The Three Evangelists, by Fred Vargas

This is not a Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg mystery. The sleuths in The Three Evangelists are instead somewhat unusual – actually a trio of 30-something historians under the auspices of a retired policeman.

This odd group lives together in an old, ugly house in Paris known as “the disgrace”. The evangelists are Medievalist Marc Vandoosler, Great War historian Lucien Devernois and prehistory specialist Matthias Delamarre, three down-on-their-luck historians. In this book, they join forces to solve the mysterious disappearance of their neighbor, former opera singer Sophia Siméonidis.

The first little mystery in the book is sudden appearance of a beech tree in the garden of Madame Siméonidis. The tree – planted under cover of darkness – worries her, and she doesn’t know who planted it or why, so she asks the historians to dig it up and investigate. Nothing suspicious is found under the beech.

Then Madame Siméonidis disappears, and a few days later her body is found in a burned out car. Now the Evangelists launch a full-scale investigation, aided by Marc’s godfather Vandoosler, the former policeman. There are plenty of possible suspects, but there is little evidence to go by.

This book, with a plot that twists and turns, was awarded the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger in 2006. Even so, The Three Evangelists is a strange crime novel, with eccentric, lovable characters. As usual in Vargas’ books, there are lots of interesting and odd conversations, and the book is intelligently and humorously written. Reading it is a complete delight if you like intelligent, well written mystery novels. If you are looking for fast paced action, on the other hand, this is probably not the book for you.

Praise for the works of Fred Vargas:

“A Vargas novel is as good as a trip to Paris.”
–Daily Express

“Fred Vargas is a wonderful writer. Much of the joy of reading this book lies in Vargas’s wonderful use of language, her subtle characterizations and her superb sense of place.”
–Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

“Joyous, enchanting, amazing, fantastic, unclassifiable, beyond-brilliant. Readers will not hold back praise for Fred Vargas.”
–Elle (France)

“Vargas is clearly an author who will rank alongside Henning Mankell. .. Creepy, sophisticated and wonderfully off-beat.”
–Scotland on Sunday

Katherine (Paperback)

Review
“Seton breathes life into this little-documented historical fact…a glorious example of romance in its most classic literary sense.” — The Austin Chronicle

Product Description
This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history-that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets-Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II-who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become (more…)

The Fire, by Katherine Neville

This is the sequel to the super-hit novel, The Eight, released more than a decade. I liked The Eight a lot, so I have read all her books since then. But so far, the other books have not been nearly as good. Unfortunately, this is true for The Fire as well. This book, like The Eight, is a filled to overflowing with the essences of history, mystery, chess and intrigue. But it is not integrated in the same convoluted and elegant way. And, besides, why does Neville insist on sticking to the same formula yet again?

The Fire starts out in 2003, in Colorado, where Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. When Alexandra arrives at her mother’s retreat, she finds that she must solve a puzzle to get into the deserted house. It is the first of many puzzles in a danger-crammed, picaresque narrative involving a legendary chess set.

Many characters from The Eight reappear, but the focus now is on Xie, a 12-year-old chess prodigy who has lost a pivotal game due to Amaurosis Scacchistica, or chess blindness.

En route to a rematch that could make her the youngest grandmaster ever, she and her father encounter even greater dangers: evidence that one of those long-buried pieces may have been unearthed, a discovery that leads to her father’s murder. Ten years later, Xie, now forbidden by her mother to play chess, is summoned to Colorado for her mother’s birthday party, but her mother seems to have vanished, leaving behind a series of clues, among them a chessboard laid out with Xie’s last game. Soon other guests arrive, including both the opponent to whom Xie lost that game and a group of neighbors with surprising ties to the world of chess. There are eight people in all, of course. And The Game is on again.

The Game is a quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past.

It is a book I think many of the fans of The Eight, like me, will want to read. However, it is not a book that captures the same way as The Eight did. For sure, The Fire is written with elegance and sophistication. But the characters don’t catch me the same way. As a literary thriller, this is not quite in the upper echelons of the genre, even though it is good I think I will only recommend this book to people who are already Katherine Neville fans. For others, I am not so sure, but I think it may be a disappointment.

The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Amazon.com Review
Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as “an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century,” Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we’ve read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. –Daphne Durham Guest Reviewer: Dennis LehaneDennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching Mystic River, blew fans all away with the mind-bending Shutter Island, and switches gears w (more…)

Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies, by Ellen Finkelstein

RSS or “Real Simple Syndication” is a great way to publizise content from Web sites and blogs. Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies by Ellen Finkelstein tells you how to do it and how to use it to stay informed about what’s going on on the net. Find out how to:

• Use RSS to drive traffic to your Web site and build brand awareness
• Choose and install the right software, set up RSS feeds, and decide on the format that meets your needs
• Create RSS feeds from scratch, or put a news reader on your Web site
• Improve your site’s ranking in search engines and build customer loyalty
• Enable your customers to choose when and how they receive updated information
• Tailor information for your audience and publish all your updates quickly and easily
• Promote your RSS feed and explain to your customers how to use it
• Provide added value for your customers

Making the most of RSS can make life easier for both you and those who do business with you. Syndicating Web Sites With RSS Feeds For Dummies will help you maintain fresh content for your Web site, blog, or e-zine, promote your site and establish links to it, and even update vital documents like employee guides, price lists, and procedures manuals, quickly and easily.

Unspoken: A Mystery, by Mari Jungstedt

Unspoken is the second in Mari Jungstedt’s series of crime and detective novels set in Gotland, Sweden. The first is Unseen (see review) The main characters, in this book too, are Inspector Anders Knutas and investigative journalist Johan Berg.

Swedish Police Detective Superintendent Anders Knutas is heading the investigation into the homicide of alcoholic former news photographer Henry Dahlstrum. Henry had been celebrating winning 80,000 Swedish kroner at the races, and then he disappeared. His body was discovered by one of his drinking buddies. Henry was drenched in blood, and had a hole the size of a fist in the back of his head.

Then, well into the investigation of the first murder, 14-year old Fanny Jansson, a volunteer at the local stables, vanishes. Initially Knutas and Jacobsson view them as separate cases. One is a violent murder, the other the disappearance of child.

Painstakingly, they work the clues, assisted by ambitious StockholmTV reporter Johan Berg, who tries to keep his bosses interested in Dahlström’s murder so he can take trips to Gotland to visit his married lover, Emma Winarve. And eventually they uncover a tenuous link between Henry and the missing fourteen year old Fanny Jansson. Before his murder Henry won a lot of money at the racetrack while Fanny cared for the horses at a local stable.However, matters become further complicated when sexually explicit photos of murdered 14-year-old Fanny Jansson are found in Dahlstrom’s darkroom.

The official investigation in Unspoken is cleverly designed by Mari Jungstedt to keep the audience’s attention. It is a great police procedural. And the cast is fully developed and interesting – in this book we also learn more about Knutas’ family and the very complicated love affair between Johan Berg and Emma Winarve.

Unspoken is a book with crisp prose, steady suspense, and flesh-and-blood characters, as well as powerful descriptions of the dark Swedish winter. The narrative is engaging and twisty, and will fool even the most attentive reader.

See more reviews of Swedish crime fiction at ScandinavianBooks.com!

The Traitor, by Stephen Coonts

(Published as Traitor in the UK.) Here Tommy Carmellini gets a shot at the big time when he’s asked to drop his routine work and help find out why the director of French intelligence is making large, secret investments in the Bank of Palestine. Tommy, of course, wonders if he’s the right man for the job; his own espionage experience in France is limited to being “assistant passport officer at the embassy.”

When his controller tells him that the new head of European Ops asked for Tommy by name, it turns out to be the unretired Jake Grafton, described by Carmellini as “the toughest son of a bitch wearing shoe leather.”

With support from Grafton, Sarah Houston, and a nifty little electronic weapon (a wireless Taser) Tommy zeroes in on the high-level traitor who could do him and the world a lot of damage.

As it turns out, Al-Queda is attempting to blow up the government leaders attending a G-8 summit in Paris. Grafton’s and Carmellini’s foe is no other than Abu Qasim, a very ruthless, sinister, and cunning Al Qaeda leader!

The Traitor is packed with action and fast moving. It is a great thriller, and a good read.

Have Mercy on Us All, by Fred Vargas

This is the third book in the series about the eccentric and very special Detective Commisaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg. And it is a fantastic book. At least, to me it is. It is a book that made me laugh, and feel great respect for Fred Vargas for her wonderful observations and astonishing descriptions and dialogues. And Have Mercy On Us All was a considerable hit in France as well. It was chosen by the booksellers of France and by the readers of Elle magazine as their Book of the Year.

In this book the eccentric, enigmatic and intuitive detective – in an eccentric plot – has been made commisaire principal, head of a new section in the Paris police force. His style of leadership, of course, is as interesting as the commisaire himself!

