Hell's Corner by David Baldacci

Hell's Corner by David Baldacci
Read by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy

I borrowed this book from my local library and played it on my iPhone. Since I drove over my iPod, I have to use my iPhone as one. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. This is the 5th book of  Camel Club. It's a story of John Carr now known as Oliver Stone. He's a former triple 6 assassin.

In this book, Oliver Stone is back in service. They gave him a card and he has a mission. He's supposed to go abroad to Mexico for a training before being put back in active duty. On the last night before his departure, he walked around his favorite park. Lafayette Park. This park is located across the White House. It attracts a lot tourist. That night, there were about 4 people in the park. Then an explosion happens which started the ball rolling into a fun and entertaining ride.

The bad guys is not what you think, the good guys is not what you think. Just when you think Oliver Stone's got it, it turns out to be wrong. I also get to know a little bit about the capital, and the area they called Hell's Corner. Yes, it's real, and this book gives you a fantastic tour of it.

With Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy reading the audio book, it makes for an extraordinary experience.Ron McLarty is a captivating reading. He is what I think Oliver Stone should should like. I have not read a single book of this series because I enjoyed Ron's rendition of the whole thing.

Have you read this series?

Highland Hero by Amanda Scott

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Forever; Original edition (October 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446574309
• ISBN-13: 978-0446574303
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.2 x 6.8 inches

I love the setting of this book. It's 1401 in Scotland. The mother of the future King James just died and the king decided to send the child away for safekeeping. The king cannot stand up to his brother, the Duke of Albany. A trusted knight, Sir Ivor "Hawk" Mackintosh, comes to take care of the prince. The complication is, the prince's cousin, Lady Marsi Cargill,  decides to come along also to avoid the Duke of Albany.

Lady Marsi masquerades as a maidservant. She's not very good at it, and pretty soon, Hawk found out. Lady Marsi  is smart, spirited, but not always wise. Her mouth tends to ran away before she could think. Hawk is the opposite, which makes them a perfect compliment of each other. 

I get to see glimpses of Scotland as the group travels along trying hard to avoid capture by the villainous duke. There are moments of hilarity which makes this book a real pleasure to read. The conversation are witty, the events flow smoothly from one to another. It's very easy to get lost in the prose. Amanda Scott is a wonderful author. She's as engrossing as Jennifer Donnelly in her Rose trilogy, as Eloisa James in her Midnight series, as Paullina Simons in her Bronze Horseman trilogy.

I'm going to hunt for the first book in the series. I'm so thrilled to be reading Amanda Scott. Do you know of any author similar to Amanda Scott? Feel free to let me know. (review also published at amazon.com). Many thanks to Ms. Michelle at Hachette Books.

Books in the series:

Highland Master
Highland Hero
Highland Lover

Slash and Burn by Collin Cotterill

• Slash and Burn
• by Collin Cotterill
• Hardcover
• Publisher: Soho Crime (December 6, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616951168

Books in the series: 

The Coroner’s Lunch (2004) 

Thirty-Three Teeth (August 2005) 

Disco For the Departed (August 2006) 

Anarchy and Old Dogs (August 2007) 

Curse of the Pogo Stick (August 2008) 

The Merry Misogynist (August 2009) 

Love Songs from a Shallow Grave (August 2010)

This looks like a very interesting book. I'm so glad to get it. It's the first one in line that I'm going to read after I take my LSAT in December 3. I hope I only have to take the LSAT once. It's not like I'm a young girl anymore, after all.

From book jacket:

Laos, 1978: Dr. Siri, the national coroner of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, might finally be allowed to retire (again). Although he loves his two morgue assistants, he's tired of his job, which he never wanted in the firest place. Plus, he's pushing eighty, an dwants to spend some quality time with his wife before his untimely death (which has been predicted by the local transvestite fortune teller).

But retirement is not in the cards for Dr. Siri after all. He's dragged into one last job for the Lao government: supervising an excavation for the remains of a U.S. fighter pilot who went down in the remote jungle in northern Laos ten years earlier, during the Vietnam War. The presence of American Soldiers in Laos is a hot-button issue for both the Americans and Lao involved, and the search party includes high-level politicians and scientists. Then one member of the excavation party is found dead, setting off a chain of accidents that Dr. Siri suspects are not completely accidental. Everyone is trapped in a cabin in a jungle, and the bodies are starting to pile up. Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot's mysterious story before the fortune teller's prediction come true?

Just one of the many praises for the Dr. Siri Series:
Denver Post: "The sight, smells and colors of Laos practically jump off the pages of this inspired, often wryly witty first novel.

