James Rollins Pushes A 6th Extinction

The 6th Extinction by James Rollins opens up with a rousing start. A secret government project being conducted by the U.S. Development Test Command in the Sierra Nevada mountains is sabotaged. A Yosemite Valley park ranger spots an unmarked helicopter as it takes off from the hidden base. A mysterious fog boils out over the surrounding landscape and begins destroying all organic life in its path.

It is within these first few frantic pages park ranger Jenna Beck and her Siberian husky Nikko are sent scrambling in retreat as the unexplained toxin envelope drifts outward over the landscape, eventually finding a hilltop ghost town that remains temporarily above the lower elevations of death. But even this reprieve is short lived: The cloud is slowly creeping up the hill and the helicopter has returned.

The 6th Extinction is the tenth book of the Sigma series. 

At the heart of The 6th Extinction is the recognition that this world is on the cusp of several significant changes. The most pressing of which is tied to the extinction itself as the planet continues to suffer mass biodiversity losses that include the extinction of 320 terrestrial vertebrates since 1500 and a decrease of many surviving species by as much as 25 percent.

Rollins tackles what he calls a schism between old school conservationists and new groups of ecologists that welcome extinction, believing it will eventually usher forth new and more robust plant and animal life. Some are even prepared to help nature along with a cross between genetics and synthetic biology with an emphasis on XNA, a nucleic acid that is not naturally found in nature.

Some of the findings associated with XNA are both fascinating and startling. Namely, there exists a possibility of a future synthetic life form based purely on XNA and that XNA organisms could potentially harm RNA/DNA organisms (such as humans). This is only one of several scientific findings Rollins has woven into the story. Science is quietly marching forward and making things at a remarkably fast pace, including concepts that involve making existing organisms hardier.

Although thinner than many in the Sigma series, this is the foundation that Rollins introduces into the tenth installment before sticking the fictional division of the U.S. DARPA program, SIGMA force, between two factions of scientists — those believing they can save species and those believing the time is right to usher forth a new Eden. And both, regardless which one believes holds the higher moral ground, prove to be equally dangerous.

The 6th Extinction is one that threatens mankind's own extinction. 

Mass extinctions are particularly damaging to biodiversity because ecosystems are generally fragile, relaying a series of checks and balances that humankind is not always clear in understanding. In many cases, species that co-exist risk falling together like dominos.

In The 6th Extinction, Sigma Force has a much more supportive role. Members of the highly skilled military operation and expert scientists are tasked with containing the growing threat in California and unraveling the mysterious motivations of the saboteur. Like many series novels, the answer lies in a remote location and this one is no exception.

It leads to Antarctica and, even more mysterious, a subterranean world that hides beneath its frozen wind-swept mountains of rock and snow. Taking a lead role in the expedition is Painter Crowe while his fiancee Lisa Cummings works to find a way to contain and cure whatever was released from the secret base.

The 6th Extinction By James Rollins Infects 4.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Rollins once again relies on his ability to link ancient secrets and modern-day science to create a compelling intellectual connection between them, which drives the story. But while the book can easily stand alone like most Sigma series books, series readers will find some elements of The 6th Extinction seem too familiar but without the same bite for want of a more aggressive adversary.

Earlier books are the better bet for a true introduction. But even so, the novel is still an entertaining read that is backed by relevant science occurring all around us. You can find The Sixth Extinction (Sigma Force) from James Rollins on Amazon or download an electronic version for iBooks. The audiobook is narrated by Christian Baskous, who read the previous installment. The 6th Extinction is also available at Barnes & Noble. 

Josh Malerman Closes The Bird Box

If you can suspend your sense of disbelief and accept the unimaginable, Bird Box by Josh Malerman will leave you mesmerized from start to finish. This gripping cross-genre thriller imagines the rapid collapse of civilization caused by a dimensional rift that allows new entities into our plane of existence.

Or, at least, that is what most people surmise. The only people who have seen them do not survive the sight of them. A single glimpse, even for a fraction of a second, will immediately drive someone insane. And, once afflicted, most set out to kill anyone within arm's reach before taking their own life.

The result is story that works across several layers of terror. Handfuls of survivors huddle together in homes with the blinds of the widows drawn shut. But even with their resolve to never peek outside, they have no choice but to remain vigilant and wary of anyone who allows their curiosity to grab hold.

In the dystopian land of the blind, a one-eyed man is a threat. 

When the strange and unforgiving events that bring down the world begin, Malorie is nothing more than a free-spritied young adult who lives with her sister in a modest rental that neither has bothered to decorate. Her biggest worry is missing a period, which is why she secretly purchased a test kit.

Had this not been the case, she would have been glued to the television much like her sister Shannon. Somewhere in Russia, a man was riding in a car being driven by a friend and asked him to pull over before attacking him. He, like several other people before, saw something before snapping.

It wasn't an isolated incident. There were others: a woman who buried her children alive, a man who attacked a filmmaker, and a woman who tried to bite as they ran by. All of them had been described as stable and sane before they saw something. Whatever it was, it was the last thing they saw sane.

Malerman reveals it all as he slowly pulls the gauze over the reader's eyes rather than removes it. At the same time he tells the story of how Malorie survived the collapse of everything, he tells the story about how she is surviving years later with not one but two children under her supervision.

With nothing left to lose, they are about to embark into the wilderness with nothing more than blindfolds for protection. The children, who she had raised on her own for years, are among the only survivors of her first sanctuary. Knowing something happened to the rest, whether they fled or were dead, is largely what generates the claustrophobic dread that permeates most of the story.

A few graphs about author Josh Malerman.

Until recently, Malerman was better known for fronting the Detroit rock band The High Strung. The band, which had toured for years and earned ink in Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, still gets together to produce music and play gigs. The only thing that has changed is that their frontman has a new ambition.

He would like to be known as a Michigan horror author, especially because he loves the state despite decrying it is as a kaleidoscopic, frightening place. Fueling his imagination isn't all fiction either. As a singer, Malerman has seen his share of basements and cemeteries, band vans and underground playgrounds. All of it seems fitting for a band member, but a bit more bizarre when you step back.

Bird Box is a remarkably strong start to carve out some turf. All it requires is a small suspension of belief before you roll with a protagonist who feels especially less prepared to survive than anyone around her. It often feels like her guilt alone keeps her going.

Bird Box By Josh Malerman Shuts Out 7.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Bird Box is a well-crafted and taut thriller. Whereas most horror stories succeed in creating suspense because characters do  things wrong, Bird Box succeeds in its overwhelming sense of dread because there is nothing any character can do right. Every action or lack of action comes with a risk.

Bird Box: A Novel by Josh Malerman is available from Amazon. You can also download the novel for iBooks or the audiobook for iTunes. The latter is narrated by Cassandra Campbell, who excels at transforming Malorie from a carefree and helpless girl into an overprotective but persistent young mother surviving the best she can. You can also find Bird Box by Josh Malerman at Barnes & Noble.

Frank Coates Whispers About Africa

When Dan Sullivan signs up to fight the Boers at the turn of the century, he finds much more than an adventure in British East Africa. Between the horrors of war and the men who run it, it isn't long before the young Queensland drover decides he has had enough.

He deserts the army with an intent to start over and old Bill Freeman turns out to be the right man to help him do it. Freeman, who had originally invited his son to join him in Africa to start a farm together, immediately discovers a taste for something much different than plowing fields.

In the golden era of the great white hunter, Freeman believes the time is right to start a safari. He also believes that Sullivan's experience in the bush and with a rifle could give him an edge. Freeman doesn't care that Sullivan is a deserter, mostly because the boy proves early on that the decision was something other than a lack of bravery.

A fictional expose at a dangerous time in history. 

Freeman and Sullivan get a good enough start together, attempting to entice rich big game hunters to Africa. And as partners, Sullivan spends considerable time with the Freeman family, including the young and impressionable granddaughter Liz Freeman, who develops a crush on him.

But well before she can make her affections known, tragedy strikes the family and forces Liz to return to Australia. The separation sets both of them on different paths — with Sullivan attempting to keep the cash-challenged safari afloat and Liz attending college and attracting new suitors.

All of this changes again with the outbreak of the Great War. Sullivan finds himself running the safari on his own. Liz sees her engagement to an Australian-born German broken so he can enlist and prove his loyalty to the British Empire.

Unattached and unwilling to live with her grandmother any longer, Liz sets out for Africa again. She expects to reunite with her remarried mother and reconnect with Sullivan to relieve him of her grandfather's safari. When she does find him, these two old acquaintances discover something has come between them.

Overall, the novel provides an interesting glimpse of complicated old-world nationalism in the early 1900s and the wilds of Africa. There are also scores of scenes and passages that Coates convincingly brings to life, even if they sometimes lack the cohesion of a novel (beyond being a series of linear happenings). At the same time, the story brings dozens of socio-political issues into perspective even if they aren't always presented with a clear sense of purpose.

A couple of graphs about author Frank Coates. 

Much like protagonist Dan Sullivan, Coates was born in Australia and ran away to Africa. But that is where many of the similarities end. Coates, who was 45, joined the United Nations in Nairobi. Later, he transferred to the shores of Lake Victoria and married a Tanzanian of the Nyamwezi tribe.

The experience was life changing for the ex-Telecom engineer. Although he had worked in both Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, he never felt more at home than he did in Africa. When his contract with the United Nations ended, he found work as a consultant in countries from Kenya to Swaziland and from Mozambique to Botswana. He returned to Australia years later and started his writing career.

Whisper At Dawn By Frank Coates Hunts 3.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Whisper At Dawn is a well-written novel despite its uneven storytelling. Overall, the challenges can be largely attributed to Coates never truly deciding whether the story belongs to Liz or Sullivan. Likewise, his presentations of Africa and Australia are lopsided, with one described in lavish detail and the other left bleak in comparison. One wonders if he would have better served the story by staying with Sullivan and Africa throughout, which is where his most passionate passages prevail.

Whisper At Dawn by Frank Coates can be ordered from Barnes & Noble. You can also find the novel on Amazon or download the book for iBooks. The audiobook is available on iTunes and is narrated by David Tredinnick. Tredinnick does a fine job with telling. He gives the story the tone of an afternoon reading.

Richard Kadrey Finds Kill City Blues

The Qomrama Om Ya is a weapon of unimaginable power. It was originally designed by a bunch of gods for the specific purpose of killing other gods. And James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, used to own it until he lost it to a rogue angel named Aelita.

Stark doesn't really miss it. But when someone comes looking for it, the inquiry carries side effects. Almost immediately, Stark becomes a target in another power struggle between otherworldly beings.

Mostly, he finds it irritating. He had plans to enjoy a quiet life for a spell after his most recent job, being Lucifer, required too much effort. So he split, but not far enough away to keep from being sucked back by the petty "destroy the universe" crowd. Somebody has to shut Angra Om Ya down.

Kill City Blues is a supernatural romp through a Santa Monica shopping mall. 

In previous stories, Stark sometimes let his swagger run away with itself. Not anymore. In addition to all his scars, he has become comfortable with the Kissi arm grafted to his body. (Kissi are non-angelic beings that are loosely modeled after the Qliphoth or anti-angels that first appeared in the first book.)

More than that, Stark is less cocky and more cool. As a nephilim (half-human, half-angel) who has tasted death and temporarily ascended to the top spot in hell for a spell, he has clearly relaxed into a role. There is a certain resignation in his demeanor nowadays, even when it looks like someone might take him to the brink of death.

Despite this transformation, he doesn't seem to have a need to go it alone. He welcomes support from his growing entourage — Allegra, Candy, Father Traven, Vidocq, and even his old friend Kasabian.

Each of them contributes something to the idea of a protagonist, much like everything inside Kill City begins to take shape an collective antagonist, which is where most of the acton happens. It's an abandoned shopping mall that has turned itself inside out into a sprawling retail wasteland with plenty of unpleasant surprises for anyone who gets too close.

The denizens of this world represent the worst of the worst, squatters who have formed tight and deadly tribes to define their their little patches of turf. There are ghosts, lurkers, and bottom-feeding Sub Rosa families that aren't talented enough to make it on the outside.

Stark and company have to wade through all of them. And if anything, having them along for the ride keeps him focused. They are all too happy to watch his back too. Not only is it the best chance to reclaim the Qomrama and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, but he also might be the only one on the planet who can keep the Angra Om Ya from taking it back.

A couple of graphs about Richard Kadrey. 

Few people are cooler than Richard Kadrey. He is a freelance journalist, photographer, and writer who has a knack for flatly calling it like he see it. His work pops up in places like Wired, The San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery Online, and The Site.

He has written several books and a mini-series comic book for Vertigo, but is best known for the Sandman Slim series. It was picked as one of 13 book listed on Barnes & Noble's "Best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Last Decade" list and has showed no signs of slowing.

Kill City Blues By Richard Kadrey Carves Out 6.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

While some people have claimed that Kill City Blues doesn't feel as substantial as previous books in the series, chalk it up to not having a clearly defined antagonist. There is one, to be sure, but the shopping mall seems to play that role more than any single entity. Kill City Blues doesn't disappoint.

