Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

If you pick up a copy of Never Let Me Go, without any prior knowledge of what it’s about, the story that unfolds will seem at first to be a simple coming-of-age story about a young woman and her friends.

And basically, that’s exactly what it is. But the beauty of Never Let Me Go is that the characters are special – both to the reader, and to themselves – something that we (and they) discover a little at a time as the story progresses.

The narrator is Kathy H., 31 years old. She tells us about growing up at a place called Hailsham, which will remind you of a boarding school. But it’s more than that. It’s been set up as a refuge for these special children, to show the world that they should indeed be treated as special.

Kathy tells us about her good friends, Tommy and Ruth, and how they grew up together, learning as time unfolded why they were there and what their purpose in life would be. The scene begins in Hailsham, then moves to The Cottages.

We read words that identify groups of people – carers, donors, guardians, white coats, models, possibles. As the story unfolds, these words begin to make sense to the reader.

Never Let You Go may shock you as realization dawns. But then, our education is so subtle, hidden in the dialogue and descriptive narrative of the youngsters. They slowly begin piecing together their raisons d’etre. And if they’re not shocked, then why should we be?

Author Kazuo Ishiguro gently takes us by the hand and shows us a possible future – one that will bring extension of life to some, and meaning and purpose to others. If nothing else, Never Let Me Go will open your eyes and challenge your sense of ethics.

Never Let Me Go (2005)

Kazuo Ishiguro

Alfred A. Knopf ($27.95 list)

ISBN 13: 978-1400043392

Evidence (Jonathan Kellerman)

As with many (if not most) of Jonathan Kellerman’s novels involving psychologist Alex Delaware and his burly Los Angeles detective friend, Milo Sturges, Evidence opens with the discovery of a murder – two murders, actually.

Two unidentified people (a man and a woman) are found posed in a sexual position by a night watchman making his rounds in an unfinished architectural monstrosity of a building, long abandoned by its owners. The usual questions apply: Who did it? Why did s/he do it? Why the bizarre positioning?

Evidence is more Milo Sturgis’ story than Dr. Delaware’s, and is mostly told from his point of view. Delaware seems to be more of an observer than participant than he usually is, making a few contributions, but serving primarily as Milo’s sounding board this go-around.

The usual round-up of well-developed characters and suspects makes Evidence an interesting read. With each new introduction, the reader is left thinking, “Aha! He did it!” or, “I bet she’s the one.”

But the investigators don’t narrow in on the actual murderers until the last 10 chapters or so. In the meantime, all of their interviews and conjectures serve to move them in the right direction.

I like Kellerman’s technique of having Sturgis, Delaware, and their fellow investigators talk out their suspicions and discuss plausible scenarios. It helps the reader formulate mental pictures that bring the investigations into focus.

There are the usual twists and turns that one has come to expect in Kellerman’s work, all of which bring one’s expectations to a satisfactory conclusion. And by the way, Alex Delaware is back with his long-time girlfriend, Robin Castagna.

I recommend Evidence. It’s a good summer afternoon “in the shade of the apple tree” book.

Evidence (2009)

Jonathan Kellerman

Ballantine ($28.00 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0345495150

Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Although it was written in 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is still a marvelous read – not just for children, but for us adults as well. And thanks to my Amazon.com Kindle, I was able to download the story free of charge.

It’s a story of pirates, treachery, adventure and discovery. Young Jim Hawkins, the story’s narrator, encounters Billy Bones when the old seaman comes to stay at his family’s inn. Upon his death, Jim finds a treasure map amongst his goods. Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey take him along on an expedition to find the treasure, hiring Captain Smollett to captain their ship.

One of the hires – a one-legged cook named Long John Silver – turns out to be a ringleader and former shipmate of the pirate Flint, whose treasure they seek. He leads a mutinous crew, but is smart enough to deal with the expedition leaders and ensure his safety when the mutiny eventually fails.

Silver’s marooned shipmate Ben Gunn helps them defeat the pirates.

