Left Field Wander

Presidential Hand

2010-01-05T07:04:00.001-10:00

When President and Mrs. Obama left Hawaii this weekend after their Christmas holiday vacation, the news camera followed them as they proceeded up the boarding ramp stairs into Air Force One.

President Obama had his hand on Mrs. Obama’s … er, derriere … and the newscaster explained that he was helping her keep her dress from flying up in the wind.

Oooookay, I’ll buy that. Uh huh. Sure. Fine.

(I searched for a picture, but there was none to be had. I searched for a youtube posting of the news video, with similar results. Shucks.)

‘Step on a Crack’ (James Patterson)

2010-01-04T06:53:00.003-10:00

James Patterson’s first collaboration with Michael Ledwidge isn’t one of my favorite Patterson novels, not by a long shot.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how the title, “Step on a Crack,” has anything to do with the story.

The book introduces a new Patterson character – Michael Bennett, a hostage negotiator with the New York Police Department. He’s also the father of 10 adopted children, and he’s about to lose his wife to cancer.

I guess the revealing of his personal life is supposed to invoke my sympathy with Bennett, but unlike the protagonist in the Alex Cross series, this cop doesn’t do anything for me.

The situation is intended to be horrifying – the President’s wife dies in a restaurant, then the rich and powerful are held hostage by ski-masked gunmen at her funeral. Their motives are unknown and it’s Bennett’s job to figure it out.

Because of the high profile persons involved, the hostage event escalates to the point where NYPD, the FBI, and eventually Delta Force are manning command points.

All the while, Bennett’s wife is dying in the hospital and he’s trying to keep his 10 kids together with help from his father and a recently hired au pair.

All the elements of a good story are there, so how come it didn’t get me involved?

Good thing I got this book at a huge discount from retail. And by the way, I bought a first edition. The book was published in 2007 and first editions are still on sale at a discount? Tells you something about the book, doesn’t it?

It’s Winter, But …

2010-01-03T06:39:00.005-10:00

It’s early January, which means that San Jose, the wife and I are shivering in the early days of winter.

We wear warm clothes when we go outside.

Many trees are denuded of their leaves, and squirrels are bundled up inside their nests.

The skies are gray; there is no sunlight to warm our bodies.

The air is crisp and chilly, stuck in the 50s. At night, the temperature dips into the 40’s and lower.

But … the roses are blooming again, lending their beauty to warm our spirits during these gloomy days.

The $5 Vacation

2010-01-02T09:47:00.002-10:00

Forty-four-year-old Alan Duffy of Brooklyn had a good idea that he shared in Real Simple magazine. And it kinda makes sense to me.

He pays for everything in cash, and saved every $5 bill he received in change, putting them into a special envelope.

Once he had 10 bills, he deposited them into a special savings account, at a different bank from his other accounts, eliminating the temptation to transfer savings into his checking account.

In about a year, he’d saved $2,000, and then used the money to take his wife and kids to Cape Cod for a week’s vacation this past summer.

He’s doing it again, and has a $350 balance in the special checking account.

I might try this. Then again …

Teen Texting

2010-01-01T07:09:00.004-10:00

I was reading an old issue of Time in the hospital waiting room, and saw something about teen texting. The Nielsen Company is keeping track of how teenagers utilize the texting capabilities of their mobile phones.

I had to pick myself up the floor. The numbers are staggering. According to Time, the average American teen sent and received 2,272 text messages in the third quarter of 2008.

Quick! Give me some updated numbers! The Nielsen website reported that the average number of monthly texts for teens (ages 13-17) in January-March 2007 was 435. The 2,272 number I saw in Time represented a 422% increase.

They had a more recent total (January-March 2009) of 2,899 on their website. That’s an increase of about 27% over the previous three months, and 566% since Nielsen has started crunching the numbers.

I’m so glad I’m not paying for any teenager’s mobile phone.

Bank’s Error, Their Gain

2009-12-31T12:13:00.003-10:00

This is a slightly old story, but I just found out about it while reading an old issue of Time in the UCSF Medical Center Radiation Oncology’s waiting room – a good argument for keeping old magazines in waiting rooms.

A New Zealand couple had applied for a $10,000 overdraft but approximately $10 million New Zealand dollars ($6.1 million US) was deposited into their Westpac Bank account by mistake.

So what did they do? You and I most likely would have done the right thing and contacted the bank, then called the news media so they could make fun of the bank. But not these two. They withdrew some of the money and took off for parts unknown.

Since they didn’t take all of the millions, some of the money has been recovered, although the bank declines to say exactly how much.

The perpetrators have been identified as Leo Gao and his Australian girlfriend, Cara Young, and are now believed to be in China. As it is a criminal offense for people to spend money accidently deposited into a bank account, Interpol has been alerted and is hot on their trail.

Well, maybe “hot” isn’t a good word here. China is a very big country. Good luck, Interpol.

Waterless? WATERLESS?

2009-12-30T06:53:00.000-10:00

I’ve come across a few of these recently – Sloan urinals that require no water connection.

According to their website: “You don't need to run water supply lines and there are no mechanical parts to worry about. The replaceable sealed cartridge receives waste through drain holes, then through a layer of biodegradable sealant. From there, waste passes through a trap system, through a baffle and then goes down the drain. The sealant layer creates a barrier between waste and open air so odors don't come back up.”

It costs about 500 bucks.

I gotta say it feels a little weird to use it and then just walk away. I mean, doesn’t the inside of the bowl get wet? How is THAT remedied?

But, who am I to argue? If they say it works, I guess it does.

My Alcatraz Saga

2009-12-29T07:08:00.001-10:00

Being in the San Francisco area has reminded me of my Alcatraz saga. I don’t remember if I’ve talked about this in my wanderings before, but getting to walk on Alcatraz Island required more than just minimum effort on my part.

The first time I tried was when a group of us college students were in San Francisco over the Christmas holidays and decided to take the tour on Christmas Day.

It was cold and rainy, and we didn’t have a lot of money so taking a cab from downtown to Fisherman’s Wharf was out of the question – a ride on the cable car would have to suffice. So it did. I had to stand, hanging onto a pole on the outside, while freezing-cold water dripped down my neck.

That was pretty stupid, actually. Y’know, we college students may be been intelligent, but we sure weren’t smart. I mean, anybody in his right mind would know that nothing is open on Christmas Day.

Obviously, the tours were closed and we didn’t get to see the island.

Strike one.

The second time I tried was on a family trip to San Francisco in the ‘70s. Thinking ahead, I had sent in for prepaid tickets and had them in my pocket as we drove to the pier.

I thought we headed for the boats with plenty of time to spare, but obviously I was wrong. We crept along in heavy traffic through the center of town because I had taken the beeline route instead of the swing-around faster route.

The check-in time came as we were crossing Market Street. The departure time came as we finally arrived on Beach Street. And guess what? The tickets were non-refundable. I ate the cost of four adult and two child tickets. Cripes.

Strike two.

I decided to give it one more try a dozen or so years later. We actually were staying in a hotel close to Fisherman’s Wharf, and early in the morning – the day before we were due to fly back home – we traipsed down to the ticket building. Or rather, I should say we had gotten a late start, so I fairly trotted there, my family in hot pursuit.

There, in great big letters on a great big sign on the big tour building, were the words: “Tours Sold Out. Make Your Reservations for Tomorrow.” Tomorrow? Tomorrow we were flying home.

Strike three. Y’er OUT!

I actually gave up the ghost, vowing never again to attempt booking an Alcatraz tour.

However … I really did want to visit Alcatraz, so after the new millennium rolled around, I figured I’d give it one more chance – new millennium, change of luck, and all that.

I bought my tickets online, and the day of the tour, the wife and I drove to Fisherman’s Wharf from San Jose four hours before our check-in time because my son said morning traffic on the 101 was going to be horrendous due to construction delays.

Traffic? What traffic? We got to Fisherman’s Wharf two hours before we had to report, so we sat in the parking lot napping (it was 7 a.m., mind you, and we’d awakened at 5 a.m. – the wife had been upset because I was rushing her), then had breakfast at Pier 39.

We were the first in line for the tour and I can’t tell you how happy I was when the boat finally launched and headed off to Alcatraz.

It was worth it, I enjoyed the tour tremendously. The wife, on the other hand, could not have cared less. The place spooked her.

But I didn’t care, after three strikes, I finally hit a home run and visited Alcatraz Island.

‘The Interview Room’ (Roderick Anscombe)

2009-12-28T07:06:00.001-10:00

Dr. Roderick Anscome, author of “The Interview Room” knows how to detect deception. He’s a forensic psychiatrist who’s interviewed more than 200 murders and teaches interview techniques at Harvard Medical School.

The principal character in his third novel – Dr. Paul Lucas – is a forensic psychiatrist assigned to interview and counsel a college student who’s been accused of stalking a female Harvard instructor (Natalie Davis) with whom he is obsessed. He soon finds out that the student – Craig Cavanaugh – is a dangerous man adept in manipulation of people and circumstances to his advantage.

A good portion of the story takes place in the room where Dr. Lucas interviews Cavanaugh. Those scenes are the most revealing, as the author analyzes responses to his questions, giving us incredible insight to how people think, and what actions give away their inner-most intentions. Thankfully, the analysis is not didactic; it flows nicely into the narrative.

From the very start, Dr. Lucas is wary of Cavanaugh’s demeanor. Then, before he knows it, a personal situation involving his wife Abby becomes an integral part of the story, woven into the fabric of the case by Cavanaugh.

As if from out of the blue, Dr. Lucas becomes as suspect in the death of a cop – not just any cop, but the one who had pulled Abby from their twisted car following an accident, the same one who later stopped her for speeding and issued her a traffic citation for the violation.

Story details snap into place as the book enters its climactic conclusion at a breakneck speed, culminating in a confrontation involving Lucas, his wife, Cavanaugh, and Natalie.

Almost up to the end, the question looming large within me was, “How’s it all going to end?”

Will Dr. Lucas be cleared of suspicion? Do he and Abby reconcile their rift? Does Cavanaugh walk out a free man? And what about Natalie? Can she lead a normal life after her traumatic experience?

The answers: Maybe, maybe, maybe … and perhaps.

Emerald … Nuts?

2009-12-27T07:03:00.003-10:00

Well, the USC Trojans did okay in their bowl game. At least they didn’t embarrass themselves in the low-tier Emerald Bowl against Boston College.

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach however, after BC almost tied it up in the second quarter. “Here we go again,” I muttered to myself. But then, BC self-destructed in the second half and USC prevailed in the end, 24-13, thanks to a couple of reviewed calls that went the Trojans’ way.

By the way, this was USC’s 32^nd bowl win, the most ever for any college football team. Alabama has a chance to tie it if they beat Texas in the BCS championship game on Jan. 7.

I’d never heard of the Emerald Bowl until this year and suspected that Emerald Nuts had something to do with it. Well, they did, in a subtle way. The major corporate sponsor is Diamond Foods of California, which makes Emerald Nuts.

Perhaps they could have named it the Diamond Bowl, but it doesn’t matter. It’s probably a good thing that they didn’t name it the Emerald Nut Bowl, which elicits visions of crazy green people running around the football field.

Jack Frost’s Visit

2009-12-26T08:15:00.001-10:00

One wouldn’t expect to experience frost in warm and sunny California, and I certainly didn’t think I’d get to see it happen.

However, it was pretty chilly in Silicon Valley this week, and early morning temperatures were dipping down within a degree or two of freezing.

We’d been driving regularly into San Francisco during midday, but the hospital bumped our appointment up on the day before Christmas (they wanted up close up early), so we had to leave at 8:30 in the morning.

Our car, parked outside overnight, was covered with frost – all the windows and the roof. Nothing like we’d ever see in Hawaii unless we spent the night on Haleakala, Mauna Loa, or Mauna Kea.

If we’d left at our usual 10:15 a.m. time, the frost would have all melted away and we’d never have seen this phenomenon. Anyway, there we sat in the car with the engine running and defroster blasting away, until the frost softened and the wipers could sweep the ice away.

No harm, no foul … we still got to the appointment on time. And at least it gave us one more thing to talk about that day.

Joy to the World!

2009-12-25T07:15:00.002-10:00

Joy to the World!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

My Favorite Christmas Carol

2009-12-24T09:35:00.006-10:00

"The Nativity" by Frederico Barocci

For more than 150 years, the Christmas carol “O Holy Night” has brought true meaning into the meaning of Christmas.

Various versions of the song that recalls the birth of the Christ Child have been published throughout the years, and the song appears to have been the first music ever broadcast on radio (Christmas Eve 1906).

It is, indeed, my favorite Christmas carol. This is the version that touches my heart deepest:

O Holy Night

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh hear the angel voices!

Oh night divine! Oh night when Christ was born!
Oh night divine! Oh night! Oh night divine!

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord, that ever, ever praise we.
Noel! Noel! Oh night; oh night divine!
Noel! Noel! Oh night; oh night divine!

Here is another link:

http://popup.lala.com/popup/360569479530774732

Novelty Christmas Songs

2009-12-23T07:18:00.005-10:00

Why aren’t there very many novelty songs on the radio this year? I did catch “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” (Elmo & Patsy), “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (Jimmy Boyd) and the Nat King Cole version of “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth,” but not much else.

Whatever happened to …

· “Jingle Bells” by the Singing Dogs

· “Christmas Don’t Be Late” by the Chipmunks

· “I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas” by Yogi Yorgesson

· “Nuttin’ for Christmas” by Stan Freberg

· “Twelve Gifts of Christmas” by Allan Sherman

I need a good laugh around now.

Christmas Music: The Wrong List

2009-12-22T06:58:00.002-10:00

I like, and truly enjoy, Christmas music.

However …

I don’t like Christmas recordings by Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen. His singing just doesn’t appeal to me.

I don’t like singers who find it necessary to warble and yodel the long notes, instead of holding the note as long as is required and intended by the composer – artist examples: Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

I don’t like versions of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” that feature the phrase “Sa-a-a-anta Claus is coming to town, Sa-a-a-anta Claus is coming to town, Santa Claus is coming to town,” instead of singing it the way it should be sung, with a single “Santa Claus is coming to town.” Artist examples: Bruce Springsteen and The Jackson 5.

And now that I mention it, I don’t like any of the Christmas songs recorded by The Jackson 5.

But that’s about it – a short list.

Christmas in the Forest

2009-12-21T06:48:00.005-10:00

During our walk along the Sawyer Camp Trail at Crystal Springs Lake last week, we stumbled onto a tree bearing a few Christmas ornaments.

I found it quite inspiring that some folks would bring new ornaments along with them on their walk, hike or bicycling so they could add a little spot of color to the green of the trees lining the path of the trail.

Sharing the joy of the season with strangers – there is hardly anything more inspiring than this.

‘Double Cross’ (James Patterson)

2009-12-20T10:57:00.000-10:00

“Double Cross” is the 13^th Alex Cross thriller by James Patterson, and the second in the series that features Cross’ name in the title.

Cross is in trouble with bad guys again – double trouble, for there are two (count ‘em, TWO) horrid persons after him – Kyle Craig, and an unknown killer.

Craig, who is a former FBI agent and close friend of Alex Cross, was exposed as a sadistic criminal (known as “The Mastermind” in the Patterson’s 2001 novel, “Violets Are Blue”). Four years later, he’s escaped from a maximum-security prison and has a score to settle with Cross.

He’s not the only one. Another psychopath who is later referred to by the DC police as the “DC Audience Killer” (DCAK) is on the prowl, killing people in spectacularly horrid manners, in full view of the public. DCAK is a gamer and carefully plans his moves.

No longer with the police, Cross is trying to maintain a civilian role in private-therapy practice. His new love – Brianna Stone (Bree) – remains on the force as a detective. The lure and challenge of case-solving, and DCAK’s turning his episodes into personal taunting of Cross, brings him back into investigatory work.

Double Cross takes us to familiar Patterson territory as Cross the protagonist carefully analyzes the intentions of the two killers, eventually realizing their interconnection during a bizarre realization or two along the way.

I won’t reveal the ending, but as usual, Patterson gives himself an out – a chance to expand on the continuing saga of Kyle Craig in future novels.

And he does … at the end of “Cross Country,” previously reviewed in my Wanderings, Craig makes a cameo appearance when he phones Cross. Does this mean that Craig will be the featured antagonist in the upcoming “Cross Fire”?

