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Recent Reviews
Mike Lawson
Positive Washington Times \"... Mike Lawson [is] an excellent writer who knows his political chops ... Mr. Lawson vividly characterizes the pair of profiteers, and does an especially excellent job with Ella ... it is fascinating to read how the shrewd DeMarco tracks down his prey while they scramble to keep their anonymity.\
Darcey Bell
Positive The Washington Times ...[a] wickedly satirical psychological assessment of two apparently perfect suburban moms and how they made victims of each other ... the sweet and loving friendship of Emily and Stephanie comes apart, and the book becomes even more interesting ... What really makes the plot move along is that Stephanie is her own kind of monster, and even worse, she is a bore ... There is a certain satisfaction in the denouement.
Philip Kerr
Positive The Washington Times Although Mr. Kerr has changed the setting of his plot, he has not shifted from the basic theme of his many shrewd and grim books that focus on the past in a manner that reminds many readers of the peril of forgetting it ... What is remarkable is how Mr. Kerr steeps his stories in irony. Bernie is a man who has suffered much in a tough life and he is a tough man, hardened and cynical in the manner of Phillip Marlowe, another hard-boiled detective to whom he is often compared. What makes this latest Bernie book notable is how it strikes a series of authentic notes. One of his characters is real, as alas, were many of the others. But in the epilogue that weaves together the cobweb of Nazis, Mr. Kerr notes that some of the killers did meet punishment at Greek hands despite the protests of the West German government. He has used Bernie’s insurance background very effectively in describing how cases came to be built against those who fed the evil appetites of the Nazi party.
Val McDermid
Positive The Washington Times The plot is not that complicated, telling in chilling detail how a serial killer’s mind works and the care with which he plans each slaying. There is nothing secret about the killer who is identified almost from the beginning and whose psychology is studied in meticulous detail … This is Ms. McDermid’s most complex study of personal desperation and it is made more of a puzzle by the difficulty encountered by a new and experimental crime team struggling with a boss whom many consider a failure in the job because of her own vulnerability and tendency toward personal torture.
Thomas Perry
Rave The Washington Times This is an explosion of a book. It isn’t just aptly titled, it is probably one of the grimmer books Thomas Perry has written and that is saying a good deal ... The bomb maker is an anonymous monster who kicks off the saga of death by killing 14 members of the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad. The first chapters are made all the more chilling by their portrayal of the meticulous technique used by the bomb disposal experts in doing their work ... There are interesting comparisons between the psychology of the bomb maker and the members of the bomb squad who realize quickly but not quickly enough that his goal is their obliteration ... Mr. Perry writes with building tension and although the reader assumes that the bomb maker will lose, the plot is characteristically twisted to leave questions and doubts even when the blood-soaked scene is cleaned up. There is nothing relaxing about this, but it is very well done.