Treasure Island is one of the books I owned when I was a kid in elementary school. I don’t have it any more, although I wish I could hold it in my hands once again. Ah me, such is the way these things go – treasures back then are laid by the wayside, forgotten, and then somehow disappear forever.

Another Treasure Island memory is that of Robert Newton playing the part of Long John Silver, the one-legged rascal with his parrot, Flint, squawking while perched on his shoulder.

Still, it’s the pictures that reside within the mind that give validation to the beauty of books. When there’s a good story involved, as Treasure Island offers, the printed words magically transform into scenes of wonder and adventure.

The prose is gripping, the language is … well, “pirate,” and the characters … oh, the wonderful characters deftly painted by the author: Young Jim Hawkins, the irascible Ben Gunn, squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesy, the smart Capt. Smollett. And of course, Long John Silver.

Treasure Island … it’s not just a children’s book, it’s adventure at its best.

Treasure Island (1883)

Robert Louis Stevenson

Simon & Schuster, 2005 Enriched Classics Series, Paperback ($4.95 list)

ISBN-13: 978-1416500292

Just After Sunset (Stephen King)

Although he is known for his multi-thousand-page novels that somehow turn into epics, Stephen King has the knack when it comes to short stories.

His most recent collection, Just After Sunset, runs the gamut from dream worlds to horrid crap (literally, and not the quality of his writing, I want you to know).

There are 13 stories that he’s just itching for you to read. And I bet he’s giggling in his beer now that I’ve read them.

Can you imagine if you died in a train wreck and had to find your sweetheart in a honky tonk just down the road? Or how about if you heard this huge explosion ‘way off in the distance and witnessed a mushroom cloud of herculean proportions growing upward and outward before your very eyes? And if someone paid you to kill a cat, would you be brave enough to take him up on his offer?

On the other hand, what if you were given the gift of healing, passed on to you by a dying little girl? Or, what if you found it easy to blab away long-suppressed secrets to a hitchhiker who didn’t seem to understand a word you were saying?

I daresay you wouldn’t handle those situations very well.

King saves his most horrid story for last. Imagine being trapped in a Port-a-Pottie … tipped over … door-side down … floating in filth. Could you handle that? I do believe that is horror to the nth degree.

And that’s what Stephen King is good at. He scares you with everyday things – cats, noises, death, outhouses.

I’m shivering just recalling the stories I’ve read in Just After Sunset.

Just After Sunset (2008)

Stephen King

Scribner ($28.00 list)

ISBN-13: 978-1416584087

Next (Michael Crichton)

Imagine this:

A woman with a shotgun in the back seat, accompanied by a man and his son are following a black car being driven by a goateed “professional fugitive-recovery agent" who has taken her son to obtain tissue from his body, tissues claimed to be owned by a bio-genetics engineering firm.

The only reason why they know they’re following the right car is because of a locator device that was implanted in the man’s son’s shoe – a shoe that came off when the progeny kicked the goateed man in the mouth while he was driving away in an ambulance.

I say “progeny” because it’s not really the man’s son. More specifically, it’s a half-human, half-ape child created in a lab.

The woman’s son is being taken to a spa where the tissue removal is to take place. However, the goateed man and his assistant are thwarted by a gray parrot. Not just any parrot mind you, but one that can talk and converse in any number of languages, deliver conversations it has heard in the voices of the participants, and produce incredible sound effects (e.g. telephone dial tones, sirens).

Okay, that’s enough. This pursuit starts in Chapter 87. There are 86 chapters preceding, chapters that detail some incredible details about bio-genetic engineering.

In Next, the last book to be published (2006) in Michael Crichton’s lifetime, the author presents an incredible vision of what may be looming on the horizon, and which in fact may already be happening – the control of genes and DNA by genetic engineers that want what is unique about you.

Presented in seemingly haphazard fashion, the situations and developments come crashing together full force, meshing inevitably and incredibly into conclusions that will leave your senses reeling.

