Friday, October 31, 2014

The Fragile World-Paula Treick DeBoard

The Fragile World
Paula Treick DeBoard
Harlequin MIRA, Oct 28 2014, $14.95
ISBN: 9780778316763

The call from Ohio devastated the Kaufman family of Sacramento.  The oldest child, Oberlin College freshman Daniel the musical prodigy, died in a hit and run.  Over the next few years, Daniel’s parents and his then tweener younger sister Olivia cannot get past their grief.  Daniel’s father Curtis, a high school teacher, wants revenge on his son’s killer.  His furniture restorer wife Kathleen initially tried to save her family with counseling, but finally conceded it as a lost cause when they refused to go; and eventually abandoned her husband and other child by moving to Omaha.  Having lost her innocence Olivia has become obsessive compulsive with a need to list in her Fear Journal every crazy frightening thought that nukes her brain. 

Curtis leans that Daniel’s killer Saenz is free.  Irate, he takes Olivia on a drive through Omaha to Ohio that the teen thought was an effort to begin resuscitating their relationship that died with Daniel’s death.  Instead Curtis has a secret agenda to make things right for his hurting family and himself.

Mostly rotating viewpoint between father and daughter, this is a tense family drama that has readers anticipating the hostile confrontation while the miles shrink between California and Ohio.  The on the road support cast is stereotyped though also enables readers to better understand the grief; while the debilitating hit and run impact on two families keeps the audience absorbed with expectations as to what will happen in Ohio.


Harriet Klausner

The Lodge On Holly Road-Sheila Roberts

The Lodge On Holly Road
Sheila Roberts
Harlequin MIRA, Oct 28 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9780778316619

In Seattle, when his wife Faith passed away last year on Christmas Eve, James Claussen lost the Yuletide spirit; which is made worse as he plays Santa for parents to take pictures of their kids sitting on his knee.  After today’s ten hours of torture ends, he plans to escape to a cold beer before seeing his two adult children.  Instead, abetted by the elves, his kindergarten teacher daughter Brooke kidnaps him still in his Claus costume for a family holiday in Icicle Falls with his son Microsoft Systems Analyst Dylan meeting them at the Icicle Creek Lodge with his dad’s clothes which he forget to get.

At Style Savings, single mom (from different fathers) of seven year old Carlos who wants a dog and younger Lalla who wants a grandma, Missy Monroe deals with an ungrateful customer followed by a lecherous one.  After ending her shift, she takes her kids to the Icicle Creek Lodge so they can enjoy the holidays before tightening up on spending again. 

When James and Missy meet, they are attracted to one another.  However, the widower feels guilty that he betrays his late wife made worse by Brooke’s objection; and the hair stylist fears taking a chance on a relationship even with Santa after a run of Mr. Wrongs. 

The latest Life in Icicle Falls' family drama (see The Tea Shop On Lavender Lane, The Cottage On Juniper Ridge and Merry Ex-Mas) is a warm Washington State holiday romance.  The engaging ensemble cast brings joy to readers; as even Santa finds love confusingly complex.


Harriet Klausner

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Treacherous Tart-Ellie Grant

Treacherous Tart
Ellie Grant
Pocket Books, Oct 28 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9781451689563

Maggie Grady and her widowed Aunt Clara own Pie in the Sky in Durham, North Carolina.  The business is booming and both females have boyfriends.  Maggie met hers, reporter Ryan Summerour, when he worked on the homicide of her former New York boss (see Plum Deadly); while Aunt Clara’s Donald Wickerson is a steady customer.

Ryan writes an exposé on Donald suspected of killing several wealthy wives in what seemed like coincidental accidents that enabled him to inherit their money.  Clara reads Ryan’s article and rejects it as her Donald is sweet and kind and ergo no way a murdering widower.  When someone kills Donald in the Pie in the Sky, Maggie knows that DPD will look closely at her beloved aunt as the prime suspect just as they named her when her boss’ body was left by the pie shop’s back door (see Plum Deadly).  With Ryan at her side she investigates the homicide only to seemingly find enough people with revenge motives to fill Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The second Pie Shop mystery is an entertaining culinary cozy with a dynamic witty lead sleuths, denier Aunt Clara and several viable suspects filled with rage at the apparent uxoricide serial killer.  Team Grant provides the audience with a winning regional investigative whodunit.


Harriet Klausner

‘Tis The Season-Robyn Carr

‘Tis The Season
Robyn Carr
Harlequin MIRA, Oct 28 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9780778316640

“Under the Christmas Tree.”  Hairstylist Annie stops to admire a Virgin River Christmas tree only to find eight newborn puppies underneath it. Obviously abandoned, Annie brings the canines to the town `s vet Nathaniel.

“Midnight Confessions.”  One year ago on New Year’s Eve, Sunny’s fiancé Glen jilted her.  Though she wants to celebrate this New Year's Eve alone at home, her Uncle Nathanial and his fiancée Annie insist she accompany them to Jack’s Bar.  UCLA Orthopedic resident Drew Foley and Sunny meet at the bar; whereas she rejects his attempts to get to know each other, he refuses to quit trying.

“Backward Glance.”  In Durango five years have passed since John last saw his beloved Leigh, but every time he drives passed her mom Jess’ house he looks to see if she is visiting.  Jess tells John she has a bad ticker but is not seeing the doctor.  Worried about her mom’s health, Leigh, accompanied by her four year old twins (Mitch and Ty), returns home.  When John and Leigh meet, they have a fight over who was at fault; as they reconcile another argument may destroy their love. 

The first two tales are warm reprints of Virgin River novellas though the leads of Midnight Confessions seem unlikely to overcome their respective failed relationships as the prime icon etched in their respective brains.  Backward Glance is a pre-Virgin River second chance but with an overused premise. 


