Back Story, by Robert B. Parker

Well, here’s yet another novel with a mystery set in the past.  In 1974, Emily Gordon was visiting Boston from her native California.  While she was in a bank cashing some traveler’s checks, she was gunned down and killed during a bank robbery.  A revolutionary group calling itself the Dread Scott Brigade took credit for the robbery but none of the members of the group was ever arrested for the crime.  Now, all these years later, Emily’s daughter has come to Spenser to seek his aid in finding her mother’s killer.  Spenser happens to have just received a big payday on a case he had been working so, as a favor to a friend, he agrees to investigate the murder for the princely sum of six Krispy Kreme doughnuts.   He soon uncovers some problems—a curiously missing FBI file on the case and an original investigator who is evasive and seems to be hiding something.  But, a bigger problem soon emerges.  Spenser’s investigation has come to the attention of the local mob boss and he sends a hired gun around to warn Spenser off the case—or else.   Well, Spenser being Spenser, being warned off is only going to make him more determined to solve the case—or die trying.  But, maybe he should have held out for more doughnuts.  This is a winner from Parker and it even includes a cameo appearance from Jesse Stone, the Chief of Police of Paradise and the main character of another terrific Parker series.
 

The King of Torts, by John Grisham

Thirtysomething Clay Carter has been working as a lawyer in the DC public defender office for five years and, frankly, he is getting burned out by the low pay and the high caseloads.  His girlfriend, the daughter of a rich developer, is getting antsy to get married and wants him to move on to something more prestigious and lucrative. It’s at this point that the case of Tequila Watson drops into his lap.  Tequila, a recovering drug addict, has been arrested for the random killing of another man.  Clay is assigned to defend him and the first thing he does is investigate Tequila’s stay at a drug treatment facility.  Tequila had been making great progress at the facility and then, out of the blue, he commits murder with no reason.  Well, it turns out that there was a reason. Without his knowledge, Tequila was being treated  with an experimental drug called Tarvan. Tarvan worked wonders at curing drug addiction but had the unfortunate side effect of causing some patients to commit random murder.  With this knowledge, Clay enters the wild world of tort litigation—and he’s in for a harrowing roller coaster ride on his way to becoming the king of torts.   This was good Grisham but not his best book.
 

The Jester, by James Patterson

Patterson’s latest begins in modern day France, where a relic of enormous importance has been discovered in the town of Boree.  The relic appears to date from the time of Christ but how did it end up in a small town in France?  Well, we’ll find out just how it got there because the book immediately jumps back in time to 1096.  It’s the realm of knights, serfs, and feudal lords. And, the Crusades have started.  When the Army of the Crusades marches through the small community of Veille du Pere, Hugh Du Luc, a poor innkeeper, decides to join the trek to the Holy Land.  His journey will be filled with adventure and keep him away from his wife and village for a year and a half.  When he returns, he will find a changed world, and one that has not changed for the better.  Marauding knights have captured his wife and Hugh must become a jester to infiltrate their fortress and try to save her if she is still alive.  This was an interesting departure for Patterson and I enjoyed the settings and the time period.
 

The Vanished Man, by Jeffery Deaver

This is the fifth novel featuring the crack forensic team of Lincoln Rhyme and policewoman Amelia Sachs and it starts off with a bang.  A music student has been found murdered and the police have cornered the killer in a locked room.  Both entrances to the room have been covered since the killer barricaded himself in the room but when the room is stormed, the killer has vanished.  What happened?  Well, it’s magic time and just the beginning of a fascinating case for Lincoln and Amelia, who have their hands full with a master magician bent on revenge.  They’re going to need their own magic to have any hope of catching the killer they’ve dubbed The Conjurer.  This was the best mystery/suspense book I’ve read so far this year and it will leave you guessing and gasping over and over again.   Terrrrrrrrific!  My only quibble is I think Amelia deserves co-billing on the cover—which calls this  “A Lincoln Rhyme Novel.”
 

The Second Time Around, by Mary Higgins Clark

Nicholas Spencer, the head of Gen-stone, a medical research company, is missing and presumed dead; his small plane has gone down at sea.  Or, has he just faked his death?  His company had been on the verge of announcing a revolutionary new cancer drug but, now that Nick is missing, reports are surfacing that the test results could not be verified and the company is missing millions of dollars and on the verge of bankruptcy.  Thirty-two year old Carley DeCarlo, a financial columnist for Wall Street Weekly, is the stepsister of Nick’s wife, Lynn.  She, like hundreds of other people, has invested her life savings in Gen-stone solely on her belief that Nick would deliver on his promise of a cancer cure.  Carley decides to investigate what happened—both for herself and her newspaper.  Her investigation will put her squarely in the crosshairs of another disgruntled investor—who plans to kill everyone related to Nick.  There might have been a couple too many characters to keep track of this time around but, still, an enjoyable read.
 
 
 

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