Diane Bostick 

dianebostick@comcast.net

Author: Alice LaPlante. 

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press 2011. 

If you are a regular reader of Book Remarks you probably have noticed that you often don’t know what the book I am reviewing is about until close to the end of the column. I tend to chat a bit about various other things first. In this case I will tell you right up front this book is told through the eyes of Dr. Jennifer White, an orthopedic surgeon, who, at the age of 64, has dementia, the intermediate stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Her best friend has been found dead with four of her fingers removed, it would appear, surgically. It would seem obvious that the police consider her, as we often hear the term, “a person of interest.”

To me the mystery detailed in this book was fairly well done. The big question to me was, if she did indeed do it, why, and to a lesser degree, how? But the overwhelming reason I found the book fascinating is that my mother died at the age of 74 of Alzheimer’s. This book is written through the eyes of the patient. And that was something I found deeply personal and interesting.

Our family had no idea there was anything going on in my mother’s mind until one day, while we were on vacation diving in the Florida Keys, she asked me how much instant coffee she should use in making my father a cup of coffee. An innocent enough question, unless you knew that she had probably made him a cup of instant coffee several times a day ever since it had come on the market. A giant question mark loomed in my mind and I asked my father if he had noticed anything different about her lately. He said he had noticed, upon reflection, that she had become more forgetful.

At that time, she was the window designer for a women’s dress shop in Ft. Myers, so we asked them if they had noticed any changes in her and indeed, they had, but had not mentioned it out of kindness since she had worked there for twenty years. We immediately made an appointment with a neurologist where she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. (There is no firm diagnosis of the disease without an autopsy. However, the signs of the disease are usually fairly definitive. I had not heard of the disease before then and, in fact, I believe the public in general was just becoming aware of Alzheimer’s at the same time as our family, in 1977.)

From that day until the day she died, we saw the person we had known leave us, bit by bit, until there was nothing left but her familiar, beloved face and body. She went from a person whom I had never seen cry to someone who cried often, someone gentle and kind to someone who would hit others. She had always taken great pride in her dress, hair and makeup but lost interest in her appearance, even to the point of not caring whether her false teeth were in her mouth. Eventually, she no longer recognized her family. (The first time I visited her in the nursing home and she didn’t know me was a heart breaking day, as you can imagine.) She even forgot how to talk. The last words she remembered how to say though were a testament of the person she had been before her illness. Those few words, said to anyone who stopped to give her even a moment of time were, “I love you.”

If this total change in the woman we knew and loved frustrated and baffled all of us, can you imagine how it must have felt to be her? We never told her she had dementia because we didn’t think there was any point since she would forget a minute later. We took care of her at home until it was unsafe for us to do so. The chances of her getting lost if she were more than ten feet from the house, the chances of her doing harm to herself from taking the wrong medicine or burning the house down from leaving a pot on the stove became too great. In all that time I had a sense of her bewilderment and fear. Her whole world was upside down. It seemed as though she must have felt like Alice in Wonderland. I often asked myself how she must feel and by reading Turn of Mind I was given a pretty clear idea of what might have been going through her head.

If you have had a chance to interact with a friend or family member with dementia you will find answers to many unasked questions. At least, I know I did. Yes, the mystery adds to the interest of the book, but the true interest, to me at least, was seeing this dreadful, soul robbing disease through the eyes of the person living with a version of Hell each and every day until, at last, I imagine, it all becomes just a blur.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter. 

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Diane Bostick 

dianebostick@comcast.net

Author: Janet Evanovich. 

Publisher: Bantam Books 2011.

If you haven’t read a Janet Evanovich book you have missed a reading experience like no other. However, I must warn you, don’t even pick up the book if you aren’t prepared for some funky, quirky humor. If you are at the library you will find them in the mystery section, but I wouldn’t exactly call them mysteries. The author started out writing One for the Money and is now up to Explosive Eighteen with a book for each number in between. Her heroine, if you want to call her that, is Stephanie Plum. She works for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonding company as a bounty hunter. But she is like no bounty hunter you have ever heard of before. Wikipedia describes her as a “spunky combination of Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry.” But I think they should have added, “on a bad day.”

To start with, most of the people she is looking for are at least partly nuts and she is both naïve and inept, so the combination makes for some interesting and humorous reading. And that is before you add in Lula, an African-American, size 16 body stuffed into size 10 spandex, ex-hooker, always hungry, always looking for sex, flashily dressed, but eager cohort in bounty hunting. Their problems are compounded by the fact that Stephanie seldom keeps her gun loaded, if she brings it at all, forgets to charge her stun gun, often runs out of pepper spray and uses hair spray in its place. USA Today likens them to the Lucy and Ethel of bounty hunting. But thankfully, for both their sakes, Stephanie’s two boyfriends, Ranger, an extremely viral Cuban with his own security company and Morelli, a cop, are nearby to rescue her…time and time again.

Thrown into the mix, just to make things more interesting, as if that were needed, is Grandma Mazur. She has lived with Stephanie’s parents ever since Grandpa Mazur “took the big escalator to the heavenly food court in the sky.” Grandma is well into old age and still has high hopes and “the hots” for most any man who comes along and is not afraid to comment on their anatomical bright spots. Her favorite pastime is attending funerals, even for those she has never even met, as it gives her a chance to dress up, socialize and eat good food. In the movie made from Evanovich’s first book, One for the Money, which is to be released soon, Hollywood has Debbie Reynolds portraying Grandma Mazur but personally, I think the part should have gone to Betty White, hands down.

In Explosive Eighteen Stephanie is once again trying to round up several characters who have skipped bond and need to be brought in for “rescheduling of their court date.” Her office is currently a converted motor coach since the old office was burned down by a fire “of suspicious nature.” She has her choice of who to look for first. The worse the crime the more money she gets for retrieving them. She and Lula decide to pass on a domestic violence case and two armed robberies and try to find the person charged with credit card fraud by the name of Lahonka Goudge. The name alone tells you this is not going to be an easy catch. One of their other choices is Joyce Barnhardt, who was picked up for shoplifting a diamond necklace and who just happens to be an acquaintance of Stephanie’s. Joyce was the cause of her divorce when Joyce was discovered in a most compromising position with Stephanie’s ex-husband.

