James Patterson and Liza Marklund: The Postcard Killers, An Amazing Crime Novel

James Patterson is known for finely plotted crime fictions. This time he teamed up with a talented and up-and-coming Swedish author, Liza Marklund.



The two has worked together on an awesome mystery novel, The Postcard Killers. As for writing manners, Patterson’s style dominates in the book – which is a pity, he is a bit light in that department. However, the gripping storyline, excitement, and tension make up for that. Marklund was a good choice as a fellow author.
A couple, eager to have media attention, commits gory murders whilst traveling around Europe. They take photos during the process, and send them to local newspapers – this is how they are nicknamed the Postcard Killers.
When they arrive in Sweden, they come across a journalist, Dessie Larsson. As she finds out more and more about the grim couple, she meets an American detective who has followed the killers. He has every reason to hate them: his daughter Kimmy was amongst the victims…

Charles Todd - A Bitter Truth, An Amazing Beth Crawford Crime Story

Charles Todd are actually two writers, a mother and her son, Caroline and Charles Todd, American crime story authors. Their latest work is A Bitter Truth.



Bess Crawford, a nurse in World War I, is about to visit her family at last – however, on the evening before she leaves, she finds a miserable, beaten-up young woman on her treshold. The woman says she was beaten by her husband and has no courage to go home alone. She asks Bess to follow her, pretending to be an old good friend. The two arrive to a grim, remote family estate. The family has its peculiar secrets…

Robert Cais - The Sentry, An Awesome Joe Pike Mystery Crime Novel

Robert Crais is an Edgar Award nominated American author whose novel Hostage was a Notable Book according to New York Times Review. The Sentry is his latest mystery thriller novel.



The protagonist is already familiar: Joe Pike, a detective from Los Angeles. At the beginning of the story he is at a gas station and notices that two men attack a shop owner. Joe intervenes and chase them away. However, harrasment will not stop: a gang blackmails the shop owner to pay them protection money. Joe tries his best convincing their leader to clear off – of course, the gangster will not comply. Violence escalates quickly… Recommended to everyone, especially to readers who love action, tension, and graphic scenes.

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, A Great Mystery Thriller Detective Story

Dan Brown, an American mystery writer, a New York Times best-selling author is mostly known for The Da Vinci Code, a mystery-thriller novel from 2003.



Setting of The Da Vinci Code is Paris. A curator, Jacques Sauniere, is shot in the Louvre. Before he dies, he writes the words „find Robert Langdon” on the floor, and also writes down some codes. As a result, Harvard Professor Robert Langdon becomes a main suspect of the police. He flees, and Sauniere’s granddaughter, cryptographer Sophie Neveu helps him to decipher the codes. At last, they find a cryptex in a Zurich bank – the cryptex contains vinegar, if one forces it open, the codes inside will be destroyed. Neveu and Langston take the cryptex to Leigh Teabing, and the three of them find the right codes. As a result, they go to England, however, Teabing is not the one he seems to be…

Terry Goodman - The Omen Machine, A New Sword of Truth Series Novel with Richard and Kahlan

Terry Goodman, a number one New York Times best-selling American author, has just published his fourteenth novel in the Sword of Truth fantasy series, The Omen Machine. It is a worthy successor of the previous instalment, Confessor.



The protagonists of The Omen Machine are already familiar to Goodman’s readers: Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell. New characters also appear, both good and bad ones (the latter include the Hedge Maid, with her unstoppable magic, and Hannis Arc). The novel’s atmosphere is dark and brooding, tension is high – just the way I like it. The story is fast-paced and intriguing. I would recommend this book even for ones who are not big fans of fantasy genre: The Omen Machine is an enjoyable, well-written read with great characterisation and quite a few shocking twists (which will surely surprise old readers).

Amityville Horror - A True Story by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror has been a classic cult novel since its first publication in 1977. Its main attraction are eerie atmosphere and a great plot - and the fact that it is based on a true story.



