Review of "White Fire: An FBI Special Agent Pendergast Thriller" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

In this 13th book in the 'Aloysius Pendergast' series, the FBI Special Agent helps his trainee look into historic deaths. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

Corrie Swanson was a troubled teen when she was taken under the wing of FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. Twenty-year-old Corrie is now a student at New York's John Jay College For Criminal Justice, where she's studying to become a police officer.





Corrie hopes her sophomore thesis will win John Jay's prestigious Rosewell Prize, and she plans to visit Roaring Fork, Colorado to research her topic, which includes the forensic analysis of bones.



Corrie has learned that, in the late 1800s, silver miners in Roaring Fork experienced a bizarre spate of deaths.



In a letter to Pendergast, Corrie writes, "In May of 1876, a rogue grizzly bear killed and ate a miner at a remote claim in the mountains - and for the rest of the summer the bear totally terrorized the area....By the time [the Bear's] rampage stopped, eleven miners had been mauled and horribly eaten."



Roaring Fork is now a super-chic community for the very rich, and the cemetery containing the silver miners' remains is designated as the site of a new spa. Thus the bones of the grizzly bear's victims are being relocated, and are currently in plastic boxes in a storage shed.



Corrie plans to write her thesis about the bones - what they look like after a grizzly bear attack, etc. Corrie is certain this unusual topic will garner her the coveted Rosewell prize. So Corrie hustles off to Roaring Forks and asks the authorities for permission to view the miners' bones.



Things seem to be going smoothly until the 'grande dame' of Roaring Forks, a snobby woman called Mrs. Betty Brown Kermode, puts the kibosh on Corrie's project, claiming it would be disrespectful to the dead miners.



Corrie won't take no for an answer, however, and her subsequent actions land her in jail.



Luckily, Special Agent Pendergast rides in to the rescue, and Corrie is able to proceed with her thesis research.



This eventually leads to a startling discovery that will rock Roaring Forks - and severely reduce property values - if it comes to light. Thus Corrie is harassed, threatened, and worse.



Meanwhile, an arsonist is targeting the rich citizens of Roaring Forks, burning down their mansions with the residents inside. These horrendous crimes galvanize Special Agent Pendergast, who specializes in hunting down serial killers.





All this is tied up with a long-lost manuscript by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a never published Sherlock Holmes story called 'The Adventure of Aspern Hall' - about a grizzly bear that kills and consumes its victims. This tale was said to be inspired by Conan Doyle's chat with Oscar Wilde, who visited Roaring Forks in the late 1800s. (As a special treat, the Sherlock Holmes story is included in the book).



Additional characters add interest to the novel, including former Air Force Captain Stacy Bowdree - whose ancestor was a silver miner at Roaring Fork;



Ted Roman - a ski-bum/librarian who helps Corrie research Roaring Fork's historical archives;



Police Chief Stanley Morris - who needs to 'grow a pair' before he can help Pendergast with the arson investigation; and more.



All these threads leads to an exciting, action-packed climax that will have readers on the edge of their seats.

This is a very good thriller. recommended it to fans of the genre.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "A Quantum Love Story: A Science Fiction Novel" by Mike Chen

Neuroscientist Mariana Pineda, who works for a company called ReLive - which enhances memories - is grief-stricken by the loss of her best friend Shay. Shay took off for a solo visit to Joshua Tree National Park and never returned. The authorities presume Shay is dead, and Mariana has just about given up hope.

Sad about Shay, and and bored with her job, Mariana is on the verge of submitting her resignation to ReLive when she receives an unexpected invitation. Several ReLive employees, including Mariana, are invited to tour the cutting edge Hawke Accelerator. Since physicist Shay would have loved to see the facility, Mariana grabs a photo of Shay and goes for the tour.



At Hawke, Mariana has a very strange experience. A Hawke technician named Carter Cho tells Mariana they've met before, though Mariana has no memory of this.



