Category: Kimberly’s Review

TITLE: The Shark
SERIES #: Forgotten Files #1
CHARACTERS: Riley & Clay
AUTHOR: Mary Burton
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/24/16
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
At the grisly murder scene of a teen prostitute, Virginia state trooper Riley Tatum’s past roars back to haunt her. When she was a teenage runaway, she was kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious on the streets. She has no memories of what happened, only strange recurring dreams of two men playing cards.

Former FBI agent Clay Bowman, Riley’s old flame, is Shield Security’s newest member. He’s plagued by the unsolved case of a serial killer nicknamed the Shark who murdered girls as part of a sadistic poker game. Only one girl survived. With the Shark now bent on evening that score, Clay has a chilling suspicion: Riley is the girl who escaped the Shark’s deadly amusement—and she is his next prey.

As the Shark gets ready to play his hand, can Riley and Clay stop him—or will this killer finally claim the one who got away?

REVIEW:
3.5 Hearts So I have recently found Mary Burton and have mostly enjoyed her books. The problem is the MO of her stories. They are all pretty much the same. Yes the storyline is different and the characters and their backgrounds, etc but the outline is pretty much the same.

Now that being said the story was interesting. Riley is the main character and she wants to find the serial killer before he strikes again and her past is the key to the mystery. Her old flame is there to help out.

Will this end up being a favorite book? Probably not. But don’t let this book define all the books by Mary Burton.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Little Bones
CHARACTERS: Cat & Zoe
AUTHOR: Sam Blake
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/17/16
ORDER LINKS: Amazon 

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
For fans of Alex Barclay and Niamh O’Connor, Little Bones introduces Cathy Connolly, a bright young heroine set to take the world of crime fiction by storm.

Twenty-four-year-old Garda Cathy Connolly might be a fearless kick-boxing champion but when she discovers a baby’s bones concealed in the hem of a wedding dress, the case becomes personal.

For artist Zoe Grant, the bones are another mysterious twist in her mother’s disappearance. Then her grandmother, head of the Grant Valentine department store empire is found dead, and a trail of secrets is uncovered that threatens to shake a dynasty.

In a story that moves from London’s East End to the Las Vegas mafia, one thing is certain – for Cat, life will never be the same again.

REVIEW:
What an interesting story. When a baby’s bones are found in a wedding dress hem the mystery really takes off. Cat is a great character. She has issues but don’t we all. Her issues just add to her character. I enjoyed her with the partner Dawson but it is really Cat that holds the book for me.

All of the characters in the story are interesting. I will say it was hard for me to keep them straight for a little while but once I kept reading it got much easier for me.

I really hope this story is the first in the series. I haven’t heard anything one way or the other but the story leaves us with a bit of a cliffhanger so I really look forward to continuing on.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Spare Me The Truth
CHARACTERS: Dan, Grace & Lucy
AUTHOR: CJ Carver
PUBLICATION DATE: 04/07/16
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Dan Forrester, piecing his life back together after the tragic death of his son, is approached in a supermarket by a woman who tells him everything he remembers about his life – and his son – is a lie.

Grace Reavey, stricken by grief, is accosted at her mother’s funeral. The threat is simple: pay the staggering sum her mother allegedly owed, or lose everything.

Lucy Davies has been forced from the Met by her own maverick behaviour. Desperate to prove herself in her new rural post, she’s on the hunt for a killer – but this is no small town criminal.

Plunged into a conspiracy that will test each of them to their limits, these three strangers are brought together in their hunt for the truth, whatever it costs. And as their respective investigations become further and further entwined, it becomes clear that at the centre of this tangled web is a threat more explosive than any of them could have imagined.

REVIEW:
This is a very well written story with a lot of intrigue and twists. The characters are interesting but I have to say that sometimes I got a bit confused over who was who and what was what.

This thriller made me think. Would anyone want to erase their memories just because they are bad? I can actually see this book becoming a tv series or at least a made for tv movie.

It did take a bit to get into it and at first I wondered if it would be worth the read but in the end I believe it is if you are interested in thrillers with a bit of a science fiction feel.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

TITLE: Beyond The Ice Limit
SERIES #: Gideon Crew #4
CHARACTERS: Gideon & Glinn
AUTHOR: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/17/16
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT
That thing is growing again. We must destroy it. The time to act is now…
With these words begins Gideon Crew’s latest, most dangerous, most high-stakes assignment yet. Failure will mean nothing short of the end of humankind on earth.
Five years ago, the mysterious and inscrutable head of Effective Engineering Solutions, Eli Glinn, led a mission to recover a gigantic meteorite–the largest ever discovered–from a remote island off the coast of South America. The mission ended in disaster when their ship, the Rolvaag, foundered in a vicious storm in the Antarctic waters and broke apart, sinking-along with its unique cargo-to the ocean floor. One hundred and eight crew members perished, and Eli Glinn was left paralyzed.
But this was not all. The tragedy revealed something truly terrifying: the meteorite they tried to retrieve was not, in fact, simply a rock. Instead, it was a complex organism from the deep reaches of space.
Now, that organism has implanted itself in the sea bed two miles below the surface-and it is growing. If it is not destroyed, the planet will be doomed. There is only one hope: for Glinn and his team to annihilate it, a task which requires Gideon’s expertise with nuclear weapons. But as Gideon and his colleagues soon discover, the “meteorite” has a mind of its own-and it has no intention of going quietly…

REVIEW:
Yea! It is about time! The sequel to The Ice Limit.

I am not a huge fan of double author books but Preston & Child is one of my exceptions. There is something about the way that Preston and Child write together that flows freely and gets your attention from word one. There are some times that the book was slow and I just kept with it since I know that P&C will make it all worth it. There were also some things that were predictable but honestly I am not sure if it was predictable because of the story or because I have read enough P&C books to know how they think (oh that is a scary thought).

I will say that, yes, it can be read as a stand alone but The Ice Limit is a great book so pick it up before you read this one. You won’t be disappointed.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.