Supreme Justice by Max Allan Collins (book review)

Supreme Justice

Author:  Max Allan Collins

Published:  July 1, 2014

Publisher:  Thomas & Mercer

Pages:  336

ISBN 9781612185309

Genre:  Legal thrillers, crime drama, fiction

Source:  a copy was provided by the publisher and TLC book tours in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

A new standalone thriller from the creator of The Road to Perdition and the Nathan Heller series. 

After taking a bullet for his commander-in-chief, Secret Service agent Joseph Reeder is a hero. But his outspoken criticism of the president he saved—who had stacked the Supreme Court with hard-right justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, amp up the Patriot Act, and shred the First Amendment—put Reeder at odds with the Service’s apolitical nature, making him an outcast.

FBI agent Patti Rogers finds herself paired with the unpopular former agent on a task force investigating the killing of Supreme Court Justice Henry Venter. Reeder—nicknamed “Peep” for his unparalleled skills at reading body language—makes a startling discovery while reviewing a security tape: the shooting was premeditated, not a botched robbery. Even more chilling, the controversial Venter may not be the only justice targeted for death…

Is a mastermind mounting an unprecedented judicial coup aimed at replacing ultra-conservative justices with a new liberal majority? To crack the conspiracy and save the lives of not just the justices but also Reeder’s own family, rising star Rogers and legendary investigator Reeder must push their skills—and themselves—to the limit.

My Thoughts:

I don't believe I've read Max Allan Collins previous to Supreme Justice but I have seen some of the movies made from some of his books and scripts such as:  Saving Private Ryan and Air Force One.  He has also written graphic novels including Road to Perdition from which a movie was made.  So, obviously he's a very accomplished writer.

Supreme Justice is a stand alone novel featuring Joseph Reeder, a former Secret Service agent who took a bullet for a president he didn't like and later left to run a highly successful security firm.  He ruffled a few fellow agents when he criticized the president for whom he took a bullet.

When a supreme court judge is killed in an alleged robbery; Reeder's friend, a police detective, cajoles Reeder (aka Peeps) into looking at the footage of the robbery.  Played frame by frame, Reeder sees what others didn't.  This was an assassination made to look like a robbery. Because of his extensive training, including being able to read body language, and his intuition, Reeder is invited to act as an advisor with the service in relation to the shooting. 

Shortly thereafter another judge is murdered in his yard and it is obvious he had been followed and his routine memorized.  The more Reeder investigates and watches, the sooner he realizes there's a conspiracy at play and the leaders within the conspiracy are likely people he is now working with.

Supreme Justice is definitely driven by the plot rather than by the characters and it is a real page turner. In a book like this, I don't mind a lack of character development in the supporting cast.  Reeder (Peeps) was well developed, his character believable and intriguing with an ability to read people and situations that is sometimes a gift and sometimes a curse. It makes it difficult to get close to someone just as I imagine being friends with a psychiatrist would be.  

While aspects of the ending were predictable, there was still an element of mystery about who and how. As the climax drew near, my only complaint is that it seemed an abrupt ending. But I would be hasty to not realize the clues had been dropped all along the path.  It really was cleverly designed, artfully composed and carried out by a cunning writer.  

Overall, I really enjoyed my first Max Allan Collins novel. Highly recommended to readers of Lee Child, political thrillers, legal thrillers, mysteries and crime dramas.  My favourite genres!

Meet the author:

Max Allan Collins has earned fifteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away, and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, the basis for the Academy Award–winning film starring Tom Hanks, was followed by two novels, Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. His suspense series include Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, and Eliot Ness, and his numerous comics credits include the syndicated Dick Tracy and his own Ms. Tree. He has written and directed four feature films and two documentaries. His other produced screenplays include The Expert, an HBO World Premiere, and The Last Lullaby. His coffee-table book The History of Mystery received nominations for every major mystery award and Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. They have collaborated on seven novels and are currently writing the Trash ‘n’ Treasures mysteries.

Alex by Pierre Lemaitre (crime drama book review)

Alex

Author:  Pierre Lemaitre

Published:  2013

Publisher:  MacLehose Press

Distributed in US and Canada by Random House Publisher

Pages:  375 including A Note on the Translation and a Glossary

Genre:  Crime fiction/drama

Source:  borrowed

*Awards:  CWA International Daggar Award Winner: Best Crime Novel 2013

Alex Prevost--kidnapped, savagely beaten, suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse in a tiny wooden cage--is running out of time. Her abductor appears to want only to watch her die. Will hunger, thirst, or the rats get her first?

