Deep Down by Lee Child

Jack Reacher #16.5

            Deep Down is a short story about the early days of Jack Reacher's clandestine career. I really enjoy the Jack Reacher novels, and the glimpses of his past I’ve gotten from the two short stories are fascinating.

            In this story, Reacher is asked to impersonate an army sniper sitting in on meetings between congressmen and military representatives to discuss a new sniper rifle. His mission is to determine which of four female army officers is leaking the details of the rifle to a European arms maker. When one of the women is killed prior to Reacher’s arrival at the meeting, he is deprived of the ability to observe all four women at work. Instead he follows the remaining three out of the meeting and manages to get himself invited for drinks with them.

            Reacher accomplishes his mission in his usual smart and savvy style. Basing his conclusions on the reactions of the three women to the news of the fourth’s death, and the questions they ask in the meeting, he both narrowly avoids his own death and uncovers a traitor to his country.

            I recommend this story to Jack Reacher fans. If you are unfamiliar with Reacher, start with one of his other books, but definitely get around to this one.

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich

          Lizzie and Diesal #1

            Wicked Appetite is the first book in the Lizzie and Diesel series. I assume there will be seven books in the series as Evanovich is using the seven deadly sins device. This book is her usual fun and quirky style. Roll your eyes goofy and laugh out loud funny in places. The situation comedy aspect is very strong. How can an overly human monkey or a one-eyed ninja cat not be entertaining?

            Lizzie is a pastry chef with a particular talent for cupcakes. She works at a bakery in Salem, MA, home of the Salem Witch Trials. Considering where she works, the odd is not unusual. But when a tall, cadaverously pale man enters the bakery looking for her things get more than odd.

            After Wolf scares Lizzy half to death and leaves, his gorgeous cousin, Diesel, rolls in looking for her. He explains that he and Wolf are both looking for a special stone controlling gluttony. He says Lizzy has special abilities, not only with cupcakes, but also to feel the energy given off by this stone. He insists she help him find it. Since she finds herself unable to get rid of him, and he promises to protect her from Wolf, she assists.

            The hunt for the keys to the stones location becomes increasingly difficult and dangerous as the story progresses. Of course, the goofiness surrounding Lizzy increases apace, balancing tension and release nicely. And, while I have always associated gluttony with food, Evanovich uses a much broader definition to great effect.

            Lizzy and Diesel eventually find the stone, but find themselves at an impasse with Wolf at the same time. Wolf and Diesel agree to split the loot with him, and meet again another day - presumably in Wicked Business, Lizzy and Diesel #2.

            This is not the great American novel, but it doesn't seem to expect to be. It is seriously fun, and I recommend it. I am looking forward to the next installment in the series.

 

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg

            I don't often read nonfiction. However, I really enjoy history (except wars) and I love knowing about words - where they came from, how their usage has changed over time - so this book was right up my alley. It describes how the English language went from a local dialect of a few thousand words to the world wide form of communication it is today.

            Admittedly, some of the earlier chapters went over information I was already familiar with. But it was very interesting to read about how the language spread beyond the island of England to become the basis of communication on other continents. Naturally, I found the language's arrival in and progression through the US fascinating. I was unaware of how influential the Lewis and Clark expedition through the Louisiana Purchase was in the increase of American English vocabulary. I liked how the chapter on the American expansion opened:

            

If you can imagine a language having a life of its own...that language after a certain take-off stage becomes a living entity, like water...the reach of English has been oceanic. It had already by this stage in its history, the middle of the eighteenth century, gone from a splinter dialect of a subdivision of a branch of an Indo-European tongue to the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, the language that sailed in the mouths and minds of zealous and dedicated men and women to plant itself in a new world.

            Obviously, this book is not for everyone. I enjoyed it immensely.

