Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: First Place Winner

  • BLIND SPOTS by Patrick Garry – Thriller/Suspense Urban Life, Courtroom Drama, Inner City Life

    BLIND SPOTS by Patrick Garry – Thriller/Suspense Urban Life, Courtroom Drama, Inner City Life

    In a rundown Minneapolis neighborhood, a woman and her three children are shot to death by someone using an automatic weapon. The city is shocked. The police department goes on full alert.

    It isn’t long before the police discover the actual killer is a 12-year-old. The identity of the killer doesn’t change the civic pressure on the police to come up with a suspect that could have put an automatic weapon in the hands of a child. An early suspect turned out to be Milo Krantz, a despised rent collector for the slum lord who owns the building where the killings occurred, a nasty piece of work with a criminal record.  Now it’s up to police detective Gunther Mulvaney to build the case against Milo, but he soon discovers that there’s not much of a case against him. Nevertheless, Milo is taken to court where the judge sets bail at $200,000 and is sent back to jail.

    The judge is Donna Davis, a smart, glamorous attorney married to Steven Davis, the state’s attorney general who is also a candidate for the U.S. Senate. But Donna and her marriage are not without complications. Coping with her husband’s ongoing unfaithfulness, and she with a lover of her own, Donna nonetheless recognizes the value of her relationship to her husband and the necessity to keep all the pieces of her life together for both of their careers. With Steven’s success, there might be a federal judgeship waiting for her.

    The couple understands her handling of Milo Krantz will be heavily scrutinized in view of the prominence of the case and the possible impact on the future of the power couple’s mutual careers.

    Unexpectedly, Milo throws a bombshell into his case. He will not testify. He declares he is guilty and refuses to attend any further hearings. Police detective Gunther is blind-sided. He knows Milo is innocent but cannot understand why Milo is willing to destroy his life when justice would demand he be set free.

    This is where Blind Spots finds its unique voice. It becomes the story of a chance meeting in a hospital where one of them is healing following a devastating car accident. Two people from different worlds to explore a pure love, a chance for each to become someone better than they were before they met and a closeness that heals both of them on multiple levels. But for reasons best left to reading the novel, it is both real and unreal, life-changing and yet impossible. It is temporary. It ends abruptly. It only reemerges when Milo is about to go on trial, with Shakespearean consequences on them both that no one could have foreseen.

    This well-crafted, clear-eyed novel will make you wonder anew about the power of love, both good and bad, and ask you to consider what your heart, mind and, yes, ethics would have you do under similar circumstances. Blind Spots is a gem. Highly recommended.

    Blind Spots by Patrick Garry won First Place in the 2015 CLUE Awards for suspense and thriller novels.

     

     

     

    Blind Spots is available in paperback format. Please click here for more information.

    Patrick Garry is a law professor with a Ph.D. in Constitutional History. He has written fifteen scholarly and popular audience books in the areas of law, history, politics, and religion. Those books have received numerous awards and have been featured in hundreds of media interviews, academic conferences, and book reviews. His general audience books alone have been the subject of dozens of radio and television news programs.

    In addition to his works of nonfiction, he has also published eight highly acclaimed books of fiction. Garry’s novels have not only been reviewed by hundreds of professional book reviewers, but they have also received more than 75 different literary awards.

    Learn more about Patrick Garry here.

     

  • FACING the DRAGON: A Vietnam War Mystery Thriller by Philip Derrick – Serial Killers, Military Crime Thrillers, Vigilante Justice Thrillers

    FACING the DRAGON: A Vietnam War Mystery Thriller by Philip Derrick – Serial Killers, Military Crime Thrillers, Vigilante Justice Thrillers

    Facing the Dragon by Philip Derrick explores the Vietnam War era through the eyes of an extraordinary high school student named Jim Peterson, who at fifteen made the varsity football team as a freshman. He’s intelligent as well as physically fit as he begins his journey in the backseat of a station wagon with his sister on their way to a family vacation, seemingly a typical teenager.

    In the first couple of pages, his dad picks up a hitchhiker in an Army uniform, and the story takes off from there. Jim ends up separated from his family and tries to reunite with them in the Carlsbad Caverns; instead, he is the only witness to their murders.

    Jim watches in horror as their bodies are disposed of in the Deep Pit of the Carlsbad Caverns, and shortly thereafter makes the decision to become the young soldier and follow the murderer to Vietnam where he will enact his revenge for his family.