Throughout the book, Crichton presents news media and Internet stories about Neanderthals, blondes, talking apes and “genetic art” – proof positive that what he surmises in Next is actually being talked about seriously in educated circles today. The compilation of articles is interesting and lends credibility to Crichton’s work of fiction.

You’ll find it gripping, and easy reading – except for the parts where Crichton explains genetic engineering, its legal aspects and procedures. Lots of that stuff went over my head, and in retrospect isn’t that critical to the enjoyment I got reading the book.

Next (2006)

Michael Crichton

HarperCollins ($27.95 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0641909498

Ford County (John Grisham)

Ford County is best-selling author John Grisham’s first collection of short stories, all of which are situated in the small towns (primarily Clanton) of Ford County, Mississippi.

In a sense, Grisham is returning home to the area where his first novel – A Time to a Kill – takes place. His easy writing prose (big words generally remain on the shelf unless he wants to discuss their meaning, guarantees at least a couple of hours of enjoyment with the tightly written seven stories within.

The stories (in order) include:

Blood Drive – A couple of good ol’ boys take a road trip to give blood in order to help save the life of a Box Hill man who’s been hurt in a construction accident. They don’t particularly take the “as the crow flies” route, detouring occasionally for beer and a nekkid-girlie show. When I read this one, I was rather doubting whether or not I’d enjoy the other stories. Blood Drive didn’t exactly tickle my fancy.

Fetching Raymond – A wheel-chair-bound mother and her two sons take a road trip (another one?) to see her third son, who’s about to face the gas chamber. I’m not giving away anything when I tell you the execution is … er, executed … and frankly, that’s about where the story ends. I wasn’t too wild about this one either.

Fish Files – This story about an attorney who isn’t making a lot of money but who has a big settlement dropped in his lap was interesting and fulfills the reader’s need for some closure after reading the first two stories. The end wasn’t great, but you had to feel good about how it turned out for him.

Casino – The more things change, the more they remain the same in the end. A fast-talking lawyer helps a native American raise lots of money for his people and in the process, makes the lawyer rich as well. That is, until a jilted run-of-the-mill insurance collector learns the ins and outs of blackjack and bankrupts the casino.

Michael’s Room – This one is kind-a nasty at first glance. Another lawyer is kidnapped, beaten, then taken to the home of a boy who was severely impaired when a doctor misdiagnosed his mother’s condition. Unfortunately, the lawyer was the one who defended the mal-practicing doctor. His punishment? Listen to the story of how the boy still survives and how much it costs annually, while the near-catatonic boy and his family sit in judgment.

Quiet Haven – I liked this story. The man seemed like a nice guy who just liked helping the elderly in an old folks home. The thing is, though, everything he does is for a reason. Nobody’s really hurt by his collaboration with a slick lawyer – those who aren’t vigilant in their care or dismissive in their attitudes get their come-uppance. The elderly he cares for improve their lives. So what if he makes a lot of money in the process?

Funny Boy – This is the best story of the lot. The young man has AIDS and is shunned by his family of white folk. Even the black folk who live in the area of town where he’s staying to finish out his days give in to their fears and ignorance and refuse contact of any sort. But there is one person who has a heart, she stands to gain nothing but the love, admiration and respect of the young man. I gave her some of mine as well.

Ford County is an easy and quick read, will fill a couple of afternoons, and if you read them in the order presented, will leave you happy and feeling good about the world.

Ford County (2009)

John Grisham

Doubleday ($24.00 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0385532457

A Cold Heart (Jonathan Kellerman)

Dr. Alex Delaware teams up once again with Los Angeles detectives Milo Sturgis and Petra Connor as they are joined by Connor’s new partner, Eric Stahl – an uncomfortably quiet and unassuming investigator who used to be in the U.S. Army’s Special Forces.

