On Target by Mark Greaney

On Target by Mark Greaney ISBN-13: 9780515148459 Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages Publisher: Jove Released: Sept. 2010

Source: Unrequested review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, modified from back cover:
Four years ago, Court Gentry was betrayed by his handlers in the CIA. To survive, he had to eliminate his own brothers in arms. Now, as a master assassin known as the Gray Man, he makes his living killing other people. But his own life is put in the crosshairs when his old CIA team leader, whom he thought dead, finds him.

The man will kill Court unless he agrees to a difficult assassination mission (offered by a Russian criminal boss), but with one crucial change: Instead of assassinating Sudan's president, he'll kidnap him instead and return his quarry to the very CIA team that turned on him. In return, the CIA will remove it's shoot-on-sight order on him.

With his ruthless Russian employer on one side, his former CIA team on the other, and an impossible mission ahead, Court Gentry would kill to get out of this one alive...


Review:
On Target is a military-type thriller that reads like an action movie in novel form. The target audience appears to be men. The sole female character was a damsel-in-distress who was fatally (if not for Court) naive and determined to ignore all sensible advice. I suspect, though, that male readers will sympathize with Court being the hero while dealing with an incomprehensible woman.

While I liked that Court had a moral standard and a human side, he came across as way too soft to be an assassin-for-hire. He refused to kill anyone unless he absolutely couldn't survive their attempts to kill him. This included his targets. The plot also had logic holes, like a superior said that it was worth the deaths of everyone on the team to get the kidnapped president out of the country, yet he's the last one in line to be extracted (thus causing more danger and complications).

However, the novel was packed with non-stop action and close escapes from mortal danger. If you want a fast-paced, action-packed, suspense-filled read, this novel will give it to you. Also, the author clearly researched the details about the job, locations, and culture, and that helped bring the story alive in my imagination. Yet some aspects still didn't come across as realistic because they're exaggerated. (For example, I've read the author's source for how to tell if a person is lying, which that book says isn't a sure thing, but the author makes Court a no-fail expert at it.)

There was no explicit sex. There was a lot of cussing, especially once you get into the story. There was a lot of violence, though it wasn't very gory. Overall, it was an exciting action thriller, and I'm guessing that men who enjoy action movies will probably enjoy this novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
At a pharmacy he bought a pack of acetaminophen tablets and a bottled water. He'd been injured a few months back, a bullet through the thigh and a knife blade into his gut. The pain had lessened by the week. The body had incredible power to heal, so much greater than that of the mind. Court had grown dependent on the pills and injections: Vicodin and OxyContin, Demerol and Dilaudid. A surgeon in Nice had kept him supplied since the operation to clean and close his abdominal wound, and Gentry had popped pills each day since. But he'd purposely left them behind when he boarded the freighter; he'd gone over a week now without his meds, and this self-imposed detox was making him miserable.

The acetaminophen was no substitute for a heavy narcotic, but his mind found comfort in the ritual of swallowing the tablets nonetheless.

Three hours after leaving the boat, he checked in to a Chinese-run budget hotel in a narrow alley off Parnell Street, a half mile north of the river. His room was dark and dank and smelled of mold and frying grease; the restaurant two floors below him blew the stench through the vents. A near-horizontal rain beat steadily on the dirty window but failed to clean it; the oily grime covered the inside of the glass.

English Ivy by Catherine Palmer

English Ivy by Catherine Palmer ISBN-13: 9780842319270 Trade Paperback: 325 pages Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers Released: Feb. 2002

Source: Bought at a library book sale.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
On the eve of her 21st birthday, Ivy Bowden has much to anticipate. Engaged to be married to the man her father has chosen for her, Ivy hopes for a secure, contented future. But when she's injured by robbers and rescued by her roguish neighbor, her world is thrown into complete disarray. He's brought news that she's a rich heiress, but she won't inherit the money unless she marries a charming but dissolute man she's never heard of before. Then her adoptive father reveals that his family is dependent on her riches. She must marry to gain the money or the whole family will fall into poverty.

Ivy must marry the man chosen by her true father, the one chosen by her adoptive father, or abandon her riches to follow the leading of her willful heart. If she only knew what her heavenly Father's will was...


Review:
English Ivy is a historical romance set in 1815 England. The romance was a "sweet" romance, and the story mainly focused on the romance. Historical details were woven into the story, but there weren't a great deal of them--mostly setting, but some speech, manners, and clothing. The characters were engaging, and the main characters were earnest and wanted to do what was right.

It was obvious how the story would end, but Ivy was so innocent and willing to sacrifice for the good of others that I wasn't sure how we'd get to that ending. The suspense was created by seeing how the legalities of the marriage tangle would turn out.

The main characters were Christians who wanted to do God's will and so struggled with figuring out what God's will was. I agreed with the conclusion they came to. The characters searched the Bible for answers, and some Bible verses were quoted during their study. I liked how this was handled.

There was a very minor amount of British mild bad language. There was no sex (though past unmarried sex was implied for several of the men). Overall, I would recommend this novel as enjoyable, clean reading.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
Brooking House, near the village of Otley
Yorkshire, England, 1815

"At last," Ivy Bowden said to her three younger sisters as she placed the carefully penned instructions in her small beaded handbag. The printer in Otley would have plenty of time to prepare the invitations. In a few short months, she would celebrate her twenty-first birthday with a ball. By Christmas she would be wedded. Wishing for greater peace than she felt, she let out a deep breath. "And so--all is settled, and all is well."

"I should not say such a thing if I were to marry Nigel Creeve." Madeline gave a shudder. "And to have to live in Leeds in the same house with old Mr. Creeves and his wife. The pair of them give me nightmares."

"Maddie, you must not look on the dim side of things." Ivy tied her bonnet ribbons and wrapped a green wool shawl around her shoulders. "Nigel Creeve is a gentleman of the first order, and I am determined to be content with the arrangement."

Read more of chapter one.

Murder Can Rain On Your Shower by Selma Eichler

Murder Can Rain On Your Shower by Selma Eichler ISBN: 0-451-20823-4 Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Signet Released: March 2003

Source: Bought at a fund raiser garage sale.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Desiree Shapiro's niece, Ellen, will soon be saying, "I do." So Manhattan's pudgiest P.I. teams up with Ellen's future mother-in-law to give the bride-to-be a truly memorable shower. And memorable, it is. After all, when a guest takes a few bites of her salad, then promptly keels over, no one present is likely to forget the occasion.

Naturally, being a dedicated foodie, Desiree knows plenty of "to die for" dishes, but a green salad isn't one of them. Once she begins to look into the victim's death--and life--Desiree is convinced that she's dealing with a homicide...and that a number of backbiting society ladies had every reason to want scheming, man-hungry Bobbie Jean dead. Meanwhile, Desiree has a new love interest. But romance will have to wait because the police are perilously close to arresting an innocent woman for the crime.


Review:
Murder Can Rain On Your Shower is a humorous mystery novel. But Desiree is not a very clever or dedicated private investigator. She was very easily distracted from the case and would stop work the moment someone suggested going out to dinner or she felt upset or she felt like having a bubble bath. She even did hated housework instead of work on the case! It's amazing she got anything done on the case except that most of the interviews were done over breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Desiree also overlooked obvious clues and possibilities in preference of the easiest route--focusing on "the obvious suspects." When she finally noticed a few, slight clues, she made up a whole story of how the murder could have been done, promptly decided that's how it must have been done, and then she's shocked the police don't call her a hero and immediately go out to arrest the person. Not to mention that she lied to the police and regularly lied to and manipulated people but didn't see anything wrong with it. The only reason she solved the murder was because, in my opinion, the person wanted to get caught.

That said, the characters were charming in a lying, manipulative sort of way. The details about the food, decor, and appearances were vivid if those sorts of things interest you. The mystery wasn't difficult to solve--I saw the possibility of who and how back when the murder was committed, but I figured it was too obvious. I'm still convinced it was someone else. While quite possible, I wasn't satisfied by the solution.

There was a minor amount of bad language. While the murdered woman was a seductress, there was no explicit sex described. Overall, I'd recommend this novel to people who enjoy humorous investigators but don't care so much about clever mysteries.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
I'd been practically wired on my way over to Ellen's that Sunday morning. I mean, I wanted so much for her to be surprised by the bridal shower that Allison Lynton--mother of the bridegroom--and I were throwing for her. And of course, there was a better than even chance that some blabbermouth had already managed to give the whole thing away.

As soon as Ellen got in the car, though, I could tell from her expression, which was more or less placid--for Ellen, anyway--that she had no idea what had been planned.

Weeks ago, Allison's future sister-in-law, Bobbie Jean--a member of Silver Oaks--had telephoned her, ostensibly to extend an invitation to lunch at her club. "We have to start getting to know each other," the woman had declared--they'd met only once before at a gathering of some kind. "After all, in a few months we'll be family. And speaking of family, your future mother-in-law--she'll be there, too, of course--tells me you have an aunt in Manhattan you're very close to--a private investigator, she said. I'd like to have her join us if she can make it."

And now, here we were, driving out to Forsythe, Long Island--and Ellen's surprise.

And the winner is...

It's time to pick the winner of Code Triage by Candace Calvert. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants who correctly followed the directions in the order I received their entries, the winner is:


Laura Fabiani


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always join in the fun by buying the book at your favorite bookstore!

Self-Portraits: Fictions by Frederic Tuten

Self-Portraits: Fictions by Frederic Tuten ISBN-13: 978-0-393-07905-0 Hardback: 232 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton Released: Sept. 2010

Source: Unrequested review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Book Cover:
In these glittering, interrelated stories, a young boy barters with pirates for his grandmother’s soul; Death appears as a genial waiter in a bar across from the Metropolitan Museum; an ominous man interferes with honeymooners at a bullfight; an estranged couple glimpse God on a cliff on Old Mountain in Tangiers; a lonely man lectures circus bears on the history of art; miniature glaciers tumble from a refrigerator in an East Village apartment, heralding a voyage to Antarctica on a frozen schooner anchored in Tompkins Square Park; and two lovers meet, part, and reunite time and again in different guises, ages, and landscapes both familiar and exotic.

Love, and its mystery, is at the core of these tales, but love also for art, for adventure, and for the passion of being alive. Throughout Self Portraits the author appears as hero, bystander, artist, and ghost, revealing an enchanting autobiography of the imagination.


Review:
Self-Portraits: Fictions is a book of 12 short literary stories by Frederic Tuten. Each story shifted around in time and place and between reality and fantasy with no warning, so it was hard to tell what was going on (especially for a linear thinker like me). The characters tended to say philosophical-sounding things, so I had the feeling that there was supposed to be some deeper meaning to it all. However, I couldn't make sense of it so I decided to simply read it as a series of quirky tales. While I liked the author's writing, I'm not a good match for his style.

There was a very minor amount of bad language. Sex was implied. Overall, I think that if the story descriptions sound appealing to you, you'll probably enjoy the book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Voyagers
Enriching, travel was. Deepening my conviction that there was little to live for, little reason to live, less to be born. I thought I would tell her that before we finished our dinner and left separately for the night.

A black gondola, minus the oarsman, was skimming toward her; some inches away, separated by blue molding, Vesuvius showered smoke and flaming embers over her head. She seemed in a low mood, but I had thought that of her many times before and was often shown wrong. She was sometimes just in no mood for me, for my accustomed face. I did not blame her. So large a world, so many fresh faces to consider.

"Listen," she said.

I had traversed many deserts and arid places: the Empty Quadrant, the Sahara, the Gobi, the Mojave, the Sands of Dreams, the Wastes of Longing.

Author Quirks: Candace Calvert

Next up is Candace Calvert, author of Code Triage. I asked her:


What's a quirky or little-known fact about yourself, your writing, and/or one of your novels?


Her answer:

An author’s world straddles fiction and reality—and lends itself to “quirky” moments like this:

In the parking lot of a Staples store, I saw a BMW Z-4. Black. Older model. Convertible. Exactly like the one I'd written into my newest release, Code Triage, for the hero, San Francisco police officer Nick Stathos.

The car appears throughout the story, like in this scene on a famous San Francisco street:

But tonight he wanted to take the long way, because it might be the last time he drove through his favorite city with his wife. She was on to his plan way too soon.

“You’re kidding, right? Lombard Street—what do you think I am, a tourist?”

“I think . . . you’d better hang on tight.”

He steered the Z-4 downward into the first of eight hair-pin turns on the one-way section on Russian Hill, between Hyde and Leavenworth, known as “the crookedest street in the world.” A steep red-brick paved road on a 27% grade with a posted speed limit of 5 miles per hour. “No sweat,” he said. “We took these turns during training. I could do this at a raging six miles an hour . . . chewing gum.” Her grin made his chest warm.

“And wipe out an entire bank of hydrangeas,” she said, pointing across the lush hedges and leaning back—way back—in her seat. “Don’t be a maniac, Nick.”

Yes, the Z-4 was Nick Stathos' car. He got to drive it only because I, as the author of Code Triage, gave it to him. Made it black, convertible . . . and older, because he wasn't the kind of guy to drop a lot of money on a new car. I know this because he's fictional and I wrote him that way. Gave him (in addition to a cool car) a tough-guy cop exterior, an incredibly sensitive heart, a painful past, a deep faith . . . and determination to save his failing marriage.

His car. His past. His future. In my hands.

Nice, tidy, and well-controlled...until that morning, when I drove to Staples in San Antonio to get a black ink cartridge and saw a black BMW Z-4 exactly like the car I'd imagined for my hero, Nick Stathos.

