I'm addicted to Dateline, it's the real life version of crime shows on TV. It has some of the most intriguing real life stories about murder, that leave you guessing throughout the show "who did it?" It comes on every Friday and Saturday night on NBC and is either one or two hours long. When there's an update to a story, they re-air it with the update and fans discuss it on their facebook page. If you have an appetite for real life investigation and intrigue, then you should watch it as I've enjoyed watching it for years. It's also very informative about dangerous liaisons as it shows how a non-criminal, hard-working person can just snap one day to everyone's surprise, and sometimes even get away with it. On that same note, I've gotten into reading mystery books, here are my favorite thrillers of the year. If you have a long car ride for Christmas, download the audio version of one of these books. These books are great escapes!
Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware; 340 pages, 2016
This is one of the best books I've read this year! I read this NY Times best seller in just 3 days. It was such an easy book to start as you are drawn in immediately. The story follows Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only 10 cabins. On the ship Lo witnessed a woman being thrown overboard. The only problem is that when she brings this to the attention of the ship's security, all the passengers and staff remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened. The mystery kept me going thinking who done it? This thriller has lots of twists and turns with an unexpected ending, you won't be able to put it down.
Harlen Coben - Fool Me Once; 387 pages, 2016
This NY Times bestselling author has written 30 books and is a master pageturner. Retired helicopter pilot Maya returns home after a tragic ending to her service in Iraq. Then sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. This twisty, multi-layered storyline will have you guessing who can it be on the camera, is it real, or who set this up? Lots of deep secrets and deceit will come out to play.He's working with Julia Roberts to possibly make a movie out of it.
Coben published two books this year and since I loved "Fool Me Once" as soon as I heard he had a new book out I rushed to the library to get it. This book was a little harder to read as there were so many characters to keep up with and they all had weird spelled names. The story is about two boys kidnapped a decade ago from wealthy families. No trace of the boys ever surfaced. For ten years their families have been left with nothing but painful memories and a quiet desperation for the day that has finally, miraculously arrived: Myron Bolitar and his friend Win believe they have located one of the boys, now a teenager. Where has he been for ten years, and what does he know about the day, more than half a life ago, when he was taken, is it really him? The book features repeat characters for the author (Myron and Win) but it's still a stand alone book. I learned something very interesting from the book, that food produce stickers are edible. lol
The Black Widow (Gabriel Allon, #16)
by Daniel Silva; 528 pages, 2016I saw the author on the Today show and he said his book was written before the Paris terrorist attack last year yet had very eerily similarities. He's written 15 books about the main character Gabriel Allon, but this is a stand alone story you can read without reading the others. I skipped over the parts where the author wrote veiled insults about our current President. This book reminds me of my love for the show Homeland.
Gabriel Allon, the art restorer, spy, and assassin, is poised to become the chief of Israel's secret intelligence service. But on the eve of his promotion, events conspire to lure him into the field for one final operation. ISIS has detonated a massive bomb in the Marais district of Paris, and a desperate French government wants Gabriel to eliminate the man responsible before he can strike again.
They call him Saladin, a terrorist mastermind whose ambition is as grandiose as his nom de guerre, a man so elusive that even his nationality is not known. Shielded by sophisticated encryption software, his network communicates in total secrecy, leaving the West blind to his planning -- and leaving Gabriel no choice but to insert an agent into the most dangerous terror group the world has ever known. She is an extraordinary young doctor, as brave as she is beautiful. At Gabriel's behest, she will pose as an ISIS recruit in waiting, a ticking time bomb -- a black widow out for blood.
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