BookOpinion

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: The question often arises…is Joel Rosenberg, author of the popular “Jihad” series, a modern day prophet? He says not. However, the uncanny resemblance between fiction and world events that explode ‘after’ the publication of his books, tends to make one consider the issue fairly seriously. If not a prophet, then certainly he has remarkable insight into world affairs that make you take his work much more seriously than most contemporary fiction.

“Dead Heat”, his final book in the Jihad series, is one that you literally cannot put down. It opens with President James MacPherson arriving in Los Angeles to attend the Republican National Convention. Tensions in the Middle East, North Korea, China and Russia are high. The world seems to be taking an enormous roller coaster ride into an unknown future.

Out of nowhere and with no warning, the United States is hit by four atomic missiles…Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. The cities and their environs are completely wiped out. Vice President Oaks now has the task of determining who has attacked America and why. But with limited resources left in the government to assist him, the circumstances are monumentally staggering. Oaks is quickly evacuated to NORAD Operations Center along with a limited military staff to assist him in sorting out this tragedy.

At the same time, Jonathan Bennett, the primary character throughout the Jihad series, is in a refugee camp in Northern Jordan with his wife Erin who has become extremely ill and is near death. When Jon receives word of the horrific disaster that struck his country, he is devastated. Jon is immediately contacted by the newly sworn-in President Oaks who requests his presence at NORAD immediately.

“I’d like to see you as soon as possible – you and Erin,” the President explained. “Most of our top people are dead. Nearly all the White House and NSC staff are gone. State is gone. Most of the team at the Pentagon. And I’m sure you’ve heard about Langley.”

Jon attempts to explain about Erin’s medical condition, but the President is insistent that both of them return to the United States. After promising to make arrangements to have them relocated to NORAD, President Oaks is satisfied that Jon will arrive home to assist him in determining the government behind this annihilation and how to best retaliate.

But again, events take an unexpected twist in this new world. What follows will have you glued to your seat, trying to comprehend such a scenario. Who bombed America? And why? And against whom will the new president retaliate? And is there even time? All leads point to China…but is that exactly what the real enemy wants the U.S. to believe? And how were the bombs delivered and should more be expected? Chaos, terror and tragedy follow this devastation.

“Dead Heat” is not jolly fun to read…it feels real and with the world in its current politically unstable condition, this work of fiction could easily become a horrible reality. Not for the faint of heart or those who would prefer to hide their head in the sand, “Dead Heat” is a book that may very well give you nightmares. It may also force you to restructure your life into one that is a bit more meaningful and see things in a different perspective.

Joel Rosenberg isn’t just another fiction writer. He once was a political columnist for World magazine and has worked with such notables as former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli deputy prime minister Natan Sharansky. Currently, he writes commentaries for National Review and manages a weekly e-mail update known as “Flash Traffic” for business and political leaders. For further information, you can visit www.joelrosenberg.com.

I’ve always loved political thrillers in the manner of Tom Clancy and the late Robert Ludlum. But Joel Rosenberg comes under a different category. I recommend “Dead Heat’ unreservedly. Prior to reading this book, however, be sure to pick up the other books in the Jihad series…otherwise, you will be somewhat lost as to who the characters are. Perhaps “Dead Heat” is just fiction, perhaps it is something more…either way, you will not be able to put it down!

- Elizabeth Channery

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: I have read many Dean Koontz books, and none have left me feeling as tormented as the author’s latest novel, “The Darkest Evening of the Year“. Koontz offers up an array of hideous antagonists, the worst of which made me literally sick to my stomach. Part of the torment comes from his graphic descriptions of dog abuse and child abuse. Koontz’s beloved dog, Trixie, passed away recently, and that sorrow is obvious throughout the book. Having lost my own beloved dog recently, I thoroughly empathize.

Dogs, specifically Golden Retrievers, are some of the most vivid characters of the novel, which centers mainly on the life of Amy Redwing, whose life revolves around rescuing dogs. The novel opens as Amy and her boyfriend, Brian, are in rescue mode, attempting to save a dog from a wife/child beater who doubles as the killer of the family pets. After saving both the family and the dog, Amy takes the dog in to live with her other beloved Goldens, but Nickie, this new dog, is special, forming unusual bonds and connections with both people and other dogs.

