“The circus arrives without warning.

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers.  It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn  (SEP 13, 2011)

Illusion and reality intersect and overlap to reveal a luminous, mesmerizing character– Le Cirque des Rêves (The Circus of Dreams). As the sun is the center of the solar system, the Circus of Dreams is the central character of this enchanting tale. Like a magnetic field, Le Cirque des Rêves pulls in other characters like orbiting satellites around a bright star. This isn’t your childhood circus–rather, this is more in tune with Lewis Carroll or M.C. Escher–a surreal and hypnotic place of the imagination and spirit.

Le Cirque des Rêves is a dazzling venue of magical intensity and Tarot images, a story of dreams and desires. It is an invention that reflects the Jungian collective unconscious and personifies the archetypes of polarity–night/day, good/evil, life/death, safety/danger, among other symbols and experiences that have repeated themselves since ancient times. The manipulations of these images and forces speak to the core of the story.

At the end of the nineteenth century in London, two self-regarding necromancers arrange a duel, part of an ongoing contest reaching back through their long history. Prospero the Magician and “the man in the grey suit” agree to provide a worthy opponent each for this contest of illusion, a competition that is only partly visible to the reader’s eye. Prospero trains his daughter, Celia; the grey-suited man selects a fitting boy, Marco, from an orphanage. Sealed with a ring in a familiar ritual, the turf war proceeds.

When Marco and Celia become adults, the duel commences within the venue of the atmospheric, aromatic circus, which is open only at night, in colors black and white (and shades of silver). The duel and its setting is showcased in its artistry of conception, the beauty of its containment, and the mystery of its migration. Le Cirque des Rêves travels silently, invisibly, from country to country, unannounced. There’s a tent of stars, a room of sculpted ice, a pool of tears. The fireplace burns eternally with a white-hot blaze. The landscape of the duel’s setting is a phantasmagorical tour de force.

The cast is inseparable from Le Cirque des Rêves. Among others, they include the tattooed contortionist, Tsukiko, the twins, Poppet and Widget, (born on the dawn of the circus’ opening night), and the Tarot reader, Isobel. Marco is a chameleon-like magician and Celia is the Isis of alchemy. They mirror the archetypes of Jung’s collective unconscious–the shadow; the animus/anima; the hero; the mother; sacrifice/rebirth; the Self, and the wise old man.

The tarot readings, like the story’s progression, are dynamic components of character transformation, digging down to the layers of repressed memories and sublime intuition. ??Within this process of transformation, the individual characters of this story must journey through uncharted terrain like portals in the soul, proceeding toward a cosmic relationship with humanity. How to separate reality from illusion and arrive at the totality of the Self? What obstacles and pathologies must be overcome to achieve a kindred consciousness? Likewise, the duelists become lovers, complicating the stakes of the game–if you win, you lose.

A magnificent, spectral clock is commissioned from a renowned German clockmaker, a clock that is mystical and harlequin, dreamlike and figurative. It stands like an emissary at the gates of the circus, a timepiece of magical stratification, an emblem of temporal shifts. No patrons can enter until dusk, and all must be gone by dawn.

In Erin Morganstern’s enchanting first novel, illusion and reality are two sides of the same coin. Inspiration and imagination become tangible territory, a dream circus of the wakened mind, a magical mystery tour of the unconscious. This is a Fool’s (Hero’s) journey, an adventure for the immortal child and enduring lovers, to a star-filled tunnel and a silver sky. Step from bare grass to painted ground, eye the towering tents of black and white stripes. Enter.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 1085 readers
PUBLISHER:	Doubleday (September 13, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Erin Morganstern
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers

Bibliography:

• The Night Circus (September 2011)

“The Chief believed if you sift through evil, at the very bottom you’ll find good. He believed that evil has its limits. Beauvoir didn’t. He believed that if you sift through good, you’ll find evil. Without borders, without brakes, without limit.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  SEP 02, 2011)

Three Pines is a village near Montréal that is so small it does not appear on any map. For its size, this town has had an inordinate number of murders; solving them is the job of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté de Quebec and his team of detectives. This time, the victim is a woman, Lillian Dyson, whose art criticism years ago was so caustic that she was responsible for putting an end to budding careers. Louise Penny’s A Trick of the Light is all about artists—their insecurities, craving for recognition, pettiness, resentment, and jealousy.

Two artists, Clara Morrow and her husband, Peter, live in Three Pines, and Peter has been moderately successful. However, it is Clara who is having a private solo exhibition, a vernissage, at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montréal. For years she toiled in relative obscurity, receiving nothing but “silence from a baffled and even bemused art world.” Now that Clara has come into her own, Peter has mixed feelings about his wife’s long overdue fame.

This novel deals with relationships and emotions. Gamache is still barely on speaking terms with Olivier Brulé, who bears a grudge against him. Moreover, Gamache still has nightmares about a bloody raid he conducted that went terribly wrong, nearly taking his life and that of his second-in-command, Jean Guy Beauvior. Jean Guy is a wreck, who relies on pain pills to get through the day and is planning to end his miserable marriage (“all the petty sordid squabbles, the tiny slights, the scarring and scabbing”).

