3.5 stars.  Tainted Luck is a short YA book featuring a never-been-kissed high school senior named Levi who becomes the reluctant object of the affections of the new girl in school, Taylor. But, Taylor is weird and Goth – and maybe something more dangerous. Levi is drawn into her spell and starts to care about … More Tainted Luck, by Cynthia Austin

This book starts out bloody. A serial killer with a yearning to get his hands wet and dirty dispatches a truck driver with a gun and then a knife, leaving a gruesome crime scene for Tampa detectives Sergio and Carly. The reader experiences the kill from the killer’s point of view, and that continues through … More Double Blind, by Dan Alatorre

The story of the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of the start-up blood testing company, Theranos, and its precocious young founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is an amazing story.  If it weren’t true, you’d never believe it.  Telling that story in a coherent and entertaining fashion is a herculean task that journalist John Carryrou has done wonderfully … More Bad Blood, by John Carryrou

It’s not easy to take a character as (usually) dynamic and interesting as Jack Reacher and write a whole novel from his point of view that is dull, plodding, and lacking in suspense, emotion, or action.  But, somehow Lee Child – perhaps on deadline to push out another Jack Reacher “bestseller” – has managed it.  … More The Midnight Line by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #22)

This is an engrossing, suspenseful mystery that literally kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. I couldn’t get to sleep before finding out what happened!  A really well-written and well-constructed story from the twisted mind of Bruce Perrin.  The author drops sufficient clues for the reader to eventually figure out the mystery … More Mind in Chains (The Mind Sleuth series, book 3), by Bruce M. Perrin

Daedalus Combat in the next short installment in Mr. Williscroft’s Daedalus series, which is based on the concept of a “slingshot” space launch system and the Navy SEALs who staff the project.  I’m a fan of the series and recommend the full-length novel, “Slingshot.”  Mr. Williscroft has another short story set in the Daedalus world, … More Daedalus Combat (SWIC Combat Drop from Low Earth Orbit), by Robert G. Williscroft

The Diplomat and the Desperado Stories is branded by “PanOrpheus,” a pseudonym that makes sense because the author should not want to put his own name on this collection of episodes in the existence of the two titular characters, who exist in “Noirtown,” (a non-Earth-based realm that exists only in black-and-white) and who make sojourns … More The Diplomat and the Desperado Stories, by PanOrpheus