Review: SUMMER AND SHINER by Nolan Carlson
Posted by Agnes in Uncategorized on February 7th, 2010
Summer And Shiner
Nolan Carlson
Vintage Expressions, a division of
Vintage Romance Publishing, LLC
ISBN 978-0-9819896-2-4
$12.99
162 pages
Reviewed by Agnes Dee
Summer And Shiner, by Dr. Nolan Carlson tells the story of a boy, 12-year-old Carley, his best friend, Troop, and the raccoon Carley adopts as a pet. Almost every chapter is a story to itself, tied together by the boys‘ summer vacation in the late 1940’s Randall, Kansas.
It’s an idyllic small town life: no crimes are committed, and even the worst people have a good side. However, this book is not sugar-coated. The boys get themselves into some genuinely dangerous situations. At one point, Troop tells of his time spent living on the reservation, and it’s a bit sobering.
The middle-grade child who reads this book will get a good picture of what life was like during the 40’s, living in a small town, while the adult will enjoy the author’s descriptive prose. I’d recommend this to any parent or teacher looking for a wholesome, yet interesting, book.
Dr. Carson has written five books in this series, as well as ten other books, with the goal of writing adventures for the young adult market.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: THE BIG GRABOWSKI by Carolyn Rose and Mike Nettleton
Posted by Amanda in Cozy mystery, Crime on February 7th, 2010
The Big Grabowski
Carolyn J. Rose & Mike Nettleton
Krill Press
ISBN 978 0 9821443 3 6
$19.95 CA, $14.95 US
263 pages
Reviewed by Amanda Capper
The Big Grabowski is the first book I have read by the writing team of Carolyn Rose and Mike Nettleton, but it won’t be the last. I thoroughly enjoyed this laugh-out-loud who-done-it and look forward to reading more of their work.
Molly Donovan has returned to Devil’s Harbour, a town perched on the coast of Oregon and proud of its colourful whirligigs, to help her father, Mike, after his heart attack. A crime reporter, Molly is bored and ready to head back to the big city until Jennifer Daley, one of many memorable characters, spots Vince Grabowski floating amongst the sea lions. When the autopsy suggests murder, and not suicide, Molly’s interest is piqued; but when her father is hauled in by her some-time flame, Sergeant Greg Erdman, as the prime suspect, Molly goes into full battle mode.
The first four pages, depicting seventeen-year-old Jennifer as an aspiring Miss Whirligig in the upcoming town festival is, alone, worth the price of the book. Throw in Henri Trevelle, the gay retired Canadian hockey player; Prudence Deeds, the licentious wife of the mayor; and Icky Ferris, the pot grower who finds the love of his life and changes his ways; and you end up with new favourite authors. Though the cast of suspects is numerous, Rose and Nettleton manage to make each of them unique so the reader has little problem with the quick changes of scenes throughout the book. Even the animals are entertaining; the slutty tabby named Margaret; sea lions who end the book with words of wisdom; and a flatulent humpback whale named Air Biscuit who…well, I won’t spoil the surprise.
I highly recommend The Big Grabowski, and not just for readers who enjoy a well-written cozy but also for aspiring writers who need help in developing characters. Rose and Nettleton make it look easy.
Copyright @ 2010 Amanda Capper
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: SILKS by Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Silks
By Dick Francis and Felix Francis
ISBN 978-0-399-15533-8
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York
Reviewed by Marlene Pyle
I’ve always loved a good legal thriller. (Maybe I’m a frustrated lawyer at heart.) This one has the added appeal of being set in the UK, where the judges and barristers still wear gowns and wigs. That alone was enough to pique my interest. Other people may long to see Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. Me, I’d be thrilled to watch a courtroom drama in London.
Our narrator is a young, widowed attorney named Geoffrey Mason (prompting the nickname, of course, of Perry.) In his free time, Geoffrey can be found at the horse racing track where he rides as an amateur jockey. When another jockey is murdered (with a pitch fork sunk deep into his chest, no less) the prime suspect insists he is innocent and asks Geoffrey to represent him. The case becomes even more personal when Geoffrey receives anonymous phone calls instructing him to lose the case and threatening those closest to him.
If you were a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys fan in your younger days, this is the book for you. I don’t mean to imply that it is childish or juvenile. It’s just that, like those beloved books of my youth, this is a very well-written novel with a tightly crafted plot, and an interesting cast of characters—how many lawyers do you know who race horses in their off hours?
The author is an award-winning crime writer who collaborated with his son on this fast-paced novel. He’s written more than forty books including several which hit the New York Times best sellers list. It’s easy to see why.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Copyright Ⓒ2010 Marlene Pyle
Review: DEVILS ISLAND by Carl Brookins
Posted by Sue Ann in Crime, Suspense, Uncategorized on January 20th, 2010
Devils Island
Carl Brookins
Echelon Press, Laurel, MD, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59080-643-2
Trade Paperback, 238 pages
$13.99
Reviewed by Sue Ann Connaughton
The latest in a sailing mystery series, Devils Island follows the adventures of Seattle heiress, Mary Whitney.
