The Bookish Island: Crime

Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

5/21/2019

The Chase by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg | Book Review #163

The Bookish Island's Book Review:
The Chase by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

Are there spoilers?

Nope.

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Title: The Chase

Author: Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

Series: Fox and O'Hare #2

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Pages: 304

Published: 2014

Publisher: Bantam

Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Romance, Crime

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Date Read: May 2, 2019

Rating: ★★★☆☆

An internationally renowned thief and con artist Nicolas Fox runs daring cons now teams undercover for FBI with the agent who caught him, Kate O'Hare. Together they catch the world’s most wanted—and untouchable—criminals, next to Carter Grove, former White House chief of staff, now the ruthless leader of BlackRhino private security for a rare Chinese rooster from the Smithsonian.

The Rating:

My Review:

The Chase didn't catch and hold onto my attention like The Heist did but it was still a good read. This one had a lot of the same elements that the first one had too.

I love how Kate and Nick's relationship is still going on like a slow burn. they obviously have a lot to sexual tension between them and they flirt with each other so it's all there. And I can't wait to see when it starts to get more official.

Kate's father is still my favorite character. He's just so cool. And I still think that Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis or even Jean-Claude Van Damme could play him. Or maybe a little bit of the three of them in one. Crazy but smart, and a loving father, and a good fighter/sharpshooter. But also I don't think he'd be old. Like I know he's retired but I don't think he's old-old. Ya know?

Goodreads

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3/26/2019

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg | Book Review #154

The Bookish Island's Book Review:
The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Are there spoilers?

I may have written down too much but that's how much I liked this book.

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Title: The Heist

Author: Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Series: Fox and O'Hare #1

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Pages: 295

Published: 2013

Publisher: Bantam

Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Romance, Humor, Thriller

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Date Read: March 17 to March 21, 2019

Rating: ★★★★★

From Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author and television writer for Monk, comes the first adventure in an electrifying new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase.

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world’s most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years, the only name she’s cared about is Nicolas Fox—an international crook she wants in more ways than one.

Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail—particularly Kate O’Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there’s no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: he convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O’Hare.

Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who’s hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O’Hare’s patience and Fox’s skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate’s dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first.

The Rating:

My Review:

The Heist was so good.

I have never read a Janet Evanovich book before. I mean I watched the movie for One for the Money but that's about it. Still, I had kept my eye out on her books so when I saw The Heist and The Chase - part of the Fox and O'Hare series - I snatched them up and brought them home a long time ago. But Just this month - for March Mystery Madness - I picked it up and started reading it.

I loved reading this book so much. This was a fun read for me. It was light and had a nice flow to it. The story was easy to follow and the supporting characters were original and cool.
There were character introductions, as it tends to happen in heist movies. And I loved it.

A female FBI agent has to team up with the Conman she has been trying to throw in jail in order to catch a bigger fish.

I loved the banter between Nick and Kate. The whole time I was reading I thought that they were a lot like Castle and Beckett, but also a little like Mulder and Scully.

In my head, this was Ocean's Eleven meets Castle. And I kept thinking "why hasn't this been made into a movie yet?".

One of my favorite characters was Kate's dad, Jake O'Hare. He was so cool!!! I totally see Bruce Willis playing him.

The duo Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg did such a good job with this book.
👍

Goodreads

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3/19/2019

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen | Book Review #150

The Bookish Island's Book Review:
The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen

Are there spoilers?

Yep, a smidgen of spoilers ahead.

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Disclaimer:
This book was sent to me by the publishing company(Minotaur Books) in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Vanishing Season

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Ellery Hathaway #1
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Pages: 274

Published: 2019

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Adult

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Date Read: March 11 to March 12, 2019

Rating: ★★★★★

Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number seventeen in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only victim who lived.

When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday—the day she was kidnapped so long ago—Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer’s closet all those years ago.

Agent Reed Markham made his name and fame on the back of the Coben case, but his fortunes have since turned. His marriage is in shambles, his bosses think he's washed up, and worst of all, he blew a major investigation. When Ellery calls him, he can’t help but wonder: sure, he rescued her, but was she ever truly saved? His greatest triumph is Ellery’s waking nightmare, and now both of them are about to be sucked into the past, back to the case that made them...with a killer who can't let go.

The Rating:

My Review:

The Vanishing Season is just wow.

The Vanishing Season was is such an excellent read. I took it with me to a dentist appointment. And while I waited for it to be my turn I opened this gem and tried to finish it since I had already read a little less than half of it. And I was so embarrassed because it kept me on edge the whole time. I couldn't put it down for a second. I was worried that if I looked up from the book someone would be staring at me wondering what that crazy lady was doing with all her on edge hand movements. Like I kept gripping my knees and murmuring my disdain for a certain cop. I was all over the place. And I hadn't had that kind of experience with a book since I read The Prettiest One and The Body Reader.

It's well written. The writing style flowed so well chapter after chapter. I liked it so much as I wouldn't say no to another book by the author.

Ellery and Reed's interactions with each other were great. They just worked well together. With how they connected the dots and rounded up any evidence that could help them with their case. The evidence leads them to many suspects. That any of them could be the suspect and at the same time, it seemed like it was none of them.

There isn't an ounce of romance. None at all. Though with Ellery and Reed I would not have hated it if there was something more between them.

The mystery and suspense were SO good. Lots of turns and twists and many strategically placed red herrings. There were some pretty creepy scenes that almost got to me with how gruesome they were. But I'm a girl who listens to Last Podcast on the Left. So I wasn't that faced.

Speaking of wish.

The number of serial killer references did make me think of Last Podcast so many times. Mostly because I knew of them from listening to the podcast.

I feel like Ellery wanted to be a good cop so much. With how she wanted to solve a crime that seemed to be just a disappearance. How frustrated she got when no one saw what she did.
Despite that, it didn't matter that she had been a cop for years because at times she acted and was treated like a rookie.

I would also like to add that this book is the debut of the author. What?!!
So well done.
*round of applause erupts in a dark theater. lights turn on showing a bunch of well dressed beautiful people who keep applauding and smiling brightly*

Goodreads

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4/20/2017

I'm Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjork | Book Review

Book Review:
I'm Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjork

Spoilers?

Maybe.

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Title - I'm Traveling Alone (Holger Munch & Mia Kruger #1)
By - Samuel Bjørk

Publication - February 23rd, 2016 by Viking
Format - ARC Copy, 388 pages

Genre - Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective

From a bold new voice in international crime fiction, a chilling debut in which two detectives must hunt down a vengeful killer--and uncover the secret that ties each of them to the crime

A six-year-old girl is found in the Norwegian countryside, hanging lifeless from a tree with a jump rope around her neck. She is dressed in strange doll's clothes. Around her neck is an airline tag that says "I'm traveling alone."

A special homicide unit in Oslo re-opens with veteran police investigator Holger Munch at the helm. Holger's first step is to persuade the brilliant but haunted investigator Mia Krüger to come back to the squad--she's been living on an isolated island, overcome by memories of her past. When Mia views a photograph of the crime scene and spots the number "1" carved into the dead girl's fingernail, she knows this is only the beginning. She'll soon discover that six years earlier, an infant girl was abducted from a nearby maternity ward. The baby was never found. Could this new killer have something to do with the missing child, or with the reclusive Christian sect hidden in the nearby woods?

Mia returns to duty to track down a revenge-driven and ruthlessly intelligent killer. But when Munch's own six-year-old granddaughter goes missing, Mia realizes that the killer's sinister game is personal, and I'm Traveling Alone races to an explosive--and shocking--conclusion.

The Rating:

My Review:

When I saw this gif I thought he'd make a perfect Holger.

via GIPHY

The Cover:

Although they say never judge a book by it's cover I believe the cover should represent what the book is going to be like or at least some aspect of it.

So I got this in the mail along two other books that I had won in a giveaway a long time ago as a bonus for them not sending me the books for months since I had won it. And when I saw this book I gravitated to it more than the other books. This book's cover was just so beautiful. And After reading it I can say that the cover does not say much about what the book is about. It actually has nothing in common. I think.
[The haul when I got this book.}

The Story:
A veteran police investigator, Holger Munch, and brilliant but haunted investigator, Mia Kruger team up again as partners to help find who's behind the murder of a few 6-year-old girls.

Relationships:

No couples in this one.

Mia x Holger
Their partnership was solid as could be. Apart from Mia not speaking about how she was mentally with her partner. Which I thought was unresponsible seeing as they should know stuff like that about each other if they are going to put their life on the line. But that's my opinion.

The Execution of the Crime:
Since this is a different novel, different genre, I will change things up. By adding this new part, the execution of the crime) and solving the crime as well as the team or group involved in solving the case and the murderer/bad guy.

This is not spoiler-y as the summary says the same thing I will write down.

The crime is 6-year-old girls are found murdered, dressed in dolls clothes with a message saying "I'm Traveling Alone" like the title. Then there's the connection to an old case in which a baby was taken from a maternity ward.
Our investigator, Mia finds that the might be a connection.
But there is also the case of the missing child, the church, and the nursing home.
And along the way, we find out the connections and how every character has been involved in some way.

The Team:
I thought that the people behind the main investigators, Mia and Holger, were so brilliantly different and easy to tell apart. They worked perfectly together even if there were some characters that not everyone got along with. There was the brains, the muscle, the leader, the mother bear. I loved how different they were and how each of them had a role to play solving this crime as well as other thigs.

Overall:
I was in love with this book. So much so that I think that if I would have read this in one go I would have loved it even more.

