This evening, on MSN...

My eBuddy screen.

Combo of the century.

The fact that they know each other in real life makes it even more awesome.

Second edit:

Combo x2.

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John Connolly's Bad Men.

Also from my mum's friend, Bad Men is set mostly on an island with a bloody and violent history, as the initial settlers there were massacred, and from then on, any person of villainous and immoral character will be found in the woods in very horrific circumstances. The titular bad men are escaped convict Moloch, and his gang. Moloch has been having dreams about the island and he wants payback, as his wife took off with the money and gave the police enough evidence to send him to jail. Unbeknownst to him, Marianne, as she's currently known, is also staying on said creepy island. It is this place that both sides, good and bad, will converge (I seem to be using this word a lot), and this is the place where the bad ones will get their hineys kicked.

No doubt, Bad Men is a thrilling and intriguing ride, but I found some instances a bit too sadistic and graphic for my taste. Also, the characters weren't really fully explained. 'frinstance, Willard, one of Moloch's men, is a child-like man who basically likes to torture and mutilate the crap out of people. Though it may seem predictable, I would've liked to see how he came to be, a history of the guy, so to speak. Willard is very twisted, and like his fellow bad men, makes for very interesting reading.

There is also no explanation on why Moloch keeps having his dreams about the island (the book hints at reincarnation, but I would've preferred something a bit more concrete). And also, if Marianne could recognise the ghost (albeit a rather decayed version of herself) she saw at the end, why couldn't Moloch? And why would Marianne's past life enact revenge on Moloch? Yes, Moloch's also a bad person, but unless Moloch's original self has been alive these past three hundred years, there's really no reason why the ghost would want to kill Moloch.

Not to say that "Know me, husband," is not one of the most terrifying lines I've ever read.

Besides that, there could've been a back-story for the Grey Girl, the ghost of a little girl who wants to take another life in return for the one she lost, and only preys on the dying or the severely-wounded. She gets what she wants at the end of the story, but I feel that her purpose in the story is just to be able to add the word 'ghost' as a tag. I mean, the ghost of a random little girl can't be THIS powerful, even though she probably died Ju-On style.

All in all, Bad Men is quite a good read if you like atmospheric ghost stories. If you're into backstories like I am, there isn't much about the island (besides the necessary massacre) and its hidden dwellers.

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Paul Sussman's The Last Secret of the Temple.

Set in the Middle East, with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a backdrop, Temple follows the stories of three people: Yusuf Khalifa, a detective investigating a routine murder in Egypt, but finds out that it may be connected to the murder of an Israeli woman, very first case he worked on; Layla al-Madani, a Palestinian journalist reporting on the conflict, receives an anonymous letter stating that an artifact of enormous power and significance is finally able to end the conflict in favor of the Palestinians; and Arieh Ben-Roi, an Israeli detective still depressed over the death of his wife due to a suicide bombing, who is forced to work with Khalifa as the Israeli woman's address is within his station's jurisdiction. As Khalifa and Ben-Roi digs deeper and Layla tracks down the clues to the artifact, they finally converge, as both parties within Palestine and Israel wish to end the conflict peacefully before any more innocent lives are taken.

I have but one word:

Awesome.


This is one of the best books I've ever read, and unlike many books, there is really no filler, no random fact or situation to give color to the setting. Every single thing is relevant, and if it doesn't seem that way at first, Sussman is able to bring even the tiniest detail mentioned into the story at a later stage without it being obvious or awkward. As with every book, you have your obligatory twists, but this book sets you up so well that it pulls a fast one at the last minute, and everything explains itself nicely.

Even the end of the book is a cliffhanger. I won't tell, but initially I'd skipped to the end and skimmed, and panicked when I read it. Thankfully, I was wrong.

It's an amazing, amazing read. And it's not even something I picked up at the store; my mum's friend got it for me by the hotel swimming pool.

[Tourists buy books, read them, and leave them behind. Apparently, other guests are allowed to take them.]

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