Mary and her relatively new husband, public relations executive Michael Tanner, share a blissful, enviable life. Her vengeful ex-husband, Edwin Tobias, resolves to destroy that life. He gets his chance when Mary and Tanner plan a fly-sail vacation to Bayfield, Wisconsin and Tanner is delayed by work responsibilities in Seattle. Mary ventures forth alone, intending to sail, explore, and contemplate the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior before Tanner arrives.
In Wisconsin, Mary meets a local gadabout with information about her ancestors; cultivates a sailing buddy; and interacts with a Coast Guardsman who enlists her to note any suspicious activity on the Lake. Always, but unbeknownst to Mary, Tobias lurks. From a motor yacht, he stalks Mary on Lake Superior until he is able to set up the optimal conditions for kidnapping her: when she is isolated and without access to radio or cell phone communications. Thus follows a thrilling cat-and-mouse sequence of scenes in which feisty Mary struggles fiercely but is ultimately caught.
Because it’s a sailing adventure, Devils Island naturally includes characteristics of the sport of sailing. However, I found the explanation of sailing procedures and use of jargon to be so excessive that large portions read like a sailing manual. This could have spoiled the readability of the book as a suspense novel. Fortunately, enough of a foreboding atmosphere is maintained throughout to motivate the reader to keep reading by focusing on those aspects of the story that work best: the plot, the action passages, and the interesting characters.
Copyright 2010 Sue Ann Connaughton
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: BEYOND GUILTY by Richard Brawer
Posted by Von Pittman in Crime, Thriller on January 10th, 2010
Beyond Guilty
Richard Brawer
Published by L & L Dreamspell
Trade Paperback: 302 pp.
ISBN 978-1-60318-196-9
$17.95
Reviewed by Von Pittman
As crime novel villains go, “big pharma” is especially timely. It is an entity that many readers will welcome a chance to hate. Beyond Guilty almost certainly will not be the last thriller to outline elaborate and nefarious plots to revolutionize medicine and turn obscene profits. Sloan Wexler, the CEO of Merlin-Akre Pharmaceuticals Company, takes his company up to the edge of a medicinal revolution, “a new way of doing chemistry that molecule-sized rotors, robot arms, shafts, pumps, tanks, syringes, differential gears, bearings and computers would be assembled into a bacterium-sized robot that eventually would be injected into the bloodstream to repair damaged cells or digest harmful pathogens.” Wexler has decided to create an absolute, permanent cure for HIV-AIDS.
Wexler is in a hurry and can find no substitute for human experimentation. He cannot wait for the outcome of legitimate medical and pharmaceutical research trials that would be necessary to perfect a nanomedical cure for AIDS. Willing to go to any extremes, he builds a compound on an otherwise uninhabited Bahamian island to serve as a lab. He hires mercenary former military personnel to guard it. Under the command of the highly intelligent and resourceful Colonel Springer, they keep the curious out and the research subjects in. It is, of course, not easy to find humans willing to be infected with HIV, then to die within weeks, even in the name of science. Thus Wexler has found a clever and prolific source of subjects, the Texas penal system’s death row.
In Texas, convicted murderers taken to the death house at Huntsville for lethal injections. The fortunate few of them selected to be Wexler’s subjects wake to find themselves in a pleasant cottage, on a beautiful beach, with wonderful food that they haven’t tasted in decades. As they begin to process this incredible change in fortune, they note that except for a fenced-in area of water for swimming, the island is surrounded by sharks. And they have no privacy; the guards maintain close electronic surveillance. Most subjects easily resign themselves to a few more pleasurable weeks of life. However, two new arrivals quickly disrupt the system.
Eileen Robinson is a guilt-wracked common-law wife of a recently deceased drug dealer. She is framed and sent to death row for the murder of a politically connected burglar who had tried to steal her old man’s stash. In the Bahamian research compound, she allies herself—romantically and practically—with Mark Chetney, a homicidal serial psychopath, but one who only kills parents who have abused their children. Eileen and Mark make common cause to get off the island, settle scores with their captors, ruin big pharma tycoon Sloan Wexler, and restore Eileen’s reputation, for the sake of her children.
The set-up is long, and occasionally slow, as Eileen’s back story and the means by which Texas’s executioner—Dr. Metcalfe—spare, then snatch, death row prisoners are explained. However, once Eileen and Mark initiate their escape plan, and and Colonel Springer begins his pursuit, the action becomes fast-paced and non-stop.
