Bangkok Warlock by John P. Logsdon and Noah Sturdevant

I like the fact that new readers to the PPD series' get a quick crash course in the world of PPD but they don't have to worry about what is going on in those other settings to get to know about Mark Vedis and Co. It's a whole new world, well, new country but you get the gist.

It is safe to say that Mark doesn't feel like he is going to be promoted any time soon, if any thing is going to happen he will probably be re-located, again. That tends to happen when you are not very powerful. But after an eventful night with Were-cows, murder, mayhem, an old contract and a demon thrown in and you get a hilarious story about a guy doing an impression of a swan (calm on the surface, paddling like crazy underneath) and worrying that he's not doing a very good job at it. Throw in a crazy assortment of characters both old and new, an amazing storyline, an A.I with no filter and you have a fantastic new world to get lost in.

Caught Dead: A Rick Van Lam Mystery by Andrew Lanh

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. Rick Van Lam is a product of the Vietnam war. His father is a nameless American G.I and his mother is Vietnamese. He isn't accepted by either the Americans or the Vietnamese. When he is 13, he is sent to live in America and is eventually adopted. He becomes a police officer but finds that he doesn't quite fit so he moves and becomes a private investigator. He also teaches a class through the summer at the local college.

When his friend Hank asks him to look into the death of Mary Le, he tells him he will ask some questions, he knows that the Vietnamese community wouldn't talk to him. Mary was killed in the wrong part of town in what the police called a drive-by. But no-one can explain why Mary was in that part of town to begin with. A week later her sister is killed in the same place, in the same manner.

With plenty of clues to follow, Rick plods along, being snubbed by the Vietnamese community and eventually get to the right conclusion. The author has done a wonderful job of describing the characters, Hanks Grandma is a gem. The storyline is intriguing and wonderfully descriptive of a community that don't like outsiders.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of murder/mysteries.

Hotter Than Helltown by S.M. Reine

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I started to read this book I had to stop after the first chapter and purchase the first two in the series and read them first. I have a weird quirk, I can't start reading a series part way through, I have to start at the beginning. And what a great series this is.

Agent Cesar Hawke is trying to track down a murderer who is capable of clearing the minds of the dead so there is no way for him to find out what they last saw even with the help of a specialist. Soon enough he finds himself on the trail of the killer and even though that trail heads into Helltown, the bad guys there are scared of this killer.

When his boss is kidnapped, he works out why people are being killed, what is doing the killing and the reason why his boss has been taken. With the help of a medium, he tracks down his boss and in the process of rescuing him, he ends up bonding with him.

There is quite a lot I could say about this book but I don't want to give away any details. I will say that it is a fast-paced read with a great storyline, wonderful characters and witty one-liners.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes Urban Fantasy

Ice Man Cometh by C.T. Wente

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Although it took me a few attempts to get into this book, I'm glad I stuck with it. I found the characters interesting, I adored the letters that Jeri was receiving, I was intrigued as she was by them.

I liked how the plot widened to encompass the FBI and Homeland Security and showed what a piss poor job of communicating goes on between one group and another.

I was especially pleased with the ending.....I'm not going to write anything else as I don't want to spoil this really great read for anyone else....... Just remember...... Don't Order Dog.

The Trial of Dr. Kate by Michael E. Glasscock III

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little stumped at the title of this book, after reading it I would have thought The Adventures of Shenandoah would have been more appropriate.

Shenandoah Coleman is one of the few Coleman's to get out of Beulah Land.  She flew planes during the war, went to college and became a reporter.  When she heard about her friend being put on trial for murder back in her home town of Round Rock, she talks her editor into letting her go back home and cover the trial.

From the first day there, it is obvious that someone is out to get her.  Her car tyres are slashed and she is almost driven off the road several times but she can't go to the local sheriff as he is holding a grudge from grade school.  

The characters are entertaining, the story is well-written but the first half is a bit drawn out.  When the story finally gets to the actual trial of Dr Kate it seems to speed up.  

