The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen

Thomas Mullen tells the tale of 1940s Boston and Cambridge in his latest historical thriller where American anti-semitism and nationalism set the tone during WWII. Like his novel, Darktown, set in 1940’s Atlanta which featured the first black police officers in the city and the racism they endured, in The Rumor Game, Mullen takes on anti-semitism in New England during the war, especially by the Irish. Mullen has proven himself as a writer with impeccable research and accurate portraits of that period in American history.

The story revolves around Anne, a Jewish reporter who writes a column debunking rumors of a wartime nature, and Mulvey, an Irish FBI agent who knew each other as kids and reunite to try and solve the murder of a Jewish munitions worker. Surprisingly, some Americans were so Anti-Semitic that they sabotaged the American war effort under the guise of Christian Nationalism. The level of isolationist sentiment and violent response is quite reminiscent of what is happening in the US today.

The two protagonists of the novel uncover plots and murders revolving around Nazis, hatred and extremists which should not surprise us today, given how history does seem to repeat itself. The Rumor Game is a remarkable historical tale of political and police corruption, one we all should read to better understand current affairs. And it is a captivating story in its own right. My rating 4 of 5.

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. The Rumor Game will be published on February 27, 2024.

Hero by Thomas Perry

I have been a great fan of Thomas Perry since the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act – 1994). Jane Whitefield “disappears” people, especially women who needed to hide. Perry is proficient at the fun subgenre of mysteries wherein the protagonist must run and hide from danger. But as phone /computer technology and the advent of street cameras entered our world and literature, Perry had to find other ways to give his characters to hide besides Jane Whitefield’s let’s-make-our-own-passport type of ideas. In Hero, Perry again has a woman who is trying to hide. This time from bad guys who want revenge for her killing a couple of their men.

Justine Poole is a body guard and a damn good one. When her job requires her to kill during a home invasion, she becomes a hero in LA papers. But soon after she must go into hiding without leaving LA since the police require her to stay put for their investigation. Easier said than done given the easy way to monitor people with technology these days.

Perry also wrote The Old Man, the Hulu series about an old man who has been in hiding for many years off the grid. Hero is another exciting story by Perry, who has become an expert in this area of “disappearing.” I liked the resourcefulness of Justine, and how she outfoxed the qualified assassin who comes after her. Another winner from Thomas Perry. My rating 4 of 5.

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Hero will be published on January 16, 2024.

Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild (2022)

I love the tag line on this new novel — “She’s accused of four murders. She’s only guilty of three…” And we are off!

This is a fun read from page one to the conclusion. Rothchild introduces us to Ruby who has indeed killed several people in her short but stressful life in Miami. But this time when her husband dies, she tells us as the narrator that she didn’t do it. Do we believe her? Will that matter to the police?

Ruby is a psychologist who knows the language of guilt and defensiveness. The question in Blood Sugar is, is the reader one of her conquests or do we have the whole story…. yes, it is unsettling but highly engrossing as we watch Ruby justify her killings over the years until finally her history catches up with her.

I found myself not quite rooting for Ruby, and yet I did not want her to be found guilty, especially if she did not kill her husband. This character is not one you will soon forget. My rating 4 of 5.

A Small Town by Thomas Perry

“The best of the popular writers knew what [Charles] Dickens knew: ‘Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait,'” wrote Perry in Library Journal.

My first exposure to Thomas Perry was with the Jane Whitefield series in the 1995 novel, Vanishing Act. Jane is a Native American woman who has a made a career out of helping people disappear. Especially women. Unfortunately, as technology advanced, Thomas’ Jane had more and more problems forging documents and hiding in the new world of credit cards. But not to worry as Thomas had written more than 27 thrillers for us all to enjoy — including A Small Town.

In A Small Town a horrible prison break leaves the town with hundreds dead and the remaining towns people traumatized. While most of the criminals were recaptured, the twelve organizers escaped, and two years later our heroine, Detective. Lt. Leah Hawkins, takes a leave of absence to find the twelve.

Thomas excels in the “finding people” or “hiding people” sub-genre of thrillers. This novel of revenge is expertly written with a fast moving plot, reminisce of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. The main character is well drawn out– though she often has luck on her side in the hunt, she knows it and you are with her 100 percent.

Lt. Hawkins is 6’2″ with blond hair so it is hard to understand how she sneaks around. A few times, as I read yet another lucky break for Hawkins, I felt Thomas was merely shortening the book instead of having the detective do the work. But then again as she overpowers several of the bad guys, you can easily visualize it. Thomas has the knack for telling a story in the details. This is another Thomas Perry novel you should put on your list to read. 4 of 5 stars

Goodbye Reacher…

“There’s only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.”