11th Hour by James Patterson and Maxine Peatro

Women's Murder Club #11
 

Read by January LaVoy

            This installment of the Women's Murder Club has a pregnant Lindsay Boxer faced with a series of bizarre murders. She is called to a scene at a compound built by a man who liked his privacy. The new owners are not there much, but there is a small staff residing at the location. Upon arriving in the garden of the compound, Lindsay is shown two decapitated heads, one old, and one still relatively fresh. They are displayed on the patio surrounded by freshly picked flowers. As if this is not weird enough, further investigation turns up more skulls of varying ages buried on the grounds.

            Suspicion naturally turns first to the owner of the property who years earlier was acquitted of murdering his wife whose body has never been found. Try as she might, Lindsay cannot make a case against him for any of the dead women. In looking farther afield, Lindsay finds an odd and reclusive woman squatting in the servants' quarters at the compound. She does not seem quite sane, and does admit to displaying the heads in the garden. Unfortunately, a case cannot be made against her for the murders. But Lindsay does not give up and eventually discovers her murderer.

            While trying to identify the skulls and solve their murders, Lindsay is having problems at home. An old flame of Joe's calls and leads Lindsay to believe that Joe is having an affair with her. Lindsay, apparently suffering from a bad case of hormones and pregnancy brain, throws him out without letting him tell his side of the story. It turns out she is wrong and she has to deal with her marriage woes while trying to do her, always difficult, job.

            This is pretty typical James Patterson fare, although the squatter in the servants' quarters is particularly odd, and Lindsay's lack of perspective with Joe is a bit out of character. It was a good way to spend some time, and it was nice to catch up with the girls in the Club.

Catch Me by Lisa Gardner

          D.D. Warren #6

          This was a good book – not great, but a fine way to spend a few hours.

          Detective D.D. Warren of the Boston Police Department is a homicide cop who finds herself with two series of murders to solve simultaneously. The first is the executions of several pedophiles.  While at the scene of the first death she is called to, D.D. spots someone moving suspiciously at the edge of the crowd outside the building. D.D. runs this character down to find she is Charlie Grant. Charlie’s murder hasn’t happened yet, but she assures D.D. it will happen in a few days. She claims to be at the scene to check out D.D. since she’s heard D.D. is the best. Charlie wants D.D. to handle the investigation of her murder once it happens.

          This introduces the second series of murders D.D. must solve. Charlie’s two best friends have been killed. The first on January 21^st two years prior; the second was murdered on January 21^st of the previous year. It is now mid January, and Charlie is counting down the days and hours till the twenty-first and preparing herself mentally and physically to fight her killer to the end.

          D.D. is trying to balance her job as a murder cop with her job as mother to her ten week old son.  And, as if she does not have enough on her plate, her parents are coming to visit! D.D. is frazzled and sleep deprived as she juggles job and family.  It makes her wonder if she’s losing it when aspects of the two cases seem to relate to each other.

          The story twists and turns as D.D. tries to solve the murders of the pedophiles while preventing Charlie’s demise by solving the murders of her two friends. Little does she know that many of the answers to both puzzles are lurking within her own Boston PD.

          On the evening of January 21^st, D.D. realizes two things nearly simultaneously: she knows who has been killing the pedophiles, and Charlie has disappeared. As D.D. races to find Charlie before the killer can finish her off, Charlie is discovering that all her preparations for facing and defeating her murderer have been for naught. Unless a miracle happens, she is going to die, and several others may die along with her.

          But D.D. arrives in the nick of time.

          I can recommend this one as an entertaining read. While I won’t go back to read the first five books in the series, I will gladly read the others as they come along.

 

 

Dark Prince: Author's Special Cut Edition by Christine Feehan

          Dark #1

          I struggled at the beginning of this story. I was listening to the audio book, and later determined that was part of the problem I was having. I didn’t care for the reader’s voice, and particularly the way she made Raven sound. Feehan introduced a young woman with psychic abilities whose job requires her to get inside the twisted minds of serial killers and hunt them down. She must be a strong-willed, mentally balanced person who has earned the respect of law enforcement officials, right? The reader makes her sound like a toddler with a high pitched, whispery almost-lisp. It took me a while to realize the disconnect here, and once I did I started to enjoy the story more.

