EXILE - Richard North Patterson ****

David Wolfe's life is approaching an exhilarating peak: he is a successful San Francisco lawyer, he is soon to be married and he is being groomed as a future Congressman. But when the phone rings and he hears the voice of Hana Arif - a Palestinian woman whom he had a secret affair at law school - he behins a completely unexpected journey. The next day, while visiting San Francisco, the Prime Minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber; soon Hana herself is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder. Now David faces an agonising choice: will he, a Jew, represent Hana - who may well be guilty - or will he turn away from the one woman he can never forget?

David's quest takes him to Israel and the West Bank, where, in a series of harrowing encounters, he learns that appearances are not at all what they seem...

*I have edited this blurb by removing the first paragraph. I did so because in a sentence, it just about gives away the entire plot of the novel which is otherwise so carefully built.

There are two quotes on the cover of this book. Normally I don't detail the "quotes" as they're usually tripe taken out of context such as "amazing" - BLAHBLAH. Such a word could actually originally be "I have never read such amazing garbage". One of the quotes is on the front cover, and as such you see it quite often. And on the rear -

"An astonishing book, a hugely entertaining human drama" BILL CLINTON.

"A thriller so important it absolutely demands to be read" THE TIMES

I wanted to mention them because I found them to both be relevant to the book. The Times quote is much more accurate, it was a compelling book, and Clinton is right in saying it is astonishing. What I am annoyed about with Clinton's quote is that its so at odds with...itself. Astonishing is to imply that it keeps blowing you away, page after page. Entertaining while the book is, I feel that with this one quote, Clinton trivialises the whole story. Although to be fair to Clinton, the only reason he is quoted at all is to lend credence to the political bent of the book, of which Clinton was a contemporary for some of the historical politicos that feature. How exactly does one comment on fiction that implies criticism of the part the US played in geopolitics?

But I digress. As with many books I enjoy, while there is a serious history lesson going on for people like me who know little about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, its wrapped up in a fiction with some love story gluing it all together.

This is perhaps my favourite kind of book. I enjoy fiction immensely, but often feel I am keeping myself ignorant of world events. By taking my history in a medium I already enjoy, I enjoy it all the more having learnt something at the end.

I found it difficult to get into initially, which is unusual for North Patterson, but once it picked up it moved at a cracking pace. It did have to compete with Wii for a few days, but I focused on how much I wanted to finish it and it was all ok. Its a fair tome, weighing it at 700+ pages (with tiny writing M exclaimed!), but well worth it.

Half a star off for the slow start.

4 / 5

Making progress on God.

No this isn't the full post, I haven't finished the book yet. Just a quick word to say this book is very interesting, but I have thrown myself back into it, and I'm about half way through. I do have to devote my entire conscious thought to it to understand some of the more scientific principles however.

Stay tuned for full review, which I'm hoping will do the book justice.
Happy Tuesday everyone :)

The Sleeping Doll- Jeffrey Deaver ***/*

California Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Kathryn Dance is an expert in kinesics-the science of interpreting behaviour. It makes her a brilliant interrogator. But she's up against Daniel Pell, a master of control, who mesmerises, seduces and exploits people for his own murderous ends. A convicted killer who is known as "the Son of Manson" for the chilling parallels between him and the notorious ritual murderer. To track down Pell before he destroys yet more lives, Kathryn Dance must enlist the help of four people from the killers past. The three women who lived under his sadistic sway in the cult he once headed. And the young girl known as "the Sleeping Doll", the only survivor of her family's slaughter at Pell's hands.

Good read, Deaver is very good in ever book I've read.
Bit cautious about the front "Introducing Kathryn Dance". Deaver has become very popular with his series of Lincoln Rhyme books, a forensic specialist who happens to be a quadriplegic. Deaver's skillful portrayal of the crime balanced with the personal battle of a fantastic investigator that can't actually investigate any more. The "Introducing Kathryn Dance" leads me to believe he may wind down the Rhyme books, which I enjoy immensely. Hmmm.

This story is good, but I feel it kind of loses it at the end. It makes a small leap of faith that affects the ending, and I would have preferred a better explanation, or set-up for the twist it takes. BUT that said, Deaver is a master storyteller, and I'm intrigues enough in Dance's characterisation that I will read the ones to follow.

3.5 / 5

If you're a follower of Deaver and Rhyme already, check out this Trivia quiz on Deaver's website.

