New England White: a novel by Stephen Carter

Extremely literate writer**** August 22, 2007

I was about 100 pages into this 500+page book when I finally bcame hooked by the story and the characters. This is a whodunit woven into a complex drama about life at a New England university and what it is like to be rich highly-educated African -Americans. Stephen Carter shows promise of becoming one of the best writers of his generation. I'll say no more about the plot for fear of spoiling it. But Lemaster and Julia Carlyle are fascinating characters. Read this book. You won't be disappointed.

The 6th Target: a novel by James Patterson/Maxine Paetro

Middling*** July 19,2007

Patterson continues to churn out a seemingly never-ending series of novels. This is another in the Women's Murder Club series. There are three murder situations running sort of in parallel but really unconnected. This results in a bit of a mishmash. Lindsay Boxer is involved in all three situations rushing around like a headless horseman. Based on this effort it's time for Patterson to wrap up this Murder Club series. He's already dropped three of the four members to almost non-existent roles. Otherwise he'd better a different co-author for the next one.