An Economics Thriller?

The Economics of Ego Surplus: A Novel of Economic Terrorism by Paul McDonnold

When I was first approached by Paul McDonnold to read and review The Economics of Ego Surplus, I was curious. For one, I had never heard of an economics thriller before. Two, I thought it would be interesting to read a piece of fiction with economics as its central theme. While I have no particular interest in the subject of economics, I do respect it, especially as I hear a great deal about it from my father who is an expert on all things to do with economics. McDonnold allowed me a glimpse of his novel before I decided I would like to read it. That ten-page glimpse got me quite excited to read further for there was something so very Ayn Rand-ish about it. There was a sense of something huge to come, and with all the power that seemed to exist in that one room of the first scene, I simply couldn’t wait to start.

Before I go any further into my thoughts about and reactions to this book let me brief you in on the story. There is a terrorist plot afoot. But this time it has nothing to do with bombings or gunnings. Instead, the U.S. stock market is being threatened. Kyle Linwood is called in to help discover how exactly the terrorists plan on having the market crash on such a large scale. Linwood goes from point to point or rather, person to person before he is able to understand how such a thing can happen. Obviously, whoever is planning this has to have solid financially backing or be financially sound. The trail leads him and the FBI agent, Marshall, to the opulent city of Dubai where they finally nab the terrorists.

Now, I am not sure if my expectations were too high, but I had a problem with this novel. In theory, the story sounds fascinating. But as the plot unfolds its ‘thriller’ quotient is almost non-existent. The reason why Linwood, a mere graduate student, is called in to help with the investigation was rather flimsy. At the end his part was to collect data on the possibility of the market crashing on a large scale – something that an expert economist, or the couple of them mentioned in this book, could have provided the FBI with had they asked. Then there was the whole case with an assassin and finally the terrorists themselves – everything was simply too easy…too convenient.

However, keeping in mind the fact that when McDonnold asked me if I could review his novel he said, “…The Economics of Ego Surplus…helps the reader understand how the global economy works while being entertained” I think perhaps he has succeeded in that respect. Through Linwood, McDonnold shows us how economics is not some scholarly, unreachable subject, but something that every single person has dealings with in their everyday activities. He breaks economics down in to everyday living making it easy to understand certain concepts, especially in relation to the rise and fall of the stock market and the part both the government and the layman play in it. Again, I was not convinced at the way all these concepts were delivered in terms of moving the plot along, but the concepts stay with you.

To summarise, while I would not rate this novel as a good thriller, I would recommend it as a good way to get beginners interested in economics. Therefore, as a thriller I would give it a mere 2/5 but as an introduction to economics while being entertaining I would give it a 4/5.

Forbidden Mind: Content like X-Men, reads like Percy Jackson

Forbidden Mind by Kimberly Kinrade

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got a kindle version of this novel(la) from Smashwords when I found it was going free for a few days at For the Love of Reading. What grabbed my attention about this book was its whole X-men-like theme (I love the X-men!). The premise is this – A school, nicknamed Rent-A-Kid, educates and trains children with paranormal powers. These kids and their powers are leant out to the highest bidder who needs to dig up dirt or take revenge on someone. But, when these kids turn eighteen they are allowed to “retire” and pursue their own lives. Sam is about to turn eighteen and she’s looking forward to a ‘normal’ life in college when all of a sudden her entire life turns upside down on her first meeting with a new-comer into Rent-a-Kid. The rest of the book is a question of whether or not Sam and her friends will survive what they know.

Right from beginning to the end this book is fast paced. No words are wasted. The writer has a plan and she does not deviate a single bit. Things happen so fast you find yourself at the edge of your seat all the time! If I were looking for another book to compare this style of story-telling to, I would pick Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. This novel does not pretend to be anything that it is not. If you’re looking for some racy adventure, with so many things happening so quickly together; if you’re looking for something that is nail-bitingly exciting and refuses to drag its feet, then this book is worth a read.

Simply put, it is exciting!

Intrigue

Intrigue by Grace Cavendish

I picked this book right off a library shelf. I was the cover that caught my attention first, with a woman in an Elizabethan gown. Since historical fiction interests me a big deal it isn’t any wonder that I picked this up. A quick glance at the blurb further piqued my curiosity.

And so I read it – Intrigue by Grace Cavendish, the ninth book from The Lady Grace Mysteries series.

To begin with, Grace Cavendish is not only the psuedonym for Jan Burchett and Sarah Vogler, it is also the name of the main character; Lady Grace Cavendish, a private spy appointed by Elizabeth I herself. To make it quite clear, this young lady spy is fictional, though the queen isn’t! She is among the Queen’s Maids of Honour, and is portrayed like a modern day tom-boy -  a girl who enjoys mystery and intrigue. The authors, in their note to the readers at the end of the book state how the entire series is set in the years of 1569 and 1570. I gather that there are some twelve books in the series, and while one might wonder how there can be twelve mysteries in two years, it does strike me that the Court of Elizabeth I was indeed full of intrigue!…especially with a few people not happy with a woman as their sovereign ruler.

But I seem to have digressed! We get back to the Intrigue. A new play is in town by the same name – a murder mystery that is left to the audience to solve. Elizabeth I is eager to watch the play, so much so that she is too impatient to wait for the troup to come to the Court. Her whole entourage converges on an ordinary inn to watch the play and solve the mystery. But things get out of hand as a murder is committed in the Queen’s presence and Grace finds that she has a real mystery on her hands. Grace takes us through a series of diary entries as she conjectures and procures evidence to solve the murder of Richard Fitzgrey, the actor.

I have always enjoyed reading mysteries; and as mysteries go, this is above average. I found that the writers had got their facts vastly right. I wasn’t too sure about a few others. For instance, did tennis as a game, exist during Elizabeth I’s reign? I thought that the Queen’s character was down pat. None of the characters, though, struck a chord…but then, I guess, that is only natural in a mystery story.

I didn’t at all like the format in which the story was written. I thought it would have worked better as a straight forward narrative (either in the first or third person) instead of as a journal. I guess this idea must be a rip off from The Princess Diaries, but as I have only ever seen the movies and not read the books of the latter it must only remain conjecture. As a journal the whole project was a flop. Lady Grace Cavendish sure did choose the oddest times and places to make her diary entries. Plus, of one really thinks about it, you wouldn’t suspect her of being too caught up with her investigating if she could find so much time to write all about it as she went along! Also, I figured, as diary entries go it was rather contrived in portraying the setting of the story as one usually wouldn’t go into certain ‘unimportant’ details if there is a major plot. I’m talking about strange instances when Grace would suddenly mention what she and all the Maids of Honour were wearing, and all their trivial woes in the midst of the telling of an intrigue!

So then, this wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but I would very much recommend it young readers who enjoy reading stories set in the Elizabethan period and like a decent mystery.

Note: On Goodreads I gave it three stars for its plot.

The Black Arrow

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson

Finally!! After weeks and weeks of reading this book I am finally done! The Black Arrow simply has to be the dullest book I have ever read! Masquerading as a swashbuckling novel of merely a couple of hundred pages, I found it to be slow in language, contrived in style, pathetic in characterisation, and sloppy of plot. If you’re wondering why I plodded my way through this then…well…I can only say that once having started it I figured I simply had to finish it.

The story is set during the period of the wars between the two disctinct branches (also known as the red and white roses) of the Plantagenet line. Its protaganist is a young man by the name of Richard Shelton who will stop at nothing to save the woman he is in love with. He enlists the help of the league of the Black Arrow - a bunch of outlaws and outcasts – and gets involved in the war that rages around him.