To further confuse the situation, Stephanie is being hunted by various thugs, some of whom are pretending to be F.B.I. agents, because they believe she has a photograph that they want badly. This photo was somehow slipped into her backpack while she was on a plane returning from Hawaii. Another character chasing after her for the same purpose, is “Raz”, who has no qualms about causing her severe bodily harm in his quest for this photograph. She has no idea why they want the picture and, in fact, threw it away when she found it in her luggage, not knowing how it got there.

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Author: Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. 2011.

While reading this book I was entranced and when I finished, all I could say was, “Wow.” Back in the ‘50s when I was taking American History in Fort Myers High School, it was all I could do to stay awake. For one thing, there was no air-conditioning then and the class was right after I had eaten lunch. But to make things much worse I had the kind of teacher who felt she had covered all her bases if she had us learn the historical place, event or person’s name and the date associated with it. No effort was made to make history come to life. No stories were told, no costumes worn, nobody came into class who was witness to any event to add a personal touch; it was kind of the equivalent of “name, rank and serial number.” I was told that Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president, tall, ugly, wore a stove pipe hat, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky, gave the Gettysburg address (which we had to memorize), freed the slaves and was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in the Ford Theater. And that was it! And that was probably quite a bit more than we learned about most other people or events in American history. There was little to peak our interest in learning more. And I am afraid she was pretty standard in her approach to teaching history, as are many of today’s teachers. Any American History teacher today who does not make Bill O’Reilly’s book on Lincoln required reading ought to be sent packing! Both my husband and I agree we were amazed at all that we learned in this fascinating, engrossing book. For example, did you know that Lincoln was killed a mere five days after the end of the Civil War?

Killing Lincoln begins in the very last few days of the Civil War in the spring of 1865 with Ulysses S. Grant and his Union army in hot pursuit of the men in gray lead by Robert E. Lee. The soldiers of the Confederacy had been fighting for state’s rights and slavery for four long years and, though, literally starving and shoeless, were still convinced by their leader that they could win the war and most were willing to fight until death. The description of these last days of the war is gripping and leaves you feeling the agony of the soldiers in the trenches, on horseback and in positions of leadership on both sides of the conflict.

When President Lincoln got word of the signing of the agreement to end the war he was quick to try to convince those around him that vengeance was not to be attempted but instead great effort should be taken to allow the country to heal and become one. This vision was not popular with many in the north and combined with the hatred felt towards him by those in the south he was considered to be one of the most despised men in America. He was warned repeatedly by those around him that his life was very much in danger and he, himself, felt the chances of an attempted assassination were very real. Despite that he continued to openly appear in public. At that time anyone wishing to speak to the president was allowed to approach him at any time to plead his case and, in fact, they were often found asleep on the floor of the White House itself awaiting a chance to speak to Mr. Lincoln.

Those who warned him of the imminent danger to his life were very correct in their assumptions and John Wilkes Booth was one of those wishing to not only kill the president, but to gain fame in the act. Initially the plan was to kidnap him, but that gave way to a plan to assassinate him and several others involved in the government, including Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. The story of how Booth planned President Lincoln’s killing and the other attempted murders with the aid of his cohorts, how it was brought to fruition and the pursuit of these villains is a tale that is hard to put down. For years I have been of the belief that Dr. Mudd, who was held as a prisoner in Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, was an innocent man who only set the broken leg of a man off the street. It seems that he knew who he was treating and what he had done and did not turn him in, so, although he did not actually participate in the killing, he certainly aided and abetted the man who did.

Some reviewers have said that O’Reilly was a little loose in his facts. Some of the examples given seemed unimportant to me and I am not sophisticated enough historically, to know how significant others might be. However, I do know that this book brought history to life for me in a way that no other book has done. And the graphic, heartrending description of Lincoln’s dying had me practically in tears. This book is as good as any thriller you could possibly read and I highly recommend it to you.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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dianebostick@comcast.net

Author: Andrea Levy 

Publisher: Picador (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2010. Available in Hard cover, soft cover, audio and Kindle. 

I know that some of you would rather be shot in the foot than read anything considered a “Historical Novel.” (Yes, I know, some of you think I should say ‘an’ rather than ‘a’ before the word historical. I took the time to look it up and both are correct depending on where you live, but the ‘a’ seems to be preferred in America today.) Now to get back to the subject at hand. “Historical Novel” brings on an image of dry and boring. I can assure you that The Long Song is neither of these. The author, Andrea Levy, was born in England of Jamaican parents. Since this novel is about both England and Jamaica she should have at least a chance of knowing what she is talking about. On the assumed basis that she also knows how to write, the chances are better than even that this might turn out to be a pretty good book. Since she won the Whitbread Book of the Year award and the Orange Prize for Fiction for her book, Small Island, I think we can safely place some faith in this assumption. She has once again done a stellar job of winning us over with a beautifully written story that brings history to life.

The Long Song is autobiographically told by an old woman with the encouragement of her son. This storyteller is “a woman possessed of a forthright tongue and little ink.” She is writing to tell us of her life as a slave on the island of Jamaica. It begins on the very first day of her life when she is born in the middle of a field while her mother is cutting sugar cane. Her mother, Kitty, is so intent on her work she does not even notice that she has given birth until she hears the wail of the newborn child. Kitty stops her work only long enough to wrap the child in a scarf from her head and strap her on her back before going back to her chore.

Well, actually that is not how it happened at all but it seemed like a good way to start telling her story and in fact she has various versions of July’s birth, all with a great amount of drama involved. One had a tiger sniffing at the newborn child, another a wind so fierce as to require Kitty to grab her by the leg before she was blown away. Fortunately, at her son’s insistence, the decision is made to write the true story of the birth which is actually equally harrowing, involving a long eight hour delivery in a dirt floored hut interrupted by the overseer, the father of the child, telling her to stop making so much noise as it is disturbing the enjoyment of his breakfast.