The novel flips back and forth between the protaganists’ (Amy and Brian) story and the villains, an unsavory cast of lowlife private detectivies, hitmen, and two others who will make your skin crawl. I enjoyed getting to know Amy, but I never felt like Brian became a full character. I didn’t feel the sympathy for him that Amy and several others garnered. Some of the book felt a little rushed, unusual for a Koontz book, which can sometimes be a bit overburdened with detail.

This is a dark book, darker still if you are a true dog lover. Anyone who can read this book and not want to rush down to the nearest animal shelter and bring home a couple dogs (or a cat) to love, has a heart of stone. The thing to love about Dean Koontz is that he has no illusion that the world is not a dark and evil place, yet he always offers to the reader protagonists that defy the darkness and manage to find hope and peace. “The Darkest Evening of the Year” is no exception.

I still say “Life Expectancy” (which I just reread for the fourth time) is his greatest work, but any true Koontz fan should enjoy this latest book. Now that I have devoured this latest, I will try to patiently await the release of the next Odd Thomas book, which is scheduled for April, 2008. In the meantime, I will try to convince my husband that we need to make a trip to the local animal shelter in the near future.

– Jane Leisteiner

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: What is the thing that terrifies you the most? Another terrorist attack? An invasion by UFO’s? Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes? Losing your job? Cancer? How about the kidnapping of one of your children? I think that must be one of the most agonizing, terrifying situations that could ever confront us. Imagine the day-in, day-out horror of the “not knowing” whether your child was alive, whether they were being tortured, if you would ever see them again.

Mark Gimenez has used this scenario in “The Abduction” and did it with a chilling plot that is baffling, frightening and will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very last page. Frankly, this story has so many twists and turns that I was constantly astonished by the brilliant imagination of the author.

Gracie Ann Brice, age 10 years, and an ace soccer player, disappears at the end of winning a tight game against a rival team. Her father, John R. Brice and a brilliant computer geek about to make a billion dollars on a business venture, is on his cell phone at the end of the game when his daughter goes missing. Elizabeth, a tough, controlling attorney and Gracie’s mother, arrives just minutes after her daughter is kidnapped. Bedlam follows as the alert goes out and the frantic search for Gracie begins.

When Ben Brice, Vietnam Vet and Gracie’s grandfather hears the news, he immediately flies from his isolated retreat in New Mexico to the family’s home in Briarwyck Farms, an exclusive conclave in Dallas, Texas. Upon arrival, he encounters not only the FBI but his son, John, who is practically catatonic. And Elizabeth is dealing with the situation in the only way she knows how…forcefully, angrily and outwardly, in complete control.

But Ben Brice has a unique relationship with Gracie…there is a mutual affection, understanding and comradery between them and he is determined to find Gracie and destroy those responsible for her disappearance. A long-shot for an alcoholic grandfather, haunted by memories of torture and murder? Ben Brice has a classified military file with a list of medals as long as your arm. No ordinary grandfather, this.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has taken matters into her own hands and schedules an interview on national television. She offers to pay the kidnappers $25 million to release her daughter, unharmed. And then, “Because if you don’t take this deal, if you don’t release my daughter by the deadline, if you can’t release my daughter because you’ve already killed her, know this and know it well: you’re a dead man. I’m putting a bounty on your head same as the government put on Osama bin Laden’s head: commencing one minute after midnight Friday, we will pay the twenty-five million to anyone who hunts you down and kills you like the disgusting perverted animal you are. And know this: you’re not going back to prison to serve a few years then get released only to violate another little girl – that is not going to happen! You’re either going to release my daughter or you’re going to die. It’s your choice.”

In spite of this, the only information that arises is from Idaho Falls, Idaho…remote and unlikely. But Ben is convinced that this is the lead he has been waiting for. And surprisingly, John is determined to accompany his father on the search.

Is Gracie still alive? And if so, what kind of hell is she living in? And will they find her in time? And, is this the tip of the iceberg? Is there more to the plot then the kidnapping of a little girl?

Well, actually there is…and the unraveling of this entire plot will have you gasping with shock. “The Abduction” is riveting, the characters are revealed not only by their actions but by their past…and you never know how you feel about any of the players until all is revealed. The construction of this novel is suspense well defined and will appeal to anyone who loves a good thriller. I highly recommend this book!

