"The Navajo Code Talkers": a good seminal resource to provide a jump off to other research.

Although the United States is a young nation, it has more than its share of major historical moments in its recorded history. So much of what we are formally taught in our early school years is painted in broad strokes. Those with the curiosity to delve deeper into details can stumble upon a wealth of information unknown to the general public.
Such knowledge seekers would find Doris Paul's "The Navajo Code Talkers" a decent starting reference point for the story of the unbreakable code created by the U.S. Marine Corps and recruits from Navajo communities.
Like many American history books, Paul's book – held to be the seminal work on the subject – paints with some broad strokes; however, because it is on a much narrower topic, the overall picture appears as a fuller canvas with fewer white spaces in between. There is a great deal of research resources listed in the Appendices, and I would go to those for my next move to uncover more. I didn't see this book as a "look no further" work. There are plenty of holes to be filled in, the story would benefit from a more unifying flow from one section to the next (I was confused more than once by the unexpected jump in topics), and a general overhaul and retightening of the anecdotal remembrances over the nearly 40 years it has been in print would be a welcome edit.
The best part of this work is knowing of, and seeing pictures of, the men who were part of the elite code talker teams getting recognition for their contribution (albeit 25 years later). It is an extremely interesting topic, and I will definitely use it as a jump off point for my further research.
I received a complimentary copy of "The Navajo Code Talkers" as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

The American Conspiracy: An Agent's Beginning...another disappointing read

I was really looking forward to reading "The American Conspiracy: An Agent's Beginning", as I enjoy discovering new authors, and spy/government thrillers are is of my favorite genres.

The first page drew my attention, and I settled in, expecting an interesting, intriguing story. By the end of the first chapter, it was a struggle to not put the book down. Unfortunately, this was not because it was too good, rather because it was so clumsily worded, and the attempt to make the well-worn "I was raised by the CIA, but I didn't know it until they came knocking on my door one day" device different from all those that came before resulted in a convoluted and contrived storyline.

Main character, Landers is plucked from his job as a park ranger to run the environmental section of the World Government (which, despite its name, is a black ops division of the United States). He is immediately sent on a globe-trotting mission to save the planet from the effects of the mysterious erosion of the Great Barrier Reef. To overcome his lack of training and leadership skills, he is teamed with a couple of more experienced agents to get the job done. Friends are made, bad guys are thwarted, respect is earned...just another day in the life of the agent of a shady government organization.

The inexplicitly ponderous working of the story so overwhelmed any plot that it was impossible to read more than a couple of pages before stopping in frustration and annoyance. No one - not real people, not book characters, not movie characters, not college professors - speaks in long, uninterrupted paragraphs like J. Perry's characters. I found myself, first, hugely distracted by the incomprehensibility of employing such a method, and second, by the numerous typographical errors. I spent more time trying to move through the sea of long-winded monologues and creating an errata sheet in my head than in paying attention to the action, which was far too widely spaced. Mr. Perry is not a terrible writer who has no future in the business. He would have had a far better book if he had worked closely with an editor to tighten and tone his efforts. My hope is that he does that with the promised sequel.

I received a complimentary copy of "The American Conspiracy: An Agent's Beginning" as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Books make great gifts! http://dorrance.stores.yahoo.net/

Hand of Fate by Lis Wiehl - Disappointing, but a quick read

Hand of Fate is aptly described as a fast-paced, non-stop whirlwind. It is the second book in Lis Wiehl's "Triple Threat" series, featuring a female crime-solving trio in the vein of James Patterson’s “Women’s Murder Club” series. I did not read Wiehl’s first book Face of Betrayal, but I didn’t find that to be a drawback.

The story opens with the shocking murder of popular, highly controversial, talk-show radio host, Jim Fate. Rather than a dearth of suspects, there are too many to name. The three friends who form the “Triple Threat” club – prosecutor Allison Pierce, FBI agent Nicole Hedges, and journalist Cassidy Shaw – work together to narrow the list.

In addition to this high-profile case that could be a career maker for each of them, they all hold secrets of their own that they struggle with privately. Because their friendship is a new one, based on the tenuous thread of having attended high school together, the absolute trust that comes with the aging and deepening of relationships has yet to arrive. The unfortunate result is that the reader doesn't become overly invested in the characters either.

Although the book is a page-turner, it is so (too often for my taste) not because you cannot wait to see what happens next, but because you are trying to tie up the frayed ends of the women’s secrets. Two of the women carry serious issues charged with emotional and physical consequences, but Wiehl fails to assign them that level of importance. Long brewing and elaborate issues are unrealistically “addressed” and “solved” in a matter of pages. Each of these characters and their secrets are worthy of entire books in themselves, and might well be better suited to that treatment. I would be interested to see what Wiehl could accomplish with that approach.

The book is characterized as Christian fiction, but I found it no more so than the last Dean Koontz novel I read. That aspect felt forced and almost more of an afterthought of "How can we differentiate this book from the dozens of others that are so similar?" Making one of the women an atheist comes off like a set-up for future exploitation of the religious angle. If you are drawn to books based on a designation of Christian, you will not receive any unpleasant surprises, but you shouldn't expect any real theological treatment.

Overall, Hand of Fate is a good summer read, as it is short enough to read in a day or two on the beach. I give it three stars.

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for an honest review.