Review: NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

Title: NYPD Red 4
Author: James Patterson & Marshall Karp
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 14th January 2016
Pages: 368
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

A jewel heist. A murdered actress. A killer case for NYPD Red.

In a city where crime never sleeps, NYPD Red is the elite task force called in when a case involves the rich, famous and connected. Detectives Zach Jordan and Kylie MacDonald are the best of the best – brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to catch a criminal, even if it means antagonising the same powerful people they're supposed to be helping.

When a glitzy movie premiere is the scene of a shocking murder and high-stakes robbery, NYPD Red gets the call. In a hunt that takes Zach and Kylie from celebrity penthouses to the depths of Manhattan's criminal underworld, they have to find the cold-blooded killer – before he strikes again.

Review: Private Sydney by James Patterson

Title: Private Sydney
Author: James Patterson & Kathryn Fox
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Publication Date: 13th August 2015
Pages: 352
Source: Purchased
Rating: 3/5
Purchase: Amazon

Even for Private Investigations, the world’s top detective agency, it’s tough to find a man who doesn’t exist...

Craig Gisto has promised Eliza Moss that his elite team at Private Sydney will investigate the disappearance of her father. After all, as CEO of a high-profile research company, Eric Moss shouldn’t be difficult to find.

Except it’s not just the man who’s gone missing. Despite the most advanced technology at their disposal, they find every trace of him has vanished too.

And they aren’t the only ones on the hunt. Powerful figures want Moss to stay ‘lost’, while others just as ruthlessly want him found.

Meanwhile, a routine background check becomes a frantic race to find a stolen baby and catch a brutal killer – a killer Private may well have sent straight to the victim’s door...

Review: Alert by James Patterson

Title: Alert (Michael Bennett, #8)
Author: James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 16th July 2015
Pages: 400
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Every New Yorker's worst nightmare is about to become a reality.

New York has seen more than its fair share of horrific attacks, but the city is about to be shaken in a way it never has before. After two devastating catastrophes in quick succession, everyone is on edge. Detective Michael Bennett is assigned to the case and given the near impossible task of hunting down the shadowy terror group responsible.

With troubles at home to contend with, Bennett has never been more at risk, or more alone, fighting the chaos all around him.

Then a shocking assassination makes it clear that these inexplicable events are just the prelude to the biggest threat of all. Now Bennett is racing against the clock to save his beloved city – before the most destructive force he has ever faced tears it apart.

Review: The Slaughter Man by Tony Parsons

Title: The Slaughter Man (DC Max Wolfe, #2)
Author: Tony Parsons
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 21st May 2015
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781780892351
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 3.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

On New Year’s Day, a wealthy family is found slaughtered inside their exclusive gated community in north London, their youngest child stolen away.

The murder weapon – a gun for stunning cattle before they are butchered – leads Detective Max Wolfe to a dusty corner of Scotland Yard’s Black Museum devoted to a killer who thirty years ago was known as the Slaughter Man.

But the Slaughter Man has done his time, and is now old and dying. Can he really be back in the game?

And was the murder of a happy family a mindless killing spree, a grotesque homage by a copycat killer – or a contract hit designed to frame a dying man?

All Max knows is that he needs to find the missing child and stop the killer before he destroys another innocent family – or finds his way to his own front door …

Review: Hidden by Emma Kavanagh

Title: Hidden
Author: Emma Kavanagh
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 23rd April 2015
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781780892047
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

HE'S WATCHING: A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently.

Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman - before it's too late.

SHE'S WAITING: To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety - both for her, and her young niece who's been recently admitted. She's heard about the gunman, but he has little to do with her. Or has he?

As time ticks down, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be. But he's there. Hiding in plain sight. Far closer than anyone thinks...

Guest Post: Research, Research, Research by Emma Kavanagh

Emma Kavanagh's blog tour for her second novel Hidden continues today with a guest post from Emma all about research. I loved Hidden and my review can be read here. 

HE'S WATCHING: A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently.

Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman - before it's too late.

SHE'S WAITING: To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety - both for her, and her young niece who's been recently admitted. She's heard about the gunman, but he has little to do with her. Or has he?

As time ticks down, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be. But he's there. Hiding in plain sight. Far closer than anyone thinks...

Review: NYPD Red 3 by James Patterson

Title: NYPD Red 3
Author: James Patterson & Marshall Karp
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 9th April 2015
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781780892740
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 3.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Hunter Alden, Jr., a billionaire businessman, has it all: a sexy wife, a brilliant teenage son, and an ever-growing fortune. But his perfect life shatters one horrific night when he discovers the severed head of his chauffeur, stuffed in a bag marked, in blood, with his son's initials. Now his son is missing, and the price to get him back might be too high--even for one of the world's richest men.

When NYPD Red, the elite task force for New York City's most high-profile crimes, takes the case, Detective Zach Jordon and his partner--and ex-girlfriend--Kylie MacDonald have never seen anything so unspeakable. As the investigation continues, Zach and Kylie realize that the closer they get to the truth, the more their own lives are in danger.

Review: You Belong to Me by Samantha Hayes

Title: You Belong to Me
Author: Samantha Hayes
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 12th March 2015
Pages: 496
ISBN: 9781780893396
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Fleeing the terrors of her former life, Isabel has left England, and at last is beginning to feel safe.