As a young child, July, walking along with her slave mother, is spotted by the mistress of the sugar cane plantation who decides she wants her for a house maid. Of course, no attention is made to her mother’s objection to this loss of her child and July is immediately taken from her. What follows is the story of what becomes of July, or Marguerite, as her mistress prefers to call her. Much of it is told in the voice of the Negro slave which adds to the experience and makes it come to life. The use of that voice gives one a truer taste of what is going on in the hearts and minds of the slaves and their vision of their lives.

You will soon find yourself immersed in these very lives and your heart will bleed for the inhumanity of their treatment, considered normal by their owners, in the nearly 300 years of slavery in Jamaica. There is, of course, humor, love, hate, rebellion, punishment, subterfuge, payback, reward, happiness and sadness, all the things that make any good book a pleasure to read. It is all there. But, please be sure to focus, not only on the enthralling story, but the poetic language with which it is told. Andréa Levy has a way of weaving words so that you can see the whole picture in your mind and enjoy every word as she has written it. This is no slapdash, get it on the paper style of writing, but one that shows great care has been taken to see that each word poetically relates to the totality of the phrase. One cannot help but appreciate the literary palette used to paint the whole panoramic picture in those perfectly selected words.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter. 

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Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Doubleday 2011.

When we think of John Grisham, our minds go automatically to courtroom drama. However, this man is no one note wonder. Although the majority of his twenty-five books have indeed been about lawyers, law firms and the courtroom, he has also branched off into other subject matter, though not with as much success. I, personally, think that his very first book, A Time to Kill, is his finest by far. It was written in a fine literary style. Since then, although I have enjoyed almost all of his books, I think he has tended to pander more to the literary taste of the general public and with the thought in mind of how the book would sell. I feel that you could read A Time to Kill twenty years from now and feel that you were reading a finely honed story with thought having been given to the morals of the issues of the time period it addresses. I encourage you to read it and enjoy it for its beautifully written and emotionally told tale. This is less the case in the books written since then, although they are fine books in and of themselves. He has also written a book about Christmas, two about football, a book of short stories, one about his childhood and a non-fiction, The Innocent Man. Ten of his books have been made into feature films.

In this latest, The Litigators, his writing style is a bit different from those he has written in the past. In the first few pages we watch as David Zinc, a lawyer with a huge law firm, goes off the deep end one morning as he heads to his office to put in another 80 hour work week. He never makes it there. Instead he goes on a bender and ends up at a local bar where he spends the day looking into the bottoms of many bottles of beer trying to put it all behind him. Needless to say, his wife and co-workers at his firm spend the day trying to find him. With varying degrees of relief they find out that he is all right but determined never to return to his former place of employment. Just up the street from the bar that has been his home for the day is the “boutique” law firm of Finley and Figg, made up of two inept ambulance chasing lawyers. He stumbles upon them in his state of high inebriation just as they are out on the street trying to round up new clients from those involved in a large automobile accident that has occurred right in front of their office. Too drunk to know any better he joins the foray, chasing off other ambulance chasing lawyers with the same goal in mind.

The next day when he sobers up he realizes that he has most certainly burned all his bridges behind him and decides that the only thing for him to do is to offer himself to the firm of Finley and Figg as their newest employee.The firm will now consist of exactly five warm bodies, if you include the receptionist and the dog. Up until now the firm has primarily worked at representing those who have been hustled after being in an accident or want a quick, cheap divorce. Oscar Finley spends most of his time locked in his office trying to ignore the world and Wally Figg runs around frantically leaving cards and brochures all over town in the most unlikely places looking for new business. One day he stumbles upon the idea of joining a class action suit against a large pharmaceutical firm for a supposedly faulty medication that he has been told causes more harm than good to those taking it. Since their firm has practically no money and the pharmaceutical company has millions to spend in their defense you can readily imagine there will be some large obstacles to overcome.

When you factor in the fact that Wally is an alcoholic and none of the three has ever spent time in a courtroom of any size you can quickly see the handwriting on the wall. However, reading that handwriting is entertaining, and all is not lost because there are other cases along the way with a greater chance of success, that of the child who has severe damage from lead poisoning caused by a toy made in China or the illegal immigrants who are being made to work almost without pay. And, of course, as you might guess, David Zinc comes reluctantly, and much to his amazement, as Superman to the rescue.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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A Jesse Stone Novel 

Author: Michael Brandman 

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011. 

What do V.C. Andrew and Robert B. Parker have in common? The obvious answer is that both are well loved authors who have written for years and still have new books being published as recently as this year. The less obvious answer is that both are dead!

V.C Andrews died in 1986 with over 24 million books in print in many languages and has had over 29 books written by others, but published in her name, since her death.

Another author suffering somewhat the same fate is Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books and the children’s book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Fleming passed away in 1964 after writing 12 novels. His hero, James Bond, is still appearing in books, though not specifically under Fleming’s name. Since his death several well known authors have taken up their pens to write about the famous spy 007, with much less acclaim.

Yet another who passed away in 2010 is Dick Francis, who shortly before his death was joined by his son in coauthoring three books. Since his passing his son, Felix has written Gamble under his name alone. If you have been a fan of his father you will see he does not miss a beat. You will swear you are reading a Dick Francis book.

Robert B. Parker was by far the most prodigious writer of them all. When he died at the age of 77 in 2010 he was sitting at his desk writing yet another of his crime novels. During his lifetime he had published 39 of his Spenser novels, nine books with Jessie Stone as the protagonist, six with Sunny Randall as the leading character and thirteen others, including several westerns. Six Kill was his last completed novel and has been published since his death. That is a grand total of 68 novels. If that doesn’t define “prodigious” I don’t know what would. He was particularly known for the conversational style of his characters. Parker did not have a wordy bone in his body. Where someone else might have used ten words to make a sentence Parker managed to get the message over with three or four. I can imagine that a ten word sentence would have been construed by him as “running off at the mouth.” Where other authors are heralded for their vivid descriptions Parker managed to get the exact same imagery by writing succinctly. He left it up to the reader to fill in the blanks with their imagination, which millions of readers seemed to relish doing.

