Reading for the heck of it

Update: I never received That Hideous Strength. I'm trying to find a copy of it now. :-(

The Rubber Band follows a young woman on a quest to solve a mystery and fulfill a promise owed to her father (recently deceased). Of course, nothing is every simple in a Nero Wolfe mystery so from the beginning there is murder, intrigue, and suspicion on all sides. Wolfe (and Archie!) are at their best in this novel and the story culminates in a shocking ending that left me with my mouth agape in wonderment.

The Red Box started out in the style of a whodunit except where the suspects were numerous but the motive was unknown. As the story progresses, the mystery mounts around a core group of people (a family in fact) and Wolfe is forced to switch clients (unheard of for him) as the cast of characters is whittled down by murder. You can feel the mounting frustration with each turn of the page as Archie is left out of the loop (nothing new there really) and the lack of evidence takes a toll on the master detective.

Honestly, if you enjoy a riveting mystery novel then either (or both) will sate your appetite.

As you know, I occasionally do early review work for publishers and authors. My next title, #zombie, falls under that heading. Written by Al K. Line, the story follows two hackers, an infant, and an overweight dog as they navigate a new world overrun by zombies. The twist is that Ven (the pre-imminent hacker extraordinaire) is the CAUSE of the zombie catastrophe. Line has come up with a unique scenario of how a zombie apocalypse could begin. What if it all started with a computer hack that perpetuated itself through links on Facebook, hashtags on Twitter, and ads on YouTube? Could it be stopped? How could you avoid becoming infected?