Blog 3

After the meeting with Senator Cross, Myron is forced into the blue Cadillac by one of his snoopers. Aaron, a muscular bully for the Ache brothers, questions his involvement in Valerie Simpson's death. Aaron threatens harm to those who associate with Myron. Roger Quincy, an accused stalker of Valerie, is brought into the police station and asks for Myron Bolivar as his lawyer. Oddly, he recounts the day of the murder from his own perspective and only recalls seeing Valerie dead in Myron's arms.
Win calls Myron and asks him to meet him at a hotel where he has tracked Duane. They watch him from a hotel room peephole directly across from a room that Duane had entered. Myron peers out the peephole and sees Duane in the arms of th mother of one of the accused murderers of Alexander Cross. What's up in Duanes's life?

Blog 2

Myron tries to speak with Valeris's psychiatrist , Dr, Julia Abramson, who declines to offer specific answers, invoking doctor/client privelege. He receives little information, and tries to conctact Alexander Cross's friends, the deceased fiance of Valerie Simpson. One of Alexander's friends, Gregory Caufield, agrees to meet with him. Upon arriving at Gregory's office, he is led to a meeting with Senator Bradley Cross, father of the deceased. The Senator discloses the information that his son, Alexander, was on drugs, heroin and cocaine. His son's body was found with a syringe, but he stands by the story that the missing teenager, Errol Swade, killed his son with a switchblade. Questions are asked regarding the murder and what happened to the accused and the accused's parents. Was Senator Cross a grieving father or had he silenced a detailed investigation into his son's death?

Blog 1

Harlan Coben has written several novels that involve Myron Bolitar, a sports agent and his best friend, Win. In this novel, both characters are watching their new client, a street kid from the rough side of New York, pummel his opponents in the U.S. Tennis Open competition. The crowd panics when a shot rings out, and a young woman collapses in the "Food Court". Valerie Simpson, the victim, had been a child protegee in the tennis world, but had suffered a breakdown and quickly disappeared from the media and athletic events. Duane Richwood's dazzling tennis serves have attracted the eyes of sponsors and this new star stands to become one of the highest paid tennis athletes in the world.
Duane becomes a suspect in Valerie's murder when the police find his name and number as the last entry in her calender notebook after he had denied knowing her. Myron visits Valerie's mother and tries to find about about Valerie's life, but is forced to leave by her new husband. With further research, he does find that Valerie had been engaged to a Senator's son who had been murdered the night before their wedding. After the murder, one of the suspects was killed by the police and the other boy disappeared.
Meanwhile, Myron is being followed by two men in a light blue Cadillac. Myron and Win are able to corner them and find that they had been hired by the Ache brothers who run TruPro, sport agents with ties to the Mafia. Duane admits to a relationship with Valerie even though he loves his high school sweetheart, Wanda, with whom he has a son.
Myron reviews the press reports of Alexander Cross's murder, Valerie Simpson's fiance. Errol Swade, the mssing fugitive, was not found, and the editorials demanding his arrest dwindled as time passed. Myron found a news article about the young man who was killed by the police the evening of the murder. His transcript and teacher reports indicated that Curtis Yeller, the other suspect, had been a student with a 3.9 average who rarely missed school. Was this a boy who would kill a unsuspecting victim?

Blog 4

Dr. Maura Isles goes to see Peter Lucas, a Boston Tribune reporter, whom Joe Roke wanted as the media representative for a live interview from the hospital. They exchange information that both had gleaned from their respective investigations, his on the historical connections of Olena and Joe, and her medical perspective from the autopsy. Detective Rizzoli is troubled by the unknown Mila and decides to place an advertisement in Confidental, a tabloid found on the back seat of Roke's car. Surveillance photos did show a third head in the back seat of his car when he had stopped for gas in Virginia.

