Book Review: Slingshot by Matthew Dunn

Title: Slingshot: A Spycatcher Novel by Matthew Dunn
Genre:  thriller

Published June 25, 2013; William Morrow

I read the first in the series, Spycatcher, and thought it was an excellent book. Here is a quote from my review:

The usual superlatives go to a thriller that is uncommonly good: action packed, gut wrenching, suspenseful, and at the same time quite realistic. I was sympathetic to the main character, (Will Cochrane) a British agent who works in secret and who is unknown, even to  British intelligence service MI6, of which he a part.  (review of Spycatcher)

I missed reading the second in the series, Sentinel, and caught up with the third, Slingshot. Slingshot is all spy novel, as the book description below shows, and I missed the personal side of Will that made the first book so good. I would have liked a more developed subplot or subplots and earlier in the novel. As it is, the book is all top notch spy action and it was hard to sympathize with any of the characters. This could have been because the plot seemed far fetched, though the reality may very well be close to what actually takes place behind the scenes. To get into the series, I would suggest you start with the first book, Spycatcher. There is a giveaway of a set with both books below.

Publisher description: Master spy Will Cochrane must catch a missing Russian defector as well as one of Europe’s deadliest assassins. Will monitors the streets of Gdansk, Poland—waiting for a Russian defector, a man bearing a top secret document. But suddenly everything goes sideways. The target shows up, but so does a team from Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) hell-bent on keeping the man from walking. Then, in a hail of crossfire, a van snatches the defector out from under them all. Everyone wants the man and the codes he carries—but now he’s gone.

Then Will learns that the Russians have tasked their own ‘spycatcher’—an agent just as ruthless and relentless as Will—to retrieve the document. Now Will  faces two clever and deadly adversaries, who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims.

For other reviews of this book, see the tour schedule.
Thanks to Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours and the publisher for a review copy of this book.


Author info: As an MI6 field officer, MATTHEW DUNN recruited and ran agents and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the world, conducting approximately seventy missions, all successful. He lives in England. His novels in the series are: Spycatcher, Sentinel, and Slingshot. He is at work on the fourth Spycatcher novel.

GIVEAWAY:

Partners in Crime and the publisher is offering one set Mass Market edition of Spycatcher and Slingshot to a reader. To enter, leave a comment with an email address indicating you wish to be entered in the contest. No P.O. box addresses, please. U.S. residents only. A winner will be randomly selected July 3 and informed by email. A response will be due by July 5. Good luck!

UPDATE: The giveaway winner is Naida, chosen by random.org Thank you all for entering the contest. 

Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Ch. 1

"Samuel watched his brother's big hands walk over the steering wheel, turning the pickup into the campus parking lot. He should have driven himself. No one who saw his prematurely graying hair would mistake him for a teenager, even as small as he was, but being dropped off still felt juvenile.The stupid things he did to make his brother feel useful. Samuel shifted, adjusting his seat belt, and double-checked to make sure the bus schedule was in his pocket."

Title: Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman
Published June 18, 2013; Gallery Books
Genre: fiction, romance

Publisher's description: Samuel Cooke knows most women wouldn't give him a second glance. He's the cripple with the crutches, the nerdy computer genius. When he leaves his lucrative career to teach programming to high schoolers, Greta Cassamajor catches him off guard. She is the sarcastic gym coach with zero sense of humor, and no beauty - not even on the inside. But an inexplicably kind act toward Samuel makes him realize she is interesting.

Samuel is certain she won't accept his invitation to dinner - so when she does, he's out of his depth. All he knows is that he'll do whatever it takes to keep her as long as he can. Ramsey Hootman upends traditional romance tropes to weave a charming tale of perseverance, trust, and slightly conditional love."

Based on the opening sentences/teaser, would you continue reading? 

New Arrivals: Mailbox Monday, It's Monday; and Stacking the Shelves

This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey; to Mailbox Monday hosted by Dolce Bellezza; and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews

Two ARCs for review - mystery series that I have been eagerly following:

The Sound and the Furry: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn features the "K-9 flunk-out" Chet, and his human partner, private detective Bernie. The story is told by the dog Chet, whose point of view is both amusing as well as astute. But Chet has great atrributes for a PI - a strong sense of smell, sight, a powerful jump, and devotion to his human in this detective duo series.

Book description: Chet and Bernie head to Louisiana in the next installment in the New York Times bestselling mystery series featuring “a canine Sam Spade full of joie de vivre” (Stephen King) and his human private investigator companion.

