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Saturday, February 6, 2016

March Big Names and Names That Deserve To Be Big

 There are some big names publishing this month - or at least I think they are big names. Maybe not everyone will agree with me but I'm going to list them anyway.

First, because she is dead, is the beloved author Maeve Binchy.  On March 1, A Few of the Girls is being published. This is a collection of stories that have not been published in the US. Anyone who misses her since her 2012 death will for sure want to check this title out.

On to the living authors.

C.J. Box has Off the Grid coming out on March 8. This is the 16th title in the Joe Pickett series. The thing that is interesting is that Robert Redford is developing a Joe Pickett television series so this might pick up speed for Box. This one emphasises Joe's old fried Nate Romanowski who is living off the grid because of some past crimes. Nate is approached by some unspecified government agents about infiltrating a domestic terror cell in exchange for them wiping out any record of his crimes. Joe and he discover that nothing is as it seems and everyone is in danger.

My most favorite author, Harlan Coben, has Fool Me Once coming out on March 22.  Former special ops pilot Maya comes home from the war to her husband and child but shortly afterwards, her husband is murdered. So...when going back to work, she quickly checks the nanny cam - imagine her shock when she sees her husband playing with her daughter. How could this be???? You have to read the book and follow Maya as she turns into an investigator, as she finds out.

Next comes Clive Cussler and the ninth of his Isaac Bell series. Actually this is Clive Cussler with Justin Scott who has written books on his own but not since 2008. Like James Patterson, Cussler has started taking on partners. The Gangster arrives on March 1. This series are historical thrillers from the early twentieth century. In 1906 New York City, Bell faces the Italian crime group - the Black Hand. Cussler's work is always action packed and fast paced. I would put him more toward adventure than suspense but that is really an individual thing.

Jeffery Deaver, who may have lost some of his popularity, is coming back strong with The Steel Kiss which arrives on March 8. This is the twelfth in the Amelia Sachs and Lincoln Rhyme series. Here they are chasing a killer who hates the new electronic age and hacks into things and turns them against their owners (i.e. microwaves explode; circuit boxes electrocute). Sachs was chasing him when an escalator fails and traps a man (I could have nightmares about this one).

James Grippando is one of those authors who deserve a bigger name than he currently has. Don't misunderstand me, he certainly has his following, but you can compare his work to David Baldacci whose popularity is on a higher level. Grippando has Gone Again coming out on March 1. This is the also the twelfth in the Jack Swyteck series. Swyteck is a Miami criminal defense lawyer and in this one he is defending a man about to be executed for abducting and killing a teenager when the teens mother calls him and tells him she got a call from her daughter. The police don't want to investigate and the governor won't stop the execution so Swyteck must find the girl before an innocent man is killed. But what he finds, may not be what he expects.

Lastly, Randy Wayne White has Deep Blue coming out on March 15. He has been compared to John D. MacDonald and Stuart Woods but I kind of think he is perhaps more like Carl Hiaasen. If you haven't read him, his style is fast paced and gritty with a strong sense of place. His books mostly take place in Florida on the Gulf. this is the twenty third of the Doc Ford series. Mutilated dolphins are washing ashore on Sanibel Island and tourists are staying away by droves. Ford thinks a predator is causing it but that the predator walks on land with two legs. Who is it and what is the evil plan?

OK - hopefully there is something here for everyone. February is a short month so....I will try harder to get more into it.

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