...and the Booker results are in.... drum roll, please

It's The White Tiger!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I was VERY happy to see this one, even though the quirky side of me was rooting for Steve Toltz's Fraction of the Whole.

I think after you read it (and it is a definite no-miss), you will look at things very differently.

My congrats to both the judges (who had an incredibly tough choice to make here) and the author. Not that I'm anyone special, but after pouring my soul into 2 months of reading these books, I'm glad to see that one of them that I really liked won. Unlike last year. I'm still sore about that!

That's all...in 10 minutes, off to vacation land to California and then through the Panama Canal. I'll try to write before Nov. 2 when I get back.

The Book of Lies, by Brad Meltzer

I had really looked forward to this one because I really need some escape reading, but well, this one just fell sort of flat.

If you like books that feature chases, then you'll really enjoy this one. From the moment Cal Harper, former federal agent now working with homeless people, picks up his long-estranged father who he thinks is another homeless guy who's been a victim of crime, the book is pretty much nonstop action. It seems that Cal's dad Lloyd is desperate to get his hands on something that others are also looking for, but from the very beginning with an encounter on a freeway that causes the death of another federal agent, Cal and Lloyd are in trouble. Cal does everything he can to remain ahead of the law, while helping Lloyd and trying to save his own skin from both bad guys and good.

I really enjoyed Meltzer's Book of Fate but I wasn't so thrilled with this one. I guessed one of the main elements of the mystery (a mysterious figure known only as "the prophet") pretty much early on. The whole mystery of the Book of Lies didn't really do it for me...it was the central focus of the story but seemed to lack substance, and didn't really seem worth all of the trouble the characters went to to find it. But as I said, it is a page turner and you'll want to keep reading just to find out what happens.

I'd still recommend it to readers of mainstream suspense fiction.

The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

I bought this book when it first came out and finally read it yesterday.

Douglas Preston (who normally writes mystery and suspense type books) and his family travel to Florence because he's ready to write a mystery based on a missing Renaissance painting (and by the way, the outline of that book sounds pretty good). So, being the good researcher that he is, hooks up with someone who knows all about the local crime scene, and ends up becoming interested in an unsolved string of serial murders. His friend, Mario Spezi, is an award-winning crime reporter, and one of his passions is the so-called "Monster of Florence," who for over 20 years has gotten away with murdering young couples out for a romantic evening under the stars. Preston tries to work on his novel, but finds himself getting more interested in this serial killer, and soon he and Spezi are trying to solve the murders. This would have been good enough to keep me reading, but the most frightening thing about this book to me was the whole misguided system of justice in Italy, as portrayed (and lived) by Preston and Spezi. Politics and well, a bit of stupidity lead the investigation into some bizarre areas that have no merit, and soon Spezi finds himself on the wrong end of the law, as does Preston.

Very interesting, although actually it probably could have been a bit more taut and concise. I really liked it, though, and I'd definitely recommend it to readers interested in unsolved murder cases, or the workings of investigation and justice in foreign countries, or the power of the press. Or, if you're a reader of Preston's fiction, you may wish to give this one a go. Overall, very good.

The Anger of Fear, by Jeffrey Ashford

An oil sheik decides to send his young son to England to be educated at a posh private school. The police are called upon to help implement a tight security system at the school, but even with all of their precautions, the boy is kidnapped. When the investigation begins, it looks like one of the cops has given the plans to a group of kidnappers. Suspicion falls on one policeman, who tries to convince everyone he's being framed.

Anger of fear also examines the tied hands of the legal system of England, and what happens when "the anger of fear" leads people to do extraordinary things.

Ashford is a fine writer, and manages to build the suspense slowly and keep you there for a while. Recommended for people who like British mysteries, or something just a little different in their mystery reading.

Aunt Dimity and the Duke, by Nancy Atherton

I am so giving away all of my other books by this author because the me that read the first one of these years and years ago is no longer the same person. I'm sitting here looking at my tbr stack, headed by stuff like Giles Blunt's Forty Words for Sorrow, Dennis Lehane's The Given Day, ummm, let's see...2 books by Natsuo Kirino, and I'm thinking that there's much more to life than Aunt Dimity. I'm not at all dissing anyone who reads cozy mysteries; au contraire -- I used to have stacks and stacks of them, and I'm sure if I was fully cognizant of what lies hidden in my bookshelves, I'd probably find some more. I'm just saying that this is no longer my cup of tea.

I'd forgotten why I quit reading cozy mysteries until I finished this one. Actually, I made myself finish it. I used to love this stuff a long time ago, but I think my tastes have changed.

In this second book of the Aunt Dimity series, Emma, a computer professional, has been left high and dry by her boyfriend who dumped her for someone younger. She decides to go on a series of garden tours, and she meets two elderly ladies who encourage her to visit Penford Hall in Cornwall. It seems that the owner of said hall is an acquaintance of theirs. So off she goes, and is promptly drafted into service to fix up the old and long-neglected garden. While there, she becomes embroiled in a mystery or two, and some very strange things happen.

Frankly, I didn't like it. The dialogue was just not realistic, nor were the characters. I'm all for a bit of the supernatural in a mystery novel, but this one was just way too cutesy for me. I know, I know, it rates high for lots of readers, but what can I say? So I'd recommend it to people who are into cozies, which I realize now that I'm definitely not.