Jay Anson has interviewed George and Kathy Lutz (they have not had much contact in person but Anson worked after video tapes), the couple who, along with their three children, has spent a few weeks in 112 Ocean Avenue, their home - and they were forced to leave it because of strange and frightening poltergeist phenomena. The house had an unfortunate reputation anyway. Ronnie DeFeo has murdered his whole family in there. Soon after the carnage, the Lutz family moved in. They saw flies everywhere, notwithstanding it was winter, and this was just the beginning...

Darcie Chan The Mill River Recluse, A Mystery and Suspense Novel

Darcie Chan can get amongst the top favourite authors of mystery and thriller readers, with her novel The Mill River Recluse, which is gripping drama and an exciting thriller.



Mary McAllister has not had a good life: her arrogant husband has harmed her on several occasions during their lives. Now Mary, bitter and mentally unstable, lives in a remote mansion whose windows look over the River Mill. She watches over other people, but she does not contact anyone except a handful of old acquaintances. Townspeople consider her peculiar – but there is a sad and shocking story behind the eccentric facade…

Ken Follett - Fall of Giants, A Riveting Historical Crime Novel of the Century Trilogy

Ken Follett, the Welsh mystery author has sold over 100 million copies of historical crime thriller novels. Follett is also a New York Times best-selling writer. His latest book, Fall of Giants is the first instalment of the Century Trilogy.



Fall of Giants is a story of five families of several various nationalities, their tragedies and adventures that occur during the first decades of the twentieth century. Readers see women’s suffrage, the first world war, the Russian Revolution – and colourful, often hard lives of ordinary people behind historical and political events. The plot is gripping, characters are alive and credible: the result is a magnificent book that readers cannot put down.

Lee Child - 61 Hours, A Fast Paced Thriller Novel of Jack Reacher Series

Lee Child is a British crime story author whose most significant protagonist is Jack Reacher, a charismatic policeman with a military past. 61 Hours is preceding Child’s latest book published, Worth Dying For. Lee Child’s next Reacher novel will be released in the fall of 2011.



Near a South Dakota town, Bolton, a tour bus winds up trapped in a snowy bank. Jack Reacher, who happens to be amongst the passengers, helps local policemen free the others. Soon it turns out that one of the largest prisons of the country is there in this particular town. On the other hand, near Bolton, in an abandoned, run-down military base, a gang of bikers gather, since their leader is arrested on drug charges. A Mexican drug dealer also has to do something with the case. An eyewitness, a respectable elderly lady from Bolton, Janet Salter, is protected by the police, however, someone kills her, along with the deputy chief, Andrew Peterson. The strange thing is that their murderers are neither the bikers nor the Mexican drug dealer but a local policeman. Reacher has sixty-one hours to solve the case before the hell breaks loose…

Kjell Eriksson: The Princess of Burundi, A Capturing Swedish Crime Thriller Fiction

The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson has been an international bestseller and won the Best Crime Novel prize of Swedish Crime Academy. It is an epithome of gripping Nordic crime stories.




In a small Swedish town Libro the gory corpse of John Harald Jonsson is found in the snow; he was murdered, and badly tortured beforehand. He was an introverted man who recently lost his job as a crook; he loved his wife and fourteen years old son Justus. He was a hobbyist expert on tropical fish called cichlids. Presumably he did not have enemies. However, investigators, Ann Lindell and Ola Haver, find a suspicious person: Vincent Hahn, a mentally unstable man whom Little John mocked in their school days. On the other hand, some members of John’s family also seem strange. His brother, Lennart, has a police record, and, years ago, talked John into doing illegal activities. It turns out that John was into gambling and has won a large sum of money playing poker – only Justus knew about this fact…

Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals, A Great Novel of Suspense, Nordic Crime

Yrsa Sigurdardottir is one of the up-and coming Nordic crime writers - and a master hand in creating tension. The newest instalment of Thora Gudmundsdottir stories is a magnificent suspense fiction with hints of supernatural.



