Tripwire by Lee Child

Published in June 199,but I just acquired this at a book sale and read it in September 2024.  This is a phenomenal early Jack Reacher tale, paperback, 401 pages. Reacher is fit, he's been working digging  he feels in the best shape of his life, pg 10, "Like a condom crammed with walnuts." He has been working digging swimming pools in Key West by day and as a bouncer at night at Costello's bar.  Only that night some strangers come trying to get entrance and Costello is found beaten to a pulp with alll 10 of his fingertips sliced off.  Meantime another investigator is trying to find Reacher at the request of a Mrs Jacobs.  She turns out to be Jodie, Leon Garber's daughter and needs to find him because Leon has left his house to him. Jodie and Reacher had mutual crushes on each other way back, but Reacher ignored that urge, she was too young for him and Leon's delighter.  She is now divorced and a successful  attorney. 

This has twists and turns as every Reacher novel.  The parallel story of grieving elderly parents for their presumed dead Army soldier only son, Hook Hobie.  He was a devoted son but the army will not recognize him as a hero,.  Didn't he die in Vietnam in the crash of the helicopter?  This parallel mystery will present the most vicious enemy Reacher has encountered.  Hook Hobie ii a vicious rfinancial lender and now has Lester Holt captive, he plans to collect his debt which Holt cannot pay.  Soon his wife will be captured with him as Hobie schemes to acquire all their assets.  Can this really be their son ignoring his parents completely and how will Reacher get involved in this?. 

Back Cover of Tripwire

 I was puzzled, would Reacher keep Garber's house and settle down?  Doubted it because there have been several more Reacher novels following this.  

This is another 5 ***** read.  I'm glad I finally found and read it.  It goes on my shelf now with all the othe Reacher books.  

Have You Seen Luis Velez by Catherine Ryan Hyde

 

I read this novel early August 2024.  It is a paperback, 307 pages, published in 2019.  The writing is good and clkear.  It is a very delightful, heart warming tale about an elderly blind woman Mildred Guterman, who lives alone and has no family in an apartment building.  In the same  building Raymond Jaffee, a teenage boy who is totally alone in the his mother's new family. One day as Mildred calls ouit from her apartment, "Have you seen Luis Velez?"  Raymond stops and there begins unlikely friendship that will change and enhance both their lives.  This novel reflects the wisdom of the parable of doing something to help others and thereby helping yourself beyond expectations.  

Mildred had help from Luis who has vanished and she has no way of contacting him.  She does not like to go out on the streets alone with her white cane so Raymond begins to accompany her to the bank, to errands.  Ultimately Raymond begins a quest to search for this missing Luis, using only the phone book which has many by that name., 

Pg 78-79:  "Because I have lived 92 years, Raymond, and if there's one thing I can tell you, it's that we are never as unique as we think we are.  We are all people.  Sure, some things will be different from one person to the next.  Some people have more of those feelings than others. Some have too much, and it causes all manner of havoc.  Some have none at all.
But I can tell you this as a human being whose had a lot of experience being one:  "If you're feeling something other people in other places are feeling it too.""

Ultimately he finds Luis' young pregnant widow Isabel and their children.  Raymond learns Luis was murdered and the trial is coming up.  He brings her to meet Mildred so she will have resolution knowing what happened to Luis and that he did not abandon her.  Isabel had no way to contact her and was concerned too despite all her problems. 

This excerpt pg 157, on living after loss and a long life are wisdom from Mildred:

This is a 5 ***** read

The Jigsaw Priest by Margaret Belle

           This is the second book I have ordered and read by Margaret Belle and it is even better than the first one, The Granddaughters which was also very good.  The author develops wonderful characters and has a unique ability to hold a story line while weaving other stories of characters in the novel through it.  Very well written and I enjoyed every page.  This is excellent fiction mystery about the town priest Father Doyle, town characters  in the town of Graves End New York.    

 The novel begins describing Father Doyle is  writing his mandatory resignation letter due to his age to the Bishop.  Page 1 opens:  

                                              

The description of Graves End on pages 24-25:  "Grave's End wasn't your typical flag waving apple pie and mother loving small town where kids grew up playing T-ball and neighbors held backyard barbeques.  It was a piece of Hell itself where men scraped a living out of the soil, settled their arguments with knuckles and guns, and got drunk at the local saloon on Friday nights.  Their wives were just as tough in other ways and could shoot as strait as their husbands."

