Author

Jeff Ayers

Review

Exit Black

by Jeff Ayers

A floating space station, the Imperium, was once a laboratory but has been crafted into a hotel for the extremely wealthy in Pitkin’s thriller. The first group arrives, and the team onboard is ready to show off the unique features of a stay, including a view of Earth and a supervised spacewalk. Chloe, a biophysicist who misses having her work be the focus of the station, assists in making the visitors feel welcome. It doesn’t help that her boyfriend, the CEO of the hotel, can’t make it at the last minute. She quickly learns that something sinister is happening and that some of the staff she thought she could trust are part of a global terrorist group called The Reckoners. While Chloe remains in hiding, the visitors are taken hostage, and the demand is eight billion dollars. With no hope of rescue and no way to communicate with anyone on Earth to send help, Chloe takes matters into her own hands. This mashup of the films Die Hard and Gravity is an action-adventure reader’s dream. The pacing is relentless and claustrophobic, making it impossible to stop turning the pages. Pitkin has written a winner.

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Review

Hammers and Homicide

by Jeff Ayers

Dawna Carpenter runs a hardware store in downtown Pine Bluff, Oregon. She struggles to keep it going, especially after the death of her beloved husband, Bob. The building shares space with a boutique, and the woman who runs Lipstick and Lace is a real piece of work. A real-estate developer in town has bold plans to open a luxurious hotel, but when he’s found dead in the hardware store’s bathroom, Dawna’s life gets turned upside down even more than she thought possible. The quirky cast of characters, the slowly building mystery, and the light-hearted tone make Hammers and Homicide a terrific debut. Charles also does an outstanding job of addressing how people deal with the grief of losing a loved one, without being overly depressing. Readers will be fixing to read more mysteries of this series and Paula Charles.

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Review

The Watchmaker’s Hand

by Jeff Ayers

Paraplegic forensic Captain Lincoln Rhyme; his wife, Detective Amelia Sachs; and their team of NYPD officers race against the clock in Deaver’s terrifying thriller. A construction crane collapses, and without a last-second move by the operator, it would have done extensive damage. The crash ends up only killing several people rather than hundreds. It was sabotage, and the crash is only the beginning, as those claiming responsibility will conduct another act in 24 hours unless their demands are met. One by one, the team members experience accidents designed to eliminate Rhyme’s trustworthy colleagues and those he truly cares about. Rhyme learns that the mastermind is someone he has been unable to capture, The Watchmaker. The Captain’s nemesis seeks revenge, his end goal to murder Rhyme. Deaver is the master of manipulation and telling a story quickly, and he is at the top of his game here. Readers should not be intimidated by the 15 previous entries in the series, as this one can be read as a standalone. The Watchmaker’s Hand is a fantastic thriller with great characters and jaw-dropping surprises.

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Review

Deep Freeze

by Jeff Ayers

A bus ride becomes a nightmare when John Reiff wakes up to see the bus plunge into a freezing river, and he and several others are trapped. But that is not the end for him. He then wakes up in what appears to his confused mind to be a mix of a hospital and a laboratory. The doctors there tell him that he was cryogenically frozen due to the accident conditions, and with the experimental equipment on site, they could revive him. As John gathers his strength, he realizes that the doctors are not as forthcoming with him as they should be. He has secrets of his own, as he begins to have terrifying visions of flames mixed in with the pain from his resurrection. The truth and its ramifications will jeopardize the lives of John and the doctors who brought him back to life. Robin Cook meets Blake Crouch in this intense thriller that will appeal to fans of mysteries that feature paranoid conspiracies and a hint of science fiction. While not a cliffhanger, the ending will still have readers demanding the next book right away.

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Review

Calico

by Jeff Ayers

A missing-person case becomes a possible homicide investigation, and an ex-LAPD detective becomes tangled in a bizarre mystery in Goldberg’s latest thriller. Beth McDade was forced out of the LAPD, and the only place willing to hire her is in the isolated area of Barstow, California. Everyone knows everybody in this area of the state, and even though there are few people spread out over many miles in the desert, she hopes to escape her past and find a second chance. The disappearance of a man on the way to visit his daughter and an accident involving a motor home running over someone keep her busy. Still, the more she investigates, the more she will question her sanity. Goldberg also takes the time to explore the life of Ben, who becomes a chef in the mining town of Calico in the late 1800s. What Ben uncovers in the past could very well help Beth in the present. The journeys of both Ben and Beth are complicated and compelling, and what Goldberg has crafted is a page-turning novel that has surprises up to the final page. Calico is arguably one of his best.

