Axel Brand

Five Stars Sep 2008, $25.95

ISBN: 9781594146763

In 1948 at the barber shop in the Lakeshore Towers Hotel in Milwaukee, someone entered and killed customer J. Adam bark, THE HOUSE DICK.  Homicide detective Lieutenant Joe Burgess leads the investigation, but has a difficult time with who the barber Damon Barbara insists killed Bark; Spencer Tracy does not seem like a cold blooded killer nor why would he murder Bark.

Still he has the department check where Tracy is even as he begins searching Bark’s office for clues.  He soon realizes Bark had a lucrative business with a few cops as they would bust in on unmarried couples illegally using a room.  Heeding his wife Lizbeth’s suggestion that one of those victims sought revenge, Joe begins to make inquiries in that direction, but soon Greer Garson and Veronica Lake are shot.

This is a great regional historical police procedural starting with the insistence of the eye witness that Hollywood Spencer Tracey killed THE HOTEL DICK and never slowing down until the final spin.  The story line is character driven mostly by Joe and the late Bark.  This is one brand of a detective that the audience will want more of as 1948 Milwaukee comes to life in a superb whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

Kate Flora

Five Stars Sep 2008, $25.95

ISBN: 9781594147203

Portland, Maine Police Detective Sergeant Joe Burgess is about to leave on his summer vacation when the murdered corpse of preadolescent neglected child Timothy Watts is found.  The case should belong to Joe’s peer Terry Kyle, but the usually dedicated cop fails to show up for work so he delays his scheduled time off to take charge of the investigation.

Whoever killed the child battered and sodomized him before cleaning him up.  The child’s six-foot plus three hundred pound Mother Watts arrives hysterically and inadvertently hurts Joe’s bad knee.  Though limping, he, Officers Stan Perry and Chris Perlin continue to investigate asking neighbors and family who killed THE ANGEL OF KNOWLTON PARK that many adopted as everybody’s child.

There is an incredible amount of crime for Joe to work besides the murder.  Arson, meth sales, alcohol abuse, child neglect, pedophile and assaults would keep a much bigger department overwhelmed.  Joe keeps on ticking so much so the Energizer Bunny would envy his energy.  Although there is an overwhelming load of righteous indignant pontification re the felons, fans will enjoy this solid regional police procedural due to the hero cop.

Harriet Klausner

Ellen Hart

St. Martin’s, Nov 2008, $24.95

ISBN: 03123755255

Besides running her restaurants, Jane Lawless is also working on her father Ray’s campaign for governor and helping her friends; she and her lover Kenzine wish she had more time for them.  As a defense attorney Ray defended Corey Hodge against a rape charge; he arranged a plea bargain that got the man out of prison.  Ray’s opponent is using that case and others defended by Jane’s dad as making the streets unsafe.

Cory volunteers to work at the campaign’s headquarters; there he meets another volunteer Charity Miller, who fears her former fiancé Gabriel Kean.  The law firm of Lawless, Kaplan and Piper got Kean off on a technicality in the beating of Minister Christopher Cornish.  When Charity is murdered by someone using the same M.O. that led to Corey’s conviction, the police focus on him though other suspects including Kean exist.  Cory’s aunt asks Jane to prove his innocence.  She reluctantly agrees though an inquiry takes more time away from Kenzine who finally leaves while her former lover Julia tries to win back her heart.

The Jane Lawless mysteries are some of the consistently best amateur sleuth tales and SWEET POISON confirms that belief.  The whodunit is fabulous as there are many suspects besides Corey for Jane to look at.  Her attitude remains top notch demanding people to accept her as is while actively campaigning for her dad; Ray shows his strength of character too as he wants her election help and not a bush league sham limited to gays and lesbians.  With the Willie Horton election effect adding to a strong election year intrigue, fans will enjoy Ellen Hart’s latest timely winner.

