Book Reviews

The Deuce of Pentacles

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Faces of Doom

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Title: The Dig
Author: Alan Dean Foster
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Title: The Big Angle
Author: Jack Burns
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Title: The Howling Stones
Author: Alan Dean Foster
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Title: Jonas of Kiivijarvi, Finnish Freedom Fighter
Author: Leslie W. Wisuri
Pub. Address:
North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc.
P.O. Box 451
St. Cloud, MN 56302
ISBN: 0-87839-104-5 Price $12.95 date: 1996 222 pages

reviewer: S.A. Gorden

This is a novel for anyone of Finnish heritage or those who know Finns. The novel is a collection of stories told to Leslie Wisuri by his grandfather while he was growing up in Iron River, Michigan. After Wisuri's grandfather died, he compiled the stories into a logical order and made them into a novel.

In the last 200 years, Finland has fought two wars with Russia and was occupied by the Russians during most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The novel covers the period of time in the l890s when a Finnish freedom fighter called the Ghost harassed the Russian occupation forces. Many American historians have wondered how the Finns were able to win independence in 1917 after the Bolsheviks took over Russia. Reading this novel, will explain why Lenin didn't want Finland as part of the Soviet Union.

The exploits of the Ghost match any other historical or fictional hero. The story goes from an intricate prison escape to wilderness pursuits with hundreds chasing a single man. By the end of the novel the Russians were less occupiers of the country and more prisoners in their own compounds.

Wisuri is not a skilled writer but the story of resistance forging a country more than makes up for his technical limitations. History buffs, Finns and action/adventure junkies will not be disappointed reading this novel.

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Title: The Devil's Code
Author: John Sandford
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Title: Into the Out Of
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Wildside Press
        PO Box 45
        Gillette, NJ 07933-0045
        www.wildsidepress.com
ISBN: 1587 150484 price: $17.00 US paperback December, 1999 376 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Print on Demand has made available a great novel that was unfortunately lost to print for too many years. Into the Out Of was first published by Warner Books in 1987. It quickly went out of print. Warner couldn't figure out how to market a paranormal/horror novel that was written by a bestselling SF author. Into the Out Of has only a small dash of science fiction. There are three main characters in the novel, Olkeloki, an African liabon or Maassai elder, Merry Sharrow, a phone sales rep for Eddie Bauer, and Joshua Oak, an undercover agent for the FBI. They are struggling to stop the shetani. Shetani is the African name for a group of evil demons who carry the dark on their backs. For most people the shetani can not be seen except for the glimpse of movement perceived from the corner of the eyes and the unexplainable evil stupidity of men.

In African mythology the Out Of is where all things in this world come from. The Out Of only connects with this world infrequently and with small openings. But there is a larger opening forming between the Out Of and the real world from which the shetani are pouring through. The African liabons form a council and decide that the opening has to be blocked. Olkeloki is sent to find two people who have untapped strength to join with him in blocking the opening. The shetani can easily recognize those who know and can see them so Olkeloki has to travel to the US to find the two others needed to block the opening. If three known enemies of the shetani try to approach the opening, they would be stopped but one known enemy and two unknown might venture past the shetani guarding the opening.

Into the Out Of is one of the best paranormal/horror novels written in the past 30 years. I would rank it an A. Even for readers who do not like horror novels the story is a must. Seldom does the reader find a novel that strikes the correct balance of fact, mythology, and original fiction. The only weaknesses are one minor story line problem, that most readers will never find, and a slight vagueness at the end.

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Title: Boy on a Pony
Author: Robert Kail
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Title: Thunderhead
Author: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
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Title: The Butterfly Effect
Author: D.F. Roberts
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Title: Red Sky at Morning
Author: Paul Garrison
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Title: Monster
Author: Jonathan Kellerman
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Title: The Journal of Otto Peltonen, a Finnish Immigrant
Author: William Durbin
Pub. Address:
        Scholastic Inc.
        555 Broadway
        New York, NY 10012
ISBN: 0-439-09254-X price: $10.95 US, September 2000 168 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Drubin has written a simple three year diary of a teenage Finnish immigrant that brings to life the past. Today we think of socialism and communism as misguided experiments. But the misuse of people and near slavery by the big corporations one hundred years ago forced these same experiments to occur. Without these social movements, our current society would be struggling with its existence today.

In 1905, Otto Peltonen travels from Finland with his mother and two sisters to join his father who is working in the iron mines of Hibbing, Minnesota. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average person in Finland is stuck in a social system with large property owners and domination by the Russians. They leave Finland in the millions hoping to find a better life in America. Here Otto finds a more open society but with crippling economic abuse of the average worker. Racism, against new immigrants, is rampant. Daily, workers are injured in the mines and weekly, miners are killed. Foremen are openly bribed at the start of every shift to give better jobs to those who pay. Miners are paid a dollar a day to spy on others. The salary of a mineworker is $2.50 a day but since each worker has to buy his supplies from the company, the real pay is only about $1.50.

Labor unions are treated like enemies to be fought at any cost. The Finns, who have fought the domination of the Russians for decades and are the best-educated immigrants, are the hardest to control. The novel tells about the brutal mining strike of 1907. You find yourself hoping that Otto and his family find a way to survive.

The Journal of Otto Peltonen is a simple easy read that brings into focus the past history of this country where the robber barons of old held sway on the lives of the average worker. This personal account is more revealing of the society of the past than any history text. The large movements of history such as socialism, capitalism, and migration can be numerated in an historical text but the true reasons why these movements occur can only be understood by looking through the eyes of the individual. For anyone interested in the history of the early twentieth century the Journal will tell you the heart of the events while the facts can be read in the encyclopedia.

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Title: Amber Eyes
Author: D.F. Roberts
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Title: Silent Justice
Author: William Bernhardt
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Title: Tarzan of the Apes
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-929670-93-1 price: $4.00 electronic download edition April 2001, pages 266

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of the greatest storytellers of the twentieth century. He is not among the best writers but his stories have inspired hundreds of millions of people over the years. Burroughs writes impossible fantasies that are so good that the readers wish, in the back of their minds, that the fantasies could somehow become true. His words are a formal style not used in today's language and his sentences can be awkward. But his stories throb with life.

Tarzan of the Apes is the first novel in the Tarzan series of stories. Most people today learn about the stories from the movies or comic books. None of them have come close to the power of the original novel. Tarzan's parents are marooned on the coast of Africa in the early 1900s. Tarzan is born in a cabin built by his father at the edge of an impenetrable jungle. In the cabin, both his parents die from attacks of a nearby band of great apes. Tarzan is saved when a female ape, who has lost her baby, takes him from his crib to be raised to replace her own lost child. Tarzan is nothing like the character you have learned about. His yell isn't the musical yodel of the movies but the scream of the supreme predator whose mouth is filled with the fresh blood of the kill and whose body is flowing with the lust of the fight. It is a cry that 65 million years ago the tyrannosaurus rex would have understood and answered. But Tarzan isn't just the noble savage. He also trains himself to read and learns at least three languages before the book is over. Tarzan becomes someone who can rip the throat of an opponent out with his teeth and later that same day take coffee at a Paris bistro with a beautiful woman. Throughout the story, he tries to do the best for those he considers his friends.

Tarzan of the Apes is an easy A. It is simply storytelling at its best.

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Title: Atlantis Found
Author: Clive Cussler
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Title: LUDDINGTON: Murder on the Rocks
Author: Donna Flood & Ernie Martinez
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-001-8 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2001, 213 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

There is a group of writers who can blend a story with quirky and unique characters. The best known of today's writers with this unusual talent is Carl Hiaasen. Flood and Martinez do not have quite as screwball a set of characters in Luddington as Hiaasen does in Florida but they get close. You enjoy the characters enough that you do not miss the fact that the main murder occurs over halfway though the story.

Luddington: Murder on the Rocks begins with a prologue about a mob hit years before the story. This gives the mystery reader something to look for when local inhabitants of Luddington are introduced. Chapter One starts with a group of ladies from the Luddington Historical Society known as the Blue Crew trying to change the name of a local bar known as Blue's to a tavern. The ladies get their name Blue Crew from their hair. They all use the Silver-Blue Rinse #3 from Belle's House of Beauty, owned and operated by one Esther Pinckney. At the bar they confront Ruby who manages the establishment for the owner, Blue Landry. If this color coordinated first chapter doesn't give you an idea of the enjoyment of reading about these unusual small town characters, nothing will. By the third chapter, you are more interested in what the cast of characters is going to do next than who killed who.

Luddington: Murder on the Rocks is an A for anyone looking for a fun afternoon escape from life even if the story is about murder.

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Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
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Title: Lara Croft Tomb Raider
Author: Dave Stern
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Title: The Blue Nowhere
Author: Jeffery Deaver
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Title: Dirge Book Two of the Founding of the Commonwealth
Author: Alan Dean Foster
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Title: Chosen Prey
Author: John Sandford
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Title: Interlopers
Author: Alan Dean Foster
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Title: The Ice Limit
Author: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
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Title: This Island Earth
Author: Raymond F. Jones
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-003-4 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2001, 171 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

On the bookshelves today, you will find Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and, if you are lucky, E.E. Doc. Smith. They are all that remain of the myriad of pulp science fiction writers of years ago. The early part of the twentieth century was filled with a number of very good pulp writers in all genres but this style of writing has nearly disappeared. Some of their stories have disappeared for good reasons but many others were lost in the passage of time. This Island Earth is one of those lost. Reading it, you can tell that it was written before political correctness. There is a naivete about the writing with a harshness of someone who has experienced the atrocities of a world at war. It follows the single idea based science fiction writing of the era. The idea is intriguing, 'what would happen if you found a manual of a super high tech machine that seems to be based on scientific ideas no one has seen or heard before.'

This Island Earth starts with an engineer, Cal Meacham, receiving an order of parts that look impossible. When Cal asks for a catalogue from the company, he receives a listing of parts that shouldn't exist and instructions on making a device called an interocitor. Forgetting the adage about curiousity killing the cat, Cal orders the parts to make the interocitor. Single mindedly Cal forges ahead more interested in the engineering and science than what it could mean. Cal doesn't see the danger to himself and the earth until it is too late to stop.

This Island Earth isn't the best written novel. A common practice in the pulp magazine period is to string a series of short stories together into a novel. This Island Earth is a composite of three short stories written over a period of years and it is possible to tell the change of focus between the novelletes. Although pulp writing sometimes lacks a finished polish, it can be great storytelling. Science fiction readers will appreciate glimpsing the roots of today's genre. Historical readers will enjoy the insight into the social mind set of the post World War II and early Cold War period. But anyone who likes good storytelling will enjoy This Island Earth.

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Title: The Bear and The Dragon
Author: Tom Clancy
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Title: Farsee
Author: Peter LeRoux
Pub. Address:
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Title: Failed Love Follies & Other Adventures
Author: Rex Quick
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-012-3 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2001, 116 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Failed Love Follies & Other Adventures is a twisted articulate look into what happens when things don't go as planned or hoped. In this set of short tales about missteps, mistakes, and mishaps, nearly every reader will recognize a situation that they somehow hoped happened to someone else but, alas, it happened to them. Quick's dry wit is a lifeline that you can grab onto when you find yourself circling the drain of memories of past events you wished had never happened.

It is hard to rank this book. This set of tales of love and travels falls in the category of stories to be read after the fact. Like National Lampoon's Vacation movies, you can only truly enjoy the stories when you are safely in the warmth of home. The loquacious dissecting of the most personal mishaps lets the reader laugh at him/herself through the perils that befall Mr. Quick. This book isn't for the casual or immature reader. But for those who can handle the insight, it takes a humorous, agonizingly real, look at life.

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Title: The Scarlet Pimpernel
Author: Baroness Orczy
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-028-X price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2001, 116 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

The Scarlet Pimpernel is great storytelling with average writing. The story is told in a series of scenes. It begs to be made into a play and that is how it first became published. Baroness Orczy is the type of writer who creates a scene before bringing the characters to life. This style of writing is seldom seen today.

When the Baroness wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel, she knew the personality of her audience and played to it with quips of national pride and generalized bigotry that can't be as blatant today but still is a necessity for the modern writer. The Baroness brilliantly uses prejudices and ideals of her audience to build a story that lives because the readers want it to. Burroughs, a contemporary of Orczy was the same type of know-your-audience storyteller, but the best audience focused writing might be found in Ian Fleming's James Bond stories. Much of the power of the Pimpernel has been lost over the years but it is still fun to read an original that has been copied so much it is a cliché.

Sir Percy Blakely, the Scarlet Pimpernel, is the standard hero of modern literature. He is the handsome man of the romance novels, the intelligent solver of the mystery story, and the action hero of popular fiction. The story is classic, a mystery man saving innocents from the guillotine and the evil of a good cause turned to fanaticism. The Scarlet Pimpernel is a novel that has to be read at least once. It is a small tale that has been copied so often it has lost its originality. But it is also a story that has lent its originality and inspiration to the many writers who followed.

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Title: Blind Instinct
Author: Robert W. Walker
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Title: Blue Gold
Author: Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos
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Title: The Trojan Sea
Author: Richard Herman
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Title: Sizzling Holiday Shorts 2001
Author: Renaissance E Book Authors
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-045-X price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2001, 465 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Sizzling Holiday Shorts is a collection of nine original short stories and thirty-two selections taken from Renaissance novels. The Sizzling in the title is for erotic content. The nine short story authors are also the authors of the thirty-two novels represented in the samples contained in the holiday collection. This is a lot of skilled storytelling for a single volume.

The Sizzling Shorts range from heavy erotic tales to ones with just enough of an erotic touch that the stories are for adult readers. They represent a broad range of human sexuality and fantasy. It would be impossible for a reader not to find at least one of the stories titillating. Even the stories with erotic situations exploring regions of sexuality beyond your personal preferences have a way of staying with the reader. The genres represented by these shorts cover the range of popular fiction -- action, historical, fantasy, romance, science fiction, western... A few even bring out the erotic depth of the holiday season in a way that will produce a particular smile on your face the next time you have eggnog with grandma. You know the smile. The one where granny raises an eyebrow and asks, "What mischief have you been up to?"

Sizzling Holiday Shorts 2001 is a great way for someone to explore the styles of nine unique authors. The biggest problem most will have is deciding which of the thirty-two sampled novels to purchase first.

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Title: Valhalla Rising
Author: Clive Cussler
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Title: Lord of the Silent
Author: Elizabeth Peters
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Title: Fatal Voyage
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Scribner
        Simon & Schuster
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0-684-85972-6 price: $25.00 copyright 2001 348 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist. Her novels have always been good technical mysteries. With Fatal Voyage, Reichs shows that she has become a good spinner of mysteries. In her first two novels, she showed that she could create twisty stories with fascinating and intricate technical details. Fatal Voyage demonstrates that she has added the art of balanced storytelling to her writing.

Fatal Voyage begins with a horrendous plane crash. Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called to the scene. Miles of forest are strewn with body parts and pieces of the plane. Early in the investigation, Temperance finds a foot that doesn't seem to belong to any of the victims on the plane. Before long, she finds herself under attack professionally and physically. What is it about the foot that warrants deception, assault, and murder?

Fatal Voyage is the best novel by Kathy Reichs that I have read to date. It is a novel that can hold its own with any in the murder mystery genre. If Reichs can keep the quality up with another novel or two, we might be witness to the coronation of a new queen of murder and mayhem.

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Title: Touching Evil
Author: Kay Hooper
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY
        www.randomhouse.com
ISBN: 0-5535-8344-1 price: $6.99 copyright 2001, 336 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Kay Hooper is a good mystery writer. I was surprised that this was the first time I found one of her novels. Touching Evil is an intricate murder mystery with a heavy splash of threatening evil.

Maggie Barnes is a police sketch artist. She interviews victims of crimes and in a nearly magical way produces sketches of the assailants.

Seattle is struck with a series of rapes, assaults, and murders with one thing in common. The women have their eyes removed. With nearly an impossible task, Maggie tries to sketch an assailant from witnesses without eyes.

Jack Garrett is the brother to one of the dead victims. Jack has become wealthy with his logical reality-based approach to life. With money and political friends, He forces the police to let him become part of the investigation. Jack is skeptical of Maggie's unusual, maybe paranormal, skills with the traumatized victims. But Maggie and Jack have to work together or else the evil will go on killing. Each murder is more gruesome and with every hour that passes, the evil comes closer to them.

No mystery reader will be disappointed in Touching Evil. It is an excellent mystery. But I found the plot to drift too far into the paranormal. There is nothing wrong with a paranormal mystery. Some of the best stories I have read are paranormals. A paranormal story works by either pulling you into the alternate reality or by hinting over and over again into the mystical. Stories like the X-files work by using equally strong characters and approaches in a contest to solve the crime. Touching Evil balances on the fine line between too much and the over and over hints. For me, the line was crossed. For others, the rich characters will hold them into the story. Whichever way you view the story, Touching Evil is still a mystery worth reading.

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Title: Black House
Author: Stephen King and Peter Straub
Pub. Address:

        Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY
        www.randomhouse.com
ISBN: 0-375-50439-7 price: $ 28.95, copyright 2001, 565 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

There are many ways to classify authors. One way is to ask if they are storytellers or word users. I am not familiar with Straub but King is a storyteller first and a word user second. His mastery of both storytelling and words might be one of the reasons King is so popular. Black House starts with too many words. After one hundred pages or so, the story hits you with all the subtlety of a brick in the face. If you like the twisted horror of King, the next four hundred pages will read as a blur of delicious creepiness. The novel does sputter at the end. The sputter might be caused by contrast with the horrific middle of the novel or, more likely, because the novel seems to be a setup for a sequel.

At the start of Black House, Jack Sawyer has been driven from his job as an LA detective to a rural region of Wisconsin. Experiencing burnout from overwork and from the depravity of the criminals he encounters, Jack thinks by running away to Wisconsin he will escape his daytime dreams. He gets to French Landing, Wisconsin just when a cannibalistic child killer starts his reign of terror. The child killer is driven by forces of evil from this world and parallel worlds. Jack and his friends have to battle these malevolent killers in all of the worlds in order to save themselves, the worlds, and a unique boy.

Black House is a mystery horror story that will thrill readers in the genre. It has a slow start with an awkward storytelling style that doesn't mesh well with the narration until later in the novel. It is a better than average horror novel but with its difficulties at the beginning and end it fails to earn an A from this reviewer.

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Title: Dr. Death
Author: Jonathan Kellerman
Pub. Address:
        Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY
www.randomhouse.com
ISBN: 0-679-45961-8 price: $26.95, copyright 2000, 352 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Kellerman is a technical mystery writer. The contrast between the ferreting out of technical psychological clues while investigating horrific murders makes the story seem slower paced than it is. As with all of Kellerman's Alex Delaware novels, the mystery is fair to the reader with multiple clues permitting the reader to test their skills as a sleuth.

Dr. Death begins with the murder of Dr. Eldon H. Mate. Mate uses a machine to administer lethal doses of drugs in scores of assisted suicides. After being butchered by his killer, Mate is hooked up to his euthanasia machine. Delaware has been treating the daughter of one of the suicides attributed to Mate and his friend Milo Sturgis is investigating the murder. Delaware has to walk the fine line of professional ethics as he helps investigate the death of Dr. Death. Everywhere Delaware looks he finds someone who wants Mate dead.

Dr. Death is a good addition to the technical murder mystery genre. It is a little slow in action but makes up with a wealth of technical clues. The story has a set of unusual characters that freshens up a mystery series that is a little predictable. Dr. Death is a relaxing read for when you want to test your mind within the safety of a comfortable storyline.

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Title: The Mark of Zorro
Author: Johnstone McCulley
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-064-6 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 222 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

The Mark of Zorro is the inheritor of the dime western and The Scarlet Pimpernel. In the tradition of the pulp storytelling, the story is smooth and easy. The setting is a fantasy of how we wish Old California had existed. It is easy to recall the movie theater western with the gallant hero and the strong willful maiden that are the cornerstones of the novel. The Scarlet Pimpernel adds to Zorro the mystery of the disguised romantic protector of the weak and needy. The story is pure escapism for the lovers of the idyllic mythology of the Old West.

All the characters we have grown to love in the Zorro movies and television shows are here but in their original roles. The evil of the governor and the soldiers is less black and white. The motives of the characters are slightly more realistic giving the tale the realism of an idealized historical event. With the changes added to the modern versions of Zorro, the original novel reads with a freshness that is not expected.

The Mark of Zorro is an easy story to recommend bringing back the clarity and ideals of our youth. The only significant problem with the novel is an ending written for a big climax and not for the continuing mystery of the tale.

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Title: Aftermath
Author: Peter Robinson
Pub. Address:
        William Morrow
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022
ISBN: 0-380-97832-6 price: $25.00 copyright 2001 387 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Aftermath takes a unique spin on the detective mystery. A serial rapist/killer is killed by the police in an unrelated crime. Robinson's novel answers the question of how do you prove what happened when your suspect is already dead. Aftermath has the flavor of the TV series Law and Order. Both start their investigations after the event. Surprisingly the questions that come up are just as intriguing as they would be if they were asked before the suspect was found. And there are more questions. Why didn't we find the suspect before and how could we not have asked the correct questions earlier in the investigation?

Acting Detective Superintendent Alan Banks is a believable lead character. His interactions with the other police officers, investigators, witnesses, and suspects have just enough of a ring of reality to bring the reader into the story. Banks stubbornly pulls every thread of the investigation until he knows the truth of what has happened. He is, at times, both the brilliant detective with sudden insights into the crime and the conscientious cop who doesn't stop until everything is answered.

Aftermath takes a different look at the detective mystery but it is an easy recommendation for any reader in the genre. Its unusual approach brings my ranking of a solid B mystery up to an A.

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Title: Last Breath
Author: Michael Prescott
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 0-4512-0507-3 price: $6.99 US copyright 2001, 400 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

The Last Breath is one of those stories that you need to plan ahead to read. You will not want to stop once you start. Prescott's writing style is plain and simple. The story is what forces you to read. I found that the suspense built up continually through the first few chapters, which left a problem for the middle and end of the novel. Where do you go if you have already exhausted the emotions of your readers? Even with the problems, Prescott's open style and ability to let the story tell itself make him an author worth looking for.

Last Breath starts with ten year old Caitlin Jean, C.J., Osborn being attacked by an assailant she calls 'The Boogeyman.' She survives the attack by fighting back with a knife but the attacker leaves no proof of his attack behind and her family doesn't believe that the assault occurred. The trauma stays with her and she becomes a cop to fight the fear that is always with her.

A new serial killer dubbed 'The Hourglass Killer' has set his sights on C.J. An anonymous Internet informant sends an email to a member of the FBI computer fraud squad with the address of the web site used by 'The Hourglass Killer.' And the web of interconnecting threads from 'The Boogeyman' to 'The Hourglass Killer' starts to unravel. But will the threads come apart in time to save C.J.?

Last Breath isn't the best action mystery. It misses by a thread. If you can stand the intense pace, Breath is a must read. There are problems with the pacing and believability of the story but the strength of the basic tale is more than enough for these minor difficulties. If you have a day free for reading, you will not be disappointed using it to read this action mystery.

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Title: Future Eves
Author: Edited by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-070-0 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 166 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Those who have been following my reviews know that I love the pulp style of writing. During the first half of the twentieth century, the bulk of the experimentation and vitality of the writing profession appeared in the pulp magazines. These single-themed, short story magazines drove the development of the genre styles found in today's storytelling. The pulp writing style has both its good points and its bad with the good outweighing the bad. Reading Future Eves will let you track the changes in the pulp style from the 1920s to 1960. Although the stories are science fiction by women with women lead characters, they are really just a selection of stories representing the Golden Age of pulp SF.

Future Eves is laid out chronologically. It is easy to follow the development of the science fiction genre as the publishing form matures. The first story is a simple world invasion theme reminiscent of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds but with a reversing twist of roles. The next is a psychological mystery written back when psychology was considered speculative science. The next is an exploration of the horror genre that has just enough chemistry to cross into SF. And so on. Each story looks at changes in culture and thought, from the exciting speculation of the Roaring Twenties to the possibilities of thermo nuclear war in the late 1950s, through the eyes of SF.

For those readers who are serious about SF or learning about the history of the twentieth century, Future Eves is a collection of stories that have to be read. For readers dabbling in SF, the pulp style of writing in Future Eves can be a disconcerting, but pleasant, change of pace from the generalized sameness of the current SF market.

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Title: Kingdoms of Light
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books, Inc.
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0-446-61061-5 price: $6.99 US paperback February, 2002 384 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Alan Dean Foster is a writer on the edge. He pushes the envelope on what kind of story to tell. His science fiction and paranormal horror novels are on the boundary but still hold to familiar themes. But with his pure fantasy, his mind is delightfully twisted. The best way to explain Foster's fantasy tale is to put yourself in the place of a parent with five children. The house is filled with animals and you are lucky if you get three hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. Before putting your youngest into bed, you read to her a story about magical creatures. Your middle child is talking about Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Two of the remaining children are tucked into bed -- one with a stuffed koala bear and the other with the family dog -- and your oldest asks for help with his physics. You get to bed after midnight with your wife already asleep and just before you drift into unconsciousness one of your cats jumps from the nightstand to the middle of your stomach. When you wake to the screaming of children and the morning rush, you lock yourself in your den and write down what you dreamt before it becomes lost in the hazy reality of the day. Kingdoms of Light is such a dream.

Kingdoms of Light begins when the pastoral kingdom of Gowdlands is attacked and overrun by a horde led by evil, sadistic, and just badly socialized goblins. The greatest wizard of Gowdlands is killed in the horde's attack. But the wizard's death unleashes a spell that transforms his pets--three cats, a dog, a snake, and a canary--into human forms. The goblins have used their magic and taken the color from Gowdlands and the pets/humans are given the obligation of bring color back to the world. They have to travel through the kingdoms of light to find and bring the color back.

If you want to read something other than the standard fantasy tale about swords and sorcerers, Kingdoms of Light will more than satisfy your desires. The extreme mix of children's fairy tales and adult dreams makes for a powerful story. If you can let your imagination go, you can fall into a story land that compels the hazy reality of day to fade into the background. Kingdoms of Light is on the edge. The reader will either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground.

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Title: Finnish Magic: A Nation of Wizards A World of Spirits
Author: Robert Nelson, Ph.D.
Pub. Address:
        Llewellyn Publications
        A division of Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
        P.O. Box 64383, Dept. K489-8
        St. Paul, MN 55164-0383
ISBN: 1-56718-489-8 price: $7.95 US paperback, 1999 171 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Nelson has written a beginner's text on shamanism in general with Finnish wizardry in particular. To do this he has to briefly cover the history and culture of Finland. Nelson's review of history is colored by his emphasis on shamanism and Finnish mages. Most of the problems this view has with traditional histories and linguistics are minor except for Nelson's attempt to bring a greater historical prominence to the Finnish deity, Jumala. Overall, the different perspective on Finnish history and culture is refreshing and offers new insights into the past.

Finnish Magic is written not as a uniform text. It starts with a general overview of the Finnish culture and history. After the introduction, Finnish Magic becomes a series of lessons on Finnish shamanism. Each lesson is written in a repetitive manner so a reader can skip one lesson and still understand the next. This might be a good plan for teaching shaman magic but it makes for a slow reading and repetitive book.

Finnish Magic is the only individual book I found that has an in-depth look at the Finnish mythos of wizardry and shamanism. For students of Finnish history and cultural, it offers significant insight on the complex nature of the Finnish people. It also is a guide to shamanistic practices across the world and can be used to understand Native American and Asian belief systems. The only real contextual problem with the book is Nelson's tendency to claim more factual details than what is known about ancient Finnish history.

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Title: The Sixth Fleet Tomcat
Author: David E. Meadows
Pub. Address:
        The Berkley Publishing Group
A division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014
        www.penguinputnam.com

ISBN: 0-425-18379-3 price: $6.99 paperback edition February 2002, 293 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

The Sixth Fleet Tomcat is a light military novel. It doesn't have the technical legs or the in-depth characters of a Clancy or Bond novel. It is a small novel fit for an afternoon reading.

Tomcat starts out with a marine rescue mission gone bad. Algeria has suffered a fundamentalist takeover and a marine team was sent in to pull out an American oil drilling crew deep in the Sahara desert. The marine helicopters are destroyed when the oil compound is attacked and the marines have to hike out of the desert with the oil crew. How this main storyline fits with the title Tomcat is anyone's guess?

There are multiple story threads about the Sixth Fleet's actions and command structure during this crisis. It is soon obvious that the background story is ongoing from the first three novels in the series and will continue at the end of this novel. Continuing storylines are common with the average military novel. Most authors will end a novel with all of the story threads coming to satisfactory conclusions. With Tomcat, only the main storyline ends. The others only take a long enough pause for the next novel in the series to come out.

Tomcat is a good novel for someone who needs a break and likes military novels. For readers who are only occasionally interested in military writing there are stronger novels that do not ask you to invest the time to read an ongoing series. The Sixth Fleet Tomcat is an average story and if you start the book with that knowledge you will not be disappointed.

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Title: THE LEGENDARY DETECTIVES 9 Classic Novelettes Starring the World's Greatest Super-Sleuths
Author: Edited by Jean Marie Stine & J. L. "Frankie" Hill
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-083-2 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 210 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

This is a set of must read short stories for the mystery reader. It is worth the price just to read the Sherlock Holmes short without Dr. Watson as the narrator. The list of nine authors in this collection is enough for any serious reader to drool over. The characters are just as familiar. Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown are still frequent protagonists in mysteries. But in their day, The Thinking Machine, Craig Kennedy, Moris Klaw, Max Caraddors, Reggie Fortune, Sanders of the River, and The Old Man in the Corner were just as well known.

These stories were all written at the turn of the twentieth century. Science and technology were just making their presence known and many of the stories revel in the use of science. In a strange twist of history, our technology has advanced enough that technological marvels of these early mysteries read fresh and new. A couple stories are dated by information now commonly available but if you put yourself back in time to when the stories first came out you can still get lost in the tale.

I will not claim that I enjoyed all nine shorts to the same degree. A few suffered from changes that occurred in dialogue and culture over the years. But a mystery written well doesn't depend on date or even language. A good mystery is a puzzle to be solved by both the reader and the storyteller and these authors knew how to tell good mysteries.

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Title: Headwind
Author: John J. Nance
Pub. Address:
        Jove Books
        The Berkley Publishing Group
A division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014
        www.penguinputnam.com

ISBN: 0-515-13262-4 price: $7.99 Jove edition March 2002, 432 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Nance is a lawyer and a pilot. He uses both as he weaves a complex tale of international law and commercial flight. Stories about trials and the law can be dull. The average law story uses criminal acts as a means of spicing up the necessities of a court's lengthy procedures. Nance uses a Boeing 737 flying between countries while the legal struggle occurs about the arrest of an ex-President of the United States. The actions of the pilots are breathtaking.

Laws have been written by the winners throughout history. It was easy to understand and follow the legal rules in the past. You just had to understand the morals, culture, and laws of the winners. Today that is changing. The world is trying to unify a set of standards that works across all countries. Headwind looks at the question--"What happens when a dictator tries to use international law to bring an ex-President to trial in his own country?" The action is fast and furious as a Boeing 737 pilot tries to keep the ex-President from staying long enough in a country for an arrest to occur while the ex-President's lawyer tries to fight an international legal battle and still travel halfway around the world.

Headwind has some minor problems but the story is fast paced and the legal and aviation actions have a ring of truth to them. I have no problem recommending Headwind to any reader. Once you start reading, the story demands to be finished. Make sure you have enough time to finish it before you start.

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Title: Spider-Man
Author: Peter David
Pub. Address:
        A Ballantine Book
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY
        www.randomhouse.com
ISBN: 0-345-45005-1 price: $6.99 US March, 2002, 311 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Stan Lee is a very good storyteller. With a bare minimum of words, he created a complex detailed character in Peter Parker, Spider-Man. The story reads like a Greek tragedy. The pathos of a youth, whose life is disrupted by repeated family deaths and the knowledge of his isolated individuality, carries the storyline. Lee's use of a fantasy superhero is what makes the story bearable to the reader. In modifying Lee's stories for the movie, David Koepp has kept the essence of Spider-Man's tragedy intact and Peter David follows through with the novelization. As with all comic book stories, there is a heavy handedness with the storyline but we don't read fantasies for their smoothness or accuracy. We read them for their ability to pull us out of our lives and into another world.

Spider-Man begins with a very intelligent four year old Peter Parker arriving at his Uncle Ben's and Aunt May's home. His parents have been killed in a plane crash and he doesn't understand what is happening. As he grows up, his intelligence, small size, and relative poverty makes him a target of the school bullies. His first love is the girl next door, Mary Jane Watson. M.J. has family problems of her own and escapes them by dating Flash Thompson, one of the bullies who torment Peter. Peter's adolescent misery is just compounded when during a field trip he is bitten by a genetically modified spider giving him superhuman powers and a new set of responsibilities before he even understands what it means to be an adult.

Spider-Man is a story every teenage boy can understand. It is a story everyone who remembers the anguish of youth can appreciate. Spider-Man is not great writing but it is great storytelling. By letting you escape in a fantasy world of superheroes with real life problems, you are distracted from your own. That is what storytelling is all about - escaping to another place and time for at least as long as it takes to finish the book.

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Title: McQUEEN OF THE TUMBLING K & Other Early Western Classics
Author: Louis L'Amour
Edited: by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-096-4 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 149 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Louis L'Amour is one of the top storytellers of the Twentieth Century. There is one basic theme to all of L'Amour's stories, the indomitable spirit of a man, or woman, doing what has to be done. L'Amour idealizes this spirit with a moral code that most Western cultures share. He even infuses his villains with a portion of this morality. His stories could be placed in any time or location. Even L'Amour has written a number of stories that do not take place in the Old West. L'Amour spent most of his years in the American West and that is where his writing is most comfortable. He has traveled the locations he refers to in his stories and has talked to men and women who have lived through the time he writes about. His intimate knowledge and powerfully simple writing style bring the reader back to what we believe the Old West must have been. Readers of L'Amour's other works will recognize themes and plots in these stories that he uses again in his later tales.

McQueen of the Tumbling K, Trap of Gold, Mistakes Can Kill You, Ride, You Tonto Raiders!, Riding for the Brand, and Trail to Pie-Town are easily recognizable as coming from L'Amour's pen. McQueen is the foreman of a widow's ranch that a swindler and gun fighter is trying to steal. Trap of Gold is about hard rock mining and prospecting. Mistakes Can Kill You is a story of a young gun fighter trying to hang up his guns. The climax, in Mistakes, has a classic L'Amour twist based on his detailed knowledge of the Old West. Tonto Raiders has the recurring theme of keeping a promise once made and the responsibility of those who can to help those in need. Riding for the Brand is a tale of loyalty and the ability of a man becoming whoever he desires to be. And Pie-Town is a tale about the banding of families and friends together to face the dangers of living on the frontier. It is L'Amour's first dabbling into the story theme that will become the classic Western family, the Sacketts.

I don't need to recommend this collection of stories. Louis L'Amour's name is enough for you to know the tales will be memorable.

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Title: Dead Hand
Author: Harold Coyle
Pub. Address:
        A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010
        www.tor.com

ISBN: 0-812-57539-3 price: $7.99 mass-market edition May 2002, 358 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Harold Coyle is possibly the best of the current techno-military writers when it comes to ground troops. The techno-military genre has developed into stories where the battlefield takes a comparable role to the characters narrated in the story. Good techno-military authors have to keep their heroes and heroines compelling enough to balance the strength and power of the battlefield. Coyle's characterizations in Dead Hand are not as strong as they could be.

One of the most memorable aspects of many of the military novels is the randomness about death. It is not always the best trained or the most worthy that survive. Luck dictates the trajectory of a bullet more often than we wish it. There is a trend in modern military novels to push the randomness of the killing until it doesn't become random anymore. Knowing characters will die can influence the tension in a storyline as much as knowing a writer will never let the hero die.

The Russian government is in flux. It is not a communist dictatorship but it is also not a democracy. The transitional nature of the government means that central control of regional military forces has fallen apart. The novel starts with a Russian commando raid taking back control of a small regional nuclear missile battery rebelling against the lack of even minimal support by the government.

A meteor is spotted with a trajectory that will strike Siberia. Its collision will surpass the damage of a full-scale nuclear strike.

Dead Hand is the name given to a plan developed by the Russians during the Cold War. The computers controlling the launching of Russia's nuclear missiles will automatically enter the release codes if the system's sensors think a nuclear attack has taken place giving the local commander the ability to launch the missiles. The general commanding the Siberian military region refuses to disarm Dead Hand. Instead, he wants to use the missiles to force his takeover of the Russian government. When the West discovers the coup attempt, they decide they can't let it happen. The US and NATO set a plan in motion to use special forces teams to take out the individual control missiles of Dead Hand after the meteor impacts Siberia.

The premise in Dead Hand is great. The military action and the destruction caused by the meteor are breathtaking. If you have not read other books by Coyle, you will love the military drama of the battle. If you have read his previous stories, you will notice that the characters populating the story are a little too familiar and one dimensional. Even with the cursory characters, Dead Hand is a good techno-military novel. It is just one step below the best in the genre.

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Title: The Other Extreme
Author: T.J. MacGregor
Pub. Address:
        Pinnacle Books
        Kensington Publishing Corp.
        850 Third Avenue
        New York, NY 10022
        www.kensingtonbooks.com
ISBN: 0-7860-1322-2 price: $ 6.99 US, December 2001, 414 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

MacGregor has written a paranormal mixed with a mystery in The Other Extreme. MacGregor's storytelling style will pull you into the character's lives and world. The Other Extreme's only real weakness is a superficial mystery plot.

Jay Hutchin is a powerful judge on track to becoming the US Attorney General. He has the flaw many judges have. He believes he is as powerful in life as he is on the bench. Having an affair with the beautiful starlet Dianne Jackson, he believes he is on top of the world, until he finds out she is sleeping with another man. Jay Hutchin, the powerful and respected judge, snaps and murders her. The other man in this sexual triangle is arrested. After the other man is brought before Judge Hutchin's court, Hutchin thinks his crime will never be discovered. But the best attorney in the state, Kit Parrish, is hired to defend the accused. In a paranormal twist, Kit's nine-year old son, Ryan, has started hearing voices, seeing things, and drawing pictures about persons and events he should not know about. The nine-year old knows that Hutchin is a 'bad man.' Who lives and who dies might just depend on the hallucinations of a nine-year old.

The Other Extreme is a very well told paranormal mystery. It doesn't have the mystery or intense creepiness of some horror novels but if you are looking for a story with a strong flavoring of the paranormal, The Other Extreme is a mystery that you can savor.

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Title: MIIB Men in Black II
Author: Esther M. Friesner
Pub. Address:
        The Ballantine Publishing Group
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY
www.ballantinebooks.com
ISBN: 0-345-45066-3 price: $6.99 US paperback copyright 2002 249 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Novelizations of movies can be a fine source for reading. The stories have the action to keep the pace of the storyline moving and the movie studios have the means of finding quality authors. MIIB has the pace but the writing style is average. The first MIB novel had a uniqueness that let the reader gloss over the outrageous science. The second story should have spent a little more time with the plot and less with next to impossible special effect sequences.

The story starts with Jay trying to interrogate a flower. The flower is just a lure attached to an alien worm, Jeffrey. Jeffrey is large enough to swallow a subway train, which he does, when he decides he doesn't like the way the interview is going. Meanwhile in Central Park, a spaceship lands with a very mad Kylothian warrior who is looking for the Light of Zartha and is willing to destroy the earth in the process. The MIB agent who handled the Kylothian the first time she came to earth is Kay. Kay has to be brought out of retirement in time to save the planet.

Most of the characters from the first movie make cameos in the follow-up story. They bring a continuity to the novel. If you like the MIB movies, you will like the novel. But if you haven't enjoyed the movies, you will find MIIB an average read. The author is a little too wordy and the story is a touch too dependent on the action sequences.

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Title: The Vendetta Defense
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Pub. Address:
        HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022
ISBN: 0-06-103142-9 price: $7.99 US March 2002 480 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Lisa Scottoline has developed a loyal following for her legal novels. Her stories differ from the standard legal mysteries by her very strong characterizations. In The Vendetta Defense, her Italian characters are so extreme that they overshadow the suspense but the story still has enough balance to be an enjoyable legal thriller.

Anthony Lucia, Pigeon Tony, kills Angelo Coluzzi, a life long enemy. The vendetta that culminates with Coluzzi's death started fifty years earlier with Angelo murdering Pigeon Tony's wife. Judy Carrier, a hotshot in the Philadelphia law firm Rosato & Associates, takes his case. She soon finds out that both her life and Pigeon Tony's will depend on how fast she can learn about Italian vendettas and a crime family that learned its trade under Mussolini's fascism.

The Vendetta Defense is a fast reading story with more than enough suspense and a touch of romance. The legal moves and the Italian/Philadelphian subculture are a little rough but the storyline has no problems carrying the tale through to the end. This story's unique construction makes it an easy recommendation to any reader of legal thrillers.

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Title: Mystic River
Author: Dennis Lehane
Pub. Address:
        HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022
ISBN: 0-38-073185-1 price: $7.99 US April 2002 496 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Lehane is a writer with a slightly skewed look at humanity. There are many ways for authors to tell their stories. Some will lock in on a storyline and hang the rest of the tale from it. Lehane finds broken lives and builds the tale from there.

Mystic River is the well-told tale of boys from both the good and the bad side of the street growing up. We have read the story of friends growing up into adversaries many times. In the US, the story is usually about either the Italian or Irish mob with one boy growing up to become a mob boss and another becoming a cop. Mystic River is about a town with two sides of the street, the poor Flats and the middleclass Point. In the harshness of the world, two boys from the Flats play with one from the Point. A pair of pedophiles grab one of the boys off the street and instead of just three boys playing, you have three lives dividing into a destiny of perverted violence.

Mystic River is a nicely twisted tale that has everything a reader of detective stories looks for. It is one of the better written mysteries and it is easy to understand why Lehane has so many fans. The problem with the book is that the focus is on the characters and not the story until halfway through the novel.

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Title: Murder by the Book
Author: Bob Liter
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN: 1-58873-106-5 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 118 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Murder by the Book is the equivalent of comfort food for the reader of detective mysteries. It is the type of story you read with smoky jazz playing on your stereo and a snifter of brandy sitting on the table next to you. It is written in the wordy first person narrative that you would expect in a gumshoe story. It has all of the characters you look for, the police detective friend, the seedy dive with the fatherly owner/bartender, a handful of beautiful - possibly dangerous - dames, the mob, and a body with hints of sexual perversion. It is the classic story type that originated in the 1930's and has been reincarnated time and time again in TV/movies from Mike Hammer to the holodeck of Star Trek.

Nick Bancroft is/was an investigative reporter who inherited a detective agency with an attached apartment. He moves into the apartment on purpose and the agency by accident. He is a beer drinker, semi-pro bowler, a savior of a stray cat, and generally a good man who falls into the strangest situations. A street bum, B.J., stops Nick on the street and tells him that he found a naked dead woman in the stands at the high school football field with a book on her lap. The dead woman's book turns out to be a sex etiquette manual with pages marked. Nick tries not to get involved but things just seem to happen to him. Soon he is hired by the dead girl's father, flirting with the secretary downstairs, getting wasted with his bar owner friend, Otto, and dodging thugs from the Chicago mob. The only stability in his life is a stray cat that decides to adopt him.

Like macaroni and cheese, Murder by the Book is a mystery reader's meal for when the latest nail-biting thriller or impossibly complex mystery is just too much. It is a story you reach for when all you want is a good yarn and a chair to relax in. The only drawback to the tale is a fuzziness near the end. But for most readers that shouldn't be a problem, the brandy snifter will be empty by then.

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Title: Blood Work
Author: Michael Connelly
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books, Inc.
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0-446-60262-0 price: $7.50 US paperback October, 1998 498 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Connelly has a simple open writing style that disappears quickly behind the storyline. He is a storyteller first and a writer second. With detective mysteries and most other genre novels, the best writing is when you lose the printed words and just remember the story. Connelly succeeds in this task with Blood Work.

McCaleb is an ex-FBI profiler who is about to start his third month since a heart transplant surgery. A woman comes aboard his boat and his life changes. Graciela Rivers tells him he has her sister's heart. She asks him to find her sister's murderer. McCaleb's own heart gave out when he became too attached to the victims and survivors of the killers he profiled for the FBI. This time his new heart tells him he has to follow death again to find the killer. McCaleb follows a twisted web of clues left by the killer that only he can see and the local police have missed. The killer has decided to play a game with the wounded McCaleb with McCaleb's life or living death the ultimate prize.

Blood Work is a well paced and aptly named murder mystery. For a few readers, the mystery unfolds early but the pace of the story will keep them happy. For the others, Connelly lays out the clues and with satisfying efficiency works them out. Blood Work is a solid well-told detective story that holds its own with the best in the genre.

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Title: Icarus
Author: Russel Andrews
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-5156-2 price: $7.99 mass-market edition July 2002, 547 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Andrews starts his story with a slow methodical style. Even the horrific murder at the beginning of the story seems sanitized by the way Andrews holds the characters away from the readers. At the halfway point, Andrews finds his pacing and the story explodes into a solid psychological thriller and mystery.

Icarus is a story about Jack Keller. At ten, he sees his mother thrown out the window by an insane man. Despite the trauma, Jack grows up to become a well balanced man with only a reasonable fear of heights. He marries the girl of his dreams. Middle-age looks both normal and beautiful for him until insanity and murder stalk the people around him. Every step he takes, every clue he follows ends in death. And every death seems linked to the murder of Jack's mother. Insanity, secrets, and murder walk hand-in-hand through to the last few pages of the book.

The explosive second half of Icarus holds up to expectations. It pulls the okay, but slow, story into a breakneck mystery. Icarus is a satisfying thriller filled with the dark addictions of humanity. The obsessions that twist and bend are the mystery in this thriller. There is nothing new in Icarus but the story trickles out just enough clues so the mystery holds until the end. In spite of the slow start, Icarus is one of the better thriller/mysteries.

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Title: A MARTIAN ODYSSEY & Other Classic Science Fiction Stories
Author: Stanley G. Weinbaum
Edited: Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner
ISBN : 1-58873-121-9 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 187 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Stanley G. Weinbaum is one of the best science fiction writers in the twentieth century. For an average SF reader of today, Weinbaum's science and style seem a little dated but the stories are interesting and well written. What makes Weinbuam one of the best is that he was the first. He was the first to create truly alien creatures and environments and not just use a re-setting of earthly creatures in otherworldly roles. Weinbaum's writings span only two years, 1934 through 1935. He died in '35 from cancer. His illness might be why there is an emphasis on medicine with his stories. But the cancer never touched the brilliance of his writings.

A Martian Odyssey, Valley of Dreams, and Tidal Moon show Weinbaum's ability to create aliens and alien environments. E.E. Doc. Smith's Lensman series is arguably the best SF series ever written. Without Weinbaum's unique creations, it is hard to imagine how Smith's writings would have changed but they would have. Smith borrowed heavily from the inspiration of the Martian Tweel and Ganymede's Cree.

Pygmalion's Spectacles is an easy romp into the mind and virtual reality. Again, you can see the effect in the later writings of Theodore Sturgeon and Ray Bradbury.

The Circle of Zero delves into time travel through the mind. Zero adds the concept of multiple timelines to time travel which was followed up so well by Heinlein and even James P. Hogan.

The Dictator is a common post World War II story that was written before World War II started. Because the War overshadowed so many of the SF writings in the later twentieth century, it is harder to see Weinbaum's influence but it is there.

These six short stories do what great storytelling always does. They make the reader think and inspire others to explore farther. Anyone who claims to like science fiction or science needs to read these stories at least once.

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Title: The Surgeon
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Pub. Address:
        A Ballantine Book
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY
        www.randomhouse.com
ISBN : 0-345-44784-0 price: $7.99 US mass market August, 2002, 350 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

There is no pretentiousness in The Surgeon. Gerritsen writes a straightforward detective story about a serial killer. The killings are gruesome enough to send chills and the technical details of both the hospital/police settings are enough to bring a sense of reality to the story. Gerritsen is a writer you will look for again.

