Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: 5 Star Book Review

A PROFESSOR and MRS. MORIARTY MYSTERY: Moriarty Takes His Medicine, Book 2 by Anna Castle – Historical Mystery

In Anna Castle’s British historical, cozy mystery novel, Moriarty Takes His Medicine, we find James Moriarty and his new bride, Angeline, struggling with their exciting, new relationship once the dust settles, so to speak.

James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, is a man who cares deeply for his wife, so much so, that he is driven to distraction and embraces the help of his former foe as an ally to help rescue Angelina from grave danger.

Sound like a melodrama? It is. Melodrama at it’s best, with strong women characters from the 1880s in several roles, providing a 2020 twist to the male-dominated period. That being said, Castle is no slouch when it comes to providing accurate historical details. She’s done her research and offers it up in an engaging and entertaining novel. The health spas and health tonics of the time provides an impressive backdrop to the mystery she develops, as Sherlock Holmes comes to Moriarty for help on a curious case, the death of a beloved aunt whose nephew suspects foul play. Together Moriarty and Holmes uncover a plot of devious mischief by medical professionals at a high-end spa/hospital where several elderly women and wealthy wives have stayed, only to die unexpectedly at home. Castle begins with the death of one woman.

Moriarty, Holmes, and Watson find that many of the women’s deaths went unchallenged because they all died at home after their stay, pointing to their own negligence and not that of the hospital, a devious plan, to say the least. Dr. Watson plays a small but crucial role at the beginning of their investigation as he uncovers the meaning behind “the Clennam treatment,” referring to a character from Little Dorritt, a Charles Dickens novel. And so, as Holmes is want to say, the game’s afoot.

Angelina’s past as a performer, a vocation she sorely misses, provides her with a means to help when she realizes her sister is being sent to the notorious spa for “the Clennam” treatment, code for “kill her.” Angelina takes on the most dangerous role of her life when she finds herself under the “Clennam” treatment.

Castle introduces the tonic as one in a series of archaic and debunked methods of treatment. She also explores aspects of electric shock therapy, and “the rest cure,” a popular method of treating a nervous and perhaps unruly woman to a treatment that did nothing to cure the root cause of their ailments. Alas, at that time, the men knew best even when they were wrong.

Castle turns this male-dominated society on its head. Women display their strength and ability to problem solve as they help to resolve this crime, and they do it with the full support of their men. A very satisfying twist on the social norms of the time, which brings us to a satisfactory conclusion.

In the end, we have something akin to a Shakespeare “comedy,” all the “good” characters live, all the lovers end up happily together, and all the villains fail and are doomed to suffer.

As the second novel in a series, this book could stand-alone. This romp through the beloved world of Sherlock Holmes will surprise you at every turn and please Sherlockians as well as lovers of British cozy mystery fans.

Moriarty Takes His Medicine won First Place in the 2018 CIBAs for Mystery and Mayhem.

January 8, 2020
BALL of YARNS – From 87 Years of Worthy Experience by Franklin Ball – Memoir, Americana, Heartwarming Stories

Author Frank Ball delivers an engaging, poignant account, contrasting idyllic times growing up and the remote, icy climes of his later years in his memoir, Ball of Yarns – From 87 Years of Worthy Experience.

Born in 1931, Ball was raised in rural California. Often left on his own, the result was a series of escapades with the first object of his affections – vehicles of any kind. An early solo experiment with his father’s sedan gave him the heady feeling of “wheels unguided by human hands.” A next adventure involved rebuilding, with his brother, a neglected Chevy Roadster that Ball proudly drove to school in the sixth grade. Yet another, more terrifying event occurred when he and a friend decided it would be fun to take a farm tractor up into the mountains on a snowy day; the descent was “reminiscent of a scene from the Keystone Cops.”

In high school, he and his pals visited an inactive bomb-testing site and exploded “dud” ordnance for kicks, and he later drove a racecar and worked as a pitman for that sport. Ball served in the military during World War II, stateside, getting technical education leading to a career in electronics, in which he excelled. After retirement, he and his wife Josie pursued more exploits together, living for long stints in Antarctica, she as a cook and he as an all-round mechanical whiz. It provided an atmosphere of camaraderie where the person nearest to a disaster had to deal with it immediately or risk the whole camp’s population freezing to death.