There is a bit of a love interest for Shenandoah with a twist at the end and all the strands of the tale are all nicely tied up but not all have happy endings.

This is a great insight into life after the war and the beginning of the end of segregation too.  It also shows a different insight into the way that women were treated too.  Definitely a thought-provoking read.

Affliction (Anita Blake #22) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Although I've given this a 4 star rating but that's only because I can't give it a 3.5.

There is an actual plot this time instead of pages of sex, don't get me wrong I've nothing against sex but when every page is sex it gets old really fast.  I found myself speed-reading through the last few books.  

I liked the story-line in this book, the action scenes are great and Micah's family are wonderful but I thought the some of the sex scenes were there just to fill the pages.  I was really glad to see Edward and see Anita actually solving a crime and raising some zombies too.  

I thought the ending was a bit of a damp squib, a great build-up and then two pages and it was done.  It was as if the ending was rushed.  I'm not going to be in a rush to get the next book as I was a bit disappointed with this.  I think it's time Anita got back to solving crime and raising zombies again.

Tangled Threads (Elemental Assassin #4) by Jennifer Estep.

Another great book from Jennifer Estep.  It pelts along at a rip-roaring pace with no holds barred action.

Gin continues on her campaign to take down Mab anyway she can but this time there's an assassin named LaFleur to take care of too.  She's been hired by Mab to take over from Slater, her former head of security, she's also been hired to kill Gins' little sister Bria and McAllister has talked her into taking out Gin, not knowing that she and the Spider are the same person.

Gin also has to navigate the murky world of emotions, she's dating Owen Grayson but she keeps stumbling over the scars left by her last liaison.  I can't bring myself to call her ex a boyfriend as all they did was get down and dirty a few times, but it has messed with Gins' head and she keeps holding Owen at bay.  She keeps expecting to see revulsion and fear in his eyes as she did with her ex.

When she is in the alley behind the Pork Pit taking out the trash, she is accosted by LaFleur but as luck would have it, Bria steps out into the alley too.  They both get taken with LaFleur intent on killing them both.  In the act of escaping Gin finally comes clean about who she is to Bria but it isn't the happy reunion that she had hoped for, she can live with that as long as Bria gets out of the scrape they are in and Gin gets to kill LaFleur, striking another blow to Mab Monroe.

I can't stop reading this series, as soon as I finish one book I'm straight into the next.  It's a fantastic series that leaves you wanting more.  The characters are extremely likable and interesting, the elemental magic is used in a very convincing way, it's been thoroughly thought out and works extremely well.  

Anyone who loves urban fantasy, romance, suspense and murder with a dash of magic will find this series exceptional.

Venom (Elemental Assassin #3) by Jennifer Estep.

From the first page, all the way through to the last, this is a well-written, none-stop, action packed tale with murder, magic, suspense and a dash of romance.

Gin gets involved when a local Vampire Madame is being stalked by Mab Monroe's head of security, a giant named Elliot Slater.  Besides being Mab's chief enforcer, Slater has a thing for stalking beautiful women, forcing them to act as his girlfriend before he brutally tortures, rapes and murders them and he's now set his sights on Roslyn Phillips.

Gin feels responsible as she thinks Roslyn only came to Slater's attention after doing a favour for Gin.  Seeing how terrified Roslyn is, she makes a promise to get rid of Slater for her.

Just to spice things up a bit, Gin's baby sister Bria is back in Ashland, she's a detective who is determined to rid the town of corruption and also seems set on helping Roslyn too, it's unfortunate that she doesn't get the help from the police force but Mab owns a large majority of the force.

Gin finally finds out why Mab killed her family and why she sent Slater and his men after Bria and now she's coming out of retirement and declaring war on Mab.

On to Tangled Threads, I can't wait to see what's next for Gin and Co.

Web of Lies (Elemental Assassin #2) by Jennifer Estep.

This story continues from Spiders Bite, it's set two months after Fletcher 's funeral.  Gin is now retired from the assassination business and is finding it to be boring.