          In this particular series, the Carpathians are the good guys. Vampires are Carpathians who have turned to the dark side and are hunted down and destroyed by the others. Raven is a human woman, vacationing in the Carpathian Mountains, who telepathically overhears the struggle Mikhail, the Carpathian prince, is having. Mikhail is beginning to despair of ever finding his life mate and is considering self destruction before he can succumb to the lure of the dark places in his soul. Mikhail immediately seizes upon the distraction Raven provides and then takes it up several notches of the creepy variety.

          Within the first pages of the story, Mikhail has begun stalking Raven and later psychically molests her. For reasons that completely escape me, this does not cause Raven to run screaming for the first plane back to America. It has been a few years since I last read a romance novel that starts with the “hero” raping the heroine. (Years ago it was quite common in the genre.) And, if I hadn’t been three quarters of a mile into my two mile walk, I would have stopped the story right there. But I soldiered on for lack of anything else to listen to on my MP3 player.

          Needless to say, the story improved. Raven, despite sounding like a toddler and feeling an inexplicable need to save Mikhail’s soul, stands her ground on her requirement for some autonomy.  Mikhail eventually comes around to her way of thinking, and she stops doing incredibly stupid and dangerous things to make her point.

          The plot line of the book has vicious human vampire hunters on the trail of the Carpathians. They have already found and killed one of the rare female Carpathians and are on the hunt for more. Raven and Mikhail, with the help of a few other Carpathians and the use of their special gifts, manage to track down and destroy this group. And ultimately, Raven and Mikhail live happily ever after. 

          I really liked some of the aspects of the Carpathian society Feehan created. For the most part the men seem a bit courtly and old fashioned right down to being domineering and expecting immediate and silent obedience from their women.  It makes for some entertaining reading as they encounter twentieth century women.  I also like their attitude of women and children first. Their safety and happiness are the first duty and desire of the Carpathian male. I also like the concept that the men are dark and the women are light and both are necessary for the eternal relationships they have.

          I’m glad I stuck with this book, despite the reader and the yuck factor at the beginning. I’ve got the next book, Dark Desire, uploaded on the MP3 and will listen to it next. There’s a different reader this time, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy listening to it.

         

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

          American Gods was written some ten years ago. It has won a number of prestigious awards. It appeared on the best seller lists last January about the time HBO announced they were going to turn it into a multi-season television series much as they did GRR Martin’s A Game of Thrones.  It is certainly a long enough book with enough action to provide several seasons worth of television.

          I’ve got to be honest, I struggled with this book. I’ve been trying for a few days to put into words exactly why. Perhaps it is the hodge-podge of religious imagery, myth and legend. Perhaps it is my ignorance of some of the pantheons involved. Perhaps it is because the main character is dazed and confused through most of the story. Perhaps it is simply that the themes are a bit dark and disturbing.

          The story centers on a man known as Shadow, an ex-con who is preparing to be released from prison a few days after the start of the story. He is actually released a day or two early due to the death of his wife in a car accident.  On his way home he meets a man named Wednesday with one glass eye who wants to hire him as a driver. Being at loose ends and knowing that jobs are going to be tough to find for an ex-con, he accepts.

          Wednesday is an odd duck with even odder friends.  As the story proceeds, Shadow also discovers he has some pretty odd enemies. Apparently, gods who are in vogue are wealthy and powerful. Gods who have fallen out of favor with the local population have to make their way as best they can as taxi drivers, butchers and even prostitutes. Now Wednesday is trying to get all the old gods together to fight a battle against the new gods so they do not become extinct in America. However, as all war mongers do, Wednesday has ulterior motives.

          I spent large portions of this book feeling confused and wondering where Gaiman was going with his story.  As I mentioned above, this may have been due to my own ignorance about many of the old gods the story revolves around. But I kept slogging through it.  I really liked Shadow and wanted to know how things turned out for him. He is the perfect underdog, having made a couple of bad choices and then having a lot of bad luck come his way. But Gaiman makes it clear that he a good man and I kept waiting to see how things were going to turn around for him.   

