"Kill Alex Cross"

By James Patterson

This story begins very slowly and doesn't begin momentum until the third chapter, and from there it takes off like a rocket. 
Kill Alex Cross contains twin plot lines that intersect and diverge throughout the book. The first concerns the kidnapping of the two children of the President of the United States from their very exclusive private school. The disappearance of the children is frightening enough by itself; what is especially terrifying, though, is that the kidnapper does not want anything other than to taunt the children’s parents.
At the same time, a Saudi Arabian terrorist cell is carrying out a series of attacks against the United States. Hala al Dossari is riding point on them; she is extremely capable, motivated and, above all, dangerous. It is believed at first that the disappearance of the President’s children are connected to the terrorist attacks. But it soon becomes clear that these acts and the kidnappings have been carried out by two separate entities for different reasons.
Cross, with the D.C. Metro Police, soon finds himself in a measuring contest with Secret Service agents. That set of circumstances ends when the First Lady personally requests that Cross be given the highest security clearance possible to aid his search for her children. He eventually discerns both the motive behind the kidnappings and the doer. The problem is that he can’t prove it, at least by conventional means. In order to recover the President’s children --- hopefully, while they’re still alive --- Cross resorts to a course of action that takes him into uncharted behavioral territory, which, even if successful, will almost certainly have repercussions in the future. Meanwhile, al Dossari is on the verge of committing a new and deadly terrorist act that will lead to a series of events even she can’t foresee.
As much as I wanted to say it was an easy  read, Kill Alex Cross did ultimately suffer from a few flaws. 
The title itself is pretty much misleading, for one. The novel isn’t wholly about killing Alex Cross, it’s about terrorists plotting to destroy America, which although is just a minor flaw, is still noteworthy. Don’t go in expecting a novel about people chasing after our main character, or you will be disappointed.
You don’t feel as though Cross is at risk anywhere in this novel though, and I think that’s true for at least the latter books in the series. You know the main character and his family isn’t going to fall, despite the many times that they’ve flirted with death. The author seems to care about his characters too much, and this is where the novel lets us down a bit
You don’t feel as though Cross is at risk anywhere in this novel though, and I think that’s true for at least the latter books in the series. You know the main character and his family isn’t going to fall, despite the many times that they’ve flirted with death. The author seems to care about his characters too much, and this is where the novel lets us down a bit
There’s even a possible reference to the BBC/Starz series Torchwood in here, which left me smiling, as well as the use of “The Family” as one of the antagonists. Well done, Mr. Patterson, well done.
What Kill Alex Cross is though, is an entertaining read. Patterson is once again proving that he hasn’t lost his touch yet, and manages to still keep the Alex Cross series fresh even after having this many books released in this novel, and the pace is fast all the way through, with no dull moment. You won’t want to skip a few pages in this novel to find out what happens next, and although the ending is a bit anti-climatic with a few plot threads left hanging, you’ll want to stick it out to the end.  Although Kill Alex Cross may not be perfect, still it kept me entertained and hooked right the way through (after the third chapter).

Reviewed by Nan Sevic

"Faceless Killers"

by Henning Mankell

The publisher's blurb runs thusly:

"One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason."

Beyond this, the book goes downhill.

I read to the end, but I found that I was less and less interested as the plot plodded along.  It was more an account of a very long investigation that did little toward solving the crime.   I find it hard to believe that the police could have devoted that many man-hours... they must have had better things to do.

Several times in the book, as the investigation "progresses", Mankell wrote, "nothing happened that day" and  then proceeds to tell us what happened. 

(SPOILER ALERT)

One of the "clues" found at the scene of the crime was a noose tied with a very unusual knot that was looped around the neck of the wife.  Much time was spent tracing the type of knot and in the final pages it was dismissed by saying that they never did discover the significance of the noose.

I expect a murder mystery to be solved through thorough police work with occasional flashes of brilliance from the investigators.

This one was solved by chance...

Summary: Save your time for a better book...

