Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

DAUGHTER Of HADES by Mack Little – Historical Fiction, Caribbean Piracy, Slavery

Mack Little’s historical fiction novel Daughter of Hades explores the lives of slaves during the age of pirates.

Little’s research shines in her thoughtful presentation of the Caribbean islands, the escaped slaves who found freedom amongst them, the lives of buccaneers and maroons, and their daring and dangerous exploits.

On the first page, Little introduces us to Geraldine, or “Dinny”, running for her life from her owner, Owen Craig, who has just raped her.

Dinny’s father had arranged for her to be removed from the plantation before Craig molested her, but he’d miscalculated Craig’s lust. Dinny is rescued by her twin brother, Jimmie, and Leixiang, and taken to the Hades, a pirate ship captained by the buccaneer Duff.

Lei is drawn to Dinny, and when he finds out Craig raped her, he tells Duff against Dinny’s wishes. Duff organizes a retaliatory raid.

Their revenge sets in motion a series of events that Duff and Company must overcome, namely the wrath of the Craig family.

Little exposes the harsh cruelty and treatment of slaves during the 17^th century, revealing a life in the Caribbean that was sometimes beautiful for the Maroons, but was also fraught with danger and the constant fear of being recaptured and punished to near death.

Expertly building this world, Little fills it with characters that readers will love and hate, especially as they root for Dinny, Lei, and Duff.

Dinny’s future looks bleak, and she gains knowledge of Owen Craig’s father that shrivels her heart against the Admiral and his housekeeper Jane.

With the whole island aware of Admiral Craig’s deviant ways, and Jane’s assistance in finding him young boys to satisfy his lust, the clock is ticking before the island erupts in violence. Little’s plot twists and turns to keep readers on the edge of their seats as she slowly reveals the resolution to Craig’s revenge.

Author Little’s research into the history of buccaneers and the lives they led– right down to the democratic approach some captains took in including their crew in the decision-making process– creates a rich setting for this tale. Her skill in developing such a varied cast of characters will delight readers, and the love story that ties the novel together will draw readers in until the very last page.

Daughter of Hades will provide hours of entertainment and satisfy history buffs and romance readers alike. Little enthralls us with Dinny’s compassion, courage, determination, and strength, as this intelligent woman pursues a life of conviction and honesty.

Daughter of Hades by Mack Little won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction.

February 16, 2024
COLIN And The LEGEND Of The WEEPING WILLOW by Anna Casamento Arrigo – Children’s Picture Books, Native American Legends

In Colin and the Legend of the Weeping Willow by Anna Casamento-Arrigo, curious Colin learns a Native American legend about the Weeping Willow from one of his favorite people, his grandmother.

Across the years, people have shared their cultural legends and tales. Often these stories are told to explain phenomena in the natural world, and are passed down by elders through oral traditions.

In this story, Colin visits his grandparents to join in fun activities like baking cupcakes and playing catch. During the cupcake making, he shares with his grandma that he has been learning about Native American legends, and she takes the opportunity to tell him another Native story.

As Colin and Grandma sit under a willow, she shares the story of how the willow came to be called “weeping”.

She introduces Colin to some heritage, practices, and values of the tribe whose story she borrowed, while telling him about the variety of Native Tribes that were here before the explorers came.

The beautiful illustrations of Gabriel Parame show how Colin imagines his grandmother’s story, including a fun tie-in to the legend that Colin and his grandma get to experience at the end.

Colin and the Legend of the Weeping Willow is a perfect story for a grandmother– or grandfather– to read to a child and continue the tradition of sharing legends throughout the generations.

February 12, 2024
THE BONES At POINT NO POINT: A Thomas Austin Crime Thriller Book 1 by D.D. Black – Mystery, Serial Killer Thriller, Pacific Northwest Fiction

The Bones at Point no Point, by D.D. Black, begins with a crime so distinctive that it could only have been committed by one person.

A festive Christmas bag, decorated with cheerful season’s trinkets, brings much darker tidings within. Bones. Small gleaming bones, tiny like those of a baby, including a skull. And they’re engraved with the words of a loving poem.

But that one possible suspect is safely locked up in prison 3,000 miles away. A copycat murder seems likely, but one with details only the convict herself could know.

Thomas Austin is a retired New York City cop who now lives in Washington State’s Puget Sound, running a combination general store, café, and bait shop. But even with the great distance, he’s haunted by one particular case.

