Book Notices | A Pleasure and a Calling by Phil Hogan / A Death in Sweden by Kevin Wignall / Ruthless by John Rector / Desperate by Daniel Palmer

Phil Hogan, A Pleasure and a Calling

Amazon   William Heming is a real estate agent who likes to keep an eye on the people he's sold houses to. To that end, he keeps copies of their keys and, well, I won't ruin the plot. But Heming is an intriguing character whom I want to see more of. He reminds me a bit of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley--a likable sociopath who is sometimes driven to extreme behaviors by his circumstances. Heming is likable too, and his behavior could certainly be described as extreme. I enjoyed his life as a small-town real estate agent--more than the flashbacks to his earlier life, although those early stories helped complete the author's profile of his character. I'd like to read more. And now that I think about it, I don't see why this couldn't be the first book in a series. Heming could continue getting into scrapes and wriggling his way out of them just like Tom Ripley does in sequels to The Talented Mr. Ripley. Do it, Phil Hogan! We need more.

Kevin Wignall, A Death in Sweden

Amazon   Dan Hendricks is a sort of freelance bounty hunter/assassin kind of guy, a one-time operative with the CIA who's now being hunted by his former employers. To save himself--it's a long story--he winds up hunting down information about an enigmatic loner who died in a bus crash in Sweden. And it turns out that the reason he was an enigmatic loner is pretty interesting. A very readable book, which I picked up as a Kindle First freebie a few weeks ago. I can see this one being the start of a series too (as above), with Dan being dragged back into old job every now and again for a new adventure.

John Rector, Ruthless

Amazon   Nick White plays along when a woman at a bar mistakes him for someone else, and things go downhill from there. Nick finds himself involved in a complex conspiracy that's centered for reasons that aren't clear on killing a young woman named Abigail. Nick's decision to try and save her puts him in danger. A decent, fast read, but I likely won't remember much about it in a week. And the ending was somehow odd...I guess because the author introduced a new character at the very end of the book, Teddy, who doesn't seem to need to be there.

Daniel Palmer, Desperate

Amazon   I think I've found a new author to watch. Daniel Palmer's Desperate is a very gripping read. Gage Dekker's life takes a dramatic turn when he and his wife meet a distraught woman at a bus stop. The tension builds deliciously in the first part of the story, when Gage has misgivings about how things are playing out but no way to prove that his concerns are based on anything realistic. The book then pivots into more of an action story--equally good but less cerebral. There's a complex scheme or two and a twist that I, at least, didn't see coming, and it was hard to put this one down. My only complaint was some hokey dialogue, particularly in the first part of the book, that struck me as unrealistic, but it certainly wasn't a deal breaker.