DWD's Reviews

Published in 2013 as an e-book short story. Approximate length: 46 pages. Alan Parker is a professional killer who works for an employer called The Company. His wife also works for The Company but she is currently in the last stages of an unsuccessful fight with cancer. It is not really clear if The Company is a government entity or not, but any way you slice it The Company has lots and lots of resources, including an impressive list of hired assassins. Parker (nicknamed "Boom") is one of the very best, but a series of mistakes made his last hit a failure and The Company rarely forgives failure. Photo by Niels Noordhoek So, "Boom" Parker knows that he cannot mess up his new assignment. He has been sent to kill a female scientist that is working on a bio-fuel that threatens the big oil companies. But, this case starts out badly (it looks like someone has already killed his target or, at least, botched an attempt on her) and as he looks for her he finds out...

Chet and Bernie Break into the Movies! Published in 2012 by Atria Books. I have four mystery writers that I regularly follow: Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, C.J. Box and Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie series.   The premise of the series  is simple. They are buddy books featuring Chet and Bernie, crime-fighting partners much like Holmes and Watson or Spenser and Hawk. Except for one important point - Chet is Bernie's dog.  The story is told from the point of view of Chet, a trained police dog that never quite graduated from the academy to a "leaping" incident that "involved blood."  Chet understands enough about human society so that the story doesn't bog down but he has that easily distractable live-in-the-moment quality that all dog lovers recognize. In A Fistful of Collars Chet and Bernie are hired by the mayor (a politician that Bernie hates for a variety of reasons) to safeguard the city's interests while a major Hollywood film is made ...

Published in 2013 by AudioGo (Blackstone/BBC)   Read by Richard Franklin and Trevor Littledale Duration: 1 hour Unabridged. As a part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of Doctor Who, the BBC released a series of audiobooks called Destiny of the Doctor . Each of the Doctors has a 1 hour audiobook story. In Vengeance of the Stones  the Doctor and UNIT are called in to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a RAF fighter jet from the skies above Scotland. While the Doctor is poking around he encounters Lt. Mike Yates for the first time (who becomes Captain Mike Yates and a companion in the television series).  The Doctor soon discovers that the disappearance of the jet is the work of an alien species that has a ancient grudge against humanity and that they are the reason for the prevalence of so many recumbent stone circles in this area.  A recumbent stone circle in Scotland. Photo by Bill McKelvie Also, he discovers that these aliens are more t...

Gritty Realism and Eco-Terrorists in This Firefighter Adventure Published in August of 2014 by MCM Publishing Over the years I have read a ton of books about police officers of all sorts: cops on the beat, homicide detectives, FBI agents, Secret Service and more. But, Kurt Kamm specializes in writing very detailed, authentic feeling books (as far as this high school teacher can tell, anyway) about an equally visible group of first responders that I have rarely read any books about: firefighters.  In Tunnel Visions  fire captain Nick Carter, an expert in underground search and rescue missions, is called in to a task force that is investigating a possible terror attack on a gigantic underground tunnel that helps supply the water for Los Angeles. His fiancée, an ATF Special Agent, is on the ground looking for the same eco-terrorists. The book uses a series of flashbacks to go back and forth from the current day story of the terrorists to Nick's childhood and early career....

Published in 2014 by RSO Publications. The short story Mildred has a tone and plot that is reminiscent of a Stephen King story. Certainly, O'Reilly could have stretched this 42 page short story (novelette) out a bit more like Stephen King would have, adding much more detail but not have really adding much to the story itself.  Instead, O'Reilly goes for a much quicker, more minimalist approach, letting the reader try to figure out what is going on while a creepy vibe and sense of dread build. The story begins with a family fight between an aunt who is a realtor (Denise) and her niece (Josephine). It turns out that the aunt has convinced her niece to invest in a shady business deal and Josephine has decided to cash out by just taking one of her aunt's homes. This home is crammed full of consumer products. Josephine clears out a space and sets up housekeeping. When she discovers the diary of the former owner of the house she learns that her aunt ...

Published in 2013 as an e-book. Estimated length - about 14 pages. Finalist for the 2005 Sherwood Anderson Short Story contest. Ernie Lindsey's short story Noose is a coming-of-age story set in the American south in September of 1916. It features a 17 year-old named Roy who works as a farm hand for a northerner who moved down south for a simpler life. Roy has a strong love for animals which makes him an excellent farm hand. Besides working on the farm Roy also dates Emily, the boss of his daughter. Roy and Emily are much more intimate than anyone suspects and Roy is quite sure that he and Emily are completely in love.  The farm community receives word that a circus elephant named Mary is going to be killed for killing one of her handlers during a parade in a nearby town. The elephant will be executed by hanging from a railroad crane. This part of the short story is based on a true story (click here for more information). This hanging does more than kill an elephant - it ch...

Published in January of 2014 by Regnery Publishing I n 2012 Kevin D. Freeman published Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again . In that book, Freeman detailed how America's financial markets are vulnerable to manipulation by foreign powers by creating bubbles (like in the oil markets). Individual companies could also be targeted, individual sectors or the markets as a whole. The first part of Game Plan is a brief review of the vulnerabilities he described in Secret Weapon . To be honest, if you have not read S ecret Weapon , you can read Game Plan and get the general idea. He also includes updates, including letting his readers know that he has briefed the Pentagon on these vulnerabilities.  T he New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Urban. The rest of the book is devoted to telling the reader about the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of investments, such as stocks, bonds, gold, etc. in a period of ...

Originally published in 1954 by the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction , Kurt Vonnegut's short story  The Big Trip Up Yonder is set in the year 2185 in a time in which old age has been defeated. The main character is Gramps Ford, a man that was 70 when anti-gerasone, the cure to aging was created. He has been 70 years old for 102 years. He is grumpy, vindictive and generally unpleasant - much like you would expect for a man that has has been 70 years old for 102 years. Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007 Galaxy Science Fiction was designed to be thoughtful science fiction rather than laser guns and explosions driven science fiction and Vonnegut's style fits the bill perfectly. He looks at what would happen in a world with no death. It becomes crowded - so crowded that privacy is a rarity and people are forced to live cheek-by-jowl with their families in hallways, living rooms and the like. If you have ever seen a movie or a TV show in which greedy family members are waiting around t...

This series returns to its winning ways. Published in 2014 by Hay House Visions Former Buddhist monk and ex-LAPD officer Tenzing "Ten" Norbu returns in The Third Rule of Ten . Ten continues his search for the perfect girl but his professional life has taken off in a big way thanks to the celebrity connections he made in The Second Rule of Ten . Mac Gannon, an aging action hero star who is an ultra-Catholic with a propensity to cheat on his wife and drink too much and the spout racist venom (clearly inspired by Mel Gibson) hires Ten to find a missing illegal alien housekeeper. That's tricky enough with the hazy documentation comes with being an illegal alien, but Ten has to keep it as quiet as possible since Mac is really hiring Ten so that Bets McMurtry, California's answer to Sarah Palin, does not get tied to her (even though she desperately wants her friend found, she is always aware of the political implications). Photo by Niels Noordhoek As Ten starts ...

Published in 1959 by Random House Illustrated by William Moyers I n the 1950's and 1960's Random House created an extraordinary history series for children called Landmark Books. There were 122 books in the American history series and 63 in the World Landmark series. A very solid description of the series can be found here: link . When I was a kid my little hometown library had what seemed like an endless shelf of these books (I even remember where it was in the library nearly 40 years later). Undoubtedly, these books are part of the reason I am a history teacher. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson  (1824-1863) So, when I found one of these volumes, Stonewall Jackson , sitting all by itself at a book sale my heart leapt like I was seeing an old friend that I have not spoken to for years. It had been purged from a school library, which is very sad in my mind because this entire series is excellent. This short history (184 pages of text and illustrations, includi...

Published by W. W. Norton in 2007 Susan Wise Bauer is well-known in the home school community for her well-written histories. I am not a home school parent but I do recommend her History of the Ancient Word for history buffs who would like a long-term general overview of history. Bauer mines lots of types of sources to build a view of the earliest cities and their beliefs. Bauer's history focuses on political leaders and religious/philosophical beliefs of different civilizations. One thing that I really like was her ability to take myths and legends (like Gilgamesh) and tie them into actual history and demonstrate why those myths and legends mattered to those ancient peoples and give the modern reader a way to have a better understanding of these ancient peoples.  The book starts with a focus on four major civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus River Valley (India) and the Yellow River Valley (China). As these groups grow, other areas are added (such as Ancient Greece a...

Published in 2014 by Simon and Schuster (AUDIOWORKS) Read by the author, Jimmy Carter Duration: 6 hours, 33 minutes Jimmy Carter and I have a strange relationship. Don't get me wrong, the 39th President and I have never met and are not likely to. I think that his presidency was, on balance, a well-intentioned mess and his post-Presidential career has been a mix of amazing achievements (Habitat for Humanity, for example) combined with annoying commentary and self-intervention into areas where he was not invited (ask Bill Clinton what he thinks of Carter's self-appointed mission to North Korea during the Clinton Administration). This book only re-affirms my impressions of Jimmy Carter. I admire his religious faith and his intimate knowledge of the scriptures. I also admire his willingness to learn about other faiths and the fact that he teaches in his church's Sunday school. His work through the Carter Center has also been a mixed bag of amazing work against poverty and...

