Guardian of Lies, by Steve Martini

This audio book was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 14 hours and 13 minutes long and was narrated by George Guidall.

This is 10th in a series of novels about Criminal Defense attorney Paul Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds. The early novels were really good, but they fell off a bit in quality for awhile. So it was an act of hope that I downloaded this one and I am very glad I did.

This begins as a murder case and ends up as international espionage as Paul Madriani's client turns out to have ties to an old Russian nuke that is being recommissioned by Jihadists for a terrorist attack on America. This is only plausible in a world in which we are all connected by networks, but we do live in a world where we are all connected by networks. It's well-told, and the characters are believable and we have been set up for a sequel. I will get it. I give this one 4 stars.

The Hunted, by Brian Haig

This audiobook was 18 hours and 13 minutes long, and was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was narrated by Scott Brick.

A better than average story with below average heroes and above average villains, this novel about a young Russian billionaire has enough bright spots to keep you engaged, but could have been a lot shorter.

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, capitalism is beginning to get a foothold, and young Alex Konevitch has made a fortune in arbitrage and banking. He has used his substantial fortune to back Boris Yeltsin, thus helping the fall of communism in a big way. Angry, vindictive KGB officers want to know who has been helping Yeltsin, and when they discover what Alex has done, they begin to use their connections and ruthlessness to ruin him.

After being kidnapped, tortured, and forced to sign over his holdings to a former KGB general, Alex and his wife, Elena, escape and spend months being hunted from Europe to the US, and then persecuted by the FBI, whose politically opportunistic director wants to trade them to Russia for a favorable working relationship.

There is a line between the plausible and the laughable, and this story crossed it just enough times to make it a disappointment. Still, some of it is really good, so that salvages 2 and 1/2 stars for it.

Your Heart Belongs to Me, by Dean Koontz

This audio book was read by Malcolm Hillgartner, and was 8 hours and 33 minutes long.

As a long time Dean Koontz fan, I will read anything he produces. But that doesn't mean I will always like it. This one had its problems, but it was still a page turner.

This is the story of a 34 year old dot com millionaire who discovers that he has an incurable heart condition and needs a transplant. He finds a good surgeon, gets on the transplant list, and is encouraged by his perfect girlfriend to just let this happen. She knows he will try to manipulate his place in line for a new heart, and he agrees to trust his current doctor.

This would be a fairly simple story if the girlfriend did not have a disturbing back story that causes our protagonist some discomfort. Her twin sister was taken off life support by her own mother after getting counsel from a right to die advocate who collects mummified remains. The mother is now romantically involved with this ghoul, and this feeds the paranoia of a heart patient with enough money to manage his fears and the people around him.

This is a Koontz morality tale with a twist. I wish the characters had been a little more compelling, and that the villain had more substance. I give it 2 stars

Marker, by Robin Cook

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 16 hours and 7 minutes long, and was narrated by George Guidall.

Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are both doctors with the Medical Examiner's office. They determine cause of death by day and are lovers by night. Right about the time that Laurie decides that she has no future with the noncommittal Jack, she takes notice of some unusual deaths at a particular hospital. The deaths have no apparent cause. Everyone else is willing to call them an anomaly. But the decedents are all relatively young people who came in for pretty ordinary surgeries. She begins to suspect foul play.

Laurie comes under a lot of pressure to bury her suspicions. To infer that someone is murdering patients at a prestigious hospital with a low death rate could create problems for the reputation of the medical staff there. Her only ally is the handsome, charming doctor who is the director of personnel at that hospital, who wants to get involved with her.

I know this sounds like a soap opera, and some of it is. It also sounds like the typical Robin Cook novel: young, good-looking doctor with strong ethics runs afoul of rich, powerful, greedy medical community. But Cook has been doing this for a long time, and knows just how much relationship fog to give a book without losing sight of the fact that he is writing a thriller. This is one of his better ones, and I give it 3 stars.

No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com through the Alachua County Library. It was 7 hours and 28 minutes long and was narrated by Tom Stechshulte.

This book takes place in the 80s. Llewelyn Moss is a 36 year-old Viet-Nam War veteran who is out hunting along the Tex-Mex border. He happens upon a bullet-riddled car with a dying man, along with a stash of heroin and a lot of cash. Someone is coming for this soon, and Moss decides to take the cash and run.

Now there is a very bad man hunting for the money and the man who took it. This sets Moss on the run and his wife to hide with relatives. But it's no good. There is a trail that has been left unwittingly. It is either kill or be killed.

Most of this book is fast-moving and riveting. Unfortunately, the wheels come off at the end and the ending is most unsatisfactory. I hear the movie is just like it. It's only 2 stars.

The Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 10 hours and 47 minutes long, and was narrated by Phil Gigante.

This is the 7th novel by Silva to feature Gabriel Allon, an Israeli intelligence agent who wishes the world were a safer place so he can go back to work as an art restorer. But, once Allon is on the job, he is totally there, and it's bad guys beware.

In this novel, Allon is sent on a humdrum assignment to purge the papers of an Israeli intelligence asset after he is murdered by an Islamic nut job. While he is there, he finds that he is being shadowed by a man who turns out to be a former terrorist asset who is disillusioned and wants to make sure his name is not in any of the documents either. Through this chance encounter, Allon begins to unravel a plot to kidnap the daughter of the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James in London. He is almost in time to stop it, but not quite.

Working with the CIA and MI5, Allon is now trying to rescue the woman, and his chance encounter with the former terrorist is indeed fortuitous: one of the kidnappers is his son.

If you are one of those people who is deeply ambivalent about offending radical Muslims or putting the squeeze on suspected terrorists, you will not like this. This is the kind of book Jack Bauer reads on vacation. And that is not the only reason I give it 4 stars. The writing is top notch for the genre and it is very thought provoking.

House of Thunder, by Dean Koontz

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library, It was 9 hours and 57 minutes long, and was narrated by Laurel Merlington, and an uncredited male narrator.

Susan Thornton is a 32 year-old physicist who works for the Milestone Corporation. She suffered a head injury during a serious auto accident, and now all she can remember is the murder of her boyfriend during a college fraternity hazing. And this is relevant because the four sadists who killed the boy are either patients or are working at the hospital where she is recovering; even though they all have been dead for years.

The four miscreants are now bent on exacting their revenge. And Susan cannot get anyone to believe that the four young men who are all still the same age as they were 13 years ago are out to get her. Is she losing her mind? Is it a vast conspiracy? Well, this is a Dean Koontz novel, so it has to be the latter. This novel was originally published under a pen name, Leigh Nichols, back in 1981. And that's the only clue I will give you.

A fairly engaging thriller with gripping fear, violence, and a bit of romance; this is not Dean Koontz at his best. But it is a good writer at home in this genre, so I give it 3 stars.

Power Play, by Joseph Finder

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audiobooks, through the website of the Alachua County Public Library. It was read by Dennis Boutsikaris, and was 8 hours and 30 minutes long, including an author interview.

Jake Landry is a lower level executive at an aircraft manufacturer. The company has recently gotten a new CEO, a woman, to clean up some sloppy business practices. Jake gets the call to come on one of those off-site team-building retreats where executives get to bond under rugged circumstances. He is the low man there, and he is not particularly ambitious. But he has a past that had to be expunged from his record when he turned 18.

As the opening night meeting is getting underway at the remote wilderness lodge, the entire executive team is captured by paramilitary types who are posing as errant hunters. Their goal is to force them to ransom themselves with a huge bank transfer, and they are willing to kill some of their hostages to make that point.

This story has excellent characters and a fast moving story that gets to the point without rushing things. It's a four star story.

Hidden Prey, by John Sanford

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com for free, was narrated by Rick Ferrone, and was 12 hours and 41 minutes long, including an author interview at the end.

Lucas Davenport, tough as nails detective, is trying to solve two murders that seem totally unconnected. This is number 15 in John Sanford's "Prey" series, and it is one of the better ones. You can always count on good characters and good writing, but this one has that special element of an intriguing idea: a leftover Soviet spy cell that has been in place since before WW2 has never been exposed and has never given up on the Revolution.

Spying has been a sort of family business. But in Minnesota, their specialty has not been cloak and dagger; it's been more like the underground railroad. They helped extract operatives through the Canadian border. But the 92 year-old patriarch has been grooming his grandson for the business by teaching him the darker arts. And the kid is getting good at it.

Lucas Davenport has evolved from the earlier books, that featured deranged serial killers and a regular change in love interests. Lucas is now married to a longtime lover, and he seems fairly domesticated.

This gets 4 stars. It's good to see Sanford back. I will always check his books out.

The Good Guy, by Dean Koontz

This audiobook comes from the Alachua County Public Library, is on 9 CDs, and is narrated by Rick Ferrone.

I am a huge Dean Koontz fan, so I make a point of subscribing to his email newsletter and getting on the waiting list before the latest book even gets to the library. This one was good, but not great.

This is the story of a man who is mistakenly given a packet of money and a photograph by another man who wants someone killed. Our hero is a self-employed mason who is just minding his own business over a beer when he meets the over-anxious courier who has gotten ahead of his rendezvous with a hit man. The courier splits before our unwitting friend can open the envelope and see that he is expected to kill a young woman he has never seen before. Soon, the hit man arrives, approaches him, and now there is a decision to be made. Does this ordinary working guy hand over the money and the instructions and let nature take its course? Or does he attempt to interfere, perhaps saving this woman's life?

An interesting enough premise, but a below average villain for a Dean Koontz novel. Also, the man and woman who spend their time evading the killer are just not interesting enough. If you read a lot of Koontz, you could swear you have met them somewhere else. And you'd be right.

It saddens me to do so, but this is only a 2 and 1/2 star book.

Kill Me, by Stephen White

This audiobook is available in the Alachua County Library, came on 10 discs, and was read by Dick Hill. It is part of the series that features a psychologist named Alan Gregory, except that Alan only has a bit part in this novel. The story is about one of his patients.

The main character tells his story, but never his name. He is rich, white, middle-aged male who has made a boatload of money in the medical technology field. He is a charismatic, athletic risk-taker, and his days are numbered. He has an aneurysm in his brain, but that is probably not what is going to kill him.

He has insured himself against suffering, some time before he knew of his condition, by contracting the services of a shadowy organization that promises to kill him before he becomes physically or mentally incapacitated. He refers to them as "The Death Angels", but this odd insurance company has no listing on the NYSE, no business cards, and no legal standing. They are sincere, well-meaning, fastidious in their agreements and how they keep them, and deadly. Our nameless hero got hooked up with them through a friend whose wife lingered long as she waited to die. They have a mutual friend who recently went too long without oxygen on a cave-diving trip, and now he's a vegetable. Our man does not want this to happen to him, so after much consideration he applies for this service.

It was almost delightful to hear the language of this arrangement for "end of life services". It's very legal-sounding, with all the bases covered and the contingencies laid out. There are all kinds of rule that the Death Angels conscientiously follow, including the one that says this service is irrevocable. You have made this decision while you were in your right mind. It was intended to protect you from the indecision you would have when you are impaired.

The rest of this book is about our man's attempts to get out of the deal when he has some unfinished business land on his doorstep. This group of merciful assassins is resourceful, well-equipped, and quite determined to earn their premiums.

For all of its nuttiness as a concept, this is really a very thoughtful story. It is the best this author has created, and the narration is mesmerizing. Entertaining, suspenseful and philosophical, this is a 4 star novel. It includes a forward by the author which tells what true story inspired him.

The Takeover, by Stephen Frey

This is the author's first novel, was written in 1995, and was 12 hours and 47 minutes long. The narrator was Paul Hecht.

One of the first things I picked up on was the awkwardness of a book written just before momentous changes. This book was pre-September, 11, pre-Internet, and pre-cell phone. Yes, someone has a "car phone" (remember those??), and the main character has a "Bloomberg terminal" at his apartment so he can work at home, but it seems pretty clunky when so much has happened to alter our lives in the past 12 years.

Aside from the bad luck of timing, this was a pretty sorry book anyway. The politics is too preachy, the characters are not very compelling, and there are some holes in the story that are not resolved. And the obviously Clintonesque Democratic President is an innocent man beset by evil Republican villains out to frame him. More bad luck.

There was also a romantic interest too many. It divided any emotional power that should have been focussed on just one relationship. It was confusing at times, and never very interesting. There was nothing to pull for.

In defense of the author, (as I give him 1 star for this one), "The Day Trader" (2002) was much, much better. It was a 4 star book. "The Takeover" was worth missing.