Murder Books

There are two key protagonists here: a Swedish journalist in his forties named Mikael Blomkvist, who exposes financial corruption via his gadfly news magazine, Millennium, and is successfully sued for libel. And then there's the star: Lisbeth Salander, one of the most original characters in years. This emotionally-stunted, violence-inflicted computer hacker sports various tattoos and body piercings, probably suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, and has been under state guardianship in Sweden since she was not more than a child.

When Blomkvist is enticed to live in the middle of nowhere to investigate the presumed murder of the grand-niece of the semi-retired industrialist, Henrick Vanger, a series of events begin to spiral that brings these two unlikely characters together. The result is a series of twists and turns as they team up to get to the bottom of this forty-year-old mystery and, at the same time, enable Blomkvist to clear his name and move his leftist watchdog magazine out of the red.

The novel really sparkles when it focuses on Lisbeth, who is unique and captivating. The revenge scene had me cheering; I can imagine how it would play on the big screen. The book loses its edge as the mystery begins to be solved. No spoilers, but the evil doer, who was at least moderately fleshed out, acts and sounds like a cartoon character during the long-awaited revelation. The novel then began to sound like an old-fashioned Perry Mason episode.

I have read that Stieg Larsson was the editor-in-chief of Expo, an anti-racist magazine. It makes sense, then, that the book becomes a conduit for causes that Larsson feels passionately about: violence and subjugation of women, right-wing extremism, and the incompetency of the media. I found the book to be a true page-turner -- I read all 467 pages at one sitting during a transcontinental flight -- with enough substance to keep me intrigued throughout.

As I was reading this book I couldn't help thinking that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a bit of a misleading title. While Salander, the girl with the titular tattoo, is arguably the second most prominent character in the book and necessary as the person who through her investigative skills and computer hacking uncovers many of the clues needed to solve the two mysteries laid out in the book, the title suggests a seedy, underworld crime and a mysterious heroine. Salander is neither, although she is quite an interesting character, and it's nice that the author doesn't judge her anti-social tendencies and problems, preferring to offer us a glimpse into their possible causes. The protagonist is actually Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who has just been convicted of libel for his reporting of financial wrongdoing by a titan of Swedish industry. Before he has time to report for his prison sentence, he is hired by an another titan of Swedish industry, Henrik Vanger, an aging man whose company has fallen into disarray, to look into the disappearance of his niece nearly 40 years previously, under the guise of shadow writing an autobiography about the Vanger clan.

The real star character in the book is the Vanger family itself, the whole, confusing, squabbling cast of near and distant cousins, fascists, Nazis, haridans and seemingly ordinary folk, and their relationship with each other, especially as it unfolds as Blomkvist digs into the family's past. The main mystery of the book -- what happened to Harriet Vanger one fateful day in 1966 -- ends up being pretty easy to figure out, but the ins and outs and the hows and whys aren't so straightforward and it's a joy for most of the book trying to keep the various family members straight (although a family tree would have been nice) and watching how the unfolding drama affects them.

Where the book falls down just slightly, in my opinion, is its heavy handed treatment of some of the subjects in the book, important though they are. A few reviewers have noted that the Swedish title of this book was Men Who Hate Women, and had I known that, perhaps I wouldn't have been bothered by the sheer number of men in the book who do just that, most in pretty horrid and aggressive ways. I suspect that part of the problem I had with this book is just a matter of cultural translation -- the book takes place in Sweden and was written by a Swedish author who was both a journalist and a crusader against right-wing extremists in Sweden. While he also uses the book to rail against the ineptitude of financial reporting in Sweden, the Nazi and fascist parties in Sweden, extremist religions, financial malfeasance, journalistic ethics, the failure of Sweden's approach to institutionalized care of juveniles, and other causes clearly near and dear to him before he died, his big one is violence against women and he cites lots of statistics about the number of women who are victims of sexual assault. Heck, one of the books that Blomkvist reads for pleasure is Val McDermid's The Mermaids Singing, a crime mystery based around violence against women. But Larsson overplays his case just a bit by having too many men who are absolute creeps (not just jerks), and the last one is totally gratuitous. The point could have been made better with a slightly subtler hand. Oddly (to my American sensibilities, anyway, but maybe this is another problem in cultural translation), the book is full of men and women who don't seem to mind their spouses/lovers having other lovers at the same time. It's a kitchen sink of Swedish liberalism that sometimes gets in the way of what is for the most part a rollicking good read with interesting characters and settings.

The writing is mostly very good, with some overly staccato dialogue that doesn't sound natural, but again, this may be an issue of how speech sounds in Sweden since it seems that the translation has been quite well done.

Of the two mysteries, the main one, about Harriet's disappearance, is the more compelling. The other, involving financial crimes is interesting at a very intellectual level, but Larsson resolves the ethical issues a bit too easily.

