I found it quite disturbing that what I enjoyed about this town was now gone. I havent been here in a couple of years, but during the last few times I visited I had established a comfortable routine. Run in the morning, have coffee and check my email at my favorite spot, and in the…
(Reviewed by JD Jung) Margo Harrington, an American expatriate living in Italy, is excited to hear that her memoir, The Sixteen Pleasures, will be made into a feature film. The book details her experiences when she first came to Florence. While working in a convent, restoring irreplaceable books damaged in the flood of 1966, she…
Check it out! Have you ever stumbled across a novel that contains such an implausible plot and a vague setting—and it doesn’t even allow you to feel for any of the characters? Believe it or not, I did—and I ate it up. Irish writer Declan Burke has managed to get away with breaking all of…
(Reviewed by JD Jung) Atlanta, 1923: In the midst of Prohibition, the city is seething with corruption, bootlegging, narcotics, gambling, and counterfeiting scams. This would seem the perfect scenario for Joe “Indian Joe” Rose to drift into town, as he does every year or so, to try to make some cash. Actually, Joe couldn’t have…
Check it out! Dan Gordon works undercover for the U. S. Department of Justice, pursuing money launderers and white-collar criminals who flee the country. Why the need to go undercover? Because many of his targets are among the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Gordon worked for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, for three years. When one…
(Reviewed by JD Jung) Is it possible to emotionally escape the experiences of our childhood in order to live our lives fully as adults? Can we ever break away from our own self-absorption in order to get close to those we hold dear? These topics have been explored endlessly by numerous writers, but none have…
Check this out! P.I. and former guard Jack Taylor isn’t the most likeable guy. Through the years, he’s managed to make more enemies than friends. In fact, he’s known more for being a drunk than an investigator. That means that his biggest enemy is alcohol, and, through their constant bouts, the liquor always seems to…
Check this out! “Nothing personal” is Brooklyn South Homicide Detective Jack Leightner’s motto. This applies to his grueling police work as well as to his personal life. Divorced, with a twenty-five-year-old son whom he rarely sees, he’s just been dumped by his girlfriend. However, soon he won’t be living up to his credo—either in work…
Check it out! What happens when a single woman defines herself by the men she dates and her work as a television writer? You guessed it. She’s dumped and fired. Amy figured that by the time she was thirty, she would have a successful career, an adoring husband, and two wonderful children. Soon, she’s thirty-five,…
