MY BOOK REVIEW OF, Deep Chill

Genre: Fiction, Sub-genre: Mystery/Suspense
Title: DEEP CHILL   
Author: Li Westerlund
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
The book's web page or goto http://dorrance.stores.yahoo.net/deepchill.html

About the author:  Born in Sweden, Li Westerlund holds European equivalents of the Ph.D., master’s, and J.D. in law, and the B.S. equivalent in electrical engineering; appointed professor of law in 2000. She is now the Vice President of Global IP for a biopharmaceutical company stationed in Washington, D.C. She has published six books dealing with patent and other law and dozens of articles in professional journals and anthologies, but Deep Chill is her first novel (released as Djup Kyla in Sweden in 2003 by Carlssons Publishers).

A review by Frank Riganelli.

It’s a long way from Sweden to Sri Lanka, but Anna Edelhielm, a Special Narcotics Prosecutor in Sweden, needs to get away after her boyfriend is murdered in Stockholm. What better place to go on a “dream vacation” than Sri Lanka, where her sister, Marie, has settled and married? But something strange and perhaps dangerous is keeping Marie from leaving the island. Kevin, an American conducting sensitive negotiations in Sri Lanka, starts to figure out what that something could be. And it’s not what Anna—or you—might expect. -from the Publisher.

Deep Chill; the author’s first novel that was originally published in Sweden, follows Anna Edelhielm; an attorney in the District Attorney’s office of Stockholm, to Sri Lanka where she intends to retrieve her sister. Marie has married and relocated to a life in the tropical country. In the opening scene Anna’s ex-boyfriend is murdered in Stockholm, as the startling events that surround her continue and slowly unfold the story’s mystery, which offers some unsettling realizations to her.

Anna is a sharp minded women who keeps her scars from the past hidden, as she experiences troubling dreams, some of which take place while she’s awake. She loses her sight in a hiking accident and is forced to put aside her cool feelings toward her sister’s family, and begin appreciating the consideration they extend her. But her newly formed affection for the Lankese group is soon shocked by suspicions of criminal activity, and the prospect of murder.

For its 224 pages, the book reads to its end quick enough as the reader sees various events,  including news reports about a militant guerilla group in the area and secretive meetings between a mobile-phone communications company and the Sri Lanken government. The two groups discuss the theft of a laptop computer in Sweden, which is suspected to have vital information about satellite communications.

The story’s final scene shows what appears to be an attempted murder of the two sisters, when Kevin; the American Anna has come to know, and his agent colleague try to foil the attempt. In the story’s epilogue the reader jumps ahead 3 years, in which time a diary found in the investigations after the ordeal has been read. It’s private insights confirm suspicions held throughout the story, while revealing truths about people that were unknown.

Overall, the novel moves along well at a fairly fast and steady pace after the first third of it, which jumps quickly as it takes brief looks at different parts of the story — and it nicely ties the many different events together as the story later gels, bringing its mystery closer to being solved.

The writing style introduces changes in scenes only sporadically, often creating brief analysis in determining who is speaking and what the location is, which then offers penny-dropping moments as the story tightens up again. A finer comment about the writing sees the introduction of important story points blended between the characters, who are continually developed through their different aspects, and the narrative, which at times offers the author’s comments and opinions that provoke the reader. The use of news reports creatively provides additional information to the story, however with a tendancy to not always consider the story's flow, there are times which can leave the reader slightly confused.

The novel offers vivid descriptions of the natural beauty of Sri Lanka as well as the underwater world of scuba diving, as it touches on the topic of satellite communications and the espionage of them, and international drug trafficking.

This excerpt about Anna’s love for diving is from chapter 4. “Anna loved to dive. The rest of the world disappeared, allowing her to become absorbed with what she was doing. Compared with the Baltic Sea, there was so much more to see here and this world was so amazingly colorful. It was a challenge. To master this inaccessible and physiologically impossible element gave her a real high. The adrenaline that rushed through her body took control; her mind became chilled and a calm just filled her. Excitement and the beautiful colors appealed to her, but the feeling of weightlessness was the most wonderful aspect of diving. To just float, suspended in the depths of the ocean. It was about both freedom and control.”
 
