Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Giveaway: Project Moses by Robert B. Lowe

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 29, 2012
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 19 Comments

Thanks to BK Walker of Virtual Book Tour Cafe and the author, Robert B. Lowe, I am giving away one copy on Project Moses.

Book Description:

A thriller with an ideal fusion of wile and wit.”- Kirkus Reviews

Project Moses is a high-tech bioterrorism thriller in the Grisham mode that has been well received on Good Reads, Library Thing and Kindle (4.7 stars based on 28 reviews as of May 31). It has romance, suspense and humor.

Enzo Lee, 37, a burned out reporter, has forsaken investigative reporting on the East Coast to churn out feature fluff in San Francisco. He likes his North Beach apartment, steps away from his Chinatown roots. Running, tai chi, great food, women who are attracted to his exotic looks. Life is good.

Then, Lee’s comfortable life is shaken up when he is ordered to cover the unexplained deaths of a local judge and prosecutor. Intrigued by the connection, and the judge’s attractive niece, Sarah Armstrong, Lee begins to uncover a bioterrorism scandal whose perpetrators – including government officials and Silicon Valley titans – will kill to conceal.

When Lee and Sarah become targets, the question becomes whether the pair can evade their hunters and piece together the story before their time runs out. Project Moses is set in San Francisco, New York and Silicon Valley.

“Mystery readers should like this one, I know that I did.” – J. Robert Ewbank

“…a highly imaginative, fast paced thriller” – Christina K. Ahn

Fantastic read…this novel is right up there with the best of them.” – Athenajewel

Genre – Mystery Thriller

Publisher: Enzo Publications

Release Date: January 23, 2012


Excerpt if Project Moses:

The juror was about Judge Gilbert’s age but the resemblance ended there. She wore a blue, vaguely nautical dress at least two sizes and 15 years too young for her. Her face was loose and malleable, shifting back and forth between fear and disdain as she looked at her fellow jurors.

             Raising her hand like a child in class, the woman fought her sobs as she spoke through lips painted blood red.


“I am not crazy!” she said. She took two deep breaths. “They kept yelling and yelling at me. And I am not going to change my mind.”

            “He is innocent! That one did not prove his case.” Her face trembling, the juror jabbed a lethal-looking fingernail at the prosecutor just beyond the jury box.


Orson Adams stared back at his accuser, removed his tortoise shell-rimmed glasses and frowned.

           The muscles around Judge Gilbert’s left eye twitched slightly. She didn’t mind so much that the hung jury was going to waste four days of trial time devoted to a minor case. That was par for the course. What bothered her was a headache that had started about the time the bailiff knocked on the door to Judge Gilbert’s chambers and said: “They want to come out. I think they’ve run out of names to call each other.”


The judge cleared her throat, a signal that the histrionics and squabbling that had emanated from the jury box for the past ten minutes were over. She stared at the empty notepad in front of her for a few seconds before looking up.

           “It is apparent to me that this jury will not reach a unanimous verdict,” she said. “They have deliberated for two days – as much time as it took for the state and the defense to present their cases. Therefore, I declare a mistrial.”


“The prosecution will inform the Court within one week whether the state intends to retry this case. I thank the jury for its efforts. I know it has taken much of your time to be here and that the last two days have not been easy.” Judge Gilbert made it a point to nod in the jury’s direction.

              Then, she looked over at the defendant, an almost emaciated young man with dirty blond hair tied in a ponytail. He sat beside his attorney, a corpulent man wearing dark-blue pinstripes, pink tie and a forced smile that looked more like a snarl.


“Mr. Warrington will remain free on bond,” she said.

              An hour later, the lawyers, jurors and courthouse staff had joined the evening traffic jam. With her black robe now hanging in the closet of her chambers, Judge Gilbert wore a long-sleeved white blouse and a pleated beige skirt as she settled behind her large desk stained yellow to bring out the wood grain through the heavily polished sheen. Behind her were volumes of California cases, bound in blue leather. A cup of Misty Mint tea sat on her right, hot and steaming. Next to it lay two capsules of Darvon painkiller. The headache was worse. It now seemed to fan outward from the center of her brain to her scalp.


