Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

ONE LONDON DAY by C.C. Humphreys – Technothrillers, Serial Killers, Contemporary Urban Fiction

A good thriller should be like the best-boxed chocolate sampler: the ones that not only offer you a great variety of tastes but allow you to sample and resample the chocolates you’ve discovered.

C.C. Humphreys’ noir thriller One London Day resembles that box of chocolates. The story takes you from delicious to delicious bits, round and round, until you have sampled everything and everyone once, twice, or even three times until you understand the full impact of this brilliantly dark – based on a true story thriller.

It begins, deceptively, with Mr. Phipps, who has a taste for the dark side of life. He’s a handsomely compensated and frequently used assassin. The first victim on this day will be Joseph Severin, a well-heeled real estate manager, married, and prominent member of London’s Jewish community. Severin keeps a double set of books in handwritten form—no computers, please—for a financial group which calls itself the Shadows, a name picked from comic books. The Shadows, a well-to-do collection of white-collar men, fund various illegal enterprises, the details of which Severin cleverly encodes in his books. When the Shadows discover Severin dabbling in their investments, it becomes clear; the bookkeeper knows too much. The Shadows move Severin from the credit side of the ledger to the debit side, so to speak. Goodbye, Mr. Severin.

Meanwhile, Severin meets a stunning woman named Lottie.

She’s a beautiful, sexy, for-hire pianist, and Severin impulsively offers a month’s free rent in one of his unoccupied flats. Of course, the offer comes with fringe benefits if only Severin can get over the fact that he’s about to break his marriage vows.

Lottie, of course, has her own story. She’s been dating a rising young black actor, Patrick, whom she loves. But Patrick loves kinky sex and arranges for a Russian hooker, Sonya, to join him and Lottie for a delicious threesome. Despite the pleasures of the moment, Lottie can’t stop thinking about Severin.

Sonya’s a highly paid hooker in London who needs to raise enough money for her daughter’s much-needed operation back in Moscow. She’s almost raised enough money to leave the escort business altogether and take care of her daughter.

Enter Bernard, who lost his wife and hires Sonja to hold and comfort him, not for sex. There’s somewhat of a complication here because Bernard is a member of the Shadows. Sebastien, another one of the Shadows, also craves an evening with Sonya.

The Shadows want Mr. Severin removed, but they need to recover Severin’s incriminating accounting books. Enter Mr. Phipps, who must collect the books that seem to have wound up with Lottie. However, recovering the books may not be as easy as he thinks.

C.C. Humphreys develops his story like a game of Mousetrap, requiring readers to pay close attention to every detail.

Characters and plot points circle, again and again, each time adding to a fuller picture of what happened on this one day. Greed and comeuppance play out in today’s London from someone who knows it well. Humphreys’ craftsmanship is unmistakable.

Read One London Day if you enjoy present-day noir thrillers. Read it if you enjoy well-crafted writing. Read it if you want a few hours of fun entertainment. But above all, just read it. You won’t be disappointed.

October 15, 2021
An October Spotlight on the 2021 Global Thriller Awards

Time is running out! The 2021 Global Thriller Awards are due in October!

You’re working the puzzle, the patterns you see that no one else pays attention to. You’ve been at it for days, your eyes are burning, your throat dry, when a message notification beeps on your smartphone. You tap to open:

“We know who you are and your time is running out.”

The smartphone beeps again. This time, the message reads:

“You have until October 31, 2021, 11.59 p.m. to turn in your Global Thriller, or you will have no chance of winning…”

Don’t let this happen to you!

Turn in your High-Stakes Thriller, your Chillers, your multiple Killers for a chance at the prize! But one thing is certain, if you don’t enter, you won’t have a chance of winning!

The Global Thriller Awards Spotlight

The clock is ticking… you’re working on a deadline while your spouse is across town, picking up the kids. You’ve taken the day off and gone to the cabin. You have to write that last chapter… the one that will get your work noticed, like J.D. Barker or Stephen King kind of noticed.

The Chanticleer Global Thriller Awards recognizes High Stake Thrillers on an International Scale, including Lab Lit. While Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series might be the first thing that comes to mind, there is a wide variety of espionage and mystery that can fit into the Global Thriller genre. One thing is for sure, it will keep you up late, and, if you can sleep, it’ll be with one eye open.

The only certainty is that the competition for this CIBA Division Awards is steep. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.

The Bucharest Dossier, a Novel by William Maz

Chanticleer Review is forth coming.