Kill City Blues: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey can be found on Amazon. You can also find the book on Barnes & Noble or download the novel for iBooks. The audiobook is narrated by long-time Sandman Slim voice MacLeod Andrews. The sixth book in the series is expected to arrive in summer 2014. Kadrey also published Dead Set this year.

Kathleen Tessaro Picks Apart A Secret

All families have secrets. Some more than others. But even though they do, newlywed Grace Monroe doesn't expect her respectable family to really have any worth telling. Given their social status, with her mother linked to a titled linage, her life was drawn out before she lived it.

Never mind that Monroe is as plain as they come. She doesn't fulfill anyone's expectation of a successful socialite in the 1950s. She comes across as more of a plain Jane, someone who knows all the  proper tricks and pleasantries but doesn't necessarily seem convicted about them.

Perhaps that is precisely why Monroe comes across as mysterious as the message she receives from from Paris. She is oddly captivated by uncovering the identity of the woman who left her an inheritance. As far as she is concerned, Madame Eva d'Orsey is a complete stranger, someone who should have no ties to her. And yet, it seems this stranger has willed a small fortune.

The Perfume Collector is a story of identity and memory, family and the familiar. 

Giving the reader a glimpse into the story of Monroe as she attempts to uncover the identity of her benefactor in the 1950s and the story of Madame Eva d'Orsey in the 1920s, Kathleen Tessaro is able to craft a novel that is one part mystery and one part coming of age in Paris. As the story progresses, both women come closer and closer to revealing how their lives are impossibly connected.

As Monroe uncovers small fragments from her benefactor's life, Tessaro transports readers to 1920s New York, Monte Carlo, Paris, and London as an ordinary hotel maid is transformed into an extraordinary woman who inspired one of Paris’s greatest perfumiers. And it is these perfumes, specifically three evocative perfumes, that are used as chronicle benchmarks that capture d'Orsey at three different times in her life.

While it is easy to connect the dots within the story, the real mystery here is decipering how it might have all happened. For instance, it is richly entertaining to be introduced to d'Orsey as a naive and newly hired maid at a famous hotel in Paris, knowing that she will somehow have the good fortune to earn enough for an inheritance despite being on the doorstep of another world war.

At the same time, the story that evolves from Monroe's persistence isn't necessarily a success story. It is a story of love and lost love, risks and regrets, success as an outcome of sacrifice. And as Monroe digs deeper into the life of  d'Orsey, she will eventually find her own changed in ways she could have never imagined.

A few graphs about author Kathleen Tessaro. 

Although Tessaro was born in Pittsburgh, she was given the opportunity to study in London for three months after her sophomore year of college at Mellon University. As a student, she never looked back.

She lived there for the next 23 years, attempting to make ends meet as an actress. It wasn't until much later that she began writing at the suggestion of a friend who was an early member of the Wimpole Street Writer's Workshop.

Using nothing more than a second-hand book for structure, she wrote her debut novel, Elegance. It's the story of a frumpy, depressed woman is reborn as an assertive diva.

The Perfume Collector is also a story about transformation, but with significantly more depth and in surprisingly different ways as one woman becomes trapped by social status and another is set free from it. It is beautifully written, capturing the trappings of class across three decades.

The Perfume Collector By Kathleen Tessaro Breaths 8.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

While the book isn't meant to be suspenseful, it manages to mesmerize with a well-wrought plot while giving a glimpse of perfuming before brands set a more pedestrian standard. Both artistic and raw, The Perfume Collector builds perfectly on what has become an astonishingly brilliant career.

The Perfume Collector: A Novel by Kathleen Tessaro can be purchased on Amazon. You can also find the book at Barnes & Noble or download it for iBooks.

Interestingly enough, Tessaro never wanted to be a writer. She wanted to be a choreographer or an art historian. She especially enjoyed working with young opera singers, teaching them acting skills. She didn't come into writing until her early thirties.

Richard Hell Is A Very Clean Tramp

Richard Hell is probably best known for his contributions to the punk rock movement of the early to mid-70s. He was a singer, bass player, and songwriter in the bands Television, Heartbreakers and Voidoids.

His was a “deliberately calculated style,” which included ripped up clothes, strategically placed safety pins, and hacked up hair. It’s the same style adapted by the Sex Pistols and appropriated by a wave of disaffected teens and young adults who just wanted to be different.

But Hell was much more than an image. 

He was and still is a smart and literate writer capable of great depth and perception. I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp is Hell’s autobiography, and it is at times depressing, amusing and sad. It’s less a coming of age story than a recounting of what was and what might have been.

Hell is a bit self-absorbed, does plenty of name dropping (Dee Dee Ramone, Allan Ginsberg, Sid Vicious, Patti Smith), and seems to relish in describing all of his many conquests, often in more detail than seems necessary. But perhaps that is part of his charm.

Hell entered the world as Richard Meyers, the son of academic parents who had met at Columbia University. Hell and his sister grew up in and around Lexington, Kentucky, the typical suburban America of the 1950s.

“My roots are shallow,” Hell writes. “I’m a little of jealous of people with strong ethnic and cultural roots. Lucky Martin Scorsese or Art Spiegelman or Dave Chappelle. I came from Hopalong Cassidy and Bugs Bunny and first grade at ordinary Maxwell Elementary.”

Although he grew up “ordinary,” Hell worked hard to be anything but. He frequently ran away from home and he recounts in great detail his youthful plans, exploits and ambitions. Surprisingly, he barely touches on the unexpected death of his father, Ernest Meyers, who died in 1957 when Hell was in elementary school. Meyers’ untimely death would eventually uproot the family.

A few years later, Hell met Tom Miller at a prep school in Delaware. The two became fast friends and eventually made their way to New York City in 1967. Both tall, gangly and extremely smart, the two shared an apartment, worked together and wrote together. After struggling with minimal success to make their way through poetry, the two turned to music and formed the band Television. Miller changed his name to Tom Verlaine.

As time went on and Television found some success, Hell and Verlaine fought constantly, and Verlaine became increasingly resentful and critical (and maybe jealous) of Hell, which tore their friendship apart. Hell left Television to join ex-New York Dolls Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers and, later, founded the Voidoids (which included Marc Bell, later to become Marky Ramone).

A thread woven throughout Hell’s story is substance abuse.

From drinking codeine-rich cough syrup to becoming a full-blown heroin addict, Hell’s addictions seemingly derailed any chance he may have had for the success he envisioned. He was, at times, a literate junkie and a man hitting rock bottom.

