Neema is a “signing gorilla” that is part of an animal communication research project (think KoKo). She is the only witness to a crime. Lives are at stake and the clock is ticking. Read Chanticleer’s review here. In honor of Crimelandia Left Coast Crime Scene in Portland, Oregon, Pamela Beason is putting her Chanticleer Grand Prize winner THE ONLY WITNESS on sale for 99cents.
Tag: Pacific Northwest
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Can a Gorilla Identify the Criminal? Read the 1st in the NEEMA Mystery Series by Pamela Beason for 99cents – Left Coast Crime Special
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Clyde Curley, author of the Detective Toussaint Mystery Series
“…wonderful review of Raggedy Man. I am honored–and also impressed by your reviewer’s close reading of the story. She clearly has read the book carefully, which only makes the review more meaningful. I am also grateful for the exposure to the book among such a wide audience and for the posting of the its title and your review to so many media sites. Thanks so much!” -
March Events and Updates from Chanticleer Reviews
The Chanticleer Read Reviews Page is Receiving More Traffic than Ever!
We are happy to report that Chanticleer Reviews’ new web site design is a great boon to those who have reviews posted with us.
The new format on the Read Reviews page is gaining new visitors by leaps and bounds with its easy scrolling format. Visitors are lingering on the Chanticleer Read Reviews page longer and clicking through to read the entire review that has been selected.
How can we tell this? By watching Chanticleer’s Google Analytics screen. It’s more fun than TV! We can see exactly which reviews are being clicked on and read. Then we watch to see if the visitor continues on to the book’s Amazon page or, even more exciting, to visit the author’s web site. Watching visitors from all over the world click on reviews is thoroughly addictive. And totally awesome for the Chanticleer Community of Authors and Readers!
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The MYSTERY & MAYHEM Awards 2015 deadline for submissions is March 31st; click here to enter!
If you write mysteries, you will want to enter this prestigious contest. Here is a link to last year’s M&M award winners.
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March Events Where You Can Find Chanticleer Reviews
CrimeLandia Left Coast Crime Scene 2015 in Portland, OregonMarch 12 – 15, 2015
[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible” margin_top=”20px” margin_bottom=”20px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_separator style_type=”none” sep_color=”” icon=”” width=”” class=”” id=””/]Kiffer Brown to participate in Social Media Panel Discussion
Social Media: What Every Author Needs to Know Panel Discussion on Thursday, March 12th at 1 p.m. Kiffer Brown will participate along with Stacey Cochran, Victoria Goff, and Chantelle Aimée Osman. Sue Trowbridge will moderate.
March 13, 2015
Join award winning authors Pamela Beason, Jeanne Matthews, Donnell Ann Bell, Wendy Delaney, Liz Osborne, and Tracy Weber along with Kiffer Brown of Chanticleer Reviews for this Friday night Mixer at the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Desserts are on Us. Cash Bar provided by DoubleTree Hotel.
You do not have to be registered for the Crimelandia 2015 conference to attend this sure-to-be-fun mixer. Make your reservation here. It’s free! Readers and Authors are welcome. We will have door prizes and drawings!
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BSENSE SUMMIT in Charleston, S.C. March 22 – 24, 2015: We will set-up the Chanticleer booth on Saturday afternoon, March 21st.
Chanticleer Reviews & Writing Competitions will exhibit at the PubSense Summit. Please stop by our booth and say “Hey!”
Rochelle Parry, Chanticleer’s Webmaven and Creative Director will be available at Chanticleer’s booth along with best-selling Pacific Northwest mystery author, Pamela Beason. Kiffer Brown, founder of Chanticleer Reviews will also be available and is participating in several panel discussions. We’d love to meet you!
PubSense Summit Panels
Sunday, March 22nd at 3:30 p.m.
Increasing Exposure, Part 2 panel discussion with Kiffer Brown, C. Hope Clark, Claire McKinney, and Shari Stauch, Moderator.
Monday, March 23rd at 1:30 p.m.
Five Star Reviews: Top Reviewers Share Their Insights with Kiffer Brown of Chanticleer Reviews, Michael Hurley, Elizabeth Lacks of Saint Martins Press, Patricia Moosbrugger of Blue Ink Reviews, Kristina Radke of Net Galley, and Shari Stauch, moderator.
Monday, March 22nd at 3 p.m.
Get Seen, Get Noticed, Tools for Heightened Visibility and Stellar Sales with Nancy L. Bauman, Kiffer Brown, Laura Clark, Mary Beth Grossman, and Nicole Rescinti.
Tuesday, March 23rd at 7 – 9:30 p.m.
PubSense Signature Dish & Dialog Dinner: Dine with Your Fave Faculty
Your chance to have dinner with a Pubsense faculty member of your choice. Following dinner PubSense will have a few surprises, including giveaways and a special performance.
Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala 2015
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, September 27, 28, & 29th
Save the Date for the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala Banquet, September 27, 28, and 29th at the Hotel Bellwether on beautiful Bellingham Bay, Washington State. Early Bird Registration now available!
Chanticleer Reviews New Website
If you haven’t been by to take a look at Chanticleer’s new web site format, please do! We are continuously updating it and making it easier to navigate.
Be sure to check out the marketing and promotion posts along with the Chanticleer Community News for Books Clubs and Readers.
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New YA RACE WITH DANGER from Award Winning Pamela Beason
Introducing an excellent new Young Adult Trilogy – Run for Your Life by Pamela Beason, a Chanticleer Grand Prize Winner. “Tanzania Grey is running for her life and never have the stakes been higher. Readers’ hearts will be racing as the story twists and turns and the suspense rapidly intensifies in Race with Danger.” Download it now at the introductory special of $2.99 at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble Nook Store for $2.99. -
CAPE HORN: ONE MAN’S DREAM, ONE WOMAN’S NIGHTMARE by Réanne Hemingway-Douglass
In Cape Horn: One Man’s Dream, One Woman’s Nightmare, Réanne Hemingway-Douglass vividly recreates a sailing voyage in which she and her husband Don set out to round Cape Horn. As the reader discovers, they never quite got there. Meanwhile, Hemingway-Douglass shares the heady magic of starlit nights and breathtaking dawns, grueling and toilsome days, emotions ranging from joy to absolute terror, and a determination not to give up hope when all seems lost.
Situated on the southernmost tip of South America, Cape Horn is surrounded by some of the most treacherous waters on the planet due to its gigantic waves, lurking icebergs, strong currents, and high winds. The Panama Canal was built at huge expense as a way to avoid Cape Horn. To this day, the Horn is a dangerous challenge for even the most experienced yachtsmen. The author’s husband, Don, had dreamed all his life of rounding the Horn. Réanne Hemingway-Douglass knew this when she married him, and dutifully agreed to accompany him as crew.
Five hundred miles northwest of Cape Horn, the Douglass’s 42 foot sailboat, Le Dauphin Amical, was pitchpoled by a monster rogue wave (more than 80 to 100 feet high) in a Force 11 storm. Hemingway-Douglass and her husband spent the next 42 days struggling to reach safety aboard their crippled vessel. Surviving each day was a miracle, a true adventure in living.
In recounting their story, the author broaches the love-hate relationship of a ship’s captain and its crew. Captains are solitary humans driven by their own goals, agendas, and methods. The captain is the one who must make the hard decisions—no matter how difficult, dangerous, or demanding they are for the crew.
Don Douglass, captain of the Le Dauphin, was no exception. Fortunately, he was also highly competent, extremely driven, and unrelenting—all characteristics required for survival in dangerous situations.
A novice sailor, Hemingway-Douglass discovered that Don’s role of captain superseded his role as her husband and lover—for better or for worse. I know of no other nautical book that accurately and honestly portrays this transformation. It is a forthright perspective about life onboard that all sailors, captains and crews, should acknowledge before setting sail together.
The author passionately captures and vividly describes her months at sea with her husband, her captain, in this page-turner true adventure that tested their endurance and their marriage. Highly recommended.
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PUGET SOUND WHALES FOR SALE: The FIGHT to END ORCA HUNTING by Sandra Pollard
This is the history of two parallel and competing movements involving the beautiful Puget Sound orcas. One is the orcas-as-commodities commercial movement to capture the killer whales and sell them to marine parks all over the world, where they are kept in small pens and trained to perform for public amusement. The other is the growing appreciation of both scientists and the general public for orcas as intelligent, sensitive, family-oriented wild creatures deserving of protection.
Packed with poignant details, such as a description of captive orcas in Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. talking to each other via a phone call, and reports of newly captured orcas crying so loudly and mournfully that one man said his cat tried to hide under a chair to get away from the heart-rending sound are accounted for in this expose of these cruel practices for the sake of entertainment. The brutality is painful to read about—when the first captures took place, the hunters used harpoons and wire nets to catch the orcas. Later, explosives were thrown into the water to chase the whales into a net. Needless to say, many orcas died during the capture process, and most who survived to be sold into captivity in small pens didn’t live long.
But as the attendance and profitability of marine entertainment parks exploded, so did the protest movement to stop the brutal practice of capturing whales. Government agencies clashed, with the NOAA Office of Protected Resources enacting the Marine Mammal Protection Act and establishing rules to protect the orcas, while the National Marine Fisheries Service granted “economic hardship” exemptions to SeaWorld Inc. to capture even more whales. Scientists and commercial entities argued over the number of killer whales in existence. Soon it evolved into a media blitz and a court battle, with the state of Washington against the Feds from Washington, D.C. and SeaWorld to stop the practice of capturing orcas.
Fortunately, the conservationists prevailed and today the orcas of Puget Sound swim free, their number sadly decimated after a decade of captures and killings, and now their small population threatened by human over-fishing and pollution.
As Pollard points out, killer whales in other locations such as Iceland still face the danger of capture, and orcas are still penned up in amusement parks and forced to perform for entertainment.
When are wild animals a resource to be harvested for profit? And when do they deserve to be protected from harm? When does capture of a species become kidnapping, training become torture, and captivity become imprisonment? When does the death of a wild animal at the hands of a human become murder? Readers will find themselves pondering these questions as they explore the history presented in this meticulously researched book.
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A CUP of HEMLOCK by Clyde Curley
A cold-hearted and brutal murder of a beloved Portland, Oregon high school teacher has seasoned Detective Matthew Toussaint and his young assistant partner, Detective Missy Owens, digging deep to uncover any clues that will help track down the violent and desperate murderer before more lives are endangered.
The murder investigation opens up old wounds and exposes weaknesses with the sanctioned guardians of our youth—the government overseers of their education and along with their parents. The detectives find themselves coming face-to-face with incomprehensible, and sometimes dangerous, behaviors from personalities that transcend socio-economic class norms—for better or for worse.
Clyde Curley’s intriguing and captivating Detective Toussaint Mysteries explore and expose the undercurrents in today’s society by bringing the daunting issues to our very doorsteps. If you are seeking a slash-and-gore thriller or steamy sex scenes, you will not find them in this refreshing and thought-provoking police procedural. Classic mystery fans will be more than pleased with the series’ cast of characters (including the quirky City of Portland), along with enjoying its complex storyline, and the enthralling denouements.
A Cup of Hemlock is an engrossing read that deliciously builds suspense on several levels until it is a full-blown page-turner. However, readers will find themselves slowing down as to not miss any of the subtext and rich undertones that permeate the work.
Curley’s complex and engaging central characters add to the mystery’s nuance and drama making this reviewer eagerly anticipating the third novel in this thoroughly addictive series. Detective Toussaint and his bookseller brother, Parker, are characters that you would want to have a beer or cup of coffee with and discuss philosophy, or the latest basketball game, or maybe just the events of the day.
A Cup of Hemlock is an intriguing classic murder mystery that is a perfect companion for those who want to hunker down with a great read that will linger long after the last page is read. It is the second novel in the Detective Toussaint Mystery series that is based in the Pacific Northwest.
Clyde Curley’s prodigious novels —yes they come in at more than 500
pages, but you will be wishing it was longer—are page turners that tackle and explore the big ethical and societal issues of today. Curley’s deft use of murder mysteries to microscopically explore society’s ethical issues is nothing short of brilliant. Highly recommended. -
FAREWELL to a QUEEN by Don Douglass
The sinking of the Queen of the North, a British Columbia ferry, in a remote area of the Inside Passage in 2006, was a commercial, financial, and political blow for the Canadian Government, an ecological disaster for the pristine area in which the boat sank, a personal catastrophe for passengers who lost their vehicles and possessions, and a fatal tragedy for the two passengers who lost their lives.
The documented events reveal a disturbing lack of crew discipline and accountability, as well as a troubling inadequacy of timely response from Canadian authorities. Only the two crew members on the bridge that night know exactly what happened, and they’re clearly not telling the truth.
The heroes of this true story are the rescuers from the tiny First Nations fishing village of Hartley Bay who transported and took care of the shocked and freezing travelers.
This book is a fascinating study of the events before and after the ship collided with an island, followed by an astute analysis of the probable causes for the reason the navigator failed to make a routine course change. The author includes a variety of supporting documents, including photos, a radio log transcript, charts, and a detailed description of the trial that finally took place seven years after the sinking. The author of Farewell to a Queen dares to ask himself, “What really happened aboard the Queen that fateful night.”
Don Douglass is well qualified to write about this lamentable event and the courageous rescuers who put their own lives at risk to save the Queen’s crew and passengers. Douglass himself has navigated over 100,000 miles at sea, and is an author of guidebooks and charts for the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife, Réanne Hemingway-Douglass, have plied these waters for decades. They have documented and navigated the British Columbia coastal waters and have taught others to do so.
Douglass doesn’t shy away from asking the hard questions about what might have caused the flagship of the B.C. Ferries fleet to run aground and sink into the deep depths taking two lives with it and putting more in harm’s way. He returns repeatedly to the fact that the two crew members on the bridge were former lovers. Some may find his account “politically incorrect” or a touch vitriolic. Nonetheless, ferry passengers may find themselves warily eyeing their boat crews and keeping life preservers close at hand after reading this well written and documented account of a modern disaster at sea.
“When it got near the end, it rose up until the bow was vertical, absolutely pointing straight at the sky,” Captain Henthorne, the Queen’s captain, remembered. “Then, it just went straight down, straight as an arrow, disappeared, gone.” [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][CBC News, B.C.]
On March 22, 2006, The Queen of the North sank into the depths of Wright Sound, 70 nautical miles south of Prince Rupert, B.C.
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An Editorial Review of “Tightwads on the Loose” by Wendy Hinman
Tightwads on the Loose – A Seven Year Pacific Odyssey opens with a map of the Pacific Ocean that showed the voyage of the sailing vessel Velella starting and ending in Seattle. Soon the reader is immersed in the plans of Wendy and her husband, Garth, to set sail on their open-ended adventure. And we wonder how long an introvert, whose motto is always be prepared, can live in such tight quarters with an extrovert whose motto is let’s just wing it.
These are not rich dot-com people on a yacht. Nor are they trust fund hippies, or newly retired people with a nest-egg, hence the title. But they are practiced sailors who believe in themselves and each other. Later in the book, Wendy made a statement about why it felt important to take the leap (and the risks); leave behind the meetings, deadlines, and emails; and set sail across the Pacific: “Perhaps the path of least resistance, while it offered a temporary respite from the struggles of life, ultimately held no great opportunity for growth, which was what made life most interesting.”
And risks there were! The reader departed Seattle with them — against the tide. And then there were the shipping lanes to traverse in the fog; the breakdown of equipment needed to keep them alive in said fog; those squalls and mountainous waves, alternating with a total lack of wind. Then they endured scorching tropical heat; polluted harbors; and the possibility of pirates, fishing nets, rocks, and coral reefs. Did I mention the typhoons? The author shared events in a detached, dispassionate way that belies the sheer terror you would expect one to feel. Having sailed in gales, I found myself inserting my own fear and drama into their many near-death experiences.
Yet the dangers were offset by countless magic moments and encounters. As they sailed from island to island in the South Pacific, they sometimes sailed naked through silence under silvery moons in perfect winds and temperatures. At each stop they were met with friendly, generous locals. Their days were filled with new friends, hikes, snorkels and dives. They enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow sailors, and found themselves immersed in the international racing scene. Also, while they did not set out on a “history cruise,” they encountered artifacts of World War II on almost every island. Details of those discoveries added interest and context to the account.
In desperate need of equipment repairs and the funds to pay for them, Wendy and Garth took jobs on a U.S. Army base in the Marshall Islands. As they moved off Velella, worked at their jobs, and explored the island we learn the inside story about life on Kwajalein and those who lived there. Two years later, with their boat seaworthy once again, Wendy and Garth set sail for Japan via Saipan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Okinawa. Very few blue water cruisers visit this part of the world, and tourists rarely get to see the remote harbors where Velella stopped. This sets Tightwads on the Loose apart from most sailing narratives and adds value to the reading experience.
Finally, the couple starts the arduous journey from Japan back to Seattle. They are faced with sailing 5,000 miles at the pace of a fast walk, with limited capacity for water or fuel, even food, and, of course, the possibility of a typhoon. They would have enough of everything —if all went well. This last, long voyage provided ample time on watches for Wendy to ponder what ‘reality’ would be like for them back in Seattle. After surviving the dangers of their ocean quest, how would do they do back on land and in day-to-day working life?
This is good ol’ straightforward storytelling that doesn’t require literary flourish to be captivating. Just imagine spending 24/7 for months on end with your spouse in a 31’ foot sailboat. Just imagine that your world is always moving or changing in one way or another. Now imagine immersing yourself into post-9/11 America only to discover how much everything has changed when you finally return to your home-port.
Tightwads on the Loose; a Seven Year Pacific Odyssey vividly details the highs and lows of life at sea and at port. It will definitely appeal to those who are curious about sea voyaging. Armchair travelers will find a diversity of cultural experiences, historical details, and adventures for their entertainment and education. Come on board and sail away with the intrepid Wendy Hinman and her humorous and ingenious insights about life at sea.
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An Editorial Review of “Prepare to Come About” by Christine Wallace
Christine Wallace writes with great clarity and honesty–and at times, with humor–about weathering the highs and lows of navigating family, career, and love in her gripping memoir Prepare to Come About.
Wallace chronicles her wildly successful perinatal business that brought her accolades and awards for business achievement, along with celebrity radio and TV interviews, and other accouterments that come with the lifestyle. As the business garnered awards, it began assuming a life of its own.
Christine’s professional life skyrockets, while her family life plummets. Christine’s confesses to her readers that her children were often left to fend without their own mother as she worked to help other women become one and the conflict that she internalized. She unflinching shares the other not-so-bright sides that sometimes accompany commercial professional achievement: teenage children in crisis, endless exhausting days, family pressures, work demands, and, seemingly, black holes of chaos.
Her full-throttle lifestyle comes to a grinding halt at the zenith of her success beginning with the day she received an award at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Summit from President George W. Bush. The sharp contrasts between motherhood and professional accomplishment culminate during the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. —thousands of miles away, one of her children must be admitted to the emergency room.
As the economic tides turn, uncontrollable events broadside her business causing a devastating professional aftershock that amplifies her personal heartaches. Christine and her family struggle with a loss of control of everything in their lives. Christine struggles with her loss of identity as a successful professional, a role model, a caring mother, and a supportive spouse while she battles with the economic recession, personal depression, and, worst of all, her own loss of trust in herself and her capabilities.
The fractured family makes an unorthodox choice that pivots them all into unfamiliar waters. Their lifeline comes in the form of a tall ship named Zodiac and its enigmatic captain. Life or death challenges and unforeseen moments of wonder and awe await Christine and her family. As they venture forth together in this new venture, the family members reconnect and rebuild their lives.
This memoir illuminates the struggles and chaotic lives that many contemporary families are challenged with and then goes further. It inspires readers to look beyond society’s conventional solutions and rationalizations to plot their own course.
Prepare to Come About by Christine Wallace is a story that restores faith in the strength and love of a family and will reaffirm your belief that a life lived on one’s own terms is the truest meaning of “achievement.”