Larsson keeps the characters true to themselves rather than offering a completely tidy and happy ending for all, but the main issues are resolved and I ended it feeling satisfied. It's an excellent, if slightly flawed, first novel, and I will read the sequels if they are ever translated into English.

I finished 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' in a blaze of glory-- it was one of those things where you look at how much you have left to read and then you look at the clock and say "One more chapter"... The chapter is finished-- you again look at the clock and what now remains to be read and say "One more hour"... The cycle continues unabated until 4am when you finish the book and are a mixture of sleepy (it's 4am), excited (it was a really good book), sad (the really good book is now over and you're back where you started), and anticipatory (there are *sequels* to the really good book-- however, they haven't been translated to English yet and are not available-- le sigh).

Larsson has done a fantastic job of creating memorable, well fleshed-out characters and combining them with a new and intriuging plot... Some of the material is not for the faint of heart, but it gives the story a depth and breadth that is lacking in works by more timid authors. My only complaint is that his other books in this Millenim series aren't available in English for immediate purchase-- the last time I felt this way about characters (especially Lisbeth Salander) was when I read Harry Potter.

Very suspenseful, taut mystery with well rendered characters. The character driven plot sucks you in and keeps you guessing what's next. Kudos to the translator for a translation from the swedish that was not awkward. I liked this book a lot for the story and characters and was shocked that the author died in 2004.

I think the problem with this novel, which other reviewers have ably summarised, is that it is an artificial construct.

I mean, I didn't find the story boring, tne number of characters excessive or the plot(there are in fact two; which is the main one in human terms, possible future reader?) difficult to follow, as other negative revs have. On the contrary, for me the narration flowed agreeably, the twists were unexpected, and the book didn't pretend to be what it was not (a semibrow literary piece). But it, or rather its main characters, are implausible: cardboard, not flesh-and bone. At all times you're aware you're reading a story, not something that could have been real life. Here we revert to an Ellery Queen type of novel without its intellectual tease, which leaves ... nothing.
So the book is basically a kid's one (although full of episodes a real kid souldn't read), with heroes that are decent, loyal, intelligent, charming, truthful -one of them agonizes over a moral dilemma that could find a place in Lincoln's hagiography-, with liberal worldviews, etc.; with a convenient deus ex machina that finds out everything that's needed at the drop of a hat; with corrupt -and worse- financial tycoons/villains; with real dark, dark imperturbable villains with awful perversions and insatiable bloodlusts; and with a closing tirade about the evils of finance (for maximum impact the book should have been published after the current Wall Street turmoil) with words lifted almost straight out of Keynes.

Perhaps I could summarise it all with three words: it's a politically correct book. Nothing against them, of course, and for that (and the research it inconspicuously packs) I give it three stars. But if you have read Lehane's "Gone, baby, gone" (a book less grisly by far, but that poses a real moral dilemma), you'll understand what I mean.

Watch out Patricia Cornwell! Tess Gerritsen is at the top of her game with The Keepsake - the best novel I've read in a long time! I was really impressed with Gerritsen's The Bone Garden: A Novel published last year and thought it was her finest work to date, but The Keepsake may be even better! I am a slow reader, and was able to read the 349 pages of The Keepsake in less than a week. Chapters 17,18, and 19 seemed a little slow to me but the rest of the book is full of surprises!

One thing that helps make this book so great is having Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles working together again. The Crispin Museum serves as a great setting for a novel featuring Mummification, Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem. As an added bonus to a fascinating story, readers learn how the process of mummification works, how to create a "bog body" and are given detailed instruction on how to make a shrinking head (please don't practice these methods on your neighbors!). Also in The Keepsake, we learn the dire consequences of having a disorganized museum of freaky items that you can't account for.

Believable, intriguing, fast-paced, page-turning, easy to read - it's everything I love in a novel!

This book was only ok for me. I was a little disappointed in the writing. I wanted to read more about the killer and how he preserved his victims. It felt like that part of the story was brushed over. The story seemed to drag along, without much exciting happening. Just wasn't as good as Gerritsen can be.

I think this was one of Tess's best books yet. I was rooting for Josephine all the way - even when I was intrigued and wondering what she was hiding. Although Rizzoli wasn't as tough as she sometimes is, I liked that about her. It showed a depth of character and showed how she cared about others. Fantastic book! It was over too quickly.

It's every struggling museum's nightmare. Discovering an Egyptian mummy moldering in their basement, the curators invite everybody to an electronic unveiling (CT scan) and the ancient relic proves to be a skillfully mummified modern murder victim. Oy.

Maine author Gerritsen's Boston series duo, pathologist Maura Isles and homicide cop Jane Rizzoli, catch a weird one this time. And it gets worse. A further search of the private museum turns up a cache of shrunken heads, one of which is another comparatively recent victim.