This continues telling why Dr Benjamin Hall, the only doctor in town and a primary character in the  novel is here. "He was here because God help him it was his hometown.  He had gone away to college, then medical school, done a residence in Syracuse, and like most of the other young adults in Grave's End wanted out. But he was devoted to his father and while he had planned on simply sending money home from wherever he settled, he realized that as his father aged, he would need to be close by and there was no getting around the fact that the town would need a new doctor.  Now his need to stay was nearing an end, but whether he left after his father died or stuck it out until his own retirement he knew it would not be easy to find a new doctor  for the town.  Not easy at all."

Other characters, the town barber is known as OUCH  and Freddy Russett, the town attorney  is known as  Tater.  Dr Hall's father is in his last stages of life.  Jani Dover is in her last month of pregnancy.  It turns out that  she and Dr Hall had an affair and although he wants to marry her and raise the child she is unwilling, wants to leave and  give the child up.  Ms Catherine Crawford has been  the  parish secretary  as long as Father Doyle has been the priest.  

Millie Bean known as The Widow lives alone on her family farm.  pg 13, "Her parents had divorced the Grave's End way meaning Millie and her mother stayed put after her father got tired of farming and took off.  Millie stayed on after her mother passed away and never left. She preferred keeping to herself."   

Gus Gray is an overweight man who keeps trying unsuccessfully to commit suicide and repeatedly confessing his attempted sin to Father Doyle..  Pg 15-16, :  "No wonder people make fun of me, he thought, I can't even figure out how to do myself in.  Gus pulled on his eyebrow as he searched with a great sense of urgency through his late father's tool box."  

All these will weave through the novel with amazing revelations that solve unknown mysteries.   5 **(*** for this well written enjoyable novel.  

2009 Books by Laurie King

Addendum to previous post about this author on my review of Art of Deception.  Blogger would not  allow me to  edit that published post to add these .  As I recall these were good mysteries and di not contain the stuff of Deception.  Posting here for my reference only.  

o

Art of Deception by Laurie King

 

For some reason I cannot determine I am unable to merely start writing alongside the image of the book.  So I will just try this as I cannot spend more time trying to figure out WTH Blogger is doing now. 

 

This book was published in June 2006 but I recently picked it up at a used book sale for $1.  I have read novels by this author in the long ago past.  But after reading this mystery I am no longer interested in any more of her writings. 

Using the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes woven into a modern tale of a San Francisco police detective sounded interesting.  However, it  became too clear the fictional detective, Kate Martinelli is a lesbian in a partnership with her "wife" and together they are raising the wife's child.  Sorry but I am not interested in reading about 2 lesbians no matter the intrigue.  Too much information, culminating with them being the first 2 married in SF.  

The book further spreads the gay life style over the fictional life of Sherlock Holmes.  And describes a fictional group of Sherlockian enthusiasts who gather for dinner to discuss the detective.  This mystery centers on Philip Gilbert's finding  a manuscript  that might have been written by the late Sherlock.  Philip is a devoted fanatic of Holmes. So much that his apartment is done up in Sherlockian decor. and furnishings.  Philip is found dead and the crime investigation begins.  Martinelli will successfully solve this crime with the help of her partner on the force, Al Hawkins.

Inside cover flap

Besides too much gay lifestyle there is continuous description of the Battery area of SF, the Presidio, and oin and on.  I found that boring but kept reading as it did not taqke much concentration and I skimmed a lot of that.  

It could have been an ok mystery but I give this only *** and will not be reading anymore by this author.       

Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri

 I started reading this new to me author and series in May although this  first novel was published in 2012.  A new author to me and one I will continue to read.  I was attracted by the mention of Jack Reacher my favorite character by Lee Child who endorses Diane Capri's work and mentions how he especially admires one of the main characters, Kim Otto.  There are many books already in this series and as of today, September 26 I have read  only 4, all purchased new on Amazon.  I plan to review the others here soon and will be buying more although I took a spending break currently.  Below I have copied the list of all in this series, a few  such as Jack In A Box which I have also read are short stories  (novellas).  I was unaware of that when I purchased it but now that I know about these I will likely download those to my kindle instead of purchasing a hardcopy.    The author has other series too that sound like books I would like to read, so many books, so little time!  She also has a site to sell these directly.  

