Jennifer Government - Max Barry

Synopsis: When Nike decides to kill 14 of its customers as a part of a marketing campaign, Jennifer Government is brought in by a victim’s family to get them some justice. In the process she has to chase an old acquaintance around the world and dodge the NRA to get her job done and keep her daughter safe.

Despite disagreeing with some of the politics, I found this to be a really good book. I thought it was creative of the author to have the characters adopt the name of their employers (or educators) as surnames. It was also an interesting device to privatize the police and government investigative agencies, and have them charge for their services. I don’t know that the events are realistic, but it was still very enjoyable.

Amber Beach - Elizabeth Lowell

Synopsis: When Kyle Donovan goes missing with a fortune in carved amber, his sister, Honor, is determined to find him. So she hires Jake Mallory as her fishing guide so that she can use Kyle’s boat to search for him. But Honor and Jake find that they are in trouble from both the US government and the Russian mafia who think she knows where the amber is hidden.

The Ambler Warning - Robert Ludlum

Synopsis: Hal Ambler is nearly certain he’s not crazy, so he can’t understand why he is locked up in a government psychiatric facility. He only knows that he doesn’t want to stay there and so he gets a nurse to help him escape. Once he’s out, he learns that Hal Ambler doesn’t exist according to any database he knows of, and that he is a wanted man. One group wants him alive, to hire him for a job, and the other wants him dead, to prevent him from succeeding in that job. Ambler has only one choice, to follow along and see where events will lead him, hopefully to the truth of what happened to him.

The Wrong Hostage - Elizabeth Lowell

Synopsis: Judge Grace Silva wished that the divorce had cut her ex-husband out of her life for good. But when he gives her son to a Mexican drug lord as collateral, she has to turn to St. Kilda Consulting and Joe Faroe, a man she hasn’t talked to in 16 years for help. Soon, she and Faroe are racing the clock, the FBI, and a narcotraficante to save her son’s life.

Die in Plain Sight - Elizabeth Lowell

Synopsis: Lacey Quinn was just looking to have someone valid the skill of her grandfather’s paintings when she took them to be appraised by Susa Donovan. Instead, she found Ian Lapstrake dogging her footsteps to protect her and her paintings from someone out to destroy them, a family mystery surrounding her grandfather, and a rather stubborn buyer who won’t take “no” for an answer.

The Cove - Catherine Coulter

Synopsis: Sally St. John Brainerd is on the run. She doesn’t know whether she did it or if she’s just a witness, but someone has killed her father and wants to make her think she’s crazy. So she goes to her aunt’s house in The Cove, Oregon. She’s followed by Special Agent James Quinlan. In addition to finding Sally, Quinlan finds a mystery in the very existence of The Cove.

This is the starter to the FBI Thriller series. Savich starts as a supporting character in this story before moving to the foreground in The Maze. In later books, Sally and Quinlan make appearances, but they are moved to supporting roles or cameo appearances. While it is enjoyable, I don’t know that you would miss anything by starting with The Maze. I do want to note that I do not know a single computer geek (I’m married to a programmer and have several geek friends) who use the word “eureka” as Savich does a couple times. They are more likely to emit a monotonic “woot,” some sort of maniacal laugh, or start bragging about what they just did. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any geeks out there who use “eureka,” it just means that I don’t know of any. So in that respect, Savich’s geekiness falters a little.

Sign of Seven Trilogy - Nora Roberts

Blood Brothers
Synopsis:  On their tenth birthday, Cal Hawkins, Fox O’Dell and Gage Turner swore an oath making them blood brothers - an releasing an ancient evil.  Since then, every seven years, on the seventh day of the seventh month the people of Hawkin’s Hollow go crazy for a seven days.  Afterwards, only Cal, Fox and Gage can remember exactly what happened during that week.  This time Quinn Black, Layla Darnell and Cybil Kinski have been drawn to Hawkin’s Hollow.  Now they have to figure out what part the women are to play and how to stop the demon tormenting the town.

The Hollow
Synopsis:  As the Seven gets closer, the gang works to figure out how to beat the demon.  But he’s not waiting to start his fun.  Individually each is attacked as the demon tries to run them out of town.

The Pagan Stone

TailSpin - Catherine Coulter

Synopsis: Special Agent Jackson Crowne was helping out Dr. Timothy MacLean, family friend and psychiatrist to the Washington elite, and flying him back to Washington DC after an attempt on his life. Dr. MacLean had been diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia, and it seems that some one is concerned about what he might be saying. When their plane crashes in eastern Kentucky, they fall, almost literally, at the feet of Rachael Abbott, a woman on the run for her own reasons. Agent Crowne soon finds himself trying to find out who wants Rachael and Dr. MacLean dead, and why.

Key Trilogy - Nora Roberts

Key of Light
Synopsis: Malory Price, Dana Steele, and Zoe McCourt lived comfortable lives doing what they loved.  Then all three hit financial trouble when their jobs were lost or threatened.  At the same time they were all offered a once in a lifetime chance.  Help rescue three Celtic demigoddesses and each would be given $25,000 for agreeing and another $1 million if they succeed.  Drawing the short straw, Malory goes first and learns that to find her key, she must learn to give up the security of routine and risk a little to win.

Key of Knowledge
Synopsis:  With Malory’s key found, it is now Dana’s turn to search for her key.  Along the way Dana must accept that not everything is black and white, and sometimes what may seem like a mistake could be a very good thing.

Key of Valor
Synopsis:  Zoe is the last to search for her key and the risks are greatest for her.  A single mom trying to start up her own business, the last thing she needs is a suitor or a mystical quest.  But as she searches for her key, she learns to see the patterns in her decisions that have led her to where she is, and she learns when to fight, when not to fight, and when to share her battles.

These were fun books.  There were some moments of cheesiness but overall they were very enjoyable.

Ghost: Confessions of a CounterTerrorism Agent - Fred Burton

Synopsis: Terrorist attacks and the hunt for the men behind them, from the events leading to Iran-Contra to the arrest of Ramzi Yousef, told from the perspective of one of the agents in the fight. Fred Burton worked for the Diplomatic Security Service, in the Department of State, for more than a decade. He was one of their first CounterTerrorism Agents and helped shape the CT program in use today. He talks about what it was like to be a part of worldwide investigations, the terror of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the times when the media, beaureacracy and egos put lives in danger, and the measures taken to make the world safer.