Hoofball Reading List 2012

Hoofball

34)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Darkest Fear

Comment: This is the best Bolitar novel yet from Coben. A shocking personal revelation rocks Bolitar and leads him into another investigation against his best intentions.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

35)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Promise Me

Comment: This Bolitar novel skips on 6 years from the end of the last one. He hasn't been involved in any of his usual investigations in that time. When a teenage girl goes missing and Bolitar is a suspect he is drawn back into a world he thought he left behind. A great story as usual from Coben

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

36)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Long Lost

Comment: One of Bolitars exe's is suspected of her ex-husbands murder in Paris. This leads Bolitar into a murky world involving terrorists and unknown government groups. Coben is still in fine form with this series.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

37)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Live Wire

Comment: This is the latest Bolitar novel available and is another rocking story. It involved looking for his missing sister-in-law and brother and a recluse rock star. This character just gets better and better so I'm hoping that he will return at some stage.

Score: 9/10

Hoofball

38)
Author: Various

Title: First Thrills

Comment: A collection of thriller short stories from authors such as Jeffrey Deaver, Karin Slaughter, Steve Coonts, Lee Childs and others. I enjoyed this collection as short stories are sometimes a good break from longer novels.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

39)
Authors: James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

Title: I, Michael Bennett

Comment: This is the latest novel available about the New York detective MIchael Bennett and is a good story. I don't mind most of the collaborative books from Patterson. This one does stretch the bounds of believability but is enjoyable.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

40)
Author: Alex Adams

Title: White Horse

Comment: A post-apocalyptic world is a dangerous place for the humans left after events have wiped out most of mankind. This novel uses a NOW and THEN premise to tell the story, i.e. The back story as to how this wipeout happened is revealed throughout the novel while also telling what is happening in the "current" time. A good debut novel from this author but doesn't really bring anything new to this kind of storyline.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

41)
Author: Richard North Patterson

Title: Fall from Grace

Comment: An interesting novel from this author, not really a thriller as such but a story of broken families and secrets being revealed.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

42)
Author: Alex Scarrow

Title: Last Light

Comment: A view of a world after incidents stop all oil from being sent to anywhere in the world. Society breaks down within days and this story shows what could happen when we are driven back to an age where there is no oil, electricity, gas or food production.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

43)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: The Innocent

Comment: Another stand-alone novel from Coben. This author is one of my favourites, his novels are always a great read. In this novel the main character killed a man by accident in a bar fight and after serving his jail time tried to get his life back on track. One day his wife goes missing and he has to get her back.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

44)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: No Second Chance

Comment: This is a great read but very hard to read. Marc Seidman awakens to find himself in an ICU after being shot. His wife has been killed, and his six-month-old daughter has been kidnapped. This is a story about how he attempts to find his daughter.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

45)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Just One Look

Comment: A suburban wife finds an out of place photo when she collects a roll of film from the developers and it seems to show her husband from years before but he denies it. Then he disappears.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

46)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Gone For Good

Comment: Another excellent novel from Coben. Will Kleins girlfriend goes missing and it brings up unresolved stuff from the murder of his girlfriend from years before. His brother was the main suspect in that murder but dissappeared.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

47)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Tell No One

Comment: A good read from one of my new favourite authors Coben. Dr Becks wife was murdered 8 years ago but an image of his wife suddenly appears in a mysterious email. Is she still alive? Some good twists in this novel as well.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

48)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Caught

Comment: A good solid novel from Coben. A girl goes missing and three months later a predator who may have taken her is outed by a national tv show. But is everything as it appears?

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

49)
Author: Harlan Coben

Title: Stay Close

Comment: This is the end of my Harla Coben marathon as this is the latest novel available from him. A suburban soccer mom goes back to her past and triggers consequences that prove the past never fades away fully.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

50)
Author: John Grisham

Title: Calico Joe

Comment: A very short novel (194 pages) revolving around baseball. This isn't a thriller but more a story about a man revisiting his youth and bringing up his past with his father who was a professional baseball player. I enjoyed it but not much happens to be honest. Grishams non-legal thriller books are mediocre at best.

Score: 5/10

Hoofball

51)
Author: James Patterson & David Ellis

Title: Guilty Wives

Comment: Completely unbelievable plot but this was an enjoyable read. Very short chapters as usual but enough of a story to hold your attention. A good joint collaboration. Four friends are found guilty of a crime that they didn't commit - or did they?

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

52)
Author: Jeffrey Deaver

Title: XO

Comment: The third book in the Kathryn Dance series is a good one but doesn't really depend too much on what Dance's main skill of kinesics, body language analysis. There are plenty of twists and turns in this tale of a stalker and a celebrity.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

53)

Author: John Grisham

Title: Theodore Boone: The Accused

Comment: This is the third book in the series of Theodore Boone. It is written by John Grisham and is the third book that he has written for Young Adults. Good story with a half decent plot.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

54)

Author: Patrick DeWitt

Title: The Sisters Brothers

Comment: Half decent story about the journey of two cowboy brothers on their way to kill someone. The story feels a bit disjointed as there are a lot of side stories, but I enjoyed the read overall. You don't necessarily have to be a western fan to enjoy this.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

55)

Author: Linda Fairstein

Title: Night Watch

Comment: An ok story but these novels featuring Alexandra Cooper are becoming very formulaic. The characters seemed quite different in this novel from their usual traits and interactions which was a bit off putting.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

56)

Author: Kathy Reichs

Title: Bones are Forever

Comment: A good read. The plot is a bit darker than usual for this series. Nothing too radical though and nothing too unexpected.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

57)

Author: Sebastian Barry

Title: A Long Long Way

Comment: I enjoyed this novel about an irishman fighting in Flanders in World War I. It is an easy enough read with little of the politics of the war. It is written from the viewpoint of the main character, Willie Dunne. As always when I read about WWI rather than the later conflicts, the difference in trench warfare versus the tactics etc in later wars is quite large.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

58)

Author: Sean Black

Title: The Devils Bounty

Comment: This Ryan Lock series is quite a good read. This is the fourth novel in the series and the story line revolves around missing Americans and the Cartels and chasing down an absconded criminal.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

59)

Author: Karin Slaughter

Title: Criminal

Comment: This is the next in a series of about a dozen books involving FBI agent Will Trent and Dr Sara Linton. This is one of the best books in a while and is very well written. We find out more about past events in the main characters.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

60)

Author: John Rickards

Title: The touch of Ghosts

Comment: This book has been on my to be read shelf for quite a while seeing as it was published in 2004. Interesting enough story but not very believable. The authorities would never allow the main character to be as involved in the situation as he was. Also the story seemed to touch on some supernatural areas such as cold spots but never explored or explained them. Half decent story but wouldn't really go out of my way to get any more of the books

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

61)

Author: Andrew Klavan

Title: Empire of Lies

Comment: This is a bit of a strange novel. It starts off well but turns fairly non-believable towards the end. Jason Harrow is married and now a religious person. He gets a call from an ex-girlfriend who fears her daughter is in trouble. Jason finds the daughter and the story expands to involve a terrorist plot. He does his best to figure things out while at the same time wondering if he is going mad, as his mother before him did. Not Klavans best work.

Score: 7/10

pavb2

Hi Hoofball so which Harlan Coban novel would you recommend?

pavb2

Hoofball

pavb2 wrote: »

Hi Hoofball so which Harlan Coban novel would you recommend?

pavb2

Hi pavb2

Sorry for late reply, only get to log on every so often. I'd recommend any of his novels to be honest but if I had to pick a few top ones they would be the ones below.

Have you tried any of his novels or what other authors do you usually read?

Myron Bolitar Series: Live Wire and Darkest Fear

Stand alone novels: No Second Chance or Caught

If you didn't like the Bolitar novels I'd still give the stand alone thrillers a chance. I think he's one of the better thriller writers I've read in the last few years.

Hopefully you get to try the books and like them!

Hoofball