Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer 5 Star Book Review

A SPYING EYE: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel by Michelle Cox – Historical Mystery, Women Sleuths, 20th Century

Brooding Château du Freudeneck, just outside Strasbourg, France has villains in the drawing rooms, stolen art hidden in the cellars, and bats in the belfry – all the best elements for a 19th-century Gothic mystery.

However, in Michelle Cox’s novel, A Spying Eye it’s the 20th century. The Great War is passed, but the next war already looms on the horizon. The people of Strasbourg feel the growing conflict sharply, at the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, a fertile region that has been contested between France and Germany since time immemorial.

Which means those bats are in the unfortunate head of the elderly Baron Von Harmon, the current lord and master (as much as he’s still able to be, at least) of the Chateau, while the stolen art is pursued by both the villainous Nazis and the only slightly-less villainous agents of Britain’s MI5.

Amongst this strife, Clive and Henrietta Howard visit the Chateau, at the behest of both his mother and his country. They’re filled with conflicting hopes about a second honeymoon after their disastrous first attempt in A Promise Given, while conducting a wild goose chase for a missing occult art masterpiece in the home of Henrietta’s long-lost relations.

The game is afoot from the very first page of this sixth entry in the award-winning series – long before Clive and Henrietta even know that they are being played by both sides, neither of whom intends for them to survive.

While Inspector Clive Howard is certainly the more experienced investigator of this pair, the focus in A Spying Eye is firmly on Henrietta, particularly in contrast to the trials and tribulations faced back home by her sister Elsie and her sister-in-law Julia.

The Strasbourg troubles in which Henrietta finds herself mired combines a search for the roots her family left behind generations ago with an utterly riveting and thoroughly researched investigation into the early years of the Nazi movement, Hitler’s seemingly endless search for mystical and mythical artworks to feed his obsession with the occult, and a real-life mystery wrapped around just what happened to the panel of the Ghent Altarpiece that the Howards oh-so-briefly managed to hold in their hands.

The pace of the story is relentless on both sides of the Atlantic, as Henrietta, Julia, and Elise all face personal, professional, and even criminal crises, in a world marching towards World War II.

Readers who have fallen in love with the detective duo of Howard and Howard will be in rapture over this latest entry. Fans of the bestselling Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear or the Elena Standish series by the late Anne Perry will find just the kind of character-driven, meticulously researched historical mystery that they are craving, set in the fascinating period between the wars.

As A Spying Eye ends, Henrietta gets her hat on the way out the door to her next adventure, A Haunting at Linley, scheduled for release in late October 2023.

A Spying Eye by Michelle Cox won the Overall Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Book Awards.

November 10, 2023
ACTS Of SUPREMACY: A Cautionary Indictment of America’s Military Justice System by Walter Francis Fitzpatrick III – Military Justice System, Military Memoirs, Military History
Acts of Supremacy: A Cautionary Indictment of America’s Military Justice System by Walter Francis Fitzpatrick III, edited by Dominic McFarland Martin, is a unique treatise about one man’s court-martial in the spring of 1990.

This work details how an admiral set in motion the events that would lead to his subordinate’s court-martial, and how that subordinate – the author – fought to be exonerated. The author, now a retired naval officer, explains to readers how the current system of military justice came to be, claiming it to be beyond the laws and constitution of the United States, and what can be done to start fixing it.

“A central idea advanced in this work is that America’s military discipline system is extra-constitutional (unconstitutional, or outside the constitution) and extralegal (outside the law), and that it is purely a function of command wherein military commanders practice absolutism, giving them a free hand to treat their underlings as ‘so many chickens,’” Fitzpatrick says.

He continues, “If a given military rule bears any resemblance to the scope and operation of the US Constitution, it is simply a matter of that commander’s passing whim.”

Fitzpatrick goes into the history of military justice in this country, even to how it was formed with the Founding Fathers:

“ ‘John Jay told George Washington this much: “Let Congress legislate. Let others execute. Let others judge.” The bedrock foundation of the Constitution was a separation of powers in times of peace and tranquility. Little known, though, and terribly unappreciated is that the founders further provided that in times of national emergency or dire threat, all power must migrate to and reside in an ‘energetic executive.’ In other words, the Constitution is situational, and its structure and power are tied directly to particular levels of threat that the country may face.”

“Therefore, there is nothing particularly ‘judicial’ about America’s military government under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ),” Fitzpatrick explains, holding that the code is nothing more than “flimsy artifice” and indeed, that it is used to “hide in total darkness the very serious real-world abuses visited upon US servicemen.”

“A country’s character is measured by the way it treats its veterans.” —Unknown

Fitzpatrick concludes, “It follows that those not bound by constraints of the Constitution and those who deny constitutional protections to others cannot be trusted to defend the Constitution. Individuals and groups who deny these protections are most certainly suspect and represent a greater danger to the country than America has ever faced.”

Fitzpatrick’s unique, deep-dive work is an eye-opening look at the military justice system and how it has been used and abused throughout the years.
November 8, 2023
AIR BOAT: Love is an Adventure (Book 1 of the Special Forces Connection) by Jacek Waliszewski – Romance, Action & Adventure, Suspense

For readers interested in a unique romance, Air Boat: Love is an Adventure by Jacek Waliszewski offers a distinctive cast of characters and tense excitement in the sky.

Air Boat brings together a former Special Forces soldier, Luke, who prefers to keep to himself, an independent and sarcastic female pilot, Stella, and a three-legged Husky named Saint who marches to the beat of his own drum. These captivating characters embark on a fast-paced, page-turning tale.

Author Jacek Waliszewski starts this romantic adventure with a suspenseful scene of a vintage plane barreling towards the Twin Cities, accompanied by two F-16 fighter jets, before setting the stage for the two main characters to meet. The mystery of this scene will stick in the reader’s mind, drawing them forward with stark curiosity that only grows in excitement.

Saint, the wandering Husky mix, brings these two together, with sparks quickly flying between their strong personalities. Luke is not one to share much about his personal life or history, but the wounds Stella sees on his shoulder indicate trauma from his time deployed with the Green Berets. Unlike some common counterparts in a romance, Stella is a strong, competitive woman who is not likely to fall for anyone – nor give them the last word.

After the two spend some time together (axe throwing at a local bar), Luke takes Stella up on an offer to learn to fly the small commuter planes that Stella and her father, Pierre, use for their airboat business of ferrying people across the west (Montana, Alaska, and Minnesota are some of the locales). As the attraction between Luke and Stella grows, an opportunity to fly together turns into a terrifying situation which brings the story full circle.

This adventure romance has fine detail and intrigue, as the author draws from his own time as a Green Beret.

Air Boat is an exhilarating and fast-paced adventure that romance and adventure fans will love.

The story will continue, as Air Boat is the first in a five-part Special Forces Connection series, two of which will be coming out in 2024. Readers will eagerly await more by Jacek Waliszewski.

November 6, 2023
PETALS by Anna Casamento Arrigo – Poetry Collections, Family Life, Memory

Anna Casamento Arrigo tells of longing, memory, and lingering pain through verdant imagery and mythological metaphor in Petals, a poetry collection.

Poems such as “Life Speaks Loudly” and “Time Too Quickly” establish a focus on the ever-changing seasons, and the power of time to both take away from someone and transform them. Arrigo’s work here is a remembrance of those things gone to the past, both the beautiful and the awful. “A Slow Dance in the Summer Rain” shows the weight of loving memories, while “Treading” reaches for the dreams of childhood, before they were stamped out by the struggles of life.

These poems use vibrant sensory descriptions – especially of the natural world – which ground the heightened emotions to allow readers to connect with them. In fact, readers can listen to some of these poems in musical form on Arrigo’s YouTube channel.

Petals grapples with family and identity in “Who Am I” & “Nonno’s Orchard”, grief over a lost father in “Daddy’s Flower”, and a yearning for connection in “Wrapped in Your Heart”. These themes meld with one another to give a complete sense of loss. Certain intimate details, such as a specific jacket or kind of flower, recur throughout the book. Readers will begin to recognize these motifs, creating a familiarity that will open them to deeper sorrow and joy.

Arrigo explores a sense of being adrift in the world, unsure of even one’s own self.

“Hey Child!” and “More than Now” insist that, even while adrift, there is a powerful urge to act – to take in the world. “My Naked Soul” dalliances with the very cosmos, while “Hollow Men” and “The Reality” use mythology to interrogate how people see themselves, and whether their eyes are clear when they do so.

This sense of interrogation continues, growing into the biblical reckoning of “The Gatekeeper” and the menace of “The Red Knight”. Greed, injustice, and faith intertwine in these poems as Petals sets its sights on those who have used and abused their fellow people and the world around them.

A strong rhythm carries Petals along, with a back-and-forth of long lines and short, as well as comforting and tumultuous emotion.

Arrigo uses occasional formatting changes to make poems such as “The Night Warrior” striking while maintaining a broadly consistent style.

The likewise consistent through-line of reminiscence lends itself well to stark tonal shifts, as these poems hold tight to memories of love, fear, and grief alike. “Sounds and Silent Seas” calls out to the past, asking it to open a path of reunion while indulging in the beauty of what once was. “TOO!” speaks instead of escape, flying away from the darkness of childhood.

And yet, a person can’t let memory consume them, not while they have a present. “Now” stands as an answer to the past – for all of its wonderful and terrible power, it only exists through the lens of what is now.

Through careful description and dedication to the impact of memory, Petals creates a cohesive and affecting collection of poems.

November 3, 2023
WAGES Of EMPIRE by Michael J. Cooper – Historical Fiction, WWI, Action & Adventure
Michael J. Cooper’s latest historical fiction novel, Wages of Empire, draws readers into the perilous journey of sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair and his father into WW1. On this path, their lives will intersect with such historical figures as TE Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, the Arab nationalist Faisal ibn Hussein, the proto-Nazi and advisor to the German kaiser Guido von List, and Kaiser Wilhelm II himself.

Set in the summer of 1914 we find Evan living in the American southwest where his father moved the family from England for his Oxford sabbatical. Evan struggles to cope with his mother’s death in childbirth and yearns to escape his father’s controlling grip. As war breaks out in Europe, Evan decides to leave home and join the fight, without telling his father.

By the time Clive realizes Evan is missing, the war is in full swing. Clive returns to England to search for Evan and reactivates his commission at the War Office in London. There, Clive uses every means available to find Evan. Meanwhile, Evan has made his way across the Atlantic and into France with the hope of joining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), but instead he is arrested by the Paris police as a possible German collaborator. He escapes, but by mistake, crosses into occupied Belgium where he barely survives a German artillery barrage with poison gas. Joining the Flemish resistance, he is badly wounded after helping to flood the lowlands, a deciding factor in stopping the German army. After recovering in a BEF hospital in France, Evan begins a romance with a beautiful young nurse just before he is discharged to return to England by hospital ship.

Cooper masterfully weaves a compelling narrative that includes fictional and historical characters with high stakes in the conflict. Wages of Empire takes us from Whitehall in London to the Western Front in Flanders, where we glimpse a world of imperial power where massive casualties result from outdated military tactics in the face of new wartime technologies. Cooper also provides an intimate look into the German Kaiser’s machinations in the conflict and his intentions for the Holy Land.

The Kaiser, who anticipates victory in the war, has sent his agents to facilitate his rule in Jerusalem as Holy Roman Emperor with dominion over Arabia’s rich oil reserves and control of the Suez Canal. And from his throne on the Temple Mount, he plans to extend a vision of German-Nordic racial supremacy throughout the world. Woven into this challenge, we glimpse a covert fellowship of Guardians of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. This mysterious and clandestine community is aware of the Kaiser’s intentions and dedicated to stopping him.

With gripping tension, Cooper keeps readers on the edge of their seats as the stakes are raised with each turn of events. Will Evan and Clive be reunited? Will they survive the war? These questions and more are left echoing in the reader’s mind long after the story’s conclusion.

Michael J. Cooper’s Wages of Empire is a must-read blockbuster for history buffs of all ages. The novel’s masterful storytelling will leave readers wanting more. Available for pre-order now.
November 1, 2023
THE GIRL WHO RECYCLED 1 MILLION CANS by Shaziya M. Jaffer, Brad W. Rudover, Jessica Alexanderson – Children’s Environmentalism Books, Picture Books, Climate Change

The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans, by Shaziya M. Jaffer, Brad W. Rudover, & Jessica Alexanderson, is perfectly written for children between three and eight years old.

Eye-catching colorful graphics by Adam Trask, fun characters, and a wonderfully lighthearted storyline uphold this book’s message of protecting the environment. Both children and adults will feel empowered to help our planet one can at a time.

An adventurous young girl named Ellie wants to buy a Unicorn. To earn the money she needs, Ellie plans to collect and recycle one million cans. But she soon realizes that her plans may need to take a different track. Together with her community of friends, who show great teamwork and perseverance, environmental lessons continue on with fantastic results.

Few books do such a fine job of combining so many life lessons while still keeping the learning lighthearted and fun.

This is a refreshing tale of environmental hope, and an all-around winner for both children and adults to learn that you can help the planet through something as simple as recycling metals.

One of the coauthors, Jessica Alexanderson, has provided book readings at schools and libraries and has built a fun hands-on program to learn more about metals and recycling.

She has supported many metal recycling fundraisers at not only local schools here in Washington State, but in several other states around the U.S. as well. Jessica recently coordinated a can recycling competition at nine different schools in eight different states.

You can visit the Scrap University Kids website to purchase this wonderful book, learn more about recycling metals, and get started on making a positive difference for our planet! kids.scrapuniversity.com

October 30, 2023
A STORY Of WHOA by Chris Corbett – Children’s Determination Books, Picture Books, Children’s Emotion & Feelings Books

In A Story of Whoa, Chris Corbett shows one way that parents can explain the often loud and frightening problems of the world to children, and how anyone can make a difference.

Whoa watches the news every night with his father, where tragedy, injustice, and cruelty so often take center stage. Seeing these terrible things happening on TV, Whoa decides the time has come to step up. With his father’s support, he learns every martial art he can, ready to do battle with the toughest challenges in the world!

With patience and encouragement for Whoa’s many KERPOWS!!!, his father helps him discover that fighting injustice often goes beyond physical strength.

The story’s simple narrative voice carries reader through with ease and comfort. Corbett does an excellent job understanding the difficulty of talking to kids today about what they might see on the news, and then brings it home by showing the kids that they can help make the world a better place.

Illustrations from Richardo Galvao delight and pair perfectly with the story, helping put each page in context. Personified depictions of Tragedy, Injustice, and Cruelty add a charming sense of personality and fun to a serious topic.

A Story of Whoa offers an empowering story to help children deal with major problems. Maybe, like Whoa, we can all make the world a better place.

October 27, 2023
DESPAIR Of The SEER: Book One of the Pithios Dominion Series by Antonio Guadagno – Dark Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Suspense Action

In Despair of the Seer, the first book of Antonio Guadagno’s Pithios Dominion Series, Revenant soldiers mercilessly hound two friends for their vital knowledge as they are pulled away from their everyday lives to a life-or-death fight through a fantastical empire.

This world is filled with life-threatening dangers and horrors that could shake even the most stoic individuals. What weapon could defy these evils? Is determination enough to propel a young man through the Pithios Dominion, defying the deadly, flesh-ravenous Revenant Army? Seeking to reunite with his father, Paxton Roald must race against the powerful forces he blames for this misery. Will he and his best friend, Terrance, be able to find the strength and forge the unity to face their enemy and fight its power?

True to its name, the Pithos Dominion dominates its people so that only the foolhardy and the desperate dare stand up to their threats. The reader is gripped wondering if two young friends can survive when their lives in Miami are turned completely upside-down. Terrance is on the brink of proposing to his girlfriend, and Paxton is caring for his mother and granny when the tentative, uneasy stalemate between governing powers begins to crack.

Laced with endearing humor, Guadagno’s suspenseful and exciting fantasy adventure plunges the reader into a power struggle that threatens to defeat humankind itself.

The ambitious Controller demands military supremacy from the lead scientist of the Revenant Project, Eugene Roald – Paxton’s father.

Instead, Eugene flees to avoid putting his hands on the scales of destiny. But Paxton becomes the Controller’s target, in the hopes he’ll lead them to his father. No one knows if the Controller plays with forces beyond his understanding, or has he found a way to tilt the scales in his favor.

J’Nou, First Brother of the Revenant, is the terror dispatched to pursue Paxton. Torment of the son, or anyone who gets in the way, is simply a means to victory. He shows Paxton the terrible price of power, until Paxton can no longer tolerate this despotism.

The Despair of the Seer may be prophetic as the land of the Dominion is filled with terrible creatures beyond his imagination.

With characters seeking ultimate power, fascinating in their ruthlessness, Despair of a Seer captivates like a horror you can’t force yourself to look away from. The luckless heroes evoke an empathy that will have readers cheering them onward. These two sides clash in a stunning plot that makes this story impossible to put down.

October 25, 2023
LIAR, ALLEGED: A Tell-All: Celebrities, Sex and All the Rest by David Vass – Memoirs, LGBTQ+ Humor, 1960s

Liar, Alleged: A Tell-All: Celebrities, Sex, and All the Rest is a raw and mature memoir, the account of a resilient individual, David Vass, who had felt ‘instinctively’ different and shunned since he was a child.

Vass was born in Baltimore as the seventh child of eight. His large family knew nothing more than chaos and absurdity, biting poverty, a violent father, and an eternal hand-to-mouth crisis. At an early age, he had recognized his inextinguishable fascination with other males, a discovery that he would later bring himself to express to his mother. He was pretty confident that being gay was core to who he would become.

By the time he was twenty-four, David’s parents had already passed on. But as fate would have it, he would come to meet ‘the mother he never had’ in the jazz legend Anita O’Day. She dealt with problems of alcohol, drugs, and men; the outcome had been nine abortions, stubborn guilt, and infamy as a heroin addict. Nevertheless, the two would become close confidantes until Anita’s demise at the age of eighty-seven.

Author Vass exemplifies his background in a forthright and emotional manner that will bring readers to laughter and tears alike.

He tells of a tightly wound household, and carefree buddies eager to determine whether he was male or female before answering his sexual longings and plea for companionship. In this book, readers get to learn of the prevalent suicide rate in the gay community around the late 50s and early 60s, with particular true stories narrated in articulate but bare street language.

Carol, one such true individual, revealed eye-opening details such as a little-known disorder that left her unable to feel remorse or guilt as she engaged in indecipherable sexual activities. In the setting of 1966 Baltimore, clubs paid politicians to allow underage workers, and Vass would greatly benefit from the arrangement. Readers may find their emotions stirred by such ordeals of the young teenager, who had started working in one of the shadiest, mafia-owned cross sections of America.

Liar, Alleged: A Tell-All: Celebrities, Sex, and All the Rest delivers a roller coaster of emotions that delves into the highs and lows of a resilient and warm human being.

The narrative is intense and unapologetically honest, leaving a lasting impact, with unfiltered, vulnerable storytelling. Vass refuses to hold back, offering readers a front-row seat to all the dark, raw, and unflattering drama. This memoir is conclusively enticing and well-crafted, and a worthy recommendation to those seeking a blunt and well-told experience of the world.

October 20, 2023
ROADS To The INTERIOR by W. Hans Miller – Poetry, Philosophical, Haiku

Roads to the Interior by W. Hans Miller is a journey through the interior of the mind, seeking to find answers, peace, and insight.

This book is inspired by, and dedicated to, the works of Matsuo Basho, the father of haiku and other spiritual writings. Haiku usually has a fixed pattern of three lines with a 5/7/5 syllable pattern – often referencing nature or reflecting on life – but the haikus within this book don’t always follow that tradition. Rather, Roads to the Interior turns the haiku’s reflective questions on the mind itself.

Each of this book’s three sections is filled with raw emotion, existential musings, and careful contemplation. Recurrent readings of this collection will allow readers to absorb yet more truths and insights.

Different poems make reference to many thinkers, writers, and literary characters.

“Part I – Wide Roads to the Interior”, considers struggle and longing. “Each Newborn Bubble” shares these truths: “Even Siddhartha had bad days. A dear friend tells me to persevere: don’t search for spring’s source, care for each newborn bubble.” In “Penance” the speaker says, “I’ll speak no more of my predicament, always fearing my words will mean less than they say. I’m taller now but wiser when I was seven…”

“Part II – Narrow Roads to the Interior”, reflects on the existential.

Poems such as “Longing to Trust the World” and “Nothing is the Answer” pull readers into this shift. “Paradise Lost” is shaped much like a cocoon, taking the reader from dust to revelation and then dust again. These poems draw on other authors such as (T.S. Elliot and Walt Whitman, and even the protagonist of Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”, through such lines as, “Mersault found a truth. A truth that brought light falling upon that which already lit his gentle indifference to the world. His death testimony cause peace and calm to warp their arms around an unfinished circle on his brow.”

The final section, “Your Brain’s Secret Interior Life: Seven Poems”, comes with an epilogue of the author’s journey through the complexity of the human mind. These last poems provide thoughtful considerations in the pursuit of understanding the Road to the Interior that each one of us must walk.

October 11, 2023