Louise Penny understands what makes people tick. She knows that they often show one face to their family, friends, and neighbors, while they bury their true feelings under a façade of amiability. A Trick of the Light exposes the soul-destroying anger, the disappointments, and the bitter rancor that can eat a person up from within. She specifically examines the mind-set of alcoholics, who are capable of doing extensive damage before they are ready to admit that they desperately need help.

As a murder mystery, this is a fairly routine effort. There is little suspense (the list of people who had motive, means, and opportunity to kill Lillian is not particularly large) and most readers will not be shocked when Gamache unmasks the culprit. Penny is a stand-out for other reasons: her eloquent use of language, analysis of people’s psychological foibles, and her beautiful and sometimes humorous description of life in a place so tiny that everyone is intimately acquainted with everyone else. Ruth, an old drunk who insults people with wild abandon, Olivier and his beloved partner, Gabri, and Armand’s lovely wife, Reine-Marie, are all on hand, along with an assortment of art dealers, gallery owners, associates of the homicide victim, and the detectives who are under Gamache’s command. Penny explores what makes art memorable and also what it is like to struggle creatively. This alone makes A Trick of the Light both fascinating and, at times, poetic.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 287 readers
PUBLISHER:	Minotaur Books (August 30, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Louise Penny
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Missing Persons by Claire O’Donohue

Bibliography:

Chief Inspector Gamache novels:

• Still Life (2006)  /  
• Fatal Grace (2007) 
• The Cruelest Month (2008) 
• A Rule Against Murder (2009)
• The Brutal Telling (2009) 
• Bury Your Dead (2010)
• A Trick of the Light (2011) 
• The Beautiful Mystery (2012)
• How the Light Gets In (August 2013)

“How quickly it can change, the life we think has been marked out for us. We start the journey with good intentions, the gift our parents bequeathed us. And then, someone snaps their fingers and we find ourselves sidetracked; we end up in a foreign country.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky AUG 10, 2011)

Karin Fossum’s Bad Intentions is about three friends, now in their twenties, who have known each other since they were six. On the surface, Axel Frimann is by far the most successful. He is well-spoken, good-looking, nicely dressed, and drives a Mercedes; his job at an advertising agency pays well. Philip Reilly, on the other hand, is disheveled, has long, stringy hair (“he looked like a troll from a fairy tale”), and spends a portion of his small salary as a hospital porter getting high. The third member of the trio is Jon Moreno.

As the story opens, Jon is with his two buddies at a cabin near a lake ominously called “Dead Water.” Reilly and Frimann have taken Jon out of the hospital ward where he is being treated for depression and anxiety; the doctors hope that the change of scenery will speed Jon’s recovery.

The three men share a dark secret, one that would land them in deep trouble if it came to light. Their transgression preys on Reilly and Moreno, while Frimann’s chief concern is how to keep his pals from blabbing and ruining his life. The dynamics of control—self-control and the control of others—drives the story. Some men are leaders and others are followers. For certain individuals, it is easier to let someone else make the decisions than it is to take a stand. Fossum is keenly aware that any of us, in certain circumstances, can do something that we will forever regret. Certain people rationalize their actions and blithely carry on as if nothing has happened, while those who possess a sense of morality may become mired in guilt. They can escape only when they unburden themselves and try to atone.

Inspector Konrad Sejer and Jakob Skarre are called in when one of the men goes missing. Sejer interviews the victim’s family and acquaintances, but although he has his suspicions, he has little hard evidence to go on. The inspector thinks, “I’ve developed a profound skepticism and it follows me everywhere. I don’t trust anyone.” When another body turns up, Sejer’s suspicions deepen, and soon matters come to a head in an unexpected manner.

Karin Fossum demonstrates that justice comes in many forms and is often meted out in unlikely ways. In addition, she poignantly touches on how two grieving mothers find a measure of consolation after they lose their beloved children. Bad Intentions, translated capably from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund, is a subtle and heartbreaking tale of psychological suspense in which Fossum explores not only the nature of good and evil, but also the power of guilt to insidiously destroy a person from within.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 36 readers
PUBLISHER:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (August 9, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on Karin Fossum
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Indian Bride When the Devil Holds the Candle Who Fears the Wolf Don’t Look Back

Bibliography:

The Inspector Sejer & Inspector Jakob Skarre Series:

• Eve’s Eye (1995)
• Don’t Look Back (1996; 2004 in US)
• He Who Fears the Wolf (1997; 2005 in US)
• When the Devil Holds the Candle (1998; 2006 in US)
• The Indian Bride (2000; July 2007 in US)
• Black Seconds (2008)
• The Water’s Edge (2009)
• Bad Intentions (August 2011)

Other:

• The House of the Insane (1999)
• The Nightmare of November 4th (2004)
• Broken (2006; August 2010 in US)
• The House of Fools (2008)

