Hoofball Reading Log 2013

Hoofball

1)
Author: Richard Laymon

Title: The Glory Bus

Comment: This is the first book from this author that I've read and it happened to be a book that was published in 2005, four years after his death. I enjoyed this book although I wasn't quite too sure what to expect. The book revolves around two main characters, Pamela and Norman. Pamela finds herself abducted by a crazed stalker and Norman is a college student who gives a ride to two sociopaths called Duke and Boots. Their paths cross in an unusual way and I can't go into more detail without spoiling the plot. Good book but not a believable plot.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

2)
Author: Dennis Lehane

Title: Live by Night

Comment: This is a stand-alone novel from Lehane and is well up there with the rest of his books. The plot is based in the world of the 1920's gangsters in the US and deals with what went on during Prohibition and afterwards. Joe Coughlin is a gangster with ambitions to be at the top and his father is a senior cop. An excellent read and recommended.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

3)
Author: Patricia Cornwell

Title: The Bone Bed

Comment: I'm not sure what is the problem with this book but as a huge fan of this series from the beginning I'm starting to dislike all of the characters in it. This novel is a bit disjointed in that there is plenty going on but a lot of it doesn't really relate to each other. Some of the characters take another beating in this book and I can't really tell why they are still working together. Cornwell really needs to get back to the tightly knit plotting of the earlier books and get some life back into the characters. I'm really only sticking with this author now as I'm a fan of the series.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

4)
Author: Andrew Klavan

Title: Damnation Street

Comment: Not this authors best work. This is a "by the numbers" private detective novel about hunting for a woman in hiding to find her before a killer does. This novel apparently draws on the authors experiences with a real private detective agency. There is also a side story told in the first person narrative style which is supposed to the authors experience. This side plot goes nowhere and doesn't add to the main story. In the main story we are never told why the killer is hunting for the woman or why the detective is looking for her. An ok book but would not attract new readers to this author - try some of his earlier novels instead.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

5)
Author: Anthony Moore

Title: The Swap

Comment: This is a fairly well written, if predictable, thriller with some black comedy moments thrown in. None of the characters are in any way sympathetic and it's hard to really care what happens to them. The twist is telegraphed well in advance and should be obvious to anyone. The plot revolves around a comic store owner going back to his home town for a school reunion and meeting up with another student with whom he had swapped a very valuable comic back in the school days which is now worth about 200,000 pounds. Events take an unusual turn and the main character is thrust into the middle of a murder case.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

6)
Author: Will Davies

Title: Beneath Hill 60

Comment: This is a really good read and is a fascinating insight into an aspect of the first world war that I wasn't aware of before now. This book relates to an offensive which happened on the 7th of June 1917 when the Allied forces exploded nineteen huge mines along many kilometres of the western front which smashed the German frontline. These mines were placed into large caverns which were tunneled and dug out underground by specialist miner units, some of the mines consisted of over a hundred tons of explosive material so the tunnelling took a long time to complete. This showed up an aspect of trench warfare which is easy to pick up on in any book on WWI, namely how little the frontlines moved in a couple of years. In some cases these mines were in place a year before they were exploded and the frontline didn't move that much. I highly recommend this book.

Score: 9/10

Hoofball

7)
Author: James Patterson & Mark Sullivan

Title: Private Berlin

Comment: This is the fifth book in the "Private" detective agency series. This novel is based on the Berlin branch and is a good quality crime story. The plot is that the Berlin branch is investigating the disappearance of one of their investigators, Chris Schneider. He had gone on an off the books investigation related to events that had occurred 30 years earlier when he was in an orphanage.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

8)
Author: Various

Title: Vengeance

Comment: This is a collection of stories from the Mystery Writers of America association. Some of the biggest names in crime writing have stories in this collection. As with all short story collections you have the good and the bad. The best story is from Michael Connelly who provides a short story with his character from his novels: Harry Bosch. The poorest story in my opinion was Blood and Sunshine, the ending just didn't really sit right with me and the whole story was just a bit strange.

