Book Review: Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage

BURIED STRANGERS
Writer: Leighton Gage
Challenge: 2011 Global Reading Challenge

Kindle: here
Genre: Mystery/Police Procedural
How I read it: Kindle

Synopsis: In this second book featuring Chief Inspector Mario Silva, Gage takes readers back to the scene of the original crimes, the gritty streets of São Paulo. The story begins with the discovery of a human bone by a dog out walking with his owner, and Inspector Silva and his team are called in to investigate. This innocent opening soon spirals into a bizarre and creepy investigation fraught with corruption, human-organ theft, and a cemetery's worth of victims. The sweaty, inherently shady backdrop of Brazil's largest city is a fabulous setting for the mystery. The book is characterized by deadpan dialogue and prose that has an almost film noir feel. The simple but riveting style makes this a page-turner and stands in stark contrast to the brutal murders and long trail of dead bodies. Fans of Gage's first Silva mystery will enjoy this one just as much, and it can also be read as a stand-alone title. It's a great example of classic good-versus-evil storytelling, with lots of guts, gore, forensic detail, and intrigue along the way.—Caitlin Fralick, Ottawa Public Library, Ontario

My Thoughts: The writing is great, the mystery is wonderful, the characters true to life. This writer has a mystery series that rivals all the top names. One of the best things about the book is the setting--Brazil. Gage takes us to Sao Paulo in this novel and readers get a glimpse into the lives of the rich and poor and corrupt.

I must warn you, some parts in this book are really disturbing. In the book, a mass gave containing many including children was discovered. Perhaps I wouldn't have been so affected if I didn't live in Mexico. But, recently there have been mass graves found near where I live and the reasons given in this book (though slightly different) sent chills up my spine.

A topic discussed in the book is human-organ theft--a topic that I'm sure many feel is urban legend but in my opinion, it happens. Also, class distinctions are discussed--how the poor view the rich and how the rich view the poor or those from different cultures. I see that distinction shown even here in Mexico.

Could the events described in this book have happened? Yes.

Did they happen?
Possibly.

Does that make me sad?
Yes.

Does that make the book powerful?
Definitely.

Will I read another of his books? Yes!

Clarissa's Insights: 6 Foods Good For Your Body

They (and I have no idea who "they" are--

probably doctors or something) say that

foods in the shape of a body part are good for that... 

well, body part.

For example,

KIDNEY BEANS

are suppose to be good for your

KIDNEYS

Also, they say

WALNUTS

are good for your

BRAIN 

(and doesn't it look like a cute little brain)

CARROTS

(when cut)

look like our

EYES

TOMATOES

look like our 

HEARTS

(they even have chambers like our

real heart)

BROCCOLI,

well, that must be good for our...

AFROS!

and that leaves

GARBANZO BEANS (AKA CHICK PEAS)!

they must be good for our...

hmmmmmmmm

Clarissa's Research: Schooling Around the World

One reason I blog is because I can keep all my research in one place. Today I need to research schooling in different countries. No need to read all the information unless you want to.

DID YOU KNOW? In England, "public schools" are what is known in the US, Canada, and Australia as private schools.

AUSTRALIA

School Year: The academic year in Australia varies between states and institutions, but generally runs from late January/early February until mid-December for primary and secondary schools.
Ages of Students:  the ages of six and fifteen to seventeen
School Uniforms: Most
Cost: Government schools (also known as public schools) are free to attend, while Catholic and Independent schools usually charge attendance fees. However in addition to attendance fees; stationery, textbooks, uniforms, school camps and other schooling costs are not covered under government funding. The additional cost for schooling has been estimated to be on average $316 per year per child.

Click to enlarge

CANADA

School Year: The academic year in Canada generally runs from September until June
Ages of Students:  the ages of five to seventeen
School Uniforms: Not normally
Cost: Public schools are free to attend. However in addition to attendance fees; stationery, school camps and other schooling costs are not covered under government funding. However, the cost is minimal.

Click to enlarge

MEXICO

School Year: The academic year runs from late August to the end of June or the beginning of July.
Ages of Students:  6-15 years of age
In Mexico, basic education is normally divided in three steps: primary school (primaria), comprising grades 1-6; junior high school (secundaria), comprising grades 7-9; and high school (preparatoria), comprising grades 10-12.
Depending on definitions, Primary education comprises primaria and secundaria, which are compulsory by law, while Secondary education only includes preparatoria, which is not yet compulsory.
School Uniforms: Yes
Cost: Government schools (also known as public schools) are free to attend, while Catholic and Independent schools usually charge attendance fees.