The Holiday Baby Butcher, serial murderer Lorraine D’Antonia, remains in his mind. It wasn’t enough that Austin had to face the horror of her crimes. He also had to deal with the media circus that surrounded them.

He believes he can put the case behind him until a local police officer calls him about the new case, a duplicate down to the smallest details, that has just been committed locally.

At first, he tries to stay as far away from the crime as possible. But a nosy reporter bringing unwanted publicity to the case and Austin personally, and reports of a second infant abducted from a local hospital, force him to join the investigation.

As the local community shuts down for the Christmas season, Austin and a crew of local police officers begin a frantic search to find the second infant in time, and struggle to understand how this new killer committed such a perfect recreation of the old Butcher murders.

Throughout the story, Austin shows himself to be an engaging, complex character.

Austin’s reluctance and pained memories of New York– including his own wife’s murder– contrast his smart, intuitive skills as a cop. He quickly parses out new situations, whether he is conducting a suspect’s interview or figuring out how a specific crime was committed, with only the barest clues.

The Bones at Point No Point is the first in a series of Thomas Austin books, making a strong first impression for the series.

February 9, 2024
VETERANS KEY by Richard Bareford – WWI, Mystery, Historical, Thriller, Florida Keys, Political Intrigue

Veterans Key opens in 1935 as hundreds of derelict vets of the Great War are working in ramshackle government relief camps bridging a gap in the Overseas Highway connecting Key West with the mainland.

One hot August morning, two striking co-eds, Cindy and Ella, step off a train in Islamorada to be greeted with the crude cat-calls of beery veterans. What happens next is unexpected. Cindy singles out Fred, a soft-spoken, muscular vet drinking a Coke. He offers her a sip. She accepts, flirts, and invites him to her hotel in Key West for an amorous rendezvous.

Dealing love and betrayal in equal measure, the protagonists of Veterans Key embark on a course of events that will keep readers guessing.

Eager to meet Cindy, Fred has no inkling that he has in fact been chosen to participate in a carefully planned bank robbery in Havana, the results of which will have enormous consequences for everyone involved. But this pivotal event is barely an introduction to the riveting mystery that is Veterans Key, a serio-comic novel with moments of pathos, terror, and more twists and turns than a cottonmouth snake.

With fate and family tied together and wrapped tight in a web, Richard Bareford ensnares readers in this original story where nobody is quite who they seem.

Cindy’s brother Emilio is a Cuban revolutionary intent on avenging his torture by deposed General Machado’s secret police. Cindy’s father is a former official of the target bank and his knowledge of the contents of a certain safe deposit box is critical for the heist. Fred’s role is to play the patsy in the robbery and the investigation that will surely follow.

If everything had gone to plan, Fred would take the fall, while Emilio and the girls escape with the money, but in this highly original, picaresque novel, nothing goes to plan.

As the story unfolds, the characters’ various involvements with good guys and thugs, including the Cuban police, American FBI agents, Communists, Nazi spies, and mobsters from the Meyer Lansky gang make for a rich mix of deceptions, lies and misdirection. Ultimately Ella may be the most complex figure of them all, a 17-year-old German Jew living an impossible balancing act.

Bareford creates a vivid and compelling adventure by weaving the historical with the plausible.

The disdain of camp officials for the men in their charge and the devastating aftermath of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane adds gravitas to the deceptively light tone throughout much of the book.

Veterans Key evokes other distinctive novels including The Horse’s Mouth and A Confederacy of Dunces, not for their story lines but for the originality of their thinking. Readers may appreciate the nods to Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. There is no “predictable” here, only the sheer joy of an original work that commands your attention on its own terms. Highly recommended!

February 7, 2024
ITALIANS In The PACIFIC NORTHWEST by Tessa Floreano – American History, Immigrant History, Pacific Northwest History

Tessa Floreano’s Italians in the Pacific Northwest is an inviting pictorial narrative featuring both ordinary and extraordinary individuals of Italian heritage who helped to create and develop Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Concentrating on the decades from 1880 to 1950, Floreano begins by referencing the earliest Italian explorers of the Pacific Northwest Territory, then quickly moves to the efforts of those who sought a better life through hard work and new opportunities on American shores.

Floreano’s research shows through the fascinating details of this book.

She includes stories, photographs, and memorabilia to highlight both the struggles and triumphs of these pioneering Italian Americans. From the backbreaking labor of building the road and rail infrastructure that connected this new land, to working in the coal mines, logging and milling the giant cedars, farming the soil, fishing the waters, and becoming savvy entrepreneurs, these people proved a hearty, steadfast bunch.