At the center of this book is the threat of plague – the Black death, no less in Paris. A murderer, or several, creates a panic in Paris while they systematically kill people. But why? How are the victims and murderers related? Why do the use the plague as a guise? And, of course, who are the killers? There are many and complicated questions and very few clues. Even Adamsberg, so famous for his intuition and photographic memory of images, as well as for his unclear, convoluted, sometimes quite muddled thinking, loses track of it all, somewhere in the great sea of his unfinished thoughts.

We meet a number of very interesting characters. There is Adamsberg’s assistant, Danglard, trying to bring an element of order into the chaos of Adamsberg’s thinking. And the town crier Joss Le Guern, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, who is used as a medium of communication for the murderers. There is also the mystical Decambrais, the lovely Camille with whom Adamsberg has a complicated romantic involvement, as well as several other very interesting persons. An engaging cast of very strange yet real characters, often amusing, and usually recognizable as bearing a resemblance to folks we have known. Together they make this a rich work of fiction alongside the wonderful crime novel.

Have Mercy On Us All is a strange, twisted, gothic thriller. It is impossible to categorize. It is also well planned, very thoughtfully written, excellently observed, very human and totally absorbing. It will make you laugh as well as excite you. It is, simply, a fascinating read!

Link: Fred Vargas at amazon US. You can order Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas from amazon UK as well!

The Quickie, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

I usually don’t like James Patterson so much, and therefore rarely reads him. In fact, the only book I have read by James Patterson that I really liked was The Jester. But that is a book that is about as non-Patterson as you can imagine. However, a couple of weeks ago, two Patterson-books landed on my desk more or less by accident, so I decided to give him another try.

And to my surprise I found that I blasted through The Quickie in two long sessions. I loved it. The format is typical Patterson I’d say – short chapters, an easy read, all of that. But the plot is different and the heroes very dark and shady indeed. The murderer is the husband of a female police officer in NYPD who thought she knew her husband.

Lauren Stillwell is a cop, and right after indulging in a “quickie” with a colleague as a revenge on her seemingly cheating husband, she witnesses her husband fighting with her lover and driving away with him. His dead body is found shortly thereafter. From there on, Lauren finds herself covering up the crime. And with each step she takes, she gets herself deeper into crime and corruption.

There are no heroes, no sympathetic characters in The Quickie. But there is an exciting, fast-paced plot, to some extent character-driven, that involves lust, deceit and murder. The Quickie has a noir aspect to it, along with the fast-moving, exciting action, that appealed to me. So this time, I will actually recommend a Patterson book. But let me also say that as all Patterson-books, it does require readers to suspend some disbelief and refrain pondering too seriously some of the fairly unlikely coincidences in the plot. Even so, The Quickie – to me – looks like one of Patterson’s best books.

The Spine of the World, by R.A. Salvatore

Among the most memorable heroes in R.A. Salvatore’s books is the dark elf, Drizzt Do’Urden. He is famous for his swordsmanship, his smartness, and his courage. He features in a large number of Salvatore’s books, and is the major character in his Paths of Darkness-series as well.

The Paths of Darkness-series, a series of four books in the larger Forgotten Realms-series, consists of The Silent Blade (1998), The Spine of the World (1999), Servant of the Shard (2000) (now in The Sellswords Trilogy), and Sea of Swords (2001).

This is the tale of how Wulfgar comes to terms with his inner demons after six years under the tortuous Erttu. It is a book without any of the other heroes of the gang – no Drizzt Do’Urden, Cattie-brie, Bruenor or Regis.

There are two separate plot-lines that come together in the end in Spine of the World. In one of the story lines, Wulfgar and Morik (whom will also meet later in the series) are framed, get beat, and leave Luskan. Wulfgar is fired from his job and then framed for attempted murder. He is also robbed of his battle axe, Aegis-fang. The other story involves characters that we’ve never met before. The king of Aukney loves a peasant girl named Meralda. She, however, does not love the king. But Meralda is forced to see him by her father, who feels very guilty about whoring out his daughter.

The two stories come together in an unpredictable way that results in a very surprising and somewhat satisfying ending. R.A. Salvatore writes skillfully, but even so I found this book to be a little slow and it didn’t really ever catch my attention fully. Of course, the book has combat and intrigue, monsters and spells, but The Spine of the World is even so not close to Salvatore’s best. A little disappointing.

More reviews of books in The Paths of Darkness-series by R. A. Salvatore.

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