Obedience by Will Lavender

Obedience: a novel, Will Lavender. New York: Shaye Areheart Books/ Crown Publishing/ Random House, 2008. paperback, 289 pps.

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     Professor Williams teaches a college course called Logic and Reasoning 204 at Winchester University in Indiana. The fall semester is short-- six weeks-- and there are no pictures of the face of the professor to be found anywhere. Unlike other professors, he wears jeans and sneakers to class. He also says the f-bomb. The first class, like Professor Williams, is a mystery. He announces that a female by the name of Polly went missing in August. He says if the class cannot figure out who kidnapped her by the end of the six weeks, she will be killed.

     Mary is a student in the class as is an ex-boyfriend named Dennis. There is also Brian, a young Republican whose brother had recently suicided. They become a sort of trio as the six weeks wear on. The three students take a road trip.

sapphoq reviews says: Will Lavender has written a truly creepy book. Although the dialogue did not move fast enough for me at times, I read Obedience in one sitting. It was a story inside of a story. The plot intrigued me in spite of my misgivings about a six week fall semester and the Winchester students' obsession with finding out what an unknown professor looks like before the beginning of class. The Milgram experiment was rather sneaky I thought. The point of obedience to a higher authority regardless of the consequences to another human being felt a bit lost in the parade of characters. Even so, I do recommend it for adults only.

The Big Exit by David Carnoy

The Big Exit, David Carnoy. New York: The Overlook Press, 2012. ebook, 318 pps.

     In this second book of David Carnoy's whodunnit mysteries, Beth Hill returns home to find her husband murdered. For reasons known only to herself, she lawyers up immediately. Suspicion falls upon her and also upon an ex-lover ex-con Frank Sinatra impersonator.

 sapphoq reviews says: Those who have read Knife Music will recognize some characters from that novel who are included in this one. The author once again excels at developing the personalities of his characters as well as realistic cop-speak and physician-speak. I got a real kick out of the Frank Sinatra impersonator. I loved this book and I am looking forward to more from David Carnoy. Once again, a mystery with intelligence behind it and a whopper of a whodunnit factor. Highly recommended.

You've Been Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

You've Been Warned, James Patterson and Howard Roughan. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2017. hardcover, 306 pps.

     Even living here in the middle of nowhere is not an adequate excuse for never having read any James Patterson until today. I don't know why I haven't either. But now that I've read this one, I will probably read more sometime.

     I've never read anything by co-author Howard Roughan either. But then again, I'd never head of Howard Roughan. Maybe I really am a country bumpkin.

     Kris is a woman with a dream. Several of them actually. A recurrent dream which wakens her screaming and her neighbors don't care for that much. And a waking dream of being a photographer. She shoots pictures, works as a nanny, dates, and eats lunch with her two girlfriends.

     She also seems to be going a bit over the edge. Reminiscent of the 1999 movie Sixth Sense, she begins to shoot dead people. Or is she? 

     Screaming in a taxi cab earns her an overnight trip to a local emergency room. Even her old shrink does not want her back in therapy with him. Why oh why is everyone picking on her?

sapphoq reviews says: Although set primarily in New York City, the descriptions of various places there littered throughout the novel was not evocative for me. I've ducked under subway turnstiles, prowled the streets at all hours, been exploring in places that my parents to this day don't know that I've been to. The real strength of You've Been Warned for me was in the character development. Every person in the novel had their own unique personality. And I liked that. Suspense building and the glimpses of the terror inside Kris' head were both also very satisfying to me. For those who like spooky psychological thrillers, highly recommended.

The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock

The Book of Lies, Mary Horlock. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011. e-book, 332 pps. inc. explanatory notes and author interview.

     Cat Rozier lives on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. She has a bestie who is a bit of a bully. Cat feels forced to proclaim that a teacher put the make on her. Cat's dad is dead and she finds a history left by an uncle in his study. A young man that she fancies has had a horrific accident. He returns to Guernsey changed.

sapphoq reviews says: Mary Horlock combines historical fiction with a modern day murder tale flawlessly. The Book of Lies utilizes two voices in the telling of the tale-- Cat Rozier and a dead uncle who had lived during the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands. The backdrop of life on a small island adds immensely to the story as it unfolds. Absolutely highly recommended.

Love thy Neighbor by Mark Gilleo

Love thy Neighbor, Mark Gilleo. Stamford CT: The Story Plant / The Aronica-Miller Publishing Project, LLC, 2011. e-book, 371 pps.


     Love thy Neighbor was a different sort of book. It took an actual event-- the author's mum suspected that some terrorists were living across the street from her-- and built a story around that. [It turns out that two of the 9/11 hijackers were indeed living across the street from her. Unfortunately the C.I.A. dismissed her phone call, later claiming that it didn't occur]. If you do not read the rest of the book, the "Author's Note" alone makes the price of the book worth it.

     Mark Gilleo's fictional account starts off with a teen stealing a cell phone in Islamabad. From there we meet Clark Hayden, the son of a sort of crazy woman who had called the C.I.A. Clark is a geek who is into robotics. That immediately made the story "cool" to me and I continued to read about his return from a competition.

     From there, the plot flows onward to the introduction of more of the main characters and to the area surrounding Hayden's small town in Virginia. The neighbors across the street do indeed disappear. Hayden and a cute female sidekick begin to investigate because he wants to tell them that their house blew up.

     There is ricin in the story. I had supposed in my youth that castor oil was a product of some sort of swimming fish. Not so. Ricin is the by-product of a bean. That bean is there too, in harvested plants and in seeds.

     The townie patrol cop was pretty cool as a minor character. I'd like to see more of him in a future book along with Clark Hayden and his sexy girlfriend. And the robotics added a sweet touch to it all.


sapphoq reviews says: As improbable as the plot was in places, Love thy Neighbor redeems itself richly by sheer movement from place to place. Violence and murders and stuff blowing up in odd warehouses makes for an interesting tale. Although the dialogue is lacking in some places, I thought this book was worthy of my time. Those who are offended by the conjunction of the word Islam and the word terrorist ought to stay away. For the rest of us, recommended.