Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

THE BLACK FOSTER YOUTH HANDBOOK: 50+ Lessons I Learned to Successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal by Angela Quijada-Banks – Overcoming Trauma, Inspirational Non-Fiction, Foster Youth

The Black Foster Youth Handbook: 50+ Lessons I Learned to successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal is a distinguished compilation of award-winning author Ángela Quijada-Banks’ insights, seeking to assist those in foster care to stay optimistic and triumph over traumatic experiences.

The text features the author’s candid revelations regarding the disarray she encountered in foster care and the overwhelming emotional roller coaster she underwent through family upheavals and a heart-breaking rift between her siblings.

Foster care had seen her forget her goals and aspirations, as traumas and emotional misfortunes spread their venom in her soul. Banks had found herself misplaced, perplexed, wounded, irate, and unloved. Her background, past wounds, and pessimistic beliefs ruled over her. In a painful recap, she reveals how she became accustomed to constant alarming incidents, creating in her a perpetual state of survival.

But a deep longing for conquest in life kept burning in her heart.

Achieving that conquest would prove trickier with time, as she struggled to figure out her path. Readers will find Banks’s R.E.A.L Success Model a gem that will help them understand the basics of foster care, the implications of having healthy relationships, the kind of people one should reach out to in case of a problem, and how to attain a stable life of success.

This resourceful read has ably uncovered what numerous children experience in unfamiliar foster care settings, such as mistrust and fear of encountering a trauma they have already gone through.

Banks explains how adopting such cynical sentiments blocked her from certain blessings and people who were willing to help her into a quicker recovery. Her open confessions are bound to leave readers more open-minded, honest, and ready to come out of complicated matters, regardless of their years, gender, ethnicity, or religion. This book meticulously uncovers little-spoken traps that numerous people have fallen into, such as seeking guidance and counsel from relatives or friends who don’t have truthful insight to offer.

The Black Foster Youth Handbook’s substantial content will inspire readers to check whether their thoughts, actions, and beliefs are being powered by love or by fear. Its lessons will benefit many readers, primarily those who have gone through young childhood traumas and torment. Thought-provoking illustrations from Banks’ life journal deepen the impact of these lessons, highlighting the importance of each personal choice on the road to healing and restoration. This powerful handbook will guide its audience to aim for progression, rather than perfection.

The Black Foster Youth Handbook by Angela Quijada-Banks won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA I&I Awards for Instruction & Insight Non-Fiction.

June 19, 2023
DELAWARE BEFORE The RAILROADS by Dave Tabler – U.S. History, State & Local History, U.S. Revolution & Founding

Delaware Before the Railroads by Dave Tabler presents a captivating visual tale of this tiny state, from 1638 to 1832, ranging between early colonial settlements and the aftermath of America’s Independence.

Delaware’s place in this seminal time of United States history is carefully illustrated through pictures with wonderful captions. Delaware Before the Railroads highlights the significant role played by Delaware in America’s creation, uncovering surprising historical details such as the origin of log houses, a heroic figure who thwarted the British invasion of Canada, and the intriguing connection with Captain Kidd.

The pictures and captions are highlighted by sidebar paragraphs that deliver more knowledge about what life was like for the Swedes and Dutch who settled near Delaware Bay. They found, for instance, a “new world” of seafood they didn’t recognize, such as the crabs they called “sea spiders.”

The book explores day-to-day details of this growing society. One fascinating – and unsettling – aspect is the nature of their medicine. They used tools for bloodletting, torturous-looking dental implements, and pharmaceutical ingredients such as benzine, peppermint oil, saffron, peppercorns, and even mercury! The specifics of how these tools were used will chill readers.

Delaware Before the Railroads balances these darker elements with more light-hearted moments in time as well, with one fun fact being that Delaware delegates ratified the US Constitution at The Golden Fleece Tavern in Dover, thus christening Delaware as “The First State.”

The best treasure of the book is in the “Notes on Photographs” section, to which the sidebar paragraphs direct the reader.

This section adds significant anecdotes and details that shed more light on the culture of the time. One discovers that the Swedish colonists named the first non-native settlement, Fort Christina, after the then 12-year-old Queen of Sweden. Or, that the early days of Delaware also gave rise to the iconic log cabin in America, as Swedish and Finnish colonists introduced the style to their new home.

These notes deliver excitement as well as excellent historical information. The famed privateer Captain Kidd once marauded in an area now called Kitts Hammock, one of the places he supposedly buried his treasure. Kidd also colluded with some Delawareans to sell stolen goods from an Indian Ocean takeover of a merchant ship, despite a colonial law forbidding the importation of any goods from the East Indies (due to pirates and privateers).

Pick up Delaware Before the Railroads to join the hunt for Captain Kidd’s buried treasure and learn other intriguing slices of Delaware’s past.

June 15, 2023
ONCE UPON A TIME In BALTIMORE by Sally DiPaula – Historical Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Family Saga

In Sally DiPaula’s Once Upon A Time In Baltimore, a young couple faces the pains and triumphs of life amidst the changing social mores and ever-present challenges of the 20th century.

Throughout decades, this story unfolds to reveal their relationships with extended family, and their lifetime commitment holding against the likes of marital strains, discrimination, war concerns, and health issues. Inevitably, there are moments of pondering about the choices they’ve made and worries over what the future holds.

As an Irish-American girl growing up in Baltimore, young Annie Finnerty suffered the loss of both a parent and sibling. Vince Parisi, the son of Italian immigrants who worked in the restaurant business, also weathered the heartfelt loss of a family member. When the two meet, their definite attraction soon leads Vince and Annie down the expected path of marriage and starting a family.

With the joining of the Italian Parisis and Annie’s Irish-Catholic Finnerty clan, DiPaula includes familiar details to distinguish the contrasting ethnicities.

While momentarily at odds in their courtship, in an attempt to reconcile, Vince delivers a chocolate Easter egg gift to Annie. Here Mrs. Finnerty questions its edibility, inferring that Italians are known to poison their enemies. And while Vince looks upon his Italian relatives as extended family, Annie insists on privacy and separation from them.

Whether family members who succumb to illness or sons going off to war, country club rejections or suspicions of infidelity, DiPaula fills these pages with emotional characters entangled in a bevy of themes from Love and loss, betrayal and heartache, to jealousy and fear.

Once Upon A Time In Baltimore holds many beautiful moments of family life, coupled with just the right amount of sudden and unexpected twists to pull the reader in.

Annie deals with panic attacks, frequently overwhelmed by the world around her, while Vince often voices his inner sense of feeling unappreciated. Along a marital route marked by bliss and blisters, separation and counseling help to heal their connection. In the final chapters, we see a contrast between contentment and loneliness. With friends and family of her generation passing, Annie doesn’t enjoy her left-behind Matriarchal status, waiting out her time and suffering from age-related concerns.

DiPaula delivers chapters in chronological order and maintains a steady pace. With an impressive timeline, the story sometimes jumps ahead, always providing a brief update on where characters are in their present life situations.

Extensive research went into the details of this century-spanning story.

From the descriptions of the involved process of starting up a car and the daily routine of running a restaurant, to the available cancer treatments for a key character stricken with the disease, DiPaula’s effort proves thorough and genuine.

Once Upon A Time In Baltimore is the kind of story that could seemingly be set anywhere. Amidst the joys and sorrows of blended families when a marriage takes place, we see a striving for The American Dream. For individuals who enjoy following emotional family sagas and the generational relationships that play out over many years, DiPaula delivers a rich-in-character, well-crafted, and entertaining novel.

June 13, 2023
A WAR In TOO MANY WORLDS: The Time Traveler Professor, Book Three by Elizabeth Crowens – Time Travel, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure

Musician-turned-time-traveler John Patrick Scott adds spy and saboteur to his resume while undercover in Germany in the final months of World War I, in A War in Too Many Worlds, the third installment of Elizabeth Crowen’s thrilling sci-fi series, The Time Traveler Professor.

Meanwhile, Scott’s once and future collaborator in psychic experiments, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is back in Britain sharing real time-travel adventures with the inventor of the fictional time machine, H.G. Wells.

Scott, after being wounded in the trenches, has finally been given an assignment in the Intelligence services. His extensive pre-war experience as a professor at the Conservancy of Music in Stuttgart, Germany, will do him good.

