BOOK REVIEW - "DOUBLE PROTECTION DUTY" (DAKOTA K-9 UNIT BOOK 7) BY SHARON DUNN

 Who kidnapped Beacon, one of K-9 officer Kenyon Graves' identical twin sons, and why is the kidnapper calling him Joey? Which is the greater danger to Raina McCord: her life threatened by the kidnapper or figuring out her relationship with Kenyon and his boys, who she took care of when Graves was MIA for several months? And can Kenyon with his gun-sniffing K-9 Peanut, along with the rest of the K-9 unit, capture the two rignleaders of a gun-running cartel that had almost killed Kenyon? 

This is the time of year that I get excited - the annual Love Inspired Suspense K-9 Unit multi-author series is about to end. In this case, the source of excitement is "Double Protection Duty" by Sharon Dunn, book 7 of 8 in the Dakota K-9 Unit collection. (Technically, there's a ninth book, but as usual it's a pair of novellas dealing with introduced characters after the continuing story lines of the series have been resolved in Book 8). And in case the above questions don't clinch it, this one has you hooked in both the romance and the suspense storylines.

If you haven't read the rest of the series and you don't want the story spoiled, please stop reading this review. IMMEDIATELY. In fact, it may be too late. Why? As typical, there is a major story line that runs through the series, and usually a minor thread as well. Most of the time, you can enjoy the story when you read it out of order, but not so in this case. So continue at your own risk, and better yet, get the rest of the series.

For those who have been reading the series and are ready for "Double Protection Duty," you are in for a thrill ride. Action starting at the beginning. Dealing with Kenyon Graves' dealing with memory issues and trying to figure out his relationship with his lifelong friend who has been caregiver to his boys. Also, the overarching story of the Gun Ring competes with the Kenyon/Raina/Kidnapper story of this book. I'm at where I can't wait till I get to book 8.

Or, in simpler terms, I highly recommend this series and this book.

ADVENT THOUGHTS, CHRISTMAS SONG DEVOTIONALS, AND A RELATED HIGHLIGHT OF MY LIFE.

 

Felix Mendelssohn and Charles Wesley, co-writers of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing."

 Merry Christmas! 

In my previous blog, I mentioned the devotional "The Christmas We Didn't Expect" by David Mathis. I'd like to share thoughts that were either inspired by that book, confirmed previous thoughts, or made me think of something else.

1. Between the above mentioned book and an episode of CBN's cartoon Superbook I saw Saturday (Dec. 20), I was hit that the first Christmas was just an ordinary day. An ordinary man and an ordinary woman (both godly but still ordinary) came to town and had to find room in the stable to have what probably appeared to be a normal baby. To me, there is no Biblcal evidence nor a necessity of the Salvation story for the teachings of Mary's perpetual virginity or her immaculate (sinless) conception, nor is there any reason to think that God expcted Mary and Joseph to live different than any other married couple. The focus of the Bible is that in a world where man wants to be a god, God the Son (Jesus) became fully man without ceasing to be fully God in the process.
2. Back to Mathis' devotional. Chapter 9 was titled "Hark, the Long Lost Verses Sing." It happens to be my favorite with words by Charles Wesley (my favorite hymn lyrist) set to the music of Felix  Mendelssohn (my favorite classical composer). Most hymnals only have three of the original five verses; there's one we have which contains a fourth - technically, the first half of the fourth and fifth verses. I learned in this devotional that another of my church history heroes George Whitfield had influence on this song as well, revising the first couplet from Wesley's original to what we sing today, and making it a four verse hymn. 
3. Chapter 10 also has musical allusions, titled "We Three Kings From Orient Aren't." His focus is that this trio (actually, many say three is not the number of the Magi but rather the number of the gifts) weren't kings or political leaders, but pagan sorcerors who normally wouldn't be looking for a Jewish Savior.
4. I'm probably the only person reading Mathis' 11th devotional who would think of a connection to a third song. His focus was on the priests who knew where the Messiah was to be born but no interest in joining the Magi to see him. The song which was probably heard by less than 100 people was part of a musical called Viewpoints, where I asked several of my musician friends to write songs giving viewpoints of people in the Christmas story. One I had in mind were the above mentioned priests, and I wrote the lyrics and the music for the chorus - titled "Do I Really Care?" - while my friend Tod Moses wrote music for the verses. That experience in '93 was one of my highpoints. One of the participants - Barry Kay - included one of the two songs he wrote for that project on what I believe was his first album. If I made a list of my fovorite songs that I wrote, "Do I Really Care?" would be one of the top three. 

Hope this was a blessing, and I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas, or if you guys prefer, a Joseph Christmas.

ADVENT DEVOTIONAL BOOK REVIEWS: "PROMISED PRESENCE" BY NATHAN BROCK, "THE CHRISTMAS WE DIDN'T EXPECT" BY DAVID MATHIS

 

Last year, I read the Advent Devotional "Promised Presence" by my friend Nathan Brock (he was on staff at the church Becky and I attend before becoming joining a mission organization. By the time I finished, it was too late to review it at an appropriate time.

This year, each attender in our church received "The Christmas We Didn't Expect" by David Mathis. I finished it today, just in time for Christmas Eve. So for Christmas, I will review both of them. 

"Promised Presence" is Biblically centered: it mostly includes quotes from Scripture with a few poems in there, focusing on the first Advent. There's no commentary, no personal anecdotes, and just a few poems and other writings on the theme. It is letting Scripture speak for itself. 

"The Christmas We Didn't Expect" is more what one would expect with a devotional book. Well, maybe and maybe not. Most devotional books are focused on a reading for each day. David Mathis, Senior Teacher and Executive Editor for desiringGod.org, has a very well organized book. The 24 readings are set in eight sections of three each, focusing on certain things that are unexpected, such as "An Unexpected Birth," or "Unexpected Guests," I found this to be an uplifting and inspirational devotional set. 

I recommend both of them.

BOOK REVIEW - "THREAT OF REVENGE" (DAKOTA K-9 UNIT BOOK 6) BY JESSICA PATCH

An exploding car... a bag with a live rattlesnake thrown her way... within a few minutes of getting into town... could it be somebody wants to kill patrol officer Jenna Morrow? Is this connected to an anonymous tip concerning a gun ring that Jenna and her K-9 partner Augie were sent to investigate? And is Clay Miller, the mysterious handsome stranger that rescued her, someone she should trust? (Considering this is published by Harlequin imprint Love Inspired Suspense, I guess we know the answer to the last question.)

Jessica Patch is the author of "Threat of Revenge," book 6 of Love Inspired Suspense's Dakota K-9 Unit series. You have a pair of very interesting charters with Jenna and Clay, and you have plenty of plot twists. 

Let's say you found this book when looking on-line, and you haven't read the previous 5 books in the series. Can you enjoy this story without feeling lost not knowing what happened previously or spoiling some of the earlier stories? Note - normally with these Love Inspired Suspense multi-author K-9 suspense stories, the answer is yes, but not this series. There is a major overarching story through the collection, and there is an unexpected plot twist that reading them out of order would spoil. 

My advice? Get and read the whole series (at the time of writing this, I just finished book 7). It is fun reading a series with different authors, and Jessica Patch is one I usually perk up with - if I made up a list of my favorite Love Inspired Suspense characters, most of the top ten would be found in Patch's stories, and Clay belongs in that group. In other words, I highly reommend this book and the rest of the series.

BOOK REVIEW - "TRACING KILLER EVIDENCE" (DAKOTA K-9 UNIT BOOK 5) BY JODIE BAILEY

 Why is a serial abductor becoming a serial killer? Should forensic artist Isabella Whitmore be more concerned about this fiend targeting her or FBI-agent and former fiance Liam Barringer, who came to her rescue with his cadever finding K-9 Guthrie? And are there any other shocking surprises are face Liam as he tries to protect Isabella and bring down a gun-running ring?

We have reached the middle of the Dakota K-9 Unit series with Jodie Bailey's "Tracing Killer Evidence." This is a beginning to end thriller that also deals with the fact that you might be operating on incomplete information. As usual with Jodie Bailey, I feel inspired, as well as wonderful characters.

As mentioned, this is the mid-point of the series (book 5 to be exact). This book, like the others, has a story of its own, but there are other concerns that run through the book, such as who is running a gun ring and who killed one of their fellow officers, Kenyon Graves, leaving his twins without a father. Thus, the question is if you can read this book before its predecessors without spoiling them and with keeping from feeling lost. With this book, as typical, you can enjoy the story by itself, but as regards to spoiling: PLEASE. READ. THESE. BOOKS. IN. ORDER! 

I am  a fan of Jodie Bailey (I've read 19 books of hers at this point), of Love Inspired Suspense (109 of this imprint read) and the K-9 series (I'm in my 7th series, with 55 stories read). So will it surprise you to give it my total approval?

MOVIE COMPARISONS: "FIREFOX" (1982) AND "BLUE THUNDER" (1983)

 

Name the movie. It's about a super airbound war-machine, with technology so advanced the pilot could as quick as a thought launch an attack. The hero, who has war induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, knows his job is to steal that machine to keep the bad government to use it for their nefarious purposes. Hint: the movie's poster is pictured above. Second hint: there is more than one correct answer.

"Firefox," adapted from Craig Thomas' '77 novel and directed by Clint Eastwood in '82, is the name of an experimental military airplane that not only is fast, but it is capable of eluding radar. Additionally, the pilot wears a helmet that reads his thoughts and automatically does the assigned task. "Blue Thunder," directed by John Badham in '83, is an experimental police helicopter that is equipped to perform surveilance, both by sound and sight. If the pilot is wearing the helmet and turns his head, the weapons turn in the same direction.

Michael Gant (Clint Eastwood) in "Firefox" and Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider, one of my favorite actors) in "Blue Thunder" were both exceptional pilots (Murphy was able to fly a loop with a helicopter, which is supposed to be impossible, but of course Murphy did it at the end). Both, as mentioned above, dealt with trauma from being in the Vietnam War. Gant's job was to steal the Firefox from the governmental baddies; Murphy stole the Blue Thunder after learning the evil plans of the governmental baddies.

And here's where these two super-pilots take their sophisticated machines in two opposit directions. Or to put it a different way, what is the role of OUR government? "Firefox" is a cold-war era espionage adventure where our government (the good guys) sent Gant to Russia to steal the Firefox before the Russians could use it. "Blue Thunder" is described as neo-noir, where our government (the bad guys) were planning on using the Blue Thunder for surveilance and quelling domestic unrest, so Murphy steals it and destroys it after an exciting but somewhat implausible climatic dogfight. 

The difference affected the movies. "Firefox" received a PG rating in the pre PG-13 era, and possibly could have kept that rating after PG-13 came into being. "Blue Thunder" got an R, and like most movies, could have been a better PG (or PG-13) movie than with the R. The enemy in "Blue Thunder" was an officer in the military Murphy had dealt with. In Firefox, the antagonists were the Russian military and government, where the two sides treated each other with respect and without personal animosity. For example, during the final dogfight between Gant and an equal Russian pilot, Gant lost control of the plane due to his PTSD, the Russian gave him a thumbs up when he was able to regain control. You wouldn't be surprised for Eastwood to direct a pro-US movie. Likewise, it wasn't a surprise for Badham to have an anti-war movie - in addition to "Blue Thunder," '83 saw the release of "Wargames," also directed by Badham and also wary of our government.

From here, I'm making comments of the movies more from an artistic perspective than my previous look at worldview. 

As I mentioned before, "Firefox" was based on a novel. Which was better? Good question. The movie had three divisions: 1) Gant's recruitment and training, 2) Gant arriving in Russia and getting to the plane, and 3) flying the plane out of Russia. In the book, the first section was a brief prologue, with the ten chapters equally dealing with the other parts. In this, I think the book was stronger - the first section was a little slow for an adventure. However, two of Gant's allies in getting to the plane died after seeing they did their job; the book had those two die not knowing if they succeeded.

Let me move to the characters of the movies. "Blue Thunder"  was my fifth Roy Scheider movie, including "The French Connection" and "Jaws", and I consider myself a fan. I only saw three Eastwood movies before "Firefox," and I didn't enjoy them as much as the Scheider films. I liked their portrayals. Both movies also introduced me to actors I've grown to like: Freddie Jones as Gant's recruiter (I loved seeing his joy when Gant succeeded in stealing the plane) and Daniel Stern (Marv in "Home Alone) as Murphy's observer and partner. 

As far as story-telling, I will admit "Blue Thunder" had a more interesting start, though both movies smoothly moved into the main plot. After that, I think "Firefox" was better. Part of it was being loyal to the book. However, it also was more realistic in parts than "Blue Thunder." They did end off with the character heading into the horizon (Gant flying the plane into friendly airspace, Murphy walking beside the train track with the demolished Blue Thunder in smoke behind him). 

Which did I enjoy more? Let me answer it this way. I watched "Firefox" four times - twice in its theatrical run, once on TV, and a few years ago on DVD. I might watch it again. I've never thought of watching "Blue Thunder" a second time.

BOOK REVIEW - "COLD CASE PERIL" (DAKOTA K-9 UNIT BOOK 4) BY MAGGIE K. BLACK

Why is a driver with blaring rock music trying to force dog trainer Micah Landon off the road Was this due to him looking into who killed his mother a decade earlier by a hit and run driver? Or could it be connected to a guns case officer Lucy Lopez and her K-9 partner Piper are looking/sniffing into? 

Maggie K. Black's "Cold Case Peril" is the fourth novel of the Dakota K-9 Unit series. As you would expect if you read any of the books in this collection or previous series by this imprint, you have exciting action and characters you care about. For example, there is the interaction between Micah and his half-brother dealing with the loss of their mother. 

Is this a series that you need to read in order? I would highly recommend it. Yes, it is written where you can enjoy the story without being lost or spoiling a previous story. However, this series is one where you'd enjoy it more reading the books in order.

By the way, in spite of the main male character having a name that sounds like a popular actor, there are no references to Little Joe. Sorry.

I recommend both this book and the full series (this is book 4 of 9).