One nice feature was the list of primary characters at the beginning.  I really appreciate that and  she may be the only one I've read lately who does so.,  Kim Otto and Carlos Gasper are the two FBI detectives assigned to find Jack Reacher, previously unknown to them, this secret project by Charles Cooper.  There is something so secretive agouti their mission that even they are kept in the dark and told there will be no admittance of any FBI involvement should they stumble.  Otto and Gasper are totally different personalities, previously unknown to each other   and are picked by Cooper so undisclosed reasons.  .Pg. 14., "The FBI operated in tyhe glare of every possible spotlight.  Keeping something under the radar added layers of complication.  Under the radar meant no official recognition,.  No help, either. Off the books.  She didn't have to hide but she'd need to be careful what she revealed and to whom.  Agents died during operations under the radar."  

And so their partnership begins with Otto as lead agent.  She is ambitious.  Gasper is a survivor and a family man and wants to maintain his job for another 20 years.  Different life experiences too.  

From the author's website:  "It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when to break the rules; they’ve been told Reacher is a stone cold killer. Reacher is a wanted man, but is he their friend or their enemy? Otto and Gaspar don’t know what they don’t know about Jack. Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them."  

I so enjoyed this first novel that when I finished it on June 2,  I wrote this note to myself:  "OMG more twists than a coiled snake.  Who was/is the villain, thought perhaps even Cooper, but no???"       The writing is good, clear and the twists are well tangled.  I give it 5 *****

Back Cover of  Don't Know Jack

Limestone Legacy of a Curse by Tess Kincaid

 

Published 2024, this is a prequel to the author's first novel Pechewah which I read and reviewed here in May.    purchased this  on Amazon in July and read it shortly after first of August over days.  .  It is almost a horror mystery at times,  yet the intrigue kept me reading, wondering what next, how will it end.  The author weaves a magnificent tapestry uniting the years and the family sagas and tragedies. 

We learn toward the end  187-195) the identity of the woman whose car plunges into the riverbed in Pechewa while she is returning home to Ohio from visiting her grandfather in Indiana.  It is Tree Kingston who lived at Limestone with her husband Ramsey.  It is Tree who will continue haunting we learn in the closing pages. 

In  200 pages this novel twista the mystery of this home through it's history beginning in 1810 with the Wyandot Indians who come for their chief known as Leatherlips to the settlers.  They abduct him, accuse him of witchcraft, kill him beginning the Limestone curse.  (Pgs  3-5)  There is a long list of inhabitants of the  home that will be built  along the limestone on   the riverbanks of the Scioto .  At times I set this aside and read something else, because it was agonizing to read of  the constant tragedies.  Yet I kept coming back to it in a day or so because I wanted to know what would happen next.  A good read,  better than not being able to  put it down.  Taking longer allowed me to savor the writing.  Definitely well written, poetic at times.  a 5 *****

Limestone  Back cover

Below are two photos the author shared on Facebook of her former home in Dublin Ohio that was the inspiration for Limestone..  One of the house and one of the living room.  

The Granddaughters by Margaret Belle

    Published 2021 by the Author.  I purchased thru Amazon and read this end of July 2024.  Margaret Belle was a new author to me. 

 This is a light mystery with comical parts and a nicely written story about three cousins, Franny, Ellie and Sandy  who get together to reminisce and enjoy themselves near the lake cottage where they spent summers years ago, Orange Lake  Newburg, New York. They are all of vintage years   After their grandmother died an Aunt by marriage into the family inherits the cottage though it had been promised to all the surviving aunts as a family legacy.  The prologue in 1971  describes the plotting of Verna Ferguson and how she did achieve sole possession of the cottage denying access to the rest of the family.  These women were younger girls then and knew little of what had happened other than what their families had shared.    Sandy is now 60 years old and has just finally gotten the courage to leave her abusive husband Robert after a long marriage.  No one knew about the abuse she tolerated all those years.  Franny has a farm she has worked hard to keep and now with the help of a farmhand , who is an excon to whom she gave a chance . and who has been very helpful and devoted, she  can get a way with the others.  Ellie is a writer who has decided to go the  Orange Lake to research information for her next book and decides to invite the  cousins for a mini reunion.    

Backcover

The author shares the inspiration for the book  at the back, a 1953 newspaper story 

Their not so idyllic haven provides intrigue as they begin to research what might have happened to change their grandmother's mind and will. Along this investigation they learn about missing bank funds.   Not expecting the turn of events they will uncover nor the danger they can face through the innocence of the local realtor who rented the cottage to Ellie.  Robert has tracked Sandy down and is dangerous.  The local law enforcement is contacted and is watching but things get out of hand.,  It is an all's well that ends well finale with dear disaster. 