All in all, Deep Chill offers a decent intriguing mystery which involves some serious topics. Readers who enjoy mysteries, thrill, or solving a mystery will enjoy this novel.

* I received a complimentary copy of On Finding Solutions For Human Problems as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. This review was written in accordance with guidelines provided by the Publisher.

See this review at shelfari (books)

MY REPLY TO A HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ARTICLE - On the topic of why leaders lose their way.

The article: Why Leaders Lose Their Way

Another provocative topic worthy of serious consideration. I won’t comment on the personality or psyche of the leader, it’s too serious a subject which requires the discretion of conditions conducive to effectively talking about it.

However, having lived abroad for over 10 years, and in different cultures with their own perspectives on subjects like leadership, I suggest that there is one universal idea of leadership. And that is that when a leader takes actions which harm their organization, and by extension the people in it, it is considered to be undesirable.

I see this topic as supporting an earlier topic here about poor ethics in organizations. Considering the dark side of leadership, it serves my previous comments about putting ethical people in positions higher and higher in an organization. And value centered leadership reinforces the idea that leaders must have the right traits when chosen for a leadership position. That will include their ways of dealing with aspects of the position which push or try to compromise them. The, it’s lonely at the top, notion shows to have different interpretations of it. Some of them being, the buck stops here; the person at the top has no friends; you must distance yourself from your friends in an organization; and that when you have reached the highest position possible you feel a sense of loneliness for the end of the challenge, which offers nothing higher to strive for. However, the article’s idea about it, that the pressure of responsibility on a leader creates feelings of loneliness, serves to show that a leader who does not posses the right traits can in fact be lonely at the top.

The idea of being lonely at the top focuses on the notion that a leader must make difficult decisions, which at times can make them unpopular with people in the organization. Hence, either having lost the sense of camaraderie or possibly the public display of friendships by people in the organization, it is said the leader is lonely in their position at the top. This leader makes decisions which are in the best interest of the organization and the people in it, but they are not always popular decisions. Those who put this leader in their position must accept the responsibility to support the leader in the face of a loss of popularity at times. Without such support this leader risks becoming vulnerable to the traps of popularity, and become at risk of losing their way. That is if they are not taken out of their position for all the wrong reasons, in which case the organization has shown to have a flawed idea of leadership. The leader whose popularity takes a back seat to decisions that are good for an organization, is in contrast to the leader who seeks popularity at the expense of the organization’s best interests in their decisions — a leader, as I suggest in terms of a universal idea, is not a desirable one.

If the questions to be answered from this article are, "Why do I want to lead?" and "What's the purpose of my leadership?" — it is the reply to these questions by those selecting the leader for a position, or their understanding of the answers given by the prospective leader, that offer the chance to put the best possible person into a leadership position. Of course a leader must be introspective, but to avoid a leader losing their way it must be ensured initially that the leader has the right traits.

TURNING A PIECE OF HISTORY INTO FICTION

The article: Caleb's Crossing: A piece of history gets turned into fiction

As the news article explains, “As she did with her previous novel, People of the Book, Brooks has successfully built a fascinating story around a nugget of history. Many of the characters in this novel are based on actual people, but Bethia is entirely fictional.”

As I studied and learned about writing, I enjoyed finding out about those novels that emphasized the imagination component of fiction. And now, after having made my attempt at 3 books, with my fourth in the works, it seems I’ve developed the curious interest of some in what I write, as well as how I do it.

I will put down the sharp words of the fountain pen for a moment and use the softer, more educationally palatable prose of the ball-point pen, if you will. It’s been my experience that some wallow in misunderstanding when faced with the writing of different authors. And more so, the basic ability to appreciate the writing has been missing. What Geraldine Brooks has done is use imagination in creating a work that offers the experiences of characters who were real people. Be they ideals, experiences, or lessons to be learned that are offered, this approach offers a blend of fact and the imagination component of fiction.

It's inappropriate to critique works similar to this one by comparing their imaginative portion to facts of places, things and people. This misses the point of the book and what it is trying to accomplish. Perhaps a reminder is needed that if a person wants to learn about a particular person, place or thing, they can look to non-fiction. But let us not forget that there is, or should be, a responsibility to be accurate in what is written. If the words written are from imagination, then it is understood that they are not talking about factual items. On the other hand, if something is talked of which is factual, it’s description and the words that talk about it should be accurate to the facts of it.