Stay tuned.

Christmas Music

2009-12-19T09:48:00.003-10:00

I like Christmas music and am always sorry when they fall off the planet on December 26. Christmas songs add so much to the season, filling our days and nights with joy, wonder and hope.

We have been listening to Christmas music on radio station KBAY Gilmore and San Jose, which on the day after Thanksgiving went to a 24-hour Christmas music format.

For the wife and me, it’s one and a half hours of yuletide driving into San Francisco, and one and a half hours returning to San Jose – a total of three hours singing along with the spirit of the season.

This plethora – dare I say, “overexposure” – of Christmas songs has brought to focus some thoughts about the music:

1. The best Christmas music performances are by orchestras and chorales. There’s a magnificence that reaches down into soul and lifts your spirits like none other.

2. Although some of the recordings made since the ‘70s are delightful, in general the recordings by old-timers still rank at the top.

3. Pop singers who adapt Christmas songs to their own particular style usually aren’t successful in producing recordings that I enjoy. There are a few exceptions.

4. The best carols are the traditional ones that all of us are familiar with.

5. Novelty Christmas songs aren’t played enough. They never fail to bring a smile to my face.

I will probably expand upon these thoughts in the coming week. In fact, you can count on it.

Diamond Head in California?

2009-12-18T07:17:00.004-10:00

Our daily afternoon “zapping” appointment at UCSF Medical Center has been rescheduled to 11:45 in the morning, which now affords us whole afternoons to explore the Bay Area.

Yesterday, it was so warm and sunny that we swung off the freeway to visit Crystal Springs Lake, which we’ve seen when whizzing past it on the way from and back to San Jose.

There is, we discovered, a six-mile paved hiking trail called the Sawyer Camp Trail that connects up with the San Andreas Trail – yep, that’s San Andreas, as in the gigantic fault that’s gonna break one day and cause half of California to slide into the ocean.

Ah, but I digress.

The walk is a beautiful one, pretty close to the freeway yet low enough in the valley to virtually shut out the sound of traffic roaring by overhead.

One of the curious sights in the lake is a little man-made island with a small pile of rocks utilized, I’m guessing, to measure the depth of the water. There’s a pole sticking up from the middle with what looks like gradated markings.

Whatever its purpose, whoever pushed the rocks together formed what looks like the profile of the famous Waikiki icon – Diamond Head.

Whatcha think?

Seagulls, Seagulls, Seagulls

2009-12-17T07:08:00.006-10:00

Q&A for the day: What do you call a group of seagulls? A colony.

And that’s what I’ve seen every morning on the athletic field of Dartmouth Middle School near my son’s home in San Jose – a daily colony of California Seagulls.

They gather there by the hundreds throughout the morning, just crowding together on the field, carrying on their conversations as casually as can be. I’ve seen them as late as 1:30 p.m., so I assume the people at the school just leave them to their own business throughout the day.

Besides, who knows what an angry colony of seagulls will do when you intrude upon their space?

They’d probably dive-bomb your head with fishy poop, that’s what.

The Orange House

2009-12-16T06:48:00.003-10:00

On the I-280 San Jose-San Francisco drive, we pass a strange-looking house every day that we have come to refer to as the “Orange House.”

(Photo by the wife)

Not only is the house painted orange, it seems devoid of corners in a rounded orange-fruit sort of way. From a certain angle, it looks like a fat orange aardvark sticking its snout out from the forest.

You can see it when you’re driving north on I-280 toward San Francisco, just past the Bunker Hill Drive turnoff.

I understand it used to be called the “Igloo House” when it was painted white.

The fact of the matter is, it’s the experimental “infamous Flintstone House” in Hillsborough built in 1976 above the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

The community considered it pretty hideous, and it was the reason why the community formed an architectural review board to keep other such experimental homes out of their area.

The last time it went on the market, it sold for $800,000 in 1996.

Front Yard Christmas Trees

2009-12-15T07:11:00.002-10:00

In the San Jose neighborhood where my son lives, residents receive a post card in early December offering Christmas trees for sale.

Here’s what’s different about these: According to my son, the trees are delivered, set up, then later removed from the front yard. All the homeowner has to do is decorate them with lights and ornaments.

