Jeff Sexton

So You're Investigating A Dead Body - That Moves. What Do You Do? And thus, the critical hook here. Shulkin combines his own military experience generally with his general medical knowledge as a working MD and spins a tale he openly admits (in the Author's Note) was designed to pay homage to some of the great comic book tales of old - and it absolutely works. The Nick Fury level spy story, the Purple Man horror of not being in complete control of your own body, in addition to the far more obvious Captain America and Hulk aspects here. Indeed, Shulkin takes nearly the entirety of the Marvel *comic* stories - where *oh so much* of the villains' actions revolved around some version of trying to recreate the Super Soldier program that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America - and manages to use that as inspiration for a plausible-enough real-world tale of how those things could actually play out.

Thus, for those looking for a fun action read with balls to the wall "total nonstop" action... this is going to be a ride you're going to love. For those needing a palate/ mind cleanse from the seriousness of whatever drama/ suspense/ thriller had your brain in a twist or from the latest bubblegum pop saccharine sweet romance (with perhaps some ghost pepper spice, if that is your thing)... this is going to give you exactly that. A fun few hours of engaging your brain just enough to follow along with all the twists here - and shutting it down enough to simply enjoy the ride. (At nearly 400 pages, this is on the longer side for many readers, though perhaps fantasy readers will enjoy the "speed read", since their books generally double that length. ;) )

Overall a fun read that does everything Shulkin set out to do and likely then some, this is absolutely one to check out almost no matter your normal preferences.

Very much recommended.

Pulse Pounding Nail Biting Thriller With Some Powerful Dusty Rooms. Wait. An author known for *airplane* tales is writing a book that takes place 99% *on the ground*? Yes. And she does a damn fine job of it to boot.

As someone who has actually worked in the nuclear waste disposal area (at the Savannah River Site, where I sat yards away from tanks containing tens of thousands of gallons of nuclear waste and worked on putting the information-and-control spreadsheet (yes, spreadsheet) online), having a *touch* of knowledge of the field only made it that much more terrifying... because I knew exactly what some of the devices Newman speaks of were. (Specifically, the dosimeter badges. Never had to wear one myself, despite going into certain areas a time or two, but remember the training all too well - the "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" badge in particular.)

Even without having worked a touch in an adjacent area of the tale though, this is one of those disaster tales that starts off in the middle of the action... and never really slows down. After the introduction where we see the plane going down, from there the tale takes place entirely ground-based, but with a strong countdown clock that is actually calculated within the tale and is used to great effect, going down to the final moments.

Perhaps Newman's greatest strength in this particular tale though is in *not* making any "superheroes" but instead showing everyday people in every day situations (yes, including nuclear power generation and nuclear waste management) doing their best with what is in front of them and trying to avert catastrophes big and small. Newman even manages to "humanize" her (fictional) President of the United States in ways not often done well, yet here is.

And about those dusty rooms... man, the hits just keep hitting. There are *several* points here where if your eyes don't get misty, I question whether they *ever* do. Newman sprinkles these moments throughout the book, but in a couple of scenes are particularly strong indeed - nearly to the point of needing an audio version of the text to get through them.

Overall truly an excellent and fast read - despite being 300+ pages, you're not going to want to put it down.

Very much recommended.

Solid Suspense Takes Atypical Turns. This is one of those tales that almost seems destined for at least a sequel, if not a series of some level. There's more than enough here to justify it, and yet this story itself is fully complete as is. In other words, coming back to this world would be interesting and compelling... but not necessarily *necessary*.

I love the way that certain elements are played in an all-too-real-yet-not-usually-shown-in-fiction manner, and the specific construction of how Stella's past and present collide is particularly well done - and perhaps indicative that no sequel is expected here, as that particular sub plot could have been spread across a small series - while not feeling rushed or out of place fully happening within this story itself.

