Book Talk

Murder and Mayhem

Football season is upon us and those who love the sport even like to read about it! Just arrived is Rockin’ the Rockpile: the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League by Jeffrey J. Miller. This is the  history of the team from the founding of the AFL and the Bills to 1969 and the eve of major changes. Also of interest to long-time fans is the “Where Are They Now ?” section.

And if you didn’t have enough college football on Thanksgiving Day here is 50 Years of College Football: a Modern History of America’s Most Colorful Sport by Bob Boyles and Paul Guido. The authors include 70 teams and revisit 7,000 games!

Three Super Bowl rings were no protection for Tedy Bruschi, linebacker for the New England Patriots. He was awakened one morning with a severe headache; seven hours later in the ER, he learned he had a stroke. In Never Give Up, he tells the story of his rehabilitation which led to his re-joining the team eight months later.

Hunter S. Thompson certainly enjoyed creating mayhem as reported in Gonzo: the Life of Hunter S. Thompson by Jann S. Wenner and Corey Seymour. There is a loyal following out there of fans of this gonzo journalist. The authors interviewed more than 100 people from President Carter to Johnny Depp, who knew Thompson to construct this biography.

Fans of Robert Harris (Fatherland, Imperium) will be glad to see his newest The Ghost.  Adam Lang, former prime minister of Great Britain who stepped down in disgrace after allying himself with America’s war on terror, is lying low in Martha’s Vineyard writing his memoirs. He received the largest advance in history for this potentially explosive book.  Then his ghost writer washes up, dead, on the beach.

FBI profiler Sophie Anderson has an unwelcome gift. She is able to experience the minds of killers committing their crimes. While on vacation in Arizona, bodies begin turning up on a university campus and Sophie is pulled into the case. Read The Murderer’s Club by P.D. Martin.

The Sisterhood is a group of seven women who do what is right, even if it means breaking some rules. When Supreme Court Justice Pearl Barnes is being blackmailed, it is the Sisterhood she calls. Hokus Pokus by Fern Michaels is the newest in the series.

“Reader beware…evil lies within” With these words you begin the journey into horror with Clive Barker. A never before published memoir from 1438 comes complete with its own devil who speaks to the reader, “burn this book”. Intrigued? Read Mister B. Gone.

Now let’s talk about some REAL problems… In Killer Knots, hair stylist Marla Shore is on a cruise with her fiance Dalton (and his daughter and parents), when she finds a note stuck in her door. “I know what you did and I have what you want.” Well, of course she has to find the blackmailer before her whole cruise is ruined. Nancy J. Cohen is the author of these very funny “Bad Hair Day Mysteries”.