Sunday Salon - The Altman Code

This book has been on one of my bookshelf's for a while. Guess it must have been a gift! Thought I had read... Many books now are co-authored yet the novel maintains the style I like, covert! Yes, this is a Covert-One novel!

The President of the United States has learned that a Chinese cargo ship is transporting chemicals to Basra, Iraq where their intentions are on creating new biological weapons.

The government must act quickly to obtain the proof the ship does indeed carry this "precious cargo."

Covert-One agent Jon Smith is sent to rendezvous in Taiwan with another agent who has acquired the ship's true manifest.

But before Smith can get the document, he is ambushed, the second agent is murdered, and the evidence is destroyed.

Smith escapes with only a verbal message, the president's biological father is still alive!

As the "dragon" ship draws closer to its port, the USS Crowe is tailing the ship and a Chinese sub is following the US boat.

President Castilla is very worried that boarding the "Empress" could start a war with China. Their Ambassador makes a visit to the Oval Office and tells the President to stay away, even though the Chinese government is unawares the load the ship is carrying. 

Smith is losing time in uncovering the truth about the vessel and its cargo, an unknown truth that probes the secrets of the Chinese ruling party, a faction in the Washington government working to undermine the President and his staff , and an international madman thrusting the world to the brink of war.

Read this exciting story for yourself!

Sunday Salon - The Brass Verdict

Mickey Haller has been off for about a year now, and his life suddenly becomes explosive. A friend of his and a fellow lawyer, Jerry Vincent is murdered, now his practice is left to Mickey. Can Mickey really handle the caseload?

Hollywood producer Walter Elliot, is accused of murdering his wife and her lover in a home owned by Walter.

Detective Harry Bosch confronts Mickey in his "new" office on his first day on the job thinking that maybe Haller had something to do with Jerry's murder.

Little did both know, Walter Elliot has a complex scheme going and it takes both of them butting heads to figure exactly what happened!

A real thriller from the first chapter as only Michael Connelly can write! 

Sunday Salon - 1st To Die - Final

Last victim has a beard hair found inside her, can it really belong to the famous author?

The evidence leads Lindsay to charge the author with murder.

Something though does not add up and in a Patterson "twist-effect" the author's wife really is the killer at his bequest!

James Patterson is a master!

I know this is an "older" novel, but if you have not, please do! Read that is!

Sunday Salon - Yes, I am a blogger?

Picture courtesy of here

Something a little lot different today. Why do so many people blog? Trying to be noticed? Let your inner feelings out?

Remember when we read and really had no one to share with?

I am no writer, but I now enjoy playing the role!

Is that our reason for blogging, role playing?

When I joined Sunday Salon there were about thirty, now over three hundred and fifty!

Why do you blog?

Tell me: joe@fictionview.com

Sunday Salon - 1st To Die - Not Final

I remember my wedding day, rainy, tire taken off car, scared, in love, beautiful bride, and still alive! No limo's for us! Why Phillip? Why kill the newlyweds?

What is the motive?

And the different mode's?

Will Lindsay's illness hamper her case work?

Will Raleigh prove to be her friend?

What new evidence has Claire, the medical examiner and Detective Boxer's best friend, found on or in the new victim's?

What does San Francisco, California and Cleveland, Ohio have in common?

More intrigue next time...

Sunday Salon - 1st To Die - James Patterson

I know, I can't read enough of James Patterson's novels! But you know, they are great! 1st To Die is another Lindsay Boxer story of which is already fascinating. A newly wed couple are murdered in their exclusive penthouse suite.

Detective Boxer has discovered she has a life threatening illness and since her divorce, living alone, has no one to confide in.

Cindy Thomas a reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle, meets Lindsay at the crime scene and tries to make her "story" of the year.

More later...

PS: WOW! Sunday Salon is getting huge! Welcome to everyone who has joined recently!

PSS: Remember when I mentioned a Sunday Salon convention? Well, what do you think?

Sunday Salon - Don't Tell A Soul - Tell Me

Tim Wallace owns Wallace Industries, a construction company who is building the new Federal Building in Newark. Danny, Tim's business partner, has an uncle in the senate.   Did this uncle help them get this contract? Does the Senator have anything to do with Maggie's death? Does Will, Tim's other business partner, want Tim out?

Detective Novack believes Tim murdered his wife and the woman Tim has told the Detective someone else confessed to.

Tim is waiting for his lawyer and decides to hide.

Is he guilty?

Get this suspenseful novel and see for yourself!

Sunday Salon - Don't Tell A Soul- Why?

Tim Wallace must be guilty! The Detective said so! Tim killed his wife! His boat blew up! They were alone! Tim said the man told him he killed someone named Sheila!

Just the first few chapters are great! I do not believe I've read Mr. Rosenfelt before.

Two murders surround Tim Wallace in a year, is he the killer?

More...next week.

Sunday Salon - First Lee Child Novel - Good

My first Lee Child novel, Mr. Grant (his real name) your "Nothing To Lose" was a good read! Reacher is a complex character! Able to leap tall fences in a single bound! Or so it seemed.

Mr. Reacher prevented the Apocalypse! Or so he thought.

Despair hid from world, or so the townspeople thought.

They did not like strangers, especially Reacher. He personally destroyed the police department officers and offices.

What did the Church of End Times believe?

What did the huge plant in Despair really make?

I will try to read some of the earlier Reacher novels.

Does anyone else like Reacher?

Sunday Salon - I WON! Run for Your Life!

Dear Readers,
Thanks for writing to me and wanting to know where I've been! My old Dad and Mom have both been very ill and have to play nurse, doctor, chauffeur, cook, and bottle washer!

Now, being a James Patterson reader, I entered a contest on his site and won a copy of his new novel "Run For Your Life."

Got the book in the mail, ripped open the package, and of course started reading.

He does not disappoint!

Short chapters in the Patterson style leave you wanting to go to the next even at three in the morning!

The Teacher has the guts to carry out his sadistic killings in crowds and broad daylight!

Do not miss this one!

Sunday Salon - Do You Ever Feel Betrayed?

David Hosp, a lawyer by day, has written a very powerful story about a politician who is trying at great lengths to hide his father's wrongdoing at the price of many defenseless patients and outsiders. What did reporter Elizabeth Creay have that caused her murder? Why was Ms. Creay's sister ,Sydney, attacked after visiting the last place her sister had been?

Detective's Train and Cassian question Lydia Chapin, Elizabeth's mother and rich socialite, about her daughter's murder, but come away knowing something does not "smell" right.

Did Jerome Washington, a known drug dealer, commit the murder?

What is the connection to the Virginia Institute for the Mentally
Defective?

More next week...

Sunday Salon - Happy Mother's Day - Oh boy!

Do you call your Mother? Only on Mother's Day? Why? Are you selfish or in trouble or are you sick?  Could you be dead? A lot of questions for Carolyn Mackenzie. Why did her brother disappear ten years ago? Is Mack trying to reach them?

Ever since Mack disappeared, Carolyn thought something was fishy. After all he was about to graduate from Columbia University, had everything going for himself, why did he leave?

"Uncle Devon, tell Carolyn she must not look for me." This message given to Carolyn's uncle, Monsignor Devon MacKenzie, only gives her more resolve to find him.

Another young women disappears, is Mack really a serial killer?

This great read has a lot of unknown's, read it you will enjoy!

Sunday Salon - Why I like "After Dark"

Looking on my well worn bookshelves for something old or hopefully something new, I spotted Phillip Margolin's After Dark. Do not know when or who, but am glad it was there. Several memorable characters really play into the many twists and turns this outstanding novel offers. Love and lawyers, what more can you ask?

Tracy Cavanaugh, a recent law school graduate who clerks for a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, has learned one of her clerk colleagues has been murdered.

Shortly later the justice who employed the murdered clerk is murdered. The murdered justice's estranged wife, herself a brilliant prosecutor, soon becomes the prime suspect. At the same time, Tracy's year of clerking is up, and she goes to work for renowned defense attorney Matthew Reynolds, who is defending the accused wife.

Did Charlie Deems, the maniacal killer who Abbie Griffen prosecuted, set her up for the murder of her husband? Or did Abbie kill him in the wake of their pending divorce?

What evidence has Tracy found during her research for Matthew Reynolds?

Tracy cannot believe who the facts point to, can you?

Read her resolve for yourself!

Sunday Salon > the English Assassin

How did banker Rolfe acquire the paintings of all the old master's? Did he conspire with Adolf Hitler and the German Reich? Who are the Council of R? Why did the banking community and government of Switzerland conspire to stop Agent Allon? What is Gabriel Allon's plan to get the paintings back?

Anna Rolfe, daughter of the dead thief, wants to continue her career and agrees to work with Gabriel's team to help capture the Assassin.

The secrets of the Bahnhofstrasse are finally exposed as the Assassin is indeed himself assassinated!

Daniel Silva, yes you are one of my favorite writers!

Good and Bad Days!

A day for the ages! New President! Congrats to Sen. Obama!  Condolences to Michael Crichton's family. One of my favorite authors, a young man, a cancer victim! Sorry to see you go so soon!

Sunday Salon - The English Assassin - Mr. Silva

This fifth novel written by Daniel Silva, has our hero Gabriel Allon, an accomplished art restorer and a secret agent for the Israeli government, protecting a beautiful violinist. Augustus Rolfe, a Swiss banker, whose private life extended into Nazi Germany, has an art collection to be dead for! Anna Rolfe, his daughter, is now in danger because of her supposed knowledge of her father's activities. Can Gabriel protect her?

Can Gabriel match up with a ruthless British mercenary turned assassin? Anna is a head-strong world renowned musician determined also to find her estranged father's killer. Clues are hidden in the depth of the super-secret Swiss banking community, can they be found? Great so far, will follow-up next week!

Sunday Salon - A Group of Mean Women?

This is my first Lisa Scottoline novel and I hope not my last! Although Ms. Scottoline is an Eagle football fan from Philly, I will overlook this fact! When Trish Gambone strutted into Mary DiNunzio's office all hell was about to break loose. You see Trish and Mary had the same high school sweetheart.

Of course, Mary, now the successful lawyer did not realize that "sweetheart", Bobby Mancuso, was a mobster and a girlfriend-beater.   Trish was begging Mary for her help and advice to get out of the situation with Bobby, but no ideas Mary had seemed to satisfy Trish. Trish seemed to imply her life was in imminent danger! Trish disappears! Mary is now really frightened, and their mutual friends, the Mean Girls show up a Mary's office to get her help! Very upset now that she did not help Trish, Mary, leaves her job to help find Trish. Mobster Bobby is found murdered, but where is Trish? Is Trish alive? Read the ending for yourself, very entertaining!