Apart from a shaky eyewitness report of the abduction, Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven has nothing to go on: no suspect, no leads, and no family or friends anxious to find a missing loved one. The diminutive and brilliant detective knows from bitter experience the urgency of finding the missing woman as quickly as possible--but first he must understand more about her. 

As he uncovers the details of the young woman's singular history, Camille is forced to acknowledge that the person he seeks is no ordinary victim. She is beautiful, yes, but also extremely tough and resourceful. Before long, saving Alex's life will be the least of Commandant Verhoeven's considerable challenges.

****

This is the second book in a forecasted trilogy, the first book was titled Irene and was the introduction to Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven.  Alex is the first of Lemaitre's books to be translated to English.

When was the last time you read a crime drama/mystery that was so tumultuous that you didn't know the victim from the perpetrator?  For me, well, I cannot remember any such time.  Until I picked up Alex.

Alex begins with the kidnapping of a beautiful woman.  She is beaten, naked and left in a crudely constructed wooden crate strung from the ceiling in an abandoned warehouse of sort. The crate is too small to do anything but crouch in.  Left with kibble and small rations of water, her kidnapper returns to take photos, watching her slowly die.

Five men and one woman are brutally murdered in this book and it is quite graphic, the means with which they are killed and I actually turned my head away as I read, the images far too cruel and violent.  But I read on.

Alex is the story of the most brutal of crimes and of a police force in France charged with solving them.  One of the detectives on the case, Camille, has recently lost his wife and unborn child - kidnapped and murdered.  So this case is too close to home for him but he does his level best to remain professional.  Sometimes facing horrible truths in one form helps to heal pains of the past.  At least that is what his commander hopes.

Though brutal, the story behind it all, the revealing of truths, though graphic in themselves, answers everything so clearly and cleverly.  The story is fast-paced, the chapters short and it is difficult to put down.  Alex was recommended by a co-worker and now that I am finished I can understand why.  I am glad to not have given up on it because this is a crime drama that is intricately plotted, cleverly contrived, and has a deep mystery running through it.  Alex is the second book in a trilogy written by Pierre Lemaitre but the first to be translated to English.  I hope the first, Irene, will be translated as well.  I believe that story would offer great insight into Camille, the detective (police commandant) and background for this story.  Mind you, Alex can stand on its own very well.

Meet the Author:

Pierre Lemaitre has worked for many years as a teacher of literature. His novels to date have earned him exceptional critical and public acclaim as a master of the crime novel and have won him the Prix du Premier Roman de Cognac 2006, the Prix du Meilleur Polar Francophone 2009, and the Prix du Polar Europeen du Point 2010. Alex is his first novel to be translated into English, and won the presitigious 2013 Crime Writers Association International Dagger Award. In 2013 Lemaitre was the recipient of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, the highest literary honor in France, for Au revoir la-haut.

Frank Wynne has translated works by Michel Houellebecq, Boualem Sansal, and many more. He won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2005 for his translation of Frederic Beigbeder's Windows on the World.

A Question of Identity by Susan Hill (review)

A Question of Identity
Author:  Susan Hill
Published: January 2013
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Canada a division of Random House of Canada Limited
Pages: 336
Edition:  Hardcover
ISBN 9780307363022
Source:  This is my personal copy.
Also available as an e-book.

http://www.susan-hill.com

A Question of Identity is book 7 in the Simon Serrailier crime series.

Duchess of Cornwall Close: sheltered accommodation, a mix of bungalows and flats, newly built and not quite finished. Despite the bitterly cold weather, elderly residents are moving in. They don't notice the figure in the shadows. Someone who doesn't mind the cold.

Then, one snowy night, an old lady is murdered - dragged from her bed and strangled with a length of flex.

DCS Simon Serrailler and his team are aware of bizarre circumstances surrounding her death - but they keep some of these details secret, while they desperately search for a match. All they know is that the killer will strike again, and will once more leave the same tell-tale signature.

The break comes when Simon's former sergeant, the ever cheerful Nathan Coates, tracks down a name: Alan Keyes. But Alan Keyes has no birth certificate, no address, no job, no family, no passport, no dental records. Nothing.  Alan Keyes does not exist.

A Question of Identity introduces a new and chilling element into the Simon Serrailler series: it takes the reader inside the mind of a deranged killer. This is Susan Hill's most thrillingly imagined crime novel to date.

THE SIMON SERRAILLER CRIME NOVELS do not have to be read in order.  (but it might help.) Here is the list.
1.The Various Haunts of Men
2. The Pure in Heart
3. The Risk of Darkness
4. The Vows of Silence
5. The Shadows in the Street
6. The Betrayal of Trust
7. A Question of Identity.