The Husband - Dean Koontz ****

Great Book.
Good Thriller, good plot twists.
Thanks to Susie and Tom, who gave it to me for my B'Day :)
4 / 5

In the Name of Honour - Mukhtar Mai **/*

Mukhtar Mai came to prominence in June 2002, when journalists in Pakistan first learned of her gang rape, punishment for an 'honour crime' allegedly committed by her brother, an offence for which there was never any proof.

After the horrific rape, custom dictated that she would kill herself. But Mai defied custom. In an unprecedented act if courage, she took her rapists to court.

In this rousing and moving account, Mai describes her experiences and readers get a rare look inside a world of ancient tribal justice, rampant illiteracy, poverty, and economic and sexual bondage.

Mukhtar Mai pitted herself against the system with extraordinary courage and strength of purpose. Timely and topical, In the Name of Honour is the inspirational true story of a woman who continues to fight against exceptional odds; since the trial some of the convictions have been overturned, leaving Mai in a decidedly dangerous situation.

Nevertheless, Mukhtar Mai remains in her village where she runs the first ever school for girls- seeded with money awarded to her by the Pakistani government in her historic settlement - and is a eager pupil there herself.

"It is because of the support of the world that I feel brave" Mukhtar Mai

This was good, but not as good as Shame. I feel this is most likely because the story has been verbally passed on, then translated twice whereas Sanghera in Shame was able to write her story herself, as a native English speaker. It lacks the extreme determination and enormously inspirational feeling that Shame had. If I had read them the other way around it may have been different but I would still highly recommend Shame over this.

2.5 / 5

Books I own

One of the reasons I started to do write ups on the books I read was to provide a place where I could actually list all the books i own so I could direct others there. Not being able to blog at home kind of put a dent into that plan, actually it derailed it altogether.

As such, I'm going to re-start this idea. Now so they don't all show up throughout the posts, I'm going to backdate them and all you need to do is click "Books I Own" in the Labels to the left ----> here in the sidebar
(might need to go down a bit)
and it will bring them all up! I think that will be the best way-Zogg any feedback?
Ciao for now : )

The Devil's Feather - Minette Walters ****

"Amidst the mire of a bloody war, who will notice the emrgence of a sexual psychopath from the ranks of the mercenaries?

When five women are brutally murdered in Sierra Leone, Reuters correspondant Connie Burns questions the arrest of three rebel soldiers for the crimes. No one listens. In the wake of a vicious civil war that saw hundreds of thousands killed and displaced, the rape and murder of women are of little consequence. And who cares if the child soldiers are beaten into confessing?

With little to go on, except her witnessing of a savage attack on a prostitute, C onnie belives a foreigner is responsible- a man who claims to have been in the SAS and who works as a bodyguard to a Lebanese diamond trader, She remembers him from Kinshasa when he was a mercenary for Laurent Kabila's regime, and she suspects he uses the chaos of war to act out sadistic fantasties against women.

Two years later in Iraq, the consequences of her second attempt to expose him are devastating. Terrifiedm degraded and destroyed, she goes into hiding in England, where she strikes up a friendship with jess Derbyshire, a loner whose reclusive nature may well be masking secrets of her own. See parallels betweeen herself and Jess, Connie borrows from the other woman's strength and makes the hazardous decision to attempt a third unmasking of a serial killer, knowing he wil come looking for her."

Very good book.

4 / 5

In their Footsteps-Tess Gerristsen ***/*

For Beryl Tavistock, the place to ask questions about the scandal surrounding her parents death is on Paris's rain slicked streets. But the answers are proving that old secrets die hard.

Caught in an increasingly deadly search for the turth, she enters a world where danger is spliced with desire-a world where the man she's just met, ex-CIA agent Richard Wolf, seems very much at home. But in this world, friends can be enemies and enemies can be killers....

Good. Not as good as her others but readable.

3.5 / 5

Did the Earth Move? - Carmen Reid ***

Meet Eve:

Four kids, one hectic job

two complicated exes and a lot on her mind.

Like, is sex with the vet better than no sex at all?

Is she too old to shop at Topshop or dye her hair pink?

Are violets the new geraniums?

What the hell is in the fridge for supper?

And, most important of all,

has she let the love of her life get away too easily?

Did the Earth Move?

is a sexy, thought-provoking and wildly entertaining

novel from the best selling author of Three in a Bed.