Ball tells his life saga in engagingly short, chronological episodes, most only a page or two. He has provided a few photographs to underpin his often-amusing narrative. His writing style shows a particularly strong ability to put the reader into the frame. This is especially the case with his story of going into the salvage business with a friend. Using shallow-water diving gear, they discovered a submerged vessel near the San Diego Bay. Pirating bits of it, mostly brass propellers, they were observed, and a story made the local newspapers since the vessel was, in fact, an abandoned US Navy submarine. Equally enthralling are the many aspects revealed about his working in frigid conditions, repairing everything from aircraft fuel pumps to urinals and figuring out for his own amusement how long it takes a cup of hot coffee to freeze when setting out in the subzero cold. And even in his eighties, he is still repairing and driving vintage cars.

Ball’s well-organized reminiscences will charm anyone with a love of vehicles, machines, youthful high jinx, and general mischief. His compelling American story speaks to timeless values of passion, family, ingenuity, determination, and legacy.

**Ball of Yarns by Frank Ball releases on January 14, 2020. To get your copy, please click on Kobo or Amazon.

January 8, 2020
NO WINTER LASTS FOREVER by Jonathan Epps – Vigilante Justice Thrillers, Literature, Thrillers

There is a frequently paraphrased quotation that goes, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” But there is also a well-known aphorism that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” This is a story where those truisms come together like a train wreck, at the very least a commentary on one of the darkest underbellies of American subculture.

No Winter Lasts Forever by Jonathan Epps takes place in the present, with mass shootings in the news every other week, an opioid epidemic that’s out of control, and an entire generation of young people who will, by all current economic measures, not do as well as their parents, let alone better, as previous generations have before them.

This story also takes place inside the head of Jackson Warner, a 52-year-old man in tiny Franklin, Missouri, who learns of a shooting at the school where he taught for many years. If matters can be worse, and they are, Jackson discovers his 21-year-old nephew is on the exact same path as the shooters.

Jackson won’t allow him to sit idly by. He needs to do something to fix what feels like his little corner of the national malaise. Even if all he can really do is attempt to get his nephew on a different course. He wants justice.

The story here is, in many ways, Jackson’s descent into a kind of madness. He begins to haunt the underground internet chat rooms where misguided young men trash talk each other and discuss gunning the world down. He loses track of his real life, his girlfriend, his family, and especially himself.

It’s not an easy read. Jackson’s online flirtation with those who want to end it all and take as many as possible down with them is visceral. As his walk through very dark places consumes his life, he takes on a few too many of the attitudes of the young men he says he’s “investigating.” His anger at everything he sees wrong in society is palatable and soon spins out of control.

Readers may feel that his descent into that underworld goes on a bit too long, or at least reading about it does. The online chat room language is repetitive, incoherent, unrelieved in its violence, and probably requires all the trigger warnings available for a SWAT team to mobilize. It feels authentic, and it’s terrifying. However much like a train wreck, Epps’s writing is so compelling that readers will be unable to turn their eyes away; in fact, they won’t be able to put the book down.

And just when he seems to draw back from the madness all around, it comes for Jackson and those he holds dear. He has ignored Friedrich Nietzsche’s warning. He has gazed into the abyss too long, never realizing that the abyss has gazed back at him.

It may be true that “no winter lasts forever,” but when the metaphorical spring finally comes, will it be enough to bring Jackson Warner into the light? You’ll have to read it to find out!

This story is an affecting read, but not a comfortable one. The reader is inside Jackson’s head every step of the way and wants to urge him to retreat before it is too late. That he does not, causes the reader to close the book with a shiver of dread. And that’s exactly the thing that makes Jonathan Epps one of our favorite new thriller authors.

January 6, 2020
CHRISTMAS at LADYWELL, A Time for Secrets by Nicola Slade – Historical Mystery/Thrillers/Suspense, Two-Hour Literature & Fiction Shorts, Family Life Fiction

Christmastime in the English countryside, what could be cozier? Nicola Slade casts a charming spell on the reader with her novella, Christmas at Ladywell, A Time for Secrets. The main character Freya Wellman, jolly with the holiday spirit, has much to do to ready her ancient home, Ladywell, for yuletide guests. She happily juggles tasks to ready an adjoining cottage for a visit from a famous American actor and his girlfriend. Freya also cares for her small daughter, Violet, and visits with friends and an interesting assortment of townspeople. Most eagerly, she awaits the arrival of her smart and funny husband, a successful scriptwriter who’s been in America working on a film with the actor.

It’s a busy, festive time, and the reader is more than happy to witness all this gaiety at Ladywell. Of course, that name invites inquiry, one answered by stories that are nestled like Russian dolls in this exquisite book. Freya’s ancestral home is brimming with secrets and enchantment conjured over centuries. While Freya isn’t visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, the reader is treated to three fabulous historical tales that chart the experiences of previous inhabitants of this wondrous place of potent, healing waters, invisible flowers, and a legendary, loyal hare.

Whether it’s 1390, 1543, 1825, or the present day, there’s a mystical sisterhood at Ladywell that bridges time, a linking of strong women who tend home and hearth and pass on the secrets of the land. The past re-emerges into the blissful bustle of Freya’s current life as she learns of a family connection with King Richard III. Is this connection tied to a future event? Will the secrets of the past travel to the future?

With the loveliest prose and sharp humor, Slade offers the best Christmas gift for her readers with this gem of a book. Those who read her prior work, The House at Ladywell, will undoubtedly want to read Christmas at Ladywell, but this novella also works marvelously as a separate book. So, put the kettle on, get comfy by the fireplace, let the cat snuggle on your lap, and settle in for a cheerful read that befits the season!

December 23, 2019
A PROMISE GIVEN (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series Book 3) by Michelle Cox – Historical Mystery, Romantic Mystery, Mystery Suspense

With a much-anticipated wedding is in the works, but family complications and entanglements threaten the celebration, when is love A Promise Given, and when is it a compromise taken?

Amidst tribulations of friends and family, the smart and beautiful Henrietta, and the intense Inspector Clive Howard say, “I do.” Now the loving couple will learn how to be Mr. and Mrs. Howard on their honeymoon in England with his relatives at Castle Linley, where intrigue and mystery await their arrival.

This third book in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series celebrates the happy couple’s lavish wedding day on October 19, 1935. All is not calm or peaceful, however. The big day finds Henrietta’s mother and younger siblings uneasily settled in a new house in Palmer Square. Wedding jitters are magnified as the lovely bride-to-be uncovers concerning stories and disconcerting marriage advice from friends and relatives. There is a question whether Henrietta’s Ma will even attend the ceremony, and what will be the outcome as Stan shifts his unrequited feelings for Henrietta to her sister Elsie?

The newlyweds attempt to leave troubles miles behind when they set sail for a honeymoon in the rolling green hillsides of England at Castle Linley. They’re hosted by the Inspector’s relatives who welcome Clive and Henrietta with open arms. As she gets to know his English family, Henrietta ponders the long journey she’s taken since she first met the Inspector. In the meantime, Clive views some alarming changes to the castle, to the family, and even to the staff. Just as the news spreads through the town that a man has been murdered, Clive becomes aware of mysterious comings and goings of his cousin Wallace. Will the newlyweds investigate together? What secrets are waiting to be uncovered – and how will the family react?

This romantic novel evokes a sensual aura that embraces and warms the reader. The setting is authentically historic. The story gives a new slant to the timeless question of whether the beauty of true love indeed conquers all. It explores what happens to those who don’t find love, and to those who compromise. Beyond the happily ever after wedding, A Promise Given follows two individuals into the challenges of starting a life together, while delving into a murder mystery that threatens to undermine their own family.

A Promise Given by Michelle Cox won the CIBA 2018 Grand Prize in the Mystery & Mayhem Awards.

December 20, 2019
BLAME it on the BET (Whiskey Sisters, Book 1) by L.E. Rico – Wholesome Romance, Small-Town Romance, Family Values

Twenty-six-year-old Hennessy O’Halloran should have it all. She should be enjoying her overpriced apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, her successful legal career, and her “friends with benefits” neighbor, but in the month since her father’s sudden death, all of those things have become unimportant.

She thought she and her sisters had some time to figure out what to do with Jack’s legacy, an Irish pub he and their deceased mother built from scratch. Still, when they discover a substantial loan agreement secreted away in Jack’s belongings, they realize they only have six weeks to come up with over $100,000, money he borrowed against the business to help finance various expenses on his daughters’ behalves. She finds herself back home in Mayhem, Minnesota, living above the pub and trying desperately to find the funds to save the business.

Enter Bryan Truitt, land developer and business “matchmaker,” sweeps in with a letter of intent to purchase the pub sans Jack’s signature. Even though Jack had planned to sell the bar and settle his debt, his daughters can’t bring themselves to sell to the slick, fast-talking Bryan, no matter how hot he looks in his ridiculously overpriced suit and Italian loafers. Bryan, despite his initial desire to arrive, conquer, and depart this Midwest winter land, finds himself drawn not only to small-town life but also to the confident, courageous Hennessy. When Bryan wagers against Hennessy’s ability to raise the money to save the business, neither realizes the stakes are much higher than just the pub. Will they risk their hearts to win a future together?

Blame it on the Bet is full of vivid characters. From Bryan’s hard-nosed assistant Helen to the matchmaking, Father Romance, the novel overflows with realistic, lovable characters, right down to Jackson, a curse-word-loving toddler whose specialty is his spectacular aim with flung food. These folks feel so human, readers will easily fall for them, and their quirky town of Mayhem, where a psychic baker who reads fortunes in pies and everyone owns at least one rescue cat and all of them–the cats not the humans–wear sweaters. The humor is a welcome addition to a genre that sometimes takes itself much too seriously, and good ole Midwestern honesty means there isn’t the elaborate game playing plaguing many romances.

The O’Halloran sisters lend themselves to a significant theme within the novel. Known as the “whiskey sisters,” Hennessy, Jameson, Walker, and Bailey are as varied as the alcohol for which they are named, but together, they create a tight-knit unit dead-set on saving their father’s legacy. That legacy, that sense of belonging to something worth more than the individual, permeates every aspect of the plot. The sisters drop everything to pull together and face the challenge head-on, to hold onto their father’s dream, a dream which built the very foundation of each of them. Family pride drives not only the girls but, in a way, the entire town as they pull together to save O’Halloran’s with chili cook-offs and quiz nights. The fight for the town’s favorite becomes one of pride. Even Bryan becomes embroiled in his own struggle for and against legacy when he battles his familial demons in the form of his father’s past and his unintentional tie to it. He must acknowledge his own history before he may create a new future with Hennessy, becoming a member of the family he has chosen, in a home he never expected to find.

Lovers of romance will fall for this couple and this town. It will wrap you up in a cozy blanket and keep you warm as a cup of hot cocoa on a cold Minnesota day – or wherever you happen to call home.

Blame it on the Bet by L. E. Rico won First in Category in the CIBA 2018 Chatelaine Awards for Romantic Fiction.

December 18, 2019
RETIRE SECURELY: Insights on Money Management from an Award-Winning Financial Columnist by Julie Jason – Personal Financial Management, Retirement Planning, Budgeting & Money Management

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA, then you’ll want to pick up Julie Jason’s Retire Securely: Insights on Money Management from an Award-Winning Financial Columnist. You will be treated to a crash course on financial terms like these and get inside information on saving and investing thanks to scores of conversations she’s had with her readers over the years.

Plenty of titles on financial planning and investing exist on bookstore shelves, but what makes Jason’s compilation different is that hers is culled from more than 1,000 columns she has written over the years for the Connecticut newspapers, Greenwich Time and the Stamford Advocate. In 2013, King Features syndicated her “Retirement Planning and Investment” column, where she explores topics like 401(k) investing, choosing a financial adviser and how to determine if sending your kid to college is a good value. Jason, who worked as a Wall Street lawyer, money manager, and investment counselor, really knows her stuff: whether it’s unraveling the complicated world of market trends or explaining estate planning, her columns are worth reading and applying to your financial life. Her column has recently moved from King Features to Andrews McMeel Syndicate [Chanticleer Reviews was notified about this change on April 3, 2020].

“Through my dialogue with readers, I want to share a message of both promise and watchfulness,” she writes in the Introduction. With an easy to follow and conversational tone, Jason invites readers to get financially literate–understanding how to read a mutual fund prospectus, for example. (A prospectus is not literature that you read from start to finish. Instead, it’s designed to protect you, so read it like a warning label on a medicine bottle, she advises.)

Recognizing that some investors are overwhelmed by financial jargon and the pressure to keep up with the Joneses, she assures her readers that attaining financial security is “a work in progress,” with room for improvement. “I’ve interacted with hundreds of people who wrote to or visited with me to discuss their challenges, concerns, and questions,” she says.

Our culture’s most significant challenge today, she says, seems to be the pressure Millennials face as they swim in debt. On top of it, Jason points out, this younger generation is in the dark about financial matters. So much so that in 2013, President Obama helped create the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans*, designed to educate young people on how to “successfully handle their personal and household finances as they grow into adulthood.”

Citing statistics, Jason tells us at least half of 18-to 24-year-old adults stated they would have benefited from a high school course on managing their money. Unfortunately, financial literacy isn’t a mandatory class, so the on us falls on parents to approach kids early with guidelines for saving and even borrowing money.

Because the book idea came from dialogue she had with readers via her column, many of the issues have to do with feeling secure in retirement, as evidenced in chapters like, “It’s Never Too Early for Retirement Planning” and “Understanding the Relationship Between Your W-2 and Your 401(k).”

We all could take a cue on how to improve our financial know-how, and a number of the columns are especially useful for parents and their children to review at various stages of their financial planning life cycles.

Lastly, if you’re wondering how republished articles, some from a decade ago, could be relevant today, Jason has taken the time to update some of the columns to keep pace with changes in the market.

Retire Securely: Insights on Money Management from an Award-Winning Financial Columnist by Julie Jason won First in Category in the CIBAs 2018 I&I Awards for Instructive Non-Fiction.

*The Council officially ended on January 29, 2013: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/financial-education/Documents/PACFCYA%20Final%20Report%20June%202015.pdf

December 12, 2019
The HOUSE at LADYWELL by Nicola Slade – Clean & Wholesome Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Suspense

A surprise bequest, a cryptic benediction, and a box of long-lost letters thrust Freya Gibson in the middle of a life-changing mystery. As the personal assistant to successful novelist Patrick Underwood, Freya never takes a vacation. She believes herself content to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of London, keeping Patrick on track and reigning in her newly discovered and completely uncertain feelings for her boss.

When Freya inherits a house from a heretofore unknown relative, she isn’t sure what to do. What’s more, the house comes with a clause preventing the immediate selling off of the relic. Freya has no choice but to visit the estate, still reasonably sure she will rid herself of the property; until, of course, she sets foot in the ancient home in Ramalley.

With Patrick gone on a business trip to the US, Freya decides to spend a week getting to know her new home and the village nearby. She quickly decides she wants to keep the enigmatic house with the enormous stone mantle, former church windows, and hand-carved hares. Still, as she falls in love with the house, she uncovers evidence that Violet, her cousin, and the former owner, knew a great deal more about Freya than Freya knows about herself. With each step closer to the truth, the house seems to draw her closer in a protective grip, perhaps giving her a chance at a new future.

Slade elegantly weaves the stories of all those who benefited from the waters of Ladywell’s actual well into the rich narrative. Lovers of history will relish the retelling of so many stories from various periods that shaped and were shaped by the area. From an adolescent Roman deserter to a broken-hearted WWI soldier, the stories not only show the residents of the area but also the tapestry of England at each telling. Ladywell drew the sick, the needy, and those looking to begin again, just as our modern protagonist does.

Freya’s story interweaves with the historical tales that serve to explain some aspect of the house or village. Through the historical details and period dialogue, the short excerpts rendered are just as rich as the main plot.

Reinvention and rebuilding are significant themes in Freya’s story as well as the house’s story. Damaged by an abusive relationship and the death of both parents, Freya discovers much about herself as she does about Ladywell through the investigation of her new home. While searching through her cousin’s belongings, she finds more questions than answers, and she must search deep within herself to find the strength to pursue the truth of her parentage as well as how her birth was arranged.

As she learns to lean more on Patrick, she discovers that he needs her as much as she needs him. Just like her new relationship with Ladywell, the love she and Patrick share both new and comfortably worn.

The House at Ladywell by Nicola Slade won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2018 Chatelaine Awards for Romantic Fiction.

December 7, 2019
DESTINY’S WAR (Saladin’s Secret #1) by Pyram King – Alternative History, Alternative History Science Fiction, Historical Fantasy

Destiny’s War is the first in a series of novellas that fictionalize the experiences of a war correspondent, occasional amateur archeologist and sometimes caravan guard Francis Marion Jager during the Desert Campaign of the Great War; the war that was supposed to have been the end of all wars, later known as World War I.

Jager, a young American far from home scraping together a living at the edge of an unsung campaign of a brutal war, left behind a diary of his exploits – a journal that the author has turned into compelling prose wrapped around meticulous research.

Jager is a character caught between multiple sides and perspectives while carefully observing them all. As an American, his observations of the British units with whom he serves, including their attitudes towards their Bedouin allies as well as their German and Turkish enemies, is often sly and cutting. At the same time, he exhibits empathy with the common soldier.

It is 1917, and the war has been going on for three years. Everyone seems to have lost track of its purpose, morale is low, and some have lost their moral centers.

Although still a very young man, Jager has already seen too much; he is as war-weary as any of the soldiers he reports on, and is afraid to befriend anyone out of the very reasonable fear that they will not survive. He is a man who has taken too many losses to sign himself up for more. And yet he becomes involved again anyway.

