Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

  • An Editorial Review of “Cities of Sand and Stone” by David and Neil Yuzuk

    An Editorial Review of “Cities of Sand and Stone” by David and Neil Yuzuk

    Loaded with grim brutality and remorseless betrayals, Cities of Sand and Stone will appeal to fans of action and temerarious exploits. A crooked police captain, Russian crime bosses, the harshness of Brooklyn’s mean streets lorded over by N.Y. Mafia kingpins and the brutal Florida underworld meet one Michael Frakes, an Iraq military hero who is the polar opposite: thoroughly rule-bound, honest, and brave police officer of Florida’s Beachside P.D.

    This mobster story defies specific categorization with its journalistic style and omniscient point of view. David A. Yuzuk and Neil L. Yuzuk, the father and son team who authored the Beachside P.D. series, cast the worst type of men bent on destruction in this prequel to the series. In the opening chapters, readers will learn about the historical and biographical information of these brutal characters—some who are probably psychopaths. Initially, without a main narrator, it may be a challenge to sort out who is a principal character and who has a minor role, so tracking characters may be mildly difficult in the beginning. But do hang on, as the story will come into focus.

    When the New York Mafia becomes concerned about goings-on in South Florida, they send down one of their own (the dangerously violent Angelo Tedeschi) to infiltrate the Beachside P.D. as an undercover officer working for Frakes.

    To intensify the brewing storm, enter Viktor Matyushenko, a Muscovite intent on expanding his empire into the new world– even if it means taking on the N.Y. Mafia–to become a force to be reckoned with in Florida’s underground. Vicious brutality and betrayals are prominent in this story: as reflected by the number of bodies and the amount of blood spattered throughout the hard-hitting pages. The bad guys and the good guys’ mettle are tested to the max as the ante increases on all fronts.

    Fans of Mafia tales and police procedurals will appreciate the authenticity from the authors’ experience with military and law enforcement. Readers are informed of the costs and brands of the mobsters’ clothing to descriptions of a wide range of weapons, blow-by-blow combat tactics, and police procedures and jargon.

    If you enjoy your novels with an intricate story line, lots of hard-hitting action, gritty dialogue, and authentic detailing, then the Beachside P.D. series by the talented Yuzuk father and son team is for you.  “Cities of Sand and Stone” (2012) is the prequel to the first two books in the series: “The Gypsy Hunter” (2011) and “The Reluctant Knight” (2011).

  • An Editorial Review of “Shadow Guardians” by Brett A. Lawrence

    An Editorial Review of “Shadow Guardians” by Brett A. Lawrence

    Shadow Guardians is a science fiction novel that steps away from warring aliens and warp drives to delve into individual potential.  The premise focuses on how one would react if extracted from normal life and inserted into a totally new construct of so-called “life” while retaining all of your previous life’s memories.  Would you take death instead?

    Lawrence starts his story with Abigail and Dennis Webster who have just celebrated their anniversary with a special dinner at a fine restaurant, ensconced in the warmth of their closeness in the cockpit of their Piper aircraft. They are taking off from Tacoma, Washington, toward their temporary home in Everett. Abby and Dennis’s affectionate reflections are interrupted by the raucous noise of another craft’s intrusion in their airspace. There is scarcely time for thought before a crash sends them heading downward into the frigid Puget Sound.

    That same evening, Lindsey Maguire, a beautiful but self-serving and arrogant bank executive, is abducted by a hired killer, destined to be pushed over a bridge railing to her death.

    Instead of dying, the would-be victims find themselves groggily awakening in the alien confines of an interstellar spaceship, the “Starlight Mistress.” Each reacts differently to the news that they have been rescued and transported by two representatives of the distant planet of Majora—Milankaar (or Mil), a humanoid born there, and his companion Miriam, a human rescued from Earth some time ago, who has joined Mil in his mission of learning more about Earth and its people.

    The fascinating difference between Lawrence’s captivating sci-fi novel and most others of this genre is his focus on the personalities and feelings of the rescued beings of our era and their reactions to the knowledge that their lives will be continued on the planet Majora. Their initial shock and disbelief evolve in different ways, which Lawrence deftly paints.  The survivors are offered an impossible choice that, regardless of their decision, ensures their old life is over. But Mil—an intelligent, generous, and thoughtful character—seeks to help his guests deal with their present reality and look forward to a new life on the relatively peaceful and pleasant planet of Majora—especially Dennis and Abby whose marriage threatens to crumble under the strain.