“There was a simple clarity to killing, and it was his only way forward. He had to remind a group of multimillionaires who had gotten used to thinking of themselves as immortal that death could overtake them at any time. He also had to teach them that even a solitary enemy could do them terrible harm.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (MAY 07, 2011)

One of Thomas Perry’s most iconic characters is “The Butcher’s Boy,” a professional hit man with an impressive resume. In his prime, he was the go-to guy for gangsters who wanted to get rid of their enemies. Taught by his foster father, Eddie Mastrewski, who worked as a butcher but also rubbed out individuals for a fee, the Butcher’s Boy (who now goes by the name Michael Schaeffer) is mentally tough, remorseless, practical, and a perfectionist who has stayed alive by taking nothing for granted. He is a master of weaponry and surveillance; is good at blending into the background; can bypass most alarm systems; and has a sixth sense that alerts him to subtle clues in his environment. Although he can improvise when necessary, he prefers to plan ahead. He does not toy with his victims; he strangles, shoots, or stabs them, and then quickly vanishes.

In The Informant, Michael is in his fifties, and has lived in England for years with Meg, his beautiful and aristocratic wife. He prefers a quiet existence to his adrenaline-fueled and violent younger days. Unfortunately, ten years earlier, he was spotted by a thug who recognized him, and more recently, three men tried to kill Michael and his wife in their home. Michael returns to the States to see if he can rout his adversaries once and for all. He embarks on a one-man killing spree, and Elizabeth Waring, who works for the Justice Department, sees an opportunity to take down various crime figures whom she has been after for years.

Michael travels by plane and car to New York, Washington, D. C., Texas, Illinois, California, and Arizona, seeking information and trying to get the drop on his opponents. Waring, who is an expert on Organized Crime, is on the outs with her tightly-wound and bureaucratic boss, Dale Hunsecker. Without Hunsecker’s permission, she tries to get Michael to turn informant in return for federal protection. Michael and Waring are both mavericks who have succeeded through hard work, commitment, and keen intelligence. However, they are on opposite sides of the law and are understandably wary of one another.

Perry keeps his story moving briskly with well-choreographed action and chase scenes, exciting confrontations, lots of bloodshed, and a large body count. It is entertaining to watch Michael meticulously prepare for each step of his journey. With his savvy and willingness to take measured risks, he could have been a huge success had he used his skills, say, as an investment banker on Wall Street. Perry’s dialogue is amusing and the author keeps us on tenterhooks, wondering how Michael will extricate himself from the gigantic mess he has gotten himself into. Although The Informant is fun, it is also pure fantasy. There is no human being on earth as perfect as Michael (he rarely makes mistakes), and it is a stretch that Elizabeth would risk her job and the well-being of her family to get the Butcher’s Boy on her side. It is also hard to accept that a cold-blooded killer is capable of having a warm and loving relationship with a woman. Fortunately, Perry keeps us from taking these far-fetched plot elements too seriously by keeping us thoroughly engrossed in Michael’s wild and perilous escapades.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 25 readers
PUBLISHER:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (May 5, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Thomas Perry
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Nightlife Silence Runner

Bibliography:

• The Butcher’s Boy (1982)
• Metzger’s Dog (1983)
• Big Fish (1985)
• Island (1988)
• Sleeping Dogs (1992)
• Death Benefits (2001)
• Pursuit (2001)
• Dead Aim (2002)
• Nightlife (March 2006)
• Silence (June 2007)
• Fidelity (May 2008)
• Strip (May 2010)
• The Informant (May 2011) *

*The Butcher’s Boy returns

Jane Whitefield series:

• Vanishing Act (1995)
• Dance for the Dead (1996)
• Shadow Woman (1997)
• The Face-Changers (1998)
• Blood Money (1999)
• Runner (January 2009)

“Could it be a dream, a nightmare? Was she really there, awake in the darkness contemplating her son’s final hours? Of course she was. She had lived the nightmare for nine years now, ever since the day she’d been told that Donté had not only been arrested but also confessed. The nightmare was a book as thick as her Bible, every chapter another tragedy, every page filled with sorrow and disbelief.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (JAN 09, 2011)

Keith Schroeder is a thirty-five year old Lutheran minister in Topeka, Kansas. One day, Dana, Keith’s wife, greets a stranger who walks into the church. The man identifies himself as Travis Boyette, age forty-four, a former prison inmate who is currently in a halfway house and is about to be released. Keith agrees to speak to Travis; the meeting will change their lives.

Meanwhile, in East Texas, a twenty-seven year old black man, Donté Drumm, is awaiting execution for a murder that he allegedly committed in 1999. Under duress, Donté confessed to killing seventeen-year-old Nicole Yarber and dumping her body into the Red River. The body was never found. Although he later recanted, Drumm was convicted of abduction, rape, and murder. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence for the past nine years. Donté’s lawyer, the zealous Robbie Flak, has done everything in his power to get his client’s conviction overturned, but time and appeals are running out. Drumm’s execution is scheduled to take place in a few days.

