Trading Bodies-Not Trading Places

     Touch by Claire North is a new novel coming out next year, and is a bit sci-fi, a bit thriller, and a bit confusing at times. It took me a while to get into the book, but once I was able to do so it kept me reading. Kepler is, for lack of a better word, a type of Jinn. To keep this review simple, I will refer to Kepler as "he". Kepler died violently and when he died, was able to switch consciousness to a bystander when they touched him. Kepler learns quickly that he can switch bodies simply by touching another person, and manages to survive throughout centuries this way. This soon gets boring for Kepler and a few others

with the same ability, and most opt to request host bodies permissions to live in them for a few months. Those who have their body used by Kepler have no memory of the event, and are victims of "lost time". Makes you wonder about all those times you drove home after a long day with no memory of how you got there. Unfortunately for Kepler, someone is out to eliminate him and the others who have survived over the centuries, and soon Kepler is among the hunted by the mysterious Aquarius group, and an unknown figure known as Galileo. Kepler is left with no choice but to use and enlist one of the Aquarius group members, Coyle, and spends much of the novel attempting to persuade him to help after Coyle kills one of Kepler's bodies on orders from Aquarius. Most of the novel takes place in Europe, but there is travel in other parts of the world as well. There is too much switching for me in the first 50 pages of so, and it was difficult at first to figure out what was going on in the book. Kepler first dies in what seems only in recent times, but then talks about a past life a few hundred years back, which is mostly why it confused me for a bit. After that however, I started to get into the story and then was disappointed in the last few pages. Personally, I would have liked to see a much different ending but I won't spoil it for anyone who wants to read this one.

Touch, Claire North, Redhook Books/Orbit. New York. February 2015. Isbn 978-0-316-33592-8

South African Crime and Intrigue

   Today I finished reading an advance copy of Cobra, by Deon Meyer. I haven't read Meyer previously, and now will have to add his novels to my list of books to read, as Cobra was extremely enjoyable. The story begins in a guest house, where hired bodyguards are found shot and their client is missing. Enter in the Hawks team, the premier police in South Africa, who soon figure out that this is not just a simple robbery gone bad, but involves intrigue, corruption, and political aspects on an international scale. Cobra is an assassin for hire, and his team manages to stay ahead of the Hawks a step at a time,  while the Hawks are dogged by Interpol, MI6, the CIA, and their own government, who are also trying to cover up the missing client's activities and his involvement with them.  

Galley Cover-not final

     Added into the intrigue is a somewhat innocent teenage local pickpocket, who unfortunately chooses the wrong bag to steal from at the wrong time, and both he and his sister are soon in danger from Cobra as well. The Hawks team is soon trying to locate the thief and the missing data card that Cobra is looking for, as well as the sister who after being kidnapped by Cobra is held hostage until the data card is returned. The Hawks have to go off the grid to avoid their investigation being taken over by the intelligence services, and have to stay ahead of them as well as Cobra. The novel comes to a fast paced finish and a satisfying conclusion when the Hawks take Cobra down. 


Cobra, Deon Meyer, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. October 2014, Isbn 978-0-8021-2324-4

Junior Bender is back

  A new Junior Bender novel will be out soon, Herbie's Game, and Timothy Hallinan doesn't disappoint with this novel. Junior is a professional burglar who somehow or another manages to get the goods while stepping around murders and mysteries in the process. (Think Lawrence Block's-Bernie Rhodenbarr character)

     Junior receives a summons from an associate known by the name of Wattles, who has set up a hit using a chain of cutouts-and wrote the list down of the players in the chain due to worries of a memory lapse. Now that list has been stolen, and everyone on it is now at risk, including Junior's mentor in the burglary trade, who is suspected of stealing the list.  Junior visits his mentor-for the last time, and after he is murdered Junior vows to avenge his death. The players all start being knocked off at an alarming rate, and it is up to Junior to get the list back, as well as figure out which name on the list is next.  Along the way, Junior has someone after him as well, and is forced to hire other hit men and criminals to watch over him and his family. Happily the characters of Bones returns, as well as Junior's love interest Ronnie, who Junior is finally realizing he really needs in his life. Added in are some of the characters from previous Bender novels, along with some new players, including a couple of humorous teenage hackers who are making more money annually than I will ever hope to. The novel is fine as a stand-alone read, but those not familiar with Junior might want to read the previous novels before reading more of Junior in Herbie's Game.

