Books Blog : suspense

Halloween Thrillers are treats for your eyes and ears.

this.is.not.here@evpl — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:54:00 GMT

Since it's Oct. and Halloween is just around the corner it is only fitting to dip into the library's collection of thrillers. There's a new chapter in the Chelsea Cain trilogy of terror. The newest one is called Evil at Heart. in which Gretchen Lowell, female serial killer is once again on the trail of the long suffering (in more ways than one) detective Archie Sheridan. In the first book, Heartsick , Archie is married with 2 kids when he first crosses paths with Gretchen. He's in charge of The Beauty Killer Task Force and has been unsuccessfully trying to catch the killer for 10 years. Enter Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful seductive blonde who is more than willing to lend a helping hand. But wait---maybe there's a reason she knows so much about the Beauty Killer. Too late Archie discovers Gretchen's true colors and is held captive for 10 days as she tortures him in all manner of horrible ways including removing is spleen. If you love blood, gore, torture, and scattered body parts, and psycho-sexual obsession then this one is for you. Then there's Sweetheart where she's turned herself in to the authorities but has managed to escape. And she's after Archie again. He's trying to kick the vicodin and she's still feeding them to him and has found new ways to tempt and torture him. In fact she's so "over the top" with her ‘bag of tricks" that it's almost comical. Now in Evil at Heart she's at large and on another killing spree with a seeming affinity for eyeballs. Or is she? She's become the object of a cult following and is perhaps tutoring a new, really confused group of young people on the internet in the ways of torture. Gretchen has become super villain and Archie is super victim. How he's managed to stay alive is the biggest mystery of all.

For all you "Da Vinci Code" fans out there ...

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:30:00 GMT

... Dan Brown's latest installment in the Robert Langdon series, The Lost Symbol, will hit your local library's shelves tomorrow.

Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Lucky "Thirteenth"

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:59:00 GMT

I'll admit when it comes to literature, I am something of a late bloomer. It took a book group assignment last year for me to finally read Jane Eyre, and of course, I fell in love with it. Recently I followed some friends' recommendations of a book that's reminiscent of that classic novel.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a dark, Jane-Eyre-on-a-roller-coaster kind of book. In the story, renowned English author Vida Winter is dying, and has called upon a bookseller's daughter and sometime-biographer, Margaret Lea, to write Winter's life story. What follows is a well-paced, very Gothic, sometimes creepy tale, replete with twins, ghosts, a governess, mistaken identities, and a bit of madness thrown in for good measure. Though parts of the ending seemed a bit contrived, there were still enough surprises to be satisfying.

If you haven't tried The Thirteenth Tale yet, by all means do so--and let us know what you think!

Monster of Florence

wag.mado@evpl — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:20:00 GMT

Wow! That was what I was saying most of the way through Douglas Preston's bestselling book. To think I wandered around Florence in the dark four years ago without ever knowing of these crimes. It gives me goose-bumps. If you didn't pick it up while it was on the NY Times Best Sellers list last year, it's not too late.

This is a true-life crime story like no other. A serial killer began a killing spree in 1968 murdering young lovers all around the Tuscan countryside. It ended 20 years later with a total of 16 victims. Douglas Preston became fascinated with the story after moving to Florence in 2000, and soon became involved in writing a book about the mystery, after spending countless hours with crime reporter and co-author, Mario Spezi. The tale weaves, twists, zigzags, and finally turns you upside down, when the authors become part of the story itself.

"Monster" has all the hallmarks of a modern work of fiction - mystery, murder, body parts, police corruption, deception, satanic cults, revenge, and madness. Will the real killer be revealed? Preston and Spezi give us a final twist at the end and plenty to think about.

United Artists and Tom Cruise have acquired the movie rights to "Monster of Florence" and we'll see if the movie is as good as this book.

"Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton is dead at age 66

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Bestselling author, scriptwriter and director Michael Crichton is dead at age 66 after a "private battle with cancer."

Crichton used his scientific background, which included Harvard Medical School, to create believable thrillers where technology grows beyond man's ability to control it. His first big hit was the 1969 book and 1971 movie "Andromeda Strain," where an alien virus brought back from space threatens man's existence. (A new version of this was just released on DVD).

Other scenarios faced by his characters included dinosaurs cloned from DNA ("Jurassic Park"), super-intelligent gorillas ("Congo"), sexual harrassment ("Disclosure"), genetic mutation ("Next"), intelligent predatory molecules ("Prey"), an alien spaceship on the ocean floor ("Sphere"), Japanese techno-dominance ("Rising Sun"), (fear of environmental calamity ("State of Fear"), time travel to 14th Century France ("Timeline"), and a super tornado ("Twister"). Most of his books have been made into blockbuster movies. He was also the creator and driving spirit behind the very successful medical series ER.

Anyone who reads or watches movies will miss this incredibly talented man who combined contemporary science with fiction, always asking what if.......

"The Lace Reader" author hits it rich!

MediaPhile@evpl — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:43:00 GMT

I recently heard Brunonia Barry talk about her very successful first novel, "The Lace Reader," a Mary Higgins Clark sort of adventure/love novel set in contemporary Salem, Massachusetts.

Barry, a former scriptwriter with theatre experience who now lives in Salem, quit her job to write a novel -- with her husband's permission, of course. After seven years of research and rewrites, she offered the manuscript to a reading group at a local bookstore. She and her husband then self-published "The Lace Reader" through Flap Jacket Press.

On a whim, she sent a copy off to a friend in Hollywood to promote to the studios. The manuscript landed in the right hands and next thing she knew there was a huge bidding war between publishers. "The Lace Reader" has just been re-released by William Morrow this summer with a major promotion and a $2,000,000 book deal for Barry.

So the moral of the story is this: never give up, success is around the corner. Even for 50 something women wannabee writers.