Ostensibly, the book is about a death that occurred over the fourth of July holiday in 200o in Ocean Shores, Washington. Although I enjoy reading true crime books, this book is probably not one I would have picked up normally. However, I could not pass up the conincidental fact that I stumbled across this book just before I left on a trip to visit Ocean Shores. I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read a true crime book at the same time that I was visiting the location where the crime occurred.

There are two parts to this book. One part tells the story of an Asian American man who killed a young white man who had been shouting racial slurs at him. This part provides background information on the event and covers the subsequent trial. This part was well-written and interesting. Unfortunately, it seemed as though this was a small part of the book. I don’t know exactly how much of the book was devoted to this story, however, it seemed like it was equivilent to a lengthy feature story in a magazine.

The second part of the book dealt with the history, nature, and enforcement of hate crime laws. Although parts of this book were interesting and although the author made a few good points, this part of the book suffered from a very bad case of repeatition. In multiple instances, the author repeated the same facts and arguments, several times. This part of the book could have used the stern hand of a good editor. Additionally, it went beyond the normal exposition that I expect to find in such a book and entered the realm of strongly advocating the enactment and enforcement of hate crimes laws.

Put simply, this wasn’t what I expected from the book. Had the book been described as a advocacy piece on hate crime enforcement that was illuminated by an examination of the fourth of July incident in Ocean Shores, then I would not have been surprised by what I read. As it was, however, I felt that I did not get what I expected.

If you are interested, you can find the book here:

The book is also available in a Kindle edition:

I read the Kindle edition of the book and I cannot end this review without addressing the problems with the Kindle edition. Like many non fiction books, this book contained endnotes. For reasons that make absolutely no sense to me, there were no hyperlinks to connect the endnote reference in the text to the actual endnotes. This absence is simply inexcusable. One of the great benefits of having an electronic edition of a book is the ability to leverage the electronic features, such as hyperlinks.

Additionally, the book also contains an index. However, on the Kindle, the index is absolutely useless. The text is small and, for reasons I don’t understand, the publisher did not bother to reformat the index so it can be read on the Kindle.

Stated simply, this is a poor implementation of an electronic book and I hope that future Kindle books that I purchase do not suffer from these same problems.

Nina blushed, then cut the man’s head off . . . . Or at least, mostly off. In her haste, she slopped the follow-through and failed to completely sever the neck, a lapse that did nothing to improve her mood. The end result, however, was much the same, and the remains of her would-be suitor slumped to the floor.

In a recent interview, Ellis talked about how the first line of the book stalked her until she started writing the book.

The book is about Nina, the teenage daughter of Marcus the Merciless, is a heroine like I have never seen before. She sets off on a heroic quest, with a dimwitted king who thinks he is in love with her. Along the way, she encounters (of course) a dragon and a handsome rouge. Their adventures take a humerous trip through many fantasy tropes, giving them the humorous treatment that tropes deserve.

For example, Nina is on a quest to find a wizard give her magical aid. She eventually finds the wizard, who, of course, helps her understand several problems she has been encountering. When she leaves the wizard, she tries to offer him some compensation. In response, he says:

“No please.” He waved his hands and walked forward to take her hand. “I need nothing in return. It has done my heart good to play a small and primarily expository but nonethless critical role in your larger story.”

Another humorous aspect that I love about the book is the number of people who refer to Nina as “Miss the Merciless.” For some reason, I found this really amusing.

In addition to the novel succeeding on a humorous level, it also works well as a story. Sure the book is not War and Peace. Then again, I have never had anyone put a copy of War and Peace in my hand tell me that I had to read it because it was such a fun book. Here, I will tell you that with this book. In a nutshell, Nina Kimberly the Merciless by Christiana Ellis a fun and clever read. I am putting it in your virtual hand and telling you to read it.

The basic premise of True Evil is that a divorce attorney is providing a service to the super wealthy in which, instead of divorcing their spouse, the doctor arranges for the spouse to be murdered. The twist is that the spouse in murdered by causing her (or in some cases him) succumb to cancer or a stroke. By ensuring that the spouse dies from a disease such as cancer, no one suspects that the spouse has been murdered.

Alex Morse, an FBI agent with a series of personal problems, discovers this plot after her sister tells her that the stroke she suffered was caused by her husband. Alex becomes convinced that, Chris Shepard, a doctor in Mississippi, is the next target of the murdering divorce lawyer.

Given the far fetched nature of the allegations, Alex is unable to convince anyone to believe her that the deaths she has identified are murders. Iles does an excellent job in the first half of the book of keeping the reader unsure as to whether Dr. Shepard’s wife actually is trying to kill him.

The second half of the book takes off as Morse and Shepard begin to learn more about the murder plots and as the attorney and his partner become more paranoid and begin plotting their escapes.

The final third of the book contains some great action scenes as well as just enough twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. One of my favorite scenes occurs near in the end of the book in which the lawyer’s wife chooses to exact revenge rather than save herself.

If you like thrillers or have liked other books by Greg Iles, then you should check out this book.

Three books comprise the he Age of Discovery Series by Michael A. Stackpole: A Secret Atlas, Cartomancy, and The New World. These books comprise an epic story centered around a family who had a magical skill in making maps.When I use the word epic to describe this series, I do not use it lightly. These books are truly epic. They span different times, a variety of locations in the known and unknown world, the nine hells as well as the realm of the gods. The characters vary from the most important people in the world, to a high class prostitute, to a young boy with a withered arm. Each of the characters plays an important role in molding the future of the world (sometimes literally).

One thing that I loved about this series was that it got stronger as it went along. Book 1 (A Secret Atlas) mainly set the stage and got everything in place for the conflict that was coming.

I thought that book 2 (Cartomancy) had some great character development. Further, two revelations at the end of book 2 are both unexpected and fantastic. Finally, book 3, while also filled with significant character development, was a great action book as well. The series leads toward a climactic battle between good and evil.

Stackpole has handled this battle brilliantly by showing it as a series of battles, with lots of twists, turns, successes, and defeats.

Stackpole has also created a complicated suite of characters who are anything but one dimensional. The characters have flaws and fall victim to them. Further, just as in real life, some people are deceptive and are not quite who they appear to be. I for one will admit that a couple of the characters had me completely fooled until their aspects were revealed.

If you look epic sweeping fantasy, with interesting and unusual creatures (but no elves), great character development, complex story lines, and some great story telling, I cannot recommend these books highly enough.

The only reservation that I have about the books is that sometimes it was difficult to keep the names of some of the people straight. Stackpole has a list on his website in which he provides pronunciations for the various unusual names. I suggest printing this list and keeping notes for yourself about who the people are.

In terms of the complex nature of this work and keeping everything straight, I can compare it only to my experience reading Cryptonomican by Neal Stephenson. Although the books have no story features that are similar, to me they seem similar in terms of their sweeping epic nature.

I really loved this story. I thought it was well written. Plus, I really enjoyed the voice performance by Alex Wilson, who was perfect for this piece. I normally do not like alternate history pieces. However, this one really grabbed me and sucked me right in. In the comments about the piece, multiple posters complained about the fact that there were multiple places in which the alternate history deviated from our current history. Maybe if I were more into this subgenre, that would bother me more. As it was, however, I had no problem with this at all.

I hesitate to talk about the subject matter of the story except to say that it involves an alternate history, it takes place in Paris, and it involves Adoph Hitler.

I urge you to check out this story. If you are not familiar with Escape Pod at all, poke around there a little and listen to some other stories they have to offer. They have published some great ones over the years. In particular, if you want a skewed view of super hero stories, check out the stories from the Union Dues series.

Afraid

Jack Kilborn is the alter ego of J.A. Konrath, the author of the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series of crime novels. I am a big fan of those. Thus, I was happy when I was able to snag a review copy of his new book, Afraid. With Afraid, Konrath brings us a book that is quite different from the Jack Daniels books. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone who wants to add a little horror to their reading selection.

Although Afraid does not include the amount of humor that is found in the Jack Daniels book, there is enough snark to bring just a little levity to the book. Afraid involves a helicopter crash near Safe Haven, Wisconsin. That crash releases a merciless force on the town that endangers all of the residents.

Konrath does an excellent job of pushing a variety of psychological buttons to invoke fear in the reader. He does a particularly good job of placing people in danger and making it impossible for their loved ones to assist them. The action in this novel is virtually nonstop. There are no chapter breaks in the book. As a consequence, the scenes cut from one person in peril to the next person in peril.

I don’t want to go into details as to what the killers are or who lives. However, I will say that the killers are quite efficient and their body count is quite impressive. Additionally, I enjoyed the variety of methods of attack (for lack of a better term) that were used by both the killers and the citizens.

I also liked the fact that Konrath was not afraid (no pun intended) to kill citizens. I went through the entire book never knowing if the character whose viewpoint I was experiencing would be dead on the next page.

If you like horror and don’t mind a little bloodshed in your book, then you will want to check out Afraid.

Also, for the month of March, Konrath has been on a blog tour to promote the release of Afraid. If you have not checked out that tour, I urge you to do so at his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. Konrath covers a wide variety of topics in his typical humor-filled manner. It is really engaging reading.