I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp chronicles Hell’s life up until 1984, when he retired from music. Now, he has been a writer for far more years than he was a musician. He has written the novels Go Now, Godlike and Hot and Cold, which is a collection of essays and lyrics, and his work has also appeared in Spin, GQ, Village Voice and the New York Times.

Having read and loved Go Now and Godlike, it seems that Hell’s strength is in writing novels and prose. That’s not to say that Clean Tramp isn’t good, because it is. But there is a depressing and defeated element throughout, and maybe a trace of bitterness and irony.

I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp — An Autobiography By Richard Hell Bangs 6.6 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Hell’s story is a must-read for fans and students of the punk movement and its earliest days. No matter how uncaring Hell can be at times, you can’t help but to like him.

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp: An Autobiography by Richard Hell is available from Amazon. You can also order the book from Barnes & Noble. Recently, it was also released on iBooks. Harper Collins maintains his signings list. For everything else, visit his official site.

Robin Burcell Ticks Off The Black List

I tend to pass on character-based thriller series because many authors leave you high and dry, wondering about who is who because you haven't started with book one. That's not the case with The Black List by Robin Burcell.

Yes, The Black List is part of her Sydney Fitzpatrick series. Previous books in the series include The Bone Chamber and The Face of a Killer. I haven't read either, but found the third installment solid.

The Black List ticks off mystery, suspense, thriller, action, and adventure.

You don't have to be familiar with heroine Fitzpatrick to appreciate The Black List. The action starts out with a deceptively simple hook. Fitzpatrick’s sometime partner, FBI Special Agent Tony Carrillo, enlists her help for a personal assignment.

His soon-to-be ex-wife fears for the safety of Trip, her new boyfriend. Trip is nothing special. He's an accountant of admittedly limited skills, but he started noticing discrepancies in the books at the charitable organization where he was recently hired.

The charity is one of several that helps to resettle refugees from third world nations. When Trip brings it to the attention of a colleague in England, he starts receiving threats. So do all the people around him.

At the same time, there is a second plot that isn't personal. The FBI is attempting to track the whereabouts of Somali terrorist Yusuf Abasi. He is believed to have somehow snuck across the U.S. border and nobody knows where he is. What they do know that Abasi will eventually cause large scale chaos and mass destruction unless he is caught.

The simplest explanations do not always add up. 

As Fitzpatrick investigates the refugee charity, she discovers that things are deeper and much more far-reaching. It seems that the organization is linked to issues that jeopardize national security. But there are also abuses at refugee camps, and trace money from the U.S. government to the charitable organization and from the charity into the wrong hands. The problem is compounded because it is also a pet project backed by a very powerful and suspicious U.S. senator.

As an international thriller, the action plays out in the U.S., England and Africa with daring rescues, covert operations, and several shocking murders. All the while, readers are left asking whether there is a connection to refugee organizations and terrorists while discovering that Abasi is packing a Cesium 137 dirty bomb in the vicinity of the White House.

This is a big, sprawling suspenseful thriller with plenty of twists. It's also obvious much of it is fueled by the author's own concerns about national security and threats of terrorism on American soil. It's this passion for the subject that helps her expose holes in the illusion of safety. She makes it scary.

About a surprisingly experienced author. 

It also wouldn't be too surprising to learn that Fitzpatrick could well be Burcell’s alter ego. Sure, Fitzpatrick is free to travel the world on the FBI’s dime while Burcell has responsibilities that keep her grounded with family, but it is clear that Burcell imparts Fitzpatrick with some of her own expertise, which includes in-demand skills as a forensic artist.

The reason Burcell knows her subject so well is because she is also a criminal investigator in Sacramento County, Calif., former police officer, hostage negotiator, and detective. She has even worked undercover as a housewife, high school student, and hooker. The FBI-trained Burcell is also an expert in forensic art and fingerprints.

The Black List By Robin Burcell Uncovers 6.5 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

As the old saying goes, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. So where Burcell excels as a sharp writer is her ability to expound on her experiences but guide them toward believable conclusions. She also knows how to engage people with nicely complex characters and a penchant for the unexpected.

The Black List by Robin Burcell is available at Amazon and the paperback can be ordered from Barnes & Noble. The Black List can also be downloaded for iBooks for $1 less, making it an exceptionally affordable read. You can learn more about Burcell on her website or via Twitter.

Dick Wolf Thrills With The Intercept

Dick Wolf will probably always be associated with the television franchise he created: Law & Order. This television series and its spin-offs made a fortune, with story lines that revolve around sex crimes and homicides.

The characters had minimal back stories. And although the series won several Emmys, it was formulaic if not predictable. It was also highly successful.

Maybe that is why watching Wolf's work unfold for print instead of the small screen is so interesting. Sure, he previously wrote Law & Order Crime Scenes, a nonfiction companion to the show. But his new novel, The Intercept,  truly marks his debut as an author.

The Intercept, A Jeremy Fisk Novel is a Dick Wolf debut. 

There has never been any question that Wolf is an outstanding storyteller. The question is does his storytelling ability hold up in a novel? Yes, it does.

In The Intercept, Wolf trades in sex crimes for terrorism and to excellent effect. The scenario finds the United States just days before July 4 at the much-anticipated dedication of One World Trade Center at Ground Zero.

The ceremony of such an occasion is a pivotal moment in history, recognizing what has passed as well as the resilience of the American spirit. But unfortunately, there is something else percolating beneath the seemingly upbeat vibe in New York City.

Six passengers and crew members are attempting to take down a would-be hijacker on a commercial flight from Stockholm bound for New York City. These six, or "The Six" as these brave passengers and crew come to be dubbed by the media, are a focal point. They are immediately thrust into the international spotlight as heroes, becoming instant celebrities.

Nothing is ever as it seems to be with Wolf.

NYPD detective Jeremy Fisk, who is assigned to the NYPD Intelligence Division, is part of an elite anti-terror unit not dissimilar to the CIA. His job is to investigate the hijacking, which seems pretty routine. Except, things are not nearly as clear cut as they seem.

Despite all the fanfare, the would-be hijacker was nothing more than a pawn in a very complicated game. There is something much larger in the works and Fisk has to figure it out.

He doesn't have to do it alone. One of the other detectives assigned to the case is Krina Gersten, with whom Fisk is having a secret romantic relationship. She gives Wolf more breathing room too, toggling the action back and forth from Fisk to Gersten.

Still, Fisk, who is fluent in Arabic and not afraid to break the rules, is the apparent lead in the investigation where nothing makes sense. There are holes in every security system that the terrorists know how to exploit. There is a Saudi national who disappeared in Manhattan. And there is a bomb plot directed by none other than Osama bin Laden before his death, one that is suspected to take place on the same day as the dedication.

