"Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue." Song lyrics

What could possibly draw the attention of Dave Robicheaux and the New Iberia police department more than the death of seven young women?

Even more, Dave is concerned that one of the women killed doesn't fit the profile. Bernadette Latiolais was a high school senior who had been offered a college scholarship.

When a body is dumped in the field of a cain farmer in New Iberia Parish, Dave and his boss, Helen Soileau find something that connects with Bernadette and begin their investigation.

Dave hooks up with his old and loyal friend, Clete Putcel and they turn their attention to a former pimp named Herman Stanga. When Stanga and Clete get into a confrontation, Clete beats Stagna so severely that Stanga is hospitalized and begins the process of suing Clete. Later, when something happens to Stanga, Clete becomes the main suspect.

As an interesting aside to the story, Dave Robicheaux's daughter Alafair is attempting to get her first novel published. This reality mixed in with the mystery gave me added enjoyment. I believe it demonstrated how proud the author must be of his real life daughter, Alafair's success as a novelist.

I also found the author's literary style of first person narrative, mixed in with Alafair's details in the novel to be well done.

The setting, as always with James Lee Burke, is described as seeing a painting of the action drawn in front of the reader. "...a town square that opened onto lovely vistas of oak trees and flowers...planted along the bayou's edge." Very visual and entertaining.

The novel will keep the reader's attention as the story unfolds and once again, Dave Robicheaux shows that he is one of the finest characters in literature.

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"Once I had a secret love, that lived within this heart of mine." Song lyrics

Just when the reader is thinking that John Sandford's "Secret Prey," is going to be a somewhat predictable story, the author provides his magic touch and the novel soars to a most dramatic and memorable thriller.

Bank president Daniel Kresge is murdered while on a hunting trip. He was in the process of leading his bank into a merger that would have made him rich but would cost many of his employees their jobs. Kresge was also in the midst of a costly divorce so there were endless possibilities to be the murderer.

The two employees who were in line to take over the bank are Susan O'Dell and James Bone. They begin maneuvering for control while placing Wilson McDonald in charge during the transition.

It's almost as if the story was an afternoon soap opera with the various conspirators and Bone having an affair with Kresge's wife.

Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport is leading the investigation. Just as he and his team begin to feel they are making progress, another bank executive is murdered and they are back to the chalk board. The hunt for the killer intensifies as Davenport takes certain steps and the killer counters his progress, it's almost a dance of the dead.

Sandford does a masterful job, at first, making the reader wonder who the killer is, then, when Lucas has it narrowed down to one person, he must get the evidence to stop the killing and get the evidence to convict a habitual and ruthless killer.

The characters are excellent and well developed. The author describes the Minnesota countryside nicely so that the reader can get a mind picture of what the setting must look like.

I enjoyed the novel and recommend it highly.

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"A smile is the light in your window that tells...there is a caring...person inside." Denis Waitley

After a fatal bar fight, Ben Traven is in a jail in the Philippines when his boss, Scott Horton, manages his release. Horton needs Traven to perform a vital mission.

Rogue agent, Daniel Larison feels betrayed by the government and has stolen ninety-two torture tapes. He is blackmailing the government and will release the tapes to the news media unless he gets his payoff.

The CIA, FBI and other government agencies are after Larison and Horton wants Ben to locate him.

Ben gets a lead from Larison's former wife, Marcy, that Larison might be in Costa Rica. The FBI follow him to Marcy's home. Two FBI agents attempt to force Ben to accompany them and both wind up in the hospital, but a petite young black FBI agent, Paula Lanier, gets the drop on Ben and convinces him that they should work together.

Like many thriller novels today, there is competition between government agencies and when independent contractors are brought in, to apprehend Larison, they seemed to have no intelligence for field work. Larison is able to spot them, overcome a tranquilizing dart and eliminate twelve men without much effort. This disregard for life and unemotional approach to killing fellow Americans left me cold. The fact that Treven was ordered to observe this action and did little to prevent it also seemed inconsistent to what an honorable agent would do.

The story also had its mandatory romance scene. The rough sex action added nothing to the plot and was unnecessary.

I found that the characters were stereotypical, from the agency leaders to the men on the field. The story also meandered and didn't hold my attention as well as it should have. Finally, the conclusion was unsatisfactory. I could see that there was a good deal of research about these tapes but after reading the author's excellent John Rain series of novels, this novel disappointed.

Note: I did think that it was fun that Treven's superior is named Scott Horton and that Scott Horton, contributing editor of "Harper's" has written one of the blurbs on the back cover.

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"The narrower the mind, the broader the statement." Ted Cook

In an utterly realistic, noir novel, the reader follows the actions of Tom Farrell as if someone was walking behind him and filming every event.

