Fiction
Alexander Bruce. Blind Justice. G.P. Putnam’s, 2003. A real change of pace- this story is takes place in 18th century London. The main character is a blind magistrate. Using the senses we take for granted-hearing, smelling, touching and actually thinking, he sits over the Bow Street Court. When Jeremy Proctor was brought before him for thievery, he called on those other senses to truly make a difference in Jeremy's life and his own. Then he became involved in investigating a suicide-or was it Murder? This is the first Sir John Fielding mystery. Jeremy Proctor narrates the story from his perspective. I am eager to read the next story.
Barry, Dave. Tricky Business. Putnam's, 2002. The Extravaganza of the Seas is a gambling boat owned by one of the biggest swindlers in all of Florida, Bobby Kemp. However, Kemp himself is being swindled by some local but powerful thugs. Lou Tarant and his boys are running a smuggling business on the Extravaganza, and Kemp is mad that he doesn't get a kickback. On the night of a furious tropical storm, Kemp gets some thugs of his own and decides to take action. Of course, Barry treats us to amusing depictions of some of the other characters on the ship: Fay, an overworked waitress; Wally, a member of the ship's band; and Arnie and Phil, on the lam from their senior center after a hilarious escape. When Kemp's plan goes disastrously awry, this colorful cast of characters is thrust into the middle of a fight between the double-crossing thugs. Barry garners plenty of laughs, especially in the scenes involving the senior center and its residents, as well as those involving a hapless, weather-obsessed news station. Fans of outlandish comic fiction, as well as Barry's columns, will find much to enjoy here. (This having been said, I did not like this book nearly as much as Barry's first novel Big Trouble. It was not nearly as funny and was rather gross at times. Generally speaking, though, I will try most anything by Dave Barry.)
Buckley, Christopher. White House Mess. Knopf,1986. Mr. Buckley is William F. Buckley’s son, and grew up inside the Washington Beltway. He offers a unique insider perspective to the cliques surrounding presidential staffs and the way things really get done in Washington. The protagonist of this book is a former aide to the President of the United States. As a result of a round of jockeying for power he has fallen from grace, and been assigned the low prestige job of overseeing the mess (or kitchens) of the White House. The President is newly married to a former movie queen and they are fond of skinny dipping together at night in the White House swimming pool. This presents a problem for the secret service, whose agents must assume shrubbery camouflage in order to guard POTUS. The aid seeks to solve the problem by having the pool chilled with ice from the mess. Buckley really knows the Beltway, and part of the fun is wondering how much of what he writes could be true.
Buckley, Christopher. Wet Work. Random House, 1991. A priest is called in the middle of the night to hear the deathbed confession of a wealthy man who claims to have killed dozens of people in a war he financed against South American drug lords. His loyal attendant shrugs it off as the delusions of a dying man…but the padre wonders. With a premise like that, it’s understandable that Buckley doesn’t pull off deep belly laughs in this novel, but there are some morbidly funny scenes, and the plot is interesting, to say the least.
Buckley, Christopher. Thank You for Smoking. Random House, 1994. Wildly hilarious, this book’s main character is a spokesman for a national tobacco industry association. His best friends are spokesmen for the alcohol and firearms associations. They call themselves the MOD squad (Merchants of Death). This book has a little bit for everyone: a light moral play, comedy, action, kidnapping, attempted murder, political and press maneuvers, and love. Highly recommended for all people who breathe.
Buckley, Christopher. Wry Martinis. Random House, 1997. This is a collection of newspaper columns written by Buckley, most of them funny; some merely wryly observant. I would not recommend this for a first time Buckley read, but for folks who already know and like his style of writing, these are very entertaining.
