Book club discusses "House Rules" [December]

In December the book club ended the year with a book discussion of a topical thriller set largely in Washington, D.C. with fictional character Joe DeMarco. A lawyer by profession, DeMarco works secretly for the Speaker of the House as a troubleshooter--or "bag man" depending on how one would explain his work--and gets involved in some hair-raising adventures.

House Rules by Mike Lawson was the book club's selection with DeMarco running down the possible reasons for a certain family's involvement in a Muslim-based terrorist attack in the United States. Here's a photo of Lawson from his website.

Speaker of the House John Mahoney has long-time ties to that Muslim family and he dispatches DeMarco to investigate their connection to the incident. And his work also coincides with an ambitious senator pushing for legislation to have extensive background checks on all Muslims in the United States.

DeMarco's legwork stretches to cover a series of attempted Muslim terrorist attacks. Along the way, DeMarco begins a new long distance relationship and enlists the aid of one very resourceful ally while also getting the services of a unlikely (and much undesired) ally .

Some observations included:

• rounding up all Muslims would be a logistical nightmare when attempting to determine if each person actually is a Muslim
• the novel had some nice touches with the set-up with a hidden meth lab and surprising murders
• another nice touch--tough women characters on both sides of the law
• the novel ends with a satisfying resolution for a long running subplot throughout the book
• one attendee enjoyed this book more than the past three previous novels
• some attendees expected more suspense in the story
• one attendee who read all books in the series said the newest book House Secrets is the best of the series.

Writer (and TV producer) Stephen J. Cannell--

I've run across a recent entertainment news story about NBC-TV lining up new dramas and one show, in particular, makes me smile if it manages to make it the screen. The 70s hit TV show "The Rockford Files" may get a reboot from NBC and I'm reminded of the talented Stephen J. Cannell's handiwork with the show. Cannell was a writer, producer and creator of the series and worked on others over the years.

The trademark ending of the show with Cannell banging out a page on a typewriter and throwing it in the air was an excellent way to relate to his continuing writing career (the resulting paper would turn into his company logo [take a look here from YouTube]). And as it turns out, he has kept the creative juices flowing by writing novels in recent years.

I have seen his books but haven't read any yet--although I think I would enjoy his work. Mainly, he writes a series with a Los Angeles police detective Shane Scully. The next book in the series is The Pallbearers and is due next month.

Writer Dick Francis dies--

I enjoy sports but horse racing was not one that greatly holds my interest. Former champion steeplechase jockey and sports writer Dick Francis was able to wisely and craftfully continue his love of the sport into another career by writing mysteries set with horse racing themes.

The author blurb in Francis' books jackets say that the author rode as a jockey until he couldn't physically and switched to writing a weekly racing column for the London Sunday Express. From the newspaper writing came the foray into crime fiction and Francis was off and running with titles such as High Stakes and Flying Finish.

Lucky Francis struck paydirt with his books and penned 42 novels until his death at 89. Here's a googled pix of Francis as shared on his book jackets from several years back.

I never read any of Francis's work (I did like the sylist book covers for his series though) but one co-worker liked his novels and wondered aloud if his son Felix would continue the crime writing work. Felix worked with his father on the three most recent Dick Francis titles in our library system. So if the son continues to follow the father's lead, we'll all know in due time.

Mystery reading on the go--

At this time, I'm content to listen to music on my (inherited, so to speak) iPod but after browsing through the weekly neighborhood newspaper insert last week--a version of "Parade" magazine--I ought to consider stepping up my game. I read a mini-profile of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and it included that on her iPod, she listens to thrillers and mysteries aside from music.

I prefer to read books but sometime in the future I ought to try my iPod with a mystery. My big drawback is for book clubs (or writing a book review), I want the item in print to review.

Here's a googled pix of Rachel.