There *is* one particular element that could throw at least some readers off, and that is the (minor) romance subplot and specifically that it introduces an LGBT element not otherwise present in the story. Minor spoiler there, apologies, but I'd rather avoid 1*s (which I've seen already) specifically because of this. So just know it going forward, and yes, I know that others will praise this book specifically for that very point. *In the context of this particular story as told*, to me it felt refreshing that the author would choose to go that direction rather than feeling forced in just to have that "representation" in the book, but it is also a point where I could see others feeling that it was a touch forced, and they wouldn't get much pushback from me beyond what I just stated - it didn't feel that way *to me*.

Overall a truly well told, suspenseful, complex tale with a more-fleshed-out-than-many main character that clearly has a lot going on, and a tale whose world seems ripe for exploring more of. So here's hoping we get a chance to, and here's hoping it will be soonish.

Very much recommended.

Esoteric Atmospheric Tale Not For The Faint Of Heart. Straight up, this is one of those truly esoteric books that, even with the glossary and map up front, isn't going to work for everyone - despite not being fantasy *at all*, and in fact because it is perhaps *too* real.

This is the world of Saturation Diving, where divers work underwater under pressure for weeks on end, often repairing cabling or piping or other undersea infrastructure that makes above ground life possible/ globally connected for the rest of us. And here, Dean is as exacting in his depiction of the actual lives of these people as Andy Weir was in The Martian, with *even more* technical discussion since so much of this particular book is a group of these divers living and working together as they do in the real world - warts and all.

And yes, there are also larger forces at play - but we only see those from *inside* the Chamber, through the eyes of our sole narrator. (Ans some scream: "Yay! No multiple perspectives!" :D)

Overall one of the more interesting tales of 2024 just because of how true it is to its real-world subject material and how rare any open discussion of that particular role in modern society really is - but truly, be forewarned: It is extremely esoteric *due* to how rare that job is in the real world *and* the tale can be truly slow or even incomprehensible for some readers, if you simply can't wrap your mind around what is happening in such a tiny and closed off space. For those that can though, this is truly a fascinating book on a few different levels.

Very much recommended.

Literary Soap Opera. This is a tale of dual sets of sisters roughly three decades apart making uncannily similar boneheaded moves, told primarily from the perspectives of two of the sisters in one timeline and one from the previous timeline. It is a compelling mystery with all kinds of interweaving and looping drama that truly makes it feel like a soap opera, but in a very approachable and enjoyable way. Some reveals were telegraphed early, others not until the very moment - with some pretty solid misdirection thrown in at times. Overall great story and great execution, and a remarkable contrast in storytelling style from Marsh's earlier October 2020 release, Second Chance Lane. Very much recommended.

Dark. Creepy. Maybe Read My Sister's Husband First. This is one of those dark, creepy books where *most* of the worst stuff (though not all) is "off screen", so even though there are mentions of animal abuse, rape, sexual assault, and more, for the most part we never "see" any of this happening - and more often than not, it is merely mentioned, rather than "showing" anything at all about the abuse at hand. (Though there are points where *slightly* more is shown, to be clear - it is simply that the actual abuse is never shown.)

So for those who can handle seeing such primarily "off screen" abuse in a twisty thriller all about family relationships... this one is done quite well, but truly works *best* if its predecessor, My Sister's Husband, is fresh in your mind. (Vs my having read 869 books between them - seriously.) The events pick up after the events of the first book, with most of the relationships between the characters already well established from that book. (But with enough recap that it is possible to follow along here, there's just a lot to learn.) Told from just three perspectives (rather than each character's or a single narrator's), we get a good sense of what is going on in these complex and complicated relationships, along with a lot of backstory for our new character for this book.

Still, for those looking for dark and creepy yet not necessarily supernatural reads as we go into this fall/ Halloween season, both of these books are quite good for exactly that kind of mood.

Very much recommended.

For The Xennials. Yes, we are a tighter demographic than most others, but we - those born roughly 1978 to 1983 - are still mighty, and this book hits us pretty directly. While directly pulling from a hidden-just-enough-to-prevent-copyright-claims version of Dawson's Creek, there are also *several* other TV shows and movies of our teen generation (specifically that late 90s/ early 2000s period) referenced here. Pleasantville being not even that arguably the second most obvious, but also The Notebook and Miss Congeniality, among others. So for us + those just older or younger than us who grew up/ became "new adults" watching these things, this was a great nostalgic trip into an interesting romcom premise that I, despite reading roughly 200 books per year, had never come across something *quite* like this.

And yes, it also "draws inspiration from" others of the same period of different forms, such as The Family Man in particular, and it is truly this combination of The Family Man + Pleasantville where the romance side of this truly comes home and works quite well.

As a side note for those who clearly feel opposite from how I do, please stop rating a book 1* if you DNF'd it. I understand Goodreads and their corporate overlords at Amazon don't allow you to have a direct DNF option, but other alternatives such as Hardcover.app *do* allow you to explicitly note a DNF without giving a star rating - and you can still review the book. It just doesn't plummet the ratings average the way a 1* is when you didn't even finish the book, and at least to me, rating a book you didn't finish feels dishonest - though clearly, you do you.

With that aside out of the way, again, I truly enjoyed this book and its premise really hit home as exactly that age group that it was very clearly targeting, but clearly there are a wide variety of views on this particular book. You, dear reader of this review, should absolutely read it for yourself and make your own call there. (And, remember, if you DNF it, please review it on Goodreads alternatives like Hardcover.app and use their explicit "DNF" option. :D)

Very much recommended.

Their Secrets Have Secrets. Easily a great line in The Avengers (the Marvel version, you Imperialists) is when Tony Stark is speaking of Nick Fury and says "his secrets have secrets" - which is absolutely true, both in The Avengers and this book. If you enjoy semi-slow burn (to start) almost disaster movie type suspense, where everything starts off a touch slow and normal ish before completely fucking unravelling... this is exactly the kind of book you're going to enjoy.

The other great thing about this, to me, was how well Mercer used the setting she created to create an atypical emergency situation. Without giving anything away, let's just say that it put an interesting spin on a couple of fairly worn concepts and made everything seem newer and much more intriguing in the process.

Ultimately one of those books you're going to be reading deep into the night, because "one more chapter" will never be enough.

Very much recommended.

A Cozy Comfortable (Cat) Blanket. Sometimes You Just Need Space To Heal. Ok, so I can't decide on a title for this review and both of those work, so this review gets two titles. :) The first was stolen from a phrase another reviewer used and then modified slightly to put my own twist, the second is completely my own.

This is one of those books where seemingly not much happens. We encounter a woman after the tragedy has already struck, and we get enough of the backstory to be invested in her character, but that isn't where she is *right now*. Where she is *right now* is a series of WTF comedic elements that wind up with her having a cat... that she doesn't actually own, and that seemingly doesn't want to be owned at all.

And in the process of acquiring said cat and learning to take care of it... well, maybe she finally has space to simply *be* and to heal from the aforementioned trauma. Maybe there is a possible romantic interest, but maybe there doesn't actually need to be a romance. Maybe, just maybe, we can have a book that is essentially about nothing more than finding the space to simply *be*, to allow the space to heal without focusing on the trauma or the process of healing... and simply allow the healing to happen.

Maybe this isn't the case with every trauma and every healing - there are absolutely times for more decisive and immediate actions in both, and there is absolutely space for stories detailing such journeys. But that journey isn't this journey, and Grace here brings exactly that - grace - in showing this kind of healing too. Of just taking care of your (often annoying) cat and maybe sitting under a comfortably cozy (even cat print, such as one in particular from Vera Bradley) blanket and simply *being*. Not necessarily "enjoying" the moment or having any other emotion or being "mindful" or anything else. Just. Simply. Being.

Grace has done phenomenal work with more "active" healing in prior books, and to see what she does here with such a simple concept... it is like watching a 3* Michelin chef make a boiled egg, or a particularly talented bartender make the perfect Old Fashioned... it is simply a thing of utter beauty, one that is not often found and is to be savored when you do find it.

Very much recommended.

'Deliciously Dark' Sounds Apt But Becomes Problematic. Without going into spoiler territory, I can't find a better title for this review than "Deliciously Dark", and yet... well, read the damn book to find out why I have problems using that title. :D

But seriously, this is one *dark* book - and while I just can't bring myself to spoil anything... think whatever you feel would be the darkest a book could possibly go. Then go darker. Darker. Darker again. And again. Ok, now add a dying candle into that. Because that's about as light as this book gets. (Though I *will* note some things that you may imagine that *don't* happen here: no dog dies. No kids are sexually assaulted. And yet... the rest of this paragraph applies. Better to be prepared and have it be lighter than you expect, with this kind of tale.)

