This was a nice little mystery/thriller with the differentiating feature being the placement in and involvement with the Amish community in Ohio. Having lived for 15 years adjacent to a largely Amish area in NE Ohio, I was curious to see if the portrayal would be accurate. This was the case for the most part.

Aside from the Amish storyline, Sworn to Silence was an average to somewhat above average police novel. The plot was reasonable and the ending twist definitely a surprise. Characterizations were deep but incomplete, and there was almost not character development outside of the 2 main protagonists. Even the Amish aspect of the book was not significantly detailed.

Having said that, the book was reasonably compelling and I would definitely give a read to any upcoming sequel.

Spoiler Alert...
I greatly looked forward to this third Beauty Killer book. I enjoyed the first two books in terms of the excellent premise supplemented by good and ever-expanding character development. The third installment, Evil at Heart, continues this progression almost to a fault, as Gretchen Lowell barely makes an appearance in the book. This did serve to heighten the suspense and mystery regarding what was actually happening over the course of the first 75% of the book. Characterization of previously supporting character Susan Ward was the main thrust of the first half of this book, and Susan has evolved into a stronger element of the series. I did feel that this came a bit at the expense of the other characters and their level of reader involvement. Overall, the book held true to the thematic elements of the first two books, was suspenseful and well-written, and leaves no doubt as to the continuation of the series, which I greatly anticipate. If you liked the first two Beauty Killer books, you will enjoy this book as well.

I was very excited to receive this Eisler book. I'm a huge fan of the John Rain series by Eisler and anticipated that this book, while not part of that series, would continue the author's tight, high-quality plotting and interesting character development.

Unfortunately, I have to say that Fault Line was an outright disappointment. The book was very choppy and it seemed as though character introduction was random - or worse, contrived, in order to facilitate the plot ideas Eisler was trying to assert.

On top of that, the plot itself - while starting out reasonable enough - became untenably unbelievable about halfway through the book.

Perhaps if I hadn't read the Rain series first I would not have felt so negatively about this book. My advice for those who wish to read Eisler is to stick to the Rain series - it is truly excellent, and I hold out hope that Eisler's next attempt will more resemble those books than Fault Line.

I looked forward greatly to another Cotton Malone novel from Steve Berry. The earlier books were consistently well-crafted in terms of plot, characterization, and action flow. The Charlemagne Pursuit follows the usual Berry formula, and continues the high quality of character development. The action was a touch predictable, but not unexpectedly so (that’s a statement in itself). However, I finished the book feeling a bit overwhelmed in terms of the lack of smoothness of the story – the book seemed unusually disjointed. While the earlier Malone books each seemed more like a consistent overall production (think one theatre-length movie), this book was very sectional (think old-time movie serials).

However, this is a minor criticism overall, and I certainly did not feel burdened by the book. I anticipate continuing the Cotton Malone adventure – hopefully with a bit of freshness in the author’s approach.

This is the first book I have read by either Benjamin Black (pseudonym) or John Banville. I found the book to be a compelling read. A very dark novel, the distinguishing feature of the book for me was the complexity of the prose - in some cases, to a fault. The characters are both well-developed (Quirke) and not-so-well-developed (almost everyone else). Interestingly, I believe the reader is never made aware of Quirke's first name (in fact, I spent half the book wondering if "Quirke" was his first or last name). The plot line was quite interesting for the first 80% of the book and then suddenly became both obvious and trite.

I look forward to reading the followup Quirke novel; however I can't say at this point that reading a third (if offered) is a given. The jury is out, as they say.

Excellent, if a bit dated by now. Explores a New England professor's trial by fire with building and operating his own electric car. Brings up some interesting points on why the automobile industry hasn't yet achieved a viable electric technology.