I Would Rather Be Reading

Greg Iles is one of my favorite authors. Therefore, I was quite excited to dive into his latest book: True Evil. I was not disappointed. It is probably my favorite Iles book since Mortal Fear.

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.

Since Every Dead Thing, I have been a fan of John Connolly. His Charlie Parker books are great detective/thriller novels with just a twist or hint of the supernatural. In fact, Connolly has specifically said that he leaves it to the reader to determine whether Parker’s “psychic abilities” are real or whether they are Parker’s mind getting away from him. With The Book of Lost Things, Connolly steps outside of his previous mythos and takes us on fairy tale about a boy (David) who gets transported from his world (England during a world war) to an alternative world.

Unlike most fairy tales, however, this alternative world is not bright and cheery. It is dark, depressing, full of monsters, and ruled by a king that has less and less power. Much of the book concerns David’s travels throughout the land to reach the king. He does this with the hope that the king will be able to help him return to the real world. In the meantime, David is shadowed and, at times, protected by The Crooked Man, who needs David’s help in order to live.

Connolly is a great storyteller and that shines through in this book. On his trip to find the king, the boy encounters several people from familiar fairy tales. However, those fairy tales have been twisted. For example, Little Red Riding Hood is willingly responsible for the half human, half wolf creatures that spend most of the book chasing the boy.

Despite the darkness of the world, Connolly manages to inject some humor into the scenes in which the boy meets Snow White and the dwarves. In Connolly’s world, Snow White is a lazy, overbearing, taskmaster that is hated by the dwarves and who scares off any potential prince who might marry her. In fact that best exchange of the book occurs when the boy is leaving the dwarves. The dwarves are retelling the Goldilocks story and they volunteer the information that the bears ate Goldilocks. David says that Goldilocks just ran away. The dwarves then say:

“That’s what ‘ran away and was never seen again’ means in these parts. It means ‘eaten.’ ”

“Um, and what about ‘happily ever after’?” asked David, a little uncertainly. “What does that mean?”

“Eaten quickly,” said Brother Number One.

As with his other books, Connolly takes what we know or what is normal and then twists it in a demented or unexpected way to keep his story fresh and interesting.

Although this book is different from Connolly’s others, I would not hesitate to recommend it.

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 have long (at least long as defined by the internet) been a fan of Escape Pod. I think they publish really good short fiction on a regular basis. Best of all, it is free (unless you decide to donate). Today I listened to an alterntative history story by Ken Scholes called Summer in Paris, Light from the Sky.

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.