The Soul Reader by Gerard D. Webster

Genre: Fiction/Thriller/Christian

Review: It's been a year since the murder of Ward's dad and Ward's accident. He had been framed for manslaughter by the same group of people who had murdered his dad. His relationship with the woman he loved, Carrie Hope, had broken but one day she shows up wanting to write a book on the North Beach Project which was exactly what Ward and his father had gotten into before they were both either killed or scared away from it. However, Carrie had no fears of the situation and decided to go on with the book and investigation without him. Ward decided that he would need to use his "gift" to help protect her from the horrible people involved in this who will surely be after her when she starts digging into the situation again. Soon, they find themselves on a world wide adventure as they become the target of the most dangerous assassin in the western hemisphere -- Culebre.

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M.O.D. By J.C. Allen

Genre: Thriller (?Ehh... sort of?)

Review: I read this book for my radio show review with Dawn Tevy on Angels and Warriors. I must admit, when I finished it, I had a three page long insult for this guy. But then I spoke with his mother on the radio and got his story and now... well, I feel bad giving him a negative review. But, I cannot lie to Linda's readers, so here is the truth. I did not like this book at all. (And that says a lot for a woman who cannot talk politics because they make her so angry!) Generally I try to find something good about a book, but I could not find it here. There were a lot of grammatical errors, the characters were flat. The massive contradiction in the story just rub me the wrong way. (One example: the internet hacking group, M.O.D., is fighting to get back to the constitutional rights of citizens; but has stolen money, weapons and other equipment from the U.S. for this purpose. Their members live in an Utopian society where people set their own work hours, choose what they want to do and get paid whatever they need to live. Very, socialist/communist society! And how does this jive with the Constitution?!?!?) The whole story is surreal and science fiction, at best. Which would be fine if it were not set in 2009! Hmm... but you get it, I don't like it at all!

Author: And here is why I am not totally bombing this book. The guy who wrote it is in jail, for a crime he claims he did not commit. He says his ex-wife set him up to keep him from getting custody of their two daughters. Now, I am not gonna weigh in on whether or not I think he is innocent or guilty, but the guy wrote this book (and about 20 others) on an old-school type writer. He does not have the same capabilities of research that are at the fingertips of most writers. And given that pens and pencils can be used as weapons in prison, I'm guessing he doesn't have a whole lot of access to those either. Which seriously limits the pre-planning phase most authors go through. Could I have done better under his circumstances? Mmmm... don't know, don't want to find out!

Rating ** Two Stars

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