Score: 7/10

Queen-Mise

Hoofball wrote: »

6)
Author: Will Davies

Title: Beneath Hill 60

Comment: This is a really good read and is a fascinating insight into an aspect of the first world war that I wasn't aware of before now. This book relates to an offensive which happened on the 7th of June 1917 when the Allied forces exploded nineteen huge mines along many kilometres of the western front which smashed the German frontline. These mines were placed into large caverns which were tunneled and dug out underground by specialist miner units, some of the mines consisted of over a hundred tons of explosive material so the tunnelling took a long time to complete. This showed up an aspect of trench warfare which is easy to pick up on in any book on WWI, namely how little the frontlines moved in a couple of years. In some cases these mines were in place a year before they were exploded and the frontline didn't move that much. I highly recommend this book.

Score: 9/10

I was in one of the craters of those bombs a few years ago. I had a family member in hospital in Bruges & one of the days I took a break and went on a WW1 tour.
It was incredible, would so recommend going to some of the museums around there. It was huge, seemingly it was one of the reasons the Allies won the war. When the allies took the German tunnels after the bombs - they got all their back up munitions, stores, etc. Left the Germans with very little.

Hoofball

That sounds fascinating - thanks. I've only really gotten into the military history books in the last 10 years so it looks like I've missed out on this the few times I've been to Bruges in the past! Must keep that in mind if I'm ever there again. One of my future travel plans is to do some historical tours so Bruges might be an easy one to get to....

Hoofball

9)
Author: Dean Koontz

Title: 77 Shadow Street

Comment: Zzzzzzzzz. For such a long book, about 450 pages, not much happens until near the end. This book suffers from trying to cram too much "stuff" into it, too many characters, not enough plot in the beginning so the story meanders along. Decent enough premise when you find out near the end but very poorly executed. The editor of this book should take a good long look at themselves, at least 30% of the book could have been culled with no impact to the plot.

Score: 3/10

Hoofball

10)
Author: Linwood Barclay

Title: Never saw it coming

Comment: Keisha Ceylon is a con woman who preys on the families of missing people pretending to be a psychic with important messages. One day she picks on the wrong mark and comes uncannily close to the truth of what actually happened. This is quite a short book and is a very quick read. NIcely plotted but nothing too laudable about it. Standard thriller.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

11)
Author: Nelson DeMille

Title: The Panther

Comment: This was a welcome read after a few slow books. John Corey, ex-NYPD detective, returns in this novel hunting down "The Panther", a terrorist who assisting in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Corey and his wife Kate Mayfield are sent to Yemen as part of a team to hunt the Panther down and not everyone can be trusted. The book is slightly overlong at over 600 pages and could have done with some better editing and the wisecracks from Corey are overplayed in this novel. Having said that, I enjoyed this novel and it held my attention throughout. You won't have to read the previous Corey novels to enjoy this one but it would enhance the reading as you'd understand some of the back stories for a few of the characters.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

12)
Author: William Landay

Title: Defending Jacob

Comment: Andy Barber is the DA in a small Boston town where a 14 year old boy is murdered and Andys own son is the main suspect. This book explores themes such as how far a parent would go to protect a child, is the "murder"-gene a reality i.e. Can violent tendencies be passed from generation to generation and the impact of a childs trial on a family. The author uses flash-forwards throughout the novel which give glimpses at something happening in the future but never quite reveals anything. Good premise and plot but I felt the end was much weaker than the rest of the novel. I won't give any details as they would be tantamount to spoilers but I thought too much was crammed into the ending and events could have been explored a bit more. I'd still give this book a high score as it held my attention and I wanted to find out what happened.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

