INFLUX by Daniel Suarez

February 20, 2014


A theme last seen in science fiction’s pulp era was that of “suppressed inventions”, i.e.; cars getting 1000 miles from a pint of alcohol, anti-gravity travel, pills and plants curing most major diseases for little or no cost. These discoveries were suppressed by people not wanting to lose high revenues from current methods and having the inventions take over the situation.

Suarez creates a U.S. government agency titled The Bureau of Technology Control. They are charged with ascertaining orderly progress in society by withholding or suppression of advanced findings in order to maintain social structure that does not rocket past what should be the ordinary rate of progress. The BTC has thrown off all U.S. government control and holds in secret technology that puts them at least 50 years beyond the rest of the world.

Jon Grady, a particle scientist, and his team come up with perfecting a device that will reflect gravity. This should bring him worldwide acclaim, but instead causes him to be swept up into the path of the Bureau of Technology Control that offers him a chance to work on his invention under their supervision and control. Jon refuses and is thrown into a high tech prison maintained by the BTC.

How he escapes and gets into contact with other prisoners that have refused to follow BTC dictates places the reader into one of the most imaginative and fascinating plots in science fiction to date. What happens to an agency set up to maintain orderly progression in society that places itself outside of the control of any other ordinary organization is certainly a study in Machiavellian cause and effect. Well done novel by Suarez, who has done several other books involving high technology and its consequences while not under control.

2/14 Paul Lane

INFLUX by Daniel Suarez. Dutton Adult (February 20, 2014). ISBN 978-0525953180. 416p

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

HALF WORLD by Scott O’Connor

February 18, 2014


From about 1953 until 1973, the CIA clandestinely conducted methods of mind control on both U.S. and Canadian citizens without their consent. It wasn’t until project MKUltra, as it was termed, became public knowledge due to national headlines based on the release of thousands of declassified documents in 2001, that the public became aware of these activities.

Scott O’Connor has written a compelling book about characters caught up in the illegal operations and destroyed by the knowledge of what they were doing to the people that unwittingly became subjects of the experiments. Henry March is the first individual to head up a project in San Francisco selecting people and then drugging them in order to warp their minds.

Two generations later Dickie Ashby, a young CIA agent, is sent to Los Angeles to try and infiltrate a group of bank robbers that claim they have all been abused in a government brainwashing operaton. O’Connor is excellent in setting the mood of the events, and describing the damage done to the individuals that are put in charge of the experiments. First Henry March is shown trying to come to grips with the horror of what he is forced to do and unable to do so and then Ashby facing the results of the experiments two decades later both with the subjects as well as with the families of the planners and their lives.

This is compelling reading and an indictment of a government agency going beyond the pale to prove a point. O’Connor is very good at creating the moods and atmosphere of the events depicted in addition to outlining what are most likely to be the facts of the occurrences during the experiments. Knowing that these experiments were actually carried out makes the book a more fascinating read.

2/14 Paul Lane

HALF WORLD by Scott O’Connor. Simon & Schuster (February 18, 2014). ISBN 978-1476716596. 432p

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

BAPTISM by Max Kinnings

February 17, 2014


The only thing that may be more terrifying than a subway train taken over by terrorists  is a subway train taken over by religious zealots, especially when they want to die and take everyone with them, and that is the premise here.

Tommy and his sister have big plans to kill everyone on board the train by flooding the tunnel, the titular “baptism.” Ed is the lead negotiator with a unique skill set; he is blind, and can hear more in the timbre of voice than most people, and what he hears is truly frightening.

Tommy claims the train is wired with explosives, and he kills anyone entering the tunnel, causing the body count to soar and MI5 to pull back. Ed is convinced that Tommy’s religious beliefs are stronger than anything he has to offer, so he grasps at straws, contacting an engineer and a criminal to try to save the trainload of passengers when MI5 can’t.

Lots of violence and a high body count lead up to an exciting ending in this fast paced adrenaline read. James Patterson fans will find a lot to like here.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

2/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

BAPTISM by Max Kinnings. Quercus; First Edition (February 4, 2014). ISBN 978-1623651022. 448p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

THE OTHER TYPIST by Suzanne Rindell

February 16, 2014


I stumbled across this first novel and decided to give it a read because it’s published by Amy Einhorn, Putnam Books. Einhorn has published some of my favorite reads including The Help by Stockton, The Weird Sisters by Brown, The Postmistress by Blake, and Liane Moriarity’s The Husband’s Secret and What Alice Forgot. Needless to say, I was expecting a lot from this one. Sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Rose Baker is a typist for the police department in the early 1920s in New York City. She hears confessions ranging from bootlegging to murder and everything in between, but when she’s not typing she still considered the weaker sex, good for making coffee and filing. Prohibition has increased the workload, so a new typist, Odalie Lazarre, is hired.