Holmes manages almost a Poe level of storytelling, where it isn't necessarily what is on the page, but what is clearly just *off* the page that is so intense... and, eventually, those things come onto the page in stunning fashion.

If you like dark yet not necessarily "heavy" books, you're going to love this one. If you're looking for something lighter... come back to this when you're ready for *dark*. :)

Very much recommended.

Lots To Love - With a WTF Or Two. First, my own "WTF" is the intense focus on anti-Semitism (meaning anti-Jew, specifically, even though Arabs are also Semitic, according to the actual genetic definition) throughout the text - but Meltzer actually uses that, eventually, to get into areas she's never really gone to in my experience reading most of her books. Thus, that actually turned into a good thing, as she was able to use it to further her growth as a storyteller.

And that actually gets into the lots to love here. Meltzer is unapologetic in seeking to make Jewish lives more "normal" to an outside audience, usually by taking quirky characters and showing them loving, laughing, making mistakes, learning from them... you know, doing the stuff we pretty well all do. But also including quite a bit of Jewish specific elements, here mostly focusing on magic and in particular the concept of the golem - which is more often, in my reading experience, used in science fiction to varying degrees. (Both Jeremy Robinson and Kent Holloway have used them quite effectively, among others.) Meltzer even provides some in-story exposition on the history of golems in Judaic philosophy, which was a particularly nice touch - especially given that a romcom audience is probably less familiar with the overall concept than the aforementioned scifi crowd.

Indeed, the golem of the story... well, he's used quite well, actually. Both for what he is believed to be and for what ultimately happens - though I'm trying to be as spoiler free as possible here. I will note that it is the golem that plays the larger role in Meltzer's expansion of her storytelling abilities, mentioned above, but I think that may be as close as I can get here and remain spoiler free.

Ultimately a fun book, perhaps a touch heavier than some would prefer in a romcom, but still fulfilling all known requirements of a romcom. Very much recommended.

Solid - And Solidly Dense - Examination Of The Topic. You know those jokes about the Christmas fruitcakes that are so dense you could use them as an anvil or even the cornerstone of a house? This... is damn near that dense. So be prepared for that up front, and it is a solid examination of political and even, to a lesser extent, religious polarization in the US over the last 60 years or so - with more emphasis on the last 40 years or so, when the authors claim that the "Diploma Divide" began explaining ever more of the results of elections.

Well documented at roughly 33% of the overall text, there isn't anything particularly "explosive" here, but there *is* a lot of detailed discussion of what has occurred and why the authors' research says it happened. One of the few books of its type where the authors are explicit in *not* making policy recommendations, instead taking an attitude of "this is the data we have, this is what we believe it shows, do with it as you will". Which is actually refreshing - the authors note that they are academics working in academia, and even if they have worked with campaigns off and on at times, they are not politicians or political operators, and thus their expertise isn't campaigns or campaign strategy - their expertise is in asking questions, gathering data, and analyzing that data.

Overall, while the outcomes are those we all know, Grossman and Hopkins add more data to the discussion - which is never a bad thing - and thus help aid in our overall understanding of what we have seen, giving us a more complete picture of the events as we know them.

Recommended.

Distorting The Discussion. For a book about the history of the Electoral College that opens up admitting that the author thinks the Electoral College is foolhardy at best... the actual history here is quite good, and absolutely stuff virtually no one learns about even with a major in American History in college. (Perhaps Masters' or PhD students specifically studying the EC or at least the Constitutional Convention that created it would know at least some of this?) So absolutely read this book for Parts I and II, where Dupont shows that the fights that we have today about the Electoral College have been there basically since its creation and have reignited every few decades since.

It is in Part III, where Dupont begins discussing the current debates about the issue, that her acknowledged disdain comes to the fore and truly distorts the discussion. Here, she creates strawman after strawman after strawman and "debunks" them... without ever actually getting to the heart of any of the arguments she is "debunking".

Which is a shame, because throughout parts I and II, Dupont almost goes to pains to show that there have been some throughout American history who had at least part of the actual solution to the problems we now see - and were working to push that part of the solution through. In Part II, she even notes the other part to the solution... and glosses right on by it.

The solution that Dupont brings up repeatedly is the "District method" (vs the "General ticket" method we now call Winner-Take-All). Here, each Electoral Vote is, essentially, chosen by the popular vote of each Congressional District, with the overall popular vote of the State determining the Electoral Votes represented by that State's US Senators. Going to that method right now would mean that both "large State" and "small State" (to use the Founders' terms) or "urban" and "rural" (to use more modern terms) concerns would be more accurately represented in the overall Electoral College system.

But wait! There's more! The item that Dupont glosses over is the 1920s era law passed by Congress capping the number of US Representatives at 435. This was the final nail in the coffin as far as how unequal the system currently appears, allowing even a District based Electoral Vote in Wyoming to represent 400K ish people vs a District based vote in Los Angeles to easily represent 3x as many people. But that is "simply" an Act of Congress... meaning Congress can remove that restriction at any time, even, literally, the day you are reading this review.

And then there becomes a point in the Constitutional Convention that even Dupont completely misses. You see, while I haven't examined the relevant records myself (and perhaps Dupont could, and possibly release a 2nd edition of this text examining this), there are some who point out that the First Amendment as we know it... wasn't the actual First Amendment. Instead, it was the *second*, and the actual First Amendment actually closed the "Representational loophole" that Article I, Section II of the Constitution created when it noted that the "number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand". Reading that carefully, it means that the population represented by a single US Representative has a *minimum* - 30,000 people - meaning that the overall number of US Representatives has a *maximum* - 11,234 US Representatives, based on the US population in August 2024 as I write this review. But notice what this does *NOT* do - set a population *maximum* - and therefore an overall number of US Representatives *minimum*.

THIS is where the fight over the Electoral College misses its most crucial point - and it is a point Dupont seems to be entirely unaware or even ignorant of. If this so-called "true First Amendment" had passed, it would have set the population maximum per Representative - and therefore the minimum overall number of US Representatives - at 50,000 - or 6,740 US Representatives based on current US population as of late August 2024 as I write this review.

Combining the District Method Dupont discusses at length in the text here + this missing "actual First Amendment" would largely solve every single argument Dupont has against the Electoral College, and yet she missed such a crucial detail of James Madison's own efforts regarding the construction of the Constitution - thereby distorting the discussion from the get-go.

Recommended, mainly for Parts I and II, where most everyone will learn quite a bit.

Strong Multi-Generational Tale. With this tale, Walker expands into something I've never seen from him (though I *am* a somewhat recent fan, only finding him within the 2020s or so) - a dual timeline, present day/ historical fiction tale. Both periods are executed well for their time and setting, though there are some mystical elements to the present day setting that will be harder for some to accept - and some elements of the more practical present day setup that may seem just as unrealistic to others.

Still, Walker manages to write a female lead as well as most female authors within the women's fiction space while *also* having a male lead that is also Walker's typical greatness with such characters. That he *also* manages to give both of them a compelling romance - and proving some of my points re: "romance novels" along the way! - is even more icing on the cake there.

But really, the story here is about the trauma and the seeming generational nature of it. In this respect, I didn't really see the present day issues as "trauma" so much as a lot of bad luck/ bad circumstances. Yes, any one of the things *suck*, but I didn't really see them as "trauma". (Though the one situation, part of the practical yet possibly unrealistic stuff noted above, ... well, I'll shut up now to avoid any possible spoilers.) This noted, the historical period was simply *full* of trauma, that part I absolutely got and it was 100% crystal clear - particularly as they relate to some other books I've read and raved about over the decades.