Meanwhile the newest museum hire, beautiful young Egyptologist Josephine Pulcillo, has a secret, which turns out to be even worse than she knows. She is also getting scary cryptic messages. These and the strange coincidences connecting her to the murder victims make her think it's time to run - again. But she loves her job and curbs her instinct until another preserved victim - a "bog body" - turns up in the trunk of her car.

The macabre museum and the archeology milieu provide a rich atmosphere for bestseller Gerritsen's fast-paced thriller, while Pulcillo's mysterious past tantalizes. Rizzoli follows threads that stretch back more than a quarter of a century while Isles mines the preserved corpses for clues to the murdered women's' deaths, every revelation adding a grim clue to a horrifying picture.

The action moves from summery Boston to the Texas desert and the wilds of Maine. Obsession and pathological sadism increase the stakes in this twisty page-turner which delivers action and surprises right up to the last scene. This is one of Gerritsen's best.

I've read some good books this summer, but this was the first I had difficulty putting down, even to eat or sleep. It was the good doctor _ Tess _ at her creepy best. In fact, I would rate it as her strongest book yet.

Earlier reviews have given enough of the plot, without too many spoilers, that there is no sense rehashing the book.

If you are looking for a book with excellent medical and police procedures, sympathetic good guys, using the word inclusively, and thoroughly rotten and evil bad guys, buy it or borrow it from your town or city library.

I just didn't. I've read every book she's written, and I even love the TV series (didn't think I would - don't usually like TV or movie adaptations of books, but they are SO different that I barely think of them as related.)

As I remember, on all her other books, I've stayed up late into the night because I couldn't put them down. Not so, this one - I kept picking it up and putting it down in fits and spurts. It wasn't holding my attention. And I can't put my finger on the "why".

I don't mind Tempe's flaws, but I really don't think I (as a fairly intelligent, but in no way medically trained person) should be able to figure out some of the antrhopological mysteries ahead of her. There's even a line where Tempe says, "How did I miss that?" and I had to agree. I may have even yelled out loud, "Yeah, how did you?" startling my husband, to say the least.

And while I know that we need Tempe involved in investigations to keep the series going, I really don't understand how an anthropologist is allowed to go along to question witnesses or chase down perps. I am very interested in the science, so a little more lab time and a little less, "what is she doing in the street?" wouldn't be a bad thing to me.

I always enjoy more the books that are set in Montreal - I think I don't love the Charlotte sub-characters as much. The daughter and the ex are just getting way too annoying, the detectives not as engaging... I am glad to see the next book is going back to Quebec.

I am in no way ready to give up on the series, but I hope the next one is more engaging. That being said, I still wouldn't tell anyone to skip it - just don't expect the best of the series in this one.

Kathy Reichs is a genius! I honestly don't know how she does it all but I love her descriptions and the way she can use language to paint a picture. These books are so packed with science I can use them in the classroom to emphasize topics on Forensics as well as other basic science topics.

I can never put Kathy Reichs books down so the minute I get it I have to force myself to savor each and every moment.

I love the interview in the back of the book- it makes her so personable.

Interesting, but hard to follow. I was excited to have a new Kathy Reichs, but it was a letdown after "Cross Bones."

Good "thrillers" are becoming harder and harder to find. This was junk. Not only is her writing style disjointed and hard to follow but the plot has no consistency or logic. Some interesting forensics are presented but quite frankly I was expecting a little more given how much I actually like the show.

My recommendation is don't bother.

Devil Bones delivers pretty much what you expect. I'm not a huge fan of the author, but generally speaking I like Reichs' writing and appreciate her sense of humour. She finds a nice balance when describing the forensic elements of her novels so that it informs the reader without getting bogged down in detail. While I would prefer less info on Tempe's love life drama, compared to her contemporaries, Reichs shows reasonable restraint in this area.

I found Devil Bones unremarkable but enjoyable enough to read; that is, until the lame ending. The conclusion is poorly conceived, requiring Tempe to make some ridiculous leaps in deductive reasoning. The killer's actions are preposterous and the novel falls flat as a result. I've raised this issue before, but I have to say it again: I'm getting very tired of the `killer tries to kill our hero because he/she is getting too close to solving the crime' plotline. This is something that rarely happens in real life and is becoming far too common in crime fiction and TV crime shows. Enough already. It's been done to death.

The Bottom Line: The plot is thin and the pieces don't come together in the end. The novel's resolution is an illogical mess. Even so, the novel was reasonably entertaining, most of the time. I found some of the info on Wicca and Sanitaria pretty interesting and the writing and characters are above average. The end result: I just barely give this novel 3 stars.

Creepy-cool history of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, intertwined with the history of the serial killer H. H. Holmes who was operating at and around the Fair and may have accounted for anywhere from 9 (confirmed) to 50 (suspected) to even 200 (conjectured) murders.

