Crossing the Line by Frédérique Molay

(Paris Homocide #2) _________________________________________________
BOOK REVIEW
Crossing the Line is the second book in the Paris Murder Series. Chief Nico Sirsky is back full time in his fourth-floor office at the Paris police headquarters, 36 Quai des Orfèvres. Three months ago he was wounded in his leg and is still recovering from the experience.

The new love of his life, Caroline, the gastroenterologist at the Saint Antoine Hospital, has given him new hope and enthusiasm for his work. His teenage son Dimitry is doing very well and life is good.

But his first day back feels like landing on his feet running, when he has to oversee a jewel heist and a cadaver head on a university lab table with a rare message buried somewhere sinister inside it. It is also not the only head rolling around on these tables! Marcel, the former butcher, is the meticulous body processor at the university and does not have any trouble in providing body parts to all the different medical departments of the university. With three thousand cadavers moving through his freezers each year, there is no shortage of anything for no student.

The message could have been a student prank, if it wasn't for the circumstances surrounding the deceased. And soon a much bigger case is opening up when powerful people get nervous around the discovery. Sirsky has politics and power breathing down his neck to solve the case which threatens to rock the country if not solved yesterday!

The problem with a Frédérique Molay book is that it gets the reader into serious trouble. It is fast-paced, detailed, and riveting! Unputdownable! The brutality and refinement balance each other out in the roller coaster plot around an apparent suicide, an unfortunate boat accident and a downright brutal murder. Love takes on many different forms in the tale, surprisingly so!

A perfect murder mystery! A brilliant pshyco-thriller!
The last time I wanted to nail all the windows and doors close and force all the cats and dogs to sleep on my bed, was with Patricia Cornwell's master forensic sleuth, Dr. Kay Scarpetta. I promised myself never to venture off into a series like that ever again! But sadly, my memory is way too short! I've completed the second book in this Paris Murder Series now, and true to my martyr nature, I cannot wait for the third one! Someone must take me gently by the hand and save me from myself! But honestly, I NEED TO READ THE THIRD ONE SOON! I know, I know...an intervention is needed, but I simply cannot help myself! Why......oh......why?!

A review copy was provided by Anne Tager, through edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com. Thank you.

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BOOK BLURB
It's Christmas in Paris. Chief of Police Nico Sirsky returns to work after recovering from a gunshot wound. He's in love and raring to go. His first day back has him overseeing a jewel heist sting and taking on an odd investigation. Dental students discovered a message in the tooth of a severed head. Is it a sick joke? Sirsky and his team of crack homicide detectives follow the clues from an apparent suicide to an apparent accident to an all-out murder as an intricate machination starts breaking down. Just how far can despair push a man? How clear is the line between good and evil? More suspense and mystery with the Paris Homicide team from the prizewinning author Frédérique Molay, the "French Michael Connelly". This is the second in the prize-winning Paris Homicide series.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR

Photo source:

Writing has always been a passion for Frédérique Molay, author of the international bestseller The 7th Woman. She graduated from France’s prestigious Science Po and began her career in politics and the French administration. She worked as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and then was elected to the local government in Saône-et-Loire. Meanwhile, she spent her nights pursing a passion for writing she had nourished since she wrote her first novel at the age of eleven. After The 7th Woman took France by storm, Frédérique Molay dedicated her life to writing and raising her three children. She has five books to her name, with three in the Chief Inspector Nico Sirsky series.

TRANSLATOR: Anne Tragor
Anne Trager has lived in France for more than 26 years, working in translation, publishing and communications. In 2011, she woke up one morning and said "I just can't stand it anymore. There are way too many good books being written in France not reaching a broader audience." That's when she founded Le French Book to translate some of those books into English. The company's motto is, "If we love it, we translate it," and Anne loves crime fiction.

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BOOK INFORMATION:

Genres: Action, Adventure, French Murder Mystery, Detective Drama, Suspense, Thriller

Formats: Kindle, Paperback

Number of pages: 280 pages 

Publisher: Le French Book 

Publishing Date: June 10, 2014

Language: English (translated)

ASIN: B00KXCRCXI
Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

The 7th Woman by Frédérique Molay, Anne Trager (Paris Homicide #1)

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REVIEW:

Anne Trager did the world a favor when she decided to translate French crime novels for our pleasure. What a joy!

The blurb points it out very well:
"Winner of France's prestigious Prix du Quai des Orfèvres prize for best crime fiction, named Best Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, and already an international bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold."

