I have loved all the books I have read by Anita Dickason, but Deadly Keepsakes is my FAVORITE. It all starts with the lovely cover, add in an historic house with hidden secrets, some wonderful characters that stole my heart, and I am hooked.
Alone. A hospice nurse. A mysterious death. A vicious dog. Sure did get me going, from the opening pages and I love when an author hooks me so quickly I am unable to look away.
It was the beginning of her descent into a living hell of fear
She knew the police couldn’t protect her. It was up to her to protect herself. Like her, I had thought danger would be over after the trial, but the story would have been over too soon and Anita Dickason wouldn’t have it. Now I know why. Thrills and chills coming up.
Anita Dickason didn’t take the story where I thought it would go. Well done, Anita. I do love when an author can throw a surprise my way and I should have known better than to leap to conclusions with an author like Anita.
The best thing that ever happened to Tori Winters was meeting MIa…and Cammie, Heidi and Tina. I loved watching Tori grow, along with her friendship with these amazing characters, so well fleshed out I wanted them for my friends too. I laughed and cried with them.
I was swept up in the intrigue that became Tori’s life. Who to trust? What the heck is going on? How much danger is she in? Where is it coming from?
I have to come back to the characters, so richly developed. I love the ladies. The more I read of them, the more I came to love them, their generosity, their desire to help a newcomer to their town, their selflessness, doing something good for someone and expecting nothing in return…but Tori will show them how much she appreciates and loves them.
The suspense is not in your face, fast paced danger and thrills, but an underlying current of menace and intrigue flows through the entire novel. I didn’t want to put the book down, but sleep was calling to me.
I love the historical elements, Benny Binion, Top O’Hill Terrace, Granbury, Texas. I love when an author adds elements that make the book special to me, touching on familiar things and introducing me to new things that make me want more.
WOW! I am blown away and super excited about more to come. I can’t say much more or I may include spoilers that are worth discovering for yourself, but I will repeat myself, WOW. I want more of these characters and I can hardly wait to see what is in store for them next.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Deadly Keepsakes by Anita Dickason.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
The past becomes a deadly future.
Stalked and nearly killed for her role in a murder trial,
Tori Winters isn’t giving the killer a second chance. On the run, she’s
desperate to find a place where she can’t be found. A puzzling phone
call about a vague inheritance seems to be the answer. After all, who
would look for her in a Granbury, a small, quaint Texas town?
Instead,
Tori’s life is about to spin into an existence where nothing is as it
seems. The historic house she inherits is steeped in secrets from the
past. Secrets that could prove deadly. There is the disinherited
step-grandson, and the lawyer and his son. What are they hiding?
When a killer strikes again, who can she trust? Tori’s newfound wealth may not be a blessing. It could be her death warrant.
ABOUT ANITA DICKASON
Code Name: Trackers: The elite of the elite. FBI agents, each with a secret, an extra edge, that defies reason and logic.
Characters
with unexpected skills—that extra edge for overcoming danger and
adversity—have always intrigued Anita. Adding an infatuation with
ancient myths and legends of Native American Indians, and Scottish and
Irish folklore creates the backdrop for her characters.
Anita is a
retired Dallas Police Officer. During—what she refers to as an
extraordinary career—Anita served as a patrol officer, undercover
narcotics officer, advanced accident investigator, and SWAT
entry/sniper.
Upon retirement, she became involved in a research
project that dealt with the death of a witness to the Kennedy
assassination. The research led to her first book, JFK Assassination
Eyewitness: Rush to Conspiracy, that details the results of her
reconstruction of a 1966 motor vehicle accident that killed Lee Bowers,
Jr., a key witness to the assassination.
Once the Bowers book
was written, Anita reached the same point many authors ultimately face:
I’ve written it, now what do I do? Answering that question has become
another career, one she has wholeheartedly embraced. The publishing
field is in a constant state of flux, offering unlimited possibilities
for an author, but also endless landmines.
Anita started a new
company, Mystic Circle Books & Designs LLC, offering cover design
and manuscript services. In addition to her works as an author, she
enjoys helping other authors see their dream become a reality.
I found the characters for And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling very interesting, a gay policeman, a missing girl with diabetes…and what happens when two kids break into a man’s house to steal his prescription drugs….
