August Books

The Leopard by Joe Nesbo and Don Bartlett is described as an “electrifying new addition to Nesbø’s internationally acclaimed series. Both will I must have missed something as I found it confusing, unbelievable and boring.  Perhaps I am losing my ability to keep track of dozens Scandinavian names and places peopled by horrific crimes and bizarre plot twists. Through it all, iconic Henry Hole manages to see what everyone else misses and survive multiple calamities.

*The Lost Prince by Selden Edwards is a worthy sequel to his debut success, The Little Book.  Recently returned from the experience of a lifetime in fin de siècle Vienna, Eleanor Burden settles into her expected place in society--except for one small difference. Eleanor possesses an unshakable belief that she has advance knowledge of major historical events to occur during her lifetime-- and incredible insights into investment opportunities-- “A ‘Back to the Future’ for intellectuals."

Talullia Rising by Glen Duncan, is a sequel to his the  acclaimed  The Last Werewolf.  Talulla Demetriou is grieving for her werewolf lover, on the run from WOCOP and searching for a place to give birth to Jake’s child in secret and trying to protect her twins from a cabal of blood-drinking religious fanatics.  Duncan is a gifted writer who harnesses  “the same audacious imagination and dark humor, the same depths of horror and sympathy, the same full-tilt narrative energy (as)…his acclaimed The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan now gives us a…the definitive twenty-first-century female of the species. “ Perhaps, but, for me, a  little too much of a bad thing.

-69 Barrow Street by Lawrence Block has two distinctions: It is the first e-book I’ve been able to check out of the SB Public Library—and the worst book I’ve read in a long time. Block is a very productive, prolific writer who can (and usually does) much better than this embarrassment.  It must be something he dashed of a long time ago, couldn’t get published until the advent of e-publishing and thought it might bring in a few shekels.  What a shame to damage his brand in this manner.