Dog On It (Chet and Bernie Mystery #1) by Spencer Quinn

A nice twist on the detective story

Published in 2009.

The premise of Dog On It is a simple one. It's a buddy book. Partners fighting crime like Holmes and Watson, Spenser and Hawk and now Bernie and Chet. 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. The mystery is pretty good, too. Bernie is hired to find a 15 year old girl who may be a runaway and may be the victim of foul play due to her father's shady real estate deals. Chet's unique perspective and talents as a dog and Bernie Little's ability to make the occasional intuitive leap make the Little Detective Agency a real threat to crime in the area.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Dog on It by Spencer Quinn.

Reviewed on January 13, 2009.

The River Sorrow by Craig Holden

Okay, but not great thriller

At times achingly slow, and at times seemingly in fast forward mode, The River Sorrow is just an "OK" book for me.

I readily admit that I could not really identify much with the reformed drug addict doctor (his behavior is odd at the beginning of the story with regards to the police investigation and moves illogically throughout most of the first half of the book) and this hurt my enjoyment of the book. However, the addict Summer Storm's character gets even more ridiculous as the story moves along (I'll not detail why so as to avoid spoilers.)

On a pet peeve note, on page 243 of my edition Holden perpetuates the silly idea that police must identify themselves when they are undercover if they are asked, "Are you a cop?" Jeez.

Not good, not bad. Just a book.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The River Sorrow by Craig Holden.

Reviewed on February 12, 2009.

The Abduction (abridged audiobook) by James Grippando

Maybe it was the ABRIDGED audiobook format...

...but I thought The Abduction was a total dog of a book.

Published in 1999.
Read by Allison Janey
Duration: 2 hours, 46 minutes
Abridged

Normally, I am a big fan of Grippando's books - they are interesting, full of lots of intrigue, unexpected twists and politics. I've reviewed several of them and have given them high marks. So, when I found one written about presidential politics and read by Allison Janney from West Wing I thought that this was bound to be a great book on tape.

Allison Janney

However, the politics in this one was just silly. Before the action gets going in the book, Grippando has the two candidates, literally less than a week before the election, just sitting around their houses. Think about the last presidential election. Was Obama sitting around his house with 3 days to go? Was McCain? No - they were in the midst of a marathon of speeches and events that had been going on for at least a month. I remember when Bob Dole ran against Clinton - he literally made appearances for 48 hours straight - right through the night before election day and through election day until the polls were closed even though he was one of the oldest men to ever run for president.

Other issues:

-there's no secret service protecting these people or their relatives.

-people don't recognize the candidates when they are in public. Come on - Kerry, Bush, Gore, Clinton, Dole, McCain, Obama - they are forever ingrained in the minds of any TV-watching American, especially the day before the election.

-I was even more confused by the bad guy with the Italian last name and the Russian accent. Either Allison Janney is the worst actress ever with accents or they left out a vital piece of information in the abridgement.

***********Caution - Spoiler**********************

I was also bothered by the shallowness of the Attorney General / Democratic Presidential Candidate. Literally hours after she discovers the awful truth about her husband's involvement in her baby daughter's kidnapping - hours after her whole world has been turned upside down, she's busy making goo-goo eyes with the head of the FBI. Lame.

**************End of spoiler*********************

Grippando usually mentions Florida gubernatorial politics in his other thrillers. He is familiar with politics, but like many candidates who aspire to the national stage, I don't think he was ready for the presidential level when he wrote this book.

I give this one 2 stars out of 5.

This abridged audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Abduction by James Grippando.

Reviewed on April 28, 2006.

A Death in Victory by Gregory Bean

A pleasant surprise

Published in 1997.

If you are an avid reader, you know how much of a gamble it can be to pick up a book by an author you've never heard of and jump into the middle of a series. You could get lucky and find a great new author to read or you could just be wasting your time.

Well, I'm pleased to report that this is a great book and I'm going to seek out the others in the series. A Death in Victory is the third in a series featuring Harry Starbranch, the town police officer in Victory, Wyoming.

Rather than go through plot details I'll give you a general idea about the book. A Death in Victory reads a bit like Robert Parker meets Tony Hillerman. Starbranch is a wisecracking cop who is not afraid to throw his fists. He has friends and connections everywhere and is not afraid to use them. But, like Hillerman, there's an acknowledgment of the reality of the immenseness of the wide open western spaces. He describes Wyoming and its culture as lovingly as Hillerman describes the Navajo reservation and its environs.