When she is approached by a young woman asking for the Tin Man, she finds her interest piqued.  It seems that a local miner, Tobias Dawson is threatening her grandfather and herself, he wants their land and he wants it now.

Gin has also drawn the attention of a very powerful lawyer who works for Mab Monroe, a fire elemental who runs Ashland with an iron fist.  She stopped a couple of young men from robbing the Pork Pit and one of them is the son of the lawyer, he's also a fire elemental.  When she insists on pressing charges, his father tries intimidating her and getting her to drop the charges but he's chosen the wrong woman to mess with.  She's the assassin known as The Spider and she always gets her way.

In the process of getting close to Dawson so she can kill him, Gin finds herself at one of Mab's parties.  When she is recognised by Jake McAllister, the young man who tried to rob her place, she ends up killing him so he couldn't give her away or burn her as he promised.

Dealing with Dawson soon becomes a matter of life and death as he recognizes her power and knocks her out.  She wakes up to find herself deep in his mine with him and some of his men.  When he challenges her to a duel, she has to use her power to defend herself and to finish Dawson off once and for all, ensuring that Violet and Warren Fox never have to sell their property or worry about being murdered ever again.

This is a well-written story with great characters and none stop action all the way through.  I love Gin, Finn and the Deveraux sisters.  The situations that Gin gets into make me laugh out loud and I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves reading, you get magic, romance, suspense and murder.  A great urban fantasy.

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep

I recently read Deadly Sting not realising it was one of a series, I enjoyed it so much that it became a goal of mine to read the first set of the series.

I started reading Spider's Bite as soon as I got it and I barely put it down. It's a fantastic introduction to Gin Blanco A.K.A The Spider, waitress by day at the Pork Pit and deadly Assassin at night.

When she is contracted to kill someone and gets double-crossed she would have let it slide, but the person who contracted her killed her handler, the closest thing to a father she has. So with the help of his son and a detective who is also targeted to be killed, she tracks down the elemental who is responsible and exacts her own retribution.

From start to finish this is a gripping tale with non-stop action, elemental magic and dead bodies galore. I can't wait to get Web of Deceit.

Jennifer's characters are well-written, very complex and very likeable. I can highly recommend this book to anyone no matter what their preference. There's plenty of violence, sex and action for everyone to enjoy.

Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles

This book made me chuckle, Violets kids are both endearing and frustrating, but that is what you get with twins. Violet herself is a bit of a ditz but she does try really hard at everything she does.

Her relationships are non-existent and when she does start to date someone, well she picks the wrong guy. He seems ideal to begin with, good-looking, self-employed and needing to sell his house, which she's hoping to do for him. What she doesn't realise is that he's a kidnapper and murderer.

As she tries to find out who keeps sending her flowers and keeping her kids, especially her daughter safe, she's also trying to find out who took the other girls and what happened to them. Her list of suspects are dwindling and it's not until near the end of the book that she finds out who the real criminal is.

With the help of a few of her realty clients, she finds out who's the culprit is, they also end up saving her from him.

Onto book two, I hope it's as good as the first.

Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason

** spoiler alert ** What can I say about Three Graves Full. It's an unusual take on a murder/crime book, that's for sure.

Jason Getty has lived for nearly two years with a dead body in his back garden, one he planted there himself. Living with that knowledge isn't easy for Jason as he is, in a word, a Wimp. He is the epitome of the word Wimp. He's got no back-bone, he doesn't know how to stand up for himself and the one time that he really does lose it, he kills someone. To be fair he was pushed and bullied but murder is murder and now he has to live with it.

After planting the body he tries to get on with life but there's that voice at the back of his head that keeps nattering at him. It wakes him up at night, gasping for air. It has him looking in the mirror to see if he's changed. But he hasn't, he's still a Wimp.

Deciding that he should at least tidy up the front garden so the neighbours don't complain, well it's been nearly two years since he did anything, seems like an easy task especially as he gets a contractor to do it. The knock on the door and the conversation with the gardener telling him they've found something isn't. Neither is the phone call and the following interviews with Detective Bayard. It would seem that Jason wasn't the only person to commit murder in the property. There's two graves at the front of the property and he had been none the wiser.

Leah knew that Reid was a cheat, she always knew and he always came back. When he ran away a few weeks before their wedding, three years ago, she knew something had happened but not what. Now she has been told where he's been all these years, she just wants to see, to get some closure. What she gets is nearly killed. Some things should be left alone.

Boyd just wants to get away, now that the bodies of his wife and her lover have been discovered. After pretending to be his dead twin Bart for a couple of years he thought he'd just get a slap on the wrist for cashing his welfare cheques so when the police try to arrest him he does a runner. His first stop is his old house to see if his old neighbour can help him.

The three of them converge on Jason's back garden that night and a strange evening of events occur. Jason's trying to dig up his body in the back yard before Bayard can get the cadaver dogs, Leah is drawn to the lights that he's using and ends up getting her head bashed with a shovel when all she wanted to do was say goodbye to Reid and Bart was drawn to the mewling sound coming from the rotten smelling tarp.

From there its a mad, crazy night for all of them. Poor Jason hasn't got a clue what to do now, his window for moving the body and making a getaway are closing, Bart thinks he's killed a police officer who has shown up to make sure Leah is ok and Leah is just joining the dots and getting Jason to help her to save the police office.

Jamie Mason has written Jason Getty so well that you can just picture a bland and boring human being with doormat written all over him. His efforts to stand up for himself and the ensuing chaos are morbidly funny and the fact that Leah helps him out at the end, by tying up all the loose ends into a conceivable story, are just as much a part of his inability to think for himself and to stand up for himself.

I shall definitely be on the look-out for more of Jamie Mason's books and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, no matter what genre they like to read.

Deadly Sting by Jennifer Estep

I received this book free from the publishers for the purpose of reading, reviewing and leaving an honest opinion. This has in no way affected my opinion.

Although this is book eight of a series that I haven't read, it in no way detracted from the story. I wasn't wondering what the characters were talking about or why this was happening or that. It certainly stands well on its own and I shall be on the look out for the rest of this series.

Gin Blanco, A.K.A. The Spider is a strong lead character who knows what she's doing and how to go about doing it. No muss, no fuss. Sure there's the fact that she's one of the most deadliest assassins alive but don't let a little thing like that dissuade you from liking her. When she's not out doing her night job then she can usually be found at the Pork-Pit, a local diner which she also owns. She is also proficient in Elemental Magic, mainly Stone and Ice and it's come in handy on more than one occasion.

She's persuaded to go to a museum event, showing the collection of Mab Monroe, mega-rich Fire Elemental and one of Gin's victims. To be fair, she had tried to kill Gin on a few occasions but obviously failed.

Unbeknownst to everyone attending the gala, there's about to be a serious problem in the form of a robbery. All the guards are Giants and one of them has masterminded the heist of the century, unfortunately she hadn't factored Gin into the equation.

When a guest is killed by one of the Giants due to a simple case of mistaken identity, Gin is free to set about scuppering the Giants plans and making sure all the guest are safe. Meanwhile the Giant in charge, Clementine, thinks she's killed The Spider as well as pulling the heist off.

Needless to say things don't turnout how Clementine pictured and with a high body count and everyone else safe, Gin is victorious. She realises that Clementine was working for somebody and not the great mastermind she wanted everyone to think she was and with the help of her friend Finn, Gin finds out who is pulling the strings and the book ends with a great lead into the next.

As I said, I shall now be on the look-out for the first set of books and I would highly recommend this book and series to anyone who loves urban/paranormal fantasy. With a touch of murder thrown in too.

Carved In Darkness by Maegan Beaumont

I really enjoyed this book. I suffered from O.M.C (one more chapter) until I'd finished it. It was one of those books that kept me guessing the whole way through.

