Helen's Book Reviews

 

JULY 2010

Pray For Silence
by Linda Castillo reviewed July 4, 2010

Linda Castillo does not disappoint with her second mystery set in Ohio Amish country.  In Pray For Silence, Painter’s Mill Police Chief Kate Burkholder is back investigating the slaughter of an entire Amish family. Kate is baffled by the senseless killing of seven members of the Plank family. There doesn’t seem to be a motive, and there is no clear evidence to point Kate in any one direction. The Planks have only been in the community for a year, re-locating from Pennsylvania, and kept to themselves as most Plain people do. What Kate finds most disturbing is the torture of the two teenage Plank sisters. During the initial investigation it looks as though the father, Amos Plank, brutally murdered his wife and children, then committed suicide. However, as test results trickle in, Kate realizes that something just doesn’t fit. She calls on her friend and State Agent, John Tomasetti. Together they re-visit the crime scene and Kate locates the diary of fifteen year old Mary Plank. The diary’s content leads Kate to believe the teen was leading a double life, and planned to leave her Amish family.  Mary never mentions a name, so it’s up to Kate, her staff and John to piece together the final months of Mary’s life, hoping this leads them in the right direction. Kate locates the Bishop for the Plank family, and he in turn talks to the Bishop in Pennsylvania, and finds that here was also a son Aaron, who was shunned. Kate likes him for the murders when she finds he has a police record for violent behavior. But Aaron has an alibi and Kate and John continue to seek answers where there are none. Kate talks to neighboring farmers and stumbles upon a youngster that may have been a witness to the murders. The mentally disabled son of a bordering farmer has discovered girls. He sneaks out and looks in windows, and was at the Plank farm the night of the murders. Kate calls for a sketch artist, but because of his problems, Billy cannot describe the killer. Kate places the boy in a safe house and tells the media that she has new information, and sets herself up. John has left town but races against time and his own inner demons to be there for Kate. Castillo meshes the Amish traditions with the English ways in her new thriller that is sure to please. [7-4-10]

Smoke Screen
by Kyle Mills reviewed July 11, 2010

Would you like a behind the scenes view of big tobacco?  Kyle Mills provides that in his novel “Smoke Screen”.  Trevor Barnett is a descendant of a founding family of a fictional tobacco corporation.  Even though he made it through college with a degree in history, he has essentially been a failure at everything he has done.  To conform to the rules of his tobacco trust fund, he must work in the industry.  Even though the income which it provides him is minimal, he has abided by the rules.  He is a lowly paper shuffler for Terra, the company that employs his father as chief legal counsel.  This is the company that had been founded in the distant past by their family.  Although Trevor is a smoker, he has ambivalent feelings about the industry.  He is aware of the hazards of smoking, but he does believe that people should be able to make a personal choice concerning smoking.  At a time when his trust fund earned big money, he even made donations to anti-smoking campaigns to ease his conscience. 

His earnings have been greatly reduced by the $250 billion class action lawsuit that the company is close to losing.  When Trevor is asked to prepare an analysis of a Surgeon General’s report concerning smoking, in a drunken haze he turns in one that says simply, “Smoking is still bad for you.”  The next morning he attempted to replace it with a bland, boring report, but it was too late.  When he arrived late to a meeting, his report is circulating.  Instead of the firing which he expected, Trevor is lavishly complimented and promoted to corporate spokesman.  Terra’s CEO, Paul Trainer, sends Trevor out to debate with anti-tobacco’s eminent spokesperson.  During the discussion, Trevor inadvertently makes some proposals that essentially close down the cigarette industry.  The nicotine addicted portion of the population goes wild.  Suddenly Trevor finds himself with serious bodyguards.  He almost becomes the victim of a kidnapping attack.  This background look at the tobacco industry reveals some motivations that the average consumer may have never thought about.  The idea of “follow the money” is a part of this novel, leaving the reader with a new way of looking at where profit goes from tobacco consumption.  The big tobacco companies have begun to diversify into less reprehensible products, but almost no product is completely free of controversy.  This novel is available in both CD audiobook and print format. [7-11-10]

This Book is Overdue!
by Marilyn Jonhson reviewed July 18, 2010

Libraries have changed from the somewhat dusty, silence enforced place of yesterday.  Marilyn Johnson explored the new world of libraries in “This Book is Overdue!: How Cybrarians Can Save Us All.”  No place is as dependent on the techno information world as a library.  The catalog record for a book was one of the earliest practical uses of data in a binary format.  Libraries still perform their traditional roles of educator, entertainer, and archivist, but information technology just makes so much more possible.  Marilyn Johnson has met the modern librarian and she is not the traditional old lady with her hair in a bun.

