MIRACLE CURE by Harlan Coben

 Finished Tu 1/24/23 (On the day of my colonoscopy)

This is a book that Janny loaned to me several weeks ago.

A small research clinic in NYC seems to have developed a cure for HIV. A conspiracy of government people and a corrupt, right-wing preacher try to suppress this breakthrough. The bible thumping pastor thinks that AIDS is 'God's Will'.

Actually, the conspiracy is to keep secret the fact that they have NOT developed a cure. Kind of a silly resolution, but unexpected.

The night before my colonoscopy I must have read 150 pages waiting for the laxative to take hold.

The pace of the story was electrifying, yet the characters are kind of shallow. This is typical of most of his books. 

From the book's page on Amazon: 

"They’re one of the country’s most telegenic couples: beloved TV journalist Sara Lowell and New York’s hottest basketball star, Michael Silverman. Their family and social connections tie them to the highest echelons of the political, medical, and sports worlds—threads that will tangle them up in one of the most controversial and deadly issues of our time.

In a clinic on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a doctor has dedicated his life to eradicating a divisive and devastating disease. One by one, his patients are getting well. One by one, they’re being targeted by a serial killer. And now Michael has been diagnosed with the disease. There’s only one cure, but many ways to die..." 

DETOUR by Cheryl Crane (daughter of Lana Turner)

 Refinished Fr 1/20/23

This is one of my ancient hardbacks that I purchased at the main branch for $1.00 on Sa 5/13/95 and I finished it on Fr 5/19/95.

This was far better than I expected and I really enjoyed the book.

Cheryl Crane had six step fathers and four step mothers before she was 19 years old. 

It struck me how much of how we feel about Motherhood, Family, and Siblings were crafted by watching our 'heroes' on the silver screen. Yet when you peel back the propaganda, these people were deeply flawed individuals.  

Good Friday, 1958 Cheryl stabbed and killed her mother's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, a bodyguard and personal assistant to Mickey Cohen (Los Angeles mobster).

Studio executive said: "Take away her sweater and what have you got"?

This was kind of a 'beach or airport' read, but I really liked it. 

A KISS BEFORE DYING by Ira Levin

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first completed on We 8/11/93 and I refinished Mo 1/16/23.

There was an interesting note on the flyleaf. It said that the night that I first finished the novel I rented and watched the movie from Thrifty Video. I can't remember where Thrifty Video was located. Maybe near the old Wilkerson's Repair at Monroe and Chatham?

I loved the book, but only 'liked' the ending. I expected something a little more 'unexpected'.

A young man is obsessed with becoming rich and he sees that the easiest way would be to marry a woman from a 'well connected' family. He becomes involved with a wealthy young woman, but he gets her pregnant and he immediately realizes that her father will not continue to support her if she is 'with child' before the wedding. 

His solution is to kill his bride and make it look like a suicide. This works and then he looks to her other sister to try the same plan.

***To get his bride to write a suicide note was a tough problem and he provides an interesting solution. He writes the suicide letter in Spanish and says that he needs it translated to English.   

A Kiss Before Dying not only debuted the talent of best-selling novelist Ira Levin to rave reviews and an Edgar Award, it also set a new standard in the art of psychological suspense. It tells the shocking tale of a young man who will stop at nothing―not even murder―to get where he wants to go. For he has dreams; plans. He also has charm, good looks, intelligence. And he has a problem. Her name is Dorothy; she loves him, and she's pregnant. The solution may demand desperate measures. But, then, he looks like the kind of guy who could get away with murder.

The final showdown at the copper smelter was kind of a letdown. I guess it was more cinematic. 

***The film is no longer at Netflix disc and it is not available on any streaming service. 

THE RISK POOL by Richard Russo

Finished Fr 1/13/23

...and I didn't want it to end. I loved this book and will try to find more by this author.

This is one of my ancient trad paperbacks that I had apparently never read.  

Set in Mohawk, New York which is in upstate New York, halfway between Syracuse and Albany.

In broad strokes it is the relationship between a young man and his dissolute father. Dad never has a steady job, he is separated from his wife and they have a combative relationship and his son is caught in the middle.

The book is divided into four sections based on the grandfather's method of dividing the year:

1) July 4th; 2) Mohawk Fair; 3) Eat The Bird; 4) Winter

From the book's page at GoodReads:

"The Risk Pool is a thirty-year journey through the lives of Sam Hall, a small-town gambling Hellraiser, and his watchful, introspective son Ned. When Ned's mother Jenny suffers a breakdown and retreats from her husband's carelessness into a dream world, Ned becomes part of his father's seedy nocturnal world, touring the town's bars and pool halls, struggling to win Sam's affections while avoiding his sins." 

THE MATCH by Harlan Coben

 Finished We 1/4/23

This is one of the hardback books that The Brandenburgs gave me for Xmas.

This is about a 'wild boy' who was left in the woods and learned to live by breaking into vacant summer homes. He uses websites that specialize in searching the users' DNA profiles to find matches of relatives and this drives the action. 

From the book's page at GoodReads:

"'At the age of somewhere between 35 and 45 - he didn't know exactly how old he was - Wilde found his father ...'

Wilde has grown up knowing nothing of his family, and even less about his own identity . All he knows is that, as a young child, he was found living a feral existence in the Ramapo mountains of New Jersey.

He became known simply as Wilde, the boy from the woods.

Now Wilde has had a hit on the DNA website he has been researching. A 100% match. His father. They meet up, and Wilde soon realizes that his father doesn't even know he had a son and is as mystified as Wilde is by his existence.

Undaunted, Wilde continues his research for his family on DNA websites where he becomes caught up in a community of online doxxers, a secret group committed to exposing anonymous trolls.

Then one by one these doxxers start to die, and it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting this secret community - and that his next victim might be Wilde himself. "

The problem with Coben's books is 'there are not enough words on the page'. He has the story covered in spades, but character development is lacking. And, in this novel especially, I think he just added too many characters and made the tale unnecessarily confusing. Coben keeps you reading, but his books tend to fade from my memory fairly quickly. 

THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown

 Refinished Th 12/29/22

This was one of my ancient trade paperbacks (QPB Books) that I first completed Su 10/19/03.

Thesis:

The 'Feminine Principle' has been obscured by the Catholic Church. Jesus was actually married to Mary Magdalene and there is a 'bloodline' that exists to this day. 

From the book's page at Goodreads:

"While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever."

I really liked the book and the weird facts of biblical and secular history. Mary is actually in Da Vinci's painting 'The Last Supper' and she sits on the right side of Jesus. And, that the Knights Templar invented the system of banking that's still in use today. 

I plan to loan this novel to Janny and see if she can appreciate it.