Herbie's Game, Timothy Halinan, Soho Press, New York. July 2014. ISBN: 978-1-61695-429-1

Survival in the Walled City

    What was the Walled City? A place of drug dens, brothels, lost children, and corruption. The novel The Walled City, by Ryan Graudin takes you there, to the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. While this novel is about teenagers trying to survive within it, it should not be simply touted as a young adult novel, as adults will enjoy this one as well. The novel focuses on three teenagers, and the story is told from all three viewpoints of the characters. Two are sisters, Mei Yee, who was sold by their father for alcohol into forced prostitution in a brothel for the most notorious drug lord of the city, and the second sister, Jin, who bravely follows the truck that takes her sister away in hopes of and rescuing her sibling from her imprisonment. The third character, a teenage boy who is working undercover for the government and facing a prison term if he doesn't deliver the goods to them on Longwai's activities by New Years.

     Jin is living as one of the homeless street urchins, dressing as a boy to avoid detection and keep herself from being seen as a target.  She has been looking for her sister for the past few years when she is discovered by Dai, who needs assistance with infiltrating the Brotherhood of the Red Dragon, and goes with him to be a "runner", delivering drugs to contacts while Dai is held as insurance she will return. Dai has no idea that Jin is actually a girl, and thinks of Jin as an end to the means of getting evidence on Longwai. The first run is successful, and while not trusted yet, Dai and Jin are tentatively employed by Longwai. In the meantime, Dai starts looking for someone on the inside to help him gain information on where Longwai's records of drug dealing are located, and enlists Mei Yee to assist him, not knowing that she is Jin's sister. The novel builds to a final showdown by the deadline, when all three finally trust each other enough to work towards the same goal, bring down Longwai and gain freedom for them all.
     The novel illustrates the reality of the harsh life within the Walled City, and while the city no longer exists in Hong Kong, much of the criminal activity, such as human trafficking and the drug trade, still occurs across the country and world. The actual sex acts that take place in the novel are not detailed however, but are alluded to in a way that shouldn't be too lurid or intense for younger teenage readers.

The Walled City, Ryan Graudin, Little Brown and Company, New York. November 2014.
 ISBN 978-0-316-40505-8

Metamorphosis

     I just finished reading "It Was Me All Along" by Andie Mitchell, another galley I picked up randomly at the recent Book Expo in NYC.  The author grew up and went to school here in Massachusetts, the same as myself to my surprise, and it was especially interesting to learn that she went to college at a nearby university. She chronicles her journey from the time she was young to the present, and her stuggles with food and overeating. The brutal honesty in this novel is what really got to me, Andie doesn't pull any punches when describing in detail her childhood and the foods she would eat, throughout her years in college when she finally confronts her relationship with food and its effect on her life.

      After tipping the scales at 268 pounds, she has had enough and begins to take steps to change her life. She chronicles her plan to lose the weight and the new journey she is on to create her new self.  Realizing the relationship between eating and emotional anxiety was the key for her, and it is only by finally learning that food can be enjoyable and not a source of comfort does Andie comes to terms with her life with food. The descriptions of how much food she would eat daily, and what she would eat with her weight increasing each month was shocking to me, but it made me look at food differently after reading her story. As a reader I cheered for her when she begins her journey of reversing the weight gain, and the changes she makes in her life so that she can accomplish her goals. She gets to beyond her goal weight, and at the end of the novel is at 133 pounds.  However, Andie has to learn not just to change her relationship with food, but other relationships in her life as well.  Finding out who the real Andie is and what she wants in her life is also part of her journey. The only thing that would make this novel even more interesting would have been to add in a few before/after photos as while I could envision the differences, it might be difficult for some readers to recognize the changes in Andie without a visual illustration as well.