Click to enlarge

ENGLAND

School Year: The school year begins on 1 September (or 1 August if a term starts in August). Education is compulsory for all children from their fifth birthday to the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16.
Ages of Students:  the ages of six to sixteen (soon to be 18 in 2015)
School Uniforms: Yes
Cost: Free except for some activities

Click to enlarge

USA

School Year: August or September to May or June
Ages of Students:  from ages five to eight and ends from ages fourteen to eighteen
School Uniforms: No (Unless you're on Glee and then you sing and dance all day long)
Cost: Free except for some activities. Private schools (which includes church run schools) charge tuition, wear uniforms and supplies and activities are extra. (Thanks, Mary, for this info.)

Click to enlarge

If any of this information is incorrect, please let me know.

Source: Wikipedia

Clarissa's Tired

Sorry about the third person thing but Clarissa sometimes really likes to talk like that. 'Clarissa this...' and 'Clarissa that...'

Anyway, I'm moving.

No, not sites, but houses. I don't know what's easier. So, along with writing and editing, I've been packing and purging. Needless to say, I haven't been blogging.

I can't wait until I'm settled into my new house (which will have a swimming pool on the property--that means my husband and son will be out of the house A LOT) but that won't be until June 15th. Until then, I'm in limbo. I hate limbo.

I'm so behind in my posts: I have a book review to do, I have been tagged, I have an award, and people have been wanting to guest post and I haven't even responded! What kind of blogger am I?

So, I'll deal with the tag and award today and see how the rest of my week goes. I refuse to put pressure on myself right now.

If you could go back in time and relive a moment, what would it be?

Does it have to be in my lifetime? Because there are plenty of events since the history of man I wouldn't mind seeing. I think I would go back and see the ribbon cutting for the Hanging Gardens in Babylon. I would go have tea with Jane Austen. I wouldn't mind living a day in Jack the Ripper's shoes (not a day when he murdered) and then I would make a note to look in the mirror and go through all my personal documents, that way I'd know his identity and would write the TRUE story of Jack the Ripper. Oh boy, this list could go on forever...

If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?

I would never do this. It's too scary. Especially the time before my son was born because that might change history and there's a chance he wouldn't be conceived.

What Movie/TV character do you most resemble in personality?

I don't look like either of these two people but sadly, we think a lot alike. So if these people drive you nuts, I might as well.

Temperance Brennan from Bones

'Thirteen' from House

If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would it be?

I have pushed many people off cliffs but I only do so for research and they are only imaginary. I'm a mystery writer, what do you expect!?

Name one habit that you want to change in yourself.

Cut back on the crisps.

Describe yourself in one word.

Determined.

Describe the person who named you in this meme in one word.

Intelligent. (The Golden Eagle)

Why do you blog? Answer in one sentence.

For the fame really.

Name at least three people to send this meme to. And inform them.

1. Oprah.
2. Donald Trump.
3. Osama Bin Ladin. (What!? Okay, never mind.)

3.  The irritating guy from the Nationwide Insurance commercial. "Nationwide is on your side."
(I think these three read my blog.)



 Now, Trisha from Word + Stuff gave me an award (see below). Thank you, Trisha! I would pass it on but I'm sure most of you have it. If not, it's yours!

Book Review: Liquorice Twists by Dorte Jakobsen

LIQUORICE TWISTS

Writer: Dorte Jakobsen
Kindle: here
Genre: Short Stories
How I read it: Kindle

Synopsis: DJ´s Daim Stories volume II (Daim is a Scandinavian candy bar) A collection of 20 flash fiction stories (from 100 to 2500 words). While the first volume was crime for fun, these ones may be called ´her darker materials´.

My Thoughts: I read volume one of DJ Daim's stories as part of my challenge this year--read more short stories! I love her work. This selection of shorts is very naughty but in a good way.

What I liked: She really gets into the head of the characters and so in this set we see life and death through the eyes of children, old cat hoarders, scared women and men in love. The stories are not long so you could read the whole set in an evening.

The stories I loved: CATastrophe, and Sand Castle.

The book is less then a dollar so pick it up today!