This was alright, a bit of fluff, easy reading though : ) Not going to rush out and find other books of hers though.

3/5

***late publish, from 12/2/07***

Presumed Guilty -Tess Gerritsen ***

"Someone was sleeping in her bed...
But he wasn't really sleeping. He was dead. Miranda Wood hoped it was just a bad dream, but the man had been stabbed with her knife, in her house. And worst of all, he wasn't a stranger.
So the nightmare began on Maine's tiny Shepherd Island, where all the evidence seemed to point to Miranda's guilt. There was no one who would believe she hadn't murdered her former lover, least of all Chase Tremain, the dead man's brother.
Chase wanted revenge at any price-until he met Mrianda. But when he became a convenient witness to several attempts on her life, he began to wonder....Was she a fresh-faced country girl with whom he could fall in love? Or was she a consummate actress-and a cold blooded killer?"

A good yarn, bit of a departure from her usual stories which she tends to cleverly work in some sort of religious angle, or have a Medical Examiner setting. Also a departure from a group of characters that were a good read, I hope she comes back to them. This is actually two books in one, so I will have to recycle the cover picture, it actually says and IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS in small text under the title. More about that when I finished the second (completely unrelated) story. I thought this was good, but on reflection there are a couple of sub plot holes that didn't quite get tied up I don't think, and neither the main story nor the subplot really got developed enough, almost like reading a draft of the story idea when I think about it, or some of her early writings, except she's not really established enough to be doing a "way back when" type release. Still a good read, but could have been better (or written under a pen name-Bachman?)

3/5

Live Bait- PJ Tracy ***

CATCH EVIL ANYWAY YOU CAN

Springtime in Minneapolis and with the thaw comes murder: an elderly man executed with a gunshot to the head and another literally frightened to death. But when Detective Magozzi calls on the analytical skills of Grace McBride, it appears not only that the killings might be connected but also that the victims might be something other than they seemed at first. As more deaths follow, Magozzi and Grace must quickly discover what secrets these men shared-- and with whom -- if they are to bait their trap and catch their killer...

*sigh* I'm sick of ranting about blurbs that suck. This one isn't too bad, it's the end that goes all pear shaped, pretending things that aren't there in the story. One could theorise though, that the only people that read the blurb after they've read the book are weirdos like me and every other happy reader wouldn't both because they've already read the book!

That aside now, this is the second book after a very good book written by Mother-Daughter team PJ Tracy (which I always forget until I finish the book). I really enjoyed Want to Play (debut), and it's funny, after picking up this book and beginning it I found myself in a classic case of "That-was-good-what-was-it-about-again-confusion". For those uninitiated, this is where I buy/choose a book without reading the blurb because it's by an author I recognise well enough from a previous read that I know I'll enjoy it. Tess Gerritsen is another of these authors, as is James Patterson and Harlen Coben to name a few. The only Reading Danger with these authors is that I have to check I haven't -

A) read it already

B) if I have more than one on the shelf to choose from that I don't read them out of order as I have found a few niche authors that write with the same characters (they can be read as stand alones but they're quite good when read in sequence too-I've done both).

This book I read and before I started it I had thought I was about to jump back into the lives of "Mr J and Ms X" when in fact it was "Character Y and So&so Q, storyline Z". Not a disaster, just have to readjust.

I discovered as I read that I was actually reading book 2 of the small number Tracy has written, having read 1 (Want to Play) and I think #4 which was also excellent.

Reflecting on this one however I'm struck by the thought that if I had read these in order and this was the second I would have been disappointed by the follow up to the first. As it stands, I've read one further down the line and know it will be ok. As a review on Want To Play so plaintatively states "Writers usually improve immensely on their next novels and so I'm very excited to see what more she has in store for us."

I can't say I think that's what happened here.

Don't get me wrong, it was good, I enjoyed it, but the first and subsequents are better. The two pivotal characters, one a Detective, and the other a neurotic computer whiz are meant to be growing closer romantically, the first book from memory focuses so closely on the MonkeeWrench team but this book is all Magozzi. Like they were experimenting with making Grace the side character, when in fact the subsequent books put Magozzi back on the sideline.

Hmm, it's interesting, but like I said, it's good, and worth a look. But read Want to Play first.

3 / 5

Shame- Jasvinder Sanghera *****

"When she was fourteen, Jasvinder Sanghera was shown a photo of the man chosen to be her husband. She was terrified. She'd witnessed the torment her sisters endured in their arranged marriages, so she ran away from home, grief-stricken when her parents disowned her.

