Lori Burns' Chore-stoppers

This long awaited novel by the author of runaway bestseller <em>Water for Elephants</em> was worth the wait, and it’s a mystery!   Bonobo apes (similar looking to chimpanzees) are taken from “The Great Ape Language Lab” at the University of Kansas after an explosion at the center. The scientists were studying these apes and their amazing ability to learn English and sign language and apply it to their own animal lives when they mysteriously disappear after the explosion. Reporter John Thigpen of <em>The</em> <em>Philadelphia Inquirer</em> can’t get the animals out of his mind. He had interviewed one of the scientists, passed the rigorous screening process, and been able to interact with the apes at the lab the day of the explosion in order to write a story for the paper. He had been overwhelmingly impressed with the apes’intelligence and personalities. Knowing he is pursuing the story for personal as well as business reasons, he sets off to find out where the animals have been taken and why. The mystery is not solved when they show up later as a part of a reality show that is being filmed in secret and broadcast to the world.
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Sara Gruen does a masterful job describing the interactions between humans and animals and how we learn from each other. She also explores the world of animal study by humans and the groups that exploit as well as protest this type of research. It is wonderful to note that many of the descriptions of the apes and their behavior are based on the author’s actual experience with the bonobo apes at the Great Ape Trust. Although this is a story about animals, explicit descriptions of <em>all </em>of the apes’behaviors make this novel appropriate for 14 years old and above. --LDB

The characters are so unusual and engaging in this first novel in the series that you are hooked from the beginning. Wonderful descriptive scenery adds to the eeriness of this chilling mystery thriller as the story unfolds. Investigative reporter and publisher of “Millennium” Magazine, Mikael Blomkvist, is asked to do an on-site investigation into the “very cold case” disappearance of the favorite great niece of the elderly head of the famous Vanger Family. Mikael needs a break since he has just been accused and convicted of libel of a respected businessman. He decides to get away from it all and do this mind numbing missing person’s investigation on this remote island north of Stockholm. It soon becomes apparent that something is not right and the deeper he delves, the stranger the disappearance becomes. During his investigation, a young, intelligent, strange and fascinating computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, offers her help and together they unravel the mystery and evil behind the disappearance. --LDB

(Spoiler alert!) This book picks up where Book 2 leaves off, with  Lisbeth critically wounded by several gun shots and being air lifted to the hospital. Mikael is under arrest when the police find him at the scene with a gun in his hand and a story that is too fantastic to believe. As Lisbeth fights for her life and liberty in a Swedish hospital, Mikael  sets out to clear Lisbeth’s name and reputation once and for all. But he soon realizes that the forces at work against Lisbeth are very high up in the government, cloaked in secrecy. Who can he trust and how can he protect and liberate Lisbeth without risking their lives? --LDB