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

          Fifty Shades #1

          So, I must admit, I was very excited when I got the email from the library saying Fifty Shades of Grey was available for download to my Kindle. There has been so much hype about the books. They have been on the best seller list for months. I couldn’t wait to find out what all the fuss was about. I just hoped there was something else there besides kinky sex.

          I was well aware that the book would fall somewhere in the range of erotic to pornographic. (This is definitely not for the under eighteen crowd.)  And, to be perfectly honest, most media that falls along that spectrum bores me to tears.  I am not necessarily turned on by other people having sex. Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem reading about other people having sex, but I expect other things to go on besides just sex or you lose me.

          And, Fifty Shades of Grey delivers. Most of the sex is actually pretty tame, although there are several scenes that get pretty far off the beaten path. But there is much more than sex going on here. We get to read about two people with wildly divergent ideas about the perfect relationship attempting to find common ground, and making progress toward each other.

          I really enjoyed the email exchanges between the two main characters. They are witty and well written.  And, I spent quite a bit of time laughing out loud while reading them.  Those exchanges helped bridge the gap between Ana’s desire to have conversations and talk about things as they go along, and Christian’s wanting the relationship all laid out ahead of time in written contract form.

          I liked that both parties were willing to compromise and try doing things the way the other one wanted. They both worked hard to try to create a relationship that worked for both of them.  But in the end Christian’s control issues, and sexual proclivities proved too much for Ana to accept.

          I think she absolutely made the right decision to walk away from Christian. She was correct. He needed to get his head on straight.  I can only assume that she goes back to him in book two.  I don’t think it’s a good decision, but the idea that love conquers all is a staple of literature.

          I really enjoyed this book.  The characters are well written and fully realized. Seattle may not be the most exciting city in the world, but these characters don’t spend a lot of time outside. I was intrigued by the idea that a British writer would set the novels there, though. I’m looking forward to reading book two, Fifty Shades Darker, when it’s my turn at the library.

The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry

          I really do enjoy historical fiction, and this is a good example of why. Once again Berry combines lots of real people, places and things with a bit of imagination and comes up with a compelling story.

          In this one, he imagines that Christopher Columbus, the one we have the holiday in October for, is a Jew. And his travels to the New World are really motivated by a search for a place where the Jewish people can live in peace. He is tasked with taking precious Jewish artifacts out of the reach of the Inquisition and finding a new haven for them. He accomplishes this pretty well. The Jews find a haven in Jamaica for over 100 years and the treasure for even longer.

          After hiding the treasure, Columbus chooses one man to guard over it, The Levite. This man is to allow only one other to know the secret location. For some five centuries, the secret is kept safe and the treasure remains secure. The location known to only one man at a time, the information passed on as the current keeper nears the time of his death.

          In the current time, the Levite develops a problem. His son has renounced his religion and heritage, and therefore cannot be a fit guardian.  So the Levite takes the secret, literally, to his grave. He has his granddaughter who is the executer of his estate bury him with a package. In the package is the secret that he could not pass down to his son.

          Israeli radicals determine who the Levite was, and realize he was buried with this package despite it being against orthodox Jewish rules. They develop a plan to retrieve the package, and then the treasure. They plan to return the treasure to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem from whence it was removed millennia ago. And, they hope the return of these items to this sacred location will arouse the Jewish people to a war with the Islamic peoples who now control the location.

          The characters travel all over the globe, plans are created and thwarted and altered. Many forces are in play and no one is who they seem. The treasure is finally found, but only the new Levite controls its destiny.

          I enjoyed this one.  At times I was uncertain who was a good guy and who was a bad guy.  And, in the end it became clear that many people were a little of each. It’s always fun to read the afterward to see exactly which parts of the story are real, which are theory or myth and which came straight out of the author’s imagination.