Mick Herron

Unfortunately, Mick Herron is correct and No Plan B, the latest from Andrew Child and Lee Child, will be my last Jack Reacher novel. I really wanted Lee Child’s brother, Andrew, to be able to continue the series when Lee Child retired in 2020 from the series, but the last three novels have shown me that the one and only Jack Reacher is gone.

I could tell you the inconsistencies and numerous illogical moves the hero makes as he bulldozes his way through another pile of bad guys in No Plan B, but truly there were SO MANY that I just will say that the Jack Reacher who we knew and loved — who problem solved with intelligence and style — is no more! This Reacher is clumsy and illogical. His female, amateur sidekick proves to be better at strategic planning than Reacher and is actually a more likable character. Not that you care about any of the characters in this novel.

Unlike the original 24 Reacher novels where we followed Reacher as he cleverly but ethically made his way through a problem, here we follow the story line of 5 different characters! Many of whom add nothing to the plot except to come in at the end to cause some additional action. And Reacher himself has lost his ethical nature. At one point in the book, he picks up a teenage hitchhiker in the middle of being hunted by killers. Sigh.

The plot is also clumsy. Reacher witnesses the murder of a woman being pushed in front of a bus which the police log as a suicide. So Reacher goes after the killers, traveling from Colorado to Mississippi. You follow the killers, a teen trying to find his father, another killer who you don’t know what he is doing, a prison warden, a Mississippi Police Chief and our hero, Reacher, as he figures out how the prison in Mississippi fits into the murder. Finally, in the last few pages all the characters come together, and you really don’t care. However, the reader does not get to know how all these characters end up! No real resolution! Andrew Child just ends the book without any final goodbye to the female sidekick — like she mattered not at all. Even though Reacher could not have solve anything without her. But yet he does say goodbye to the teenage hitchhiker…

Some pieces of Reacher remain, of course. A few of the problem solving ventures were well thought out. But then the dialogue would take me completely out of the book for a “that is silly” thought. I wonder if I would like this book more if it wasn’t about Reacher at all but another character unknown to me? Um, no. I don’t think so. I prefer logic and cleverness in my thrillers. Regardless of the main character’s name, this hero is not my kind of guy.

2 of 5 stars

I Am Pilgrim, the sequel??

In 2014 one of the best thrillers I have ever read was published — I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. The story about a spy racing across the globe to stop Armaggedon was over 600 pages, and no one I knew took more than a few days to read it. It was reviewed over and over as one of the best books of the year, the best thriller of all time, the best this and that — and it really is a remarkable book. Exciting, fun, with absolutely everything you want in a thriller.

I Am Pilgrim was an immediate best seller in the US and Britain and was translated into over 30 languages. A screen play was written and the movie rights sold in 2015. And then…. nothing. No movie and no book sequel.

Every year we were promised another book — the upcoming title was even released along with the first chapter of The Year of the Locust. At first people scrambled to reserve the book on Amazon until finally, when Amazon started listing the book’s release date as 2045, we began to understand there was a problem. Not that anyone for the past 9 years has been able to give readers a reason for the delay. It became the biggest disappointment in the Mystery/Thriller world.

And now… here we are in 2023 and, yes, we have another release date for The Year of the Locust. This time Sept. 28th, 2023 (at least in England). Bantam Press says it is 528 pages and one can pre-order, if you dare.

The press on the book details the plot with “a breathtaking story about cutting-edge science, a government conspiracy, and one man’s desperate attempt to unravel it all. Luke Truman is a junior officer on board the USS “Leviathan,” the most advanced and powerful warship ever built. It is an eight-hundred-foot-long submarine which, among its vast array of weaponry and secret systems, boasts a top secret cloaking technology. Bending light around objects to render them invisible, it is the hottest military research innovation not just in the US, but throughout the world. Now the time has come for the first large-scale trial of its effectiveness. But neither Luke nor the United States government realizes the astonishing forces this experiment will unleash. What Luke discovers on board the “Leviathan “is that the future of our world is at a deadly tipping point and that only he will be able to stop the cascade of events which are leading them all inexorably towards doom. A breakneck story of nonstop suspense, “The Year of the Locust” is a high-concept thriller unlike any you’ve read before.”

Ah, but I have heard it all before! And while disappointed as I have been for the past 8 years, I am unexplainably optimistic that indeed we will be reading the sequel to I Am Pilgrim this fall. I am not putting money down on a pre-order, however.