Blast Out of the Winter Doldrums with a Thriller--Ignore the Pain
I’ve
never liked February much. More snow, ice, and cold. This year with record-breaking
winter weather, I bet a lot of readers are eager to forget winter. How about
curling up with a thriller – Ignore the Pain? Besides being
exciting this book gives you a chance to do some armchair traveling to Bolivia,
possibly a place you’ve never considered.
Let’s start with a fast-paced plot.
In Ignore the Pain, Sara Almquist
couldn’t say no when invited to be the epidemiologist on a public health
mission to assess children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is
chasing her through the Witches’ Market and churches of La Paz. Unfortunately,
she can’t decide whether to trust any of her new colleagues, especially the
unsavory Xave Zack, as she learns more about coca production and the god Tio of
the silver mines of Potosí than she ever wanted to know.
The let’s add the excitement of an exotic
location.
What do
you like to do when you travel? See historical sites, shop for unusual items,
learn about a different culture, hike a bit, and be surprised.
Bolivia
fits the bill and Ignore the Pain gives you a realistic, but safe view of
Bolivia.
In Ignore the Pain, you get a guided
tour of attractions in Bolivia, like the Witches’ Market of La Paz. You’ll not
only see native women in black bowler hats and layers of brightly covers skirts
sell llama fetuses for offerings to the gods, but also smell the aromas of the
city. (Note: Not all are pleasant.) You’ll also travel across the austere,
almost Mars-like landscape of the Altiplano to see the exotic stone columns in
the Valley of the Moon and the shores of Lake
Poopó, long a summer nesting spot for flamingos and now polluted by mining
runoff.
Sara is your guide. Of course, her view of Iglesia
de San Francisco in La Paz might be a little different that that of the average
tourist. Someone determined to kill her is chasing her across the church’s
roof. The description of the roof is realistic – I’ve been there.
Why read Ignore the Pain before I plan a trip to
Bolivia?
There’s a reason Ignore the Pain is a thriller.
Bolivia is a poor country with severe problems. Sara gets into the midst of
these problems because of her past history and her current assignment as a
consultant on public health issues.
For
example, the mountain Cerro Rico near Potosí is so riddled by five hundred
years of silver mining that cave-ins are common. Mercury extraction of silver
from the ore has polluted water supplies for large areas of the country. Bolivia
is the third largest producer of coca, the raw
material for cocaine.
It’s
impossible to ignore coca in Bolivia. If you don’t believe me, look at tea bag
cover I saved from my trip to Bolivia. Coca tea is available in most
restaurants.
The use of coca in Bolivia is complicated and often logical. Thus in Ignore the Pain, Sara
learns laborers in the silver mines of Potosí carry little food or water into
the mines. In order to endure the pain caused by thirst, hunger, and heavy
exertion at a high altitude (13,000 feet), they chew coca leaves. The active
ingredients in coca leaves are stimulants, which help users ignore pain. Those
facts are also basis for the title of the novel.
I hope you’ve decided to blast out of your
winter doldrums by reading Ignore the
Pain. Then you
can decide if you want to visit Bolivia.
Bio:
For more on JL Greger, check
out her website: www.jlgreger.com and blog: JL's Bugs at http://www.jlgregerblog.blogspot.com. The Bugs in her blog aren’t insects. They are
her real life Japanese Chin dog, who is a pet therapy dog in hospital in the
Albuquerque area, and the fictional dog featured in her novels.
Here are thumbnail sketches of the two previous
novels in this medical thriller/mystery series. Learn whether the Philippine
flu or a drug kingpin caught in a quarantine is more deadly in Coming Flu. Discover whether an ambitious young “diet doctor”
or old-timers with buried secrets are killers in Murder: A New Way to
Lose Weight.
The
novels are available in paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon.
Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-New-Lose-Weight-ebook/dp/B00DFCC3IM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1372715439&sr=1-1&keywords=Murder%3A+A+New+Way+to+Lose+Weight
Ignore the Pain: http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Pain-J-L-Greger-ebook/dp/B00HOODVTW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390779199&sr=8-1&keywords=ebook+Ignore+the+Pain
Comments
Madeline
M, I think you'll enjoy Ignore the Pain because Sara is a risk taker. You'll see side of Bolivia you'd miss on a standard tour.
JL Greger
You're always so kind. Thanks
JL