Fat Ollie’s Book, by Ed McBain

The title has two meanings.  For the first time, loathsome but funny Detective Fat Ollie Weeks of the 88th Precinct takes center stage, and within the book we get to read excerpts from Fat Ollie’s own unpublished crime novel—which has been written unintentionally hilariously by Ollie in the form of a report to the Police Commissioner.  Ollie’s only copy of the novel has been stolen out of his police cruiser during his initial crime scene investigation of the murder of a prominent city councilman planning to run for mayor.  Since the councilman lived in the 87th Precinct and it’s such an important case, our old friends Detectives Carella and Kling are also assigned to assist Ollie in his quest for the killer.   So, we are searching for a killer and also looking for a book thief on the side—and did I mention that the thief thinks Ollie’s book is a real report describing a huge cache of stolen jewels and sets out to find them?  By my count, this is the fifty-second novel of the 87th Precinct.  McBain is still at the top of his game and this was a fun and lively read.
 

Killjoy, by Julie Garwood

Single, twentysomething Avery Delaney was abandoned by Jilly, her wild teenaged mother, after her birth and she was raised by her aunt and grandmother.  Now Avery is grown and she works as a clerk for the FBI in Washington, D.C.  Her aunt, Carrie, has married and moved to California, becoming a successful businesswoman.  With her marriage on the rocks, Carrie arranges to spend a week with Avery at a lavish Colorado spa.   On the way to the spa, Carrie and two other ladies are abducted and locked in a remote mountaintop house wired to explode if they try to leave.  Jilly, thought to be dead, is very much alive and she has hooked up with a paid killer.  Crazy Jilly wants Carrie and Avery both dead—and if she can be a witness all the better.  Avery, in route to Colorado, has only a phone message from Carrie as a clue to what has happened.  Luckily, when she reaches the spa she runs into John Paul Renard, a former government agent who is tracking the killer.  Together, they set out to foil Jilly and save the abducted women.  This is the first book I’ve read by Ms. Garwood  and it was an entertaining read in the Sandra Brown mode.
 

By the Light of the Moon, by Dean Koontz

Painter Dylan O’Connor and his autistic brother, Shep, have stopped at a motel in a small Arizona town on their way to an art show.  As Dylan is returning to their motel room with food, he is knocked out. When he regains consciousness, he is tied up and being injected with a drug by someone calling himself a doctor.  The doctor won’t tell him what’s in the shot—only that it is his life’s work and it will change him profoundly, possibly in a positive way.  He also warns Dylan not to go to the police because he and his also injected brother are now wanted men and will be hunted down by government agents interested in the drug.  Jillian Jackson, a beautiful young standup comedienne, has also checked into the same motel and she has also been injected with the drug.   The three meet as they witness the doctor being blown up by a car bomb—after some mysterious men have shown up in black Suburbans.  Now believing the doctor that their lives are in danger, they decide to join forces and go on the run while they determine how the drug will change them.  And, change them it will!  I won’t say how but you’ll have fun finding out for yourself.  This was entertaining and suspenseful from the always unpredictable Koontz.
 

The Kingmaker, by Brian Haig

This is the third installment in Brian Haig’s series featuring Major Sean Drummond, the JAG attorney.  Drummond is on the military’s elite team of lawyers that handles the most important and sensitive cases and his latest assignment is no exception.  General William Morrison has been charged with treason by way of spying for the Russians and Morrison has asked for Drummond to defend him.  Even though the evidence against Morrison is overwhelming, Drummond is intrigued by the case.  But, two things give him pause.  He personally dislikes Morrison and years ago he dated Morrison’s future wife, Mary, and wanted to marry her.  She chose Morrison instead.  Despite his misgivings, Drummond decides to take the case.  Since there is a Russian connection, he hires Katrina Mazorsky, a young,  streetwise lawyer who is fluent in Russian.  On a trip to Moscow to investigate the case, Sean and Katrina narrowly escape being killed and the case—which had seemed open and shut—suddenly has possibilities.  I’m enjoying this series by Haig.  Sean is a brash, entertaining character and Katrina was a nice addition who held her own.
 

Four Blind Mice, by James Patterson

Detective Alex Cross of the Washington, D.C. police is trying to decide whether to resign and take a job with the F.B.I.  While he is pondering, his good friend John Sampson asks for his help.  A former Army buddy of John’s, Ellis Cooper, has been found guilty of the murder of three women and is on death row in North Carolina.  John is convinced Cooper is innocent and he and Alex decide to investigate the case.  They immediately turn up some discrepancies but the Army refuses to listen and Cooper is executed.  Alex and John are shocked at their failure to save Cooper and they vow to find the real killer or killers.  As they investigate, a pattern emerges of military men being convicted of murders with cases similar to Cooper’s.  Can they find the killers before the next innocent man is put to death?  This was ok but not the best Patterson.  Some of the writing was repetitive and apparently no editing was done.  At one point Patterson has Alex and John driving down I-95 south from Washington for an hour on their way to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.  Now, the McCleary boys are known for their poor sense of direction but I’m pretty sure that’s not the way to Harper’s Ferry.
 
 
 

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