From The Appeal, Chapter 1: "The courtroom was in a state of high alert, as if bombs were coming and the sirens were wailing. Dozens of people milled about, or looked for seats, or chatted nervously with their eyes darting around. When Jared Kurtin and the defense army entered from a side door, everyone gawked as if he might know something they didn’t. Day after day for the past four months he had proven that he could see around corners, but at that moment his face revealed nothing."
In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history.
The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it.
Who are the nine? How will they vote? Very often, they return majority verdicts 5-4 in favor plaintiffs in cases against businesses. Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided to swing expected the vote around?
The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau.
Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate, Ron Fisk. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their very own Supreme Court justice.
The Appeal is a powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue, a story that will leave readers unable to think about our electoral process or judicial system in quite the same way ever again. Many believe politics to be rotten - is the legal system as bad? The Appeal is written by an author who believes it to be!
The Appeal is another great John Grisham book. Legal thrillers are what John Grisham excel at. The book has drive, it has twists, it shows knowledge about the legal process and the legal communities - trial lawyers, judges, special interest groups. And, as well, it raises important questions about the functioning of the legal system and the tradition of electing judges that still prevails in some states in the US.
It is a very worthwhile book to read. I enjoyed The Appeal a lot, and really recommend it!
This book is a follow-up on the enormously popular Pillars of the Earth. About the relationship between the two books, Follett says: "
Ever since The Pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, readers have been asking me to write a sequel. The book is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I screwed up my courage, and wrote World Without End.
I couldn’t write another book about building a cathedral, because that would be the same book. And I couldn’t write another story about the same characters, because by the end of 'Pillars' they are all very old or dead. World Without End takes place in the same town, Kingsbridge, and features the descendants of the 'Pillars' characters two centuries later."
At the heart of the story in World Without End is the plague known as the Black Death, and how this affects society and characters. Follett returns to 14th-century Kingsbridge with an equally weighty tome that deftly braids the fate of several of the offspring of Pillars' families with such momentous events of the era as the Black Death and the wars with France. Four children, who will become a peasant's wife, a knight, a builder and a nun, share a traumatic experience that will affect each of them differently as their lives play out from 1327 to 1361.
Six years after the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning Empire Falls, Richard Russo returns with a novel that expands even further his widely heralded achievement.
Louis Charles (“Lucy”) Lynch has spent all his sixty years in upstate Thomaston, New York, married to the same woman, Sarah, for forty of them, their son now a grown man. Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he’s had plenty of reasons not to be—chief among them his mother, still indomitably alive. Yet it was her shrewdness, combined with that Lynch optimism, that had propelled them years ago to the right side of the tracks and created an “empire” of convenience stores about to be passed on to the next generation.
Bridge of Sighs is a wonderful book, beautifully written, rich and gracious, and a great read as well!
"He finds the universe in a dying small town and makes the reader want to visit." -- Rainy Day Books
"large-hearted, vividly populated and filled .. " -- Publishers Weekly
Firstborn,
by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter.
Firstborn, the new volume in the Time Odyssey series will be released on December 26th.
The ancient and super-powerful Firstborn attack any species that might become a rival. Having barely survived a Firstborn-created solar flare, Earth now must cope with a meteor bomb approaching from deep space.
Tensions rise between secretive, paranoid forces on Earth and equally suspicious groups among the Spacers, whose identification with humanity's home is waning.
The third Time Odyssey tale, Firstborn, is an exhilarating science fiction thriller that targets fans who read the previous stories. Newcomers are likely to be confused.
Stone Cold is the third book starring the fantastic and intriguing heroes of the Camel Club. Keeping a vigilant watch over the leaders in Washington, D.C., the Camel Club has won over some allies, but it has also earned powerful enemies - including those in power who will do anything to prevent Stone and his friends from uncovering the hidden, secret work of the government.
Annabelle Conroy, an honorary member of the Camel Club, is also the greatest con artist of her generation. She has swindled forty million dollars from casino king Jerry Bagger, the man who murdered her mother. Now he's hot on her trail with only one goal in mind: Annabelle's death. But as Stone and the Camel Club circle the wagons to protect Annabelle, a new opponent, who makes Bagger's menace pale by comparison, suddenly arises.
