Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

RESISTANCE, REVOLUTION and OTHER LOVE STORIES by K. – Short Story Collection, Love Stories, Literary

The Ancient Greeks believed that there were eight different types of love. To the poet Emily Dickinson, “… Love is all there is, Is all we know of Love.” But in the words and stories in this collection, Resistance, Revolution and Other Love Stories by K., love sometimes requires desperate action, whether embraced, resisted, or a combination of the two.

The twelve stories here range from the mythic past to a far-flung future as the author goes back to retell the classic myth of “Orpheus and Eurydice.” In “Automatonomatopoeia,” we reach forward into a future that resembles the harsh authoritarian worldview of Orwell’s classic 1984 until its protagonist learns the truth behind the strict conformism that kept him isolated and alone.

Several of the most poignant stories present as contemporary reflections on the forms of love and the ways that society twists love around.

In “Calamity Jane,” the friendship of two teenaged boys crashes into the rocks of their mutual love for the same beautiful and calamitous girl. A girl who seems to like getting between the two friends more than she loves either one of them – or herself.

Meanwhile, in “Vikings” we meet a protagonist caught between several different types of love. He’s in a situation where the best thing he can do may very well destroy him. What could it be? The only certainty, the only way forward – the only way to preserve what he loves is to leave everything he cherishes behind. Can he do it?

The would-be lovers in “Head Down” face a dilemma made all the more heartbreaking because it feels so very real.

This sad tale speaks of the conflict between love and duty, wrapped around a romance that can never be fulfilled because the lovers have met too late. Both parties have commitments that they cannot or will not break. So, they must break each other’s hearts instead.

As with any collection of short stories, whether by multiple authors or by a singular author, not every story will appeal to every reader. That being said, Resistance, Revolution and Other Love Stories, with its wide range of genres, not only showcases the author’s talent, but is certain to please a vast readership. From myth to historical to romantic to speculative, and its exploration of all the different kinds of love from the altruistic to the romantic to the obsessive, those looking to have their hearts touched and their minds blown in the space of a single, beautifully curated collection need look no further.

In other words, Resistance, Revolution and Other Love Stories by K. tops our list for what to read this summer.

July 5, 2021
A YEAR of LIVING KINDLY: Choices that will Change Your Life and the World Around You by Donna Cameron – Spiritual Growth Self-Help, Happiness Self-Help, Communication and Social Skills

Donna Cameron’s guide, A Year of Living Kindly: Choices That Will Change Your Life and the World Around You, invites readers to live more richly, thoroughly, and fruitfully.

Perhaps the best way to enjoy Cameron’s guide to kindness is to drink it in slowly, for a year, as its structure suggests. Savoring one of its 52 meditations – thoughtful, introspective, resonate, and wide-ranging discussions – each week. She turns to a new topic grouping with the advent of each new month, traversing the four parts, the “seasons,” as the year progresses.

Of course, as Cameron will tell you, living a year of kindness is not, in the end, enough; it’s a journey suited to a lifetime. But the habit of it, the joy of it, can take root throughout a year.

Based on the experiences of its author, the book’s foundation lies in the work of a lifetime of nurturing nonprofits and championing causes from the varied perspectives of executive, consultant, trainer, and volunteer. The guide incorporates observation and situates itself also in research. In and among her insights, Cameron weaves the thoughts, studies, and findings of cultural anthropologists, philosophers, physicians, psychologists, investigative journalists, mindfulness experts, and other teachers. The source notes at the back are modest enough to be accessible to those outside academia, yet extensive enough to show sinew.

So that readers might more easily incorporate these habits of thought into their own lives, each meditation ends with a Kindness in Action exercise. Together, these exercises are the passageways to reshaping ourselves.

The four seasons – Discovery, Understanding, Choosing, and Becoming – mirror the natural contours of such a journey.

In Discovery, we learn about kindness: what it is and what it isn’t, the health benefits that being kind grants, how we might begin to be truly warm and caring. In Understanding, we learn the barriers to kindness – from within and without – and delve more deeply into opening ourselves to this way of encountering the world. In Choosing, we explore the courage that kindness can take, the roles of vulnerability and curiosity – yes, curiosity – play, and what it means to extend compassion to all, including standing up to bullies, online and off. In Becoming, we settle in to look soberly at the challenges, at what we might do to create a kinder world, and at what it means to live in kindness every day.