The Case of the Love Commandos: A Vish Puri Novel by Tarquin Hall, is the fourth in the mystery series. In a contemporary Romeo and Juliet story set within India’s caste system, private investigator Vish Puri faces a high-stakes mystery. When Ram and Tulsi fall in love, the young woman’s parents are dead set against the union. Fortunately, India’s Love Commandos, a real-life group of volunteers dedicated to helping mixed-caste couples, successfully free Tulsi, but Ram has gone missing. Vish Puri's job is to find him. (book description)

Three review books:

Accidents Happen by Louise Millar, a new thriller: Kate Parker has weathered the unimaginable  - her parents died in a traffic accident on her wedding night, and her husband, Hugo, was murdered in a tragic break-in. All she has left is her young son, Jack, and determined to make a better future for him, she attempts to pull her life back together. But are she and her son safe? (book description)

The White Forest by Adam McOmber, a Gothic historical novel.
Book description: Jane Silverlake is able to see the souls of man-made objects—and this talent isolates her from the outside world. She finds solace in her only companions, Madeline and Nathan, but their idyll is shattered by Nathan’s interest in a cult led by a charismatic mystic popular with London’s elite. A year later, Nathan has vanished, and the famed Inspector Vidocq arrives in London to untangle the events. As a sinister truth emerges, Jane must discover the origins of her talent, and use it to find Nathan herself, before it’s too late.

The Last Original Wife by Dorothea Benton Frank, Southern fiction.
Leslie Anne Greene Carter is the last original wife among her husband's group of cronies. They've all traded in their first wives for riper peaches: younger . . . blonder . . . more enhanced models. Leslie is proud of her status and the longevity of her marriage.... until the day, out golfing with her husband and his friends, she slips into a manhole. And nobody realizes that she's gone.

That one misstep opens Leslie's eyes to the sham her perfect life has become. With the healing powers of South Carolina's lush white beaches, candy-colored sunsets, and fiesty and funny residents, Leslie is going to transform herself and reclaim the strong, vibrant, sexy woman she was meant to be. (book description)

The Lemon Orchard by Luanne Rice, women's fiction and romance set in Malibu and the Santa Monica mountains.
In the five years since Julia last visited her aunt and uncle’s home in Malibu, her life has been turned upside down by her daughter’s death. As she house-sits with only her dog, Bonnie, for company, she finds herself drawn to the handsome man who oversees the lemon orchard. Roberto expertly tends the trees, using the money to support his extended Mexican family. What connection could these two people share?

The answer comes as Roberto reveals the heartbreaking story of his own loss—a pain Julia knows all too well, but for one striking difference: Roberto’s daughter was lost but never found. And despite the odds he cannot bear to give up hope. (book description)

An excitingly mixed bag this week. What was in your mailbox?

Bought at the Book Store/Borrowed from the Library

I was only going to look to see what new books were at the bookstore yesterday. I came back with this.

I have been seeing The Firebird on lots of blogs and was getting very curious. I liked what I read on the cover and started reading, then had to buy it. I am loving it! The heroine with psychic abilities appealed to me, especially while she is trying to establish the provenance of an old Russian wood carving, the Firebird.

At the library, returning some overdue books, I also went browsing and came back with these:

The Hour of the Rat is a thriller set in Beijing, with an Iraqi war vet representing the work of a Chinese artist and dissident, who has recently disappeared. The disappearance is the result of a conspiracy that leads the main character further into the mystery and into a wild chase through scenic parts of the country.

Bad Blood A Kate Shugak Novel by Dana Stabenow was another book I found at the library. I have enjoyed the series and read most of the early ones. Bad blood between two native tribes in Alaska intensifies when a young man from one of the groups is found dead. Kate is called in to resolve the problem and find the murderer. I always enjoy the Alaska setting.

A Tale for the Time Being is one I almost bought but found at the library, conveniently. A diary by Nao, a sixteen year old girl in Japan documents the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun, who has lived over a century. After the Japanese tsunami of 2011, the diary is found washed up on the shores of a remote island in the Pacific Northwest by a woman named Ruth. By reading the diary, Ruth is "pulled into Nao's drama and unknown fate and forward into her own future." I couldn't resist a description such as that.

Great books! I wish the last three had been in my mailbox and that I didn't have to return them eventually to the library :)

What have you bought or borrowed recently?

Travel Memoir Review: Blind Curves by Linda Crill

Title: Blind Curves: One Woman's Unusual Journey to Reinvent Herself and Answer: What Now?
Author: Linda Crill
Published March 1, 2013; Opus Intl.
Genre: travel, memoir

Before reading the book, I read the book description: "After 18 months of following one-size-fits-all advice for a 57-year-old widow, Linda Crill was still miserable. In a moment of rebellion, she traded her corporate suits for motorcycle leathers and committed herself to a 2,500-mile road trip down Americas Pacific Northwest coast riding a motorcycle. The problem, she didn't know how to ride and had only 30 days to learn."

I was amazed that a corporate executive in a high octane atmosphere such as Washington DC could suddenly, in her mid-fifties, throw caution to the wind and decide to learn how to ride a motorcycle and take off for a long road trip along the Pacific Northwest coast. I though it took a lot of gumption, not to mention, determination.

There are probably many roads to dealing with the death of a spouse or loved one and finding your place in a new future. Linda Crill took this biking route, which worked very well for her. She was pulled away from her grief by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and her surroundings.

