Tag: Robert-Ellis • BookLikes

review 2016-03-16 00:00

The Dead Room - Robert Ellis,Jim McCance

I really liked this book. The story was exciting and captivating, and the murders twisted and gory.
The characters are really well developed and there are some twists and turns in the plot along the way.

I listenend to the audio version of this book, narrated by Jim McCance. I have had mixed experiences with audiobooks before, a bad narrator can easily ruin a good book for me. In this case it was the cherry on the top, McCance brings the story to life and does a great job in creating the right atmosphere for the book.

Would highly recommend this book, especially as an audiobook!

review 2015-09-05 21:34

City of Echoes

JDCMustReadBooks — feeling evil grin

City of Echoes (Detective Matt Jones) - Robert Ellis

By: Robert Ellis

Series: Detective Matt Jones, #1

ISBN: 9781477827727

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Publication Date: 9/1/2015

Format: Other

My Rating: 4 Stars

A special thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Robert Ellis introduces a gritty, new LA Homicide cop, Matthew Trevor Jones, the first in the series, CITY OF ECHOES an intense, fast-paced Hollywood noir-style detective crime thriller.

Matt Jones is excited about celebrating his promotion to Hollywood Homicide, with his friend over dinner and drinks, when he receives a call from his supervisor, Bob Grace. He is to start the following day.

An emergency, with a warning. Somebody has been murdered in Hollywood. He and his partner, Danny Cabrera--almost as green as Matt, with just three months under his belt working in Hollywood, happen to be the only choices for this assignment.

Between the economy and the budget cutbacks from Washington and Sacramento—cops had been pulled off the street and crime had become a burgeoning industry. So both men had been fast-tracked to Homicide—his celebration will need to be postponed. He texted his buddy. Now, it is show time.The combination of excitement and terror.

A violent murder case, a man gunned down in a parking lot off Hollywood Blvd – A serial robber? The victim—is it someone he knows? The murder victim had just received a text—dinner off. Call ME. From him? Could it be Hughes?

The SUV--Kevin Hughes had been more than a friend to him. More than a mentor. After their tour of duty in Afghanistan, it had been Hughes who convinced Matt to write off his troubles by leaving the east coast and moving to LA Hughes took him under his wing. Now he has to tell Kevin's wife. She will devastated. Where was Hughes partner, Frankie Lane? Something was going on? He senses something. Something familiar.

Matt had transferred from the Pacific Division but was aware of the string of holdups that had been occurring in Hollywood, and along the Strip. The three-piece urban bandit.

Cabrera, goes back to the station and tells Grace, Matt may not be able to handle the case, since he and Hughes were friends. It may be too much for him. When they saw the video tapes; by the time they reached the SUV and saw Hughes body; the three-piece bandit, the cop killer in the hooded sweatshirt was long gone.

His new partner thinks he cannot handle the case – they had too much history. Matt is mad as hell at Cabrera, and an overheated argument. It is his case. He had seen his friend gunned down on video. They need to get this guy off the street. Grace is acting weird and nervous and something stinks about the entire situation. Something is off.

When another detective’s suspicious death points to a police frame-up of an innocent man in the first of a series of murders, Matt cannot trust his partner, or his boss. Actually, who can he trust. Evil or good? Corruption? A cover-up? Greed? He has to put the pieces together. What is the motive?

In addition to all his stress, and paranoia, he is worried about Kevin’s widow, Laura and his own past, the father who betrayed him and his mother- his demons. It haunts him. Will Matt come unglued and be able to hold up under the pressure and stress, or completely unravel, before he uncovers what is going down. There has to be a missing piece? Is his dad out to get him? Does he have another life? The Greedy Bastard?

In the meantime, Jones uncovers evidence linking the crime to a brutal murder, eighteen months ago. There is something more going on and he is in deep. So he has two choices to back off or dive in. A deep seated, high-level cover up and the body count is rising. More complications.

There’s a problem and it’s in Hollywood. It has something to do with the investigation of the serial killer.

Why do the arresting officers start dying? Why do murders continue after the presumed killer is caught? Someone is protecting a secret? A betrayal? Pretending. A copycat? Could someone be trying to throw them off the real killer? Transferring the blame to the three-piece bandit, or the dirty cops? Could there be something bigger in play?

When Matt thinks he is finally linking the pieces of the mystery, he has to play along in order to gather more information.Blurring the lines between good and evil.

A complex fast-paced detective mystery cop procedural-- full of red herrings, with twists and turns with every page turn. A flawed main character, with one problem after another, coming at him full force. Better keep up, with more dead and characters than you can possibly name. Can he survive the pressure?

EVIL. Monsters. Torture. Cutting. "Chasing Down The ONE!"

In addition to the electronic reading copy, also purchased the audio, due to travel. The narrator Nick Podehl was an ideal match, with the perfect voice for Ellis’ novel's tone of an old classic detective movie; matching the intensity.

The writing was clever with seamless connections of the multi-layered storylines. Many hidden meanings with the word “echoes”, when reading between the lines- a clever title.

My second book by Ellis, after listening to THE DEAD ROOM,narrated by Jim McCance. Highly recommend both, and look forward to more.

With the cliffhanger ending (I am dying), fans will have to wait and see what is next for Ellis’ new main man. Does Matt have what it takes to survive? Will Ellis' Jones, have as many lives asConnelly’s Harry Bosch or Mickey Haller, or Evanovich’s Joseph Morelli and Plum?

More to come with, The Love Killings (Detective Matt Jones #2) coming, 8/2/2016!

Source: www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/#!City-of-Echoes/cmoa/55eb1b5e0cf2de902a7e98a9

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review 2014-10-07 00:51

The Dead Room

JDCMustReadBooks

By Robert Ellis

ASIN: B00MMOB6WS

Publisher: Robert Ellis

Narrated by: Jim McCance

Publication Date: 8/5/2014

Format: Audio

My Rating: 4 Stars

Robert Ellis', The Dead Room is a riveting and intense crime mystery psycho thriller of a deranged serial killer, a politically driven prosecutor, an unethical justice system, and a conspiracy with twists and turns, which will leave you speechless. Be prepared for a scary, twisted, and gruesome roller coaster ride of your life.

In Philadelphia, a young teen girl, Darlene Lewis is getting ready for her boyfriend, while her parents are out of town and is murdered, in a horrific gruesome manner. She has been skinned and glued to a dining room table. The mailman, Oscar Holmes has been charged with the murder. She had been taunting him, and he has a past; his fingerprints and teeth marks are found on the body and a neighbor witnessed the mail carrier running away from the crime scene, drenched in blood, at the approximate time the crime was committed.

Next you have Teddy Mack, a young attorney, with a horrible past. His father was convicted of a murder he did not commit as was set up. Due to this, he does not want to get into criminal law, as is a real estate attorney with Barnett and Stokes Law Firm.

One of the partners in the firm, where he is an associate takes on a murder case and asks for Teddy's help. The partner claims that he has accepted the case as a favor to the alleged murderer's family, who are his friends. He wants Teddy to convince a local law professor with a national reputation to work with them on the case. Despite his issues with his father's death, he is told that all he will be asked to do, since the defendant obviously committed the heinous crime, is to eliminate the death penalty as an option and make sure that the accused is sentenced to life in an institution for the criminally insane, as opposed to the state penitentiary.

Teddy begins to believe despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Holmes is innocent and due to his background and wrongful conviction of his father, he is driven to help Holmes as he walks into a world of dirty politics, corruption, and lies, as deadly as the killer's twisted secrets

An intense and gripping crime thriller, of a serial killer, a political conspiracy and revenge. Cannot give away the twist at the end; however, will say, the book was intriguing and unpredictable, with a corrupt criminal justice system. Too good!

If you like a dose of shock, terror, complexity, demons, homicide, twisted, murder, ambition, betrayal, justice, courtroom drama, political, crime thrillers, suspense, action, and can stomach some gruesome acts of violence combined with some great writing, and a surprise ending, this book is for you.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Jim McCance was quite chilling, which made it even more spooky and realistic. Looking forward to more by Ellis!

2014 New Releases audiobook Books Read in 2014 corruption crime psychological thriller suspense thriller

Source: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1071354115

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review 2013-07-21 20:58

City of Fire

Wyvernfriend Reads

Lena Gamble has come a long way from living in a car with her brother. When her parents died they ran away from Child Protective Services and cared for themselves. When her brother David was killed under mysterious circumstances the only family Lena had were the her workmates in the police. She's worked her way to detective and her partner, Hank Novak decides that a case that looks open and shut is a good place for her to start leading a case. But there are subtle things wrong with this case. Things that appear again in another murder. This case is becoming very complicated and there's a race to find the murderer before his attention becomes too focused on Lena. Add to that the fact that her brother's cold case investigation is progressing. And the fact that the reader is introduced to the killer from fairly early on. You have an interesting thriller with a few unexpected twists. It's quite readable, the twists and turns of the investigation are gripping as are the insights into the murderer's head, though there aren't enough ot them really. I was reading avidly up to the end of the story and even then it managed to take me by surprise. While there are graphic descriptions of the murders the story isn't all that gruesome.

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review 2013-03-17 00:00

The Dead Room

David's 'Clan' Blog

This is a superior version of the serial killer genre. Many seem to wish to out-do eachother with the level of depravity of the murderer, but whilst this perpetrator here is equally vile, the book does address more general concerns such as the pressure on individuals in positions of power to put their own ambitions before justice or the protection of the individual. Once again, we see a lawyer in the position of the hero fighting injustice and putting his own career, well-being and indeed his life before personal advantage. This of course like all the many books where a lawyer is the hero, is a suspension of belief too far for many of us, experience shows that lawyers are more often the cause of the problems of injustice than the solution, but I will let that go in this case! The imagery of the private playground of the killer who appears to have the economic ability to protect himself from discovery is truly frightening. An excellent example of the genre and well worth a read if you are in to it.