Seems there are a lot of secrets for a small town. But, we all know, sooner or later, they will be exposed. In the meantime, some will do anything to protect themselves.
The clock is ticking and time is running out.
I love watching the characters as they walk through the pages, some worse than others. They remind me of how fragile live is. Is everyone either good or bad? I love villains that make me wonder…and we have many to choose from. The whys are intriguing. Nature or nurture seems to come up when dealing with drug addiction, murder, serial killers…
I didn’t take many notes as I read, but I will commend Joshua Moehling for a job well done for his first novel. I look forward to watching him grow and develop his writing. I foresee good things for him.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling.
4 Stars
GOODREAD BLURB
“A dark and complex
mystery that will consume you, starring a protagonist who is equal
parts quirky Milhone and steady Gamache.”—Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight
They thought he was a helpless old man. They were wrong.
When
two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of
prescription drugs, what starts as a simple burglary turns into a
nightmare for all involved. Emmett Burr has secrets he’s been keeping in
his basement for more than two decades, and he’ll do anything to keep
his past from being revealed. As he gets the upper hand on his
tormentors, the lines blur between victim, abuser, and protector.
Personal
tragedy has sent former police officer Ben Packard back to the small
Minnesota town of Sandy Lake in search of a fresh start. Now a sheriff’s
deputy, Packard is leading the investigation into the missing teens,
motivated by a family connection. As clues dry up and time runs out to
save them, Packard is forced to reveal his own secrets and dig deep to
uncover the dark past of the place he now calls home.
Unrelentingly
suspenseful and written with a piercing gaze into the dark depths of
the human soul, And There He Kept Her is a thrilling page-turner that
introduces readers to a complicated new hero and forces us to consider
the true nature of evil.
ABOUT JOSHUA MOEHLING
This is Joshua Moehling’s debut novel. I was unable to find any information at this time.
“It’s part him, part me, part stuff I made up…The magic formula…”
And that is part of the reason I grabbed Sulari Gentill’s novel, The Woman In The Library. The other reasons, a library mystery, Boston, a town I have visited many times, and a murder. I love mystery/thrillers and I so wanted to love The Woman In The Library…but I found it was not for me.
I was confused about numerous things and the story never grabbed me. I was about a third of the way through and started skimming. I do not like to DNF books. I know authors put their blood, sweat, and tears into their work, so I always want to finish. It was a good thing that at 53% my curiosity arose. I wanted to know, who is the murderer. I thought of skipping to the end to find out, but held back.
Not every book works for me and I am sure that is the same for you and just because The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill was not my cup of tea, that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill.
2 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
In every person’s story, there is something to hide…
The
ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the
tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards
take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until
the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the
all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass
the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or
her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just
happens that one is a murderer.
Award-winning author Sulari
Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library,
an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated
nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most
treacherous weapons of all.
ABOUT SULARI GENTILL
Once upon a time, Sulari Gentill was a corporate lawyer serving as a director on public boards, with only a vague disquiet that there was something else she was meant to do. That feeling did not go away until she began to write. And so Sulari became the author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries: thus far, ten historical crime novels chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist, the Hero Trilogy, based on the myths and epics of the ancient world, and the Ned Kelly Award winning Crossing the Lines (published in the US as After She Wrote Hime). In 2014 she collaborated with National Gallery of Victoria to write a short story which was produced in audio to feature in the Fashion Detective Exhibition, and thereafter published by the NGV. IN 2019 Sulari was part of a 4-member delegation of Australian crime writers sponsored by the Australia Council to tour the US as ambassadors of Australian Crime Writing.
Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, and their boys, Edmund and Atticus, on a small farm in Batlow where she grows French Black Truffles and refers to her writing as “work” so that no one will suggest she get a real job.
I have read a few books by Pamela Crane and loved them, so I am happy to share The Art of Fear. I LOVE the creepy cover and…well, you’ll have to scroll down to get my thoughts about the story. BUT, how about that cover? What are your thoughts? Does it make you want to read it, or run screaming? LOL
WARNING: Human trafficking and all the ugliness that goes with it.
Luckily for you, I’m a master of The Art Of Fear
The Art Of Fear has a morbid start and I love that Pamela Crane makes dishing out the crazy look so easy. She paints vivid pictures with her words. They flow at a pace that makes it impossible for me to stop. I have an urgent need to know…
I am only at 27%, but the villain is terrifying, and what’s more, I know there are real people like the villain walking among us. Next time you’re out, look around you…
Ari and Tina are complicated characters, as are those that surround them. Ari and Tina are suspicious, guarded, wanting answers and wanting something to give them a reason to go on. I am curious about Tristan and have my fingers crossed that he won’t be a bad guy. Ari deserves to have something good in her life. Children, betrayed by those who were supposed to love and protect them. I urge you to discover them for yourself.
There is so much going on, my head spins, I am confused. I found myself reading until my eyes crossed, because I had to know. White knuckled, heart pounding, emotions running riot. Intense, edge of your seat suspense. Great job, Pamela, keeping me guessing until the end. When I was done, I felt like I’d been ‘put through the wringer’, as my mother used to say…and I WANT MORE!
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
“Perfect for fans of
Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins, Pamela Crane introduces a mind-twist that
takes everything you love about thrillers, pushes it outside the box,
and electrifies you with clever prose and a plot that will terrify you. A
must-read thriller…” – Southern Editor Reviews
A life no girl should endure. A father no daughter could love. A twist no one would predict.
From USA Today best-selling author Pamela Crane comes a terrifying tale of small-town secrets and murder.
Ari
Wilburn’s life ended long ago—the day she watched her little sister die
in a tragic accident and did nothing to stop it. Crippled with
self-blame and resented by her parents, she stumbles through life … and
onto an unexpected clue that casts doubt on whether the death was
accidental.
Now a psychological wreck, Ari joins a suicide
support group where she meets Tina, a sex-enslaved escapee who finds her
long-lost father dead. Suicide, police ruled it. But Tina suspects foul
play. As a bond develops between the women in their shared loss,
they’re dragged into playing a dangerous game with a killer.
A serial killer with a deadly message.
Faced
with a murderous wake-up call and two possibly linked deaths, Ari’s
investigation puts her next on the killer’s list. But she’s never been
one to back down from a fight.
Needing closure, Ari must face her demons and the killer behind them … or lose everything she loves.
“If Dexter and Gone Girl had a love child, this would be it.” – reader review
ABOUT PAMELA CRANE
PAMELA CRANE is a USA TODAY best-selling author and professional
juggler. Not one who can toss flaming torches in the air, but a juggler
of four kids, a writing addiction, and a horse rescuer. She lives on
the edge (her Arabian horse can tell you about their wild adventures
while trying to train him) and she writes on the edge…where her sanity
resides. Her thrillers unravel flawed women who aren’t always pretty.
In fact, her characters are rarely pretty, which makes them
interesting…and perfect for doing crazy things worth writing about.
When she’s not cleaning horse stalls or changing diapers, she’s
psychoanalyzing others.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Shannon O’Gorman will be awarding a $40 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Rose Hawthorne: The Irish Wanders follows Rose, a celebrity author in her early seventies, who dislikes the limelight but does like Hermes scarfs, round violet sunglasses, and old colonial hotels. One day, she receives a letter asking her to visit Newgrange, Ireland and discover something that has been hidden there for a thousand years.
She asks her granddaughter Samantha to accompany her, but she hadn’t expected her to continually post photos of their progress on her Instagram account. An encounter with an old love and an unexpected discovery leads Rose deeper into the past, where she finds she must make a hard decision about her future.
Read an Excerpt
At first, the music the fiddler played was lively, his fingers deftly danced across the strings, and a few couples got up to spin around the floor. Towards the end of his set, he played exquisite notes that washed over the pub, making the dust dance, and it rose in the air like magic. The cheering and conversation quieted down for his last song. It was a slow piece that most of them recognised. The fiddler hit the final note with such poignancy that it echoed throughout the pub. When the music stopped, the whole pub went quiet.They cleared their throats and blinked back tears, and then took a few last swallows from their pints.
“Nothing like a bit of Irish music to bring out the tears,” Bill admitted wiping an eye.
“It’s something so special,” Rose agreed with a small sniff.
And all around the pub, they raised their glasses to the fiddler and his music.
As people began to leave the pub, Rose realized that it was getting late and neither of them had eaten yet.
“Shall we eat something? Maybe grab some fish and chips?” Bill said, reading her mind.
“Perfect,” she replied in a low, quiet voice.
They bought some greasy fish and chips at a nearby takeaway. It was wrapped in brown paper and covered with the Dublin news.
Then, they walked the streets until they found a bench under the stars away from the shouts, laughter and the lights. Beside the river, they were alone. They unwrapped the greasy paper and ate the cod hungrily, stuffing the vinegar smeared fries quickly into their mouths.
“Do you want the last chip?” Bill had said softly, holding it up in his greasy fingers.
About the Author:
Shannon O’Gorman is a retired ESL teacher who has recently completed her second walk on the Camino de Santiago. She is currently training her dog to accompany her on a Camino one day. She lives in California with her husband and daughter when university is not in session.
Serenade Morgan Shamy (The Dark Nocturne, #1) Publication date: May 31st 2022 Genres: Mystery, Paranormal, Young Adult
St. Paul’s Academy of the Arts isn’t your usual boarding school…
When November Huntington is sent away to live with her long-lost family, she’s forced to attend a music school for the gifted—which wouldn’t be a problem if November were musical. She’s an athlete through and through, and hates being different.
The kids at the school don’t welcome her, they’re wary of her presence, especially Vincent, a brooding teenage boy involved with dark spirits, who can make time stop when he plays his piano. In fact, all her classmates are all obsessed with playing their instruments. And odd things happen when the do.
But something is off about the school. Deaths have occurred through the years, students showing up dead the same way November’s parents were killed—with their throats ripped out.
A killer is on the loose… November must figure out a way to stop whoever it is, balance her feelings for Vincent, and solve her parents’ past before she, too, is numbered among the dead.
The first in a Paranormal Fantasy Saga by debut author Morgan Shamy.
She started forward once more, silently cursing, when a soft melody drifted from the woods. The sound jarred her to a stop, and her heart suddenly spiked. She wasn’t alone. Someone was out here. The music drew closer, heightening. It was slow and haunting, tinkling, like a music box. It didn’t sound like music from a radio or phone. It moved through the trees, wrapping around the bushes, spreading out toward her. She could feel it all around her, soaking into her.
“Hello?” she asked, backing up a step. She squinted into the trees. “Hello?”
No one answered.
The music continued, and she wrapped her arms around herself, backing up further.
“Hello?”
Deep into the forest, a bright light appeared, small at first until it burst outward. The light seared her eyes, large and white, and she ripped her gaze away. A voice in the back of her mind screamed at her to run. The music continued to play on the air, soaring toward her. It was getting closer, becoming thicker, heavier.
This couldn’t be happening. She was having hallucinations. She needed to get out of here. She needed to find stability. Ground herself.
She pushed herself faster, her feet pounding on the forest floor. But the music slithered after her, brushing along her back, carrying with her as she ran.
“Stop!” she yelled. “Stop!” She continued to race, until she dropped to her knees. She covered her hands over her ears, squeezing her eyes shut. “Stop!”
In a blink, the music halted, and the light dissipated, but the music still echoed inside her head, hanging on the air. She stretched her eyes wide, her gaze darting side to side. She stayed frozen, her knees on the dusty ground. Her heart beat loud as the breeze picked up and tickled the hair off her face. Birds chirped, and the forest came alive again. She slowly lowered her hands.
Everything was normal. Everything was fine. She had been hallucinating.
She huffed out a frustrated breath and headed back down the trail, shaking out her arms. She was stupid to think someone had been after her, or to think she’d heard music or seen such a bright light, but the sweet melodic sound wouldn’t leave her alone. The melody lingered inside her head, weaving through her memory. Maybe someone had been there, and maybe she had been its target.
Author Bio:
Morgan Shamy is an ex-ballerina turned YA writer. She has been immersed in the arts since the young age of 4, where she performed various roles alongside a professional ballet company for over seven years, and has danced on prestigious stages like soloing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She has taught hundreds of girls in her fifteen years of teaching, where some of her students have received full-ride scholarships to schools like School of American Ballet, the Harid Conservatory, Kirov Academy of Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet, to name a few.
Morgan discovered writing when her three-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. It was through that experience which instilled the need to share art and magic with children through words on the page.
Morgan is also an accomplished concert pianist. She was the first girl in Utah to receive the 75 pt. Gold Cup in the Utah Federation of Music in piano solo/concerto competition. Morgan currently lives with her X-Games gold-medalist husband and four children in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pamela Crane’s damaged characters do surprising things that do hold my attention. She has packed a lot into this small package that caught me off guard, because I was sure I knew what was coming…and I was so far off. I am happy that I have the next book, The Art of Fear, hanging around my Kindle, though The Scream of Silence is a complete short story that can stand alone. I wonder…will you be teased by it and desire more? I sure did.
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
In this riveting prequel to international best-selling author Pamela Crane’s The Little Things That Kill Series, “The Scream of Silence” unravels the darkest depths of human nature. A chilling tale consumed in under an hour, but not so quickly digested.
She had secretly wanted the baby to die, but Fate never sided with her until twenty-three years later, when Destiny Childs got her wish.
Broken, middle-aged Destiny daily struggles to survive her haunting past. Dead parents. Unplanned teen pregnancy. Cyclic addiction and depression. Life hasn’t treated her kindly. Then one day she sees the name of her castaway daughter on the news: a victim of murder.
Seeing this as an opportunity to extort the rich family her daughter left behind, Destiny crafts a plan. But as all her plans go, it loosens a mess of secrets long buried, along with the truth behind the killing.
In this haunting murder mystery short story, discover the gruesomely intimate stranger harbored within Destiny… and who may lurk within any one of us.
“The Scream of Silence” originally appeared in Reader’s Circle of Avenue Park’s “Crooked Tales” anthology but is now published for the first time as a standalone short story.
ABOUT PAMELA CRANE
PAMELA CRANE is a USA TODAY best-selling author and professional
juggler. Not one who can toss flaming torches in the air, but a juggler
of four kids, a writing addiction, and a horse rescuer. She lives on
the edge (her Arabian horse can tell you about their wild adventures
while trying to train him) and she writes on the edge…where her sanity
resides. Her thrillers unravel flawed women who aren’t always pretty.
In fact, her characters are rarely pretty, which makes them
interesting…and perfect for doing crazy things worth writing about.
When she’s not cleaning horse stalls or changing diapers, she’s
psychoanalyzing others.
If you have been coming to fundinmental for a while, you probably know how much a cover can influence me. That is why I invited Barbara Casey here to tell us her thoughts. Take it away Barbara.
THE ARTFUL EXPRESSION OF BOOK COVERS
One of the things I am most pleased about in
writing The F.I.G. Mysteries is the fact that my publisher is also a
professional and extremely talented artist. From the beginning when she first
published Book 1 – The Cadence of Gypsies
– she sensed the emotional tenderness underlying the story. The cover she
designed – an obscure symbol found in the Voynich Manuscript – expressed that
emotional tenderness perfectly. At that time, I wrote The Cadence of Gypsies as a stand-alone novel. After it was published,
however, my publisher convinced me to expand it into a series. The original
cover metamorphosed into something different that was perfect because it now
tied in with the other covers on The Wish
Rider, The Clock Flower, The Nightjar’s Promise, and now, The Seraphim’s Song.
Each cover symbolizes the main underlying
theme of the book in a beautiful and sensitive expression. Books 1 through 4
have focused on the personal emotional journeys of Carolina and the females of intellectual
genius as they search for answers to explain why they were placed in an
orphanage and who their biological parents were. With those answers for the
most part found, The Seraphim’s Song elevates
Carolina and the F.I.G.s to another level of understanding. There are new
questions; more answers are needed. This involves an ancient artifact that, in
fact, is a key to all knowledge in the universe that has been hidden in a cave
in China for as long as the planet Earth has existed. The cover shows a “key”
surrounded by colors of the universe. It is beautiful, and it is perfect.
It is really nice to visit with you again. Thank you for inviting me and for your continued interest in my books. All best to you and your bloggers. ~Barbara
I am so happy to have you here and look forward to ‘seeing’ you again soon, Barbara.
The Seraphim’s Song by Barbara Casey
GENRE: Fiction/Mystery
BLURB
Book
5 – The F.I.G. Mysteries
Many changes have taken
place at Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women while Carolina and
Larry were on their honeymoon in Frascati, Italy, on the Granchelli farm. The
newlyweds have been given a larger bungalow; Ms. Alcott, niece of the founder
of Wood Rose, and Mrs. Ball, assistant to the headmaster, have moved into a
bungalow together; and Jimmy Bob, caretaker and night watchman at Wood Rose has
moved from his family home down the road a bit into a small bungalow on the
orphanage property with his hound dog Tick, as well as his new cat and her
litter of kittens. Most important, thanks to the persuasive powers of Ms.
Alcott and Mrs. Ball, the F.I.G.s have been given a forever home at Wood Rose.
Summer is coming to an
end and the F.I.G.s will soon return to the universities to complete their
special projects. They are starting to feel anxious, and the coping mechanisms
they have used their entire lives are starting to work overtime. Dara’s
thoughts turn to an unknown language, possibly from another world; Mackenzie
focuses on the relationship of math to music; and Jennifer keeps hearing the
note of B flat minor and is drawing dark swirls on her canvas board.
Deadly forces and
natural disasters are unleashed into the world when Milosh, the evil young man
who placed a curse on Carolina when she searched for her mother, steals an
ancient artifact—a “key”—from an archaeological site near Puli, China on the
Yellow Sea where he is working. This artifact, when paired with a certain
note—B flat minor known as the Seraphim’s song—opens a portal that enables man
to communicate with the gods.
When the key gets lost
in a storm, Carolina comes into possession of it through Jimmy Bob’s dog, Tick,
and when she does, she hears Lyuba, her gypsy mother, tell her that time is
running out. The F.I.G.s and Carolina must go to the forbidden cave on the
Yellow Sea, the place where the early gypsies are believed to have settled
before travelling into Europe. For it is there where the key must be returned
before all is destroyed.
EXCERPT
As she usually did in the early, pre-dawn hours, Lyuba was
digging roots, in the dark of the crescent moon, and every so often replanting
a good piece of a root to grow next year.
The day before she had picked herbs, during that time when the essential
oils are at their strongest, before they could get evaporated by the midday
sun. Where she searched was her favorite
place, the place where the energies were strongest. Surprisingly, it was the old church graveyard
built on a slight mound just outside of the rural Italian village of Frascati,
which is why the other gypsy women stayed away.
Unlike Lyuba, they feared being so near the dead. They believed that
being near death would hasten their own, therefore they refused to go there.
Lyuba, however, saw death as the natural and necessary progression of life, in
another form, in a different dimension. She found comfort and solace in its
nearness.
A creek ran nearby, and a tall, unkempt yew tree grew near
the entrance to the graveyard, poisonous, but giving off positive
energies. It was a place Lyuba knew
well, having discovered it from earlier times when the travelers came this way.
It was there where she found peace.
She would prepare her potions from the roots, bark, and hard
seeds she gathered and make decoctions by soaking them overnight and boiling
them the next day. Some of the
decoctions she would add honey or sugar to; others she would thicken into syrup
or add lard to make ointments and salves.
The freshest herbs she saved for her oils.
Once her potions were ready, she would take them into the
village to sell. Coughs or colds,
rheumatism, cuts and bruises, burns—it didn’t matter. She knew what remedy was necessary to relieve
pain, create lustrous hair, revive the impotent, whiten teeth, cure
constipation, or simply heal the broken spirit.
Unlike others who only pretended, she had the gift.
As she scraped pieces of root and bark, and gently picked
the seeds from the plants she revered, she suddenly paused, aware of something
different in the air around her—an unseen potent force. She stood up and,
closing her eyes, listened quietly as she sniffed the air. There was an
unfamiliar strangeness surrounding her. She felt the slight tremor of the earth
and somewhere very far away, she heard the low-pitched hum.
It was a sound she knew well for it had been given to every
civilization from the beginning of time. Used in all of the major
religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Zoroastrianism and
Christianity—it was the sacred universal sound.
A single sustained note, a mantra, it was the melody of the angel that
acted as the means of communication between the gods in the heavens and the
humans on earth. It was the seraphim’s song.
But something was wrong; the single note was slightly
off-key. The pitch wasn’t quite right. Then, because she was a choovihni and
had the knowledge of the universe coursing through her veins, a cosmic
consciousness that had been passed down to her from her mother, her
grandmother, and her great grandmothers through all time, she sensed darkness
and evil.
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Originally from
Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara Casey attended the
University of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College
where she received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English
and history. In 1978 she left her
position as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at
North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own
manuscript evaluation and editorial service.
In 1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has
represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.
In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books, an independent
nonfiction publisher of true crime, where she oversees acquisitions, day-to-day
operations, and book production.
Barbara has
written over a dozen award-winning books of fiction and nonfiction for both young
adults and adults. The awards include the National Association of University
Women Literary Award, the Sir Walter Raleigh Literary Award, the Independent
Publisher Book Award, the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel, the IP Best Book
for Regional Fiction, among others. Several of her books have been optioned for
major films and television.
Her
award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in
both national and international publications including the North Carolina
Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and
Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The
Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A thirty-minute television special which
Barbara wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh,
North Carolina. She also received
special recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of
Albanian children’s stories. Her award-winning science fiction short stories
for adults are featured in The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction
anthologies. Barbara’s essays and other
works appear in The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the
Swedenborg Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and
Kraus Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).
Barbara is a
former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she served as
guest author and panelist. She has
served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin
Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of
Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. In 2018 Barbara received the prestigious
Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for
her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing
and other areas. She makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest
Georgia with three cats who adopted her, Homer – a Southern coon cat, Reese – a
black cat, and Earl Gray – a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.
Have you ever been ticked off by someone taking to long in the grocery store line? Has someone made you wait while they decided which cafe latte they wanted? And…to put the shoe on the other foot, have you ever got in a fast food line and hemmed and hawed about what you wanted to order? Have you ever fumbled around at the ATM for your debit card? At the pharmacy? This book will make you think twice…maybe.
Time Killer by Todd M Thiede is one of those books that is hard for me to rate. It had so many things I love in a suspense/thriller…an unhinged killed, lots of bodies falling, danger and tension making me have to know what happens.
It looks like this is the second book of Todd M Thiede’s writing career and his first Max Larkin Detective Series novel, so I can forgive some of the things that bothered me. The writing seemed to be loose, at times too quick to pass over what is happening. I would have loved to have more details about a couple of events, more details on the characters feelings about what transpired. But, all in all, well done, Todd. I would definitely read more of your work.
I flipped flopped between 3 and 4 stars, and when that happens I up it, so…………
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Witness a gripping thriller that will surely hook you from start to finish in Time Killer…
Have you ever stood in a line at a grocery store while a person in front of you argued every price and then at the very end they pulled out a book of coupons? Have you ever waited in a drive thru as the person in front of you took forever to order his food? There is a person in Rockton Illinois that has had this happen to him and he is doing something about it. He is getting rid of the Time Wasters in Rockton.
Detective Max Larkin has a pretty simple life in Rockton. He wakes up every morning and goes to the police station to solve small town crimes. However, today is going to be different. Not only is he getting a new partner, Jesse Fairlane, that he doesn’t want, but he is getting assigned to a murder case where the murderer writes TIME WASTER on the wall in the victim’s blood.
Follow them as they attempt to solve the murder mystery case and find out if their tandem would work in Time Killer.
ABOUT TODD M THIEDE (from his website)
When you think of an Amazon bestselling author you probably won’t think of Todd M. Thiede.
He’s been a finance manager at a car dealership in Illinois for over 15
years. He’s a father of 4 and now a grandfather of 3. When he’s not
working or spending time with his family, he’s writing books. His Max
Larkin Detective series has been on Amazon’s Bestsellers list for
multiple books in the series. He’s also written Political Thrillers
under the pseudonym T.T. Michael, and those books have won multiple
awards from Readers’ Favorite and Book Excellence Awards.
Todd M. Thiede is now diving into the Sci-Fi world with his new book “A New Planet”.