With several action-driven plots to drive his story forward, Wolf only provides minimal back stories for Fisk and Gersten, much like he did for Law & Order. However, that is not to say he skipped their stories entirely. As a novelist, he does provide a few tidbits to make them personable in what is otherwise best described as a tightly-wound thriller, well paced to sustain interest while keeping everyone guessing who or what is the real target.

A bit about author Dick Wolf.

The 65-year-old Wolf began his career as an advertising copywriter who churned out screenplays in his spare time. Like many people in his field, he dreamed about a career in the film industry.

Eventually, he landed a job as a staff writer on Hill Street Blues and then parlayed that into supervising producer on the television series Miami Vice. A few years later, he created a runaway success with Law & Order.

The series was the longest-running scripted show in television history and earned Wolf a number of awards, including two Emmys. Although the original Law & Order went off the air after 20 seasons, don’t worry about Wolf. The Montecito, Calif., resident is still #54 on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list with Law& Order reruns to look forward to. Even more interesting is a stellar start to his off-screen career.

The Intercept By Dick Wolf Thrills With 8.7 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

There is a lot more to Wolf than the series that kept him busy for more than 20 years. His newest character, Jeremy Fisk, makes a engaging and smart start to a terrorist crimes series that will provide him with more flexibility than he ever had on a television show. In fact, many people will find The Intercept is hard to put down as Wolf proves his writing is as crisp and compelling as ever.

The Intercept: A Jeremy Fisk Novel is available today (Dec. 26) at Amazon and the novel can be picked up on Barnes & Noble. The Intercept is also available from iBooks before the new year.

This review is based on an advanced copy of the book from Harper Collins. An audio version of the book is also expected for release, but was not available at the time this review was published.

Pete Townshend Reveals Who I Am

Pete Townshend’s autobiography was commissioned in 1996 and completed this year. It was, the artist acknowledges, very difficult to write at times.

Such is the painful rambling narrative.

The guitarist's troubled childhood sets the stage for a lifetime of emotional tumult and an ego besieged by polarities he accurately describes as “artistic grandiosity” and “desperately low self-regard.” He grew up in post-World Ward II London, the son of musicians/entertainers who liked to drink and often fought.

At the age of 6, he was sent to live with his grandmother, Denny. She was what he calls “a perfect wicked witch.”

Denny was mentally and physically abusive, withholding affection and often doling out beatings instead. Denny, he remembers, would often invite men (“uncles”) into her flat from the adjacent railway station and bus garage. At least one of them sexually abused Townshend.

This “uncle” would inspire the character of “wicked Uncle Ernie” in Tommy. Townshend’s 1966 mini-opera A Quick One, While He’s Away is also an account of his time with Denny.

By the time he went back to live with his parents, the damage was done.

Not everything in his childhood was bad, however. Townshend recalls with fondness his Aunt Trilby, who was the first person to encourage his musical abilities. He also shares how he first met John Entwistle and later joined Roger Daltrey’s band, The Detours.

By 1964, it was this band that evolved into The Who. And it is from this point on that he chronicles the early years of The Who. From 1967-1973, Townshend talks straight about how he helped the band achieve near-mythical status. Interestingly enough, he did this mostly without drugs and infidelity (he was married). His eye was on spiritualism instead, fueled by the Indian mystic Meher Baba.

“My spiritual longings were constantly under siege by all-too-wordly ambitions, undermined by scepticism and ambivalence, and challenged by my sexual yearnings ... I could also behave, frankly, like a complete arsehole,” writes Townshend.




While Townshend mostly avoided the pitfalls of rock and roll excess (at least at the beginning), his fellow band members did not. Moon and Entwistle in particular succumbed to the typical rock and roll lifestyle. Entwistle did drugs, and Moon drank and trashed hotel rooms. And The Who was forever banned from Holiday Inns.

Unfortunately, we never learn too much about the other band members and their relationships with one another. Even most of the people in Townshend’s life, including ex-wife Karen and his children, are merely supporting players in this story.

Townshend was without question the creative force, artistic force, and leader of The Who. Tommy was indeed inspired in part by Townshend’s angst-ridden childhood. Perhaps that is why he never truly enjoyed his fame and fortune. For him, it only fueled pressure to keep delivering the goods.

There are some problems with the book, despite some insights.

Townshend spends way too much time exploring every aspect of many of his more obscure projects as the years go on, including The Iron Man. Throughout, it’s clear that Townshend is self-consious and riddled with self-doubt about his roles as mostly absent father, unfaithful husband, one-time alcoholic, and conflicted artist.

He writes with sadness and regret about some of the tragedies that have touched his life: the 1978 death of Moon, the tragic deaths of 11 Who fans killed in a crush at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, and the shocking 2002 death of Entwistle in Las Vegas.

He also tells his side of the infamous “child porn” investigation, in which he used his credit card to pay $7 to view porn (which he immediately canceled). Although he claimed he was doing research about how banks are culpable in child pornography and his computers turned out to be clean, the scandal took its toll — a tired, sad and worn out Townshend accepted a caution and had his name placed on a sex offenders’ registry (rather than have the case drawn out at a trial).

Who I Am By Pete Townshend Rocks 5.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Who I Am is introspective and honest, but also reflects Townshend’s big ego. The book is rambling at times and includes far too much detail in some areas, and not enough in others. Still, Townshend is a survivor. As the lyrics say in A Quick One, “you’re all forgiven.” He could easily mean his parents, Denny, the “uncles,” and maybe himself.

Pete Townshend’s book Who I Am is available from Barnes & Noble and the memoir may be ordered through Amazon. You can also find Who I Am for iBooks or as an audiobook via iTunes. He serves as the narrator, but it comes across as him reading a manuscript as opposed to giving additional clues about himself. The runtime is almost 18 hours.

Ann And Nancy Wilson Are Dreaming

One of the first albums I ever owned was Heart’s Dreamboat Annie. I liked the songs, the music, Ann Wilson’s voice, and Nancy Wilson’s acoustic guitar. Now, after four decades and 30 million records, the Wilson sisters tell their story and I have a deeper appreciation for their albums.

The Wilsons grew up the daughters of loving parents, but had a gypsy-like existence. Their dad was a Marine, which meant constantly moving and never putting down roots. They didn't have enough time to forge many friendships so the three Wilson sisters (Lynn, Ann and Nancy) were always very close.

There is a lot of heart in the Wilson sisters' story.

Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll, published by Harper Collins, was written by Ann and Nancy Wilson with co-author Charles Cross (Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain). Most of it is told through the perspectives of Ann or Nancy. Some scenarios are told through the eyes of both, with slightly different memories.

However, the book isn't limited to the sisters alone. Sue Ennis, best friend and songwriting partner, provides input too. Other past members of Heart also chime in from time to time. And it's these fine additions that help add depth.

We learn that when the Wilson family finally did settle down for good in Seattle, Ann and Nancy were obsessed with the Beatles. They had seen them on the Ed Sullivan Show and did everything thing they could to see them live. But unlike most girls of their generation, they didn’t aspire to be rock band girlfriends or wives. They wanted to BE the Beatles.

Music quickly took a serious turn in the seventies.

In the early 70s, singer Ann decided to pursue music seriously and headed to Vancouver to join a fledgling band called Hocus Pocus, later renamed Heart. She hooked up with the band’s headstrong and svengali-like visionary, Michael Fisher, and lived with him for a number of years in a hippie/commune environment.

It is Fisher who would eventually inspire some of Heart’s biggest hits, including Magic Man and Crazy On You. But before that, Heart paid their dues as a cover band, playing top 40 hits and plenty of Led Zeppelin. It wasn't until guitarist Nancy joined the band that they found a new dynamic.

Heart was unique in that it was made up of two sisters and two brothers (Michael Fisher as the de facto leader and Roger Fisher as lead guitarist). It wasn't long before Ann and Nancy's songs started to spotlight the band’s repertoire. Magic Man earned airplay in Vancouver.

And yet, they still had challenges, including misogyny. Women weren't readily accepted in rock and some people questioned whether or not Nancy's guitar was plugged in. Inside the band, the men wanted to remain in charge despite Ann and Nancy writing, singing, and playing their own material.

The book is unabashed in covering their pain, struggles and successes. Some of them will surprise. For example, Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin once tried to seduce Nancy at John’s birthday party. Alex and Eddie Van Halen invited Ann and Nancy for a romp in the same bed, which they politely declined. Nancy did, however, give Eddie an acoustic guitar after learning he didn’t own one.

Even after they did reach the pinnacle of their careers, nothing came easy. By the 1980s, records sales were declining as outside influencers pushed them to become pop stars instead. They were recording songs that they didn't write for the first time (What About Love and These Dreams). Ann admits she especially hated All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You, written by Mutt Lange.

"She did sing it, and we begrudgingly turned it into a Heart song," Nancy wrote. "It ended up being one of our most controversial songs, even getting banned in Ireland and a few other countries."

Ann shares her other struggles too. Not only did weight continue to be a life-long issue, but also alcoholism. Nancy is straightforward about her marriage and painful divorce from writer Cameron Crowe. Both sisters are candid about infertility (which runs in their family), which prompted Ann to adopt two children. Nancy had twin sons through a surrogate.

Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul And Rock & Roll By Ann And Nancy Wilson Rocks With 8.7 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

The book is candid and shows just how tight the Wilsons really are. With them, family truly does come first. It had to. The sisters frequently talk about failure, vulnerability, and humiliation. But what is different is in the timing. Their story is one of two women who are told there are rules. As many people know, they did everything they could not to follow them.

You can download Kicking & Dreaming on iBooks or find Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll on Amazon. The autobiography is also available at Barnes & Noble. The audiobook is read by Ann and Nancy. Just recently, Heart released its newest addition, Fanatic, which was mastered with iTunes in mind.

deWitt Pens A Darkly Comic Western

Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt trades in the Hollywood bar scene and pours his talents into an immorally violent and vehemently funny revisionist Western set during the California gold rush. And yet, not everyone or everything is without conscience in The Sisters Brothers. The protagonist, Eli Sisters, is sensitive in his starring role as a reluctant anti-hero.

His brother, Charlie, is different. He happily earns every stitch of his reputation as a gunslinger for hire. He is a selfish, cold-hearted killer whose appetite for taking is only matched by his ability to justify anything. If you don't want to sell something to him, he will enthusiastically shoot you, take it, and blame you for the trouble. Charlie's only soft spot, if he has one, is his loyal affection for his brother.

The Sisters Brothers is about two gunslingers on a job in California. 

You might never guess it by the narrative, which is told by Eli Sisters, but they are the bad guys. They have just received their newest job from the Commodore: track down prospector Hermann Kermit Warm and shoot him dead.

The date is 1851. Oregon City is booming. But their quarry, a small bald-headed man with a wild red beard, is several days away. Warm is planning to set out for his claim, ten miles east of Sacramento.

It's like any number of jobs they've taken up before, except for one small detail. The Commodore has designated Charlie to be the lead man after the last job was botched. Eli takes exception to the new rules, especially the pay rate. But their bickering over how the money might be split isn't the only tell that these two brothers are cut from different cloth.

Eli's head is filled with questions — anything and everything from what Warm did to whether or not Warm will be there in the weeks it will take them to traverse the countryside. Charlie won't entertain much of the nonsense. They were hired to do a job and he doesn't need to know the details.

The trip itself is the bulk of their adventure across an untamed and hostile landscape. There are few romantic notions about what life might have been like in the 1800s. The land was hard and the people were harder, quickly quelling any notion that being a bad guy is a conscious choice. It's a necessity; nothing is safe.

One night you go to sleep under the stars. The next morning your head is swollen from the crown of your skull to the top your shoulder. And for the all the trouble of your tooth infection or or spider bite, all your brother can do for you is laugh and call you half dog — right before tossing a stick to see if you'll chase it.

The people they meet aren't much better than their mutual company. Most of them are losers, cheaters, liars, and killers. The only thing that keeps men alive is their ability to keep their wits and shoot, not necessarily in that order. All the while, it's Eli's boyish charm that takes it all in.

He is just as predisposed to killing as his brother, but he doesn't like it. He keeps his dreams squarely locked on the future when some day he can give it all up, settle down, and live a peaceful life. Doing so also helps the story find its humanity. The Sisters weren't born bad. The place they were born was bad well before they got there.

When they do eventually catch up to Warm after their fair share of misadventures with witches, prospectors, and gangs of frontier criminals, deWitt brings in a hint of steampunk-like magic into the story. Warm might not be the adversary they expected. He simply invented a new way to find gold.

A little bit more about author Patrick deWitt. 

Patrick deWitt was born in 1975 on Vancouver Island, but later moved to California, Washington, and now Oregon. Like many new authors, he didn't cut his teeth in front of a typewriter. He worked as a laborer, clerk, dishwasher, and bartender.

