Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Walking Dead Heading Nowhere

Last Sunday, The Walking Dead featured Darryl. He's one of the fan favorites, so nothing wrong with having an episode featuring him. But the writing was suspect in my opinion. Why? Because the moral of the story was that if you are a nice guy and help others, you get screwed. Yep. Darryl is clubbed on the head, held captive to be traded for someone else, who is being held captive by some new group of baddies, and then after he escapes, he discovers he took with him the insulin one of his former captors apparently needed. So he returns it, and then when his former captors are being hunted down by those unseen baddies, he helps them to escape.

And then after offering his former captors sanctuary, they turn on him and steal his motorcycle. Not that I'm going to miss the motorcycle, but the episode just didn't sit well with me. Oh, and still no word on whether Glenn is alive or dead. It's as if the show suddenly had a feud with the actor who played Glenn, and decided to just leave him out of all future episodes. Well, they have so far and it's been three episodes. They don't seem to care about Glenn.

But Darryl is one of the most popular characters in the show, more so than even Glenn, so I suppose the show can't go wrong having an episode about him, but when they turn him into a patsy, that won't bode well in keeping him a fan favorite. Now he's just another chump. And who cares about chumps? Here's hoping they don't maintain the chump status with Darryl. We liked him as he was before. An efficient zombie killer who doesn't let others get the jump on him. Oh, wait. So much for the second part of that. Oh well.

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