Harvest

by Tess Gerritsen

One Thumb Up, One Thumb Down.

Abby DiMatteo is in the first year of her surgical residency.  But some things at the hospital are beginning to seem, at best unusual, and at worst downright frightening.  Dr. DiMatteo follows her conscience and solves the mystery at great peril to her future career and her personal safety.

Ms Gerritsen writes a great story.  The characters are realistic and enjoyable.  The plot is compelling.  The suspense is just right.  Ms. Gerritsen avoids explicit descriptions of the s*xual situations.

Although some of the medical descriptions are of a somewhat technical nature, Ms. Gerritsen smoothly pulls everything together so that her readers are able to understand the implications of the various details she later needs to use. Some detail of a seemingly unrelated episode will reappear later in the book where it has implications.  But because the author has given the details and descriptions earlier on, the action does not have to slow down during the important parts. The book was remarkably well done in that regard. 

The story line deals with serious lapses in medical ethics.  It made me uneasy to think of people putting their lives into the hands of someone who may manipulate the health of another for their own personal ends.  Although the story was a good read, it is one of those books that is realistic enough and whose premise is repulsive enough to me that it left me with an unsettled feeling that was hard to shake.

Conspiracy 365 series

by Gabrielle Lord

Thumbs up.

These books are great quick reads.  They are definitely what I'd call candy reading.  Certainly they will not change your life or challenge any of your life's foundations.

However, they are wonderful for easy, lazy suspense.

The premise is that Callum Ormond gets a warning from some guy who looks like a homeless lunatic.  He must either hide away for one year or expect constant danger and trials.

This warning comes on the afternoon of New Year's Eve and by the time Callum's finished watching the midnight fireworks that night, the troubles have already begun.

The books are named after the months of the year, January, February, etc, with twelve planned.  Each is nonstop thrills and danger as Callum, with the help of his best friend tries to unravel the mystery involved in his father's recent sudden death, and thereby stop the danger.   Although the books race right along, the characters are developed enough that they are somewhat endearing.

The books are currently in publication with each title released on the first of the month coinciding with its title.  So the next one, October, will be released on October 1.

My teen aged son likes them; I think my middle school daughter would like them.  I think an advanced elementary aged child would enjoy them.  The vocabulary is not too challenging.  The stories are clean, so that is a big plus. The suspense is very intense, however, and at times a bit gruesome. 

Reading these books reminds me of a kind of funny thing that happened to us after we first had a computer with a DVD player.  We were new to the entire watching movies at home thing, having previously not even had TV.  Our local library was just starting to invest in DVDs, so the selection was somewhat limited.  But Wal-Mart had these great bins of really cheap DVDs of old classics.   So we stocked up on a few now and then.

One of the selections we got was an old John Wayne western.    We were watching it one night and kept waiting for the movie to get over.  But every time we thought it might end, it started another round of adventure.  We finally figured out that it was a serial.  Each time there was a resolution, it was the end of an episode.  We had been watching and watching and had inadvertently watched about six of these things.  We were, truth be told, kind of sick of the whole buisiness.

I think I'd feel a bit the same way if I read these books all at once.   Lots of excitement, lots of adrenaline; things slow down a bit; is it going to work out?  Not on your life, just when a reader thinks a solution might be within reach, there is a tremendous cliffhanger with absolutely no rescue possible and the story ends.

So yes, read them for a fun thrill.  But don't read them all at once.  Make yourself wait a few weeks in between.  Besides, if you read them all right away, you'll end up waiting for the last few to come out.

A is for Alibi

by Sue Grafton

Thumbs kind of half way up.

This is not a bad murder mystery.   In fact, the plot was pretty good and kept me guessing until right near the end.  The characters are well done. I could easily picture the personalities Ms Grafton was portraying.

I will probably read another in this Kinsey Millhone series; in fact, I've already requested the next one from the library.

That said, I am tired of a few of the stylistic things Ms Grafton used.  I don't enjoy when an author cannot seem to imagine anyone with traditional morals.   Ms Grafton portrays an attitude of, "How quaint.  Those poor backward folks who have to live that way."  And she uses a pathetic female heroine who is screwed up in her romantic relationships.  Ugh!  I think it is part of the noir detective genre to have such crazy psychoses. I just don't always have much patience for or sympathy toward this style of character.

I also seemed to get bogged down occasionally with the details in this story.  I'm not sure if it was me, or the story, but I found myself reading and rereading the descriptive passages. 


I'll give an update if I find myself enjoying the second one more.

The Knight

By Steven James
Thumbs Up!


The Knight is the third installment in Steven James’ Patrick Bowers Files series.  The first two are The Pawn and The Rook.  (You’d definitely want to read them in order.) I’ve read a few of James’s more straight up Christian books, and I was curious how he would bring his writing style to a thriller book.

First of all, Steven James crafts an exciting, unpredictable tale.  His main character, Patrick Bowers, is an FBI expert on geospatial investigations.  Instead of thinking in terms of the killer’s motives or other common methods of profiling, he focuses on what the geography of the crime says about the criminal, where he lives and where he might strike next.

After a brief marriage, Bowers’ wife died of cancer, and he is left to raise her teenage daughter, Tessa.  Tessa is incredibly bright, but she is also self-centered and dour.  I appreciate the fact that she’s grieving over the loss of her mother, she has hang-ups regarding the father she never knew, and she has issues with Bowers, who is struggling to figure out the best way to raise her.  But, I find her character too grating to be sympathetic.  After having read the third book, she’s maybe starting to grow a little on me.

I like the fact that James doesn’t assume his reader is a fool.  By the time we start to think Character X might be a suspect, Bowers already suspects him.  He’s always ‘on’ and considering the possibilities of each situation.  He can recollect conversations verbatim, license plates, footprints and other details most people couldn’t remember.

I also appreciated the fact that I didn’t have to worry about inappropriate language or indecent sex scenes (although some of the crimes are sexually motivated).  While the books are definitely not preachy, we know that both Patrick and Tessa are struggling with faith-related issues.  They’re searching.

The Bowers Files books are not for everyone, however.  I’ve read quite a few mystery books in my time, but it’s hard for me to think of characters that I’ve encountered who can match Bowers’ villains for sheer evilness.  The torture some of the victims endure is mind-boggling.

There have been other authors I’ve stopped reading because I didn’t want to keep inflicting all of that gruesomeness on my psyche.  But, I think I’m going to stick with this series.  Having had a glimpse into James’s perspective on reaching out to non-Christians (especially in How to Smell Like God), I’m curious about where he’s leading his characters.

I can’t help thinking that James would wish libraries wouldn’t put the “Christian” label on the spine of books in this series.  (I have to admit, even as a 40-something, rather fuddy-duddy Christian, I tend to avoid ‘Christian’ fiction because I often find it boring.)  I’m guessing his target audience is more the young adult thriller reader rather than the usual Christian fiction reader. 

James keeps a few loose ends after each book, so his reader will be anticipating the next one.  There are also bigger questions which are keeping me interested: ‘Will good eventually triumph over evil?’, ‘Where will Patrick and Tessa be spiritually by the time we reach Checkmate?’ etc.

Just as his villains devise intricate plots against their victims, and just as a good chess player anticipates any number of his opponent’s future moves, so has Steven James crafted Patrick Bowers’ world and, I’m assuming, is planning a great culmination to the series.

If you think you can handle the graphic violence, you’d probably enjoy this series.  I would recommend that parents preview The Pawn before deciding whether or not to let your teenage children read these books.  The next installment, The Bishop, is due out this August.