Month: December 2015

Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard

December 27, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Kiss Me While I Sleep - Linda HowardLinda Howard is a superb mystery writer and she kept me guessing until the last page. I couldn’t put this book down because the surprises kept coming!

“Kiss Me While I Sleep” is about a contract killer for the CIA.  Lily Mansfield has never known another life, and it isn’t until she goes against the CIA and eliminates a crime boss that she finds out what it is like to be really alone.

Salvatore Nervi had Lily’s friends and adopted daughter killed, and she is determined to make him pay. She disguises herself and gains access to Salvatore, playing up to his desire for beautiful women. She has what she thinks of as a foolproof plan; poison a bottle of rare and expensive wine and wait for him to drink it. She has set the stage by refusing to ever drink wine, to her it taste like vinegar, but Salvatore insists that she at least taste this special bottle. Lily puts it to her lips and gives the glass back to Salvatore, but that small touch to her lips is enough to make her ill.

When Salvatore dies of the poison, his son Rodrigo has Lily brought to his home. She is so sick that instead of getting away, they find her passed out in her apartment. At first Rodrigo does not suspect her, after all she had been poisoned too. It isn’t until after she has gotten away that Rodrigo realizes his mistake. Now Lily has the mob after her and she still hasn’t found out why her friends were killed. Enter Lucas Swain the CIA’s best agent, with orders to bring Lily in or eliminate the problem.

The job Swain is sent to do becomes harder as he gets to know Lily. She is smart and resourceful, and maybe she was right to kill Salvatore. Swain and Lily lead you through the streets of Paris as they try to find out why a lab developing a flu vaccine is being protected by the mob, and what it had to do with her friends’ murder.The surprises keep coming while Lily and Swain grow closer as they work together to block the threat.

This book takes you on a roller coaster ride and doesn’t let you off until the last page..

If you like a good mystery give this book a try.

Happy reading, Linda Laughlin

 

Scattered by Joan Johnston

December 14, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Joan Johnston - ShatteredJoan Johnston writes novels with a western theme. I went to a used book sale and found one of her older books that I hadn’t read; “Shattered“, one of the her Bitter Creek novels. I had forgotten what a truly gifted storyteller this lady is.

Nine years ago Kate Grayhawk Pendleton walked into a hotel room she shared with her husband to find him in bed with another woman. Kate walks out of the room and into the bar downstairs, where she picks out a stranger and asks him to go upstairs with her. He checks them into the penthouse suite and a few weeks later she learns she is pregnant.

Fast forward nine years and she has buried her husband with military honers and become involved with a Texas Ranger, but all is not what it seems. She had been shot a few months before and while she is unconscious one of her twin sons had an accident, requiring a blood transfusion. Her mother-in-law, who is a prominent politician, has found out the twins are not her son’s biological children, but that doesn’t concern her as much as what the news, should it come out, will do to her political future.

As if Kate doesn’t have enough to deal with, her husband comes back from the dead and the biological father turns out to be a mob boss’ illegitimate son. Now I admit when you write this all out it sound a little hokey, but Kate and Wyatt Shaw have found the kind of chemistry that happens once in a lifetime. It also turns out Shaw is one of the good guys who has had a hard time living down the circumstances of his birth. While he is angry with Kate for keeping his sons from him, he is so pleased to be a father that he can’t hold on to his anger. He also finds out he is still as attracted to Kate as he was on that long ago night. Kate on the other hand is fighting her attraction to Shaw. She keeps telling herself that she is in love with the Texas Ranger, but she just can’t seem to make herself believe it.

This is really a fun read with plenty of mystery to keep you turning the pages.

Happy reading, Linda Laughlin

 

The Lost Key by Catherine Coulter

December 8, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Catherine Coulter started her career writing novels set in Regency era England. Her heroines were strong women, who pushed the limits set by society in that period. They made you laugh and you cheered them on when they pushed the envelope of their time period; definitely a good read.

Next came a series of FBI Novels. These are fast paced and interesting, with a cutting edge computer named “MAX” and the husband and wife FBI team of Savich and Sherlock. With these three on their trail, the bad guys soon found themselves in custody. If you like a good mystery, be sure to check out this series.

The Lost Key

Her latest series is written with J.T. Ellison and have the series title of “A Brit in the FBI”. These books features Nicholas Drummond and his American FBI counterpart, Mike, short for Michaela, Caine. In number two of the series,”The Lost Key”, there is a race to identify, locate and stop a madman from finding the secret to a formula for making a bomb that is smaller and more powerful than anything man has ever seen before.

 This book takes you from the USA to Britain, with plenty of action along the way. You get the impression that Britain was glad to send Nicholas to us because he is quick to shoot from the hip. Mike is the perfect partner for Nicholas since she understands how things are done in the good old US of A, and she soon learns that there is no one better to watch her back. I am looking forward to many more novels in this series.

If you are looking for a good book, I don’t think you will be disappointed with Catherine Coulter. I loaned my series of Regency era England books to a friend and they got him through a long recovery from knee surgery.

As always “Happy Reading”,

Linda

 

 

Sitting around the table with Linda Laughlin

December 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I have written a book and I use my grandmother’s maiden name, so some of the people I am acquainted with don’t know that I am an author. I know two ladies who just read biographies, so I would not expect them to rush out and buy my book. Some people don’t like to read, and while I don’t understand anyone in this category, I respect their right to feel this way. On the whole, I don’t bring the book up when I am in a group. I love hearing how much fun you had, and that you couldn’t put it down until you had turned the last page, but if you haven’t read “Run For Your Life!”, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.

Tonight I went to a Christmas Party; the first one of the year for me. I was at a table for 10 and someone said, “I just finished your book and I really liked it. Two or three others spoke up to say how much they enjoyed it. One lady ask when number two was due out and if it would be a sequel?

I am happy to report that I have finished the second draft of the next one, and I am going to start on the final draft the first of the week. Hopefully I will have book 2, “Fight For Your Life”, out sometime in January if my editor does’t have too long a list of rewrites. You will find out what happens in Steve and Leah’s life. Ted, the bartender has a new love interest and it isn’t what you or Leah expect. Come by the Ocean Front Bar and Grill and say “hello” to all your old friends.

If you have read “Run For Your Life!” drop me a note and tell me how you liked it? If you haven’t read it you are missing a good book.

Happy reading, Linda Laughlin

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