Calculated In Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher - Piatkus
Format - Hardcover
ISBN - 9780749959340

This particular volume is number 36 in what has to be one of the most successful sequences ever.  JD Robb is the pseudonym of worldwide publishing phenomenon Nora Roberts, who is surely one of the most prolific authors there ever was or will be.  The 'In Death' sequence has been going since 1995, and has averaged about 2 books a year since then, with numerous short stories in between, an astonishing feat when you consider that there are also one or two books she brings out as Nora Roberts each year as well.

Each story is a Police Procedural/Romance novel centred around Eve Dallas, a New York Homicide cop and her gazillionaire husband Roarke.  I started reading them around 10 years ago, and you'd think that the format, characters etc... would get stale, but they aren't.  Alongside the murder investigation plot Eve and Roarke have faced numerous demons from their past.  The murders in each story are gruesome, imaginative and often keep you guessing for a long time, and it's also nice to break with the norm of a romance novel, by following the same characters and seeing the relationships grow and deepen.
 
In this story an Auditor is murdered during an apparent (badly disguised) mugging.  In my day job I'm a software consultant, so I was all over this plot...  There is a subplot too about the premiere of a movie that was based on one of Eve's earlier cases which plays alongside, and gives us the personal relationships between Eve, Roarke and their friends and colleagues.  It looks like Eve is finally dealing with her past, and I'm looking forward to book 37, due later this year.

What I liked most:  The running around trying to figure out whodunnit, piecing together of the evidence (what there is of it).

What I liked least:  A few things if I'm honest...

1. In the earlier books a lot of investigative work would be done to gather evidence and leave no stone unturned. Every effort would be made to be certain that there was no way the murderer could wriggle out of their punishment.  In this story we know too much too early on, and Eve seems to be working on instinct, not purely on the evidence.  Under those circumstances a conviction could be at risk, which would nicely set the cat amongst the pigeons.
2. In general the ending is always the same.  Apparently all baddies in the mid 21st century allow themselves to be tricked into confessing.  It's entertaining, but really?
3. There's a big build up for the movie premiere and after party, and then Robb cuts the ending short so you don't get to celebrate with them.
4. The personal stuff didn't ring quite true, and some seemed a little out of character. 
5. If Eve is finally overcoming her past, I'm left wondering where's the next challenge coming from for her and Roarke?  The risk is they become the old marrieds of the books, far too solid and happy.  Everyone knows the best drama comes when things get shaken up, and I really think that something needs to happen to change the dynamic of their relationship before things get stale.

Oops, I think I made it sound like I didn't enjoy it, and I did.  For escapist fun with characters you've known for years there's not much to beat it.

First Chapter, First Paragraphs

I've still to write the reviews for three recently finished books, but those should be along shortly... In the meantime I have picked up the next book on my list. There seems to be a theme in my reading lately. Animal farm, the hundred year old man... And now this new book. Unintentional I assure you, but the theme appears to be Russia.

This excerpt is from We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. This isn't just another dystopian novel, this is the first to be written dystopian novel of the major triumvirate consisting of 1984 and Brave New World. I won't say anymore, until the review, except to give you the first chapter, first paragraphs.

Record One

KEYWORDS:
A Declaration. The wisest of lines. An epic.

I am merely copying, word for word, what was printed in the State Gazette today:

IN 120 DAYS, THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE INTEGRAL WILL BE COMPLETE. THE GREAT, HISTORIC HOUR WHEN THE FIRST INTEGRAL WILL SOAR THROUGH OUTER SPACE IS NIGH. SOME THOUSAND YEARS AGO, YOUR HEROIC ANCESTORS SUBJUGATED THE ENTIRE EARTHLY SPHERE TO THE POWER OF THE ONE STATE. TODAY, YOU ARE CONFRONTING AN EVEN GREATER CONQUEST: THE INTEGRATION OF THE OF THE INFINITE EQUATION OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THE ELECTRIFYING AND FIRE-BREATHING GLASS INTEGRAL. YOU ARE CONFRONTING UNKNOWN CREATURES ON ALIEN PLANETS, WHO MAY STILL BE LIVING IN THE SAVAGE STATE OF FREEDOM, AND SUBJUGATING THEM TO THE BENEFICIAL YOKE OF REASON. IF THEY WON'T UNDERSTAND THAT WE BRING THEM MATHEMATICALLY INFALLIBLE HAPPINESS, IT WILL BE OUR DUTY TO FORCE THEM TO BE HAPPY...

There's a little more to the paragraph but this is the best bit, and I'm itching to get on with it.

First Chapter, First Paragraphs

I just finished The 100 year old man, and while I try to compose a suitable review, I thought I'd write the next instalment of First chapter first paragraphs, not least because they're intriguing.

There are 217 pages, the font is large, and the page margins are large too, so I don't think this one will take long to read.  In fact before I knew it 40 pages had slipped by in flash.

The book is The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen.

And the longer and more carefully I examine all these things, the more clearly and distinctly I know that they are true.

Rene Descartes

It was snowing the morning I found the dead boy.  The island with it's two houses and one church was covered in a layer of white.

Papa was pulling in the fishing nets when I saw a hand between two rocks.  It looked like a magic trick; almost as if a bunch of roses was about to appear - boom!  There you are, for you - and then applause.  But everything was quiet and the hand didn't move.

Looking forward to the rest.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Published by:  Penguin Modern Classics
ISBN: 014118270

This is one of those books that makes me feel like I should be writing a terribly impressive academic style review.  That's probably part of the reason why this book only recently made it off my 'should-really-read-one-day' list.  I don't know if I thought it would be over my head, or just that it deserved someone more accustomed to interpreting books in a certain way.

Whatever my reasons for delaying, it got chosen in January for March's book club, and that was that. I bought my copy a couple of weeks ago, and was expecting to suffer through it for the sake of the club.  Ha!

I had some basic recollections of Russian history from courses I studied years ago, so it wasn't a big stretch.  I was expecting something completely different though.  I thought that Orwell would be only making slight references and implying loose correlations between the events on the farm and the events in Russia, but how wrong can you be? 

It was clearly written, easy to read, and there was no mistaking what was happening, the main characters and who they were meant to portray and how key events in Russia's history happened. The purges, and the 5 year plans came to mind immediately.  I love that Orwell refused to pull his punches, and that a publisher was brave enough to publish it.  What a loss this would have been if it had not been published.

The about-face I've taken on this has pretty much given me whiplash. I went from thinking this is a book I should read but don't really want to, to thinking that this is a book that everybody must read.

To refresh my memory I went to Wikipedia and found some articles. I can't speak for the accurateness of them, but they were less of a dry read than the introduction in this book. Here are a few links:

Animal Farm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm

Five Year Plans - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-Year_Plans_for_the_National_Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union
The Purges - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge

First Chapter, First Paragraphs

Advent by James Treadwell

One

A December night 1537

   On a wild night in deep winter in the year 1537, the greatest magus in the world gathered together and dismissed his household servants, wrapped himself in his travelling cloak, took his staff in one hand and in the other a small wooden box sealed with pitch and clasped with silver, and stepped out into the whirling sleet, bound for the harbour and - so he expected - immortality.
   All but the city's most utterly forlorn inhabitants had been driven from the streets by the bitter weather.  The reamining beggars and strays were fully occupied with their struggle to survive until dawn, so the magus walked uninterrupted through alleys of filthy slush.  Nobody so much as saw him; any lifted eyes would have been stung by the icy rain, which felt as if it blew from every direction at once.  Nobody but one.

I'm reading on, would you?