Page 296, copied below reflects the  feelings of local Detective Sam Summers who gets involved watching out for the women at the request of a friend.  "Had three over-the-hill women ever caused this much chaos anywhere?  Ever?"  This is at the news conference and ceremony feting the  women who solve a long closed col case about missing bank funds.  

This is a very easy read, enjoyable and wistful in parts.  a **** 4 star

The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik

Cover

 Published  in 1999, 410 pages and a Readers Guide at the end for thoughts and discussions.  I acquired it at a book sale and read it March 2024.  Just catching up on postings.  .  A very charming fiction tale set in a fictitious small town of Tall Pine in northernmost MN.  Many different personalities in the characters ranging  from comical to stoic to hysterical to the pitiful, etc.  Reminds me a bit of Virgil Wander by Leif Enger which I likely have not reviewed here but read last year or so and enjoyed.  

An aspiring film maker from Hollywood finds in the unsuspecting Fenny Ness the perfect personification of Inge, a main character in a film, to be made " Ike and Inga "

The brief prologue opens wit h 4 words Fenny wished she had never spoken, "One burrito supreme please."   The Cup O'Delight Cafe, run by Lee O'Leary,  is where all the locals gather daily to eat and stay in touch.  Lee O'Leary  has a mysterious ingredient she keeps secret that makes her coffee legendary.  Tall Pine is on the Rainy River in the farthest northern part of MN bordering on Ontario Canada.  

Prologue 

 The story opens with Fenny ice skating on Tall Pine Lake with Craig Asper who falls more than he skates.  She is barely tolerating him but he finally gives up and returns to the lodge.  She continues skating.  Her parents Sig and Wally had both passed leaving their Wally's Bait and Camp shop which Fenny their only daughter now runs.  

This review from Amazon:"In the small town of Tall Pine, Minnesota, at the Cup O’Delight Cafe, the townsfolk gather for what they call the Tall Pine Polka, an event in which heavenly coffee, good food, and that feeling of being alive among friends inspires both body and soul to dance. There’s the cafe owner, the robust and beautiful Lee O’Leary, who escaped to the northwoods from an abusive husband; Miss Penk and Frau Katt, the town’s only lesbian couple (“Well, we’re za only ones who admit it.”); Pete, proprietor of the Shoe Shack, who spends nights crafting beautiful shoes to present to Lee, along with his declarations of love; Mary, whose bad poetry can clear out the cafe in seconds flat; and, most important of all, Lee’s best friend, Fenny Ness, a smart and sassy twenty-two-year-old going on eighty.  When Hollywood rolls into Tall Pine to shoot a movie, and a handsome musician known as Big Bill appears on the scene, Lee and Fenny find their friendship put to the test, as events push their hearts in unexplored directions—where endings can turn into new beginnings."

Lee and Fenny are close friends and many try to encourage Fenny  to spread her wings beyond Tall Pine but she is just not interested.  Other characters, the pastor's wife, Gloria Murch; Mayor Lambordeaux,  Slim Knutson a Vietnam war veteran who barks and howls when emotions get to him or when he feels like it is employed at the cafe by Lee. All the simplicity is challenged when the Hollywood crew arrives looking to film.  And right about the same time a stranger Big Bill rolls into town.  He is the nephew of the recluse Indian .woman who sells vests through Fenny's shop but who wants her nephew to become more Indian than he seems.    He begins to play the piano at Tall Pine and Lee has her eyes on him but the twist is he falls for Fenny and there goes the longtime friendship.  Lee will ultimately leave for unknown parts without anyone knowing where she is.  Bill's aunt watches unhappily as he is with Fenny and when she has the chance she tries to ensure they will not be together.  

Pages 262--263   Slim tells Bill about lying and how it leads to trouble.  

A delightful tale that twists and all comes happily together at the end though not without some sorrow and twists.  We never do learn the secret of Lee's coffee.    A nice pleasant read, 4 ****

 

Pechewa An American Odyssey by Tess Kincaid

I read this novel in April.  Very good writing and a true glimpse of the author's family roots.  

I left this review on Amazon:  " Absolutely enjoyed this novel. Good solid writing throughout. I had long forgotten some of the things from midwest childhood days back ago such as minnows in the creeks , tadpoles, words that were common to me as a child and so long forgotten about. I chuckled reading about those lawn jockeys! Memories surfaced immediately . A good book can do that. I learned somethings too, such as the origin of the term "Hoosier." There were some descriptives I found amusing and original such as "Walmart Picasso" and "brunetteitude. " Nostalgic to read about someone visiting her elderly grandfather as I had similar experiences with my elderlies relatives in PA. Reading along I was rooting for Peachy and was convinced all would be right. As a good read, it has a double twist at the end which I did not expect. I do not want to give away any of the intrigue with spoilers.  

One thing I found odd was no page numbers in the book, fortunately it is not massive but I like to make notes and usually just reference the page numbers. So with this I tore pink postits and staggered them in the book.

 And what was her name?"   I realized at the end  of the novel that I did not know the name of the woman  visiting her grandfather in Indiana and through whom the story unfolded. I was reading along enjoying the memories from so long ago in my life and didn't think about her name.  

Published 2024 by the  author who now lives in England.  I became acquainted with Tess years ago through online blogs.  We are still connected often through Facebook posts.  Besides the things I mentioned on my  Amazon review there is  a wondrous description of a feral hog in Chapter 5.  

Peachy has acquired a copy of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" that will accompany him through his war journey.  This book has several references to" Leaves ...."and opens with a quote from it.  Tess, the author is a poet too so it is not unusual that she would find a way to include poetic.  

Pechewa finds a friend in Ras who is killed in battle.  

The novel has history and an ending I could not have predicted.  Truly a 5 *****.  Well done, Tess Kincaid!

Single by K>L>Slater

Found this great twister novel, mystery, thriller at the Friends of Library book sale.  Have never before  read this author, K.L.Slater, British but what a great read.  I will look for more of her books.  It was published in 2019, 338 pages.  I was in suspense until the end and truly was surprised at the outcome.  I have no quotes from the book but hated to put it down without  finding out what would happen next, 

Very briefly Darcy is a young widow with two small boys, Kane and Harrison.  When Joel dies she learns that her beloved husband, Joel,  had been cheating on her, living with another woman Daniela Frost  part of the week while she thought he was away on business.  Darcy suffers a clinical mental  breakdown  and Joel's  parents Leonard and Brenda and his sister, Steph are lifesavers for her,  taking custody of the boys while she recovers and returning them to her after she is discharged.  Darcy is a yoga instructor. Her in-laws are her support system, Steph is like a sister to her.  The other woman, Daniella stays in touch with Joel's parents as well.  Darcy doesn't like that but there is nothing she can do.  

Then she learns that Daniella will be moving back to their town. Kane the youngest boy suffers an almost fatal  asthma attack at a park and a handsome off duty surgeon George Mortimer steps in and saves his life.  Darcy is grateful.

 

Back Cover

 The next day she takes a thank you card to him at the hospital where he works with an invitation to coffee trying to thank him somehow.  He calls her and accepts and then begins what will be for Darcy the answer to what she could not have imagined.  They fall in love .  Darcy is smitten, swept off her feet.  George is a widower wit h a young daughter, Romy  and a housekeeper, Maria.  Daniela is not only moving back to the town but is buying the townhouse where Darcy has been living.  She knows she has to move and of course the in-laws would be thrilled to have her and the boys move in with them.  But the relationship with George has continued and he asks her and the boys to move in with him after all 5 of them spend Christmas Days away at a lodge.  This does not go over well wit  the in-laws where they have always spent Christmas and where Brenda goes all out.  Darcy breaks the news that she and the boys will be living with George to the in-laws next.  George seems to have a stalker, Opal whom he says is an ex girlfriend.  Opal begins  to shadow Darcy and the boys and send flowers of condolence. Darcy wants George to call the police but he tells her the police can do nothing, without proof.  Darcy learns that is true when she tries to get police help herself.  m  Meanwhile Darcy has been following Daniella on social media using a fake identity, stalking of her own.  Things escalate when Harrison is kidnapped after school football practice.  The way things turn out was very unpredictable to me.  I did not know  who was telling the truth.  Turns out George was twisted and planning to kill Harrison, blame Opal and then have Darcy done away with. He is involved with Daniella.    Maria the housekeeper whom he fired after she had harsh words with Darcy turns out to be Opal's mother.  That is why she was so attached to Romy. Opal is Romy's mother not his dead wife.  In a confrontation to get Harrison back  Opal kills George in self defense.  The novel closes, George is dead, the child Romy inherits his property and is restored to her mother and Maria. Opal and Maria invite Darcy and the boys to live with them.  And the in-laws arrive at the end, bereft of all that has happened and deeply regretful of their part in the saga.  Fences are mended with them and it appears Darcy will now have a better life a normal one with the boys and her new true friends.  

A real 5 ***** fast paced thriller.  

A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Front Cover

Picked this up at our local library book sale along with a bag of others.  The title "Widow" caught my eye and I have read other novels by this author .  But this was beyond disappointing, in fact it resembles something a late aunt used to say, "don't even waste your eyeballs on that."  I suffered along, trying, hoping for better up to page 110 of its 537 pages.  It was published in 1998.

I truly have not had anything this bad to read since I do not know when.  The storyline according to the inner book flap didn't sound bad, but I never got past the four year old Ruth.  Poor child is daughter  of an irresponsible father and a mother who never got over the grief of losing their two older boys, Ruth's brothers born long before her.  Very tiresome as the mother has an affair, if it can be called that it is blatant seductions of Eddie,  an Exeter high school boy whom the father hired as his writer's s assistant for the summer.  Ted, the father is unable to drive from too many DUI's so all he wanted was a chauffeur. Marion, Ted's wife, Ruth's mother uses Eddie as she plans to leave Ted and Ruth.  Though the flap describes erotic parts, I found the eroticism tiresome and quite annoying, verging on pornographic as 4 year old Ruth enters her mother's bedroom to see her mounted by Eddie.  Yuck.

Spare me any further agony trying to read this drivel.     I have so many more books waiting to be read on my shelf.     .  Therefore no rating from me.  It will go into my Goodwill Donation bag.  I am surprised I gave it space on this blog as I've read other books I'm waiting to review and share.

Never by Ken Follett

Found this paperback at Sam's, a Follet novel I'd not read, a saga in one volume, 802 pages, published originally in 2022 this edition in 2023 . A great mystery, action intrigue featuring three dynamic females and a couple stalwart males. 

 Pauline Green  President of the US faces personal domestic challenges with her teenage daughter and with her husband while she faces decisions that can lead the US into nuclear war after tense military operations against North Korea and  China.  Tamara Levit is a CIA operative assigned to gather intelligence about jihadist terrorists for the French CIA, Direction General de la Securitei Exteriuere (DGSE) in Chad Africa where "everything is the same shade of tan, bleak as a moonscape."  Tamara meets a young widow, Kiah, in a village; Kiah dreams of leaving destitution and starvation of her village for France and a better life for herself and young son.  Ultimately Kiah's tumultuous, twisted, treacherous  brave journey despite the backing out of her brother in law will intertwine her with CIA operations and a new life.  Colonel Susan Marcus is page 106,  "part of what the US military called a Tier 2 Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force or for short, Special Forces."  Abdul is a Lebanese/ US undercover CIA agent in Chad working to find jihadi hideouts and the contact for Tamara and the French.  Abdul is operating as a cigarette vendor.  Tabdar (Tab) Sadoulis an Algerian French operative with the French CIA,  DGSE .  Chan Kai in Beijing China is Chinese intelligence, vice minister of international intelligence.  Tamara's insufferable boss in the CIA office is Dexter.  James Moore is a political opponent of President Paulines and constantly trying to stir public opinion against her until his interpersonal relationships bring him down.  

A multitude and more of fascinating characters who keep this novel moving along.  

Tab discovers jihadis have weapons made by Norinco a Chinese Industrial group in Niger and lays  the intrigue from China to Africa.  

Page322 "  A lie goes halfway round the world while the truth is getting its boots on."  

As with every Follett novel this is outstanding reading. 5*****

BCK COVER 

, 

Persuader by Lee Child

 

Published in 2017 but  I only read  it February, 2024, after I  purchased new through Amazon to prepare for the Amazon Prime Reacher Season 3.    The opening Chapter 1 is very different  with  Reacher in the wrong place at the right time and saving a rich college kid from abduction.  Although it is not apparent  opening that Reacher is part of this scenario and accidentally kills a cop while fleeing the scene.  It took me about 16 pages into the book to realize that was Reacher though I could not imagine him killing a cop.  He gives in to the pleas of the young man who  has persuaded him to drive him home to his family in Maine.  The boy, Richard Beck  is the son of a wealthy rug importer and had been abducted before for ransom.  