The case this time begins with the murder of Baby Boy Lee, an old-time genius jazz musician on his way to a comeback. Their investigations widen when Juliet Kipper, an artist about to get a big break, is also killed. The only connection they discover is that they both were subjects of a badly written article in a fanzine called GrooveRat, published by a young wannabe.

One by one, more are murdered.

Following thin leads enables them to hypothesize just who might be responsible for the murders. Although they initially suspect GrooveRat’s publisher, that possibility falls by the wayside as he goes missing, never to be heard from again.

The investigation trail twists and turns with Kellerman describing the paths each team member takes, occasionally gathering them together for a sit-down where they can compare notes and toss conjecture onto the table to see if what they think makes any kind of sense.

Little does Alex Delaware know that his ex-lover, Robin Castagna, will be targeted by the killer, and that his current lady, psychologist Allison Gwynn, would play a large part in his saving Robin from meeting the same fate as the others.

A Cold Heart is typical Jonathan Kellerman, which means it is a well-thought out, well-presented and well-enjoyed experience into the world of investigative psychology.

Fascinating stuff, fascinating story. I read it in three sittings … found it hard to put down.

A Cold Heart (2003)

Jonathan Kellerman

Ballantine Books ($26.95 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0345452559

Swimsuit (James Patterson)

Ben Hawkins, ex-cop and now reporter for the Los Angeles Times , hustles across the Pacific to cover a story about missing model in Maui, little knowing that he’s in for quite an adventure that won’t end when the model’s parents end up dead.

The stunning young model, Kim McDaniels, disappeared during a shoot on, waking up bound in the trunk of a car, and becomes the unwilling star of a video sold to a worldwide group of “peepers” who will spend in ordinate amounts of money to watch someone raped and horribly murdered.

Her parents – Levon and Barb – receive an anonymous night phone call at their Grand Rapids, Michigan, suburban home from the killer, initiating a frantic flight to Hawaii, where they desperately try to find their daughter.

Ben earns their trust and embeds himself into their search. Unfortunately, Levon and Barb also become victims of the murderer who calls himself Henri Benoit.

And that’s only the first half of the story.

After returning to Los Angeles, the McDaniels case unsolved but unable to make further headway, Ben is contacted by Henri, who wants him to write an exclusive life story and publish the details of his murders in a tell-all book.

That’s where it gets interesting as Ben and his girlfriend Mandy are roped into participating in Henri’s game on threat of death. Ben, it seems, has no choice but to play along. So he does.

And now, after telling us all of the details regarding Henri and the mysterious people who hired him, Ben relates his story from an unknown village on the side of an unknown mountain in an unknown country. But he is safe. His new wife, Mandy, is safe. And most importantly, his expected son (whom he calls “The Floozle”) is safe.

So far.

Swimsuit is another well-crafted Patterson collaboration with Maxine Paetro, his co-author in the “Women’s Murder Club” series. They make a good team. The book is a quick and easy read, and will have you turning the pages, not wanting to stop reading.

Swimsuit (2009)

James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Little, Brown and Company ($27.99 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0316018777

A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity (Bill O’Reilly)

This is a pretty interesting book. It matters not whether you like or don’t like Bill O’Reilly or his perceived politics. Just put all those prejudices aside and read A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity as you would any other book about how family, school, friends and history helped determine someone’s persona.

Whatever you think of him, O’Reilly is a most interesting person. Best known for his Fox News program, The O’Reilly Factor, he pulls no punches – at least that’s what he seems to be doing every day on the air. What we don’t see is what goes on behind the scenes, especially his dedication to fairness.

O’Reilly takes us from his childhood days at St. Brigid’s School to his conversations with, and thoughts about, American presidents. Admittedly a rambunctious lad who became a rambunctious “throw caution to the wind” young man, O’Reilly shares much of his personal life with us, something he apparently isn’t terribly comfortable doing.

He does give good advice, none of which I’ll share with you here (you have to read the book), but my favorite lines come in Chapter 14 – third to the last chapter in the book – “Mysteries of the Universe.”

