The Last Mona Lisa
The Last Mona Lisa, Jonathan Santlofer’s retelling of the August 21, 1911, theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louve, is ingenious. Art theft, forgery, and Interpol, nothing is left out. It is a thriller not to be missed. What I thought was a highly ingenious inspiration for Jonathan Santlofer’s novel, The Last Mona Lisa, […]
Tahoe Moon
Tahoe Moon – We know summer is upon us as Todd Borg’s Owen McKenna takes center stage. Mystery-thriller fans will not be disappointed. McKenna is back! For all you mystery-thriller fans who happen to love Lake Tahoe and Todd Borg’s Owen McKenna, hold onto your hats; McKenna is back! In Tahoe Moon, as in all […]
Checkmate
Checkmate, a thriller benefitting from its author’s political experience and her tech-world expertise. Karna Small Bodman’s background gives her special insight into the subtleties of international intrigue. She served in the Reagan White House for six years, first as deputy press secretary to Jim Brady and then as senior director of the National Security Council. […]
Numbered Account
Numbered Account – Reich bifurcates his novel between the intricacies of Swiss banking and one fast-paced thriller. Christopher Reich has written what I would call a bifurcated novel. Numbered Account literally splits into two equal pieces. The first half is a cerebral portrayal of the intricacies of Swiss banking and the extremes to which Swiss […]
Saint X
SAINT X Alexis Schaitkin’s debut novel, Saint X, opens with the languid ennui of a mid-winter Caribbean vacation. An omniscient narrator sets scenes filled with string-topped bikinis, rum fruit punches, sunburns, and sex. “As afternoon slips into evening, the guests drift away from the beach. They spend the hours before dinner recovering from the day—the […]
Blackout
BLACKOUT You probably shouldn’t read (as I did) Marc Elsberg’s thriller, Blackout, while cable news is concentrating on the catastrophic outcomes of a spreading coronavirus. Blackout does not feature a viral pandemic, but it does imagine similar societal chaos. Blackout’s pandemonium comes after Europe’s electrical grids experience a total breakdown. In a very short time, […]
Star of the North
STAR OF THE NORTH D.B. John’s thriller, Star of the North, pulls back the curtain on North Korea’s secretive milieu. The novel explores the terrain from many perspectives—politically, sociologically, psychologically, and militarily. It centers on three disparate people, strangers to each other, and seemingly unconnected in any way. Jenna Williams is a college professor specializing […]
A Tale of Two Murders
A TALE OF TWO MURDERS Heather Redmond has begun writing a new detective series featuring a youthful Charles Dickens pursuing multiple murderous clues and figuring out whodunnit. Aiding and abetting Dickens, who in 1835 was a newly-hired reporter just learning his journalistic trade, is the flirtatious Kate Hogarth, the young woman that the reader knows […]
Edinburgh Twilight
EDINBURGH TWILIGHT As soon as I discover I’m reading a mystery that involves a serial killer, especially if the murders sound gruesome, I put the book in my discard pile. Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t put Carole Lawrence’s Edinburgh Twilight down at all. Midway through the book, I even looked to see what else […]
A Woman of Two Minds
A WOMAN OF TWO MINDS Somehow, I never imagined the author of the three-book Red Queen mystery series would next turn her attention to science fiction. I also never imagined how much I, someone who rarely chooses science fiction to read, would enjoy Bourne Morris’s new novel, A Woman of Two Minds. In its pages, […]
The Hiding Place
THE HIDING PLACE I could review C. J. Tudor’s novel, The Hiding Place, in just four words. Rosemary’s Baby on Steroids. Except that wouldn’t be quite fair, because I’ve never read Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, just watched the movie many years ago. Still, I remember the tension building and building and building as the horrors […]
Tahoe Deep – Diving for treasure
TAHOE DEEP I almost missed Todd Borg’s latest Owen McKenna Tahoe mystery Tahoe Deep before summer’s end, but it is still pretty hot up here in Reno, so grab a copy and head out to the beach or poolside lounge. As in all Borg’s mysteries, the story begins with a prologue to whet the reader’s […]
The Other Woman
THE OTHER WOMAN Emblazoned across the cover of Sandie Jones’ novel, The Other Woman, are words foreshadowing its amazing plot: “fiendishly clever with a twist you will not see coming.” As I read The Other Woman, I kept trying to second guess that prognostication. Even so, I never imagined the way this psychological thriller might […]
The Woman in the Window
THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW Imagine binge-watching a series of Hitchcock noir films, all night long, while drinking far too much merlot. Might this create an unreliable viewer? The equally unreliable narrator of A. J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window does just that, binge-watches Hitchcock films while drinking far too much merlot. For days […]
Night School
NIGHT SCHOOL – JACK REACHER AND CLASSMATES? Night School, Lee Child’s twentieth Jack Reacher novel, isn’t the first I’ve reviewed for “Bookin’ with Sunny’ and probably won’t be the last. For a variety of reasons, I genuinely enjoy these thrillers. Childs always sends his protagonist into an inventive but plausible real-world situation. He does so […]
Bronx Requiem at one’s Beck and call
BRONX REQUIEM How much time do we have for reading? Is page count important? No chores to do? Home from work or do we wait for weekends? If you are reading John Clarkson, it’s not going to matter. From his prologue’s first sentence: “James Beck had about ten seconds before bones broke and blood hit […]