Page 26, Chapter 2 is background where Reacher tells he's been in for 11 days, in Boston, on his way to a bar when he sees a man whom he knows he killed a decade ago.  He calls on former Military Police to trace the license plate of the car he saw the man get into.  A warrant officer, Powell,  who knows only of Reacher who'd been out of the Army for 6 years now, takes the call.  But instead of a return call  the next morning,  two federal DEA investigators knock at his motel room door,   Steven Eliot and Susan Duffy.  

They have lost another DEA investigator,  who was undercover 

getting information on Zachary Beck, a rug importer in Maine who is working with a notorious Los Angeles drug dealer.  Duffy explains that their  operation is off the books because the investigator was also off the books.  There were mistakes made getting photos previously of the connection between Beck and the drug dealer.  And so Reacher agrees to help them.  

A brief history of drugs in the Army is on pg. 32, "  Were there drugs in the Army?" Eliot asked.    I smiled.  "Armies love drugs" I said.  "Morphine, Benzedrine.  The German Army invented Ecstasy.  It was an appetite suppressant.  CIA invented LSD, tested it on the US Army.  Armies march on their veins."   "Recreational?"  "Average age of a recruit is eighteen.  What do you think?"  

As in every one of the Reacher novels there is always interesting tidbit information like that on drugs .Pg 143, mentions how steel shanks in the sole of men's' dress shoes gives flexibility and strength.  And that metal detectors are designed to ignore shoes.  And on pg 144 some  mention about Maglite flashlights. This interested me because we had an old one that  corroded from inside by an old battery and I had to toss it.  I always thought I could have used it as a weapon if I had to.  We'd brought it from CA with us when we moved.  "The flashlight was a big black Maglite, the length of a nightstick.  Six D cells inside.  We used to use them in the army.  They were guaranteed unbreakable but we found that depended on what you hit with them and how hard,"  But enough of the miscellany. 

Another excellent read that has me anxiously awaiting the Amazon movie.  Another 5*****.  All 465 pages.  At the end is an intro and  the first chapters of Midnight Line.  

More about the Mona Lisa

 This time from History facts online about Pablo and  the Mona.  I have read at least 2 fiction novels about the Mona Lisa and posted reviews here.  Recently Stolen Lady.  

Pablo Picasso Was Accused of Stealing the “Mona Lisa”

Picasso is well known for his surrealist artworks, but the legendary Spanish painter also had a real surreal experience of his own in 1911. That year, on August 21, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece the “Mona Lisa” vanished from Paris’ Louvre Museum, and Picasso was deemed a suspect. Though there was no direct evidence linking Picasso to the brazen heist, the accusations stemmed from the artist’s relationship with a known art thief named Honore-Joseph Géry Pieret.

Pieret was the former secretary of Picasso’s Paris housemate, Guillaume Apollinaire. In fact, four years before the “Mona Lisa” was stolen, Pieret nabbed two Iberian sculptures from the Louvre and sold them to Picasso; the artist even used one of the statues as the inspiration for a face in his 1907 painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Upon learning that Pieret was a person of interest in the theft of the “Mona Lisa,” Picasso and Apollinaire planned to throw the stolen art that was in their possession into the river Seine, though ultimately they could not bring themselves to do so. Instead, Picasso was brought before a magistrate and lied, claiming he had never met Apollinaire. In the end, the case was thrown out and Picasso and Apollinaire were cleared two years later, when a handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia was caught attempting to sell the “Mona Lisa” to a Florentine art dealer.

When the Rain Ends

 This is the first I have read of this author and wondered why I'd selected it.  Paperback, published in 2023 it is  326 pages.  Took until about page 120 to get my interest.  Surprised me that I kept on reading but it is light and easy reading.  It turned out to be nicely written, a decent story about grief, trials, trying to start over and romance.  It is how one woman divorced with a teen daughter is slowly going to lose her vision.  But Dani, the mother, has backbone and is one who will not wallow but gird herself and go forward..  Dani is very accustomed to cloaking her feelings and giving  the impression that everything is fine.  She dresses up, and goes forth. Pg. 194, "Even alone, she kept her shoulders back.  Posture affects attitude and as an added bonus made the clothes hang better."  That technique is so like me.  

