The Broker - John Grisham

Former power broker and hotshot DC attorney, Joel Backman, is serving a 20 year jail sentence for selling military secrets. He found himself in possession of a sophisticated satellite software program, and tried to sell it to various countries. As an inept and unpopular president gets ready to leave office, corrupt CIA director, Teddy Maynard, bribes the president to pardon Joel Backman (only 6 years into his jail term). He plans to plop Backman down into a foreign country under CIA watch, and then leak his whereabouts to those countries wishing Backman dead. It is here that The Broker becomes the Italian travelogue and coffee diary. Backman is relocated to Bologna. With the help of a private tutor, he starts learning the language. He learns nouns...he learns adjectives...he learns adverbs...he learns verbs...he learns verb tenses, etc. You get the picture. Then he goes out for sumptuous meals, which are described in great detail (all at government expense, of course). Then he starts seeing the sites. He tours churches, cathedrals, towers, etc. and we get the history and description of each. And finally, he stops for a cup of coffee, cappuccino or espresso at least 5-6 times a day. Without all this the book would have been atleast 70 page shorter.

The climax to The Broker is very unsatisfying and the ending rather weak. Grisham leaves things a bit open-ended and we can only hope that it's not because we'll be seeing these characters again. There weren't many that were very likable. Hopefully Grisham will let them rest in peace. So read The Broker if you're a Grisham fan, but don't expect one of his better works.

A Time to Kill: John Grisham

Carl Lee Hailey-a black vet- finds himself helpless after his 10yr old daughter, Tanya gets raped and beaten up by two rednecks.Tanya identifies the two and with the help of a local sheriff they are arrested.But Carl does not have faith in the Clanton justice.He would not and does not accept the verdict based on who has the better lawyer.The town reacts with horror until the girl's father takes justice into his own hands.As he gets his hands on M-16 he shoots the two, and by this process the two rapists gets killed and a deputy, severely injured.He then goes straight to his brother's lawyer Jake Brigance,to get him off.For Jake, this is the case of his career. A young lawyer, out on his own and barely making ends meet, winning this one would set he and his family up for life. And with the assistance of his old friend Lucien, a dirty smart divorce lawyer named Harry, and a surprise godsend of a paralegal nick-named “Ro-Ark”, he might just be able to see this one through.
Jake fights his way through but in this process he puts Carl's,his and his family's life at stake.Eventually the Klan gets involved so does other racist and a chaos situation is created.Burning cross,threats,slogans and banners saying "set Carl lee free" is all over the city.For days the nation sits spellbound as the defence lawyer struggles to save his client's life and then his own.The city takes a different face that no one has ever seen before.The national guard are called into the small southern town to keep the peace, and the clashes with protesters and Klan are heightening by the day. And, of course, the unavoidable problem... which way will the jury go? Can Jake maintain his sanity, his life, AND win the biggest case in his career?

This is one among the other court room dramas of Grisham.But this particular one is action packed,full of drama and suspense.You will feel your heart hammering fast along with that of Carl and Jake.Of course, you could tell where his sympathies lay, but for a first novel his ability to write impartially was very impressive.

Angels & Demons - Dan Brown

I would have to argue with samia here a bit since according to me this is Dan Browns best work. No offence dear but the plot which he puts forward in this book surpasses everything.

Brown's famous character Robert Langdon (Da Vinci Code) is introduced in this book. A professor of symbology finds himself in the worlds largest nuclear research facility CERN where a scientist has been brutally murdered. His final discovery antimatter, a powerful energy source, has disappeared only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Who did it? An ancient legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism.

Langdon joins the scientist's daughter, Vittoria, on a mad dash through some of Rome's most famous landmarks, in an effort to find the anti-matter before the Vatican is leveled. As Langdon and Vittoria set off on their investigation, they follow a trail of multiple ritualistic murders, the threatened obliteration of an entire country, the potential death of a major world religion, secret societies that go back 500 years, new scientific discoveries that will change the world, and much more. This is one page-turner which is definitely worth a read.

Digital fortress:one amazing sci-fi!!