The author’s inclusion of the concept of nanomedicine in the plot is articulate and intriguing. Some of his characters, especially Wexler, Colonel Springer, and Dr. Metcalfe, Huntsville’s executioner, are nicely done. The book could have profited from better editing. For example, a book featuring pharmaceutical research in a fictional company should not misspell the names of two actual drug companies (Pfizer and Merck).
Readers who like the thrillers and mysteries with a medical theme should find Beyond Guilty interesting and entertaining, as well as faster-paced than most books in this sub-genre.
Copyright @ 2009 Von Pittman
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep in consideratioin in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: AMONG THE MAD by Jacqueline Winspear
Among the Mad
A Maisie Dobbs Novel
Jacqueline Winspear
Picador; Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-42925-6
Paper, 318 pages
$14
Reviewed by Sue Ann Connaughton
Among the Mad is the sixth novel in a series featuring Maisie Dobbs, a British private investigator, psychologist, and former WWI nurse.
On Christmas Eve, 1931, Maisie attempts to offer money to a desperate-looking stranger huddled near her London office. As she approaches, the man blows himself up. Maisie sustains slight injuries. After relating her observations and limited information about the incident to her sometimes-colleague, Detective Inspector Richard Stratton, Maisie carries on with Christmas plans to visit her father in Kent. Meanwhile, an anonymous letter sent to the Home Secretary threatens unspecified harm unless the government provides relief to the unemployed, especially war veterans, within 48 hours. The letter-writer mentions Maisie Dobbs by name, so Stratton whisks her back to London for an emergency meeting at Scotland Yard with Detective Chief Superintendent, Robert MacFarlane. After the 48 hour deadline passes without government action, the letter-writer begins doling out punishment. Potential suspects include British Fascists, suffragettes, Irish groups, disenfranchised veterans, and mental patients. Thus, begins a three-way professional alliance between Maisie, Stratton, and MacFarlane to establish the identities of the letter-writer and the suicide victim; determine their connection to each other and to Maisie; and prevent further destruction.
The novel takes place over a one month period from December 24, 1931 to January 25, 1932. During that month, Maisie dashes from one lead, clue, or hunch, to another to solve the case while finding time to aid her friend Priscilla and her assistant’s wife Doreen in minor subplots. The effects of WWI on England saturate the storyline throughout: poverty, melancholy, hopelessness, fear.
Although coincidences and situations dovetail a little too neatly, Among the Mad is an absorbing novel with an engaging heroine who is a little bit old-fashioned, a little bit modern, and a little bit renaissance. Like the previous books in the Maisie Dobbs Series, this one holds its own as a stand-alone novel because the author skillfully works in the back story. You don’t have to read the previous five books in the series to enjoy Among the Mad, but you will want to do so.
Copyright ⓒ2010 Sue Ann Connaughton
Review: DYING GASP by Leighton Gage
Posted by Larry in Crime, Police Procedural, Suspense on January 8th, 2010
Soho Crime, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-56947-613-0
Hardcover, 336 pages
$24.00
Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis
This is the third novel in the series featuring Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Brazilian Federal Police, and in it he faces one of the grim problems of his country: the forcible prostitution of the very young. I so doing, he must deal with corruption in the local police force, as well as higher-level corruption and pressure from the political powers. Able to depend only on his own team from the capital, they enter a dark land on the edge of the Amazonian wilderness, where the stakes are higher than they imagine.
The story opens with Silva being assigned to the disappearance of a powerful politician’s granddaughter. The politician’s care is less for his family than for his position, and he makes clear to Silva that failure to find the girl will bring severe consequences to Silva’s entire department. Meanwhile, we see the girl as fallen into a dark abyss that claims hundreds of young girls - sex slavery, and worse. In the course of his investigation Silva meets a belligerent priest, who confronts him with the many girls who have no highly-placed official seeking their return, and is determined to speak for them. Meanwhile, from the Netherlands, comes a whiff of something even darker than child-prostitution, so foul than most people discount its reality, until Silva and his team uncover the proof. With a non-stop plot and characters that live and breathe, DYING GASP will not disappoint.
Copyright ©2009 Larry W. Chavis
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: NINE DRAGONS by Michael Connelly
Nine Dragons
Michael Connelly
Little, Brown & Company
ISBN 978-0-316-16631-7
Hardcover $27.99 CA, $34.99 US
374 pages
Reviewed by Amanda Capper
Fans of crime writer Michael Connelly will not be disappointed in the latest of the Hieronymus Bosch series. This veteran writer consistently delivers page-turning novels without appearing repetitive.
Harry Bosch is a L. A. detective for the elite Homicide Special. Covering a routine call for an under-staffed South L.A. squad, Harry and his partner investigate the murder of a Chinese liquor store owner. The dead owner manages to give Harry clues and the family give him motives. Seems like an open and shut case; until Harry’s thirteen year old daughter Maddie is kidnapped in Hong Kong, where she lives with Harry’s ex-wife Eleanor. Finding out that Harry is still in love with his ex-wife, and that he didn’t know he had a daughter until nine years ago, gives this tough hero a vulnerable side and emotional edge that other books in this genre don’t always have.
In Hong Kong Harry attempts to track down Maddie and her captors with the help of Eleanor and her new Chinese suitor, a man who admits to ties with a triad. Believing there is a leak in the Department and forced to co-operate with people he only just met, who he can trust is a constant question on Harry’s mind. Tragedies happen, bodies are discovered and there is hardly time to breathe before Connelly turns another table. This experienced writer excels at delivering information through dialogue; technical procedures never sound monotonous. I never once skimmed.
As all good crime stories should, Nine Dragons has clues, twists and plots that tie up neatly, but not predictably, in the final few pages. I fully recommend all books in the Harry Bosch series, as well as the Mickey Haller (Harry’s half-brother) series.
Copyright ⓒ2010 Amanda Capper
Review: THE SISTER by Poppy Adams
The Sister
Poppy Adams
ISBN 9781554680344
Hardcover, 273 pages
$29.95 U.S.
Reviewed by Karoline Barrett
Poppy Adams’ debut novel opens with Virginia (Ginny) Stone eagerly awaiting the arrival of her sister, Vivien, who has not set foot in their ancestral home in almost fifty years. Told entirely from Ginny’s point of view, The Sister takes place in 1940. It tells a story of a dysfunctional English family who are direct descendants of an eminent line of lepidopterists – those who study moths and butterflies. Poppy Adams uses the present and Ginny’s flash-backs to weave her dark tale of two sisters whose recollection of their past are seen in starkly different lights.
Their father, Clive, is mired in his work with moths and butterflies to the exclusion of his family. Their mother, Maud, tired of being ignored by Clive, slowly descends into alcoholism and becomes subject to violent mood swings, which are taken out on Ginny. Vivian seems the only normal one and leaves home at fifteen. Ginny herself seems delusional, obsessive compulsive, aloof and without emotion. Are all the accidents at the family manse, such as Vivian’s fall from the bell tower as a child and Maud’s death from a fall really accidents, or the work of manipulative, mentally ill Ginny?
While Adams does a good job of creating a twisted, gothic tale and building suspense, much is left un-answered, such as why did Vivien return after almost fifty years? And why didn’t Ginny ever leave the walls of the mansion? There are characters the author barely mentions who could have added to the novel, such as Michael the ex-groundskeeper who is an interesting shadow, but we aren’t given the chance to know him. He interacts with Ginny a little at the end of the novel, but by then it is too late. Also the extensive amount of scientific information about moths, such as pupal soup, slows down the action in The Sister, and distracts, rather than enlightens, the reader, and if you don’t like insects, is just plain gross.
Adams springs the ending upon the reader without satisfactory explanation, so we are left with an incomplete feeling. I would take this book out from the library, but not spend any hard earned money on it.
Copyright © 2010 Karoline Bennett
Review: SWAN FOR THE MONEY by Donna Andrews
Posted by Agnes in Cozy mystery, Crime, Humor on December 12th, 2009
Swan for the Money
Donna Andrews
Minotaur Press
ISBN - 13:978-0-312-37717-5
Hardcover, 306 pages
Reviewed by Agnes Dee
Maybe you know how it is when your parents immerse themselves completely in a hobby. Strange words seep into everyday conversations, even stranger tools, and of course, you’re expected to lend a hand. So it is with Meg Langslow, who finds herself organizer of the Caerpilly Garden Club’s annual rose show, and the peculiarities of rose growers.
The event is to be held on the grounds of Mrs. Wilkerson’s estate - a Cruella DeVille sort who is obsessed with black and white everything, including roses. The fact that Mrs. Wilkerson’s dog has been kidnapped, and a threatening note left, aren’t helping Meg’s attempt to get the show over and done with. The estate is crawling with law enforcement, Meg is short-handed, and the rich lady wants to see the show done her way.
That an attempted murder could happen with all those people around is a poser but then, this is a murder mystery: Someone is deadly serious about roses. Or is it the money? The wealthy Mrs. Wilkerson also owns prize animals. What happens to the animals who don’t measure up to her black-and-white standards? Does someone think they‘re worth enough money to kill for?
This book contains minor swearing, and extensive details on preparing your prize-winning rose for show. Who would have known it was that much work?
Swan For The Money is eleventh in the Meg Langslow mystery series, written by Donna Andrews, who currently lives and works in Reston, Virginia.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Copyright 2009 Agnes Dee
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