Doubt and Debt
By John Feist

Pipelines—large industrial pipelines through which pour oil, gas, and other natural elements—are not the usual stuff that writers tackle for intelligent, sophisticated international high-stakes spy novels. But then again, most writers aren’t John Feist, whose lawyering background in, yes, global pipelines and related industries such as steel, coal, and shipping companies make him the perfect choice to turn these typically pedestrian subjects into absorbing books. His work introduces us to complex issues involving international trade at the highest level, greed, murder, and above all, the intricacies and rewards of multinational, prominent, and sometimes multiracial families.

Read More here!

The Kurdish Connection (Book 1 in the Bedlam Series)
By Randall Krzak
Semi-Finalist in Global Thrillers

International writer Randall Krzak addresses one of the world’s saddest ongoing tragedies in The Kurdish Connection, a thriller about the plight of the Kurdish people and a desperate plan to free them from their fate.

In a world awash with refugees, perhaps no greater tragedy exists than the ongoing fate of the Kurds of the Middle East, roughly 30 million sect members spread between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Connected by language, religion, and history, this group has no country to call their own. The Kurds have been the subject of several attempts by international agreements to help them create a haven, the most recent in northern Iraq’s no-fly zone. Meanwhile, all four host countries have ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish hopes and dreams politically and especially militarily.

Read More here!

Execute Order
By Jett Ward
First Place Winner in Global Thrillers

On a military base outside Las Vegas, Lieutenant Brent Parker sits in a bunker in a darkened room looking to an outsider to be playing a sophisticated aerial combat video game. But this is no game. People live and die with Parker in control of a lethal drone nicknamed the Reaper flying over forbidden Syrian air space in 2011, striking American enemies on the ground with killer missiles from several miles in the air.

Enemies are one issue, but collateral damage—men, women, children, whole families who die in a missile attack as a side effect of bringing down a terrorist—weighs heavily on Parker’s conscience. It doesn’t help when his ultra-sensitive cameras see the face of a woman who his missile will obliterate as a side effect of bringing down a military-mandated target, a face that haunts him as he leaves the bunker for the clean, and safe, American desert air of Nevada.

Read More here!

The Kafir Project
By Lee Burvine
First Place Winner in Global Thriller Awards

From page one, things are not going as planned on The Kafir Project, and author Lee Burvine has many more surprises in store before this undertaking ends. The action leaps off the page from beginning to the grand finale in this thought-provoking thriller. The villains are well-organized and highly motivated to stop the Project dead, as well as anyone who gets in their way.

Gevin Rees is a television science communicator, a celebrity who explains complex scientific discoveries and theories to television audiences. He interviews guests on specific topics and is surprised the world’s most celebrated and reclusive physicist, Edward Fischer, wants to meet with him. It’s even more curious because Fischer’s death in an explosion had been broadly reported. However, he stands before Gevin Rees and begins to tell a story of intrigue about a secret project on a pier along San Francisco Bay. The story is interrupted with gunfire. This time there is no doubt that Fischer is dead. Now on the run, Gevin Rees is a new target.

Read More here!

Hong Kong Central (Book 3)
By Marilyn Larew

Former CIA agent and all around badass, Lee Carruthers, returns for the thrilling third book in the series, Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew.

Lee is looking forward to some well-earned downtime, so when her ex-boss and mentor, Sidney Worthington calls with another job, Lee is not amused. During her previous mission, people tried to kill her—multiple times. All she really wants right now is some serious R&R. However, she is the gal who will never say “no” to a job. And besides, Worthington swears it’s an easy gig.

Read More here!

Bishop’s Law
By Rafael Amadeus Hines
First Place Winner in Global Thriller Awards

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. This is the code that John Bishop, one of America’s most decorated military heroes, teaches his men to follow whether they’re on a mission in the heat of the Middle East or in the jungle that is New York’s Lower East Side in Rafael Amadeus Hines’ novel, Bishop’s Law.

To say his life is complicated is putting it mildly. In this second volume of the John Bishop series, several high-level assassins are hell-bent on killing him for his actions as a soldier. At the same time, he’s deep in his crime family’s military-style battles against various opponents’ groups. All these forces are closing in on him simultaneously, even as the United States government had hired him and his family to protect the country from bad guys using whatever means necessary.

Read More here!

Have a great Global Thriller? Submit before the end of October for the 2021 CIBAs!

When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.

If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.

Also remember! Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

October 14, 2021
IN the LAND of the FEATHERED SERPENT by Richard C. Brusca – Historical Caribbean & Latin Fiction, Magical Realism, Adventure Fiction

Odel Bernini wades deeper and deeper into treacherous political intrigue, in Richard C. Brusca’s Historical Adventure novel, In the Land of the Feathered Serpent.

This story, like the feathered serpent itself, moves time and space to visit an era remembered by many Americans as one where the U.S. government worked to destabilize several Central American regimes who were at odds with its politics.

A young Odel works as chief curator of a world-renowned natural history museum in Seattle, an occasional teacher at a college in nearby Tacoma, and an archaeology hobbyist. His marine biology fieldwork in support of his specialty – the documentation of crustaceans in Central America – brings him time and again to nations long under the political sway of the United States, especially Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Revolutions and counterrevolutions create governments and insurgents that brutalize the local populations, especially the indigenous people. Prodded by his wife, the daughter of an American cultural attaché, Bernini approaches the CIA to ask whether it might fund his continued research in the region in exchange for “some silly things” he could do for them.

Those “silly things” lead to funding from a foundation to cover his travel, but with strings attached.

He collects crustaceans and intel. Having sold his soul, he gradually undertakes more dangerous tasks on the CIA’s behalf. Like a frog placed into room-temperature water, it is almost too late before he realizes that the burner has been lit. In addition to the growing peril to his life, Bernini falls for a devastatingly gorgeous woman he meets in a hotel bar, on the eve of his first assignment.

As things grow more complicated, the malicious Guatemalan army tears through the jungle looking for Bernini. He must contend with the wildlife buzzing and slithering around him in the dark and hopes he can escape – right up until he meets a venomous fer-de-lance snake.

Author Brusca delivers modern man’s Odyssey, both in scale and complexity.

We are riveted to this man’s journey of self-discovery through challenging times as he navigates the siren calls of the CIA and impossibly beautiful and sexually adept women while his mundane life as an academic and museum curator disintegrates. The lead character’s descent into calamitous Central American politics and American foreign policy plays foil to erotic scenes with his wife back home in Seattle, a darkly fascinating and even more beautiful seductress in Central America, and a final twist coupling with a yet more mysterious and enigmatically enthralling woman.

Author Brusca has an effortless style that draws the reader in and manages to convey needed facts of science, political history, and geography that quickly absorb the reader. Brusca delivers a mega-novel that will resonate with readers drawn to sensually charged, clandestine storylines that run through dangerous political landscapes and treacherous jungles. In the end, much like the heroes he echoes, Odel Bernini, is a super-heroic Indiana Jones archetype with a whole bunch of sexy Bond on the side.

October 13, 2021
WISHES and KISSES by Heather Pallotta – Heartwarming Children’s Books, Children’s Literature, Stories in Verse
A triumphant treasure in the bustling world of children’s literature, Heather Pallotta’s Wishes and Kisses is a work of art that will let every child who experiences it know that they are greatly loved and how magical they make the lives of the people around them.

In the world of Wishes and Kisses, we are all made of sunshine and love, wishes and kisses, and how our uniqueness makes us perfectly us. Children will learn that some days will bring warmth and wiggles and others they may feel down and not quite themselves, but that all of these feelings are okay. The story reminds children (and adults) to fly high and follow their dreams to the stars.

Heather Pallotta has been an artist since 1999 and was inspired to create children’s books by her children. She aims to teach confidence, love, uniqueness, and endless possibilities through her highly imaginative books.

It is beyond doubt that Wishes and Kisses was written with an abundance of love for her children by watching their growing imaginations and exploration of themselves and the world around them.

The illustrations, also drawn by the author, are simply stunning, beautifully reflecting the thoughts and feelings of the story itself. Parents and children will love these beautiful drawings and the uplifting message that will surely inspire the next generation of readers and artists.

Pallotta has other stories within the world of Wishes and Kisses to come, the first being Ruler of Daffodils.

Wishes and Kisses won 1^st Place in the CIBA 2017 Little Peeps Awards for Children’s Literature and may be downloaded for free here.
October 11, 2021
JERKWATER by Jamie Zerndt – Native American Fiction, Friendship Fiction, Ethnic & Regional Fiction

Three friends in Mercer, Wisconsin find ways to deal with their problems amid a racist town in Jamie Zerndt’s Jerkwater.