Reads like an atmospheric slasher novel, except it is history, and thoroughly footnoted from contemporary accounts as well as secondary sources. The couple of scenes where Larson assumes an omniscient authorial viewpoint are noted and his historical sources for the conjectural fiction are noted and explained.

Oh, yes, and there was a World's Fair going on at the same time, and that story fascinates as well, with the conflicts of personalities and politics that plague every large public project. These interactions result in sometimes bizarre, sometimes postmodernicly hip juxtapositions of buildings, events, and landscapes where millions would celebrate the latest of everything in their world.

If you live in Chicago or have lived in Chicago or just love Chicago you must read this book. My appreciation of the city, especially the architecture, is greater. And my knowledge of the city's history (an incredibly fascinating history) grew as well. I am a much better tour guide of Chicago to friends and family because of this book!

The book has a quick pace and reads like fiction. And there are sections, such as the ones regarding Holmes, that you wish were fiction. The writing style is uncluttered and straightforward. And the story progresses smoothly. It is a wonderful read.

As an urban planner, I found the history of the 1893 World's Fair fascinating, but what was great is that this book was a good beach read. So the other plot of a Jack-the-Ripper (true story) murderer spiced things up.

It's amazing what a huge effect that World's Fair had on our lives even 110 years later.

I enjoyed this book because I just returned from Chicago and heard rave reviews about it from city tour guides etc. The book is a fascinating look back on the Worlds Fair in Chicago plus serial killings going on at the same time.

The Chicago World's Fair at the turn of the century and a gruesome serial killer. The 1891 World's Fair was America's coming out party...

Ian Rankin
ISBN: 9780316057585
Little Brown and Company, 2008
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com, 09/08
4 Stars
Fans will be thrilled with the return John Rebus.
Fans will be thrilled with the return of Detective Inspector John Rebus. Exit Music begins with the Inspector reluctantly preparing for his mandatory retirement. Just as he thinks his desk is clear of cases in comes a new one. Rebus once again teams up with Detective Siobhan Clarke in the investigation of a murdered dissident Russian poet. What at first glance appears to be a mugging, soon shows signs of something much deeper. Another death brings more questions.
Exit Music shows a personal side of Rebus. He dreads retirement while partner Siobhan looks toward a future where she does not work in his shadow. Ian Rankin has open doors in which Rebus may return. Fans of Rankin will rejoice in this new novel. While they will mourn Rebus' purported retirement, they will eagerly turn the pages of Exit Music.

Well, if it was, then it is a fine and fitting end. Although the cliffhanger tells us that we aren't going to be seeing that much less of Rebus.

Rankin used the self imposed limitation of the last ten days of Rebus official career very well. The action is taut and well plotted and the descriptions of people, places, and things are spot-on.

By now, Rebus is like an old friend who drops in for a short visit every year or so. You are always glad to see him, you get nostalgic over the good times you have had together, you are shocked by how old they have gotten, which reminds you of how old you are getting, you get annoyed by the same things they have always done, and you are sad whenever they have to leave. In this case, there is a finality to the departure, yet you are not sure if that finality is terminal. It is somewhat confusing.

I thought the awkwardness depicted between Rebus and Clarke is well written and realistic. It is very tricky to describe the interaction between people who have known, liked, and hated each other for a long time, especially when a landmark is approaching in their relationship.

The crimes being solved in this case was interesting but I thought some of the turns were a little too pat. That didn't stop me from enjoying the book, nor does it stop me from jonesing for more Rebus and Clarke.

Say it isn't so, Ian. Has 60-year-old John Rebus come to the end of the line? The popular protagonist spends his last days in his three-decade-old career in this novel in his usual manner, solving crimes, upsetting the powers that be and dealing with his 20-year-old enemy, Big Ger Cafferty as well as setting the stage for tying up loose ends with his long-time partner, DS Siobhan Clarke.

In the mix is a delegation of Russian businessmen, Scottish politicians and a large bank and its executives all seeking to bring business to Scotland. And then a leading Russian dissident poet is found murdered, and everyone wants to sweep it under the rug as a mugging gone bad. But is it? Neither Rebus nor Clark is convinced, especially when a second murder caused by an arson fire seems to be connected to the original case. To complicate matters, Big Ger is assaulted and left in a coma, and Rebus seems to be implicated.

This novel is as good as Rankin gets in the way of a mystery novel, and he works in commentary on Scotland in general, Edinburgh, money, politics, greed and power. Where does Rebus go from here? This reader (and many others, I'm sure) hopes Rankin hasn't permanently retired him--he's too good a character to fade out of existence.

Highly recommended.

Almost exactly two decades ago Ian Rankin's first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, began with the sentence, "The girl screamed once, only the once." Twenty years later and Rankin has used the same sentence to begin the last, as it did the first, of the Rebus books.

