Mind Games: A Vigilante Series crime thriller

Walter Olsen decided to retire and put up CSS, Inc. for sale. The company is bought by CompuServe. They ask Chris Barry to stay on with the company but declines and also elects to retire -- a multimillionaire, at the age of thirty-four. He and his wife, Sandy, have more than enough to live on comfortably.On his last week at work, Chris has a visitor, Jonathan Addley (Director of Police Relations with the Ministry of Defence). Jonathan has a story to tell. It seems that a witness has come forward and has evidence that Carl Denver was not the vigilante -- there were receipts & witnesses that prove Mr. Denver couldn't have committed the murders because he had alibis for most of them. The witness, the late Carl Denver's widow, admitted that her husband HAD embezzled six million dollars and deposited it into an account in the Cayman Islands, but the money has disappeared (however, some worthy charities received anonymous and much-needed donations). Mrs. Carl Denver is homeless and broke, but has no idea who the VIGILANTE is, she only knows that her husband was not.Chris has a job offered to him by Jonathan to become a Consultant with an agency sometimes referred to as "Discrete Activities". "The purpose of this special network was to offer whatever help it could to ensure national security and the well-being of the member countries’ citizens. Emphasis had been put on the whatever" -- "Chris accepted Jonathan’s offer and embarked in a new career; that of a secret consultant specializing in clandestine activities for the government". After he has discussed the job offer with his wife, Sandy (who just asks him to be careful), he accepts the offer.Meanwhile, Captain Dave McCall and his Special Homicide Task Force are trying to solve a series of vicious sex slayings. They've asked the police department psychologist (Dr. Barbara Jenkins) and a noted psychiatrist (Dr. Samuel Bowman) to assist them in solving these cases. Chris Barry, who has become friends with Dave, "unofficially" assists whenever he can.Are the sex slayings the work of one serial killer -- or is there more than one person involved in these heinous murders? Will the perpetrator(s) get caught or will he/she/they commit more gruesome murders? Is anyone being manipulated -- or are they just evil?This series is turning out to be very interesting to me. The characters are vivid, the action nonstop. The books are well written and the story lines are easy to follow. Once you think you have solved the "whodunit", you find out that you do not yet know the whole story. You will find yourself lost in time as you race through to see what happens next. The end of each book is a cliffhanger and you have to start the next book in the series (which quickly brings you up to speed by summarising the high points of the previous book) to see how the cliffhangers are resolved.I highly recommend this series to readers of mystery and thriller genres. Well done, Mr. Bouchard!

Since this book is #3 in the series, I expected a tighter storyline. I like Chris Barry a lot and I like Captain Dave McCall about as much, but this attempt alone would have left me unattached to them.I found the author's attempts to fill in the backstory for the reader awkward to read and disruptive. Was there no way to fill us in that would flow better with the story?I don't know if Claude Bouchard is an excellent foreshadow artist and purposely allowed us to know where he was going or if his plot line was thin, but within the first 14% of the story I had it mostly figured out; by 21%, the dots connected to complete the picture for me. I knew who the bad guy was and I was getting a bit frustrated that no one else did. That said, I rather expected more "discussion" about the subject further into the story.And realizing the story takes place in the late 1990s, I guess I should overlook the patronizing descriptions of the gay characters. At first, I thought Bouchard's use of the term "the gay" was a typo; I thought it was supposed to read "the guy." I discovered more instances like that, so I figured out it was on purpose, but it seems a weird way to describe someone. Or maybe that's how it's done in Canada?As for Chris Barry's extra employment, that seemed only to serve as a way to wrap up the ending quickly. And that was awkwardly executed. Who reveals a super-top-secret government organization to just anybody? Certainly not its head guy.Regarding grammar and editing:Semi-colon misuse is rampant. When making a list, commas should be used and when prefacing a point, a simple colon is effective, but the semi-colons caused me to stumble and back track. Did anyone else have that problem?Finally, my constant complaint is Bouchard's continuous use of "towards" & "anyways"; I was taught adding an "s" to these words is done so in ignorance. I wonder, is it Canadian colloquialism? I hope so, because it drives me crazy and I want to blame it on something other than ignorance and poor editing.All these critcisms aside, I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, really. I like Mr. Bouchard's characters. And I have a suspicion the Captain gets drawn into the secret government organization along with Barry. Or should I write "organisation"?

I have read book one and three of the vigilante series and find them to be exciting page turners. I would strongly urge those who enjoy who dunits that have surprising ends to meet Dave McCall and Chris Barry….

The ending was SHOCKING! I never had a clue how this was going to end. Loved the whole book. Wonderful!

