Cerca Trova/Seek and You Shall Find

Protagonist: Symbologist Robert Langdon. Setting: Florence, Italy. Themes: Hell, overpopulation, bio-terrorism threat. Mystery Message: Seek and you shall find or Cerca Trova in Italian. Put all those elements together, add some chases, and some mysterious characters with secrets and we have Dan Brown's latest novel, Inferno. 

The book gets its title from Dante's epic poem Inferno about his journey through the nine circles of hell with roman poet Virgil.  The storyline is that Langdon is in possession of a tube-like projector.  On the projector is a picture of Boticelli's painting titled, Map of Hell. It depicts the nine circles of Dante's hell. The mysterious element about this particular projection is that the circles are depicted incorrectly. From what I have read so far, there is a female hired killer, Vayentha, chasing Langdon and a mysterious British female Doctor named Sienna Brooks, around Florence. Also chasing and tracking them with the help of a drone, is an organized group of men, seemingly working with the American Embassy in Italy.  Langdon does not remember why he is in possession of the tube and why all these people are trying to kill him.

Among the mystery characters are a silver haired female WHO official named, Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey, an otherworldly type character who calls himself the Shade, yet another man on a yacht called, The Mendacium, and who is referred to as the provost or the devil's enabler. What service does his Consortium really provide to clients? I am anxious to see how all these characters will connect.

I am only on  page 154 (of 461 pages).  There is so much more to come.  This book brought back memories of my visit to Florence a few years ago.  There is so much detail about the buildings and artwork,I am sure there will be a Dan Brown Tour of Florence any day now.  In the meantime, enjoy some of my personal pics of Florence, the first one is Ponte Vecchio:

Fans of Inferno should check this interesting link out: Nine Circles of Dan Brown. 

New Book to be Released: How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

Today, I finished reading The Beautiful Mystery, a murder mystery that features Gregorian Chants that connects with the murder of Thomas Beckett and includes a continuation of events in Penny's previous book, Bury Your Dead. This is 41/2 stars for me.  I loved it.  This book made me think, laugh out loud, feel anger, anxiety, and sadness. I loved the dialogue.  I loved all the subplots in the story.  I  loved the historical elements about the music, the monks, the Jesuits.  I loved the contrasts in the story of harmony and disharmony.  The fabulous acoustics in the chapel as described by the writer reminded me of  the Church of St. Anne in Israel.  I am looking forward to the next book, How the Light Gets In, which will be released in August to see how the relationships between Chief Inspector Gamache and Lieutenant Beauvoir and Beauvoir and Anne, the Chief's daughter, develop. 

To Be Released:New Book by Jeannette Walls

Jeanette Walls has a new book that will be released on June 11th titled The Silver Star.  Our book club chose her first book, The Glass Castle, for discussion in 2005 and it is one of my favorite reads. If you are a fan of the bestseller, The Glass Castle, you will enjoy this article in the New York Times.  Jeannette's Mom is a hoarder so I love the photo with the article. Jeannette and her mother are sitting in the middle of the clutter in a cottage where the mother resides.  Having read the Glass Castle, this is how I imagine her mother would be living.  The article refers to the smell of cat urine on entering the cottage, garbage and a junk room.  I am not surprised by those details. Here is one new thing I got from the article. One motivation for Walls to write her memoir,The Glass Castle, had to do with her learning that the Church of Scientology was about to look into her background. I tried to find the article that Walls wrote that probably upset the church enough to investigate her but found nothing.  Could it be this one about Jenna Elman, updated 2/15/05? Or this one about Tom Cruise updated 1/21/2004? I have no idea but I am curious.

Frere Mathieu Entre Les Loups/Brother Matthew Among the Wolves

The monastery lit up with rainbows, prisms and cheerful natural light is the scene of an ugly dark crime.  I am fascinated by the contrasts and the ironies in this story Beautiful Mystery set at an isolated monastery in Quebec called Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups translated as St. Gilbert Among the Wolves.  However it was Frere Mathieu who was among the wolves because he is dead and it appears that his murderer is one of his brother monks who sing Greorian chants in his choir.  The Gregorian chants are likened to the voice of God yet one singer of the Divine is a murderer. These monks have taken a vow of silence yet they are famous in the outside world for their singing voice.   Twenty four voices used to sing in harmony and the death of one has left the community of  twenty three unbalanced and the divisions among them are about to be revealed to Inspector Gamache and his assistant Beauvoir.  The two must investigate what started the rifts.

I believe I see evidence of foreshadowing when Inspector Gamache suggests that if the killer flees the monastery he would have to leave through the door guarded by Frere Luc who holds the key.  Could Luc be in danger of being hurt or killed?  Communication with the outside world is limited and I suspect that bit of information may be important later in the story.  Gamache and Beauvoir are able to communicate with the love of their lives by Blackberry adding realism to the story.

The story reminded me of Dissolution when Matthew Shardlake and his assistant had to live at a monastery until they could find a murderer.  In that story the monks pointed fingers at outsiders but in this story the monks know that one among them is a killer.  I am on page 105 and I am enjoying the story.  This book has won the Agatha Award for Best Mystery in the USA and has been nominated for the Anthony Awards  scheduled for September.

Murder in the Monastery

There is a wolf in the fold dressed in a black robe with shaved head and he whispers prayers with his brothers. At last I am reading The Beautiful Mystery by Canadian mystery writer, Louise Penny.  I have been looking forward to this book featuring Inspector Gamache for a long time. The setting is not Three Pines as  in most of the other books in the series.  This time it is a monastery called Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups located in Canada.  This is a remote cloistered monastery with twenty-four monks so one of them must be the "wolf".  The choir director in the story, Frere Mathieu, has been found murdered with a rock in the abbot's garden. His body was found curled up into a fetal position with the Latin words meaning "Day of wrath" written in vellum, possibly from a page of an ancient chant, and placed in the sleeve of his robe.  I was curious if this was a real monastery but it is not.  However, it is based on a real monastery famous for singing gregorian chants. I am on page 50 and so far there is Inspector Gamache, Jean Guy Beauvoir and a new character,Captain Charbonneau, investigating the murder.

What are you reading?

I finished The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau.  She paints an interesting picture of the conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the Crown.  Many of the characters in the Tudor period came to life in this book such as the Princess Mary and Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.  I liked the detailed information about the period such as the introduction of the translation of The Bible by Tyndale so that all those who were literate could read it; a shocking thing at the time.  I liked the main character, Joanna Stafford ,with all her vulnerabilities.  I, however, preferred the writer's first book, The Crown. I moved on to The Third Gate by Lincoln Child and to my surprise, that was about another crown; the hunt for the double crown of Pharoah Narmer. Narmer was the God-King who united Egypt into one kingdom.  This story delved into the paranormal, archaeology, the use of propofol (the Michael Jackson drug) to induce hypnosis, and introduced me to the term "Enigmalogist". In this book, the enigmalogist was an interpreter of strange happenings, a ghostbuster type.  I enjoyed the story; couldn't put the book down but found the ending not so satisfying.

The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau

I have moved on to Bilyeau's second book, The Chalice. One theme in this book is destiny. A key sentence on page 308 is, 'There is a destiny one creates. And there is a destiny ordained.'

The first book, The Crown, introduced us to Joanna Stafford, of noble birth, former lady in waiting to Queen Katherine, who has answered the call to be a novice nun. The setting is 16th century England and King Henry Vlll is on the throne.  This is a period when the people of England are caught between the Crown and the Papists. Catholic Churches, monasteries and nunneries have been dissolved. Sister Joanna and her sister nuns have been displaced from the nunnery in Dartford.  Her plan is to make a living for herself and her cousin's son, Arthur, by continuing the weaving business that the nuns had engaged in prior to the Dissolution. We got a hint of romance in the first book which continues in this book in that Sister Joanna seems to be attracted to two men, Brother Edward, a friar, and Geoffrey, now a constable assigned to Dartford.  It was common for the displaced nuns and monks to marry as they tried to fit into civilian life.  I am on page 308 and I do not know yet which young man Joanna will choose. I would like Geoffrey to win her over.

