FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS
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THE FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEW is the place to come
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write with the world! (Or, right in the world of write!) New reviews this month from: . Dr. Cynthia Clark . Cerri Ellis . Harriet Klausner . Mystery Dawg |
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June 2007
THE AREMAC PROJECT
Gerald M. Weinberg
Little West Press
2007 $23.95
368 pages
ISBN: 0-932633-70-6
Tess Myers came from a family of geniuses. Her mother had snagged her dad, a major genius and Tess vowed to do just the same. But men bored her until she saw a younger college student playing with something in his hand coordinating with a computer screen. Roger Fixman was a genius and ahead of his class men not only in age but in intellect. When Tess noticed him he had invented a device to use mind control and a computer. But Roger was boring and socially inept. Tess manipulated their meeting, teasing him with, when you are not boring I will marry you. He came back with odd boring things, and then one day decided to rob a bank. Well, not really rob a bank, more like reorganize it. There he was waiting in line and it was taking forever, when he decided to slip away, put on a paper bag, put a can of shaving cream in his pocket as his gun and he came back out and ordered every one to line up into three lines; those ready, those who have not filled out their forms, and those needing forms. It worked and he slipped out and got rid of his jacket and the paper bag. Tess was going on about the bandit and at first did not believe Roger that it was him, but eventually he convinced her and she was duly impressed. With his hardware genius and her software genius she was convinced they would invent great things, but they needed capitol. So, Tess persuaded Professor Wyatt to hire both of them as assistants to help in his mind reading developments. Tess figures that they could use the University and his equipment in their off time to work on their own projects.
During this courtship a group of terrorists have been setting off bombs. There has been one survivor but he is so badly burned that he cannot talk. FBI Agents Capitol and Duke were assigned the case.
The Professor assures them that he is close to being able to read the mind of the survivor but before they can try the machine Tess tries it on herself, sending her into a coma.
Tess created all of Wyatt’s software so he doesn't have a clue about how to get into the system and Roger who had married Tess just prior to her self experimentation falls into a depression. The FBI agents persuade Roger to work with them in a secluded hospital where they will take care of his wife in exchange for him perfecting the mind reading machine. He will do anything to save his wife. But Tess is not dead inside, she can hear, and partially see, but no one can hear her. Roger struggles to figure out her password to no avail. Finally while he sits beside her talking to her she drops a tear. For a genius it takes him awhile to figure out she is communicating with him. Finally he gets it and gets the password. He builds a talking device based on the original device he had been creating when they met and she is able to talk through it.
But then the survivor is thrown out of a window and murdered, more bombs are set off and they are on a race to catch the terrorists, find out who the mole is, and find a way to wake up Tess’s body.
The Aremac Project is named such as Tess reads things backwards and that's how she reads the camera version of the mind reading machine Roger is building. The book is based on a very clever idea. The ending is a little hokey, but the technical ideas are wonderful and make one think twice. I did figure out the mole quickly but it did not detract from an interesting story or technological aspects of a thriller. The book started a little slow, but gained momentum and was worth it to hang in there through the “boredom” Tess moans on about. If you wonder about what the next technological invention is or maybe, read this book.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.6.
BRUSH WITH DEATH
Hailey Lind
Signet
$6.99, 336 pp.,
ISBN: 0-451-22179-6
Our favorite art forger cum art restorer Annie Kincaid is back, in another fast-paced adventure. This time, she’s embroiled in a mystery involving a supposed copy of Raphael’s masterpiece La Fornarina that just might be the real thing, and murder thrown in for good measure.
While doing late-night restoration work at the local columbarium (that’s a vault with recesses in the walls to hold funerary urns), Annie meets a mysterious grad student who tells her the “copy” of La Fornarina hanging in the very same columbarium is actually the original. Trying to overcome her checkered past, she thinks that if it is indeed the original, and she can arrange the return of the masterpiece to Italy, all will be forgiven.
So begins Annie’s latest adventure. She now has a nice, boring, boyfriend, but continues to have strong feelings for J. Frank DeBenton, her straight-arrow landlord, and Michael X. Johnson, the sexy art thief and friend of her world-famous art forger grandfather.
Her quirky group of friends are all back-Pete, who manages to mangle the English language in side-splitting fashion, Mary, her eccentric assistant, and the flamboyantly gay Bryan and his considerably more conservative partner. Hint-don’t miss the pair of quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The first is a weighty quote by a renowned artist. The second is a much more succinct (and hilarious) paraphrase by Georges LeFleur. If you like BRUSH WITH DEATH, I highly recommend you pick up Annie’s other two adventures, FEINT OF ART and SHOOTING GALLERY. The “Lind” sisters just keep getting better!
Cerri Ellis
THE CASTRO GENE
Todd Buchholz
Oceanview Publishing
May 15, 2007, $24.95
320 pages
ISBN: 13-978-1-933515-06-9
Luke Braden killed a man in his last boxing bout. He didn't want to, but was pushed to that last hit by the crowd, his manager, the sports promoter, everyone. And he regretted it every day that followed. He left the boxing life behind hoping to become a financial advisor. He wanted a career in the banking industry. He read, he listened, he paid attention to everything and he was good at predicting. But who was going to hire him? No one. He did get hired as a security guard in one of the buildings of the guru of finances himself, Paul Tremont. Eventually through what Luke thinks is clever maneuvering he gets a meeting with Mr. Tremont, but he doesn't know that Mr. Tremont has been watching him and waiting for the right time.
Cori Leopard is an activist that frequently gets under the skin of her Senator father. But someone has donated a fountain dedicated to the late Senator Leopard. He takes this as a threat to him and his daughter and warns her. She dismisses his concern. And later is shocked to be summoned by one of the people she boycotts, Paul Tremont. He asks her to work for him, distributing money to charities of her choice. She accepts his ten million dollars and returns to New York on the private plane with Luke. Slowly their romance develops.
But what is going on? Who is threatening Cori’s father? What is all the concern about Castro? Who killed the young woman who had just met with the Senator?
Luke’s estranged father is a professor at Columbia, but is there more to him that meets the eye?
Why does Paul Tremont want a washed up, uneducated fighter in his employ? Although Luke is extremely clever in meeting the trials Mr. Tremont hands out, he is not a Wall Street type, so why? All roads lead to Castro, but why?
To find out, read THE CASTRO GENE. The book starts out slow. However, I am glad I hung in there. I thoroughly enjoyed the second two-thirds of the book which picked up, moved at a good pace that was active and kept my interest. I wanted to know who was who and why. I would indeed recommend this book, and ask that if you are like me, just wade through the beginning of the book, it will be worth the read. Mr. Buchholz paints an interesting portrait of ancient Castro days interwoven with today and the carry over of revenge and hate. There is a blend of history with what if and politics without being political. I enjoyed THE CASTRO GENE.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I gave it a 4.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D.
DOG WAR
Anthony C. Winkler
Akashic Books
$14.95, 194 pp.,
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-28-6
Amply-endowed, willful, self-righteous Precious Higginson has life with her husband Theophilus aced. In the ancient, isolated, Jamaican mountaintop home he dragged her to after their children moved away, she begins every day by asking God not to drop a tin can on her head. She spends hours under her bed speaking to Jamaican Jesus, who she is convinced has a different set of rules from the English Jesus.
When Theophilus dies in a car accident, she is suddenly alone in her isolated roost, with only her dogs (White Dog and Red Dog) for company. Visits from her dentist son in Kingston and her policewoman daughter in Miami convince her she should not be alone in her remote mountain home, so she decides to move in with her son and his family. After a brief, ill-fated stay in Kingston with her son and daughter-in-law, a difficult woman just as stubborn and set in her ways as Precious herself, Precious ends up in Miami with her daughter’s family.
Prompted by an inappropriate late-night visit from her daughter’s enamoured husband, Precious feels compelled to leave her daughter’s home. She answers a classified ad and is coerced by the factotum Mannish, a reincarnated camel-thief, into accepting a position as a full-time dog nanny for Riccardo, a preposterously pampered pooch. She suffers the indignations of her son-in-law’s unwelcome advances, and Mannish’s less-unwelcome advances, but draws the line at Riccardo’s amorous attempts. After a tragic accident involving the horny hound, she returns to Jamaica, much more confident and at ease in her life as a single woman.
A good part of Winkler’s humor comes from the interaction between the races, and the way Precious has always perceived white people in Jamaica. In Miami, she is astounded at all the white people she sees. She is so fascinated to see white men actually working in the street, she makes her grandchildren stop to watch. DOG WAR offers a few humorous moments, and a peek into the life of a Jamaican thrust into the confusion of life in America. Unfortunately, Winkler seems to be trying to cram too much eccentricity into a relatively short novel. As a reader, I felt more than a little cheated at the superficial treatment of the relationships between Precious and everyone around her. More depth to all of the supporting characters would have added a lot to this novel, but still worth a read for a chuckle or two.
NO GOOD DEEDS
Laura Lippman
Harper, March 2007, $7.99, 366 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-06-057073-6
For Tess Monaghan, the unsolved murder of a young federal prosecutor is nothing more than a theoretical problem, one of several cases to be deconstructed as part of her new gig as a consultant to the local newspaper. But it becomes all too tangible when her boyfriend brings home a young street kid who doesn't even realize he holds an important key to the murder. Tess agrees to protect the boy's identity no matter what, especially when one of his friends is killed in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. But with federal agents determined to learn the boy's name at any cost, Tess finds out just how far even official authorities will go to get what they want. Soon she's facing felony charges -- and her boyfriend, Crow, has gone into hiding with his young protégé, so Tess can't deliver the kid to investigators even if she wants to. Time and time again Tess is reminded of her father's old joke, the one about the most terrifying sentence in the English language: "We're from the government–and we're here to help."