In one instance, he is the head of a Connecticut Library Co-op who was hit by a gag order from the FBI when they used the Patriot Act to obtain information about library patrons.  Another profiled librarian actively searched for groups that needed information.  She found her audience among protestors at the 2008 Republican Convention.  This group of librarians walked around the convention area carrying signs that read “Street Librarian”.  These volunteer librarians kept the public informed about restroom locations and best routes down Chicago streets.  The volunteers even clued the protestors into areas of police confrontation.  Stationing librarians out in the streets with cell phones is a concept of service far different than expecting those with questions to come to a brick and mortar building.  The author also interviewed a librarian who had a very active presence on the virtual reality website Second Life.  The community’s avatars look extremely lifelike and the site offers all types of imaginary possibilities.  One librarian decided that the community needed a library.  It is now a place where many cyber questions are answered.  This cyber library has become so professional that a library degree is a requirement to volunteer as a virtual librarian.

The book is a thank you to librarians who are going beyond their traditional   work model and defining, collecting, and organizing information in cyberspace.  Even the DeWitt District Library has a solid foot in the digital age.  Our website allows the public to communicate directly with a librarian.  Downloadable audiobooks are available at any time.  On August 3rd the library’s public will have an opportunity to vote to maintain the library’s current level of funding which will continue these services.  The property tax mileage is the library’s primary source of funding.  Additional information on the renewal millage is available on the DeWitt District Library’s homepage at www.dewittlibrary.org. [7-18-10]

A Week in December
by Sebastian Faulks reviewed July 25, 2010

Several lives mesh in unexpected ways in Sebastian Faulks’ novel “A Week in December.”  The author studied London financial markets well enough to write a description of buying and selling stock options that could appear well researched if was in an economic textbook.  The two central characters are each involved in their own plan that will produce a cataclysmic effect in 2007 London.  John Veals is a self made hedge fund manager who expects to make billions of pounds by forcing the collapse of a London bank.  His manipulations are the type of actions that caused the subprime mortgage banking collapses in America.

Hassan al-Rashid is the pampered son of a wealthy Pakistani manufacturer who is about to be knighted for his accomplishments making lime chutney.  Hassan belongs to a jihadist cell that is planning to set off a bomb at a London location.  Even though he grew up in Scotland and went to English schools, he has been connecting to his Muslim roots.  Although his parents only superficially practice their religious traditions, Hassan has devoted himself to reading the Koran.  He meets regularly at the mosque.  There he met a teacher who had formed a study group that became a group with a purpose.  Each young man has a specific job in a dangerous operation.  Hassan goes from a discontented student through a process of radicalization that trains him as a home grown terrorist.  Hassan’s parents are oblivious to their son’s conversion as they prepare for their presentation to the queen.  A book reviewer known for his scathing criticisms is given temporary employment tutoring Hassan’s father with discussion topics to use when he meets the queen at his knighting. 

Gabriel Northwood is a lawyer struggling to establish himself in his profession.  Although he is a professional man, he barely has enough money for a social life.  He is involved in the investigation of a subway accident, acting for the driver, Jenni Fortune.  Gabriel becomes fascinated with the virtual reality world in which Jenni is an active roll player.  Gabriel is also trying to understand the mind of his institutionalized schizophrenic brother.  Gabriel has been studying the Koran as he is prepping for a trial and to him the visionary statements of the Koran seem to have similarities to his brother’s ravings.  This novel portrays a world in which wealth is overwhelmingly important, but love is ultimately the most important factor.
[7-25-10]