You Can't Make This Up!!
OK, before I get into my book updates, this falls into the category of 'You Can't Make This Up!'..
At today's Coronavirus Press Conference this is President Fuc*wit's interesting idea... I've tried to download the video but haven't been able to succeed. Basically his head of science at DHS said something about heat and sunlight affecting the virus's life span. So the super genius decides that maybe they should look at somehow maybe inserting a powerful light, you know some ultraviolet light source or other powerful source into the body and seeing if it kills the virus.. And then he has another idea. how about a powerful disinfectant? This is what someone typed for his statement ...
Trump's words.. "The disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. It gets in the lungs" Try this link. 😬 'Of course you're going to have to use medical doctors'... Omigod!!
So on to more mundane topics.. books, of course.
I probably won't have my new topic sorted out until the beginning of May. I'm looking at either 'favorite authors' or 'the spy / thriller genre'. I'm currently going through my Goodreads book lists and organizing some related lists. I'm also kind of focused on finishing off a couple of more books before end April so it's taking up a bit of my time, as well.
So today, I'll update some books I received in the mail yesterday. I put an order through Russell Books in Victoria and they arrived yesterday. I'll have to see how I can support our local book dealers as well. Have to check their web pages. 😃
I also finished a book this morning, my 8th of April. I'll provide my review of that and the synopsis of the next book in line.
Just Finished
"Fly Away, Jill by Max Byrd is the 2nd book in his detective trilogy featuring San Francisco PI Mike Haller. It's a different sort of mystery series; Haller falls somewhat into the hard-boiled detective category but at the same time has more to him than just a tough (and he is that), blunt fella. Haller is an ex-UPI reporter and someone who has spent time in Europe and seen quite a bit.
In this story, Haller is hired by Carlo Angeletti, a shady businessman, to find his daughter-in-law. He doesn't provide Haller with a whole heap of info on why she left but the money is good and while Haller suspects Angeletti's motives, something about the girl makes him want to find her and if necessary maybe protect her.
Haller's search for Caroline Angeletti, an English woman who moved to California and married Angeletti's son, will take Haller to New York and onward to London, Oxford and ultimately to Bordeaux France. His normal companions, partner Fred, and girl friend Dinah will be left behind and Haller will re-acquaint himself with a friend from his past, Magnus Harpe who will provide assistance in the investigation. Haller will also find himself involved with adversaries who are also looking for Caroline (very tough customers, in fact) and also with a couple of London detectives who don't want Haller sticking his oar into their own investigations.
The question to be answered is why does Angeletti want Haller to find Caroline? Did she take something that he needs or is it as simple as finding her for his son? The investigation delves into these questions but keeps coming up against obstacles and other questions, like is the drug trade somehow involved?
It's a fascinating investigation and we find out a lot about Haller's past life, which makes the story even more interesting. The characters are all well-crafted and the action is satisfying and the ultimate resolution also excellent. I'm sorry that Byrd only wrote 3 books in this series but that having been said I'm looking forward to reading the final book, Finders Weepers. (4 stars)"
Currently Reading
"January 1888. Vera Arti carries The Communist Manifesto in Armenian through Istanbul's streets, unaware of the men following her. The police discover a shipload of guns, and the Imperial Ottoman Bank is blown up. Suspicion falls on a socialist commune that Arti's friends organized in the eastern mountains. Investigating, Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha encounters a ruthless adversary in the secret police who has convinced the Sultan that the commune is leading an Armenian secessionist movement and should be destroyed, along with the surrounding villages. Kamil must stop the massacre, but he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, framed for murder and accused of treason, his family and the woman he loves threatened."
New Books
Here you go, 7 new books.
"When a mysterious visitor promises contact with her long-lost mother, Aimée Leduc finds herself hot on the trail of the Seventies radicals with whom her mother was evidently associated. The result is not just good suspense but an affecting and realistic psychological study of a daughter's coming to terms with an absent parent."
