Michael A. Draper's Blog, page 43

"Grids do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in relation to their content." Linda Van Derusen

The mother-daughter writing team of P.J. Tracy brings us the latest installment of Grace MacBride and Monkeewrench Software.

Grace was attracted to the idea of going sailing with her friend, retired FBI agent John Smith. Grace is a partner in Monkeewrench Software and John has used their software so they became friends. However, she didn't anticipate being awakened by someone sneaking onto John's boat.

She grabbed her Sig Sauer and observed one of the intruders have a knife to John's throat and was about to kill him. After Grace killed the two invaders, she and John discover a photo of John in one of them men's belongings and realize that it wasn't a chance robbery. This was an assassination attempt.

Looking for answers, John admits to Grace that he was using the Monkeewrench software to monitor terrorist communications.

We follow the story as five young Native American girls are kidnapped by Somali gangs with the purpose of selling them as sex slaves. In this revelation, we also learn that there are antagonistic feelings between the Native Americans and Somali residents around the Minneapolis dockside.

There is quite a bit of patriotism in this story and through John's efforts it is learned that there is a massive terrorist plan to strike at different United States locations to have a major effect on the United States morale.

In the taut chaser to the finish, the Somalia's have place a Jihad on John and a large group of them chase John and the Monkeewrench employees to an American Indian reservation.

This is a successful thriller and the characters are unique and memorable. I had difficulty with the plot and felt that the ending was a bit too fortuitous.

The sub-plot of kidnapping the American Indian girls to be sold into sex slavery was a good message for the authors to bring out and made the American Indians more empathetic. I wish there was more detail about this part of the story.

Overall 3 1/2 stars moving to 4 for an action packed story that was exciting to read.

"There's a place for us...somewhere" Song lyrics

This story begins in 1963.  In the normally quiet English countryside, a police constable gets a call from a frantic mother announcing that her thirteen-year-old daughter is missing and asking for help.

Since there have been two other young people gone missing recently, police don't waste any time in getting a search party together.

Alison Carter lived with her mother and step-father in a small hamlet of Scardale, England where the population was made up of only about three families who were very closely bound.

The investigation, led by Detective Inspector George Bennett, is very thorough but stalls until one of the old time residents remembers an old mine. At that scene, items are discovered but still no body. The evidence points to one person and officials must decide if there is sufficient evidence to arrest that person for murder.

The setting of the small hamlet is well described. We witness the confidence of the members that the girl will be found and then the gradual realization that she can't be found. The residents have difficulty that anyone would come to harm in their community would be guilty of a crime like this, in particular to an innocent teenage girl.

Then the story moves to 1998 when Det. Inspector Bennett is retired. His son meets a young woman who wants to return to Scardale and write about the crime. New events come to life that will shock the reader.

Val McDermid is a superb entertainer. The plotting is masterful, the characters believable and this excellent book deserves the many allocates it received when it was published.

"Discretion is the better part of valor." Shakespeare

When I received the thriller, "Discretion," for review, I was unsure of what to expect.

I was optimistic when I noted that the "Providence Journal hailed the author as the "female John Grisham." My anticipation was justly rewarded as I began this compulsively engaging story with many layers.

Consider the thrill of a young woman entering the U.S. Capital for an important appointment. Then, try to imagine what must have transpired in the few moments after she arrived at a U.S. Congressman's office and her falling to death from the balcony.

Assistant U.S. attorney Anna Curtis arrives at the scene and contemplates the difficulties she will have investigating a U.S. Congressman and information in his office.

Not only must she have a judge permit investigators to have access to the legislative office but she must put a hold on a relationship with a leading homicide investigator. The Congressman is undergoing a re-election campaign and his opponent is said to favor making an appointment which would affect Anna's lover. She must look at the whole picture and ask her lover to step away because of the fear of being inappropriate.

There is also a strong message in the story about the escort business and the effects on women's lives.
Anna was shocked when she found that the woman who fell from the Congressman's office was one of Washington's top escorts. This might make the reader think of the woman as just a glorified call girl while in fact, she was a good person, kind to her roommate and paying her own way through Georgetown University.

At the other realm of the escort business, there is a character who develops a dependency on drugs and it almost destroys her.

The pacing and dialogue are to perfection as the author has been a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. for 12 years.

All totaled, this is a heck of a read, don't miss it.

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead." Oscar Wilde

I picked up this novel that had been on my shelf for ages and found it to be entertaining, just the kind of book that the mystery fan might enjoy reading during vacation.