His assignment is to sabotage the waning German war effort through numerous false identities, while simultaneously mixing with high society to learn who is passing secrets from the Allies to the Central Powers.

Although frustrated by his sudden inability to travel through time, Scott has not lost any of his remaining powers. He is assisted in his secret work by many of the spirits haunting wartorn Berlin.

In Britain, Doyle and Wells undertake time travels of their own, to a past that seems to be more of a literary creation than a jaunt through time. They find the Island of Doctor Morbideux, a dangerous place filled with genetic experiments merging men with beasts, just as in Wells’ novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau. Morbideux appears to be a time-traveling Harry Houdini, unaware of his present life or his adversarial but friendly relationship with Doyle. The situation becomes increasingly perilous as it becomes clear that Doyle and Wells will be Morbideux’s next experimental subjects.

As the story slips between Scott’s undercover operations in Germany, and Doyle’s and Wells’ clandestine journey, this third book in the Time Traveler Professor series proves itself more complex than either of its predecessors.

Since the first two books, the war has changed Scott, leaving him older, sadder, more experienced, and more frustrated in equal measure. He takes greater and greater risks, and slips easily between chemically induced ecstasy and all too frequent despair, as danger mounts and loss surrounds him. Doyle’s and Wells’ adventures and misadventures, at least until they plumb the full depths of the island of Doctor Morbideaux, provide a bit of leavening to set against Scott’s increasing despond.

The overall story of the series continues to gain depth with a compelling pace, and the author recommends that readers enter this sprawling saga at its beginning in Silent Meridian. This book’s opening recap serves as an excellent refresher for readers who know the previous stories, but The Time Traveler Professor is a series like Outlander, where seemingly minor past – and future! – events and chance meetings may have vast implications for the ultimate fate of the protagonists and their world.

Ultimately, the adventure of The Time Traveler Professor, even if he cannot currently travel through time himself, still jumps in time and place, racing towards what is sure to be a wild ride of an ending in the projected final book in the series, The Story Beyond Time.

A War in Too Many Worlds by Elizabeth Crowens won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.

June 9, 2023
ENLIGHTEN UP! Finding Clarity Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World by Beth Gibbs – Personal Transformation, Meditation, Spiritual Growth

Beth Gibb’s Enlighten Up! Finding Clarity Contentment and Resilience in A Complicated World is not a simple how-to book, but rather an invitation to begin a journey of self-discovery.

This journey follows the “five-layer method,” based on the Upanishads, a 3,000-year-old East-Indian wisdom tradition. After a quick history lesson on the pursuit of self-awareness, Gibbs walks readers through the five layers of achieving it, for a happy and fulfilling life. Throughout the book, Gibbs includes breaks for mindfulness and grounding exercises to get the most out of each section.

Gibbs writes about the assumption that the goal of enlightenment is to, “suppress or eliminate their emotions, live everlasting bliss, and face every situation with equanimity,” and how that assumption is unrealistic.

She sees a better understanding of self as a way to improve many aspects of one’s life. Following her advice won’t create a drastic overnight transformation, but it involves a lot of reflection and hard work to make these changes last. It’s clear that the benefits of developing better self-awareness are more than worth the effort as they can lead to better lifestyle choices, reduced stress, and strengthened relationships, all of which contribute to personal happiness. At the end of the day, many people wish most of all for happiness for themselves and those they love.

Beth Gibbs does a wonderful job blending her explanations of Eastern wisdom traditions with Western beliefs and scientific thought.

Before Enlighten Up! Readers may not have heard of the Upanishads, but Gibbs’s down-to-earth writing style makes it easy to understand and think about the culture and purpose of enlightenment and meditation. For instance, she refutes the idea that practicing enlightenment is to suppress or eliminate emotions and live in everlasting bliss. Gibbs dives deeply into these ideas, such as exploring the distinction between our emotions and our feelings.

Within each section, Gibbs writes about her own journey of enlightening up and how it is about, “feeling, being, and acting authentically.” From Enlighten Up! readers will learn how to feel 100% authentic and comfortable in their skin by working through the layers of awareness, aided by the offer of breathing and calming exercises.

Enlighten Up! Finding Clarity Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World is a must-read for those wanting more peace of mind in their loud and busy lives.

Enlighten Up! by Beth Gibbs won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction.

June 7, 2023
A LONG WAY From CLARE by Robert W. Smith – Historical Fiction, Conspiracy Mystery, Irish-American History

Twenty-four-year-old Conor Dolan had intended to surprise his older brother and catch up after years apart. However, what he finds when he arrives in Chicago will spark a harrowing mystery, in A Long Way from Clare by Robert W. Smith.

Kevin, a beat cop in twentieth-century Chicago’s worst neighborhood, was found six weeks before Conor’s visit, in what the police have dubbed a suicide. However, Conor has his doubts. Each time he asks people about Kevin, he is met with resistance and denial. When Conor speaks with Detective Flynn, the man assigned to Kevin’s case, his suspicions become certainties. Flynn’s bizarre behavior, the minimal effort on the police’s part to investigate, and the men following Conor at every turn convince him to stay in Chicago rather than return to his home in Springfield.

Conor’s determination to find answers to Kevin’s death lead him in a dangerous dance with darkness amidst the shadows of Chicago’s underworld.

He finds an ally in undercover Pinkerton agent Rebecca Fletcher, who has been assigned to find information on a secret Irish society, Clan na Gael. Clan na Gael, a militant organization bent on establishing a united, independent Ireland, is planning the assassination of a visiting British dignitary. And Rebecca has uncovered evidence linking Kevin with them. Now Conor finds himself in the middle of a corrupt city, fighting for justice for poor immigrants and searching for the truth about Kevin’s life. The more he learns about his brother, the less sure he is that he actually wants that truth. At great risk to himself, Conor faces the corruption, where his own destruction is just one misstep away.

A Long Way from Clare revolves around the brotherly love between Kevin and Conor.

The reader sees their relationship through Conor’s memories. Kevin gave up so much to make sure his brother became more than himself. A seven-year-old Conor was once protected from the reality of eviction by Kevin, who strives to make the whole thing seem like a grand adventure even as their mother sends them across the ocean to their uncle. He does this again on the horrifying journey from Ireland to America aboard a cramped, filthy ship. Conor is never fearful because Kevin has given him strength and assurance that all will be well as long as they are together.

As a young adult, Kevin joins the army and later the police force to provide Conor with an education. He made certain Conor became a lawyer while Kevin himself walked the beat of the worst section of Chicago. Conor truly begins to understand Kevin’s sacrifice as he investigates Kevin’s death. However, he also finds a duality in the brother he loved and respected. He’s uncertain and confused when he learns of Kevin’s secretive life, struggling to reconcile this with his kind and caring brother.

Chicago itself becomes an integral part of the novel. The massive government corruption in the early twentieth century defines Conor’s story just as much as the other characters.

Conor’s fledgling law office cannot survive without the consent of precinct bosses, their “heelers,” and the coppers patrolling the ward. Everyone from the local priest to the court clerk has their hands in the coffers. Stuck in the capital of debauchery, Conor cannot fathom how his caring brother has spent most of his adult life working in the ward. The smog, the filth, and the human depravity overwhelm Conor’s upright values. Though he feels the pressure to break laws to benefit his “protectors,” Conor refuses.

The plight of immigrants, especially the Irish, becomes foremost in Conor’s mind since the city itself seems to devour these poor masses.

In his search for answers, he encounters so many people – women in particular – who’ve been abused and used, crushed beneath the feet of men seeking their own freedom from those at the top. They hurt those beneath them because they themselves are being hurt, going so far as to kill their own children rather than allow the city to consume them piece by piece. This dark and horrifying picture of the Windy City is the one that Conor must face.

A Long Way from Clare skillfully entwines the bonds of family, the underbelly of a corrupt city, and the resilience of those who struggle for justice. Robert W. Smith’s storytelling plunges readers into early twentieth-century Chicago to deliver a riveting narrative where the truth is irresistible.

June 5, 2023
THE GREATEST MATCHMAKER In SPACE: Eudora Space Kid Book 4 by David Horn – Picture Books, Sci-fi, Children’s Adventure Books

David Horn’s Eudora Space Kid series continues with another fabulous middle-grade Sci-fi novel, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space.

Horn takes us back to the decks of the Athena, an AstroLiner and the flagship for the Astrofleet of the planetary Republic. The intrepid Eudora is ready to fly into another adventure, this time as a matchmaker for Captain Jax.