John Grisham’s The Confession is a mesmerizing story about the ways in which justice is meted out in places where the color of one’s skin and the desire of politicians to be reelected may carry more weight than the facts of a case. Grisham keeps the narrative moving briskly by moving back and forth between Keith and Travis (who become allies of sorts) and Donté, his family, and their defense team. The suspense stems from the relentlessly ticking clock.

Grisham is a savvy writer who knows how to spin an involving tale. His brisk dialogue, sardonic humor, and lively characters effortlessly hold our attention. Unfortunately, the book is a bit too long and, in addition, the author is heavy-handed in his depiction of certain cops, prosecutors, and judges as arrogant, corrupt, and self-serving, while Robbie and his colleagues are unfailingly altruistic and conscientious. The good vs. evil theme is a bit too pat. To his credit, however, Grisham effectively demonstrates that anyone may resort to violence under certain circumstances; that even “good citizens” can be misguided in their thinking; that criminals are often products of their severely dysfunctional families; that irresponsible reporters will stoop extremely low to garner headlines; and that our system of doling out punishment is far from perfect. The Confession will undoubtedly generate heated debate about the merits of the death penalty.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 1,203 readers
PUBLISHER:	Doubleday; 1St Edition edition (October 26, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	John Grisham
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	The Broker Bleachers The King of Torts Skipping Christmas

Bibliography:

• A Time to Kill (1988)
• The Firm (1991)
• The Pelican Brief (1992)
• The Client (1993)
• The Chamber (1994)
• The Rainmaker (1995)
• The Runaway Jury (1996)
• The Partner (1997)
• The Street Lawyer (1998)
• The Testament (1999)
• The Brethen (2000)
• A Painted House (2001)
• Skipping Christmas (2001)
• The Summons (2002)
• The King of Torts ( 2003)
• Bleachers (2003)
• The Last Juror (2004)
• The Broker (2005)
• Playing for Pizza (2007)
• The Appeal (2008)
• The Associate (2009)
• Ford Country: Stories (2009)
• The Confession (2010)
• The Litigators (2011)
• The Racketeer (2012)
• Sycamore Row (October 2013)

Theodore Boone series:

• Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (2010)
• Theodore Boone: The Abduction (2011)
• Theodore Boone: The Accused (2012)
• Theodore Boone: The Activist (May 2013)

Nonfiction:

• The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006)

Movies from Books:

• The Firm (1993)
• The Pelican Brief (1993)
• The Client (1994)
• A Time to Kill (1996)
• The Chamber (1996)
• The Rainmaker (1997)

and an original screenplay:

• The Gingerbread Man (1997)

“It is so difficult to think. He clenches his jaw. This much he knows: his life is a coin that has been flipped and now against the darkening sky it turns over and over.

From the morass, there rises a question: How can this be happening? And he wishes suddenly, fervently, that there was a God looking on, with his eye on the sparrow and everything else, knowing what we did, what we meant, what we did not mean, what was deliberate, what was accidental, what was so perplexing and mixed you couldn’t with any confidence say what was what.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (SEP 14, 2010)

Scott Spencer’s Man in the Woods is a novel that chronicles the life of Paul Phillips, a man who has been on his own since he was sixteen years old. Paul is both a simple and a complex man – simple because he has relied on good luck and good looks to open many doors, and complicated because he is an artisan of deep convictions that he is unwilling to compromise. He is not a man to say very much but a lot goes on in his mind that does not come out in words. He creates beautiful furniture, crafts, and remodels with wood. Each type of wood speaks to him in its own way. He has never given a lot of thought to his life. Where he is and what he’s doing have a way of simply falling into place. He has traveled around a lot, living in Alaska, South Dakota, Colorado and currently in rural New York State.

As the book opens, Paul is living with Kate Ellis, a character from Scott Spencer’s previous book, A Ship Made of Paper. Kate has become quite famous recently for her book, Prays Well With Others. She is also sought after for speaking engagements and radio and television appearances. Her book is a best-seller and Kate considers herself a liberal Christian who believes deeply in the power of Christ and the lord. She is also a very sensual woman and her love for Paul is unconditional and unwavering. She wishes Paul would marry her but he seems to have an aversion to cementing the relationship though it is monogamous and committed. Kate’s book and talks are about the day to day things in her life that she believes make her an “every woman” and also bring her closer to God. She is raising a daughter, Ruby, as a single mother with a mostly absentee father. Paul’s relationship with Ruby is good though he does not try to substitute as her dad.

As the book opens, Paul has gone to see about work in Manhattan and is not thrilled about the quality of the job he is being asked to do. He is reticent to accept the contract. Money does not play a huge part in his life though he makes more than enough to get by. With Kate’s success, money is the very least of his problems and Kate is happy enough to support them both. On his way back home, he stops in a park near Tarrytown to sit and think, to ponder his life and his reasons for being so strongly opposed to the possibility of the work he was just offered. Though Paul thinks he is alone, he soon realizes that there is someone else close by, a man and his dog.

