Coup d'Etat by Ben Coes

Over the top patriotism and length back stories that are not important to the plot detract from this otherwise interesting book. PW: When a fragile peace breaks down and promptly devolves into a rapidly escalating shooting war between Pakistan and India, the United States is forced to intervene. With only hours remaining before the conflict reaches a deadly point of no return, the White House must find a way to shut it down immediately - or risk the likelihood of a new global war. A radical cleric has become the democratically elected president of Pakistan and uses a brutal incident in the Kashmir region as an opportunity to ignite war with India. The highly lethal conventional war spins out of control when Pakistan initiates a nuclear attack. India is on the verge of launching their own nuclear response, one that will have unimaginably disastrous results for both the United States and the world at large. With only one chance to head this off, the president of the United States sends in his best people to do whatever it takes to restore the fragile peace to the region. With the clock ticking and Pakistan in the hands of a religious radical willing to do anything to destroy India, there remains only one viable option: to execute a coup d’état in Pakistan.

Power Down: Dewey Andreas, Book 1 by Ben Coes

This book needs an editor. Reading entire chapters that develop the back story of a character that gets killed and then has no impact on the plot is tiresome. Lots of interesting bits here, but equally there are side stories that an editor should help the author see are unnecessary. Coes has lots of potential if he can learn to focus on the plot. PW: A major North American hydroelectric dam is blown up and the largest off-shore oil field in this hemisphere is destroyed in a brutal, coordinated terrorist attack. But there was one factor that the terrorists didn’t take into account when they struck the Capitana platform off the coast of Colombia - slaughtering much of the crew and blowing up the platform - and that was the Capitana crew chief, Dewey Andreas. Dewey, former Army Ranger and Delta, survives the attack, rescuing as many of his men as possible. But the battle has just begun. While the intelligence and law enforcement agencies scramble to untangle these events and find the people responsible, the mysterious figure of Alexander Fortuna - an agent embedded into the highest levels of American society and business - sets into play the second stage of these long-planned attacks. The only fly in the ointment is Dewey Andreas - who is using all his long-dormant skills to fight his way off the platform, then out of Colombia and back to the U.S., following the trail of terrorists and operatives sent to stop him.

The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake

Fun, light and forgettable. PW The Hot Rock introduces John Archibald Dortmunder, the thief whose capers never quite come off, as he and his convict friends plot to steal the fabulous Balaboma Emerald.

Hidden Prey by John Sandford

Very good. PW Six months ago, Lucas Davenport tackled his first case as a statewide troubleshooter, and he thought that one was plenty strange enough. But that was before the Russian got killed. On the shore of Lake Superior, a man named Vladimir Oleshev is found shot dead, three holes in his head and heart, and though nobody knows why he was killed, everybody - the local cops, the FBI, and the Russians themselves - has a theory. And when it turns out he had very high government connections, that's when it hits the fan. A Russian cop flies in from Moscow, Davenport flies in from Minneapolis, law enforcement and press types swarm the crime scene - and, in the middle of it all, there is another murder. Is there a relationship between the two? What is the Russian cop hiding from Davenport? Is she - yes, it's a woman - a cop at all? Why was the man shot with ... fifty-year-old bullets? Before he can find the answers, Davenport will have to follow a trail back to another place, another time, and battle the shadows he discovers there - shadows that turn out to be both very real and very deadly.

The Black Box by Michael Connelly

Very enjoyable. PW In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved. Now Bosch's ballistics match indicates that her death was not random violence, but something more personal, and connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the "black box", the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together.

The Poet by Michael Connelly

Excellent, a great thriller - Connelly at his best. PW: Our hero is Jack McEvoy, a Rocky Mountain News crime-beat reporter. As the story opens, Jack's twin brother, a Denver homicide detective, has just killed himself. Or so it seems. But when Jack begins to investigate the phenomenon of police suicides, a disturbing pattern emerges, and soon suspects that a serial murderer is at work - a devious cop killer who's left a coast-to-coast trail of "suicide notes" drawn from the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. It's the story of a lifetime - except that "the Poet" already seems to know that Jack is trailing him. . .

City Primeval by Elmore Leonard

Another exciting and fun ride with Leonard. PW: Clement Mansell knows how easy it is to get away with murder. The seriously crazed killer is already back on the Detroit streets - thanks to some nifty courtroom moves by his crafty looker of a lawyer - and he's feeling invincible enough to execute a crooked Motown judge on a whim. Homicide Detective Raymond Cruz thinks the "Oklahoma Wildman" crossed the line long before this latest outrage, and he's determined to see that the hayseed psycho does not slip through the legal system's loopholes a second time. But that means a good cop is going to have to play somewhat fast and loose with the rules - in order to maneuver Mansell into a wild Midwest showdown that he won't be walking away from.

Deep Sky by Patrick Lee

Started but didn't finish. Author had interesting ideas but spent so much time going on side trips that main objective was lost.