Richard North Patterson is one of my favorite authors, and I was reminded again why when I read In the Name of Honor. Patterson shows why he is one of the best legal thriller writers with this tale of an Army officer who shoots his former commander after they return from Iraq. The protagonist is Captain Paul Terry, the JAG officer who is assigned to defend him shortly before he is supposed to leave the military for a plush job in New York City. Terry has to deal with his client’s family and the extended family of the deceased while navigating a military court martial and probing his client’s PTSD and memory loss surrounding the shooting. The plot was good and I did not see the twist of the climax coming. But as always, Patterson’s strength is his finely-drawn characters and their relationships. I had a hard time putting this book down, and I anxiously await Patterson’s next novel.

My only complaint is that he got some of the military details wrong, but I am also an Iraq veteran, so the average reader probably wouldn’t notice the mistakes.

I really enjoyed this thriller about a murder case in Toronto, which was an interesting twist on the usual legal thriller format in that it wasn’t just from the point of view of the attorneys, but rather included the police and detectives as they pieced the case together. The many characters were interesting and varied, though not all as fully-developed as I would have liked (though not really possible due to the number). The plot was good and built to a suspenseful climax. The descriptions of Toronto really made me want to go back to visit soon.

There were a few loose ends laying the way for a sequel, perhaps. If so, I’ll be sure to read it. I highly recommend this book for any fans of legal thrillers, especially those wanting something a little different.

This book is The Associate, which (I believe) has a normal entry with a name elsewhere in AllConsuming.net.

I was expecting another “Marley” (my fault, not the book’s) so I was disappointed. I think the best essays were the last few, so I am glad I hung in there and finished it.

This book lists the subject (Ray Scampinello) and a co-writer, but it is written in third person, probably so it can often contain glowing words about the subject. Sorry, autobiographies (co-writer, listed ghostwriter, or silent ghostwriter) should be written in first person without all of the “he’s so great” descriptions. This is probably also the poorest writing I’ve encountered in a book with a professional co-writer.

Some of the anecdotes in the book are interesting, but there’s too much fluff separating them and too much bad writing to suffer through to get to them. I really wanted to like this book but I was very disappointed in it.

Barry Eisler’s latest novel departs from the John Rain series to two estranged brothers in the west coast, as different as they can be: one (Ben) a soldier running black ops, and the other (Alex) a lawyer in a well-heeled law firm doing patent and software work. But when Alex’s client and the patent examiner reviewing his new software are murdered, and Alex looks to be next, he calls his big brother for help. Adding to the mix is Alex’s Iranian female co-worker, whom Alex has a crush on and Ben does not trust.

Although I missed the exciting locales of the “Rain” series, I enjoyed the writing and storyline in this book as much as the “Rain” series. It was really hard to put it down. Eisler proves again he is a master storyteller.

This was a quick and interesting (if superficial) read. But it was much more about her marriage (and marriage problems) than her struggle with weight loss.

A cute small-format book with photos of the Stanley Cup in various places with the opposite page telling a little bit about that place that makes it unique or interesting. Not nearly as much information about the Cup’s travels with players as I would have liked, and one segment misidentifies the U.S. Capitol as the White House (which made me wonder how many other places are wrong).

My biggest gripe, which probably wouldn’t be noticed by most readers, is that the majority of the photos appear to have been taken with a cheap point-and-shoot camera, the pictures developed at a cheap lab, and then the photos were scanned with a cheap scanner for use in the book (some of the photos — like the keepers of the Cup — look good, so it wasn’t a printing issue).

Still, it was an entertaining, quick read.

This wasn’t as good as the original trilogy, and it bogged down in parts, but this was still a lot of fun and an enjoyable summer movie.

This book is a little uneven, but laugh out loud funny in parts, even if you aren’t a hockey dad (or mom), or even a hockey fan. It is a good portrayal of the sacrifices made and rewards received by parents of travel hockey players.