There are many subplots in this story. One  plot in the story has to do with prophecy and Joanna's reluctance to listen to the prophecies ordained for her.  So far she has heard two prophecies and she does not fully understand the meaning and is puzzled about her role in the prophecies.  She is supposed to hear a third prophesy.  All she knows is that her role in the prophesy is linked to the future of England possibly the future of the Catholic Church.

I do not know at this point how the title of the book fits into the story.  There are some slow parts in the story.  While I am enjoying the subplots in the story, it is not as captivating as The Crown.  At this point I would give it 4 stars out of 5.

Beggar King - Historical Fiction

I am on page 362 of The Beggar King, The Hangman's Daughter series by Oliver Potzsch, almost at the end, and I am still not sure I understand who the bad guys are in this story.  The setting is the 17th century Bavarian town of Regensberg. There is conspiracy after conspiracy, treachery after treachery in this story.  All the minor characters seem not to be who they say they are.  So far, they all seem very shady: the Beggar King, the Venice Ambassador; The Raftmaster; the patricians of the city; the dead bath house owners, Kuisl's sister and brother-in-law; and even Kuisl's wife seems to have some secret past. 

Hangman Jakob Kuisl has been targeted, tricked into leaving Schongau for Regensberg so that he could be accused of  murder in that town.  The leaders in the city seem to have conspired together to accuse him.  Kuisl got a taste of the brutal punishment that he himself has imposed on others in his role as Hangman.  His chief tormentor who wants the punishment to be more and more severe is a voice from his past, which he can not remember fully, and a leader in the city.  The feisty hangman's daughter, Magdalena, and her paramour, Simon, just happened to have run off to Regensberg to start a new life together when they find themselves having to find evidence that Kuisl is innocent.  Then they have to go into hiding after being accused of arson. In the meantime some prostitutes are disappearing and turning up dead. How their deaths connect with Kuisl, I do not know at this point.

I am not as excited about this story as I was with the other two in the series. Too many things are going on in this story.  Who committed the murders and why?  How do the politics and church issues relate to the murders? What is up with this great war in the past?  Who is killing the prostitutes and how does that connect to the main story? What was the mystery powder found at the scene of the murder? So many aspects to this one story.  I was the one who recommended the first book in the series to my book club and we loved it.

Immaculee Ilibagiza's Story

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza is our book club pick for April. I have never wanted to watch Hotel Rwanda or read anything about the genocide in Rwanda.  I thought this was just going to be a depressing story about evil. It was a depressing story about evil but there was so much more.  This is a story of how Immaculee's Roman Catholic faith guided her, made her bold, kept her safe, and freed her from hate. This book was worth reading.  Imagine, she was locked up in a small bathroom with a group of women for their safety and during the ordeal she kept her faith and obeyed what she discerned to be God's direction.  She even tried to teach herself English in anticipation of her vision to work at the United Nations.  Some of the characters mentioned in the book were interesting. One is the pastor who tried to hide the women yet seemed to regret getting involved with their rescue when the weeks turned into months.  The other is her university friend who had a plan involving electrocution if the Hutus turned on them and there was no escape. Her plan reminded me of the story about the zealots of Masada in Israel as told in the Dovekeepers.

This is not a long story and very easy to read.  There was one typing error in the book towards the end; it mentioned her Aunts and nieces when it should have been Aunts and cousins.

Pics For Fans of The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Sharing pics of the ruins in Masada, ancient mountaintop fortress in Israel, which is part of the setting for Dovekeepers  It was rebuilt and redecorated by King Herod the great.  Top picture is supposed to be the dovecot where the doves were kept.  I am also including a picture of the Rabbi of Masada who is writing the Torah by hand in the ancient synagogue.

Jodie Picoult's Storyteller

I was still on my Israel "high" this morning when by chance I found out about a new book by one of my favorite authors. Jodie Picoult, who was raised Jewish, has a new book out titled, The Storyteller. According to the article I read, this book is about the Holocaust, making moral choices, and forgiveness.   This book is going to be on my list of "Must Read" books. One reason I love Picoult's books is that she always has an unexpected ending and this book promises a surprise twist to the end.