I Heard That Song Before

 

By Mary Higgins Clark

4 Stars

Mystery/Suspense/Romance

Adult

This book is clearly aimed at women readers. That's not a bad thing. Most readers are women, and the majority of people working in the industry are women. I'm a man, and I borrowed this one from my daughter's library on her recommendation. I'm glad I did.

Kay Lansing is the heroine, and most of the story is told from her perspective. Her love interest, whom she quickly marries, is Peter Carrington, who is handsome, rich and a very nice man. He's in trouble, though. He stands accused of murder, and from a legal standpoint, things are not looking good. She has to figure things out to save the day. Not a bad storyline.

What I liked is pretty simple. It was easy to read. It flowed, and even though I'm not the target audience, I had no trouble staying engaged. I liked the characters, and I liked the story. It was well told.

What I didn't like, and I'm going to nitpick. The transition from Kay Lansing to Kay Carrington was abrupt. It was like a wake-up slap. I'm not sure that is the best way to have handled that, but I'm not marking the rating down because of it. Made me sit up but didn't make me want to put the book down. Maybe I'm being too generous.

Kay was naughty when she was six years old and explored someone else's house. Peter was a sleepwalker. These two characters had virtually no flaws. Like Barbie and her ultimate accessory, Ken. I think they still had depth as characters, but it could have been stronger. 

Nick Greco, the private investigator, had a moment of observation which would have never come from a male mind, especially not one in his role.

There were two occasions when a full explanation was repeated. That might be done for emphasis, but I honestly thought that it didn't serve any purpose.

I mention all these nitpicks because I think a good beta reader or editor should have spotted them and recommended minor revisions. It would have made the book better.

I recommend the book. I felt that reading her work might make me a better writer myself.

History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)

 

By John Kiesz

4.5 Stars

Religion/History

Adult

I read this at the beginning of 1986, shortly after I read the work by Richard C. Nickels. This was found in the Ambassador College/University library. I believe there were actually two copies. The form was like that of a research paper without footnotes rather than a regular book. It was double-spaced, and someone decided to put a cover on it. He refers to his sources through the body of the text. I took the liberty of making a cover image because there doesn't appear to be an image anywhere online. The cover, as I remember it, was green, although I'm probably off on the shade. The title and name of the author were in gold letters and may only have been on the spine of the book. 

John Kiesz was a minister in the Church of God Seventh Day. He was part of a long-standing church family. I believe he was a personal friend of Herbert W Armstrong. His book covers the historical period from the beginning of America to the merger of the Stanberry and Salem branches of the Church of God.

As a reader, I did get bogged down in details at times, but the book is not long and is not very difficult to read. As a historical document, I can recommend it. His work is quoted quite extensively by Mr. Nickels in his book. If you are genuinely interested in Church of God history, you owe it to yourself to go through this. It is available online to read or download as a PDF file. The following link will access it: https://www.friendsofsabbath.org/ABC/CG7/john_kiesz/History%20of%20the%20CoG7_Kiesz.pdf

Exxoneration

 

By Richard Rohmer

5 Stars

Thriller

Adult

This is the sequel to Canadian icon Richard Rohmer's bestseller Ultimatum. I read this one almost right after reading the first one. If you are going to read one, you really need to read them both together. 

This book starts where the other left off. The United States has decided to annex Canada. The plan reminds me a little of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands during the Second World War. The opening move is to land large numbers of American troops at all of Canada's major airports with the intention of pulling off a relatively bloodless takeover. This, of course, backfires, and outcry from the American public does the rest. The rest of the book is how the whole issue is finally resolved. I won't give away more than the opening salvo of the story.

Implausible? I'll concede that. With the current rhetoric coming from the White House, I can't help but be reminded of this story. To my American friends, reading this book will give you a taste of the depth of the understated patriotism of your neighbours to the north. We want to remain your friends, but we don't want to be Americans. No insult intended.

Does this book deserve the five stars I've given it? For me, its impact suggests yes. Those who read both books when they were first published still remember the basic story fifty years later. Only the best books stay that sharp in my mind.

Ultimatum

 

By Richard Rohmer

5 Stars

Thriller

Adult

The author of this book has lived an incredibly full life, and as of the writing of this, he's still alive at 102 years old. The book was a number-one-selling book in Canada in 1973. I encountered it in my high school library within a few years of that and enjoyed it enough to eagerly read the sequel as soon as I found it in the same library.

This book was written with the oil crisis as a backdrop. America needs resources, and Canada has resources. They haggle and disagree, and finally the USA decides they need to annex Canada. I won't spoil the story about what happens. I will say that the premise of the story, for most of my life, came across as a little bit ridiculous; then Donald Trump got elected and decided to have a tariff war with us, spouting some very offensive rhetoric. I think that this book would really resonate with Canadian readers today. As a proud Canadian, I appreciated it and feel like giving it less than five stars would somehow feel disloyal. 

It's a worthy read, and I do recommend it even for readers who are not Canadian.

