Tag: Catherine Coulter

Reckoning by Catherine Coulter

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery, Part of a SeriesLeave a comment

Reckoning (FBI Thriller, #26)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Series: FBI Thriller #26
Publication Date: 8/2/22
Period: Contemporary
Number of Pages: 432

As always, Catherine Coulter has delivered a stellar book. One might think that a series with 26 books would become a bit stale and repetitive, but that is NOT the case here. Each book is as fresh, engaging, and inventive as the first. These later books haven’t made use of Dillon’s sixth sense as much as the first ones did, but that isn’t an issue for me – after all, it allows them to solve the crimes by following the evidence. Although – sometimes – a bit of that intuition would be good in the suspenseful parts.

I listened to the audiobook version from my public library and I loved the way they did it. Harper Audio presented the book with narrators Saskia Maarleveld and Pete Simonelli, so we had a female narrator for the female voices and a male narrator for the male. Both narrators did an excellent job with the pacing of the narration and each character had a nicely unique voice.

If you are a fan of the series, you’ll remember Emma’s story – The Target, book #3 in the series. One of the things I love about this series is the continuity of the characters. They don’t all show up in every book, but they recur often enough you can keep up with them. Emma was kidnapped by a heinous pedophile when she was six years old, and now several years later, someone is again trying to kidnap her. Is it a family member of the pedophile who is coming after her as revenge for the death of the pedophile? Is it the man who actually paid the pedophile to kidnap Emma in the first place? Is it someone totally different?

Savich and Sherlock definitely don’t have an easy time solving this one – especially when the victims are very good friends of theirs. They manage to thwart more kidnapping attempts before the kidnappers decide to change targets. Catching the villains and rescuing the abductees becomes a near-death thing for all participants. Can Savich and Ramsey save everyone or will some of them die?

The other featured case features Agent Griffin Hammersmith as he pairs up with Kirra Mandarian, a commonwealth attorney in Porte Franklin, Virginia. When she was just twelve years old, Kirra barely escaped with her life on the night her parents were murdered. Now, after living with her uncle in Australia for years, she is back in Porte Franklin and she is determined to uncover the murderers of her parents.

Little does Kirra know how dangerous those murderers are or how far they can reach until the attempts on her life begin. Lucky for her all of those years in Australia taught her many survival skills – and she’s going to need every one of them to survive. Things are very close even with the ever-so-handsome agent Hammersmith looking out for her. Can Kirra and Hammersmith get the evidence they need to convict the murderers before those murderers get them?

I thoroughly enjoyed this intense, suspenseful read and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

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Vortex by Catherine Coulter

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery3 Comments

Vortex (FBI Thriller #25)Barbara’s Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Series: FBI Thriller #25
Publication Date: 8/10/21
Period: Contemporary Washington DC & New York
Number of Pages: 400

I always look forward to the next release in this series and I am absolutely never disappointed. This book, as always, was well-written, well-plotted, well-delivered, and had engaging and relatable characters. We follow Sherlock and Savich as they wade through the clues and solve two different cases. The cases are very different and both are very interesting.


Sherlock’s case with Mia/Thomas/Julia

I quickly came to admire Mia Briscoe. She is so very brave and once she gets her first clue, she is doggedly determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her best friend seven years ago. Serena disappeared without a trace from a frat party she and Mia had attended, and there hasn’t been a trace of her or what happened since then. Then, out of the blue, a blurry picture is unearthed and it sets everything in motion. Mia does most of the investigation on her own and Sherlock isn’t involved until closer to the end of the case – once Mia has nearly been murdered. Mia has many obstacles in her path – some of those obstacles are very rich, powerful, politically inclined, families. You’ll love Mia and those she enlists to help her and you’ll love the way the case unfolds and wraps up.


Savich’s case with Olivia

When a foreign national tries to murder CIA agent Olivia Hildebrandt, the case falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI – particularly Agent Dillon Savich, head of the Criminal Apprehension Unit. To say the CIA is unhappy with that turn of events is putting it lightly. The CIA’s unhappiness doesn’t faze Savich in the least and he proceeds to protect Olivia and solve the case of the missing CIA agent, Mike Kingman, and the flash drive he carried. The CIA is inclined to believe Kingman is a traitor and has stolen the flash drive, but Olivia is absolutely sure that isn’t the case – and Savich believes Olivia. What is on that drive that is worth a foreign entity hunting down and murdering a CIA operative? Is there a traitor in the CIA? Who compromised the mission to retrieve the flash drive? Leave it to Savich and his intrepid crew to solve it all and see to the appropriate punishment.

I can highly recommend this book and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. Have you read all of the books in the series? For a while, the author made much use of Savich’s ‘sixth sense’, but that hasn’t been mentioned in the last several books. I have to wonder if that just wasn’t a popular thing or if it was just easier to write the stories with it. It certainly doesn’t detract from the stories, but – you have to wonder – if someone has a sixth sense, why wouldn’t they use it all the time?

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