The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva

The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva
Mystery

CIA agent Michael Osbourne is a counter terrorism expert. When a plane is shot down off the east coast of the country, it is suspected that the Swords of Gaza, a group that Michael has been following for a while, is responsible. At the same time, the vice president, some lawyers in the Washington area, and a missile defense contractor benefit from the recent "terrorist" attack. Michael starts to wonder who the real terrorists are, and travels to London and Cairo to find out. Soon he has an assassin who murdered his girlfriend many years ago in his sights. But the assassin has been contracted to kill Michael so who is hunting who?
This book was definitely thrilling and quite the page turner. Although at first I was a little confused because so many characters were introduced so quickly. I don't really understand why Silva introduced characters that died a couple pages after they were introduced. Really, why bother? It just serves to confuse.
I thought this book was quite relevant to the current situation of the world today, with tensions in the middle east and distrust of the government. This includes the ending, which was not satisfactory from a readers point of view, but is quite like what would happen in real life.
As for the characters, it was easy to like the ones you were supposed to, and dislike the ones you weren't supposed to like. I quite enjoyed Michael and I saw that Silva has more books with him as the main character.
This was a great book to read on the train because it kept me awake and turning the pages!

Rating:

(4/5)

The Secret Supper

The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra
Historical Fiction

From the Publisher
Milan, 1497: Leonardo is completing The Last Supper. Pope Alexander VI is determined to execute him after realizing that the painting contains clues to a baffling and blasphemous message that he is driven to decode. The Holy Grail and the Eucharistic Bread are missing, there is no meat on the table, and the apostles, shockingly, are portraits of well-known heretics and none of them are depicted with halos. And why has the artist painted himself into the scene with his back turned toward Jesus? The clues to Leonardo's greatest puzzle are right before your eyes....


This book is about Da Vinci and his painting of The Last Supper. I found the prose rich and full of wonderful descriptions especially when you consider this is a translation. The story is a mystery based on an Inquisitor who is sent to confirm allegations that Da Vinci has put in hidden heretical messages in his painting. As befits the times there are alliances and lots of intrique. The historical aspects of the story are fascinating as is the discussion of the Cathars, a Christian sect. I found the book very interesting and wonder if only half this is true why the painting was allowed to exist

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Non-fiction

This book is all about your subconscious and how we make snap decisions. To be honest, I found some of the stuff to contradict other parts in the book. That could be because I didn't quite understand what Gladwell was setting out to prove until the very end of the book. Or maybe I knew at the beginning, then forgot about it until the end. Though one point he did drive home well with me was the fact that we can take actions to prevent us from making snap decisions that are bad.
There were many little points in this book that were fascinating. I would tell people at work or my family about points in the book just randomly because they were so intriguing. I thought the bit about professor ratings was very interesting. Being able to judge a professor in 2 minutes with no sound similar to someone that takes an entire course with them is quite unbelievable.
I find that with books like this, it is really important for the author to get his tone correct with the reader. You don't want to read something that is over you head, but you also don't want the author to take a condescending tone. The tone of this book was perfect. It was like someone talking to you that is excited about their findings in research and want to share all the interesting bits with you.
It's too bad that we can't unlock our subconscious to help us out more. But if anything, this book should tell you to trust your gut (or should that be subconscious?) more than you normally would.

Rating:

(4/5)

The Firemaster's Mistress

The Firemaster's Mistress by Christie Dickason
Historical Fiction

This book is about Shakespeare's London. The year is 1605. James I is on the throne. There are laws against Catholics and England is finally at peace or is it? The story revolves around treason at the highest level. Guido Fawkes and his fellow conspirators are trying to blow up Whitehall and the royal line.

Francis Quoynt is a firemaster who has returned from war and dreams of making beautiful fireworks. He is recruited by Robert Cecil, First Minister to spy on the revolutionists. Meanwhile, Sir Francis Bacon is also spying on Quoynt while scheming to take Cecil's job.

Kate Peach is a glove maker who was Quoynt's lover before he left for war. She is now kept by another man and is a secret Catholic. This puts her right in the path of danger.

