Eaters of the Dead is set in the 10th century. The Caliph of Baghdad sends his ambassador, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, to the king of the Volga Bulgars. He never arrives but is instead captured by a group of Vikings. This group is sent on a hero’s quest to the north. Ahmad ibn Fadlan is taken along, as the thirteenth member of their group, to bring good luck. There he battles with the ‘mist-monsters’, or ‘Neanderthals’.

Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript. A sense of authenticity is supported by occasional explanatory footnotes with references to a mixture of factual and fictitious sources.

Eaters of the Dead is a a good and interesting read, but in my opinion not among Michael Crichton’s best.

Links to books by Michael Crichton at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

South by Java Head is set in 1942, and tells a story taking place in connection with the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. Now Singapore, the fortress that the British claimed could not be taken, lies burning and shattered, at this point defenseless before the conquering hordes of the Japanese Army. The last boat slips out of the harbor into the South China Sea. On board are a desperate group of people, each with a secret to guard, each willing to kill to keep that secret safe.

Who or what is the dissolute Englishman, Farnholme? Or the elegant Dutch planter, Van Effen? The strangely beautiful Eurasian girl, Gudrun? The slave trader, Siran? The story is full of suspense and you know that something is wrong with more than one of the passengers’ stories. Also, why are the Japanese chasing them with all they have and refusing to let them get away?

Only one thing is certain: the rotting tramp steamer is a floating death trap. Dawn sees them far out to sea but with the first murderous dive bombers already aimed at their ship. Thus begins an ordeal few are to survive, a nightmare succession of disasters wrought by the hell-bent Japanese, the unrelenting tropical sun and by the survivors themselves, whose hatred and bitterness divides them one against the other.

South by Java Head was MacLean’s third book. I liked it a lot when I first read it, and I still like it. It is not, in my opinion, as good as the previous two books, and there are several logically implausible elements to the plot, but even so it is a great and very entertaining book. I recommend it for MacLean-fans, but you haven’t read MacLean before, you should instead start with HMS Ulysses.

Links to the books by Alistair MacLean at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This is the fourth book featuring this duo. They also appear in Split Second, Hour Game and Simple Genius. They are smart, deadly, good-looking, and attracted to one another. But somehow I don’t really catch on to them – they never really come alive for me. Baldacci is a great writer, and I am a fan of his, but I think he should get rid of these two guys.

First Family is a thick book with lots of twists and turns, a plot slightly on the implausible side, full of politics, scandals and plenty of intense action. It is all here: corruption, greed, lust, betrayal, cover-ups, and so on.

Baldacci’s excellent writing compensates for weaknesses in the plot and largely unattractive heroes. And, guess what, the terrorist is not an Arab! Rather it’s a Vietnam War veteran with a grievance. And as the investigation proceeds, some dark truths about the first family start to emerge. Sean and Michelle start making discoveries about things that are concealed, dubious deals, unscrupulous actions, and infidelity.

It’s a fun, entertaining read, a book that sucks you in after a beginning that is a tad slow. First Family is not the best Baldacci I have read, but well worth reading, and quite good entertainment.

Links to the books by David Baldacci: Baldacci at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

Aided by his brother, Hunter Lee quickly gets acquainted with a lot of important people in Montana. Soon it becomes clear that someone is torching the forests in the Northwest. Several key players have strong economic incentives for doing this, due to fat government contracts with a somewhat flawed incentive structure. And the players involved are all people Hunter has met.

Is it George Drake, the owner of the Bridger Railroad and Bridger Air, who is paid for transporting fire fighters? Or Dale Callahan, who is paid way too much for catering the fire fighters? Or perhaps Butch Roman, who runs the state’s biggest construction company?

Hunter Lee and his brother Strat start investigating the case. And soon it turns out that this is the toughest challenge Hunter has encountered so far in his career. Everyone seems to have a secret, and as Hunter follows his instincts, Montana becomes a crucible where good and evil collide.

To move outside his usual perimeters – the world of commodities trading, corporate takeovers and high finance – is a bold and interesting move by Stephen Frey. In my opinion he is somewhat – but only somewhat – successful. Hell’s Gate is an entertaining book with all the usual Frey ingridients – treason, nice plot, some sex, and so on – but still not quite as good as Frey’s best financial thrillers. Even so, it is worth reading.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

But the question is, can the British retake the Falkland Islands – the Maldives, as the Argentineans prefer to call them – this time? In the scenario that Patrick Robinson lays out, England has reduced her spending on the armed forced over a long period prior to these events, and their capabilities are much reduced compared to the force they had during the first Falklands war. Yet the British Prime Minister, depicted here as a weak, spin-oriented character with no understanding of the armed forces, is more or less forces to go to war and seek to recapture the islands by British media and public opinion. After all, Thatcher did it, so now it must be done again!

But when Great Britain, enraged over this act of international piracy, dispatches a battle fleet to the islands for the second time in thirty years, they are totally unaware that Viper K-157, a lethal Russian Akula-class submarine, lies in wait, stuffed to the gunwales with ship-killing torpedoes, and tasked with the mission of destroying the English hangar ship!

As well, as the South Atlantic becomes a battle ground and US interests are threatened, the US cannot sit still. So Admiral Arnold Morgan once more steps in and develops a strategy for handling the new situation. Then he lets loose the military’s most powerful weapon, the U.S. Navy SEALs. And the outcome of the war will ultimately depend upon this “ghost force” and their successful execution of two clandestine missions.

While there is little doubt that Patrick Robinson can write excellent thrillers, Ghost Force is not among his best. It is interesting and at times a little suspenseful, but overall there is far too much I recommend this book only for fans of the Admiral Arnold Morgan series.

Read more reviews of books by Patrick Robinson!

Links to the books by Patrick Robinson at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

Jack Reacher himself is clearly part of the answer to the question of why this series is so successful. He is a retired Army MP, 6-foot-5, with a very distinguished career apparently (albeit one which is never quite revealed in its entirety, rather only hinted at). Now he is a drifter who finds big trouble wherever he goes has adapted a weird life style.

Jack Reacher is a born street fighter with enormous fighting skills. He owns nothing, buys a new set of clothes when the current set gets dirty, cleans up, puts on the new clothes and throws away the old set. He is a somewhat mysterious, elusive, and strange character – and sufficiently different from the rest of us to be attractive in his differentness.

In Gone Tomorrow we meet up with Jack Reacher on the New York subway late at night. He happens to see a passenger, Susan Mark, that acts strangely and in a way that makes Reacher conclude that she is a suicide bomber on a mission. He approaches her, and instead of setting off a bomb, she commits suicide. This could have been the end of the story, but it turns out to be the beginning.

All of a sudden Reacher – just a witness, an innocent bystander – is chased by the FBI, the Department of Defense, NYPD and a strange group of terrorists. Susan Mark had something a lot of people are willing to go to great lengths to get hold of, and they all suspect or fear that Reacher may know where it is. So now Reacher must flee or fight for his life. And as Reacher never backs out a challenge, there will be trouble. Big trouble.

Gone Tomorrow is definitely one of the best of the series. Perhaps it is even the best so far. It is a fast paced thriller with an intricate plot, lots of great action, a slowly unfolding mystery and an explosive and very violent conclusion. It has good guys, shady guys and really bad guys. And lots of flat-out-violence. But at the same time it is a smart thriller with lots of good, sound, deductive reasoning. A great mix. I loved it.mYou do not want to miss out on Gone Tomorrow!

Links to the books by Lee Child: amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

It opens with thwarted terrorist attacks at Boston International Airport and in a hijacked plane. After interrogation, the US and Arnold Morgan obtains information about the location of Morgan’s arch enemy SAS-major-turned-Hamas-general Ravi Rashood. The info is “leaked” to the Israelis, in the hope that they will deal with the problem. For once, however, the Mossad assassination team fails, and Rashood and his terrorist wife survive. Rashood is able to find out that the attempt on his life originated in the US with Admiral Arnold Morgan.

So then the cards are turned, and now Ravi Rashood sets out to deal the US a blow by making Admiral Arnold Morgan a target for assassination. Rashood devises a complicated plan to assassinate Morgan while the admiral is visiting London. An assassination he decides to carry out himself. So now the Admiral himself is a target; a fact that becomes clear to his colleague Lt. Commander Ramshawe. Ramshawe tries to warn Morgan not to go to England, where protecting him is much more difficult, but Admiral Morgan flatly refuses to listen. As he says – he will not allow “towelheads” to dictate where he goes and what he does. So he goes, and the hunt is on.

As a thriller, To the Death is good. The writing is good and there is a lot of action. However, the book is very black and white, a little flat, and the plot a little on the simple side. To me, To the Death is a somewhat disappointing end to a great series.

Links to the books by Patrick Robinson at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

The plot is interesting, rich and with more than sufficient drive to create excitement. It requires a little bit of a leap of faith to jump into it, but once you do, it is a smooth and fast ride. The beginning is a bit slow, but Reich is great when he describes the Swiss bank system, and is very intriguing to enter the world of the private banking in Switzerland.

The main character, Nick Neumann, has it all. He has a Harvard degree, a beautiful fiancée, and a star-making Wall Street career. But behind all of that is a man haunted by the brutal killing of his father seventeen years before.

Nick wants the truth and is willing to sacrifice his career, love, and future for a crack at untangling the mystery surrounding his father’s death. To do this, he takes a job at the prestigious United Swiss Bank, the venerable financial cornerstone of Geneva and his father’s former employer. Before he can begin his investigation, however, disturbing events come into play: One portfolio manager is dead, another had a “nervous breakdown,” and his training manager is jumping ship to cast accounts with their staunch enemy.

Nick is soon caught in a ruthless conspiracy that stretches around the world and far into his personal life. There is murder, revenge, and first-rate espionage as well as plenty of action, but even so Numbered Account is a thinking person’s thriller, a refreshing break from the old standbys.

Links to books by Christopher Reich at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

As a group of scientists do research at a remote military base in Alaska, they discover a prehistoric beast frozen in ice. And, when news of the find reaches the cable television network which sponsors the expedition, Emilio Conti, a legendary documentary filmmaker, goes to the scene. He plans to film the thawing of the animal on live TV. But the beast has other plans, and suddenly the scientists along with the film crew find their lives are threatened.

Child’s writing is easy to follow, clear, fluid and good. Child is also very good at slowly building up anticipation and suspense. To really get excited, however, you must be willing to suspend your disbelief a little, as the creature involved is extraordinarily fierce and complex. If you do that, then this is an extraordinary and very interesting tale full of excitement and human ingenuity!

Personally, I think I liked Child’s previous book Deep Storm a little better. Even so I definitely recommend Terminal Freeze. A good SF thriller!

Links to Lincoln Childs books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

ATF agent Jack McClure, who has previously come to the attention of Edward Carson, is chosen to play a prominent role in the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. As we learn more about him, it becomes evident that he is a mess. He struggles with the demons of his youth, and has severe guilt over the death of his daughter and a very problematic and unresolved relationship to his ex-wife.

The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group.

Lustbader does a fine job of depicting the search for Alli, but I found the story and plot clear enough and good, but at the same time Lustbader mixes into the brew this time some confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about. Also, the side stories and background provided in flashbacks was not all that interesting and oftentimes not all that relevant either. I think of this book primarily as a book for Lustbader fans.

Links to Eric van Lustbaders books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.