Harriet Klausner

A Country Christmas-Debbie Macomber

A Country Christmas
Debbie Macomber
Harlequin MIRA, Oct 28 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9780778316510

“Buffalo Valley”.  Vaughn leaves the Army to return to civilian life in Seattle where he starts a job in the New Year.  However, over the holidays Vaughn visits his family in Grand Forks, North Dakota.   While in town, the veteran introduces himself to elderly pharmacist Hassie; Vaughn’s parents named him after her son who died in Nam.  At the pharmacy, Vaughn and trainee Carrie meet and quickly fall in love. However, he has an ethics dilemma when he learns his Washington State employer plans to build a superstore that will destroy the mom and pop shops in Buffalo Valley.

“Return to Promise”.  The schism in their marriage started when Cal hid from his wife Jane that he signed up to participate in the Promise, Texas Labor Day Rodeo bull-riding event. The next incident begins when Jane's mother calls to inform them that her father is ill. Jane, accompanied by her three-year-old son and eighteen-month-old daughter, travels to her California home while Cal stays behind.  The third mess occurs when Nicole makes a bold bid to catch geographical bachelor Cal's interests.  With Jane in California and Cal in Texas, their relationship appears dead.

Buffalo Valley is a reprint that returns readers to the Dakota trilogy on an interesting journey to a Shangri-La threatened by "progress".  Return to Promise is a reprint of a Heart Of Texas family drama starring protagonists who substantiates that men and women occupy different galaxies not just planets or states.


Harriet Klausner

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Black Dog: Hellhound Chronicles-Caitlin Kittredge

Black Dog: Hellhound Chronicles
Caitlin Kittredge
Harper Voyager, Oct 28 2014, $14.99
ISBN 9780062316912

Ava the hellhound collects a debt owed by Bob Dobkins to her employer Gary the reaper who sent the miscreant’s soul to Hell.  Ava is lonely as she has been for the past century in which Gary has owned her; as no one human or otherwise with an ounce of sanity, wants coffee with a hellhound; except her vicious boss when he makes demands of her that she knows she better fulfill.

Gary’s boss Lilith orders the Reaper to send his Hellhound to look into the increase in deadhead activity in the Mohave near the locale of Alex Ivanoff and kill the human for dabbling in necromancy though his debt is not due.  In Vegas, a deadhead juiced by a necromancer attacks her; only he is not an Alex convert; he is Alex.  Instead of killing Ava, Leonid Karpov the necromancer kidnaps her.  Leo explains she is his third captured hellhound, but the first two died snarling at him; that he still owns his soul; and that with her help he will kill Gary starting with Ava stealing her reaper’s scythe.

The first Hellhound Chronicles is an exciting urban fantasy starring a sympathetic repo hellhound who muses on how far she has fallen since she fled as a teen Bear Hollow, Tennessee for New Orleans during Prohibition.  However, the Cecile B. DeMille sized support cast and especially an inordinate number of supernatural species are difficult to follow and keep track of without a paranormal classification similar to the Linnaeus seven-category hierarchical biological systemStill subgenre fans will want to tour the USA with Ava as our snarling badass guide.


Harriet Klausner

Ho-Ho-Homicide-Liss MacCrimmon-Kaitlyn Dunnett

Ho-Ho-Homicide: Liss MacCrimmon Scottish Mystery
Kaitlyn Dunnett
Kensington, Oct 28 2014, $24.00
ISBN 9780758292834

In Moosetookalook, Maine, Gina Snowe asks her high school BFF Liss MacCrimmon Ruskin to look at the Christmas tree farm in New Boston she inherited from a late great-uncle to see if it is a feasible money-making enterprise.  Owner of the successful Scottish Emporium, Liss agrees to help her Chicago-based lawyer friend though they had drifted apart several years ago.  She and her husband Dan decide to check out the farm that is a couple of hours west of their home with a one week pre-holiday paid vacation.

However, the town and the farm residents lack the Christmas spirit as seemingly everyone demands the visitors leave.  Liss learns of a corpse buried amidst a delivery to New York and the farm’s owner vanished.  As Liss investigates the cold case incidents, the uncooperative locals, especially the cops, resent her inquiry, but one of them has a deadly vendetta.

The eighth Liss MacCrimmon Scottish Mystery (see Vampires, Bones, And Treacle Scones; and Bagpipes, Brides, And Homicides and Scotched) is a pleasurable twisting Yuletide amateur sleuth.  Although the Ruskin relationship is not quite as cozy as the detecting into the farm and town, this is a Merry Christmas tale.


Harriet Klausner

By Winter’s Light: A Cynster Novel-Stephanie Laurens

By Winter’s Light: A Cynster Novel
Stephanie Laurens
Harlequin Mira, Oct 28 2014, $16.99
ISBN: 9780778317470

In 1837, the six Cynster families, their servants and others in their circle like tutors come to Casphairn Manor in Scotland to enjoy the holidays.  Attracted to each other, Daniel Crosbie (tutor to the sons of Lucifer and Phyllida) and Claire Meadows (governess to the daughter of Rupert and Alathea) especially look forward to the extended family gathering as this gives them an opportunity to see each other. 

Daniel patiently waited until he is on sound financial footing before he asks Claire to marry him.  Though she believes she loves the kind honest tutor, the widow refuses as being married once was one time too many for her.  However, Daniel knows who he wants to spend his life with so he continues to court his reluctant Medy.

The second Cynster Christmas special (see The Promise in a Kiss) is a pleasant holiday historical with a large cast (a listing helps with who belongs to whom) that includes the romance between the two likable employees, the return of leads from the previous twenty novels and the introduction to the Cynster offspring who will probably lead in a new Victorian series.  Targeting her fans, Stephanie Laurens authors a warm (even in snowy Scotland) Yuletide treat.