It Was Me All Along, Andie Mitchell, Clarkson Potter Publishers, NY.  February 2015, 
isbn 978-0-7704-3324-6

What If You Could Go Back?

     What if you could go back and relive a past experience? That was the theme here with this young adult book, however, I must add in here right away, this novel is also appropriate for adult readers, as the story definitely was intriguing to me as well. The novel is Belzhar, written by Meg Wolitzer.  Jam Gallahue is a teenager who is sent to a boarding school in Vermont after having a traumatic experience that makes her unable to cope with life and school at her home in New Jersey. The boarding school is an alternative school, where parents send their children when other methods of therapy haven't helped. There is no internet, cell phone coverage, and the school is miles away from any sort of town.

Jam soon learns that she is one of a few students who have been assigned to an exclusive class, an advanced English class where they only study one author for the entire semester. Along with the chosen author, Sylvia Plath, Jam and the four other students are assigned to write in a journal provided by their mysterious teacher. The five students soon learn that this journal is not what it seems to be, but when they begin writing in it, they are transported back to the time when their traumatic experience happens, and they can relive each moment of it. They name this place Belzhar, so that they can keep it a secret from the other students at the school when they talk about it in public, and when they travel there, they each gain new insights and how to work through their experiences. In Jam's case, a boy that she loved died, and she can't wait to return to Belzhar each week so that she can experience being with him again. Of course, it wouldn't be a young adult novel without a fellow student making Jam start to doubt her feelings for her lost love, and she is torn between her feelings in the present and those feelings of the past.  The students figure out that their time in Belzhar will only last as long as the journal pages last, and desperately try to resolve their feelings before that final visit. Each student has their own unique story that they need to work through, and Jam's story especially is one with a twist. The novel's theme was an interesting one, what if you could return to a point in your life and relive it? I know that I would revisit some particular times, and I am sure that others would as well. This is a great read that teens should enjoy, as well as adults.

Belzhar, Meg Wolitzer, Dutton Books, September 2014. Isbn 978-0-525-42305-8 

Eat, Pray, Books

     I just completed reading The Moment of Everything, by Shelly King and entitled this post "Eat, Pray, Books" simply because it reminds me of "Eat, Pray, Love" in a way. The main character of Maggie is on her own journey, after being let go from her high profile position at a Silicon Valley enterprise, and is struggling to pay the rent and figure out why her latest relationship failed. She spends her days after the layoff at her local used bookstore, owned by her landlord, trying to lose herself reading "bodice-ripper" romance novels. Add in a quirky gay best friend, who is still working for the company she was let go from, think Rupert Everett from the "My Best Friend's Wedding" flick here, and assorted other characters and this is a great read.  

        Maggie reluctantly at first joins a local book club, with the idea of schmoozing her way back into her old job. The first book assigned to read is "Lady Chatterley's Lover", and she attempts to read the particular version the club is required to read, until Hugo gives her an old worn copy that is in his bookstore to read. Maggie discovers messages written in the margins of the book, that two strangers were leaving for each other to read. Their story and messages quickly intrigues her, and soon it also intrigues the rest of the local population, when Maggie puts scanned pages of the book online. Everyone now wants to know who the two writers, Henry and Catherine are, and the sleepy little used bookstore suddenly becomes an internet and local sensation, with Maggie gamely attempting to make the business profitable. Add in a cranky resident cat, a co-worker who isn't happy with Maggie's intervention and spends much of his free time playing Dungeon's and Dragons and trying to sabotage Maggie's efforts to reorganize the bookstore's shelves, and of course, a new sexy love interest for Maggie, and this novel is a winner. Everyone wants to know who Henry and Catherine were, and how their particular love story played out, and the novel becomes like an old 80's movie, "Secret Admirer".  It kept me guessing for the entire novel, until the final end, as to who they were, and I honestly didn't see the ending coming. I'm not usually one for this type of novel, but it was immensely entertaining and when it finally ended, made me a bit sad that it was over. If you've ever grabbed a used book, found a previous reader's notes in the margins, and wondered who that reader was, you will enjoy this immensely. 

