The Priest, Gerard O’Donovan.

Inspector Mike Mulcahy returns to Dublin from the lofty heights of Europol in Madrid.  Due to budget cuts he is now the Garda equivalent of a supply teacher, never owning a case.  Mulcahy - seconded to the case of a horrific midnight attack on a foreign language student - taps some old contacts and invites one of them into his bed.

As the attacks escalate Mike is sidelined, suspected of leaking information to the bewitching Siobhan Fallon, star reporter for the Herald.  When Fallon steals a lead and then disappears, Mulcahy falls back on the real leak to help him defrock a serial killer.  With so many sinuous twists and turns its hard to believe this is a first novel.

Change is a good thing??

Since I've been married it's never been dull but apparently we're heading for the Eides of March again.  Among my friends and family the unemployed are starting work again, people are moving countries - again!  Rockwell sucks again, there's another six monthly check-up.  The only constants in this are good friends who still make me laugh and listen and offer advice and don't mind if it's taken or not and books that can transport me to other places, other times and let me become someone else for a while. 

Betrayed by a book

There's a certain title I've been reading which has compelled and repelled me in equal measure but yesterday I had to put it down.  It's been a long time since a book sucked me in and then spat me back out like that. 

I am enjoying the Paris Wife and I finished the Jungle Effect yesterday.  I highly recommend this book, I read an article about Daphne Miller and bought Jungle Effect on the strength of that.  The basic premise is that just as there are hot spots for diseases there are cold spots too, for instance did you know that Iceland is a cold spot - for depression!  Miller visits each cold spot to see what it is that makes each place unique what she finds is alarming, western diseases have started to creep in but there are still those who eat the way their ancestors did and they remain healthy. 

Heaven is....

A set of Formula one approved ear plugs.  (see previous post Feb 6th)

Finished Wolf Hall and we had our discussion yesterday.  Also got one of the hot off the presses copies of Jen's new book.  Will get it signed when I go to her book launch on March 24th.  This week Paris Wife by Paula McLain, The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller (not new but she's got a new book coming out soon) and The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman our new bookclub book.  Monkeewrench which I finished over the weekend is the start of a great series, I already have the second book on order.

This new schedule of read one day write the next is working a treat, I'm over the half-way point on the second draft of Thunderball, 300 pages doesn't seem so daunting now.

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

Volume three in Flavia De Luce's adventures begins with a gypsy fortune teller being bashed over the head after Flavia accidentally burned down her tent.  Things are bad at Buckshaw with Father muttering about the end of an era and selling off the family silver and his precious stamp collections to hang onto the house.  Flavia disturbs Brookie Harewood, seeming in the act of theft and the following morning he too has been attacked.  Ignoring the advice of Inspector Hewitt, Flavia's investigations lead her to a warehouse full of stolen antiques, a homicidal rooster, a missing child, gypsies and a murderer who reeks of fish.

I love this unusual series.  Eleven year old Flavia continues her journey to super sleuth - or super villan - with a dash of science, fatherly pride, sisterly hate, some ruined dresses and an unexpected sighting of Harriet - her beloved mother.

Agent X by Noah Boyd

Steve Vail aka The Bricklayer returns. The FBI, in the guise of Assistant Director Kate Bannon, need his unique talents in Washington DC.  The FBI was offered a list identifying a series of Russian mini moles but the seller has been recalled to Moscow and the bureau wants Vail to track down the moles before the Russians wipe them out.

Vail has a hidden agenda.  He’s out to restore a good friend’s reputation but as he follows ‘Ariadne’s thread’ he can’t help feeling that he and Bannon are being outplayed.  The Russians are always one bloodstained step ahead.  Vail is determined to unmask Agent X but the price to the bureau may be too high.

Interview with Noah Boyd

 

Noah Boyd’s debut novel The Bricklayer had reviewers salivating, they called it  ‘taut, rapid fire and relentless’  ‘a blistering debut’ and his character Steve Vail  ‘a new hero on the bookshelf ‘ Now Boyd brings us more Steve Vail in Agent X.

