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When it comes to mystery thrillers I love the work of Iris Johansen. She writes such fantastic thriller novels, I can hardly put them down when I get a new one. The character development is always impeccable and impressive considering most of her novels tends to have 4 or 5 strong characters.

Sophie Dunston is the main gal in "Killer Dreams". She is a strong, independent woman who is divorced and have a ten-year-old son who suffers from night terrors. His name is Michael and he has been suffering from these traumatic terrors since witnessing his Grandfather killing his Grandmother and trying to shoot him, but his Mom stepped in the way of the bullet. (I'd say he has every right to have trouble at night).

Anyway, Sophie is a brilliant chemist who has devoted all of her time to sleep research. Her father suffered from severe insomnia and that is what prompted her fascination with sleep patterns and disorders. She develops a product called REM-4 that ends up having such control over subjects that it is almost as if it brainwashes them into being slaves. Sophie rebels against what she created, insisting it never be used, but Sanborne (her boss) decides it can be the greatest chemical weapon of their time.

Needless to say Sophie quits and as we are getting into the book we find out she intends to kill Sanborne and destroy all of the REM-4 research.

Meanwhile Sanborne has been using the drug on many people along with a General they refer to as Boch. He has turned people into savage kiling machines that lack all emotion. One of the people who ends up escaping the program is Matt Royd. He too wants to kill Sanborne and Boch for that matter. He ends up joining forces with Sophie. You see where that is going, I'm sure.

Another chemist has altered REM-4 to make it stronger, but now the forumla has a very high fatality rate. Sanborne ends up sending people after Sophie and her son, Michael, because he needs her to fix REM-4 so that it won't kill the subjects, only control them. They end up losing everything and having to go into hiding with Royd.

It is easy to imagine where this book will end up, but how the author gets us to that point is full of twists and turns. Once again Iris Johansen has written a compelling novel that has left me wanting to read even more! Predictable at times, it still has enough suspense to keep me turning the pages. Plus, I really, really love her character profiles; excellent development.

Buy it, Killer Dreams!

Labels: fiction, Iris Johansen, Killer Dreams, medicine, mystery, suspense, thriller

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| 10:45 AM | 0 comment(s)!

Talk about a book making you think. Dan Brown's prequel to "The Davinci Code" is one of the best books I have ever read; right up there with Mario Puzo's "The Last Don."

All 710 pages of this book kept me completely enthralled and excited. Each day I would say to myself "I really wish I could sit down and read." Well, now I have finished it and I wish there were more like this one.

The religious, scientific and political themes were what had me so interested. Having been raised strictly Catholic there were a lot of historical facts and many theories in this book that I knew nothing about. I didn't know how many religious traditions have been carried down over hundreds and thousands of years. Even the Roman Catholic religion is such a blend of many others; makes you wonder which traditions and images are really truly 100% Catholic.

Dan Brown is a fantastic writer. His imagery is eerily realistic. Most importantly the amount of historical and geographical research he must have done in order to incorporate real life into this novel is just amazing. All spectrums from symbolism of multiple religions to theories of the world's brightest and most prestigious scientists must have been contemplated and fused together in his mind as he sat down to write "Angels and Demons."

"My daughter the skeptic. So you don't believe God speaks to man? Let me put it in your language." He took a model of the human brain down from a shelf and set it in front of her. "As you probably know, Vittoria, human beings normally use a small percentage of their brain power. However, if you put them in emotionally charged situations - like physical trauma, extreme joy or fear, deep meditation - all of a sudden their neurons start firing like crazy, resulting in massively enhanced mental clarity."

"So what? Vittoria said. "Just because you think clearly doesn't mean you talk to God."

"Aha!" Vetra exclaimed. "And yet remarkable solutions to seemingly impossible problems often occur in these moments of clarity. It's what gurus call higher consciousness. Biologists call it altered states. Psychologists call it super-sentience." He paused. "And Christians call it answered prayer." Smiling broadly he added, "Sometimes, divine revelation simple means adjusting your brain to hear what your heart already knows."