As a speaker of not merely English but also his grandfather’s native German and the Arabic language of the Bedouin tribes, Jager can see into all the sides of this conflict. Having learned his Arabic while traveling with those tribes, he respects their position considerably more than the British who are allied with them by policy but disparaging of them in practice.

He is the quintessential outsider, able to see all sides of the conflict while being part of none.

Destiny’s War is just the tip of the iceberg of Jager’s experiences. As the story opens, the young man is attached to the Camel Corps, spying for the famous Gertrude Bell. Quite suddenly, he has a historical artifact that entirely too many factions will kill to obtain.

This is only the beginning of his story. Readers who love the epic sweep of Lawrence of Arabia will find themselves immersed in that bygone era, as seen through the eyes of a man who met everyone and experienced it all.

In the end, Destiny’s War feels like the opening chapter of an absolutely fantastic story. It’s a small sampling, the merest taste of a tale that feels like it will be epic. Indeed, the only criticism that most readers are likely to have is that the story feels too short. It’s a tease and a treat.

Readers will be left salivating for the next chapter. This one is highly recommended for readers who love the sweep of history and want to feel as if they are there.

December 5, 2019
The PARROT’S PERCH: A Memoir of Torture and Corruption in Brazil by Karen Keilt – Memoir, Dysfunctional Families, True Crime Biographies

Karen Keilt led a life of privilege, a life that most of us only dream of, but she turns the dream upside down in her memoir The Parrot’s Perch: A Memoir of Torture and Corruption in Brazil, where she exposes the seamy underside of that life and the corrupt government under which she lived. Keilt takes us from her childhood filled with the horses she loved, to her marriage to a man she adored, to the fatal incident that destroyed the world she knew.

The memoir moves between New York and Sao Paulo as Keilt sets the stage for an incident that occurs shortly after her marriage. Keilt places no blame, but tells her story with an objective eye, while expressing the confusion she held of her experiences: the kidnapping, torture, rape, and interrogation by the police for “…forty-five days of hell. Three million, eight hundred and eighty-eight seconds.”

Karen Keilt presents a memoir that is tough and unapologetic. She sandwiches her story within an interview at the UN, which is smart because some of the events are so intense and violent, they call for a breathing space where readers can decompress.

The sign of a good memoir, like any other piece of literature, is readers cannot put the work down. Here, Keilt has crafted her story in a plot that flows, and characters who are sympathetic and despicable. We follow her through her vivid, active setting in beautiful Brazil, to the prison, to New York, and California. Her struggles are heartfelt right up to the satisfying ending.

When she receives the call from the Truth Commission, she is willing to help her beloved Brazil in any way she can, even if it means resurrecting her past and the recurring nightmares. She’s interviewed by a political scientist and investigator who is building a case against the Brazilian government for crimes against human rights that had been perpetrated for decades by its savage police force and military dictatorship. These interviews, held at the UN in New York City, envelope the story she relates.

Keilt’s page-turning memoir takes readers on a journey we might be reluctant to travel, but compelling and essential, nonetheless. We must see how she gained her freedom from the oppression and how she lived the nightmare of those forty-five days. Her story is too real, too raw, too vital to simply set aside.

This action-packed memoir exposes international affairs, historical events, and human rights abuses. For some, Keilt’s story will hit a rather delicate nerve and serve to remind us why it is crucial to protect our democracy, to be vigilant and aware of those forces that seek to unravel our freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Indeed, we must all work towards a democracy that puts the lives of its citizens before those of a few powerful politicians who may have their own agendas.

In corresponding with the author, she reflects, “The truth is, I was sooo very lucky. I was, by the grace of God, a dual citizen. I was welcomed to the US when I made my escape. I had with me the only precious thing I could never have left behind. My son. Also a dual citizen. Today, when I hear the echo of those words, ‘Welcome home, Mrs. Sage,’ uttered by the passport control agent, I truly understand how blessed I was. My experience gives me more empathy for the agonizing fear of today’s immigrants who flee terror, starvation and tyranny often journeying through untold dangers for weeks or months only to finally arrive in the US and be turned away or worse, imprisoned and separated from their children. If that had happened to me, I would not have survived.”

Keilt shines a bright light on the horrors of what happens when corruption infiltrates the highest levels of a governing body, something we should all pay attention to and be outraged by. The Parrot’s Perch won Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBAs for Overcoming Adversity Non-Fiction works.

November 22, 2019