“One Shot” A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

Review #86

Six shots. Five dead. One Heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: “You got the wrong guy”. Then he says: “Get Reacher for me!”

And sure enough, from the world he lives in, no phone, no address, no commitments, ex–military investigator Jack Reacher is coming.

Reacher’s arrival will change everything about a case that isn’t what it seems, about lives tangled in baffling ways, about a killer who missed one shot and by doing so gives Jack Reacher one shot at the truth. The gunman worked from a parking structure just thirty yards away…point-blank range for a trained military sniper like James Barr. His victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why does Barr want Reacher at his side? There are good reasons why Reacher is the last person Barr would want to see. But when Reacher hears Barr’s own words, he understands…and a slam-dunk case explodes.

Soon Reacher is teamed with a young defense lawyer who is working against her D.A. father and dueling with a prosecution team that has an explosive secret of its own. Like most things Reacher has known in life, this case is a complex battlefield. But, as always, in battle, Reacher is at his best. Moving in the shadows, picking his spots, Reacher gets closer and closer to the unseen enemy who is pulling the strings.

I love Jack Reacher stories!

“BECAUSE THEY HATE” by Brigitte Gabriel

Review #85

A SURVIVOR OF ISLAMIC TERROR WARNS AMERICA!
American Congress for Truth founder, Brigitte Gabriel rebukes the American public for being "weak, asleep or careless" in the face of Muslim terrorism.

This review is taken directly from the book description page:

“Brigitte Gabriel lost her childhood to militant Islam. In 1975, she was ten years old and living in Southern Lebanon, when militant Muslims from throughout the Middle East poured into her country and declared jihad against the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was the only Christian influenced country in the Middle East, and the Lebanese Civil War was the first front in what has become the worldwide jihad of fundamentalist Islam against non-Muslim peoples. For seven years, Brigitte and her parents lived in an underground bomb shelter. They had no running water or electricity and very little food; at times they were reduced to boiling grass to survive.

Because They Hate is a political wake-up call told through a very personal memoir frame. Brigitte warns that the U.S. is threatened by fundamentalist Islamic theology in the same way Lebanon was and radical Islam will stop at nothing short of domination of all non-Muslim countries. Gabriel saw this mission start in Lebanon and she refuses to stand silently by while it happens here. She sees, in the West, a lack of understanding and a blatant ignorance of the ways and thinking of the Middle East. She also points out mistakes the West has made in consistently underestimating the single-mindedness with which fundamentalist Islam has pursued its goals over the past thirty years.

Fiercely articulate and passionately committed, Gabriel tells her own story as well as outlines the history, social movements, and religious divisions that have led to this critical historical conflict.”

Emotionally, this is a very hard book to read. It took me more than a couple of weeks to read because I had to take a break from it periodically.

However, you will read this book if you are interested in the future of this country, your future and especially… the future of your children. It is a memoir and therefore, by definition, a biased view of the subject. So, it will be up to you to decide whether or not to accept Gabriel’s heart-felt warning!

“Black Ship” by Carola Dunn

Review #84

In 1925, the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, her Scotland Yard detective husband Alec Fletcher, and their two infant children inherit and move to a new, larger house on the outskirts of London. While the couple are delighted with the extra space for their growing family, they’re not sure about their new neighbors.

It seems nearly an idyllic setting until a dead body (found by their dog and the parlor maid) turns up hidden under the bushes of the communal garden.

As they get to know their new neighbors, they find that they really like the Jessups (who are in the wholesale business of selling alcoholic spirits) and really dislike the Bennetts (who are in the business of gossip). The hapless Mr. Lambert, whom they know from a previous American adventure, shows up on their door step because he has been robbed of his passport and money on the trip from New York. He is, now, employed by the U.S. Treasury Department and is on the track of contraband booze, even though bootlegging is not illegal in England.

Daisy and Alec soon become entangled in a case involving bootleggers, American gangsters and black ships (Black Ship refers to a rum-running vessel).

Dunn provides an intriguing view of the Prohibition era from the English perspective, besides casting a witty light on the social changes of the day.

This is a new author for me and I love her characters! I will be reading more of her books!

“Caught” by Harlan Coben

Review #83

Frank Tremont, a world-weary, near-retirement investigator for New Jersey's Essex County, has to face his failure to solve his last case…the disappearance of a teenage girl.

Haley McWaid doesn't come home one night, and when months go by without a word, her parents assume the worst. While trying to cope with her husband's death, reporter Wendy Tynes conducts a sexual predator sting, working with the local police to capture men on camera and later televising the footage.

Her latest suspect is community social worker Dan Mercer, but, those who know him can't believe he's guilty! After a while, Tynes begins to question her instincts, but she continues on with her investigation which reveals a shocking link between a father of one of Mercer's alleged victims and others felled by scandal. This link could make her a killer's next victim

Coben has a knack for taking everyday nightmares and playing with life's endless "what ifs". He gives readers a lot to think about when they are judging reported rights and wrongs.

This book is well worth reading!

“Thieves Break In” by Cristina Sumners

Review #82

The Reverend Kathryn Koerney is looking forward to guiding a group of her New Jersey parishioners through historical Oxford, England. She's also eager to visit her cousin, Richard, who works for a baronet at Datchworth Castle. But just before she departs, Kathryn gets word that Richard has fallen to his death from a castle tower. The police are calling it murder…yet they don't have a single lead. Fortunately, her friend, Chief of Police Tom Holder, is anxious to accompany her to the scene and lend his expertise.

Secretly smitten with the divine lady priest, there's nothing the crime-deprived, unhappily married cop would like more than to conduct an investigation with her by his side. But his enthusiasm quickly fades when a certain Marquis captures Kathryn's attention. Datchworth has a wealth of secret treasures and… dark secrets.

When Kathryn stumbles upon what could be the most sensational find of the century, Tom and Kathryn are caught in a web of greed and madness that will require all their courage and faith--not just to save their friendship, but their lives.

This is a new author for me and I loved this book!

“Irish Tweed” by Andrew M. Greeley

Review # 81

Nuala Anne McGrail and her husband, Dermot Michael Coyne return!

Nuala Anne McGrail, a fey, Irish-speaking woman blessed with the gift of second sight, and her daughter have taken up karate to fight off schoolyard bullies who are harassing the family. (Nuala Anne delivers a black belt kick to the unlikable new school principal's stomach in a schoolyard brawl involving all four of her children.)

Solving the bullying problem at St. Joe's isn't the only challenge facing Nuala and her adoring husband, Dermot. They must also figure out who beat and threw Finnbar Burke, (the "nice fella" with whom their shy, golden-haired nanny has fallen in love) into the Chicago River.

Nuala Anne and Dermot, with the able assistance of Cardinal ‘Blackie’ Ryan and a host of Wabash Avenue Irregulars, quietly tackle the case.

Interspersed with the present-day action is the poignant story of an Irish girl who came to America after all her immediate family died in the famine of 1875. One of the first female physicians in the Chicago area, she helps solve a perplexing medical mystery during a smallpox epidemic. (Remember…all of the “Irish” stories by Greeley contain 2 different stories being reported at the same time.)

Greeley has done it again! Few can resist the charm of these colorful, warm characters and the author's sympathetic view of the Irish of Chicago

NOTE:
Andrew Greeley suffered a fractured skull and left orbital bone near his eye in a fall on November 7, 2008, when his clothing got caught on the door of a taxi as it pulled away, and was hospitalized in critical condition. His most recent health update (November 7, 2009, on the anniversary of his accident) listed on his webpage indicates he is recovering at home in the care of his family.

“Dare to Die” by Carolyn Hart

Review #80

A Death on Demand Mystery with Annie Darling and her PI husband, Max Darling



A mysterious young woman returns to the island to make amends, but a ruthless killer fears she will recall one long ago, foggy night.

Annie owns Death on Demand, a mystery bookstore in Broward's Rock, one of the idyllic South Carolina Sea Islands. This time Annie leaves her bookstore in the meddling hands of her mother-in-law, Lauren, and steps in to help her friends, Ingrid and Duane Webb, by taking care of their motel while they attend to a family crisis. One of the motel's new residents is a lonely and troubled young woman named Iris Tilford. Iris has returned to Broward's Rock after disappearing more than 10
years ago following the tragic deaths of two of her high-school friends. Annie invites Iris to a party she and Max are giving. This party happens to include some of Iris’ old friends and classmates. By the time the evening is over, Iris is brutally murdered, and the best suspects are some of those very same classmates. The Darlings vow not to get involved, but soon their own lives are in danger, and... the body count escalates.

This is the nineteenth book in the Death on Demand Mystery series and just as good as the other eighteen.

“Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe

Review #79

As far as we know this was the first novel ever written, (1719). Daniel Defoe is said to have based “Robinson Crusoe” on the true adventures of Alexander Selkirk (who spent four or five years on an island in the South Pacific) and on accounts of other castaways of the time.

The first-person narrative begins with the universal quest: the young man in Britain, torn between his safe home and his hunger for adventure, breaks away from his loving father and sails away into the unknown. After a series of harrowing escapes, he's shipwrecked on a desert island. The narrative shows how his intelligence and education help him survive for more than 30 years, and how he uses technology, including guns and tools salvaged from the ship. He sets up home, reads the Bible, finds a parrot as a pet, (a dog and 2 cats survive the wreck with him) and even devises a calendar to keep track of time. Then one day he finds a human footprint: was it someone who could save him and take him back to civilization? Or was it a “savage” who landed here?