Maura brings Peter Lucas to Jane and Gabriel's apartment, and they share conjectures about Balentree's involvement into this black market trade involving women, weapons, and drugs. A mysterious woman contacts Jane's number left in the Confidential, but hangs up. Shortly, the bell rings at Jane's apartment and Mila appears at her doorstep. Mila is extremely frightened, but she does show Jane a VCR tape confiscated from the house in Asburn. A hidden camera in the main bedroom of the home caught the murder of a young girl by a prominent man from Washington. Mila informs Detective Rizzoli tha the three of them, Joe, Olena and herself, each had a copy before they were separated.

The house door bell sounds again, and Jane sees that FBI Agent John Barsanti is at her door. Quickly, she realizes that Mila will run again, grabs her gun and baby Regina, and follows Mila through the open bedroom window. Jane leads them to Peter Lucas's apartment where she is disarmed and discovers that Peter has been a paid informant for those in search of Mila and the three tapes. Mila escapes through the bathroom window, but Detective Rizzoli and her daughter Regina are forced by a second assailant into the woods and death.

Meanwhile, Gabriel is frantically trying to locate his wife by reviewing her last known steps and cell phone contacts. He is disturbed by Peter Lucas's responses to his questions after finding Lucas's number on Jane's cell phone call list and heads over to his apartment. Jane had been forced to dig a grave for herself and Regina deep in the woods behind Lucas's townhouse. She had looked for her weapon hidden in the diaper bag, but found nothing.

After Gabriel and Agent Baranti question Peter Lucas, Gabriel searches through his townhouse and finds Jane's car keys behind the sofa. He hears three gunshots behind the apartment and dashes off into the woods. Sharpened senses lead Gabriel farther into the woods where Jane stumbles forward holding Regina in her arms followed by Mila clutching Jane's weapon.

The novel's resolution includes the prosecution of the murderer and his loss of the federal job, Peter Lucas's fine and arraignment, and Mila's debriefing. Federal agents retrace the Russian girls illegal entry into the United States and, with Mila's help, locate the body of a young girl killed durng the journey. The story leads one to question how many young girls vanish in the hands of unscrupulous men posing as agents of promise and good fortune.

Blog 3

Throughout the story, there is much distrust between the federal agencies and the Boston police department. Gunshots ring out from inside the hospital as federal SWAT teams infiltrate the area and kill both Olena and Joe in a savage assault. Detective Jane Rizzoli is whisked off to Brigham Hospital, and her husband slips off to be with her for the delivery of their baby girl. A turf war results between Dr. Maura Isles, the Boston medical examiner, and FBI Agent John Barsanti who wants to take the corpses to Washington for the autopsy. Strangely, the Governer intervenes before Maura completes the autopsy, and the bodies are taken away.

Both Jane and her husband, Gabriel, have trouble sleeping due to nightmares of the ordeal and their newborn's cries. The Boston police discover that a ballistics check found a match between the weapon used by the hospital infiltrator who tried to kill Olena and a multiple shooting in Asburn, Virginia. The federal takedown team confiscated all the weapons found at the hostage crisis, calling it a matter of national security. One of the Boston PD's supervisors brings the file of the Russian women's massacre to a secluded meeting attended by Deective Rizzoli and Agent Dean. What happened in Asburn and who is involved?

Thanks to the help of her mother, Jane is able to travel to Asburn, Virginia with her husband. She is haunted by dreams and the memory of Olena's last words, "Mila knows." Detective Eddie Wardlow of Asburn isn't pleased to see them despite their supervisor's clearance. He admits to knowledge of a connection between the owner of the "girls' house" and Balentree, one of the nation's biggest defense contractors. No fingerprints of the dead women were found on file, adding to the certainty that the girls were undocumented aliens.

Jane and Gabriel leave the station and travel to the vacated house. It is late afternoon, and the house has been charred by a fire on the second floor. They remove the padlocks on the house and see that furniture and rugs have been cleared away. It is still easy to imagine the horror of that evening as evidenced by the blood stains and holes in the wall. Darkness approaches and, as they leave, bright lights blind Jane and Gabriel on the porch. Agent John Barsanti takes them downtown to a federal headquarters for questioning. What's up now?

