Hmmmm.....Another Wizard Named Harry!

Storm Front by Jim Butcher (322 pgs, ROC) is the first book in the Dresden Files series. I have had this book ever since the first episode of the Dresden Files aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. I loved the series on TV, and I'm still disappointed that it won't be coming back. But I can say that I'm extremely glad Jim Butcher is still writing the books! Because after reading the first one, I'll definitely be continuing reading the series!

Harry Dresden – Wizard

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.

No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

That is how Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is listed in the Chicago phone book. He's a wizard. And he's very good at what he does. Unfortunately, not every one in Chicago believes in magic. But Harry manages to scrape by finding lost objects for people. Sometimes he's even called in as a special investigator for the Chicago PD, in cases that are "unique". So when Lt. Murphy of the Special Investigations unit calls Harry to help her investigate a double homicide at the Madison Hotel, Harry jumps at the chance to earn a little extra rent money. Business for the local wizard isn't exactly booming.

When he arrives at the scene, he finds the gruesome remains of 2 people whose hearts have exploded from inside their chests. Only an extremely powerful wizard could conjure enough Black Magic to accomplish this feat, and Harry isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of helping in the investigation. He's on thin ice as it is with the White Council, the governing body of the Wizard community. In fact, he's under the Doom of Damocles, a probation of sorts. Harry was "convicted" of killing a person with Black Magic, which goes against the Laws of Magic and is punishable by death. Harry's plea of self-defense won him this probation instead of execution, but the White Council is watching every move he makes. And the fact that one of the victims worked for mob boss "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone is just one more reason to stay far away from this case. Besides, Harry just got a new client. Her name is Monica and she is looking for something she lost....her husband. And she is willing to pay top dollar to find him.

But Lt. Murphy needs help and soon it becomes apparent that both cases are somehow linked to a new drug that hit the streets in Chicago called the ThreeEye. To top it off, it seems the White Council is convening a special meeting to determine if HARRY is the wizard that did the killing. Now he must help in the investigation, if only to save his own skin!

I couldn't help but picture Paul Blackstone, from the TV series when I was reading this book. He was the perfect Harry!! Storm Front is filled with a little bit of everything....vampires, wizards, both White and Black magic, faeries, frog demons, killer scorpions, and spirits. Harry is a phenomenal character that is not only smart, but funny as hell! He's compassionate, as well as strong-willed, and is determined to the do the right thing. I was completely enthralled by page 2! This series seems to mix a little bit of the hard-boiled PI with the paranormal. And it works! It's fast-moving and fun. I whole-heartedly recommend it to both mystery fans and fantasy fans!! 4.5/5

Deadly Dating

Death Match by Lincoln Child (356 pgs, Doubleday) is my first completed book for the SRC2 Challenge. It is also this month's selection for the Braincandy Reading group (and since I am leading the discussion, I figured I should probably READ it!) This is also the first book by Lincoln Child that I have read.

When Dr. Christopher Lash gets a call from Eden Incorporated, he is mystified. Why would they want to hire him for his services? He is a former FBI forensics psychologist, a profiler. A tragedy at work had affected him personally, and it not only caused him to retire early, but ended his marriage. He is in private practice now and working hard to exorcise the demons of his past. When Eden calls, he decides to see what they could possibly want from him.

Because everyone in the country knows about Eden. They are a match-making service. But not just any service. They are a high-tech company surrounded by secrecy and have a phenomenal success rate. Founded by the reclusive computer genius, Richard Silver, Eden boosts 100% accuracy in finding couples happiness. For just $25,000/person, you too can find the perfect mate! But people are LINING UP to apply for it's services.

When Christopher arrives, he finds he is meeting with the upper echelon of Eden. At Eden, they guarantee the matches they make. Using complicated computing and psychological analysis, couples are matched. If they reach a percentage, around 95%, they are considered a perfect match. And Eden's record stands: All couples that have been matched, have been happy. But in all the years that Eden has been operating, they have seen 6 100% matches. A uniquely perfect match. These are referred to as a "supercouple" match. But the reason Christopher has been called in is that one of the supercouples just committed a double suicide. Eden would like someone from the outside to check into the occurrence.

Everything that Christopher sees about the Thorpes indicates they are indeed the perfect couple. There are absolutely no indicators of suicidal tendencies. Just when he is about to give up, another one of Eden's supercouples commits suicide. Now the real question is this: Is it truly a suicide or is it homicide?

I enjoyed this book. It was a nice thriller with a lot of intensity. The nature of the book is truly far-fetched. Can a computer really match couples perfectly? Aren't there many factors that a computer can't take into consideration? But the book does get into some confusing explanations about Artificial Intelligence and technical jargon. For those that aren't familiar with computers and processing it might be a little too much. And the back story of Lash's time in the FBI just seemed to be thrown in rather hastily and was tied up unsatisfyingly. It's almost like Child was trying to do too many things at one time. He touches on a lot of topics: AI, dating, match-making, serial killers, psychology, suicide, computer programming, computer security. In the end, it was just too much to make a really GREAT book. I figured out the conclusion long before I turned to that page. But I was entertained. And that is truly what 'braincandy' is all about. It was enough for me to put Lincoln Child on my reading list for the future, especially his collaborations with Douglas Preston. 3.5/5

Also Reviewed by:

Melody @ Melody's Reading Corner

A Young Adult Book PERFECT for all Ages!

