Ok so after having read only two books in all of March, I finished my second book for April yesterday! The two books I’ve finished are Goodbye Girl by James Grippando and Innercise: The New Science to Unlock Your Brain’s Hidden Potential by John Assaraf. Goodbye Girl is the 18th book in Grippando’s Jack Swyteck series. While Innercise is a self-help book.
Midnight Creed is the 8th book in Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series The series was a spin-off of Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series. Since Maggie and her FBI colleagues are an intricate part of the Ryder Creed series, I’m going to call this book book 19 in the Maggie O’Dell has targeted homeless people up and down the east coast. While Ryder and his dogs are searching for a missing boy. Additionally, Ryder and his staff are awaiting a shipment of K9s that were left behind when our troops left Afghanistan.
Soon another boy goes missing (one that Ryders’s coworker Jason knows well) and Ryder and his team sets off on a frantic search to find the boy.
Meanwhile the serial killer Maggie’s chasing is headed to Florida! Will the two cases collide!
I have been reading books by Alex Kava since her first Maggie O’Dell book A Perfect Evil. I have enjoyed everyone of them.m Each case Maggie faced through the first 11 books has been slightly different. Maggie has faced not only serial killers a, but serial arsonists, and a potential mall bomber. In addition to electrocuted teenagers and deadly pathogens.
Kava introduced Ryder Creed in her 2015 release Breaking Creed. Ryder an ex-marine turned K9 search-and-rescue dog trainer. Along with his partner they rescue dogs and trainer them to become search-and-rescue dogs. Through the first seven books in the series Maggie and Ryder’s relationship has developed. In book 7 they revealed their love for one another but they still live separately. Maggie cant’ leave Quantico and the FBI and Ryder can’t leave his dogs.
But back to Midnight Creed. Once again Kava provides a well-paced character driven treat. In addition to Maggie and Ryder the supporting characters Jason and Ryder’s sister Brodie have become key characters in the series. Well, Brodie has been a key character in the series since the beginning of the series. However, readers just met her in the most recent books. Where was she?
Midnight Creed can be read without having read the whole series. However, I bet you’ll want to go back aand read the rest of the series after reading it! So check it out!
Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Alex Kava
If you’ve read some of my past blog posts you probably know that I am a fan of mystery and thriller series. Some of those series I have been reading religiously for 20 or more years. Others I have read several books, stopped a lost track of the series. The Agent Pendergast series from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is one of the later.
I have been reading c.J. Box‘s Joe Pickett books for a long time and Dark Sky the 21st book in the series is in my opinion one of his best!
In =&1=& Joe must lead an elk hunting trip for a famous tech mogul. Steve Price, better known as Steve-2, the founder of Aloft and the social media platform ConFab. Steve-2 wants to track, kill and dress an elk. Needless to say things don’t go well almost from the beginning. As the hunting party begins the hunting party are being watched by the Thomas family. Seems the father Earl has a score to settle with Steve-2 and he’s brought along his to sons Kirby and Brad to help him settle it!
Meanwhile Nate Romanowski and Sheridan Pickett Joe’s daughter who is also Nate’s falconry apprentice have their own problems. Seems someone is stealing from their falconry nests. And Nate is none to happy with that situation!
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Lately something else has been reading. So far this year I have read 22 books which is FIVE books ahead of the pace I need to reach my goal of 60 books for 2021. While that’s a good thing, the bad thing I have written about very few of them!
Therefore, I am in a quandary. As to the best way to go about catching up writing about some many books. Maybe I’ll start with my most recent reads and work my way back….. so here goes…..
Book 22 – Romeo’s Way (Mike Romeo #2) – James Scott Bell
In
Ok so I am not a dog person, we have always had cats. Having said that, Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series makes me realize how many cool things dogs can do that cats can’t or won’t do! Hidden creed is book number 41 for the year. It is the sixth book in the series and may be the best yet!
I have been reading Alex Kava’s books since 2005, the year I read the first Maggie O’Dell book A Perfect Evil.
Strandedll (#11) is the only book in that series I haven’t read. I know I checked it out of the library one or two times and started it at least once. However, I guess I started another book and never returned to =&1=&. That ultimately led to it being returned it to the library unread. The reason I mention this book is that it is the book in which Ryder Creed and Maggie meet. Additionally, the =&1=& case is mentioned in =&3=&
In =&5=&during a K-9 training session in blackwater river state forest Ryder and his sister Brodie are led by scent dog Grace to a shallowly buried body. Soon several bodies are discovered and the area appears to be the isolated burial ground of a serial killer. A place where these bodies would be hidden forever!
As Ryder investigates the burial site, Maggie O’Dell in Pensacola investifationg a storage locker which was purchased for back fees. When the storage locker was opened, an array of body parts and storage containers were found, suggesting it may have been the locker of a serial killer.
In =&6=& expertly weaves four storylines to create a novel where the suspense doesn’t end until the book’s final pages.
However, for me what makes this series special are the characters, both human and canine. First there‘s Ryder Creed and Maggie O‘Dell both are well-drawn characters. Both are among my favorite fictional characters.
Tracie Hotchner, the Radio Pet Lady Network(TM) writes…
”It’s impossible not to care about and root for the human and canine heroes in Kava’s series.”
I agree wholeheartedly. Additionally, even the secondary characters in =&5=&are great including: Ryder’s sister Brodie, his partner Hannah and employee ex-Soldier Jason. Finally there are the dogs the favorite of which is the Jack Russell Terroir Grace.
The bottom line is if you like well-written, paging turning books with great characters check out Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series. While I believe reading =&6=& as a stand alone could be enjoyable, my recommendation would be to at least read =&9=& book #5 in the series first. Actually, it would be better to go back to fully understand why Ryder does what he does and his relationship with his sister Brodie.
Finally, if you want to fully understand Maggie O’Dell go back and read some of the books in her series! She has had some fantastic adventures!
Goodreads
The 40th book I’ve finished this year is =&0=& by Bruce DeSilva. It is book four in DSilva’s series featuring newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan.
I discovered this series in 2019 when I found book five in the series The Dread Line at our local Dollar Tree. I loved the book and read books 1, 2 and 3 in the series in August, September and November of 2019 respectively. But with the library closed from March to July, it wasn’t until last week that thought about this series, but I’m glad I did!!
Liam Mulligan is a dinosaur, an old time investigative reporter working for a dying newspaper The Providence Dispatch. When he is sent to report on an airplane crash, he is pulled into a political quagmire.
A briefcase full of hundred bills is found on the lap of the plane’s dead passenger. Along with the money a written list of politicians is found. It appears that the money is be used to buy the votes of those politicians regarding the state’s plans to legalize sports betting.
Soon the governor’s plan to legalize betting is attacked from all-sides including the NCAA. When body is pulled out of the river appears to be someone who has threatened Mulligan, he becomes a murder suspect.
Can Mulligan discover who’s killing who? While keeping himself alive, employed and out of jail?
James Lee Burke pretty all sums up the writing of Bruce DeSilva …..
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