SHAME is the heart-rending true story of a young girls attempt to escape from a cruel, claustrophobic world where family honour mattered more than anything- sometimes more than life itself.

Jasvinder's story is one of terrible opression, a harrowing struggle against a punitive code of honour-and, finally, triumph over adversity.

This book was amazing. It was so good, I read it cover to cover in a single day. There is so much that goes on in the world without us knowing, it just amazes you.
A must read as far as I'm concerned.

5/5

*** update-I was so moved by this book I wrote the author a note. I've only done that once before.

01.05.08 ****See this post for Another update to this a year on****

The Burning Girl-Mark Billingham ****/*

X marks the spot- and when that spot is a corpse's naked back and the X is carved in vlood, DI Tom Thorne is in no doubt that the dead man is the latest victim of a particularly vicious contract-killer. This is a turf warfare between North London gangs. Organised-crime boss Billy Ryan is moving into someone else's patch, and that someone is not best pleased. For Thorne, a tenuous link between two cases becomes two pieces of the same puzzle; past and present fuse together to form a new and very nasty riddle.

And when an X is carved on Thorne's front door, he knows that the smouldering embers of a long dead case are about to erupt into flames...."

Worst blurb in the world. Does it's job, but has the story all turned around. Utter bollocks.

That aside.... Brilliant book. Loved it. Would have been a five star but in retrospect there are a few loose ends I can't remember them tying up actually. I thought it was great however and raced through it in the couple of days since the Long Weekend (reading in the peak hour traffic hehehe). Highly recommend (the book that is-not the traffic) :)

I've read several others of Mark Billingham's and DI Tom Thorne is an oldie but a goodie. A very traditional Cop character in a British sense, and the other characters have good sub plots happening which keeps you coming back. I like reading a book and simply slipping into the characters, not being bludgeoned with the background info (see Baby Sitters Club-1st chapter of every single book). It sort of lost steam toward the end, but I was still really keen on finishing it.

4.5/5

The Lipstick Jungle-Candace Bushnell ****

Sorry for the late entry, I got this for Chrissy and read it on Jan 10th

"To everyone who's anyone in New York, Victory Ford, Wendy Healy, and Nico O'Neilly are riding high, the beautiful faces of success in the city. Victory is the hottest new desgner on the block; Wendy is the President of Parador Pictures with a sure-fire hit in production and three gorgeous children; and Nico is the editor of Bonfire magazine, the city's style bible. To the outside world they've hit their prime.

The trouble is, from where Victory, Wendy and Nico are standing thins don't look quite that wat. Nico is fitting in guilty extra-marital sex with an underwear model, Victory's latest collection bombed and Wendy's twelve-year marriage to her metrosexual househusband is in freefall.

Fierce, funny and flawed, Candace Bushnell's new heroines are also irresistable, and as she follows them through the minefield of work, love and life at the tope she gives us a hugely entertaining lesson on how to stay ahead and keep laughing in the toughest town on the planet. Welcome to their world-the Lipstick Jungle."

Surprisingly good. I haven't read any of her other stuff, ie Sex and The City. Chick Lit but with a bit more punch, I raced through it. :)
No Idea on the title, has absolutely no bearing on the story whatsoever.

4/5

Crossing the Line, Young Women and the Law-Carol Brinkwater, Editor ***/*

Available at Collins
"I got involved with drugs and the wrong sort of people...Drugs are a vicious cricle. Once you're hooked, it's hard to get out"
"I stole twenty-four-and-a-half thousand pounds over a period of less than a year. I gave it to my boyfriend to stop him beating me. [When I told the police] it felt like such a relief...now I just want to get on with my life"

What is it like to find yourself in trouble with the law? How does it feel to have a mum or dad in prison? And what makes someone get involved in crime in the first place?

In Crossing the Line young women describe what it's really like to end up in trouble with the police. They talk about what led them to 'cross the line' and how that experience has changed their lives. Frank, witty, and often angry, these women offer and inside view of the life on the other side of the legal divide.

This was a very interesting and thought provoking book. While it is set in London, not all the girls are British, and they are all different. As Brinkwater states in the introduction, "you will notice...just how many of their lives have been touched by drugs".

For me, this does have the effect of sort of alienating me from the individuals, preventing me from empathising as I don't understand drug culture at all. But it doesn't prevent their stories from being just as sad, and despairing. There is a fair amount of talk of suicide, and overall the tone of the book is frank, without being overly pitying or sympathetic. They simply tell their stories.

It makes me afraid to have my own children, but it also makes me feel relieved that I never got caught up with the wrong crowd, which is seemingly for a lot of these young women how it all starts. Definitely worth a read, quite a slim volume (119 pgs) and each account is only 4 pages or so, so it can be picked up and put down with frequency.

3.5/5

Wicker- Kevin Guilfoile ***/*

Bah always so annoying when you type a post and lose it!
How Far would you go to look into the eyes of your child's killer??

Look twenty years or so into the future and imagine a time when it's commonplace to clone babies for infertile couples. Imagine too a a world divided buy this practice and a band of religious vigilantes determined to bring an end to cloning. Now take the case of Dr Davis Moore, a cloning specialist who;s confronted with the brutal rape and murder of his teenage daughter. What would you do if the police drew a blank in their investigations but erroneously sent you a vial containing the killer's DNA...DNA you could use to clone the killer? Would you be able to create a cuckoo in the nest just so that you could look your daughter's killer in the eye?

Justin Finn, at three, looks just like any other child. But his face, one day, will be the exact match of the cold-blooded killer of whom he is a perfect genetic replica. And Justin Finn at fifteen has developed an unhealthy obsession with the Wicker Man, a notorious serial killer who prowls the streets of Chicago....

I think the quirkiest thing about this book was that I bought it at Big W in the post Christmas sales, and then a week or so later, I bought a stack of books at the Dymocks Big Book Sale and when got home I realised I must have really wanted to read it, because I'd bought another copy! In my defence however, they had different covers and one was trade size, one regular paperback size.
This is the first novel by Kevin, and I think he needs to change his publisher. See this post for my frustrations on blurbs.

This was a really interesting book because about half way through it I commented that it was really hard going and I was really labouring through it. I really felt the author had over extended himself and had way too many character threads happening, a very over-ambitious first novel perhaps.

But then the second half of the book just galloped along! I didn't want to put it down, which generally means I really enjoy it, and if it didn't drag so much at the start it may have gotten more stars. As it is, it tackles some big cloning issues and has quite a twist at the end. I didn't really like the way I felt he abandoned some of his sub-plots at times, you'd think "hmm where did that guy go?" and then it would still be another twenty pages before he'd pop up again. There was also a tendency to discard characters, as there were so many involved, they would suddenly be written out with the ease of a Home and Away starlet falling pregnant.

I would recommend, but with the warning that the early slog is worth it in the end if you don't pick the twist (which in retrospect I suspected, but forgot again until it was revealed).

3.5/5

Marry Me, Courtships and Proposals of Legendary Couples- Goldberg & Goodwin **/*

As the title suggests, a compilation of the stories of famous couples incl Freud, Carole Lombard & Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe & Joe DiMaggio and Demi Moore & Bruce Willis.

*sigh* This was ok. Not great, not bad. It didn't inspire me to pick it up when I wasn't reading, and I skipped a few toward the end when I didn't recognise the names and it got too much. A limited audience here, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to read it before we got engaged/married.

2.5 / 5

The Mephisto Club-Tess Gerritsen ***/*

"In a rundown house, a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leave veteran cops in shock. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image in Latin that translates to "I have sinned".

Then a second woman in founs butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the home of the leader of the Mephisto Club, a secret society dedicated to the study of evil and to confronting it in its purest form. On the door have been scrawled more ancient symbols. Are they clues? Or threats?

This is a form of evil Boston PD has never encountered before. And the only way Maura and detective Jane Rizzoli can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the Devil himself." (blurb)

Well. This book was quite good. Not as good as the last one of hers I read on the plane back from Fiji, but good. Quite freaky actually as it ends up being quite heavy on the Satanic themes (which was also one of the reasons it was fascinating) and kinda freaked me out when by the time it climaxed and finished, which was 12.30am for me.

3.5 / 5

Books Books Books.

Because I think I am eternally interesting, I am starting a new section about my reading habits. I'll try to include a brief synopsis and if I really like ot or really hate it, a short review. (Or if I really like it it will probably be a little rave). Primarily I would like to create a space in which to send people so they can see which books I read and which I own, so that they can borrow them : )

ciao

Faithless - Karin Slaughter