Detective Thomas Moore is called back to Boston from a vacation he only had time to pack for. A woman has been found murdered and mutilated. When he walks into the autopsy, he discovers that this woman was killed the same way as another a year earlier. Before the day is out he and Detective Rizzoli interview Dr. Catherine Cordell, the sole survivor of a serial killer in Savannah, Georgia who mutilated his victims in the same way. The only problem is that she killed the murderer. The questions multiply as the murders continue. Each gets closer to Cordell and each is more spectacular in execution.

The Surgeon is a strong detective/murder mystery. A reader will not be disappointed with the tale but the novel doesn't have the spark of uniqueness or depth that would make it a must read.

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Title: The Silent Service Seawolf Class
Author: H. Jay Riker
Pub. Address:
        Avon Books
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022
ISBN: 0-380-80468-9 price: $6.99 US paperback August, 2002 410 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Using at least three other pseudonyms and his real name, Riker has written 50 novels. It is easy to see why he is so prolific. Silent Service Seawolf Class has everything a good military story needs, a fast easy pace, realistic locations and people, solid military technology, and a plot that doesn't go overboard. Riker shows that he understands writing a solid novel that is just plain fun to read. There is merely the vaguest hint that a few more hours or days could have been spent on developing the storyline. But with 50 novels, who really cares? Just pass the next one over.

The Chinese have purchased a number of top-of-the-line submarines from the Russians. With Taiwan becoming more independent and the US involved with the war against terrorism, China feels it has the chance to militarily occupy Taiwan.

Lieutenant John Calhoun Morton leads a SEAL team in a covert boarding of a Chinese cargo ship in the middle of the North Pacific suspected of smuggling weapons into US ports. Commander Thomas Fredrick Garrett is the captain of the USS Pittsburgh, the submarine the SEAL team swims from. The operation falls apart and both Morton and Garrett pull off the near impossible. The mission ends with the cargo ship and weapons on the bottom of the ocean, a badly damaged Chinese Kilo submarine, a slightly damaged USS Pittsburgh, and no US deaths. Morton gets a medal and Garrett gets beached. Four years later, the mission that seemingly destroys Garrett's naval carrier places him in the perfect position to become the executive officer onboard the submarine, USS Seawolf, when it sails into the Formosa Strait and a waiting Chinese wolf pack of Akula and Kilo submarines.

Silent Service Seawolf Class is the perfect military novel to read over a relaxing weekend. The novel is written by an author who understands how to construct a good tale. The writing is not bloated with too much technology or repetitive impossible challenges. The only real challenge is waiting for the next novel in the series to be published.

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Title: Writ of Execution
Author: Perri O'Shaughnessy
Pub. Address:
        Dell Publishing
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036
ISBN : 0-440-23605-3 price: $7.99 US paperback mass market July, 2002, 427 pages

Reviewer: S.A. Gorden

Perri O'Shaughnessy is the pen name for two sisters, Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy. They have developed a seamless writing style. The sisters have produced a richly detailed and complex story. The legal mysteries written by the sisters benefit from Pamela's law degree/trial experience and Mary's editing/writing background.

Nina Reilly is single mother with a law practice in Tahoe. Nina's romantic interlude with her investigator, Paul, is interrupted by a phone call. A terrified young woman has just won seven million dollars at the slot machines. She has escaped the publicity blitz that the casino gives all big winners by claiming illness and pretending to be the wife of a computer whiz playing the slot machine next to hers. She wants the money but needs Nina to protect her identity. If that is not enough of a setup to the story, there is a stolen gun, a murderer, a rich man looking for vengeance, a mysterious death, a bankrupt business, someone contemplating suicide, a crook, and gambling addicts.

Writ of Execution is a smooth complex legal mystery that logically flows though a maze of complex situations to a satisfying conclusion. Any mystery reader will have a fun time navigating through the maze of clues and characters with personal flaws. Writ is easy to recommend.

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Title: The Sigma Protocol
Author: Robert Ludlum
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 0-312-98251-8 price: $7.99 mass-market edition October 2002, 650 pages

Ludlum writes the classic spy story. His stories were first published during the height of the Cold War. Rumors of Nazi organizations left-over from World War II, the timeless spy tales about James Bond, and the CIA and KGB spy scandals in the newspapers were blended by him into his novels. His stories are about the individual fighting against the corruption of power, wherever the corruption comes from. His writing is a little heavy and reading one of his stories will give you insight into the others. But Ludlum's stories are classic and anyone who likes the spy genre has to read at least one of his novels.

Ben Hartman is on vacation in Zurich when an old college friend, Jimmy Cavanaugh, pulls a gun on him. Six bystanders are killed along with his friend but when the police arrive, Cavanaugh's body is gone and the murder weapon is found in Hartman's luggage. In Washington, Justice Department field agent, Anna Navarro, is assigned the investigation of seemingly unrelated deaths of eleven old men from across the world. A fifty year old CIA document with the code name Sigma lists the eleven men plus a handful of others. The killing has just started. Hartman and Navarro are on opposite ends of a deadly web called Sigma. They both have to find why the fifty year old secret of The Sigma Protocol has suddenly become important enough to kill for.

The Sigma Protocol is an archetypal spy story. It has the non-stop action, impossible odds and villains with the ability to rule the world. For some readers, Ludlum's plot might seem a little dated and even with the intense action his style is heavy paced but The Sigma Protocol is a strong enough story to be easily recommended for any spy or action reader.

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Title: RAT IN THE SKULL & Other Off-trail Science Fiction
Author: Rog Phillips
Selected and Introduced: by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-141-3 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 132 pages

Have you ever wondered where the writers of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits got their inspiration? The science fiction stories that seem so plausible with the macabre twist at the end that bites your psyche and haunts your dreams, the science fiction stories that Stephen King or Dean Koontz would love to pen, these are the stories Rog Phillips created.

Rat in the Skull is Phillips best known novelette. He had some scientific facts wrong but much of his basic premise is now considered possible. The story will become even more haunting after the reader considers some of the basic story themes in the popular TV shows such as the X Files. Be prepared for a long period of sleeplessness after reading the Rat.

Love Me, Love My – is a slightly bent classic SF story. It has a delicious twist that is more fun than macabre.

Executioner No. 43 is a tale that has been done many times over. It has been a theme in the original Star Trek series and many other shows. Even with the familiar theme Phillips adds his own little twist marking it as his own.

Unto the Nth Generation has the least logic and the most fantasy. The story does stand on its own with a strong premise. Of course, as with his other stories, Phillips has to play with you at the end.

The Holes in My Head is a wicked little tale that has a happy/sad end.

Pariah might be the least unusual of this set of stories. It is still a dark story reminiscent of Zelazny or Williamson.

Rat in the Skull & Other Off-trail Science Fiction is a must read for any horror or SF reader.

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Title: The Four Feathers
Author: A.E.W. Mason
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-4821-9 price: $6.99 mass-market Pocket Books edition September 2002, 386 pages

Watching any of the five movies based on The Four Feathers, you would think the novel was an action/adventure. You would be wrong. There is adventure in the novel but the true story is a romance. The weakest part of all of the films was the justification for Harry not leaving for Egypt and the psychological interactions between the characters but those same parts are strongest in the book.

The Four Feathers is a true turn of the twentieth century story. Today's readers might find the paced style a little slow but Feathers is a powerful novel. It is easy to see how movie producers have over and over again used its storyline. The simple premise is part of the strength in the writing. Four white feathers are given to a person for cowardice, three from friends and one from his fiancée. But the man isn't a coward. In secret, he proves his courage to each one who gave him a feather until all four feathers are in the hands of his former fiancée.

The characters in the novel are extreme. There is little of the shading that makes a character true-to-life. Where the story picks up the grittiness of reality is in the complex interactions and messy storyline. You find yourself thinking that you are sitting in a proper British club listening to an aged gentleman reciting a tale he lived through. The story properly filtered to fit the stayed surroundings.

If you are an action/adventure movie fan looking for more, you should try other turn-of-the-century authors such as Burroughs or Baroness Orczy. But if you are looking for a strong character based novel, The Four Feathers is one of the best.

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Title: Crisis Point
Author: Ken Currie
Pub. Address:
        Leisure Books
        Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
        276 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10001

ISBN: 0-8439-5107-9 price: $6.99 mass-market edition September 2002, 370 pages

Ken Currie is a retired Air Force intelligence office. The insider bickering, politicking, and resentments between branches of the government and the military have a ring of truth to them. Unfortunately, he has also brought into the story the intelligence thinking of a decade ago.

The US fast military transport ship Regulus reports unidentified aircraft approaching its position and disappears. An accident is first suspected until the wreckage is found. Terrorists, traitors, spies, all mixed with the resentments and politics of bureaucracies have to be navigated by the investigators before they can find out the truth about the Regulus and the weapons she was transporting.

Crisis Point is a good military mystery. Currie shows the potential of developing into a noted suspense writer. Crisis Point is ordinary storytelling with just enough insider reality to make it of interest for any military/political suspense reader.

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Title: THE SHADOW'S JUSTICE
Author: Walter B. Gibson
Introduced: by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-145-6 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 151 pages

If you have had the treat of seeing, reading, or hearing the serial stories of the first half of the twentieth century, you will fall in love with the writing style of Gibson. He might be the quintessential serial storyteller. Every chapter ends with a standardized lead-in advertising the need for the reader to start the next chapter. The narrative continually hints at more taking place in the shadows. The storyline is pushed fast enough that any logical questions are ignored. So much of Gibson's writing is now cliché, that it is easy to forget that in 1933 it was new and fresh. The Shadow is one of the first super-hero characters. By reading Gibson, it is possible to see the beginnings of the truly great graphic storytellers.

Late at night, a lawyer is driven to the isolated estate of a dying tycoon. Thugs are in the shadows watching and waiting. The lawyer meets with the magnate. A shadowy figure comes out of the darkness and climbs the wall of the mansion until he is at the window of the room the meeting is taking place in. A nephew listens in from the hall. The old man tells the lawyer that his son is coming home and will inherit millions that he has hidden. The chain of events that follows results in death and mayhem from Havana to the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Only the Shadow knows what will come next.

The Shadow's Justice is a must read for readers of the action/mystery and for any who enjoy classic storytelling that is fundamental to a genre.

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Title: THE INVOLUNTARY IMMORTALS
Author: Rog Phillips
Introduced: by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-140-5 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2002, 152 pages

With The Involuntary Immortals, copyright 1959, it is possible to compare the way two masters in storytelling approach the same topic. Heinlein's Methuselah's Children, copyright 1958, is a story about a group of people in the future who band together because they do not seem to age. Immortals starts with a group of people in the immediate future who discover they are nearly immortal. Phillips has a darker style with more science in the tale. The two stories blend many of the same ideas but diverge into different directions. Phillips limits his novel to the story's characters and immediate problems. Heinlein expands the story to cover a wider scope. It makes you wonder what gem of a tale would have come about if they had collaborated on a story.

Helen's husband Carl dies at the age of sixty-seven. In the forty-two years of their marriage, Helen has always looked twenty. Their daughter, Agnes, screams at his death, "It was you, mother. You killed him by drawing his life into your own body just as you are doing to mine and all those around you!" Agnes vows to make her mother's life misearable. Helen, who is a century and a half old, packs her life with Carl away and tries to start again with her old name in Chicago. On the train, she meets Eric Trent, a man who looks twenty-five but is as old a she is. There is nothing more vicious than families broken by hate and desire. Betrayal and murder stalk Helen as she runs for survival and to learn the truth about her immortality.

The science in The Involuntary Immortals dated but the story is a pure action pulp. Phillips weaves an intricate path through a complex story that is well worth following to its end.

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Title: Blindsighted
Author: Karin Slaughter
Pub. Address:
        HarperTorch
        Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-380-82088-9 price: $7.50 paperback October 2002, 378 pages

Cornwell and Reichs have started a tradition of hard edged, women forensic novels. Slaughter has continued with a darker harder story. Blindsighted is less the detective/mystery of Cornwell and Reichs and more the suspense/thriller of a pulp writer. Slaughter paints a picture of a sinister South with dark dangerous passions hidden within each character. Her women characters are more detailed but her male personalities are still complex. Slaughter's writing is a little raw but so is the story.

In a small southern college town, Dr. Sara Linton is running late for her lunch with her sister Tessa. When she arrives, the normal sister bickering and family small talk starts. Sara decides she needs an escape and excuses herself for the bathroom. There she finds Sibyl Adams, drugged, raped, sliced open, and bleeding to death. The blind college professor is just the beginning of the horror that faces her as Sara finds herself the focus of a sadistic serial killer who is bringing his macabre trophies to her. Sara's ex-husband, Police Chief Jeffery Tolliver, must find the clues to stop the killing and Sara has to find the strength to rise above her hidden past.

Blindsighted is a must read suspense novel. The power of the gruesome story pulls you to the final page. Just don't read this book if you are going on a trip to a small Georgia college town in the near future.

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Title: The Ten Thousand
Author: Michael Curtis Ford
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 0-312-98032-9 price: $6.99 paperback edition October 2002, 439 pages

The Ten Thousand is based on a historical military event so powerful soldiers twenty-five hundred years later still talk about it with awe. The Anabasis by Xenophon tells the story in stark bare words and is still possibly the best retelling of the facts. Ford's novelization brings out the emotions of the events. Ford is not the best writer but he has made good choices in this retelling. The narrator is a slave/squire/freeman from the household of Xenophon. This gives the narrator access to all the information in the tale plus, being a non-Greek, he can fill in historical and cultural details not known to the modern reader. Ford does embellish the tale with un-needed details and plotlines but generally he does a good job supplying the historical facts needed to appreciate the story.

In the 5th century B.C. the Peloponnesian War has ended. The Greek soldiers have no one to fight and homelands not able to support their return. Ten thousand Greek mercenaries find a job with the Persian Cyrus. Marching from Sardis, near the Aegean coast, with an army hundreds of thousands strong, Cyrus starts a campaign to gain the throne in Babylon. Just outside of Babylon near the town of Cunaxa, Cyrus meets his brother's army of one million. The ten thousand Greeks rout half of the Babylonian army without a single casualty but Cyrus dies in combat and the rest of the army falls apart. The Persian king doesn't want to let the Greeks go but his army can't standup to the ten thousand in open combat. The Greeks know they can defeat the Persians in the field but are not numerous enough to assault the fortified Babylon. The Persians promise to let the Greeks march home and try defeating them with treachery. The result is a winter march under near continuous attack from Babylon to the Black Sea.

Even with the overdone narration, The Ten Thousand is a great read for anyone who is interested in history or the military. Ford adds more than enough historical detail to make up for straying during the telling.

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Title: The Universe in a Nutshell
Author: Stephen Hawking
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY
        www.randomhouse.com

ISBN: 0-5535-80202-X price: $35.00 copyright 2001, 201 pages

Hawking is possibly the most trusted author of popular physics books alive today and he is one of the greatest scientific minds. This puts an enormous strain on a reviewer. If the reviewer glows, he is taking the easy way out. If the reviewer questions, everyone thinks he is grandstanding. This reviewer loved The Universe in a Nutshell but found some faults.

The Universe in a Nutshell is the same type of book as A Brief History of Time; Hawking tries to summarize in plain English the mathematics of modern physics. The book starts out with a review of Einstein's ideas on relativity, the core behind all modern theories on the universe. Chapter two is a survey of how time fits in with the other dimensions of the universe. Using the information in the first two chapters, Hawking examines concepts in predicting future events, questions that time travel asks, information accumulation, and how the universe fits with everything around it.

As usual, Hawking is at his best explaining Quantum physics, his field of expertise, in everyday terms. But all popular science books have to be a balance between simplified English language storytelling and technical scientific idiom. Hawking had a harder time finding the balance between the two extremes in Universe than he did in A Brief History, but most readers will never notice the problem. There was also some trouble incorporating Complexity, especially biological complexity, and Topological ideas into the story. Both scientific disciplines take a different approach than Quantum so Hawking's difficulty translating their concepts into general English had to be expected.

If you liked A Brief History of Time, you will love The Universe in a Nutshell. The Universe is a somewhat harder read but can be more enjoyable because of its broader scope. The only caveat is the slightly weaker treatment of Complexity and Topology concepts.

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Title: Daredevil
Author: Greg Cox
Pub. Address:
        Onyx, an imprint of New American Library
        A division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014
        www.penguinputnam.com

ISBN : 0-451-41080-7 price: $6.99 first printing January 2003, 250 pages

Novelizations of movie screenplays can be great stories to read. Cox does a good job of bringing a screenplay to print but to fully enjoy this novel you need to have the edge of reading the comics or watching the TV shows that feature the Daredevil. Taking into account the main character is blind, the story is curiously filled with visual images.

Matt Murdock grows up in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York. His father knows that only with a good education can his son escape the poverty and crime of their home. In a freak accident, a barrel filled with chemical waste is punctured. The toxic liquid pores into Matt's eyes destroying his sight but somehow expanding his other senses to miraculous levels. In their struggle to rise above the misery around them, Matt's father losses the fight and is murdered. "A man without fear can do anything." are the words Matt's father told him every time he met a challenge. Without fear is how the child survives to adulthood to become the Daredevil.

The Daredevil is a fun tale but it lacks the spark needed to stand on its own. Anyone who knows about the Daredevil from before will not be disappointed with the novel. But if you haven't read the comics, it might be best to wait until you have seen the movie before reading the book.

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Title: Primal Shadows
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010
        www.tor.com

ISBN : 0-812-56580-0 price: $6.99 mass-market edition June 2002, 424 pages

Foster creates worlds. He tells a story filled with action but he clothes it in a world rich in detail and imagination. In Primal Shadows, Foster starts with Papua New Guinea and using just the facts makes a world larger, stranger, and more powerful, until it seems he is talking about a different planet. You read Foster's stories for the action. You love Foster's tales for the worlds he takes you to.

"They are now all dead. Except me, of course." That is the starting line to Primal Shadows. It is all that is needed to tell you where the story is going.

We all remember the jungle explorer tales. From the factual accounts of Richard Burton to the fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the explorer genre is filled with tales you can find comfort in with their familiarity and thrill to with their action. Within the first few pages, you know that Steve Bohannon, rolled by a woman he met in Port Moresby, will follow her into the savage back country of Papua New Guinea. The story seems safe until the killings start. Why Bohannon is ready to face death to follow a woman who stole a few dollars from him is an easy question but one with only a partial answer. Every character in the tale has a motive, an agenda. Most are hidden at first but all are answered with violence or death.

If you like adventure tales that are fast paced and raw, Primal Shadows is for you. Although it isn't the best that Foster can offer, it is worth the reading. Primal Shadows, brings you into a savage world that you wish still exists in some corner of the world but is best seen from your recliner. A world you still somehow hope one day to have the guts to visit.

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Eyes of an Eagle

All reviews for novels published by Taconite Runes are now at the publisher's web site. Use this link to view the reviews. Eyes of an Eagle You will need to use your browser's back arrow to return to this site.

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Title: Cryptonomicon
Author: Neal Stephenson
Pub. Address:
        Avon Books
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022
ISBN : 0-06-051280-6 price: $7.99 US paperback November, 2002 1139 pages

Stephenson has written a massive complex novel of two intertwined stories separated by 50 years in Cryptonomicon. The stories are engaging and interesting but Stephenson likes words. Long passages are unnecessarily complex and hard to follow as he fills them with sentences built for the usage of words and not the telling of a story. If you love the play of words, you will love this novel. If you like storytelling, you will wish there was a condensed version of the book.

Cryptonomicon is a story that follows two family lines, the Shaftoes and the Waterhouses, from just before World War II to today. Cryptonomicon is a name given to a compilation of cryptology techniques and methodology during World War II and is the thread that holds the story together. The Waterhouses supply the brains to the tale while the Shaftoes the brawn. Stolen gold, spying, encryption, war, death are all blended into a richly detailed action novel with a mystery twist.

If you like high tech action mysteries that require a lot of thinking, Cryptonomicon is a good story. The blending of action with a technical storyline is done flawlessly. If you can handle the overuse of words, you will enjoy it. Crytonomicon is good story that could be a great one if it was under a thousand pages.

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Title: 1st To Die
Author: James Patterson
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books, Inc.
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0-446-61003-8 price: $7.99 US paperback February, 2002 462 pages

Patterson has written a fast easy reading action/detective mystery in 1st To Die. Patterson is well known as a detective mystery writer with a few of his stories made into movies. I do not read many of Patterson's novels but 1st is a straight forward mystery with a final surprise twist.

Lindsay Boxer is a San Francisco homicide detective who gets called to a luxury hotel for a gruesome murder of high society newlyweds on the same day she finds out she has a lethal form of anemia. The murders and her illness threaten to overwhelm her. When the murders continue, she decides to bring her friends together to help solve the case, Claire a medical examiner, Cindy a crime reporter for the Chronicle, and Jill an assistant DA. The Women's Murder Club is started.

1st To Die is a satisfying mystery with a rich cast of characters. There is some weakness to the story at the end but this is a solid tale. Patterson is at his best and the story is well worth reading.

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Title: THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU-MANCHU
Author: Sax Rohmer
Edited: by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-176-6 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 223 pages

Sax Rohmer was a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They both created super villains that have stayed with us. Moriarty was overshadowed by Sherlock Holmes but Dr. Fu-Manchu never took second place in the story. Rohmer's style is similar to many of the storytellers at the turn of the twentieth century, a wordy fast-paced narration by a secondary figure. In this case, a Dr. Petrie takes the role of Watson changing it to a strong ally to Nayland Smith, the lead investigator trying to stop Fu-Manchu.

The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu is written as a series of ten linked mysteries. Dr. Fu-Manchu is an evil genius who is working for the re-building of China into the only world power. Assassinations, kidnapping, drugs, biological weapons, poison gas, and hypnotism is just a short list of methods Fu-Manchu uses to attain his goals. Smith and Petrie fight to block Fu-Manchu who always seems to have one more move, one more plan, and one more escape.

If you like any of the great popular storytellers of one hundred years ago, you will love the politically incorrect action/mystery story, The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu. It has the mystery of a Sherlock Holmes story mixed with the exotic Orient. It is classic storytelling.

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Title: Absolute Zero
Author: Chuck Logan
Pub. Address:
        HarperTorch
        An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN : 0-06-103156-9 price: $7.99 US March 2003 436 pages

Logan is a writer who takes his time telling the story. Over half of the novel is used as a setup for the high tension action ending. The story is measured with the location playing a major role, possibly a leading role. If you like a cozy thriller, which will bite you at the end, Logan is an author for you.

Phil Broker is leading a moose hunting trip by canoe into the Boundary Waters. He is guiding a lawyer, a surgeon, and a writer, Hank Sommer. A November storm comes up nearly swamping Broker and Sommer's canoe. Sommer saves them but severely injures himself. In a freak mishap in the hospital, Sommer goes into a coma. Broker, a retired cop, suspects foul play. Sommer's ex-stripper wife, her old boyfriend, and his current friends all see the millions of dollars in Sommer's estate and want part or all of it. Murder is a small price to pay with millions up for grabs. Broker knew poking around could get him into trouble but he never expected the hornet's nest he turned up.

Absolute Zero is an enjoyable thriller with a unique cast of characters and location. Absolute Zero is an easy recommendation but it is a well-paced story and a little slower than many current action/thrillers.

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Title: A Yank at Valhalla
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Introduction: by Jean Marie Stine
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-167-7 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 106 pages

The middle of the twentieth century is in many ways the golden age of science fiction. Science fiction had come into its own with many great authors pushing the genre out into other areas such as mysteries and in this case fantasy. In A Yank at Valhalla, Hamilton takes a sword and sorcerer type fantasy and mixes in strong scientific reasoning. The result is a plausible science fiction tale using Norse mythology. Today the science fiction/fantasy market is dominated by fantasy but back in the golden age, it was writers such as Hamilton that put the science first.

Keith Masters is a pilot on an Artic expedition. He finds a gold cylinder with runes. The runes give a warning about hiding the cylinder. The golden tube is a key that binds Loki and his familiars. If the key is brought back to Asgard, Ragnarok, the Norse equivalent of Armageddon, will occur destroying Valhalla and all the Norse gods.

Keith doesn't believe the runes and wears the cylinder as a good luck charm. While flying a scouting mission north of the main expedition, a storm comes up and forces his plane into a region of the Artic Ocean that blocks light, a gigantic blind spot on the face of the world. He flies through the light boundary and into the world of Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki. His landing has just started a war between a race of humans with the scientific knowledge to control the weather and attain eternal life.

A Yank at Valhalla is a pure fantasy/action story. A Yank at Valhalla is an easy recommendation to anyone who likes fantasy stories and it is a must read for those who are interested in a science fiction/fantasy tale that, if written today, would be dominated by magic.

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Title: Year Zero
Author: Jeff Long
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books
        Pocket Books, division of Simon &Schuster, Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-0612-5 price: $7.99 US paperback October, 2001 498 pages

Jeff Long has written an adventure novel sprinkled with high tech and topped with a dose of extreme fantasy. The adventure and high tech portions of the story are worth the reading but the fantasy part would be better placed in a 1950s comic. Long is a great writer when he sticks to what he knows, high adventure.

Nathan Lee Swift is a scavenger of relics. After an earthquake hits Jerusalem, he and his boss raid a landfill where the remains from Golgotha crucifixions were thrown. This is the start of Nathan Lee's tumble into the unsavory side of relic hunting.

A two thousand year old relic is opened releasing a mutated virus that threatens to destroy humanity. The search is on for biological relics from the year zero. Since the virus was sealed in a relic dating to that period, two thousand year old human remains might still contain the antibodies that will stop the plague.

Nathan Lee has to travel halfway around a dieing world trying to find his daughter before the plague kills them both. His knowledge of the Golgotha bones and archeology might just be enough for the scientists in Los Alamos to find a cure.

If you are a reader who can suspend belief, you will love Year Zero. Most readers will still enjoy the adventure/high tech portions of the story. Year Zero should have been either a complete fantasy or a high tech adventure. Long was not able to blend everything together into a single story.

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Title: Hulk
Author: Peter David
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-45967-9 price: $6.99 May, 2003, 338 pages

Peter David has written a number of screenplays into novels. With Hulk, David comes close to writing a great novel but misses the mark.

Bruce Krenzler has always kept his emotions under control; this tight control has estranged him from his girlfriend, Betty Ross. His haunted past lurks just beyond his consciousness. At a laboratory in Berkley, Bruce, Jake Harper, and Betty experiment with ways for the body to regenerate damaged tissues. An accident occurs during an experiment and Bruce is exposed to radiation, a dosage that should have killed him but doesn't. Everyone seems to want a part of Bruce including his murderous father, David Banner.

The Hulk is a story about the damage visited on children by parents who think about themselves alone. It tells the story of a child's anger manifested in a green Hulk who is able to bring the might of the world down to the toys of a child. The novel comes up short in bringing the psychological damage to the understanding of the reader but does deliver on the action/adventure parts of the story. If you like any of the Marvel comic characters, you will love the Hulk. If you want a deeper understanding of the psychological damage that can be done to a child, find a good Alex Delaware mystery.

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Title: Bones of the Earth
Author: Michael Swanwick
Pub. Address:
        HarperTorch
        Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-380-81289-4 price: $7.50 paperback March 2003, 383 pages

Michael Swanwick has written a tale filled with the paradoxes of time travel. The story is a fun confusing mix of spectacular action and the anomalies of time travel. The story has weaknesses but the unique twist between the hundreds of millions of years in the past and the unforeseen technical science of the future overcomes any problems with the writing.

Richard Leyster is a world-renowned paleontologist when a man by the name Griffin walks into his office and leaves him with a fresh Stegosaurus head in a cooler. The surprises, tension, murder and mayhem come non-stop until an end that is just as much of a paradox as the beginning.

Bones of the Earth is well worth the time it takes to understand the twists and turns. It offers a new, but sparse, speculation of the life and death of the dinosaurs. It also takes a look at the paradox of time travel, without the science, but filled with details a layperson can grasp. Swanwick has written a fresh story filled with old questions and just enough answers to make the reader comfortable. Anyone who likes to read a book that makes you think should read Bones of the Earth.

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Title: LUST AT SEA
Author: Jay Lawrence and Harry Neptune
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-182-0 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 147 pages

Lust at Sea is a satire. It spoofs everything from Murder on the Orient Express to Moby Dick. If you like tongue-in-cheek stories that poke fun at political correctness, sex, drugs, alcohol, and classic literature, you will like Lust at Sea.

In a drunken blackout, Harry Neptune proposes and marries Miss Jay Lawrence. They fly to Las Vegas and marry at the Chapel of Celestial Bliss by the Fairly Irreverent Pastor Von Schlong. The inebriated couple are the one millionth couple to be wed at the Chapel of Celestial Bliss and win a Caribbean cruise. When a murder occurs on the cruise, Harry and Jan go about finding the killer or killers. Intoxicated, they stumble from one sexual debauchery to the next collecting clues and information about the passengers and crew aboard the good ship Caribbean Conch. For Harry and Jan, the mystery isn't in the murder. The mystery is where to find the next drink and who will be the next partner in bed.

Lust at Sea is not a true murder mystery but a parody of life and classic tales. Lust at Sea is a guilty pleasure that is read for its titillation alone. With a ship captain by the name of Ahab and an ex-husband called Will Boner, you know the authors will do anything for a laugh.

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Title: Chasing the Dime
Author: Michael Connelly
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-316-15391-5 price: $25.95 hardcover copyright 2002, 371 pages

Michael Connelly writes the seemingly simple hard edge detective mysteries. The easy reading hides a complex and well crafted story. Only a few authors today write such a straightforward action thriller that is filled with layers.

Henry Pierce pugs in his new phone and receives a call asking for Lilly? Intrigued, he does a little checking and finds out the missing Lilly works as an escort. Something pulls the straight laced chemist turned company founder into looking for Lilly. Soon the dark side of society engulfs him with violence and murder. Before he has a chance to understand what is happening to him, he becomes the police's chief suspect and a victim of forces he can't find. The search for Lilly threatens to destroy him but stopping is something he is unable to do.

Chasing the Dime is one of the finest thrillers written today. It is a perfectly balanced action mystery with each passage delivering a blow until you stagger to the last page. It is simply one of the best novels of the year.

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Title: Fire Ice
Author: Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-425-19064-1 price: $7.99 US Mass-market June, 2003 402 pages

Cussler made his writing fame with a series of historical action adventure novels using the leading man Dirk Pitt. When he teamed up with Kemprecos, they developed a nearly identical story with Kurt Austin in the leading role. The stories have the same basic form and action with the exception that Kurt is less of a rogue than Dirk. This softens the story. You do miss the rakish Dirk, whose personality fits the action adventure genre better, but the stories are a little less over the edge adding a touch more believability to the storyline.

Fire Ice grabs you and doesn't let go. By the end of the third chapter, you have read about an escape attempt by part of the Tsar's family during the 1918 Russian Revolution, the hijacking of a US nuclear submarine, a tidal wave hitting the coast of Maine, and a reporter being shot at by Cossacks on the Black Sea coast. Kurt has only a few days to find out what is going on before a mad man, claiming to be heir to the tsarist throne of Russia, tries to overthrow the Russian government and flood a major American city with a manmade tsunami.

Fire Ice is a better than average adventure novel. It lacks the hard edge of the Dirk Pitt stories but it more than matches the standard adventure novels found on the shelves today. It is a great story to take for a day on the beach or a long weekend. Fire Ice is pure escapism, which it delivers with a non-stop adrenalin rush.

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Title: Diuturnity's Dawn Book Three of the Founding of the Commonwealth
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-41866-2 price: $6.99 US paperback mass market March, 2002, 319 pages

Foster continues building detail to his Humanx Commonwealth worlds with Diuturnity's Dawn. This is in many ways the best of the Founding of the Commonwealth series. Foster's Commonwealth was brought to life with the Flinx novels. The rich history told in the stories begged to be expanded upon.

Diuturnity's Dawn is a complex story of the signing of the Commonwealth unification. Humans and thranx try to understand each other while extremists and the AAnn try to keep them apart. The story focuses around the human diplomat, Fanielle Anjou, working on the thranx home world, the exploration of the planet Comagrave, and a cultural fair on the planet Dawn. Terrorists from the human and thranx worlds conspire to keep the worlds apart even if it means murder and destruction. The AAnn Empire, which is based on deceit and killing, slips easily into a support role for both the terrorists and the storyline. The success or failure of the schemes to keep humans and thranx apart rests on the actions of just a few individuals. Fanielle is possibly the least likely person to have the future of billions of beings balanced on her petite shoulders.

Diuturnity's Dawn is a joy for anyone who has read any of Foster's Commonwealth stories. The story solidifies the rich history Foster created for his humanx worlds.

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Title: Unfit to Practice
Author: Perri O'Shaughnessy
Pub. Address:
        Delacourte Press
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN : 0-385-33484-2 price: $24.95 copyright 2002, 417 pages

Perri is the pen name for Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy. They have written a great series of lawyer mysteries about the attorney Nina Reilly. The storyline sometimes gets a little too manufactured but you love the characters and the legal actions have a sense of reality.

On a stormy night, Nina's truck is stolen. In back of the Bronco are files containing the intake notes for three cases. Within hours, information from the files starts appearing. The legal system is seldom fair. Nina is thrown into the meat grinder of a disbarment hearing as complaints from her clients are sent to the California State Bar. Someone is orchestrating the end of her legal career without a thought to the damage those private files becoming public might cause.

Unfit to Practice follows the pattern of the other Nina Reilly legal mysteries. With strong characters and realistic courtroom knowledge, Unfit is an easy to recommend mystery.

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Title: INSIDE MAN & OTHER STORIES Science Fiction on the Gold Standard
Author: H.L. Gold
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-181-2 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 147 pages

H.L. Gold is a science fiction writer's writer. He takes a standard story and twists it with a surprise you wouldn't expect. You have the feel that Gold learned his satirical skills reading O. Henry.

Inside Man is a story about Lester Shay, an average man in a personal crisis. His doctor recommends a hobby and he purchases an Erector set. No one expects what the hobby unlocks within Lester.

In Personnel Problem, a mining operation on the asteroid Ceres has a staffing problem. The miners just can't seem to keep an engineer.

The Riches of Embarrassment is about a floor in an apartment building and the new tenant next door. What is actually going on when the only time you meet someone you feel like a fool?

Someone to Watch Over Me - Len Mattern is the captain of an interstellar/inter-universe cargo ship and in love with a woman he met years ago. The only way he thinks he can win his love is with the help of someone watching over him.

Grifter's Asteroid is the easiest story to see the ending. The premise is simple. What happens when inter-planetary con men meet?

What Price Wings? Is a tale that asks and answers, "If angels are good and grow wings, why are there no good people with wings on Earth?"

The Transmogrification of Wamba's Revenge is a cautionary tale of not pissing off the little people or the pigmies will inherit the world.

INSIDE MAN & OTHER STORIES Science Fiction on the Gold Standard is a must read for any serious science fiction reader.

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Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Author: R.K. Rowling
Pub. Address:
        Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic Inc.
        557 Broadway
        New York, NY 10012

ISBN : 0-439-35806-X price: $29.99 US, copyright 2003 870 pages

By now everyone knows that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth installment in Rowling's seven book series. The books have been consistent. In many ways the series is one story with the books being a division of a single year in the life of Harry Potter. Rowling is a great storyteller and a good writer. The books are filled with characters you care about and details you recognize. Everyone knows about the bullies, clumsy kids, the smart ones, the 'in' crowd, the cliques, the other students, and the teachers. Everyone even knows about life and death. Rowling uses what we know and takes us to a fantasy world where the good and evil are known and good has the chance to stop the greatest evil.

Harry Potter is spending a miserable summer with his Aunt and Uncle at number 4 Privet Drive, when both he and his cousin Dudley are attacked by dementors. He drives them off but the Ministry of Magic threatens to expel him from Hogwarts for using magic outside of school. The Ministry is in a fight to get rid of Dumbledore and is using Harry as pawn. Meanwhile, Harry and Dumbledore are involved in the true fight against the evil Voldemort. Everything you have loved about the four previous novels is here, the fight against heavy odds, the exploration of a fantasy world that is new but filled with things you know, and the final battle where Harry and his friends overcome but don't win.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a fantasy story for everyone. It is escapism that has more about life and living than what we find around us. The biggest problem with the novel is that we have to wait a few more years for the final two books to be written in the series.

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Title: Lara Croft Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life
Author: Dave Stern
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-7709-X price: $6.99 mass-market edition July 2003, 292 pages

The Cradle of Life is a better novel than the first Lara Croft Tomb Raider. The story is less busy with a powerful fast paced storyline. Except for requiring a little pre-knowledge of the characters, this story can easily stand as it is in the fantasy/action genre.

Lara is recovering from her last adventure when Bryce interrupts her with a satellite photo. An earthquake near Santorini, a volcanic island between Athens and Crete, has brought to the surface of the sea a wooden object engraved with the eight pointed star of Alexander the Great. Lara thinks she has found the location of the Luna Temple of Alexander. She leaves to find the temple and runs right into thieves, murders, terrorists, and traitors. The race is on to find Pandora's Box before someone else opens it releasing a plague that could destroy most of the world.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life is a pleasant surprise. It is one of the best fantasy/action novels of the year. Cussler's Dirk Pitt has met his match.

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Title: 2nd Chance
Author: James Patterson with Andrew Gross
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books, Inc.
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-446-61279-0 price: $7.99 US paperback February, 2003 400 pages

2nd Chance is a good sequel to 1st to Die. The story is a little smoother but the cast of characters and plot are familiar enough that the story that has a little less spark than the first one.

An eleven year old girl is shot down in a hail of bullets in front of a church. Everyone assumes that the murder is racially motivated but nearly immediately homicide inspector Lindsay Boxer senses that there is more to the killing. Lindsay must fight the politicians, the FBI, and the misleading clues left by the killer to stop him. She goes for help to the Women's Murder Club. Unwittingly, she makes her friends targets of the killer.

2nd Chance is a strong detective mystery and is well worth reading. Patterson and Gross have started a series of novels that the detective mystery reader needs to watch for.

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Title: The Da Vinci Code
Author: Dan Brown
Pub. Address:
        Doubleday
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1745 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-385-50420-9 price: $24.95 US April, 2003, 454 pages

The hype is greater than the story but The Da Vinci Code is one of the best technical/action/thrillers in the last decade. The majority of readers will never notice the slightly choppy narration. The story hook is just too strong. In my opinion, the story is the key to any good novel and The Da Vinci Code delivers a great story.

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is asleep in his Paris hotel room when he is awakened by the police. A curator has been killed in the Louvre. They found him posed naked on the floor in a locked wing of the Louvre with cryptic markings, a riddle, and Langdon's name written next to the body. The police think Langdon murdered the curator and try to trap him in a lie. French cryptologist Sophie Neveu knows Langdon didn't murder the curator but to prove it they have to solve a two thousand year mystery using the riddles left by the murdered curator, the paintings of Da Vinci, and the secrets of the Priory of Sion whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo Da Vinci among others. Langdon and Neveu must race the police, a religious fanatic, and a murderous mastermind to find the truth.

The Da Vinci Code is a great story. It delivers a complex technical mystery based on real historical details with a fast paced action storyline. It is very easy to recommend this novel to anyone.

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Title: LXG the League of Extraodinary Gentlemen
Author: K. J. Anderson
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-7676-X price: $6.99 July 2003, 294 pages

Novelized movies are one of my favorite types of stories to read. The movie studios find good writers and without the limitations of the movies the stories are usually more logical and smoother. LXG fixes many of the problems that the movie had but it doesn't fix all of them.

The novel uses many of the fictional characters created by classic storytellers of the past and re-writes them into an action/adventure story. A mysterious villain, using the name Fantom, is trying to start a world war by staging crimes using high-tech weapons and kidnapping. A group of heroes is assembled under the leadership of Allan Quartermain. The list of heroes includes names we all recognize, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the invisible man, Dorian Gray, a vampire, and Tom Sawyer.

LXG is an enjoyable light read. The story has problems but fits for those times you are sitting in a waiting room or for relaxing with a cup of coffee. The story is simple but if you understand that it is reading to escape the times when boredom is a problem, it is an easy recommendation.

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Title: Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Author: John Cleland
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-168-5 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 212 pages

Fanny Hill was banned for two hundred years. But the ban has less to do about the erotic content and more about its commentary on society. The narration is very dated. Two hundred year old writing style and word use makes the story difficult to read. The erotica, although graphic, is couched with phrases and ideas that would be at home in a Dickens novel.

Fanny Hill is a story about a young girl with no money in a society where money is everything. Fanny is tricked into a brothel and learns that sex is a currency even in a society that pretends that morals are important. Although she was born poor, Fanny is rich in beauty and she is lucky and clever enough to become both beautiful and rich.

Fanny Hill is a simple story whose strength is its open look at the sexual underbelly of a 'proper' culture. You may start the novel for its titillation but you will finish it for its social commentary. Fanny Hill is not for most readers but the few who finish the story will appreciate its look at life two hundred years ago. Fanny is in its own terms a myth about a woman of pleasure. As with all myths, the meaning underneath the narration is what is important.

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Title: Angels & Demons
Author: Dan Brown
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books
        Published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-671-02736-0 price: $7.99 copyright 2000, 569 pages

Angels & Demons is smoother reading than Brown's more famous The Da Vinci Code. It is the same type of thriller/mystery with historical oddities that blend into a murderous conspiracy. Part of the plot is based on near future science fiction. Brown doesn't have the same feel for science that he has with the past and it shows in the beginning of the novel.

Robert Langdon is awakened from a dream by a phone call from Maximilian Kohler, the director of the research center CERN. At first, Langdon refuses to listen to Kohler, thinking it is a crank call but then he receives a fax picture of a dead scientist branded with the name Illuminati. Before Langdon knows what is happening, he is on a plane to Switzerland. He meets Vittoria Verta, the dead scientist's daughter, at CERN and soon is on the trail of a stolen antimatter bomb that has been placed somewhere in Vatican City. Langdon has to follow the ancient clues left by the Illuminati to find the terrorist who planted the bomb and is killing catholic cardinals across Rome.

Angels & Demons is a good action/mystery/thriller. The story hook isn't as powerful as the one in The Da Vinci Code, but the story is smoother. Angels is a thriller everyone will enjoy.

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Title: Night Sweats
Author: Victoria Manley
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-175-8 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 109 pages

Night Sweats is a light erotic mystery. The story is sound but the mystery is a little too easy and the suspense a little tame. The story is best when it focuses on what is motivating the characters.

Leann is a bad girl interested in using men for money and sex. She collects men and leaves them even if they don't want her to go. One of her conquests is murdered shortly after she leaves his bed. Leann is suspected of the killing. With the killer zeroing in on her lovely body, Leann does what she has always done and uses sex to solve her problems.

Night Sweats is an easy story but mystery readers can find better fare. Night Sweats is for those looking for a light erotic escape with just enough details and mystery to keep the story flowing.

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Title: Grave Secrets
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-671-02838-3 price: $7.99 paperback July 2003, 366 pages

Reichs has written a good mystery in Grave Secrets. The forensics, as always, are great but the storytelling is a little unfocused in the beginning of the novel. The story does suffer from comparison with Reichs previous novels.

Tempe Brennan is a forensic anthropologist helping to unearth twenty-three massacre victims from a well in Guatemala. The victims include women and children. The heartrending task of collecting mutilated body parts depresses Tempe. Two colleagues from the recovery team are fatally attacked and before Tempe has a chance to regain her balance, Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano requests her help with a decomposed body found in a septic tank in Guatemala City. Secrets from the past and present threaten Tempe's life as she tries to uncover the truth about the bodies.

Grave Secrets is a good story for anyone interested in forensic mysteries. After a muddled first half, the story picks up to a satisfying finish. Grave Secrets is a solid representative of the growing forensic mystery genre and is a comfortable weekend read.

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Title: Golden Buddha
Author: Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo
Pub. Address:
        A Berkley Book
        Published by The Berkley Publishing Group
        A division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-425-19172-9 price: $15.00 copyright 2003, 420 pages

The Golden Buddha has all of the high-tech action adventure you expect in a Cussler novel. The non-stop action makes for a fast read. With Cussler's other stories, there is a lead character, which the story revolves around. Cussler and Dirgo tried to create a composite cast with the central figure a high-tech mobile command center in the form of a tramp cargo ship with the name Oregon. They were only partially successful. Without the strong central character, the novel reads as a collection of parallel short stories.

The Corporation owns the cargo ship Oregon. Every member of its mercenary crew is share holder in the Corporation. Each is an expert in covert operations. After a successful operation breaking political prisoners out of Cuba, they take on a task for the CIA. For ten million dollars, they are going to steal back a Golden Buddha and return Tibet, as an independent country, to the Dalai Lama. All it will take is orchestrating an UN vote, timing a Russian invasion of Mongolia, and leading a Tibetan revolt against the Chinese troops in Tibet, all in seven days.

Cussler is the mainstay of the espionage type action adventure. The Golden Buddha has all the action a reader could want. Its lack of a strong enough central character to build the story around will turn off many readers but Cussler fans will not be disappointed with the tale.

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Title: Timeline
Author: Michael Crichton
Pub. Address:
        A Ballantine Book
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-41762-3 price: $7.99 US mass market November, 2000, 489 pages

Crichton writes technical stories. With Timeline, he blends historical and scientific information with an action storyline. His strength as a writer isn't with his knowledge of the facts but his ability in using facts to make a believable story. Crichton's writing is a bit slow and his science is a bit fantasy but his stories have a feel of believability. It is this believability that make his stories fun.

A dieing man is found in the middle of the Arizona desert. His partial autopsy shows a body damaged in ways that seem impossible. On his person, is a map of a monastery that hasn't existed in hundreds of years. The questions that the man's death raises start a series of events from an archeological site in France to the ITC research complex in New Mexico.

ITC has a way to visit the past. The high-tech company understands the science but doesn't understand the people who work for it. A team of historical researches have to survive six hundred years in the past to rescue a professor lost in the middle of the Hundred Year War between England and France.

Timeline is well worth reading despite its weaknesses. Crichton has the knack of writing characters that feel real and storylines that seem possible. Timeline isn't Crichton's best writing but you won't be disappointed with the tale.

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Title: THE COSMIC KALEVALA Book One THE SAGA OF LOST EARTHS
Author: Emil Petaja
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-247-9 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 1966, 116 pages

Petaja follows a long tradition of mixing mythology and science fiction. Most authors use a sprinkling of mythological names and events but a number of stories use major plots from the original sagas. Petaja uses a balanced mix of three genres in Lost Earths, science fiction, paranormal, and mythology.

The world has gone through World War III, an even more devastating war than the previous ones. The survivors put themselves into the hands of the world's psychologists, or Psych-Head as they are known in the book, which plan the lives of everyone. Each individual is tracked and controlled to limit aggression and violence. The control works for all but a small handful of malcontents such as Carl Lempi.

A rare earth metal is found in Northern Finland. Its properties are so useful that it is used in manufacturing across the world. A series of suicides, which are tracked to the metal, spread across the globe. To stop what is happening, the world needs someone who understands the Finnish myths, has ESP abilities, and a mind that is different from the norm. A malcontent. A Carl Lempi. A person who looks like and could even become the mythical hero Lemminkainen.

The Kalevala has been used by English speaking authors from Longfellow to Tolkien. Petaja adds his own twist to the story by making the myth a tale of real events. Lost Earths is a fun ride for those who have read the Kalevala. For readers unfamiliar with the myth, the Finnish names can be a problem. The story would be helped by the inclusion of a glossary. It doesn't have the smooth read of Hamilton's science fiction treatment of Norse myths but the science holds up much better today. The Saga of Lost Earths is recommended reading for every science fiction aficionado and for any who have heard the old Finnish myths. Problems that might occur with the Finnish names are made up for with the satisfying tale.

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Title: Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed
Author: Jim Al-Khalili
Pub. Address:
        Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
        387 Park Avenue South
        New York, NY 10016-8810

ISBN : 0-297-84305-2 price: $24.95 copyright 2003, 269 pages

Every scientific field has its share of perplexing and counter intuitive events but quantum physicists revel in the multitude of perplexing ideas that make up their discipline. They make the perplexity a badge of honor to be bandied about to others. Instead of putting people off, Al-Khalili uses the perplexity to make quantum understandable to the average person.

Quantum physics is a set of mathematical ideas and methods that explain the seemingly unexplainable actions of the very small. The mathematics are beautiful in how they explain the unexplainable. The problems occur when you look beyond the math and realize what is happening in the real world.

