Book Review : The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follet's bestselling novel published in 1989 and  the prequel to 2007's World without End; it was also adapted for TV as a miniseries.

Summary:
        Set in a fictional town Kingsbridge,England of medieval times during the Anarchy ; from the year 1123 - 1174,with the building of a cathedral by an ambitious Master Builder, Tom, serving as what I call a foundation theme, The Pillars of the Earth explores the development of medieval  masonry and architecture, the civil
war, intrigue - filled secular/religious disputes and shifting political
loyalties and their conspiracies of that time.

Xpressview:
     
        Ken Follet picks from almost every genre of fiction and whips it all together comfortably in this historical masterpiece.  A book that just pulls you  along gently while transporting you back in time to an era that you never imagined will have much to interest your generation, The Pillars of the Earth is a must read for every fiction lover(xcept if u re into sci-fi or other fantasy stuff). I found out that a forthcoming game based on the novel has been set for 2016.

Rating:
           4.5 stars out of five. A superb read.

Book Review : Cold Vengeance by Preston & Child

Summary:
After the death of his wife,Helen; FBI Agent Alloysius Pendergast vows to catch her killers. In the process, he gets a shocking revelation from one of her supposed murderers: Helen is alive and may have staged her death.How and Why? Pendergast vows to find out.....

XpressView:
    My first impression of this book was...well,....Hot, but then  it ended up not so hot. Why?  Well, I felt it had a much to do with the fact that Cold Veangeance is a second part in a trilogy involving Mr and Mrs Pendergast; (Fever Dream and Two Graves being the first and last respectively ).
     The first and second chapter held my attention but after a few more i got bored, (the protagonist seemed not to be needed, not until chapter 26 did  he become prominent). Its ending was less dramatic too.
   I  think a Good book should be able to stand out on it's own regardless of it being part of a trilogy or whatever,to me Cold Veangeance didn't do that.

Rating :
   Two out of five. Not an impressive read.

James Patterson upcoming release:The 9th Judgment!

The latest on the Women's Murder Club (sequel to The 8th Confession)

SUMMARY:Detective Lindsay Boxer chases a jewel thief, a murderous movie star, and a killer with a vendetta against women and children.

DETAILS :The most personal
A young mother and her infant child are ruthlessly gunned down while returning to their car in the garage of a shopping mall. There are no witnesses, and Detective Lindsay Boxer is left with only one shred of evidence: a cryptic message scrawled across the windshield in blood red lipstick.

The most dangerous
The same night, the wife of A-list actor Marcus Dowling walks in on a cat burglar who is about to steal millions of dollars worth of precious jewels. In just seconds there is an empty safe, a lifeless body, and another mystery that throws San Francisco into hysteria.

The most exciting Women's Murder Club novel ever
Lindsay spends every waking hour working with her partner Rich—and her desire for him threatens to tear apart both her relationship with her fiancé and the Women's Murder Club. Before Lindsay and her friends can piece together either case, one of the killers forces Lindsay to put her own life on the line—but is it enough to save the city? With unparalleled danger and explosive action, The 9th Judgment is James Patterson at his compelling, unstoppable best!

Grisham's done it again!

Ford County

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In his first collection of short stories John Grisham takes us back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first novel, A Time to Kill.

Wheelchair-bound Inez Graney and her two older sons, Leon and Butch, take a bizarre road trip through the Mississippi Delta to visit the youngest Graney brother, Raymond, who’s been locked away on death row for eleven years. It could well be their last visit.

Mack Stafford, a hard-drinking and low-grossing run-of-the-mill divorce lawyer, gets a miracle phone call with a completely unexpected offer to settle some old, forgotten cases for more money than he has ever seen. Mack is suddenly bored with the law, fed up with his wife and his life, and makes drastic plans to finally escape.

Quiet, dull Sidney, a data collector for an insurance company, perfects his blackjack skills in hopes of bringing down the casino empire of Clanton’s most ambitious hustler, Bobby Carl Leach, who, among other crimes, has stolen Sidney’s wife.

Three good ol’ boys from rural Ford County begin a journey to the big city of Memphis to give blood to a grievously injured friend. However, they are unable to drive past a beer store as the trip takes longer and longer. The journey comes to an abrupt end when they make a fateful stop at a Memphis strip club.

The Quiet Haven Retirement Home is the final stop for the elderly of Clanton. It’s a sad, languid place with little controversy, until Gilbert arrives. Posing as a low-paid bedpan boy, he is in reality a brilliant stalker with an uncanny ability to sniff out the assets of those “seniors” he professes to love.

One of the hazards of litigating against people in a small town is that one day, long after the trial, you will probably come face-to-face with someone you’ve beaten in a lawsuit. Lawyer Stanley Wade bumps into an old adversary, a man with a long memory, and the encounter becomes a violent ordeal.

Clanton is rocked with the rumor that the gay son of a prominent family has finally come home, to die. Of AIDS. Fear permeates the town as gossip runs unabated. But in Lowtown, the colored section of Clanton, the young man finds a soul mate in his final days.

Featuring a cast of characters you’ll never forget, these stories bring Ford County to vivid and colorful life. Often hilarious, frequently moving, and always entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly clear why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller.

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The Last Juror is a 2004 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, first published by DoubleDay on Febuary 3, 2004.

The story is set in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi from1970 to 1979. Clanton is also the venue for John Grisham's first novel A Time To Kill which was published in 1988. Some of the characters appear in both novels with the same occupation and characteristics,such as Lucien Wilbanks and Harry Rex Vonner.

Summary

In 1970,Shortly after the first person narrator, a 23-year-old college drop-out by the name of Willie Traynor, comes to Clanton, Mississippi and decides to buy the local newspaper, The Ford County Times paper spontaneously for fifty-thousand dollars, through money from his wealthy grandmother, a member of the notorious and scandalous Padgitt family brutally rapes and kills a young widow named Rhoda Kassellaw. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, is tried in front of a jury and i found guilty. Prior to being sentenced, Danny threatens to kill each of the jury members, should they convict him. Although they do find him guilty, the jury cannot decide whether to send him to life in prison or to Death Row , so Danny is sentenced to life in prison at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

After only nine years in prison, Danny Padgitt is paroled and returns to Clanton. Immediately, members of the jury who had voted against his conviction to Death Row begin to die one after the other . Convinced that Danny is exacting his revenge, as promised, the judge of Clanton issues an arrest for Danny Padgitt. At Padgitt's trial, the former lover of Rhoda Kassellaw, Hank Hooten a schizophrenic, guns down Danny Padgitt in the courtroom by positioning himself on the balcony, attributing his action to hearing the voices of the victim's children in his head, convincing him to murder Danny and the three jurors who voted against his conviction to Death Row. After nine years of ownership, Willie sells The Ford County Times for 1.5 million dollars. The book ends with Willie writing the last obituary for the paper.

A must read!

JO PHILIP