Rose grew up in an orphanage raised by nuns, and is completely enchanted with the beautiful, flirtatious Odalie. They become “bosom friends,” and eventually Rose moves out of her shared room into Odalie’s apartment. Odalie has quite the past, but Rose looks the other way, her Puritan upbringing being pushed to the limit as Odalie takes her to speakeasies and summer parties.

Rose is the most unreliable of narrators, so it’s hard to know exactly what is going on but it seems like all parties and fun until it’s not and someone is accused of murder. Fans of Gatsby-esque settings and psychological mysteries like those of Patricia Highsmith will love this.

2/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE OTHER TYPIST by Suzanne Rindell. Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam (May 7, 2013). ISBN 978-0399161469. 368p.

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AFTER I’M GONE by Laura Lippman

February 13, 2014


Lippman returns with a brilliant standalone novel that includes a nod to her series heroine, Tess Monahan, and is set in her hometown of Baltimore. She grabbed me on page one with a quote from the classic Herman Wouk book, Marjorie Morningstar, which sort of set the mood for me. (If you’re not familiar with the 1955 bestseller, Slate did a great piece on it for the 50th anniversary: Marjorie Morningstar: The conservative novel that liberal feminists love.)

Felix Brewer is a charmer with an eye for beautiful women, and Bambi Gottschalk is a stunner. Their chemistry is instanteous and explosive, and long-lasting – until Felix disappears after many years of marriage and three children.

Felix does very well, keeping the family in the lap of luxury. He owns a strip club among other businesses, mostly not legal, but when he’s arrested and facing ten years in prison, he takes off, hiding his assets and leaving the family penniless. Bambi, who was barely graduated from high school when they married, has never worked and has no job skills. She relies on her husband’s lawyer and his wife, her best friend, and they help as much as they can.

The only one who may know where the money has gone is Julie, Felix’s girlfriend, and she’s not talking. Surprisingly, no one ever looks for Felix and his disappearance is just accepted as fact by everyone except his wife and mistress. Bambi refuses to have him declared dead so never collects insurance, and in her heart believes that someday he will come home. Julie is convinced that Felix will send for her, which becomes her undoing.

Ten years after Felix disappears, Julie disappears too, and it is believed that she is finally with Felix. Except that many years after that, her body is found in a deserted area of a park, and her murder is at the heart of this mystery.

Sandy is a retired Baltimore homicide police who is working on cold cases as a consultant to the police department. He starts looking into Julie’s murder, and while it is central to the story, this is much more than a mystery. We also get a look at what happens to the five women left behind when Felix disappears – his wife, his three daughters, and his mistress. The story spans more than thirty years, moving back and forth from the early days of the marriage, the years when Felix disappeared, the three girls growing up, and the 2012 murder investigation.

This is a fast moving story with believable characters that you can’t help caring about and rooting for. In fact, the characters propel the story along as much, if not more, than the mystery.

Laura Lippman is one those authors that I drop everything to read; she is one of the best crime fiction writers working today. If you haven’t read her yet, do yourself a favor and pick up any of her books. I fell in love with her very first novel, Baltimore Blues, and haven’t looked back since.

This is a genre bending novel; mystery for sure, but women’s fiction readers will love it too, as will book groups. After I’m Gone is a truly wonderful read and I was very sorry to have to turn the last page. 

2/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

AFTER I’M GONE by Laura Lippman. William Morrow (February 11, 2014). ISBN 978-0062083395. 352p.

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WENDELL BLACK, MD by Gerald Imber

February 11, 2014


Dr. Gerald Umber is a Plastic Surgeon and an honorary police surgeon for many years. This is his first novel.

Not surprisingly, the central character is a doctor working for the New York City Police Department as well as having a second job as a doctor at a regional hospital. On a flight back to New York from a trip to London he is called upon to minister to a woman suffering from cardiac arrest. She does not survive and Dr. Black is drawn in by the death and later exam of the body in the morgue to what may be an international drug smuggling ring using “mules” (people that carry drugs in cavities in their bodies.)

Black’s girlfriend Alice, a Brit, introduces him to a friend of hers who believes that the death is connected to an international ring based in England. When Alice’s friend is killed and she disappears, it leads to the probability that the smuggling is much more than drugs and may be a plot by international terrorists as part of a plan to attack the United States.

Various departments such as the FBI, the DEA and Homeland Security are brought into the action and Dr. Black is kept on as an expert in getting to the bottom of what the plot may entail.

Dr. Umber’s medical expertise and his skill in creating plot and events make this a riveting book as fact after fact is brought out in the action. The ending is a direct result of the facts brought out in the book, but does not, in any way, spoil the pleasure. I would expect that based on the creation of Wendell Black the author plans to use his position and expertise in future novels.

2/14 Paul Lane

WENDELL BLACK, MD by Gerald Imber. Bourbon Street Books (February 11, 2014). ISBN 978-0062246851. 416p

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NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU by Kathleen Hale

February 3, 2014


Kippy Bushman’s best friend, Ruth Fried, has just been brutally murdered. She went missing on her way to visit Kippy and was found the next day, strung up and stuffed with straw.