Reviewed by David Nale

"The Lincoln Lawyer"

by Michael Connelly

 

Mickey Haller is a defense attorney with 2 divorced wives. One, his true love, left him over his attitude to his job; the other looks after his books and conveys messages. His real office is his Lincoln that gets him to court and clients and through more than 500 riveting pages.
Connnelly has an intimate knowledge of the 'giant maw of the legal system'. His Haller is both, fodder and manipulator of the machine. Deals are made in court, often with an economy of truth and great selectivity. Having sent an innocent man to jail has scarred him. Tough. Such are the deals. Battling for the underdog without a fee tries for balance.
And then there is Louis Roulet, a Beverley Hills rich boy. On a visit to a prostitute he is knocked out. When he comes to, there is blood on his hand and a badly battered prostitute. All forensic evidence points to Roulet, who claims innocence and wants Haller to defend him. Haller jumps at it. Here is a client with deep pockets and a difficult case. Time consuming. This client is a 'franchise' – a lawyer's dream. That he also seems to be snow white innocent is beside the point.
That soon turns grey, and then pitch black. Being one step ahead of Haller, tricky Roulet confesses to be guilty; he even has murdered some. But by this time Haller is in his client's hand. He can't bow out. Roulet can destroy him, or kill his daughter. Though despising him as the lowest spill Haller defends Roulet successfully. And the reader nibbles nails.
Connelly's ear for dialogue is superb. From a little inflection he gets effects for which lesser writers need a murder. Throughout this book there is an immediacy and authenticity. It reads like a reportage. Connelly's style is artless, straight forward best journalism. He writes on magic paper.

Reviewed by Klaus Jaritz

"Proof"

By Dick Francis

Never content to be one of the crowd, for years I have avoided cutesie titled series’ such as “A is For...” or “The Cat Who...” and in particular those which included a protagonist with some sort of physical challenge (Janet Evanovich’s bail bondsperson Stephanie Plum, who after decades still can’t load her gun - but I still chuckle over every word) or a series of protagonists with the same vocation (Mr. Francis’ jockeys) or even a contemporary writer that has a large following.

At last deciding that at the very least I might discover some writers who could move or entertain me with their prose (and having 20 or so minutes to spare until Dean Koontz’s next novel) I decided to start catching up with some of the more prolific and popular novelists, which led me to the likes of Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich, and now Dick Francis. The wisdom of this avoidance is that I now have a serious inventory of reading to fall back on, by authors whose work I greatly enjoy.

"Proof", published in 1985, is about the eighth Dick Francis novel I have read and I have chosen it for review chiefly because of its subject matter, one near and dear to the hearts of my fellow ROFfians, that of single-malt whisky. The issue at hand is the hijacking of said spirits, cut and resold as the better brands, along with eight or so brands of blended wines repackaged under counterfeit estate labels.

The protagonist here is the recently widowed proprietor of a local liquor store with a particularly useful training in identifying brands of wine. Also among the main characters are the wife of a prominent racehorse trainer, a detective investigating the thefts on behalf of the transport company owner of the tankers whose contents are stolen, and the transport company’s owner whose son is a less than loyal supporter of the family business.

After an incident at the trainer’s country estate when a reception held for the trainer’s clients proves deadly for several of the guests in attempting to rescue the injured, a protective bond is formed between the trainer’s wife and the liquor store owner who provided the refreshments for the reception, and between the liquor store owner and the private investigator who enlists his talented palate in determining if the pricey labels behind the bar of a local restaurant actually contain the liquor they advertise.

Part of what makes this story interesting is the behind-the-scenes look into the production, supplying, and tasting of wines and spirits, as well as the development of the bond between the detective and the liquor store owner, who fears himself a coward in the shadow of his war hero father.

If there is a flaw I could name it would be that Mr. Francis is so thorough in developing his characters into truly likeable people it’s easy to care about that you are left somewhat disappointed and wishing they had greater roles to play when their contribution proves to be so brief. I felt myself wishing that the initial mayhem of a large horse trailer rocketing down a hill and into a party tent filled with people, was deliberately sinister and had more global purpose, but there are enough plot twists that you won’t be disappointed.

Hijacking, counterfeiting, tax evasion, murder (one particularly chilling), betrayal, "Proof" is absorbing and crafty, definitely one of Dick Francis’ best and by the time I was finished I was tempted to read it all over again.

Reviewed by Alana Carson

"Steve Jobs"

by Walter Isaacson

In December Walter Isaacson author of the bestselling biography ‘Steve Jobs’ came to Kansas City through the efforts of Rainy Day Books. During the presentation he covered many aspects of Steve Jobs’ personality (most of which I was already aware) however when he revealed that Jobs on a regular basis parked in handicap parking there was an audible gasp throughout the audience. Listen, people might disagree on politics, religion, and what local restaurant serves the best burgers, but EVERYONE believes parking in handicap parking when you yourself aren’t is eighteen degrees of plain wrong!

Isaacson emphasized that Jobs was a man who didn’t believe the rules applied to him. Ergo he created, and later headed, a company that developed some of the greatest devices that have emerged on the world scene in the last century. The downside to the whole special snowflake philosophy is that Jobs parked in handicap spaces and drove his car around Palo Alto, California without license plates.