Stone Cold is a fabulous read, partly because the club is so interesting and the characters so attractive. And, of course, Baldacci is a talented and great story teller that seems to enjoy twisted tales.
Confessor is book number 11 in Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series.
The book isa masterful science fiction/fantasy work that brings to conclusion The Sword of Truth series. It is a non-stop action packed thrill ride. Each and every page contains action, intrigue, hidden truths, answers and revelations that will cause you to go back to what you thought you knew, but were mistaken about!
Goodkind has truly mastered his craft providing a rich and colorfully engrossing story. Confessor is a recommended read, and a must for those who have followed his series.
James Patterson & Howard Roughan: You've Been Warned (Hardcover)
The Patterson bestseller factory has turned out another high-drama thriller, this time in collaboration with Honeymoon coauthor Roughan. You've Been Warned may not be his best, but it is good.
Kristin Burns, a New York City nanny and aspiring photographer, is devoted to the two children under her care, but her desire for their father, Michael Turnbull, leads her to a risky, torrid affair with him.
Kristin's anxiety about her guilty secret is heightened by a series of frightening nightmares centering on a vision of four body bags being loaded onto gurneys in front of a prominent Manhattan hotel. Her nightmares also feature recurring encounters with dead people, including her father and the pediatrician who abused her as a child. Kristin's breathless, superficial narration doesn't generate a lot of reader sympathy or interest in figuring out the source of her macabre experiences.
Finally Antony and Cleopatra is here! This is the follow-up to The October Horse. Here Colleen McCullough turns her attention to the legendary romance of Antony and Cleopatra. This is a timeless tale of love, politics, and power, and chronicles one of history's most infamous love affairs, between Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
After the death of Julius Caesar in 41 BC, Mark Antony, Caesar's ambitious and brash cousin, and Octavian, Caesar's adopted son and designated heir, agree to jointly administer the far-flung empire: Antony in the East and Octavian in the West. It's not a happy, nor a very stable, arrangement.
Antony over extends his force in a failed war to suppress the rebellious Parthians. Needing a fast replenishment of his treasury, he travels to Egypt to demand that the wealthy Queen Cleopatra provide reparations. However, Cleopatra has an agenda of her own to replace Antony and ultimately Octavian with Caesarion, the son she had with Julius when he came courting. To succeed she must make Antony her sex slave, which she easily achieves.
Antony and Cleopatra is another fabulous Masters of Rome entry. The key players are so alive. The history is thick with plots and intrigue, the battles are fierce, the characters brash and haughty, and the female characters every bit as strong willed and determined as the male ones. Antony and Cleopatra is a wonderful read! Even so, it is not quite as good as the other books in the series.
Dark of the Moon is another good book by John Sandford.
Headed to rural Bluestem to assist local law enforcement with the seemingly motiveless murder of an elderly couple, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers happens upon a raging house fire on the edge of town. The house's owner, Bill Judd, killed in the blaze, was an elderly recluse who, back in the day, ran an elaborate pyramid scheme and simultaneously bedded half the women in town. He escaped conviction on the fraud charge, and the money was never recovered.
There have been no murders in Bluestem for a half-century, and now there are three in a couple weeks. Virgil is not an advocate of coincidence and so begins digging for a connection between the victims.
Praise: "I could not put this book down. Late into the night I would fall asleep & wake back up & keep reading. Life stopped until I finished. Absolutely terrific. Highly recommend."
Last Night at the Lobster is a nice book written in a quiet mood about life and love in the working world. The story is about Manny De Leon, manager of a Red Lobster restaurant in a dismal section of Connecticut. The franchise is about to be shut down.
It is a tale of what binds a group of people together and makes them work alongside one another and cope with the ordinary challenges of life, small and big. Last Night at the Lobster is a wonderful little story, written by one of the most talented American novelists, and highly recommended.
"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily."
This is how The Almost Moon begins.
