The Silver Swan, by Benjamin Black
Filed under: Benjamin Black, book review, crime book, recommendation
This book is actually written by Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, writing as 
The Silver Swan features Quirke, a somewhat grumpy pathologist at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Dublin. It is a mystery book set in 1950s Dublin.
Quirke is an “incurably curious” guy. He often finds it necessary to go far beyond a pathologist’s normal duties, and in this second novel in the Quirke series (after Christine Falls), he is visited by Billy Hunt, a casual friend from college. Hunt asks him not to autopsy the body of his wife Deirdre, who was found drowned and naked. This, of course, is a somewhat curious request. However, Deirdre may have drowned herself, and the family wants to avoid conflict with the Catholic Church over her burial.
Quirke, being curious, conducts a secret autopsy, and Deirdre gets her church burial. However, when Quirke examines the body, he finds things that make him suspect she’s been murdered. Quirke, being Quirke, cannot help but to begin his private investigation into her death.
Black expertly balances Quirke’s investigation with chapters detailing Deidre’s past, from her marriage to Billy to her shady business deal with Leslie White, an enigmatic Englishman who knew Deidre as Laura Swan, the proprietress of their joint venture, a beauty salon called the Silver Swan. And as Quirke digs deeper and deeper, he discovers a web of lies and blackmail that threatens to envelop even his own estranged daughter, Phoebe.
Quirke is a brooding Irish soul with a very independent code of ethics. This makes him the kind of troubled hero the genre loves. In The Silver Swan, Black runs Quirke’s private investigation on a parallel track with the victim’s own story, told in intimate flashbacks. The result is a lyrical crime fiction book – beautifully and intelligently written, but not quite a mystery book. But Banville’s talents are on full display in the book, so it is not any less of a book for not falling neatly into the mystery category – perhaps rather the opposite! And the laconic, stubborn Quirke makes an appealing hero as the pieces of this unsettling crime come together in a shocking conclusion.
Black is a literary stylist who revels in long descriptive passages laced with elegant similes and metaphors. The characters are meticulously delineated. And the writing is elegant to the extreme. The book is a great pleasure to read.
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.Terminal Freeze, by Lincoln Child
Filed under: book review, Lincoln Child, Science Fiction, Thriller
Terminal Freeze is an enjoyable book 
As a group of scientists do research at a remote military base in Alaska, they discover a prehistoric beast frozen in ice. And, when news of the find reaches the cable television network which sponsors the expedition, Emilio Conti, a legendary documentary filmmaker, goes to the scene. He plans to film the thawing of the animal on live TV. But the beast has other plans, and suddenly the scientists along with the film crew find their lives are threatened.
Child’s writing is easy to follow, clear, fluid and good. Child is also very good at slowly building up anticipation and suspense. To really get excited, however, you must be willing to suspend your disbelief a little, as the creature involved is extraordinarily fierce and complex. If you do that, then this is an extraordinary and very interesting tale full of excitement and human ingenuity!
Personally, I think I liked Child’s previous book Deep Storm
The Fortress of Glass, by David Drake
The Fortress of Glass is the first book the Crown of the Isles trilogy. This trilogy will bring the conclusion of 
In The Fortress of Glass, Prince Garric voyages far among the Isles in an effort to bring all the Isles under his rule. After landing on a new shore, Garric finds the local king, Cervoran, dead and his heir, the youthful Prince Protas, in dire need of help against an outbreak of wizardry.
However, before Garric can act, more wizardry propels him to another world, where he enlists the aid of a strange creature called the Bird against the monstrous flesh-eating Coerli that terrorize this other world. And then, King Cervoran returns to life. And Garric’s sister, Sharina, and his consort, Liane, must try to settle the question of who rules in Garric’s absence.
David Drake makes the most of his setting based on the classical Mediterranean-like world. Now the powers of magic in the Isles have flooded to a thousand-year peak, and even local magicians can perform powerful spells normally beyond their control. Drake possesses every skill necessary to make this story thoroughly absorbing, even to new readers. Those who have sailed with him through the preceding two Isles trilogies ought to eagerly demand it.
First Daughter, by Eric van Lustbader
Filed under: book review, Eric van Lustbader, Thriller
This is a thriller featuring a newly elected – but still not inaugurated – 
ATF agent Jack McClure, who has previously come to the attention of Edward Carson, is chosen to play a prominent role in the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. As we learn more about him, it becomes evident that he is a mess. He struggles with the demons of his youth, and has severe guilt over the death of his daughter and a very problematic and unresolved relationship to his ex-wife.
The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group.