Eudora loves math and science, and even though she’s only in third grade, she dreams of becoming a chief engineer on an AstroLiner. But, she would settle for Captain if that’s what they offered her. When she visits Cafeteria 1 for dessert, she finds Captain Jax, who, per usual, yells, “Get off my bridge.” He’s used to kicking Eudora off the bridge while he’s working, but he must be deeply distracted to confuse it with the cafeteria.

She notices his sad eyes and dejected manner and asks what’s wrong. To her surprise, he invites her to sit with him, and she excitedly realizes the Captain of the Athena is going to confide in her.

He’s been thinking about Miss Allison, Eudora’s teacher. She’s shocked because she loves being in Miss Allison’s class. Does Captain Jax want to fire her?

In fact, he says that he’d like to go on a date with Miss Allison. In her relief, Eudora agrees to help, claiming romance as her specialty alongside engineering. Even though Eudora’s a math and science genius, she’s seen her mother reading all sorts of romance books, so she suggests a double date. Now all Eudora has to do is talk yet another person into going. Easy, right?

This book becomes laugh-out-loud funny as Eudora realizes she’s in over her head.

Can she get Miss Allison to agree? And what about her own date, Arnold? Captain Jax is counting on her, and she can’t let him down because he could help her get into the Astro University. But when she runs into a love triangle between Captain Jax, Miss Allison, and the MedBay officer, how will she untangle the mess?

Find out in David Horn’s latest installment aboard the Athena, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space. Readers will love Eudora’s antics as she marches boldly into the romance department on the AstroLiner. This book flies high with five stars.

June 1, 2023
DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids who Rescued Them by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo – Memoirs, Animal Rescue, Animal & Pet Care

We love our dogs. We love our cats. But what do we do when people no longer want them, use them for cruel purposes, or release them into the streets with no thought for what will happen to them? Diane Trull’s memoir with Meredith Wargo, DAWGS, shines a light on these questions.

Trull begins the story as a fourth-grade teacher in Dalhart, Texas. One of her young students asks about an article in a local paper showing photos of adorable dogs at a shelter who were up for adoption, wondering what happened to those who weren’t adopted.

Instead of dodging the question, and with great trepidation, she answered it with the truth: those who weren’t adopted would be put to sleep. Her tiny students were understandably shocked. Then one of them said, “I don’t want any of those dogs to die. Isn’t there something we can do to save them?”

That simple question, asked by a child in a classroom in 2003, started a profound adventure in the lives of Diane and her husband, Mark, and her students.

Together, they started a private dog shelter, working with a reluctant animal control officer and an even more reluctant city council to take in as many pets as possible, feed them, groom them, and bring many back to health until, hopefully, someone would adopt them.

This was no simple task. For most of us, taking care of one or two animals in our homes is enough. How can someone take care of hundreds? Without government funding, and with a workforce of only two adults and a small group of nine-to-ten-year-old children, the struggles started to pile up. The noise of barking dogs brought constant complaints, the food and medical attention cost too much, and the sheer effort to take care of these animals in the harsh weather of the Texas Panhandle overwhelmed the volunteer school children even with help from other concerned citizens.

The development of the shelter is in itself a remarkable story. But even more profound is its effect on the children who volunteered for months, or even years.

The shelter had a strict code of ethics regarding those young volunteers including full permission of their parents, and a required balance between school and their work at DAWGS. Its motto, then and now is, ”Making a difference, one animal at a time, one child at a time, one day at a time.”

Students who participated learned life lessons of responsibility, compassion, and dedication that helped shape them as people. Some of these fourth graders are still involved with the shelter after nearly 20 years.

Many dogs have their stories told in this book. Tales of abandoned, damaged pets who were nursed back to health at the shelter and subsequently adopted. Also told are the stories of the many companies and individuals whose key donations and hands-on work have made this shelter work.

A heartwarming story? Yes. But equally important is the hard work and grit that ensured the success of this shelter. Highly recommended.

DAWGS by Diane Trull won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Hearten Awards for Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction.