    The interspatial action heats up when a Chelonite slave-abducting ship attacks the “Starlight Mistress.” The pages fly by as fast as the spaceships when Mil draws the slavers to the rocky surface of the moon in an effort to evade or destroy their attackers. Lawrence’s precise descriptions of the lunar landscape, skillfully drawn from America’s moon landings and explorations, lend reality to the death-defying chase, skimming over mountains and diving through the Valles Alpes.  If Mil can’t out fly the Chelonite vermin, he’ll have to outwit them.

    As Brett Lawrence says in his bio, if all goes well for the Shadow Guardians, we might just see a sequel to this, his first published novel. This reviewer, for one, certainly hopes so, because Shadow Guardians gave me an exciting ride and a thought-provoking great read!

  • An Editorial Review of “Lost Antarctica” by James McClintock.

    An Editorial Review of “Lost Antarctica” by James McClintock.

    Lost Antarctica: Adventures in a Disappearing Land opens up an amazing world for readers, especially beneath the sea surface. You’ll meet bright orange “sea butterflies,” which can change sex from male to female, and read how scientists filmed soft corals actually walking from one place to another.

    Many readers will know that scientists from around the world come to Antarctica to study its unique environment, but we don’t often get to read about how they do that science and what the results mean. This engaging book delivers all that.

    The unique creatures that live in Antarctic waters have already been found to produce compounds that could fight cancer, AIDS, and influenza. Their body chemistry shows promise for new antibiotics. But if change continues at the current rate, all these species may be gone before we have a chance to understand them.

    How can a continent of more than 5.4 million square miles be “lost?” How could it disappear? Global warming is the answer. Antarctica is more than ice, so the land itself will never completely vanish, but the southernmost environment as we know it is already changing fast, and in ways that have drastic implications for the future of all life on earth. McClintock uses interesting descriptions and down-to-earth language to explain the situation for non-scientists.

    Take krill, for example—tiny crustaceans that form the majority of zooplankton near the bottom of the food chain. Juvenile krill feed on algae that grow on the underside of pack ice. With less and less pack ice each year, there are fewer and fewer krill. So what, you might be thinking—why should I care about krill? What eats krill? Bigger crustaceans, jellyfish, anemones, penguins, fish, seals, you name it. Even the largest animal on earth—the blue whale—depend on this food source.

    You’ll find out how more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more acidic ocean water, and how more acidic water means all shelled creatures are in danger of extinction.

    But this book includes more than just the results of experiments and their associated dire predictions. McClintock gives us a peek into the lives of the researchers. You’ll learn about living on board research ships and the fear and frustration of being tossed about in ferocious katabatic winds. McClintock describes how researchers camp out on ice shelves and challenge 1000-pound leopard seals for diving rights. The book details an invasion of king crabs and provides an explanation of “seal finger,” an injury that can be fatal. There’s even a warning of how the Norwegian delicacy, lutefisk, can permanently damage sterling silver (and possibly your insides).

    Professional scientists may want to know more about the various tests and methodology McClintock describes, so the author has thoughtfully included a Notes section, as well as a good Index. Unless you’re already familiar with the layout of Antarctica, you’ll be frustrated by the lack of a map in this book. Find or print out your own so you can follow along as McClintock describes the fascinating geography and the challenges of working in this rapidly vanishing environment.

  • An Editorial Review of “Murder Strikes a Pose” by Tracy Weber

    An Editorial Review of “Murder Strikes a Pose” by Tracy Weber

    In this award winning mystery, yoga instructor Kate Davidson tries her best to live the Zen life, but she often finds herself being challenged with her fluffy hips, her struggling yoga business, and missing her deceased dad, who was a cop. Date-free for nine months, three days and seven hours since her break-up, Kate tries to resist friend Rene’s numerous attempts to set her up with dates.

    Into Kate’s world steps George, a homeless alcoholic with a German shepherd sidekick named Bella who loves to bark. The duo has decided that the entrance to Kate’s yoga studio is the perfect place for them to hang out, which definitely challenges Kate’s savasana.

    An uneasy truce develops between Kate, Bella, and George as she learns more about George’s history and that Bella adores him. She also learns that Bella was stolen, but George corrects her: “Bella wasn’t stolen. She was rescued.”  Bella needs costly medicine, and George has a scheme to get the funds needed for his dearest friend in the world.

    But George is murdered, and the Seattle cops dismiss it as another drug-related street crime. Kate ends up taking care of the sickly, shedding dog that is the size of a small horse. She also finds that having a murder take place within steps of your business is not the best thing to increase clientele. Despite warnings, Kate takes on solving George’s murder. She is also desperate to find Bella a home.

    Kate and Bella become unlikely partners on the murder beat and at home when Kate realizes George’s murderer is hot on her trail and that Bella may know too much. Weber keeps the plot twisting and turning until its climactic conclusion.

    Its fresh writing, social relevance, and suspenseful page-turning plot makes Murder Strikes a Pose a hands-down winner. We look forward to reading more of Kate and Bella’s clever sleuthing adventures in the next novel of Tracy Weber’s Downward Dog Mystery series.

    Murder Strikes a Pose by Tracy Weber was awarded a First Place Category Winner in the Mystery and Mayhem Awards 2013, a division of the Chanticleer Book Reviews writing competitions.

    [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Reviewer’s Note: Even if you don’t know your downward dog pose from your dolphin plank, we believe that cozy mystery readers will enjoy this engaging first novel in Tracy Weber’s Downward Dog Mystery series.][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • An Editorial Review of “The Starlight Fortress” by Fiona Rawsontile

    An Editorial Review of “The Starlight Fortress” by Fiona Rawsontile

    Courage, love, and loyalty are counterpoised with intrigue, hatred, and betrayal—in settings ranging from intimate dinners to royal banquets, seaside walks to interplanetary voyages and galactic space battles in this highly entertaining and fast moving debut novel by Fiona Rawonstile: The Starlight Fortress.

    After reluctantly turning the last page of this mesmerizing and unpredictable tale of love, life, and war, I looked out my window to see the solid shape of a bright quarter moon and the twinkle of the “Evening Star” that is Venus against a deep azure sky. I wished I could see further into the galaxy and find the Renaisun solar systems, with their widely differing planets, countries, and cities—but of course they don’t exist (yet?) except in the pages of The Starlight Fortress.

    Spectacular battles in the Stony Band of asteroids, the interstellar pathways, and even on-the- ground maneuvers provide plenty of fast-paced military action, conducted with imaginative space-age techniques, weapons, and ships of all shapes and sizes—the most spectacular being the RA allied forces’ enormous five-armed Starlight Fortress, coveted by Emperor Pompey. Artfully interwoven with the military battles are the interpersonal relations among the royals, the military officers, and ordinary citizens.

    Despite their future sci-fi existence in the universe, Rawsontile’s characters and their language, lifestyles (with a few tweaks), hopes, and desires—as well as their darker natures of envy, jealousy, hate, prejudice, and war—will resonate with readers. The young Queen Geneva of Sunphere, the primary country on the RA-4 planet of the Renaisun A system, is unlike any queen, past or present, on Earth. Elevated to her post after the untimely death of her father, she would rather go shopping on one of the moon malls with her friends than rule the country, but duty calls and the stakes are high.

    Geneva may be queen, but her elders question her judgment when she selects as her military assistant not an experienced officer, but Commander Sterling Presley, on the basis of a speech he delivered at his graduation from Sunphere’s Space Force Academy just four years earlier.  However, they are betting that age isn’t everything when it comes to creating new battle strategies.

    Sometimes singly, and sometimes together, Geneva, with her chubby cheeks, and Sterling, resembling a junior college professor, face some hard work if they are to earn the respect of Sunphere’s citizens and Space Force—not to mention that of their allies of Renaisun A, as well as their enemy Emperor Pompey with his colonial forces of Renaisun B.

    Joining Geneva and Sterling is a full cast of colorful, multifaceted characters—Sir Lloyd, Geneva’s uncle and Secretary of Defense; the handsome, aristocratic, young officer Charlie Swinburne of Rainprus; Prince Edwards of the neutral Renaisun C, who could be a good ally; military diamond-in-the-rough; and more, all artfully crafted by Rawsontile.

    Dangerous, sticky, and amorous situations intensify as hostilities mount and battle fleets are amassed. Be sure to strap in, hang on tightly, and enjoy Rawsontile’s exhilarating ride into the future. This reviewer really didn’t want the story to end. Please, Fiona, give us a sequel to The Starlight Fortress! 

  • An Editorial Review of “Tea Leafing” by Weezie Macdonald

    An Editorial Review of “Tea Leafing” by Weezie Macdonald

    In her debut novel, Tea Leafing, Weezie Macdonald demonstrates extraordinary skill in deftly weaving the multifaceted personalities and lives of a quartet of friends—exotic dancers (or strippers, as you will) at a high-end gentlemen’s club in Atlanta. It is an intriguing thriller of local graft, mafia-style murder, international drug rings, money laundering, and revenge.