Harriet Klausner

The illumenation of an Old Testament lamp is not what I am looking for.   I want a Q-Beam!  A "lamp to my feet" only allows me to see one step at a time.  Given the speed of light, I can run as fast as my feet will take me, but I can only see ahead one step at a time. 

I want a Q-Beam so that I can be a bigger part of the decision making process or to be the decision making process.  Let me see what is behind Door #1 and Door #2, and then I'll pick.  But God seems more impressed with his purposes than my self-protective strategies.  That leaves me having to be dependant upon God.  I must run in the light, but toward a mystery.

It leaves me with only one "candle power".

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008)

Director: Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly
Runtime: 104 Minutes
Genre: Drama/Mystery

Selected Cinemas.

Synopsis:

After a FBI agent goes missing after an attack and their only lead is provided through the help of a Psychic (Billy Connolly), the FBI call on former agent Fox Moulder (David Duchovny) in a bid to bring some clarity to the perplexing case. Accompanying him is former agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), now a doctor, fighting her own battle to treat a young boy with a seemingly untreatable brain disease. With Scully doubting the Psychics ability, given he is a convicted paedophile, Moulder is left to challenge his own beliefs: is the psychic a fraud or can he truly help find the missing agent?

Review:

Given the X-files has been absent from the screen for 5 years, it’s hard to not be disappointed by the return of paranormal investigative FBI agent’s Scully and Moulder. It’s not because it’s a terrible movie, on the contrary, it actually stands alone as quite a good murder mystery, despite some instances of incoherent and sloppy storytelling, and brings some ethical debate to the table. It’s not the performances either, as the chemistry between the two leads is as potent as ever, albeit surprisingly underused. It’s hard not to love the boyish charm and wit of Duchovny as Fox Moulder, who slips back into character like he never left. Perfectly countering the optimism of her partner is Dana Scully, convincingly brought back to the screen by Gillian Anderson. However, Scully spends too much time preoccupied with the films sub-plot, which pits her duty as a doctor against her superior's, and her own, religious beliefs. It’s a thought provoking ethical diversion, but it takes away too much screen time from the undeniable chemistry between the Moulder and Scully that is key to the series success.

Given that the intriguing story is guided by strong performaces, it begs the question; why do I still classify the film as a disappointment? Well, it’s because the film has “X-files” in the title. This becomes an issue when i rarely ever felt as though i was watching an X-files movie. The film’s departure from the TV series story arch and complete absence of anything otherworldly seems to me like the complete wrong way to go about reviving interest in the series. It’s as though director Chris Carter though that the chemistry of Scully and Moulder was enough to justify the title, and for a 40 minute TV episode, he’d probably be right. But this is a feature film that has been half a decade coming, and for that reason alone, he should have given the audience more “X” for the price of admission.

Conclusion:

Just imagine if Christopher Nolan took the “Bat” out of “Batman Begins” when reviving the series in 2005, turning it into a film where Bruce Wayne never becomes the caped crusader and instead just takes on criminals in a court of law for an hour and a half. I have enough faith in Nolan’s ability to say it would probably still be a decent film, but it’s sure as hell one way to isolate the long standing fan base for the franchise. This is what Chris Carter has gone and done here, taken the “X” out of “X-Files”, turning the film into nothing more than an above average crime drama that leaves you questioning whether Scully and Moulder accidently switched their police files with the cast of CSI. It's worth watching, but not for all the reasons it should be.

Rating:

Trailer:

And this is true of so much in my life now. My computer is malfunctioning on and off. The much-loved and rather resented ex-lover emails me and I can tell he is lonely. I am determined not to feel sorry for him because us women spend too much of our time feeling sorry for men.

He doesn't know how to make my killer salad vinaigrette, but that is his problem, damn it. He could have paid attention while I was there in the kitchen deftly whisking balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil and Dijon mustard together. But no, he was thinking about po-faced Richard Dawkins solving all the known mysteries of the planet and reducing everything to equations and common sense. While I was doing practical uncommon magic right under his nose.

