Silk Road by Colin Falconer

Silk Road. Colin Falconer. Atlantic Books (UK). May 2012.  462 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780857891082.

Josseran Sarrazini is a Christian Knight Templar who has a mission to guide a Dominican monk, William, to the far side of the world in what is present-day Beijing. It's the time of the Crusades in the 1500s and there is just as much in-fighting among the Christians as there is against the enemy Muslims who have captured and hold Jerusalem.  The novel begins in Aleppo and covers for years the entire Silk Road from Palestine to Xanadu; not a day passes in which there is not unbridled adventure, murder, passionate challenges and so much more.

Josseran is cynical about his own faith because he is guilty of a great sin, a burden that haunts his days and nights, a darkness the vile monk William senses and never ceases to salt with his sarcastic, scathing words.  For William is the worst of sinners, a man tempted in all ways but externally appearing to be an ascetic who disciplines himself by self-flagellation, a hard thin man whom all dislike because of his mean, vicious, quarrelsome, critical nature.  Josseran finally meets the daughter of a Khan, Khutelun, a spirited warrior who is stronger and braver than any of her brothers, a woman who should have been born a man.  She rides a horse with a wooden saddle for hours without tiring, can shoot an arrow better than most Mongol warriors, and she is chosen to accompany Josseran and William on their journey. Their mission is to forge a union with the highest Khan, to fight together against their common enemy.  But Josseran gradually comes to realize the Mongols have no need of any one's assistance.  What shock then to find that the Great Khan has died and his family is divided as to who should be successor.  Indeed Josseran and Michael might wind up as prisoners rather than emissary friends of whoever is victorious!

All the wonders and life-threatening difficulties of the Silk Road journey are gradually revealed to Josseran as they travel, described with vivid beauty and wonder.  At the same time Josseran is falling in love with his guide, Khutelun, a woman who is destined to marry a prince and perhaps future Khan.  She will save Josseran's life more than once along the way.  William proves to be useful many times although he never stops being a perpetual irritant to all; the reader is surprised that no one eventually tires of his tirades to kill him. 

To say more would be to spoil a truly amazing and wonderful story that manages to stir every emotion and race the heart with tension in realistic ways on multiple pages. Colin Falconer has taken a tale often told and fashioned it into a classic historical novel.  Superb and delightful!!!

Good Night Brian by Steven Manchester

Good Night Brian. Steven Manchester. The Story Plant. January 2013. 308 pp. e-book. ISBN #: 9781611880625.

“Momma” is really Brian Mauretti’s grandmother and Joan is his mother.  They have faced the normal ups and downs of life but now are facing a devastating disease in Brian.  As a baby, Brian had difficulty handling formula and was put on a special formula that turned out to have devastating effects on certain babies.  The product had not been properly tested and not examined by the FDA, with the result that the lack of certain ingredients left children with the inability to speak, walk, and do all the normal things babies grow into with time and love.  

But Momma, an elderly tough grandmother with huge faith, insists that doctors know nothing and one must have faith that Brian will be and do things that the doctors insist are impossible.

The rest of the novel is exciting, tender, gritty, and determined plans set by Momma to make those “hallmarks” of childhood happen, albeit at a different time from other children’s developmental stages.  The reader celebrates every uncertain but strengthening step after step after step.  One wonders where Momma finds the strength to stay on course.  Brian’s siblings, especially Ryan, and cousins are part of the program and are always learning lessons from Mamma about believing and doing the right thing.  It must be said that these lessons are told realistically and without sounding soppy or dogmatic.

Brian’s parents have a harder time believing, and this tale also concerns their painful conflicts and celebrations of each act by Brian that defies the predictions of the medical world.  Their part in the story is so very real and understandable to the reader.  Not everyone has superhuman faith and that’s okay as well in this author’s depiction of this average but unique family.

Although some readers don’t like overly emotional stories, this is an emotional story that conveys mostly grace, dignity, strength and truly unconditional love!  Wonderful fiction written by a great storyteller!

Exposure by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Exposure: A Twisted Lit Novel. Kim Askew and Amy Helmes. Merit Press. YA Fiction. January 2013. 272 pp. pbk.  ISBN # 9781440552618.

Skye Kingston is a phenomenal photographer, even though she is only a high school Senior in a small Alaskan town.  She’s smart and initially not a popular gal, but she’s made a good friend in Craig.  Soon Craig has moved into the popular group of students as a result of his superb hockey skills.  Beth latches onto Craig and definitely views Skye as an unwelcome addition to their group; in fact, she is just plain nasty to Skye.  As Skye is a serious student and spends a great deal of time on developing her own pictures, she’s annoyed but doesn’t allow herself to fall apart over such a nasty gal. Well, that’s what she says while her thoughts and emotions keep swirling!

