Specialty bookshelf: reviews of thriller, children's and Colorado author titles

Rocky Mountain News

Published August 20, 2008 at 2:41 p.m.

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THRILLERS

The Turnaround

By George Pelecanos. Little, Brown, $24.99. Grade: A

Based loosely on a real event in 1972, The Turnaround is a deeply affecting look at race and redemption in a changing world. Three young whites drive through a black neighborhood yelling epithets, only to be caught by those they are tormenting. A young man dies, and all the others are scarred for life - at least until the turnaround.

The survivors are all living truncated lives, looking for a way to get beyond the distant past, when suddenly old hatreds and new sensibilities show up simultaneously. When all the young men find each other again in middle age, the chance for understanding and reprieve is as thin as a honed knife edge.

Final word: Pelecanos' string of urban and urbane crime novels will be the sine qua non of the genre for a generation.

-Peter Mergendahl

CHILDREN

Encyclopedia Mythologica: Fairies and Magical Creatures

By Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda. Candlewick Press, $27.99 novelty, $250 special edition. Grade: A

The reigning masters of pop-up are back with another stunning Encyclopedia series, and once again there's something fresh and unexpected on every spread.

This first book in Encyclopedia Mythologica explores the legends of magical creatures, from Shakespeare's Queen Titania to Pegasus, with elaborate pop-ups and multiple flaps on the sides of pages, each with their own miniature pop-ups and fold-outs.

As with Encyclopedia Prehistorica, the images transform and move as they are revealed. In one, a daisy unfolds to reveal a fairy flying on the back of a bumblebee. In another, a phony photograph of a fairy opens to reveal the cousins who falsified that image snipping it from a catalog.

Final word: The main pop-ups are so elaborate that it can be tricky to fold out the side flaps, yet every image is so brilliantly thought out that that's just a small inconvenience.

-Jennifer Miller

COLORADO AUTHORS

Speck: The Life and Times of Spencer Penrose

By Robert C. Olson, Western Reflections, $19.95. Grade: A-

The Penrose name is prominent in Colorado Springs, but few know about the man behind the name. This lively biography captures the essence of Spencer "Speck" Penrose, one of six boys from a blue-blood Philadelphia family.

Academically inferior to his brothers and unable to earn his father's approval, Speck went west after leaving Harvard. He proceeded to multiply the $2,000 he had in 1888 many times, making him a wealthy man five years later when he became a real estate partner and co-owner of a Cripple Creek gold mine. Penrose extended early success into ventures in copper, manufacturing, agriculture and even resort operations, which led to construction of the famed Broadmoor hotel. Much of the vast wealth of this vibrant, roistering man went into countless civic projects around Colorado Springs.

Final word: A much-needed biography of a powerful early Coloradan and his role in U.S. history.

-Joan Hinkemeyer

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