Street Lawyer - John Grisham

This fictional story is about Michael Brock is a lawyer at Drake and Sweeney - one of the acclaimed law organisations in America.

One fortunate day, a street dweller enters Michael's office and holds hostage of 8 lawyers in his firm. The firm does everything to save the lawyers and kills the street dweller. Michael is curious to find why the homeless man tried the drama of the hostage when he did not want to kill anyone neither wanted any money. He goes in search of this homeless man and discovers that he was one of the tenants who were evicted from an old building in the city. Michael quits his job at Drake and Sweeney and joins a law clinic for the homeless.

He comes in contact with a homeless family of Lontae Burton and her four children while serving food at a shelter for the homeless. Later he learns that they all died in an unfortunate incident in a car that they were sleeping in to keep themselves warm in the mid winter. He finds that the homeless man who tried to kill him at his office and Lontae Burton were all evicted from the same building where they were not squatting but living on rent.

The eviction was a result of a greedy lawyer from Drake and Sweeny who put the client RiverOaks also at risk to liberate the building to accommodate a postal office.

Michael succeeds in proving Drake and Sweeney guilty. He also influence the director of Drake and Sweeney - Arthur to spend time helping the homeless.

The book is a slow pace read and almost drags in the middle though it picks speed in the last 20 pages. Do not expect a bone chilling high drama experience.

A good choice of book if you have fixed a time of the day to read ANY book - just to keep the good habit - meaning to say it does not make you come back to it unless you are disciplined to read anything. 

Gold Mine - Wilbur Smith

Sonder Ditch - remember that because that is where the next full month's of action is going to happen to you if you decide to read Gold Mine by Wilbur Smith.

The story is of two men -Rod and Manfred. Rod is promoted to be General manager of the mine when there is huge collapse of one of the floors in the mine. Manfred has a personal motive to acquire political advancement in the mining industry by conspiring with a bunch of wealthy men on destroying a couple of gold mines to hike the gold rate overall.

Manfred is told by these wealthy men that there is a big treasure of gold beneath the "Big Dipper" in the mine for which Rod is the manager. By this time, Rod has fallen in love with Manfred's wife Teresa who happen to inherit the power and wealth of Hurry Hirchsfeld - a very wealthy man in Africa.

A man of mining passion that is Rod - reluctantly digs deeper behind the big shaft to find a catastrophe waiting. He finds out a river flowing meddling with which, it would destroy all of the gold mines in the entire vicinity. He also finds that Manfred is up for killing all of his drilling employees by posting them in this region.

In a story that has all the elements of greed. lust, power, adultery, violence and love - the reader is never left without excitement.

Sphinx - TS Learner

Here is a book on olden day Egyptology that revolves around Nectanebo || and other renowned Pharaohs whose fate has been decided by mysterious electromagnetic device astrarium.

An archaeologist Isabella comes in contact with an artifact that she believes decided her date of death and many others of her predecessors from an astrologist in Goa, India. She goes on to believe that the artifact has a power of its own and guides the possessor of it towards the good will of the world.

She dies discovering this artifact in an ocean expedition that meets an unfortunate land slide inside the ocean. Her husband Oliver comes in possession of the artifact and do not know what to do with it. He meets numerous people both trying to safeguard it and destroy it. He puts his life on risk on a trail of incidents wanting to rest the device in the place where it belonged.

He learns that the device has a mind of its own and influences incidents around him. He tries to overcome those influences surrendering to more danger. He finds out about the secrete practices that Isabella's family were following in connection with the mysterious incidents that took place in Nectanebo, Cleopatra and other kings lives. He ventures in to the pyramids and finds out about the soul leaving the human body when death occurs. He is taken by shock at these moments but wants to explore more to understand the truth about the astrarium's real abode.

Oliver comes across a wealthy business man who is ready to buy the oil field just discovered by his team. Oliver later realizes that he is the man identified long ago as Nectanebo and rests the astrarium in his grave.

Though the book is a little draggy in the beginning, the plot picks up pace later on to an ever enthralling experience. TS Learner makes an outstanding writer to keep his readers jelled to the book. Many a times, I googled to figure out what each of his concepts mean by which I was able to contemplate the fine line explanations.

Great read if you are able to be patient with the initial 100 pages.