It was the latter experience that inspired his first book, Ablutions, which was named a New York Times Choice book. Shortly after, he wrote Terri, a screenplay about a large 15-year-old boy who struggles to adjust. The film starred John C. Reilly, whose production company has already bought the film rights to The Sisters Brothers.

Interestingly enough, deWitt had the idea to try his hand at refreshing the Western genre after buying a single book from a Time-Life Old West series. According to the National Post, he paid 25 cents for it.

The Sisters Brothers Shoots Out 8.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Patrick deWitt places dirty underground and a surprisingly modern noir spin on the Western genre until it easily appeals to anyone who would never think to read one. It could easily be set in a different time, perhaps threaded with gangsters or post-apocalyptic scavengers without any romanticism. It can be argued the novel casts a Western as modern pop or perhaps more appropriately anti-pop culture.

It's more entertainment than literature, and a rip-roaring good read. You can pick up the The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt from Amazon. You can also find the novel on Barnes & Noble or download it for iBooks. The audio version is read by John Pruden. Any boyish charm, naivety, or wonderment not captured by DeWitt as prose is made minute by minute better by Pruden.

Gregg Allman Has A Cross To Bear

Gregg Allman has lived a full life. But he’s the first to admit that he wouldn’t do it again if given the chance. My Cross To Bear is his autobiography, written with an assist by journalist Alan Light, and it reveals the pain, regrets and joys that the legendary singer/songwriter/organist has experienced throughout his 60+ years.

Allman, who prefers to be called Gregory and not Gregg, recounts his formative years growing up in Tennessee and Florida with his brother Duane (older by 18 months), whom Gregg idolized. While toddlers, the boys’ father, a World War II veteran, was senselessly murdered after stopping to give a ride to a hitchhiker.

As a result, their mother, Gerry, struggled to raise Duane and Gregg on her own and at one point sent the two to military school. Since Gerry worked, the boys spent a lot of time on their own and eventually taught themselves how to play guitar on a Silvertone Gregg had bought. That, it seemed, marked a new beginning.

In high school, Duane dropped out to hone his musical chops and the brothers formed a series of local bands. Eventually, the Allman Brothers Band would propel the brothers into musical history.

The Allman Brothers find their break into the big leagues. 

Like many bands of the era, the brothers indulged in drink, drugs and sex while on the road, particularly Gregg. Some of it is depicted in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (which is mostly based on the band). But Gregg recounts it all as matter of fact. He is unfazed.

Yet, his greatest regret revolves around cocaine. He swiped Duane’s coke and when Duane accused him of taking it, Gregg denied it and Duane apologized. Those were the last words the brothers would ever exchange because Duane died shortly after in a motorcycle crash in Macon. All those magical moments, like the classic Whipping Post played Live At Fillmore East in 1970, were over.




The tragic irony: their third album, Live At Fillmore East, had just achieved gold status but Duane would never get to enjoy the success he rightly earned. Consumed by grief, the band’s bassist Berry Oakley would also spiral into a depression that he could never break.

Gregg wishes he would have done more to help Oakley. But a year later, Oakley was dead too. It happened in a motorcycle crash just miles from the site of Duane’s death in 1971.

Gregg and the band would soldier on but things would never be the same. Rather than a band of “brothers,” they would become the object of a bitter power struggle between Gregg and guitarist Dickey Betts. It caused the band to be torn apart and reunited more than once.

His professional problems and drug addiction only scratched the surface.

Gregg hates to be alone. So it’s no surprise that he would seek out companionship. He’s been married and divorced six times and for the most part doesn’t maintain relationships with any of his exes, save for wife number 3, Cher. Gregg recounts how the two met, fell in love and married, and how his drug abuse was the catalyst that broke them apart.

He and Cher were perhaps the first celebrity couple to send the tabloid media into a veritable frenzy. People magazine all but stalked the couple. And this constant intense media scrutiny also played a factor in the couple’s inevitable divorce. Check out a clip of them performing “Move Me” in 1977 on the Old Gray Whistle Test. Or not. Of their joint album, Gregg unapologetically says “The record sucked, man.”

He also regrets all his recording, cavorting, and touring while his five kids (with various women) were growing up. He was rarely present and wonders if not growing up with his own father made it hard for him to know how to be a dad. Nowadays, though, he is proud of his children and does enjoy relationships with them, especially daughter Island.

Gregg got clean in the 1990s, but years of hard living has taken a toll. He has battled hepatitis C for many years (which he attributes to a dirty tattoo needle) and underwent a liver transplant in 2010. Recently, he had a hernia operation.

My Cross To Bear by Gregg Allman Wails 8.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Although Gregg Allman's life has been marked by phenomenal success and public tragedy, he still soldiers on. Unfortunately, it isn't getting easier. He recently postponed a tour to promote the book due to cardiac testing.

Not one to seek the spotlight, he still retains his white blues wail, belting out songs like Whipping Post and Melissa. Rolling Stone ranked him #70 among the top 100 singers of all time. You can find out why from the book, which is available at Barnes & Noble. My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman is also on Amazon and you can download the book for iBooks. The audiobook is read by Will Patton. If anybody but Allman is going to read it, Patton is the perfect fit for such conversational prose.

Henderson Makes Ten Thousand Saints

In 1981, the American hardcore punk band Minor Threat produced a single 46-second song that became a defining moment for the hardcore punk subculture "straight edge." The song, Straight Edge, was written by Ian MacKaye and still has as much immediacy today at it did 30 years ago.

It is within this emerging subculture in 1988 that Ten Thousand Saints provides the perfect backdrop for the transformative story of Jude Keffy-Horn, a Vermont teenager who had been adopted by a pair of diehard hippies. It's also an unlikely beginning for someone who becomes paired with Johnny, a character who bears a striking resemblance to John Porcelly (Youth of Today) as inspiration, including his ties to Krishna.

Jude's adoptive mother makes glass bongs. His adoptive father has long since traded up the bucolic homestead for New York, where he still makes a living selling "quality" marijuana from his girlfriend's apartment. And his best friend, Teddy McNicholas, eeks out a marginal existence with him as they get high by whatever means are most available.

Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel is about family, rebellion, and a punk subculture. 

The book opens with Jude and Teddy getting high under the stadium seats of a football field on Dec. 31, 1987, in the fictional town of Lintonburg, Vermont. It's Jude's birthday. It's Teddy's last day.

The impact of Teddy's death and what he leaves behind will become the catalyst for Jude to reinvent himself and cement a bond between Eliza (the daughter of Jude's father's girlfriend) and Johnny (Teddy's half-brother). Jude, who initially blames himself for the death of his best friend, will eventually escape to New York City to restart his life with Les. And it is there in New York City that Jude will befriend Johnny and learn Eliza (who was visiting Lintonburg on the night Teddy died) is pregnant.

