Up Country, by Nelson DeMille

Paul Brenner, the army criminal investigator last seen in The General’s Daughter  (good book, pretty good movie), has been forced into retirement as a result of that case and he’s casting about for something to do with himself.  His former boss, Karl Hellmann, has a delicate, possibly dangerous assignment for him.  An old letter from the Vietnam War has surfaced and it describes the murder of an unnamed American lieutenant by an also unnamed American captain.  The witness and long ago letter writer: a North Vietnamese soldier corresponding with his brother.   Paul Brenner’s assignment, should he wish to accept it, is to return to Vietnam and investigate the murder.  I say ‘return’ because Paul served two tours during the war and was there when the murder supposedly occurred.  Paul decides to take the job and lucky for us because we get to go along as he revisits Vietnam both in his memories as a young infantryman during the war and in the reality of Vietnam in 1997, the book’s time period.  Starting in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, Paul will travel up country with the aid of a gorgeous American named Susan Weber, who has been working in Vietnam for three years.  Paul and Susan will finally end up in Hanoi—with a startling murder suspect.  This is an enjoyable book that combines a nicely drawn remembrance of the war with an intriguing murder mystery.
 

A Bend in the Road, by Nicholas Sparks

Miles Ryan, the young deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, is still mourning the death of his wife, Missy, two years earlier in a hit and run accident.  Miles has never given up his search for the driver and it has so consumed him that he has not realized that his son, Jonah, has fallen far behind in school.  Sarah Andrews is Jonah’s new second grade teacher and she agrees to tutor Jonah several days a week after school if Miles will do the same the other days.  Sarah has moved to New Bern from Baltimore after a messy breakup of her marriage.  Well, you can probably guess that Miles and Sarah will fall in love but their love for each other will be severely tested by an unexpected development.  This was a nice, easy read with enjoyable characters to get to know.
 

Mortal Prey, by John Sandford

Back in 1999, in Certain Prey, Minneapolis policeman Lucas Davenport locked horns with Clara Rinker, a skilled and clever hitwoman.  Lucas almost died and Clara escaped to points unknown.  When I wrote my review then, I said how much I enjoyed Clara and I hoped she would be back sometime for a return engagement.  Well, my long wait is over.  Clara is retired and living in Mexico when her lover and the father of her unborn child is gunned down and killed.  Clara is wounded in the attack and loses her baby.  Everyone thinks her fiancé was the target since he was involved in organized crime but Clara knows different--her former boss and three of her old clients want her dead.  Our Clara isn’t one to sit on her hands and off she goes to one by one exact her revenge.  The FBI has never stopped hunting for Clara and the agency calls upon Lucas to assist since he got closer to Clara than anyone else when she was operating in Minneapolis.  So, we have Clara on one side and Lucas and the FBI on the other in a wonderfully suspenseful hunt and be hunted thriller.  It’s embarrassing to admit that I was rooting for Clara--she’s a hitwoman, for goodness sake!--but she’s just so darn smart and likable I couldn’t help myself.  If you missed Certain Prey, it’s available on the paperback rack.  I suggest you start with it and then read this terrific sequel.
 

Courting Trouble, by Lisa Scottoline

Anne Murphy is the new lawyer at the all-woman Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates.  It’s the start of the July 4th weekend and Anne decides at the spur of the moment without telling anyone to go away to the shore for the weekend, asking a health club friend to housesit and feed her cat.  The long weekend starts out great—until she reads of her murder on the front page of the morning paper.  Shot dead in the foyer of her home.  The woman in the article was shot in the face and Anne realizes that it is the housesitter who has been killed and misidentified as her—they both were redheads and similar looking.  Since everyone she knows in Philadelphia thinks she’s dead, Anne decides to stay dead—at least initially—while she tries to find out who wanted to end her life.  This was an ok read, fitfully entertaining, but not what I’d call a real page-turner.  But, if you like the books of Janet Evanovich, this should appeal as well.
 

Gone for Good, by Harlan Coben

Will Klein, a social worker in New York City, has lived with a family tragedy.  Eleven years ago, his teenage brother, Ken, was the chief suspect in the strangulation death of a girl in their suburban New Jersey neighborhood.  The evidence was overwhelming and Ken disappeared, seemingly gone for good.  Ken was wounded in the attack and Will has thought all along that he probably died.  As Will attends his dying mother, she tells him that Ken is alive.  Will has always idolized his big brother and he decides to investigate the long ago murder of the neighborhood girl.  Thrown into the mix is his girlfriend, Sheila, who leaves him a love note and then disappears, another person in his life possibly gone for good.  Is her disappearance related to Ken’s resurfacing?  And, what really happened eleven years ago?  I enjoyed Coben’s last book, Tell No One.  This wasn’t quite as good but there were several unexpected surprises that kept it interesting.
 
 

 

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