Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer 5 Star Book Review

SMITE The WATERS: The Isaak Collection by David T. Isaak – Terrorism Thriller, Conspiracy Thriller, International Mystery & Crime

Smite the Waters by David T. Isaak begins with the xenophobic billionaire Rex Atwater whose goal is to eliminate terrorism. His certainty that it’s “us” or “them” has led him to one horrifying conclusion: he must nuke Mecca.

Convinced of his twisted plot’s perfection, Atwater assembles a deadly team. Carla Smukowski is a military assassin mourning the death of her brother. Boyce Hammond works as a covert FBI agent deeply entrenched in a right-wing movement. And rounding out the cast is Gerald Graves, a nuclear expert willing to commit this heinous crime. Together, they vow to annihilate terrorism.

Virtually every character in this story is fully fleshed out, gritty and driven, to draw the reader deep into their individual stories.

Carla stumbles through a haze of alcohol, no job prospects and no money to fall back on. But even under the influence, she carries herself with violent prowess, showing the years of military action that have made her such a valuable operative for Atwater. And her dire straits are no position from which to refuse his offer—not that the rage over her brother’s death would let her anyway. Well-used to death, Carla drowns sympathy for the innocent under blood spilled by the guilty.

Hammond, after years deep undercover, wants out. But the chance to catch a man like Atwater is too great for his superiors to allow his return to his own life. Catching the FBI’s white whale means putting himself in greater danger than ever, and even the Bureau couldn’t have predicted the scope of Atwater’s plan. As he realizes the true global peril Atwater poses, Hammond has to put his own safety aside for the sake of countless others.

Dr. Gerald Graves is rescued from a rough and wrongful Patriot-Act empowered imprisonment and delivered the means to address serious nuclear disarmament—at least, as far as Atwater cares to tell him. Because, while some people can be paid enough to work any scheme, true believers in a mission are driven beyond their own sake. And as Atwater knows very well, that true belief can be directed to unparalleled violence.

This dynamic cast is a highlight of Smite the Waters. Readers of the thriller genre might be used to shadowy figures who forward the narrative without much character behind them, but in this book, every person has their reasons for being here—whether they stand with or against Atwater.

Smite the Waters careens like a nuclear bomb towards total disaster.

Atwater’s goal—the destruction of Mecca to shatter the Muslim world and remove it as a threat to America—spurs intrigue and tension alike. Thriller readers will obsess over every revealed detail, trying to intuit how the grand plan will play out as some forces move to make it happen and others work against the clock to prevent it. Highjacking a cargo ship full of nuclear waste from Indonesia, turning it into a destructive bomb, and delivering it to its intended target is all in the plan, but can it be executed?

Smite the Water by David T. Isaak is a thriller filled with action and intrigue that takes you on a complicated, perilous race. Along the way, it’s left to the reader to find out who it is that will reap the rewards, and who will suffer the consequences.

April 16, 2025
BUTTERFLY PINNED by Leslie Liautaud – Psychological Thriller, Suspense, LGBTQ+ Contemporary Fiction

Fleeing a small and troubled life back home, college student Marin falls headfirst into the attention of the fabulous, wealthy, and mercurial Bette. In Leslie Liautaud’s psychological thriller Butterfly Pinned, Marin gives body and soul to Bette for agonizing want of transformation.

Marin has toiled for the chance to become someone new and continues to fall back into her old limitations. Even as she moves to Chicago with a college scholarship, she struggles to escape the shadows of anxiety and poor self-esteem. But a chance meeting with Bette Winston casts her in glorious and terrible light.

Bette enthralls Marin with poetry, luxury, and the backdoor invitation to a world of refined grandeur. She convinces Marin to double-major in philosophy, while pulling her away from classes and all other mundane responsibilities. Marin gets to share this new world with Bette’s high-class friends Ozzie and Harry, shunning any connection to her old, embarrassing life. But as she meets those who know Bette beneath her lustrous glamor, Marin glimpses a sinister history.

