Lakis Fourouklas's Blog, page 23

New Bites: The Zenith by Duong Thu Huong

A major new novel from the most important Vietnamese author writing today.



Duong Thu Huong's The Zenith is her fifth novel to be published in America. It is an ambitious, powerful, multilayered book that juxtaposes three stories:  the story before and during the Vietnam War of the life and rise to power of Chairman Ho Chi Minh and his comrades at arms; the story of an elder in a small Vietnamese village town who dominates his village only to find that his own sons covet his fortune; and the story of the Chairman's wife's brother-in-law.



The Zenith is one of the most important novels written yet about the Vietnam War. In using fiction to tell the story of the War, Huong illuminates and captures the moral conscience of the Vietnamese leaders more brilliantly and more precisely than any journalist or academic historian has done to date.  She brings out into the open the darkness at the core of Vietnamese Communism and brings out the soul of the Vietnamese themselves

Book Review: The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen is the second in the Danish “Department Q” cold case mystery series (available August 21, 2012).

 



Detective Carl Mørck is satisfied with the notion of
picking up long-cold leads as head of Department Q, Denmark’s cold case
squad. So he’s naturally intrigued when a closed case lands on his desk:
A brother and sister were brutally murdered two decades earlier, and
one of the suspects -part of a group of privileged boarding-school
students- confessed and was convicted.





The question at first, of course, is who was it that placed the case
file on his desk, and then the why follows. But do these questions
really matter? The case is closed, so why bother? Unless, and that’s
exactly when things start to get interesting, there was more than one
 man involved in the case, and the man who took the blame was paid to do
so.





Mørck, truth be told, is not so eager to investigate this case. Not too
long ago he found himself in the epicenter of a painful investigation
that brought his Department Q some fame, and just before that he was
involved in an incident during which one of his partners was killed,
while another one came out of the ordeal almost completely paralyzed. He
carries, one would dare say, a lot of dead weight on his shoulders, and
what he doesn’t really need right now is add to it by working on a case
like this.



Continue at Criminal Element

New Bites: Close Your Eyes by Amanda Eyre Ward

For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer. Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes and seemingly perfect families. But one morning, eight-year-old Lauren and her older brother awoke to discover their mother's body and their beloved father arrested for the murder.

Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Startling revelations force her to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, put aside the version of history that she has clung to so fiercely, and search for the truth of what really happened that fateful night long ago.



This novel comes out today in a paperback edition. It is already available as a hardback and an eBook.

 
Amanda Eyre Ward is the award-winning author of Forgive Me, How to Be Lost and Sleep Toward Heaven. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.

Book Review: A Bloody Storm by Richard Castle

A Bloody Storm, the third and final installment in this series is just as action-packed and well-written as the previous ones.

It all begins in Oxford, England, when Derrick Storm and FBI agent April Showers escape barely alive after a car chase and a confrontation, with a man and a woman, who were supposed to be the faithful friends and allies of oligarch Ivan Petrov, but who were actually under the payroll of Russian president Barkovsky.

Storm checks Showers, who’s injured into a hospital, before heading straight back to Washington to meet his ex -and now temporary- boss, Jedidiah Jones, director of the National Clandestine Service. There he finds out that he’s not to remain in the city for long, since he needs to find the 60 billions’ worth of gold, that all the fuss was all about, before it falls into the hands of Barkovsky. For this reason he needs to oversee a team consisting of another “dead” agent called Casper, a Russian geologist that goes by the name of Oscar, and Dilya, an Uzbekistani woman and CIA asset.

In the meantime Showers, though wounded, has not yet left all her trouble behind, since as she’s driven towards a military base from which she’s supposed to fly to the U.S. she’s abducted by the Russians.

From the very beginning until the very end of this story, all the protagonists seem to be playing a game of cat and mouse with each other. Everyone is suspicious of everyone else, nothing is for granted, and there’s definitely a traitor on the loose, whose identity we’ll only come to find out just before the end.

