Book Review: The Bitter Season (Kovac and Liska #5) by Tami Hoag

Frankly speaking, I do not like coincidences in a murder mystery which solves on its own, just for the heck of it. I mean detectives do need to put proper efforts, right because how many such coincidences do occur, especially in cold cases.

If the start of the book made you think you were going to miss the chemistry of Kovac and Liska for Liska’s case was cold, very cold, you were so so wrong! Oh, never mind. I am sure reviews are mostly checked out by one who has not yet read a book, I mean, that is my perception and that is what I do. Tell me, am I correct or wrong in the comments below.

Well, rest of the book is good because in books, cold cases are not so cold. And Kovac and Liska are ever more better partners without actually being (can they become life partners? Umm, some relationships are happier just the way it is). And murders are more gruesome, total yuck. And has an unexpected conclusion with innocents (or not so?) getting hurt.

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Book Blurb: EVERY FAMILY HAS A SECRET. THEIRS WILL CHILL YOU TO THE CORE. #1 New York Times Bestselling author Tami Hoag returns to the bestselling series of her career with a Kovac and Liska case that will delight fans and new readers alike. A murder from the past. A murder from the present. And a life that was never meant to be… As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless. After moving to the cold case squad in order to spend more time with her sons, she misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter, the sense of urgency of hunting a murderer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki’s absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of Sam’s wardrobe. Sam is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Nikki’s case, the unsolved murder of a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective for the Minneapolis PD, is less of a distraction: Twenty years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away. On the other end of the spectrum, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster homes: a beautiful home, a family, people who love her, a fulfilling job. Little does she know that a danger from her past is stalking her perfect present. A danger powerful enough to pull in both Kovac and Liska and destroy the perfect life she was never meant to have.

About the author: Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers—The Bitter Season, Cold Cold Heart, and The 9th Girl. Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller List with Night Sins, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag prides herself on her research-based realism, crackling dialogue, and spot-on police procedure. “My first obligation as a writer is to be as true as possible to the characters I’m writing about, to the jobs they do, and to the world they inhabit.” To that end, Hoag has become a crack shot with both hand guns and long guns, studied forensic psychology with top experts in the field, learned to drive a police car in pursuit of bad guys, and developed knockout power in her right hand while cultivating a taste for mixed martial arts fighting. Tami Hoag lives in the greater Los Angeles area where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Website: tamihoag.com Twitter: @tamihoag

Rating: 7/10

Genre:	Mystery Thriller
Book Name:	The Bitter Season (Kovac and Liska #5)
Author:	Tami Hoag
Pages:	416
Publication Year:	2016

Book Review: The 9th Girl (Kovac and Liska #4) by Tami Hoag

The 9th Girl fits into the theme of gruesome murder and questioning relationships, which now I have gone accustomed to after reading Elizabeth George books, but when I was reading this book (ummm, this review is also being posted late), it was shocking. By the way, just a small ‘chhotu sa’ hint – though the banter between detectives get tiring at a few times, they still do not solve either of the two crimes mentioned in the book.

The book is a fast paced read with teenage thoughts well expressed and tattoos being central to that. The quote “Tattoos are a road map of the bearer’s personal journey” suitably puts the same into perspective. And I personally know a girl who believes in the same (though not a teenager). By the way, do we not all remember the TV series The Prison Break of tattoo actually being a road map of gaining freedom. Well, back to the book, in fact, because of tattoos only, the victim is identified. I am waiting to read The 1st Victim and how it was left open-ended, for it must have been, else this book would not have taken place with Doc Holiday.

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Book Blurb: “Kovac had seen more dead bodies than he could count: Men, women, children; victims of shootings, stabbings, strangulations, beatings; fresh corpses and bodies that had been left for days in the trunks of cars in the dead of summer. But he had never seen anything quite like this . . . “ On a frigid New Year’s Eve in Minneapolis a young woman’s brutalized body falls from the trunk of a car into the path of oncoming traffic. Questions as to whether she was alive or dead when she hit the icy pavement result in her macabre nickname, Zombie Doe. Unidentified and unidentifiable, she is the ninth nameless female victim of the year, and homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are charged with the task of not only finding out who Zombie Doe is, but who in her life hated her enough to destroy her. Was it personal, or could it just have been a crime of opportunity? Their greatest fear is that not only is she their ninth Jane Doe of the year, but that she may be the ninth victim of a vicious transient serial killer they have come to call Doc Holiday. Crisscrossing America’s heartland, Doc Holiday chooses his victims at random, snatching them in one city and leaving them in another, always on a holiday. If Zombie Doe is one of his, he has brought his gruesome game to a new and more terrifying level. But as Kovac and Liska begin to uncover the truth, they will find that the monsters in their ninth girl’s life may have lived closer to home. And even as another young woman disappears, they have to ask the question: which is the greater evil – the devil you know or the devil you don’t?

About the author: Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers—The Bitter Season, Cold Cold Heart, and The 9th Girl. Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller List with Night Sins, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag prides herself on her research-based realism, crackling dialogue, and spot-on police procedure. “My first obligation as a writer is to be as true as possible to the characters I’m writing about, to the jobs they do, and to the world they inhabit.” To that end, Hoag has become a crack shot with both hand guns and long guns, studied forensic psychology with top experts in the field, learned to drive a police car in pursuit of bad guys, and developed knockout power in her right hand while cultivating a taste for mixed martial arts fighting. Tami Hoag lives in the greater Los Angeles area where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Website: tamihoag.com Twitter: @tamihoag

Rating: 9/10

Genre:	Mystery Thriller
Book Name:	The 9th Girl (Kovac and Liska #4)
Author:	Tami Hoag
Pages:	405
Publication Year:	2013

Book Review: Prior Bad Acts (Kovac and Liska #3) by Tami Hoag

At times even though you like murder mysteries and have read a lot, the description of a murder raises your hackle. Prior Bad Acts was one of those books (I had not yet read many Elizabeth George) and it was better than the other two previous books of this Kovac and Liska series by Tami Hoag.