This structure makes for a powerful presentation and easy entry into the eddies and currents of these gently meditative discussions. But it is not, as Cameron herself notes, necessary to follow a linear path. A reader could just as quickly open the book and flip to any point within it to encounter something rich and thought-provoking to ponder that day, that week, that month.

In this journey to kindness, we might each of us follow whichever path calls to us.

Giving our whole selves to kindness helps us to become whole.

A Year of Living Kindly is a generous book brimming with open good-heartedness and calm practicality, with guidance firm yet gentle. Wise, yet itself kind. Cameron undertakes her journey from a position many would recognize – not so much unkind as hurried, distracted, disengaged. Perhaps in the habit of being, when the situation calls for it, “nice.” Civil, not especially warm. Cautious, not connected.

Cameron invites us instead to be open to the world. To be generous with our time and our talent, in word, deed, and spirit. To be aware of and awake to others. To be fully present. To be, fully.

She invites us to embrace kindness as a way of embracing life. Adopting the “mantle of kindness,” she says, will enable each of us to enjoy more entirely in the abundance of our own lives and in the richness the world has to offer. Such a journey connects us more deeply with ourselves and others, enabling us to live our best lives. And such kindness spreads. When we give so wholly of ourselves, others tend to take that gift and pass it along.

The case she makes is compelling. The message, timely. It’s an invitation that’s difficult to resist, particularly in the company of such a guide. In the world it seems we’ve all been hurtling toward in the past five years or so, Donna Cameron’s steady voice and clear-eyed vision is a balm for the soul.

Perhaps, just perhaps, with enough kindness, we might indeed remake neighborhoods, remake communities, and transform the national temper. A Year of Living Kindly placed 1st in Category in the CIBA 2019 Instruction and Insight Awards for Non-Fiction How-To manuals.

June 30, 2021
SOMETIMES WHEN I’M MAD by Deborah Serani, Psy.D. – Children’s Self-Help Books, Children’s Books About Anger, Children’s Books with Reader Guide

Sometimes When I’m Mad, “… it’s because everything goes wrong,” is the enticing opening phrase of psychologist Deborah Serani’s informative children’s book. It explores the emotion of anger and helps youngsters identify and cope with this often uncomfortable feeling.

Here we meet a dark-haired girl with spiky pigtails who is easily frustrated by the day’s happenings. Whether a spilled glass of milk, a frantic search for a toy, or discontent when a friend doesn’t come over to play, sharp images of a furrowed brow, snarling face, or pouting lips tell the story. Concerned parents, grandparents, and a teacher soon help this youngster realize that simple actions can help remedy and manage her anger. Ultimately a talk or fun activity, a nap or hug, or sometimes even an apology can calm the inner turmoil and make an individual feel better.

Kyra Teis’s artful illustrations beautifully complement the straightforward narrative.

The opening background of a lined and spattered wall seems intentionally reflective of the tumultuous subject matter. Details like a crossed arm stance, ears covered to avoid listening, or the rising blush in cheeks when attempting to put on a pair of socks all prove indicative of the child’s building frustration. The color palette is natural yet toned down. For appropriate contrast, the central character’s bright red shirt and shorts and an orange sweatshirt draw the reader’s attention and accentuate the young girl’s intense upset. A final smiling image, where she dons cool-green attire and pets her ever-present, inquisitive feline, helps bring an element of soothing comfort to the storyline.

The book’s final pages guide concerned adults looking to help a child deal with their emotions of anger. Learning to understand it can prove a transformative, healing, and empowering force. Serani smartly explains how the negativity of anger may appear as many physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, appetite, and sleeping problems. Anger unmanaged can also contribute to academic difficulties, as well as social and emotional concerns. Ideally, learning to express anger in adaptive ways will help build confidence and allow children to experience greater physical and emotional well-being.

Serani also points out that anger can manifest itself differently within each child, but there are specific patterns to look for within the developmental stages of specific age groups.

