Stephen Leather - Tango One [den donovan, jamie fullerton, christina louise, bunny]nice book, this one. the characters are all well developed, and they are very real and feeling. you're not always in suspense, knowing certain things are coming. it doesn't try to be mysterious, rather that you just know something will happen, and you are in anticipation all the time. when it finally happens, the thrill is what makes you enjoy the book most. one of the best reads i've ever had. Stephen Leather - The Solitary Man [warren hastings/chris hutchison, billy winter, zhou yuanyi]this book fades in comparison with Tango One, but nevertheless is enjoyable. there is much description, yet even an impatient person like me who doesn't care too much about details can form vivid scenes in my mind. and the environments are very well conjured. the story is fast-paced and unexpected. it's a little too gruesome and cruel at parts, and lives seem so lightly taken. but it is supposed to be so; we know that's the golden triangle after all. still a good read nevertheless, and worth recommending. Agatha Christie - Sparkling Cyanide mystery! well the thing i like about this book is the fact that everyone is made suspicious, so you really don't know who exactly is the killer, since everyone is equally likely. whoever the guilty one may be, you won't have any doubts about his or her reasons for it. the surprise element is skillfully weaved into the ending. this is one enjoyable book. Agatha Christie - Seven Dials Mystery i don't like this book that much. it is a little too.... trying too hard. trying too hard to make it unexpected and surprising. unlike Sparkling Cyanide where everyone is made a suspect, this one deliberately makes the villian the least suspected person. it was a deliberate misleading. and the seven dials is being made mysterious with too much unnatural effort. it's like trying to weave a huge scam, or an oversized plot into the story then reveal it only at the end. it's not cool, and it's not impressive. however, some parts are highly entertaining because of the humor. but this book falls far behind Sparkling Cyanide, and even more behind Tango One and The Solitary Man. the length is not the main factor, it's just the story.Agatha Christie - Mystery on the Blue Train this book is fairly enjoyable. the beginning is a little boring, jumping here and there. but i do realize that it will always be like this because you need first to develop the characters and give a background. as the story progresses, it gets more and more interesting. the suspects are just that few, you keep switching to and forth with who you think is the killer. we're given hints into what poirot is thinking, and this is far nicer than in the case of Seven Dials Mystery. leading you to the conclusion is much nicer, and you can still be kept in the dark as to how and why that person is the killer. this is a nice book.Stephen Leather - Hard Landing [dan 'spider' shepherd/bob macdonald, gerald carpenter, liam, sue]this is one fantastic book! it's so exciting... and recurring characters are such a joy. we meet alex knight again, the nerd who's a genius with electronic devices. it's right to read tango one first... and we hear of carlos rodriguez. haha. it's good to hear what's going to happen to him! the plot proceeds quickly, with the right twist coming at the right time. it's real enough too, enough to hurt. in a thriller you would expect deaths. but you expects deaths of a certain nature. here you do see something different. it is sad, but it is real. this book is one good read. i shall not compare it with tango one. anyway gerald carpenter isn't such a hard soul. he's like our chinese characters. you can kill, but you don't touch women and children. oh well. Stephen Leather - The Eyewitness this is a good book. it's continually interesting. the previous books are all on drugs and smuggling. this one is on another vice trade - prostitution. there are so many classes even within the trade. seeing it from another point of view, some of them are actually thankful for it. no, they don't enjoy it, but it's the best they can have already. people can be so desperate and void of hope. throughout the book, i was expecting some kind of twist at the end. something to do with the killers of the 26 people. but i never expected it to be that shocking. i'm happy enough with the ending. you don't just classify people into good and bad and assign them their fates in a story. they're classified into whether or not they deserved death. unlike hard landing, you have a main character here who isn't invincible, who isn't the best of the best or some elite. he was all down to a regular man. you really worry for his safety when he go poking his nose into too much business.Stephen Leather - Tunnel Rats [nick wright, tommy reid, jim bamber/len kruse, may eckhardt]this book has got something to doa bout the vietnam war. these bunch of soldiers did something very cruel and despicable in the vietnam tunnels where the VCs were hiding. they thought they could seal the secret in the tunnel, but there had been a witness. and the witness is back of revenge. for the whole life the witness has been planning each step of the way, and is killing them off one by one. it's brutal, but it's payback as far as the killer is concerned. it's a very exciting book, knowing where the dangers lie, but not knowing when the truth was suddenly told, and waiting for the truth to be told to the rest who are still unaware. this is one gripping story. it's highly addictive.Stephen Leather - Birthday Girl [anthony freeman, maurice, mersiha, katherine]first