Parker’s latest book, Killing the Blues, was written by his long term collaborator Michael Brandman, who co-wrote and produced the TV movies that featured Tom Selleck as the tortured alcoholic detective Jessie Stone. His attempt to have his characters speak in the manner that Parker would have somehow doesn’t quite ring true. It is more like reading the story as it was shown in one of his movies, but that doesn’t mean it is not fun to read. It is just not quite Parker.

In Killing the Blues summer is coming to the town of Paradise and with it has come a wave of car thefts, all of them Hondas, which leads Police Chief Jesse Stone to the conclusion that there might be a chop shop at work, possibly headed by organized crime. It is his job to stop it before it ruins “the season!” The Board of Selectmen has given him firm directions to do the job he was hired for and to do it quickly.

If that were not enough to keep him busy he learns that a victim of his dark past, Rollo Nurse, has been released from prison with revenge on his mind, all aimed at Stone. He is determined to make Jesse pay for the damage that was done to him when he was “over zealous” in his capture of Nurse while under the influence of alcohol. Nurse is not above a little practice on others, both animal and human, while setting up his plan to kill Stone.

There is a little casual romance to soften the story and yet another side story when Jesse is confronted with a young lady who has been tortured by high school bullies but whose plight has been ignored by school authorities.

I would not say it is exactly Robert Parker speaking from the grave but it is a book worth a couple of hours of your time when you are looking for something to read that is entertaining. I will be looking forward to Brandman’s next attempt to bring Jesse Stone to life in the manner of Robert Parker.

Brandman has been hired by the estate to write other Stone books while another crime novelist, Ace Atkins, will be writing books involving the Spenser character. His first book will come out in 2012. It seems to me that he has an even harder pair of shoes to fill. The Spenser books are even more precise in their manner of speaking than the Stone books, which was a large part of what made them so addictive. I wish him lots of luck. I loved the Spenser series and I would certainly enjoy reading them long after the man who originally brought them to life has gone on to crime writer’s heaven.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter. 

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Author: Julia Glass. 

Publisher: Pantheon 2010. Available in paperback by Anchor Books. 

I think of myself as a reader of mysteries more than any other type of book. When I go to the library that is the section I gravitate to first. (I have yet to figure out yet why what I would call a “mystery” is sometimes to be found in the “Mystery” section and sometimes in the “Fiction” section. Who decides which it is?) However, since beginning these reviews I have read a good bit of fiction in trying to review books for everyone’s taste.

And, in retrospect, I find that not a single one of my favorite books of the past has been a mystery. My bookshelf of favorites consists of, among others, Stegner’s Angle of Repose, Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, Walker’s Color Purple and Irving’s World According to Garp. So I guess I have a broader spectrum of literary genre than I thought I had.

I found my latest fictional book, The Widower’s Tale, a delight to read. Before writing a review I often go online to read reviews written by others to help me organize my thoughts. Most all reviews gave this book four out of five stars. There were a few who disliked it because they thought it had political and social agendas, but what book of any interest doesn’t? Think of Les Miserables, Oliver Twist, Gone With the Wind and very currently, The Help. Each of these has strong political or social messages, but what wonderful stories they are. In order for a book to have well rounded characters the author must give them opinions on what is happening around them and for the story to seem real we must be able to see what events are shaping their lives. I am not implying in any way that this author’s work is of the caliber of those I just mentioned, however, having a message does not take away from its being a good story and she does a fine job with it.

This book has several main characters to keep track of, each with his own story, but all connected in some way. Percy Darling, a 71 year old retired librarian from Harvard, lives in a historical home on the outskirts of Boston. Thirty years ago he was widowed and left with two young girls to raise. His daughter, Clover, who has abandoned her husband and children, has renovated Percy’s old barn where she has established a pre-school. One of the teachers in the school is Ira, a homosexual man who has resisted marrying his lawyer partner, despite loving him deeply. We also get to know Celestine, a man who is in this country illegally. He was brought to America as a young boy to be educated by a wealthy archeologist his father had worked for in Guatemala. He has become an excellent gardener but he is always fearful of being sent home. And last, but not least, is Robert, Percy’s grandson, a pre-med student, who has become involved, somewhat accidentally and rather half heartedly, in ecoterrorism. So you see there is plenty of room here for political and social opinions to be expressed by word and deed by the various characters. However, I found each of these viewpoints shown in ways that were a logical part of the storyline.

Throughout the story we hear of Percy’s life with his wife, his sense of great loss without her and her death’s effect on his young family. Much to his surprise he has now become romantically involved with a woman, Sarah, who is not only much younger than himself, but also has a young son. Their relationship is rudely interrupted and disrupted when she discovers that she has breast cancer and pushes Percy away in a strongly felt sense of independence. She is being treated by his other daughter, Trudy, an excellent oncologist specializing in women’s cancers. Clover, Percy’s daughter is attempting to get her two children back. Robert, Ira and Celestine become acquainted when, together, they build a wonderful tree house for the children in the pre-school.

You can easily see how their lives become intertwined, each involved in some way with the others’ lives. There is enough suspense, romance, gentle intrigue and plain good story to please my reader’s soul.

Ms. Glass also has written other books, one of which, Three Junes, won the 2002 National Book Award. I will be looking for that at my local library or book store soon.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter. 

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Author: Nina Revoyr. 

Publisher: Akashic Books. Available in hardcover and paperback 2011. 

Why we select the books we read is somewhat of a mystery. Sometimes we read something because it is on the best seller list or a friend has said, “You just have to read this.” Often it is a new book just published by an author we have come to love over the years. We would hope it is frequently because you read a review such as this that led you to feel the need to read the book being reviewed. Occasionally we are just caught up by the look of the cover, which somehow has caught our eye and every once in awhile it is just serendipity that that particular cover called to us and we find we are reading a book that will live with us for a long, long time. Such is the case for me with Wingshooters. The front flap of the book compares it to To Kill a Mockingbird, A River Runs Through It and Snow Falling on Cedars. People who write the flaps for books are prone to a bit, or even a whole lot, of puffery. In this case there is no false puffery. Its comparisons are true. It is a touching book to read and one that will leave you with much to think about. If you happen to read it for a book club I guarantee you will have much to discuss.

