Black Fridays, Michael Sears

Weld Financial have a problem, the SEC is sniffing around one of their junior traders, the late Brian Sanders so they hire former trader Jason Stafford as a consultant, just to check that their man is clean.

Stafford, having paid a two year debt to society is only too happy to help them. He’s just managed to part his autistic five-year-old son ‘the Kid’ from Angie, Stafford’s beautiful but crazy ex-wife and this job is the first step on his path to responsible fatherhood.

Stafford’s experience helps him to see patterns in the market and he’s seeing a pattern all right, the type that leaves bodies in its wake and the FBI in his face. At first Stafford refuses to help them but when his son is snatched he’ll risk his freedom and life to save him.

Garment of Shadows, Laurie King

1924. Mary Russell is missing in Morocco. She wakes up in a small room with blood ingrained in her nails and a memory full of holes. Her skills have not deserted her though, she's in the city of Fez, although she still has no idea how she came to be there.

Fez is home to a rich blend of spies, bandits, diplomats, guides, merchants and some old friends. Lying as it does so close to a bubbling civil war front which many European interests are keen to meddle in, a still-recovering Mary and her husband Sherlock Holmes attempts to piece together her missing hours and the bearing they may have on peace talks in the region.

Luther, The Calling, Neil Cross

A madman wants the oxygen of publicity and DCI John Luther wants him off the streets permanently in the prequel to the TV series.

Luther is a good copper, intense, driven, his marriage is falling apart around his ears and his dark side is starting to show. He’s not on the take he just metes out justice his own way. With a double murder to solve and a killer with a massive pool of possible victims, Luther’s going to have to bend the rules to save a little girl’s life.

The Paladin Prophecy, Mark Frost

Will West has a secret, but even he isn’t sure what it is. His parents move around like country like fugitives and they’ve drilled it into Will to fly under the radar, keep your abilities hidden don’t stand out. But Will messes up, aceing a test that gets him all sorts of attention.

An elite prep school offers him a scholarship, he’s pursued by men in big black SUVs and suddenly he’s alone, a fifteen year old with no home, no family, an unwilling player in a game with global consequences. Can the Center protect him against the Paladin Prophecy?

September

Lots of writing and very little reading this week. Here are my reviews for September, enjoy.

Princes and Fobbits

I loved The Little Book by Seldon Edwards but assumed it was a one-off. So I was startled yesterday to see a brand new Edwards title. The Lost Prince takes up pretty much where the first book ended. Eleanor Puttnam returns from Vienna, with three precious items, the most important one (considered by Sigmund Freud to be the ravings of a madman and by Eleanor to be a blueprint that will create a dynasty) predicts two world wars, and other fixed points in history.

The blueprint starts to unravel when Eleanor's protege perishes in the first world war. He was a key part of her plan. Has history been changed by her actions? So far (I read a bunch on my break last night) this is a worthy follow-up.

Another title I've heard a lot about but haven't seen an arc for-until yesterday-is Fobbit, a dark (this is a guess) comedy set during the Iraq war. I plan to read this over the weekend.

Year Zero by Rob Reid

This just came out, I didn't see an arc of it but it is so-far funny enough to make me laugh out loud in several places and public guffawing is something I tend not to do because people instantly label you 'crazy'. It definitely has a little touch of Douglas Adams about it.

Earth is of course in danger from aliens but not because of a hyperspace bypass. This time it's the biggest case of copyright infringement since the big bang. You see aliens love earth music-from TV theme tunes to heavy metal and everything in between. And they owe the inhabitants of planet Earth money, several universes worth. Our hero, Nick Carter (no, not the back street boy) is a New York copyright lawyer, low on the food chain and a few months away from termination. But through a hilarious mistake he ends up with alien delegations beating a path to his door. Nick is all that's standing between us and certain annihilation, well him and 'the nine Guardians'

Thoughts on Hand for A Hand

It's a good job that thriller writers only exercise their imagination on the page. They only plot heists and murders, they don't carry them out.

The arc I got superglued to over the weekend is Hand for a Hand by T Frank Muir, a police procedural where the investigating detective is the target (it says that in the blurb so I am not giving anything away)

Most writers use the 'detective gets pulled into the case, killer becomes obsessed with detective (in this case the detective is usually female) Muir takes his character, DCI Andy Gilchrist, by the throat and hits him, hard and then he hits him some more. Sharp, fast paced. I'm hoping the St Andrews area has more crimes for Gilchrist to solve.