DI John Rebus is retiring in November of 2006 and he and his erstwhile protégé, DS Siobhan Clarke, are working on clearing up Rebus' old cases, when a dissident Russian Poet is murdered in an apparent mugging right after he left an Edinburgh bar in which local crook and longtime Rebus nemesis Morris Gerald Cafferty had been drinking.

Meanwhile Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko is dying in a London hospital, poisoned by person or persons unknown. Are the cases related?

The poet was murdered during a time when the Edinburgh big wigs are hosting a group of potentially very large Russian investors and the brass wants this case wrapped up as quietly and delicately as possible. Then somebody attacks `Big Ger' Cafferty and the blame lands squarely on Rebus.

Think he's gonna back off? Not a chance.

Rebus and Clarke chase down leads that eventually take them to the Scottish Parliament and we all know how much politicians like to be investigated. And if you've read or learned anything at all about John Rebus, you know he does not take too well to authority and after being told for the umpteenth time to back off, Rebus remarks to himself, "It's not the underworld you need to worry about, it's the overworld."

I have been reading Rebus right from the start and I find it hard to believe it's all over. Yes, he's retired, but Michael Connelly's brilliant character Detective Hyronamous Bosch retired, came back as a PI and we sure as all get out hope Mr. Rankin finds more for Rebus to do, because we're addicted. This book is as good as all the others and all the others have been great.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

In Ian Rankin's "Exit Music," Detective Inspector John Rebus is ten days away from retirement, a prospect that appeals to him as much as root canal. His superiors eagerly await the departure of this maverick, with "his mistrust of teamwork" and his "two-decades-plus of bets hedged, lines crossed, and rules broken." Although John gets results, he rarely does anything by the book, since he has little regard for authority or proper procedure. It is a miracle that this chain-smoking and whiskey-guzzling detective has lived long enough to turn in his warrant card. Rebus's protégée, Detective Sergeant Siobhan (Shiv) Clarke, has mixed feelings about her friend and mentor's departure. She is grateful for everything he has taught her. On the other hand, his unorthodox methods are troubling and she is impatient to get out from under Rebus's imposing shadow.

Their final case together begins as an apparent mugging that results in the death of Alexander Todorov, an émigré Russian poet living in Edinburgh. Todorov was a dissident who was vocal in his criticism, not only of his former government, but also of the new class of Russian oligarchs. He considered these multi-millionaires to be materialistic, corrupt, and greedy--selfish men who spend their ill-gotten gains on fancy clothing, high-end cars, pricey real estate, precious metals, and expensive artwork. Was Todorov bludgeoned to death to silence his scathing criticism of his countrymen? A subsequent murder adds to the mystery, and Clarke is placed in charge of a team with a challenging and time-consuming mission. They must ascertain if the two crimes are related and if so, who was behind them. Rebus is intrigued to learn that his archenemy, a gangster knows as Big Ger Cafferty, may be involved. Before he walks off into the sunset, Rebus would love to bring down this vicious thug who has been a thorn in his side for years.

"Exit Music" is an incredibly complicated and dense police procedural with a large number of characters, suplots, and red herrings. This four hundred page novel, which is sluggishly paced at times, could easily have been trimmed with no loss of coherence. On the other hand, the author gets high marks for depicting police work realistically, demonstrating the tedium of endless conversations with potential witnesses (some of whom lie or omit information), the sifting of every bit of physical evidence, and the search for a key fact that could break a case wide open. He also brings Edinburgh to life and deftly portrays the political and economic changes that may lead, one day, to Scotland's independence from Great Britain. Rebus is a delightful rogue who is content to say and do what he likes now that he is days away from packing it in. Although he is not in charge of the investigation, John blithely goes off on his own to follow his hunches wherever they may lead.

What makes this book memorable is Rankin's stunning epilogue--a tour de force of superb writing and dramatic surprises. The fact that the ending is not neat and tidy makes it a fitting coda for the checkered career of Detective Inspector John Rebus, a man who has always lived on the edge and thumbed his nose at conventional wisdom.

As a James patterson fan, I was deeply dissaointed with this book. Its obvious he is just letting his name be attached to books just to make money. This was more predictable, fake, and unrealistic than a silly movie.


I was flipping the pages literally stunned that each event was ACTUALLY happening because it was so stupid and surreal.

Dont waste your time. This book stinks.

James Patterson has written some memorable thrillers but Sail seems to be written by a ghost writer who is new (or tired) of the genre and pushed to this book on the masses using the Patterson label. Don't get me wrong, this is a quick and easy read, but the characters never seem to grasp the readers interest. The scene is set when the dad is killed in a sailing accident and the family tumbles into chaos. The mother is a character that should have been written out of the story. The dialog seems to date back to the Twenties and the characters are all flat. Does this sound like the Patterson we know? I've given it three stars but could easily understand someone giving it one star - what I can't understand is someone giving it five stars.