Set in the early nineteen seventies in the small, all white, town of Deerhorn, Wisconsin we get our first inkling of what the story will be about when we learn that Michelle LeBeau (Mikey), a girl with an American father and Japanese mother has been left in the care of her grandparents. Her mother left when she could not fit into the community and her father soon fled to go after her leaving Mikey with the unfulfilled promise to return soon. The town is not thrilled to have a young girl “of color” thrust into their midst. She is not just ignored, but blatantly rejected and even bullied by her school mates. Her grandfather, however, quickly falls totally in love with her and takes her under his wing, taking her everywhere he goes and even teaching her how to fight back when bullied. That fact, along with her intense love for her dog, is what makes her able to cope with life without her parents, especially her father whom she yearns for. The only reason members of Deerhorn are willing to accept her at all is that her grandfather is a leader in the community, not in the political sense, but instead as one who is looked up to and depended upon when problems need solving. His friends, a closely knit group, including the sheriff, gather at his home often to ask his advice and almost daily have lunch together to discuss the day’s happening.

The town is soon completely in an uproar when a young, professional black couple moves into town. He has been hired as a substitute for a teacher on maternity leave, and she is the new nurse at the local clinic. Other than Mikey, this is the town’s first time to have someone among them totally different from themselves. They are not accepting, in any way, of having one of “them” living in their town, teaching their children and touching them at the clinic. Plans are soon under way to get rid of them. Things go from bad to worse when the black teacher reports one of the students as being physically abused by his parents when he notices both new and old scars on the child’s back. The parents deny any wrong doing and are believed because the father is a very close friend of Mikey’s grandfather and the sheriff. Mikey, however, also saw the scars on the little boy’s back so is torn between what she hears and what she knows is the truth. Taken along with the fact that she has been treated nothing but kindly by both the teacher and the nurse leaves her feeling lost and bewildered.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, was recently quoted as saying, “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends.” This quote will ring true when you read what transpires as friends have to take sides as the town is torn apart by truths, untruths and bigotry.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter. 

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Author: Ashley Judd

Publisher: Ballentine Books 2011

It may seem harsh to say in this day and age that I have little sympathy for those who have made no effort to improve themselves and expect others who have studied and worked hard to pay their way. I understand that the economics of today have changed a lot of the rules and there are many who are suffering because of it who have truly tried to do all the right things. But, I also realize there are millions of people in the third world countries who, through no fault of their own, live lives of extreme poverty and great desperation, far beyond anything most of us have ever seen or even imagined. If I didn’t realize it before, I certainly do after reading this book.

In case you aren’t familiar with Ashley Judd, she is a gorgeous and excellent Hollywood and Broadway actress, half sister of Wynonna Judd and daughter of Naomi Judd, famous for their award winning country singing career, and wife of auto racer Dario Franchitti.

Her life as a child was a difficult one as her mother, Naomi, divorced and tried to make it on her own while supporting her two children. Ashley was often left totally to her own devices, suffered sexual and physical abuse and became deeply depressed. Luckily she spent a great deal of time with her grandparents who were loving and supportive. In an effort to escape the real world she lived in she became an avid reader which, in turn, helped her develop a vivid imagination which was useful in her later career as an actress.

One whole section of this book is devoted to describing her truly horrible childhood. I don’t know how she had the strength to make it through. At times she considered killing herself and I can certainly understand why. She was fortunate, later in life, to become a part of a therapy group in Texas called Shades of Hope (www.shadesofhope.com) Her sister Wynonna had gone there to cope with her emotional and eating problems and Ashley was invited to become a part of the therapy when she went for a family week for Wynonna. She was immediately identified by the staff as a “Lost Child,” which I believe was a very apt title; and, in a most unusual move, they invited her to become part of their treatment program. Thankfully they were able to help her on the path to feeling whole for the first time in her life.

Because of her success in Hollywood and Broadway and her beauty it would be easy for her to rest on her laurels and enjoy a life of glamour, however, she has done no such thing. She was elected Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky and received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

In addition to telling of her childhood life and therapy, much of her book is devoted to telling us of her later life as a global ambassador for Youth AIDS, a prevention program sponsored by Population Services International where she is now a board member. She strongly believes in population control, feeling that much of the world’s problems are due to overpopulation. She has traveled extensively in Asia, Africa and South America promoting the use of condoms to prevent both pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.

Her travels as an ambassador have not only taken her to the usual fund raisers and political fancy dinners, where she is able to meet Heads of State, but much more often into the poorest parts of cities into slums, clinics, hospices, orphanages, brothels, and sex-slave markets where many of the woman and young girls have been forced into prostitution, both as slaves and, in an extreme desperate effort, to support their children.

While visiting she does just not pass through and briefly glimpse at what is happening, as so often happens in cases such as these, but stops to talk with the women with great empathy for their plight. She sits next to them, listens to what they have to say and, indeed, puts her arms around them to show her love, understanding and support. She realizes that she can not personally save each of them, as much as she might like to, but she can encourage them in ways that might improve their lives and others like them.

This is not an easy book to read. If you are expecting a lot of gossip about life as a movie star you will be sadly disappointed. Instead you will learn a great deal about what is happening to people, especially women, in the poorest parts of the world. And you will have a greater understanding of why those who live there are so very, very poor and some idea of what can, and should be done to improve their situation. And, lastly, you will acquire an appreciation of Ashley Judd’s amazing feelings of humanity for all of mankind despite, and perhaps, because of, all that she personally suffered as a child.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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Author: Joseph Finder

Publisher: St. Martins Press, 2011.

