R&B: Read and Blog

Sending a Big Cheer of Thanks out to all the Bear Rescue Facility supporters!

2012-01-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all who voted in my recent cause on the Aviva Community Funding Competition! Here's a big cheer from a little bear! (It's probably a squeal for a meal, but I prefer to think it's a cheer!) It was a long haul and this will be my final message about voting. No more votes, your votes along with thousands of others put the Bear Rescue Facility at the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter in Smithers into the finals and we just got the outcome. The Bear Rescue Facility was awarded $140,000! So once again, thank you. This has been an amazing adventure.

Betty and the bears

Dances with Marmots - From Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail by George Spearing

2012-01-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

George Spearing gets a sudden urge to do a long hike. Now, George lives in New Zealand, one would think he might elect to hike the two islands of New Zealand from bottom to top, but no. George has decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the border of Mexico to Canada, a distance of 4,280 km, or 2,659 miles in five months. This is his story of preparation, research, and finally his long trek over mountains through deserts, marshes, rattlesnake country and bear country, not to mention the ticks toward the latter part of his journey.

He has plotted well, arranged for food and other necessities sent on to small town post offices along his route to cut down on weight in his pack. Still it often gets up to 100 lb. at times. He does this trip as a solitary hiker, but often meets up with other hikers, some several times en route. A great demonstration of how small the world is, he also meets up with the very man he contacted through a friend for advice on the trip when still in New Zealand!

This book is slight reminiscent of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" as he hiked the Appalachian trail through the eastern states. George will be doing the western states. I found the book very informative, humourous, and often giving historic trivia about various stops along the way. George has a tendency to talk to himself either out loud or in his head. On meeting his first group of marmots, he had quite a conversation with them, and enjoyed their company. He encountered marmots several times and found them to be very entertaining. Even his run-ins with bears are written with fear yet humour. Not being at all acquainted with bears, I can sympathize with him when crashing around the tent makes him wonder if he is going to become an appetizer. This is a very readable and entertaining book, includes photos.

Such Wicked Friends by Rod Hoisington

2012-01-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Published by EnteraBooks
Cover Art by Mark Hoisington

Feisty, smart and sassy, Sandy Reid has traded in her whiplash field investigations for the courtroom...or has she? She has recently passed the bar and is now a criminal lawyer, but no staid lawyer is she. Retaining her voracious appetite for the truth, she turns the world of law on its ear.

Rod Hoisington's latest mystery all begins with a more or less routine phone call from a woman to Martin, her partner, the lawyer she "rents a desk from". He passes the arranged meeting with the client over to Sandy to deal with. Martin likes his cases to be simple and civil and meeting an unidentified woman with husband troubles after dark wasn't something he wanted to take on. Unfortunately, when Sandy finds the woman, she has a bullet hole in her forehead. From that moment on, matters go from bad to worse as she is taken away, cuffed, by the police. No residue is found on her hands, but Sandy sees a fair-sized blood stain on the back of her hand, wondering why no one has mentioned it. It makes her feel connected somehow to this woman she only met in death, as though it is a plea for help. Apparently she is the only one who can see it. She must also admit to touching, in fact to picking up an envelope from the woman's lap, and though she immediately put it back, she knows this is going to go badly for her. Sandy just can't keep out of the way of her old nemesis State Attorney Lawrence Moran and his ongoing vindictiveness toward her. She made the unforgivable mistake of proving him wrong when they first met. Now, on what should be a misdemeanor, he is going to do everything in his power to have her disbarred, and power is something he has in spades. On the other hand, Sandy has a few tricks up her sleeve, too, including Martin, who is well-versed in the law, and her current beau Det. Chip Bogard, with all his police knowledge, background and friends.

Enter the perennial party-goers Jenna and Brad, long-time friends of Martin, and he is introduced to Prissy, a dressed-down somewhat shapeless but nice-looking woman who zeroes in on him with lust and moneybags in her eyes. Though these people do not appear to have anything to do with the murdered woman, you just never know about people. What it does provide at this point is romantic entertainment for Martin, and the timing is right because he has just hired a caretaker for his father suffering from Alzheimers, giving Martin some worry-free freedom.

As it turns out, this seemingly innocuous "marital dispute" death, simple and sad, is more than it seems and will have global ramifications. Sandy will have proven herself once again, getting shot up in the process, one tough cookie, but fun as well. As Sandy might say to Moran "Put that in your pipe and smoke it!", or probably not quite in those words. Another great Sandy Reid mystery from Rod Hoisington. He just gets better and better. This story was very fast-paced, thrilling, sexy and funny by turns. I really enjoyed it.

El Porto Summer by George Matthew Cole

2012-01-06T23:33:00.000-08:00

California in the summer, surfing, hanging out with your friends, what could be better? Well, this summer Brett is about to find out both better and worse, and an unhappy young girl will find her way after moving from inland to the coast, a coast she fears. George Matthew Cole begins this book with individual chapters for the book's characters. The reader knows right away who these people are and that they will all show up interactively in the story. A teenage summer of discovery, a story of teenage angst, a time of life that is uncharted territory and full of pitfalls.

The author has a wonderful grasp of these awkward years and tells it well. He goes deep inside the insecurities that exist within most teenagers. Reading the book brought back some memories that are now decades old. I like a book to show me something new, and this one didn't fail me. I learned some about surfing, and how to study and learn (something I really could have done with years ago).

This is a young-adult book, and does have a bit of rough language as could be expected. These are mid-teens, discovering urges, learning new lifestyles, finding their strengths, meeting bullying head on, and finding empathy. I am very happy to recommend it. The characters are diverse, but consistent at their cores, even as the book takes us through a change and new self-discoveries. Most of the characters are well-meaning, decent kids and a very few older teens are not just bullies but a part of the criminal element, juvenile delinquents. Still, it is basically a happy book with growing pains. For older readers, it will bring back some memories, whether living near the water or elsewhere in North America. The author takes us through everything as smoothly as the flat water at slack tide. I enjoyed this book and the characters within. A great coming-of-age story.

The Walled Flower by Lorraine Bartlett

2012-01-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

Published by Berkley Prime Crime, New York
Review based on ARC

What a stressful life our Katie Bonner is living these days! Aside from her daily routines at the Artisans Alley, which are about to be interrupted in a less than happy way, she is rushing around to find a place to live and down to a very short deadline since her apartment has been rented out already. Then one of her vendors talks her into becoming her Matron of Honour (and must have read and copied every book on a Matron of Honour's duty), with a deadline just over a week away. Another vendor is adamantly demanding that her neighbouring vendor be arrested for stealing with no proof whatsoever, and her dream to own and operate the old Webster mansion for a Bed and Breakfast is revived again when the property goes up for sale---and again she can't afford it. It does sell, though, and the new owners are planning on doing exactly what Katie had planned, they are renovating the house to be a Bed and Breakfast, with many of the same ideas Katie had.

Lorraine Bartlett knows how to write sharp, witty, intriguing mysteries, often with several smoothly entwined in a single book, a book that is very hard to put down. I think this is the best yet. New characters come and go, and some remain adding to the population of Victoria Square. I love the title of the book and how it fits with the story. There is indeed a "walled flower", not the kind of flower you would expect, but one forever caught in the bloom of its life. Katie is about to uncover this flower when she makes a welcoming visit to the new neighbours, who are busily tearing down a wall. They allow her to try her hand with the mallet which she does with the relish and zeal of a thwarted homeowner, breaking away pieces until she suddenly realizes something is inside the wall. The skeleton of a young woman, obviously in the wall for many years, the walled flower, a death too soon. At this point an over-stressed Katie issues what must be the understatement of the decade, "Well, this could ruin your day."

As the insensitive and formidable homicide Detective Ray Davenport arrives and the area is cordoned off, Rose Nash, one of the older vendors at Artisan's Alley and a special friend to Katie, is allowed in when it appears she may have information about the body. She is able to identify the locket the skeleton is wearing and identifies the girl as her niece Heather, who disappeared 22 years before. From the moment of identification, this story takes on a life of its own, involving many people, possible suspects, and more bodies piling up. As usual, the detective does not seem to be moving, or at the very least moving in the right direction, so Rose becomes Katie's sidekick as they investigate together, a partnership I found very satisfying and would enjoy seeing again. Rose proves herself reliable and quick.

In the meantime, between the looming wedding, the accusations of thefts, a child left unattended by the accusator, the hunt for a place to live (and wondering why current boyfriend Andy won't let her rent his apartment over the store) and more, Katie is quickly becoming overwhelmed. Searching for an apartment introduces her to some very strange owners! She is aided, and sometimes abetted, by various members of the Alley. Many surprises are in store for the reader. This is an enjoyable romp with action all through. I did not want to put the book down, though I often felt I needed to catch my breath. A wonderful cozy read.

2012-01-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

May the year bring you everything you hope for

May you have Health, Peace and Joy!

Crash and Burn: The Bureaupathology of the Federal Aviation Administration by Robert M. Misic with Bobbi Linkemer

2011-12-31T13:10:00.000-08:00

Published by Magic City Press (2011)

I may have thought I was reviewing horror books before, but this non-fiction book by Robert M. Misic was certainly not the one I should have been reading as my daughter and grandson were flying through US airspace! Crash and Burn might be called an expose of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) particularly in the past quarter century, but it is really a presentation of failing procedures, in-fighting, lack of precautions, hiding errors and omissions, and many more facts that have come to the surface that are and have been putting passengers and flight crews at danger. Forget about terrorism being the primary danger in our skies. As Pogo, a cartoon character by Walt Kelly, once said, "We have met the enemy... and he is us!"

As a Canadian I had been aware of some instances of unreported abuse of the system once they became news, but this is far deeper and widespread than I could imagine. Included in the book are accounts of many Whistle-blowers concerned for air safety, how these reports were received, and how these conscientious people were treated, some stripped of their credentials, losing their jobs, their reports hidden or falsified and ignored, it goes on and on. A chapter titled "Deliberately Committed Operational Error"; another "Twelve New York Controllers' Revenge: Fired, Rehired, Exonerated" and "One Way to Kill Traffic Controllers: Lock Them in a Carbon Monoxide-Filled Room"!

On the positive side, hopefully this book can be seen as a wake-up call to the bureaucrats. Isn't outside terrorism enough? Should it be a part of American "tradition" behavioral-wise? Robert Misic's "Crash & Burn" puts forth a very compelling case, I hope it will do what he has set out to do. The writing is succinct, most reports coming from air control tower personnel. This includes the author, a retired air controller. Everything in the book is clearly laid out. The back of the book contains the full names of the glossary including acronyms, references, historic letters, recommended reading and resources for the flying public. A thorough, well-documented and conscientious book. I give it five stars because of the helpful additional information in the last section of the book.

Tir Na N'Og: Journal One by Marni L.B. Troop

2011-12-31T00:05:00.000-08:00

No ordinary fantasy, but more of a "what if this was how it happened" fantasy. I say this because the Faeries are quite unlike any I've read of before. Marni Troop has a fascinating imagination, exactly suited to this story. Casey, a pure-blood Faerie, is chronicling the events of her very long life. In fact, she is doing more than that, she is chronicling the history of her people as best she can. She has been taught a code of writing by an elder. Her kind are of the land, quite literally. It doesn't take long to figure out that the island they came to believe is their land will later be known as Ireland. Descriptive and well-crafted, the book is captivatingly original.

The book is imaginative, I could almost call it historical except that it is a fantasy. No wonder Ireland is so mystical. At the opening, Casey is celebrating her 100th birthday, not as an old woman but as a blossoming, very tall, female just entering puberty. The Faeries in this story live a very long time, which is a good thing if you are to write the history as it has happened and as it is happening. She is writing this history because she believes they will be wiped out and no one will ever know they existed. She is sending the journals to someone named Michael, whose persona is not revealed in this first book, Journal One. Besides having learned what would become their written language, Casey has another special ability. She can see into other Faeries' minds.

One day she realizes she is tuning in to a stranger, a man. She feels no menace from him. Eventually, this man arrives on a ship, and requests she take him to her king or leader. However, with many of the people inhabiting this place, someone kills this Iberian man that Casey feels has come in peace. This act provokes an invasion shortly afterward, one of many to come in their time. It is because of the invasion, and the resulting losses of life, that the invaders, meeting with the indigenous people, Faeries and mixed blood, allow them to live within the land and the invaders will live on the land. The Faeries have felt the pull of the land, their castles and fortresses have been received by the land, sinking at least one level into the land and no further. So few survivors remain that Casey felt compelled to write the journal so the world will know that they did exist at one time. This Journal is the first. An unusual concept and imaginatively recorded, the Journal is quite fascinating. An interesting debut full of darkness and light. I look forward to the reading the second journal. I see that the books are going under a new title in the future, from "Tir Na N'Og" to "The Heart of Ireland" Saga.

Survivors of the Great Tsunami: the course of Eurasia after the 4.2 ka BP Impact by Alewyn J. Raubenheimer

2011-12-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

A provocative book based on an ancient manuscript of an inundation over 4000 years ago (BP = Before Present), therefore this flood would have happened in 2193 BC or very close to that date. Alewyn J. Raubenheimer takes us on a journey through time as he sets out to prove the authenticity of this manuscript, Orea Linda. Is it authentic? Was there really such a civilization of democracy, architecture, shipbuilding, horticulture, literacy and monotheism? A place of freedom, culture, and industry (metallurgy). The author goes into the plausibility very thoroughly, using references from such diverse writings as the Bible, Ipuwer and later Nefertiti, Homer, Heredotus and others. The research covers many strategic areas for seeking out the past besides historians. Satellite imagery, DNA mapping, archaeology, paleontology, geology, anthropology and astronomy all play a part in this intriguing book.

This civilization, Frya's Land or Frisland, appears to be the beginning of an advanced, cultured civilization in a world where most were barbaric and based on slavery and idolatry. Even the language appears to be an ancient variation of the old Friesian language. The manuscript begins with a description of an earth-shattering global event quite probably caused by an asteroid or pieces of asteroids hitting the earth in the Indian Ocean. The Burckle Impact would have had the power of "several million nuclear bombs". The earth tipped on its axis, changing the earth's orbit and therefore the climate. Volcanoes erupted, earthquakes cracked open the earth, after-quakes carrying on for 3 years, Frisland tilted and sank beneath the global flood. Millions were killed in the cataclysm. Survivors scattered throughout the world.

The writing, though full of quotes from various sources including the Orea Linda, is interesting and well written. Alewyn Raubenheimer is well versed in the study of his research. He speaks of the early Europeans and in particular the people of Frya's Land with clarity. The Orea Linda book has been passed on and added to through thousands of generations, and was brought to light in 1872 when it was translated after a descendent who had received it from his aunt in the 1830s contacted the provincial librarian and archivist of Friesland in the Netherlands. It had been handed down in his family for generations when his aunt gave it to him to keep. The book is quite fascinating in showing the building blocks throughout history of countries as seen from the descendency of the Friesland people. The author makes a very good and thorough case for the authenticity of the book, which has long been held to be a hoax by many experts, and authentic by many other experts. He encourages further study as technology improves. One thing stands out loud and clear, he believes in the authenticity and believes it tells us a lot about global history. Great food for thought.

Recipes to Die For: a Victoria Square Cookbook by Lorraine Bartlett

2011-12-19T00:48:00.000-08:00

What a great idea! This book is written in the voice of the main character from Lorraine Bartlett's Victoria Square Mystery series, Katie Bonner. Readers of this series are already very familiar with the vendors of Artisans Alley Crafts mall and other townspeople who populate the series on an ongoing basis. Now we learn a little more about these individual characters as they submit to Katie their favourite recipes to include in her cookbook. Beginning with "signature drinks", hilariously we learn that the funeral director's selection as his signature drink the Zombie. These unique recipes range from how to make hot chocolate from a powdered mix to Cornish Pasties, Scallops al Forno, slow cooker recipes, lunches, dinners, desserts, and more. Not one of these recipes is difficult to prepare, most are quick and easy, yet delicious. Jordan Tanner, who owns the bakery at Victoria Square, submitted a recipe for Pecan Oatmeal Pie, that looks like it would be good for breakfast, lunch or dinner, very versatile. Each recipe is prefaced by a bit about the character, or in Katie's case often a bit of a snippet about her Aunt Lizzie who raised her and taught her how to bake. Besides the cooking and baking, I also enjoyed this book as a complement to the series.

I found several recipes I'm anxious to try out, especially the Cornish Pasties which I really like but haven't seen a recipe for in my cookbooks, and I was excited to see a recipe for Peanut Butter Buckeyes, simple as can be and I absolutely love the mixture of peanut butter and chocolate. My copy of this book is already full of post-it notes, marking what I want to try. I should have just looked at the index in the back of the book! This is a handy little cookbook, great for potlucks, party hors d'oeuvres, late night snacks, almost any occasion. A very entertaining cookbook for reading and cooking. Would make a great little gift for someone who loves to cook or bake but has little time.

Letter of Thanks to All Who Voted for Bear Rescue Facility

2011-11-13T20:16:00.000-08:00

Thank You!
I'm so happy I was rescued by Northern Lights Wildlife Refuge, Bear Rescue Facility! I really missed my mother's milk and they fed me. Next year I'm going home because I'll be big and strong and healthy. Thank you for giving me my life back.
Clover the Kermode
a,k.a. Spirit Bear

Photo courtesy of NLWS:
Clover when he first arrived at the shelter.

Can you believe it? 21,465 votes in 12 days!! Thank you to everyone who voted for the Bear Rescue Facility at the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter. It's been a wild ride, but so many of you supported our cause we safely got through it in the Top 10, and now it is up to the judges. We finished in 3rd place with 6,977 supporters, which is a good spot to be for the final judging. The final results will be available January 25, 2012. So, we can all take a breather, have a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year! Thank you again for all your help.

Sincerely,

Betty Gelean

Children of the Fog by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2011-11-07T18:43:00.001-08:00

Published by Imajin Books
Reviewed from Kindle ebook

A parent's worst nightmare—a mother's greatest fear. This story of terror, fear, remorse, and unfulfilled closure is deftly written. The contrast between the sweetness and light at the beginning and the bleak blackness and despair in the midst of the horror is overwhelmingly realistic. The excruciating pain of not knowing, coupled with the feeling of guilt—she should have done things differently, she should have been able to save her child—chews at the mother's insides. This very dark story may seem over the top with other problems running throughout but it is not. Trauma flattens the soul, the voice is still and dead or shrill and frenzied as different parts of the story unfold.

As a mother myself, I found this an emotional book to read, and yet I was mesmerized by it and couldn't put it down. Cheryl Kaye Tardif brings detail and personality to every book she writes. Midway through this story as our protagonist Sadie runs from the myriad upheavals in her life into solitude, a shift in the feel of the book follows her and leads us into a different place, a place of temporary respite from tragedy, bringing us into nature and the natural order of things, however brief it may be. But when Sadie sees glimpses of children and hears childish laughter in the woods, is she hallucinating? Who is leaving her little gifts, and why an onion for goodness sake? What does the crow that taps on her window have to do with anything?

The suspense builds up until it spills over in this tense story. Is it God? Kismet? Fate? Something or someone is driving Sadie deeper and deeper into the fog and dark. She must keep her wits about her to understand what is being shown her. This book tugs at the heart and dredges up our fears and mortality. A tale of innocence and evil well told, with an ending that will both thrill and chill.

Murder Trims the Tree: a Gertie Johnson Christmas Mystery by Deb Baker

2011-11-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

How would you prefer to spend Christmas, in jail or doing community service? Gertie and her group of investigators, The Trouble Busters, naturally chose to do community service. The Trouble Busters, possibly considered to be The Trouble Makers by the judge, is a group of three "older" women who have been charged with obstructing justice. Living with her 92 year old mother-in-law, Gertie has a secret motive for suggesting they do their time at the assisted living home in Trenary, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula. She is hoping Grandma, her late husband's mother, will like it so much she will elect to move there, especially since an old boy-friend Earl is there, so she has included in her group of forced volunteers her thorn-in-the-side mother-in-law, and Gertie's companion dog Fred, a German Shepherd. An ex-police dog, he is easily the most capable member of the investigators.

What they don't realize until already committed to volunteering there, is that Earl is a joker with a nasty bent. Being served "chocolate" candies that turn out to have a distinct odour that he "made" himself, it doesn't take long to decide this choice was not particularly a good idea. Unfortunately for this zany group, they are stranded there when they are cut off from escape by a huge snowstorm. The staff takes advantage of the new arrivals to take a day off, leaving them almost solely responsible for the residents and under the watch of the intolerable head of the facility, Nurse Shrank, a seriously scary thought.

With a mixed bag of equally zany residents including a former mailman deathly afraid of dogs, and Nurse Shrank, a nightmare waiting to happen, the fun begins. When Gertie discovers a body in the basement she knows this definitely was a bad idea. With the phone lines down and a raging snowstorm isolating them, they are stuck with whatever is going on. Definitely not where anyone wants to spend Christmas! Especially when almost everyone falls into a deep sleep after lunch, including the staff and Fred. Deb Baker has concocted a very unusual and funny holiday mystery with her group of protagonists. This novella can be read quickly and the antics of the characters will entertain. How the inmates of the assisted living pull off their stunts as well as cotton on to what is going on that shouldn't be at Applegate, better known as Hellsgate by Gertie, is quirky yet intelligent. I enjoyed this romp of a mystery and the "volunteer" group. I must admit to the fact that this is my first, but not my last, visit to Gertie Johnson's life.

