This month we have everything from faith to pro poker, and we also have a new reviewer. Many of you will remember Alice Hawrilenko, former reporter for Memorial Press Group. We’re fortunate to have Alice with us, and I know you’ll appreciate her fresh point of view.

The Confident Woman by Joyce Meyer, Warner Faith, Christian Living, 245 pp., $22.99

Perhaps some of you have seen the author on television. She hosts the show Enjoying Everyday Life on the Discovery Channel ( Ch. 44 for Comcast cable subscribers) at 8 a.m. Mon-Fri. Meyer is an incest survivor, and her no-nonsense approach to Christian living is immensely popular. She is the author of 75 books.

The Confident Woman is arguably one of her most forceful works perhaps because she suffered discrimination when she established her ministry 30 years ago. A large part of Meyer’s appeal is her honesty regarding the problems that shaped her formerly brittle attitude, and her current failings and strivings. She encourages women to live boldly based on the principle that underscores all her teachings, and that is that God loves us unconditionally, just as we are. With that principle in place, women are free to be all God created them to be if we give Him first place in our lives.

Meyer has been a student of Scripture nearly all of her life, and she supports all her theories with it. You might say Meyer’s word is Gospel. She very effectively analyzes Proverbs 31 which is the Biblical blueprint for women who want to maximize their potential.

Meyer writes very well, and her upbeat style will set fires in hearts and minds that long to be free of unreasonable expectations and perceived defeat. You don’t want to miss this one.

The Edge of Disaster by Stephen Flynn, Random House, Non-Fiction, 240 pp., $25.95

The U.S. has more to worry about than just terrorism, according to this former academic who is now a top security adviser who served in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Citing the post Hurricane Katrina crisis, Flynn demonstrates how our government is unprepared to assist after a disaster, and more, how it is unwilling to take preventive measures with regard to other potential disasters. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, for example, Flynn describes the calamity that would ensue should the levees there be breached. He also cites the problems with the aged gates that keep the inland waterways operational. His point is that the infrastructure we take so for granted is breaking down in many areas, and these facts have been and are known to government, but instead of shoring up our soft targets, we instead continue to neglect them. The breakdowns of these various systems will cause major upsets in the economy, which in our ignorance of these issues, we cannot even imagine.

Flynn exposes the peril the city of Boston faces should there be a terror attack on a ship carrying liquefied natural gas. His solution is simple. Keep the ships out of the harbor and away from the densely populated area around Charlestown. Force the French owners to provide an offshore facility. Flynn also takes a strong stand against the unbridled home construction which occurs on the nation’s coastlines which are vulnerable during big storms. He suggests a superfund, financed by the estate tax and a gasoline tax, to fix the national infrastructure which is breaking down each day, endangering our security. He suggests that Congress not be involved in the management of these funds given that body’s propensity for pork spending.

This book is superbly written, entirely accessible to the average citizen, and it is must reading for every public official. Flynn’s approach is micro, beginning with an informed citizenry and progressing to the federal level which remains tragically uninvolved in the foundation of this country’s commercial assets and basic safeguards against disaster.

Deep Storm by Lincoln Child, Doubleday, Fiction, 370 pp., $24.95

Two miles beneath an oil rig in the North Atlantic, a top secret government installation is ostensibly charged with recovering the remains of the lost city of Atlantis. Former naval doctor Peter Crane is dispatched to the undersea facility because members of the recovery team are exhibiting some odd symptoms. Confronted by a cast of characters which includes a sinister security chief and a standoffish commanding officer, Crane suspects that there is more to the presenting illnesses than his superiors wish to admit.

When Crane, and his able sidekick, Hui Ping, a brilliant and brave female Chinese scientist, discover some disturbing data about the true mission being undertaken, Crane’s immediate superior decides to take them into his confidence. Shortly thereafter, he dies.

Crane and Ping press on despite intense security surveillance to uncover the most dramatic and unthinkable potential horror facing all of mankind.

This is a page turner for sure, and the conclusion is a wild and crazy shocker. Techno-geeks will love it, and so will anyone else who isn’t claustrophobic.

Death of a Maid by M.C. Beaton, Mysterious Press, Cozy Mystery, 245 pp., $23.99

Whenever I confront a brand new Hamish Macbeth mystery, I feel like Tiny Tim beholding the fat Christmas goose. You know it’s going to be good, but gone all too soon.

Hamish Macbeth is a police constable in Lockdubh ( pronouncd lock-doo) in the Scottish Highlands. He has problems with women, but a kind and helpful manner with people in general, and animals. Above all, he is unambitious and would like nothing better than to remain a copper on his remote beat. His gift for solving complicated crimes, however, never fails to attract his superior’s attention, but Hamish has his ways of diverting attention to his nemesis, Chief Inspector Blair, a thoroughly nasty man.

This time out, Hamish has won the services of a cleaning lady in a church raffle, but he dreads having the nosy, malicious Mrs. Gillespie in his home. She steals a letter from one of Hamish’s women, and when he sets out to confront her and get his letter back, he finds the old biddy dead, her head bashed in with her own bucket. There are lots of sighs of relief from the locals because the odious Mrs. Gillespie was blackmailing a number of them.

Fans of this wonderful series will be intrigued by the knowledge that Hamish comes quite close to popping the question, even as he is consumed with murder.

This series is pure delight, and if you haven’t tried it, please do. This is the 22nd installment, and I assure you, you will love them all.

The Picasso Flop by Vince Van Patten and Robert J. Randisi, Mysterious Press, Fiction, 304 pp., $24.99

Is this book shilling the World Poker Tour or is it telling the tale of murder most foul? Unfortunately for the reader it seems to target both without scoring a direct hit on either. That is sad because the central story line of this book, in the skilled hands of a talented writer, could have outdone Agatha Christie at her best. In fact, this book would have profited immensely had a skilled and experienced editor done his or her job. It’s a shame really. The story is potentially that good and the writing is that bad.

It is the story of a pro-poker player, Jimmy Spain, back on the circuit after serving “too much time” for manslaughter in an Illinois penitentiary. He is also the son of a deceased Philadelphia cop Jimmy is hired by one of his jail buddies, a wealthy banker who owes him a favor for some reason that is never divulged. The job involves turning the banker’s estranged 22-year-old daughter into both a first-class poker player and a “lady”. Part of the tutoring involves walking the daughter through her first “major league” poker tournament –the World Poker Tour Championship-held annually at the classy Bellagio Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Before day two begins the first murder has taken place and the banker’s daughter, Kat Lindgren, is a prime suspect. When a tournament official familiar with Jimmy’s background asks Jimmy to quietly investigate Jimmy accepts. His main intention is to clear Kat of suspicion.

The plot itself revolves loosely around the tension that purportedly exists between “brick and mortar” poker players who buy into major tournaments with their hard won cash and “on-line” players who win places in major tournaments through relatively inexpensive or free internet satellite tournaments. That this tension is important becomes clear only at the end of the book. There is also the tension between Kat Lindgren and her father and the friendship between Jimmy Spain and Kat’s father. That this is essentially unimportant to this story also only becomes clear at the end of the book. You get the feeling you are reading the outline of the first episode of a new soap-opera.

The writers do a decent job of character development. The main character, Jimmy Spain and his protégé Kat Lindgren are a good duo. The character of Vic Porcelli as a bored Philly homicide detective is believable but it adds little to the story and nothing to the plot. It turns out that his wife is essential to the plot but her character is never developed beyond that of a bored, retired nurse with computer skills, wearing garish colors and playing penny slots. Too much time is spent with the character Paulie who creates still one more bit of tension that is never resolved and only slows the pace of an already plodding story.

In addition to plot elements that go nowhere, book is cluttered with poker celebrity name-dropping and this detracts from the story line. That one of the writers inserts himself into the story is laughable since he, as a tournament announcer is not integral to the plot. This type of plot polluting is chronic and annoying. In the early chapters valuable plot development time is devoted to defining classic poker terms – a task that could have been handled easily in a brief glossary. The prose is also too frequently the victim of plain bad grammar. For example: “There’s at least thirty tables spread out…” or “The clattering of chips, huge piles of cash out on the tables are staggering.”

Poker is hot right now so this book may sell. Today’s poker players are for the most part young, bright and well educated. They will give short shrift to a poorly constructed, sloppily written, name dropping novel even if it is carrying the endorsement of the World Poker Tour. The authors might want to throw their chips in with a first class editor who wields a very sharp pencil. It does appear that the publisher and perhaps even the writers have every intention of turning this into a series. The dustcover proudly bears the WPT Log and the blurb, “A Texas Hold’em Mystery” . Alice Hawrilenko
 

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