A German university student, Harald Guntlieb is found dead in Reykjavik, he was murdered in an especially gruesome way, his eyes cut out, a strange symbol carved into his chest. Guntlieb was a graduate student who studied medieval history and made researches in Icelandic witch cults and witch huntings. Policemen believe that he fell victim to a drug dealer band and the murder was committed by a friend of his - but his desperate parents know better. They at last find the smart Thora Gudmundsdottir and ask her to help them (Gudmundsdottir is no Kay Scarpetta, I personally do not really like domestic characters - but the plot and the idea on which the story is based are fine). It turns out that the young man has developed an obsession with the subject of his study - and the topic has to do something with a Catholic inquisitor...

Edward Lee - Trolley No. 1852m, A Fine and Filthy Erotic Lovecraft Recall

Edward Lee is a fascinating horror author on his own right. However, I love him more for his special liking for H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos (see The Innswitch Horror).



Trolley No. 1852 is another tribute to Lovecraft from Edward Lee.
In 1934, F. Wilcox asks Lovecraft to write a new short fiction; as the author is short of money, he is more than glad to comply. The story has to have a risqué line - thus Lovecraft comes up with a most bizarre erotic horror story. The setting is 1852 Club, which is a parlour for certain gentlemen with strange taste. Ladies of the club are beautiful, true, but there are other creatures with dangerous needs and purposes. Behind them there is a dark, ancient, and blood-thirsty cult...
No doubt Lovecraft himself would find the story a tad rude (with his erotica related writings like Medusa’s Coil and Sweet Ermengarde). Today’s horror readers will absolutely love it.

J. F. Gonzalez - Clickers, A Lovecraft Like Gory Horror Fiction

J. F. Gonzalez has created an admirably gloomy, Lovecraft-like atmosphere in his horror tale, Clickers. The big difference is gore and spectacular, stomach-turning carnage – heaps of that kind.



Crab-like, eerie creatures (almost like coming from a Cthulhu Mythos short fiction by Lovecraft, The Whisperer In Darkness) crawl out of the sea in a peaceful, ordinary seaside town and hunts humans – the more defenseless they are, children for instance, the worse for them. Not as though smart or strong grown-ups could fight the crabs. They only hear peculiar clicks of the creatures’ claws – and after a few torturous minutes they meet a terrible death. However, even the clickers are escaping something in the sea which is even worse than them.

Brian Lumley - The Fly-By-Nights, A Riveting and Gory Horror Fiction in an Apocalyptic Future

Brian Lumley has a good reputation amongst horror fans. The Fly-By-Nights, a great and blood-soaked horror tale is a good example why. The book is illustrated by Bob Eggleton.



The setting of The Fly-By-Nights is our planet, utterly destroyed at last, somewhere in the future, 150 years later. Bombs and wars wiped out human race – a few survivors live underground and fight for their lives in this hostile environment. They are decimated by greedy nocturnal creatures, the fly-by-nights. When their water supply is gone, they have no choice but leaving the safety of their underground lairs. They find out that another small group of survivors (the Kindred) exist in a distance, however, to join them, they should make it in a world which is crowded with fly-by-nights…

Brian Keene - A Gathering of Crows, A Gripping Supernatural Horror Story

Brian Keene, award-winning American author, has a master hand when it comes to gore, terror, and fear. A Gathering of Crows is a great contemporary horror fiction.



Five nightly creatures have been hunting human prey for centuries. They appear in the form of crows, but when their time comes they transform into dark clad, greedy figures. This time they choose a small Pennsylvanian town, Brinkley Springs, to feed. Electricity dies throughout the town; even the familiar sounds and noises of a night fade. Something evil surrounds Brinkley Springs. The five strangers indulge in blood and terrible ways of slaughter - I absolutely love it, but I warn the more squeamish readers that A Gathering of Crows is not a vanilla horror. Trapped, terrified residents seek for help, and fortunately for them, magician Levi Stoltzfus (a charismatic former Amish magus from a previous Brian Keene novel Ghost Walk) happens to spend the night in Brinkley Springs.
To be honest, I still do prefer Chet Williamson's Crow descending... but Keene's creatures are fine enough to make a chilling, stomach-turning, blood-soaked horror story.

