December 16, 2011
I need an elf. Actually I need a few elves. It’s T-minus 8 days til Christmas, and my “make the holiday merry and bright” list has barely been touched. For presents, books are the answer. I have been making that list and checking it twice. Since many of my family members read this newsletter, my selections cannot be published here lest surprises be ruined, but I have found some “perfect” books for people. And the best part --- they are easy to wrap for those of us who are challenged by wrapping paper and tape!
Editorial Content for Red Mist
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Patricia Cornwell hits the ground running in RED MIST. At the center are Kay Scarpetta and the usual ensemble of characters: Benton Wesley, Kay’s husband and a forensic psychiatrist; her brilliant niece, Lucy Farinelli; investigator Pete Marino; and, in this book, she brings back former New York District Attorney Jaime Berger, who at one time was Lucy’s lover. The story opens with Kay arriving in Savannah on her way to the Georgia Prison for Women. She has been summoned by one of the prisoners, who wants to talk to her about the murder of her assistant, Jack Fielding. Read More
Teaser
Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings.
Promo
Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings.
About the Book
Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding's death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.
Editorial Content for The Leopard
Book
Reviewer (text)
I read an article earlier this year that put forth the proposition that Jo Nesbo is “the next Stieg Larsson” or some such thing. I hate when people do that, though I do it myself too. It’s a convenient signpost that points the way to a “recommended if you like” sort of notation. I was reminded of it as I read THE LEOPARD, the latest installment in Nesbo’s series featuring Harry Hole, the troubled Norwegian homicide inspector. Read More
Teaser
Deeply traumatized by the Snowman investigation, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. But when a series of women are murdered --- after all spending the night at the same isolated mountain hostel --- he agrees to return to Oslo to investigate the brutal case.
Promo
Deeply traumatized by the Snowman investigation, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. But when a series of women are murdered --- after all spending the night at the same isolated mountain hostel --- he agrees to return to Oslo to investigate the brutal case.
About the Book
In the depths of winter, two young women are found dead, both drowned in their own blood. Inspector Harry Hole, deeply traumatised by an investigation that threatened the lives of those he holds most dear, initially wants nothing to do with the case but his instincts take over when a prominent MP is found brutally murdered. The victims appear completely unconnected to one another, but it’s not long before Harry makes a discovery: the women all spent the night in the same isolated mountain hostel. And someone is picking off the guests, one by one...
Editorial Content for Micro
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Michael Crichton’s fiction has terrified readers for years: THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, EATERS OF THE DEAD, CONGO, SPHERE, RISING SUN, JURASSIC PARK, and more. Attention to hair-raising details and plausible scientific facts were the hallmarks of his writing and the elements of his craft that made his stories so frightening. His many bestsellers had kept us up at night thinking about the unimaginable. When Crichton died in 2008, the world of fiction readers collectively lamented the loss of one of the greatest thriller writers of our time. Read More
Promo
MICRO follows a group of graduate students lured to Hawaii to work for a mysterious biotech company --- only to find themselves physically transformed and cast out into the rain forest, with nothing but their scientific expertise and wits to protect them.
About the Book
Three men are found dead in the locked second-floor office of a Honolulu building, with no sign of struggle except for the ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly invisible to the human eye.
In the lush forests of Oahu, groundbreaking technology has ushered in a revolutionary era of biological prospecting. Trillions of microorganisms, tens of thousands of bacteria species, are being discovered; they are feeding a search for priceless drugs and applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited by a pioneering microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies dispatches the group to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open a whole new scientific frontier.
But once in the Oahu rain forest, the scientists are thrust into a hostile wilderness that reveals profound and surprising dangers at every turn. Armed only with their knowledge of the natural world, they find themselves prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. To survive, they must harness the inherent forces of nature itself.
An instant classic, MICRO pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.
Editorial Content for The Scottish Prisoner
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I have a soft spot, a very soft spot, for Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Jamie and Claire Fraser are among my favorite fictional characters. When I heard that the latest John Grey novel would feature Jamie (the character has made appearances in the books but never as a major character), I made the decision that this would be my introduction into the Lord John Grey Outlander spin-off.
"As always, Gabaldon goes above and beyond in the entertainment department, and this book will probably be a fast read for fans of the series."
Teaser
Lord John Grey --- aristocrat, soldier and occasional spy --- finds himself in possession of a packet of explosive documents that exposes a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger.
Promo
Lord John Grey --- aristocrat, soldier and occasional spy --- finds himself in possession of a packet of explosive documents that exposes a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger.
About the Book
London, 1760. For Jamie Fraser, paroled prisoner-of-war in the remote Lake District, life could be worse: He’s not cutting sugar cane in the West Indies, and he’s close enough to the son he cannot claim as his own. But Jamie Fraser’s quiet existence is coming apart at the seams, interrupted first by dreams of his lost wife, then by the appearance of Tobias Quinn, an erstwhile comrade from the Rising.
Like many of the Jacobites who aren’t dead or in prison, Quinn still lives and breathes for the Cause. His latest plan involves an ancient relic that will rally the Irish. Jamie is having none of it --- he’s sworn off politics, fighting, and war. Until Lord John Grey shows up with a summons that will take him away from everything he loves --- again.
Lord John Grey --- aristocrat, soldier, and occasional spy --- finds himself in possession of a packet of explosive documents that exposes a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger. Time is of the essence as the investigation leads to Ireland, with a baffling message left in “Erse,” the tongue favored by Scottish Highlanders. Lord John, who oversaw Jacobite prisoners when he was governor of Ardsmiur prison, thinks Jamie may be able to translate --- but will he agree to do it?
Soon Lord John and Jamie are unwilling companions on the road to Ireland, a country whose dark castles hold dreadful secrets, and whose bogs hide the bones of the dead. A captivating return to the world Diana Gabaldon created in her Outlander and Lord John series, THE SCOTTISH PRISONER is another masterpiece of epic history, wicked deceit, and scores that can only be settled in blood.