Carter convinces Mariana to stand at a particular spot at a specific time, and at the designated moment, a green beam shoots out of the Hawke Accelerator and hits Mariana. The next thing Mariana knows she's waking up in her bed on a Monday morning.





It turns out the Hawke Accelerator exploded, leading to a time loop that repeats every four days.



So the world 'resets' every four days, and everyone starts from scratch. The green beam allows Mariana and Carter to recall what happened, while the rest of the world is oblivious, just reliving the same four days over and over and over.

Mariana and Carter join forces to try to 'fix' the time loop, and much of the book covers their efforts along those lines.



The time loop has some very interesting characteristics. For example, Carter is a foodie who loves to cook and buy expensive take-out. Carter can spend tons of money on food, and when the world resets, his bank account is full again. So Carter and Mariana take advantage of this quirk to travel and have some fun, and everything is 'back to normal' after four days.





Nevertheless, Mariana and Carter are very serious about fixing the time loop, and - with the help of an AI named David - they try every which way to set things right. The twosome even manage to convince a Hawke scientist called Beckett to help them, but nothing works. Meanwhile, Mariana and Carter start to develop romantic feelings.



Whether it's because of this or something else, things then go seriously awry, and a new plan is required. To say more would be a spoiler.



I liked the first two-thirds of the book, but the 'new plan' was too drawn out and complicated (in my view). Still, the story has an interesting premise and would probably appeal to sci-fi fans.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Red Leaves: A Novel of Suspense" by Thomas H. Cook

As the book opens, Eric Moore is a relatively contented man. He owns a camera shop that sells photographic merchandise, develops film, and frames photos;



he's married to a community college English teacher named Meredith;



and he and Meredith have a 17-year-old son named Keith. Keith is a quiet boy who spends his spare time playing computer games, taking walks around the town, and occasionally making deliveries for his dad's store.



Camera shop owner Eric had higher ambitions as a youth, but his hopes were derailed by a difficult upbringing. Eric's father was a cruel narcissist who bankrupted the family with bad financial investments and the purchase of luxuries - like custom made suits and fine wines - for himself.



Meanwhile, Eric's mother was cowed by her spouse, and scrimped to feed the children and to clothe them from thrift shops.



On top of all that, Eric's beloved little sister died from a brain tumor.



Eric's selfish father, who's still a nasty curmudgeon, is now in a retirement home; and Eric's mother is long gone, having died when her car went off a bridge. The legacy of all this is an ordinary life for Eric and a troubled life for Eric's brother Warren. Warren was the butt of their father's disdain, constantly being told he was useless and wouldn't amount to anything. As it turns out, Warren is an alcoholic who works sporadically as a house painter.



Things are about to change for the Moore family, and not in a good way. One evening, the Moores' neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Giordano, ask teenage Keith to babysit their 8-year-old daughter Amy. Keith - who's babysat Amy before - agrees, and he watches the child while the Giordanos go out to dinner. The Giordanos return at around 10 PM, Keith leaves, and the next morning, little Amy is missing!



The Giordanos are immediately suspicious of Keith, and their concerns are shared by the police, who interview the boy again and again. Eric and Meredith insist their son had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance, but Eric isn't absolutely 100% sure and his ambivalence is felt by both his son and wife.







Eric's brother Warren, who bunked with Keith while recovering from surgery, sticks up for his nephew, insisting Keith would never hurt a little girl.

Meanwhile, Keith is viewed askance by the townsfolk; and Mr. Giordano - who's beside himself with worry and fear - threatens violence if Keith doesn't 'come clean.' Meanwhile Keith keeps insisting he had nothing to do with Amy's disappearance, and his behavior becomes increasingly erratic as suspicion and questions pile up on him.



As things devolve, Eric becomes more and more troubled.



He's worried about his son Keith; plagued by memories of his dysfunctional family; thinks his wife may be having an affair; is sick of his brother's drinking and fecklessness; and cringes during his weekly visits to his dad's retirement home.