Floreano investigated the formation of fraternal organizations and social groups that helped with assimilation, housing, health, and employment concerns. She emphasizes the vital role of the established Italian churches in the Northwest communities, recognizes the importance of military service, and notes the Italians’ contributions to the fields of sports, music, and entertainment.

A volume of black & white photos is complemented by well-detailed narrative captions.

Here, images depict the likes of immigrants arriving in the US along with passports that had to declare their literacy and early records of naturalization. With the popularity of the Church, there are snapshots of weddings, communions, Parish School students, altar boys, clergy, and church buildings that help showcase their religious faith.

During wartime, unfortunately, Italian citizens 14 and over were considered enemy aliens and treated as such. Men often volunteered for service in order to prove their loyalty to their adopted homeland.

Whether considered captives or allies, POW identification cards were issued to over 50,000 Italians captured in North Africa in WWII. One 1940s photo portrays Italian prisoners of war “well-suited and booted,” though they still had to maintain their own lodgings.

Audiences are further entwined with little-known facts that brought recognition to this Northwest Territory.

Early immigrants farmed a sustaining vegetable, later to be known as the Walla Walla sweet onion. Corno’s Food Market, part of Portland’s “Produce Row”, was popularized in a scene from Burt Reynold’s 1989 film “Breaking In.” Famed father of nuclear science, Enrico Fermi, spent time in Hanford, WA developing the atomic bomb.

With her Italian heritage, Floreano’s work is undoubtedly a labor of love. For those interested in a reveal of the history and people that helped develop this part of the country, this book should prove an enjoyable read. In particular, for those of Italian descent, “Italians in the Pacific Northwest” lives up to the motto the author ascribes to these feisty and determined immigrants, “Per aspera ad astra” – through hardship to the stars. A truly informative tribute.

February 2, 2024
THE SHERIFF: Book Three of The Druid Chronicles by A.M. Linden – Historical Fiction, Medieval England, Mystery

The Sheriff, the third installment of A.M. Linden’s Druid Chronicles series about 9th-century life in Anglo-Saxon England, fully immerses readers in that distant era with all of its joys, conflicts, and hardships.

Trained from his youngest years in the military, Stefan has learned both battle skills and leadership, with the ability to approach a situation without causing it to get out of hand. He is fiercely loyal, but continually denied a larger role in the kingdom’s army. His latest indignity came with the king assigning him as sheriff of Codswallow, a paltry village. With a retinue of less than 10 people including his slave, he has to collect taxes and keep the peace.

The novel shows two major episodes. The first follows his Codswallow days, including his relationship with Jonathan, owner of the Three Dragons Inn. Stefan learns that Jonathan is paying protection money to keep bandits away from the inn, and carries out a series of plans to discover who is, what we could call, the crime boss.

But Stefan stirs up yet more trouble in Codswallow.

A Druid priestess and her niece, relatives of Jonathan, take refuge in the Three Dragons Inn after their sacred shrine is discovered. The niece may actually be Jonathan’s child by his marriage to the queen’s sister, and things get complicated when Stefan, unhappily married with three children of his own, sets his eyes on her.

Before he can act on his romantic impulse, Stefan is summoned to track down a princess who went missing on the day she became betrothed to the ruler of a neighboring kingdom, possibly being abducted by that king’s enemies, or even killed. The possibility that she ran away to avoid being wed to the notoriously cruel king, was barely a consideration. It would take a person of Stefan’s many skills to find her and reunite her with her king, whether she wanted to or not.

Overall, The Sheriff is a well-rounded character study of Stefan himself.

We see him as a child, and when his warm family is torn apart by a searing dispute between him and his father. He is apprenticed to the military and is trained by Matthew, a devout Christian who sees in the youth the makings of a leader, later becoming his most loyal soldier.

Stefan shows his disappointment in the king not assigning him to the post that he deserves, but he handles trouble effectively, diffusing potential conflicts and becoming a careful investigator. He doesn’t reflect on himself, instead focusing on the problems of those around him.

This book takes time to fully establish the world and people of its stories.

Of the large cast, many characters have detailed backgrounds, some connected to previous books in the series. Thankfully, a detailed character glossary makes it easy to keep up with everyone.

The Sheriff succeeds most in its feel of authenticity.

While life in early England cannot be fully known, The Sheriff gives the reader enough granularity to help them imagine what it would be like to live there. It isn’t about the battles that often dominate history, but rather the regular people who could be our family, friends, and neighbors even though they exist in a time so far gone.