Dickason has crafted another wonderful tale rich in the details of the period. The treachery of the papists and the vulnerability of women is portrayed exceedingly well. For those who like historical fiction,this book does not disappoint

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Spy Girl

Spy Girl by Amy Gray
Non-Fiction

From Chapters:
While her friends are making mad cash and getting massages at their dot-com jobs, Amy Gray quits her low-status publishing position to realize her girlhood dream of being a private investigator. Joining a small Manhattan agency, she finds herself plunged into an intriguing world of “con men, lunatics, narcissists, polygamists, sociopaths, felons, petty thieves, and pathological liars”—a description almost as apt for the men in her social life as for her on-the-job subjects. Working with a gang of misfit colleagues (a former zookeeper, a one-time child star, an avant-garde philosopher, and other eccentrics), Amy discovers even more about herself as she detects uncanny parallels between her investigations and her tumultuous love life.

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This book is non-fiction? This book reads like Chick lit. A young female joins a dysfunctional private investigation agency. She helps to solve a few interesting cases. The emphasis on solving cases is a lot of searching on the internet and then talking people into telling all. Amy also discusses her painful love life or lack thereof. Amy seems to find all the weird-dos possible. Is the world populated with that many or are they all in NYC?

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Twilight Children

Twilight Children by Torey Hayden
Non-Fiction

Torey Hayden is an amazing author. In this book she chronicles the lives of three separate people.

Cassandra is a seven year old child abducted by her father and subjected to the most horrifying of experiences. She is understandably a very angry child. Torey documents her journey towards helping Cassandra work through her problems. Cassandra pysche manifests itself to be multiple people. Hayden is patient and it is interesting to see what works.

Drake is a charismatic 4 year old who has never talked but seems to be well balanced and understood. Hayden spends a lot of time trying to get Drake to talk to her as he does to his mother. Hayden is more upset about this case as it is a form of abuse also. At first I did not understand why this was considered abuse but grew to feel the effects Drake's elders had on him.

Gerda is a elderly stroke victim who also chooses not to talk. How can Hayden help her. The compassion and caring Hayden has clearly shows as she tries to understand Gerda and help her. The sad part of Gerda's story is how the elderly lose their whole life as they lose their functions

Another great book by Torey Hayden

Rating:

(4.0/5)

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (ARC)
Fiction

Rebecca Schwart came over to America from Germany when she was a baby. Her father got a job as a gravedigger and was bitter and cold towards his family, though they all just passed it off as tough love. Unfortunately, this family life proves too much for both of Rebecca's brothers, as they escape from "Pa's" suffocating grasp, never to be seen again. When Rebecca witnesses a horrible crime at the age of 13, her life is forever changed.
Rebecca quits school and finds a job, which leads her to the first love her life Niles Tignor. Tignor, however, is abusive, and nearly kills Rebecca before she can escape. She determines a new identity for herself and lives the rest of her life out guarded and scared that Tignor will return for her.
Given previous blockbuster novels by Oates, I was really looking forward to this book. I'm sorry to say that it was a big disappointment. The characters were not likable and impossible to relate to. Rebecca's character was so guarded, that she was even guarded from the reader. I questioned each explanation she gave, expecting there to be some different meaning behind what she was doing.
The story also moved very slow. I kept waiting for the big build-up for the end of the story since the entire novel had such a slow pace. The build up never came and the novel just ended, leaving me gaping over the fact that the novel had ended and nothing had really happened.
This novel will not turn me off reading another Joyce Carol Oates book, but if this was the first Oates book I had read, I would not be reaching too quickly for the next one.

Rating:

(3/5)

The President's Daughter

The President's Daughter by Jack Higgins
Mystery

During the Vietnam War, a brave young American saved the life of a Frenchwoman whose husband was reported as dead. After a brief, passionate night the 2 lovers learned that her husband was alive. Now, 20 yrs later, that young man has become the president of the United States. On a trip to Paris he encounters the woman and meets his daughter.

But someone else knows of the girl's existence and kidnaps her. The Presdient has 10 days to meet the kidnapper's demands or she will be executed and this madman will do it.