It’s completely irrelevant to the rest of the book, and yet it ties in nicely with what I’ve learned about him in the previous chapters … it’s about stuff he just can’t get a handle on. Stuff like, what do the words of the song, “Hang On Sloopy” mean? And why did Elvis sing “Do the clam, do the clam, grab your barefoot baby by the hand” in Girl Happy?

A Baby Boomer, Bill O’Reilly is somewhat my contemporary, having come of age at approximately the same time as I. He laces his anecdotes with pop lyrics that somehow fit perfectly into his stream of consciousness. Maybe that’s what held my interest.

Not having watched The Factor on a regular basis, I always thought Bill O’Reilly’s values were too conservative for me. I guess I was wrong. After reading A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, I realize he is more a human being who only wants the right thing done … conservative or not.

I’m glad a good friend gave me this book to read.

A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity (2008)

Bill O’Reilly

Broadway Books (26.00 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0767928823

Alex Cross’s Trial (James Patterson)

Alex Cross, the Washington D.C. detective and psychologist, has written a second book. In Alex Cross’s Trial, James Patterson and Richard DiLallo tell the story from Alex Cross’s perspective – a book he calls Trial, written about Cross’s great-uncle Abraham Cross.

Occurring around the turn of the century, a time when equal but separate was the order of the day when it came to much of white America’s acceptance of Negroes, this is a story told to Alex by his grandmother Nana Mama.

White lawyer Ben Corbett is recruited by President Teddy Roosevelt to investigate lynchings in the South – specifically in Ben’s home town of Eudora, Mississippi, where the Ku Klux Klan – although illegal – continues to proliferate and terrorize the blacks living in their community of Eudora Quarters.

He doesn’t really want to go, for it means leaving his wife Meg and their two daughters for several months, at a time when Meg is at her wits end, tired of waiting for Ben to truly make a name for himself. Meg, it seems, is ready to give up on both Ben and their marriage.

But Ben does go, for who can refuse the president?

After he links up with Abraham, they go on a discovery tour of lynch sites, where they find evidence of recent hangings – even bodies. It’s quite evident that the stories reaching the president’s desk are true. The slaves may have been freed 40 years ago, but Negroes continue to live in fear for their lives.

Taking sides with the oppressed Black residents of Eudora isn’t popular with the bigoted town residents and they aren’t timid in displaying their disgust and anger when they learn where Ben’s sympathies lie. It’s dangerous times for Ben, and he becomes the target of the Klan, who are intent on ridding their community of him.

The inevitable battle occurs, and three Klansmen are caught and put on trial. Patterson is not John Grisham, so his courtroom scenes are not quite as gripping as they could have been. But they’re good enough in displaying the obvious bias the court has against the Negroes.

Alex Cross’s Trial is vintage Patterson – short chapters and an easy read. I started reading about a half-hour before my flight, continuing on the plane for another hour and a half, then finished it within another hour before my final flight home.

It’s a good book. Different than most of Patterson’s others.

Alex Cross’s Trial (2009)

James Patterson

Little, Brown and Company ($27.99 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0316070621

Sh*t My Dad Says (Justin Halpern)

I just finished reading the best non-fiction book I’ve read in several years. No, make that the best book – non-fiction OR fiction – I’ve read in several years.

Justin Halpern became an Internet sensation last year when he started posting his father Sam’s sayings as his instant messenger away status. Before he knew it, the list of followers on his Twitter page ballooned into the hundreds of thousands.

A quick check on his Twitter page shows his followers now number close to 1.5 million faithful people, including me.

The book is full of curse words – f*ck, sh*t, p*ss. In fact, nearly every quote includes one of those “forbidden” words. So if that bothers you, then don’t read the book. But God bless Sam Halpern, he was born with the wisdom of Solomon, and knows exactly how to express his thoughts in a few words.

I stumbled upon Halper’s book before I knew it was the #1 book on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list, when the cover caught my eye one day in Costco. I mean, with a title like that smiling up at you from the counter, how can one NOT open it and look inside?

