Author: A Good Reed Review

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By Ande Jacobson

Before Tess Gerritsen began writing her Rizzoli & Isles series, she wrote a number of medical thrillers. The first of these was Harvest, released in September 1996. Her experience as a physician leant itself to tell compelling stories surrounding medical situations, and it also raised her awareness of various societal crises based on manipulation of the healthcare system. Harvest combines a riveting thriller with a very real crisis situation surrounding organ transplants. In particular, the mystery in this story explores how the morbidly wealthy and the very greedy can sometimes work together to circumvent the need-based processes in place. In the real world, organ transplants are lifesaving. They can take a person from death’s door to restored health, but they come at a cost. For most organs, particularly things like hearts and lungs, they come available only when an organ donor dies. While a directed donation can be made in some cases, the general system in place to provide these precious organs is based on patient need. The more severe the need, the higher a patient’s priority on the recipient list. Their financial and social status is not taken into account, only their medical need is relevant. Unfortunately, there’s a rather robust black market that some very wealthy individuals turn to in order to jump the line. The market consists of profiteers who garner the services of some less than reputable physicians to harvest organs from donors that are sometimes “created” to supply these precious organs to those willing to pay. Sadly, some with the resources available would be willing to pay almost any price to save their loved ones denying those in greater need of their very lives. Of course, evaluating medical need can also be tricky, particularly when so few organs are available meaning that whoever doesn’t get a given organ may not live long enough for another compatible organ to come available the normal way. Continue reading →

The search for Die Jägerin

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By Ande Jacobson

Kate Quinn is known for her historical fiction, often intertwining vivid fictional characters with real people and major historical events. Her book, The Huntress, is no exception. The main characters are fictional, albeit in some cases composites of various real people. Along the way, historical figures are mixed into the story in more minor roles. The central conceit of the story is a team of Nazi hunters’ search for Die Jägerin, a vicious killer from WWII Germany. The title character; however, isn’t the target of their search. In this case, the huntress in the story is a composite character representing a number of brave women from the infamous Russian Nachthexen or Night Witches, so named by the German forces they bested. Nina Borisovna Markova is the huntress in this story, and while she is a fictional character, her achievements and actions are drawn from her actual “sestry” from the Russian forces. As Quinn illustrates, Russia was the only nation in WWII to eventually make use of women in frontline combat roles, including as pilots, navigators, and mechanics, often greatly outperforming their male counterparts. The Night Witches were a real entity that was key to the allies winning the war against the axis forces. Their inclusion in this story was a handy way to tie together the post war Nazi hunters with their lives during the war, and most importantly, provides the motivation for their somewhat obsessive search for one killer in particular. Continue reading →

We need to listen

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By Ande Jacobson

Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series completes for now with Listen to Me, first released in July 2022. This ultimate series installment follows a different path than previous Rizzoli & Isles books. Gerritsen writes this one from multiple points of view focusing on each of the main female characters. As the POV shifts, we get more insight into series regulars Angela Rizzoli, Detective Jane Rizzoli, and Medical Examiner Maura Isles, and into newcomer Amy Antrim. Each has several chapters devoted to them and their thoughts, motivations, inner turmoil, and actions. A major theme of the book, particularly from Angela’s perspective, is “If you see something, say something,” a motto that can either help and hinder depending on the circumstances. As always in Gerritsen’s mysteries, there are numerous subplots that mingle and merge in unexpected ways as the story progresses, generally surrounding a series of murders in some fashion. This time is no exception except perhaps in the complexity of the subplots that each come to the forefront at different points in the story. This one also brings the dangers much closer to home. Continue reading →

Substance matters

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By Ande Jacobson

I’m concerned. No, that’s not right. I’m terrified.

We recently celebrated another U.S. Independence Day marking the anniversary of when the United States of America was founded. Now the biggest election of my lifetime (and perhaps in our nation’s history) looms over us in just under four months, and we have a media machine that seems determined to foment division by continuing its years long assault on the Democratic incumbent while at the same time ignoring his record of accomplishments and ignoring or normalizing the outright malfeasance of his likely GOP opponent. The media has presented the presidential race as a horse race rather than focusing on the real issues at hand which does the country a huge disservice. Why they are doing this is the subject of a lot of speculation. On the one hand, the media long ago moved away from their role as impartial observers and sources of information about current events into a much more lavish, dynamic, and profitable role as entertainers. They are businesses intent on turning a profit, so they do all they can to build audience and keep people coming back for more. Division and controversy sells far better than dry data, so their move toward the former in this quest became their imperative. Profits after all are more important than informing the public to many of these entities. A GOP presidency, particularly with their likely candidate, would garner them higher profits given the crises and favorable tax modifications that would result. Unfortunately, far too many people accept what they are told by the media without looking beyond the hype, and that could spell disaster for the country and the world. Continue reading →

Childhood secrets can be dangerous

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By Ande Jacobson

The penultimate book (so far) in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series, I Know a Secret, was first released in August 2017. This one is creepy dealing with sociopathic tendencies, childhood frailties, and how a long buried secret can wreak havoc even decades later. For most children, certain situations elicit expected and appropriate displays of emotion. In sad or somber situations like a relative’s funeral, that can sometimes mean tears. For those rare kids who are wired differently such that they don’t feel the normal range of emotions, this might end up being a learned behavior rather than an instinctual one. For such a child, their response can look like those of their peers while instead being a coldly calculated act to avoid standing out. So begins the story narrated by an adult who was once such a child. How that ties into the murders at hand takes most of the book to unfold, but the ending is worth the wait, unsettling though it may be. Continue reading →

