menus to fill in the blanks.

Just finishing off a Michael Robotham and enjoying that one a lot more. Review up soon.

When She Was Good by Michael Robotham

Description from Amazon:

Criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in this “powerhouse of a novel” (Booklist, starred review) from internationally bestselling author Michael Robotham, a writer Stephen King calls “an absolute master...with heart and soul.”

Who is Evie, the girl with no past, running from? She was discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Her ability to tell when someone is lying helped Cyrus crack an impenetrable case in Good Girl, Bad Girl. Now, the closer Cyrus gets to uncovering answers about Evie’s dark history, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Ultimately, both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried and some monsters should never be named...

 

I loved the first book in this series and was hoping for all the answers here. We did not get them as it turns out there is another book (or two)! But a lot of questions were answered and Evie certainly got some vindication.

 

Evie is back at Langford Hall and elsewhere Cyrus is brought in to a suspected suicide that is anything but. And the more he looks into it, the more connection there is with Evie’s past. Cyrus manages to convince Sasha, the police officer who found Evie as a child, to team up with him. She is rather reluctant to do this but she eventually agrees, and what they find out leads them to organised groups who find pleasure in using children for sick deeds. It’s heartbreaking to hear what Evie went through as a child, and what Terry endured to keep her safe was quite something.

 

As usual the writing is compelling and you keep wanting to read just one more chapter. Evie wants Cyrus nowhere near the case as she is worried about him, just as he is worried about her. If they had managed to be open with each other a lot sooner much could have been averted. But this all adds to the tension and the author’s way of showing us vulnerability yet courage.

 

I was annoyed that not everything was ended off but at least I know there is more to come. And more of Poppy, the black Labrador, I hope! Just make sure, Mr. Author, that someone is there to look after her and feed her when your characters decide to go wandering off, please...

The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz

Description from Amazon:

In the year since her son Danny’s tragic death, Tina Evans has suffered incredible heartache. But now, with her Vegas show about to premiere, Tina might be ready to put her grief behind her and start over.

Until a shocking message appears on the chalkboard in Danny's room: NOT DEAD. Those two words send her on a terrifying journey from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the cold shadows of the High Sierras, where she uncovers a terrible secret.

 

I knew Dean Koontz had written under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols before, but I hadn’t read any of them or realised how old they were. This one had been rereleased and updated and the story worked relatively well.

 

I found it very quick and easy to read and the story felt more solid, as though the older works focused on the plot itself and didn’t need bells and whistles. It almost felt like the seed for so many new books today that have tried to twist exactly this.

 

When Tina gets the message, she thinks someone is out to deliberately spook her and initially blames her ex-husband. She still misses her son immensely, but is in a better space in her head and her work is going well, so when the messages start, she is torn between going forward or back to the bad place in her life.

 

At one of her shows she meets Elliot and they hit it off. When she shares with him that she thinks Danny might be trying to get hold of her after a few more odd coincidences occur, he refuses to believe it. Until two men show up at his house with nefarious intentions.

 

Using any methods they can, they are able to locate an area they think Danny might be and head off. Where they find coverups and secrets galore.

 

This is a bit dated in that it’s a simplistic plot but it feels like an “original” and a precursor so was just putting the bones out there for the time. The ending was the ending but could have been done so much better. There was scope for so much more yet it was abrupt. And yes, there are questions – which would give away a lot of spoilers, so I won’t go into them. The tie-in with the 2020 worldwide disaster is ominous considering when this was written, so having read it now, I guess back then it wouldn’t have made the same impact.

 

I did enjoy the book. Wasn’t fabulous and I wouldn’t read it again, but it delivered a simple story with a supernatural lean to it and a good take on never giving up.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Description from Amazon:

On a plane bound for Sydney the unassuming woman from seat 4D walks down the aisle making unsettling predictions about the passengers.

And six strangers find their lives unexpectedly crossing.

Each tries to put the experience behind them. But, just weeks later, they can't any longer.

Because not believing a prediction is easy, Until it comes true . . .

 

I had seen some of the adaptions of her books and enjoyed a few, so was hoping this would have the same appeal. Unfortunately even though it started with a great premise, it fell really flat. This book took a lot longer than it should have taken to read because it felt like a slog to get through.

 

So the “death lady” on the plane predicts how people will die and at what age. Once they land, the book splits into each person’s story and how they cope with the prediction. Obviously many don’t want to believe it, but when a few people start dying, they now want to take it seriously. It’s a case of do I want to live my life fullout if I know I’m going to die, or do I take the predictions to heart and do all I can to avert them. So it’s really a morality issue and not a fabulous new concept.

 

It gets a bit confusing switching between so many characters, and while the death lady’s history was interesting, it was a lot of info, and it would have been more fascinating having leaned to the supernatural. I suppose in the end the point she is trying to make is that fortune telling is more of a case of what people need to hear not what they want to hear and is done through subtle suggestions.

 

I was hoping for an amazing ending that tied it all up, but it petered out and left you feeling rather unsatisfied. I’ll try one more of her books, but there are so many more authors to discover!

 

One thing that was odd was that the title of the book was printed in such a way that in a certain light, if you moved the book quickly, the title would “jiggle” as one image. Spooky!

Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin

Description from Amazon:

Long ago, Carl Feldman was acquitted of murder.