However, even Bette’s shadows pull Marin deeper, until she finds herself living in them.

Terrible family secrets wash away under currents of alcohol and unnamed pills. Bette tantalizes Marin with the trappings of wealth and stirs unfamiliar desire in her chest until all that could possibly matter is the chic, impressive woman Bette promises to carve from her flesh.

Even as Marin sees the yawning chasms between Bette and those who truly know her, she can’t resist clinging tighter to her beloved. With each part of her old self that Bette cuts away, Marin grows ever more confident and ever more desperate. The quiet, unfashionable girl who first moved to Chicago becomes no more than an object of Marin’s disgust and fear. She sacrifices school, family, and her own mind at Bette’s shining altar, until she comes face to face with the dark truths that she’d tried to drown.

Butterfly Pinned binds readers with the same aching tension that Bette binds Marin.

We hear conflicting stories about Bette and see as many of her different faces. She’s a coiled snake, a girl in pitiable need of love, a sophisticate who sees the potential hidden in others, and a living façade who shapes her perfect world from glass and blood. A question—what Bette is truly capable of—grows with each unexpected turn in her behavior. When Marin finally gets an answer, the horror is at once shocking and inevitable.

With an intimate, believable cast of characters, Liautaud shapes an emotionally resonant psychological thriller.

Marin desires what many people do—to change, leave behind the parts of herself that haunt and limit her. Her constant battle to prove herself worthy of Bette’s attention is—while the cause of so much trouble—a motivation that makes her deeply sympathetic. Even when she makes her most questionable decisions, readers will follow her with understanding and mounting fear, rather than judgement.

Bette, conversely, defies true understanding. Her capricious affection and gilded life might enchant Marin, but it’s Bette’s fathomless well of emotional need that makes her impossible to merely turn away from. This combination of mystery and intimate intensity gives Bette’s character a powerful gravity as both lover and villain. She looms over the story and everyone in it, maintaining the curiosity and dread anticipation at the heart of this genre.

Liautaud fleshes out her novel with memorable and revealing side characters. The delightful and deplorable alike mingle at lustrous galleries, Marin refuses the caution and help of those who know the danger closing in on her, and each person’s true nature comes to light as the masks of privileged civility fall away. Slivers of Bette’s capacity for harm show in the guarded words of characters like Harry, Simon, and Eleanor—those few not fully taken by her illusions.

A story of desire and self-deception, Butterfly Pinned asks the cost of truly becoming someone else.

Beauty and cruelty go hand-in-hand throughout the novel as the first disguises and demands the second. Marin frequently refuses to look beneath the glimmering surface of Bette’s world. Even when she knows the murky depths waiting for her, Marin sinks for the chance to emerge reborn in glory.

When Marin’s safety and very capacity to choose are taken from her, she faces grim reality and the risk that she might not emerge from those depths at all.

Equal parts fascinating and painful, Butterfly Pinned delivers both a striking thriller and a profound exploration of toxic love and trauma.

April 14, 2025
SEA TIGERS & MERCHANTS: A New American Generation (Salem Stories Book 2) by Sandra Wagner Wright, narrated by Christa Lewis – Historical Fiction, Maritime & Naval History, US Historical Fiction

Sandra Wagner-Wright’s audible version of Sea Tigers & Merchants: A New American Generation, Salem Stories Book 2 continues the sagas of two prominent families that dominate the shipping industry of young Salem. Narrator Christa Lewis fully embodies the unique characters of this swashbuckling historical adventure.

Wagner-Wright takes us back to 1790. In recently independent America, the next generation of the Crowninshield and Derby families try to continue building their fortunes on the treacherous high seas. Threats of pirates, storms, and ever-changing economies drives their fates, their successes, and their failures. Wagner-Wright’s skillful pen brings to life each young person, female and male, as they variously seek out or shun a chance at love on shore.

Captain George Crowninshield and Haskett Derby duke it out for power and control of the Eastern Seaboard, with their families caught up in the contest.

