The Dead Man is the second book of Goldman’s Jack Davis series and is written in the first-person point of view and Goldman does a wonderful job of allowing his readers to delve into the mind of his protagonist Jack Davis. The book opens with a gruesome double-murder set in December of 1959. A sheriff arrives on the scene in time to find a man covered in blood clutching a little girl to him. The girl is Maggie Brennan and the blood covered male is her uncle. Little Maggie had just witnessed a man killing her parents and only barely managed to escape herself. The case was unsolved and the culprits were never caught.

The scene changes again and the readers are given the chance to see the lone survivor, Maggie Brennan, in the present time. Sixty years later, Maggie does not seem to have gotten over the murder of her parents. She dreams of a man who has come to finish what he started. And yet, after awakening from her nightmare she wonders why it is so easy to kill yet hard to die. The thought sends a shiver down the reader’s spine and delivers a hint of suspense and foreshadowing.

Flash forward to the present day; Jack Davis is a former FBI agent who was let go by the bureau as he suffers from a movement disorder, the cause and cure of which is unknown, that gives him chronic shakes which makes him no longer fit for duty. Davis’ friend, Simon Alexander, however has a job that he thinks he’s perfect for.

The Harper Institute of the Mind, owned and run by billionaire Milo Harper, is primarily aiming to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease. In the process, the institute is running many different tests and studies examining and attempting to understand the workings of the mind. One such study happens to be focusing on dreams and the people involved are dying. They’re not dying of natural causes either, because each one has died exactly how they dreamed they would. Now the Institute is facing a lawsuit that could shut them down. Harper needs someone to look into the study and the people involved and find out just what is going on. Jack Davis is his man.

Now, there are more than enough hints and foreshadowing throughout the book that the revelation of the murderer is not a surprise. In fact, by about halfway through the book, the identity of the murderer becomes rather glaringly obvious. This resulted in the creation of points in the story where the pace seemingly slowed down before once again picking back up. The reader, from the numerous clues and hints given, can already piece together ultimate conclusion while the protagonist is still stumbling along trying to solve the puzzle. This is, ultimately, what lead to the slowing of the story’s pace, and while it was irksome in some parts, it did not detract too much from the overall tale. The actual motivations of the killer were, however, quite a surprise and will definitely send a shiver down the reader’s spine.

Despite some segments where the story unfortunately began to lag, for the most part, Goldman’s The Dead Man is a well-paced, thrilling, and suspense-filled ride that refuses to let the reader go until the last word is read.

Joana’s Rating: (3 out of 5 stars)

In the year 2025, the event that teenagers are eagerly awaiting for is their seventeenth birthday, but it’s not for the reasons you might think. Their seventeenth birthday marks the day that they can get their own bar code tattoo. The tattoo is the epitome of efficiency and convenience. Each bar code is unique to the individual who wears it and it is tattooed, via laser, onto the right arm of the individual. The tattoo has all of your personal information just a scan away.

No need to worry about not having your identification on you in the case of an accident, all the police or doctors need to do is scan your bar code and they’ll know who you are, medical history, status of funds, place of residence – the whole shebang. Even shopping is made easier, as the cashier can scan your bar code at the checkout and computers will automatically withdraw the correct amount from your account; completely making the e-card (the replacement of credit and check cards) look obsolete.

Naturally you have your alarmists, who see conspiracy theories at every turn, speaking out against the tattoo and demanding that folks maintain the right to choose between the tattoo or other means. The tattoo violates the constitutional freedoms guaranteed to all citizens of the United States, argues those against the tattoo, a movement known as Decode. It [the tattoo] allows the government to literally track a person’s every movement and delve into their personal lives. But hey, if you’ve got nothing to hide then there’s no reason not to get the tattoo and conform. Right?

Meet Kayla Marie Reed, a sixteen year old high school student whose only concern is how to get into the art school of her choice when her computer grades, grades she was never informed would be an important deciding factor for art schools, are less than stellar. She’s a talented artist, but in this day and age, all that matters is what you can get a computer to do. Artists like her, who can actually draw, paint, and sculpt are being replaced. Money is tight in her family, ever since her father got tattooed things had been going downhill for them. Her only chance to go to college now is on a scholarship, one she’s told she’ll never get. Kayla firmly believes her life is over and it couldn’t possibly get any worse.

