The Printed Page

My monthly wrap-up is going to be a bit different than in the past. Instead of listing books in the order I read them throughout the month I’m starting with my recommendations and ending with the DNFs. I’m also including the highlights from Marcia’s Kindle Corner.

The ‘Recommended Reads’

Title: Killer Weekend (1st in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series)
Author/website: Ridley Pearson
384 pages
Publisher: Jove
Publication date: June ’08
Genre: Suspense/thriller
I was offered Mr. Pearson’s newest, Killer Summer, as a review book. Knowing that it is the third in a series I wanted go back and read the first two. Killer Weekend is that first book and a good start to a new series. Sheriff Walt Fleming is just your ordinary guy who happens to head a police department in the playground for rich ~ Sun Valley, ID. He has his share of flaws and faults. And the personal tension between Walt and Deputy Brandon – delicious. The plot line is good and it’s nice to be outdoors in the wilds of Idaho instead of some asphalt city jungle.

Eight years ago, Sun Valley, Idaho, sheriff Walt Fleming bravely thwarted an attempt on Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler’s life. Now AG Shaler is back in town, poised to announce her candidacy for president at a three-day conference catering to the world’s most prominent business leaders. The event is the brainchild of Patrick Cutter, a tycoon whose sybaritic lifestyle is a source of both scorn and awe. (He is but one example of the super-rich citizenry that’s taken up residence in the once-quiet ski town.) There is no shortage of security for the proceedings–local police, Secret Service, and Cutter’s own team–but it’s not enough to deter a cunning assassin who slips seamlessly between a pair of identities. (His blind-man act is particularly impressive.) Meanwhile, Sheriff Fleming must cope with the suspicious death of a beautiful socialite and the breakup of his own marriage; it doesn’t help matters that his deputy is sleeping with his ex-wife.

Title: Killer View (2nd in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series)
Author/website: Ridley Pearson
496 pages
Publisher: Jove
Publication date: June ’08
Genre: Suspense/thriller
Killer View is the follow-up to Killer Weekend. The plot line in Killer View is stronger than Killer Weekend and more interesting. Sheriff Walt Fleming and the gang are back in some serious action. Walt is playing a game of cat and mouse with some nut jobs determined to make a name for themselves and his best friend’s life is on the line. Things are heating up in Sun Valley, ID and environs. Walt’s on the clock and time is ticking away. Once again we get to view this flawed man, Sheriff Fleming, who is trying his best to keep things running smoothly and keep it together. I suggest you read Killer Weekend before Killer View so that you’re familiar with the repeating characters and relationships.

The rich and famous may regard Sun Valley, Idaho, as a retreat from reality, but for Sheriff Walt Fleming, there is no such escape. In Killer Weekend (2007), the first installment in Pearson’s latest series, Sheriff Fleming earned respect and a certain amount of celebrity when he saved the U.S. attorney general’s life. This time around, trouble hits much closer to home, when the brother of Fleming’s best friend, Mark, is killed during the search for a missing skier. Mark disappears soon after, and it quickly becomes clear these were not random acts. But Walt is at a loss as to what could have befallen Mark, a highly regarded local veterinarian. A series of clues, including the smell of burning wool, leads Fleming to ranches in the remote Pahsimeroi Valley, where he finds pits filled with dead livestock. Then there’s news of contamination at a local water-bottling plant. Fleming has long had his eye on a radical group called the Samakinn. Could they be behind this? Or, fears Walt, is this trouble on a much larger scale?

Title: Killer Summer (3rd in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series)
Author/website: Ridley Pearson
367 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Suspense/thriller
Killer Summer is the 3rd installment in the Killer series. Once again we meet up with Sheriff Walt Fleming and the gang in Sun Valley, ID ~ playground to the rich and famous. Some characters from Killer Weekend make appearances in Killer Summer and some from both earlier books aren’t here this time around. Mr. Pearson makes good use of his characters. While I don’t think that Killer Summer is as strong as Killer View in plot line, it is stronger than Killer Weekend and a good addition to the series. Once again Walt is the flawed guy we’ve come to love in this series. He may not always get it right but that just makes him more human. I like that he’s not this macho cop running rough shod over everyone. And the tension between Walt and Deputy Brandon just continues to build.

