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Well, in an effort to succeed in my challenges this year, I took to my book shelves. I really want to clean up what I own and give those darn books a chance before I send them on their merry way.
Delirious by Daniel Palmer
Release date: January 25
Guest Review*
My Thoughts:
I have mentioned by good friend Cheryl in several posts since starting this blog. We have known each other for going on 10 years now. We met each other as booksellers at a bookstore in Uptown Minneapolis. Our friendship began over a massive love of books and our ability to talk about them for hours! We were roommates for a time and enjoyed sitting in our hallway where our bookshelves were talking about books until the wee hours of the night. She was one of the friends of mine that went with me to BEA!
She has since moved away from Minneapolis and is currently living in Atlanta as a Project Archivist. She is super smart and great at what she does. She has truly found her calling, in my eyes. I am always excited to see her when she visits me back here at home. We do a regular sushi and wine dinner and then browse the local bookstores. Super predictable, nerdy and oh so much fun.
I was getting a ton of requests for books that I honestly did not have time to read so I asked her if she would be interested in doing a Guest review. She said sure right away. She is also a huge fan of mysteries and I thought this one would be a good fit for her. Hope you guys enjoy a new voice in reviews here at Red Headed Book Child. I know she will stop by again!
Cheryl's Thoughts:
I was very happy when Michelle asked me to do guest reviews for her blog. As one often mentioned in her posts, I’m excited to actively participate. My first review is an ARC of Delirious by Daniel Palmer, the son of medical thriller author Michael Palmer.
Description of Delirious from Daniel Palmer’s website www.danielpalmerbooks.com
“Charlie Giles is at the top of his game. An electronics superstar, he’s sold his startup company to a giant Boston firm, where he’s now a senior director. With his dog, Monte, at his side, Charlie is treated like a VIP everywhere he goes.
Then one day, everything in Charlie’s neatly ordered world starts to go terrifyingly wrong. His prestigious job and his inventions are wrenched away from him. His family is targeted, and his former employers are dying gruesomely, picked off one by one. Every sign, every shred of evidence, points to Charlie as a cold-blooded killer. And soon Charlie is unable to tell whether he’s succumbed to the pressures of work and become the architect of his own destruction, or whether he’s the victim of a relentless, diabolical attack.
In a desperate struggle to save his life, Charlie races to uncover the truth, all the while realizing that nothing can be trusted—least of all his own fractured mind…”
A blurb on the ARC also describes it as “a spiraling psychological thrill-ride filled with intrigue, questions and deception – a techno-savvy novel, with shocking twists that will mesmerize readers from start to finish.”
Raised by a single mother with a schizophrenic father and brother, Charlie’s biggest fear is being schizophrenic. Palmer deftly weaves this childhood psychological trauma with Charlie’s adult fear while Charlie’s world turns upside down for reasons he cannot figure out. It starts when he finds a sticky note on his laptop screen that says, in his own handwriting, “If not yourself, then who can you believe?” with absolutely no recollection of writing it. As things continue to spiral out of Charlie’s control, he returns to this question again and again as he tries to figure out whether he is unconsciously destroying himself or someone is out to get him. Palmer excels by offering no obvious solutions to the incidents that make Charlie question his sanity in a believable way.
Described as “techno-savvy novel,” I expected a using-technology-to-solve-a-crime thriller, which it is not and initially disappointed me. However, after I finished reading and thought about it for a while, I prefer that Palmer chose to not use his novel as a way to show off or describe the latest or future of technology, but instead of a more subtle approach of how dependent we are on it while simultaneously how much it can control our lives. He effectively explained and integrated the products and ideas into the story and combined with the “psychological thrill-ride,” I was hooked and read it in only a few days.
What is also fun is that Palmer created a blog about the company and its founders from his book, sort of as a prequel: http://www.danielpalmerbooks.com/invision-blog/. As it has virtually no impact on the story, it is not necessary to read it before reading the book. I read it after and found it amusing.
As an avid thriller reader, what I expect is to be entertained, which Palmer delivered. Well-written and compelling, I read the book nearly all the way through with no idea how it would end, which is what I want from a good thriller. I especially liked the numerous twists and turns that I could not figure out how and why they occurred.
My only criticism, which I should emphasize did not detract from the story and are mostly indicative that it was Palmer’s first novel, are that the characters were a bit undeveloped, dialogue a bit choppy, and bits of the story redundant as he continually reminded readers of certain incidents. I fully expect that as Palmer continues to write, these minor aspects will improve greatly and turn him into an excellent thriller and suspense writer.
I enjoy reading new authors and I am glad I found him at the beginning of his career and I will look to Daniel Palmer for entertaining thrillers in the future.
Sites of Interest:
Download a free copy of Daniel's album “Home Sweet Home” at http://bit.ly/fW6SN3
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/
Website: http://www.danielpalmerbooks.
GIVEAWAY rules:
*Please be a follower of my blog.
*Please include an email address.
*Please live in the United States.
Winner will be picked on February 8.
Thanks again Cheryl! I'm so glad you enjoyed this one!
Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!
red headed book child
The Brave by Nicholas EvansGenre: FictionPublisher: Little BrownReview CopyThis book was such a pleasant surprise. I received it a few weeks ago with the hopes of maybe picking it up in the next month or two to review. I was up in the air with what I was in the mood for at the time and I gave it a go. I read it in two days and was wholly absorbed the entire time. I had never read Nicholas Evans before but knew him from his Horse Whisperer fame. I remember when the book came out and the movie with Robert Redford.
Hello and welcome to the website. It has been a long time since we refreshed these pages but we’ve done some work and I hope you like the changes. The reason for the delay (and, more important, the delayed publication of my new novel) is that my family and I had a serious accident: we ate some wild mushrooms which turned out to be poisonous. The guide book, consulted, stupidly, only after the horse had bolted, listed them as deadly poisonous. Fortunately, the four children who were with us had the good sense not to eat any. But their parents did, with horrible consequences. The poison attacked our kidneys and within a couple of days we were all critically ill in hospital on dialysis. Three of us still are on dialysis – five hours every other day, hitched to a blood machine. We are also on the waiting list for transplants.
It has been a life-changing journey in many ways. But with the love and support of family and friends and brilliant medical help (all courtesy of the wonderful British National Health Service), we are all in good spirits. More than anything, we are happy to be alive. I would like to thank all those many readers who sent their good wishes through this website. I usually reply to all emails but there is a huge backlog, so please excuse the delay.
My new novel, postponed for two years by all this real-life drama, is called The Brave. It’s out in September in the UK and October in the US. Italy and Holland hope to publish around that time too. I hope you enjoy it. Also, my wife, singer/songwriter Charlotte Gordon Cumming created an album of songs inspired by The Brave. You can listen to these songs at thebravesongs.com.
All best wishes,
Nicholas
This weekend we celebrated the kiddo's 3rd birthday. I can not believe that he is 3 already! I have been feeling all bittersweet, and full of warm fuzzies when I think of how far he has come. He went from a chubby little baby to a smart as a whip, fast talking toddler. I love him to pieces.
The winners of Gideon's War by Howard Gordon are Stacy at A Novel Source and Kim in Ohio. Some participants in the challenge did not mention whether or not they wanted to be included in the contest so I just included everyone. My method of choosing a winner is to pick from a hat. Simple dimple!
Loosely Bound: Tales from my Literary LifeBook Clubs
