Suspenseful Books . . . reviewed by Suzanne

Tsar by Ted Bell
Alex Hawke is an updated James Bond. Wine, women and danger are his metiers. Although he’s a British special forces veteran, he does special jobs for the CIA and the U.S. president. Hawke is wonderfully colorful. His father was a British lord, and his mother American. One of his ancestors was a pirate. The “Hawke” books are long and rather rambling, with several plots going on at once. You have to be patient and let yourself enjoy the stories and the quirky characters. As Tsar opens, Hawke is in Bermuda recovering from his last assignment. He meets a beautiful Russian artist with whom he has an affair, but has to leave her when he gets called back into action to foil a plot by a mad Russian who threatens to destroy the world. Not with Hawke and his team around! Ted Bell's website.

Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb
The unraveling of the lives of two men who grew up in a small upstate New York town is the subject of this suspenseful novel. It’s told in 1st person by Nick, who learns of the murder-suicide of his best friend Rob and his girlfriend in New York City. Nick struggles to understand what could have happened to the handsome, talented Rob to make him end his life this way. In the meantime, Nick’s marriage is falling apart. It’s a story of secrets and lies. Eli Gottlieb's website.