Durig the entire time I as reading this I kept thinking it would make an awesome BBC series.Like Broadchurch or Vera.
Yes, those two are the only ones I've seen but they were good.

I say BBC instead of an American show because it's more gritty if that makes sense. I think it would be good to divide each section up and divide that in half. One crime/book for one season. Much like how Broadchurch was done. It's perfect.

I also need to say this again because I was so in love and so happy about the characters in this book. Not only did I never get them mixed up or get myself confused but I remembered who each character was and their traits. That never happens. I easily get stuff like too many characters in one book confused.
Like I was even explaining to my mom how I loved it because I didn't get them mixed u and told her about the characters.

I also have to say that I felt the writer should have talked about Mia's mental state more. I know stuff like that doesn't get cured in an instant and that is not what I want or meant. What I mean is that they (Mia and someone else, maybe Holger) should have talked about it. She should have talked about it.
I know its hard and she was probably afraid they would take her off the team but the writer should have taken it more seriously and made it more seen instead of stop talking about it.
Which is what I felt happened.

As for the ending. I was disappointed.

On Goodreads:

On April 3, 2017, around page 160
I said: "picked this book back. Now I've obligated myself to finish it. I want to know what's going on."

On October 9, 2016, around page 139 Which was around the time I stopped reading for a while.
"I'm definitely not going to give up on this book. I really want to know what happens. It's really good but I'm one of those people who gets distracted easily and with my classes and the ton of homework I have to do (despite it being a long weekend) I can't get glued to the book and finish it already because I really do want to."

Get a copy at:
Barnes&Noble | Amazon US

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Book Depository

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4/13/2017

Read or Binge - Part One: Bones

So I've decided to start a series of posts in which I talk about some television series that I have watched and adored that were based on books I have most likely haven't read or own. It's not perfect, this series, but I really want to talk about these shows. That I've grown up with or just started watching and already love.

And maybe I'll do this every other Monday or Thursday. I'm not certain.

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Today I decided to talk about the Bones tv show since it has come to an end.

I think I started watching this show because o my mother. She loves shows like that. Detectives, and crime shows. We have watched shows like that since I was a kid where I remember us watching X-Files nd CSI. Bones was no different. When she started watching it, I started watching it. And we both loved it and every time an episode aired we were there on the sofa watching it from beginning to end. And even the last episode was well loved.

So the tv show Bones is based off a book series called the Temperance Brennan Series, named after the main character, and is written by the author Kathy Reichs.

It started around 2005 and just ended this year.

If you don't already know what this show is about...

Basically, forensic anthropologist and crime writer, Dr. Temperance Brennan, or "Bones" and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth work together in a fictional Jeffersonian Institute Lab and solve crimes together along with a team of professionals.

It stars Emily Deschanel as Bones and David Boreanaz as Booth.

via GIPHY

Differences:

Well, although I haven't read the books I can't really say what the differences are but from what I read researching is that the name Temperance Brennan the only thing in common. Since the tv show is more based on the life of author Kathy Reichs and her work and not the Temperance Brennan Series she wrote.

I don't know any more than that.

But I did find a forum that talked about the differences a bit more.

Bones the show VS. Bones the books

My Thoughts on The Show:

I personally enjoyed the show. Although there were times I felt like it repeated some crimes in some ways.
I loved the different characters both the constant ones, as well as the ones that were on a few episodes.

The crimes were different from the ones I had seen in other shows. Meaning that they were more science drive, well, fictional science, but it sure sounded cool.

I loved the romance between Bones and Booth. Even if it felt rushed in the beginning when their relationship as a couple started, it was perfect in every way. They understood each other in ways no one else did and they loved each other till the end and beyond. I was happy that they had a happy ending and a big happy family.

The show went on for a long time so I feel that as much as the characters grew so did I and that's a nice thought to have.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

Will I Read The Books or Will I Binge Watch The Show?

Now that a great question. After finding out that the books don't have anything in common with the show I was a little disappointed but I still want to know what they are like. Maybe I'll read the first one in the series.

On the other hand, I would love to binge watch the entire show now that it's over. Like a final goodbye or something. Although I do think I'll always want to watch this show since it was awesome.

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Déjà Dead (Temperance Brennan #1) by Kathy Reichs

It's June in Montreal, and Temperance Brennan has just left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on a challenging assignment as director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec.
Before she can explore her new hometown, though, Tempe must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells Tempe that she'll be spending her first weekend on the new job in the crime lab. This is the homicide of the worst kind.
As Tempe investigates the case, she finds more questions than answers, and a startling pattern emerges. As she races to track down a killer who is still on the loose, Brennan plunges herself and those closest to her into mortal danger.

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So in conclution...

I will read the first in the series and binge watch the entire show.
Seems like a lot, but it will be fun. Maybe I'll make my mom watch some episodes with me. And talk about what's different from the first seasons and the last ones.

via GIPHY