Home isn’t much better, with Skye’s parents barely speaking and her mother appearing to avoid being home whenever possible.  Skye suspect a divorce is a distinct future possibility but says nothing, thinking if unsaid perhaps it will never happen.  Still, it’s another bump that could definitely affect her future.  How could Skye go away to college, knowing her father will need help with her sibling and how can her parents afford her tuition if they might not be together?

Then one night Skye is invited to a party.  Craig invited her, never realizing she for a change just might accept the invitation instead of refusing in her normal response.  Drinking begins and soon after a game begins which resembles a teenage version of hide-and-seek but which ends in total disaster, the death of Duncan and some whispered words Skye accidentally overhears. 

How these teens deal with the tragic death of one of their own and their reactions as the investigation very slowly unfolds is tension-ridden reading. Many secrets will also slowly be revealed. The discovery process of the Hamlet-style murder mystery, as well as the unfolding of Skye’s family and future life, makes for a terrific read that isn’t predictable at all.  Riddled with tension and some poignant and potent moments, Exposure is a terrific teen read.  These authors know their audience and have told a riveting read guaranteed to make readers want more like it in The Twisted Lit collection. Highly recommended!

The Namesake by Steven Parlato

The Namesake. Steven Parlato. Twisted Lit Series. Merit Press. YA Fiction. January 2013. 256 pp. pbk.  ISBN # 9781440554579.

Evan is dealing with the worst grief possible, the death of his father by suicide.  As Evan was growing up, his father and he had a special one-day-a-year ritual in which one could ask a question and the other would answer with the absolute truth.  And like his father, Evan is a very gifted artist.

All of that interest in art falls to the wayside along with all other interest in school and friends.  But Alex is a female friend whom Evan still trusts implicitly.  Alex keeps his head to earth, not allowing him, after a sufficient amount of time, to use grief as an excuse to keep from living.  Evan, however, is haunted by his need to know why his father hung himself and why he was so unhappy.

Finally, his grandmother acknowledges his need and gives him a key, nothing else but a key.  This begins his search for the truth, which he finds in a trunk holding his father’s secret stash.  It’s a diary that he reads very slowly because he can only tolerate so much.  At the same time, he finally decides he wants to go on a religious weekend called “Encounter.”

To tell more would be to spoil an amazing evolution in Evan’s attitude as revelation after revelation comes from the journal and from others who knew his father. Although some would say that the news he finally learns would crush another teen, Evan returns to his art to express what he now thinks and feels about the agony his Dad held within for so very long.

The Namesake is a MUST read for all young adults.  It could happen to you or to someone you know. It won’t happen if you read this phenomenal story.  Yes, it’s fiction but it’s real and painfully credible; it’s pre-knowledge and part cure for an issue that haunts too many young lives. Kudos to you, Steven Parlato, for tackling this topic with such grace and power!

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker. Jennifer Chiaverini. Penguin Group (USA). January 2013. 352 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780525953616.

Elizabeth Keckley is no stranger to suffering.  Born into slavery, forced to submit to her white master and giving birth to her son George, bearing years of the indignities of slavery and finally painstakingly saving enough to buy her own freedom, she has gradually developed into a skillful dressmaker.  Initially, she develops a reputation by sewing the dresses of Mrs. Davis, whose husband will later leave Washington, D.C. to become the Confederate President during the Civil War.  Her obvious skill earns her enough clientele of the well-to-do that she immediately comes to the attention of Mrs. Lincoln, an enigmatic personality who nonetheless comes to cherish Elizabeth as a dear friend!

This then is the story of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential years observed by Ms. Keckley who spends most of her time at first sewing and dressing the extravagant Mrs. Lincoln and then soothing and encouraging her during her nervous and anxious moments.  Elizabeth’s goodness and kindness in this story is credible but also highlights a bit of naivety as Elizabeth fails to see that Mrs. Lincoln’s caustic tongue has repeatedly offended so many political families so that attention of her peers and the press are constantly focused on reporting innuendos and rumors of scandal.  Elizabeth, however, fails to understand how others can be so cruel to this woman who lost a son years ago, loses another child during the Presidential years, and would be a lonely soul with Elizabeth’s constant encouragement and comfort.  The President, meanwhile, is portrayed as terribly burdened by the disappointing progress for the Union in the interminable defeats of the War, which are carefully and minutely described in detail herein and well worth the read.  However, there are wonderful pages describing Elizabeth’s more than noble efforts to help former slaves adapt to their new freedom after the President gradually frees them, first in certain states, and then later after the Emancipation Proclamation.

The President and his wife, it seems, had premonitions of his death in the year before his assassination, and poignant are the scenes following his untimely death.  Mrs. Lincoln up to that point has been shopping for herself and the White House to the point where her debt is absolutely outrageous whether one considers the value of our current money or the value of money in the 1860s.  Elizabeth spends the rest of her life trying to help save Mrs. Lincoln from the embarrassment that would be sure to fall if the public were to learn about her impecunious situation.  Not to provide a spoiler, suffice to say that all fails, and the closing chapters surround Elizabeth’s coming to terms with the reality of what she can realistically do and the harm she has inadvertently done in her well-intentioned efforts.