May 29, 2023
THE INTREPID: Dawn of the Interstellar Age by Arnie Benn – Hard Sci-fi, Mystery Suspense, Colonization Sci-fi

Two interstellar missions encounter something beyond their understanding in Arnie Benn’s sci-fi novel, The Intrepid: Dawn of the Interstellar Age.

The Intrepid begins a century after Apollo 11. Aksel Bolt, mission commander aboard the Centaurian, wakes too early – seven years into a projected twenty-eight-year sleep on the voyage from Earth – to find Mission Control ordering the crew to rendezvous with another incoming spacecraft. But details are scarce, due in part to being too far from home for two-way communication. What is this other ship, who crews it, and how is it even able to catch up? Will this change their peaceful mission of exploration? And what might be waiting for them at their destination?

The crewmembers are forced to pivot in order to survive their continued mission.

Bolt also finds that a member of his crew did not survive hibersleep. Was it simply a mechanical error, or was it sabotage? Was it murder? Did the crew member know something they shouldn’t have? Benn’s story twists and turns, tightening the suspense aboard this historic mission.

The Intrepid boasts strong general pacing paired with the intensive exposition often necessary in hard sci-fi. The central dangers aboard the Centaurian will drive readers onward, the growing awareness that the crew is alone, far from familiarity, struggling with their growing apprehension. It doesn’t help that disturbing things seem to be going on back home, light years away.

Full of refreshing surprises that will drive readers toward an unexpected and satisfying conclusion.

There is so much packed into The Intrepid as it is that it delivers the questions and plots of multiple novels in one. A bonus to this is that the book includes an extensive glossary of scientific terms to complement the intended realism of the science in the story.

“I’m on the surface now,” Kihumba says. “The human race… has officially reached the stars.” She tries to swallow but her mouth is dry; she is live to the entire solar system, or will be, when the signal finally reaches home 4 years from now. Her heart is pounding. Don’t forget the rest, Kioni. “Welcome, Earthlings, to the dawn of a new age.”

Part suspense, part future history, a tiny bit romance, and all hard-driving science fiction, Arnie Benn’s near-future space exploration tale is a thoughtful and exciting journey into the wonders and mysteries that humanity has to look forward to…

Or beware of.

May 26, 2023
A LONG TIME DEAD by T.L. Bequette – Mystery, International Crime, Legal Thriller

T.L. Bequette’s thrilling Joe Turner Mystery series continues in A Long Time Dead.

This book echoes the style of Earle Stanley Gardner’s early whodunits, where there are two possibilities. The authorities see only one, and Jake will have to use his special brand of savvy to find the explanation for his client’s innocence.

Joe, a California criminal defense lawyer, moves into his new Oakland office. As he unpacks a box labeled “Red Sox”, containing memorabilia for display, he comes upon an envelope containing two 2013 Red Sox ticket stubs, a credit card receipt, and a picture of him and his mom. The memories come flooding back.

Joe hasn’t seen his friend, Owen Prescott, in ten years—not since the afternoon he gave Joe that envelope. Not since Owen fell off the radar.

In 2013, 24-year-old Owen Prescott becomes a newly celebrated author, having produced a best-seller during graduate school. In the process, he acquires a lawsuit filed by an envious, disgruntled professor, and an admiring stalker against whom he secures a restraining order.

When the professor turns up dead, everything hits the fan.

Upon the advice of his wealthy father’s attorneys, Owen fled the country on the day of the Red Sox game. He went underground, and no one has seen him since. Now Joe wonders about his friend and begins to ponder what really happened. Was Owen capable of murder? If not, who killed the professor?

When he begins to delve into those questions, acquiring the police files on the case, Joe learns that Owen was recently sighted in Europe. Meanwhile, an FBI cold-case investigator follows the same trail, trying to close a net and capture Owen so he can be tried for the murder.

Where Owen is, who he has become, and what he has been doing for ten years add additional dimensions to this mystery. His assumed safety falls apart around him, and surprising individuals both threaten and protect his secret. For one such character, the reader can only wonder what’s next.

Bequette’s yarn introduces a plethora of multi-dimensional characters. Everyone’s motives help shape and move this convoluted plot forward to an unexpected and satisfying answer to “who done it?”

From the very beginning, this story will hook readers. Fast pacing, clever plot twists, and intercontinental flavor make A Long Time Dead difficult not to finish in one sitting.

May 24, 2023