It is the friendship with Johnny, the guitarist in a hardcore straight edge punk band called Army Of One, that drives the novel forward. The relationship, assuming it is ever more than a mutual substitution, quickly becomes tested after Johnny devises a plan to protect Eliza from having to give up her and his half-brother's baby for adoption.

The coming-of-age story draws a contrast to generational interests and actions.

He intends to marry her, despite Jude's interest in Eliza and another secret that Johnny purposefully keeps from them. If that sounds heavy, expect more heaviness. The book deals also with drugs, deviance, lifestyle choices, sexuality, gentrification, religion, teen pregnancy, and the emerging threat of AIDs. There are enough themes, in fact, that some critics say the abundance of them detract.

I'm not so sure it is too much of a distraction. All of those issues were relative for the times. And although author Eleanor Henderson did not experience the straight edge scene firsthand, she had plenty of close sources to tap, including her husband, guitarist/bassist Aaron Squadrilli. She even includes in the acknowledgements that his story (or perhaps stories) made her fictional story possible. She also cites many other people who were part of the scene for their insights and inspirations.



If anything, the novel can be overtly descriptive in the details (but not to a determinant) and tends to meander along a thin plot made complex with all of aforementioned issues. In other words, it adds depth but also slows the pace of what happens in a single year.

Still, Henderson tackles most of it without trying to glamorize either hippies or the straight edge crowd by letting her characters play out their lives. And that becomes a relevant point in total. All these people are striving to identify with something, and yet none of them is necessarily comfortable with themselves.

If there is a climax, it can be easily described as the Tompkins Square Park riot in 1988, when different groups (drug pushers, homeless people, punk rockers, and skinheads) took over the East Village park in protest over a 1 a.m. curfew imposed by the city. When police charged the protestors, a riot ensued.

Although Ten Thousands Saints is her debut novel, Henderson has also had her fiction appear in Agni, North American Review, Ninth Letter, and Columbia. Her story The Farms was selected for Best American Short Stories 2009. She now teaches as an assistant professor at Ithaca College in New York, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

Ten Thousand Saints By Eleanor Henderson Pins 5.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

If you want a thinking novel that scratches the surface of the straight edge scene in the late 1980s with some real stories woven into the fabric of fiction, this is an excellent choice. Although structured as a linear biopic that drags at times, Henderson still brings an interesting perspective to family and rebellion, one that will be hard to forget.

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson is available on Amazon. You can also order Ten Thousand Saints from Barnes & Noble. On iTunes, the audio version is read by Steven Kaplan, who brings a quiet intelligence to many of the characters, especially Jude. The book is also on iBooks.

Alafair Burke Lifts The Curtain In 212

As a former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, professor of law, and legal commenter, it is no surprise that Alafair Burke can convey authentic dialogue between detectives and prosecutors working on a case. She lived it. She lives it. And she has always had a deep fascination with crime.

Enough so that there is a considerable amount of Burke in the fictional NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher. Burke has said as much. Her husband once mused that only she could take the story of how they met and turn it into a crime novel.

That crime novel, Hatcher's debut, was Dead Connection. It was also Burke's first departure from her Samantha Kincaid series. Since then, Hatcher proved interesting enough to warrant more than a single installment. She has earned her own series, built partly upon Burke's experiences growing up in Wichita, Kansas, and living in New York City.

212 is a near-personal expose into the life of a female detective.

Although 212 is the third book featuring Ellie Hatcher, it is self-contained enough to stand alone. It opens with a homicide at the prestigious address of 212. Hatcher and her senior partner, J.J. Rogan, are tapped to solve it.

Even when 212 introduces New York University sophomore Megan Gunther, there is no mystery. Her roommate was a witness to the 212 murder, even though Gunther doesn't know it. All she knows is that someone has posted her complete schedule to a campus gossip site. They also left a warning. She is being watched.

It's all laid out nicely. Yet, if you expect those graphs to summarize the story, you would be wrong.

Even after Gunther is murdered during an attack on her roommate, neither Hatcher nor partner Rogan immediately connect the dots. Nothing about the cases seem similar. Not even the modus operandi.

The pattern develops only when the detectives follow several clues based on nothing more than Gunther's phone records. Apparently Gunther made the mistake of choosing a Craig's List roommate who also works as a prostitute for an escort service.

And it is this foundation, along with the author's adept ability at leading readers toward the same dead ends, that shines. There are times in the novel that you can almost hear that the fictional stories are drawn from composites of real life. It's the stuff Burke knows as a prosecutor who earned an undergraduate degree in psychology.

Although it sometimes reads as a police procedural, the book also delves deep into the subject of trust and misplaced trust. It not only considers the broken trust of women who enter the illicit and illegal profession, but also the trust between husbands and wives, fathers and sons, employees and employers, detectives and prosecutors, judges and criminals. Maybe the people we think we know aren't who they seem to be.

Lifting the curtain on Alafair Burke.

While anyone can read her accomplished biography, which cites the legendary writer James Lee Burke as her father, it's even more interesting to consider the heavy influence of Alafair Burke on Ellie Hatcher. Her frustration with the legal system, her views on detached reporters, and the choices people make all ring as true perspectives.

But more than that, Burke imbues Hatcher with a hint of romanticism. Even when people are at their worst, Hatcher believes they are good and that love can overcome. It comes across in several places, despite Burke being more comfortable writing case-centric dialogue in such detail it sometimes goes on too long as opposed to more familiar and personal conversations.

The same can be said for other female characters. They are career-minded and relationship stunted. And sometimes it comes across in awkward decisions, observations, and self-reflection. It's almost as if they have so little time to connect with people that they idealize love during those rare moments when they do.

212 by Alafair Burke Catches A 3.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Published last year, 212 is due to be out soon in paperback (Look for City of Lies in the U.K.). Although it is a crime novel, the book isn't very physical. Burke invests much more time into the thinking aspects of the mystery-thriller genre, making the reader like a fly on the wall, one with ESP from time to time. Her new book, Long Gone, is also in the market.

212: A Novel (Ellie Hatcher) by Alafair Burke is available on Amazon and the book can be found at Barnes & Noble. You can also find 212 as an audiobook on iTunes. It is narrated by Eliza Foss, who also read the second Ellie Hatcher book, Angel's Tip. While Foss fits Hatcher, she tends to make some of the female characters weaker than the words suggest they might be. She also struggles with male characters.