DIAMONDS (AND BONES TOO) ARE FOREVER - BONES ARE FOREVER BY KATHY REICHS

Bones Are Forever is Kathy Reich’s 15^th thriller featuring Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who works both in North Carolina and Montreal.  Reichs, like her fictional creation, is forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaries et de Medicine Legal for the province of Quebec.  Reichs belongs to the “this is my life if I also solved homicides” genre of mystery writers.  Kathy Reichs is also a producer for the Fox televison series Bones. The author has explained that the tv show features Tempe Brennan’s life as a much younger forensic anthropologist.  In the books, Dr. Brennan is a divorcee with a twenty-something daughter.

Bones Are Forever begins with a woman named Amy Roberts going to a Montreal hospital’s ER complaining of vaginal bleeding.  When the young woman is examined, doctors discover that she has recently given birth.  After Amy is questioned about this, she abruptly leaves the hospital.  Montreal authorities are informed of this strange disappearance and the police are dispatched to her apartment.  They are horrified to find the remains of three babies.  Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is called in to determine what she can learn from the skeletons of the infants. 

The probable mother, however, is nowhere to be seen.  There is evidence that Ms. Roberts has fled to Edmonton, so Tempe and her sometimes lover, police detective Andrew Ryan, follow her trail west.  The young woman (who has at least three aliases) has left Edmonton by the time Tempe and Ryan arrive.  In the western Canadian town the twosome meet Ollie Hasty of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Tempe had an unwise and brief affair with Hasty years earlier. The Mountie wants to renew the relationship but Tempe is clearly not interested in Hasty.

The trio discovers that Roberts’ real name is Annaliese Ruben.  She may have fled to Yellowknife, a bleak and barren mining town near the Artic Circle in Canada’s vast Northwest Territories.  Ruben  has an extended family in Yellowknife, including a father who left claims to several diamond mines to her and her siblings. (Diamonds were discovered in the Yellowknife area of Canada in the early 1990s;.)  As soon as Brennan, Ryan and Hasty reach the Northwest Territoies, the body count begins to rise.  Of course the murders are all connected to the diamond trade, but revealing any more would be giving away too much of the mystery.

As always, Kathy Reichs writes an exciting thriller with rich, well-developed characters.  There are fewer forensic scenes than in most of the “Bones” novels, but to me that is a plus.  Reichs uses too much professional jargon when Tempe is studying a skeleton.  It would help if the author would let the readers know what Dr. Brennan is talking about.  I wish Tempe could be like real-life medical examiner, Dr. Jan Garavaglia.  Dr. G. describes her autopsies in layman terms, yet never talks down to the audience.

All Reichs’ Tempe Brennan novels follow the same formula.  Dr. Brennan solves the murder before Ryan or any of the other detectives.  Then she gets abducted by the bad guys, but before they can kill her, Tempe is rescued by Detective Ryan.  Bones Are Forever ends the same way as every Bones thriller.  Tempe is in the hospital, recovering from injuries inflicted by the criminals.  Despite these flaws, the latest Temperance Brennan mystery is an enjoyable read.  I am looking forward to Kathy Reichs’ next “Bones” novel.

BEWARE OF THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT - TANA FRENCH'S BROKEN HARBOR

Broken Harbor is Tana French’s fourth novel in the Dublin detective squad series.  The narrator and main character is Sargent Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy who previously appeared in a secondary role in French’s third detective procedural, Faithful Place.  Broken Harbor is set in modern Ireland.  No longer the “Celtic tiger”, there are many ghost estates in Dublin and its suburbs.  The building of these housing developments was begun during Ireland’s boom years.  When the worldwide recession hit in 2008, thousands of these properties were abandoned, left empty or semi-inhabited. 

One of these home owners was Patrick and Jenny Spain.  During the good years the Spains bought a house in Brianstown, a seaside area formerly known as Broken Harbor.  Patrick had a great job and Jenny stayed home to take care of their two small children, Emma and Jack.  The Spains are a golden couple who first fell in love when they were sixteen years old.  Unfortunately, like too many people around the world, Patrick lost his job.  As the months go by and he can’t find a new job, the family is in danger of losing their dream home.