Mrs. Lincoln’s dressmaker is well-researched and crafted carefully, never failing to intrigue, fascinate and inform the reader about these tumultuous years when history forced dramatic changes on the nation and on individuals living during those precarious years!  Characters are depicted with all of their strengths and weaknesses, adding to the emotional ups and downs that touch the reader on every page. Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker is superb historical fiction that should become a best seller very, very soon!  Congratulations, Jennifer Chiaverini!

The Bracelet: A Novel by Roberta Gately

The Bracelet: A Novel. Roberta Gately. Published by Gallery Books. November 2012. 336 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781451669121.

Abby Monroe has lost her job as a nurse after Hurricane Katrina wiped out the hospital in New Orleans where she worked.  Soon thereafter her boyfriend Eric dumped her and moved from Boston to Oregon, saying he needed to do this alone.  Now she's initially in Geneva, where she inadvertently witnesses a devastating crime which haunts her dreams for a very long time.  Now, she just wants to get away which she does by being accepted for a UN job in Pakistan.  The nightmare and sorrow of the past now becomes the escape route to reshaping her life but certainly not as expected at all!

Abby receives a warm welcome from another UN worker, Najeela, and a cold, hard look from the UN housekeeper, Hana.  Reeling from the sites of abandoned children and abused women at a nearby refugee cam, Abby meets an American Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist, Nick who initially strikes her as an arrogant waste of a guy but who later will be the link that helps her keep her sanity. Now Abby is enduring culture shock of the highest magnitude!

In the days ahead Abby learns of the sexual traffic and opium businesses that just might be linked to someone she is coming to know well.  Story after story is recounted by women who were sold as young girls in order to insure financial solvency for the girls' family, with devastating, abusive scars that will probably never heal permanently.   

The remainder of the story concerns the capture of those deeply involved in maintaining and promoting the illegal sexual and drug traffic not only in Pakistan and nearby Afghanistan but across the Middle East and Europe as well.  Some characters are part of the secret sent to put a stop to this travesty of justice and the story ultimately reaches a violent conclusion involving some thought to be innocent and others who seemed unimportant who are pivotal to solving these crimes.

The Bracelet: A Novel is a hard, tough story to take but a necessary one.  This is truly "real" fiction and well told.  It should be a story that fosters greater dialogue about how to cope with these pathological, evil deeds and their perpetrators.  Finely told, Ms. Gately

The Second Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

The Second Rule of Ten: A Tenzing Norbu Mystery. Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay. Published by Hay House, Inc. January 2013.  352 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781401941024.

Tenzing Norbu, a/k/a Ten, is at it again, struggling to hold onto the Buddhist practices he learned as a child and constantly frustrated by his life as an unlicensed private investigator.  Ten's father was a Buddhist monk living in India at the same monastery as the Dalai Llama, but Ten's mother died after a long battle with a very worldly life.  Ten's father seemed constantly displeased and angry with Ten after Ten's mother abandoned them.  Ten has spent his entire life trying to move past that rejection and the internal messages it left that keep recycling in his relationships and career.  Meditation helps keep him sane but not much beyond that although Ten believes there is so much more that could free him and change the rut he is so very aware is constantly lurking within.

Then a Hollywood mogul hires Ten to find his daughter, a task that is easy to accomplish, but a week later Marv Rudolph is found dead.  Since Ten's no long a member of the police force, he's technically not supposed to get involved he does.  But watching his stressed out buddy fail to come to any substantial solutions as to the murderer, Ten secretly begins to investigate, all the time trying to keep the second rule of resisting the patterns of past betrayals.  That seems to work double-time as Marv Rudolph betrayed almost everyone with whom he came in contact and they in turn betrayed and then killed the film producer.

Ironically, Ten gets pulled into a second mystery involving a search for the sister, Sadie, sister of Julius Rosen; Sadie disappeared during the Holocause.  It turns out that there's something about gang-related activity going on here which it takes some hair-raising spins and turns for Ten to figure out.  In the meantime, he almost loses his best friend, a cop, but gains a wonderful woman, Heather as a girlfriend.

There's plenty of action albeit some repetition of Ten's stressed out feelings and attempts to clear out the mental garbage, but through it all Ten finally decides to come to terms with his father in a series of shocking scenes involving two good monk friends in India.  It leaves enough unsaid that is obviously a hook to prepare the reader for what will probably be a third Tenzing Norbu mystery.  Besides being a great crime thriller novel, The Second Rule of Ten has something to say to those who spend a huge amount of time reacting from past patterns rather than acting in the present moment.  Nice job, Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay!