Review: Tracking the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

Book Blurb: Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and Ryu - Jane's bloodsucking boyfriend - can't let a major holiday go by without getting all gratuitous. An overwhelming dose of boyfriend interference and a last-minute ticket to Boston later, and Jane's life is thrown off course. Ryu's well-intentioned plans create mayhem, and Jane winds up embroiled in an investigation involving a spree of gruesome killings. All the evidence points towards another Halfling, much to Jane's surprise.

My Thoughts: OMG, I loved this book. It was awesome. Do not, however, read this book if you are having trouble breathing. I was recovering from an asthma flare while reading it and laughed so hard that I could barely breathe. But there's more to the story than humor. Peeler mixes humor, romance, bawdiness, action, mystery, and mythology into the perfect confection. I enjoyed the first book, but Peeler took it up several notches with this story.

     This one takes place several months after the first book, right around Valentine's Day. Jane has been training, learning how to use her magic and developing defensive skills. Ryu surprises Jane with a trip to his home in Boston for the holiday. The trip is an eye-opener in many ways. Jane and Ryu learn more about each other, for better and for worse. We still get to peek into Jane's mind and see her often hilarious, breathtaking (in my case), thoughts. Jane is snarky, hilarious, observant, and willing to fight for what matters to her. On a side note, I follow Ms. Peeler on Twitter, and Jane comes by her bawdiness, her snark, and her humor quite naturally.

     The trip however is not all fun and games. Ryu's job as an investigator interrupts their time together. A halfling is on the loose and committing gruesome murders. As they learn more about him, Jane finds herself torn. Even as she's appalled by the murders, the more she learns about him, the more sympathetic she is to him. Their investigation is complicated by the presence of an investigative team sent by a rival at the fae court. During the course of the book, Jane comes to understand that this new life of hers has it's downside and that magic is not a cure-all for everything or a guarantee that her life will be better.

I like that we see Jane changing and growing. In only two books, there's been more character development than some authors manage in an entire series. I like Jane, she feels like she could be a neighbor or co-worker. Ryu is more exotic, and also arrogant and condescending. While that was apparent in the first book, we really get to see it up close and personal in this book, and so does Jane.

We see many of the people from the first book, including Anyan, who is still yummy, and Caleb, of the ginormous penis. We also meet the members of Ryu's investigative team. One of the things that I like about the Jane True series is Peeler's use of mythological characters. We have not only the standby races of elves but less commonly used races such as selkies, gnomes, satyrs, and ifrits. She does a nice job of taking mythology, tweaking it to her purposes, and putting it into a contemorary story and setting.

I loved this book and I am looking forward to the next one, "Tempest's Legacy", due out in January 2011.

Publisher: Orbit Books

Release date: June 16th, 2010

This book was borrowed from my local library.

Review: Whiplash by Catherine Coulter

Book Blurb: Yale professor Dr. Edward Kender’s father is undergoing chemotherapy when the supply of a critical accompanying drug suddenly runs out. Unwilling to accept the drug company’s disingenuous excuse of production line problems, Dr. Kender hires private investigator Erin Pulask to prove there is something more sinister going on at Schiffer Engel’s manufacturing facility in Indiana.

Pulaski uncovers a bombshell – Schiffer Engel’s intentional shortage is bringing in a windfall profit in excess of two billion dollars.

When a top Schiffer Engel employee shows up viciously murdered behind the U.S. headquarters, Sherlock and Savich are called in to lend a hand. The murder of a foreign national on federal land can only mean the German drug company has a secret of epic proportions.

Review: The intro had me going "OMG, shoot me now". The book centers around a drug company and it's handling of a chemo drug for patients. Coulter apparently feels strongly about drug companies as she shoves down our throats and hammers us on the head with the topic of how drug companies behave and misbehave. Luckily, she quickly moves into the story and eases up on the preaching.

     Once she shifts gears, the book becomes tried and true FBI formula. As usual, we see Savich and Sherlock, the married FBI agents and meet a new agent, Bowie Richards, and a female PI, Erin Pulaski who also doubles as a dance teacher. Erin has Bowie's daughter Georgie in her dance class and unexpectedly finds herself caring for Georgie when her nanny has to have surgery.

     Erin is working on a case for an old family friend whose father's chemo drug has been rationed. The factories that produce the drug have encountered "unexpected" production problems and now it's in short supply. As a result, oncologists and their patients either have to stop treatment or switch to a more expensive drug made by a rival company. For reasons that are never explained, once you switch chemo drugs, you can't switch back to the cheaper drug. That's part of what drives the story but absolutely no reason is offered by Coulter as to why if you switch from drug A to drug B, you can't switch back to drug A. I don't know enough about medicine, drugs or cancer to to know if this has any factual basis but the story would have been better served if Coulter had offered some explanation. Instead, the whole story rests on this flimsy basis.

     Erin's case crashes into the FBI when a German citizen is found murdered on public land very near the corporate offices of the drug company, which Erin broke into. Naturally, the FBI agent in charge of the case is Georgie's father, Bowie. As Erin cares for Georgie, she uses the opportunity to question Bowie about the case and where it's heading. Erin was spotted leaving the grounds at about the same time the murder occurred and she's scared that she'll be arrested for the murder.

Sparks fly between Erin and Bowie but their relationship moves slowly. Coulter takes her time and lets them get to know each other instead of jumping immediately into bed. I liked Erin and Bowie as a couple, they felt believable and better drawn than some other couples in the series.

     There's also a secondary plot, completely unrelated to the main story, involving a US Senator who believes that he is being visited by his dead wife's ghost. Actually , the Senator is torn between believing that it's real and worried that someone is trying to drive him mad. Then people around him start having accidents, even dying. Savich is asked by his boss to discretely look into the situation. 

     Other than the initial emphasis on the drug issue, the book offers nothing new. If you like her FBI books or you are looking for the familiar and comfortable, you'll probably like this book. It's enjoyable read and even had some twists that I didn't see coming.

     This review is also posted at: goodreads

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

This book was borrowed from my local library.