But the surprises don’t stop there. Castle likes to keep the reader guessing and he does that very well. The pace is fast, the twists and turns plentiful and there’s some romance lurking in the shadows as well.

I would say that, in the end, these three volumes make a very good, though kind of short novel, which will undoubtedly leave his fans satisfied.


Reviews of the two previous volumes:



A Brewing Storm

A Raging Storm

Maria Polidouri - And Among You…

And among you now am I, without a purpose, resigned,

Weak. Badly I was fooled and I was robbed even

Of my thoughts; my passions I sing and I remain

With a phantom in my gaze and a desire on the lips.




In love; my little heart is overwhelmed with the portion

That they gave me as I lay in sleep and but a girl.

This reminiscence I relive as a dead man fills

With coquettishness a tiny corner of my being.




© For the translation: Lakis Fourouklas





Image taken from here

Comics Review: Batula by Steven T. Seagle and Marco Cinello

“What happens when a fruit bat gets bitten by a vampire? He’s transformed into the vampire bat hero his colony might need the most… Batula.”

Batula is a short illustrated story for young readers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it cannot be enjoyed just as much by older children, like me. I wouldn’t say that this is a graphic novel but rather a fairytale of sorts.

The main protagonist is Livingston, who not just because of his name reminds us of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, since like his predecessor is a man, or rather a bat, that looks for something else in his life, who tries to make something better of his self.

Livingston lives in an orchard with the rest of his tribe and if he stands out for something is that he doesn’t stand out for anything. Bart is the one who says the funniest stories; Auggie is the best at hanging upside-down; and Drina, oh Drina, is the bat of his dreams; a bat that pays no attention to him whatsoever.

So, what is a bat to do? Well, ignoring the wise advice of others, he decides to fly to the city of men. Once there the first person he encounters is a bat in captivity. What an unusual fellow that is; he’s never seen anyone like him. The latter, that goes by the name of Vlad, urges him to open the cage and set him free, and he obeys. What does he get in exchange? The bite that will turn him into a vampire.

Livingston, who will soon return to the orchard, will start little by little changing. He’ll get stronger and a little more confident, but at the same time he’ll stop enjoying the most precious of gifts, the fruits, and will crave for meat instead. He feels that he’s becoming something that he doesn’t like, and even though he at last catches the eye of Drina, he decides that it will be better if he leaves again.

So, off he goes. This journey though will prove different from the first one, since during it he will meet Wulf, the werewolf spider, who will help him accept his new reality and make him see how he can use his newfound powers for the purpose of good. And sooner rather than later something will happen that will make him realize that once you start to like who you are, the others will like you too.

A short and beautifully written and illustrated story that has something to say to the reader; and that it does, in a graceful manner.

Book Review: John Doe by Tess Gerritsen

John Doe is an eBook short. It tells the story about how Dr. Maura Isles came to be the prime suspect in a murder investigation.

It all begins a beautiful night in Boston when Dr. Isles attends a cocktail party at the Museum of Science. She doesn’t really want to be there, but since she’s in the museum’s committee and the event is a benefit, she has no choice.

She’s bored at first but things seem to get better when she’s approached by a handsome man called Eli Kilgour, who also happens to be a generous donor. Soon enough they start talking and flirting and one thing leads to another and then, nothing.

Maura wakes up the next day in her living room having a really bad headache and feeling dizzy, but unable to recall what really happened the night before. Her last memory is that of having a drink with Kilgour. How did she get home? Did they make love? And, what the hell is going on?

The last question is what this story is all about. What happened between her leaving the party and waking up this morning? Well, maybe Jane Rizzoli has the answers, as she shows up at her door just to let her know that the body of an unidentified man has been found in a park, and in whose pocket they have found one of her professional cards.

