A Poisoned Pen Customer Review

It is always lovely to hear that one of your customers loved a book you recommended.
Here is a review from a faithful customer, Diane McCarthy, one of our favorite store friends.

Skin and Bones – Tom Bale
Julia Trent arrives in the sleepy Sussex village to attend to her parent’s estate as a deranged man goes on a rampage, shooting everyone in his path. Julia becomes a victim as well as the believed sole survivor of the massacre.

After the shooter is found dead by the police, the community believes the senseless carnage has come to a conclusion. But Julia knows there was a second man involved. Together with the son of one of the victims, she sets out to discover the truth surrounding the tragedy.

Author David Harrison, writing under the pseudonym Tom Bale, has scripted a thriller the way all thrillers should read. I found myself riveted with all daily routines suspended as I was caught up in a non-stop adventure. From the first page I found this book to be a satisfying story. The characters were credible, with flaws that made them sympathetic and likeable. The plot line was well organized and logically constructed. The bucolic locale contributed to make “Skin and Bone” a chilling debut.

Terminal Freeze – Lincoln Child
During a routine outing, a group of scientists make a remarkable discovery deep within the frozen interior of a glacial cave. An animal, possibly a saber-tooth tiger, is embedded in the ice. Working 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle, within Alaska’s Federal Wilderness Zone, the area is remote and isolated. The Corporation underwriting the expedition intervenes and arranges to film a documentary introducing this “find” to the public

What follows is a harrowing story set against a backdrop of the frozen Arctic complicated by a fierce blizzard, an eclectic group of characters and an unseen, menacing predator, mutated over thousands of years, into the ultimate “killing machine.”

Normally, living in Arizona, I would save a book about the Arctic Circle for July, savoring the icy and stark descriptions, attempting to live vicariously through the frigid cold. But a Lincoln Child stand alone merits immediate attention. It’s a terrific story. - Diane