The man with the dog is Will Claff, though that is not the name he goes by anymore. He has traveled from his home city of Los Angeles around the country, changing his name in each place he stops. His modus operandi is that he usually meets a woman who takes pity on him and will put him up for a while. Will tells the woman that he has traveled to her community to take a job but the person who offered him the job committed suicide right before Will arrived. Thus, he is without work and without means. The truth is that Will has about five thousand dollars in gambling debts and he is paranoid that the people he owes money to are out to get him and surely will kill him once he’s found.

Will has just finished jogging, and as the paths of these two men cross, Paul witnesses Will being cruelly sadistic to his dog. This is not an act that Paul can tolerate and, impulsively, he acts in a way that will change his life forever. This can be a theme in Spencer’s books – the idea of one impulsive act forever creating a changed and damaged life – and is observed in A Ship Made of Paper and Endless Love.

From this day onward, Paul wonders about himself, about his core essence and how civilized he truly is or isn’t. He questions whether he is feral, an animal at the core and not a good man. The book is beautifully written and dramatically unfolds. It is deep, thrilling, and unbearably difficult to read at times. Spencer has created a gem, a modern look at good and evil. While he provides the questions, the answers and judgments rest in the hands of the reader.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 21 readers
PUBLISHER:	Ecco (September 14, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on Scott Spencer
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: A Ship Made of Paper

Bibliography:

• Last Night at the Brain Thieves Ball (1973)
• Preservation Hall (1976)
• Endless Love (1979)
• Waking the Dead (1986)
• Secret Anniversaries (1990)
• Men in Black (1995)
• Rich Man’s Table (1998)
• A Ship Made of Paper (2003)
• Willing (2008)
• Man in the Woods (September 2010)

Movies from Books:

• Endless Love (1981)
• Waking the Dead (2000)

“The one thing I’ve learned on this job is never to underestimate a man’s capacity for evil. Even a good man’s.”

Book Review:

Review by Kirstin Merrihew (SEP 10, 2010)

Steve Vail, the title character in Noah Boyd’s The Bricklayer, throws bank robbers through plate glass windows in his spare time. Although he was an FBI special agent for three years earlier in the decade, he didn’t work well with authority and the association was terminated.

Now, his day job slapping cement between oblong red things in Chicago is interrupted by a woman who introduces herself as Kate Bannon, FBI Deputy Assistant Director, and she persuades Vail to go to Washington to hear out Director Lasker and Assistant Director Kaulcrick. They want to give Vail his badge and gun back. They need him to find a rogue agent who appears to have absconded with two millions dollars of federal money instead of delivering it to a fiendishly clever and murderous person or persons called “Rubaco Pentad.” There is some suspicion that the missing agent might actually belong to Rubaco Pentad, but a previous agent who earlier was sent into a perilous situation with one million dollars in payoff met a different fate, so Vail is cautious about jumping to any conclusions.

Why is the FBI sending out its agents with millions? Because Rubaco Pentad has already killed some prominent people and has threatened to take out more unless there is strict compliance with each of its demands. After Vail starts his investigation — for the challenge rather than renewed, formal employment — the Pentad demands that he make the next drop. This time, with three million in cash….

The Bricklayer is highly cinematic. It’s also rich in plot twists and some MacGyver-like ingenuity. For example: the obstacle courses (or rat runs) the Pentad forces those delivering its extortion money to engage are giant “Mousetraps” that require some agile mental and physical gymnastics. The final solution to this Pentad crime spree may not quite match the potential of the earlier set-up in terms of drama and imagination, but Boyd deserves kudos for keeping his basic story in the realm of the credible instead of sailing into something, uh, Scarpetta-ish or Dirk Pitt-ish. That noted, Vail himself is perhaps a little too much of a near superman. However, he joins a long list of such characters who headline successful fiction series. And, more importantly, most of the time his intelligent analysis of the criminal mind and his prowess on the field of violence are just the ticket in The Bricklayer. Unfortunately but not fatally, the least convincing of the usual elements in this thriller-with-a-movie-in-mind is the build-up of the attraction between Steve and Kate. Boyd seems at home concocting intricate crimes and their solutions, but his “Moonlighting”-style repartee is sometimes rather lame…although both characters and their teamwork are appealing and comfortable, even though familiar/formulaic.

Overall,  The Bricklayer is an adrenaline high. It’s a quick and entertaining roller coaster ride. It’s a fine start to a series that I look forward to continuing, perhaps both in print and on the screen….

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 82 readers
PUBLISHER:	Harper; Reprint edition (August 31, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Kirstin Merrihew
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Noah Boyd
EXTRAS:	Excerpt Interview with Noah Boyd
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Another good spy read: The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds

Bibliography:

• The Bricklayer (February 2010)
• Agent X (February 2011)

“The Army needed between ten and twenty death-row inmates to serve in the third-stage trials of an experimental drug therapy, codenamed Project Noah.   In exchange for their consent, these men would have their sentences commuted to life without parole.  It would be Wolgast’s job to obtain the signatures of these men, nothing more.  Everything had been legally vetted, but because the project was a matter of national security, all of these men would be declared legally dead.  Thereafter, they would spend the rest of their lives in the care of the federal penal system, a white-collar prison camp, under assumed identities.  The men would be chosen based upon a number of factors, but all would be men between the ages of twenty and thirty-five with no living first-degree relatives.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn (JUN 7, 2010)

In this staggering book of speculative fiction, Cronin has proven that he can transcend genre and, with his power of language, create a distant world that feels close and credible. This is not your typical zombie or vampire novel; it isn’t cheesy or reductive. It shares some characteristics with its progenitor, The Stand, and fans of King’s work will be arguably riveted by this (more updated) novel. But there are as many differences as there are similarities, and Cronin’s ambitions are ultimately more complex and expansive. Cronin covers a longer period of time and delves more densely and philosophically into the dark and grey areas of the human psyche. Also, his poetic and luminous language and metaphysical subtext eclipses, in my opinion, King’s earlier work.

The story is teased out gradually, moving back and forth from places as far and deep as a Bolivian jungle, to the deserts and mountains of the west and southwest, to the concrete jungle of Houston, Texas, and many stops throughout. The disparate narrative threads converge to a point after the first 250 pages, and then we are thrust into a new world order at a place called The Colony. Some readers feel that this middle section is rather slow, but it is actually where Cronin shines. He introduces new characters that are likely to stay the course of the trilogy, and he is more meditative and succulent in his prose. The final 250 pages illuminate ambiguities that may still be humming and create a climax that heads toward a continuation.

There is a lot more than good and evil at play here, although the moral heft is evident, as human forces must combat malevolent viral creatures. But the incipience, growth, and psychology of these viral entities is not so simple. The relationship between the survivors and the creatures is more like a Venn diagram than a dualistic paradigm. Moreover, the human condition is explored in different states of wakefulness and sleep, in a myriad of conscious states, and connects all beings, whether viral or human. It also raises the question of, “who are the monsters?”

Divided into eleven sections, (with numerous chapters), the novel covers approximately one hundred years, starting circa 2014. However, there are three time periods that are pertinent to the story, two that are covered in detail. Each new section is headed by a short verse of Shakespeare from a play or sonnet, or else a poem by Shelley or other poet that has a poignant significance to the narrative. For instance, this verse by Henry Vaughan, from “The World:”

I saw eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm as it was bright,
And round beneath it time in hours, days, years,
Driven by the spheres,
Like a vast shadow moved in which the world
And all her train were hurled.

Cronin’s sense of place; of time; of timelessness; and his magnificent explorations of memories; of memories folded and unfolded and twisted in time; and of the self and the Shadow self, are examples of his bridges from genre to literature. He balances intellectual and action narrative with enough gusto to keep all audiences satisfied. The plot and story have a solid pace, although he takes his time to develop his characters and illuminate the back-stories. Additionally, as in his superb novel, The Summer Guest, Cronin’s prose glitters with moving beauty. “…while you sank into the dreamy softness of your seat and sipped ginger ale from a can and watched the world float in magical silence past your window, the tallest buildings of the city in the crisp autumn light and then the backs of the houses with laundry flapping and a crossing with gates where a boy was waving from his bicycle, and then the woods and fields and a single cow eating grass.”

There are, occasionally, some minor snags in the construction. A few devices are employed at intervals, and there are times when a character is improbably saved from the clutches of disaster. Yet, the author does it with panache, in dramatic scenes portrayed with a soulful and melancholy elegance. He avoids melodrama. He gets inside the head of his characters, and they are made of flesh and bone, not straw. It is also satisfying to see that this is a very diverse cast of multi-ethnicities. The landscape of people is naturally rendered, not making a statement but rather reflecting a realistic ethnic pool of combinations.

The Passage is the first of an ambitious trilogy. The journeys on foot or by hoof, by machine or by dream, are full of serrated adventure. And it immerses you in all strains of love–sibling, maternal, paternal, friendship, romantic, and a crushing one of cross-purposes. And it has stars, the moon, bones, and blades, guns and garrisons, trees and cliffs. And did I say stars? A-

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 2,381 readers
PUBLISHER:	Ballantine Books (June 8, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on Justin Cronin
EXTRAS:	Excerpt and Web Site
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More Post-Apocalyptic: Our American King by David Lozell Martin The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Bibliography:

• Mary and O’Neil (2002)
• The Summer Guest (2005)

• The Passage (2010)
• The Twelve (2012)
• City of Mirrors (2014)

“Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (MAR 26, 2010)

The Big Machine is a genre-busting romp through the fields of good and evil. Part mystery, part science fiction, part philosophy, and part theology, this book takes us on a heady journey from underneath the earth’s surface to the wonderment of the universe.