When Jenny’s sister, Fiona, doesn’t hear from the Spains, she contacts the Dublin police.  Patrick is found stabbed to death and Jenny, also a stabbing victim, is clinging to life.  Emma and Jack are also dead but they have been suffocated.  The case is given to the already mentioned Mick Kennedy and his rookie partner, Richie Curran.  Years earlier Mick and his family spent summers in Brianstown.  Back then it was called Broken Harbor.  During Mick’s fifteenth summer his mother killed herself.  Mick’s father and his younger sister, Dina, have never gotten over this traumatic event. Mick and his older sister, Geri, spend much of their time looking after the deeply troubled Dina.  Mick’s marriage ended in large part because of Dina’s unhealthy dependence on her brother.

As Mick begins to investigate the case, he discovers that nothing is as it seems.  Upon reading the Spain’s computer e-mails, it turns out Patrick gave up his search for a new job months earlier.  Instead the young husband and father spent all his time trying to catch an animal that Patrick feared was hiding in their attic.  His obsession with capturing this beast had a very negative effect on his wife and children.  The Spains did everything right and yet their lives were destroyed by economic forces beyond their control.

With Broken Harbor, Tana French has written another brilliant psychological thriller with rich characters and enough twists and turns to keep her readers awake at night.  I can’t wait for the next Dublin detective squad mystery.

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND HELPS A FAMILY HEAL - PORCH LIGHTS BY DOROTHEA BENTON FRAK

With her thirteenth novel, Porch Lights, Dorothea Benton Frank returns to familiar ground.  The novel is set on Sullivan’s Island, an idyllic resort area near Charleston, South Carolina.  Jackie McMullan is an army nurse stationed in Afghanistan.  Her husband Jimmy, a New York City firefighter, dies in the line of duty.  Jackie decides to take herself and her desperately unhappy ten year old son, Charlie, to Sullivan’s Island for the summer.  Even though Jackie couldn’t wait to leave South Carolina when she became an adult, she knows that the healing powers of the beach, sun and especially Charlies’s grandparents, Annie and Buster, are just what she and her son need.

Porch Lights is written from the points of view of both Jackie and her mother Annie Britt.  Annie and Jackie’s father, Buster, have been separated for eleven years, but they have never gotten a divorce.  Both Jackie and Buster feel that Annie has a tendency to be a “fuss budget”.  Eleven years earlier, on the day after Jackie and Jimmy’s wedding, Buster got tired of Annie’s interfering ways and went on what he called an extended “fishing trip”.  For her part, it upsets Annie that Buster is often sarcastic and rude and never seems to listen to a word she says.

The needs of their daughter and especially their grandson eventually bring Annie and Buster back together.  In the warm and friendly environment of Sullivan’s Island Jackie and Charlie finally start to mend.  Charlie is so happy on Sullivan’s Island that he never wants to leave.  He is also afraid that if he and his mother return to Brooklyn he will be surrounded by memories of his dead father.  Jackie feels that she and her son must return to where Jimmy is buried (Brooklyn), so that they can honor his memory.

Jackie does begin to fall under the spell of Sullivan’s Island, especially when she meets the “boy” next door Steve Plofker.  Steve is a 43 year old dermatologist (Jackie is 35) who lost his wife several years earlier. Dr. Steve is also the proud owner of two adorable boykin spaniels.  Charlie is hired to walk and babysit the dogs for the grand sum of $5.00 a day.  Taking care of these animals plays a very important part in Charlie’s healing process.  Jackie and Charlie also bond more with Annie and Buster following the death of Miss Deb’s husband Vernon.  Miss Deb has been Annie’s best friend since they were both children on Sullivan’s Island.  As well she has served as a second mother to Jackie and a second grandmother to Charlie.

 Porch Lights is a very warm and touching novel.  Frank’s characters are well developed and true to life.  The only question I have is about Annie and Buster careers, well actually their lack of careers.  Both seem to be retired.  Annie even reflects on how much she misses teaching American history.  But Annie is only 58, not 68 or 78.  Shouldn’t she still be teaching?  And why is Buster at the age of 62 free to fish and hang out with Charlie all day?  Frank mentions nothing about how the Britts finance their lavish Sullivan’s Island lifestyle.  Are they independently wealthy?  I think the characters of Annie and Buster would be even richer if Frank had addressed these questions.