Editor of the highly recommended novel: Fates by Georgiou Tino: Best of 2008

Katherine Dunne lost her husband four years earlier to a scuba diving accident. Eleven months ago she married a shark of man, Attorney Peter Caryle. Carlyle is after Kathy's dough and he doesn't want to wait for it. To that end he employs Gerard Devoux, a sailboat savvy hitman to smooth his way to all that cash.

Katherine feels she's going bonkers, her oldest, eighteen-year-old Yalie freshman Carrie is a bulimic on the verge of suicide, next in line is sixteen-year-old, pot-smoking, spoiled Mark and lastly there's ten-year-old quiet and troubled Ernie. These people are about as dysfunctional as you can get and to bind them together, heal them maybe, Katherine decides to set sail in the Caribbean on the family boat. Of course they need an experienced captain and who better than an ex-lover, brother in law named Jake.

Needless to say a lot of bad stuff goes wrong on this three hour tour (well it was more than tree hours). Carrie tries to kill herself, Mark gets caught smoking dope, they almost sink, the boat blows up, they're lost on an island, where they fend off sharks and a really big snake and their epirb (emergency position indicating radio beacon) has been rigged by Devoux to tell the world that the castaways Dunne are they aren't.

Meanwhile hitman Devoux's got himself a seaplane and guess who he's coming after?

Okay, did I like it. Yeah, I did, though one has to wonder these days if Mr. Patterson is really writing these stories. The characters were quickly sketched, not really fleshed out, but that's okay in this kind of story. There were too many sharks, but that's okay too. That snake was a bit much, but it'll give you goose bumps. And as one who has actually been on a boat in the Caribbean when it's sinking, I can tell you I was right there with these people. This is good entertainment.

Had problem : received two copies of the book from different sources.
Feel sure that the error was on my end, and would have returned one but felt the process was too cumbersome and not worth the effort.The book itself was okay, nothing special. Service by your suppliers was excellent.
It's tough doing business when one is an old man with fat fingers.

W. Henderson

Is there really a James Patterson, or was he created by a computer too? "Sail" reads like a comic book. It is totally predictable. I can only imagine how this "book" was created. It appears to me that someone sat down at a computer with a grab bag of potential scripted happenings, pulled up a variety of them, and then wrote a "story" transitioning from one scripted event to another, sort of like panels in a comic strip. Sad to say, it appears Little, Brown and Company has "sold their soul," and is willing to crank out garbage to take advantage of a popular name. The story line is so trite! Don't waste your money on this bad joke of a book. Patterson must laugh all the way to the bank, assuming that there really is a Patterson!

Bought his book for my wife. The service was quick and exactly waht we wanted. Thanks

I like all of James Patterson's books, but I am particularly fond of the Women's Murder Club and was excited when it became a series on television. This particular novel was very personal for all of the characters and that is what seemed to draw me in even more.

Patiently waiting for the next one!

I am a James Patterson book fan. This was one of his best written books of the several that I have read. It is worth all the time you spend reading it. It will capture your attention from begin to end. Very good read.

The Women's Murder Club scores another hit with 7th HEAVEN. A fast read in what has become the standard short chapter style, the pages almost turn for you. Lindsay Boxer is torn between two loves, her job and her live in lover. But the job takes precedence when two killers stalk the streets.
Yuki Castellano faces the toughest murder trial of her career without evidence or a body. While Lindsay and her partner Rich Conklin investigate a brutal pair of arsonists.
7th Heaven is any thing but as the beautiful people of San Francisco burn.
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelGuns Across the Rio: A Texas Ranger in Old Mexico

I have become a huge Patterson after reading the 5th Horseman, lapsed on the 6th Target and found my way back for 7th Heaven. I just love the play on numbers. This is the 7th novel in his Women's Murder Club series and the book starts off in as far a place from heaven as possible with victims found bound and gagged and burned. Yet the mystery doesn't begin there as Patterson reveals to us who the culprits are. The mystery begins in a two-plot fold. The SFPD are tracking down the culprits of a recent arson and the assistant DA and member of the Woman's Murder Club with a young harlot suspected in the disappearance of Mike Campion. But the DA is having relationship problems and is on the brink of self-destruction while the SFPD aren't having much luck either. Being new to Patterson it's difficult for me to comment on his past works, but I doubt the King of the Mystery Thriller would put his name on anything but the best. I'd also like to recommend the highly anticipated novel by Georgiou Tino: The Fates: Best of 2008

Some of the beginning seemed to justify the way he treated his wife.
I enjoyed the book, but like so many others I was interested in the chapter about how OJ actually pulled it off. He really did it! The details say it all.

I bought this book for my two daughters aged 18 and 16. They are both non-readers and I have been encouraging them to read something. They both asked me to buy this book for them to read. I was really hesitant at first because of the topic but I felt that if they want to read I have to encourage them. I would not have bought it if the money goes to OJ but the front of the book claims it goes to the Goldman Family so I bought it. My girls read this book in 2 days. They both said it was a good book. I won't read it because I already have my opinion and don't need OJ to tell me his stories.

