Imagine walking innocently down the street, a pretty woman hobbled by an injury is struggling out of a dry cleaners store. You offer your assistance. She smiles. Then two armed men take you both prisoner. We’d probably freak out, but we are not Jack Reacher. In Die Trying by Lee Child, Reacher is kidnapped by thugs and driven for days in the back of a van with this woman, obviously a woman dear to someone very important; oh and she’s a trained FBI agent.
“Thomas’s left hand shook as he drew the bow. He was dry-mouthed, frightened. He knew he would shoot wild so he lowered his arm and released the cord’s tension. Remember, he told himself, remember everything you have ever been taught. An archer does not aim, he kills. It is all in the head, in the arms, in the eyes, and killing a man is no different from shooting a hind. Draw and loose, that was all, and that was why he had practiced for over ten years so that the act of drawing and loosing was as natural as breathing and as fluent as water flowing from a spring. Look and loose, do not think. Draw the string and let God guide the arrow.”
The Day After Never by Russell Blake takes place in the Southwestern United States. America is torn apart by a pandemic flu that kills a large portion of the population. Anarchy rules in this Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian novel. Pockets of civilization dot the countryside barricaded against the lawless groups that roam; looking for easy prey.
“As with most black swan events, so named because they were unpredictable singularities, the combination of the super flu – regardless of whether brought to the U.S. by refugees, illegal immigrants, or returning servicemen – and an economic meltdown had never been envisioned. There were simply no scenarios for it, and when it happened, civilization had unraveled far faster than anyone would have believed.”
In The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Piem, young Flavia de Luce plays detective when she discovers an almost dead man in her family’s cucumber patch. He died shortly, but not before uttering an unusual word that she know must be the key to the mystery. Her investigation intensifies when someone close to her is arrested for the crime. And she is inclined to seek answers from an incident a long long time ago at a school attended by the accused.
