Keith HoughtonResenhas

Average police procedural. It was kind of messy in parts. It definitely had me guessing but more because I'm not entirely sure it made any sense. There were plots on top of plots. I liked Maggie for the most part. I have the next one and will likely pick it up. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

This is a really good series, I am looking forward to the 3rd book coming soon. The characters are well developed keep your interest the story holds you and keeps you on the edge of your seat. There were quite a few plot twists I didn't see coming. I reccommend the series to anyone who enjoys crime dramas.

I might have gone into this book predisposed to hate it, as the author wrote an introduction about his writing process, and how hard it is to write a novel. I usually find these kind of statements self-serving and of very little use to the reader. It also inserted the author into the book, and I couldn't help but see "the writer" throughout.

Phrases like "azure sky," "bouncing around in my head like popcorn in a microwavable bag," and "selling one-way tickets to dead-end trips," all seemed about the writer being very pleased with his imagery, and very little about telling a story to the reader.

And the story felt like just another trick the author was playing on the reader. When the first "twist" was revealed and then untwisted (perhaps because the author felt it was too obvious), a twist on the twist was revealed that just felt cheap and unearned.

I couldn't decide whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. The first half of the book seemed a little hard to follow. I am not sure if I was distracted while reading it, or if the plot just jumped around too much.
The second half of the book was very exciting. Once the action moved to Las Vegas, it seemed to get much better, and I was excited to read more.
When we finally find out the identity of the killer, it is a big WTF moment. It seemed to just come out of the blue. I don't know if that was the author's point, that you never know what is going on with others, and anyone could be a killer.
Overall, it was a pretty good book. Especially since I was able to download it to my kindle for free.

Crash
by Keith Houghton
2018
Thomas & Mercer
e-book

A car crash years ago, suddenly catches up to Jed Allen, when he awakens sitting at a desk in a high end architectural firm in downtown NYC. With no idea who he is, why he is there and no memory of his past. Looking through his wallet, he finds he is a very successful architect, with a fast paced life of drugs and alcohol, has a gorgeous wife named Cassie and owns a beautiful home. When he returns to address in his wallet, he finds Cassie nowhere to be found.
Evidence of his past show he may have been a con man, with a cocaine problem and many girlfriends.
Evidence also shows he may have worked for an airline smuggling drugs and is responsible for the death of the daughter of a huge drug lord, who wants him dead.
Meanwhile, Jed is obsessed with Cassie. He can not remember what happened that came between them. He finds she has been married to another guy for 10 years....and Cassie would rather not discuss their past.
Jedś psychiatrist is suddenly a close friend.......

Who is Jed Allen?
Good book, good story but a better character development would enrich this great story; it did keep my interest. A psychological thriller with a twist ending.

Jed Allen is a successful New York architect who has a bad car crash and suffers intermittent amnesia afterwards. One day his amnesia becomes total and he can no longer remember who he is or what he has done. He thinks he has a girlfriend Cassie according to a photo in his wallet, but where is she and where does he live. He begins to find out some unpalatable things about his past but can't be sure what is real and what he imagined. The writer really creates a confusing world for Jed, imagining what it must be like to have lost all memories and be reliant on others for your past. Jed finds himself the centre of police and FBI investigations and with no real way of knowing what his role may have been, if any. Well drawn characters and clever plotting.

Based on the other member reviews, it must just be me, I couldn't get into the characters or the book. So, I decided to stop reading about 1/4 of the way through. Usually I just suffer through but, this time I couldn't.

Greg is a therapist in Florida who has never really got over the disappearance of his twin sister ten years previously, presumed murdered near Lake Superior, when the past comes calling again. Despite advising others, Greg is ill-equipped to handle his own traumas and his struggles are well documented, often humorously as hecomes to terms with his past. Recommended.