'Digital fortress' is one among the few writings of the controversial writer of the Da Vinci Code 'Dan Brown'.It is one book which will make you flip like through the pages like a nutcase and will give you goosebumps.Indeed it is a true thriller.The suspense that slowly builds up through out the book,comes to a thrashing end at the ending.And i think this is what makes this book so much more exciting.It is one of the best books i have ever read and in my opinion it is even better than all other books of Dan Brown,even better than the controversial two.
The plot is created surrounding NSA and its finest decrypting machine.The problem arises when this machine fails to decrypt a message from the Japanese guy Ensei Tankado.Then NSA puts Susan Fletcher to look through the problem,as it becomes a vital one:Ensei Tankado threatens to make the code public by selling it to the highest bidder. David Becker, a professor and Susan's boyfriend is sent to locate the key to Spain when Ensei Tankado dies.Thus the story rolls on.Finally the worst fears of the NSA becomes true as they figure out that the message is actually a dangerous virus which entered the machine as the firewall was switched off to let the message in.
Though the context is complex one does not need to be an expert in those sectors to enjoy the book, that's the beauty of it.
It is a marvelous novel and if you haven't read this yet you have truly missed out on a lot.Happy Reading! Thrillers.

The Shining---Stephen King

The King of Horror brings another book which makes you want to peer out from your blanket to see if there are any spooky strangers looming over you! Some people might not find it as scary as I did but it did make me keep my lights on before I went to sleep for an entire fortnight!!

The story begins with the Torrance family embarking on a month-long retreat into complete isolation when Jack Torrance signs on to be the winter custodian of the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. Jack takes some personal demons with him to a hotel full of malevolent, ghostly spirits. A recovering alcoholic who, in the last couple of years, lost his job and broke his little boy's arm in a state of drunken fury. He thinks the time alone with his wife and son will allow him to find peace.The only person really clued into the dreadful possibilities is his son Danny. Danny has "the shine," a gift which allows him to see and know things he cannot possibly know; it is a powerful gift which the Overlook jealously desires for itself. As the days pass, the Overlook exerts more and more of an influence on Jack, exploiting his weaknesses, increasing his paranoia and basically turning him into a murderous new tool at the hotel's disposal.

Even after 30 years after its publication The shining still remains one of the most popular works by King. Its vivid and gruesome descriptions about the horrors of the hotel is sure to make anyone grip the book a little bit tighter.

Tell Me Your Dreams--Sydney Sheldon

The book is based on one of the most bizarre murder trials where three women are suspects. Ashley, Toni Prescott and Alette---three women who have nothing in common are shown as co-workers in a Global Computer Graphics. As one goes deeper into the book we get introduced to the controversial multiple personality disorder(MPD) syndrome which shows us that the three characters are more connected then we can possibly imagine. After some confusing chapters in the beginning we get to see some high paced court room drama. However towards the end the excitement dies down a bit and one might feel a bit disappointed. Some readers might notice that Sheldon took a new turn in his writing in this book.

Nevertheless it is a psychological thriller which is worth a read.For everyone who doesn't know what MPD is, TELL ME YOUR DREAMS will surely be a surprise.

Stephen King's PET SEMATARY

Review for Pet Sematary

by Dolan (old).

This review has been rated 8.5 (by 2 users).

Doctor Louis Creed takes up a new position as head medic at the University of Maine. He moves his family away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago to the rolling hills and meadows of Maine.The house seemed perfect with a huge field out the back for daughter Ellie and baby Gage to grow and play in.
Then their was the old guy across the street, Jud Crandall, who Louis became to know and think of him as a father. After settling in Crandall takes the Creed family a trip to the local Pet Sematary which is located deep in the woods behind the Creed house. A weird and suspicious looking place built by children with broken hearts. Its a this point that Louis notices the dead fall on the far end of the Pet Sematary which separated these woods from the Indian woods. It occurred to Louis that this dead fall seemed to "convenient..too artful, to perfect, for the work of nature."
Then when the University season starts and Louis has his first real day at work, a dying boy is brought to him. Victor Pascow had been run down by a truck and when Louis is momentarily alone with the victim Pascow says, " In the Pet Sematry, Its not the real sematary, The soil of a man's heart is stonier". That night Pascow reapears in a dream and Louis goes sleepwalking to the Pet Sematary. In this dream Pascow warns him that over that dead fall is an evil place with the ability to resurrect.

When Halloween comes Crandall's wife has a heart attack and Loius comes to the rescue as he uses his medical expertise to help the old women. This leaves Crandall saying "Louis, I owe you one".

Thanksgiving day comes and with the family away to the Chicago visiting relatives Louis is given the news that Louis's cat has been run down on the road outside. Its now that Crandall takes Louis beyond the Pet Sematary to bury his cat

The next day the cat comes back to life but its not the cat they once knew... The real horror comes when Louis decides to play God not once but twice, when its his son who is killed out on the road. And for this there is hell to pay. Pet Sematary is a disturbing novel, the kind of subversive, realistic horror that exemplifies great horror fiction. It's the story of a man who forgets he can't play god, that despite the miracles of science and the life-support systems that can prolong life, at best, he can only postpone the inevitable for a very short time.

But what if man could return the dead to life?

Submitted on July 16, 2003.

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