I am sorry that this is a day late and also some minutes late too. As I am still feeling very poorly, it will consist of the blurb plus my Goodreads reviews.

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

The first book of the week was Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow, to which I gave three stars. Now that I have finished this one, #13, I am totally up to date with the Jack Reacher series until the next book is published in November. Here is the blurb:

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.

There are twelve things to look for: No one who has worked in law enforcement will ever forget them.

New York City. The subway, two o’clock in the morning. Jack Reacher studies his fellow passengers. Four are OK. The fifth isn’t.

The train brakes for Grand Central Station. Will Reacher intervene, and save lives? Or is he wrong? Will his intervention cost lives – including his own?

And here are my thoughts:

I didn’t enjoy this Jack Reacher as much as the others. It started well and the main plot was interesting enough, but I found myself drifting away quite often and putting the book down. All of the travelling around New York became rather tedious. Good enough, but not good enough, IYSWIM!

The Death Box by Jack Kerley

My next read was The Death Box by Jack Kerley, #10 in his Carson Ryder series. This was also given only three stars:

Detective Carson Ryder faces his most terrifying adversary yet in this nail-biting thriller from the author of Her Last Scream.

Carson Ryder thought he’d seen everything …

A specialist in twisted crimes, Detective Carson Ryder thought he’d seen the lowest depths of human depravity. But he’s barely started his new job in Miami when called to a horrific scene: a concrete pillar built of human remains, their agony forever frozen in stone.

Finding the secret of the pillar drags him into the sordid world of human trafficking, where one terrified girl holds the key to unraveling a web of pain, prostitution and murder. There’s just one problem: Ryder’s not the only one chasing the girl.

And the others will kill to keep the secret safe.

This is my review:

I kind of hate myself for enjoying this book. The scenes of sexual violence are stomach churning and horrible to read. But then human trafficking is horrible and the idea of women trafficked into sex slavery is even more horrible. Sometimes, I am not sure why I read books like this. Probably to lose myself in something far more awful than my own real life? Because the “goody” wins in the end (mostly)? I don’t know.

I think I have read enough Jack Kerley books for now!

Eagles at War by Ben Kane

The third book which I finished this week was Eagles at War by Ben Kane, the first book in his series Eagles of Rome. This is the blurb:

In the summer of 9 CE, Publius Varus, the Roman governor of Germania, and Lucius Tullus, a centurion garrisoned on the Rhine, march east with three legions. As they prepare to return to their winter quarters, they are lured off the road and ambushed by German warriors. The Germans are led by Arminius, a chieftain who is a trusted ally of Rome—and a man who has been secretly planning to betray the empire since childhood. Trapping Varus’ legionaries between a hillside and a marsh, and thereby preventing them from forming up or using their artillery, Arminius and his warriors wreak a terrible slaughter. The Roman defeat is overwhelming, but it is not until the third day of the massacre that the scale of Arminius’ victory becomes clear. Three legions, upwards of 14,000 men, have been annihilated, and three treasured Eagle standards have been lost. Just a few hundred legionaries, including Tullus, manage to escape. Nor is the survivors’ ordeal over. Pursued to the last Roman fort east of the Rhine, they are besieged by thousands of bloodthirsty tribesmen. Only the gods can save them now.

And this is my Goodreads review:

Excellent fictional account of the Varian Disaster with good use of different points of view. Contrast with the similar book by Robert Fabbri – Arminius, The Limits of Empire – about the exact same incident. Kane’s version is an all round better book: better writing, better editing etc.

In fact, I gave this book four stars. As you can see from the short review, I had already read a book based on the same historical incident a few moths ago, which was a bit disconcerting at first! I though I had picked up a book that I had read before for a few pages.

Still Life by Louise Penny

I have almost finished another book, Louise Penny’s Still Life, but I will write about that next week. I hope that I will be able to write my Reading Roundup post on a Wednesday as usual.

Best wishes,

💙💛💚💜❤️