Great Characters, Giant Plot Holes Published in 2003 by Sound Library (BBC Audiobooks America) Read by Nick Sullivan Unabridged Duration: 11 hours, 47 minutes Stephen J. Cannell (1941-2010) was best known as a television writer, producer and the creator of such classic shows as the A-Team, The Rockford Files , and The Greatest American Hero . But, late in his career Cannell also wrote a lot of novels, mostly action-based mysteries (not all that surprising considering his history in television). Runaway Heart is, in some ways, a typical Cannell story, but it does have some distinct differences. There are three main characters. The book starts with Herman Stockmire, an overweight, idealistic Los Angeles-based attorney with a bad heart (arrhythmia) who heads up a law firm called The Institute for Planetary Justice. Despite the big name, the Institute consists of Herman and his daughter Susan. Together, they go to court for all sorts of hopeless causes. They have sued mega-...

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in December of 2013. Read by Linda Emond Duration: 1 hour, 56 minutes. Unabridged. This short story is designed to go between books 15 & 16 in the series and is the audiobook version of a kindle e-book that was released in the summer of 2013. In Bones In Her Pocket forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called out to a remote location called Mountain Island Lake. It is the site of an artist colony and a raptor rescue center (they help deal with injured hawks, eagles and owls as well as advocate for policies that will help those animals). A body was found floating in a canvas bag that floated up in the aftermath of a serious flood. As Brennan figures out whose body was found she soon discovers that there is no shortage of suspects... This is my first Kathy Reichs book of any sort. To her credit, Reichs did not lose this newbie to her series despite the short length of the audiobook. The story moves along quickly a...

Originally published in 1938 in "Five-Novels Monthly" magazine Re-published by Galaxy Press in 2011. I read this as a kindle e-book, which seemed sort of appropriate considering L. Ron Hubbard's standing as a world class science fiction author. When this story was originally written in 1938 my standard-issue Kindle HD tablet would seem to be nothing short of science fiction.  You may not be aware that Hubbard wrote plenty of westerns back in the days of pulp serial magazines (and long before his name became synonymous with Scientology.) His familiarity with western life came from his childhood in Montana when Montana was still only a few steps away from its rough-and-tumble cowboy past. Branded Outlaw is an all out Western adventure with all of the familiar elements fans of Westerns are readily familiar with. Lee Weston is coming from Wyoming after being summoned by his father to his ranch in New Mexico. When he arrives he finds his father dead and a smoldering ...

Published in 2013. In his sophomore effort author James Blakley introduces a new character but stays in familiar territory. His previous book, The Steel Deal , featured a private investigator that stumbled into something much larger than he had imagined when he took a case, In The K-Frost Caper  Luna Nightcrow, a Cherokee insurance investigator from Oklahoma, is sent to Miami to look into a suspicious life insurance application. It seems that the company paid out life insurance money a few years ago for the drowning death of a man with the unlikely name of Kelvin Frost. His body was never recovered and now a person was applying for more life insurance in Miami with the same unlikely name.  The Miami Skyline. Photo by Marc Averette The company, Charmed Life Mutual, already sent one investigator but he has dropped off the grid so Luna Nightcrow is sent to investigate this Kelvin Frost person and find the other investigator. But, when she arrives in Miami she...

I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the hype was about. Originally published in 1985. Winner of the Nebula Award (1985). Winner of the Hugo Award (1986). Ender's Game is a classic and I had not read it until now. Why? I don't know. I was reading a lot of science fiction when it came out, but I just missed it. Of course, I couldn't miss all of the sequels and prequels that came in the ensuing years but I figured that I was just too far behind to catch up.  But, when the movie came out this fall a cousin of mine told me that he had gone to see it because he read it multiple times as a kid and loved it. So, I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the hype was about. The positives: Orson Scott Card. Photo by Nihonjoe -Orson Scott Card creates an interesting, integrated universe to tell this story. It holds together well and has a solid internal consistency. -The descriptions of the command school battles and the way that the command schoo...

Originally published in 2013. From the opening lines of Quinn Checks In I was hooked. Literally, the opening sequence was so cleverly done that I knew I had see what else L.H. Thomson (new to me, but he has a good-sized list of titles) had to offer in this book.  Liam Quinn is an artist gone bad but then turned back to the good. He used to make money making copies of someone else's art and then selling it as the real thing. But, once he was caught and went to prison he straightened out and now works as an insurance investigator in his hometown of Philadelphia. He does a little bit of everything but he is really on the payroll as the art expert. He is also working off the court-ordered restitution for his criminal past. But, things are not all wonderful for Liam Quinn. His father was a beat cop and one of his brothers still is. It is hard for a cop to have an ex-con brother. But, Quinn keeps on plugging along. Quinn gets a big art case that comes with a big reward for him i...