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I enjoyed this book, the flavours of life in Beijing leapt off the page, and I like the style of writing. In fact Ann Mah (http://www.annmah.net/) described China in such a way that I wanted to book a flight to go and taste the local food delights for myself. There was just one thing I really didn’t like about this book though, and that was the actual book itself; the paperback cover is incredibly flimsy which meant I kept dropping the book and losing my page, and also the pages are very thin poor quality paper.
Paper quality aside, this book was a thoroughly enjoyable light read, and if you like reading about how expats cope in a foreign environment, food, and family dynamics, then you will definitely enjoy Kitchen Chinese.
This novel was kindly sent to Richard by Ann Mah who is a facebook friend of his.

Amazon Info:
Product Description

Isabelle Lee thinks she knows everything about Chinese cuisine. After all, during her Chinese-American childhood, she ate it every day. Isabelle may speak only “kitchen Chinese”—the familial chatter learned at her mother’s knee—but she understands the language of food. Now, in the wake of a career-ending catastrophe, she’s ready for a change—so she takes off for Beijing to stay with her older sister, Claire, whom she’s never really known, and finds a job writing restaurant reviews for an expat magazine. In the midst of her extreme culture shock, and the more she comes to learn about her sister’s own secrets, Isabelle can’t help but wonder whether coming to China was a mistake . . . or an extraordinary chance to find out who she really is.

About the Author

Ann Mah was born in Orange County, California, and lived in Beijing for four years, where she was the dining editor for a monthly English-language magazine. She writes regularly for the South China Morning Post, Condé Nast Traveler, the International Herald Tribune, and on her blog, www.annmah.net. Ann was awarded a James Beard Culinary Scholarship in 2005 and now lives in Paris, France.

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Final Flight

This is a cracker (good) of a novel. It combines lots of tech details and mixes aerial action with good old fashion spy novels. It is very Tom Clancy meets Top Gun.

Amazon Product Description
Navy jet pilot Jake “Cool Hand” Grafton returns in what “may be the best thriller of 1988!”–Tom Clancy. This time Jake is a commander of a carrier that is harboring a deadly female terrorist. What unfolds as a plot to tip the balance of nuclear power pits Jake one-on-one in a spine-tingling and extremely dangerous dogfight that will be someone’s Final Flight. HC: Doubleday.
About the Author
Stephen Coonts is a former naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Vietnam War. His previous novels have been worldwide bestsellers. A former attorney, he resides with his wife and son in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Field of Gold

I picked this book up at an English language book and DVD swap meet. It was set aside for me by one of the good folk who run it and who is also into book crossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com/).

Now to the book. Even though this is an old read, it is still a good one and given the current break down in Northern Ireland, the storyline is still current. The story follows a retired IRA killer who is brought out of retirement to kill a judge and he is then caught and turns supergrass. It is an intense gripping read, weaving together  the family life of the IRA killer, the life of members of the security serves and the army. A gripping read from start to finish.

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Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

This is a very fast  paced novel with a gripping plot. I”ve read a few of the other ‘Jack Reacher’ novels and this one lives up to the standard I’ve got used to from Lee Child. There are a few gruesome parts but nothing to stop me sleeping at night. Some poeople may find them at bit harse, but then so is life. All in all, this is an excellent read that grips you from the start.

Amazon Book Description
New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t.

In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice–and trigger an electrifying chain of events in this gritty, gripping masterwork of suspense by #1 New York Times bestseller Lee Child.

Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now.

Because a race has begun through the streets of Manhattan in a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. Susan Mark’s plain little life was critical to dozens of others in Washington, California, Afghanistan . . . from a former Delta Force operator now running for the U.S. Senate, to a beautiful young woman with a fantastic story to tell–and to a host of others who have just one thing in common: They’re all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or maybe just enough to get him killed.

In a novel that slams through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child unleashes a thriller that spans three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it’s a mystery with only one answer–the kind that comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.
About the Author
Lee Child is the author of thirteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way, and #1 bestsellers Bad Luck and Trouble and Nothing to Lose. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in forty territories. All titles have been optioned for major motion pictures. Child, a native of England and a former television director, lives in New York City, where he is at work on his fourteenth Jack Reacher thriller.

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This a a rather lightweight novel, the sub plots are weak and unrewarding and the main plot is very weedy with a bland out come. Not worth reading unless someone gives it to you for free. I read a number of reviews of this novel and most are negative but to point out that other novels by Scott Turow have been very good, so if I see another one I will give Scoot Turow a second chance.

Amazon Product Description
Life would seem to have gone well for George Mason. His days as a criminal defence lawyer are long behind him. At fifty-nine, he has sat as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Kindle County for nearly a decade. Yet, when a disturbing rape case is brought before him, the judge begins to question the very nature of the law and his role within it. What is troubling George Mason so deeply? Is it his wife’s recent diagnosis? Or the strange and threatening emails he has started to receive? And what is it about this horrific case of sexual assault, now on trial in his courtroom, that has led him to question his fitness to judge? In “Limitations”, Scott Turow, the master of the legal thriller, returns to Kindle County with a page-turning entertainment that asks the biggest questions of all. Ingeniously, and with great economy of style, Turow probes the limitations not only of the law, but of human understanding itself.

About the Author
Scott Turow is the internationally renowned author of six bestselling novels about the law, from Presumed Innocent (1987) to Reversible Errors, as well as a work of non-fiction, Ultimate Punishment, which centres on the death penalty. His most recent book was the critically acclaimed wartime thriller, Ordinary Heroes. He lives with his family outside Chicago, where he is a partner in the international law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.

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The Last Don by Mario Puzo

I felt a little let down by this novel. Having read The Godfather many moons ago, I felt that this novel was a bit lacking in depth and substance. For a Mafia novel it is O.K. but not a patch on the Godfather. On the bright side I picked this book up at a book and DVD swap meet in Olonzac (34) so did not have to part with any cash for it and will recycle it into another book when I next go to the meet.

Amazon.com Review
Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, knows a thing or two about the Mafia and about the movie business; here he brings them together. In the prologue, a Mafia don oversees the double christening of two infant boys, Dante and Cross, into the Clericuzio family. Later, when Cross is tapped to take over as the “Hammer” of the Clericuzios, their prime hit man, he proves not cold-blooded enough for the role. Dante takes his place, and Cross moves from Las Vegas to Hollywood, which proves to be an even worse den of iniquity. When he falls for a movie star Athena Aquitaine, he exhibits the “fatal flaw” the old don always warned against: loving a beautiful woman. A taut novel of sex and money, of love and power.

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I’ve been a fan of the T.V. series ‘The Inspector Lynley Mysteries’ but have never read any of the novels, so when I saw a copy of the this novel at an English language book swap meet in Ozonzac (Herault ~ 34) I decided to give it a try. I’m pleased to say I was not disappointed in the novel and it did not sour me to the T.V. series. The novel is well plotted and multi-faceted and shows the human and inhuman side of the characters very well. The only exception being Winston Nkata who seems to speaking some bizarre mocney ( fake cockney). Being a Londoner born and bred, I found it a bit silly. That aside the rest of the novel is an excellent read and draws you in to the emotions of Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers. The details about London are also very good and given the Elizabeth George is an American, she’s done a very good job getting the feel of London. I will be looking out for other Elizabeth George when I next go to the book swap.

Product Description

The police never suspected a serial killer was at large until they found the fourth murdered boy — the first white victim — his body draped over a tomb in a London graveyard. Suddenly a series of crimes and a potential public relations disaster have Scotland Yard on the defensive, scrambling to apprehend a maniac while avoiding accusations of racism.

Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley, distracted by concerns for his pregnant wife, has been assigned to the investigation, along with his disgraced partner, Barbara Havers, who’s fighting for her professional future. Winston Nkata — deservedly, if hastily, promoted to detective sergeant — is the black face who will speak to the media. But none of them can imagine the tenacity and ingenuity of the killer they seek . . . and no one is prepared for the savage, shocking instant when everything will change forever.

About the Author

Elizabeth George (http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com/) is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels of psychological suspense, one book of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, and the MIMI, Germany’s prestigious prize for suspense fiction. She lives in Washington State.

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If you like a good old government conspiracy then this post 9/11 story is a winner. The narrative is interesting and attention to detailis good. The only down side is it does drag on a bit and the ending is a bit to obvious. That aside it is a good read

Product Description
Justin Westwood, the detective hero of APHRODITE, is mourning the death of his boss, victim of a terrorist bombing in a local restaurant, when he’s called to investigate an air accident: a small plane has crashed on take-off from Hampton Airport. The pilot is dead, but when Justin discovers the body has no ID, the cockpit has been wiped clean of prints and the Federal Air Authority has deleted the aircraft’s details he is sure the pilot was murdered. As he tries to get a handle on the man’s background he realises there is a link to the bombing, and that the atrocious attack may not have been caused by any terrorist. In fact it looks as though it might have had its origins on Capitol Hill. But what political or financial prize could be worth the slaughter of dozens of innocents? It seems as though Justin may have to sacrifice his own life before he learns the truth.

About the Author
Russell Andrews is the pseudonym for Peter Gethers, who has written several works of nonfiction. He is a Vice-President Editor-at-Large for Random House Inc. and the head of the newly launched Random House Films. He has edited and published, among many others, Jimmy Carter, Caroline Kennedy, William Diehl, Carl Hiaasen, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Joe Klein, Robert Hughes, and Kitty Kelley. An accomplished screen and television writer, Andrews has incredible media connections and is a phenomenal promoter.

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Firewall by Andy McNab

This is classic Andy McNab (http://www.andymcnab.co.uk/). If you enjoy espionage, special forces, action novels, then you can not go far wrong with Mr. McNab. He is a master of this genre. But then he writes from personal experience and it really shows in his novels. This novel is fast paced and grips from the start. It is not macho rubbish like many in the genre, so it is well rounded and though stuffed full of action it not a kill fest like some action novels.
Amazon.com Review
In his third outing (following Remote Control and Crisis Four), Nick Stone, Andy McNab’s series SAS agent, is off the Firm’s regular payroll owing to a major screwup in his last assignment that left his best friend’s family slaughtered–except for the one child who survived. Little Kelly needs expensive treatment for the post-traumatic stress that’s turned her nearly catatonic, so Nick takes on a freelance assignment that gets him mixed up with Russian organized crime–in particular, with an enigmatic mob boss who has designs on some Finnish cybertechnology. When Nick realizes it’s not industrial espionage that he’s involved with but military secrets, he’s caught between warring factions of the Russian Mafia and the Anglo-American alliance of intelligence agencies. The Westerners will do anything to keep the Echelon program out of the hands of Valentin Lebed–the Chechnyan Mafioso who makes Nick an offer he can’t refuse–and the Maliskia, a gang of rival Russian criminals who want to derail Lebed’s plans and take over Echelon themselves.

The action ranges from Helsinki to St. Petersburg to London, the weaponry is fully detailed, and the techniques of infiltration and retrieval carefully outlined; McNab, a former SAS commando who, according to the author’s note “is still wanted by a number of terrorist organizations and is therefore forbidden to reveal his face or current location,” obviously remembers every ache, pain, bruise, and injury he suffered in his life of derring-do, since they’re all completely and graphically described here, too.

About the Author
Andy McNab is a former member of the British SAS, one of the world’s toughest and most respected elite special-forces commando units. Involved in covert and overt operations on five continents, McNab worked alongside Delta Force, the FBI, and the DEA. When he left the regiment in 1993, he was the most highly decorated serving soldier in the British Army. He is now a sought-after lecturer on security and remains closely tied to the intelligence communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

McNab is the internationally bestselling author of two previous thrillers featuring Nick Stone, Remote Control and Crisis Four, as well as two nonfiction books based on his SAS experiences. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of his work with the SAS, Andy McNab is still wanted by a number of terrorist organizations. He is therefore forbidden to reveal either his face or his current location.

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I’ve had a very quite summer reading wise, but now the cold weather is here, there is nother nicer then sitting in front of the fire with a glass of wine and a book.

This novel by Andy Remic is a good fun read packed full of fast paced action. It is set in the near future and mixes special forces action with science fiction. The villains in the book want to take over the world (big shock) and have a big technological advantage but have not banked on the courage and determination of the forces opposing them. This is an easy non taxing read and a real page turning. Perfect for cold winter nights in front of the fire.
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From Amazon.com

Product Description
On an Earth where conventional armies are powerless to defend against the devastation wrought by single assassins, the secret organization known as SPIRAL exists to fight a shadow war against fanatics and rogue states of every creed and political persuasion. Remorseless, unstoppable, of every country and of none, SPIRAL conducts its covert operations throughout the world in a never-ending battle for humanity’s survival. But now SPIRAL itself is under attack, and if it falls the world falls with it.

About the Author
Andy Remic (http://andyremic.wordpress.com/) is a young British writer and teacher from Lancashire. During his teaching career he developed an interest in martial arts and is now expert in unarmed combat. He can kill a man with a single blow, but prefers writing and hacking computer systems. SPIRAL is his first novel.

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