Oenophiles may seem like a mellow lot, but there’s nothing laid-back about the criminals who’ve descended upon Sun Valley, Idaho, during the exclusive enclave’s annual wine auction. In Pearson’s third mystery featuring amicable Sheriff Walt Fleming (after Killer View, 2008), the lawman finds himself at the mercy of master thief Christopher Cantell, who is dead set on stealing three very pricey bottles of wine. (They were reportedly a gift from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams. But might the whole vintage tale be an elaborate hoax?) An explosion at the glitzy gala sparks a grim chain of events: a colossal roadblock, a stolen jet, and the suspected kidnapping of Walt’s beloved nephew, Kevin. Sheriff Fleming quickly comes to realize Cantell has more than wine on his mind. Now he must keep the peace among Sun Valley’s well-heeled as he frets over the fate of his own flesh and blood.

Title: Somewhere in Time
Author/website: Richard Matheson
304 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: July ’08 (reprint)
Genre: Fantasy
After a bit of rough start as I didn’t enjoy the storytelling style this book finished up much better than I expected. I really enjoyed Part Two where Richard and Elise meet and spend a brief period of time together in 1896.

Matheson’s classic novel tells the moving, romantic story of a modern man whose love for a woman he has never met draws him back in time to a luxury hotel in San Diego in 1896, where he finds his soul mate in the form of a celebrated actress of the previous century.

Title: Ghostwriter
Author/website: Travis Thrasher
348 pages
Publisher: FaithWords
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Suspense/horror
Loved it! Another great edge-of-your-seat, pulse pumping, compulsive page turning suspense horror combination. Top loaded with suspense while walking the tight rope edge of horror. No outright gory scenes but he leaves plenty to a reader’s over active imagination. Another great addition to my suspense/horror favorite authors list.

For years Dennis Shore has thrilled readers with his spooky bestselling novels. Now a widower, Dennis is finally alone in his house, his daughter attending college out of state. When he’s stricken by a paralyzing case of writer’s block and a looming deadline, Dennis becomes desperate. Against better judgment, he claims someone else’s writing as his own, accepting undeserved accolades for the stolen work. He thinks he’s gotten away with it . . . until he’s greeted by a young man named Cillian Reed–the true author of the stolen manuscript.

What begins as a minor case of harassment quickly spirals out of control. As Cillian’s threats escalate, Dennis finds himself on the brink of losing his career, his sanity, and even his life. The horror he’s spent years writing about has arrived on his doorstep, and Dennis has nowhere to run.

Title: The King’s Favorite: A Novel of Nell Gwyn and King Charles II
Author/website: Susan Holloway Scott
448 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication date: July ’08
Genre: Historical fiction
While I usually enjoy Ms. Scott’s novels this isn’t one of my favorites. I think it has more to do with the period of England’s history than anything else. It seems that not everyone can live up the shenanigans of the Tudors. I do have The French Mistress loaded on my Kindle but now I’m not sure I’ll be reading it any time soon.

Nell Gwyn was never a lady, nor did she pretend to be one. The illegitimate daughter of a royalist soldier, she is taken to London by her widowed mother to work in a bawdy-house. At fourteen, she becomes the mistress of a wealthy merchant who introduces her to the world of the theater. Blessed with impudent wit and saucy beauty, she swiftly rises from an orange-seller to a leading lady. She is still in her teens when she catches the eye of King Charles II, and trades the stage for Whitehall Palace and the glorious role of a royal mistress.

Yet even as she delights the king, she must learn to negotiate the cut-throat royal court, where ambition and lust for power drive everyone rule the hearts of all around her. For beneath her charm and light-heartedness, Nell has her own ambition: to become no less than the king’s favorite.

Title: The Book of Unholy Mischief
Author/website: Elle Newmark
367 pages
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: December ’08
Genre: Historical fiction

It is 1498, the dawn of the Renaissance, and Venice teems with rumors of an ancient book that holds the secret to unimaginable power. It is an alchemist’s dream, with recipes for gold, immortality, and undying love. Everyone, rich and poor alike, speculates about the long-buried secrets scrawled in its pages and where it could possibly be hidden within the labyrinthine city. But while those who seek the book will stop at nothing to get it, those who know will die to protect it.

As a storm of intrigue and desire circles the republic that grew from the sea, Luciano, a penniless orphan with a quick wit and an even faster hand, is plucked up by an illustrious chef and hired, for reasons he cannot yet begin to understand, as an apprentice in the palace kitchen. There, in the lavish home of the most powerful man in Venice, he is initiated into the chef’s rich and aromatic world, with all its seductive ingredients and secrets.

Luciano’s loyalty to his street friends and the passion he holds for a convent girl named Francesca remain, but it is not long before he, too, is caught up in the madness. After he witnesses a shocking murder in the Palace dining room, he realizes that nothing is as it seems and that no one, not even those he’s come to rely on most, can be trusted. Armed with a precocious mind and an insatiable curiosity,

Luciano embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the truth. What he discovers will swing open the shutters of his mind, inflame his deepest desires, and leave an indelible mark on his soul.

Title: The Belly Dancer
Author/website: DeAnna Cameron
308 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I enjoyed The Belly Dancer. Pour yourself something to drink, pull up a comfy chair and settle in for a weekend of pleasurable reading.

At the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the modern, the exotic, and the ground-breaking collide. But Dora Chambers has more pressing matters to consider. Hoping to begin a life of wealth and privilege in Chicago, she sets out to earn the approval of the Fair’s Board of Lady Managers to appease her ambitious, aloof husband. Unimpressed, they give Dora the distasteful task of enforcing proper conduct at the Egyptian belly dancing exhibition.

But Dora’s sensibilities are not so easily flustered. She finds herself captivated by these exotic women, and by their enigmatic manager, Hossam Farouk, who makes his mistrust of her known—although his lingering glances hint at something else.

As Dora’s eyes are opened to the world beyond a life of social expectations and quiet servitude, she finds the courage to break free of her self-imposed bondage, and discovers the truth about the desire and passion in her own heart.

Title: Abandon
Author/website: Blake Crouch
416 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Suspense/horror
Abandon is steeped in suspense, drenched in desperation and tinged with madness and horror. Highly recommended and not to be missed.

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman and child in a remote mining town will disappear, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone will be found–not even the gold that was rumored to have been the pride of this town will be found either. One hundred and thirteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a leading history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them into the abandoned mining town so that they can learn what happened. This has been done once before but the people that went in did not come out. With them is a psychic, and a paranormal photographer–the town is rumored to be haunted. They’ve come to see a ghost town, but what they are about to discover is that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone, and the past is very much alive….

The ‘Did Not Finishes’

Title: The Wet Nurse’s Tale
Author/website: Erica Eisdorfer
272 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication date: August ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I didn’t finish this one stopping at pg 56. I just never got engaged with the story.

A bawdy young woman who could easily have walked off the pages of The Canterbury Tales, Susan ends up wet-nursing after getting unexpectedly and illicitly pregnant, and her alcoholic and abusive father forces her to leave her child and take up the occupation. Her journey into the intimate lives of England’s upper crust proves an illuminating and dangerous one as Susan jumps from family to family—until her father sells her son. As Susan attempts to balance other peoples’ babies with her quest to regain her own, she is faced with difficult choices between duty and love, and between her life and her child’s. Whether she is carousing in the Jewish quarter or planning how to reclaim her son, Susan navigates the stratified social world with humorous vigor.

Title: The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor
Author/website: Colin Tudge and Josh Young
272 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Non-fiction
I didn’t finish this one reading only 73 pages. I knew there would be scientifc information but this book is heavy on the science and geology side of things. I felt like I was back in college attending class.

A secret until now, the fossil – “Ida” to the researchers who have painstakingly verified her provenance – is the most complete primate fossil ever found. Forty-seven million years old, Ida rewrites what we’ve assumed about the earliest primate origins. Her completeness is unparalleled – so much of what we understand about evolution comes from partial fossils and even single ones, but Ida’s fossilization offers much more than that, from a haunting “skin shadow” to her stomach contents. And, remarkably, knowledge of her discovery and existence almost never saw the light of day.

For No One You Know and The Embers here’s why I DNF’d them: I’m finding lately that introspective, soul searching family stories just aren’t capturing my imagination and engaging me like they used to. While the writing and the stories themselves are fine there isn’t enough of a ‘hook’ to draw me in and keep my reading attention. Usually I’m out in left field and in the minority with these types of books so please take what I write here with a large grain of salt. They are getting good reviews at Amazon.

Title: No One You Know
Author/website: Michelle Richmond
352 pages (DNF’d at page 71)
Publisher: Bantam
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Fiction

Ellie Enderlin has never recovered from the unsolved murder of her sister, Lila, a Stanford math prodigy, some 20 years earlier. The day her sister went missing has become “the touchstone from which all other events unfurled.” Compounding the tragedy is the fact that her English professor, the person to whom she confided some of her most intimate feelings about her shy, private sister, has turned the tragedy into a best-selling true-crime book. To have those moments turned into fodder for the public’s voyeuristic appetite has felt like another violation. When Ellie, a world traveler and coffee buyer, meets up unexpectedly with the brilliant mathematician implicated in her sister’s murder, she sees it as a way to wrest back control of her own narrative and solve the crime.

Title: The Embers
Author/website: Hyatt Bass
304 pages (DNF’d at page 37)
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Fiction

As Emily Ascher plans her wedding, years after her older brother Thomas died in his teens, she still talks to him and wants to be married where his ashes were scattered. The grief felt by Thomas’ now-divorced parents, Joe and Laura, is compounded by Joe’s guilt for his part in his son’s death. Flashbacks work forward from 1992, revealing family relationships: the ongoing mother-daughter conflict between Laura and Emily, Joe’s ups and downs as a playwright and actor and his affair that ends the marriage, and eventually the circumstances of Thomas’ death.

***

Here are the July highlights from Marcia’s Kindle Corner. All of these books are recommended reads and have both print and, of course, Kindle editions. If not for sample chapters from Amazon for Kindles I wouldn’t have discovered these new-to-me authors and their wonderful books. If you want to check out all the books I sampled this month be sure and stop by the Corner.

Title: Soul Identity (Kindle link) / Soul Identity (print link)
Author/website: Dennis Batchelder
File size: 528KB/Print: 268 pages
Publication date: November ’07
Genre: Fiction
Sample size: Prologue, Ch. 1 except for the about the last 2 or 3 paragraphs
Soul Identity is a touch rough around the writing edges but not by much. This is a debut novel for this author and the first in a trilogy. I really enjoyed Soul Identity and I’m looking forward to reading his 2nd book, Soul Intent.

You can’t take it with you…but what if you could? Most people believe their souls outlive their bodies. Most people would find an organization that tracks their souls into the future and passes on their banked money and memories compelling. Scott Waverly isn’t like most people. He spends his days finding and fixing computer security holes. And Scott is skeptical of his new client’s claim that they have been calculating and tracking soul identities for almost twenty-six hundred years. Are they running a freaky cult? Or a sophisticated con job? Scott needs to save Soul Identity from an insider attack. Along the way, he discovers the importance of the bridges connecting people’s lives.