She’s completely wrong of course, over the course of a few months Kayla Reed goes from being an average high school student, to being a member of Decode, and eventually to being a fugitive on the run.

Over the course of the book, it is revealed that there is much more to the bar code tattoo than what the government is willing to disclose. Included in each person’s file is information that could mark one upstanding citizen as desirable and another as undesirable. It’s not some dark and hidden secret of the individual either, it’s something that can’t be helped – their genes. In a time where the world itself is being monopolized by a single company, known as Global, (whose CEO is even the current President of the United States) it’s ultimately up to this corporate power to dictate the future of the world.

Now I seem to recall that, a few years back, the movement that many insurance companies and businesses were taking to better their chances of not having to shell out thousands of dollars each year in medical benefits to employees. It kicked up a lot of fuss as well since, basically, it all boiled down to being denied benefits or job positions due to a choice in lifestyle: smoking. Some businesses and occupations began to deny jobs to those who smoked and began giving current employees the choice to either quit smoking or quit their jobs. Some health care polices refused to cover those who smoked. It was a right mess and raised the issue of infringing on the rights of individuals in order to save a buck.

In The Bar Code Tattoo Weyn takes the idea of a world where everyone citizen is nothing more than a number, where the undesirables are culled from the populace through ostracism, and runs with it. Perfectly good families fall on hard times after having been tattooed for seemingly no reason at all. The Thorn family is a prime example of this. The family was upper middle class, upstanding citizens, and fairly well off. They were in the process of moving into a new house and had sold their own home when something went wrong. The bank handling the purchase of their new home suddenly denied them, when previously all had been well, and no matter where they went, when the Thorn’s bar codes were scanned they were denied again. Soon they were without a home and then finally both parents had lost their jobs. There was something wrong with their bar codes, but what it was, they didn’t know. In the end Kayla’s best friend, Amber Thorn, and her parents were forced to move away to live with a relative in Nevada.

The Thorn family wasn’t the only one seeing things like this. All over the country, folks were rising up in their workplace’s hierarchy while others were finding themselves in hard times, all for seemingly no reason. The truth of the matter is revealed, midway, when Kayla at last views her father’s FBI file and gets her mother to speak out about what she knew from her time as a nurse. In every person’s file a “barcode” of their DNA is taken and analyzed. Those who are not found to be “superior” or have the potential for future health problems are being culled from society. At the same time, steps are being taken to ensure that babies who might have illnesses or problems in their lives never make it home; experiments are being conducted to better individual’s genes during and after birth; and those over eighty, who have the misfortune of being hospitalized, never leave the hospital. It’s all part of a plan to build a superior race of humans, and it’s being hidden from the public’s eyes. Those who speak out are painted as criminals and hunted down.

The Bar Code Tattoo touches upon key arguments that have been raised across the country since ease of access and availability became priorities. Where do the lines of privacy and security blur? Do we have the right to choose how we live or is conformity the only option anymore? While the story takes place in the not-so-distant future, readers will be easily able to draw parallels between the story’s fictional setting and our own very real one. Despite the futuristic slang, changing governmental structure, and advanced technology, Kayla’s world remains very similar to ours and the possibility of a future like Kayla’s is both eerily possible and frightening.

There were several glaring inconsistencies and miscellaneous errors that the author used to move the story along in the direction she intended rather than allowing it to arrive at it’s destination at it’s own pace. For example: rather than taking the time to have Kayla interact with the resistance members and also build on the characters in this group, the author sums up the events and happenings during Kayla’s time with the resistance through a lengthy email that Kayla sends to her friend Amber in chapter twenty-six. Never mind the fact that in chapter eighteen, Kayla had a startling realization that police could track her through her emails, especially if the parents of one of the recipients of her email were to report her. Why then, knowing this, would Kayla compromise the security of the resistance’s hideout to send a message to a friend who has not sent her any return correspondence in months?