That being said, Porch Lights is a wonderful read.  Frank is an expert of interweaving the plot with the rich cultural heritage of South Carolina.  I am already looking forward to Dorothea Benton Frank’s next Lowcountry novel. 

LISA GARDNER'S CATCH ME

Catch Me is Lisa Garner’s sixth thriller featuring Boston homicide detective D.D. Warren.  (It is Gardner’s seventh Warren mystery if you count the enovella The 7^th Month.)  Sargent Warren has just returned from maternity leave and is made lead detective in a case involving the murder of pedophiles.  Even though D.D. and her team think the murderer is doing Boston a favor by getting rid of child molesters, they know the police cannot allow this vigilante justice to continue.

While at the scene of the second murdered pedophile, D. D. encounters a woman who wants the detective Sargent to solve her own murder.  Her name is Charlene Grant and she tells D. D. that her two closest childhood friends, Randi Menke and Jackie Knowles, were both strangled on January 21^st in the past two years.  Their murders, each a year apart from the other, have not been solved.  Charlene is afraid that, as the last surviving member of the childhood trio, she will be killed this January 21^st.  That date is only four days away.

D. D. discovers that Charlene is not making up what happened to her friends.  The detective, however, does not know what to make of the strange young woman.  Is Charlene a potential murder victim or could she be the murderer?  A young detective on D. D.’s team thinks that Charlene may have killed the pedophiles as well as her two close friends.  As January 21^st draws nearer, D. D. tries to discover if her colleague is right about who the real murderer is and if the deaths of Charlene’s friends are related to the killings of the child molesters.

In Catch Me, Lisa Gardner again proves what a master she is at writing truly terrifying thrillers.  She is also very adept at weaving together several subplots into a coherent and suspenseful whole.  As well, Gardner makes the reader aware of issues relevant to just about every American.  Through the words of D. D. and her detective team, we learn how pedophiles target young boys on kiddy internet gaming sites.  Sargent Warren may eventually solve the murders, but Gardner leaves the detectives and the readers with many unanswered questions.  Can parents really know what their children are doing online? Can laws and the police truly protect young people from child predators? 

Lisa Gardner’s latest thriller is so terrifying real that it will keep many of her readers up all night.  Her mastery of the suspense novel genre increases with every mystery she writes.

PARIS OPERA BALLET

‘GISELLE’

By Colleen Boresta

July 14, 2012 (m) – David Koch Theatre, New York, New York

The last time the Paris Opera Ballet appeared in New York was way back in 1996.  Not wanting to let the chance of seeing this celebrated company escape me, I bought a ticket for the July 14^th matinee of “Giselle”.  I had been told by a fellow balletomane that POB’s current “Giselle” is as close to the original production of this romantic classic as one can get.  (“Giselle” premiered in Paris on June 28, 1841.)

“Giselle” is the story of a young peasant girl with a weak heart.  She falls in love with a farmer named Loys and believes that she is engaged to marry him.  Hilarion, the village gamekeeper, loves Giselle and is jealous of Loys.  Hilarion finds proof that Loys is really a nobleman.  When Giselle finally realizes that Loys is actually Count Albrecht and that he is betrothed to Princess Bathilde, she goes mad and dies.

In Act II Giselle becomes a Willi.  Willis are the spirits of young girls who have been betrayed by their fiancés.  They appear at midnight and dance to death any male found in their forest.  Hilarion brings a cross to Giselle’s grave and the Willis kill him.

Devastated by sorrow and contrition, Albrecht brings flowers to Giselle’s grave.  There the spirit of Giselle appears to him.  Giselle forgives Albrecht, but he is captured by the Willis who want to dance him to death.  Giselle cannot stop the Willis, but she dances with Albrecht, giving him as much of her spiritual strength as she can.  Then dawn arrives and the Willis lose their power.  Giselle’s spirit goes back to her grave.  She will never be a Willi again.  Albrecht is still alive, left to mourn Giselle forever.

