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Dead Time
by Stephen White
Published 2008 by Dutton Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780525950066
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Jacket Notes:
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/28/2008
Bestseller White juggles too many story lines that never quite coalesce in his uneven 16th thriller to feature Boulder, Colo., psychologist Alan Gregory (after 2007's Dry Ice). On a trip to Manhattan, soon after adopting the son of a close friend who died in a terrorist blast in Israel, Alan meets with his ex-wife, Merideth, who asks him to help her and her fiancé, political consultant Eric Leffler, track down their surrogate, who disappeared soon after becoming pregnant with their child. Initially reluctant, Alan eventually agrees to investigate. Aided by his Boulder detective friend, Sam Purdy, Alan gets drawn into a web of lies that stretches back to an ill-fated Grand Canyon hiking trip when Eric and the surrogate were in college together. White never recovers his rhythm after beginning the narrative with fractured accounts of the hiking expedition and then abruptly switching to Alan and Merideth's story. An unsatisfying climax and a distracting subplot involving a long-ago adoption make this one of the weaker entries in the series. (Mar.)
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Compulsion
by Jonathan Kellerman
Published 2008 by Ballantine Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345465276
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Jacket Notes:
In Jonathan Kellerman's latest super-charged thriller, Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware square off against the most sadistic murderer they've ever encountered. Ballantine Books
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 02/25/2008
Bestseller Kellerman serves up all the elements his fans have come to love in the 22nd entry in his Alex Delaware series (Obsession, etc.), including an intriguing plot, likable regular characters supported by an interesting secondary cast, diabolical villains, witty dialogue and a sense of humanity and justice. Alex and his LAPD detective partner, Milo Sturgis, are investigating several murders that, at first, appear to have only one thing in common: the perpetrator's use of expensive black automobiles while committing his crimes. Kellerman sticks to his usual modus, the patient and sometimes painfully slow accumulation of detail, as Alex and Milo slowly build their case. A subplot involves a missing child last seen selling magazine subscriptions in a tony neighborhood 16 years earlier. On the domestic front, Alex is again living with his girlfriend, Robin, with whom he has broken up several times over the course of the series. In the end, a nice twist reminds Robin and Alex to be more careful in the future about drawing assumptions in their private life before all the facts have come to light. (Apr.)
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Buckingham Palace Gardens
by Anne Perry
Published 2008 by Ballantine Books
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345469311
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Jacket Notes:
From "New York Times"-bestselling author Anne Perry comes the first Thomas Pitt novel since "Long Spoon Lane" and features an inside view of Buckingham Palace in the aftermath of a bloody murder. Ballantine Books
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/28/2008
The detecting and diplomatic skills of Thomas Pitt, now assigned to the Special Branch, are tested as never before in bestseller Perry's solid 25th novel to feature the Victorian sleuth (after 2005's Long Spoon Lane). In 1893, the discovery of a prostitute's mutilated corpse in a Buckingham Palace cupboard after a stag party presided over by the prince of Wales could spell political disaster for the monarchy. Pitt soon eliminates the members of the sizable household staff as suspects, narrowing his focus to the prince himself and his close friends, who, it turns out, have been planning a major construction project in Africa-a railway that would run from South Africa to Egypt. Though the sensitive nature of Pitt's assignment precludes any active involvement by Charlotte, his wife and partner in earlier cases, he's able to place her maid, Gracie Phipps, on the palace staff to assist him. Perry does a nice job with some plot twists, even if most readers will quickly discount the heir to the throne of England as a viable suspect. (Mar.)
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