Okay, I shamefully admit, I skipped The Bricklayer by newcomer Noah Boyd.  The title didn’t grab me, and the last bricklayer (or stonefitter) that really met my expectation was Tom Builder in Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth.

However, when Agent X (also by Boyd) showed up I thought I’d give it a try. This follow-up to the bestselling first book, features the same cast of characters led by the reluctant FBI Specialist Steve Vail.  As it turns out Vail, a disgruntled former FBI agent prefers laying brick to dealing the bureau’s red tape and troublesome, if not inept, management.  Vail, the bad boy of the books is a really solid character, someone who gets things done . . . his way.

In Agent X, Vail navigates his way through a maze of hidden codes and brain-numbing puzzles to reveal a cadre of spies that have come to the attention of the FBI thanks to a Russian Embassy official known only as Calculus.

The story proved to be a solid addition to a genre dominated by Lee Child, Vince Flynn and Steve Hunter.  I am sold!

Noah Boyd is a pseudonym for FBI agent (more…)

VJ Books has received: Dan Wells – Mr. Monster, Iris Johansen – Chasing the Night,  Steve Alten – Grim Reaper, Alan M. Dershowitz – Trials of Zion, Clive Cussler – The Spy (UK), Sherrilyn Kenyon – No Mercy, S.J. Rozan – On the Line, Daniel Judson – Voyeur, Lee Child – Worth Dying For (also UK Edition), Michael Connelly – The Reversal (UK Edition), Gyles Brandreth – Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (UK Edition), R.J. Ellory – The Saints of New York (Uk Edition), and Anthony E. Zuiker – Dark Prophecy.

VJ Books has received:  Keith Thomson – Once a Spy, Ted Bell – Time Pirate, Christopher Farnsworth – Blood Oath, Brunonia Barry – The Map of True Places, Matt Hilton – Slash and Burn (UK), Lee Child – 61 Hours (UK), Alexander McCall Smith – The Double Comfort Safari Club, and  Carol Higgins Clark – Wrecked.

Tualatin, Oregon, May 3, 2009 – VJ Books recognizes award-winning novelist Lee Child as March 2010 Favorite Author.

Lee Child is the author of fourteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, and The Hard Way, and the #1 bestsellers Gone Tomorrow, Bad Luck and Trouble, and Nothing to Lose. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel.  All titles have been optioned for major motion pictures.

Lee has two new novels scheduled to release in 2010 – 61 Hours and one with a yet “unknown title”.  61 Hours will go on sale in the U.S. May 2010.

In 61 hours, a tour bus crashes in a savage snowstorm and lands Jack Reacher in the middle… (more…)

Watchlist is a two-part thriller by Jeffery Deaver, who created the characters and set the plot in motion.  In turn, twenty-one of the world’s greatest thriller writers contributed to the work, some of which include Linda Barnes, Brett Battles, Lee Child, David Corbett, Joseph Finder, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, James Grady, David Hewson, P.J. Parrish, S.J. Rozan, and Lisa Scottoline.  Each author wrote a chapter and Deaver then completed this thrilling sequel.

In part one, The Chopin Manuscript, former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frédéric Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans.

In part two, The Copper Bracelet, Harold Middleton, an ex-U.S. military intelligence officer returns as he’s drawn into an international terror and assassination plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war.

Additional great authors who contributed to this exciting novel include Jon Land, David Liss, Gayle Lynds, John Ramsey Miller, Ralph Pezzullo, James Phelan, Jenny Siler, Peter Spiegelman, and Erica Spindler, with an introduction by M.J. Rose.

Order your copy of Watchlist from VJ Books today!

See all Jeffery Deaver books here

Douglas Preston, best known for his collaborations with Lincoln Child, has penned his 10^th solo novel, IMPACT.  Preston has been called “the new and improved Michael Crichton” by International bestseller Tess Gerrritsen.  In IMPACT, Preston brings his popular character Wyman Ford, last seen in 2008’s Blasphemy, back for another round of adventure. The fast-paced tale weaves together three separate plot points, uniting them in one explosive conclusion.  Lee Child, author of the bestselling Jack Reacher novels, calls IMPACT “full of huge ideas, but intensely human, too, and intensely suspenseful.”

Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world.  While he searches for the origin of these dangerous jewels, a young woman in Maine borrows her father’s boat to search the outer islands for the meteorite that lit up the sky in her small town. Meanwhile, a scientist at the National Propulsion Facility discovers an inexplicable source of gamma rays in the outer Solar System. The scientist is found decapitated, the data missing. Ford soon realizes the jewel mine he seeks is much more than it seem and is strangely connected to the events happening on the other side of the world.

“Both Doug and Lincoln had been good friends to VJ Books over the years,” said VJ Books co-founder, John Hutchinson, “and we are always excited when one of them writes a new novel.” IMPACT will be no exception, with autographed copies shipping in late January/early February. VJ Books’ long-standing relationship with Mr. Preston has resulted in an ample backlist inventory of many of his independently written novels, as well as those co-penned with Lincoln Child, which are available at www.vjbooks.com.

DOUGLAS PRESTON is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the famed Pendergast series of novels, including such bestselling titles as The Book of the Dead and The Wheel of Darkness, as well as The Relic. His solo novels include Jennie, and the New York Times bestsellers Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy.

Preston is a Research Associate at the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, a member of PEN New Mexico, and a board member of the School of American Research in Santa Fe. He counts in his ancestry the poet Emily Dickinson, the newspaperman Horace Greeley, and the infamous murderer and opium addict Amasa Greenough. Preston and his wife, Christine, have three children, Selene, Aletheia, and Isaac. They live on the coast of Maine.

About VJ Books:  For nearly 13 years VJ Books has catered to the interests of discriminating collectors.  Each month as many as 30 authors are featured from the bestselling authors such as James Patterson, Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, James Rollins and Janet Evanovich.

Who have we met up with? 

The list is long and distinguished: Lee Child, Mark T. Sullivan, Paul Kemprecos (and his lovely wife), Jeffery Deaver, Grant Blackwood, James Rollins – and that was just in the first 5 hours!

I promise to have more pictures – as the day proresses!  We are off for an author’s panel, or two.

The twitter account has pictures – I promise more soon!

Virginia

Child, dubbed by New York Times critic Janet Maslin the “rock star” of the suspense genre, kicked off his 13-city North American tour May 19 to an SRO New York City crowd.  he’s currently meeting hundreds of “Reacher Creatures” (named after leading man Jack Reacher) across the country at bookstores and – new this year- military bases.  Fans can check out Child’s daily progress on his tour blog at www.leechild.com.  Delacorte reports 350,000 copies in print.

Order a signed copy of Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child at www.vjbooks.com