Volume 4 #5

Go the Table of Contents

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.

Crime/Suspense/Police Detectives
Pop Goes the Weasel
James Patterson
Little, Brown 0316693286

The latest installment in Patterson's excellent award winning Alex Cross series pits him against a sociopathic British spy who gets his thrills by playing Death a deadly Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse role playing game with his buddies on the Internet. Geoffrey Shafer plays the busy diplomat and loving father and husband but steals out to role the dice to select his next victim and method of murder. Meanwhile Alex's hand are tied behind him by the bureaucracy and his vindictive boss who refuse to realize that a serial killer is on the loose. In his personal life Alex's children are overjoyed when he proposes to their beautiful, smart, and overall wonderful school principal but a family holiday leads to horror.

This intricately plotted page-turner will leave readers impatiently waiting for the next adventure of Alex Cross, one of the most compelling sleuths ever depicted.

Juvenile/Problem
Vanishing
Bruce Brooks
Laura Geringer/HarperCollins 0060282363

After a bout with bronchitis, Alice goes on a hunger strike to avoid going home from the hospital to live with her alcoholic mother and hateful stepfather because she wants to go live with her dad.

YA/Juvenile/Science Fiction/Parallel Worlds
Boltzmon!
William Sleator
Dutton 0525461310

With an eleven year old protagonist the YA audience will be at the very youngest end or if older, dedicated Sleator fans. Chris is ostracized at school in a large part because his popular older sister really has it in for him. When he goes upstairs to break up a party on the instructions of his mom he find a darting glowing blob that he quickly pockets. The blob that can take on any form that it wants is the "Boltzmon," the remnant of a black hole from the future who when perturbed moves into other places. It takes Chris to Arteria a parallel world that is 40 years further down the time continuum than Chris's world where Chris encounters an odious woman who he comes to believe is his older sister.

Sleator's science fiction always satisfies but personally I would prefer a slightly older protagonist to snag the YA audience.

YA/Science Fiction/Psionic Powers
Hidden Talents
David Lubar
Tor 0312866461

Well deserving of the accolades it has been receiving, Lubar's first YA novel has a cast of characters to rival the super heroes in the movie Mystery Men. Edgeview Alternative School is the end of the line for kids who can't cut it in regular schools because of behavioral problems. Martin Anderson has an uncanny knack for irritating everyone he comes in contact with until he hooks up with the misfits in a boarding school full of misfits, his roommate Torchie, and other kids called Trash, Lucky, Cheater, and Flinch. It is Martin who discovers that they all have hidden talents.

Terrific. A bright light on the SF horizon.

YA/Contemporary/Problem
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
FSG 0374371520

Outcast because of dialing 911 at her first drunken party, Melinda decides to stop talking in her first year of high school. Made many lists of one of the best of 1999 and I concur.

Juvenile/Science Fiction
Rewind
William Sleator
Dutton 0525461302

After being killed by running out in front of a car, eleven year old Peter gets the chance to go back to some point in time prior to his death to try to do things differently. He tries to change his adoptive parents' view of him by presenting a puppet show and helping his pregnant mom. An interesting concept but in my opinion too young for young adults.

Crime/Legal Thriller
Personal Injuries
Scott Turow
Farrar Straus & Giroux 0374281947

Turow, the dean of the American legal thriller takes the reader into a convoluted world of deception and intrigue when a dirty lawyer agrees to work undercover for the FBI. While there are ample twists and thrills for excitement it also has an underlayer examining the ethical and moral issues of undercover work. The characters of Robbie Feaver, wealthy, obnoxious personal injury lawyer who will do whatever it takes to stay out of jail until after his wife dies from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and Evon Miller the undercover name of an agent who pretends to be a Mormon para-legal who is Robbie's latest conquest are unforgettable. As the team attempts to get the dirt on the highest judge in Kindle County all kinds of secrets come to light. I must concur with Patrick O'Kelley of Amazon.com who wrote "Personal Injuries is the legal thriller at its very best. "

Crime/Private Detective
"O" Is for Outlaw
Sue Grafton
Henry Holt 0805059555

There has been a recent run of truly terrific books lately, many from long established authors who amazingly have not gone stale. Kinsey Millhone's latest adventure gives the reader a rare view into her past when a box with papers having her name on them turns up in the auctioned off contents of a mini-storage unit. Knowing it was stuff she left behind when her first marriage ended she sets out on a quest to find the man she married and divorced at age 21 and is sucked into a vortex of danger. An outstanding addition to the Kinsey canon.

In the strange synchronicity of events, the same day I read Outlaw, the body of a local man, missing for three years, was found in California when the contents of a mini-storage unit were auctioned off.

General Fiction/Short Stories
Foreign Brides
Elena Lappin
Farrar Straus & Giroux 0374157588

Li-fi (literary fiction) with a dollop of humor this short story collection of wives and rebellion is quite readable. The first and last story both feature Noa an Israeli woman married to a British man who betrays him by feeding him meat delivered from a non-kosher butcher and years later in the last story ends up teaching a potential lover the intricacies of a kosher kitchen while on vacation. In between is an assortment of stories of women who marry outside their countries. As with all story collections some of the stories included are better than others.

Romantic Suspense
Soft Focus
Jayne Ann Krentz
G. P. Putnam's Sons 0399145788

Review to be published in Booklist.

Science Fiction/Space Opera
Civil Campaign
Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen 0671578278

The latest Vorkosigan adventure sees Miles attempt to court the recently widowed (Komarr) Ekaterin Vorsoisson amidst the intrigue inherent in the Barrayan political scene. Meanwhile as preparations for the royal wedding advance Mark returns home with a mad scientist and a new product that may make him more than wealthy in his own right.

Bujold's books are must buys. As there are so many books in the world and so little time I rarely reread anything with the exception of the Vorkosigan saga.

Crime/Amateur Sleuth/Therapist Sleuth
Wanton's Web
Alex Matthews
Intrigue Press 189076812X

As psychotherapist Cassidy McCabe and journalist Zach Moran prepare for their wedding an unexpected guest turns up, Bryce the seventeen year old son Zach never knew he had. Bryce's mother is murdered and suspicion turns to Zach who had pled guilty many years ago to assaulting her.

The promise shown in Secret's Shadow has flowered producing a solidly fascination mystery series.