13)
Author: Jonathon Kellerman

Title: Guilt

Comment: This is the 28th Delaware novel and this series still holds up fairly well. Standard plot in this one, a renovation in an old house turns up an infants body buried over 60 years ago and two other gruesome discoveries are made in a nearby park. This novel also delves a small bit into the darker side of celebrity. Good story and enjoyable read. I was also glad to see they have dropped this "Crime Reader" business from the cover of the books.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

14)
Authors: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Title: 12th of Never

Comment: As self evident from the title of this novel this is the 12th book in this collaborative series from James Patterson. Quite a short novel with a few plot strands being interwoven with all of them leading to the conclusion, which I thought was a bit odd anyway, but I can't say much more with spoiling it. The main plot strands are an english professor comes into the precint telling of a murder he has dreamt about which then happens and a serial killer awakes from a 2 year coma and says he will reveal where the missing bodies are. Not the best in the series by a long shot, maybe this one is running out of steam.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

15)
Authors: Roger Hobbs

Title: Ghost Man

Comment: The main character is a Ghost Man, he makes things disappear and ties up loose ends. This first time author has plenty of promise but even though I wanted to, you just don't get any connection with any of the characters. At times he is like a "Jack Reacher" impersonator, put into impossible situations but still comes out the only man standing. Having said that, this is a good page turner and I did enjoy the book so it gets a high score from me.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

16)
Author: R J Ellory

Title: Saints of New York

Comment: This is a great book - Detective Frank Parrish had a famous father who was a detective who was on the organised crime task force in the 1980s. His son faces daily sessions with the forces shrink and is on a knife edge to be fired for insubordination. Can he deal with his personal issues and also solve what could be his last investigation? Good plot, characters and writing - I recommend this one

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

17)
Author: Casey Hill

Title: Torn

Comment: I normally don't go for crime novels set in Ireland (for whatever reason) but I'm glad I picked up this book. The plot is somewhat unbelievable for an Irish setting - we don't usually have too many sadistic serial killers around, but it is played out well enough. The characters are believable and it's a good story. Reilly Steel is an FBI trained crime scene investigator who is now heading up the Garda Crime Scene Unit in Dublin. The corpses of high profile victims start turning up and there are no clear clues. Casey Hill is the pseudonym for the husband/wife team of Kevin and Melissa Hill.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

18)
Author: PJ Tracy

Title: Two Evils

Comment: This is the sixth book in this Monkeewrench series and it is unfortunately the weakest one. The book was quite short and felt to me to have been rushed. The usual characters didn't look to be themselves and something just seemed to be off. This book continues from where the previous one finished but you could read this as a standalone effort if you wanted. This deals with domestic terrorism in the US and a groups efforts to unmask the perpetrators. Given all the above it's still a decent read but not up to the standard of the previous books.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

19)
Author: Clive Cussler & Justin Scott

Title: The Striker

Comment: This is the sixth book in the Isaac Bell series, about an early 1900's detective agency. This novel goes back to his first case as a detective involving a plot around union saboteurs in the coal mining industry. I usually don't like when series suddenly go back in time for a character, but it works here. I enjoyed this read and would recommend these books to someone who is after a light enough read. These are more adventure type novels rather than traditional crime/thrillers.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

20)
Author: John Godey

Title: The Taking of Pelham 123

Comment: I picked this up cheap in an airport recently and was glad I did. This is a great book about the hijacking of a subway train in New York for ransom. The novel was written in 1973 and some of the writing is a bit jarring today, especially when dealing with race relations which were apparently quite bad in the early 70's. The author uses a good tool of giving insights from the different characters viewpoints which allows him to show everything from all sides, the cops, the hijackers and the passengers. Well worth the read, must go watch the movie as well

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

21)
Author: David Hewson

Title: The Villa of Mysteries

Comment: This is the second novel in this crime series set in Rome. The main character is Nic Costa and as with any protagonist he has his flaws. This series is a really good one and has very good character and plot driven story lines. In this novel a young woman is found dead in a peat bog and opens up a dark secret of the underworld in Rome. Nic gets a new partner who has been demoted to the position so that brings more trouble. Recommended reading for sure.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