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I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I do love Dillan and his can-do attitude. Some of this book is predictable but the action more than made up for that

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Empire of Heaven

Empire of Heaven by Linda Ching Sledge
Historical Fiction

From the superstition bound peasant villages to the perfumed decadence of the Forbidden City, Manchu China was a land of extremes: barbarism and elegance, poverty and lavish wealth. Its people lived in near enslavement to the emporer.

Then came Hung, a charismatic new leader who promised hope to the masses - an Empire of Heaven on Earth.

But to Rulan, the proud daughter of a village spirit woman, Hung is a frightening stranger whose life she saved with her healing gift on a violent, demon-haunted night. Afire with the rebel cause, Rulan nonetheless hides from Hung's growing obsession with her. She serves as a spy in the house of the great Manchu general Li, where she is nurse to his crafty mother and mistress to the Li heir. And it is there in the enemy stronghold that she meets the captive Pao An, a hothead with a poet's tenderness, who awakens in her a passonate love, and a powerful yearing to be free of both the Manchus and the half-mad Hung - free to creater her own future

This is an epic about Rulan and 19th century Manchu China. I love epics but they do take a while to read. Rulan was a healer, spy, concubine and warrior. She is a very strong woman in a society of dolls. This book showed the barbarism,class structure, wealth and foibles of China. It is also a love story between an ordinary man and woman. One negative would be how mature Rulan seems at the age of thirteen. Can a teen really be that with it? This book not only provided a good story but a great history lesson as well

Rating:

(4.0/5)

The Treatment by Mo Hayder

The Treatment by Mo Hayder
Mystery

The Treatment is essentially the next book in a series of, hopefully, many books following DI Jack Caffery (the first book being Birdman). This time, Jack is out to catch a killer that holds a family up in their house, chained to radiators, as he sodomizes the children in the family. The families aren't given any water, and the females are kept away, being labeled as a "hazard". Unfortunately, this case reminds Caffery of a case he was personally involved in when his brother, Ewan, was abducted as a child, never to be found again. We learned about Penderecki in Birdman, and we learn even more about him in this book.
As much as I enjoy Caffery as a character, I have found that Birdman and The Treatment are Hayder's weaker works. Not that they are bad by any measure. Really, I'm comparing the likes of Pig Island (a 10/10 book for me), and Tokyo (either a 9 or 10/10 book). Hayder is still an awesome author, and these books are great, they just aren't her best. When I read a Hayder, I expect to never see the ending coming. In this book, however, I could figure out who the murderer was and while there were a few surprises, this was a little disappointing. I was also alarmed at how quickly Jack found the name of the murderer after one small little clue. Maybe I didn't understand it correctly, but it seemed that they went through so much, then all the sudden this name pops out of thing air.
I can't remember if I liked Becky (Jack's girlfriend) in the Birdman, but this left me feeling like she was cold. Granted, she had been through a lot. I tried to give her a break but I really couldn't, and found that she wasn't a likable character.
Given how the book ended, there HAS to be another Caffery novel coming out and I'm looking forwards to it!!

Rating:

(4/5)

Flesh and Bone by Jefferson Bass

Flesh and Bone by Jefferson Bass
Mystery

Dr. Brockton is the head of the body farm at the local university. When the body of a pedophile is found hung from a tree, Brockton tries to duplicate the decay of the body to determine how long it has been there. During this time he gets close to Dr Jess Carter, an ME from the neighbouring town. The two get a little too close though, and Brockton finds himself in big trouble.
This book flows exceptionally well. You are compelled to keep turning the page to find out how Brockton is going to get himself out of trouble, and who the murderers are. Yet at the same time, there is great in detail descriptions of how a body farm works. Bass does go off on a few society tangents that are obviously his view that he maybe should have kept in his head rather than in the pages of the book. For example, the "creationist" debate never really gets solved. And the information about keeping child safe on the net was sort of out of the blue as well.
That being said, this novel had multiple murders, lawyer manipulations, love interests, and pretty good writing. The ending wrapped up great and I was so happy the Grease grew a conscience.

Rating:

(4/5)