Someone Like Me

by M. R. Carey
500 pgs

In the opening scene of Someone Like Me, Liz Kendall and her ex-husband Marc, an ex-marine with a propensity for violence, get into an argument about his returning their two children, 16-year-old Zac and 6-year-old Molly, to her late again. As the argument progresses, unsurprisingly to Liz, it becomes physical and Marc knocks her to the floor and begins to choke her. But what is surprising to Liz (and to Marc) is the fact that she fights back this time. She gets ahold of a bottle, breaks it, and shoves it into Marc's face. The wound is significant, but not deadly, and the evening ends with the police taking Marc away and Liz comforting Zac and Molly.

But the events of the evening to continue to haunt Liz for the rest of the night, and not simply because of what Marc tried to do to her, but because of what she tried to do to him, and because of the way she felt when she did. When Marc had her on the floor, with his hands around her neck, Liz felt like she became a spectator in her own body, no longer in control of her body as she ground the broken bottle into his face.

Fran Watts is a 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped when she was a toddler by a deranged man named Bruno Picota. Although she was quickly rescued and returned to her family, she has suffered from PTSD ever since. The trauma also left her with an an imaginary companion named Jinx and a unique perception of the world around her. Sometimes, when she looks at things, what she sees "shift," almost as if she can see both it and a shadow version of it at the same time. Fran and Zac are classmates, and when Fran meets Liz, it happens again. She sees two separate and distinct versions of Liz.

Someone Like Me is a ghost story, but not your typical ghost story. It's smart and eerie, and Carey keeps the pace moving along throughout the story. It's the third book I've read by him, and while I'm still waiting for him to right a book as good as The Girl With All the Gifts, this one was still really enjoyable.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Listener

by Robert McCammon
332 pgs

Robert McCammon's latest book The Listener takes place in New Orleans in 1934. John "Pearly" Partner and Ginger LaFrance are both lifetime con artists who, separately, have been running their own cons for many years. They arrive in a town or city, scam a modest amount of money out of as many locals as they can, and then move on to the next place on the map. When they both end up in New Orleans at the same time and recognize each other for what they are, they decide to work together on a scheme far more dangerous than anything either of them has done before, with the potential for a huge payoff.

Taking inspiration from the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby boy a couple years earlier, they decide to kidnap the two children of one of the wealthiest business men in the city and ransom them for $100,000 each.

Curtis Mayhew is a young black man who works as a red cap baggage handler at the New Orleans train station. Curtis has a special gift that only his widowed mother knows he possesses: he can communicate with others who share his same gift in his mind. When he "listens" he can connect with someone who is broadcasting his or her thoughts to him and they can carry on a conversation telepathically.

For the past little while he has been periodically communicating with a young girl who has recently discovered her own gift and is trying to understand it. He doesn't know who she is or where she lives until one day when she reaches out to him panicked and tells him she and her brother were just kidnapped.

What unfolds is a fantastic genre-bending story told by an author in the prime of his career. Every time I've reviewed one of McCammon's books, I'm sure I've said he's one of my favorite authors writing today, and The Listener is a great example of why. His stories are captivating, his characters are well written (Curtis is one of his best), and while I'm never happy to get to the end of one of his books, I'm always happy about the way it ends.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Full Wolf Moon

by Lincoln Child
244 pgs  (Jeremy Logan series #5)

I’ve been pretty lukewarm on Lincoln Child’s series featuring history professor, and self-described “enigmalogist” Jeremy Logan so far. Truthfully, if I wasn’t such a big fan of the books he coauthors with Douglas Preston, I probably wouldn’t have read past the first book in the series. The books have always been relatively fun reads, but a little too campy for me. So, it’s hard for me to explain why I liked this one more than the four previous installments. After all, it’s definitely no less far-fetched than the others. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have very high expectations going in, and it exceeded them.

As the book begins, Logan has isolated himself in a remote “artists’ colony” located in Adirondack State Park in order to finish writing a paper he’s been meaning to get to for too long. Shortly after arriving, however, he’s contacted by Randall Jessup, an old classmate from Yale, who’s now a forest ranger in the park who hopes to enlist Logan in investigating the recent deaths of two hikers in the park. Logan has achieved some notoriety because of the unusual nature of the things he’s investigated in the past, which is why Randall sought him out. The men had been mauled and torn apart savagely by what local officials are considering a rogue black bear or wolf in the area. But based on the condition of the bodies, it’s clear to both Randall and Logan that the killings could not have been caused by either animal.

The killings occurred at night, during a full moon, which has led locals in the area to attribute the deaths to something from old horror movies. But as Logan unwillingly gets dragged deeper and deeper into the investigation, he becomes less and less skeptical of their theories.

Earlier I said I liked this book more than the others in the series. That’s not necessarily real high praise. But I enjoyed it, it kept me interested till the end, and it got me a little more excited for whatever Child will write next.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Forgotten Room

by Lincoln Child

290 pgs  (Jeremy Logan series #4)

Will Strachey was a respected researcher at Lux, the nation’s oldest and most renowned think tank located along the coast of Rhode Island. He was until he ended his life, unexpectedly and in a particularly gruesome fashion. Immediately after attacking his assistant, screaming incoherently about voices that “taste like poison,” Strachey decapitates himself using one of the facility’s heavy glass windows.  

Jeremy Logan, an enigmalogist who used to work at the Lux himself, and the protagonist of three of Child’s previous stand-alone novels, is summoned by Lux’s director, Dr. Olafson, to investigate Strachey’s inexplicable behavior and death.

As Logan begins to look into Strachey’s death, he learns that there are other researchers at Lux who have been exhibiting uncharacteristic behavior as well. He learns that Strachey had been overseeing the renovation of the West Wing of the facility, which hadn’t been used for the last several years, and it’s there that he discovers a hidden room. It’s been walled up recently, is dust free, and contains an assortment of odd laboratory equipment, including an old electromagnetic field generator used historically to detect paranormal events.

Typically, I enjoy the books Child coauthors with Douglas Preston more than I do his stand-alone books, but he has managed to keep his series featuring Jeremy Logan entertaining and worthwhile. I enjoy the way he incorporates elements of the supernatural while remaining believable enough to keep me from rolling my eyes. The Forgotten Room is a quick and fun read that will make you feel a little unsettled at times, unsure of how much you can trust your own senses. 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Bone Labyrinth

by James Rollins
471 pgs  (Sigma series #11)

Having read the previous 10 books in James Rollins' Sigma series, I know what I'm getting when I pick one of them up. The backstory is going to have something to do with a long-forgotten ancient myth or curse; one that has surfaced again and threatens to destroy the planet in modern times. The elite group of highly-intelligent, highly-skilled, and superbly-equipped government operatives known as Sigma Force will be called upon to save the day. The action will be over the top, the sex scene will make my eyes roll (and not in a good way), and I will finish the book with a smile on my face and ready for the next one to come out.

In The Bone Labyrinth Rollins starts with the premise that tens of thousands of years ago, some Neanderthals mated with homo sapiens and produced a highly-intelligent offspring--the ancestors of modern man. He then takes us to Rome, in 1969, and reveals the existence of a map that could reveal the location of Adam and Eve's bones. Then it's on to current day and a research facility in Atlanta, where Maria Crandall, a geneticist, is doing remarkable work with a hybrid gorilla named Baako. Baako is extremely intelligent and can speak fluent sign language.

The action begins when Maria and Baako are kidnapped by Chinese forces and taken back to a research facility in Beijing. The Chinese--in true Chinese fashion--are close to creating a race of superhumans, but need to unlock the mysteries behind why human intelligence increased so dramatically all those thousands of years ago.

