Bundu Reviews

Now THIS was a cracking little read. I really enjoy the easy reading style of Harlan Coben and this book was no exception… In fact I’d go as far as to say that I reckon this was probably the best of his books which I have read.

The story is a curious mix of characters where the good guys are not quite as good as they seem, while the bad guys are both really bad … but with a soft spot. The problem is you can never quite work out who is where until the end of the book.

In a nutshell the story reads a little something like this:

Eleven years ago, Julie Miller was found brutally strangled in the basement of her house New Jersey. On that day, Will’s brother, Ken Klein, became the subject of an international manhunt accused of the crime. He has not been seen since. Will has tried to get on with his life in the intervening years. He has a beautiful new girlfriend, Sheila, and a job working with the homeless. But when his mother reveals on her deathbed that Ken is still alive, and shortly afterwards Sheila disappears, the cracks start to show in his landscape again. But it is only when he finds that Sheila herself is wanted for a savage double-murder that his life actually starts to fall apart…

This book moves at a really nice pace and keeps you interested the whole way through!

Title: Gone for Good

Author: Harlan Coben

ISBN: 978-1-4091-1708-7 

This is a really cracking little read and we rated it a 4 out of 5.

You can buy this book online from retailer Loot for R92 in paperback.

Well worth it!

After the rather dreary Faye Kellerman I wrapped up last week, it is nice to be back to a book that’s got a bit of life and pace to it.

I downloaded: “Tell no one” from Harlan Coben and it is off to a rollicking start - REALLY enjoying it. Cracking pace, cracking story, lots of fun.

The write-up for the book reads:

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.
Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible–that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.
Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn’t. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.
But already Beck is being hunted down. He’s headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret–and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.  

You can buy the book online from Loot for R81, well worth it!

Anybody else got any interesting reads for this week?  

I was a little bit wary about reading a CSI book. I’ve always enjoyed CSI Las Vegas and the Gill Grissom character but was worried that a book would disappoint me.

Fortunately my concern was mis-placed and I really enjoyed reading CSI: The Killing Jar from Don Cortez.

Below is the write-up attached to the book:  

A teenager is found dead in his motel room, the cause of death: millipede poison…Now crime scene investigator Gil Grissom must aid CSI’s Nick Stokes and Riley Adams against a serial killer whose knowledge of entomology rivals his own — a brutal murderer who is not only using insects as the tools of destruction, but actually modeling the attacks after their behavior…. In the meantime, CSIs Catherine Willows and Greg Sanders must investigate a bizarre death, where the victim had gotten mixed up with two very different groups of people — one involved in using and dealing crystal meth, the other an avant-garde group of artists — a collision of subcultures where everyone is a suspect and nothing is as it seems…. 

The book made for a really good read and at no stage did you feel like it was going to under-deliver compared to a CSI episode. In fact, the only difference was that you got a bit more time for character development – it was a goodie.

Title: CSI: The Killing Jar

Author: Don Cortez

ISBN: 978-1439153703

You can buy the book online at Loot for R65.

A really enjoyable read – rated it 3 and a half out of 5.

I am an avid CSI Las Vegas fan and I decided to take a chance with a CSI book. I downloaded the Don Cortez – CSI: The Killing Jar on to my Kindle and have just started to get through the first few chapters of the book.

So far so good… although it is not quite the same as watching it on TV.

It basically involves a killer who likes killing with crafty schemes that include a variety of different insects. A bit bizarre but typical CSI!

You can buy the book online for R65 from Loot.

So what else is the community reading this week?

Geez – talk about a book which fell apart.

9 Dragons from Michael Connelly started really well and probably held its own for 75% of the book and then it well… lost the plot.

I am not going to go to the effort of running over the plot, the synopsis of it is below in the previous post.

Suffice to say it didn’t grab my attention:

Title: 9 Dragons

Author: Michael Connelly

ISBN: 978-0-316-16631-7

Rated it a 2 out of and wouldn’t rush to recommend it.

Having just finished Stieg Larssons: “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest” I have now started the new book from Michael Connelly called “9 Dragons”.

I am 19% of the way through it – according my Kindle – and it is proving to be quite a good read.

Here is the write-up on it from Loot:

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is off the chain in the fastest, fiercest, and highest-stakes case of his life.
Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store’s owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li’s family that he’ll find the killer.
The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation–not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Li’s life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad, a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.

And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch’s life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he’s lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city’s Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate bid to outmatch the triad’s ferocity.

I have to say that I am quite enjoying it. Pacy, nice read without being too mentally taxing.

So what are you guys reading? Anything exciting?

It took me a while but I have finally finished the last in the Stieg Larsson trilogy and in a nutshell – Wow!

A couple of people commented that the third book – The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest – was weaker than the first two books in the series but I completely disagree. The third book in the series wraps up a brilliant story and provides such context for the characters that you find yourself completely immersed and turning the page wondering what other revelations are going to come out.

What starts with an oddball character in Lisbeth Salander rolls out to be a 20-year old government conspiracy which certain members of the Swedish secret police are keen to keep under wraps at all costs. Even murder.

The second book ends with Salander being rushed to hospital in critical condition after being shot in the head by her father – an ex-Russian spy. What then unravels is a variety of parties including the police, a rogue element of the Swedish intelligence community trying, and journalist Mikael Blomkvist trying to piece together the conspiracy.

It is not a quick book to read. It took me twice as long to read this book as it did either of the other two titles.

The style is also slightly different – unlike the other two which were more “action” type reads, the third book focuses on tying the story together. It’s methodical without being boring.

If you are serious about reading then this series is a must.

Title: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest
Author: Stieg Larsson
ISBN: 978-1-906694-17

Rated the book and a series a 5 out of 5. Awesome reads and worth every cent.

You can buy this book  at online retailer Loot for R167. Do yourself a favour and get it!

Until yesterday I had never heard of the author Graham Guy but after I read his book “Only Eagles Fly”, I’ll be keeping an eye out for some more titles from him…

… which says a lot considering the love-hate relationship that us South Africans have with the Australians!

In a nutshell a couple of Australian thugs and an assassin hear that a certain Italian fashion head honcho (and part-time drug kingpin) is going to be going on holiday and leaving his house and $20 million dollars in a vault at his home when he goes on holiday. The story goes that he is a super-important cog in the global drugs trade that he doesn’t need any protection of his assets when he leaves town.

… err ja.

If you can manage to swallow that particular leap of faith then the rest of the story makes for good reading.

It involves an Australian cop and his partner who are desperately trying to hunt down a crack assasin before he kills again. The assasin in turn has head about this $20 million and wants in.

What follows is an entertaining chase around Australia as the various parties chase after the prize.

As a word of warning, the book is a bit of a slow starter. I contemplated putting it down and looking for something different after the first few chapters but my patience was rewarded.

Title: Only Eagles Fly
Author: Graham Guy

Definately not the worst read around. Rated it a three out of five.

Myron Bolitar is fast becoming one of my favourite characters. The more I read of Harlan Cobens “hero” the more I want to read.

I say “hero” because quite simply Bolitar can be a dork sometimes. His lame one-liners, his near death experiences and the way he responds to it and his internal struggles all make for a good read. He’s a character that you can’t help but believe in.

This is the fourth of the Myron Bolitar books I have read and the former basketball star turned FBI agent turned sports agent just grows on you.

In this story he is asked to represent the hottest thing in womens basketball. Her father has gone missing, the mob is involved and in between this Myron has to try and work out whether to blow it with his present girlfriend Jessica or chase after this would-be client.

In Myron’s case “represent” may have dual meanings.

Suffice to say you get run around on an action packed adventure that will keep you reading to the last page.

Title: One False Move
Author: Harlan Coben
ISBN: 978-1-4091-1710-0

Loved every minute of it and rated it a four out of five – it’s a goodie.

You can buy this book online at Loot for R110.

Death by Leisure caught my eye from the moment I read its blurb and anybody with a vague interest in the psyche of the American Consumer will also find themselves intrigued.

It sounds a little something like this:

Journalist Chris Ayres – didn’t want much – a supermodel girlfriend, a cliff top bachelor palace and a fleet of chrome-rimmed SUV’s so that he can mingle with the Hollywood elite. The only snag to these lofty aspirations is that he is flat broke and trying to pay off his original student loan on an MG he purchased many years back.

Instead of letting a minor detail get in the way, Chris moves to LA and borrows $1m dollars and sets out to fulfil his boyhood dreams. Unfortunately none of it can last and eventually he is ducking and diving as his life catches up with him and the lenders come seeking their pound of flesh.

I laughed through this whole book – the story line, the writing, the witty one liners – it just all jumped out at me as a really neat and amusing look at how American consumers got themselves into so much trouble. It is one thing to read about it in the financial media about some of the behaviour patterns that these guys indulged in but to read some of the thinking first-hand was brilliant.

A highly recommended read!

Title: Death by Leisure
Author: Chris Ayres
ISBN: 978-0-7195-6016-3

You can buy this book online for R105 or follow the banners right to online retailer Loot.

I rated this book a 4 out of 5 – it was brilliant, witty and just felt very “real”. As one person commented: “Death by Leisure is a savage and hilarious takedown of our times, and a wake-up call to aspiring Leisuretocrats everywhere.”

PS – Ayres also writes about a book called “War Reporting for Cowards” which I see is available from some of the local online retailers and I reckon I will be adding it to my shopping list this month!