22)
Author: David Hewson

Title: The Sacred Cut

Comment: I'm catching up on the older novels in this series so this is the third novel. Rome is beset by blizzards and a a body is found in the Pantheon. Before Nic and Gianni can investigate the body and case is taken over by the FBI in a strange twist. Another excellent novel from this author.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

23)
Author: David Hewson

Title: The Lizard's Bite

Comment: The fourth in the series and the last book in my catchup. This follows on some months later from the outcome in the third book. An accidental fire has claimed two lives but is all what it seems? This novel is set in Venice and is another good read but not as good as the previous novels.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

24)
Author: James Patterson

Title: Alex Cross, Run

Comment: This is the 20th Cross novel according to Pattersons bibliography but I still discount two of the novels as not being part of the series (Alex Cross' Trial and Merry Christmas Alex Cross). However, this is a return to form after the miserable effort that was the "Merry Christmas" book. Short tense chapters, fast paced writing and action bring this novel back to what the Cross books are all about. Three killers are on the rampage and Cross is after them, but he doesn't notice that someone is also after him. The only complaint I have is some of the plot strands are wound up very quickly and the ending is very fast. But overall this was a good read.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

25)
Author: Mark Allen Smith

Title: The Inquisitor

Comment: This is the debut novel from this author and for once I tend to agree with the blurbs on the cover. It is a fairly original kind of story and you get to care about the characters. A professional torturer has only one rule - never work on children, but one day the situation is forced on him. What will Geiger do? As I say, an interesting concept and is pulled off well here.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

26)
Author: Erica Spindler

Title: See Jane Die

Comment: This one has been on my "to-read" shelf for quite a while and I'm glad I picked it up to read on a recent flight. Seventeen years ago a teenagers life was nearly ended by a boat that sped towards her and hit her head on. In the present day her husband is accussed of murder and the past keeps rearing its head. Everything keeps pointing to her husbands guilt but is he guilty? This book is worth reading as well.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

27)
Author: David Ignatius

Title: Body of Lies

Comment: Roger Ferris is a CIA operative who is on a anti-terrorist team to capture one of the most wanted terrorists still at large. A convoluted scheme is thought up using a body as a deception but it starts to unravel quickly and Ferris is caught in the middle and does not know who he can trust. This a good read and recommended

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

28)
Author: Raymond Khoury

Title: The Devils Elixir

Comment: This novel brings back the hero of Khoury's previous bestselling "Templar" novels. The plot revolves around a natural drug that is so powerful and potent that one of the biggest cartels is after it and they will go to any length to obtain it. There are unexpected twists in here (and one of them was looking so outlandish I nearly put the book down) that keep your attention and the plot moves along at a good pace. I'd recommend this novel as well

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

29)
Author: Glenn Meade

Title: The Second Messiah

Comment: This is a well written novel with a main character with an interesting background and a somewhat unlikely hero. In Jerusalum an archaeologist called Jack Cane finds a scroll which could rock the historic foundations of the church. It's an interesting theme and is played out well but I felt like the risk of the secret being known did not justify what was being done to hide it. A good read.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

30)
Author: Hugh Howey

Title: Shift

Comment: This was a great book but I wish I knew that it was the second in a trilogy before I read it! Although it's a prequel of sorts to the first book apparently it does give away what happens in the first. However I will definitely be reading the first book "Wool" in the near future and the last in the trilogy "Dust" when it comes out in October. The world is destroyed by nuclear war and many thousands of people have been saved and been put into "Silos". This novel explores what these people do throughout a couple of hundred years of existence. I found the plotting and dialogue in the book to be a refreshing change and this book comes highly recommended.