And yet, regardless of which part of which storyline's traumas hit you, the reader of this review, harder... Walker, as always, shows superb skill in bringing the characters *back from it* - which isn't really a spoiler, given this is very much Walker's style in every book I've read from him. Indeed, it is a particular strength of his that sets his tales apart from many in whichever genre you may place his books. Thus, no matter your own traumas in your "real" life and no matter how much you may identify with a particular trauma found in this tale... you're also going to find a degree of catharsis within these pages that is Walker's particular brand of real-world "magic" with his words.

Very much recommended.

Want An Election Themed Book That AVOIDS The Real Ones Entirely? Here Ya Go! Seriously, this book does a phenomenal job - truly, one of the best I've yet found in any medium - of showing both the nuts and bolts of elections and the high drama of elections and yet managing to present both in such a manner as to avoid most all (current) real world politics *and* without boring the viewer (reader) to tears. Because yes, while working elections is truly hard work (as I know as even a 2x former rural small town City Council candidate) and truly, utterly *boring* at times... this book manages to switch gears into its primary tale - that of a woman discovering her husband cheating on her and the actions she takes after that point - to keep the reader involved in the overall story.

Truly an excellent work on both the women's fiction side and the elections side, and the two complement each other well in exactly the manners that would largely play out in real life, particularly given the backgrounds involved here.

You're going to laugh. The room will get dusty at times. And in the end, you're going to leave this book happy to have come across it. Isn't that a good combination of a lot of what we all hope for in a fictional tale?

Very much recommended.

An Imagined History. Pishko starts off this text openly admitting that, as the Southport NC Police Dept cop who murdered Keith Vidal in North Carolina a decade ago this year said less than two minutes after encountering Vidal - and 14 seconds after Vidal had already been Tasered and was being held on the group by two other cops when the kill shot was fired -, she "doesn't have time" (paraphrase from her, exact words of the murderous cop) to do any real investigative journalism that might show any degree of nuance or any alternative explanations for anything she writes about in this book. She openly admits in the prologue that she is going to label anything and anyone who is not a leftist progressive as "far right" because "The intent of this book is not to desegregate all of the complexities of the far-right movements - I do not think I could if I tried - which is why I have opted for the simplest terminology. Most important to me is the acknowledgement that these sheriffs and their supporters are plainly opposed to the left and progressives." (An exact quote from page 18 or so, at least of the ARC text I read.)

Thus, Pishko proceeds to concoct her imagined history, complete with narrative-defining boogeymen, the "Constitutional Sheriff's And Peace Officer's Association" or CSPOA, as it is so frequently noted on seemingly every other page throughout the narrative. Pishko "cites" well-debunked "facts" such as Donald Trump calling the Nazis at the Charlottesville, VA "Unite The Right" rally "very fine people" (actual fact: He openly decried the violence of this group specifically, noting that *other* people *not associated with them* were the "very fine people" that happened to be at the rally as well), or the repeated-three-times-throughout-the-narrative-that-I-caught bald-faced LIE that "the leading cause of death of children is gun violence". Even when looking at the CDC data *that Pishko herself cites*, the only way to get to this is to include people that are not legally children - indeed, some of the 18 and 19yos included in these numbers are actively serving the US military in war zones! Pishko also claims that "AR-15 SBRs are the weapon of choice of mass shooters" despite the number of homicides via rifle - any form of rifle, not just so-called "assault weapons" - proving that to be untrue for many years now. She claims that she observed a man walking around at one rally with an "automatic" rifle. While this is *possible*, it is also *extremely* rare - and without inspecting the gun in question (which Pishko does not detail that she did, if she did it at all), there is no way of knowing from a distance that the rifle at hand was fully automatic.

No, as with one of her criticisms of one of her primary targets of scorn throughout this text - Pinal County AZ Sheriff Mark Lamb - the best that can be said of this text is that while it is well documented, clocking in at 33% or so documentation, it is "light on substance and heavy on [extreme leftist] vibes".

Read this book - if your politics are to the left of Bernie Sanders. You'll find a new boogeyman to scare yourself with in your fantasy world.

For anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders and living in the *real* world, don't bother with this drivel. There are *far* superior books about the problems with modern police and how we got to this point, such as Radley Balko's Rise Of The Warrior Cop.

Not recommended, unless you're an extreme leftist or extreme masochist.