Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

  • CASTLE of FIRE (Book 2 of The Adventures of Jonathan Moore series) by Peter Greene – Sea Adventures Fiction, War & Military Fiction, Children’s Action/Adventure

    CASTLE of FIRE (Book 2 of The Adventures of Jonathan Moore series) by Peter Greene – Sea Adventures Fiction, War & Military Fiction, Children’s Action/Adventure

    Midshipman Jonathan Moore scrambles aboard just in time for the departure of the HMS Doggard (a horrible name, soon replaced with her original name, the Danielle). The latecomer is welcomed by some of his friends from an earlier voyage on the HMS Paladin, including Seaman Sean Flagon, Lieutenant Thomas Harrison, Bosun Steward, and even Captain William Walker.

    Jonathan had not expected to be on this voyage, as he was only recently reunited with his father, Captain (soon to be Admiral) Nathaniel Moore, who had been captured and imprisoned by the French earlier in the Napoleonic Wars. This left Jonathan orphaned on the streets of London until he and Sean were pressed into service on the Paladin. But Captain Moore escaped and returned to England. While loath to see Jonathan leave, he eventually realizes that he must allow his son to follow in his footsteps in the Royal Navy.

    After meeting with Captain Walker, Jonathan finds his quarters in the cockpit, shared with the other midshipmen, a rude Wayne Spears, and his sidekick Timothy Lane. Jonathan thinks he will simply avoid the two and spend time with Sean and his other friends, but when Spears pushes Sean to the floor, enmity ensues.

    The Danielle’s arrival in Nassau brings relief. Delain Dowdeswell, whom Jonathan had befriended on an earlier voyage to Nassau, is spotted rappelling down a cliff overlooking the harbor—the adventurer that Jonathan and friends already know. Delain’s sisters, Rebecca and Penelope, deliver an invitation to Captain Walker from their father, the governor, to dine at the mansion, bringing his officers and Sean. At dinner, Jonathan is paired with Delain, Harrison with Rebecca, and Sean with Penelope, whose company they enjoy even more than the scrumptious food. Lady Dowdeswell asks the captain if her daughters can be accommodated on the ship for its return trip to London, where they are to receive further education—a request happily agreed to by all except Delain, who fears an end to her adventuring.

    On the balcony after dinner, Jonathan gives Delain a silver necklace with a dolphin pendant that he had bought in London for her. Her delight is interrupted by Spears’s intrusion. Harrison approaches, fearing trouble, but Jonathan remains cool. It is Delain who finds revenge by “accidentally” tromping on Spears’s toe with her sharp heel. Spears will not forget this, nor his desire to end Jonathan’s career in the Navy, or perhaps his life altogether.

    Before the Danielle departs in search of pirates, the captain agrees to take Delain and her teacher, along with Jonathan and Sean, to a nearby island where they hope to see turtles hatch and make their run to the sea. They are rowed ashore by marines Hudson and Hicks, who will stay overnight with them until the Danielle returns. Delain and Jonathan arrive in time to help the tiny turtles reach the sea by chasing away the seagulls. Delain is a delightful, resourceful young woman who manages to be at the center of everything that happens. What the trio of Jonathan, Delain, and Sean discover in the ancient “Castle of Fire” and its secrets will have readers holding their breath!

    Peter Greene has done it again—another well-penned, colorful, action-packed tale to be read for pure pleasure. Make sure you don’t miss Books 1, Warship Poseidon and 3, Paladin’s War. Highly recommended!

     

     

  • ANGEL on ASSIGNMENT by Wanda Carter Roush – Children’s Christian Holiday Fiction, Children’s Cut and Assemble Book, Children’s Christian Bedtime Book

    ANGEL on ASSIGNMENT by Wanda Carter Roush – Children’s Christian Holiday Fiction, Children’s Cut and Assemble Book, Children’s Christian Bedtime Book

     

    During the holiday season, it’s easy to become distracted from the true meaning of Christmas. In Angel on Assignment Wanda Carter Roush tells the story of this holiday and the important role that angels play.

    Borrowing from the idea of Elf on the Shelf, this charming Children’s book teaches that angels are sent on assignment to help people. If you are ever scared, you need not be afraid because an angel is there to protect you. Children will love rolling up their sleeves and getting busy as they take the story to the next level and create their very own angel, and thus begin their own family tradition of having an angel on assignment.

    Wanda Carter Roush is a former Sunday school teacher and children’s church director. She is the mother of five and was inspired by her youngest daughter to write this story to instill hope and peace of mind in children when they are scared. Angel on Assignment also challenges children to act as angels on assignment and always be on the lookout for those who need help because even the smallest deed can have a strong effect.

    The book ends with instructions on how to make your very own angel. Imagination is an essential component to inspire children to be creative in creating their angel.

    What makes Angel on Assignment truly special is that it encourages families to start a new tradition that serves to remind them of what they cannot see. What families can see are the wonderful illustrations by Mike Motz that bring the story to life.

    Roush creates a wholesome tale with great lessons for children on how to deal with being afraid and encourages them to do selfless acts of kindness. Children, as well as parents, will love Angel on Assignment!

     Angels on Assignment won 1st Place in the CIBA 2017 Little Peeps Awards for Children’s Literature.

     

  • UNSIGHTLY BULGES (A Trailer Park Princess Cozy Mystery, Book 2) by Kim Hunt Harris – Cozy Mystery, Animal Cozy, Female Sleuth

    UNSIGHTLY BULGES (A Trailer Park Princess Cozy Mystery, Book 2) by Kim Hunt Harris – Cozy Mystery, Animal Cozy, Female Sleuth

    Salem Grimes has a lot of goals – lose more weight than her friend Trisha, find a dress for the upcoming date she doesn’t really want to go on, and keep her dog, Stump, from throwing up on the kitchen floor. Unfortunately, solving a murder (again) isn’t on her to-do list, but Salem is thrown into another mystery completely against her will when she sees a body in a Sonic dumpster.

    When her BFF Viv, an 80-ish firecracker of a woman with a penchant for expensive shoes, hears about it, she can’t wait to get started cracking the case. After all, she and Viv have already solved one mystery, and Viv is convinced their unofficial PI firm, Discreet Investigations, can find the murderer. But the ladies quickly realize they have their work cut out for them when the victim is identified as CJ Hardin, golden boy physician and local Hope for Homes organizer who recently “came out” in a very public way and stirred up a huge controversy in Lubbock, Texas.

    Controversy and theories swirl since CJ was thought to have run off days earlier with the $200K in funds from a recent Hope for Homes fundraising effort. When the murder is labeled a hate crime, Salem, Viv, and their newest partner Dale find themselves in some scary situations, including an altercation with Rambo the fighting rooster. Between being laughed at by one hot police detective she’s had crushed on since fourth grade, fighting her urge to drink herself “cool” in order to keep from throat-punching Dale, Salem has to find a killer before the community implodes.

    The struggles of the LGBTQ community are front and center in this novel. CJ, the murdered man, is a victim before he is the victim. CJ has spent his life as so many LGBTQ people have, playing a role, pretending to be something he is not in order to fit the required societal mold. The son of a prominent family, a prestigious doctor in his own right, and the perfect fiancé to a woman he has always been expected to marry, CJ never truly got to live his life in his own way. Not long after being caught in a passionate embrace with a man, CJ is more or less forced to come out in a very public way and then he is murdered, labeled another casualty of hate, and though his murder doesn’t quite turn out so cut and dry, his story is nonetheless tragic.

    A Christian novel highlighting the struggles in the LGBTQ community is an anomaly, and Kim Hunt Harris expertly handles the issues smartly by placing them front and center in her lead character’s lap. Salem feels a strong connection with the LGBTQ message boards she studies after being swept up in CJ’s death. She understands the dark loneliness of never fitting in, of being a victim of abuse, and of hiding what she truly is, burying her true self.

    Damaged by a selfish, abusive mother, Salem is determined not to let that define her anymore. After ten years of drowning her feelings in booze, she has found her footing in Christianity, but she is confused about her feelings, uncertain how to reconcile her blossoming faith with the reality around her – what she thinks and feels about the LGBT community around her.

    Salem’s story is one of redemption – hers and everyone else’s. She wants to be a person who can look herself in the eye, and she fights daily to become that very person.

    Through common sense, humor, and her daily prayers in her self-made devotional room (aka the guest bedroom in her trailer at Trailertopia), Salem navigates the world in a “human” way. She struggles to justify God’s love with the church’s condemnation against homosexuality. She struggles against her complete dislike of Dale with the Biblical edicts of patience and kindness. She struggles with wanting to feel God’s presence in her life versus her all too real feelings of pettiness and anger.

    Salem’s battles aren’t black or white, right or wrong. She’s human and that’s why we like her so much. She understands that “contempt and disrespect for another person’s most precious beliefs” don’t make the world a better place.

    Unsightly Bulges (A Trailer Park Princess Cozy Mystery Book 2) by Kim Hunt Harris took home 1st Place in the 2017 CIBA M&M Awards for Mayhem and Mystery.

     

     

     

  • The APOTHEOSIS by Darrell Lee – Genetic Engineering, Science Fiction Thriller, Science-Fiction Adventure

    The APOTHEOSIS by Darrell Lee – Genetic Engineering, Science Fiction Thriller, Science-Fiction Adventure

    The boldness of the ideas contained within this novel about cloning begins with its title. The word “apotheosis” can be freely translated as 1.a. the perfect form or example of something, 1.b. the highest or best part of something, or 2. elevation to divine status. (Merriman-Webster Online Dictionary).  It is with these expectations that the book begins with a letter from John Numen, who tells us from the beginning that he is unapologetically a multifaceted scientist, medical researcher, doctor, billionaire investor, a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and a fledgling serial killer.

    We believe him.

    Numen’s trajectory from a scientist to a reclusive but fiendish killer with infinite financial resources is quite the tale. Human cloning is his obsession. He believes he has developed the science to make it easy and practical despite its medical and scientific, legal and ethical challenges. As he progresses decades into the future, he plans carefully for the lifespan he needs and the facilities he requires to develop his ideas into practical tools. He has the resources to do both and gives us a front-row seat on the often-murderous details involved in how he accomplishes his goals, whether it be on his private island in the Caribbean or at his Colorado estate.

    What distinguishes Numen from many other mad scientists is his portrayal as a human being. He is as capable of loving as he is in murdering. His descriptions of both give this read a humanity most welcome in the sci-fi genre. In particular, his love affair with the wife of a business colleague and its tragic ending lend a dramatic sensibility that sci-fi books rarely achieve.

    For more than half the book, the potential for it becoming the basis for a long-form television mini-series virtually leaps off the page. Then the story seems to wander a bit, shifting the point of view from Numen to a female kickboxer with dreams of MMA championships and the moxie to carry it out. Fast action sequences and brutal punches make for a great diversion.

    What Darrell Lee delivers is a fast-paced thriller with a lot of tendrils that are likely to snatch readers up and keep them in the chair, a well-drawn mad scientist with a sexy kick-ass femme fatal, and an interesting story that may stay with you for a while.

    All in all, we expect The Apotheosis will indeed find its fan-base among those who love fast-paced, unapologetic sci-fi thrillers.

     

  • FEAST of SORROW by Crystal King – Ancient Rome, Biographical, Family Saga

    FEAST of SORROW by Crystal King – Ancient Rome, Biographical, Family Saga

     

    In the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, Marcus Gavius Apicius purchased nineteen-year-old Thrasius for twenty thousand denarii, enough money to buy more than sixty normal slaves, but Thrasius is more than the typical slave. Born to a slave woman who died in childbirth and whose name he never knew, Thrasius has trained for seven years as a cook in the kitchens of Flavius Maximus, a man known for his unforgettable dinners, and Apicius hopes the young coquus will lead him to the ultimate culinary fame, gastronomic advisor to Caesar himself.

    Grateful to be saved from the cruelty of the slave trader, Thrasius throws himself headlong into the new role and proves tremendously successful, but an ominous prophecy given to Apicius on the day he purchased Thrasius looms over every achievement. As Apicius climbs higher and higher in the Roman political world, Thrasius becomes an ever-growing asset eventually becoming more advisor than cook and feels the pressure of helping Apicius accomplish his fame at any cost, even his family and friends. His chase for fame becomes both consuming and destructive. Though Apicius refuses to see the price of his obsession, Thrasius knows a reckoning is coming and prays the gods can save him from the man who controls his life.

    This masterful thirty-year tale rejuvenates life in ancient Rome, a place where favors become life-changing, where people are bought and sold, and where death could reside in a glass of wine or in a snake-filled box. The complex, rich storyline, entwines real Romans with endearing fictional characters. Readers will recognize historical figures like Pliny and Ovid, who burst to life on the pages of this novel. Though perhaps not as well-known as some of the other characters, Marcus Gavius Apicius, an overly ambitious man who bankrupted his vast fortunes with his sumptuous cenas and expensive gifts, is credited with the first cookbook and a cooking school. Readers will see the rise and fall of this man who desired fame over everything. His single-minded ambition is contrasted with Thrasius, his fictional foil in many respects. Where Apicius wants his recipes in every Roman kitchen and his name spoken in jealous whispers, Thrasius seeks only to create good food and safe life for his love, Passia.

    Fate plays a major role in the lives of the characters and poses important philosophical questions throughout the novel. From the opening pages, the importance Romans placed on omens, fortunes, and premonitions is evident. Apicius, a man who refuses to acknowledge the undesirable part of his sinister fortune, often with acts with dire consequences, begging the question is fate fixed, or do men create their own? In taking charge of his destiny, does he, in essence, destroy himself?

    Even when he is told that he will have “as much sadness as there is success,” he continues to connive and conspire until he loses everything. He finally gains his coveted position but at the expense of a man’s life and a debt which will take everyone he loves.

    In his blindness to everything but fame, he turns this prophecy into truth, bringing about the “greater failures [clustered] to the sides” of each success. Even the wholesome Thrasius isn’t immune to the question of fate versus free will when he curses Sejanus, a cruel, unscrupulous man. Though his curse takes twenty-five years to come to fruition, Thrasius wonders how much blood is on his hands when the culmination of the curse also results in the death of people Thrasius loves. Has he doomed himself by fiddling with fate? In taking fate into their own hands, both Apicius and Thrasius pay enormous costs.

    Obscene wealth and devastating poverty. The height of fame and the desolation of obscurity. On the backs of many, one man builds his legacy while another prays for freedom. Feast of Sorrow creates a world where curses are feared, blessings hinge on blood sacrifice, and history becomes real.

    Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King won 1st Place in the CIBA 2017 Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction.

     

     

     

     

  • BREACHING the PARALLEL by MWAnderson – Military Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Time Travel

    BREACHING the PARALLEL by MWAnderson – Military Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Time Travel

    A one-way trip from the near future to the distant past forces one army unit to adapt to a life they could never have dreamt. Their flight into history will forever change the future that they know. Once there, they discover they are not the first to make the journey, and history as they knew it, has gone far, far off course.

    As the story opens, the U.S. 4th Armored Cavalry Regiment is conducting an incursion into North Korea during the Second Korean War – an event that seems all too plausible based on 21st-century tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world. But their journey is interrupted by an explosion that interacts with time and space, instantly transporting the 500 men and women from the 21st century A.D. to sometime between 1,000 and 500 B.C.E. Their world is gone – and there’s no way back.

    Their initial contact with a nearby village is peaceful until they are forced to decide whether to attempt to preserve the future, a future they are familiar with, or whether they should integrate themselves into their current circumstances and let future history take care of itself.

    A local warlord has been regularly raiding their village and conscripting young men for soldiers. None have ever returned. This time it’s the warlord’s men who don’t make it back to camp. They are wiped out by 21st-century weaponry in a matter of seconds. It comes as no surprise, then, when a more substantial unit arrives on the scene to investigate.

    Just as the soldiers begin to settle in, building homesteads, relationships, and new lives for themselves, they discover that they are not the first people to travel back in time. Those who have come before are enemies – old enemies.

    As the story begins, the circumstances in which the 4th Armored Cavalry finds themselves in are reminiscent of two classic works of alternate history/time travel science fiction, Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling and 1632 by Eric Flint. In both of those series openers, an unexplained event transports a location, leaving the time travelers to adapt to their changed circumstances and figure out a way to thrive in the past.

    The setup is a good basis for a Sci-fi. What makes Breaching the Parallel stand out from the rest is the interesting approach MWAnderson takes, by revealing that our protagonists are not the first to arrive and that people who traveled to the past before them, have become the dominant power in their brave new/old world. Breaching the Parallel sets the characters up for renewed conflict in a future book in this prospective series – a pretty interesting set of characters at that.

    Breaching the Parallel is a military sci-fi with a clever twist that both thrills and intrigues. MWAnderson shows his knowledge in detailing how an explicitly military mission would conduct itself in a situation where the mission has changed out of all recognition. Those who love a good military sci-fi need look no further – MWAnderson delivers in spades.

    Breaching the Parallel by MWAnderson won 1st Place in the CIBA 2017 Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.

     

     

     

     

  • HARD CIDER by Barbara Stark-Nemon – Women’s Literature, Literary, Women’s Fiction

    HARD CIDER by Barbara Stark-Nemon – Women’s Literature, Literary, Women’s Fiction

     

    Somerset Grand Prize Winner Badge for Hard Cider by Barbara A Stark-Nemon

    Abbie Rose Stone is a woman determined to follow her newly discovered dream of producing her own craft hard apple cider while navigating the ups and downs of family life with her grown sons and husband.

    Abbie Rose knows how to deal with adversity, and dives headfirst into this new chapter of her life with energy and passion. She describes her early adulthood years of infertility struggles and the hardscrabble way she built her young family through invasive medical procedures, a surrogate attempt, and adoption barriers.

    After finishing a successful career in education and raising her three sons, Abbie Rose now sees an opportunity to create a new segment of her life’s work in a blossoming business venture. She’s set to take on this new venture by herself, determined to succeed, with or without her husband’s support. Yet, while she lays out her meticulous plans for her cider business, life keeps happening around her, attempting to derail Abbie Rose at every turn.

    Hard Cider is a well-researched second novel for Stark-Nemon, providing intricate details on everything from orchard planning and cider creation to knitted handicrafts. Stark-Nemon leaves no stone unturned and is meticulous with her descriptions of the lands and seasons of Michigan. So much so, that readers may leave this story ready to travel to this Midwest region and will find familiarity in the real-life scenes based on her elaborate imagery.

    The story builds slowly, relying upon richly descriptive settings to create the Stone family and the world in which they live. The tidbits of information presented about infertility, a shocking house-fire, parenting a troubled child, and marital woes are intriguing, and some may find, too brief, leaving the reader wanting more. Which isn’t altogether a bad thing. In fact, the strength of this work is that the reader is left wanting more, imagining what might happen next for this cast of characters we’re not quite ready to leave behind.

    A central theme of this down-to-earth story is the word new. New business ventures, new life changes, new family mixed with old, and new lives for the Stone family. Abbie Rose handles each of these life-altering adaptions with courage and a reflecting thoughtfulness. She teaches those around her what it means to manage life with a grace we can all hope to emulate.

    All in all, Hard Cider is a thoughtful literary novel of one woman and her ambitions to rise above what life has handed her to create an experience of beauty, one that is formed not void of hardship, but despite it. Recommended.

    Hard Cider won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2018 Somerset Awards for Literary Fiction.

     

  • The SINS of RACHEL SIMS by Dennis M. Clausen – Absurdist Fiction, Historical Fiction, Psychological

    The SINS of RACHEL SIMS by Dennis M. Clausen – Absurdist Fiction, Historical Fiction, Psychological

    With a nod to Nathaniel Hawthorne and the accused adulteress Hester Prynne in his renowned literary classic, The Scarlet Letter, Dennis Clausen sheds a familiar light on the central character in the multi-faceted psychological tale The Sins of Rachel Sims. In this intriguing two-fold drama, a desperate young woman searches for her own true identity while simultaneously unraveling the mystery behind a woman’s disappearance from decades in the past.

    In May of 1952, the dark-haired Midwestern beauty Rachel Sims mysteriously disappears from the haunting riverbanks of Hodges Island. While gossip mongers spout that the immoral young wife ran off with a well-dressed gentleman from Iowa, the local cemetery caretaker, “Crazy Charlie,” insists he sees Rachel, aka “The Lilac Lady,” walking the island on quiet spring evenings.

    Some twenty years later, Laura Fielding, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, begins to question who she really is when she stumbles upon an incriminating letter that suggests the couple that raised her are not her biological parents, and the three have been living with stolen identities. The startling information gives Laura a pause and reasons to question her broken relationships and a diagnosed bonding disorder.

    The upheaval triggers her obsessive need to uncover the truth. With the help of eccentric psychiatrist Ned Finley and his friend Aurther Schlepler, a proven psychic who’d helped police with difficult cases – though now a patient in the Farmington Mental Hospital – Laura attempts to find answers about her past and explore the secrets of her childhood memory. Through a combination of regressive hypnosis, a psychic’s intuition, professional insight, and Laura’s own detective work, a winding journey leads her to the area of Point Tyson and reveals plausible a connection to the vanishing Rachel Sims.

    Far beyond a typical cloak-and-dagger rendering, Clausen weaves a more subtle, yet palpable essence of evil lurking in the shadows of this double-edged story. From threatening messages warning characters to “stay away” to the heated glow of a lit cigarette in the dark, Clausen expertly gives his readers nuances of suspense that serve to heighten the drama and keep us glued to the page.

    Through a detailed narrative, Clausen creates an artful balance of people and place. Here Laura’s investigation takes her on a circuitous path showcasing both beauty and danger, from the natural Hodges Island environment where fragrant lilacs bloom amidst an overgrowth covering hidden death traps.

    Legend maintains Hodges Island was inhabited by warrior spirits and “Heaven’s Outcasts” and Laura needs help to unravel this mystery along with the deep secrets of the puritanical church community and the self-righteous male-dominated religious enclave attempting to hide its own sins. To Laura’s benefit, an eclectic group of die-hard locals including – but not limited to – record clerks, diner patrons, and gravestone cutters offer bits of information to help her piece the puzzle together.

    The plot is moved at a steady pace, with action going back and forth between the past and present. A recurring dream from Laura’s childhood serves as an essential connector for these two timeframes. While she contemplates old photographs or finds hidden Bible inscriptions, the feelings of déjà vu are always with her and enhanced in the text with Laura’s italicized thoughts and feelings about her past and the meaning behind the newly found discoveries.

    Like the regressive therapy used to tap into Laura’s childhood, Clausen’s tale revisits a once-thriving rural community ensconced in a history shadowed by lies and deceit. Above all, it proves a well-crafted, compelling read for those drawn to intricate layers of mystery that confront long-buried secrets.

    The Sins of Rachel Sims by Dennis Clausen was Shortlisted in the 2017 CIBAs, in the M&M  Awards for Mystery Novels.

     

     

  • BLOSSOM – The WILD AMBASSADOR of TEWKSBURY by Anna Carner – Wild Animal Rescue, Memoir, Nature & Ecology

    BLOSSOM – The WILD AMBASSADOR of TEWKSBURY by Anna Carner – Wild Animal Rescue, Memoir, Nature & Ecology

    Author Anna Carner was living in a horse-friendly farming area of New Jersey in 1999, when she encountered a newborn fawn, barely breathing, near her home. The animal seemed to be communicating its need to her, and, with some experience of animal and human care, Carner set out to revive the fawn.

    She took the baby deer into her house and nursed her back to health. When she and her husband, Pino, saw the fawn curled up asleep with the family dog, the couple knew they had a new pet. Her name, Blossom, seemed suited to her sweetness and soft, gentle beauty.

    But the couple lived in an area where some people consider the deer population a problem; pests to be eliminated, hunting a necessary and enjoyable sport. As Blossom grew and began to range out with other, wilder kin, Carner realized she would have to take extreme methods to shield her from danger.

    Carner and Pino created posters with the animal’s picture and a plea not to hurt Blossom. Some neighbors were sympathetic, but others were cynical. Some even made a practice of stalking Blossom and harassing Carner. One man claimed to have the deer in captivity, demanding a ransom for her return. Carner’s efforts to protect Blossom gradually took root in the community and soon neighbors joined in; other stray deer were saved and adopted. A widespread movement was started that included the possibility of spaying by vaccination to limit the deer population without the violence of hunting.

    In writing her memoir of the years with Blossom, Carner revisits her own past and the violence she suffered as a baby at the hands of her father; injuries that required hospitalization and subsequent treatment for much of her youth. These recollections give her empathy for Blossom and other suffering creatures, and no doubt the reason she is passionate about her role as a rescuer.

    Blossom, as she so vividly describes her, was an ideal patient and pet that seemed to speak at times, and to obey commands almost like a canine. The deer’s sensitivity to her human caregivers is perhaps extraordinary or may reflect what many “wild” creatures are capable of, given a chance. The chapters are interspersed with poems by Jeanne Hamilton Troast, a fellow animal enthusiast. Through action and rich, well-crafted dialog, Carner highlights her endeavors to promote better care of all animals based on the experience she and Pino shared as they cherished their time with Blossom.

    Carner writes both for convinced animal lovers and, additionally, for those who may never have given the issues much thought, offering strong evidence of the worth of living in harmony with deer and other creatures whose perceived harmfulness has been to some extent created by our human rules and boundaries, not by their natural inclinations.

    Not just a sweet deer with a fantastic story, Blossom is the subject for the Nat’l Geographic NATURE documentary. To view a 4-minute video of Blossom’s story please click here.  Blossom was also featured in National Geographic’s Nature presentation, “The Private Life of Deer.” Please click here to see the film.

     

     

  • A PRINTER’S CHOICE by W. L. Patenaude – Sci-Fi/Cyber-Tech, Mystery, Literary

    A PRINTER’S CHOICE by W. L. Patenaude – Sci-Fi/Cyber-Tech, Mystery, Literary

    W. L. Patenaude’s suspenseful and philosophical novel, A Printer’s Choice, opens in the near future, 2088, and not all is well in the universe.

    Earth is plagued with famine, war, and violent religious extremism. Oceans have risen to deadly levels, and wildfires and storms continue unabated. The world’s resources are being strained and no recovery is in sight. In fact, things are so dire that parents can opt to have themselves euthanized in exchange for the government’s providing for their children’s health and education.

    Elsewhere in the cosmos, a murder has rocked “upside,” a conglomeration of locales in space that are being rapidly developed through a tense and volatile collaboration between engineers and builders. This murder is a first in the “New World” and the circumstances surrounding it set the stage for an investigation that will not only uncover the murderer but also will cause readers to ponder the very essence of human existence.

    Enter Father John Francis McClellan, a Roman Catholic priest in this thirties with a military background. He has been summoned by the Archbishop of Boston and the Vatican to travel to the New World to investigate the homicide. From the outset, the case presents enigmatic details. For example, the victim, Father Tanglao, a Dominican priest, had inexplicably been working as a laborer in the orbits.

    Like everyone else, Father McClellan wonders why a priest was upside where any expression of any faith is strictly prohibited. Was Father Tanglao’s murder connected to one of the engineers or a fellow builder? Could there be a connection to the murderous zealot with a messianic complex, Juan Carlos Solorzano?

    McClellan does know that Father Tanglao had dealings with a high-tech 3D printer, a machine with recesses of “Deep Intellect.”  McClellan has his own history with these sentient machines, encounters that have given him the experience necessary to delve into relations between people and devices possessing artificial intelligence.

    The printers have the ability to design their own upgrades as well as reproduce themselves. “New Athens” was built easily and rapidly by the printers and, given the disasters on Earth, there is an imminent need for worlds to be built in space as quickly as possible.

    The engineers argue that the checks and balances those in charge wish to implement will only hold progress back because they believe they can regain control over the machines down the road. The question will arise, what separates a human programmer from a mechanical one capable of critical thinking? And who “programmed” people? What transpires between McClellan and a specific machine includes a riveting and deeply thought-provoking discussion of trust and free will.

    Clearly, Patenaude is well versed in the readings of Aristotle, St. Thomas, St. Augustine, and Descartes, for starters, and likely a host of philosophers and theologians. His ability to draw upon multiple disciplines and to weave religious and philosophical allegories into characterization and plot put him at the forefront of literary thinkers. Suffice to say, this novel is profoundly deep and thought-provoking.

    While this book will appeal to sci-fi lovers and anyone game for a murder mystery in outer space, it should also spark the interest of anyone interested in grappling with theories of existence and the ultimate power of free will. A priest traveling to an entirely new world in the cosmos and finding that it’s still necessary to wrestle with the age-old questions of faith make for a powerful tale.