– Elizabeth Channery

Patricia Cornwell’s 15th Kay Scarpetta novel, “Book of the Dead,” lands among the top of bestseller lists on its release. Despite trying to overhaul some key elements of her Scarpetta novels, the book has received some frosty reviews from critics. BookOpinion has compiled reviews, summaries and an excerpt from the novel.

Publishers Weekly writes that the book “delivers her trademark grisly crime scenes, but lacks the coherence and emotional resonance of earlier books…With her recent switch from first- to third-person narration, Cornwell loses what once made her series so compelling: a window into the mind of a strong, intelligent woman holding her own in a profession dominated by men. Here, the abrupt shifts in point of view slow the momentum, and the reader flounders in excessive forensic minutiae.”

Booklist summarizes the plot and also gives it a harsh review: “A lengthy, vivid scene during which a young tennis star is slowly and brutally tortured sets up the mystery, which unfolds in artless leaps, mostly through halting dialogue and occasional forays into the mind of the killer. Once again Cornwell trots out venal characters from previous Scarpetta books; prominent here is psycho-bitch teleshrink Dr. Self (Predator, 2005), who is hoarding information about what turns out to be a string of loosely related murders. Then there’s Scarpetta’s longtime investigator, Pete Marino, foulmouthed and crude but tolerated, who reveals true ugliness in what may be the best scene in the book. As to forensic detail, it seems right up to the minute, and Scarpetta uses it often in her search for the killer, all the while trying to preserve balance in her personal life. Only for diehard Cornwell fans, of whom there are still many, despite the author’s continued slump.”

The New York Post gives a more positive review: “Cornwell delivers exactly what her fans expect - plenty of human interest, enough gore and madness to produce the occasional shiver and the technological tools and expertise that can almost pass for magic.”

The New York Times discusses the changes made by Cornwell to help the series:

Cornwell has noted that “the interior world of forensic science and medicine was a dark and chilly secret” when she wrote her first book, based on her experiences in the office of Virginia’s chief medical examiner. Back then, it made sense for a crack pathologist like Scarpetta to plug away alone in the lab and conduct her fieldwork in the company of a blunt homicide cop like Pete Marino. Nowadays, though, a public educated by “C.S.I.” expects sexy scientists working in sleek crime labs with cool equipment.

Cornwell begins her upgrade on a case that starts in Rome, where a 16-year-old American tennis star is murdered by a psychopath with a macabre style of postmortem mutilation. But the plot doesn’t really take hold until it shifts to Charleston, S.C., where Scarpetta has opened a private practice. Once she and her computer-genius niece have the lab fully up and running, the facilities should knock your eye out. Meanwhile, Scarpetta’s grand ambitions are projected by her use of “the largest scanning electron microscope on the planet” to analyze the grains of sand the killer leaves in his victims’ bodies.

But enhancing Scarpetta’s scientific status is only one part of Cornwell’s remodeling job; she also sets her sights on characters who don’t carry the weight they once did. Marino, for one, really feels the pinch. (“I didn’t use to be like this,” he says, after a particularly appalling blunder.) She might consider that Benton Wesley, stuffy when he was an F.B.I. profiler and even stuffier now that he’s on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, also has the whiff of redundancy. And then there’s Dr. Marilyn Self, “the most famous psychiatrist in the world,” so jealous of Scarpetta she keeps shoving her way into cases that would be better off without her. In trying to reassert Scarpetta’s supremacy, Cornwell hasn’t exactly purged the series of tired formulas and worn-out cast members. But she has shaken things up a bit and produced one terrific new character, a bodyguard named Bull who’s helping Scarpetta tend her neglected garden. It will be interesting to see what grows there.

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The following is an excerpt from Cornwell’s Book of the Dead:

Rome

Water splashing. A gray mosaic tile tub sunk deep into a terra-cotta floor.

Water pours slowly from an old brass spout, and darkness pours through a window. On the other side of old, wavy glass is the piazza, and the fountain, and the night.

She sits quietly in water, and the water is very cold, with melting ice cubes in it, and there is little in her eyes—nothing much there anymore. At first, her eyes were like hands reaching out to him, begging him to save her. Now her eyes are the bruised blue of dusk. Whatever was in them has almost left. Soon she will sleep.