When some "savages" arrive in several canoes, he uses his guns to get rid of them, and he rescues one of their captives, a handsome fellow with very dark skin. Delighted to have a companion at last, Crusoe names the newcomer Friday (since Crusoe saved him on Friday). (I wonder why he had to name a grown man. Didn’t he already have a name?) Crusoe teaches "my man Friday" to speak English, fire a gun, carve a canoe, and clothe his nakedness, and they live happily together. Later they rescue a white man and Friday's father from a group of "savages," and, eventually, they all return to their homes. The survival adventure is still enthralling.

I read this book as a child and decided to read it again. As a child it was a book of adventure. As an adult, it is, also, something else! An adventure, yes, but this time I found… racism and slavery indicative of that era… man finding religion but, keeping the racism…and…comedy. Read it again and see what you think. ;)

I discovered a new audio medium at the library. This book was on "Playaway". It is a credit card sized audio book. You plug in earphones and put the device in a pocket. Then, you are free to go anywhere you like while listening to the book! It's wonderful...try it! They are very expensive to buy, so check with your library. You supply the earphones.

“The Spellmans Strike Again” by Lisa Lutz

Review #78

The uproarious fourth and final installment in the "New York Times", bestselling, Edgar Award-nominated series about a kooky detective family.

Now that her parents are older, Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, age 32, has agreed to head up Spellman Investigations. She is also dating ex-boyfriend #12, an Irish bartender. Even so, Mother Olivia, determined that Izzy marry a professional, blackmails her into dating men of Olivia's choice (preferably lawyers) every other week. Youngest daughter Rae, a genius teen who's supposed to be studying for the SATs, is wrapped up in her internship researching pro bono legal cases, using any means…legal or illegal…to get an innocent man out of jail. And the whole family wants to make sure brother David marries Maggie Mason, the lawyer who oversees Rae's internship.

In addition, Izzy investigates the whereabouts of a missing valet with a checkered past and sifts through garbage for a screenwriter client. On the sly, Izzy is also tailing Rick Harkey, a rival San Francisco PI, and discovers that Harkey has left behind a trail of suspicious arrests and conveniently misplaced evidence in his career as a cop.

This book makes it FUN TIME!

(The first 3 books of the series are: "The Spellman Files”, “The Revenge of the Spellmans" and “The Curse of the Spellmans”. They are all fast paced and FUN!)

"Born On a Blue Day”       by  Daniel Tammet
Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.

Review #77

Daniel Tammet is one of the world's 50 or so living autistic savants and is the first and only one to tell his compelling and inspiring life story and explain how his incredible mind works. He was the subject of the 2005 documentary, ‘Brainman’,

This unique, first-person account, offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning, 32-year-old British autistic savant with Asperger's syndrome.

Tammet's ability to think abstractly, deviate from routine, and empathize, interact and communicate with others is impaired, yet, he's capable of incredible feats of memorization and mental calculation, (in five hours he recited the number pi up to the 22,514th digit, breaking the European record).

Besides being able to effortlessly multiply and divide huge sums in his head with the speed and accuracy of a computer, Daniel speaks 9 languages and learned the Icelandic language (one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn) in a single week. He also experiences synesthesia, an unusual neurological syndrome that enables him to experience numbers and words as "shapes, colors, textures and motions."

His adult achievements include teaching in Lithuania, achieving financial independence with an educational Web site (http://www.optimnem.co.uk/) and writing some of the clearest prose anyone has ever read. He tells his story with such concentration, precision, and simplicity that his familial poverty, schooling as a mainstreamed student, self-realization as gay, and embracing of Christianity prove as enthralling as they are, ultimately, normal.

His ability to express himself clearly and with a surprisingly engaging tone (given his symptoms) makes for an account that will intrigue anyone who hears his story.

I found that, occasionally, he became overly descriptive of his subject and lost me (especially in the math department). ;) But…I was so engrossed with Daniel Tammet’s story that I listened to the entire book in one day! Although Daniel did not do the audio himself, I recommend getting the audio tape of this book so you can experience the feel of his telling you in person about his life!
The book is entirely in first person prose!

Tammet has written a second book,"Embracing the Wide Sky" and is writing a third, has a personal blog, http://www.optimnem.co.uk/blog/index.php, and his official website, http://www.optimnem.co.uk/.

"Exit Wounds”   by J.A. Jance

Review #76 

A Sheriff Joanna Brady novel

The heat is a killer in Cochise County, Arizona, with temperatures over 100 degrees.

It's the Fourth of July, and Brady is racing from event to event, unofficially campaigning for re-election, when she learns that a woman has been found dead in a mobile home, surrounded by 17 dead dogs. The dogs died of the blazing desert heat, but Carol Mossman was shot.

Then...Joanna receives reports on two more female bodies that have turned up in a nearby county in New Mexico. Ballistics reveal that the same gun was used in both crimes.

