The Sleeping Doll
By Jeffrey Deaver

Kathryn Dance, an investigator with the California Bureau of Investigation is the lead cop handling the escape of psychopathic killer Daniel Pell, dubbed "Son of Manson" by the press for his "family" of young runaways and his most horrendous crime, the murders of computer engineer William Croyton, Croyton's wife and two of their three children. The only child left alive, nine-year-old Theresa, is known as the Sleeping Doll. Pell, charismatic and diabolically intelligent, continually eludes capture, but Dance, a specialist in interrogation and kinesics (or body language), is never more than a few suspenseful minutes behind. Dance is nicely detailed, and procedural scenes where she uses somatic cues to ferret out liars are fascinating. The book sags in its long middle, but toward the end Deaver digs into his bottomless bag of unexpected twists and turns, keeping readers wide-eyed with surprise.

This is a BRA book club selection and I don't normally read crime. The Sleeping Doll is a ripper of a yarn. Great characters with terrific development through the book, fast paced, you won't want this read to end but you won't be able to keep from devouring each line.

Bones to Ashes
By Kathy Reichs

Forensic anthropologist Temperance (Tempe) Brennan works both in Quebec and North Carolina working murder cases which usually involve action, danger and old bones. In this one she's just returned to her Montreal office for the summer - her job, to determine if they're animal or human and if human was foul play involved.

She determines they are human and that they appear to be of an adolescent. When she finds out the bones had been discovered in the Canadian Maritime Provinces that brings back memories of her childhood friend Evangeline Landry and her sister, who she played with in South Carolina when they were staying there with their aunt and uncle. Tempe and the girls were close right up until the time the girls disappeared. Her family wouldn't say why, just that it was a bad thing.

Tempe is convinced the bones are tied to a crime. So she goes to the Maritimes in search of missing girls and to try and find out how the girl whose bones she in charge of died. Estranged lover Detective Andrew Ryan, who's worked several cases involving missing girls, goes with her. As usual Tempe finds out enough to get a killer or killers interested in what she's up to. Here, we're talking about a sociopathic killer of the first order. There's more to be sure, Tempe's in danger again and once again Kathy Reich has written an edge of your seat story that's nigh well impossible to put down.

The Broken Shore
By Peter Temple

Joe Cashin, a city homicide cop recovering from an injury and broken by his last case, returns to the quiet coastal area of South Australia where he grew up to run its one-man police station while his wounds heal and the nightmares fade. He lives a quiet life with his two dogs in the tumbledown wreck his family home has become. It's a peaceful existence - ideal for the rehabilitating man. There he investigates the beating death of elderly millionaire Charles Bourgoyne. After three aboriginal teens try to sell Bourgoyne's missing watch, the cops ambush the boys, killing two. When the department closes the case, Joe, a melancholy, combative cynic sympathetic to underdogs, decides to find the truth on his own. His unauthorized inquiry, which takes him both back in time and sideways into a netherworld of child pornography and sexual abuse, leads to a shocking conclusion.

The relentless story of a town with a hidden past versus a man who is trying to forget his, "The Broken Shore" delivers powerful, lean writing. Temple chooses his words carefully and sparingly. Incisively drawn characters combine with stunning descriptions of the wild, lush, menacing Australian landscape to make this an unforgettable read.

Watch the First Tuesday Book Club's review of this novel.