Readers who enjoy being taken away to the distant past, feeling as though they could breathe the air of something different from what they know, will find The Sheriff a fascinating and satisfying read.

January 31, 2024
THE FOREST by Miriam Verbeek – Crime Thriller, International Mystery, Organized Crime

The Forest, a slow-burning mystery and the second book in Miriam Verbeek’s Saskia van Essen series, follows a young investigator trying to unravel a mystery that sits deep in the core of a private logging organization.

Saskia, a co-owner of International Financial Services, is requested by Tania to help uncover a network of criminal activity in her family’s Australian timber business. After taking over the company as its new director, Tania doubts the legitimacy of their remarkable profits, given high expenses, severe competition, and a substantial reduction in timber production that should have made it difficult to make any substantial gains.

Wasting no time, Saskia travels to Australia, having agreed to investigate possible criminal activity while helping the timber mill restructure.

Shortly after settling in, she identifies a weak correlation between the employment of three people: Daryl in carpentry, Con in flooring, and Peta in finance. More concerning, a huge amount of data ”accidentally” gets lost immediately after her arrival, including crucial due diligence records.

Saskia’s investigation reveals a series of suspicious activities such as fake invoices and massive cash payments for unsold furniture and flooring. Furthermore, she finds that the companies making the purchases are mere shells with complex, disguised ownership. Adrenaline levels rise as her secret pursuit begins to take shape. She tries to exercise caution, but not before a ruthless figure comes after her with everything he’s got.

In The Forest, Miriam Verbeek characterizes the cruel world of organized crime.

She exposes crime syndicates’ desperation to put a legitimate face on their riches through careful money laundering.

Her prose keeps readers engaged with the developing mystery, which will change a reader’s view of cash-heavy businesses.

Among the many heroes in this book, Saskin stands out. She shows expert sleuth skills and competence despite her short stature. The problems she encounters are ones that the author has found Australian companies and society also dealing with, and she brilliantly incorporates the input of the NSW police, the Federal Police, and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forests in fighting these financial indecencies.

This novel shows how money laundering has now moved from the simple transfer of cash into financial institutions to sophisticated systems of layered multi-business transactions.

Money laundering is a worldwide problem, and Miriam Verbeek does a great job emphasizing the need for international law enforcement cooperation. The Forest is an eye-opener for mystery readers and the business world alike.

January 29, 2024
WHEN YOU READ THIS I’LL BE GONE by Anne Moose – Mystery, Crime Thriller, Psychological Fiction

With unexpected twists, When You Read This I’ll Be Gone by Anne Moose ramps up a kidnapping escapade with a campus tragedy of life-altering consequences.

When You Read This I’ll Be Gone takes us on a gripping book-within-a-book journey. Valerie Hawthorne—an author and college professor—has written a note to her family about the vagaries of her own disappearance. One might even consider the book’s title to be the true opening sentence.

As Valerie recollects the events leading up to the rupture of her marriage and her disappearance, she sucks readers into a meta-narrative that lays the groundwork for Valerie’s published book, which becomes the very book that you are reading.

Through this fascinating narrative approach, the author takes an unfortunately common tragedy of campus rape and re-sensitizes readers to all the reasons why rape survivors find it difficult to come forward about their experiences.

Moose takes Valerie and her kidnapper down the remorseful road of “what-ifs” and “if-onlys” that haunt those whose small actions contributed to someone’s silence. Valerie must come to terms with the fact that she can’t go back in time and fix things—her marriage, her interaction with a student—but she can do something to make sure a victim’s story is told and bring to justice in their absence.

When You Read This I’ll Be Gone is equal parts thrilling and sincerely devoted to its premise, “How far will a person go to hold abusers accountable?” There is some question as to how the title itself factors into the story when it comes full circle. The reader is left unsure who it is for if not about Valerie. Is it coming from the victim of sexual violence, or the father seeking revenge on the men responsible for his child’s undoing? Leaving the question open-ended allows the reader to experience the kind of heartache that can be understood in multitudes.

For readers of Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me and Chanel Miller’s Know My Name, Anne Moose’s When You Read This I’ll Be Gone is full of fast-paced suspense that will have you revisiting the beginning to catch what you missed with renewed insight. Which, if we were to ask Valerie Hawthorne, is the point of storytelling all along.

*This book comes with a Content Warning for campus rape, revenge porn, and suicide

January 26, 2024
NEW LIBERTY by George Cramer – Crime Thriller, Police Procedural, Action

New Liberty by George Cramer is a police procedural for readers who crave a gritty story in a modern urban jungle. It is not for the faint-hearted.

