Genre Go Round Reviews

By The King's Design-Christine Trent

2012-01-27T12:08:00.001-08:00

By The King's Design

Christine Trent

Kensington, Feb 1 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780758265906

In 1812 Leeds, Annabelle Stirling runs her successful cloth making dress shop. Her wastrel brother Wesley and her fiancé Clive Pryce join the Luddites who destroy her new gig machine as immoral. Angry at the double betrayal and believing the Luddites worked for her rivals, Belle demands the authorities do something; they ignore her rants.

Fuming, she heads to London to make her case with the leadership, but the Prince Regent who she meets acts no differently than what she met in Leeds. Architect John Nash takes her under his wings as his mentee while she and cabinet maker Putnam Boyce are attracted to one another. Meanwhile Wesley gets involved with a high level assassin abduction plan.

The latest Christine Trent historical (see A Royal Likeness and The Queen’s Dollmaker) is an engaging Regency story starring a likable protagonist who enjoys her shop vocation; which makes the twin betrayals that much more hurtful. The storyline is driven by undeterred Belle’s need for retribution as she makes a wonderful lead holding the plot together. While the Luddite movement anchors time and place, other historical facts slow down what is overall a strong early nineteenth century tale.

Harriet Klausner

Leaving Lancaster-Kate Lloyd

2012-01-27T12:07:00.003-08:00

Leaving Lancaster

Kate Lloyd

David C. Cooke, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780781405089

In Seattle, Esther informs her thirty something daughter Holly that she received a letter from her grandma begging for her to come home as she needs her. Holly, whose dad died in Vietnam, is a bit taken aback with the news as Grandma Anna is dead. She is even more stunned when her mom sadly says she will hate her. Esther tells Holly, who she knew desperately wanted relatives for years that she lied to her all her life; her mother and her brothers still live in the Lancaster area.

Her BFF Dori agrees to manage Esther’s Amish Shoppe while mother and daughter are away as reluctantly Esther decides to go home to Lancaster County. Holly accompanies her as she wants to meet her grandma, her five uncles and aunts and cousins. They stop at the home of Mennonite Beth Fleming before finally meeting the family. Ass Holly enjoys her time with her kin; she meets and falls in love with Beth’s son Zach.

This is a wonderful refreshing Amish tale that focuses on the complications of second chances. Esther makes the tale work with her trepidation of seeing her mom and brothers (who are all heading to Big Sky Country) after abandoning her family, her community, her religion and her lifestyle decades ago. She prays for forgiveness from her kin especially her Mommy Anna and her daughter. Readers will relish the prodigal child’s return accompanied by her adult offspring.

Harriet Klausner

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James-Cindi Myers

2012-01-27T12:07:00.001-08:00

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James

Cindi Myers

Bell Bridge, Jan 2012, $15.95

ISBN: 9781466473461

In 1864 Missouri, a fire and brimstone Methodist Minister’s daughter Zeralda Mimms and her cousin Quantrill’s Raider Jesse James meet at the wedding of her older sister Lucy to Bowling Browder. Each is attracted to one another and he boldly kisses her. Jesse returns to the fighting. When the war ends, wounded Jesse goes to Zee’s home to heal. As she nurses him back to health, they fall in love. They become engaged and she learns her future husband is a robber and rumored to be a cold blooded killer. She prays that their marriage and their children will straighten out her beloved husband, but that hope is not answered.

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James is a fascinating biographical fiction that looks at the famous outlaw through the eyes of mostly his adulating beloved wife in a world still suffering from the ravages of the war and the consequential agony of defeat. Because of Zee’s loving filter, Jesse comes across as heroic rather than a cold blooded killer. She needs to believe in the goodness rather than the wickedness of her mate who she knows is tender with his family. Well written, readers will enjoy Cindi Myers fine nineteenth century look at Jesse James through his spouse’s loving perspective.

Harriet Klausner

Death of a Kitchen Diva-Lee Hollis

2012-01-27T12:06:00.002-08:00

Death of a Kitchen Diva

Lee Hollis

Kensington, Mar 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780758267375

In Bar Harbor, Maine, Island Times Editor in Chief Sal Moretti offers his office manager single mom (of fifteen year old Gemma and thirteen years old Dustin) Hayley Powell the position of writing the food and wine column with the nonagenarian reporter retiring. She agrees and her column proves successful with its unpretentious Maine earthiness, which angers her rival at the Bar Harbor Herald prim and proper British aristocratic Karen Applebaum.

However, Karen is found dead with her face buried in a bowl of Hayley’s clam chowder. The police consider Hayley their only suspect and soon Officers Earl and Haley arrest her. She makes bail and with her BFFs investigates the Death of a Kitchen Diva.

This is an amusing culinary amateur sleuth starring a delightful beleaguered protagonist. The breezy storyline is fun to follow as the war of the recipes turns deadly. Although the sub-genre is loaded with similar entries (see Diane Mott Davidson), sub-genre fans will enjoy this entertaining regional whodunit as Haley seeks out a cold blooded killer whose recipe includes the soccer mom taking the fall.

Harriet Klausner

The Sound of a Scream-John Manning

2012-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

The Sound of a Scream

John Manning

Pinnacle, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780786027637

Orphan Daphne May has spent her life cloistered at Our Ladies School for Girls. Now at twenty-two years old, she leaves the convent where she met only one male in her life Father O’Donnell to ride the train to her first job as a governess in Point Woebegone, Maine. No one from Swallowtail meets her at the station, as promised. Instead a stranger takes her to a nearby inn.

Daphne is taken aback by a clown before she enters the ladies’ room to find a waitress with her throat slashed. The gruesome homicide has the townsfolk angry and anxious. Meanwhile Daphne struggles with the behavior of her eight years old charge Christopher whose grandfather was a serial killer wearing a clown costume. When the psychopath kills several more times, Daphne wonders whether somehow she was the spark that ignited a dormant serial killer.

The bloody storyline is an exciting thriller with an interesting late twist that ties the tale together. Daphne is a terrific damsel in distress whole local Gregory Winston tries to be her knight in shining armor. Although the plot is very typical of the suspense sub-genre even with a fascinating spin re the killer’s identity, fans will enjoy The Sound of a Scream in gothic aptly named Point Woebegone (no relationship to Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon).

Harriet Klausner

Born Wicked-Jessica Spotswood

2012-01-27T12:05:00.001-08:00

Born Wicked

Jessica Spotswood

Putnam, Feb 7 2012, $17.99

ISBN: 9780399257452

By 1896, The Brotherhood established a harsh Christian theocracy in which the prosecution of witches is a major endeavor. Practitioners are condemned to death or worse: the prisons ships and the asylums. Additionally when a female turns seventeen, they must marry or join the Sisterhood.

Cate Cahill’s mom died trying to produce a male offspring. Her mother made her make a death bed pledge to care for her two younger sisters, but Cate is running out of time as in six months she must choose. Adding to her dilemma is the three Cahill siblings are closet witches, which makes her courtship by Paul McLeod a going nowhere relationship and her dalliance with Finn Belastra possessing even less staying power. As Cate reads her mother’s missing diary, she realizes her time problem worsened with a terrible fate that dooms the trio; forcing her to peruse banned books in an attempt to keep her and her sisters safe while townsfolk suspect them of wickedness. Then Sister Elena arrives to help them.

Born Wicked is an exhilarating alternative New England historical fantasy starring a courageous but increasingly desperate heroine. Her sisters and Elena are top notch characters while their late mom comes across as full blooded also through her diaries and her daughters’ observations. Although the males seem thin, fans will enjoy Jessica Spotwood’s engaging witch hunt.

Harriet Klausner

Forbidden-Syrie James and Ryan M. James

2012-01-27T12:04:00.001-08:00

Forbidden

Syrie James and Ryan M. James

Harper Teen, Jan 24 2012, $8.99

ISBN: 9780062027894

In Southern California, sixteen years old Claire hopes this time she and her mom stay in one spot so she can makes friends at the Emerson Academy that she attends on a scholarship. Her nomadic mom has them relocating seemingly even before they can open their bags. At the school Claire meets new student Alec, an angel attending school for a bit of R&R though if caught by the Elders he will be executed for desertion. He explains to her why her mother constantly is on the run; as Claire is a half-angel, a hybrid species considered an abomination by the angel Elders.

Alec and Claire fall in love while Helena begins sending visions to Claire with a warning to tell no one, not even her beloved, of her psychic powers. Unable to resist Claire reveals all to her friends. When her life is threatened, Alec risks his to keep her safe.

Although angels are a large population in the paranormal romance subgenre (see His Dark Bond By Anne Marsh), team James provide an entertaining teenage romantic urban fantasy. The storyline is fast-paced while the antics of the heroine are fun to follow as her hormones war with her brain. Although the support characters are out of the genre’s typical casting mold, Alec is a unique individual who is wary and in love. Readers will enjoy Claire’s coming of age not so angelic Los Angeles joy ride.

Harriet Klausner

Heart Echoes-Sally John

2012-01-26T12:09:00.003-08:00

Heart Echoes

Sally John

Tyndale, Mar 1 2012, $13.99

ISBN: 9781414327877

Teal Morgan-Adams knows to the second when her world ended as NPR announced the time over the radio while she crawled on one of the Los Angeles parking lots known as a freeway. The ground began to shake while the announcer warns people to get out of traffic; Teal wonders how even as the overpass crumbled.

Meanwhile her husband River worries about his wife “Xena the warrior” even as his teenage stepdaughter Maiya, who he loves in spite of her obsession to know who her biological dad is (mom refuses to tell her), would laugh about any tremor. However, the worst earthquake he has ever seen in his forty-two years pins him under bins in his garage with his cell phone out of reach. Teal barely survives the road collapse but saw the horror of so many apparently dying. However, tragedy in her hometown of Cedar Pointe, Oregon forces everything to a head.

The latest Side Roads (see Desert Gift) family drama is delightful tale starring engaging protagonists and a strong support cast. The storyline loses some of its zing as the entertaining earthquake subplot becomes overwhelmed by the aftershock in Oregon. Still, fans will enjoy Teal’s homecoming as her daughter and husband put enormous pressure on her.

Harriet Klausner

Beneath a Meth Moon-Jacqueline Woodson

2012-01-26T12:09:00.001-08:00

Beneath a Meth Moon

Jacqueline Woodson

Nancy Paulsen/Penguin, Feb 2 2012, $16.99

ISBN: 9780399252501

Fifteen year old Laurel is filled with remorse as she feels she failed her loved one especially when she turned to meth to numb the pain of death. Having kicked the habit, encouraged by her BFF Kaylee who she let down, she writes an elegy to cleanse her soul and hopefully regain her life. Her downward spiral began when Hurricane Katrina killed her mother and grandmother who remained in the family house when the storm swamped New Orleans.

Her father, her younger brother Jesse Jr. and Laurel obtain temporary shelter in Jackson, Mississippi before moving to Galilee, Iowa in order to start over. Laurel seems to adapt well as she becomes BFF with Kaylee, becomes a cheerleader and dates basketball team captain T-Boom. Still the teen grieves her matriarchal losses; so T-Boom introduces her to “the moon,” which numbs the depression. However, she soon needs more and more moon until she becomes an addict begging people for loose change on the city streets.

This is a great tweener-teen cautionary tale that makes a powerful case that Beneath A Meth Moon the addicting drug takes over your mind and body as you only live for more meth. Laurel’s observations of going to hell and back (she is writing the elegy so she obviously has survived her self-inflicted ordeal) are brilliant as her recollections are dark, choppy and filled with memory gaps. Jacqueline Woodson provides a powerful warning to her tween-teen audience that meth may allow you a moon walk or two but will incarcerate you with a desperate need for more.

Harriet Klausner

A Texan’s Honor-Shelley Gray

2012-01-26T12:08:00.002-08:00

A Texan’s Honor

Shelley Gray

Abington, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9781426714634

In 1874 the notorious Walton outlaw gang is infamous for cold blooded murders as much as they are for their robberies. Gang member Will McMillan plans to end the killing spree of his violent compatriots soonest though he knows how difficult this will prove to be as he expects he probably will not survive.

The gang stops a train in Kansas. Those who are not immediately killed are held hostage including the only solo female Jamie Ellis. She quickly realizes that the outlaw Will is the only reason she has not been harmed so far. Undercover Will needs to stay in character if he does not wish to be exposed although that keeps him at risk when the law catches up to them, but saving Jamie takes precedence over saving his life though he sadly knows she could never love a violent man like him.

The second Heart of a Hero thriller stars an honorable man who rode with the title character of A Texan’s Promise. Fast-paced, readers will enjoy the romance between the “outlaw” and the hostage as Shelley gray provides a fabulous Kansas post-Civil War thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Head Race-R. Lee Nathans

2012-01-26T12:08:00.000-08:00

Head Race

R. Lee Nathans

Hudson House Publishing, Sep 23 2011, $12.95

www.hudsonhousepub.com

ISBN: 9781587761850

Medical director of the Doubestrover Township Community Health Center in New Jersey, single mom Dr. Audrey Epstein raises her twelve year old daughter Lainie and her away at a nearby college Josh alone ever since their dad Ben was murdered. She has problems at home with her tweener and at work with another state inspection and in the Newark Star Ledger where reporter A. J. Amoreaux accuses her staff of improprieties. On the bright side Bradford Lecoyne Eccleston IV gives her a large pink diamond as an engagement ring.

Craig Boseman believes the world owes him. He collects a check from the state due to a fake back injury, but that is not enough as he had to move back in with his disgusting mom. His cousin Dennis’s friend Bill Hartick tells Craig they can make a fortune robbing a clinic. Instead the trio abducts Audrey and a colleague Tim. When the local police chief investigates, the mayor tells him to stop wasting money as the pair of pain in butt missing persons are obviously decamped lovers. The media following the mayor’s lead drops the story while only Brad searches for his missing fiancée.

Bias disclosure: I was hooked with the mention of Jerome Avenue, spaldeen and sewers as my husband was all-neighborhood in stickball. This is a dark humorous satirical tour of New Jersey in which R. Lee Nathans mocks the media-big business-government complex that has Ike turning in his grave. The entertaining storyline is fast-paced though it rotates between several subplots starring an ensemble cast besides those above and the suspense comes late. Readers will appreciate Head Race as the audience will learn that avarice lowlifes come from all classes.

Harriet Klausner

Victims-Jonathan Kellerman

2012-01-26T12:07:00.001-08:00

Victims

Jonathan Kellerman

Ballantine, Feb 28 2012, $28.00

ISBN: 9780345505712

In her apartment, the victim fifty-six years old Vita Berlin was mutilated with her guts placed like a precious necklace around her neck. The only clue to the horrific murder is a strange note with a question mark on it left inside a pizza box that adds eeriness to an already unnerving homicide. LAPD homicide detective Lieutenant Milo Sturgis leads the investigation. His friend and frequent police consultant psychiatrist Dr. Alex Delaware assists on the inquiry. Both men who have seen too much violence over the years are particularly shook up by this gruesome killing.

As they work the case, several additional similar murders occur. They find a link at the mothballed Ventura State Hospital; a place that at one time housed mentally troubled people with the worst head cases locked away in the Specialized Care Unit. Alex interviews psychiatrists who worked with the victims, but all hide behind a wall of privacy.

The latest Delaware-Sturgis police procedural is an entreating serial killer thriller as mildly mocking Miles is off his feed bag with this case. The storyline is fast-paced with a deep spotlight shining on when the mental health care system fails. Although the ending feels off kilter and Delaware has worked vicious serial killing cases with and without Sturgis (see The Butcher’s Theater), fans will enjoy the latest buddies’ whodunit as their usual quipping is subdued by the brutal homicides.

Harriet Klausner

Legend-Marie Lu

2012-01-26T12:01:00.001-08:00

Legend

Marie Lu

Putnam, Nov 29 2011, $17.99

ISBN: 9780399256752

The Republic of America has twenty million citizens and seems to be at constant cold and hot war with its neighbors the Colonies. The laws are strictly enforced regardless of economic and social placement though the elite have all the special advantages and privileges.

From a highly prominent affluent family, fifteen year old June is mentored to become a member of the inner most military leadership. However, her fast track to the top is derailed when her brother Captain Metias is murdered while officially hunting for criminal teenager Day, the number one most wanted person in the Republic, who, in spite of security video cameras all over Los Angeles, his face remains a mystery. Commander Jameson claims Day killed June’s sibling. She vows to avenge her brother’s murder.

Although the High Noon encounter goes the way one would expect even with a fascinating twist, this is a superb futuristic dystopian police procedural. The storyline is fast-paced as readers will appreciate the teenage chess match between the elusive felon and the obsessed soldier; as checkmate is an intriguing spin. Marie Lu provides a fabulously exciting thriller starring two teens from polar opposite sides of the track.

Harriet Klausner

Lenobia's Vow-P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast

2012-01-26T12:00:00.001-08:00

Lenobia's Vow

P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast

St. Martin's Griffin, Jan 31 2012, $12.99

ISBN: 9781250000248

Today Lenobia is the horse mistress of the House of Night in St. Louis and Zoey Redbird’s favorite teacher. She and her mother were servants in 1788 at the Chateau de Naverre in Evreux, France. Her father the baron seduced her mother, impregnated her and cast her and their offspring aside. That child Lenobia looks identical to her spoiled half-sister Cecile.

When Lenobia is sixteen years old, the legitimate daughter dies from ague. Leonia’s mother arranges for her daughter to masquerade as Cecile in order for her to marry an affluent aristocrat. The plot works perfectly as Lenobia and other unmarried young ladies travel by ship to New Orleans to marry rich French aristocrats. While traversing the Atlantic, evil sorcerer Bishop Charles recognizes and announces the fraud as he coveted her back in France and plans to make her his mistress. A nun protects her and she decides to go to the cargo hold on the last level of the ship where she meets Quadroon Martin in the stables. She falls in love with him and the Percheron horse that his employer bought. He sent Martin to go to France so that he could take care of them over the long sea voyage. n The Bishop soon makes his move to rape Lenobia using all means available to him while Martin vows to keep his beloved safe.

The latest House of Night Novella (see Dragon’s Oath) focuses on the teen years of a secondary but popular character. Readers learn what shaped Lenobia’s present mysterious life as the child is the adult even if two centuries have passed. At sixteen, Lenobia displays the same traits she shows as a teacher: courage, honesty and inner strength. She wanted to be happy, but her choices were limited to be or not to be until a third option was offered. This is an engaging biographical fiction as the Cast crew entertains their fans.

Harriet Klausner

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories-Nathan Englander

2012-01-24T11:51:00.001-08:00

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories

Nathan Englander

Knopf, Feb 7 2012, $24.95

ISBN: 9780307958709

This insightful anthology focuses on living Jewish in a modern fast food world; yet the themes of conflict (modernization and assimilation vs. tradition, anti-Semitism, and grief, etc.) are universal. These excellent eight entries were published previously over the past five or so years but not in one place.

“What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” stars two married intoxicated women discussing the Holocaust as the secular Jew says the Nazis are the culprit while the orthodox Jew says it is now with assimilation leading to mixed marriages.

“Sister Hills” focuses on a settlement in Samaria over four decades ago in which the heroic Jews build their city, but their rigidity in a changing world leaves everyone in peril.

The students decided an eye for an eye when they confront an anti-Semitic bully in “How We Avenged the Blums,” but now feel haunted with what they did.

He indulged in “Peep Show” porn in Times Square, which gave him pleasure until everyone even the strippers became rabbis lecturing him.

"Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother's Side" has a different tone; that of a cherished memoir.

“Camp Sundown” in the Berkshires hosts seniors who believe one of them is a concentration camp guard who deserves swift justice.

The Author would do book tours to lines out into the street; now no one shows up except one elderly “Reader” who demands he read.

“Free Fruit for Young Widows” who pass down from generation to generation tales of surviving the Holocaust, but the survivor is not the same soul that she was when she entered the death camps.

Harriet Klausner

History of a Pleasure Seeker-Richard Mason

2012-01-24T11:50:00.003-08:00

History of a Pleasure Seeker

Richard Mason

Knopf, Feb 7 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780307599476

Piet Barol leaned in his recent adolescence that he is a pleasure magnet to most women and many men. He knows his charm comes from his late mom as his dad is a grim university administrator. Thus Piet uses his looks and gracefulness to obtain whatever he desires.

In 1907 in Amsterdam, Piet becomes a tutor to preadolescent mentally ill piano protégé Egbert Vermeulen-Sickerts. Heeding the advice of a footman, Piet avoids the daughters of his sexual abstemious employer but the wife is fair game. However, while almost everyone in the household adores Piet, he has one key adversary, Daughter Louisa, who strips away his charming veneer with a look of scorn. However, he begins to understand his student’s issues as the martinet father brings the wrath of rigid strictness to his son.

This is an intriguing morality tale starring a fascinating protagonist who is not so much a pleasure seeker but a pleasure giver who wants to do right by his student and help others with their tsuris. The key cast members are fully developed as they anchor time and place, and enable the reader to better understand the title protagonist. Although the ending serves only the purpose of setting up the further adventures of the pleasure seeker in South Africa, fans will enjoy his Dutch escapes as The Netherlands in the Queen Wilhelmina Era come to light.

Harriet Klausner

If You Know Her-Shiloh Walker

2012-01-24T11:50:00.001-08:00

If You Know Her

Shiloh Walker

Ballantine, Feb 29 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780345517555

Nia Hollister knows logically the law caught the killer Joe Carson who brutalized and killed her cousin Jolene six months ago in Ash, Kentucky. She saw his corpse, yet her instincts scream at her that something is not right. To obtain closure, she heads to Ash.

The only negative with her quest in her mind is in Ash is Law Reilly who she obsesses over as much as finding who killed Joely. Law reciprocates her attraction and goes up in her mind when he does not scorn her theory but actually supports her assertion. As Nia scrutinizes the police report and other related public documents, Law fears for her safety from an unknown enemy watching her. He will soon learn that sometime paranoia is justified when her room is haphazardly searched.

The final Ash romantic suspense is a great finish to a strong series. The overarching whodunit os brilliantly resolved while the romantic subplot takes a back seat to the increasingly dangerous investigation. Although it behooves the audience to read the previous novels in order (see If You See Her and If You Hear Her) as they build up and directly lead to this suspenseful climax, Shiloh Walker completes the fabulous Ash saga with another super entry.

Harriet Klausner

Run From Fear-Jami Alden

2012-01-24T11:49:00.003-08:00

Run From Fear

Jami Alden

Forever, Feb 28 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780446572811

Two years ago in Seattle, former Green Beret Jack Brooks saved the life of Talia Vega from a serial killer. Talia was part of fifteen minutes of notorious fame and she still is unfairly trashed on the Net.

She relocated in the Bay area with her teenage sister Rosario. At the restaurant where Talia works, Jack enters, which brings back the bad times in her mind. He explains he is in town for a few weeks helping his boss at Gemini securities. When Jack meets Rosie’s friend Kevin, he warns the douche bag that these siblings have met enough creeps. However, Talia soon will be grateful for Jack’s return into her life as a psychopath decides to complete the Seattle nightmare.

The latest Jami Alden romantic suspense (see Beg For Mercy and Hide From Evil) is a pulse pumping taut thriller that grips readers from the first threat to the final confrontation. The lead couple is an interesting pairing as both have survived the baptism of fire. The support cast augments a terrific tense tale in which the romantic subplot is palatable but it is the viable threat from a madman that takes center stage.

Harriet Klausner

A Parliament of Spies-Cassandras Clark

2012-01-24T11:49:00.001-08:00

A Parliament of Spies

Cassandras Clark

Minotaur, Jan 31 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312595746

These are chaotic times in England under the unsteady rule of King Richard II and the viable threat of a French invasion. In these dangerous times, Abbess Hildegard prefers to rusticate in prayer.

However, though she insists she has no skills, York Archbishop Alexander Neville orders the nun to come with him to the Parliament meeting at Westminster in London, where she will be his spy; a role she is extremely uncomfortable with. Before they leave York, Neville assigns her a short clock to investigate the murder of Martin his saucier drowned in a wine vat filled with water and barley. The road to London is filled with violence as Hildegard thinks no place not even near the monarch is safe in these dangerous divisive partisan times.

This is a great medieval historical thriller as murder, mayhem and politics converge in fourteenth century England. The storyline is fast-paced as a power struggle that makes Machiavelli seems like an amateur manipulator. Timely, readers will relish Cassandra Clark’s strong entertaining Abbess Hildegard tale (see The Law of Angels).

Harriet Klausner

Darkness Bound-Stella Cameron

2012-01-24T11:48:00.003-08:00

Darkness Bound

Stella Cameron

Forever, Feb 28 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9781455500154

After two years as a couple and a few days married, Chris died. Fourteen months later, his grieving widow Leigh Kelly decides she cannot live in their home filed with too many memories. She moves to Chimney Rock on Whidbey Island.

Former Special Ops soldier Niles Latimer and his werehound Team are diligently watching the newcomer to keep her safe from rogues assaulting women. However, he also senses Leigh possesses something unique that could prove her compatible as life mate for a werehound. Nile realizes she knows nothing about her DNA or the existence of werehounds as he and his Team vow to protect her while the evil enemy senses who she is too and pledges to take her.

The first Chimney Rock romantic urban fantasy is a superb dark thriller in which Stella Cameron creates a deep mythos that feels genuine; inside of a fast-paced good and evil battle for Leigh. Loaded with chilling action, a strong lead couple and two camps of werehounds and other ilk, sub-genre readers will enjoy a visit to mysterious Whidbey Island where the paranormal is the normal.

Harriet Klausner

Bridge of Dreams-Anne Bishop

2012-01-24T11:48:00.001-08:00

Bridge of Dreams

Anne Bishop

Roc, Mar 6 2012, $26.95

ISBN: 9780451463814

Siblings Lee and Glorianna Belladonna along with Michael the Musician and others removed the darkness of The Eater of the World from Ephemera (see Belladonna). However, though Ephemera is balanced now, the world remains a perilous place as affirmed when bellicose wizards arrive. Lee stops their threat to disrupt the balance, but ends up in an asylum in Vision, a city also facing dark peril.

The Vision Shamans fail to prevent the dark plague from spreading. Lee understands what they face and offers his assistance and those of his family in Ephemera, Glorianna and their cousin Sebastian. However, the proud protectors of Vision eventually may acquiesce to his offer, but time is running out.

The third Ephemera fantasy is an entertaining tale with an incredible vivid description of the Bishop mythos and a wonderful self-sacrificing hero who risks his life again to save a city of strangers. The storyline starts slow with an inordinate amount of time on what happened in the previous entries (see Sebastian). However, once the protagonist jumps into the frying pan to save Ephemera and then into the fire to save Vision, Bridge of Dreams accelerates into a super-fast-paced exciting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Wicked Edge-Nina Bangs

2012-01-23T14:08:00.003-08:00

Wicked Edge

Nina Bangs

Berkley, Mar 6 2012, $15.00

ISBN 9780425245491

The Council of Justice finds Passion the angel guilty of too much impish behavior as her appeal is that she just wanted to bring life to their tedious existence fails to move the judgment board. Passion can deal with her punishment to wander the Earth as a mortal in order to save human souls; however, she feels the Council was cruel and non-angelic when they made Hope the whiner her heavenly contact as once a day having this irritant in her mind can make anyone consider evil thoughts.

Her assignment takes the “human” Passion to the Castle of Dark Dreams where any form of sexual fantasy occurs. However, the virginal temporarily fallen angel meets Edge playing the role of a demon. She realizes how wicked he truly is by his aura, but rationalizes even a demon can be redeemed while Edge insists he just wants to bang the virgin demonic style.

The fifth erotic Castle of Dark Dreams romantic fantasy (Wicked Edge, Wicked Fantasy Wicked Pleasure and My Wicked Vampire) is an enticing wicked tale starring an interesting pair; as she is a virginal angel and he is the sinful demon. Their forbidden romance makes for a terrific paranormal star-crossed lovers’ thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Darkness Undone-Jessa Slade

2012-01-23T14:08:00.001-08:00

Darkness Undone

Jessa Slade

Signet, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780451236265

To earn his wings as a League of Talyan Bookkeeper, Sidney Westerbrook leaves London to study why Chicago contains an exorbitant level of otherworldly combat. Though he preferred research from a distance, he knows field work is an inconvenient truth of his mission. However, the Chicago League Chief Liam Niall refuses to allow him to join their night patrol on his first evening in the city; suggesting he adapt to the time change first.

Thus Sidney goes out on the town alone. However, Westerbrook realizes the stupidity of his actions when two feralis attack him. His shoulder injured, he expects to be a mangled corpse only a female talya warrior intercedes as Alyce Carver is not bound by strict League rules as a rogue battling evil ferales solo. They are attracted to one another, but Sid is a London based Bookkeeper and Alyce is a rogue unaffiliated talyan ,and is expected to mate with one of her kind.

The fourth Marked Souls romantic urban fantasy (see Seduced by the Shadows, Forged in Shadows and Vowed in Shadows) is an exciting paranormal with a fascinating unexpected but plausible twist. The story line is fast-paced with the well done gender spin of the heroine saving the helpless male in distress. Although Alyce garners much respect for her dedication and empathy for her loneliness, Sid fails to do likewise as understanding him comes late. Still this is another dynamic thriller in the super Slade mythos.

Harriet Klausner

The Affair-Alicia Clifford

2012-01-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

The Affair

Alicia Clifford

St. Martin's, Mar 132012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312376277

Famous author Celia Bayley received critical and fan accolades for her poignant passionate look into human relationships. She came from an upper middle class background, married World War II hero Frederick as a teen back sixty-five years ago in 1944 and raised three successful children with a happy home. Now the extended family gathers for her funeral.

Newspaper profile author Jenny Granger asks Celia’s children if she can write the family sanctioned biography of the great late writer. They allow her access to Celia’s diaries, notebooks and letters. They shock the reporter and the deceased’s loved ones as they paint a different picture of her. Naive Cecila’s love match with over a decade older Frederick was a sham as he broke her heart early on, but for the sake of her children and 1950s culture created the facade of a happy home. Even more stunning is years later the sophisticated Celia met the grand passion of her life who was not Frederick.

The Affair is a stunning character study as Celia made a sacrificing choice for the sake of her children. Incredibly profound, fans will ponder whether destroying a legend with the truth will set everyone free when already knowing the truth sets everyone somewhat free. As each of her loved ones (and the author) looks inside their hearts and souls, they wonder what happiness means to them and whether they have what they desire in their respective relationships. The Affair is a thought provoking winner that will have reader doing the same inner SWOT analysis of what we want in our lives.

Harriet Klausner

Saving Hope-Margaret Daley

2012-01-23T13:49:00.001-08:00

Saving Hope

Margaret Daley

Abingdon, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN-9781426714283

In Dallas, teenager Rose knows that Kate Winslow, manager of the Beacon of Hope School, will be disappointed in her for borrowing the van. However, she feels she has no choice as her BFF Lily frantically called her from the “Nowhere” Motel where both have had to turn tricks for pimps. Rose believes once she returns with Lily, Kate will forgive her though she will admonish her.

Kate is despondent with worry when Rose fails to return to the school. Texas Ranger Wyatt Sheridan is assigned to find the girl, but what he learns upsets him as Rose seems to have vanished inside what increasingly looks like human trafficking ring. Matters turn even uglier when someone abducts Kate and his daughter Maddie is threatened to make the Ranger back off.

The key to this terrific contemporary romantic suspense is that the romance takes a back seat to the investigation. The storyline is fast-paced while placing a deep spotlight in child trafficking that at times overwhelms the plot. A touch of inspirational and a stunning late metaphoric twist enhance the exciting Men of the Texas Rangers investigative thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Wedded in Scandal-Jade Lee

2012-01-23T13:48:00.003-08:00

Wedded in Scandal

Jade Lee

Berkley, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780425245934

Robert Percy knows that one of his recurring missions is to learn what his dad purchased whenever the earl is in his cups. This time the viscount explores the drunken entrepreneur’s latest acquisition a coal mine.

Lady Helaine Talbott was forced to become the seamstress Mrs. Mortimer, half owner of A Lady’s Favor, due to her vanished father “the thief of the ton.” She visits her BFF widow Lady Irene hoping to arrange a business deal as their acquisition expert. Grieving Irene accepts the mercenary role of shopkeeper as that gives her hope to find her lost zest for life.

Mrs. Mortimer next visits Robert as the dressmaker for his sister Gwen’s wedding to collet payment as his man of business sent her to him; he accuses her of being a con artist and threatens her with the constable. Soon afterward Robert comes to her shop. He interferes with her assisting a customer, but realizes she is a lady though why she works in trade is beyond his understanding until he learns who she is. Falling in love, each knows they have no future together except as his mistress as he has spent a lifetime avoiding a hint of scandal and she has spent her adulthood dealing with the sins of her father.

This Bridal Favors “wicked” historical romance is a superb gender war as the protagonists engage in a delightful battle of the wits. She forces him to make a paradigm switch about the business acumen of a lady while he forces her to fully grasp how far she has fallen as five years ago they could have had a future together.

Harriet Klausner

Chasing Midnight-Randy Wayne White

2012-01-23T13:48:00.001-08:00

Chasing Midnight

Randy Wayne White

Putnam, Mar 6 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780399158315

Marine biologist Doc Ford seems like a mild amiable person who enjoys studying sea life and providing fresh or preserved specimens to schools and labs nationwide from his Sanibel Island base. In his other life, Doc is a brutal agent working for the American government by cleaning up dire ugly situations.

He and his friend Tomlinson attend an eastern waters caviar productivity improvement conference hosted by vicious Russian black marketer Victor Kaslov on Vanderbilt Island. Attendees come from China, Iran and Turkmenia etc., but Doc diligently focuses on Kaslov in order to obtain some Intel. While Ford goes underwater to inspect the Russian’s yacht, six eco-terrorists crash the conference. Just after their assault, an explosion knocks out the electricity and jamming electronic communication on the island. The party crashers demands must be met or one hostage every hour will die until at the stroke of midnight, everyone still breathing will die in an explosion. Doc realizes how precarious the situation is; his goal is simple to get his friends and himself off island, but the execution is impossible as this group acts more like the Russian’s deadliest “capitalist” rivals than environmental extremists.

This is an exhilarating Doc Ford thriller as the meek marine biologist and the ruthless agent makes him seem like a sea version of Clark Kent-Superman. Tomlinson is his usual Zen-self driving Doc crazy, but who though not brave turns competently hyper with ideas when facing danger. He actually is the one who provides the twists to another fabulous Doc Ford tale as he battles to keep alive his friends from cut throat competitors with no business ethics.

Harriet Klausner

Question of Trust-Laura Caldwell

2012-01-23T13:36:00.000-08:00

Question of Trust

Laura Caldwell

Mira, Feb 20 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780778313212

In Chicago, Bristol & Associates criminal attorney Izzy McNeil and her boyfriend Theo Jameson move into her place together until his new house is ready once his mortgage is approved. However, soon after he arrives at her home, someone breaks into her abode.

Not long afterward, the Feds arrest Theo charging him with fraud at his firm HeadFirst software he co-owns with Eric. While Izzy defends the Cortadero Mexican drug cartel family, her boss Maggie Bristol represents Theo. As Izzy wonders about Theo’s anomalies like his mortgage request being rejected and his inability to put up the $50,000 bail money when his firm has made a fortune, Cortadero stunningly demands her firm stop their defense of her boyfriend.

The latest magnificent McNeil legal thriller (see Red Blood Murder and Claim of Innocence) has a loose sense of déjà vu that the beleaguered heroine notices (see Red Hot Lies). With her father back in her life after years of not being there for her, last year's Sam fiasco (see Red Hot Lies), and now the Theo incident; Izzy wonders whom do you trust when you cannot trust a loved one. This is a terrific twisting tale.

Harriet Klausner

Wicked Edge-Nina Bangs

2012-01-23T13:35:00.003-08:00

Darkness Undone-Jessa Slade

2012-01-23T13:35:00.001-08:00

Kill Shot-Vince Flynn

2012-01-22T13:03:00.003-08:00

Kill Shot

Vince Flynn

Emily Bester Books/Atria, Feb 7 2012, $27.99

ISBN: 9781416595205

One year ago Mitch Rapp completed the CIA special ant-terrorism training. With the support of his now handler Irene Kennedy he is a lone wolf who has left a trail of corpses around the globe. The blood does not disturb him as he believes devoutly these killers deserve retribution as you live and die by the bullet. The Lockerbie mass murder still motivates him into the revenging grim reaper he has become as killing these monsters proves therapeutic.

His current assignment is to assassinate a Libyan in Paris, which he does. Before Rapp can leave, Samir Fadi and cohorts burst into the room with machine gun firing to kill the solo ghost who stalks them. Rapp takes a bullet but escapes. Samir is shocked that the enemy got away and his brother died in the assault. The French gendarme finds nine corpses in that room while the CIA denies any responsibility for the deadly incident.

Unlike his agency’s leaders depending on heavenly intervention, Rapp’s former trainer Stan Hurley knows a liability must be eliminated before the local authorities capture him. However, Rapp refuses to die or be caught while a betrayal high inside the agency leaves him hanging alone.

Bloodily over the top of the Eifel Tower, the direct sequel to American Assassin continues Rapp’s early years with the CIA in another action packed thriller that takes off explosively in Paris and never slows down until the final bullets are fired. The hunter becomes hunted by an avenging Muslim and his former teacher, but it is the betrayal that leaves Rapp in peril. With the next tale seemingly set up by the betrayal, fans will enjoy Vince Flynn’s latest super suspenseful Rapp entry.

Harriet Klausner

Deader Homes & Gardens-Joan Hess

2012-01-22T13:03:00.001-08:00

Deader Homes & Gardens

Joan Hess

Minotaur, Feb 14 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312363628

Bookseller Claire Malloy and police lieutenant Peter Rosen return home to Farberville, Arkansas after spending their odd honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt (see Mummy Dearest). However, first order of business is finding a place to live as the married couple and her teenage daughter Caron need more space.

After a week of failure hunting for a house without Peter who is busy working but with Caron, Claire finds the perfect home in Hollow Valley. She goes to close the deal with realtor Angela Delmond, who drove her to this house, but following a phone call the woman vanished; stranding Claire. A second shock occurs when Claire goes inside to get her purse and sees octogenarian Moses Hollow drinking Bordeaux. Nattie Hollow-Brown soon arrives and takes Angela to a nearby tavern for her to make a call. Later, Angela cannot find the realtor whose office hides something seemingly sinister and she learns the owner Winston died under mysterious circumstances; his lover Terry of Key West says the house is not for sale. When Terry dies, Claire knows she must catch a killer if the house is to belong to her and her family.

The latest Malloy amateur sleuth (see Closely Akin to Murder) tale is a zany regional whodunit as one learns that even with a recession realty is a killer market. Deader Homes & Gardens is fast-paced with a breezy amusing tongue in cheek undertone starting with the jocular opening refrain of “… my kingdom for a house.” Fans of the series will wonder what next will happen to anyone associated with the house not for sale in Hollow Valley.

Harriet Klausner

Stay Close-Harlan Coben

2012-01-22T13:02:00.001-08:00

Stay Close

Harlan Coben

Dutton, Mar 20 2012, $27.95

ISBN: 9780525952275

Ray Levine was once a highly regarded photographer until the incident that shattered his life occurred almost two decades ago. Fortyish, he now is a despondent sham paparazzo posing as such for his celebrity craving clients.

Megan Pierce has come a long way from the incident that changed her seventeen years ago when she buried that wild life in a shallow ditch. Now she is a bored suburban soccer mom with a teenage daughter Kaylie and a younger son Jordon; her spouse is nice Dave whom has no idea who the woman he has slept with for the past sixteen years really is; including her real name Maygin.

Police Detective Jack Broome remains haunted by the cold case he failed to solve though he knows his torment comes from watching what has happened to the missing’s person wife and children as their house is an untouched tomb. The spouse Sarah Green still leaves her husband Stewart’s slippers out for him while their kids Susie has been arrested for DUI twice and Brandon was busted for possession. Jack investigates the disappearance of Carlton Flynn and has found other similar husbands-fathers vanishing without a trace. Three people tied together with what happened to Stewart seventeen years ago will learn whether the truth sets them free.

With Bolitar taking a well-deserved time-out, Harlan Coben provides a superb stand-alone thriller. The key is the ensemble cast connected by the incident in which none of them is able to move on passed what happened though they disguise their trauma with seemingly “normal” behavior. Action-packed hooking appreciative fans, this is a taut suspense as the past has returned to shake up the lives of three people going through the motions of living.

Harriet Klausner

Born to Darkness-Suzanne Brockmann

2012-01-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

Born to Darkness

Suzanne Brockmann

Ballantine, Mar 20 2012, $26.00

ISBN 9780345521279

The United States is spiraling into third world status as the Great Depression II wreaks havoc on most people due to policies that legalized unfair practices leading to the wealthiest doing great while everyone paid the price. For much of the increasing poor there is only one commodity they can sell: their preteen daughters. The Organization has created Destiny from the hormones of pre-puberty females; the affluent love the elixir that allows those with money to buy the perfect physical specimen at the cost of their mind.

The Obermeyer Institute opposes the sale of girls as a commodity and by extrapolation are against the use of Destiny. However, groups like the Organization own the media and the politicians so Obermeyer is considered by most a place for crackpots. With nowhere to turn, banished former Navy SEAL Shane Laughlin joins OI though he believes the media portrayal of lunatics especially the “Greater-Thans” philosophy to deploy otherworldly powers for the common good. He changes his mind when female Greater Than scientists half his size kicks his butt in. Shane and Greater Than Michelle “Mac” Mackenzie had shared a one night stand before he joined OI as a test subject. In Boston, they attempt to rescue a young girl sold for her hormones who appears to be a Greater Than.

Noted for Breaking the Rules of romantic suspense with her Troubleshooters saga, Suzanne Brockmann provides a powerful enthralling and dark paranormal thriller as the extraction of young female hormones is a capitalist commodity exchange item. The gripping premise extrapolates trends in economics, politics, journalism and pharmaceutical to paint a dark soulless future. The prime romance between the protagonists and a gay relationship enhance an exciting fast-paced rescue mission.

Harriet Klausner

Shatter-Michael Robotham

2012-01-22T13:00:00.001-08:00

Shatter

Michael Robotham

Mulholland/Little Brown, Jan 26 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780316187428

Clinical psychologist Dr. Joe O'Loughlin teaches part-time behavioral psychology at the University of Bath. He lives with his beloved family in Somerset. His wife of two decades Julianne is a successful executive while both adore their daughters, twelve years old Charlie and three years old Emma. The only bight to their idyllic life is Joe's deteriorating health due to Parkinson's disease diagnosed four years ago.

The cops come to the campus to get Dr. Bruno Kaufman to talk down a potential jumper on the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Bruno sends his friend Joe to the scene. A middle aged naked female ignores everyone around her including Joe as she frantically talks on a mobile before leaping; her last worlds to Joe was he would not understand. Student Darcy Wheeler arrives at Joe’s home insisting her mom Christine would never commit suicide. Joe begins to realize the psychological pattern of a leaper does not fit Christine. When a similar suicide occurs, police Detective Inspector Veronica Cray leads the investigation. Joe and his friend retired Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz join the inquiry.

Shatter is an exciting psychological thriller as a master of mind manipulation successfully breaks the will of single confident females. The latest O’Loughlin thriller (see Suspect and The Night Ferry) is fast-paced with a cat and mouse contest between the psychologist whose wife wants him off the dangerous case and the villain a virtuoso playing with emotions. As readers learn why, Michael Robotham keeps the suspense tropospheric in anticipation of a showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist.

Harriet Klausner

Fall from Grace-Richard North Patterson

2012-01-22T12:59:00.001-08:00

Fall from Grace

Richard North Patterson

Scribner, Mar 20 2012, $26.00

ISBN 9781451617054

On Martha’s Vineyard, internationally famous writer Benjamin Blaine is found dead at the bottom of a cliff overlooking the sea. Ben’s estranged son Adam returns home for the first time in a decade to attend his dad’s funeral. Others expected at the burial are the deceased’s widow Clarice, their other son gay Teddy, his mistress movie star Carla Pacelli and Ben former girlfriend Jenny Leigh.

Ben thinks someone pushed his larger than life father off the edge. He knows the revised will is a powerful motive for those who gained wealth and for those who lost wealth. Carla receives $10 million; Jenny gets $1 million; Adam inherits $100,000; and Clarice and Teddy were left out of the new will with each obtaining nothing. Using what he learned as an agricultural envoy in Afghanistan, Ben investigates.

This is a great thriller filled with stunning but plausible twists as Ben’s training and experience in duplicity comes in handy when dealing with the extended Blaine clan. As the protagonist uncovers secrets he wished he never knew, readers will relish his exhilarating investigation. Fall from Grace will be on most short lists for mystery of the year.

Harriet Klausner

Force of Nature-C.J. Box

2012-01-22T12:58:00.001-08:00

Force of Nature

C.J. Box

Putnam, Mar 20 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780399158261

In the Saddlestring, Wyoming area Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski are friends though the former knows the latter has concealed something from him. In 1991, Nate was assigned to a Special Forces unit when the “Five” led by Lieutenant John Nemecek did something terrible. He walked away, but knew one day they would come for him. That day of reckoning arrives when a gutted Large Merle tells Nate in his last breath: “The Five. They’ve deployed.”

Nate understands no one stands in the way of Nemecek’s rising political career especially those who witnessed the atrocity. He knows the tactic Nemecek uses to kills those on that infamous patrol. His goons will get at him but won’t go directly; instead they terrorize friends and family. The Five will assault the Pickett family. Upset for what has come to his friends and concluding there is Nowhere to Run, Nate believes that the only way to defeat the enemy is outside the law, but doubts his game warden friend can walk the crooked path. Joe has his friend’s back though he prefers not going “rogue” but a High Noon confrontation with Nemecek’s minion is imminent and he must choose between life and the law.

With a nod to the movie Red, bestselling author C.J. Box has written a fresh fantastic Pickett thriller (see Cold Wind) as fans of the series finally learn what recurring support character Nate has hidden though numerous books. The villain has a powerful network in Wyoming and Idaho that informs him who is where and identifying their loved ones so he can arrange their deaths. It is Nate’s turn through the Pickett clan is a Force of Nature that is not to be trifled with. Each book in the series is better than the one before.

Harriet Klausner

Finding Our Way Home-Charlene Ann Baumbich

2012-01-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

Finding Our Way Home

Charlene Ann Baumbich

WaterBrook, Mar 13 2012, $13.99

ISBN 9780307444738

Sasha Davis left Wanonishaw, Minnesota on a scholarship to Juilliard when she was seventeen years old. Twenty years later after starting on the road to becoming an international star as the principal dancer at the Boston-based Mid Central Festival Ballet, Sasha’s career ends in a horrible accident. Depressed, she returns home to allow herself to have a self-pity party as she cannot lift her legs without immense pain; her career is over and perhaps her marriage to her dance partner Donald Major too as she refuses to see him and he refuses to visit her.

Sasha finds encouragement from her optimistic caretaker big boned nineteen years old Evelyn Burt, who has family issues of her own, but refuses to let them get her down though she knows she will have to choose between loved ones. However, the former prima ballerina’s comfort comes from the snow globe of a dancer that her mother gave her when she started the odyssey.

Readers will enjoy this contemporary character study in which Charlene Ann Baumbich enables the audience to understand what each key player, especially the disabled dancer, thinks. Although the audience learns rather late the cause of the estrangement and why the teen feels trapped, patient fans will enjoy the latest wonderful Snowglobe Connections saga (see Divine Appointments) as two female opposites forge a sisterly bond that helps both of them.

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl-Stephanie McAfee

2012-01-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl

Stephanie McAfee

NAL, Feb 7 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780451236494

In Bugtussle, Mississippi, schoolteacher Graciela (Ace) Jones looks forward to the annual Spring break trip to Panama City with her BFF teacher Lilly Lane. However, nine hours before the drive begins, Lilly cancels. Angry Ace knows it is because of the mysterious Gentleman her friend is seeing. Ace is further mad at Mason McKenzie who is the love of her life though their relationship died three years ago. Thank goodness the size-sixteen teacher has the love of her loyal companion Buster Loo the canine.

While Ace rages, Lilly is accused of having an affair with a student. Their other buddy Chloe Barksdale (Ace hates her friend’s married name) is married to womanizing, abusive Richard Stacks IV, who is a paragon of the community. Ace and Lilly stalk nasty Richard to prove the rat cheats on pathetic Chloe; while Mason is back in town wanting a second chance with the love of his life.

This entertaining small-town Southern sisterhood tale is a fun frolic over the top of Woodall Mountain as readers will wonder how the teachers, who enter boob bars, point guns at male anatomy, try to take down their boss Catherine “bitchy Hilliard, and get arrested, keep their jobs as role models. The title character tells the tale of the tape as she and her comrades take down the skunks of The Magnolia State.

Harriet Klausner

The Inquisitor-Mark Allen Smith

2012-01-21T12:47:00.002-08:00

The Inquisitor

Mark Allen Smith

Holt, Mar 13 2012, $27.00

ISBN: 9780805094268

Manhattan-based Geiger “the Inquisitor” is an expert in breaking down people to obtain the truth as he has an innate lie detector that warns him when a person is not telling the truth. He mostly uses mental attacks to insure fear supersedes all other emotions; while he rarely deploys direct physical assaults as Geiger understands the target will lie to end the pain. Nobody is a better "information retrieval" guru than Geiger is.

Client Richard Hall hires Geiger and his partner Harry Boddicker to obtain information from Matheson who stole a valuable Willem de Kooning masterpiece from a private collector. Hall fails to arrive with the thief, but instead has Matheson’s twelve year old son Ezra for the Inquisitor to learn whether the lad’s father hides. Irate as he does not deal with children, he beats up Hall and accompanied by Boddicker takes the tweener to a safe-house. Hall and his gang pursue them as Geiger wonders why the kid is important.

With a nod to Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter, Geiger is perhaps the most refreshing character of the year as his matter of fact treatise on torture will stun, horrify and fascinate readers. The storyline is action-paced from the first torture to the last as the amoral antihero shows he has a conscience when it comes to protecting kids; yet he also makes the euphemistic titled "enhanced interrogation" techniques of the Bush crowd look like amateurs. With a strong shocking climatic spin, fans will enjoy the exhilarating "information retrieval" thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Anatomy of Ghosts-Andrew Taylor

2012-01-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

The Anatomy of Ghosts

Andrew Taylor

Hyperion, Jan 17 2012, $15.99

ISBN: 9781401310738

In 1786, Tim Turdman finds the body of young Georgie Holdsworth, who drowned in the Thames. His father John the bookseller is despondent but conceals his grief from his wife Maria whose depression frightens her spouse but is understandable as she helplessly watched her son drown in the river. She insists she speaks to her deceased offspring with the help of a medium. A fire destroys the bookstore that contains John’s investment leaving him broke. Angry and grieving John authors a book to prove to Maria that she cannot communicate with Georgie and her channel is a con artist. His effort leads to Maria committing suicide by jumping into the Thames near where she last saw her child.

Lady Anne Oldershaw hires a depressed John to catalog her late husband's library that she is bequeathing to Cambridge University. Her son Frank, a Jerusalem College student, has a nervous breakdown following his assertion that he saw the ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote. Lady Anne asks John, as a paranormal fraud expert, to help her son realize how inane his assertion is. John knows first he must learn what the lad saw as he struggles through the nasty Holy Ghost Club and their Master Dr. Carbury only to find his haunting mission changed.

This is a great late Georgian thriller that will keep the audience wondering whether to believe in ghosts or something more sinisterly human. The storyline starts melancholy in the opening chapters, but changes tone when the bookseller comes to Cambridge as he gets involved with a murder mystery that has him reconsidering his contention that ghosts are delusions of the parasitic relationship between the desperate and the amoral who take advantage of these depressed souls.

Harriet Klausner

The Ritual-Adam Nevill

2012-01-21T12:46:00.001-08:00

The Ritual

Adam Nevill

St. Martin’s Griffin, Feb 14 2012, $15.99

ISBN: 9780312641849

When they roomed in Birmingham while attending the university Luke, Phil, Dom and Hutch were the four musketeers as best buddies. After graduating they went their separate ways with three of the BFFs married as Luke is only one of them still single. The four agree to unite on a camping trip north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden to get away from their respective personal lives.

However, it didn’t take long to realize how out of shape Phil and Dom have become as the foursome trek on their three day hike though Luke and Hutch still smoke. The weather is cold and wet making the walk through the wilderness that much more difficult especially when they take a shortcut that fails to find the river, but instead the dead eerily hanging from a tree. The bickering and resentment become palatable as anger at each other and their miserable situation overtly explodes. They find shelter of sorts from the harsh environment in a cottage containing bizarre, frightening ancient-looking items. None of them yet comprehend the predator that stalks them may be just coming home.

Think of Deliverance and an adult coming of age Lord of the Flies in a stark setting to comprehend this exhilarating thriller. The storyline told by Luke captures the reader from opening line as Adam Nevill paints a harsh environment that sets the tone for what follows. The protagonists possess diverse personalities and different tsuris, but it is their reactions to the evil that hunts them which makes for a tense horror tale.

Harriet Klausner

Crucible of Empire-Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth

2012-01-21T12:45:00.003-08:00

Crucible of Empire

Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth

Baen, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9781451638042

A few years ago years ago the Jao invaders conquered the Earth (see The Course of Empire). The two species began forging a united kochan clan. Former resistance fighter Gabriel Tully commands Baker Company whose prime mission is to negotiate a peace between his former resistance allies and the Jao. He attends a briefing concerning the NGC 7293 nebula where three Krant vessels investigated strange data; they encountered hostility with the giant arachnid Ekhat species which ended with the enemy destroyed but the Krant ships not in much better shape.

Terra Governor Aille and Preceptor Ronz assign the Lexington to take Jao and humans to the sector where the Ekhat has violently surfaced and a third race was involved in the recent battle. Jao Captain Danner krinnu ava Terra commands the ship; but she is not in charge of the mission. Instead Wrot krinnu ava Terra runs the mission with Caitlin Kralik as the diplomat to deal with the unknown race and Tully and his unit enhanced by the Krant survivors provide military support against the Ekhat. His team destroys four Ekhat ships with a surviving vessel crippled in orbit around a star; only to learn the Lleix who the Jao assaulted in a previous encounter are on board.

As with the first science fiction “Empire” thriller, the sequel focuses on the species with a deep look at the Jao (especially on board the Lexington) and somewhat the Ekhat. The storyline also introduces a fourth sentient race with its own shtick. Although there is some reiterative commentary that slows down the outer space encounters, fans will enjoy traveling on the Lexington as the combined Jao-human crew go into combat and diplomacy.

Harriet Klausner

Vampire's Kiss-Veronica Wolff

2012-01-21T12:45:00.001-08:00

Vampire's Kiss

Veronica Wolff

NAL, Mar 6 2012, $9.99

ISBN: 9780451235725

Off the Scottish coast lies the Isle of Night populated by vampires, tracers, watchers, acari and humans. Ronan the vampire tracer recruited from the University of Florida Annelise Drew (see Isle of Night). She is a second year acari student who understands that only the strong survive so she diligently works hard with one goal to get off the island; which means becoming a Watcher even though escape is doubtful.

Alcantara the vampire acts likes Drew enchants him when he accelerates her training so she can be placed on a mission with him. She is to act the part of a serving girl to seven vampires of whom her mentor states are evil. They seek Carden McCloud captured and most likely tortured by these malevolent bloodsuckers. Drew finds the rescue target and gives him her blood. When Alcantara and McCloud meet, Drew realizes they are enemies, which has her wondering why her mentor lied and who the wicked vampire is.

The latest Watchers urban fantasy is an enthralling, twisting thriller in which readers will appreciate the spellbinding in depth look at a vampire island community inside the wonderful world of the Wolff. Since escaping the Isle of Night is more difficult than getting off Alcatraz, Acari accept their role as gladiator students. Sanctioned fights between each other leave some dead; only the best live through the grueling ordeal their instructors call training. Drew is terrific as she completes the mission but learns a lesson to not trust anyone especially vampires as delineating the good, the bad and the ugly is impossible until it is too late.

Harriet Klausner

Touch of a Rogue-Mia Marlowe

2012-01-20T13:05:00.001-08:00

Touch of a Rogue

Mia Marlowe

Kensington Brava, Feb 28, 2012, $14.00

ISBN 9780758263544

Clairvoyant investigator Jacob Preston loves women, but demands his females be passionate in his bed and married so as to insure no dangling relationship demands. Lady Julianne hires Jacob to determine whether her husband’s death was not a suicide as reported and to locate the missing Druid dagger in the set he was collecting.

Jacob knows a widow is off limits in his womanizing as that means she is no longer married. Yet he cannot stop his desire for her. She matches him move for move as Julienne desires her detective but wants no commitment. A fanatical Wollstonecraft disciple, Julienne demands she be Jacob’s sidekick on the inquiry; though he insists he works with no partner except in the boudoir, she refuses to not join the investigation.

The second touching Preston paranormal historical romance (see Touch of a Thief) is a terrific nineteenth century frolic containing a madcap relationship mindful of the Grant-Hepburn movies. Fast-paced from the moment the protagonists meet, readers will enjoy their gender war antics inside of a clever detective storyline in which the feminist and the clairvoyant rock each other’s worlds.

Harriet Klausner

Power of the Raven-Aimee Thurlo

2012-01-20T13:04:00.003-08:00

Power of the Raven

Aimee Thurlo

Harlequin Intrigue, Feb 7 2012, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373696000

Two months have passed since their Navaho foster father Hosteen Silver died. His “children” Gene Redhouse, Daniel Hawk and Paul Greyhorse miss their “uncle” who taught them to cherish life, but believe the medicine man still watches them to insure they respect themselves and others.

After a grueling day in Hartley filing documents as Hosteen’s executor, Gen heads home to his ranch when a frantic woman leaps in front of his truck; he barely misses hitting her. They met earlier at the DMV as he completed some of his late foster father’s estate documents there. Lori Baker claims jewelry designer Bud Harrington refuses to accept her rejection of him and stalks her. She also explains she has talked to the police about this sleaze but he accused her of stalking him. Gene and Lori are attracted to each other, but he saw her stalker run from him though he cannot testify that the predator is Bud. With his foster brothers having their back, Gene knows he must earn the trust of the wary woman by keeping her safe before he takes her to his special spot in Copper Canyon.

The second Copper Canyon Navaho romantic suspense is a terrific tale as two individuals from different cultures fall in love while he protects her as a woman in peril. Aimee Thurlo provides a deep focus on the difficulty victims and law enforcement face dealing with a stalker. There is a second subplot involving a DMV employee that enhances the entertaining storyline. However as in Daniel’s entry (see Winter Hawk's Legend), the Power of the Raven is the Navaho elements like the hero’s ability to communicate with animals and the foster siblings’ bond.

Harriet Klausner

So Pretty It Hurts-Kate White

2012-01-20T13:04:00.001-08:00

So Pretty It Hurts

Kate White

Harper, Mar 20 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780061576607

Best friends Bailey Weggins and Jessie Pendergrass work for Buzz, a gossip magazine known for its sensationalist disregard of the facts. Jessie invites Bailey to accompany her for the weekend at the home of record producer Saul Cohen. Upset with her boyfriend Beau Reagan for being out of town on business, Baily agrees. Among the celebrities attending the weekend bash is supermodel Devon Barrwho after eighteen years on the catwalk knows her career is over; she wants to become a recording artist and will do whatever it takes to sell herself to Saul.

Demanding diva Devon makes a terrible impression on the Buzz reporters with her queen of mean demeanor expecting everyone to kowtow to her wishes. She also has the nerve to invite her former boyfriend Tommy and his current girlfriend to the party as flaunting Devon wants him back. Bailey finds Devon weeping. The model says she must leave as it is unsafe for her to remain at Cohen’s house. Later she is found dead in her bed. The police believe she died from using Ipecac, a drug used to control eating disorders like anorexia. However, Bailey remembers how frightened the woman was and believes a homicide occurred. Her journalist instincts kick in as she investigates the diva’s death while someone tries to get Buzz to fire her.

The latest Bailey Weggins investigation (see Lethally Blond) is an entertaining locked country house whodunit (snowstorms come in handy). Fans will find it difficult to put down the exciting So Pretty It Hurts as we try to identify who the culprit is amidst a house filled with suspects; of whom most detested the deceased. The characters feel so realistic that the audiences will want to find out what the group members have against Devon. The Bailey Weggins series is one of the most entertaining and realistic series on the market today.

Harriet Klausner

The Hope Vendetta-Scott Mariani

2012-01-20T13:03:00.001-08:00

The Hope Vendetta

Scott Mariani

Touchstone, Mar 6 2012, $25.00

ISBN 9781439193471

Former SAS operative Be Hope considers his response to the question: “To be or not to be.” He decides to delay his exit strategy by attending Oxford to study theology, a field he dropped years ago when he became a covert agent.

Professor Tom Bradbury asks Ben to find his missing twentyish archeologist daughter, Zoe. Ben refuses as he no longer is in that line of work. He arranges SAS comrade Charlie Palmer to investigate the missing person’s case. From Corfu, Charlie contacts Ben that he is in trouble and needs help. Ben arrives on the Greek island. He soon learns Zoe found an artifact tied to Revelation, which leads him to Savannah and televangelist Clayton Cleaver, who insists John the Apostle told him he End Times is upon us.

The latest Hope Vendetta (see The Mozart Conspiracy) is an exhilarating over the top of Mount Pantokrator thriller. The storyline contains an intriguing underlying theme of true believers and cynical leaders making strange common cause bedfellows with each wanting to ignite the End Times for diverse reasons. Fans will enjoy Hope’s odyssey to save millions as he leaves behind a high body count.

Harriet Klausner

Oracle’s Moon-Thea Harrison

2012-01-20T13:02:00.003-08:00

Oracle’s Moon

Thea Harrison

Berkley, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780425246597

Twenty year old college student Grace Andreas has no time to grieve the death of her sister and brother-in-law. With Petra’s demise comes overwhelming responsibility as guardian to her four-year old niece Chloe and nine-month-old nephew Max. if that is not enough, she inherits her sibling’s humongous debt. Finally there is Power of the Oracle of Louisville, which goes from the late Petra to the swamped Grace.

A dispute on her property leads Khalil the demonkind Djinn Prince of House Marid to enter the lives of Grace and her wards. Over her objection, he joins the grieving household. His shapeshifting amuses and distracts the children while his body distracts his hostess. As he calms down the irate Elder Races who loathe Grace’s sassy scorn while she fumbles at deploying her new power, the demonkind and the humankind fall in love.

The latest Elder Races paranormal is a delightful romantic urban fantasy starring an in shock heroine and her demon protector. The storyline is mindful of the first season of The Greatest American Hero as the protagonist struggles with using her new talent, raising her young relatives and with her feelings towards the demonkind. However, the key to this excellent entry and the fabulous predecessors (see Dragon Bound, Storm’s Heart and Serpent’s Kiss) is the Harrison mythos of humans living alongside seven otherworldly species comes across as real.

Harriet Klausner

By a Thread-Jennifer Estep

2012-01-20T13:02:00.001-08:00

By a Thread

Jennifer Estep

Pocket, Feb 28 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9781451651768

In Ashland, Pork Pit owner Gin “Spider” Blanco completed the magical hit she has trained for when she assassinated Mab Monroe, the Fire elemental who murdered her family when she was a teen (see Spider’s Revenge). With many of the punks seeking instant infamy by killing Spider, and with Gin wanting to spend quality with her long-lost baby sister Ashland police detective Bria Coolidge, she leaves on a vacation from her occupation.

The siblings travel to Blue Marsh beach resort where Bria introduces Gin to her best friend Callie Reyes of the Sea Breeze. Small time felon Pete Proctor and his giant partner Trent warn Callie to sell her establishment to their employer Randall Dekes the vampire before hurricane season causes damage. Pete also harasses Bria before breaking a mirror. When he gloats over hurting Bria before, Spider knocks out Trent and stabs Pete’s hand to the floor before knocking him out. With a sigh Gin knows the vacation is over. Gin’s former lover Blue Marsh police detective Donovan Caine who is also Bria’s fiancé arrives at the Sea Breeze. However, the power hungry vamp covets a new acquisition, Spider’s elemental ice and Stone magic.

The enjoyable sixth Elemental Assassin urban fantasy is the first in the post Mabs era and fans of the series will appreciate the still kick butt heroine flashing her knives though her opponent is much more clever and a more dangerous adversary than her previous opponent was. Action-packed from the moment the vacation ends, Jennifer Estep avoids the sub-genre stereotyping of the heroine and the villain By A Thread based on who has the sharper bite.

Harriet Klausner

The Drowning Girl-Caitlín R. Kiernan

2012-01-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

The Drowning Girl

Caitlín R. Kiernan

Roc, Mar 6 2012, $16.00

ISBN 9780451464163

India “Imp” Morgan Phelps would have been shocked if the shrink diagnosed her as an NT; instead labeling her as a schizophrenic which makes sense to her. Imp knows lunacy is like apple pie to her family as far back as she knows. Still meds and the shrink help her pretend she lives a normal life.

Imp is shocked when she sees the model in the 1898 The Drowning Girl painting. Meeting Eva Canning also brings about dreams and memories that cannot be true, but Imp wonders about their source as she fears her mental illness has worsened since meeting Eva. Deciding to learn who Eva is, Imp is further stunned when the woman vanishes. As reality becomes increasingly unstable, the voice amidst the chaos of her brain triggers an obsessive compulsive need to know what truly happened; ergo Imp ponders whether Eva is a ghost warning her but of what or a priestess whose flock died in 1991 in a mass drowning.

This excellent thriller grips the audience with a need to know whether the protagonist is mentally insane or dealing with regressed memories including perhaps generational. Impossible to put aside, The Drowning Girl is a fabulous psychological suspense or fantasy; Caitlín R. Kiernan keeps us guessing until the end.

Harriet Klausner

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming-Mike Brown,

2012-01-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

Mike Brown,

Spiegel & Grau, Jan 24 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780385531108

Caltech astronomer Mike Brown has found many objects beyond Pluto with all of them except one not even bringing a yawn from the public. However, that one Eris is bigger than Pluto and has similar properties like an irregular orbit. Ironically Dr. Brown learned second order effects of his discovery when the International Astronomical Union changed Pluto’s revered status from ninth planet in the solar system to a new category dwarf planet. For the diligent astronomer that means instead of number ten, he has number three. Dr. Brown explains the pros and cons of the new category, which is built around whether a sun orbiting object has cleansed its “space” of other major object. He understands the uproar of the paradigm relegation as he like most people grew up with Pluto the planet. Much of the memoir involves the author’s personal life before, during and after the discovery. This addition, especially the insight of how his wife and daughter see his “crazy” work and the discovery, enhances the memoir. His spouse stoically accepts the role of an astronomer wife means putting up with obsession and irregular hours similar to the orbit of Eris. On the other hand, Dr. Brown figures his daughter knows that her dad “killed Pluto.”

Readers obtain a fascinating look at an astronomer and his family with an emphasis on the impact of his work on his loved ones. However, it is the explanation of his work, the solar system and the reclassification simplified for lay people to comprehend without dumbing down that makes How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming an entreating whimsical though somewhat mistitled autobiography.

Harriet Klausner

Quinn- R.C. Ryan

2012-01-19T12:25:00.001-08:00

Quinn

R.C. Ryan

Forever, Feb 28 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9781455502455

In 1996 Wyoming, Big Jim Conway takes his grandsons (ten years old Quinn, seven years old Josh and five years old Jake) to town while their Pa Cole and Police Chief Fletcher talk. This has been a weekly affair since Cole’s wife and mother to the kids vanished.

In the present, wildlife expert Quinn is in the Grand Tetons observing a wolf pack. Rancher Cheyenne O’Brien meets Quinn in an acerbic encounter. However, a blizzard forces Quinn to stay at her spread. He realizes from her eyes that the independent rancher shares in common with him first-hand knowledge of tragedy. He learns of the deliberate "accidents" to her ranch and insists on helping her when arson destroys part of her home. As they fall in love while his family spread comes under attack, Quinn vows to find the culprit endangering the people he loves.

Leaving behind Big Sky Country (see the McCord cousins’ Montana trilogy) for the Equality State, R.C. Ryan writes an enjoyable romantic suspense. The storyline vividly describes the ruggedness of Wyoming while also focuses on a strong heroine and the close Conway Cowboy clan. Although the villain is too obvious, fans will enjoy the first Conway ranch romance.

Harriet Klausner

Fever-Joan Swan

2012-01-19T12:24:00.002-08:00

Fever

Joan Swan

Kensington Brava, Feb 28 2012, $14.00

ISBN 9780758266385

St. Jude Hospital provides medical services to five California prisons including San Quentin. Currently, Doctors Alyssa Foster and Greg Dyne compete for the radiologist vacancy. Alyssa is escorted to San Quentin where she is attending to convicted murderer thirtyish Teague Creek who complains about pain. She dislikes his racist tattoos like the Swastika, but finds herself wanting him though concerned with the heat of his body. After finishing her examination, Creek places his loose hand chain around Foster’s throat. Using her as his shield, he escapes from the prison with his subordinate Taz helping them hide in the Bay area though the latter wants the doctor dead.

Creek thinks Foster is Hannah who slept with his former best friend now his enemy; the man in control of his daughter Kat. At the same time DARPA sends Jason Vasser to kill Teague. Creek makes it appear that Foster is his partner not his hostage as he works to regain custody of his Kat. As his plans seem to constantly fail, the convict and the physician feel the Fever heat of love.

This is an exciting action-packed thriller with fantasy elements that starts with the hostage escape and never slows down until the final confrontation. The changing relationship between the lead couple is nicely developed so that it seems real overcoming improbability even considering the Stockholm syndrome. However, Senator Schaffer and DARPA’s need to kill Creek never quite gels though compassion has a life time warranty in prison, but a death sentence outside. Still fans will enjoy Joan Swan’s tense romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner

Collision of Lies-John J. Le Beau

2012-01-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

Collision of Lies

John J. Le Beau

Oceanview, Mar 5 2012, $25.95

ISBN 9781608090457

In Austria, radical right-wing politician Georg Forster leads his Nationalist Defense Front Party from nowhere to a prominent influential role in in the new coalition government. His meteoric rise ends in a car crash near Garmisch, Bavaria. German Kommissar Franz Waldbaer happens to be at the scene of the brutal Mercedes accident.

Anton Hester replaces the late Forster as the head of the NDF. He claims the NDF possesses proof that his successor’s death was not an accident, but was an assassination by Israeli operatives. Waldbaer is assigned the police investigation while CIA operative Robert Hirter works the same case from the Intel perspective. Having teamed up on the inquiry into the death of the American’s brother in Bavaria (see Collision of Evil), the agent and the cop unite again unaware a shipment is the center of what happened to the NDF leader and related deadly events.

This is an exciting action-packed thriller grips readers with the deaths at sea, in Bavaria and elsewhere that seem unrelated except that the bad guys will stop at nothing to insure their cargo reaches its destination. Although the villainous elements cohesively tie together extremely late; fans will enjoy the second teaming of the CIA operative and the Bavarian kommissar as they make a terrific pairing on international investigations.

Harriet Klausner

The Tenth Saint-D.J. Niko

2012-01-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

The Tenth Saint

D.J. Niko

Medallion, Mar 1 2012, $14.95

ISBN 9781605422459

Cambridge University archeologist Sarah Weston leads a dig in Aksum, Ethiopia, the site of an ancient mountain kingdom. To her ire, her financial backers send famous American anthropologist Daniel Madigan to insure they get their value back in their investigation.

The pair locates a tomb with inscriptions in an unknown arcane language. Inside are the remains of a human. In the libraries of Ethiopian monasteries, the westerners find clues that the deceased is that of the Coptic Christian’s tenth saint who spread Christianity in this African nation and predicted the final days of planet earth. Their discovery leaves them in jeopardy from those who want the end of days’ prophecy to come true.

Putting aside plausibility of some rescue actions, fans will enjoy this exhilarating Brownian romantic suspense, which provides a fascinating look at the Coptic Christian Church (in the news of late in Egypt). The storyline is fast-paced and filled with funny but unlikely teasing while in near death scenarios. Fans will enjoy this engaging conspiracy based on the premise that extreme fundamentalists obsess with eliminating those who would interfere by reversing the steps of Revelations; as all that matters to these die hard fanatics is for the end of times to occur.

Harriet Klausner

Cake On A Hot Tin Roof-Jacklyn Brady

2012-01-19T12:22:00.001-08:00

Cake On A Hot Tin Roof

Jacklyn Brady

Berkley, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425246221

When her parents died, Aunt Yolanda and Uncle Nester took their niece Rita Lucero into their New Mexico home treating her as their loving daughter. After the pastry chef married Chef Phillipe Renier she moved to New Orleans where they started Zydeco Cakes. They separated for two years; their marriage ended when a killer murders Phillipe (see A Sheetcake Named Desire). Since her husband had no will, Rita is a wealthy widow; while her grieving mother-in-law Miss Frankie is elated that Rita will run Zydeco.

Preparing for Mardi Gras, the staff of Zydeco is working long hours with little sleep as they bake for the Krewe of Musterion party. Adding to her stress is the visits of her loving Uncle Nestor, accompanied by his wife; he pressures Rita to return to New Mexico; as he cannot accept a woman living without male protection. Rita takes her relatives to a gala, but Nestor and Big Daddy Boudreaux get into a public fight. Shortly afterward, Big Daddy is found dead. The victim’s widow accuses Nestor. Rita knows her uncle is not a killer and risks her life to prove her belief.

The second A Piece of Cake Mystery is a fast-paced delightful amateur sleuth tale starring a feisty independent pastry chef who cherishes the couple who took her into their home, but will not bow to her uncle’s wishes. Nestor believes women need the protection of a caring strong man. Ironically he needs the detecting skills of his caring strong niece. Even with the investigative action in the middle of the well written plot, Cake On A Hot Tin Roof is an interesting whodunit with the only lingering question being which classic Tennessee Williams’ play will follow.

Harriet Klausner

Allegiance-Cayla Kluver

2012-01-19T12:21:00.001-08:00

Allegiance

Cayla Kluver

Harlequin Teen, Feb 28 2012, $9.99

ISBN: 9780373210435

Her father King Adrik of Hytanica forced his daughter Alera to marry hedonistic Lord Steldor, son of the Captain of the King's Guards Lord Cannan. Once they wedded, Adrik removes the crown from his head, places it on the new monarch King Steldor and vows allegiance to his replacement. However, Alera does not want her spouse and refuses to consummate their marriage as she loves Narian of her country’s enemy Cokyri.

The Overlord of Cokyri uses his mystic abilities and the hostage of a woman Narian cares about to force him to betray Hytanica where he was treated well. Narian is to lead the invasion that will end the long running hot and cold Legacy war with Cokyri victorious. When he takes his troops into combat, Alera’s loses what is left of her innocence as she thought her beloved would never commit atrocities against the kingdom that treated him well.

This is an entertaining young adult romantic alternative medieval historical that contains fantasy elements. The irony of the two warring nations are neither remembers what the original dispute was about and the plight of Alera who if she lived in the adversarial kingdom, she would be the ruling Queen and not just the wife of the king. Although it is critical to read Legacy before perusing Allegiance to understand the two kingdoms and their complicated ties that bind them, readers will enjoy this entry as Alera must choose between her love for her country symbolized by the king she loathes, and her love for her enemy symbolized by the Commander she loves.

Harriet Klausner

A Life of Bright Ideas-Sandra Kring

2012-01-18T14:13:00.002-08:00

A Life of Bright Ideas

Sandra Kring

Bantam, Feb 7 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780553386820

In 1961 in Dauber, Wisconsin BFFs Evelyn “Button” Peters and Winnalee Malone wrote their observations on life in their Book of Bright Ideas in order to avoid the mistakes they noticed others constantly do. The drifted apart with different lifestyles through the tumultuous sixties.

In 1970 Winnalee the flowerchild returns home to find Button seemingly trapped in a nowhere family scenario. Button’s Ma died and her dad quit being a father. She along with her Aunt Verdella raises her younger brother Boohoo while working in the family dress shop. Finally she also misses Jesse who is in the army. Winnalee is taken aback when she learns Button’s Ma died as the woman was her reason for coming home. Soon after her arrival, Winnalee’s mom Freeda arrives with her infant granddaughter, whom the hippie hoped she could leave with Button’s Ma. The two BFFs travel to see Winnalee’s Aunt Harriet who raised her as the flowerchild must come to grips with her child.

The sequel to the Book of Bright Ideas is wonderful female buddy tale that follows up on the lives of the now adultery protagonists. Ironically, Winnalee seems care free and liberated while Button seems imprisoned by family responsibility with no freedom; yet the engaging convoluted relationship character driven storyline will challenge readers to never judge a book solely by its cover.

Harriet Klausner

The Sometimes Daughter-Sherri Wood Emmons

2012-01-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

The Sometimes Daughter

Sherri Wood Emmons

Kensington, Jan 31 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780758253255

In the mud of Woodstock as Crosby, Stills, and Nash are about to perform, Cassie gives birth to a baby Judy. Over the next few years Cassie remains the war protesting flowerchild indulging in sex and drugs. She takes her infant with her on her anti-Vietnam marches and to parties.

On the other hand Judy’s father Kirk has a revelation with the birth of his daughter. He understands parental responsibility so he cleans up his act to be the best dad to his child he can be. Kirk goes to law school, divorces his wife, and wins custody of Judy taking the child home to Indiana from a Kentucky hippy commune. Cassie flies free only occasionally visiting her child. When her mom moves to an ashram in India, a growing up Judy grieves her loss while struggling to hide her abnormal family so as to fit in the acceptable norm. Kirk remarries Treva adding to his offspring’s feelings of being an outsider; at a time when Cassie finally comes home with a demand to include her Sweet Judy in her life.

Told by the perspective of the young Sweet Judy, fans will see the impact of parents failing to parent and eventually abandoning their child. Judy, Kirk and Cassie are fully developed so the reader understands what motivates each thought he parents are filtered by their child. The support cast is solid as they enhance the child’s feelings of not belonging when they try to help her fit in. The ending fails to provide closure, which is disconcerting, yet seems apropos for this intriguing relationship drama.

Harriet Klausner

Guilt: Stories-Ferdinand von Schirach; Carol Brown Janeway (translator)

2012-01-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

Guilt: Stories

Ferdinand von Schirach; Carol Brown Janeway (translator)

Knopf, Jan 31 2012, $24.00

ISBN: 9780307599490

This is a strong German crime anthology that looks closely at justice especially legal failures as the fifteen excellent short entries focus on the meaning of guilt from several viewpoints. In “Funfair”, the band at a six century anniversary gala rapes a teenage girl, but the DNA evidence and subsequently the case is lost. Nina and Thomas called the subway home when they kill an old man who tried to molest her in “DNA”. The "Children" bare false witness against the man accused of abuse. The “Lonely” young teenage is raped by a family who left her naive, frightened and pregnant. Whether it is the manslaughter death of a teacher by student bullies in the “Illuminati” or a depressed bored housewife getting a rush of “Desire” by stealing nonentities, Ferdinand von Schirach provides a deep look at what guilt is and its impact on those within a degree or two of the selected guilty party. Readers will reconsider their definitions; as whether a person did the deed or not never matters when it comes to the altered psychological symbiotic partnership relationships as there is powerful cause and effect on the hurt party, the chosen one (guilty or not is irrelevant) and their two circles.

Harriet Klausner

Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Janson Command-Paul Garrison

2012-01-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Janson Command

Paul Garrison

Grand Central, Feb 14 2012, $27.99

ISBN: 9780446564502

Paul Janson was a covert assassin for the American government’s top secret Consular Operations. He saw the light when he became classified as the "beyond salvage" target of the government due to a failed mission in which he became the chosen one to take the fall of the screw-up of higher ups (see The Janson Directive). He survived the assassination attempts and opened up CatsPaw Associates security firm with Jessica Kincaid. Their firm’s vision is to accept scenarios that will make the world a better place. Janson also manages the Phoenix Foundation as his means for redemption; the mission is to rehabilitate black ops operatives discarded as worthless trash by their agency when their use is deemed over.

Doug Case lost his job at Consular Operations when he took a bullet that saved Janson’s life but left Doug paralyzed. He graduated from Phoenix and is security chief of Houston based American Synergy Corporation. Case hires Janson to rescue a company physician kidnapped by the Free Foree Movement who demands the Isle de Foree hated dictator “President for Life” Iboga leave. With Kinkaid having his back, they make it to the main rebel stronghold, but all hell breaks loose when they arrive

This is a great action-packed twisting thriller as Jason and Kincaid are stunned with the deployment of Reaper drones and Harrier jets as neither should be there. As the action goes international, readers will learn what Janson already knows from his assassin days that terrorist groups, rogue nations, and amoral covert agencies are less dangerous than internationally protected “job creating” ruthless unscrupulous corporations.

Harriet Klausner

The Fear Index- Robert Harris

2012-01-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

The Fear Index

Robert Harris

Knopf, Jan 31 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780307957931

When the Feds defunded the Texas super collider, Dr. Alex Hoffmann obtains a position as a physicist at CERN in Switzerland. When he suffers a nervous breakdown, he leaves Geneva. Alex takes with him VIXAL-4, an independent computer with the uncanny ability to self-teach at a speed that humans cannot comprehend.

To finance his research and his machine, Alex sets up a hedge fund run by VIXAL. The algorithm VIXAL uses takes the pulse of investors leading to four years of incredible growth while the stock markets around the world collapse. However, as the creator loses control of his creation, someone inside the firm diligently works on making Hoffman look insane to his staff.

This is an enjoyable modernization of Frankenstein with a touch of Harry Kellerman inside of a contemporary convergence of physics, computers and international finance. The storyline is fast-paced with a terrific late twist although none of the cast including VIXAL is likable as all seem morally bankrupt. With a two prong cautionary plot, Robert Harris provides a fascinating timely thriller as science without passion is dangerous while even more lethal is finance void of ethics and scruples when profit is the feral god.

Harriet Klausner

Tangled-Erica O'Rourke

2012-01-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

Tangled

Erica O'Rourke

K Teen/Kensington, Jan 31 2012, $9.95

ISBN: 9780758267054

In Chicago, St. Brigid’s High School senior, Maura “Mo” Fitzgerald witnessed the mob take out her BFF Verity; her thirst for vengeance led mousy Mo into a world of magic, prophecy and two mysterious hunks Colin and Luc (see Torn). Her need to avenge Verity’s murder changes to protecting those she loves but she fears she will never be freed from the Arcs, her mobster uncle, the Quartered and the Seraphim has all seem to have her in their crosshairs..

In one month since the homicide that changed her life occurred, Mo has a major dilemma as she has no one to take to the Sadie Hawkins dance. However wanting to be left alone to attend school and work at the diner is not an option; as the Chicago mob never lets witnesses live and the magic with the surges since the Torrent never lets practitioners especially one embroiled in the ancient prophecy quit. A grieving raging Constance is now the magical battleground.

The second Mo urban fantasy is a terrific thriller with a profound morality question cutting across the entertaining storyline as the resultant heroine deals with the unintended nasty consequences of her seemingly pristine actions in Torn. Action-packed, it is the second and third order effects that will have the enthralled audience wondering if the end justifies the mean even when that mean goes against your positive values. Tangled is a wonderful teenage thriller as Mo just wants to choose between secretive Colin and enigmatic Luc, but then fate may have chosen Billy for her.

Harriet Klausner

Shadow Heir-Richelle Mead

2012-01-18T14:07:00.001-08:00

Shadow Heir

Richelle Mead

Zebra, Jan 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9781420111804

Ohio seems like the perfect hell for hybrid Shaman Eugenie Markham to raise her unborn twins in a safe environ away from Otherworld assassins and the prophecy. However, her hiding in the humid heat of the Buckeye state leaves her unaware of the crisis in the Otherworld. A spell is turning the realm into a blighted landscape with extinction a real possibility.

Fairy King Dorian’s support, who deceived Eugenie re who was to be Iron-Crowned, is trying every desperate measure to prevent what increasingly seems inevitable. He knows the only hope is for him, Eugenie, Kiyo the shifter and others, including beings who want the twins dead, to unite in trust, but she is in the mortal realm looking forward to being a single mom with no desire to cross over.

The final Dark Swan urban fantasy (see Storm Born, Thorn Queen and Iron-Crowned) is a great surprising finish to the strong saga. Fast-paced, Eugenie faces a moral dilemma that leaves her choosing between two terrible choices that no parent ever should have to face. Readers will appreciate Richelle Mead’s strong end to a powerful series.

Harriet Klausner

The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne-Madeline Hunter

2012-01-17T15:59:00.001-08:00

The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne

Madeline Hunter

Jove, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780515150469

In 1798, Maurice Fairbourne, owner of the prestigious Fairbourne’s Auction House, falls from a cliff near Kent. His secret partner the Earl of Southwaite attends a final auction of mostly junk. Maurice’s daughter Emma pushes the sale while Southwaite wants to sell the house before the value deteriorates too much. Emma refuses and though he cannot explain what happened he leaves meekly. A woman visits Emma with a wagon of wine and other cargo lacking a government stamp. She realizes her dad dealt with smuggled goods. Southwaite looks at the accounts and concludes Maurice dealt with smuggled goods.

Southwaite discusses the Kent coast with concerned friends; while Emma’s pal lines up the consignment for Count Van Kandstrandt. Though Southwaite knows she tricked him to get the Count’s business he kisses Emma. Meanwhile Southwaite watch Emma’s activities near where her dad fell to his death. He confronts her and takes her to his estate where they make love. Since she was a virgin, he says he will marry her, but she refuses. He asks her to be his mistress, but she refuses. However, he vows to keep her safe as he realizes the woman he loves has become embroiled in his smuggling investigation.

The lead couple is fully developed protagonists engaged in a wonderful gender war. The support cast mostly enhances the smuggling subplot with the implication of a sequel between a French female printer and the “handsome Stupid Man.” Although the climax fails to live up to the taut suspense leading to the final encounters, fans will enjoy this exciting historical romance.

Harriet Klausner

The Revenge of Lord Eberlin-Julia London

2012-01-17T15:58:00.001-08:00

The Revenge of Lord Eberlin

Julia London

Pocket, Feb 21 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9781439175460

In 1792 in Hadley Green, eight year old Lily Boudine's testimony led to the hanging of a man for stealing the jewels of her aunt and guardian, the Countess of Ashwood (see The Year of Living Scandalously). Tobin Scott witnessed his father’s execution for a crime he did not commit. To keep young Lily safe she is sent to live with family in Ireland.

Fifteen years later, Lily inherits the Ashwood title. She finds her estate in terrible condition. Wealthy Tobin as Count Eberlin informs the Countess she has a choice between saving the people of Ashwood and saving herself. She agrees to a tryst to save her people. However he never expected to betray his own quest when he is attracted to the female who hung his dad. On the one hand she feels the same way but also has guilt weighing her down as Lily begins to thinks she condemned an innocent man to the gallows. As they fall in love, they seek the truth of what happened fifteen years ago.

The second Secret of Hadley Green Regency romance is an enjoyable tale as beloved enemies investigate the cold case. Fast-paced, fans will enjoy Tobin’s revelation that "revenge is a dish best served cold" (except for the Count of Monte Crisco and Emily Van Camp) as he finds Lily nothing like the frozen bi*ch he expected; especially with her remorse over what she realizes she did. Readers will appreciate this entry and look forward to more secrets revealed.

Harriet Klausner

Exclusively Yours-Shannon Stacy

2012-01-17T15:55:00.001-08:00

Exclusively Yours

Shannon Stacy

Harlequin HQN, Dec 20 2011, $7.99

ISBN: 978-0373776788

Spotlight Magazine editor Tina Deschanel learns that her entertainment reporter Keri Daniels and reclusive famous author Joe Kowalski were an entry two decades ago in high school. Tina has Joe on the bulletin board as the number three interview for years. She demands Keri do her job or find a job.

Keri left their New Hampshire home years ago without a look back at brokenhearted Joe. She makes contact and he agrees to her interrogation if she meets his condition. Keri must join the extended Kowalski family two-week camping trip. Reluctantly Keri accepts Joe’s terms. She quickly finds herself under assault by her former best friend Joe’s twin sister Terry, and wants to escape from the angst of his brothers and their spouses. Throw in a teen, four tweeners, and her attraction to her former sweetheart, Keri considers finding work suddenly viable; while Joe makes it clear she will not run away this time.

This is an amusing second chance at love romance in which the support cast, except for overly baggage Terry, adds humor and poignancy. Character driven, readers will enjoy the antics of the “Killer” Kowalskis as Keri and Joe realize they still are in love.

Harriet Klausner

Raven Calls- C.E. Murphy

2012-01-17T15:46:00.002-08:00

Raven Calls

C.E. Murphy

Luna, Feb 21 2012, $14.95

ISBN 9780373803439

Seattle Urban Shaman Joanne Walker loved being a police detective, but balancing her two worlds ended when a werewolf bit her. She quits the force as she knows she cannot quit the mystic realm. Jo scratches a compelling itch that has her leaving behind her former police boss Mike Morrison who she only recently began seeing (see Spirit Dances) to fly to Ireland.

Mike sends Jo’s best friend septuagenarian Gary Muldoon to Dublin to keep her butt out of trouble. They head to the Hills of Tara in County Meah when a woman comes out of nowhere to identify Jo as Siobhan Walkingstick, Walker’s birth name. As the pair climbs the metaphysical Hill of Tara, Jo’s life spins full circle when she learns what the obsession that brought her to ancient magical Eire is all about; the deceased individual, who gave up everything for her, needs rescuing, but first the Shaman must escape the dark power of the Morrígan.

This is a great spin as the heroine has good cause to put on hold, perhaps permanently, her relationship with Mike in order to learn more about her ancestry and battle some nasty adversaries. Thus the spinning stunning storyline returns to its fantasy roots as Jo is in mortal combat with a nasty goddess in a long ago era (there is no Seattle coffee available) as the latest Walker Papers (see Demon Hunts) is a super smart shocker.

Harriet Klausner

Enchanted Again-Robin D. Owens

2012-01-17T15:46:00.000-08:00

Enchanted Again

Robin D. Owens

Luna, Dec 20 2011, $14.95

ISBN 9780373803415

In Denver, genealogist Amber Sarga understands the cost of using her gift as a curse-breaker; every time she deploys her skill she reduces her life span dramatically as she ages. Thus she is wary to deploy her talent.

Friends Conrad Tyne-Cymbler and Rafe Davail visit Amber at her place in Mystic Circle so she can help them break their respective curses though Rafe ridicules the concept of the paranormal. Conrad’s wife Marta left him with their son Dougie and vanished. Based on what his father told him on their only encounter when he next sees his child he will die. In Rafe’s family history, the first born son dies before turning thirty-three. Amber wants to help both, but can’t even use a mirror as she looks ten years older than she is chronologically. She agrees to look into their ancestry to identify the curse and what can be done to stop it. However, she feels sympathy for both cursed men and is attracted to Rafe.

The second book Mystic Circle romantic urban fantasy (see Enchanted No More) is an engaging tale based on the premise that magic costs to the practitioner. This concept is the conflict as Amber faces a moral conundrum with between to do and die young, and not to do and die lonely. Although the romantic relationship between the generalist and the skeptic feels forced, readers, craving for chocolate brownies, will want to know the outcomes of the curse.

Harriet Klausner

How to Be Death-Amber Benson

2012-01-17T15:45:00.001-08:00

How to Be Death

Amber Benson

Ace, Feb 28 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9781937007287

Since her dad’s untimely death thanks to his late oldest daughter (see Death’s Daughter), Calliope Reaper-Jones feels pressure she does not want; as the President and CEO of Death, Inc. with the Board and others making demands on her life. She knows she needs to read How to be Death (A Fully Annotated Guide), but has not gotten around to it. Instead she has depended on her younger brilliant sister Clio and a few of her dad’s best minions to help her as the girl who can make her deadly wishes come true.

Reaper attends the annual Death Dinner and masquerade ball at Haunted Hearts Castle. At the gala, she sees Daniel who she loves but assumes her feelings are unrequited; besides he is busy running Hell while his former boss receives heavenly punishment for his failed coup. Lying on the floor of Cal’s room is Daniel’s date Coy who is beheaded. Former Psychical Bureau of Investigation field agent Edgar Freezay leads the homicide investigation while Callie panics that the guide book she never opened has been stolen; if misused it could mean the extinction of humanity.

This is an entertaining locked castle murder mystery in which the homicide occurs about half way into the storyline. Callie has not matured since inheriting the position (see Serpent’s Storm and Cat’s Claw) as she remains unsure and shallow especially in the pre-murder chapters; in fact she would agree Clio is a better long term choice to become Ms. Death. Freezay takes over the novel with his inquiry. Still fans will enjoy Callie’s chick lit commentary as she struggles to learn How To Be Death; a job she does not want nor feel capable of performing.

Harriet Klausner

Star Wars: The Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual-Ryder Wyndham, Chris Reiff (illustrator) and Chris Trevas (illustrator)

2012-01-17T15:44:00.001-08:00

Star Wars: The Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual

Ryder Wyndham, Chris Reiff (illustrator) and Chris Trevas (illustrator)

Lucasbooks, Jan 31 2012, $20.00

ISBN: 9780345533043

The title is somewhat misleading as this owner’s manual focuses on the Corellian Engineering Corporation’s YT-1300 series with the legendary Millennium Falcon being the most famous (the Emperor says infamous) vessel having a major chapter. Besides the brief history of the corporation, the manual goes into depth with diagrams on the various YT-1300 models, a deep look at systems (piloting, propulsion, etc.), controls, weapons, crew facility and other floor plans, and other operations. There is also a section devoted to the modified Millennium Falcon operated by wanted preferably dead smugglers Han Solo a former Imperial pilot and Chewbacca the Wookie.

This is a great fun manual. Ryder Wyndham (see A New Hope: The Life of Luke Skywalker) provides a well written text filled with fascinating details about the model while the photographs and art are incredible as the two Chris’ show their talent and knowledge of Star Wars. Fans of the saga especially the original three New Hope movies will appreciate this entertaining entry as we will feel we are on board and even driving an YT-1300 vessel. Finally unlike politicians who insist ads by their attack Super PAC pals were not approved by them, this super packed manual is approved by Lucasbooks and a reader can see why.

Harriet Klausner

The Living End: A Memoir of Forgetting and Forgiving-Robert Leleux

2012-01-16T13:25:00.001-08:00

The Living End: A Memoir of Forgetting and Forgiving

Robert Leleux

St. Martin’s, Jan 17 2012, $19.99

ISBN: 9780312621247

The family matriarch JoAnn is a Texas Steel Magnolia, which means a tougher brand of metal than the other southern states. Noted for her sandpaper tongue that rips the hide off the toughest cowboy, JoAnn is ironically a glamorous southern belle. However, for decades she and her daughter Jessica, a chip off the obstinacy block, remain estranged as the younger woman believed her mother seemed not to care when she or her grandchild needed her. Ironically, just when Jessica gave up on her, she would do something incredible like sending Robert a ton of books. When JoAnn’s memory began to fade due to Alzheimer’s, her family found it as a miracle that brought her back into their lives. Much of the two generations’ anger vanished as Jessica reconciled with her mom and Robert spent quality time with a grandma who never condemned his choices.

This wonderful upbeat memoir looks at Alzheimer’s as a reconciliatory bringing together of an estranged family as by forgetting, JoAnn and her family are forgiving. This positive assertion does not hide from the caretaking problems caused by dementia, but prefers to look at the positive that came out of the disease. Mr. Leleux reminds me of my husband’s fondest memory of his beloved mom during her “Living End” Alzheimer’s in which she did not know who her kids were but euphorically sucked the last neutrino of a chocolate shake. Much of this biography focuses on the generational war and peace as Mr. Leleux latest memoir (see The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy) affectionately yet realistically portrays his flawed larger than Texas grandma on her final Cotton Bowl gala.

Harriet Klausner

The Flowers of War--Gelling Yan; translated by Nicky Harman

2012-01-16T13:24:00.002-08:00

The Flowers of War-

Gelling Yan; translated by Nicky Harman

Other, Jan 31 2012, $15.95

ISBN: 9781590515563

In 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army invades Nanking. The St. Mary Magdalene Mission is considered a safe neutral zone by the forces of both sides. American expatriate Father Engelmann protects schoolgirls trapped in his sanctuary though he fears sustenance shortages.

Ignoring the internationally agreed upon protocols of war, invaders commit monstrous atrocities against the local population; females are a particular target. Brothel workers sneak into the mission. Unable to send them away though they exacerbate the dwindling food and water supplies, Father Engleman places them in the basement and the students in the attic. Also inside the mission is wounded Major Dai, who, demands the priest, grant sanctuary to two injured Chinese soldiers. Father Engelmann feels like Solomon without the wisdom; as he knows if he grants the request he threatens the females under his protection from the Japanese, who if they find out will deem the Mission is no longer neutral; if he denies the soldiers they will die.

Mindful of Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin, The Flowers of War is an intriguing look at the Massacre from the perspective of those hiding inside the mission. The storyline is deep as readers obtain a deep look at the Chinese holocaust. However, ironically none of the cast moves passed typical stereotyping; for instance the American priest shoulders the “white man’s burden”, the usual prostitutes as seen in Ms. Yan's The Lost Daughter of Happiness, and the inane rivalry between students. Well written, fans will enjoy The Flowers of War as readers are reminded never forget, although there is no Minnie Vautrin.

Harriet Klausner

Autumn Lover-Elizabeth Lowell

2012-01-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

Autumn Lover

Elizabeth Lowell

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780380769551

After spending the Civil War years overseas, Elyssa Sutton returns to her Ladder S Ranch in the Ruby Mountains once the fighting ended. She finds her spread devastated and the peace signed in Virginia meaningless in Nevada where raiders and others steal her cattle and use her natural assets as their own.

Hunter (Maxwell) tracks the butchers who killed his family to the Ruby Mountains. Needing to go undercover he comes out of the shadows to ask Elyssa for employment. She hires him as a “ramrod who can use a gun.” Although she somewhat fears the rage she sees in his eyes, she is also attracted to her employee. He does not wants to care about his boss as he fears losing his ugly edge, distrusts women whose strength is betrayal, and besides people you love die.

This reprint of a 1996 “Only” post-Civil War romance (see Only Love and Only Mine) is an intriguing tale starring an intrepid rancher and an unlikable acrimonious person obsessed with revenge. Hunter’s constant debasing of the heroine even when they make love fits his ire that women betray while he still grieves the murders of his wife and children by the Culpepper gang. Although the story line is as straight as the Bonneville Salt Flats even setting up the obvious sequel starring Hunter’s s bitter brother (see Winter Lover), readers can see the plot for miles ahead, fans still will appreciate this engaging dark historical romance.

Harriet Klausner

Death On Heels-Ellen Byerrum

2012-01-16T13:23:00.001-08:00

Death On Heels

Ellen Byerrum

Obsidian, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780451236135

Lacey Smithsonian writes her column Crimes and Fashion for the Washington DC based Eye Street Observer. She left her hometown of Sagebrush after her boyfriend proposes; the temperature is way below freezing and her boss on the hometown newspaper gets on her last nerve.

Lacey learns that cattle rancher Cole Tucker, who once proposed to her, has been arrested for killing women over a two year period. She flies back to Sagebrush to learn whether the man she once loved is a serial killer. During a ten minute meeting at the courthouse, Cole takes Lacey hostage and escapes with her to a deserted cabin. He insists he has been framed by a sly adversary who wants his ranch for the water, mineral and oil rights. The rancher provides his former girlfriend a list of who he considers coveting his land and capable of such a diabolical ploy before freeing her. Believing Cole is innocent, Lacey vows to find the evidence that exonerates him. Whereas no female was murdered while Cole was in custody, another woman is abducted. However, this time Cole has an alibi in an ex-girlfriend reporter who also has solved homicide cases before (see Shot Through Velvet, Grave Apparel, and Armed and Glamorous).

The latest Smithsonian inquiry is a terrific entry as the heroine proves you can go home if you still have your cowboy attire especially the boots in this regional whodunit. The locals are quirky adding a Rocky Mountain high to the journalist’s investigation. Lacey and her current boyfriend, former Sagebrush Police Chief Vic Donovan the security expert care for one another deeply while having each other’s back as he helps her try to find the killer (which in the reporter’s case is an occupational hazard). Death On Heels is a fabulous Crime of Fashion Mystery.

Harriet Klausner

The Haunting of Maddy Clare-Simone St. James

2012-01-16T13:14:00.001-08:00

The Haunting of Maddy Clare

Simone St. James

NAL, Mar 6 2012, $14.00

ISBN: 9780451235688

In 1922 London, ghost researcher Alistair Gelles hires Sarah Piper as his temporary assistant. He explains to her that his permanent assistant Matthew Ryder is visiting his pregnant sister and that the patron Mrs. Clare asks for a female to get the ghost of the late serving girl Maddy, who hung herself, to leave.

Sarah enters the barn alone. She finds the barn on fire. She escapes, but once outside the barn is fine. She tells Alistair and Matthew who arrives what happened. Later she sees the scars on Matthew’s back, but he misunderstands her reaction as he assumes his war injuries horrify her. Instead she thinks he is beautiful. The team learns Maddy arrived battered and mute at the Clare farm when she was twelve. Sarah asks Maddy about her suicide note in which she said “I will kill them.” Later Sarah and Matthew have sex, but afterward he apologizes, which hurts her. The trio enters the barn. Matthew sees Maddy; Sarah senses Maddy is near; and Alistair hears music. Maddy tells Sarah that three men violated her as a little girl and she wants revenge. She orders Sarah to find them and her gravesite. Mrs. Clare smashes an oil lamp causing a fire. Matthew rescues Alistair who thinks he is back in combat. Sarah and Matthew investigate when the first unexplained (except by an avenging ghost) murder occurs.

This is an entertaining Post WWI British haunted barn thriller in which the researchers are fully developed, the ghost seems real, and the townsfolk enhance the enjoyable story line. Although the prime romantic subplot between the two research assistants feels forced and unnecessary, fans will appreciate Simone St. James’s well written early twentieth century ghost story.

Harriet Klausner

All Things Wicked-Karina Cooper

2012-01-16T13:13:00.002-08:00

All Things Wicked

Karina Cooper

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780062046932

Juliet Carpenter the witch fell in love with Caleb Leigh but he betrayed her and killed her Coven of the Unbinding witches who treated him as family. Two obsessions keep Juliet going; she needs to know why but even stronger is a need to avenge what he did to her and her “kin”.

One year later Juliet finds Caleb in a seedy motel, just like the demons he runs from always do. Her compulsion to kill him supersedes her desire to know why so she goes after him with a knife, which she plunges into him. Caleb survives but feels overwhelmed by the guilt of the wicked thing he did though his motive was to protect his sibling Cordelia and himself from her coven’s power grabbing sacrifice of them. When adversaries arrive with dire intentions of abducting the girl and killing her ally, Caleb, who still loves his Jules, knows this is the beginning of his last stand to keep his pledge of insuring the witch who owns his wicked heart is safe as long as what is left of his declining brain stays rational.

The third Dark Mission romantic urban fantasy (see Lure of the Wicked and Blood of the Wicked) expands the incredible Cooper universe beyond the New Seattle environs in a stunning coming of age thriller. Fast-paced and filled with action, readers will relish the romance between two people struggling with an inconvenient truth of being in love at a time when both should be in hate (at him). Wickedly dark, Karina Cooper provides a powerful futuristic twisting tale.

Harriet Klausner

The Scar-Sergey Dyachenko and Marina Dyachenko; translated by Elinor Huntington

2012-01-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

The Scar

Sergey Dyachenko and Marina Dyachenko; translated by Elinor Huntington

Tor, Feb 28 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780765329936

In Kavarren, being a member of the highly adulated elite guard, Lieutenant Egert gets whatever he desires. He wants Toria who is engaged to Dinar, but that lesser male is no impediment to arrogant Egert as he kills his rival in a duel. Observing the atrocity, the Wanderer defiantly “names” Egert as a bully and forces him into a duel. The Wanderer cuts Egert’s face leaving him with a painful scar; while his arrogance is drained into cowardice.

Fearful, he deserts his regiment, his family and his friends. Egert reaches the city where grieving Toria lives with her father Luayan the mage university dean. Whereas his daughter loathes Dinar’s killer, Luayan provides him shelter. Every time Egert looks at Toria, he feels shame. He needs her forgiveness before he can grant himself the same. Egert soon faces the Servants of Lash; though he prefers flight Toria’s visage makes him stay while a plague ravages the city. Finally Egert senses he will face the judgment of the Wanderer but feels that is easier than the judgment of Toria.

The Scar is a terrific allegorical second chance at redemption and life sword and sorcery thriller. Character driven by Egert and Toria, the deep storyline focuses on the pair’s lost zest for living following his atrocity. Although the enigmatic Wanderer never quite comes across as to who or what he is (perhaps because this is his second book of a four novel series in which the first entry has not been translated as far as I can tell). Still fans will relish this strong soul saving saga as the prime protagonists must find a way to forgive if they are to save a city under siege.

Harriet Klausner

Can’t Stop Loving You-Bette Ford

2012-01-15T13:04:00.001-08:00

Can’t Stop Loving You

Bette Ford

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780061728853

Having no security until she came to live in the foster home of Mrs. Green, Laura Murdock believes money is critical to keep her off the streets. She has vowed to marry a wealthy man. Her work at a women’s crisis center in Detroit affirms her belief that money is key to survival.

In St. John’s, Lara and renowned artist Wilham Sebastian Kramer meet. He is her favorite painter so is honored when he asks her to pose. As they fall in love, she remains in denial though they marry in Vegas. He is preoccupied with business while she already distrusts any male although Jessie Tucker makes a bid to win her over.

The second of Mrs. Green’s foster daughters (see Can't Get Enough of You) is an interesting contemporary Virgin Islands romance in which the child becomes the adult who cannot communicate his or her fears so uses defense mechanisms to hide their feelings. Lara sings “I’m Not In Love” (10cc) and Wilham buries himself in the hotel deal. Although readers obtain profound insight into what holds back the protagonists, the romance between the pair remains extremely passive until later on in the tale.

Harriet Klausner

The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae-Stephanie Laurens

2012-01-15T13:03:00.003-08:00

The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae

Stephanie Laurens

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780062068620

In 1829 London, Lady Angelica Cynster receives the talisman that enables her family to find their true love. When she sees Debenham, Angelica knows he is the one. However, instead of a loving courtship, her hero abducts her.

Debenham explains why he took her and previously tried to take her sisters (see Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue and In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster); as he pleads with Angelica to save his clan. His insane mother Mirabelle, raging over his father’s obsession with Angelica’s mother Cecilia, recently stole a jewel-encrusted goblet that Debenham’s late dad stole in ‘23. She threatens to expose and ruin the clan unless until her son ruins a Cynster daughter. Knowing he is her true love makes the decision easy for Angelica. As he falls in love with his “capturer”, they face danger while desperately seeking the goblet.

Bonus tale: “The Wedding Planner”. In 1820 Lady Margaret Dawlish is the wedding planner to the royals. Her beloved died in battle so Meg has no plans to marry. Duc Gaston Devillriers has wanted Meg for a long time. He has returned with plans to woo the Wedding Planner.

This is an engaging finish to the Cynster Sisters trilogy. Although the sisters possess almost identical bossy personalities, Debenham brings freshness to the mix as the wannabe kidnapper who is the “matchmaker” in the first two novels and the male lead in this one. Fans will enjoy his unique courtship while he learns what males find out about a Cynster female is that she is alpha to his omega. The short story is an enjoyable second chance at love Regency that was part of the Royal Weddings E-book anthology.

Harriet Klausner

She Tempts The Duke-Lorraine Heath

2012-01-15T13:03:00.001-08:00

She Tempts The Duke

Lorraine Heath

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780062022462

In 1844 in the freezing Tower of Pembroke Castle, fourteen year old Duke of Keswick Sebastian Easton and two brothers (Rafe and Tristan) expect to die that night at the hands of their Uncle Lord David Easton. Sebastian believes his father was murdered by their Uncle in what looked like an unfortunate riding accident; and he knows they have no allies in this “prison”. That is until their childhood friend Mary Wynne-Jones arrives to help them escape from certain execution.

Though Sebastian sealed a promise to come for her with a kiss, by 1856 Lady Mary gave up on him the other “Lost Lords” and is engaged. Sebastian has returned hardened by war and his Uncle’s actions over a decade ago and since. His face scarred, Sebastian vows vengeance while Lady Mary, ignoring her father’s warnings, wants his love that she once had and she still gives to her acrimonious lord. Uncle David will soon force his nephew to choose.

The first Lost Lords of Pembrook Victorian romantic suspense is an exciting thriller as the Duke returns with one thought in mind until he meets his beloved love. The lead protagonists are a great second chance pairing of two brave souls whose relationship seems as damaged as his soul. Although Lord David has no redeeming qualities as an over the top of Big Ben 200-proof evil villain, historical fans will enjoy Lorraine Heath’s enthraling tale for the battle of the duke’s soul.

Harriet Klausner

The Nosferatu Scroll-James Becker

2012-01-15T13:02:00.001-08:00

The Nosferatu Scroll

James Becker

Signet, Feb 7 2012, $9.99

ISBN: 9780451236197

In 1741 Bohemia, Father Bohdan Reznik performs the Last Rites to Princess Eleonora von Schwartzenberg. However these are not the normal Last Rites that the flock has seen. Instead, he has the coffin, which came from Vienna, opened so he can remove her head and sprinkle holy water on the rest of the body. The priest stoically completes the special Last Rites and insures no physical evidence remains that the princess ever existed.

In 2010 divorced couple, police detective Chris Bronson and Angela Lewis the museum conservator, vacation together in Vienna. They are at a tomb containing a badly interred corpse of a woman whose head was sliced off and her mouth containing a brick of sorts. Angela steals an eighteenth century journal written by apparently the victim that the British citizen found near the grave. The writings mention a scroll that the two visitors seek. Others observe and attack the cop and the conservator; while apparently a vampire cult kidnaps women including Angela.

The latest Bronson thriller (see The First Apostle, The Moses Stone and The Messiah Secret) once again deftly blends history with a modern day mystery. The fast-paced storyline focuses on vampires as the skeptical cop and the scientific conservator find themselves one bite away from joining that unmentionable beheaded Princess. Filled with action, a fantastic stunning late twist, and interwoven historical tidbits, fans will enjoy James Becker’s tour of Vienna as Along Comes Bronson hoping to rescue his former wife.

Harriet Klausner

A Fitting End-Melissa Bourbon

2012-01-15T13:01:00.003-08:00

A Fitting End

Melissa Bourbon

Obsidian, Feb 7 21012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780451236142

In Bliss, Texas, former New York designer, dressmaker Harlow Jane Cassidy finds life ironic that she as a have-not is making the customized dresses for the “Margaret” haves. Her Buttons and Bows Boutique is booming with the Margaret crowd getting ready for the Margaret Moffette Lea Pageant and Ball. Harlow Jane’s confidence in her skills has recently soared stratospheric as she realizes she has the family magical touch bestowed on the descendants of that infamous nineteenth century Butch making a wish at an Argentinean fountain.

Sheriff Hoss McClaine and TV reporter Rebecca Quinones on the air question Harlow Jane over her relationship with the local golf pro Macon Vance; whom she denies knowing. Someone stabbed Vance with a dressmaking shears and hers has blood on it as she forgot to take her bag with her following a meeting with the wife of Senator James at the club. Deputy Sheriff Gavin McClaine, a chip off the old sheriff’s block, acts like she guilty; which deploys the other thing Butch Cassidy bestowed on his future generations; paranoia of law enforcement officials even with Hoss being Harlow Jane’s not so secret boyfriend. Ergo, Harlow Jane investigates as prison garb does not suit her.

The second Dressmaker’s paranormal Mystery (see Pleating For Mercy) is a fun family affair as generations of Butch Cassidy living and dead descendants from his Harlow and Place trees get involved in A Fitting End to the golf pro. Fans will enjoy Harlow Jane’s amateur sleuthing with advice from her late great-grandma and the Texas posse while also seeking two degrees of Robert Redford.

Harriet Klausner

One Book In The Grave-Kate Carlisle

2012-01-15T13:01:00.001-08:00

One Book In The Grave

Kate Carlisle

Obsidian, Feb 7 21012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780451236128

San Francisco resident bookbinder and restorer Brooklyn Wainwright gave to Max Adams and his fiancée Emily a rare first edition of Beauty and the Beast; one month later Max died in a car accident and the book was stolen from Emily’s home. Three years later Covington Library head curator Ian McCullough asks Brooklyn to repair a rare first edition of Beauty and the Beast; she declines as she knows the book is the one she gave to Max.

Brooklyn visits the bookseller who Ian bought the classic from. She enters the bookstore only to find the proprietor Joe a murder victim. Tired of tripping over corpses, Brooklyn confesses her feelings to her friend Guru Bob, who confides in the bibliophile that Max faked his death to prevent an unknown assassin from killing him and Emily. He believes the killer is either Max’s former boss Solomon or his possessive ex-girlfriend. Brooklyn investigates with her boyfriend Derek Stone trying to protect her; only she is shot at, has the body of one of her suspects delivered to her house by courier and her friends kidnapped.

The latest Bibliophile mystery (see The Lies That Bind and Murder under Cover) is an engaging twisting roller coaster ride as Brooklyn’s detecting is fuelled by her tweener crush on Max and her love of rare books. Part of the excitement is Brooklyn’s reactions to the abductions of people connected to her for apparently no logical reason except somehow a cause and effect of her investigation. Fans will enjoy this amateur sleuth as an anonymous assassin plays hardball Sal “The Barber” Maglie’s pitching style, which shaves the batter even more than Chris Matthews does.

Harriet Klausner

Autumn: Aftermath-David Moody

2012-01-15T13:00:00.001-08:00

Autumn: Aftermath

David Moody

Dunne Griffin, Mar 12 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780312570026

One nanosecond ago everything was fine; a moment later 99% of the human race died; however over the next three months the dead failed to stay dead as they returned as the mindless indead with an innate instinct to kill the 1% of human survivors. Several of the 1% survivors reach the remote island of Cormansey; access exclusively by air ad boat, making this isolated rock zombie free for the fifty-one humans including a pregnant women. They helicopter to Chadwick to obtain needed supplies.

Another of the 1% made it to fortified Cheatham Castle. These twenty-one survivors go to Chadwick for supplies too. The two human groups collide as the castle dwellers believe the islanders are encroaching on their territory of Chadwick. The islanders invite the Chadwick crew to join them on the island as there is strength in numbers. Many want to go but their leaders refuse to give up their power. As tension mounts, the two small pockets of humans seem ready to war with each other instead of allying against the greater threat.

The final Autumn urban fantasy (see Autumn: Disintegration and Autumn: The City) is a great finish to a fabulous zombie thriller. The underlying premise is that those on power obsess with remaining in power at any cost even to their own group’s survival. With a deep look at the human need to dominate or subordinate, readers will relish this entry as only the strong survive by using the weaker as fodder.

Harriet Klausner

A Lady Never Surrenders-Sabrina Jeffries

2012-01-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

A Lady Never Surrenders

Sabrina Jeffries

Pocket, Jan 24 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 978-1451642452

In 1825 Lady Celia Sharpe knows she has two months to marry or lose her inheritance. None of her suitors interest her; though she admits to herself that her attitude is part of the problem as she simply wants to wed no one.

Celia hires Bow Street runner Jackson Pinter to do a background check on her potential mates. He prefers to investigate what happened to her parents in 1806 when she was not quite five years old. However, Pinter keeps rejecting her suitors, which leads Celia to analyze his motive. Meanwhile as her suppressed memories of what she witnessed two decades ago begin to surface, someone wants her dead. Jackson risks his life and his heart to keep the woman he loves safe.

The final Hellions of Halstead Hall (see To Wed A Wild Lord) is a terrific late Regency romantic suspense as the prim Bow Street Runner knows he wants to wed a wild lady though she is too above his station; while the sharp scandalous lady knows who she wants and goes out to get him. The finish to the overarching murder theme is deftly done as Sabrina Jeffries provides a great finish to Gran’s wonderful Hellions of Halsted Hall.

Harriet Klausner

Town In A Wild Moose Chase-B.B. Haywood

2012-01-14T13:16:00.001-08:00

Town In A Wild Moose Chase

B.B. Haywood

Berkley, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425246177

In wintry Maine Solomon Hatch the hermit follows a rare white moose in an isolated woody area near his encampment when he finds a corpse with a hatchet in its back. Stunned with his grisly discovery, he wobbly heads to Cape Willington where Caper Crier Community Corresponded Candy Holliday notices him as he falls on the ice. He tells her he saw a white moose and a dead body. Candy goes for help, but Hatch returns to his recluse lifestyle.

At the same time, the townsfolk host the annual Winter Moose Fest. Besides food and a parade, part of the gala is the ice sculpture contest in Town Park. However someone, apparently willing to do anything to win the ice sculpture contest, is causing havoc in the park. As Candy covers the events, she wonders if the saboteur and the corpse are related while also seeking the white moose as reclusive as Hatch.

The third Candy Holliday investigative thriller (see Town In A Lobster Stew and Town In A Blueberry Jam) is a terrific tale due to the eccentric cast, the intrepid reporter and a clever villain in plain sight. Candy is dandy as she proves Ogden Nash wrong (see Reflections on Ice Breaking as “candy is dandy but liquor is quicker." With a great stunning final twist to complete a strong regional whodunit, fans will enjoy Town In A Wild Moose Chase.

Harriet Klausner

The Eden Prophecy-Graham Brown

2012-01-14T13:15:00.003-08:00

The Eden Prophecy

Graham Brown

Bantam, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780345527806

At her office in the UN building, US Ambassador Claudia Gonzales receives a legal sized letter marked Diplomatic, Materials, Private and Confidential from the office of the Secretary General. She opens it and reads a horrifying threat that claims she is now carrying a virus that will rapidly spread; her fingers are stained making the final salutation gut her stomach: “Welcome to hell.”

While medical and anti-terrorist experts look into the unknown virus; in Paris, Dr. Ranga Milan feels alone amidst a crowd. He wonders how much further the once prestigious geneticist will fall. His fingerprints are on the envelope sent to Ambassador Gonzales. Desperate and frightened, Dr. Milan sends a plea for help to a friend and fellow exile, former CIA agent Hawker. Dropping everything Hawker goes to Paris where he finds NRI operative Danielle Laidlaw also seeking Milan. They find the scientist dead, a victim of torture. Hawker and Laidlaw team up to seek the person who viciously murdered Milan who most likely deployed the virus.

This is an exciting action-packed thriller that never allows the reader a respite from the opening scene in 1979 Iran as the Revolution begins to the final confrontation. Fast-paced throughout, The Eden Prophecy is an entertaining good vs. evil battle with a Proto-Elamite script on a scroll and tablet from the same biblical era as the Dead Sea finds. Over the top of the Zagros Mountains and under the streets (in Beirut) fans will enjoy touring the Middle East with Hawker and his growing team.

Harriet Klausner

Something About Witches-Joey W. Hill

2012-01-14T13:15:00.001-08:00

Something About Witches

Joey W. Hill

Berkley, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425246139

Three years ago witch trainer Ruby Night Divine gave up on Witches-R-Us as she knows how spells can go wrong while she fears the darkness growing inside her like a cancer though she uses a deception spell to conceal it. Instead she left behind Derek Stormwind the Guardian, her witch practice and vanished. Ruby opened up the Arcane Shot gun store.

When she sees the bane of her heart Derek arrive at her shop, she sends Theo the elderly mastiff to “kill” him. Theo obeys as he attacks Derek with his tongue licking the sorcerer’s face. Derek explains he needs her help to train a coven in their fight against a demon and his horde. She agrees to instruct the witches, but also believes Derek has a secret agenda to get back into her bed. He does have another person mission; to learn why she left without a word.

The first Arcane Shot romantic urban fantasy is an engaging second chance at love tale starring a sorcerer who wants his woman back and a witch who wants him too but knows her soul is damned and so will be his if she allowed him back in her life. The storyline is filled with action, but it is the super charged relationship that enchants readers as once again Joey W. Hill casts a spell on her audience.

Harriet Klausner

Midnight Enchantment-Anya Bast

2012-01-14T13:14:00.002-08:00

Midnight Enchantment

Anya Bast

Berkley, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425245033

In Piefferburg, dedicated Elizabeth Cely Saintjohn the asrai water fae takes her duty to her liege The Summer Queen seriously; ergo she maintains the barrier that contains the fae. Mage Niall Quinn the thief thinks Elizabeth is cruel for not allowing the fae freedom.

Sent by the Shadow Queen of the Black Tower to regain two stolen pieces of the bosca fadbh that the Summer Queen gave to Elizabeth, Niall hunts her, but so far she has frustrated him. He loathes how she toys with him rather than his usual playing with females. Elizabeth finds her persistent pursuer attractive while Niall knows he wants her like no other woman before. Both have missions as they work for rival queens.

The latest Dark Magick romantic urban fantasy (see Wicked Enchantment, Dark Enchantment and Cruel Enchantment) is an entertaining thriller that looks deeply at values, which can be negative as well as positive. The relationship between the protagonists is fun to follow as the duet shares many of the same values. Although the bosca fadbh dominates the storyline, which keep readers somewhat at a distance from the lead rivals, sub-genre fans will appreciate this exciting blast from Anya Bast.

Harriet Klausner

Shaded Vision-Yasmine Galenorn

2012-01-14T13:14:00.000-08:00

Shaded Vision

Yasmine Galenorn

Jove, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780515150353

On Valentine’s Day, Iris the Finnish house sprite and Bruce the leprechaun prepare to marry as their friends look forward to rejoicing in their happiness. Even Camille D’Artigo is happy for her pal Iris though she still suffers from PTSD after one of her fathers-in-law Hyto the dragon abducted and sexually assaulted his prisoner in order to break her will (see Courting Darkness).

A bomb explodes at the Super Community Center. Camille’s half-sister werecat/werepanther Delilah the Death Maiden (see Harvest Hunting for her last lead) learns Newkirk and the Koyomi coyote shifters have teamed up with sorcerers; while Shadow Wing dispatches one of his most ferocious ruthless leaders. With her two half-sisters (see Camille the witch in Bone Magic for her last lead) family, friends and lovers; Delilah leads the counterattack as danger mounts to a critical state.

The Sisters of the Moon urban fantasy rotates lead between the three D’Artigo sisters with the latest focused predominantly on Delilah. The Otherworld entry is superb in what is one of the great on-going sub-genre sagas. As always the key is how deftly Yasmine Galenorn keeps the personalities of the lead trio and their mates diverse and fascinating. Shaded Vision is a terrific thriller as even in the darkest night a joyful wedding brings a brilliant shiny light.

Harriet Klausner

Dream Shadows-Ingrid Weaver

2012-01-14T13:13:00.001-08:00

Dream Shadows

Ingrid Weaver

Berkley, Feb 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425246122

For fifteen weeks millionaire Elizabeth Graye has lied in a coma. Mrs. Harrison directed caretakers to play Mozart and Beethoven as a stimulus. However, Norma also plays Country music for her comatose patient and reads extracts from her romance novels.

Thus Norma plays the sad sound of musician Rick Denning, which reaches through the fog of Elizabeth’s rewiring brain. They begin meeting in different time periods when he is asleep. When his Elizabeth appears in his daydreams, Rick obsessively decides to search for the woman he never met in person but has fallen in love with her. As he encourages her to come to him, however, someone else has other plans for the rich “bi*ch and no country singer is going to stand in the way.

Dream Shadows is a fascinating romantic suspense with a paranormal element serving as a matchmaker. Because of the diverse eras, the storyline feels somewhat repetitive in an entertaining Ground Hog Day way. Mindful of Jack Finney’s classic Time And Again, fans will enjoy love on a different plane while the body lies comatose and a killer waits to finish the job.

Harriet Klausner

Lair of the Lion-Christine Feehan

2012-01-14T12:32:00.001-08:00

Lair of the Lion

Christine Feehan

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780062021359

The goal seems simple enough: rescuing her brother. Finding anyone capable of aiding her in his enormous duchy like pelazzo in the Alps is so formidable that everyone tells Isabella Vernaducci to go home. She has heard tales about the Don that strike fear in the hearts of the bravest souls, yet aristocratic Isabella obstinately continues her quest to find the enigmatic, more myth than man, Nicolai DeMarco.

When Isabella locates Nicolai (or perhaps it is more the other way around), she does not see the Don who allegedly controls the beasts to do his dirty work. Instead she sees a man haunted by a curse that the intrepid Isabella is determined to free Nicolai from it. When Nicolai offers to save her sibling on the condition she marry him, Isabella readily agrees as she knows she needs no stipulation to wed the Don. Still as she risks her life to save her tortured beloved, she wonders if she will ever gain his love even if she eliminates the beast that holds his soul.

More than just Christine Feehan fans will enjoy this reprint of a delightful paranormal romance as the rarely used early nineteenth century Alps setting (almost Gothic in nature), the intrepid heroine, and the tortured male protagonist come together in exciting fashion. Though readers will admire and question Isabella's bravery at the same time, the audience will relish her efforts to emancipate the two men she cherishes from their respective "incarcerations". Lair of the Lion is a wonderful novel that readers will appreciate if they set aside the time to luxuriate in a one sitting read.

No Return-Brett Battles

2012-01-13T14:02:00.001-08:00

No Return

Brett Battles

Dell, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 978-0440245629

In the Mohave Desert near Ridgecrest, California, Wes Stewart and a crew are working in a film. For Wes the assignment is a homecoming of sorts having lived nearby as a child though this is his first return in about fifteen years.

Wes notices an F-18 Navy fighter plane flying across the clear blue sky on a trajectory that can only mean crash. He runs to the site to rescue the pilot. However, before he can get the aviator out of the F-18, an explosion turns the plane into a crematorium. The local newspaper proclaims Wes a hero, but what shakes him is the photo of the deceased; the man in the newspaper’s picture is not the person he helplessly watched die in the plane. Suddenly Wes is a person of interest to the local police and the Navy; however, it is the third party he is unaware of who stalks him with deadly intent.

With Jonathan Quinn taking a well-earned respite from his Cleaner work (see Shadow of Betrayal; and The Silenced), Brett Battles provides a superb taut thriller of a Good Samaritan learning the road to hell is paved in the desert. The storyline is fast-paced from the moment Wes fails at the rescue and never slows down until the final confrontation. Although the overly frequent use of happenchance detracts from the plot, readers will enjoy Wes’ homecoming.

Harriet Klausner

Fadeaway Girl-Martha Grimes

2012-01-13T13:56:00.001-08:00

Fadeaway Girl

Martha Grimes

NAL, Feb 7 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780451235640

In LaPorte, Maryland three weeks ago a murderer almost killed twelve year old Emma Graham, cub reporter for the Conservative (see Belle Ruin). She knows how she came close to death as it began when she started to conduct research into the abduction of Baby Fay Slade two decades ago from the Belle Rouen Hotel which since burned to the ground (see Cold Flat Junction); when her passive inquiry failed, she turned active sleuth questioning those who should care or know something, which led to her near death experience.

Her mother hires slick Rafe to work at the hotel. Emma knows he is fake charmer so she suspects the new employee of sinister activity so she tails him with the help of her “chauffeur” the taxi driver. Morris Slade, father of the kidnapped baby, comes to town for the first time years. He was the prime suspect then and remains the prime suspect in the cold case that only Emma investigates. Soon after Slade arrives, a corpse is found leaving Emma to know her inquiry has someone nervous while she in peril again.

The third Graham tweener mystery is an engaging tale as the heroine balances her time amidst her kooky family, eccentric friends and people of interest, work at the hotel, and investigative journalism. However, the enjoyable tale lacks A Red Herring Without Mustard (by Alan Bradley) as the fun investigation is very straightforward. To fully appreciate the events of this storyline, fans should read the previous novels as the aptly titled Fadeaway Girl builds directly from those events even with the heroine providing some backstory. Still overall Emma Graham, tweener Nancy Drew, provides an entertaining mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Mr g-Alan Lightman

2012-01-13T13:53:00.001-08:00

Mr g

Alan Lightman

Pantheon, Jan 24 2012, $24.95

ISBN: 9780307379993

In the great Void, Mr g wakes up from a nap feeling bored as he has for ages if there was a concept called time here. He decides to create over the objection of his Aunt Penelope in between her snoring. Uncle Deva tells his nephew to be cautions as you get what you wrought. Both are baffled with Mr g as they share the same snooze.

Mr g creates time and space, which evolves into the first of many universes. However, one thing remains constant Mr g remains bored. Belhor accompanied by his sycophant beast Baphomet challenges Mr g on the concept of the multiverses being good only; insisting that is tedious and incomplete. Furthermore Belhor demands Mr g not only allow for evil, he allows free will to let the creation experiment develop without miraculous intervention.

This intriguing novella is a passive philosophical treatise on the mutual inclusion of scientific creationism theory. The story line is slow and lacks any major tension, but provides a fascinating Genesis premise. There are unanswered questions for instance, did Mr G create the Void as he has the universe and where did Mr G come from as there is no mention of parents but he has relatives. Still fans who appreciate something different will want to read how Mr g using the Belhor’s devilish feedback created the universe.

Harriet Klausner

Undone Deeds-Mark Del Franco

2012-01-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

Undone Deeds

Mark Del Franco

Ace, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9781937007256

A consultant to the Boston Police Department who has risked his life and soul on arcane cases (see Unperfect Souls), druid Connor Grey has no time for bitterness when he is accused of terrorism (see Uncertain Allies) after what happened to the Weird neighborhood. Instead he has much greater issues to contend with as a Fey civil war seems imminent.

He struggles to control the dark mass at the core of his brain and the Faith Stone buried inside his head following his battle with the Elven King. Connor joins essences he does not trust as each has secret agendas and failed attempts to Machiavellian him. Still war brings together strange bedfellows so he unites with Meryl, Eorla Elvendottira and Ceridwen in order to prevent Celtic Queen Maeve from igniting a Fey war with her Teutonic enemies that will leave so many innocent dead.

This is a great entry in a strong urban fantasy saga as the hero (and readers) learns what the mass is and much more. Fast-paced, fans will relish Connor and his allies as they risk their lives to stop a Fey-made catastrophe from happening that will leave so many dead.

Harriet Klausner

Mass Effect: Conception-William Dietz

2012-01-13T13:48:00.003-08:00

Mass Effect: Conception

William Dietz

Del Rey, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 978-0345520739

The Reapers starships have entered the galaxy where earthlings have joined other alien sentient races mostly in harmony (see Drew Karpyshyn entries - Retribution; Ascension; and Revelation). As they have done for every fifty millennia these bellicose outsiders have come with one purpose in mind; “harvesting” the organic.

Earthlings and their allies have tried several ploys with some success at the immense collateral cost to the innocent in order to prevent extinction. Former Navy admiral David Anderson and his partner ex Council Director Kahlee Sanders have proof the Reaper threat is genuine, but the Council members refuse to accept extinction is a viable event. While the leaders remain in denial, The Illusive Man, head of top secret military unit Cerberus, learns the pair knows too much about his operation. They must die. However, the beleaguered couple meets Gillian Grayson, who suffered hideous experiments that have left her with incredible power. When she learns the Illusive Man killed her father Paul, she obsesses with a bone marrow deep need to execute him.

As with Mr. Karpyshyn’s entries, this exciting military-political science fiction taled, based on the Mass Effect game, contains strong timely moral questions. The action-packed storyline asks the audience to ponder when does personal need supersede the greater societal good and whether there are scenarios in which not executing a cold killer who deserves to die is needed to save trillions of lives. Filled with action, fans will relish William Dietz’s first Mass Effect galaxy thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Doubletake-Rob Thurman

2012-01-13T13:48:00.001-08:00

Doubletake

Rob Thurman

Roc, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780451464446

After killing the monstrous Auphe race (see Blackout) who believed they belonged at the top of the food chain, half human/half Auphe Cal Leandros assumes his monstrous problems are gone. He is unaware that another hybrid beast lives and comes to him with a special purpose in mind. His brother Niko has family issues when his biological father, whom he never saw before, arrives in town to get help locating and disabling the “burden” in order for the siblings to return it to the Voyash Clan. The brother have no time for him as thy host a party for the Puck race (to include pal Goodfellow) who as Cupid look a-likes have lived for hundreds of thousands of years.They need a census to determine how man Pucks need to procreate.

Cal gatess Niko’s father to Central Park and after the gala, the burden JLanus the mechanical sentience being crosses through a gate and tries to kill anyone with Voyash blood. Another gate opens enabling Grimm to cross over to tell Cal he wants to join forces with him to get rid of the human race; he wants Cal to mate with a succabae so the progeny will one day take over the human world. To defeat his insane peer, Cal fights a mad god, several Cyclops and other creatures in an attempt to neutralize the Grimm.

The latest Cal and Niko dark urban fantasy (see Roadkill) is a fascinating entry that focuses on Cal who once again proves he is more human than Auphe as the heart of the series and this tale remains the powerful sibling relationship. Adding to the fun of Doubletake is meeting Niko’s scandalous biological father who is an absentee dad until he needs his son’s brother. The aurhor. Rob Thurmond provides another strong tale in a great saga.

Harriet Klausner