The anecdote that I happened to open to was about the time that Justin’s dad took him to breakfast at Denny’s and began talking to him about the facts of life. Several people around me began staring at me as I released an uproarious peal of laughter at the hilarity of the situation.

That did it, I was sold. This morning, I took the book outside, slumped into a comfortable director’s chair, munched on my toasted raisin bagel and gulped down some soda pop, much of which exploded in a cola spray from my mouth as I laughed and laughed my way through the book.

Every guy who has (or “had”) a dad needs to read Sh*t My Dad Says and follow Justin on his Twitter page (@shitmydadsays).

Sh*t My Father Says (2010)

Justin Halpern

It Books ($15.99)

ISBN-13: 978-0061992704

Honeymoon (James Patterson)

James Patterson hit another homerun with Honeymoon, his first collaboration with Howard Roughan.

As usual, the chapters are short – about two-and-a-half pages at the most – and the action moves along at a nicely measured pace, starting with the shooting of a would-be kidnapper by what would appear to be a tourist.

It’s an intriguing story too, about a beautiful (heck, gorgeous) interior decorator who rakes in the money on her own talent, yet feels it necessary to bilk millions of dollars from rich guys before doing them in with carefully selected drugs.

Her name is Nora Sinclair. And she is married, and she is also engaged. And she has set her sights on insurance investigator Craig Reynolds, who answers to his boss, Susan. The trouble is, there’s an FBI agent named John Ohara who’s very interested in Nora and who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

Nora is smart, but not that smart. This is, after all, a James Patterson book, and James Patterson books have at least a couple of twists and turns. If you’re not attentive and don’t pay attention to every word you read, you can barely keep up with what’s really what.

Nora isn’t what she seems to be, but only to others in the story. We know what she is. But see … that tourist isn’t what he seems to be. Craig Reynolds isn’t what he seems to be. Susan isn’t what she seems to be. And definitely, John O’Hara isn’t what he seems to be.

Nora however, is pretty smart. It takes her a while, but she figures things out – almost.

I finished Honeymoon in just about three hours. The only thing I can’t figure out is … Why is there a picture of a couple on a sailing boat on the front cover of the paperback version?

Honeymoon (2005)

James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Little, Brown and Company ($40.00 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0316710626

Duma Key (Stephen King)

There are some passages in Stephen King’s 2008 novel Duma Key that sent chills up my spine, especially when the final confrontation is nigh and the protagonists face the evil entity on the little island off the coast of southern Florida.

Edgar Freemantle, a successful construction company owner, survives a horrific accident on a job site that results in serious head injuries and the loss of his right arm.

During his recuperation and to help restore his damaged psyche, Edgar moves to a beach house on Duma Key, where he takes up his old hobby of sketching. Simple enough, right?

No. Not simple. Because there is something else going on there. There are spirits and ghosts determined to relive the past, deliver messages, warn of impending danger and horror, and in general wreak vengeance and death upon its residents.

Edgar hires Jack Cantori, a college student, to help him do stuff – buy groceries, do odd jobs, this and that. He also starts taking longer and longer walks along the beach, where he meets an old woman, Elizabeth Eastlake, and her caregiver, Jerome Wireman.

Edgar and Wireman strike up a friendship and Elizabeth takes up a liking to him.

During fitful bouts of painting, where the brush and charcoal and paints seem to create images of their own accord, Edgar discovers that his paintings have deeper meaning and are connected to tragic events of the past – events that involve Elizabeth and her family. Worse yet, the gruesome sketches and paintings begin to incorporate HIS family and friends.

Every drawing, every painting has meaning that Edgar needs to interpret, to save the lives of Jack, Wireman, his ex Pam, his daughters (especially the younger Ilse), and his associates.

His artwork creates a stir in the art community, which begins to regard him as a genius. Unfortunately, a successful show results in all of his paintings being sold, and the evil entity known as “Perse” (which apparently comes from the Greek goddess Persephone, queen of the underworld) begins to exact its toll horribly on the buyers.

