I am not sure if it is because I have gotten older and more critical of the books I read but Dean Koontz really seems to have gone off the boil in the last year or so for me.

The Frankenstein series, I have really enjoyed with Koontz putting his own twist on the Frankenstein legend and the fight for the human race being settled in Book 3 in the middle of New Orleans. Readers saw Victor Frankenstein (Helios) dying at the hands of his own creations as his “New Race” imploded.

However Book 4 sees Helios being revived, with a new backer and a new race trying to take over a small Montana town. That means that retired cops Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison alongside the original Frankenstein monster Deucalion, must now step up to the plate again and take on the new Helios….

Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it…?

Except that the bloody story ends in the middle of nowhere and you now sit and wait for Book 5 to be released.

Rated the book a 2 and a half out of 5 just because it irritated me that it just ended again and I don’t like being fed drips and drabs.

If you started the series you probably want to keep on reading it but can’t say I was gripped by this most recent installment.

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for R141 or you can click here or on the book cover above to get it from Kalahari.Net.

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Brad Thor is another new author for me and I kicked off reading his book “The First Commandment”.

The book features special agent Scot Harvarth, a former Navy SEAL and general bad-ass who appears to be a repeat character from other Thor books.

The story kicks off with a number of high-profile and very dangerous prisoners being secretly released from Guantanamo Bay under mysterious circumstances.

Suddenly Harvarth finds the people around him being killed in extremely brutal ways and he starts investigating and finds that the President of the United States has been complicit in the release of these prisoners which might tie into the attacks on him and his friends and family.

When Harvarth says he wants to go after the bad guys, the president makes it clear that he won’t permit it which means a pissed of Harvarth naturally goes looking for trouble while evading the cream of the US security services.

This was one of those books which was passable without being thrilling. If you want an armchair read to pass the time then you could do worse than this one but you know when you watch one of those really bad episodes of CSI Miami and the heroes are just too good? Well this book gives you a few moments like that!

We rated the book a 3 out of 5 and you can buy this book from online retailer Loot for R68.

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This was a good little book and I can thoroughly recommend it for anybody looking for a cracking fast-paced thriller.

I had never read Lisa Gardner before today but after a bit of surfing around the Amazon store I found “The Perfect Husband” and downloaded it to my Kindle. (Don’t forget – you can buy your Kindle from Digital Planet in South Africa). Five hours later I had finished all 400 pages of the book – it’s a goodie!

When Jim Beckett swept Tess of her feet, fresh out of high school she thought she had the perfect man. A decorated cop, an upstanding member of the community and then the father of her daughter, Tess could find little to fault… that is until she finds out that she has been married to a brutal serial killer.

After turning the tables on him and getting him arrested, she thinks her life can now get back on track. That is until she hears of his escape from prison.

Not trusting the police to protect her, she turns to a drunken mercenary who comes highly recommended. Sparks fly between the two and when Jim grabs Tess’ daughter there is going to be held to pay and the only question is who is going to be left standing…

This is a really good little book and fantastic value for money. I rated it a four out of five and reckon it was one of the better thrillers I have read in a while.

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for R51 or from Kalahari.Net by clicking here or on the book cover

This is the follow-up book by Flynn to the high-paced “Extreme Measures”.

A terrorist attack has gone off in the US with multiple bombs leaving 185 people dead and if it hadn’t been for some smart work by counter-terrorism agents Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash, the tally could have been much higher.

The US President is seething and he has given Rapp and Nash carte blanche to find the perpetrators and deal with them once and for all. They are also still hot on the trail of three of the terrorists who continue to wreak havoc across the US as they try to make their escape.

But hunting terrorists has taken its toll on Nash and he is starting to crack under the pressure leaving Rapp having to play a balancing act to keep the team together, especially when it becomes obvious that the terrorists might have one last point to prove.

This was a great read – fast-paced and good character development. Probably do best to get the Extreme Measures book first.

You can buy this book online from retailer Loot for R96 (paperback) or from Kalahari.Net by clicking here or on the book cover above.

This is the follow-up to No Mercy and once again brings millionaire hostage rescue expert  Jonathan Grave into play.

Grave is looking for two kids who have been kidnapped  by some very unpleasant people who are having their strings pulled by  a high-profile US senator.