    Juxtaposed with the shadier side of  Tea Leafing is the story of these women’s’ loyalty to each other, clever sleuthing, and determination not to let their co-worker and friend’s unjust and gruesome death go un-avenged.

    Macdonald masterfully develops the rich and distinctly different characters of Sam, Grace, Mary Jane, and Birdie both on and off stage at the Pink Pussycat, yet enables them to mesh within the close bonds of their friendship, especially when they resolve to face the dangers of joining forces to solve Lena’s murder. Tears of loss and compassion flow as they mourn their friend’s death, though they purposefully maintain a discreet distance from Lena’s high-society Savannah family and friends—all except her younger sister Amanda, who provides a key clue.

    Chunks of humor lighten the story—in the shenanigans and uninhibited dialog of the feisty-tongued, Irish-born, Manchester-raised Birdie, and vignettes of the club manager’s outlandishly dressed and coiffed mother, Pietra Maria Speranza DiFrancesco, who sails through the crowded club like a battleship, bellowing for her son Gio. Macdonald’s colorful descriptions enable us to smell the smoky air of the club, the whiskey, the perfume, even the sweat. We feel ourselves to be a part of the scene, and of the lives of those within it. Her multifaceted characterizations make us aware that people are not only, or perhaps not at all, what or who they appear to be.

    The story accelerates at a heart-stopping pace, as the clues build and the quartet construct their plan of action. Additional colorfully drawn characters join the cast, and the scene explodes to cover the globe—the Caribbean, Russia, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore. The suspense builds as money launderers, the Russian mob, and the underworld of Atlanta come into play. The urge to turn the pages faster and faster fights the need to absorb the intricate detail of the story. Heed that warning, readers, or you’ll find yourselves back in Atlanta not quite sure what happened.

    Tea Leafing by Weezie Macdonald is an entertaining and captivating mystery that will take you on a great ride on the wild side.

    [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Editorial note: If you, like this reviewer, feel as though you’ve made some very good friends only to have to tell them goodbye, Weezie Macdonald is not going to let that happen. This quartet will entertain us again in the next book of Macdonald’s series. And, yes, you will discover what “tea leafing” is all about.]

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  • An Editorial Review of “Rebellious Heart” by Jody Hedlund

    An Editorial Review of “Rebellious Heart” by Jody Hedlund

    Rebellious Heart makes history come alive in the years prior to the War of Independence.  The first sentence gripped me; the story and the writing skill held me captive until the end.

    Hedlund  bases her fictional characters on real people who lived during those times.  Ben Ross and Susanna Smith must make life-changing choices amidst looming threats in the thirteen colonies of the new world.

    Birthed into families of different social status, Ben and Susanna resist their growing affection for each other. Though he has a Harvard law degree, he is a poor farmers son. Susanna is born into high social status and wealth.  Matters of conscience and circumstances push them together and gradually Susanna moves away from the stiff and merciless norms of the time. They risk terrible consequences—alienation of family and hanging for treason — while they move deeper and deeper toward their quest for freedom.  For them, lines of behavior are no longer clearly defined, but swing on both sides of the social dictates and the law.

    Hedlund lets us see the determination of those  loyal to Britain, their fear for loved ones at risk, and their fierce adherence to the morés surrounding social tradition and religion in this page-turning drama that explores ethical dilemmas.

    Ross and Susanna risk discovery to firmly stand against family, the law, and the British crown, the greatest power on earth at that time.  The novel brings to life the courage many embraced in the midst of their well-founded fear, yearning to win freedom from tyranny in the thirteen colonies.

    Jody Hedlund’s Rebellious Heart  shows us individuals stirring the seeds of rebellion and inspiring many to follow their lead, forging the beginning of the free and independent United State of America. This is her fifth historical romance novel.

    [Reviewer’s Note:  Rebellious Heart  is appropriate for all ages.]

     

  • An Editorial Review of “The Prodigal” by Michael Hurley

    An Editorial Review of “The Prodigal” by Michael Hurley

    Undoubtedly one of the best new books I’ve read, The Prodigal by Michael Hurley is the novel I tell everybody they must read.  This award-winning novel is a story that you will not soon forget.

    The Prodigal could be interpreted as a coming of age story, not of teenagers or young adults, but of the middle-aged. Mature adults who seem to have it all together, but grapple with insubstantiality.  Adults, who as arrows of Life’s bow, are missing their true target. These are the vividly drawn characters of Michael Hurley’s novel.

    A riveting and socially relevant tale, The Prodigal is a contemporary marvel of an allegorical story of vices and virtues, of Achilles’ heels, and odysseys into the unknown. Hurley spans two thousand years, several oceans, and eternal love with adventure and captivation.

    The protagonist, Aidan, finds himself stripped of all his privileged-trappings: professional kudos,  private clubs, top level connections, cash, even credit cards, due to a quick and nearly fatal bite from one of his own kind, an attorney of law. Aidan’s mentor sends him to the backwaters of Okracoke Island in North Carolina, a land  sequestered between the Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, to get his bearings.

    Okracoke is often described as a geographical oddity with the folks to go with it. This quirky island has a single paved road and is only accessible by boat; it is so isolated that you can still hear traces of Elizabethan English spoken by the locals. It is as it has always been–a place treacherous enough to be a safe haven. It is here in Okracoke that Aidan meets the others whose fates and chances are bound up with his.

    The tides, winds, and currents of life propel us along in directions that, unless we take notice and change our sails, might endanger us, indeed, ensnare our very souls.  Hurley captures the forces that swirl among us; sometimes with dangerous gale strengths, sometimes with stalling headwinds, and sometimes becalming. And then there are those magical times in our lives when we have the wind at our backs and our sails on a broad reach going faster than hull speed—our eyes on the prize. The Prodigal portrays these moments with powerful writing that is finely nuanced.

    Hurley unfolds the timeless stories of transgression and forgiveness, of despair and hope, of damnation and redemption with brilliant subtlety in this riptide of a novel.

    The Prodigal was awarded the Chanticleer Best Book of the Year Award 2013 and the Somerset Grand Prize for Literary Fiction.

    2013-Hurley[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Reviewer’s Note:  If you love the taste of salt on your lips, the stars above you and the wind in your face, The Prodigal will engulf you in its myriad of temperaments as it races against time, the elements, treachery, and power.  As a sailor myself, I must say Hurley’s portrayal of `The Prodigal’ sailboat as a metaphor for the Divine Heavenly Host, Savior, and Spirit is pure genius.]

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  • An Editorial Review of “Midsummer Magick” by Laura Navarre

    An Editorial Review of “Midsummer Magick” by Laura Navarre

    The Golden Age of England is threatened and the timeline of history as we know it will be changed forever if powerful forces of Heaven and Hell, Faerie and Mortal have their way.

    Laura Navarre has done it again. Midsummer Magick, the second book in her Magick Trilogy series is not your typical bodice-ripper novel. Navarre exquisitely interlaces the adventure of Arthurian legend, the timelessness of angelic lore, the intrigue of the English Tudor court, the magic of the Faerie realm, and deliciously passionate love scenes in this spellbinding novel.  The mesmerizing story line will sweep you into its world and may even have you wondering if this alternate reality that Navarre constructed for her Magick Trilogy series might just exist somewhere, in some time.

    Midsummer Magick finds country- bred Lady Linnet Norwood, a shy young scholar, as a lady in waiting at the coronation of the Queen Elizabeth Tudor.  Linnet’s mother, Lady Catriona Norwood, disappeared without a trace when Linnet was but five-years-old.  As the only living soul left in the Norwood line Linnet is, for the moment, the Countess of the troubled lands of Glencross, Scotland.

    For those who read Magick by Moonlight, they will know that Linnet was considered missing—if not dead— for two years by mortal time. The Tudor court thinks the worst of her—that she is a ruined woman who speaks madly about being kidnapped by fairies and whose father disowned her on his deathbed. And since Lady Linnet is a Papist in a decidedly Protestant court, there are those who consider her a threat and her loyalty to the Queen questionable.  The story begins with Linnet being led to a trap where her killers await.

    Enter Zamiel, the Angel of Death, son of Lucifer. Zamiel is unique in the Heavenly Host. Because his touch brings death, he leads a solitary existence that straddles the vast divide of the Heavenly Host and the Hell of fire and brimstone. However, the angel Zamiel has Lucifer’s infamous rebellious nature along with his devilish good looks and charm.

    Zamiel, on his way to deliver his touch of death, aids Linnet in fighting off her attackers instead of touching her. His good deed will be his un-doing. He is exiled from Heaven and made mortal for his transgression of intervention. Now it is his soul that hangs in the balance. Navarre excels at introducing the hierarchy of angels to her readers and almost has you feeling sympathy for the devil and his son.  Zamiel’s weariness of his eternal role of bringer of death is palpable.