Never before have I ever read an excerpt from a book that actually made me believe fully that God does communicate with His children every day. We just don't see it.

Of course that would be the angelic portion of the book. The demons...well they were another horrifying story altogether. Whereas I have never read anything so profoundly spiritual, I have also never read anything quite so evil.

An ancient secret brotherhood, the Illuminati, I knew nothing about. Now I feel like I know far more than I ever wanted to know. Scientists who rejected the authority of the Church and government.

This book mentions symbols the Illuminati have placed around the world to verify their presence in society and make themselves secretively known. For instance, the eye on top of the pyramid on the American dollar bill is said to be a Satanic symbol placed by the Illuminati to mark their work. The eye is an all-seeing eye of the pagan god Horus. According to the theory this eye represents the evil Illuminati or Satan watching everything you do. Talk about giving you the chills. Those sneaky weasels.

This will be one book I will not summarize. It is far too good for me to give anything away. If you enjoy reading and have an open mind which will allow you to step outside of your comfort zone and into a world that questions and tests your beliefs...you should borrow this book from the library, or better yet, buy it. I loved it. I would read it again.

And a thank you to Bri for suggesting and lending the book.

Labels: Dan Brown, mystery, religion, suspense

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| 6:21 PM | 0 comment(s)!

A little bit mystery, a little bit sci-fi and a whole lot of inquistive character development kept me glued to "The Consciousness Plague" from beginning to end. For those interested in medicine, serial killers and msyteries you'll find this book a quick read and you'll wish it didn't have to end so soon.

Paul Levinson out did himself with this story. It is written perfectly. There are a lot of in-depth discussions which involve how the brain communicates and remembers things. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to understand the dialogue, but Levinson wrote it in such a way that I was able to make sense of it and enjoy it.

Phil D'Amato, our main man, is a NYPD forensic detective. There is a serial killer plaguing his area and the person(s) are strangling women, stripping them and leaving them for dead. At first there doesn't appear to be a motive or connection between the women. In fact, there doesn't even appear to be a suspect until much closer to the end of the book.

There is another storyline that develops throughout and that involves a flu epidemic that is spreading worldwide. The newly developed antibiotic Ominin seems to kick the bacteria within a week's time, but there is one extreme side effect. It messes with your memory and people are forgetting hours of their days.

Can you see how Ominin could complicate the murder case?

Oh and it does.

The twists and turns that this story takes were rivetting and I may end up reading this one again later down the road. There is some holes in the story with the secondary events and characters, but they can be forgiven overall.

My score:
Solid B+

Labels: books, drama, medicine, mystery, sci-fi

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| 8:34 PM | 2 comment(s)!

In addition to being a music fiend, I also LOVE to read. And yesterday I finished a great book; another Dean Koontz pick called "Forever Odd."

Odd Thomas is the name of the main character and he can see dead people. Laugh if you must, but this is not as cliche as Sixth Sense. In fact, this is a gift in which people come to Odd for resolution or sometimes even for reasons he doesn't quite understand. In addition he has a gift of psychic magnetism which guides him to the right places at the right time.

The book begins when Odd wakes in the middle of the night to find the spirit of Dr. Jessup in his room. He isn't scared, but he is alarmed because Dr. Jessup was perfectly alive earlier that day. So he follows Dr. Jessup to his home and finds his murdered body. Dr. Jessup's son is nowhere to be found. Thus the plot thickens and we follow Odd throughout the book searching for Danny (the missing boy) and dealing with the three sick people who have kidnapped him. The sickest being Datura, the woman who befriended a crippled Danny and took advantage of secrets he told her about Odd's supernatural gifts.

I won't get into the rest, because it was such a good read I would rather you find out for yourself. But I will tell you that despite many of the grim details, Koontz is a very funny writer. There were quite a few times in which I was laughing at how he described things. He is a vivid writer with a phenomenal imagination.

And next on my reading list is "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire.

Labels: afterlife, books, drama, mystery

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| 10:25 AM | 0 comment(s)!