For the love of Lust, Money & Murder

      Sometimes we read books that just suck us in like a gentle whirlpool, pulling us along, deeper and deeper. Before we know it, we have read the whole book and long to read even more. Often the book doesn't have to be the best book ever written. Indeed, while the Twilight series capture millions and certainly pulled me in, it wasn't Shakespeare or Stephen King. So what makes a book hard to put down?
 For me, it is being vested in the characters or in some piece of the story line. I read Startide Rising by David Brin and while I don't remember the story, I remember reading 'just one more chapter" until four in the morning when I had class at seven! It is the ability of the writer to leave a chapter hanging with the promise of an answer soon, and delivering on the promise only to leave you with another hanging problem.
     With Mike Wells' book, Lust, Money & Murder, I believe the answer to what captures his audience lies in the building of his main character.


Lust, Money & Murder Book 1 Lust
By Mike Wells
Publisher Mike Wells
Pages: approximately 106


From Amazon:
     This book begins with a young and naive Elaine Brogan as she initially pursues her dream of a career as a photomodel. After becoming entangled with a sleazy modeling agency, she decides to become a Secret Service agent, struggling through the arduous training academy. After her first disastrous assignment, she is transferred to Bulgaria. There, she meets Nick LaGrange, the love of her life.

Sometimes We Need a Little Divine Intervention

 
   Did you ever know something, just know something when there was really no way for you to know? Have you ever answered a question you thought you heard only to find out the question was never spoken aloud? For some people these sorts of things happen all the time but for others it never happens. Is it just that we tend to remember when we are 'right' and not when we are wrong or is it something more? What would happen if a government group took advantage of people who seem to have this special ability and how would they go about solving crimes?
    Curious? I was too, so I read Divine Intervention by Cheryl Kaye Tardif. Her take on the way certain abilities might be used in criminal investigations and what limitation such abilities might have was fascinating.

Divine Intervention 

By Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Published by Imajin Books

Pages 220

Life Beyond Diagnosis: "A Hidden Madness"

A Hidden Madness

James T. R. Jones

ISBN: 978-0615571546

Publisher: James T.R. Jones

Date of publish: Dec 29, 2011

Pages: 336

Available at Amazon

There's an old traditional saying that to know someone you have to walk a mile in their shoes. James T. R. Jones, in his autobiography, “A Hidden Madness” takes us on precisely such a journey, lasting from his high school days through becoming a tenured law professor.

Most of us understand that being a law student is one of the most demanding of academic tracks (the old TV show “Paper Chase” did a fair job of showing the pressures), academically, socially, and, for those lawyers who qualify to teach, politically, challenging. Focus, self-confidence, long hours, and good social skills are critical.

But what if a student had a secret? What if he had an illness that was so stigmatized that simply letting anyone know he had it would jeopardize his chances for a successful career? If he had a broken arm, or was in a car accident, or developed cancer, there would be some degree of understanding, but this was different.

Dark Pool: Where has all the Money Gone?

      Ponzi schemes are amazing. Some are barely legal because they 'sell' a 'product. You've seem them - send $5.00 for this kit and we will show you how to make thousands, all you have to do is have four friends sell this kit to four of their friends who sell to four of their friends who sell...Well you get the idea. Each person who sells something below you ends up sending you a piece of the pie. Man on top reaps huge benefits, man on bottom loses shirt. Some schemes are illegal - send one dollar to the first name on this list of four names, take that name off and yours to the bottom, pass off to ten of your friends and pull in the dough! Then some are not only illegal but downright evil - invest with me and I will make you 30% on your money for as long as you stay. The owner of the scheme makes off with all the dollars and you get left with nothing but foreclosure notices.


       So is it any wonder that someone would latch onto this and write a novel with a Ponzi scheme in the center? But with the novel Dark Pool by Helen Hanson there is a wicked twist. Not even the man who created the scheme has the money! Where is the money? What does some kid who just spent six months in jail for hacking have to do with it? Is the man with Alzheimer's faking it because he knows about the money? Should Maggie trust the luscious Russian who just moved in across the street or is he there to kill her?  Meanwhile, across town, Kurt Meyers has to find the money O'Mara has stolen from people investing in his Ponzi scheme but soon finds the Russian mob breathing down his neck.