Blog 2

This novel shifts from the hostage ordeal to the indignities suffered by the imprisoned young Russian girls as seen through the eyes of Olena and Mila. The Mother is in charge and forces them to travel by a chauffered van to a boat docked near the Potomac River in Virginia.

After "Jane Doe" calls the radio station, an unidentified man walks past police barricades and into the hospital. The FBI identify him as Joseph Roke, a man with an arrest warrant for killing a policeman. Together, the pair issue several stipulations for the release of a few hostages, one of which includes a live feed to the media. Meanwhile, Gabriel Dean is frantic about his wife who is in the midst of labor. Added to this concern is a television reporter's revelation that Jane Rizzoli is a police detective. Gabriel decides to go in alone as a negotiator, despite the cancellation of any such action by the feds.

The story transitions to the Russian captives where two dark-clothed killers enter the house and kill Mother and the girls except for Mila and Olena who had escaped to the roof. The two girls find money in Mother's closet and head into the woods. They are picked up on the road by a lone man, Joe, who takes them to his cabin for a short while before leaving the home for a safer place.

Vanish

The saga begins with the forced captivity and abuse of several young female Russians. They came to America under the false pretense that they would be part of the American dream. Instead, they are locked away and forced to be a part of a prostitution ring for wealthy clients.

Maura Isles, a medical examiner, discovers a "live" corpse from the Boston Harbor in a body bag. After Jane Doe is taken to the hospital, she shoots a security guard and seizes several hostages including pregnant Detective Jane Rizzoli. Rizzoli's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, is frantic as he tries to negotiate their release. Tension mounts as the negotiating team discovers that the "guard" is not an employee of the hospital and has fingerprints not found on the federal data base.

The autoposy of the dead man reveals a scorpion tattoo on the center of his back. This type of tattoo is often found on marines assigned to killer missions. The tattoo would serve as a means of identification if the exremities were severed from the body.

Murder at the Washinton Tribune

Fourth Blog - 4/9/10
I just finished the novel this morning. The ending was predictable, and having read some other novels from this author, somewhat disappointing. After checking with her supervisor at MPD, Edith Vargas-Swayze confronts Joe Wilcox about her suspicions regarding the origins of the "serial killer" letters, and Joe admits to making dishonest revelations to the public. He agrees to come into Headquarters after disclosing this to his wife, daughter, and brother, Michael, who is under suspicion as a deliveryman to the Trib the night of the murder.
Joe arrives home to discover his wife in tears over the marital infidelities of her friend's husband, Paul Morehouse, the Washinton Tribune's editor and Joe's boss. Mimi Morehouse had discovered numerous, threatening e-mails between Paul and Jean Kaporis, the first murder victim. After calming her, he talks about the forged letters from the alleged serial killer and his need to confess this unethical behavior. Joe contacts Robbie and shares an abbreviated version of the story over the phone with her.
Georgia agrees to accompany Joe to the police station and urges him to telephone his brother with the truth and apologize for the fabrications. Joe calls and tells Michael, and they make plans to meet at Michael's apartment at five-thirty. In the meantime, Robbie contacts Michael and makes a date to issue her own apology and explanation for her jounalistic involvement.
When she arrives at the apartment, Michael whisks her into a rented convertible and takes her to a secluded restaurant for dinner. Joe and Georgia report to the police station without Michael who is now under suspicion of his neighbor's death, Rudy Grau, based upon an eyewitness account. Michael encourages Robbie to bring her camera crew to the restaurant, and he admits murdering Rudy in Robbie's television interview.
A folder containg the threatening e-mails between Jean Kaporis and Paul Morehouse is dropped off at MPD Headquarter, and Edith Vargas-Swayze leaves the station with other detectives to arrest Paul. He is tried and convicted of the murder, but there is no solution to the second murder in Franklin Park.
In the weeks following the arrests and news revelations, Joe Wilcox was vilified by the media as an aberration of journalistic integrety and honesty, though criminal charges were never brought against him. The Washington Tribune suffered a double blow with its top editor as a murderer and its best police reporter as a deceiver and forger. Roberta Wilcox became a popular broadcast journalist who spoke on numerous talk shows where she pointed out her father's long and successful career as a newspaper journalist to no avail.
Years later, Georgia and Joe Wilcox sold their home in Rockville and settled in New Mexico. Paul Morehouse was found guilty of Jean Kaporis' murder and sentenced to forty years in prison with appeals planned by his attorneys. Michael Wilcox was sentences to life without parole, and Roberta Wilcox moved to New York to become a correspondent on 20/20.