I have given quite a bit of thought since I started writing these reviews as to what makes a book something I want to continue reading. Sometimes it is beautifully detailed descriptions of people and places. Sometimes it is the thrill of the chase. Sometimes it is learning about something I know nothing about, told in an interesting way. But one of the most important things for me in a book of fiction or biography is that I care about the people in the book; that I want to know what happens to them either at the end of the story or even on a daily basis. (Elizabeth Berg writes stories that are not necessarily gripping drama, but I find I just enjoy relating to the characters in her books and what they are doing in their everyday lives. I often ask myself how she seems to know me so well.) In most mysteries I not only want to be titillated by the story itself but I want to be rooting for someone. Sometimes it is the detective, sometimes the lawyer, sometimes the victim, sometimes the police, and occasionally, surprisingly enough, it might even be the so called “bad guy.” In Buried Secrets, although there is most certainly a victim, I am rooting for Nick Heller, the man who has been asked to find the victim before it is too late.

If you are not too young you might remember the case of Barbara Jane Mackle, the daughter of one of the Mackle Brothers who, among other things, developed Marco Island (Elkcam Circle is Mackle spelled backwards, in case you didn’t know.) In 1968, the twenty year old girl was kidnapped from a hotel room near Atlanta where she was recovering from the flu under her mother’s care. She was buried in a fiber glass-reinforced coffin containing an air pump, a battery-powered lamp, water laced with sedatives, and food. Two plastic pipes provided her with fresh air. A ransom of $500,000 was paid and vague directions were given to the police as to where she was buried. More than 100 policemen hunted for her and she was found after 3 days, dehydrated, but otherwise unharmed. (Yes, the perpetrators were captured.) If you are interested in reading more about the case, Mackle wrote of her ordeal in 83 Hours ‘Til Dawn which is available in both book and video form. (Editor’s Note: Or, read Craig Woodward’s award-winning three part series on the kidnapping of Barbara Mackle published in Coastal Breeze News and coastalbreezenews.com.)

I have to think that the author had this case in mind when he came up with his story line. Seventeen year old Alexa Marcus, daughter of billionaire Marshall Marcus does not come home after a night spent night clubbing with her friend, Taylor Armstrong, daughter of Senator Armstrong. Soon enough, her father and step-mother find out that she has been kidnapped after viewing a live video of their daughter pleading with them to pay whatever the kidnappers want. Amazingly the kidnappers are not asking for money but instead something called “Mercury,” which the father claims no knowledge of. It is impossible to tell where Alexa is being held from the video but Nick Heller, the man who has been hired to find her, figures out that she is being held in a coffin when she appears to babble in one of the videos, “I’m so cold and I’m so afraid that I’m too weak and I can’t change. I-I twist and turn in the darkest space and…I don’t want to be here anymore, Daddy.” Heller’s forensic data tech, Dorothy, Googles these strange words and finds that they are the lyrics to a song called, “Buried Alive.” For Alexa this is especially terrifying as she is extremely claustrophobic. She won’t even ride in an elevator.

Knowing that she is being held in a coffin is not of much use since they have no idea where the coffin is buried, not even in which state.

Heller is fairly easily able to establish who kidnapped her through the use of security cameras in the nightclub, but most certainly with little help from Alexa’s so-called friend Taylor, who is far from forthcoming about the evening’s events and her part in them. However, that is a long way from the end of his search for the girl and, it is his hope, her rescue.

There is little flowery writing or descriptive turn of a phrase in this yarn. There are the usual twists and turns of any good mystery and it is, indeed, a good one. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and often, as in this case, that is exactly what you are looking for.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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Diane Bostick

Author: Jonathan Dixon

Publisher: Clarkson Potter/Publishers 2011.

I doubt that I am the only one, man or woman, who loves to cook but is seldom able to produce anything to equal the gourmet delights I have been served in first class restaurants. You would think that with enough practice cooking meals for a family day after day you would eventually reach some level of acclaim, at least from that very family eating those lovingly prepared meals, but ‘taint necessarily so! You can spend all the time you want perusing cookbooks of all types and practicing what you read and still not reach that coveted goal of “Chef” versus “cook.” Those of you who have read Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, a biographical book of a young girl, Julie, who decided to cook, in one year, every one of Julia Child’s 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, know she soon found that effort and intent do not always lead to excellence.

Jonathan Dixon decided on his 38th birthday, after years of various unsatisfying jobs, to enroll in the two year program of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), one of the world’s premier cooking schools. He was one of the oldest students in the class with most of them coming straight out of high school.

One of the things Jonathan had going for him in writing this book is that he was a writer before he became a chef. We often find that an author has the best of intentions in telling his story but falls down on the job. This is not the case with Mr. Dixon. In this fascinating chronicle of his time at the school he quickly gives us an insider’s view of all that is required of a student preparing to become a gourmet cook.

This is not a journey for the faint of heart. Not only does the Institute have very explicit rules to follow, but its two year course is broken down into hundreds of essential skills involving all types of cooking from all over the world. You might imagine that each dish presented is practiced over and over until perfection is achieved but that is far from the case. Almost always each recipe is prepared only one time. Skills are used over and over again only because many recipes call for the same skills learned earlier to be used again and again. A student must not only learn how to cook each dish but is expected to learn the recipe by heart and from that basic recipe be able to add and subtract ingredients to make other equally delicious dishes.

Often the instructors bear a strong resemblance to Chef Gordon Ramsay in the T.V. show Hell’s Kitchen. They keep an eagle eye on everything being done by the students and have no qualms at all about pointing out the error of his or her ways loudly, clearly, profanely and in an extremely embarrassing manner. The calm, gentle instructor is the exception, not the rule by any means. Each class is crammed with not only skills and recipes to be learned but also facts about the food, where it came from and how to break down and identify the ingredients by taste alone. The extensive wine course alone has an eight hundred page book which has to be pretty much memorized in its entirety.

Not only must a CIA student take the classes but also take an externship of 126 days in a CIA recognized and approved restaurant in New York City and, in addition, spend six weeks each in two of the school’s four on-campus restaurants, both cooking and serving in the dining room.

