Michael A. Draper's Blog, page 38

In a fast moving, noir, crime novel, the action begins wi...

In a fast moving, noir, crime novel, the action begins with a dance hall girl having a romantic meeting with Sir Alex Bolton. Sir Alex is a wealthy politician who might be the next leader of his political party.  Kinky sex occurs and only later do we learn that someone was taking photos in order to blackmail Sir Alex.

Bella is the dancer and her boyfriend is Martin, they take the photos and deliver them to a woman named Mona Chapman, who learned of Sir Alex's perverted sexual ideas by sneaking a look into Margot Peterson's files. Margot is a shrink who Mona was having a sexual encounter with.

In a world dominated by evil people and escaped cons, we learn that Bella's husband. Joey,  just ratted on the two men he robbed a bank with so that he could get out of jail sooner.

Now these men have a grudge against Joey and break out of jail to even a score.

The story reads in a realistic manner and is certainly imaginative and has a unique plot. The setting in the London area is well done and the police officer attempting to put all of this together is Detective Chief Inspector Preston who is a knowledgeable  forceful character and yet has a vulnerable side. It is easy to feel empathy for him and hope he can put all the pieces together.

I had to shake my head at some of the things that went on in the story but still felt that it was worth reading, if dark, sexual packed stories are your taste.

"Four strong winds" song lyrics

Tom Sullivan is about to graduate from Princeton. He has an obsession inherited from his father about the book, "Hyperotomachie Polyphile" which was published in 1499.

Tom and his roommate Paul are both extremely interested in finding the secrets of the book. Tom couldn't understand the effect of the book on everyone who read it.

This is a very analytical book that is advertised as being similar to the "Davinci Code" The book is coded in seven languages and the text is a passionate love story and a mathematical labyrinth.

The authors went to a great deal of work doing the research for this book. However, I found the reading dry and although there was a great deal of work establishing the characters and their personalities, I didn't find them interesting.

Neil Cross is the creator and writer of the BBC crime ser...

Neil Cross is the creator and writer of the BBC crime series, "Luther."

"Luther, The Calling," is the first book in a series that stars no nonsense Deputy Chief Inspector John Luther.

As the story opens, of of Luther's friends on the department has been roughed up by  two thugs who work for a desperate property developer who is on the downside of his career. He needs one more person to sell his home so the developer can  have the area developed. Luther's friend has taken the side of the home-owner, an old sailor living alone.

The central part of this compulsively readable story involves a killer who murders a young husband and wife and steal their infant.

Luther is a workaholic who puts himself so much into the investigation that it's affecting his marriage. His wife sees that he's acting irrationally and not sleeping. She wants him to take time off...but there's always another victim to save.

The characters are described to perfection with Luther being easy to feel empathy for and hope he can solve the case and save his marriage. The antagonist is a sociopath who doesn't care what the effect of his crimes on others. Seeing him in action would make most readers check the locks on their doors.

The plotting is clever and this is an extremely enjoyable read.

"Swannie, how I love ya" song lyrics.

Henry Swann is a skip tracer which would mean he finds people who have jumped their bail.

A wealthy attorney hires him to find his rebellious daughter who he hasn't seen or heard from. She's living someplace with her boyfriend. The attorney believes that the boyfriend is of questionable motives and is after the attorney's daughter's money.

Swann decides to take the case and becomes more and more suspicious of the boyfriend as Swann finds of the boyfriend's activities as a graduate student. He seems like a very clever, thief and makes profits by selling well done imitations of classic books.

I enjoyed the story and found Swann to be refreshing as a character but found significant resemblance in the plot to "Gone," by Randy Wayne White.

In "Gone" a fishing guide who learned detecting from her uncle, is hired by a wealthy man to find the man's daughter who is with her boyfriend who the client feels is unscrupulous and dangerous. Although the daughter  cashed a monthly check, the client hasn't seen or heard from her.

In "Swann Dives In" the skip tracer is asked by a wealthy attorney to find the man's daughter who is with her boyfriend who is after her money and the client hasn't seen or heard from her.

There was excellent parts of the "Swann Dives In" novel" that goes into book collecting and this was very interesting but I thought the plot too similar to "Gone" to catch my interest.

For a photo, she would do anything

Photographer Cassie Cassidy goes to a rendezvous where she hopes to get photos of American Indians in action.

Unfortunately, she meets a reporter who gets into an argument with her. Cass had proven that a photo used by the reporter had been doctored.

Soon after, Cass comes upon the body of a man killed with a tommy hawk.

When she gives her statement to the deputy sheriff, she can tell by the man's aggressive behavior that he sees her as a suspect in the murder.

The writing is colorful as we learn of Indian traditions and the realism that re-enactors feel about the rendezvous and their outfits.

Cass has few friends who take her side and we follow her attempt to prove her innocence.

The setting is picturesque and I compliment the author on an original story filled with historical images. In addition, the author gives a good example of a female character, in a male dominated society, bravely fighting to prove she isn't a killer.

