I am reviewing the novel Gone by James Patterson which is a very good thriller which I bought from kindle. This novel is the 6th installment in the Michael Bennett series where we have a policeman in who serves in New York who lost his wife to cancer but who has 9 adopted children all adopted by an Irish nanny called Mary Catherine who is devoted to her job and has a bit of a crush on Mike. At the beginning of this book there is a big gangster take over where a load of dons in the mafia and their families are wiped out. The man responsible is hispanic and offered a deal to the dons some time ago but it got scoffed at. It starts off a bit like the James Bond where we would see a terrifying baddie and think how on earth is in this case Mike and his family going to deal with this even though we know he is going to come out on top. Anyway apparently Michael broke the nose and arrested the hispanic gangster some time ago so he and his family along with their nanny go in hiding. Their only hope is for Mike to help the FBI find these crooks which means working with Emily Parker who is a past love interest and a bit of a rival to his nanny and he is going out with the latter. There is also at least one informant within the police effort to find this man which means the baddie knows everything including where Mike's family are. The baddie also kidnaps and kills people in a bid to get back at Mike. Of course it does have a happy ending. I did enjoy reading it and it keeps your interest throughout, not to mention there is lots of tension.

I am reviewing the thriller novel The Up And Comer by Howard Roughan which is an excellent story which I bought from a local secondhand bookstore. Howard has co written various novels with James Patterson and does seem like a pretty good thriller writer. This novel isn't that different to the kind of thing Patterson writes. The book plays with your emotions quite skilfully and the key character who is an up and coming lawyer in a successful firm, hence the title, does starts off as not very likable but I did find myself feeling sorry for him by the end of the book although perhaps justifiably there is a bitter sweet ending. It's very skilfully written and it does seem a shame it hasn't reached a more mainstream audience. The plot is a lawyer in a successful firm who is married to the bosses daughter is having an affair with the bosses wife who he is meant to be defending on a driving whilst under the influence charge. Then an ex friend of his comes back in his life and has snaps of him and the bosses wife that incriminate him. He wants a $100,000 to keep quiet and threatens this bloke and refuses to pay up. In the meantime he joins a poker circle with some friends and cleans up with lots of money, he gets $3,000 alone when he joins the group but it makes sense to pay the ex friend to stay quiet especially when he discovers he knows his boss. Anyway by a twist of circumstances he ends up killing the ex friend more in manslaughter than murder but makes it look like a robbery gone wrong. At this point his whole starts to come apart and the police are hot on his trail. I really enjoyed this book and it definitely keeps your interest throughout.

I am reviewing the psychological thriller novel Guilt by Jonathan Kellerman which is a very good story and which I bought from a local supermarket. This book is part of the Alex Delaware series featuring a psychologist who works for the police in Los Angeles along with his partner Milo Sturgis. These stories tend to cover serial killings and this is no exception. The story centres on a well to do neighbourhood where there has been a spate of ritual killings done some time ago. The first one discovered is by a lady who is 5 months pregnant and is in a large metal container in a huge tree in her garden at the house she has recently moved into. There has been problems with the tree which has dead wood and it's as one of the large branches comes down, the metal box is exposed. The body has been there quite a long time. There is the body of a baby later discovered and it becomes apparent the killer is a doctor who used to drive an old classis car called a Duisburg and due to its age there are no records of it. They discover there were 3 of these cars in the area. This isn't as good as some of the other stories in the series but is still pretty good. I think When The Bough Breaks is my favourite. Anyway there is a happy ending and the story is nicely paced. Jonathan used to be a very distinguished psychologist prior to becoming an author and has written some factual books on the subject in addition to his thrillers. He is a gifted writer and most of his fiction books are Alex Delaware novels. I am surprised no one has made any of them into films as I they think they would be quite popular.

I am reviewing the film We Are The East which is an excellent ecothriller. This film stars Brit Marling & Ellen Page. Marling plays someone who is concerned about an ecoterrorist group called The East who target people in business who do things like sell unsafe drugs or pollute the environment and agrees to infiltrate the organisation. She is taken on by an agency that works on behalf of paying customers in big business and they operate similiar to a spy organisation. As she infiltrates the terrorist group she starts to see their point and while disagreeing with actually killing people wants to help them. Ellen plays a fellow terrorist whose father is a corrupt businessman who pollutes the water tables in many areas with illegal waste but has somehow got away with it. At one point Ellen dies in the film and there is a poignant scene where another ecoterrorist says he would gladly give up they have achieved to get her back alive. It's an unusual topic and a great story & I really enjoyed it. Also the agency Marling works for is only interested in pleasing clients and getting new ones and couldn't care less about upholding the law. As time gores on the ecoterrorists who believe in do unto them as they would do unto others starts out dumping oil in the house of someone responsible for a big oil slick but do get more extreme ie they try to force Page's parents to bathe in a polluted creek which should result in a painful death due to the toxins dumped in it. By the end of the movie the terrorist group is coming apart at the seams and Brit must choose where her loyalties lie. Neither side is perfect.

I am reviewing the novel A Tap On The Window by Linwood Barclay which is a very good thriller which I bought from a local supermarket. I think Linwood is one of the best thriller writers currently writing and I did quite enjoy reading this book which has only just been published in Britain. The book is around 500 pages so is a decent length. The plot concerns a father whose sone jumped off a roof after taking bad recreational drugs and had been missing for some time. The father is determined to find out who is responsible for selling him the dodgy drugs. He is at a traffic lights in the rain and a young lady who knew his son is desperate for a lift and also another rather dodgy motorist has made her a bit fearful for her safety so he agrees to give her a lift. In his search to find the dubious drug dealer he agrees to buy that lady and her friend some drugs each and also he ends up taking some. The drug is what I think is called MDMA although in the book they use the proper name. Anyway both of the die as a result and he is fearful of ending up on multiple murder charges. The only solution is for him to get to the bottom of what is going on. The story is set in Toronto which is Linwood's home in Canada. Apparently he used to be a columnist for the Toronto Star. He has written quite a few thrillers and does seem quite consistent. The novel also has quite a happy ending & I would recommend it.