Will I read another book by this author? Yes!

Laughter is Good for You

Leigh Moore is having a blogfest! A funny one. We're suppose to write a joke.

Well, because I'm a writer, one would think I'm fantastic at coming up with funny material. You couldn't be more wrong.

Here is my entry. It fit both medicine and writing and is incredibly stupid:

What did one Y Pestis say to the other?

Stop copying me, that's Plagurism!

(Some are asking me Y Pestis is, it's a bacteria that causes infections including the bubonic plague)

Go here for more entries: The Blogfest

Five Things Writers Must Do Before They Die

Recently, we lost one of our own. Jane Kennedy Sutton. I cried a lot yesterday even though I had never met her. Ask any blogger, our community is real. It's full of people we know and care about.

But, her death also made me think. It was so thoughtful of her husband to let his wife's blogging community know about her death. How much he must have loved her.

Would those close to us remember? I would like to think so but perhaps we should think about writing a writer's Last Will and Testament.

What to include:

(1) A reminder for our significant others or friends to leave a last blog or vlog. Perhaps WE could write it for them.

(a) Could we film ourselves saying our last words and leave it for them to put up on youtube and then on our blog?
(b) Could we write our last blog post and when we die, all our friends or family have to do is click the "Publish Post" button? This also insures we leave our words.
(c) We're writers, could we write our own obituaries?

(2) Have we written our passwords down and left it in a place our significant others can find? I know my laptops are password protected and so are most of my online applications (twitter, facebook, blogger, thenextbigwriter). Will our spouses be able to sign in?

(3) Have we left the contact information of (a) our publisher (b) agents (c) editors (d) readers? That way our family can send in the latest copy of our manuscript for publication.

(4) Have we given our family rights to our work so that perhaps they could finish and publish it? Or make sure that our family CAN'T finish and publish it? (Maybe we have journals, photos, poems, notes that are private.)

(5) Could we WILL our ideas to fellow bloggers or writers to finish our manuscript with or just get our ideas out there?

Any other suggestions? Have I left something out?

Beat Writer's Boredom

I don't believe in writer's block.

There, I said it.

I believe writers stop writing their story for the same reason they stop reading a story: boredom.

• They're bored with where the story is going.
• They're bored with the characters.
• They know where point B is but all the routes are well travelled. 

We need a freshly cut path through the wilds of the Amazon! And for that, we need a machete, a lamp, and some rope.

Here's what you need the machete for:

(1) Cut the cliches!
(2) Cut boring characters! Perhaps one problem is you added a character and a subplot that at first seemed interesting but has petered out too quickly. Can you do without him/her?
(3) Cut unneeded scenes! Unless it forwards the plot, you don't need it.

Here's what you can do with your lamp:

(1) Shed light on your characters. Perhaps there's a secret just waiting to come out. Does a character have a crazy side?
(2) Hand the lamp to a new character for a change in the POV.
(3) Perhaps a VITAL flashback can be illuminated.

Why you need the rope:

(1) Find two characters who can't be in the same room and place them in that situation. Tie them up if you have to. Make your characters squirm.
(2) Explore setting or culture and values. You may need to climb a tree and spy on the natives.

Book Review: The You Code by Judi James

THE YOU CODE
Writer: Judi James

Kindle: here
Genre: Self-help
How I read it: Kindle

Synopsis: Did you know that the way you eat your food will be sending subliminal messages out about your sexual habits? Or that the way you decorate your desk, could be helping your boss decide about that promotion or pay rise? We’re all aware of the subtle messages of design and marketing but what about the signals you send out about yourself and your personality?The You Code is the book that answers all these questions, uncovering the hidden meaning behind the simplest of choices. Judi James, with co-writer and journalist James Moore, pulls no punches in her addictive and entertaining book which gets to the nub of who you really are, telling you more about yourself than you ever wanted to know, as well as providing an intriguing insight into the people around you. From your favourite TV programme to the type of coffee you drink, even down to the filling in your sandwich, The You Code is a must for anyone who wants to find out more about themselves and, more importantly, what everyone else thinks of them.

My Thoughts: I was disappointed in this book. I wanted to like it, I really did. It mentioned my favourite past times: reading, television, and drinking coffee.