Collin Cotterill, the author

Thanks to Ms Rafferty of Soho Press for my copy.

Amanda Scott and Margaret Mallory’s GREAT SCOTS & HIGHLAND HEAT Blog Tour

Two wonderful historical author grace my blog today. I asked both author two questions. These are very talented authors, and I'm very honored to feature then on my blog. Leave a comment, tweet the contest and post on Facebook. There will be two winners of these two books featured here. Contest open to US and Canada. Winners will be announced on December 8.

Ø When you're not writing about luscious hanky men, how do you occupy your time? 

Writing takes up most of my time! When I can, I love to read, watch movies, hike, and travel. I was very fortunate to be able to take an amazing trip to Scotland and visit many of the places that are in THE SINNER and the other books in THE RETURN OF THE HIGHLANDERS.

Ø What processes are involved when you conceive a book?

Because I write adventurous historicals, one thing I do is look for a period with a lot of conflict. For this series, I found exactly what I wanted in the year 1513, in the wake of the Scots’ disastrous loss to Henry VIII’s forces at the Battle of Flodden. With that historical backdrop, I could have my four Highland heroes return from France to find their king and chieftain dead, a rebellion brewing, factions fighting for control of the crown, and their clan in grave danger. What fun!

The next thing I had to do was decide on a clan for my Highland heroes. When I discovered that the first chieftain of the MacDonalds of Sleat had six sons by six different women and that the animosity among the six sons led to two generations of murder, I knew I had found my clan. J The hero and heroine and their romantic conflict are the heart of each book. Because all four heroes in this series appear in the first book, I already knew that Alex, the hero of THE SINNER, was a charming rogue dead set against being married. Naturally, I paired him up with a serious-minded heroine who is every bit as opposed to marriage, particularly to a known philanderer like him.

Ø Did you always wanted to write?

Not to write, necessarily, but I’ve told stories since I first began talking. I was the oldest of four kids and second oldest of a host of grandchildren (the oldest one being male), and that made me everyone’s babysitter of choice. I made up hundreds of stories in those days to entertain the younger children. We spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ ranch in northwestern California and at their cabin in the High Sierras. Neither place had TV, so we spent most of our time outside, playing games, and I made up many of them on the fly, although the others always added their ideas and fought to play their favorite roles. The lawyers in my family are all courtroom lawyers. If you stop and think about that, you’ll realize that they are all creative types, too, creating images and likely scenarios for juries. I’ve always liked to writer. However, I never expected to become “a writer.” The first chapter of my newest book, Highland Hero [Forever, Oct 2011] is posted on my website: www.amandascottauthor.com. If readers have questions or comments, they will also find a link there to my email, which is amandascott@att.net. I love to hear from readers, have learned a great deal from them, and I answer all messages.

Ø How did you get started and how long was it before your first book was published?

My husband was in the Air Force, a targets officer for the Strategic Air Command on America’s airborne command post, known as “Looking Glass” or “Doomsday Plane.” One of them was in the air 24/7 at that time. His job meant that he was ‘on alert’ for 2 or 3 days at a time, so to entertain themselves during their off-time on alert, the guys played poker. He is very good at poker. Meantime, I’d be home alone in our one-streetlight town near Omaha, reading my way through our tiny library and throwing books across the room because the authors had done so little historical research. He saw me do that one day and asked me why. I said, “I could do better than that myself.” He asked me if I’d like to write, and I realized then that I would, very much. I had already researched and written the text for the photo-essay book Omaha City Architecture, and I’d played with an idea for a historical novel since college, and even written some scenes. That weekend, he asked me if I REALLY wanted to write. When I said yes, he took me to the famous Nebraska Furniture Mart, chose a spectacularly beautiful leather-topped desk despite my insistence that it was far too expensive, had me ‘try on’ chairs and try out lamps until I found ones I liked, and then bought me the whole setup with his poker winnings and told me to get to it. NOT to have at least tried to write a book after that would have been a betrayal of the highest order. So I wrote The Fugitive Heiress and sent it to an agent, who sent it to an editor at Signet, who bought it. It took about two months from agent to editor to sale and a year for production before the book was on the shelves. That was 58 books ago. I’ve sold every manuscript I’ve written.

Good luck and have fun!

Hear Ye. Hear Ye!

Just a head's up. Margaret Mallory is coming to my blog. There's an interview and maybe some goodies, too. Make sure to check on Friday the 18th. Have to mooch off my husband's computer. My internet is down. I hope to have it up by this afternoon.