Fiction

“Mystic River” by Dennis Lehane

Lehane, Dennis. Mystic River (2001)   HarperCollins, 448 pages, $7.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0 380 73185 1      Highly Recommended Dennis Lehane takes a break from Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro of Dorchester to tell the story of three boys from the fictional East Buckingham, a working-class district just west of downtown. […]

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“The Dark Room” by Minette Walters

Walters, Minette. The Dark Room (1996)    Penguin Putnam, 339 pages, $7.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0-515-12045-6 Jinx Kingsley, a London photographer and daughter of a millionaire father with reputed underworld connections, wakes up in a private hospital. She has no recollection of how or why she got there. But she does have flashes

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“A Place of Execution” by Val McDermid

McDermid, Val. A Place of Execution (1999)St. Martin’s, 465 pages, $6.99 mass market paperback    ISBN 0-312-97953-3  Recommended     British writer Catherine Heathcote has nearly finished her book about a famous case, the disappearance of 13-year-old Alison Carter 25 years earlier. Although Heathcote has interviewed all the people still living who were involved in

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“A Drink Before the War” by Dennis Lehane

Lehane, Dennis. A Drink Before the War (1994)   HarperCollins, 277 pages, $6.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0 380 72623 8      Sometimes it pays to start reading a series at the beginning. And sometimes it doesn’t. After discovering Dennis Lehane in Gone, Baby, Gone, I decided to get to know Patrick Kenzie

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“Gone for Good” by Harlan Coben

Coben, Harlan. Gone for Good (2002)   Delacorte, 341 pages, $23.95 hardcover ISBN 0-385-33558-X While looking over his mother’s belongings just after her death from cancer, Will Klein discovers a photograph that indicates his brother, Ken, may still be alive. Eleven years earlier Will’s former girlfriend and neighbor, Julie Miller, was murdered in their suburban

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“Tell No One” by Harlan Coben

Coben, Harlan. Tell No One (2001)  Delacorte, 339 pages, $22.95 hardcover  ISBN 0-385-33555 Recommended Spoiler Alert! This review gives away plot details that may spoil the reading experience for you. Proceed at your own peril! You’ll get a second warning below. “Don’t start this book at bedtime,” several people told me. “I stayed up all

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Harlan Coben: Introductory Notes

Harlan Coben was born in Newark, NJ, in 1962 and grew up in Livingston, NJ. He continues to live in NJ with his wife, a pediatrician, and their four children. He graduated from Amherst College with a major in political science. Coben is the first author to win all three of mystery’s most prestigious awards:

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“Blood Work” by Michael Connelly

Connelly, Michael. Blood Work (1998).  Little Brown, 391 pages, $23.95 hardcover   ISBN 0 316 15399 0      Taking a break from LAPD detective Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly introduces a new character, former FBI agent Terry McCaleb. We first meet McCaleb two months after his heart transplant surgery, living in a Los Angeles marina

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“The Concrete Blonde” by Michael Connelly

Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde (1994).   St. Martin’s, 397 pages, $5.99 mass market paperback.   ISBN 0 312 95500 6      Four years earlier, during the hunt for the serial killer known as the Dollmaker, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch had followed a lead to a small apartment, where he confronted and killed

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“The Black Ice” by Michael Connelly

Connelly, Michael. The Black Ice (1993).  St. Martin’s, 368 pages, $6.99 mass market paperback   ISBN 0 312 95281 3 It’s Christmas Day, and L.A. homicide detective Harry Bosch is on call. When he hears a broadcast for a homicide on the police scanner, he wonders why he, the on-call detective, hasn’t been notified. Bosch

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