Stale Book Review #36: The English Girl

The English Girl by Daniel Silva

Cost: $6.98US

Page Count: 473

There is something about Silva's Gabriel Allon series that is just kind of cool.  For the uninitiated, Allon is a spy for the Israelis.  He's also as masterful at restoring masterpiece paintings as he is with wielding a firearm.  Allon is a complicated figure that, like a ripened onion, has many, many layers.  This...is pretty cool.

In The English Girl, Gabriel Allon is called upon by high ranking officials in the British government to solve a small problem.  An English girl has gone missing.  But, no, this ain't no ordinary, jacked-tooth Brit.  She's a beauty, and she's smart.  It also turns out she is the mistress of the prime minister.  The plot thickens!

Owing some sort of debt to the Brits, Allon agrees to investigate.  With minimal help from MI5 coming, the master spy has to reach out to some unorthodox "friends".  These friends are on the island of Corsica, one man is an all powerful boss (think the Godfather) and one is an assassin.  The assassin has also tried to take Allon's life...Thomas Keller.  After little fanfare, an agreement is made between Gabriel and Keller and the two set off to find out what happened to Madeline Hart.

Their journey criss crosses the European continent:  Corsica to France to Great Britain to the heart of Russia.  It really is kind of a fun ride.

At the heart of the mystery is a Russian energy congolomorate that must be infiltrated.  For this, Gabriel calls in his team from Israel. The Israelis somehow find a way into the secretive Russian world that is still backed by old school KGB dudes.  From here, the house of cards tumbles and there is bloodshed and intrigue.  Good stuff.

I won't tell you if they get the girl (they do) or how they do it (trickery).  But, I can tell you that The English Girl is worth your time.  

A fun read, fo shizzle.

Stale Book Review #35: The Lost Island

The Lost Island by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Cost: Gift

Page Count: 368

I am all over Preston and Child.  Love their Pendergast books as most readers already know.  Mixed in those books, they do their own thing and have come out with a series centered around a character named Gideon Crew.  The first couple featuring Crew were pretty good.  So, for the holidays, I asked for The Lost Island...the newest installment.

I'm. Glad. I. Did. Not. Pay. For. This.

This will become painfully obvious as to why towards the end of this review.

Here goes a ten-cent synopsis.  From here on out there may be spoilers so if you are a huge fan and going to read the book...turn back now!

Gideon Crew is a troubled master thief (reformed?) with a medical condition that will likely kill him within a year or so.  So, really, Crew has nothing to lose.  That's why he's willing to take on a mission to help out crippled, rich, eccentric Eli Glinn.  Glinn is a difficult character to get a read on...but, I bet the author's will explore him further in following books.  Anyway, Glinn taps Crew to steal a page from the illuminated text, The Book of Kells.  The difficulty?  It's highly guarded and in a viewing area where there are hundreds of folks.  Basically, it's an impossible theft that Crew (of course) pulls off flawlessly.

Crew is horrified to know that Glinn has now stripped the illuminated text from the stolen page only to reveal a map underneath.  I like treasure hunts, so I continued reading.

The paper which the map was printed on was a bit strange and Glinn and his science boys got to work in analysis.  This process was slowly revealed through the first half of the book.  Spoiler alert!  The page was actually made from humanoid skin...ok, the page was created from the flesh of a cyclops. This was just about the point in which I went...oh fuck.  I knew where this was going.

Glinn, now with a map, has sent Gideon with a mysterious and apparently pretty hot gal named Amy to find the island noted on the map.  Hence the name of the book, The Lost Island.  Turns out that this map was based strongly on a very famous journey taken thousands of years ago (think ancient Greece).  Glinn is very interested in a type of plant that reportedly has miraculous healing powers. With his condition, this interests Crew, as well.

So...Amy and Gideon are on a fancy boat cruising through the Caribbean looking for this island. They encounter troubles, shipwreck, indigenous tribes and finally a long slog to the actual lost island.
Upon this island they find...a cyclops.  A real cyclops.  Alive.

Now, I am all for the use of books to disappearing into a different realm or to suspend reality for a while.  But...a cyclops?  Man...

Apparently, ol' one eye is the last of his kind.  He's lonely and likes Amy...probably a little too much. Anyway, he has this plant and is pissed and huge.  Eventually all Hell breaks loose and things turn bad.  I'll let you read it if you want to but I'm not going to give away the actual ending.  I'm not an animal, you know.

The Lost Island is not a book I would have been happy to buy.  It was a gift so I was ok reading the book.  But, as far as the canon of Preston and Child, The Lost Island ranks pretty close to the bottom (if not the actual bottom) for me.