Buckley, Christopher. Little Green Men. Random House, 1999. Take an obnoxious national talk show host who routinely infuriates top administration officials, a super secret government agency, aliens, and an embittered federal employee who’s been passed over for promotion one too many times. Fold in an upcoming election and a campaign-driving, billion-dollar space program. Twist well and you’ve got Christopher Buckley’s novel, set in Washington and full of the little insider tidbits that make the reader feel part of the Beltway gang. When the talk show host is kidnapped by alien abductors, he begins to wonder if there might really be something to visitors from outer space--while his family and friends are wondering if he’s sane. His enemies are delighted, until he threatens to bring chaos to the nation’s capitol. Not Buckley’s best, and a little outdated, but very, very funny.
Buckley, Christopher. No Way to Treat a First Lady. Random House, 2002. With thinly-veiled characters who resemble real people, this is a political comedy/murder mystery/love story that both Republicans and Democrats will enjoy. Following a late night marital donnybrook complete with shouts and the sound of objects hitting the wall, the President of the United States is found lying dead beside his sleeping wife. Most folks just assumed she killed him--and most wouldn’t blame her. He was a lying, cheating, sleazy individual, and on the night in question, they fought because she caught him coming back to bed after committing adultery in the Lincoln bedroom. But wait! While she admits throwing a spittoon at his head, she claims she did not hit him hard enough to kill him. Will she be indicted? And if indicted, will she turn for help to the most prominent defense attorney in the land--the man she jilted to marry the Pres? An excellent introduction to Buckley’s work, and still timely enough for most readers to get all the jokes.
Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. Viking, 2002. Welcome to England of the 1980’s—in a totally different universe. Here time travel is commonplace though air travel is still conducted by dirigible; extinct animals such as the dodo are available as pets through cloning kits and herds of mammoths roam the countryside, and citizens devote to literature the kind of devotion we generally reserve for religion, politics, and sports. Welcome to the world of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, in which literary detective Miss Thursday Next must thwart the plots of the villainous Acheron Hades and foil his plans to desecrate the beloved novel Jane Eyre by kidnapping the title character out of the original manuscript. Endlessly imaginative, hilarious in its plot twists and biting in its satire, The Eyre Affair is one of those books that make you remember why you fell in love with reading. Sequels: Lost in a Good Book; The Well of Lost Plots (available in UK; to be issued in USA in 2004)
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Doubleday, 2003. A surprising story told in the first person by fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone, an autistic math genius who discovers the dead body of his neighbor's poodle, Wellington. Wellington was killed with a garden fork, and Christopher decides that, he's going to find the killer. Wellington's owner, Mrs. Shears, is acting strange but not as strange as his father who tells him to stop investigating. But there is another mystery involving Christopher's mother and Mrs. Shears' estranged husband? Solving the mystery of Wellington's death begins unveil the answers to questions in his own life, and Christopher, who is unable to grasp even the most basic emotions, struggles with the reality of a startling deception. At first I could not decide if this story was meant for adults or juveniles but it is likely meant for an adult audience. There is plenty of profane language but it is not offensive. I was impressed at the author's ability to get across what it must be like to be as 'special' as Christopher.
Henry, Sue. Death Trap. Morrow, 2003. Jessie Arnold is usually found caring for her dogs and training them for the Alaskan dog sled races. Since she had knee surgery she is otherwise occupied. In this story she is helping at the Alaska State Fair. There is humor in the story in the form of a senior citizen and a young boy teaming up to elude the bad guys and authorities. But there is also dognapping and murder. Jessie is in the thick of another mystery in this latest Sue Henry Alaska mystery.
