THE SECRET SERVANT—Daniel Silva—Israeli assassin and art-restorer, Gabriel Allon, once more, is pressed into service initially to scour the files of a sometimes agent of the Israeli secret service and winds up in the midst of the kidnapping of the U.S. Ambassador to England’s daughter by Islamic terrorists. Fiction and non-fiction coexist in this great story of international intrigue…the fiction being the storyline and non-fiction, Silva’s discussion of the state of terrorism today and it’s goals for the future; including Europe becoming dominated by Islam. Fast, fun and chilling from all angles.

THE QUICKIE—James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge—117 Chapters and 357 pages, wide margins, large font, wide line spacing, indeed a “Quickie” multiple murder mystery. Giving her husband a ‘taste of his own medicine’ by having an affair with a co-worker, our ‘heroine’ witnesses a murder and is forced to resolve it. The plot is thick with hidden difficulties and traps which often she’s inadvertently set herself, mixed with which confrontations with characters who are all not quite who they seem to be. A fun read, but “ a quickie”.

Anne Perry's World War I series is composed of five books, the first of which has been listed here previously. Each book is a 'stand alone' story, but this reader would suggest reading them in order as they are a chronological description of a family, countries, the war, and the state of mind of individuals, troops, armies and nations. Ms. Perry, throughout the series, poses almost countless questions of behavior, morality, reasons for war, the protection of a way of life, quality of life and repeats and rephrases the questions; and with reference to the timeing of the stories, what will the individual do following the war given all the societal and cultural changes which occurred 'at home'. These questions can give pause to think (and put current situations in perspective, perhaps) or be taken as a part of the story line. To most of the questions she provides her answer. Two random example, one of question, one of answer; "What are you going to teach your children? Are you going to teach them honor and chastity and how to care for others and be loyal and patient and decent? Or how to take everything you can for yourself, make sure you know all of your rights--and none of your duties"(P198) //and in answer why fight..."It was far from perfect, because people made mistakes, but there was a freedom here that had been learned and paid for over the centuries. It was the right--not only in law but also in practice--to disagree, to be different, inventive, sometimes to the wrong and still be a part of the fabric that as treasured. There was honor and tolerance throughout all the errors and wrongs of history, and that must be saved, whatever the cots." Each book also contains a good and quite satisfying mystery to be solved around which she explores answers and alternative to the questions noted here, and some others, too.
Occasionally the repetition of the questions and the questions surrounding the murders became distracting to this reader; but the series as a whole gives a magnificent, detailed and shattering view of WWI and the horrible lives lived by the soldiers.

THE SLEEPING DOLL—Jeffery Deaver—Moving from his Lincoln Rhyme series, Deaver features a character from the last “Rhyme” book, Kathryn Dance. Her crime-solving specialty is kinesics, the study of body language and it’s meaning in interrogations and understanding; which combined with her intuition have established her highly in her department. Her antagonist in this work is Daniel Pell, “Son of Manson”, a control freak who has committed multiple murders. His study and practice of control of others competes with Dance’s expertise. Deaver’s pacing continues strong as the story develops, together with many unexpected plot changes—right to the end.

HARRY POTTER and the Deathly Hallows—J.K. Rowling—the last book of the series and a very satisfying one. I urge other readers to join in the comments to have a discussion about this book, the series, whatever 'pottermania' comes to mind. We can have a great time.

THE FOURTH ORDER—Stephen Frey—A book of financial intrigue, governmental intrigue and very very unlikable characters. I take that back, the teenagers are by far the best of the lot. Their Dad, Michael Rose, is a high-powered take over artist whose been put up to purchasing a conglomerate to get to one particular part of the business, CIS, a global information technology company. The government is going all out to prevent the loss of CIS,to it, a hidden asset. Personalities become conflicted with business, love affairs go off base, everyone is using everyone else; in all a huge bunch of nasty characters. In truth, I had a hard time finishing because I disliked them all so much.