Al-Khalili starts with the hundred year old two slit problem. The two slit problem occurs when a single thing of either energy or matter goes through two very small slits at the same time. Problems, such as a single particle being in two separate locations at once, required a long Noble listing of scientists to develop the mathematics that became quantum. It seems daunting realizing that you are trying to understand the works of Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and Einstein but Al-Khalili's love of the perplexing and contradictory reality of the quantum world fills the pages of the book. He covers all of the major events raised by quantum and looks into the near future of the physics.

Quantum: A Guide to the Perplexed is one of the harder scientific lay-books to read but Al-Khalili's enthusiasm and ability to hint at the reality behind the unexplainable make it worth the time and trouble. Quantum is highly recommend for anyone with a desire to understand science. The only weakness is the same weakness of those who have to study any specific scientific discipline long enough to explain it to the man-on-the-street. Al-Khalili understands the quantum world but when he tries to relate the information to other scientific disciplines there are misses. This is forgivable. After wading through the perplexing world of quantum, not understanding the full implications of an equally perplexing science is to be expected.

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Title: The Da Vinci Legacy
Author: Lewis Perdue
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 0-765-34967-1 price: $7.99 mass-market edition January 2004, 385 pages

With the success of last year's The Da Vinci Code, publishers have gone back to re-print previously published thrillers with Da Vinci in the plot. The Da Vinci Legacy is better written than the Code but with less of a story hook. The novel is a very satisfying read. The biggest problem with the book is the speed the publisher pushed for the new mass-market release. The most obvious result is with the blurb on the back cover, which names a protagonist that is not in the story. There are a few noticeable touches to the story that are appreciated. The twenty year old story has been updated to match current events. Dan Brown has done a service in the adult action genre by stimulating the re-print of good techno-historical thrillers such as The Da Vinci Legacy.

Vance Erikson works for an independent oil company and is an amateur Da Vinci scholar. He purchases a private Da Vinci Codex for his charismatic boss. Examining the Codex, he discovers that some pages in the Codex were forged shortly after Da Vinci's death. A murderous conspiracy wants the pages lost to the public and will do anything to stop Erikson from finding out the truth. The conspirators' aim is to control the world. A few more deaths, including Erikson's, is a small price to pay for world dominance.

The Da Vinci Legacy is a well written adult action adventure. Its plot includes the same world shattering struggle that you would find in a James Bond or Dirk Pitt novel. Erikson's charisma isn't in the same league as Bond or Pitt and is the one drawback to the story. Legacy is a good story that anyone who likes adult action adventures will enjoy.

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Title: The Bone Vault
Author: Linda Fairstein
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books
        Published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-3667-9 price: $7.99 copyright 2003, 503 pages

Fairstein writes complex intricate stories but the telling is unfocused. There are at least three secondary plotlines woven around the main story. Fairstein also has a tendency to drop out of the narrative to fill in secondary details. Despite the problems, or possibly because of the mess they create, the story is a fun read. Fairstein's voice is easy to follow.

Assistant sex-crimes prosecutor, Alex Cooper, is at a gala dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when an Egyptian sarcophagus is discovered with the preserved body of a murdered museum researcher. The researcher had been working on a 'bestiary' exhibit, a joint project between a Hollywood media company, the Met, the Museum of Natural History, and the Cloisters. Nearly everyone involved in the project is lying. Are they lying because of the murder or to protect themselves from other scandals? The deeper Cooper looks the more hidden agendas she finds. When a second suspicious death at the Museum occurs, Cooper knows the case is ready to explode.

The Bone Vault is the type of thriller you read relaxing in a chair with a hot cup of chocolate. The story is detailed and messy enough to require a comfortable chair and the thriller part is tense enough that the taming affect of hot chocolate is needed. The Bone Vault is filled with rich details about the museums. The history of the unsavory practices needed to create major museum collections mirror the modern intrigue and murder. The Bone Vault is recommended for any thriller or mystery reader. It might not stand out as the best in the genre but it is a story you can read and enjoy more than once.

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Title: Turbulence
Author: John J. Nance
Pub. Address:
        Jove Books
        The Berkley Publishing Group
        A division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-515-13486-4 price: $7.99 Jove edition May 2003, 405 pages

Nance is a pilot and his aviation details ring true. He writes thrillers that are believable. In Turbulence, he does a very good job building and explaining the phenomena of passenger rage. It is easy to get lost in the anger building within the passengers. The one major weakness in the tale is the little too contrived ending.

Meridian Flight 6 is a regularly scheduled Chicago to Cape Town route. Meridian is an airline that is failing. It is disintegrating from within. The crews do not trust each other or the company. To make enough money to stay in business the company schedules flight plans that are impossible to keep and blames everyone else for the problems. The Meridian workers take the lead from the company and blame others for any problems that might occur. They use threats and intimidation on any passenger that might complain.

Flight 6 is a disaster waiting to happen. An inexperienced pilot is flying a route beyond his skills. The flight attendants are led by a woman who has no social skills and enjoys the power she has over others. A passenger forced to travel on Meridian 6 has had his wife killed by Meridian neglect. Add a poorly maintained plane to the mix, an African civil war, and a paranoid US government, calamity is just a single misstep away.

Turbulence is a thriller so plausibly written you will fear boarding the next plane. With every newscast, you wait for an announcement of a passenger mutiny hoping you do not know anyone on board. It is an easy thriller to recommend.

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Title: Full House
Author: Janet Evanovich
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 0-312-98327-1 price: $6.99 mass-market edition September 2002, 334 pages

Full House is a light comedic story based on the personalities and actions of eccentric characters. This is a well used style of writing. Evanovich's slant on the style is a light feminine center on the theme.

Billie Pearce is a divorced mother of two who decides to try something different while her children are vacationing with their father. She decides to take polo lessons even if she can barely sit on a horse. The stable owner and polo instructor is Nick Kaharchek, a rich playboy businessman with an eccentric family.

Billie's polo horse, Zeke, steps on her foot and before she knows what is happening the smitten Nick drives her to the hospital and finally home. There he talks her into letting his cousin Deedee stay with her before she marries Frankie the Assassin, a professional wrestler. Nick's other cousin Max keeps blowing things up and Raoul the local exterminator, who can't seem to kill any insects, is stopping by talking about neighborhood break-ins. Nick and Billie start romancing each other with food and before Billie knows what happened her dull average life is no more.

Full House is junk food for the reader, a small dish of chocolate fudge ripple with a drizzle of strawberry sauce on top. It doesn't have the high tension pace of a Carl Hiaasen novel but it does have more easy laughs. Full House is a book to take on a weekend visit to the beach when all you want to do is relax.

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Title: Trial by Ice and Fire
Author: Clinton McKinzie
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN : 0-440-23727-0 price: $6.99 US paperback mass market March, 2004, 368 pages

McKinzie writes a fast paced action/thriller with realistic legal and mountaineering sequences. It is a well crafted story with a grammatically correct but slightly awkward writing style.

Antonio Burns is a unique character, a tough cop whose passion is climbing mountains. Cali Marrow is daughter of a movie star and prosecutor in Wyoming's Jackson Hole. Cali is being threatened by a dangerous stalker and Burns is assigned to protect her. The dangers of both man and nature combine to test Burn's strength to the breaking point.

Trial by Ice and Fire has everything an action/thriller needs, a great location, unusual characters, and a non-stop story. A good storyteller brings the reader into the reality of the location and McKinzie brings you and the characters into the peaks surrounding Jackson Hole without a chance to breathe. Trial by Ice and Fire is easy to recommend.

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Title: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century # 1 Armageddon – 2419 A.D.
Author: Philip Francis Nowlan
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-201-0 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2003, 79 pages

August 1928 was a watershed date in science fiction. E.E. Doc Smith's first Skylark story and Nowlan's Buck Rodgers were both printed in Amazing Stories. They changed the genre forever. You might have heard of another author in the magazine, H.G. Wells. It was a very good issue. Nowlan soon shifted his storytelling to comics and screenplays but his original story was a powerful action/adventure filled with scientific and technical insights. Reading Buck Rodgers today, you will think the story's technology a little quaint but in 1928 the ideas were original with many predictions amazingly accurate.

Buck Rodgers is examining radioactive gases in an abandoned coal mine when a cave-in traps him hundreds of feet underground. Somehow the radiation puts him in a state of suspended animation and he wakes 492 years in the future when another seismic shock opens the mine providing access to the surface. He awakes to an America conquered by the East. The Mongols rule America from powerful floating city fortresses. The scattered survivors of America have struggled over the years to holdout against their conquerors. They are now ready to fight for freedom and win back their country.

Buck Rodgers plays a pivotal role in the struggle. A soldier in the First World War, he is the only American who has seen and participated in combat with organized forces struggling to win back territory. It is knowledge the American survivors desperately need.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century # 1 Armageddon – 2419 A.D. has little resemblance to the TV and movie shows we see today. It is a powerful action science fiction story with accurate technological predictions. Anyone who is interested in classic SF has to read this original. It is storytelling at its best.

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Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, A Fair and Balance Look at the Right
Author: Al Franken
Pub. Address:
        Dutton
        Published by Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-525-94764-7 price: $24.95 US September, 2003 379 pages

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, A Fair and Balance Look at the Right is not an accurate title. Franken bases his narration on correct facts and real research. The people and stories he lambastes in Liars start with fiction that looks and sounds like fact. Franken can't be fair and balanced when he starts with something so unusual as the truth.

Liars does depend on facts but the fictional portions of the narration are so mockingly vicious you will either hate Franken or love him. Franken is at heart a satirist. He cannot write anything without adding his biting wit to it. This gives the book a petty nasty feel but the information and details he supplies serves the needed task of pointing out the inconsistencies in the stories propagated by the conservative right.

Distortions told by the political right are seldom questioned by the mainstream media because of the malicious feel of disclosing the truth about others in your own field. It harkens back to your days in school when the teacher calls a student to the chalkboard to show the correct way of solving a problem. The student is embarrassed he/she got it right and the others in the class got it wrong. The mainstream media doesn't want the role of being the one with the correct information and calling to task the schoolyard bullies. This is unfortunate because it does lower the credibility of all media.

You might not like the nastiness of Liars but if you want to learn the facts about the politically active right wing media, it is a great source of information. Liars is a 'must' read for anyone planning on voting in the upcoming elections. It doesn't matter which party or political affiliation you have. The facts you find in the book are important. Do not judge this book by the anger it insights but on the facts you can learn from it.

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Title: Picture Me Dead
Author: Heather Graham
Pub. Address:
        MIRA Books
        225 Duncan Mill Road
        Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9

ISBN : 0-7783-2010-3 price: $6.99 US, copyright 2003 413 pages

Graham has written a detailed and complex mystery in Picture Me Dead. It has all the features anyone would expect in a mystery novel. But, to keep the tension high, Graham manufactures too many unnecessary side threats. A little less heavy handed suspense and the story would read smoother.

Ashley Montague is in her last weeks of police training when she sees an apparent accident on the highway. There is an unconscious, nearly naked, man laying in the middle of the road. Later, she finds out the injured man is a very close friend. Nothing she finds out about the accident makes sense. The more she learns the more she knows it was not an accident.

Her life takes on even more twists when Detective Jake Dilessio moves into the marina next to her home and she is asked to become a crime scene sketch artist. The attraction between Ashley and Jake is immediate and their professional and personal lives become quickly tangled.

Dilessio is investigating a series of murders and somehow Ashley's unconscious friend is linked to the crimes. The more Jake and Ashley uncover the more danger they are in as the killer or killers try to cover their crimes.

Picture Me Dead is a solid well thought out murder mystery with everything a reader would like in the story. The heavy handed plotting detracts from the otherwise well written story. Picture Me Dead is recommended as a solid story that is worth reading.

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Title: Naked Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G. P. Putman's Sons/Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-399-15043-9 price: $26.95 US copyright 2003, 359 pages

Sandford has written another great Lucas Davenport detective novel. He has gotten the location and characters of a Northern Minnesota prairie town down pat. The characters are blended into a believable well rounded detective mystery. Sandford is easily one of the best detective mystery writers today.

Lucas Davenport is specialist working directly for the Governor in the Minnesota BCA, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. His job is to defuse those tough politically dangerous cases before they become a problem. A white woman and black man are found hanging from a tree in Northern Minnesota in the middle of winter. They are naked and the possible racial implications are not lost to the Governor. He sends Lucas to solve the crime before any political problems occur.

Lucas follows the clues and avoids the politics. With each step closer to the truth, another body falls as the schemer behind the crimes tries to eliminate anyone who can trace the killings back to the murderer. Lucas has to solve the crimes before everyone involved is found dead.

Naked Prey is about the best you can find in the detective mystery genre. The last ending twist is given away but it is so adroitly done that the anticipation serves as added flavoring for the finish. My recommendation is simple. Read it.

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Title: The Chronicles of Riddick
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-46839-2 price: $6.99 US first edition May, 2004, 342 pages

Foster is one of the best writers to convert screenplays into novels. Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Alien Nation... is a short list of the many screenplays that have been made into novels by Foster. He has the knack for adding just enough words to make the screenplay expand beyond its visual format and into the imagination of the reader that a novel requires.

The Chronicles of Riddick continues the story of Riddick from the movie Pitch Black. In Chronicles, Riddick becomes a reluctant superhero battling a military mystic order of humans bent on conquering every human world. This order, Necromancers, is a death cult. To them, life is cheap and death is the goal of the living. Killing nearly every person on a planet is a religious triumph.

The Necromancers next target is the planet Helion Prime. Riddick is forced out of hiding and tricked into coming to Helion Prime. He is the one person who has a chance of turning the Necromancers away from the human populated worlds.

The Chronicles of Riddick seamlessly brings you into the fantasy worlds of Helion Prime and the Necromancers. Foster creates a believable super hero in Riddick by giving him everyday human thoughts and doubts. The novel is a great escape with only a few problems pulled from the screenplay that couldn't be fully novelized. The most apparent one is a little too abrupt ending. Chronicles is highly recommended for any fantasy or science fiction reader. Foster pulls you smoothly into a fantasy the reader can escape in.

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Title:INVISIBLE ENCOUNTER & Other Science Fiction Stories
Author: J. D. Crayne
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060

ISBN: 1-58873 377-7 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2004, 123 pages

Invisible Encounter & Other Science Fiction Stories is a set of shorts from the pages of a number of different science fiction magazines over the last thirty years.

The first set of six short stories is about Cheryl Harbottle and the trials and tribulations of a non-mechanically inclined wife living in a fully automated home. I kept visualizing George Jetson stopping by the Harbottle home for after dinner drinks and talks about sprockets and tales about problems with the latest household automaton. They are well worth the price of the novel alone.

Talisman is a joint fantasy with Larry Niven. It is a standard fantasy/magic tale with an adult storyline.

Invisible Encounter is a well written SF horror story. This creepy tale is a deliciously macabre story that will haunt some readers.

Katzenjammer and All The Best Lines Come From Shakespeare go back to the light comedy that Crayne does so well.

Invisible Encounter & Other Science Fiction Stories is well worth reading. Those who like comedy will love Cheryl Harbottle. SF readers will love the way Crayne twists SF into unexpected areas. These stories make a great escape. You might want to consider doling them out one at a time whenever you need a break from everyday life.

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Title: Monkeewrench
Author: P.J. Tracy
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-451-21157-X price: $6.99 US copyright 2003, 421 pages

P.J. Tracy is the pseudonym for a mother and daughter writing team. But don't let that fool you. They write a hard boiled mystery/thriller that you would imagine a male investigator, who has seen the dark side of humanity, would write. Because of the hard edge Minnesota/Wisconsin based location, you immediately compare the story to John Sandford. Their horrific tale is more tongue-in-cheek than Sandford but there are enough similarities to find a related storytelling style.

Monkeewrench starts with the sadistic murders of an old couple in a church in Northern Wisconsin and then jumps to a series of killings in Minneapolis. Two separate investigations start. Sheriff Michael Halloran leads the investigation in Wisconsin and Detective Leo Magozzi has the murders in Minneapolis. The crimes revolve around a small software company called Monkeewrench and the unusual group of individuals who make up the company. The murders come faster than the police can investigate. It becomes a race as to who will be left alive before the killer either stops or is stopped.

Monkeewrench has a large cast of characters and the story is sprawled enough at the beginning that a reader can be put off but it soon becomes a thriller you can't put down. The exotic and unusual characters pull you into the complex story. Monkeewrench is a must read for the lovers of hard edge detective mystery/thrillers. You will find yourself smiling in spite of the horrific crimes described.

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Title: Hidden Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G. P. Putman's Sons/Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-399-15180-X price: $26.95 US copyright 2004, 393 pages

I must admit that I had to read Hidden Prey. Sandford finally chose a location for one of his Prey novels that matches up with my own haunts. You can't get an un-biased review from me on Hidden Prey but does it really matter? There are sixteen bestselling Prey novels. With any luck, there should be at least sixteen more.

A Russian seaman is executed on the docks of Duluth. It is eventually discovered that he has high government connections. Suddenly, a local murder becomes international. A Russian investigator is sent to Duluth. With the FBI, CIA and local cops all trying to find out what is happening, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Lucas Davenport is sent to keep everything under control. Lucas is more suited to a shootout with a bad guy than running interference between local cops, FBI, Russian operatives and the media but reluctantly he finds he is good at doing both jobs. Soon Lucas is up to his neck in communist and Russian spies. An amorous relationship between a Russian and local cop are just the beginning of the problems Lucas has when another murder occurs. Lucas follows the few clues to Virginia and Hibbing as Cold War intrigue lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union turns hot when an old man can't let go of his dreams.

Hidden Prey is another great detective novel. If you live in or near the Iron Range or Duluth, you have to read it. Sandford has picked up just enough of the people and region to make the tale our own. He didn't find everything so there is hope another Prey novel in Northeastern Minnesota will follow. Out-of-state readers will enjoy the cast of local characters and regional details. Hidden Prey is a hard edged, richly detailed and thrilling detective story that anyone can enjoy.

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Title: The Book of Were-Wolves
Author: Sabine Baring-Gould
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-343-2 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 2004, 158 pages

Baring-Gould wrote The Book of Were-Wolves in the 1890s. He tried to produce a scientific study of the superstitions and myths about were-wolves, vampires, shape changing and cannibalistic serial killers. By tracing word usage, history and myths he is able to produce a convincing argument linking these topics and the possible truths the folk-lore is based on. Baring-Gould had an enormous advantage over later authors since he was able to personally verify many oral myths with people who still told them.

The Book of Were-Wolves is the key source text for many later authors. It documents were-wolf and shape changing myths from across the world and places them in relation with local cultures and linguistics. The cross-referencing of folk-lore with actual cannibalistic serial killers in history is especially useful for the study.

Any writer, who is interested in exploring were-wolves, vampires, shape changing, and cannibals, will find much needed information in this volume. The Book of Were-Wolves is highly recommended for researchers. It is slightly less useful for the casual reader.

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Title: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Author: K.J. Anderson
Pub. Address:
        ONYX
        New American Library, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-451-41163-3 price: $6.99 US Mass-market June, 2004 246 pages

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a movie novel based on 1930s comic books, science fiction pulp stories and the movie serial genre. Today it would be considered an alternate history action fantasy. It holds too closely to its heritage. The 1930s movie serial would change locations with the change in scene. This instantaneous travel between locations/scenes is one of the biggest drawbacks in the storytelling. Anderson doesn't modify the movie story enough to bring it smoothly to book form.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is about reporter Polly Perkins of the Chronicle and her investigation of a megalomaniac creator of robots trying to destroy the world. The only man able to stop the robots is Sky Captain of the Flying Legion. The story is pure hokum. But it is the fun hokum of Buck Rodgers, The Shadow and all those other fantasy stories of the 1930s.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a storytelling miss. You can still read and enjoy it if you take the story as is, with all of its faults. It is a fun afternoon reading. Anderson has flashes of brilliance modifying the screenplay but is unable to sustain the writing for the whole novel.

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Title: The Teeth of the Tiger
Author: Tom Clancy
Pub. Address:
        The Berkley Publishing Group
        A division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-425-19740-9 price: $7.99 mass-market edition August 2003, 480 pages

The Teeth of the Tiger is what you expect in a Tom Clancy novel. The high stakes suspense story starts from the first page. The technology is a little lighter than in his other novels but the rich storyline is complex enough to hold the tale together. Clancy does have one annoying writing trait. He repeats the same explanations over and over. A writer might need to do this for technical details but Clancy repeats motivational and other general story details more times than needed.

The Teeth of the Tiger starts with a terrorist killing an Israeli agent and the latest events in the lives of two brothers, one an FBI agent and the other a marine. The story traces these dissimilar events into an organization setup outside the government but tied into the intelligence community. The purpose of the organization is the finding and elimination of threats to the US that can't be handled by the standard agencies, such as the FBI and CIA.

Clancy excels in creating an espionage thriller that demands the murder and mayhem action we've learned to expect in fiction since the James Bond novels of a half-a-century ago. His original characters have gotten too old for the action stories he writes. In The Teeth of the Tiger, he introduces Jack Ryan Jr. and his two cousins. Jack Jr. has the familiar part of the reluctant thinker forced into an action role and his two cousins are the covert warriors.

If you liked any of Clancy's other novels, The Teeth of the Tiger is a must. Readers who enjoy the espionage genre should not miss this book. It is one of the smoothest and most logical spy thrillers written in the last few years. Clancy writes stories that you feel could be happening today.

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Title: Bare Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-5300-X price: $7.99 paperback June 2004, 383 pages

If you read a number of books by any author, you will discover one of three facts about him/her. The quality of their writing stays the same, deteriorates, or gets better. It seems, with every new book, Kathy Reichs learns a bit more about writing. In Bare Bones, she has learned how to balance the personal life of the protagonist with the action sequences. Reichs is becoming a serious writer and not just an expert dabbling in storytelling.

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan's busy weekend starts on the sad note of finishing her work analyzing the bones of an infant placed in a woodstove. Her daughter insists on taking her to a weekend Carolina country barbecue known as a pig pickin' interrupting her preparations for a planned beach vacation starting on Monday. Her special friend, Ryan, will be arriving Sunday afternoon and she wants everything ready.

During the Saturday pig pickin', the family dog, Boyd, finds two garbage bags filled with decomposing flesh and bones. Sunday, Tempe is called to a small plane crash with two dead bodies. Juggling the dead bodies and her romantic vacation with Ryan, Tempe Brennan's life becomes more complicated than she expected. Bones and bodies keep showing up and all Tempe wants to do is go to the beach with Ryan.

Bare Bones is joy for the mystery reader who likes forensics. It is filled with the oddities of life. The suspense and mystery builds throughout the tale to a climatic end. Bare Bones is an example of the best the forensic mystery genre produces. Bare Bones is solid mystery reading that is highly recommended.

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Title: A Faint Cold Fear
Author: Karin Slaughter
Pub. Address:
        HarperTorch
        Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-06-053405-2 price: $7.99 paperback August 2004, 422 pages

Slaughter writes hard edge suspense. A Faint Cold Fear continues the storyline she previously started with medical examiner Sara Linton. The writing is raw, the story complex, and the suspense non-stop. Slaughter hasn't developed a smooth style of storytelling. The reader will need to overlook the roughness but the story is strong enough to carry the reader past the problem.

Sara is called to a possible suicide at Grant College. Her pregnant sister, Tessa, rides along under the condition she stays in the car. While Sara examines the body with her ex-husband and police chief, Jeffery, Tessa is brutally attacked. Occupied with her viciously attacked sister, Sara tries to autopsy the bodies that keep coming from the college campus. Murder and secrets seem to be the main classes taught at Grant College.

If you like the hard edge female medical examiner mysteries, you will like A Faint Cold Fear. It isn't the best you can find in the genre but it is better than the average. The tale is a little confusing and weak in characterization but it will grab you by the neck and drag you to the final page. If the blood and guts doesn't bother you, A Faint Cold Fear is a highly recommended suspense.

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Title: Sense of Evil
Author: Kay Hooper
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-553-58347-6 price: $7.50 copyright 2004, 357 pages

Hooper writes paranormal detective mysteries. She has a good handle on bringing truly evil events to the reader. With Sense of Evil, Hooper has only one problem with the narration. She spends too much time explaining the paranormal aspects of the story and not letting the story tell itself.

FBI profiler Isabel Adams is sent to Hastings, South Carolina to help Sheriff Rafe Sullivan find a serial killer targeting successful blond women. There is a literal spark of attraction between Isabel and Rafe. Since Isabel is a successful blond woman, she is also a potential target for the elusive and smart killer.

All towns have secrets best kept in closets. With a serial killer stalking the town, all secrets have to be brought out. Finding which secrets will expose the killer before both the killer and secrets claim more victims is the difficult task Isabel and Rafe must accomplish.

Sense of Evil is a good mystery and a great paranormal tale. The story is not as smooth as it could be in blending the two genres. Sense of Evil is well worth reading for the detective mystery and/or paranormal aficionado. It is also a good story for those readers interested in exploring the genres.

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Title: Blow Fly
Author: Patricia Cornwell
Pub. Address:
        The Berkley Publishing Group
        A division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-425-19873-1 price: $7.99 mass-market edition September 2004, 467 pages

Cornwell's Scarpetta novels solidified the female forensic mystery thriller. The genre has improved with the explosion of other authors. Cornwell has not changed with the genre. Blow Fly has all the elements you would like -- complex story, vicious killers, and forensic clues. But the storytelling is ponderous when compared to either the original Scarpetta novels or the current best in genre.

Forensic consultant Kay Scarpetta is asked to look into a cold case in Louisiana. It is the first step in a complex web of intrigue from the serial killer Wolfman, Jean-Baptiste Chandonne. Killings from the bayous of Louisiana to Eastern Europe are linked into a complex game between murderers and those hunting them.

If you are a Cornwell/Scarpetta fan, you will enjoy this novel. It is an interesting creepy thriller. However, for most readers, there are other authors better able to bring you into the realm of death and forensic investigation.

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Title: Blacklist, a V.I. Warshawski novel
Author: Sara Paretsky
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-451-20969-9 price: $7.99 US September 2004, 458 pages

Paretsky is an author who just keeps on writing good gritty detective novels. Detective thrillers fall into three large groupings, the cozy safe suspense, the close to realistic, and the push the limits world shattering fantasy. Paretsky is just close enough to reality that you feel you need to check your shoes for evidence but pushes into the edges of fantasy enough so you feel safe reading the story.

Private detective V.I. Warshawski is hired by a rich corporate client to do a comfort investigation for his elderly mother who is seeing lights in the old family mansion from the window of her retirement home. While investigating the family mansion, V.I. struggles with a young girl trying to break-in and finds a dead reporter floating in the fish pond. V.I. soon enters the corrupt lascivious world of the super rich. She becomes entangled in a web of lies and deceit stretching from the communist blacklists in the fifties to the nearsighted actions of the Patriot Act. The death count escalates as the haters of others try to manipulate the actions of the police to their private agendas.

Blacklist is a gritty detective suspense novel. Any reader looking for the shamus they remember from the late night movies or from the pulp magazines will be happy to find this novel. The reality of Blacklist is held far enough away so the reader can stay comfortable in the living room chair with only a slight uneasiness when the doorbell rings. Blacklist is an easy recommendation for the mystery reader.

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Title: The Hanged Man's Song
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        A division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-425-19910-X price: $7.99 US copyright 2003, 340 pages

John Sandford is best known for his Lucas Davenport novels but I think his Kidd series is much better. Kidd is a hero with flaws and Sandford's stories push to the edge of fantasy. Sandford blends the high tech world of computer hacking with the spice of flawed characters that seem like they might just be real.

A legendary computer hacker, Bobby, is murdered and his laptop is stolen. The secrets on the laptop could send his friends to jail and bring down the government. Kidd, a friend, has to find Bobby's killer and the laptop before the government and before the killer uses the information to destroy Kidd. A race with death from the levies of the Mississippi to the powerful in Washington, DC starts between the murderer and Kidd. The winner will live, hopefully outside of jail.

If you like hard edged stories that bring you breathless to the edge of reality today, you will love The Hanged Man's Song. Characters you identify with, nail biting plot and a story you can pretend to believe in will bring you into the best place a reader can be - the alternate world of a great book.

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Title: The Mocking Program
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books, Inc.
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-446-61307-X price: $6.99 US paperback August, 2003 312 pages

Foster creates worlds. In The Mocking Program, Foster brings the reader into the foreseeable future. The region along the border between Mexico and the US has become the industrial powerhouse for the North American continent. The Strip, from the Pacific to the Caribbean, is an area of factories and urbanization blended with Mexican, Native American and US cultures. It has all the problems of a thriving growing community of millions bursting into its own power.

Inspector Angel Cardinas is the federale investigating the scavenged corpse of George Anderson. His DNA doesn't match his ID. His wife claims she isn't his wife and disappears with their young daughter, Katla; leaving their home, a time bomb triggered to kill anyone who enters it. Inspector Cardinas is an intuit investigator for the Noamerican Federal Police, NFP. It takes all of his special training to follow and survive the trail the Andersons leave through the teaming underworld of the Strip. With criminal gangs from three continents trying to kill or capture the women, Inspector Cardinas' skills are pushed to the limits in the dangerous search for the truth behind the women's disappearance.

The Mocking Program is a hard-boiled detective novel set in a believable science fiction world. It isn't an easy read. You are brought into a new reality with all of the surprises and familiarities of someplace you imagine might exist a hundred years from now. The Mocking Program is a must read for anyone who enjoys SF or gritty detective mysteries. The richly detailed action story will carry you nonstop from the first page to the last, leaving you wanting more.

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Title: Burn Factor
Author: Kyle Mills
Pub. Address:
        HarperTorch
        Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-06-109803-5 price: $7.99 paperback Febrary 2002, 424 pages

Mills is a straightforward suspense writer. He doesn't push the plot too far into fantasy.

Quinn Barry is working as a computer programmer for the FBI. A search program she writes for CODIS, the national DNA criminal database, turns up five linked murders. When she tells her boss about the links, she is nearly fired. Quinn decides to investigate and discovers that the CODIS system has been programmed to ignore crimes where a specific criminal's DNA is left. Soon more than her job is at stake when a shadowy government agency tries to silence her and the sadistic murderer discovers she is looking for him.

Burn Factor is a clear-cut thriller. It doesn't push the limits of believability to the extreme. Burn Factor is a comfortable nail-biter that is an entertaining weekend read.

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Title: The First Edgar Rice Burroughs Omnibus
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-404-8 price: $4.99 electronic download July 2004, 2000 pages

Edgar Rice Burroughs was one of the best storytellers of the Twentieth Century. His stories are simple raw action/adventures. This Omnibus is a collection of four of his lesser known novels.

The first novel is Beyond Thirty. It is a classic science fiction tale. The story is more fun than H.G. Wells but it has as much science and thought placed into its plot. Burroughs lived through World War I and foretold that the fighting hadn't ended between the European countries. In Beyond Thirty, Burroughs speculated that the isolationist movement in the US was powerful enough to keep the US out of WW II and that the developing war would destroy the social structure of the continent for hundreds of years. Beyond Thirty is the story of the re-discovery of Europe by the Pan American continents. It is pure action with enough science and social commentary to enthrall any reader.

The Man-eater is a tale Burroughs was so interested in that he re-told it time and time again in various forms. The Aesop type story is about a relationship between a carnivorous killer and a man. His other versions are stronger tales but this still holds the interest of the reader.

The Jungle Girl is the Tarzan style that we expect from Burroughs. I personally like this better than the Tarzan series. The hero is easier to relate to and the jungle action is just as non-stop.

The Monster Men is the final book in the omnibus. In many ways it is a must read for anyone who enjoys Burroughs. It is a blend of the classic jungle hero story and the horror tales of the mad scientist experimenting on creating life. The ending is a bit contrived but rest of the tale is fun.

The First Edgar Rice Burroughs Omnibus gives a strong spectrum of the depth of the writing ability of Burroughs. It is a must read for anyone interested in classic storytelling.

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Title: The City at the World's End
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-341-6 price: $4.00 copyright 2004, 187 pages

When I was a high school student, I would visit a musty eighty-year-old building four blocks off the main street of a nearby city. I would bring in a grocery bag full of books and receive a few dollars for them. I would then spend two or three hours in the crowded building. Stacks of books reached the ten foot ceilings with narrow footpaths threading a way from one room to the next. The only lighting was the occasional bare sixty watt light bulb hanging in the middle of each room. Buried two stacks in on the shelf, I found an old Ace back-to-back double novel for twenty cents. One side had Star Kings by Edmond Hamilton. It was a prize that has affected my reading and writing since.

The City at the World's End starts with a fellow by the name of Kenniston walking down Mill Street in the Midwestern city of Middletown on a warm summer day. He sees a super-atomic bomb explode above him. He is thrown to the ground. When he gets back to his feet, he is amazed that he is still alive. The atomic bomb has blasted a hole in space and time and pushed the city of Middletown millions of years into the future. A future where the sun and the earth are dying.

The science is fifty years old and the psychological aspects of the story are a little extreme but the quality of the writer comes through and you are swept into a future so far off that only imagination can get you there. The story isn't the epic tale of Star Kings or the pure fun of A Yank in Valhalla but it is the solid pulp storytelling typical of the Classic Age of science fiction. It is a story that should be read by any interested in the burst of writing talent that exploded into American literature during the middle of the Twentieth Century and shaped the writing that followed.

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Title: The Darkness and Dawn Omnibus
Author: George Allan England
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-296-7 price: $4.99 copyright 2003, 520 pages

England is a Nineteenth Century man writing at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Born in 1877, he had all of the social and cultural baggage of the age. The period also experienced a great burst of scientific discovery pushing aside many of the superstitions of the past. England called his own work pseudo-scientific and was proud of the freedom and expanse the new genre permitted his writing. Today's readers will be surprised at the modern feel of much of the plot. They will also be surprised at how much racism and superstitious thought were still evident in 1912.

Secretary Beatrice Kendrick and engineer Allan Stern wake from a hibernatic sleep thousands of years into the future. They have survived the chemically induced hibernation because of the isolated location of the office they were in near the top of a New York skyscraper. A catastrophe has changed the physical world killing most of its inhabitants. Evolutionary changes have populated the changed world with both familiar and new creatures. Beatrice and Allan have to find within themselves the strength and the creativity to rebuild the world around them into a better place, correcting both the mistakes of the past and the chaos of the future.

The world of Darkness and Dawn is a mixture of the fantasy realms of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and other writers of the period. It is a world of heroic characters and vicious super antagonists that are both human and non-human. If you can get past the racism to the story beneath, you are transported into the basics of the writing that became the genres of today. The idyllic prose is a little stiff but the imagination carries you beyond the facts you know are wrong and into the story. I recommend The Darkness and Dawn Omnibus: The Last New Yorkers, Beyond the Great Oblivion, and The Afterglow to anyone interested in the development of the genre storytelling of today. It is a great but dated story. The century of time that has passed, since the penning of the first pages of the Omnibus to now, is a little too much for the average reader today.

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Title: Origins, Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith
Pub. Address:
        W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
        500 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10110

ISBN: 0-393-05992-8 price: $27.95 hardcover copyright 2004, 345 pages

The title of the book summarizes the story. During the last few decades, huge advances in the knowledge of the evolution of the universe and our own little part in it have been made. Tyson and Goldsmith have simplified the last fourteen billion years into a readable 300 pages. Most people today get their scientific knowledge from their church, television news, SF stories or local newspaper. The authors give a sweeping, easy-reading but cursory look at most of the new details now known about the universe.

Origins is a little repetitive but a fun day of discovery for most lay-readers. The rich details and massive amounts of information known about the universe are astonishing. Equally astonishing are the critical details that are still missing and why they are missing. The joy of exploring the known and unknown is brought out by the authors. Origins is highly recommended for anyone who wants to know and understand cosmic scientific knowledge. Origins answers the many questions that people have from the partial or incorrect knowledge they get from other sources.

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Title: The Airlords of Han, Buck Rogers #2
Author: Philip Francis Nowlan
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN:    price: $4.00, 80 pages

It is easy, during the passage of time, for people to forget. Clancy is considered the originator of the techno-military genre but Nowlan did it first with Buck Rogers. Nowlan's accurate scientific predictions and solid military action adventure stories exploded into the writing scene at the time graphic tales and movies needed new subjects. Nowlan's shift to graphic stories and screenplays left only two written Buck Rogers stories. The stories are a sound base to expand on but they have a feel of being unfinished.

In The Airlords of Han, the story started in the first Buck Rogers novella continues. The tale tells how the American survivors of the Han invasion rise up in a second War of Independence. Buck Rogers, a man from the Twentieth Century, helps the war with military knowledge lost in the five hundred years that past while he was in suspended animation. The Han controlled the sky with their powerful floating cities, disintegrator and repeller ray equipped airships, and communication technology. The new Twenty-fifth Century American technology and the fighting methods brought by Rogers wrestle control of the air from the Han but the fighting has just begun as the Han launch counter strikes at the Americans.

The Airlords of Han has even more technical and detailed information passages than the original story. This distracts from the narration but adds a richness of speculation that is frequently lost in modern writing styles. It also corrects some weaknesses found in the first tale. The story brings a greater understanding of the later writing that borrows from Buck Rogers. Even with the passage of 75 years, there is a freshness and spark to the dated storytelling. The Airlords of Han is a must read for those interested in the roots of modern genre writing and is just plain fun for everyone else.

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Title: Elektra
Author: Yvonne Navarro
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-4165-0505-9 price: $6.99 paperback January 2005, 280 pages

Novels and screenplays are related but different forms of storytelling. Screenplays tell the story through visual images and dialogue and novels use narration. Elektra is balanced to the screenplay. It is best read as a part of seeing the movie. The story is fun but the over emphasis on the screenplay format doesn't let the story expand into the flexible imagination that the written word provides.

Elektra continues the story started in the DareDevil movie. DareDevil ends with Elektra wounded to the point of death. She is resuscitated by a mystical blind sensei known as Stick. He trains her in the martial arts and in the use of a meditation that gives a sixth sense of past, present and future called kimagure. Elektra is wounded in her mind as well as body and Stick forces her out of his school when she is unable to heal. She becomes a hired killer and is given the job of killing a young girl and her father. Instead of killing them, she becomes their protector standing between them and forces trying to control the world.

Elektra is an average story but a must read for those who enjoy the movie. It compliments the movie bringing in details that should have been included in the film. The book is a unique blend of two similar but different art forms. It isn't strong enough to hold its own in either format but is a good example of what can happen to a story that can't seem to find a single home.

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Title: Trojan Odyssey
Author: Clive Cussler
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-425-19932-0 price: $7.99 US Mass-market December, 2004, 463 pages

Cussler writes formula Dirk Pitt novels. They all follow the same basic design. A historical event is recounted. A super villain tries to control the world. Through natural and manmade adversity, Dirk Pitt and his friend, Al Giordino, overcome the super villain, while discovering that the past historical event is the key to the current conflict. After a dozen Dirk Pitt books are read, the plot is predictable but Cussler places enough interesting details and action events that the reader doesn't care.

The Trojan War and the trials of Odysseus are recounted in the preface to the current story. The novel then jumps to August 15, 2006 and the birth of a super hurricane. A huge floating hotel owned by a man named Specter is in the path of the hurricane. Pitt's children, Dirk and Summer, are studying pollution at the coral reefs of the Navidad Banks near the floating hotel. While Summer is taking water samples, she comes upon an ancient artifact. Dirk Pitt comes to the rescue of the guests on the floundering hotel and his children. After the rescues, Pitt turns his attention to super villain Specter and his Odyssey Corporation and their part in the near disaster. The action is non-stop as Dirk tries to discover Specter's secrets and Specter tries to kill Dirk.

Trojan Odyssey is an example of the best of the action/adventure spy novel. It is predictable and a little long-in-tooth for the Cussler fan but it is not disappointing. The novel ends with a changing of characters that previews Cussler's vision of bring new life to his storyline. Trojan Odyssey is worth reading for anyone exploring the action/adventure genre. Its many small weaknesses are easily balance by its strong story.

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Title: Decipher
Author: Stel Pavlou
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 0-312-99643-8 price: $6.99 paperback edition February 2005, 576 pages

Pavlou enters the hard science adult action adventure genre with a winner. Decipher has problems but the problems are minor. The story starts with too many different threads, the logic is a little flawed and the ending is a little bit too contrived. Balanced against those problems, the hard science, intricate history and strong action storyline are more than enough to make the story one to be read. By the next novel or two Pavlou should iron out his techniques and his writing will have a smoother feel.

Decipher starts with a history lesson on the Antarctic International Treaty that leaves too many questions about the continent's natural resources open. China physically takes over a section of the Antarctic and the US responds with a military buildup. An oil company tries sneaking an exploration rig into the potential war zone. They drive a test well into the Antarctic sea but the well blows killing and maiming workers. Instead of oil, the drill has penetrated a wall made of carbon 60, a compound not found naturally on earth. The sun starts to destabilize disrupting communications and causing storms, earthquakes and the eruption of volcanoes. An energy source large enough to be seen from space starts to function in the region taken over by China.

Is this the end of the world predicted by mythology and religion? A group of experts are drawn together trying to answer the question before it is too late.

SF readers and action/adventure junkies are going to love Decipher. The heart of the action story is the hard science, mythology and linguistics that are pulled together into a complete tale. Just don't look too closely at the facts and logic. Decipher is an easy recommendation.

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Title: Guns, Germs, and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies
Author: Jared Diamond
Pub. Address:
        W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
        500 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10110

ISBN: 0-393-31755-2 price: $16.95 copyright 1999, 440 pages

This is the first history book that I have read that takes the world environment and integrates it into human history. Diamond uses concepts, known in physics as complex systems and in math as chaos, to build a logical reasoning behind the development of societies in the world. Guns is a great first attempt in this difficult process. A little more knowledge of complex systems on Diamond's part would help with the weaknesses in his history. Feedback is a stronger force than he envisions, the exceptions are more open, and tracing back through history is more open to multiple minor starting factors. Despite the weaknesses, this is a major historical analysis with important truths about history.

Guns, Germs, and Steel starts with the developing of farming from hunter gatherers and traces how this influences societies and the environment itself. Guns shows how food production developed into technological change, centralized government, writing, human diseases and finally the migrations of societies across the world. The logic is solid. The proof is anecdotal. But the logic in Guns forces the historian to reject most previous theories and look closely at the world/human environment as a whole. The pattern of historical change is as important as the change itself.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is highly recommended for the reader of history. It is a powerful and more accurate way to look at human history. It doesn't tell the reader everything but it does tell more than the facts and dates you find in your standard history book. It is a must read.

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Title: Shadows in Zamboula & Other Tales of Conan
Author: Robert E. Howard
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-578-8 price: $4.99 copyright 2005, 77 pages

We all think we know the classic stories. Buck Rogers, Zorro, Tarzan and Conan have been re-told so frequently and changed over time that the original strength and depth of character has been forgotten. Robert E. Howard's Conan is an intelligent, amoral, barbarian, adventurer. He is more complete and interesting than the modern Conan of the movies. There is a slight streak of nobility in Conan but it is hidden under the thieving adventurer traveling through an ancient fantasy world. This collection of four tales brings out Howard's real Conan.

In Shadows in Zamboula, Conan is a penniless thief/adventurer who is setup for death. He turns the tables and ruthlessly extracts revenge.

Beyond the Black River is a mercenary tale of civilization battling and losing against barbarians and tribal magic. Conan is a soldier hired to protect the frontier. The true hero in the tale is a youth, Balthus, who learns to become a soldier from Conan. But the bloody victors are the surviving barbarians.

In The Jewels of Gwahlur, Conan is a thief betraying his employers and fighting monsters.

Red Nails is a tale filled with magic and mythical creatures. It tells of people totally corrupted by magic and revenge. The tale introduces Valeria, a female pirate, who nearly matches the lethal force of Conan.

These tales are highly recommended. It is impossible to appreciate the power of Conan without reading the originals. It would be a shame if all you knew about this great character is the pale imitation known today.

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Title: Heaven
Author: Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
Pub. Address:
        Aspect
        Warner Books, Inc.
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-446-61103-4 price: $6.99 US paperback May, 2005 428 pages

Stewart and Cohen have re-written a classic SF tale. They bring modern science and a new voice to the classic story. Most readers will never notice the re-telling. For those who recognize the story the modern variations in speculation and science make the story fresh.

Heaven is a story about religious ideas going beyond religion into fanaticism. Stewart and Cohen make a great choice at the beginning by producing a religion with few ties to today and using technical terms such as memeplex to separate the reader from the emotional strings of today's world. The reader feels safe to look deeply into the way benevolence can be corrupted into evil. The novel is pure SF action that pushes the reader to think.

A unique mix of creatures are on the planet called No-Moon. Neanderthal information traders are meeting with a mariner called Second-Best Sailor who has special information from his reef wife about an upcoming danger. A fleet of fanatical evangelists from Cosmic Unity are heading for the planet. Their plans are to convert the planet to their religion or kill everyone while trying. An acolyte of Cosmic Unity, Samuel, sees the dark side of Unity and tries to help.

Heaven is a great hard science SF novel. The science and creatures are interesting, unique and plausible. The tale is action with hints from the Golden Age of SF. It is recommended to all readers who like to get lost in an action story that makes them think.

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Title: Monday Mourning
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-7434-5301-8 price: $7.99 paperback June 2005, 380 pages

Reichs uses deliciously macabre real serial killers to base her latest story on. It has the creepy feel of reality oozing from its pages. I have one personal problem with her writing. Montreal is a bilingual city and she blends in the French language into her stories. This adds a richness to the detail but I have to drop out of the story flow with every French word while I consider its meaning.

Reichs' heroine, Tempe Brennan, hates Mondays. This Monday starts out with her in a filthy sub-basement digging up bones while Sergeant-detective Luc Claudel shoots rats next to her. The skeletons of three young girls are unearthed. Claudel assumes the skeletons are from the turn of the Twentieth Century and decides to stop investigating. Tempe thinks the skeletons are recent and has to find ways to force an investigation. Tempe's best friend, Anne, shows up with personal problems, her romance with Detective Andrew Ryan is in trouble, and her home is vandalized. Every new Monday brings more problems.

Monday Mourning is a good addition to the Tempe Brennan forensic mysteries. It has a creepy murderer, a complex heroine and more than enough technical details mixed with action to bring joy to the heart of any mystery reader.

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Title: Indelible
Author: Karin Slaughter
Pub. Address:
        William Morrow
        Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-06-056710-4 price: $24.95 copyright 2004, 358 pages

Slaughter writes fast moving visceral action/mysteries built around medical examiner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. She has a fast and loose style which does permit occasional problems to edge into the tale. Some of the flaws she builds into her characters can be a bit much but her characters are more complex than most.

Sara goes to the police station to talk to Jeffery. Two men enter the station and start shooting. Police are killed and visiting children are wounded. Sara's and Jeffery's past has come back to haunt them in the forms of two killers with an arsenal of weapons and a desire to use them. Sara tries to help the wounded Jeffery and watches the killers systematically terrorize the surviving hostages and prepare for a siege.

Indelible is the type of story you read on vacation. It blends a violent past event with a bloody hostage confrontation. The story continues with actions both inside and out of the barricaded police station. It is a story you read for fun and giving to friends but not one that you will keep on your shelf. If you like a raw and rough action story, you will like Indelible.

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Title: The War of the Worlds
Author: H. G. Wells
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 0-812-50515-8 price: $4.99 first Tor edition October 1988, 200 pages

The War of the Worlds has been remade so many times the original has been forgotten. Wells wrote his story before there was Science Fiction and called the style Science Romance. The War of the Worlds is a science/military horror. Written over one hundred years ago the science holds up better than the typical SF novel of today. The tale is more believable because of its age. Modern science tells us that any space traveling race has to know and understand about germs. The modern re-writes of the story have to suffer from this basic problem. The story has all the best science of the age with sound military accent. It is a true horror tale that brings out the psychological terrors of humans under extreme stress. Unlike the modern copies, every part of the story holds up to scrutiny.

The War of the Worlds astounds with its accurate science and creepy horror. The original brings the reader into an understanding why the tale has stood the test of time and has generated so many copies of itself. The War of the Worlds is worth reading as a great original and is more satisfying than its many copies. You can not claim to have experienced the story until you have read the original. It is recommended for everyone.

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Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Author: R.K. Rowling
Pub. Address:
        Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic Inc.
        557 Broadway
        New York, NY 10012

ISBN : 0-439-78454-9 price: $29.99 US, copyright 2005 652 pages

There is little need for another Harry Potter review so I would like to examine here the storytelling style of J.K. Rowling instead.