Koontz, Dean. By The Light of the Moon. Banum Books, 2002. Koontz’s latest is exciting and deeply moving, and shorter than usual. Even so, he tends towards overwriting that sometimes overwhelms his storytelling. On several occasions I wished the characters would stop petty arguments with each other and get on with the story! As usual for Koontz, the novel opens at full throttle: a mad doctor invades a motel in Arizona, injects both artist Dylan O'Connor and struggling comic Jillian Jackson (strangers to one another) with an unknown substance that, he says, is his life's work and will have some unknown effect, then warns them to flee before his enemies kill them; soon after, the doctor is slain by heavily armed assailants. The rest of the story is an extended chase, as Dylan and Jillian, along with Dylan's high-functioning autistic brother, Shep, dart around the West, only steps ahead of the assassins. Within hours, the effects of the injections materialize: Jillian experiences portentous visions-a flock of birds, a woman in a church; Dylan is overcome by the need to rush to the aid of people in distress (among others, in an intensely poignant scene, an elderly man searching for his missing daughter); and Shep learns to teleport himself and others. (Interestingly, Koontz bases the science behind these developments on nanotechnology, the same mechanism used by Michael Crichton in his just published Prey, an object lesson in how two writers can take the same premise and generate two very different yet excellent novels). The novel's other flaw is its abrupt ending, contrived probably to allow sequels-a probability that Koontz fans will applaud.
O’Kane. Leslie. Ruff Way to Go: an Allie Babcock Mystery. Fawcett Books, 2000. Ruff Way to Go: an Allie Babcock Mystery is the second in a series of mysteries featuring dog therapist Allie Babcock. Allie is staying with her mother temporarily in the quiet suburb of Berthoud, Colorado while trying to get her business off the ground. Allie’s old neighborhood will not stay quiet for long. First, Allie finds herself helping neighbors Cassandra and Paul with a fostered Siberian husky and its puppies and assisting with a custody battle over Shogun, a silky terrier belonging to divorcing neighbors Edith and Trevor. Next, she is thrust into the middle of a murder investigation, as she discovers the body of Cassandra on Edith’s deck, which is covered with bloody paw prints, and she finds that Shogun is missing. With support from her mother and boyfriend Russell, Allie is determined to clear her name as a suspect in Cassandra’s murder with the police, find Shogun, and bring the murderer to justice. Ruff Way to Go: an Allie Babcock Mystery is an entertaining romp for dog and mystery lovers alike.
Patterson, James. 1st To Die. Little, Brown, 2001. The Women's Murder Club pits four San Francisco women professionals against a serial killer who's stalking and murdering newlyweds in bestselling author James Patterson's newest thriller. Lindsay Boxer is a homicide inspector who's just gotten some very bad news…….she has a serious illness. She deals with it by immersing herself in her newest case and soliciting the personal, as well as professional, support of her closest friend, who happens to be the city's medical examiner. The two women, along with an ambitious and sympathetic reporter and an assistant DA, form an unlikely alliance, pooling their information and bypassing the chain of command in an engaging, suspenseful story whose gruesome setup is vintage Patterson. "What is the worst thing anyone has ever done?" the killer muses to himself early in the narrative. "Am I capable of doing it? Do I have what it takes?" Answering his own question, he embarks on a murderous spree that takes him from the bridal suite in a Nob Hill hotel to a honeymoon destination in the Napa Valley and thence to a wedding reception at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Dispatching his victims on the happiest day of their lives, he purposefully leaves enough clues for his distaff trackers to discover his identity and put him behind bars. But just when the women think they've got the case all wrapped up, the killer turns the tables on them in a bloody denouement that even the most discerning reader won't see coming. Patterson, author of the popular Alex Cross mysteries, promises future adventures for the Women's Murder Club, which may give him an opportunity to develop his heroines' characters more completely and win new fans among those who prefer their detectives in high heels and lipstick.
Patterson, James. 2nd Chance. Little, Brown, 2002. Patterson returns with the second installment in his new series, the Women's Murder Club, which focuses on four females—a police detective, a medical examiner, an assistant DA, and a reporter--who team up to solve grizzly murder cases. Lindsay Boxer, newly made lieutenant, is called to the scene of a shooting that leaves a 12-year-old African American girl dead. When her friend, reporter Cindy Thomas, connects the killing to another murder that appears racially motivated, Lindsay is convinced that the department has a hate crime on its hands. But the subsequent murder of two police officers reveals that the truth about the killer is much more complex than they first realized. Following the only lead they have—a symbol depicting a creature with two lion heads--takes them back to a decades-old crime that has a surprising connection to Lindsay. While she deals with this case and tries to recover from the death of her lover, Lindsay is also contending with the reappearance of her father, who abandoned the family when Lindsay was a child. As with Patterson's best novels, the surprises keep coming until the final pages. This novel solidifies the new series and helps guarantee that readers will flock just as eagerly to the Women's Murder Club books as they do to the Alex Cross novels.
Patterson, James & Peter de Jonge. The Beach House. Little, Brown, 2002. Peter Mullen is parking cars at a party hosted by Campion and Barry Neubauer at their lush beach house in Martha’s Vineyard. He dies in a supposed drowning accident but his family and friends think he may have been murdered. Peter's older brother is a law student at Columbia University. With the encouragement of his friends, he orchestrates a push for an investigation into Peter's death. It gets the attention of the media but soon it also becomes clear that wealthy interests in the town and the local police do not want the investigation to go any further. Jack's friends are being followed and threatened. Then Jack learns some disturbing facts about Peter's recent past. Peter had paid cash for his new custom Harley and left a bank balance of more than $187,000 to which Jack was the sole heir. Apparently Peter had been hired by the Newbauers to do more than park cars. After Pauline Grabowski agrees to help Jack with his investigation, the truth starts coming out about Peter's murder. Pauline is a private investigator for the city's most prestigious law firms but for once she decides to work on the side of the good guys. Jack is also aided by his octogenarian grandfather. Beach House is a story that moves fast, suspense building at each turn of the page. Great read & highly recommended!
Patterson, James. When The Wind Blows. Little, Brown, 1998. Taking a break from his phenomenally successful Alex Cross series, James Patterson's When the Wind Blows is as much child's fantasy as it is an adult nightmare. The novel moves away from the gritty Washington, D.C., setting of the Cross books and follows the daily life of Frannie O'Neill, a Colorado veterinarian. After the mysterious death of her husband several years before, Frannie retreated to an isolated life in her Colorado practice. But a series of bizarre events suddenly disrupts her lonely routine. On a personal level, she is shaken by her new tenant--Kit Harrison. Kit's too handsome and too friendly and he's a hunter (or so Frannie thinks). He's also recovering from a devastating personal tragedy, and, as Frannie eventually learns, he's really an FBI agent using his vacation to follow a crucial lead. But Kit isn't the one that's got Frannie concerned. As she says after stopping her Suburban one night to check out something on the side of the road: "What I saw was way beyond my abilities to imagine, beyond my comprehension, my system of belief, and maybe beyond my ability to communicate right now. The little girl's arms were folded back in a peculiar way, but when she lifted them--feathers fanned out." The girl is Max, and the mystery of her wings leads Frannie and Kit into a massive conspiracy involving secret genetic research and the scientific manipulation of the human species. This book should be read before Patterson’s latest effort The Lake House, which is a sequel.
Russo, Richard. Nobody’s Fool. Vintage Books, 1994. An unlucky man in a deadbeat town in upstate New York, Sully must overcome numerous obstacles - a bun knee, terminal underemployment and a not-too-helpful group of friends - as he copes with new problems: his long-estranged son, a worrisome wife and a quarrelsome girlfriend. Russo's novel is a brilliant portrait of a failing town and is highly recommended.
Saramago, José. The Cave. Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. Harcourt, Inc., 2002. Widowed Cipriano Algor is a 64-year-old Portuguese potter who finds his business collapsing when the demand dries up for his elegant, handcrafted wares. His potential fate seems worse than poverty-to move with his daughter, Marta, and his son-in-law, Martal Gacho, into a huge, arid complex known as "The Center," where Gacho works as a security guard. But Algor gets an order from the Center for hundreds of small ceramic figurines, a task that has Marta and Algor hustling to meet the delivery date. The doll project crashes. Algor becomes a resident of the Center and finds a shocking surprise which sends him and his family fleeing in terror. Saramago does an excellent job of telling a story and developing characters in general, and this novel is no exception to his talent.
August 13, 2003