Things play out as they will, and by the end of the book, the mystery is resolved.

I was engaged by the story, which is crafty and suspenseful. My major critique would be that the characters sometimes behave unrealistically, but it's a novel after all.

Recommended to fans of mysteries.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "There Are Rivers In the Sky: A Novel" by Elif Shafak

I loved Elif Shfak's novel 'The Island of Missing Trees', so when I saw the author's new book, 'There Are Rivers in the Sky', I snapped it right up.

This sweeping novel extends over millennia, and by way of a drop of water, takes us from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Europe and back to the Middle East.



In the course of the water cycle, H₂O falls as precipitation; lands on people, places and things; drains into waterways; travels far and wide; evaporates; forms clouds; gets buffeted by winds; and eventually falls as precipitation again.


The Water Cycle

Thus, over a period of 2500 years, a water droplet that once nestled in the hair of an ancient Mesopotamian king can land as a snowflake on a British baby; be sipped by a girl in Iraq; fall as a teardrop in England; and so on. This story revolves around three major waterways: the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East, and the River Thames in London.


The Tigris-Euphrates River System


The River Thames

The book opens in the palace of King Ashurbanipal, who rules the vast Mesopotamian Empire - near the Tigris-Euphrates River System - in the 600s BCE. Ashurbanipal is one of the most brutal rulers of the era, known for horrendous cruelty and genocides.


King Ashurbanipal

Conversely, the king is very interested in the literature and art of Mesopotamia, and he assembles a vast library in the city of Nineveh, many of the contents having been looted from conquered states.


Library at Nineveh

Ashurbanipal's favorite literary work is the 'Epic of Gilgamesh', and his most treasured copy of the work is inscribed in cuneiform on a slab of lapis lazuli.


Part of 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' in cuneiform on an ancient clay tablet


A lapis lazuli seal with ancient writing

Ashurbanipal's library is destroyed and buried towards the end of his reign, when Nineveh is attacked by the king's enemies. Centuries later, European archaeologists unearth many of the library's contents - tablets, statues, artworks, etc. - and make off with the treasures. The tablets are in pieces, and modern scholars can't read the cuneiform markings, so most Mesopotamian tablets are contained in museum storerooms.


Archaeologists excavating ancient Nineveh

The book now enters the modern and contemporary eras, and the story rotates among three main characters: an English fellow named Arthur Smyth; a Yazidi girl called Narin; and an Iraqi-British hydrologist called Dr. Zaleekhah Clarke. I'll give a nutshell description of each character's role in the story.

➽ Arthur Smyth

In 1840, an impoverished mudlarker (scavenger) gives birth to a baby on the riverbank of London's River Thames. The woman's mudlarking companions name the mite 'King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums', which perfectly describes little Arthur Smyth's life.


Mudlarkers on the River Thames

Young Arthur grows up in a cold dirty crowded London flat; wears rags; is hungry all the time; and is mistreated by his lazy good-for-nothing father, who drinks away any pennies Arthur's mother manages to collect.


Ragamuffin in historic London

Arthur is no ordinary boy though. Arthur Smyth is gifted with an extraordinary memory - visual, verbal, and sensory. Arthur remembers every moment of his life - and everything he sees, reads, hears, experiences, etc. - from the second he was born.

When Arthur is an adolescent, his unique gift gets him hired by London's Bradbury and Evans Publishers, where Arthur learns the business from the bottom up.....and even gets to meet Charles Dickens. A visit to the British Museum exposes Arthur to tablets from Nineveh, and - using his exceptional abilities - Arthur teaches himself to decipher the cuneiform inscriptions.


British Museum

Employed by the British Museum, Arthur comes upon fragments of the 'Epic of Gilgamesh', and becomes obsessed with the poem. The museum is missing some pieces of the saga, however, and - after much time and preparation - Arthur travels to Nineveh to dig up the lost bits. In Nineveh, Arthur meets a Yazidi community, which has a profound effect on his life.