But when her ex husband and father of  daughter, Bella, dies suddenly in an accident life has turmoil.  Bella t internalizes her grief and  mimics  her mothers way of not showing feelings.  Like mother like daughter.  Dani keeps her vision loss secret from all but her father and brother.  She runs a successful art gallery off the outer banks but decides to move inland and away,  She bought an old farm with silos and has hired a contractor known to the realtor to renovate it.  She plans to renovate the silos into a different art gallery where tourists will stop on their way to and from. . This uproots Bella from her friends and routine. 

Dani has become involved with her contractor, Jackson, but has kept the relationship a secret.  She herself is unsure.  Jackson has his own load of grief.  

Page 52, "Her mind lingered in the odd space between awake and asleep where  dreams and worries flourished."  

Pg 181, "She had  few memories but the precious few were crisp and sharp honed to a fine tip.  But memory was a tricky thing.  It changed with time, emotions and experience like the beach did with the tides."

Pg. 187, " Time.  For a long time, he'd resented the long lonely years stretching out in front of him.  Then he'd  stopped resenting the future and started searching for moments in the present.  Do not squander time, It is the stuff life is made of.,"

Pages 200-201 "..grief bubbled under the surface.  But that's what grief did.  It was patient, always lurking in the shadows, ready  to spoil a happy moment , sour a day or prompt unexpected tears." 

Pg 305, "Does it ever get better?     It never goes away.  Most days it does lose its edge.  But every so often when you least expect it grief cuts.  And maybe that's not so terrible.  The jab is a reminder that you loved her very much."

Pg 307, "Her life wasn't perfect.  Certainly not the one she'd envisioned as a kit.  But it was the one she had.,  And she would make the best of it.  Somehow., "     Another  quote that is so me.  

Pg 320. " Grief has a way of feeding off of other emotions so it's easier not to feel anything."  

Back cover

Over all I give this novel almost 4 ****.  It  did finally catch my interest and  yet it is not the kind of book I'd normally read. 

The Last Mona Lisa by Laura Morelli

 

First completed read of 2024 but one that I've had to be read for awhile.  Published in 2021, this paperback novel spans 461 pages and has interesting acknowledgements and  an explanation of her research, etc. by the author.  I have read others by Laura Morelli but this one was not my favorite, still it was a decent read., It switches among three main characters set in two time periods.  It opens with Leonardo Da Vinci and follows him through Italy in the 1470's and expands to the second character, Bellina a servant in the 1490's in Florence.  Bellina will interact with da ?Vinci who is commissioned to paint the portrait of her mistress, Lisa Ghiardini.  The rule  of the Medici and their  rise, fail and restoration affect much of these two characters.  The third character in a more modern era is Anne, a typist employee of the Louvre in Paris and her adventure with the rest of the staff s preserving the many artworks including the Mona Lisa from the invasion of the Nazis in World War II. 

Page 5-6 Leonardo is working for and finishing a painting for his master but wants to o more.  He is deciding to leave, and thinks" in the end we are all hiding something."

Pg 169,Leonardo again, " As much as I hate to admit it there is something comforting about returning to these old familiar places.  After months away from Florence it fels like home.  Perhaps it is when we might lose it all that we finally gain an appreciation for things we once took for granted."   

Laura Morelli does intense thoughtful research to produce her historical novels.  Her Ph.D in art history from Yale gives her a depth that would be missing if she were just a writer of fiction.   There is some very good descriptive writing on pages 265-266  1942 as the Germans approached Paris and France.  "The news had come to them the way it always did: Pierre sharing information from the wireless.  This time he was pale with shock, his usual smile beneath a scowl now wiped away.  The Germans had invaded the Free Zone at last.  After the Allies landed in North Africa and started pushing back Italian forces, the Free French--courageous citizens who refused to bow either to Nazi Germany or Viiichy, France."  The resistance will ultimately become a part of Anne's adventure, changing her life forever.  

I found this reference to books by the author in  her acknowledgements interesting.  She had written this novel during the pandemic and  could not travel to Paris or Italy instead writing at home.  So she acknowledges  the importance of books to transport us on journeys that we might otherwise not know. 
 

Back Cover

I found her pages of reflections About The Stolen Lady interesting. And she included an excerpt from  the memoir  of Lucie Mauzaric who was an archivist with the Louvre who is reference in the novel.   This is one example of how well she expands to create fiction from real events.  

  The back cover summarizes the novel.  I give this one only  between 4 and 5 stars,  Maybe I was just not into the right mood to switch amongst the characters back and forth over centuries.

  The writing is good but the book didn't resonate with me.  The research is fascinating and the inclusion of the information in the back is also interesting./