Bundu Reviews

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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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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My wife and I spent some time this evening trying to work out whether we enjoyed the latest offering from Harlan Coben – Caught.

There is no question it was a page-turner. I started it earlier today after downloading it to my kindle and it was finished by 4pm. I don’t know exactly what it was but this story was more about curiousity than necessarily a cracking plot.

The book starts with local do-gooder Dan Mercer being setup in a sting which would seem to indicate he was having an inappropriate relationship with a 13 year old boy. Mercer’s life is wrecked in a very public and humiliating manner on a sleaze TV show and his world falls apart… especially when it later appears that he may be implicated in other cases.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a big Harlan Coben fan, but this latest read was a bit wishy-washy for my liking.

The story kicks off with long running hero Myron Bolitar disappearing to a tropical island after some rather traumatic events in the previous novel.

He’s called back to reality after his best friend and business partner Esperanza is arrested and charged with murder following the death of one of their clients.

With Esperanza refusing to talk to him it makes Myron’s case that much harder to solve.

And so begins a search through dodgy night clubs, a missing persons case which is nearly 20 years old and an assortment of people who have a grudge against Myron which ends with a couple of intriguing twists in the tail.

My problem with the book is that it lacked the “compact” nature of other Coben books. Particularly the last 30% of the book seemed to drift and wind a bit.

You got the sense that the book was going somewhere and you got the surprises you wanted, but too much introspection and I guess “dawdle” in the latter part of the book.

The wife commented that she was disappointed there were fewer fight / action scenes and maybe that was what was different about this book – too much focus on

Myron trying to understand himself as a person and not enough knuckles being cracked!

Still it was fun enough to keep me as the reader interested and pass the time.

Title: The Final Point
Author: Harlan Coben
ISBN: 978-0-7393-4117-9

Rated the book a 3 out of 5.

You can buy it online from Loot for R140 or click on the book cover below and buy it through online retailer Kalahari.Net

Happy reading!

I battle with David Baldacci books.

There are pieces of them which are good and then there are times when the characters and plots tend to drift.

First Family however was more of the good and less of the drift.

The book brings back the popular Sean King and Michelle Maxwell characters who have been asked to investigate the kidnapping of the niece of the First Lady.

It becomes a cat and mouse game as the kidnappers try to manipulate the president and his family to dance to his tune while making fools of the FBI and Secret Service. With the politicians not playing open cards either it makes the job of King and Maxwell difficult… a sitution which is not helped by Maxwell’s mother dying under mysterious circumstances and her father is the prime suspect.

First Family was a nice read. The story moved along nicely with a couple of nice twists in it and it kept you in suspense up to the last page. If you like Baldacci, you will probably enjoy this one.

Title: First Family
Author: David Baldacci
ISBN: 978-0-446-53974-6

We rated the book a tidy 3 out of 5.

You can buy the book online from Loot for R81.

This is the first Vince Flynn book I have read and quite simply – it was a really nice, simple and uncomplicated read. A few places were a little unbelievable but if you’re a fan of action movies and want a similar thing in book format then this is probably the closest you are going to come.

As far as anti-terrorist experts go CIA superagent Mitch Rapp is as big and deadly as they come. He’s the kind of guy who you really don’t want to wake up to because you will know without question why he is there.

Suffice to say in his line of work, he has irritated a few people along the line including an influential Saudi businessman whose son Rapp had supposedly bumped off in a previous novel and now he is seeking revenge. Rapp finds himself and his wife in the sights of a dangerous hitman who will let nothing get in his way.

The end result is a really entertaining action thriller for those who just want to switch off for a bit.

Title: Consent to kill

Author: Vince Flynn

ISBN: 978-1-4165-0501-3

Rated the book a 3.5 out of 5 and would thoroughly recommend it.

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for R84.