Carey Baldwin's Stolen a day of My Life

Stolen - Carey Baldwin

 

“For a moment, he just held her, his hand coasting up and down her back in time with the rhythm of her heart as it beat against his.” I don’t normally begin a book review with a quotation from the book… but this time I wanted you to know what kind of torture I put myself through to finish Stolen, an installment in the Carey Baldwin romance-mystery Cassidy and Spenser series. Let’s dissect that… stuff: first, “coasting” is a ridiculous verb in this setting. Second, is he really rubbing her back at something like 70 stokes per minute? And third, if her heart is beating against his, the two had better be conjoined twins! I won’t go so far as to say that all of Stolen is this poorly written, but way too much of it is. First, though, here’s the story:

Agent Zero - Disengage Disbelief Before Reading

Agent Zero - Jack Mars

I don’t review a lot of books these days, although I still power through about three books a week. Every once in a while, though, I get the urge to spit out a few hundred words to share my opinion of some thing I’ve just finished. Sometimes it’s because the book is so good – Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars or Alexandra Oliva’s The Last One come to mind. On the other hand. Some books are just plain lousy, and I get a kick out of lambasting them. There’s the third option, too: the book’s neither great not execrable, but… something about it tells me to sit down and write. That’s what happened with Agent Zero, the first book in a series by some guy who uses the pseudonym Jack Mars.

Hey There, Nowhere Man: Yo Mama!

 Prodigal Son - Gregg Hurwitz

Evan Smoak thought he’d retired from the hero business; or at least that was the deal he’d made to stay out of a federal prison. But when you get a phone call from someone claiming to be the mother you’d never met, you’re at least curious… maybe a little obsessed. The woman in question had a job for The Nowhere Man (Evan’s last “career” before retiring): find and protect Andrew Duran, a down-on-his-luck impound lot attendant who’d had the misfortune of witnessing the murder of a client. Perhaps out of boredom, Evan took up the hunt.

Mary, Mary, Never Quite Contrary: DiNunzio gets a New BFF

 Lady Killer - Lisa Scottoline

In case you hadn't noticed, Lisa Scottoline hasn't written a Rosato & Associates novel in years. The last time, she tells readers who make it to her afterword, was more than four years ago. Four years... could it have been that long? Well, when you consider that in those four years she gave us Cate Fante (Dirty Blonde), Vicki Allegretti (Devil's Corner), and Natalie "Nat" Greco (Daddy's Girl) in lieu of the amazonian women of Rosato-land, it's pretty easy to forget that the last time Mary DiNunzio dithered her way across the page was in 2004's Killer Smile. Problem one being, nothing much's changed: DiNunzio is still a ditz, and Bennie Rosato still only makes cameo appearances. That's too bad: Bennie is the Philadelphia equivalent of V. I. Warshawski, and Mary... Mary... well, suffice it to say that the world does not need another Stephanie Plum...

Rogue DEA Agents, Sicarios, and Zetas... Oh, My

Make Them Cry - Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith

If you like your protagonists flawed, then Make Them Cry is gonna be right up your alley. With the possible exception of a couple of innocent bystanders (who might not be all that innocent after all), not one character in this novel has more redeeming qualities than flaws. That negative balance definitely includes Diane Harbaugh, grifter’s daughter turned ASUA turned DEA agent; a woman with a penchant for playing fast and loose with whatever rules get in her way. It’s that penchant that already has her in hot water with her agency when she goes rogue in an attempt to bring in a cartel lieutenant in the Mexican coastal town of Tampico. Ultimately, she finds herself pitted against a sicario whose hobby is reading sword-and-sorcery fantasy and somehow in debt to Carver, a sexy ex-CIA agent who’s also gone rogue in his own way.