Pretty decent read but there were some things within the book that I found boring.. others messed it up for me.. (Like figuring out the killer halfway through the book and then being right) I like a mystery but I also like for it to remain a mystery. Other than that it was definitely a 3.5 star read!

good mystery but the ending was disappointing½

In No Coming Back, we meet Jake Olson years after the presumed murder of his girlfriend, Jenna Luckman. Upon returning to the small northern Minnesota town of Harper, Jake is definitely not welcomed with open arms. People remember the past and can’t let it go. He needs to face old enemies as well as old friends. Even so, Jake is determined to find out what happened to his teen girlfriend, the love of his life and the one he has never been able to get out of his mind. But can he trust his memories, and what if he discovers something he just can’t deal with? Is he finally ready to face the past and open some doors he didn’t even know existed?

This was an amazing book. I felt like I was trudging through the deep snow right along with Jake on his journey for the truth, returning home after all these years. Now a grown man, he finds what a lot of us do though--our memories of younger days are often seen through rose-colored glasses and sometimes the real truth is the hardest thing accept. Houghton paints such a vivid picture of this snowy little Minnesota town and its inhabitants. I became engrossed immediately, even chilled to the bone in places while picturing the snow filled landscapes. There were plenty of points in the book that left me gasping in surprise, others that sent my head spinning, trying to put the pieces in order. But the ending of this book was one of the most action-packed and emotional I’ve ever read, leaving me in tears both times I’ve read it. An absolutely incredible book and one I can’t recommend highly enough.

KILLING HOPE (Gabe Quinn #1), by Keith Houghton is an entertaining detective crime suspense mystery, with a cop back at work after a tragedy, and driven to catch a serial killer.

After the murder of his wife, celebrity cop, Gabe Quinn is back on the scene to solve a case of a serial killer with cryptic clues left at each crime scene. The killer, (Undertaker) is a neat freak, and obsessive compulsive and targeting Gabe.

When the same style killings show up in Vegas, Gabe finds himself more involved in the murders than he dared imagine, becoming a personal game compelling him to question his own beliefs.

KILLING HOPE was the first book I have read by Houghton and look forward to reading more. Houghton, definitely keeps readers guessing until the very end. The book started a little slow; however, as you get further along, picks up speed. The narrator, David Doersch had a nice southern voice; however, sometimes when he changed voices could be a little annoying.

Killing Hope. Keith Houghton. 2011. (Gabe Quinn Thriller #1). There are enough plot twists and turns in this Kindle Thriller to fill several novels! Detective Quinn is on the trail of a serial killer he calls The Undertaker. Regardless of what he does, the killer manages to stay two steps ahead of Quinn and begins to make Quinn look like a fool. Quinn follows him to Las Vegas and the violence of the murders intensifies, each one more horrible than the last. The climax is a shocker to me and I suspect other readers. This is an exciting book but I am not ready to compare Quinn to Jack Reacher just yet or Houghton to Chandler. And I do not like the fact that you should have to read this novels before the next. Each novel in a series should stand alone.

Gabe Quinn is back, but now he is hiding out from his past in Florida. Unfortunately, murder seems to follow the Celebrity Cop wherever he tries to run. Gabe is pulled into a new murder and soon after, he is called back to help the FBI try to capture his wife's killer, the Maestro. As with Houghton's first book, there are twists and turns that will make your head spin, but they all are choreographed so well that they come together at the end to make perfect sense. Again, the ending is one you will never see coming and there are surprises until the very last page. A little slow to get into, but once the action starts, things start happening so fast you will not be able to put it down. The ending definitely left me wanting more.

Gabe Quinn is a fantastic character. He is not perfect, but that is what makes him a great lead in this book. The author lets us into Quinn's past bit by bit until all is finally revealed and we see what makes this man do what he does. It is easy to see Houghton loves to shock his readers, as there is an ending that is one of the most creative twists I have ever read in a mystery/police thriller. I am hoping this is just the beginning to a long list of Quinn mysteries.