Harriet Klausner

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Dead Don't Lie-L. R. Nicolello

Dead Don't Lie
L. R. Nicolello
Harlequin HQN, Oct 28 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9780373785001

In Europe, eighteen year old model Evelyn Maslin returns home to find a DVD apparently sent to her by her family in Seattle.  When she plays it, she observes the vicious slaughtering of her parents and her fourteen years old sister.  Numb but she prays this is a cruel prank until Police Detective Nikols calls to inform her that her family is dead.

Fifteen years later, having changed her surname and motivated by the slaughter of her family, Seattle Detective Evelyn Davis now is considered the top profiler in the department, reinforced by the horrible Langdon homicides.  She keeps her distance from everyone, but her partner Ryan O’Neil, his wife Kate and their children welcome her as a favorite “relative”.  Dinner with the O’Neil brood ends when their supervisor Captain Kessler tells them Chief Diaz wants them working a family annihilator case on Mercer Island, the second in two weeks there.  Due to the mayor’s request, FBI Special Agent Marcus Moretti joins the investigative team.  He provides information on the deaths of the Garland and Middleton family who both had two young daughters.  Marcus conceals one thing from Evelyn; that he wants her on his special task force.  As they work the case that turns Deja vu personal, the Fed and the local officer fall in love.

Dead Don't Lie is a taut police procedural that grips the audience from the first family invasion until the final confrontation.  Readers will respect Evelyn and admire caring Marcus even while the serial killer pushes the heroine’s buttons into mental freefall.  Although the love subplot is unnecessary, this is a tremendous romantic suspense.


Harriet Klausner

Dead Don't Lie-L. R. Nicolello

Dead Don't Lie
L. R. Nicolello
Harlequin HQN, Oct 28 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9780373785001

In Europe, eighteen year old model Evelyn Maslin returns home to find a DVD apparently sent to her by her family in Seattle.  When she plays it, she observes the vicious slaughtering of her parents and her fourteen years old sister.  Numb but she prays this is a cruel prank until Police Detective Nikols calls to inform her that her family is dead.

Fifteen years later, having changed her surname and motivated by the slaughter of her family, Seattle Detective Evelyn Davis now is considered the top profiler in the department, reinforced by the horrible Langdon homicides.  She keeps her distance from everyone, but her partner Ryan O’Neil, his wife Kate and their children welcome her as a favorite “relative”.  Dinner with the O’Neil brood ends when their supervisor Captain Kessler tells them Chief Diaz wants them working a family annihilator case on Mercer Island, the second in two weeks there.  Due to the mayor’s request, FBI Special Agent Marcus Moretti joins the investigative team.  He provides information on the deaths of the Garland and Middleton family who both had two young daughters.  Marcus conceals one thing from Evelyn; that he wants her on his special task force.  As they work the case that turns Deja vu personal, the Fed and the local officer fall in love.

Dead Don't Lie is a taut police procedural that grips the audience from the first family invasion until the final confrontation.  Readers will respect Evelyn and admire caring Marcus even while the serial killer pushes the heroine’s buttons into mental freefall.  Although the love subplot is unnecessary, this is a tremendous romantic suspense.


Harriet Klausner

Neurotic November-Barbara Levenson

Neurotic November
Barbara Levenson
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Sept 9 2014, $11.99
ISBN: 9781500519452

After spending a vacation in Vermont with her lover Carlos Martin, lawyer Mary Magruder Katz returns to Miami where she notices her always reliable paralegal assistant Catherine Aynsworth acting distracted.  Meanwhile Mary worries about her hospitalized father Abe recovering from a heart attack and her mother Hope wanting them to move back to Miami from Boynton Beach; Thanksgiving with her parents and brothers should be quite a family affair.

Lorena Lincoln wants to hire Mary to represent her son, University of Miami quarterback Jay Lincoln, accused by high school student Jennifer de Leon of statutory rape.  The college assigned Mary’s former boss Franklin Fieldstone to represent him; he insists Jay accept a plea bargain as circumstances do not matter when it comes to an underage girl made worse by the race card.

Carlos’ father J.C. faces SEC and Justice Department probes into money laundering at the Seaside Bank where he is Vice President.  Mary advices J.C. on how a Grand Jury works as lawyers are not allowed inside the proceedings.

Catherine former husband Brady demands back in her life and their two frightened young children.  While he batters Catherine, Carlos arrives with a gun and soon afterward the cops.  Mary files a restraining order, but someone kills Brady; the prime suspect is Carlos

The fourth Mary Magruder Katz legal thriller (see Fatal February, Justice In June and Outrageous October) contains three entertaining diverse cases enhanced by the heroine’s personal issues.  The lead lawyer provides captivating advice to clients interwoven into the storyline; i.e., Grand Jury hearings and ethics rules re replacing an attorney, etc.  Subgenre fans will appreciate the latest Mary Magruder manic caseload.


Harriet Klausner

Monday, October 27, 2014

The Girl In The Woods-Gregg Olsen

The Girl In The Woods
Gregg Olsen
Pinnacle, Oct 28 2014, $9.99
ISBN: 9780786029945

In Port Orchard, Washington, on a nature hike in Banner Forest, an Olally Elementary school sixth grader finds a human foot.  Sheriff’s Detective Kendall Stark and Kitsap County Forensic Pathologist Birdy Waterman look into what happened that led to a severed body part.  The rest of the person is not found nearby and remains missing.  Birdy believes an animal ripped the foot off of a probably dead teenage girl.

Meanwhile Birdy’s sixteen year old nephew Elan asks to stay with his aunt for a while as he left his home after seeing his mom in his bed with her lover.  At about the same time Elan came to Port Orchard, Ted Roberts dies suspiciously with the pathologist thinking his wife Jennifer poisoned him.  Thus Birdy heads to Arizona to exhume and test the body of Jennifer’s first husband for poison.  Extreme Hoarder Tess “The Mess” Montgomery reports her high school daughter Darby missing to the Sheriff’s Department; and soon afterward dirt biker and Afghanistan war veteran Marvin Best finds a corpse with one foot missing in a garbage bag.  Investigating Darby’s homicide, Stark and Waterman follow clues leading to a fired prison guard and an extreme narcissist serial killer convict with raging grudges towards Tess.