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (pgs. 225) was a Newberry Honor Book in 2005. This should have told me something right away. I actually thought this was going to be a silly book. Silly name = silly book, right? Oh how wrong I was. My only complaint is that it didn't win the AWARD in 2005, because this is one fabulous book!!

Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. Alcatraz sits smack in the middle of the bay -- so close to the city of San Francisco, I can hear them call the score on a baseball game on Marina Green. Okay, not that close. But still. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't want. I never knew a prison could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you are me. I got here because my mother said I had to.

This is the story of the Flannagan family. In 1935, the family of the guards were actually housed on the island prison of Alcatraz. Matthew, or Moose, Flannagan is a 12-year-old boy that loves baseball and tries to be normal. His older sister Natalie is severely autistic, though in 1935 no one actually knows what is wrong with her. Only that she is different. Moose's dad took a job as a prison guard/electrician and moved the family to Alcatraz for one reason. To be close to San Francisco so Natalie could go to the Esther P. Marinoff School. It was a chance for her to learn to be "normal". Natalie had tantrums, didn't communicate like other children and had a box of buttons that she never left without. She could multiply numbers like 1,654 X 358 and knew and the page numbers in every book index the Flanagan's owned. Moose just wanted to make friends and play baseball.

Also on the island, besides criminals like Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly, were other kids. Piper, the warden's daughter was a beautiful albeit scheming girl that was always trying to make a buck and seemed to be the unquestioned leader of the gang. When she tried to rope Moose into helping her "Sell" convict laundry services to the kids at school, he realized he was going to be in trouble. All the kids wanted their shirts done by the famous Al Capone, after all. But Piper was mean. She made fun of Natalie, blackmailed the other children into helping her in her outlandish schemes, and ran to tell her daddy of anything done wrong.

When I started this book, I had no idea where it was going. What materialized was a coming-of-age story about a boy that loved his sister, no matter what her differences were. It's about a family that is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that Natalie gets a fair shake in life. And it's about friendships that will last no matter what the odds are. I loved this book. It was touching, heartwarming, and had enough humor to make me laugh. I think any adult would love this book, probably more so than the age group it's actually intended for. As an adult we can see how much this 12-year-old boy actually puts on the line for his sister. I highly recommend this book to everyone!! 4.5/5

Sex and Violence and Drugs...Oh My!

Turning Angel by Greg Iles (2006, 512 pgs) is fast-paced, action-packed thriller. And Greg Iles seems to want to take on a whole host of hot button topics! Penn Cage is a widower and a former-lawyer-turned author that lives in Natchez, MS with his daughter Annie. Natchez is the town in which he grew up, but it has changed a lot over the years. The economic outlook is rather bleak, with many business closing their doors or pulling out of town. The schools aren't great. And worst of all, there seems to be a lot more drugs in town than ever before. But when Kate Townsend is murdered, the town is stunned. Kate is a seventeen-year-old high school Senior that is beautiful, intelligent, athletic and Harvard-bound. But Penn gets a double shock when his lifelong friend, Dr. Drew Elliot asked Penn to represent him. Drew, a forty-old-physician, was having an affair with Kate. But it was more than an affair. Drew was seriously going to leave his pain-killer addicted wife for Kate and move to Massachusetts with her when she left for school. Drew himself was once the town's golden child. An exceptional athletic, he became a doctor. Not only was he just a doctor, but he took trips to third-world countries to provide free-medical treatment. He was handsome, smart, and every one's friend. He was the kind of man every woman wanted and every man wanted to be.

District Attorney Shad Johnson is on a mission. That mission is to move up the ladder, stepping on whoever he has to in the process. He wants to be Mayor. When an anonymous phone call is made to his office about Drew and Kate's affair, Shad immediately considers Drew the number one suspect. It is clear that his intentions are more for politics than for justice. But when the news of the affair comes out, Drew quickly becomes the town pariah. But Kate wasn't the sweet innocent she made herself out to be. It seems there is a link between her and the town's biggest drug dealer, Cyrus White.

This book tries to pose us with questions that there are not a lot of answers for. Can a relationship between a seventeen-year-old and a forty-year-old be anything other than sexual? Should 2 people with such a wide gap in age be allowed to be together? Can different races work together for the good of a town instead of trying to pull it apart? Iles gives us some heavy race issues to deal with in this book as well.

I liked this book, but there were a couple of things that made this a good read instead of a great one. It is definitely a page-turner. I read through it like I couldn't get enough. But I didn't find Drew to be a very likeable character. Neither was Kate. And in the end, I just didn't care what happened to him. I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Drew's wife, Ellen either. I also thought that Iles painted a very bleak picture of today's teens. I realize that they are more advanced today than they were when I was in high school (and NO, it wasn't THAT long ago!), but I think he really exaggerated the over-sexed and over-drugged kids. At least I hope so!! 3.75/5