Desmond Winter's wife, Connie,  has been missing for six years. She left a note that she was leaving for a while but would be back and to give her time.

He wants to honor that but he recently had an issue with his heart and Connie is the beneficiary of his estate. If he died and she was missing, it would leave his two children in a complicated legal position.

Brady Coyne had made inquiries into Connie's disappearance without success. Now he's called again because someone killed Des's son, Marcus's wife, Maggie. Marcus had spent time in jail for drugs and he assumes he'll be a suspect.

Brady tries to help his friend and find what happened.  However, the local police are aloof from any interference by Brady. Marc isn't much help. He's eccentric and doesn't let anything bother him. He tells Brady that he and his wife had an agreement that they could each do their own thing and on the night she was killed, Marc was with a married woman but doesn't want to tell the police because the woman's husband is abusive.

The setting is New England. The town Newburyport, sounds like Newport and has a vacation view with summer tourists and boat docks. Brady is an enjoyable character, as an attorney, he keeps a store of alcohol at his desk so he can enjoy a drink when he wants, he's also a fishing fan and likes to trade jokes with his buddies.  However, he is like a bulldog and keeps looking for answers until he finds them.

William G. Tapply does a credible job in making the novel realistic and there are a number of surprises that add to the enjoyment of this novel.

"An idea like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it explains itself." Charles Dickens

Fr. John O'Malley, a Jesuit priest, formerly from Boston, is pastor at St. Francis Mission in Wyoming. This had been the parish and school for the Arapaho Indian Tribe.

He's on his way to a meeting with the bishop's representative when his car breaks down. When he begins walking, he finds a body partly hidden in the snow.

After calling the police, officials return to the location where the body was found but the body had been removed.

Soon after, Fr. John is informed that St. Francis Mission will close and a community center will be built in its place. He's told that the Arapahos have requested that they build the center on the site of St. Francis.

The setting is the Wind River Indian Reservation with unemployment, people who have endured lifetimes filled with alcohol and drugs and a spirituality that binds the people together.

Fr. John is an enjoyable character and, once again, Margaret Cole has done a good job in describing life on the Indian reservation. There is a well done reference to those who consider themselves enlightened and want the riches and employment opportunities of a casino built on Indian land. However, there are also the elders who want to continue the Indian traditions.

This is a well written, smoothly plotted mystery with excellent insights into the American Indian way of life. Seeing Fr. John meet the challenges of being a pastor in this setting is an interesting bonus.

"Blue on blue, heartake on heartacke." Song lyrics

In the politically connected Los Angeles Police Department, a retired cop who had a good reputation is murdered. Since the man's father was a retired captain on the force, the assistant chief wants Lt. Frank Duffy to put his best homicide detective on the case.

Duffy tells him that his best man, Ash Levine, quit a year ago after a dispute when one of his witnesses was killed.

He's told to get Levine back and assign him to the case as the primary investigator.

Ash had been itchy to get back on the job. The old case where his witness was murdered, still bothers him and he wants to resolve the retired cop's killing so he could work on his former investigation.

The author, Miles Corwin, has developed a very strong character in Levine. The character enjoys Chinese culture and food, has the proper dinner with his mother on Friday nights and is a man of strong principles.

When Levine was age nineteen, he wanted to do something for his family heritage. He notes that he grew up in a home where he imagined listening to the screams of dozens of relatives killed by the Nazie's. As a result, he goes to Israel and joins the Israeli Defense Forces.

The enjoyable story has him moving back to his job as if he never left. Duffy even saved his old badge.

There is a good description of the welcome he gets or doesn't get from various members of the LAPD. He does things on his own, not knowing who to trust. He also backs up his words with a strong work ethic. In short, if there was a case the reader wanted to see solved, this is the kind of cop they would want to have working the case.

"It's better to play than do nothing." Confucus

Callie Roberts lives on the same street in a London suburb as her friend, Suzy.

Both women have young children and share childcare duties. Callie's daughter, Rae, age five, has a heart condition and can't exert herself.

Callie is a single mom who is unemployed at the start of the story. The other women in the neighborhood seem cold toward her and don't include Rae in any of their children's functions.

Suzy's husband has a good job and Suzy often treats Callie to outings in London or has her over for dinner.

When Callie's former boss offers her her old job back, she's overjoyed but hesitates to tell Suzy for fear that it might effect their friendship.

Then, a new neighbor moves in, Debs Ridwell. She's a bit older and there's something in her past that she worries about. She gets a job at Rae's school as an art teacher.

The author does a commendable job in describing these women and the nuances of their daily lives. They live lives where love and emotions are somewhat lacking and all of them seem unsecure in some way.

