The Governor's Wife by Mark Gimenez

Dying is a way of life on the border.

And if her true identity ever became known, she'd be dead before the sun again rose over the Rio Grande. But here in the colonias on the outskirts of Laredo, she was just the Angelo nurse who made house calls. Not that the residences qualified as houses. They were just shanties constructed of scrap material--plywood, sheet metal, cardboard, even discarded garage door--but they provided shelter from the hot sun if not the dry wind that blew in from the Chihuahuan Desert. It was early September, but it was still summer on the border. It was always summer on the border. 

The Governor's Wife by Mark Gimenez

Bode Bonner, the Governor of Texas is bored with life. He wants excitement. He aspires to become the President of US. His wife wants something more than just being the Governor's wife. She leaves him and secretly becomes a nurse in the border helping a doctor who was born in the colonia but educated in Harvard. The same border that touches Mexico. A Mexican drug lord wants Bode killed because he thinks Bode is responsible for the death of his wife. He hires killers but Bode escapes each time. He kidnaps the Governor's wife......

The novel is heavily political in the initial chapters. It speaks of illegal Mexicans. And much more. It is a good thriller. Bode might be a womanizer but he is in love with his wife. So he has to go and rescue her. He goes all alone heavily loaded with ammunition. The good doctor offers to help. Then we meet another character who to is out there to protect Bode.

The novel is fast paced, has lot of wit and totally enjoyable in the last half. I couldn't put it down. 

The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

"But what about....." I saw Savannah give a little nod in my direction.
"collateral damage, " Roy said a hushed voice, but I didn't miss it.
~~~Page 304

Title: The Good Father
Author: Diane Chamberlain
ISBN:9780778313465
Publisher: Mira/2012
Pages: 368

Travis Brown, at 23 has a 4 year old daughter Bella. He took a decision to raise her all by himself and does it very well. There may be shortage of cash flow but there is no compromise on love. He adores his little girl. Then tragedy strikes. His house gets burnt, his mother dies in the fire while saving Bella and They are left homeless as He loses his construction job too.

Then there is Erin, who has lost her 3 year old daughter and is grieving for her. We also see Robin, Bella's mother, who had a heart problem when Bella was born.

When Travis's job is lost, he comes to Raleigh as he has a good offer. But that is some short of criminal activity and he is not keen to take it. When he finds himself in dire straits, he has no option. He takes it knowing, he might lose Bella forever. He meets Erin a coffee shop and leaves Bella with her without informing Erin.

The Good Father touches us. We see that Travis might lack money but Bella does not lack anything. She is well brought up child. Travis's love for her shines through the entire novel, even when he takes a bad decision.....

Erin heals in the presence of Bella. She falls in love with this little girl and comes n term with her own grief. And Robin. She has had a heart transplant, is hale and hearty now, is engaged to rich and well known person. Yet she thinks of Travis and the girl she gave birth to. She knows what she has been missing.

Told in voices of Travis, Robin and Erin, the story impacts us, hits our guts and we all fall in love with the little girl Bella, not to forget the main three characters. Travis is indeed the good father.  Although the ending was predictable, I loved the book.

Gods and Fathers by James LePore

 "Leave your guns," said jack. "Take theirs."
"Leave our guns?", Matt said.
"They are CB guns, Matt," said Clark. "Untraceable."
~~~Page 249

Title: Gods and Fathers
Author: James LePore
ISBN-13: 978-1611880298
Publisher: The Story Plant/2012
Pages: 261

I love novels with strong influence of espionage and intelligence. Terrorism is an international issue and LePore has dealt with it very well. In fact he does it rather well, in all his novels. 

Matt DeMarco is a lawyer and his estranged son Michael is charged with rape and murder of his Girl friend Yashmin. Debra, Matt's ex-wife is married to a rich Syrian, who seems to have links with Islamic terrorism. Matt has to save his son, who seems to have been set up. When the investigating officers are killed one by one, Matt knows he has to do something about it. This takes him into deep, murky world of revenge, terrorism and killings.

Given the prevailing situation in Syria and the Arab world, I found the novel engrossing. The characters are well developed. And grow on us. Evil is personified very well. I liked the underlying plot. I look forward to read more novels by James LePore...

