Savage Game

Savage Game by JT Sawyer
11/23/25; 314 pages
Inkubator Books
Kyle Payne Thriller #4

Savage Game by JT Sawyer is a very highly recommended action thriller and the fourth book featuring former CIA operative Kyle Payne. This can be enjoyed as a standalone novel but after reading you will want to read the previous books in the series: Knife Edge, Blood Trail, and Kill Shot.

Kyle Payne came to Alaska on his Indian motorcycle to get away and experience some peace and solitude. Instead he helps Gus, the owner of the lodge he's working for, look at at tracks with police detective Nolte at a site where it is thought a mass bear attacked occurred. He finds himself immersed in a murder investigation after it is determined that the four campers were brutally murdered by human predators. There is one survivor, teenager Micah Brezny, who manages to escape the hired killers twice before inadvertently running into Payne with the killers close behind. 

As both Micah and Payne are now targets, Nolte is working to find out who the killer is and clues have been left to point to an innocent man. Nolte also has a pushy officer sent from the governor to assist him, which is suspicious. Micah, however, has taken pictures of the killers on her phone and this information gets out. Now the big man, mining executive Sean Klurman, behind the hired men must eliminate her and Payne. With Payne, though, they have no idea who they are dealing with and he uses all his training and skills to keep Mich and himself alive.

This is a well-written, fast-paced, compelling, action thriller that will hold your complete attention while keeping you turning the pages late into the night. The tension is high, the corruption seems to be everywhere, and the danger is ever present throughout the novel. You might have to set disbelief aside that one man can do everything Payne does, but you will gladly do so because the action is worth it. Besides, it is known that Payne is prepared to take deadly action if necessary.

Clearly, Payne is a one-man lethal force and has the training and background to handle what comes his way. He is a hero you will support and root for since you know he stands for justice and discovering the truth. He can tell when a system is corrupt and will make sure that the truth is exposed. At the same time he is protecting Micah, who is a determined and strong young woman who has all ready experienced a lot of traumatic events in her life. 

Savage Game is a perfect choice for anyone who enjoys action-packed thrillers. Thanks to Inkubator Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Silent Bones

Silent Bones by Val McDermid
12/2/25; 432 pages
Grove/Atlantic
Karen Pirie Series #8 

Silent Bones by Val McDermid is a recommended procedural, highly for the right reader, and the eight novel featuring DCI Karen Pirie in Scotland. It can be read as a standalone novel.

Two cases are investigated by the Historical Crimes Unit of Police Scotland lead by DCI Pirie and her team DS Daisy Mortimer and DC Jason Murray (Mint). The first is a body uncovered when rain causes a landslide on a motorway which was built eleven years ago. The remains are identified as belonging to Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist. He was believed to be on the run after his pregnant fiancée was found murdered and he was the prime suspect. Now it is clear that someone killed Nimmo.

The second case involves a death from five years ago. The death was determined to be accidental, but New Zealander Drew Jamieson  believes his brother hotel manager Tom Jamieson was murdered and wants Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit to look at the death. Tom appeared to have fallen down Edinburgh’s Scotsman Steps, but Drew obtained camera footage that showed manufacturer Marcus Nicol following Tom that night. 

The quality of the writing is very good. While the plot set-up is interesting and the two cases being investigated are compelling enough, the pace felt way-too-slow moving in this outing of the Historical Crimes Unit. It also felt unnecessarily wordy, making the cases over complicated when it became clear the direction the investigations were heading. Perhaps this is my problem due to reading several tightly plotted, succinct novels lately. For everyone who loves procedurals, however, Silent Bones certainly does have the team follow up on every clue and piece of information they discover. I have enjoyed other novels in the series more.

The characters are all well-know at this point in the series and continue to experience more development while looking into these cases so those new to the series can easily follow who is who. While they are investigating, the suspects and others involved in the cases also receive character development along the way. Expect many Scottish procedures, phrases, and words along the way. Take note that it felt dodgy and annoying for a Scot to bring up her personal opinions on US politics several times.

Silent Bones is a good choice for those who enjoy detailed procedurals. Thanks to Grove/Atlantic for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Three Days in June

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
2/11/25; 209 pages
Knopf Doubleday 

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is an exceptional, very highly recommended character study which follows a socially awkward mother of the bride during the three days before and after her daughter's wedding. As with everything single book Tyler has ever written it is superb. Anne Tyler is a go-to author who has books on my best-books-ever-written-life-list.