Part of me feels like I should be embarrassed to admit to reading books like these. But I'm not. I'm owning my guilty pleasure. I like this series. There's nothing wrong with checking your brain at the door and suspending disbelief occasionally while you read a story that's just fun and exiting. The Bone Labyrinth is a worthy addition to the series. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to picking up The Seventh Plague next month.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Over Your Dead Body

by Dan Wells
303 pgs  (John Wayne Cleaver series #5)

In The Devil's Only Friend young John Wayne Cleaver tried working as a special consultant to the FBI. His unique abilities were used by a special team of agents to hunt down and destroy the Withered, demons who take possession of a human body and kill with very little chance of ever being discovered. As the book concludes, and things go horribly wrong with an operation, John decides he's better off hunting down the remaining Withered with only the help of Brooke, who is psychologically broken and possessed by the demon known as Nobody..

As Over Your Dead Body begins, John and Brooke have been hitchhiking across the country, hunting the Withered and hiding from the authorities. Their arrive in a small town in Oklahoma, where they believe an ancient Withered has been hiding out unnoticed for decades. But shortly after they arrive in town the murders begin. It seems as if their arrival has caused the demon to begin killing again, and neither John nor Brooke has any idea why.
They know that they need to quickly identify who the Withered is, and stop it from killing anyone else.

This series gets better with each installment. When I started reading the first book, I am Not a Serial Killer, I thought Wells was just a fan of Dexter and decided to put his own spin on the idea. But about halfway through, the book took an unexpected turn towards the supernatural. And while Lindsay's Dexter series eventually got stale--to say nothing about what happened to the TV series--Wells's series has so far maintained its uniqueness, and with each book, Wells's writing talents have become more apparent. I get increasingly more eager for each new book.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Devil's Only Friend

by Dan Wells
304 pgs  (John Wayne Cleaver series #4)

When I finished reading I Don't Want to Kill You, I figured that was the last time I'd read about John Wayne Cleaver--a teenager who had all of the inclinations and desires to become a serial killer, but who kept himself in check with his self-imposed set of rules--and I was okay with that. I liked the way the trilogy ended, and I was content moving on. When I found out Dan Wells was going to write another three books, I was both excited and leery. Excited because I really enjoyed the first three books, but leery because I didn't want him to mess around with something that I felt was complete.

The Devil's Only Friend picks up a short while after IDWTKY ends. John now works for a special FBI task force that hunts down and kills the Withered. The Withered took away the only two things that he cared about in the last book; his mother and his girlfriend, and now John uses his unique set of skills and instincts to identify them, hunt them down, and then kill them. But John would rather work alone, he's not comfortable working with the other members of the team, some of whom know a little bit about his past, but none of whom know about the internal monster he's constantly trying to keep at bay.

Overall I enjoyed this latest book, and I'm looking forward to the next two. It's not the strongest book in the series, but I'd definitely recommend it to everyone who read the first three. It'll be interesting to see where Wells takes the series from here.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Innocence

by Dean Koontz
352 pgs

After the last two books by Koontz that I read (The Taking & Life Expectancy) I swore off reading anything else by him again. I don't know if the break up was his fault, or mine, but everything about those two rubbed me the wrong way. The characters behaved like they had mental deficiencies, the dialogue was pubescent, and the story in general was unintentionally humorous. I decided then that I wasn't going to waste any more time nor money on his books. When Innocence came out and I read the summary, it was kind of like bumping into an old girlfriend and thinking "I wonder if we could make it work now." So I decided to consider the past few years a trial separation and I bought the book.

It's a dystopian story about two social outcasts. One, Addison, lives his life alone under the streets of the city due to his horrific and never described physical appearance, an appearance that has caused violent reactions by those who have seen him. The other, Gwyneth, lives alone due to her phobias. Their paths cross late one night in the deserted city library when Addison sees Gwyneth fleeing from a man trying to attack her.

I'm at a loss to try to figure out what happened to the man who wrote Intensity, The Watchers and so many other good books. My working theory right now is that he died several years ago and his estate hired someone who completed an online creative writing course to continue Koontz's literary legacy. It's never a good idea to get back together with someone after you break up with them. It doesn't take long for you to remember why you ended the relationship and figure out that you're just wasting your time and money again.

