V for Vomitous? How about Vile?
The Paris Vendetta
Steve Berry
Ballantine
I travel a lot and, well, frankly, I'm nosy. When I'm in the lounge, at the gate, or even sitting on the plane I often take a good look around and see what people are reading. I run across quite of Nora Roberts -- either writing as herself for the women travellers and as J.D. Robb for the men. Sadly, I still see a lot of Dan Brown. (Did I tell you that when I joined a dating site I automatically closed matches where the "best book" read was The Davinci Code?) Lately, I have also noticed that a lot of people are carrying around novels by Steve Berry. They seemed like something that might interest me, so I picked one up.
OMG -- what a mistake. Let's just say The Paris Vendetta was not a work of literature. Former spy, Cotton Malone, gets pulled into a web of intrigue by one of his close friends and allies, some Dane name. Dane is looking to avenge the senseless of his son and Cotton agrees to help. The murderers, as it turns out, belong to The Paris Group, a collective of extremely wealthy individuals who are hatching a plan to manipulate the global stock markets to their advantage. Throw in a Corsican connection, Napoleon, and a little bit of conspiracy and voila! Yeah, it is a stupid as it sounds.
I'm not going to pollute the grading system that I have established on this blog by giving this book a rating. Maybe it suffered because it was what I read directly following The Power of One. Maybe it just sucked. I will leave it to you to decide -- if you go there, caveat emptor definitely applies.
We have a Contender!
The Angel's Game
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Doubleday Canada
So here's the thing -- I am way, waaaay behind on my blog. I got seriously sick a few weeks ago and since then, I haven't really had it in me to write. I have, however, been reading like a fiend and as a result, your inboxes, Facebook pages, and RSS feeds are about to be deluged. I have made it a goal to get caught up by week's end. That's about an entry a day ... we'll see it how it goes.
Okay -- so let's talk about The Angel's Game. David Martín, the story's hero, is a young writer who earns his way by churning out penny dreadfuls -- baroque tales of Barcelona's seedy, and somewhat mysterious underworld. While he longs to write something of more substance, he is under contract to a pair of unscrupulous publishers who keep him busy with the popular, serialized stories
David's future seems desolate and unrelenting. It all changes, however, when he gets a letter from the reclusive Andreas Corelli. Corelli promises David an extraordinary amount of money if David were to write him a book that creates a new myth -- one that can change the hearts and minds of all mankind. David accepts Corelli's terms and enters into a world of darkness, passion, paranoia, and mystery. It would seem that he has made a deal with the Devil.
I will be honest and tell you that I could not put this book down. The weather outside was cold and gloomy and it was just the excuse I needed to stay snuggled in bed (and later on the couch) reading. I've definitely found a candidate for the DES Book of the Year -- in fact, I think we have a front runner. The Angel's Game gets five soul-shivering passages out of five.
