In a Dark Wood by Josh Lanyon

Genre: Contemporary Romance; M/M Romance; Romance; Suspense

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

How I acquired this book: I purchased it.

Goodreads Blurb: In a dark, dark wood there was a dark, dark house...

Camping in the Jersey Pine Barrens may literally turn out to be a first date from hell for travel writer Tim and the cute cop who persuades him to revisit a past that Tim has done his best to forget.

My Review: Yeah, this camping trip with Luke is the first date from hell. Poor Tim. (Note to self: learn from Tim's experience. Never go camping on a first date.)

But worse than getting lost in the woods is Luke's annoying conviction that he knows what's wrong with Tim and how Tim should fix it. (Ok, Tim. I agree with Luke that you have a problem--but damned if you should put up with him telling you how to run your life! You can hit him now if you'd like. I've got your back.)

And yet, this single-minded, tactless cop may be just the guy to help Tim confront his demons . . .

On Kindle: Yes. Find it on Amazon here.

The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin

Genre: Science Fiction; Suspense; Thriller

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

How I acquired this book: I purchased it.

Book Blurb: Alive and hiding in South America, the fiendish Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project—the creation of the Fourth Reich. Barry Kohler, a young investigative journalist, gets wind of the project and informs famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman, but before he can relay the evidence, Kohler is killed.

Thus Ira Levin opens one of the strangest and most masterful novels of his career. Why has Mengele marked a number of harmless aging men for murder? What is the hidden link thatbinds them? What interest can they possibly hold for their killers: six former SS men dispatched from South America by the mostwanted Nazi still alive, the notorious “Angel of Death“? Oneman alone must answer these questions and stop the killings—Lieberman, himself aging and thought by some to be losing hisgrip on reality.

At the heart of The Boys from Brazil lies a frightening contemporary nightmare, chilling and all too possible.

My Review: This book had me on the edge of my seat; it's worth suspending disbelief for. The cat-and-mouse game between Josef Mengele and a Nazi hunter, mixed with a sci-fi plot about nature versus nurture, makes for a fast, absorbing read.

If you're not familiar with Josef Mengele, read up on him before you begin. The book only hints at what a butcher this "Angel of Death" was. (Knowing he was still alive and at large in South America when this book came out gave me pause while reading it.)

My one complaint about this story is that the characters seem like rough sketches. I wanted to grow attached to Liebermann, the Nazi hunter (based loosely on Simon Wiesenthal) and Klaus, a young German who helps him. But they seemed more servants to the plot than characters in their own right. Still, I'll probably revisit this book--if only to study the art of creating suspense.

On Kindle: Yes. Find it at Amazon here.

1978 Film Version: See IMDB

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Genre: Mystery; Suspense

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

How I acquired this book: I purchased it.


Book Blurb: A familiar evil lies in wait for Lisbeth Salander, but this time, she must do more than confront the miscreants of her past; she must destroy them. Much to her chagrin, survival requires her to place a great deal of faith in journalist Mikael Blomkvist and trust his judgment when the stakes are highest.

To reveal more of the plot would be criminal, as Larsson's mastery of the unexpected is why millions have fallen hard for his work. But rest assured that the odds are again stacked, the challenges personal, and the action fraught with neck-snapping revelations in this snarling conclusion to a thrilling triad. This closing chapter to The Girl's pursuit of justice is guaranteed to leave readers both satisfied and saddened once the final page has been turned.

My Review: Blomkvist, Salander and team have quite a problem on their hands now that they've uncovered a major conspiracy within Sapo, the Swedish security police. This conspiracy has bedeviled Salander her entire life--and it's on the brink of shutting her up by shutting her back in a mental hospital with a sadistic doctor to watch over her.

But my gut assured me that our redoubtable heroes would out this conspiracy and bring them to justice. The fun was in watching how it played out.

This is not a stand-alone book; you need to read first two installments to make sense of it. But it works as a finale. There's a lot that seems improbable in the story and sections that seem overlong, but it's still a fun ride and a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

On Kindle: Yes. Find it at Amazon here.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Genre: Mystey; Suspense


My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest


How I acquired this book: I purchased it.


Book Blurb: Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazineMillennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. 

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire. 

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

My Review: Another addictive story, even if Blomkvist is still entangling himself in too many love affairs. I like his longstanding, poly relationship, but the rest in these first two books seem over the top. (Yeah, I'm betting Larsson identified with this evidently irresistible journalist!) Still, I couldn't stop turning the pages as Blomkvist and his magazine declared war against the sex trade and human trafficking--and as Salander came crashing back into his life. 

One warning: this middle book doesn't quite stand on its own. It has an ending, but you'll want to have the last book standing by.


On Kindle: Yes. Find it at Amazon here.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Genre: Mystery; Suspense

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 

How I acquired this book: I purchased it.

Book Blurb: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue. It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it--who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism--and an unexpected connection between themselves.

It's a contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.

My Review: I've had the feeling for a while now that everyone else in the world has read this book but me. And now I know why--I couldn't put the damned thing down! I stayed up the whole night to finish it.

It's not for the faint of heart; it's a mystery that deals with serial killings, financial shenanigans and sexual abuse. There are also some complicated romantic relationships and disturbing issues dealing with legal guardianship.

Sounds like a lot for one novel, huh? But Larsson is a deft storyteller; you don't even notice how much is going on until you're done!

Ok. Since everyone else in the world really has read this book, I know you have an opinion. Let me hear it . . .
On Kindle: Yes. Find it at Amazon here.