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Eye of God

by James Rollins
432 pgs  (Sigma series #9)

The Eye of God is the latest in James Rollins' highly-imaginative Sigma Force series. The usual cast of characters is back, and once again the fate of the world lies in the balance . . . this time the end is in four days.

The book begins around 450 A.D. at the deathbed of Attila the Hun. Then it jumps forward to modern times with a Roman priest who has come to possess an ancient artifact along with a book--bound in human skin, which together reveal that the end of the world will begin in less than 100 hours. Meanwhile a satellite crashes in Mongolia, but not before transmitting an image showing the cities of Boston and New York, along with Washington D.C. laying in ruins. Rollins' books always contain an element of suspended disbelief, and here it is in this book--the image was taken in the very near future. With the prophecy and the satellite image lining up, Painter Crowe and the team at Sigma have very little time to put the pieces of the puzzle together and save the world.

One thing that can definitely be said about Rollins and his books--they're consistent. His books invariably involve some ancient mystery or artifact. One that once brought out of obscurity promises to reshape or destroy life on earth as we know it. The Sigma team will always utilize cutting-edge technology at their disposal to intervene without a moment to spare, just before the planets align or the countdown reaches "00 00 00."

But included with that consistency is a story that's always exciting and is sure to suck you in. My brain knows that what I'm reading is not just implausible, but impossible when I'm reading Rollins' books. But I really don't care at the time. They're fun, and they're exactly what I want to find when I read them and what I'm hoping for when there's a new one coming out.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Pandemonium

by Warren Fahy
306 pgs

A couple of years ago Warren Fahy came on the scene with what I thought was a great book. Fragment had all of the elements I want in a good supernatural thriller. It was action packed, I liked the characters, and the plot leaned heavily towards the unbelievable. So I was excited when the sequel was finally published.

Pandemonium picks up a few months after the events of Fragment left off. Nell, Geoffrey, and a handful of others had barely escaped Hender's Island with their lives and the last five remaining hendros--the highly-intelligent and peaceful species they had discovered there and who had helped them survive. They had believed at the time that they had seen the last of the rest of the island's inhabitants--the menagerie of creatures that had evolved in isolation over millions of years, each of which could have led to the destruction of every other living thing on the planet if it had ever escaped the island. But of course there wouldn't be a sequel if that had been the case.

 

In Pandemonium Fahy brings back the spiglers, disk-ants, hender's rats and wasps, mega-mantises, and more. And this time he adds a whole host of new and imaginative creatures who have been evolving in isolation as well and who are equally capable of bringing about the end of the rest of life on earth if they ever escape their home--the subterranean caverns beneath the Ural Mountains. 

 

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy Pandemonium nearly as much as I did its predecessor. Fahy packed as much action into this one as it could contain, even more than he did in Fragment, but for some reason I found myself repeatedly distracted and irritated with his characters' dialogue. I don't know whether it was just as bad in Fragment but I had been having too much fun to notice it then, or whether it was noticeably worse in Pandemonium. Corny dialogue is one of my pet peeves when I read, especially when it takes place during the direst of circumstances. People running for their lives generally are not in the frame of mind to engage in witty banter with one another.

 

I liked the story enough that I'm sure I'll read whatever he writes next, but I'm hoping he branches out with his next book and offers something new and original, and not just a continuation of this same story.

 

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Third Gate

by Lincoln Child
(Jeremy Logan series #2)

In northern Sudan the Nile river gets lost amid the notorious Sudd, a constantly growing swampland, where mud and rotting vegetation have accumulated over the centuries to make it impassable. It's also the possible location for the hidden tomb of one of ancient Egypt's most influential Pharaohs--King Narmer. An archaeological team, led by the famous explorer Peter Stone, has secretly begun searching for Narmer's tomb under the mud and detritus, and they're running out of time to find it before the building of a dam down river floods the area and ends their search for it and its treasures.