I confess that I jumped on the Apple bandwagon only recently, but once aboard it has been a true sparkly vampire Team Edward love affair. I got an iPhone early last fall when the 4S was being released and the 3G versions were being discounted. Since technology and I have at times had a rocky relationship I was uncertain how I would feel about my new device. In the past I always thought of my mobile phone as a necessary evil. However within hours after being introduced to my iPhone, Mr. Bojangles, I was downloading games and music. I was giddy with the power and knowledge that I would never be bored again…as long as my battery was charged. Now every night I make sure my phone is tucked into its charger and it is the first thing I reach for upon waking because finding out the time and temperature through any other means seems passé. Therefore when Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011 I felt a pinch over losing someone who I had only recently learned to admire.

While in the early stages of writing ‘Einstein: His Life and Universe’ and promoting ‘Ben Franklin: An American Life’ in 2004 Jobs approached Isaacson on writing his biography. They shared a joke about the hubris of Jobs suggesting himself as the natural successor to Einstein and Franklin. Isaacson proposed that since Jobs was, in what Isaacson presumed, the middle of his career that a biography might be best saved for two decades in the future. What he did not know was that Jobs was on the verge of his first operation for pancreatic cancer. In 2009 Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell, contacted Isaacson telling him that if he was still interesting in doing the book that the time to begin was then.

Jobs agreed to over forty interviews along with encouraging all family members, friends, and adversaries alike to give their true feelings and opinions. Jobs had no control of the content and declined to read the book. The only thing he suggested was a change of cover. As proven in the past, his eye was correct in choosing the Albert Watson photograph (taken in 2006) instead of the image approved by Simon and Schuster. The title was originally proposed ‘iSteve: The Book of Jobs’ but thankfully Isaacson’s wife and daughter talked him out of that on the basis that they thought “it was too cutesy.” The original publishing date was set for March of 2012, but because of Jobs’ ill health it was pushed up to November of 2011. The book was then released on October 24, 2011 prompted by Jobs’ death.

After reading ‘Steve Jobs’ I’m left with a major admiration (outside of all of his accomplishments in technology and business) for Jobs’ planning and bravery in taking the vacuum he knew his death would create and filling it with his words and the thoughts of others about him. He knew after the eulogies were given people would start talking about how he could be verbally abusive, brattish, unnecessarily rude, and cruel.

One of the many geniuses of Jobs was pursuing the idea that what a company needs to do is anticipate what people will want and need in the future. He never used market research because he believed the masses don’t really know what they want until innovation shows them.

I think it was this sort of intuition which led him to work with a biographer when he was in and out of ill health. Even though he didn’t technically control the information, he exerted control by being interviewed. By giving Isaacson the names of who to interview he could respond to their feelings during his interview process, and by timing the biography to come out while his death was still in (if you will) the Honeymoon period of awe and praise he laid out all of his accomplishments and turpitudes on the table. Granted, I do not know if he was the one who encouraged pushing up the release dates, but from a marketplace perspective it was BAM!: Steve Jobs has died…then less than a month later the definitive biography about him was released. It was as if to insure the conversation wouldn’t skew negatively with revelations (Gawker, a website that Isaacson referenced in the biography, ran this article two days after Jobs’ death) he needed to do something big. Jobs knew his sins (and parking habits) would all be brought to light so the best way to help protect his legacy (both as a person and the company he created) was to explain who he was and why he did what he did – the good, the bad, the innovative and to a lesser degree the ugly.

‘Steve Jobs’ is an important book which will likely become more important as time moves on and future generations examine this era’s history. Other biographies will be written about Jobs but none of their authors will ever have the access Isaacson had to the source. They may listen to the interviews Isaacson conducted (assuming they were recorded) and they may examine different facets of the man and his creations, but the time for posing questions to Jobs is over.

One of the most striking things about the biography is that it feels as if it is Jobs' final product. His choice of photo is now iconic (as I’m sure intuitively he knew it would be) even the paper the book cover is made of makes a statement that other covers of biographies do not (I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the same paper that covers boxes iPads come in). Jobs was far from perfect, obviously none of us are, however despite his imperfections and belief that the rules didn’t apply to him, I found his biography inspirational. He took his impending death and made it a dais to record his view of the world for prosperity. And although Isaacson doesn’t cover it, I oddly found comfort as he transitioned from this life to the next. His biological sister, writer Mona Simpson (Jobs was adopted and met Simpson when they were both adults) reported his final words were, “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

Reviewed by Lisa Westerfield

"Eye Contact"

By Stephen Collins
Having unfortunately run dry of unread Koontz, Gresham, Patterson, Grafton (and all but abandoning Evanovich and Cornwell, whose latest work would have to improve to reach ‘lackluster’) - all the writers I turn to for standard uncomplicated reading entertainment - I found myself staring at one of several shelves full of reading material whose reason for being on my shelves, though at one time perfectly valid, has long since escaped me - which tells you exactly how long many of these novels have languished on my shelves unread. Eye Contact is one such selection, apparently in residence since the mid-‘90s.

