Sunday Salon - Step on a Crack - The End of Story?

So the rest of the story...

Detective Bennett is put in the enviable position of top negotiator for the "terrorists" demise. Although Mike is not in Hostage Negotiation anymore his background has the lead thug talking to him in an amicable manner.

It seems that all of New York has turned out to watch and see if the good or bad guys win. Bennett's kids have seen him on TV and already fear for his life. Their Christmas may be shattered even more if something happens to Dad.

Hostages are killed and thrown out the front door of the once pristine chapel. The police are kept busy trying to figure the meaning of such ruthlessness!

After many hours of tireless negotiating, Mike Bennett gets a well deserved break to see his kids and his very ill wife.

Maeve was getting progressively worse as Christmas Eve wore on. Mike was told she may not make another day. He could not believe the circumstances, but knew his kids would cheer up both him and his wife.

The police have had enough and try to go in to the chapel through a secret entrance. They are turned back by gunfire from the masked men inside. One terrorist killed and two policemen die. 

Finally Mike and Jack, the lead hoodlum, get together on the price of the hostages' freedom, money is wired to numbered accounts, SUV's are brought and the masked men and their masked hostages escape.

Police are following and the escape vehicles are driven into the river, where the thugs swim to a rendezvous point. They think they are in the clear for a while until a hostage says they were police.

Checks are done, talks are made, and everyone scrambles to find the killers. Well the end is near but I am going to stop here just in case you would like to read this terrific James Patterson novel. A great Sunday Salon read! 

Canseco Is Said to Seek Favor to Omit Name - New York Times

When is the steroids saga going to stop? Can we ever get enough? Are we as a sports hungry nation ever going to say OK, I get this?

You and I know every sport has cheaters, so? Does that make us stop watching Saturday afternoon baseball or Sunday afternoon football?

How does this affect college sports? Don't tell me college athletes haven't taken steroids. Don't tell me high school athletes haven't taken steroids.

I am not saying I agree with taking illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Were they illegal? Whats done is done. Let's move on.

Do we accept the records broken by the supposed cheaters? I really cannot make up my mind, but please let's move on!

Now Mr Canseco is wanting to make a movie and personally I do not want to here any more names or any deals he makes for his self-gratification.

Please Sports Fans of America lets just let bygones be bygones and keep watching and playing!

Canseco Is Said to Seek Favor to Omit Name - New York Times

Sunday Salon - Step On A Crack - This Sunday

                          

Started Step On A Crack Saturday and read about one hour this morning.

James Patterson is just one of the best. You cannot put the book down. His style and the co-author's technique putting the story line across to us his readers have made almost all of his books best sellers.

Michael Bennett, a detective in New York, has ten yes that is 10 adopted children. The new au pair had to ask three times, she couldn't believe that number either. Mrs. Bennett is in the hospital suffering from grade four cancer, but encourages all the kids with job assignments at home for each one.

Meanwhile the neat man has killed a priest who had stolen some prints for him from St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Detective Bennett has taken his children to school and arrives back home to get a disturbing phone call from Harry Grissom the lieutenant in charge of the Manhattan North Homicide Squad.

Caroline Hopkins, the former First Lady, has passed and the funeral is taken over by a group of camouflaged monks. And so...

Sunday Salon - In For The Kill by John Lutz

John Lutz is one of the mysteries grand masters. Lutz continues to take tried-and-true formulas in the mystery and thriller genres and tinker with them, making them --- and each of his books --- better.

IN FOR THE KILL grabs you and does not let go until you have reached the last page. For purposes of a very general frame of reference, Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels but much different --- with a cast of characters almost as interesting as the villain of the piece, a serial killer known as The Butcher. The victims are all single females living and working in and around Manhattan, and The Butcher is killing them all in the same horrific manner. The reader gets an idea fairly early on as to the inspiration for The Butcher’s actions, as well as the fact that he is sending a message to retired NYPD Homicide Detective Frank Quinn, who has been pressed back into service to help catch The Butcher.

Lutz puts a spin on the police procedural scenario by reassembling Quinn’s old team, which consists of Fedderman, away on his retirement down in South Florida, and Pearl, Quinn’s ex-girlfriend who herself had quit the NYPD to become a bank guard. The three of them together function as a well-oiled machine, even if Quinn’s residual feelings for Pearl cause him some wistful moments while not getting in the way of the investigation.

Matters are complicated, however, by the sudden appearance on Quinn’s doorstep of Lauri, his 18-year-old daughter from a prior marriage. Lauri has decided to leave her mother’s home on the West Coast and live with Quinn in New York, which will have unexpected and immediate repercussions for both father and daughter in ways neither of them can imagine or anticipate.

The Butcher, meanwhile, is continuing on his murder spree. And as a terrified city waits for him to do more damage, he prepares to make his most significant statement of all, one that will strike at the heart of Quinn’s task force.

IN FOR THE KILL stands on its own merits as an entertaining and enthralling crime novel, but there are tiers to this tale that Lutz has interwoven into the fabric of the plot in a subtle manner. He has much to say here about father-daughter and mother-son relationships, and how things can go wrong (and right) with both. What stands out, however, is his continuing ability to publish a fast-paced, readable novel without sacrificing characters, plot or style.

I highly recommend this novel for a Sunday Salon read!

Why Know?

Hello and it is good to be back after a lengthy break. I have been very busy with the holidays, family, and business. How do I know? Because I am tired!

Ok, enough of me. You ask joeB what does that crazy title mean? Well I have been involved a two week period of sorting through some ideas for a great 2008. I needed to know what my plans were and what direction to take to make both myself and my billfold be a little more filled.

In the next 90 days, I will be launching some new online ventures or adventures as put by a colleague. I will inform you each for each segment.

Sunday Salon will be my first priority this weekend and hope to report on a book I've read in the past two weeks.

See you Sunday!