It would be an understatement to say that many of those starting the program do not make it to the end. After reading this book you will have a new appreciation for the chefs in the kitchen when you dine in a fine restaurant.

If you enjoy this book you might also like Endless Feasts, Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet, edited by Ruth Reichl, Condee Nast Publications, Inc. 2002.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter

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Author: Armor Towles

Publisher: Viking July 2011 

I’ve got to be honest and tell you that I first read a review of this book in one of the other local newspapers. I don’t remember which one. I have now read it and loved it and figuring that not everybody reads all of the local papers decided to review it myself. Even if you have already read the other review, you might not have realized this is a real keeper.

Always the gentleman, even at the age of sixteen, George Washington himself wrote one hundred and ten “Rules of Civility.” Teachers today would be well served to post them in their classrooms as they are all as relevant today as they were almost two hundred and fifty years ago. And they set the basis for a dandy story set in the late 1930’s in New York City. It has been frequently mentioned that there are touches of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in this book. I hate to admit it, but I have not read Gatsby, required reading in many high schools in the past. That oversight will be remedied as soon as my local library has a copy available.

This compelling story starts in the ‘60s when Katey Kontent and her husband are viewing an art show where she sees two separate photographs of a man she knew well in her earlier life. Each of them was obviously taken at different times in his life as in one he is well dressed and glowing with health and wealth and in the other he appears as someone with little money or much to look forward to. Her husband is relieved to see that this man rose out of his earlier hard times to do well, but is quickly corrected by Katey that it is, indeed, the other way around.

Set in 1938 at the end of the depression, Katey and her roommate, Eve Ross, met “Tinker” Grey, the man in the photo, in a low class bar where they had gone to hear authentic jazz being played. He came in late in the evening, appeared to be waiting for someone and when no one arrived, was invited by the two young women to join them. He is obviously a man of money and the three of them hit it off almost immediately, despite the fact that the two young women are not at all in his social class. They have perfected the art of stretching every penny to live life to its fullest and, in fact, have carefully allotted $3 for their evening’s entertainment. He quickly succumbs to their quirky ways and they become almost inseparable. Of course, both girls fall in love with him.

A terrible automobile accident, with Tinker at the wheel, changes the future for all three. Eve is horribly injured and scarred and uses Tinker’s feelings of guilt to steal him away from Katey. But Katey is able to take advantage of all the wealthy socialites she has met through Tinker and his friends and becomes a part of their world, too. Because of these connections, she leaves her former futureless job and joins a, yet to be published, new magazine to be called “Gotham.” Her idea to interview the former doormen of famous hotels in the city, like the Four Seasons and the Ritz, and extract from them untold, embarrassing stories about previous guests solidifies her position on the top editorial staff.

Rules of Civility has love, pathos, stories about the rich and famous partying and working, infidelity and more. I have read a number of reviews of this book since reading it myself and every one has loved it. I would hate to think the reviewers would lead us astray. I am pretty sure that you are going to love it too.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with LearningDisabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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Author: Steve Hamilton

Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur Books January 2010. Winner of the 2010 Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Alex Award and a New York Times Notable Crime Book of the Year.

When I was first asked to take over as book reviewer for the Coastal Breeze for the summer I figured it would be a simple enough thing to do. I was wrong. It is a lot harder than it looks. I first asked what the parameters for the books I was to review might be and was told they should be something written either this year or last. Again, how hard could that be? Turns out it is not nearly as simple as it seems. Just stop and think for a moment. How often do you read a book that you feel confident in suggesting others read? The very book that you think is fantastic and a “must read” might be the very book that others would put down after the first chapter and would only have gotten that far under threat of bodily harm. And that book that you would slit your wrists rather than read might be somebody else’s favorite of all time. It is all a very personal kind of thing. I am required to come up with a book review every two weeks and as a result I find I am looking at books in a whole new way. I have had to broaden my horizons and consider books for all types of readers, both male and female, lovers of fiction and non-fiction, love stories and mysteries and even westerns. It has been an eye opening and interesting experience. But, be assured, it is not as easy as it looks.

I read The Lock Artist several weeks ago and though I really enjoyed it I had no idea how to begin to review it for you. It has a very non-traditional layout in that the chapters jump back and forth over a period of quite a few years. It starts in the present time when Mike Smith, the main character in the book, is incarcerated in prison where he has been for the past nine years. The very next chapter goes back to when he cracks his first safe at the age of eighteen and the next even further back to when he was eight years old and something horrible occurred that prevented him from ever speaking another word, no matter what the provocation. We do not learn what that terrible thing is until almost three quarters of the way through the book. It is not a smooth transition from the earliest time in his life to the present, but instead keeps jumping back from one time to another, keeping you on your toes trying to figure out what happened when. He explains the reason for telling his story in this manner is that he doesn’t want you to think he’s trying to excuse himself by going right to the “sob story” first, nor does he want you to think he is some kind of born criminal if he jumps right in with the “hard core stuff.”

All this is fairly clearly explained in the first chapter. In chapter two we get a taste of his first job as a “boxman” at the age of eighteen. A “boxman” is a person who opens safes without knowing the combination ahead of time. He goes into quite some detail of his whole first safe cracking job and in such a way that you get a pretty clear idea of how he goes about doing what he does and who he does it with. He is far from alone in his endeavors. And they are very much a part of the whole mystery.

In chapter three we meet him again at the age of nine, after the “horrible thing” has occurred causing him to be mute, when he has been placed by the state of Michigan with his uncle Lito, a liquor store owner. For the next five years he was sent to a special school to learn American Sign Language and had an untold number of therapists and psychologists try to learn why he wouldn’t talk. Finally they gave up and sent him back to live with his uncle. And this is when the story of his life as a safe cracker and lock breaker begins. He took an old lock out of the trash his uncle had thrown away and began to study it. He quickly learned how it worked and how to open it without a key. He became so fascinated that he went to an antique store on the block and bought more locks. He quickly learned how to open them, too, and in the process made a nice little set of lock breaking tools and thus began his life-long obsession with opening locks and safes.