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

"I haven't said a word to the bastard since the night I turned thirteen. I was strapped to the bed. It was my birthday present to myself." 

~Page 646, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Title: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Author: Stieg Larsson
ISBN: 9781849162753
Publisher: Quercus/2009
Pages: 743

The last of the millennium trilogy seemed very long to me. Maybe because I am going through a reading slump. I really wanted to know so much more about Lisbeth Salander yet my reading was pretty slow. This has more narration than action. And tries to tie all the loose ends about Salander.

Starting from where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off, it makes the reader yearn to save her life and protect Salander. She is seriously injured and is in the hospital with no visitors allowed. And she is also accused of couple of murders. In this novel, we learn how much wrong has been done to her since she was 12 years old, a mere girl. All this to save her father from being exposed and along with him, the nexus of certain government officials of Sweden. 

Blomkvist along with well wishers of Salander is determined to save her from this nexus. We get to meet Dr. Teleborian, the evil doctor who is instrumental in locking up Salander.

Despite her isolation, and along with the help of her friends, we find Salander again in her elements. This novel has political undertones and of course the courtroom scene is such that one can't waver from it till the end.

I will say this again that Larsson has created memorable character in Lisbeth Salander and not only her, his depiction of the evil characters is also very good. I say Lisbeth Salander is not going to die in the mind of the readers for a very long time to come. 

A-Z Wednesday: Grace Under Pressure by Julie Hyzy

Title: Grace Under Pressure
Author: Julie Hyzy
ISBN: 9780425235218
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime/2010
Pages: 310

Grace Under Pressure is set in a Manor in Emberstowne and is a cozy mystery. Grace Wheaton is the assistant curator of Marshfield Manor. Just when she thinks her life is settled, the curator of the Manor is murdered. It seems like a mistaken killing as the killer wanted to get the owner Bennett Marshfield.

Grace takes over as the curator and starts to investigate the murder in her own fashion. She discovers that everyone is trying to get a piece out of the owner. She discovers some dubious financial dealings. And while searching through her own papers left to her by her mother, she finds a link with Manor. 

Grace does whatever it takes to save the Manor despite the skeletons tumbling out. It is good cozy mystery and Hyzy has created a good character in Grace. This is the first book in the Manor of murder mystery series. Worth looking at..

The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian

Title: The Gendarme
Author: Mark T. Mustian
ISBN: 9780399156342
Publisher: Amy Enhorn Books/2010
Pages: 288

With a cover like that, which haunts the reader, The Gendarme, is a novel, one can't put down.

America. 1990s. It starts with dreams from an very old man, Emmett Conn, who thinks he was a gendarme, in the 1920s, who used to escort Armenians from Turkey. While doing so, he had met a young girl, Araxie and fallen in love with her. Emmett's dreams are so vivid that he thinks that they really happened. It turns out that he had been injured in the ensuing war and memory loss was one of the consequences. He had come over to US and started a new life.

However, his dreams tell him that he did a wrong by abandoning and forgetting all about Araxie. Now aftr seven decades, he knows he has to find her and ask for her forgiveness. Will he be able to do it? Why is it so important for him?

Via this novel, I learnt about the politics of Turkey in the early 1900s, its after effects, the unheard of genocide, about gendarmes, their various roles, the exodus, the Armenian connection. I also learnt about a world and a culture, that I know nohing about.

Love transcends time, countries, cultures and sustains, no matter what.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

She shoved the taser into his crotch and fired off 50,000 volts, holding the electrodes against him for at least twenty seconds. Nieminen was transformed into a vegetable.
~Page 526

Title: The Girl Who Played With Fire
Author: Stieg Larsson
ISBN: 9781906694159
Publisher: Maclehose Press/2009
Pages: 649

As everyone knows, The Girl Who Played with fire is the second book of the Millennium Trilogy, the first book being, The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo. When the book opens, we find that Salander has travelled a lot after the first book. Here she buys a luxurious apartment, furnishing it with the best of everything. And no one is aware of that fact. She gives her old apartment to one of her friends' and receives all her mail there.

