Today’s review for TLC Book Tours is Night Watch by Linda Fairstein. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Night Watch is part of a series of mysteries written by Linda Fairstein, a former New York City prosecutor. The protagonist is Alexandra Cooper who is an attorney who heads the Sex Crimes Unit and works under the District Attorney of New York City. In this book, Alexandra is visiting her boyfriend Luc, a well-known restauranteur who lives in France, when a woman’s body is found. The woman is found to have ties to Luc’s restaurant. With the woman’s murder still unresolved, Alex is called back to Manhattan to investigate an accusation of rape made by a hotel chambermaid. The accused rapist is a famous figure, Mohammed Gil-Darsin – obviously modeled after the recent real-life case involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile another body is found in New York City that also has a connection to Luc and his new restaurant venture in Manhattan.

If you like watching Law and Order SVU and are drawn to that kind of police/prosecutor/courtroom procedural, you’ll most likely enjoy this mystery. Fairstein’s years of experience create a very real, detailed account of the prosecutorial process and the ways in which prosecutors and detectives in the Sex Crimes Unit work together to solve a crime and bring the perpetrator to justice. All of that detail rings true.

I read one of Fairstein’s mysteries several years ago and haven’t read one since. This time, however, I encountered the same problems I had with the previous book. Purely on a personal level, I had trouble connecting to Alex Cooper. She’s written with a slightly detached quality, not unlike Kay Scarpetta in the Patricia Cornwell books, that makes it difficult for me to care about her. Both protagonists are good at what they do and that slight sense of cool detachment serves them in their work. And maybe the sheer amount of procedural detail that the protagonist has to tell us about keeps her character from being fully realized. For whatever reason, I can’t quite jump in the pool with Alexandra.

Also, there’s too much time spent on the history of a famous restaurant or stories of prohibition or any number of historial references uttered by some of the characters. They serve to stop the flow of the story line and I suspect we really don’t need to know all that information. It could have been condensed into one or two sentences, making the dialogue much more believable. Instead, it sticks out as a device used by the author to tell us the history of things and it doesn’t ring true. To be honest, I got tired of these long winded digressions and started to skip over them.

The plot itself is woven together pretty neatly. However, I find it distracting to read about a character based on a recent real-life incident. I can never fully lose myself in the story because I’m constantly comparing what I know about the true story to what’s being written on the page. It serves as another distancing element.

Having said all that, there’s much in this mystery that will entertain the reader. I know that Fairstein’s mysteries are very popular and I’m sure some of you have read some, if not all, of the books in the series. The detail about what it’s like to be a prosecutor in Manhattan is fascinating and very believable. And the characters in the Sex Crimes Unit who work with Alex are very interesting. Add a dash of the politics that go along with the job and Fairstein creates a realistic environment and a compelling mystery.

About the Author:

Linda Fairstein was chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office in Manhattan for more than two decades and is America’s foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence. Her Alexandra Cooper novels are international best sellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.

If you’d like to win a copy of Night Watch, please leave a comment on this post. You have until Friday evening, when I will pick the winner. Good luck!

Hello everyone! Today I am reviewing Darkness All Around by Doug Magee for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Darkness All Around takes place in a small Pennsylvania town where everyone knows each other. Risa, a local bar owner, is married to a local man, Alan, who is a running for office. This marriage is her second – her first ended when her alcoholic husband Sean disappeared during the same week her best friend Carol was murdered and was eventually declared legally dead. Her son by her first husband is now in high school. Sean, Risa, Carol and Alan grew up together and were close friends.

That is what we learn at the beginning of the novel. Soon, Sean reappears, now sober. The years he was a drunk blocked out many memories which are now coming back to him. One of them, particularly haunting, is a memory of Carol’s murder. This recurring memory has Sean convinced he knows something about the murder or, horribly, is the murderer. He comes back to town to try to discover the truth. Risa gets drawn into the mystery, trying to balance the demands of her politician husband with her own need to help Sean and finally solve this mystery. No more details – you’ll have to read it to find out more!

