jbronderbookreviews

Golden Prey (Lucas Davenport – 27) by John Sandford

The man was smart and he didn’t mind killing people. Welcome to the big leagues, Davenport. Lucas Davenport’s first case as a U.S. Marshal sends him into uncharted territory, in the thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.

Thanks to some very influential people whose lives he saved, Lucas is no longer working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, but for the U.S. Marshals Service, and with unusual scope. He gets to pick his own cases, whatever they are, wherever they lead him.
And where they’ve led him this time is into real trouble. A Biloxi, Mississippi, drug-cartel counting house gets robbed, and suitcases full of cash disappear, leaving behind five bodies, including that of a six-year-old girl. Davenport takes the case, which quickly spirals out of control, as cartel assassins, including a torturer known as the “Queen of home-improvement tools” compete with Davenport to find the Dixie Hicks shooters who knocked over the counting house. Things get ugly real fast, and neither the cartel killers nor the holdup men give a damn about whose lives Davenport might have saved; to them, he’s just another large target.

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Author’s Bio

John Sandford was born John Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones of Cedar Rapids, a fellow student at the University of Iowa. He was in the U.S. Army from 1966-68, worked as a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian from 1968-1970, and went back to the University of Iowa from 1970-1971, where he received a master’s degree in journalism. He was a reporter for The Miami Herald from 1971-78, and then a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978-1990; in 1980, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and he won the Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories about a midwestern farm crisis. From 1990 to the present he has written thriller novels. He’s also the author of two non-fiction books, one on plastic surgery and one on art. He is the principal financial backer of a major archeological project in the Jordan Valley of Israel, with a website at www.rehov.org In addition to archaeology, he is deeply interested in art (painting) and photography. He both hunts and fishes. He has two children, Roswell and Emily, and one grandson, Benjamin. His wife, Susan, died of metastasized breast cancer in May, 2007, and is greatly missed.

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My Review

5 stars

Lucas Davenport is back and now has a job as a US Marshall where he can pick and choose his cases. Lucas has been on the hunt for Garvin Poole, and armed robber that shoots, shoots, and shoots again. Poole has been hiding out but recently decides to rob a counting house which leads to five deaths, including that of a six year old child. But Poole picked the wrong house and now has the cartel after him. They will stop at nothing to find him including torture and kill those that know anything about him. Lucas will be playing the ultimate game of cat and mouse with Poole and a torturer known as “Queen of home-improvement tools.

Lucas is in a new world with his new job with none of his prior contacts and friends. He is going to have to start from scratch and with his special status he has ruffled several feathers. But this doesn’t stop him from hunting down Poole.

This is a fast paced, action packed story. Lucas is a great detective and is bound and determined to get his man. I have not read a lot of John Sandford’s books but I really enjoyed Golden Prey. This book could be read as a standalone but it also is a great way to be introduced to the Prey series. I can’t wait to see what Sandford has in store for Lucas next.

I received Golden Prey from Penguin Random House for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.

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The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz

She has nothing to live for in the present, but finds there’s something worth dying for in the past…

From Tiffany Reisz, the international bestselling storyteller behind The Bourbon Thief and The Original Sinners series, comes an enthralling new novel about a woman swept away by the tides who awakens to find herself in 1921, reunited with the husband she’s been mourning for four years. Fans of Kate Morton and Diana Gabaldon will fall in love with the mystery, romance and beauty of an isolated South Carolina lighthouse, where a power greater than love works its magic.

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Author’s Bio

Tiffany Reisz is the author of the internationally bestselling and award-winning Original Sinners series for Mira Books (Harlequin/Mills & Boon). Tiffany’s books inhabit a sexy shadowy world where romance, erotica and literature meet and do immoral and possibly illegal things to each other. She describes her genre as “literary friction,” a term she stole from her main character, who gets in trouble almost as often as the author herself. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, author Andrew Shaffer, and two cats. If she couldn’t write, she would die.

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My Review

4 stars

Faye Barlow lost her soul mate, Will four years earlier. Then her marriage to his best friend has not been that great. So she turns to something that she loves, photography. While in Beaufort she meets Father Pat, the man that painted a mysterious woman. After sharing her past with him, he tells her about the painting, the lighthouse, and Carrick Morgan. When she is swept away by a wave, Faye finds herself saved by Carrick. She slowly learns that she is actually Faith Morgan, Carrick’s daughter. Faith died of a mysterious drowning and we are along for the ride for the truth.

I was heartbroken about Faye. She lost the love of her life, was stuck in a non to happy marriage, had two miscarriages, and just feels like nothing is ever going to look up again. She was basically existing and the divorce left her with almost nothing. Carrick is a true gentleman and you can’t help but be swept off your feet like Faye was. But where does Faye’s live need to be? In 1921 with Carrick or in present day?

This is a great romance that crosses the ages. There is hardship and happiness and beautiful settings. This is a great story that will tug at your heart strings. This is one worth checking out.

I received The Night Mark from the publisher for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.

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