Gail Baines day starts out challenging enough when she quits her job after being told she will be passed over to replace the retiring headmistress. Tonight is the rehearsal for her daughter's wedding tomorrow. If that wasn't enough stress, her ex-husband Max shows up at her door to stay at her house because he has brought a rescue cat he is fostering with him and can't stay at their daughter Debbie's house due to her husband-to-be Kenneth’s allergies. Debbie is at a spa day planned by the groom's mother, when she is told a secret about Kenneth. She talks to her parents about it before talking to Kenneth, and it briefly puts the wedding in question but also brings up events from Gail and Max's past. 

As expected, the writing is absolutely exceptional and captures all the emotions, over-thinking, observations, and memories that can happen during the wedding of a child, as well as suddenly having your ex stay with you before the wedding. Gail is the narrator, following the actions and reactions of everyone. Tyler is always a wonderfully empathetic writer with her ordinary characters who are trying to live their lives, learn along the way, and ultimately find/receive forgiveness.

Gail and Max are both well-written, fully developed characters with obvious strengths and weaknesses. They are also complete opposites, which is perfectly captured here. Gail is said to be socially awkward, but personally I think she is just an introvert who could be blunt and honest when she spoke but she also knew when to keep quiet, a skill many people should learn. Max is easy-going and laid back, a nice compliment to Gail's demeanor. 

There were several quotes from Gail in the book that I related to on a very personal level and I found her a very sympathetic character. There was one quote about setting boundaries I would frame. I perfectly understood that Gail's daughter was called "Debbie" rather than Deborah. For younger readers: it's a family habit that many adult children experience when family members are called a childhood nickname. 

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is an excellent choice for anyone who enjoys character-driven novels and fans of Tyler's writing. 

Personal note: I had to put off reading Three Days in June by Anne Tyler until I had time open in my reading/reviewing schedule. Admittedly, I was also very bitter when I was turned down for a review copy and then receive an email a couple weeks later that all reviewers have a day which they can download it to read. I can't help but deduce some intern got overly ambitious with the turn-down button without any look at the stats of who was requesting it. 

The Free

The Free by Willy Vlautin
2/4/14; 320 pages 
HarperCollins 

The Free by Willy Vlautin is a very highly recommended look into the lives of three people whose lives interconnect as they are looking for meaning while facing desperate situations.

Iraq, veteran Leroy Kervin suffered a traumatic brain injury and was living in a group home. Now he is in a coma at the hospital after clarity returned to him one night and he tried to commit suicide. His memories and dreams while he is in the coma are shared in the narrative. 

Freddie McCall works two jobs, a clerk at a paint store and the overnight caretaker at the group home where Leroy was living. He still struggles to make ends meet after being buried in debt, including medical bills from his daughter. His wife moved out and took their two daughters with her.

Pauline Hawkins is a nurse at the local hospital and Leroy is one of her patients. She cares for her mentally ill father with practical yet firm kindness, buying him groceries and paying his bills. She also cares for a young patient who is a runaway, Jo, who was living in a bad situation, but doesn't know how to escape it.

The writing is straight forward while developing these realistic characters who are all depicted as fully realized individuals with strengths and weaknesses. They are all damaged in some way while they are facing issues and their fears as many ordinary working class people do. While Leroy tried to escape his situation, his dreams add a surreal, nightmarish aspect to the narrative. Freddie, who is working as hard as he can, is kind to others, and tries to hold onto some kind of hope. Pauline has deeply regulated her life and keeps her emotions tightly controlled to protect herself from harm/hurt. Jo opens up something in Pauline.

Another excellent novel by Vlautin that is a testament to the resiliency of people as they face their fears and find some kind of redemption.

The Motel Life

The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin
4/24/2007; 206 pages
HarperCollins

The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin is a very highly recommended, honest story of two brothers on the edge of society just trying to get by while down on their luck. This was Vlautin's debut novel and in it you can see the impetus for the novels that followed.

Two Reno, Nevada, brothers, Jerry Lee and Frank Flannigan, go on the run after a Jerry Lee accidentally kills a kid in a hit-and-run accident late at night during a snow storm. After the accident Jerry Lee turns to Frank for help and the two go on the run. They eventually end up back in Reno. Then, overwhelmed with guilt, Jerry Lee tries to kill himself by shooting his already partially amputated leg. He ends up in the hospital where Frank, who is constantly drinking, visits him, telling him stories to take his mind off things. Frank also rescues a dog while worrying about his brother.