Seventeen year old Melissa is snatched off the street and kept for 83 days, during that time she was raped and tortured. She had her eyes sewn shut and was kept in a basement until he finally went too far, killed her and dumped her in a prayer garden.

Moving forward fifteen years and Sabrina is a police officer with a big secret. She's Melissa and no-one knows she survived apart from her Gran, her room-mate Val and her younger brother and sister.

When the man who took her finds out she's alive he will do anything to get her back. He has continued to kill girls but none of them are Melissa and that's who he wants.

The story is gruesome in parts, the torture scenes are very descriptive. With the help of Michael, whose sister was taken the year before, Sabrina must go back and find the man who kept her all those years ago and who has killed again to flush her out into the open.

She's also got to stay out of the reach of her own police precinct as she is wanted on suspicion of murder, which she's being framed for.

Throw in a cop who hates her, one who is in love with her, a murderer who wants her back and Michael, she's not short of men in her life but she doesn't want any. She's built up walls to keep everyone away but finds that with Michael she doesn't need them but Michael isn't good boyfriend material, he's a mercenary.

He's also falling for her but knows nothing can come of it. He will do anything to keep her safe and get his sisters killer though.

I definitely recommend this book but not if you're squeamish. It's well-written, has a good arc and keeps you up reading one more chapter.

Automatic Woman by Nathan L. Yocum

As the saying goes "third times the charm" and that's how many attempts it took for me to get into this book.

The first 50 pages I kept having to re-read because the words just weren't sinking in.  Finally, after Jolly had been released from the holding cells, the story got going.  It got a bit silly though, what with all the famous people popping up, Darwin, Rasputin and Stoker to name a few.

Once he finds out what's going on and who all the players are and what he means to them, that's when it gets better.  There's some great fight scenes and he shows that he can work a case as well as the next guy, he's not just a bruiser but I found it all a bit predictable.

I liked his scenes with Mary and found myself hoping he managed to sort everything out just because Mary deserved a happy ending.

I would recommend this to anyone who was just getting interested in this genre but it wouldn't be at the top of my list for recommendations.

The Killing Floor by Lee Child

I really enjoyed this book, my only problem was the little voice in my head telling me "there's no way Tom Cruise can pull this off". I just can't get the image from the movie trailer of him out of my head. Aside from that, what's not to love. A great big story with lots of twists, a loner in a small town who gets picked up because he looks like a suspect.

It put me in mind of some westerns I used to read when I was younger. There was the lone cowboy, ex-soldier, who rode into town and after a few fights, a few love scenes and offing the bad guy rode off into the sunset.

I'm definitely going to carry on with this series. I'll just have to train my brain to picture some other actor as Jack Reacher. Maybe Dave Batista from WWE. He's definitely the right size and certainly easy on the eyes, unlike Tom Cruise who's just too small for the part.

Liquid Lies by Lois Lavrisa

I was sent this free from the publishers, Sunlake Press.  I was looking forward to reading it as its the type of book I normally like, however I was a tad disappointed.  It kicks of with a good start, introducing us to Cecilia and Francesca, best friends out for a birthday.  CiCi as Cecilia prefers to be called just can't say no to her friend, Francesca, which really is the main fault with her.  After a flat-tyre and a run-in with a trucker, they end up making a pact and then not speaking to each other for four years.

The story skips over these four years and starts when Francesca re-enters CiCi's life.  Again she is unable to say no to her and this leads to more complications, a murder, a blackmailer and just to cap it off, another murder.   All these things could have been avoided if CiCi had been able to say no to her friend.  Instead she finds herself with a police officer who thinks she's the killer, a fiance who decides to break things off and a new guy who could be either the killer, the blackmailer or both.  Oh and she's finds herself falling for him.  The middle part of this story is a little slow and boggy, it takes its time to get going and then just when you think it's not going to take off, it does just that.  You get dragged to the end of the story, where we find out just who has done what and why, then to top it off with a bit of sugar, we get a happy ending.

I would recommend this to anyone who is just wanting to dip their toe into a crime/thriller that's a light and easy read.

"http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5636639-julie"