Treating children with respect, helping a child understand that anger is natural, encouraging open and honest communication, and providing age-appropriate consequences for aggressive behavior are also noted as methods to help promote healthy emotional expression. Special needs challenges such as ADHD, Autism, or learning disabilities may also influence a child’s anger. Likewise, if a child’s anger becomes more frequent and intense, consultation with a mental health professional or specialist may be in order. Also included is a list of various organizations offering information and support.

An easy read intended for the 4-8 age group, Sometimes When I’m Mad proves an intelligent choice that delivers positive reinforcement and direct ways to handle complicated feelings that can stir within us at any age. Highly recommended.

June 23, 2021
A PRAYER of VENGEANCE (Call of Vengeance Book 1) by John Stafford – Christian Supernatural Thriller, Catholic Horror Novel, Dark Fantasy Thriller

The Beast watched gleefully on that sad Good Friday, watched with grim satisfaction as the Son of God died.

And so was a little boy who witnessed the grieving mother, her tears and pain beyond description, her sorrow etching deeply on his own soul. He promised himself and God that he would vanquish the evil that killed her son. “I will never let this happen again,” the boy said to the woman, and she touched his face with her hand and said, “And so it shall be.”

The boy gave the Beast the sign of death, the acknowledgment that Roman soldiers gave to an enemy in battle. The Beast accepted the challenge and thus began the struggle between good and evil, the Light and the dark, that would last unto the present day.

This story, or fable, is at the heart of A Prayer of Vengeance by John Stafford.

The first of a four-book series opens in 1976 and takes the epic struggle of good versus evil at face value. It tells the story of a teenage boy in the 20th Century, a linear descendant of that boy. He witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and inherited vast powers to fight the Darkness in his hometown of Beavercreek, Ohio.

Readers expecting a soft-edged Sunday sermon approach to the eternal battle between good and evil will not find it here. Instead, the book begins with as vile a depiction imaginable of a young girl’s rape, disfigurement, and death by Ray and his buddies, the embodiment of the Darkness living on earth.

Enter Brady, the counterpoint to Ray.

Brady enters the scene as an all-American high school teenager the students and faculty all but worship. Everyone wants him as a friend. The high school coach wants him for his football team. Yet Brady is in training for something else that he dare not tell another living soul.

It takes a while before Brady reveals his unique powers. When he calls the Light, he elevates above the earth with arms spread in a Christ-like manner and protects those who need protecting. Brady heals the sick and the wounded by allowing their injuries to flow into him, onto him.

When his high school friends plan a long-standing prank, painting a nearby train bridge with the school’s colors before a big football game, Brady understands the danger awaiting them from unanticipated trains and assumes the critical role in getting the bridge painted. When a train inevitably shows up, Brady brings forth the Light and protects a classmate from certain death. No one there remembers afterward precisely what happened. Such is Brady’s power to do good and yet defend himself and those he loves from his enormous powers.

Brady learned to call the Light at age five.

At 13, he was additionally schooled by his grandfather, who taught him the prayer of vengeance, recited when the Light was called forth. Once he called on the Light, the Darkness, the Beast’s presence followed. Brady would then absorb the damage done by the Darkness, and the victim’s healing would take place.

Once the reader understands Brady’s unique powers and accepts this more muscular version of Catholicism, the inevitable wars between Darkness and light ramp up; even as more people disappear at the hands of Ray and his predators, more people are attracted to Brady and become part of his circle of guardians. The ultimate goal? To destroy the Darkness once and for all.

Catholic horror describes A Call of Vengeance just right.

Catholic readers are in for a polemic as well as a religious-themed supernatural thriller. The author clearly intends it to be such. Non-Catholic readers will find a large cast of characters, several of which are clearly set up for sequels by the end of the book.

This book is clearly not for everyone. The atrocities in the first chapter alone may keep readers from proceeding further. Yet, those whose reading interests embrace the supernatural in its many forms will find A Prayer of Vengeance a bracing reading adventure.

June 21, 2021
I, TARZAN: AGAINST ALL ODDS by Jean-Philippe Soulé – Adventure Memoir, Overcoming Obstacles, Inspirational Memoir

In his adventure-infused memoir, I, Tarzan: Against All Odds, Jean-Philippe Soulé recalls a difficult childhood, fractured and sometimes anger-laced teen years, and remarkable adult accomplishments that continue to the present day.

