JUST REVIEWS

This post has nothing fancy to tell you.  There are no inane ramblings or off-the-wall, extremely tangential, subjects to discuss.  This is just about 3 reviews.

First, Barry Eisler's new John Rain saga, The Detachment.  This is his first Rain book in awhile.  He actually started his novelist career with a series of Rain books and then went to standalones.  He's a local Peninsula boy who once worked for the CIA.  I like him a lot.  John Rain is a half-Japanese, half-American assassin.  The twist is that his killings are done to make it look like the victim died of natural causes.  He looks Japanese and has done most of his work in Japan, but, this time, he's in the US.  He's very much a loner and hates to depend on/work with anyone else.  He does have one buddy, a Marine sniper named Dox.  In this book, he is contacted by an old Army colonel he knows who wants 3, very high-profile, politicos assassinated because they are planning an overthrow of the US government.  Of course, nothing is ever as it seems, but it's fun getting to where it goes.  Rain even has to bring 2 other "experts" into the mix, something he is particularly loath to do.  This was definitely one of his better Rain books in particular and one of his better books period.

The second review is Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key.  This is a book that every book club already knows about.  It's a WWII book about the Vel d'Hiv round-up of Jews in France.  It focuses on one pre-teen Jewish girl from that time period and one modern day American journalist who lives in Paris.  I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that the journalist becomes obsessed with finding out everything she can about this girl and her family - both then and now.  It's very good.  I would recommend it.

The third, and final, review is David Baldacci's new book, Zero Day.  I got to tell you, this was really good.  He's typically a little bit hit and miss (his King and Maxwell series is pretty weak), but hits it right this time.  For those of you who read Lee Child (and there are many of you), Baldacci's John Puller reminds me of Jack Reacher.  He's tall, extremely lethal, and a man of few words.  In this particular story, Puller, who is an army man in the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), goes to a small coal-mining town in West Virginia to investigate the murder of an army colonel and his family.  What he finds there is a whole bunch more than just murder.  This is Camel Club good, maybe even a little bit better (sacre bleu!)

That's it.  Next time, I will be reviewing a book from a whole new genre for me.  I know you can hardly wait.