My fourth and final review for the month is Michael Balkind's second book, Dead Ball. 

If you read Sudden Death, then you know most of the characters.  Even the bad guys from Sudden Death make a cameo appearance.  Reid Clark, the main character in Sudden Death takes a step back so the light can shine on his organization, Allsport, and his unstoppable security team, led by Jay Scott.  This time it's his best friend and CFO of Allsport, Bob Thomas, who is the target, and he isn't as lucky as Reid was.

The story starts with The President of the United States and a dead body and ends with a firefight in an airport.  Along the way, money, gunrunning, gangs, wiseguys and revenge muddy the trail Jay and his men must follow to find the trigger finger and the person who paid for it. 

Michael Balkind loves sports, the descriptions of the various games are almost romantic in their detail.  He loves food and cars as well.  If you would enjoy a testosterone laden dash through sports, cigars, fast cars, beautiful women, rich food, richer men and murder, this is the book you should read.

Let's do this again in November.  Send me your first chapter, and I'll choose one or more titles to review in December. 

BG Pupps

I just took a Master's course in golf - pun intended.

Sudden Death is about a top PGA golfer who is trying to win that green jacket while in the cross hairs of someone who really doesn't like him.  The trouble is, there are a lot of people who don't like him so it's difficult to figure out who is sending the threats.  Reid's not a very sympathetic protagonist.  He's very good at golf, and very bad at interpersonal relations.  He has a temper.  He throws things.  Other golfers hate him.  Reporters hate him.  Ex girlfriends hate him.  Sometimes, even his agent hates him. 

The story is quick paced, and even if you know nothing about golf when you pick up the book, after reading it you're going to be ready to understand the game the next time it's on television. 

As the danger grows, as the threats seem to get closer and more personal, Reid does a strange thing - he starts to mature.  At the end of the book, you believe that, while he'll always be quick tempered and unbendable about the etiquette of the game, he's more appreciative of the people around him and more willing to give of himself rather than demand of others. 

If you like golf, if you want to know more about golf, if you want to understand why others like golf, this is a good textbook...which just happens to have a mystery tangled up in the rough. 

Next week, Michael Balkind's follow up book, Dead Ball

Also, Michael Balkind's doing a very important thing supporting someone in need.  He says:
I am donating 50% of all profits for 1 month from sales of my books to the Leukemia & Lymphoma society in honor of my friend's 8.5 yr old son, Jake. Jake was recently dignosed with leukemia and is going through round 5 of chemo then hopeful bone marrow transplant.
Anyway, i feel very strongly about this kid. He is a fighter who must win this battle.

The link to my sight if you wish to promote it is http://balkindbooks.com

Now, go buy the book.  Help a child.

BG Pupps

Cries in the Dark was a very difficult book to read.  And that's good.  Let me explain.

The book is about a topic most of us avoid thinking about because it's just easier not to know how our medications, cleaning products and make up get to us, and the cost in life - animal life.  I don't want to make this into a political discourse and neither does P.A. Woodburn.  The story is just about the fact that animal testing is done, and in this case, it goes too far. 

This book will make you wince and squirm.  It should.  It's about testing on animals, it's about vivisection, and it's about people who can justify cruelty to animals and humans if the payoff is big enough. 

It's also about people who believe in doing the right thing, if they can, and doing things they never knew they could.

Alex can talk to chimpanzees.  She can understand them.  Not just with sign language, but telepathically.  And when prostitutes start dying and chimpanzees start disappearing, it seems she is the only one who can help.  Instead of focusing on solely on her education to become a doctor, she turns into a sleuth, learns to hack into computers, learns to shoot a gun, and sets off in grim determination to save lives - human and ape. 

You should read it.  P.A. Woodburn doesn't pound the reader over the head with slogans and rhetoric, merely builds a story around the facts and leaves it to the reader to draw his own conclusions. 

Next week:  Sudden Death, Michael Balkind.

Ms Pupps

I read this book because I offered a contest to review a book, and Lighting Out was one of the winners. 

It started out with a quote from Huckleberry Finn.  Not a bad start, in my opinon.

It's the story of a bank theft and its two victims - the owner of the bank and the thief.  A quarter of a million dollars turns their lives upside down.  Baxter Evans is shaken out of his stiff, orderly routine and the life that seemed picture perfect from the outside and was anything but on the inside.  Eloise/Louise is a grifter, moving from town to town, from identity to identity, picking corporate pockets along the way.  Meticulously adjusting figures until she'd collected her goal, she was ready to pack up, slip out and move on.  She never expected anyone, especially the boring boss, to catch on before she was anything more than dust stirred up on the road. 

The narrative takes some adjustment.  The story is broken down into more than fifty short chapters, alternating between the perspectives of Baxter and Louise.  These short chapters move the story forward and back at the same time, allowing you to understand and develop compassion for the characters. 

Ultimately, as Baxter said, the theft did him a big favor.  He was no longer the rich, comfortable and unhappy banker, but found meaning, purpose, love and hope in his new life.  Louise's reinvention appears to be good, she appears to have gotten away with yet another scam, but at what cost?  Is she really happy? 

The version I read was the HTML file Ms. Murad sent and it had some formatting errors,  I'm not sure if the final copy corrected these errors, but they don't deter from the story telling. 

The story, ultimately, is a modern day take on the quote at the start of the book.  It's subtly woven into the actions, reactions and decisions of the characters.

It has romance, it has heartbreak, it has regret, it has hope.  If you like these things, or just want a little escape of your own, try Lighting Out. 

Next week:  Cries in the Dark, P.A. Woodburn