Insights through the arts

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By Ande Jacobson

Senior year of high school is often fraught with decisions. For the academically inclined, this is the year when students make a series of decisions that have a monumental impact on the rest of their lives. It’s the year when they have to decide which colleges they’ll apply to (if indeed they are planning to go straight from high school to college). Later when the acceptances start rolling in, they have to decide which college they’ll attend. For many of these students, these college related decisions overtake their world. They visit campuses. They talk with friends, family, school advisors, current college students, faculty, and admissions staff, and they try to make the decision that is best for them given what they know about their interests at that time. They also still continue to attend their high school classes through their senior year, maintaining their academic performance that got them to this point in their lives. They may also have part time jobs that require their attention. They have familial responsibilities. For those students seeking an arts related college program, they may also have to audition or submit portfolios for consideration as part of the application process. In short, they are busier than they have ever been. For Val Zvinyatskovsky, this was only part of what occupied his time through his senior year of high school. In addition to his studies, campus visits, and holding down several arts-related jobs across performance, tech, and teaching, he also put his thoughts into a musical production as the composer, lyricist, librettist, and director. Barely a week after his high school graduation, he debuted his new one-act musical, The Right: A Gameshow Musical, in a special one night presentation, a video of which is available for all interested viewers. Continue reading →

A dangerous case of mistaken identity

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By Ande Jacobson

The eleventh book in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series, Die Again, was first released in December 2014, and it’s another page turner. Gerritsen has shown herself to be a compelling mystery writer drawing upon her own background knowledge as a doctor and her world travels. This time, the story covers ground in Boston and other places across the U.S. as well as in the wilds of the African Bush region of Botswana. For that last part, Gerritsen draws upon her own experiences on safari adding a lot of color and atmosphere to her descriptions. The initial introduction to a safari some years before the present time of the story at first seems like a diversion fraught with interpersonal drama, but as is often the case in a Gerritsen mystery, it’s far more than that. The safari details are riveting, making the reader feel the tension and the danger surrounding the expedition well before anything untoward occurs. How the safari relates to the crimes at hand, some particularly gory murders in the present day Boston area that become cause for disagreement amongst the detectives in the homicide squad, doesn’t become clear until very late in the story. The Boston murder victims are curious, as is their executioner’s modus operandi which is more predator-oriented than usual. The path the story and the team travel from discovery of each of the bodies to the ultimate solution is a complex one with plenty of plausible misdirection along the way. There’s even a weird turf battle between Rizzoli and Crowe on competing cases that furthers the misdirection. Continue reading →

30 May 2024 was a good day for America

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By Ande Jacobson

On 30 May 2024, a jury in Manhattan unanimously convicted Donald J. Trump, a former U.S. president, of 34 counts in his first criminal trial. Some might think this was a sad day because for the first time, a former president was tried and convicted in a criminal proceeding. That former president is now a convicted felon, but it’s not necessarily a sad day in our history. The sad part really is that a former president would commit crimes in the way that this one has, but through both civil and criminal trials, we are showing the nation and the world that nobody is above the law, not even a former president, and that’s a very good thing. Continue reading →

The fascinating story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko

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By Ande Jacobson

The Diamond Eye is Kate Quinn’s largely biographical novel chronicling the story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a woman who made a huge contribution to defeating Hitler’s assault on her homeland during WWII. Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian born Russian woman who became a deadly sniper in the Red Army in the early days of the war. Her story shows that while there’s a certain amount of luck in surviving the horrific conditions she endured, her skills and determination were invaluable in her efforts. While Quinn is famous for writing historical fiction, weaving gripping stories surrounding historic times or events, this novel is drawn more directly from an original source than most. Her primary reference for the novel was Pavlichenko’s autobiography, Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s Sniper. She used an English translation by David Foreman as a central part of her research beyond various official records to which she had access. As such, almost all of the characters are from real life in this story, although one major character is a composite of two real men. Quinn also used a bit of poetic license with respect to Pavlichenko’s autobiography, at times reordering some events to create a more cohesive storyline and filling in some gaps in the timeline. It’s likely that some of the events in the source material were themselves smoothed and brightened given the work was approved by the Soviet Union and thus was potentially at least partially propaganda. On the other hand, the official record of various events is clear and independently verifies much of the material. Continue reading →

Lower birth rates are a good thing

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs ,

By Ande Jacobson

We’re seeing some disturbing reports of late that are born of a faulty thesis. We’re seeing manufactured panic over birth rates declining, but there are already over 8 billion people on the planet which is unsustainable over the long haul. As I wrote in January 2023, too many people combined with humankind’s bizarre focus on infinite growth on a finite planet rather than working toward a sustainable steady state is truly a crisis. So what do we do? We create the opposite crisis over the ideal mix of people on the planet based on greed, misogyny, xenophobia, and tribalism. Instead, we should be embracing a long term decrease in the human population to reach a level that is more in tune with our global environment and conducive to long term success under more equitable and comfortable living conditions for all. Continue reading →