My Reading List - C. J. Box

Joe Pickett is the protagonist of CJ Box series. Joe is a game warden in Wyoming, who often acts as a private investigator to discover the twisted and complicate truth behind obvious murder.

Blood Trail (2008) - Joe needed to find out who murdered Frank and mutilated his body. Coincidence in politics? anti-hunting activist?
Cold Wind (2012) - Joe discovered the truth why Earl Alden was murdered and displayed on a wind turbine blade.
         All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. - Galileo Galilei

My Reading List - James Patterson

Alex Cross novels

1. Double Cross: Kyle Craig’s escape and DCAK serial murders in DC area.
2. London Bridges:  The chase of Wolf, a super criminal, who claimed responsible of a Nevada explosion and potential acts all over the world.
3. Mary Mary: Alex’ custody rights. Search for the artists’ killer coast to coast. Mary was from Vermont? B.

Michael Bennett

1. Tick Tock: Why this a copy cat serial killer did it for Lawrence? A typical mouse and cat game. Fun to read. B.

Women’s Murder Club

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9.    The 9th Judgment: The mixture cases of Pete Gordon, the WCF, Lipstick, Killer and, Hello Kitty, the cat burglar.
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Standalone

1. The Quickie: Lauren Stillwell’s revenge and cover up for her husband’s killing of Scott.
2. Guilty Wives: A girls-only weekend turned wrong in Monte Carlo. How would Abbie, proved her and her friends: Winnie, Serena, and Bryah innocent with a huge price. A-
3. Swimsuit (co-authored with Maxine Paetro): Ben Hawkins, a then cop and now LA Times reporter wanted to locate who murdered the swimsuit model in Hawaii. The story illustrated the ugly murder scene and sick minded people of their nasty habits and desire. Pretty heavy to go thru those. B.

My Reading List - Harlan Coben

I like Myron Bolitar series, but I think Harlan Coben's stand alone novels are even better. All Harlan's stories contain very complex 'plots'. Story lines are complicated but surprisingly clear and clean. Harlan spend a great time at the beginning to lay the foundation and create the environment. Once done, fast paced and the scene one after another and you don't want to put it down.

Myron Bolitar Series

1. Deal Breaker (1995)
2. Drop Shot (1996)
3. Fade Away (1996)
4. Back Spin (1997)
5. One False Move (1998)
6. The Final Detail (1999) - Clud Haid, former drug addict player, was murdered, Esperanza was arrested, players were left him... This book is full of twists from many directions. It keeps you going to the end, philosophical too.  A.
7. Darkest Fear (2000)
8. Promise Me (2006)
9. Long Lost (2009)
10. Live Wire (2011) - complicated history and mysteries involved Myron's family, nephew Mickey, sister in law Kitty and tennis star Suzze, Rock star with murder and killing. 
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Mickey Bolitar series

1. Shelter (2011) - Micky's first adventure in high school where he teamed up with Rachel,Spoon to find out why the mystery girl Ashley vanished. His uncle Myron tried to protect and helped him from background with the iPhone GPS application.

Stand-alone

1. Miracle Cure (1991) - NBA star Michael Silverman and an AIDS clinic.  Who killed the AIDS clinic founder? Was it done by the gay slasher, who murdered all those cured AIDS patients?
2. Tell No One (2001) -  David Beck got mysterious emails from his wife, who was murdered 8 years ago. Someone was following him too! Full of surprises till the end. Tyrese, his drug friend, and Eric Wu, all developed well and impressive figures. A.
3. Gone For Good (2002) - Was Will Clein's brother, Ken, really dead? What had happened among Ken, Ghost and Philip McGuane. Steady development of each character, and dark secrets got revealed one after another until the last minute. A.
4. No Second Chance (2003) - Complex plot, or is it? Dr. Marc Seidman was nearly killed and his daughter was missing, and how did this and the ransom get related to the baby selling ring?
5. The Woods (2007) - A New Jersey county prosecutor, Paul Copland, trying to find out what exactly happened in a campground which four teenagers were killed. Everyone had beard some level of guilt. You would do anything to protect your children.
6. Hold Tight (2009) - Complicated plots: Adam Baye and the 'pharm' party, Spencer Hill suicide as well as Nash and Pietra's random killing. Paul Copland and the gang make a cameo.
7. Caught (2010) - News reporter Wendy Tyns discovered the mystery of a Princeton graduate Dan Mercer's disappearance, and Dan's involvement of a seventeen girl Haley McWaid. Complicated plots and entangled events. 
8. Stay Close (2012) - The recent missing person bore similarities of a person missing 17 years ago as well as each year a person was missing at mardi gras.The connections among the house wife Megan, Ray, a photographer as well as Lorraine,the bartender went a long way.
9. Six Years (2013) - Story of Fresh Start unveiled during the journey that Professor Jake Fisher tried to locate his old girl friend Natalie, who, six years ago, married to Todd Sanderson.

