How refreshing it is to come upon an author one has never read and find the book just published provides an unexpected release from the usual pile.
The Scent of Rain and Lightning (Hachette, $38.99, pbk) by Nancy Pickard is such a book.
The men in the book are stereotypical hard-drinking, hard-working, macho upright citizens. Except one of them is not upright, and although you know there is a bad one, you do not find out until near the end which it is.
Pickard's writing brings to life a fictional run-down town in a southern United States r
The town, which was once thriving, is now held together by the strong will of the main characters, who are either related by blood, marriage or crime.
It is an exciting book, graphic in description, but well-written and hard to put down.
The latest John Grisham novel, written for the youth market, Theodore Boone - Half the Man, Twice the Lawyer (Hachette, $38.99, pbk) is a different breed altogether.
The plot fairly races along, as expected, with the flimsy premise unrealistically
The print is big, the book is short and only a junior Grisham fan would approve.
It could be the basis for a movie, however.
On the other hand, So Cold The River (Arena, $38.99, pbk), by Michael Koryta takes extreme concentration to follow a difficult but enthralling plot.
The impending death of a so-called pioneer of industry in a city far removed from his birth prompts a family member to call on the skills of an out-of-work documentary-maker to research and record the family history.
Nothing is as it seems and some twists are almost beyond co
As the pages turn, the plot gets sometimes unnecessarily complicated, but in such a way readers will be compelled to read on.
Koryta introduces some eccentric and colourful characters which add to the broad tapestry of the book.
For a rollicking good read, Clive Cussler's The Spy (Penguin, $39, pbk) is hard to beat.
Set in Washington DC, in 1908, the book is full of intrigue, spies, love, violence - and the latest naval technology, which pits Japan and America against each other.
Written with Justin Scott, the book lets readers drift off into a world of near-fantasy where super-agents fight off hordes of criminals and evil assassins.
Fortunately, the love of a good woman keeps the main character ready to fight the good fight for the sake of US naval superiority before World War 1.
- Dene Mackenzie is a Dunedin journalist.