There are two main ideas on the topics covered in stories written for children and young adults. The first is to sanitize the story from life and the other is play on the bad. Rowling has found a balance by letting the bad happen with all the conflicting emotions this causes in the characters but still keeping a positive edge to the tale. The stories get more intense with every new installment and with the age of the typical reader.

Her writing is filled with small side stories that bring out a reality to the fantasy. In The Half-Blood Prince, the little side story that I remember the most is when Harry is being grilled by the Minister of Magic. With typical teenage aplomb, Harry concentrates on watching a gnome going after a worm and not on the Minister's words. It is an action every teenager does when confronted by an elder who is lecturing. Pull half of your mind away from the words to control your emotions. It is one of those small things that doesn't have to be in a story but fills it with authenticity.

The true quality of the storytelling is how to bring reality to a fantasy and Rowling does this as well as any writer. The Half-Blood Prince might not be the best liked Harry Potter story but it is an example of great storytelling filled with the melancholy and emotions of life and death that a typical teenager can feel every day. You can read it because it is one of the best series of stories written or you can enjoy it as an example of great storytelling. But you should read it.

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Title: Broken Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G. P. Putman's Sons/Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-399-15272-5 price: $26.95 US copyright 2005, 390 pages

Broken Prey should increase Sandford's popularity. In this book, Sandford has found the balance between a detective mystery and in your face action. Sandford writes scenes that have the feel of reality. His clear detective plot and horrific killer are all it takes to make a novel you can't put down.

A woman is found murdered, tortured and displayed. A few weeks later a man is found murdered and displayed in a similar way. A serial killer is loose in Minnesota and Lucas Davenport from the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension starts to organize the police from the city of Minneapolis and outlying counties in the search. The trail leads to a suspect recently released from the state mental hospital holding some of the most vicious insane killers in the state. Lucas soon knows that the body count will rise before the psychotic killer is found.

Broken Prey is in the running as the best detective mystery this year. Anyone wanting to read a good detective novel has to read this one. It has everything from a great set of characters to great writing and a mystery story that drags you to an excellent ending.

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Title: The Rule of Four
Author: Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-440-24135-9 price: $7.99 US paperback mass market July, 2005, 446 pages

Caldwell and Thomason have written a sedate suspense thriller. Most of the lengthy character development is done with extensive and frequent flashbacks. The tale has a nice complex historical mystery with good twisted human psychology. But the reader will find the recurring passages into the lead character's past a measured task by the halfway point in the story.

Four Princeton seniors decide to escape from their studies and play laser tag in the steam tunnels under the school. After nearly being caught by the campus authorities, they find their quad has been broken into. Paul's and Tom's bedrooms have been rifled. Paul Harris has been working on his thesis on the Hypnerotomachia, a five-hundred year old book that no one really understands. Tom Sullivan's father was a literary expert on the subject and Tom has been working with Paul on his thesis. The break-in is just the first of a series of mysterious events linked to the Hypnerotomachia, which includes murder. The four roommates, Tom, Paul, Charlie and Gil, struggle with themselves and the mystery as the events escalate over the Good Friday weekend.

The Rule of Four is a good complex mystery that the reader will not be disappointed in but it is a paced story that requires a commitment to finish. It is recommended for those readers who need to put down their book from time to time or who like to relax over a weekend with a single story. The historical puzzle in the Hypnerotomachia is fun but there are no real surprises in the mystery.

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Title: Cross Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Scribner
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-7432-3348-4 price: $25.95 copyright 2005 348 pages

Cross Bones is a slight departure from the typical Temperance Brennan forensic mystery by Reichs. I am a history/archeology buff so I enjoyed the story more than the other Temperance novels. Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist. Her best storytelling occurs when she is writing deep in her specialty. Cross Bones is a 2,000 year old forensic mystery.

Tempe is asked to help autopsy an Orthodox Jew. Her expertise is required because of the minimal autopsy needed to fulfill orthodox religious law. After leaving the autopsy bay, Tempe is given a photograph of a skeleton by a mysterious man. She is soon embroiled in a 2,000 year old archeological controversy based on Jesus' family and a dig at Masada in the Judean Desert.

Cross Bones is a sound forensic mystery with more accurate questions about Christ and his life than The Da Vinci Code. It is a great weekend read for those who love mysteries and like to question accepted history. It is a more realistic story than Brown's and is a smoother story. Cross Bones is a must for those who like to have history in their fiction.

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Title: The Elegant Universe
Author: Brian Greene
Pub. Address:
        Vintage Books
        1745 Broadway
        New York, NY 10019

ISBN: 0-375-70811-1 price: $15.95 copyright 2003 387 pages

Greene is one of a handful of scientists who have the ability to explain science in layman's terms. His style is smooth and easy going. He does have some problems in the last half of the book.

The Elegant Universe starts with Newtonian physics and builds through Relativity and quantum mechanics to explain string theory. The clarity and polish Greene used in explaining advances in physics from Newton's Laws to modern theories makes the book a joy to read. The only real problems for the lay reader are the advances in the last two decades. The story evolves into a narration about the discoveries with less easy to understand analogies about the science. It takes years of thought to organize mathematical theory into words the average man might understand. The 2025 edition of The Elegant Universe should iron out the problems with the last few chapters in the book.

The Elegant Universe is a must read for the science enthusiast. Greene ranks with Hawking and Sagan as a scientist whose writings need to be read.

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Title: THE COSMIC KALEVALA Book Two: The Star Mill
Author: Emil Petaja
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN 1-58873-537-0 price: $4.00 electronic download Copyright 1966, 115 pages

The Kalevala is one of the least known epic myths. It is also a major source for English literature. Longfellow and Tolkien are just two of the authors who have used the Kalevala as source material for their writing. Petaja introduces a science fiction story into the epic myth and re-writes the tale into a fantasy.

The Star Mill starts with an amnesiac man in a spacesuit drifting on an asteroid. A spaceship picks him up before something called the Black Storm destroys that region of space. The man is humanity's only hope in stopping the Black Storm. He is a descendent of Ilmarinen the wondersmith who built the Sampo. In legend, the Sampo was a mill, which could create anything. The witch Pohyola has taken the broken Sampo and now uses it to undo the galaxy in the form of the Black Storm.

The science fiction at the beginning of The Star Mill is interesting but the telling is disjointed. The story comes into its own when it blends into the Kalevala myths. The fantasy holds strong but suffers from a too close linking to the myths. The names and unfamiliar storyline might hold back readers. The Star Mill is worth reading but it takes a more than average commitment.

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Title: THE COSMIC KALEVALA Book Three: The Stolen Sun
Author: Emil Petaja
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN : 1-58873-595-8 price: $4.99 electronic download Copyright 1966, 130 pages

The Kalevala is one of the least know epic myths. It is also a major source for English literature. Longfellow and Tolkien are just two of the authors who have used the Kalevala as source material for their writing. Petaja introduces a science fiction story into the epic myth and re-writes the tale into a fantasy.

In the far future, humanity is expanding into the galaxy. Over the centuries a policy of destroying life on a planet before human colonization has become standard practice. Captain Wayne is the pilot of one of these human destroyer ships and is waging a battle against the Mephiti, another colonizing species. His ESP is used to link into the computer operating the destroyer. The killing of higher level life on whole planets is starting to stress his ultra-sensitive mind. He keeps seeing an old man flying through space on a copper boat. Wayne doesn't know that he is a descendent of the hero Wainomoinen, the greatest wizard of all time, the wizard who left earth in a flying copper boat.

After an unusually brutal battle, Wayne gets transported in time and must fight the witch Pohyola who is stealing the sun from the earth of the heroic past. Wayne must save the sun for both the past and his future.

The Stolen Sun is half science fiction and half fantasy. The blending of the two forms of writing is not as smooth as it could be. The fantasy is a much stronger story. In my opinion, this is the strongest of the Cosmic Kalevala's trio of stories. It is an enjoyable tale but with its unusual mythical source serious SF/fantasy connoisseurs will get the most satisfaction from its reading.

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Title: The Colorado Kid
Author: Stephen King
Pub. Address:
        A Hard Case Crime Book
        Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
        200 Madison Avenue
        New York, NY 10016

ISBN: 0-8439-5584-8 price: $5.99 copyright 2005 178 pages

The Colorado Kid is a hard case mystery, sort of. It has all the elements of a noir mystery but it isn't. Stephen King's great writing brings this unusual hard case not hard case mystery into something fun to read. In many of King's novels, the length of the story masks the quality of the characterizations. Here the story unfolds in a single day and all you remember are the great characters.

Two elderly men running a local paper are interviewed by a big city reporter looking for mystery stories to write. The journalist leaves without a story. A young female apprentice realizes they were holding something back from the reporter. The canny men decide to tell the apprentice the mystery of the Colorado Kid, testing her instincts as a journalist.

The Colorado Kid doesn't fit any established niche. It is great writing that is fun to read because it is great. It flirts with various mystery styles and finds its own place. If you need something to fill an afternoon, pick up The Colorado Kid. You will not be disappointed.

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Title: Live Bait
Author: P.J. Tracy
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 0-451-21463-3 price: $7.50 US copyright 2004, 386 pages

The mother/daughter writing team, who make up P.J. Tracy, have created a series of fun and creepy mystery stories. The first story in the series, Monkeewrench, introduced the characters and the complex writing style of the team. Live Bait is a better story but lacks some of the originality of the first. Many people forget that the setting for the story can become a character demanding the attention of the reader. Tracy uses Minnesota as an essential part of the story's plot.

Homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are bored. It has been months since Minneapolis has had a murder. But then an old man is found shot in his plant nursery and another is found shot and scared to death on railroad tracks. This is just the beginning. Leo and Gino have to discover why the old people are being killed to stop the next murder. As the body count rises, Leo asks Grace McBride and her computer software friends at Monkeewrench to shift through the mountain of facts on the elderly victims to find connections to why they died.

Live Bait is a great detective novel. It has the balance, mystery and characters to make it a must read. With John Sanford cutting back on his writing, P.J. Tracy is positioned as the next top mystery writer in the Midwest.

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Title: The Black Sun
Author: Jack Williamson
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 0-812-55362-4 price: $5.99 copyright 1997, 352 pages

Jack Williamson has been writing stories for nearly 80 years. His writing style is easy to recognize. The Black Sun doesn't change his storytelling but adds in current science. The steady pace in the beginning blossoms into a fast paced central story but unfortunately the ending is a little weak. This can be a basic problem if the complexity of the story becomes greater than a single novel.

In the near future, a project to ensure the survival of the human race starts. Project Starseed is a plan to use faster-than-light quantum-wave technology to send colonists on one-way trips across the universe. These planted colonies would then have a chance to start the human race again. The project ends with embezzlement, corruption and terrorism. On the last ship to leave, a typical mix of the best and worst of humanity takes off. This time the Starseed ship finds a dead star with a frozen planet. Something intelligent is on the planet. Can this best and worst of humanity find what it takes to survive a frozen world with a black sun? And will the unknown intelligence decide this small group of humans is a plague or a new spark of life for the planet?

The Black Sun is a good SF novel written in a classic style. Anyone who enjoys SF will like this novel. It is a solid story but is a little unorganized at the end.

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Title: Skinny Dip
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books
        Time Warner Book Group
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 0-446-69556-4 price: $12.95 Trade edition June, 2005 355 pages

Hiaasen writes novels filled with characters so extreme they could be found in a cartoon strip. His talent is to give those characters enough reality that you want them to exist. Skinny Dip is a sequel of sorts. A Few of Hiaasen's favorite characters from his earlier books are brought back for another round of greed, murder and deceit.

A marine biologist Chaz Perrone, who doesn't know a thing about marine biology, throws his wife Joey off a cruise liner. She survives the plunge into the Atlantic and after swimming for hours finds a bale of Jamaican pot to cling to. She is found by a fishing ex-cop Mick Stanahan. Mick brings back the unconscious Joey to the small island he is living on. When she wakes, Joey wants revenge on Chaz and Mick decides to help her. The characters in this story range from a hired thug, who is covered from head to toe with hair, to a billionaire corporate farm owner and from a deadly, one-eyed, plastic shower cap wearing hermit, living in the glades, to Mick a man whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer.

Skinny Dip is a book for anyone who needs a laugh. The extreme characters and situations build to smooth and satisfying end. Hiaasen in an author everyone needs to read at least once. For anyone who has read his earlier books, Skinny Dip will bring you up to date with the antics of your favorite characters. For people first exploring Hiaasen's world, Skinny Dip is a great start.

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Title: Grimm's Grimmest
Introduction: Maria Tatar
Pub. Address:
        Chronicle Books
        85 Second Street
        San Francisco, CA 94105

ISBN: 0-8118-5046-3 price: $22.95 Copyright 1997, 142 pages

Readers have forgotten that most fairytales didn't start out as children's fairytales. They started out as adult stories. Grimm's tales came from oral folklore. These are the same type of stories you hear today when teens get together, 'Bloody Mary' or 'The Man With a Hook for a Hand.' Most oral folklore comes from the peasants, the people who looked at the rich and royalty with envy and those who understood the meaning of poor and starving. The Grimms collected the folklore and re-wrote them for the audience they thought would buy the stories. They edited out much of the sex and violence in the first edition. By the third edition they re-did the stories with less sex and with a bit more violence. These stories come from the third edition.

The nineteen stories that make up this edition are a collection of well known tales with a few seldom heard. The stories themselves are of the same type of light macabre of today's urban legends. If you are interested in horror that will shake your soul, you will need to look elsewhere but these tales tell you more about the human animal and society throughout time than any history book. The stories fill some need in ourselves that is so great we have to recast the macabre into a child's bedtime story.

Grimm's Grimmest doesn't break new ground but it puts a face on the old that is worth viewing. It is light reading for those who want to explore the psyche of the human animal and how it has stayed the same over the last few hundred years. It is recommended for all readers interested in the subject.

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Title: Harem Girl
Author: Fletchina Archer
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-635-0 price: $4.99 electronic download Copyright 2005, 83 pages

The out-of-place contemporary lost in a past time has been a staple of American writing since Twain. Archer brings few new ideas to the genre. Archer is best when contrasting the flaws in modern culture to a believable but fictionalized slave culture.

Theresa is a karate trained typical modern teenager with all the problems of fitting in and teenage angst. Spending the summer in Greece is her way of escaping the irritations of her family. While crossing the Aegean, her boat is hit by lightning and she is transported back to the Seventeenth Century and the slave culture of the Ottomans. With this new start and the knowledge she brings back in time with her, she forges a new life.

Harem Girl is a light adult story. The storytelling is familiar and comfortable enough to satisfy but it is the type of story best read during an afternoon of rainy weather when there is nothing else to do.

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Title: The First Star Man Omnibus
Author: Stuart J. Bryne
Pub. Address:
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

ISBN: 1-58873-818-3 price: $4.99 electronic download Copyright1997, 2005, 174 pages

Bryne is one of the masters from the Golden Age of SF. His style is simple and open but one that hides the complexity of good storytelling. He creates a few believable personality traits for his characters and builds the tale around them. You find yourself wanting to learn what happens next. For three quarters of a century Bryne has been writing stories that have to be read.

Steve Germaine is flying in a NASA long range probe when a meteorite hits it and cold space instantly freezes him. Five hundred years later he is found by colonists at Alpha Centauri. A third world war and the development of a useable interstellar drive have produced a thriving human colony on the nearby star system. Unfortunately the population numbers and technological edge of old earth has produced an imbalance of power. In a repeat of history, the colonists are ready to revolt from a tyrannical absentee government. Steve Germaine, the star man from the past, becomes a pawn in the power struggle between forces and politics he doesn't understand.

There are two basic types of serial stories. The normal serial is a stand alone story that is linked to the next by characters and storyline. The second style was developed for the magazine. The stories are really chapters ending in a cliffhanger that begs the reader to buy the next installment. The First Star Man Omnibus is of the second type, the classic pulp magazine serial that ends with a cliffhanger. The story has an open and even fresh flow that the classic pulp authors produced in mass. It is fun reading. The problem is that the story isn't finished by the end. It is only halfway there. If you don't have patience, wait for the next in the series of stories to be published and read the whole Star Man series together. But make sure you remember to read the whole story. You will not regret it.

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Title: Reunion: A Pip and Flinx Novel
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-41868-9 price: $6.99 US, copyright 2002, 342 pages

Foster has created two of the best characters in science fiction with Pip and Flinx. Their ongoing saga has produced one of the best series of books in the genre. Reunion isn't the top story in the series but it is a must read for those who enjoy Flinx and Pip. Foster excels in characters and the creation of worlds. He has created a whole universe of astounding worlds that the reader can get lost in.

Flinx is again trying to find out about his past. He is breaking into the official sealed records about the Meliorare Society on Earth. The Meliorares were genetically engineering children trying to improve the race. Except for a small handful of children their experiments were failures resulting in massive or lethal birth defects. Flinx was one of those experiments that succeeded but with flaws. Flinx had previously discovered his mother and half-sister through an earlier infiltration of the Earth computer systems. Now he is trying to find out what the Meliorares did to his genetic makeup and possibly the sperm donor that was used to create him. When he enters the computer network, he finds a trap and a theft of the records that he is looking for. The trail leads to a small world in Aann controlled space. The Aann have been known to eat trespassers after they first torture and question them.

Reunion is a fun story. It doesn't break new ground in the saga of Flinx and Pip. But it is a fun readable chapter that is a complex step in the epic tale that is in the making. The story can be read alone but is best if the other novels in the series are read first. Pip and Finx novels are a must read SF series of stories and Reunion is a great chapter.

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Title: Flinx's Folly: A Pip and Flinx Adventure
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address
        Del Rey Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-45039-6 price: $6.99 US, copyright 2003, 269 pages

Foster has written a SF cult series with his Pip and Flinx. His last few books in the saga are closer to chapters in the larger adventure than the standalone tales of the first few stories in the series. Flinx's Folly is a must read in the series but first time readers are better served starting with the stories from the beginning of the tale.

Flinx is having serious problems with his growing mental talents. He collapses on the street in a daytime vision and the psychic rebound of the dream knocks twenty-one other people unconscious. The headaches, visions and the growing effects on others force Flinx to consider his sanity. He needs help. His ship's AI suggests that he talks to someone he trusts so he decides to find his friend Charity Held. If he can hide from the assassins, authorities and his own deteriorating mental condition long enough, he hopes Charity can help save his sanity.

Flinx's Folly is the second in the current series of stories that pulls characters from earlier tales back into the updated storyline. Folly brings little new to the saga but pulls together previous threads for what feels like an upcoming climax in the complex saga. It is a must read for those who have read Flinx stories before.

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Title: Sliding Scales: A Pip and Flinx Adventure
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-46158-4 price: $6.99 US, copyright 2004, 257 pages

Foster has written a SF cult series with his Pip and Flinx. His last few books in the saga are closer to chapters in the larger adventure than the standalone tales of the first few stories in the series. Sliding Scales is a must read in the series but first time readers are better served starting with the stories from the beginning of the tale. In Sliding Scales, you can find one of Foster's greatest strengths as a writer, the ability to create a fantasy world that seems real.

Flinx is on the run again after the last assassination attempt that wounded Charity and forced him to leave her in the care of his long time friends and associates, Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex. He needs a hideout while he considers his next move. His ship's AI suggests a vacation and searches for a world outside of the Commonwealth to escape his trackers. The AI suggests Jast, a minor world with unusual life in the beginning stages of absorption into the Aann Empire. The Aann are after Flinx as well but such an isolated world might provide the anonymity that Flinx needs. Flinx lands on Jast just as a revolt against the Aann is beginning.

Sliding Scales is a story that Foster does best. He creates a SF world with a reality and depth that makes the reader wish it was real. Sliding Scales doesn't advance the continuing saga by much but adds in a new world and an understanding of the Aann culture that has been missing from the previous stories. The story is highly recommended for those following Flinx's adventures and is still a fun story for those who like the exploration of the possibilities of new worlds.

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Title: Big Bang, The Origin of the Universe
Author: Simon Singh
Pub. Address:
        Fourth Estate
        Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-00-716221-9 price: $15.95 copyright 2004, 497 pages

Big Bang is a comprehensive study of cosmology starting with the early works of the Greeks. It is easy reading for everyone but it is a bit wordy. The book starts with the early history of cosmology using interesting information about the personal and scientific details of the lives of the scientists involved. It is great reading for a layperson but those with some science in their background will wish for a few more technical details.

If you are interested in learning about the Big Bang theory, this book will give you a strong understanding of how the theory developed and its strengths. To scientific readers the book gives the personal, editorial and emotional but not the scientific details. This gives the best readership of the book to the average person.

Big Bang is recommended for light reading in science.

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Title: Odd Thomas
Author: Dean Koontz
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-553-58449-9 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2003, 446 pages

Dean Koontz is an acquired taste for the typical horror reader. With Odd Thomas, he has created a bitter/sweet fable for everyone. Koontz writes with rich detail and an eye to the absurd. In Odd Thomas, this results in a tale that brings a smile as it pulls you down the road to a horror you know is coming but can't stop.

Odd Thomas, this is his real name, is a fry cook at a local dinner. He is different because he can see dead people and evil sprites. The dead people, including a sad Elvis, come to him for comfort or help. One day a man comes to the dinner followed by dark shadows, which live on violent death, and Odd's world changes as he struggles to stop the death he sees coming.

Odd Thomas is a sad character you will love. The melancholy tale doesn't depress the reader but pulls you to a pathos filled climax that feels real. Odd Thomas is a story every serious reader needs to experience.

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Title: The Ancestor's Tale
Author: Richard Dawkins
Pub. Address:
        Houghton Mifflin
        215 Park Avenue South
        New York, NY 10003

ISBN : 0-7394-5373-4 price: $16.00 US paperback, Copyright 2004, 673 pages

Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist with an opinion. In The Ancestor's Tale, he does a great job of informing the reader of the current knowledge of genetic and evolutionary biology. This is a good lay-text for those who are interested in the subject and should be required reading for any who want to discuss evolution.

The book is loosely based on the narrative format of the Canterbury Tales. It is so loosely based that you need to be told that Canterbury was the inspiration for the format. What Dawkins does in the story is trace modern human ancestry back through time with forty different genetic mergings. Each merging is a known or suspected match of a genetic ancestor of man with the rest of the life on the planet. In the process, Dawkins explains molecular biology and evolutionary questions that are frequently asked but seldom explained in a significantly accurate manor.

The Ancestor's Tale is a must read for anyone interested in biology or evolution. It is a comprehensive and readable text on the subject. It is surprisingly understandable for such a massive technical work. Unlike some of Dawkins other stories, his opinions are restrained and the text becomes an enjoyable ride into the history of the world. There is even a great tutorial on the geology of plate tectonics and atomic theory that is blended into the tale. The Ancestor's Tale is well worth the time it takes to read.

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Title: Dark Eye
Author: William Berhardt
Pub. Address:
        Ballantine Book
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-47016-8 price: $7.50 US mass market 2006, 454 pages

Bernhardt is a mystery writer who develops characters the reader loves. In Dark Eye, he creates two flawed characters that grabbed the reader. Susan Pulaski is a police behaviorist who delves into the psyches of the most twisted criminals in Las Vegas. She is also an alcoholic suffering from alcohol induced delusions and a ruined personal life. Her partner in the story is Darcy O'Bannon a twenty-five year old autistic savant who is just able to function in real life with some everyday help. Their nemesis is a twisted serial killer who reads Edger Allen Poe.

There is enough reality with the characters that you begin to identify with them. The serial killer is a predator whose agenda is so extreme that the reader starts to feel the terror of his victims. Each page increases the tension as the action builds and the identification with the characters becomes stronger. The climax is powerful and logical enough that the mystery reader is satisfied and wanting to read more.

Dark Eye is one of the best detective mystery novels of the year. The finely crafted story takes the reader on a journey so intense all you want is more.

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Title: Dead Watch
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G. P. Putman's Sons/Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 0-399-15354-3 price: $26.95 US copyright 2006, 373 pages

Sandford writes suspense novels with bigger than life characters who have enough everyday in them for the reader to feel that they either are real or should be real. With his Kidd and Davenport novels, he connected across the board with his readers. With Dead Watch, he has a story and characters that match his previous work but the balance of the fantasy and reality is just off the mark.

Ex-senator Lincoln Bowes has disappeared and his wife is being watched. Jacob Winters, an Army veteran and a government problem solver, is asked by the Administration to look into the matter. Winters considers himself a specialist in forensic bureaucracy. He knows the ins and outs of how governments work and how to make it work for him. Winters doesn't know that death and murder are just the first steps in a twisted political intrigue that has a goal of changing who will sit in control of the government.

Dead Watch starts as a fairly simple, but twisted, detective mystery with a touch of romance. It hits its stride when the story changes to an action/adventure. This is a book to read. It takes you on an enjoyable ride with a smooth fun narrative. No one will finish this book without a smile on his/her face.

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Title: Bones Buried Deep
Author: Max Allan Collins
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 1-4165-2461-4 price: $7.99 paperback copyright 2006, 304 pages

Collins is a writer who can walk the line between a screenplay and novel. In Bones Buried Deep, he brings the feel of the Bones TV show into the more measured format of a novel. He catches most of the characteristics of the actors in the show and brings in the personal details a novel format excels in.

FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth has been working for months to arrest two Chicago Mafia bosses. His star witness is kidnapped from a safe house. Before he can find out what happened to his witness, a complete skeleton is left at the front door of the FBI building in Chicago. He requests that Dr. Temperance Brennan be sent to examine the skeleton. She immediately finds out that the skeleton is a mix of bones from multiple bodies. Before the detailed examination of the skeleton can begin, another mixed skeleton is discovered. Bodies, bones, suspects and clues come faster than they can be fully understood. Tempe and Booth must find a way through the mass of evidence to discover who is sending them bones.

Those who love the Bones TV show will love this book. Those who love Kathy Reichs character, Dr. Temperance Brennen, will love this novel. It is a perfect mystery/action novel to spend a short weekend with. It is light escapism at its best.

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Title: Map of Bones
Author: James Rollins
Pub. Address:
        Avon Books
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN : 0-06-076524-0 price: $7.99 US paperback May, 2006 521 pages

Rollins is a fresh writer in the action first historical mystery. As with other authors, some historical facts are woven into an action mystery. The result is a feel of possible reality to an otherwise all action high tech story. Rollins can be a little too much action but the blending of fact and fiction is worth the breathless read.

In a German cathedral, a band of killers dressed as monks murder the congregation with guns and mysterious electrocutions. They steal the bones of the Magi, which were displayed at the cathedral. A mixed team of specialists from the US and the Vatican are assigned to find out why the bones were stolen and stop the killing. Grayson Pierce is the leader of the team and Lieutenant Rachel Verona from the Italian carabinieri is a key player in the upcoming investigation. The future of the world is at stake as well as the lives of the investigating team. They must solve the mystery of the Magi bones while dodging the murderous attempts on their lives by a secret group who seem to be everywhere.

The Map of Bones is a fun action/mystery read with an even stronger history blend than many of the current popular writers. It is a fun romp into possibilities. It is highly recommended to any reader who has a strong enough heart to handle the non-stop action.

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Title: Lost and Found
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-46127-4 price: $6.99 US, copyright 2004, 240 pages

Foster constructs believable alien worlds for his stories. In Lost and Found, he creates the improbable as possible and mixes in suspense with a dry humor. It is a fun mix that stretches the mind while entertaining.

A chocolate commodities trader, Marcus Walker, is settling a bet with his friends by camping in a remote region in the mountains of California when he is abducted by aliens to be sold as an entertaining novelty pet to the more advanced worlds in the galaxy. Since the aliens want to communicate with their pets, they implant a device that translates spoken thoughts into words the hearer can understand. Marcus finds on board another earth captive, a junkyard dog he names George. George has been given a brain boost so he can speak to his captors. Man and dog don't want to be novelty slaves to anyone. The aliens will soon learn that humans are the most bothersome creatures in the universe.

Lost and Found is the perfect carefree story to pass a slow weekend with. It is light reading at its best. The reader has to expand his ideas of the possible with the unique creatures Foster develops. It is filled with a dry humor that changes the potentially dark storyline into one filled with adventure. It entertains while flexing the mind. Lost and Found is not a story you have to read but it is one you will never regret picking up.

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Title: Murder Picnic Mysteries
Author: S.A. Gorden
Pub Address:
        Page Turner, a label of
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

To be published soon

Reviewer: Chandler McGrew

It seems that everybody from Louisa May Alcott to Louie L'Amour has tried their hand at writing whodunits. Now S.A. Gordon has joined the others, offering his own amateur sleuths -- our nameless hero and his girl friend, fiancee' and wife, Emily, from rural Minnesota. The offering, entitled Murder Picnic Mysteries, features six related short stories in which our two rural Sherlocks solve murder mysteries that baffle even the local law enforcement officers. In "Murder Picnic", they discover that what appeared to be an accident was really a cold-blooded murder. In "Ring", they use their knowledge of country matters, how farm equipment operates, and the behavior of livestock to help Emily's brother, Deputy Tom, solve a local murder. In "Frozen", Emily and Deputy Tom drink a lot of milk shakes and milk a lot of cows before they finally solve a murder mystery. In "Needle", the two amateur sleuths actually deduce that what looks like murder is actually something else. When our hero and his new bride -- Emily of course -- take off in "Honeymoon with Death", they discover a bullet-riddled car with two corpses inside parked in a ditch and later get in a confrontation with the actual killers. And in the final offering, "Dinner with the Sheriff", our newlyweds, who have now been married for a year solve a case while Emily runs for sheriff and our hero gets to beat up an old high school bully.

Reading these stories will make you want to drink smoke-flavored coffee and eat flatbread while you gaze at the natural wonders of northern Minnesota.

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Title: Black Wind
Author: Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 0-425-20423-5 price: $9.99 US copyright 2004, 639 pages

Black Wind follows the typical Dirk Pit novel. The historical trigger for the story is a failed biological attack on the US mainland by the Japanese during the last days of WWII.

May 22, 2007, a weather station and a group of biologists in the Aleutian Islands are struck down by an unknown substance in the air. A NUMA research ship is nearby and sends a helicopter to help. After rescuing the survivors, Dirk and his friend Jack try to track the source of the airborne contaminates. They find what looks like a Japanese trawler and are shot down by men firing from the ship. The action races back and forth across the Pacific as Dirk tries to find out how and why the small Aleutian island was attacked. He soon finds himself against a madman willing to kill millions for his own aims.

For those who have read Dirk Pitt novels before, Black Wind adds few surprises. The Pitt novels are some of the best hero action adventure stories written today. But the lack of fresh insights or plot twists make Black Wind a better story for those just starting the collection or the old hands wanting a jolt of the well known. You will not be disappointed reading Black Wind but don't work too hard on finding it on the bookshelves.

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Title: The Killing Club
Author: Marcie Walsh with Michael Malone
Pub. Address:
        Hyperion
        77 West 66th Street
        New York, NY 10023

ISBN: 0-7868-9094-0 price: $6.99 copyright 2005, 290 pages

The Killing Club is a different type of murder mystery. The town of Gloria, New Jersey is a major character in the tale and the story is filled with the intimate personal details you would expect to find in a daytime soap.

Jamie Ferrara, a detective in the Gloria Police Department, is going on a birthday dinner date with her boss/boyfriend, Rod Wolenski when she spots smoke and drives to the scene. An old high school friend has died in a home fire. She immediately spots problems with the accepted cause of accidental death. When another friend from high school reminds her about their group of outcasts called the Killing Club, she starts thinking that her old friend might have been murdered. In school, their group of outcasts would make up elaborate schemes to kill off those tormenting them. Someone is using those old plans to kill members of the club today.

The Killing Club is a nice fast paced murder mystery with enough twists and turns to keep the reader entertained. It comes to a satisfying twisty end that has a comfortable feel. Just don't look too closely at the logic. The Killing Club is a nice weekend read.

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Title: Murder Picnic Mysteries
Author: S.A. Gorden
Pub Address:
        Page Turner, a label of
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060
        Renaissance E Books and PageTurner

To be published soon

Reviewer: J.D. Crayne

S.A. Gorden has a fine and sure touch with the pulp genre. His collection of six fast-paced mysteries, set in the farmlands of Minnesota, brings back the wonderful world of magazine fiction in the 1940s, as well as describing the calm routines of everyday rural life. This is a lifestyle that may have vanished through the years, but still seems fresh and believable as Gorden describes it.

Jim Maki, Gorden's sleuth, is a likable young man with an eye for detail and a firm grasp on reality that helps him see when accidental death is really murder. Jim has a refreshing work ethic too, something that is all too often missing from both fiction and real life these days. Milking, haying, and feeding the livestock are continuing chores on the farm owned by his parents, and one has the feeling that the very ordinariness and routine of his work is what keeps him grounded. The good guys in these stories are people that you'd like to have for neighbors.

Jim's partner in deduction and eventual wife, Emily, is pretty, determined, and level-headed. She's a spunky girl with a will to succeed and plenty of deductive ability of her own. She also has a brother who is a town policeman, which comes in handy when getting the duo in on the ground floor as far as solving murders is concerned. The town coroner is a fishing buddy, and happy to oblige with autopsy reposts; sometimes making shrewd deductions on the question of murder, suicide, or accident himself.

Being young and enthusiastic, Jim and Emily manage to find a bit of fun among the mayhem, by betting each other food for a picnic on who can find the clues that solve the murder. The picnics are as much fun as the mysteries, with home-baked bread, fresh-caught fish (breaded and fried), bowls of potato salad, and tall frosty glasses of lemonade. There are trips to the local drugstore's soda fountain too, with milkshakes and vanilla phosphates.

"Murder Picnic Mysteries" is a well-written walk through a nostalgic time when people were good neighbors, home-cooked meals were simple but mouth-watering, and people did their work with a sense of accomplishment in jobs well-done. With mysteries ranging from farm accidents to graft and corruption in local government, this is a collection that will not only remind you of the glorious pulps of yesteryear, but also of a slower, more caring world; one that counted its time by the lowing of livestock instead of the shrill ring of a cell phone.

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Title: Misquoting Jesus
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Pub. Address:
        HarperSanFrancisco
        A division of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 13:978-0-06073817-4 price: $24.95 copyright 2005, 218 pages

Ehrman chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His book reads like an informal discussion between the professor and an entering freshman class over coffee in the commons room of the student union. This is an introductory book that authoritatively lays out the questions and gives reasonable answers but not with the technical details that would make the narrative too dry for the layperson to read or understand.

Misquoting Jesus is a must read for anyone who thinks they know and understand the New Testament. The logical detailing and analysis of the problems working with ancient manuscripts and non-mechanical copying are recorded in a clear and easy to understand manner. If you believe in a literal reading of the scriptures or if you don't, the book relates clear questions the individual must answer.

Misquoting is an enjoyable read for anyone who likes history or has religious questions. It doesn't detract from the religious value of the New Testament. It just points out the humanity of the authors and those copying the texts for the future. Many literalists will dislike the discussion. Those objecting to Christianity will find questions but no support for their opinions. Misquoting's greatest strength is that it asks the right questions.

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Title: Lost Christianities, The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Pub. Address:
        Oxford University Press
        198 Madison Avenue
        New York, NY 10016

ISBN: 0-19-514183-0 price: $30.00 copyright 2003, 294 pages

A common parlor game is to have someone whisper a sentence to a person and have them pass it on to another until a final person in the chain says the sentence out loud to everyone. The game shows how a simple sentence can be changed to a completely different one by just repeating it a few times. Studies, in recent years, have shown the accuracy of eyewitness accounts to vary dramatically from person to person. One person sees a man with a green hat and another sees him with a brown one. This is human nature. It is how we see and communicate. What happens when over a dozen people witness the life of a person? You get stories that are both different and the same. You get stories that change when they are repeated over and over with the good parts becoming larger and more complex. You get blended tales when a third person hears what two others have said. You get the burst of variety that marked the beginning of the Christian faith.

In Lost Christianities, Ehrman looks at the variety of faiths that developed out of the dozens of eyewitness accounts of Jesus and how later groups changed them with their own biases. He examines how stories developed and changed as the different Christianities fought for prominence. He talks about men struggling to develop a coherent faith.

The old saying 'all is fair in love and war' is nothing when you add religion to the equation. Everything goes when faith is in question. Slander, forgeries and selective re-writing of history are just the beginning of the fight if a person's faith is probed.

Today many people have been in churches that have self-destructed from infighting between members and possibly the clergy. When we consider history we never consider the events that happen today can show us what occurred in the past. What happens if in the past there is not just a single collection of books considered sacred and there are dramatically opposing ideas about Christ and what he taught? The infighting would be terrible. But the examination of those various beliefs and arguments would also tell us more about the original events.

In Lost Christianities, you find out that the founders of the Christian faith were no different from people today. You also can see how the various forms of early Christianities forced, blended and re-wrote itself into the current mix of Christian faiths. Lost Christianities isn't for the true believer but for those wanting to explore a deeper understanding of how religions change and adjust themselves. A religion is like any other growing thing. It adapts and changes so it can grow. For those willing to explore, they can find a rich tapestry of historical change by reading this book. It is highly recommend for those looking for more and willing to question.

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Title: Lost Scriptures, Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Pub. Address:
        Oxford University Press
        198 Madison Avenue
        New York, NY 10016

ISBN: 0-19-518250-2 price: $30.00 copyright 2003, 342 pages

Curiosity is what killed the cat and is what made me read Lost Scriptures. The Da Vinci Code and numerous other contemporary stories refer to books that never made it into the bible. Lost Scriptures is a pretty good collection of whole books and fragments that date back to the time the biblical texts were written. You can read first hand the stories referenced by so many other works.

This collection is filled with stories that make you wonder. The Coptic Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings by Jesus. Many are just parables that have no context so all you can do is wonder on what the stories mean. The Gospel of Phillip has the fragment that talks about Jesus' love of Mary. The Shepard of Hermas with its revelations…

This is a reference book for those who are curious. Ehrman does preface each manuscript with a short explanation of the story and how it fits in with others and the bible. The translations are readable but the technical nature of the material makes this book best for serious students.

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Title: Tyrannosaur Canyon
Author: Douglas Preston
Pub. Address:
        A Forge Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 0-765-34965-5 price: $7.99 mass-market edition September 2006, 395 pages

Every writer has his strengths and weaknesses. Preston has rich complex storylines and a strong scientific knowledge. The action is fast paced. His stories are fun with satisfying endings. His weaknesses are easy to forgive.

Tom Broadbent is enjoying his favorite pastime, riding through the maze of wilderness canyons in New Mexico. He hears shots and finds a dying prospector. With his last breaths, the prospector asks Tom to give a notebook to his daughter and no one else. Tom tries to fulfill the prospector's last request and finds himself and his wife targets of a murderer and on the wrong side of the law. A dangerous secret hidden for sixty-five million years and an artifact worth hundreds of millions of dollars are easy justifications for murder.

Readers who like a dash of science with their mystery/adventure stories will find Preston a more comfortable writer than Michael Crichton. Crichton has a smoother hand with the characters but Preston is better with the storyline. A few of the plot twists are not as smooth as they could be but no one will be disappointed with Tyrannosaur Canyon. It is easy to understand how Preston has become one of the central authors in the SF mystery/adventure genre.

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Title: Nemesis
Author: Bill Napier
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 0-312-93680-X price: $6.99 mass-market edition September 2006, 453 pages

What makes a good book is a good story. Nemesis is a technical and intricate good story. The minor fumbling of the storytelling is easy to ignore. Napier uses a few well used techniques such as starting the tale with a high action sequence from the middle of the story that are not well blended into the narration. The power of the core story permits the reader to forgive the weakness in the telling.

Dr. Webb and a few other specialists from around the world are pulled into a secret group by their governments when intelligence sources indicate that an asteroid is on a collision course with the earth. In complete isolation, they are assigned the task of locating and developing a method for deflecting the asteroid. They are given only a week to do this. Webb soon finds out that something more is going on when one of the team is killed and important information is stolen or falsified. Staggering from the exhaustion of the near impossible schedule, Webb has to navigate through a maze of deceptions and across the world to find the truth before the deadline catches up to him.

Nemesis is a fun action mystery with a heavy dose of science and history. You will enjoy the story. It is far from the best in this popular genre but it is unique enough that it should find a place on your bookshelf.

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Title: Cold Company
Author: Sue Henry
Pub. Address:
        Avon Books
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 0-380-81685-7 price: $6.99 US paperback June, 2003 324 pages

Cold Company is a book about Alaska with a murder mystery added and not a murder mystery set in Alaska. This point of view change makes Cold Company a gentler read even when the killer is murdering his victims.

Jessie Arnold is in the process of building a new cabin. In the side of the excavation for the basement, she finds a skull. The skeleton that is unearthed had a butterfly pendant belonging to a woman who disappeared twenty years earlier when a serial killer stalked Alaska. Jessie stumbles into the middle of a new investigation when a complete body is found fitting the pattern of the serial killer.

For hardcore mystery buffs, Cold Company is a little light but the complete story is a comfortable well-rounded read. It is a book to read huddled under a blanket with a hot cup of coffee. It will not haunt you with the viciousness of a twisted mind or gruesome killings. The beauty of the Alaskan wilderness is the most lasting image the story portrays. The murder mystery is just a pinch of added spice.

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Title: Dead Run
Author: P.J. Tracy
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 0-451-21815-9 price: $7.99 US copyright 2005, 346 pages

If you have read other stories by Tracy, you might be expecting a murder mystery. Dead Run is an action/adventure shoot-em-up. The characters from the other Monkeewrench novels are there but the detective core of the story is shifted to an action with the flawed female antagonists taking the lead.

Grace MacBride, Annie Belinsky and Sharon Mueller are driving to Green Bay to help the local police find a killer when their car breaks down. They walk to an isolated gas station and a café, the only remaining buildings of a dying town called Four Corners. Nothing is moving and no sounds can be heard. They find the phone lines cut. A pickup speeds into town and they watch gunmen kill the couple inside. Men with rifles surround the town and seem to be willing to kill anyone they find. Three women with two handguns have to survive against scores of men with rifles. The killing has just started.

P. J. Tracy is a mother/daughter writing team. Using their perspective of the genders, they have produced a readable spin off the male action novel. It is a continuing development of the characters introduced in the first Monkeewrench novels. But Dead Run should not be considered a mystery but rather a suspense novel based on action. It is a good story that fits between the typical genre lines.

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Title: The Lincoln Lawyer
Author: Michael Connelly
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books
        Time Warner Book Group
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-446-61645-1 price: $7.99 US paperback July, 2006 505 pages

Connelly writes action/mysteries. In The Lincoln Lawyer, he shifts from his standard detective mystery to a legal protagonist. His storytelling has improved with the change. The layers, of personal and professional details, permit the mystery to unfold without the extreme gymnastics expected in today's detective novels.

Mickey Haller is a defense lawyer. He spends at least as much time making money as he does defending his clients. To become his client, you first have to pass the financial question. Will defending this client generate money, produce marketing public relations or fulfill a previous commitment? If the balance sheet tips in Mickey's favor, he takes your case. Mickey is called by a Beverly Hills rich boy to defend him in an assault case. Haller sees a long expensive case with hundreds of billable hours at his top rate. Suddenly he finds his worst nightmare, an innocent man. He also finds pure evil. The legal machine, as he calls it, is pulling everyone, including Mickey Haller, into its maw of justice. Too bad for Mickey if the machine doesn't care who it chews up.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a must for those who like hard mystery stories. The protagonists feel real with built in flaws. The typical legal mystery feels staged with façade of the legal profession masking the tale. The fast paced grittiness of the story with layers of personal and professional details creates a fun ride. It is one of the best mysteries of last year.

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Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
Pub. Address:
        Broadway Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-7679-0818-X price: $16.95 US, copyright 2003, 478 pages

Bryson takes a look at all of the major subjects in science with the feel and enthusiasm of a gifted middle school student. You sense the youthful discovery of the vast world with his narrative. It is the rare author who can bring the joy of new discovery into a text.

There is a fine line between brilliance and insanity. Bryson looks at the great scientists in history and brings them to earth with their very human foibles. In some respects, this book is a series of biographies stitched together by scientific history. We frequently place great scientists as mythic intellects. Finding the greed, sloth and everyday strangeness in them, makes them understandable to us.

This is a book for the lay person. It explores the intricacies of science by simplifying them into easily digestible chunks. Bryson does a great job in this. But because the science is simplified, some of its real beauty and truth gets hidden. In broad terms, it covers the known scientific history of the universe, the world and us. The missteps, mistakes and fumbles of physics, chemistry, biology and geology are covered as well as the amazing insights and advances.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is a must read. The average person will understand science and the current scientific awareness of the universe better while the scientist will both enjoy the misadventures of those who have worked before and learn some of the skills needed to explain their work to friends and neighbors. It is a book that is fun to read and brings understanding. What can be better in a book?

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Title: Prior Bad Acts
Author: Tami Hoag
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN: 0-553-58359-X price: $7.99 copyright 2006, 560 pages

Hoag writes good action mysteries. With Prior Bad Acts, the action is stronger than the mystery. It is a robust story that is well balanced with action.

Karl Dahl is on trial for a murder spree that was so violent and brutal that the detective investigating the killings is forced into psychiatric counseling. Judge Carey Moore makes a ruling that prior bad acts of Dahl's can not be used in the trial and the public reacts in anger. On her way to her car after the ruling, Judge Moore is brutally assaulted. Detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are assigned her case. In spite of thinking she deserved the beating, they start their investigation. Before they get a chance to finish their first interview with the judge, Karl Dahl escapes from prison. The suspects start to pile up on the assault case when Moore is abducted with the police in front of her home. The search for the escaped killer and whoever assaulted the judge blends together with the even more immediate problem of the kidnapping.

Prior Bad Acts is a complex layered story that creates a web of intrigue for the reader to enjoy. The suspects are numerous with abundant hidden agendas. The actual who-done-it is a little easy to pull from the complex story but the action keeps everything interesting to the end. Prior Bad Acts is a book for any mystery or action reader to look for.

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Title: The Last Templar
Author: Raymond Khoury
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 0-451-21995-3 price: $9.99 copyright 2005, 523 pages

Khoury has done a good job of picking over historical facts to create an illusion of a millennium old conspiracy filled with violence and intrigue. The mystery isn't as intense as in other books but the violence of fanatics is there. Khoury doesn't break new ground with The Last Templar but he does bring a readable variation on the theme.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an opening for an exhibit of Vatican treasures. Four horsemen dressed as knights ride into the museum killing and stealing some of the artifacts. Archeologist Kim Chaykin is there with her mother and daughter. She sees the object one of the knights has come for. It puts her on the trail of a mystery that has killed thousands over the years. FBI agent Sean Reilly is also on the case. As the body count increases, Kim and Sean form an uneasy alliance to solve the theft. They become targets from both sides with every step closer to the truth and closer to each other.

The Last Templar is light reading for those interested in the historical conspiracy genre. It is a relaxing story with just enough action to keep you going from beginning to end. Khoury's roots as a screenwriter are apparent in how the story is told. The result is an action adventure that pushes the reader inside their comfort zone making The Last Templar cozy reading.

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Title: Persuader
Author: Lee Child
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-440-24100-6 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2003, 465 pages

Everyone is fascinated by a killer with no remorse. If you add the ethics of popular justice, you have the he-man hero of literature. Jack Reacher is Lee Child's take on this character. The stories are action from beginning to end but with a very strong mystery. This makes a great escapist weekend read.

Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop who has dropped out. He is the definition of the lone drifter. In a chance meeting on the street he sees a man who should be dead. When he starts checking on the man, he is contacted by a beautiful DEA agent, Susan Duffy, with a problem. During an off-the-books investigation, one of her agents has disappeared. Jack wants to make sure the man he saw stays dead this time and Duffy wants her agent back. They join forces and Jack walks in knowing it will be kill or be killed.

Persuader is an enjoyable fast tale for the action junkie who wants to play a who-done-it mystery. It has a few minor faults but the action doesn't give you time to worry about them. The action/mystery reader will be happy with the story.

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Title: One Shot
Author: Lee Child
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-440-24102-2 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2005, 466 pages

Jack Reacher is a quirky drifter. He doesn't wash his clothes but buys them when the ones he is wearing get too dirty. He is also an ex-military investigator with the lethality of Rambo.