Third posting 4/8/10
Joe Wilcox has engaged in falsifying information to gain attention and create articles for the Tribune. I am most disappointed by his unethical means to "create news". He surreptitiously typed a note on his brother's typewriter and mailed it to his work address, thus claiming that he had been contacted by the "serial killer". This threatening note gained him attention from many media sources with requests for interviews and articles. He continued to display this unethical behavior by typing a second note on his brother's typewriter and placing this into his home mailbox. MPD was contacted after the first threatening note and had placed protective survelliance upon his home. They had noted no unfamiliar contacts with the home mailbox.
Joe's former romantic alliance, Detective Edith Vargas-Swayze, and her partner have been handed the letter left in the Wilcox mailbox. Questions have arisen as to the origin of the fngerprints left on the untyped paper. As the story nears the end, Wilcox's newspaper boss, Paul Morehouse, is romancing a young graduate journalism student with possible future employment opportunities at The Washington Tribune. Does he have any other interests in the former young women found murdered near the Tribune building?

Murder at the Washngton Tribune

Second blog - 4/6/10
Michael LaRue (Wilcox) does express a strong desire to meet Joe's wife and daughter, but Joe is hesitant and asks that he be given some time to sort through this new twist in the life of his family. He tries to immerse himself into the further exposure of a possible "serial killer" loose in the city of Wasghington, D.C. His boss is ecstatic about the Tribune's rise in popularity due to Wilcox's article and encourages him to explore further angles in the case, thus keeping the tragedy in the public's eye.
One evening upon returning home, he is surprised to find his long-lost brother enjoying the companionship of his wife, Georgia, and daughter, Roberta. They are both enamored by the charming company of Michael, much to Joe's dismay. He forces himself to relax, but hopes that the visit will not be repeated soon. Later, another body is found in Franklin Park. This time it is a male victim who happens to be Michael's obnoxious neighbor. Is there a connection?

Murder at the Wahington Tribune

The author of this novel, Margaret Truman, is the wife of fomer President Harry Truman. Her knowledge of the Washington, D.C. area lends much credibility to the characters and plots in her series of Capital Crimes mysteries. In this book, a young woman has been found murdered at the Washington Tribune. The journalists and Metropolitan Police Department are at odds with each other in solving this horrific crime.

When a second, attractive woman involved in the media is murdered, Trib reporter Joe Wilcox reports on a possible "serial killer" connection on a tip from an unknown MPD source. The articles cause much turmoil within the police department, but give Joe a renewed sense of purpose in his career. Joe's daughter, Roberta, is a successful broadcast journalist who turns to her father for more information on the crimes and is stonewalled by him.

One of the characters interviewed by MPD detective and Joe's romantic connection, Edith Vargas-Swayze, is a Trib delivery man by the name of Michael LaRue who had just moved to the Washington area from Illinois following a second divorce. At this point of the novel, it has been revealed that this character is Joe Wilcox's estranged brother, Michael. Joe hasn't been in contact with his brother for forty years and is concerned as to why he has moved to Washington. Does the brother have an agenda against Joe? Why has he moved to Washington with information files containing many of Joe's Washington Tribune articles?