[Bob Russell]

I think my taste is a bit different than most here, but I love spy novels. My current read is Numbered Account by Christopher Reich.

Nick Neumann had it all: a Harvard degree, a beautiful fiancée, a star-making Wall Street career. But behind the dazzling veneer of this golden boy is a man haunted by the brutal killing of his father seventeen years before.

Just started that book, but I know from experience that the author is fantastic. I found out about him through the free summer books from Microsoft when they were trying to get everyone to upgrade their version of Microsoft Reader. One of the free books was The Devils Banker, which is about the hunt for terrorists using financing clues. The writer has a lot of inside info about that sort of thing and it makes the book great. His writing is captivating and it's the sort of book you just can't put down.

The explosion that shatters a smart Parisian apartment reverberates around the globe. In an instant, a suspected terrorist is dead and half a million dollars has vanished. The CIA is certain it has found a connection between the dead man and a planned terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The Devil's Banker creates an adrenaline-fueled world where following the money has never been more dangerous, and evil has never been harder to unmask.

In fact, as more indication of how much I like this author, I just finished the First Billion by Reich.

Former fighter pilot Jett Gavallan, the high-flying CEO of a billion-dollar investment firm, is taking Russia's leading media company public on the New York Stock Exchange. When he dispatches fellow Desert Storm fighter pilot Grafton Byrnes to Moscow, Byrnes fails to return. The reason... is more diabolical and shocking than Gavallan can imagine.

Speaking of can't put the book down, Mary Higgens Clark wrote The Second Time Around which I picked up and read until I finished because it was really captivating.

In a novel that reaffirms her reputation as "America's Queen of Suspense," Mary Higgins Clark delivers a gripping tale of deception and tantalizing suspense.

Nicholas Spencer, charismatic head of the medical research company Gen-stone, involved in the development of an anticancer vaccine, suddenly disappears. His private plane crashes en route to Puerto Rico, but his body is not found.