Score: 9/10

Hoofball

31)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Six Years

Comment: It had to happen sooner or later but this is a poor effort from Coben, but only when compared to his past novels. It is six years since Jake watched the woman he loved, Natalie, marry another man and she asked him never to contact her or try to find her. But when he sees the obituary for the man she married he decides to go the funeral but Natalie is not the grieving widow. This leads Jake into a world of intrigue as people from their past deny ever knowing Natalie or him. The plot is a bit convoluted and is a fair stretch to believe but the action zips along and kept my interest. I just didn't think this was up to his usual standards

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

32)
Author: Michael Cordy

Title: The Crime Code

Comment: This is a half-decent thriller with an interesting premise. A conspiracy is underway to use genetic engineering to remove the genes that give a pre-disposition for violence. The plot is a bit standard and there isn't any decent twists or surprises. Some of the twists are far too coincidental and convenient and one in particular, all I will say is hologram, is ridiculous. All in all though, an enjoyable enough read.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

33)
Author: Hugh Howey

Title: Wool

Comment: This is the first book in the "Silo" trilogy and is made up of previously available material. This author is a breath of fresh air and I really enjoy his books. I only wish I had read this first before "Shift". I won't say too much about this book other than "Read It!!". Likeable and believable characters and good writing make this a really good story. I am looking forward to the final book this autumn.

Score: 9/10

Hoofball

34)
Author: David Baldacci

Title: The Hit

Comment: Will Robie is a CIA assassin and is given the task of bringing in or killing a rogue fellow agent. But all is not what it seems and Robie is drawn into the middle of a conspiracy and he can't trust anyone. This is the second novel featuring this character. The plot is a bit of stretch but is typical of Baldacci. Good solid read.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

35)
Author: Dick Wolf

Title: The Intercept

Comment: This is a debut novel from the creator of the tv series "Law & Order". It is a good story with some interesting angles but I have to say that the plotting is abysmal. For a thriller there isn't very many surprises in it and I saw the main twist coming from about a quarter way through the book. A hijacking is preventing by six people from the crew and passengers and they become instant celebrities. A passenger on the same plane disappears as soon as it gets to Manhattan and this leads the intelligence division of the NYPD to believe that the terrorist threat is not gone.

Score: 5/10

Hoofball

36)
Author: Matthew Glass

Title: End Game

Comment: This novel is set in 2018. Over 200 people are massacred, including 35 Americans, when the Lord's Resistance Army attack a hospital in Uganda. The US plans to destroy the LRA but China now have strategic positions in that part of the world. Stock prices start falling as uncertainty hits the US markets. This is a novel of political intrigue and shows some interesting scenarios which are quite believable. A very enjoyable read.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

37)
Author: James Patterson & Michael White

Title: Private Down Under

Comment: Private Down Under is the 4th novel in the Private series by James Patterson and is co-authored this time by Michael White. This is an ok addition to the series but I'm not sure why Patterson is spreading this series across so many locations. A serial killer is murdering rich wives in Sydney and a rock star also approaches the newly set up Private office in Australia for help. The characters are a bit one-dimensional in this novel and it's hard to care for them but as usual the action zips along.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

38)
Author: Stephen King

Title: Joyland

Comment: This is a book released by "Hard Case Crime" and so is only available in paperback. It's a shortish novel at 283 pages but it packs a great story into those pages. I believe this is King at his best - telling a good story. It's not full of action or horror, but is about a man who is telling a story from his youth when he worked a summer job at Joyland, a small theme park. As the blurb on the back says..."the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life". I really enjoyed this book and it seems that King is really back on form with his last few books. It makes me really look forward to "Dr Sleep" later this year, the sequel to "The Shining".

Score: 9/10

Queen-Mise

Hoofball wrote: »

That sounds fascinating - thanks. I've only really gotten into the military history books in the last 10 years so it looks like I've missed out on this the few times I've been to Bruges in the past! Must keep that in mind if I'm ever there again. One of my future travel plans is to do some historical tours so Bruges might be an easy one to get to....

If doing one of those tours (and I presume this goes for all tours of this type) and I learnt this accidentally.