The Garden of Evil, by David Hewson

Although it's not my personal favorite of Hewson's Nic Costa series, The Garden of Evil is a good read all the same, and this was one I did not stop reading until I had finished it completely. As the story opens, a man who picks pockets for a living develops a bit of conscience after he realizes he has picked up among his takings someone's medicine. He traces her to the place he remembers her saying she was going, and finds her in a most bizarre situation; sadly for him. Fast forward a bit to the scene of a homicide, where Nic Costa and his team are working the scene. It seems the murderer hasn't quite gotten away, and as he tries to take him, Nic finds himself at the losing end of some tragic consequences. Thus develops a quest to get to the root of the mystery of a strange group known as The Ekstasists, a ruthless group of men whose leader is technically above the law, a rich and powerful man with roots going back centuries. But this is one man that the police really want and the chase is on.

This is another one that is probably not geared to the mainstream reading public. There is a lot of art history here which is woven into the case so if this isn't your cup of tea, move along. However, if you're patient enough and if you enjoy something above average, then you might want to give this book a try. I would suggest that you begin with the 1st in the series, because by this one, #6, the characters have become more developed and you won't really have a handle on them unless you start from the beginning. I have really enjoyed this entire series and I'm not waiting for the US release of #7, Dante's Numbers, but rather I'm purchasing one from the UK.

The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson: Horripilating Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, by William Jones

pulp! gotta love it. And a bonus -- it's in the Call of Cthulhu fiction series from Chaosium.

Joshua Pearson, professor at Columbia University, upon the death of his father, receives a manuscript from his great-grandfather Rudolph Pearson. Rudolph was also a scholar at Columbia, specializing in medieval studies. The manuscript consists of the journals of Rudolph Pearson, starting in 1922 when he accompanies Detective Matthew Leahy to a murder scene where a Russian immigrant has been brutally murdered. It seems that someone has written something in blood at the scene, and Leahy needs Rudolph's help to translate. This is only the beginning of a series of interconnected events that are the mainstay of Rudolph's journal. But this is no murder mystery: since it deals with Lovecraftian themes, you can expect to read about "a horror that mankind may never be able to accept," as well as the fears for the fate of humanity.

The writing is chilling, the characters are well drawn and you'll find yourself continuing to turn pages so that you won't even notice time going by. Do read the stories in order; each one builds on the previous.

Highly recommended.

ps/ you may want to have some Lovecraft under your belt before you read this one.

Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus

Let's just set the record straight here. Some reviewers of this book say that they were disappointed because they were expecting something along the lines of the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Well, nowhere in the blurb on the inside cover does it say that this book is an action-packed thriller. I looked, trust me. There is no promise of anything at all along the lines of the Da Vinci Code. Somewhere, some how and at some time (I don't know when or how this happened), it seems that Dan Brown's book became the standard by which to judge other books that may be even remotely similar. It seems to me that holding the Da Vinci Code as the standard is somewhat unfair: if people expect the Da Vinci Code, and they don't get what they want, then the book is often trashed because it doesn't live up to expectations. And that's unfair. Okay. Done with rant.

In Codex 632, Lisbon history professor Thomas Noronha is hired by a kind of shady foundation based in the US to find out what his predecessor, a Professor Toscano, had found during his foundation-sponsored research. Toscano had been hired to do some research on the discovery of Brazil, but it seems that his research had taken on a life of its own somewhat tangential to his original project, having to do with Christopher Columbus. Toscano died, so Noronha is hired as his replacement. The salary is quite lucrative, and he needs the money to help take care of his daughter who was born with Downs Syndrome. When Noronha discovers what it was that Toscano was up to, he realizes that he has some very important research that could possibly change our notions of what is perceived to be historical fact. His continuing search leads him from Portugal to the US to Brazil, then on to Jerusalem in his quest for more information,also leading to the Knights Templar and Kabbalah for help.

Personally, I found all of the research quite interesting, and the author says that all of the documents that are presented in this book exist today. Obviously, the author's done quite a bit of research here. What I didn't like about this book were the two subplots here: that of his linkup with one of his students, and that of his wife and child, which really went nowhere and never really developed more fully. Both were just kind of limp, and drew me away from the meat of the book.

I won't say I loved this book, because I didn't, and I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. I liked it, and think that anyone really interested in Christopher Columbus might get something out of this, or you might like the book if you're interested in theories that may lead you away from historical established status quo. You will also like it if you're interested in European history. But don't pick this up with the expectation that you're getting the Da Vinci Code, because you're not. And nowhere does the blurb say you're going to.

October 2008 -- Giving my fried brain a rest

It's been a hell of a last month. So as a reward to myself for sticking to the Booker longlist for the last 2 months, I'm reading nothing that demands brain power. Just mysteries, horror novels, maybe some sci-fi, just anything that doesn't make claims on my brain.

For 2 weeks this month I'll be reading as I sail the high seas -- we're cruising through the Panama Canal (from LA to Miami) on the Monarch of the Seas. I've loaded up my Kindle, and have a stack of books ready to go in my suitcases. Larry's bringing along some Spenser books (he never reads anything demanding brain power), so I can envision us on our balcony over the open ocean, laying around in the warm sun and reading reading reading. I hope I don't forget my glasses.