Not being around in 1841, I have no idea what the original production of “Giselle” was like.  I do know that the Paris Opera Ballet’s current “Giselle”, staged by Patrice Bart and Eugene Polyakov, after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa, is a very traditional version of the ballet.  It is quite similar to American Ballet Theatre’s “Giselle”.

I am very impressed by POB’s “Giselle”, but it does not move me.  I feel as detached from the 19^th century world of Giselle and Albrecht as the leading dancers Isabelle Ciaravola and Karl Paquette seem to be.  Isabella Ciaravola is a beautiful looking Giselle, but her footwork is not as precise as it should be.  She simplifies her Act I solo, doing single turns instead of doubles.  Her Act II jetes lack elevation.

As Count Albrecht, Karl Paquette is pretty much a blank slate, especially in Act I.  I can’t figure out if he is a cad or really loves Giselle.  Paquette does not seem to develop any characterization of the nobleman.  His dancing is quite spectacular in Act II, especially his double air turns and entrechats.

For me, the most unforgettable performance is Marie-Agnes Gillot’s Myrtha.  She has the highest and most vengeful leap I have ever seen.  Gillot is a truly cold and frightening Queen of the Willis.

Heloise Bourdon and Axel Ibot dance an excitingly lovely peasant pas de deux.  Ibot’s strong jumps and wonderful ballon are especially noteworthy.

The Willis are absolutely beautiful, performing in perfect unison.  Their movements are so in sync that it is as though they are one entity. 

I will remember POB’s “Giselle” for a long time, particularly due to the power of the Willis and their Queen.  I hope the Paris Opera Ballet returns to New York before another 16 years have passed.

WHAT SIDE AM I ON? GERALD SEYMOUR'S "TIMEBOMB"

The year is 1993.  The Soviet Union has not only fallen apart, but is bankrupt as well.  Oleg Yashkin, a senior KGB at a nuclear facility, is let go without any hope of a steady pension.  Enraged at being kicked to the curb after years of faithful service, Oleg steals a nuclear weapon – a suitcase bomb or a dirty bomb as it is more often called.  Oleg buries the bomb in a vegetable garden behind his home.  The weapon cannot explode without a precursor agent combined with military dynamite, but once they are added it can easily destroy the center of a city like New York, Paris or London.

Fifteen years later, Oleg finds a buyer for the weapon.  He sets off with the help of his friend Igor Molenkov, who was also dismissed from the KGB, to deliver the bomb to Russian mafia chief Reuven Weissberg.  The crime lord insists that the weapon be delivered to him in Poland.  So Oleg and Igor begin their journey, driving an old Soviet made truck with the bomb hidden under a tarp.

Christopher Lawson, a 38 year veteran of Britain’s MI6, has received intelligence about the sale of the dirty bomb.  Weissberg, with the help of his money launderer Joseph Goldmann and two Russian body guards (Viktor and Mikhail) plans to pay the two former KGB officers one million American dollars for the weapon.  Reuven will then sell it for ten million dollars to an operative from the Middle East.

Johnny Carrick, a former British paratrooper, is working as a driver for Josef Goldmann,

Weissberg’s money man.  Carrick is really an undercover cop.  So far he has not been able to find any evidence to arrest Goldmann for his money laundering activities.  MI6 officer Lawson has Johnny seconded to his agency.  Lawson then uses one of his operatives to set up a fake assassination attempt against Josef Goldmann.  Carrick “saves” his boss’ life, thereby becoming invaluable to Goldmann.  The mafia money man is so impressed with Johnny’s heroism that he includes Carrick on his trip to Poland.

Christopher Lawson and seven MI6 operatives follow Goldmann and company to Poland.  The brusque rude Lawson does nothing to convince Carrick that he is being protected by MI6.  Quite the opposite – Johnny is made to feel that he has been set adrift among the Russians.  When Viktor and Mikhail “test” Johnny with threats of physical harm, only Reuven Weissberg stands up for him.  Carrick then becomes the mafia leader’s personal bodyguard.