Lustbader does a fine job of depicting the search for Alli, but I found the story and plot clear enough and good, but at the same time Lustbader mixes into the brew this time some confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about. Also, the side stories and background provided in flashbacks was not all that interesting and oftentimes not all that relevant either. I think of this book primarily as a book for Lustbader fans.
Run for Your Life, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Filed under: bestseller, book review, James Patterson, Thriller
A calculating killer who calls himself The Teacher is taking on New York City, killing the powerful and the arrogant. His message is clear: remember your manners or suffer the consequences!
The Commissioner deems Michael Bennett’s experience with the Catastrophic Response Unit as critical to leading the investigation. The Commissioner’s concern and his request of Bennett appear even more justified as the Teacher next strikes by murdering an maitre d’ at a fancy New York Twenty-One Club. The Chase is on, and Michael Bennett, the hero of Step on a Crack, is running against the clock again.
At first these murders appear to be directed at somewhat random people or perhaps people that cater to the rich, but as Bennett and others in the police force, soon find a pattern in the killings. And discovering a secret pattern in The Teacher’s lessons, Detective Bennett realizes he has just hours to save New York from the greatest disaster in its history.
James Patterson’s books are up and down. Some good, some not so good, some pretty bad. I don’t expect too much when I start reading a new book by him, but I still for some reason do read them. I mostly like his writing style and the pace of his stories, I think. There are few dull moments in his books. The short chapters are nice. As well, you can read the whole book in a day.
I liked the main character Michael Bennett. He is a NYPD cop and single dad with an astonishing number of kids. And he is a likable, smart guy. A humane fellow of sorts too.
The storyline of the book, however, I didn’t much care for. But Run for Your Life is a better book than Step On a Crack. I recommend it to Patterson fans and fans of fast action thrillers.
The Fourth Man, by KO Dahl
Filed under: book review, crime book, KO Dahl, Norwegian writer
The Fourth Man is actually the fifth novel about inspectors Gunnarstranda and Frolich (Frølich) by K O Dahl. It is in some ways more similar to American crime novels than for instance those by Scandinavian authors like Karin Fossum, Karin Alvtegen, Jo Nesbo, Ake Edwardson or Henning Mankell. K O Dahl writes in a hard-boiled noir style that is at the same time lean, and reminds me more of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. There is, however, considerable psychological depth, and more so than what is explicit in Hammett and Chandler. This is one of KO Dahl’s best novels.
By the time Frolich learns that Elisabeth is the sister of a known local gang-member, Johnny Faremo, it is already too late. And then Johnny is implicated in a crime, a security guard is attacked and killed. But Elisabeth gives her brother and his gang an alibi and Frolich’s name is mentioned. Then Elisabeth disappears. Now Frolich is plunged into both an emotional tempest as well as a complex investigation. He is forced to rethink their relationship. Were things as they seemed?
Frolich is asked to take some time off. And his boss Gunnarstranda is upset and believes Frank has been played from the very beginning. And as the body count increases, Frolich begins his own unofficial investigation.
Complex, dark and tragic, The Fourth Man is a tale of revenge and erotic obsession, where love lures a good cop to walk on the wild side. This is classical crime noir in a modern setting. It has it all: cynical strippers, tough-talking gangsters, corrupt businessmen, mixed identities and a bona fide femme fatale. Dahl’s language is, as one critic put it “spiced with small poetic observations … of remarkably high quality.” The author himself says that this is his project, to “combine the genre literature with a little poetry and literary storytelling.” The Fourth Man proves that Dahl is able to do this. I enjoyed this book very much, and recommend it. A great read for lovers of good, tough, noir crime fiction!
and 
, or from amazon US: A Calculated Risk, by Katherine Neville
Filed under: book review, Katherine Neville, Thriller
I read this book largely because I have recently read The Eight by the same author, and liked it a lot. However, this is a much shorter book than Neville’s first book, The Eight, somewhat more humorous, and not nearly as good. To some extent it may be read as a satire on the world of banking.
The heroine of A Calculated Risk is Verity Banks. Verity is a computer expert. Currently she is a vice-president of
the Bank of the World in San Francisco, in charge of Electronic Funds Transfer.
When her boss turns down her proposal for a tighter security system at the bank, Verity decides to break through security, hide some money where no one will find it, and then put it back, to show everyone how easily it can be done. However, when she seeks advice from her former mentor, Dr. Zoltan Tor, he surprises her by giving her a challenge that adds a new twist to her own plan: Which of them can steal $1 billion, and invest it to earn $30 million in only three months? (The money will be returned, and no one will be injured.)
