The Rendition Experience

I finished reading the previous book while I was away and ended up with nothing to read since I already borrowed all the books I wanted from the MILTB.

I finally found one stuck in the corner of the shelf. I had not heard of the author before so did not know what to expect but the little summary at the back of the book seemed decent enough.

The story starts as the relic bones of the three wise men are stolen from the Cathedral in Cologne. I always enjoy reading about places where I have been already. I can see it clearly in my mind as I imagine the events of the book developing on those locations.

The book gathered many aspects of my favorite genres. It had the specialized assault team (Sigma Force) with some very clever and charming characters who could all kill you in a blink of an eye. Gray Pierce the lonely commander, Monk the big guy with big guns and Kat the lady with blades in any imaginable place in her body. It also involved the Vatican and all its mysteries due to the fact the initial attack was seen as a direct attack to the church. There were plenty of riddle solving as this assault team along with Vigor, a Vatican official, and Rachel, his niece (an Italian expert in stolen artwork) worked against the clock trying to stop the culprits of the attacks and thefts (an ancient society called the Royal Dragon Court).

All the action happens on the most famous European Gothic Cathedrals and the author's descriptions have made me want to visit all the cities he mentions. Despite the rush of events, the author does not neglect to pay homage to the beauty of such places.

As we get enveloped in all the fast paced action, we get to know the main characters and how un-stereotypical they are. Without lengthy narrations of their personal characteristics, the author gives us the layer beneath the characters' mask to the world through their actions and through glimpses of thoughts.

My favorite aspect was definitely the riddle solving as they go through their hunt for more religious relics. The use of the religious knowledge to achieve the solutions has made me curious about religious texts. Not sure yet if to the point of wanting to read the entire Bible.

It is not often I am made to gasp while reading and there were occasions when I had to re-read several times just because I could not believe the author had dared to put the character through such ordeal.

I simply adored the main characters and was hoping to see them again and again as I believe they still have exciting lives to live in paper. 

V.

This was the first time I ever bought a book that came as a suggestion in a magazine. I read the mini description and just felt like buying something on impulse.

When I got it, it had a big sticker mentioning how it had been advertised on Richard and Judy's show. I started growing a little skeptical of my new acquisition.

Please forgive me if I leak too many spoilers.

The book starts as this teenage girl (Cynthia) wakes up to find her house completely empty. It then jumps forward 25 years later where

At first the book seemed to be about this girl (now a woman) and the way she is coping with her family disappearance. There's a coziness about the way the author writes that makes me want to know about all of the character's habits, insecurities and fears. I could have kept reading if it was just about the emotional and psychological gripes of her everyday life.

So it was a bit of a surprise when that carpet of coziness got taken from under my feet even though at the back of the book it said something like “She goes looking for her family but will end up regretting it..." (Not so eloquently put obviously).

The book is written from the point of view of her husband after the first, maybe the second chapter too. Through him we get what the world sees of her without ever penetrating into her psyche. When she mentions any strange events we see them as her own paranoia due to the events that scarred her 25 years earlier.

As it becomes more obvious that the strange events are not her paranoia, some doubt arises as to whether she has something to do with what is happening just to get attention.

All throughout the book Cynthia keeps mentioning dreams where she can hear her family talk. In between chapters you also get anonymous dialogues full of evilness and creepiness. Despite these being anonymous, you get hints and it seems like the voices off Cynthia's dreams, like it is her family talking about her without her being there. It got me so intrigued as there was no hint earlier that her family was anything but a loving normal family until they had disappeared.

It was cleverly written so that you get surprise after surprise right to the last page when you think all it is over. I could keep on writing about how each chapter surprised me and made me want to read every single word, but I think I have done enough spoiling.

Finally I got to read the final book of the Harry Potter series. I had decided a while ago that I was not going to be putting extra money into publishers pockets and get the hard back version. Mostly it was because all my collection is paperback and I decided to be stubborn and wait.

The torture was only a couple of months long as everyone else read theirs fairly quick. After that I had nearly forgotten it until I got the newsletter from Waterstones announcing it.

As you can tell, I am just filling post space because there isn't a lot to say about this book apart from... Wow! It was great!
Very dark... not sure how it can get away with being a children's book. It was a very fulfilling finale and I can safely say: "Aha! I knew it about Snape!". Despite a few correct guesses, the way it was delivered filled my imagination and made me a very bad employee as I slept late every night and was antisocial spending every lunch hour reading.

Now I just wonder, what else will J.K.Rowling have to offer in the future...
V.

This is another of Tess Gerritsen's masterpieces, it is now official... I am hooked!!

The books do all follow the same sort of style, all surrounding the Boston PD and their affiliates. This does not in anyway make the stories 'samey' or boring. Each one revolves around a character you may or may not have gotten involved with in the last Tess Gerritsen novel. You get wrapped up in each case that they have to solve and you along with the characters try to profile the 'unsub'. The read is as challenging as it is gripping but not in the tiring sense of challenging there is always something new, something fresh to take away from these books. They are truly a work of art. I have incidentally on another note found another who enjoys these books as much as I do and just like me they helped her get back into some good old fashioned keeping your light on at midnight gritty reading!!

Now to the story, of course surrounding murders of sometimes the most gruesome type, this one wasn't like Vanish, this one related very closely to The Surgeon. It lets the reader get closer to the hard female detective Rizzoli and see a much more vulnerable side to her character and also showed that like any human being that she sometimes needs protecting. Oddly enough this one was quite a warming empathic story even when Tess Gerritsen scrutinises the life of the killer. You get to see much more of the Apprentice from The Surgeon get deeper into his psyche. It never fails to make my skin crawl.

You do have to forgive me if while writing these posts I misquote or get my characters confused from one story to the next. Don't misunderstand this to be forgetfullness due to the lack of difference in the stories because I will put you straight they are all very different, but if you read them and find yourself hooked you will also find yourself as caught up in the world of Boston written from these books as I have, it's very easy to confuse events when they are so vividly written and the characters so well developed you feel as though you know them and all their work intimately.

Go on I dare you, pick one up, see if you can resist the pull of the gruesome, gritty and dark ;)

C