Tag Archives: book review

Fresh Blood 3 by Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski (Editors) with Lee Child (1999) – BR00041 (2004) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 28 2004

Plot or Premise

The collection includes a story by Lee Child called ‘James Penney’s New Identity’, which is the first Jack Reacher story. However, quite frankly, he only has a very small part to play. The story revolves around a guy named James Penny. He works in a small town, where the only industry is a factory that has just laid him off. He storms off, causes damage en route, and the police are after him for the problems he’s caused. It was accidental, but that isn’t going to matter much if they catch him. Enter Reacher to help him out.

What I Liked

I liked the idea of one bad thing getting out of hand and leading to a lot of other problems in Penney’s life.

What I Didn’t Like

Reacher enters the story at the end to save the day, but it’s basically a coincidence. There’s nothing tying the resolution to the rest of the story really, and you also don’t get a good feeling for why Reacher was there in the first place and his backstory.

The Bottom Line

Only read it for the one story.

The Punisher by D.A. Stern (2004) – BR00040 (2004) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 28 2004

Plot or Premise

Frank Castle is ready to move to London. He’s worked undercover for years for the DEA, now he’s ready to take a desk job and spend time with his family. But his last case goes a bit sour and an unknown newbie to crime gets killed along with Castle. But then the newbie turns out to be the son of a big-time gangster who wants revenge on the agent responsible for his dead son. And on the agent’s family. And on anyone who ever loved the agent. So, he exacts revenge but fails to kill the agent. Now the agent, Castle, wants revenge from beyond the grave.

What I Liked

I liked the premise, and as this is a novelization based on the film, a lot of the description is very visual. The pace moves along well and there is little time to worry about not enough stuff happening.

What I Didn’t Like

Neither the writing nor the story is first-rate. It moves along, from cliché to cliché, and there are lots of reasons en route to just stop reading. I didn’t and I kind of regret that as I don’t think this is a series I’ll follow. Love the character of Castle, hate this version.

The Bottom Line

Punishment for the reader.

Sanctuary by Jenny Carroll (2002) – BR00033 (2004) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 28 2004

Plot or Premise

Jess Mastriani got hit by lightning, and now she’s psychic. So she’s been calling in tips to the missing person line and telling the feds where to find the kids. The FBI wants her to do more, but she told them she lost the gift (which of course they don’t believe). And when a local kid shows up dead with strange militia markings on him, Jesse gets drawn into local militia groups and right-wing nuts in general, with the feds following along behind.

What I Liked

Not much — although it is good they still have Jess acting like a teenager.

What I Didn’t Like

While I prefer this characterization of Jess to the TV-series that has changed her into a kick-in-the-door, guns-blazing federal agent, this individual story is waaaay over the top. Like Hardy Boys meets the A-Team.

The Bottom Line

Way over the top.

When Is Enough, Enough by Laurie Ashner and Mitch Meyerson (1996) – BR00029 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
October 27 2004

Plot or Premise

The premise of this book is that there are many people who never feel satisfied, nor take the time to feel satisfied, and are always looking forward to the next obstacle, next project, next item on their to-do list — and whatever they have done, or accomplished, is never enough.

What I Liked

There is a lot to like in this book. Some highlights:

  • Never-enough thinkers act compulsively…unsure about what they really want, they stay in constant motion. (p.2)
  • Having been taught not to depend on other people, you take more than your share of the blame for what goes wrong in your relationships, at work, and in your family. (p.4)
  • Realize that if you could “just do it”, you would have done it. (p.5)
  • There’s a saying in Twelve Step programs: Your best thinking got you here. (p.9)
  • When we suppress our painful feelings, we lose our happy feelings too. (p.32)
  • You get an illusion of security from having all of these untapped talents. (p.47)
  • Depression indicates that the self-system has had to retreat to a lower level of functioning in the face of its inability to meet higher goals. Depression also serves as a communication, a message to the world at large that the self-system can no longer be counted upon, that it has ceased to function to some significant degree, that one has lost hope, and that help must come from the outside. In other words, the self says, “enough is enough”, and retreats away not only from the feelings that are most troublesome, but all feelings in general. It’s a concept that goes far toward explaining why depressed people often feel, “What’s the use?” (p.67)
  • You have an emotional thermostat turned high to nuances, a sensitivity to a lot of surplus information other people filter out and disregard. This sensitivity is your strength at times. But it has an enormous cost. (p.84)
  • We meet the right person when we become the right person. (p.144)
  • There’s an interesting fact about blaming oneself which explains why so many people are so willing to take it on. If one is at fault, then one can always do better. As long as one is responsible, one always has hope. (p.208)

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the approach gets a bit repetitive in trying to emphasize or illustrate certain points.

The Bottom Line

An excellent self-help resource.

Killing Floor by Lee Child (1997) – BR00036 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 5 2004

Plot or Premise

The plot is relatively confusing at the start. Jack Reacher is a drifter who gets picked up by the police in a small town as a suspected murderer. He knows he didn’t do it, so he is fairly cooperative with the lead detective. But when it starts to appear that some of the other people don’t particularly care if he did it, he is a little annoyed that their laziness is going to cost him a weekend in jail with someone else who confessed to the crime. Jack starts to draw on his past skills as an MP in the army to help out the investigation, and then it starts to get personal.

What I Liked

From the word go, Jack Reacher is a solid character. He comes with a lot of history and no baggage, which I understand is how the rest of the series unfolds as well. The characters read a little more stream-lined than perhaps a Robert B. Parker novel, without as much soul-searching, and the action keeps going.

What I Didn’t Like

There is a major “coincidence” in the novel, and I really hate novels that hang on coincidence as a major plot device to move the story along. Happenstance is one thing, such as Jack being in the town and subject to being suspected. But when it turns out that Jack knew one of the victims, in a town where he doesn’t know anyone, and there’s no reason for either of them to be there, it’s a bit of a stretch.

The Bottom Line

Great intro to a series.