Mysteries heat up summer
The Gray Ghost:
A Sam and Remi Fargo Adventure Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell Putnam
In 1906, automaker Rolls-Royce created a groundbreaking car called the Gray Ghost. It was stolen, but the company was able to eventually retrieve it, thanks to the assistance of a detective from the Van Dorn detective agency named Isaac Bell. Bell is the star of another Clive Cussler book series, co-written with Justin Scott. Now, the current owner of the Gray Ghost has plans to sell it.
Sam and Remi Fargo learn that Albert Payton’s wealth is mostly gone, and he has Alzheimer’s disease. When the car is stolen, evidence clearly implicates Albert as being responsible.
To make things more complicated, the Gray Ghost has a historic value, and it might also contain a priceless treasure. Since Sam and Remi are treasure hunters, seeking the truth and finding the missing car is right up their alley. Someone else wants the treasure for himself, however, for reasons that go beyond greed, and his plan involves Sam and Remi’s untimely demise.
Burcell does a wonderful job adding richness and depth to the already established characters of Sam and Remi while telling a rip-roaring story.
The Captives
Debra Jo Immergut
Ecco
Psychologist Frank Lundquist never got over his high school crush, Miranda Greene. Then once-golden girl Miranda shows up as an inmate at the Milford Basin Correctional Facility where Frank is now a counsellor.
Debra Jo Immergut’s subtle precision — without stooping to clichés or the obvious — shows how Frank and Miranda are captives of their past, present and future. Immergut’s debut novel is a fascinating psychological look at two damaged people as well as being a solid thriller with unusual, and believable, twists.
As a teen, Frank stalked Miranda, then went on to have a successful practice until his work and marriage imploded. Miranda was a popular top student and athlete, the daughter of a wealthy one-term congressman. Now she is serving a 52-year sentence for second-degree murder.
Their sessions allow Frank to continue his fantasies while Miranda has a secret reason to continue counselling. Miranda has no idea who he is. How these sessions change both — and lead to inescapable consequences — propels The Captives to its surprising finale.
Blood Standard
Laird Barron
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Isaiah Coleridge, muscle for the Chicago mob’s Alaska subsidiary, isn’t your typical Mafia hit man.
He’s college-educated, alludes to Greek and Roman classics and relishes his underworld moniker — Hercules.
Coleridge kills without remorse until two of his bosses invite him on a boat ride and blaze away at a herd of walruses, butchering them for ivory and he discovers his capacity for violence has limits.
He chops one wise guy in the throat, points a gun at the other and flees, turning up at a remote New York farm whose New Age owners rescue lost souls.
That’s where the heart of Laird Barron’s tale begins. Coleridge settles in at the farm when one of its denizens — a teenage girl fresh from lockup — goes missing. Coleridge sets out to track her down.
His pursuit soon pits him against white supremacists, a Native American criminal gang, the New York mafia, a team of former mercenaries, corrupt local cops and a bent FBI agent. He’s shot, stabbed and bludgeoned. The action is fast-paced, the characters well drawn, the settings vivid and the hard-boiled prose quirky in the manner of a writer who cut his teeth on horror and poetry.