Chameleon: The March Madness Murders by Matthew J. O'Brien

Strong start for a first novel

Published in 1997.

This surprisingly strong first novel concerns a group of 5 high school friends who are being killed off nearly 20 years after graduation. Four members of this group are extremely successful (Congressman, Olympic medal winner, Big-time college basketball coach, billionaire entrepreneur) and the FBI believes the unsuccessful one is killing his former buddies in a fit of jealous, psychotic cold-blooded, calculating rage.

The story mostly concerns the last two surviving friends (coach and billionaire) and the extraordinary steps the FBI takes to protect them while the coach's team is progressing through the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament field. If you like basketball, then the well-described basketball action is a nice addition to the mystery.

Most of the action is set in and around the fictional University of Northern Indiana, which is located in West Lafayette, Indiana. For those familiar with Indiana, you know that that is the home for Purdue University. I have no idea why he didn't make the coach character Purdue's coach, especially when he refers to former Purdue standout Glenn Robinson in one of the scenes.

The story works pretty well, although at times the conversations get a bit repetitive and the romance blossoms from nothing into a tight bond way too quickly. But, as a mystery goes, it was above average. I was fooled until I was supposed to know the truth, although I think the author tells us too soon - he could've kept the truth hidden a bit longer and made the story that much better.
 
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Chameleon: The March Madness Murders by Matthew J. O'Brien.
 
Reviewed on February 10, 2005.

Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman

Fascinating.

Published in 2000 by University of California Press.

The title of Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? pretty much tells it all - it is an academic exploration into the people who deny the Holocaust ever happened and their motivations for making this claim.

Of course, you may be wondering why someone would make a claim like this, despite the film footage of newly-liberated camps, eyewitness testimony from both victims and perpetrators, the population records that show that, indeed, some 6 million Jews did not survive World War II and damning circumstantial evidence from Hitler and members of his inner circle that alludes to a "Final Solution" to the "Jewish problem".

Well, the deniers are a motley lot. Some are educated and well-spoken and others are not. Some feel that Germany has become a martyred nation to the cause of eradicating racism. Others are pro-fascist in politics and want to get rid of the taint that Nazi-ism gives to fascism, so they try to exonerate the Nazis.


Auschwitz's infamous "Work sets you free" sign

Others are just plain anti-Semites and sincerely believe the Jews somehow "cooked up" the population figures or even somehow managed to conspire to kill off 6 million of their own people in order to create sympathy for the creation of a Jewish country, namely, modern-day Israel.

It was a fascinating book, a little deep at the beginning and the end with the different theories on how to approach history, but the middle was quite informative. 
 
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Denying History.
 
Reviewed on February 11, 2005.

Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals (audiobook) by Stephen E. Ambrose

An Interesting Study of Male Friendship


Published in 2001 by Recorded Books.
4 compact discs
4.5 hours
read by Nelson Runger

Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals is an exploration into male friendship by renowned historian and author Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002).

He looks into different kinds of friendship including friendship between brothers, friendship among schoolmates (especially college), friends from among his students, friendship among men who have been in combat together, friendship as young men, friendship as old men and the friendship that can develop between a father and son once his son is an adult.

Stephen E. Ambrose
(1936-2002)

Specific friendships studied include:

-The three Ambrose brothers;

-Dwight and Milton Eisenhower;

-The Custer Brothers, who all died at Little Big Horn;

-Crazy Horse and He-Dog;

-Eisenhower and Patton - two very different men who respected and valued their differences;

-Nixon as the friendless man (talented, driven but no skill at being himself and making friends);

-Ambrose's best friend;

-Lewis and Clark (perhaps the most poignant tale of the bunch);

-The men of Easy Company from his book Band of Brothers (perhaps the most touching of the book was a comment that is highlighted in HBO's serialized version of Band of Brothers - a veteran of Easy Company is asked by his grandson, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" "No. I served in a company of heroes.")

-Men who fought against each other but meet and become friends decades after the war;

-Ambrose and his father.

Fans of Ambrose will note that there is absolutely no new ground covered in this book - all of the people in this book are mentioned in other books, with the possible exception of his family stories. However, this is an interesting and useful analysis by a veteran historian who has finally completed enough studying to observe some basic characteristics of human nature.

I wonder why Ambrose did not mention his own sons when discussing the friendships between sons and fathers.

Ambrose comments on the beauty of friendship between old men - no rivalry, nothing but support and love. He notes that he can't wait until he is old and can enjoy such friendships. Sadly, Ambrose died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 66.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Reviewed October 23, 2010.

Slaughterhouse Five (audiobook) by Kurt Vonnegut

I recommend hearing it as an audiobook

Originally published in 1969 in book form.
Published by Dh Audio in 1985.
Read by Jose Ferrer.
Duration: 5 cassette tapes
Unabridged.

I could add to the volumes of literary criticism that fills the reviews of Slaughterhouse Five, but what's the point of that?