As the team has gotten closer to finding the tomb, inexplicable setbacks have been occurring, giving credence to the rumors of a curse associated with it. Jeremy Logan, a professor of history, who specializes in paranormal activity, has recently been enlisted to join the team and investigate the occurrences.

I'm a big fan of the books Lincoln Child has coauthored with Douglas Preston. I've also enjoyed each of his solo novels. Unfortunately The Third Gate never took off for me. It's got a promising premise, but it never delivers on the promise. I never felt any type of fondness for any of the characters and occasionally had to reread a page or two because I found my mind had wandered off. It wasn't the type of book that I regret having wasted my time reading when I finish. But it wasn't what I've come to expect and what I'm looking forward from him going forward. It's the type of book to read on vacation, or while on a plane.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Five

The Five by Robert McCammon

In his latest book, The Five, Robert McCammon incorporates his obvious love for music into a supernatural thriller that showcases his tremendous talent as a writer. The Five is the name of a relatively obscure rock band living a not-so-glamorous lifestyle on the road. They haul all of their equipment, t-shirts, and CDs with them from show to show hoping to sell enough tickets and merchandise to pay for a good meal and a decent hotel room each night. But for The Five, money isn't what's important. They're a group of similarly-minded people who have formed a family around their love of music.

The world that they understand is about to come crashing down on itself for the members of The Five though when a former Marine Corp sniper, Jeremy Pett, recently home from Afghanistan, and losing his battle with internal demons, sees the band's latest video on TV. The song is anti-war and the video portrays a U.S. soldier having to make a very difficult decision while in battle and making a terrible mistake. That video sets Pett on a mission to eliminate The Five.

The Five is an excellent book! It's got all of the elements that I hope for when I read a book. The story is compelling, the characters are multi-dimensional, and as a bonus with this one, it revolves around a subject that I have a lot of fond feelings for - rock music. It's a very, very, good book but I should warn that there are a few pages that are hard to read. Not that the words are hard to pronounce, but that they're gritty and graphic. The scene is essential to the story, so it needs to be there, but still, I felt like the warning was necessary.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I Don't Want to Kill You

by Dan Wells
(John Wayne Cleaver series #3)

The third and what the author says is the final installment in the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy. The first two books: I Am Not a Serial Killer and Mr. Monster were both great books. I Don't Want to Kill You makes the trilogy fantastic.

I don't want to say very much about the plot of the book because I don't want to spoil anything about the previous two. In my review of Mr. Monster I described the unique character of John Cleaver, so I'll refer you there if you want to get an idea of what he's all about. I enjoyed reading the first book a lot, but for awhile after reading it, I remained uncertain about how I felt about a surprising and jarring turn the book took midway through it. I enjoyed Mr. Monster more I think because I was familiar with that aspect of the story and could enjoy it for the ride that I realized I was taking. With this last book, I really can't say enough about how great a series it was.

Hopefully Dan Wells has many stories like these yet to come.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Mr. Monster

by Dan Wells
(John Wayne Cleaver series #2)

This is Dan Wells's second book featuring John Wayne Cleaver. The first book, I Am Not a Serial Killer, introduced John, a fifteen year-old who is obsessed with serial killers. He has an insatiable appetite for information about them. He reads books about them, he studies their profiles and crimes, and he feels a special kind of kinship to them. John is not a serial killer, but he knows he's destined to become one.

Not surprisingly, whenever  I describe these books to people, most people say something like, "Sounds kind of like Dexter." There are definitely similarities between the two. Both of them are disturbingly likeable characters. But while Dexter gives in regularly to his "dark passenger" by killing pedophiles and others who he rationalizes are deserving of his skills, John is trying to maintain his tenuous control over his "Mr. Monster," hoping to never begin killing. He sees a therapist regularly and has devised a list of rules that he forces himself to follow which he feels will prevent him from ever starting down that road.

Mr. Monster picks up a couple of months after its predecessor left off and I wouldn't recommend reading it without first having read the other. I think Dan Wells is an author whose popularity is going to grow if he continues to write books as interesting and entertaining as these two have been.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