i must say that the end part was really very touching. it's a round up to the starting of the story, reminding us once more how tony freeman had met mersiha. it's heart warming to see how tony can treat mersiha like his own daughter and not as a substitute for luke, how katherine, though constantly thinking of luke and missing him, still shows genuine concern for the adpopted child. it is a consolation that despite katherine blaming tony and betraying him behind his back, she still loves him despite her bitterness against him. indeed, it would take a moment just on the line of life and death for her to be able to put the past behind her and forgive tony, after realizing what he means to her. it's all a happy ending, fair to most people. and the evil are given their just desserts, though it did show the bond between the utsyev brothers.Stephen Leather - Hungry Ghosts [geoff howells, patrick duggan, simon ng]this was set in HK. you won't see any good reason to name the book hungry ghosts until the end. simon ng shouldn't die. he didn't deserve to. it's a pity. lucky that sophie was fine though. geoff howells was a professional. his skills aside, i think he is so ruthless and psychotic. he has no conscience at all and he's nuts. such a dangerous man shouldn't be brought back to work. what was grey thinking? anyway, grey deserves to die. patrick duggan is an unlikely main character, i must say. he's not particularly smart or anything. but he has a kind heart and he loves his sister and his niece, and he recognizes the fact that even though simon is a gangster, he loves his wife, so duggan can trust him with his sister. finally, howells gets the ending he deserves. he dies, but not before revealing where sophie was locked up. he had no purpose in hiding the fact. he didn't need to kill her, and in any case he won't be able to do that anymore. might as well let her live. amy exacts revenge on grey on his behalf. even though howells is dead, grey still gets his just desserts. hungry ghosts.Stephen Leather - The Stretch [sam greene, terry greene, andy]i am impressed. sam greene settles into the personality easily. you've got to know enough about women to be able to carve out such a character like samantha. when a woman loves a bad man. terry greene was unfaithful. he was a criminal. but there's hardly anything sam can do. she can't bring herself to leave him even though she knows she can't trust him. typical of women. when they are about to collect the 4 tons of cannabis resin, she suddenly feels something amiss and simply responds to the feeling and leaves. what can she say? a woman obeying her sixth sense. what would the men think? but she's right. finally, she receives the trigger to make up her mind not to allow herself to be controlled or persuaded by terry anymore. she picks herself up and plans for the future, keeping in mind her family. this is one smart savvy woman.Stephen Leather - Soft Target [dan 'spider' shepherd/stuart marsden/tony nelson, angie kerr, charlie kerr, keith rose]charlie kerr is such a hard basta**. he is so inhumane and disgusting. i totally hate him. poor angie kerr. i didn't like the fate they wrote for her. she deserved something better. but at a situation like that, there really wasn't any other way out for her. i wish the ruthless brats gang were punished severely though. poor rosie. at first i really didn't like him. felt like he was betraying his partner (ormsby) when he hesitated to even save his life. but how he came to err, it's totally understandable. everything for his daughter. he wasn't even hooked on the feeling of money. he was constantly doing his sums to ensure he can save kelly. no wonder dan couldn't bear to betray him. but what to do? in the end, he got what he wanted most. he didn't enjoy robbing the drugs dealers. he meant it when he said he could do anything as long as kelly could be saved. it happened. he didn't mean to get himself killed in the bombing incident, but he did die a hero. everything hushed, insurance paid, and the state finally pays for kelly's medical fees.John Grisham - The King of Torts [clay carter, rebecca van horn, patton french, max pace]you know, i'm not so excited about this book. it's fine, but it's not gripping or absorbing. clay carter was just a miserable soul stuck in a job he loathes, dreams of doing better, and looked down on by his girlfriend rebecca's snobbish parents. he hates them with enthusiasm, but he doesn't want to antagonize rebecca. chance comes, a shady character by the name of max pace approaches carter, offers him a chance to earn more than he could in a lifetime, but go against his ethics in the process. it really isn't much of a choice, cos the ethics can't help. suddenly he's famous and rich, and the air goes into his head. he loses his grounding, and launches into a thousand and one things he shouldn't do. finally, he loses all and returns to where he started, only worse. despite that, he finally learns what he really wants in life, and he's happier than ever before. John Grisham - The Brethren [Beech, Spicer, Yarber, Trevor, Aaron Lake, Teddy Maynard, Wes and Chap]Beech and Yarber are convicted judges, Spicer had no formal training but these three are judges in the federal prison of Trumble. on the surface they handle appeals on behalf of the fellow inmates, and they hold court sessions for them too. but the Brethren, as they call themselves, are actually in the middle of a mail scam extorting from old gay men still in a closet. the money's thrilling, but when they hook the wrong fish, in the form of presidential candidate Aaron Lake backed by powerful Teddy Maynard with an agenda, they don't know they're dealing with more power than just a potential president. it's the CIA. scum lawyer Trevor runs errands for the Brethren on the outside. with the right bait, he switches sides but is hardly of any help to maynard. they hunt him down and kill him, and unsurprisingly, no one's really affected. it's all about dealing with numerous unknowns. finally, the Brethren are sent away, silenced but alive, leading their own lives while Aaron Lake is on his path to becoming president.Agatha Christie - Murder is Easy this book is not too bad. it's not fantastically exciting, but at least i'm not bored. the characters aren't very richly developed, but what can you expect if everyone's supposed to be a suspect so you won't know anyone entirely. at first you really wouldn't suspect miss waynflete, nor lord whitfeld. but after a while it's clear that lord whitfeld is somewhat weird, worthy of suspicion. that weird guy at the antique store is clearly not a murderer. and in the end you're bombed with the revelation that miss waynflete is the murderer, that she's insane and vengeful. it's not a fantastic book, but it's alright. Stephen Leather - The Chinaman [nguyen, liam and mary hennessey, sean morrison, ian wood, kerry geraughty, denis fisher, macdermott/maggie, o'reilly]this is one great book. nguyen has suffered all his life, and when he's robbed of the only ones he love that he has left, it's enough to send him back to war. for revenge. you can feel his pain, his grief, how clear it is that he has suffered so much he is no longer shocked but is instead determined. it's painful to witness. and then you see how he puts his skills to use after so many years of hiding and burying. he doesn't want to kill anyone who doesn't deserve it, but when cornered and left with no choice, he can do it in a flash. faced with kerry, who was only as old as his daughter would be if she were alive, he couldn't bear to hurt her and would rather lose his own life. sean morrison saved him, bcs he could see how nguyen had suffered enough yet was still unwilling to kill kerry. he finally gets the names of the bombers, and you would practically die of eagerness to see how he'll deal with them. but too bad, the SAS troopers arrive too soon and they killed him. it was such a pity, but you're not devastated bcs you know nguyen would have wanted that too.Stephen Leather - The Bombmaker [andrea, martin, katie hayes, egan, mccracken, mick canning, liam denham]this is an extremely enjoyable book. andrea is a bomb specialist who used to be in the IRA though she was truly an informer. when a bomb goes wrong, she leaves and leads a new life. but the past catches up. somebody knows her skills and kidnaps her daughter to force her to make a bomb for them. a huge one. astronomical compared to any other. a choice between her daughter's life and that of millions of innocent people. it wasn't even a choice. she knows she would die anyway, but there was so little she could do other than to make the bomb. katie, held hostage by two men, is well taken care of by one of them, a mick canning who adores children. martin, at a loss, finally discovers clues andrea left for him and goes to her ex-handler, liam. the special branches and all step in to try and prevent the bomb, but it meant katie's safety was no longer their priority. a mixture of desperation, excitement and anxiety follows, and finally the mastermind is brought down. the kidnappers abandon their hostage, but katie stumbles upon the real face of the ruthless kidnapper. mick risks his life to protect her from him, but when she sees his face as well, he questions if he should really let her live. but the bond between the two has grown. katie swears never to give him away, and he believes her. finally, investigations bring mick in as a suspect, but katie keeps to her promise.Stephen Leather - The Double Tap [mike cramer, colonel, allan, martin, dermot lynch, marie hennessy, bernard jackman, su-ming, andrew vander mayer] mike cramer, former SAS, struck with cancer of his intestines and his days numbered. he knows that he can't be cured, he knows that his condition wiill only get worse, and the way things are going, he would probably start going into immense pain very soon, requiring large amounts of strong painkillers that could make him delirious, and eventually die on a hospital bed with nurses looking on with pity. but he doesn't want that. he doesn't want to get to that stage of pain, and he certainly doesn't want to die on a hospital bed. he wants to die like a soldier, in war, in a battle. with a death wish, cramer lands himself into IRA territory, screaming for attention from his enemies. however, his plans of dying in a battle with the former terorists are interrupted with the arrival of the colonel, offering him another way out. a judas goat. a professional assassin was on the loose, his trademark the double tap. one to the head, one to the chest. he has never missed a shot. the authorities know his next target and they put cramer in place, hoping to eliminate the assassin in the set up. as cramer goes through the rigorous training to face the assassin (well knowing he will not emerge from the set up alive), lynch tracks down cramer, thirsty for revenge as he blames cramer for his lover's death. marie hennessy joins him on the quest. she, too, has revenge on mind, blaming cramer for her parents' death. unknown to them, the assassin is someone who is within the circles of the set up. he already knows that his target, vander mayer, has been replaced by cramer. allan and martin, who put their lives on line acting as cramer's bodyguards, train with cramer. su-ming, vander mayer's assistant, helps cramer with blending into the vander mayer role. as they finally enter the set up, lynch also tracks down cramer. lynch and marie tie up martin, and try to kill allan first so that they can get to cramer. cramer has never seen dermot, and mistakens him for the assassin. his training goes down the drain as he freezes when faced with the 'killer' and fails to draw out neither the gun nor knife. dermot was about to declare his revenge to cramer and shoot him, when allan manages to kill dermot. the set up is torn down, everyone assuming the assassin has been killed. however, the colonel doesn't realise in time that the real assassin is the former FBI profiler Bernard Jackman. he noted that cramer fitted the profile of the killer closely, and he was eager to talk to cramer at length, to find out what was going on in cramer's mind. bernard shoots vander mayer in two quick shots and turns to cramer before he manages to draw the gun from his holster. su-ming and cramer are held hostage and they listen to bernard's proud recount of his kills. as bernard prepares to shoot cramer, su-ming pleads for him and reveals that cramer has a death wish because of his cancer. bernard is intrigued by cramer's absence of fear for death and challenges him to draw his gun instead. as the colonel sends someone who creates a little distraction, cramer grabs the opportunity to smoothly draw his knife and jerks it up bernard's throat, but got shot in his stomach in the process. bernard is finally killed, but cramer was only injured. seriously injured, but he would either take very long to die, or worse, he could survive. not bearing to see him suffer as he pleads with her, su-ming brings him his gun so that he can end it the way he wants most.Stephen Leather - The Vets Colonel Tyler tracks down 4 Vietnam vets from different backgrounds and round them up to do a job together. He has a plan, a heist, that would require their skills. Dan Lehman was a helicopter pilot, fitting well into society and earning money through fraud. Eric Horvitz was a tunnel rat, high strung from the war and living out alone in the woods, a true veteran who feels most comfortable there. Barton Lewis was a helicopter mechanic, but is struck with cancer and dying. Larry Carmody lost a forearm in the war, thus is fitted with a metal one that can function fairly well in his simple job that he couldn't even hold down bcs he can't resist taunting others and getting into trouble. The four vets, bound by their own problems which the colonel are well aware of and manipulates, joins tyler in HK to plan a huge robbery in happy valley racecourse. Or so they were told. The colonel was brought into the heist by Anthony Chung, both knowing that their real robbery was elsewhere in the safe vault of a bank, and that the vets are only made use of to stage a high profile robbery in order to divert attention. The owner of the bank is a British who wanted to keep his bank independent of both British and, more importantly, Chinese influence. He is already facing a lot of difficulty, and had no idea that Chung, who is openly dating his daughter, is actually planning to betray him. All the more are they unaware that Chung had seduced his wife and has a tape which he would use to blackmail him, if the bank vault robbery doesn't strike him hard enough. Meanwhile, the vets are joined by an ex chopper pilot, Chuck Doherty, who hid away in a Thailand monastery since he left on a job, during which he was nearly killed when he stumbled upon the chopper passengers killing an entire village for heroin. The vets and Doherty set up everything they need, including the reassembly of Doherty's old helicopter. As all five plus Tyler test out the chopper, Doherty hears a tapping noise and realises the chopper passenger who killed the villagers was present too. Along with Lehman, he rules out Lewis and suspects one of Carmody, Horvitz and Tyler. Only on the actual day of the heist do they realise that Tyler was the chopper passenger, and that he was going to betray them. Lewis dies in the set-up and the rest of them are furious and swear revenge. They chased down Tyler and killed him, and claimed the money he had promised them but yet took for himself. Without having to state explicitly, the money was divided into five shares, and they spent Lewis' share the way he wanted it- half for his son, and half for a Vietnam hospital. Chung, who had planned the whole heist in order to exchange for his father's freedom from the Chinese government (his father was a dissident, something like that, i don't know what it means), is eventually reunited with his father in Paris. He lost an arm in the heist, but nevertheless finds it a reasonable price to pay for his reunion with his father. Jake Needham - The Ambassador's WifeThis book is kind of slow, I am not that comfortable with its pace. It's a reasonably enjoyable read, nevertheless. Inspector Samuel Tay investigates the murder of the US ambassador's wife in Singapore. The identification of the body leads to the interference of FBI official Tony DeSouza and ambassador Munson's own people. When a second body turns up in thailand, posed in the same way and this time a female ambassador herself, Tay travels to Thailand to investigate more on his own. With the help of former (or not) CIA August, they evetually uncover that the second woman was killed by Tony, who wanted to cover up the first murder which was committed by Munson himself. posted by Yee 10:54 PM . . .
