Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to you all. Thanks for visiting and reading Book Dilettante. Hope to see you again after the holidays!
       
(graphic courtesy of Webweavers Free Clip Art)

Book Feature: Thursday at Noon by William F. Brown

Featured book: Thursday at Noon by William F. Brown
E-book published June 6, 2012
Genre: mystery
Source: author

Book description: "As The New Yorker said, it is “a thriller in the purest cliffhanger vein. The technique is flawless. It could only have been learned in a thousand Saturday afternoon movie matinees."

Cairo, 1962. Richard Thomson is already having a very bad day when someone leaves a corpse lying on his back steps. Thomson is a burned out CIA Agent and the body belongs to a petty Cairo thief who tried to sell him photographs of a long-abandoned RAF base in the Egyptian desert. Alone and on the run, no one believes what Thomson knows -- not the CIA, the US Ambassador, the Egyptian State Security, and most assuredly not Captain Hassan Saleh, of the Homicide Bureau of the Cairo Police.

Like Night of the Generals, this is a murder mystery set within an international crisis. (from the publisher)

"Thursday at Noon was originally a Joan Kahn Book published by St. Martin’s Press in hardback and subsequently by Harlequin’s Gold Eagle in paperback, and in various foreign editions." (from the author's web page. Visit for information about his six thrillers). 

Book Teaser: The Longest Way Home by Andrew McCarthy

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down by Andrew McCarthy
Published September 12, 2012; Free Press
Genre: memoir

Opening sentences: We had traveled just nineteen miles west - my childhood was left behind. Gone were the backyard Wiffle ball games with my brothers that had defined my summer afternoons, as was the small maple tree in the front yard that I nearly succeeded in chopping down with a rubber ax when I was eight; over were the nights lying in bed talking to my older brother Peter across the room in the dark before sleep came. We had lived atop a small hill, safely in the center of a suburban block, in a three-bedroom colonial with green shutters; now we would live in a long and low house in a swale on a large corner lot a half hour and a world away.

Book description: Award-winning travel writer and actor Andrew McCarthy delivers a revealing and insightful memoir about how travel helped him become the man he wanted to be, helping him overcome life-long fears and confront his resistance to commitment.

Do the teasers/opening sentences make you want to read the book?

Sunday Salon: Jigsaw Puzzles

Fruit Jigsaw Puzzle, picture by Jigzone.com.  Here's how I've been spending my time, besides watching basketball and baking bread.

I'm also reading Jasmine Nights by Julia Gregson, a novel about female spies during WWII, set in the Middle East, and received two new ARCs, The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout and Merciless: a Mystery by Lori Armstrong, thanks to Random House's Shelf Awareness giveaway and Touchstone.

What are you doing this weekend?

Book Review: The Raven's Heart by Jesse Blackadder

Title: The Raven's Heart: A Story of a Quest, a Castle and Mary Queen of Scots
Author: Jesse Blackadder
Published September 11, 2012; Bywater Books
Genre: historical fiction

"Where are you hurrying to, laddie?"
"I am on the Queen's business." I struggle, trying for a position where I can kick his groin.
"I don't doubt it." The cold of his dagger tips my throat. I freeze.
"What brings the Queen here to Dunbar in such secrecy? And who are you?" (ch. 17)

Description: "Scotland, 1561, and a ship carries home Mary, the young, charismatic Queen of Scots, returning after 13 years in the French court to wrest back control of her throne.
The Blackadder family has long awaited the Queen’s return to bring them justice. Alison Blackadder, disguised as a boy from childhood to protect her from the murderous clan that stole her family's lands, must learn to be a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, building a web of dependence and reward.
Just as the Queen can trust nobody, Alison discovers lies, danger and treachery at every turn. Then, unexpectedly, she finds love…

This sweeping epic of political intrigue, misplaced loyalty, secret passion and implacable revenge is based on real characters and events from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots." (publisher)

Comments: What impressed me about the book was the research that this Australian author did to find out more about her family name originating in Scotland. She recounts the story, in novel form, of the Blackadder family of Scotland and their loyalty to Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Raven's Heart covers the period of Mary in Scotland, before she was imprisoned by her Scottish lords, and before she fled to seek refuge in England, where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I of England. Alison Blackadder, who is the narrator in the novel, is a fictional character woven into the historical events. This is a fascinating novel that those interested in the early history of Mary Queen of Scots will want to read.

The author: Born in Sydney, Jesse now lives near Byron Bay. She is an award-winning short-story writer and freelance journalist, fascinated by landscapes and belonging. Her first novel was After the Party (2005), which was voted onto the Australian Book Review’s list of all time favourite Australian novels in February 2010. She is writing her next novel about the first woman to reach Antarctica. Connect with Jesse Blackadder at her WEBSITE.

For more reviews, see the Book Tour schedule. Thanks to Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and the author for a review copy of the book.

Book Feature: Political Suicide by Michael Palmer

Title: Political Suicide: A Novel by Michael Palmer
Release date: December 11, 2012; St. Martin's Press
Audio: Macmillan Audio
Genre: medical thriller

"Sarah, I see that Dr. McHugh is still in jail."

"The DA's certain he's the man. They don't want this to turn into a circus."
"He's been a good citizen. Any chance we could get him out?" (ch. 10. From an ARC; final copy may differ)

DESCRIPTION: "Dr. Lou Welcome gets a desperate phone call re a murder involving his friend, Dr. Gary McHugh, known around the Capitol as the "society doc". McHugh has been found unconscious in his wrecked car after visiting his patient, Congressman Elias Colston, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who is later found shot dead in his garage.

Something about McHugh's story has Lou believing he is telling the truth, that the Congressman was dead when he arrived and before he blacked out. Lou agrees to look into matters, but he is hard pressed to believe in his friend— until a high-level conspiracy begins to unravel, and Lou finds information that makes him the next target." (publisher)

Also see Teaser Tuesdays.

What do you think? Do you enjoy medical thrillers?

Book Review: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

I bought Ann Patchett's novel,  State of Wonder, yesterday and finished it today. It was that good that I didn't put it down till I had read it all. I liked the exotic setting and fell for the story of one scientist trying to discover the details and reason for the death of another in the jungles of the Amazon.

A pharmacologist Marina Singh is sent by her company in Minnesota to Brazil to find a reclusive scientist and researcher, Annick Swenson, her former medical school professor who is doing drug research deep in the Amazon jungles. Marina is supposed to report on the progress of Annick's research on fertility for the drug company, research that has already taken many years and a lot of funding. Marina is also on a more personal mission, to discover the facts behind the death of another employee of the drug company who had recently traveled to the Amazon to check on Annick.

It seems to me that the novel has some serious questions about the value of some research done by drug companies - questionable drugs that may not be needed or advisable, for a limited group of people, versus drugs for more serious and immediate health problems for a larger demographic. There is also a contrast between cold, hard research and the human considerations that must be taken into account when you deal with the lives of real people.

The plot and setting are very imaginative, the characters memorable, and the questions the novel addresses are good food for thought. I loved Bel Canto, Pachett's award-winning novel, and I liked this one as well.

The book is also reviewed by Tales from the Reading Room, Home Between the Pages, and My Porch.

For a lighter read, I've started Killer Librarian, a debut cozy mystery by Mary Lou Kirwin. Minnesota librarian Karen Nash becomes a sleuth on a literary tour of London when she realizes an assassin has targeted her former boyfriend and his lady friend, who have also traveled to London.

Apart from reading, I baked beer bread for the first time today, adding raisins and dried cranberries for a little tartness and sweetness. Not bad for a test run. I'm thinking of making more tasty breads for Christmas gifts!

What are you reading this week?