Reader's Club's Latest

The Winner Stands Alone

by Paulo Coelho
Obsession is a powerful and dangerous quality to possess. Whether it is the love of another, creating a work of art, or simply bettering one's self, such a desire can drive a person to do amazing and terrible things. Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone shows the results of obsession by delving into the world of fashion, and using it as a metaphor for how much people are willing to sacrifice. A deeply interesting and entertaining novel, Coelho uses his ability to speak to everyone at once to show what happens to those who take their passions too far.
- reviewed by R., , PLCMC

Undone

by Slaughter, Karin
Karin Slaughter fans will recognize the Grant County series character, Sara Linton, when she turns up in the ER at Grady Memorial Hospital. Sara is starting to rebuild her life as a physician in Atlanta's busiest hospital when she meets Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agents Faith Mitchell and Will Trent. Each of these main characters has come undone in some aspect of their personal lives, when they meet over a particularly gruesome case involving torture and murder. Soon more victims are discovered and the hunt is on. Slaughter is deft at handling interweaving story lines, developing each character while moving the action to a breathtaking finale. Undone will make you a Slaughter fan!
- reviewed by Susan, Independence Regional, PLCMC

Cold in Hand

by Harvey, John
A police radio call requesting response to a rowdy youth gathering with gang members is not the way to end work on Valentine’s Day. Detective Inspector Lynn Kellogg is not deterred though, even as she anticipates a romantic dinner with DI Charlie Resnick. But minutes in, a young woman is shot and killed and Kellogg is injured. The resulting investigation includes Resnick, and an angry parent ranting against the police. Meanwhile Kellogg resumes a previous murder case which draws unexpected, and undesired, police departmental attention and unfortunately additional violence. Plot twists, strong character development and the convincing look at police and crime make this book appealing on several levels.
- reviewed by Lawrence, South County Regional, PLCMC

Pretty Birds

by Simon, Scott
Sarajevans traditionally have identified themselves with multiculturalism, enjoying fashion, popular culture, music, cafés, and the like. The Bosnian conflict of the 1990s turned this international metropolis on its ear, resulting in brutality between religions that Sarajevo’s citizens could hardly fathom, considering how cross-cultural and watered-down many families ideologies had become over time. Author Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday and war correspondent in Sarajevo, skillfully uses the fiction character of a high school athlete Irena Zaric, to drive his novel through the city’s ravaged alleys and buildings, where Irena has been recruited as an ace sniper. Her assignments punctuate the complexity of the Bosnia conflict, and include episodes with Osama bin Laden, Kenneth Branagh, and Radovan Karadzic. All, though, are her footprints in a path of ultimate betrayal.
- reviewed by Lydia, Main Library, PLCMC

Spell of the Highlander

by Karen Marie Moning
What would you do if you saw a man in an ancient mirror in your professor’s office? I mean, if you were a woman, who spent way too much time studying ancient artifacts? Jessi is inclined to think she’s lost her mind, especially since he is gorgeous, half naked, and talking to HER. Wouldn’t you? When she is attacked in her professor’s office, the man in the mirror teaches her to summon him out of the mirror, saving her life. Why shouldn’t she accept his offer of protection in return for helping him? She is skeptical, but what else could happen at this point. Maybe together they can figure out how to break the centuries old curse that put him in the mirror.
- reviewed by Linda, North County Regional, PLCMC