In this book, we get to learn a lot about Lisbeth Salander's past. How the system is responsible in crushing her, which includes her teachers, doctors, lawyers and media. Everyone is insensitive to her and ill treated her at one time or the other. Only three people seem to care for her, the owner of the Millennium, Mikael Blomkvist, and Armansky, her past employer and Palmgren, her previous mentor/guardian.

When three murders occur in a single night, Salander is suspected of those as her fingerprints are found on the gun. However, no one can find her anywhere. Blomkvist comes into the picture as two of those who have been murdered were going to write a big sex-trafficking, which was to be one of Millennium's big expose.

When Blomkvist sets about finding out about the murders, he is horrified to learn about the ill treatment of Lisbeth since she was 13 years old. Somehow the trail leads to something which connects to Lisbeth's past. The reader is just as horrified as Blomkvist.

It is a long book, which explains a lot about Lisbeth, her past and her present. The way she deals with issues. Nothing scares her. She is a genius in hacking and uses that to her advantage. She has fought the system for the last 10-12 years and has survived. The author created an unforgettable character in Lisbeth Salander. One might forget the story but not her.
I look forward to read the third book.

TSS: Greater Love by Robert Whitlow

Title: Greater Love
Author: Robert Whitlow
ISBN: 9781595544506
Publisher: Thomas Nelson/2010
Pages: 400

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Book Description

The Tides of Truth series follows one lawyer's passionate pursuit of truth--in matters of life and the law.

As the storm clouds gather, Tami does her best to weather the growing turbulence in every area of her life.

She's just accepted a job with a law firm but now wonders if she made the right decision. She has two strong men vying for her heart--and is about to lose them both if she can't determine which one is right for her.

And Tami's new case is anything but simple. When she first meets her prospective client, she immediately knows the rough young teen is lying, guilty...and utterly terrified of something beyond the charges she's facing. What she doesn't realize is just how far reaching the effects of the case will go. Or how close to home the deadly results will hit. For by the time the storm breaks, someone close to Tami will have paid the ultimate price.

Through it all, Tami will experience greater sacrifice, greater friendship, and greater love than she's ever known.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greater Love is a legal fiction with strong Christian elements. If one ignores the religious part, it makes a fine read, although love and sacrifice are very universal and only limited to just one religion.

Not a very easy book to review as revealing the story would spoil it for the reader. Right from the beginning I knew which one of her Beaus, Tami Taylor, would choose. Not difficult considering her mindset. Her relationship with the young Jessie is very beautifully brought out. Jessie who has suffered so much in life to comes to trust Tami and her older friend, Mrs Fairmont, who comes love Jessie as her own.

There is this suspense element, where there are people looking for Jessie but that is overshadowed by the romance element, which kind of slowed down the book. The legal point of view should have predominated but it didn't and that seemed like a let down.

What didn't gel well with me is the fact that Tami, a Law graduate is always turning towards her family for advice. She ought to have been able to take her own decisions regarding her personal life. Professionally she seems to do fine. The sacrifice of Sister Dabney is the Greater Love.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson for my review copy.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Title: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
ISBN: 978184724692
Publisher: Maclehose Press/2008
Pages: 554

I received this book from my secret Santa (Veens, I think!) in December 2009. It was in my wishlist. I got around reading it last week. Once I started, It was difficult for me to set it aside, even with work and all.

It is the first book in the Millenium triology. Stieg Larsson is not there to see his success. What does one say about a book, which is a huge success? To give it credit, it is not an over-rated book.

Three unlikely people's life gets entangled, Henrik Vangar, head of the Vangar corporation, Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and Lisbeth Salnder, a somewhat weird security specialist. They get together to find out the missing child in the Vangar family. The girl had disappeared three decades ago with not a trace and Henrik still is pained by that fact.

When Blomkvist dwells deeper into the family secret, someone is determined that he ought not succeed. When the secrets do come out, they are so horrifying that everyone just wants to forget those. Lisbeth is brilliant computer hacker, who can't follow the society's norms. She is her own law and can go to any length to take care of herself.