“Here,” he says, handing her a tumbler that was handblown in Murano and now is filled with vodka.

He is fascinated by parts of her that have never seen the sun. They are pale like limestone, and he turns the spigot almost off, and the water is a trickle now, and he watches her rapid breathing and hears the chattering of her teeth. Her white breasts float beneath the surface of the water, delicate like white flowers.
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Beginning Sept. 25 Audible will offer the exclusive download of “The Chopin Manuscript.”

Created by Jeffrey Deaver (The Bone Collector), Lee Child (Bad Luck and Trouble), Joseph Finder (Power Play), Lisa Scottoline (Daddy’s Girl) and various other Thriller specialists, “The Chopin Manuscript” is the first major work of fiction released directly as an audiobook and Audible is the only place to purchase it.

“Narrated by actor Alfred Molina,” says Audible, ”The Chopin Manuscript promises to be as riveting as it is ground breaking. To amplify the suspense it will be released piece-by-piece starting with the first three chapters on September 25th, and two chapters each week thereafter for the seven consecutive weeks.”

What’s the story behind the story? Listen here:

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: I could not put “Deception” down. The characters are real, complex and shrouded… the plot is unbelievably twisting and turning and takes you down one blind alley to the next. The story is funny, tragic and grips you with its reality and shakes your own confidence to the point of leaving you naked, vulnerable and questioning. And it’s just a work of fiction… but so full of honest life that you feel after finishing the book that a cool breeze has just passed you by and touched your cheek.

“Sometimes I think maybe what’s wrong with this world is that it’s made up of people like me,” thus speaks Ollie Chandler, homicide detective with the Portland, Oregon, Police Department. A complicated but thoroughly human character, occasionally pathetic but always compelling, Detective Chandler is handed a murder case that puts his life in jeopardy and leaves his relationship with fellow detectives at a new low. Chandler suspects that that murderer is someone in his own department, and, after experiencing several blackouts, possibly even himself.

The victim, a Portland State University professor with a roving eye for his female students, is found strangled and shot. Why multiple causes of death? Ollie wades through the evidence and finds the case to be far more convoluted than he originally suspected. He has leads on everyone from the chief of police to fellow detectives that open the door to the possibility that anyone could have committed this crime.

With encouragement from two friends, Clarence Abernathy and Jake Woods, Chandler pushes through the maze of lies and deceit to find the killer and put him behind bars. But Ollie’s first law, “Things are often not what they appear” proves to be only too true in this baffling, politically damaging and personally dangerous situation.

“Deception” is filled with terrific one liners, ”All your life you’re a wannabe, until you wake up one morning, and you’re a has-been,” that you will love. But the Christian-themed story is really not just about a fascinating murder case and how it’s solved. It’s about the man, Ollie Chandler, grieving widower, estranged father, dog lover and keeper of justice down to the bone.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. You will laugh, cry and be horrified by this unfolding story of a man trapped in his own web. Written in the first person, this novel quickly draws you into the mind and feelings of a wounded human being, with the frailties and concealed qualities that we all possess.

Don’t wait another moment. Do not go to the library, go directly to your local bookstore and pick up “Deception” today. You won’t regret it.

– Elizabeth Channery

Amazon has released a 10-minute podcast from the audiobook for Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. Publishers Weekly says, “A vivid literary style lifts this well above the usual run of suspense novels.”

Amazon writes: “Narrated by Carolyn McCormick (of Law & Order fame), Heartsick turns typical serial-killer fare on its head by introducing one of the most tense, titillating relationships between cop and killer since Thomas Harris introduced Clarice Starling to Hannibal Lecter. This time, it’s a woman–the devastatingly beautiful, heart-stoppingly evil Gretchen Lowell–who, in the midst of a seemingly neverending bloodbath, takes lead investigator Archie Sheridan captive, subjects him to unthinkable torture, yet allows him to live and turns herself in. Fast forward two years, when Sheridan is coaxed out of a grim, drug-addled semi-retirement to hunt down another killer…and there’s only one person who can help him. Heartsick is a huge in-house favorite at Amazon.com and one of our favorite new releases for September. Take a listen and prepare to be hooked!”

Listen to Amazon’s free podcast here.