A child of the 1960s, born in France, Jean-Philippe learned many of life’s lessons through the early medium of television, watching the real-life exploits of Jacques Cousteau and the fantasy heroism of Tarzan. While Cousteau became a life-long role model for Soulé the man, the boy set up ropes to swing from in the backyard – much to his mother’s horror. Both role models, however, influenced Soulé to embrace the outdoors. His acerbic father took him on sailing excursions from time to time, increasing the boy’s sense of the challenges of nature.

Challenges helped Soulé discover his resources and strengths.

At a young age, the introverted Soulé wore glasses and became targeted by bullies, making his life at school hell. Nevertheless, he excelled at sports, proving himself the best runner in the school. Facing inevitable draft induction by age 18, Soulé longed for the opportunity to join the elite French Mountain Commandos, a small Special Forces unit of the 27 BCA. However, his chances were very slim as he had only a few weeks of experience in mountain climbing, and the highly lauded unit was at the time — and remains — a very exclusive military branch. Soulé put his incredible willpower to the test. Once allowed to compete, he so impressed his superiors with physical feats that he not only made the selection but also received rare promotions, participating in harrowing rescue and recovery missions in life-threatening conditions.

The 27 BCA offered Soulé a long-term contract.

Soulé debated about whether to accept the contract. At the end of the day, he refused the position. With scant funding, he decided to embark on the life of world exploration that he’d dreamed of as a child. Making his way to the US by various means, he joined the Microsoft team in its heyday. Outside of work, he met other intrepid men like himself. He learned diving and became an instructor — and even earned his recreational pilot’s license, something he’d been told he’d never be able to do because of poor eyesight in his right eye. At the age of twenty-six, Soulé resigned from Microsoft, ready to travel the world in earnest.

I, Tarzan: Against All Odds, a truly inspirational and powerful memoir, conveys an invaluable message: if one determines a goal and pursues it without compromise, one will succeed. Soulé transports readers onto the scene of his many adventures. We feel what he feels, experience what he does in the truest sense, and delight in the ultimate reward of witnessing his personal growth in self-esteem and accomplishment. I, Tarzan, simply put, is the most inspirational memoir of the year. A final wrap-up includes color photographs of the author with the Indigenous peoples he’s met in the various countries he’s explored. In a brief Epilogue, he offers this hard-acquired wisdom: “If we choose to live our true life, no matter the odds, we can all be Tarzan.”

June 18, 2021
MY ONLY SUNSHINE by Lou Dischler – Humorous Fiction, Dysfunctional Family Humor, General Humor

Lou Dischler delivers an intricately woven story about one well-meaning boy who tries to make sense of the crazy he’s been born into. Get ready for one belly laugh of an adventure in My Only Sunshine.

Welcome to the Louisiana low country, home of 9-year-old Charlie Boone, a kid growing up in 1962. Charlie, a most unreliable narrator, concerns himself with giant wingless wasps and biting red velvet ants. Combine his critter-concerns with the legend of the giant slugs, the story of his mother taken up by a hurricane, and the episode of the puddle he and his brother dug that grew into a pond, then turned into a lake, and we have one wildly imaginative ride well-worth taking.

Dischler delivers an epic tale that shifts from Charlie’s first-person point-of-view with his youthful ignorance coloring his observations to his Uncle Dan’s and “Aunt” Lola’s in third-person point-of-view. While Charlie ages and grows in wisdom as the story progresses, his uncle never seems to gain a lick of sense. Dischler skillfully applies the laws of magic realism to Charlie’s wonderful way of viewing his world. Uncle Dan’s story, on the other hand, derives from an inept conman’s rap-sheet – from failed grifts to bank robbery bungles that succeed only by accident. Dischler guides us, normalizing the ridiculous to the point that the characters jump off the page and set up camp in your living room.

Charlie and his family come richly drawn.

Altogether, the story lands somewhere between Stand by Me meets Bonnie and Clyde combined with an over-the-top sense of humor. Charlie’s easy banter transports us from the classroom to the lake, which becomes a vivid metaphor for his life. Through it all, readers experience the naïve confusion in Charlie at his uncle’s supposed wife, the Tijuana Bibles – more porn than scripture, and his uncle’s frequent disappearances. Dischler casts his spell, causing us all to fall for this 9-year-old boy and want to see what happens next.

My Only Sunshine shines brightly.

In the end, Dischler weaves the threads of this story into a fine cloth of satisfying, dysfunctional family love. Top that off with Charlie’s determination to find his mom no matter the outcome, and this novel shines like a gem. Readers can’t help but root for Charlie to catch a break, find his mom, and become the young man his destiny calls him to.

This rollicking novel will keep readers up at night, rehashing the escapades of one young southern boy, someone to whom we can all relate. Charlie’s a well-meaning kid who makes mistakes. He’s human, after all, just a kid whose mission unfolds in hysterical detail on every page. Dischler’s My Only Sunshine comes highly recommended as a laugh-out-loud read with some thought-provoking issues on the side.

June 16, 2021
FATAL INFRACTION (Mike Stoneman Thriller Series #4) by Kevin G. Chapman – Thriller/Suspense Fiction, Police Procedural, Crime Thrillers

Football, love, racism, and murder are the subjects of interest Kevin G. Chapman uses in his latest crime novel, Fatal Infraction.

Racial tension, throwing the game, and a love triangle all play a part in why the team’s controversial quarterback, Jimmy Rydell is dead. NYPD homicide detective Mike Stoneman and his partner, Jason Dickson, put their personal lives on hold after Rydell’s body turns up frozen in New York City’s Central Park. Who hated Jimmy enough to end his life? Readers soon find out what made the quarterback a possible target.

The brutal way Jimmy dies drives the cops to chase any lead on every turn of the page with little evidence to go on. Waiting for the body to thaw leaves time for the cops and detectives of the NYPD to question all involved, including team members, girlfriends, Jimmy’s agent, and friends.

How many times does a first-round draft pick end up dead in a metropolis like New York City?

As the community becomes more agitated due to racial tension, the news reporters hound the players and people of interest to get the best insight and first story – the details of the murder. The sports reporters play the game, too, but they have an in with the players’ lives that the other reporters and the cops do not. Through myriad lies and deceptions, one truth becomes clear – someone is hiding something, and the cops and detectives know it.

When the detectives uncover the murder of a possible witness and friend of Jimmy, the plot thickens. Can the detectives save a life while also solving the murder? That’s a question readers will find out for themselves.

In the midst of the murder investigation, Jason and Mike face their own challenges that deepen each character’s growth and carry the series forward. Those subplots and several others weave a tapestry of topical social issues into the murder mystery. Although Fatal Infraction is the fourth book in the Mike Stoneman series, it stands on its own as a strong, relevant who-dun-it that will undoubtedly lead new readers to the first book in the series.

Chapman’s style of storytelling and his extraordinary attention to detail in this present-day crime novel leaves no topic unturned before the murder of famous quarterback Jimmy Rydell is put to rest. The dialogue and prose of this intense crime novel resonate with authenticity and a style all its own. In short, Fatal Infraction will capture readers’ attention from the beginning to the end – with no timeouts.

June 8, 2021
WALTZING A TWO-STEP by Dan Juday – Inspirational Memoir, LGBTQ+ Memoir, Coming-of-Age Memoir
Dan Juday’s memoir Waltzing A Two-Step is a humble and compassionate look at his formative years.

Born a few years after the second world war, Dan experiences a peaceful and happy childhood in rural Indiana, moving frequently before the family settles on a rural area of land named Springwood in Clinton County, Indiana. The Juday family were devout Catholics and enrolled Dan and his siblings in Catholic schools until the family moved to Springwood. Public school became the only option for the siblings. There Dan does his best to fit in but his status as a minority Catholic in a mostly Protestant community in the 1950s brings its own challenges.

For Dan, his struggles don’t stop there.

From a young age, Dan knew there was something inherently different about himself that didn’t align with what the world around him expected, and as he grows older and enters adolescence, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. By the time Dan reaches college, the country is facing a lot of cultural changes from the growing political and racial tensions of the 1960s. Young men around him without deferments are being drafted to fight in Vietnam. As he progresses through his undergraduate courses, Dan continues to struggle with finding his place in the world and finding a suitable partner his family would approve of.

Almost by fate, a counselor suggests he switch his minor to Spanish. Dan soon finds a sense of belonging with a group of international students and soon decides to study abroad in Spain. While at the airport, he meets a fellow student named Ricky and embraces the growing desire to live truthfully in a world that is still a long way from being accepting.

Waltzing A Two-Step is a unique memoir in that Dan’s thoughts and feelings serve as a backdrop and rarely come to the forefront.

Dan uses his ability as a strong observer to tell his story through the people and places that surrounded him in his life. Through his quiet observation of the world, he sees the simplicity of life growing up, but as the 1960s bring large cultural shifts, Dan’s simple worldview is increasingly challenged. His struggle to find a sense of belonging is a quintessential part of adolescence and emulates that complex experience throughout the memoir. His journey of self-acceptance of his sexuality will also be relatable to any reader who has experienced similar challenges.

Juday focuses on the themes of family, faith, and self.

He dedicates a section of the book to each with a final one tying them all together as a sort of reckoning. One theme that stands out addresses how people who may only be in your life for a brief moment, in the end, can have some of the biggest impacts. The most beautiful and often bittersweet moments of the book show meaningful relationships that last just a short while. The best example being the immigrant family that lives in the apartment above Dan in New Jersey and welcomes him into their family when he needed one. It’s a beautiful message about life, to embrace the people around you and treasure them as you journey through the trials of life.

Dan Juday’s Waltzing A Two-Step: Reckoning Family, Faith, and Self is a coming-of-age memoir that is a must-read. A compassionate journey of self-acceptance that follows Dan Juday from the rural communities of Indiana, across Europe, and along the East Coast searching for a life well-lived.
- This title is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever you buy your books.
June 2, 2021
BEYOND the HUMAN REALM by Gene Helfman – Killer Whale Fiction, Family and Friendship Fiction, Action/Adventure Fiction

Author Gene Helfman, noted academic expert on aquatic biodiversity, delivers a fictional tale about an orphaned orca (killer whale) named Sam and the humans who seek to change his life in Beyond the Human Realm.

The book opens from Sam’s viewpoint. On display for humans, whom he calls “split-tails” or “logriders,” Sam relies on the humans now for food in his too-small habitat. In exchange, he must perform tricks such as carrying balls and leaping about, actions he performs reluctantly if at all. There’s one split-tail that he likes, though, a female who speaks to him gently. Sam allows her to ride on his back as one of his tricks. When a female companion arrives in his habitat Sam falls in love and the pair produces a baby. All seems blissful until the split-tails take his baby, and his partner dies of grief.

Sam can’t know, but some split-tails rally to his side, plotting to release him in the wild, to join wild orcas.

Rudy Laguna, a college professor and renegade whale behaviorist, is recruited by billionaire J. B. Alexander, who wishes to rescue the orca they call “Makai”, a highly costly venture, to make amends for his principal source of income – the manufacture of toilet paper and its decimation and contamination of forests and seas.

Rudy leads the effort to sequester “Makai,” re-accustom him to catching live fish, repair his broken dorsal fin, acquaint him with an orca tribe, and finally, set him free. Rudy enlists the help of Cassie Flanagan, an aspiring academic whose love of aquatic creatures and former acquaintance with the whale brought them close – but not too close; Cassie wears a gold ring and Rudy lost a previous job for consorting with a female student. The humans’ collaboration will result in “Makai’s” return to wild waters, allowing the embittered orca a chance at happiness – and revenge.

The action in Helfman’s multi-layered tale switches between dry ground and the depths of the sea, floating between the viewpoints of Sam/Makai and the split-tails.

Helfman, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Ecology and the Program in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development at the University of Georgia, Athens, weaves scientific details into the narrative reflecting his extensive knowledge of the aquatic realm. Heretofore most known for his non-fiction titles focusing on fishes, Helfman gifts readers with lively dialogue, an intriguing storyline, and delightful characters. Readers will enjoy the possibilities of non-verbal communication between land dwellers and sea beings and no doubt wish for more fiction releases from this author. As the story unfolds, a series of remarkable coincidences tie the tale of the humans and that of Sam together, including the presence of one of the book’s more mysterious characters, a friendly canine whose name may be Genius, Cheez Whiz…or Jesus.

Helfman’s cinematic, wide-ranging novel is a rewarding must-read for anyone who loves seafaring adventure, respects nature in all its aspects, enjoys a ribald romantic rivalry, and most of all those who find whales fascinating as friends and teachers to humankind. In other words, here’s a novel we highly recommend.

June 2, 2021
KILLING DRAGONS: Order of the Dolphin, Book One by Kristie Clark – Environmental Thrillers, Navy SEAL Dolphins Sci-fi, Human-Animal Communications Thrillers

A search for the truth behind Lusca, the legendary sea dragon, leads to areas far more menacing than a mere myth in Kristie Clark’s Killing Dragons: Order of the Dolphin.

Eva Paz is a doctorate-level marine biologist at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), performing research on whistle-signature spectrograms. Even though Eva believes she’s close to a breakthrough in dolphin-human communication, her statistics may not be enough to keep the grant she needs to continue her work and support her employment at RIMS. Her connection with a petite Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Taffy, an animal trained by the Navy, and Taffy’s mate, Finn, go back thirteen years during a horrific time in Eva’s life.

During that time, Eva met Thomas Sternberg, a Navy SEAL diver who changed his career path to a pediatric oncologist. He’s also Eva’s ex-boyfriend.

Luis’s mysterious death (boyfriend to Eva’s mother) raises concerns about the welfare of her family since she becomes the sole supporter; holding onto that grant is now a necessity. Even more disturbing is the sizeable conical tooth found near his corpse—a sign to the locals that Luis fell victim to none other than Lusca, the mythological sea dragon.

Julian Gulliver, a notorious investor, approaches Eva, hoping that she’ll take up his offer to support her research while requesting her assistance to identify a predator that’s been attacking Atlantis, his open-ocean fish farms. Unbeknownst to Eva, Julian hires Thomas as his expert diver for his newly-opened dive shop in the expensive Parrot Tree resort, a legal cover for his illegitimate business transactions.

Meanwhile, Taffy’s pectoral fin washes ashore with another conical tooth.

Heartbreaking as that is, Eva discovers something else. Taffy is pregnant. As Eva’s problems build with additional mysterious deaths and Finn earmarked as the target monster, the last person she expects to have back is Thomas. Danger only heightens when he joins her cause, trying to solve the mystery behind the Lusca myth.

Rising author Kristie Clark spins a gripping debut that is more fact than fiction. Clark sets her story in Roatan, the largest and most developed of the Bay Islands in the Western Caribbean. Her book opens with a glimpse into the life of Eva Paz—a devoted marine biologist whose research focuses on advanced human-and-animal communication with Navy dolphins trained to locate sea mines—before all things sinister break lose.

Luis’s horrendous death fosters locals’ belief in the legendary Lusca.

To Eva, Luis’s demise only sends a reminder of her horrifying past when her brother died. From that point, scenes continually flip from backstories to the present and alternate between protagonists (Eva, Thomas, and even Taffy, the dolphin!) and antagonists (Julian and Ignacio).

The events in Killing Dragons cover little over seven nail-biting weeks.

To keep her narrative flowing, Clark employs a variety of literary elements. One is her journal entry style that opens each chapter, which mentally prepares readers for location changes.

High on the literary-element chart, though, several unresolved situations among the characters roll from one unsettling scene to the next; add to that, terror continues building as the mysterious monster takes more lives amid the ominous presence of Julian and his minions. If that wasn’t enough, Clark throws one more item into the mix: the slow-burning-sexual tension between Eva and Thomas’s strained relationship.

Clark skillfully weaves in a flurry of fascinating facts covering everything from environmental issues with the fish farming industry and the reality of tainted fish to the severe effects on humans and the latest treatment in oncology/cancer research. Clark includes incredible advances in marine life research, as well.

Brilliantly executed, Killing Dragons undoubtedly whets the literary appetite of those who like their sci-fi thrillers with a bit of sexy in the mix. Clark has no trouble holding her own in the vast field of thriller authors – and readers will be happy to learn the next book in the Order of the Dolphin series may splash on the scene very soon!

June 1, 2021