Expect, No…Mercy

The Long Road to Mercy – David Baldacci (Grand Central)

Since his debut thriller, Absolute Power, some 23 years ago in 1996, I have been a fan of bestselling author David Baldacci. Through his amazing catalog of work and his multitude of successful characters and series he has done an amazing job of weaving enthralling tales and creating compelling story leads.

So it was no surprise that Baldacci would once again launch a new character to lead the way with his latest book, The Long Road to Mercy, in the form of FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine. Right from the first page I thought we were off to the races on another amazing thrill ride. Pine makes late night visit to the Colorado based Florence ADX, super-max prison to have a chat with serial killer and mountain sized Hannibal Lecter-like, Daniel James Tor, who she believes is responsible for the disappearance of her twin sister Mercy.

With shades of Clarice Starling confronting Lecter at the Plexiglass divider I was strapped in a ready for what I thought was certain to come! And then the story took a hard turn and veered off into a tale involving the murder and mutilation of a Grand Canyon mule and the mysterious circumstances that surround it. What? The word LONG in the title is very apt, because this one goes on a long and winding road to introduce Pine and her background while mixing in a twisted tale involving international intrigue, a so-called suitcase nuke, mysterious North Korean thugs and a shadowy bunch of consultants and think tank operatives. What?

I hung in for the story to see exactly where it would go and end up and in the end thought it would be a good story for a beginning novelist, but I wasn’t sold that this was up to Baldacci’s standards. Here’s hoping the title The Long Road to Mercy, lives to its billing in the second book and Baldacci sends Pine on an ongoing search for answers involving her sister.   

The Tale of Two Cookbooks

I love cookbooks because of the sheer diversity of their style and approach to cooking, because I love to try new things and learn new techniques or methods for preparing food. Two recent additions to the shelf approach things from very different directions; one focused on an almost snout to tail approach to cooking, with nothing going to waste and the other an easy home cooking, simple recipe approach.

  

Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse: Another Cookbook of Sorts – Fredric Morin, David McMillan, and Meredith Erickson (Knopf)

Adventurous and dynamic may just barely scratch the surface of the Joe Beef approach to cooking and food. Part cookbook and part gourmet survival guide Fredric Morin, David McMillan, and Meredith Erickson team up to serve up Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse: Another Cookbook of Sorts, is a rambling affair chock full of intriguing recipes (150!) along with a carefully curated selection of essentials to stock up your larder to make surviving the apocalypse less trying.

The trio load Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse: Another Cookbook of Sorts, with tales and reminiscences about long lost summers and unique Sunday dinners. The fact that they are based in Montreal may be a contributing factor to some of the difficulty sourcing some of the ingredients suggested in the book. Not a great choice for the beginning cook, there is a level of skill need to successfully pull some of these recipes off; but the stories make this worth the price of admission.

Comfort Food Shortcuts: An "In the Kitchen with David" Cookbook from QVC's Resident Foodie – David Venable – (Ballantine)

A 20 plus year veteran of the shopping network OVC, David Venable is dubbed the channel’s resident foodie and has successfully introduced curious shopper to a wide range of new gizmos and innovative devices and tools to make meal preparation simple and easy.

Simple and easy is the focus of Venable’s latest cookbook, Comfort Food Shortcuts: An "In the Kitchen with David" Cookbook from QVC's Resident Foodie, which is loaded with 110 recipes that utilize many of the time saving devices that he sells through QVC, combined with great shortcuts that will make it easy to get great tasting food that will become favorites for the whole family.

Busy schedules can make family dinners non-existent, but this simple, stripped down approach combined with easy shortcuts on the ingredients used in things like slow cookers and pressure cookers to simplify the whole process. Think great meals with less muss and no fuss.