Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Grand Prize Winner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 20, 2019
The HOUSE at LADYWELL by Nicola Slade – Clean & Wholesome Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Suspense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 7, 2019
VANOPS: The LOST POWER by Avanti Centrae – Crime Mystery, High-Stakes Thriller, International Thriller & Suspense

Avanti Centrae takes readers on an action-packed gallop around the globe in her debut award-winning novel, VanOps: The Lost Power.

Maddy Marshall, 31-year-old app designer and aikido instructor, and her twin brother, Will, have been summoned to their father’s Napa Valley winery. He has something important he needs to tell them.

The estranged twins haven’t seen each other in a while. Will, now in Brazil and newly married, has brought his wife Maria with him. As Will and Maddy catch up in the driveway, a shot rings out. They rush into the house to find their father and Maria have been shot. Maria is dead. Their father clings to life long enough to pass along a family secret. They witness a blond man racing away from the winery in a black BMW.

Will and Maddy are descendants of the Argones bloodline and related to the current king of Spain, and now they must seek out a woman, a lawyer whom their father trusted, to receive the first clue in a quest to fulfill their birthright.

On their way to the lawyer’s office, Will and Maddy are ambushed by the same blond man they’re sure murdered their father and Maria. After a short chase, they evade him when his car crashes through a guardrail, plummets to the bottom of a ravine and bursts into flame. Will and Maddy waste no time hightailing it to the lawyer’s office, relieved to have the killer off their trail.

The lawyer has a package for each of them, filled with gold, diamonds, cash, and a letter. The letter tells them they are to use the money to fund their quest, which begins in Spain, where their great uncle, the king, will give them their first clue. They are to find an ancient relic of great power that has been safeguarded by their family for centuries. They must not only unravel the clues as to its location but must also pass a series of tests along the way designed to show they are worthy of possessing so much power.

As Maddy glances out the window, she is shocked to see the blond sniper charging the stairs of the lawyer’s office. They hastily escape out the back door. How did he get a car? How did he track them? Is his interest in them somehow linked to the relic? And how would he even know of its existence?

Will and Maddy need a place to hide out, someplace safe where they can rest and think. They destroy their cell phones just in case that’s how they’ve been tracked and decide to head to Lake Tahoe and their old childhood home. While in Tahoe, they bump into an old friend from high school, Bear Thorenson. Bear used to have a crush on Maddy back in the day, though she never encouraged his affection. He is now a Marine and filled out quite a bit. They soon find out he’s also a history buff. Will and Maddy confide in him about the mysterious man on their tail. Bear agrees to accompany them to offer protection. And the trio is soon off for Spain.

Avanti Centrae has a knack for keeping the action moving and keeping her characters in peril. The stakes are high, and there’s no telling what’s around the next corner. If you fall in love with the characters, this is the first in a series so you will be able to get your next fix in the near future.

Van Ops: The Lost Power won Grand Prize in the 2017 CIBAs for Paranormal novels.

November 17, 2019
CALIFORNIA SON by Timothy Burgess – Noir Mystery, Police Procedural, Historical Mystery

California Son, the second installment in the Liam Sol Mystery series by Timothy Burgess, presents another action-packed mystery for protagonist Liam Sol to solve. Honorably discharged after his tour of duty in Vietnam, Liam returns to his primarily Hispanic neighborhood of Baja La Bolsa, a coastal town near LA, California, where trouble finds him.

In his role as a journalist, Liam takes interest in the daily pleas of a Hispanic mother to find her son’s murderer, pleas that the mostly white La Bolsa Police seem to ignore. After an article he writes in hopes of renewing interest in the case appears in La Bolsa Tribune, the mother is found dead in her apartment. No stranger to death or violence, Liam soon finds himself on the personal side of a hunt for the killer of not only the son but also the mother.

Burgess’s skillful writing takes us to the seamy underbelly of LA and oil-developer-politics to a world that relies on lies, corruption, and a complete lack of morals to gain the dizzying wealth that most of us only dream of. We root for Liam all the way, hoping he can rise above the corruption of his father’s world and achieve a life without the dark secrets that shadow every aspect of his existence.

Set against a backdrop colored by 1970’s music and surfer culture, our hero suffers from the guilt of possibly having caused the mother’s death. He begins to unravel the connection between the mother-son murders and, at the same time, crosses the line of an investigative journalist to that of private detective in his nail-biting pursuit of justice.

Burgess develops a protagonist whose work as a journalist and his flashbacks to Vietnam show us a man who is fragile in some ways and strong in others – and conflicted most of the time. We are drawn into Liam’s quest to solve the murders, but as curiosity killed the cat, Liam’s curiosity comes close to killing the core values that he holds so dear, the values that hold him above the corruption that ultimately destroyed his father.

Perfectly paced, this action-packed story leads us through the tropes of survival guilt, child abuse, sexual abuse, and some serious race and gender issues that during this time were discarded as irrelevant and today are seen for what they are, a crime. In spite of the need for one more professional edit, the story is solid, built with strong characters and an action-packed plot that will likely keep readers on the edge of their seats to the last satisfying page.

Burgess won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2018 Clue Awards for California Son

August 1, 2019
HARD CIDER by Barbara Stark-Nemon – Women’s Literature, Literary, Women’s Fiction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 12, 2019
BRAINWASHED: Crime Travelers Spy School Mystery & International Adventure Series, Book 1 by Paul Aertker – Children’s International Spy Thriller, Children’s Books, Children’s Mystery

In this first installment from the Crime Travelers series, an adventurous reading line-up that takes middle-grade readers around the globe, Paul Aertker’s Brainwashed delivers a story with exciting espionage and action-packed thrills.

A group of young teens is caught up in the nefarious dealings of a tyrannical woman and her powerful child kidnapping organization. With tenacity, courage, and determination, these members of the aptly named “New Resistance” use their backgrounds, knowledge, and skill sets to counter their powerful foe’s evil offenses.

At the center of the story is the likable, but often struggling thirteen-year-old Lucas Benes. As a young toddler, he was the sole survivor of a ferry boat explosion that killed his adoptive mother. Under his father’s guidance, Lucas has grown up at the Globe Hotel, an establishment that has evolved as a safe house for young people brought out of harm’s way from around the world. These individuals ultimately come together from various walks of life, gain skills and training to embark on missions to challenge global concerns.

This latest high alert “Call to Legs” pits the group against the notorious Siba Gunerro, the icy, pink poodle-toting, a ruthless leader who heads the ironically named Good Company. She’s infamously known for her brainwashing and kidnapping tactics. Soon Lucas and his multi-cultural band of cohorts depart from their high-tech Las Vegas hotel base and travel in a private luxury aircraft to the City of Lights, Paris, determined to take on Gunerro and her motley crew of henchmen.

With colorful refinement, Aertker delivers a multi-faceted ensemble of characters. In a mix that includes a surfer dude, a fashionista from India, and a Swiss Goth, among others, these are smart, multi-talented, multi-lingual personalities who, if were a t-shirt wearing group of crime fighters, the t-shirts might well read: “Grownups have messed up the world … it’s our job to make things right.”

As a newcomer joining the group, Lucas appears a vulnerable yet relatable individual who worries about stuff like sibling rivalry, parental approval, and has to deal with general angst. Ultimately, this here’s a first-class coming-of-age story with Lucas demonstrating confidence and proving his heartfelt loyalties and a willingness to step up and break the rules to help those in need.

Amidst the attention-grabbing likes of rooftop rappels, motorcycle chases, surprise abductions, rescues, a harrowing sacrilegious ceremony attempt at the time-honored landmark of Notre Dame cathedral and a wild bus ride, the nonstop action here moves the story steadily forward. Tension builds with this young group’s creative efforts to thwart the enemy and tackle each new deterrent in their path.

Whether you’re a preteen intrigued by the heroic activities of a well-trained group of spy kids or an older armchair traveler who can appreciate the sights and sounds of a major European mecca rich in history and culture brought to life as an enticing backdrop for fun, smart, and engaging entertainment, Brainwashed truly hits the mark.

Brainwashed: Crime Travelers Spy School Mystery & International Adventure Series, Book 1 by Paul Aertker won Grand Prize in the 2017 CIBAs – Gertrude Warner Awards for Middle-Grade Fiction.

June 6, 2019
SLAVE to FORTUNE by D.J. Munro – YA Historical Fiction, Sea Adventures Fiction, Thriller & Suspense

At the tender age fourteen, Thomas Cheke is kidnapped in the dead of night by Barbary pirates from his home on the Isle of Wight. His widowed mother and sister are left behind, but Tom doesn’t know if they survive the surprise attack. During the next six years, his life will take more twists and turns than he could ever have imagined, and the resulting story is one of the most fascinating ever put to page.

Tom addresses the reader directly, and this lends a heightened sense of immediacy and excitement to an already gripping tale. He is the most sympathetic of characters, one with the deck stacked against him, though he uses his innate intelligence and wits most effectively. After the initial night when he fell “into the hands of the Turk,” an event English schoolchildren had been taught to fear, Tom is imprisoned on a corsair ship bound for Algiers where he knows he will be sold as a slave.

Keenly observant and eager to make the best of his situation, Tom helps another lad on the boat who works in the kitchen, and along the way learns much about the running of the ship, the men aboard, prisoners and crew alike, and does what he can to comfort two other children who were also kidnapped from the Isle of Wight. Why these three youngsters were targeted by the pirates is at the heart of an intricate mystery that builds throughout the book. Meanwhile, day to day life on the boat, seen through Tom’s eyes, is fascinating, especially when the crew chases a Spanish galleon laden with silver bullion and battle ensues.

Once in Algiers, Tom maintains his composure while his ankle is chained and manacled and he is sold to Ibrahim Ali, the Grand Treasurer of the city. Many surprises await Tom as he joins the household, including his growing admiration for his Master, a kind and erudite man who arranges for his servant’s learning Arabic and intense study of the Koran. As a trusted servant, Tom runs errands for Ibrahim in cosmopolitan Algiers, the sights and sounds of which are fully brought to life through Munro’s sumptuous and masterful prose. Tom’s time on the corsair ship provided him with information that will prove very useful in his master’s solving a dire financial issue that involves the weakening value of coinage in Algiers.

Key events upend his existence once more, and he finds himself on a ship headed to Malta with a new mentor in Sir Edward Hamilton, a Christian brother and knight of the Order of St. John. With his ankle chain newly removed, Tom adjusts to life as a free man and assists Edward in solving an elaborate cipher, a lengthy message coded with the suits of playing cards. This introduces a riveting subplot concerning Cardinal Richelieu and the attempted assassinations of the Duke of Mantua and the Duke of Buckingham. Computer programmers, as well as anyone interested in code breaking, will find this section of the book enthralling. Warning the intended victims that their lives are in danger requires further travels, including a trip to Venice.

You won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough! Do Tom and Edward prevent the assassinations? Does Tom ever set foot on English soil again? What will become of the young man, twenty years of age at the book’s conclusion, who has lived in Ottoman and Christian worlds as a slave and a free man? Adults and sophisticated young adult readers will find this book exquisitely captivating.

Anyone who’s read and loved Robert Louis Stevenson’s historic adventure, Kidnapped, will no doubt also love Slave to Fortune. The basis of D.J. Munro’s thrilling adventure, Slave to Fortune, is purportedly based on an original memoir by Thomas Cheke, an Englishman who lived during the seventeenth century. In the Endnote, D.J. Munro shares the research he undertook to confirm the events in Tom’s memoir and notes, “I hope that I have done it justice.” The answer, of course, is a resounding, “YES!”

Slave to Fortune won the 2017 CIBA Grand Prize in the Dante Rossetti Awards and took First Place in the 2017 CIBA Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction.

March 13, 2019
HOUR GLASS by Michelle Rene – Coming of Age, Western Fiction, Tragic Drama/Plays

Hour Glass by Michelle Rene is the story of many lives, told through the lens of the young protagonist, Jimmy Glass. In non-linear fashion, Rene begins her story toward the end, when Jimmy and the infamous Calamity Jane once again cross paths. From there the story moves backward—to recount past events and the ways multiple lives are forever entangled. Hour Glass is a novel of strength, sadness, and perseverance.

Jimmy Glass’s father is dying of smallpox. With no options or way to help him at their homestead, Jimmy takes his dad and his younger sister Flower into the closest town—Dead Wood, South Dakota. A mining town is an unforgiving place, but Jimmy and his younger sister are quickly taken in by none other than Calamity Jane herself and a madam named Dora Duffran. The two siblings quickly find a home in the brothel and await news of their father’s health.

As their father’s life teeters on the edge, Jimmy’s dreams are full of visitations by his deceased Lakota stepmother Without Cage. She takes Jimmy to various times in their lives to show him things he needs to see and things he needs to remember.

Hour Glass is a novel driven by a complex cast of characters. There’s Calamity Jane, a belligerent drunkard with a kind heart. Jimmy Glass, a young boy with the burdens of manhood pushed on him far too early. Dora Duffran, the madam with a heart of gold and a spine of steel. Without Cage is seen only through memories, but her unbreakable spirit remains as strong as ever, and her character floats through the novel as any other earthly bound character with whom Rene gifts us.

Then there’s Flower Glass, Jimmy’s younger sister, a girl who many think of as peculiar for her anti-social behavior. She’s taciturn and reserved, dislikes loud noises and being touched, and appears not to pay any attention to what’s going on around her. Jane, however, seems to effortlessly bring Flower, or Hour as she comes to be known, out of her shell when others cannot.

This historical fiction manages to tell the story of many lives through only one character’s voice. Readers will find a sentimental novel that does an impressive job of recounting the meaningful ways in which lives can intersect, however briefly, and cause changes that will last forever.

Hour Glass by Michelle Rene won the 2017 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize!

March 12, 2019
SALVAGING TRUTH (Hunters & Seekers Book 1) by Joanne Jaytanie – Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Military Romance

Famed marine biologist and researcher Claudia Rawlings is presumed dead. When Claudia’s research vessel goes down, her daughter Riley goes on a desperate search to discover what happened, eventually turning to Dagger Eastin, co-owner of Hunters and Seekers a marine salvage business. Dagger soon realize this isn’t a simple search and reclaim mission when someone takes a shot at him during an exploratory dive with Riley.

Former Navy SEALs, Dagger, and his partners Kaleb LaSalle and Stone Garrison are the definitions of relentless, and they quickly become embroiled in the investigation that has caught the attention of some very influential people, all seeking Claudia’s important research. And while Riley learns that her mother has left behind clues to her missing research, the Hunters and Seekers pull out all the stops to help and protect her. The wild scavenger hunt sends Dagger and Riley on a trip to discover the truth, but Russian spies, big oil cronies, and psychopathic hitmen lurk around every corner.

Much more than a pretty face, Riley is a smart, successful female main character who refuses to wait for the official investigation patiently and as a result, faces challenge after challenge. Despite being thrust into a dangerous environment, Riley is no timid female victim. But she isn’t without vulnerability, knowing instead when it is time to ask for help and rely on Dagger’s expertise. Riley is a fallible protagonist with guts and brains, one with whom readers of the genre will instantly connect and admire.

The first in a series, Salvaging Truth introduces readers to three heartthrobs destined to create an immediate book crush. The men of Hunters and Seekers are not only tall, dark, and handsome, but smart, funny, and lethal. The relationship between this “band of brothers” is touching and promises a myriad of future adventures.

The touching bond these men share creates an extended-family that is almost as close as Riley is with her mother. In fact, “created families” is a strong theme throughout the novel. Riley, an only child whose father passed away some years before the novel’s action, finds a family when she meets Dagger, Kaleb, and Stone. Many times, she relies on these men to not only protect her but to also provide the emotional stability she needs when she learns her mother has been killed. In her effort to salvage the truth behind her mother’s death, Riley relives many important familial moments while creating this new family with Dagger.

Joanne Jataynie’s Salvaging Truth (Hunters & Seekers, Book 1) won the GRAND PRIZE in the CIBAs 2019 CLUE Awards for best suspense/thriller novel.

February 22, 2019
CORONADO’S TRAIL by Carl and Jane Bock – Mystery, Thriller/Suspense, Literary

An ill-fated Spanish expedition in 1541 plays into present-day concerns about preserving Santa Cruz County’s (Arizona) heritage and environment. Along with an engaging yarn, Jane and Carl Bock offer the reader food for thought by presenting a microcosmic picture of the mindless destruction of time-honored customs, traditions, and mores in the pursuit of money and power.

When deputy sheriff Calvin Creede of the Sonoita substation in Santa Cruz County receives a call from Maria Obregon, the widow of Calvin’s best friend, neither suspect where the call will lead.

Maria has discovered the partially exposed remains of an old pickup in the San Carlos Wash, an arroyo near her goat farm on the 40,000 acres, Rocking M cattle ranch. The vehicle had not been visible before. Nothing new there, as frequent flooding reveals items previously buried in the sand. But this seems different because Maria’s dog, Boomer, is behaving as if there’s something still hidden inside the cab.

Calvin’s investigation of the find, from running its license plate, unearthing it, and solving a 1995 missing person case, to determining that the driver had been murdered, has a domino effect. In winnowing facts from legend and gossip, he also unearths lifelong grudges, rivalries, and broken hearts that continue to impact families in the community.

Concurrent with the murder investigation, Calvin must address the lawless behaviors of radical environmentalists, drug and human traffickers, and unethical antiquities hunters, which all, in varying ways, relate to the decades’ old murder. If this weren’t enough to sift through, he also must deal with his feelings for Maria, to whom he’s pretty sure he’s just become engaged.

Coronado’s Trail contains multiple levels of storytelling and subplots, and in the Bock’s skillfully crafted narrative where everything fits like an intricate puzzle. In addition to a complex and compelling plot, the authors’ use of imagery adds a visceral dimension to the mood and tone that is sure to transport readers to experience the mountains shimmering in the heat, the rumble of thunder in the distance, the cooling monsoon rains… you get the picture. By the time the last page is turned and the novel complete, a kinship to Arizona’s high desert will be in your bones. All this to say, after vicariously traveling Coronado’s Trail, you may wish to walk it for yourselves.

Coronado’s Trail took home the M&M Grand Prize for Mysteries in the 2017 CIBAs.

February 13, 2019