Tag: JackReacher

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#BookReview: Palette Of The Soul by Maddie Evans

Second In Series Shows Strong Growth. Yeah, I couldn’t find an “s” word to keep the alliteration through the title. Bummer. But that is on me.

For Evans, she breaks ground in a couple of different ways with this book that at least in my reading of her books over the years, I’ve never once seen her do – thus showing tremendous growth in a single book, which very few authors ever really do.

Here, Evans uses a love angle for the first time. Why a love “angle” rather than “triangle”? Because despite her growth in even having this angle, Evans is still Evans and all of our characters here are straight. As a true love triangle requires either three gay, lesbian, or bisexual people or at bare minimum two people of the same sex and sexuality along with a bisexual person of either sex to complete all three sides of the triangle… an actual love triangle among three straight people cannot exist. Two people interested in the same person or one person interested in two people both result in a love *angle*, where two line segments meet at a common point – not a love *triangle*, which requires three line segments connecting three points.

But enough of the math geek stuff, this really was meant more to praise Evans for her courage in even having this be a part of her book at all rather than diving into math pedantry, even if said pedantry is one of my own sore spots within the romance world and its inaccurate terminologies. 😉

The other solid growth point here is in using a character that is explicitly black, and whose blackness is as core a component of their character as Jack None Reacher’s sheer physical size is with his character. (Meaning Tom Cruise will *never* be Reacher. Period. End of that discussion. And moving on from another booklandia sore spot… :D) This is again new to at least my own reading of Evans, and I’ve been reading her books for several years now but admittedly haven’t read *everything* she’s written. Most of the time, most of her characters leave truly racially identifying characteristics out/ don’t make them a core component of the characterization, meaning that for the most part, readers can really read most any race they want onto her characters.

Here though, Evans deviates from this history and it works quite well. There is no preachiness from any particular viewpoint and also no racial guilt from any viewpoint, simply an acknowledgement of the humanity and experiences of these characters in ways that feel quite real and fleshed out.

Beyond these factors, you’re getting a fairly standard Maddie Evans romance that is in the middle of a series here. Those who prefer even Jalapeno level spice won’t find that here, and those who prefer books that at least mention God in a positive light will find that here. As this is a continuation of her crafting/ yarn based series, there is quite a lot of yarn and painting and other crafting discussion here, which allows Evans to geek out with what I know to be some of her real world passions. (As she did with running in the Brighthead Running Club series that this one shares a world – and even a town – with.)

As always and maybe even moreso now, I’m very much looking forward to seeing where Evans takes this series next.

Very much recommended.

This review of Palette Of The Soul by Maddie Evans was originally written on September 19, 2025.

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#BookReview: A-List by D.P. Lyle

Great Laid Back Gulf Coast Mystery In The Big Easy. This particular mystery manages to capture the aura and allure of both Hollywood and New Orleans (and my AI voices I use for the Audio book reviews I post to YouTube aren’t going to be able to pick up the Southern, much less local, pronunciation of that town’s name). You’ve got the glitzy high priced hotels and the down in the weed drug dealers. You’ve got Cafe Du Monde and a bayou full of gators. You’ve got the real world pressures of being on set on a movie and trying to stay within budget… and a lead actor who likes to sleep around with the locals.

And then you’ve got Jake Longly, his girlfriend Nicole, his dad Ray, and his best friend Pancake. Yet again doing what they do, and yet again using each of their talents to help solve the mystery – and resolve the resultant fight scene. Jake being the former MLB pitcher who knows his way around a bat, Nicole learning her way in a fight, Ray being the former SpecOps-adjacent soldier, and Pancake being a beefy guy that could likely hold his own with Jack None Reacher, should the crew ever come across him.

This particular entry in the series is absolutely more New Orleans focused than general Gulf Coast / Floribama vibe that the other books in this series generally have, and yet it absolutely works for the story told here.

Very much recommended.

This review of A-List by D.P. Lyle was originally written on February 4, 2024.

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#BookReview: Paradise Cove by Davin Goodwin

If Jimmy Buffett Wrote A Detective Novel… it would likely feel very much like this one. This is one where the body count gets staggeringly high for such a small island, but one where the murders and mystery almost take a backseat to the vibe of the Caribbean island and #islandlife. There is a lot of action here, and a credible yet also human detective – but this is no Big City or Jack Reacher type tale. If you’re looking for a nonstop thrill ride or an near superhuman hero… this ain’t it. But if you’re looking for a more laid back, approachable dude who runs a Caribbean hotel and happens to be a former detective back in his former life in the States… well, for that kind of tale you’ve come to the right place. Excellent story and well told. Very much recommended.

This review of Paradise Cove by Davin Goodwin was originally written on March 30, 2022.

Update: According to this Instagram post from the publisher, Book 1 of this series – Diver’s Paradise – is on sale during the month of April.

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#BlogTour: Third Kill by John Ryder

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a story of a war between assassins… playing out on the streets and in the casinos of Las Vegas. For this blog tour we’re looking at Third Kill by John Ryder.

Here’s what I had to say on Goodreads:

Assassin On Assassin Action. In Las Vegas. This is a semi-weird (in a good way) mashup of a police procedural and a straight up shoot-em-up action thriller. On the police procedural side, one half of the “problem solving” team is an FBI agent with the usual FBI agent problems, plus at least a hint of a personal life. On the shoot-em-up action thriller side, the other half of the “problem solving” team is a former Royal Marine turned mercenary turned private assassin. Now, this team is tasked with tracking down and assassinating an assassin who has been let loose on the Las Vegas strip – and whoever is paying them. It is an intriguing premise in that it hasn’t been covered a thousand times in a thousand variations of the exact same thing, and when this British author is focusing on things *other* than guns in his action, it is at minimum plausible and seemingly realistic. But his British blind spots shine through in his repeated – pretty much every time – use of “clip” when he should be using “magazine” to denote where in the gun the bullets are stored and what is replaced when you need more bullets. This is where having an American fan, particularly of the “uses guns semi-actively” sort, would come in handy in the proofreading process – a technique I’ve known even American authors who are still less familiar with guns to use to polish their texts before publication. And this *is* an ARC, so there is at least the possibility that this can be corrected in the month or so before publication – in the Kindle variant, at minimum. Still, a truly strong story such that other than this particular point, all other British to American linguistic differences are easily explained away as the one lead character being British himself. Very much recommended.

Update exclusive to BookAnon.com: I’m told that the “clip” v “magazine” issue did in fact get resolved pre-publication. 🙂

Below the jump, the various publisher details including book description and author bio. 🙂
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