The Associate

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The Associate by John Grisham

The Associate

Unbelievably boring!

Rated: (2.5/5) on May 29, 2009


Trying to be a fast-paced thriller, The Associate tried to assimilate elements that made Robert Ludlum famous - a man trying to prove himself, espionage, tense situations, and a lot more. But this books fails in achieving what it intended to do. Midway through the book, you get the feeling that you’ve been down this road earlier. I had been down this road with The Broker, another disappointing book. I think I’ll stay off the newer Grishams.

A young lawyer is blackmailed to steal secrets from his law firm. You know what happens next.

The Poe Shadow


The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

The Poe Shadow

The mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe is investigated by his ardent fan with serious consequences…

Rated: (3.5/5) on May 16, 2009


The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. But none of this deters a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark.

Quentin, an ardent admirer, discovers that Poe’s last days are riddled with vital unanswered questions - that the police may be covering up. Just when Poe’s death seems destined to remain a mystery, inspiration strikes - in the form of Poe’s own stories. Quentin realizes he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe’s death: the real-life model for Poe’s brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of Poe’s tales of crime and detection.

In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving international political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade and the lost secrets of Poe’s final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe.

Though I felt the book moved very slow, it managed to get me reacquainted with Poe and his works.

The Final Reckoning


Final Reckoning by Sam Bourne

Final Reckoning

A true tale of heroism and violence, a burning quest for justice and revenge…

Rated: (3.5/5) on Apr 27, 2009


Post-war Europe, the Nazis have been brought down and brought to court. But surprisingly only 24 persons face trials for crimes against humanity. Sam Bourne, the pseudonym of Jonathan Freedland (a columnist with the Guardian), tells a shocking tale of Jewish vigilantes who don’t like the fact that the perpertuators of the Final Solution are unpunished.

These young vigilantes saw that the guilty were about to walk free. The world wanted to move on; the Americans, especially, were anxious to absorb western Germany into a new alliance against the Soviet bloc. But these fighters were not ready; before they could be at peace, they would first have to avenge the blood of their fellow Jews. They form a group that would come to be known as the Nokmim, Hebrew for avengers.

The story of what followed has been recounted in several books, most notably Rich Cohen’s The Avengers, which benefited from Cohen’s family connection with some of the group’s lead players, and Forged In Fury, written by the BBC’s former Jerusalem correspondent, Michael Elkins, and first published in 1971. One former member of this clandestine movement, Joseph Harmatz, wrote a revealing memoir, From The Wings, a decade ago.

These accounts differ on some details but agree on the essentials. Calmly, what Harmatz calls the Vengeance group set about implementing death sentences they themselves had passed. Perhaps posing as allied military police serving the postwar occupation authorities, they would identify a Nazi who had melted back into civilian life, stage an arrest and spirit him away. Some of these ex-SS men would be strangled, others hanged – all the better for passing off the death as a suicide. Hangings might take place in a garage, with the subject forced to stand on a car roof while his neck was placed in a noose attached to an overhead beam: an Avenger would drive the car away and the man would be left swinging.

Elkins describes former high-level Nazis found dead in roadside ditches, apparently cut down by a hit-and-run driver. Others met their end in car accidents caused by mysterious mechanical failures. One senior Gestapo man was waiting in a hospital bed for a minor operation when somehow kerosene got into his bloodstream. Estimates vary as to how many Nazis died in what Elkins calls this “first hunting season”, and the Avengers were understandably coy about naming specific names, but it seems as if dozens of Nazis were killed by Jewish vigilantes.

Sam Bourne spins a tale with the Avengers in the background to provide a thrilling tale, that kept me interested through the night.

Double Cross


Double Cross by James Patterson

Double Cross

I guess Patterson is out of ideas that he brings back The Mastermind, Kyle Craig, into the party. I just hope the next book is worth the wait.

Rated: (2.5/5) on Apr 26, 2009


I’ve been following the Alex Cross series since the first movie starring Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross. The first few books were absolutely thrilling and entertaining. But now, having read Double Cross, I felt disappointed.

Alex Cross does what he does best, catch serial killers. He is forced into the cat and mouse game by a new killer who does what seems impossible – commit murders in front of a huge audience and escape. Nicknamed the Audience Killer by Alex Cross, the killer throws a challenge to Alex daring him to catch him.

Meanwhile elsewhere, Alex former best friend-turned-mortal-enemy Kyle Craig is cooling his heels in a maximum security prison for four years. After an unbelievable prison-break, Kyle goes about on his revenge.

Both events seem to be connected as the Audience Killer turns out to be Kyle Craig’s greatest fan. The climax seemed very loosely, with no thrills at all. The Audience Killer gets killed and Kyle escapes in a three-way fight.

It seems to me that the series is going down on its quality. Alex’s best friend John Sampson is now reduced to a minor role. Alex’s family has almost faded away. They are just there in a couple of scenes to remind us that Alex has a family. Is Patterson losing the plot or was this a badly scripted ghost-writer effort?

I just hope that the next book, Cross Country, breathes some life into what has become a lackluster series.

Power Play


Power Play by Joseph Finder

Power Play

Though the possibility of this happening in real life seems plausible, I don’t see it happening…

Rated: (2.5/5) on Apr 19, 2009


Hammond Aerospace Corporation arranges what seems to be a perfect offsite for its senior executives. Totally off the grid, the retreat is a luxurious remote lodge where the only things a guest is expected to pick up are either a glass of liquor or a fishing rod. All the top brass of Hammond are there and one last-minute substitute, Jake Landry, a junior executive. No one wants him there.

A bunch of backwoods hunters gatecrash the opening night dinner and decide to hold the Hammond group as hostages for ransom. What happens next is anybody’s guess. Office politics come to the fore and so does corruption and corporate misdemeanors.

This book does a fine job of keeping you occupied with its doses of cutthroat competition between the Hammond executives and a healthy bit of flashbacks explaining Landry’s background.