Sharpe's Escape

 

By Bernard Cornwell

5 Stars

Historical Fiction

Adult

I was introduced to Richard Sharpe and his right-hand man, Harper, through YouTube clips. I've never actually watched an entire episode of the show. My daughter was at a used bookstore and got me a couple of these novels because she thought I'd probably enjoy them. I read this one not expecting to like it as much as I did. Because there are 22 novels in the series at this point, I was expecting it to strike me as a little bit formulaic.  I thought the book was excellent. I wasn't disappointed with any of it.

The novel is built around the Bussaco Campaign of 1810. French General Massena objective was Lisbon, hoping to kick the British clear out of Portugal. Wellington is retreating, scorched earth to a defensive line he had built north of the city. In following those orders, Richard Sharpe clashes with Ferragus, who is the main villain of the book. Ferragus and his brother think that the French are going to win, and they are betraying the British and French by trying to sell a massive quantity of food to the French. They believe that by doing this, they will save their family's wealth for the future. Sharpe and his troops stumble across the initial goodwill shipment and destroy it, earning the villains' eternal hatred. Their personal feud plays out against the backdrop of the British victory at Bussaco, where the French advance is temporarily checked, then the sacking of Coimbra, and finally a major skirmish in front of Wellington's defensive works. 

What I liked about the book was the superb descriptions of the battles first, and the pacing and flow of the story. It is believably well written. Sharpe is maybe a bit more of a rogue than I was expecting from the clips online I'd viewed. This is a book I highly recommend. I do have another in the series in my home library and I'm looking forward to reading it as well in the not-too-distant future. 

A History of the True Church

 

By Andrew N. Dugger & Clarence O. Dodd

3.5 Stars

Religion/History

Adult

I was aware of this church history before I ever went to Ambassador College. Its contents were referred to in articles and lectures I read and heard. To some, it is controversial, but whether you agree or disagree with its conclusions, it has had a big impact on the Churches of God following the split with the Seventh Day Adventists. I do not know how this book is viewed by the Adventists. At least part of it would not be viewed favourably. For any Catholic readers, be forewarned that it is deeply anti-catholic. As well, while I have read a great deal on the subject, I do not consider myself qualified as a Church of God historian. Read it yourself and draw your own conclusions.

If there were a copy of this available for sign-out at the Ambassador College library, I would have read it at the beginning of 1986. As I "reread" it, I seem to only remember excerpts, so I think I might be misremembering. I'm not certain a copy was available. I don't remember at all what the book itself looked like. The cover I made is based on a description of it from my online research. No online image of it is available to me. I knew a lot about the book from other sources. I just know that I read that section of the library, including a small book about the Waldensians, which I have not been able to positively identify. Forty years is quite a long time.

The foundational premise of the book is that the Church of God has always existed in one form or another since its founding on Pentecost outside of the Roman Catholic Church. As a Sabbatarian myself, I want to believe that that is true. This book does claim unbroken apostolic succession for the Churches of God. I don't think that's provable, and my personal bible study doesn't convince me that that is even necessary. The book relies heavily on Baptist historians who made an effort to trace Protestantism's history, bypassing the Catholic Church.

The book is organized by century and presents its argument for each time period. I found the book to be difficult to read. It is dry and is peppered with references to other works. The organization lets you read it a bite at a time. This gave me a chance to stop and digest as I went.

If you are interested in studying the history of Sabbatarian Christian churches, this is a must-read. A copy of it is available through this link: https://www.friendsofsabbath.org/reader/Further_Research/e-books/A%20History%20of%20the%20True%20Church%20%20(Dugger%20and%20Dodd).pdf

The Afghan

 

By Frederick Forsyth

4 Stars

Thriller/Suspense

Adult

To this point, I have loved every book I've read from this author. This one disappointed me a little, even though I still think it's a great read.

Mike Martin is the protagonist of this novel. I remember him from "The Fist of God". In this book, he is older; in fact, he seems to be riding off into the sunset. He's renovating a building to retire in, doing most of the work himself. When he gets the call to go back into action, no real motivation is provided for him to do so. Any motivation is implied. If you've read the preceding books, it makes sense. I'm struggling with it, though, as I approach my own retirement. Risk my life for an unknown threat? It's hard for this reader to fully buy into that without some kind of explained incentive.

Terry Martin is the protagonist's brother. In "The Fist of God," he felt like an important character. This time, not so much. He's a professor and works for the government as an Arabic linguistic expert on an on-call basis, along with several other experts. They just agree with what is feared. He's really not needed. Then he boasts about his brother's abilities, which gets the attention of the counter-terrorism people. After his brother's previous exploits, that prodding is entirely unnecessary. A lot of time is spent on his backstory and his character development; once he's made this less-than-spectacular contribution, he disappears from the story. I feel like he's a token character who needed either a bigger role or no real role at all. 

Those two things bothered me and are the reason for the one-star deduction. Outside of that, the story was terrific. It was a page-turner, and I have no problem keeping it as part of my personal library. I do recommend this book, but I think that the other books he's written that I've read are all a bit better.