He misses the flowers I placed in glass bowls around the house, roses and lilies and trailing ivy, the sweet-smelling oils with which I polished the furniture, the candles set near the foamy sea-green bath, the appetising smell of roast chicken or sauces for pasta when he came in through the front door, muddy and complaining. He even misses the piles of books and literary journals, the New Yorkers and London Review of Books, the music of Stravinsky, the recipes written down and left near the stove, spells for unforgettable meals. The mirrors I put up to catch and reflect green light from the garden, my pots of herbs and the spires of mauve petrovskia or red and yellow kniphofia that reminded me of Africa. He tells me, with that mean-spirited sorrow of the man who feels abandoned by his mistress, that he has killed off most of my plants. He doesn't understand how he did it, he says slyly.

I grit my teeth and go out into my wild garden here in Africa, four or five times the size of my little Welsh pocket handkerchief. There is the African cuckoo, the piet-my-vrou, singing his heart out in a thicket of wild tecomaria, our Cape honeysuckle. The polygalas, or September bushes, are flowering in purple. The lemon tree is smothered in ripe lemons. My olives blow silver in the mist.

My lost love, the destroyer of nature and spoiler of passion. I cannot see what will become of us and I don't know how often love affairs can endure the alchemy of transmuting into true friendship.

But the words of Virginia Woolf come back to me again and again. That women too often serve as mirrors reflecting men at twice their size and men depend on us, need us, take up all our time. My deepest spiritual connections come from earth-based practicality, the work I do in my garden with a little spade and secateurs. My rough magic comes out in my cooking and gardening and homemaking and listening to birds crying in the mist, looking at art, writing and striving to live more fully, more richly, more selflessly. I did not create a garden in Wales so that a discontented and selfish child could destroy it. Let him make his own garden, let him undergo my shamanic initiations of pain and grief -- then he can talk to me of friendship. Enough of this coddling, enough of pretence. I am so tired of men in flght from mystery. Any man who has watched the blood and filth and splitting and tearing and flooding wetness of a woman giving birth will understand more of mystery than Dawkins or his ilk of lab rats.

Growth into the earth-based wisdom is crucial for human connectivity, to love the earth and respect her produce and nuture what is there before it is too late -- enough of this celluloid Hollywood imitation of love affairs. There is another place we need to meet as co-workers serving the Great Mother before we play those tedious 'he says/she says' games.

Author: Linwood Barclay

Genre: Mystery

Series: Book 1

Format: Paperback

The Plot (from amazon.ca):

Zack Walker is a man with too much time on his hands. To avoid the deadline for his next science fiction novel, he wanders around his seemingly tranquil suburban neighbourhood, the calm setting safety-obsessed Zack pictured when he moved his family out of the crime-ridden inner city. This placid portrait is rudely interrupted, though, when he stumbles across the body of an apparent murder victim, and when he starts to indulge in some amateur sleuthing, Zack gets to know his neighbors a little better, including an S&M dominatrix and a professional pot grower, whose help he has to enlist once his snooping puts his family in danger.

My Thoughts: Hilarious!

I have been reading Barclay's Toronto Star column for years. His humour and observational skills have translated perfectly into fiction.

Every female who reads this book will recognize the complete cluenessless of the hero, Zach Walker. Well-meaning and devoted, Zach nonetheless manages to create complete havoc with everything that he does. There are many laugh out loud moments in this book along with an interesting plot that sparkles with wit and intelligence.

Humour aside, the mystery plot is strong enough to stand on its own. The aspect that I enjoyed the most about this book is that it is all so realistic. All of the characters could live next door to you.  The dialogue between Zach and his oh-so-patient wife could have been recorded verbatim from any real life converstaion. Perhaps it was; Barclay is particularly skilled at describing the eye rolls and annoyed reactions of Sarah Walker. After reading Barclay's newspaper column, you know that he has been on the receiving end of those looks many a time in real life.

I gave this book to my mother, who immediately demanded (and received) all of Barclay's other novels.

Grade: A

Read Again?: Yes

Did I Peek At The End?: No

And I want to leave for a while.

Not forever, just...a while.

And no one ever wants to go with me.

I'd even settle for going to the park.

Just away from where I am.

It helps me think about why I wanted to leave in the first place.

Like today, I had an overwhelming urge to take a walk.

I did. I walked around the block, and into the woods.

I found that place I've only found once before, in another lifetime, it seems.

And I laid face up in the sand.

And I thought.

I thought to myself, "Why, Lauren, did you want to leave your bed?"
"Because. I was really tired of not moving. I like to move."

Mystery solved.

Freelance writer Janie Austin has never been able to resist the siren call of Esikmo Pie, just like she can't resist renewing her romance with Andrew, an old crush. With her bank account hitting new lows, she's also just agreed to write jokes for Dorcas, a stand-up comic who throws her pantyhose into the audience as a punch line.

Not only is Dorcas's act a bomb, she is hackled by Vic, a gorgerous fellow comic. Naturally when Vic is murdered with Dorcas's pantyhose and that same Dorcas is standing over his dead body, the police arrest...Dorcas. They figure it's an open-and-shut case, althought Janie figures no killer can be that dumb.

But when Janie sets out to find the real culprit, she is distracted by one dating disaster after another with Andrew--and she may not see the dark side of comedy until she faces the business end of a gun and a cold, deadly grin.

Steven F. Havill

Dunne, Nov 2008, $24.95

ISBN: 0312380631

New Mexico state worker Connie Ulibarri stopped her vehicle on the Regas Pass in the san Cristobel Mountains between old Mexico and Posadas County when she saw the dead deer had a Fish and Game tag. As she went to retrieve the tag, she noticed the truck in the ditch below. With the help of a trucker who stopped to assist her, she climbs down to find the driver dead.

Posadas County Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman leads the investigation that is confusing as the victim died from drowning with a footprint on his hand; apparently someone was at the accident scene and tossed alcohol into the late driver when he was barely alive; ergo cause of death drowning though the John Doe would have died from his injuries soon. As Estelle and her team make inquiries, the clues lead to a Canadian sweepstake that involves long time friends. Other incidents like the accidental death of an illegal and the accidental discharge of a rookie’s gun keep Estelle, the squad and their boss County Sheriff Robert Torrez overworked.

The latest Posadas County police procedural is a fabulous tale that contains one major investigation, a minor case, the discharge incident and a dedicated Women’s World magazine reporter interviewing the staff and accompanying Estelle on the job. The prime case is clever and eye opening on scams while Gastner makes several mentoring appearances to add to the overall fun of a well written cop investigative thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Face of a Killer

Robin Burcell

Poisoned Pen, Nov 2008, $24.95

ISBN 9781590583746

Two decades ago the police arrested Johnnie Wheeler in the killing of the father of Sydney Fitzpatrick; he was convicted and now after twenty years on death row he is to be executed. Sydney, over the objections of her concerned family members, joined the FBI as a forensic artist.

Her boss Supervisory Special Agent Dixon asks her to come in on a day off that’s he planned to drink away because of the state execution. He needs her to coax a description of a perp out of reticent battered victim Tara Brown, who was raped and left to die. Sydney succeeds, but the vivid drawing of the rapist looks like a twin of Wheeler. Sydney decides to visit Wheeler to ask him why; she informs her outraged mom and stepfather, who want Wheeler dead so they can obtain some closure. After meeting Wheeler at San Quentin, Sydney begins to doubt he is her father’s killer and starts to consider the Brown rapist as the predator who murdered her dad. She begins to make inquiries and with the help of her doubting partner Carillo finds clues that lead to a political-CIA connection that places her family in danger.

