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Ray Palen

Book Review: The Girl Beneath the Sea by Andrew Mayne

By Ray Palen

June 9, 2020

The Girl Beneath the Sea by Andrew Mayne is the first book in the new Underwater Investigation Unit series, where diver and officer Sloan McPherson encounters a dead body on a personal dive that leads to the discovery of a dangerous ring of crime and corruption.  Following the success of both The Naturalist and the…

Book Review: This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf

By Ray Palen

June 8, 2020

With twists and turns that will leave readers dizzy, This is How I Lied follows Detective Maggie Kennedy-O’Keefe as she delves into the past to solve the murder of her best friend. Critically acclaimed author Heather Gudenkauf is back with a paperback original titled This is How I Lied. Before this novel is over, I…

Book Review: The Split by Sharon Bolton

By Ray Palen

May 15, 2020

Tense, gripping, and with a twist you won’t see coming, The Split by Sharon Bolton is an explosive new standalone thriller about a troubled woman on the run to a remote glacial location on the Antarctic island of South Georgia. Sharon Bolton’s The Split is quite a reading experience. The titular “split” seemingly involves the breakup…

Book Review: The Last Hunt by Deon Meyer

By Ray Palen

May 5, 2020

When a cold case dossier lands on Captain Benny Griessel’s desk, he and his partner Vaughn Cupido, a fellow member of an elite police unit in South Africa, reluctantly set to work reviewing the evidence of the possible murder of an ex-cop on the world’s most luxurious train.  When you read about South Africa you…

Book Review: The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian

By Ray Palen

April 17, 2020

The Lotus Flower, normally recognized for its’ resplendent red color, is the national flower of both India and Vietnam. At one point towards the end of this ironically timely novel by Chris Bohjalian, it is pointed out that the lotus flower is known for laying atop the water during the day and then sinking at…

Book Review: The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri

By Ray Palen

April 14, 2020

The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri is the 25th book in the Inspector Montalbano Mystery series, where a middle school is threatened by a group of armed men, and a closer look at the situation finds Montalbano looking into the students themselves and finally delving into the world of social media. It was quite a…

Book Review: Trace Elements by Donna Leon

By Ray Palen

March 25, 2020

In the 29th novel in Donna Leon’s Comissario Guido Brunetti series, a dying woman’s last words spark an investigation that could threaten the entire population of Venice.  It feels beyond surreal to be reviewing this novel. Not just because of how drastically our world has changed in just a matter of weeks but that this…

Book Review: How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid

By Ray Palen

March 3, 2020

In the latest from Val McDermid’s bestselling thriller series, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan reunite after a mysterious skeleton turns up on the grounds of an old orphanage. ‘The cases that always took the most out of me were the ones that awoke echoes from my own past.  Sometimes I learned as much about myself from…

Book Review: The Andromeda Evolution by Michael Crichton and Daniel H. Wilson

By Ray Palen

February 28, 2020

Fifty years after Michael Crichton came out with The Andromeda Strain—and spawned a new genre, the technothriller—the threat returns, in a gripping sequel. In the year 1969, author Michael Crichton released a novel that was decades ahead of its time.  That novel was titled The Andromeda Strain and it also spawned a top-rate film of…

Book Review: The Good Killer by Harry Dolan

By Ray Palen

February 26, 2020

I know it’s become an overused and hackneyed literary device—thank you Gone Girl—to show chapters that come from a different character’s point of view—but in Harry Dolan’s The Good Killer, it really works! He doesn’t always devote entire chapters to one specific character. Sometimes it’s just a few chapters and characters get to share the…

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