    Navarre deftly counters and parries powerful entities against each other as all struggle to gain or maintain power within their own dominion. The Machiavellian maneuvering of usurpers of Queen Elizabeth’s reign is brilliantly reflected in the realms of the Fae and the dominions of the Heavenly Host.  The ante is raised when the realms plot to gain supreme power and control over the other realms. Zamiel and Linnet struggle to remain true to themselves as the sovereigns of these different realms scheme to use them as pawns for their own means.  They encounter magic and trickery, subterfuge and knavery, as they fight for their very lives and eternal souls.

    But wait a minute; this is supposed to be a steamy romance novel. It is. The lovemaking scenes are sumptuous, the flirting and foreplay arousing, Zamiel’s gallantry seducing.  Navarre artfully juxtaposes wanton sex with the celebration of true love manifested.  Zamiel and Linnet are both virgins, but they are not unexposed to the vagaries of mortals, which makes their love all the more enrapturing.

    Laura Navarre is a wonderful story teller who takes romance novels to a new level.  Those who enjoy sensuous heat with a measure of  Phillippa Gregory’s Tudor series intrigue, but who also take pleasure in the fantasy elements of magic and Arthurian legends a la Marion Zimmer Bradley will find the Magick Trilogy an enjoyable and engrossing read.  These are not Y/A novels. The next installment, Book Three, of Laura Navarre’s  Magick Trilogy is  ardently anticipated by this reviewer.

     

  • An Editorial Review of “Trudy, Madly, Deeply” by Wendy Delaney

    An Editorial Review of “Trudy, Madly, Deeply” by Wendy Delaney

    Witty, fresh, and full of surprises, Trudy, Madly, Deeply, delivers. Wendy Delaney’s debut novel in her Working Stiffs mystery series is a fun and immensely entertaining read with its odd assortment of lovable characters, clever writing, and twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages.

    When Charmaine Digby is cut loose as “excess baggage” from her ex-husband whom she met at culinary school in California, she heads back home to the small town of Port Merritt, a retirement mecca on the waterfront of Washington state.  She finds herself living with her Gram, slinging cheeseburgers at her great-aunt Alice’s diner, and living across the street from a guy who used to pull her pigtails when they were in grade school together.

     Charmaine Digby is also living up to her school moniker of “Chow Mein;” she has been eating her way through her divorce. She is out of work, out of money, and out of shape.

    This wonderfully humorous cozy mystery will have you cracking up at the trouble that “Char” manages to get into when she finally lands a “real job” as a deputy coroner to the Chimacam  County Prosecutor’s office—if she can make it past Day One of her 30-day-trial period.

    She was hired not for her crime fighting abilities (unless that includes her handiness with a rolling pin), but for her special ability – Charmaine is a human lie detector. Apparently only .25 percent of the population has this uncanny ability—these few people are known as “truth wizards.” Really.  And Charmaine, bless her heart, is one, which doesn’t help to make her life any easier. And it is about to get tougher.

    A handsome doctor at the local hospital reports a suspicious death of a patient, Trudy Bergenson, who was a  dear friend of Char’s Aunt Alice. Trudy was supposed to be released to come home on Charmaine’s first day of work–not end up at the county morgue.

    With Aunt Alice’s diner at the eye of the gossip hurricane of Port Merritt, it isn’t long until Char is in hot pursuit of clues to discover if Trudy’s unexpected demise is the most recent in a chain of suspicious deaths at the county hospital.  It seems that childhood neighbor, now all grown-up and sexy, Detective Steve Sixkiller, is not appreciative of Charmaine ‘playing detective.’ Sparks fly—in more ways than one.

    If you enjoyed reading Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, you will love Delaney’s Trudy, Madly, Deeply. I had no idea whodunit until the very end (and I have read hundreds of mysteries). Well done, Ms. Delaney, well done!

    I cannot wait to read the next novel in Delaney’s Working Stiffs mystery series so I can learn more about the goings-on of Chimacam County, its cast of lovable (if not, peculiar) characters, and any new mysterious treats that Ms. Delaney decides to dish out to her awaiting fans, yours truly included.

    Trudy, Madly, Deeply by Wendy Delaney is a Finalist in the M&M Awards 2013 for Mystery & Mayhem Novels, a division of Chanticleer Book Reviews writing competitions.