Another Stuart Woods unabridged audio started off this quarter with his second book, Deep Lie. This is a thriller involving the a Soviet build up and the CIA's involvement. A 35-year-old female analyst is suspicious about the activity of a number of Soviet incidents, but has no "humint" (human intelligence) with which to garner details. Though it was published 15 years ago (1986 and was Woods' second novel), I thought it was extremely timely in light of the recent terrorist events. Current "security" issues this country suffers has been attributed to the lack of good human intelligence and an over-reliance on technology. Both these issues is the basis of this story. It does begin somewhat slowly, but comes together more rapidly in the second half of the book.

I picked Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman* because I bought a copy of their follow-up book, The Black House, on audio. I wanted to do this before I did that and, at the time, I hadn't seen that The Talisman is now available on unabridged audio. The story is about Jack Sawyer, 12 years old, who is loosing his mother to cancer. He meets a mysterious old man that calls him Travelin' Jack and introduces him to the Territories, an alternate and somewhat parallel world which he can "flip" to and from. In this other world, his mother is a queen who is also dying and Jack learns he may be able to same them both. He must journey across the country in search for the Talisman, which will help him save them

I don't read Stephen King as much as I used to. Or more accurately, I don't enjoy the stories as much as I used to. But I do miss the way he writes.  There are usually what I call some "King" moments in which he seems to capture a snatch of life that "brings home" a familiar observation in  seemingly effortless, yet vivid lines of prose. In this case, he was talking about a friend of his who, because of some bizarre youthful trauma, doesn't like to read fiction. He tried, once, to give him a particular book  which he, Jack, and just finished and found fascinating. Surely, his friend would like this, he thought. King wrote that upon finishing the book, Jack was left feeling "...most of all wishing what he always wished when the story was particularly good -- that it didn't have to stop, that it could just roll on and on, the way that life did ...." I sure know what that's like. Unfortunately, there weren't that many of those kinds of passages. But, though I didn't really care for the subject matter, the characters were typically vivid and I felt like I actually met them (the good guys, more than the bad guys).

Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub is a follow-up to The Talisman*. Jack Sawyer is now in his 30's and has pushed his experience from the Talisman from his mind. All that remains is a sense of a series of boyhood nightmares. He has become a cop in Los Angeles and, after a particularly ugly homicide, Jack retires with a medical disability and moves to Wisconsin. There, he is summoned by the local police to assist on an apparent kidnapping with bizarre peripheral problems. Jack is soon face-to-face with his own past and their demons.

 Pandora's Curse by Jack DuBrul is a Clive Cussler-ish adventure. An explorer is accepted as a member to the prestigious "Surveyors Society" and given a special position on an expedition to Greenland. But there is an alternative agenda for which he is better suited and why the society actually chose him. An old Nazi weapon plan was abandoned during the war, but left behind are remnants of that effort. It has become a potential liability to the current day German company who, back then, participated in the operation. The company is  in the midst of sensitive Jewish reparation negotiations, and their involvement in this operation would not help their negotiations if it became known. Complicating matters is that those tasked with ridding any evidence of a connection to that German company have their own agenda and so, it appears, do those backing our explorer.

The Syndrome is the third from "John Case", who, it is now revealed on the back flap, is a husband and wife team of Jim and Carolyn Hougan. This is a bizarre mix of "who dun it?" "who'd they do it to?" and "did they really?" A young woman is dead from an apparent suicide. Her "not so close" sister, who now regrets their estrangement, tries to back track her life in an effort to figure out why. She soon discovers that her sister had been seeing a psychiatrist who had unraveled evidence that she was an abused child. She was, apparently, a repeated victim of satanic tortures. But it just isn't true. She confronts the doctor and accuses him of "seeding" the problem in order to maintain the client. Then it is revealed that the good doctor seems to be missing a few eggs from his own basket. First of all, he's mildly agoraphobic. Secondly, his history only goes back a few years. Third, much of what he does remember is flat not true. Nevertheless, the sister and the doctor then set out to find out what's really going on. I listened to this on unabridged audio.

 It was a fine story, but I recently did Dean Koontz's False Memory, so I was already tuned into the basic premise. I was repeatedly frustrated with the pace, which might, for someone else, been somewhat suspenseful. For me, however, it was like, "Hey, been there, done that; get on with it." I was mildly (but only mildly) disappointed after reading Cold, Cold Heart by James Elliot (another pseudonym for the same writing team) and what I'd heard about The Genesis Code, Case's first.

Speaking of The Genesis Code, this is the first from the team of authors Jim and Carolyn Hougan, under this pseudonym (they previously they wrote as James Elliot). A kind of techno-medical thriller, book has Joe Lassiter investigating the circumstances around his sister's and her son's mysterious murder. They were killed and then their home was set on fire, supposedly, to mask the murder, but the murderer/arsonist was, himself, caught in the blaze. Though disfigured, he survived and while still recuperating (before being interrogated by the police), someone else digs up the boy and burns the body completely. Joe slowly finds that his sister is one of 18 women who had gone to a fertility clinic in Italy to conceive her child. The story opens up with a priest in rural Italy hearing a confession (which we don't) that immediately sends him to the Vatican. What it is, is kept from us until the very end. Very suspenseful and a great "wow" ending.

The film is pretty close to the book, but not completely. However, it is very faithful to the story (which isn't too surprising since Earl Hamner Jr also did the teleplay). The names, of course are different (Walton, instead of Spenser) and the children's names are different as well (like John-boy, instead of Clay-boy).

The book was actually completed prior to the 9-11-01 attacks and there is obvious evidence that the story was "touched" up after those attacks to incorporate the subsequent changes in international sentiment and perspective. The story is a combination of things. First, it is a  look into the irony of a Palestinian being brought up as a Jew and the effect it has on him when he discovers his true heritage. It is also a study in the mechanism of this kind of terrorism itself. It is not so much about religion, race, ideology or even nationalism; it's about power. Ideology, et al, enters into it only as motivating factors for the underlings, and then, only, maybe. It's a love story between a tortured man and young woman. It's about a father's love for his daughter and trying to make up for lost time. I highly recommend it. It's due out in February 2002.

Roadhouse Blues, is the first from Baron R. Birtcher. Mike Travis, recently retired from the LAPD, is summoned back on the job to help in the investigation of the return of a serial killer that had plagued his last few years on the force. Travis bears the calluses caused by his years as a homicide detective and does not want to return to the life, but the unfinished business calls to him and in spite of the risks to his new relationship, his own sanity, and his protestations to the contrary, he willingly accepts the job. The clues left by the killer don't seem to be, as has been characterized, as "plea for help". Rather, it is apparently evidence of a very personal agenda by the culpret. The victims seem to be all staged, postmortem, as if part of a ritual. The story weaves around the music of Jim Morrison from The Doors.

It was a good read, hard-boiled and more polished than I'd expect from a first time author. Birtcher's next book has just been released, Ruby Tuesday, and is apparently continuing the musical theme.

As I was already in the poetry mood, I thought I'd go through Dean Koontz's The Paper Doorway. As the full title suggests it is Funny Verse and Nothing Worse. This is a delightful variety of short poems, for youngsters on themes of self discovery and just plan fun nonsense. It starts off with, If I Were a Potato and includes other revealing titles such as Frankenbunny, Food Psychos  and The Shark in the Park. Like his children's releases in the past, this is illustrated by Phil Parks. Like the Santa's Twin release from a couple years ago, there's a Where's Waldo kind of thing going on. In every illustration, there is a least one mouse in the picture, some are very obvious, others aren't so easy to find. Once again, a delightful read and fun for kids of all ages.

*