Graham Masterton - Petrified, A New Amazing Horror Story

Graham Masterton (writer of Manitou series and Night Warriors series) is and Edgar Award winning British horror author. Petrified is a new riveting horror suspense novel of him.



Suki, a little girl, is abducted from her grandparents’ home. However, an electric storm comes down and the kidnapper does his best to escape. In the morning Suki finds herself hospitalised, having horrible burns, caused by fearsome creatures that has been haunting her nightmares since years…

Sara Paretsky: Body Work, A Fascinating V. I. Warshawski Novel

Sara Paretsky’s most significant protagonist is, no doubt, private investigator V. I. Warshawski: with rare exceptions, all of Paretsky’s books has been written about her cases since 1982. There was also a movie adaptation of a book, Deadlock; Warshawski was played by Kathleen Turner. Body Work is Paretsky’s latest Warshawski crime novel.



In Body Work, Warshawski (a fifty-year-old, intelligent, and rough private eye) is looking after her young cousin Petra in a Chicago art club. The performing body artist, Karen Buckley, asks some of the visitors to paint onto her nude form whilst others videotape the process. A woman, Nadia Guaman paints onto her a strange pink and grey pattern; the sign irates a young Iraq veteran, Chad Vishneski, to the extent of berserking; the two have an ugly quarrel and accuse one another of being spies. Two days later someone shots Nadia as she leaves the same club. When Chad becomes the main suspect and (notwithstanding he just tried to commit suicide) police arrests him, his desperate parents hire Warshawski to help him - it is not easy to convince her, as she believes that Chad was the perpetrator. Nadia's funeral is visited by a suspiciously high profile mourner - and it turns out that her elder sister was killed by a bomb in Iraq. Vic discovers that the odd signs what supposed volunteers paint onto the Body Artist's exposed figure do have some peculiar meaning indeed - however, the Body Artist disappears. Vic’s famous knacks for fist-fights comes in handy when she reveals unpleasant truth about Club Gouge and some of the visitors…

Jonathan Kellerman - Mystery, An Awesome Alex Delaware Crime Suspense Story

Jonathan Kellerman, an Edgar award winning American author, is well known and well loved all over the world; the instalments of his Alex Delaware series has been on the top of best-selling lists since decades. The newest one (the twenty-sixth) Mystery, is a riveting crime thriller novel.



An unknown young woman was found shot and maimed in Los Angeles; judging by the wounds on her face and the different killing bullets, there were at least two perpetrators. Lieutenant Milo Sturgis asks psychologist Alex Delaware to help him with the peculiar case. Alex recognises the victim: he and his girlfriend has just seen her (beautiful, sad, elegant – and alive) the previous night in the bar of the Fauborg Hotel in Beverly Hills; they also seen an odd figure lingering outside. However, the bar is closed and the unknown man disappeared. Soon it turns out that she was a part of an online match-making site which offers young female escorts to elderly, wealthy men. Her nickname on the site was Mystery, and she has found a partner there: Markham McReynolds whose rich family has a shady reputation. In the world of escort services it is not hard to find several possible suspects, thus Alex and Milo have a hard time to find the actual murderer.

V Is For Vengeance by Sue Grafton, A New Kinsey Millhone Mystery Novel

Kinsey Millhone, a Californian private investigator and a main character of the world-famous Millhone mystery series is celebrating her thirty-eighth birthday, which turns out rather odd as someone attacks and injures her. She investigates some cases that seem to be intertwined. It all started with the supposed suicide of a lady with a strange reputation.



On the other hand, there is another lady whose life is about to wreck; a tycoon who likes women and happens to be married; a brutal gangster; an elderly man who grieves for his deceased lover and finds out more and more unpleasant secreats about her… what is the connection between them?
Sue Grafton, a Nr. 1 New York Times best-selling author from California, is mostly known for detective novels of her alphabet mystery series. V is for Vengeance is the twenty-second crime novel of the series whose protagonist is Kinsey Millhone. The book will be released in November, 2011.

Adam Golaski: Worse Than Myself, A Great Scary Short Story Collection

Worse Than Myself by Adam Golaski is a most enjoyable supernatural horror book. Horror fans who love exquisite language, colourful and three-dimensional caracters, and eerie atmosphere will admire it. Considering that Adam Golanski is a poet, it is easy to see why his prose is so lyric; whilst his knack for sending chills along the readers’s spine must be a natural talent of him.



Worse Than myself consists of eleven short stories, all of them full of tension and slowly building, brooding terror, beautifully written, disturbing fictions about the reminiscence of the main character; about a frightening stranger in a park; about someone who overhears a conversation about occult rituals at a party and soon discovers something hideous; about vile zombies…
Golaski grabs the reader’s attention from the very first page, I was engaged right from the first short story, The Animator’s House, which is saying something, as normally I am not fond of underage protagonists.
Adam Golanski is highly recommended to Stephen King aficionados.

Asa Larsson: The Savage Altar, An Amazing Rebecka Martinsson Crime Novel

Asa Larsson’s story The Savage Altar is an awesome crime thriller novel, set in the northern part of Sweden. It is the first instalment of Rebecka Martinsson series.


In a remote town Kiruna a young man, Viktor Standgard, is found murdered and mutilated in a church, his hands cut off, his eyes gouged – presumably he was slayed during a ritual. His sister Sanna finds the gory corpse and quickly becomes a suspect.

Sanna, desperate and frightened, asks an old friend to help her. Rebecka Martinsson, a sad and disturbed lawyer, once left Kiruna, ashamed and bitter. Once she was fond of the murdered young man. Now, for Sanna’s sake, Rebecka returns from Stockholm and helps her find the persons who killed Viktor. The residents of Kiruna are not communicative, and some of them have every reason to keep their secrets. On the other hand, Viktor was a founding member of the church whose devotees killed him; and, oddest of all, this was not the first time in his life when he died…

Nobody True by James Herbert, A Scary Supernatural Horror Thriller Book

James Herbert is perhaps the best British horror author, known for chilling and disturbing fictions. Nobody True is definitely one of them. Suspense, tension, and atmosphere of fright, Herbert’s trademark, make this horror-thriller a very enjoyable book.



Nobody True is the story of James True, a graphic artist who has an ability to leave his body and go to astral errands. One day, after an astral journey, he finds his physical body slashed brutally: he was murdered while he was away. He does not want to leave his wife and his young daughter (even if he gets disappointed in them since he died), especially that they are in danger: Jim’s murderer appears to be a serial killer. He finds out more and more about him, sometimes, for moments, he sees the world through the eyes of the killer. However, he is terrified to discover that even if he knows the truth, he cannot contact the physical world. In the course of time the murderer notices that Jim haunts him…

Occultation by Laird Barron, A Magnificent Anthology of Horror Short Stories

Occultation, an anthology written by award winning Laird Barron, has got everything that makes a horror book a good reading experience: these short fictions are atmospheric, they contain hints of lores and legends, and are also beautifully written. They are modern horror stories that follow Lovecraftian traditions. True that we do not expect any less from Laird Barron.



One of the short fictions Lagerstatte is about a woman who grieves for her son and husband who just died in a plane accident, she, irrationally, blames herself and intends to commit suicide. The Broadsword is about an elderly man who notices that something is not quite all right with the house he lives, and decides to face its horrors. The Forest is a story of two friends who meet again and one of them turn into something hideous. In Catch Hell, a couple arrive in a tranquil, remote area, but the place seems odd and disquieting. Heathen rituals were (or rather are) held here. Soon a tragedy strikes and does not spare the couple’s small daughter… Mysterium Tremendum is a story of four male friends and lovers whose violent past is slowly revealed during a camping trip whilst their present survival is dubious… Strappado is about an eerie guide in Asia. In --30-- two investigators, a female and a male, are at a site which was once a place for occult meetings. In Six Six Six a married couple just moved into an old, awesome house – the problem is that the previous owner, the man’s father, dabbled in occultism…
Three of the stories – Mysterium Tremendum, --30--, and Six Six Six, are written originally for this book. Two fictions, The Forest and The Lagerstatte, were nominated for Shirley Jackson Award.

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, A Great Nordic Crime Fiction, A Kurt Wallander Mystery

Faceless Killers was written by Henning Mankell in 1991. Since then, the world get to know and admire Nordic authors. Faceless Killers is the first instalment of
Wallander series.



In a remote house in Lunnarp, an old farmer Johannes Lovgren is tormented to death, his wife Maria is also severely injured. She dies in the hospital, the only word she manages to say is „foreign”. Kurt Wallander, a sour, middle-aged, charismatic inspector with a troubled private life, and a group of his colleagues work on the case. Despite of the efforts on the part of the police, the word leaks out and cause unwanted media attention and triggers racial and anti-immigrant clashes: a refugee camp is invaded, then a Somali immigrant, walking peacefully on the street, is killed with a shotgun. In the meanwhile it turns out that Lovgren was a rich man (his father had his business with the Nazis during the second world war), he also kept a lover on whom he spend heaps of money. He just recently made a cash withdrawal and the money has disappeared…
Faceless Killers won the very first Glass Key Award in 1992, one year after its first publication.

Cthulhu's Reign by Darrell Schweitzer - An Admirable Lovecraft Recall Anthology

Cthulhu’s Reign is a collection of amazing horror short stories. The editor of the anthology was World Fantasy Award winner Darrell Schweitzer (his short fiction is there in the book, too), and its inspiration, of course, H. P. Lovecraft, mostly known from Cthulhu mythos which is based on ancient legends and the author’s twisted fantasy.



Cthulhu’s Reign consists of fifteen short stories by American and English writers (Ian Watson, Laird Barron, Brian Stableford included), all of them are masters of horror and dark fantasy in their own right, and their present stories are tributes to Lovecraft. In their fictitious world Lovecraft’s worst nightmare has already come real and the vile Great Old Ones has occupied Earth again. I must admit I do prefer Lovecraft’s scary horror over his cosmic horror – in Cthulhu Reigns one can find both, and the result is a dark, gloomy, very enjoyable collection. All the stories recalls the brooding, uneasy atmosphere of Lovecraft’s weird tales.

Haunted Vagina by Carlton Mellick, A Bizarre Sexual Fantasy Mixed With Horror

Carlton Mellick is known for horror stories and his graphic and bizarre sexual fantasy – the two is always a volatile combination.



Steve loves his girl, Stacy – however, he has a problem with the lady: he discovers that her most intimate part is a gate into a morbid and fearsome dimension. A skeleton crawls out of her vagina – and Steve decides to discover the mystery of the orifice. The book would have been a gemstone to Freud, to point out the atavistic, innermost fears and desires that men associate with that certain hole.

Blackest Night by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, A Great Comic Book

The War of Light and the Blackest Night threatens the world of DCU. The seven coloured Latern Corps are in a desperate fight, and the Black Lantern Corps (mainly zombies) turn more and more violent.

Several deceased superheroes, for instance Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, reappear in Blackest Night: they turned into malignant zombies, obeying Nekron, someone who wish to extirpate everyone in the world. Flash and Green Lantern are ready to stand up against them…





Death in superhero comics is notoriously impermanent—characters ranging from world-beaters like Superman to minor bit-players are killed off only to be resurrected later—but never more so than in this miniseries, in which dozens of fallen heroes and villains, including Aquaman, the Martian Manhunter, and Elongated Man, are reanimated as evil, zombielike forces under the command of Nekron, the embodiment of death, who wants to kill all living entities. As always, it’s up to the stalwart superheroes—most notably the original Flash and Green Lantern, both recently returned from the grave themselves—to set things right. Like all such companywide crossover events, the story line was integrated into nearly all of DC’s many titles, but the major events occur in the nine issues collected here. Even so, the absence of the supplemental stories makes Johns’ thorny narrative even more abstruse, especially for casual readers. Reis’ art perfectly matches the script: ostentatiously flashy at the expense of coherence. But for die-hard fans, Blackest Night, which sets in motion monumental changes that will be felt throughout the DC Universe, is a must-read.