"It's Christmastime, and the precocious Flavia de Luce - an eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for crime-solving - is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to ensnare Saint Nick. But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luces' decaying English estate, to shoot a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern. Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop's Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening's shocking conclusion: a body found, past midnight, strangled to death with a length of film. But who among the assembled guests would stage such a chilling scene? As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, Flavia must use every ounce of sly wit at her disposal to ferret out a killer hidden in plain sight."
"Sonchai Jitpleecheep—the brash and beguiling Royal Thai Police Force detective who has been our guide through John Burdett’s five previous acclaimed Bangkok novels—is back. The former monk and devout Buddhist, forever battling to protect his karma from the assaults of morally compromising cases, is now faced with the most horrifying technological innovation to make its way to the streets of Bangkok, and a conspiracy of almost unfathomable reach.
With Sonchai on this case is the young female inspector Krom. Like Sonchai, she’s an outsider on the police force, but unlike him, she is socially savvy and a technological prodigy. When they’re called to a demonstration—in the midst of a typhoon—of the deadly, superhuman strength of an American man who is seemingly controlled by a CIA operative, they have no idea what they’re actually witnessing or why. Their reliably obtuse and unequivocally crooked boss, Colonel Vikorn, explains some of it, but the most telling questions remain unanswered: Could the Americans have figured out a way to create a physically and psychologically enhanced super-soldier? Are they testing him—or it—on Thai soil? And why is everyone, from the Bangkok police to the international community, so eager to turn a blind eye?
Searching for the answers to these questions, Sonchai and Krom find themselves in a remote Cambodian jungle compound for aging American ex-soldiers, where they will discover just how far a government will go to protect its worst secrets—both past and present. But the case will also have much more personal repercussions for Sonchai, shaking his world to its very foundation and perhaps finally forcing him to confront his long-lost American father."
"Tarzan returns to jungle when Paulvitch lures Lord Greystoke's active son away from London. The great ape Akut foils revenge, helps boy in African jungle. Jack faces the same dangers as his father once did, and matures into warrior Korak the Killer. He rescues toddler Meriem from Arabian raiders. Perils of the jungle are nothing compared to the evils of men."
"The Terracotta Dog opens with a mysterious tete-a-tete with a mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and some dying words that lead inspector Montalbano to a secret grotto in a mountainous cave where two young lovers, dead fifty years and still embracing, are watched over by a life-size terracotta dog. Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him, heedless of personal danger, on a journey through the island's past and into a family's dark heart amid the horrors of World War II."
"Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in Stoneygates, a rehabilitation center for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when someone shoots at the administrator. Although he is not injured, a mysterious visitor is less fortunate; shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building.
Pure coincidence? Miss Marple thinks not, and must use all her cunning to solve the riddle of the stranger's visit … and his murder."
"Ostensibly, Bill Bob has come to Montana for an extended fishing vacation with long-time friend Tobin "Doc" Voss, a widowed Vietnam vet and a man of strong, if contradictory, principles. Voss, an impassioned environmentalist, has lobbied publicly against the incursions of a local mining corporation and has made some powerful enemies, a fact that becomes clear when a trio of drug-addled bikers are sent to rape and terrorize his teen-aged daughter, Maisey. In the aftermath of that rape, the leader of the bikers is found burned to death in his bed. Doc, of course, emerges as the primary suspect, and finds himself arrested for premeditated murder.
Billy Bob Holland's subsequent investigation begins with Maisey's rape and moves steadily outward, encompassing pedophilia, organized crime, right-wing extremism, and virtually every possible combination of personal and institutional corruption, all of which stand in stark contrast to the pristine, vulnerable beauty of the Montana landscape. Participants in this grim complex of narratives include an alcoholic mystery novelist, an embittered federal agent, a psychopathic ex-con with a very personal agenda, an undercover informant with a hidden motive for murder, and a local physician who has lost both her husband and son, and whose life has collapsed beneath her insupportable grief.
At the center of all this is Billy Bob Holland himself, a fundamentally decent man who is literally haunted by a specter from his past, and who must constantly confront his "abiding anger" and his extreme capacity for violence. "
There you go. Lots of neat reading ideas. Enjoy your impending weekend.
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