August 2006 Fiction and Mystery Reviews

Luna
by Richard Matturro

Livingston Press (AL)
Paperback
ISBN# 1931982740
Suggested Retail Price: $14.95 or as low as $9.57 from Amazon.com!

Every once in a while a tale so unusual will land in your office. Luna came to me and I opened it up. From there on I was hooked. Luna put an ad in the Personal Section of the paper. Zach, who is married, answers the ad on a lark. They meet in the park. Zack is the only letter that Luna answers. She is nothing like Zach imagined. Plain and thin with very short, very straight hair and completely flat where her breasts should have been. Luna is mystical and refers to her father, the river as well as other mythologial comments. Oddly enough Zach is drawn in by this woman and after she takes him on her favorite rides, roller coasters he learns not to be terrified of them. Zach is beginning to see that his marriage is no good. His wife leaves him when she finds out about Luna. Zach and Luna get together for a relationship that us not ordinary but draws the reader into to this odd little story. I enjoyed it and I take pleasure in recommending a new author who writes the way I like to read.

Beach Road
by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge

Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover
ISBN# 0-316-15978-6
Suggested Retail Price: $27.95 or as low as $1.69 from Amazon.com!

This tale is about one Tom Dunlevey who is a lawyer and has opened his own firm with only his dog for company. He lives in East Hampton and his local clients just keep him in paperclips. When his old friend, Dante, is arrested for a triple murder that took place on the beach, he asks Tom to help him. Dante is a famous star athlete. Tom belives that Dante is innocent and has agreed to represent him. Next, an old girlfriend named Kate shows up and she joins Tom in the defense of Dante. The story is written in very short chapters. Each section of three pages is told from one of the character's point of view. This is a different and most attractive technique, once you get used to it. The problem is that I did not like the ending. In fact, the ending ruined the whole story. I didn’t see it coming, but it is distressing and not at all what I wanted. The new approach to storytelling is worth reading and enjoying, but you take your own chances for a disappointing conclusion.

Gone
by Jonathan Kellerman

Ballantine Books
Hardcover
ISBN# 0-345-45261-5
Suggested Retail Price: $26.95 or as low as $1.83 from Amazon.com!

Kellerman has given us another thriller that features the psychologist, Alex Delaware. This time Delaware and his close friend, Milo, who is a cop and a good one. The plot revolves around a drama school and a murder. Two of the students at the school pull of a false disappearance of two of the students. They tried to pull of a believable scene in which they vanished. They were found and the hoax was exposed. Not very long after the event the female student turns up dead.... murdered! The court had called upon Alex to interview the murdered female about the lost three days. He felt strongly that she lied to him excessively. The police have closed the case but now they have reopened it because of the murder. The young man involved in the hoax has vanished and Aloex and his friendly cop set out to solve the case but find more questions than answers. The usual good read along with Alex Delaware doing an heroic hob of solving the mystery.

Sleeping with Fear
by Kay Hooper

Bantam
Hardcover
ISBN# 0-5538-0318-2
Suggested Retail Price: $25.00 or as low as $10.85 from Amazon.com!

This adventure tale is exciting and unique in that the major character is a psychic with well developed abilities. Her name is Riley and she is part of an exclusive FBI Crime Unit where her ESP abilities assist them in solving bizarre crimes. Agent Riley Crane is sent to investigate a murder she wakes up one morning to find that her clairvoyant abilities and all the rest of her special senses are gone. She can no longer tell friends from enemies Because she has a wound on her head and she doesn’t remember where she got it and because she can no longer tell friends from foes she proceeds with some deep trepidation into a morass of murder and suspense. This is a good, late night read, sure to give goose bumps as well as pleasure.

The Eagle's Throne: A Novel
by Carlos Fuentes

Random House
Hardcover
ISBN# 1400062470
Suggested Retail Price: $26.95 or as low as $13.47 from Amazon.com!

In Mexico the presidential term is six years. In this splendid novel Fuentes begings with a sickly man who is only two-year into his term of office as President. The year is 2020. His weakness has allowed him to be manipulated into some bad decisions. First off he has banned the sale of oil to the United States and demands that all U S. troops be withdrawn from Columbia. Which has been occupied by them. Another character in this novel is U.S. President Condelieza Rice. She has shut down all of the telephone and Internet connections in Mexico using a new technology. So as the reader is taken into this satire of bad politics and a dark and humorous story of dirty politics. Fuentes is Mexico’s foremost author and has a well-deserved reputation for his skill and his plots. They may take more care in translating his works into English but it’s a jo0b that well done and his words are capable of bringing the reader into his plot. For his fans this one is not to be missed and if you have never read any of his books, start here.