Jane will show the shocked Maura a picture of the victim who will turn out to be Eli Kilgour. He’s been stabbed several times and apart from Dr. Isles no one else seems to have been in contact with him.

Did she kill him? She can’t recall. Her lapses of memory can only mean one thing, that she’s been drugged. But when did that happen? And why? Is someone trying to frame her for murder?

Maura trusts Jane and her partners but she can’t sit still and let them do all the work, because she simply has to know the truth. As time goes by though things become more complicated. As it turns out the man was not who he was pretending to be, and her case is in some way connected with some others that took place in the past.

There’s a puzzle to be solved and the pieces, sooner or later, will come one after the other together. And the end will arrive with a bang. Great plot and beautiful storytelling.

New Bites: Books by Nathan L. Yocum, Sandra Brannan, Vaddey Ratner, Kate Williams and Michael Koryta

Automatic Woman by Nathan L. Yocum 



There are no simple cases. Jacob “Jolly” Fellows knows this.

The London of 1888, the London of steam engines, Victorian intrigue, and horseless carriages, is not a safe place nor a simple place… but it’s his place. Jolly is a thief catcher, a door-crashing thug for the prestigious Bow Street Firm, assigned to track down a life sized automatic ballerina. But when theft turns to murder and murder turns to conspiracy, can Jolly keep his head above water? Can a thief catcher catch a killer?

Automatic Woman is the second novel from award winning screenwriter Nathan L. Yocum. A volatile mix of steampunk, noir, historical fiction, and two-fisted action, Automatic Woman takes us to a place that never was yet we all know so well… the London of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack the Ripper and Bram Stoker with a pneumatic twist. It came out yesterday.



Widow’s Might by Sandra Brannan 



With a mind for crime solving and headstrong about protecting her family –
Liv Bergen finds herself trailing a vengeful killer with a crooked sense of justice

The third Liv Bergen mystery picks up right where the second one left off: the murder of Liv’s future sister-in-law has been solved, but an older rancher has been bludgeoned to death in a style eerily reminiscent of a long-inactive killer known only as the Crooked Man. FBI agent Streeter Pierce, still on assignment in Sturgis, South Dakota, must now turn his sights on tracking down the killer—his nemesis from ten years earlier. Pierce doesn’t complain, though; he’s falling in love with Liv and sets in motion an unconventional plan to recruit her for the FBI’s training camp in Quantico as they work the case together. But is Liv falling for the brilliant, exotic agent Jack Linwood instead?

Once again, Liv’s vast knowledge of the Black Hills of South Dakota—territory made famous by the gold rush that followed General George Custer’s expedition—and the novel folk who live there leads her to unearth critical clues about the Crooked Man. But are facts enough to safeguard Liv’s sister Elizabeth and her friend, an elderly woman battling cancer who was attacked just days after her husband was murdered? Will the frail yet feisty widow recover her strength in time to help Liv thwart the Crooked Man’s murderous plans and fatal blows?



In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner



For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.
Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood—the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.

Vaddey Ratner was five years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. In 1981 she arrived in the United States as a refugee not knowing English and ultimately went on to graduate from Cornell University. She lives in Potomac, Maryland.



The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams 



July, 1840: The young Queen Victoria has just entered her second year on the throne when a major recession brings London’s underbelly to its sweltering streets. While the city crackles with tension, orphaned Catherine Sorgeiul stays locked away in her uncle’s home, a peculiar place where death masks adorn the walls and certain rooms are strictly forbidden. Nineteen years old and nervous of life, Catherine becomes obsessed with a series of terrible murders of young girls sweeping the city. Details of the crimes are especially gruesome—the victims’ hair has been newly plaited and thrust into their mouths, and their limbs are grotesquely folded behind them, like wounded birds—and the serial killer is soon nicknamed the Man of Crows.

Catherine begins writing stories about the victims—women on their own and vulnerable in the big city—and gradually the story of the murderer as well. But she soon realizes that she has involved herself in a web of betrayal, deceit, and terror that threatens her and all those around her.