I have always thought OJ did the crime. That being said, I tried to open my mind, but couldn't as Simpson couldn't even open HIS own mind. The hogwash he writes (via a ghost writer who I believe was spot-on with what OJ said and didn't add much and stayed true to form)makes you so angry you need to put the book down to collect your thoughts.

Gee, the way he talks-Nicole was going to kill HIM. Poor baby.

I do hope the Goldman's make a mint on the book. That is the only justice left regarding OJ "the killer" Simpson. Hw shows what a lying [...] he is from the get go...........

Buy the book just to piss off OJ.

As I was reading "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer" I had to keep reminding myself that this was a true story. I read it in two days. I cannot imagine how I would feel if the murderer of my children described the crime in blood curling detail like the killer did here. My heart goes out to Nicole and Ron's families. By the way, I thank the Goldman's for pursuing the rights of this book. I would not have purchased it if the killer was going to profit.

This book made me simply ill to my stomach. While I understand why the Goldman family wanted to expose oj (its hard for me to even type his initials), his "true story" about Nicole was so sick and distorted. He makes most things HER fault, her problem, "her awful friends", etc. Does he think readers that are half way intelligent people wouldn't see through this crap? That alone shows us who he really is. His old football cleats are wayyyyyy too big for him yet he still trys to wear them because in his egotistical brain hes still "all that". After reading this book with hypocritical supposedly how it happened theme, I say oj get a clue. Heaven isn't going to accept you dude.

Why spend a few good evenings re-discovering life through the eyes of an autistic boy? The answer to that lies in this intriguing novel. While most fifteen-year-olds spend their time playing basketball or crunching popcorn at the movies, Christopher Boone - our protagonist - prefers cracking difficult maths puzzles and investigating the death of his neighbour's poodle. The latter event eventually leads him on an adventure that forms the bulk of the plot - a discovery of the untold back-story to his parents' troubled marriage.

The main selling point of the book, however, lies not so much in the story per se as having the story rendered through Christopher's eyes. And what he brings is a wholly refreshing perspective on life - from the details he picks out with his unbelievably photographic memory to his manic obsession with order. How many people actually can - or will bother to - remember the number (and colour and size and disposition) of cows they've just seen on a random field? This raises serious questions about the things we `normal people' choose to see and not to see. The language too is perfect - methodical, matter-of-fact and well-suited to the subject matter and how our protagonist relates to it.

A truly refreshing and thought-provoking read.

What an awesome idea. This book is unlike any other I have read. Telling a story from the persepctive of an autistic boy's point of view is brilliant. You will follow this boy's plight step by step as he struggles to come to terms with an "event" about which he knows very little. Great book.

I know this book has garnered a large and varied response, ranging from disdain for its unconventional structure and use of vulgar words to an admiration for how it views real life from a detached point of view. However, I found that I rather liked this book, and found it a genuinely touching book.

I won't dwell into how Haddon constructs the story, but Haddon's story is thought-provoking and touching at the same time. Haddon's plot questions the disdain we have towards people who are not of our thinking, and his drawing of the characters is so real that you feel as if you could reach out to touch them. I am struck by the way that Haddon draws the character of Christopher, because in some ways he shares many of our frustrations but yet he is still a loveable character. His untangling of the vicissitudes of everyday people is what propels the story forward. I know the plot may not be the best in how it moves abruptly to the investigation of the murder of a dog to the conflict between his parents. However, once you find that the parental disagreement is the heart of the novel and the dog incident is the key to it, the plot begins to make sense.

I know some people have raised concerns about the vulgarities peppered throughout the book. As such I see that it isn't suitable for children. I'm aware that such words, especially the F-word, are offensive but even so the expletives aren't the essence of the book and don't detract from Christopher's dealings with his predicaments.

In short, I heartily recommend this book to all, as one of the most interesting, and accessible, novels of recent years.

"This book was so terrific that, when I read a passage of it to my teenage son, he said, "I want to read that when you get finished." Well, I finished quickly (it's short) and gave it to him. He read it!

Why is that so amazing? Well, my son reads about one book every 2 years. He loved it.

I have a friend who has an autistic son. While reading this, I could imagine that, yes, my friend's son seems to quite possibly think this way.

It's amazing how Mark Haddon was able to tell this story from the viewpoint of someone that is autistic. Autistic people cannot truly communicate how they think and feel to us. but Mr. Haddon seems to have hit it on the head.

You don't really read this book for the story, which is interesting, but not terrific, you read it for the WRITING."