Darkness All Around is an extremely compelling book. The characters are written with wonderful detail and an ear for honest, real dialogue – there is never a false note. The small town where this novel takes place is described in such detail that I felt I was there. I could visualize the stores, the high school, the topography.

This is a mystery that is character-driven. I read a lot of mysteries and my favorites are those where the characters are so fully realized that I immediately become a part of their world. That’s the kind of mystery Darkness All Around is. You come to know these people. You become a part of their lives. Deftly plotted, with lots of twists and turns, it will draw you in. You won’t want to put it down. I sure didn’t. Isn’t that the highest praise that can be given to a mystery? Doug Magee is a wonderful writer and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

About the author:


Doug Magee has been a photojournalist, screenplay writer, children’s book author, death penalty activist, film producer and director, war protester, college football player, amateur musician, and the basis of the Aidan Quinn character in Meryl Streep’s “Music of the Heart.” This is his first novel. He lives in Spanish Harlem with his wife and two teenaged daughters.

Good news! One of you will win a copy of this fantastic novel. Just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered. I’ll drawn a name on Wednesday evening, July 4th. Your comment has to be on this post.

Happy Monday.

Today I am reviewing FoodTrients by Grace O for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I try to eat healthy foods. I don’t always succeed, but I do try. I am a vegetarian. I once was macrobiotic, so I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading about various theories as to just what’s good for you. This book, by Grace O, is fascinating. An accomplished cook, restauranteur and now the owner of several senior healthcare facilities, she has researched food and its age-defying qualities.

Grace O has assembled the 5 categories of FoodTrients that ‘are essential to age-defying and healthful living.’ They are: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, disease-preventing, immunity booster and mind and beauty. Each recipe combines some or all of these categories and the FoodTrients categories are clearly listed at the top of each recipe. The recipes are made with whole foods and the author provides a list of some of her more unusual ingredients in the first part of the book.

The book is gorgeously photographed. I don’t know about you, but I like to see a photograph of the recipe. The recipes are easy to follow and the font size is nice and large. (Yay, no squinting required to read a recipe!) One recipe I really like is Quinoa Tabbouleh on Pita. Yum. It’s so easy that someone like me, who’d rather bake than cook, will find herself running to the kitchen to throw it together. It uses basic ingredients: quinoa, parsley, plum tomatoes, scallions, olive oil, lemon juice and whole-wheat pita rounds and takes next to no time. As in every recipe, the author provides information about the FoodTrient properties of the ingredients; in this case, of quinoa, tomatoes and olive oil.

The book is divided into sections: starters, salads, main courses, extras, desserts and drinks. There are plenty of recipes using meat for all you meat-eaters and there are plenty of recipes for non-meat eaters like me. Also included is a Guide to Age-Defying FoodTrients with lots of helpful information.

One of you lucky readers will be able to win a copy of this book and one of these aprons:

I want one! Sob. The winner will win both the book and the apron. Leave a comment on this post and I will pick a winner on Thursday night. There are no hoops to jump through, you know how much I dislike that, just leave a comment.

About the author:

Grace O has been cooking and baking professionally and recreationally all of her adult life. As a child in Southeast Asia, she learned the culinary arts by her mother’s side in the family’s cooking school. She became so well-versed in hospitality and the culinary arts, she eventually took over the cooking school and opened three restaurants. She is widely credited with popularizing shrimp on sugar-cane skewers and being one of the first culinarians to make tapas a global trend. She has cooked for ruling families and royalty.

Grace O’s move to America precipitated a career in health care, inspired by her father, who was a physician. Twenty years and much hard work later, she operates skilled nursing facilities in California.

Grace O strives to create flavorful food using the finest ingredients that ultimately lead to good health. Her recipes, although low in saturated fat, salt and sugar, are high in flavor. Grace employs spices from all over the world to enliven her dishes, creating food that is different and delicious. She believes that food can be just as effective at fighting aging as the most expensive skin creams. And since she’s over 50 herself, she’s living proof of that theory.

Discover more about Grace O and her work at FoodTrients.com.