Thursday, November 27, 2008

"Rough Justice" by Lisa Scottoline

I found this Scottoline classic on a shelf at the Iowa City Public Library reserved for staff favorite picks. This is a good choice for lovers of mysteries and thrillers. It's classic Scottoline.

This story has a little different twist because the gals of Rosato and Associates law firm are not the star players. Instead, the firm has been hired to assist a world-famous lawyer, Marta Richter in the defense of a wealthy businessman who is accused of deliberately killing a homeless man. The defendant confesses his guilt to Richter just after the jury retires to determine its verdict. Of course, Richter can't reveal the confession because of attorney-client privilege. She has to find new evidence and make it known in a way that will not cast a doubt on herself or Rosato.

The killer is able to wreak havoc even behind bars to make sure no one who might cross him remains alive. His confession not only puts Richter in danger, but lands one of the Rosato associates in the hospital. Just when it appears that all is lost, a new twist brings a surprising end to this tale.

Liz Nichols

Monday, November 17, 2008

Rick Raddatz' GoBrevity is Live

I've just checked out Rick Raddatz' new business book briefing membership site. It's great for those of us who have a ton of business books on our "to be read" list, but never get around to it.

Each week Rick will review a top business book and summarize it, giving its particular value to small businesses and especially Internet businesses. If you're in the IM niche, or are a small business owner, this will by far be the most time-and cost-effective way of your picking up a lesson each week that can be applied directly to your business. Here's the link: http://goBrevity.com/SmallBusiness/?x=1967074

Rick knows what he is talking about. He started in big business, Microsoft, I believe, and ventured out on his own several years ago. Since that time he's forged a lucrative business relationship with Armand Morin and Alex Mandossian to create some of the most useful software products around-- Instantteleseminar being one of the most current successes. Rick is also a frequent speaker at major Internet marketing and small business seminars, and someone who is trying to help small businesses prosper by gaining access to capital through his Xiosoft business program. He also has a business membership club in the ownership of a Colorado ski lodge that can be used for small business seminars, or just for member owners to use to unwind.

Rick is offering his new membership site, called Brevity, at a low charter membership price, and is also offering an affiliate program that will share 95% of the profit in commissions to affiliate members. This is an extraordinary opportunity, and, really, a no-brainer, for any small business person who needs to stay abreast of the latest thinking out there, but doesn't have the time to do it themselves. Rick promises to deliver business briefs that are entertaining and edifying, and he's just the one to deliver on that promise!

Check it out at: http://goBrevity.com/SmallBusiness/?x=1967074.

You can sign up for a free sample issue.

Liz Nichols

Sunday, November 16, 2008

"Ghost at Work" by Carolyn Hart

The prolific author of the Death on Demand series is at it again with a new mystery maven, this one a heavenly spirit named Bailey Ruth Raeburn. There is promise at the end that Bailey Ruth may be back for more delightful and frequently funny mysteries.

The premise is that Bailey Ruth, a member of the heavenly Department of Good Intentions, is sent to earth to rescue of a second cousin in her hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma. Through a series of bodily appearances and ghostly disappearances Bailey manages to figure out who killed the vestry president and attempted to frame the Episcopalian parish priest and his wife. Every time Bailey reveals herself she incurs the disapproval of her heavenly supervisor, Wiggins.

I'm looking forward to meeting Bailey again. Through Carolyn Hart's masterful skill she spins a good tale.

Liz Nichols

Sunday, November 2, 2008

"Alone" by Lisa Gardner

I've been pulling books off my shelves that I acquired via the Mystery Book Club a few years ago and hadn't gotten around to reading.

One of these thrillers is "Alone" by Lisa Gardner, published in 2005. This mystery pairs a likable Massachusetts SWAT team member, Bobby Dodge, and a less likable socialite, Catherine Gagnon, who was the survivor of a horrendous abduction and rape as a child 25 years before. What Bobby needs to find out is whether Gagnon intentionally loured him into shooting her husband during a domestic incident, and whether Catherine is responsible for her own 4 year old son's chronic illness. When people surrounding Catherine start being murdered it becomes clear that Bobby, Catherine and her young son, Nathan, are targets.

As I read this suspense novel my own community has been gripped by the murder and attempted murder of two young boys. Their mother is accused of the crime and, reportedly, even she can't really identify why she did it. It is clear that children who face trauma of this type need a tremendous amount of psychological counseling and lots of support by family and friends for years in order to grow up feeling secure and in charge of their own future.

Dodge and Gagnon both suffered abuse and parental loss as children, and both showed the emotional scars into adulthood. With professional help, both managed to recover some semblance of normalcy, and the book does in that respect have a "happy" ending.

This book is not for the faint-hearted. There is a considerable amount of gore and multiple gruesome deaths in this book. It is an interesting psychological thriller, and one that is hard to put down once started.

Liz Nichols

"The Broker" by John Grisham

I have never been a heavy Grisham reader. I could never get into the mindset of his characters. "The Broker" is no different in that I find it hard to really feel sympathetic to the main character, "The Broker," Joel Backman. Backman was pardoned by an outgoing president under questionable circumstances. He had been a party to an abortive sale of surveillance satellite control secrets which got the Pakestani programmers who designed the program killed, and anyone who knew about the program assassinated as well. Backman found it expedient to plead guilty rather than to be next on the hit list.

The CIA set him up to be gunned down when it lobbied the President for the pardon, then took Backman into the Witness Protection Program in Bologna, Italy only to abandon him to would-be assassins from Israel, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia just for the sport of finding out who desired to get at the still-missing satellite program.

The book plods a bit during the long sequences when Backman in the disguise of a Canadian-Italian business man, Marco Lazzeri, is trying to learn Italian. The travelogue about northern Italy that is part and parcel of the book, however, is interesting and carries one along as the main character tries to find a way out of his mess.

With the help of a beautiful Italian tutor and travel guide, he manages to save his skin, at least for the time-being.

I liked the book; I just wish I liked the main character better.

Liz Nichols