Boyd is more than qualified to pen Vail’s adventures, he’s a former FBI agent, before he joined the Bureau he was a Marine in Vietnam.  In his twenty year career he solved several high-profile murder cases but despite a stellar track record Boyd clashed with his superiors after publishing a book unflattering to the FBI.  He retired from the FBI in 1993 and has been writing full-time under the pseudonym Noah Boyd ever since.

I got the chance to grab a brief interview with Noah.

PJL: Your bio says you work on cold cases in your spare time. Are you a member of the Vidocq Society the group of law enforcement professionals who dedicate themselves to solving stone cold cases?

NB:  No, I'm not a member of the Vidocq Society.  For the past thirteen years I have worked with a local police department on a 29-year-old serial murder case.  I am fortunate because I have access to people I worked with in the FBI who are also retired and can give me expert help with things like DNA and profiling.

PJL:  Where did you see the first copy of The Bricklayer on sale and what went through your head when you saw people buying it.

NB:  I think the first copy of The Bricklayer I saw being sold was in the airport.  I  thought about what a great marketing staff they have at William Morrow.

PJL:  Do you read other authors while you’re writing a draft and if so who are your favourites?

NB:   I do read while I'm writing.  I really like the big guns--Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, James Patterson.

PJL:  Both Bricklayer and Agent X give an unvarnished view of the red tape clogging up the inner workings of the FBI.  Given your stellar solve rate and the clashes you had with your bosses at the bureau do you think anyone can cut through the red tape and modernize the organization?

NB:  The FBI has not had any leadership for forty years.  It has become just another federal agency.  As long as politicians chose the director of the FBI, it will never get better.

PJL:  Your books have action movie written all over them.  If you could cast anyone as Steve Vail who would it be?

NB:  My son and I both, two years apart and completely independent of one another, thought Gerard Butler would make a good Steve Vail.  Ironically, he has recently made an offer for the book.  But it is Hollywood and those things don't always work out.  But we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Many thanks to Danielle at Harper and Noah for answering all my questions.

Sadly Boyd passed away in 2011. There was no third book in the Steve Vail series.

Thoughts on Devil's Plaything

Started - and finished this book yesterday.  It comes out in June and the plot is scarily plausible.  Because it is a tech thriller Richtel's character - journalist Nat Idle - is the one who shows us how much we multi-task.  For instance while typing this post I'm checking e-mail and surfing the web for research with Pandora radio playing in the background. I could just as easily be skyping or IM'ing or skimming Facebook.  I've never considered what it could be doing to my brain.  If you can reel off your parents phone number or your social security number or the password to your bank account without looking it up first you're in better shape than me.  I couldn't, it gave me a huge reality check.

Hell is other people

Satre on a Sunday, yes I know it's deep but it sums up the day perfectly.

Sunday is of course the one day I write - without fail - but today I couldn't get a single word down.  We were in the usual coffee shop in the study area but the couple next to us were flirting so loudly that I was tempted to tell them to get a room.  The very last straw was the man who brought his screaming baby into the quiet area, that was me done.  Don't get me wrong I love a good chat, but if the signs say 'quiet please', I'm quiet, so either these people a) can't read or b) don't care.  I'm being kind when I say option (b)

On a lighter note, I finished the new Jasper Fforde - and I loved it.  Next up blurbing that and then Devil's Plaything by Matt Richtel - those of you who've been reading this blog since the beginning may remember that the review of Matt's first book, Hooked was the first post on this blog back in '07

Avalanche!

Wow, not only do I have the Lackberg - which is great by the way but One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde hit my box (yea Jasper's gone back to the Thursday Next series) I also have to check out the new David Bajo book (he wrote the 351 books of Irma Arcuri) and read Monkee Wrench so that I can recommend PJ Tracy on the mystery menu.  Today I'll read and tomorrow is for writing only.