Spotlight on an Author

Catherine Coulter

Well-known for her bestselling FBI thrillers, Catherine Coulter has also written historical romances which is how she became an author. I first discovered her through the book The Deception but soon became an avid fan of her suspense mysteries. The thrillers are unpredictable and riveting with just the right amount of romance- enough to keep you interested without overwhelming the plot. The Cove is the first book in her FBI series, but the books can be read out of order; I started with Whiplash. The main characters are a man and woman, the same characters pop up throughout the series but they are not always the main focus. The woman are strong and self-sufficient without being overbearing and the men are the same.
The historical romances are both accurate and engaging. The women are not the type to faint away at the sight of blood and yes, the men are stereotypically nefarious or blustery saying things like, "Damnation!" and being ruggedly handsome.

The Cove

Sally Brainerd is on the run; her high-profile father has been murdered and more than one person is after her. Her estranged husband wants to put her back into the mental institution she escaped from, the doctor who abused her in her incarceration wants control over her again, and Special Agent James Quinlan is undercover and in hot pursuit. Sally's father was into something dangerous and Sally may have the clues James needs to solve the case.
Sally escapes to the Cove, a tiny town that caters to tourists by selling their famous World's Greatest Ice Cream. The Cove is not just a small town full of the elderly and infirm however, something sinister lurks beneath the quaint exterior of charm; something dangerous...

   The Deception

Evangeline de Beauchamps is part English and part French, she lives in France with her father during the Napoleonic era. One night her father is kidnapped by supporters of Napoleon who want to see the Emperor take back the Empire taken from him by the English.  Evangeline is chosen to become a spy to the Duke of Portsmouth because her cousin was once married to the Duke before she died. Evangeline has no choice, she must worm her way into the Duke's household so that she can pass information onto the French, if she refuses then her father will die.

Evangeline persuades the Duke to give her a position as governess to his young son Edward. But as time passes Evangeline's guilt grows along with her feelings towards the Duke and his son. Her position is made harder by the fact that the Duke's friend was murdered by French supporters and the Duke himself is vehemently anti-Napoleon.

I will admit the story is a little hokey, it's all melodrama and instant attraction but well the worth the read if you ever find yourself bored on a rainy afternoon.

Postcard Killers

By James Patterson and Liza Marklund

This story will make you think twice about meeting strangers while on vacation...
Europe is being plagued by serial killers; an unknown couple is murdering young honeymooners all over the continent. Before they do, they send a postcard to a local newspaper with a Shakespeare quote warning the world that another murder has been committed.
The killers meet unsuspecting honeymooners and persuade them to go back to their hotel, they then brutally murder the two and escape before anyone finds the bodies.

Jack Kanon is an American policeman and his daughter Kimmy was murdered in Rome with her new husband by the postcard killers. Hunting down the murdering couple becomes his obsessive goal and he follows them across Europe as they leave a trail of bodies in their wake. 

Dessie Larsson is a Swedish journalist who receives a mysterious postcard in the mail, she frantically realizes it's the calling card of the postcard killers. Jack catches up with her and together they work to find out who and where the postcard killers are and who they may be killing next...

It was a good thriller; twists and turns abound and it's exciting to delve deeper into the minds of the psycho killers, especially when it turns out that they are murdering in the name of art.

  

The Partner
By John Grisham

A burning car, an unidentifiable body, a grieving widow and daughter...90 million dollars missing...

Patrick Lannigan is a young partner for a firm in Biloxi. One day he dies in a horrific car accident and everyone mourns his death. But then $90 million goes missing and everyone begins to suspect the late Lannigan.  After all, the body was too burned to identify, he was acting strange the last few weeks of his life, and the money that was stolen jumped from bank to bank before disappearing.

Now everyone is trying to find him; the FBI, the businessman who's money was stolen, and they will stop at nothing to recover the money. Every chapter brings a new twist and turn and you can't help but hope that Patrick manages to escape the death penalty. 

But there are so many questions; why did Patrick run away, how is he connected to the gorgeous Eva Miranda, why did he steal the money, who is the poor soul who burned in his car, and most important of all: where is the money now?

If It Ain't Baroque, Don't Fix It

The Angel's Game
By Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Translated from Spanish in 2009, this book is a prequel to The Shadow of the Wind which I did not know until researching this title. If the prequel is any indication then the bestselling Shadow should be wonderful.

David Martín is a young writer in Barcelona in the 1920s and 1930s. He writes sensationalist baroque novels but feels like he is not being true to his soul. David is approached several times by a mysterious man named Andreas Corelli who wants David to write a book with the power to change people.

Corelli wants a book about religion and he will do anything to persuade David, even release him from his contract with the publishers of his sensation novels in a mysterious and gruesome way. But David's demons do not always let him rest and focus on his work.

Soon David finds that there is something wrong with enigmatic Andreas Corelli. He also begins to investigate the former resident of his tower house who died under questionable circumstances and left a bloody trail of broken lives behind him...and may have been working for Corelli. But, while David investigates he himself is being investigated because everybody he comes in contact with meets a gruesome death...

This book is haunting and engaging and I had a hard time putting it down. The entire time I was thinking, 'If the right director got hold of this, the movie would be dark and magnificent and frightening.' You root for David while he battles his own thoughts and the dark house he lives in that holds many secrets. The plot takes unseen twists and turns and I loved every minute of it.  

Pointedly Intriguing

P

Point of Honour
by Madeleine E. Robins

It's a sad thought that if you make the wrong choice in life, your entire social standing is ruined. But that is what has happened in Point of Honour. 
Sara Tolerance was once a young lady from a good family; when she runs away to Amsterdam with her brother's fencing master that all ends. Twelve years later, Sarah's love has died of an illness and Sarah returns to Regency England and lives with her aunt, who is the mistress of a high-class brothel. Sarah has two choices: as a 'Fallen Woman' she must either become a prostitute to earn her money or find another profession. So, Sarah becomes an agent of inquiry. She "...is able to float between social layers, unearth secrets, find things that were lost, and lose things too dangerous to be kept." 
Sarah is hired by Lord Versellion to find an antique fan that his father gave to an old friend. Versellion insists that finding the fan is essential to keeping a family secret. As it turns out, Sarah is not the only person looking for the fan. In a world of treachery, political plotting, and murder, Sarah must find her footing in a man's world and try and earn her keep as an agent of inquiry. But everyone is not who they say they are and nothing can be taken at face value.

I really enjoyed the story, I was kept guessing through the plot twists and could not predict much of the ending. While Sarah's personality is not very developed the story is an easy read. The world of brothels is complex and interesting. The book was released in 2003 with a sequel called Petty Treason released in 2004. I would recommend this to anyone interested in mystery and intrigue. It's a fun read!