Book Review: Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

Steve Berry’s latest thriller, The Jefferson Key, revolves around a little known organization, the Commonwealth, which received letters of Marque from an early US president allowing them to act outside the law in order to aid the US. The organization has stretched the parameters of the letters to the point of breaking. The organization is run by four wealthy men who inherited their position in the Commonwealth from their fathers. The organization goes back nearly 200 years and is based on pirate principles. The US government has decided it’s had enough of the Commonwealth and has come after them. The Commonwealth is fighting back. As dead bodies begin piling up, the US President calls in Cotton Malone, a former CIA agent, and Cassiopeia Vitt, an independent operative, to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it.

Berry has given us a complex plot, complete with presidential assassination attempts, kidnappings, lots of dead bodies, a cipher, evil wealthy men, and what seems like a cast of thousands of bad guys. It was sometimes hard to tell one rogue agent from another. The book seemed overly long and a good edit would have done wonders for it.

That being said, the book is a fast read aided by the author’s penchant for breaking his chapters  into small parcels, i.e., jumping from one set of characters to the next in rapid succession. Some readers, however, may be unable to resist stopping in mid sentence to check to see how many more pages he has to read before the book ends.

This outing wasn’t nearly as exciting a read nor as historically interesting and detailed as Berry’s previous book, The Emperor’s Tomb. That book took off from page one and was a page turner from there to the end. The Jefferson Key doesn’t live up to the readers’ expectations of being a thriller and a fast read from start to finish.

Older Dog Wisdom - Tux 29: Old Toys

Eleven years ago, when Tux was mere pup, I gave him his first toy - a blue and pink plush ball. During the last eleven years, he has kept that toy safe. He sleeps with it in his mouth, he carries it around like Linus’ security blankie, and has never torn out its squeaker. He has a dozen or more other toys - all of them plush - three hamburgers, a second ball, a hot dog, a fish, a rat (I’d throw that one out if only he’d lose complete interest in it), and, of course, the ball. 

His first ball is his go-to toy when he’s stressed or sad or just needing comfort. The day we were attacked in the park by the devil-dog, it was his ball he went looking for when we returned home, and which he kept with him for the rest of the day.

Don’t get me wrong, he loves all his toys. I gather them up at least once a week and put them into his toy box. Yes, he has a toy box. He’ll rummage through his toy box looking for just the right one to match his mood. Within a day or two, he has toys in every room of the house. He has a toy within easy reach every where he goes. Apparently, a boy never knows when a toy might be needed. 

He hates it when I wash his toys. His anxiety levels rise as he watches them disappear into the washer. I’ve stopped washing all of them at the same time. It was too stressful for him to be without a toy in his mouth. I’ve even stopped letting him see me putting his toys in the washer. I admit it - I sneak his toys into the wash usually in a washer bag. Then I have to wait until he’s out of the room to slip them into the dryer.

I toss the toys to him as I remove them from the dryer. I’m not sure whether he thinks he’s getting new toys or it takes time to realize that the now-clean toys are his old ones without the familiar scent on them. Regardless of whether they’re new or old, he’s a very happy boy. All is right in his world once more.

I was thinking the other day, as I watched Tux rummage through his toy box looking for his ball, that my old friends are like Tux’s old toys. While I love them all, one of them is very special. She knows me better than the rest, gives me comfort when I most need it, and is always there for me. 

Lesson Learned

Old friends, like old toys, are the best.

Book Review: Kiss the Rain by Larkin Rose

This is Larkin Rose’s fifth novel. In this book, she introduces the reader to fashion designer Eve Harris, a driven workaholic at the top of the fashion ladder with no time for dating and romance. She gets physical relief using a British phone sex operator named Lexi. 

Also introduced is Jodi Connelly, a very successful paid escort who was once a phone sex operator but has pared her phone sex client list down to a special three, one of whom is Eve.

Both women are obsessed with the other without ever having met in person and neither has any interest in meeting in person because they are certain they will be disappointed with reality. The chances of meeting are slim to none because Eve lives in New York City and Jody lives in London. Little do they know that they would, indeed, meet. Neither could possibly foretell the cataclysmic effects their meeting will have on their carefully controlled lives.

Rose has written a book that no reader will be able to easily put down. This is a tightly woven story so well written that there’s not single misstep.  From start to finish, the story moves quickly forward. In the hands of a lesser writer, this story could very well have become trite. Larkin’s sure hand makes this a compelling story of two women looking for the same thing. 

There is one caveat, though. The intimate meetings between Eve and Jody are explicit. If you prefer the details of sexual meetings to be hinted at rather then drawn in vivid detail, this is not the book for you.

Older Dog Wisdom - Tux 28: Mama's Lessons

As Tux, Grace, and I rounded the bend of the park path, we came face to face with a gaggle of geese sunning themselves in the outfield of one of the baseball field. There must have been a dozen of the big birds resting there. One goose, apparently the designated perimeter guard, started waddling toward us. 

Tux was stunned. He’d never seen a creature as large as this one who didn’t have four feet. Sure, he knew what birds were. Hadn’t he chased Robins and Cardinals out of his yard for years? But these creatures? They couldn’t possibly be birds - they were way too large. How could they possibly get off the ground? I didn’t have the heart to remind him that he’d flown in a jet - twice - and it was much larger than any of these geese. He and the jet had managed to stay in the air for fifteen hours without a problem.

What did the intrepid hunter do next? Why he went into his three-point stance, of course. Then he began to stalk the guard goose, placing one foot ever so slowly in front of the other as he began his approach.

The goose, for his part, couldn’t believe the audacity of the Cocker Spaniel - intrepid hunter or no. He quacked once alerting his fellows that there was an intruder. Several goose heads swiveled in our direction.

Grace, on the other hand, simply sat down to watch the unfolding drama. By now, she’d seen her brother stalk a wadded up piece of paper, a fallen tree branch, three crazy daschunds, and even a drooling devil dog which had attacked us. She wasn’t sure how this would play out, but she knew it would be amusing.

I kept thinking of all the stories I’d heard about geese being used as watchdogs and attacking intruders of their turf. While the baseball field could hardly be called their turf, if possession is 99% of the law, we were on their turf. How was I going to get Tux and Grace out of harm’s way if the geese attacked? I had no answer to that question.

Luckily for all concerned, nature called. Tux lost his bad-dog attitude and look when he squatted to pee. Somehow a male dog squatting to pee just doesn’t send the right vibe to a militant goose.

The geese all took to the sky suddenly. Apparently, break was over and they needed to return to the business of flying northward. There was much flapping of wings and honking both of which startled Tux. He actually ducked as the guard goose flew over his head. I was most grateful that the geese didn’t have a call of nature. The image of 12 geese pooping on our heads wasn’t a pleasant one.

Lesson Learned

Before you decide to be a tough guy make sure you remember you mama’s lessons about using the bathroom before embarking on a journey.

Book Review: School of Night

Louis Bayard has set his latest historical mystery, School of Night,  in Elizabethan London. His premise is that a group of scholars, including Thomas Harriot, William Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, and Christopher Marlow, met secretly to discuss heretical ideas, including God, the black arts, astronomy, and politics.

In present day, Washington, DC, Alonzo Wax and Henry Cavendish decided to create their own School of Night as the Elizabethan group was known. The book opens with Alonzo’s death and funeral. At the funeral, a rare book collector, Bernard Styles, approaches Henry Cavendish, now a disgraced academic and executor of Alonzo’s estate, with an offer of money to find an Elizabethan document Styles believes Alonzo possessed that may lead to hidden treasure.

 Bayard returns us to Elizabethan London and the School of Nigh while at the same time keeping us in the present. Interestingly, he writes the London scenes in the present tense and the Washington scenes in the past tense. He manages to keep both time frames moving, although, for those readers interested in historical mysteries, the chapters set in London are the more interesting. There are twists and turns at every opportunity, a conspiracy theory, and lots of historical data.

The opening chapters, set in Washington, are very slow going. Many readers may not make it beyond the first 50 pages or so, but for those who do, this book is well worth the read.

Older Dog Wisdom: Tux 27 - Taking Action

Tux got another fan letter. Let the strutting around the 

house like a peacock begin. For a very cute older dog, he can be insufferable. One of the first things he did, after he stopped bouncing around doing his imitation of a happy dance, was to take Grace’s spot on the couch. Grace is his sister and rival for the position of Alpha Dog in the family. She immediately retaliated by climbing onto my chair with me - a place Tux claims as his own. She asked for pets. Despite not wanting to take sides in this ongoing battle between the two of them, what choice did I have? I gave her the pets she wanted.  She kept glancing over shoulder to ensure that he was watching. He was.

That was too much for Tux. He jumped down from the couch and headed our way. He, too, climbed into my lap. Grace shifted positions to make it harder for him to lie down. He did it anyway. Not only was he uncomfortable, but now so was I. I may have to buy a double recliner if this keeps up, I thought. They both settled in for a nap. While I usually keep a book nearby, on this day there was no book. I couldn’t very well get my laptop out - there wasn’t enough room for me, two Cocker Spaniels, and my laptop. Never did it occur to me to push either or both dogs off. Can we say spoiled Cocker Spaniels?

While I sat pondering what to do next, Grace jumped down and reclaimed her spot on the couch. Tux looked surprised. I continued to watch him and finally, several minutes later, I saw the light dawn. Grace had duped him. She had tricked him into giving up her spot on the couch. He’d been had - again. She has become a master at duping Tux. He’s not the brightest star in the array, but he usually catches on eventually. And he is so very cute and trusting while he ponders what just happened.

Lesson Learned

Watching Tux and Grace, I’ve learned to think about the consequences of my action before I take action. While the initial satisfaction of an action taken in haste may be worth it, more likely than not, the consequence of a rashly taken action taken during the heat of the moment, often turns out badly. Perhaps taking a few minutes to ponder the possible consequences of action might provide some perspective, show us what could go wrong. Who was it who said, “If something can go wrong, it will?” Tux can certainly attest to that - time and time again.

Older Dog Wisdom: Grace 3 - Past Prime

Grace is the extrovert of the family. She loves people. Let me be more precise, she loves being the center of attention. There have only been a couple of people who she didn’t like. One was a vet who had fast hands and no bed-side manner, and misdiagnosed the cancer that caused her toe to be amputated. The other was a rude plumber who, as it turns out, was incompetent. Grace had been right to not like both those men.

We were out for our walk one morning recently. We were in the park by 6:00 am (and it was already 80 degrees and humid). We passed by a dog we’d never seen before and its owner. Then there was another walker, a woman. Grace was doing her best to charm the woman. Her tail was going a mile a minute. She was at her most charming. The woman, however, was apparently immune to Grace’s charms. The woman ignored her.

Grace isn’t used to being ignored. It had all begun when she was a puppy. She was as cute as the day is long. Wherever we went, people would come to her oohing and ahhing over how cute she was. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to rub her tiny soft ears, caress her silky-soft coat, and watch the tiny tail wagging so fast that it appeared that it could make her fly. This adoration continued. Now, however, the adoration is fading. 

Grace is crushed. She looked at me with disbelief in her big brown eyes. When we got home, I sat down and she crawled up into the chair with me. She looked positively depressed.

I had to explain to her that in this society being young is more important than the wisdom that elders have. I explained to her that humans ignore their elders, and make them feel like they don’t exist. Unlike the Chinese, for instance, who revere their elders, we Americans look away from our elderly. I explained that as she ages (she’s now 11) and due to no fault of her own, she, too, will be ignored. There will always be a puppy who, while no cuter than she is, it will, nevertheless, have the upper hand because of its age. 

It’s not fair, Grace told me. 

No, it’s not fair. But it is what it is.

Well, shame on anyone who believes that age should factor into whether I’m the cutest.

Yes, shame on us, I replied.

She felt a little better, but I could tell, she wasn’t ready to give up her title of the cutest Cocker Spaniel ever.

Lesson Learned

It is a shame to ignore an elderly person. Instead, when you see an elder - be it a human or a dog - give a smile and say hello. You will have made that person’s day because you didn’t treat her like she didn’t exist. The same can be true of dogs. They love the attention and pick up from your voice and pets that you think they’re special enough not to ignore.