The Moment of Everything, Shelly King, Grand Central Publishing. September, 2014, isbn 978-1-4555-4679-4.                                                                                        

Politics, Press, and Power

    I just finished reading The Means by Douglas Brunt. The novel is touted as "Part Primary Colors, part House of Cards" and I think that is a pretty accurate description of the novel.

      The story takes the reader from the beginnings of one main character's rise through the political ranks, to another's decline, and a third character who gets involved with both by the novel's conclusion. Tom Pauley is an attorney who begins a run for the position of governor of his state, while Mitchell Mason is at the top of the political game as the President. Samantha Davis is a former child-actor who after a career in law, becomes a journalist at a popular network, eventually becoming the "go-to" top reporter of political events.  All three are manipulated, used, and pushed by others to affect political events, from debates to elections. I liked this story especially, as it gives insights into the political process that are usually "behind the curtain", and how powerful individuals can help to make or break a political career. The reader gets to travel with the three main characters, from college campus "stumping" to the backstage and camera rooms of news broadcasts, to inside the White House itself.  All the things you would expect of a novel about politics are present in this novel,  everything from trying to hide campaign donations creatively, affairs and scandals that could make or break a political career, to the intensity of pressure on the press to get the lead on a story or put out what the political side wants. By the end, all three characters are front and center in the spotlight with a political scandal that affects all of them, and without giving away too much of the story, I thought the conclusion was pretty much what I had expected it to be, with one exception. The very last couple of paragraphs threw me for a loop, and I had to then rethink about everything I had read previously-making me view the story in a different light. I would be interested to read more of this author in the future, and am planning on going back to read his earlier novel, Ghosts of Manhattan

The Means, Douglas Brunt; Touchstone, September 2014. Isbn 978-1-4767-7257-8 
   

A Modern Seven Wonders of the World-Adventure

    The latest novel by Ben Mezrich, Seven Wonders, departs from his usual style genre and I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Mezrich, who you might know as the author of such titles as Bringing Down the House, the story of the MIT students who played blackjack in Las Vegas with incredible results, or The Accidental Billionaires, the story of how Facebook was founded.  His latest novel is simliar to the styles of writers such as Matthew Reilly, Dan Brown, and Brad Meltzer with regards to long ago treasures, secrets, and history.                                                                            

        Jack and Jeremy are twins, both estranged by their different personalities. Jeremy is a math whiz, and comfortable with his own world, while Jack is more of an adventurer, traveling the globe in search of lost civilizations and mysteries. When Jeremy stumbles on clues to the location of the Garden of Eden, he is murdered by a shadowy group who want to keep it a secret. Luckily he leaves a clue for his brother to find, and Jack is off traveling the globe to the "newer" seven wonders of the world to solve the clues to locate the origins of life as we know it. Along the way, he meets Sloane, a woman who is in possession of one of the clues and who tracks him down for his expertise on lost civilizations to help solve the puzzle. They wind up traveling to all parts of the world from Chichen Itza to the Great Wall of China to locate the rest of the clues together, dodging attacks by a mystery organization who wants to find the Garden first.  
     This novel is a fast paced read, and every one of the locations contains a booby trap or some sort of peril, leaving you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen to the adventurers next. If you liked the DaVinci Code, or have a little bit of Indiana Jones in you, this novel will appeal to you as a reader.                                    

Seven Wonders, Ben Mezrich, Running Press. September 2014. Isbn 978-0-7624-5382-5                                                                        

People in your Head

   Two books that I just finished recently had very similar themes, but were definitely different in the details. 

Both of these books however, involved having someone else in the main character's head. Confused? Let me explain.

    The first novel, "The Lives of Tao" by Wesley Chu, was a book that I randomly picked up at the recent Book Expo in New York last week. It was a small hardcover book and to be honest, I figured that it would easily go into my suitcase along with the other books I was bringing home, and that is the main reason that I snagged it in the first place.                          