Gumption and Grit: Women of the Cariboo Chilcotin edited by Sage Birchwater

2011-11-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

Published by Caitlin Press

"Gumption and Grit: Women of the Cariboo Chilcotin, Extraordinary Women Vol. 1" is a well-edited book featuring the stories of 35 women who helped make the Cariboo-Chilcotin area in central British Columbia what it is today. Sage Birchwater has done an amazing job of editing this book. These are survivors of hard work and isolation ranging over the decades of the gold rush, the land rush, ranching, farming, married to men who are married to the land or to their work, leaving their wives to do everything else. Some of these stories are told in the first person, some are not. Their stories are all well-told. They all come from different backgrounds, some have always been there and some came from cities, usually to teach. All the way through the first half of the twentieth century the land was still worked much as always. Technology came late to this part forested and part desert land. The one thing in common geographically seems to be the rocky land.

We learn about such diversity of family life as living in one-room log cabins, no plumbing, no electricity. Women having their babies wherever they end up being born because of the distances between populated areas. Especially bad in the dead of winter, because this area is extremely cold and dangerous for travel. In most of these stories roads were either bad or non-existent, there were no telephones. One woman's story ties in with the arrival of communications when she married the linesman who installed and maintained the brand new telephone lines, often going with him as he worked. These pioneering women had to be as innovative as the men, often working alongside them.

I found the story of Josephine Gregg of particular interest. She lived her life in two cultures, and her story demonstrates how difficult a simple slip of the pen when her birth was registered caused her to fight for thirteen years to get her status as the daughter of a Tsilhqot'in Indian mother and a Scottish father.

The latter part of the book are post-WWII stories. The Cariboo-Chilcotin is still sparsely populated in many areas although Williams Lake and Quesnel have grown tremendously through the years. The area between Highway 97 and the West Coast is one of the more isolated areas of British Columbia. The stories in this section show the women struggling to make a difference in their lives and their world, the struggles are different, but the strength of will, gumption and grit remains. This book is a great read of the development of the wild west of Canada. Men & women were often equal partners in developing the land but the women demonstrate true grit in determination, overcoming obstacles, giving birth in terrible conditions and often alone. This is a slice of Canadian and British Columbian history rarely heard of and well worth reading.

Remote Control by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2011-10-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

Published by Imajin Books
Review based on Kindle version

Like a step into the Twilight Zone, be careful what you wish for! This novelette is sure to please the afficionado of the old television shows, the story is atmospheric, even the feel is grainy black and white. Cheryl Kaye Tardif never disappoints with the quality and depth of her writing, whether full-length, novelette, short story or part of an anthology, she is consistently exploring the mind. Well-written, gripping, and with a moral buried within, Remote Control is sure to warn and entertain.

Take a lazy, very fat man who spends all his time wishing his way to a rosy future, then picture an over-worked long-suffering wife. Who would guess that these two were the football jock and the class valedictorian in college? What happened to them? She works at two jobs and still can't afford to pay all the bills and keep him fed. He is a plumber, and could have been very good at it, but no. He is so fat, so lazy, and so glued to the TV with his hand gripping the remote, that he has lost his ambition. Not enough money to pay the bills? He just tries to talk his wife into working longer hours or take on a third job. He is convinced that if he wishes long and hard enough, he will be rich. He "knows" that it is happening soon. In the meantime, he lives in his imaginary world of TV and wishes, while his wife tries to make ends meet and wonders where everything went wrong. She wishes, too; wishes that things could be as they were. Is there a turning point? Ah, if I delve into it too far, I'll give the ending away.

Once again Cheryl Tardif has taken us away from our comfort zone to find that we enjoy being there. Once begun, the reader is compelled to find out what happens, thereby reading and watching all the way through, driven by the story to the outcome, thinking about wishes we've made. A brilliant and fitting ending, I am now going to be careful what I wish for, much as I might think I really want it. A well-metered story, picking up pace as it goes along, an impressive writing style.

The Opposite of Dark: A Casey Holland Mystery by Debra Purdy Kong

2011-10-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Published by Touchwood Editions

What is a daughter to do when 3 years after she has buried her father she is presented with another body identified as her father? The first thing to come to mind of course, is that he is already dead and can't be dead again. Or can he? If it wasn't such a horrifying thought, it would be almost comical. There are so many things one doesn't think of in a case such as this. In particular, the funeral home where her father was buried the first time is adamant that he is still in plot 352, so how do they handle this second burial? Who passed for her father to all who viewed the body in the casket, including his daughter Casey, to allow them to believe they were looking at one Marcus Adam Holland Which is the corpse of the real Marcus? If that weren't enough, how could her father possibly have a home in West Vancouver, if he was dead, and why, if he was in hiding, would he choose to be so near and yet not contact his daughter or his fiancé Rhonda? They were just finally getting on with their lives from his first death and now he's died again, or so it would seem. What a great plot, and I don't mean burial plot. Debra Purdy Kong has outdone herself.

The lives of the human race consist of so many secrets, I sometimes feel we could be living in two dimensions and not even know it. Casey works security for the Transit Service in Vancouver, BC, and is no stranger to awareness of her surroundings and netting several suspects for various crimes. She decides if she is ever to sort this dilemma out, she will have to go to Europe, where her Dad "died" the first time, and try to learn what he was doing there. She knows she is being followed most of the time, and that someone is looking for something, but she doesn't know who or what. She only knows she must try to find out the truth. What she does learn is that there are many people looking for that something. What was her father involved in? Was he importing and/or exporting illegal or dangerous goods? She is shocked when she finds out just before leaving home that her estranged mother is somehow involved in whatever her father was doing.

This is truly a fast-moving action-packed thriller with many twist and turns, many suspects, and many secrets and lies. Trust is something that is very slippery, hard to determine and equally hard to hold on to. Trust and misguided trust play a major role in this book. Not only is Casey's life in jeopardy, but her friends are as well, even the police trying to protect her. I would have read this book at one sitting were I able to, I was so involved in the story. I am happy to learn that we will be seeing more of Casey in future books and can hardly wait! Great story with strong plot!

Cheat the Hangman by Gloria Ferris

2011-10-24T16:30:00.001-07:00

Published by Imajin Books

I completely immersed myself in this well-written book enjoying every minute. It was definitely deserving of being short-listed for the Crime Writers of Canada "Unhanged Arthur". Gloria Ferris' writing reminded me somewhat of one of my favourite authors, Donna Andrews, especially with the very large quirky extended family interaction and antics. She brings "skeletons in the closet" to a whole new level. Take a decades-old cold case of a missing child, a sudden unexpected inheritance of a huge fabulous and museum-like home to divorced grand-niece Lyris Pembroke, who must then quickly plan and host the annual Pembroke family reunion comprised of about 400 extended family members all too soon after moving into her new home. Throw in a good helping of the paranormal and hidden secrets, a headstone with no name, a fire, attacks on Lyris and you have a pretty good perception of what fun this book is going to be. Lyris definitely has her work cut out for her. Fortunately she has also inherited Conklin the butler, and is able to hire Caroline, an excellent cook and housekeeper. For the reunion, Lyris shows admirable organizational ability as she works her way through what must be done prior to the reunion.

Not all is fun and games, though. There are also some dangerous intruders lurking about, not all of them necessarily human. Or perhaps otherworldly would be a better way to put it. Toss in a small dog with sharp teeth, soon joined by an oversized black cat, and the house begins to fill with more rooms occupied than the residents realize. Spanning so many decades, it would be strange if there were not romances, both current and decades old. Reignited passions, and reawakened love and trust with those who have suffered at the hands of their exes in the past and discover there is still a chance for happiness, even if it comes almost too late. The book is loaded with many different types of chaos and stress and yet it doesn't confuse the reader, it is just all a part of the whole. I loved the balance of the book, I laughed at the shenanigans, shed a few tears as the cold case is dealt with, worried with our heroine, relived the past with the few remaining WWII veterans even enjoying the singing of Vera Lynn in my mind, went through terror, thrills and chills, and loved the ending. This book certainly ran through a gamut of emotions, old and new. I am really looking forward to the further adventures to come.

Lexi Spiderwoman by Kensington Roth

2011-10-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

Published by The Harriman Group (2011)

A bizarre and fascinating fantasy, it kept me wondering what would be the next surprise. Kensington Roth has a writing style all his own. A slow start that had me wondering what the point was, soon became clear it was setting the stage. Kensington's writing in this stage reads much like a screenplay in the way it describes thoughts, his character's perceptions and the perceptions her colleagues have of Alexandra Fine. For instance, you can quickly tell that Alex has been at the receiving end of bullying in the past, and a form of it in the present. Though smart and beautiful, she has low self-esteem. The importance of this as to her character becomes a pivotal point when the story really gets rolling. Scene settings are also written in the same descriptive yet abrupt sentences. Once set, the flow changes into story-telling mode.

Keeping a black widow spider as a pet may seem ludicrous to some people, but then some people keep poisonous snakes for pets. No one can doubt that Lexi has found a pastime that she enjoys, feeding her pet with insects and watching in fascination how the spider reacts, even to the point of the spider learning tricks such as pushing one insect aside for Lexi to give to her personally at which time the spider gives her a little "love nip". This little game is quite important to the story as it goes along.

Lexi works as executive secretary for the president at an oil trading company, an influential and coveted job that includes assisting at house parties and even hobnobbing with the rich and famous occasionally. She is also the single mother of a teenage daughter, Lindsey, who is absorbed with chat rooms on the internet, much to the consternation and worry of her mother. When she falls prey to one of the cyber-predators and disappears, Lexi understandably becomes distraught, and perhaps this trauma also acts as a trigger to the changes in her character. Whatever she has connected to with Ophelia, the black widow spider with her beautiful red hourglass marking, comes even more to the fore. The black widow spider is notably sexy and draws every male widow to her. So, when Lexi suddenly shows her sexiness, we begin go notice why the details of the spider are important. She also begins to be amazingly strong and develops into a superwoman. The changes in the character are exciting and fun and progress throughout the book.

I have no intentions of ruining the plot for prospective readers, so I will leave these hints and suggest reading the book. What has happened to Lindsey? Is she still alive? Will they find her in time? Who could have taken her? There are several twists and turns, and surprising suspects. The antics of Ophelia and the tragicomic storyline make this a stand-out plot, especially with the timely subject of cyber-crime, a terrible crime against young people that needs to be brought out such as the author has done with this entertaining book. I am happy to give it a good review because the potential for a future featuring this comic but human superhero is fantastic.

The Charlestown Connection by Tom MacDonald

2011-10-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

Published by Oceanview Publishing

Our unlikely hero is from the projects in Boston's Charlestown. He is a permanently sidelined All-American Boston College Football hero, due to a mangled knee, and a recovering alcoholic. He runs the food pantry for Saint Jude Thaddeus Church. A pretty low-key guy, Dermot Sparhawk is a survivor of his past.

His evening shift is shockingly interrupted by pounding on the door, then his godfather Jeepster stumbling across the room and into his arms. Jeepster is a Viet-Nam veteran and best friend of Dermot's father, also a Viet-Nam vet, both men were marines. Jeepster has spent most of the intervening years in prison. While trying to hold Jeepster up, he is told to "take it" meaning the key he held. Unable to carry on, he gasps "it opens..." then collapses, at which time Dermot sees a deeply imbedded knife in his back. With his last gasp, Jeepster breathes "Oswego" and dies. The only clue Dermot has is the word McSweeney on the key and Oswego, which means nothing to him. Author Tom MacDonald knows how to catch our interest.

As if this weren't enough, Dermot starts getting callers, mostly Irish, trying to find out what Dermot knows. In the meantime, Dermot is anxious to get to the bottom of who killed his godfather. What is going on? What do all these people want? How could Jeepster have anything of value anywhere? There is so much action in this book, so many threats, so few clues none of which make any sense. And what does the art world have to do with anything at all? Everyone seems to be owed big money, but from what? Throughout the journey the reader will venture into rough places and high class places looking for a sign, a clue, and what the words McSweeney and Oswego have in common.

A little-known concept of coding becomes a turning point, but not very easily. Not all people are who Dermot thinks they are, nor are they all after the same thing in the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed following Dermot through his journey of discovery, his integrity, and with the help of friends, how the code gets broken. Still there is a lot more to this and I encourage the reader to enjoy this fascinating trip to learn the full story. An exciting, action-packed mystery evolves over what happened in the food pantry.

This is a very interesting book, well-written and well-worth reading. I found myself captivated by what would happen next, who else may get killed, what will happen about the money owed, and the humour of the situation some of the characters find themselves in. Great job! I will be interested in reading other books by Tom MacDonald.

Orchestrated Murder by Rick Blechta

2011-10-15T22:04:00.001-07:00

Published by Raven Books: Rapid Reads
A most unusual way to begin an investigation into a murder--the entire orchestra has claimed they are guilty! Someone has murdered the conductor, Luigi Spandafini, but which one of the orchestra is the murderer, and who is being protected by everyone else? Detective Lieutenant Pratt has been assigned to the case, and his partner in this is a rookie, Ellis. It just happens that Pratt is familiar with the orchestra as a patron. Luigi has been strangled, and though Pratt knows symphonies, it is the newcomer Ellis who can identify the "weapon". He has been strangled with a cello string, both ends of the string tied with timpani mallets which makes for a better grip for tightening the string without injury.

This was an entertaining book and a quick read. Smoothly written and easy to follow, but still with a satisfying mystery. Spandafini was not a well-liked person overall, though a brilliant conductor. He was also well-known for chasing skirts and attacking the orchestra members. Apparently the members of the orchestra held him to blame indirectly for the deaths of two members. Curiously, the timpani player and the cellist were the victims.

Rick Blechta has done an excellent job of creating a fascinating closed-room murder mystery packed into a short book, maintaining the feel and allure of the murder mystery genre. Just right for the commuter or someone with a busy schedule. There are the usual twists and turns, misdirection, and of course what is probably the largest group of suspects all in one place. I really enjoyed it and read it in one go.

The Night the Aliens Went on Strike by Mark White

2011-10-09T11:29:00.001-07:00

Published by Obyod Press

I won this book in a fund-raising auction to raise money for the devastated town of Slave Lake, Alberta, whose library was destroyed. Almost the entire town burned down.

Mark White's book is quite humourous and I really enjoyed it. A real curiosity. It's sometime in the future, and noise is the pollution Colin and Tony are following up on as Noise Abatement Officers. Noise abatement is under the Council's Environment Services. The Officers are often put in very dangerous situations. First, they have to enter the home of the complainant to assess the noise level in the apartment there. Then they have to approach the lawbreakers. After tracking down the ditzy and drunk hostess, who is a regular offender in different locations, and her loud aggressive drunk party-goers, they finally extract a promise they will start lowering the volume after threat of ticketing and the next time confiscating their equipment. Noise appears to be a major crime in this earth-time. Immediately they receive a complaint about barking dogs and an extremely bright light in a field in her isolated rural area.

They have a hard time driving then walking in a blizzard out of nowhere to see what the light can be. There shouldn't be anything there. Likewise, the snow shouldn't be getting so deep so fast and it's very odd snow at that. A flash of brilliant light every three minutes and suddenly they wake up in darkness. They are on an alien ship but somehow feel comforted. An argument of some sort seems to reach the edge of their consciousness and they soon learn that they must prove the planet's worth or the world will be destroyed. These two unlikely heroes set off to save the world with Racul, a female alien who has faith in them. She takes on a human form, one of a famous model in fact, and accompanies them while they demonstrate that their job helps make the world a better place. The premise of the book is offbeat, surreal and fun. The threat of annihilation staved off by these two, and the reason why they become acceptable, is genuinely humorous. What will the Collective decide? A far-fetched sci-fi/fantasy that somehow works, I actually enjoyed this romp. You can tell from the title that it is going to offer something a little unusual and it certainly does. This is a short book, a fast read of intergalactic interest and humour.

Mrs. Quigley's Kidnapping by Jean Sheldon

2011-10-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

Published by Bast Press
Reviewed as an e-book

This book is a very entertaining read. The story appears to take place primarily in the late 1960s. Jean Sheldon has done an excellent job of keeping the time period consistent. I love the many references to that time in conversations and in Mattie Draper's thoughts. I enjoyed reminiscing as I read, especially about the early computers. Our heroine is a former secretary who got tired of typing "Dear Sir or Madam", making coffee, and doing paperwork. She is ready for something more exciting. Mattie's good friend and sometimes date Frankie Ficaro, a PI, suggests she rent the office next to his and become a private investigator. Mattie tells her story in the first person and I think this was a perfect match for her sense of humour, her flow of thoughts as she goes along and the reader getting a sneak peak at the many characters she meets. Mattie endears many and the rest, well, it's a toss-up. They are either irritated, or despise her, especially the Sheriff. For her first case, she is hired by Dave Quigley to solve the kidnapping of his wife, Diana and bring her home alive. Mattie is a little less than confident that she can do the investigation, but Frankie builds her confidence up and promises to help when he can.

This was a quirky, funny story, lots of lightness yet a terrible crime. There is seemingly no end to the suspect list, and it just keeps growing. Mattie's thoughts and comments are reminiscent of some old detective novels and movies. Not the tough guy ones, but the novels lightened with humourous remarks and thoughts complementing the plot. She gathers information from helpful secretaries, household staff and their contacts among the rich and famous the Quigley's hobnob with. But sleuthing is not all talking to suspects and her own group of listeners, not in the least. At various times she is getting too close to something or someone, but she's not sure what. She is separately arrested, warned off, hog-tied, beaten and drugged, but who is doing what, why and for whom? No matter what, feisty and fun, she keeps on going. She truly believes, along with others, that if she doesn't find Diana before the ransom is paid, Diana will be killed. This is a cozy mystery despite the serious crime, with many contestants for the kidnapper and/or for the murderer. There are lots of false leads and red herrings. Although there is a final wrap-up, I would enjoy reading more cases featuring Mattie and Frankie. I really enjoyed this book.

What Fears Become: An Anthology from The Horror Zine edited by Jeani Rector

2011-10-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

Published by Imajin Books

What a variety of short stories! All of them within the horror or paranormal genres, every story completely different. This great collection comes from some newer authors, and several well-known authors. Jeani Rector has collected from among the best of the contributions of stories, poems and artwork from The Horror Zine. Some are just plain scary, some are psychological, some feature ghosts, monsters, werewolves, vampires, all the favourite demons of our nightmares and stories to be told around a campfire or at Hallowe'en. An anthology to bring shivers and have us listening to bumps in the night. Some even come with a bit of humour... ghoulish humour.

Reviewing an anthology is always somewhat difficult. Do I review them individually? Group them? Authors have contributed over 30 short stories, 18 poets contributing one or more poems each and 9 artists contributing. I think I will just say that this book will entertain the deepest fears hidden in the corners of the psyche. Great tales to tweak the imagination, make us feel something is watching, digging into our souls, acquainting us all with what fears become. Is your heart pounding and your spine tingling yet?

Human Services: Elimination of Evil by John Rislove

2011-09-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

Published by PublishAmerica
Reviewed for Review the Book

This is not an easy book to read, but possibly an important book to read. John Rislove has written this as fiction, but it has a feeling of fact or how a number of people feel should be fact. With the author's background in Human Services, he has created a fictional solution proposed by a judge to a sex offenders therapist that some readers will really like and some readers will really dislike. Taking into consideration how many workers in the violent criminal offenders become either immune, jaded or oppositely burned out and suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome from their requisite involvement with these offenders, the story becomes more believable. The plot is strong and well-written.

There is no doubt that the cost of chronic jail-parole-jail for these repeat offenders is impossibly high, to the detriment of availability of money going toward health, schools, mental health, resources which would definitely create a reduction to the number of individuals who will commit crime in the future, since most crime is committed by individuals who have already suffered in their childhood. This is the basis of the book, the main theme, the fictional method of changing the economic statistics around.

This is not to say the book is dry or fact-filled. It is a suspenseful, controversial, psychological thriller, but the drama I find most terrifying is how easily a person can be persuaded that committing crimes can be for the better good. Our hero does all the wrong things for all the right reasons, so to speak. He is a good man with a loving wife, and thrilled when he becomes a family man. He is no different than any happily married man who wants to help humanity. I found the way the plot shows the passing of time unique and works well. A roller-coaster ride of emotions, the story grabs the reader and takes us on a journey that is surprising, psychologically fascinating, with a final outcome that will shock. Overall, a very good read with interesting resolution.

Hide & Seek: a Murder Mystery by Thomas Kaplan-Maxfield

2011-09-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Published by Kepler Press
Reviewed for Review The Book

An interesting telling of this murder mystery, this book is fun, like a game of Clue except we already know who the murderer is, who was murdered, how, why, and where. We know this because it happens very near the beginning of the book. Or do we? Thomas Kaplan-Maxfield has presented an interesting concept in writing this mystery. He has a descriptive way of writing, extending this to the several characters that are introduced later in the book. The reader needs to pay a lot of attention to wording. The mystery is complex, based on jealousy, greed, and unsavory lifestyle.

The story begins with a party hosted by David's Aunt Grace, where he meets a beautiful wraith of a girl, unsubstantial as air yet bewitching and willing. The girl is an actress, and they begin a relationship as mysterious as she is. Totally mesmerized by her, David becomes overcome with jealous thoughts whenever he is not with her. When she is killed, he is overtaken with guilt, grief and loss.