    Thus begins the shift to the extraordinary world of military life for our high school freshman, from a boy on vacation with his family to a young man on a mission as sleuth and soldier. The seamless way Derrick identifies the patches and medals given by the military provide clues about Jim’s father, PFC Travis Nickels, and the mystery man Ross, in a unique and interesting manner.

    We learn about the importance of a crossed-double sword and a parachute on a patch. We learn a great deal about paying attention to the tiniest detail on a patch to help find clues, which our hero does several times. These subtle clues build interest in the story. The stakes are high for Jim, who takes matters into his own hands and follows the suspect to Vietnam, believing that based on the man’s patches, finding him in Vietnam won’t be an issue.

    It seemed implausible for a fifteen-year-old to be deployed with the paperwork of another soldier. Jim Peterson becomes PFC Travis Nickels. Our quick-minded protagonist lies when he has to and loses important fingerprint documents at crucial checkpoints. If a corporal thinks he’s an imbecile, he doesn’t care as long as he obtains his objective.

    Derrick takes us through bases and onto transports that finally bring us to the landscape of the Vietnam War, up close and personal. We are with Jim as mines are exploding all around him, as Huey helicopters are blown out of the sky right above his head, as he catches malaria and is assigned the foulest job for getting sick, which Sargent Strode believes he’s done on purpose.

    We can feel the sweat trickling down backs, smell the foul orders, and see the bark split as bullets hit the trees around him.

    Derrick splits the POV between Ross and the man who Jim is impersonating, taking us back to WWII Germany. The research Derrick had to do to pull this off is mind-boggling. Ross, a German soldier, the same age/era as Jim’s father, lies about who he is to escape Germany, enlists in the US military, and begins a quest to enact revenge for his brother. He is the foil to Jim who takes Nickel’s place, goes to Vietnam, to seek revenge for his family.

    Theirs becomes a twisted relationship of coincidences, but a fascinating one as the truth unfolds in the tiniest hints and innuendos. The tension on every page is palpable, as Nickels finds himself fighting in a war, where race riots in Vietnam erupt off the page like something off our news feeds today. The unpopularity of the Vietnam War and the soldiers who fought in it are also examined, as well as the division in attitudes the war caused at home. The author leaves no controversial topic left unexamined.

    This novel will keep readers turning pages and reading into the night. Derrick sprinkles so many interesting facts about the US military, the Vietnam War, WWII after the fall and the liberation of one concentration camp in particular. Derrick shows the daily grind of humping through the jungle, the mind-numbing boredom of waiting for battle, and then the chaos in the very-all-too-real life or death battles.

    Philip Derrick does not disappoint in this military thriller. He takes us on a wild ride that hangs just this side of “what the hell?” He’s a talented author with a deft ability to capture the historical and logistical aspects of this story without losing credibility or the reader’s confidence. Facing the Dragon is a book for all readers, not just those who love a great mystery/thriller or historical war story. One of our favorites!

    Facing the Dragon won First Place in the CIBAs 2018 CLUE Awards for mystery/thriller novels.

  • YOGA FOX by Sylva Fae – Children’s Animal Books, Children’s Fox Books, Children’s Lit.

    YOGA FOX by Sylva Fae – Children’s Animal Books, Children’s Fox Books, Children’s Lit.

    Self-respect and determination provide the themes for this cheerful children’s book by English author Sylva Fae.

    When he was little, Scaredy Fox was scared of everything: the dark, his shadow, thunder. But now he’s older and the only animal in the forest with a negative nickname. There’s Funny Bear, Bright Owl, Running Deer, and even Scaredy’s own brother, Lucky Fox. Lying at the edge of a park, Scaredy spies some girls doing something they call “yoga.”

    The young fox is inspired. He returns to the forest and begins to assume strange postures, naturally inciting curiosity among the animals. He invents what he calls the Swaying Willow posture, boldly imitates a charging position he calls Warrior Wolf, and many more. It isn’t long before his wish comes true: his animal companions rename him Yoga Fox.

    Fae has constructed this vibrant tale imaginatively. The yogic postures depicted, with simple cartoon illustrations, are so engaging that once they are part of the story, readers will want to see what strange shape comes next. This sense is enhanced with a final page in which all poses are repeated, inviting children to try them and invent their own names for each one. Fae’s creation makes a genuinely satisfying read for youngsters and for their parents or grandparents. The central idea – striving for self-improvement – can be discussed in the process, making this a multi-layered experience for all.

    Yoga Fox won First Place in the CIBA 2018 Little Peeps Awards for Early Readers Books.

  • LIVING WHERE the RABBITS DANCE (Choestoe Book 2) by J.R. Collins – American Western Fiction, Native American Literature, Coming of Age Fiction

    LIVING WHERE the RABBITS DANCE (Choestoe Book 2) by J.R. Collins – American Western Fiction, Native American Literature, Coming of Age Fiction

    In this stirring, coming of age saga by J. R. Collins, an old man shares his recollections of a time when the good old life was turning bad in his home region of the Tennessee mountains.

    Jebediah, known as Jeb, Collins was born in 1815 in a place known to the local Cherokee Indians as Cho-E-Sto-E, “Land of the Dancing Rabbits.” Owing to their closeness and their many shared needs, the family is, in a sense, adopted by the Cherokees. Jeb’s brother marries a Cherokee girl, and he himself is blessed by a sort of spiritual brotherhood with a Cherokee boy named Wolf who was born the same night as he. The story, a sequel to Collins’ earlier work, The Boy Who Danced with Rabbits, opens in 1827 as Jeb and Wolf, just on the brink of adolescence and able to act in manly ways, go on a hunting expedition. They slaughter a huge wild boar and are enjoying their conquest when renegade Indians enter their camp, demanding to know the whereabouts of a female slave who has run away into the woods. The intrepid lads manage to turn their intruders away and set out on their own to find the woman, after being alerted to her possible location by a panther, known in that part of the world as a “painter” cat. They find her nearly dead. Wolf sets her in a cave known to his people for its healing powers, where a huge bear will remarkably take part in her care before Jeb’s sister Anne can arrive with herbs and other remedies she has learned from her Cherokee relations.

    But lurking in the hills at that time are many, even greater dangers, as Jeb and Wolf learn when they encounter two surveyors for the United States Army, even now planning what will someday be called the “Trail of Tears,” driving the indigenous people abruptly, violently, from their spiritual and physical homeland. The reminiscences of Jeb as an old man give hints of that shameful time to come, while he sees his younger self resting rather easily after having helped to save the dying woman who, it evolves, has reason to rejoice at being found by members of Wolf’s tribe.

    Collins was raised in the area about which he writes so knowledgeably. He has an ear for the local dialect that runs throughout the narrative, and sensitive awareness of local lore with its powerful undertones of Native American culture and history. His sense of the tight connection between humans – both Irish and Cherokee – and the land they occupy is a dominant theme, along with the deep distrust both have for government men and the miners that have come to strip the area of its store of gold. Many supernatural events also demarcate the story, like the bear’s healing attention on the wounded escapee, and the many etheric visions experienced by Jeb as he realizes he is growing into manhood through his perils and victories.

    Those with a love of the old ways – both the real, factual events of America’s early development and the mystical imponderables that infuse the natural world of its native peoples – will savor Collins’ dramatic Choestoe series as thus far conceived, and wait excitedly for the next episode.

    Living Where the Rabbits Dance (Choestoe Series, Book 2) won First in Category in the CIBA 2018 LARAMIE Awards for American Literature.

     

     

  • SOLAR REBOOT by Matthew D. Hunt – Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Action/Thriller, Dystopian Fiction

    SOLAR REBOOT by Matthew D. Hunt – Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Action/Thriller, Dystopian Fiction

    There’s a lot about life on earth that we take for granted. Most of us go about our daily lives, but what would happen if the sun shot out a gigantic solar flare. Would we survive? What would happen to us?

    In Solar Reboot, a giant solar flare destroys the world’s power grids, disrupts the Internet, television, and radio communication, and is an all-around nightmare for air traffic controllers. Add tidal waves and gigantic storms to the mix, and it becomes evident that life on earth will change profoundly.

    Alex Robinson, his wife Cameron, and daughter Piper get to find out how tough it will become. On a trip to New York City, Alex and Piper expect to be home in Seattle in a few days. For Alex, a park ranger, flying back will be a relief from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. But when the sky turns purple, power disappears. Internet and broadcast communication all but ceases, and there are multiple reports of planes crashing to earth all over the planet, Alex quickly discovers the only way he’ll be able to return home will be to drive. It turns out that even driving is its own form of hell.

    Meanwhile, Cameron in Seattle is also experiencing the effects of the solar flare. An ER nurse with military experience, she’s urged by her husband to pack up and leave the city with as much food and medical supplies as possible. She has indulged Alex’s survivalist leanings with some skepticism, but as tension mounts at home, she wonders if he may not have been right. Finally, she decides to leave for their well-stocked mountain cabin, accompanied by her older next-door neighbor, Bettie, who decides that life in the mountains might be safer than dealing with a frightened, angry citizenry at home.

    Life is difficult for both halves of the separated Robinson family. There is no easy way to find a way home for Alex and Piper. Driving becomes undependable. Picking up rides, finding horses, and even back-packing become the only means they have of completing their journey. However, that doesn’t help when blinding rainstorms wash away roads, bridges, and, on more than one occasion, the vehicles they’re using. If that weren’t bad enough, other people whose lives have been disrupted often turn ugly as they forage for food and supplies, hunker down with weapons to protect their hoards and homes.

    Of equal importance is Piper’s diabetic condition. It’s not a problem in society as it once was, but what happens when the insulin she and her father carry runs out and pharmacies are virtually all closed?

    Cameron’s trip to their mountain cabin community might seem to offer her a more comfortable life. Don’t count on it. When she and Bettie reach the mountains, they find contentious, sometimes dangerous people. Some would love to invade their community and others inside their boundaries, intent on doing things their own way. Some even kill to get what they want. She becomes the de facto leader in the compound and forced to make difficult decisions of life and death.

    Hunt has delivered a solid punch to our collective solar plexus. The pressure doesn’t let up as this separated family use their physical and mental resources to reunite, each half fighting against the elements and their fellow human beings to survive until they can be together. While some might consider this a science fiction novel, it is grounded in life as we know it makes it more of a book on survival. Solar Reboot is a testimony to the human spirit under virtually impossible conditions, and a tribute to people’s ability to survive under the most challenging conditions.

    Solar Reboot won First Place in the 2018 CIBAs for Science Fiction novels.

  • HENRY: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America by Katrina Shawver – Jewish Holocaust History, Historical German Biographies, Jewish History

    HENRY: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America by Katrina Shawver – Jewish Holocaust History, Historical German Biographies, Jewish History

    Katrina Shawver, a journalist for a Phoenix newspaper, was seeking a story for her weekly column. She had heard from a friend that a Holocaust survivor named Henry Zguda and his American wife, Nancy, lived in Phoenix. She called Zguda and was invited to come to his home, only a few blocks from her own. Shawver quickly bonded with both Henry and Nancy. Then she and Henry decided to have a series of weekly interviews, which she would draw on for her column and, later, for a book—this biography.

    The horror story of Henry Zguda, a Catholic Pole born and raised in Krakow, Poland, begins with Henry walking down the street toward the YMCA for swim practice in 1942. A Gestapo car screeches to a stop beside him. Two men leap out, arrest Henry on the spot, throw him into the car, and take him to prison. After several days of torture, a practice used by the Gestapo to obtain information (of which Henry had little), he is taken to the train station and shoved into a cattle car so filled with people that it is impossible to do anything but stand, shoulder to shoulder. The door is slammed shut, and the train pulls out of the station. Henry has no idea what fate awaits him.

    Most of his fellow passengers were Jews, which Henry was not, but under these circumstances, it made no difference. They did what they could to accommodate each other over days of travel, until they reached their final destination, Auschwitz. Many of the Jews would find themselves in the gas chamber in short order. Only those strong enough to work were allowed to live—at least long enough to finish building the camp.

    His story covers more than two years in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. As a young man, he is characterized by his courage and tenacity to live under the most horrendous circumstances and his valor and compassion in helping his fellow prisoners—most of whom he met there, and some who had been childhood friends in Krakow. Somehow, Henry never lost hope, which would have been a death knell…as it was for many prisoners. He characterizes himself as lucky, very lucky.

    Henry tells Shawver about his youth in Krakow. Most of all, his love for swimming. Henry was a member of the swim team at the YMCA founded and built by Americans. Despite the German presence, he had fun with his family and friends.

    It is with some reluctance that he begins to give her details of his years in the concentration camps, but that is what she needs to know. Supporting his memories are photographs obtained after the war as well as official cards recording his Auschwitz registration, train passenger lists, personal effects inventories, and records of money sent to him by his family. These offer interesting details of life in the camps, as do some of Henry’s more pleasant memories. Prisoners participated in theater performances and concerts for the prison staff and their families as audiences.

    As the interviews proceed, Henry intuits when it is time for him to tell Shawver what transpired as the camps’ main objective—killing Jews—was fulfilled. He explains how Jewish prisoners met their fate through such horrible means as being left, still alive, hanging from hooks in dark basements; being lined up in rows and shot to death in view of other prisoners, including family members; being told they must remove their clothing to have showers, only to be herded naked into the gas chambers (their clothing left behind as booty for the guards who led them to their fate); or being tortured to death by nonchalant Germans.

    But in 1944, WWII finally drew to a close. As American forces approached the concentration camps, the Germans fled. The prisoners were free! Some prisoners left on their own, while others awaited the Americans bringing food, clothes, medical care, and the means to go home. Henry returned to Krakow, to spend time with his mother and earn money for her to continue living there and for him to emigrate to America.

    It was difficult for Henry to relate his story, and it is difficult for us to read it. Still, both Henry and Shawver saw in this effort a purpose—to warn all people that they must do everything possible to ensure that the atrocities of WWII never occur again.

    Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America won First Place in the CIBA 2018 Journey Awards for Memoir.

     

  • A FEMALE DOCTOR in the CIVIL WAR by Richard Alan – US Historical Fiction, Civil War Fiction, Female Doctors Civil War

    A FEMALE DOCTOR in the CIVIL WAR by Richard Alan – US Historical Fiction, Civil War Fiction, Female Doctors Civil War

     

    Imagine a fearless, hard-as-nails contract surgeon hired by the Union Army who often works 48-hour shifts in battlefield medical tents amputating limbs, healing previously inoperable gut wounds, sewing up children’s hare lips, and diagnosing what we now call PTSD as critical in military patient care as patching physically wounded bodies.

    Meet Dr. Abby Kaplan. And yes, she’s a woman.

    A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Abby stands six feet tall and exchanges her dresses for breeches, totes a gun on her hip, engages in military defensive maneuvers, and is wounded multiple times for her efforts. Dr. Kaplan takes no guff from anyone and uses the language of soldiers appropriate to the situation. In a time when men are in charge and women are not, she wins the respect of her male colleagues in the most gruesome medical cases, winning over even those who could not fathom a woman examining a man’s most private parts.

    Even more remarkable, despite the prejudices of her times, she finds ways to celebrate her Jewish heritage and even finds a man unafraid of her enough to become her occasional lover, but virtually only at her request.

    A woman as strong, complex, and dedicated to medicine probably existed somewhere during that time. A small number of women doctors did work on soldiers during the Civil War. Richard Alan develops his lead with guts and gumption, so much so, that readers will likely fall in love with Dr. Kaplan.

    A Female Doctor in the Civil War pays little attention to romance or sentimentality. Dr. Kaplan’s issues in pre-suffrage America are more about stopping male prejudice from interfering with her work than self-conscious screeds about being a female in a man’s world. We learn little about her past. Her more reflective moments are about the medical debacle she sees as she stitches and saws and mends the broken bodies that fill her medical tents, as well as her reflections on how much more the minds of these soldiers need to be treated during the war.

    When she does find a lover, he is a momentary respite from the battlefield, not a “rescuer.” Their discussions about the differences between men and women are by two adults who respect each other. Others in that period of our history may see Dr. Kaplan’s sex and religion as problems. She sees them at worst as inconveniences that sometimes prevent her from doing her job as well as she thinks she can. Her one weakness, the nightmares that keep plaguing her after her work is done, are those any adult would suffer after working in the carnage she witnesses that is her life.

    In other words, Dr. Abby Kaplan is a strong, capable, and uniquely modern physician working within the social and medical limitations of her time. She is there to do a job only a handful of doctors have the stomach to undertake.

    A Female Doctor in the Civil War won First Place in the CIBAs 2018 Laramie Awards for American Fiction.

     

     

     

     

  • The SEA ARCHER by Jeny Heckman – Fantasy Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance Series

    The SEA ARCHER by Jeny Heckman – Fantasy Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance Series

    Raven Hunter should be happy. In fact, with her super-successful, twelve-year career as a pop singer and her million-dollar condo in Seattle, she should be unstoppable, but the world can’t see who she really is: a recently divorced, domestically abused, broken woman. No longer in her twenties and facing a world of artificiality, she just wants to hide from everyone. But when her best friend, Que, and her twin brother, Wyatt, convince her to take an extended vacation to Hawaii to reconnect with herself, she reluctantly agrees.

    Only wanting to rid herself of the taint of her former husband/manager, Donovan, Raven is NOT looking for romance, despite Que’s urging. It isn’t until she sees Finn Taylor, marine biologist plus savior of monk seals all over the islands, that she thinks there may be more to this vacation than she imagined.

    Finn isn’t looking for love–a one-night stand definitely–but never love. He’s too busy with his research and his quirky grandmother, Dee, to be burdened with a permanent lady in his bed. But Raven seems to be everywhere he goes, and more importantly, she is rapidly becoming a fixture in his mind. Neither can deny the connection they feel almost immediately, nor the odd dreams both are having. When Dee begins to tell them a strange tale of gods and goddesses, prophecies, and destruction, they must decide if there truly is more to their romance than a holiday fling.

    The mythology around which the novel rotates is a beautiful addition to what is already a great romance. Any lover of mythology will devour this novel. Cronus’ defeat and the Olympians’ plotting all make for fun as author Jenny Heckman recreates the lore for her spicy romance.

    When Raven and Finn meet, the wheel of fate begins to turn, bringing forth Themis herself to tell Dee the prophecy. Only after both Raven and Finn discover and overcome their weaknesses will they find the path to each other and bring the gods to life.

    Self-discovery and self-truth dominate this novel. Raven is terrified to start over. Without the urging of her brother and best friend, she would never have found the courage to go to Hawaii alone, but once there, she began to reconnect to the part of herself she gave to her wretched ex-husband. With a rented piano and a legal pad, she forges ahead, writing herself into her songs, the very songs Donovan never would have let her play and sing, songs that tell her truth. Having lost her parents at a young age and growing up in the foster home from Hell, Raven learned the hard way to keep herself hidden.

    Finn must face some ugly truths when his uber machismo gets in the way of his feelings for Raven. With his trident tattoo, stunning looks, and bad-boy attitude, he always gets what he wants from women, and he tries to become the very thing Raven is escaping. His need to control everyone and everything gradually collapses in the presence of the beautiful Raven. Heckman delivers a strong, sexy, and smart first in series Paranormal Romance that will definitely hook readers.

    The Sea Archer won First Place in the CIBA 2018 Paranormal Awards.

  • HAIR BRAINED: The Bad Hair Day Mysteries, Book 14 by Nancy Cohen – Cozy Mystery, Amateur Sleuths, Women Sleuths

    HAIR BRAINED: The Bad Hair Day Mysteries, Book 14 by Nancy Cohen – Cozy Mystery, Amateur Sleuths, Women Sleuths

    A young infant and a flurry of disturbing information enter Marla’s life in Nancy Cohen’s newest mystery, Hair Brained: The Bad Hair Day Mysteries, Book 14.

    Marla Vail’s expectations of bringing in a joyful and prosperous New Year immediately dwindle when she learns that her friends, Tally and Ken Riggs, have gone missing, leaving Luke, their four-month-old son, in the care of the babysitter. Since Marla is listed as guardian of Luke, she and Dalton, her husband, have no choice but to bring Luke to their home. Marla faces the “great unknown” with a ray of hope that she would be hearing from her friends soon. But that never happens.

    A trip to the hospital confirms Marla and Dalton’s worst fears. A car accident leaves Ken deceased and Tally in ICU and comatose. Now Marla has to find a way of juggling caring for Luke while running her busy hair salon. Amid the abrupt changes under horrific circumstances, Marla has no idea that there is much more behind the car crash, especially when one of Ken’s colleagues is murdered.

    If you haven’t already heard of Nancy Cohen, where have you been? The award-winning mystery author pens unique and fascinating stories about a somewhat underdog mid-thirties hairdresser who has a fetish for detective work. And why not, considering her husband is a police detective? The odd stylist-sleuthing combo makes for fresh and tantalizing reading for a wide-range audience that goes well-beyond mystery aficionados.

    Cohen’s writing style is surefooted, and her characters are vibrant and varied (multicultural, racially mixed), as in Hair Brained, the fourteenth installment of her Bad Hair Day Mysteries series. Marla, Cohen’s featured character, may have had her past set of traumatic situations, but that doesn’t seem to stop her when she senses something awry. A feisty woman-of-action, Marla faces fear trembling but determined to win over dark and seemingly unconquerable conditions even with an infant in her arms. 

    One would think that characters would be commonplace in laid-back Florida, but that’s far from the truth. From warm and caring family members and well-meaning people scarcely eking out a living to an imaginative mix of surly folk, Cohen’s cozy represents folks from various backgrounds befitting amalgamated Floridians. The action builds with a slew of twists, turns, and near nail-biting climactic tension. 

    The hair-raising, fast and delightful cozy mystery, Hair Brained: The Bad Hair Day Mysteries, Book 14 won First Place in the CIBAs 2018 M&M Awards for Cozy Mystery Novels. 

  • SOUL SANCTUARY: Book Two of the Spirit Shield Saga by Susan Faw – Epic Fantasy, Magic/Fantasy, Young Adult Folklore & Fairy Tales

    SOUL SANCTUARY: Book Two of the Spirit Shield Saga by Susan Faw – Epic Fantasy, Magic/Fantasy, Young Adult Folklore & Fairy Tales

    A savage civil war is consuming the Primordial tribes. With heavy losses for both Spirit and Flesh Clans, each side is taking extreme measures to secure Cathair and the mysterious forests and mountains surrounding it. Controlling Avery and Cayden Tiernan would ensure that victory. Born the children of royals from both clans and meant to unify the land, the twins have always been exceptional. It isn’t until much later that they learn they are Spirit Shields, godlings returned to Earth to help mankind and nature.

    The twins aren’t the only godlings in the kingdom. Artio, released from her heavenly prison through a blood merging of bear and man, and Helga, Great Mistress of wicked souls, seek to rule man and spirits and take revenge on the twins, whatever the cost to the humans in their path. With Queen Alcina and Marea, spiteful High Priestess whose place has been usurped by Avery, the twins must fight to reunite and save humanity from annihilation at its own hands while fighting their sisters, both with designs on being the sole god of the Primordials.

    This second installment of the Saga series has complicated plot twists. From the ever-changing loyalties of godling and man to the emerging backstory of Avery and Cayden, the novel throws the reader into the action and adventure on a non-stop flight through the intrigue and back-stabbing of Cathair. Fantasy readers will love the healing unicorns, fighting phoenixes, helpful werewolves, and bossy pegasusi. A mixture of world mythologies unites the familiar with the innovative, creating an intriguing blend and a truly unique setting.

    Susan Faw is a masterful storyteller, and Soul Sanctuary’s strength lies in its multifaceted telling of myths and legends. With alternating points of view showing all perspectives of this battle of souls, the novel encompasses a tale as vast and varied as the kingdom itself. Readers may wish to dip into the first book in the series, Seer of Souls, to settle into this outstanding read.

    Whether man or godling, no character is safe from the machinations of others, creating a network of subterfuge. The twins, Avery and Cayden, were born tools of unification but are also the chosen habitat of returning godlings, Alfreda and Caerwyn, who give up immortality for the chance to save the souls of man. Cayden must maintain the Well of Souls where souls reside until rebirth. Avery is the keeper of animal souls meant to pass on and be reborn. Because of their influential positions both as mortals and godlings, everyone seeks them.

    The clans are controlled by their high priests, who sacrifice both spiritually and physically at will. Artio herself, a mixture of animal, man, and thunder, is created by the Flesh Clan, who quickly learn controlling her is much harder than it appears. Artio, though, is a slave to her revenge plot against Helga. Helga, trapped within a mountain, controls the souls of the lost and the former human queen, Alcina, but falls victim to her own jealousy of Artio, which led to her captivity. Unable to cut the strings of control and create their own destiny, all of the characters are mere “pieces on a giant chessboard, being pushed to and fro.”

    Within this puppet-master world, the characters learn that only their combined strengths will win the day. Nowhere is this more evident than in the duo of Avery and Cayden. Though kept separate by the force of their siblings and the clans’ trickery, twin-power will save the people of this besieged land. But even if the dynamite duo manages to reunite, real success will hinge upon some critical, human and nonhuman characters who help the godlings along the way. Only with the teamwork of man and beast will the souls of all be saved.

    Soul Sanctuary: Book Two of the Spirit Shield Saga won First Place in the CIBA 2017 Dante Rossetti Awards for Y/A Fiction.