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Book Review: ‘Damaged’ by Alex Kava

Title: Damaged
Author: Alex Kava
Genre: Crime/Thriller

Storyline: A floating box of body parts, an approaching category 5 hurricane and a fatal mystery outbreak at a naval medical facility lead to a rollercoaster of a ride for FBI Profiler Maggie O’Dell as she gets involved with the Pensacola Coastguard in working out where the body parts came from. Her “friend” Col. Benjamin Platt in the meantime is also deployed, without her knowledge, to the Pensacola Naval facility to investigate the mysterious deaths of multiple patients who are all succumbing to an unknown virus.

With twists, turns and interweaving storylines the clock is ticking…

Review: It’s always interesting picking up a new author – well, new to me anyway. Having read loads of different crime and thriller books, from a good variety of authors, I had decided to try out another writer to see what they were like (always on the lookout for more books to stuff my shelves with 🙂 )

Damaged was a strange book in that the tagline on the cover never really comes to the fore, leaving you expecting something that doesn’t materialise. You are always aware that the three main strands, four if you include the hurricane, are going to collide at some point and this can feel a bit frustrating as I found myself almost shouting at the book because the obvious seemed to be overlooked far too often.

I don’t want to come over as being down on this book, but it’d be a lie if I didn’t express disappointment. There’s no real profiling involved, which was something that I was looking forward to, and the first 2/3’s feels drawn out with the final 1/3 feeling rushed and needing more room to breathe. In fact the final page came as a complete shock as it did feel as though Kava had set herself a page target, hit it, and stopped dead.

In a genre that is packed full of knowledgeable, tense, and well-written books this is an average story and as a result it was a disappointment. Would I buy more of her books? Sure, so long as they are in the bargain bins – I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to buy them otherwise.

Score: 3/5

P.S. Yeah, I know it’s been a LONG time since I last reviewed a book or anything but I thought I’d give it another shot and expand to cover music, movies and stuff as the mood takes me. Especially as I am now a music reviewer for Cross Rhythms. 😉

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Opening doors, new chapters, excitement and a few wistful thoughts (but no regrets)

Summer. A time for kids to have fun with no school work. A time for holidays and family memories. A time where companies are always short-staffed whilst staff jet off all over the place paying the extortionate rates that the travel companies charge. A season of, in Britain at least, changeable weather and unpredictability.

Summer.

For the last three years it has also marked a big season of change for us. Not something people associate with Summer – Spring and Autumn are the changing seasons after all.

3 summers ago, in 2009, a potato company I worked for went bust. Don’t ask me HOW a spud firm can go bust but this one managed it. Last summer venture capitalist funding got pulled on a startup company that I was very fond of. This summer, a change again as a door closed.

Some folks might feel paranoid, superstitious or wonder what is wrong with them. Us… we knew it was coming. It helps when the big guy upstairs paves the way for you. Doesn’t mean that it’s easy, or even pain-free, but there is a reassurance and comfort in knowing that it’s part of a plan.

It’s crazy – plenty of folks have commented now about this becoming a feature of our holidays, our summers… but this will hopefully be the last one for a while. We’ve been put through the forge, honed, prepared and led to this point – we don’t know fully why or for what purpose but there is a reason and a plan, a future and a hope. This one has the feel of being the culmination of what has gone before and heralding a new beginning for us as a family.

The thing about new doors opening, is that other doors close as a result. When you walk through one new opportunity, it means that you’ve moved on from where you were.

And no matter how exciting it is to know that God is in control, it’s always sad to move on from where you are at. No regrets, but a few tears and some wistful thoughts to take along.

I start at my new job on the 5th September (hopefully – got all the criminal checks etc first :-D) and we’re already looking at where that leaves us, where we should go and when. Today was one of those small steps out of one thing and towards the next as I stepped down from the Production Department at KingsGate. I’ve had a blast in the last three years doing all sorts of crazy stuff and being able to play a part in impacting peoples lives, but this was the time to move on and to reflect on what I’ve learnt – technically, spiritually, personally and more.

