Angels & Demons DVD

In Ron Howard's thrilling follow-up to the Da Vinci Code, expert symbolist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) follows ancient clues on a heart-racing hunt through Rome to find the four Cardinals kidnapped by the deadly secret society, the Illuminati. With the Cardinals' lives on the line, and the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor) desperate for help, Langdon embarks on a nonstop, action-packed race through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, and the most secretive vault on Earth(from the publisher)!
I enjoyed this book more than the Da Vinci Code, and so hoped the movie would also be better than the last one. I was left feeling disappointed. Especially when they left out the one action sequence/stunt near the end of the book that I was really looking forward to see in the movie!
Rating - I give this 3/5 Nothing Special
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Reviewed by Michelle @ admin

Lambs to the Slaughter by Debi Marshall

July 1969, police discover the mutilated body of 12 year-old Yvonne Tuohy off a lonely bush track at Victoria's Westernport Bay. Within hours, they have charged Derek Ernest Percy, a hightly intelligent 20 year-old royal Navy seaman, with the heinous crime. During the ensuring investigation, police link Percy's name to another eight unsolved child abductions and murders in different states (from the publisher).
Was Percy responsible for the abduction/murder of the three Beaumont children, the Wanda Beach murders, and the abduction/murder of Linda Stilwell? Is he Australia's most prolific child serial killer?
Author Debi Marshall takes us on her own personal journey into the mind of Derek Ernest Percy. Interviews with family, friends, work colleagues, victim's families, psychiatrists, and police officers help the reader gain some insight as to how Percy has become the man he is today and how he has confounded the top psychiatrists in the country.
An extremely informed, well written, not too graphic account of a most disturbing individual.

Rating - I give this 4/5 GREAT!!
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Reviewed by Jan @ admin

The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly

IT BEGAN WITH SIX STONES. Jack West Jr and his loyal team are in desperate disarray: they've been separated, their mission is in tatters, and Jack was last seen plummeting down a fathomless abyss. IT FINISHES HERE. After surviving his deadly fall, Jack must now race against his many enemies to locate and set in place the remaining pieces of The Machine before the coming Armageddon. WHO ARE THE FIVE WARRIORS? As the world teeters on the brink of destruction, he will learn of the Five Warriors, the individuals who throughout history have been most intimately connected to his quest. OCEANS WILL RISE, CITIES WILL FALL. Scores will be settled, fathers will fight sons, brothers will battle brothers, and Jack and his friends will soon find out exactly what the end of the world looks like... (from the publisher).
Another action packed, seemingly impossible death-defying escapes, and baddies-wanting-to-kill-goodies, great fun book. The Jack West Jr books, while they still make for a must-keep-reading sort of book, somehow lack some of the magic that is to be found with Reilly's other popular hero, the Scarecrow.
Rating - I give this 4/5 Not bad!
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Reviewed by Michelle @ admin

No time to wave goodbye

I can't say I've been waiting with bated breath for a sequel to Jacquelyn Mitchard's debut novel, The deep end of the ocean, 13 years ago.

Having enjoyed that book, which focusses on a family in crisis following the abduction and eventual return of their three-year-old son, I was keen to read the follow-up when I happened across it.

I'm not sorry I did - but I'm sorry Mitchard felt a sequel was needed. It's not nearly as engrossing as its predecessor and is overcrowded with characters and with references to the original story.

Twenty-two years after Ben was abducted, the Cappadora family is still in crisis. Mother Beth is fragile, father Pat finds solace in work and Ben - called Sam by the man he regards as his father, the husband of his kidnapper - has an uneasy connection with his birth family. Vincent has always felt blamed - and blamed himself - for Ben's disappearance. Only daughter Kerry, a baby when her brother was taken, seems relatively unscathed by the past.

Now the troubled Vincent has emerged as a film-maker, capturing hearts with his acclaimed documentary No Time to Wave Goodbye. The film, focussing on five families whose children have been abducted and whose fates are unknown, attracts unwanted attention too, throwing the family into a repeat of that earlier horror.

Despite the action, despite the storyline, I found it difficult to care about the Cappadoras and their plight. Read it, by all means, but read The deep end of the ocean first.

Rating - I give this 3/5
Not bad!

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Reviewed by Jan@ Ballarat Branch