A sniper fires six shots in a crowded park and kills five people. And ex-military man is arrested within hours. He tells the police they have got the wrong guy and nothing else. He later tells his lawyer to find Reacher. Reacher wants to make sure the man goes to jail for crimes he committed in army but things change when he arrives in the heartland city. The evidence doesn't add up. The killing has just started and Jack is now the target.

One Shot is an action/mystery. Jack Reacher is the tough, near anti-hero, of contemporary detective stories. The quirky drifter part of Reacher brings the near mythical tough guy persona into a character the reader wants to find in the real world. The desire to find Reacher in the real world lets the reader overlook the near impossible action/mystery portion of the story and root for the quirky super hero against seemingly impossible odds. One Shot is pure guilty pleasure.

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Title: Judge & Jury
Author: James Patterson & Andrew Gross
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-316-01393-5 price: $27.99 US, copyright 2006, 310 pages

Judge & Jury is a straightforward action story. Patterson produces short plot driven stories. To make the thickness that publishers want today, he uses many short chapters. It is a little sad that only a few popular authors have enough clout to write the short plot driven story and still get it published.

Mafia don Dominic Cavello is a murderous monster. Nick Pellisante leads the FBI team who arrests him. Andie DeGrasse is a single mom and aspiring actress who is called to serve on Cavello's jury. Cavello doesn't want to go prison for the rest of his life and is willing to do anything including mass murder to escape. Nick and Andie are pulled together by the murderous don and decide that revenge is their only recourse.

The evil in Judge & Jury is intense and the action is fast. There is a humorous narration to the tale that keeps if from being too dark. Although Judge & Jury doesn't stand out from the other action stories, it is a perfect story to read when you have a few hours to spare. My advice is to find it in paperback and pack it for the next trip you take.

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Title: Beach Road
Author: James Patterson & Peter De Jonge
        Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-316-15978-6 price: $27.99 US, copyright 2006, 310 pages

Patterson has a distinctive style of very short chapters, some only a page long. In this book, changes in first person point of view happen with the chapter changes. The result is a very choppy narration that takes nearly half of the book to get familiar with. The original idea of creating a story from the view point of multiple individuals is good. But with this story the technique distracts more than it helps the storyline.

Tom Dunleavy is a local ex-jock turned part-time lawyer. After a pick-up game of basketball, three of his friends are executed in a particularly gruesome way. A young NBA hopeful is arrested and charged with the murders. Tom is asked to represent the young man. This is more of a job than he has the skill for. He enlists the aid of his ex-girlfriend who is a great lawyer. The case explodes into national news and more violence and killing occurs the deeper Tom examines the case.

Beach Road is a lawyer/action mystery with a final twist. The twist is well hidden but is so well hidden it leaves an unsettling taste. It makes the reader feel manipulated. It is a solid tale with a surprise ending but some readers might find the choppy narration and manipulation too contrived.

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Title: 4th of July
Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books
        Time Warner Book Group
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-446-61336-3 price: $9.99 US paperback June, 2006 416 pages

Unlike a few of Patterson's books, 4th of July is not over written. It is a smooth detective mystery with solid narration. Patterson pairs with various other writers. They produce a variety of stories. The major distinguishing feature is very short chapters. With some pairings, the short chapters produce a choppy narration but with this story the frequent chapters are lost behind a fast paced storyline.

Police Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer is in a late night shootout with murder suspects. The suspects turn out to be rich children. Lindsay and her partner, Jacobi, are both wounded. The two suspects are shot by Lindsay. The young girl is killed and the boy is crippled. The family wants revenge and brings civil charges against Lindsay. Recovering from her wounds and on leave from the San Francisco Police Department until the trial is over, Lindsay decides to house sit for her sister in Half Moon Bay, a small picturesque town on the coast. A string of murders has the town in turmoil. The murders are reminiscent of Lindsay's first rookie unsolved murder case. The killings escalate as Lindsay's trial start. Each incident seems to come closer to Lindsay.

4th of July is a smooth satisfying detective mystery. Its strength is its balance. There are no unnecessary writing twists or tricks. It is fast paced but not breathless. It has grisly murders but doesn't overdo the gore. It is a perfect short novel for the weekend read.

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Title: The Conspiracy Club
Author: Jonathan Kellerman
Pub. Address:
        Ballantine Book
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN: 0-345-45258-5 price: $7.99 US mass market 2004, 405 pages

Kellerman is a mystery writer. He seldom pushes the boundaries but this might be his strength. His stories bring you into the life of the character. This personal connection makes his mysteries a satisfying read at any time.

Jeremy Carrier is a good psychologist struggling with his own personal problems. Jocelyn Banks was his girlfriend. After her kidnapping and murder, the police look at him as the prime suspect. Arthur Chess is a strange elderly pathologist at the hospital Jeremy works in. Arthur takes an interest in Jeremy just as another murder occurs. Arthur seems to know something Jeremy needs to find out. Jeremy is pulled farther into a vortex of murder and clues until he realizes that only way out for him is to find the killer.

The Conspiracy Club is a mystery worth reading. You will not be disappointed in the tale. It is also a fairly standard mystery. It is a gem of a find in a used bookstore but a possible pass by on the full price shelf.

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Title: The Kills
Author: Linda Fairstein
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-7434-3668-7 price: $7.99 mass market paperback 2005, 463 pages

Fairstein writes a busy story. She produces an illusion of the busy life of a prosecutor. This makes an excellent change in the typical lawyer mystery.

Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper is getting ready for a very difficult he said/she said rape trial. A young boy is a possible witness but she has been unable to talk to him and a batch of lawyers from the child welfare system to the defense seem to know more about her case than she does. Her whole case seems to be falling apart when clues from the murder of an elderly woman seem to connect to her trial.

The Kills is the type of lawyer mystery case you love to read, detailed storyline with clues hidden in a mass of events. To top it off, you have lethal threats on the heroine. The Kills doesn't stand out from the genre until you get into a historical back story about a legendary Double Eagle gold coin. The ending is a little weak but the action/mystery in the second half of the story is intense enough to warrant a little time alone, away from the distractions of work and family. The Kills is a mystery for a long weekend away.

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Title: Faithless
Author: Karin Slaughter
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-440-24291-6 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2005, 549 pages

Slaughter writes raw stories about a boyfriend/girlfriend investigation team. They are divorced. Sara is a pediatrician/coroner and Jeffrey is the sheriff. Slaughter has lost her way bringing her character's motivations to the reader but in this story she has gotten closer to the character development she used in Blindsighted.

Sara and Jeffrey literally stumble over a dead girl who was buried alive. The dig up her body and find more than just one dead girl. The girl belongs to a religious family with ties to Sara's past and a farm run as a cult. Sara and Jeffrey struggle with their tumultuous relationship while murder and torture are happening next door.

Faithless is a continuation of the storyline introduce with Blindsighted. It is not a smooth elegant story that some mystery writers produce but a visceral fast moving action whodunit. It is a good story that does reference the previous books in the series to the extent a reader starting with Faithless will miss details justifying the actions of the characters. The story is strong enough to be read by itself. Faithless is a book that a mystery reader looking for a harsher storyline will enjoy.

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Title: White Hot
Author: Sandra Brown
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-7434-6676-9 price: $9.95 copyright 2004, 579 pages

White Hot is a soap opera action/mystery. Everyone has a hidden agenda and everyone is having sex. The story delves deeply into the characters with snippets of the past history of the characters used to move the storyline.

When Sayre Lynch's younger brother, Danny, dies in an apparent suicide, Sayre goes back to the Louisiana hometown she left a decade ago. She walks into the manipulative handling by the tyrannical father she had run away from and the amoral actions of her older brother. Into this family mix comes Beck Merchant, the right-hand man for the family and their dynastic iron foundry. She is soon pulled into the volatile family politics and finds out her brother might have been murdered. The longer she stays in Destiny, Louisiana the more she is pulled into a web of intimidation and violence. With each day, her attraction to Beck increases and the more she finds out about her hated family.

White Hot is a literary vice. The story is fast paced and filled with sex and action. You just feel a little guilty liking it.

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Title: Running from the Deity A Pip & Flinx Adventure
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-46161-4 price: $7.99 US, mass market 2006, 280 pages

Foster excels in creating new worlds and alien creatures. Running from the Deity continues this with the planet Arrawd. The world is just different enough to be exotic but familiar enough to be comfortable in.

Flinx's saga resumes with his ship, Teacher, needing repairs. Flinx decides to land on the nearest planet with the correct mix of raw materials that are needed for the work. The planet has been listed as off-limits by the Commonwealth because of the primitive social and scientific culture of the inhabitants. When Flinx stumbles across a local fisherman, Ebbanai, he discovers an empathic salient who doesn't interfere with Flinx's own troubled mental abilities. Flinx enjoys the first period of time within his life where the headaches and seething emotions of other people aren't assailing his mind. Ignoring the edicts of the Commonwealth, he initiates full contact with the inhabitants of Arrawd. He revels in the joy of helping and the calming affects of the world until he suddenly finds himself used and revered as a god. His problem is now how to get away.

Running from the Deity is a beautiful stop in the saga of Flinx and Pip. The world of Arrawd and the storyline blend into a smooth easy chapter in the large tale. It also places into the storyline Bloodhype. Bloodhype is a Flinx tale written years ago that is integrated into the larger saga with this book. Running is a must read for any Flinx fan and is great story for any SF reader who enjoys speculation about alien worlds and life. It is highly recommended for any SF reader.

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Title: The 5th Horseman
Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Pub. Address:
        Warner Books
        Time Warner Book Group
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-446-69931-0 price: $14.99 US trade paperback April, 2007 409 pages

This is the fifth installment in the Women's Murder Club series. This is one of the better series of books produced by the James Patterson group of authors. There are few problems with it until the final pages when it stops too abruptly.

Detective Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer is trying to get into her new role as the boss when a woman's body is found posed in a luxury car. The mother of Yuki Castellano, a friend of Lindsay and a member of the Woman's Murder Club, collapses and is brought to the hospital that is being sued for malpractice. Someone is killing patients in the hospital in such a way as to look accidental. Deaths are happening nearly faster than Lindsay and investigate them. She has to keep on top of the various inquiries and still keep her personal life going.

The 5th Horseman brings out the busy caseload of a large metropolitan homicide squad. It is a smooth layered story that works through the various investigations. The only real drawback is the hurried end to the story. It is a must read for those who liked the other books in the Woman's Murder Club series but because of its weak ending, only an average read for everyone else.

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Title: Break No Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address
        Scribner
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-7432-3349-1 price: $25.95 copyright 2006 334 pages

Break No Bones is possibly the best forensic detective mystery story of the year. Kathy Reichs has gotten comfortable with fictional writing and it shows in how smoothly the book reads. The story doesn't break new ground in the genre but gives the addicted mystery reader a needed fix.

Temperance Brennan has been pushed into teaching an archeology May block field school for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. This year they are excavating a possible Native American burial site. The field school is finishing up the dig when among the Native remains a recent body is found. An old friend and local coroner, Emma Rousseau, asks Tempe to help with the examination of the bones. Soon another body is found hanging from a tree. An unusual mark on a vertebra in the neck links the two bodies. As more bodies and unusual nicks are found on some of the bones, Tempe is pulled deeper and deeper into an investigation she never wanted to start. Her old friend Emma seems to be in trouble. The local sheriff has to be pushed into the investigation. As the suspects and threats multiply, both Tempe's ex-husband and current lover show up.

Break No Bones is a fun summer read that hits all the high points a reader wants in the forensic mystery genre. The only weak part in the story is a slightly messy climax to the who-done-it. Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series of books is a must read for any serious forensic mystery reader.

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Title: The Book of the Dead
Author: Douglas Preston and Lincoln child
Pub. Address:
        Warner Book
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10169

ISBN: 978-0-446-61850-0 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2006, 597 pages

The Book of the Dead is the story of the super evil genius, Moriarty, battling the super detective, Holmes. This is a modern narrative so the expected flow and pacing of the classic pulp mystery is gone and replaced by the more technical and scattered approach of modern storytelling. Diogenes Pendergast, the Moriarty character, is the lead in this story. His evil and his plans make the core of the action. Aloysius Pendergast, Diogenes's brother, is the Holmes of the mystery. Aloysius is playing catch-up throughout the tale.

The New York Museum of Natural History is given a bag of dust. Thinking it might be a poison, the police are called. They find instead that the dust is the crushed remains of the Museum's diamond collection that had been stolen before the beginning of the story. The Museum board decides to re-open an Egyptian display to counter the bad press about the lost diamond collection. But death and insanity follow the decision. The only person who can pull together all of the clues is Aloysius. Aloysius is being held in a maximum security jail awaiting trial for the crimes his brother committed. Can Aloysius get out of jail in time to save the multitude of victims his brother has targeted?

The Book of the Dead is a complex action/mystery. This modern tale loses the nostalgic feel of the Holmes type mystery as it powers though with a complex and layered storyline. Although this story can stand on its own, much of it references previous stories in the series. Today's readers will like the complex action/mystery but those growing up with the classic pulps will be distracted by its mixed storyline. The book is a fine read that is only muddied by the over complexity of its many layers.

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Title: On the Fifth Day
Author: A.J. Hartley
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-21628-6 price: $7.99 US copyright 2007, 402 pages

On the Fifth Day is smoother reading than many modern action/suspense stories. Most modern narrations prefer a complex many layered storyline, which can be confusing. The sharp focus of the story lets the reader indulge in the complex historical details and exotic locations interwoven into the tale. On the Fifth Day is a little wordy, placing it slightly closer to the cozy genre than the pure action story.

Thomas Knight is a broken man. His world has been slowly crashing for years. When he finds out his brother, a priest researching ancient Christian artifacts, has died, he has nothing stopping him from finding out what has happened. Soon he is attacked and threatened. He realizes that something both bad and very important has happened to his brother. He has to find out what happened and when people start dying, his resolve only gets stronger.

On the Fifth Day is a fun story that is well worth taking the time to read. Unlike many historical suspense stories, the tale is well within the realm of possibility. Its plot depends more on the twisted logic of humanity and less on manipulating the historical past.

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Title: Black Order
Author: James Rollins
Pub. Address:
        Harper
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 978-0-06-076537-8 price: $7.99 copyright 2006, 506 pages

Black Order is a typical modern adventure story -- it is action, super evil plotting to take over the world, technical details, historical details, worldwide action, blood and violence, more action and a happy ending. The action is so non-stop you put the book away for a break. Rollins is a master of non-stop action. To fully enjoy the technical and historical information blended into the story, you have to wait until you stop reading.

In 1945, a Nazi scientific installation is being overrun by the Russians. A SS commando group escapes with the remaining scientific research, a scientist and a baby. The scientist dies hiding the baby from the SS.

Today a monastery in the Himalayas is stricken with madness and everyone is killed but two hunted survivors. In Copenhagen, Commander Grayson Pierce is investigating why an auction of collectable books is being bid upon by underworld characters with near unlimited money. In South Africa, a game warden and biologist are attacked by an animal with near supernatural powers. Can Grayson and Sigma Force survive long enough to stop the hidden evil set loose half a century ago by the Nazis?

If you like action/adventure, Black Order will give you more than enough. The science of the evil is a little too speculative for those who enjoy a little knowledge in their reading but there is some truth in it. The books strength is also its weakness, it doesn't slow down its pace. For those who can handle the non-stop pace, you will not be disappointed with Black Order.

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Title: Trouble Magnet
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books
         A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 978-0-345-48505-2 price: $7.99 US, mass market 2007, 280 pages

It is great news for those fans of the Pip and Flinx adventures that Trouble Magnet has been released mass market. The ongoing adventure is a needed fix for those addicted to the characters and storyline. Trouble Magnet continues the captivating saga started thirty-five years ago. The biggest problem is that the story should be shorter. To fill the length, plot twists and sequences from earlier books in the series are retold. A desire from publishers to push story length to fixed sizes has changed a short fast narration into a padded tale that is weakened by excess wordage.

Flix is despondent about humanity's weaknesses that he has witnessed at Repler, the greed and the excessive use of power by the dealers of the lethal drug Bloodhype. He wonders if his quest to save the galaxy is worth not being with his true love, Clarity. He decides to see if humanity is worth saving by going to a modern Sodom and Gomorrah, the open Commonwealth planet Visaria. As with the biblical angels, he finds nothing until he happens upon an attempted mugging of two visiting Thranx by a gang of youths. A young member of the gang reminds Flix of his own hard life on Moth and attracts his attention. Flix finds an analog to his own past in the streetkid but on a simpler everyday scale. He needs to find out where this teen living on the edge of good and evil will go and if it will change his own opinion of humanity.

For any who are reading the Pip and Flix stories Trouble Magnet is a must read. It is not one of the best in the series but it has all of the expected characters and SF world creation that you look for in a book by Foster. It would be a great story if it was about fifty pages shorter. Now all I have to do is get my hands on Patrimony, the next book in the series.

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Title: Beowulf
Author: Caitlin R. Kiernan
Pub. Address:
        Harper Entertainment
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 978-0-06-134128-1 price: $7.99 copyright 2007, 353 pages

Beowulf is more than just a story about a mythical hero fighting a monster. This version of the tale has the three monsters, Grendel, his mother and a dragon, of the original story but changes the story to link the conflicts into a different whole. It actually changes Grendel's mother into something more than just a demon. She becomes a demigod playing with the fate of men.

King Hrothgar is celebrating his new hall, Heorot. His men celebrate and drink themselves unconscious. Grendel can not stand the merrymaking of men and attacks the hall. King Hrothgar's men can not stand against the monster and he calls for heroes to destroy the monster. Heorot is closed and Hrothgar's kingdom is teetering near collapse when Beowulf and a group of his men come to Heorot seeking glory and honor in battle.

Beowulf is an adult tale about how the desire needed to be a hero and leader of men is also a weakness. It is a three part morality play that claims the downfall of a hero can also be his greatest hour. It is a good story that uses a strong mythology as a foundation for a lesson on human weakness. You will find it a blending to enjoy.

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Title: Crusader Gold
Author: David Gibbins
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-440-24393-9 price: $6.99 copyright 2007, 398 pages

Every author gets his style from reading other writers. Gibbins follows the proven structure of Clive Cussler. Cussler starts with an historic incident and builds a modern action/adventure from it. So does Gibbins. Cussler has a strong technical organization, NUMA, backing his team of heroes. Gibbins has IMU. Cussler has a team of Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino. Gibbins has Jack Howard and Costas Kazantzakis. Where Gibbins surpasses Cussler is in the accuracy of the archeology and history and the feasibility of the action. Gibbins is more for the thinking reader.

In the waters outside of Istanbul, Jack Howard is excavating for Crusader relics. He is hoping to find the menorah looted by the Romans when they sacked Jerusalem. In Hereford Cathedral, a layout of the Mappa Mundi is found with an added inscription about Harald Sigurdson, a map of Vinland and a menorah rune. Jack starts on a lethal quest that could change the future of the modern world and brings the wrath of an international group of killers.

Gibbins brings a needed addition to the historical action adventure genre with Crusader Gold. Crusader Gold fills the niche between light all action storytelling and strong historical possibility. The believability of the story adds to its strength. Anyone who has enjoyed historical action adventures will be pleased with the sound storytelling of Gibbins. Crusader Gold is a must read for anyone who enjoys this genre.

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Title: After the Dinosaurs, The Age of Mammals
Author: Donald R. Prothero
Pub. Address:
        Indiana University Press
        601 North Morton Street
        Bloomington, IN 47404-3797

ISBN: 978-0-253-34733-6 price: $39.95 copyright 2006, 362 pages

The Age of Mammals is not a thorough story about the unique creatures that became the dominate forms of life on earth today. It is a book about the geography of the last 65 million years. It is a text about the climate changes, land mass changes and finally the extinction, migration and lineage of the plants and animals that eventually developed into the world today. It is an outline that works at attempting to explain the flow of this last great period in the history of the world.

The text starts with an explanation of methods and techniques for dating fossils and geological strata. Individual sections have an introduction with key scientists and their work in the period of time covered in the section. A summary of what is known and still unknown about the climate in the period and epochs follows with a synopsis of the changing life populating the epochs. Each epoch is further broken down by what is happening in the individual regions of the world. The strongest fossil records for the Cenozoic have been recorded in North America, which makes this region's history the most complete.

Prothero tries to summarize the gaps and unknowns of the Cenozoic with the best scientific theories. His scientific strengths and weaknesses show through but he does his best to keep a balanced narrative. The Age of Mammals is a perfect outline to correlate and place historical facts and ideas in context. It is a key timeline for anyone with an interest in the subject and a great companion for anyone trying to understand how the geography of the modern world came into being. The Age of Mammals greatest strength might be in the powerful correlation and understanding of the interaction of climate with the life on earth. It is a great reference guide for the Cenozoic but it can a dry read for a non-student in the field.

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Title: Murder Picnic Mysteries
Author: S.A. Gorden
        Taconite Runes
        42302 Chase Lake Road
        Deer River, MN 56636

ISBN: 978-0-97919471-4-6 trade paperback 2007, $15.50, pages 109

The Midwest Book Review, Shelly Glodowski Senior Reviewer

S.A. Gorden's bailiwick is pulp fiction, but not what the reader would expect. His stories center around Minnesota farm life of the 1940's in the form of short stories that were produced in magazines at the time. Life was simple; people were friendly and had a work ethic; and home cooked meals were the center of their social life. S.A. Gorden has also written THE DEUCE OF PENTACLES; FACES OF DOOM; and the double novel, DAYS BETWEEN SEASONS/CRYSTAL CLEAR POND.

If you like reading about life in the 1940's and before, you will enjoy MURDER PICNIC MYSTERIES. James Maki is a small town boy from Minnesota who farms with his parents. He is sweet on a local pretty girl named Emily. Together they discover that they make quite a good sleuthing team. This book is a series of short stories about their accomplishments as detectives and their courtship and marriage. Food is an important consideration for them, as they have running bets on which of the two will solve the murder first. The loser has to provide a picnic lunch. But it is the simple expression of love that is compelling in these stories:

"We finished the shakes. I walked Emily home. Just before her house there was a large oak tree. We stepped behind it and kissed. Her lips were still cool from the shake. It was a brief kiss. With her father against us seeing each other, it wouldn't do to have the neighbors talking too much about us. Although being a small town, everyone was already making bets on how long we would last as a couple."

S.A. Gorden is a big fan of pulp mysteries and used to sneak off by himself as a boy to enjoy the actual magazines. But after escaping into big city noir or the supernatural, he had the feeling that there was a missing segment. As a writer, he fills in this gap with his first-hand descriptions of how Midwestern farmers lived in their small towns of the time. He has adopted an almost "Happy Days" style, and it works very well.

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Title: The Masada Scroll
Author: Paul Block Robert Vaughan
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LL
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN:978-0-7653-5184-5 price: $7.99 copyright 2007, 343 pages

The Masada Scroll is an interesting mix of subgenres. It has the miraculous events that you would expect from religious fiction and the historical technology that has become a mainstay of popular action/adventures. The blending of subgenres frequently produces superior stories but in this case the storyline drifts between the two opposing styles. A small nudge to place the story more solidly in either camp would improve the power.

Father Flannery is called in by his archeological colleague Preston Lewkis. A scroll has been found at the dig site in the Masada ruins. The scroll is an unknown, and possibly earliest, gospel with an unusual symbol that combines the Star of David, the Cross of Christianity and the Crescent and Star of Islam. Father Flannery discovers this ancient symbol is the Trevia Dei, or Three Paths to God. A group, the Via Dei, has corrupted the gospel and has and will kill for its secrets. The miraculous past of the New Testament and early first century church combine with the now to a murderous climax as the investigation into the recently discovered scroll unfolds with Father Flannery in the middle of both stories.

The plot and theme of The Masada Scroll makes for a unique and fun story. The sole weak point is the integration of the two subgenres. The Masada Scroll is a fine read that holds more for the religious but is worth the time of those who love the archeological action/adventures. It just hits the target of a good tale.

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Title: The Richness of Life, The Essential Stephen Jay Gould
Edited: Steven Rose
Pub. Address:
        W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
        500 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10110

ISBN: 978-0-393-06498-8 price: $35.00 copyright 2006, 653 pages

The Richness of Life is a collection of articles and chapter selections from the writings of Stephen Jay Gould. It is a hint of what Gould produced. The writings are a little technical and the science seems to be a touch outdated but if you place them in the time and context they were written in, they become unique. The articles are short and varied forcing the reader to change the topic just when the line of reasoning becomes interesting.

Gould had two great strengths as a scientist. He questioned and he questioned. He also realized that seldom is only one thing responsible for an event. The mistake most make, including scientists, is looking for a single precipitating event that produces a result. A tree might fall down in a wind storm but years before insects infected the bark, followed by a woodpecker making a hole, followed by a dry rot… All these events happened before the tree became weak enough for the wind to take down. People in general look for the single event of the wind storm. The real scientists look for everything that happened. This collection gives the briefest hint of Gould's questioning and search for the complex answer.

The Richness of Life is a quiet celebration of the works of Gould. It isn't strong enough to stand alone. The articles have aged with the patina of time to a familiar tone. It holds the same place as your old photo album, a place holder for the days in a life.

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Title: His Dark Materials
Author: Philip Pullman
Pub. Address:
        Alfred A. Knopf
        an imprint of Random House Children's books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-375-84722-6 price: $21.99 copyright 2007, 933 pages

His Dark Materials is the real title to the single book that was sold in three installments, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It is an adult biting satire of the dogma of organized religions that is dressed up as a young adult fantasy. Other than the setting, there is little that places the book in the youth market. Adult themes fill the tale with a dark but eventually hopeful storyline. Each chapter takes another vicious stab at religious dogma. Tales every child has learned in church are changed into a dark fairytale. Despite the vicious attacks on organized religion, the story is surprising religious. This helps bring the hopeful but sad ending of the story to a satisfying conclusion.

The Golden Compass comes the closest to a youth oriented fantasy. Lyra is a young child living in a fantasy world where your soul takes the shapes of living creatures you can see and interact with. She is pushed into a quest to save all worlds by the evil done in the name of the church and the actions of her parents. Along the way she collects an assortment of humans and human creatures who are all striving to correct the wrongs that are in the worlds.

The Subtle Knife brings the story into our world with a new lead character, Will, another child. The magic of Lyra's world is blended with the science of ours into a strong whole. The corruption across the universes becomes physical and the evil and good on both sides becomes known. Neither side in the quest is fully good but the overwhelming corruption of absolute control is exposed.

The Amber Spyglass is the conclusion to the war that began with human consciousness and ended with the final choices of two children Lyra and Will. The universes are saved and religion needs to rebuilt with the correct view of the creation of the human soul.

His Dark Materials is a powerful book. It forces the reader to reevaluate religion and the universe. It might contain a stronger story for the adult reader than for the questioning of a youth. It is a story that must be considered in a world with religious fanatics willing to do evil in their God's name.

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Title: Unlocking the Mystery of Skin Color: The Strictly Natural Way to Dramatically Lighten Your Skin Color Through Diet and Lifestyle
Author: Thienna Ho, Ph.D.
Pub. Address:
        Thienna Inc.
        236 West Portal Ave. #511
        San Francisco, CA 94127

ISBN: 978-0-9792103-0-3 price: $64.96 copyright 2007, 288 pages

The physical characteristics of living things depend on two factors, genetics and environment. But it is more complex than just those two factors. Stephen Jay Gould popularized many of the genetic problems to isolating causes for traits in his articles and books. Physics limits genetic options. Physical objects are constrained by the realities of the environment, gravity, oxygen concentrations, tensile strengths are just the beginning of these constraints. Gould pointed out that many features are the product of other functions and many genetic changes do not produce traits significant enough to function by natural selection. There is even a new genetic field formalized after the human genome project was done. The field studies how environmental factors produce genetic inhibitors that customize genetic code to the environment. Surprisingly these changes can be inherited. The final environmental factors are the elements directly encountered by the organism -- or food, air and other factors.

Thienna has specialized in these final factors using a dietary and lifestyle approach. She starts with one of Gould's genetic points that a trait might be produced as a byproduct of another function. In this case, Thienna has speculated that dietary sulfur and its detoxification uses in the body produces a side affect in skin color. She carefully coaches her suppositions as educated guesses, which they are. She backs her guesses with scientific data that she frames into her work. Lay readers might interpret the science as a validation of her methods. It is not but it is a powerful argument that she might be on the correct track with her work.

The environment is a very important factor in characteristics such as skin color. Because of other genetic factors, you can never predict how well the diet/lifestyle changes will work. The great strength with this method is that it is relatively safe and inexpensive. Thienna has done enough research so using her methods should minimize the variables for the individual trying her program. Skin color is a cosmetic change, making it an ideal task for the relatively safe and inexpensive changes Thienna advocates.

If changing your skin color is something you are interested in or if you would like to do more to adjust your diet and lifestyle, Thienna's program is an ideal starting point. Anyone needing to change their diet for health reasons can also find good information within the book. The nutritional data is weighted for the nutrients she considers most important. Most of the information can be found in public sources but the convenience of a single focused source might make the relatively high cost of the book acceptable.

Unlocking the Mystery of Skin Color is a good starting point for anyone wanting to adjust their look and is really a must before trying more drastic medical treatments.

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Title: Iron Man
Author: Peter David
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 978-0-345-50609-2 price: $7.99 US, mass market 2008, 309 pages

The conversion from movie screenplay to book can result in a great book. Iron Man is an average book. It suffers from the occasional conversion problem of too closely following a video story in the written form. Books can go in depth about the behind the scenes motivations and back story that the limited time frame screenplays can not. Unfortunately, Iron Man's story contracts in book form from the wild option filled movie. Peter David does a good job with Iron Man but the beginning and end of the story slips a little.

Tony Stark is a certified genius and a millionaire defense contractor with a playboy persona. With his typical dash for the sensational, he demonstrates his newest weapons system, the Jericho rocket, in the Afghanistan battlefield. After the demonstration, he is kidnapped by terrorists and tortured for his knowledge. The terrorists have used his weapons against him. His escape from the terrorists and his near death brings Tony to the realization that he has to change. But the evil behind the terrorists is not willing to let him go. In his need to change, he becomes Iron Man. Tony, Iron Man, has bet his life that he can change.

Iron Man is a weekend escape from reality by journeying into one of the fantasy worlds created by Stan Lee. Everyone needs a little escape from time to time. It doesn't have the power of Spider Man or the shear fun of X-Men but it is still worth the eight dollar escape fee.

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Title: RAT RACE & Other Science Fiction Short Novels and Novelettes
Author: Raymond F. Jones
Pub. Address:
        Page Turner, a label of
        Renaissance E Books
        P.O. Box 1432
        Northampton, MA 01060

ISBN : 1-58873-323-8 currently out of print Copyright 2003, 188 pages

Rat Race is a small collection of short stories and novellas by Raymond F. Jones. Many readers today don't remember or know about his writing but it is just as thought provoking as Robert Heinlein's and his works are grounded in stronger science and technology. This collection of six stories gives you a taste of his works.

The Touch of Your Hand is a story of impossible love. Jaro Mandan is a pilot on a spacecraft and Mara Summers is a flight controller. They can never meet but…

A Stone and a Spear is a story about war and science. It is a 'what if' about when the technology to kill outpaces the ability to control it.

Cubs of the Wolf is a classic story type told many times about unique cultures and their interactions on a massive scale. It is a story idea that is so good that it has to be done over and over. Two of the best known masters of this style are Gordon R. Dickson and Isaac Asimov. Cameron Wilder is a graduate student in Solarian Institute of Science and Humanities. He starts a project about a pirate space faring culture, which suddenly turns peaceful, and what he finds is more amazing than he could ever imagine.

Rat Race is a fun story about technology doing too much. George Sims-Howton had no idea what he would start when he innocently decided to order a model train.

The Martian Circe is another classic story line about addiction and drugs. Roal Harford is on the track of a lethal drug ring and falls for Alayna, the Queen of a mysterious seedy bar with the name Silver Stars.

In The Memory of Mars, reporter Mel Hastings has lost his wife, Alice, to an accident. He finds that she was not human. But there is a memory about Mars that his love for her forces him to face. The memory is wrong and the more he explores the more questions he has. Mel discovers he and Alice are just a small part of a secret encompassing the whole human race.

If you like SF or just enjoy the best short stories, Rat Race is a must for your library.

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Title: When Europa Rode the Bull
Author: Barbara Berot
Pub. Address:
        Streetcar Books
        Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania 18943

ISBN: 0-9748899-0-3 price: $18.95 US, copyright 2004, 664 pages

When Europa Rode the Bull can be loosely lumped into what is currently called women's genre. It hasn't a strong mystery, suspense or even an action thread. It is a story about the life of a woman with more problems and luck than the average and her growth through them. The writing and descriptions are strong enough to make this story enjoyable. The reasonable way the events are laid out give the feeling that the story is possible and possibly that a few of the events could even happen to the reader with either good or bad luck.

Anne d'Inard is a middle aged woman in her second marriage. The marriage is disintegrating from neglect. She receives a notice from the Red Cross that she has tested positive for HIV antibodies and needs to be examined. The news blows her relationship with her husband apart and she decides to go back to St. Andrews in Scotland where a past love brought her back from an earlier destructive event in her life. The story of her life unfolds with flashbacks from twenty years earlier and her current turmoil.

When Europa Rode the Bull is a strong story that pulls you along. It reads shorter than its length implies. The biggest problem with the story is the ending. The end is more of a break before the story, hopefully, finishes in Lies & Liberation: The Rape of Eruopa. This is a relationship and personal growth story which isn't the type of tale I usually enjoy. The last time I became engrossed with a story of this type was the simpler and shorter tale of Billy and Saxon Roberts in The Valley of the Moon by Jack London. London is the better writer but Berot is an author worth considering.

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Title: Sing Ronnie Blue
Author: Gary D. Wilson
Pub. Address:
        Rager Media
        1016 West Abbey
        Medina, Ohio 442656

ISBN: 978-0-9792091-7-8 price: $19.95 US, copyright 2007, 191 pages

Sing Ronnie Blue is a good and evil story, a morality tale. Ronnie Blue is the poor bad kid and John Klien is the rich good kid. During their last few years in high school, they became friends. Ronnie pulled the good John into his realm but John, although John reveals in the excitement of doing bad things, knows he has to change. John goes to college and comes home a new leader in their small town. Ronnie goes to the big city and stays the same.

Ronnie comes home on the 4th of July, his birthday. He wants more in his life but he has stayed the same. His friend John has changed and grown. He hasn't. Coming home brings Ronnie to face how his 'live for the moment' attitude has kept him in the same place he was in high school. But Ronnie doesn't want to face it. He just wants.

Sing Ronnie Blue is a novella dressed as a novel. Beautifully written intricate details fill the story but the underlying tale is a dark novella revealing how a bad but likeable kid, who doesn't grow, becomes a vicious adult. Sing Ronnie Blue is a good short novel that suffers from too much good writing. The dark tale is slowed by the minutiae. The reader loves the intricate details painted by the words but soon becomes anxious that when he turns the page there will be more details and not the payoff the story implies.

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Title: Beautiful Lies
Author: Lisa Unger
Pub. Address:
        Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
        Vintage Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-307-38899-5 price: $7.99 US, mass market 2008, 441 pages

Beautiful Lies is a rarity today. It is a very good mystery written in first person. It was a surprise for me to find another skilled writer using first person. Unger is a fast paced detailed writer who keeps the tension high. The story is rich with location and character motivation. Only a technical reader will notice that plot is slightly too focused for a story of this length.

Ridley Jones leaves her apartment and sees a toddler wondering into traffic. She jumps in front of a van and saves the child. A photographer, just passing by, snaps her picture in the act of bravery and she becomes an overnight sensation. Her national notoriety has brought her to the attention of people who know more than she does about her past. A package arrives at her doorstep claiming her life is a lie. The lie is important enough to powerful people that they will kill to protect it. The truth behind the lie is something Ridley believes she has to uncover.

Beautiful Lies is a mystery/suspense thriller that will engulf you and keep you reading. The story is simple enough for everyone to understand but detailed enough to keep you turning the page. Unger is a writer to look for and Beautiful Lies is a book that a suspense reader has to pick up.

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Title: The Lost Constitution
Author: William Martin
Pub. Address:
        A Forge Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 978-0-7653-5446-4 price: $9.99 copyright 2007, 752 pages

William Martin is a smooth action/mystery writer. He paints beautiful scenes of New England and builds them into his story. In The Lost Constitution, he pushes a conflict about finding an annotated draft of the Constitution beyond any logical tension into a life and death struggle. Don't worry. The easy narration makes the impossible strife plausible. The current headlines about fanatics and illogical acts even make the high suspense necessary for the typical reader. The story lacks the power of many modern suspense/action tales but it is an enjoyable ride as an autumn leaf tour of New England, which is included in the story.

Peter Fallon is a rare-book expert and a historical document treasure hunter. Peter and his girlfriend, Evangeline, are hired to track down an annotated draft of the U.S. Constitution. A terrorist attack has brought the issue of gun control back on the national agenda and both sides in the debate have decided that the annotated draft might be used to support their cause. Unknown to both Peter and Evangeline, greed and corruption have also infiltrated both sides of the issue and with a possible annotated draft, this could mean millions of dollars to whoever can get their hands on it first. As Peter begins his investigation, he discovers that people have already been killed in the search. His and Evangeline's job has become much more complicated as they not only have to find the draft, with an impossibly short schedule, but they have to also survive.

The Lost Constitution is the perfect summer time read. It has a deep historical story that moves fast. You can enjoy the serenity of reading outdoors while the beauty of New England's past and present becomes a third character in the novel. The historical back-story is nearly more fun than the current detective/action.

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Title: Invisible Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        A division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 978-0-425-22115-0 price: 9.99 US copyright 2007, 422 pages

Sandford has again written a smooth well-balanced detective novel. The criminals have skills and abilities well within plausibility and the detectives are reasonably skilled. Invisible Prey feels less forced than a few of Sandford's novels from the middle of this series. He is very comfortable using locations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area and it shows in this story.

Lucas Davenport is a lead investigator for the Minnesota BCA, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He is currently involved in a tricky political case where a state senator is accused of having sex with a minor when he is called in to a brutal double murder/home invasion of a very wealthy woman and her maid. Robbery and vandalism seem the motives but the clues don't fit. Lucas begins to pull in leads from crimes in other jurisdictions as the killers try to hide the scope of their activities. As Lucas uncovers each new clue, the killers grow more brazen in their murderous attempts to hide their crimes.

The Prey series of books is one of the most successful detective series in recent years. Tough quirky characters with realistic plots, actions and abilities are the key to this series success. With Invisible Prey, Sandford has again found the right mix of action and storytelling to give the reader an enjoyable weekend escape. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys the detective mystery.

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Title: The Rising Tide
Author: Jeff Shaara
Pub. Address:
        Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-345-46137-7 price: $9.99 copyright 2006, 550 pages

Shaara has produced another good war story. Unfortunately for him, World War II has been explored by many great writers over the years. The Rising Tide is a well balanced story about the North African campaigns. Shaara uses the standard characters, such as Rommel, Patton, Eisenhower and Montgomery, but he also adds in a few lesser known characters to put in a feel of the front line action. Because of its slightly different thrust, it is a necessary read for the World War II history buff.

Shaara has taken his method of trying to put a human face on the great commanders in the North African campaigns. His version seems more balanced than some of the more sensational biographies of the generals. He has spent a lot of time with Eisenhower during this period in the war and this fills in many of the gaps that the more traditional histories have left opened.

The Rising Tide is a solid history of the entrance of the Americans into the war in Europe. With its entry into the mass market, it has produced a very good low cost introduction for those wanting to learn more about World War II. Other books do a better job covering the stories of the separate individuals in the war but The Rising Tide does make a balanced history that is easy to read. One omission that I missed was the lack of a detailed appendix covering the various weapons used in the war. It is one thing to read that the Stuart tank couldn't stand up against a German tank but a handy appendix showing the differences would give the reader needed information that the typical reader today just doesn't know.

In final analysis, The Rising Tide is a good solid history of the first part of the American involvement in World War II. It is not the best but it is different enough to find a place on the shelf of anyone wanting to learn more about the period in time. Shaara has found a niche with readers today and this book doesn't disappoint.

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Title: The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Author: Max Allan Collins
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Boulevard Books
        A division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-22313-0 price: 7.99 US copyright 2008, 246 pages

The conversion of a screenplay to book can make for a fun fast paced story. Collins is a writer who knows how to change the visual screenplay into an action novel. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor lives up to the previous Mummy stories. It has all of the fun bits from the other stories and adds just enough new threads to keep the story fresh. It is the perfect story when you need to fill time or just need to be lost in action.

Evelyn and Rick O'Connell have decided to try retirement after their adventures in World War II. Their son Alex is at college and their life becomes too relaxed for their adventurous life. When a government official asks them to bring a lost artifact back to Shanghai Museum, they jump at the chance. In Shanghai, they stop by Evelyn's brother's bar and accidentally run into their son Alex who has dropped out of college and dug up the mommy of the Dragon Emperor. They have been drawn into another life and death struggle with a mommy bent on conquering the world.

The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a good stand alone action fantasy story. It becomes a great one when it is linked to the two previous stories. For action junkies, it is a must read. For those of a more literary bent, it is still a good story. Hidden in the action passages is very good writing. Take it with you for the next slow weekend or for that interminable time in the doctor's or dentist's waiting room. You will be glad you did.

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Title: Phantom Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15500-0 price: 26.95 US copyright 2008, 373 pages

The Prey series of books has become a classic modern detective series. Phantom Prey has all of the action you expect with a Lucas Davenport novel. It also has the occasional reality touch you would expect from a story about tough men who are involved in the dark business of crime fighting and the methods they must use to survive and separate the violent culture from their personal lives. This combination of detection, action and the illusion of reality has been a hallmark of the series from the beginning.

Lucas Davenport, the lead investigator for the Minnesota BCA, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, is stuck in the revolving door of bureaucracy involved in the security planning for the upcoming Republican Convention. When Weather, his wife, asks him to look into a case of a missing daughter, he jumps at the excuse to get back to real police work. The daughter was involved in the local Goth scene and one of her Goth friends has just been murdered. Soon more deaths occur and a psychotic begins looking at Lucas as a possible victim.

Sandford's smooth easy style brings this action detective story to life. As a fun side note, he blends in a mention of Kidd, a lead character in another of his stories. The Prey series has become a standard in the detective genre and Phantom Prey measures up to the standard. With the additional storyline of the upcoming Republican Convention, he has given the story an immediate and local feel. He has also opened the story up for a possible dated feel after the convention. Using current events in a novel, has always been a tricky balancing act for the writer. It will be fun to see how well this story ages.

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Title: Sail
Author: James Patterson & Howard Roughan
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        1271 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-316-01870-8 price: $27.99 US, copyright 2008, 388 pages

Sail is pure action/suspense. It is written in a cliff hanger style with nearly every section ending with a breathtaking climax. To keep the reader's heart rate within reason, there is a short skip-ahead chapter starting the book. Sail is the vacation from hell. Every action and event leads to a threat. In typical Patterson editing, the chapters are too short and formatted to pad the story length with blank regions. This is an acknowledgement to modern publishing where the quality of the story is second to padding the page length to the correct thickness in the book. It is also better than the usual unneeded paragraphs and pages typically used today to lengthen stories to the page counters ideal number count.

The Dunne family is in trouble. When the father died, the family broke apart. The daughter, Carrie, is bulimic and suicidal. The eldest son, Mark, is a drug addict. The youngest son, Ernie, is the only one who is trying to be normal. The mother Katherine is a workaholic, who had decided that taking the family on a sailing vacation, is the only way to force everyone to face their problems.

On the first day Carrie jumps overboard and their uncle, Jake, is just able to save her. This is actually a high point in this vacation from hell as things just spiral down hill. To the surprise of everyone, the family pulls together and actually starts to function as a unit. But is this going to be enough to survive?

The Patterson group of writers is one of the few outlets today for the short novel. One reason why this group might be selling, as well as they are, is that this style of writing has been ignored by most publishing companies. A well written short novel is a distinct style and very enjoyable. Sail isn't the best action/suspense but it is well written and unusual enough in this publishing market that you will not be disappointed picking it up. The only thing you need to remember is to block out enough time to read the story in a single setting. You will not want to put it down.

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Title: Rogue Angel, Gabriel's Horn
Author: Alex Archer
Pub. Address:
        A Gold Eagle Book
        World Wide Library
        225 Duncan Mill Road
        Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9

ISBN: 978-0-373-62131-6 price: 6.99 copyright 2008, 314 pages

There is a genre of stories that are pure escapism. You can usually find them in a series and low cost mass market publishing lines. They are not written for any literary reason. They are just fun action time fillers or small guilty pleasures. The Rogue Angel series is just such a series. You might be a little ashamed to admit that you like the story but it fills that sweet tooth need to just read something for fun and no other reason.

Archaeologist Annja Creed has the magical sword that Joan Arch had. Her world is filled with magic that is hidden from everyone else. While advising on a movie shoot in Prague, a group of men attack Annja. She soon finds out they were employed by a powerful man using the name of Saladin. Later she meets a street bum who claims to have known King Arthur who tells her she must find an ancient relic to keep a sleeping king from destroying the world. Another group of assassins, hired by a woman called Salome, tries to kill her and she runs not into hiding but in search of the relic. Using her historical sources, she traces the relic to Istanbul and a murderous climax.

Gabriel's Horn is the book you bring to the doctor's waiting room to keep you from climbing the walls. It is the story you hide with after your boss makes an impossible demand on your time or your co-workers leave you in the lurch. It fills this role to perfection. Its drawback is a very weak ending and the wait to find the next book in the series.

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Title: Bones to Ashes
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-1-4165-2565-3 price: $7.99 copyright 2007, 388 pages

Kathy Reichs is the reigning queen of the forensic mystery. Every story has enough differences for others in her series to give a freshness to the storytelling. Sure there are weaknesses but the ability to surprise and tell a slightly different story within a series outweighs the weakness.

Temperance Brennan is asked to look at the bones of a young Acadian girl. This brings back memories of summer vacations with an Acadian girl who suddenly disappears from her live without a trace. This is an especially painful memory because it happened shortly after the deaths of her brother and father. The bones haunt her with the possibility that they might be her childhood friend Evangeline. With her typical single minded focus she jumps into an investigation that spans decades and has left a trail of bodies.

If you like the forensic mystery genre, you have to read Reichs' Temperance Brennan stories. Bones to Ashes is a great addition to the series. The biggest weakness in the tale is the impossible coincidences between the past and current forensic investigations. The story could have been told with two investigative threads that only link together with Brennan's memories from her youth. The story is fast enough and detailed enough that this weakness is discovered as an afterthought to the story. Bones to Ashes is the best forensic novel I have read this year and I don't expect it to change unless I get a chance to read Devil Bones, which is Riechs next story in the series that has yet to be published.

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Title: The Historian
Author: Elizabeth Kostava
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-316-06794-2 price: $9.99 US, copyright 2005, 909 pages

The Historian is a massive book that takes the vampire myth and makes it into a historical detective mystery. This unique slant brings new life to an all too familiar theme. The story revels in historical and cultural details. The richness in its depth of details is both its strength and its weakness. The story would be better served if it was edited with just a five percent reduction of its nine hundred pages.

A young girl, being raised by a busy father, finds in her father's library a cryptic letter addressed to my dear and unfortunate successor. The letter brings about a curiosity that drives her into finding out the details of her father's life. Her search brings out a centuries' long quest into Vlad the Impaler, the original Dracula of history, and a group of historians which includes her father. Each fact she learns brings out a new horror and a new details about her family's tragic history. Her curiosity pushes her and her father into a confrontation with an ultimate evil.

The Historian is a great historical/horror mystery. Kostova shows a talent in bringing cultures and history to life. The Historian deserves to be on every serious reader's desk. The substantial story might be a little too much for the typical casual reader but if they persevere through all nine hundred pages they will be amply rewarded.

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Title: The Good Guy
Author: Dean Koontz
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-553-58911-5 price: $7.99 copyright 2007, 447 pages

Dean Koontz is a writer whose prose is underappreciated. He writes a lot of popular books and because of the volume the consistency throughout the complete story can vary. This masks his good technique of painting a picture with words.

Tim Carrier wants to be ordinary. He hides in his job and in his social life. He likes to end the day with a stop by his neighborhood bar. This night a man walks in and mistakes him for a hired killer. The man passes him an envelope of money and a photograph and name. Just after the man leaves another walks in who slightly resembles Tim's build. Within seconds, Tim realizes this is the hitman.

Tim wants to be his same ordinary self but can't let the woman die. He gives the hitman the money but claims the contract is off. He then goes to warn the woman about the contract. What follows is a run for their lives as the killer finds out the problem and is willing to kill everyone who gets in his way to fulfill it.

Koontz has produced a great cast of characters for this story, a creepy psychotic killer, a damsel in distress, a good guy who is nearly too good and with a strong supporting cast. The suspenseful chase is great and the action is non-stop. The only real weakness is the end. Koontz tries too hard to lock the ending down fast.

The Good Guy is a great escapist book that should be read. Action and suspense junkies will find more than enough to satisfy. Readers who appreciate quality prose will like how Koontz paints a scene with words. The Good Guy is a small story that deserves to be read even if it has weaknesses.

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Title: Frozen Hell, The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40
Author: Willian R. Trotter
Pub. Address:
        Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
        Post Office Box 2225
        Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

ISBN: 978-0-945575-22-1 price: $22.95 US, copyright 1991, 283 pages

The Winter War is remembered, if at all, as a little war. It is lost behind the scale and killing of World War II. In 1939, Hitler invades Poland after a secret treaty is signed between him and Stalin. Stalin uses the treaty to take half of Poland as part of the Soviet Union. Stalin then absorbs the Baltic States between Poland and Russia. He insists on annexing control of portions of Finland. Finland balks at the request and Stalin invades in the winter of 1939 with a starting force of at least 400,000 troops backed by armor and cannons. Little Finland tries to pull together its force of about 150,000 lightly armed troops to counter the invasion. The fighting lasts till the spring. Before the fighting ends Stalin has committed over a million troops. He has to because most of the original 400,000 troops are gone or unable to continue fighting. Finally, Finland is forced to give up huge tracks of land to Stalin. But it is the only small neighboring state to stay independent of the Soviet Union once Stalin decided he wanted control of it.

Trotter analyzes the war with the luxury of someone who knows the results. He looks at the logic reasoning of the parties with the eyesight of the historian. He also examines the mistakes, genius, fear, incompetence, weaknesses and strengths.

There are a few problems in this book for the lay reader. More and better maps, more detailed information on the weapons used would help the average reader understand and follow the events in this complex war. A breakdown of troop numbers before and after each major battle would help keep the scale of events open for the reader. The biggest problem is the casualty numbers for the Soviet troops. Russia has always hidden the information. Trotter has tried to put numbers using accurate Finnish sources. But the real numbers have to be larger than the official tallies. Without those numbers all you know is that something remarkable happened but not exactly what.

Trotter has tried to give a balanced view of the war and the political events before and after. This makes Frozen Hell a key general summary of the Winter War. The Winter War should be better known and understood. This amazing story about a few holding out against the many is the Twentieth Century equivalent of the 300 Spartans holding out against the Persian Empire. The story is better in many ways because we have with the Winter War accurate information about the fear, terror and mistakes that have been lost over time with the story about the Spartans.

Frozen Hell is a must read for the military or World War II history buff.

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Title: Impossible Places
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 0-345-45041-8 price: $7.50 copyright 2002, 275 pages

The short story was the mainstay in popular fiction when you could find a dozen different magazines in every newspaper stand and bookstore in the country. That is no more and the joy of fictional reading is much worse for it. The art of telling a short story is one that many writers can not do. It is a skill that the pulp magazine market nurtured and trained. Crafting a complete story in a minimum of words pinpoints the skill and quality of the written prose. Shorts also permit the writer to explore new, old or even strange ideas.

There is also a great deal for the reader to enjoy with this genre. It is a chance to explore without the larger investment of time required by a novel. It is a way to enjoy and escape into a story when your time is limited. Finally it is a way to stretch beyond your ordinary reading into the depths that a skilled storyteller can create without the boundaries of length.

Alan Dean Foster is a skilled short story teller. In Impossible Places, he gives you nineteen tales to enjoy. Because the genre encourages experimentation, Foster explores his limits. The extremes mean that a few stories will not click with an individual reader but it also means that a few will hit the sweet spot. This collection isn't as good as Foster's previous short story collections, With Friends Like These and ...Who Needs Enemies?, but it is a good collection of shorts that fills a huge gap in the reading market.

Impossible Places explores a challenging mix of horror, science fiction and speculative fiction. Sometimes the tales are creepy and nasty but mostly they have a humor Foster usually adds to his stories. Nineteen different stories are just too many to summarize so I will just try to cover a few of the more unusual ones. In We Three Kings, three men of today bring to life three classic monsters. They are released on Christmas Eve and encounter a bewildered cop and a holiday that even they know and respect. The Boy Who Was a Sea is a strange story about a human genetic misfit. It is a melancholy tale that refuses to be classified. The Kiss is a pure nasty horror short that is great for its compactness. Suzy Q is a personal favorite of mine. It is a speculative SF tale of a type that I have played with myself. I would tell you more but that would spoil the first few hundred words for the reader.

Impossible Places is a solid short story collection in a market where short stories are nearly impossible to find. This makes the book a must find for serious readers.

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Title: The Lost Tomb
Author: David Gibbins
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-533-59119-4 price: $6.99 copyright 2008, 481 pages

Gibbons is an action/adventure writer following in the steps of the pulp action/fantasy writers from the early twentieth century. A revival of the genre started with Ian Fleming after World War II and continued with writers such as Clive Cussler. Gibbons takes the comfortable action format of Cussler and adds in a stronger and more realistic archeology. With The Lost Tomb, Gibbon taps into the current interest in biblical and religious history.

Jack Howard is diving off Sicily on an ancient ship wreck site. He is hoping to find the ship Paul sailed in on his last trip to Rome. Maurice Hiebermeyer, part of Jack's archeology team, is exploring a freshly opened tunnel in Herculaneum, which might lead to a scroll room in a villa buried for centuries by Vesuvius in 79 AD. They both make discoveries that lead Jack on the trail of a Roman Emperor and a possible lost manuscript written by Jesus. A powerful and corrupt secret society with the Christian Church has battle for centuries to keep hidden truths and doctrines they oppose from the rest of the world. They suspect what Jack might have discovered and track him with deadly force as he travels across the world following the archeological threads that he has found.

The Lost Tomb is a fun action story that brings the reader from ancient Rome, into Briton's conquering and Boudica's revolt, through the past region hidden by Vesuvius' 79 AD eruption and to Israel's past and present. The tale has the strengths and weaknesses of a fast action adventure. You can't help yourself but learn a little about history and even a little more about Christianity. Gibbins has a chance to poke at the mythology of religious history. He opts to tantalize the reader with a final open question. The Lost Tomb is a must read in this genre of action/adventure/religious history. It hits the high points with just enough facts to permit the reader to immerse themselves in the panorama of the past.

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Title: Dark of the Moon
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        A division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN : 978-0-425-22413-7 price: 9.99 US copyright 2007, 418 pages

Sandford is one of the best hardboiled detective mystery writers. His Prey series has become one of the standards other novels are compared to. His lead character in the Prey series is Lucas Davenport. As the series ages, a writer has two choices. He can stay locked in time and try to keep the characters from aging or he can let them develop into a set pattern. Davenport has been aged thus limiting the story line. With Dark of the Moon, Sandford has shifted to a new character, Virgil Flowers. All of the old characters from the Prey series are still there but with the change in lead, Sandford has created a fresh story. Sandford has grown in his fictional skills and with Virgil he has taken a second and successful run at the hard driving detective tale.

Two grisly murders have taken place in the small Minnesota town of Bluestem. Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Virgil Flowers is called in to help in the investigation. A spectacular third murder takes place as Virgil drives into town. A sadistic serial killer is taking out eighty year olds with a shady past. Suspects fill the small town and Virgil's investigation nearly immediately catches the attention of the killer. The death toll climbs as the investigation uncovers corruption both today and in the past. As Virgil comes closer to the psycho, he becomes a target.

Virgil Flowers is a unique character and the investigative details in the story are some of the best in the genre. The who-done-it storyline is surprisingly complex for a hardboiled detective action mystery. Dark of the Moon is a must read for any serious detective mystery reader and a gem for anyone new to the genre.

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Title: Heat Lightning
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15527-7 price: 26.95 US copyright 2008, 388 pages

John Sandford has a new hardboiled detective series that is just as good as his previous Prey series. Virgil Flowers is a hard-loving, tenacious investigator who, even if he doesn't want to, seems to get into life and death shootouts. In this installment in the Flowers saga, you don't get the deliciously complex detective reasoning of Dark of the Moon. In place, you get more action and a slightly more complex mystery.

Men are being executed and displayed on war memorials with lemons forced into their mouths. The first murder is done in New Ulm, a small town in Virgil Flowers assignment zone. Virgil becomes the lead investigator in a statewide manhunt when the next murder takes place across the state in Stillwater. The first thing Flowers must find out is if these murders are the work of a crazed killer or the mark of a professional assassin with a message. As the killings accelerate, Flowers is run to exhaustion as he is forced to travel from one end of the state to the other following the crimes. The mystery becomes even more complex when Virgil discovers links to the last days of the Vietnam War.

Heat Lightning doesn't have the focused step by step investigation of the first Flower's story. It substitutes in action and a telling jab at the politics of law enforcement today. Heat Lightning is a great action detective tale that is fun to read and has effective commentary about what can happen when politics becomes more important than law enforcement.

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Title: Protect and Defend
Author: Vince Flynn
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 978-1-4165-0503-7 price: $9.99 copyright 2007, 405 pages

Flynn's Mitch Rapp is the CIA's version of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Flynn writes an illusion of the world that is close enough to reality that the reader can lose themselves in the fantasy of the violent retribution of the Rapp character. He hits a sweet spot in the human psyche that can only be found in fantasy and wishes.

Israel destroys an Iranian nuclear processing plant. The Iranian president Amatullah calls for blood, not just Israeli but American. He uses an out-of-control Hezbollah terrorist Mukhtar to carry out his plans. CIA director Irene Kennedy is setup by Amatullah and Mitch Rapp has just twenty-four hours to stop a full scale war.

Protect and Defend is the quintessential Dirty Harry verses the terrorists of the world. The action and blood is non-stop. But surprisingly the villains are so villainous that the reader is not repulsed by the action. Revenge can be sweet in fiction and seeing the terrorists terrorized, maimed and killed serves a visceral need in the frustration of average people who see bad things happen and feel no one is doing anything about them. Protect and Defend is not great literature but escapism where escapism is needed. It is a fun read and recommend for the action junkie. Just don't let yourself be deluded into thinking Mitch Rapp or Dirty Harry could actually exist.

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Title: Exceptions to Reality
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN : 978-0-345-49604-1 price: $6.99 copyright 2008, 262 pages

One of the things lacking in modern publishing is short stories. Just a few decades ago, short stories were the core writing style in publishing. Short stories have so much going for them it is hard to understand their disappearance. Financially the move from short story into novel length has many reasons. But less understood is how the reading public has permitted the short story market to dry up. Foster is one of the few authors who has both the readership and credentials to produce on a regular basis short stories. Exception to Reality is a well deserved addition to this missing market.

I like to keep a short story collection near by for the times when I have a few minutes that need to be filled. I have kept Exceptions by my reading chair for about a month. When I finish a novel, project or am just waiting from my loved one to come home, I opened the book and lose myself in a story for the few minutes between. The only slight disappoint was the obligatory Pip and Flinx short. It read closer to an excerpt from the next novel and less like a short. A pleasant surprise was the Spellsinger short.

Everyone wants to put a genre label on a work. Short story collections defy labels. They permit both the reader and author to explore. You could call all writing a fantasy of a writer. You could label Exceptions as fantasy but less the sword and sorcerer kind, although there is that genre in the collection, and more the tall-tale kind. You know the type; when a twinkly-eyed friend, who always seems to pull a grin from your face, sits back at a gathering and everyone hushes to listen to a spinning of words that travels to a point no one is quite sure of.

Buy and read short stories. You will not be disappointed and maybe the penny pinchers at the publishing companies will start putting more of these great literary explorations into the market. Foster is a good short storyist. Exceptions to Reality has more than enough twists and turns and pure enjoyment to be worth the time to find and read.

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Title: Patrimony: A Pip and Flinx Adventure
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-345-48508-3 price: $7.99 copyright 2007, 255 pages

Pip and Flinx are two of the best SF characters that have been created. Patrimony is the thirteenth Pip and Flinx book. Some features in the series are getting a little old but the unique world creation that Foster does so well makes this a good book to read.

Flinx is an orphan and he has been looking for his birth parents from nearly the first book in the series. He has a possible lead that his father might be living on the planet Gestalt. The lure of possibly answering the many questions about his parentage is too much and he has to drop everything and try to find his father. Gestalt has an amoral bounty hunter living there. When he finds out Flinx is on world and the richness of the bounty he has on his head, a lethal encounter has to follow.

There is nothing truly unique in this thirteenth installment in the Pip and Flinx saga except the creation of another rich world, Gestalt, for the reader to get lost in. Foster has been dressing up short stories as full length novels about his pair of heroes, while creating rich fantasy worlds for his audience to get lost in, for the last few books in this series. The rich new world to explore is enough of a treat to pick up this book even with its lack of substance for the larger saga.

For those readers interested in the larger Pip and Flinx saga, this is just a minor waystation on the journey. For readers new to the series, this is an experience in the joy of finding a fictional world so rich and unique you would want to travel there. This is one of Foster's minor works but it is still enjoyable enough not to ignore if you find it on the shelf.

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Title: Beloved Disciple, The Misunderstood Legacy of Mary Magdalene, the Woman Closet to Jesus
Author: Robin Griffith-Jones
Pub. Address:
        Harper One
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 978-0-06-119199-2 price: $25.95 copyright 2008, 286 pages

Beloved Disciple is slightly different than what you might expect from the title. This is a book about the theological history of Mary Magdalene and how it has changed over time. It does a very good job in this but it misses a chance to look closely at all of the material and make reasonable composite histories of the woman herself.

Griffith-Jones assumes that the Gospels are more accurate than various Gnostic texts and associated histories. That might not be the case. Nothing is written in a vacuum. The other writings need some basis in fact so portions from many of these texts should be considered as significant in history.

Griffith-Jones does explore a vast array of associated texts and builds a rich tapestry of a variety of theologies and fragments of thoughts on Jesus and Mary. This alone makes the book worth reading.

He also does a very respectable job explaining the Gnostics but he doesn't go in enough detail about the rich variety of beliefs that were given the label Gnostics and he puts too much emphasis on those writings critical of the movement. You might not think the critical sources make a significant difference in understanding the religious groups but if you consider that Christians had been publicly call cannibals because of the symbolic eating of bread and drinking of wine during communion, the distortions of critics becomes important. Even with these problems Griffith-Jones does an exemplary job explaining the umbrella groups that make of the Gnostic faiths. Gnosticism was a relatively large group of Christians and what has been lost over time and not found here is how this faith attracted and kept the average person, which it had to do. Concentration on theology glosses over the average faithful.

One of the most interesting points proven in the book is that contrary to the assertions in the fictional book The Da Vinci Code the organized Christian church has greater respect for Mary Magdalene as an individual and person than the Gnostics.

This book is highly recommended for those interested in the theological history of Christianity and the history of women within it. It is very readable even if it is primarily a theological history. Scholars, preachers and just interested people should read this book for a greater understanding of the bible and their own faith. Too many people just take the surface view of religion. Without the historical back story the surface has no support.

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Title: America's Hidden History, Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped the Nation
Author: Kenneth C. Davis
Pub. Address:
        Smithsonian Books
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 978-0-06-111818-0 price: $26.95 copyright 2008, 272 pages

Davis has collected a series of stories from the 1460s to 1790 that highlight religious fervor, greed, stupidity and other very human failings. In many respects, it becomes a history of war and fighting. Some of the stories are relatively unknown while some have been topics of bestselling books and famous movies. What makes this collection unique is that common thread and Davis's knack for finding a small and odd tidbit to build as a core theme in each section.

America's Hidden History has a fast and light narrative that smoothly brings out the story. It feels more like a good fiction novel than a history text. The strength in this technique is readability. The weakness is that the reader has a tendency to want more. Do not expect this to be a comprehensive tale about the vast number of little known stories, after all with close to a 350 year span of time there are a multitude of little known stories. But consider this a small selection that proves the point that history is not much different than life today. You still have stupidity, greed and religious fervor driving small events that make up a whole.

This isn't a depressing tale of human frailty but a story of making the best out of our weaknesses. America's Hidden History is recommended light reading for anyone with an interest in history or the human condition. As light reading, you may first consider testing it out in a library or used bookstore. The true historian will not want to wait.

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Title: What the Gospels Meant
Author: Garry Wills
Pub. Address:
        Viking
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-670-01871-0 price: 24.95 US copyright 2008, 209 pages

Anyone serious about reading and understanding a religious book, like the bible, needs to do more than just accept the face value of the words. The bible has been translated and translated and copied and copied and edited and edited. Many of the nuances that fit the historical setting and languages have been lost over time. Wills does a good job of examining how the meanings in the text have changed. But he falls into the category of many analyzers. He assumes a more focused theological reasoning for nearly every aspect of the text and assigns a little too much authority to some parts of the analysis that have to be guess work.

People write with the tools they are given. Religion texts are based on what religious aspects the writer knows and the cultural way they communicate. With religious analysis many factors in communication are assumed to be theological in nature. This is not always the case. The number five is important because it is the number of fingers on a hand. Twelve because it is the next logical grouping after the ten fingers; you just add two, one for each hand. Oral communication colors the written by using cadence and rhyming. People will use everyday cultural examples to explain events such as being hit with the same force as a Chicago Bears linebacker. There is a tendency when analyzing to place too much emphasis on what is seen in the story after and too little on just the skill of good writing.

Jesus spoke in parables. This is a similar technique that is still used by many Oriental religions and philosophies. There are many reasons for this. If you are part of an underclass, riddles will permit you to criticize those in power without direct offense. They are also a technique that forces students to critically think about what is said. This is a skill good teachers employ when they really want their students to expand their reasoning and logic.

Today we neglect the power oral communications has although we see it every day with popular song lyrics. Oral societies transmitted accurate information for generations. The details were in some cases modified for easier recitation but the accuracy was there. Written texts that overlap oral traditions had to honor that accuracy. You could fudge the details, create fiction or even take the text away from the culture that has the oral tradition but as long as the relatively accurate oral tradition exists you can not directly contradict it without it being seen as false. There has to be more accuracy in the gospels than many assume but there also has to be a 'people' logic for the differences. Today people are understanding the plasticity of eyewitness accounts in legal cases. We need to recognize the same thing in history.

Garry Wills, with What the Gospels Meant, does a very good job dissecting the gospels. Anyone who is serious about understanding the bible would be hard pressed to find a better single text on the topic. What the Gospels Meant is very readable and doesn't hit you with numbing details. I would recommend it as a good starting point in understanding both the Christian religion and the history surrounding it.

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Title: Vindicating Lincoln
Author: Thomas Krannawitter
Pub. Address:
        Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
        A subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
        4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200
        Lanham, Maryland 20706

ISBN: 978-0-7425-5972-1 price: 24.95 US copyright 2008, 340 pages

Krannawitter does a great job of putting Lincoln's decision making and political thought in context and explaining those actions. Many recent books and articles question Lincoln's motives and ideology. This well researched look into the history and politics before and during the Civil War will answer those questions.

Krannawitter does fail in his criticism of the motives and beliefs of those he considers are re-writing Lincoln's actions and motivations. He has not done the research needed for this criticism. He has produced the same superficial and misleading analysis that he complains they have done with Lincoln. Many of the problems are subtle, such as not taking fully into account the changes in language and word meanings that have taken place over the last two hundred years. A few are factual, such as his crediting Darwin's work as a source idea before the Origin of the Species was published. Some are creatively misleading, such as using a media label as the core aspect of a political position. And a final few are logical, such as labeling that there are only two opinions on a subject and not positions in between. In some ways, this fast and loose criticism is justified as a counterpoint to these individuals previous analysis of Lincoln but the overall affect is a lowering of the quality of this book. Krannawitter should have stayed where his expertise is the political and historical context from the Declaration of Independence to the Civil War.

Vindicating Lincoln is a needed and worthwhile analysis of Lincoln and the early political history of the US. It deserves a place on any historian's bookshelf to fill this niche. But it fails in producing a real and accurate criticism of political and social discussion of today. In fact, you will be mislead if you accept his interpretation of current political ideologies.

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Title: Blasphemy
Author: Douglas Preston
Pub. Address:
        A Forge Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-765-4966-8 price: $9.99 mass-market edition January 2009, 522 pages

Most contemporary readers have forgotten classic SF and some of its focuses on religion and a deity. This gives Preston's Blasphemy, uniqueness in the eye of the modern reader. Blasphemy starts out slowly with near caricatures of the main characters. The fast paced ending permits the reader to forgive the weak development at the beginning of the tale. The best thing about Blasphemy is that it brings back the sharp eyed commentary on society and religion lacking in most contemporary SF writing.

A supercollider has been built by the US to explore the forces needed to create the fabric of the universe. Gregory North Hazelius and a small group of scientists have discovered a problem. The supercollider seems to be talking to them. They decide to hide the information until they can work out what is happening. A worried government sends investigator Wyman Ford to the research site to discover why data from the supercollider project has stopped being reported.

The silence from the lab gives unscrupulous politicians and religious charlatans a chance to focus their attentions on the forty billion dollar laboratory. Their greed and manipulations touch a volatile population to the point of hysteria and bloodshed.

Blasphemy is a very good tale exploring the good and bad about religion and people. It doesn't have the wild force and focus of the classic SF stories but it does return a neglected subgenre back into mainstream storytelling. My recommendation is to read Blasphemy and then troll the used bookstores for some of the first tellings in the genre. You will be thanking Preston for the insight.

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Title: Battle at Sea 3,000 years of Naval Warfare
Author: R.G. Grant
Pub. Address:
        DK Publishing
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-7566-3973-0 price: $40.00 copyright 2008, 360 pages

Battle at Sea is a beautiful coffee table book. Its massive ten inch by twelve inch size permits every page to be filled with pictures, charts and graphics. The visual art alone is worth the price of the book. Grant does a good job of covering major naval warfare events across the world for the last 3,000 years.

There are short comings. The major content problem is that with the considerable time and space covered by the book you are limited to only a few paragraphs on the major battles and just a single paragraph for the noteworthy ones. Grant does a good job on trying to give detailed examples of representative ships and equipment but with any such selection a skilled reader will always want another example. The only significant complaint I have is the line editing done by DK Publishing. Transposing the numbers on dates, confusing words and misplacing sentences is a distraction not worthy of this otherwise great book.

Anyone wanting a visually great coffee table book will not be mislead by purchasing this one. A true naval historian will also find this a great reference. Grant covers the subject very well and there is more information in the limited 360 pages than seems possible. A historical reader will find Battle at Sea invaluable as a key reference source.

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Title: The First Apostle
Author: James Becker
Pub. Address:
        Signet
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-22670-9 price: $7.99 copyright 2008, 333 pages

The First Apostle is an action thriller with an ounce of history and a ton of speculation. The speculation that Paul was a fraud or that he highjacked Christianity is possible, however unlikely. The premise that he was blackmailed into doing this by Nero goes a little too far. The later places modern culture and logic above historic facts. By not taking this added step with Nero, Becker would have produced a stronger and more fascinating alternative history. The other weakness to the story is the repetitive mistake by the characters of absentmindedly walking directly into a dangerous situation even when they must know that it exists.

Police detective Chris Bronson is shocked when his best friend, Mark Hampton, calls him and tells him that his wife Jackie died in an accident at their second home in Italy. He asks Chris to fly with him from London to help with the funeral and legal arrangements. When they arrive, Chris looks over the accident reports and becomes suspicious. They discover a Latin inscription on a stone over the fireplace and are soon running for their lives. Bronson must discover the meaning of the inscription to save his life. He and his ex-wife are soon exploring the past and shifting through the dark portions of Christian history in a race with ruthless killers to find the truth and save themselves.

The First Apostle is one of the many current suspense thrillers that delve through accepted history looking for alternatives and hidden meanings, It is good light reading but it doesn't have the deep historical background that many other stories in this subgenre have. For those who have not explored this genre it is a good first read. Do not expect the depth or details that you would find in a Dan Brown or even David Gibbins story but The First Apostle is still worth a little time to explore. The action is non-stop and the details make The First Apostle a good escapist story for a weekend read.

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Title: Uncle Daniel's Den
Author: J.D. Crayne
Pub. Address:
        Futures-Past/Page Turner Edition, a label of Renaissance E Books
        2930 Shattuck Ave. Suite 200-13
        Berkeley, CA 94705
        www.renebooks.com
ISBN: 978-1-600089-261-5 electronic download price: $4.99 Copyright 2008, 145 pages

Contemporary readers are familiar with paranormal horror stories that have a touch of dry tongue-in-cheek humor with stories such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Dresden Files. Now you can add Uncle Daniel's Den to the list. The blending of a bit of humor with supernatural horrors is a well proven mix. The need to temper the fear with a smile is nearly a primal reaction built into humanity. Most fans of J.D. Crayne expect the humor so the darker story of the Den might surprise them but the deft touch between humor, romance and terror shouldn't.

Pianora Duvall is a 27 year-old divorcee living with her lead singer mother and the rest of her mother's country/western band. The middle-aged group, Grand Old Gullywumpers, needs the adult hand of the daughter to function both in society and on the music road. When her millionaire Uncle Daniel is run over by a motorcycle gang followed by a fully-loaded cement truck, Pianora and her mother, Winnie, inherit his mansion and money. Winnie has always been scared of Uncle Daniel and his huge mansion but Pianora knows that the inheritance is a godsend to the financially strapped Gullywumpers. She pushes the unruly group into moving into the Brentwood mansion. The mansion comes equipped with a dark, mysterious and sullen caretaker, a friendly cook, with a mentally challenged fifteen-year-old granddaughter Patsy-Anne, dark and strange curios, a stuffed bear and a crocodile hanging from the ceiling. Pianora finds a locked door in Uncle Daniel's den that leads somewhere but not anywhere she can find in the real world. As she herds her mother and the other Gullywumpers into making the mansion their new physical and business home, the supernatural strangeness keeps building up to a complete eruption into terror and death.

Uncle Daniel's Den is a hard story to define. It stretches across genres and forms. It reads like a novelette but is a short novel in length. It is filled with supernatural terror and death but is funny and romantic. An oldtime Brothers Grimm meets rhinestone cowboyfornia noir? If you can handle the contradictions, Uncle Daniel's Den is a must read. Even if you think the contradictions are too much, you will love seeing how a writer can take this paradoxical mix of genres and styles and still create an enjoyable tale.

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Title: Small Favor, A Novel of the Dresden Files
Author: Jim Butcher
Pub. Address:
        ROC
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-46200-8 price: $9.99 copyright 2008, 541 pages

Small Favor is the first Dresden Files book that I have read. It is obviously a formula series book but it has such rich characters, detailed plotting and fast action that you can't put it down. Butcher has taken the wizard magic story and brought it into today's world. The sorcerer paranormal fantasies that entertained you in your youth have been given new life as adult action adventure. Harry Dresden is a lead character that you search for. He has the weaknesses that the reader can relate to with the wisecracking ability in tough situations that, in real life, only come to you a day after the event. This makes Dresden the perpetual underdog that you have to root for and who still wins.

Harry Dresden is training his young apprentice to use a magic shield to protect her from harm. He has her younger bothers and sisters throwing snowballs at her so she can magically block them. Suddenly Harry is attacked by Gruffs, the same creatures from the nursery tales about trolls, bridges and Billy Goat Gruffs. They are much more powerful than the nursery tale implies. Harry, his apprentice and her siblings barely survive the attack. Harry has just become a pawn in a power play between the Sidhe of the Winter and Summer Courts. But that is not all. Other players in both the mortal and magical worlds have decided they have a stake in this new game. All of these powers and forces have become focused on Harry Dresden and what he has to do to survive.

One of the best compliments for a writer is when a reader tells them that they are going to look for and buy more of their books and that is what I am going to do. Small Favor might be just one in a line of formula fantasy books but it has everything you need to escape into the story, rich in-depth characters, multi-level plots, detailed events and a non-stop storyline. It has the added benefit of a familiar story from nursery rhymes to mystical folklore with a modern setting so everyday it is like stopping by the corner gas station for a fill up and a gallon of milk. Don't expect any great learning or insight into the human condition, just fun and escapism.

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Title: The Betrayal, The Lost Life of Jesus
Author: Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-7653-5456-3 price: $9.99 copyright 2008, 427 pages

The Gears take on the task of building a plausible set of historical facts around the Gospels and other early Christian religious books. The task is fraught with dangers. Archeology and linguistics have a much easier time ruling facts out than adding them in. There are multiple lines of reasoning with realistic proof that contradict other facts. Garry Wills and many others have put together good alternative lines of thought on the subject. Bart Erhman has put together a very logical proposition that many of the problems with the religious books have been with scribes who added and changed the originals over time and not with the original constructions. This doesn't negate the story or work the Gears have created. It just highlights the point that to create a novel out of history you have to pick and choose which details and how to use them. Once the reader makes these necessary adjustments to the core storyline it is possible to enjoy an alternate version of Jesus' life and death that makes him more accessible as a human walking the earth.

Factors that are frequently neglected in our knowledge of Jesus are the books that were considered unsuitable for the official religious library. Some of these books outright contradicted the beliefs of the majority while others just didn't fit in with a core library on Christianity. Some where violently censored while others were just relegated to a minor standing. These books had been part of the core beliefs of thousands of Christians in the past but, as with all things human, the beliefs of the majority overshadow those in the minority. The complete accuracy of these books can be easily question as can the complete accuracy of many passages in the accepted bible can be. But many concepts in these books are so universal and logical that they must have some relationship with the real truth. It is possible to pull details from these many religious writings to create a different whole.

The Betrayal is written in three story lines. The first is a persecution of alternate Christian beliefs under the Emperor Constantine, being a true Roman Emperor this includes assassination and violent suppression. The second line is a Gospel style rendition of Jesus' life using an original Christian belief that he was a holy man but not physically God's son. The third is a post-death story of what happened after the crucifixion.

The writing of The Betrayal is average but what makes the story very interesting is the pulling together of multiple stories about Jesus using knowledge that was frequently missed by typical Christian commentators over the years. It takes a systematic and comprehensive study of linguistics and history to pull together which facts were added in by later scribes and editors and why and how these changes might have been made. This has created an enjoyable novel that is both revealing of history and troubling. The story can be used to either vilify Christianity or to strengthen religious faith.

The Betrayal is highly recommended to true scholars in religious history as a short-cut on blending many of the early period Christian writings into a true picture of the broad, rich and varied Christian faiths. It can be troubling to those who haven't taken the time to study in-depth their beliefs and might not fit a religious reader until they are ready to look deeper. The actual writing style is average but when added to the power of the subject matter the whole novel becomes very good.

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Title: Bulfinch's Mythology
Author: Thomas Bulfinch
Pub. Address:
        Barnes & Noble Classics
        Published by Barnes & Noble Books
        122 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10011

ISBN: 978-1-59308-273-4 price: $12.95 copyright 2006, 889 pages

There are a number of books on mythology. Thomas Bulfinch has taken a unique approach to the topic. He wrote a summary with two goals. The first is to give the basic storylines and the second is to show how these myths have worked their way into every day literature and communication. In many ways, this later approach would benefit by an update. You will find interesting links between the latest SF and graphic novel movies and details that explain concepts in the Harry Potter books residing in these old stories. It is amazing how deeply imbedded mythology is in modern writing and how strong the need is to keep these links intact.

Bulfinch wrote his book in the middle 19th century. He had to keep within the public morals of his time. This gives a surprising innocence and a quaint and familiar feel to the stories. His narration lets the reader feel that they are learning important facts while being entertained. The book is divided into sections -- The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry and The Age of Charlemagne. The strongest narration is The Age of Fable. But The Age of Charlemagne might be a more important section for the contemporary reader because these groups of stories are less known. One interesting point about the Charlemagne stories that Bulfinch notes is that the real Charlemagne was more impressive than the fictional one. If myths are based in reality, this makes for great speculation about the original characters and events that they were built from.

Bulfinch's Mythology is an important text for anyone serious in studying literature or culture. Other texts have more accurate stories, wider variety and easier formatting for study but Bulfinch had the knack of bringing the ancient tales into a direct cultural focus. Bulfinch is a classic because it is an easy to understand link between the past and today. It is a massive book but each story in it is short. It is a perfect fill-in for the times between other books or when you are just waiting for something. Bulfinch's Mythology is a must for the serious reader.

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Title: Nothing to Lose
Author: Lee Child
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 978-0-440-24367-0 price: $9.99 US, copyright 2008, 531 pages

Nothing to Lose is a Jack Reacher novel. Jack Reacher is Child's take on the Dirty Harry/Rambo character. Reacher is a quirky drifter who seems to have an unnatural attraction to villainous situations and people, which he leaves much worse for the wear by the time he drifts on to a new town and problem. Two things make Lee Child's series of stories different from the others. The first is a strong smooth writing style of an author at the top of his game and the second is a Dirty Harry character who is a political liberal as much as a violent action hero.

Reacher is drifting across the country when he walks between two adjacent Colorado towns, Hope and Despair. The names of the towns sum up the real life settings--hope to despair. Despair, the people and buildings, is owned by a psychotic rich man. Jack is jailed for vagrancy as soon as he enters the town. He is driven to the boundary between the two towns and ordered to leave but Jack Reacher doesn't take orders. He is met at the divide between the towns by a friendly female city of Hope cop. They both don't understand what is happening in Despair and form a temporary alliance to find out the answers.

Reacher doesn't like to be forced out of anywhere so he goes back to Despair and finds a dead body and much more. When he brings Vaughan, the Hope cop, back to where he left the body, it is has disappeared. With the help of Vaughan, Reacher finds out that there is much more going on in Despair and Despair finds out what can happen when you push around the wrong man.

Nothing to Lose is your typical action/escapist weekend novel. What makes it worth picking up is the quality of the storytelling. You will not regret getting lost in the butt-kicking wise guy action.

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Title: Devil Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address
        Scribner
        A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-7432-9438-6 price: $25.95 copyright 2008 304 pages

Kathy Reichs is an author that gives the reader a feel of real forensic anthropology. Other writers excel in the action or mystery portion of the story but Reichs gives you the gritty feel of a real job. In Devil Bones, the toil, work and details of examining and solving the clues found in decomposing corpses comes to the forefront of the story. Paradoxically this produces a freshness to the mystery that is not found in the typical story.

A plumber in an old house is installing new pipes when he discovers a hidden sub-basement. Inside is a Santeria (Voodoo) alter complete with a human skull. A headless body with satanic symbols carved into his torso, a fanatical politician running for office and a psychotic killer all add to Temperance's problems as she tries to solve the mysteries behind the multiple deaths, all the time struggling with her crashing personal life.

Devil Bones is a solid and entertaining forensic murder mystery, the type you would expect from one of the leading authors in this sub genre. It isn't Riechs best but its realistic feel makes is a minor gem worth looking for among the mass of mysteries you will find on the shelves.

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Title: Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Pub. Address
        Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-7432-7075-5 price: $21.00 copyright 2005 757 pages

Lincoln has been and will be analyzed over and over again. Specific statements and events have been and will be looked at under a microscope. But this method of analysis will always fail because nothing happens in isolation in the real world. Goodwin, in Team of Rivals, takes a different approach. She uses the diaries and papers produced by those around Lincoln, including his political rivals, which he brought into his cabinet. This approach explains the events that developed into the Civil War that when isolated seem abrupt and implausible. It also explains and highlights the genius of Lincoln because even his political enemies write amazing things about his political and personal astuteness.

Team of Rivals is a must read for anyone interested in the Civil War or Lincoln. Much of our understanding in his actions and history has been lost in time. The inevitable comparisons between him and other historic figures have belittled his acuity since our understanding of the depths and events surrounding his time has been blurred.

One simple comparison between today and the past will underline what the problems a contemporary reader will have with understanding history. In Lincoln's time, the Republican Party was for public education, social support & reform and infrastructure investments. Today that platform would be more commonly found in the Democratic Party. It requires a detailed broad look at the personal lives of a number of people to understand the differences between the past and today and that is exactly what Goodwin has done.

Team of Rivals is a gem of a history book that reads easily and fast. It imparts a broad understanding that gives the reader the ability to understand more fully the events in the past. It also helps cut through the many questionable histories of Lincoln and the Civil War. No individual is perfect and no event happens in isolation. By seeing through the multiple eyes of those around Lincoln, the history becomes more understandable and surprisingly more fantastic. Lincoln was truly a great leader.

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Title: The Bible of Clay
Author: Julia Navarro
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 978-0-440-24303-8 price: $7.50 copyright 2008, 691 pages

The Bible of Clay is one of the current popular blends of a touch of alternate history and action/adventure story. It is a little unusual for most contemporary readers with its composite story and no real lead characters that are good. Most of the characters are varying degrees of evil. With no one to root for, the story has to depend solely on the complex storyline that blends ancient history and Nazis with the antiquities trade in Iraq. The storyline makes up for most of the lack in the lead characters that the reader can connect with but the tale still falls a little flat.

Clara Tannenberg announces a possible site at an archeological conference in Rome that might contain a copy of Genesis narrated by Abraham. She calls the copy the Bible of Clay. An archeological dig is organized to try to find this bible in the few months before the Iraqi War. Her announcement sets in motion lethal forces originating during World War II. Forces, both of plunder and revenge, focus on her and the archeological treasure she is searching for.

The quest for the Bible of Clay degenerates into a contest between greed and revenge with each side blindly working for and against their separate goals. This tension brings about the best in this story as each character gropes for their individual goals.

The Bible of Clay is an interesting book that lacks the humanity that your typical story has. The nearly seven hundred pages and the lack of empathy of and for the characters drag the otherwise detailed action/adventure fantasy plot to a secondary status. I give it a passing grade but if Navarro had tweaked just a few more of her leading characters with empathy and humanity it would have been highly recommended. Her attention is focused too closely on the dark in her characters' nature making the story unbalanced.

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Title: The Psychiatrist Who Cured the Scientologist
Author: Aaron David Gottfried
Pub. Address:
        Pandora Press
        33 Kent Avenue
        Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3R2

ISBN: 978-0-9810572-0-0 price: $24.95 copyright 2008, 170 pages

The Psychiatrist Who Cured the Scientologist is a story of a naïve teenager immersed in a relatively naïve religion that doesn't understand severe mental problems. The tragedy of the story is that the teen, his parents and his religion doesn't recognize or understand the very obvious mental collapse while it happened and take the relatively straightforward methods to control the degeneration. It is very easy to encounter in the world numbers of people who suffer from varying degrees of manic-depression and psychosis. The indoctrination of his and his parents' religion prevented an open look at what was happening to him and colored how they saw and attempted to handle his problems. The story tries to take the reader through a first person look at a severe mental collapse and the massive mistakes taken by his religion. The information and story is profound but the telling misses the mark of a story. It is more of a clinical paper describing a mental collapse written for therapy or education than an in-depth story.

I have encountered a number of brilliant and everyday people who have had varying degrees of the mental problems described in the story. I have even been in on talking a few down from psychotic episodes. Some of the problems are revealed in this story but it lacks the empathy and humanity it takes to truly pull the average reader into the nightmare that a psychotic break can produce. The biggest missing piece in the story is the richness that the human spirit produces when it pushes beyond the afflictions that the mind in its sickness can produce.

The Psychiatrist Who Cured the Scientologist is recommended for those directly involved with individuals suffering from manic-depression or those struggling with a religious contradiction and the real world. It will give helpful insights into the disability and/or those struggling where religious faith ends and the real world begins. But the story doesn't have the strength to hold its own outside of this circle. I would hope that someday Gottfried or someone else takes this sparse tale and expands it into a real three dimensional story that can draw the general reader in.

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Title: Storm Front, Book One of the Dresden Files
Author: Jim Butcher
Pub. Address:
        ROC
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-45781-3 price: $7.99 copyright 2000, 322 pages

Storm Front is a very good first novel in a series. It has enough backstory to build a believable fantasy world but it still leaves open questions to entice the reader to look for the next book in the series. Storm Front is one of the modern blends of a magic world coexisting with the real one. Harry Dresden is a wisecracking detective hero who suffers though the mystery. The balance between humor, terror, action and mystery is handled well. There is enough humanity in Dresden to identify with and enough magic to make him a hero.

The sign on Harry Dresden's door is the real introduction to the story.

HARRY DRESDEN--WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting, Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment

Dresden is broke and behind on his rent when he gets a phone call. A woman needs her husband found. A moment later, Detective Lieutenant Karrin Murphy calls with a request for help. A double murder so unusual she suspects it to be magic has occurred and she wants his input. Before the hour is out, Dresden finds himself nauseated by two bodies with their hearts torn out in the middle of their lovemaking, threatened by an all powerful crime boss and meeting a timid housewife trying to locate and errant husband. Before the weekend is over, Harry will be running for his life, beat up, escaping magical demons trying to tear him into pieces -- all while trying to have his first date in years, with a beautiful tabloid reporter looking for a story.

Storm Front is escapist fun done by a good writer. It doesn't pretend to be anything else but that is more than enough to warrant you looking for it. It is highly recommended fun and just plain and simply good writing.

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Title: Complexity A Guided Tour
Author: Melanie Mitchell
Pub. Address:
        Oxford University Press
        198 Madison Avenue
        New York, NY 10016

ISBN: 978-0-19-512441-5 price: $29.95 copyright 2009, 303 pages

Complexity is an emerging science. As an emerging science, there a multiple ideas and approaches, some contradictory and some complementary, each vying for a place. Trying to find a single book that covers the basics can be daunting. Mitchell has made a good attempt at this introduction.

She starts with some history and background. Unfortunately this is possibly the weakest part of the text. The real history is deeper, broader and richer than her summary. Her shortening the history so it complements her choices for later in the text places an unfair slant on the rich history of the topic. For example -- the history of the computer starts decades earlier than her mid 20th Century date and the mathematics blends back with multiple detailed threads to the earliest records of the Greeks. Her focus works well for the rest of the book but the missing parts might annoy.

The next three sections of the text cover major approaches to looking at Complex systems. The first is primarily focused on computers and programming. The next is on cellular automata and information processing. The last is on networking.

One thing you will find immediately is how much influx Complexity is at this time. To many this might seem strange but it takes decades for a real scientific consensus to emerge. Complexity is a very young science. The question that keeps coming up is how do you define different aspects of the science and the lack of a precise agreed upon answers. A step back to Max Black might help here. Max, with many other mathematicians before and after, showed that information within a mathematical statement varied directly with how precise the variables and operations are. So a multivalent, or multiple definitions, would make logical sense when considering problems that require a lot of information. It could be time to consider that a multivalence approach to definitions might be appropriate with Complex systems.

Complexity A Guided Tour is a must read for anyone interested in the field and is highly recommended for any student of the sciences and mathematics. It really is a guided tour through much of the cutting edge thoughts on scientific issues today.

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Title: Fool Moon, Book Two of the Dresden Files
Author: Jim Butcher
Pub. Address:
        ROC
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-45812-4 price: $7.99 copyright 2001, 342 pages

Butcher has created a great character in Harry Dresden. Great characters have a few common traits. They have enough human weaknesses for the reader to connect with. They have the knack of either doing or saying something we wish we were capable of doing. Finally they just keep on going.

For wizard Harry Dresden the situation is normal. He is broke and looking for a job. His relationships with his friends and even enemies are tenuous and things just happen to get worse. First his apprentice Kim Delaney asks him about magic too dangerous for her to handle and then detective lieutenant Karrin Murphy insists on driving him to a crime scene to look at a mutilated partially eaten corpse. He just finds the paw print when the FBI shows up and nearly shoots Murphy. With two full moon nights coming up can Harry survive?

In Fool Moon, Butcher adds werewolves to the list of supernatural characters in his series. In each book in the Dresden Files series, the magical world becomes richer and deeper. It is nearly as fun learning about this world as it is reading about Harry's full action adventures.

Fool Moon is highly recommended escapist reading. As with all good escapist writing, the quality of the storytelling is hidden behind the action but it is also a joy to read the prose of a good writer. Do not make the mistake of thinking escapist writing can not have the qualities looked for in more literary genres. Good writing is good writing no matter the genre.

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Title: Wicked Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15567-3 price: $27.95 US copyright 2009, 402 pages

As expected, Wicked Prey is a very good detective tale. It doesn't break any new ground in the genre and it doesn't have the power of some of the previous Prey novels. But it is a very good detective story. Sandford has limited the setting of the novel by using the Republican nomination of McCain as a background for the story. While this brings the story into an immediate connection to the reader it does limit the story to a relatively non-event. This surprisingly dampens the suspense in the story.

A criminal gang, willing and able to kill at the least provocation, head to the Twin Cities to prey upon the money flowing into the region for the political convention. Nearly immediately, Lucas Davenport, head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, gets wind of their arrival. A possible sniper and an insane criminal out to get Davenport get into the mix of characters and events.

Wicked Prey is a good tale with enough violence and suspense to hold the reader. It isn't Sandford at the top of his game but his average tale is better than most writers. The one character that you wish there was more of is Letty Davenport, the adoptive daughter to Davenport. Lucas and Letty would make a good detective team in a future story. Wicked Prey is a story you will enjoy but you might want to wait for the paperback.

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Title: Grave Peril, Book Three of the Dresden Files
Author: Jim Butcher
Pub. Address:
        ROC
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-45844-5 price: $7.99 copyright 2001, 378 pages

Butcher continues with his building of a parallel magical world with Grave Peril. The story is as rich and complex as the first two books in the series. The plot line is a little more complex than the first two because of an increase in backstory. The only weakness in the tales is a tendency to build the perils too high. By the end of the story Dresden is so battered and abused he is at death's door, literally. And this peril happens too frequently. A little pacing to the high intensity storyline would help build in the details that are too thinly covered when a storyline is continually building in intensity.

Ghosts are coming to life in Chicago and Harry with the help of Michael, a True Knight of the faith with a Holy sword, speed from one deadly haunting to the next. Someone or something is weakening the boundary between the NeverNever and the real world and sending ghosts through the boundary to wreak havoc. People close to Harry seem to be primarily targeted by the ghosts and soon Harry realizes that he has been slated for destruction. A minefield of ancient taboos and magic has to be navigated if Harry and his friends will survive.

Grave Peril is recommended as pure fun escapism. Do not expect more from it but good escapism is hard to find. Reading should be fun and that is what you will find in this horror action adventure. Just don't expect to get much done until you finish the book.

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Title: Final Theory
Author: Mark Alpert
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Star Books published by Pocket Books
        A division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        Rockefeller Center
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-1-4391-0941-0 price: $7.99 copyright 2008, 454 pages

Action/adventure stories with a strong speculative science subplot are harder to find today than in the past. Final Theory is a good mainstream tale in this genre. Hard science SF purists will find that the storyline feels a little pushed with a too deep dependence on popular action themes and character stereotypes. For the average reader, it is a fast paced action story that you can get lost in.

David Swift is a professor and writer specializing in scientific history. He is stopped by the police and asked to come to a hospital where Hans Walter Klienman, theoretical physicist and colleague of Einstein, is dying from an assault. He has asked to speak to David before he dies. Hans whispers to him a series of numbers and 'Einheitliche Feldtheorie,' the German words for Unified Field Theory. David realizes that Einstein might have solved the problem of explaining both Relativity and Quantum Mechanics with one set of equations. Something physicists have been trying to do for nearly 100 years.

But he is not alone in this realization. The FBI, terrorists and the Department of Defense all have a stake in this theory. All are willing to do anything to get it, even torture and kill. Soon David is running for his life from a killer wanting to torture the information from him and the FBI trying to coerce and blackmail him. His only possible help is a girlfriend he hasn't seen in years. Monique Reynolds is a String Theorist living in Princeton in the home Einstein had once lived in. The body count rises as he runs for his life.

Final Theory is a good weekend action/adventure read. The story is fast with enough action so the small problems in the storyline can be ignored. It is enough different from the usual action fare that you will be glad you picked it up. It is a bit of variety in the current contemporary market that has been missing for the last few years. It is a treasured find in the used bookstore and worth the effort to find at full price.

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Title: Rough Country
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15598-7 price: $26.95 US copyright 2009, 388 pages

It is fun reading a good contemporary fictional story that takes place in a location that you know. In Rough Country, Sandford has used a location that I live in. A writer has to work a balancing act between reality and fiction when using a modern setting. Too much reality and you might place a killer living at your Grandmother's home. Too little and it will not connect with the reader. Sandford uses enough reality to get the core and feel of the Grand Rapids region of Minnesota but fictionalizes enough that no local will mistake the real town for the one in the story. This actually adds a huge amount of humor for the local reader as he/she laughs at a location or fact that they deal with everyday but is hidden in the guise of a hard-core detective novel. Sure there are a couple of facts wrong but enough are right that Rough Country should be a story anyone familiar with the region has to search out and buy. You will not just want to read it once.

Virgil Flowers, a detective for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, is in a musky fishing tournament on Lake Vermilion when he gets a call from his boss, Lucas Davenport. A woman has been shot kayaking on a resort lake outside of Grand Rapids. The murdered woman is well known in the state and the local sheriff's department is busy with the disappearance of a teen girl. Virgil is ordered down to the resort and walks into a complex web of sex, jealousy and money with the addition of a crazed serial killer or killers. The trail leads from the bedrooms of Grand Rapids to the board rooms of the Twin Cities to a country honkytonk in Iowa and back. Lust, money and country music are blended into a real location that is interesting enough that you just might like to visit, if not live in--minus the crazed murders.

Sandford is one of the best hard-core detective storytellers today and Flowers is a light, easy to like, character. Sandford is best known for his Lucas Davenport character but Flowers has less back story baggage than Davenport so the story is lighter and fresher. Rough Country is another winner and should be on the list of every reader in the genre.

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Title: Powerboat Racer
Author: Thomas Hollyday
Pub. Address:
        Solar Sipper Publishing
        In cooperation with Lightning Source Division of Ingram Books
        PO Box 86
        Weston, MA 02481

ISBN: 0-9741287-4-0 price: $12.95 US copyright 2009, 324 pages

Powerboat Racer is a fun mystery with a lot of local color. But it suffers from an all too common problem with today's publishing industry. The big publishers only want volume sales or those that fit particular volume niche markets. A simple, but good, mystery just doesn't find a home with the big publishers. This pushes the story into the very small or individual publishing markets. For a book to be produced it requires multiple line and galley edits. Even the big publishers with staffs of editors will produce books with multiple editing errors. Small publishers will usually have only one editor who has to handle everything from the line edits to the galley edits. Powerboat Racer suffers from too many formatting and line editing errors. Once the reader gets past the problems, he/she can enjoy a classic style mystery that is too frequently missing from the bookstores.

Harry Jacobson has just purchased a small local paper in River Sunday Maryland. He has been given a story lead from a local deputy sheriff that an old powerboat has been found, a powerboat belonging to a notorious criminal, Walker John Douglas, on the run for murder and arson. Harry has just stumbled into a thirty year old festering wound of racial politics and greed in the small coastal town. The more he learns about the events thirty years in the past the more threats and danger he uncovers. He is too good a reporter to give up on a great story but the real question is who will survive the eruption of violence that has been held in check by the disappearance of the just discovered powerboat, the Black Duck.

Powerboat Racer is a mystery that brings to life a small town with a hidden past that flows from the Civil War to today. It is the type of cozy mystery that is relatively hard to find today. The rich local color and characters bring into existence a small town that we can't find in our lives today but that we still would like to think exists. The story suffers from many minor editing errors and an ending that is overly sweet. But it is still better than many of the over-plotted contemporary mysteries that are produced by the major publishers. If you are looking for a cozy read during a vacation, Powerboat Racer would be a fine choice.

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Title: The Furies
Author: Bill Napier
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-312-94783-5 price: $7.99 copyright 2009, 492 pages

I enjoyed The Furies more than Nemesis, a previous book by Napier. The Furies is a complex action/spy novel that is rich in details. The back story of Germany's secret weapons of mass destruction is very plausible. The reason why anyone would use these ancient weapons when new ones could be easier built and used is a question. But the fast paced ride through the present and past is worth the implausibles. Napier writes books that try to balance the fantasy with the reality and this spy novel leans slightly closer to reality than many stories that are better known.

A UFO is spotted in Fossil Creek Arizona and a large number of people die. A disk shaped flying machine with Nazi markings has delivered Anthrax mixed with poison. A cryptic note has been sent to Downing Street threatening London with another lethal UFO. Lewis Sharp is brought into the investigation against his will because of his extensive knowledge of World War II history. A conspiracy of terrorists has started the first moves in a campaign to start a war. They are more than willing to kill an interfering historian and anyone else that might get in their way, including millions in the middle of London.

The Furies is a fun escapist weekend read. It has enough facts and history to challenge the reader and enough action to keep you turning the pages. The ending is more of a continuation to the next story and there is a deep underlying weakness in the plot but these can be easily ignored. The Furies has more pluses than minuses and is something to look for on the mass market shelf.

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Title: Sherlock Holmes The complete Novels and Stories Volume 1
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Classic
        Published by Bantam Dell
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 0-553-21241-9 price: $6.95 US, reissue 2003, 1059 pages

It is great fun reading very good stories that would never be published today. By today's publishing standards every one of the Sherlock Holmes stories would never appear under a major publishing label. They could only be self-published or find a home in one of the small niche electronic publishing houses. Your typical agent would start the process by shredding the narrative style of Doyle into the homogenous format typical in today's print. The major publishers would then continue the abuse by first making the tale fit the popular communication protocols required to get past the lawyers and activist groups while finally rejecting the short stories until they have been padded with page after page of filler until the stories are long enough to produce the optimum thickness for ideal sales numbers.

Great and simple storytelling is lost in today's corporate adult marketplace. This makes the reading of these classic tales much more enjoyable. You can again read past the rough edges of dialog and literary protocol and into just a great simple and fun storyline.

This volume includes the first two Sherlock Holmes novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. Both are short by today's standards but are a perfect fit for filling a long night or passing time during a short weekend. The volume also includes three collections of short stories, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. These stories are ideal for the mystery buff to fill in time between job and family.

Many people think of Holmes stories as being the murder mysteries of the movies or TV. Only a few are murder mysteries. Many are tales of unusual events and smaller crimes that pull the reader into the favorite Holmes type logic puzzle. The characters are also different from our movie introduction into the stories. Dr. Watson is a real partner to Holmes and the policemen are foils who are recognizable as any modern police officer or elected official today. The setting of Nineteenth Century London is both different enough and familiar enough to be unique and understandable as any modern location.

My recommendation is not to miss this book. You will not find as pleasurable a mix of easy reading and logically fun mystery stories on the modern shelves today. The rough edged narrative is a joy to read without the fancy techniques required by publishers today. And the variety of short novel and short story is a lost art in the corporate publishing world. The short story is a market that is missed by any true reader today and here you will have hours of fun short stories to read.

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Title: The Illumination
Author: Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-312-36526-4 price: $7.99 copyright 2007, 304 pages

The Illumination is a fast action novel with a small touch of history and fantasy. The action is so fast paced and the evil protagonists so omnipresent that the story feels a trifle contrived. There are no real problems with the narration or the logic of the storyline so it is a very good read for a relaxing weekend. Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori are authors to keep an 'eye' on.

Natalie Landau receives an evil eye pendant from her sister Dana, a reporter in Baghdad. The New York museum were she works as a curator and expert on Mesopotamian amulets and magical beliefs is broken into and she is attacked in an attempt to steal the pendant. She soon discovers that her sister has been murdered. Jim D'Amato, a reporter who worked with Dana stops by her sister's funeral and tells her of the disappearance of Dana's cameraman, who brought Natalie Dana's pendant. Other attacks and attempted thefts of the pendant follow in rapid succession. D'Amato and Natalie take off searching for answers while trying to stay alive from the killers searching for it. Their journey for answers crosses the Atlantic and leads to a final confrontation in Israel.

The Illumination is enjoyment storytelling that breaks no new ground. It is a treasure on the discount shelves and a good fill in story for a lazy afternoon. The standard story with no real surprises places it solidly on the to look for level but not on the actively to search for.

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Title: Corsair, A Novel of the Oregon Files
Author: Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-23329-0 price: $9.99 US copyright 2009, 545 pages

Cussler and company write action novels. The one nice feature is that all of their stories are built with the past as well as the present. The accuracy of the history or even the physics of the present are not integral in the storyline but both are at least acknowledge as being part of the story. This placement of the context of the story within a wider framework is something infrequently done in contemporary storytelling so finding it adds a nice sparkle to the tale.

The Oregon is a private contractor spy ship. It looks like a tramp steamer which can barely float but it is filled with millions of dollars in the latest technology and crewed by the best mix of mercenaries and spies in business today. The US Secretary of State is flying to a peace summit in Libya when her plane crashes. The US can't get involved with the search for the plane due to its delicate peace mission and the crash location within Libya so they hire the Oregon to find the Secretary of State and discover what happened to the plane. History steps into the story with a link to the past and terrorism in the form of piracy. A modern terrorist has patterned this modern action from the history of the Barbary pirates.

Juan Cabrillo, captain or chairman of the Oregon, must uncover the murderous plot and solve a two hundred year old mystery while keeping both himself and his crew alive. In every chapter Juan and his crew must navigate a complex web of intrigue and death with a goal of saving lives and futures.

Cussler is a staple writer in the non-stop action genre and Corsair is a fine example of the best of this popular no-frills market. The fantasy goes beyond the possible but is within the realm of fictional forgiveness. When you need to escape to a place where the good guys win despite the odds, Corsair is story that can take you there. It is worth the full cover price so it is a must snatch when you find it on sale or on the used shelves.

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Title: Percy Jackson & The Olympians
Author: Rick Riordan
Pub. Address:
        Hyperion Books, an Imprint of Disney Book Group
        114 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10011-5690

Percy Jackson & The Olympians Box set Books 1-3
ISBN: 978-1-4231-1349-2 price: $19.99 US mass market 2008, 1032 pages
Battle of the Labyrinth, Book 4
ISBN: 978-1-4231-0149-9 price: $7.99 US copyright 2009, 384 pages
The Last Olympian, Book 5
ISBN: 978-1-4231-0147-5 price: $17.99 US copyright 2009, 381 pages

The Percy Jackson series can be read as a set of individual books but is better considered as a larger book in five volumes. The story has a similar format to the better known Harry Potter series. A young boy finds that there are parallel worlds overlapping each other, one of mythology and one that is real. The changes between the two different series are both minor and major. Camp Half Blood is a summer camp while Hogwarts runs through a normal school year. Percy is a demigod half human and half an immortal god...

The differences are what makes this series unique while the similarities make it a more comfortable read. Percy Jackson & The Olympians is a stronger teen read from beginning to end. There is less background and more action in the story giving it a stronger young male audience. The biggest fun in the story is the modernization of the Greek mythologies. This brings a freshness to the tales that are too frequently lost with the normal summarizations that are usually done to the myths in today's literature.

The series starts out with Percy as a twelve year old suddenly discovering that he is a demigod when monsters start attacking him. Someone has stolen Zeus's lightning bolt and nearly everyone thinks he has done it. Percy is pushed out of the normal world and into the myths. The young hero learns about himself, the world, and the parallel mythological world while fighting to survive. The young hero's various quests bring both the reader and him into a greater understanding.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians is a great young teen book and a great book for adults. It structures the ancient mythologies into a relevant tale for today. The series is well worth looking for and will be a steal in a few months when the books start appearing on the used book shelves. The only two weaknesses in the tales are a lack of progression between the twelve year old psyche the teen as Percy grows older in the stories and a slightly too sweet ending after the many dark passages within the series. Riordan does add a hook to the ending hinting at the possibility of further stories but the series is complete as it stands.

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Title: Turn Coat, A novel of the Dresden Files
Author: Jim Butcher
Pub. Address:
        ROC
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-46281-7 price: $9.99 copyright 2009, 545 pages

The modern wizard Harry Dresden is a great character for the contemporary reader to escape with. Butcher writes a fast action fantasy that blends modern settings with supernatural mythology into a satisfying escapist treat. Unlike the Harry Potters or the Percy Jacksons, Dresden is an adult character. He is the character you found in the Western dime novels in the 1950s or the spy novels of the 1960s brought to a new life in the 21st Century.

Turn Coat, book eleven in the series, was a pleasant surprise for me. Butcher has a way of keeping the action continuous. It can be so fast paced that the storyline becomes lost in the action. With Turn Coat, Butcher has found a way to write in mini-breaks in the action for the reader to have time to reflect on what has happened in the past pages and what might happen in next chapter. The story is still extremely fast paced but the tale has become a little richer with the slight variation in story pace.

Harry Dresden hears a knock on his door. When he opens it, Morgan, a Warden who has made Harry's life miserable for years, gasps, "The Wardens are coming. Hide me please," and collapses. Morgan has just dragged Harry into a lethal mess that could destroy Harry and everyone he knows. A power struggle between various fractions in the magical world has been festering for years. Morgan has run afoul of a traitor framing him for murder and he has just brought his troubles literally to Harry's doorstep. Death is just a minor problem when dark magic can destroy your soul.

The latest fling into the adult escapist novel is the supernatural adventure. The Dresden Files are a must read series in this niche market and Turn Coat is a title you won't want to miss. If you can wait, the used bookstores will have it in a few months but if you are like me Turn Coat is a must on the discount store shelf. You will not be disappointed.

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Title: The Lost History of Christianity
Author: Philip Jenkins
Pub. Address:
        Harper One
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 978-0-06-147280-0 price: $26.95 copyright 2008, 336 pages

The Lost History of Christianity is about the history of the Asian, African and Middle Eastern churches. This history is as rich and complex as Western Christianity and for most of the last two thousand years had more followers and greater depth. There are a few structural problems with the book. It reads more like a series of essays than a history and the analysis of the demise of these churches is heavily influenced by opinion.

Many facts about these churches will amaze the reader. Centuries before Western Christianity expanded through Europe these Eastern and Southern churches had expanded to the Pacific Ocean. The church structures and the need to translate scriptures into various languages made Christianity the key source of knowledge and information for all of this huge region. Buddhism and Islam both heavily depended on this knowledge to grow and expand. Many of the ideas and knowledge that has been attributed to Islam actually originated through these various churches.

The destruction of these churches is a long and complicated story. They were surviving under Moslem rule for centuries until Islam finally clashed into countries and groups stronger than them such as the Mongols and Western expansion. The climate change caused by the mini-Ice Age prompted rioting against minorities which also caused a contraction of these churches. But surprisingly the final blows to these churches didn't happen in the ancient past for in the near history--the 1800s and 1900s. Massive genocide programs by the Turks and Iraqis wiped out hundreds of thousands and forced the removal of hundreds of thousands more Christians from their homes. Even recent history of the current Iraq conflict has prompted the mass killings of many of the remaining indigenous Christians.

The Lost History of Christianity is a much needed look at a world religion that has been neglected and minimized by both Western and Eastern cultures. The story needs to be examined by the true historian and even with this book’s limitations it is a needed first step in this exploration.

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Title: The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown
Pub. Address:
        Doubleday
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1745 Broadway
        New York, NY

ISBN : 978-0-385-50422-5 price: $29.95 US April, 2009, 509 pages

By now most people know the style of book Dan Brown writes. The Lost Symbol takes his mix of history, symbology, mystery and action into the Capital of the US. Most people don't know how filled the Capital is with symbology. People should however expect this. The US has a relatively new history in the world and the founding fathers had a clean slate to build a capital and they wanted to link it to the history they wanted the new nation to emulate. This has filled the Capital with symbology and structures that rival any in the world. Brown is a more experience writer now and it shows in his using less of the impossible in his storyline. The few threads that don't match reality are easier to ignore. The biggest weakness is that the ending is a little too soft when compared to the hardcore action and mystery of the rest of the book.

Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, is tricked into coming to Washington to meet a friend and give a lecture. Instead of finding a lecture hall filled with guests, he finds his friend kidnapped and his severed hand left at the Capital as a clue. Langdon must use the severed hand to solve an ancient mystery that is embedded in the symbology of Washington for nearly two hundred years or his friend will die horribly at midnight. The CIA sees this as a terrorist threat to the nation and forcibly steps in to control or stop Langdon's search.

The Lost Symbol is a book that will be enjoyed by the reader. It has all of the twists, intrigue and history you expect in a Dan Brown novel. But because it is expected, it doesn't have the unique force of his previous stories. The history and symbology of Washington is the best and greatest strength in the story and alone is enough to warrant finding and reading the novel. With the weakness of the ending, it is satisfying ending but doesn't match the rest of the novel's pace, the story is less impressive. It is a must find in the library or even paperback but the price of a hard cover seems a little much for the tale.

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Title: Simply Complexity, a Clear Guide to Complexity Theory
Author: Neil Johnson
Pub. Address:
        Oneworld Publications
        185 Branbury Road
        Oxford OX27AR
        England

ISBN : 978-1-85168-630-8 price: $15.95 US copyright 2007, 236 pages

Most introductory books on complexity try to survey the whole topic. Johnson uses his own personal experience in complexity as a limiting factor, leaving out the work of many others. This brings a surprising depth and focus on the topic. The drawback is that there is a huge amount of the discipline that is missing. The book reads as an adjunct to a broader curriculum. The reader is left wondering about the missing information or what steps should follow next.

Johnson uses a nice mix of very simple mathematical logic and real life examples to give this introduction a satisfying feel. How complexity works with real life traffic jams, disease, finances, war and terrorism gives an immediate purpose for this new science. Johnson's restatement of the standard population equation as a set of files is an especially fun building block to understanding the real examples. Since Johnson takes the time to build from basic logic to complex examples in real life, the typical reader will have the satisfaction of a true learning experience.

Johnson does make a few misleading statements in the book. If these statements are caused by over simplification or a too narrow focus, it is unknown. But the obviousness of the misstatements does question why they were left in the book. The strength of the rest of the material makes the problems forgivable.

Simply Complex is a solid text. It is a little too focused for the average lay reader but it is an ideal text for the mathematically inclined. There is not an over abundance of math but the logic used to build from very simple beginnings is similar to those used in math. If you are interested in looking deeper than a general review of complex topics, this book is a good intermediate step.

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Title: 206 Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address
        Scribner
        A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 978-0-7432-9439-3 price: $26.99 copyright 2009 303 pages

Reichs writes murder mysteries about forensic anthropology that have an accurate feel. This is the strength in her stories. The weakness is the narration. The strength outweighs the weaknesses by far. 206 Bones is has a few more flaws than some of her other stories but the last few pages redeem the storytelling.

206 Bones starts out with the heroine, Temperance Brennan, waking up disorientated, bound and in a dark, damp, cold, underground space. As she struggles to remember what happened and escape her prison, the backstory is told. Old ladies are being murdered and someone is trying to discredit her work. Normally this story technique is a good one. The problem in Reich's use of the method is that the backstory starts out too soft to match the high tension of the beginning. You are halfway through the book before both the backstory and Temperance's struggle to survive and escape match with tautness.

206 Bones is a book the forensic mystery buff must read. But you would be more happy finding it in a library or on the discount shelves. The quality and style is enough to recommend the story to any reader wanting to fill time or explore a new genre with the same stipulation. Kathy Reichs is an author worth looking for even if a particular story isn't her best.

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Title: Trust No One
Author: Gregg Hurwitz
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-312-38956-7 price: $9.99 copyright 2009, 422 pages

Trust No One is a non-stop action mystery. The suspense gives you little chance to breathe. The fast pace permits the reader to ignore the questionable events that only conspiracy theorists would consider possible. One key weakness is that the ending is a little too ordinary to completely satisfy adrenaline produced by the intense action.

Nick Horrigan is a broken man. As a teen, he enters his home to find his dying stepfather who he loved. Mysterious men threaten to frame him for his stepfather's death and to harm his mother unless he runs into hiding. He does, separating himself from his family and past life. After years of hiding, he comes back to his home town and right into a terrorist plot. An armed SWAT team breaks into his apartment and drags him out. He is given a phone and told a terrorist threatening to blow up a nuclear power plant is asking to speak to him. He walks past the SWAT teams and into the power plant. There he finds not a terrorist but a man claiming to be a friend of his stepfather. Before he can find out anything more, the man is killed and Nick is declared a hero. He has again become a pawn in a murderous game of lies and deception. Instead of running again, he decides to find the truth. But is the truth worth more than the deception?

Trust No One is a great non-stop action mystery thriller. Hurwitz brings to life the feelings of loss, fear and confusion. The story's weaknesses are easy to ignore. This is a top notch read for those into the thriller genre and it has enough mystery for the detective story fan. The fast paced storyline might be too frantic for some readers but, if you can handle the pace, this is a book to read.

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Title: Storm Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15649-6 price: $27.95 US copyright 2010, 408 pages

Sandford has added another great detective novel to his Prey series with Storm Prey. Detective mysteries can be fanciful with extreme characters or realistic. Sandford writes his detective stories as a fiction but with a feel of reality. Your typical crook is not that smart. The smart ones become CEOs and white collar criminals. The problem with finding your villain isn't their brains but finding the few bad people within a population of thousands. Sandford brings out the play and counter play of the vicious bad guy fumbling to keep alive and free and the workhorse detective slugging his way through the clues and sorting through the thousands of people filling the void between criminal and cop.

Surgeon, Weather Karpinnen, drives into the hospital parking structure in the wee hours of a storming winter morning to help in a surgery to separate two conjoined girls. She inadvertently sees a team of robbers who have just raided the hospital pharmacy for millions of dollars' worth of drugs and beaten a hospital worker to death. The crew decides that they will need to eliminate the witness and start planning on killing Weather. They don't know that she is the wife of Luca Davenport the lead investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and a lethal adversary in his own right.

Storm Prey is one of the top detective mysteries for the year. The gritty story takes you into a fictional world that has a feel of being possible. This makes it an enjoyable change from the super criminal crime fighter tale you will frequently find on the shelves. This story will keep John Sandford on the short list of the best detective genre authors writing today.

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Title: Christianity, The First Three Thousand Years
Author: Diarmaid MacCulloch
Pub. Address:
        Viking
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-670-02126-0 price: $45.00 US copyright 2009, 1161 pages

Christianity is a single volume history book. It is not a promotional/ apologist book or even a detailed study but an extensive survey. MacCulloch has worked to keep his personal religious insights to the minimum and has tried to summarize vast spans of history with as little distortion as possible. He is English and this has colored his view—English issues are examined from the inside while history from other locations is viewed as a trained outsider looking in. Within these limitations, he has produced an excellent text that brings out the scope and the huge variety of the largest religion in the world.

As with any good history, you have to examine the past and conditions that produce the events you are studying. In the case of Christianity, this would include the Jewish history and ancient Greek/Roman culture. People can only communicate and share ideas by using words and concepts they share. Christianity became a religion when it built itself using the native history of Jesus and its blending with the dominate culture of his time—Greek/Roman. This blending explains the key stories that became the religion. Some might consider the large sections of the history pre-Christian culture unneeded but it soon becomes obvious that these portions are needed to understand Christianity's growth throughout the world.

The most amazing fact the average person will get from reading this book is the huge variety that makes up the religion. It has never been just a single church but a blend that keeps changing with introductions of different cultures. Minor and major issues produce different churches. Most varieties have basically the same core beliefs so the differences are more cosmetic than what the average person believes. These can range from something as simple as if you can use leaven or unleavened bread for communion or as major as if you should use the Old Testament as part of your scripture. The variety can go on forever.

One of the more interesting aspect of Christianity is how it is either used or how it occasionally tries to use the other political forces in the world. This has resulted in both promise and pain. Some of the internal disputes over trivial matters have resulted in the deaths of millions when the marriage of politics and religion creates forces neither can fully control. In other cases, the marriage between politics and religion has brought beauty, knowledge and life to millions more. This uneasy alliance between politics and religion is a major thread in the history of Christianity and the history of the world.

For anyone interested in history, Christianity is a great survey. It strikes a good balance between details and generalizations and keeps personal opinions and religion to a minimum. It is a must read text for a true scholar of history and a worthy guide for anyone wanting to explore.

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Title: Flinx Transcendent
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-345-49608-9 price: $7.99 copyright 2009, 432 pages

The Flinx series of stories is one of the best SF series today. Flinx and Pip are two of the greatest fictional characters that you can find. Foster has been using them for the last thirty-five years to build a variety of unique and interesting worlds. Foster writes both short stories and novels. A number of his latest Flix and Pip stories were beautiful short stories that had been dressed as novels. This is because the major publishers have not been producing venues for short stories. In Flinx Transcendent, Foster has started with a short story about the AAnn home-world, Blasusarr. He then finishes off the major storyline hook that he introduced in his first set of novels three decades ago. This is a better solution than his past practice of editing a single short story into novel length.

Flinx Transcendent is a satisfying end to this major SF series. It stitches together all of the threads weaved into the saga over the years and is still a fun independent story. In many ways, this story could have been told much earlier in the series. The characters and worlds Foster has created could easily have continued after this major climax into a continuing series of satisfying travelogs within the fantasy future worlds of the Commonwealth.

Finx and Pip represent a major genre line in SF and anyone who enjoys the genre needs to read a few, if not all, of this series of stories. Even those who normally don't enjoy SF will find the interesting complex worlds of the Commonwealth and the characters Foster creates a worthwhile escape. Flinx Transcendent is a must read for those who have read any of the previous series of books and is a satisfying introduction to the series for anyone first finding it on the shelf.

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Title: The Atlantis Code
Author: Charles Brokaw
Pub. Address:
        A Forge Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-7653-5435-8 price: $9.99 mass-market edition August 2010, 483 pages

The Atlantis Code is a fun action adventure. It is a nice mix of history and fantasy framed with just enough reality to give it a solid link to the world today. Brokaw takes a new twist on the Atlantis myth to give it an unexpected turn which gives the story a fresh feel. Frequently many popular authors let their fantasies loose when it comes to the timeframe on the events in the plot line. There is no reason why the writers can't use realistic travel and work times. Brokaw actually uses timeframes that could happen and it creates a stronger story that is easier to escape into. There are weaknesses in the plot but, with the stronger reality based framework, they are easy to ignore.

Linguist/archeologist Thomas Lourds is hired by a TV show to be the guest expert. The TV show sets up in Alexandria, Egypt with an array of artifacts for him to examine in front of the camera. A team of murderous gunmen raid the makeshift studio and steal a ceramic bell with writing engraved on its side that shouldn't exist. Lourds has become a target in the sight of a gang of killers hired to steal a series of artifacts that could change the world. Lourds is on the run, hiding from the killers, while trying to discover the secret of the artifacts scattered across the world for millennia.

The Atlantis Code is a very good escapist novel. It deserves more notice than it has received. It is one of those books that the publishers don't seem to understand how to promote that become hidden behind better selling books that actually have more problems with their storytelling. It is a great find on the mass-market shelves and a steal in the used bookstores.

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Title: The Grand Design
Author: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 978-0-553-80537-6 price: $28.00 copyright 2010, 198 pages

The Grand Design is similar to a number of other books with Stephen Hawking as the author. It is a very readable summary of complex physics written in a form that the typical reader can understand. The Grand Design doesn't cover any really new science. Many of the topics have been fodder for numerous science fiction writers for half a century. The real strength of the book is the easy and fun reading that becomes an educational experience.

The book covers a broad spectrum of scientific discovery to the relatively recent formation of M-Theory. The book calls this theory the Grand Design with its ability to become the framework to explain all aspects of the universe. It builds through the story by tracing the scientific history of the various threads that were incorporated to form the theory.

The story crosses the line between science and philosophy in a modern attempt in updating the debate that developed during the great religious and scientific upheaval called the Reformation. This is a needed step in serious discussion as many of the old lines of thought have become a bit dated. It is also interesting to the historians that this centuries old debate can be seen as still fresh and evoking.

The book starts with mundane questions everyone has thought about at some time or another -- the When, Where, Whys and Hows of the universe and ourselves. We usually hear these questions in a philosophical setting. It takes a great degree of confidence for the authors to use them in a scientific text. None of the answers are that unusual or unfamiliar. They have been asked and answered in various ways for hundreds of years. An interesting question does come up with this history, why do so many pundits critiquing this new book act so surprised with the answers? The pundits either haven't read or understood the text and have framed the topics into stories they have decided to talk about. Most of the headlines have been on some variation of the fictitious idea that Hawking has disproved the existence of God. All that was stated is what has been known by scientists for hundreds of years -- science can be used to explain the physical world without having to resort to miraculous events attributed to God.

This book is a must read for many contemporary readers. The sparsity of scientific education in this country makes for a multitude of misunderstandings about science. This book fills the gap with the correct usage of words and ideas used in science without the mixing of those definitions with classic philosophical and religious meanings. For the true scientist, there are a few disagreements that come about with the over simplification required to produce a story for the lay person but the true scientist will also find many ways to explain to non-scientists what they are doing. You can wait for picking the book up at your library but you should read it as soon as you can. Everyone does need to understand the current scientific debates in the world and this is an easy to understand them.

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Title: The Last Testament
Author: Sam Bourne
Pub. Address:
        Harper
        An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
        10 East 53rd Street
        New York, NY 10022

ISBN: 978-0-06-147287-5 price: $7.99 copyright 2009, 402 pages

Bourne has written a good Middle Eastern suspense thriller in The Last Testament. The locations are solid and the historical hook is unique and fun. The only real problem is the mid-section. Many readers will love this action sequence but it reads as a little too muddied. Suspense requires a build up of threats and action but with pacing. Today's jaded readers and publishers like to push too hard on the action, creating super villains and too many implausible events. Many novels are pure action and the reader knows it and seeks them out for this type of escapist thrill. The Last Testament tries to fill the void between a thinking reader's thriller and the action junkie. It is mostly successful in this task except for the over reaching middle.

Maggie Costello is a crisis negotiator whose single failure resulted in war. Broken, she is trying to build a new life as a relationship counselor. Washington is trying to broker a real Palestinian Israeli peace treaty. It has gotten to a crucial point. A series of deadly incidents break out threatening the negotiations and Washington convinces Maggie to come out of retirement and step in as a back up for the negotiation team in this period of crisis.

An archeological find has surfaced purporting to be the last will and testament of Abraham. The ancient tablet could either make the peace or bring the region down in war. The deadly incidents disrupting the negotiations are for control of the tablet and the knowledge it might reveal. Maggie has just become a pawn in a deadly game where death is an all too easy an answer.

The Last Testament is a very good suspense. It is a great deal on the mass market and used book shelves. It tries valiantly to be more than the weekend escape novel but it just falls short. You will not be disappointed reading it but you might finish wishing for a more disciplined story.

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Title: Spartan Gold
Author: Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-23629-1 price: $9.99 US copyright 2009, 501 pages

A growing trend in publishing is the big name author mini-publisher. The major publishers have stopped supporting and producing the old bread and butter 'B' author. These are the workman type authors who produce the fun stories that don't necessarily break new ground but fill the reader's need for a good story to relax with. For these writers to get the promotion they deserve, they have been pushed to find more famous writers to co-produce their stories. You can find these books on the shelves with the famous author's name printed in large font followed by the 'B' author's name, at least three sizes smaller. Grant Blackwood is a very good writer who has found a publishing home with Clive Cussler. Their writing styles are similar enough for this pairing to produce a well rounded and fun story that the big corporate publishers will produce and promote. If you have read a Cussler novel before, you have the basic style of storytelling. Blackwood seems to bring into the mix a more plausible tale with softer characters.

The husband and wife treasure hunting team of Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Maryland searching for pre-Civil War relics from a slaver and murderer when they come across a mystery involving a Napoleonic bottle fragment, a Nazi submarine and a killer for hire. They take on the challenge and travel through Europe searching for more Napoleonic wine bottles and clues to a treasure hidden for over two thousand years. Each step of the way they are dogged by killers hired by a Black Sea crime lord who wants the treasure for himself.

Spartan Gold is a surprisingly enjoyable tale that has a plausible historical hook that stretches back two thousand years to the epic battles between the Greeks and the Persians. The evil-doers are not super villains but people who might exist. Sam and Remi are likeable characters who you actually want to know. And the mechanics of the storyline is physically possible. The minor impossible fictions are very easy to ignore. The final result is a fun story you will enjoy enough so you will put the next Fargo Adventure novel on your must read list.

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Title: Red Dragon Rising, Shadows of War
Author: Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice
Pub. Address:
        A Forge Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-7653-6098-4 price: $9.99 mass-market edition October 2010, 627 pages

There are a few writers who have taken the job of writing war stories about mythical but plausible wars filled with accurate gritty details. Bond has been doing this for decades. The writing team of Bond and DeFelice has started a massive story about a possible war in the near future caused by the dislocations caused by climate change. The premise is accurate but the timeline and other details are too fictionalized. If you ignore the minor problems, you can easily get lost in the story. Anyone considering reading this book should know that Red Dragon Rising is just section one of a larger story and you are left in the middle of an action sequence at the end of the book.

Climate change has severely changed and damaged the economies of the world. China's economy has been shifted to world production. With the changes, China's exports have fallen and their crops have been suffering from a series of draughts and floods. Vietnam is now a bread basket for the region and China's new rulers have decided to incite a war to get this food production. A climate scientist from the US, Josh MacArthur, is with a team measuring the climate changes near Vietnam's northern border with China. His research team is attacked and killed by a Chinese covert incursion into Vietnam to create a justification for the war. Josh has a video camera and filmed proof of the Chinese attacks. When he tries to communicate to the outside world for help, both China and the US find out about his existence. China sends out a commando team to kill or capture him and the US sends in covert agents to try to get him and his video out to the world. Both countries know that the fate of the region depends on Josh and his video.

Red Dragon Rising brings back all of the limited but lethal action of the early Cold War Era. It has none of the petty illogical nuances of religious and regional terrorism. It is about super powers trying to keep the balance without going to a full world war with billions of casualties. With the stakes so much higher, the story becomes more relevant.

Red Dragon Rising is a classic super power covert war story but with an updated storyline. It is a great story for the military reader. The biggest drawback is that Red Dragon Rising is just the intro to a multi-part story. Those who can wait for the next books should hold off and buy this one from the used bookshelves. The next book in the series should be available by the time you find this one on the used shelves. If you have the patience, reading two or more stories at a time will be a good start for a series you can look for finishing in the future.

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Title: Why Evolution is True
Author: Jerry A. Coyne
        Pub. Address:
        Penguin Books
        Division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-14-311664-6 price: $16.00 US copyright 2009, 282 pages

The educational mess caused by Creationists and Intelligent Design people in the schools has done one positive thing. It has produced a large number of readable scientific books on evolution. Why Evolution is True is one of these. It is a surprisingly readable analysis of the huge amount of scientific proof for evolution and a serious critique of how Intelligent Design fails repeatedly as any form of serious science. There is an importance here for science. There are stronger and stronger movements of fundamentalists in both Christianity and Islam who have merged ideas into trying to minimize their loss of perceived influence by creating a religious version of pseudo science. The fundamentalists are hoping to cash in on the obvious strengths of science for themselves. Books such as this bring the discussions from religious establishments and the messiness of extreme public politics directly to the individual. The one thing I have found missing from these discussions is a rigorous defense by the fundamentalists in how they manufacture their beliefs from so little theological support.

Evolution has so much supporting data that any single volume has to limit the discussion. Coyne has done this by keeping most of his supporting data limited to information he has worked with directly. This permits him to add personal touches into the text that produce a less formal relationship between the reader and the science. He covers all of the major topics and vast history of the world with proofs for the scientific data. The readability of the text makes it an excellent choice for any novice and its depth makes it a great companion for the technical reader. The scientific reader might lament that favorite facts are missing but the coherent building of the science compensates.

A factor in this discussion that has been left out is how important it is to keep science and religion separate. Enormous problems have occurred in the past when society permits religion to dominate non-religious aspects of life. The corruption of non-religious matters with faith is a topic that needs an open exploration. Hopefully this will soon occur.

Why Evolution is True is an excellent book for anyone, student or questioning adult, interested in the topic. It covers more than enough of the topic to be an excellent reference and does open both the scientific and religious mind to new avenues for their exploration.

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Title: The Wrecking Crew, How Conservatives Rule
Author: Thomas Frank
Pub. Address:
        Metropolitan Books
        Henry Holt and Company, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-8050-7988-3 price: $25.00 US copyright 2008, 396 pages

In The Wrecking Crew, Frank uses the core beliefs of the modern conservative movement with public statements and real policies of conservatives to open to the public what the movement is all about. He throws on the trash heap layer after layer of the public face of conservative thought and reveals its core design. The typical voter might not like what they read here but the broad and highly referenced analysis has to explored and considered when looking at today's politics. Conservatives will have a knee-jerk reaction against his story but they do need to study what he says. Every group has specific concepts and ideas that are prone to abuse. By knowing what has happened in the past, you can prevent those same things from happening in the future.

Frank takes the time to build up detail after detail with supporting facts and dates to bring out the policies of the far right. The analysis is powerful and convincing but can be summarized. The conservatives (not individually but as a group) consider business as god and government as Satan. With this theology, it is no big step to lie, cheat, corrupt and attack on behalf of your god. The surrounding policies and stands are flexible to conservatism -- a cloak to be change for the greater good when surrounding events change. Business is not moral, people are. Business only looks for the dollar and what it can buy. This underlying thought transcends core conservative beliefs. Business and the dollar are what matters and everything else is flexible.

Just a few examples are required to show this. Lies are plentiful with conservatives. They blame Liberals for budget problems but they are the ones who cause them. The trillions in debt can all be placed on conservative tax cutting and mismanagement, first under Reagan and then under Bush. (It can be noted that in recent history only the liberal administrations controlled and cut deficits.) Another lie is that only business can do things correctly and cheaply. This can be shown wrong with just two very public and recent events, Katrina and Iraq. With Katrina, the very well run FEMA had been dismantled and replaced with private contractors. The result was massive damage and repairs that cost many times over the real costs. Iraq is the same. Nearly immediately private contractors were brought in and the war cost thousands of times more than it should have and has lasted longer than previous conflicts from the mismanagement.

The next example is how business is run. You buy and sell. Since Reagan, that has been the systematic restructuring of the government by the conservatives. This has become institutionalized with the years of their rebuilding to such a degree that is how it is expected that to get a law passed -- you have to buy a lobbyist and pay fees for every government action. Under the conservatives the revolving door between business and government workers has been thrown open so instead of a trickle back and forth there is a flood with business and government now staffed by the same people.

Since business doesn't like regulation, regulatory bodies in the government are stripped of money and broken. When possible, total incompetents are installed -- oil company exec. for pollution control, drug company exec. for the FDA, company lawyer for labor...

With real examples, excruciatingly detailed in the book, Frank lays out in chronological and scandal order. The serious voter needs to read this even if they are conservative. It highlights endemic problems within the conservative movement that needs to be addressed and that voters need to understand. If they don't, they will vote for the slogan and not for the reality. The conservative movement has crippled the government and brought us trillions in debt multiple times. This has happened because the voter hasn't looked directly at the messy job of governing and have let slogans prevail instead of real issues. This makes The Wrecking Crew a must read for all political sides.

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Title: The Hadrian Memorandum
Author: Allan Folsom
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-7653-6133-2 price: $9.99 copyright 2009, 635 pages

The Hadrian Memorandum is an action/adventure suspense novel with a near impossible hero. The actual events in the book are closer to reality than fantasy so it is more grounded than many stories of this type. At 635 pages, it is longer and more wordy than your typical action tale. Because it takes the middle ground in this genre, it should appeal to a wider audience than other stories in this market.

Nicholas Martin is a landscape architect in England. His original identity was a police detective in the US. Before this story, he became friends with the current President of the US in a situation that required that he leave his old life and take on a new identity and profession. The President has received information through a world renowned German writer about a problem in Africa. The German writer's brother is a priest in the country and has information about civil fighting and the possible involvement of a multi-million dollar US oil company and very possibly others in the government. The President needs someone outside of normal government channels to investigate the claims and talk to the priest. He calls on his old friend Nicholas Martin.

Martin embarks on a dangerous odyssey when after his arrival in the African country a civil war breaks out and the priest is murdered. He runs into the jungle and barely escapes the killers only to be marked as someone who might know where the priest hid his proof of what was happening to the people in his country. He has to fight, scheme and finesse his way from the war torn country and across Europe collecting the bits of proof the priest and German writer have left behind. On his trail is a team of killers with the backing of a million dollar oil company and the covert help of the CIA. Behind Martin is a path littered with bodies stretching across two continents as the killers attempt to hide what he uncovers from the world.

The Hadrian Memorandum is a fun relaxing action/adventure. It has enough strengths that you won't be disappointed reading it. Its weaknesses can be found in its epilogue where Folsom takes fifteen pages for a two page wrap-up. Many readers, when they finish Hadrian, will probably search the used bookshelves to find the two previous tales with this set of characters. The storytelling is enjoyable enough to look for more.

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Title: The Mathematical Mechanic
Author: Mark Levi
Pub. Address:
        Princeton University Press
        41 William Street
        Princeton, New Jersey 08540

ISBN: 978-0-691-14020-9 price: $19.95 copyright 2009, 186 pages

The Mathematical Mechanic tries to fill a niche that has been neglected in contemporary education. In the past, mechanics or physics was part of mathematics. Over the centuries, mathematics has become a theoretical science with just a passing nod to its mechanical past. In old writings from Galileo to Archimedes, you will find mathematics sprinkled with, and frequently built with, mechanical processes. Levi has taken numerous mathematical concepts and used physics or mechanics to prove them.

The book claims that a minimum of actual math is needed to understand and work through its pages. This is both a fact and a lie. You really don't need a large background of math for the proofs but the layout and logic is not enough for the average reader. The reader has to build in their mind ideal machines and physics structures using very simple and minimal line drawings that are explained with a sparse sprinkling of mathematical sentences using terms and short cuts most familiar to trained mathematicians. To be for the general public, the text needs some graphic art to help the reader visualize the different devices and methods used in the text followed by a more comprehensive explanation that eases the reader through the steps need for the proofs using everyday language. As it now stands, the text would be best used by teachers as a supplement for themselves or for any classes that they might be currently teaching.

The fascinating fact that is brought out again and again in the book is that, although it might take pages of thought to set up the mechanical device to prove a single mathematical concept, once that work is done the proof is frequently just a single line. So many math concepts, such as the Pythagorean Theorem, are simply mathematical reflections of the many aspects of the physical universe around us.

The Mathematical Mechanic is a great supplement for a math teacher, engineer or physicist for their classes and is even a good adjunct for their own personal knowledge. It just doesn't hold up for the general educated reader, which it is being marketed to.

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Title: Blowback
Author: Brad Thor
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 978-1-4116-0828-1 price: $9.99 copyright 2005, 648 pages

Blowback is a fantasy action/adventure. You expect one dimensional characters and simplified good versus evil plots. Blowback is a grade above the average story in this genre. It has a slightly stronger grasp of reality and a flowing plotline. The minor weaknesses in the book are unnecessary caricatures that play to the bias of readers and which don't promote the plot plus the occasional scene change with missing details. The problems possibly result from the current push by publishers to pad the size on certain books as a sales tool. Cussler and other writers in this genre have a better feel for story length.

Scot Harvath is a counterterrorism specialist working for the President as an off-the-book operative who can cross jurisdictional lines that block access between various government agencies. His current task is to capture a vicious al-Qaeda operative. The terrorist happens to trap Harvath in a compromising position in front of TV cameras and he becomes a political target of a ruthless senator. The situation forces him to go even farther off-the-books and continue his work with even more limited direct help from the government. An arms dealer contacts the government with information but he will only talk to Harvath. This puts Harvath directly into the crosshairs of al-Qaeda and an even more powerful foe. The investigation leads to a secret weapon of mass destruction Hannibal had planned to use against Rome and into the heart of the Middle East.

Blowback is an escapist action/adventure that has enough depth to be slightly more mass market than the typical book in this genre. It is a great vacation read but don't expect anything more from it.

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Title: Harmonica for Dummies
Author: Winslow Yerxa
Pub. Address:
        Wiley Publishing, Inc.
        111 River St.
        Hoboken, New Jersey 07030-5774

ISBN: 978-0-470-33729-5 price: $21.99 copyright 2008, 340 pages

The Dummies books and the Complete Idiot guides fill a key need in technical writing. They attempt, with various degrees of success, to translate technical information to the general public. Harmonica for Dummies was a very pleasant surprise in this market. It really does what it claims. It covers the basics and not so basics in a clear and easy way. It isn't a beginning music course for harmonicas but a very good manual on what a person needs to know to play and learn to make music on the instrument. It is also filled with background history and details, which is nearly enjoyable enough for someone to pick up the book for this reason alone. Yerxa has done a great job promoting and explaining his instrument to the general public.

If anyone wants to learn the harmonica, this is the first book they should get, even before picking up a harmonica. It gives great advice on purchasing, maintaining and repair the instrument as well as how to play it. The harmonica is an instrument you can carry anywhere and is cheap enough that nearly anyone can afford one. This makes it one of the most personalized instruments around and Yerxa is always conscious of this individuality. The book gives the information a person needs while letting the individual take it where he/she wants to go with it.

Harmonica for Dummies is a very easy recommendation.

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Title: West of the Tularosa
Author: Louis L'Amour
Pub. Address:
        Leisure Books
        Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
        200 Madison Avenue
        New York, NY 10016

ISBN: 978-0-8439-6410-3 price: $7.99 copyright 2010 260 pages

West of the Tularosa is a collection of some of Louis L'Amour's early short stories. L'Amour is possibly the best Western and early American history novelist. He is a pulp writer who had to tell a story in as few words as possible so it could fit in one of the numerous pulp magazines. This makes his stories deceptively simple to read. But the writing is far from simple. In a few words or a single paragraph, a good pulp writer can communicate to the reader the same information that a typical contemporary writer would require a chapter to do. These early stories are a little raw in technique but they still have the ability to bring a reader into a world that both reflects some truths of the past and a mythic need to idealize a history that people feel should have existed.

The eight short stories in the collection are ideal to fill the short gaps in time the typical person today needs occupied between appointments or waiting for friends. The well written short story is generally missing from the bulk of written material produced today. This is a real failure of the publishing industry. Everyone can enjoy a few relaxing minutes enjoying tales by great writers.

West of the Tularosa is a great introduction to the genre for the typical reader today who hasn't had the chance to pick up a classic Western from the shelves filled with vampire and other supernatural tales. It will also bring real pleasure to the connoisseur of the Western because many of the minor storylines that fill L'Amour's later novels were first experimented with in the variety of short stores he first wrote. If you haven't read a Western before, you will not be disappointed by picking up one of the collections of re-released pulp short stories that occasionally find their way to the bookstore shelves.

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Title: Outlaws from Afar
Author: Max Brand
Pub. Address:
        Leisure Books
        Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
        200 Madison Avenue
        New York, NY 10016

ISBN: 978-0-8439-6180-5 price: $6.99 copyright 2007 260 pages

Outlaws from Afar is a set of three Max Brand short stories. The stories were written in the early 1930s. Brand wrote stories in multiple genres. His westerns are stories set in the Old West but unlike L'Amour the West isn't a joint character in the plot. Brand's characters are focused on a single aspect of a personality to the extent that to some readers they might be cartoonish. His stories are complex and rich with unusual aspects such as a gunfighter who doesn't use guns. But because of the oversimplification of the character development they are better read as a short escapist pleasure.

The Law Dodger of Windy Creek is a simple tale about an escaped convict looking for vengeance. He was unjustly convicted of murder and is seeking to kill the man who lied at his trial. He finds love and justice as well as vengeance in his quest.

Trail of the Eagle is about a simple honest man attacked by murderous cutthroats who survives in spite of and because of his simple honesty.

Outlaws from Afar is an unique tale about a man who fights gunfighters without a gun. He uses his brain, speed and courage to tempt fate and survive against a challenge given by a group of murderous criminals. By the time you get to this story, you will have discovered that Brand spends more time developing the evil characters in his plot. The good guy wins but, since Brand spends so much more time developing the bad man's personality, the good guy comes off a little bland.

These types of stories have been relegated to the past and you can only now find these simple, yet complex, tales in the reprints that trickle onto the shelves from time to time. To contemporary readers, they will seem a little lacking in depth but this is deceptive. They seem so simple because of the skill of the writer. If you haven't read any of the multitude of past great pulp authors, you need to pick up one of these collections off the bookstore shelves and learn what your parents and grandparents did about writing. A good pulp writer can tell in a thousand words what a contemporary writer can't put in ten thousand. But be careful. Once you learn what can be done in just a few paragraphs, you will never look at a bloated contemporary novel the same way again.

