Gibson, William: Spook Country

Gibson has been a consistently entertaining and perceptive commentator on the rise of the present day world governed by computers and electronic devices of various sorts. In a series of short chapters, he introduces various characters whose worlds are intertwined though some of the connections are only apparent in the closing scenes. There is a rather disturbing background atmosphere about the events which is mainly a reflection of how pervasive the surveillance of everyday life by unaccountable governmental bodies seems to be. Quis custodiet ipsos custodies is certainly an underlying theme in this well-written book which kept me more than interested over the period it took me to read it.

Preston, Douglas & Child, Lincoln: Reliquary

A sequel to 'Relic' featuring the same major characters dealing with an apparent recurrence of the same type of killings that featured in the earlier novel. As well as the scientific details which one takes on trust, the actual location is as much below the surface of New York as on it; this is a reflection of the actual reality with references to non-fictional source material. Although it is still a cerebral puzzle, much of the book deals with the physical both in respect to the chapters dealing with below ground and to the scenes above ground, especially the depiction of the protest march and its aftermath. Lengthy but enjoyable.

Anderson, Pamela: Star Struck

The sequel to 'Star' descends into melodrama as it continues the fictionalisation of Pammy's life. The two early TV series are mentioned though some of the films are not except for a disguised version of 'Barb Wire' with her marriage to Tommy Lee and the famous sex tape also featuring before the book takes a sharp turn into fantasy with a decidedly laughable ending.

Anderson,Pamela: Star

Yes, it is the celebrated pin-up, actress, icon in a fictitious ghosted biography. Here she is not a Canadian but a Floridian and the years from her first exposure at a football match, thrrough local celebrity to being the centerfold of 'Mann' magazine are depicted with relatively little depth and quite a lot of underplayed sexual scenes.

Preston, Douglas & Child, Lincoln: Relic

Starting in the Amazon Basin where an expedition comes to a disastrous end although there is a shipment of collected items, the book tells of the planned opening of an exhibition at the New York Museum of Natural History where the shipment has been received and stored. A series of gruesome murders threatens the opening of the exhibition which would lose the Museum a lot of money. While the corpses are being examined by a scientist in a wheelchair and a woman finalising her Phd work with their efforts under the eye of a New York detective, Pendergast, an FBI agent turns up because of the similarity of the murders with some in New Orleans some time earlier. He wants to close down the exhibition but is overruled politically. The exhibition is opened but the monster performing the killings runs wild in a scene of grand guignol proportions before being itself killed. Full of scientific explanations which I am sure have been well researched and deft character studies of the main characters this is a lenghty but enjoyable read though Pendergast does come across as something of a superman intellectually. This is the first but by no means the last of these author's books in which he appears.