The cover blurb, by author Stuart Woods, promises a work of erotic, funny, and before long, terrifying” nature. Erotic, definitely, but overly so for my taste (at least in style); funny, perhaps, but infrequently and somewhat misplaced, IMHO; terrifying, not so much. For me, the mix just didn’t work.

The book also contains several characters whose purpose for appearing still escape me, and that might even include the protagonist. As one other reviewer noted on Amazon, the characters are not developed in any significant depth. The “terrifying” portions appeared to me to be predictable and abrupt, and frankly rather naive in its concept and execution, as well as anticlimactic.

At over 400 pages, Collins droned on for much longer than may have been necessary, but I couldn’t in good conscience ever say I was actually bored. His style is clean and minimalist, but unfortunately I never could get past the fact that I just plain didn’t like his main character. I found her to be selfish, without any age-appropriate personal insight whatsoever, lacking in professional and personal integrity, and either unwilling or unable to make use of the available personal and professional tools to put some order and redeemable purpose into her life. Emotionally she reminded me of a small child playing dress-up with people: she tries them on for size and when they aren’t a perfect fit, she moves on to something else. With a few t.v. credits and a career that still hangs in the balance, actress Nickolette Stallings (an AKA) spends more time in the throes of practically uncontrollable exhibitionism and engineering throw-away sexual dramas than she does studying lines. Her only committed relationship is to two goldfish given to her by a neighbor. I guess that’s supposed to be the funny part. One of her sexual encounters proves to be with a restaurant pickup who turns out to be even more twisted than she suspects, and after she spurns any future contacts, he commits gory suicide in her apartment and - as he promises her before coughing his last - engineers the event in such a way that she ends up the prime suspect. The case itself wasn’t much of a challenge for the attorney who helps Nicolette out of the morass, and IMO neither was the book.

You should check out the other reviews on Amazon, but I’m still trying to figure out what point I missed because I couldn’t disagree more with those who “couldn’t put it down” or compared it to Fatal Attraction. About the only two good things I got from this book were that the attorney who represents Nickolette isn’t portrayed as a slimeball, and I was finally introduced to a main character who makes worse life decisions than I ever did.

Reviewed by Alana Carson

"Death at Drake's Harbor"

by David Nale

I avoid e-books if I can, preferring the portability of the old fashioned bound pages. It’s unhandy to lug a laptop to waiting rooms and such. However, this novel is an exception. It is so well organized as to make the work flow through the Adobe reader.

I have no idea if this is a first novel – we haven’t known of others by the author, but he may have published under another guise, and has been hiding his light under a bushel. If it is indeed an initial effort, BRAVO!

The writing is clear, concise, totally free from unnecessary meandering, and consistently attention-grabbingly readable. The protagonist and all of the other characters are very well defined, coming across as real people. The reader feels as if he/she has known them, although the familiarity is slightly strained by the author’s insistence on making all of them “nice” people, with the exception of one or two, who tend to like each other despite their few foibles. I’d really enjoy living in a town where everyone knows and has friendly relations with each other.

David Nale uses one or two techniques which I ordinarily find irksome; in this case though I think they are appropriate and sharply increase the reader’s interest. He includes short interchapter sidelights which have little to do with the plot, but which are intriguingly fascinating (e.g., the nature of border collies, the history of the Oregon coast, the story of whiskey, etc.). He also introduces each chapter with an italicized literary quotation; in this novel these are very pertinent, although, when encountering this elsewhere I’m reminded of the humorist Max Shulman who, in order to display his feigned sophistication, put completely irrelevant statements before each chapter in his book – “Le plum de ma tante est sur la table -- Voltaire”, “Ouvrez la fenestre - Dumas”, “Le maison est braun - Camus”, etc. In this book though, the statements are certainly in line with the content of the chapter.

In summary, the leader of our group has demonstrated his craftsmanship with a winner, and I look forward to the next one. From the beginning of this one, David has left us with a cliff hanger. What is the source of Sam’s mild post traumatic stress? Just gotta know! .