Wagner-Wright shows how these merchants brave great risk through maritime exploits in France, the Netherlands, the West Indies, Africa, and Asia. During their adventures on the sea, these captains fight relentlessly for the vessels—which become as famous as those captains themselves.

Wagner-Wright’s expert knowledge of this time period allows her to illustrate the nuances behind each family’s successes, humiliations, and failures.

She explores a patriarchal society’s desire to control the lives of their women and offspring in pursuit of building empires. We become familiar with the strong women and daughters who support their men and help them make decisions to promote their children and businesses.

Sea Tigers & Merchants recreates the courting process of early Americana, along with other rules and rituals of society at the time. We are taken behind the scenes to see how the women smooth the ruffled feathers of their proud and arrogant husbands, tempering feuds between fathers and sons. Wagner-Wright shows these patriarchs both at their most effective and their most flawed. This lends her male characters a sympathetic human element while highlighting the female power behind these strong men who depend on their women for guidance and counsel.

The post-revolutionary times may have put the war behind them, but they are still fraught with aggressions by the British crown and pirates on the high seas. Wagner-Wright’s historical representation of this period brings to life the real threat imposed by an angry monarch at the mariners of the newly formed nation.

The historical exploration of trade, politics, and romantic alliances in Sea Tigers & Merchants will appeal to any readers who appreciate the revolutionary period in America.

This audible version will further engage and delight listeners through a combination of Wagner-Wright’s masterful storytelling and Christa Lewis capturing the voices of these myriad family members who helped shape a nation.

April 9, 2025
THE MONARCHS by Mark Sabbas – Sci-fi Adventure, Paranormal, Metaphysical

Hounded by an authoritarian military, vicious fellow psychics, and his own mental shadows, teenage Samuel Helen seeks the only people who can help his comatose beloved Evelyn. In Mark Sabbas’s Metaphysical adventure novel, The Monarchs, Samuel has no choice but to trust a strange and powerful girl, Luna, as his guide.

Decades after a nuclear apocalypse devastated Earth, the New Youth were born amidst rebuilding civilization. Vested with large, shining eyes and mysterious psychic power, these children are often feared as demons and taken by the Union military to be molded into weapons. Samuel himself spent most of his life in a military research facility. He grew up believing that a dark and furious power slumbered within him, eager to emerge and wreak havoc.

But Samuel’s not quite alone in this painful world. He has the love of an orphaned non-psychic girl, Evelyn, who urges him to run away with her. And within the walls of the Facility, Samuel relies on the mentorship and counsel of the psychologist Walter. Walter’s old-world music awakens a sense of beauty and inspiration in Samuel, though he struggles to accept Walter’s belief in a beneficent cosmic power.

Thanks to them and the few other New Youth he’s able to befriend, Samuel clings to an open mind and hope for a better world. Both of which are tested when an army of renegade psychics—the Children of the Dragon—lay waste to the Facility.

Despite their words of liberation, leaders Matteo and Tiana leave death and suffering in their wake. They demand absolute obedience on their quest to bring down the Union and rise as Earth’s ‘rightful’ rulers. But even as the Children of the Dragon hold Walter over his head, Samuel refuses to bloody his hands for them. Instead, he and Evelyn flee the desolation.

Though the two young lovers are aided by a mystical presence, it isn’t long before they’re found by a pair of hunters with cruel intentions. Samuel begins to draw more on his metaphysical power, but after his rescue attempt Evelyn is left in a state of supernatural unconsciousness. They would have surely died if not for the sudden appearance of Luna, a New Youth with incredible power both destructive and enlightened.

Luna speaks of a Sanctuary led by her sister, where they can find safety and a healer capable of reaching Evelyn’s soul. But to get there, Luna and Samuel have to follow a mystical river and evade capture while caring for Evelyn’s body along the way. Samuel struggles against his internal demons, trying to grasp enough power to protect himself and his companions without giving in to guilt and hatred.