It is not the mystery that is takes us in. It is Lisbeth who baffles the reader. She is an oddity yet we take to her. We might not agree with her ways but there is some kind of justification of what she does. She and Blomkvist make a great team although both don't seem to be aware of it or if they do, they do not acknowledge it. Lisbeth is not someone one can forget. She is gonna stay there for a long time. I am definitely going to check out the other two books.

Ghosts by Paul Auster

Title: Ghosts (Book 2 of The New York Trilogy)
Author: Paul Auster
ISBN: 9780140131550
Publisher: Penguin/1986
Pages: 72

Ghosts is the second novel in The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. A short one at 72 pages, it manages to hold interest.

Named after colours, the various characters truly depict those alloted names. White hires a private detective Blue to spy on Black. Blue calls the future Mrs. Blue that he is going under cover for a while and moves into an apartment right in front of Black. Now Black doesn't do much other than sitting in front of his window, either reflecting into space or writing something. Blue doesn't like the inactivity. But he still sends reports to White. Those are sterile reports. None of those contain his thoughts.

Blue gets his weekly cheques and ought to be happy living in a fully furnished apartment, watching Black. However, he being a man of action, the lethargy does not become him. Blue disguises himself as an old man and contacts Black, who says he (Blue) looks like the poet, Walt Whitman. Yet, Blue can't find much about Black. Although he has doubts.

One day he breaks into Black's apartment and finds out that Black to is spying on someone and writing about it too. Things come to a head and the title Ghosts makes perfect sense.

Auster writes in no flowery prose, yet there is something which compels the reader to go on. The lucidity is astounding and there is much much more than the apparently simple story. The obseession of a private eye, his boredom, and his thought process go into many directions. We are with Blue, all the way, and want to know more about Black. And also about White. Blue also reflects about his mentor, Brown. All these colours kind of make these characters visual. And the colours merge making way fr new colours. The ending is left open for interpretation and the title has wide ramifications.

Those who like to think beyond the obvious, and can go into many layers of a story will like this short novel and will reach out for other Auster works. Just as I have. I will. Over and over again.

Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher

On his knees, Dennis cries out. But it does no good, and never will.

Title: Ghostwriter

Author: Travis Thrasher

ISBN: 978044650558

Publisher: Faith words/2009

Pages: 348

Dennis Shore is a writer who specialises in spooky writing. He has always enthralled his readers with his writing which deals with the dark..ghosts, supernatural elements and the deep dark sides of human mind. After his wife Lucy dies and his daughter leves for college, he finds himself alone and with a writer's block. With massive medical bills and deadline of his book coming up, he does the unthinkable. He publishes an unclaimed manuscript in his possession as his own and gets lots of praise for it.

And from there his trouble start. Cillian Reed, the writer of the book turns up, stalking him at every step. Uncannily, Dennis finds himself in the midst of nightmares like the one he created in his own books. At times, it seems as if the characters he created in his own books have come out to play with his mind. Dennis almost loses it all, his reputation, sanity and of course his life. Yet, he can't talk about it in fearof getting caught for his plagiarising someone else's work. However, when it comes to his daughter, he knows he has to do something to protect her.

Cillian Reed teams up with a serial killer to scare Dennis Shore. That serial killer is someone who has never left any clues, never got caught and kills people with impunity, showing no mercy. When Dennis tries to find out more about Reed, he hits a dead end. It seems exactly like one of his books where there is no apparent explantion for ghostly presence, supernatural elements and horror. Dennis Shore, the creator of spooky novels doesn't believe in those elements. And here, he is forced to believe in those very elements. I really liked Dennis friend Hank, who might be a bit thick in the head but is always there for his friend.

It is my first book by Thrasher. I am going to look out for more books by him. He can totally captivate the reader. The mystery element is throughly maintained along with the right amount of intrigue needed for such novels. Dennis' thoughts are so palpable that they come out of the pages. Hope that makes sense!

Thanks Marcia of printed page for this book. She sent it to me as here June Read I Forward book!

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

"Until the drowned girl came to Laurel's bedroom, ghosts had never walked in Victorianna."

Title: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
ISBN: 9780446697828
Publisher: Grand Central/2008
Pages: 308

This is one of those novels which totally takes you in from the first line. With magical realism along with a murder mystery it has all those elements which sustains the interest till the end. The ghost part of it felt more like vision to me, which works well too.