This is an exhilarating police procedural with the focus on forensic drawing. The story line is action packed but driven by Sydney’s need to know the truth about her dad’s murder. Although the conspiracy seems a bit over the Sierras, fans will appreciate Robin Burcell’s strong suspense tale as the heroines draws THE FACE OF A KILLER.

Harriet Klausner

Mignon F. Ballard

St. Martin’s, Nov 2008, $24.95

ISBN: 9780312376673

Everyone’s favorite Guardian Angel Augusta Goodnight is still staying with Lucy Nan Pilgrim in the small town of Stone’s Throw, South Carolina. It is the Christmas season; Augusta’s favorite time of the year. She, Lucy and their friend Ellis seek the right tree for their church fellowship. They are looking on the grounds of Willowbrook, owned by Lucy’s cousin, when they find a dead man on the porch below the mansion’s balcony; the guard rail is broken.

While everyone tries to identify the John Doe, they are also happy for their friend Idonia who avoided love for years, but is involved with newcomer Melrose DuBois, who gave her a locket as a sign of his affection. When Lucy Nan and Ellis visit the caretakers of Willowbrook, the Tanseys, they see a picture of the couple’s dead daughter wearing the same locket that Melrose gave to Idonia. The dead man is identified as Dexter Clark, the son in law of the Tansy’s’ dead daughter. Dexter’s Aunt Opal Henshawe is also killed; Lucy Nan and Ellis know the events are obviously related even Melrose’s disappearance. However, what that connection is remains mysteriously unknown as they seek to identify a killer without becoming the next victims.

Living up to her surname Augusta is the personification of goodness as she is able to make those in her circle feel better about themselves. While she cannot directly help find the culprit, Augusta assists Lucy, Nan, and Ellis on the quest. They each have an inner strength so when they team up, they can move mountains. Mignon F. Ballard is a wonderful storyteller who enchants her audience with this charming amateur sleuth urban fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

This is a fantastic detective series which has as it`s leading character detectvie David Creegan and his partner, Susan Branca. There`s something totally unusual about David, he is very different from the rest of the world, after being dead for ten minutes after being shot. But with his life, he`s lost any kind of fear and is obsessed to resolve the cases which come in his path. Not obeying and playing by his own rules is what this man does best.
I totally recommand this show to everybody because it sais so many things and shows things you begin to understand. It`s humanity is also very ‘touching’. Creegan gets mad, cries and enjoies life just like one of us.
Very sad that the series has just a few episodes, many people regret it`s end.
Guess why I like it so much!

Revelation 10:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,    

Revelation 10:3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.    

Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.    

Revelation 10:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,    

Revelation 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:    

Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.    

Revelation 10:8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.    

Revelation 10:9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.    

Revelation 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.    

Revelation 10:11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.    

I have to admit I picked this book up by accident. I was vacationing and needed a quick book. Something to pick up while I waited for the pasta water came to a boil, or while the boys were still sleeping. I remembered this being part of the Challenge and decided to see if I could read it in less than 36 hours.

Devil in a Blue Dress is Walter Mosley's first book and kicks off the Easy Rawlins series. Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a black war WWII vet prone to violent flashbacks. In the beginning Devil in a Blue Dress he is fired from his defense plant job and doesn't know how he's going to pay the mortgage next month. By the second chapter Easy has been hired to locate a missing girlfriend, a devil in a blue dress, as they say. Throughout the next 200 pages Easy faces his share of violence, sex, racism and mystery but in the end, discovers a new found career - private investigations.

My favorite line: "He put up his hand as if he wanted me to bend down so he could whisper something but I didn't think that anything he had to offer could improve my life" (p25). It's that kind of sense of humor and sarcasm that carries Devil in a Blue Dress. You don't realize that Mosley is telling you more than a story. He's giving you a social commentary on what it meant to be a black man, riding the line of poverty in the 1940's.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter "Walter Mosley: Too Good To Miss" (p 169).