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Title: Jesus Potter Harry Christ
Author: Derek Murphy
Pub. Address:
        HB Press
        9875 SW Murdock
        Tigard, Oregon 97224

ISBN: 978-0615430935 copyright 2010, 478 pages

Jesus Potter Harry Christ is something of a misnomer. Sure it starts with a literary comparison between the Harry Potter stories and the biblical Jesus stories but that is not where the focus of the book is. The book does start with a relatively short section documenting the links people see between Harry Potter and Christianity but then the largest sections of the book compares the bible with the literature and mythology that existed before and during its writing. Murphy's basic premise is that if parts of a literary work existed before this work than it is a derivative. In a sense, he is correct but are Shakespeare's plays derivative and not unique just because they use portions of pre-existing tales?

To communicate between people you need to have shared concepts. This means that every work written or created that can be enjoyed between multiple people has to have shared concepts. In a very real sense, any sufficiently complex story can be linked to every other. Carl Sagan showed this communication linkage very well in The Demon-Haunted World. He noted that people have always recorded unusual encounters that were outside of real world experiences. Two thousand years ago people would label these encounters as visitations from Thor or even angels. Today we call them alien encounters. The difference in labels is because the culture has changed and we need different terms and phrasing to communicate the same type of events. Literatures in use when the bible was written will show us communication at that time.

Murphy uses literary clues and methods to show that nearly every portion of the bible can be linked to multiple previous tales, myths and creations -- a valid and an interesting task. This is also something that should be expected in a work as massive as the bible that has links over extensive periods of times and cultures. The bible claims to have a history encompassing Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Canaanite, Greek and Roman cultures among a few. It should be expected that those cultures would appear in the text with shared stories, bits and pieces. Murphy does show these links in detail. His depth of knowledge in the various literatures brings enjoyable details on how the various myths and stories might have became entangled.

The weaknesses in the book come about by the disciplines he doesn't have detailed knowledge in. A complete analysis of the biblical stories has to have a literary knowledge but also requires a broad spectrum of other fields such as archeology, geology, sociology... Even number use and development becomes a factor. For example: Murphy traces the use of 12 zodiac signs, 7 levels in astrology... from more ancient literature to the bible. But those numbers are universal with people. Five fingers and two hands gives you the number 7 and two hands each with five fingers gives you the number 12. This alone makes those numbers important enough to appear over and over again in literature. He also places special significance on astrology and particular names given to star groups. This is an important factor in literature but the linkage between the celestial calendar and particular animal names is a lesser link. You can not link a particular group of stars with only one name. The small points of light in the sky are like the proverbial ink blots -- everyone sees a different picture in them. The conclusions he makes using these other disciplines about the biblical story are lacking. This opens to book to unwarranted criticism but criticism Murphy permits when he tries to bolster his analysis with these fields.

Jesus Potter Harry Christ is not a book for your average reader. It is a readable literary analysis of the bible starting with today's Harry Potter stories and bracketed in the past with ancient myths and literature. As a strict literary analysis, it is very good. It tracks a variety of myths and religions and shows how concepts, thought lines and stories became interlinked with the bible. Any biblical scholar, historian and want-to-be theologian can have fun looking into this text. Biblical literalists will have problems after the first page or two. I can recommend this book to any scholar wanting to view a literary only analysis of the bible. Since politics, religion and sports are three of the big subjects sure to cause a fight if discussed, be prepared for some intense feelings when you read this book. As for how this book frames the bible with history, archeology, geology..., you will need to look further.

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Title: The Bride Collector
Author: Ted Dekker
Pub. Address:
        Center Street
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-1-59995-372-4 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2010, 466 pages

There are a variety of different types of authors. Some are storytellers who carry the reader along with the tale. Some are writers who use layer after layer of words to build complete and compelling scenes... Dekker is a hard edged storyteller who is also a writer. For most of The Bride Collector, this combination works to bring the reader into a uniquely twisted mystery. The intricate sentences and insights bring the reader into a world of mental illness and homicidal maniacs. The problem with the story is that its telling loses focus in the end.

Brad Raines is an FBI special agent on the trail of a serial killer. He leaves behind beautiful women, drained of blood and glued to a wall. The meticulously posed and made-upped corpses are wearing a bridal veil. Cryptic notes are left hinting at the killer's past and future plans. The notes lead Raines to a privately owned care facility, Center for Wellness and Intelligence, which cares for extremely gifted but mentally ill residents. A group of residents become involved with the case. One, named Paradise, seems to understand more about the murders and Brad becomes drawn to her and to her abilities. What neither realize is that this is what the crazed killer planned. They have fallen into his game of death without understanding the depth of his game.

The Bride Collector is a great serial killer mystery. It is more graphic and harder edge than most in this genre but the detailed writing softens the hard edge. Its weakness is a lack of focus in the final pages. Even with this minor flaw it is one of the best representatives in this genre. It is an easy recommendation. Make sure you schedule enough time to finish it. You won't want to put it down.

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Title: The Postcard Killers
Author: James Patterson & Liza Marklund
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-316-08951-7 price: $27.99 US, copyright 2010, 420 pages

Patterson has for years been producing books as an editing publisher. The types and styles of the books depend on the co-authors. The Postcard Killers is a very good fast paced suspense detective mystery. Marklund brings in the local knowledge of Northern Europe and Patterson has the US locations. The result is a hard-edged mystery with a strong reality feel.

Jacob Kanon is a New York city detective scrambling across Europe on the trail of a pair of serial killers who murdered his daughter. The killers have been traveling from country to country leaving each jurisdiction before the local police can get their act together. The killers first send a postcard to a local reporter and follow it with a Polaroid picture of a young couple butchered and posed. Dessie Larson is a crime reporter in Stockholm. She receives a postcard of the main square in Stockholm's Old Town. On the back is the phrase, 'To be or not to be in Stockholm.' When Jacob finds out that a new reporter has received a postcard, he leaves Germany, the site of the last murders, and travels to Stockholm. Dessie and Jacob seem to be the only two individuals with the desire and skills to track down the killers who have plans for many more deaths.

The Postcard Killers is a good introduction to the current trend of reproducing modern Scandinavian mystery stories into the US market. The style tends to be a bit more gritty with a touch of reality -- an updated Noir from the past. It is a well written mystery that can stand with any current story in the broader genre. You will not be disappointed picking up the hard cover but it will be a steal when it comes out in mass-market paperback.

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Title: Bad Blood
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15690-8 price: $27.95 US copyright 2010, 388 pages

John Sandford has developed two strong detective storylines -- Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers. Over the years, Sandford has written Lucas into a family man and a boss at the BCA, the state police of Minnesota. He is using Virgil as the character for the plots that entail more copious amounts of blood, violence and sex than you would expect with a more settled family man. Bad Blood has the characteristics that marked his earlier Prey novels with Lucas but now appear in his Virgil Flowers series.

Newly elected Sheriff Lee Coakley has a big problem. A youth has murdered a local farmer and was killed while in custody. The prime suspect is a deputy, who ran against her in the election. She recruits Virgil to investigating the deaths to minimize the obvious questions about her involvement in investigating her ex-political opponent. As Virgil and Lee investigate, another linked murder is uncovered. The trail leads to a secretive closed religious group. Each step in the investigation becomes more politically sensitive, darker and more twisted. Murder seems to be a first choice to at least some in a group wanting to keep their practices secret and they see Virgil and Lee as a threat to their lives and beliefs.

Sandford writes strong detective mysteries with a gritty hint at the reality of the people involved. It is easy to recommend Bad Blood to any reader in this genre. The only reservation is if the reader has a problem with the dark and extreme subject matter. You will not want to stop reading this book after you start it.

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Title: Black Elk Speaks
Author: John G. Neihardt
Pub. Address:
        Excelsior Editions
        Imprint State University of New York Press
        22 Corporate Woods Boulevard, 3rd Floor
        Albany, NY 12211-2504

ISBN: 978-1-4384-2540-5 price: $19.95 copyright 2008, 334 pages

Black Elk was a Sioux shaman who lived through the conflict period of the expansion of the US into the Great Plains region. He was in or near by most of the major fights and events from the conflict over the Bozeman Trail to the battles over the Black Hills to the final massacre at Wounded Knee. Black Elk Speaks is a written version of his oral history and uses his shamanistic visions as a key to understanding the Sioux beliefs, culture and Native American individuals.

The visions used in shaman type religions are both unique and similar to the visions and prophecies in the major religions of the world. A careful look at Black Elk's visions will show the reader that many aspects of the story show strong parallels to passages from the Bible, Koran, etc. The variations occur with how the visions are translated into the language and culture of the different groups of people. Black Elk translates many features of his vision into horse characters and animal characters. This becomes an obvious translation when you consider how important those animals were to a nomadic people for life.

Most people don't realize how deeply culture colors their perceptions of the world and events. You can see both sides of this issue in the book. The brutality on both sides can be seen in the variety of events and massacres. Since the US was successful in the expansion, its brutality dominates the narration in scale. Any incident will result in a response and those responses are seldom balanced. The Sioux had a relatively short interaction with the expanding US culture. One of the biggest problems is that the US culture had hundreds of years of interactions with other indigenous tribes and carried the history of these interactions in their contact with the Sioux. An event that might be considered minor by the Sioux brought back memories of major importance from the past history of confrontations which resulted in responses more expansive than the Sioux could logically expect.

Black Elk Speaks is a must read book for anyone interested in the history of the Western Plains. It brings out both the romantic mythology of the West pictured today and the darker reality of the past. It doesn't cover many of the events in detail but it does cover the events in a direct and personal way. You get a direct feeling of what Crazy Horse meant to the Sioux and you feel the euphoria of the Sioux success against Custer and the agony of the massacre at Wounded Knee. Throughout the story you recognize the sadness of an old man who lived during the period when his culture was the dominate force in a rich land to its demise. This is especially poignant when you realize that Black Elk considers that his poor interpretation and use of his vision helped bring about the collapse of his people.

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Title: Side Jobs, Stories from the Dresden Files
Author: Jim Butcher
Pub. Address:
        ROC
        New American Library a division of Penguin Putman Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-451-46365-4 price: $25.95 copyright 2010, 418 pages

Butcher writes frantic complex action adventures with a liberal dose of a magic/fantasy/detective story. His detective/wizard, Harry Dresden, is a great character. Since the series is so frantic, this collection of short stories and novellas is a welcome addition. It is much easier to take a few minutes to an evening to read a good short escapist fantasy than the breathless days for a full length novel. In some ways, Butcher's writing style fits the short story genre better than the novel.

Side Jobs is a collection of eleven short stories about Harry Dresden and/or his friends. They fit into his series of stories from just before the first novel to just after Changes. The collection fills in some details about the series but mostly it brings the stories into a shorter, and in my opinion, better format.

Side Jobs is a great companion piece to the Dresden Files series. Anyone, who has picked up a Dresden novel, will find this collection a great accompaniment. If the reader has heard about the series and wanted to find out what it is all about, this book is a great way to test out the stories.

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Title: Blink of an Eye
Author: Ted Dekker
Pub. Address:
        Center Street
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-1-59995-313-7 price: $7.99 US, mass market 2011, 407 pages

Blink of an Eye is an average action/adventure. The plot is a little too familiar. The technical details are surface accurate only. A classic example is a physics scene in the second chapter where Dekker tried to present a physics controversy but the controversy was only a mix of pundit pseudo science and philosophy. Readers with no real background education in physics might appreciate the punditry but why include it when the storyline doesn't depend on it? All fiction stories have to use some fiction in the science and facts used in the tale but most readers will prize authors who use more accuracy and less second hand details in a story. Unfortunately, too many readers will assume Dekker was more fastidious in his research for the book and accept the popular myths as facts.

Seth Borders is genius bored with his predetermined and structured university educational life. He is on the verge of wrecking his academic career when he runs into Miriam, a Saudi princess on the run for her life from an arranged marriage to a sadistic thug. He tries to protect her but mayhem and murder follows them across the country and the world. Unknown to him is that Miriam's arranged marriage is part of a larger political scheme to control Saudi Arabia. Saudi factions and US authorities are all after the girl and Seth. He and the girl must thread their way past thousands of armed and dangerous pursuers in order to survive.

Blink of an Eye is a solid action/adventure. If the reader has not previously encountered one of the numerous variations on the plot, they will have a unique and fun time with the story. Even those who are familiar with the plot will enjoy the skilled action scenarios. Blink is a good weekend read. With its well worn plot, it is best to look for the book on the discount shelves or used bookstores. There you will find the price for your bit of escapism well worth the cost.

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Title: Spider Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address
        Scribner
        A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-0-4391-0239-8 price: $26.99 copyright 2010 302 pages

The forensic detective novel is very popular. Reichs authors the most accurate novels in this genre. Over the years she has written some of the very best and some good novels. Spider Bones is one of her best. It is possible for the reader to figure out many of her plot twists before her characters but she also adds a few sharp curves to the storyline you don't see coming. Most writers in the genre suffer in a comparison between Reichs' works and their own.

Temperance Brennan, a forensic pathologist, is called in on the discovery of a decomposed body found floating in a Canadian pond. The way the body is found is suspicious. Finger prints identify the corpse as belonging to a soldier who died in the Vietnam War. She is called in to disinter the soldier from his grave in Carolina and find out what happened. The body is transported to Hawaii and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command with their lab and facilities to find out what happened. Soon other bodies are linked to the case and the trail leads both her and her loved ones into murderous danger.

Spider Bones is arguably the best forensic detective novel in 2010. There are a few weaknesses in the story but on balance it brings you into the world of forensic investigation with a dash of suspense and action. It is well worth the time of any reader in the detective genre to look for the book.

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Title: Pride & Prejudice Hidden Lusts
Author: Mitzi Szerero
Pub. Address
        Cleis Press, Inc,
        2246 Sixth Street
        Berkeley, California 94710

ISBN: 978-1-57344-663-1 price: $15.95 copyright 2011 265 pages

Satire--witty language used to criticize the accepted, and often pretentious, view of something.

I thought I would start with a definition of satire for this review. Pride & Prejudice has, over the centuries, taken the mantle of literary greatness. Although it is a good story, it is just a story. Szerero takes this story and characters and turns everything on end. Every situation and character in the tale is given a deliciously fanciful and twisted sexual peccadillo. Every time you turn the page you wonder what new erotic extreme will invade your memory of the story.

Good satire requires a deep knowledge of the subject and a timing that surprises and shocks the reader. Szerero pushes the satire to such extremes that the readers will be divided into two camps. The first group is the offended but the second will lavish joy on every page turned. The timing and audacity of the eroticism can slap the reader in the face with thrills and laughter as cherished assumptions in the story are replaced with an erotic undertone that, although extreme, might seem in some odd way more real than the original story.

Pride & Prejudice Hidden Lusts is not for the faint at heart. But if you can stand the ride it will tantalize and tease you in every page. It is an easy recommendation for the erotic reader. It is also a good selection for the adventurous reader who has had some past experience with the original story. But beware--you have to have the fortitude go past the visceral reaction to the intense erotica and appreciate the satire.

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Title: Worst Case
Author: James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
Pub. Address:
        Vision
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-446-57473-0 price: $9.99 US, mass market 2011, 320 pages

For a number of years, James Patterson has been producing books more like a managing editor/publisher than an author. This permits him to produce a large number of books each year that have a basic quality and reading feel. The exact quality will vary with who the coauthor is and the particular balance between the two writers on a particular project. Worst Case fits into his top of the line publications. The individual characters are unique enough and the plot is both strong and creepy. But the key on producing a good story is learning about the lives and interactions of the characters. The lead characters have a likeable and comforting personal life which balances the psychotic killer and his actions. Their interpersonal interplay is the key in making this story as good as it is.

The children of some of the wealthiest families are being taken. Money is not demanded. Instead quizzes are given. They are not pass and fail but life or death quizzes. Detective Michael Bennett with FBI agent Emily Parker are jointly assigned to the case. With every abduction the killer is more ruthless and an implied final deadly event is hinted at. The detective team scrambles to catch up to the killer who has planned out a nearly non-stop campaign of terror.

Worst Case is a great summer detective read and it is just as good as an everyday escapist story. When Patterson is on his game, the stories are just about as good as they can get. The reader in mystery genres will not be disappointed in this story and, with its mass-market pricing, you don't have to wait for it on the used bookstore shelves.

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Title: The Professional
Author: Robert B. Parker
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-23630-7 price: $9.99 US copyright 2009, 315 pages

The Professional is an unusual detective novel. Most detective genre readers are familiar with its detective, Spencer. You expect an articulate detective who is always near a tipping point of violence. The plot is one that is common with detective stories -- unfaithful wives are being blackmailed by their lover and want it stopped. The half year long case begins with first finding the gigolo and looking to find a weakness to use to stop the blackmail. The sedate plot is kept interesting with the verbal and sexual byplay between Spencer and his long time girlfriend, Susan. You are halfway through the story before an unexpected murder occurs and the pace of the story picks up.

The plot is okay and the payoff at the end is solid but the only thing keeping the tale from being overlooked is the smooth readable prose of Parker. This is the type of detective tale to be read from an easy chair with either a cup of hot coffee or a glass of liquor sitting on the end table next to you. If you are ready for a very entertaining and comfortable late night read, The Professional is a find. If you are more interested in action, you should look elsewhere.

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Title: Buried Prey
Author: John Sandford
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15738-7 price: $27.95 US copyright 2011, 390 pages

Buried Prey is a great edition to the Prey series of detective novels. Those who have read Sandford's previous stories will enjoy the book even more. The first half of the book is a flashback to Lucas Davenport's pre-Prey history. The multiple characters that readers have grown to like are introduced with the intricate back story.

Two bodies of young girls are found at a construction site. They were the missing girls in Lucas Davenport's very first case as a detective. Lucas has always had a problem with how the case ended and with the newly discovered bodies he has a chance to fix the problem. As a fresh young detective, Lucas was never given a chance to follow up on the nagging questions that bothered him about the case. Seeing the girls bodies, puts him back on the scent of a killer.

Buried Prey is a stronger detective story than Sandford's other stories. The shift back in time to the original case adds a nice layer of mystery to the story. But for the action junky, it still has the final touches of violence that you expect in Sandford's work. Buried Prey is a book the detective mystery reader should look for. You will not be disappointed when you finish reading it.

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Title: The Spy an Isaac Bell Adventure
Author: Clive Cussler with Justin Scott
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-24175-2 price: $9.99 US copyright 2010, 528 pages

Cussler is known for his fast paced action mystery stories. He always adds a nice touch of history to the tale giving it more depth than the average adventure tale. The Isaac Bell series is set in the early 1900s. The action is solid and the feel of the history has a small sense of reality. But for most contemporary readers there is a drawback to the historic reality -- it is hard for the modern reader to separate the fiction from the history. The historical early 1900s is lost to the modern reader. This is not necessarily a bad thing but you have to remember that Cussler and Scott are not worried if their major historical event is fiction or fact, just that it feels real to the reader. Don't use the major historical events in the story in place of a solid textbook.

In 1908, the Van Dorn private detective, Isaac Bell is hired by a grief stricken daughter to prove her father didn't commit suicide. At first, Bell only finds a few unanswered questions but the more he looks the stranger the case looks. Soon he finds that the suicide was only the first in a series of mysterious deaths that are taking out the US naval innovators who are transforming the rickety 1908 US naval fleet into a dreadnaught force. A spy has organized an alliance between various national and terrorists groups into a lethal guns-for-hire ring. Bell and the other Van Dorn detectives have become locked in a dangerous feud with this multi-national group.

The Spy is a fun alternate history action adventure with enough detective mystery to attract the sleuth in us. It is a fun escapist read that is worth the look on the used bookshelves or the at the discount stores. It is an easy light reading recommendation.

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Title: Conan The Barbarian
Author: Robert E. Howard
Pub. Address:
        Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        New York, NY

ISBN: 978-0-345-53123-0 price: $7.99 copyright 2011, 286 pages

The one great thing for book readers that the film industry does is the remake. Every year Hollywood remakes numerous films based on classic stories. Most of the film industry is not original so the remake is one of their standards. The book publishing industry follows these films with a re-issuing of the original stories. They use the film's massive publicity budget as an inexpensive marketing tool for their books. This is frequently the only way a contemporary reader can find these classic stories in paper print.

Robert E. Howard is arguably the key source for today's sword and sorcerer computer games and genre. Howard's writing style still reads with a strong harsh edge that most modern rewrites never come close to. This pivotal author deserves, along with a number of others, a modern print resurgence. The loss of access for these unmatched tales in the modern publishing market cheapens the contemporary market as a whole.

Conan is the quintessential barbarian hero. This collection of six short stories is a great introduction to the character. The collection matches the Conan the Barbarian (1982) film much better than the most recent release. Key sections from these short stories were integrated into the 1982 film. The surprising thing that most contemporary readers will get from these short stories is how much more satisfying the tales are than the Hollywood films. You can nearly feel the sweat and the blood flow in the battle scenes. Howard has somehow caught on paper the uncivilized fragment of man living in every person slashing and clawing his way out of the civilized prison we have bounded our lives in.

The first short story, The Phoenix on the Sword, is a basic introduction to Conan. The later stories take Conan and flesh out his character into a more powerful individual but Phoenix does develop the fantasy world that Conan lives in and mixes in enough warped history to permit the reader to wish the story was actually real.

The People of the Black Circle brings the character of Conan to full barbaric life. It also brings into even greater focus the byplay Howard uses between magical villains, stifling civilization and the free barbarian.

Tower of the Elephant is one of the key stories about Conan as a thief.

Queen of the Black Coast brings Conan into the world of pirates. One of Conan's great loves is introduced as a savage buccaneer Queen ravaging the coast of a continent.

Red Nails is a tale about another of Conan's loves. As with his other lover, she is a lethal force in her own right. For Conan, only a woman with the same potential for savagery as himself can be a true mate.

Rogues of the House is a short story that fills in the book.

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Title: How to Wash a Cat
Author: Rebecca M. Hale
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Prime Crime
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-23204-0 price: $6.99 US copyright 2008, 295 pages

How to Wash a Cat is a fun readable book. It is full of unusual and quirky characters. It has two cats with opposite personalities stealing every other scene. It has a complex story with clues from the historic past of San Francisco and today. It is a very entertaining light read. A perfect book for a long weekend relaxing trip. But it does have a weakness. It has a messy end.

A young accountant is living a dull live in San Francisco and one great joy -- She brings her two cats, Rupert and Isabella, to her Uncle Oscar's home/antique shop for a Saturday meal of fried chicken. When Uncle Oscar dies under unusual circumstances, she inherits his shop in the historic Jackson Square neighborhood of San Francisco. She moves into the shop and is forced to unravel a mystery that extends from the early Nineteenth Century and the California Gold Rush to her Uncle's death.

This is a great light reading mystery that will really click with anyone who owns or has owned a cat. The feline characters are nearly more enjoyable than the people. The weak ending makes this a book to look for in the library or on the discount shelves. The quirky fun story means that you will not be disappointed spending the time finding the book.

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Title: Flash and Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Pub. Address:
        Scribner
        A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 978-1-4391-0241-1 price: $26.99 copyright 2011, 271 pages

Reichs' Temperance Brennan books have one thing in common -- believable forensic details. Reichs also uses strong detective mystery storylines. On some of her stories, the coincidences become too stretched. In this novel, she does mix multiple events together but there is a more realistic theme pulling all of the threads together. Flash and Bones is a solid forensic mystery story.

It is race week at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. NASA car fans by the hundreds of thousands and the media have staked out the Speedway. Temperance is called out to a sanitary landfill that is located on the Speedway property. During an inspection of an older section of the landfill after a rain storm, a barrel filled with asphalt with a few human bones protruding was found. This body brings into focus past and current disappearances at the Speedway. The FBI, a possible terrorist group and feuding ex, current detectives and a cast of good-old-boys round out the story's characters . Temperance has to maneuver through multiple groups of people with different agendas and personalities to find the killer before he kills again.

Flash and Bones is a more classic read with its single location and more focused mystery than some of Reichs previous stories. She also spends more time with the heroine navigating around a variety of different characters with personal biases. The result is a cozy type detective story with a strong forensic core. Flash and Bones might not make big headlines but it is such a solid cozy no mystery reader will be disappointed picking the book up. It is also an easy recommendation for any reader wanting an interesting, relaxing story to fill an empty weekend or a few nights.

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Title: The Pride of the King
Author: Amanda Hughes
Pub. Address:
        Scribner
        Amazon Digital Services, division of Amazon.com Inc.
        120 12thg Ave, South St. 12
        Seattle, WA 98144

ISBN: 1463589123 price: $1.99 copyright 2011, 525 pages

The Pride of the King is a historical romance novel. Every genre has a different balance in its construction. By emphasizing the part of the construction that highlights the genre market the story is written for other parts of the story's construction are frequently glossed over. I am not a romance novel reader but I do enjoy history and anthropology. I feel comfortable commenting on these aspects of The Pride of the King.

Social bigotry is a part of life today and the past. Most writers just touch on this aspect of humanity in their stories. There are a few notable exceptions such as Dickens and Sinclair. Hughes focuses her story on this bigotry. This type of bigotry exists today and is even part of our politics but we can only comfortably look at it in the context of history. Hughes does an excellent job of pointing out the extremes of this bigotry. This has been emphasized to enhance the story but the finer nuances and a tempering of the bigotry with the reality of frontier life are missing.

The general span of history in The Pride of the King is accurate but stronger historic details would have enhanced the story and would be a better match for the social and class issues that are developed in the story.

If you lose yourself in the romance and adventures, The Pride of the King is a good, and inexpensive, escapist treat. It is easy to ignore the timeline and historical details when you concentrate on the romance. For those few readers who appreciate the weaving of accuracy into fiction, the occasional lapses will distract from the tale but even then you will enjoy the highlighting of bigotry that is just hinted at in most historical sources. The Pride of the King is easy to recommend for the historic romance reader but you will wish that for her next novel Hughes will take more time to develop accurate details for the historical setting.

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Title: Lost Empire
Author: Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-24361-9 price: $9.99 US copyright 2010, 497 pages

Cussler's Dirk Pitt stories have become a little too similar over the decades they have been appearing. In the last few years, he has been working with a number of co-authors and they have expanded his general storyline it different directions. With Blackwood, Cussler has developed a storyline with Sam and Remi Fargo as the lead characters. The couple freshen the historic mystery action adventure tale that Cussler writes with the current idealized myth of wealthy philanthropy versus sinister greed.

While on their annual scuba diving vacation in Tanzania, Sam and Remi Fargo find an old ship's bell. The bell unlocks a mystery hundreds of years old that a powerful man today wants to keep hidden. During the Civil War, an operative for the Union tries to stop a ship from being used by the Confederate Navy. He is unsuccessful but the attempt puts him on a quest. His quest unravels a mystery that changes the accepted history of the world. The Fargos must follow the clues he left before the murderer following them succeeds in hiding the truth from the world.

The true strength of the Lost Empire is the painstaking detective work by the Fargos and their staff into the clues left behind by a psychologically broken but brilliant man. The mix of dangerous field work and logic blend into a fun weekend vacation mystery. The exotic locals and the simplified examinations build into a relaxing but fun romp across portions of the world people love to read about but never can afford to go.

Lost Empire is highly recommended for the escapist mystery reader who wants to feel the exotic. It is among the best in this genre and every mystery reader should be on the lookout for the next Fargo adventure mystery.

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Title: End of the Drive
Author: Louis L'Amour
Pub. Address:
        Bantam Books
        A division of Random House, Inc.
        1540 Broadway
        New York, NY 10036

ISBN: 978-0-553-80537-6 price: $4.99 copyright 1997, 241 pages

There are two ways to look at End of the Drive. If you are not a current fan of L'Amour's stories, it is a great introduction to his style of storytelling and a way to enjoy the art of short stories. If you are a fan, you will have the added enjoyment of linking these stories with later works. L'Amour frequently used short stories as test beds for his novels. He might take a short tale and use it to create a chapter or even expand it to create a complete book. You will also find that L'Amour was partial to using similar themes for many of his stories. You can easily spend an enjoyable evening considering why the similar themes. Was is it an occurrence that happened to him that sparked the repeated thread or is it a more basic cultural meme in this country?

End of the Drive is made up of eight short stories. These stories seem a little more edgy and adult than many other pulp western tales. This is a nice change that expands the core genre. Westerns deserve a little more respect from the literary critics and general readership than they get. These stories should silence many of those criticisms by proving that good storytelling, in any genre, is good storytelling.

I can recommend End of the Drive to any reader. The simple style of storytelling seems effortless but when you drill down into the into the work you will be amazed at the complexity and details L'Amour can impart in so few words. The quality of the writing and the universality of the themes will fit with any reader.

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Title: Crashers
Author: Dana Haynes
Pub. Address:
        St. Martin's Paperbacks
        St. Martin's Press
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-312-54415-7 price: $9.99 copyright 2010, 503 pages

Haynes has found his own niche in the action/forensic detective genre. He has created a set of unique forensic characters who study plane crashes. The details of the investigation have a feel of gritty reality. He then adds in an action overlay to the tale that accelerates the plot and pulls the reader from one page to the next.

Tommy Tomzak is a NTSB investigator and pathologist who is leading a large team of experts investigating a plane crash outside of Portland. He wades into the carnage of the crash site, finding victims and preserving the wreckage for clues to find out what caused the crash. In-fighting within the team between the egos of the individuals involved, dominate the workings of the investigative team. But a bigger problem looms. Individuals involved in causing the crash have infiltrated the investigation. They have plans on bringing down more planes. With hundreds of deaths already staining their hands, the lives of a few investigators working to stop them is of no consequence. Tommy and his colleagues first have to survive before they can stop the killers.

Crashers is a fast breathless read. The forensics are great. The tension, intrigue and action yank you into the story and pull you through to the end. Its one weakness is the timeline. Haynes uses an extraordinary fast time line to keep up the tension. So fast that it becomes a detriment to the storyline. This condensed timeline use by writers has become part of the standard writing style for contemporary authors. The accelerated timeline could easily have been compensated for with a judicious touch of a more classic writing style. Overall, Crashers is a must read for any action or forensic detective reader. The visceral flow of the story will keep the reader going from the first page to the last. My recommendation is to find the book as soon as you can.

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Title: Silencing Sam
Author: Julie Kramer
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 978-1-4391-7800-3 price: $7.99 copyright 2010, 399 pages

Kramer has written a readable mystery novel. The mystery part is a little weak but the insider story about big media isn't. Her scathing satire about corporate news media makes the story. Even when you know her tales about the inner workings of the business of media is satirical, you feel that there is more truth her irony than the public face and the mythology of the news. The news media today is run by big business. There is no such thing as the liberal press. There is only broadcasting news that produces dollars. The ethics of the news media is money. Kramer's satire brings this out in a way everyone can understand because nearly everyone has had a boss who's only consideration is where to get the next dollar.

Riley Spartz is a Twin Cities TV reporter, who tries to work with the ethics and policies learned in journalism school. Noreen, her boss, and the corporate ownership of the TV station are only interested in the money they can make broadcasting the news. They want what sells and not what people want or need to know. Clay Burrel is a new reporter brought to the station from Texas and immediately things become tense between Riley and Clay. The pot is stirred even more when a gossip reporter for a local newspaper with 'no' ethics decides to focus his attention on Riley.

Sam, the gossip reporter, is murdered after a confrontation between him and Riley and she is soon the prime suspect in his killing. Everyone seems to hate the media and the way they seem to always swarm around grief and mayhem. So everyone wants to pile on the new sensation of a reporter suspected in killing another reporter. Of course this controversy means ratings for the TV station and Riley becomes a pawn between the killer, police and the corporate greed of the money hungry media.

Silencing Sam is standard mystery that is worth reading because of its seedy setting within the business of the news industry. This is a fresh storyline in contemporary writing and gives the book a new feel. Although the plot line doesn't break any new ground, the inside feel of the newsroom makes the mystery an enjoyable read. You will not be disappointed reading Silencing Sam. It is worth looking for it on the paperback shelves.

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Title: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why we Need a Green Revolution --and How it can Renew America
Author: Thomas L. Friedman
Pub. Address:
        Picador
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN : 978-0-312-42892-1 price: $16.00 copyright 2009, 516 pages

Thomas Friedman is a journalist who has spent years covering environmental and economic issues. In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, he pulls together information on the topics into three groupings -- Hot for the environmental problems, Flat for vast improvements in interconnectivity within the world and Crowded for the huge increase in population.

The two functions he attributes to the cause of our economic and environmental problems are the population increases and how everyone is interconnected. We are outstripping the earth's resources and everyone actually knows this. It is obvious and easy to tell just by looking at the rapid changes to the environment around you. The interconnectivity of the world means that anything that happens anywhere affects everything else -- air pollution in China appears as smog in California and banks failing in the US affects the growth in China. The result is that Mother Nature reacts by changing the environment and that reaction is rapidly escalating into more and more lethal proportions.

Friedman points out that our use of dirty fuels is wasteful and accelerating our problems socially, economically and environmentally. He gives a way that we can reverse this by intelligently changing the way both we and the government do things. He gives real life examples of how to do this and uses a multitude of facts and figures to support his claims. For the average person, this book is a must read. Friedman's explanations and work makes things easy to understand. Since everyone is part of the world, everyone has to become a part of taking care of the world.

There are weaknesses in the book. There are many more concrete facts in both history and the world around us that support most of Friedman's premises. Some of them are easier to understand and give a stronger understanding of the problems. Another weakness is his more idealistic solutions to the problems. This is a major problem today. There are too many people wanting to get what they can today and are willing to forget the problems for next year or the next decade. There needs to be a stronger solution presented beyond the hopes of idealistic leadership to mold a universal change in how we do things. Friedman optimistically presents his analysis but there is a deep pessimism in his story. One overriding strength in his book is his intense patriotism and his belief that if we can kick start our national pride into doing the right things our nation will become a leader to the world again.

Everyone, including the no-nothing naysayers, need to read this book. The depth and details Friedman uses in his arguments make this a book key for anyone interested in the life their children will be living.

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Title: Cemetery Dance
Author: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Pub. Address:
        Grand Central Publishing
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-446-58029-8 price: $26.99 US, copyright 2009, 435 pages

There are two general ways of dividing the detective mystery novel genre. One was is to try to create as real as possible characters and situations. The second is to create fantastic characters and plots. Preston and Child have created a fantasy detective in Special Agent Pendergast and they match him with fantasy villains. This method does work. All you need to do is consider Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. But just like with Holmes you do need to ground the story with reality. Doyle did this with Doctor Watson. Preston and Child does this with their secondary characters. There is a balancing act that the writer has to hit for the book to be great. For me, this balance slipped in Cemetery Dance. From other reviewers, I know that many fans don't see the story in the same way as I do.

Cemetery Dance is a very good detective mystery with plenty of blood and drama. The idea of a rogue zombie killing with impunity within densely populated modern New York City is unique and fun. The complex and twisted plot and clues pushes the reader just enough to bring a modest thrill to the story. My problem with the story is that too much of it seemed familiar and the development of the characters wasn't enough to make me invest in their dilemmas. For readers, who have read fewer Holmes mysteries and modern spin-offs, Cemetery Dance is well worth finding. It has all the components that a fantasy detective novel needs for the less jaded reader. This doesn't mean that even the jaded detective genre reader won't find the book a fun escape. You just need to find it on the used book shelves or in mass market paperback.

In summary, Cemetery Dance is a solid detective mystery that is worth reading. If you are a Special Agent Pendergast fan, you can buy it at full price. For everyone else, don't miss it when you find it on the discount shelves or in the library.

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Title: The Brass Verdict
Author: Michael Connelly
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-316-16629-4 price: $26.99 US, copyright 2008, 422 pages

Connelly is a very good mystery writer. He creates characters with unusual quirks but with enough real features they become people the reader imagines he/she knows. The police or investigative scenes are constructed the same way, enough quirky details to feel real but not enough reality to interfere with the flow of the storyline.

The Brass Verdict is a sequel to Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer story. Defense lawyer Mickey Haller is a damaged man who tries go past his problems to do right. He is working his way back to his job and life after a series of botched medical procedures resulted in a stint in rehab for an addiction to painkillers. He is suddenly ordered to the office of the chief judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court. A colleague, Jerry Vincent, has been murdered and Vincent has Mickey down as his fill in consul if he was incapacitated. Instead of slowly working his way back into court, Mickey has been shoved directly into a high stakes murder case and dozens of other active legal cases. The Superior Court judge knows about his recent problems and is keeping a close eye on his work while the police investigating Vincent's murder are working on the theory that one of Vincent's current cases caused his murder and with Mickey talking over the practice Mickey might just be next on the hit list.

For the readers who enjoyed Connelly's other great series with police detective Harry Bosch, Bosch is used as a supporting character as the lead investigator into Vincent's murder. Bosch and Haller trade jibes at each other while trying to solve the murder and stay alive.

Connelly is one of the best contemporary mystery writers. The Brass Verdict keeps him there. Any reader who likes murder mysteries will enjoy this book. The hardcover price is reasonable but it can also easily be found in mass market, used and library shelves so there is no excuse for the mystery reader not to pick up the book.

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Title: The Lost Gate
Author: Orson Scott Card
Pub. Address:
        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-7653-6538-5 price: $7.99 copyright 2010, 446 pages

First an apology--Card is a very good writer. His construction of story and plot is one of the best. Although I can see the quality of his work, I have never been a big fan of his writing. For me, his writing is so technically precise it doesn't thrill me. The impeccable design of the story seems to hide the elegance of the creation. The writers that thrill me highlight the storytelling to the degree you don't realize the technical design.

The Lost Gate is an adult version of other blended mythology SF stories. The subgenre started back in the classic pulp SF of nearly a century ago. The story might be better served with a touch of editing to bring it closer to the young adult/youth market. The rich detailed story is a fascinating take on the genre and is worth exploring. One of its biggest problems is that, like many stories today written by series authors, the ending, although solid, tells you that there is more to the story and you will need to wait for the sequel or sequels before you can finish it.

Danny North is born into the North family of mages. There has been a war between the different families of mages that has lasted for centuries. The current truce between the families is tentative and threatens to break back out into fighting at any time. While the other children in the North family are creating fairies, ghosts... and merging consciously into plants, animals and things, Danny is exhibiting no magical powers. He is learning languages, history, math and science at an accelerated rate but is unable to display any magical gift. Of course, this puts him at odds with every other children in the family making him the social misfit. Just when he thinks he has no magic he discovers that he is a gatemage, someone who can create dimensional gates between places. But a gatemage is the one thing that all of the families fear. The one point between the magical families that they have all agreed on is to kill any gatemage before he/she can create a gate back to their homeworld. The thirteen year old Danny must run from everyone, grow-up and learn to control his magic before the families or the normal people in this world have a chance to kill him.

If you are an Orson Scott Card fan, The Lost Gate is a must read. You will become lost in another of Card's fantasy storylines. For the readers of some of the current youth SF, such as The Lightning Thief, this story will expand the genre line into adult readership. Card is a very solid SF writer and anyone who enjoys this general genre will relish any of his works. The SF reader will not be disappointed with The Lost Gate but remember that it is just book one of a series.

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Title: Gideon's Sword
Author: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Pub. Address:
        Vision
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-446-56431-1 price: $7.99 US, copyright 2011, 380 pages

Preston and Child write books with impossible situations and with impossible characters but they seem to be able to put enough real details into the plot and characters that the reader can lose themselves completely in the action fantasy.

Gideon's Sword is an action/detective story. As a child, Gideon Crew sees his father murdered in a cover-up. Later in life, with the blessing of his dieing mother, he uses his knowledge and skills to destroy the man who used and ordered his father killed. But this is only the introduction to the tale. The real story happens when a wealthy man who works and lives in the background pushes Gideon into tackling a near impossible bit of spying. Gideon is charged with obtaining a world shattering piece of information for the United States from a Chinese engineer running for his life. As he starts his quest, Gideon runs afoul a Chinese government hit man protecting his governments secrets by killing everyone who gets near the engineer. Governments and industrial spies are all interested in the secret and don't care who is killed to obtain it. Gideon has to travel the world and solve a series of intricate clues to find the engineer's information, all the time dodging the others searching for the same secret and willing to kill to get it or keep it secret.

Gideon's Sword is a great action/detective tale. It is a fast easy story that permits you to forget your troubles for a weekend. It has enough speed and strength to attract a cross section of contemporary genre readers. It is a great find on the mass market shelves and a book to look for.

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Title: The Mozart Conspiracy
Author: Scott Mariani
Pub. Address:
        Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
        1230 Avenue of the Americas
        New York, NY 10020

ISBN : 978-1-4391-9337-2 price: $7.99 copyright 2008, 393 pages

The Mozart Conspiracy is an action/shoot'em-up with a little more lethality than average and a small historical hook. The blurbs and publisher try to make this Bob Hope thriller into a Dan Brown style mystery but it isn't. Brown uses a multilayered historical mystery where the investigator has to solve those multiple layers in order to solve today's dilemma. This layered solving of the past is missing from Mariani's story. In its place is a shoot'em-up with nearly non-stop action. The story also falls in the trap that most contemporary action/thrillers fall into. It has super villains with resources and knowledge greater than all the governments in the world combined. Even with these logical drawbacks and short comings it is still a good action/thriller to read over a slow weekend.

Leigh Llewellyn's brother Oliver died a year ago while researching the death of Mozart. After she announces that she will continue her brother's work, men start to follow her and try to attack her. She gets away and asks her old lover Ben Hope for help. Hope is an ex-SAS operative who now hires himself out to private individuals who need help. Nearly immediately another lethal attempt is made on Leigh and her brother's notes. Bob and Leigh go into hiding from the killers and try to unravel the mystery of her brother's work and death before they themselves are kill.

The Mozart Conspiracy is a relaxing weekend read for the action junkie. It has the same basic impossibilities of the better balanced Clive Cussler tales. The largest difference between the Cussler stories and Mariani is the greater adult lethality. Because of the extreme villains the sanitized fantasy action of the Cussler stories actually let the reader escape more fully into the tale than the more realistic lethality of Mariani. The Mozart Conspiracy is an easy recommendation for the used and discount bookshelves.

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Title: The Rise of the Iron Moon
Author: Stephen Hunt
Pub. Address:

        A Tor Book
        Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
        175 Fifth Avenue
        New York, NY 10010

ISBN: 978-0-7653-6610-8 price: $7.99 copyright 2009, 455 pages

The Rise of the Iron Moon is written in a style of SF fantasy that is now called steampunk. Steampunk is a type of storytelling that blends the culture and feel of the late 19th century or very early 20th century with more modern science. The results would be similar to reading an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel blended into a modern adult fantasy. Hunt recreates the basic feel of the genre but doesn't have the raw power of the original period pulp writers.

The Rise of the Iron Moon is a standalone novel but it is also part of a series of stories. The frequent illusions to earlier tales and the abrupt character developments distract from the tale, even when they are obviously not needed in the current story. Iron Moon takes you into an alternate reality with a rich culture and vocabulary. Be prepared to take the time to build a memory map of this new fantasy world so you can lose yourself later in the story's action flow.

Purity Blake is a captive in the Royal Breeding House in the Kingdom of the Jackals. She escapes the captivity and meets Kyorin, an alien on the run from both killers and the local authorities. The killers are just the first wave of the Army of Shadows, a force bent on destroying not only the Kingdom of the Jackals but the whole world. The pair of outcasts join with a handful of misfits and Jackalian criminal/heroes to stop the Army in a life and death struggle.

The Iron Moon blends in equal parts science, magic and greater than life pulp action heroes into an adult action fantasy. If you are a contemporary reader who hasn't yet read Burroughs, Howard, Nowlan or any of the many other pulp fantasy writers, The Iron Moon will give you a feel for the raw power of the classic storytelling. If you have read these classic tales already, The Iron Moon will bring you a contemporary take on this classic style of writing. Either way, anyone who likes action fantasy tales will find The Rise of the Iron Moon a great low cost escape. The steampunk genre might be a little too intense for readers who want a slower quieter read.

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Title: When the Wind Blows
Author: James Patterson
Pub. Address:
        Little, Brown and Company
        Hachette Book Group USA
        237 Park Avenue
        New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 0-316-69332-4 price: $25.00 US, copyright 1998, 416 pages

People are familiar with James Patterson the mystery writer. When the Wind Blows is not a mystery. It is a light SF fantasy. Its key premise is that a group of scientists have discovered how to manipulate human genes anyway they want to. The story's scientific premise is more extreme than the story proclaims but it still makes an acceptable fantasy.

Max, an eleven year old girl, escapes from a private school/prison and generic laboratory. She has been genetically altered to be able to fly. At the same time, a FBI agent investigating a series of murders of doctors involved with genetic research arrives in Colorado under the false name Kit Harrison. Veterinarian Frannie O'Neill is pulling together her life after the death of her doctor husband and is working at her clinic in Bear Bluff, Colorado. These three individuals are violently thrown together in a search for survival by the people looking for Max while trying to keep secret their billion dollar genetic experiments. They are killing everyone who knows about the experiments or Max.

When the Wind Blows is a solid light SF fantasy. With the heroine an eleven year old girl, a key audience for the story is the young adult market. The mystery/action storyline is hard enough to keep your adult reader interested but the young will enjoy the tale more. Adults who enjoy Patterson should look for the book on the used shelves. Teens will be more interested in this story and will probably look for one of the sequels Patterson has written about Max.

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Title: Treachery in Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Pub. Address:
        Berkley Books
        Berkley Publishing Group, division of Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-24261-2 price: $7.99 US copyright 2011, 354 pages

J.D. Robb is the nom de plume for Nora Roberts when she writes gritty detective stories. She does a good job in this genre. The gritty detective story can work with any time period but if you shift the story to the past or future, the grittiness becomes less immediate and the story becomes more escapism. Robb's Detective Eve Dallas stories are set in the intermediate future, one that is easy to envision and therefore easier to accept. The settings and characters have the classic themes of Noir with a refreshing hint of science fiction. As with any Roberts story, you have the occasional hot love making scenes but the romantic interludes act as a counter to the non-stop mystery pacing and vicious criminality.

Peabody, Dallas' detective trainee, is taking a shower after a workout when she overhears two dirty cops discussing murder. With nothing but a towel and a half open shower door between her and two bad cops, she is forced to silently wait and hope the cops leave before finding her. After she escapes from the locker room, she calls on Dallas and tells her what she has heard. Dallas and Peabody, with the help of Dallas' husband Roarke, immediately begin investigating the corrupt ring of cops. With each step, they find that the ring is more lethal and widespread than what they originally thought. They have to both get the proof to put away the dirty cops and survive the investigation.

Treachery in Death is a solid gritty detective mystery. It is a balanced story that pulls the reader into a criminal underworld while still leaving you feel safe. With this mass market edition, it is an easy recommend for any adult detective mystery reader.

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Title: Visions in Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Pub. Address:
        G.P. Putnam's Sons
        Published by the Penguin Group Inc.
        375 Hudson Street
        New York, NY 10014

ISBN: 978-0-425-20300-2 price: $7.99 US copyright 2004, 384 pages

Visions in Death is a gritty and intense action detective novel that takes place in a near future New York. A brutal serial killer is beating, raping and strangling women to death. When he is finished he strips them, poses them in public and, finally, cuts out their eyes. The graphic story is filled with the individual psychological trauma and back history of the characters giving the graphic storyline more depth and detail than the reader might first expect.

Detective Eve Dallas and her partner Peabody are called to a crime scene in Central Park. They find a naked woman on the rocks next to the pond with a red cord tied around her neck and no eyes. Dallas instinctively knows that this will be just the first in a series of victims. The next day a psychic shows up at the station with details of the crime that no one other than the police and killer would know. Dallas checks out the psychic and discovers that her visions seem to be legitimate. Dallas uses the media to get into the mind of the brutal killer and force him to make a mistake. Unfortunately, this also makes every woman involved in the investigation a potential target.

Robb's Detective Eve Dallas series of intense near future novels are a real joy for the gritty mystery reader. The stories are fast paced and cover all of the expected twists for a near future Noir type adult tale. Visions of Death has a uniquely linked and detailed back story giving this book's characters more depth than most stories of this type. The only weakness with the characterizations are the missing gray areas, the characters would feel more real with a bit more ambiguity in their mores. Visions in Death is an easy recommendation for the adult reader.

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