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.

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!

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!

The Dance of the Spirits, by Catherine Aerie

Love can still be found even during a war

Set in the period of the Korean War we follow the lives of two people who will be drawn together through circumstance and find that they get more than they thought possible.

Jasmine is a Chinese citizen who grew up in a wealthy family and found their wealth destroyed with the advance of Chairman Mao and the Communist. She was studying to be a doctor and found that it took every last penny of their money to get her education completed because of the change in Economics. Eventually Jasmine volunteers to join the military as a doctor so that her family will be safe from harm, if she is a good volunteer the local communist will leave her family alone.

Wesley on the other hand is an American Serviceman who is smart, handsome, tall, muscular and an officer (Lieutenant). He is brave, courageous and resourceful. He is everything the U.S. Military wants in an officer.

Jasmine on the other hand is not want the Chinese Military truly wants. She serves in a POW camp treating wounded and captured United Nations Soldiers. Because she shows care and compassion and even finds medicine on her own she is reprimanded by her leaders for giving too much aid to the enemy. As a punishment and to re-train her thinking she is sent to the front lines of the war.

Through a series of events Wesley saves Jasmine's life. He rescues her and brings her to a Military hospital where they discover that she is a doctor and speaks fluent English and Chinese. She is given the task to help treat captured Korean and Chinese soldiers as well as serve some of the United Nations personnel.

The story unfolds the cruelty of the Chinese Communist take over of China. In a lengthy dissertation our author points out quite well how the upper class Chinese were forced out of power, robbed of their wealth, and replaced by the working class as the leaders. It wasn't fair and it wasn't always gentle. Even local Pastor's were treated terribly.

Wesley and Jasmine fall in love. But what can happen when they are from different sides in the conflict (yeah, Korea was never a war, just a conflict). Can they find happiness? Will they be able to remain together? Or will their love tear them apart and force each to loose themselves in the war and not care about their own well-being?

My only criticism of the writing is that Catherine has extremely long chapters. They could better be seen as Sections and the Sections broken down into shorter Chapters. Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about this, but our current culture is fast paced, quick snippets, as driven into us by television and the short time periods. Catherine is a classic writer, but just know that you are going to have some long Chapters. But don't get discouraged.

The writing is so well done that you will find yourself reading for hours without any desire to put the book down.

Maybe One Day, by Melissa Kantor

Olivia and Zoe are sophomores in high school and have been in the same dance/ballerina classes together since they were little kids. Everything has been done together. So, the day comes that the New York Ballet Club announces to the girls that they are through, they are being cut from the program. This isn't just a bump in the road it is a roadblock that says, Ballet is not for you.

How will the girls react? Zoe throws away all her ballerina stuff, Olivia though goes to a rec center for poor children and starts teaching a ballet class. Which girl handles it best? Well, that's a good question. Just one of many good questions that the book will bring up.

As most teen novels this one will deal with the issues of friendship, bullies, cheerleaders gone wrong, athletes who are snobs, geeks who no one seems to get and then the two ballerinas who spend every waking minute going to school then going to dance and dance and dance some more.

How will the girls handle the rejection of the NYBC? How will their lives change? How will they explain to friends? How will they deal with a crush on a boy that is "off limits"? All these subjects pull together to make a great read.

Add to that one of the girls coming down with Leukemia. That adds a new dimension to the story. How they deal with it is what brings the joy in reading and learning and thinking, how would I handle this situation.

Your teen will enjoy the book and it will bring up many good life lessons to talk about.

No spoilers here, just read and enjoy and let your emotions go along for the ride and see where they take you.

Enjoy!

Mystery, Child Abduction and a Love Story, all in one.

What an interesting Ruth Galloway novel.  As always Elly Griffiths writes an amazingly good novel that weaves several themes together to draw Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson back together.  Ruth is doing a dig at a location where they believe they have unearthed the infamous Jemima Green a woman hanged about 150 years earlier for allegedly killing off the young children in her care.

DCI Nelson is on the case of a missing child who may or may not have been abducted by his "childminder." Nelson, Judy, Clough and Tim are trying their hardest to solve the case before the child dies. They do work out the case only to have another child go missing.  This is Judy's child.  So now the team is on the search to find one of their own.

Now, why do I say that love is in the air?  Well, Griffiths introduces Frank Barker, an historian, from the United States.  He has come to help with the filming of a documentary on Jemima Green.  He and Ruth are going to be filmed.  But funny thing, he and Ruth hit it off and there is a good tension between them.  Frank a widower and Ruth the unattached who has never looked for attachment.

Then there is Cathbad and Judy.  Their love tension rises again and starts to get more of the story line. Oh, and there is always the love between DCI Nelson and his wife and yet his love for his daughter, Kate, who is Ruth's child.

All in all the writing is vintage Griffiths and the story will draw you in and keep you reading until the very end.

I don't want to say more because I might spoil things for you.  This is a great read.  Enjoy.

If you haven't read Griffiths works before you might want to start with one of the earlier books so that you get to know the Characters better before diving into this one, just a thought :)

Another Crime Novel with a Vigilante - really good, really intriguing, well written

Alan Brenham writes with a clear distinct style that invites the reader in and keeps them turning pages until they are satisfied with the end result (which doesn't happen until the end of the book, which is nice since some writers forget that). His research is excellent on police procedure and his study of human nature is without flaw. He captures both well and his writing educates you while also entertaining you.

Jason Scarsdale, the detective, is a frustrated depressed man. He lost his wife five weeks earlier when she was killed in a car accident (which he thinks was his fault). He lost a slam dunk case against a pedophile when the jury let him off with a not guilty verdict (actually it is the DA's office who lost the case). Now the question he has is this, do I commit suicide because of my grief and pain over the loss of my wife, or do I continue to live so that I can provide for my five year old daughter and not rob her of both parents?

Then enter Dani Mueller, the police profiler. She also is overcoming grief. She lost her 10 year old daughter to a pedophile who also got off free and clear two years earlier. But she didn't take the loss lying down. Instead she waited, found her courage (if you can call it that) and with a thrust of a knife found the revenge that she wanted. Now she thinks she should do the same for the Crowley family who lost their daughter and watched the criminal walk free.

The two lives, Scarsdale and Mueller, intersect over this case. They get to know each other and develop a relationship that is convoluted by the details of their lives, and especially by the fact that Dani wanted to kill Lastier, the criminal, and Scarsdale is trying to find who actually did kill Lasiter.

Brenham builds the suspense of the story masterfully. He continues to build that suspense, chapter after chapter and further delves into the issue of pedophiles and the pain they inflict not just on their victims, but also on their victims families.

The book is well worth the small $2.99 Kindle price. You'll have an enjoyable few days digesting the story.

Enjoy!

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