We can see and empathize the feelings of little Rae who wants nothing more than to be included with the other children and feel the heartake for Callie when this doesn't happen.

When Callie begins her job and has to rely on others to care for Rae after school, there is a premonition of some catastrophe that is to follow.  It's as if Janet Leigh was going into the shower at the motel in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, the reader wants to shout some warning.

I enjoyed the story and learning about these women. They were portrayed in a realistic manner that made the story interesting to read.

The greatest day of your life is when you take total responsibility for your actions." John Maxwell

In a timely novel with major companies going public, "Total Control" discusses the world of finances and corporate espionage.

Jeffrey Archer is a highly regarded employe of Triton Global where his wife, Sidney,is a legal counsel. He's secretly looking for another job and books a flight to California.

Before the plane left, Jeff switches flights and goes to Seattle.

The plane that he was to take crashes, killing everyone aboard, includng Arthur Liberman, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

As the FBI is called in to determine if the cause of the crash was sabotage, Jeff's wife, Sidney comes under investigation.

Triton is a high tech company in the final step of bidding for CybeCom, which will bring the company great wealth. However, another high-tech company, RTG is alos in the bidding. They want to learn what Triton's bid is so they can beat it.

When it is discovered that Jeff wasn't on the plae that crashed, he comes under more and more suspicion. He's not available to defend himself and Sidney comes under more and more scrutiny. It seems that most of her fellow employees have their eye on how much money they can make for themselves in this mega deal.

When the FBI interviews members of the Federal Reserve, it adds to the authenticity of the story. Sidney seems to have only one person who thinks she isn't guilty and will that be enoughcompared to those who want to prevent certain information from going public?

Good characters and a complex plot that entertained throughout.

"The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously." Samuel Butler

                                                       Giveaway

Robert Dugoni deals with the sensitive subjects of rebellious teenagers, parental relationships and the hold that drugs can have on a young person's life.

After a session at the local courthouse, Jake Carter is scheduled to attend a substance abuse program. His step-father, successful attorney David Sloane, doesn't know how to reach Jake who has been impossible since his mother died.

David's friend, Tom Molia, suggests Dave and Jake join him and his fourteen-year-old son, T.J. on a hiking and fishing vacation. David thinks that this might be a good way to keep Jake out of jail.

They rent a room in Truluck, California. The first night, Jake and T.J. get caught after breaking into a local store and stealing liquor and a gun.

The boys are caught and given a quick trial and sentenced to the Fresh Start Youth Training Facility.

The town is owned by Victor Dillon and there seems that there is nothing the two lawmen can do to rescue their boys. The judge is like a character from the old west who controls the town. The police department is hired locally and is equally as uncooperative.  The training program might be a good idea in general but the more the men find out about it, the more it sounds like a place were the guards are sadistic and abusive.

The suspense mounts causing the reader to become totally involved in the story. We feel for the fathers and wonder what could be done by the two men who are against an entire town. Sloane is the kind of parent many of us wish we could be. He wants to protect his troubled step-son but how will he be able to succeed?

Dugoni is a professional story teller and this smoothly plotted mystery is a joy to read.

Well done and highly recommended.

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"darkness cannot drown out darkness...only light can. Hate cannot drown out hate, only love can." Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Aberdeen, Scotland, when one of the police officers working under  Det. Logan MacRae is critically shot in a botched raid. MacRae is assigned to the 'Screw Up Squad.' He had success in past cases and has been praised in the media for it. However, one chief inspector has taken a dislike to him and will do anything to ruin MacRae's career.

MacRae is assigned to work under Det. Inspector Steele, a wise cracking, heavy smoking woman who must have some information about the chief inspector because she doesn't take any criticism from him. Now Steele and Logan work together and their top priority is apprehending the person who is killing prostitutes.

There is another supervisor who Logan is helping in hope of being reassigned. The main case that this supervisor is working on involves a series of arson fires resulting in deaths.

As a character, Logan has compassion for the prostitutes and tries to help them. In particular, he's moved by a young Lithuanian girl named Kylie.

The novel succeeds with excellent dialogue, a humorous banter that is necessary for police authorities to relieve the horror of what they have to deal with, burned bodies and dismembered corpses.

I enjoyed reading about MacRae, he's a good protagonist who isn't perfect. He's somewhat rambunctious and, at times,  acts without realizing the implications of his actions. Yet, he's respected by the officers who work under his command and he's a successful criminal investigator - a regular cop who hates the politics that accompany his job.

An entertaining read.