In New Liberty, a (fictionalized) Arizona city, a war is heating up between two rival gangs: the Black 4-Aces and the Latino Los Scorpios Locos. The cops of New Liberty’s Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit (AGE) are working hard to limit the damage. From the start, life within each of these organizations is stressful and complex.

Hector Navarro, a young officer, joins the AGE unprepared. Despite his Mexican heritage, he grew up in Connecticut, doesn’t speak Spanish, and was looking forward to embracing his love of motorcycles by being assigned to the city’s motorcycle unit. He has no idea how to talk to gangs, set up snitches, or even dress to not be identified as a cop.

Hector is assigned to Davey Jones, a slovenly drunk, as his street mentor in undercover work.

His first assignment in breaking into the gang world is to get a massage parlor worker to solicit him for sex, but a blunder on his part results in a humorous exchange. The investigation eventually leads to a tragic shooting– a double murder– that changes Hector’s life and, more tragically, the death of his partner. It sets into motion a sequence of events that will drill deep into the hearts of both gangs as well as the police who watch them.

New Liberty tells the stories of gangs and cops with the sharp eye of a documentarian.

The gangs’ operations, their casual murders of friends and foes alike, and the cold-eye battles for leadership are told with an authenticity that places the reader amidst the characters. One story stands out: a young woman is kidnapped by the Los Scorpios Locos, becoming a sex slave for the gang, and eventually a police informant at great personal danger. She gives a rare glimpse of the horror of sex trafficking that young women, and young men as well, face in the shadows of the modern world.

This same unsparing look is trained on the police as well. A shooting tragedy, the death of an officer and a gang leader both involving young Hector Navarro, is shown to have its roots well beyond the actions of one officer. It winds up having grave ramifications for the entire New Liberty police management.

Readers see the detailed planning of each group.

Every action requires careful consideration, whether a police sting or a bloody raid on an opposing gang. The similarities in thinking between these three organizations are remarkable, even though some operate within a set of laws and others within the bounds of only money and violence.

This is a must-read for anyone looking for a great if harrowing story told with the unmistakable authority of someone who has been there and seen it all.

January 24, 2024
ELODIA’S KNIFE by Robert S. Phillips – Historical Fiction, Action/Adventure, Roman Empire

Elodia is a young woman driven by dreadful circumstances to act with deadly force in the Robert S. Phillips novel Elodia’s Knife.

What Elodia hoped would be her leap away from danger instead left her surrounded by perilous threats that now threaten to consume her. Armed with her courage, determination, instincts, and a trusty knife, Elodia faces a hostile world in foreign territory.

Not all are against her though. Allies– even a friend– can be found, if Elodia can summon the bravery to listen to her feelings and own deep wishes.

Young Elodia is unhappily married to an abusive husband. But when he tries to attack her again, she strikes back and kills him.

By her own hand, she is set free from a brutal life, yet not fully liberated. Now her husband’s family pursues her, intent on revenge. Elodia must flee for her life, driven into the unknown, alone across the Danube River. She can never return, but what she finds before her is a crumbling empire on the brink of war. They view her as one of the enemy, to be conquered and enslaved. Refusing to be bound again, she keeps her knife close at hand, and her wits about her at all times.

Elodia is captured upon landing by men who blame Gothic peoples, like her, for the troubles in the Western Roman Empire of the late 4^th century CE. But among them is Caius, who sees her in a different light.

He treats her not as a prisoner, but as a person. Is his compassion genuine? As he oversees the work he orders her to complete, that’s when she first notices his smile. A small smile, and a friendly one. Will Caius become a possible ally? Even someone she could trust? Or possibly more? Elodia allows hope to churn within her. But she cannot dwell on that hope alone. She will need to foster the strength to rise out of slavery in this foreign place.

Elodia takes thrilling actions to seize the day and take control– to lead a Roman city.

Elodia’s Knife surrounds readers with a vivid and riveting time in early history.

Author Phillips shows the fascinating details of how people of those times faced the challenges of life and a complex society. He skillfully weaves the decline of the Roman Empire– a world on the brink of collapse– into the pulse of this exquisite story.

Lives and times change, but human nature is at the heart of it all. The struggles of these characters leap off the page with fervor. Readers will cheer for Elodia as she fights with hope fueling her soul and Elodia’s Knife clutched, at the ready.

January 22, 2024