Why I was disappointed: options were missing.
For instance, I'm a coffee drinker but I drink regular coffee with a drop of milk. That wasn't an option. And under the 'What your mantelpiece says about you' the option for bare and well-dusted wasn't an option.
What about a normal, well-made bed under the 'What your bed says about you'.

And, the information under each option is often rude.
For instance, under the option of drinking Earl Grey tea (my favorite): "...drinks do have an air of superiority but they're also those who prefer their gratification delayed, rather than instant because the 'delicate' flavour of this tea can take several samplings before it can be enjoyed." What!?
Or, under Lapsang Souchong: "...how precious are you? How Special? Not very is the likely answer but you clearly like to think so." First of all, what is Lapsang Souchong? And how can you possible assess that from one tea?

For a wonderful book on reading people, try Reading People by Wendy Patrick Mazzarella and Jo-Ellan Dimitrius.

Mystery Writer's Guide To Forensic Science - Pathology - it's nothing like CSI

I found this article fascinating and thought I would share it with all mystery writers. Especially those in the UK.
Source: guardian.co.uk (UK Article) May 3, 2011

Rarely can a profession have been so over-glamorised and under-funded. In their pure white lab coats, forensic pathologists are portrayed in TV murder thrillers as the epitome of cool-minded, painstaking scientists.

Dr Freddy Patel fell ignominiously short of the heroic ideal. He was first disciplined by the General Medical Council nine years ago, lied on his CV and demonstrated an extraordinary willingness to attribute death to heart attacks and natural causes, even when victims were scarred with other injuries.

Nor is there much financial or administrative incentive to improve performance, according to critics. Routine, section 19 (of the 1988 Coroners' Act) postmortems are paid at a rate of £96.80 each. Patel, like many pathologists, was not salaried but survived on piece work.

His readiness to be on call and available to coroners throughout weekends may have been dictated by a need to earn a living by doing as many autopsies as possible. Despite his shortcomings, a significant number of coroners carried on commissioning him.

A report co-authored in 2006 by Sebastian Lucas, professor of clinical histopathology at King's College London, for the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) found one in four postmortems were of a "poor or unacceptable" standard.

In a third of mortuaries, the study said "the pathologist failed to inspect the body before the anatomical pathology technologist commenced opening it and removed the organs".

The report noted: "The common practice of evisceration of bodies before the pathologist has inspected them may come as a surprise to the public." Another problem, consequently, was the "poor recording of external injuries".

"You need to ask: 'What is the purpose of non-suspicious postmortems?'" said Lucas,who gave evidence against Patel during a GMC hearing.

"One of the main purposes is to enable a coroner to avoid holding an inquest. If you can find a natural cause of death, that saves all [the extra costs]. The public expect CSI [the US crime scene investigation drama] but it's nothing like that."

With 121,000 postmortems a year, the study found there was a "trend to reduce histopathological examination" due to a desire to save money and a "lack of need if an acceptable registerable medical cause of death can be stated, even if it is not the most accurate cause of death".

Little appears to have changed since that scathing report. Lucas believes that introducing auditing of pathologists' performances - as happens in other branches of medicine - would encourage them to improve techniques.

Book Review: The Locked Room by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall

THE LOCKED ROOM
Writer: Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall
Challenge: Mystery and Suspense Challenge 2011
2011 Global Reading Challenge

Kindle: here
Genre: Locked Room Mystery
How I read it: Kindle

Synopsis: A woman robs a bank. A corpse is found shot through the heart in a room locked from within--no firearm in sight. To the eerily intuitive Inspector Martin Beck, these seemingly disparate cases are facets of the same puzzle, and solving it is of vital importance.   Only by finding our what happened in the locked room can Beck--haunted by a near-fatal bullet wound and the demise of a soulless marriage--escape from an airtight prison of his own.

My Thoughts: This is the first time I've read a novel by these writers. I wasn't disappointed...much. Although at times the names confused me. There were funny bits and exciting bits.

Things I wished of more in the story: I wished more of the story was like the first chapter--I loved the beginning, the bank robbery. It was exciting and I related to the character, the woman. Then, the story slowed down a lot. I'm used to a slow down in these types of novels, investigations, false leads are all necessary, but they didn't pick up.

Locked room puzzles are my favorite but this one, I had my suspicions from the beginning and my suspicions were correct in the end. Also, it wasn't the focus of the story. In fact, I'm not sure what the focus of the story was.

Will I read another book by these two? Yes!