Shawna Reynolds’ life changed when her white stepdad murdered her Ojibwa mother. Now living with her Naan (grandmother), Shawna surrounds herself with those who make her feel most comfortable. Besides Naan, she clings to her horse Seven, her behind-the-scenes Ojibwa boyfriend Elmer, and two white friends: Kay O’Brien and her son Douglas. But racial tension cuts through the town of Mercer itself, galvanized by a fight over fishing rights.

Soon after the death of her husband Norm, sixty-four-year-old Kay O’Brien learns that she nears the late stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Norm’s sudden demise shocks her and Douglas to the point that she withholds her recent diagnosis from him. Kay has a few church-lady friends, but feels closest to Shawna, spending time together drinking foul-tasting Manhattans. Shawna divulges that she’s been accepted into veterinary school, and in turn, Kay discloses her Alzheimer’s.

Douglas, who blames himself for his father’s death, takes over his dad’s unstable car repair business more out of guilt than aptitude. However, amongst the apparent doom and gloom of their lives, Shawna connects with animals, Douglas develops his art, and Kay still has enough wits about her to create positive change.

The three friends share something vital: they understand pain.

Each one struggles with their own unresolved issues: Shawna, anger over her mother’s death; Kay, health problems and the loss of her husband; and Douglas, caught between guilt and his desire to be an artist.

Jenna, a newbie who runs a hippish coffee house in town, takes an immediate interest in Douglas and his artwork. In the meantime, Kay discovers Norm’s poems written to a secret French love. But this upsetting news gets lost in the “Alzheimer” translation. She believes herself to be the secret love and takes off on Seven, babbling in nonsensical French. Although the situation is nothing less than strange, the friends have no idea that this bizarre moment will initiate a flurry of unforgettable and life-changing events.

Raconteur extraordinaire Jamie Zerndt produces a witty yet moving story of friendship.

Alternating his latest novel between three third-person narratives, Zerndt weaves in the local information about the Ojibwa and their constant fight with racist fishing rights in the highly-populated white town of Mercer, Wisconsin. Zerndt paints a convincing and visceral picture of emotion through his principal cast on many levels: low self-esteem, depression (leading to alcoholism), anger, and fear. His characters stay grounded, unremarkable, and relatable, especially Kay who struggles with the fact that she has no control of her mental state – something the older generation dreads.

Undoubtedly, sadness abounds from one page onward. But so does humor, love, and tenderness.

The humor arrives in darkness and sarcasm, as the characters face death and hate coming from a town dripping in racism. Sometimes, you have to laugh at pain in its face, and that’s precisely what Shawna, Kay, and Douglas do. Love unfolds awkwardly as an escape for Shawna and as a revelation for Douglas. Religion also comes into play as Kay bounces her thoughts of God between her relationship to the Catholic church, the church ladies she chums with, and a hippish priest who offers his services in an unorthodox way.

While chapters close on cliffhangers and tension builds with each character, Zerndt offers very little in the way of clues to the story’s apex. Instead, he uses the element of surprise, which allows readers to experience the depths of Shawna, Douglas, and Kay in ways they may not think possible.

Kudos to Zerndt for a brilliant literary work! Jerkwater is an absorbing read from beginning to end.

Jamie Zerndt’s Jerkwater won 1st Place in the 2019 CIBA Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Novels.

October 8, 2021
The SIGHTLESS CITY by Noah Lemelson – Gaslamp Fantasy, Steampunk Fiction, Post-Apocaliptic Sci-fi

The city of Huile burns with trouble in Noah Lemelson’s dieselpunk novel The Sightless City.

Four years ago, the United Confederacy of the Citizens Resurgence defeated the Principate in a devastating war. Marcel Talwar lost his leg to that conflict but became a national hero for saving Huile. Now he’s settled down to work as a private detective. However, the schematics to a strange device throw his temporary calm into disarray.

Marcel relentlessly investigates the true nature of the documents and the death of their owner. His investigation robs him of all certainty, forcing him to question what he once thought he knew about his world, his role in the revolution. Especially troubling is his friendship with Lazarus Roache, a fellow hero and now the richest, most powerful man in town.

As a dieselpunk novel, The Sightless City embraces a more 20^th Century feel of industrialization than Victorian steampunk.