Do it in the smallest bus tour you can find - the one I did it was a small bus with at most 8 seats. This meant that we could get around all the stuff that you couldn't get to on a large bus. And the roads all round North Belgium for WW1 are really small.
We couldn't have gotten to that crater, for example, on a large bus.

Hoofball

39)
Author: Dan Brown

Title: Inferno

Comment: I wish I didn't bother with this one. I did enjoy some of his previous books as pure escapism thrillers but this one reads as if it was written to a formula. Even more unbelievable than the previous books and an ending that is fairly absurd (but on an interesting aside was similar to the plot in a book I read recently). The twists are fairly contrived to say the least and the "change of heart" by a company in the last third of the book was laughable. I probably won't be bothering with the series books from Brown again but might try a standalone novel. Langdon wakes up with apparent amnesia and has to race through several countries to get to the boring end point.

Score: 5/10

Hoofball

40)
Author: Ben Mezrich

Title: Straight Flush

Comment: I usually enjoy Mezrichs books as they are written in an easy to read style but this book takes it too far. This is fiction dressed up as a true story. This book is a fairly simple telling of how some college frat boys built up an online Poker site called Absolute Poker (and subsequently merged with UltimateBet) but fails to tell how they stole 90% of the players money in cheating scandals. This book makes them out to be heroes against the US government but in reality these guys were implicated as thieves who cheated and stole millions from the online players. I'm giving this book a 1 purely because it doesn't tell the whole story and is too light on actual facts.

Score: 1/10

Hoofball

41)
Author: Herman Koch

Title: The Dinner

Comment: This one caught my attention from the blurb on the back cover when I picked it up in the shop. It's an interesting take on a standard story, what would parents do if they knew that their child was responsible for a terrible crime and the authorities didn't know. Two sets of parents (two brothers, Paul and Serge, and their wives) meet in a restaurant in their home city of Amsterdam to discuss what their sons have done. The book is broken into courses and as per the name the food and the dinner is quite prevalent in the story as well. In the beginning it is quite easy to be sympathetic to the narrator of the book, Paul, but as the story progresses and background is revealed it somewhat shakes that sympathy. In fact none of the characters are in any way likeable but that is the way that the book is deliberately written. The narrator is shown to be a violent man who has to take medication to prevent outbursts, and for me it is a weak point in the book to say that this is due to a biological defect. The way the plot turns and engages you with the characters was something I enjoyed in the book. The issue with the children (well the fifteen year olds) is not really brought to the front until near the end of the book, but Koch neatly raises the suspense up to that point. In the end it is shown what the parents will actually do for their children. While this book may not be everyone's cup of tea, I enjoyed it and it kept my interest.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

42)
Author: John Grisham

Title: Theodore Boone: The Activist

Comment: This is the fourth book in the Boone series. I know this is a series aimed at young adults but it's just a thing for me when I start reading a series I have to read them all. Unfortunately that does mean I read some turkeys every so often or when I buy a book and don't realise that it's aimed at a younger audience. The plot for this book is interesting, a bypass is being planned for the town and will go right past the school and take some play areas, farmlands etc, using the eminent domain law. The kids get together to fight the bypass and the ending is very predictable, but I won't say what it is. The writing is very simple to follow and could be improved on a bit. The main character is a bit annoying as he is too perfect, he never does anything wrong even though he is thirteen, and if anything does happen it's never his fault. There also is some plot points not wrapped up which annoyed me as well. I'm obviously scoring this book from an adults point of view rather than from the point of view of the intended audience.