Frank is the narrator of this novel that is about more than two brothers making poor choices. Their mom is dead, their father is gone, and all they have is each other. These young men are both talented, Frank with his stories and Jerry Lee with drawing, and given a chance in life could have accomplished more than living in residential motels, taking dead end jobs and drinking too much. The stories Frank tells provide the hope and escapism his brother needs. There is also a story about Frank's previous girlfriend, Annie, that finds closure.

This is a sad, but simple story of two young men living lonely, troubled, bleak lives in an alcoholic haze while walking the thin line between hope and desperation. Reading several of Vlautin's other novels before this debut novel actually made me appreciate it much more because you can see what is to come. I have enjoyed my Vlautin marathon immensely and just have one more left to read.

 

The Horse

The Horse by Willy Vlautin
7/30/24; 208 pages
HarperCollins

The Horse by Willy Vlautin is an excellent, very highly recommended character study/assessment of a man's life. This is a deeply personal, moving novel.

Sixty-seven-year-old Al Ward was a songwriter, guitarist, and alcoholic who now lives without heat or running water in the assayer's shack on an isolated mining claim he inherited from his great-uncle Mel. Now he lives on instant coffee, canned soup, and a simple routine while recalling past events from his life and the many songs he wrote over the years.  He was talented enough to travel with several different bands, but his real gift was in his song writing. His alcoholism, however, often made his life difficult.

When a blind, scarred horse shows up and just stands outside the shack, Al is at a lost on what to do. He knows nothing about horses, but clearly this horse needs help. He hopes the horse leaves, but it stays, just standing there. It's winter, he hasn't tried to start his car for many months, so he can't drive for help. He's unable to put it out of it's misery. Al needs to find a way to help the horse, and perhaps himself.

The writing perfectly captures the essential events in Al's life and his current situation. It is spare and restrained, but that makes Al's memories from the past even more compelling as he reflects on his past. We know why Al is hiding out in the desert through his memories. While the bulk of the narrative is about Al's life experiences, it is clear that helping this sick horse is giving Al a purpose beyond recalling his past and perhaps even a chance to find peace.

This is also an inside look at a song writer's drive to write songs. There are the complete lyrics to several songs in the novel, but there are lists of the titles of the numerous songs Al wrote. The songs captured events in his life and his reaction to them. It is a sad novel, but ends with a surprising hope for redemption.

* For anyone following my reviews you may notice I've read several of Willy Vlautin's novel lately, loving everyone of them. After reading The Night Always Comes several years ago I immediately bought every novel he wrote. Between work and my reviewing schedule I never got to them but now I'm taking the time now to read everything before his next novel is released.  

Don't Skip Out on Me

Don't Skip Out on Me by Willy Vlautin
2/13/18; 304 pages
HarperCollins

Don't Skip Out on Me by Willy Vlautin is the very highly recommended story and character study of a young man with a dream and the father figure who supports him.

Horace Hopper, 21, is half-Paiute, half-Irish, and is treated like a son by his guardians, the Reeses. His parents left him with his racist grandmother when he was 12, promising to return, but never did. When Horace was 14 his grandmother could no longer take care of him so he went to live with Eldon and Louise Reese on their sheep ranch in a canyon outside Tonopah, Nevada. Horace has always longed to be someone and dreams of being a Mexican boxer because he feels they are warriors who never quit. His plan is to go to Tucson, Arizona, to participate in a Golden Gloves competition and then become a professional boxer.

Mr. Reese is 72 and has a bad back. He really needs Horace's help on the ranch, but he supports Horace's dream and knows that he must find his own way. The Reeses will support Horace unconditionally but also truly believe that Horace will return to the ranch, which will become his, one day. By the time the Reeses became guardians for Horace his self esteem and sense of worth was already broken from being abandoned by his parents and living with his grandmother. Mr. Reese understood that Horace had to try to succeed at his dream, no matter how unobtainable it was.

As expected, the writing is pitch perfect with decisive, clean prose in this haunting, compelling portrayal of two men in different stages of their lives. The narrative seamlessly moves back and forth between Horace and mr. Reese, developing them as fully realized, believable, and sympathetic characters. While Horace is searching for identity and purpose, Mr. Reese is seeing the end in sight.

Yes, there is a lot of boxing in the novel but the underlying theme of the novel transcends boxing. As in any quest to find meaning and purpose, brutal hardships and uncompromising facts appear and leave the protagonist the choice to either face them realistically or ignore the signs. It is also difficult for most people to admit defeat and return home with their broken dreams. Mr. Reese told Horace the story of his return home, leaving a dream behind. Horace chose to miss the obvious fact that he would be accepted, loved, and find purpose if he returned home. The ending is abrupt and heartbreaking.