Title: Footfalls (Kindle link) / Footfalls (print link)
Author/website: Eddie Gresham
File size: 556 KB/Print: 402 pages
Publication date: Jan ’08 (paper edition Dec ’07)
Genre: Suspense/horror(?)
Sample size: Prologue and Ch.1-10
If you hear the unexplainable when you lay your ear against your pillow at night you’d better be prepared for what comes next! I loved it start to finish. A really good debut novel for this author.

Jimmy Culver is a computer technician who moves back to his hometown to start a new phase of his life. He has a new job working alongside his best friend, and catches the eye of a pretty divorcee in his neighborhood. Everything seems to be going well for Jimmy – but looks aren’t everything. One night, as Jimmy is falling asleep, a soft, familiar sound creeps into his ear. It is a sound from Jimmy’s childhood – one he had long-forgotten, as his mind pushed the terrifying events of a cold winter 30 years in the past deep into the recesses of his memory. Jimmy’s life is suddenly turned upside down as he races to figure out the secret behind the sounds. He is pushed to the edge as he struggles to keep up with his new job, a new love interest, and a new nightmare that is making its way down his street, toward his house. Jimmy finds some kindred spirits who are willing to help, but they too have secrets. Secrets that may endanger his life. Jimmy needs to figure it out – fast. The sounds are getting closer…and death follows.

Title: The Blue Mosaic Vase (Kindle link) / The Blue Mosaic Vase (print link)
Author/website: Christie Shary
File size: 498 KB/Print: 352 pages
Publication date: January ’02
Genre: Fiction
Sample size: Ch. 1-8 & most of Ch. 9
Another hidden gem lost among the thousands of books at Amazon. An unexpected wonderful love story.

Left with only the beautiful blue mosaic vase, a gift he once gave his mother, Mohammad begins his quest for identity, love and belonging. And just as the fragile and intricate pieces of the vase fit together, so Mohammad’s “coming of age” intertwines with the lives of these women, set against the ancient rhythms of Tehran’s bazaar, the desolate mud-brick villages of turn-of-the-century Persia, the impact of Islam upon their lives. Mohammad first explores his world in the footsteps of his mother, Pargol, victim of the bazaar’s harshness and disease; next through his brother’s child bride, Feredeh, bound by ancient religious tradition; and by the suffering of the harlot, Leila, shackled by hunger into a life that has few options. He experiences life within the dark, liquid eyes of his first love, Sherine, forced by the solemn promise of her father to marry another; through his wife, the beautiful Amira, driven by gold and lust for one she cannot have; and from the pain of the little servant girl, Batool, imprisoned by her society and left with only one choice–to buy her disgrace in the murky waters of the jewb. Although disillusioned by the unfairness and cruelty that reign in his world, Mohammad is determined not to give up. His journey finally leads him to the widowed village weaver, Najmeh, who brings real meaning to his life. Filled with love and compassion, yet free and unbound as the shifting desert sands that surround her village, she answers only to herself. But will Mohammad find the strength to break the bonds that bind him? He knows he must.

The Blue Mosaic Vase is a Fresh Voices and EPPIE Award winner

Title: Haunts of the Heart (Kindle link) / Haunts of the Heart (print link)
Author/website: Barbara Scott
File size: 421 KB/Print: 268 pages
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Historical/contemporary ficiton
Sample size: 1/2 of Ch. 1
Don’t let the first couple of chapters turn you away. There is more depth to this story than meets the eye. Once our ghosts start telling their story things heat up. I was more than pleasantly surprise by this one.

Haunts of the Heart features one woman’s search for why two ghosts inhabit her childhood home. The ghosts, Anthony and Neal died during the American Civil War, each under circumstances that neither fully understood. Deanna attempts to discover what is keeping them tied to her home and in doing so falls in love with Neal. But Neal’s secrets are as deep as those binding Anthony and while the truth will set each free, the truth is also what will tear their friendship apart and hurt them deeper than their own deaths have.