The Cleaner by Brett Battles

The Cleaner by Brett Battles

Synopsis

Meet Jonathan Quinn: a freelance operative with a take-no-prisoners style and the heart of a loner. His job? Professional “cleaner.” Nothing too violent, just disposing of bodies, doing a little cleanup if necessary. But in Brett Battles’s electrifying debut novel, Quinn’s latest assignment will change everything, igniting a harrowing journey of violence, betrayal, and revenge.

The job seemed simple enough: investigating a suspicious case of arson. But when a dead body turns up where it doesn’t belong–and Quinn’s handlers at “the Office” turn strangely silent–he knows he’s in over his head. With only a handful of clues, Quinn scrambles for cover, struggling to find out why someone wants him dead . . . and if it’s linked to a larger attempt to wipe out the Office.

The Cleaner

Quinn’s only hope may be Orlando, a woman from his past who’s reluctant to help but who may hold the key to solving the case. Suddenly the two are prying into old crimes, crisscrossing continents, struggling to stay alive long enough to unbury the truth. But as the hunt intensifies, Quinn is stunned by what he uncovers: a chilling secret . . . and a brilliantly orchestrated conspiracy–with an almost unimaginable goal.

Furiously paced, filled with superbly drawn characters and pitch-perfect dialogue, The Cleaner puts a powerful twist on all our expectations as it confirms Brett Battles’s place as one of the most exciting new talents in suspense fiction today.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Agency troubleshooter finds himself on the run when he is targeted after an innocuous job assignment. Travelling through Vietnam, Germany the climax comes in Berlin when we uncovers a plot to let loose a deadly virus intended for a specific race of people.
The writer has created his character as a Bond wannabe. With gadgets and propensity to wiggle out of tough situations just in the Nick of time, this a rather a lame attempt at a thriller. The story does not get going until well into half of the book.

The Color of Blood by Declan Hughes

The Color of Blood by Declan Hughes

Synopsis

A reputable dentist from a venerable medical family, Shane Howard wants Loy to find his lost daughter after receiving a set of photographs featuring nineteen-year-old Emily in provocative poses. But a simple missing persons case rapidly devolves into something even more sordid and grisly when two of the players are savagely slain. And it's only the beginning.

The Howard family is not what it seems. Beneath a veneer of wealth and respectability is a dark history of corruption and rot and secrets best left unearthed. By entering the Howards' vicious circle, Loy may find himself stained with the most corrosive and lethal type of blood—the kind that even death cannot eradicate.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman

Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman

Synopsis

This richly illustrated book is the first to apply the discoveries of the new generation of food historians to the pleasures of dining and the culinary accomplishments of diverse civilizations, past and present. Editor Paul Freedman has gathered essays by French, German, Belgian, American, and British historians to present a comprehensive, chronological history of taste from prehistory to the present day. The authors explore the early repertoire of sweet tastes; the distinctive contributions made by classical antiquity and China; the subtle, sophisticated, and varied group of food customs created by the Islamic civilizations of Iberia, the Arabian desert, Persia, and Byzantium; the magnificent cuisine of the Middle Ages, influenced by Rome and adapted from Islamic Spain, Africa, and the Middle East; the decisive break with highly spiced food traditions after the Renaissance and the new focus on primary ingredients and products from the New World; French cuisine's rise to dominance in Europe and America; the evolution of modern restaurant dining, modern agriculture, and technological developments; and today's tastes, which employ few rules and exhibit a glorious eclecticism. The result is the enthralling story not only of what sustains us but also of what makes us feel alive.

⇒ Via: BN.com

A collection of essays on food throughout the ages right form prehistoric times to current. The evolution of taste and palatte of man and its effect on current culinary practices and food.

Absolution by Caro Ramsay

Absolution by Caro Ramsay

Synopsis

It's been twenty years since Police Detective Alan McAlpine has set foot in Patrickhill Station-and more than twenty years since he fell forever in love with the mute, faceless woman he called Anna as she lay dying in Glasgow's Western Infirmary. Daily, he'd watched over her, and they had begun to communicate with each other, she by moving her wounded fingers. Her fingers could not tell the sad, unseasoned police cadet her name, however, or name for him the father of her newborn baby girl or identify the assailants who had flung the acid in her once incomparably beautiful face. Or tell him how she'd smuggled a cache of uncut diamonds into Scotland.

Now McAlpine is back in Patrickhill, where he's been summoned to head up the investigation of a disturbing murder case. Two women-their arms outstretched, their legs together and feet crossed at the ankle-have already died at the hands of a man the press has tagged the Crucifixion Killer. More gruesomely, the third victim will also have been violently disfigured when her body turns up in Whistler's Lane, coincidentally (perhaps) the scene of an equally brutal murder four years earlier.

The face of another woman, though-a strikingly beautiful young woman, blonde-has taken hold of McAlpine's consciousness, and soon the consequences of a case cold for two decades are commanding-and dangerously thwarting-the course of his team's current, already desperate investigation.

As crimes in the present intersect with iniquities committed in the past, the mystery in this steely, piercing, psychological thriller is as gripping as its twists are surprising. And absolution proves to be extreme.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Thriller about a conflicted policeman whose past comes to haunt him in his latest case almost 20 years later. A serial killer is loose, killing immoral women who are linked by a tenuous thread. Well written but leaves you wanting for more. The main character is wasted and the reader is left wondering why.

Gone to Ground by John Harvey

Gone to Ground by John Harvey

Synopsis

When police detective Will Grayson and his partner, Helen Walker, investigate the violent death of Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, their first thoughts are of an ill-judged sexual encounter or a fatal lovers’ quarrel: The man’s face was like a glove that had been pulled inside out. But they soon shift focus to the book Bryan was writing about the life and mysterious death of fifties film star Stella Leonard. While Bryan’s sister puts herself in danger by conducting her own investigation, Grayson and Walker peel away the secrets of a family blighted by a lust for wealth and power and by its perverted sexuality. On the heels of his critically acclaimed Frank Elder series, John Harvey delivers a page-turner both subtle and devastating.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Police detective investigates brutal death of gay professor.

At the City's Edge by Marcus Sakey

At the City's Edge by Marcus Sakey

From the Publisher

Home from Iraq and still reeling from his discharge, Jason Palmer plans to spend the summer drinking too much and chasing girls. But when his brother is brutally murdered, Jason is all that stands between his eight-year-old nephew and a pair of ruthless killers with a mysterious agenda. As he struggles to protect all that remains of his family, Jason finds himself embroiled in something much larger than a simple quest for justice. Chicago is burning, set ablaze by gang warfare and the passions of wicked men, and the battle for Jason’s South Side neighborhood is looking more and more like the war he just left.
Now, in a city where corruption is simply the cost of doing business, where issues of race and class smolder just beneath the surface, Jason will be forced to face the mistakes of yesterday to fight for a better tomorrow. Marcus Sakey fulfills his promise in this dark thriller that probes the underbelly of America’s meanest streets—and the costs of our deepest bonds.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Burnt-out soldier just returned from Iraq avenges his crusading brother's death at the hands of corrupt politicians and gangsters.