Now he’s an old man, living alone with his fading memories.

His daughter has come to see him, to take him on a trip.

Only she’s not his daughter, and if she has her way, he’s not coming back . . .

This woman is sure Carl’s a murderer, and that he’s killed others - including her sister Rachel.

And she will stop at nothing to find out the truth.

 

This description really caught my eye and I wondered how on earth she would get this right.

 

So after years of putting together clues, pictures, and making plans about finding out whether Carl killed her sister, our protagonist manages to convince the woman in charge of the halfway house Carl is at to let him out for a short road trip. Carl has dementia and has lost some of the use of one of his arms. She figures that on this road trip if she takes him to places where his other possible victims may be and align them with pictures from his photography book it may stir his memory and help him to reveal what happened to her sister. What is not said but implied is that Carl is not coming back.

 

The trip starts off well but you get the feeling that Carl’s faculties are not that confused and that his arm works better than he claims it does. He asks for a list of “must haves” on the trip and these begin to look suspiciously like tools one would use to murder and then bury the body.

 

The first couple of stops yield no clues even though she seems to be picking up more about Carl, but he also seems to be one step ahead of each decision she thinks she has made in advance. The trip meanders a bit and gets a bit boring but it’s interesting to see how she tried to bring the victims’ places together and how he justified his photos each time.

The ending kinda threw me. It’s one of those that comes out at you from left field where there were no clues sprinkled throughout to support it. There are plenty of action scenes and enough places where I wondered if the plan was futile and exactly who was not coming back.

 

Overall it was a good book and well written; it was just the ending that let it down.

Untouchable by Jeffery Deaver

Description from Amazon:

For Special Agent Constant Marlowe, a quiet college town hides a nest of malice and revenge in this twisty novella by New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver.

 

Special Agent Constant Marlowe is passing through the charming college town of Prescott, Illinois, when a chance encounter with a terrified student stops her in her tracks. Kathleen Delaine thought she was doing the right thing when she demanded an inquiry into traumatic brain injuries among the university’s football team. But after a manosphere shock jock picks up the story on his radio show and makes it personal, the online uproar bleeds into the real world. As Constant works to identify which of the host’s fanboys is threatening Kathleen, she discovers that behind the bullying campaign lies a vast and deadly conspiracy.

 

This is another quick read for Deaver, and even though Constant has popped up in previous novellas, this can be read as a standalone.

 

Constant is quite the spitfire and sometimes her ability to take down threats seems a little off the charts, like not calling for backup when in a dangerous situation but rather deciding to have a boxing match? After seeing Kathleen being harassed on the streets, she quickly intervenes even though Kathleen insists she doesn’t need help. But Kathleen’s good work in requesting an inquiry into brain injuries of football players seems to have been blown out of proportion when a caller named Sam phones in to Brad Phillip’s toxic “man show” to ridicule her and make her out to be some sort of easy lay. Constant now needs to find out who this Sam is and help Kathleen to get to the bottom of why this all started.

Brad’s character is written really well and gives you the icks immediately. He is slimy and judgemental and believes that his views are right no matter what and that women shouldn’t be offended by what he has to say because they should know their place.

There is another side plot to the story and initially it’s difficult to put them together, especially when a character enters whose motives are questionable.

Without giving any of the plot away, you can guess that Constant follows a rather unorthodox plan to try to solve it all.

I liked the fast pace of the novella and the idea behind the plot, but I found the ending rather rushed and didn’t really feel the connection that Constant’s love interest had to this book. It just seemed a bit easy and convenient. It’s one of those fabulous reads while you are in it, but besides the main plot I’m not sure if I’ll remember much else a week later.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to review this arc copy.

Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham

Description from Amazon:

A girl is discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Half-starved and filthy, she won’t tell anyone her name, or her age, or where she came from. Maybe she is twelve, maybe fifteen. She doesn’t appear in any missing persons file, and her DNA can’t be matched to an identity. Six years later, still unidentified, she is living in a secure children’s home with a new name, Evie Cormac. When she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. But she is unlike anyone he’s ever met—fascinating and dangerous in equal measure. Evie knows when someone is lying, and no one around her is telling the truth.

Meanwhile, Cyrus is called in to investigate the shocking murder of a high school figure-skating champion, Jodie Sheehan, who died on a lonely footpath close to her home. Pretty and popular, Jodie is portrayed by everyone as the ultimate girl-next-door, but as Cyrus peels back the layers, a secret life emerges—one that Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, knows something about. A man haunted by his own tragic history, Cyrus is caught between the two cases—one girl who needs saving and another who needs justice. What price will he pay for the truth?

 

This was a great story! It does leave it open at the end to go into the next book, but this can still be read and enjoyed on its own.

Cyrus’s character was truly intriguing and the tattoos definitely need some explaining. Plus, we really need to find out more about the tragic murders in his childhood.

The fact that we were able to see things from Evie/Angel Face’s POV gave us a great insight into the change in her feelings throughout the book and helped us to see her growth. There are still questions we need answers to when it comes to her imprisonment, but the fact that she was able to share what she could was a huge leap for her.

There were many red herring routes offered and we were taken on a ride to see how Jodie’s case would all pan out.

The writing flowed really well and kept me hooked all the way through. Great descriptions, fascinating characters (Felix gave me the creeps), and a gripping story. I’m definitely going to find the second book asap.