Luna guides Samuel through the physical and spiritual alike as they both face shadows of the past.

While Samuel can’t be sure how much to believe Luna’s words, he opens himself to the idea of connecting with a broader world consciousness and eventually learns that he has to accept the darkness inside himself in order to embrace the light. Samuel’s good heart and dedication to Evelyn make him an endearing protagonist and help to anchor his metaphysical experiences in relatable emotion.

Luna herself breathes levity and life into the story as she clashes with Samuel’s troubled, sorrowful state. Their shifting dynamic will pull readers eagerly down the river with them. As Samuel learns more about Luna’s violent past, he and the reader alike wonder who this otherworldly girl really is.

Samuel’s metaphysical encounters reveal that more than just his own destiny stands at a vital crossroads—the whole of Earth is caught in a battle between good and evil.

The Monarchs shows a world on the precipice of great change. On one side are the old paradigms of violent dominance, perpetuated by both the Union military and the Children of the Dragon. On the other stands a vision of community and mutual understanding—an enlightened age rising from the ashes. This isn’t a battle that can be won by force, but rather through radical forgiveness and communion with the divinity inside every soul.

Through music, out-of-body visions, and meditative dreams, The Monarchs engages with philosophy and spirituality.

Although readers might struggle to grasp these visions at first, growing familiarity with the characters gives more shape to the abstract imagery and implications. Samuel in particular illustrates the idea of divine unity through his reckonings with traumatic memories and struggle to forgive himself for his mistakes. Later in the story these visions sometimes retread the same emotional ground, although with distinct settings and imagery.

This adventure centers its message of optimism and universal belonging.

The hope for a better world pushes Samuel on in the face of cruelty and loss. He learns to reject cynicism and a focus on the self, gradually putting his faith in a greater metaphysical plan than he can see at once. In his darkest moments, songs from his mother and from Walter’s revered records give him comfort.

Throughout their journey, Samuel, Luna, and Evelyn are buoyed by the kindness of old friends and strangers alike. An old priest gives them shelter and spiritual guidance, a mother invites them to share her roof and food, and even some of those who did them harm in the past return to offer a helping hand. The Monarchs is a story of forgiveness, hope, and the power of love freely given.

April 7, 2025
PUPPIED To DEATH: A Dog Lover’s Cozy Mystery, Barkview Mysteries Book 9 by C.B. Wilson – Cozy Animal Mysteries, Murder Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths

Puppied to Death: A Dog Lover’s Cozy Mystery by C.B. Wilson takes television editor-in-chief Cat Hawl from the quiet seaside town of Barkview to the lush landscapes of Hawaii on a mission to find her missing sister, Lani.

The scene for book 9 in this award-winning series is laid when Professor Aimee Loong hires Lani as a dog sitter for her French bulldog, Oolong. As Lani and Aimee grew closer, she joins Aimee in her search for a family artifact of significant value — a Chinese lacquered box that has been missing for centuries.

It matches two other similar boxes, and when brought together they are rumored to contain a powerful message: How to grow the best Oolong tea, a variety that dates back to the time of the Chinese emperors. Although this appears to be of minor importance to the common person, to Professor Loong’s family the tea’s value is immeasurable. If Aimee finds the missing box, her family’s farm could rely on that secret technique for many more successful years producing the prized tea.

But when the professor is found dead and Lani vanishes, Cat enters the picture. She must rely on her wits — and the help of her Mahjong-loving mother and a group of amateur sleuths — to uncover the truth.

Wilson weaves a complex mystery filled with unexpected twists and charming characters.

Fans of cozy mysteries will appreciate the quirky cast, from the fiercely loyal Mahjong Mamas to the ever-watchful bulldog who holds more secrets than he lets on. The interplay between Hawaiian culture, ancient family rivalries, and modern-day murder gives this story a fresh, engaging angle.

The storyline gives readers enough curious details to keep them eagerly turning the pages as they search for clues. As heart pounding excitement builds, you are immersed in the danger of a rivalry that stretches back to the days when the emperor sat upon his throne in the Forbidden City.