The quote that I like:

• "It takes too much to hold on to hate. you will lose grip to the important things..."  - Caught
• "The line between good and evil, fair and foul will fade over time..." - The Final Detail
• "The ugliest truth was still better than the prettiest of lies" - Gone For Good

My Reading List - David Baldacci

Camel Club

1. The Camel Club (2005) -  Together with Annabelle Conroy, a con artist, to find what and who killed Rare Books director Jonathan DeHaven?
2. The Collectors (2006)
3. Stone Cold     (2007)
4. Divine Justice (2008)
5. Hell's Corner  (2010)

Sean King and Michelle Maxwell

1. Simple Genius (2007) - Sean went to investigate the cause of death of a man in a CIA facility. Mysteries got revealed as Michelle joined him later on with her own mental issues to be resolved as well. The figures' characters personally were not always consistent. B+

2. The Sixth Man (2011) - Edgar Roy a brilliant Analyst was accused of murdering 6 people in Maine. Edgar's lawyer was also discovered murdered before the trial. Everyone wanted to get a slice of pie from the big brother. Clear story line and tight writing although some clues came from 'thought' without support. A-
3. Memory Man

My Reading List - Robert Crais

Robert Crais is an other thriller author that I recently discovered. His Joe Pike and Elvis Cole ("world's greatest detective") series are fun and page turners. It is like watching  movies and walk along with Elvis and/or Joe on a journey of mystery solving.

Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels

1. The Monkey's Raincoat (1987)
2. Stalking the Angel (1989)
3. Lullaby Town (1992)
4. Free Fall (1993)
5. Voodoo River (1995)
6. Sunset Express (1996)
7. Indigo Slam (1997)
8. L.A. Requiem (1999)
9. The Last Detective (2003)
10. The Forgotten Man (2005) - Cole and Kelly Diaz to find who killed Elvis' "father"?
11. The Watchman (2007)
12. Chasing Darkness (2008) - Why did police say the case was closed? Cole had the faith that, Byrd, the suicide killer, who Cole and Allen acquitted seven years ago, wasn't the real murder of those women. The book was well written and fast paced. Keep your friend close and enemy closer! A.
13. The First Rule (2010) - What was behind Pike's friend Frank Meyers' murder by Eastern Europe gang? AK47, 10 month old baby. The truth was hidden by entangled lies. A.
14. The Sentry (2011)
15. Taken (2012)
16. Suspect (2013) - LAPD Scott James and his new partner, a military dog, Maggie were to chase down the those who killed his partner nine months ago.

Stand alone novels

1. The Two-Minute Rule (2006) - Former bank robber Max Holman wanted to find who killed his cop son. What are the corrupted police trying hiding? Is old saying 'like father like son' true? A

* I chase darkness to make room for the light - Chasing Darkness

My Reading List - Nelson DeMille

I started reading Nelson DeMille's book when local library ran out other authors' books. Not because I didn't like the author, I simply didn't know much about his work. A colleague of mine mentioned Nelson's name, and his FBI ATTF special agent John Corey. Sounds good to me, I started with the Wild Fire and only have complete two of them so far. I think that I will get more.

Overall, I like Nelson's work. His sarcasm and his dark humor. Comparing to other cat and mouse games,Nelson's game was straight, we all know who the bad guy was. There is nothing to hide. Lots of conversations, clues are hidden inside the conversations. The character John Corey (and often his wife, Kate Mayfield) were very well developed via talking, behavior and action. Looked like John has a super instinct to know who and what to after. They are always running against clock. Solutions were always at the last 10 seconds. The stories were intense, fast paced and kept readers going.

John Corey

Wild Fire (2006) - MAD and ELF. John saved us from a nuclear disaster from up state New York. A+
The Lion (2010) - The Libya assassin Asad Khalil (the Lion) is back to complete what he didn't year ago.  Very violent. A+

My Reading List - Johnathan Kellerman

Johnathan's mystry novels has clear story and complicated plots. They are twisted enough to keep you turning the pages. Faye Kellerman, Johnathan's wife, is also a crime novel writer. They wrote some novels together, but I dont think that was a good idea. Not enough plots and no deep. I didnt quite like the ones that I read.

Johnathan created a couple of series for his mystry series, Alex Delware, a forensic psychologist, is good at profiling criminals.Together with his LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, they often responded to some detective requests coming from either Alex's formal patients or some other referrals. Johnathan himself is a psychologist, together with other background he had, it is hard not to think that Alex is a image of himself. Petra Connor, a LAPD detective, sometime helped Alex solve his case, but herself is also smart and dedicated to solve tough cases.Alex and Petra helped each other in many of those stories. Out of those two characters, Alex seemed to be more mature and we can feel him. Petra is more on the tough side.

Alex Delaware Series

A Colde Heart (2003) - Who murdered those young artists?
Obsession (2007) - What did Tanya Bigelow's monther mean?
Mystery (2011) - Alex found out who did the murder of sugar daddy's sweetie named Mystery. Good start and middle but too rush at the end... seemed the author wanted to end the story. While the book showed all leads led the police nowhere, I was disappointed at the end when out of blue all mysteries were resolved because Alex "did some investigation" himself. B
Guilt (2013) - The story uncovered complex connections of a set of baby bones buried 60 years ago and two newly murders of a baby and a young woman.A

Petra Connor
A Colde Heart (2003) - Who murdered those young artists?
Twisted (2004) - Why June 28 is so special? Issac Gomez helps with the investigation and the answer.
Obsession (2007) - What did Tanya Bigelow's monther mean?

Stand alone stories

Double Homicide (2005) (with Faye Kellerman) Two short stories - Boston: who killed the basketball player, he had heart problem? Santa Fe: art dealer murder case. Boston is better. I didn't complete the Santa Fe.
Capital Crimes (2007) (with Faye Kellerman): I didn't complete this one.