The Rule of Nine, by Steve Martini

An audio book. A Paul Madriani mystery/thriller.

I had forgotten that Martini seems to have taken a turn to the right, even towards teabaggery. This was distasteful enough, but all in all the writing in this book was bad enough to be noticeable even while listening and driving, and bonus points are earned by the ending: a classic, buy the next book, cliffhanger.

Phooey.

Fives and Twenty-Fives, by Michael Pitre

I heard this author interviewed on NPR. One gets somewhat jaded to the tales of returning vets. Homeless, PTSD, misunderstood: my heart goes out to all of them, but there are so many, and it seems to be constantly in front of us, a horrible problem that won't go away. But there was something about Pitre when I heard him on the radio (Fresh Air?), and I managed to remember to get his book out of the Library.

NY Times Book Review

I found the book to be a non-stop read, the "can't put it down" type. The characters are excellently drawn and believable. Pitre's Marines have stayed with me, and I doubt I'll look at any service member quite the same having read this book.

Ghostwalk, by Rebecca Stott

I can't say that I'm crazy about this book, but I did read the whole thing. It is, in part, a ghost story that involves Isaac Newton and some interesting (I'm not at all sure how accurate) information about his personality, and his involvement with alchemy. The book takes place, almost completely, in the 21st century rather than the sixteenth, but Newton and shades of the past figure prominently.

Knots and Crosses, by Ian Rankin

This is the first novel in the Inspector Rebus series. I have previously read number three, Tooth and Nail.

Knots and Crosses is set in Edinburgh. Its copyright date is 1987, and the novel takes place in a time that is perhaps a few years earlier than that.

Rebus is called away from a busy desk to join a task force investigating a series of murders of young girls. As the investigation intensifies, the murders continue, and Rebus is drawn further into the mystery. His involvement becomes more and more personal as the plot unfolds.

We learn, in this book, that Rebus was in the SAS before joining the police. His experiences there, which were beyond horrible, have affected him, and color the events of this story--as well as being integral in its plot.

We are introduced to Rebus's ex-wife Rhona and their daughter Samantha in this book.

A Most Wanted Man, by John le Carré

I "read" this as an audio book.

In the ongoing mess of world affairs one suspects a high degree of incompetence, subterfuge, and mindlessly selfish power-grabbing. Le Carré does nothing to allay this suspicion.

This book is set in Hamburg, Germany. It deals with a young refugee from Chechnya, amazingly naive in spite of the brutal treatment he has endured on his flight from torture and imprisonment. The story is, of course, detailed and complex. Some people in Germany try to help him, and a very many do not.

If one is disposed to be paranoid or depressed about current events it might be best to skip this one.

Another excellent novel in concept and execution.

Border Songs

Mrs. L. read Border Songs first. She read about it in a Seattle Times book review, and when she was reading it, kept telling me that it was very good. I agree. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was a "can't put it down" read, and I look forward to more from Jim Lynch.

We found it exceptionally interesting because the book is set in an area about 150 miles north of us. Blaine, WA is the town you will drive through if you take I5 north through Washington and enter Canada. It is the home of the border crossing, the Peace Arch, the symbol of Canadian-American friendship.

The friendship between our countries has fallen on hard times in recent years. In the US, we've become prey to xenophobia, and  many foreigners that enter the USA illegally do so through Canada. Furthermore, British Columbia has apparently developed quite an underground marijuana-growing industry, and a lot of this product crosses the border at or near Blaine. US citizens are less pleased with their neighbors to the north, many of whom may see us as violent, under-educated bigots bloated with too much wealth and power.

This story centers on a young man who has grown up in Blaine, a town where the Canadian border is very real, but at the same time very artificial. Brandon Vanderkool joins the US Border Patrol at the urging (and string-pulling) of his father, Norm. Brandon is no ordinary BP agent. He is severely dyslexic, stands six-foot-eight, and immediately shows a terrific talent for noticing the tiny inconsistencies in the world around him that betray smugglers and illegal border crossings.

Brandon's job brings into focus the nature of the tensions between Canadians and Americans in this small international community. The characters are beautifully drawn and believably human. The story is plotted with mastery, and we enter a world we are painfully reluctant to leave at the turning of the last page.

As if all this were not enough, Lynch has included a wonderfully sensitive portrait of the natural history of the Pacific Northwest, with especial attention to bird life. In addition, we are allowed to see nature through the eyes of a most unusual observer, Brandon Vanderkool.

If you haven't already, I urge you to treat yourself to a reading of Border Songs.

The One Percent Doctrine, by Ron Suskind

Deep Inside America's Pursuit of its Enemies Since 9/11
Simon and Schuster, 2006. 367 pages.

OK, Americans. Required reading.

Think Dick Cheney's a little creepy?

This is a dispassionate analysis of where America's been going for the last six years. It is remarkably unbiased, and sticks to high standards of journalism, i.e. reporting as opposed to pontificating.

But you can't simply not draw some conclusions.

We haven't just become paranoid, we've discarded basic tenets of our system of government under the banner of fighting terrorism and Al Qaeda. Our latest President enjoys his second term in office with one of the lowest approval ratings ever given a US President. There is little or no doubt that he is at the very least guilty of perpetrating an enormous lie about the reason for the Iraq war, and yet he remains in office, and out of prison.

Read this well-written account of what our security services have been doing, and how public servants have been forced to either sacrifice their integrity or resign while the Cheney-Bush juggernaut rolls on.