As with previous entries in the Barkview Mysteries, Wilson doesn’t shy away from blending humor, heart, and suspense.

Puppied to Death balances the charm of its dog-centric world with a genuinely puzzling mystery that will keep readers guessing. Pair that with well-developed characters who you’ll root for throughout the adventure, and you’re in for a T-R-E-A-T.

For dog lovers and cozy mystery fans alike, Puppied to Death delivers a satisfying tale of intrigue and charm. Whether this is your first visit to Barkview or you’ve followed Cat’s adventures from the start, this delightful ninth installment will leave you eager for the next mystery to unfold.

March 26, 2025
BEFORE The SCRAMBLE: A Scottish Missionary’s Story by Roderick Sutherland Haynes – Historical Record, African Missionaries, 1880s

Before the Scramble: A Scottish Missionary’s Story by Roderick Sutherland Haynes reveals the day-to-day writing of an early Christian missionary in what is now Malawi—one of very few such first-hand accounts to have survived nearly a century and a half.

Driven from Scotland by evangelical zeal, economic depression, and the lionized stories of David Livingstone, James Sutherland travels for months to the Eastern coast of Africa. But the young agriculturalist still has a long journey ahead of him before he arrives at the Livingstonia Mission on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi). He boats up the rivers Zambesi and Shire alongside fellow missionaries and workers from local African tribes.

Withstanding the trials of unfamiliar landscape, constant travel, and tropical disease, Sutherland makes it to the largely British-controlled region around Lake Nyasa. Here, his work has only begun. Early missionaries worked in many fields at once to keep their stations running, and Sutherland takes on the even greater task of helping establish a new mission on a more promising plot of land.

From November 2^nd, 1880 to May 20^th, 1881, Sutherland recorded his experiences—not with an eye to being etched in history, but as one man in a complex and mercurial world. Haynes frames Sutherland’s journal entries with historical context, creating a fuller picture of this pivotal moment.

Before the Scramble contains clear and extensive research—into Sutherland himself, the many other figures who shaped the Lake Nyasa region, and the wider colonization of Africa. Primary sources and the works of various history experts match the authenticity of Sutherland’s own records. Readers will find bountiful references for further exploration of their own.

This book begins with a broad-scope introduction to the time and place where Sutherland worked, including maps which make British Central Africa approachable even to those with little previous knowledge of it. Haynes examines the influence of figures like David Livingstone on the mindsets and motivations of people in the late 19^th century, further illustrated by Sutherland’s own writings on their work.

Before the Scramble gives Sutherland’s entries enough space to breathe, preserving his authenticity as a direct witness and actor.

Sutherland writes simply compared to intentional historic records of the time, and in that simplicity gives his honest account of a land and people he’s never seen before. He shows the paternalistic views of his time, including a genuine belief in his spiritual calling as a missionary, but also curiosity and awe at the unfamiliar natural beauty of the Lake Nyasa region.

His specific language provides ample opportunity to learn about the terminology of the day, and what it reveals about the culture surrounding these missionaries. Sutherland writes this personal journal with an unguarded voice, open about the particular hardships of travel as well as his thoughts on the various people he meets—African, Arab, and British alike.

These journal entries conclude with a number of poems that Sutherland referenced, as well as three letters he sent back to his family members. These give a rare insight into his personal emotional perspective on life at the time, a fascinating piece of history that can’t be found outside of such direct first-hand accounts.

As Sutherland illustrates the complexities of his life, Haynes gives a nuanced explanation of the role these early missionaries played in the eventual colonial scramble for Africa.

Haynes points out the Victorian attitudes that people like Sutherland held and which were used to justify European imperialism: the cultural supremacy of Europe; the moral imperative to convert ‘heathens’ to Christianity; the desire to bring commerce and ‘civilization’ to Africa.

While the history of colonialism bears out the immeasurable violence behind these ideas, Before the Scramble considers the moral nuances of people like Sutherland, especially as he witnesses some of the cruel Arab slave trade that European powers claimed to be fighting against.

Regardless of intentions, Haynes explains how the work of these missionaries established infrastructure and social dynamics that would empower the following imperial conquest. And how, in turn, that conquest would provide the powerful backing for future missionaries to achieve their goals of conversion.

This truly unique record shows the intricacies of daily life that are so easily scoured away by the sands of time.

Before the Scramble is both a fascinating read in itself and a valuable companion piece for broader-scope historical writing about the early missionaries in central-Southern Africa. Sutherland’s ground-level experience of the Lake Nyasa region provides a glimpse into the challenges and subtle realities of those who walked a similar path to him. History readers, however well-seasoned, will find Before the Scramble a remarkable and human account of journey, purpose, and complex colonial groundwork.

March 19, 2025
GUIDED: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road by Kirsten Throneberry – Memoirs, Surviving Loss, Spirituality

In her stunning memoir, Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road, Kirsten Throneberry weaves together the highs and lows of a road trip packed with life wisdom, where she explores grief, spirituality, and rekindled hope.

Throneberry’s achingly vulnerable memoir splits its readers’ hearts and tenderly sews them back together.

In the aftermath of the devastating loss of her husband, Kirsten sells her home and takes her two small sons, two elderly pups, and eccentric mother on a year-long road trip around the United States in their new-to-them Bigfoot RV.

Encouraged by the same spirit guides whose earlier advice for her husband’s health left her broken and untrusting, Kirsten must learn to face the open road with an equally open heart and mind.

Kirsten forces herself past her comfort level, attempting to heal old wounds, confront and patch up her relationship with her mother, and curate a life of wonder and independence for her sons. All the while hoping that as she carries out her mission, she will somehow be able to restore her faith in her guides and herself.

Throneberry guides readers toward their own life-fulfilling adventures, reminding them, “The point is not simply to live, but to shake yourself awake, to open your eyes, eyelash after eyelash, until you finally understand your true nature.”

Learning to live through humble collaboration, true intuition, and radical acceptance is core to this heartwarming autobiography.

Throneberry intentionally exposes her life—both its exquisite beauty and deep suffering—in each and every sentence, creating a relationship with the reader that feels truly authentic.

First unfolding in Hawaii, the narrative follows the family to their home in Seattle and around the country until their journey leads them all the way back to the Pacific Northwest region. The intricate play between places, people, and timelines will make readers feel like they have returned home as well.

At times jaw-dropping terrifying, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and curl-up-in-the-fetal-position sad, Throneberry beautifully sculpts not one but five interwoven lives out of the rubble of life-altering loss.

Guided empowers readers to expand what they believe is possible and to connect with the guides that inspire them. Kirsten Throneberry is a vibrant and deeply empathetic storyteller. Bold, courageous, and attentive to delicate relationships, her story is studded with bright jewels of inspiration that will carry readers through their own difficult journeys.

Readers of Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road will feel held by these pages, no matter what battles they face. After all, as Throneberry writes, “Despite the unexpected and sometimes heartbreaking twists and turns inherent in any life, we are never truly alone. Something is always pushing us forward, onto the next situation or person that will encourage our evolution.”

March 14, 2025
THE ZYGAN EMPRISE TRILOGY by Y.S. Pascal – Sci-fi, Action & Adventure, Space Opera

In Y.S. Pascal’s The Zygan Emprise Trilogy, Shiloh Rush and her partner William “Spud” Escot act as our guides on a wild rocket ride through the universe.

Shiloh and Spud share a secret. By day, they’re actors in the sci-fi TV series “Bulwark.” By night, on weekends, and whenever they get the call from their ‘real’ boss, they return to their true work as secret agents for the galaxy-spanning Zygan Federation.

Their job is to keep the peace, fight terrorists and rebels, and protect the universal timeline from nefarious villains who would do anything to rewrite history in their favor. Earth is, of course, a key to the future of the galaxy beyond the imagination of even the most Earth-centric Terran.