In case you are wondering, you do not have to read the previous books in the series in order to follow along with this one.

Good plot, well-paced. The ending surprised me but also made sense. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I give A Death in Victory 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Death in Victory by Gregory Bean.

Reviewed on April 25, 2006.

Blow Fly (Kay Scarpetta #12) by Patricia Cornwell

Easily the worst of the series

Published in 2003 by Putnam

This was an utterly disappointing book. I have stepped away from Cornwell for a couple of years, but I was an avid reader before that, including the horrid series of books that Cornwell started with Hornet's Nest and Isle of Dogs.

Blow Fly is just as bad, if not worse, than those books. I had thought that it was the characters that I disliked in that other Cornwell series but now I am convinced that Cornwell has changed her writing style and I am not a fan of the new Cornwell style at all.

Recommendations:

*Spin Lucy off. She's becoming too Batman-esque, with all of her high-powered technological gadgets, a sidekick and a helicopter. I'm sick of her and I have not liked her since she joined the FBI.

*Do something with Marino other than having him drink, burp, and look unhealthy. He appears throughout the book but only does something useful at the beginning. He is a pathetic version of his rough-edged self in the earlier books.

*Benton. Hated him in every book. Still do.

*I know the French brothers are supposed to be Scarpetti's nemesis but, honestly, how many cops have a nemesis? Give it a rest.

*Do something with the plot other than drag the reader through page after page of Lucy's antics, Marino's unhealthiness, Scarpetti's desire to be a powerful woman (How many times is her 'power' referred to? I'd bet it's at least half a dozen.), Benton's dispassionate scheming and the insane thoughts of a deformed French madman who is constantly playing with his tiny genitalia. Lots of emoting, musing and rambling. Not much action.

*Note to Patricia Cornwell. I know it may have been a while since you had to shop at a Wal-Mart, but they would make an awful place to kidnap someone since the parking lots are constantly watched by cameras. How do I know this? Go to the customer service counter at any Wal-Mart in America and you'll see the monitors showing the display outside.

So, to sum up: This book is terrible. Read the early books in the series - they are great.

I give Blow Fly 1 star out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell.

Reviewed on April 19, 2006.

The Story of 1 (DVD) narrated by Terry Jones

It's math, it's history, it's a lot of fun

Released in 2006.

I watched The Story of 1 when it premiered on my local PBS affiliate and I thought it was a lot of fun and full of loads and loads of interesting history.

As a world history teacher, I am always on the lookout for something that can tell our story with a twist. This one does it quite nicely.

Terry Jones in a still from the DVD

The documentary is narrated by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. It tells the story of man's use of the number one (and other numbers, but the focus always returns to the number 1) throughout time with a humorous twist. It explores early uses of math, why mankind had to develop math, why the Roman Numerals were inferior to our current system and continues on to the modern use of binary numbers.

As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it for my history class. It will be great as a different sort of review of the history that we have studied thus far.

I rate this DVD 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.

The Story of One can be purchased on Amazon.com here.

Reviewed on April 14, 2006.

Bill Peet: An Autobiography by Bill Peet

While not aimed at someone my age...

I nevertheless found Bill Peet: An Autobiography quite fascinating and engrossing.

First published in 1994.

Bill Peet was a self-professed reluctant student, especially of English classes, but he was nonetheless quite the good writer. Peet's illustrations added a lot to the pace and feel of the book and are a joy in their own right. His stories of life in Indianapolis before World War II will be interesting to any native Hoosier (as am I).

However, the most interesting part details his jobs at Walt Disney studios. His descriptions of how they made movies in the old days as well as the insider's look at Walt Disney himself are fascinating. Peet worked on several Disney movies, including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Cinderella (he created the lovable mice) and the original 101 Dalmatians.

Peet brushes over his life after he left Disney a little too quickly. Peet left Disney to write and illustrate more than 30  books for children.  I would have liked to have read his descriptions of life in the publishing world as well. Also lacking is much history of his family life.

Bill Peet (1915-2002)

That being said, it was still fascinating, entertaining and totally worth the reader's time.

I give this one 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Bill Peet: An Autobiography.

Reviewed on April 13, 2006.