David Baldacci, The Collectors - Camel Club #2

The Collectors by David Baldacci

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A talented spy-for-hire assassin shoots the Speaker of the House and kills the director of the Library of Congress's Rare Books Room. How could these two crimes be related? One of the members of the Camel Club, Caleb Shaw is thrown in the middle of the case, by nearly falling victim too.
Meanwhile, in Atlantic City, a gifted beautiful con woman assembles a first rate team to pull an incredible and dangerous scam on one of the most dangerous men in the country. She succeeds taking 40 million dollars from this bad man. When she is about to disappear and go under the radar, to prevent being caught by this dangerous man, she reads that her ex-husband, the director of the Rare Books Room has died. So she goes to Washington for his burial, discovering the Camel Club, which informs her that her husband had been murdered.
She and the Camel Club join forces and unravel a spy network, which if continued, would have brought America to its knees.



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David Baldacci, The Camel Club - Camel Club #1

The Camel Club by David Baldacci

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a weird book about conspiracy freaks joined together in a group called The Camel Club. The formula works, these four misfits not only survive against incredible odds, but save their president and country from a plot that would have led to nuclear disaster. The group’s leader has taken the name of "Oliver Stone". One night, while meeting on Roosevelt Island the four club members witness a murder of a Secret Service employee. The two-team hit men see them and persecute them shooting at them in the middle of the Potomac. The Camel Club takes on the offensive trying to find out who the killers are, joining forces with a Secret Service agent. The Americans –thinking the Syrians are behind the plot—get ready to nuke Damascus. Yes, farfetched, but good solid fun reading.



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Robert B. Parker's 6th's Sunny Randall's Novel

Spare Change by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sunny joins forces with her father in order to crack an old case which resurfaces again. Her father was the principal in a series of murders by a criminal dubbed "The Spare Change Killer" 30 years back. The same style murders start happening all over again, the police immediately seek out the cop, now retired, and who headed the original investigation: Phil Randall, Sunny’s father. Phil asks his daughter to help him catch the criminal who eluded him before. Early on the case, Sunny finds her man, but it is just her intuition, lacking solid evidence. Few believe her, but eventually she is able to snare him into a trap, setting herself up to become the next victim, the murderer is eventually killed in a shootout.
This is a good book with a credible plot. This is Parker at his best, and the last of the Sunny Randall’s books.
Fiction, Suspense, Mystery & Detective, Mystery fiction, Women private investigators, Women Sleuths, Thriller, Boston, Randall, Sunny



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Robert B. Parker's 9th Jesse Stone Novel

Split Image by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A foot soldier of a local underworld boss is found in the trunk of his car. The local tough guy is enjoying a comfortable "retirement" with his beautiful wife, Rebecca, living next door to another mafia kingpin married with Rebecca’s twin sister. Later, this high-ranking crime figure is found dead on Paradise Beach. These twins are directly involved. Jesse eventually cracks the case, while finally letting go of his cheating and manipulating ex-wife Jenn. Jesse starts a more serious relationship with Sunny Randall.
This is a good book to end the Jesse Stone's series.



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Robert B. Parker's 8th Jesse Stone Novel

Night and Day by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a nice easy read. Jesse Stone faces two challenges while at the same time trying to sort out his confusing love-life. The first challenge has to do with a Junior High School Principal, who --under the pretext of proper attire and behavior for her students-- examines their underwear in the locker room. Jesse wants to punish her, but her high-powered attorney husband prevents him. The second and more relevant challenge has to do with a tormented voyeur, dubbed the Nighthawk. This perpetrator escalates from peering through Windows to forcing his victims to undress at gunpoint, then photographing them while naked. Jesse sets a trap and catches the Nighthawk, killing him in a subsequent shootout. Sunny Randall appears, along with Susan Silverman –Spenser's sweetheart— as Sunny's psychiatrist. I liked the book.



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Robert B. Parker's 7th Jesse Stone Novel

Stranger in Paradise by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An interesting book, which shows Parker’s idea of the self-righteous man: “What feels right it’s probably right, regardless what the law says”. Jesse Stone receives an unexpected visit from Crow, a stone-killer with some very precise rules, like: “I will not kill women or children, but everything else goes!” The last time Jesse saw Crow was on a speed boat with a loot of several million dollars. Now, Crow asks Stone’s help to protect a woman and her daughter from their gangster husband & dad. All the time, Jesse continues with his drinking issues and the never ending relationship with his former wife, Jenn. Jesse kind of forgets his police oath, and ignores murder, for the sake of the greater good. Jesse does not let the law get on the way of justice, the way he understands justice. A good read!



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Robert B. Parker's 5th's Sunny Randall's Novel

Blue Screen by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It was a good novel, but again I thought the end needed beefing up.
Buddy Bollen, a C movie producer, who made his fortune from a dot-com deal, hires Sunny Randall to protect his girlfriend, Erin Flint, a sexy starlet who is a legend in her own mind. Sunny takes the job, and soon things get complicated. Erin's assistant, Misty, is found dead in the lavish home they share with sugar daddy Bollen. Erin wants Sunny to take charge of the investigation. She doesn’t trust the local Police. “…I'm not leaving it in the hands of some small-town cow-shit sheriff.” She says to Sunny.
Sunny takes the case and in the process develops a relationship with Jesse Stone, chief of police in Paradise, Massachusetts. Jesse and Sunny strike it on from the beginning, while investigating and detecting, they learn about each other-and themselves. Both have hang-ups about their ex partners.
Trying to find out the Misty's murderer reveals a lot of Erin's past and Buddy’s businesses. Misty was her younger sister. Both became prostitutes when they were at their teens. Erin married her pimp, Gerard Basgall. Buddy Bollen's entertainment business was made up of shady film deals, financed by a mobster out for revenge.
It would have been nice if Parker developed what happened to Buddy, but he reaches the end a little too soon. Sunny and Jesse find out who killed Misty, but they realize it was an accidental death. Erin says she did it, and Gerard says he did. Sunny and Jesse let them go.



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