This thrilling adventure pulls from all corners of the science fiction genre—from Star Trek: First Contact to classic movies like The Last Starfighter and Galaxy Quest, and even the sci-fi master Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy.

The Zygan Emprise Trilogy travels faster than light over a vast canvas of intergalactic empires, political machinations, tyrants who have lost their way, and heroes who need help finding theirs.

In Shiloh Rush, readers will find a protagonist with more than a bit of attitude as she searches for her brother. She soon learns he’s not the only one who needs saving, and along the way she discovers who her true friends are and just how many of them are also her real enemies. As many great sci-fi heroes do, Shiloh realizes that the black and white world she thought she belonged to is lined in shades of grey, and it’s easy for anyone to hide their current darkness behind the light of their past good deeds.

Shiloh’s adventures are tremendous fun, especially as her course grows darker and more dangerous along the way. Her partner’s secrets—many, many secrets—add to the depth of the story and ultimately to their true friendship. Political betrayals, heel turns, and Shiloh’s constant investigation into the falsehoods of the galaxy around her will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Whether it be through Shiloh’s hit TV series, her secret agent work for the Zygan Federation, or her journey to find the truth of her own origins, The Zygan Emprise Trilogy by Y.S. Pascal takes readers on exhilarating, heart-stopping romps through the universe.

March 12, 2025
BECOMING CRONE: Book 1 of The Crone Wars by Lydia M. Hawke – Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Occult Fiction

There’s a darkness rising from the Otherworld in Lydia M. Hawke’s Becoming Crone, and only the Morrigan’s Crones can send it back. But For Claire Emerson, her first challenge is accepting the fact that she is a Crone.

On Claire’s sixtieth, friends and family come to celebrate her milestone birthday. But with her daughter-in-law Natalie giving out advice more suitable for an 80-year-old, her neighbor Jeanne’s annual gifting of a garden gnome, and her best friend Edie cracking wise and irreverent, Claire’s milestone is more like a millstone around her neck. Fresh off a divorce, in a funk, and seeking purpose in her life, her day is only brightened by her grandson Braden gifting her an antique pendant.

The owner of the antique shop, her neighbor Gilbert, wants to buy it back. Claire refuses for Braden’s sake and finds the pendant proves to have a value stranger than money. Other strange occurrences happen as well, including a strange, angry man, and protective crows. Determined to resolve this new mystery, Claire sets out to find the address.

And find it she does, after a long trek down a disused, heavily wooded, bramble-entangled road.

It’s a stone cottage, guarded by two beings destined to teach and protect her: a female gargoyle named Keven, and Lucan the rather charming werewolf. After much resistance—not to mention an attempt on her life—Claire agrees to stay the night.

At this point Claire is chalking up her fantastical experiences to a seemingly sudden onset of dementia. Despite her disbelief, Claire is sharp and likable, with an engaging voice and a gift for wry witticisms. “Not quite what I’d envisioned as a retirement plan,” she tells herself when she finally agrees to learn magick from Keven.

And she needs to learn magick fast! When the mages attack, the stakes become astronomic.

Claire collects her cat and moves into the cottage to begin her lessons. She finds her long-ago dabbling in Wiccan spells proves she already has the magick in her, but she needs to learn to control it. To Claire’s and Keven’s surprise, she finds she can tap into Air, Fire, Earth, and Water magick. Each Crone controls only one element, which means that Claire is the fifth and ultimate Crone, the Crone of Spirit.

As her training continues, she learns the evil she’s seen began in Arthurian times, when a Slavic god named Morok possessed the wizard Merlin and began disseminating darkness and deceit upon the world. Only the Morrigan and her Crones are capable of stopping him. But each time they try to rid themselves of him, a little of the world also falls with him.

Hawke ties this god of deceit to the lies and disinformation our world experiences today—a quiet reality check that helps ground the story. Morok’s mages even use bots to crawl the internet in search of the five pendants that, when used together, would destroy him forever.

