Winter House, A Mallory Novel by Carol O’Connell; 2004; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; 306 pages; Fiction O’Connell/0-399-15211-3; 3/27-3/29

In the 8th installment of the Mallory novels, Mallory and Riker help solve a 58 year old crime. Deceit, infanticide, greed and insanity all contribute to teach Mallory a lesson that she may never forget. When a burglar is found stabbed to death in the foyer of an upscale family. As they dig into the crime, they expose secrets that each of them had kept hidden for years. The relationships between the recurring characters have all changed in this volume and will bring a different vibe to the next volume. RRR

On Deck; Blinded by the Sunlight, Emerging from the Prison of Saddam’s Iraq by Matthew McAllester

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Selected and Written By Leading International Critics; 2005; Universe Publishing, New York; 960 pages; 780.266 O575/0-7893-1371-5; 3/21-3/26

One column reviews of albums from all over the world. Presented by decade, many of the albums you would expect are here as are many you haven’t heard of over. The albums cross over all genres, countries and ages. I have listened to 183 of the albums listed here, I made of list that I would like to listen to. While this kind of list is always subject to criticism because your favorite artist is not here it is so inclusive that it is incredible. I think Jimmy Buffett should be in here and Britney Spears should not. RRR

On Deck; Winter House by Carol O’Connell

Cold Hit, A Shane Scully Novel by Stephen J. Cannell; 2005; St. Martin’s Press, New York; 372 pages; Fiction Cannell/0-312-34730-8; 3/19-3/21

Homeland Security, The FBI, The CIA, The KGB, The Mossad and the LAPD all figure prominently in this latest Shane Scully novel from Stephen J. Cannell. Scully and his partner catch a case which becomes a serial killer case, with shades of “Silence of the Lambs” and other well known movies. Then the case moves into the intelligence community and brings in the debate about the PATRIOT act. Another great police procedural read from Stephen J. Cannell. RRRr

On Deck; A 1001 Albums You Must Hear before You Die edited by Robert Dimery

blink, The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell; 2005; Little, Brown and Company, New York; 277 pages; 153.44 G543b/0-316-17232-4; 3/17-3/19

Sometimes we just know things by looking at the them. Sometimes gathering information is overkill. There are instances when we should go with our first instinct. There is quite a few instances of Duh here. There are also very many examples of when the “blink” phenomenon works and how it does not. Interesting. Much that has already been written, and presented to a new generation. RR

On Deck; Cold Hit by Stephen J. Cannell

Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt by Anne Rice; 2005; Alfred A. Knopf, New York; 322 pages; Fiction Rice/0-375-41201-8; 3/15-3/17

The story of Jesus as he ages from 7 to 8 and travels from Alexandria to Nazareth. He doesn’t know that he is the son of God, he just knows that he has power to kill, resurrected, bring clay sparrows to life and get what what ever he prays for including snow in Nazareth. James is Joseph’s son from a previous marriage and Mary remains a virgin forever. Jesus’ brothers and sisters are actually cousins, whose mother dies. No one will tell Jesus about what happened in Bethlehem or about himself, until he prys it out of his brother and asks an unsuspecting Rabbi about the stories. Then he figures out who he is, but doesn’t seem to want to accept it. If this had been Anne Rice’s first book, I don’t think there would have been as many Anne Rice books on the market. This is supposed to be the first in a series of the life of Christ. It is somewhat interesting because it is written in the first person. It is an good read of alternative history in the same way Harry Turtledove or S.M. Stirling are. RR

On Deck; Blink, the Art of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell