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The Survivor by Sean Slater

I was sent an advanced reader copy of The Survivor written by new author Sean Slater from Goodreads recently.
Columbine. Dunblane. Virginia Tech. Winnenden. But Saint Patrick's High? In his first hour back from a six-month leave of absence, Detective Jacob Striker's day quickly turns into a nightmare. He is barely on scene five minutes at his daughter's high school when he encounters an Active Shooter situation. Three men wearing hockey masks - Black, White, and Red - have stormed the school with firearms and are killing indiscriminately. Striker takes immediate action. Within minutes, two of the gunmen are dead and Striker is close to ending the violence. But the last gunman, Red Mask, does something unexpected. He runs up to his fallen comrade, racks the shotgun, and unloads five rounds into the man, obliterating his face and hands. Before Striker can react, Red Mask flees - and escapes. Against the clock, Striker investigates the killings for which there is no known motive and no known suspect. Soon his investigation takes him to darker places, and he realizes that everything at Saint Patrick's High is not as it appears. The closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous his world becomes. Until Striker himself is in the line of fire. And the violence follows him home.
I was a bit intimidated at first of the size of this book, it is huge.  I really wanted to read it though, so I dove in.  I loved this book from the first page and couldn't wait to finish it.  It was a total page turner, I had a hard time putting it down each time.  I'm big on chapter sizes as well, and this book was good.  Not quite as short as Patterson, but not overwhelming either.  When you have kids, it is sometimes hard to sit down for long stretches to read, and I hate stopping in the middle of the chapter.
Anyways, great character development and plot.  There were several stories going inside the main story that you couldn't wait to learn more on.  Several cliffhangers throughout the book that made it hard to put down.  The book seemed like you were reading about a real person, probably because the author is actually a Vancouver Police Officer.  I absolutely cannot wait to read the next book by Sean Slater that comes out in 2012!

Author Biography

Sean Slater is the pseudonym for Vancouver Police Officer Sean Sommerville. As a police officer, Sommerville works in Canada's poorest slum, the Downtown East Side - an area rife with poverty, mental illness, drug use, prostitution, and gang warfare. He has investigated everything from frauds and extortions to homicides. Sommerville has written numerous columns and editorials for the city newspaper. His work has been nominated for the Rupert Hughes Prose Award, and he was the grand-prize winner of the Sunday Serial Thriller contest, which was co-written by Daniel Kalla and published in the Vancouver Province. When not patrolling the 'Skids', Sommerville is working hard on Stone Cold, the second novel in the Jacob Striker series.

You can read the first chapter of Survivor here. 
There are a few copies available on Amazon (The Survivor. by Sean Slater), but it looks like it is easier to find the e-book of Survivor.  Itunes has it, and Amazon Kindle is supposed to have it.  If you don't have a Kindle, you can get Kindle for PC (that is what I use)Like this post ~
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Review ~ Deep Down True by Juliette Fay

I've never read Juliette Fay before, but I have good things about her first book Shelter Me.  Penguin Press sent me a copy of her newest book Deep Down True: A Novel for review.  a funny and poignant novel about having your heart in the right place.

Newly divorced Dana Stellgarten has always been unfailingly nice- even to telemarketers-but now her temper is wearing thin. Money is tight, her kids are reeling from their dad's departure, and her Goth teenage niece has just landed on her doorstep. As she enters the slipstream of post-divorce romance and is befriended by the town queen bee, Dana finds that the tension between being true to yourself and being liked doesn't end in middle school... and that sometimes it takes a real friend to help you embrace adulthood in all its flawed complexity. -- Penguin

I really enjoyed Deep Down True: A Novel.  Even if you don't relate with Dana's actual situations, the feelings behind them we all feel as women and mothers.  Plus well written characters and plots!    What I enjoyed the most was the dealings with the middle school daughter and how that related with her own adult friends.  I have come to realize that you never really do finish high school.  Every job or big organization I have ever dealt with out of high school had the same issues.  It is really crazy, lol.

This would be a great book for the beach or for a book club meeting, especially if the members are all moms!Like this post ~
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