The Prophet by Michael Koryta 



Two brothers in a small Midwestern town: one the high school's beloved football coach on the verge of a state championship, one scraping by as a bail bondsman. Their sister was abducted and murdered when they were teenagers, and they've been divided since that day. Now a new killing with ties to each of them has forced a painful and adversarial reunion. In a masterful return to mystery fiction, Michael Koryta has written a deeply haunting and suspenseful novel that proves why Dean Koontz has said, "He's now on my must-read list."
Michael Koryta is the author of seven previous novels, including Envy the Night, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best mystery/thriller, and the Lincoln Perry series, which has earned nominations for the Edgar, Shamus, and Quill awards and won the Great Lakes Book Award. His work has been translated into twenty languages. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, Koryta lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Graphic Novel Review: Dragon Age: The Silent Grove by David Gaider, Alexander Freed and Chad Hardin

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove that comes out today is one of those graphic novels that take the reader on a long but beautiful journey into the not so bright worlds of the creators’ imagination.



In this dark tale one can find just about everything, apart from romance, but maybe that’s to come in a future volume.



This is the story of King Alistair, an unwilling King, and his quest to discover the whereabouts of his missing father, King Maric. Alistair never wanted to be a king, he wasn’t supposed to be one either and he: “never asked for an easy life – fruit every morning, servants cleaning my feet, bedclothes free from crawling things.  I certainly wasn’t raised to expect it.”



Why not? Because his mother was nothing but a servant. As for the rightful heir to the throne, King Cailan, he died a decade ago. But can a reluctant king be a good king? Well, perhaps he can, since for the past few years his homeland, the nation of Fereldin had known an unprecedented period of stability and prosperity. That, however, was not enough to make Alistair happy.



And now, for the first time in years, he may at last have a chance to set things straight, for one and for all, as he receives some information about his father. In order to find out more he has to travel to the northern port city of Antiva. Instead of ordering an army to follow in his footsteps, or take along some faithful soldiers, he decides to hire a ferocious and beautiful woman that goes by the name Isabela, who’s a pirate, and her traveling companion, the dwarf Varric Tethras, to accompany him.



Antiva though is not going to be their final destination, since once there they receive yet another piece of info, by Prince Claudio Valisti, a man with an agenda, that will first lead them to Velabanchel prison and then forwards to the Silent Grove, an enchanted place, where they are destined to meet Yavana, the Witch of the Wilds, and confront their worst foes and fears.



During the long journey the authors and the illustrator, do a great job in describing to the reader how Alistair, the center of this special universe, feels at any given moment, and what one sees is a sad man. What can he do to get over his melancholia? Is it possible for him to embrace his destiny? Can he depend on anyone else but himself? And can he remain true to his purpose from beginning to end?



This is a story of quite a few twists and turns that keep it going unperturbed from the first page to the very last. The passions of the protagonists come alive on the page, through wonderful words and beautifully drawn images, which make us empathize with them. And if there’s a message in here it’s this one: people can sometimes pleasantly surprise you, as they, for better or for worse, surprise Alistair.



If you love fantasy you will love this graphic novel.

Book Review: The Crime of Julian Wells by Thomas H. Cook

The Crime of Julian Wells by Thomas H. Cook is a
mystery and a novel of psychological suspense in which the layers of a
man’s life are peeled away to reveal a surprising secret (available
August 7, 2012).

 


When the body of famed true-crime writer Julian Wells is found in a
boat drifting on a Montauk pond, the question isn’t how he died, but
why. The death looks like an obvious suicide, but why would Wells take
his own life? And was this his only crime?



“There’s no more haunting story than that of an unsolved crime,” Julian
had once written, and now Philip, the friend who thought so highly and
yes, even a little bit jealously, of him needs to find out for himself
the reason he took his own life.



Continue at Criminal Element