Xepherus Reads

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,      The 4th Man is written by Lisa Gardner and serves as a collective prelude novel for both the Detective D.D. Warren and FBI Profiler series. It is electronically published by Penguin Random House under their Dutton Books imprint. In it, we are drawn back into the precinct of Boston Detective D.D. Warren. During a lull in the area's crime, she has been going over cold cases that have sat waiting to be solved. As Warren investigates the murder of college student Jaylin Banks, she requests the aid of Pierce Quincy and Rainie Conner. Both have helped the detective in the past, and they have proven their value in case studies.   Four suspects have been lined up and await interrogation. The crime itself is odd. Jaylin Banks was found strangled in the staircase of her college's library ( a secure library whose only access is from those with identification cards) , her sneakers missing. Add to the fact that Jaylin's neck ...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,       The 7th Month is written by Lisa Gardner and is published by Penguin Random House under their Dutton Books imprint. Featured as a digital short novel, it takes place before her sixth D.D. Warren novel, Catch Me. In it, we are introduced to D.D. Warren: Desk Duty Sergeant. In her seventh month of pregnancy, D.D. has been sent to desk duty as a way of keeping her active on the force.  One afternoon a shifty-looking man with a nervous and tired demeanor approaches the desk asking for a detective. The man is Don Bilger, an executive producer of an upcoming crime drama, Cover Your Eyes. He requests a detective as a consultant for the film. According to Bilger the retired police officer that he had hired as a consultant disappeared suddenly. And they need a detective fast for the evening scenes that they are shooting.  About to be a mother and enter into a committed relationship, D.D. sees this as an opportunity ...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,       3 Truths and a Lie is written by Lisa Gardner and is part of her D.D. Warren detective series. It takes place prior to Find Her and finds Detective Warren and her husband, Alex, in Wisconsin, attending a writer's camp for suspense authors. They are there to deliver seminars to the writers in order to separate fact from fiction, explaining police investigation in the real world.  D.D. wants to attend a few of the technical school's events, most of all the SWAT Team training course. The problem is that D.D. believes that her seminar will not be half as interesting as Alex's seminar on blood splatters.    Warren decides to wow her crowd, which includes Suspense authors  Joseph Finder , Kathy Reichs, and Karin Slaughter, with a case that she feels will stump and wow her crowd of eager writers. Before beginning her hour-long case study, Detective Warren tells he...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,    Hideout is the third Alice Vega thriller written by Louisa Luna and is published by Doubleday Books, a part of Penguin Random House. In it, we are introduced to UC Berkeley student-athlete, Zeb Williams. In 1981, Williams bolted from the football field and kept running, never to be seen again. For decades, people have wondered what could have possessed the student to simply give up everything and disappear. Wealthy client, Anton Fohl is one of those people. He hires Alice Vega to find Williams and end the mystery of his vanishing act. Vega takes on the challenge, wanting to include on-again-off-again partner, Max Caplan. But their relationship is strained lately and they rarely speak. But with a bit of intervention by Cap's daughter, the two reunite with a layer of tension between them.   Max agrees to help Alice with the Williams case in part since he has his own cases. The two separate and begin to investigate. But wh...

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,     Having a budget does not always have to be a problem. You can still read on a budget thanks to free books, libraries, and sales. This series continues to introduce to you some of my favorite suspense writers that I read for little or no dollars. Lisa Gardner-  This popular crime thriller writer has a habit of creating some of the most terrifying villains. In  Say Goodbye  we are introduced to Mr. Dinchara, a crazed murderer and child predator with a love of spiders. His gruesome visage consists of two rows of spider eyes tattooed on his head. He is relentless and hangs his victims cocooned from trees. In  Find Her , Gardner brings serial killer Jacob Ness to life. A brutal mass murderer with a twisted view of humanity. After kidnapping young Flora Dane for over four hundred days and keeping her in and out of a coffin, he is finally defeated. But the nightmare never ends for Flora, as she and Detective D.D....

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,        The Janes is the second Alice Vega novel by Louisa Luna. It is published by Doubleday, a Penguin Random House imprint. In this latest adventure, Luna reunites Alice Vega and her partner, Max Caplan. Together they are called into a West Coast case involving the unidentified bodies of two young girls. With Max's help and that of a local detective, Alice begins to unravel the details of the Janes' identities.   Halfway through the case, they are told that they are no longer needed. Red flags go up for Alice as a seemingly by-the-book commander begins to act strangely. Vega and Caplan ignore their cease and desist and covertly continue to look for the location of the remaining trafficked girls. This leads them into danger and a set-up that will have dire consequences if those responsible get their way. The Janes have sisters and Vega will not rest until they are safely released and the guilty are brought to ju...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,     Having a budget does not always have to be a problem. You can still read on a budget thanks to free books, libraries, and sales. This series continues to introduce to you some of my favorite suspense writers that I read for little or no dollars. Jennifer Jaynes-  Crazy-good times are what await readers of Jennifer Jaynes. This writer of thrillers delivers many aspects of the genre, including horror. Two books that have left a lasting impression on me are  Disturbed  and  The Stranger Inside . In Disturbed we are introduced to massacre survivor, Chelsea Dutton. Haunted by the night her roommates were butchered by a psychotic killer, she does her best to live a normal life. With the help of her best friend, Elizabeth, Chelsea slowly builds her life back up. But one day she finds a note on her car's windshield. It says YOU MADE ME the same words are written in blood on the bathroom mirror of her colleg...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,       Two Girls Down is published by Penguin Random House under their Doubleday imprint. In it, we are introduced to eight-year-old Bailey Brandt and her ten-year-old sister, Kylie. They are different as night and day, however, they both share a penchant for mischief. On their way to a party with their single mother, Jamie, the girls mysteriously disappear at a strip mall. Left in the family car alone, the girls venture out to get ice cream samples while their mother is in a department store getting items for the party. When Jamie Brandt returns, the girls are nowhere to be found. After several inquiries at various stores in the strip mall, the police are called in.      When a famous bounty hunter, Alice Vega, crosses Private Investigator Max Caplan's path, he is presented with an intriguing offer. If he helps Vega find the missing Brandt girls, she will give him half of the fee she is chargi...

   Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,     Having a budget does not always have to be a problem. You can still read on a budget thanks to free books, libraries, and sales. This series continues to introduce to you some of my favorite suspense writers that I read for little or no dollars.       Louisa Luna-  When bounty hunter Alice Vega asks a disgraced ex-cop for help on a case, she will stop at nothing to get his aid. In Two Girls Down, two young girls are kidnapped and vanish without a trace. Hired by the girls' family, Alice delves into the sinister world of child predators. In the end, this book had me ready for book two immediately. Louisa Luna has created an amazing character in Vega, and I have loved all of her adventures. The Brooklyn author has penned several amazing thrillers and has given the genre a much-needed shot in the arm. She is an expert at taking what you have read about in the news and turning it into something fr...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,     Having a budget does not always have to be a problem. You can still read on a budget thanks to free books, libraries, and sales. This series continues to introduce to you some of my favorite suspense writers that I read for little or no dollars.     Tami Hoag-  Tami Hoag is the author of riveting crime thrillers; famous for her Liska and Kovac detective series. One of my favorite series is her Oak Knoll Trilogy based in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In  Deeper than the Dead  we are introduced to Oak Knoll, a seemingly quiet community with very little crime. Then a serial killer begins kidnapping and killing young women. FBI Agent Vince Leone is called to the sleepy town to investigate the killings. He meets Anne Navarre, a young schoolteacher who may be the killer's next victim. As the books progress serial killers are confronted and romance is kindled, all culminating in the discovery of a new pr...