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"The Grave Tattoo" was supposed to be a psychological thriller and I suppose in some ways it was because it did keep me guessing. But it also had other more obvious components of academic passion, mystery, science (forensics) and history. The author is Val McDermid, this is the first of his stories I have read and I would read him again if I stumbled across another book.

Everything begins by the discovery of a body in a swampy area where Dr. Jane Gresham grew up in the Lake District of England. The body is assumed to be about 200 years old, it has very defined, black tattoos which signify a man who had traveled the South Seas.

Jane Gresham resides in the scary, ghetto Marshpool neighborhood and gets to go home to the more upscale and yet quaint Lake District when she pitches a theory to the college where she works that the body found could be none other than Fletcher Christian. She feels this way based on another theory of hers that Fletcher Christian told William Wordsworth his story and Wordsworth wrote about it in his manuscript The Bounty. She proposes the whole truth exists and is being kept secret in a local home. If found her theory would be correct, she would become an academic hero and the family with the manuscript could stand to make millions.

There are a lot of different characters who you sort of have to remember and connect on your own throughout the story. One of which is a thirteen year old girl named Tenille who Jane treats like a younger sister. She gets caught up in a lot of trouble and is wanted for questioning about murder, arson, burglary, etc. Keeping track of her drama is like keeping track of a whole separate story.

Then you have the forensic scientist making a documentary of the "bog body" which she named Pirate Peat. So you have chapters involving just her, her name is Dr. River Wilde. She ends up dating a detective while she is in the area his name is Rigston. Rigston ends up getting pulled into the Tenille situation. See how things connect, but not really?

Jane wanted to find out which ancestors would possibly have the manuscript so she did a lot of research. She spoke with people who were decedents of a lady who used to work for the Wordsworth family. But each person on her list to speak with winds up dead. And so Rigston gets involved with this search even though it appears each person died of natural causes.

I don't want to get into too much spoiler information, but the twists and turns did keep me on my toes. I liked the suspense, even though at times it was very unbelievable. Like when Jane is hit over the head, falls off a cliff into water and a sheep herder sees her fall and saves her.

But, for the most part it was an entertaining read and I did enjoy the 20 minutes each night when I took time to get through a few chapters.

Labels: forensics, history, mystery, suspense, thriller, Val McDermid

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| 7:30 AM | 0 comment(s)!

While reading "The Overlook" by Michael Connelly I was hooked and wanted to fight out what was going on. I loved trying to keep up with the twists and turns of the plot. But when all was said and done it felt rushed. You solve a crime in a very unlikely way and it hardly makes sense and then the book is over. Like the author got tired of writing and tried to wrap it all up in a big pretty bow.

Harry Bosch is a character in more than one of Michael Connelly's books, this was obvious to me even without having read any prequels to "The Overlook." But I don't feel like I missed out on his character development too much as his history seems to get thrown in his face a lot.

Repeater, FBI agent Rachel Walling, is also in this book.

Bosch has a new partner, rookie Iggy Ferras, and they get called into a huge case which just explodes into all types of fun in the middle of the night. They are a special team of the LAPD and find themselves getting mixed in with the feds. The sour relationship between the FBI and LAPD is evident through the entire plot. There is indeed a power struggle to say the least.

The story is based around an execution style murder of physicist Stanley Kent on a Mulholland Drive overlook. The FBI gets involved because they feel it could be terrorist related due to the radioactive materials Kent handles on a daily basis.

As the plot unfolds or rather twists and weaves you find out that the FBI are heading in the wrong direction and following misguided notions. Bosch on the other hand begins sniffing out the truth of the matter and due to tensions and doubts he isn't really taken seriously until we're down on the wire and multiple lives are at stake.

I won't tell you what happens, I will tell you I did not expect it. I appreciate that this book was unpredictable for me, that doesn't happen often. For the most part I was very interested in following the crime scenes and picking up on the clues, but I feel things could have come together slower and not thrown into overdrive just to finish the book and get it on the shelves.

Labels: crime, Michael Connelly, suspense

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| 8:12 AM | 0 comment(s)!

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)!