As a historian, I read and write a lot of history, and enjoy it, but I also like to get a change from nonfiction with fast-paced, character-driven novels that are just fun to read. I latched onto this series early - it features one of the most fascinating characters I've run across: Evan Smoak aka Orphan X aka The Nowhere Man. The author takes this outstanding character and places him in complex situations with seemingly endless challenges, and the novels are populated with great secondary characters, too. This latest in the series is as good as its predecessors. I was immediately drawn into the story, with its twists and fast-paced action.
Once a black book government assassin known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak left the program, went deep underground, and reinvented himself as someone who will go anywhere, and risk everything to help the truly desperate who have nowhere else to turn. Since then, Evan has fought international crime syndicates and drug cartels, faced down the most powerful men in the world and even brought down a President. Struggling with an unexpected personal crisis, Evan goes back to the very basics of his mission - and this time, the truly desperate is a little girl who wants him to find her…
I first encountered the main character in this series, the enigmatic FBI Agent Pendergast, when listening to one of the earlier novels, Brimstone, as an audiobook. I went to the bookstore and bought the earlier books in the series, and have continued to do so. To me, character is the key element in fiction, and Pendergast is in my opinion one of the best fictional characters I've encountered. He's endlessly resourceful, plays by his own rules, and has a knack for getting himself out of the most dangerous situations. He's also humorous once you get to know the character. The secondary characters in this, and related, series are also great. The plots are imaginative - and sometimes unusual - so it helps if you're willing to suspend disbelief as you read, though the authors help by making even rather bizarre scenarios seem plausible. This novel capped off a trilogy and did so in fine fashion, with great plotting and plenty of action.
Preston & Child continue their #1 bestselling series featuring FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene, as they take a final stand against New York's deadliest serial killer: Pendergast's own ancestor...and Constance's greatest enemy.
A desperate bargain is broken...
Constance Greene confronts Manhattan's most dangerous serial killer, Enoch Leng, bartering for her sister's life – but she is betrayed and turned away empty-handed, incandescent with rage.
A clever trap is set...
Unknown to Leng, Pendergast's brother, Diogenes, appears unexpectedly, offering to help—for mysterious reasons of his own. Disguised as a cleric, Diogenes establishes himself in New York's notorious Five Points…
Michael Connelly not only writes outstanding characters, he succeeds in keeping them fresh in novel after novel. I got my first Connelly book - featuring LAPD detective Harry Bosch - as a birthday gift and loved it. I quickly acquired the whole series to date, and continue to add each new novel. As Bosch's character has aged and retired from the police department, Connelly did a great job by pairing him with another first-rate character, Renee Ballard of the LAPD. This latest novel finds them working together on yet another case. Connelly's super-accurate description of police procedure and his outstanding plotting make this another must-read novel in the series.
'Michael Connelly is a powerhouse, an unstoppable force in crime fiction. The Waiting is proof he is at the top of his game." MICK HERRON, #1 bestselling author of SLOW HORSES
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IN COLD CASES, IT'S NOT THE HOPE THAT KILLS YOU. IT'S THE WAITING.
LAPD Detective Renee Ballard gets a DNA hit in a case that has gone unsolved for twenty years. A recently arrested man is genetically related to a serial rapist who terrorised the city of angels.
But when the relative is revealed, it is the last person you want to accuse unless the evidence is watertight...…
My book shifts the focus of the American Revolution away from the American-centered view to look at the people who supported the British. I examined the South because it had the most diverse group of the Crown’s supporters: colonial Loyalists who wanted to remain part of the British Empire, Native Americans who believed that allying with the British was the best way to protect their land and way of life, and African Americans who hoped that the British would provide a path to freedom in exchange for their support.
To make the regional picture as complete as possible, I included two colonies that are almost always left out of Revolutionary histories, East and West Florida, which both stayed loyal to the Crown.
