reviews

There's no excuse for murder...? Author:  Kevin Davis It’s so basic that most of us learned it as children.  You’re responsible for your actions.  If you do something wrong, you should be punished accordingly.  Our entire legal system is founded on this concept.  But what if it’s not that simple?  What if something is unequivocally wrong with your brain?  Does that give you a free pass?  Can a tumor or some other neurologic defect excuse a violent act like murder?  It’s a profoundly disturbing idea, but recent advances in criminology and neurology suggest that it may be an idea whose [...]

Marriage, Murder, and Mundane Musings Author: Joanne Fluke Marriage really starts when the honeymoon is over, and Hannah isn’t fated to have much of a honeymoon. A week-long cruise in stifling proximity to her new spouse has a dramatic end when murder calls Hannah back to the festering hotbed of lies and deception quaintly known as Lake Eden. It seems that Mayor Bascomb’s talented sister, leader of all local plays, has been viciously murdered in her own condo. The grisliest aspect – Hannah’s mother heard the fatal gunshot and discovered the body, and now intends to fully participate in the [...]

A Vietnam vet's quest to make amends Author: Matthew Quick Matthew Quick’s eighth novel, The Reason You’re Alive, should be required reading for every American right now. With politics having splintered our country into “us” versus “them,” we often dismiss others because they hold differing convictions. It’s rare—and, frankly, discomfiting—to want to climb into someone else’s head and understand the basis for his or her beliefs. Yet this is what Quick demands of us in his book: he places us smack dab in the opinionated, profanity-laced mind of 68-year-old David Granger. Whether or not the reader agrees with David’s principles, [...]