The first Waterman and Stark police procedural is a fabulous investigative mystery with a three-dimensional cast involved in several dysfunctional relationships (by far the most positive is the friendship and mutual respect between the two investigators).  Filled with twists, especially an astonishing unexpected but plausible climatic spin, readers will appreciate the detective and the pathologist working together on two homicides.


Harriet Klausner

Every Tear A Memory-Myra Johnson

Every Tear A Memory
Myra Johnson
Abingdon Press, Oct 21 2014, $14.99
ISBN: 9781426753725

In 1919 France, Joanna Trapp worked for the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a “Hello Girl”.  There she met and fell in love with Walter, but he died in combat near Saint-Étienne-à-Arnes.  After visiting the site of Walter’s death, Joanna opens up a letter from her brother Jack informing her that their mentally unstable widow mother died three weeks ago back home in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Jack begs her to come home as he cannot raise their younger sister Lily alone.

Joanna returns to the States to help her family.  Arlington Hotel manager Thomas Ballard hires as a switchboard operator.  Though the boss and the employee are attracted to each other, she pledged loyalty to Walter; and he feels as her unworthy inferior having been medically rejected by the military; unlike his brother a hero in the Great War.   

The third Till We Meet Again WWI era drama (See Whisper Goodbye and When The Clouds Roll By) is a fabulous tale of opposites in love.  The gender-bending lead couple is a wonderful pairing of an adventuress who finds civilian life in Arkansas exceedingly boring and a businessman who prefers the constant “tedium” of staying at home to raise a beloved family. 


Harriet Klausner

Oh, Naughty Night!-Leslie Kelly

Oh, Naughty Night!
Leslie Kelly
Harlequin Blaze, Oct 21 2014, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373798247

After an internship in Rwanda, twenty-six year old Lucille Vandenberg settles down in Washington.  Her first month in D.C. was getting used to her job and the city.  Now, Lulu is on the prowl for a superman (in bed that is). 

At a Halloween Party, Lulu and her two friends (Amelia and Viv) salivate over a hunk when she recognizes him as journalist Chaz Browning; whom she has not seen since high school, almost a decade ago.  She is stunned that the scrawny nerd she tortured when they were teenage enemies has become a stud.  Chaz fails to recognize Lulu as they enjoy the night together before she vanishes.  Chaz and Lulu meet as neighbors, but he fails to realize his teen queen of mean adversary is the Halloween beauty he craves and she omits informing him that she is the star of his wet dreams; confusing him further is his desire to make it with Lulu.

The premise is terrific with one protagonist aware and the other not; while the execution is excellent.  Oh, Naughty Night! is a heated jovial contemporary made stronger by some of the ways Lulu irritated besieged Chaz as youngsters.  Readers will toast Leslie Kelly with a Capri Sun for this beguiling blazing romance.


Harriet Klausner

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Snowfall: A Days of Redemption Christmas Novella-Shelley Shepard Gray

Snowfall: A Days of Redemption Christmas Novella
Shelley Shepard Gray
Avon Inspire, Oct 21 2014, $12.99
ISBN: 9780062204547

Twentyish Ruth Stutzman enjoys being a care provider to retirees at a nursing home.  When her position is abolished and Ruth let go due to budget cuts, she is despondent because she likes being with the elderly. 

When sexagenarian Lovina Keim quits as nanny to widower Martin Rodes’ six horrible children, she recommends he hires Ruth to take care of his kids whose ages range from four to nine.  Initially Ruth feels overwhelmed but sympathetic towards her six motherless wards since she lost her parents as a young child.  The preadolescents slowly warm up to her cheerful enthusiasm; but perhaps not as much as their concerned father who keeps his distance out of guilt and memory of his late wife, and for the sake of his brood though attracted to his new employee.  However, when Ruth is offered her former position, she feels pulled in two directions as she loves and adores Martin and his munchkins while they cherish her for bringing a Ray of Light back into their grieving lives.

The latest Days of Redemption entry is an engaging Amish Christmas family drama.  The ensemble cast includes returnees from previous novels (see Eventide and Daybreak); while the two nurturing adults try to help the six troubled children as they struggle to accept being without their beloved mother.  Shelley Shepard Gray authors a delightful holiday story that needs a miracle delivered by six impish elves.


Harriet Klausner

Boneyard Ridge-Paula Graves

Boneyard Ridge
Paula Graves
Harlequin Intrigue, Oct 21 2014, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373697960

In Purgatory, Tennessee event planner Susannah Marsh hosts a law enforcement conference.  However, unbeknownst to Susannah, the Blue Ridge Infantry anti-authority fanatics have a deadly plan for the attendees; but first must rid themselves of Marsh in order to deploy their scheme. 

Gates’ employee Hunter Bragg has worked undercover as a maintenance man for three months to get inside the militia.  He informs his Gates superior Alexander Quinn that the assault starts tonight; the former CIA agent tells the Army veteran with a bad leg and anger management issues he needs to go it alone until reinforcements can arrive.  Thus he becomes Susannah’s mule carrying the reluctant planner away from those shooting at her.  However she also conceals a dark deadly secret involving the local crime family who also pursues Susannah.

The third Gates romantic suspense (see Crybaby Falls and Dead Man Curve) is a high-octane thriller starring two seemingly opposites; though scratch the heroine’s present persona to her past reveals how similar the pair really is.  Fast-paced, readers will root for the protagonists as they try to stay alive while a couple of hordes target the perfectly polished planner and guilt by protective association the medically retired sergeant.


Harriet Klausner

A Christmas Celebration-Nancy Robards Thompson

A Christmas Celebration
Nancy Robards Thompson
Harlequin Special Edition, Oct 21 2014, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373658503

When his best friend Greg Thomas and his BFF’s wife Rosa died in a car crash, Celebration Memorial Hospital Chief of Staff Dr. Cullen Dunlevy takes in their four young mourning children (ranging in age from five to ten).  Rather than let the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services divide the quartet, Cullen plans to keep them with him until he finds a suitable family who will raise the fearsome foursome.  However, he works sixteen hour days and his housekeeper quits as the growing blue foam was the last straw.

After explaining to Lily Palmer the kids act out of grief and she replies they seek attention; he hires the second grade schoolteacher as their nanny not just because he is desperate, which he is, but he sees how gently she reached out to the youngest Hannah through Franklin the dog.  He also admires how well Lily deals with the oldest Megan, the only boy George and the second youngest Bridge.  As the six bonds into a warm family, “Uncle” Cullen struggles with his desires to adopt the kids while falling in love with the nanny because he is married to his job.

The fourth Celebrations, Inc. Texas romance (see Celebration’s Bride, Celebration’s Family and Celebration’s Baby) is an uplifting Yuletide family drama.  The lead couple is a nice pairing whose plans are nuked by the needy grieving youngsters.  With a nod to Nanny McPhee (sans the magic except inside the hearts of all of them) and mindful of W.C. Fields’ admonition: "Never work with animals or children” the troubled kids steal the show from the adults.


Harriet Klausner

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Desert God-Wilbur Smith

Desert God
Wilbur Smith
Morrow, Oct 21 2014, $28.99
ISBN: 9780062276452

After a century of civil war, the adversarial Egyptian kingdoms face a deadly invasion from the Steppes.  The Hyksos horde defeated the Northern Kingdom and begun the assault on the Southern nation driving the people away from the Nile into the wilderness.  At Thebes, the Egyptian army defeated the Hyksos stopping further incursion, but the invaders occupy all of the North and parts of the Southern Kingdom preparing for King Salitis to renew the conquest.

Desperate Pharaoh Tamose turns to his top advisor, former slave Taita the eunuch, for guidance.  The geographical edge resides with the enemy as Taita realizes his kingdom controls no Great Sea ports.  Thus he informs the Pharaoh that the only way to beat the enemy is an alliance with the Sumerians and Cretans; though the latter already is allied with the Hyksos.  To anchor the pact, Taita persuades Tamos to offer in marriage his royal daughters, sixteen years old Tehuti and her fourteen years old younger sister Bekatha, to Crete’s Supreme Minos.  Accepting the plan, Tamos assigns Taita to safely escort the princesses to Crete.  As they travel the dangerous bloody trek with external and internal threats assaulting them, Tehuti informs Taita that there is a slight problem.

Desert God continues the engaging adventures of Taita (see River God and Warlock, etc.) in a fast-paced storyline that combines a strong sense of time and place with plenty of gory action.  The lead eunuch and princesses are fully developed with Taita somewhat a father figure to the royals; while he ironically misses the obvious that the audience will anticipate.  The well-written ending is a fine mystical finish to another pleasurable Novel of Ancient Egypt.



Harriet Klausner

To Everything A Season-Lauraine Snelling

To Everything A Season
Lauraine Snelling
Bethany House Publishers, Oct 21 2014, $14.99
ISBN: 9780764211041

In 1905 Blessing, North Dakota, Ingeborg Bjorklund worries about her husband Haaken (see An Untamed Heart).  She would like her daughter Astrid or her daughter-in-law Elizabeth to check him out.  Elizabeth says her father would not allow a female especially offspring to give him a physical.

Trygve Knutson considers quitting his traveling construction job to come home to Blessing to help his family though he takes pleasure in new experiences that his work provides.  Chicago-based student nurse Miriam Hastings comes to Blessing for on the job training before she leaves to work at a hospital.  Neither Trygve nor Miriam wants to be in Blessing, but family needs have both in town.  When the nurse- in-training and the driller meet, each feels the attraction.  As they fall in love, both struggle between pursuing their dreams and revising them.

Meanwhile a failed bank robbery leads to a band of brother outlaws captured with the youngest Manny suffering a broken leg.  Instead of jail, the tweener moves in with Ingeborg and Haaken.

Lauraine Snelling returns to her Red River Of the North roots with her first delightful Song of Blessing historical.  The ensemble cast is solid as they enable the audience to understand life on the northern Great Plains circa first decade of the twentieth century.  Even with an amazing Bjorklund family tree, newcomers will be lost with the Return to Red River (location of four previous series and a prequel).  On the other hand longtime fans will celebrate the opening act of Song of Blessing.


Harriet Klausner

The Hunk Next Door-Debra Webb and Regan Black

The Hunk Next Door
Debra Webb and Regan Black
Harlequin Intrigue, Oct 21 2014, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373697953

Belclare, Maryland Police Chief Abigail Jensen led her team in a recent bust of a drug ring that funneled profits to a terrorist group.  Believing the intrepid cop, who makes to clear her town is and will remain drug-free, is a retaliation target, CIA Specialists Director Thomas Casey (see Colby Agency: The Specialists - Bridal Armor by Debra Webb) assigns agent Riley O’Brien to go undercover in order to protect Abigail from an unknown threat.

Riley poses as a handyman who moves in next door to the chief.  The cop and the undercover cop are attracted to each other, but he especially knows the futility in a relationship between them as the protocol of don’t get romantically involved with the protected sounds alarms in his head that fight his heart (and other body parts).  At the same time Belclare Historical Society President Martin Fillmore objects to Jensen’s additional security measures that he believes will ruin the annual Christmas event while she insists will save it from a tragedy. 

The first Specialists: Heroes Next Door is a thrilling spin off from Ms. Webb’s Colby Agency: The Specialists series (see Would-Be Christmas Wedding and Ready, Aim…I Do!).  The storyline starts slow, but accelerates towards the middle until the climatic confrontation with a villain that readers will know long before the dynamic protagonists realize seemingly too late. 

Harriet 

Friday, October 24, 2014

Quilted By Christmas: Quilts of Love-Jodie Bailey

Quilted By Christmas: Quilts of Love
Jodie Bailey
Abingdon, Oct 21 2014, $13.99
ISBN 9781426796142

In Hollings, North Carolina, middle school teacher Taryn McKenna deeply believes that only her grandma Jemma loves her; the dumping by so-called loved ones, her parents and her high school sweetheart Justin Callahan, prove her assertion.  Expecting nothing from others except her unconditional love showered on her by her grandma, Taryn’s life goal is for her students to remember how much she helped them. 

When Jemma suffers a heart attack, tests show she is dying.  An upset Taryn will do anything to comfort her grandma even as she fears being totally alone.  Jemma’s only request is for her granddaughter to help her complete an Irish chain quilt that tells a family history.  Having returned from the military, Justin wants a second chance with the woman he left behind so he assists Taryn with learning the story of the quilt and showing her how much he, Jemma and much of the townsfolk cherish and adore her, and that God never left her.

The latest Quilts of Love inspirational (see Hidden In The Stars by Robin Caroll and A Grand Design by Amber Stockton) is a charming contemporary.  Taryn’s attitude about how others perceive her will remind fans of James Stewart’s George Bailey (surname coincidental?) in It’s A Wonderful Life.  With a strong support cast and a likable troubled lead, this second chance regional romance affirms once again that this is a stupendous series.

Harriet Klausner

Blond Cargo-John Lansing

Blond Cargo
John Lansing
Gallery Books/Karen Hunter Publishing eBook, Oct 20 2014, $5.99
ISBN: 9781476795515

Retired NYPD narcotics chief, Jack Bertolino, left the city for Los Angeles where he gardened, drank expensive wine and drove a Mustang.  However, when Jack worked a homicide of an informant he knew back home, his efforts led to a Columbia Cartel retaliating against his Stanford University baseball playing son Chris.  Mafia chieftain Vincent Cardona provided Jack with key info and protection for his hospitalized (and still recovering) offspring

Expecting Vincent to call in the debt in the future, Jack is surprised how soon the mobster does.  Fearing his daughter, if not dead, may be in trouble from a killer who murdered two look-alikes, Vincent explains Angelica recently vanished apparently from the Club Martinique.  He wants the former cop turned P.I. with a bad back to find his missing daughter.  Jack follows clues that lead him to an affluent Iraqi with deep connections in Southern California selling females at auction to wealthy patrons.

The second Bertolino investigation (see The Devil's Necktie) is an adrenaline pumping over the top of the Hollywood sign thriller that will remind readers of Liam Neeson’s Taken except for brief interludes when the hero tries to get still hurting Chris to forgive him and scenes with his GF.  Incredibly action-packed but with a stereotypical support cast (especially the villain); readers will root for Jack to pay off his debt his way.


Harriet Klausner

Quilted By Christmas: Quilts of Love-Jodie Bailey

Quilted By Christmas: Quilts of Love
Jodie Bailey
Abingdon, Oct 21 2014, $13.99
ISBN 9781426796142

In Hollings, North Carolina, middle school teacher Taryn McKenna deeply believes that only her grandma Jemma loves her; the dumping by so-called loved ones, her parents and her high school sweetheart Justin Callahan, prove her assertion.  Expecting nothing from others except her unconditional love showered on her by her grandma, Taryn’s life goal is for her students to remember how much she helped them. 

When Jemma suffers a heart attack, tests show she is dying.  An upset Taryn will do anything to comfort her grandma even as she fears being totally alone.  Jemma’s only request is for her granddaughter to help her complete an Irish chain quilt that tells a family history.  Having returned from the military, Justin wants a second chance with the woman he left behind so he assists Taryn with learning the story of the quilt and showing her how much he, Jemma and much of the townsfolk cherish and adore her, and that God never left her.

The latest Quilts of Love inspirational (see Hidden In The Stars by Robin Caroll and A Grand Design by Amber Stockton) is a charming contemporary.  Taryn’s attitude about how others perceive her will remind fans of James Stewart’s George Bailey (surname coincidental?) in It’s A Wonderful Life.  With a strong support cast and a likable troubled lead, this second chance regional romance affirms once again that this is a stupendous series.


Harriet Klausner

Thursday, October 23, 2014

The Terminals-Royce Scott Buckingham

The Terminals
Royce Scott Buckingham
Dunne Books, Oct 14 2014, $18.99
ISBN: 9781250011558

Nineteen years old Cameron Cody lies in a hospital bed in disbelief while thinking how much changed in a short time.  He reflects on how was about to take Kristi Banks to the ultimate party house and soon afterward start on Western Washington University soccer team.  Instead according to specialist Dr. Singh he has one year to live because of some freaking brain tumor.  While his parents are devastated and his friends awkward; his BFF Mason reminds Cam that he may be dying, but he always was a doer, so do.  A stranger offers Cam an exciting exit strategy as a hero, but starting with his immediate fake death; Cam accepts.

Not long after he “dies”, Cam meets the other nine teen teammates who also share with him the one year death sentence.  As the original ten Terminal teens work dangerous missions around the globe, some die during the execution while others prematurely perish under questionable circumstances that Cam and the others still alive choose to ignore.  That is until Siena, who faked her death as the lone survivor of the previous team, arrives to paint an ugly picture of their handler and his associates to Cam and company.

The Terminals is an exciting action-packed tweener-young teen thriller.  Although the key cast is underdeveloped, the young audience will appreciate these Teen Titans (nod to DC comics) globetrotting escapades; stealthy expanded by those dwindling still alive investigating the organization that recruited them.

Harriet Klausner

Crooked River-Valerie Geary

Crooked River
Valerie Geary
Morrow, Oct 14 2014, $25.99
ISBN: 9780062326591

Their parents separated almost a decade ago with their mom staying in Eugene while their bee-keeper dad rusticated near Terrebonne.  Each August, the older daughter Sam stayed with her dad Bear while the younger child Ollie remained home with their mom.

In 1988, without any warning their mom died.  The grieving sisters, fifteen years old Sam and ten years old Ollie, move in with Bear, but the tweener has been mute since the tragedy occurred.  As the siblings struggle differently with their loss, they find a dead woman floating in the nearby Crooked River.  Sam tries to pull her ashore, but fails.  She obsesses over the death as she fears the law will come after Bear and consequently end her family; so Sam desperately tries to identify who murdered the woman in the river.  Meanwhile silent Ollie sees the Shimmering haunting her that no one else notices.

This is a mesmerizing coming of age supernatural whodunit starring two wonderful sisters struggling with death, change and a bone marrow foreboding trepidation more ugliness is coming to haunt them.  Except for Bear (especially his lack of parenting skills) and the mysterious Shimmering, the support cast comes across as eccentric over the top of Smith Rock.  The amateur sleuthing adventures of Sam and the wonder of whether the Shimmering are a grieving frightened tweener’s psychological crutch or really stalking her make for a fine family drama.


Harriet Klausner

Crooked River-Valerie Geary

Crooked River
Valerie Geary
Morrow, Oct 14 2014, $25.99
ISBN: 9780062326591

Their parents separated almost a decade ago with their mom staying in Eugene while their bee-keeper dad rusticated near Terrebonne.  Each August, the older daughter Sam stayed with her dad Bear while the younger child Ollie remained home with their mom.

In 1988, without any warning their mom died.  The grieving sisters, fifteen years old Sam and ten years old Ollie, move in with Bear, but the tweener has been mute since the tragedy occurred.  As the siblings struggle differently with their loss, they find a dead woman floating in the nearby Crooked River.  Sam tries to pull her ashore, but fails.  She obsesses over the death as she fears the law will come after Bear and consequently end her family; so Sam desperately tries to identify who murdered the woman in the river.  Meanwhile silent Ollie sees the Shimmering haunting her that no one else notices.

This is a mesmerizing coming of age supernatural whodunit starring two wonderful sisters struggling with death, change and a bone marrow foreboding trepidation more ugliness is coming to haunt them.  Except for Bear (especially his lack of parenting skills) and the mysterious Shimmering, the support cast comes across as eccentric over the top of Smith Rock.  The amateur sleuthing adventures of Sam and the wonder of whether the Shimmering are a grieving frightened tweener’s psychological crutch or really stalking her make for a fine family drama.


Harriet Klausner

The Covered Deep-Brandy Vallance

The Covered Deep
Brandy Vallance
Worthy Publishing, Oct 14 2014, $14.99
www.worthypublishing.com
ISBN: 9781617953750

In 1877, Bianca Marshal fears she is doomed to be a spinster as the book she reads claims women between eighteen and twenty-four years old have a 52% chance of marriage; twenty-five to thirty the odds drop to 18%.  Bianca is about to turn twenty-five and realizes her prospects of finding a husband who meets her seven criterion in Portsmouth, Ohio are much less than what the book states. 

When she wins a contest that includes a trip to the Holy Land, Bianca’s mood dramatically improves as she believes Jesus steers her towards her soul mate.  At the London home of her host, Sir Adrian Hartwith, Bianca meets another contest winner British historian Paul Emerson; both immediately feel they met their life-mate.  They have fun in the city together before they journey to the Holy Land.  All seems perfect until Paul confesses his sins to his beloved Bianca; she eliminates him as a husband due to his violation of her number one consideration.

This is an entertaining Christian historical romance based on the premise that a deep faith in Jesus includes forgiving sinners as "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  The 1870s in the Holy Land is vividly described to armchair readers delight and the stopover in London amusing.  Although rigidly religiously moralistic Bianca’s desperation for a husband seems to contradict her belief in the Lord (though I may be committing historiographical sin by bringing twenty-first century values to the late nineteenth century), fans will want the heroine to learn in time Alexander Pope’s admonition: “to err is human; to forgive, divine.”


Harriet Klausner

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Eat Him if You Like-Jean Teulé

Eat Him if You Like
Jean Teulé, Emily Phillips (translator)
Gallic, Oct 14 2014, $12.95
www.gallicbooks.com
ISBN 9781906040390

In 1870, Beaussac, France Deputy Mayor Alain de Monéys soon will join the French army at the not so quiet eastern front in the war with Prussia.  However, today he plans to enjoy the day in spite of the unbearable August heat and the relentless drought.  Thus Alain rides his horse towards the Saint-Roch Fair in Hautefaye.  

He comes across his arrogant cousin Camille de Maillard, who mocks the Emperor and the Minister of War for their claim Berlin soon will fall as he points to the recent massacre loss at Reichsoffen and the need to retreat.  Someone in the angry patriotic crowd replies no retreat as the Prussians will fall just like the Austrians in Italy and the Russian in Crimea before.  As the crowd grows increasingly hostile accusing Camille of being a Prussian sympathizer, Alain intervenes explaining his cousin’s comment but terribly misconstrued.  Suddenly Alain’s friends and neighbors who he just exchanged salutations with pummel him before burning and eating him while the authorities fail to intervene.

Based on a real event that seems surreal, Eat Him if You Like is a cautionary historical novella that hooks the audience with how quickly a group of friends turn into vicious out of control monsters.  Mindful of Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s classic The Ox-Bow Incident with its thoughtful yet exciting look into the mob mentality when civil society breaks down.  This is not an easy read as friends and neighbors not only batter and lynch the victim, they roast and eat him.


Harriet Klausner

The Corpse With The Platinum Hair-Cathy Ace

The Corpse With The Platinum Hair
Cathy Ace
TouchWood Editions, Oct 14 2014, $14.95
www.touchwoodeditions.com
ISBN: 9781771510875

On the Vegas Strip, Tsar! Casino and Hotel majority stockholder Miss Shirley invites several people to join her for dinner at the owner’s private dining room.  While enjoying the meal, the lights go out.  When the emergency lights turn on, hotel legal head Julie Pool screams in horror as she sees someone skewered with a Russian Saber Miss Shirley to her chair.  Attendee Professor Cait Morgan remarks to her boyfriend retired homicide detective Bud Anderson that wherever she goes corpse follow (see The Corpse with the Golden Nose and The Corpse with the Silver Tongue). 

Julie enters the codes to prevent a twelve hour security lockdown of the room as occurs when the lights go out; but her effort fails in spite of her doing it recently twice.  While LVPD cannot enter, Cait and Bud investigate the homicide and soon other deaths with several in the room having strong motives to kill Miss. Shirley.

The Corpse with the Platinum Hair is a classic-style (no CSI forensics available), yet modern day (brilliant use of an electronic shutdown) locked room whodunit.  As we meet the trapped suspects and the deceased through the inquiry by Cait and her sidekick, readers will relish this wonderful investigation by the dynamic Canadian couple. 


Harriet Klausner

Changing Michael-Jeff Schilling

Changing Michael
Jeff Schilling
Bancroft Press, Oct 15, 2014, $21.95
ISBN: 9781610881227

Alexander High School student Matthew is a hedonist who enjoys challenges as long as the adventure proves fun for him and avoids relegating him to the social outcast status of the bad weird lowlifes.  His brilliance lies in his ability to project friendship by faking interest while caring for only one person, himself; even his mom falls for his seemingly compassionate facade. 

While his friend and peer at the highest plateau in the teen hierarchy, Jack thinks he is crazy speaking to a nonentity; as an act of kindness Matthew decides to mentor Michael on being in and how to get others like parents to do your bidding as if it is their idea.  As Matthew befriends his subject’s estranged dad and younger half-sister Chrissy, his Changing Michael project seems helpless.

This is an intriguing teen character study of the changing relationship between a king of the hill BMOC and the beneath the food chain cesspool dweller.  Unlikable Matthew comes across as a poor cross between Bueller and Cher (of Clueless) because he lacks their good-natured charm; while Michael is cleverly captured as an apparent pathetic loser who looks forward to getting out of Alexander HS prison. 


Harriet Klausner

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Falling Sky-Rajan Khanna

Falling Sky
Rajan Khanna
Pyr, Oct 7 2014, $17.00
ISBN 9781616149826

The Bug virus went pandemic leaving much of the surface of the world to its “victims” the Ferals.  Most of the dwindling non-plagued humans either reside in fortresses or live in the sky to avoid the Bug; which is easy to catch through the exchange of bodily fluids. 

Cherub airship scavenger Ben Gold supplements income with occasional taxying research scientists studying the disease until he refuses to transport them when they request the captivity of a Feral to conduct live experiments.  However, he likes one of them Meredith, so when pirates threaten her and her peers, Gold ignores for the first time his father’s rules of survival of the smartest in a hostile environs to especially take care of one’s self at all times.  He mounts a rescue only to lose his vessel to the brigands.  Thus with allies, Gold enters the pirate-controlled sky high city Gastown to retrieve the Cherub; only to learn his adversaries have a bigger agenda.

Falling Sky is an exhilarating timely post-apocalyptic thriller in which the Khanna world is desolate and antagonistic on the ground and not much better in the air.  The hero reluctantly gets involved with the scientists due to his attraction to Meredith and what he learns in the city.  Though the pace decelerates at times due to the deep descriptions of a world gone mad leading to tsunami societal survival changes to the once accepted norm; this remains a remarkable first act.


Harriet Klausner

Lamentation-Joe Clifford

Lamentation
Joe Clifford
Oceanview, Oct 7 2014, $25.95
ISBN 9781608091331

In the frigid weather near Lamentation Mountain, New Hampshire, Jay Porter clears out the two-hundred year old unheated farmhouse of recently deceased Ben Saunders while thinking back two decades to the tragedy that changed his life and that of his older brother Chris; the deaths of their parents when their car ended in Echo Lake.  Jay tries to finish the job so he can see his son Aiden before his former girlfriend Jenny puts the toddler to sleep. 

His boss Tom Gable informs Jay that Rob Turley wants to see him because Chris is being held at the Ashton Police Station.  Expecting the usual drug addicted village idiot scene, Turley explains Chris had a fight with his e-recycling Computer Solutions store partner Pete Naginis whose mama Betty says her son vanished soon afterward.  Losing his chance to see his child, Jay calls Jenny who rips him for once again putting up with Chris’ crap.  When Pete is found dead, the police suspect Chris; but he insists to his sibling he is innocent and a throwaway hard drive contains proof of wrong doing by a town icon who he believes either killed or arranged Pete’s homicide, and wants him disposed of too.  Jay assumes the drugs finally fried Chris’ brain.

Lamentation is a dark relationship crime drama starring an incredible protagonist struggling with a helpless depressed life in which his brother is the prime cause of his lament.  The keys to this riveting bleak storyline are the cast starting with Jay whose life has been flushed down the toilet by his constant cleaning up his addicted relative and the unexpected but realistic climax.  Not for everyone, Joe Clifford provides a powerful New Englander.


Harriet Klausner