Judge Gilbert looked over the assorted papers laying on her desk. She picked up a large envelope that she had opened in the morning. It was teal blue and embossed with a logo in darker blue along the left side that she had never seen before. It was a rising spiral with flowers and bunches of grapes hanging from it.

              Judge Gilbert reached into the envelope and pulled out a yellow rose that had been pressed flat. She held it to her nose, inhaled and was rewarded with the aroma of cinnamon. She was reminded of hot apple cider and sweet potato pie.


She set the rose on the desk and grabbed her letter opener, a gift from a former law clerk. She inserted it under the flap of another envelope and tore it open with a satisfying rip. She skimmed the letter inside. Then, Judge Gilbert turned to the next envelope sitting in the tray on the corner of her desk.

              The next morning the body of Judge Miriam Gilbert was still at her desk when her law clerk went into her chambers. Her head lay on the desktop, eyes staring at a blank wall. Her silver hair was stained brown where it lay in a puddle of cold tea.



About Robert B. Lowe:


Robert B. Lowe is a Pulitzer-prize winning author whose fiction is based in San Francisco, his adopted home. His past experiences – a 12-year career in investigative journalism and a Harvard Law School degree – enable him to write gripping mystery thrillers in both the legal and journalistic fields. Lowe draws his inspiration from John Grisham, Dick Francis and Lee Child and adds his own San Francisco twist. Readers will enjoy his references to the city’s landmarks such as Chinatown, North Beach and Pacific Heights and the Bay area’s foodie culture. When Lowe isn’t writing he enjoys a day at the golf course and spending time with his wife and daughters.

Note, there are two giveaways, so there are two Rafflecopters posted here.  One giveaway is for one copy of the book, the other is for 5 signed copies of the book.  The Giveaway I am hosting for one copy of the book in print or eBook if you live in the U.S. you can have either one, if international, then eBook.  It ends on July 13, 2012.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter both giveaways.  Be sure to read the Terms and Conditions on both giveaways.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 28, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012  | 10 Comments

I read Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden with my f2f book club back in 2007 and it really left an impression on me.  The characters were unforgettable and the story, haunting.  Joseph Boyden has done it again with Through Black Spruce.


Will Bird, a aging Cree bush pilot and is currently in the hospital in a coma.  He is accused of murdering Marius who had been stalking him.  Will’s niece, Suzanne went missing and somehow had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd.  Marius thought Will knew where she was.

Meanwhile, Anne Bird, went looking for her sister, Suzanne.  First she went looking in Toronto, then Montreal, and finally New York.  Suzanne was a fashion model and Anne hooked up with her friends who were also into taking ecstasy and partying hard.  Of course, Anne got swept up in the life style and since she couldn’t find her sister, even took her place as a fashion models for a brief time.


Told from the alternating points of view of Will and Anne, Through Black Spruce takes the reader through the older Cree lifestyle of fishing and hunting, to the world of high fashion, and drugs.  It helps the reader see what the like of the Cree people is like.  Through Black Spruce is well written and has characters that will stick with you long after turning the last page.

4/5

I won this book from John of The Book Mine Set for a mini challenge during this year’s Canadian Book Challenge.

Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 26, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012  | 8 Comments

Henry is a famous writer but it seems that his writing days may be over.  Nobody seems to get his latest book at his publishers and they reject it.  Meanwhile he still gets a lot of fan mail but one letter really intrigues him.  It is from an elderly taxidermist and he has written a play but needs help with it.  There is something about the request that transfixes  Henry and he goes to visit the taxidermist in person.


He goes there frequently to help the old man finish his play about a donkey and a howler monkey—named Beatrice and Virgil.  It is an allegory of the Holocaust.  One day Henry invited the man to lunch rather than meet as his shop and it becomes very evident that the neighborhood hates the old man but Henry seems oblivious to it. 

The book to me was written in a very disjointed way.  In fact in it Henry’s publishers tell him his book is too disjointed.  Because of this, it took me a long time to get into the story.  I kept thinking, life’s too short to waste time on this book, but there was something that made me keep reading.


It did pick up mid-way through and started haunting me when I would try to go to sleep.  The ending didn’t help my sleep either, I felt haunted for days.  Would I recommend it?  Hm.. I’m not sure but I did find it worthwhile for myself.

3/5


I won this book from John of The Book Mine Setfor a mini challenge during this year’s Canadian Book Challenge.

Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.