Derek is the head bookseller at Better Read Than Dead and reads mostly trashy crime.
Occasionally he reads outside this genre and is often surprised by the result.
Now You See him
Eli Gottlieb
March 2008
PB $32.95
This is an amazing piece of writing about how quickly and easily an obsession can lead to the unravelling of a life. Narrated by Nick Framingham, he tells the story of his best friend Rob Castor who murdered his girlfriend Kate Pierce and then committed suicide. Rob was a writer, a minor celebrity in the sleepy, upstate New York town that Nick still lives in. Six months after Rob's death, Nick is still broken by it. Unable to concentrate on his work he is drifting aimlessly. His marriage is crumbling, his kids are alienated and his life is unravelling in a spectacular way. He seeks answers in Rob's sister Belinda, an old flame from his childhood, and together their memories of Rob help the reader gain some understanding of what led him to kill his beloved. It's a piece of writing that will make you think about what went on in Monarch, New York, long after you've closed the last page.
Change of Heart
Jodi Picoult
April 2008
PB $32.95
Jodi Picoult's fifteenth book is really going to stir up the right-wing Christians in her home country. It's the story of June Nealon who loses both her daughter and her husband in an unnecessary and illogical homicide in her home. The perpetrator, a carpenter called Shay Bourne is arrested at the scene, tried and sentenced to death. His appeals drag on and now, twelve years later, he is on death row with just weeks to live. Although much of June's future died along with her husband, she gave birth to a second daughter, and this daughter Clare is now eleven years old and means the whole world to June. But Claire is suffering from a degenerative heart disease and will not live to her next birthday unless a donor can be found. Time is running out for both June and Claire. But improbably, a donor comes forward at the last moment - Shay Bourne wants to donate his heart to Claire, and equally improbably, his heart is a perfect match in both blood type and size for Claire. June wants to save her daughter, but to do so she must grant the dying wish of the man who killed her family, the man that she hates most in the entire world.
As usual Jodi Picoult has given us story that will tear at our heart strings, where nothing is ever black and white, and where you'll make up - and change - your mind many times. The story is told through four different viewpoints; Claire's mother June; Michael, a parish priest who becomes Shay's spiritual adviser; Lucius, also a prisoner with a death sentence whose cell adjoins Shay; and Maggie, the UCLA lawyer who must fight to allow her client to die in a manner where his heart can be harvested. It's a book that will test your faith and your beliefs, but it's a book you won't be able to put down.
Sacrifice
SJ Bolton
February 2008
PB $32.95
This is a really spooky first novel with the isolation and foreboding of the Shetland Islands taking a major role. The story is told by Tora Hamilton, a consultant surgeon who has made the move to the remote island from London to be with her husband. We first meet Tora as she's burying her dead horse in a paddock behind her house. When the excavator uncovers the body of a young woman, Tora is horrified to find a gaping hole in chest where her heart has been removed and three rune marks etched into her chest. The detective in charge of the case refuses to give her any information, but Tora's curiosity seems to uncover some unsettling information about the disappearance of young woman on the islands. The connection to the rune marks points toward an ancient legend, but her boss at the hospital and the authorities scoff at her suggestions. When her own husband refuses to listen to her view, and sides with the locals, (of whom he is one), Tora realises that she must trust her instincts and determine the truth of the missing women. Part medical thriller, part forensic mystery this is a great debut novel from SJ Bolton.
Nothing to Lose
Lee Child
April 2008
PB $32.95
Our hero, hyper tough ex US Army Jack Reacher is back in this new thriller from Lee Child. Post September 11, Reacher's life has changed. The drifter who used to carry only a folding toothbrush now carries his passport and an ATM card as well. Buying and discarding clothing as he travels, Reacher leaves the town of Hope in Colorado and drifts into the next town, Despair, looking for just a cup of coffee. Instead he finds trouble, as four metal-workers from the local plant try to discourage him from staying. After he floors one, he is arrested, given a brief court appearance and driven to the town line by the local sheriff. Back in Hope, Reacher starts thinking about what a town like Despair might want to hide so badly that it still runs strangers out of town. Reacher forms an unlikely alliance with Hope Sheriff's female deputy Vaughan who tells him about the many other strangers who get dropped at the border. Despite the advice from the Despair Sheriff and Vaughan, Reacher goes to back to Despair and finds that the town's only employer is a metal plant specialising in breaking up wrecked vehicles from the Iraq combat. And the plant is protected by a fully equipped, battle ready infantry unit. Now all of Reacher's sensors are on full alert as he attempts to unlock the secrets of Despair. With Jack Reacher you know exactly what you're going to get. There's plenty of biffo - the scenes where Reacher methodically demolishes the despair PD are quite satisfying, but I found the denouement unnecessarily complex. But that won't make any difference to Jack Reacher fans!