We did a little drive-around of the Almaden Winery subdivision the other night to view some of the early Christmas light set-ups, many of which had the little trees set up in their yards.

Good idea. Somebody was thinking.

I’m Quack!ing Up

2009-12-14T08:11:00.008-10:00

I’ve got this song stuck in my head. It’s not a song I’ve heard on the radio; it’s not a song from my past that dredges up nostalgic memories. It’s a song about a buncha ducks.

If you’ve been around little children recently, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Children’s songs are so catchy that they stick with you after you’ve heard them a couple of times.

The one I’m talking about is one my grandson hears on a daily basis. I need to write about it so I can get it out of my head:

6 Little Ducks

Six Little Ducks that I once knew,

Fat ones, fair ones, thin ones too.
But the one little duck with the feather on his back,
He led the others with a Quack! Quack! Quack!
Quack! Quack! Quack!

Quack! Quack! Quack!

He led the others with a Quack! Quack! Quack!

Down to the river they would go,

Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, ho hum ho.
And the one little duck with the feather on his back,
He led the others with a Quack! Quack! Quack!
Quack! Quack! Quack!

Quack! Quack! Quack!
He led the others with a Quack! Quack! Quack!

Home from the river they would go

Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, to and fro.
And the one little duck with the feather on his back,
He led the others with a Quack! Quack! Quack!
Quack! Quack! Quack!

Quack! Quack! Quack!
He led the others with a Quack! Quack! Quack!

This “Kiddie Song Ear Worm” syndrome has slapped me in the ears a couple of times before in my life – Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus.

Here … watch this video, and I challenge you not start singing along:

Unusual Roof Attachment

2009-12-13T08:48:00.008-10:00

During our drive into San Francisco on the I-280 Freeway that roughly parallels the U.S. 101 to the west, we’ve come across two vehicles with a strange roof attachment.

It looks like a cylindrical intake turbine that you sometimes see on warehouses.

(Photo by the wife)

Each time, the car was in one of the slower lanes, and keeping well within the speed limit. So far, we have seen a red car twice and the pictured black car once, each time on a stretch of the freeway that passes the back side of Palo Alto and Stanford University.

I can’t find anything about it in a Google search; in fact, I can’t even put together a decent set of search terms that produces any significant hits.

So … I surmise that … it’s a freeway emissions collector mounted on top of a low-particulate/low-polluting automobile, collecting data for a Stanford University study or on-going measurement of California highway pollution.

Whattaya think?

Sinners and Saints (Eileen Dreyer)

2009-12-12T06:45:00.001-10:00

Chastity Byrnes has a couple of issues to contend with – she’s deathly afraid of water, she has a sexual obsession, and she was abused by her father when she was young – all of which are interrelated.

Chastity Byrnes has a couple of situations to deal with – her sister is missing in New Orleans, a hurricane is bearing down on the city, and she has a brother-in-law she didn’t know existed.

Other than that, Chastity Byrnes is doing just fine. At least until page 9, when she receives a phone call while on the job as a forensics nurse in St. Louis – a phone call that puts her right smack dab in the middle of her phobia, her obsession, her past, a murder or two, and a hurricane.

Fighting against her strong misgivings, Chastity flies to New Orleans to find her sister, carrying with her all the baggage of her past.

Hooking up with a disfigured cabbie and a female forensics nurse she’s worked with before, she uncovers an intriguing story involving fertility clinics, voodoo mystery, and skeptical law enforcement.

The twist at the end was rather unexpected, but makes perfect sense when the details and suppositions are melded together. An acutely aware reader could probably suspect what totally went over my head, that … but wait, you need to find out for yourself.

The author of “Sinners and Saints” – Eileen Dreyer – is an accomplished writer, plunging forward with crisp narrative and dialogue to keep the reader turning the pages, while providing embellished descriptions where appropriate:

“She could feel whispery feet tiptoe right across her grave.”

“It even had a lawn landscaped within an inch of its live by somebody who thought that all plants should come in threes.”

“The buildings … looked as if they were spun from marzipan and iced with grillwork balconies.”

“Chastity … tasted the slow, seething energy of the place on her tongue.”

Good writing, good characters, good story. They all add up to a good book.