I’m a fan of cop-dramas, thrillers and suspense-action stories. They get my blood pumping and my mind racing to solve the puzzle. When I’m in the middle of reading a good thriller, I start to think that I could do whatever the hero is doing. In a pinch, I’d be quick on my feet; I’d be able to talk down the bad guy or outwit him. Well, that’s what I’d like to think and books like A Play of Shadows by Geoff Geauterre feed that illusion.

Professor Ralph Tomthwaite, who considers himself average in every way, is pushed to do extraordinary things when his neighbor is mysteriously murdered and the whole affair is quickly covered up. Other characters in the book also turn into everyday heroes…so long as your everyday includes butlers and big bank accounts. A Play of Shadows has money and power in spades.

Whatever happened to colorful heroes like Indiana Jones, intrepid archaeologist, ready to charge into unknown jungles and forgotten tombs with the possibility of dying a horrible death? To most, it would appear such exciting and fully-rounded characters have gone the way of the western, but they would be wrong. Author Roberta Clark breathes life into the intelligent action hero by making him into a her, in her novel, The Golden Covenant.

Now first thing I have to say is that I really don’t like horror stories, and by that I mean the Stephen King and Dean Koontz style of horror stories. I recognize that they are both masters of their craft but truth is they both seriously freak me out. So I guess I’m a little old-fashioned in that I believe the best kind of horror story is mostly left to the imagination. Don’t Look Back Agnes is not the modern kind of horror story. It reminds of those old fashion stories that you would sit around in the dark telling each other until your imagination ran away with you and you jumped at every little sound.

Are you a big fan of legal thrillers? Have the DVR set to record every episode of Law and Order and CSI? Do you ever pit yourself against the detectives to see if you can figure out who dunnit before anyone else does? If so, In Deepest Consequences by Scott Kauffman, is right up your alley, a tightly woven story of crime and retribution.

Calvin Samuels, is a public defender with a reputation for defending the underdog. He takes the hard luck cases other lawyers often shun, but he has an instinct about these things. He can tell when someone is being straight with him. That’s how it was with John Rogers. Calvin keeps him out of prison, but didn’t keep someone from doing a number on him and dropping him in the river. Police aren’t interested—just another drug deal gone wrong. It’s up to Samuels to uncover the truth.

Genre fiction used to be pretty simple to figure out. These days with so many niche genres, its hard to categorize something that simply does not fit neatly. This can be both a boon and a source of frustration: a boon because writers are deliberately seeking out new ways to express old ideas; frustration because they can be harder to find in the context of overwhelming available choice. Never in the history of humankind have there been so many writers, books, and sources for entertainment.

Can you believe, in all my years of reading books, I have never read a suspense novel? I have purposely avoided them since I don't go in for all of that cops and robbers kind of stuff. Nope, I don't watch CSI, never saw NYPD Blue or Law & Order. The closest I ever came to watching a cop show was Barney Miller, and I'm not sure that even counts.

That background might explain why when Sonja Baines' Soul Haven crossed my computer as a suspense novel, my first instinct was to run the other way and ask to be reassigned to something a little more my type, like an erotic romance. But then I thought: how bad can it be? The truth is, it was pretty awesome.

Do you remember your first love? Tatiana does. There is just something about him. When he is with her the sun is brighter, the birds sing more beautifully, it is a feeling she wants to hang onto forever, if possible. Instead of her love fading, as so often happens in early romances, a cruel and vicious betrayal by someone she thought she knew rips love from her arms. What then? That’s the question Tatiana Branigan is struggling with in J.J. Massa’s newest novel, A Hunted Heart.

The crazy world of entertainment can be such a rush. From the lights to the adulation of the fans, to the blood pumping electricity that flows from the band to the audience and back to the stage--there's nothing like it. Life can't get any better than that. Or can it?