Becoming Crone takes its time getting through Claire’s misgivings about turning sixty before it sets her on her true path, but Hawke has created such a lively cast of characters within a fluid and vivid environment, and the story never fails to intrigue.

Claire’s attraction to Lucan, and Edie’s disappearance, leave unanswered questions, and readers can look forward to both characters returning in the second installment of The Crone Wars series – A Gathering of Crones.

Women readers in particular will enjoy Becoming Crone for its dynamic representation of older female characters. After all, as Keven tells Claire, “All women are witches. Or at least, they have the capacity to be so.”

Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Paranormal Awards for Supernatural Fiction.

March 5, 2025
YOU HAVE To BE PREPARED To DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN To LIVE: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America by Paul Kix – Black American History, Long-Form Journalism, Civil Rights

Paul Kix shows readers the bloody front lines of the civil rights movement in his novel You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America.

This historical nonfiction novel explores in-depth the Birmingham, Alabama campaign known as Project C. Kix dives deep into the minds of dozens of key historical figures who helped orchestrate the campaign, such as Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and Fred Shuttlesworth. Despite an overwhelming fear of failure, Project C needed to catch the attention of the nation.

When the brutal murder of George Floyd sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, Kix and his wife were faced with the difficult task of explaining racism to their children. Kix, who is white, and his wife, who is Black, chose not to shield them from news coverage of the deaths and the protests that followed.

The jarring footage of Floyd’s death paralleled another startling image: that of a 15-year-old boy being attacked by a German shepherd handled by the Birmingham police.

Kix was fascinated by the photo. As a journalist, he began to spot connections between the events his family was living through in 2020 and the Birmingham marches in 1963.

Choosing to march in Birmingham was a desperate attempt by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference—a major player in the civil rights movement—to push for desegregation. They hadn’t made any real impact since the Montgomery bus boycotts nearly a decade ago and their recent Albany campaign had flopped.

Running out of money, and with the Kennedy administration refusing to enact civil rights legislation, the SCLC decided they needed to venture into the heart of segregated America.

Birmingham refused to desegregate, and often turned violent towards its Black citizens. The incredibly active KKK bombed the homes of activists, castrated Black men, and upheld the city’s moniker “the Murder City of the World.” Even facing reluctance from the city’s Black citizens, a lack of funds, and thinly veiled threats from mayor Bull Connor, the SCLC pushed forward. Kix brings to life the tension, inspiration, and determination that fueled Project C.

Kix’s detailed writing brings readers into the midst of vivid historical scenes, from extravagant fundraisers in New York to the desolate conditions in a Birmingham jail.

His writing gives due credit to many lesser-known participants in the project and shows how each individual overcame their own battles to contribute to a larger movement.

This novel includes enough nuance and historical analysis to keep any history buff engaged. By seamlessly introducing important context, Kix also makes sure even readers with limited knowledge know not only what is happening, but why it’s happening.

Kix’s background as a journalist shines through in the book’s factually rooted events and thoughtful commentary.

He offers insight into the rhetorical choices behind sermons, comments from the government, and King’s infamous Letter from Birmingham Jail. The only potentially dramatized aspect is occasionally heated dialogue, though most quotes come directly from newspapers, press conferences, or memoirs by those involved. Kix’s choice of quotes and his analytical comments don’t drag down the pace of the novel at all. Instead, they add a fiery authenticity to the story, which moves quickly from dramatic event to dramatic event.

The infamous marches in Birmingham are now more than sixty years in the past. As time moves on, it is important not to forget Project C and how it contributed to legislation that still protects Americans’ rights today.

Authors like Paul Kix help preserve America’s history by bringing it to life in the minds of readers. His unique insights, comprehensive research, and captivating characterization honors the stories of leaders that changed history. You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live is a worthwhile educational read that illustrates why these stories are essential to understanding our present.

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live by Paul Kix won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Nellie Bly Awards for Journalistic Non-Fiction.

March 3, 2025