The Killer's Wife
Bill Floyd
March 2008
PB $32.99
In writing his debut novel Bill Floyd has managed to put a new spin on the old serial killer story, this time focussing not on the killer and his crimes, but on those left behind. The story revolves around Leigh Wren, a data processing manager living a quiet life in a nondescript US town until one night she is approached by a man as she shops in her local supermarket. He pretends to know her, and then exposes her as Nina Mosely, wife of the serial killer who took the life of his daughter. Leigh's life begins to fall apart as the man first threatens to harm her son Hayden, and then exposes her to a local paper. Although she is faced with the most provocative headlines, Nina goes to ground and refuses to tell her side of the story. Cut off from her workmates as her job is threatened and with Hayden suffering repeated bullying at school, Nina turns to Caroline and Duane Rowe, a pair of private investigators to help her. But when reports of new killings emerge, using the identical methods of her incarcerated husband, Nina fears for safety. These fears are realised when Hayden is kidnapped in a bloody rampage at his school, and with the clock ticking, the Killer's Wife must take the law into her own hands to save her son. It's a first rate psychological thriller from this new author.
Protect & Defend
Vince Flynn
November 2007
PB $32.95
Like Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp is a guy for whom violence comes naturally. For Mitch though, he's on the side of the angels, working directly for the head of the CIA, with a license to use whatever means to get the results. The book opens in Iran, with that country on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon. A huge explosion destroys Iran's main nuclear research facility with the underground building turned into a radio-active tomb. Iran blames Israel and her chief backer, the USA and swears vengeance. To diffuse the crisis the President sends Mitch's boss, Irene Kennedy, to a secret meeting with her Iranian opposite number in Mosul, but the American's are double crossed and Kennedy is taken hostage. Then with Mitch Rapp off the leash, no one is safe as he takes the Iraqi's city apart in his hunt to rescue Kennedy before she is killed, or worse, tortured to reveal her intelligence contacts in Iran and Iraq. Vince writes a very convincing geo-political thriller. His sense of time and place is excellent and his hero, Mitch Rapp, is perfectly drawn right-wing American patriot.
My favourite book
All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy
The writing of Cormac McCarthy in this book is simply beautiful. Each phrase so carefully crafted you feel as if you can gently hold it in your palm. Essentially it's a cowboy story and coming of age novel. John Grady Cole is only sixteen years old when his grand-father dies, and with his mother absent and estranged from his father he has no cause to stick around. He and his friend Lacy Rawlins ride their horses across the Rio Grande where they meet Jimmy Blevins, only fourteen years old but already an accomplished sharpshooter.
The book tells of the adventures of the trio, of traumatic experiences with the corrupt Mexican officials, of the changing weather which is a character all of its own, of the cowboys they meet along the road, and finally of John Grady Cole's brief romance with the daughter of a hacienda owner. Although it's set in 1948 it seems of a much earlier time but for a story of being at one with animals and nature it doesn't come much better than this.
My favourite author
Jodi Picoult
I love this woman. She's the bubbliest person you'll ever meet and her writing is superb. I really enjoyed her new novel The Tenth Circle for it's portrayal of an ordinary family of the brink of destruction, and Vanishing Act for its storytelling and the sense of place, but for my money, her best work by far is Perfect Match. Part crime thriller, part court-room drama, part "how-far-would-you-go-for-the-one-you-love" story, Miss Picoult stretches the reader with every new chapter. Just as you've comfotable with a concept, she grabs your comfortable envelope and stretches it almost to tearing. And the ending of this book has such a twist that I doubt anyone will see it coming.
Her titles have all been re-jacketed recently by her Australian publisher and take pride of place on our bookshelves. Her website is worth a visit and of course the address is www.jodipicoult.com
What's beside the bed
Just finishing the new Mo Hayder called Ritual. Not as stomach-clenching as her first book Birdman, but... Also I've got the new Donald Westlake called What's So Funny and Sarah Rayne's new one, The Death Chamber plus a few more. I'd better get to bed and get on with it...