*SPOILER WARNING*

The brief summary doesn’t sound to bad, does it? Except that Richard Shelton is an extremely weak character who inspires absolutely nothing in the reader…at least, he invoked no positive response from me! He was dithering lad with plenty of bravado but no wisdom or commonsense. And while this does not necessarly make a protaganist unworthy (in fact it does not if the characterization is done well) Richard was plainly a fool. One must give him credit for seeing it himself at the end of the novel, but I did wonder what it was that Joanna (the heroine) found in him!

The characterization was so dreadfully shallow. There wasn’t a single character that was rounded. They were all as flat and dry as cardboard. And it seemed to me that the only reason young Dicky survives right up till the end of the novel is because he had the good fortune of being the author’s main guy. I suspect that this could never have passed as a real-life story! Every single person I came across in the novel seemed  to be naive in some way or the other. In fact, I feel, this entire plot works out on the navity and flooshiness of everybody involved.

But what really got my goat was the character of Joanna’s best friend, Alicia Risingham. Her role, seemed to be, much like the role of the jesters and fools in Shakepeare’s plays. Outwardly light-hearted and full of fun, it is she who disects Richard’s character bit by bit – but she herself is as uninteresting as the above mentioned cardboard. This would perhaps be because of how she was grieving for her dead uncle one day and the very next had completely forgotten her own grief as her friend gets married. No. She forget on the same day she realises, actually. As for the men of the Black Arrow, at the beginning one thinks they are going to play a major part in the plot, but they are pushed deep into the woods whence the came from and reappear piece-meal, at the end.

This last is a pity, especially as they sound as interesting as Robin Hood and his merry men. If anything, I suspected that they were perhaps the same…or they were used as a model by Stevenson.

The language, as I have mentioned before, was very contrived. More so when there was dialogue as Stevenson tries to imitate a language and style he could only have read from books of that era. While this particular form would not seem odd, for instance, in Chaucer’s works, it was very, very odd and detrae cted from the story in this book. I suppose as the first is based in contemporary world, and therefore well known, the language cannot be contrived, while in the latter case it just wasn’t the same through lack of living it. Stevenson’s descriptions were good, but the dialogue simply gave me a headache (perhaps this explains the headaches I’ve been having these past three days??).

And speaking of descriptions, there is this one phrase that has stayed with me

So they ran on, holding each other by both hands, exchanging smiles and lovely looks, and melting minutes into seconds… (my emphasis)

The Black Arrow is thus sprinkled with few pretty phrases like that, and I will admit to being reminded of the swashbuckling movies of old. It is a very fast-paced story, albeit it ends in a dreadful hurry in the end.

No. It definitely made a bare impression.

Death in the Stocks

Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer

A wealthy mine owner is found dead in a little village. It’s a neat crime that leaves even Scotland Yard all at sea. When a man has had many enemies and no one seems to moan him nobody is a fit suspect. But then there is motive and detective Hannasyde has his hands full trying to prove a member of Vereker’s family guilty.

It’s a rather typical who-done-it mystery, with quite enough dust thrown, not only in the investigators’ eyes but in the eyes of the reader as well. I thought the plot was quite good, but the characters were rather irritating. None of them were in the least endearing nor worthy of sympathy. The only character that showed any promise of being interesting turned out to have rather a back-seat role. I refer to Hannasyde. The blurb, I think, is rather misleading as it suggests Hannasyde to have a role pretty much like Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. Georgette Heyer’s wit is spread rather liberally through out the mystery, but while this particular brand of with works very well with her Regency Romances, it seems rather out of place in this setting. The characters, almost all of them, are rather flippant and careless in all that they do and say (which makes them all suspect), and, personally, I was very sceptical about their attitude toward the whole case. Many instances seemed realistically improbable.

Nevertheless, Death in the Stocks was an interesting enough read. If you like to wonder and guess, it’s a good story. After reading many of it’s kind one becomes adept at guessing who the murderer would be right from the start, but this one kept me guessing almost till the end.