Ricky Rice is a janitor for a bus station in Utica, New York when he gets a puzzling envelope delivered to him. It has a note inside that says “You made a promise in Cedar Rapids in 2002. Time to honor it”. He wonders how anyone knew about the promise and how they could have found out? Who are these people? Along with the note is a bus ticket to Burlington, Vermont. Ricky decides to go but says to himself, “What kind of a black man accepts an unsigned invitation to the whitest state there is?”

Upon arriving in Burlington, Ricky is picked up at the bus station and escorted into the deep woods where he finds a small and cozy cottage awaiting him. For a man used to flop houses and shared one-room apartments, this is nirvana. Also on the property is The Washburn Library, a huge and beautiful structure. Ricky gradually finds out that he is a part of a secret society searching for “the Voice,” an unearthly sound that only few humans have been privy to hearing. He is part of a group that he calls “The Unlikely Scholars.”  They are unlikely because all of them have a past. They are made up of ex-cons, drug addicts, prostitutes, the homeless and the disenfranchised. Ricky himself has a history of heroin addiction. He’s been clean for three years but still totes six bags of heroin and a syringe with him – just in case. Additionally, all of the Unlikely Scholars are black, both male and female.

Gradually, Ricky finds out the history of the Washburn library and this society that has made him an honorary member. Judah Washburn, a freed slave, once heard “the Voice” and the Voice led him to an underground tunnel that went from the west coast of the United States to Vermont. Along with hearing the Voice, Judah also found millions of dollars of Spanish bullion. He founded this society to perpetuate his search for the Voice. He wanted to know its origins, what it meant and why it spoke to some people and not others.

Ricky and the other Unlikely Scholars are under the tutelage of “the Dean” who once heard the Voice himself. Each Scholar has their own office and each day newspapers from around the country are delivered to them. Their job is to peruse the newspapers and find articles that can somehow lead to the Voice. How to identify which articles are meaningful and which are not is a real puzzle to Ricky and he spends days scratching his head. He enjoys reading the journals of the past Scholars.

One day the Dean requests that Ricky join another Scholar, Adele Henry, on a super-secret mission to find someone who is a threat to the society. On this trip, Ricky and Adele meet with all types of dangers, both worldly and otherworldly. They find themselves in sewers pursued by the Devil of the Marsh. They meet angels as well. They also have run-ins with human bad guys with plans to destroy all that the Scholars stand for.

An aspect of this novel that I found interesting is that chapters about the Unlikely Scholars are interspersed with chapters about Ricky’s life. He was brought up in a cult called “The Washerwomen.” This cult operated out of an apartment building in the borough of Queens in New York. It billed itself as Christian but it had a different bible and belief system. The cult had an enormous impact on Ricky’s life. We also find out what happened in Cedar Rapids where Ricky made his promise.

LaValle is a wonderful wordsmith and I loved his descriptions. He describes two brothers as having “faces like Boston Terriers, somber eyes that were a little too large, and jowly cheeks that only emphasized their frowns.” His writing is brisk and descriptive. His characters are the dispossessed brought up to a higher rung in the food chain, an aspect of the book I really appreciated. The Unlikely Scholars are a group to be reckoned with and appreciated, pasts and all. Some of the science fiction seemed too over the top for me but the rest of the book was so interesting, I could easily forgive that.

This is a book for readers who love science fiction and mysteries. It is also for readers like myself who may want to wander outside their comfort zone and try another genre. This book is comprised of many genres and is often surreal or “trippy.” It is a mind-bender and a roller coaster ride to the far side.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 33 readers
PUBLISHER:	Spiegel & Grau; Reprint edition (March 9, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Victor LaValle
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Another SciFi book that deals with race:Futureland by Walter Mosley And another that is a SciFi thriller: Improbable by Adam Fawer And another new author: Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

Bibliography:

• Slap Boxing with Jesus (1999)
• The Estastic (2002)
• Monster (2004)
• The Big Machine (2009)
• The Devil in Silver (August 2012)

“Mother,” said Bruno, marching toward her, “what’s going on? Why is Maria going through my things?”

“She’s packing them,” said Mother.

“Packing them?'” he asked, running quickly through the events of the previous days to consider whether if he had been particularly naughty or had used words out loud that he wasn’t allowed to use and was being sent away because of it. He couldn’t think of anything though. In fact, over the last few days he had behaved in a perfectly decent manner to everyone and couldn’t remember causing any chaos at all. “Why?” he asked then. “What have I done?”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie (MAY 19, 2009)

John Boyne’s novel, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is outstanding. It is beautifully written with a most powerful storyline. Nine year-old Bruno is an innocent, carefree boy growing up in Berlin during WWII. He has three “Best Friends For Life,” and wants to be an explorer when he grows up. Bruno lives in a beautiful mansion, complete with gardens and servants, along with his older sister Gretel, their lovely mother, and their father, a high ranking SS officer. The boy comes home one day after school, in 1943, and finds Maria, the family maid, packing his belongings into wooden crates, including things he had hidden and were “nobody’s business.” He learns that his family is moving away from Berlin and he must go with them, leaving behind his school, best friends and beloved grandparents.
Following a formal dinner that the “Fury” attends, Bruno’s parents explain the reason for the move. His father has received a huge promotion to “Commandant.” They are going to live in a place called “Out-With,” (Auschwitz), in Poland and will remain there for the “foreseeable future.”