Lippman is at the top of her game. She knows her city well and it shows in every paragraph. The writing is authentic, and the author’s ear for dialect is dead on. A consummate tale-spinner, Lippman’s No Good Deeds is a deliciously tangled web of intrigue and suspense that readers shouldn’t miss.
THE STORKS OF LA CARIDAD
Florence B. Weinberg
Twillight Times Books, March 2005,$18.50, 231 pp.
ISBN: 1-931201-76-5
When ex-Jesuit priest Ygnacio Pfefferkorn is shackled and sent as a prisoner back to Spain from his mission home in Mexico, he finds himself caught up in a battle of wills.
The abbot of La Caridad is charged with housing the church’s new prisoner. Ygnacio is grateful for the care he receives after he and his fellow Jesuits are expelled from the new world and thrown into prisons.
The bishop wants the lands that supply La Caridad’s coffers. His ambition will cost the little norbertine monastery it’s main source of revenue and thus it’s existence. La Caridad’s abbot knows that the precious charter is the only thing that may stop the bishop from taking what he wants. But when the charter goes missing, and one by one, priests are found dead, Ygnacio is asked to help solve the murders and find the charter. As an outsider with no ties to the monastery or the bishop, he seems the best choice to remain objective. But all its not what it seems and the lines between saint and sinner stretch thin. Ygnacio must piece together the mystery and solve the crimes before he becomes the killer’s latest victim.
Ms. Weinberg’s book is perhaps the most enjoyable historical mystery I’ve read to date. THE STORKS OF LA CARIDAD is rich in detail, the story much like a pearl hidden in an oyster. A bit of work at first, but once you are inside, a lustrous treasure awaits.
Readers who appreciate thoroughly researched history will find no fault here. Had the pace been a bit faster, this would have been a perfect book. Ms. Weinberg will have to settle for near perfection from this reviewer.
Terr.O.R.
Joseph J. Neuschatz, MD
Booklocker.com, Inc
July 17, 2006 $14.50
150 pages
ISBN: 13 978-1-60145-015-9
Philip Newman is happy. At least he was until that one fateful day when a young man comes into the OR for a simple tattoo removal. Philip, an anesthesiologist enjoys his work, makes dumb jokes about being a gas passer, yet he takes every patient seriously.
James Walker, 19, claims to have followed all the pre-op rules, does not want to be intubated (where a tube is inserted down your throat to administer oxygen for you during surgery), and claims that he got the tattoos while he was recently in Europe. His father is ordering the tattoos to be removed. Initially, when Philip looks at the tattoos he is thrilled as it appears that no grafting will be needed and his date with the tennis court will come early. But something goes very wrong and James’s heart goes haywire and he dies. His father refuses an autopsy citing religious reasons and that is that or so Philip thinks, until he, the staff and hospital are sued for malpractice,
Some say you have not arrived as a doctor until you have your first malpractice case but this does not make Philip feel any better. A Dr. Rooney contacts Philip having heard about the death and shares with Philip a similar death he had under his care. This coincidence gets Philip thinking and together he and Dr. Rooney put out the word for similar OR deaths.
What Philip finds is not only terrifying but plausible. Dr. Neuschatz has written an intriguing tale of terrorism in a fast paced, easy to read format. I enjoyed all of it; however, he does include copious amounts of medications and medical stats that might be slightly over done for the story. The story itself is so well designed and executed that we do not need to in such detail each medication order such as “he injected a hyperbaric mixture of 1% Pontocaine in 10%,” etc. For me, it was like being back in a hospital but I can see where for the non medical personnel it could get tedious. Aside from that, it was an engrossing and thrilling read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.6.
FATAL LAWS
Jim Michael Hansen
Dark Sky Publishing, $13.95, 405 pp.
ISBN-10: 0976924366
ISBN-13: 978-0976924364
FATAL LAWS is the third book in the Bryson Coventry franchise. In each successive outing Hansen has place Coventry in more demanding situations, both professional and personal. How Coventry deals with the blurring of the lines and his strong moral sense of right and wrong are the hallmarks of this excellent series.
It's early September and Coventry is called to investigate the death of Angela Pfeifer. He meets the beautiful Trianca Holland - a woman who may be involved to be the prime suspect or the next victim. Coventry is spellbound by her beauty and finds it difficult to keep his professional distance, especially knowing that her background is on the edges of normal society. Freshly minted lawyer Haley Wesson is secretly looking into the disappearance of Renee Rand, a lawyer in the firm that she clerked for over the summer before being hired on in the fall. When Coventry's case intersects with Wesson's clandestine investigation, Denver may have a new serial killer on the loose. A series of shallow graves containing women murdered in various brutal ways confirms the suspicions and sets the course for this thirteen day thriller.
Hansen is a master of drawing you into the story early and making you care about his players. At times you may find yourself shuddering as the events play out on the page. Hansen's characters, the tightly plotted story line, the concise timeline, place the reader in the heart of the action. All of this makes FATAL LAWS a must read. One word of advice, read this book with the lights on.
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