Edgar, Wireman and Jack confront Perse in the old Eastlake house, attacking it with silver bracelets and rods, trapping it in a silver container, to be disposed of eventually in an ocean chasm far from Duma Key.

Duma Key lives up to Stephen King’s reputation as the top psychological horror author of the century.

Duma Key (2008)

Stephen King

Scribner ($25.95 list)

ISBN-13: 9781416552512

Obsession (Jonathan Kellerman)

It’s been years since I picked up a Jonathan Kellerman novel featuring forensic psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware, so when I saw the paperback on sale at Costco, I added it to my basket.

Obsession is Kellerman’s 21^st Delaware novel, and I was happy to see that the doctor’s friend, a Los Angeles Police Department detective named Milo Sturgis, is still partnering with him in solving cases.

Obsession involves a death-bed “confession” told to college student by her aunt, who raised her from childhood. Tanya Bigelow is a former child patient whom Dr. Delaware treated for an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Her mother Patty’s somewhat cryptic words – “Killed him. Close by. Know it. Know.” – are confusing to no end, and she comes to Dr. Delaware because she wants him to enlist Det. Sturgis to clear up the mystery.

With nothing but those words as a jumping-off point, Delaware and Sturgis enlist the help of Det. Petra Conner as they attempt to delve back into Tanya’s mother’s past and discover exactly what the “confession” meant – was it an easing of conscience, or was it a warning?

But it wasn’t easy; Patty Bigelow had lived a nomadic life full of puzzles. Digging through old records and checking out old Los Angeles neighborhoods, the trio uncovers events that suddenly come into focus when one of their “people of interest” is found murdered.

New characters are introduced in a framework of colorful personalities, drugs, masochists, deviants and acts of vengeance, all while Delaware tries to protect Tanya from (1) learning about her mother’s painted past, and (2) her own compulsive disorders.

For the reader, it’s helpful that from time to time, the investigators have sit-downs and put together scenarios of what they think happened, based on what they’ve discovered. As the story progresses, their suppositions re-form and gain validity, until everything starts coming together.

Eventually, the real story emerges and is explained to the reader’s satisfaction.

I’ve missed Dr. Alex Delaware. I think I’ll have to visit with him more often.

Obsession (2007)

Jonathan Kellerman

Random House ($26.95 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0345452634

Protect and Defend (Vince Flynn)

On his way home from Puerto Golfito, Costa Rica, CIA counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp receives an immediate new assignment that will soon have him matching wits with the government of Iran.

Protect and Defend alternates chapters – first we follow Mitch as he bones up on what’s at stake, then we jump over to Iran and its supposedly impenetrable and secret Isfahan nuclear facility. As the story progresses, Mitch finds himself closer and closer to the Middle East, until at last the two scenarios merge into one.

There is treachery afoot and when Isfahan collapses, the result of inside sabotage, the Iranian powers that be are quick to blame Israel and the United States. Unfortunately for them, the U.S. has satellite photos of the incident; plus, neither Israeli or American stealth planes were in the air at the time, as claimed by Iran.

While the White House pieces things together, and as President Josh Alexander cautiously sides with Mitch, tension between the two countries grows. Iran begins staging events, and it looks like war with America.

A secret negotiation meeting is set up to allow a first-time meeting between CIA Director Irene Kennedy and Azad Ashani, head of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The meeting proves fruitful, but naturally, things go bad and unbeknownst to Ashani, Director Kennedy is abducted.

Mitch plows his way through the opposition, racing against the clock, determined to save her and not let her put America’s spy network in jeopardy if she succumbs to torture. Time is running out as the Middle East teeters on the brink of war and Director Kennedy’s life is in extreme danger.

Protect and Defend is a powerful, action-packed novel. I had it tucked away inside a cabinet and had forgotten about it for nearly three years. I’m glad I found it.