I have read a lot of novels by Carolyn Arnold and she is on my must read list of authors. Girl On The Run was published this month and I was so happy to get a review copy. I love the cover and it fits the story inside.
I love a Prologue. I am like a hungry fish, swimming around, looking for a juicy worm and with a good Prologue, I eagerly bite and get hooked. Girl on the Run by Carolyn Arnold definitely set the hook.
She runs, but there is no escape.
“You’ll be wishing for a bullet by the time she’s done with you.”
I am curious to know why.
Madison was in line for a coffee, when she heard of a shooting at the Liberty Train Station, suspected causalities. Madison is on the case seeing she works for Major Crimes. Two dead, one in the hospital.
Madison is tenaciious, a Bulldog. She felt putting bad guys behind bars was her legacy and made personal sacrifices to achieve it. She has her chocolate lab, Hershey and her fiancee, Troy Matthews, who works for the Stiles Police Department too, to keep her grounded.
Who is the girl with the orange backpack that seemed to Madison to be the trigger, and what does she have to do with the shooting?
Madison had been through hell due to corrupt cops, so when she saw the shooter, who had identified himself as a cop, she stood at attention. Could a corrupt cop and the Russian Mafia be behind the shooting? She had dealt with them on more than one occasion. They were prolific in Stiles.
The investigation deepens, spreading out in different directions. Carolyn Arnold is an expert at bringing all the pieces together.
Two dead, one wounded, a girl with an orange backpack, a victim that Madison recognizes from her past, the Russian Mafia, drug trafficking, infidelity, betrayal…Step by step, I follow Madison’s footsteps to the conclusion.
Most of the book, I was plodding along, accumulating clues with Madison, thinking three stars. I was complacent, knowing this is a police procedural so it may lack the in your face thrills and chills I love so much, then…KAPOW…I’m awake now. It’s those punches, book surprises, that add the extra star.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Girl On The Run by Carolyn Arnold.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Shivers tear through her, but she must be brave—for herself, for her future. She grips her coat tighter and steps into the night and the cold, pouring rain. Never to be seen again.
An ordinary Monday morning commute turns deadly when a gunman opens fire in the local train station. Detective Madison Knight rushes to the scene, but she’s too late for the victims. Two women were fatally wounded, including an expectant mother, and one is fighting for her life. But it’s the face of one of the dead that has Madison seeing a ghost from her past. She looks just like Madison’s college friend Courtney Middleton, who vanished over fifteen years ago. If it is her, where has she been all these years, and does her resurfacing have anything to do with the shooting?
Eyewitnesses say that a young woman triggered the incident, but both the shooter and the girl seem to have evaporated into thin air. Mounting evidence suggests they may be part of a drug-trafficking operation, the girl being one of their runners. But Madison’s not so sure the girl is the hardened criminal she appears to be.
As Madison races to track down the young woman, more people turn up murdered, and there’s still no sign of the girl. Is her body out there to find or is she on the run? If the latter, is it due to fear or guilt? Could it simply be that the shooting victims were caught in the crosshairs of organized crime? Madison’s not sure, but she can’t shake her niggling suspicion: what if it was something more than that?
An absolutely gripping and addictive crime thriller. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Lisa Regan, and Rachel Caine.
ABOUT CAROLYN ARNOLD
CAROLYN ARNOLD is an international bestselling and award-winning
author, as well as a speaker, teacher, and inspirational mentor. She
has four continuing fiction series—Detective Madison Knight, Brandon
Fisher FBI, McKinley Mysteries, and Matthew Connor Adventures—and has
written nearly thirty books. Her genre diversity offers her readers
everything from cozy to hard-boiled mysteries, and thrillers to action
adventures.
Both her female detective and FBI profiler series have been praised
by those in law enforcement as being accurate and entertaining, leading
her to adopt the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW
ENFORCEMENT™.
Carolyn was born in a small town and
enjoys spending time outdoors, but she also loves the lights of a big
city. Grounded by her roots and lifted by her dreams, her overactive
imagination insists that she tell her stories. Her intention is to touch
the hearts of millions with her books, to entertain, inspire, and
empower.
She currently lives north of London, Ontario, with her husband and
two beagles and is a member of Crime Writers of Canada and Sisters in
Crime.
