Picks of the Week

ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS, by Doug Dorst

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

My first thought upon finishing it is that Dorst had written a book akin to what Richard Price might have concocted had he dabbled in the supernatural. That's because Dorst's prose is highly realistic and the characters, especially young policeman Matt Mercer, ring very young and very true, but there's the added sense of unreality in the form of the cemetery town of Colma. Whatever way to classify this, the bottom line is Dorst has serious talent that I'm looking forward to seeing develop further.

KINDRED, by Octavia E. Butler

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

This book is as old as I am but it feels as fresh, as disturbing and as incisive as it must have when it was first published. Butler takes time travel to its logical extension, showing how 26 year old writer Dana's travels back to the antebellum South of the 1800s exposes her to the brutality and the reality of slavery - and by extension, makes the reader feel it and become privy to its ugly realities. This is and should be considered a work of science fiction, but Butler's genius is how she packs so much social commentary in layer after layer.

CHASING DARKNESS, by Robert Crais

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

Maybe it's me, but the sense I got after reading the newest Elvis Cole novel is how old-school it was. The banter is sharp, the wisecracks are back, the action is precise and fast-paced, Joe Pike is very much in the background and by and large the story is all Elvis. What's less present is the angst of previous books, the weight of flashbacks and past deeds, so that CHASING DARKNESS doesn't have the richness of LA REQUIEM but it has the spirit of FREE FALL and VOODOO RIVER.

A CHAMPION'S MIND, by Pete Sampras

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

Not all that many years ago I went through a serious tennis obsession phase, and my favorite player then - and now - is Pete Sampras. Why? Because he had a beautiful serve, rushed the net and won Slams on his own terms without courting publicity. The seventh Wimbledon title was classic and the last matchup with Andre Agassi at the 2002 US Open was all sorts of wonderful. So of course I read this book in practically one sitting, not caring that the prose (written by Peter Bodo) is as cliche ridden as it gets. It's Pistol Pete, dammit, and I miss him on the court.

FREEZING POINT, by Karen Dionne

(originally posted on June 26, 2008)

Karen is the brainchild behind the wonderful writer's forum Backspace, and finally, her debut thriller is about to arrive this fall. The action is nonstop and the hot button issue - finding untapped resources to solve a growing drinking water shortage - is timely in light of rising populations, global warming and other signs of the economic slowdown. But just when a solution (melt the icebergs!) arrives, then things get really frightening. Dionne combines the necessary scientific background with a knack for upping the stakes as the story goes along. Others may call her the next so-and-so, but the first Karen Dionne works for me.