I’m happy to say that the teaching I had received in writing appreciation has let me understand what an author like Geraldine Brooks is doing with her novel. Perhaps it is helpful to consider the different genres and sub-genres which try to sift through and separate the differences of books. There is fantasy for example, and then there is urban fantasy. There is high fantasy and light fantasy. And to focus on urban fantasy, one sees that while a story is based on descriptions that are not factual, the setting of the story will be in a real place and as such the descriptions of it will be accurate to that place.

The writing of stories is a mix of skills and desires. What an author wants to do and what they can do. Historical fiction offers a story of the past which has been told, leaving the author to work their hand in describing it. General fiction, or the thrillers or mystery novels, offer the chance for imagination in creating a story if not based on a story that is known. It is a mix which is only appreciated when one understands what the book in front of them has been written to accomplish.

Myself, I also have used an approach similar to Geraldine Brook’s in my debut novel and second book. Like the title of the article says, A piece of history gets turned into fiction. In the case of my debut novel; it’s second writing titled The Swindle, the actual events from an earlier period; 1997, are used in a story that was created from my imagination. And, as another author has put it in giving a review of my novel, they called it a fascinating blend of reality and possibility, birthed from the imagination of the author. It was nice to also hear them say I am an author to keep an eye on. A second storyline in my debut novel uses imagination to describe events that were inspired by, not based on, real experiences. 

My second novel, although not based on an event from history, uses imagination to portray events through the characters, who in this case are also creatively conjured up.

For those of you with good skills in imagination who are considering writing a novel, this type of book offers the chance to convey ideas about people, life, issues, or whatever you chose, through the creative use of your own ideas. If you don’t see yourself putting your words on paper, but want to appreciate a novel like this, know what it is offering and how it does that.

MY REPLY TO A HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ARTICLE - On the topic of the Japan earthquake

If often takes a crisis like this to get an organization to look at their strategies. As unforeseen as the coming of an earthquake is, we know they do happen which presents a choice to companies in their supply-chain strategies.

As Willy Shih explains, “"In the race to provide better quality at lower prices, manufacturers picked very narrow, optimized supply chains.""They put all of their eggs with one supplier that had the best product at the lowest price."

Organizations can opt to consider the tortoise and the hare fable where priority is given to approaches that value the longer-term, as opposed to the short-term. Not only does this protect against unexpected crisis which damage supply-chains, keeping the wheels of the business productively turning, but it also adds in a way to the company’s strategy toward sustainability. Is there a cost to this? Of course, and it is recovered over time in ways that are often not measured although the benefit is there.

 Crisis are a peculiar thing in how groups prepare for them. The article says, “When a natural disaster hits, relief organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders swing into action with crisis-response plans that have been honed, refined, and improved with experience. Not so manufacturers and their complex webs of suppliers, who in many cases lack that same experience or large-scale backup plans. The result: a chaotic scramble resulting in production delays, product shortages, and higher prices.”

I had worked for a multi-national company in the past and we had gone through the steps in developing a crisis response plan for the chance that a nearby facility might release harmful emissions. The crisis never took place for my time with the organization, but the plan was put in place and people felt secure knowing that should it happen, they would be safe. For all the effort, resources, and consideration put into designing the most efficient manufacturing facilities and systems we can, it should be a natural next step to protect them by developing crisis response plans. In terms of ROI for the initiative and the associated cost, if it is looked at as being amortized over a long period of time, which is consistent with the likelihood of an earthquake happening, for most geographic regions, the cost to the business is minimal. It’s a matter of risk management and taking steps to prevent the chance of unexpected losses. If people need help in selling this idea to their organizations, they can present the case as a matter of cost avoidance or loss (risk) management. Benchmarking to other organizations is always helpful, where you will find some companies have an entire department dedicated to loss control.

Frank Riganelli, Author
Former Fortune management, consultant, and trainer.

P.S. — People have questioned my posting at this group for the fact that I write mainly fiction novels. I explain to them that the hypothetical thriller novel which has a character scramble for their life when a disaster hits their workplace is that much more realistic when the group’s actions and responses are true to life. And then I tell them that I also write books on the topic of business.