vol4no2.html

Volume 4 #2

All books reviewed here are recommended. Please, always keep in mind that the only books that appear on this page are ones that I liked enough to write about. For every book reviewed here I have usually read two that I would not want to inflict on anyone.

In the last month I've done workshops that because of location or lousy flight connections required driving more than 20 hours so I put the time to good use and listened to books which is a great way to keep up. I prefer unabridged fiction but this month tried several abridgements.

Science Fiction/Space Opera
Star Wars : Episode 1 the Phantom Menace
Terry Brooks
Lucasbooks. 0345427653

Normally novelizations aren't my cup of tea but I just could not wait any longer to know where George Lucas was going to go with his new story. With the writing done by Terry Brooks, I knew it would be at least serviceable. It was, as expected, un-put-downable. Anakin Skywalker, a nine year old slave on Tatooine wins his freedom through utilization of his extraordinary talents and skills when two Jedi Knights stop on the planet for repairs. Very reminiscent of the original Star Wars it was none the less a thrilling read.

Crime/Legal Thriller
Undertaker's Widow
Phillip Margolin
Bantam. 0553580884

Agonizingly honest, Judge Richard Quinn finds himself in the midst of a quagmire of deceit and blackmail as he is sucked deeply into an intricatley plotted murder involving a wealthy murder victim, a much younger wife who is an ambitious politician, and a full cast of unsavory characters. Not too memorable but a real page turner and a definite plus for making a long airplane journey seem short.

Romance/Suspense/Paranormal
Horror/Vampires
The Cowboy and the Vampire
Clark Hayes & Kathleen McFall
Llewellyn 1567184510

Terrific good fun as journalist Lizzie Vaughan flees to the arms of Tucker, a simple cowboy from LonePine,Wyoming after experiencing horror when working on a story about real life vampires. Together they try to thwart the evil Vampire leader Julius and his sidekick Elita who claim that Lizzie has royal vampire blood and must be turned to reign as Queen of those who stalk the night. Lazarus, a Santa-like vampire and Julius' major opposition wants to help Lizzie. Delightful elucidation of the vampire mythos and of course as everyone knows cowboys are a hot item in romance as are vampires but you'll have to read it to discover if there is in fact that other recent romance requirement, the hidden baby!

Adventure/Espionage/Terrorism
Riding the Snake
Stephen J. Cannell
Bantam Books-Audio. 0553525514.

This abridgement was entertaining enough and certainly stimulating enough to keep one awake on a long drive but did not seem quite up to the standard Cannell set in his hilarious crime caper novel King Con. Wheeler Cassidy, ne'er-do-well brother of a murdered politico teams up with Tanisha Williams, African-American cop under a cloud, to uncover a Chinese conspiracy to undermine the US. Lots of Triad gangster action.

Horror/Biological
Bloodstream
Tess Gerritsen
Pocket Books. 067101675X.

A plague of teen violence bewilders Dr. Claire Elliot who with her teenage son Noah has moved to Tranquillity, Maine to take up a small town practice. As she tries to discover the source of the violence she seems to be thwarted at every step by locals who appear totally unwilling to ever accept her. As the terror moves closer to home she races to find a solution before she loses all. Gerritsen takes over where Robin Cook and Michael Palmer have ventured.

Fantasy/Parallel Worlds/Magicians
Deep Secret
Diana Wynne Jones
Tor 0312868596

Storyteller extraordinaire, Jones, once again captivates the reader's imagination in this tale of a magid who in the midst of trying to find a new magid to fill an empty slot is responsible for an empire that falls into collapse. The characterizations are so real and the people for the most part so ordinary that the magic becomes convincing. Rupert Venables, recently appointed senior Magid on Earth, is stymied in his attempts to find and interview the five candidates recommended by his predecessor for junior magid. Eventually tracking down Maree, the most promising of the lot on paper, he almost instantly rules her out taking an immediate disliking to her. When he does a powerful working to bring the other candidates together at a SF convention that will be taking place at a hotel situated on a power node he accidentally includes his eccentric neighbor. Arriving at the Hotel Babylon he finds that Maree, even though excluded from the working, has also turned up. Meanwhile he shuttles back and forth to the Koyrfonic Empire that is rapidly disintegrating in the wake of the assassination of the emperor and all high ranking officials trying to locate the heir. Of course all offspring of the emperor had been sentenced to death if they were ever to discover their own identities making it an extremely difficult task rife with booby traps. The myriad twists and turns, resembling the halls of the Hotel Babylon, make this a real page turner.

Wonderful and witty, Jones is sure to win new fans with this delightful romp.

Crime/Legal Thriller
The Sabbathday River
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Farrar, Straus & Giroux 0374253234

After nine years in Goddard, New Hampshire, recently divorced Naomi Roth is still an outsider even though as a Vista volunteer she organized the women into a profitable needlework cooperative. When she finds a dead infant in the Sabbathday River she is the first suspect but soon the police arrest Heather Pratt a Hester Prynne of the 1980's who unashamedly has a daughter by a married man. When a false confession is coerced from her she is set to be tried for murder but when Naomi, believing her that her baby had been stillborn and hidden in a small pond finds the second child the trial turns into a media circus with Heather accused of bearing twins and murdering them both.

Lots of grist for book discussion groups in this compellingly period perfect piece.

Romance/Historical/Early 20th Century
Breathless
Laura Lee Guhrke
Pocket Books 0671023683

Romance/Historical/Victorian Era
With this Kiss
Victoria Lynne
Dell Books 0440223342

Romance/Historical/Regency Era
Tiger by the Tail
Casey Claybourne
Berkley 0425163210

Reviews will appear in Booklist soon and then can be accessed at Amazon.com by clicking on the ISBN number above.

Fantasy/Humorous/Magic
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
J. K. Rowling
Scholastic 0590353403

This delightful tale of an underdog orphan who is summoned to a secret boarding school where magic is practiced was published for children but legions of adults are finding it. For me it had the same magical sparkle that I found when reading Tolkien, Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, or L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. An instant classic.

Fantasy/Paranormal/Shapeshifters/Dragons/Romantic Fantasy
The Last Dragonlord
Joanne Bertin
Tor 0312864299

Terrific tale of gorgeous 600 year young dragonlord who believes he will never be soul mated since the dragonlords know of new ones of their kind having been born since him. On a mission to determine the regency in a distant kingdom he is mistaken for a dock hand by a young sea captain in whom he sees depths that leave him in fear of falling in love with someone whose lifespan is miniscule compared to his.

Terrific!

Crime/Suspense
Every Trace
Gregg Main
HarperCollins 0060191783

After his wife disappears when Peter confesses to an affair he comes to realize that Ellen had deep secrets of her own. She has secretly gone to LA to stalk and kill Walker, the man paroled for the slaying of her father that she had witnessed 30 years ago at the young age of four. Her plan goes awry when he takes her prisoner while she tries to extract the identity of his partner who had actually pulled the trigger and has gone free all these years. When Walker decides not to kill Ellen they both end up on the run from the killer and a mission to stop him on a trek that takes them to Northern New Mexico while Pete doggedly searches for his wife with the assistance of a senior citizen P.I.

Main is a welcome new voice on the suspense scene with this smart debut thriller.

Adventure/Political Thriller/Science Fiction/Astrology
The President's Astrologer
Barbara Shafferman
Llewellyn Publications 1567186742

Ten years from now Addy Payne, a professional astrologer, is called on to advise a president who drinks too much and has a deadly enemy in his vice president. People are murdered after Addy starts an investigation into why the VP's astrological chart seems to contradict his actual personality. Pursuing leads that take her to Northern New Mexico with her lover Jonah, she ends up the prisoner of an evil senator and escapes with the assistance of a schizophrenic genius who has been working for the senator.

A fascinating blend of astrology, science fiction, and politics. One of the odd coincidences of reading is that I read this immediately after the lovely Gregg Main suspenser and both had characters named Walker, a "bad guy" helped the heroine escape, and Northern New Mexico played a role. The book I'm reading today also has a character named Walker. Is the surname Walker becoming to novels what 555 is to fictional phone numbers?

Erotica/Contemporary/Suspense
Lip Service
M. J. Rose
Lady Chatterley's Library 0966433203
The Pocket hardcover edition is now available 0671041312

After spending her life living with psychiatrists, first her father and then her husband, Julia takes a job co-writing a book with a prominent psychiatrist specializing in sex. One of his most successful therapies involves phone sex and Julia signs on as a telephone sex therapist as part of her research and discovers her own repressed sexuality and how much she really dislikes her pretentious husband and loves her longtime journalist friend. This novel actually has a plot, some suspense, and a well drawn tale of a woman finding out who she is. Not a conventional romance, it does have the requisite happy ending.

This intelligent erotic novel that will be featured in July as alternate selections for both the Doubleday Book Club and The Literary Guild was self published. Its success demonstrates the power of the Internet and the changing face of publishing and bookselling.

Return to the Books of the Week Page