Protect and Defend (2007)

Vince Flynn

Atria Books ($26.95 list)

!SBN-13: 978-0743270410

Back Luck and Trouble (Lee Child)

Author Lee Child has put together quite a thriller in his 2007 novel, Bad Luck and Trouble” featuring Jack Reacher, a former MP in a U.S. Army special investigations unit.

Two and a half weeks after one of his Army buddies was thrown out of a helicopter and found in a remote desert east of Los Angeles, Reacher is contacted by another of his former team members via a mathematical signal that neither you nor I could figure out, but which Reacher understands.

The message brings him out of his “broke drifter” existence and back into the world of reality and violence.

Half of his elite team reassembles and the four of them try to unravel the sudden disappearance of two comrades. Soon, they learn that two more team members have been found in the desert, also apparently tossed out from a high altitude.

“Do not mess with the special investigators.” That was their motto, and that is what compels the team to investigate and avenge the deaths of their comrades in the most brutal, yet oddly satisfying (to the reader) ways.

A corporation – New Age – has stolen prototypes of state-of-the-art surface-to-air missiles and will be sending them to a terrorist. The team’s mission of vengeance becomes two-fold: Find and liberate the missiles, and find and kill the individuals who “messed with the special investigators.”

The techniques used by Reacher and his team to gather information and infiltrate the offending corporation are graphically described by Child and keep the story moving at a fast pace.

Reacher has quite a history, but you won’t learn a heck of a lot about him in “Bad Luck,” just enough to whet your appetite. There’s an entire biographical description of the fictional character in Wikipedia (West Point graduate, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart).

Until I read his “biographical data,” I was curious as to why he was upset when he found his folding toothbrush trashed and broken by the bad guys. As it turns out, it was his one permanent possession of any value to him.

He exists from day to day, often stealing money from his enemies to supplement his meager Army pension, and discards his clothes every couple of days, replenishing them at budget stores.

This is not Child’s first “Reacher novel.” It’s the 11^th (three more have been published since this one). But it just happens to be the first I’ve read, and I think I need to add Lee Child to the list of authors whose books I need an eye out for.

As I did when I discovered James Patterson, I just might have to read the preceding 10 books and the subsequent three.

Bad Luck and Trouble (2007)

Lee Child

Delacorte Press ($26.00 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0385340557

The Breach (Patrick Lee)

This is Patrick Lee’s first novel, and it’s not too bad of a start.

The Breach takes us rushing pell-mell into a world where artifacts (called “entities”) from somewhere else – A parallel world? Another universe? Who knows? – begin appearing and are being used by nefarious individuals who plan to use them to fulfill their own personal agendas.

Ex-cop Travis Chase, trying to escape from a tortured past, stumbles into events that pull him deep into the action. Or was it all planned from the start? Only one intelligence knows – and it’s not a human. Or is it?

From the moment Chase discovers the downed airplane with the nation’s first lady dead inside, to the revelation of a dimensional breach created when the VLIC (Very Large Ion Collider) was turned on for the first time, from the joining of forces with a group called “Tangent” led by Paige Campbell, to the storming of a secret building by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens in Zurich, Switzerland, you are rapidly exposed to an incredible truth – we are no longer alone, and we are NOT in control of what’s ahead of us.

Lee’s writing is extremely readable, taking what could have taken paragraphs of scientific conversation and putting it into easily understood prose.

We learn in side mythology that Travis became a convict due to a crime of passion. Within the context of the side thread, we discover that perhaps even Travis’ past has been planned and manipulated by someone controlled by someone-or-something else.

As the story nears completion, it becomes apparent that Travis and Paige have had contact before, but in the context of this story, the exact when and where are not revealed.

Apparently, we’ll find out more in Lee’s second novel due out in Fall 2010 – Ghost Country. A teaser is included in the paperback version of The Breach.

The Breach (2009)

Patrick Lee

Paperback: HarperCollins ($7.99 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0061584459