Laurel is happy enough in Victorianna, Florida along with her daughter Shelby and husband David, who is into developing codes for PC games. Laurel too is into quilting which gets her good money. One August night she finds Molly, her daughter's best friend, standing beside her bed, who leads her to the swimming pool. Molly is floating lifeless in there and no amount of revival works. Laurel's main concern are her daughter and another girl Bet, she has almost adopted from a lower strata neighbourhood.

Laurel needs her sister Thalia, with whom she had not spoken for two years. Now Laurel and Thalia have a past, which threatens to spill over the Hawthorne household. Laurel's perfect life goes haywire and she doesn't know what to do. Shelby and Bet too have a secret about Molly which they aren't willing to share. Molly's death is closed as accidental but Laurel knows it is a murder. In the midst of all this, there is supposedly a pedophile roaming about. And he is a suspect in Laurel's eyes. In their journey towards unravelling the truth, Laurel has to face a lot of unpleasantness and the explosive ending leaves us shattered.

Whatever differences Laurel and Thalia have, it doesn't affect their strong bonding. Laurel knows Thalia would stand by her always. David is not too fond of Thalia but he too realises that Thalia can go to any length to keep Laurel and Shelby safe. The ghost part too works well and as a mystery it manages to keep that alive too. With beautiful prose, it was a pleasure to read it. Thanks Joshilyn, for sending me a copy!

Going to See the Elephant by Rodes Fishburne

"All good first sentences have a kind of energy, wrote Slater Brown in his yellow Notebok as he was being pedaled erratically down Market Street."

Title: Going to See the Elephant
Author: Rodes Fishburne
ISBN: 9780385342391
Publisher: Delacorte Press/2009
Pages: 293


Twenty-five year old Slater Brown land up in San Francisco one fine day. He wants to be one of the greatest writer ever. He has arrived to SEE THE ELEPHANT. Soon after he realises that the reality is much different from his dreams and aspirations. He is financially streamlined.

Hence he takes up a job at a weekly newspaper known as Morning Trumpet. Suddenly fate changes for everyone. He is somehow able to find scoops each week which helps in the circulation of Morning Trumpet. He becomes one sought after reporter. But everything has a turn around. The corrupt Mayor is after him and also an insane inventor Milo Magnet, who wishes to harness the weather with catastrophic effects.

It is interesting to note the way Slater finds scoops. It is almost unbelievable. When Slater is down and out, the reader sympathises with him and also feels elated when he finds his way around. Fishburne has shown San Ffrancisco with all its quirks. It is extremely redeeming to see a very ordinary person like Slater surving there despite its warts. He accepts the city as it is. Slater thinks he finds love in the form of Callio de Quincy who is as weird as the city. Maybe one Slater is going to be one of the greatest writer there was. Who knows?!

Fishburne did a goob job with the book. It is an easy, fun read. Smart, witty and I must say, it has a great title. GO SEE THE ELEPHANT, folks. You won't be disappointed.

The Good Person Guidebook: Transforming your Personal Life by Richard Bayer

Title: The Good Person Guidebook: Transforming your Personal Life

Author: Richard Bayer
ISBN: 9780944054161
Publisher: The Five O'Clock Club/2008
Pages: 274

I received this book from Lisa Roe of onlinepublicist.net.

Book Blurb: What type of person should you be? What should you do when faced with a decision of ethical importance? Those are the two key questions that everyone should answer, and The Good Person Guidebook helps you answer them and:

• overcome suffering
  
• learn the true meaning of love
  
• develop the character traits that will make you happy and fulfilled

I usually do not read or review self-help books. This is one of those. Here the author tries to answer two great questions that arise out of ethical theory. Those are:

• What type of person I should be?
  
• What should I do, given a decision of Ethical importance?

Bayer has dealth with these in an ethical way. He quotes from the well known religions and tries to make us understand the essential good in those. The use of quotes throughout makes it a good read. I sailed through those very fast. The questions at the end of each topic too makes us ponder over what we had just read.

I wouldn't say, I would follow it through and through. But reading it was not so bad. My mom liked many of the quotes. She liked the book more than I did.