And, as I took it in, my jaw dropped. Then the hair prickled on the back of my neck.

Why? After all, how many black BMW Z-4's are there? Lots, of course.

But it was the license plate letters that caught my eye:

NCK.

Nick.

Thank you for your empathetic goosebumps.

And thank you, Candace, for sharing this story about how life and fiction can intersect in surprising ways!

The King of Trees by William D. Burt

The King of Trees by William D. Burt Trade Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Winepress Publishing First Released: 1998

Source: Bought through Half.com.

Book Description from Goodreads:
What do an old wooden box, a jeweled pendant and some mysterious, green-garbed strangers share in common? When Rolin son of Gannon sets out to solve this riddle, his adventures take him worlds beyond the walls of his little log cabin. With the help of some grumpy griffins and a long-lost prophecy, Rolin and his newfound friends battle a sorcerer and his underworld army; deadly snake-trees; batwolves, dragons and other mythical creatures. On their perilous quest for the blessed Isle of Luralin, they must trust the King with their very lives. In the end, they learn that “The greatest help oft comes in harm’s disguise to those with trusting hearts and open eyes."


Review:
The King of Trees is a fast-paced fantasy adventure that's marketed to males and females ages 8 and up. The main characters were all males, so I think it would appeal most to boys. Since the author used a fair number of infrequently-used big words, I'd suggest it for teens and up. The author also used made-up names, some of them very similar sounding. I had some trouble keeping track of who was who and what was what. Sometimes there were even two names for the same thing: like griffins were called griffins, but usually they were called sorc. There's a glossary with pronunciation guide in the back to help with this.

While I could see the influence of novels like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, the story was original. It was also action-packed and exciting, and the characters were fun and likable.

There were several times that I didn't understand why Rolin acted the way he did during a critical parts of the novel. For example, Rolin was curious and wanted to explore a new world but knew it could be very dangerous. He decided to just take a peek and immediately come back. He goes to the new world, then, without any explanation as to why he changed his mind, he roamed through a creepy forest, knocked on the door to an evil-feeling building, and shouted to see if anyone was around.

Also, on a few occasions near the end, I had a "where did that come from" moment. As in, we weren't told that Rolin still had an object with him. Logically, he shouldn't still have it and, if he did, he would've been using it earlier. But then he suddenly does have it.

This story is a Christian allegory. It's somewhat subtle at first, but in the second half, the allegory was very obvious and rather heavy-handed. At the end, the plot was being driven more by the needs of the allegory than by naturally arising from the characters or their circumstances. Also, the Tree of Life (the Christ-like character) frequently spoke verses found in the Bible, especially those said by Jesus. To have a tree--which was a being created by the Father God figure (p.35)--go from playing a Christ-like allegorical role to essentially being Christ bothered me. Anyone without Biblical knowledge will probably be confused by it since some of the quotes seem to come out of nowhere. Also, Jesus isn't a created being so portraying Christ as a created tree-being who then created humans was a rather critical bit of theology to portray incorrectly.

There were a few sketchy drawings throughout the book. There was no bad language or sex. Overall, I'd recommend it as exciting, clean reading as long as none of the above are problems for you.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
"Snitch boy, snitch boy, hair-as-red-as-pitch boy! Bee in his bonnet, bee in his bonnet, bees in the hive and Rolin's sat on it!"

Rolin jerked awake, tore off his quilts and rushed to the window. He saw no one outside except a few blue jays warming up for the day's chatter. An early morning mist still swirled among the firs and pines in the foothills of the rugged Tartellan Mountains, where Rolin's father, Gannon, had built their cozy cabin.

Rolin groaned and flopped back on the bed. He always had bad dreams just before market days, when he and his father went down to bustling Beechtown to sell their wares. Was it his fault he had red hair (though it was really chestnut) or that his father kept bees? And who could blame him for reporting the cobbler's sons to the constable for stealing chickens? As if that were not enough, "the Crazy Toadstool Woman" had been his grandmother.

Had been. Rolin screwed his eyes shut, squeezing out the tears. Several years earlier, first his grandmother, Adelka, then his mother, Janna, had died under mysterious circumstance, leaving Rolin and his father to mourn their losses in lonely bewilderment.

"Ho, Rolin! Sun's up and it's market day," boomed a voice into the log-walled bedroom. Rolin yawned, stretched and hopped out of bed. Market day! Already he could see the crowds of traders and travelers, vendors hawking wooden trinkets, and the food stalls set up in the square, with their mounds of candied fruits, toasted beechnuts, smoked fish, and box upon box of luscious winter pears. And he could hear the children's cruel taunts.