New Books and Women Authors

Happy Birthday, Jo!

It's been a lovely fresh day today. We celebrated Jo's birthday and she received a number of parcels in the mail. It was a bit like Christmas. I even received some books and new clothes. Woo Hoo! I'll provide the synopses of the new books and also continue with my look at Women Authors I'm enjoying.

New Books

1. Deadly Cross by James Patterson (Alex Cross #28).

"A scandalous double homicide in the nation's capital opens the psychological case files on . . . Detective Alex Cross.

 Until Kay Willingham's shocking murder inside a luxury limousine, the Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and ex-wife of the sitting vice-president led a public life. Yet few -- including her onetime psychologist -- had any inkling of Kay's troubled past in the Deep South.

Murdered alongside her is Randall Christopher, a respected educator whose political ambitions may have endangered both their lives. While John Sampson of DC Metro Police tracks Randall's final movements, Alex Cross and FBI Special Agent Ned Mahoney travel to Alabama to investigate Kay's early years. 

They discover that although Kay had many enemies, all of them needed her alive. Alex is left without a viable suspect, and facing a desperate choice between breaking a trust and losing his way -- as a detective, and as the protector of his family."

2. The Suspect by Michael Robotham (Joseph O'Loughlin #1).

 

 

 

 

 

 

"At forty-two, psychiatrist Joe O'Loughlin seems to have it all: a thriving practice, a beautiful wife, an adoring daughter. But Joe's snug, happy world is crumbling. Recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he's dreading the inevitable and all too palpable deterioration of his body and mind. Then, when the police ask for his help in solving the brutal murder of a woman they assume is a prostitute, he's horrified to recognize the victim as a nurse he once worked with, and with whom he had a bit of a past. As Joe begins to suspect that one of his patients may be responsible, the police zero in on him."

3. Time Gladiator by Mack Reynolds (1964).

 

 

 

 

 

 

"IT SEEMED AS IF EVERYONE WAS A SPY! The political situation in the 21st century was coming to the boil: one man, a scientist, held what might be the important key to ultimate power in the struggle between the three blocs: West-world, Sov-world, and Common Europe. The scientist, Auguste Bazaine, disappears, and each bloc accuses the other of kidnapping. There was only one way to settle the difference! So nine men were chosen to fight to the death in a trial by combat organised by the World Court. The winner will put his country on top. But when an American and a Russian meet face to face - the result is not what was expected!" 

4. The Time Shifters by Sam Merwin Jr (1971). 

"They called it TTT-short for Time Teleportation Technique. Like all really great ideas, it was simple, and easy to operate-too easy, for Chuck Percival, who suddenly found himself drafted into an army dedicated to defending yesterday against today... and captained by strange men from tomorrow! Chuck found the idea of time travel intriguing, but he was by nature suspicious of people wanting to do him favors-and vice-versa. And time travel turned out to have a couple of nasty side effects that made the price of time jumping almost too high to pay. But like it or not, Chuck found himself in this particular army for the duration--a duration that might last several hundred years! What happened to him shouldn't happen to any devout twentieth century coward... including meeting and falling in love with his own great grandmother!"

5. Transit by Edmund Cooper (1964).

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He was the subject of an experiment seventy light years away from Earth.

It lay in the grass, tiny and white and burning. He stooped, put out his fingers. And then, in an instant, there was nothing. Nothing but darkness and oblivion. A split second demolition of the world of Richard Avery.

From a damp February afternoon in Kensington Gardens, Avery is precipitated into a world of apparent unreason. A world in which his intelligence is tested by computer, and in which he is finally left on a strange tropical island with three companions, and a strong human desire to survive.

But then the mystery deepens; for there are two moons in the sky, and the rabbits have six legs, and there is a physically satisfying reason for the entire situations."

Women Authors I Enjoy - Gail Bowen

Gail Bowen

Gail Dianne Bowen is a Canadian playwright and author. She was born in Toronto in 1942 and educated at my alma mater, University of Toronto. She wrote a series featuring widowed mother, university professor and political analyst Joanne Kilbourn who solves crimes in Saskatchewan. I first became aware of the series via TV. 

Canadian actress Wendy Crewson did six TV movies based on the books, portraying Joanne Kilbourn. Jo and I both enjoyed the series very much. It didn't hurt that Wendy Crewson is such an excellent actress and a favorite of ours. 

Since 1986, Bowen has written 25 novels. I hate to admit I've only read two of the Kilbourn series. I enjoyed them very much and must get back to trying more of her books.

1. A Colder Kind of Death (Joanne Kilbourn #4/ 1994)

"When a prisoner is shot to death in the exercise yard of a Saskatchewan penitentiary, Joanne Kilbourn finds herself haunted by a part of her past she wished had never happened. The dead prisoner is Kevin Tarpley, the man who six years earlier had brutally killed her politician husband, Ian, in a seemingly senseless act alongside the Trans-Canada Highway.

The haunting takes on a more menacing cast several days later when Tarpley’s sinister wife, Maureen, is discovered dead in a snow-swept Regina parking lot. A brightly coloured scarf is found wound tightly around her neck, a scarf that belongs to none other than Joanne Kilbourn. Soon this single mother, author, university professor, and TV-show panelist is deemed the “number one” suspect in Maureen Tarpley’s demise.

Joanne knows there has to be a connection between these two murders. But what is it? A cryptic letter sent to Joanne by Kevin Tarpley just days before his death intimates that Ian Kilbourn’s killing may not have been as senseless as first assumed. In fact, there are hints that some of Ian’s political colleagues may have been involved. But how deeply and in what way?

Then there’s the faded photograph of a pretty young woman and her baby that Joanne finds tucked in the wallet of her dead husband. Does it offer any clue to Ian’s murder, or to the deaths of the Tarpleys? Warily, Joanne Kilbourn is forced to follow a tangled trail deep into a heartbreaking past she never knew existed" (3 stars)

 b. The Wandering Soul Murders (Joanne Kilbourn #3 / 1992).

"Murder is the last thing on Joanne Kilbourn’s mind on a perfect morning in May. Then the phone rings, and she learns that her daughter Mieka has found the corpse of a young woman in an alley near her store. So begins Joanne’s chilling collision with evil in Gail Bowen’s riveting third mystery, The Wandering Soul Murders.

Joanne is stunned and saddened by the news that the dead woman, at seventeen, was already a veteran of the streets. When, just twenty-four hours later, her son’s girlfriend is found dead, drowned in a lake in Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley, Joanne’s sunny world is shattered. Her excitement about Mieka’s upcoming marriage, her involvement in the biography she is writing, even her pleasure at her return to Regina all fade as she finds herself drawn into a twilight world where money can buy anything and there are always people willing to pay." (4 stars)

The complete list of Gail Bowen's books can be found at this link. Enjoy the rest of your week.