Friday, March 28, 2014

Predators, who they are and how to stop them! by Gregory Cooper and Michael R. King

I was doing research for our counseling staff on the topic of Stalking. I had several major books on
the psychology behind the criminal mind and they were very academic. I went to the local library and stumbled across this book and am so glad I did.

Cooper is a former profiler for the FBI and brings plenty of experience and savvy understanding to the problem of predator's and stalkers. While I learned a lot from his book what made it a nice break from the heavy academics was his method of telling stories of actual cases that they had to profile and solve.

Through their case studies you learned the mind of the criminal and what drove them to do what they did. Then in each case study Cooper then gives the reader practical guidelines on how to make their lives safer from a predator or stalker. The book is well written, easy to read, holds your interest well and then gives you great practical advice.

This quickly became one of my favorite books while researching the topic.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Kill Switch by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood

A Warrior and His Faithful Companion / Weapon

What happens when you have a true warrior and his greatest weapon on the loose? Well, they get the job done. Tucker is a warrior that has had enough of wars, or at least he thought he had had enough. Now he is living on his own with his best friend and most powerful weapon, Kane. Kane is his faithful war dog that he has trained and worked with for years. The team seems to be able to accomplish anything.

But Tucker and Kane are in retirement, yeah right! They get a call from Sigma and are asked to quietly extract a Russian Scientist / billionaire who wants to defect to the West with a secret that could unleash a weapon of mass destruction on an Ecological Level. It is suppose to be simple. But that never seems to be the case for Tucker and Kane.

Instead they are being hunted by a Russian General and the SVG and possibly the KGB and possibly other agents who want the scientist because his discovery is in his head, not on paper.

Tucker and Kane must fight against insurmountable odds and help the scientist not only escape Russian but travel to Africa and find the source of this ecological weapon.

If Tucker and the others don't find this source, but the Russian general does then the world as we know it could be decimated. This new plant / weapon could wipe out most of the agriculture of the world and thus send us to the depths of starvation. Who will win. That's the question.

James Rollins and Grant Blackwood are a great team and they write a novel that is very fun, exciting and hard to put down once you start it.

I'm hoping that they will write more novels with the team of Tucker and Kane.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Rum Running - Terrorist - Communist takeover - Isaac Bell, AWESOME

I loved the Isaac Bell series when it first came out. The settings on the trains was new and different and Cussler did a great job with it. Then we had the airplane race across America.

Now we have The Bootlegger. The story is good, but it drags. It doesn't seem to have the same exhilarating detail and tension of the previous Isaac Bell novels. BUT, the writing is good, the story is good and, well it's Clive Cussler.

The story is going to involve several items. The Communist Party, Prohibition, Bootlegged alcohol, fast speed boats and lots of gun play. All in all that is a Cussler novel.

Isaac will need to do a lot of the work on his own this time because Mr. Van Dorn is wounded in the opening of the book. His injuries are grave and the whole agency is thrown into turmoil. Isaac will rally the troops and they will set on a quest to find the rum runners who gunned down the boss. They will also do their best to stop the bootlegging business altogether.

Along with this they will uncover a communist plot to take over America, as well as a terrorist plot to deploy bombs in the U.S.

The action is fast paced, the scenes change quickly and travel from New York to Detroit to Canada to Florida and the Caribbean and back again. Much of this is done with a couple of speed boats with armor plating and plenty of firepower.

The story will capture you and move you along. I just didn't think it was quite as interesting as past novels, otherwise I would have given it a five.

Enjoy! Oh, and enjoy a new character, Asa Sommers, let's hope he survives this trial by fire!