Darkness saturates the world with unimaginable cruelties of forced labor camps and grim images of factories pumping out clouds of dark smoke – and people too terrified to ask what goes on within those walls. Magic joins this industrial world, where cities once floated above the earth, where “Engineers” have the “Knack” to refashion metal and other dense materials with their minds, and a mysterious red substance pumped out of the earth, called sangleum, serves as the city’s lifeblood and its source of wealth. Other darker powers include a drug derivative that can turn people into drones, subject to the commands of a single man.

Amongst this dense and complex world, Marcel’s investigation keeps the story centered, as he discovers the secrets of the documents while navigating industry and magic.

In the search for truth, Marcel meets Sylvaine, an Engineer who discovers that her Knack allows her to repair machines and build bombs with her mind. Many more characters boast strange tools and powers. The monk Kayip has long been at war with Roache, wielding a bracelet that can, by his thoughts, transforms into a broadsword or collapse back around his wrist. Meanwhile, the evil Verus keeps a patch over one eye, concealing not an eye socket but a window into an unimaginable dark universe.

Lemelson’s world-building hits the mark for an intricate and complex storyline.

Beginning a revolution will change everyone’s life. The battle sprawls, thanks in no small part to Marcel, Sylvaine, and Kayip, who form a partnership to bring down the malignant forces that enslave the city’s factory workers. Marcel’s investigation leads to a detailed, engaging dystopian novel.

Those who love their dieselpunk with a dark and gritty edge will find immersion in a world very different and yet just a few steps away from our own in The Sightless City. This title won 1st Place in the CIBA 2019 OZMA Book Awards for Fantasy Fiction.

October 4, 2021
The MOON and STAR: Lessons From a Cat by Peggy Sullivan – Children’s Literature, Children’s Cat Books,

In Peggy Sullivan’s award-winning book, The Moon and Star: Lessons From a Cat, readers learn how a charming, tiny white cat finds solace in her connection with the Moon as she goes through life’s challenges and changes.

Star lives happily with a tall girl and two other cats. She runs, dances, and hunts for goldfish in a backyard pond. But this mindful cat soon realizes that life is full of unpredictable circumstances. Though she moves to a college town and has new and fun experiences, Star feels sad when she loses a feline friend, even more so when the tall girl goes off on her adventures.

Luckily Star is a cat with an attraction to the Moon. Its magical glow helps the little cat gain a sense of calm. The peacefulness Star feels stays with her, regardless of changes in her life or surroundings. Though Star and the tall girl move many more times, this sensitive cat realizes the light of the Moon offers a unique sense of serenity wherever her journey takes her.

In the first story, Midnight and Moonlight, Sullivan focuses on friendship and differences.

In this next adventure, the author shows us positive and relatable life lessons explored through the eyes of our furry friends and shares them in a gentle and entertaining format. While it can be challenging to write for a young audience and tell a well-crafted story with little words, humor, and grace, all while relating a universal message, Sullivan has the knack. Her background and experience as a mental health counselor and child advocate make for a rich and holistic reading experience.

As in all of Sullivan’s Children’s books, the images match magnificently with the story.

Here the text is easily followed, and accompanying drawings feature the colorful antics of an adorable, big blue-eyed Star. Several images of this gentle little cat pondering a quiet respite beneath the night’s starry, moonlit sky are sure to help deliver an essential message to youngsters. Ultimately the Moon serves as Star’s sanctuary and ideally reveals to readers that small moments of comfort and joy surround us if we just take the time to look.

The Moon and Star: Lessons From a Cat by Peggy Sullivan won the GRAND PRIZE in the 2017 CIBAs for the LITTLE PEEPS Book Awards for Children’s Literature.

October 1, 2021
GIRL with a GUN: An Annie Oakley Mystery (Annie Oakley Mystery Series Book 1) by Kari Bovée – Historical Biographical Fiction, Traditional Detective Mysteries, Historical Mystery

From humble beginnings in rural Ohio, fifteen-year-old Annie Oakley becomes a household name when she competes in a sharpshooting competition against the renowned marksman Frank Butler. Her life changes wildly from that day on in Kari Bovée’s mystery novel, Girl With a Gun: An Annie Oakley Mystery.

Colonel Cody, also known as Buffalo Bill, asks Annie Oakley to join the Wild West Show after the event. While reluctant to leave her family – who need her support – she can help them a lot more with an impressive salary. Annie becomes the new star of the traveling show.