Score: 4/10

Hoofball

43)
Author: Casey Hill

Title: Taboo

Comment: This is the first book in this series by the "chick-lit" author Melissa Hill and her husband Kevin. I'd already read the second book before I realised that it was a series so I'm going back to read the first one (again this is more due to my thing about reading series as per my comments on the last book rather than wanting to read this one). A crime scene investigator called Reilly Steel who is an American ex-FBI agent, moves to Dublin to bring the Irish crime lab into the 21st century and also to watch over her Irish-born father who has turned to the booze after a past family tragedy. This book brings nothing new to this genre, and it is a somewhat standard female protagonist
versus the male dominated world of policing. The plot also gets a bit slow after a while and the twist is a bit strange and contrived to say the least and you can see it coming a mile off. I think these authors need to work on their plotting a bit more which I think they did do in the second book. I'm currently reading the third book in the series (Hidden).

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

44)
Author: Casey Hill

Title: Hidden

Comment: This is the latest in the Reilly Steel series. This collaborative effort definitely shows some improvement over the previous two books. The characters are a bit more believable and the plotting is better as well. The tension and suspense is well built up and the story progresses nicely. A girl is found dead on a remote road and she has a strange tatoo of angel wings on her back. The tatoo leads to more open cases of missing children and it looks like they may have been abducted by the same person. An enjoyable read.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

45)
Author: Philip Carlo

Title: The Iceman

Comment: This book tends to get mixed reviews but one thing is not really disputable, Richard Kuklinski was a sociopath and a killer. He had a truly horrendous childhood suffering severe constant physical abuse from his parents and his father eventually killed his younger brother during one of these beatings. According to the book, Kuklinski used to kill people who would look at him the wrong way or cross him in an innocuous way. His claimed number of victims varies from 100 to 200 men - one thing he claims is that he never killed women or children. He became a contract killer for the mob and apparently all the major crime families used him as an independent contractor. He was particularly known for his ability to make his victims suffer before they died, and one method that is repeatedly mentioned in the book is that he fed victims to rats while they were alive. The only thing he said he ever cared about was his family, his wife and kids. But unfortunately he turned into the person he hated the most, his father. He was very abusive towards his wife but never towards his kids. One line which stuck with me was something that his daughter said to the author: "...he (her father) once told her that he would have to kill her and her two siblings should he happen to beat her mother to death in a fit of rage". His crimes eventually caught up with him and he was locked up for life in 1988 and died in prison in 2006. This is a long book but I flew through it as it was a very interesting read. Well worth trying if you are into true crime or Mafia related books

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

46)
Author: Seth Patrick

Title: Reviver

Comment: There are some people who are called Revivers and they are able to briefly reanimate or wake the recently dead. There are revivers who do this for personal gain, who primarily "revive" people so that they can say one last goodbye to their loved ones. There are then revivers who work in the criminal justice system who revive victims to see if they can identify their killers.

Jonah Miller is one of the best forensic revivers, but when he is reviving the victim of a murder, he encounters something which talks to him and unnerves him. When a journalist called Daniel Harker is murdered, he was the first journalist to break the reviver story, Jonah is dragged into the hunt for his killers. Along with Harker's daughter Annabel, they uncover a sinister conspiracy related to revivers that could threaten everyone.

This is a good first novel from this author and the premise is really good. The author seems to be setting up a series with this novel as he spends a lot of time explaining everything and going into a lot of background information which slows down the pace. This is a mix between genres: crime, supernatural and a bit of horror. Worth a read.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

47)
Author: Mark Gimenez

Title: Con Law

Comment: This is stated as the first in a new series. John Bookman professor at the University of Texas who teaches Constitutional Law. He also receives many letters from lost causes looking for help. This was a bit average at best. An ex-intern sends him a letter and dies the same day it was posted. Bookman travels to the town to unravel the mystery. It was an OK read, but the professor is a bit too unbelievable.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

48)
Author: James Patterson & Howard Roughan

Title: Second Honeymoon

Comment: This is a usual collaborative novel from Patterson. It's a quick and easy read with the usual short chapters. It's a follow up to the "Honeymoon" novel. FBI agent John O'Hara who is on suspension receives a call from the father of the victim of a serial killer. He is dragged into the middle of the case and the past comes back to haunt him. Well worth a read

Score: 7/10