Then a letter shatters her world, and she returns home determined not to let fear rule her life any more.

But she's unable to shake off the feeling that someone who knows her better than she knows herself may be following her.

Watching. Waiting.

Ready to step back into her life and take control all over again.

Review: Dead Time by Tony Parsons

Title: Dead Time (DC Max Wolfe, #1.5)
Author: Tony Parsons
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 19th February 2015
Source: NetGalley Review Copy
Pages: 71
Rating: 3/5
Purchase: Amazon

One am, Boxing Day. Snow falls, the city sleeps.

Not DC Max Wolfe. He is looking out of his loft apartment at the deserted streets below.

A van has just drawn up. Two men get out. Dressed in black and wearing ski-masks, they are dragging something.

It’s a man. Half-naked. Half-dead. But still alive.

Not for much longer.

Soon Max Wolfe is hunting a gang of killers who decapitate their victims.

And this time it’s personal …

Review: Private Vegas by James Patterson

Title: Private Vegas
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 1st January 2015
Pages: 384
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Showgirls. Millionaires. Murder.

Jack Morgan, head of Private Investigations, the global PI agency of the rich and famous, is being pushed to the limit. His car has been firebombed, his ex is dating someone else, and his twin brother is still out to destroy him.

But Private doesn’t rest, and nor do its clients: not the LAPD who need Private’s help catching two scumbags with diplomatic immunity, and not the client who has just confessed to murdering his wife.

Add to that Jack’s best friend being held on a trumped-up charge that could see him locked away for a very long time, and it seems like all bets are off…

Review: Inside Alcatraz: My Time on the Rock by Jim Quillen

Title: Inside Alcatraz: My Time on the Rock
Author: Jim Quillen
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 15th January 2015
Pages: 384
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

It was 1942, and twenty-two-year-old Jim Quillen was on the run from San Quentin prison, where he'd been serving eighteen months for armed robbery. He thought he'd made a lucky escape - until he was caught and sentenced to forty-five years in the federal prison system, including ten years at the infamous Alcatraz.

Inside Alcatraz tells the story of the brutality and extreme regimentation that were a part of the daily life for the inmates of the island prison. They nicknamed it 'Hellcatraz', and Jim was about to find out why. He lived though it all, from solitary confinement and cramped, lonely cells to meeting Bob 'the Birdman' Stroud, and surviving the forty-six-hour bloody riot known as the Battle of Alcatraz.

In this moving memoir, Jim reflects on the ten hard years he spent on the island. He tells us of the hardships he suffered and the friendships he made on his long journey from desperation to redemption. 

Review: The Final Minute by Simon Kernick

Title: The Final Minute
Author: Simon Kernick
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 15th January 2015
Pages: 400
Source: NetGalley Review Copy
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Featuring Simon Kernick's maverick detective, TINA BOYD, this is the gripping new race-against-time thriller by the best-selling author of Relentless, The Last 10 Seconds and Stay Alive.

‘It’s night, and I’m in a strange house.

The lights are on, and and I’m standing outside a half-open door.

Feeling a terrible sense of forboding, I walk slowly inside.

And then I see her.

A woman lying sprawled across a huge double bed.

She’s dead. There’s blood everywhere.

And the most terrifying thing of all is that I think her killer might be me …’

A traumatic car-crash. A man with no memory, haunted by nightmares.

When the past comes calling in the most terrifying way imaginable, Matt Barron is forced to turn to the one person who can help, Ex Met cop, turned private detective, Tina Boyd.

Soon they are both on the run...

Review: A-Z of Hell: Ross Kemp's How Not to Travel the World by Ross Kemp (4.5/5)

Ross Kemp's fascinating guide of the worst places in the world.

Want to know where to discover the perfect sunset in Fiji? How about a tropical paradise in St Lucia, or one of the world’s beautiful natural wonders in the Alps?
Well this is NOT the book for you.

But if you want to know about meeting transvestite prostitutes in a South African prison, or being attacked for a can of tuna in the Congo, buying crack cocaine in a Venezuelan prison or being chased by dogs in a haunted house in Belize, then look no further. Ross Kemp has visited the worst places in the world, and here they are in all their horror – in a handy A to Z format.
This is not one hell of a travel guide. This is a travel guide to hell.

Review: Make My Wish Come True by Katie Price (4.5/5)

Take one showbiz reporter; one sexy TV chef; one creepy ex-boyfriend plenty of sex and scandal and you have all the ingredients to Make My Wish Come True from the bestselling Katie Price.

Storm always wanted to be a celebrity reporter. But when she lands the job of her dreams, it costs her her best friend.

However, apart from her creepy ex-boyfriend, Storm loves the job. Until she’s asked to go undercover to find out if sexy TV chef Nico Alvise is cheating on his girlfriend. Storm knows it’s wrong but agrees because she likes him. A LOT. And she’s determined to protect him.

She didn’t bank on them falling in love though. But Nico has secrets to hide, and he hates journalists.

So when he finds out what Storm does, the fallout is brutal.

Suddenly jobless, friendless and heartbroken at the most romantic time of the year, Storm knows that no matter how hard she wishes, Nico will never forgive her…