RIP VI Challenge Completed

Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegelman

Carr—ex-CIA— is the reluctant leader of an elite crew planning a robbery of such extraordinary proportions that it will leave them set for life. Diamonds, money laundering, and extortion go into a timed-to-the-minute scheme that unfurls across South America, Miami, and Grand Cayman Island. Carr’s cohorts are seasoned pros, but they’re wound drum-tight—months before, the man who brought them together was killed in what Carr suspects was a setup. And there are other loose ends: some of the intel they’re paying for is badly inaccurate, and one of the gang—lately, Carr’s lover—may have an agenda of her own. But Carr’s biggest problems are yet to come, because few on his crew are what they seem to be, and even his own past is a lie.

A page-turning thriller that has you suspicious of every character, wondering if there is a double/triple cross happening that keeps you guessing right to the end. 

The White Devil by Justin Evans

American Andrew Taylor arrives as an exchange student at Harrow, the legendary school where England’s elite have been educated for centuries. When the first friend he makes dies suddenly from a severe pulmonary illness—followed by a spate of similar illnesses among the students—Andrew is promptly branded as a Typhoid Mary, and becomes a pariah among his classmates. Then he begins to fear he is losing his mind when the specter of a pale, strange boy begins to visit him at night.

Andrew’s only solace comes from a friendship with Piers Fawkes, a poet who is attempting to revive his declining career with a play about one of Harrow’s most famous students—Lord Byron. Andrew’s physical resemblance to the Romantic poet lands him the lead role.

As Andrew loses himself in the part, learning about the violent and squalid Harrow of Byron’s time, events in the play begin to mirror Andrew’s contemporary experience, tangling him in a centuries-old literary mystery that will take him and a few loyal friends to the edge of darkness.

This book made me want to do research to find out how much of the story about Lord Bryon was true. There are many characters, but they are easy to keep track of as the mystery of the ghost is revealed .

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.

It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.

The cover of this book grabbed my attention and then I read that the authors are being compared to Steig Larrson (which is unfair) so I picked it up. Right away we are thrown into the grisly crime and once Dr. Bark becomes involved things go from bad to worse. Joona Linna is intriguing and I look forward to delving into this character as he will be back in future books.

White Heat by M.J. McGrath

Half Inuit and half outsider, Edie Kiglatuk is the best guide in her corner of the Arctic. But as a woman, she gets only grudging respect from the elders who ruled her isolated community on Ellesmere Island. When a man is shot and killed while out on an "authentic" Arctic adventure under her watch, the murder attracts the attention of police sergeant Derek Palliser. As Edie sets out to discover what those tourists were really after, she is shocked by the suicide of someone very close to her. Though these events are seemingly unrelated, Edie's Inuit hunter sensibility tells her otherwise. With or without Derek's help, she is determined to find the key to this connection-a search that takes her beyond her small village, and into the far reaches of the tundra.

I am glad I listened to a recommendation to read this debut novel. The setting is interesting, I felt the cold, and the characters are engaging. The mystery surrounding the events is one that captured my attention and had me turning the pages until the end. 

These books complete the RIP VI Challenge.