The house is a cold and somber place, located in a desolate countryside. Bruno hates his new home and misses his friends. He feels terribly isolated and bored. There are no boys to make friends with here and he wants to return to Berlin. From one side window in the house, he can see a high-wired compound inhabited by sad-looking people in striped pajamas. He wonders what these people do all day and why, in fact, they wear pajamas in the daytime. He wants to go and play with the boys he sees there. When he asks his father who “those people” are, his Commandant Dad responds that “they aren’t really people.” Lieutenant Kotler, a supercilious young SS officer on his father’s staff, constantly ruffles Bruno’s hair and calls him “little man.” Bruno’s anger at Kotler’s condescension is just a part of the rage and helplessness he feels about his living situation, where he feels like a prisoner.
Since there is not much to explore within his own compound, where the family lives, it is inevitable that Bruno would seek excitement elsewhere. Thus, he finds a way to escape his confined quarters and eventually makes his way to the barbed wire enclosure where now he can clearly see the inhabitants within – all wearing gray striped pajamas with gray striped caps on their shaved heads. On one of his excursions, he meets a boy named Shmuel, a broken waif of a child wearing a numbered uniform. Shmuel lives a very different life than Bruno. He is a Jew, and along with his father, a prisoner in the camp. He sometimes hides by the fence, during work detail, where he meets Bruno and the two form a friendship. They even share the same birthday. Shmuel tells Bruno about how his family was transported here from a ghetto in Poland. Bruno talks about his wonderful life in Berlin, and smuggles food from the kitchen to give to Shmuel. But Bruno still doesn’t “get it.” The enormity of the evil confronting him is beyond his comprehension. He believes that the numbered striped pajamas are part of a game played inside the barbed wire enclosure. He asks his friend what is burned in the chimneys. I won’t go any farther with my summary as I don’t want to include “spoilers.”

The narrative is in the 3rd person, but the story is told from a child’s perspective. The boys’ friendship is an allegory of sorts, the author calls it a “fable.” Children are able, if given the chance, to overcome differences in culture and identity. Their innate innocence allows them to believe that people ultimately can get along if they’re not encouraged to hate. Conflict and distrust are cultivated by governments and the media.

Of course, this is not a “real” story of Auschwitz, where prisoners would be shot or killed by the electric barbed wires if they spent time hanging out there. And, of course, Shmuel, would not have survived the camp long enough to befriend anyone. Most children, who were of no use in the labor force, would have been sent to their death immediately upon arrival at the camp. And, it is beyond me how an intelligent, albeit naive and self-centered child like Bruno, would be calling the Fuehrer, the “Fury” or be unaware of the war. But as I mentioned above, I do think this novel is allegorical in nature, in which case, I allow for author’s licence.

This book is labeled “young adult” and I believe this to be very misleading. First, many adults who do not read young adult literature, might be put off by the category. More important, although this story is allegorical in nature, it is certainly powerful and frequently disturbing, as any book about the Holocaust would be. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas themes are the nature of evil, the nature of man, and the beauty of the human spirit. The author is explicit in his writing, although there is no overt violence or questionable language. However, there were moments when I had to stop reading because I felt actual pain. And the more I got to know the characters of the two boys, Bruno and Shmuel, the more emotional I became. The book is meant to educate young adults about the Holocaust. I believe that the manner in which the content is depicted, although done with great sensitivity and compassion, is too harsh for a young person – a “tween “- to read. I think it more appropriate for someone in high school or college. I am Jewish, and a mother, and I feel that it is so important to educate all people, especially our youth, about this most heinous event. But I prefer to do so by introducing books, like The Diary of Anne Frank, before exposing children to a disturbing drama like this one. If you disagree with me, I would suggest that you discuss this book with your child before and after reading. It would make for a good discussion on WWII, the Holocaust and morality and evil.

The novel brings to mind 2 quotations, which I will share with you.

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.” John Betjeman

“When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.” Brian Aldin

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 597 readers
PUBLISHER:	David Fickling Books Movie Tie-In (October 28, 2008)
REVIEWER:	Jana L Perskie
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	John Boyne
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and or Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Our review of Crippen and try: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Bibliography:

• The Thief of Time (2000; 2007 US)
• The Congress of Rough Riders (2001)
• Crippen (2004; 2006 in US)
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006)
• Next of Kin (2006; 2008 in US)
• Mutiny: A Novel of the Bounty (2008;  2009 in US)
• The House of Special Purpose (2009; 2010 in US)
• The Absolutist (2011; 2012 in US)
• This House is Haunted (October 2013)

Movies from books:

• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2009)