A decent paced thriller but not as strong as the first book. Dunno I just found it a little over the top and the body count clocks up which makes it a little unrealistic. But if you are looking for a bit of brain-dead entertainment then this one is not too bad.

Not as good as the first book and rated it a 3 out of 5.

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for R59 or you can buy from Kalahari.net by clicking here or on the book cover above.

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If you ever want to pass a few hours with a crime thriller then you can’t go too far wrong with a Jack Reacher novel.

The former millitary police (MP) commander who now leads the life of a nomad wandering around the US, with just the shirt on his back, seems to have a nose for trouble.

When the bus he is travelling on is involved in an accident in freezing conditions in South Dakota, he finds himself snowed in and spending a few extra days in a small prison town.

Reacher finds himself being roped in to protect a state witness who is under pressure from a biker / drug gang who are looking to silence her. The problem is that the biker gang has a contact within the police and then hit may very well come from the people tasked with protecting her.

Not a bad read – rated it a 3 out 5 and there is an interesting twist at the end of the book which might just stun Jack Reacher fans…

You can buy the book online from Loot for R224 or you can get it through Kalahari by clicking here or on the book cover above.

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This was the first book by this author and I was quite impressed.

If you like Harlan Coben then I think you will find John Gilstrap very similar kind of read. Maybe less of the witty one-liners but the characters themselves and the story gives you a very similar feel.

 The key character in the Gilstrap novels is a high-tech private security guy by the name of Jonathan Grave. The son of a former mob boss, a highly decorated soldier and now a very wealthy owner of a security firm with connections to the CIA, Grave is the guy you turn to when the situation calls for something a little different.

But Grave operates by his own rules and when a hostage rescue goes wrong and three hostage takers end up dead, local law enforcement wants answers.

While Grave and his people are trying to clean up the mess, they find themselves dragged into a hunt for biological weapons and dealing with increasingly unsavoury people.

Rated the book a 3 and a half out of 5. Nice read, nice pace, maybe a little over the top in places but all in all I enjoyed it.

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for just R60 (you read right!) or from Kalahari.Net by clicking here or on the book cover above.

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This book has actually come up for mention twice in the last two days and because it is a South African author, I thought it was important to highlight it on this blog.

I have not read it, but I am very keen to get feedback from anybody who has read the book. The two people I know who said they have read it, said they were blown away by the quality and the story line.

Here’s the preview of the book:

Zinzi has a talent for finding lost things. To save herself, she has to find the hardest thing of all…the truth. Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a client turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons. Being hired by famously reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass, marked by their animals, live in the shadow of the undertow. Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the underbelly of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she’ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives – including her own. Set in a wildly re-imagined Johannesburg, it swirls refugees, crime, the music industry, African magic and the nature of sin together into a heady brew.

Title: Zoo City

Author: Lauren Beukes

ISBN: 978-1-77009-818-3

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for R122 by clicking here or you can buy it from Kalahari.Net by clicking here or on the book cover:

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I came across this book earlier today and I thought it would make a fantastic gift for any cricket fan. The fact that it is a South African author, publisher and features a South African cricket icon makes it even better!

Rudi Koertzen is one of world cricket’s most experienced and respected umpires. In a career spanning 29 years, he has stood in 100 Test matches and 200 One Day Internationals. (To date, he is the only umpire to have stood in 200 ODIs.) The slow and deliberate way in which he raises his left arm to give a batsman out has given rise to his nickname, Slow Death, which gives this memoir its title.

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Jack Morgan is a war hero. Returning home from Afghanistan after being wounded, Jack is called into California State Prison to visit his father, Tom, who is serving a life sentence for extortion and murder. Before being incarcerated, Tom ran a private investigation firm called ‘Private’. Tom wants Jack to re-start the company, to make it great again, and gives him access to a $15 million dollar account in the Cayman Islands to do it with. Five years later and Jack has set up offices spanning the globe. Private’s services are much sought-after and Jack has clients ranging from movie stars to politicians

There are a couple of major cases running parallel in the story.

One involves one of Jacks’ best friends whose wife has ended up dead, another is a gambling ring that may be plaguing the NFL and thirdly there is a serial killer on the loose stalking young girls all across the state.

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