Rather, I will recommend that you hear the book as an audiobook - the book's a stream of consciousness, disjointed approach works very well on tape. The reader shifts from one scene to another as easily as Billy Pilgrim does. The version I heard was not the one available here. Mine was narrated by Jose Ferrer and he did a wonderful job. Too bad Ferrer has passed on.

So it goes.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Slaughterhouse Five. 

Kurt Vonnegut

Reviewed on February 3, 2005

Note: This book has been challenged multiple times over the last 50 years for sexual content, foul language and teaching principles contrary to the Bible. Amazingly, it has stayed on "banned books" lists for more than 50 years. At one point, it was referred to a prosecutor to see if the school was distributing pornography to students. The prosecutor said that it was "not in violation of criminal laws." See this site for more information.

Note: This book was put on book ban lists in Tennessee in multiple counties in 2025. The article has a searchable database because the list has more than 1,100 unique titles

To its credit, the Vonnegut Museum in Indianapolis has a history of sending free copies of Slaughterhouse-Five to students at schools where the book has been banned.

The Associate by Phillip Margolin

Good, fast-paced roller coaster ride

Originally published in 2002.

If the first two opening scenes don't grab you than you had better check your pulse and see if you're still alive!

Phillip Margolin

Others have reviewed The Associate and correctly stated that it is not a pure legal thriller. True enough. There are legal parts to this story, but the case is not resolved through fancy legal footwork. Rather, the thriller becomes a mystery too and we race along with our heroes to see if they can save everyone and expose the villains.

Is it great literature? Hardly. But, it's a lot of fun and I tore through it like a starving man at a buffet.
 
I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Associate by Phillip Margolin.
 
Reviewed on February 1, 2005

When the Tripods Came by John Christopher

Solid Prequel.

Published in 1988.

When the Tripods Came is a prequel to the YA sci-fi trilogy known as the Tripods Trilogy. In the original trilogy, an alien master race rules the earth around the year 2100. The aliens are never seen and travel the world in giant tripods with prehensile legs (I often think of the Tripods when I see water towers in small towns). The aliens use mind control techniques to control the human population which lives in a low tech feudal type society. Every year young people are brought to the Tripods to be "capped" - a process that involves having a metallic cap attached to the skull that facilitates the control of humanity.

John Christopher
(1922-2012)

The original series was published in 1967 and 1968. The prequel was published in 1988. The prequel tells how humanity first encountered the Tripods when the Tripods landed on earth and seemed bent on destruction. The Tripods were quickly defeated militarily so the aliens pulled back and began using cartoon shows and pop music as a cover to deliver mind controlling messages. Soon enough, there are fights among those that have been mesmerized and everyone else. The mesmerized people attempt to cap everyone and the stage is set for the world that exists in the Tripod Trilogy, including the placid villages of those that are capped and the remote locations of those that continue to resist.

Comic Book Guy

The author, John Christopher (a pseudonym for Christopher Samuel Youd) says in the preface that he wanted to clarify how the world came to be as it was when the Tripod Trilogy began because so many sci-fi fans (I imagine them as British versions of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons) were critical of the technology that is described in the book and if this would have been enough to have overcome modern human technology. They were not considering that the level of technology in human history is rapidly advancing and even accelerating, so Christopher felt he had to justify it in some way.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found here: When the Tripods Came.

Reviewed October 22, 2010.

Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker

Published in 2010.

Painted Ladies is Robert B. Parker's latest offering in the long-running Spenser series. Parker died in January 2010 and this book was already in the pipeline waiting to be published (he has one more coming out called Sixkill). According to my count, this is number 37 in the Spenser series.

Painted Ladies is a solid novel. It is nowhere near as good as the best of the series (in my opinion, that would be Looking for Rachel Wallace and the ones created at about the same time in the late 1970s and early 1980s) but it is not an embarrassment like Potshot, either.

The plot revolves around the theft of a piece of art called Lady with a Finch. Someone has called with an offer to return the painting for a ransom and Spenser is hired to protect Ashton Prince, the art expert who will deliver the ransom to the kidnappers during the exchange. Spenser ultimately fails as a bodyguard as the painting is booby-trapped with a bomb and Ashton Prince is vaporized right in front of Spenser as he waits in their car on page 13.

The bulk of the book is about Spenser and his decision to find out who killed Prince and why. No one from Prince's side of things is particularly interested in his offer to investigate, although, for a change, the police are. All of Spenser's police friends  (Quirk, Belson, Healy, etc.) are in this, but Hawk is not (he is purported to be in Central Asia working for the government).

Robert B. Parker

The story itself unfolds the way most Spenser novels do - Spenser starts pulling at loose threads in the investigation until he angers someone and they lash out at him and then he figures he's onto something and has a new course of investigation.

It is an enjoyable book - Spenser is slowing down a bit but the investigation is still interesting. There's at least one more book coming out - hopefully it's as solid as this one. While not as great as his best, it is solid and nothing to be ashamed of.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found here: Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker.

Reviewed on October 22, 2010.