Then there is the fact that the resistance’s location was compromised long before that email was even sent, yet Kayla never said a word to anyone about it. On her way to the resistance’s base she is discovered by two former schoolmates, Nedra and Zekeal, who are also members of Tattoo Generation a radical movement to enforce and support the bar code tattoo. Zekeal reveals that he knew to come look for her in this area because he recalled, during his time as a spy in Decode, that Kayla had mentioned meeting Eutonah, the leader of the resistance, and that Eutonah had instructed her to “remember the white face”. Zekeal states that later he realized that the ambiguous statement was a reference to Whiteface Mountain. Although she manages to elude them, it’s fairly obvious that both Nedra and Zekeal know the general location and direction of the base. Kayla never mentions this to Eutonah and everyone continues on as if life is just peachy. I find it very hard to believe that upon barely escaping your pursuers, a person would not mention to their saviors that the reason they were hiding was because the enemy is close and knows the location of their base.

Another detracting factor in this story lies in the flatness of its characters and the complete unbelievability of the romantic relationship between Kayla and Zekeal, and later, Kayla and Mfumbe. Initially Zekeal and Mfumbe were much alike in personality, demeanor, and speech. There were actually points where I was confused as to which was speaking. Likewise, the other members of Decode, Allyson and August, came across more as just flat one dimensional characters meant to fill up background space. With the start of Zekeal and Kayla’s relationship, more defining characteristics became apparent. This development was, however, overshadowed by the fact that Zekeal and Kayla’s budding relationship was flat and about as exciting as a slug crawling on the ground. The interactions between the two lacked any sort of romantic feeling which made instances where the two expressed their feelings for one another laughable. The same trend followed when Kayla and Mfumbe’s relationship began.

Ultimately, The Bar Code Tattoo is a fun and enjoyable read for young adults. More mature audiences will likely cringe at the obvious manipulations of the author to make everything fall perfectly into place for our heroine. Throughout Kayla’s journey the reader never truly fears for her safety. After all, whenever things get tough, she will come across people who also mistrust the tattoo and who are more than willing to save her. They’ll even make sudden appearances out of thin air and save the day just when she needs them. In short, while the premise is definitely intriguing, and the machinations of this story’s antagonists will keep readers biting their nails, the weaknesses of the story are enough to keep this book from ever being more than just “interesting” and “okay”.

Joana’s Rating: (3 out of 5 stars)

For over a decade now, FBI agent E.L. Pender has been hunting down leads on a serial killer whose kill count keeps rising and all attempts to capture him have proven futile. To make matters worse, no bodies have been found, just a long string of disappearances. The only thing in common that these women have is their strawberry blonde hair. Peddler and his fellow agents dub the serial killer “Casey”, a reference to the song “And the Band Played On” written by Charles B. Ward and John F. Palmer, since both the character in the song (Casey) and the killer have the same thing in common – their love of strawberry blonds.

Now, I’ve heard this song played a few times and it always seemed like such a cheery tune, but when Peddler sings the chorus during the first meeting of the FBI task force assigned to the “Casey” case, well, the lyrics take on a much more sinister meaning:

Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde,
And the band played on.
He’d glide cross the floor with the girl he adored,
And the band played on.
But his brain was so loaded it nearly exploded,
The poor girl would shake with alarm.

That chill that just ran down your spine from reading those lyrics will stay with you through out the entirety of this book and will even be magnified tenfold in some instances. Aside from an amazing ability to both intrigue and terrify the reader at the same time, Nasaw does a masterful job of juggling multiple points of views, a feat not many authors can lay claim to.

When the story opens up, we find that “Casey” has been captured by local police, although they have no idea who they really caught, and Pender is on his way to interogate him while he’s in custody. At this point we are also introduced to two other characters who will become pivotal to the story. Dr. Irene Cogan, a psychologist specializing in disassociate identity disorders who is hired by the court to determine whether “Casey”, or Max as it were, is fit to stand trial. The second woman who is introduced, well, I don’t want to spoil anything for you there. The point is, within the first five chapters the readers have already had their chance to be inside the heads of the main characters without the flow of the story being disrupted even once.

