The Switch,  by Sandra Brown

Gillian and Melina Lloyd are beautiful identical twin sisters living in Dallas.  Melina runs a media escort service--handling celebrities in town for speaking engagements, book tours, and so on.  Her latest assignment is Colonel Christopher Hart, the first Native American NASA astronaut in space.  Gillian has just undergone artificial insemination in an effort to have a baby and to distract her, Melina suggests that she switch places with her and take her place escorting handsome astronaut Hart to his speaking engagement.  Gillian agrees and she has a nice evening pretending to be Melina.  The next morning, however, Gillian is found murdered in her home, possibly the result of having been intimate with Hart.  Melina is devastated and blames herself for her twin's murder after switching places with her.  Hart also feels responsible and the two decide to work together to find Gillian's killer.  Melina will have to switch identities yet again as their investigation leads them to a powerful, religious cult figure based in New Mexico.  The switching around left me a little confused but this is another fun, suspenseful, and exciting novel from Ms. Brown.
 

Protect and Defend, by Richard North Patterson

In Washington, Democrat Kerry Kilcannon, newly elected President, has just finished his inaugural speech when the conservative Chief Justice of the United States collapses and dies.  The Supreme Court has had a conservative edge of 5-4 so this gives Kilcannon an opportunity to name a new Chief Justice with a more liberal outlook.  In California, meanwhile,  fifteen-year old Mary Ann Tierney goes to court to win the right to have a late-term abortion, an action opposed by her activist pro-life parents.  Kilcannon nominates Caroline Masters, a brilliant California judge, to be the first female Chief Justice.  Although her views on abortion are unclear, she is immediately opposed by most of the Senate Republicans and it is clear that it will be an epic battle to win Senate confirmation of her nomination.  While the confirmation process is taking place, the Tierney case is working its way through the courts and the explosive case will end up in the appellate court where Masters serves.  This is a great political novel that also has an engrossing court case weaving its way through it and together they make for an exciting, suspenseful, and very topical story. Highly recommended.
 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J. K. Rowling

When the first 'Harry Potter' book came out and shot to the top of the New York Times fiction bestseller list, I don't remember hearing anything about it just being a book for kids.  Ditto for the second book and the third.  But, after the third book we had the situation where the books were occupying the first three highly coveted spots on the list.  And, the fourth book was on the way.  At that point a curious thing happened.  Suddenly, the Times decided that the books were for kids after all and they were banished from the list. They were first tried on the children's list but I guess too many people must have protested.  Now, they are showing up on a new Times bestseller list called Children's Chapter Books.  (Where they are in the first four slots the last time I checked.)  If I had to guess, I'd say some high-powered publishers raised a great big stink.  Got on the phone to the Times and yelled, "How can we advertise (fill in the name of a multi-million dollar author)  latest book as being a number one New York Times bestseller if that Rowling woman is hogging all the top spots!"  Still, the Times is treating her better than The Washington Post--where she doesn't seem to be on any of its lists.  I don't know about  you but I like the guy who gets the most votes to be the winner in an election and if you're selling the most books you should be on top, too.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finds Harry in his fourth year at Hogwarts, the school for witches and wizards.  At the beginning of the school year it is announced that Hogwarts will host the first Triwizard Tournament in one hundred years.  In the Triwizard Tournament, students selected from the three wizard schools compete against each other in feats of daring, intelligence, and sorcery.  Harry is selected as one of the competitors in the tournament by the Goblet of Fire, even though he didn't enter his name in the competition.  Competing in the tournament is dangerous and there have been deaths in some of the past tournaments.  Could someone be plotting Harry's death by a convenient accident during one of the three stages of the competition?   Rowlling has said that this book is the pivotal one in the projected seven book series and I can see why.  It wonderfully sets the stage for what I expect will be an epic and exciting battle to come.  Book Four in this series was just as enjoyable as the first three and great fun for Muggles of all ages.
 

Candyland, by Evan Hunter and Ed McBain

Evan Hunter writes under his own name but he has also written many police novels, including the 87th Precinct series, under the name of Ed McBain.  Candyland is a novel in two parts written by these "two" novelists.  Hunter takes the first half and we are introduced to Benjamin Thorpe, an L.A. architect in New York finishing work on one of his projects.  Having concluded his business, the architect has one evening left in New York before he flies back home to L. A. in the morning.  Thorpe could best be described as a sex addict and we follow him through one long evening as he looks for his latest score.  He finally ends up at a cathouse where, in the early morning hours, one of the prostitutes is murdered.  And, that's where Ed McBain takes over.  Now, the action shifts to the cops investigating the murder.  The main focus is on policewoman Emma Boyle, who is assigned to the Special Victims Unit, and her interaction with the two male cops also assigned to the case.  Ed McBain is a master with cops and Emma is a treat to get to know.  She soon zeroes in on Benjamin Thorpe as a likely suspect but is he the killer?  Or, are you in for a surprise?  Hunter and McBain work well together in this entertaining change of pace.
 
 

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