Book Nook

Readers of urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels have been feasting on a plenitude of books recently.  Kim Harrison is the author of the sizzling hot series known as "The Hollows." Set in Cincinnati, these urban fantasies feature Rachel Morgan, a "witch-turned-daywalking-demon."

Harrison has invented her own unique mythology.  In this imagined world demons and elves once fought a war long ago that decimated their numbers.  They continue to deal with the consequences.

Some novelists have decided to end a successful series of books by killing off their main characters. Other novelists have kept their main characters alive forever by never allowing them to age. This becomes even more preposterous when a writer passes on to that great library in the sky and their literary endeavors are imitated by others. One case in point; we keep seeing new books featuring that intrepid detective Sherlock Holmes. And I say balderdash!

After Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1861 he took a long, circuitous train trip from his home in Springfield, Illinois to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration. Along the way Lincoln made frequent stops. He got off the train and made speeches. Meanwhile, further down the line, in Baltimore, Maryland, plotters were hoping to do great harm to Mr. Lincoln when his train passed through the city.

Robert Crais has spent the past 25 years crafting his best-selling series of crime novels featuring the private detective Elvis Cole and his brooding sidekick Joe Pike. Now and then Crais will take a break from the series to publish a stand alone novel that isn't connected to Elvis or Joe. Of course he still chooses to set these stories in that beautiful desert city on the ocean, Los Angeles.

Nick Turse was working on a project researching the incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in US veterans of the Vietnam War. He wasn't having much luck. Then one day he was given access to the archives of the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group. Turse was stunned by what was contained in these US Government files.