Thursday, March 8, 2012

For the love of Lust, Money & Murder

      Sometimes we read books that just suck us in like a gentle whirlpool, pulling us along, deeper and deeper. Before we know it, we have read the whole book and long to read even more. Often the book doesn't have to be the best book ever written. Indeed, while the Twilight series capture millions and certainly pulled me in, it wasn't Shakespeare or Stephen King. So what makes a book hard to put down?
 For me, it is being vested in the characters or in some piece of the story line. I read Startide Rising by David Brin and while I don't remember the story, I remember reading 'just one more chapter" until four in the morning when I had class at seven! It is the ability of the writer to leave a chapter hanging with the promise of an answer soon, and delivering on the promise only to leave you with another hanging problem.
     With Mike Wells' book, Lust, Money & Murder, I believe the answer to what captures his audience lies in the building of his main character.


Lust, Money & Murder Book 1 Lust
By Mike Wells
Publisher Mike Wells
Pages: approximately 106


From Amazon:
     This book begins with a young and naive Elaine Brogan as she initially pursues her dream of a career as a photomodel. After becoming entangled with a sleazy modeling agency, she decides to become a Secret Service agent, struggling through the arduous training academy. After her first disastrous assignment, she is transferred to Bulgaria. There, she meets Nick LaGrange, the love of her life.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Sometimes We Need a Little Divine Intervention

 
   Did you ever know something, just know something when there was really no way for you to know? Have you ever answered a question you thought you heard only to find out the question was never spoken aloud? For some people these sorts of things happen all the time but for others it never happens. Is it just that we tend to remember when we are 'right' and not when we are wrong or is it something more? What would happen if a government group took advantage of people who seem to have this special ability and how would they go about solving crimes?
    Curious? I was too, so I read Divine Intervention by Cheryl Kaye Tardif. Her take on the way certain abilities might be used in criminal investigations and what limitation such abilities might have was fascinating.

Divine Intervention 
By Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Published by Imajin Books
Pages 220