My review:

Oh, how long has it been since I read a book that was riveting...that I couldn't bear to put down....whose suspense filled me with anticipation?  As I began to read Susan Hill's A Question of Identity, this was my thought process.  I was hooked!!

"It's like your brain's bursting.  It doesn't happen all at once, it builds up.  And then your brain's going to burst until you do something about it.  You do it. You have to do it.  Then it's all right again for a bit, 'til it starts again." (page 2)

Susan Hill reveals a bit of the killer's psyche, just enough to catch your attention and she continues this pattern, prefacing each chapter, revealing more, a brief nibble at a time, until it all culminates in the end.  

Just as Susan Hill introduces the madness of the killer, she makes the introduction of the cast of Simon Serrailer, his team, and his family.  We also meet the victims before they become such, which I haven't encountered much before reading Hill's crime fiction, creating empathy with the reader and hostility towards the murderer.  And yet, curiosity takes hold as we learn more and more of the perpetrator.  

We begin with a trial, an acquittal and a change of identity.  Span forward ten years to the current crime.  Two murders with the same m.o. have been committed in a town near London, England where DCS Simon Serrailer must lead the task team in search of the killer.   Without clues and significant evidence ... without criminal error.

A Question of Identity is more well-rounded than a typical crime thriller, as Simon's friends and family, and the complexities of their relationships,  thread another storyline.  Here is where we learn of past lives that were born and existed in the six previous books of this series and of another facet of Simon's life and personality.  I was lost a little as Molly, a friend of Simon's sister, added another angle to the story, so I believe one would benefit from reading the previous six books of the series to understand the complexities in her storyline, though they were alluded to in A Question of Identity.  It certainly piqued my desire to read the previous six, so I consider that an asset.  

A Question of Identity is a fine thriller that held my attention, obsessively so, though I would have liked to have learned more about the killer's background.   A psychological background was pondered but never corroborated. It left me wondering, what fuelled his passion?

----

Did you know... Susan Hill also wrote the The Woman in Black, a short story which played on stage in Britain before becoming the horror film starring Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame)?

"Susan Hill was born in North Yorkshire, England and educated at King's College London.  She is married to the Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells, and they have two daughters.  She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs her own small publishing firm, Long Barn Books." (from the dust cover)

Missing Rebecca by John Worsley Simpson

I haven't received a copy of Missing Rebecca as of yet and I am scheduled to review this novel on the 22nd of this month.  Add to this, we just moved, so who knows where it ended up?  At any rate, I don't want to let anyone down, so I am doing a spotlight on this novel.  I very much wanted to read Missing Rebecca as I do love a good mystery/crime fiction novel and am quite disappointed to not have the opportunity before now.  However, there may be an author interview in the works, fingers crossed.  In the meantime, let me introduce you to Missing Rebecca.

Missing Rebecca
Author:  John Worsley Simpson
Published: May 2012
Publisher: Kindle, Create Space
Pages: 217
Genre:  Crime Fiction
Purchase Links:  Amazon B&N

Synopsis: 

John's latest book, his fifth novel, Missing Rebecca, is a story of death and deception. After a whirlwind romance, Liam and Rebecca marry, knowing almost nothing of each other's backgrounds. Only months later, on an afternoon shopping trip to a mall in the Buffalo, New York, suburb of Cheektowaga, Rebecca vanishes, seemingly abducted. Or did she make herself disappear? Was the marriage a sham? Was Liam a dupe? This is a novel of high crimes and dark shadows, involving the immensely profitable drug industry in which exclusive access to the market for a medication can mean billions of dollars, and holding on to that exclusivity might lead to lies, deceit, corruption, payoffs, and even murder.

Now you see why I was so excited to read Missing Rebecca!  It smells of secrecy and mystery and is written by a master crime fiction writer.  All essential ingredients for a page turner of a time, if you ask me.  Have you had the opportunity?  If so, how did you enjoy Missing Rebecca?  Please stay tuned for more. 

Psstt.... it's confirmed!!! Exclusive author interview coming September 22!!!

Meet the author:

JOHN WORSLEY SIMPSON is a crime-fiction writer. John was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, emigrated to Canada at the age of four and grew up in Toronto, He has been a reporter and editor in major newspapers and news services in North America, England and Ireland. He is married and lives in Newmarket, Ontario.

Connect with John Worsley Simpson at his website, Facebook and Twitter.





Missing Rebecca is on a virtual book tour with Partners in Crime.  See the full schedule here:  http://www.partnersincrimetours.net/2012/06/missing-rebecca-by-john-worsley-simpson.html