I'll Walk Alone

Octogenarian author Mary Higgins Clark has successfully published a long string of light mystery/romances over the years, skillfully blending succinctly drawn characters with continuous plot progression. I’ll Walk Alone features protagonist Alexandra “Zan” Moreland , a divorced, thirty-something interior decorator whose three-year-old son Matthew was kidnapped while with his sleeping baby sitter in Central Park two years ago. In addition to the desolation she feels from this loss, Zan also worries that she is losing her mind when it is discovered that large sums of money have been removed from her accounts by her, something that she knows she has not done. When a recently discovered photograph provides proof that Zan kidnapped her own child, even her friends and associates believe it to be true, although they suspect that Zan suffers from a split personality. Pursued by the press and the police, she struggles to prove her innocence and rescue her son. After some plot surprises, the reader is rewarded with the conventional happy ending and an enjoyable read.

Lost Painting

Join author Jonathan Harr as he recounts the search for and discovery of the missing painting “The Taking of Christ” created by the Italian baroque artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Caravaggio is an artist of outstanding ability whose popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries. Several of his paintings have disappeared from the public view. Recently there has been much scholarly interest in Caravaggio’s works.

In this book, the adventure/mystery revolves around three major players: graduate student Francesca Cappelletti, who researches the provenance and history of
“The Taking of Christ”, Sir Denis Mahon, the world’s foremost expert on Caravaggio, and Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer who discovers the masterpiece at an Irish monastery and brings it to the National Gallery of Ireland. Harr presents an abundance of detail on the workings of art history research and art restoration, allowing the general reader to follow the action easily. He also enables the reader to access the thoughts and feelings of the main characters.

The Whistleblower

The Whistleblower by Kathryn Bolkovac with Cari Lynn
Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice

This is the true life story of a Lincoln, Nebraska police officer turned International Human Rights Investigator. Looking for a change, Bolkovac, enticed by the high Dynocorp salaries, made the decision to apply for a job oversees. She soon discovered Dynocorp was inundated with unqualified candidates and that landing a job would be easy. Bolkovac traveled to Bosnia and began a journey that would soon lead her to discover a cover up of massive proportions.

Bolkovac discovers her employer, Dynocorp, is covering up the involvement of its own employees and contractors in the Bosnian sex trade industry. Their involvement ranges from the taking bribes to look the other way to the actually purchasing and resale of the young women. When Bolkovac discovers the wrong doing and reports it she was fired under false pretenses.

Bolkovac is a very courageous woman and there is no doubt she helped many foreign women who were victims of sex trafficking. However, this book is so structurally flawed, that it renders the text boring and practically unreadable. The tale is told in a strictly linear fashion that reads like a police deposition and lacks any kind of story-like quality. There is a lot of extraneous information inserted into the text that adds nothing to the story, while the most interesting side story, Bolkovac’s relationship with Jan, is totally glazed over (but I imagine it was very romantic). Perhaps the movie being made of this tale will be better.

About the Author
Bolkovac is a former police investigator from Nebraska that served as an International Police Task Force investigator in Bosnia. She divides her time between Licoln, NE and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Where the mysterious Jan lives…)
Lynn is the author of three books of narrative non-fiction and has written for numerous magazines and newspapers including O, Health, Good Housekeeping and the Chicago Tribune. She live in LA, California.

Read-a-Likes (or alternatives to try)
The Natashas: inside the new global sex trade by Victor Malarek

Sex trafficking: inside the business of modern slavery by Siddharth Kara

The Franklin scandal: a story of powerbrokers, child abuse and betrayal by Nick Bryant

Three Junes

This first novel, written by Julia Glass, focuses on relationships and the joys and heartaches that they bring. The book features the McLeods, a Scottish family, and includes father Paul, mother Maureen, and sons Fenno, David and Dennis. In three sections of the book, and using flashbacks, we experience their lives in Scotland, Greece and the United States during three points of time in the 1980s and 1990s. The author sensitively portrays the attributes and foibles of the characters, all family members, friends and lovers of one another. Three of them are serendipitously linked: father/widower Paul meets and is attracted to the young American artist Fern while on a Greek cruise; six years later at the occasion of Paul’s death we observe the adventures of eldest son Fenno, a straight-laced homosexual expatriate who owns a bookstore in New York; finally four years later Fern and Fenno become acquainted while visiting with friends in the Hamptons.

Descriptive language allows the reader to visualize the settings as though they are works of art and the plot moves smoothly back and forth through time. This is a worthwhile book to read.

Mystery: An Alex Delaware Novel

Author Jonathan Kellerman presents another mystery featuring his popular character Dr. Alex Delaware. Forensic science, computer savvy, psychological analysis and plain old sleuthing play equal parts in solving the murder of a woman who advertised on an online dating site matching older wealthy men with beautiful young women.

While at a romantic restaurant, Alex and girlfriend Robin spot an attractive young woman sitting by herself. The next day, coincidentally, Alex’s friend, LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis brings him to the crime scene at which this same woman was mutilated and murdered. Investigations lead Alex and Milo to a wealthy family with links to old Hollywood society. Twists and turns lead to the mystery’s satisfying resolution. First-rate character development and attention to detail keep the momentum moving along.

A Death in Belmont

A true crime story is up close and personal for author Sebastian Junger as he chronicles the Boston Strangler serial murders that took place during the early 1960s. Before the advent of DNA evidence, some individuals were tried and convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence. This is what happened to Roy Smith, a black man and ex-convict who was working as a housecleaner in Bessie Goldberg's home the day she was sexually assaulted and murdered, the thirteenth victim in the Boston area.

At the same time, a few blocks away, Albert DeSalvo was working as a hired helper on a home construction job for one-year-old Sebastian Junger's parents. The work was completed without incident, although Sebastian's mother had a premonition about DeSalvo possibly causing her harm.

Roy Smith spends several years in jail for the murder he says he did not commit; Albert DeSalvo eventually confesses to all of the Boston Strangler murders except for that of Bessie Goldberg. Was DeSalvo really the Boston Strangler or just someone looking for fame? Was Smith a victim of racial prejudice or was he a murderer? Junger tries to examine both men fairly as to their guilt or innocence, but in the end there still are unanswered questions.

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

Written by Dava Sobel, this is an account of the lives of Galileo Galilei and his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, based upon the remaining correspondence between the two as well as other biographical sources. Galileo, a man of genius and of deep religious faith, spent a lifetime battling the Roman Catholic Church over his controversial astronomical theories. Maria Celeste, one of his three illegitimate children who eventually entered a convent in Florence, was of a similar bent to her father, described by him as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me.”

Through the reading of this book, we become acquainted with the historical events of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Bubonic Plague outbreaks and the Thirty Years’ War. We learn of Galileo’s introductory works in the science of physics and his inventions which included the telescope. We are able to observe the actions of this era’s men of politics, religion and science and how they influenced the future. Most of all, we are witness to the expression of deep love and friendship between a father and a daughter.