Murderer can be anyone and where least he/she can be expected. The wise-crack interactions between the two detectives Kovac and Liska was less and I missed those even though separately they were good enough in exploring out the solutions. The book amply shows how a crime affects so many people around, hardens them and changes them for bad, in most cases. The name of the book Prior Bad Acts made me start thinking on a tangential line, that what was the bad act the judge did. But then, hey a book’s name is not supposed to be correlated to every character of the book.

So, go ahead pick this book and tell me how many murderers did you think this book could have had once you were half way through – 1, 2 or 3?

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Book Blurb: New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with a thriller that begins with a shocking crime scene you’ll never forget and follows two relentless detectives on a manhunt that ends in a chilling confrontation with the essence of human evil. It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry—and puts the judge in grave danger. When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control. The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped—snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed. With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.

About the author: Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers—The Bitter Season, Cold Cold Heart, and The 9th Girl. Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller List with Night Sins, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag prides herself on her research-based realism, crackling dialogue, and spot-on police procedure. “My first obligation as a writer is to be as true as possible to the characters I’m writing about, to the jobs they do, and to the world they inhabit.” To that end, Hoag has become a crack shot with both hand guns and long guns, studied forensic psychology with top experts in the field, learned to drive a police car in pursuit of bad guys, and developed knockout power in her right hand while cultivating a taste for mixed martial arts fighting. Tami Hoag lives in the greater Los Angeles area where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Website: tamihoag.com Twitter: @tamihoag

Rating: 9/10

Genre:	Mystery Thriller
Book Name:	Prior Bad Acts (Kovac and Liska #3)
Author:	Tami Hoag
Pages:	525
Publication Year:	2006

Book Review: Dust to Dust (Kovac and Liska #2) by Tami Hoag

I am reading the book blurb now and trying to recall what this book was all about. Oh yes, this is the book where Kovac and Liska interactions finally came to the forefront in good doses. I like them and their banter. That is how any relationship should be like, umm, not the love angle, friendship/ working relationship/ anything else because why make life sad! A few other characters were loud, but what the hell, a mix of characters bring up a better story-line in a murder mystery. Only if the pages were less, I would have been happier.

Overall a decent book for murder mystery.

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Book Blurb: The death of internal affairs investigator Andy Paxton is a potential political bomb for the Minneapolis Police Department… Andy Paxton was gay and he was investigating a possible cop connection in the brutal murder of another gay officer. But Andy’s death looks like suicide, or an unfortunate and embarrassing accident, and the pressure is on from the top brass to close the case as soon as possible. But the investigation’s lead detective Sam Kovac is not convinced the case is as straightforward as it appears. As he digs deeper, it is looking very much like Paxton discovered something that got him killed. And he might not be the final victim….

About the author: Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers—The Bitter Season, Cold Cold Heart, and The 9th Girl. Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller List with Night Sins, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag prides herself on her research-based realism, crackling dialogue, and spot-on police procedure. “My first obligation as a writer is to be as true as possible to the characters I’m writing about, to the jobs they do, and to the world they inhabit.” To that end, Hoag has become a crack shot with both hand guns and long guns, studied forensic psychology with top experts in the field, learned to drive a police car in pursuit of bad guys, and developed knockout power in her right hand while cultivating a taste for mixed martial arts fighting. Tami Hoag lives in the greater Los Angeles area where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Website: tamihoag.com Twitter: @tamihoag

Rating: 7/10

Genre:	Mystery Thriller
Book Name:	Dust to Dust ( Kovac and Liska #2)
Author:	Tami Hoag
Pages:	480
Publication Year:	2000

Book Review: Ashes to Ashes (Kovac and Liska #1) by Tami Hoag

How tough is it can you imagine when a book you have read was months back and you only found time to write a review now. Okay, it was more like I was being lazy. But still reading a series makes it easy for me to pick up next books. (Is the same applicable for you too?) Though the series is named as Kovac and Liska, the characters are very much in the background and the first book in this series is more about introducing them and getting them accustomed to reader’s palate.

The book is written well, but as happens with thicker books, could have been edited and cut short to make the other parts of the stories crisp. But well, I would not have wanted any interaction between Kovac and Liska reduced. I will rate this series a notch less than the Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George but still good to go. So, start off with this book and tell me if you were able to guess the Cremator (murderer) because sometimes the murderer is closer to home than you can imagine. Haha, no, that is not a spoiler….Enjoy

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Book Blurb: He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won’t stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn’t talking. Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When Peter pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI’s ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career—and her life. For she’s the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer . . . and the one woman he wants next.

About the author: Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers—The Bitter Season, Cold Cold Heart, and The 9th Girl. Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller List with Night Sins, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag prides herself on her research-based realism, crackling dialogue, and spot-on police procedure. “My first obligation as a writer is to be as true as possible to the characters I’m writing about, to the jobs they do, and to the world they inhabit.” To that end, Hoag has become a crack shot with both hand guns and long guns, studied forensic psychology with top experts in the field, learned to drive a police car in pursuit of bad guys, and developed knockout power in her right hand while cultivating a taste for mixed martial arts fighting. Tami Hoag lives in the greater Los Angeles area where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Website: tamihoag.com Twitter: @tamihoag

Rating: 7/10

Genre:	Mystery Thriller
Book Name:	Ashes to Ashes ( Kovac and Liska #1)
Author:	Tami Hoag
Pages:	566
Publication Year:	1999