If Verity wins, Tor will get her a job at the Federal Reserve that she wants. If Tor wins, Verity will come to New York to work for him. However, while working on their scams, Tor and Verity stumble on a plan by members of the Vagabond Club, a club of CEOs of major corporations, to take over the Bank of the World in a financial coup, possibly sending the U.S. economy into a tailspin.
I enjoyed A Calculated Risk, but in my opinion it is not in the same league as The Eight. Both Zoltan Tor and Verity Banks are very likable characters, and the relationship between them interesting. As well, the plot is interesting, but the drive is somewhat lacking. The pace is a tad too slow and the side-stories not quite interesting enough.
A Blessed Child, by Linn Ullmann
Filed under: book review, Fiction, Linn Ullman, Norwegian writer
In this book, Norwegian author Linn Ullmann explores themes like guilt, reconciliation, and the passing of years on memory in a novel that is powerfully driven by raw sensuality and violence. It is a book that makes a strong impression.
The novel tells the tale of three sisters and their fragile relationship to their father.A Blessed Child too starts with Erika nervously driving through a snowstorm to the Swedish 
Over time, the three young girls enter into changing alliances with other summer guests. One of these is Ragnar, the boy who is always running and who in some strange way is attracted to Isak.
No one assumes responsibility for what happens that summer, and more than twenty five years are to pass before the sisters return to the island – this time to visit their old father.
A Blessed Child is a rich portrayal of the life-stories of three women, and also a fine portrait of a father – both merciless and tender. It’s a story of girls that behave bad! Very bad indeed. It’s structure is mosaic and very appropriate. Linn Ullmann is a terrific writer. Her novel’s great strengths are the brilliantly drawn characters and the dialogues. A Blessed Child is a great book!
“A deeply disturbing and powerful novel with parallels to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies … Ullmann’s pen offers a sober narrative, never too sentimental or obvious, keeps us enthralled with hints, pulls us into the core from many different angles … merciless and credible” – ALF KJETIL WALGERMO, VÅRT LAND (Norway)
Read more about Linn Ullmann as well as book reviews of her books. See also an interview with Linn Ullmann here!
The Man in the Window, by K O Dahl
Filed under: book review, crime book, KO Dahl, Norwegian writer, recommendation
The Man in The Window is the third book (in the original Norwegian sequence) in K O Dahl‘s series about Frolich and Gunnarstranda.
Seventy-nine-year-old Reidar Folke Jespersen, who sells antiques in Oslo, is one day sitting in a restaurant, looking at his wife entering an apartment on the other side of the street, where her lover lives. He leaves the restaurant to meet his brothers. Next morning he is found murdered, sitting naked in a chair in the window of his antique shop.
The case is assigned to detective Gunnarstranda and his assistant, Frank Frolich. The clues are few and difficult to interpret. A red string is tied around his neck, and three crosses and a number – 195 – has been written across his chest. Some items from WWII are missing. Also, clearly, several people are quite pleased that Jespersen is dead.
The Man In The Window is an intricate and thrilling detective story about love, loyalty, guilt, desire for revenge and shadows from the past. These questions consume the investigation, just as they fill the private lives of the investigators. What they uncover is a country where victims, perpetrators and even police officers are haunted by the past, and are still trying to cope with the dark memories of the Nazi occupation of the country.
K O Dahl has a sharp eye for dialogues, he elaborates detailed portraits, he creates surprising relationships and he is excellent at creating tension and atmosphere. This book is one of his best, and highly recommended.
.Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites, by Robin Nixon
Filed under: book review, Javascript, Non-fiction, PHP, web design
This excellent book by 
Nixon is well versed in these techniques, and does a great job in showing how the powerful combination of PHP and MySQL workds together and how adding JavaScript can contribute to the creation of rich Internet applications and websites.
Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript explains each technology separately, shows you how to combine them, and introduces valuable web programming concepts, including objects, XHTML, cookies, and session management. You’ll practice what you’ve learned with review questions in each chapter, and find a sample social networking platform built with the elements introduced in this book.
Using this book you will learn to:
- Understand PHP essentials and the basics of object-oriented programming
- Master MySQL, from database structure to complex queries
- Create web pages with PHP and MySQL by integrating forms and other HTML features
- Learn about JavaScript, from functions and event handling to accessing the Document Object Model
- Use libraries and packages, including the Smarty web template system, PEAR program repository, and the Yahoo! User Interface Library
- Make Ajax calls and turn your website into a highly dynamic environment
- Upload and manipulate files and images, validate user input, and secure your applications
I have spent lots of time with this book and have learned a lot from it. I have looked into several of the coding examples, and all of the ones I looked into worked. In addition to the great content, I also appreciated the crisp and clear presentational style, and do not hesitate to recommend it to others!
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