Recent Reads

Silence – Thomas Perry

Changing identities and disappearing is the subject of several Thomas Perry novels, i.e., the Jane Whitefield series. This one has a bit of a twist. Jack Till helped a witness to crime disappear because she was afraid to testify. Some years later evidence was planted and used to frame her business partner/lover for her murder in order to draw her out. The authorities were unwilling to believe that Till helped her disappear; therefore, he must find her and keep her safe in order to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice. Added to the problem of finding the witness, Till must also deal with a tango-dancing husband and wife assassination team who want to silence her forever.

As usual, I enjoyed Mr. Perry tale and his writing style very much.

I found this hard-cover book that is in perfect condition at a flea market for $1.

Darkness, Take My Hand – Dennis Lehane

This the second of the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, private investigators, series. Some books I enjoy because of good plots; some I enjoy because of the writing. Mr. Lehane is a very good writer and his plots are interesting. His books, this one in particular, are not for the squeamish or faint-hearted – very graphic violence.

The Blue Nowhere – Jeffery Deaver

This was another perfect condition, $1 find at the flea market. When I saw it I wondered how I had missed this one. I thought I had read all of his novels. I read the synopsis on the dust jacket and brought it home anticipating another great read from Mr. Deaver. This one is not my cup of tea. I realized it as soon as I began reading. There was a glossary in the front of the book of computer terminology. I hate books where I have to flip to the glossary on every page. I hated the sci-fi classic Dune because of this. I slogged through the first few chapters of computer-ese, geek jargon, and technical stuff about programming and hacking before I gave up. I had the basics of the mystery (the victims and the suspects) and then I skipped to end of the book to read the last two chapters for the solution. It may have been a good plot but the technical stuff was just mind-numbing for me. Before this book, I thought a bad book wasn’t in Mr. Deaver, but I was wrong.

The Wailing Wind – Tony Hillerman

While browsing for movies on the Netflix site, I found two movies based on Mr. Hillerman’s novels. They were shown as part of the “Mystery!” series on PBS and produced by Robert Redford. They were very well done with Adam Beach and Wes Studi portraying Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. After seeing the movies, I decided to re-read a few of his books. I read Mr. Hillerman for his descriptions of the Four Corners area and the mythology (perhaps that is the wrong terminology) of the Navajo as well as for his plots and his writing.

Mr. Hillerman never fails to please.