Aunt Grace and Dots, his sister, come up with a brilliant idea for a fascinating weekend... the Murder Mystery game being held on a small island off Cape Cod at an old courthouse converted to a Bed and Breakfast, which adds to the atmosphere of the book. Reluctant at first, he finally agrees to join in the fun. Shortly after arrival, there seems to be something more sinister afoot. David is shocked to find that one of the participants is the actual detective who was investigating the murder of Melanie Carson. Not only that, but when the "corpse", Marilyn Carpenter, is found, she is dressed exactly like Melanie was, right down to her silver blonde hair and Melanie's particular shade of lipstick. Even her nails are done the same. Who is playing mind games with David, and why? Is this a trap? When the roles were given out at the beginning of the game, he was designated as the murderer, his aunt designated as the detective. Who is the real detective? This is what David will have to find out as soon as possible.

Great characterization, a unique variation on the usual cozy murder mystery, surprises all through, psychological suspense and well-written. My attention was held throughout, my guesses all over the place. This book was fun and I'll be watching for more from this author.

Mirage by Nancy Gettleman

2011-09-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Published by Nightengale Press

Nancy Gettelman writes with an authenticity and realism I find comforting. It often feels as though she is personally telling me about something she has been doing. Of course, in the case of a murder mystery, that is not what she has been involved in other than trying to figure out "whodunit". The best way to describe this feeling is that parts of every story give me the feeling of familiarity. Exceptional physical descriptions of Milwaukee bring pictures to my mind. An awesome experience and very good writing to involve the reader to such an extent. If Gretchen Meier is typical of the people of Milwaukee, then I would put Milwaukee on my list of cities to visit.

Gretchen is a widow of several years with two grown sons working at a large beer distributorship. She has a very close relationship with her sons, and also with her mother-in-law. Immediately as the reader begins the story, Warren Reuter, the owner of the distributorship, is found dead in bed at his home. Assumed as an insulin overdose accidentally taken by the diabetic Warren himself, it takes a while for the coroner to discover this is not only a murder case, but the weapon and usage is very unusual. Gretchen is not your usual in-your-face nor butting-in-with-the-police type of protagonist, and most of her investigation is done in her thoughts. She thinks everything through thoroughly, she is very human and concerned about the people she suspects. She is also concerned about the fate of her sons, both as suspects and for their future in the business.

Who would have the knowledge and the motive to kill him? He was engaged to a young widow from California who sold her house at his request and moved to Milwaukee; she has a son who works in another town but visits her occasionally. He had recently offered to sell his share of the Green Bay distributorship to Gretchen's two sons, over the objection of his partner. Warren has two estranged sons. Who of these people and others would have a motive to kill him? Someone expecting to benefit from an inheritance? Who would have the special knowledge on how to kill him? Why does Marla, his fiancé, act so strangely? Life is, really, just a mirage. What we see is not necessarily real.

These are the questions that keep Gretchen awake at night and her mind will not leave her alone, especially once her sons become suspect. Enjoying her visits to talk with Warren's lawyer, Stephen Boswell, whom she has known socially for some time, they discover a mutual feeling of romantic interest. When his sister visits, she and Gretchen become fast friends, and Patricia encourages them. As a therapist, Patricia goes with Gretchen to visit Marla, and soon finds that she has a psychological personality disorder that has a bearing on Marla's isolation from the death, and which coincidentally also applies to Warren. She feels that both show signs of being sociopaths.

These are the bare bones of this latest book by Nancy Gettelman, enjoyable, suspenseful, and with psychological intrigue. There is enough in this book to make it part of a series, if the author wishes to. I think the combination of Gretchen, Stephen, and Patricia would make an excellent team for private or amateur investigation. Another intriguing novel for Nancy Gettelman, every one very different, and every one interesting.

Lancelot's Lady by Cherish D'Angelo with Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2011-09-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Published by Imajin Books
Review based on e-book version

There are so many people in this world carrying far more baggage than their emotional stability can handle. This fragile yet entertaining story of two such strangers and their journey is a realization that there is life after the death of the soul.

We meet Rhianna, a palliative nurse, orphaned at birth and suffering a series of abuses at the hands of her foster family. She is beautiful, caring, has much love to give, yet burdened with her past. She has been hired to care for an elderly but rich patient with approximately six months to live. Their relationship grows much like that of father and daughter, and as a gift to Rhianna on her birthday, he sends her on a vacation near the Bahamas to Angelina's Island. A vacation that turns out to be more adventurous than relaxing.

Here we meet "Tyler", the reclusive owner of the island and so-called resort, also heavily burdened with secrets from the past, abandonment and betrayal. Their first meeting is definitely not pleasant. His only contact with the outside world is the arrival of his supplies by the captain of a solitary boat a few times a year, and that is how he wants it. Unfortunately, to make room for Rhianna on the supply boat, some boxes had to be left behind. One of these boxes contains the only method to contact anyone in case of emergency, parts to repair the all-important long-range radio telecommunicator, and the boat will not be returning for several weeks.

The story is anything but maudlin, though. It is exciting, fun, irresistible in its telling with both characters feisty and entertaining. The book is both heartwarming and electric. I absolutely loved this book! Cherish D'Angelo aka Cheryl Kaye Tarkif has a knack of inviting the reader into the lives she writes about with such depth, and the locations with such clarity. I am totally immersed in the story.

Jonathan Tyler's wife abandoned him and their very young daughter, Misty, as soon as she learned the child was deaf. Once Rhianna learns of this she offers to teach Misty ASL, which she had learned when tending to one of her patients of the past. Misty is the magnet who draws these two lost souls together as they share the bond of love for this young child. The housekeeper and her husband have already noticed the sexual tension between the two, but what our two main characters assume may be lust, the others see as love. The relationship requires trust, something neither feels confident within themselves to give.

Over their six weeks of isolation and no contact with the outside world many discoveries are made between the two, their perceptions subtly change, and Rhianna reaches a point where she no longer wishes to leave the island. At the same time, she still feels the need to return to her patient JT. Yet, new information comes to light about JT Lance, which threatens the whole relationship, also putting Rhianna in extreme danger. Will there ever be true happiness for either Rhianna or Jonathan? Can the past be mended? Whatever the outcome, the reader can be assured that the story will be captivating.

Under Cover of Night: A Steve Caputo Mystery by Al Gellene

2011-09-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Published by Casterline Press
Reviewed for Review The Book

The title of this book is decidedly right because this story is from the dark side. Black Ops, murder, disappearances, torture, conspiracy, the whole nine yards. Well-plotted, with surprising links that will draw the reader in quickly. Told from several perspectives, the book is comprehensive in its tightly knit but wide-spread arms. Al Gellene is a lawyer by profession and has chosen the hero for this novel well.

I thought this book was well-written, exposing holes in our perception of right and wrong, history and mystery, truth and justice. If this is indeed a debut novel, probable because of a series-type protagonist, attorney Steve Capuno, I applaud the author. It is surprisingly easy to hide a person or an object in plain sight. It is also much easier to continue in the underbelly of the world than to dip into it and out again.

Following an urgent yet garbled phone call from a patient in a psychiatric hospital, Steve pulls out all the stops at his disposal to be allowed to visit the young lady who has suffered a brain injury. He is told she is completely unreliable, but the woman he meets appears to be bright and though paranoid seems to be making enough sense that he takes down the notes word for word that she speaks. Nonsensical as they seem at the time, still they are spoken as though memorized and clearly mean something very important to her. When she is suspected of committing suicide during that same night, he is suspicious, but no one will believe his suspicions. He receives inside information that makes him pursue his suspicions and is joined in his search to make sense of nonsense by the girl's sister.

I found the inspiration and the clues, unfolding as they did, unique and fascinating. Done in rhyme, the clues are there, but almost impossible to sort out until Marion, the patient's sister, begins to make the connections. With a psychotic killer on the loose who has already killed to locate what is hidden and referred to in the clues, they must beat the devil and get out alive, if possible. Through a surprise ending, and near-death for both Steve and Marion, it appears we may hear more of Steve Caputo in the future. An exciting and fast-moving political and psycho-thriller.

This Enchanted Land: The Saga of Dane Wulfdin by William P. Robertson & Fiona Ingram

2011-08-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Illustrated by David Cox
Published by Infinity Publishing
Reviewed for Review the Book

This book is aptly named. Wales is unique country, full of enchantment and legend. This is particularly true in the time period of the book — the Dark Ages. A land so well defended that the Vikings are not able to conquer it.

Reminiscent of tales from the Brothers Grimm as well as the epic legend of Beowulf, this saga is full of giants, trolls, sorcery, and monsters. Dane, the only Viking survivor of a landing party in southern Wales, cannot gain ground no matter where he turns.

He is stranded in this awesome land where he must battle warrior tribes, trolls and giants, but that is not the worst of his exceptional adventure. Oh, most definitely not! When he first meets Queen Shera, he thinks he is safe. He soon discovers the error in his thinking. Shera is a sorceress, a witch of seduction and mystery. He is so overcome with her wiles that he wishes to remain with her forever, and to do so means he must battle the kraken, a dragon, and still she wants more. She is a taker of the highest order and a giver of misery. The castle is full of wasted, almost corpse-like men, fed constantly with white “poppy powder.” Dane knows the drug for what it is and somehow is able to avoid this nightmare.

This book, a collaboration between Robertson of the US, and Ingram of South Africa, is a fantastical horror story, a saga of intense drama and action, and a jolly good yet brutal legend. The authors’ previous works have certainly provided fodder for this genre, and the illustrations are well suited to the era. The writing is populated with bits of poetry and unique artwork. The book is relatively short, but totally packed with adventure.

The Palomar Paradox: a SETI Mystery by Richard Rydon

2011-08-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

Published by Lulu.com

This third book in the Luper series makes for interesting reading in two ways. Richard Rydon has written a mystery, but he has also written an educational book. Peopled with an eccentric array of characters, the excitement of discovery or possible discovery is palpable and makes for a good mystery. On the other hand, for each portion of fiction, there is supplementary non-fiction details about specific items mentioned in the conversations between the fictional scientists. Personally, I found this interesting, but it is laid out in such a manner that these educational bits or clarifications can be skipped over without losing the thread of the story.

Of course SETI is looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence through signals parlayed through space. The Palomar telescopes, situated on Mount Palomar, are well-known to the general public in North America. Some sudden activity at the station has everyone reacting differently. Excited scientists work on either eliminating the signals as "noise" or discovering intelligence in the signals they are receiving. In the meantime, the government is doing its best to squelch the possibility with a wall of silence.

Strangely, at the same time as these spikes are found, there are reported sightings of UFOs. Are they real? Are they hoaxes? Are they simply misidentified? What would be the purpose of a supposed crash of a UFO in the Salter Sea? A strange location at the best of times. And what was the man doing who was found on the catwalk of the large radio telescope?

The book goes through a range of emotions: concern, excitement, disappointment, disgust, and diligence. The mystery circles around whether the signals are intelligent or not. With three random scientific astronomers working from different perspectives, the mystery deepens. Why is the government so intent on keeping everything quiet? Maybe that is the biggest mystery, but maybe it is about to be opened up. An interesting read, I felt it could have been expanded on, but perhaps that's another story.

Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman

2011-08-07T11:01:00.001-07:00

Published by Touchstone imprint of Simon & Schuster
Review based on an ARC

Kimberley Freeman has written an excellent presentation of life styles from 1929 to the present time. An interesting and historic journey through three generations of a "family" resettled in Australia from Scotland after the matriarch, as a young pregnant girl, runs away with her married sweetheart and father of her child.

The novel begins in Glasgow, 1929. Innocent Beattie, trying to help support the family as a teen, has been working in a dress-shop and is an excellent seamstress, able to make expensive-looking clothing out of unused, and sometimes used, materials. She also works in a restaurant, or rather she did, until the sons of the owner introduced her to the not-quite-legal gambling club and bar upstairs. Her innocence taken advantage of by the married friend of the brothers, it is not long before Beattie finds herself pregnant by Henry, and not at all sure what she can do about it. Once she is no longer able to hide it, she loses her job at the dress-shop. To this point, she has not even told Henry. When she finally gets up her courage to tell him, he asks her to give him time and to stay away from the club in the meantime. Shortly afterward, her mother disowns her and forbids her to see her father before kicking her out of house and home with nothing but her empty purse and the clothes on her back. Desperate, she seeks out her friend from the club, who tells her of a place in the north where she can go until her baby is born. Thus, the secrets of Beattie's life begin. It is in this home that Henry finds Beattie and they run away together to Tasmania, where a friend of Henry's has promised him a job.

The book is basically told in three parts, but interspersed. When Beattie is a grandmother, she encourages her granddaughter to be what she wants to be, which happens to be a ballet dancer. Through the many years between, so much happens in Beattie's poverty-stricken life. She is ostracized when first it is discovered in Tasmania that she and Henry are not married, yet have a little girl. Henry is unable to provide for the family, and eventually returns to England and his wife, but takes their daughter Lucy with him. In dire straits, and traumatized by her loss, she gets work on a sheep ranch. Many more of the secrets of Beattie come as a result of this move. She has lost her child, her next generation.

Skipping across to her granddaughter, who has a close relationship with her grandmother, but not with her mother, we meet Emma. Emma has followed her heart and become a prima ballerina, but misfortune follows even this famous dancer. A fall marks the end of a fabulous career and Emma feels utterly devastated. She eventually goes home to Sydney, Australia. When her grandmother passes away, she learns that she has inherited a ranch in Tasmania she has never heard of. The stipulation is that she has to live there for a period of time. Beattie knew that there would come a day when Emma would need this.

This book brings so much within its pages. Love, loss, tragedy, poverty and riches. It brings to life the inner strength of women, the strength that comes when required. A rich history of mores, life, changing times, and obstacles overcome. I really enjoyed this book, if enjoy is the word for such tragedy and poverty, but it is so well-written, so historic, so meaningful. Emma's search for the true story of her grandmother's life fills in the rest of the book and opens a new world of wonder to her own life. A strong story, well centred in its various time periods, and very descriptive. A fascinating and powerful read.

Paddlewheelers of Alaska and the Yukon: 100th Anniversary Collection by Graham Wilson

2011-08-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

Published by Wolf Creek Books, Inc.

This review will be a little different, because this is a little more personal. I was thrilled to be able to obtain this book. It is primarily archival photos, but there is historic information in it too. Taking in the era of the Klondike gold rush and beyond, it portrays in photos the now famous photos of the "golden staircase" portion of the Chilkoot trail. The front cover shows the White Horse going through what appears to be the Five Finger Rapids.

What is personal to me is the wealth of photos of the paddlewheelers that serviced the area from about 1898 to the last one, the Klondike, being taken out of service in 1951. My great-grandfather was the steam engineer on the boats, particularly the Gleaner, that plied Atlin and Bennett Lakes. My grandmother was 8 years old the first year he worked there, in 1900. Over the winter of 1901, the family lived on the Gleaner and then the Australian while the boats were up on the ways. A third boat, a steam tug named the Mabel F was also there. My great grandmother kept a journal of their winter in isolation about 8 miles south of Caribou Crossing (now Carcross), Yukon. Besides my grandmother that year, there were two other children in the family: her sister aged 6 and her brother aged 2. I've grown up hearing about these paddlewheelers and living in the north. Although they only spent one full year there, they went north about April of every year and returned to Vancouver about November, spending the summer at Taku, across from Atlin. In 1908, there was an outbreak of typhoid and 3 of the children including Grandma and the baby of the family caught it, delaying their return to Vancouver. Fortunately they all survived, but Grandma lost all her hair at the age of 16. It came in very thick and curly when it started to grow again.

This book brought back many wonderful memories of the stories Grandma and Great Grandma told me through the years. The north was in my blood by default! I'm sure many readers would either have memories of their own, or enjoy learning something of their ancestors. I drove Grandma up for one last visit to the area in 1979 and it was like taking a time machine. Most of the paddlewheelers were either scattered around rotting, or had been destroyed long before, but on a visit to Whitehorse we discovered that the Klondike was being restored and we were allowed on board. It was very similar to the Australian, and she took me around the boat showing me where she would have slept in one of the staterooms, having to go outside to get from one to another. When the winter of 1901 set in, the family all moved into the lounge/dining room to keep warm. She also showed me where her father worked on the boats. This book celebrates the hardiness of the people of the north at the turn of the 20th century, and the magnificent and romantic paddlewheelers. Romantic now, but very hard work for the crew of the times. There are photos of the Gleaner and the Australian, and many more of the better-known boats that continued in the later years like the Klondike. There were three Casca boats, and in 1949 or 50 Grandma and Grandpa took a trip on the Casca 3 on one of its final trips to Dawson City.

This book is still available from some used book stores. I was unable to locate a current link for the publisher.

Mirage by Nancy Gettleman

2011-08-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

Published by Nightengale Press

Nancy Gettelman writes with an authenticity and realism I find comforting. It often feels as though she is personally telling me about something she has been doing. Of course, in the case of a murder mystery that is not what she has been involved in other than trying to figure out "whodunit". The best way to describe this feeling is that parts of every story give me the feeling of familiarity. Exceptional physical descriptions of Milwaukee bring pictures to my mind. An awesome experience and very good writing to involve the reader to such an extent. If Gretchen Meier is typical of the people of Milwaukee, then I would put Milwaukee on my list of cities to visit.

Gretchen is a widow of several years with two grown sons working at a large beer distributorship. She has a very close relationship with her sons, and also with her mother-in-law. Immediately as the reader begins the story, Warren Reuter, the owner of the distributorship, is found dead in bed at his home. Assumed as an insulin overdose accidentally taken by the diabetic Warren himself, it takes a while for the coroner to discover this is not only a murder case, but the weapon and usage is very unusual. Gretchen is not your usual in-your-face nor butting-in-with-the-police type of protagonist, and most of her investigation is done in her thoughts. She thinks everything through thoroughly, she is very human and concerned about the people she suspects. She is also concerned about the fate of her sons, both as suspects and for their future in the business.

Who would have the knowledge and the motive to kill him? He was engaged to a young widow from California who sold her house at his request and moved to Milwaukee; she has a son who works in another town but visits her occasionally. He had recently offered to sell his share of the Green Bay distributorship to Gretchen's two sons, over the objection of his partner. Warren has two estranged sons. Who of these people and others would have a motive to kill him? Someone expecting to benefit from an inheritance? Who would have the special knowledge on how to kill him? Why does Marla, his fiancé, act so strangely? Life is, really, just a mirage. What we see is not necessarily real.

These are the questions that keep Gretchen awake at night and her mind will not leave her alone, especially once her sons become suspect. Enjoying her visits to talk with Warren's lawyer, Stephen Boswell, whom she has known socially for some time, they discover a mutual feeling of romantic interest. When his sister visits, she and Gretchen become fast friends, and Patricia encourages them. As a therapist, Patricia goes with Gretchen to visit Marla, and soon finds that she has a psychological personality disorder that has a bearing on Marla's isolation from the death, and which coincidentally also applies to Warren. She feels that both show signs of being sociopaths.

These are the bare bones of this latest book by Nancy Gettelman, enjoyable, suspenseful, and with psychological intrigue. There is enough in this book to make it part of a series, if the author wishes to. I think the combination of Gretchen, Stephen, and Patricia would make an excellent team for private or amateur investigation. Another intriguing novel for Nancy Gettelman, every one very different, and every one interesting.

Kalila by Rosemary Nixon

2011-08-02T01:56:00.000-07:00

Published by Goose Lane Publishers
Reviewed for Edward Magazine Book Club

First, it is important to remember this is a novel. I say this because this book is the closest I have ever seen to the trauma of fact. Disjointed thoughts known only to those who have suffered trauma or extreme grief, the grief related to the loss or desperate illness of a child. Maggie has given premature birth to a baby girl with problems no one has yet identified. The baby is in a care unit at a research hospital.The doctors are not connecting with the parents, their only interest is the child. It's not a thing, it's not "the baby", she has a name, Kalila. She is a little person, not a specimen! Maggie is outside looking in. She has fallen through the crack into another world where isolation is the norm and she doesn't know the rules. Life goes on all around her at its regular pace but she is only aware of it for short intervals. It is always a shock to discover in the crisis you are living, that other people are living their normal lives. Don't they know that your life is in tatters? Can't they see you are living, too, at a terribly slowed pace of pain and isolation?

At this point, her husband is as supportive as anyone can be. He deals with his grief in an entirely different way, and so it is with the two sexes, they do respond differently. A male grieving takes it as a literal blow to his own humanity. Also, in most cases, he continues to work. It's actually rather interesting to view him in his working life all tangled up with what is happening with his child and wife. But a chance discussion with another mother, who finally took her child home to care for rather than leaving her in the isolation of the neonatal ward, compels Maggie to make the decision to bring Kalila home. Once there, they have a small feeling of normalcy between episodes of panic, the problem is the doctors have never been able in the four plus months to discover what her multitude of problems are, and what is causing them. All Maggie and Brodie feel is the comfort of finally being able to hold their baby.

This is not a weighty book in size, but certainly in subject matter, and very well written. I did feel loss toward the end of the book, I felt something missing in the relationship, but I have never lived that role before so can not truthfully comment on it. It did seem to fall off a bit toward the end. Ironically, the very surgery that gives them some glimmer of hope to hang on to is the very thing that causes the unthinkable. Hope, then sudden loss. I grieved, too. But there is often a marriage break-up in these cases, and indeed they were warned this could happen. The reader is not really aware that this had happened at first, and perhaps that is why I felt lost in the last part. There was nothing, and then it was years later. So that is my one and only regret in the telling of this novel. Extremely well-written for the most part, and I would certainly recommend it for anyone going through the grief of an ill child or the loss of a baby. Be prepared to be living the story with the participants. A difficult story to write and to live. Rosemary Nixen has written from the heart and soul. She has stepped inside the characters of her book and done it exactly right.

A Stranger At Home: a True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

2011-07-18T15:36:00.001-07:00

Artwork by Liz Amini-Holmes
Published by Annick Press

This book is the life of author, Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, the sequel to "Fatty Legs" by the same authors. It is also the life of Canada's shame, the story of how the government took the children away from all aboriginal nations and sent them to Catholic residential schools. "A Stranger at Home" tells the true story of Margaret's return to her parents in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories and how she was snubbed by family, friends, and townspeople. I have not read "Fatty Legs", but must because it will take me into her years in school.

The boat bringing home the children is arriving in Tuktoyaktuk, or Tuk as they call it. Parents and siblings are waiting for the arrival, but when Margaret approaches her mother, she says "Not my daughter!" Margaret's hair has been cut, she is in clothing supplied by the school, and all tradition is gone. She can not even remember how to speak her language, Invialuktun. She is unable to understand her mother and her mother does not understand her. Her siblings look at Margaret as though she were an alien. She is now an "outsider" and is devastated. The book is well named because Margaret is indeed "a stranger at home". Her father does speak English, fortunately, and he is her only strength.

Margaret can no longer eat the food her mother prepares. She can't eat and loses weight. Even the food at the Hudson Bay store doesn't appeal to her. She is horrified when the family eats without saying grace, and is terrified that her family will go to Hell. This is what she has been taught, and that it is her responsibility to convert her family. Margaret's best friend Agnes can no longer play with or see her, because she only knows English. Agnes kept her language by telling herself stories in her mind and occasionally naming things in her room, but she is punished when she is caught. Margaret's only happiness is playing with the dogs and reading. She particularly likes "Gulliver's Travels", relating to it in a way.

Through her father's attention and help, and her mother trying to find communication, Margaret finally finds a way to be a part of her family again. She is once again Olemaun Pokiak, her Inuvialuit, or Inuit name. She is able to eat the food her mother prepares. She remembers how to skin caribou, and she is able to drive a team and sled. But still she misses her home on Banks Island where she was so happy growing up. Tuktoyaktuk still seems like a stopover, and soon it will prove to be just that when the government people come and tell them that the children must go to the school, and that includes Margaret's siblings.

This is a book everyone should read. It is written for school-age, but I feel it should be read and explained by adults who can remember this time, or who understand this time, so the children and young adults will understand what happened, how it affected the families, and how so many languages almost went extinct.

Kudos to those who have worked hard to restore the languages, beliefs and teach their children of the old ways. That is not the whole story, though. Through the efforts of people like Margaret, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the aboriginal renewal has been underway for the past several years and now many languages have been retrieved and spoken, old customs have been returned, although now updated.

Skein of the Crime by Maggie Sefton

2011-07-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Published by Berkley Prime Crime

Maggie Sefton has assembled a great mixed group of friends in her Knitting Mystery series. I find as a reader I feel like I am a part of the story, it's an interesting and comfortable feeling. Yet not all is sunny in the small town of Fort Connor, Colorado. As with most of the country, the financial downturn has affected many of the residents, including Kelly's boyfriend, Steve, who is an architect, and her friend Jennifer, in real estate. As a result, Steve is working two jobs as much as he can, spending almost all his time in Boulder and very little in Fort Connor. To make matters worse from Steve's point of view, Kelly not only has her consulting work, but she has a large inheritance and would willingly share it with Steve, but it just increases his feeling of failure and he refuses to take any money.

Of course, this wouldn't be a cosy mystery without a murder. It all starts when Kelly steps out on her patio one night and is startled to find a barefoot college girl standing there. She doesn't answer any questions, just rocks and smiles. It doesn't take Kelly long to realize the girl is stoned out of her mind, and must have walked along the trail by the golf course behind the house. She is high on Ecstasy. Kelly calls 911 and the girl is taken to hospital. Kelly has no idea how she got there, but the trail is not a safe place to walk at night, there have been some recent attacks on women walking alone.

Kelly learns that the girl has been on her own since childhood and that Barbara, one of the knitting teachers at House of Lambspun, the wool shop where Kelly and her friends meet. Barbara had more or less taken Holly in, and she grew up with Tommy, Barbara's son, who is now studying medicine. Apparently, Holly calls on Tommy constantly, drawing him away from his studies and work as a paramedic. With Mimi, the shop owner, taking an interest in her, the girl turns herself around and does well. She even takes knitting classes. Then a party she attends has her turning to alcohol but not drugs. The next morning, her body is found on the trail.

The coroner calls it a drug overdose, but Kelly can't shake the feeling there is more to it, and starts to investigate, to the chagrin of Steve, who twice arrives at the home they share on weekends to find her gone. He is on the brink of staying away in Boulder for good. How can this be happening? With her consternation of Steve's reaction, Kelly still pursues her investigation. Holly knew the trail wasn't safe, and she was trying to become a good person. What went wrong? Jealousy? A mother's overbearing protection? A drug dealer? So many questions. It seems everyone is trying to steer Kelly a different direction. Brick walls are up against Kelly as she tries to get at the truth. Will she learn what really happened in time? There are several possibilities, many supplied by another girl who grew up with both Kelly and Tommy as classmates through the years. Which of the possible suspects might prove to be a murderer? It will keep the reader guessing. What will happen to Kelly's romance and future?

In the midst of all this is woven an engagement and the wild search for a wedding dress and other plans necessary for the wedding. This book is a cozy with subject matter that is meaningful in today's world where parties, drugs and alcohol play a major part, especially in college. We also end with a cliff-hanger. Will there be a happy future for Kelly? That will require reading the next book, "Unraveled". I really enjoy Maggie's books, they are fun, genuinely "cosy" yet with a good murder mystery, and this one did not disappoint. Recipe and Knitting pattern included.

The River by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2011-07-15T23:14:00.001-07:00

Published by Imajin Books

There are many legends about the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territory, many of them featuring headless corpses and skeletons, and disappearances, a river of ghosts. Cheryl Kaye Tardif has placed her paranormal techno-thriller in this beautiful and awesome part of northern Canada. I love how she describes everything so well that each scene is vividly implanted in the reader's mind, so much so that one can almost hear the falls, the rapids, and boiling currents of the river, the rustling of the leaves in the wind. This descriptive mode is captured throughout the book, even through the horrors to be found when Del, with a team and guide, searches for her father. He was believed dead for several years, after disappearing in the Nahanni area, but now Del has reason to believe he is alive.

It all begins when an elderly man shows up in her classroom with a message and a journal. She recognizes the message as something her father always said, and finally discovers that she has known this man, he is a friend of her father's and he also disappeared from that ill-fated group of men. He appears much older than he should, and very ill, but he says her father is alive and gives her a journal with instructions to "follow" her heart. He is taken away to a hospital where he is rapidly aging and dying. Del turns to the journal and discovers it has been written in some kind of code. There also seems to be a map of some sort. She knows she will do anything to find her father, and her ex-boyfriend is ready to assemble a search team and make the arrangements.

What a mixed bunch of characters make up the team! Del (Delila) Hawthorne is a Professor of Anthropology and her young assistant Peter insists on going along. Jake, who she meets first at the hospital and again at Bio-Tec where her father had worked, and TJ, her ex-boyfriend. Peter brings Miki, who is a math savant and may be able to break the code, and Jake brings his assistant, the fiery and fiercely jealous Italian, Francesca. A lone vacationing computer programmer, Gary, is stranded when his wilderness party doesn't show up, and Hawk, the Dene guide adds him to their party.

It doesn't take long for problems to arise, both natural and man-made. Who is trying to sabotage their trip? When Del's medication for MS disappears, who would have taken it? Was it the feisty Francesca? A romantic connection seems to be building between Del and Jake. Could Gary be someone other than who he supposedly is? Will finding the secret river give them answers, or more questions? The river is very hazardous as they near the falls, but Miki and Del believe they have to pass this spot to arrive at what they think will be the location to find the secret river. Hawk does not believe there is a secret river, but he does recognize what the landmarks are on the map. As they portage up the falls, they think the worst must be over, but will soon rethink that.

A tense, strange trip to destiny lies ahead. Not just their destiny, but the destiny of the human race. Can they stop the inevitable? Layers of horror lead to more danger for the team. I won't tell. This book is character- and action-driven, terrifying, and yet tender at times even in its intensity. Cheryl has a knack for writing the gamut of human emotion, and in this case even inhuman. A good thriller, graphic in some places, but deftly written. A real nail-biter.

Colt O'Brien Sees the Light by George Matthew Cole

2011-07-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Published by Dog Ear Publishing
Reviewed for Review the Book

Colt O'Brien is short, and it bothers him. He is aggressive, a good soccer player, and can't seem to please his father in any way. In his efforts to stand out, he wears vividly coloured clothing. He is a senior at high school and has a twin sister who seems to do no wrong in their father's eyes. Four things compensate for his father's lack of understanding: his sister's and mother's support and love, his natural ability to fix computers, his friends, and the support of his principal. There is one other thing that sometimes is a help and sometimes a hindrance. He has a psychic sensitivity, as does his mother. His father, on the other hand, is not able to show his pride nor support, leaving Colt to feel invisible to him.

This book is unique in its format. Each chapter begins with an email. The interplay between the characters is important in understanding what Colt is all about. George Matthew Cole is able to channel in to some of the basic psychological needs and character of teenagers, as well as how the adults in their world can affect them for better or worse. The anger and unworthiness Colt feels, and the feeling of never being able to please his father, are problems that many teens deal with daily.

A new course is offered for Microsoft certification through two parents and in coordination with Mr. Towne, the principal. Suddenly, Colt feels as though his last thread of pride in himself is about to be taken away when two younger students become certified. Isn't he the prime computer expert at the school? Yet, for reasons known only to himself and the reader, he doesn't pursue this certification. He thinks he knows all there is to know about computers. How wrong he is. His father is coming down hard on him about "wasting" his time with computers, he should be pursuing a profession and working toward getting into college. His girlfriend has the same attitude about computers, feeling he spends too much time on them and not her and becomes an ex-girlfriend because of it.

When a new girl comes into his life, everything changes. They are completely attuned to one another and what's more, she is interested in computers. When Colt decides to join the computer group, Amy is right with him, helping him study, and providing support and encouragement. Colt is finally reaching toward his potential.

I felt the storyline was good, the many problems and joy that teens feel, the disappointments and letdowns, the overblown self-pride coupled with insecurity are vividly drawn in this book. The author, in this his debut novel, has immersed us into the life of teens and their struggles. The book is a fairly quick read, but there is a lot adults could learn from it, even though it is a young adult novel.

Rowena Through the Wall by Melodie Campbell

2011-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Published by Imajin Books
Reviewed from an ebook

All I can say is "Wow!", when is the next book coming out? I'm going to have to start testing my walls to find a portal. This book captivated me so much I was barely able to put the book down. Melodie Campbell's writing is imaginative and mesmerizing as she transports her protagonist into an entirely different world. The clothing and attitudes resemble many time lines in our world history, but the surprise here is that they are all happening at once. I can only describe this story as hot, steamy, seductive and hilarious. Did I say hilarious? Yes, the humour is outrageously funny, the characters are definitely full-fledged, and the plot line is incredibly and indelibly strong.

What can a girl, a teacher of veterinary medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona, do when a very large blond man suddenly appears in her classroom wearing a tunic, leggings and a sword hanging from his belt? Of course, her first thought is that a medieval festival has come to town, but why would he be here? A need to protect the only student in the room at the time prompts her to step around her to confront this warrior. When Rowena speaks to him, he turns around and walks through the wall. Kendra, her grad student, sees nothing, wondering who her teacher was talking to.

That night she has the most real but unlikely dream of a different world, rather obvious by its two orange suns. Rowena, Row to her friends, has a gift. She can communicate in a sort of mind meld with animals, especially horses and dogs. But here there are no wild animals or birds, but a small squirrel and a fish. Suddenly a deep voice rings out "Who are you?" Dream over, she puts it out of her mind. Two days later, alone in her classroom marking tests, two men suddenly appear through the wall. When she speaks they are startled to learn that she can see and hear them. And then they are gone.

Now the dreams take on a life of their own, always taking up where they left off the night before. Once she discovers these aren't dreams but are really happening, she is shocked that in this world her grandfather and cousins live, people she has never heard of. Her mother came from this world but how could it be? It seems so medieval. She learns from the man she has met that her mother disappeared from wherever this is and has never been seen again. Unfortunately, her mother died when Row was young and she knew nothing of her background. She learns that a curse was laid in this different land that caused all babies born to be male, eventually bringing procreation to a standstill. Now we know why these men are coming through the wall, they are seeking fertile women. In her classroom, she goes through the wall and finds herself in the same place her dreams took her, and now she knows where the men are coming from on the other side. But where is this place?

This is where the story really takes off, and what a wild ride! On a quick visit back through the portal, Kendra is once again in the classroom and returns with Rowena. As a Goth girl, Kendra is first believed to be a boy as they come out of the portal to be faced again by men. Rowena motions to her to play the role, easy for her to play as she is trained in martial arts. When later Kendra is dressed in the clothing supplied in the castles and fortresses, her look changes immensely.

In this country called Lands End, with no women of child-bearing age, Rowena is alternately coupled, kidnapped, and/or married, by someone from each corner of this world. She does not know the politics of rulers, but her sharp wit and sense of humour get her through everything. Men are ready to fight to the death over possession of her. However, these men have not met up with modern women and it is a total eye-opener to them. Who is shocked more, man or woman? This book is so much fun, hard to describe without giving out all the tasty plot. I keep thinking of the main male characters as a combination of Diana Gabaldon's Jamie Fraser and the hilarious swashbuckling Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. I absolutely loved this book, especially the characterizations. The baffling complexities between the main characters, coming from such vastly different backgrounds, gives impetus to the humour, raucous skirmishes, and rollicking good sexual fun.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Life Lessons from a High School Dropout by Michael J. Fox

2011-07-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Published by Hyperion Books

This is Michael's third book, and is more geared to a quick read, recommended as a gift book for a high school graduate. An honest look at the early years of Michael J. Fox right up to and including his fight with Parkinson's Disease. Knowing one of the crew, I have followed Michael's career since he was working on his first TV series in Vancouver, BC, and I believe that he is totally honest as he writes this book. A small book with a lot of content, I liked his relaxed and personal style of writing.

As a high school dropout, some readers may feel that he is condoning this action. What he has to say is that you have to be open to learn from life, however and whenever it is served, e.g. learning physics from hockey. School has given you a start, but there is much more to be learned if you are open to what life has to teach you. This book will give the reader some insight into his remarkable ability to face adversity head on, to roll with the punches, retain his sense of humor, and remain true to himself. Michael has worded it well in this quote:

There's a rule in acting called, "Don't play the result." If you have a character who's going to end up in a certain place, don't play that until you get there. Play each scene and each beat as it comes. And that's what you do in life: You don't play the result.
Michael J. Fox (1961 - ), Good Housekeeping, June 2011

A very quick read, but is worth reading a second time to "get it".

Unsolved: True Canadian Cold Cases by Robert J. Hoshowsky

2011-07-04T00:10:00.000-07:00

Published by Dundurn Press

Spanning the years from 1967 to the present, Robert J. Hoshowsky has selected sixteen cold cases either happened in Canada or happened elsewhere to Canadians, many very cold, of murders and disappearances, most still unsolved but remaining active. The oldest cases (1967) were solved during the writing of the book after 40 years. This book is not sensationalist, it is investigative reporting based on facts. Where facts aren't known theories and speculation are sometimes presented but are clearly defined as such. This book is for understanding, learning how to be vigilant, how to be aware of all around you. It is hoped to bring closure to families of victims who in turn are victims themselves.

I found this book to be interesting, factual, and often triggering memories of the times these events happened. It is well-written, respectful to the families and to the victim. At the same time it takes us through the changes of forensic capabilities through the years, such as solving a forty year cold case with DNA. There are also a few photos showing original and aged photos some of the missing. People tend to think that these cases get forgotten through the years. This book will prove otherwise.

I mentioned that the author has selected sixteen cold cases, two of which are now solved. There is also a mystery as the final selection. This one is not believed to be a case of foul play, although that has yet to be proven. This is the infamous case from British Columbia of the floating sneakers with socks and decaying feet in them. Beginning in 2007 to the present a total of eight floating shoes have turned up in various locations and at various times on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia, one found on a beach at Pysht, Washington. All are athletic shoes but different colours and brands, several were different sizes, some were men's, some were women's, some for right foot, some for left foot and all but one contained a decaying human foot. This one, the sixth foot found, was proven to be a hoax and contained a decaying (possibly animal) foot, not human.

A well-organized book that has been thoroughly research with the best of intentions, I was glad I had decided to read it.

False Mermaid by Erin Hart

2011-06-28T17:57:00.001-07:00

Published by Scribner

In this the third instalment of the Nora Gavin/Cormac Maguire mystery series, Nora, a pathologist, has returned from Ireland to Minnesota with the firm intent to finally prove her brother-in-law Peter Hallett guilty of murdering her sister five years earlier. She is very concerned now that her niece is older that she will be in danger from her father as well. She renews her connection with Frank Cordova, the police investigator who was one of the few who believed her, not realizing he believes she is reconnecting on a personal level as well. Nora is shocked to learn that her ex-boyfriend's sister Miranda is about to marry Peter and go to Ireland for their honeymoon. She is afraid that he will kill her the same as he did Triona.

Erin Hart has a wonderful sense of the mystical history of Ireland and how to weave the songs and lore of the islands into her stories whether in Ireland or America. In this book the folklore is mostly tied to the traditional Celtic Selkie stories, and one in particular. The Selkie traditionally is a seal that can change into a human by taking off her sealskin, but if her sealskin is taken, she is trapped in her human form. This is the basis of the legend in this book. The author's descriptions are beautiful, lyrical, and mystical, or they are vivid, harsh, and irrefutable, according to time and place. In other words, her writing is truly atmospheric. Nora and Frank find more evidence pointing to Peter, but there is always something cross-contaminating evidence just enough to blur the facts. Two witnesses are discovered, but the only people they have seen are women. Why would that be? Who is coming to the scene of the crime and what is the connection with another body found three weeks before Triona with the same cause of death and the same distinctive clues? Where do the witnesses fit into the scenario?

As always, Erin builds on the history, mystery and many connections, linking them all together and binding them tight. The tension mounts as Nora and her niece Elizabeth become targeted when Nora returns to Ireland. She has returned to rescue her after learning that not only did Peter and Miranda insist on taking Elizabeth with them on their honeymoon instead of leaving her with Nora's parents as planned, but a phone call from her neighbor in Dublin has alerted her that Elizabeth ran away from the airport when the plane landed in Ireland and they will keep her safe until Nora gets there..

There is an on-going thread about seals throughout the story that takes us from Pacific Ocean to Ireland, tying in the tale of the Selkie. It is as though the seal that Elizabeth knew on the Pacific Coast beach is the same one that appears on the coast of Ireland. There are many highlights in this book, particularly a Fiddle Festival. Trying to solve Triona's murder has opened much more than anyone would have anticipated, the suspense grows to the final outcome. Though this book does not involve archaeology or the bog people, it does involve the forensics of the crime scene, in particular the soil and flora samples. I not only recommend this book, I recommend the entire series for its flavor, mystery, suspense and surprise.

Under a Texas Star by Alison Bruce

2011-06-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Published by Imajin Books
Reviewed in e-book format

A good old-fashioned western romance novel. The west is still barely settled, the Civil War not long over, and Marly Landers is on the trail of the man who conned the townspeople out of their money. Marly feels a personal responsibility for this event, so he is heading off to El Paso from the small town of Cherryville, Kansas to collect the money and see that justice is served. Dressed in hand-me-downs of oversize shirt, pants, boots, worn droopy hat, and oilskin duster, he looks like a young teen trying to beat the odds of solitary wandering in the deserts and mountains as he tracks the culprit, Charlie Meese.

In the meantime, Texas Ranger Jason (Jase) Strachan is on the trail of a confidence man who has cheated some high powered people in Austin. He is currently in Dog Flats, about as small and desolate a town as it sounds. As he's finishing a beer, our protagonist Marly arrives, looking for work to pay for a room for the night, a meal, breakfast and a packaged lunch. He offers to do anything from mucking out to waiting tables, even cooking. Jase has seen this boy on his past few stops and is very interested in him because he's discovered they are both trailing the same man. He's seen him work at every stop. Jase knows Marly has been traveling on foot for most of the way from town to town. He is taken with Marly's tenacity and is interested in why they are after the same man. Of course, he's not going to get into that part of it yet. Not sharing his own business in El Paso, he does mention his destination and suggests they travel together. Jase will supply horse and tack, and the boy will work for him.

In Abilene they get Marly a horse and saddle, but he has never been on a horse and definitely not a mulish one. After being thrown and giving his horse a stern talking to, while guffawing cowboys watch the whole procedure from the railings, they are once again on their way with Marly riding the newly but aptly named "Trouble". The next purchase was new clothes and about this time Jase gets the feeling that Marly may be older than he first guessed, maybe about sixteen.

What does a Texas Ranger do when he suddenly discovers that the boy is a girl? Well, once he gets over the shock, he knows there has to be a very important reason why this girl is traveling as a boy, a strong, hard-working and strong-willed boy at that. He must protect Marly's disguise, whatever her reason, and does not let her know he is aware of her gender. With lessons from Jase she soon proves to be well-able to handle all situations she finds herself in, and able to do her share of watch shifts when camping, rifle at the ready.

Alison Bruce does an excellent job on setting the scenes and customs of the old west. History, characterizations, and the long ride of the heroes of the story are convincing for the time. There is lots of action and gun-play as they work together on a case in Fortuna. For the rest of the journey the tension builds between the two as jealousy raises its green-eyed monster more than once, with neither being aware of the feelings of the other. Again the author works this tension beautifully. The arrival in El Paso is almost, but not quite, diminished by the avoidance of communicating these feelings to the point that I wanted to say, Get on with it! A very satisfying read all in all, with an interesting blend of fun and trickery at the end. A mixture of many points of view, the author covers a lot of ground in personalities, geography, and lifestyles. If you're looking for a dish of the old west with a dash of romance and humor minus the raunch dressing, this book is for you.

Flowers For Her Grave by Jean Sheldon

2011-06-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

Published by Bast Press

A twenty-year-old mystery is about to come to life again, stirring up old doubts, old fears and, perhaps, old memories. On this, the twentieth anniversary of a murder and a disappearance, the Gazette, this small town's local paper, has run a story revisiting the long ago unsolved crime. Louise Vandenberg, the only surviving member of the family has just passed away. She chased the mystery for years, writing every clue into diaries, did she have the answer to who killed her husband and what happened to her daughter? Who killed Jack? Was five-year-old Kimberley kidnapped? Is she alive or dead?

The little town of Raccoon Grove was stunned by this crime in their usually crime-free community, but twenty years is a long time and memories fade. David and Tracy run the paper, and Tracy definitely has an inquiring mind. When two unsigned letters arrive at the paper, one purporting to know who killed Jack, and another simply saying Kimberly is alive in Chicago, and giving a phone number, her clue-sniffing persona takes over. Tracy and Kate are best friends, so sleuthing together does not deter them.

This is also a tale of renewal, family relationships, growth and confidence, and how terrible things can happen without intent. Kate, never with faith in herself, lived in an empty shell most of her life until she discovered her love of flowers and her skill with arrangements. Jean Sheldon is an expert at description, and no less so in this book. Her description of the flower gardens is so beautiful it is possible to picture them in the reader's mind. I'm sure if I didn't suffer from lack of smell, I would even have smelled them. Her gardens have given Kate a feeling of worthiness she has never known before and made her stronger.

Jack Vandenberg was "the" attorney many women chose to obtain divorces, for his compassion, understanding, and as a very good divorce lawyer. We meet several quirky characters in this book, many ex-husbands firmly ensconced in their bar stools. Some husbands blamed Jack for the breakups of their marriages and convinced themselves their wives were having an affair with him. Kate's ex-husband Dirk was one of these. Was it possible that a disgruntled ex-husband had done the deed?

Tracy and Kate begin with old files from the Gazette and an interview with Ben, ex-police chief, who soon turns up dead raising even more questions. Coincidence or accident? There are enough dead ends, false leads, threats, and pretenders to keep the reader guessing. Sara Collins as Kimberley's best friend spent many years treated for depression after the disappearance, but with 20 years behind her and an excellent therapist, she is doing very well, even with the inevitable gaps in her memory. When Kate takes her on as assistant in her gardens and mentors her, her health improves dramatically, but Sara is unable to go near pink roses. Is there a connection?

Throughout the book, odd incidents happen. The tension mounts bringing with it danger for our protagonists. In their haste to stall off more crises, some errors in judgment occur, but a reality check makes up for those slips. Uncertain memories sometimes steer them in wrong directions as the townspeople try to remember who was where, and when. The most crucial evidence is expected to show up in Louise's journals, but a break-in at the Vandenberg house has resulted in the disappearance of the most recent ones. Can they ever be found? Will they be destroyed? When Tracy and Kate find themselves as targets, they become more determined to find the culprit.

Ms. Sheldon has a wonderful sense of history, mystery, and the flaws of mankind. She has written several stand-alone books, and though mysteries, they are entirely unique. They all pique the reader's interest. Each is carefully researched, presented, and keeps us reading. She is sharp as a tack in nailing her diverse mysteries, always with a touch of humor. My thanks to the author for keeping me entertained and guessing! Another great mystery by Jean Sheldon, who will shock you by the end of this book

Realms of Gold: The Colorful Writers of San Francisco 1850-1950 by George Rathmell

2011-06-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Published by Infinity Publishing
Reviewed for Review the Book

A history book with a twist, we learn about the beginnings and growth of San Francisco as seen by its many famous writers and poets through a century. I thought this was a novel way to learn the fullness and diversity of this early city. From the '49ers scrambling for gold to the post-WWII era, George Rathmell has covered a lot of ground. I was surprised to find that the early writers were primarily poets, even those who went on to writing articles and books.

This book has been well-researched, the city and inhabitants raucous and lively. The author makes use of plausible conversation and real quotes, working with these to form his own brand of writing, entertaining yet informative. To get so much history of these great writers all in one book is quite an accomplishment. The problem is that it is neither here nor there, not just a history of the city and not just a history of the more famous writers who either lived for some time in the city or visited. Don't expect the book to feature one or the other exclusively.

This is also a work showing how different California was, especially prior to statehood, from the east and the south of the country. Different climate, cultures, entertainments, freedoms, and possibly more opportunity for women. I enjoyed meeting these characters of the early days. Some authors and entertainers who have stood the test of time were featured in this book: Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and Samuel Clemens, all were long-term visitors to historic San Francisco. Clemens did not go by his Mark Twain persona until later. Young Jack London, born in San Francisco, Bret Harte, and the famous dancer Isadora Duncan. All wonderful entertainers in their own right. To read the progressions in the lives of these people, combined with the progress of the city, brings the book alive.

As the century changes, so too does the city and its people. Several local and world events take place over the next 50 years changing San Francisco forever. The Great Earthquake of 1906 and the ensuing maelstrom of fire destroying the city, and many of the authors’ manuscripts, is vividly described from the eyes of these authors. The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 with the International Congress of Authors, underscores a new breed of writer and the aging of the original group. World War I, and the Spanish Influenza, authors Dashiell Hammett and John Steinbeck. The death of Ina Coolbrith in 1928, the last of the original Bohemian group. The Depression of the ‘30s, bringing people from the Dust Bowl of the central States into San Francisco, and new authors such as William Saroyan. The Golden Gate Exposition 1939-1940 followed by the attack on Pearl Harbour which threw the United States into World War II. A mix of devastation and exhilaration.

The early days are laid to rest but the earliest writers and poets of San Francisco are immortalized in parks and monuments, the spokespersons of the Golden Era of San Francisco. What a challenge this story must have been. The author has managed to squeeze a century into this book, bringing the city to life through the writings of these "Bohemians" who saw and documented these earliest days. Considering the volume of information he must have accumulated, this book is well written.

Thirteen Virtues to a New Life: A Journey Around the Medicine Wheel by Ralph P. Brown (Tawennihake)

2011-06-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Published by BookSurge Publishing
Illustrations by Ralph P. Brown
Reviewed for Review the Book

A little book with large motivation, the tales told and lessons to be found in this book can propel us to our goals. As quoted in the beginning, "One man dreamed of becoming something. Another remained awake and became." Ralph Brown (Tawennihake) is of the Mohawk nation, his research has taken him through several nations, including Mohawk, Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Cherokee and Navajo, meeting with many storytellers and Medicine Men. He has collected some of these tales, some might call them morality tales, through his travels, and some of the interpretations found in this book

These tales are incorporated into the Thirteen Virtues of the Medicine Wheel. These are profound and mysterious until with patience the reader begins to "See" with new eyes, eagle eyes that are so clear and can see so many ways and so far, the need to passionately seek whatever their goals are. The book is written in such a manner that reading once you only see part of the whole. It should be read more than once to take the most from it. As mentioned, this is a small book, it does not require much time to read, but it needs to be reread to get the whole of the journey. These tales, or fables, are all representations, there are more ways than one to interpret them, but the author is very clear in describing how to perceive everything that is there. He does not tell you what you must see but provides guidelines to help you to perceive whatever the representations mean to you personally.

These are life lessons that most of us have heard in one form or another, but have we really understood them? Have we "Seen" everything there is to see and have we actively set a goal and gone after it? Or have we denied ourselves that goal by not perceiving the way to look at it, to achieve it. The book gives us the guidelines to finding that perception and obtaining our goals and regain balance in our lives. This book is entertaining, educational, and completely natural, not technical in any way. Life is natural. This book can help us retain or regain our connection with the natural world. Well-written, non-demanding, it is a book well worth reading.

Divine Justice by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2011-05-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

Published by Imajin Books
Review based on eBook

A prequel within a sequel, answers to questions considered from Divine Intervention with its many references to The Parliament Murders. This second book begins with an unconscious leader of a PSI team of the Canadian Federal Bureau of Investigation (CFBI), Jasmine (Jasi) McLellan. She has been hospitalized after the gunshot wound she received in the previous book went sour and developed a serious blood infection. Even worse, it was discovered on this second trip to hospital that she also had a concussion with brain swelling. Doctors are non-committal at this point, but a threat does hang over her that if they can't stop the infection from spreading to her heart, they are looking at amputation. This is enough to terrify her friend and co-worker, Victim Empath Natassia Prushenko, and seriously affect her other partner Ben Roberts, top profiler and Psychometic Empath. Three months have gone by since Natassia joined the PSI team, working on the case that had been solved only weeks ago, leaving Jasi with her injuries. In her coma, she is living in the prequel, reliving The Parliament Murders, while friends and family are living in the sequel to the first book. They are in the present, which happens to be July, 2012.

I am one reader of probably a large number of readers who really wanted to learn the story of The Parliament Murders, and now we have it. Cheryl Kaye Tardif has whet our appetites and then come through with a great read to digest! I love this concept, giving us the earlier story through Jasi's coma, and perhaps her subconscious feelings of guilt. At the same time we are getting snippets of what is happening with the rest of the team waiting and watching over her. The high suspense factor of The Parliament Murders is heart-pounding and the desperation to solve the case is every bit as exciting, though told through Jasi's mind. Someone is killing off the Canadian Members of Parliament in Ottawa, one by one, and doing a nasty job of it, too. What is the connection between the victims? A reason doesn't seem to be forthcoming. This is the case that bothers Jasi so much. The story is well focused, fast-paced, a real thriller. The action and race against time happening in Jasi's mind is underscored by the perception of the slow passage of time by her friends, family, and medical staff, waiting, fearing. A dramatic conflict of perceived time.

One thing I like about series is how the characters grow and become familiar. It's somewhat like adding people to your group of friends or family. This is also true in a working community, especially in a high risk group who provide a safety net for each others' lives. These PSI investigators are definitely a family, tuned in to each member's needs, and abilities. We met them in Divine Intervention and learn a little more about them as they wait for Jasi to wake up. Another great psi-fi thriller from Cheryl Kaye Tardif.

A Deadly Curse by Misa Ramirez

2011-05-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

review based on e-reader version
published by Smashwords

The prologue takes us deep into the primitive belief of a mother, convinced she has been cursed and must kill her two young daughters, Johanna and Carmen, to free herself from the curse of la Llorona.* The girls manage to escape when the mother "sees'' la Llorona, the crying woman, and with a look of pure fright, flounders her way into the river. She screams that the curse of la Llorona hangs over the girls, then is taken away by the river to drown. This book is a story of ancient belief, terror, and more. Curses have a life of their own. Believe or don't believe and you will probably see all is not as it seems.

Jump forward several years, and Johanna, Joey as her mother had called her, has become a teacher at the high school where young Carmen is a student.. Joey is determined not to give in to a curse, but Carmen seems to be too much like her mother. This story is suspense and terror on steroids. Someone is killing the girls of San Julio High School, students past or present, and recreating the legend of the curse of la Llorona, all four versions of it. Each victim is found floating in the river in a white dress and barefoot, raped and then drowned by an unknown assailant.

A rich suspense from Misa Ramirez, this book will keep you reading well into the night, if you dare. Every clue brings with it more terror. A full out race against time, a killer with an agenda based on a legend and Johanna knows she will be number 4. For some cryptic reason though, the killer has veered away from the legend with the third victim. What does this mean to Joey and the school principal Ray who has taken on the part of Joey's protector? If the rules have changed, how will they know how to figure out the killer's next move and next victim? The police think they have a good case to bring in a suspect, but do they really?

A well-written story, hammering away at breakneck speed to a surprising ending. Quite a bit of sexual content, not surprising considering the crimes, but most is fantasizing. A strong story, an author worth watching.

*The legend of la Llorona is very old and there are several versions throughout the Southwest of the US, as well as Mexico.

Divine Intervention by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2011-05-17T14:00:00.001-07:00

Published by Trafford Publishing

When Cheryl Kaye Tardif writes a book you know it will grip you right from the beginning and take you on an intense and fascinating ride. This book is no exception, but readers should keep in mind this book was written in 2004 as a futuristic techno-psi-thriller and has now almost caught up with itself. I loved this book, even though it may be a little dated futuristically. In fact, that was part of its allure for me, it takes place in British Columbia and references some of the past I know. I feel connected to this story. It's curious to see what might have been, technically speaking, in 2012 and where we actually are (to the best of our limited knowledge) in 2011. As the average reader knows, when it comes to technology and psychic resources for certain areas of our lives, we are definitely left out of the loop be it governmental, military, or even local policing.

Regardless, this is fun, intense, serious, futuristic fiction done up with great characterizations, full of futuristic tools. I say tools because these are the good guys, no bombs here. They are police, firemen, and secret law enforcement agents under the recently formed CFBI, a Canadian counterpart to the FBI. In "Divine Intervention" this group has just taken charge of two cases from different parts of British Columbia after evidence in both cases points to a serial arsonist murderer. What is different in this group is the covert Psi factor.

The group we follow is part of the PSI division, Psychic Skills Investigators, secreted in an underground complex under the direction of Matthew Divine. Very specialized in different areas, this close-knit group is comprised of Agent Jasmine McLellan, leader, profiler Ben Roberts, and Natassia Prushenko. Jasmine, Jasi to her friends, is a Pyro-Psychic who "reads" fires, her psychic ability to see through a killer's eyes and mind is drawn out by the smell of fires. Ben is a Psychometric Empath, able to read thoughts and emotions by touch. Natassia is a Victim Empath, touching a cadaver, she "relives" the victim's last sights and thoughts. Is the high profile but insufferable Premier of B.C. a suspect or a victim? What is the real reason his father was murdered? Who would have any reason to kill a foster mother and 4 year old child? How do these all fit together? These are the questions they must find answers to, and there is every reason to believe the murderer will claim another victim very quickly. There is one clue only when the team starts its investigation.

This book is exceptionally well-written, interesting in its handling of unusual circumstances, and equally unusual characters. It is taut, cohesive, yet personal. I enjoyed the thoughts going through Jasi's mind when she wasn't working, and "hearing" her read seems like a jolt of reality, this girl is definitely seeing through the killer's eyes and speaking his/her thoughts and words. The author has a way of creating reality from paranormal or psychic abilities and puts the words in her characters' mouths. I was completely glued to the book. I heartily recommend Cheryl Kaye's books, no matter the subject. I have the feeling she could write about any subject and makes us want more.

Unraveled - a Knitting Mystery by Maggie Sefton

2011-05-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

Published by Berkley Prime Crime

A bit of fun, a bit of romance, a bit of history, a bit of relaxation, a bit of underhandedness, and a corpse no one will miss! This is #9 of the Knitting series, but to be fair in my review I must say it is several years since I read one of Maggie's series, #2 "Needled to Death", so I am coming into this cozy series with little knowledge of what has gone before. Just the same, I feel attuned to the book. I'm delighted that this series takes place among the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, a beautiful location with lots of inspiration for a book of this type. I can almost associate the colours of the landscapes with the colours of the yarns featured in this series.

The story is centered around a mixed group of friends, all ages, male and female, with several interests in common. Added to the mix, an author of Western History has come to town as Curt's house guest and the whole group immediately takes to him. These friends sound wonderful, I would love to meet them in person. Maggie Sefton brings her characters alive with their speech, a trick of emphasis that I could hear quite plainly in my mind. The hub at the center is Lambspun, a yarn and knitting shop with a room where friends can gather, knitting and chatting, with a convenient café attached to the shop.

Though most of these friends are knitters, with Mimi and Burt taking turns at the register and spinning skeins into balls, they enjoy each other's company in sports, barbecues, and sharing their moments good or bad, in a complete group or just two or three. Kelly Flynn, the amateur sleuth of the group, is trying to deal with her heartbreak over her ex-boyfriend Steve, who walked out on her in #8 "Skein of the Crime." In #9, the current book, her friends, who are also his friends, are trying to get them back together. Steve lives in Denver, and sometimes manages to come to town to visit with some of them.

In Unraveled, Kelly is deep into her work as CPA for Arthur Housemann, a land developer and investor. She often stays in Denver rather than commuting if she is needed again the next day. She is, in essence, hiding out from her anger and hurt because of Steve by throwing herself into her work. The recession has hit the community of Fort Connor hard, as it has elsewhere, so when real estate agent Jennifer gets a client for a large piece of ranchland, she is excited to find that the client is none other than Kelly's boss. A cinch of a sale, since he is offering full price, or is it? The property owner has made a fortune out of being dishonest and tough.

When Jennifer races to present her offer after hearing there is another offer being submitted that would defeat any other presented, she and Kelly see a truck pull out of the driveway and come barreling down the road toward them. When they pull into the driveway, Jen goes in and suddenly yells for Kelly. She has found the owner all right, but he's dead. It appears to be a suicide, but why now?

This book has a different approach from some cozies, in that the corpse does not come into the story right at the beginning. Characters are all fleshed out and continuity is primary in the early part of the book. In the remainder of the book, the discovery of the corpse takes us in a different direction. Kelly has her own little trigger for going into sleuthing mode. She gets a kind of buzzing that grows more insistent if she ignores it. She has already been alerted by the buzzing that this is more than a suicide, and launches into her own investigation. With two prime suspects, it is an interesting journey to reach a final conclusion.

I enjoyed the book and its nuances. Definitely a lighter read in many places, the camaraderie is a pleasant set-up for the mystery to come. I'm looking forward to the next book to learn the fate of Kelly and Steve. As a bonus at the end of the book there is a knitting pattern and a recipe.
Review based on Advance Reading Copy (ARC)

Time Travel and Harry Potter by Richard H. Jones

2011-05-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Published by Outskirts Press, Inc
Reviewed for Review the Book

Is it possible to go back in time and make changes to history? Time Travel and Harry Potter - Time-Turning in the Prisoner of Azkaban and its Place in Time-Travel Fiction says it is. Richard H. Jones presents a defense of changing history in time travel, as he puts forward a theory of why and how history was changeable in The Prisoner of Azkaban. How else was Harry able to save himself? How else were Harry and Hermione going to be able to save Buckbeak?

First it must be realized that J.K. Rowling's book is both magic and fiction, and as such her words must be accepted as true in the world of the book. Theorists for hundreds of years have spouted many theories about time and the possibilities that could or could not occur in time travel. Working on this level, the laws of physics are necessarily employed. What does that mean when one thinks of time? Is time from the present going back to the past a straight line? Perhaps, but in this book, the author explores what the possibilities would be if we take Ms. Rowling’s words as true in the world she has created.

I found this book quite interesting considering the theories that are argued. I am not a physicist, I am a reader, and therefore while reading I live in the created world of the author. Richard Jones has taken a complicated subject and made it readable. Time travel in this world of wizardry and magic, according to Jones, presents us not just with the possibility that we can change the past, but he also brings forward the equally questioned theory of new time lines created while the old time line remains. Hence, while time traveling to and from the past three times, if I understand this theory correctly, Harry and Hermione would create three time lines, each line leaving them ignorant of their other selves living their lives on their current time lines..

In this book, the author covers a lot of ground, cites many references, and ties the loose ends together cohesively in regard to Ms. Rowling's books. Since time travel is in The Prisoner of Azkaban, that is the book that Jones bases most of this theory on, but he also references later books in the series to help his hypothesis. All in all, I do feel he got his many points across and I'm sure Harry Potter fans will enjoy the way J.K. Rowling inserted time travel into the books and made them believable. I am a great fan of the Harry Potter books and J.K. Rowling, and Richard Jones' book has given a good frame of reference that could be considered an aid to the Potter books, presenting what wording was used and where it fits into his theory.

Buzz Off: a Queen Bee Mystery by Hannah Reed

2011-05-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Published by Berkley Prime Crime

I love a cozy mystery to relax with, and when it gives me not only an interesting whodunit but something new I can learn about, I always feel like I hit a jackpot. Hannah Reed has done just that with her new series.

Story Fischer is celebrating her divorce from her skirt-chasing now ex-husband, Clay Lane by having a one-day sale on everything in her store, The Wild Clover, and offering champagne. She is also celebrating the kick-off campaign for September National Honey Month. Story has been learning beekeeping from her mentor, Manny Chapman, and she is now the proud owner of two strong beehives. Manny has studied and kept a journal on every aspect of honeybees and is the owner operator of the strongest, most productive honey farm in Wisconsin.

Buzz Off is told in first person by Story. Her celebration is interrupted suddenly with the news that Manny is unconscious and may be dead. The police and paramedics can't tell because he is covered with bees and they can't get at him. They need Story to get the bees away. She can not believe he would be killed by honeybees, especially when they have a lot of honey to take back to their hives, but she does notice yellow-jackets among the bees which definitely could do the deed. Unfortunately, nobody believes her. We are now at the crux of the mystery. Story believes it is murder, everyone else thinks the bees killed him and the town, led by the overzealous wife of the town chairman, is out to get Storey's bees.

Moraine is a very small town, more like a neighborhood. As such, readers might think there would be no way for secrets to be kept, but readers, you would be wrong. This town abounds with secrets, even with a very informed but oft mistaken gossip queen in their midst. Hannah Reed has peopled the book with a melange of quirky characters in this small town. The story flows well, the research done by Hannah is excellent, I suspect from her obvious care and knowledge that she is also a beekeeper when she isn't writing. In fact, being around the hives is probably conducive to writing, a music of its own. More character-driven than not, this series promises to be flat out fun, murders aside. I found this book enjoyable, descriptive, and the feel of the book is well-defined. Readers may feel they have been dropped into the story and become a part of it. The crimes are well-plotted and the solutions hinted at remain well-hidden. The heroine is flawed just enough to feel comfortable with, no perfect specimen of femininity here, and she is no slouch under attack, but she is very entertaining. A good beginning to this series, I know I will be following it wherever it takes me. Recipes included.

The Book of Obeah, a novel by Sandra Carrington-Smith

2011-05-07T23:51:00.001-07:00

Published by O Books
Reviewed for Review The Book

Obeah. The ancient religion from Africa. Obeah, brought to the New World and surrounding islands during the slave trade. To my mind, this book vibrates with mysticism, pulsing blood, and the rhythm of drumming. The Book of Obeah becomes a character of the story, even while no one knows where it is or even if it exists. But wait. This is the past, but the past will shortly catch up with the present and portents of the future. We, the readers, don't realize this yet.

There is a Preface which, though a Choctaw proclamation rather than African, is very meaningful in the basic principles of both religions, for want of a better word. It is worth reading this "Translation of Choctaw tribal shaman proclamation; Bayou-Lacombe, LA; Circa 1878" before you begin the story

The Prologue sent a chill down my spine, the terror was palpable whether based on reality or the mind of an unstable mother. What an attention-grabber! This is crucial information and sets the scene that will answer many questions both in the story's future, and the near future of the main character, Melody Bennett. She is about to have her world turned inside-out. Melody has never heard of Obeah. She was born and raised in North Carolina.

Melody's precious Grandmama has died, and left her a letter with some very strange requests. She has instructed her to go to a specific bayou of New Orleans and scatter her ashes there. But first, she must find a childhood friend of Grandmama’s Marie Devereux in the Louisiana bayou. A very daunting task, so many questions with no answers. Why New Orleans? Didn't they always live in North Carolina?. Melody had a very close bond with Grandmama and feels an urgency to carry out her last wishes.

Sandra Carrington-Smith weaves a magical tale of good and evil, spells and magic, protection and love. It is truly here where the story began many years before. The charactizations are remarkable, the wonders of New Orleans and the bayous beautifully descriptive. Even the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina plays a role in this scenario. After taking in the sights of the city Melody knows she must begin her quest. She meets many locals on the way who are only too willing to help her in her search for Marie. But a tarot reader has reacted badly in the midst of reading her cards and gives her a warning of extreme danger. Is it real? Melody is not sure what to think. She also encounters a malicious character who threatens her to give back what belongs to him. Melody has no idea what he is talking about.

Hiring a guide to take her into the bayous, she has another offers that leaves her wondering who to trust, and what in the world could she possibly have that everyone seems to want? Grandmama knew her granddaughter had abilities unknown to Melody yet, but she knew in making this request her instincts would be true. Melody learns she must trust and feels a connection with Old Paul, who takes her to meet Marie. Here she will learn some of the meaning of Obeah, but she still thinks of it as Voodoo and Hoodoo. Surprised to learn that Grandmama had lived in the bayous as a child, she was equally surprised that Marie was her best friend in those long ago days. Preparations by Marie begin in best Obeah fashion but with a sense of urgency; protection spells, the blessing of the ashes, briefing Melody on her part, and explaining the role of nature in the practice of Obeah, while Old Paul returns with many supplies for the ritual.

The author has done extensive study of Obeah, Voodoo, Hoodoo, Louisiana bayous, and the general feel of both bayou and city. She has brought all of it alive in this book. Mysteries surround them, danger is lurking, but where is it coming from? Why do so many people Melody meets and talks to make clandestine meetings and phone calls as soon as she leaves? Who are these people really? This is a process of learning, a process of believing, of feeling the power. The story builds up faster all through the novel. The creeping, living bayou and the old city and its people are all atmospheric. There are dangers all around, and some can not be clearly seen or recognized.

The talented Ms. Carrington-Smith brings all the loose ends, past and present, and binds them into a bewitching story, but also a classic story of greed. An exciting novel with many twists, this book will surely satisfy mystery fans and paranormal/mystical fans. The descriptive nature of the book brings us right into the heart of a wonderful old city and the people of the bayous. I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through with no desire to take a break before finishing it. I will certainly be interested in reading another novel by this author.

The Part-Time Thief and Other Appraisal Stories by Susan R. Stoltz

2011-04-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

Published by CreateSpace
Reviewed for Review the Book

Rodents and rattlesnakes and rogues. Not enough? How about gangsters and charging bison? This little book of stories, taken from the author's days as a real estate appraiser, shows just how dangerous some of these jobs can be. After all, you are in a vulnerable and lonely position in the true cases mentioned above and throughout episodes in Susan R. Stoltz's memoir. Probably an eye-opener to many, but I will tell you from my husband's experiences as a real estate salesman in the 1960s and prior to his retirement that this is just the tip of the iceberg! Susan writes her episodes as short chapters and in her own voice, making this book personal.

As you will find in the book, there is definitely risk, but there is humor as well, and the very real sadness of seeing how some people live. I enjoyed the book as written, but I couldn't help thinking that there must have been several other instances that did not appear in the book for whatever reason. I could see this written in a format much like the acclaimed British author James Herriot's farm veterinarian books. Having also worked on a farm, I realize there are many more opportunities for doing those animal books, though. Nevertheless, I was left wishing for more, and felt even if the stories had to be tweaked slightly, this book could have been more fleshed out, it definitely showed promise in that direction.*

But of course, this is Susan's own memoir and fascinating as is, written in stark, factual, as-it-happened realism. This author was held at gunpoint in one home, attacked by wild animals, even faced an apparently lonely senior cross-dresser while keeping her cool. This type of job is a lonely one and laughter is good when it comes your way. Terror isn't. I am amazed at the courage she maintained in her terror. I believe her quiet sense of "get the job done" and hilarious sense of understatement at times was helpful in this respect. A nice quick, lively read.

This is a prime example of how seriously some people take their work, what different types of jobs can bring, both good and bad, and how one woman stood her ground. Susan R. Stoltz is one author I would like to sit down and chat with.

*I note on her website that Susan does have a second Appraisal Stories book out.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

2011-04-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

Published by Hodder

I found this to be a very unusual book, a fairy tale in concept perhaps, bringing to mind thoughts of Cinderella, maybe even Sleeping Beauty. I loved it. A revelation in a way. Part pathos, yet very funny, with magic thrown in for good measure.

Our heroine, Josey, daughter of the very rich but deceased Marco Cirrini, is a perfect example of the way some people live their lives demoralized, feeling unworthy of anything better, and basically isolated from their surroundings. She lives with an adversarial mother who expects Josey to wait on her, stay home always, be available whenever she wants her, yet doesn't really like or want her. What happens to these people when something in their lives changes? How wonderful it would be to have something vastly out of the ordinary open a whole new life. This, then, is the basis of the story.

Sarah Addison Allen has an inimitable way of looking at things, a superb imagination, as in her debut book Garden Spells. In The Sugar Queen, she has changed direction while maintaining that bit of magic and illusion found in her first book.

Josey is approaching thirty, living with her mother in the luxurious home her father bought when he made his fortune building the ski resort that made the town the place to be in winter. Making up the third person in the household is the housemaid, of unknown nationality, but a woman full of superstition. Josey's only pleasure in life is found behind a false wall in her closet where she stores "lots and lots" of sweets, romance paperbacks, and travel magazines. One winter morning she finds something else in her closet: an interloper, Della Lee Baker, the hard luck, tough-talking girl of the town and about as unlike Josey as she can be. The last person in the world Josey would think of as a fairy godmother. But Della Lee is about to change Josey's life, with or without her consent or knowledge of her machinations. The interaction between these two is funny and perceptive. The housemaid, Helena (or is she?), is sure something bad is in the house and casts superstitious spells around the house, adding to the fun.

It is difficult to review this book without spoilers, so I will cut to the chase. Through Della Lee, Josey meets several people, some good, some bad. She learns to make friends, especially Chloe, who needs Josey as much as Josey needs her, but neither are aware of it when they meet. She learns how to live outside of her own imposed isolation. What draws these three girls together? Why is Josey able to feel such an affinity with them as she becomes more familiar with them? There is action, danger, mystery, and many secrets to be revealed as Josey begins to open up to the world. Why is Della Lee still living in her closet? What is the big secret surrounding Josey?

If you liked fairy tales as a child you'll recognize some similarities, but this is not a fairy tale, much as it contains what appears to be magic. This is a story of life and living it, not wasting it. Great fun, but there is truth in the overall picture of how people's lives can become so mixed up and self-damaging. But like a fairy tale there is a happy ending, although tinged with sadness. I really enjoyed the trip through Sarah Addison Allen's imagination once again and look forward to more.

My review for Garden Spells can be viewed here.

Sentenced to Death: a Booktown Mystery by Lorna Barrett

2011-04-23T13:21:00.001-07:00

Published by Berkley Prime Crime, New York

What a slam dunk opening to a story! Sentenced to Death certainly grabbed my attention with an astounding Founders Day Celebration in Stoneham, New Hampshire. Who could guess that an innocuous celebration would change the lives of the town's residents so much, in particular the Booktown shop-owners? Lorna Barrett, you've done it again! Although new characters are introduced, some remain and some leave, one way or another. Other characters make changes in their lives as land developers descend on this typically quiet little town.

The sudden death of Tricia's friend Deborah, by what must surely be the strangest weapon used in a cozy mystery, leaves the town in shock. Her devastating death leaves behind a toddler, Davey, husband David, and mother Elizabeth who is her store assistant cum babysitter. Festivities are cancelled, and the National Transportation Safety Board arrives to take over the investigation. Everyone believes it is a tragic accident, but Tricia feels there is more to it than that. She is sure it is murder and she is also sure she knows who is involved. The speed with which David hires a lawyer in preparation for a lawsuit, disposes by cremation of his wife's body with no funeral, and the speed with which he sells the store Deborah owned with her mother, adds another nail to his coffin in Tricia's mind. But could that simply be the actions of a man suffering the trauma of losing his wife so suddenly? And what about the Nigela Racita Associates' rush to buy up properties in town, including Deborah's shop "Happy Domestic", partly owned by Elizabeth and sold out from under her?

Lorna Barrett has a special knack for letting us picture the town and the townspeople with her descriptive voice. Her characterizations are human and consistent, not over-the-top. This is Book 5 in the Booktown series and we've come to know a lot about the residents. In this book, pestered by her ex-boyfriend and uncertain about her current unproclaimed beau, feeling the loss of her assistant Ginny as she furthers her career as the new manager of the Happy Domestic, Tricia is definitely stressed. She is confused by the discovery that though she was one of her best friends, Tricia seems to be out of the loop about much of Deborah's life. This story is full of secrets and conjecture. With two deaths and a town in turmoil, it appears that Tricia may just be right about the "accident" being murder, but what would be the reason for the second death in the same "accident"? Who could possibly want two such unconnected people dead?

I always enjoy this series, it is cohesive, maintains its character, has a strong plot full of surprises, and is always entertaining. Well done, an excellent choice for readers of cozies and unique mysteries.
Review based on Advance Reading Copy (ARC)

The Big Beat Scene by Royston Ellis

2011-04-03T14:15:00.001-07:00

Published by Music Mentor Books

Re-released from first printing in 1961, The Big Beat Scene should bring back a lot of memories, along with things we didn't know, to anyone who was young or young at heart in the 1950s and early '60s both in North America and in Great Britain. Personally, I felt the music all over again as I read this book. This was my era. It was the time of what I always feel is happy music, you just can't keep still when you hear it. I am grateful for a book that talks to my generation so well.

Royston Ellis has done very little in additions to the original. A couple of corrections, reinserting some sections that were originally censored or deleted out in the first release in 1961. Because of this, he has left the vernacular of the time as is, rather than go down the road of political correctness of today. This makes the book feel more in step with its own time. For North American readers, although he does have two major sections taking place on this side of the pond, the wording is '50s British, but not difficult to understand for those of us who are not familiar with it.

The author, a teenager himself when this was written, has done an admirable job on this era, obviously well-researched in addition to his personal involvement in this new world of entertainment. He was in fact a "beat" poet who read his poems on stage and TV while backed up by various bands who later often became famous in their own right. Dubbed "King of the Beatniks", he had his own fame. Performing poetry to rock and roll, he called his performance "rocketry".

Keeping in mind that this book was originally published fifty years ago, it was then a happening story. Now it is an excellent historical look at the changing times after a period of teen repression in the fifteen years following WWII. The book could be considered at this date more encyclopaedic, but certainly not dry! Beginning with the beatniks, rolling on into the rock and roll excitement and on through the reinstated jazz scene, the feel of the book is palpable. He is descriptive to the point where one can almost smell the smoke, see the performers, recognize the scenes that played out in so many clubs, coffee houses, recording studios and even that newish invention TV. The reader is sure to be in the center of it all.

Many individuals and bands cited are well-known figures such as Bill Haley and the Comets, to North America and others just as well-known as the hit-makers of Britain, all the way to the beginnings of the Beatles, but this is not a book for promotion, ego-tickling, or bogus promoters, although Royston does touch on how some creativity was used by managers/promoters, occasionally submerging a lacklustre or shy performer's true personality. Nor is it an exposé as we think of it in today's jaded, muckraking world. This is, in fact, an informative and entertaining view of the era seen through the eyes of the teenagers who reveled in the new freedom in music and dance. It is not a fan production, it is an honest look at how this music changed lives, and eventually some of those lives changed the music. What is sad to this reader is how many of these youngsters have passed away in the interim, many still young.

It is interesting to see the way rock and roll moved around, the wave taking a little longer to get to Britain but perhaps moving along faster once it got going. The next big wave would be the "British Invasion" in the '60s, occurring after the writing of this book. I enjoyed this book completely, and happily recommend it. A captivating read of a very exciting time in entertainment history.

White Raven by Deborah Cannon

2011-03-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

Published by Trafford Publishing

Book Two in this Haida series. The protagonist of this series, half-Haida archaeologist Jake Lalonde, abandoned as a baby and determined to find out who his parents were, has finally arrived in the Queen Charlottes, Haida Gwaii, where it all began. His assistant and lover, Angeline, is there with him, working on her own archaeology PhD dissertation, which means they will often be working on mutual projects. But Jake is so absorbed in locating his lineage that all is not well in this love nest. This book began a little slow for me, probably because I read the third book in the series first and then the first book, but it quickly picked up speed and became a brilliant thriller featuring danger not just to Jake but to many people.

This episode in Jake's life happens at a time when there were many logging disputes between loggers, the Haida, environmentalists, archaeologists, and the British Columbia government. For various reasons, Jake, Angeline, and Jake's old college friend, Damon, all get tangled up in these events. Damon is also working in Haida Gwaii, looking for culturally modified trees. Unfortunately, he is also working with the loggers, trying to prevent the logging of these special trees by tagging them to be left standing. The loggers are ignoring his tags. It gets worse when the Golden Spruce is felled when no one was witness. This tree was a very spiritual tree, steeped in myth. I vividly recall this true event when it happened, as well as the logging disputes. These events are fictionalized in the book but are based on truth.

Jake's persistence in searching for his parents creates mistrust between Jake, Angeline, and Damon. Jake and Angeline really do love each other, but have lost their way to communication temporarily. Damon has a secret that he doesn't want to spill, and it's paramount that he get Angeline, who has moved into his cabin but not his bed, back together with Jake. So here we have some angst, what to Jake's mind is a love triangle, and all that goes with it, running through a lot of the story. An interesting situation, as everything each of them says is misinterpreted.

For many different reasons, not just the loggers, although the foreman of the loggers is a vicious, self-serving man who bullies everyone and beats his family, there is upheaval in this community that is pitting the families against each other. Jake is sure his mother is here, and that he knows who she is, but the woman who is listed on his birth certificate denies she is his mother. Possibly that could be subterfuge because she is married, in fact she is married to the bullying foreman, but there is another, a wise man who seems to understand everything about Jake, even his thoughts as he thinks them, who also says she is not. Jimmy Sky believes in Jake and appears to share similar "inherited" dreams that have plagued Jake for so long. Those dreams have become more frequent and in-depth for Jake since he has been here.

Ancient myths come to life, and there is palpable fear in the village as animals, domestic and wild, are ripped apart and left to die. Everyone is afraid to be out alone at night. "Wasgo" is blamed. Why are the women disappearing? Is the legend of the Seawolf true? A huge sea elephant has been spotted in the waters around the islands, is this animal the basis of the resurgence of the myth? Why is there a totem pole with a white sea captain midway up and why did Jake have an old photograph of this totem? Why is there a copy in the Cultural Centre? All these questions send the story off on a high speed adventure, full of suspense, life-threatening disappearances, a mind boggling seal hunt, death, and heart-pounding chases.

Deborah Cannon writes of the beauty of the islands bringing pictures to the mind of what this relatively untouched area is like. The dense old growth forests, the origins of the people, the brutal strength of the ocean, the sudden storms, thousands of years of life and death. She has put her knowledge of archaeology, the West Coast of British Columbia, Native myths and culture together with an excellent sense of timing and suspense, and created a shocking thriller that kept my eyes and attention glued to the book. Breathtaking. I think I have to go back and read "Ravenstone" again so I can relish the full story in order.

Burned: A Tragic Mystery by J.A. Nevling

2011-03-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Published by Outskirts Press, Inc.
Reviewed for Review the Book

Being burned is a very tragic event, especially when it is a baby who is badly burned, even through the efforts to keep this to a minimum by her father who is also burned. A tragedy which could so easily happen through a brain focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time. An overtired brain, a stressed brain, or in this case, a distracted brain.

The big game is on TV and Jim, the father, is baby-sitting his nine month old daughter, Anna, who is currently sleeping, to give his wife, Sharon, some time out with her friend Katie. When he hears Anna fussing, he does all the right things, cleaning her, changing her, and putting her bottle on to warm. What he doesn't realize is going to change all their lives in the next several minutes. A gas explosion is going to set the house on fire, not a small fire but a raging fire. Jim's efforts to get the baby out of her crib are next to impossible. The crib is burning and as he tries to bring her out avoiding the worst of the flames surrounding her, she falls through the side of the fiery crib. He does the right thing to try to protect her, stumbles outside and passes out.

When Sharon arrives at the hospital she learns both that her husband will survive, but Anna has been so badly burned it will mean a long recovery at best, but they don't know at this point if she will survive. Though the doctor does not want Sharon to see her at this time, she absolutely insists, and this action will clinch the effects that soon will engulf the whole family. Sharon will soon turn her back on her husband and they will be separated. The stage is now set for the mystery part of the book.

J.A. Nevling certainly knows how to write emotion. He also knows how to write a sequence of awful proportions in a way that the reader knows what is going on, but is not horrified to the extent that he/she will find the book so upsetting it will be impossible to read further. The reader instead will stay focused on the story as it unfolds and will have trouble putting it down. This book is meant to be read. It will be emotional by its nature, but there is so much more than the fire and its results. Once Sharon has moved away, Anna is going through her various treatments, and Jim is dealing with his feelings of guilt, remorse, and the loss of Sharon, the mystery portion of the book begins to unfold.

Sharon has found a small apartment and a good job at Prescott Industries, a new life she can not quite separate from the old. When a marriage is based on real love, it doesn't separate easily. Yet soon it becomes apparent that a transition has happened in Sharon's personality. She can't understand it, she often sleeps too much and feels strangely different. She seems to lose time, her ability to focus has changed, and she has some memory lapses. When she is run off the road as a car rams her from behind, she begins to feel someone is out to kill her. The detectives she talks to have some doubts but decide they should look into it. This is a real mystery, and there are several suspects, but the ending is shocking, and at the same time satisfying. This book is a definite adventure in reading. It speaks to the fallibility of people, love in its truest form, runs the gamut of several emotions, and is well worth the read. I enjoyed the book, which seems strange in light of the difficulties involved, but that is how well-written it is.

FM for Murder: a Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mystery by Patricia Rockwell

2011-03-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

Published by Cozy Cat Press

Another unique foray into the forensic use of acoustics in aiding murder investigations. Who would have thought what a great tool this can be? I had the privilege of reviewing Patricia Rockwell's first book in this series, Sounds of Murder, this is the second. We have several of the same characters as in the first, but this time out the location is completely different. The book is written in two time periods as well as the present. This may sound confusing, but the times are well laid out, and essential to the mystery.

The story begins December 15 just before midnight with a late-night radio broadcast of alternative music, hosted by "Black Vulture", normally running from midnight to 4:00 a.m. During his patter, he mentions that he can hear that he has a visitor coming, the door opens, and the listening world hears the shooting death of the local celebrity, Black Vulture a.k.a. Theodore Ballard, on air, then deathly quiet as the mike is switched off. So here we are with a mysterious death and the shocked alternative music world as audio witness, right in the first two pages, the Prologue.

Back to a previous day in the week, December 11, we meet a dying carpet king, his son Daniel who is currently running the business, and the family lawyer Harold Vickers, among others. Now, what could a carpet manufacturing business possibly have to do with an alternative music disk jockey? There are a few secrets in this family, including Amy, Daniel's secret sweetheart and his desire to reunite his father and his long-missing and disowned brother before his father passes away. This is no easy task because they have never heard a word from him since he left many years before, but he asks the lawyer if he will look into it..

Next, we move into "present" time, which at this moment in the story is December 16. Before long, a pattern of timing will appear explaining why these three time periods are important, how they connect up, and eventually reach the present in all three parts. We are now at the home of the intrepid and feisty heroine, Pamela Barnes, who is trying to sleep in on this Sunday morning, while her dog is trying to wake her up. We also get to know her husband Rocky, and daughter Angie. Rocky is the main cook in this family and there are recipes in the back of the book. Rocky is also against his wife "sticking her nose in" when it comes to murder, akin to Columbo-like Detective Shoop, nor does he approve of Angie's relationship with Pamela's graduate assistant, Kent, and refers to him as "that hoodlum" and says he "looks like a weirdo".

Kent and Angie are into alternative music. They had been to a movie the night before, then at a friend's home where they were listening to Black Vulture's show and so it is that they also became audio witnesses to his murder, and called the police. When she mentions his real name, Rocky is shocked to learn that he has met him. He is one of the doctoral students in the English Department at Grace University, where both Pamela and Rocky work. Their friend Trudi is his advisor.

Of course, Pamela's mind switches into investigative mode, while Rocky slips into his over-protective mode both for his wife and his daughter. Since the murder was recorded, this time Detective Shoop asks for Pamela's help in analyzing the audio with her specialized equipment for any possible clues. Pamela, naturally, jumps at the chance to help. She soon has others helping her with knowledge of accents and guns, as well as her entire class as a project they jump right in to. Her research also extends itself into attending a Vampires Ball in New Orleans.

There is a blend in Patricia Rockwell's writing of pathos and humor, intelligence, surprises, shock and very interesting investigative methods. For all the switches in time, it's fascinating how she draws all these into one. Patricia, you totally shocked me with the murderer. I thought it was between 3 possible suspects, but no. Fantastic!.Again, I look forward to what's in store for Pamela, her family and friends, next time.

The Raven's Pool by Deborah Cannon

2011-03-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

Published by Trafford

As stated on the book cover, this is "An ancient feud, a modern love triangle," and "a twisted plot for revenge." I don't normally mention what is written on the cover, but this description is right on the mark. This is the first book in a series of archaeological thrillers. Unfortunately, I read the third book first, so I will have to shift my mind backward in time to review this one. Here, our characters are introduced and most definitely well-fleshed out. Book one is set in the San Juan Islands, a group of West Coast islands on the US/Canada border.

Deborah Cannon plots this series around the historical myths of the several nations of the West Coast, from Alaska to Oregon, but particularly the historical myths and legends of the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia. As an aside, these islands have been officially renamed Haida Gwaii as of December 2009, after this book was written. At the time of writing the books, the islands were known as both the Queen Charlottes and Haida Gwaii, causing some confusion geographically. Why is this important to us, the readers? Because the protagonist of these books is half-Haida, so the islands are important to the story.

Deborah has a special knack of weaving suspense, murder and mystery into the ancient myths and legends of the Raven. I was hooked in the Prologue! Her writing grips the imagination, and keeps the suspense at high level all the while weaving romance, anthropology and archaeology, and history into the mix. I would be remiss if I didn't mention a deadly rivalry between two men part-Haida, who have directed their lives in opposing directions with the exception of searching the myth of Eagle and Raven. These two men are the arch-rivals of this reading journey. Both are totally invested in their goals.

Discovery of a cave with petroglyphs on a small island is the main centre of activity in this book, with a nearby "wet" site where a Raven rattle of indeterminately ancient age is discovered where it should not be. Immediately, the rich and powerful Clifford Radisson wants to buy up all the land and turn it into a theme par, while the dedicated but poor archaeologist Jake Lalonde fights to preserve it. Even though there are some petroglyphs that are obviously faked, he sees much more. Radisson will stop at nothing from trying to take away Jake's girlfriend to burying the opening to the cave in rubble while Jake and Angeline are in there. Will they be able to escape? Well, obviously since there are more adventures to come, but how will they manage it? In trying to find a way out, they stumble on a very important find they are able to keep secret, and Angeline's escape brings help but not before more of Radisson's dirty tricks. Does Radisson accomplish all the feats by himself. Hah! No way! Why should he get his hands dirty, he has too much to lose, but with all his money he can buy anything or anyone. Which will win this rivalry, theme park or heritage site? Many surprises are in store in this book which will keep your attention from wavering. Strong, suspenseful, action-packed thriller, an excellent entry into the series, and I know having read the third book it just gets better!

No Safe Haven by Kimberley and Kayla R. Woodhouse

2011-03-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Kimberley and Kayla R. Woodhouse have put together an indelible thriller that will keep your heart pounding, yet uplifting and heartwarming at the same time. With trials and tribulations enough to make Job's miseries seem almost trivial in comparison, this intrepid trio face incredible odds against survival while their Christian faith stays strong, at least for two of them. The third member of the party will come to it but has two injured "girls" to rescue off one of the highest, steepest mountains in Denali park in an Alaskan winter, all the while being pursued by terrorists who are looking for something they believe the mother has information on, and then to leave no witnesses alive. They are out to kill these three and they are very good at what they do, leaving no trace.

This book is a wonderful story of faith and survival, but it is also full of tips for survival woven into the story, and an awareness of a rare neural disorder that can be deadly in a matter of moments, a disorder that one of the authors actually suffers from. I was aware of this disorder, but learned more for which I'm grateful to the authors. So, we have a mixed bag in this book Terrorists, a man who has lost too much in his life and must learn to live again, a fast-paced, wild ride of a thriller, a 12 year old girl, Andie, with a rare disorder of unimaginable consequences, families disrupted by death, a love story, and deep, inspiring faith.

What sounds like a very complicated story is actually a book that I couldn't put down. Action-packed from the moment the plane they were flying home in is sabotaged and crashes high on Sultana Mountain to the final murderous attempt. The plane was originally owned by Andi's father Marc until his murder, and now is owned by her mother, Jenna. It was flown by Hank, a "trusted" friend of Marc and Jenna prior to Marc's death. Who was the mysterious last minute passenger? After he took over piloting the plane when the radio was shot out, what caused him to pass out? Was he responsible for the crash or was he trying to correct the damage? Can Jenna and Andie trust him? When Jenna took over piloting she realized that none of the controls were responding. That there would be a crash was inevitable.

I took away so much more from the book than just a great story. Living in the north myself, I found the survival techniques very useful, especially how to keep warm through the bitterly cold nights and what to have with you for survival preparation. I also took away a refreshing of my faith. I applaud the authors for the smoothness with which they wrote this book, the interaction of the characters, more noticeable because of the manner in which the chapters are written, the heart-pounding action, the exciting plot, and pulling it all together so believably. The chapters are told mostly by the three main characters in the first person, almost giving a feeling that the reader is invested in the story. I look forward to more from this author pair, mother and daughter. This is the duo's debut as a writing team, and an exceptional one.

Semisweet - A Maggie and Odessa Mystery by Jill Brock

2011-03-12T18:42:00.000-08:00

Reviewed for: Review The Book
Published by CreateSpace

This is the third book in the Maggie and Odessa series, however this is the first I have read. The book is entertaining with distinctive continuing characters, as well as a mixed bag of tricky characters filling out the current book. I found it unusual and interesting that although I believe Maggie is the main character, the story is told by Odessa, like Watson to Sherlock Holmes. Maggie is ostensibly working as file clerk and receptionist for a private eye but she is determined to take on a case of her own. In "Semisweet" she gets her chance, or more correctly, she makes her chance. Odessa, O to her friends and Dessa to her boyfriend Lee, is Maggie's "sidekick". Odessa is a dessert chef, working both privately and at her sister Candace's restaurant, the Blue Moon, when she isn't running after Maggie helping solve crime.

The story opens with a terrified Odessa being held with a knife at her throat in the almost empty restaurant. Good opening, certainly gains the reader's attention, and I liked the humourous touch in this scene as well. We meet Maggie first via cellphone, as the knife wielder is handcuffed and led out of the restaurant. A bright, cheery happy voice breaking the tension. We meet her in person two days later accompanied by the woman involved in what Maggie refers to as her first case. Her boss was out when she took the call and she decided this was a good time for her to take on a case of her own, licensed or not.

The story revolves around this case, a strange one if ever there was. Maggie is to act as a wedding planner for Mrs. Verde's daughter, Eloise. The well-to-do Mrs. Verde will pay whatever the cost. Odessa is to make the wedding cake and desserts, and even Candace is involved as caterer and assistant to Maggie as a planner. Strangely, while planning the wedding for Eloise, Maggie is also supposed to be digging up dirt on Henry, the bridegroom-to-be, and make sure the wedding doesn't happen! What could be cozier? If this were not enough, Maggie has to take along her 8 year old Houdini son part of the time, frustratingly helpful as he is. This, then, is the theme of this humourous but captivating book.

Jill Brock has created many opportunities for sleuthing, especially when finding dirt on Henry is not panning out very well and time is running out. When strange events start gearing up, usually with Odessa as a victim, things get interesting.. This causes the story, though focused, to take several changes in direction. These events run the gamut of lies to murder, but who is really involved? Is Henry really Mister Nice Guy, or is he an expert at illusion? There is a lot of fun and adventure in this cozy mystery, with enough questions to mull over and enjoy. I predict these characters will become favorites.

Posted in Colombo: A Glance at Toiling Women and the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka by Shizue Tomoda

2011-03-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

Illustrated by Edwin Batawala

In this non-fiction book, part memoir part historic, Shizue Tomoda is working for a United Nations specialized agency. She is assigned to Colombo, Sri Lanka as the director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for three years beginning late December 1997. Arriving on Christmas Eve, the next day she hears what appears to be an attack with rifle fire not far from her hotel, unnerving at the best of times but particularly in a country with ongoing attacks. However, this time it was fire crackers. She will be living in Colombo through some of the most high-profile assassinations. Indeed, during her stint in Sri Lanka, the assassination of a political leader by suicide bombers will take place very near her home. While she is still in Sri Lanka, a major turning point in the war happens, the fall of Elephant Pass to the LTTE.* She begins the book with a brief history of this civil war-torn country. The early part of "Posted in Colombo" reads somewhat like a text book, but becomes much less formal as it goes along.

One of the first things she must do is locate an apartment that will both allow her to have her two cats Taro and Tomi, and also be a safe home for them. Shizue had not had time to become familiar with the languages of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese and Tamil, which created a problem when hiring someone to do cooking, grocery shopping, and cleaning. The person she will be hiring must speak and understand English fairly well, be prepared at short notice for dinner guests and will also be responsible for taking care of the home when she is away on a project, as well as caring for the two cats. One of these cats, Taro, is a Norwegian Forest cat, and seems unusually aware and intelligent. With his very thick fur bred for northern winters, he will require air conditioning.

As mentioned, some of the book brings some of the history of Sri Lanka, but also a history of the tea plantations and the treatment of the workers, particularly women, many of them working in other countries away from their families in order to support them. Another problem that upsets her is the lack of education for the children on the plantations extending into the 21st century, and the child labour.

The historical background of the country and its people I found interesting and was surprised at what I did not know. She is concise in her descriptions and backs them up with many references and sources as endnotes. As in most governmental positions, and no different in the UN, almost every project and department has a long name, a fertile environment for the use of acronyms. Fortunately for the reader, Shizue has put a glossary of these at the front of her book.

I enjoyed the connection between Shizue and Devi, her housekeeper, an Indian Tamil mother of four, with an unstable alcoholic husband. Devi's family lives and works on the plantation. As a quick study, Shizue offers Devi several opportunities to learn employable skills that will help her ability to obtain work when Shizue's term is up. Devi lives with her and usually goes home once a month.

Through the conversations between the two, we learn even more about the life of a Sri Lankan woman, and what changes are slowly being made. Overall, I enjoyed this vision of Sri Lanka, I feel I have a better understanding of the situations in the constant conflicts between the two main factors, the Sinhalese and the Tamils, the Tamils also split between Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils. I also have an understanding and compassion for the plight of the women and children and am glad to see there are inroads being made to provide proper schools and education, put a stop to child labour, particularly in dangerous jobs, as well as assistance with housing and employability. There appear to be major changes over the past 50 years, but they were, and possibly still are, slow in coming. Devi was very fortunate to work for someone who knew the ropes and which ones to tug on. This was an entertaining and informative book, particularly what is learned from the interactions of Shizue and Devi. The book is also an easy read due to its layout and the author’s narration.
*LTTE - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

I have previously reviewed “Sachiko”, a book of fiction by Shizue Tomoda

Devilliers County Blues 1972 by John W. Cassell

2011-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

Published by Inkwater Press
My first thought on finishing this book was, Wow! what a ride! The author had me in his grip right from the start. Not only is this a high powered action suspense thriller, but it seems so real somehow, though listed as fiction. Perhaps that is partly attributed to the name of the main protagonist, John Cassell, the same as the author. This may also be ascribed to the feeling of the building of terror and suspense. Whatever the reason for the name as main character, it certainly worked to his advantage, because it did make the story his.

John W. Cassell the author has delved deeply into the world of black ops, conspiracy, evil, greed, and terror. A world where everything operates inside out and eats away at our very souls. A world of organized crime, lawmen on the take, FBI policies and politics. In fact, so much rings true, I'm sure his is drawing a lot from personal knowledge in one form or another, perhaps from 3 or 4 instances. The book begins with Cassell returning home from war-torn Morocco, deeply mourning the death of his fighting partner/true love, Nancy. It is January 4, 1972 and he will soon discover what he has just returned from is nowhere near the extent to which he will be fighting for his life and sanity over the year ahead, as he decides to take a car trip wherever it takes him.

The author has been very consistently in time and place, even speech of the era. Nancy had been working for a multi-millionaire J.B. Fischer before she was killed in Morocco, and was privy to a lot of sensitive information, including incriminating ledgers Fischer had given her to put in her safety deposit box, knowing he was her only beneficiary should she become deceased before him. Therefore it was with real trepidation and fear that he discovered her will had been changed, with John Cassell as residuary devisee. This means that John will receive the contents of the safety deposit box along with anything else that has not been mentioned. So far, John has not been made aware of this.

A frightening scenario is hatched up between Fischer and his cohorts, some very nasty people with loads of resources at their disposal to carry out their evil plan. They can not bump him off within a year because of the year provision. What can they do? Well might you ask! First, Fisher makes Cassell a partner to insure that he will be able to obtain the ledgers on his death, which of course can't happen until the following year.

John, totally aware of none of this except the offer of a partnership, continues his drive and suddenly wakes up in an insane asylum. He soon meets 3 other very diverse occupants who have similar stories, and still not understanding what's going on they draw together in a very strange alliance. It is from this point that their world spins entirely out of control. Here the real evil lurks. Here the plan goes into effect. Here the plan almost works. But unbeknownst to these four they do have two friends working on their behalf undercover. Without this assistance, the story would end here.

This book revels in fear techniques, humor, bravery, and brother/sistership, a lasting friendship, teammates to the end, whatever it may be. Tension, anxiety, terror, and humiliation build up daily as their thinking capacity goes down. If you want a wild ride, roller-coaster action, unique methodology, love of friends, and dire consequences ending in a huge, over-the-top interference of an ending, something that will blow your mind, this book is for you. Relax when our protagonists relax, prepare with them, laugh when they laugh, fight with them, mourn with them, but never forget their strength and their bond. Amazing book.

The Price of Candy by Rod Hoisington

2011-02-20T10:38:00.001-08:00

Published by EnteraBooks

The cover of this book is a portent of things to come. A good man walks from the light into the dark side, where man becomes fool. A story of opposites, complications, passion, action, threat, going from confusion to comprehension. Opening with the dead body of a naked woman on the beach, with two male witnesses to the accidental death, the story takes a sudden turn to our heroine Sandy Reid, met in "One Deadly Sister", Book 1 of the series. She is studying to become a lawyer. She receives a phone call from an "old acquaintance" the caller tells her. However, there are two reasons why Sandy is unsure about this caller who wants to get together to talk over old times. The caller, identifying herself as Abby Olin, her married surname, a name not known to Sandy, and she calls her Sandra, although Sandy has never been known as Sandra to friends and acquaintances. Yet Sandy becomes curious and decides to meet with her. A grave mistake which brings back some old memories and also traps her in a whole web of trouble.

Rod Hoisington has put together another fast paced murder mystery with a strong protagonist in Sandy. The book is filled with a wide variety of unique characters from her nemesis State Prosecutor Moran, to Abby and her assortment of odd acquaintances. Moran is once more his harassing self, unjustly aimed at Sandy, actually putting her under arrest to destroy her chances at graduating law school at the very least, or blacklisted for the bar at the worst.

Once again Sandy is involved in a high-profile case, plus two other cases that may or may not be connected. She must try to solve everything while she is out on bail and before Moran finds something he can use to rescind her bail. He is planning to charge her with conspiracy to commit murder. Wonderful story-telling as it weaves its way throughout the book, even to a possible kidnapping the mother won't report. These are but a few of the strange happenings she stumbles upon. Fortunately for her, Sandy has many friends in law enforcement and her personal lawyer. Between all of them, and unexpected help from Abby's ex-husband, the net begins to gather all these facts and possibilities, crimes and perpetrators into a loose net, not convinced fully whether they are related cases or not. Rod Hoisington is very good at keeping the mystery going and bringing surprises along the way. My attention was held through to the surprising ending.

Forget to Remember by Alan Cook

2011-02-15T18:19:00.000-08:00

Reviewed for Review the Book
Published by AuthorHouse

A very intriguing and entertaining mystery, the first I've read by this author, though he has written several books. Alan Cook knows how to engage his readers and keep them guessing.

The plot opens with the discovery by a restaurant kitchen worker of a naked bloody body of a female in a dumpster behind the restaurant. There is a slight pulse and she is transported to the hospital. Once she comes back to consciousness, she has amnesia, no memory of either her past or what happened to her. And so the mystery begins.

Rigo, who found the girl, feels a need to become her protector and feels responsible for taking care of her once she is released from the hospital. Because he lives with his parents, they invite her to stay with them, she has nowhere else to go and no identity. In fact, because she has amnesia and no one has reported a girl missing, no ID was found at the scene, she has become a non-person. This is significant because as a non-person she can not become a "person", not a citizen of anywhere, no fingerprints on file, she can not get proof of birth, driver's license, can not travel anywhere, and literally has no record of ever existing. This particular subject of the plot made me wonder how many people in the world are "non-persons" for whatever reason.

She decides to go by the name of Carol Golden for the time being. Little by little she comes up with a thought that makes her wonder if it's a memory. Playing a game with Rigo she finds herself thinking in binary and realizes she must have been proficient at math. California doesn't feel right as where she lived, she feels more drawn to the east. I was fascinated with this process in the book. I think Alan Cook was very diligent in dealing with this process. I don't think I found any anachronisms overlooked as hidden memories, that is to say I don't think anything was said or thought of out of context.

A few searches for missing people do not turn up any leads, but a friend of Rigo's family has more connections and ideas and locates a possibility in North Carolina. The lawyer for that case sends Carol papers so she can fly out east. However, the missing girl's grandmother says no, this is not Cynthia. A dead end. But she now has a feeling she was recently in England. Especially when she rents a car and finds herself looking for a standard gear shift on her left, and feels she should be driving on the right. Carol is determined to follow her feelings, and follow them she does. With the papers and money the lawyer has supplied her with, she heads to England.

Memories begin to become more cohesive though the mystery deepens as she struggles with the fact that her attack was not a one-time thing and she is still very much in danger. Will she find out the truth of her identity? Will she find her attacker or worse, will he find her? Or is he stalking her even now.

This book has a lot of interesting detail, the unraveling of the mystery of Carol's identity and the final outcome bring the book to a fast-paced, exciting and surprising conclusion. A well plotted story I really enjoyed.

Cosa Nostra by Joseph Orbi

2011-02-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Published by I.O. Twomey Ltd.

The story begins in the present, but then switches back to introduce the reader to the characters. Joseph Orbi is a very descriptive author. His descriptions of the scenes, the characters, and the blossoming of love between two cousins Enrico, 13 and Franco,15, are palpable. All these parts set the tone and place of the whole, although the book itself is more dialogue driven than narrated. Of the two boys, one is timid, a lover of all beauty and music, opera in particular, and is the main character. The other is tough, in control of emotion, the son of a Don.

Fast forward to the present, some 30-40 years later. Both cousins have aged and married although Frank's wife has passed away. He is now a Don. Enrico is a Maestro, producing operas. He is also married. The men have not seen each other for a number of years, and Frank invites Enrico and his daughter to dine at home with Frank and his son, a lawyer.

By this time, the Maestro is a completely flamboyant and over the top character. He refers to his wife as Medea and is desperate to be free of her. It is in this part of the book that the plot turns more to black humor, in fact it seems to sneak up on the reader with sudden realization that the story is not quite what you thought you were reading at the beginning. It also holds your attention as it builds up in tension. Two deaths occur, and another unique character appears, Captain Picol, Chief of Detectives. Are the deaths accidental or are they orchestrated murder? The detective is sure it is murder and is determined to prove it. But is there anything to prove?

While the inspector is working to make a case, an additional plot line is introduced.as the story becomes almost ludicrous, and I don't mean that as a criticism. The writing is intentional and the final chapter left me laughing. An unusual story, but interesting.

Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan

2011-01-29T13:33:00.000-08:00

Published by Mira Books

This is Book 4 of the Charlotte McNalley Novel series, and as such, the main characters come to us fully formed with personalities intact. Unfortunately for me, this is the first I've read. Author Hank Phillippi Ryan knows what she's about in the world of investigative reporting and television, and in the fictional world of Charlotte, better known as Charley McNalley, her experience comes through. The book, though a novel, rings true and the plot(s) are tight. An accident is witnessed by Charley and her crew which leads to the perfect story for them to blow the lid off a story just in time for ratings week, a deadly race to the deadline. But another story, full of secrets, and considered worthy of ratings week will almost spell the death of our intrepid heroine.

I really liked the plot line of the major investigation, it was well-thought out, driven hard, extremely plausible, and action packed. On the brink of her wedding, Charley and Josh are certainly not inseparable. She has suspects to keep tabs on, does surveillance with her crew at night, spending more and more time away from home. On top of that, she receives an opportunity of a lifetime, which will take her away even further. Will she make the right decisions in time to save her upcoming marriage and new family? Will Josh make the right decisions? Will their secrets tear them apart?

For those who have been following the series, there will be surprises in store. Characters will be leaving the series and new characters will arrive. Who will remain? Who will take up the offers of change and to further their careers? I love a book that keeps you wanting more. This is a series I want to explore from the beginning. Very well written, strong characterizations.

Houses, a Novel by Cynthia Rogers Parks

2011-01-21T23:57:00.000-08:00

Reviewed for Review the Book
Publisher Leigh Walker Books

This simply titled book was a pleasant surprise to me. It is written as a memoir and I had to keep reminding myself that this is a novel, not Cynthia Rogers Park's memoir, although I'm sure there is a great deal of herself in the book. "Houses" is the memoir of Lacey Winter. It is also a snapshot of historic moments of the U.S. through the 1950s, 60's, 70's and on toward the millennium; the growth of changes after WWII, through the Viet Nam era, the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. A time she measures by the houses she lived in.

Everyone has a method of recording the events in their lives. To me, it is generally the ages of my children, but after reading this memorable book, I find I identify with Lacey's memories of time, attached to which house she was living in. It seemed only right that she would eventually work in real estate. Lacey's story begins as a child living with her Grandmother and her younger sister with very rare visits from her father. Her mother died in an accident and he is "looking for a new mother". From this point on, Lacey seems to spend her life moving from house to house, sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes bad. Sometimes the houses are "happy" and sometimes they are not. All houses take on a personality that she tries to imprint herself on, but many times the houses imprint her. Sometimes she is upgrading, sometimes downgrading, according to her life and the turns of national economy.

In the real time period of this book, life sped up so fast, it was hard to know what would be thrown at you next. Segregation was still in effect, women were on the edge of being recognized, but these and wars, and yes, even the hippie movement all meant huge changes in the country. And for every change, another house, another hopeful start. I feel that the author has done a very good, tightly written novel of so many opposing factors, keeping the theme of houses commensurate with life. For many of us our home or lack of home, even shared home was our life. This would be a good book club read deserving discussion, as well as for individual readers who grew up in this era. I found the book to have a very intriguing style and a believable storyline. I liked the book very much. It covers a lot of ground and demonstrates a definite slice of life in the last half of the twentieth century, making it real.

The Pirate Vortex: Elizabeth Latimer Pirate Hunter by Deborah Cannon

2011-01-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

What a great YA novel! When I was in my teens many years ago, this is exactly the kind of book I'd have been drawn to. As a teenager? Not necessarily, I loved it as a long-in-the-tooth adult. I'm sure my grandchildren will love it, too.

Pirates, adventure, time travel, teen protagonists, what's not to love! Deborah Cannon, you have a wonderful knack of creating a great story with fact amongst your fiction. This book was completely up to date in the present time, and very well researched in the 18th century when pirates ruled the ocean highways and byways.

Elizabeth Latimer, Liz to friends, Lizabeth to younger sister Lulu (Lu), and Pirate Hunter on-line is the main protagonist. Their mother has disappeared while doing ocean archaeology in the Caribbean. Not just ocean archaeology, but searching for clues for her lost husband, following a pirate by the name of Jack Rackham, or Calico Jack. She feels her answers are related to him. She is searching in the 18th century. How did she get there you might well ask. Well, the reason is in the title. There is an anomaly which is much like a vortex/waterspout/whirlpool, and it is sitting right near mother Tess's salvage barge in Nassau. Between Tess and her sister Stephanie (Stevie), they have determined that this vortex shows up every so often, and not always in the same place, but is much like a wormhole.

When Tess disappears, it is suspected that she was caught in the vortex, and taken someplace else. It takes awhile, but it becomes certain that she is in Nassau in the 18th century. When the police are about to give up their search, Liz becomes adamant that she will go find her. She is a top fencer, and is joined by Wang, who was a student of Tess, Lu, who sneaks in along with C.J., their parrot, named for Calico Jack. CJ proves very helpful on the trip as at times he is able to communicate with Liz telepathically, and give her information and warnings. They are also joined by the mysterious Daniel. Nobody knows anything about him, where he is from or maybe what time he is from, but he is an expert swordsman and fencer too.

Liz goes into the vortex, wearing Lu's pocket PC in case connections can be made because Lu is a superb computer genius, and can find information they need very quickly. Fortunately the pocket PC works because Liz is in for a lot of dangerous and terrible conflicts in this century. A lot of realism worked into the plot, chases and risks. When Liz does find Tess, she learns that her mother does not intend to return through this vortex because she is certain she can find their father in this time. She forces Liz and her group to return through the vortex while there is still time, it will be closing within hours. What Liz has learned is that if something isn't restored from/to the 18th century, Tess, Liz, Lulu, and Stevie will cease to exist.

The excitement, feeling of adventure, pirating, time travel, remains through the book keeping the reader happy and wanting more. All agree it is imperative that they should be returned home quickly and may even be helpful in Tess's search. Where she will eventually surface is anyone's guess, all they know is that the vortex moves around and will one day return. I definitely feel the need to know more, just as Liz does. This book wraps you up in chapters and doesn't want to let you go. Fun and fascinating, illuminating, and just which man holds her heart? Wang or Daniel? Or will there be another tossed into the mix. Loved this book!

A Crafty Killing: a Victoria Square Mystery by Lorraine Bartlett

2011-01-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

Published by Berkley Prime Crime
Review based on Advanced Reading Copy

Lorraine Bartlett also writes as Lorna Barrett, accomplished creator of the very popular Booktown series. As Lorraine Bartlett she now has another great cozy series on its way with the new Victorian Square series. “A Crafty Killing” is the 1st in series. There are lots of quirky characters, many equally dedicated characters, and dead bodies are dropping fast. How could so much death suddenly become the main feature of the lowly Artisans Alley?

Katie Bonner is the heroine in this new series, thrust suddenly into the fray when she finds herself both the executor and the largest shareholder in the Alley. Her husband who had taken all their savings and bought a partnership in the Alley had left Katie high and dry in their plans to buy a large home at the edge of Victoria Square and run it as a Bed and Breakfast. Every cent was gone, and Katie had not yet forgiven him as he moved out of the apartment and into Artisans Alley, and subsequently was killed in a car accident, leaving her his share in the partnership

She is not impressed with the police involved in solving the murder. Several possibilities for the murderer, but how to sort them out? There are well-fleshed characters and many of them in this first book. Also a few possibilities for romance, but who to trust, that is the biggest question. Too many people are asking questions, not least of which is Gerald, Ezra's nephew and co-heir with Katie. But even he is lied to.

As always, Lorraine has dished up a great read and very busy plot, busy in that there are many switches in trust, more murders, lots of action aimed toward Katie, and many different personalities, not all of whom are pleased with Katie's ideas. Wonderfully descriptive, I can picture Victoria Square easily and with the Square on the verge of new awakening, a lot is on the line. There is much more than meets the eye (or ear) as rumors are flying, not to mention all the lies and deflections. What is it with that police officer? Katie would really like to know, but soon she is in jeopardy as more complications arise, and Katie herself has become a suspect and possibly the next victim.

I loved this book, a great start for the new year. Lots of guessing as we read along as to who is going to still be around in the next book; just how many murders are there? Are they all murders? Who makes the best villain? When we find out, it is a shock and complete surprise, at least to this reader. Of all the suitors or men appearing to be suitors, will any of them be around in the next book? What games are they all playing? Are any of them really who they seem? Well, we'll have to wait for the next book for some of these answers, but altogether a very exciting and enthusiastic start to this new series. I look forward to seeing these characters grow and new characters arrive. Contains recipes. I forecast another winner for Lorraine and her alter ego Lorna.

My earlier reviews for the first three Booktown series as Lorna Barrett:
Book 1: Murder is Binding
Book 2: Bookmarked for Death
Book 4. Chapter and Hearse
(I really must get and read Book 3!)

Facts of Fishing: 135 Secrets Fish Don't Want You to Know by Dave Mercer with Terry Battisti

2011-01-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

Reviewed for Harper Collins

This book is absolutely full of very helpful tips told with humour and common sense. I particularly was pleased to see the very first item mentioned was to always where a lifejacket. That put me in the mood right there, because fishermen, especially when those jackets were bulkier, do not always want to wear them.

Great descriptions with illustrations of the various knots with their names, reels and their purposes, line comparisons and when to use them, and much more. I began fishing when we were still using what I think was called cod line, cloth, pre-nylon. Some of the cloth line was lighter, which I usually used, winging it around and around above my head then letting go. We've come a very long way from that to high-tech line. I probably wouldn't have lost both handline and fish in Horseshoe Bay in the 1940s if we had what is available now. Pulled it right out of my hand. But enough about me (all fishermen have a story and it takes nothing for them to tell it, please excuse the interruption in my review).

Dave Mercer is well-known for his TV series and seminars. The book is very easy to read and to understand. It is also sized to pack in with your tackle or carry around with you when out shopping for your new equipment. There are tips for getting out of snags, undoing tangles, winterizing your seasonal equipment, and what not to do when lubricating your reel. I was particularly interested in Tip 39, Back Off Your Drags. This tip explains how your drag can seize up, why it can happen, and how to avoid it. I personally, besides what I mentioned before, have done mostly trolling and jigging, living on the ocean, but now living in lake country I've been interested in trying other methods, so the book has been particularly helpful to me.

Tip 125, Keep It Right, has information on keeping your line healthy. Heat and sunlight can weaken it. Aside from covering a lot of information, the author provides a few personal fish tales, plenty of great photos and there is a glossary in the back. One thing I wish had been covered was information on keeping and landing fish on barbless hooks. Barbed hooks are illegal here. That aside, I really enjoyed the book, learned a great deal, had a few laughs, said to myself "so that's why that happened", and can hardly wait to go fishing again now that I have some fresh insight! Great book, Dave, hope you do another, perhaps including barbless fishing and ice-fishing.

Cozy Fly Fishing Mystery series

2011-01-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

Got a fisherman in your family? Like cozy mystery series? Here's a series that is different, Victoria Houston's Fly Fishing mysteries.

An old memory of mine, just for fun: spike jones happy new year

2011-01-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR
FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOUR HOUSEView from our window

Snake Dreams by James D. Doss: A Charlie Moon Mystery

2010-12-28T15:47:00.000-08:00

Book 13 of the Charlie Moon series and I have read all of them up to and including this one. Waiting for me in my bookcase is #14 The Widows Revenge, and on my Wish List is #15, A Dead Man's Tale. Obviously I am a fan of James Doss and a fan of Charlie Moon. What is not to like? A 7 ft tall lean good-looking Ute cowboy, retired cop and now part-time tribal investigator. He has a wonderful ranch in a beautiful location, every girl falls for him but he just can't seem to hang onto them. Of course this is often because of Aunt Daisy's machinations.

His Aunt Daisy Perika, of ancient age, is a blessing and a curse, trouble with a capital T, yet often helpful in solving cases. Sly as a fox, she is a shaman, a crabby one at that. Daisy talks to spirits, not that she invites them, they come to her with messages and portents and try as she might, she can't ignore them. After all, they know where to find her anytime, anywhere. She also visits and talks to a pitukupf, a dwarf who lives in an abandoned badger hole, bringing him food and tobacco in exchange for cryptic answers to the spirits' problems which are now her problems. He also brings news of evil coming, if she can decipher what he is saying in time.

In Doss's earlier books, there was much more police action, mysteries, missing people, murder and such playing a rather major role, along with the great descriptions you can count on. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona some of the most beautiful and extreme landscape in the country. Those readers of Tony Hillerman's series of the Navajo tribal police, especially Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, will understand what I mean. I expected similar when I started reading James Doss' books, and in fact there were a lot of similarities in the early books, although with Daisy there was a lot more myth, legend, because of her heritage, but there was still a lot of policing and investigation.

The Charlie Moon series has always been great fun to read, but in the latest books, possibly because Charlie is supposed to be on his ranch, not solving crimes like his best friend Scott Parrish, chief of police for Granite City, the focus has been much more on the characters themselves with a mystery running in the background. As mentioned, the books have always had some humor in the storyline, but the past few have been nothing short of hilarious, which leaves me to wonder if this series has done a crossover genre. I laughed out loud through a lot of this book Even the style of writing seems to be different and very unique, but again, very funny.

The characters are true to themselves, and it's been fascinating to see them continue to grow and even to age, something that is often missed in a series. Who would be my favorite character? It's hard to answer that, so many diversities, but I think my personal favorite is Daisy, without her half the book would be missing. She is now tutoring her young protégé, 16 year old Sarah, in healing, magic and other shamanist knowledge. This is still one of my favorite series and great for a break between more serious books. Highly entertaining.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

2010-12-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

Photo by Brenda Gelean 2009
my youngest granddaughter, Bella, and their "cat with no name"

Thank you to all my friends, followers,
authors and readers,
may the New Year 2011 bring us all
happiness, health, & peace!

Betty

Justice in June by Barbara Levenson

2010-12-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Reviewed for Review the Book
Published by Oceanview Publishing

Starting right off with the death of an informer, we meet Mary Magruder Katz, a criminal defense attorney in Miami, immediately thrown into heavyweight cases building up to overload. Her friend Judge Liz Maxwell is about to up the ante with a serious criminal investigation aimed at her, and needs Mary's legal assistance. It doesn't help that the dead informer was the main witness in a case that Judge Maxwell is trying.

If that were not enough, Mary's hunk of a boyfriend, Carlos, desperately needs help for his "cousin", actually the son of friends of the family, Luis. Luis was taken into custody as a terrorist on a business flight for his parents from his home in Argentina. He has completely disappeared into the Federal system with no information, no paper trail, no formal charges, and one partial phone call. Mary takes on all these cases with only one assistant. She knows she has serious and short deadlines to accomplish all this, and spends almost all her time on her work, until the threats begin.

It is June in Miami, and living up to its steamy hot weather. Not only is the weather stifling, but the caseload is threatening to stifle Mary for good. Are the threats related to the case for Luis? Possibly, but no one can find out where the Feds have him, he might even be out of the country. Are the threats related to her investigation of why Liz is in danger of being removed as a judge? Again, possibly, but who would be going after Liz? She appears to be honest and fair in her judgments. Certainly they can't have anything to do with a suit against Carlos, which has just been added to her caseload ... or can they?

Mary, though frightened having already been assaulted, is only more determined to carry on with all her cases regardless of the threats. When she gets a threatening call on her brand new Blackberry that she hasn't used, nor given out the number, and her home is broken into, she hightails it over to Carlos' with Sam, her dog, and moves in temporarily.

Barbara Levenson's writing is interesting, well researched, and filled with unique characters. The story is a blend of judicial, legal, and federal investigation and performance. It outlines the chaos and paranoia in the ongoing search for possible terrorists. It addresses greed and corruption as it can happen from within the judicial and the policing arenas, particularly with drug money involved. It also highlights the qualities of the honest in these same arenas. Bringing some light humor into play is the interaction between the parents of both Mary and Carlos, who have their own plans in play.

Mary Magruder Katz is an interesting character, one I would like to see grow. I enjoyed reading this book, and I appreciated Ms. Levenson's chapter breaks with subtitle whenever the storyline backtracks so the reader knows when there is a time shift. This is the second in a series and I will be looking for Fatal February, first in the series, and look forward to the third.

Judgment Day by Wanda L. Dyson

2010-12-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

Reviewed for LibraryThing giveaway
Published by WaterBrook Press

I went into this book thinking it might be lighter reading, somewhat like a fascinating cozy, but immediately found out how wrong I was. Fascinating, yes, but this plot is much more sinister, a significant, fast-paced thriller. This story has a deadline which must be beat! An arrogant, self-centered sensational reporter, Suzanne, with her own show, Judgment Day, is about to find out she has taken on more than she can handle. Somebody wants her to meet her own judgment day.

Teens are disappearing, most of them runaways who presumably won't be discovered as missing. Is there any connection? Her boyfriend has just been killed while driving her car. They traded cars for the day because he was worried she would have an accident, and he wanted to take it in to be checked out. Somebody is trying to kill her.

Who wants her dead? The father of her boyfriend? The senator she has been investigating? The Reverend she has accused of building his mansion with church funds? The District Attorney who is in such a hurry to prosecute her? Or maybe it's the widow of the school principle her allegations caused to commit suicide. Suzanne has been arrested for a murder she didn't commit. Her rich father has posted bond and she is back on the prowl for information.

Only one thing is sure, she is onto something, but since she hasn't been doing her homework, sensationalizing her accusations to boost her ratings without proper authentication of her facts, she doesn't realize what she has. Her lawyer knows he needs good investigation if he is going to win her case. Enter her ex-fiance, now a private investigator, and his suspicious female partner who knows their romantic history from the college they all attended. Marcos and Alexandria (Alex) suddenly find themselves baby-sitters, while trying to learn what is happening to the missing teens and if they are truly missing or just hiding. Their assistant Razz, a technical whiz who can achieve amazing results, starts digging to find out why the D.A. is in such a rush to get the murder to trial.

Everyone involved is fighting demons of their own, but somehow they must keep Suzanne safe and find out who is framing her. She certainly does not understand what she has done, how much damage she does with her lack of attention to the details of truth. She constantly takes chances as though she is immortal.

Lots of action in this book, and with so many possibilities for suspects, there are lots of red herrings, but are they really? Or is every one of them involved? This is a good storyline, up-to-date, and a fast read. I found the book intriguing and the more I read, the more I needed to. My attention was held all the way through. It is not just a case of who and why, but how many are involved. The character of Suzanne is pretty straightforward. We do get to learn what drives her, though, which gives the reader a different perspective from that which runs all through the book. Razz is a likeable character even while dealing with the death of his wife. Marcos and Alex are great characters I'd like to meet again. They work very well together.

Wanda L. Dyson has produced a great plot, involving a totally unexpected crime that is current, and delivers it with aplomb. There is in this atrocity more than the usual known facts about the dangers to teen-age runaways, and a lot more money can be made. This is a plausible, newer hazard, and profitable to people with the right connections and lack of principles.

The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

2010-12-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

Published by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking
Review based on Advance Reading Proof

A wonderfully well-written, psychological thriller debut, one that just cries out to be read and discussed. A perfect choice for a book club. Although I found it a bit disconcerting with early chapters switching between then and now, it is really just an essential hiccup in the storyline. This ploy simply increases the building suspense as the story unfolds. Watch out for author Erin Kelly, she has thrown down the gauntlet and intends to stay around for a long time!

An unusual storyline from the voice of the protagonist, Karen Clarke, the characters with their many differences are well-drawn and continue to grow throughout the book. Take a young normal girl who just happens to be fluent in several languages and throw her suddenly into a completely different society and what is she to do? Her meeting with Biba opens a whole new world to her, one she is not only introduced to, but embraces wholeheartedly. In 1990s London, the beautiful and vivacious Biba lives her life fully and dramatically, essentially the actress she wants to be. When she meets Karen, the straight-A student of linguistics, she brings her to her home, a very run-down yet exotic house of many characters, some of whom live there with Biba and her brother Rex. Soon Karen is a constant visitor.

The book begins near the end, then switches back to this carefree and exciting life, time and time again. We learn of old secrets that have a distinct effect on the brother and sister, and later newer secrets come between them. Karen can not tell her story alone without telling the story of Rex and Biba. Their lives and stories are tangled as one. These three are the main characters, but there are more roles to be played by lesser players. Still, they are all bigger than life and all play their parts boldly. The story unfolds between this wild beginning, fraught with suspense and lies, racing toward an unknown and unexpected tragedy. Clues and portents are sprinkled between these carefree days of one summer, building and building to an excruciating level. Murder, prison, life, loss, all wrapped up in one great read. Descriptive, alluring, and definitely atmospheric, characteristics run the gamut from innocence and trust to parties, drugs, drama, sex and lies.

This is not a book one can easily review without spoilers, mostly because of the way the book is written with all its portents. That said, the ending is shocking and yet feels right. Once read, the reader will understand what I mean, but earlier in the book he/she may not. This is an exceptional start to what I believe to be a long run for this author.