Along with her beloved horse Buck, Annie settles into the Wild West Show lifestyle. She immediately befriends her tent-mate Kimi and her infant daughter Winona. When Kimi turns up dead soon after, Annie suspects that something more sinister than a tragic accident killed her. She begins investigating the matter herself when no one else will. As she looks into the murder, her horse Buck and others around the camp fall ill, and it seems like someone is trying to hurt Annie and her standing in the Wild West Show. Can she figure out who wants her gone and what happened to Kimi before the murderer can strike again?

Girl with a Gun brings readers right into its historical setting, with memorable figures like Buffalo Bill, Frank Butler, and of course the protagonist Annie Oakley. The real-life facts and chronology of Annie’s life change and move around for the sake of the story, as Kari Bovée adds to the historical fiction genre with a fun mystery series that reimagines the life of the talented sharpshooter.

Annie first appears as a loveable and relatable character, and her depth becomes clear as the story continues.

Fictional news headlines reflect the story’s events in exciting tones. These headlines add flavor to the drama and underlining mystery the characters face, and reflect the public’s opinion of the conflicts within the traveling Wild West Show.

Annie’s character defines the story around her. She cares deeply for her family and friends, and strives to protect them. Readers will get wrapped up in the trials and tribulations she faces at every turn, including a whirlwind romance.

Girl with a Gun: An Annie Oakley Mystery is the first in a trilogy of mysteries based on the exciting life of a prolific female sharpshooter. This story will excite both the casual mystery fan and historical fiction reader. This book won 1st Place in the Mystery and Mayhem Book Awards for Cozys and Not-So-Cozy Books in the 2018 CIBAs.

September 30, 2021
The CONSCIOUS VIRUS: An Aedgar Wisdom novel by Miki Mitayn – Native American Literature, Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction, Magic Realism Fiction

Dr. Nerida Green travels across Australia, tending to struggling communities and connecting with her wife Mari – as well as the three spirits who Mari channels through her body, in Miki Mitayn’s climate-fiction novel The Conscious Virus: An Aedgar Wisdom Novel.

Nerida works sporadic jobs as a doctor, from the mining community of Newman to the small town of Fitzroy Crossing, and back east to a disappointing stint at a naturopathy clinic in Byron Bay. Between her working hours, Nerida speaks with M’Hoq Toq, the Native American medicine man, Bartgrinn the Celtic druid, and Aedgar, an ancient being of the Earth. Nerida asks the spirits for their opinions on topics as broad as climate change and as narrow as her personal matters, engaging them in deep conversation.

While Nerida and Mari travel, the Coronavirus makes its appearance on the world stage, and shortly after that, Australia. Nerida manages to find them a safe place to live through quarantine, but her role as a doctor weighs heavily on her as the pandemic picks up steam. She turns to the advice of her ephemeral friends, who at once soothe her heart and spark her worries.

The Conscious Virus tackles current global issues, both through Nerida’s personal experience and the wisdom of the spirits.

Climate Change hurts the vulnerable people whom Nerida cares for, and as the spirits tell her, disrupts the natural systems and energies of the planet. Covid-19 spreads amongst people who are profoundly unprepared for a pandemic, while the entities try to communicate the metaphysical nature of the pandemic.

All three spirits have distinct voices, filling their conversations with personality and the unique word-choice of people who haven’t walked the Earth in centuries. Their beliefs mesh with Nerida’s as often as they clash. She connects with them through their philosophy and deep thoughts on the world, but she struggles to understand their often very unscientific perspectives. How much of what they say is metaphorical, and how much is literal? Will Nerida side with the wisdom of the spirits or with the research and knowledge of her peers?

Between Nerida’s lengthy conversations with the spirits, she and Mari experience the beauty and difficulties of the material world. Mitayn paints Australia with beautiful descriptions, full of color and heat and smells. The world becomes tangible as Nerida walks and drives through it. Her life with Mari is a grounded and realistic one, concerned with whether the air conditioning will keep working, how they’re going to find a place to stay along their travels, and how they should treat each other to maintain a relationship of love and respect. They meet and reconnect with many interesting people, creating a collection of vignettes across their journey.

This story explores many facets of the modern world and its struggles.

The lives and work of Aboriginal people often take center stage, as Nerida – an Aboriginal woman herself – understands the unique challenges they face. Nerida, Mari, and the spirits tell an engaging and deeply thoughtful story about LGBT+ identity, racist systems, and how entire groups of people are pushed down by the interests of the rich and powerful. Mitayn takes none of these issues lightly but instead gives them the time and consideration that they deserve.

Jumping between past, present, and future, The Conscious Virus creates not just a compelling image of the modern world – but also of how the future might play out depending on whether people face their trials with wisdom and compassion – or something so pointless as greed.

September 27, 2021
The KURDISH CONNECTION, Bedlam Series #1 by Randall Krzak – Military Thriller, Terrorism Thriller, Political Thriller

International writer Randall Krzak addresses one of the world’s saddest ongoing tragedies in The Kurdish Connection, a thriller about the plight of the Kurdish people and a desperate plan to free them from their fate.

In a world awash with refugees, perhaps no greater tragedy exists than the ongoing fate of the Kurds of the Middle East, roughly 30 million sect members spread between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Connected by language, religion, and history, this group has no country to call their own. The Kurds have been the subject of several attempts by international agreements to help them create a haven, the most recent in northern Iraq’s no-fly zone. Meanwhile, all four host countries have ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish hopes and dreams politically and especially militarily.

Among the most vicious suppression efforts were those of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who used deadly sarin nerve gas against them, most notably in the village of Halabja, in which up to 5,000 Kurds perished and another 10,000 were wounded.

The Kurdish Connection takes us deep inside that struggle.

Two young Iraqi Kurds, Dersim and Ismet, scavengers by trade and refugees from Halabja with searing memories from their youth of Saddam’s gas attack, accidentally stumble on a large cache of sarin gas canisters leftover by Saddam’s army. The pair are stunned by the possibilities of what can be done with it. They, in turn, make their finding known to a group of Kurdish mullahs who find themselves torn by the possibilities of how the weapons can be used.

Eventually, they agree that the sarin gas might help them free a powerful mullah named Muhammed Baziyan, imprisoned for many years under tight security by the Turks. The Kurds believe that this one man could be the leader to pull them together and unite them as a single voice.

Meanwhile, half a world away, a new international counterterrorism group called Bedlam assembles in Washington D.C. to explore a rumor from on-the-ground intelligence that an Iraqi sarin gas cache exists. Its goal becomes a frantic effort to locate the canisters, disable or destroy them, and stop them from falling into the wrong hands.

With few intelligence assets on the ground, Bedlam assigns their operatives to travel to Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Using various identities such as amateur archeologists, members of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders), and cultural tourists, they use their limited information plus sophisticated chemical detectors to try and locate the deadly cache.

At the same time, the mullahs make plans to use the gas to disrupt Turkish military forces and other pressure tactics, including kidnapping foreigners to show the world some of the brutal tactics used by military forces against Kurds. In the most recently reported event, they want to show the world how Syrian troops viciously put down a peaceful Kurdish demonstration over bakery prices, which the Syrian government claimed was an attack instigated by the Kurds.

The mullahs’ overall plan is to instigate several near-simultaneous attacks in Turkey to draw out Turkish military forces and disguise their main effort, to free the mullah Baziyan from his well-guarded Turkish prison. Using sarin gas to kill Turkish troops seems like a good plan, but no one wishes to harm civilians. Not everyone agrees with the deployment of sarin gas.

The action is set against the exotic, fairytale-like landscape of Capadoccia, Turkey, with its soaring natural towers, and Gobekli Tepi, an archeological dig of an ancient temple built 6,000 years before Stonehenge. Equipped with sophisticated chemical detectors, built James Bond-like into their gear, the Bedlam teams ready themselves for their mission. A further refinement of Bedlam’s plans is to substitute phony sarin containers for their more dangerous counterparts.

Randall Krzak delivers an exciting cat-and-mouse game between the Bedlam team, suspicious Kurds, and equally suspicious Turkish government spies.

The Kurdish Connection soars in the detailed accounts of towns and villages, the people there, and even the weaponry and vehicles used. Readers will find themselves in the middle of the action as the Kurds successfully bomb a Turkish oil field, terrorize a soccer stadium, and stage a murderous assault on the prison where the mullah is kept. Krzak takes us into the dank caves and sewers where the Bedlam teams go to locate and sabotage the horrific sarin canisters from being used by anyone.

Above all, The Kurdish Connection offers readers a compassionate look at one of the world’s most intractable social conflicts, wrapped in the pages of a thriller that will keep readers glued to its pages until the final sentence. The Kurdish Connection is the first book in Krzak’s Bedlam series. Please read our reviews of the following books by clicking on their titles: Dangerous Alliance and Carnage in Singapore.

September 23, 2021