                   Tao is part of an alien race, called the Quasing, that unfortunately crash landed thousands of years ago on Earth, and their goal is to try to someday get off-planet and return home. What kind of alien is Tao and his race? Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers here, but not quite as dramatic. While the Quasing do have to attach themselves to host bodies here on Earth, it is a symbiotic relationship between them and humankind for the most part. They have the ability to interact with their hosts while in their bodies, and the ability to control some of their functions. They can hear every thought their human host has, and can see/hear/sense what they see, but can't control what they actually do physically unless asleep. Unfortunately for Tao, his most recent human host, Edward,  is killed in the first chapter of the novel, and Tao is forced to join with the nearest available host or face permanent "dissolving", and the new host is not an ideal specimen of the human race. Roen is an overweight, aging, unsatistifed with life IT technician. Tao has no choice but to make him his new host , and Roen soon learns that he is not alone in his head.  The Quasing split into two factions centuries before, Tao's faction, the Prophus,  the other faction being the Genjix, and the two factions certainly don't get along.  Tao has no choice but to attempt to educate and train Roen to the Prophus cause, as the Genjix are after Tao, and thus after Roen.  His training begins almost immediately, from excercise to weapons training.  Tao educates Roen along the way, and explains how he has influenced humanity from his previous symbiotic hosts throughout history. Genghis Khan anyone? 

     Roen has no choice but to become active in the battle against the Genjix, and it all comes to a showdown when the Genjix capture a love interest of Roen's, Jill.  Roen, with Tao's help, manages to win a major battle with the Genjix, and as a result, the Genjix are forced to retreat and regroup.    

     The novel was at times humorous, but not quite laugh-out-loud for me. It did make me think about how much of our world's history could be a result of alien influence, but it took me about half way through reading it to really get into the story. There is a second novel out, The Deaths of Tao, and it will be interesting to see what Roen and Tao get up to in the future. 

   The Lives of Tao, Wesley Chu. Angry Robot. 2013. Isbn 978-0-606-35350-2

      The second book involving people in your head was by W. Bruce Cameron, The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man.  No alien life forms here, just the deceased type.  Ruddy McCann is a repo man in Michigan who begins to hear a voice talking to him.  At first he is convinced he has "Repo Madness" but it turns out this voice in his head belongs to Alan Lottner, who was murdered in a nearby town eight years ago. Neither one is sure why they are able to talk to each other at first, but Ruddy realizes that the circumstances of Alan's murder matches a vivid dream he recently had. Alan can see and hear everything that Ruddy does, but can't hear his thoughts, causing Ruddy to have to keep quiet his conversations with Alan lest his friends and family think he is going crazy. To make it even more interesting, Ruddy also realizes that the girl he helped on the side of the road when her car broke down is Alan's daughter. Try going on a date with a girl when her father is in your head yelling at you to leave her alone! Ruddy starts looking into the circumstances of Alan's murder, trying to figure out why he is in Ruddy's head, and learns what happened, getting into trouble with the local police along the way when suspicion turns towards him as a suspect in the unsolved case. Adding into the mix is assorted characters in Ruddy's life, his sister struggling to save the family's bar, a naive friend Jimmy who keeps cashing mysterious checks that bounce at the bank, to Kermit, his boss's nephew who winds up getting Ruddy into predicaments during repo's.  The novel's character of  Einstein Croft, ingenious in keeping Ruddy from being able to repo his truck, along with toting a rifle and keeping a goose as an intruder alert at home, is an added bonus. 

   

      Eventually, Ruddy starts to figure out the circumstances of Alan's murder, while getting arrested, polygraphed, shot at, and almost drowned in the process. Alan helps to solve the mystery as well, along with making Ruddy get back into shape by running and working out at night during his sleep, as well as cleaning his bachelor pad and making Ruddy think that his sister did it for him.  Add in a subplot of his sister's plan to save the bar business by teaming up with Kermit to use the bar's credit card machine to swipe and charge customers for a pay-for-phone-sex line, and this novel is an entertaining read. I was able to learn some tricks that repo-men use, as well as some tricks to stop repo-men from being able to take possession of a vehicle in the middle of the night. An enjoyable read, with plenty of laugh-out-loud funny parts.

The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man, W. Bruce Cameron, Forge. Oct 2014. Isbn 978-0-7653-7748-7