First Daughter, by Eric van Lustbader

This is a thriller featuring a newly elected - but still not inaugurated – First Daughter, by Eric van Lustbader president in some future point in time, in an America where the religious right seems to be much stronger than now. Alli Carson, the 19-year-old daughter of the U.S. president-elect, moderate Republican Edward Carson, is abducted a month before her father's inauguration to be programmed to do something truly terrible at the inauguration ceremony.

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 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.

Critical Mass, by Whitley Strieber

This is an overheated thriller based on a somewhat unlikely - but still interesting - scenario about nuclear terrorism by bestselling author Whitley Strieber Critical Mass, by Whitley strieber (see also 2012: The War for Souls ). The main character in the book is Jim Deutsch, a CIA contract employee, who has expertise in counter-proliferation work. He discovers that nuclear devices have been smuggled into the US. While investigating, he finds himself facing roadblocks at every turn, forcing him not to trust anyone. It seems America's elaborate homeland security apparatus has been compromised.

Then, while Deutsch is still trying to make his report, Las Vegas is bombed and completely wiped out. As it turns out, the fate of the entire world seems to now be in the hands of an unknown Islamic terror organization, headed by a master-terrorist known only as the Madhi.

U.S. president William Fitzgerald is faced with the choice of launching a devastating counterattack aimed at much of the Muslim world, or surrendering to the Madhi, or trying to find the exact location of the threat. And the clock is running, and the deadline approaching.

Strieber is a good writer and knows very well how to build suspense. So, if you are willing to suspend belief a little, and allow that the scenario of Critical Mass is a possible scenario, then this is an exceedingly exciting thriller!

The author: Whitley Strieber is the author of over 30 novels, including the Wolfen, the Hunger, Warday, Communion, Superstorm, The Grays and 2012. The Wolfen, the Hunger, Communion, and Superstorm (as the Day After Tomorrow) were all made into films, and the Grays and 2012 are in preproduction at Sony and Warner Bros. respectively.

Links to Whitley Strieber's books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Rules of Deception, by Christopher Reich

Sometimes even I get lucky. I was when I stumbled across this book. Even Rules of Decepion, by Christopher Reich though I have read much too many thrillers, I had never even heard about Christopher Reich. But one day the book was right in front of my face, simply. So I opened it, looked a little, and decided it might be worth reading.

Then I picked it up and started reading the same evening. And it just sucked me right in. The prologue and the first chapter are masterful, and more or less make it impossible to stop reading beyond that point. I have to admit I was late getting to be the next morning. But the book really did live up to the expectations it initially created.

The prologue is extremely ominous: There is a butterfly flying around above a high-security compound surrounded by a barbed wire in an unknown location. Then it turns out the butterfly a mechanical device carrying a mini-microwave transmitter. Then a guard says: “They have found us.”

Rules of Deception tells the story of a smart, resourceful and courageous doctor named Jonathan Ransom. Dr. Ransom is a surgeon who works for Doctors Without. He is a happily married man with a beautiful English wife, Emma, whom he loves. Life is good. Then Emma dies in an accident.

A few days later, some baggage claim tickets are delivered to his hotel room. They were for his wife. Not knowing what they are for, Ransom goes to claim them. The content of bags makes it clear that his wife was not at all the person he believed her to be. Suddenly Jonathan finds that his has known very little about his wife, and that his life has not at all been what it seems. As a matter of fact, his life is seemingly a big pile of lies. And now he finds himself right in the middle of the pile, trying to make sense and fighting to stay alive. In fact, it seems Jonathan's only chance at survival lies in uncovering the devastating truth behind his wife's secret life.

The plot in Rules of Deception is intricate and has multiple layers and the chapters are short and to the point. And the action is fast and often surprising. I found it a great thriller, full of excitement. Most certainly a writer I will read more of and watch out for!

Links to books by Christopher Reich at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN (see especially his Numbered Account)

The Bricklayer, by Noah Boyd

This is the debut novel of Noah Boyd, The Bricklayer, Noah Boyd and very likely also the first book in a series featuring the ex-FBI agent, now bricklayer, Steve Vail. A very interesting and promising debut!

Steve Vail is a former FBI agent who has some serious issues with authority and didn’t fit well in the huge bureaucratic machinery that the FBI is. So he got fired and started laying bricks in Chicago – an honest trade, no bosses.

However, one Friday afternoon he goes to the bank and finds himself taken hostage by two desperate bank robbers. And ends up doing something he is quite good at - he foils the robbery by hurling the robbers through the bank's windows.

Even though he sneaks away afterwards, he catches the attention of the FBI. As it turns out, the FBI is being blackmailed in a case where prominent people are being killed in a systematic fashion, and where someone inside the FBI seems to be involved. So the FBI is in need of exactly the kind of talent Steve Vail represents – a trained investigator, a man of action, and a guy that can follow a trail.

Thus FBI Deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon turns up and makes Vail an offer. The FBI needs him, and will even let him be his own boss and name his compensation. But as Vail says: "There is always a boss. … The trick is to never take a job you can't walk away from. Especially when the bosses get to be insufferable, which I think is now a federal law."

The investigation Vail gets himself into in The Bricklayer is complex, and Vail and Bannon follow a convoluted trail full of dangerous traps in pursuit of a terrorist group. Often the lone wolf Steve Vail - who isn’t all that concerned with legal boundaries - completely outshines the FBI and aggravates the powers that be in the organization.

There is lots of intelligent action in this book, and the plot is smart too. There are times when the solutions to the various problems facing Vail present themselves in a slightly too convenient fashion, but overall this is a great debut novel. In my opinion both the author and the characters in this book, especially Steve Vail who really is an enjoyable and smart guy, hold great promise!

I found The Bricklayer to be very entertaining and quite suspenseful. I read it very quickly, which to me is always a good sign. The story is fun and nonstop. I recommend it!

Links to Noah Boyd's The Bricklayer at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Lost Souls, by Lisa Jackson

Four coeds have disappeared in less than two years at All Saints College. They were all considered "troubled" girls. So no one has asked too many questions about the missing students.Lost Souls, by Lisa Jackson But Lisa Jackson’s unlikely heroine Kristi Bentz thinks she's onto a big story. And she finds out that the missing female students were all associated with a vampire cult that somehow seems to have a strong hold on the campus.

Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz, the stunningly beautiful, hot wanna-be-detective is lucky to be alive. Not many people her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and lived to tell about it. Her last encounter was with a sadistic monster in bestselling Jackson's Absolute Evil. But somehow she is fascinated by the minds of serial killers, and she is ready for another go and wants to write about it.

Kristi by chance rents the apartment of one of the missing girls. She begins investigating the case, thinking it might make a great first book. However, Vlad, the mysterious serial killer, very soon sets his sights on Kristi. And the action starts.

There is a lot of action in this book, but I am not sure I like it much even so. Vampirism is not my thing. But it seems very fashionable for the moment. But Jackson is smart, and has written a book that probably will be attractive to a lot a people – some hot sex, some vampire-stuff, a lot of action, a real crime mystery, and some supernatural powers as well for good measure.

Lost Souls is entertaining. Even though I didn’t like it all that much, it was still somehow a little fun and a little exciting. So if you like pretty well written romantic suspense novels and the campus background, and some hot sex scenes, this may be it.

Links to books by Lisa Jackson at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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