I often worry that these books with a lot of buzz won't live up to the hype by the time I get around to reading them. In this case, I shouldn't have worried. From his prime-numbered chapters to his reasons why he doesn't like the colors yellow and brown, Haddon's autistic narrator is full of his own charm, even if he couldn't tell you what charm was. You can't help but feel for this boy who wants to find out who killed his neighbor's dog, thinks his mother is dead, and lacks the filter we take for granted to see and hear only that which is important to us. From time to time you may get bogged down in Christopher's factual digressions and descriptions, but it's not long before you're caught back up in his story.

I found this book riveting--but at times was so upset I had to put it down in an effort to calm down. I think Mr. Bugliosi pulls no punches, and I glory in him.

This was a well written book and would open anyone's eyes. BUT, I don't think anyone would have the guts to do anything about it.

The book is provocative, but clearly lays out the case for the prosecution of this President. The end notes are as interesting to read as the text itself. After reading the book you'll have a hard time deciding if you are more outraged at the current administration or the people who still defend it.

Bugliosi's detractors will have a hard time discounting the evidence against Bush in this book. The argument is strong, the facts verified, the evidence damning. Don't read it before bed, you won't be able to get to sleep.

Bugliosi knows evil, but even he has underestimated George Bush and the small company of sequestered advisors who made him do it. But he has also underestimated the pervasiveness of the evil--call it "prideful ignorance"--that he's so eager to prosecute.

The devastation to our own country in terms of our own troops--their irreversible injuries and psychological damage; the ravaging of the women, children and civilians of Iraq (the term "suicide bomber" was unknown there until we created a reason for it, after which the mere shouting of the term caused thousands of Iraq citizens on their way to Mosque to leap off a bridge to their deaths); the bankrupting of America spiritually, morally, and economically--all to apprehend a homeless hoodlum in a hole (whose intelligence at least stood up alongside our own leader's)--all because of lies, lies, and more lies. No 9/11 and Iraq connection, no Saddam and 9/11 relation, no tolerance of informed advisors with a different POV (Richard Clarke), no greeting of these American White Knights as heroic rescuers and saviors, no cheap oil--still people want to believe, and this administration and its sycophants (who try to call themselves "mavericks") will exploit that naive, sadly misplaced trust, even proclaiming Mission Accomplished where there is none. No one will mention the obvious--the expense of the Iraq invasion (funded by Chinese loans) and its connection with the collapse of our economy. And just as the loan sharks couldn't help but perpetuate the myth that everyone could afford a $500,000 home, the new-moneyed powers of the Eastern world were convinced that American consumerism would continue to repay in huge sums of interest the money they decided to throw at America's banks who passed it on to the mortgage lenders who passed it on to the consumers.

Dante was right about usurers in the Cantos of the Inferno, and so was Ezra Pound in his own great Cantos (though he was deluded to think that one religion or group of people had a monopoly on usury). But Russ Feingold, Obama and Jimmy Carter (unlike Hillary, Biden and Kerry and many other normally thoughtful individuals) did not vote to support our leader's mandate to engage in this vain and hideous act of transgression, an imperial will proven again and again throughout history to be wrong. It doesn't matter how false the testimony of our leader: the act in itself was transparently corrupt from the beginning and would not have been supported by any person of integrity (a winnable war against hatred?). For that reason, Bugliosi overstates his case.

The American people deserved what they got, doubly so after the 2004 election. We can only hope they demand better this time around. Rather than persecute a scapegoat (as bad as the money and energy wasted on Saddam), far better they do some soul-searching, however unflattering the results. Our capitalistic system run amok, our consumer culture, and our educational institutions (when did hot-button issues, hardened positions, and ideologies and religious affiliations replace the Socratic principles of learning?) are what failed us. To prosecute a pusillanimous president is tantamount to elevating Saddam, a two-bit thug, to the role of the Anti-Christ. As Young Goodman Brown discovered, it's not necessary to leave Salem to locate Satanic revelry; as Flannery O'Connor's characters soon learn, "good and pious" Americans make serial killers look like saints by comparison; as Faulkner's fallen klan of a grand chivalric order discover, their pure, undefiled, exalted and separatist order was tragically flawed from the outset, an achromatic world removed from the prismatic colors that are our nation's strength.

We don't need a prosecution or a surrender. A confession would be a first step.

The legal framework for the prosecution is set up by Bugliosi in Chapter 4. He begins by citing numerous journalists and other public figures critical of the president for "'false selling of' and 'railroading us into' the Iraq war," then marvels that virtually none of these critics goes on to advocate any legal punishment whatsoever--as if the president had merely dissembled about the weather. For the crime of intentionally misleading the nation into war--and thus knowingly "bringing about" the wrongful deaths of Americans--Bugliosi shows that after January 20, 2009, Bush can be and should be prosecuted for murder. The author then discusses the legal terminology for what constitutes first degree and second degree murder, and why the former applies to the president and his active coconspirators.

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Brian Wright
Copyright 2008