Standing on the vast beach - at least 100 yards deep and stretching for miles to the north and south - we were amazed. To our right, majestically rising out of the ocean close to shore, was a rocky monolith. In front and to its left stood several smaller ones. They aroused my curiosity as I surveyed the area around me, trying to conjecture how they had been created. (ch. 10)

I liked that the book is illustrated with sketches of the author on her bike, with her biker friends, or in the middle of beautiful scenery.

The memoir reads as part adventure, part inspirational. A scenic and uplifting bike ride.

About the author: Linda Crill is a Washington DC area executive, consultant and international speaker who has worked with Citigroup, Cadbury-Mott’s, Goldman Sachs and Marriott International, Inc., as well as  other Fortune 100 companies, universities, non-profits, and government departments and agencies. A mother of three, she lectures and writes on how to manage change and reinvent yourself, your life and your business. “Discoveries,” she says,” are waiting to be found around each blind curve.”

I received a complimentary review copy of the book from Rebecca at The Cadence Group.
Submitted to Cym Lowell's Book Review Link-Up Party

Book Teaser: The Prodigal by Michael Hurley

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers. First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: The Prodigal: A Novel by Michael Hurley
Published May 28; 20132; CreateSpace
Genre: novel with supernatural elements

Ocracoke Island, 2010 

And so Aidan, the proud one, a man who refused above all else to learn from his own mistakes much less the errors of history, came at last to this island. Of course it would be a wild place. A sea place. A dwelling made of memory, sand, and wind. A world that already knew his name. Here he slept, unsuspecting, in the peace of the unborn. But every birth is a time of becoming, and Aidan's time had come. (ch. 1)

Watch the trailer at: http (colon) youtu.be/Bp49DoGEBH0.
Publisher description: This allegorical tale begins with the escape of a Gypsy princess and her young lover from her father's camp in 1851. The boy steals Prodigal, a sailing ship blessed with unnatural speed, and the lovers escape to sea, leaving the father to grieve for the loss and pine for the return of his child. More than 150 years later on Ocracoke Island, Aidan Sharpe, an aging lawyer, is caught up in a two-thousand-year-old mystery that unfolds with the sudden reappearance of Prodigal off the coast, adrift and unmanned. Its discovery will lead Aidan and those close to him into the deep, in a race between time and eternity.

Review

Hurley (Once Upon a Gypsy Moon, 2013, etc.) writes an intriguing, well-plotted and multilayered novel whose heroes are interestingly flawed. In various ways they struggle with faith, whether in God or other human beings. The supernatural elements--a religious relic, a gypsy woman out of legend--are thoughtfully handled. Hurley writes beautifully, especially in depicting nautical and island life. . . Stirring, romantic and evocative of the sea's magic. -Kirkus Reviews

Would you keep reading based on the opening sentences of the first chapter?
 I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

It's Monday: What's New?

This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey;  to Mailbox Monday hosted by Dolce Bellezza; and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

Two arrivals in my mailbox from the publisher and the author:

The Crossing Places: A Ruth Galloway Mystery (2009)
"When she’s not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives in a remote area called Saltmarsh near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants - not quite earth, not quite sea.

When a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help. Nelson thinks he has found the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing ten years ago. Since her disappearance he has been receiving bizarre letters about her, letters with references to ritual and sacrifice.

The bones actually turn out to be two thousand years old, but Ruth is soon drawn into the Lucy Downey case and into the mind of the letter writer, who seems to have both archaeological knowledge and eerie psychic powers. Then another child goes missing and the hunt is on to find her.

As the letter writer moves closer and the windswept Norfolk landscape exerts its power, Ruth finds herself in completely new territory – and in serious danger." (publisher's description).

The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip  (June 25, 2013)
"Mingmei Yip draws readers deeper into the exotic world of 1930s Shanghai first explored in Skeleton Women, and into the lives of the unforgettable Camilla, Shadow, and Rainbow Chang.

When Shadow, a gifted, ambitious magician, competed with the beautiful Camilla for the affections of organized crime leader Master Lung, she almost lost everything. Hiding out in Hong Kong, performing in a run-down circus, Shadow has no idea that Camilla, too, is on the run with her lover, Jinying--Lung's son.

Yet while Camilla and Shadow were once enemies, now their only hope of freedom lies in joining forces to eliminate the ruthless Big Brother Wang. Despite the danger, Shadow, Camilla, and Jinying return to Shanghai. Camilla also has her own secret agenda--she has heard a rumor that her son is alive. And in a city teeming with spies and rivals--including the vengeful Rainbow Chang--each battles for a future in a country on the verge of monumental change." (publisher's description).

An adventure novel/mystery that I bought:

The Wheel of Heaven by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child ( August 28, 2007).
FBI Special Agent Pendergast has taken Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed. They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen. Pendergast agrees to take up the search.

The trail leads him and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Queen Victoria, the world's largest and most luxurious passenger liner-and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror. (publisher's description)

What are you reading this week?