Through the whole book we are given teasers that keep us reading. Who is Amelia and what does she mean to him? Who is the Ghost and what hold does he have over Mike? Who owns the five color- coded pagers he has been given in a shoe box to which he must immediately respond whenever they go off? And each time one goes off we read of another heist in which he takes part. What is the horrible thing that happened to him as a young child that caused him not to speak and will he ever speak again?

I think you can see why this book is hard to review, but it is a fascinating book with, believe it or not, an endearing main character and is well worth reading.

Steve Hamilton has written eight other novels.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987. She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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Author: Mary Kay Andrews

Published by St. Martins Press

New York, 2011

O.K. It’s summer and every part of your body, including your brain, is fried beyond recognition and the only thing you want to do is sit somewhere shady and cool, drink in hand, and read something that requires no actual thought what-so-ever. This is the perfect book, a “chick flick” on paper. If you want to stir your mind at all you might have the fun of imagining which movie stars could best play the three long time friends living for a month together in an old and tattered beach house at Nag’s Head. Would Reese Witherspoon portray Ellis best, or should it be Jennifer Anniston? Perhaps Dorie should be played by Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts? Might be fun to have several of your friends read this too, then have a beach party, spark it up with a couple of cold drinks that involve glasses with little umbrellas in them and come up with a complete Hollywood cast for all of the characters in this novel, including the men.

Mary Kay Andrews

The guy who lives in the garage apartment is described as a real hunk and quickly captures the heart of Ellis who hasn’t been in love with anyone for years and is ready to take the plunge. She has just been “downsized” from her job at the bank and has been trying to figure out where life will take her next. Dorie thought she had the perfect marriage and has only recently found out her husband is not what she thought he was and is still reeling from that information. To add to her confusion she has only recently found out that she is pregnant. Julia has a wonderful man in her life who wants to marry her, settle down, buy a house and raise a family but she isn’t sure she is ready for that step. She has been a glamorous model most of her adult life and although she is still gorgeous she feels she has reached an age where she is not as desirable in the modeling industry as she once was. And then there is Maryn, a young woman who Dorie met at the ice cream store, who is running away from a husband who abused her and she has just found out was stealing huge amounts of money from the company he worked for. She is very much in hiding and introduces herself as “Madison.” Dorie hears her asking the counterman where she could find a motel to stay in and invites her to join her and her friends as a paid guest at their beach house. They have an extra room and badly need the money to pay for their month at the beach.

It turns out that their landlord, from whom they rented the house, and only know by the name Mr. Culpepper via emails back and forth, is actually the hunk living in the garage. He is frantically doing everything he can think of to save Ebbtide from foreclosure.

Will Ellis find a new job or true love?  What will happen to Dorie and her new baby?

Will Julia discover there is more to life than a career? Will Madison manage to escape from the clutches of her abusive husband? Will Ebbtide be saved from foreclosure? Tune in next week to find out. Oh, I almost forgot. This is a book and you have it in your hands and you don’t have to wait to find out the conclusion. Just keep sipping on that cold drink and reading to quickly find out the answers to all those heart wrenching questions. What a lovely idea.

This isn’t Shakespeare. It’s just a Chick Flick book but it’s a fun way to while away a hot summer day. Mary Kay Andrews has written seven other novels.

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Author: David Baldacci

Published by Grand Central Publishing 2011.

When each of us goes to the polls in the fall of the year we imagine that we have done due diligence in selecting the perfect candidate for the job of overseeing our lives from the pedestal of the Capital. But in David Baldacci’s world there are no guarantees that we have come even close to being successful. Nobody is safe in the world of Baldacci. Anyone from the President of the United States down to the janitor sweeping out the store room at 3 o’clock in the morning could be the bad guy. And just when you think you have it all figured out along comes a new twist that makes you doubt your ability to analyze who is good and who is evil. Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief…. in his books each is capable of being on either side of law.

In The Sixth Man we see Baldacci’s imagination at work in the Department of Homeland Security. Peter Bunting is the contractor who heads the new “E-Program.” This program brings in every bit of knowledge from our world-wide intelligence network and projects it on a 6 x 8 foot screen where an analyst constantly views it, filters it and makes conclusions as to what effect this information has on our safety in the United States. Obviously this is not a job for any normal human being and can only be done by someone with an eidetic (photographic) memory. Edgar Roy is the man who had been chosen for that job but he is now being held in a Federal maximum security prison charged with being a serial killer. He has been determined to be too mentally unstable to stand trial. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, formerly of the Secret Service, now P.I.s, as “the good guys” (I promise!) have been hired by Roy’s defense lawyer, Ted Bergin, to investigate the murders and Roy’s mental state. Their job becomes immediately more difficult when they arrive in Maine where they were to meet with Bergin and find that he has been murdered. When King and Maxwell go to the prison to interview the man they were to investigate they find him in an almost catatonic state. They are unable to get him to respond to them in any way which obviously is going to make investigating the case even more difficult. The only other person they can immediately ask questions of concerning the case is Bergin’s associate, a young lady just recently out of school with no legal experience and almost no knowledge at all of this particular case. She seems eager and willing to help but extremely nervous about being involved with this case where her boss has just been murdered. In this novel hardly anyone is whom they seem to be at first glance. People in very high places in our government are involved at all levels of the “E-Program” and, as usual in this type of story; each is heavily invested in protecting their own turf, no matter the consequences to others.

The Sixth Man is Baldacci’s 5th in a series with Sean King and Michelle Maxwell as protagonists but in this one they have become something more than co-workers

The author has had 15 of his books climb the list to #1 and has over 110 million books in print worldwide.

Diane Bostick has lived on Marco Island since 1987.  She was the Founder and President of Ft. Myers chapter of the Association of Children with Learning Disabilities, President of Jr. Welfare League, Ft. Myers Chapter, and served on the board of Art League of Marco Island. She is an avid reader, fly fisherwoman, tennis player and crafter.

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