A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable. For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children.
When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined.
Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers; the meaning of devotion; and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with fluidity and strength.
Koontz has written several #1 New York Times bestsellers. He is a great storyteller that entertains and enlightens readers with novels that capture the essence of our times even as they bring us to the edge of our seats. The Darkest Evening of the Year does this as well.
The Darkest Evening of the Year is at once a love story, a thrilling adventure, and a masterwork of suspense.
Amy Redwing has dedicated her life to the southern California organization she founded to rescue abandoned and endangered golden retrievers. Among dog lovers, she’s a legend for the risks she’ll take to save an animal from abuse.
No one is surprised when Amy risks her life to save Nickie, whose abusive owner beat the dog, his wife, and their children. The bond between Amy and Nickie is immediate and uncanny. Even her two other goldens, Fred and Ethel, recognize Nickie as special, a natural alpha. But the instant joy Nickie brings is shadowed by a series of eerie incidents. An ominous stranger. A mysterious home invasion.
The Ghost is about a former British Labour prime minister, out of the job for a year or so and now accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Adam Lang is a gifted communicator and a fine actor, but – as we are told on almost every page – there is little of substance to the man. Now he is writing his memoirs, for which he accepted one of history's largest cash advances, and makes use of a ghostwriter to commit this to print. He is hiding out in wintry Martha's Vineyard. Then his ghostwriter suddenly and mysteriously disappears and later washes up, dead, on the island's deserted shore.
Ghost is an extraordinarily auspicious thriller of power, politics, corruption, and murder. It is a compelling, modern political thriller ripped from todays headlines.
at amazon.com!
a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history.
and 
.
About the relationship between the two books, Follett says: "
Ever since The Pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, readers have been asking me to write a sequel. The book is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I screwed up my courage, and wrote World Without End.
(
, and 
.
Empire Falls, Richard Russo returns with a novel that expands even further his widely heralded achievement.
, 
become a rival. Having barely survived a Firstborn-created solar flare, Earth now must cope with a meteor bomb approaching from deep space. 
and 
.
Camel Club. Keeping a vigilant watch over the leaders in Washington, D.C., the Camel Club has won over some allies, but it has also earned powerful enemies - including those in power who will do anything to prevent Stone and his friends from uncovering the hidden, secret work of the government. 
, 
, and 
. 
a non-stop action packed thrill ride. Each and every page contains action, intrigue, hidden truths, answers and revelations that will cause you to go back to what you thought you knew, but were mistaken about! 
, 
.
but her desire for their father, Michael Turnbull, leads her to a risky, torrid affair with him. 
, 
, and 
.
After the death of Julius Caesar in 41 BC, Mark Antony, Caesar's ambitious and brash cousin, and Octavian, Caesar's adopted son and designated heir, agree to jointly administer the far-flung empire: Antony in the East and Octavian in the West. It's not a happy, nor a very stable, arrangement.
, 
, and 
.
of an elderly couple, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers happens upon a raging house fire on the edge of town. The house's owner, Bill Judd, killed in the blaze, was an elderly recluse who, back in the day, ran an elaborate pyramid scheme and simultaneously bedded half the women in town. He escaped conviction on the fraud charge, and the money was never recovered. 
, 
.
in a quiet mood about life and love in the working world. The story is about Manny De Leon, manager of a Red Lobster restaurant in a dismal section of Connecticut. The franchise is about to be shut down.
and 
. 
unthinkable. For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. 
and 
.
entertains and enlightens readers with novels that capture the essence of our times even as they bring us to the edge of our seats. The Darkest Evening of the Year does this as well.
, and 
.
or so and now accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Adam Lang is a gifted communicator and a fine actor, but – as we are told on almost every page – there is little of substance to the man. Now he is writing his memoirs, for which he accepted one of history's largest cash advances, and makes use of a ghostwriter to commit this to print. He is hiding out in wintry Martha's Vineyard. Then his ghostwriter suddenly and mysteriously disappears and later washes up, dead, on the island's deserted shore.
, 
, and 
.