The future is exciting. I’ve always said that if I picked on verse as a “life” verse it would be Jeremiah 29:11-13:

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

There are nerves – this is likely to be a time of huge change for us as a family. There is a thrill – we’re stepping into something that is coming from someone infinitely more than we are. There is sadness at moving on, but joy as well.

In the words of Matt Smiths Doctor – GERONIMO!

😉

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Sore throats, Soaring Spirits and SeeSaw Weather – BCDO Part 2

As the God channel are broadcasting the event this weekend, it seems a fairly good time to finish off my two part Big Church Day Out Diary! The first part was on last night and the 2nd part is on tonight at 9pm. Sky+ it, record it, wheel out the old VHS if you have to – and if you don’t get the God channel quickly get to know someone who does and get them to record it for you – you will not regret it. Anyway, on with the blog…

Heavily laden with chairs, food, drink and more, we set out from our tent on each of the two days to go and pick a decent spot and enjoy what was on offer at the Big Church Day Out 2011. The walk from the campsite to the main stage was not particularly far, but it was across some pretty funky terrain (the campsite had 2″ wide troughs in parallel lines every 6 feet which someone always managed to trip in) and the hill was deceptively steep. The weather didn’t know what it wanted to do, and the winds were especially unkind – with many people ending up with damaged tents, and even one of the main stage banners having come down.

With our territory claimed and marked, we settled in – with each of us wandering off every now and then with the kids, or on our own, just to explore the marketplace and the other activities on offer. Whilst people were still turning up the organisers showcased some of the acts who would be on the UCB Stage or the Tea Tent, with each act getting to perform a song and introduce themselves a bit. This was a great way to drum up interest in the smaller venues and I’ve no doubt that it will have been an effective tool in introducing people to some of the less mainstream artists.

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We’re going on a Big Day Out… Part 1

For those who were there, either this year or last, the above title will probably have you humming an annoyingly catchy little ditty written by the one-and-only Graham Kendrick as the “un”official theme song for the Big Church Day Out.

Yes I know it’s been a few weeks but life has been really crazy since we got back from our exodus down sarf and I’ve only really started to catch up on all my thoughts – but sit back and let me tell you of miracles, divine intervention, mini-reunions and some of the best Christian music that is out there right now.

For those that don’t know, the Big Church Day Out has just had it’s 2nd annual event in the grounds of Wiston Hall. It’s a family orientated affair featuring a main stage full of the biggest names on the music scene, a second stage featuring lesser known (but not lesser talented!) artists and then a load of activities, stalls, charities and more to ensure that there is no way you can possibly get bored (unless you’re a tired 9 year old boy but that’s a different matter really)

We’d decided, after going to the midlands event last year, that we would take advantage of the free camping offer (due to there NOT being a midlands event this year) and head down for the two day event – figuring that it would be fun camping for the first time as a family and that doing both days would allow us all to enjoy the main artists at least once, making it less of a stress if the kids didn’t want to sit through your favourite artist. My brother was immediately up for it, and we made a last-minute decision to invite one of our daughters best friends (2 teenage girls – was that *really* wise??? read on…)

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Cleansed, Challenged and Changed

Encounters with God are meant to be life-changing, releasing and sometimes very humbling events. This should be something that happens on a regular basis within our Churches, and I’m very pleased to be part of a Church where that is often the case. However, for one weekend in June, KingsGate Community Church becomes a highly passionate focus for life-changing freedom as it hosts an annual retreat for people who have done/are doing the Cleansing Stream course – including many from different Churches across England.

Cleansing Stream is a series of teachings designed to help unearth and, more importantly, tackle issues that have a profound and often crippling effect upon peoples lives. The course itself isn’t without it’s detractors and has courted some fairly controversial reviews, especially across the pond. All I can say is that, doing the course myself this year, I have no doubts as to it’s legitimacy, it’s effectiveness nor it’s biblical foundation. I also have a huge amount of trust and respect for the discernment and knowledge of the KingsGate leadership, and know that they wouldn’t be a part of it if this was in any way unbiblical.

The teaching evenings include a time of worship, with a group of intercessors being present to pray for all the participants by name and who then go into a seperate room to continue to pray whilst the teaching is delivered. Because the subjects are so very personal, there is further study work that helps to get us thinking about the issues discussed and examine how they might be a part of our own lives.

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