Paris, France. Well, dive into the life and world of the French super cop, Chief of Police, Nico Sirsky, when one after the other female bodies appear on their computer screens. What begins as just one murder, change into six others within six days, with the victims being closer in relation to Nico Sirsky. Brutal, ruthless and macabre. That is the only words that can describe the serial murders by someone who knows his stuff. And he has a grudge against Nico Sirsky. 

Divorced, lonely, and suddenly in love, Sirsky has his hands full, especially when his ex-wife turns off on her own side track and leaves his teenage son for him to raise. The sources of his emotional pirouettes over the hot coals of doubt and desperation, are lack of sleep, as well as too many people in his inner circle becoming suspects.

A page-turner, a sleep-stealer, a grim adventure! But an excellent addition to the crime thriller genre. 

One little glitch though: the quotes from the Bible might be correct, but it is unlikely for non religious people to conjure up instantaneous memory of them. Even devoted Christians might find it a challenge so off the cuff. That was not convincing.

Nonetheless, my first encounter with Anne Trager's translations, was 'The Paris Lawyer' by Sylvie Granotier. 'The 7th Woman' can be regarded as one of the best, but not totally on the same level as far as literary mastery is concerned. It's purely a scientific, investigative tour de force, but equally enjoyable to read though. Enough to inspire me to find the rest of them! Besides, it was written in good taste, not causing the loss of one thunderous drama beat in the highly suspenseful narrative. 

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BOOK BLURB
Winner of France's prestigious Prix du Quai des Orfèvres prize for best crime fiction, named Best Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, and already an international bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold.

There's no rest for Paris's top criminal investigation division, La Crim'. Who is preying on women in the French capital? How can he kill again and again without leaving any clues? A serial killer is taking pleasure in a macabre ritual that leaves the police on tenterhooks. Chief of Police Nico Sirsky—a super cop with a modern-day real life, including an ex-wife, a teenage son, and a budding love story—races against the clock to solve the murders as they get closer and closer to his inner circle. Will he resist the pressure?

The story grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page, leading you behind the scenes with the French police and into the coroner’s office. It has the suspense of Seven with CSI-like details. You will never experience Paris the same way again!

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ABOUT the French author: Frédérique Molay 

Photo source:

Writing has always been a passion for Frédérique Molay, author of the international bestseller The 7th Woman. She graduated from France’s prestigious Science Po and began her career in politics and the French administration. She worked as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and then was elected to the local government in Saône-et-Loire. Meanwhile, she spent her nights pursing a passion for writing she had nourished since she wrote her first novel at the age of eleven. After The 7th Woman took France by storm, Frédérique Molay dedicated her life to writing and raising her three children. She has five books to her name, with three in the Chief Inspector Nico Sirsky series.

TRANSLATOR: Anne Tragor
Anne Trager has lived in France for more than 26 years, working in translation, publishing and communications. In 2011, she woke up one morning and said "I just can't stand it anymore. There are way too many good books being written in France not reaching a broader audience." That's when she founded Le French Book to translate some of those books into English. The company's motto is, "If we love it, we translate it," and Anne loves crime fiction.___________________________________________________________

BOOK INFORMATION:

Genres: Action, Adventure, French Murder Mystery, Detective Drama, Suspense, Thriller

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Number of pages: 190 pages (eBook) Print length: 254 pages

Publisher: Le French Book (first published 2006)

Publishing Date: February 25th, 2013

Language: English (translated)

ISBN: 1939474965 (ISBN13: 9781939474964)
ASIN: B009ED24VC

Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

End of Enemies by Grant Blackwood

REVIEW:

An action-packed war novel with Briggs Tanner as the protagonist and hero. An international political drama for the drama seekers.

A few quotes from the book:"As a child, the surest way to get Briggs to take on a challenge was to tell him it was either impossible or the answer was a mystery."

As an agent of one of America's numerous government agencies, Briggs stumbled upon a man getting murdered in his presence. By probing the murder, he comes across an international crisis , instigated by a World War II secret, waiting to happen, with various countries involved, including Japan. The epicenter of the planned Doom's Day is Lebanon.

"For decades Lebanon had been the world’s chosen surrogate battlefield. Superpowers played their spy games, tested their weapons, exercised their tactics and strategies, and Lebanon paid in blood and ruination."

"We’ve a better grasp of how funds are transferred from sponsor governments to the command structures of terrorist groups. Money is the key. We can’t dampen a terrorist’s fervor; we can’t cut off their source of training; and we can’t hope diplomatic measures will curtail covert support of these groups. "

The many typos hindered the story, but for readers interested in this kind of book, it is still a familiar and hopefully satisfying experience. It answers to the need for high-speed action, typical of modern war fare movies. It can become a good movie for war junkies indeed.

An easy read, text flowing smoothly along, characters well developed and the story line strong. It won't disappoint.

This Briggs Tanner novel was provided by Diversion Books via NetGalley.

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BOOK BLURB

#1 New York Times bestselling author Grant Blackwood introduces Briggs Tanner in a trilogy that Clive Cussler raves is “Pure fun, pure adventure.” 

One Man. 

Covert agent Briggs Tanner doesn’t like coincidences. In his business, they always mean trouble. So when a man is professionally assassinated right in front of him, Tanner wants answers. 

One Mission. 

Who pulled the trigger and why? And what is the mystery behind the key the man clutched in his dying hand—the key that Tanner now possesses? 

One War Without End. 

His search will lead him on an international trail, city to city, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the bullet-ridden back alleys of Beirut, all the way to a deadly secret—buried since the end of World War II—that only Tanner can keep from falling into the wrong hands.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The New York Times bestselling author of the Briggs Tanner series, (END OF ENEMIES, WALL OF NIGHT, and ECHO OF WAR) Grant Blackwood is also the co-author of the Fargo Adventure Series (SPARTAN GOLD, LOST EMPIRE, and THE KINGDOM) with Clive Cussler, as well as the co-author of the #1 NYT bestseller, DEAD OR ALIVE, with Tom Clancy, and the upcoming thriller, THE KILL SWITCH, with James Rollins.

A U. S. Navy veteran, Grant spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as an Operations Specialist and a Pilot Rescue Swimmer.

Grant lives in Colorado, where he is working his own standalone series starring a new hero. Vist the author's website:
Source: Goodreads

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BOOK INFORMATION

Genres: Action, Adventure, American Spy Thriller, Drama, Suspense, World Affairs

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Number of pages: 609 pages

Publisher: Diversion Books (May 27, 2014)

Publishing Date: May 27, 2014

Language: English

ASIN: B00KWDBJO6

Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

Blue Blood by Susan MacBride

AMAZON BOOK BLURB
Mixing a dash of Dallas society, a pinch of Janet Evanovich, and murder in the land of big hair, Blue Blood is the first installment in award-winning author Susan McBride's sassy Debutante Dropout mystery series.

To the dismay of her high society mother, Cissy, Dallas heiress Andy Kendricks wants no part of the Junior League life—opting instead for a job as a website designer and a passel of unpedigreed pals. Now her good friend Molly O'Brien is in bad trouble, accused of killing her boss at the local restaurant Jugs.

Though no proper deb would ever set foot in such a sleazy dive, Andy's soon slipping into skintight hot pants and a stuffed triple D bra to gain employment there and somehow help clear Molly's name.

But Andy's undercover lark soon brings her into too-close contact with all manner of dangerous adversaries—including a shady TV preacher, a fanatical Mothers Against Porn activist … and a killer who is none too keen on meddling rich girls.

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REVIEW
Molly O’Brien had a tough life after she chose to drop her fashion design classes at the Columbia College in Chicago where she shared a room with her best friend Andy Kendricks from Texas. They met at school when foster child Molly was admitted to a prestigious school for wealthy kids through a scholarship. An illustrious affair with a Hemmingway wanne-be convinced Molly that love could conquer all. She followed him to Paris, fell pregnant, got dropped and had to move back to Texas, where she found a job at the hot-spot restaurant "Jugs".

She is accused of murdering the owner, Bud Hartman, and desperate for help, contacts Andy, whom she hasn't seen for ten years.

Rebellious Andy immediately steps in to help the only real friend she ever had. The friendship was not exactly what Andy's mother, Cissy, a Texan high-society dame, had in mind for her heiress daughter. Molly was from the wrong side of the tracks. But Andy made it her mission to buck the system her whole life, like refusing to be a debutante on her 18th birthday, and studying graphic design and computers when she, as a trust fund baby, never had to work.

With her unending love for Nancy Drew and the television series Law & Order, Andy gets to work on solving the murder mystery. Any bra size is possible with the right shoulder pads strategically positioned. Combined with serious hot pants, she did not have much trouble in getting a job at "Jugs" as a waitress to try and find the real killers of the dangerous owner.

"Jugs" is more than just eye candy for men, thorns in the eyes of the Mother of Porn - ladies, the Women’s Wellness Clinic, and points of interested to Reverend Jim Bob.`

There is a lot of appetites to be satisfied in the ensuing drama, adventure, and mystery. As Dolly Parton can attest to: Jugs can be a lot more than weapons of mass distraction and feisty Andy knows how to achieve just that!

My comments: It's a chic-lit book for young women, containing all the elements to demarcate the target audience perfectly. All the young women who ever played a role as a PI, especially a contemporary element of Nancy Drew, are included. The background includes a touch of a Paris Hilton, the reality tv-series The Reals Housewives of Texas, and a similarity with the restaurant-chain Shooters. It is a delightful, enchanting and fun read. There's lots of love lost, but for various reasons other than romance!

Oh, I identified the murderer right from the start. It felt good for a change!

Star rating:
Plot 1; drama 1; character building 1; satire 1; social comment 1. Five stars in this genre.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much, it was presented in such good taste, I would love to read more in this Debutante Dropout Series of 5 books: Blue Blood (#1); The Good Girl's Guide To Murder (#2); The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club (#3); Night of the Living Deb (#4); Too Pretty to Die (#5).

Yes, imagine me enjoying this genre! Unthinkable, but very true in this case!

ARC received from edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com

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Genres: 2013-releases, 2014-releases, action, adventure, crime-novel, detective-story, drama, family, fiction, murder, mystery, relationships, reviewed, romance, satire 

Original title: Blue Blood (Debutante Dropout Mystery, #1)

Number of pages: Mass Market Paperback: 333 pages 

Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Nook, Kobo

Publication date: January 2014

Publishers:  Avon / Ebook, Witness Impulse (HarperCollins)

ISBN: 0060563893

ISBN13: 9780060563899)

Edition language: English

Series: Debutante Dropout Mystery #1

Literary awards:  Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2005), Lefty Award (2005)

Purchase links: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Indiebooks, Kobobooks
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan McBride is the author of Very Bad Things, a young adult thriller due out in hardcover October 14, 2014, from Delacorte Press. She also writes mainstream fiction. The Truth About Love & Lightning (02/13) was selected by Target stores for their Emerging Authors program and dubbed "a poignant page-turner" by Publishers Weekly.  Little Black Dress spent five weeks on the St. Louis bestsellers list and was a Target Recommended Read, and The Cougar Club was selected by Target Stores as a Bookmarked Breakout Title and named a Midwest Connections Pick by the Midwest Booksellers Association. Foreign editions of Susan’s books have been published in France, Turkey, Croatia, and Bulgaria.

Susan has penned a short memoir, In the Pink: How I Met the Perfect (Younger) Man, Survived Breast Cancer, and Found True Happiness After 40, which tells her tale of becoming an "accidental Cougar" and marrying a younger man, her cancer diagnosis at age 42, and finding herself pregnant at 47.

Susan wrote the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries (HarperCollins/Avon), including Blue Blood, The Good Girl's Guide To Murder, The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, Night Of The Living Deb, and Too Pretty To Die. She has authored several YA series books for Random House about debutantes in Houston: The Debs (2008) and Love, Lies, And Texas Dips (2009). Gloves Off, the third book, has not been released.

In January of 2012, Susan was named one of St. Louis's "Most Dynamic People of the Year" by the Ladue News. In April of 2012, she was given the "Survivor of the Year" Award by the St. Louis affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. As Susan likes to say, "Life is never boring."

More information on the author can be found on her WEBSITE

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Books in the Debutante Dropout Mystery Series

MY REVIEWS FOR THE SERIES

#1 Blue Blood
#2 The Good Girl's Guide to Murder
#3 The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club
#4 Night of the Living Deb

#5 Too Pretty to Die

The Last Savannah - by Mike Bond

Genres: Africa, Action, Adventure, Crime,
Formats: Kindle, Soft cover, Nook
Number of Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Mandevilla Press
Publication Date: November 20, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00CKAGJPS
Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

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AMAZON BOOK BLURB:
With Africa's last elephants dying under the poachers' guns, Kenya rancher and former SAS officer Ian MacAdam leads a commando squad against them. Pursuing the poachers through jungled mountains and searing deserts he battles thirst, solitude, terror and lethal animals, only to find that the poachers have kidnapped a young archaeologist, Rebecca Hecht, whom he once loved and bitterly lost. McAdam embarks upon a desperate trek to save not only Rebecca but his own soul in an Africa torn apart by wars, overpopulation, and the slaughter of its last wildlife. Based on the author's experiences pursuing elephant poachers in the wilds of East Africa.

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REVIEW:
The Last Savannah is an African action adventure playing itself out in the deserts, savannas and wildness of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Ian MacAdam, a Kenyan farmer and former SAS officer, cannot deny his assistance when an old friend who saved is life numerous times, ask him to join a commando hunting down the poachers of the last elephants of Kenya. This request forces him to a make a final choice about his love and dedication to Africa when his wife, a lonely alcoholic, announces her departure to England for good. She never wants to see Africa again. He never wants to leave it. "He will die with his boots on" she says. Ian wants to go on this mission and use it as an opportunity to make a decision about his future. Through the aspirations of a young poacher in love, another dimension will be added to the battle, when he kidnaps Rebecca Hecht, an internationally well-known archaeologist who was also once the big love of Ian's life.

The story is constructed from two different points of view. One is the do-good group of soldiers and a few ex-soldiers who are instructed to find and kill the poachers of the last elephants in Kenya. The opposing group, the poachers, are poor, desperate Somalian men who have no other means of survival. In between the two groups are international role players, such as embassy personnel of ivory-seeking countries, local corrupt politicians and big global corporations.

“You know it won't stop till every elephant is dead. The problem's Africa—the world wants copper so Africa rips open its belly. The world wants diamonds so Africa sends its young men down mines to die for them. People want ivory and colobus skins and oil and slaves so Africa plunders herself for them.”

It's macho-lit book written for the man's man. Yes, if a term like that is allowed. The action is real, it happens everyday in Africa and the multitude of animals crossing the characters paths are real too.

Interesting social opinions are lightly splashed over the text, which adds another level of interest to the book. For instance: "Like malaria, Africa. Once bitten you can never shake it. They used to call acacias “fever trees”, thinking malaria came from them. Now they “know” malaria comes from mosquitoes. Some day they’ll realize malaria comes from the continent itself: Africa is a fever. For Africa there’s no chloroquine. No matter if you leave it, it’s engraved in your blood."

The story also highlights the fundamental and very real challenges in Africa. Although it is also applicable to the rest of the world, it is more so in Africa which is exploited from all over the planet for its natural resources:

"Now the land, the trees, the animals are gone; the whites were right—God’s not so hard to kill. And most of the whites had gone, too, leaving behind them a plague to finish off what they began. This plague, MacAdam had reflected so many bitter times, was medicine without birth control. It allowed the weak to live, populations to explode, the limitless savannas and jungles cut into tiny shambas where swollen families burnt and hacked the vegetation, then clung to the malnourished soil till it eroded to bedrock. Without the grass and trees the soil dried, the rains died and you could see a man coming miles away by the dust he raised."

These opinions are controversial, severely oversimplified, and debatable of course. It serves a particular agenda - saying what the world wants to hear. The book also describes the desolation, yet unimaginable beauty of the natural surroundings.

Apart from the selfish greed of everyone involved, the men are also inspired into action by the loss, or hope of their love for women which drives them. A rebellion against a love that conquers and tame them. “Her influence, little cousin. Woman’s influence is impure, and spreads around her like the disease that kills the camels, except that it kills men’s honor and will.”

It was a good read. An entertaining one. Not the best book I have ever read in the African adventure genre, but well written. Some parts, which was boring and predictable, could have been cut, resulting in heightened drama, but that is my personal opinion. Some elements were a bit unrealistic. For instance, a man who was kerfuffled by a buffalo horn in the chest, resulting in six broken ribs, cannot run around shooting and shouting like it never happened, trying to save damsels in distress. I've seen the results of a buffalo encounter, and boy, the hero might be macho and God's gift to women, but his superman stunts in the story after the encounter, do not fit the real deal at all. Yes, I know, do not allow reality to interfere with a good story, right? Right you are! The end was a total surprise!

So, really, enjoy this book. It is really based on much of the reality of modern day Africa, with not too much fantasy added. Every element in this narrative is either possible or true.

It is not the last book I want to read from the author, Mike Bond. I appreciate his observations of all the countries he has covered as journalist. He has many good, as well as valid, stories to tell.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Author: Mike Bond

MIKE BOND has been called the “master of the existential thriller” by the BBC and “one of the 21st century’s most exciting authors” by the Washington Times

Hawaii-based bestselling novelist, international energy expert, war and human rights correspondent and award-winning poet, Mike Bond has lived and worked in many dangerous, remote and war-torn regions of the world.

His critically acclaimed novels depict the innate hunger of the human heart for good, the intense joys of love, the terror and fury of battle, the sinister vagaries of international politics and multinational corporations, and the vanishing beauty of the natural world.

Visit the author's website at: www.MikeBondBooks.com

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