Blade, punk band extraordinaire, is about to embark on tour. Blade is the name of the band but the name has been pinned to the tall, pink-haired, tatted and pierced lead singer. She doesn't mind because Jenny has taken great pains to keep her private life separate from her public persona. It gives her a sense of security, something that she sadly grew up without. On her own by the age of sixteen, Jenny has made herself a successful and secure life by the age of twenty-eight. Or so she thought until she began receiving anonymous notes.

Murder most foul, but it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy! Nobody liked the victim. In fact, they hated him. Practically everybody had a reason to kill him. But which one did it? Final Argument, by Kenneth L. Levinson, is a modern murder mystery done in the traditional style, a true “whodunit” of Agatha Christie proportions. This is a novel that does more than entice one to try and figure out who did it, even before the hero does; it practically demands it!

The spin in the publicity sheet accompanying the advanced reader’s copy of The Icon touted this work as being “in the tradition of the DaVinci Code.” After reading it I can’t help but think that perhaps it’s not always wise to invoke the name of a great work unless you’re prepared to be compared to it.

In 1944 Greece, as Nazis, Greeks and Communists converge in Epiros, an iconic painting of the Virgin Mary, one rumored to possess mystical healing powers, vanishes. Captain Elias and a fellow Greek guerilla called the Snake enter into a scheme to trade the icon to the Germans for arms and ammunition, but the night of the trade all goes awry and the Icon disappears. When it reappears in New York in the year 2000 many lives become entangled in a tale of murder, theft and intrigue.

Primordial refers to a number of things: primordial is the setting, Puerto Azul in the tropics, San Cristobal Plateau in the Selva Negra Jungle; primordial is the anthropological subject matter pitting an archaeologist/anthropologist against a mystical tribe hiding an ancient remote village that no one in the civilized world knows about; primordial is also (and most importantly in this list of ascending importance,) the relationship between Dr. Keira Jessop and Special agent Zane Spinella of the Special Intelligence Agency. What we have here is an aptly named book.

The author of the Lilith's Legacy series published by Changeling Press, Ms Ross is known for her erotic fantasy. She has an upcoming Fantasy title, the Comet Coalition. The precursor to Velvet Shadows, the short story titled Dance with the Devil, was well received. I, however, came to knew Aubrey Ross's work from her alternative pseudonym, Cyndi Friberg under which she authored The Dragon Trilogy and The Ontarian Chronicles.

When I first saw the blurb for Paul Levine’s series of Solomon vs. Lord, I knew I had to read this series. What caught my attention so quickly was actually Paul’s background. He worked as a newspaper reporter, a law professor and a trial lawyer before becoming a full-time novelist and screenwriter. I have always liked to watch trials and lawyer shows on television. Jag was one I liked, along with Moonlighting. If you ever caught the Moonlighting show, you would remember how Cybill Shepherd was an ex model and Bruce Willis was a wise-guy detective who co-run a private detective agency. One character in Paul's book reminds me of this show.

Since I really enjoyed the first book, I had to read the second one as soon as possible. Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine is a mystery like no other. The characters are hilarious, touching and entertaining. Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord together really set this series up for the readers' pleasure and entertainment. It also leaves you wondering, "What will they think of next?"

Although her partnership and relationship with Steve Solomon are fairly new, Victoria Lord wants to spread her wings a little, and when Hal Griffin, a long-time family friend, contacts her with a business deal, she may just get her opportunity to go solo; professionally, and possibly, personally.

Cowboy Lies is the first published romance by author Lynde Lakes, although she does have fifteen novels and numerous short stories in other genres. She has opened many eyes with this great book.

Molly has been brought to a ranch in Montana where she supposedly lives with her husband and three-month-old daughter. However, she does not remember anything and nothing looks familiar to her. Matt, her husband, has the air of a dangerous man and someone she does not ever see herself being married to. In addition, there is Sara Jane, her daughter; a mother would know her own child, which is something that could never be forgotten. She now wonders why she does not have the extra weight from just having a baby. Even her name does not fit her; she has the feeling there is more going on than Matt is telling her. But as things continue to not add up, she has to figure out what does.