Claude Bouchard has made a name for himself on Twitter, boasting more than 115,000 followers. He is also starting to make a name for himself as a writer of crime thrillers. His first two, "Vigilante" and "The Consultant," were ambitious efforts. They were hampered by certain linguistic infelicities, suggesting more than anything, that Bouchard could use an editor. However, despite their flaws, the stories were compelling, and the interaction between Montreal Police Lieutenant Dave McCall, and dotcom-entrepreneur-cum-vigilante-cum-covert-domestic-agent Chris Berry, was appealing. The relationship between the two men grew closer and more natural in the second book than in the first, which demonstrated authorial growth.Happily, that growth continued in the third installation of the McCall-Berry collaboration. In this story, a series of sex-themed murders baffles McCall and his team of murder detectives. Is there a serial killer on the loose, or are there a series of killers at work? And who is the arrogant, dismissive psychologist who alternately assists and hinders the investigation? The ending may surprise you. It did me, and that doesn't happen very often.Bouchard is often at his best when allowing his characters to roam freely through his native Montreal. His wears his affection for the city on his sleeve, which is not a bad thing in this situation."Mind Games" is definitely worth a read.

The downward trend continues which is a shame because I think CB is able to write much, much better.From the police procedural aspect this is laughable. For example we had a possible sighting of a serial killer in a bar. The police rush there, ignore a car fleeing from the immediate area (and never bother later to check who owns a tan BMW in the city), interview none of the customers for a description, and don't bother to pick up and fingerprint the suspect's glass etc. etc.The whole thing is as sloppy as 'The Consultant' predecessor. Anyone who doesn't guess the 'twist' before a third of the way through probably isn't paying attention. I am poor at discovering who did it in a whodunit and I knew the answer before my Kindle said 18% read which does rather detract from the tale. The idea is good but very poorly executed.My other complaint is the dialogue, particularly between Chris and Dave, which is generally utterly banal or downright unlikely. Captain of detectives Dave 'BURST with laughter' (my capitals) after Chris said 'I get you' and nodded with a wink. Really!There are other examples of strange word usage. Dave 'recuperated the morning paper on the front doorstep' and 'he was busy at something which impassioned him'.The interaction between Sandy and Chris is also utterly shallow.Occasionally bursts of unnecessary adverbs mar the prose. For example: 'greeted her brightly', 'nodded grimly', 'asked suspiciously', 'grinned sheepishly' all within a dozen lines or so. Nothing wrong with the odd adverb but when they come along in tight groups like London buses they read badly.I shall not be buying the next in the series.

This was the third book on this series that I read (I know -wrong order, but I had no way of knowing what order they come in)and I really didn't enjoy it as much as the first two. There were several words incorrectly used - lost in translation maybe? - and far too many uses of 'cuz', for because. Please write the word in full if you do any more books Mr Bouchard.I guessed the plot very early on and was a bit surprised that the police consultant psychiatrist, Barbara, hadn't worked it out.Others have given the plot, involving murders committed with 4 different MOs but similar in some ways - mutilated genitals being the main one. The problem concerning the police and Discreet Activities group is whether there are four killers or one. An emminent criminal psychiatrist is called in and obviously knows more than he is telling.For those who didn't guess, the twist at the end will have been a surprise. As with all the books, Chris Barry and Dave McCall return home to their loving wives. There are a lot of innuendos about what activities take place throughout the book!I am reading my way through the series - in the wrong order - and in spite of the niggles, enjoying it very much.

Some reviewers have commented that Mind Games is downhill from Claude's previous books. I disagree. I found this an enjoyable continuation of the series. It takes a different route, concentrating on a series of psycho killings rather than the Vigilante himself (although he obviously stars in the killer(s)' apprehension). The characters from previous books are still "in character", and the story is plausible - although with some holes and inconsistencies as highlighted in previous reviews. Despite these, I found the story held my attention and the Kindle edition was generally without errors (I also noticed "recuperate the newspaper" but Kindle's own dictionary says it also means to "recover or regain", so it's not altogether wrong, just a bit odd). Overall, I think I can put Claude somewhere well above average in my list of "authors to look out for", and there's a lot of so-called best sellers who fall short of that.

This is bk 2 in the series. What a dark topic.. and quite frightening, (The title says it all) as I am sure this kind of thing happens, although not too often one would hope. I did guess though how all the characters tied up, but it still made rather excellent reading. I do love the 3 main characters though, they certainly have a great banter and understanding of each other, which only goes to prove that this author has too.... His sense of humour is great which comes over in his works, even if its just a line here or there..... All the books in this series are a real page turner for me personally... I would recommend them to everyone.... (no romance though, just a good old crime thriller.)

I really enjoyed this latest in the series of Vigilante books, much more so than the last one. I removed one star for the niggling little errors in it...missing apostrophes and small words-like a or the and then push and not pushed, call and not called. Silly mistakes that an editor should be picking up and I made the same complaint in my review of his last book and they're the same in this one.I still really like the Chris Barry character and his wife Sandy and look forward to more in the series. I did guess whodunit around a third of the way in but that didn't spoil it in any way. I'd highly recommend this set of stories. They're always fast-paced and easy reading but interesting too.