Reuven also educates Johnny about his grandmother’s time as an inmate at the Sobibor extermination camp.  Her experiences at Sobibor are the main reason why Reuven became a distrustful vindictive crime boss.  As time goes on Carrick feels much closer to Weissberg than he does to any MI6 operative.

Gerald Seymour is a true master of the suspense genre.  His plots are multi-layered and his characters are fascinating as well as being true to life.  I didn’t know how “Timebomb” was going to finish until I reached the last few pages of the book.  The conclusion, however, was so perfect that “Timebomb” could not have ended any other way.  I hope Gerald Seymour continues to write his nail biting psychological thrillers for years to come.

THOMAS AND CHARLOTTE PITT SAVE ENGLAND FROM SPIES AND ANARCHISTS - ANNE PERRY'S "DORCHESTER TERRACE"

“Dorchester Terrace” is Anne Perry’s 27^th Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery.  The year is 1896 and Thomas Pitt has just become head of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch.  The former head, Victor Narraway, was forced to resign after becoming involved in a scandal not of his own making.  (This incident is related in Perry’s previous Pitt book “Treason at Lisson Grove”.)

Thomas is the son of a gamekeeper and many important Londoners doubt his ability to run Special Branch.  At the beginning of “Dorchester Terrace” Pitt’s assistant, Stoker, tells his boss of rumors concerning Duke Alois Habsburg, a minor member of the Austrian royal family.  The rumors indicate that the duke may be assassinated when he makes a visit to London.  Thomas is able to find evidence that these reports are possibly true, but Britain’s Foreign Minister refuses to even consider the possibility that the duke could be murdered in London.  The Foreign Minister does not even want to meet with Pitt.  He sends his assistant Jack Radley (who is Pitt’s brother-in-law) to get rid of the pesky Pitt.  Pitt insists, however, on only speaking to the Foreign Minister, who dismisses Pitt from his office after telling him that he has been promoted beyond his abilities.

At the same time Charlotte Pitt’s (Charlotte is Thomas’ upper class wife) aunt Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gold is very worried about her old friend Lady Serafina Montserrat.  Serafina was a freedom fighter during the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.  Now she is old and in declining health.  Her mind begins to wander and Serafina is afraid she may reveal important secrets without meaning to.  Lady Montserrat is so worried that she fears she may be murdered if she unintentionally reveals delicate information in front of the wrong person.  Lady Montserrat’s niece, Nerissa Freemarsh, thinks Serafina is just imagining things and that her aunt doesn’t have any secrets worth worrying about.  Lady Vespasia takes Serafina’s worries seriously, but Nerissa doesn’t listen to her either.

Before much time has passed Lady Montserrat is found dead.  After an autopsy, it is discovered that she died from a massive overdose of laudanum.  There is no way Lady Montserrat could have administered the laudanum to herself.  Obviously, her worst fears were correct – Lady Serafina Montserrat was murdered.

Pitt believes that the death of Serafina is connected to the rumored assassination attempt on the Austrian duke.  With the help of Victor Narraway, Charlotte Pitt, Lady Vespasia (and of course Stoker and the other agents of Special Branch) Pitt begins to unravel the many layers of these mysteries.  It even begins to look like someone in the British government may be behind both Lady Montserrat’s murder and the attempt to kill Duke Alois Habsburg.

Anne Perry has written a fascinating thriller.  Pitt, not knowing whom he can trust, proves to upper class Londoners (and especially himself) that he is the right man to head Special Branch.  For the most part Perry has done her research on the history of England and Europe in the years leading up to World War I.  I only have one small complaint about the historical accuracy of “Dorchester Terrace”.  At one point, Perry has a character lecture Pitt on European geopolitical affairs.  That individual tells Pitt that the Russian government is run from Moscow.  But in the years before the 1917 Russian Revolution, St. Petersburg was Russia’s capital.  It is a very minor flaw but I’m confused about why no one involved in the publication of “Dorchester Terrace” caught this error.

As already stated, “Dorchester Terrace” is a very absorbing mystery with rich characters and many twists and turns.  I am looking forward to Thomas Pitt’s next case as head of Special Branch.