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Review

Lone Wolf

by Jeff Ayers

The usually solid Evan Smoak, a former government assassin in the Orphan program, is not at the top of his game. His sharp senses and training are gone, and to get back into shape and help those with nowhere else to turn, Evan agrees to find a missing dog. A mission not worthy of his skills quickly becomes deadly when he stumbles upon a dead body and is almost shot by a female assassin, The Wolf. She is formidable and focused on completing her assignment with training similar to his own, even if that means eliminating Evan and everyone he cares about and feels responsible for keeping safe. It’s jarring seeing Evan be “ordinary” at first, but his journey back to being himself is both intense and satisfying. The series has always been a blend of Batman, the Equalizer, and Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp, and Lone Wolf reinforces why it continues to be great nine novels in. Newcomers to Evan’s adventures should feel fine starting here before diving into the others.

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Review

Shadowheart

by Jeff Ayers

Gardiner shakes up the serial-killer genre with her latest thriller. FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix visits serial killer Efrem Judah Goode in prison. He shows her detailed drawings of the women he has killed, but none of them are the victims he’s incarcerated for killing. He claims innocence for those women’s murders but is not innocent of being a murderer. There is a copycat called the Broken Heart Killer, and somehow Goode and this UNSUB are connected. Caitlin dives into the case and will once again put her career and life on the line for justice, while bringing closure to the families of the women Goode killed. What she uncovers will surprise even the most jaded reader. Gardiner has a gift for tackling gruesome and uncomfortable topics and giving the prose a literary spin. While other authors might wallow in the ugly, Gardiner makes it beautiful. Fans of true crime and the television show Criminal Minds should make Gardiner mandatory reading.

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Review

Face of Greed

by Jeff Ayers

James L’Etoile uses his time working for the prison and criminal justice system to maximum effect at the start of this series featuring Detective Emily Hunter and her partner, Javier Medina. A businessman with ties to the Sacramento community is murdered in his home, and his wife is injured. The mayor wants answers and pressures Emily’s Captain to uncover the truth while ordering them to stay away from his widow. As the investigation progresses, the widow seems to have the answers they seek, but Emily and Javier risk being tossed off the case if they continue to prod her. More bodies start to appear, and a break-in reflects poorly on the dead businessman and his unscrupulous methods to maintain his job and charitable contributions. It doesn’t help that Emily is distracted by a family matter that seems to lead to a conclusion she cannot accept. The pacing and realistic feel of the investigation will appeal to fans of Michael Connelly, who enjoy a baffling crime to solve. Readers will be anxious for Emily’s next case.

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Review

The Last True Templar

by Jeff Ayers

The brother/sister team of Boyd and Beth Morrison delivers a stellar sequel to The Lawless Land. Gerard Fox and Lady Willa are adventuring together in 1351 Italy, hoping to overcome their problematic societal pasts to marry. They stumble upon an ambush and help an older woman, Luciana, escape the attack. That act of kindness plunges them into a decade-old search for the location of the Templar treasure. It doesn’t help that Luciana’s greedy husband wants her dead and the treasure for himself. To succeed in their quest, Gerard and Willa must overcome betrayal, villainy, and deception while keeping the truth of their heritage secret. The Middle Ages comes to glorious life mixed with a plot from a Clive Cussler novel. The Last True Templar is adventure at its finest, and the pacing never slows down for a second. The story reads like the authors somehow have a time machine and are merely transcribing actual events. Readers will be anxious for the next book in the series, and hopefully a big-screen adaptation is not far behind.

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Review

Starter Villain

by Jeff Ayers

Charlie’s life is nothing special. He makes a pittance taking occasional substitute-teaching gigs and lives with his two cats in his dad’s house, to the detriment of his other siblings. When his uncle passes away, his will stipulates that Charlie oversees the funeral, and then will receive his inheritance. The only people who show up at the service are his uncle’s enemies, and they all go out of their way to ensure the body inside the coffin is dead. After the service, Charlie learns that his inheritance is a lair built inside a dormant volcano, and his uncle was a supervillain. With Charlie becoming the new head of his uncle’s business practices, he will need a crash course on being ruthless and bloodthirsty if he can stay alive long enough. James Bond villainy meets Despicable Me in this hilarious and intense journey into the other side of the battle between good and evil, featuring mostly shady characters mixed with a team that is unlike any seen anywhere before in a thriller. Starter Villain is a blast. Fans of Scalzi will consider it one of his best, and thriller fans who want humor and a different perspective into the world of criminals will treasure it.

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