Book reviews added in the week of 7/8-7/14

Hi all,

Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books have been added at http://www.reviewsofbooks.com in the last
week:

"The Dogs of Babel" by Carolyn Parkhurst - Paul Iverson, a linguist,
comes home one day to find his wife, Lexy, has fallen to her death
from an apple tree in their yard. Did she fall, was she pushed, or was
it suicide? The only witness to the tragedy was their dog, Lorelei.
There are also puzzling clues in the house that could have only been
left behind by Lexy. In a desperate attempt to find answers to his
wife's death, Paul tries to teach the dog to talk, using his
linguistics background to guide him. The novel moves back and forth
between Paul trying to understand and deal with his wife's death, and
his remembrances of their life together. Does Lorelei hold the secret
to it all? Carolyn Parkhurst's debut novel has received mostly praise
from reviewers. The Metro Weekly says, "'The Dogs of Babel' is a
stirring novel about the search for peace through an assemblage of
symbols, rearranged books, the history of a redemptive relationship,
and the depths of a beloved dog's caring black eyes."
Excerpt and reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/dogs_of_babel

"Chasing Shakespeares" by Sarah Smith - Joe Roper is a graduate
student who has come from a modest background to become a Shakespeare
scholar through a love of the bard's work. While sifting through
Shakespeare memorablia one day, most of it forgeries, he comes across
a letter signed by Shakespeare stating that he didn't write his famous
plays. Joe does the obvious tests to prove it's a fake, but it appears
authentic. He shows it to Posy Gould, a PhD student at Harvard and
daughter of a wealthy and priveleged family. She convinces him to fly
off to London with her, at her daddy's expense, to find out the truth
about the letter. While Joe urgently wants to believe that
Shakespeare, from common origins like himself, really wrote the plays,
Posy believes that they were written by an Oxford aristocrat. It's a
mystery and an adventure to find out the truth, and where even making
a claim it is true could cost Joe his standing in the academic
community. Receiving praise from most reviewers, the Boston Globe
calls it "a smart, sexy modern-day mystery."
Excerpt and reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/chasing_shakespeares

"The Sinister Pig" by Tony Hillerman - "The Sinister Pig" is Tony
Hillerman's 16th novel featuring Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn of the
Navajo Tribal Police. In this latest effort, a mysterious stranger is
found dead by the natural gas pipe field, and before Jim Chee can
fully investigate the crime, the FBI claims jurisdiction and closes
the case as a hunting accident. The clues, however, don't seem to
support this. Photos at an exotic game ranch taken by Bernadette
Manuelito, who left Chee and the tribal police after a romance with
him, appear to be connected and put her life in danger. Chee also
doesn't understand why this all seems to lead back to the Washington
power broker, Rawley Winsor, the "sinister pig" of the title. Fans of
Hillerman's previous novels should find this book enjoyable.
Mostlyfiction.com says, "This is the sixteenth book in a line of books
that have never failed to illuminate or satisfy, and it lives up to
the standards of many of its brothers and sisters."
Excerpt and reviews are at: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/sinister_pig

"Winterkill" by C. J. Box - Joe Pickett is a game warden in a remote
part of Wyoming, but more importantly, he's a family man and home is
where he'd rather be than anywhere else. In this third Joe Pickett
novel by C. J. Box, Joe finds a herd of elk slaughtered, and when he
finds the perpetrator of that crime, it turns out to be the district
supervisor of the National Forest, who is then found murdered. At the
same time, a group of Waco and Ruby Ridge survivors calling themselves
the Sovereign Citizens set up a permanent camp in the National Forest.
Among them is the mother of Joe Pickett's youngest girl, a foster
child abandoned three years ago. The tension mounts as Washington
bureaucrats arrive to evict the Sovereign Citizens, by force if
necessary, Joe becomes convinced that wrong man has been arrested for
the murder, his foster daughter is kidnapped by her mother, and a
killer blizzard is bearing down on the forest. BookReporter.com says
"'Winterkill' is a must-read."
Excerpt and reviews are at: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/winterkill


Happy reading!

Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com