The Crooked Letter

When I saw a book entitled The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams, how could I possibly refrain from reading this book? Here's the basic plot:

Seth and Hadrian Castillo travel to Europe to have the experience of a lifetime. Seth and Hadrian are mirror twins, or mirror copies of each other (including organ placement). While on a train ride, Seth is stabbed to death. If this weren't a fantasy novel, the rest of the story would be about Hadrian surviving without his brother, but no-this is a fantasy novel. Evidently, the death of one mirror twin brings about the cataclysm. Seth's death doesn't end his journey, for there are levels of existence beyond ours with many creatures to fight. This book would be absolutely absurd, if it weren't for Williams' clever insertion of many different religious backgrounds. Incorporated in this novel are not only Christian themes, but also (here is a long list) Albanian, Altaic, Arabian, Australian Aboriginal, Basque, Finnish, Gallic, Georgian, Germanic, Polynesian, Roman, Syrian, Tamil Tibetan, and Tripolitanian. This isn't even remotely the entire list. This is the first book in a series entitled Books of the Cataclysm. I look forward to reading the next one and seeing what Williams has in store for the Castillo twins.


-Eleanor

Harlan Coben - The Final Detail

Harlan Coben - The Final Detail

Harlan Coben has quickly become my favorite mystery writer. I got an advanced copy of No Second Chance a few years ago from Penguin and loved it, flew right through it, and read everything of his that I can get my hands on anymore. (On a side note: I wrote Penguin about how much I loved No Second Chance and Harlan actually added me to his families Christmas card mailing list - I get pictures of his kids!, It's so cool)

Ok, so I just started and finished The Final Detail yesterday. This is one of his first novels, about Myron Bolitar (a sports agent, just my cup of tea) who also gets caught up in mysteries. Of course, the twist at the end I did not see coming, just like in his other novels, but this one was a little bit harder to get to and see coming. You can surely see the progression of his writing from this to his current style. It's still a great day read, something you can fly right through and enjoy and written well enough that you don't feel like you've wasted the past four hours reading mind candy, although it really is. It's a nonthinking kind of read, and just what I needed.

I'm not going to give you the details of this book, because well...they're really not necessary. The important thing about this note is that I suggest if you like a good mystery to pick up any Harlan Coben book, open it and get sucked in. You'll escape into it before you hit the end of the first chapter.

(and by the way, the only reason that I'm listening to Rod Stewart, as noted below is because Ted, our new employee, thought that was something good to listen to. He's not gay, he's just hilarious and a bit quirky!)