Friendship, Wisconsin has never seen a crime like this—it sets the town reeling and in desperate need of a conviction and closure. Ruth’s boyfriend is quickly arrested and faces prosecution for what the locals believe is an open and shut case, but Kippy isn’t so sure. Part of it is thanks to Ruth’s diary, which Ruth’s mother passed to Kippy to clean up for her later reading.

Problem is, there’s too much questionable material to clean up including barbs against Kippy herself and frequent mention of the local lawyer Ruth had been having an affair with. Since Kippy seems to be the only one with questions about the arrest, she decides it’s up to her to investigate.

With Ruth’s brother by her side, the teen begins her own inquiries, a move that soon gets Kippy the wrong kind of attention. This Fargo-esque teen debut is perfect for readers who enjoy dark comedy. It’s twisted and snarky but smartly plotted and lots of fun.

2/14 Becky Lejeune

NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU by Kathleen Hale. HarperTeen (January 7, 2014). ISBN 978-0062211194. 384p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

HOUSE OF JAGUAR by Mike Bond

January 29, 2014

Mike Bond has an adventure filled background as a reporter, novelist, and international energy expert working in many dangerous and remote war-torn parts of the world.

House of Jaguar is set in the jungles of Guatemala amidst fighting between natives, the Guatemalan army, and the  unpublicized  presence of the CIA.  Joe Murphy a veteran of Vietnam is smuggling a planeload of Marijuana into Guatemala when he witnesses an attack and massacre of a native village by the army and it’s CIA advisors. He is badly wounded in the fighting, but escapes and treks through the jungle.

Joe ends up in the care of Dona Villalobos, a guerilla doctor ministering to her people. They fall in love surrounded by the horrors of the civil war and attempt to get out the truth out about what is really happening in the country.

Bond shows his readers the reality of the war, and paints the truth about unpublicized intervention by the U.S. in Central America.  Mike in real life is only one of more than 100 correspondents left alive during the action. Tightly woven and a truly engrossing story of an unpublicized conflict in a land very close to the U.S.
1/14 Paul Lane

HOUSE OF JAGUAR by Mike Bond. Mandevilla Press (November 25, 2013). ISBN 978-1627040105. 387p

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DEAD TO ME by Cath Staincliffe

January 25, 2014


A young woman is murdered in Manchester, England, and the Murder Investigation Team, headed by the formidable Gill Murray, gets the case.

Gill is good friends with one of her detectives, Janet Scott, a 25-year veteran who loves her job. Rachel Bailey is a young cop who has escaped a tough childhood, and she is smart and ambitious. Murray teams Bailey up with Scott and puts them on the murder case.

Scott is not happy with the arrogant and overzealous Bailey, and Bailey thinks there is something wrong with Scott because she has never tried for a promotion. They uncover a rape that may be related, find a roving drug dealer that may have been the last person to see the young woman alive, and investigate an unsavory boyfriend that the mother is convinced is the murderer.

Janet is a rules oriented, methodical detective while Rachel is headstrong and thinks and acts outside the box. Working together is a nightmare for both of them, but gradually they learn to respect each other as they work the case through to the shocking ending.

But this is much more than just a murder mystery; these characters are well developed, idiosyncratic and likeable, and that extends to their families and co-workers as well. Most reminiscent of the Cagney and Lacy TV series, this should appeal to readers who enjoy female buddy books like the Rizzoli and Iles series by Tess Gerritsen, the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro, or even Lisa Scottoline’s Rosato & Associates legal series.

This book is actually a prequel to a popular British TV series, “Scott and Bailey,” now in its fourth season in the UK and airing on some PBS stations in the U.S. Visit the “Scott and Bailey” Facebook fanpage for more info.

Copyright © 2013 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

1/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

DEAD TO ME by Cath Staincliffe.  Minotaur Books (January 14, 2014). ISBN 978-1250038548. 400p.

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THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF by Charlotte Williams

January 23, 2014


As a therapist, Jessica Mayhew is used to treating clients with odd quirks. Gwydion Morgan is a charming up and coming actor whose father is a famous playwright. He’s come to Jessica ostensibly to treat insomnia and a button phobia, out of fear that the two may hurt his budding career. He soon reveals that he’s also been struggling with a recurring nightmare, one in which he seems to be trapped in a box while hearing yelling and splashing outside.

As their sessions progress, Gwydion tells Jessica that he’s been remembering more and more of the dream, which seems now to be a memory of something quite disturbing: when Gwydion was a boy, his nanny drowned in a tragic accident. The dream would suggest that not only did the young Gwydion actually witness the event, but that it wasn’t actually an accident at all.

Charlotte Williams’s debut seemed like it had all the right pieces to be a great mystery. Unfortunately, it did not live up to its promise. The story was a bit dry and held few surprises.

1/14 Becky Lejeune

THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF by Charlotte Williams. Bourbon Street Books (January 7, 2014). ISBN 978-0062284570. 352p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

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