Tag Archives: action/adventure/thriller

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : Moriarty

Book Reviews, , ,
Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

Moriarty (Horowitz’s Holmes, #2) by Anthony Horowitz (Goodreads Author)

Amy Caudill‘s review

Once again, modern author Anthony Horowitz has stepped into the shoes of Arthur Conan Doyle, with the full blessing of the latter’s estate, and produced a new Sherlock Holmes era story. This installment picks up from the end of Doyle’s “The Final Problem,” a short story which details the demise Sherlock along with his arch enemy.


The principals, Watson and Holmes, are not actually present in this story, but only mentioned in passing. However, to compensate for the lack of our favorite detective duo, we are introduced to Detective Inspector Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard, who actually appeared in at least one other Holmes’ story; and his new friend and cohort, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase.


The two join forces to find a new criminal mastermind, Clarence Devereux, who reputedly intended to align with Moriarty, and set up shop in London. Chase is familiar with some of Devereux’s henchmen, while Jones has studied Holmes’ methods and believes he is ready to apply his techniques to finding this new threat.


The detectives chase clues all over Europe before returning to London to face off against ruthless gangsters and a criminal network that seems to be one step ahead of them. In the end, they finally face off to the real threat, only for one of the protagonists to realize the enemy wears a familiar face. Spoilers: there is no indication until nearly the end of the story, but the reader has been following an unreliable narrator all along.


The final twist was shocking, but made the entire novel, already a fascinating read, truly worthwhile. Horowitz’s characters seamlessly fit into the world of Victorian London and Baker Street in Doyle’s universe. I award this novel five stars, and hope that Horowitz will find time to venture into that world again in the future.

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : The Scorpion’s Tail

Book Reviews, , ,
The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston

The Scorpion’s Tail (Nora Kelly #2) by  Douglas Preston (Goodreads Author), Lincoln Child

Amy Caudill‘s review

When Corrie Swanson is given a seemingly routine field assignment by her boss at the Albuquerque field office of the FBI, no one expects that the shooting of a cop at a ghost town will lead to the uncovering of plots of conspiracy, murder, lost treasure, and a huge cover up on a military base. 

Corrie once again relies on the assistance of Nora Kelly to excavate a corpse found in High Lonesome, a relatively untouched ghost town, but one with recent signs of looting and of course, a shooting.  Both Corrie and Nora, the main protagonists in this series, are alumni of multiple novels in authors’ Preston and Child main series, the Agent Pendergast books.

In the last book of this series, Old Bones, Corrie and Nora did not exactly part on good terms, but they seem to respect each other’s abilities and cannot deny that on some levels they need each other’s help.  There is much made of their dynamic, these two who are not friends but connected through their sometime association with Pendergast, as reluctant partners, drawn into the investigation more and more despite pressures from Corrie’s bosses and status as a rookie and Nora’s delayed separate work and aspirations for a promotion to Chief of Archeology at the Santa Fe Archeological Institute.

When the victim is identified as the former owner of a ranch on land appropriated by the military for the first atomic test, and evidence suggests the test is actually what caused his death, the FBI, with Nora in tow, visit the Army base to ask uncomfortable questions of its commander, General McGurk, who apparently has familial ties to the area.

Who is involved in the looting and cover up?  Who is making sure that no witness survives, including trying to kill Nora and Corrie as they make covert trips back to High Lonesome, where only a part of the mystery will be solved.

This book has excellent pacing, going back and forth between multiple scenarios and points of view, as par for the writing team.  The reader is skillfully drawn into the story, without much clue as to where the next clue will appear and the next antagonist show his true colors.  In the end, the token appearance by Pendergast, (in only one short chapter near the conclusion,) will the final mystery be uncovered and the guilty receive their due punishment.

Another excellent novel from two of my favorite authors, that I award five stars for action, drama, strong female leads, all in a FBI procedural that contains so much more.  With the next novel, Diablo Mesa, already out, I’m sure I will be revisiting this universe very soon.