After release from prison, Farrell gets a job as a night doorman on Park Avenue. There is a hotel across the street and he watches the armored car picking up money on a regular basis. He also makes note of the times of radio car patrols.

Farrell puts together a team for the heist and sets his plan into motion. The last person added was an Irishman named Durkin. Although the robbery went smoothly, Durkin had his own agenda for the money. He takes a shot at Farrell but misses. Farrell shoots back and wounds him, then Farrell's accomplices, the Burns brothers, take care of the rest and do away with the body.

Not long after Durkin was at the bottom of the Harlem river, Farrell learns that he was a member of the IRA.

The next step is to find a fence for the jewelry taken in the robbery. Farrell and his gang travel to the home of an Albanian but there is an altercation when the Albanian tries to rip Farrell off.

Later, Farrell and his men are celebrating at a New York bar, Farrell goes downstairs to use the facilities and is fortunate to survive the bloodbath upstairs.

The story seems taken from a person from the hardest segment of Manhattan and the Bronx. It tells of the disintegration of a man and the many things that can go wrong when someone commits crimes and numbs their mind with alcohol and drugs. It teaches of what life can be on the streets and the misery of a person's life.

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"Getting caught is the mother of invention." Robert Byrne

Harlan Coben's novels are a joy to read, in part, because they are so realistic that it's easy for the reader to put themselves into the story and imagine the action happening to them.

Social worker Dan Mercer is a giving person, coaches girl's basketball and helps seriously troubled teens. He thinks one of his teens may be in trouble and is answering a plea to come to her home for assistance. He arrives and hears a voice telling him to come in. He enters the home and walks into a sting operation run by reporter Wendy Tynes and coordinated with the police.

Wendy's goal is to catch sexual predators, publicly humiliate them and have them arrested.

She confronts Dan and tells him that she knows that the reason he entered that house was to have sex with an underage teenager. Dan tells her that she's wrong and that he's being set-up. She scoffs at this and tells him that that's what they all say.

There is a pre-trial hearing but no matter what the outcome, Dan is labelled as a sexual predator and faces public wrath.

This is a suspenseful, can't put down story where the facts come out gradually and the reader is kept on edge. We watch Wendy attempt to get the real answers but there's much more to the story and her life and reputation are at risk.

The characters are sympathetic and described in a believable manner. The novel is breathtaking.

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"Things, like a walk in the park." Song lyrics

This story brought to mind Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," due to the mixture of fiction and realism.


"The Things They Carried," tells of a platoon of soldiers and their experiences in Vietnam. It gives an interesting insight into the make-up of soldiers on active duty and serves as a comparison to today's army fighting in Afghanistan.

In the story, we learn what various soldiers carry in the field. Not only do they carry the usual equipment with which to fight the enemy but they are their own personal items and this is what makes them interesting. One man carried a sewing kit, another had a New Testament, still another carried Dr. Scholl's foot powder, men carried Malaria tablets and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the central figure in the story, carried the letters from his love, Martha, a college student back at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. In a sad manner, we also discover that Jimmy was madly in love with Martha but that she didn't share his love and felt that their relationship was more like good friends.

The author also provides a picture of the activities the soldiers took part in when not in the field. We learn of Kiowa teaching a rain dance to Rat Kelly and another soldier adopting a puppy. This made the soldiers more real.

I enjoyed the book, which is made up of linked stories. However, it is more like a journal of Tim O'Brien's Vietnam experience. To me, it was more like a lesson in history than a novel and what appealed to me was the uniqueness and descriptions of the men who are my age and what they went through in the war.


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"Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on." Hubert Humphrey

Counter terrorism operative Scot Horvath is working for a new secret agency that is buried deep within the Department of Defense and isn't burdened with answering to self-serving politicians.

Scot is asked to go after a man who had helped him in the past. The man is known as The Troll and is accused of being the mastermind behind the bombing of a bus filled with American college students in Rome.

Elsewhere, a cab runs down a young girl who had been out partying with her friends in Chicago. When the girl's family doesn't get any results from he police investigation, they hire a former Marine, John Vaughan, to investigate.

While that is going on, Scott believes that someone was attempting to pin this on The Troll. Scot wants to get proof and to punish those responsible. With The Troll's help, they prove that it was a set up and that there is a terrorist organization planning two more strikes in Europe after which they will be taking their terror to the innocent people in the United States.

In Chicago, John Vaughan teams up with Paul Davidson who is in the Public Vehicles division. They find a lead to a cab driver who ran down the girl. When they go to the cab driver's home, they find bomb making material and they learn that the cab driver is part of an undercover terrorist scheme that involves explosives.

The two cases come together with excellent action and suspense. Scot Horvath continues to be an enjoyable hero. He stops at nothing to get his man and is brave, patriotic and doesn't hesitate to use whatever means is necessary to get answers and stop the terrorists.

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