I enjoyed reading this story and hope that it serves to give the author a wider following.

Death mirrors art

                                                 GIVEAWAY


Sometimes it's obvious that the author is having fun with a particular story. Such is the case with "The Death Dealer" by Heather Graham.

The Ravens are members of a society dedicated to reading and studying the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

When one member of the society is murdered and another survives a serious auto accident, Genevieve O'Brien asks her friend, P.I. Joe Connolly to investigate.

Genevieve knows about horror and killing since she survived being held prisoner by a crazed killer.

The newspapers refer to the case as the Poe Killings and Genevieve fears that her mother could be the next victim.

To add fun to the story, the author uses phrases and titles of Poe's works as she takes us through the story. In one scene, a psychic tells of imagining a man who caused the auto accident and concludes her statement to the police. A word came to her, "Nevermore."

Joe works on the case and also gets help from a number of people who had died, including his cousin and his cousin's fiance.

The story is a quick read and doubly entertaining due to the author's play on words, telling a story that mirrors Poe's story and weaving together interesting characters.

There isn't much suspense but the story is well written and worth reading.


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Thanks

"Night Blind" by Michael W. Sherer

Bravo!  I loved this book.

This excellent story begins with enough information to solidly grab the reader's attention. Then, the tension grows with the exquisitely developed plot with interesting characters acting in ways that make the reader want to learn more.

The story opens in France where a French rogue agent knows it's time to leave the country. He wants to go someplace where he is unknown and make a big score.

In Seattle, Blake Saunders was a public affairs official but lost his job and family after a financial scandal. He's haunted by the suicide of his son and subsides by delivering newspapers.

Normally, a person would be crushed by the magnitude of his misfortune. In Blake's case, it seems to have given him more empathy for others. His part of the story begins with him talking a woman from taking her life by jumping from a bridge.

The last stop on his newspaper delivery route is an elderly woman. Blake often stops in and has tea with this woman, who seems lonely.  This night, she is murdered and the killer attempts to set Blake up.

There is a side story of a bequest to an order of nuns and mineral rights to a piece of land. Seattle is now building a tunnel and there is a connection to what is under the land that is owned by the sisterhood.

The author has a gift for pacing as action moves at a rapid pace, followed by segments of needed background.

Readers looking for an excellent story and well written literature will be rewarded with this edge of seat thriller.

Bill Kaiser is a man motivated by social justice. He also...

Bill Kaiser is a man motivated by social justice. He also possesses a unique set of skills from computer knowledge to chemistry and explosives.

Bill has a particular love for the historic Carnegie-Hayden Center in New York. This was one of his favorite places when he was a boy and his mother would tell him that this was a building that was meant for the people. However, now there is a chance that the building might be turned into one of the first nor profit prisons.

When Bill breaks into a building housing influential people, he's caught and brought to a psych hospital where he meets Sharon Blautner, a psychiatric nurse who is assigned to evaluate him.

Sharon works with Bill and when he's removed to a police psychiatric unit, she unwittingly helps him escape.

Edward Mackinnon is the corrupt exec of the company that wants 'for profit' prisons. He earns Bills's resentment for this and for his past actions against Sharon's father who was a business partner.

This is a finely crafted story with sympathetic characters, good pacing and excellent descriptions of old New York and the building of the Carnegie-Hayden Building.

I was drawn to the characters of Bill and Sharon and became more and more absorbed with the story as it played out.

Blades of Winter is a novel in the style of comic book he...

Blades of Winter is a novel in the style of comic book heroes with super powers and tells of an alternate history of the U.S. with China, Germany and the Soviet Union the main enemies.

Alix Nico is a field agent. Field name is Scarlet, she is age 19 and a rising star in ExOps, an organization for the defense of the U.S.

She's given a promotion and assignment to try to find what happened to her father a number of years ago. He was a leading agent and thought of being killed but now there is evidence he may be alive. With the cloning program of Germany, officials can't be sure.

Advertised as a cat and mouse chase Alis tries to find answers to her father's disappearance and learn what our enemies are up to.

The story is well written. As science fiction, the reader must suspense their view of reality. Alix possesses such super powers as being able to dodge bullies and punch holes in the roofs of cars. She likes nothing more than kicking some butt.

I enjoyed the story for an easy read and going outside my normal area of reading interest.

Death be not proud

A quick read concerning a body found in a Florida nature area.

Police ask the media to help because they aren't sure if it's homicide or a killing by a non-human, a Florida panther.

Emotions run high as sentiments differ TV reporter, Matt Barnes, who conducts his own investigation in this story.

He has a relationship with a girl nickanmed Cat. Is this a play on words with the story about the panther? Cat seems to manipulate Matt who shows a lack of being able to stand up to a number of people in the story-lowering my opinion of him as a strong character.

I found the story to be predictible. I would hope that in future work, the author would have more develped characters.

I do credit the author with presenting a story about an animal that is endangered.