Meanwhile, Joanna and her husband are delighted to learn that she's pregnant. Morning sickness and eating aversions play a larger role in Sheriff Brady's day than she would like, but she struggles on with the minutiae of a sheriff's life.

Clues to the three murders are slow in coming, but eventually Joanna learns that Carol's father, Ed Mossman, belonged to a cult called the Brethren for many years, and the two women who were murdered in New Mexico were in the midst of producing a report on the publicity-shy group.

Joanna starts to believe that the more she learns about the Mossman family and the Brethren, the closer she'll be to solving the murders.

Joanna Brady's life is never simple, always busy, and full of questions large and small about human nature.

J.A. Jance has given us another great story!

"Rooms”   by James L. Rubart

Review #75

This is a tale of a man’s unexpected journey to finding his true self, his true life and God.

Twenty-five-year-old Seattle software tycoon, Micah Taylor receives a mysterious letter from his great-uncle Archie informing him of a home he has had built especially for Micah. He never knew this uncle who has been dead for 12 years (the house was built 5 months ago!) and who his father says was ‘loony toons’. However, his interest is piqued so, Micah takes off from Seattle for Cannon Beach, Oregon to visit his newly acquired 9,000-square-foot house on the beach (providing it really exists)!

At first, he thinks maybe, a house in Cannon Beach would be a perfect weekend getaway place or maybe, he would sell it. He arrives to find...it does exist! It's big and beautiful! But, once he settles in, strange things start happening... things Micah can't explain...things he can barely believe. Strange rooms keep appearing. Rooms he knows were not there when he first arrived! And…each of these rooms has a unique purpose.

What he finds is a shape-shifting, mind-boggling revisiting of his past that jeopardizes his future. With only a handful of letters from Archie as a guide and a new friend, Rick, Micah tries to summon up the courage to face old wounds that somehow are connected to these special rooms.

This is not listed as a science fiction novel, but the ‘Twilight Zone’ writers would have been proud to call this book their own. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a powerful and moving story. It just makes it more intriguing.

It's an excellent book and I would recommend it to anyone!

"Something Wicked”   by  Carolyn Hart

Review #74

A Death on Demand Mystery with book store owner, Annie Laurance and PI Max Darling.

Mishaps and murder occur on the set of the Broward Rock Players production of Arsenic and Old Lace in the high school auditorium. When one of the cast members, womanizer Shane Petree winds up shot to death in the boiler room, a pompous prosecutor tries to pin the murder on Max Darling, Annie Laurance's fiancé. (Annie just wants a simple, quiet wedding but, her soon to be mother-in-law, Laurel, is helping to plan it and her elaborate, “International” suggestions are driving Annie nuts!)

Annie checks the greasepaint and glitter of backstage life and with her friend,Henny’s help, uses the methods of her favorite fictional sleuths to solve the crime. If she isn’t careful, she'll be the next to star in a death scene because this murderer doesn’t play fair!

I have never read a bad Carolyn Hart book! Charming characters, interesting plots and funny moments make them all worth reading.

In addition to the Death on Demand series, Carolyn Hart has a series based on amateur sleuth Henrie O and another on ghost detective, Bailey Ruth.

"The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Irish History and Culture”                                          by Sonja Massie

Review #73

Don't get shook up...I did not read this book in 2 days! I have been reading it on and off for several weeks!


There are approximately 40 million people of Irish descent in America today and they are not the only ones who have made books such as How the Irish Saved Civilization and Angela's Ashes international best sellers. This Complete Idiot's Guide contains exhaustive, easy-to-follow coverage of all of Irish history from the Celts to the Dark Ages… to the crucial role of Christianity… to conflicts with England… to the vital Irish assimilation into American culture. This book includes concise biographies of great Irish leaders, as well as profiles of famous poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers, artists, actors, and more.

Whether you are Irish or not, if you have an interest in the Irish, you will love this book! I would also recommend it for parents whose children are studying Ireland.

I liked it so much, I actually bought it after returning the Library’s copy.
(I am of Scots-Irish-English-Cherokee Indian descent.)

“Deliver Us From Evil”   by  Robin Caroll

Review #72 

A search-and-rescue helicopter pilot for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Brannon Callahan, is distinguished by her strong faith and a decorated history of service. These have kept her one step ahead of on-the-job dangers, but there's no precedent for what's about to happen. She is pushed to her limits when she must rescue U.S. Marshal Roark Holland from a dangerous blizzard after his plane crashes.

Together, they must race to get a heart to a transplant recipient who happens to be the only government witness in a human trafficking case. If they fail, the largest child trafficking ring in history, (with shocking links from Thailand to Tennessee), will slip further away into darkness along the Appalachian Trail.

This is the first book I have read by this author. It most certainly won’t be the last!