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The
reason for these "quarterly" reports is that I
just can’t keep up with the speed most of you read.
It is not unlikely that I’ll only get one book done
in a month and now that my "day" job has me
doing less traveling, I don’t go through Books on
Tape as often. |
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Deja Dead by Kathy
Reichs has Temperance Brennan as a forensic
anthropologist, like Reichs, herself. In this, her first
novel, Reichs has Tempe seeing patterns in the forensics of the bodies she
is examining that suggests a serial killer. However, the
police aren't taking her seriously. Set in Montreal,
Quebec, the dialogue and descriptions are salted,
liberally, with French, most, but not all, were
translated. Tempe, because she feels shunned by the
police force, takes it on her own to doing some field
investigation; alone -- in the dark -- unarmed. This gets
her into trouble the first time out, but she keeps doing
it.
All in all, I liked the book, but I had a few minor
problems with it. First, was the French. I understand the
saying, "When in Rome..." but I don't have a
head for the French language and I find it incredibly
distracting to wade through. Secondly, I don't understand
why the police wouldn't take her observations seriously.
Why else would she even work there in that capacity if to
be ignored when something's found? Sure, it aids in the
suspense, but without some reason, it seemed a bit of a stretch. Third, given
that she's ignored, her solution to do her own investigation seemed
amateurish (of the character, not of Reichs). Finally, the
relationship with her friend, Gabby, seemed too strained.
I kept wondering why were friends at all. Gabby would
call Tempe for support or help with a problem, but then
wouldn't tell her what the problem was. As soon as Gabby
was out of "harms way", she'd clam up.
In spite of these, I really enjoyed the book. Most of the
above were minor annoyances. I'd just finished a short,
fast and easy read, so maybe I just wasn't ready for
something more robust. The French thing will probably
keep me front going to the follow-ups too quickly, but I
will definitely get back to her. I saw a special on
A&E about Kathy Reichs' day job, which I found
fascinating (I didn't know she was a forensic
anthropologist). That is why I picked this up in the first
place. I liked the forensic science. I liked how the
seemingly unrelated events resolved themselves. I liked
the growing relationship between Tempe and Ryan. And,
who knows, maybe this series will even motivate me to
learn French. |
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Ghosts of the Morning is Richard Barre's third Wil Hardesty
novel. Wil's friend, Denny, was, reportedly, killed in
Vietnam years before. Now the boy's mother has received a note saying
that he is alive. She wants Wil to investigate the
matter and pay the $30,000 "ransom" to get the
details. The family was well-to-do back in the
mid-sixties when Wil knew Denny, but they are flat-out
rich now as they have the controlling interest in a large healthcare
facility. The empire was built by the father and
currently run by the surviving son. The mother is dying of emphysema and the daughter is
(and always was), wild and in
trouble. The evolution of the story threads through the
relationships Wil had back then with these people and
between each other and what has happened since.
I've been pacing myself with these books. I really enjoy
them. I still have his fourth to do. I understand he has completed the
fifth novel and is working on the sixth while looking for a new publisher. I do look forward to more from him. |
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I've been meaning to read Robin
Cook's novel, Coma, for years and finally got to it. I
think one reason I've put it off is because Her Majesty
said she didn't like it (I've since found out it was because she
doesn't like "medical thrillers" in general).
The story has Susan Wheeler, a medical student, trying to
find out why there seem to be so many "coma"
victims. The story dramatizes the plight of women
entering the medical world (viewed in contemporary times
circa the late 70's when the book was written).
However, more to the point of the novel, it demonstrates
a possible scenario to deal with a social-medical
problem. Neither the problem nor a more socially
acceptable solution are revealed until the very end. I
enjoyed it a lot. |
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I enjoyed Coma
so much (and I loved Tess Gerritsen's Gravity,
from a couple years ago), I figured I owed myself another medial thriller.
So I
picked up Robert Greer's Limited Time. I was lead to believe this was a
stand-a-lone. Greer has written three CJ Floyd,
bounty-hunter/bail bondsman novels and though I have
them, I haven't read them yet. I don't like reading
stories out of order. It turns out that it does use CJ
Floyd in this one, but if there are spoilers to his
earlier plots, I missed them. The story has a really
fascinating premise. A research scientist, Neil
Cardashian, is working on a grant and a hot lead to
produce a "Fountain of Youth" pill. He is
playing his cards too close to his vest for the likes of
those on his on team. An already suspicious colleague,
Tess Gilliam, takes it upon herself to have his worked
checked. Before she gets too far, Dr. Cardashian is found
dead and Tess becomes a prime suspect.
What I found fascinating was the
premise of the research. The problem with aging is that after a while,
cell stop reproducing or "renewing" themselves. Once this renewal
process begins to fail, first tissues then organs begin to fail. The
trick, then, to longevity is to find a protein or enzyme that will keep
that renewal process going. Personally, I'm not sure if either the
supposition, or the approach given the supposition, is valid, but it
seemed real enough for me to go, "Hmmmm." |
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On audio, I finally finished
Dean Koontz's latest, From
the Corner of His Eye.
"Junior" Cain surprises himself and the reader
with an action he takes while on vacation with the love
of his life, Naomi, his wife. Beginning in 1965, a
series of seemingly unrelated events slowly (ever so
slowly) come together and to a solution in early 1968.
The calling card to this book (as well as most Koontz's
stories), is his semi-formal and sophisticated prose to
describe not only the beautiful people around which the
story revolves, but also the dastardly deeds done unto
them by the antagonist.
It
does seem an extremely long way around the barn. It
was as if Dean was have way too much fun with
these characters and just didn't want to stop. I
don't really mind because I like the way he writes, but I
couldn't help think, "Yo, Dean ... horn works, try
the lights."
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Also on audio, I did Lisa
Scottoline's The Vendetta Defense. Judy
Carrier takes on a murder case defending
"Pigeon-Tony" Lucia for the murder of Angelo
Coluzzi and she accepts because she is endeared to
Pigeon-Tony. Tony Lucia and Angelo Coluzzi are both about
80 years old when Coluzzi is killed. The actual problem
goes back almost 60 years to Italy when Angelo kills
Tony's wife just as World War II was getting underway. It
was a good story and Lisa's character, Judy Carrier, is
cute, whimsical and salted with light sarcasm. One irritant was that Pigeon-Tony, in his broken English,
insisted that he killed Angelo but it "...wassa no
murder..." and he wanted to tell the judge. Judy, of
course, was trying to tell him that it was the state prosecutor's
job to prove he did it and if he'd just say nothing, then
his problems would go away. He kept insisting he wanted
to "tell the truth" while she kept insisting
that he didn't have to and assumed he just didn't
understand. My problem was that Judy didn't seem
interested in why he wanted to talk to the judge. Nor did
she try to be sure that Tony didn't understand rather
than had chosen to take this defense strategy.
It came up a number of times and each time she seemed to
brush it under the carpet.
I really liked the character. I understand, though, that Scottoline's
book features different characters from the all-female legal office. If
the other characters are as fun, then I'm looking forward to
others.
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The Marquis de Fraud is Philip Reed's third novel and my
first of his. It's the start of new series featuring
horse trainer, Cliff Dante. Cliff is down on his luck,
problems at home but he has this knack of spotting good
horses. He trains them, gets them over the rough spots
and then sells them at auction. This is called "pin
hooking." What Cliff needs is to find some clients
that will purchase shares of his horse to finance his
maintenance of them during this time. What he doesn't
need is a fraud. This is more of a suspense thriller,
than a mystery. You know what's what and pretty much who's
who from the start. What you don't know is how Cliff's going to deal
with it. Set mainly in San Francisco and then Scotland, Phil
takes you for a nice ride on the inside track of horse
racing via Bay Meadows, Santa Anita and in Scotland.
I enjoyed it quite a lot. I grew up
in the San Francisco Bay Area and it is nice to visit there every once
in a while and it's always nice to visit England and this time I even
got a side trip to Scotland. Phil chose to do this story, partially, because it is
actually based on a real event (he discusses it in the preface which you
can read at his web site http://www.philip-reed.com) |
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The Painted House is something new for John Grisham.
It's actually a general fiction novel. The story is from
the viewpoint of a seven-year-old growing up in the
dirt-poor cotton-belt of Arkansas. The story covers
harvest time in the fall of 1952 and is colored by
realistic imagery, apparently, from Grisham's own
childhood memories. It took me some time to get into it
(as I was expecting another Grisham-esc legal thriller).
However, it finally grabbed me. It was kind of a mixture
of To Kill a Mockingbird, Cold Mountain
and a little touch of The Poisonwood Bible. It
is written from a child's viewpoint, threaded with the anticipation
of a better life (or, at least, the leaving behind of the
old one ) and laced with the religious mores inherent in a
Baptist upbringing. It was moving, and I liked it.
I do think, however, that Grisham's
choice of point of view had some implementation problems.
Luke Chandler, the youngster whose point of view was used
to narrate the story, was incredibly astute for a
seven-year-old. Maybe, if Grisham had changed the tone a
bit to be more of a reminiscence, then the observations would seem more
retrospective rather than the incredible insight of a seven-year-old. Alternatively, he could have made it third
person, centering around the boy. As it was, it appeared
that this young boy was putting things together that some
adults don't see.
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Robert Crais' Lullaby Town
has Elvis Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, begin tracking
down the former wife and the son of a big time film
director (who is full of himself) and winds up in the
middle of East Coast mob entanglements. Karen Lloyd and
her son Toby got out from under the thumb of Peter Alan
Nelson, now the number three director in Hollywood.
However, she got herself mixed up with the mob and now
needs to get out from under that. I keep forgetting how
much fun Crais' books are. He really has a knack of doing
hard-boiled (really hard ... you can roller skate on 'em)
and being funny (sometimes laugh out loud funny) without
turning the stories into a cartoon. |
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