As the story progresses, the perspective often changes in order to not only give the reader a different angle from which to view the proceedings, but to also add depth and emotion to the new characters who are introduced. The hope, fear, and anger that each victim feels before meeting their end is magnified through this method. On top of this, the readers are granted yet another perspective of the main characters. It’s one thing to watch them through an omniscient point of view and quite another to see them masterfully drawn out from a myriad of first person point of views, all of which are tinged with the emotion of the current happenings. That doesn’t even take into account the multiple identities that make up Nasaw’s antagonist, all of which were remarkably written characters that felt like fully fleshed out pieces that fit together to make a whole.

The Girls He Adored is an exhilirating and terrifying novel all in one that had me hooked from start to finish. I honestly couldn’t put this book down, and when I finally did, my mind kept wandering back to it, trying to analyze everything I had read and look at it from a different angle. Nasaw’s antagonist, Max, is a truly frightening individual who could, without a doubt, give Hannibal Lector a few lessons in terror. He’s resourceful, cunning, highly intelligent, psychotic, and charming all at the same time!

Normally I like to drop a few tantalizing tidbits from the novel into the review, but in this case I have to say that any spoilers I could give would truly ruin the experience of following Peddler on his quest to apprehend Max before Cogan can become his next victim.

Joana’s Rating: (4 out of 5 stars)

The term “Stepford Wife” has become a staple of American pop culture. Everyone knows what a Stepford wife is even if they do not know or understand the exact origin of the term. With this in mind I decided to review this classic psychological/science fiction thriller in hopes of luring new readers to this piece.

I myself had not read this book until recently. I confess to being a fan of the 1975 film, and no I have not seen the remake, but I really never had gotten around to reading this book until last week. I am immensely glad that I did read it though.

The story takes place in the fictitious town of Stepford, Connecticut. Joanna Eberhart, the heroine of the story, has just recently moved in to the idealistic and peaceful town with her husband Walter and their two children. The first hint you get that something is not quite right is the blatant refusal of the citizens of the town to address women by their names, only as So-and-so’s wife or Mrs. Blank. If that doesn’t tip you off that things are a bit off then the women’s interest in nothing but cleaning and staying home should. Really, who waxes the floors while their husband is out boozing? Something the reader needs to remember is that this work of fiction is set during a much earlier time. Women were lobbying for fair and equal treatment as well as the right to vote. So the determination of the women of Stepford to cling to these patterns during the changing times is both odd but not completely way out there.

I have heard people say that this book’s ending was poorly done and too many questions were left unanswered. I disagree completely. This book is not meant to be a clear cut piece that tells a tale in just twelve easy steps. This is not the AAA people. Levin’s goal was to provoke emotion and thought, which is the goal of any thriller, and he did so magnificently. This book pushes the lines of one’s comfort level and makes the reader question not only themselves but society as well.

What is it we really seek to attain in life? What is the ideal and what is reality? Those are but a few of the questions that this book brings up and forces us to ask. But don’t think that the focus of this book is the housewives or that the emphasis is placed upon the perfection of these women. That is just the tip of the iceberg my friend and you must read and look deeper to catch Levin’s true meanings. This book has been acclaimed as a satirical piece as well for it satires the genre that it was written for. Keep that in mind while reading this.

The style that Levin uses to write this masterpiece is simple and flowing. Levin does not waste time in detailing the scenery and characters beyond the necessary. Instead the emphasis is placed upon the words and actions of the characters and there are no cluttering or flowery effects to detract from this. I have heard critics cite this style of writing as amateurish and lacking. Here’s a newsflash, it’s not. Rather the style of writing utilized by Levin adds to the story and makes the tale’s climatic scenes and haunting cliffhangers that much more poignant.

Have you only watched the movie, as was my case? If so you’re doing this tale a great disservice. I advice all readers to go out and pick up a copy today. You will place it among your favorite works upon completion.

Joana’s rating: