Don’t Die Under The Apple Tree-Amy Patricia Meade

Don’t Die Under The Apple Tree


Amy Patricia Meade

Kensington, May 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780758267580



During World War II, thirtyish Mrs. Rosie O'Doyle Keefe works as a riveter at the Pushey Shipyard in Brooklyn. The work is demanding especially on petite Rosie. The men despise women doing physical labor at their shipyard as they believe the females could never do a man’s job and will drive down wages. Rosie gets into an altercation with heater Hansen. Foreman Finch fires Rosie as he has a dozens of women ready to replace her while he has no one to match Hansen’s skills. She pleads with him as she cares for her widow sister and baby niece. He agrees to keep her on board if she meets his personal job requirement. She escapes his grab, but is unemployed.



After she leaves, someone kills Finch. Police lieutenant Jack Riordan investigates the homicide in which his supervisor gives him five days to make an arrest. Rosie, knowing she is the prime suspect, also makes inquiries and soon learns many of the seventy or so employees had strong reasons to kill Finch.



As Marjorie McClelland (see Black Moonlight) takes a respite, Amy Patricia Meade introduces readers to her new Rosie the Riveter series. The storyline takes readers back to WWII in New York City where male chauvinism rules yet women prove to be an equal partner in the greatest generation as they perform a "men only" job; setting the stage for their daughters to "come a long way baby" by breaking down glass barriers. Rosie is a great protagonist and the whodunit cleverly devised. However, it is 1940s mostly Brooklyn that come incredibly alive as armchair warriors will believe they have traveled back to where the women’s equal rights movement took hold in society.



Harriet Klausner

Citycide-Gary Hardwick

Citycide


Gary Hardwick

HardBooks, Mar 5 2012

ISBN: 9780972480468

www.garyhardwick.com



In dying Detroit, an assailant assassinates hooker Rashindah Watson as she sits in her car with her gay best friend Quinten Forrester. He escapes the hit. Special crimes Chief Yvette Riddeaux assigns the murder inquiry to detectives Danny Cavanaugh and Erik Brown. They head to Rashindah’s apartment only to see it on fire. Unable to sleep, Danny uses a street contact to track down the witness only to end up in a deadly shootout with Rakeif Simms; Forrester is dead too.



Riddeaux announces the case closed, but dedicated Danny thinks otherwise as someone hired Simms a two bit felon. As he continues to investigate Mayor Patterson orders Police Chief Tony Hill (see Cold Medina) to tell Danny to drop the case or else. Soon all hell breaks out as the mayor’s seemingly illegal use of his office has him defended by attorney Marshall Jackson (see Supreme Justice) against criminal charges prosecuted by Jesse King (see Double Dead) . Meanwhile, Danny continues his investigation.



Filled with twists involving high level cover-ups, drug trafficking, sex peddling and questionable federal surveillance, aptly titled Citycide is a terrific Motown police procedural. Danny being white but growing up in the inner city is an interesting protagonist as he loves his endangered city almost as much as he loves his beautiful African American princess Vinny the ex-cop turned lawyer. Fast-paced, readers will relish Danny’s tour of the mean streets of Detroit as he refuses to accept the politicians’ obit that his hometown is already dead; they just have not announced the wake.



Harriet Klausner

The Lost Years-Mary Higgins Clark

The Lost Years


Mary Higgins Clark

Simon & Schuster, Apr 3 2012, $26.99

ISBN: 9781451668865



In 1474 A.D. Pope Sixtus IV ordered the destruction of the Joseph of Arimathea Parchment; the only known letter written by Jesus, because he believes the document was a fake. Instead it was snuck out of the Vatican and disappeared for over five centuries.



In the current day, Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he has found the original Arimathea Parchment. He obtains affirmation from peers and shows it proudly to close friends. Jonathan’s twenty something daughter Mariah comes home to find her father dead from a bullet in the head and her mom Kathleen, suffering from Alzheimer’s, inside a closet holding the murder weapon and blood splattered all over her. The police believe Kathleen murdered her husband because in her lucid moments she knew Jonathan was having an affair and there are times when she is violent. While her mom is locked away in a psych ward, initially a depressed Mariah accepts the horrid conclusion that her mom killed her dad, but once the fog lifts from her mind, she logically begins to wonder whether the motive was the Joseph of Arimathea Parchment.



Once again Mary Higgins Clark affirms why she is the “Queen of Suspense” with this exciting biblical archeological thriller. The evidence points increasingly towards her mom as the murderer, but with help from friends Wiley and Alvirah, the dispirited heroine starts to find other viable suspects as she seeks someone filled with pride and avarice; but even then Mariah still lacks proof. Ms. Clark has another winner for her readers to enjoy getting us there with this entertaining taut tale in which the suspense spins from family violence to biblical archeological violence.



Harriet Klausner

Dead Light-Mike Pace

Dead Light


Mike Pace

River Point Press, Mar 5 2012, $11.00

ISBN: 9780615518428



In 1667 aboard the London Rose, Eli Creed travels with 562 manacled Africans taken from Gambia to be slaves in the New World. The Good Christian prays for these heathen even as he shared sex with the girls as part of a so-called ritual. When Captain Stigg tosses the dead into the ocean, Eli saves the life of a girl Abi still breathing. Her father thanks Eli by giving him a box that the man says contains the devil’s light that he took from a dead shaman. He is warned not to open it or all will die.



Three and a half centuries later in Cumberton, Maryland, a cemetery dating back to colonial times is moved in order for Reverend Jimmy Starr to construct a dormitory on the hallowed grounds. Two teenagers Tony and Jill fall into a hole where he finds a box in the empty grave of Father William Cumber 1645-1713. They accidentally break the box releasing “Lucifer’s Light” caged by Father Cumber centuries ago. Soon hell breaks out in Cumberton as student suicides occur. Sheriff Estin Booker and former Baltimore homicide detective Anna Tucci investigate what increasingly seems insane as the clues point to a two millennia Satanic myth in which humans must prevent the end of days, Lucifer’s way.



Dead Light is an exciting good and evil horror thriller as readers will be caught up in the doomsday countdown. Fast-paced, the only hope for mankind is two cops with personal demons preventing them from fully committing to fighting hell. Mike Pace provides a tense thriller as increasingly the dark appears on the brink of winning the ultimate battle by using the light.



Harriet Klausner

The Lost Fleet – Beyond the Frontier: Invincible- Jack Campbell

The Lost Fleet – Beyond the Frontier: Invincible


Jack Campbell

Ace, May 1 2012, $26.95

ISBN: 9781937007454



After being the hero leading the Alliance to victory against the Syndicate Worlds, his superiors distrust the legend Admiral John "Black Jack" Geary as the people would support him in a coup. Thus he and his First Fleet are assigned exploration beyond the Syndic sector. Though he believes .the mission is a death trap, he obeys orders His gut proves right as they end up under attack by a previously unknown species (see Dreadnaught).



Black Jack has his fleet jump only to find a different alien species greets them with hostilities while the human ships struggle to organize and fight back amidst the chaos. This race’s armada uses suicide missions while blocking the exiting jump point back into human space. With many on board the numerous vessels dead or severely wounded and ships in need of repair, Black Jack knows him and his crews must escape though the geared jump point; because staying here is death, but running the gauntlet may be as deadly. Especially since he is unsure of what awaits them on the other side.



The Beyond the Frontier Black Jack military science fiction is an entertaining thriller with great space battles between the First Fleet and the aliens. In fact, the trapped humans have found a third alien species who they are unsure of whether they will prove hostile too. Action-packed though linear, fans will appreciate the latest quandary as Black Jack follows the advice of Captain Desjani quoting her dad: When you find yourself going through hell, keep going.”



Harriet Klausner

The Gathering of the Lost-Helen Lowe

The Gathering of the Lost


Helen Lowe

Harper Voyager, Mar 27 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780061734052



Five years ago, the unthinkable occurred when the elite Darksworn of the Darkswarm beached the impenetrable Wall of Night mountain range and assaulted the garrisons of the Nine Houses of the Derai. The attack forced the Heir of Night Malian and her best friend Kalan to flee separately into Jaransor. They have been missing since. Before fleeing, Malian pledged to Rowan to save Haarth and plans to act on her vow.



Whereas the Darkswarm’s initial battles were with the Derai, violence has penetrated deep into Haarth's southern realms. In Ij, assassins attack a House of Heralds. South of the River at Normarch in Emer, dark magic gathers. However, even with all these troubles, most people in the central and south of Haarth refuse to accept the existence of the Darkswarm especially crossing the great Wall of Night. Instead everyone seems to look forward to the pleasures of the festivities of the Midsummer tournament at Caer Argent where the elite Darksworn have plans.



The second Wall of Night fantasy is a superb tale as political treachery and denial become key elements in which the people of Haarth may wake up too late to battle the threat. Readers follow the adventures of Malian and Kalan as both face hopeless causes. Aptly titled The Gathering of the Lost, this is a twisting taut thriller with a great stunning late spin as friends as the heir of Night learns to suspect everyone as allies may be treacherous enemies.



Harriet Klausner

Deliverance-Dakota Banks

Deliverance


Dakota Banks

Harper Voyager, Mar 27 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780062049988



Three centuries ago Maliha Crayne sold her soul to Rabishu the demon who saved her when she was Susannah Layhem being burnt at the stake in 1692. Since then she has become Rabishu’s prime assassin (see Dark Time). However, she recently learned of a path out of the darkness by balancing the scales between hits and lives saved. Thus she goes rogue choosing redemption over murderous torment.



However, her path to redemption proves troublesome when close friends begin to vanish and subsequently body parts arrive in packages delivered to her home. Trusting no one, not even her lover Jake, Maliha is given a horrid choice by an evil immortal psychopath; kill the innocent or receive the body parts of her friends. Regardless of what she decides, Maliha knows she still remains eternally damned.



The third Mortal Path urban fantasy (see Sacrifice) is an exhilarating thriller in which the assassin feels she jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Filled with deft twists, sub-genre fans will wonder how the beleaguered protagonist will handle the Mt. Everest size deterrence to her goal of redemption.



Harriet Klausner