➽ Narin

In 2014, nine-year-old Narin is a Yazidi girl living with her grandmother in the Turkish hamlet of Hasankeyf, near the Tigris River.





Hasankeyf will soon be flooded by a new dam, and the residents will be displaced from their homes. This is just one more challenge in the lives of the Yazidis, who are erroneously called 'devil-worshippers', and who have been persecuted, enslaved, murdered, raped, and so on from time immemorial.

To honor their spiritual beliefs, Grandma wants Narin to be baptized in her ancestral home, the Valley of Lalish in Iraq. Shortly before the flooding of Hasankeyf, Grandma and Narin travel to Iraq. Unfortunately, this is a time when members of ISIS are roaming the country, murdering Yazidis and abducting young Yazidi girls to sell.


ISIS

Author Elif Shafak doesn't skimp on describing the genocide of the Yazidis, and the scenes are stomach-churning and appalling. (It makes one really skeptical about humanity, that's for sure.)

➽ Dr. Zaleekhah Clarke

Zaleekhah Clarke lost her parents in a flash flood in Turkey when she was seven-years-old.



Zaleekhah's wealthy Uncle Malek, who had emigrated to England, came to Turkey to fetch the girl. So Zaleekhah grew up in a luxurious London home with Uncle Malek, Aunt Malek, and their daughter Helen, who was like a sister to Zaleekhah.



It's now 2018, and 31-year-old Zaleekhah is a hydrologist and college professor.



Zaleekhah's mentor, Professor Berenberg - an eminent hydrologist, biochemist, and climate scientist - had a hypothesis he called 'aquatic memory'. "Berenberg argued that, under certain circumstances, water - the universal solvent - retained evidence, or 'memory', of the solute particles that had dissolved in it, no matter how many times it was diluted or purified.....Water, in other words, remembered." Berenberg thought that if he could prove that water possessed some kind of memory, this would have groundbreaking implications for hydrology, biology, medicine, homeopathy, and various methods of healing. Sadly, when Berenberg published his findings, he was lambasted by other researchers and his reputation was tarnished.



Zaleekhah is now writing a paper on aquatic memory, and though she once feared being ridiculed like Berenberg, Zaleekhah no longer cares. Zaleekhah is depressed, getting divorced, moving into a houseboat on the River Thames, and thinking about suicide. Nevertheless, Zaleekhah feels guilty about killing herself because her cousin Helen has a very sick daughter who requires a kidney transplant, and Helen needs Zaleekhah's support.



As it happens, Zaleekhah is renting the houseboat from a female tattoo artist called Nen, who's very knowledgeable about ancient Mesopotamia. Nen specializes in cuneiform tattoos, and bakes biscuits with cuneiform symbols. The women find they have a lot in common and become friendly.



At the book's climax, all these story lines - Arthur Smyth, Narin, and Zaleekhah Clarke - come together in a very inventive way.

I enjoyed the book, and learned a good deal about rivers. It's sad that people throughout history have made rivers into garbage dumps, using waterways to dispose of human waste, dead bodies, industrial effluents, and every kind of pollutant. This leads to terrible smells, dead fish, disease-causing microbes, and ecological disasters.


Polluted river

I didn't know that some major rivers, like the Bièvre in France, have been covered over. Zaleekhah observes, "It was an important waterway until the nineteenth century, when it became heavily polluted. They covered it over and basically forgot about it. The tourists who walk around Paris today admire the Seine, but they don't realize there's another river flowing beneath their feet." And there are other 'lost rivers' - rivers that have been covered over - in New York, London, Vienna, São Paulo, Sydney, Beijing, Moscow, Toronto, Tokyo, Athens, and elsewhere. Who knew, right??


Paris is resurrecting the Bièvre River to combat climate change.

This is a very good novel with a triplet of fascinating stories. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Elif Shafak, and Knopf for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars