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Book Review – Soul Swallowers, by D. Wallace Peach

Soul Swallowers by D. Wallace Peach

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Literary Fiction Meets High Fantasy

Soul Swallowers is the best fantasy novel I’ve read in a long time. It’s set in an area known as the Shattered Sea, and I call it literary fiction because it revolves around the lives of the inhabitants, noble and commoner alike. The people of the area practice a unique custom; when someone dies, their soul can be captured by a magical stone which can be swallowed by another person, so the swallowed soul lives on in the new host and is spared the tragedy of eternal wandering. I’m always leery of fantasy stories that rely on a gimmick, but the author integrates soul swallowing beautifully into the storyline; it doesn’t dominate the plot but augments it in a unique and interesting way. I call this story literary fiction because it deals with people’s lives, their joys and struggles, without relying on hackneyed fantasy tropes. Peach’s characters are well developed and multi-dimensional; the reader comes to know them intimately, perhaps illustrating the point that we are all of us one people, regardless of the environment in which we find ourselves. Slavery and bondage are also an important issues in Peach’s world, and the author relentlessly points out how such evil practices demean everyone, slave and owner alike. If I have one gripe, it’s that the story is unfinished, but Soul Swallowers is clearly labelled as Book 1, and I will certainly have no problem reading Book 2, or however many the author chooses to write in this fascinating setting.



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Book Review – Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen

Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen by Chris Mullen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rowdy is a truly American tale, about a young man forced to be on his own much too soon. It spans the breadth of a young America, from Mark Twain’s Missouri and the Mississippi River to the Southwest. It’s a coming-of-age story that shows the harshness and cruelty of the times it chronicles, but also the innate goodness of many of the pioneers. For the most part, the progression of the plot is logical if predictable, and the action is quick and exciting. However, it does lag in the middle – sometimes the author gets so immersed in detail that he keeps his reader unnecessarily waiting for an anticipated resolution. The ending is gratifying but open-ended – again fine, as this is the first book in a series. As a kid, I cut my teeth on the westerns of Zane Grey, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Louis L’Amour, and Rowdy is as satisfying as any of them.



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Book Review – My Sister’s Grave, by Robert Dugoni

My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My Sister’s Grave is the first entry in a series featuring Tracy Crosswhite, a Seattle homicide detective. Tracy is haunted by the death of her sister Sarah twenty years ago, for which Edmund House, a known rapist, was tried and convicted. Problem is, Tracy doesn’t think that House did it – there were enough irregularities at his trial so she suspects he was framed because the cops in Cedar Grove, her hometown, couldn’t find the real killer. So Tracy teams up with an old flame to try to get House a new trial, which she hopes will reopen the investigation into Sarah’s murder.
For the most part, this is a good read. The characters are well-developed and interesting, which makes up for a dearth of action in the first half of the book. More suspense builds up in the second half, but the suspect pool for Sarah’s murder is thin, which makes it easy to finger the perp. Once the murderer is exposed, the book drones on, tying up loose ends, for much longer than it should. All this accounts for the loss of a star.



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Book Review – A Gentleman’s Murder, by Christopher Huang

A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A Gentleman’s Murder is a tour de force in the English mystery genre. Set primarily in London in 1924, it’s the story of Eric Peterkin, a Chinese-English veteran of WWI whose men have traditionally been soldiers and members of the Brittania club in St. James. When a newly elected club member is murdered, Peterkin takes it upon himself to find the killer. To do this, he must delve into a decade-old murder and risk expulsion from the club of which was founded by one of his forebearers.
But A Gentleman’s Murder is so much more than an excellent mystery. It’s also a factual chronicle of daily life in post-war England. The setting positively scintillates, reflecting Huang’s extensive research. The story also provides incisive commentary on contemporary issues-the treatment of returning veterans, the overt and subtle racism of the era and attitudes toward the addicted and mentally ill. All of the characters are well developed and their actions are consistent with their personalities. It’s one of those books that you are sorry to see end.



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Book Review – The Museum of Desire, by Jonathan Kellerman

The Museum of Desire by Jonathan Kellerman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Museum of Desire is Jonathan Kellerman’s latest entry in his long-running Alex Delaware/Milo Sturgis series. Like most of the books in the series, it involves the investigation of a bizarre murder with deep psychological underpinnings. Kellerman is a master of setting as character, and this book does not disappoint with its insightful descriptions of Los Angeles. The characterization is also excellent–we meet a number of diverse and well rounded characters throughout the book. A minor point–Alex’s s.o., Robin, has become little more than window dressing in the later books, and this one is no exception. However, the portrayal of the investigation falls somewhat flat–many passages read like Alex and Milo are just going through the motions. Perhaps Kellerman is getting tired of the series at last. The ending is meh–it’s suitably twisted, but the motivations of the killer were unclear, other than evil for it’s own sake, which always falls flat for me.



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Book Review – The Girl in the Snow, by Alexandria Clarke

The Girl in the Snow: A Riveting Kidnapping Mystery by Alexandria Clarke

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Girl in the Snow was a book that did not reach its potential. It’s premise was sound. Carolina Caccia, a divorced mom, takes he kids to a ski resort so the can have time with their father, her ex. This is complicated because he’s there with his new fam. As one would imagine, fireworks ensue, and one of Carolina’s kids goes missing. Since Carolina is an ex-FBI agent who specializes in missing kids (the first in a series of convenient coincidences), naturally, she becomes involved in the investigation.
What did work for me was the characters. They were deep and believable, far from cardboard. The setting was well-done, obviously based on an actual place that the author was familiar with. But ultimately, this story did not work well for me because it felt too contrived. Carolina did some things that were totally off the hook, which should have gotten her into serious trouble, but was given a bye as an ex-FBI agent. There were also too many coincidences, and the ending was somewhat predictable. And a minor point — who the heck was the girl in the snow? IMO, she never did show up.



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Book Review – Damian’s Workshop, by Deborah Kaminski

Damian's Workshop

Damian’s Workshop by Deborah A. Kaminski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Damian’s Workshop is a sci-fi story set in the near future, about Brooke, a graduate student who invents a device, the Memex, to enhance memory, which could possibly be used to ameliorate Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disorders.Brooke and her lab mates are testing the machine on mice and applying for permission from the University to test in humans, but are turned down. Brooke is fearful because she may not have enough time to complete her doctoral research before her money runs out, so she makes the fateful decision to test the Memex on herself.
Brooke finds that the Memex thrusts her psyche in the head of a man called Damian who lives in Constantinople in the 13th century. She does not control Damian, her mind simply occupies his head and experiences everything that he does. Brooke eventually figures out which era she is visiting–the time of the 4th Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked by the Crusaders. Thus she has an unparalleled opportunity to observe an important historical event first hand. Or does she? Could all of this be just a dream sparked by the Memex, having no basis in reality?
The plot alternates between Brooke’s 13th century experiences and her contemporary struggle to get the Memex approved and ascertain if she’s really observing history. Author Kaminski has obviously done her homework–the passages describing daily life in ancient Constantinople are detailed and vivid, and her characters, both ancient and modern, come alive on the page. You will also find multiple POVs which the author handles deftly, weaving the individual characters’ tales into a coherent whole.
If Damian’s Workshop has a flaw, it’s that there’s too much detail, at least for me. I’m sure some readers will find Kamiski’s chronicle of quotidian events in the characters’ lives fascinating, especially the historical material, but for me, it caused the pacing to lag, and I found myself rapidly turning pages to get to the answers to important plot questions raised by the author. However, I’d much rather read an author who attempts to do too much than too little.




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Review of Venom! on Texas Book Nook

Today’s stop on the Great Venom! Blog Tour is Texas Book Nook (https://www.texasbooknook.com/), who posted a great review.

I’m going to jump in with the others who so thoroughly enjoyed this book.  You will be very pleasantly surprised on the deep and intriguing story you get out of it.
What a clever story with a wonderful balance of endearing moments and mystery.
Thomas A. Burns, Jr. has created a novel in which the main character shows growth. For me that is always something I look for in my favorite main characters. I love that this is a series in which we can watch her over the course of many books. 

Thanks so much! Please give this great site some traffic.

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Book Review – Dark: A Dark, Paranormal Romance, by Kat Kinney

Dark: A Dark Paranormal Romance (Blood Moon, Texas Shifters #1)Dark: A Dark Paranormal Romance by Kat Kinney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Sexy Romp with Werewolves and Vampires in the World of Blood Moon, Texas
If there’s one thing that Dark shows, it’s that author Kat Kinney does nothing half-way. It’s a story replete with werewolves, vampires, sex and angst, and the convoluted plot flows relentlessly to an unexpected, but well thought out conclusion.
Humans have recently learned that they share the world with shifters and vampires, and an uneasy truce is in place. Against this backdrop, Hayden Crowe, aspiring rocker and part-time barrista is assaulted one night after a gig by a feral werewolf and bitten. Stunned and frightened, she instinctively flees to an old flame, Ethan Caldwell, proprietor of the coffee shop Dark, to help her cope with her radically changed life. Ethan is a born werewolf, who is aware of the difficulty of integrating a newly bitten into the community of packs, and afraid that he won’t be able to do it for Hayden, which will result in her death.
Dark is billed as a romance, and it is, and any good romance must explore the ebbs and flows of a newly-forming relationship. Kinney does that, in spades, with plenty of steamy sex scenes interspersed with attacks of angst brought on both by raging emotions and the werewolf virus coursing through the characters’ veins. The characters are rich, developed both by narration of current events and backstory, with chapters in the past written in italics to help the reader keep track of the era. There’s also the mystery – who did this to Hayden, and why?
If Dark has a failing, it’s that the author tried to cram too much into one story. It is a laudable effort, but for me, it fell short, and it was just too much to keep track of. It was a kaleidoscopic read that necessitated backtracking to keep track of all the disparate threads, and that prevented total immersion in the storyworld for me. I was most interested in the mystery, so I found it tedious to be yanked back into the love story – this is always a problem with hybrid works like this. So I give it four stars, but if you like this genre, I think it will be well worth your time and money.


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