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Volume 1, Number 1 August 2002 Home | MBW Index

Table of Contents

Bogstad's Bookshelf Kaveny's Bookshelf Laurel's Bookshelf
Klausner's Bookshelf Cindy Penn's Bookshelf  


Bogstad's Bookshelf

Greetings From Ireland on June 20, 2002:

It's about out 3:20 am Ireland's time and I am awake reading Iain Banks' A Song of Stone, A Song of Stone Paperback: 288 pages. Touchstone Books; ISBN: 0684855364; Scribner edition September 1999. Price 12.00 It still reminds me powerfully of Kafka's The Castle (except that the protagonist here lives in the castle and would very much like to leave it and it's barbaric conquerors whereas Kafka's Castle the hapless fellow wanted to get INTO the castle and never could. It's the tone, really, that is similar. The haplessness of most people's lives, many times my own included, was a theme that always appealed to me in Kafka and also does in this Banks story. But, I don't want my readers to think I am spending the whole of this wonderful trip with my nose stuck in a book.

I have had a very good time, which is a bit unlike myself since I tend to be a bit shy . I have actually introduced myself to people, started up conversations, and hugged them. In a brief time I have become best buds with two women from Canada who used to work for a newspaper and are now retired and met Tommy Joyce who recommended some good bookstores in Galway which are also online. It turns out he is a newspaper man in Galway but , in spite of that , he was very pleasant and sweet as the three of us, Jean, Jan, and Fay, were sat at his table in a busy restaurant at lunch. Fay and Jean seem to be easy company. The lady I sit with is a doctor from Washington, D.C. on vacation with her parents. She hasn't admitted she is a doctor but like some of my friends she has Dr. Suzie porter's mannerisms and can't seem to avoid commenting on health, (my psoriasis and the cortisone cream), but stops herself elegantly, remembering that even a doctor gets a vacation.

In fact, we have at least TWO doctors on the trip. I met the second one briefly but found out he is a doctor from Puerto Rico when I invited myself to dinner in the hotel with him and his wife. I forgot to ask their names so I remember them, but we had a wonderful dinner and talked about China (they'd been there for two weeks on a medical tour), and language studies in the U.S. and Puerto Rican's concerns about becoming an official state and losing their linguistic identity. I forgot to ask about their family because we were talking about ideas (the wife who I'd talked to before as well as the husband). Under normal circumstances, I would have been nervous about talking to them because I would expect to be rejected.

The lady I sat with is I understand of Philippine descent and her father was in the U.S. military in a submarine during WWII. She grew up in Hawaii but they moved to the continent while she was still a girl. She kindly wanted to include me in a picture in an old style crofting farmhouse, along with her mother and father and a couple of other people (a couple named David and Florence). In fact, I've had a chance to be nice to and appreciate lots of other people and am working on getting their names straight. For example, a lady who wears these great clothes and is almost as tall as and a little bigger than me. As is her husband who seems to like me also.

I expected to come back to the room and work tonight after a light supper, but the Puerto Rican couple really wanted to talk and the lady even thanked me for my company. I must get their names, in fact; try to ask about them discreetly.

I am gradually potting down from work and the review and editing stuff but would pay a lot for an internet connection for just a few minutes so I could resolve some issues and send off some stuff. I am determined to write reviews and at least the basis for encyclopedia articles, for example within the next few days. In fact, I am going to have to try the electrical outlets soon. Got an adapter but I hope this one is ready for it.

I talk about my husband Philip to people as it's is impossible not to. Today we briefly visited the Galway marble workshop and saw raw green, black, and slate colored marble bits. We also got some stuff - I got Philip a lovely otter on a piece of Connemara green marble and a hedgehog for myself and so ended up talking about him to several people. I miss you Philip and want to talk to him all the time and think, gee, Philip would love to meet these people but wonder if he would (probably) and then I probably wouldn't as he would be more interesting and aggressive about it but then he would learn more too.

The banks novel is rather depressing and I am looking forward to Feersujm Enjinn which, along with Look to Windward, I would like to finish before writing my short paper for the utopian conference. (Look to windward, Feersjum Enjinn, The Business and A Song of Stone, I think, but I got complicity and one other in mm paperback just to be sure.
I seem to be sleeping a lot or trying to on the bus but the road really winds and the bus bounces a lot. In any case, A Song of Stone is about this guy who owns a castle and he and his girl Morgan are trying to escape in a refugee situation. They are set upon my military types (though without a real army behind them anymore) and all go back to the castle . The little troop of military are lead by a female lieutenant and the two are immediately in a contest of wills as he tries to do minor irritating things (not sabotage, but irritations like 'dropping' all the little birds the L. has just shot into the river and playing an ugly aria on the piano when asked to show his skill. They also seem to be trying to compete for Morgan's affection and Morgan is not really resistant to either of them.

The narrative is in the first-person and HE is narrating it to Morgan, telling her the story from his perspective and in the first person present as if he is speaking to hear but the story is told from a future point; look for pg , and I think we are seeing a narrative where L. and the Pro. May merger into or turn into each other - or at least it's what the Prof. fears. Commentary on identity, personal and social and philosophical and historical about and whole chapters of it interrupt the action (like a long soliloquy while he is done in a well being pissed and vomited on. It is also more like the wasp factory but the Pro. Is not crazy, the world is. It's in a state of social chaos and so centuries of civilizations artifacts are gradually (or rapidly in one night of debauched partying in the castle itself) being destroyed. It is about all such occurrences in recent history (from Italy before the U.S. entered WWII and France) and stuff with the Tutsi and Hutu and Afghanistan under the Russian attacks, in between and now under U.S. attack, but it is the upper class who comments here. In Whit we had a social outcast in a cult society and in the business we had a member of the business elite, all of whom have to figure out complicated social and political feints and secrets and personal manipulations in order just to survive (which then seems also to be the way they triumph). In the latter two, Business and Whit, however, the protagonists are female.

Well, it's almost 4 a.m. (which is 10 p.m. in Wisconsin) and I am fading fast - the night of June 18-19 (OR TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY) boy THE time is really off on this machine. I will have to adjust it when I get home it says June 18, 2002 8:55 a.m. Which seems to be five hours ahead of and one day behind what I should be for here in Ireland So, TIME TO say goodnight...?

Greetings from Inverness, Lock Ness and the Caledonian Mountains

Jan Bogstad, 3:26 a.m. Greenwich mean standard time, Inverness, Scotland , July 2 (that's 9:26 p.m. July 3 for you guys in the Midwest U.S..I guess it's time to sing for my lunch at least that one that James Cox , Editor & Chief of Midwest Book Review fame, bought me four weeks ago in the WisCon time-space continuum. I must say, I am certainly in a different one here in Inverness, Scotland . Or perhaps I could just hit the bagpipe on my newest hedgehog and she will play a familiar Scottish tune for you instead. (Jan's newest hedgehog rounds off her hedgehog collection at somewhere between 250& 275, carved, cast, whittled, sculpted, but never stuffed or live hedgehogs. My favorite is a French hedgehog carved from a dried apple.)

I am in Inverness Scotland which is known to us in the U.S. for two features: It is close to Loch Ness and the elusive Loch Ness monster. It is also very close to the battlefield of Culloden, the last battle fought on English soil, April 16, 1746. However, there is a lot more to see around Inverness, some of it on tours planned and paid for at the tourist information center in the middle of the town and some of it unexpected and therefore even more delightful.

While I have booked tours to Culloden (a 7 pound tour takes you around the town and out to Culloden then drops you off and you can walk around at your own pace for free or sign up for visits to a rebuilt cottage, slide show, museum, etc for 5 additional pounds) as well as a one-day visit to the archeological sites on Orkney and a 7 hour trip to various castles, around the town, I also love Inverness for, well for Inverness.

I have been here with Phil, my husband, and Cathy, my best friend. This time I came alone knowing that I was familiar with the town and could rest and recuperate after two conferences and that I could go on early tours and do lots of walking (so next time I come one of these two, I won't be so grouchy about their collective disinterest in either of these activities. I also came because this is, well, Inverness.

So, I will be here two more days, and I had lots of details to handle yesterday - laundry, internet access (in the launderette, no less), post office, getting oriented. So I just had time for about three hours of touring and took the little cream and green guide Friday tour out to Culloden and came back on the last, 5:45 bus. I skipped lunch, so I went to Bella Pasta near the tourist office for dinner, stopped in the Kiltmaker's shop on the way home and got my little hedgehog highland piper, a few minor bits of jewelry (the prices were so good) and two more pair of kilt sox - the only knee-highs I've ever found to fit my 6'1" frame.

On the way to cross the River Ness on my way to my B&B in Fairfield street Ardgowan, 45 Fairfield road, 18 pounds a night for a single no less and I am sitting in it at 2:30 in the morning on July 3, and looking back at how a little more than six hours ago I noticed a couple of men dressed in full tartan plaid and carrying bagpipes. (It was the red Steward plaid, I think). I snapped few pictures as they waited at the street crossing with a few other people. Then a few more started to emerge from cars and minibuses until there were about a dozen pipers, one player of a big drum who rested it on an imitation lion pelt apron (complete with head peeping out from his back, two men with smaller drums (one red one black) and this tallish slender fellow carrying a silver-tipped cane. By this time a few people were following them as they walked from the bridge to a pedestrian section that extends from the tourist office about two blocks past shops and diners. I asked a couple of pedestrians I had seen talking to one of the group of pipers and they told me there was to be a performance in the town I should just follow along if I wanted to see it. Sure enough, when the company of about 16 assembled, all in their full regalia of caps, (the four anomalous ones had those tall black fuzzy ones), full kilts with the over the should bit too, kilt shoes with white spats attached, kilt sox, short swords and many of them with a dirk slipped in at the knee of the right kilt sock, and, or course, their tartan bagpipes, they lined up as a troupe of four ranks of four, four and three with the chap with his silver headed baton in front. He raised his baton and said "Pipes and drums, Pipes and drums attttttten-shun. Pipes and drums on my mark," and then they began to pipe and drum and walk in formation to the other end of the block, followed by their band of eager observers who grew on the passage down the block. I certainly followed and snapped more pictures which I will be glad to show people.....

At the other end, they went into a circular formation and started playing a range of piping pieces which I recognize but couldn't name. They played a couple of songs, then the big drummer put down his drum and they stopped for a bout a minute while people scrambled around taking pictures. Now these guys ranged in age from about 20 to about 70, and they had very different but characteristically Scots faces - only a few had beards, some were about 5'4" and others over 6'4' - the snare drummers who stood side by side were one of each. Then the leader said "Pipes and drums, Pipes and drums attttttten-shun. Pipes and drums on my mark," and they started another tune. This went on for about 40 minutes, with short breaks for the bid drummer to put down his drum and everyone to get their wind back - bagpipes take a LOT of wind.

I loved the music, although there was more than one young kid in the audience with their hands over their ears. But I also loved looking at their faces. There was this one tall, healthy looking, clean-shaven young man about 30 and he was a delight to behold. But than there was this fellow whose face was slightly red, but it was also festooned (the only appropriate word I can find), with a beard and mustache and this grin that showed around the blowpipe of his bagpipes. Then there were a couple of fellows who had to be in their sixties at least, one of then with that long droopy white mustache we used to see in the Shirley temple movie of The Littlest Sergeant. And this guy in his 50s who as a little bigger than the norm, but had this cream-white hair longer than most of the rest that waved all over the place under his cap. I took pictures of as many as I could manage, delighted in the music, and finally made my way to a phone box to tell Phil all about it, because, this is, after all, Inverness, and by now I had finally realized I was here.

( Husbands note here. Jan was staying one of the northern most parts of Scotland around 59 Degrees North Latitude which means that it stays light till almost, mid night and Scotland is six hours ahead of Eau Claire Wisconsin. Therefore Jan called me at my office at 5:30 p.m. and informed that among other things she was watching a 11:30 p.m. sunset. What a world, what a life.)

For those of you interested in my literary work , I have given my outline-paper on Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series -Outlander-, 1991; Mass Market Paperback: 850 pages, Dell Books; ISBN: 0440212561; Reissue edition (July 1, 1992)Price 7.99 - Dragonfly in Amber,- 1992; Paperback: 947 pages; Dell Books; ISBN: 0440215625; Reprint edition (December 1993)-Price 7.99 -Voyager,-Mass market paperback ; Dell Books; ISBN: 0440217563; (November 1994)Price 7.99 -Drums of Autumn-, 1997 Mass Market Paperback: 1070 pages, Publisher: Dell Books; ISBN: 044022425X; (December 1, 1997)Price 7.99 -Fiery Cross-, 2001; Hardcover: 976 pages; Publisher: Delacorte Press; ISBN: 0385315279; (November 6, 2001, Price 27.95) and Soldier Farewell scheduled to come out in 2003 at the Science Fiction Research Association conference held in the utopian community of New Lanark, Scotland, and am now reading the third book, Voyager, which I never had time to read properly.

This third book of 800-1100 page novels is set around the battle of Culloden and then in the new world of the Carolinas, so it's really appropriate and hard to tear myself away from to sleep, or write, etc. It's historical, but also time-travel perhaps science fiction or that term I despise often applied to women's sf, science fantasy, mystery, and romance, as I was explaining just a few days ago on June 30 to an audience of about 20. Of course, that's one reason I wanted to come back to Inverness, to experience it after I had read Gabaldon's books (she's American and will be visiting Edinburgh and Inverness to meet her German publishers later this year).. Check these books out, even if you don't usually read science fiction, science fantasy, historical, mystery, or romance novels. She's got a large and devoted audience already. Her third book beat out Michael Crichton for the #1 bestseller in 1994. And reading her is precisely what I'm going to do now as I put myself back to sleep (or maybe I will play my little piper and drift off to his mild version of a highland piping tune.

So, tomorrow I spend 11 hours riding to the Orkneys ferry, on the ferry and around the main island, and back. I will see prehistoric villages found in the 1930s, standing stones, as well as the Churchill barriers erected in world war II, and the Italian Chapel built by 500 Italian prisoners of war who were sent to the Islands to do war related construction. It will be a long day, but probably well-worth it. And, of course, I will have to come back to Inverness to see the rest.

Dr. Janice Bogstad, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
International Editor, Midwest Book Review


Kaveny's Bookshelf

As some of you might remember from last month's Kaveny's Bookshelf I participated in a poetry slam, which was really good for me in a lot of was, real people, real time, but no instant replay. So this month I gave I gave the poetry slam at The Acoustic Cafe in Eau Claire WI another shot, however I did not make it past the first round maybe Eau Claire is just not ready for me. This months winner was a big bouncy blond in tight shorts in her mid twenties who won it all by reciting a poem about how she lost nights studying because she shallowed her boyfriends tongue, and she didn't even have to got to the emergency room to have it removed .

I also won in a much bigger way than I ever could have expected by un-inventing television in my personal and intellectual life. Like many great inventions this un-invention happened almost be accident the day after me wife Dr. Janice Bogstad left for 31 days in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Jan by the way is the international editor for Midwest Book Review , and I suggest you check out her feature for this month with The Midwest Book Review.

Well my un-invention of television was the result of my attempt to play a tape through a VCR that our cable service ran through. No matter what I did the screen stayed blue and nothing I did could make it play either a tape or tune to the cable channels. Of course I could have just called the cable guy the next day , but that was not to be . Because , instead I picked up a thousand page book called Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War, Ballantine Books (Trade Paper) Paperback - 1007 pages Reprint edition (November 1992) Ballantine Books (Trade Paper); ISBN: 0345375564 Price 13.97

Well I have been planning to read this book for the last ten years but somehow between selling books creative writing, playing chess. Graduate School and working through my with The University of Wisconsin Madison position to a successful early retirement , it just kept falling off my shelf. Which is strange since I have had an interest in "The Great War For The last forty years. My interest in the Great War stretches back across my life. As a matter of fact I decided to include just a little of a conference paper revised and updated which I presented at The International Conference on The Fantastic & the Arts in 1989, with the hope I can now turn it into a book

I was born in 1944 in the midst of another war, but my father Edward T. Kaveny 1898-1985 , was born the same year as Albert Maria Remarque author of All Quiet on The Western Front. Incidentally, my father was a World War I veteran and a member of THE V.F.W. (he was in OCS at Holy Cross University where they trained with broomsticks) though he never saw the European theater, as I was fortunate enough to never see Vietnam. Eighty Eight years later the Great War has almost fallen off the event horizon, and yet its magnitude is such that it is a cultural watershed of western civilization.

Confounding the understanding of World War I is a problem of numbers. It is popular to talk of Vietnam and its costs to our generation; yet, more British soldiers died on two days during the First Battle of the Somme than the total American personnel loss throughout the course of the Vietnam War, a fact forgotten by almost all except military historians. While World War I is lost in the mists of popular consciousness it still permeates the literature and literary tradition of western culture. And in turn these images mediated through the aesthetic of literature profoundly change the way we look at and think about war. It is my intent to utilize various conceptual approaches and analytical tools to discuss the way this imagery operates through the craft of the artists to assert their voice during the process of artistic creation.

The forty-some years from the end of the Franco-Prussian War(1871) as described by such popular historians as Barbara Tuchman, were a period of geometric acceleration of industrialization. It would be too boring to make a point by point comparison of western civilization in 1871 with that of 1914. However, the statistics are certainly available for those that wish to do so. Perhaps most importantly, the west had become mass producers and mass consumers. So the factories turned to "producing death looking for more death." By 1914 it begins to make sense to start talking about a post-industrial infrastructure. All the economies, even Czarist Russia, were engaged in exponential growth and transformation. With the advent of Bernstein, even Marxist theorists had to redefine the timetable for world revolution. It seems that in August of 1914 the Great War was a war which everyone wanted. International Socialism prostituted itself by voting nationalism and war credits. Radicals became patriots, and territorial claims generations forgotten were resurrected by the necromancers of the newly developed mass media. And yet it seems that almost no-one had any idea of what these changes could mean for the nature of warfare. It was expected that the war would be over by autumn. What is now so apparent to all is that the energies of the transformed economic infrastructure were mobilized for the wholesale extermination of a generation. Some have suggested that the Great War was fought by opposing boards of directors. And yet, it was as if those who ran the war were still dominated by the romantic imagery of an earlier age, calling out the flower of a past age to stop the onslaught of the enemy.

The thing that hooked me about Dreadnought was that it is a book about the present as it is a book about a Naval arms Race That may have been both the Necessary and sufficient cause for World War One. For months I have planned to introduce my theory of varying length centuries into my feature . Well here goes working backwards!

The 20th Century Lasted Eighty Six years form August 3rd 1914 to Sept 11 2001. The Nineteenth Century lasted almost exactly one Hundred from the Battle of Waterloo June 18th 1815 until the Guns Of August of 1914. The Eighteenth Century really lasted much longer from the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the 30 years War in Germany 1618-1648 until Battle of Waterloo June 18th 1815. This one hundred and sixty seven year period is called "The Enlightenment in European and even American History. It's salient feature was people stopped killing each other over religion. Sad to say it seems as if we have come full circle in the 21st Century.

But back to Dreadnought it is a great work of history in a time when great works of history are academically discouraged. Scholarship seems caught up in the case study and synthesis which might have some relevance to the present is thought only as the study of "Dead White Men. Really Dreadnought is not a book about a battleship it is a book about a deadly race for control of the sea in which Great Britains Attempt to build the an all big gun battleship in 1906 second to none. Britain succeeded and not only made every German battleship obsolete but every made every other British Battleship obsolete also.

But it is also a book in which Great figures shine through. Perhaps the two greatest being Queen Victoria who ruled sixty three years 1837-1901, and to my mind Winston Churchill 1874-1965 Victoria was the Grandmother of The German Kaiser Wilhelm II 1862-1940 and the mother of The British King Edward VI 1841-1910, along with several other European Monarchs. Churchill does not get as much ink as some f the figures in the book since it only covers the period up to his rise as first Lord of The Admiralty, yet when one thinks that Churchill served Queen Victoria as a Young Calvary officer in the late 1890's after his graduation from the British West Point Sandhurst, and lived serve Elizabeth II in 1953 as prime minster his figure is like a spindle that holds together three centuries of world history.

For example as I turn to the Wonderfully organized and topically arranged index of Dreadnought ( A book which weighs almost four pounds ) I find about 100 entries on Churchill I turn to pages 784-785. "the decision to convert the Royal Navy from coal power steam engines to Oil which Churchill made in 1911 as First Lord of The Admiralty, We find that Churchill is now aware that the oil of The Middle East will become a critical factor in British Naval Supply, By this is decision he may have doomed us to our present and future by the type of warship engine he chose . I have looked at some other reviews of this book particularly on Amazon and to be as kind as I can I found them moronic. You just have to read this book to get a feeling of the high drama and human frailty that so characterized the of the period of | Dreadnought.

With my un-invention of television which is now in its sixth week I was able to turn back to some of my favorite books which cover some of the same themes and period as dreadnought. I have not re- read all these books from cover to cover, but they all have my highest recommendation and I have included buying information from Amazon so I know they are all still available though my copies are out of print, those I listed are easily available from Amazon,.

The Guns of August, Ballantine Books (Trade Paper) Paperback - 511 pages Reprint edition (April 1994) Ballantine Books (Trade Paper); ISBN: 034538623X. Price $10.50 I read this book first at least thirty years ago, I am delighted it is still in print because there are a whole generation of readers and citizens that need to know how tragically the early 20th Century May come to foretell the 21st Century with sakes of civilization raised by a whole order of magnitude.

The First World War, John Keegan Paperback - 475 pages (May 16, 2000) Vintage Books; ISBN: 0375700455. Price 11.20 Keegan is in many ways the dean of the 20th Century Military Historical writers. I own all of his books which I have read and all of his nearly score of books. He is able to make the jump from the personal, to the historical and finally to the global more easily than any writer of military history I know each time I re-read one of his books I find out something new.

Zimmermann Telegram, Ballantine Books (Trade Paper) Paperback Reprint edition (March 1985) Ballantine Books (Trade Paper); ISBN: 0345324250 Price 11.20. I first read this book 37 years ago as a result of a road trip to Valpariso University when I was a junior at UW Madison in 1965 . I remember the blind date was a flop but by the time I was done with this wonderful book I had a lot better idea of the necessary cause for United states intervention in WWI in April 1917.

The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0195133315; 25th anniversary edition (April 2000) price 11.17. Fussell is one of my favorite writers as long as he writes military history because that is where he writes like a pissed off nineteen year old 2nd Lieutenant who fought his way accurse Europe after D Day rather than the candy ass English professor

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Bari Kolata Hardcover: 330 pages Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux; ISBN: 0374157065; (November 1999) Price 4.99. Picture a disease that sweeps the world and kills more civilians than all the soldiers who died in both world wars do. Picture a disease so dreadful that it seeks out the young and strong in the prime of their lives; picture a disease that is so virulent, that it course knocks ten years of the predicted life expectancy of an American born in 1919 from 49 to 39 years of age. Yes I checked detail and it is correct. That is what the great Flu Pandemic of 1918 did. It is part of my family history. I lost a grandfather, and uncle as an infant, and a great uncle by marriage. Both my mother and aunt recalled the horror the experienced in the flu epidemic of 1918 as six and four year old girls history has a lesson for us and this is what a natural agent did to us out of nowhere. Read this book and try to sleep well the next night.

That's all for this month, and I still have not gotten around to calling the cable guy. But I confess my wife figured out what I did to the cable. But for me T.V is still un-invented.

Philip Kaveny
Literary Editor
Midwest Book Review


Laurel's Bookshelf

Interview with Karen L. Syed:

Karen L. Syed is founding partner, CEO, and senior editor of Echelon Press, located in Crowley TX. Echelon Press is a regional publisher at this point, specializing in e-books and trade paperbacks. I chose to interview her because of her vision and philosophy.

LJ for MBR: I know you have a vision for Echelon, and from my previous contacts with you I feel you operate according to a specific philosophy. Tell us in your own words what hopes you have for Echelon and how you go about realizing those hopes and goals.

KLS: The main focus for Echelon is the author. Being a writer myself, I know how hard it is to break into the market. You have to have a name to sell and you have to sell to get a name. Does anyone else see the error in this logic? When I hooked up with Stacey King and we decided to form Echelon Press, we thought about all the things holding us back from becoming world famous authors. Honestly, we write outside the box. We both have what we like to think of as innovative ideas. We realized that there must be many others out there just like us. So we set up the company. We love going out and finding fresh new voices to publish. Many are first time authors who have been rejected for any number of reasons, because traditional publisher are afraid to take a chance on an unknown author with a new idea. We also have previously published authors who just want to write their own stories and not what someone tells them to write. Echelon is all about growing. We want to grow with the market while we help grow the market. We don't even consider previous credits, we just look at that story and if we love it we will do what it takes to make it work. We want to introduce fresh voices to the market so they can go on to make a name for themselves, not necessarily just with us, but wherever they choose to go after us. We like being cutting edge and we thrive on the abnormal...er...non-traditional.

LJ for MBR: That philosophy is long overdue! I know that many of the books I review by unknown writers simply knock my socks off. The fact that these writers are published by small presses or e-publishers does not negate the fact that they are excellent at crafting prose.

Give me a rundown of your process then. The Echelon submission guidelines on your site are straightforward. What happens between author query and your refusal or publication of a manuscript?

KLS: We read! When a query comes in, either Stacey or I decides if it strikes us or not. There have been a couple of books that I knew after the query that I would end up buying. I always go with my first instinct. I have to say, we are a little slow in responding because we do read carefully. Once we get a proposal or a full manuscript we make marks as we read. If it starts out slow, but improves throughout, chances are we will take the time to work with the author (this is usually after a contract is offered). I contracted a book recently that I only received the proposal, I was so enthralled with the book that I rushed into my office to get the rest of the book...which I DID NOT HAVE! I e-mailed the author and begged her to send me the rest ASAP so I could finish it. I knew after the proposal I would buy it and I did. That just happened again this past week. I MADE myself read the entire book before offering the contract. I have called the author, but with it being a holiday weekend she is gone and has not called back. I am more nervous about her accepting our contract than she will be about signing it. I get excited about what we buy and that makes it easy for me to work with the author. Stacey has to constantly remind me to keep a cool head or I'd have us contracted into 2006 already. If a book is rejected by us, it is done so with a full explanation as to why. We consider style, character development, and technical skills. We want good clean manuscripts (what editor doesn't?) but if the story is so outstanding, we will put a little extra effort out to help the author hone their skills. I don't think we have yet sent out a form rejection. A writer will never learn or grow if someone doesn't take the time to tell them what they did wrong, or why it didn't work.

LJ for MBR: Well that sure blew MY vision of publishers out of the water! I always imagine editors mired in ennui and tossing manuscripts off to the side onto a giant slushpile. To know you reply and try to educate even the authors whose work you decline is refreshing, even amazing.

Do you have a set number of manuscripts you accept each month or season? How does that procedure go, and tell us what guidelines Echelon follows regarding new releases.

KLS: heehee. oh heehee...You are cute...procedures, guidelines...ohh. Sorry. Seriously. The first phase of Echelon has been a true learning experience. We started thinking we would get a couple of submissions a month. Shoot, some weeks we get dozens. We are stunned by the attention we have received. So far we have not even considered closing submissions (we do ask for patience). We just want authors to know that just because we are an independent publisher we cannot simply say, "Okay, we buy this book and it will be out in a month." It will not happen. If we even tried, we would kill ourselves and put out sub standard books. We are contracted well into 2003 and as much as we would like to publish books quickly, there is too much involved. Because some of the books need technical work, it might take months to edit and revise it, then we have the review process. (Authors, it can take up to six months to get reviews back-so have mercy on your editors and marketing department.) Then you have the actual publication process: formatting, cover art (done mostly in house), printing, distribution, and it all takes time. We recently boosted our editing staff to offer a better system for our authors. We can't do everything, as much as we thought we could. We set out to release our titles in electronic format first, with the paper release to follow 3-6 months later. But as you know life happens and the system changes daily, so this might not be the case tomorrow.

LJ for MBR: Great answer with good details, Karen, and it dovetails nicely into my next question. I tried to do my homework before starting this interview, by checking out your website. I got the impression that you ALWAYS publish a book in e-format first before it goes to the paper version. Are you saying that is not the case necessarily, or that you may modify that practice? The reason I ask that is that many authors are still hesitant about e-publishing, or know very little about it.

KLS: We get a lot of "flack" in regard to this practice, but it is the path we have chosen. In a sense it is a period of adjustment for the authors. Since so many of them are new authors, this offers a chance for stepping into a new market, as well as giving us a kind of pre-promotion period. We get the book out into the market and build up some interest and excitement and hopefully everyone wins with this practice. As for what is the norm, this is what we do now, generally speaking. The only exception will be multi-author anthologies, like our Crumbs in the Keyboard project. I wish there was a way for writers to experience electronic books on a wider level. I am a convert. I now read on my Palm Pilot and I am so thrilled with it (much more convenient than carrying a book). If you haven't read an e-book, try it, you will honestly be surprised.

LJ for MBR: You mentioned Crumbs in the Keyboard. When I first learned of this anthology I was impressed with the purpose behind it.. In fact, it was through the project that I originally met you and learned of Echelon. Please tell us more about Crumbs in the Keyboard, why it's important to you and anything else you'd like to share about the anthology.

KLS: Crumbs in the Keyboard was a first for us at Echelon. Pamela Johnson (one of Echelon's Award Winning authors) asked the initial question..."How do they do it?" As she can tell you, the project snowballed from there. I became a contributor before I became a publisher and I've never participated in anything as important. The idea came from the emotions barreling around inside everyone after the tragic murder of Nancy Richard Akers. Obviously, as women, we are saddened and motivated by the need to make things better in a world that is overrun with domestic violence. Crumbs is that something for many of us. Each of the eighty contributors has their own personal reason for being a part of it and for working as hard as they do, but they all share a common goal--to make a difference. I became a contributor because I am a domestic violence survivor and my life is richer because of the strength I've gained from the liberation. It is those lessons that allowed me to move on and make something of my life. Echelon Press became involved at the last minute because Crumbs needed a home. The editors (Pamela Johnson and Sheryl Hames Torres) put it together and got it to us very quickly, our staff worked desperately with Pamela to get it formatted and ready to go, and the authors did everything they could to pre-promote and generate the interest necessary to launch the book on June 1, 2002. It is absolutely glorious to see what such a large and scattered group of people can do when they share a common goal. It is safe to say that to date, in the short time it has been available, Crumbs is our best selling book. The best part is that everyone is doing this out of conviction (all the authors have vowed to donate 100% of their royalties to the education and awareness of domestic violence, with Echelon matching their donations.) You can find out more about the cause and the contributors at www.crumbinkeyboard.com.

LJ for MBR: WOW! What a worthy purpose, Karen! Your answer gave me goosebumps, and I regret more than ever discovering that project too late to contribute in some small way. Give me a second here to regroup....

Alright. You've given us a basic overview of Echelon and your vision as publisher. Would you mind sharing a bit of information about you, your background in education or experience related to the field of publishing?

KLS: Most of what I know I learned from experience (bad ones). I have been writing for as long as I can remember. My days in college consisted of heartbreak, where my basic English professor told me not to give up my job flipping burgers because I would never amount to anything in the writing industry. May I just say...JERK! I have taken as many different level classes about writing as I could find and I have picked the brain of any published author, editor, or agent who would stand still long enough to let me suck them into my learning sponge. I worked for a small pres publisher prior to forming Echelon and was raked over the coals by several others as an author. We try to run Echelon on the ideas of NOT doing to others what has already been done to us. I write from the heart, I read from the heart, and I contract from the heart. Life has been my teacher and years of working through it. Then there are those people who tell me I can't, so I do!

LJ for MBR: I like that answer. You write, read, and contract from the heart. There are those who will say yeah, but that does not feed the bottom line. Maybe you and Echelon have found a way to publish with heart and STILL have a healthy bottom line. That would be refreshing in the world of publishing, now wouldn't it!

I think this is a good place to start winding down. Is there any question you wish I would have asked, or any other information you would like to share with our readers?

KLS: You could have asked me how it feels to be a Goddess! (laugh) I'm not sure you missed anything in your questions. As for the bottom line? If we make the readers happy by producing quality books we will achieve all that we deserve. Instinct has led me down many a different path. (Unfinished Dreams by Pamela Johnson--brand new full length author who is now sporting a list of industry award nominations and a Crystal Globe Award for Best New Writer. I went with my first instinct and she is golden!) How can we go wrong when the praise speaks for itself?

But I would like to encourage writers and readers alike. Writers, know your market and follow instructions. I am finding that in the publishing end of this business, the most common reason for manuscript rejection is failure to pay attention. (grammar, style, submission guidelines). All of these things are part of the business. If you want to be a professional, you must first act like one. I face people every day who tell me that Echelon is not as important or valuable to the industry because we are an independent publisher. Horsepucky! Ask any reader what they want and they will always tell you something that they cannot get! Write from the heart and you automatically become a success in what you do! You must please yourself before you can please others.

As for readers, don't be afraid to tell us what you want. If you only buy what is made available to you, that is all you will ever get. You want wild? Write a letter and tell that to your favorite publisher. You want exotic? Shout it from the mountain tops. You want weird and freaky? Don't be afraid to speak up! Without the loyalty and support of the readers there is no need for publishers or authors. We are but one small part of the entertainment industry, and we are no good if we fail to entertain. So let us entertain you!

LJ for MBR: If that answer does not give struggling writers a boost, nothing will! Thanks for leaving everyone on a note of hope to keep them writing and creating.

That's all I have, Karen. I appreciate the time and thought you gave to your answers. Thanks! I'll just remind our readers of your website again before we close this out. www.echelonpress.com

KLS: No, thank you!!!

==================================================
Interview with E.L. Burton

I reviewed E.L. Burton's first book, $oft Money, for the August Reviewer's Bookwatch. I chose to interview him because of both his spoken and unspoken philosophy.

LJ for MBR: Your first book, $oft Money, had all the intrigue and excitement of any action thriller I have seen in recent years. Your fictional accounting of the underside of politics in Washington DC was believable and had the ring of truth to it. What gave you the idea to write this book, and what, if any, research did you do to give it that realistic edge?

E.L.B.: What a fun question!! I think that the reason you felt that $oft Money had a true ring to it was because in reality it is not too far from the truth. Just look at how bloated government has become. Look at the laws that have been written and passed that have no bearing on or concern for the average citizen. I believe that the government envisioned by our forefathers has been corrupted by the flow of money and the access that it provides. On the final pages of $oft Money I wrote:

"The vision conceived by the founders of this great nation in reference to the structure and nature of government has drifted farther and farther from its original course and ultimate destination. Gone are the ideals that embodied political aspirations of generations past, whose sole purpose was to aspire to office, to step in and serve his fellow man, and bring with him the wisdom of a life's work. Those intrinsic values have been replaces with individuals that have earned the moniker, Career Politician."

The makeup of government should be that of people like you or me. People who have labored in the private sectors and lived a life outside the beltway. Instead we have elected and re-elected professional politicians, people who have lost touch with what it means to be average. Even those who come up the honest way, are soon pulled in by the lure money and the power that follows. I could go off on a rant here, but I will save it for another day.

The inspiration for $oft Money really came from viewing what we have now and comparing it to what I think that our founding fathers had envisioned. One of the other inspirational factors was the election held in 2000. The massive amount of money generated by both parties really got me cooking.

As far as research, I read any and all articles that pertained to political campaigns as well as special interest groups. C-SPAN provided me with a real look at the process. The various talk shows that permeate the airways provided me with some of the fodder for my work. As far as some of the technological aspects of the book, I spent time on the internet researching what is available. The internet is a phenomenal research tool.

We live in very interesting times. We have more access to our government and how it works than in any other time in history. I truly believe that we will see a profound change in government in our lifetime. As people take the time to really see what is going on, more and more will find some of the outrage that I expressed in $oft Money. I guess that will occur when people have finally seen enough and had enough.

LJ for MBR: Your answer revealed the side of E.L. Burton that prowls the information highway, devouring tidbits and grist to file away for future action thrillers. And your website says you're working on a second book, as yet unnamed. Have you come up with a working title for that book yet? Tell us just a bit about it so we know what to anticipate.

E.L.B.: The working title for my next book is Conspiracy of Fear. I love politics, and I have what some might call a bit of a conspiratorial mind. The topic of Gun Control has always been a hotly debated subject within our society. Also, there has been an explosion of random acts of violence within our school systems, workplaces, etc... In Conspiracy of Fear I have decided to combine the two elements. Politicians and their hunger to write and pass new legislation, and people who for one reason or another walk into school or their place of employment and start shooting.

I decided to write it because I asked myself over and over: Why are so many kids, businessmen, etc... going off and killing randomly in schools and workplaces? I was also fascinated by the fact that legislators continually want to write new legislation surrounding guns, without any thought of trying to enforce the many laws that are currently on the books. So you take the explosion of violence and the debate over gun control, combine it with my twisted conspiratorial mind and walah!! You have a "Conspiracy of Fear" Those entities who want to remove guns from society, versus those who believe it is constitutional right.

The book is based on the theory that the only way that our government will get firearms out of our hands is if we as a society demand it. Currently the country is polarized and frozen in a stalemate. Conspiracy of Fear deals with the means to an end, the end of gun ownership in this country. The means to that end are conceived by members of our government coupled with members outside of government with a personal agenda. Their aim is to compel society to demand the removal of firearms from the fabric of society. The only thing standing in the way of that goal is Dr. Henry Stone, a medical examiner who discovers an anomaly in a young boy who had walked into his homeroom and opened fire on his classmates, killing several of them before dying himself.

I don't want to give too much of the story away. But rest assured, it is a fast paced story that delves into the underbelly of government, our military and the gruesome life of a medical examiner.

LJ for MBR: That one sounds like another riveting scenario and a book I'll label "must have, must read".

Alright, E.L. Our readers have learned a bit about you and your books, how you think along those lines. But there's more to E.L. Burton than conspiracy theories and hard edged thrillers. I learned that from reading your website. Do you mind giving us a peek at your softer side for lack of better word? Hobbies? Other types of writing? Work world? Just tell us what you're comfortable with sharing.

E.L.B.: My softer side.... Well that is going to be a little tough. I never really take much time to look at myself. My website was done to showcase my book. I decided to add some short stories / essays that I wrote that were kind of a peek into my personal life. In a way, I do think that it is important for readers to get a look at who an author is outside of his or her work. I grew up in a very value driven family. My parents did an excellent job teaching me the value and meaning of life. They were awesome examples of how one should live their life. I owe a lot to my parents. Without the values that were driven into me at an early age, I probably would be wandering around, lost. I also wrote an essay about my wife, Kelly. She is the reason I am who I am today. She encouraged me and has supported me in pursuing my writing. There are a couple of others on the website as well.

As far as the "work world," I write full time. As we talked about earlier, I am writing Conspiracy of Fear at the moment. After I finish that book, I will spend several months doing research for the next book. I hope to be able to complete one book every year for as long as people decide to read what I write. As for my past work life, I spent several years in corporate America. From sales, to sales management, to just plain old management of a company. Many days of customers, numbers and personnel. But in the back of my mind there was always a little voice that yearned to be heard. So here I am, listening to that little voice and hitting the keyboard.

As far as hobbies go, well, I enjoy fishing. My family has a cabin in the White Mountains of Arizona. Your readers have probably never heard of the White Mountains, until this year. It was the location of the largest fire in the US this year. Thankfully, we stayed out of the path, but a lot of people lost everything. I usually go up there and spend the summer writing and fishing. Fishing helps me creatively, I write in the mornings and then I fish in the afternoon. The next day the process starts over again and that goes on until I come down from the mountain with a completed MS. The only reason I am home now is because I am headed for Los Angeles to meet with an agent who has expressed interest in representing $oft Money as a mass market paperback, and for other various rights.

LJ for MBR: OH how exciting! Those are magic words that every author yearns to hear. "Interested agent." "Mass Market Paperback." And the ever intriguing "other various rights"! Of course, what comes to mind is MOVIES! Let's play a little here, E.L. Indulge me. If you could choose any actor at all to play the main male character in $oft Money, who would it be?

E.L.B.: I don't want to put the cart before the horse here. I think we are a long way from "interested agent" to "who would be playing the lead character". But if we are going to play I would have to go with Ed Harris. Lawrence Brazelton's character seems to fit him best. He is an accomplished actor who has proven that he can play roles that are dramatic in nature as well as that of an action figure. Lawrence is smart, dramatic, and as the story progresses, he becomes somewhat of an action oriented man. As I wrote $oft Money, and as I write Conspiracy of Fear, I do tend to put faces with the characters I create. It helps to write the story if I can play the scenes and the dialogue over in my head. The character of Kelly Ford, Lawrence's interest in the $oft Money, was Laura Dern. I drew a picture in my mind of Clay Danvers from two sources, the actor Billy Bob Thornton and the Political Consultant James Carville.

LJ for MBR: I put faces with characters when I read also, but I saw Billy Bob Thornton as Lawrence Brazelton. Of course, I think Billy Bob can play every male character in every book. Thanks for indulging my whimsy just this once.

Alright, E.L., let's return to the subject of writing. If you were in a position to advise aspiring writers, what would you tell them, based on your experience?

E.L.B.: That is an interesting question. I look at myself as simply an aspiring author. My hope is that no matter what level of commercial success that I may experience, I will always be simply an aspiring writer. I guess if I were to give advice, I would have to say start slow. Read everything you can on the craft of writing. Establish whether or not this is something you want to pursue. If you feel passionate about writing, if you feel like you have a message, then you can move on. Timelines are your enemy, creativity can not be forced, take your time and begin the creative process.

I have heard it said that everyone has a third place. Meaning that most people have home life, work life, and the third place is where you go to find peace and comfort from the rigors of life. Find your third place and that is where you will find the inspiration to create.

Develop a thick skin, you will need it. It comes in handy as the form rejection letters roll in. Breaking into this business is rough. People could care less about you or what you have written. Unless you are one of the very rare few, who writes a bestseller on the first go around, unless you know someone in the literary community, be prepared to have to earn your shot. I have been at this for several years, and I am just now getting a foot in the door. Mind you, we are talking a foot here. This is a slow and methodical process, one that is fraught with rejections, setbacks and endless re-writes. Take pride in your work, research the proper way to format and submit a manuscript to prospective agents and publishers. The last bit of advice would have to be, believe in yourself.

LJ for MBR: That was very well put. Thoughtful, sensible and to the point.

For my final question, is there anything you wish I had asked you? Or are there any thoughts you want to leave with our readers before we bring this interview to an end?

E.L.B.: I will admit that I could talk to you for a while, the experience has been that wonderful. As far as I can tell, there really is nothing more that you could have asked. I do want to thank the Midwest Book Review and you Laurel, for taking the time and having the interest in someone who is trying to break into this business. This is a rough road to hoe, and having you take the time to ask me a few questions makes me feel like a winner.

The one thing that I would like to leave you and your readers with is this: Books are one of the few treasures in life. Whether you pick up a book and love it or hate it, at least you have taken the time to expand your horizon. Someone took the time to write it, and it is up to readers to take something away from the experience. I have heard it said that most people don't even have one book in them. So when you pick up a book, settle down on the couch or that favorite chair, take the time to really read what the author has written, and hopefully you will discover something you never knew, an emotion you never felt or a thrill that makes it all worth while. I have read many books that I simply did not like, however, I have always respected the authors that have written them. In the end, I can honestly say that I have learned something with each book that I have read. I am sorry if I came off like a writer, but that is me and it is what I do and what I love.

Thank you again for the opportunity to chat with you Laurel. I want to extend my wishes for many years of success for the Midwest Book Review. It has been a pleasure dealing with you and your organization.

LJ for MBR: You're welcome, E.L. And thank you for taking time to talk with me today. I do want to give our readers the url to your website and publisher. www.elburton.com and www.1stbooks.com.

$oft Money: The True Power In Our Nation's Capitol
E.L. Burton
1st Books
2595 Vernal Pike, Bloomington IN 47404
ISBN 1-58820-403-0, 212 pp at 9.95 paperback or 4.95 e-book

I've heard it said that as long as the public has "theirs" - meaning the good life - they don't care how down, dirty, and lethal politics is played in our nation's capitol. In this fictional account of how money rules our government, the public doesn't get enough truthful information out of D.C. to make that decision either way. In $oft Money, power begats power, money begats more money, and only a privileged few rake in the bounty. And the American taxpayers, who closed their eyes while career politicians took over, are reaping the bitter harvest.

E.L. Burton has created a fast-paced thriller that entertains and intrigues. I couldn't put it down. It's packed from start to end with avaricious power hungry villains, the hapless folks they victimize, and idealistic men who take an honest stand. His characters are well-developed and defined.

Clay Danvers is the smooth talking, good looking spin doctor who serves a popular President. Clay considers himself to be a skilled, well-paid assassin. No, he doesn't actually KILL people, but he brings about their downfall until they might as well be dead. Whatever scruples Clay once had are long since buried by his crimes.

Preston Wesley is the people-friendly, charismatic President of the United States. A covert group of wealthy, powerful, and ruthless men stay busy day and night maintaining Pres. Wesley's front and ensuring all skeletons of the past stay hidden.

The undisputed leader of the covert group is Mike Baker, President and CEO of Bytes Technology. Mike is a billionaire many times over from his computer software business, but even billions are not enough to sooth his greed for more money and increasing power. Mike is vicious, a puppet master with a passion to control the President and all he stands for.

Lawrence Brazelton is one of the unfortunates the group has sacrificed in protection of the President. He's lost everything dear to him, but isn't quite the broken man he seems. He has the hope of loving for a second time and finding life outside the Beltway, if he can just live long enough to make it happen. Lawrence has a covert op of his own underway, and neither the President nor his cohorts will like it much. Paybacks will be hell if Lawrence Brazelton has his way.

I couldn't wait to see the bad guys taken down in this one, and held my breath in hopes that at least one good guy survived to make it happen. Mr. Burton does a fine job of holding the reader's interest, and introduces subjects that will keep you pondering after the book ends. For certain, I will never use a cell phone, telephone, or connect to the internet again without thinking of this author and $oft Money.

I reviewed E.L. Burton's first book, $oft Money, for the August Reviewer's Bookwatch. I chose to interview him because of both his spoken and unspoken philosophy.

LJ for MBR: Your first book, $oft Money, had all the intrigue and excitement of any action thriller I have seen in recent years. Your fictional accounting of the underside of politics in Washington DC was believable and had the ring of truth to it. What gave you the idea to write this book, and what, if any, research did you do to give it that realistic edge?

E.L.B.: What a fun question!! I think that the reason you felt that $oft Money had a true ring to it was because in reality it is not too far from the truth. Just look at how bloated government has become. Look at the laws that have been written and passed that have no bearing on or concern for the average citizen. I believe that the government envisioned by our forefathers has been corrupted by the flow of money and the access that it provides. On the final pages of $oft Money I wrote:

"The vision conceived by the founders of this great nation in reference to the structure and nature of government has drifted farther and farther from its original course and ultimate destination. Gone are the ideals that embodied political aspirations of generations past, whose sole purpose was to aspire to office, to step in and serve his fellow man, and bring with him the wisdom of a life's work. Those intrinsic values have been replaces with individuals that have earned the moniker, Career Politician."

The makeup of government should be that of people like you or me. People who have labored in the private sectors and lived a life outside the beltway. Instead we have elected and re-elected professional politicians, people who have lost touch with what it means to be average. Even those who come up the honest way, are soon pulled in by the lure money and the power that follows. I could go off on a rant here, but I will save it for another day.

The inspiration for $oft Money really came from viewing what we have now and comparing it to what I think that our founding fathers had envisioned. One of the other inspirational factors was the election held in 2000. The massive amount of money generated by both parties really got me cooking.

As far as research, I read any and all articles that pertained to political campaigns as well as special interest groups. C-SPAN provided me with a real look at the process. The various talk shows that permeate the airways provided me with some of the fodder for my work. As far as some of the technological aspects of the book, I spent time on the internet researching what is available. The internet is a phenomenal research tool.

We live in very interesting times. We have more access to our government and how it works than in any other time in history. I truly believe that we will see a profound change in government in our lifetime. As people take the time to really see what is going on, more and more will find some of the outrage that I expressed in $oft Money. I guess that will occur when people have finally seen enough and had enough.

LJ for MBR: Your answer revealed the side of E.L. Burton that prowls the information highway, devouring tidbits and grist to file away for future action thrillers. And your website says you're working on a second book, as yet unnamed. Have you come up with a working title for that book yet? Tell us just a bit about it so we know what to anticipate.

E.L.B.: The working title for my next book is Conspiracy of Fear. I love politics, and I have what some might call a bit of a conspiratorial mind. The topic of Gun Control has always been a hotly debated subject within our society. Also, there has been an explosion of random acts of violence within our school systems, workplaces, etc... In Conspiracy of Fear I have decided to combine the two elements. Politicians and their hunger to write and pass new legislation, and people who for one reason or another walk into school or their place of employment and start shooting.

I decided to write it because I asked myself over and over: Why are so many kids, businessmen, etc... going off and killing randomly in schools and workplaces? I was also fascinated by the fact that legislators continually want to write new legislation surrounding guns, without any thought of trying to enforce the many laws that are currently on the books. So you take the explosion of violence and the debate over gun control, combine it with my twisted conspiratorial mind and walah!! You have a "Conspiracy of Fear" Those entities who want to remove guns from society, versus those who believe it is constitutional right.

The book is based on the theory that the only way that our government will get firearms out of our hands is if we as a society demand it. Currently the country is polarized and frozen in a stalemate. Conspiracy of Fear deals with the means to an end, the end of gun ownership in this country. The means to that end are conceived by members of our government coupled with members outside of government with a personal agenda. Their aim is to compel society to demand the removal of firearms from the fabric of society. The only thing standing in the way of that goal is Dr. Henry Stone, a medical examiner who discovers an anomaly in a young boy who had walked into his homeroom and opened fire on his classmates, killing several of them before dying himself.

I don't want to give too much of the story away. But rest assured, it is a fast paced story that delves into the underbelly of government, our military and the gruesome life of a medical examiner.

LJ for MBR: That one sounds like another riveting scenario and a book I'll label "must have, must read".

Alright, E.L. Our readers have learned a bit about you and your books, how you think along those lines. But there's more to E.L. Burton than conspiracy theories and hard edged thrillers. I learned that from reading your website. Do you mind giving us a peek at your softer side for lack of better word? Hobbies? Other types of writing? Work world? Just tell us what you're comfortable with sharing.

E.L.B.: My softer side.... Well that is going to be a little tough. I never really take much time to look at myself. My website was done to showcase my book. I decided to add some short stories / essays that I wrote that were kind of a peek into my personal life. In a way, I do think that it is important for readers to get a look at who an author is outside of his or her work. I grew up in a very value driven family. My parents did an excellent job teaching me the value and meaning of life. They were awesome examples of how one should live their life. I owe a lot to my parents. Without the values that were driven into me at an early age, I probably would be wandering around, lost. I also wrote an essay about my wife, Kelly. She is the reason I am who I am today. She encouraged me and has supported me in pursuing my writing. There are a couple of others on the website as well.

As far as the "work world," I write full time. As we talked about earlier, I am writing Conspiracy of Fear at the moment. After I finish that book, I will spend several months doing research for the next book. I hope to be able to complete one book every year for as long as people decide to read what I write. As for my past work life, I spent several years in corporate America. From sales, to sales management, to just plain old management of a company. Many days of customers, numbers and personnel. But in the back of my mind there was always a little voice that yearned to be heard. So here I am, listening to that little voice and hitting the keyboard.

As far as hobbies go, well, I enjoy fishing. My family has a cabin in the White Mountains of Arizona. Your readers have probably never heard of the White Mountains, until this year. It was the location of the largest fire in the US this year. Thankfully, we stayed out of the path, but a lot of people lost everything. I usually go up there and spend the summer writing and fishing. Fishing helps me creatively, I write in the mornings and then I fish in the afternoon. The next day the process starts over again and that goes on until I come down from the mountain with a completed MS. The only reason I am home now is because I am headed for Los Angeles to meet with an agent who has expressed interest in representing $oft Money as a mass market paperback, and for other various rights.

LJ for MBR: OH how exciting! Those are magic words that every author yearns to hear. "Interested agent." "Mass Market Paperback." And the ever intriguing "other various rights"! Of course, what comes to mind is MOVIES! Let's play a little here, E.L. Indulge me. If you could choose any actor at all to play the main male character in $oft Money, who would it be?

E.L.B.: I don't want to put the cart before the horse here. I think we are a long way from "interested agent" to "who would be playing the lead character". But if we are going to play I would have to go with Ed Harris. Lawrence Brazelton's character seems to fit him best. He is an accomplished actor who has proven that he can play roles that are dramatic in nature as well as that of an action figure. Lawrence is smart, dramatic, and as the story progresses, he becomes somewhat of an action oriented man. As I wrote $oft Money, and as I write Conspiracy of Fear, I do tend to put faces with the characters I create. It helps to write the story if I can play the scenes and the dialogue over in my head. The character of Kelly Ford, Lawrence's interest in the $oft Money, was Laura Dern. I drew a picture in my mind of Clay Danvers from two sources, the actor Billy Bob Thornton and the Political Consultant James Carville.

LJ for MBR: I put faces with characters when I read also, but I saw Billy Bob Thornton as Lawrence Brazelton. Of course, I think Billy Bob can play every male character in every book. Thanks for indulging my whimsy just this once.

Alright, E.L., let's return to the subject of writing. If you were in a position to advise aspiring writers, what would you tell them, based on your experience?

E.L.B.: That is an interesting question. I look at myself as simply an aspiring author. My hope is that no matter what level of commercial success that I may experience, I will always be simply an aspiring writer. I guess if I were to give advice, I would have to say start slow. Read everything you can on the craft of writing. Establish whether or not this is something you want to pursue. If you feel passionate about writing, if you feel like you have a message, then you can move on. Timelines are your enemy, creativity can not be forced, take your time and begin the creative process.

I have heard it said that everyone has a third place. Meaning that most people have home life, work life, and the third place is where you go to find peace and comfort from the rigors of life. Find your third place and that is where you will find the inspiration to create.

Develop a thick skin, you will need it. It comes in handy as the form rejection letters roll in. Breaking into this business is rough. People could care less about you or what you have written. Unless you are one of the very rare few, who writes a bestseller on the first go around, unless you know someone in the literary community, be prepared to have to earn your shot. I have been at this for several years, and I am just now getting a foot in the door. Mind you, we are talking a foot here. This is a slow and methodical process, one that is fraught with rejections, setbacks and endless re-writes. Take pride in your work, research the proper way to format and submit a manuscript to prospective agents and publishers. The last bit of advice would have to be, believe in yourself.

LJ for MBR: That was very well put. Thoughtful, sensible and to the point.

For my final question, is there anything you wish I had asked you? Or are there any thoughts you want to leave with our readers before we bring this interview to an end?

E.L.B.: I will admit that I could talk to you for a while, the experience has been that wonderful. As far as I can tell, there really is nothing more that you could have asked. I do want to thank the Midwest Book Review and you Laurel, for taking the time and having the interest in someone who is trying to break into this business. This is a rough road to hoe, and having you take the time to ask me a few questions makes me feel like a winner.

The one thing that I would like to leave you and your readers with is this: Books are one of the few treasures in life. Whether you pick up a book and love it or hate it, at least you have taken the time to expand your horizon. Someone took the time to write it, and it is up to readers to take something away from the experience. I have heard it said that most people don't even have one book in them. So when you pick up a book, settle down on the couch or that favorite chair, take the time to really read what the author has written, and hopefully you will discover something you never knew, an emotion you never felt or a thrill that makes it all worth while. I have read many books that I simply did not like, however, I have always respected the authors that have written them. In the end, I can honestly say that I have learned something with each book that I have read. I am sorry if I came off like a writer, but that is me and it is what I do and what I love.

Thank you again for the opportunity to chat with you Laurel. I want to extend my wishes for many years of success for the Midwest Book Review. It has been a pleasure dealing with you and your organization.

LJ for MBR: You're welcome, E.L. And thank you for taking time to talk with me today. I do want to give our readers the url to your website and publisher. www.elburton.com and www.1stbooks.com.

Interview with Nancy Marie:

Nancy Marie is the author of When You Wish Upon a Star, which was reviewed in the June edition of Midwest Book Review. I wanted to interview Nancy Marie because I admire her writing style, and because I think she's capable of writing in a wide range of genre. Whatever Nancy Marie writes, whether it be romance, mystery, or thriller, is created for the Christian market.

LJ for MBR: Your first book, When You Wish Upon a Star, was one of my recent favorites. It had a little bit of everything in it - action, suspense, and romance. What gave you the idea to write this story about domestic violence and the subsequent redemption of two lives through courage and faith?

Nancy Marie: Boy! What a loaded question. When I resigned my position as a newspaper journalist to write novels, I decided (for once in my life) to follow the advice I had been given. That advice: write about what you know.

Well, I had tons of experience with domestic violence, I knew about it first-hand, so I decided to write about a woman who runs away from her violent husband with her kids and ends up in Colorado. That was what I did and that's where the basic plot for the book came from.

The rest is purely fiction, except for the emotional trauma Paige goes through. I drew heavily upon my own experiences of healing and recovering from abuse to add reality to the book. Even though most of the action/suspense in the book is fiction, Paige's reactions, her insecurities, her return to her faith, etc. are all drawn from my own life experiences.

About the courage issue, I don't know. People tell me I have a lot of courage, but I don't think of it that way. Sometimes life just gives you lousy choices, and you do what you have to do to make the best of those situations. I don't think of it as courage, and I don't think of Paige as being particulary courageous. She just did what she had to do.
In that way Paige and I are a lot alike. We're both some of the most fear-filled people I know, but neither one of us lets fear stop us from doing what has to be done. It's really a matter of practicality rather than courage. Courage is fighting a forest fire, taking a stand for something you believe in, or defending your family from attackers. Doing what has to be done, simply because you don't have any other choice, well...I don't call that courage. When you're backed into a corner and the only way out is forward, well it makes sense to go forward. Doesn't it?

LJ for MBR: That answer is a good example of why your book was so effective. You wrote what you knew, you did it very well, and infused your lead character with the same quiet, unassuming courage you just demonstrated in your answer. Thank you for being honest.

I know you have a second book in the works now. Would you mind giving our readers a small preview of it?

Nancy Marie: Actually, I have three more novels completed and one non-fiction book finished also.

Two of the fiction novels are part of a series. They are Benjamin's Bride and Jinger's Journey. Both of these feature three main characters: Colorado Bureau of Investigations Agent Bob Barnes (aka Bird), Father Casey O'Flagherty and his mule Balaam. Together these three tackle a variety of complex mysteries and problems. In Benjamin's Bride, they track down a cult that has been kidnapping women. In Jinger's Journey, they try to save a teen-age girl from a group of Satanists.

In future novels in this series, such as Daniel's Deliverance, Pollie's Poverty, Rozzie's Redemption, and Abigal's Answer, Bird, Casey, and Balaam will track down international terrorists; uncover a plot to make euthanasia of the elderly and insane part of our "constitutional rights"; expose a mad scientist who has developed a 30-day strain of AIDS and is infecting prostitutes. I could go on but I won't. Let's just say I've got titles and plots to cover every letter in the alphabet.

Each novel deals with a current social issue as well as Christianity's ability or inability to deal with it. All are suspense novels with lots of action. I dunno but maybe somewhere along the line, in one of them, I may let Bird fall in love and get married. I do like to write romances.

I have to admit I kind of fell in love with Bird as I was developing his character. He's human, not real great, but trying hard to be better. I also got a kick out of creating Father Casey O'Flagherty. He's a charasimatic Catholic priest with very unorthodox beliefs, so much so that his mother church sent him on a mandatory sabbatical. He has a bad cussing habit for which he is forever repenting and failing and repenting again. And then there's Balaam. That mule is me in many ways and it is fun being rebellious, stubborn and sometimes plain mean and ornry through this character.

Walking In Faith, my third finished novel, is a romance that deals with both illegal and prescription drug abuse, and deliverance.

But my favorite book so far is my newest one, my first non-fiction book, Buttercups for Jesus: Reflecting His Light in Your Life. I can't really say why this book has such a hold on me. I wrote it in just a little over a month, and the writing process itself was exciting and consuming. I lived and breathed nothing but "Buttercups" the whole time I was writing it.
Part of me thinks I should add a subtitle to "Buttercups" and call it "Confessions of a Neurotic Christian" because I used my own personal failings and humilations as teaching examples of what not to do, and was as absolutely and completely honest as I know how to be. But then I show how God used those lessons to make me better and to "let His light shine through to others" which is the whole point of the book.

Hopefully these books, and all the others I want to write, will be in print someday.

LJ for MBR: Your distinctive writing style is one reason I wanted to interview you. It was what and HOW you told your story in When You Wish Upon a Star that blurred the genre edges and gave it a mainstream feel. Was that style unique to Star, or do you employ different writing techniques in the series books you mentioned?

Nancy Marie: When You Wish Upon A Star was unusual in that I did cross-over several genres, something you're not supposed to do. Benjamin's Bride also crosses-over into romance, suspense, and inspiration. Jinger's Journey does also, only it's a paranormal-suspense novel. Walking in Faith is a straight romance with a lot of action. About Buttercups for Jesus, though I can't really say because it's non-fiction and it has to be different from fiction.

I guess I could say all the books are written in the style that I enjoy reading: fast-paced, not too much descriptive narrative, and based as closely to reality as I can make them.

LJ for MBR: I would have said the opposite, Nancy Marie. Your use of descriptive narrative was what appealed to me. I loved your choice of words and how you used them.

You've shown us that your walk of Christian faith is a major focus of your life. Other than your marriage, family and writing - which go without saying of course - what other aspects of your life take a priority?

Nancy Marie: School is a real priority for me right now. I will be a senior at the end of August, and am planning to have my Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies by next May. I will be throwing a big, big graduation party and EVERYBODY'S INVITED. (GRIN!)

Do I sound a little excited? I am. You see, I never graduated from high school. They didn't have all those programs for unwed, pregnant teenagers back in the days when "good girls didn't do things like that."

And, it's way to late for me to go to my junior ball or senior prom, so I am going to relive my teen-age years and have a real college graduation with the cap and gown and the whole nine yards. And a BIG PARTY!

In addition to that B.A. in Religious Studies, I will graduate with a specialization in Spirituality and two minors in History and Communications. And, unless I screw-up between now and then, I will also be graduating with a 4.0 GPA. And, yes I am bragging, and yes I am an over-achiever, but this is really, really important to me.

When you've been abused, you start thinking you are "less-than" everybody else. You start believing that you must be inferior, or else why would your loved one treat you so badly? And then it becomes a reality. You start acting and thinking like "less-than" everybody else.

So, after years of healing, when I decided to go back to school, I was out to prove something to myself. I am not "less-than." And of course with my obessive/compulisve nature, I not only have to not be "less-than," I have to be perfect.

To be honest, I can't wait until I get my B.A. so that I can let up on myself in graduate school. I figure by that time I will have already proven I can get a 4.0 GPA. I won't have to do it again in graduate school, and can take things a little easier.

I know, I am neroutic, but it works for me.

LJ for MBR: I'd say calling yourself an "over achiever" is an understatement! I've been humbled good and proper by your answer.

By now, with one book out there and several more to follow, you could offer words of experience or encouragement to other writers. What would you say to aspiring writers who ask for words of wisdom, knowing what you know now?

Nancy Marie: That's real simple. First learn the basics. If you didn't learn the difference between accept and except, they're and their and there, way, weigh, and whey, and other word choices like that in school, or if you just don't remember, re-learn it. If you don't know not to put quotation marks around internal thoughts, then learn it. In other words, know how to write a proper sentence, use words properly, and the difference between showing and telling.

All of this is quite simple to learn and there many excellent tools out there to help you learn these things. I recommend Sol Stein's, How to Grow a Novel and Strunk and White's, The Elements of Style to begin with. Then, when you have written the next "great American novel," get and use, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

If I sound a little adamant about this, it is because I am. One of my pet peeves is writers who haven't taken the time to learn the basics and refuse to learn them. All they do is clutter up editors and publishers desks with unpublishable manuscripts. Don't let your manuscript fall into that category. Believe me, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't learn the basics you are never going to get published by a traditional publisher. Yes, there are POD publishers who will publish anything. But if you are serious, if you really want to become a well-known and respected writer, learn the basics.

Next and last, never, ever, ever give up. Getting published by a traditional publisher not a POD or Vanity Press, is hard, hard, hard. But it can be done if you learn the basics, believe in yourself, and never, ever give-up.

I strongly suggest getting involved in a writers group, either in-person or on the Internet and there must be thousands of writers groups on the internet. These groups not only provide you with motivation to keep going when you've just received your bizillionth rejection letter, but will often provide you with valuable critiques of your work from which you can learn, and thus become a better writer.

Writing is like playing the piano. You may have a natural talent for it, but unless you practice, practice, practice and learn, your talent will not get any better.

Never for a moment, not ever, think that you've learned all there is to learn. Don't be so closed-minded and protective of your "baby" that you can not accept helpful criticism when it is offered. The English language is a complex, complicated and beautiful thing, and it is the medium through which writers communicate. Because of the complications of the language, it therefore makes sense that there will always be a better word, a better phrase, a better sentence to communicate what you are trying to say. Don't be stubborn, accept the fact that you can do better, and keep trying to improve your work. You will benefit by getting published, and the readers will benefit by finding a book they can easily understand and enjoy.

LJ for MBR: Good answer, Nancy Marie, and good practical advice.

It's time to wind things down here, but before we do, is there anything else you'd like readers to know about you, or anything you wish I'd asked?

Nancy Marie: Yes, I'd like to invite your readers to visit my website at www.nancymarie.com. And I love to get e-mails from people! My book is available on the Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, and buy.com websites.

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to tell a bit about myself.

LJ for MBR: You're more than welcome, Nancy Marie. I appreciate your time, and wish you well in everything you do.

Flowers For Megan
Gloria Davidson Marlow
PublishAmerica
PO Box 151, Frederick MD 21705-0151
ISBN 1-58851-715-2, 184 pp at 19.95 paperback

Will Kinkaid was born exactly three hours before Megan Hardy in their tiny, safe Florida hometown. Through the years of childhood, they live as next door neighbors, share birthdays and holidays, and are such inseparable friends that everyone calls them "the twins". By their last year of high school, Will has moved beyond that, to thinking of his long time friend and confidant in far less platonic terms. But instead of easing into the more adult stage of their relationship as Will hopes, the friends encounter horror unimaginable.

After a day of swimming with their friends, Megan returns home to find her sister, niece and nephew murdered in a blood soaked bedroom. Will is right behind her, drawn into the gory scene by Megan's screams. Neither of them fare well in the aftermath of bloody murder. Megan grieves incessantly and withdraws into a near catatonic silence that lands her in a mental hospital. Will, in typical male fashion, denies the horror, tamps it down inside his mind. And every time he sees the grieving Megan, his heart and spirit break a little more for what might have been between them. Will knows he won't survive the sorrow or the memories very long, so he moves away from family and Megan. Twelve years later, he returns.

Neither Will nor Megan expect their youthful ties to be intact, but both pick up where they left off without missing a beat. They still share an easy camaraderie, a special brand of humor and a kinship that goes beyond explaining. And the teenage ardor Will tried to hide when they were younger rapidly becomes the openly desirous kisses, looks and touches of a man in love. Just when I was settling into the relationship and hoping it would work this time, a whole new set of murders begin. Monstrous, inexplicable murders. And Megan starts receiving gifts accompanied by flowers, just like the flowers that arrived the day her sister, niece and nephew were murdered.

"Roses for funerals, flowers for Megan"
A murderer so far gone in madness thinks and speaks those words aloud in a quest to separate her from anyone who might keep them apart. The demented monster kills with a message in mind, murders according to well laid plan. It soon becomes apparent, as both Will and others struggle to protect her, that the killer plans to drive Megan insane or be the instrument of her death, or maybe both.

Ms. Marlow really told this story well, with words that raced across each page in a style I found quite pleasing. Her characters were believable and charismatic. The relationship of Will and Megan was detailed realistically, with honest feelings and emotions. The author knew what she was doing from start to finish of this story. Any reader who likes mystery, suspense, or romance should enjoy this book immensely.

Sarawak
Jerry Mohrlang
PublishAmerica
PO Box 151, Frederick MD 21705-0151
ISBN 1-59129-336-7, 352 pp at 24.95 paperback

The year is 1824, in those glorious days when the sun never set on the British Empire. They were days of exploration into exotic lands and grand adventures on the high seas, days when young men dreamed of making their mark on the world in impossible ways. It was an epoch that would change the world we know in ways beyond imagination.

Lt. James Brooke of the East India Company has been commissioned by the King, as were his father and grandfather before him. From a life of ease and privilege in England, he travels across the world to India and Burma. Never one to knuckle under to authority and constraints, Lt. Brooke dreams of gaining riches and fame in the Far East. Not even devotion to his father or love for the far-from-innocent Elizabeth Wethington can deter that dream for long.

Despite his young age, James Brooke is blessed with a force of character and courage that inspires the men he leads in battle. Those who opt to stay beside him when he resigns his commission are an odd mix. Si Tundok is an imposing half-breed Malay, devoted to no man or cause until he meets Lt. Brooke. Henry Steele is a rough-around-the-edges Welshman and former soldier of the King's Army. Captain Timothy Irons is a seaman who finds more adventure than he wanted in the company of Brooke. Dr. Arthur Claygate and his wife Margaret find in James a humorous compatriot and friend.

Random happenings and chance circumstance throw James into the adventure he seeks. He finds his way to Borneo, to Sarawak. And what an unexpected life he finds there, one of breathless wonder at the land itself and an unanticipated sympathy for the native peoples living there. Through the eyes and experiences of James and his friends, the reader meets headhunters, fierce warriors, gentle jungle dwellers, and the cruel despots who have plundered Sarawak for years. The author leads us into the lives and longhouses of each tribe James encounters - the Punan, Kayan, Iban, Bidayuh, and Maylay - and documents their differences in entertaining style. We meet the villains of this story and learn to hate them for their callous greed. Worst of all is the Maylay prince, Api, who taxes his own people to the point of starvation, and whose taste for cruelty is worsened by the impotence he tries to hide. Not far behind Api is Geoff, the foulest Englishman who ever graced a literary page. Loi Pek, the Chinaman, cares little for anyone or anything but opium and gold.

James Brooke becomes Rajah of Sarawak, and soon develops an almost fatherly concern for the native people. He gains cooperation from all tribes because of their superstitions and beliefs. James is tall, an imposing figure to the short and stocky tribesmen. Brave in battle, as ferocious as the most successful headhunter, James "casts a long shadow", and one the natives would find difficult to bury.

Sarawak is what might have been labeled an epic tale or sweeping saga in earlier times. Through what must have been diligent research, Mr. Mohrlang makes this story come alive. A decidely masculine writing style and focus adds to the feeling that this is James Brooke's story, told from his perspective in another time and age. For readers who are history lovers, Sarawak is a must read. For those who think that history is boring, there should be enough adventure, romance, violence, warring and intrigue between these covers to satisfy. I recommend this book, and wonder what Jerry Mohrlang could possibly do to top it. I'm hoping for a continuation of the James Brooke story.

Undo The Deed
Adam Michael James
PublishAmerica
P.O. Box 151, Frederick MD 21705-0151
ISBN 1-58851-795-0, 409 pp at 29.95 paperback

What if you found yourself transported back in time, to another generation? And what if you had the opportunity to undo all the awful karma that had been handed down to you from your parents and grandparents? Don't try to think those questions through logically or explain them away by scientific means. Just feel, accept, and think about the possibility of undoing awful deeds. That is what Adam-Michael James presents in this parable of domestic violence and child abuse.

The year is 1987. Amanda Grant has just been badly beaten, kicked and choked by her alcoholic father, Matthew. As far back as her memory will go, all Amanda can remember of her father is terrifying alcoholic rampages and vicious fists. She has all but given up on youthful dreams of writing songs or finding stardom as an actress. And she's prayed for death, contemplated suicide, and covered bruises with make up until she's wearied of it all. After Matthew almost kills her, the beaten down 17 year old is driving blindly to an unknown destination. All she remembers is bright lights, a tree, and then her world goes black.

She wakes up in the hospital to find a different world. Suspicious doctors, nurses, and police officers believe that all her injuries could not be caused by the accident. At least not those choke marks on her throat. Amanda observes the strangely skewed world around her, finally realizing she is in the year 1965. She is befriended by a kindly sympathetic couple, and by a teacher who knows far more than he lets on about time travel. And that is just the bare beginning of it.

1965 is a whole new way of life for Amanda. Gone are Madonna and the Bangles, and in their place are the Beatles and folk music. The Vietnam war is just an obscure skirmish in some far off jungle. Sex is not openly discussed, even if you're doing "it", and discussing domestic violence or child abuse with anyone is certainly taboo. Amanda struggles, not always successfully, to fit into this new world. And the worst part of it, the most mind blowing, heart chilling part of it all is that the teenage version of her father Matthew is a student at her school.

The 1965 version of Matthew Grant is a sweet, shy, idealistic boy who plays piano and keeps his deep thoughts to himself. This Matthew, like Amanda, is the product of a violently dysfunctional home and a father who beats him without mercy. Amanda can't despise this Matthew as she does the older version. The 17 year old boy is kindly and supportive, still has hopes and dreams despite his lot, and she finds herself drawn to him in odd fashion. It's then she gets to thinking that it might be possible to "undo the deed" for future generations - change the abusive father Matthew's heart by intervening somehow with the boy. When the young Matthew falls in love with her, the tale takes an even stranger turn.

What Mr. James has done with this story was an emotional experience for me. To say the reading of it broke my heart is barest understatement. Despite the premise that some will call sci fi or fantasy, it all seemed real to me. While reading, I did not think of time travel, parallel universes, alternate realities. or quantum leaps. I focused, as the author did, on Matthew and Amanda and the horrors they were forced to live each day. I experienced the same futility and despair they lived with, and I dared to hope along with them that someday - SOME day - they'd find a kindlier existence. I'm relieved to report that the book does end on a hopeful note for both Amanda and her father Matthew.

As a footnote to Undo the Deed, Adam-Michael James has included resources for those experiencing domestic violence and child abuse. I suspect he is a weary but determined activist for this cause. Mr. James writes well and tells the tale as if he's on the outside looking into broken lives. I liked this book and recommend it, even if Undo the Deed DID break my heart.

Interview with John LaurenceRobinson:

John Laurence Robinson is an enigma, a man and author not easily revealed.. But I think he is a man of hope and humor who is also capable of blind-siding readers with raw emotions that shock and devastate. He is a Christian man who has not forgotten those dark days before his walk with Christ began. Everything he is, was, or ever will be is present in his prose. Since reading his first book, Sock Monkey Blues, he has become one of my of favorite authors.

LJ for MBR: Your first book, Sock Monkey Blues, is a mystery suspense novel with a strong vein of humor running through it. It was an entertaining read, well written, but that is not what lingered once the book was done. What surprised me was your range - the way you pulled such a variety of emotions from unexpected depths and made me feel them with you - and your writer's "voice". Your style of writing is unique. Have you crafted your individual style through study, or does it come naturally?

JLR: Thanks for the kind words, Laurel. As a writing "newbie", I'm still a bit disconcerted to find people actually seem to like my work. I'd say the answer to this question is, a bit of both. I come from a long line of "talkers". My grandfather used to joke that he could talk the hind legs off a mule. Like my protagonist Joe Box, I also come from strong hillbilly stock. My clan enjoys storytelling, and perhaps Joe's "voice" comes somewhat naturally from my own family memories. But having said that, I've also tried to stay teachable. I work daily at reading works from folks who've paid their dues at the craft, and know the struggles we writers are heir to. Did I just end that sentence with a preposition? Heaven forfend!

LJ for MBR: Don't start me laughing this early in the interview, John! By your answer, I understand that you have not studied writing at the university level then, but drew your style from the world around you and by reading the works of those writers you admire. Who are some of your favorite writers and why?

JLR: Oh golly. Well, let's do fiction first. On the secular side I'd have to go with Robert Crais and James Lee Burke. Both of these guys are absolutely at the top of their craft, and always surprise you. On the Christian side, I like James Scott Bell and Al Gansky. And Frank Peretti, of course. Ya gotta love Peretti; he broke the trail for the rest of us. Plus Jim Bell and I have gotten to be good friends since we met at Glorieta two years ago, and he and Karen Kingsbury helped mentor me on Sock Monkey Blues. Matter of fact, you'll find their names on the dedication page.

For nonfiction Christian writing, anything by Penelope Stokes and Sally Stuart; both these ladies have forgotten more than I'll ever know about putting words on paper. And for nonfiction secular, anything by P. J. O'Rourke. If you think no one could do comedy explaining how the United States government works, read Parliament of Whores by O'Rourke and be proven wrong. He's hands-down the funniest writer on the planet...next to me of course. JUST A JOKE, FOLKS!

LJ for MBR: Much of your preferred reading seems to be works by Christian writers, and an underlying chord in Sock Monkey Blues makes your Christian belief system clear. Peretti, for example, writes stories that appeal beyond the Christian readership. Your book is the same, in my opinion. Is it hard to write a rock 'em, sock 'em, exciting book like yours and stay within the guidelines of your faith?

JLR: Hard?? Oh, darlin', if you only knew! I've been a Christian now for over twenty-five years, but back in my "B.C." days I was quite the heathen...I'll just let your readers' imaginations fill in the gaps on that. One of the things I've really enjoyed over the years is detective writing, but so much of it is filled with profanity and sex that, to me, it gets in the way of the story. So what I've done with my Joe Box character is to take that knight-errant of popular fiction--the rough-edged, hard-drinking, worldly-beyond-belief private eye--then get him saved and turn him loose. The challenge is to chronicle Joe's resulting life in novels that contain no profanity or sex, but still are gritty enough so an unsaved person can enjoy them. The results of these efforts, I felt, would be interesting, to say the least. I'll leave it to the reading public to see if I've succeeded.

LJ for MBR: If Sock Monkey Blues is an example, you have succeeded beyond your hopes in appealing to the reading public at large, regardless of their spiritual beliefs..

Alright, John, let's get serious now. No jokes about this one, although I do appreciate your humor. As a reviewer, I sometimes sense the author's true self "shining through" the prose when I read. That was very much evident in yours. You've made it clear where your humor comes from. Will you reveal a little about the deep felt, let's say more tender side of you that caught me off guard in your book? That had to be present, even before you became a Christian.

JLR: Tender side? That's a tough one. If I had a tender side before I became a Christian, it must have been pretty well hidden, as I really was a selfish, hard-hearted cuss. Even today, twenty-five years after starting this journey of faith, I sometimes have trouble keeping my flesh under and letting the heart of Christ show through. And that's really all that he asks of us, isn't it? To be his heart and hands to a dying planet? But as I walk it out, and daily make a conscious decision to let Jesus have his way with me, it gets easier by degrees. In another thousand years or so I should have it licked. (grin) Sorry, I couldn't help it.

LJ for MBR: Tender was probably the wrong choice of words on my part. It was the closest I could come to describing that undercurrent of emotion that gave Joe Box his depth, and a sense of your range as writer, as if you had barely begun to skim the surface of your capabilities with this first book. I'll try to breech the subject more directly.

Sock Monkey Blues is your first book and I know you're working on a sequel, Until the Last Dog Dies. First, tell us a little about this second book in your Joe Box series.

JLR: I'm really cranked about this one! DOG takes place three months after SOCK's conclusion, and once again Joe is in trouble up to his neck. But this trouble stems from a nightmarish situation he'd encountered thirty years ago in Vietnam, when his platoon was picked to go and eliminate a deadly VC gunman known only as Sammy the Sniper. In the past six weeks Sammy had killed over twenty-two high-ranking South Vietnamese officers, and the US brass wanted him dead in the worst way. Three weeks later Joe and his men find him, but his identity comes as a shock. Now the man they'd sworn to kill is whisked off by the government and locked up in a mental hospital, supposedly for life. Three decades later he's pronounced cured. Of course he isn't, and now Sammy is crossing the country, and one by one killing every member of Joe's old unit that had put him away. DOG is the story of Joe going from hunted to hunter, and in the process discovering even more about himself.

LJ for MBR: Great premise! If it is even HALF as good as your first it will be tremendous, but from that description I suspect you will surpass yourself.

Do you have any other books in the pipeline, anything you're working on that you'd care to share with our readers?

JLR: Yeah, I do. One book that's completely done, and in the hands of my agent, is called Gravity Fades. It's not a Joe Box piece, but is instead an end-times thriller with a twist. The premise is simple: the Bible is clear that no one knows the day or the hour of the rapture, but it DOESN'T say we won't know the month. Or the week... Gravity Fades is based on exactly just such a supposition: what if you knew? What if every Christian on the face of the earth suddenly had two words dropped in their hearts: This Week. How would you live those remaining hours differently? Or would you? Like Until the Last Dog Dies, there are some extensive combat scenes, as well as a subplot of satanists trying to kill everyone in a church before the rapture hits. It's quite off-the-wall, and maybe not to everyone's liking...but I think it's swell. (grin) And of course the next Joe Box adventure, entitled Embrace the Scorpion, is in the wings. (Each Joe Box book has an animal in the title, as you can tell). Other than that, I'm free for lunch!

LJ for MBR: What a great roster of books! I hope they all get published soon. That's a selfish hope on my part because I want to read them now, and not a year from now.

Sorry, John. You can't have lunch until this interview is wrapped up. I'll be merciful and wind it down with one last question. Is there anything you'd like your readers to know about you, or any question you secretly wish I'd asked you in this interview?

JLR: Yes. I'd like for the readers to know my secret vice. Here it is: I am a Mystery Science Theater 3000 junkie. YES, I know it's off the air. YES, I know the entire crew has moved on. But doggone it, I like it. I have nearly every episode ever done on tape, and, since my wife cannot abide the show in any way, many times I'll pop one in just to get a reaction. Does that make me bad? I'll leave that for others to judge. And for the question I wished you'd asked, it's this: why do hot dogs come eight to a package, while buns for the same are in packs of ten? Is Oscar Meyer TRYING to drive us mad?

LJ for MBR: Alright, John. I get the message. The eccentric author with the zany sense of humor wishes to remain somewhat a mystery, AND he's hungry. Thanks for coming out of hiding long enough to talk with me. I enjoyed it.

Now, go fix yourself a hot dog, pop your favorite episode of MST 3000 into the VCR and relax.

Editor's Note: The review of Sock Monkey Blues appeared in the July edition of "Reviewer's Bookwatch".

Sisters Forever
Sharon D. Martin
America House Book Publishers
PO Box 151, Frederick MD 21705-0151
ISBN 1-58851-589-3, 210 pp at 19.95 paperback

Sharon D. Martin begins this poignant tale in 1822 South Carolina. It's the Old South, that antebellum era of plantations and parties, southern belles and courtly gentlemen, free men and slaves. Into this world of privilege, April Marie Cothran is born to wealthy plantation-owner parents. April is born breech, a difficult and traumatic birth. She is the only child her mother will ever bear.

One month later, a 13 year old Cothran slave named Lilly gives birth to a girl child sired by a Mandingo warrior. April's mother names the newborn slave May. Lilly, little more than a child herself, is taken into the master's house as wetnurse for April. Thus begins this story of two lives that remain entwined together for a lifetime.

April and May - one the white child of privilege, the other a result of mating slaves like prize animals - are raised as siblings. These two children of diverse backgrounds are oblivious to color barriers and taboos of the time.

Southern race and class issues mean nothing to them. In their minds, they're sisters. Sisters forever.

Ms. Martin masterfully intertwines the lives of April and May through ensuing decades. Through marriage, births, joys, deaths, sorrows, the Civil War and its aftermath, the author shows us the lives of these two women. Along the way we witness human cruelty and courage, hatred and forgiveness , the blessings of unconditional love, and the surprise of reward and resurrection.

This is a beautiful story, written with honesty and compassion, about a time in our history that was not always pretty for either race. The surprise ending lays the groundwork for a sequel to Sisters Forever. Readers should prepare themselves for more southern history, and another well told story by Ms. Martin.

Interview with Dennis Collins:

I wanted to interview Dennis Collins because the main character of his first book, The Unreal McCoy, was a departure from conventional heroes. The author gave McCoy depth and heart beyond the usual in this genre, and his writing style is understated but effective.

LJ for MBR: I liked Albert McCoy the way you wrote him - slightly worn, quietly competent - as a realistic everyday man. And the subtle off hand way you breathed the heart and spirit into him impressed me. Why did you choose this type of hero for your first book instead of, say, a Dirty Harry type?

Dennis: I'm really glad that McCoy comes across that way. I didn't want another "Dirty Harry" or any other stereotype. What I was hoping for was a new character, one who was closer to being a real person.

When I was a kid, the man who lived next door was a Deputy Sheriff in the Detroit area and he would come home after work and play catch with us or roast marshmallows over a bonfire or any of the other things that dads do. I've always known that policemen had a human side and wondered why books and movies never showed it.

Actually, there is a private detective in the book too and he's not typical either. You won't find him hanging out on bars and whooping butt. If he's in a bar, he came in for a hamburger or to play the video games. His free time is usually spent on a trout stream.

When I began writing The Unreal McCoy, I wanted it to be believable and that starts with believable, human characters who act like humans. All of my characters have strengths and weaknesses, virtues and flaws, and determination and fear. I've attempted to keep the story intense by emotionally involving the reader.

LJ for MBR: You did involve THIS reader emotionally, and accomplished it in such a subtle way that it caught me off guard. I read and reread that passage where McCoy became real to me and I started to care about him and your story. Did you deliberately create that silent pathos at Mike O'Conner's bedside in the hospital, or did it just sort of happen that way?

Dennis: That was one of those things that just sort of happened (with a little nudge from a critic). That scene wasn't in the original manuscript. Before the book was published, I sent the first three chapters in to be critiqued at a writer's conference. The woman who read and discussed the sample chapters with me said that she liked the story but strongly suggested that I add something substantive to set in motion the bond between a veteran policeman and an unconscious beating victim. It needed to be a significant, unanticipated emotional event.

As soon as I wrote that part and then re-read it in context, I knew that I had it right. What you see there is the first and only draft. Imagining the scene in my mind, I put myself inside McCoy's head, looked through his eyes and simply wrote what I saw and felt.

LJ for MBR: For me, that "first and only draft" was THE pivotal passage in your book. I knew Albert McCoy's heart and character right then, and even marked that page. From that point on, you had me hooked.

So you had The Unreal McCoy critiqued at a writer's conference. Tell our readers what goes on at such conferences, and if, from your experience, the time and money spent attending is beneficial. Tell us what you think in general.

Dennis: I attend at least five writer's conferences a year. I believe that conferences are the most affordable and most effective networking resource that a writer has. One of the nicest features is that you can adjust your participation level to fit your own comfort zone.

When I first began attending them, I just sat in on the lectures and took notes. After I gained a little confidence, I began joining in the Q&A sessions and now I've moved on to doing presentations and sometimes TV interviews. I feel that you need the support and encouragement of your peers and this is how you get there. Even the most successful authors know how fragile the shell is around a manuscript. They come to conferences to help struggling authors. I highly recommend writer's conferences. Go at your own pace, but go.

LJ for MBR: The feeling I get is that you approach writing in a sensible, practical way, like you would a job. You're far enough along in the process that you could no longer be classified as novice. What advice would you give to unpublished writers, or those who are new to the business?

Dennis: I only write fiction so I can't tell you about anything else. Right now everything I write is part of a series featuring a core trio of characters. The plan was to get them all introduced in the first book and then have them step forward one at a time in subsequent novels. It's a blueprint pretty much tailored to this particular series.

When it comes to advice, it seems that we hear one phrase over and over. "Don't be discouraged by rejections and don't give up." I'm actually working my way through one of those struggles right now. I'm trying to find
representation for my latest book and I've felt the frustration.

If you have a finished manuscript, make sure that it's squeaky clean. punctuation and spelling errors can really distract an agent. Do your homework. Be sure that the agent you query handles your type of work. Check out the agent's submission guidelines. Don't try to be cute or fancy, but don't be afraid to make a strong statement with your query letter.

It's a real trial and error business. Every agent, editor and publisher is different with different tastes and preferences. They are your first customers. If you can get past them, the rest gets easier. You will get rejections, they're part of the landscape. File 'em and move on. Your agent is out there somewhere.

LJ for MBR: Thanks for that advice, Dennis. Knowing you learned it all first hand, the hard way, lends credence to your answer.

You mentioned The Unreal McCoy introduces characters in a series of books. Give our readers a little synopsis of the next book in this series. What is the name of it and is it completed yet?

Dennis: The next book in this series is titled, Turn left at September, and it's the story of Monica Wilson, a young girl who drifts into the wrong crowd and finds herself mired in the world of drug dealers. When she lands a job with an up and coming musical group, it looks like Monica's beautiful singing voice might provide her with a ticket out of this dark zone.

Billy Bones, the gang leader who controls the drug network is a ruthless killer who completely dominates his followers and never allows them to just walk away from him and his dirty business. He decides to make Monica an example for all to see. Monica is scheduled for a New Year's Eve appearance at a northern Michigan casino/ski resort and Billy has a stroke-of-midnight execution planned.

In this story, McCoy is given the opportunity to show a little more of his personality and I think you'll find him quite a likable guy. He develops a warm relationship with Ruby, a goodhearted waitress from Eddie's Bar on Detroit's east side. McCoy's partner, Otis Springfield has the chance to show his quick wit as well as his solid expertise as a policeman and their Private Investigator pal, Michael O'Conner begins to bloom as a dependable cohort.

The book is complete and ready for publication and I'm currently seeking representation.

LJ for MBR: I find adding the young and irrepressible Michael O'Conner into that already effective mix of main characters quite enticing. I'm really looking forward to reading this second book, so hope you find a publisher or agent fast!

Is there anything you wish I'd have asked you, Dennis, or any other bit of information you'd like to share with our readers about publishing or any other subject?

Dennis: Just a word about Michael O'Conner. He was the inspiration for this entire series.

Did you ever wonder how the tough guys like Mike Hammer and Sam Spade got started? At some point they must have been wide eyed rookies losing more fistfights than they won and tripping over their mistakes. We never seem to hear about those early days.

In The Unreal McCoy, Michael O'Conner is first introduced as an unconscious, anonymous beating victim lying in a hospital bed, his vulnerability undisguised. Readers will have the chance to witness the metamorphosis as Michael learns from his two mentors, McCoy and Otis Springfield. He is innocent enough to be non-threatening to the male readers and the female readers will want to mother him. The object is to make the reader feel as if they were part of Michael's growth process.

LJ for MBR: I get the sense that your writing style is refining and maturing right along with Michael O'Conner. If that is the case, Turn Left at September will be at least as good a read, if not better, than The Unreal McCoy.
Thanks Dennis. I appreciate your time.

Dennis: You're very welcome, Laurel.

Readers can learn more about Dennis Collins by visiting his website at
www.theunrealmccoy.homestead.com

Interview with Adam-Michael James:

I wanted to interview Adam-Michael James because he is a promising young writer and dedicated activist to a worthy cause. With Undo the Deed, he took a serious message and presented it in unique form and style.

LJ for MBR: I've read many books on child abuse, but never one like the story you created. Tell us what prompted you to write your story with the science fiction/time travel theme.

AMJ: Well, this is really going to date me, but this was back in 1986 when I was 17-I'm 33 now. I was still being abused emotionally, and I was going out with someone who was dealing with physical abuse on a regular basis, so the whole subject was really up in my face. It was right around the time Peggy Sue Got Married came out, plus I was still heavily enamored of Back to the Future. Somewhere in the back of my head, from around the age of 12, I'd decided if I ever got away from the abuse in my own home, I should try and help others not have to go through what I did, because back then abuse wasn't talked about the way it is now-hell, domestic violence wasn't even considered a crime then. So one day it all came together, kind of out of nowhere; I wish I could remember more specifically what happened the day I first came up with it. I'd always had these grandiose ideas, especially when it came to creating my own versions of movies and TV shows I liked, but I knew if I was going to do something like this, it had to be my own story, even if I allowed those influences in. It just made sense to me at the time, so I started laying the groundwork. It never occurred to me that my idea was all that different, but I've gotten plenty of raised eyebrows when I've broached the concept with people, so I guess it must be.

LJ for MBR - What you call "grandiose ideas" seem more like a creative force to me, especially after checking out your website. The many forms of creativity you pursue belies your young age. But I need to stay on track here.

I did get the sense while reading Undo the Deed that you were lightening a heavy subject by coming at it from an angle that might provide a broader message base. Tell us a bit about what you hoped to achieve, or what your thoughts were as you wrote this book..

AMJ: I'll go off that track with you for a moment just to clarify: Before Undo the Deed, most of anything I came up with-as an impressionable teenager, understand-were either spoofs or reworkings of pre-existing ideas; they weren't wholly my own. That's what I meant by "grandiose", but maybe that was a poor choice of words.

Getting back to your question.I didn't want to write something too intense and depressing, otherwise nobody would read it, and I certainly wouldn't want to write it. And I didn't feel it would do to have it be a one-message book, either. There are other characters and other facets to their lives.plus I wanted to have a little fun once in a while. I'm a big believer in humor-it's the A #1 reason I'm still here. In terms of my target readership.certainly a big section of that readership would be teenagers and young adults, but it's really intended for anyone old enough to understand what I'm talking about, say, from 13 on up. And I don't really consider this book science fiction, either, per se. It's the same idea-I wasn't thinking in genres or audiences when I wrote it. It's for anyone who can appreciate what I have to say and get something out of it. I like what Madonna once said about the marriage of art and commerce, and I've always tried to do that in anything I've created. If you're too specialized, you limit your audience, but if you're too commercial, you can come off as cheesy or sanitized. So it's a balancing act. I hope I've achieved that balance.

LJ for MBR: As an adult who is well past middle age, I can say with certainty that you accomplished what you set out to do. I bought into the "time travel" element - what I labeled sci fi - without question. The story drew me in and I believed it. The characters were sympathetic, believable, and real. That being said, I'm curious to know if you are working on another book. If so, will it be a departure from this one?

AMJ: In some ways yes, in some ways no. I have an idea, but my focus right now is getting this book out there, otherwise there won't be a next one. I'm not doing child abuse again, though, I will say that.

LJ for MBR: I thought Undo the Deed was well written and skillfully crafted. Have you studied writing or taken related college courses to help hone your natural abilities? I ask that because many writers have strong feelings one way or another about formal writing courses.

AMJ: You know, it is funny, because there really do seem to be two camps when it comes to studying writing. Myself, no; the only class I took was my Creative Writing class in high school. I see so many books on "how to write this" and "how to write that", and my feeling is---and I know this is a bit inflammatory---that if you need a book on writing to tell you how to write, then maybe you shouldn't be writing. That's just my feeling. I don't believe in doing much studying on it per se because I think it interferes with individual style, and that the creative process gets locked up if you get stuck thinking "this is how you're supposed to write". There's no "supposed to" anything. It happens to actors and musicians, too. Not that any of this means I'm against studying the creative arts as a whole. I just think people fall into a trap of thinking you're supposed to do things one way, and if you do them a different way, then you're not doing it right. The writing world, in particular, can be a bit pretentious in this area. I think it's important to not go too far the other way and be open to criticism and suggestions and changes, but in my mind, knowing if a story is working or not is instinctual and can't be learned in a classroom. Again, these are just my feelings about it.

LJ for MBR: Since you mentioned the creative arts and music, that gives me the perfect opening to bring up your other accomplishments. While preparing for your interview, I checked out your website. You've packed a lot of experience into your young life, and have accomplishments to be proud of besides your published book. Tell our readers a bit about your radio days, your acting aspirations, and anything else you'd like to share.

AMJ: Well, it's true I'm my own worst critic-compared to where I wanted to be by now...well, I'm nowhere near it. This book being published is, in my mind, my first major accomplishment. But yes, I have done quite a bit of radio, both professionally in Florida, as a DJ, and as a volunteer here in the Los Angeles area. I wrote scripts for a radio show every week for almost 3 years, as well as performed on-air duties and produced segments. I guess it's minimizing things to imply this wasn't an accomplishment-I did, in fact, win the Radio and Television News Association's Golden Mike Award for Best Entertainment Reporting for a piece that aired in 1998. I would consider that my first major adult accomplishment. As for acting, I won all kinds of awards and stuff in high school, but the real adult world hasn't been nearly so kind. I did tons of extra work for a few years trying to break in, but nothing ever came of it. I thought I was getting close when I was on Days of Our Lives 12 times-I thought for sure I'd get a line, but it never happened. In fact, it was because of all the brick walls I hit that I decided to take Undo the Deed out of mothballs, so that's what's brought me to where I am now, and there's nothing to complain about there. I really would like to act, though. I'm doing a small production of Oklahoma! right now at a local theatre, with 7 lines and trying to dance like I know what I'm doing! It's fun, but it sure has made me realize how much I've missed acting and the pursuit of that. One thing at a time, though; I want Undo the Deed to be my first priority once Oklahoma! is over with. I decided during an epiphany a couple of years ago that if for some reason I died and the only thing I did was get Undo the Deed out there, then I fulfilled my mission in this life. OK, so it's out now, but it's just barely getting into people's hands at this point, and for me it's counterproductive if no one reads it, so that's what I'm working on now. Oh, and I always thought this story would make an awesome movie, y the way.

LJ for MBR: With that last statement, you hit the nail on the head! Undo the Deed WOULD make an intriguing movie, and a casting coup would be to feature you as Matthew - the abusive father and abused son who are both salvaged by the time travelling daughter, Amanda. You have the ideal "look", and anyone who wonders about that statement should go check out your website at www.undothedeed.com.

Before I end the interview, is there any question you wish I would have asked, or any other subject you'd like to cover? Your activism for those trapped in domestic violence or child abuse, for example? But don't let me put words in your mouth. Tell us anything you think our readers would like to know about you, your life, or your book.

AMJ: If I get any older, I could play Matthew! Actually, for a long time I've envisioned Jonathan Frakes (Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Matthew. I'd love for him to direct it. I've got a bunch of people in mind for certain roles, and since I probably won't have much control over the movie version, I'm going to put my dream cast up on my web site before too long. I want the web site to kind of be like a DVD, you know, with extra features? I've begun work on that, but I've been so busy I haven't had much chance to work on it. As for me, I always wanted to pull an Alfred Hitchcock and do a small cameo in the movie version, and/or have a line or two.

Let's see.anything else I'd want to cover.well, you're the interviewer! I haven't yet thought of myself as much of an activist, but, in essence, that's what this book makes me. So I guess what I really want to say is, abuse is survivable. God knows I don't necessarily know how, but the fact that I'm still here makes it true. You either let it destroy you or you move on in spite of it. Therapy, support groups, whatever it takes. I still have trouble with it. My biggest problem has always been fighting that the abuse happened to me in the first place, just wanting it to go away and not be a part of my past. I've been slowly learning to assimilate it into my life experience and not define myself by it. It's funny, but this book being out and not just a part of my imagination anymore is helping to do that. If one person doesn't have to go through what I went through because of this book, then I've done my job. Beyond that, I hope people will enjoy the story. I don't resonate with the teenage slant anymore, but even after all these years, I'm very proud of this story, and I'm grateful for the chance to take the negativity of my early life and turn it into something positive. It wasn't all for nothing now, you know?

LJ for MBR: Thank you Adam-Michael. If anyone deserves success on every front, it's you. Undo the Deed was an intriguing read, and a new take on a sad subject. Those who know first hand about domestic violence and child abuse, as well as those who don't, may find a revelation in your book. I know I did.

I know your days are full and I appreciate you taking time to talk with me. Let me remind readers one more time to check your creative website. www.undothedeed.com.

AMJ: And thank YOU for doing my first review and interview in one fell swoop!

Laurel Johnson
Reviewer


Klausner's Bookshelf

A Rogue's Promise
Peggy Sue Waide
Leisure
Jun 2002, $5.99, 352 pp., ISBN 0843950226

Though she kept the debt collectors away for quite a long time, by 1816 Joanna Fenton is desperate as creditors hover closer and closer to ruining her family. Her brother has vanished and the Chinese sacred two-headed dragon statuette is stolen. She needs help so she boldly goes where no woman has gone before. She enters a dive of a pub seeking to gain the assistance of nearly retired smuggler MacDonald Archer. Mac's plans to become respectable as an above the board shipper ends the moment he meets the intrepid Joanna. He follows her as she takes him on a tour of London that would frighten dockworkers. As they work in close proximity on recovering the artifact, they fall in love, but both have reasons to avoid commitment. ROGUE'S PROMISE is a strong Regency romance that never allows the audience to catch their breath. Yet while all that action is occurring, the talent of Peggy Waide shines through the plot as she provides the audience with two complete lead characters whose motives are understood and make sense. Ms. Waide endows readers with a powerful historical tale worth reading by anyone who enjoys good writing.

Violets Are Blue
Ronda Thompson
Leisure
Jul 2002, $5.99, 338 pp., ISBN: 0843950293

Lilla Traften saves Violet Dalton from a life of prostitution, sending the troubled lass to live with her father Miles in St. Louis. For the next three years, Miles treats Violet as if she really was his daughter, showering her with love and respect. However, in spite her host's kindness and nurturing, Violet carries loads of baggage that leaves her thirsting for vengeance against the person she detests most, her father who sold her like cattle. Eventually she flees ready enact revenge via bank robberies with her father being the accused. A worried Miles sends Gregory Kline to find his "adopted" daughter though he has doubts about this once contemptible person who he fears might hurt his beloved Violet. Gregory finds Violet and tries to get her to go home, but she is not pliable and refuses to adhere to his desires. As they fall in love, Gregory wonders how to prevent her from committing an act that he believes she will regret forever while residing behind bars. Ronda Thompson can make silk out of a cow's ear as she recreates a whore and a rat into lead protagonists with redeeming qualities that remain true to their personalities described as secondary roles in Desert Bloom. The story line grabs fans wanting to observe how Ms. Thompson has succeeded in the transformation while enjoying an engaging western romance.

Callie's Convict
Heidi Betts
Leisure
Jul 2002, $5.99, 352 pp., ISBN: 0843950307

Brady Young killed his own father, but made sure that Wade Mason went to the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville for the dastardly crime. While in prison, Wade impregnates a hooker, who died but not before she gave birth to his son. Wade manages to escape with his plan to find his son and clear his name. Callie Quinn promised Lily that she would raise little Matthew as if she was the biological mother. However, everything changes when the infant's father shows up demanding she hand over his son. Callie refuses, as she is willing to die to keep her beloved three-month-old charge safe from the filthy, leg locked dangerously looking father. In spite of that auspicious beginning Wade and Callie begin to fall in love and shockingly she believes his claim of innocence. Now all they have to do is find proof that Brady is the killer. The sequel to Walker's Widow, Callie's Convict, is an exciting western romance that stars two strong lead protagonists. Both heroes place the interest of Matthew ahead of their own needs, but at the same time readers feel the fear that Callie and Wade share of losing the baby to the other. The exciting story line focuses on the characters, as the heroine works to prove her beloved is not a killer over his objections, as he fears for her safety. Heidi Betts has given reader a sure bet to provide hours of solid romantic entertainment.

Sinfully Delicious
Lora Kenton
Leisure
Jun 2002, $5.99, 302 pp., ISBN: 0843950838

In 1880, desperate New Orleans socialite Kyra Lourdes arrives in Los Almas Perdidas, Texas in search of her friend, bounty hunter and rancher Cliff Baldwin. Embarrassingly, Kyra finds her former chess partner in a local whorehouse that she thought was the family home of a Madame not a madam. Shocked to see Kyra for the first in seven years, Cliff quickly escorts her out of the cathouse to his ranch. Kyra tells her story of having six fianc‚s in six years. She dumped each one because they represented a deadly sin with lust being the only one she has not met. She went to see her last beau to plead with him to end their engagement, but instead watched Jacques Delacroix brutally murder a woman. Jacques knows she witnessed his crime and with no hope for help from her parents or the law as her betrothed is politically connected, Kyra fled for the only person she felt would keep her safe. As they fall in love, evil is arriving from Louisiana to finish the job. Though a historical romantic suspense, Sinfully Delicious is more an amusing Americana romance. The delightful story line cleverly combines humor (through Kyra's soliloquies) with intrigue as Cliff has his work cut out to keep his beloved safe. The jocularity will keep readers smiling, but serves as a two-edged sword as it also diminishes the strength of the relationship between the lead couple in spite of the eminent danger. Still nineteenth century Texas romance readers will take much pleasure with Lora Kenton's pleasant novel.

The Legend Of Lacy Black
Tory Houston
Leisure
Jun 2002, $5.99, 366 pp., ISBN: 0843950218

The world becomes excited when the media reports that the plane that crashed containing 1930s sex goddess Lacy Black had finally been found in the California Mountains. However, not long afterward the shocking news is that the woman once considered a rival Jean Harlow back in the thirties is not the female corpse found in the wreckage. Media giants like Dan Rather wonder who is the female who died in that early 1940s crash and what happened to Lacy. The story of Lacy begins in 1937 Snyder, Texas when the car of Hollywood shaker Mark Damien breaks down, which enables him to meet teenage Lucinda Blackburn. He rescues her from an abusive father, renames her Lacy, manipulates her into becoming a legend, and marries her. Eventually she tires of his cheating ways and decides to leave her Svengali. However, he sabotages her plane, leaving the world and Mark to believe Lacy Black is dead. Yet six decades later, law enforcement proves that Lacy was not in the fatal plane crash so what really happened to her? Though an entertaining tale, The Legend Of Lacy Black could have been the legend of Tory Houston as the story contains the essence of a great novel. However, instead, the plot twists back to an engaging romance rather than an incredible romantic Hollywood mystery that E would have highlighted. Still Lacy, regardless of her moniker, is an enticing lead character and the men in her life provide further insight into why she vanished at the height of her fame. In all a strong tale, but a could have been a classic.

The Rogue And The Hellion
Connie Mason
Leisure
Jun 2002, $6.99, 369 pp., ISBN: 084395020X

In 1817 two highwaymen rob the Marquis of Bathurst, a Rogue of London. An angry Gabriel notices the one who accosts him wears a mask, but has green eyes, read hair, and a slim built. However, any thoughts of a counterattack end when the villain provides Gabriel the choice of giving up his deceased brother's ring or his family jewels. Gabriel plans to find this Ollie and Pete to see they hang. Olivia Fairfax and her servant Peterson hate being highwaymen, but since her deceased father left them impoverished while destroying the family name with his fatal duel over a prostitute, she has no choice if she is to keep her brother at Oxford. However, she never expected to meet Gabriel at the Duchess Stanhope ball that she attends in order to rob jewels. She also never expected his pursuit of her. When the odious Palmerson abducts Olivia, Gabriel goes after them like a banshee. He will never allow anyone to harm the woman he loves even if her green eyes look so familiar to him. The Rogue And The Hellion is an exciting Regency romance starring a brave heroine and a strong male champion. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action even on the dance floor. Though the villain is made to have no redeeming value and readers will wonder how Olivia's brother could be so naive about finances, fans will enjoy Connie Mason's latest tale because of the beguiling lead protagonists while eagerly awaiting the sequels starring the other Rogues.

I Love Bad Boys
Lori Foster, Janelle Denison and Donna Kauffman
Kensington
Aug 2002, $14.00, 320 pp., ISBN: 0758201346

"Indulge Me" by Lori Foster. Reticent Becky enters a sex shop at the coaxing of her friends. Following her into the shop is George, who lusts after Becky. George helps Becky purchase some items and persuades her to let him introduce her to the world of light sexual bondage. George begins to kiss Becky, but she slows him down. He agrees because he wants more than just a one-night stand. "Naughty by Night" by Janelle Denison. Gabe returns to San Diego to get Chloe back in his life after he left her six years ago. At a poker game they agree to a special stake. Chloe wins and tells Gabe he will service her for the next four nights. Gabe thinks this is the opportunity he needs, but Chloe plans to use him before leaving him. "And When They Were Bad" by Donna Kauffman. Cameron is tired of being the Good Samaritan to the world. He travels to an exclusive island club to play out his fantasy of being a bad boy. At the isle, he intercedes twice when males manhandle Allison. Cam and Allie make love, but she plans to leave in the morning because she believes Cam would never want her in his life. These three tales star couples in which an inexperienced woman gets the man of her dreams to make love to her several times and in several ways before he proposes marriage to her. The stories are fun as they contain light bondage, excessive profanity, and but heated graphic tales of sex leading to love.

Maggie Needs An Alibi
Kasey Michaels
Kensington
Jul 2002, $20.00, 310 pp., ISBN: 1575668793

Six years ago, Toland Publishing fired midlist romance writers including Maggie Kelly better known as historical author Alica Tate Evans. Rather than cry in her tea, Maggie switches genres trying her word processing on the Regency mystery sub-genre. Creating amateur sleuth hero Viscount Saint Just and his sidekick Balder, Maggie uses the "O" filled pen name of Cleo Dooley. She quickly becomes a New York Times best selling author. Maggie begins to wonder what is in her tea when Saint Just and Balder appear in her Manhattan apartment. As they drive her crazy, Maggie feels responsibility for the duo even though they adjust to modern life like ducks to water. When Maggie's publisher Kirk Toland dies after dining at her home, the police suspect the author killed him, as they were former lovers. Naturally Saint Just reverts to character and investigates the homicide in his nineteenth century aristocratic manner that skewers urbane urbanites. Renowned writer Kasey Michaels takes the trendy dive from romance to mystery with Maggie Needs An Alibi, but does not just add a lot of suspense to a tale of love as commonly done with the switch. Unlike Maggie, Ms. Michaels needs no alibis as she satirizes the publishing industry where small success mean downsizing. The amusing story line contains an entertaining who-done- it starring a wonderful heroine and her now living Regency characters learning the uses of plastic faster than solving the case. This cast humorously skewers anyone in its path while making this novel into a deserving sure shot bestseller.

Bliss River
Thea Devine
Kensington
Jul 2002, $14.00, 384 pp., ISBN: 1575668017

In 1898 Bliss River Valley, South Africa, while visitor Charles Elliot teaches polo, the leader Moreton Estabrook assigns Georgiana Maitland, daughter of his lover Olivia, to have sex with the guest. Georgiana sees this as an opportunity to escape the promiscuous valley that she hates and join her father in England even if she has not seen or heard from him in almost two decades. However, though she is quite good at sex, Charles rejects Georgiana's advances. Olivia receives a letter from her husband telling her he filed for divorce after an almost two decade separation. Moreton decides to steal the man's estate to establish a brothel there. However, Moreton's wife Lydia recognizes Charles as her son who was supposed to have died when Moreton led a deadly raid that freed her from her first husband. Lydia informs Moreton that Charles is her son. Moreton and Olivia kill Lydia and blame Charles. Georgiana knows that her mother and Moreton killed Lydia. She asks Charles to take her to her father in England if she helps free him, but insists on traveling sex rules. They escape the compound while Moreton follows. Bliss River has an engaging concept of a remote African town settled by promiscuous English expatriates in which the pleasures of the flesh rule. However that community was never explored below the epidermis. Instead a lot of unnecessary profanity and sex seemingly for shock value abounds even when the lead characters flee across the desert with Moreton in pursuit. The African geography also feels inaccurate. Simply Thea Devine's book is erotic romance aimed for the hard core fan.

Virtual Warrior
Ann Lawrence
Lovespell
Jul 2002, $5.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0505524929

Neil Scott and Gwen Marlowe own Virtual Heaven, a video game shop in Ocean City, New Jersey. Neil is bored with life and thinks of entering the latest virtual reality game Tolemac Wars III. His partner pleads with him to reconsider as she previously entered that barbaric realm and barely made it back alive even with a warrior husband in tow. However, Neil does not care about his present life and takes some of his late mother's jewelry that he inherited to barter for cash and necessities. Neil enters in time to stop the Outcasts from capturing Ardra of the Fortress of Ravens, but is critically wounded while losing everything of value that he brought with him. Ardra and a wise man save his life, but she does not trust the warrior from "across the ice fields" even if he possesses the courage, fighting skills and leadership ability she desperately needs. Though some of the adventure may seem familiar to Tolemac War fans, Virtual Warrior lives up to the wild satirical romantic fantasies of the first two novels (Virtual Desire and Virtual Heaven). The story line is fun, filled with action and adventure, yet contains a quirky sense of humor. Ann Lawrence has written another strong spoof of the sub-genre that leaves readers wondering about the plot for Tolemac Wars IV.

The Magician
Carla Cook
LoveSpell
Jun 2002, $5.99, 307 pp., ISBN: 07114500599

Ten months ago, six-year-old Gina Marlowe's father died so when the little girl had trouble sleeping her mother Katherine is not surprised. However, Gina fears that in her sleep she will enter the dark tunnel and never return. Katherine panics when she enters Gina's room to find her daughter not breathing. Not willing to wait for 911, Katherine rushes Gina to the nearby hospital where miraculously the youngster awakens with no apparent physical effect. Magician Lucas Connelly senses an evil that he knows he must fight though he does not comprehend why him or the identity of his foe. Lucas realizes that he must protect Gina, but when he approaches Katherine, she rejects his premise that her daughter is in grave danger from a malevolent force. Still Katherine finds herself falling in love with Lucas, which reinforces her doubts that this man might be the evil out to destroy her beloved child. The Magician is a spellbinding horror tale that contains a secondary romantic subplot. The story line is filled with action from the moment the beleaguered mom realizes that her child is near death till the finish as Lucas struggles with rage and his past lives relationships with Katherine. The characters make the tale as the audience will believe in the wicked villain and the reincarnation of the lead couple as well as the metaphysical attack on Gina. Carla Cook conjures up a strong thriller that will charm the paranormal crowd.

Wilding Nights
Lee Killough
Meisha Merlin
June 2002, $16.00, 353 pp., ISBN 1892065711

Although humans don't know it, werewolves exist right in your community. They don't think much of Homo sapiens believing that between overpopulation and war, eventually the "weres" will inherit the earth one day. They try not to call attention to themselves because the humans have superior numbers and can easily kill them off. When homicide detective Allison Goodnight, a "were" herself, is called in to investigate a homicide she immediately knows that the victim was murdered by one of her own kind. Allison and the other "weres" on the police force are trying to track the rogue down before the humans on the case realize exactly what they're dealing with. Allison also has to seem open with her new partner without revealing things to him that could call attention to her race, a difficult juggling act at best. Lee Killough is a master storyteller who combines the supernatural with the mystery genre creates a novel that is original and fascinating to read. The protagonists take on the human race adds a touch of whimsy to a serious and complex story line. Let's hope there are more novels in the future staring this refreshingly unique heroine.

The Apple Orchard
Linda Barrett
Harlequin SuperRomance
Jul 2002, $5.25, 296 pp., ISBN: 0373710739

Psychologist Dr. Abby MacKenzie never takes time off from her job at the Los Angeles Mental Health Associates. She police, firefighters, and medical personnel cope with the negative side of their heroic work. Greeting her at her office today is blood as patient police officer Tom Conroy committed suicide there. Over the next week, Abby goes over the case with every breath she takes trying to find where she went wrong until her boss places her on three month paid sabbatical to regain her equilibrium. Abby goes to her aunt and to perform physical labor at Templeton Orchard in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. At the apple farm, Abby meets cardiologist Jake Templeton who spends his workweek in Boston's Massachusetts General and weekends at the orchard with his troubled little girl Stace. Jake informs Abby he does not want her mumbo jumbo near his child, but he fails to count on Stace's needs as the traumatized visitor and the unhappy child fall in love like mother and daughter. Jake also falls in love with the Californian, but denies the sunshine Abby has brought into the lives of the two Templetons. Fans of relationship dramas will enjoy Linda Barrett's contemporary romance, The Apple Orchard. The story line focuses on three agonized souls who cannot easily reach out to other people. The lead couple is a delectable "pear". The other New England characters and the readers feel Stace's unhappiness, though she seems too intelligent for even a precocious fourth grader whose plans include dropping out to run the orchard. The audience will want a bite of this delightful tale.

The Notorious Mrs. Wright
Fay Robinson
Harlequin SuperRomance
Jul 2002, $5.25, 297 pp., ISBN: 0373710682

In 1979 Cleveland, weary teenager Emma Webster wants her dad Ray to stop his scams, especially those that use her and her younger brother J.T. Ray swears this will be the last one and Emma acquiesces and successfully but barely pulls off the venture. An elated Ray tells her they will be more careful in the future. Knowing it will never end yet feeling guilty for deserting J.T., Emma vanishes into the night. In the present, J.T. hires private investigator Whitaker Lewis to find his sister, missing for over two decades. Though the trail is brilliantly covered, Whitaker thinks he may have found the elusive Emma in St. Augustine in the personality of Susan Wright, owner of the Illusions restaurant. As Whitaker continues to investigate, he begins to fall in love with his target. To her chagrin, she reciprocates his feelings. However, what will happen to any permanent relationship not built on trust when she learns the truth that he is no tourist? Fans who relish an engaging contemporary romance will want to read award winning Fay Robinson's latest tale. The story line is fun as Whitaker and Susan play a game of cat and mouse even while love blossoms. The support cast augments the prime plot by making the lead characters seem human and adding to the conflict of what happens when discovery and disclosure occur. As she did with Mr. And Mrs. Wrong, Ms. Robinson provides a fun yet strong novel that shows once again this author knows right from wrong.

Duets 80
Jennifer Drew and Susan Peterson
Harlequin Duets
Jul 2002, 379 pp., ISBN: 0373441460

"Just Desserts" by Jennifer Drew. Chef Sara Madison sees a great opportunity to demonstrate her talent at the annual Taste of Phoenix food show. However, instead of the success she expected, reporter Jeff Wilcox manages to get her fired. She gains new employment only to have undercover Jeff arriving asking for her help on an investigation. She wants to say no after her first debacle with the handsome journalist, but ends up helping him even while they fall in love. As expected from the writing team Jennifer Drew, this tale is a tasty dessert. "Green Eggs and Sam" by Susan Peterson. Due to a so-called friend Haley Jo Simpson accompanies Dr. Rocca to the New York State Dental Hygienist Convention. However, Haley Jo soon finds her companion is dead. Reflection Lake Police Chief Sam Matthews investigates the murder though he personally would prefer to examine the key witness, Haley Jo. As he tries to keep her safe, they fall in love, but can city girl find happiness in the Adirondacks amidst green eggs and his precocious ten-year-old? Though Prudie "call me Tiffany" seems to mature for a ten year old, this is an engaging police procedural romance starring two wonderful seemingly opposites.

A Shameless Seduction
Janelle Denison
Harlequin Temptation
Jul 2002, $4.25, 219 pp., ISBN: 0373259883

Ever since her police officer dad brought Cole Summers to their home when she was a teen, Melodie Turner wanted him, but the feelings were unrequited as he treated her as a kid sister. Years later, she works as his "Girl Friday" running the private investigation office while he works the cases. Alas she still desires him, but in her mind he still sees her as another younger sibling. Cole actually wants Melodie, but he believes she represents 2.5 kids plus there is the regard he has for her father who guided him when he raised his younger brother and sister after the death of his own dad. For the special demand of a wealthy female client, Cole needs a siren to work his latest case. Melodie overhears Cole asking Noah, his brother the chick magnet for assistance, but she steps in praying this is her opportunity to open her beloved's eyes. Cole, who already has found it nearly impossible not to fantasize over Melodie, is put to a test that Job would have conceded as he confronts the ultimate seduction. A Shameless Seduction is a fun tale that readers will enjoy especially when Melodie scorches the pages while polar-like showers cannot cool Cole's desires. The story line follows the typical heated contemporary PI romance, but the lead characters make the plot feel fresh from the oven as they are stimulating and hot leaving readers wanting Noah's tale released earlier than the planned Fall.

Midway Between You And Me
Rogenna Brewer
Harlequin SuperRomance
Jul 2002, $5.25, 296 pp., ISBN: 0373710704

Amerasian Professor Tam Nguyen is the US Fish and Wildlife Game Warden on the Pacific's Midway Islands. She meets Navy Lieutenant Bowie Prince when he and his unit step down on the islands after a highly classified yet successful incident in Laos. Though he is grungy looking she is attracted to him, but Tam declines to breakfast with him. Bowie attends his debriefing before continuing on to Hawaii. Tam's mom still loves the American SEAL she met in her native Viet Nam in 1972. Though she has a picture of her American dad, Tam never met him and assumes he chose not to come back or he died. Because of something Bowie said about insignia, Tam takes out the picture, but notices that one of the other men looks like Bowie. His obvious relative can identify her father, but does she want too learn the truth that she believes will hurt her mother? Then there is Bowie who she finds too handsome, but Tam refuses to become involved with a sailor like her mom did. Midway Between You And Me is an interesting contemporary romance that provides an engaging look at the Amerasian population plus those Vietnamese who left for the United States in the late 1980s as part of the Orderly Departure Program. The flashbacks to 1972 provide powerful understanding into the complexity of a relationship between an American military and a local while the prime plot focuses on Tam and Bowie. Both themes converge into a strong "in uniform" novel that entertains yet furnishes the audience with an insightful tale.

Spellbound Summer
Janet Lynnford
New American Library
Aug 2002, $5.99, 368 pp., ISBN: 0451410521

In 1600, Laird Angus Kilmartin gave permission to Angela Cavandish to travel to Duntrune, Scotland in order to dig up the superior clay in support of her pottery venture. However, the burn changes hands as Laird Geddes MacCallum and his forces routed Kilmartin from Duntrune. Geddes informs Angela that she is not welcome and needs to leave immediately though she protests that the riverbed clay is the best quality available. To his surprise, Angela ignores his order. Even more shocking to the well- known womanizer, he finds himself quite attracted to the woman who ignores convention. Angela reciprocates Geddes' feelings though she received a warmer welcome from the former Laird. However, he fears that if she gets deeper into his heart, she will learn the secret that he keeps that enables him to lead his people even when he may not be what he claims to be. Though Angela seems too independent for the era and more like a modern day woman, readers will enjoy her out of time antics that keep Geddes hopping with what to do next when nothing works. The story line is fun as Geddes a very heroic person who struggles between his heart's desire and his quest. Still Angela is the prime reason that the audience will feel Janet Lynnford has caste a spell on readers as the female lead makes the novel with being an engaging anachronistic protagonist.

Someone Like You
Cathy Kelly
Dutton Plume
May 2002, $14.00, 472 pp., ISBN: 0452283388

Thirty-seven year old American Hannah Campbell is not really enjoying her trysts with her younger perfect male specimen though the muscle bound stud helps her somewhat forget her former spouse whose off traipsing somewhere like the Amazon. Though Jeff Williams would have been the leading model for an Ancient Rome statue, a bored Hannah leaves him to visit Egypt. At the Pyramids, Hannah meets a forty something mother of three teens (packed off to their father) Leonie and the younger too tall and plain Emma chaperoned by her obnoxious parents. The three women become friends and when they return home to Ireland surprisingly stay in touch with one another. Leonie uses the personals to find dates that always end in the toilet. Emma wants to become pregnant, but has no success at conceiving. Hannah falls in love with a too die for actor, but doubts whether she can stay the course and commit to anything beyond a cup of coffee fling. Troubles for the trio multiply as family members make things worse for each one, but they have one other to lend a crying shoulder. Though the tale of female friendship has been told often especially of late, Someone Like You retains freshness due to the lead characters. The trio feels so genuine as they struggle with their respective situations in life specifically with relationships outside those with their two new pals. Though the story line oozes with much angst, Cathy Kelly adds humor to ease the tension so that the audience has an enjoyable female buddy novel.

Stonebrook Cottage
Carla Neggers
Mira
Aug 2002, $6.50, 384 pp., ISBN: 1551669234

Larger than life Connecticut Governor Mike Parisi drowns in a freak accident while trying to rescue bluebird in his pool. Bluefield Detective Zoe West wonders why a man who could not swim dived into the pool and was the explosion at a barbecue that almost killed the second in command Allyson Stockwell really an accident. However, Mike's death means that Allyson will finish the term as governor. Allyson's two children (twelve-year-old Henry and eleven years old Lillian) are at a Texas dude ranch. However, they flee frightened as can be to the home of their mother's best friend attorney Kara Galway, who just came home to Texas after years of practicing law in Connecticut. They persuade Kate to take them to their country home. Kate reluctantly agrees because the kids are so frightened. Now everyone seems to seek the missing children of the new governor of Connecticut, but it is Texas Ranger Sam Temple who finds Kate and the kids. As Sam and Kate fall in love, he vows to keep the three of them safe. Stonebrook Cottage, the sequel The Cabin, is an exciting romantic suspense that never eases off the throttle until the final kiss. The key to the action packed story line is the dynamic cast, especially the lead couple and the kids. Carla Neggers continues her climb to the top rung of the sub- genre with her usual non-stop romantic thriller.

Just Over The Mountain
Robyn Carr
Mira
Jul 2002, $6.50, 384 pp., ISBN: 1551669404

Dr. June Hudson has served as a doctor in Grace Valley, California ever since her dad retired. Grace has little time to relax, but she does serendipitously see undercover DEA Agent Jim Post whenever he can pay her a visit. Currently, Jim is in the Ozarks working his last case before early retirement and a permanent relationship with his beloved. Returning to town is Jim Forrest accompanied by his angelic-looking, troubled twin teenage sons. Jim dated June in high school, but while she attended Berkley pre-med, he deserted her to marry Nancy Cruise. Now divorced, Jim wants June back in his life and most of the townsfolk think she does too since she seems to have no male leading to the conclusion she pines for her former lover. She denies it and says no to his insistent efforts to court her. June also contends with other issues such as her long time nurse suffering a heart attack, her medical practice partner objecting to his own wife serving as their nurse, and human bones found on her aunt's estate that might prove to be her long lost spouse. Life is normal in Grace Valley as far as June is concerned. Just Over The Mountain retains all the quirks that made Deep In The Valley a wonderful relationship drama. The key players return such as June and Police Chief Tom struggling with the ups and down of living that endears them and other townsfolk with readers. Fans of small town contemporary tales will enjoy the return to Grace Valley as Robyn Carr provides a warm slice of life tale.

Still Lake
Anne Stuart
Mira
Jul 2002, $6.50, 384 pp., ISBN: 1551669080

Deciding she needed a change from her complex Manhattan lifestyle, advice newspaper columnist Sophie Davis relocates to Colby, Vermont where she plans to run an inn. The poor man's Martha Stewart takes her seemingly senile mother and her raging hormonal teenage half sister with her. To Sophie's chagrin, as she wants no nearby neighbors, John Smith moves into a nearby cabin that has not been used in six years. John is actually Thomas Griffin who was convicted of murdering three teenage girls twenty years ago, but was freed five years later on a technicality. Thomas has come back to Colby to learn what really happened on that night in which he remembers nothing. As John and Sophie begin to fall in love, an eerily similar homicide similar to those of past occurs just two weeks before the grand opening of Stonegate Farm. Still Lake is an exciting romantic suspense novel starring intriguing lead characters struggling with problems that leave both not welcoming love into their respective lives. Though Sophie is a bit too responsible, she represents the sandwich generation with troubles from her senior and her younger that surround her. Thomas is a wonderfully bewildered protagonist who does not know if he committed those murders. The support cast provides depth by enabling the audience to better understand what makes Thomas and Sophie tick as well as adding suspense to Anne Stuart's fine contemporary tale.

Prospect Street
Emilie Richards
Mira
Jul 2002, $23.95, 464 pp., ISBN: 1551669218

Though the sex lacks passion, Faith Bronson believes her life is nearly perfect, as she loves her husband David, the Director of the family foundation Promise Our Children. However, her fifteen years of marital bliss ends when Faith finds David in bed with his lover, journalist Abraham Stein. David comes out of the closet, but Promise Our Children invokes the morality clause of his contract that leaves the Bronsons broke. Faith and her two children move into the dilapidated Georgetown house that has been in her mother's family for years while David and Abraham openly live together. Faith investigates the history of her new residence where her newborn sister vanished almost four decades ago in a kidnapping that has never been solved. She looks to renovate her new home, which introduces Faith to Pavel Quinn. They are attracted to one another, but he hides secrets that tie back to her family and she grieves her previous relationship while helping her devastated children regain their mental health. Prospect Street is an exciting character study that shreds the mental masquerades that individuals use to avoid emotionally shattering situations. The story line focuses on Faith as she redefines herself while trying to repair the damage done to the psyche of her two children, especially the teenager. Readers will question the motives of why Faith allowed pride to refuse needed assistance from her parents and why her prominent father put strings on his helping his beleaguered grandchildren as if the well being of Remy and Alex is a secondary concern. Emilie Richards provides a thought provoking tale that peels away the visages that people use to hide scarred inner essences from ridicule.

The Hidden Heart
Candace Camp
Mira
Aug 2002, $6.50, 416 pp., ISBN: 1551669226

Seventy-two years old General Streathern appears near death having suffered apoplexy. Besides his beloved great-niece fourteen year old Gabriela Carstairs and her governess Jessica Maitland, his great-nephew Lord Vesey who likes young girls and the pervert's wife Leona who likes men attend the death watch. Miraculously, the retired military officer recovers and warns Jessica to take Gabriela away to her guardian Richard the Duke of Claybourne. That night a visitor kills Streathern. After the reading of the will in which Gabriela inherits everything, Jessica flees with her charge for the safety of Claybourne because she knows that the Veseys will try to control the estate through Gabriela. Richard does not want visitors as he still mourns the loss of his wife and child four years ago in an accident but also plans to kill himself. Everything changes when the Veseys arrive because Richard refuses to hand the innocent teen to this depraved duo. Shortly afterward, whether it is the Veseys or some unknown assailant, someone wants Gabriela dead. The Hidden Heart, the sequel to the delightful Regency So Wild A Heart, is an entertaining historical romance that readers will relish. The fast-paced story contains strong characters. Richard is a wonderful protagonist whose suicide thoughts end when he finds something to live for, the love of Jessica and Gabriela. The heroic Jessica risks her life for the safety of her beloved Gabriela who seems too mature for her age. On the other hand, the Veseys are purposely treated as caricatures of odious individuals. Thus the audience will enjoy this fun tale and demand more from the heart of Candace Camp.

Desperado
Diana Palmer
Mira
Jul 2002, $23.95, 304 pp., ISBN: 155166920X

They were foster siblings with Maggie Barton loving Cord Romero since she first met him eighteen years ago when she was eight and he was a teen. However, he marries Patricia and eventually she weds Bart. Both widows, Maggie learns that Cord was severely injured from a bomb blast meant to kill him. She gives up everything and races to his ranch just outside Houston to nurture her only true love back to health, but he rejects her offer, misunderstanding that she came from Morocco not Texas. When he learns the extent of her sacrifice, Cord apologizes. Maggie accepts a temporary job at the Lassiter Detective Agency who are working with the government to stop an abusive child ring that makes Dickens look like kindergarten. Her new job keeps Maggie in close contact with Cord as his recent near fatal disaster is tied in with what Lassiter is doing. As Cord and Maggie acknowledge their adult love for one another, the current case hits home too closely as a reminder of the shame she still feels and hides about her pre foster childhood that if not revealed to her beloved could end their relationship. Fans of romantic suspense thrillers focused on a real social problem will want to read Desperado, an action-packed tale that never slows down except when Cord and Maggie grab hold of one another. Considering the sub-genre of the novel, surprisingly that romantic subplot seems hollow when compared to the significance of the child slavery ring. Still, readers will root for the good guys to win over the evil corporate empire and with one another in Diana Palmer's latest novel.

At the Corner of Love and Heartache
Curtiss Ann Matlock
Mira
Jul 2002, $6.50, 448 pp., ISBN: 155166917X

In Valentine, Oklahoma, Marilee James wonders if she lost her mind accepting relatively new Valentine Voice editor and her boss Tate Halloway's proposal. She was married once before, but her former husband Stuart left her too many times for his overseas and other jaunts to photograph the world forcing her to raise her special ed son Willie Lee by herself. Marilee also mothers her abandoned niece Corrine. Still Tate is a nice guy and Marilee likes being with him and thinks she loves him, but has doubts about a lifetime. Stuart has followed the Voice as much as possible because he has never forgotten Marilee. Now he comes to Valentine to see the woman he let get away for the first time in two years. His charisma makes Marilee wonder if she is marrying the wrong man as the steady but kind Tate seems pale in comparison. The sequel to Cold Tea On A Hot Day, At The Corner Of Love And Heartache, is an engaging contemporary small-town romance. The story line focuses on Marilee struggling to nurture her two charges, maintain her employment and other civic activities, plan for her wedding without any motherly help to smoothly cruise her through the prenuptial, and worse her feelings for the two adult men in her life. The characters make the tale work in a Running Scared style as the audience wonders who will Marilee choose, as both are good people. Will she select the steadfast almost boring fianc‚, the dynamic undependable ex husband, or neither? To learn whom read Curtiss Ann Matlock's wonderfully warm tale.

Clutch Of Phantoms
Clare Layton
Poisoned Pen Press
August 2002, $24.95, 323 pp., ISBN 1590580273

Twenty-five years ago Livia Claughton was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing her husband and his mistress. The trial judge called her a harpy while passing the sentence. The moniker stuck and when Livia was paroled at seventy-five years of age after serving her full sentence, the tabloid press covered the event. Cass Evesham, a high flyer stockbroker never even knew that Livia was her grandmother until the media tracked her down. Out of curiosity and a sense of family, Cass visits her grandmother in Cumbria, a meeting that is fraught with tension and other suppressed emotions. It is only when Livia's life is placed in danger does Cass come to realize how much she truly does care about her grandmother. Clare Layton, known to mystery fans as Natasha Cooper, has written a poignant drama about people and their expectations. The heroine of this tale is an elderly woman who has come out of prison as a kind and strong person who won't back down for anyone when she believes she's right. Clutch Of Phantoms is a novel that takes you two steps beyond the edge.

The Righteous Cut
Robert Skinner
Poisoned Pen Press
August 2002, $24.95, 259 pp., ISBN 159058029X

Councilman Whitman Richards is a force to be reckoned with in New Orleans in the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He has his hands in every racket in the city and he uses the money from his dirty dealings to fill his political coffers. He's madly in love with his mistress and plans to marry her once he divorces his wife Georgia. Whit's perfect world begins to crumble the day his daughter Jessica is kidnapped from her local high school. When the ransom call comes in, the Councilman learns that the kidnapper is his half brother Pete Carson, a person he set up on a murder charge years ago and thus ran him out of town. Sick of her husband's action, Georgia goes to Wesley Farrell, a dangerous man who works both sides of the law. They had a fling two decades ago and Wes can't resist Georgia's pleas to help her rescue Jessica. Even though he makes himself a target from one of Whit's unknown enemies, Wes goes to the wall to find Jessica. The fifth installment in the Wesley Farrell series is a thrilling reading experience. The protagonist goes the extra mile to help out a former friend and in the process gains a priceless gift. There is a lot of action and bloodshed in The Righteous Cut so fans of cozies will want to avoid this novel. Readers of historical urban noirs will find Robert Skinner's latest novel a very entertaining experience.

The Northeast Kingdom
Peter Collinson
Jove
August 2002, $6.99, 320 pp., ISBN 0515133612

The small town of Gilchrist in the green hills of Vermont was dying until the townsfolk invited the federal government to build a prison there. The 312 unit Administrative Maximum Penitentiary houses the most hardened prisoners men who have no hope of release, parole or escape. The revenues brought in by the existence of the prison allowed the town to grow and prosper. After years of solitary confinement, the prisoners revolt and take control of the prison. With the help of loyal ex-cons, the prisoners escape and next take over the town, threatening to release a deadly toxin into two different communities if any counter offensive is attempted. It is up to the people trapped within the town to do what the federal government is helpless to do: seize back their community. Peter Collinson, a pseudonym for famous thriller writer Chuck Hogan, has written a first class novel of suspense. The thrill of seeing ordinary men and women fight for their freedom will send a patriotic shiver up the spine of the audience. The Northeast kingdom is a top of the line reading experience.

The Perfect Victim
Linda Castillo
Jove
Aug 2002, $5.99, 352 pp., ISBN: 0515133701

Denver coffeehouse owner Addison Fox arrives at the private investigator's office seeking to hire the sleuth to help her find her biological parents. Instead, the drunken detective hassles her until he realizes he has bothered the wrong client. A few days later, her lawyer provides Addison with the name of her biological mother, but by the time she arrives in Ohio to meet Agnes Beckett, she learns her mom was recently murdered. Three weeks later, Transportation Department Aviation Disasters Investigator Randall Talbot apologizes to Addison for his behavior in his brother's office. When a trespasser enters her coffee shop, Randall saves her life. He insists this was a professional hit. Later she finds her lawyer dead and Randall proves that her adopted parents were murdered in what was allegedly a car accident. She has no idea why someone wants her dead and why those close to her are being killed. As Randall and Addison fall in love, he carries baggage from his job that has left him on sabbatical while she knows anyone close to her dies. The Perfect Victim is an exciting thriller that slowly builds the romance mostly to augment the suspense. The action packed story line keeps readers wondering why Addison is a death magnet of the killer. Though the climax seems a bit weak for this powerful tale, readers will root for the lead couple to overcome the impossible odds by defeating her foe and learning who her biological father is. Linda Castillo furbishes a strong tale that fans of suspense will enjoy.

The Straw Men
Michael Marshall
Jove
August 2002, $6.99, 400 pp., ISBN 515134279

Ward Hopkins returns home to Dyserburg, Montana only to step into what seems like an episode of the Twilight Zone when he finds a book taped to the underside of a recliner. Contained inside the book is a note that states his parents aren't dead. Tearing the house apart, he stumbles upon a video showing his parents and two twins, one who they leave behind in a crowded area. Unable to believe his parents are capable of such an act, he along with his CIA friend Bobby discovers that there is no record of Ward's birth. While Bobby and Ward seek the truth, a teenage girl is kidnapped in Santa Monica with the FBI believing they are once again dealing with the Upright Man serial killer. Former cop John Zandt and his friend FBI agent Nina look to find Sarah before she is killed like the three others before her. John and Nina cross paths with Bobby and Ward. They begin working together making the necessary connections to find the Upright Man and his supporters the Straw Men. Eerie, gothic like suspense that has more realistic twists and turns than the world's most serpentine roller-coaster, The Straw Men never slows the ride until even Yogi would agree it's over. From the very beginning readers connect with a befuddled Ward at a very fundamental level. Fans root for him and his cohorts to succeed in their interconnected missions that seem so hopeless. Michael Marshall's debut novel is a very special reading experience for crime thriller fans.

Heart Of The Condor
Laura Renken
Jove
Jul 2002. $5.99, ISBN: 0515133353

In 1692, Gabriel "El Condor" Cristobel de Espinosa y Ramirez takes a leave of absence from fighting for New Spain against the French and English to find his sister and her new husband though his sibling does not want to see him as he once incarcerated her husband. Though he has a price on his head among his enemies Condor does what he thinks is right anyway and sets sail for Martinique. Instead of his sister, Condor rescues Englishwoman Lady Sarah Drake from outlaws trying to abduct her. Condor hates the English, but insists Sarah marry him for her own protection. She knows of his reputation, but urged on by the local priest, agrees. However, Gabriel vows to never give his heart to this daughter of his foes, but somehow Sarah makes him break his pledge with her love and caring. Still is that enough to form a trusting relationship with his personal history? Laura Renken has rapidly gained a deserved reputation for her exciting historical romantic adventure novels. Her latest thriller, Heart Of The Condor, is an exhilarating seventeenth century tale that employs rarely utilized locale to freshen up an often-used theme. The plot never slows down, but still enables the audience to understand the lead couple and hope for the best for them as individuals while praying for them as a couple because fans will care. Laura Renken purveys a wonderful tale that will enhance her esteem as readers will enjoy this book.

My Hero
Glynnis Campbell
Jove
Jul 2002, $6.50, 320 pp., ISBN: 0515133337

In 1329, eleven years old Cynthia le Wyte accompanies her father as he visits the de Ware brood on estate business. After two days of torture from the older de Ware siblings, Cynthia finds solace in a garden. She is unaware that her haven serves as the getaway of the youngest de Ware, Garth. When the girl reaches for a flower, Garth comes out of nowhere to stop her, but is too late as honeybees sting Cynthia. Gently, he uses his knife to remove the stingers from her. Cynthia vows that she will marry her hero. Almost a decade later, Cynthia is elated that her hero is coming to her family's castle. Her joy turns into shock when Garth arrives as the new lay chaplain. However, the temptation of Cynthia is difficult to avoid so he behaves nastily, but she refuses to accept that the kind soul who once saved her could have changed so much. As he watches her nurture her people, Garth falls in love with his heroine, but an unknown individual has different plans for them that could end tragically without a miracle intervening. The third de Ware tale (see My Warrior and My Champion) is an exciting historical romance that shines a powerful light on the fourteenth century by focusing on several major issues including community health and alleged witchcraft. The enticing lead couple hooks the audience from the moment a little Cynthia looks into Garth's eyes with trust. Though Garth seems typical of the novels of this period with his mirthless soul, Cynthia lightens the tone and eventually him. Glynnis Campbell provides an exciting tale.

The Diamond King
Patricia Potter
Jove
Jul 2002, $6.99, 400 pp., ISBN: 0515133329

He managed to survive Culloden, but the battle left him with an acrimonious aftertaste following the atrocities of the English. Alex Leslie changed his surname to Malfour and escorted children across the Channel to France. There he found homes for all of his lost sheep except for Meg and Robin who refused to stay with anyone but Alex. Comte de Rochemont offers Alex an opportunity to make money and to take vengeance on the English. The French noble obtains papers for Alex to work as a privateer and outfits a ship the Ami. Alex sets sail across the Atlantic to steal English cargo with ultimately Brazil and its diamonds as his destination. Alex captures the English vessel Charlotte that contains Lady Jenna Campbell as a passenger. Because of a disfigurement, Jenna has been treated by her family as the "devil's child". She was heading to Barbados to marry before Alex abducted her. Alex detests the Campbells for their betrayal at Culloden, but admires the courage, spunk and nurturing of Jenna. As they fall in love, their perils have just begun. Though the aftermath of Culloden through star-crossed lovers may be the most frequent theme in historical romance novels, Patricia Potter purveys a fresh look through her strong cast as readers see the impact on children. The story line is loaded with action yet enables the audience to understand what drives both lead characters ands several key secondary players. Fans of the era and anyone who relishes a robust romantic adventure will want to read Peerless Potter's powerful tale.

Star Risk, LTD
Chris Bunch
Roc
August 2002, $6.99, 352 pp., ISBN 0451458893

She spent eight years of her life in the Alliance Marines but mustered out when she refused to sleep with her commanding officer. Now Major (Ret) M'Chel Riss is just trying to survive when she's approached by Friedrich Van Baldur, the owner of the fledging mercenary outfit Star Risk, LTD. He offers her a contract, which she immediately accepts. Jasmine King, a woman who may or may not be a robot hires on with the new outfit as well as the alien Grok who invests his life savings in the company. Now all they need is a job. Somebody is trying to sabotage the Transkootenay mining company hired by the Foley System Government. Not wanting to lose the contract, the company is ready to hire outside security and Star Risk ensures they are going to obtain the job when they break out of a death row prison the brother of the manager of Transkootenay mining. Now all they have to do is figure out who the enemy is and try to stop them. The protagonists of Star Risk, LTD are a charming bunch of rogues who obey no laws but their own. Their sense of ethics and self-preservation makes them easy to like and the audience will find their antics very entertaining. Chris Bunch known for his excellent military science fiction creates a space opera that is an exciting read.

Restoration
Carol Berg
Roc
August 2002, $6.99, 544 pp., ISBN 0451458007

Seyonne is an Ezzarian, a race of people who acknowledge that some of them possess mylydda or sorcery and those who do are obligated to fight the demons. Those that have the magic are called Wardens but Seyonne is outlawed from his own kind because he allowed the demon Denas into his own body, for he senses the demon war his people have been fighting is wrong. As a slave for sixteen years in the Derzhi Empire, Seyonne became acquainted and saved the life of Prince Aleksander, heir to the throne. As a result of his actions, the Prince freed Seyonne from his bondage and a friendship was struck. He now learns of a threat to unseat the Prince and rushes to his side to save him even though Aleksander lost his kingdom. While the Prince seeks to regain what he has lost, Seyonne must make a long physical and spiritual journey to confront what he fears most. Restoration answers all the questions from the first two books in the series (Transformation and Revelation) to the readers' satisfaction. The protagonist is a true hero, one who does what is right even when he is very scared that he will come to great harm. The world Carol Berg has invented is a very complex orb that fans will enjoy visiting.

Worlds That Weren't
Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, and Walter Jon Williams
Roc
Jun 2002, $21.95, 304 pp., ISBN: 0451458869

"The Daimon" by Harry Turtledove. Though his admirers inform Sokrates that he has done his public duty and need not accompany the Army in the Sicily campaign, he insists on joining General Alkibiades. War with Sparta is inevitable and with Sokrates to guide him, General Alkibiades might be able to lead Athens to the victory. "Shikari in Galveston" by S.M. Stirling. Several years have passed since the comet changed the earth. Now Peshawar Lance Eric King is hunting in barbaric Texas where one mistake could lead to him being on the menu. "The Logistics of Carthage" by Mary Gentle. A few years have passed since the Turks conquered Constantinople, but now they target the Gothic capital Carthage. Though the present looks bleak, Yolande sees her city-state surviving into the twentieth century and beyond, but how to endure the ashes of the fifteenth century is the question? "The Last Ride of German Freddie" by Walter Jon Williams. On the eve of the street brawl between the Earps and the Cowboys, Frederich Nietzsche arrives in Tombstone. He quickly debates philosophical issues with the participants of the upcoming gunfight. All four of these short novellas are well written hooking readers as each tale feels genuine due to the real figures fitting smoothly in their substitute environs. The award winning authors provide alternate historical readers with quite a quartet in Worlds That Weren't to include continuity from previous books (at least on the parts of Stirling and Gentle). This is a strong anthology that takes readers on a brilliant what if trek.

The Isle Of Battle
Sean Russell
HarperCollins
August 2002, $25.95, 480 pp., ISBN 0380974901

Over a millennium ago, the great sorcerer Wyr gave himself up to the river Wynnd to sleep and dream. While he slept, two families, the Renne and the Wills family claimed the throne of Ayr. After many centuries there is no more kingdom or throne but the two feuding families and their respective families remain bitter enemies, with war periodically breaking out For dynastic reasons Elise Wills is being forced to marry Prince Michael but rather than do it she jumps into the river and drowns. A water spirit Sianon grants her life again and the daughter of Wyr takes over part of Elise's spirit. She knows her brother Haffydd, once known as Caibre, the son of Wyr, realizes she has awakened and could stop his plans for war if he doesn't find her now. Both brother and sister, poised in a world on the brink of war, search for the mysterious Alaan because he holds the key to the kingdom's secrets. Sean Russell has brought epic fantasy to new heights. His characters are more goal-oriented than most fantasy figures. They know what they want and will go to any lengths to achieve it. Elise is the character readers empathize with the most, as she is torn between what she was and what she's become. Let's hope all the dangling threads and unanswered questions are explained in the next episode of this enchanting saga.

Saved
Kate Morgenroth
HarperCollins
August 2002, $23.95, 288 pp., ISBN 0060192763

Lieutenant commander Ellie Somers of the US Coast Guard is currently assigned to Air Station Sitka flying helicopters and loving every minute of it. When an inexperienced boat pilot takes his vessel out to sea and misjudges the weather, he calls for help on his radio. Flying by the seat of her pants and taking some very unnecessary risks, she and her crew bring him back to safety. Ellie's next mission, trying to stop a boat suspected of carrying drugs, is an utter failure. She loses control of the helicopter and it is lost at sea. Her second in command is dead and Ellie is grounded. She can't work for the Coast Guard without flying so when the man she rescued from the sea, Nicolas Andreakis asks her to go on an adventure with him she readily agrees, not knowing that he's the one who sabotaged her coptor. While Ellie is definitely the protagonist, it is Nicolas who steals the show because the audience is never quite sure if he's an angel or a devil. The story line is fast paced, with many curves and twists so readers will never be able to predict what happens next. The heroine matures throughout the course of the book so the person who readers see at the end of the novel is not the adrenaline junkie we first meet.

Sorcerers Of The Nightwing
Geoffrey Huntington
HarperCollins
August 2002, $17.95, 288 pp., ISBN 0060014253

Most caring parents tell their children that the closet contains no lurking monsters. Ted March knows they are real, demons from a hellhole demanding that six-year-old Devon to let them out. Ted tells Devon the truth that the monsters are real and that they won't get him because he's more powerful than they are. When Devon turns fourteen, his father dies and he becomes the ward of Mrs. Crandall of Ravancliff. From the time he arrives at the gothic mansion, he feels the magic there, and fights the demons that want him to open the portal that will let them roam free on Earth. Devon learns he is a Nightwing, a magical order of sorcerers who have the power to open the hellholes. He's engaged in the fight of his life with the dead master of Revancliff, who wants to reclaim his family home and the powers that lives there. If Devon doesn't prove strong enough, the demons will embark upon a reign of terror unlike any that has gone before. Fans of Harry Potter and the Narnia books are going to love Sorcerers Of The Nightwing. Many of Devon's questions are resolved but there are many more that go unanswered so it seems likely that this is the start of a great new fantasy series aimed at the young adult market. The hero is very mature for his age and though he has the same problems as any adolescent boy he is further bewildered with a gift and a legacy he doesn't understand. Geoffrey Huntington is a bright new star in the fantasy genre.

Law Of Gravity
Stephen Horn
HarperCollins
August 2002, $24.95, 336 pp., ISBN 0060194413

Phillip Barkley was a whistle blower in a city that puts politics above truth so now he spends his days in the justice department in the Appellate Division writing briefs. After three hospitalizations after the death of his daughter and a job that is going nowhere, all Phillip wants to do is quit and open up his own law office in a small and quiet Oregon town. His boss promises him a place in US Attorney's office in the Portland office if he will investigate the disappearance of Martin Greer. Martin is a senior staffer for the Intelligence Committee-headed by Warren Young, the party's candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Warren wants Young on the case because he's known as an honest man and he wants his office cleared of any charges if Martin turns out to be a spy. Although evidence points in that direction Phillip thinks there's another agenda going on and he's going to uncover it even if it costs him his new job, his sanity and even his life. This is a thrill a minute chiller written by an author who has the same magic touch as John Grisham. The protagonist is a man struggling to pick up the pieces of his life after the death of his daughter and readers will have an immediate feeling of empathy for the man. His need to seek out the truth no matter who gets hurt is his most endearing quality- but one that gets him in trouble many times over. Law Of Gravity is a fantastic crime thriller.

Flight Lessons
Patricia Gaffney
HarperCollins
Aug 2002, $24.95, 400 pp., ISBN: 0060185287

In icy upstate New York, Anna Catalano ends her affair with her lover when she catches him with her boss in her bed just after she had outpatient laparascopy. When her Aunt Iris offers her the job of manager of Bella Sorella, Anna decides to accept on a temporary basis though she rarely has gone home to the Maryland Eastern Shore. Anna's Aunt Rose, whom she caught in bed with her father while her mother was dying from ovarian cancer, owns the restaurant. The aunt and the niece are banally civil, but truly communicate through Iris. Restaurant management proves difficult, but Anna handles it with aplomb. However, she has more trouble coping with her feelings towards photographer Mason Winograd, as she does not trust relationships. More complex and harder on Anna's soul is Rose wants a reconciliation with her beloved niece and will do whatever it takes to succeed. Flight Lessons is a wonderful relationship drama that is at its best when the women take center stage without any males in their way though the men are well written characters. The story line engages the reader by looking at the impact a long-term squabble has on individuals. The Rose-Anna situation is cleverly written so that many readers will recognize similar relationships with family members. However, the romance between Anna and Mason never leaves the ground, as it seems pale next to that of the women. Patricia Gaffney provides a strong character driven sequel to her best selling The Saving Graces.

Leave No Trace
Hannah Nyala
Pocket Books
Jun 2002, $6.99, 388 pp., ISBN: 074341716

Tally Nowata works for the US National Park Service as a search and rescue ranger in the Grand Tetons. Currently on a four-month furlough, Tally and her lover Paul O'Malley vacation in the Australian outback. He leaves her at their campsite to pick up his daughter Josie at the Alice Springs airport with a maximum return time of four days. However, Paul fails to return and with her food and water dwindling, Tally begins a trek out of the Tanami Desert while seeking a clue about the whereabouts of Paul and his daughter. The desert climate is a far cry from the Wyoming Mountains she is used to, but even with a cracked rib, Tally finds the jeep with a dead Paul inside and a barely breathing Josie with him. Taking the child with her, Tally must reach civilization before their water runs out or the killer completes the job even as she wonders why. Leave No Trace is an exciting survivalist adventure that leaves no reader unhappy with the action of a plot that never slows down. The story line feels so real that the audience will drink a lot of water while trekking along with the two females. Tally is a great protagonist as she struggles to adapt her skills and experience to a different, at least in her case, more hostile climate. Fans of action thrillers will want to read Hannah Nyala's thrilling tale.

No True Gentleman
Liz Carlyle
Pocket Books
Jul 2002, $6.99, 464 pp., ISBN: 0743437845

In 1826 Earl Harry Markham morosely knows his wife Julia blatantly has affairs with any willing male of the Ton. Worse Harry feels helpless about her activity with his only defiance being his refusal to beget an heir with his spouse because he simply does not trust her to not cuckold him that way too. Instead he chooses to allow his earldom to shift to another family member than any spawn of the she-devil he married. When someone murders Julia, the aristocracy and the police assume Harry couldn't take anymore. However, Harry's sister feels that any one of the spouses of Julia's lovers could have done the deed and pleads with Investigator Max De Rohan to find the truth. Meanwhile Catherine Wodesway stumbles into the midst of Max's work forcing him to kiss her to keep her safe. Soon a reluctant Max finds Catherine at his side making inquiries that place them in danger, but also forging a deep attraction between the professional and amateur sleuths that could lead to more if they live long enough to investigate their feelings. Fans of Amanda Quick's March-Lake tales will enjoy Liz Carlyle's plunge into romantic historical mystery. The story line is more who-done-it though the romance between the lead characters adds flavoring to the delightful plot. Clever red herrings provide readers with a taste of the end of the Regency era as well as false clues. The lead couple is a fun pair to observe as Max is No True Gentleman, but along with Catherine rounds out a pleasurable tale.

The Pink Magnolia Club
Geralyn Dawson
Pocket Books
Aug 2002, $6.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0743442652

In Fort Worth, three women meet in the ladies room of the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation meeting hall. Middle aged Maggie Prescott is giving away her wedding gown that she wore twenty-five years ago because she believes her husband Mike no longer cares about her. Holly Weeks is stunned because the man she loves has proposed, a request that goes contrary to her life list and heats up her fears following her mother's death years ago from breast cancer. The third bathroom buddy sixty-five year old Grace Hardeman suffers from breast cancer. Though from three different generations, the trio becomes friends. Grace provides a role model for her younger buddies as her philosophy of "today is a gift that's why it's called the present" resonates in all she does. However, even she fears dying as it is a matter of time before she must enter the hospital with her beloved loyal husband and her two pals providing her support. Readers who enjoy a wonderful relationship drama that emphasizes the importance of loved ones during a health crisis will want to read The Pink Magnolia Club and donate to the Making Memories Foundation. The story line moves the audience through the three women confronting varying traumas in different ways. The characters seem genuine and fans will hope for the best whatever that might be for each one. Geralyn Dawson provides a powerfully emotional tale that will bring her much praise from fans and reviewers (and tissue companies) for this courageous tale.

Absolute Rage
Robert K. Tanenbaum
Pocket Books
Aug 2002, $25.00, 368 pp., ISBN: 0743403444

Summer in the city means a lot more than just a loving spoonful of humidity so Butch Karp, his wife Marlene Ciampi, and their twin ten-year-old boys (Zik and Zak), cool off on their Long Island beach property. After completing the spring semester at Boston College, their "eaglette" daughter Lucy joins them on the North Shore. Their neighbor Rose Heeney tells Marlene about her hometown in McCullensburg, West Virginia where family feuds make the Hatfields and McCoys seem like Manhattan debutantes. Not long afterward, Butch and Marlene learn that someone murdered Rose and her husband, Red, a union organizer. The West Virginia governor appoints Butch as a special prosecutor to investigate the Heeney deaths. Butch accompanied by Marlene between canine discussions and their three children travel to West Virginia. However, the quintet will soon find that Manhattan is a safer place than the small coal mining towns of West Virginia, as no family member will come out of this summer unscathed. The latest Karp-Ciampi tale takes long time fans on quite a twist as the action occurs in West Virginia with the kids playing pivotal and dangerous roles and tragedy hitting home. Though humorous, the story line is much darker than the previous novels with the stunning misfortune striking one of them and with Marlene seemingly going crazier as her dogs hold conversations with her and not just letting her know what they want. Still Robert K. Tanenbaum provides a powerful thriller albeit that leaves readers satiated and the Karp-Ciampi crowd ready for their next adventure still filled with Absolute Rage.

Path Of Glory
Brett M. Funk
Tyrannosaurus Press
PO Box 15061, New Orleans, LA 70175-5061
ISBN 097188191X $19.95 http://www.tyrannosauruspress.com/

In the land of Madryn, the four races are forced to work together to defeat the evil darklord Lorthas. The elves, the humans and the Garan'ah fought courageously at the final battle when the mages erected the Boundary to contain Lorthas. The Boundary is a magical mountain range with only one entrance, a portal guarded by a garrison of troops. A millennium later, the segregated races keep totally to themselves with the worst criminals sent into the Boundary. Jeran, a young boy who lives on a farm near the Boundary, befriends a runaway slave Dahr. The twosome share many happy adventures together before two outlaws thought to be in the Boundary attack their farm. Jeran's uncle gives him a message to take to the king telling him the Boundary is weakening and the two boys do his bidding. They meet allies along the way who help them get in to see the king but even after their message is delivered, Jeran and Dahr's adventures are only beginning. Path Of Glory is epic fantasy in the tradition of The Lord Of The Rings and the Shannara series. The protagonists are two young people who must learn about their different heritage if they hope to use it in the upcoming war. No one will be in a funk after reading this novel except having to wait for Brett M. Funk's next "Boundary's Fall" novel Sword Of Honor expected in bookstores in late fall.

Familiars
Denise Little (editor)
Daw Books
Jul 2002, $6.99, 320 pp., ISBN: 0756400813

Based on the most unscientific survey, most readers within a mean plus or minus three standard deviations will state unequivocally that a familiar is a magical cat that is a companion to a witch. Obviously tales like Bell, Book, and Candle conjure up felines as companions to the Kim Novaks of the world. However, the fifteen contributors to this anthology demonstrate a wider girth of sidekicks to include the expected cats (including former White House resident Socks), dogs (feels at first like heresy, but it works), people (not just husbands), and insects (don't ask). Each tale as far as this reviewer understands is new, but what this reader knows is that each contribution is well written, remains within the theme, and provides fans with a powerful witch's brew anthology. Now let me take a closer look at my menagerie (dogs and cats not my spouse silly) who obviously have bewitched me as they can do no wrong (that's how one perceives exclusion of the husband).

The Lost Dragons Of Barakhai
Mickey Zucker Reichert
Daw Books
August 2002, $23.95, 376 pp., ISBN 075640091

A year and a half ago, graduate student Ben Collins followed a rat into a storeroom and wound up in the Kingdom of Barakhai. In that land, all humans except the Royal Family were cursed, forced to shape shift into other bodies for half the day or night. When Ben left that world for his own, he was badly injured and needed medical treatment. Now Zylas the white rat says Barakhai needs him once more. Ben feels like Barakhai is home and Earth is just the orphanage where he was raised so he must act. There are two young dragons held prisoner by the king and they have the power to remove the curse that force the humans to shift into another form. Zylas and Ben concoct a dangerous plan that includes using an old enemy who has the king's ear. The Lost Dragons Of Barakhai is an adult fairy tale with a handsome hero (make that bumbling grad student), a fair maiden (who spends half her life as a fair horse) and a rebel leader (who remains human even when he turns into a rat). Mickey Zucker Reichert is a fantastic storyteller who provides fantasy readers with some of the better tales.

The Burning Heart Of Night
Ivan Cat
Daw Books
Jul 2002, $6.99, 591 pp., ISBN: 0886777895

Interstellar Captain Lindal Karr transports humans from Sheldon's World to Evermore when a stowaway claiming to be Lindal's guardian angel Bob begins killing the passengers while they sleep in a fugue state. Lindal who is immune to fugue sleep is helpless to stop Bob who perseveres in a normal state that enables him to live with an incredibly faster metabolism that also makes him seem invisible to Lindal. Bob forces the Long Reach to crash into the ocean of the remote planet of New Ascension. The colonists on New Ascension struggle with a deadly local microbe. They barely survive a little longer by draining the immunity serum of the native sentient population the Khafra, an action that kills the Khafra.. Civil war is imminent with Jenette Tesla, daughter of the human leader, desperately trying to find peace and stop the genocide. Lindal with fugue might be the miracle if the colonists let him live long enough to help, but who to trust among the planetary colonists, the victimized Khafra, or the mysterious angel Bob? The Burning Heart Of Night contains an interesting look at the cost of survival that humans will pay for a few extra years of life. Though Angel Bob is cloaked in mystique, the identity of the being is obvious early on. Lindal understands being different while Jenette represents the good in mankind with her willingness to do what she believes is the right thing. Albeit solutions to extremely complex interspecies issues are overly simplified, science fiction readers will relish this exciting futuristic other world tale.

The King
David Feintuch
Ace
Aug 2002, $24.95, 512 pp., ISBN: 0441009026

Before dying the Caledon queen informs her son, the soon to be anointed king Rodrigo, that for him to keep the power of The Still to "read" still water, he must remain a virgin and never prevaricate. However, before Roddy becomes the monarch, his Uncle Margenthar declares himself regent, as the teen is too young to be king. Now Roddy decides it is time for him to be the King, but Margenthar refuses to give up the regency. Roddy successfully takes control of Castle Stryx while rallying his people as King Hriskil's Norlanders invade Caledon. The war is nasty and Roddy overcomes his advisors' treating him like a dumb adolescent with the help of his buddy Rustin as he become an adept military leader. However, he loses his most important skill, reading the wisdom of still water as he has wasted the Still. If he fails to regain his ability, the Norlanders will conquer Caledon. The King, the Sequel to The Still is an engaging young adult fantasy tale that is easier to follow if you recently read the first novel. The story line is exciting though the continual battles become tedious after a while except for the more military minded reader. Roddy has matured from hedonistic snot into caring leader who proves his mettle though adults think he is a dumb teen. That angle will hook young readers who will root for the youth to surpass his elders. David Feintuch's work combines epic fantasy with a coming of age hero struggling with doing the right thing.

What Harry Saw
Thomas Moran
Riverhead
August 2002, $24.95, 320 pp., ISBN: 1573222240

Following the tradition set by his father and grandfather, Australian Harry Hull is severely wounded serving in Nam. Harry returns to live with his father in the Sidney suburbs. His GI Joe dad, known for drinking beer with a straw due to a World War II injury, obtains a job for his son as a reporter with the Herald. While working there, Harry falls in love with Lucy Whitmoor. They share a seven-year affair while he observes the deterioration of his father. When Joe dies, Harry feels alone and withdraws emotionally from everyone including Lucy. This ends their relationship as she can no longer reach him. Lucy leaves Sydney carrying Harry's child. When she returns she informs Harry she gave up their child for adoption. Harry needs to know why, but the truth may prove more devastating then he will ever want to see. Thomas Moran leaves no rock unturned with this insightful look from within of an "emotionally blind" person that seems more like an everyman "nowhere man". By the time Harry learns the meaning of life, he is too acrimoniously human. The story line is told from Harry's Monday morning perspective as he begins to understand what he lost. What Harry Saw is well written and as deep and baring as a tale can be, but should carry a warning label that this is also as sobering as any novel has been in years. The light at the end of the tunnel is an on rushing train fueled by despair and hopelessness.

Never Forget
Thom Racina
Signet
August 2002, $6.99, 416 pp., ISBN 0451206746

On Rodeo Drive famous director and producer goes into Guess and meets drop- dead gorgeous salesman Max Janson. She takes him home to her bed and he stars in her next big movie in which he becomes an overnight sensation. They remain lovers and friends until he met ing‚nue Kristen Caulfield who steals his heart. They try to keep their feelings in check but Maggie knows something is going on between them. Maggie's stepmother Nicole wants Max and will stop at nothing to get him. Bruce Borgie who works on the props is in love with Kristen and is intensely jealous of Max. In Telluride, Colorado, Max is hand gliding when a prop gun shoots him with two bullets and his glider rips as if somebody sabotaged it. The police have plenty of suspects who had a motive to kill Max but only one person had the guts to carry out the diabolical scheme. Thom Racina is known for his many thrillers but his latest work is something a little different. It is aimed for a Jackie Collins audience and it succeeds admirably. The characters, both villain and innocent alike are simple to understand making it easy for the audience to feel a rapport between them. Never Forget may be Collins-light, but is a novel that will not be forgotten by readers.

Must Be Magic
Patricia Rice
Signet
Aug 2002, $6.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0451206754

All her life Lady Leila Staines has felt like an adopted outsider as the only member of the Malcolm women without any magical abilities. Even her hair is not the dark color that every other Malcolm female has. Still, she has done her part by marrying to improve the family fortune. With her husband dead, she controls the Staines estate as long she lives and never remarries. Leila wants to grow flowers that she can convert into perfumes as she feels she has a nose for this business. However, she needs a land usage expert and turns to agronomist Dunstan Ives, though he is considered a wife killer and her own mother warned her that Ives males are bad news for Malcolm females. Reluctantly, the landless Dunstan accepts her offer though he wants nothing to do with any woman, but especially those bewitching Malcolms. However, he berates himself for desiring Leila and another lass who looks like her (because of his stereotyping he refuses to realize that his two dreams are one in the same) even as he struggles to learn whom killed his wife. Must Be Magic is an engaging historical romance that uses a pinch of witchcraft to spice up a tale with a rarely seen uniqueness. The story line mesmerizes the audience as Leila struggles with her "handicap" and her desire to belong while Malcolm battles between desire and not wanting to be burned again. Fans will believe that Patricia Rice must be magical as she spellbinds her audience with a one sitting fun novel.

The Blood Doctor
Barbara Vine
Crown
Jul 2002, $25.00, 369 pp., ISBN: 1400045045

Biographer Martin Nanther researches an ancestor, his great-grandfather who earned the family its peerage. The most interesting item Martin finds is a letter written five decades after the death of his subject by a daughter. The woman claimed that her father Henry did evil things. Following up on that intriguing memo, Martin discovers that much of Henry's life remains hidden in gray mystery. He learns that Henry, a physician of Queen Victoria, was considered an expert on hemophilia who obtained peerage in 1896. Something changed inside Henry when his friend Richard Fox Hamilton died. Henry kept a mistress for years and a relationship with an aristocrat that seemed heading to the altar, but tossed both out when he became engaged to Eleanor Henderson. When someone murders his fiancee, Henry simply married her sister. Martin finds no solace as he begins to unravel the mystery of Henry, the engineer of a crime that hits so close to the biographer that his findings only substantiate the gene pool the two men share. The Blood Doctor is a tremendous work of psychological suspense that uses biographical fiction as a tool to tell two stories one from the past and one from the present. Barbara Vine cleverly insures neither story line falters and ultimately merges together into a strong tale that is part detective and part relationship drama. Fans of the sub-genre will fully relish this tale that shines a light on the darkest elements of the Nanther souls.

The Witch Queen
Jan Siegel
Del Rey
August 2002, $24.00, 352 pp., ISBN 0345439031

She once dreamed of ruling Logrez through her son, a product of having sex with her brother the great king Arthur but failed in her deadly scheme. Morgus hates mankind and intends to rule modern day England but she is not wise in the ways of the present. She plans to use the spirit of a modern day witch, separated from her body by Morgus, to learn how to get around in the twentieth century. Fern Capel, unwilling to be an apprentice to such a malevolent being, fights her and eventually thinks she kills her dangerous "guest". Unfortunately, Morgus is a survivor and after a time of recuperation is back intending to destroy Fern once and for all. When it comes to Fern's attention that she will have to fight her enemy once again, she gathers her allies for the coming battle, never dreaming what she will have to sacrifice for the ultimate victory. This is the third installment in the Fern Capel Saga and it is by far the most creative and fascinating to date. The antagonist is almost as interesting as the heroine as Morgus is a malevolent being so consumed by hatred that it is not at all easy to predict how she will attack only that her assault is pending. The heroine is a being of pure goodness so easy to predict but remains likable and engages the empathy of the audience early on. The climax is truly a shocker that solves the problems that plague Fern, but not quite in the way the audience will anticipate.

The Fifth Sorceress
Robert Newcomb
Del Rey
Aug 2002, $26.95, 624 pp., ISBN: 0345448928

Over three centuries ago, the malevolent Coven nearly destroyed Eutracia. However, the kingdom's wizards managed to defeat the evil sorceresses. The victory resulted in exile of the surviving sorceresses across the vast ocean to Parthalon, the ban on female magic practitioners within the realm, and required vows by male applicators to remain on the side of the light. Plotting vengeance and final destruction of their enemies, the sorceresses begin a diabolical plot to obliterate Eutracia and its magical do-gooders through the regal line. They plan to abduct Princess Shailiha so that a special doomsday machine incantation can be completed that will result in either their victory or the end of the planet. Only her brother Prince Tristan and his advisor Wigg the wizard stand in the way of the sorceresses' success. The Fifth Sorceress is clearly one of the top three fantasy tales of the year. The story line is typical good vs. evil epic with the forces of the light led by a reluctant hero and his wise advisory wizard while their opponents will stop at nothing including global destruction to gain victory. However, Wigg, whose advice does not always work, makes the tale as he misinterprets things leading to unfortunate calamity and even when he is on target things can still go wrong in a Murphy sort of way. Thus, the quest becomes real as the audience never knows what will succeed or fail even whether Tristan will win the day. This novel heralds a new force in the genre as Robert Newcomb casts quite a spell on the audience.

The Corporal Works Of Murder
Sister Carol Anne O'Marie
St. Martin's Press
August 2002, $22.95 208 pp., ISBN 0312209172

Although she is seventy years old, Sister Mary Helen of Mount Saint Frances College still tends to her duties and has no intention of retiring even if her Sisters and the San Francisco police force think it would be the best thing that could happen to them. After forty years of teaching she is now ministering at the Shelter, a refugee for homeless women. Sister Mary Helen notices a new woman in the shelter, who very obviously has not been on the streets long. The next time she sees that homeless person, the woman is dying from a bullet through her chest. It turns out that Sarah was an undercover vice cop so when Sister Mary Helen learns this, she decides once again to insinuate herself into a murder investigation. Readers who like the Father Darling mysteries will appreciate this long running series. Sister Carol Anne O'Marie writes a realistic cerebral cozy starring a protagonist it is impossible not to like. The author deals with some major social issues and she gets her point across without preaching.

Last Scene Alive
Charlaine Harris
St. Martin's Press
August 2002, $22.95, 224 pp., ISBN 0312262469

It has been over a year since Aurora "Roe" Teagarden's husband has been murdered but the Lawrenceton, Georgia librarian is still in deep mourning. She is not at all happy that a Hollywood crew is coming to town to shoot the scenes from "Whimsical Death" based on the first homicide Roe ever solved. Also coming to town is Robin Crusoe, Roe's ex-boyfriend, and the person who helped her solve the case but subsequently went on to write the book on their investigation that has led to the movie. Roe is also unhappy that her stepson Barrett is starring in the movie because they despise each other. When Robin hits town, old sparks ignite and Roe begins to realize that the movie filming might be a blessing in disguise. What Roe doesn't know is that there is a murderer amongst the Hollywood set. This person plans to kill the movie's star and target Roe as his next victim. Fans of the Aurora Teagarden series will like the way the heroine displays her grief while moving on with her life. Readers will delight with the appearance of a new man in Roe's life, one that is different than her deceased husband. It is very easy to see why Robin and Roe click. The story line is fast-paced, well plotted, and exciting with enough twists and turns to keep readers on full alert.

Blood Lies
Marianne MacDonald
St. Martin's Press
August 2002, $23.95, 272 pp., ISBN 0312283059

Normally Dido Hoare is a serene even-tempered individual but the events of the previous winter are still affecting her and now she needs a vacation. When her old friend Lizzy Waring invites her and her infant son to stay with her and her husband in the Village of Alford, Dido jumps at the chance to leave London and her antiquarian bookstore. Alford isn't the bucolic village of her imagination. There is a dark undercurrent rippling under the surface of the pleasant little town personified by the presence of Teddy who was just released from jail after serving five years on a manslaughter conviction. Teddy shot a burglar in his home but didn't offer any defense. The buried bones of a woman who was missing at the same time that Teddy shot the burglar convinces the police to reopen an investigation even as Dido goes into sleuth mode. Blood Lies is the story of a family with secrets, many of which they will go to any lengths to see that they stay buried. The heroine is a catalyst who stirs things up and set certain actions in motion. The story line is fast- paced and enjoyable reading for fans of amateur sleuth novels. Marianne MacDonald has written another intriguing installment in her popular cozy series.

The Rampant Reaper
Marlys Millhiser
St. Martin's Press
July 2002, $23.95, 288 pp., ISBN: 0312290969

Though her preference would be to stay home in Southern California, literary agent Charlie Greene agrees to accompany her adopted mother attending a funeral in Myrtle, Iowa. Charlie has not met this side of the family that has never accepted adoption as a source of viable kin. Still, Charlie would do almost anything for her mother, biology professor Edwina Greene, including meeting the extended family even in this backwater. Once there, Charlie realizes she has an opportunity to uncover the identity of her biological mother, but instead ends up at Gentle Oaks Nursing Home. Though elderly, the patients seem more than senile than the average geriatrics. Most of the senior citizens act petrified in mind and body leaving Charlie to wonder why society allows people to live with what appears no dignity, hope or thought. Apparently someone agrees with Charlie because someone begins killing the residents. Encouraged to uncover the truth, Charlie begins to investigate what seem to be euthanasia killings. The latest Charlie Green mystery, The Rampant Reaper, is a strange eccentric amateur sleuth tale. The story line centers on what to do for the aging especially when the mind goes and the body is not lagging far behind. However, Marlys Millhiser's efforts to use humor to diffuse the seriousness of the topic come across as iniquitous because the cast including the heroine is nasty. Fans who don't mind an ensemble of misanthropes will enjoy Charlie's sleuthing and the insight into a problem that society would prefer die away.

Rashomon Gate
I.J. Parker
St. Martin's Press
Jul 2002, $24.95, 352 pp., ISBN: 0312287984

In eleventh century Heian Kyo, Japan, Sugawara Akitada knows that he has attained his career ceiling in the Ministry of Justice as a minor bureaucrat. Clerking is simply boring, but that is what Akitada does now and he realizes will continue to do until he is retired. Having no permanent woman in his life except his disappointed mother, Akitada's only passion is solving crimes, a task that he actually has had success at solving. Akitada's former law professor at the Imperial University asks his one time student to investigate an apparent blackmailing scheme that needs thwarting before itbecomespublic knowledge and damages the schools' reputation. Seeing a chance to escape the doldrums of his work, Akitada accepts the assignment. Pretending to be a newly appointed teaching assistant, Akitada begins his investigation into who his blackmailing a professor. However, a seemingly separate second case surfaces that places Akitada in danger from wrong doers with high level connections. On the other hand the obstinate Akitada finds romance too. The key to enjoying this strong eleventh century Japanese mystery is the names that though add realism to the locale take a bit of adjusting by westerners so as to not lose track of who does what to whom. The story line is brimming with imagery that enables the audience to feel like a visitor to what was once Kyoto. Akitada is a fascinating character disenchanted with his present life with no hope for the future yet gives everything to solving his cases. I.J. Parker writes an appealing tale that showcases her talent to paint quite a picture for historical mystery fans to enjoy.

Mistress Of Rossmor
Marianne Willman
St. Martin's Press
August 2002, 320 pp., ISBN: 0312981325

In 1880, as a realistic single orphaned woman Grace Templar knows to expect little from life and thus wants very little in return. Besides keeping a respectable job, Grace wishes she would stop having the visions that occur anywhere at anytime. While in Rome as a secretary and companion, Grace suffers one of her attacks during a visit to the Forum. Alistair McLean, the lord of Rossmor, observes Grace's peculiar behavior, which he recognizes as a gift. He sees Grace as a tool that he needs to use to gain answers about the events behind his wife's tragic death. Alistair is also attracted to Grace and returns with her to Rossmor where she meets his child Janet. As Alistair and Grace fall in love, someone fears that the new Mistress Of Rossmor will learn and reveal the truth about what happened to the master's first wife. Mistress Of Rossmor is a fun tale that combines elements from several sub- genres into a wonderful romance. The lead couple is a delight to observe especially their struggle to not fall in love. Janet is a sympathetic urchin who the audience will hope overcomes the trauma of her mother's death. Part late Victorian, part gothic, part suspense, and part paranormal, Marianne Willman blends the elements into a pleasing reading experience for fans of each sub-genre.

The Chase
Brenda Joyce
St. Martin's Press
Jul 2002, $24.95, 400 pp., ISBN: 0312284497

They are having marital troubles, but still Claire Hayden throws a fortieth birthday bash for her spouse David though he told her he preferred nothing. While he gets dressed for the party, he tells her that he screwed up big time and she sees the fear in his eyes. He refuses to elaborate and she wonders when they stopped communicating. Later in the evening, Claire thinks David overindulged and is passed out somewhere. She finds him sleeping it off on a terrace chair until she gets closer and sees his throat has been sliced open. Claire turns to David's cryptic friend Ian Marshall for answers and perhaps closure. Ian explains that the killer used a World War II era knife and is probably a former Nazi spy in hiding who has murdered with this MO before. She also learns that Ian is a Nazi hunter and insists she join him on The Chase of her husband's killer. Fans of romantic suspense with the emphasis on the thrill will rejoice with The Chase, an action-packed tale told through two story lines that ultimately merge into one powerhouse theme. The plots take place in the present with the lead protagonists seeking a murderer and in World War II providing the background that leads to today's events. Readers will delight with the pair's investigation and want to see them on a future Nazi hunt. Brenda Joyce purveys a strong novel that will bring the highly regarded author many accolades from fans and reviewers.

Total Surrender
Cheryl Holt
St. Martin's Press
Jul 2002, $6.50, 384 pp., ISBN: 0312978413

In 1812 England, though the daughter of an Earl, Lady Sarah Compton knows her family is ruined due to the bad judgment of her kind but now deceased father and the absolute idiocy of her brother Hugh believing that gambling away everything is his divine right. Needing cash to support his decadent lifestyle, Hugh demands Sarah snare a wealthy husband, but she thinks little of the idea especially when she reflects on her one disastrous season. However, Sarah does attend Lady Carrington's house party in Bedford not so much because of Hugh's orders, but as her last chance for fun before poverty becomes her life. However, this is no rustic tea party as the aristocracy has come here for sexual games. Among the participants is Michael Stevens, the most notorious rake in the land. Her innocence unnerves him, especially when she insists he teaches her the art of pleasure. As they fall in love, an unknown enemy will do anything to insure that Michael fails to find the proof that he seeks. This is an exciting erotic Regency romance starring two intriguing characters who in spite of the explicit scenes are typical of the sub-genre, i.e., the rake and the virgin. Still the story line grips the audience from the start until the final nude setting, as the lead characters are a dynamic couple battling for Total Surrender. The suspense element adds tension, but the tale belongs to Sarah and Michael. Cheryl Holt turns up the heat with this enticing historical romance.

I Think I Love You
Stephanie Bond
St. Martin's Press
Jul 2002, $6.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0312983336

In Monroeville, North Carolina, the three sisters Justine, Regina, and Mica grow up in a strange household where their hippie parents refuse to marry though they have lived together for almost two decades and co-own M&G Antiques. The oldest high schooler Justine takes her siblings to spy on lover's lane. However, what they see frightens them as they observe someone killing their Aunt Lyla. Since they cannot identify the murderer, the three siblings agree to remain silent. Twenty years later, the trio lives in separate parts of the country. Justine is an executive at a cosmetics firm in Pennsylvania. Regina edits nonfiction self help books in Boston. Mica is an internationally famous hair model living in Los Angeles. The threesome rarely talk to one another since the homicide incident and Mica stealing Justine's boy friend nasty Dean Haviland. However, circumstances in their lives and that of their parents bring the trio back to Monroeville where they can continue to squabble or begin the road to healing. I Think I Love You is no bubblegum Partridge family teen tale, but instead Stephanie Bond provides a strong look at a dysfunctional family. The story line works because the three sisters seem like real siblings struggling with rivalries, loves, and just meeting one another halfway. The schism between the trio makes the tale work though their new male interests relatively fall into place to easily. Still fans will bond with the cast and expect more lay it on the line type of relationship dramas from this talented author.

Inspector Anders And The Ship Of Fools
Marshall Browne
St. Martin's Press
Jun 2002, $23.95, 272 pp., ISBN: 0312278217

The Judgment Day uses terrorist techniques to try to sop the development of gigantic international companies that are formed through mergers. The group uses mostly words taken from a fifteenth century manuscript, but also employ deadly tactics as when they kill sixteen high level managers from two Germany's chemical companies, that had negotiating a merger. Desperate to stop the Judgment Day organization before other homicides follow, the French police request help from Italian police officer and terrorist expert the one-legged Inspector Anders and Interpol's Detective Matucci. However, stopping the terrorists only proves slightly more difficult than obtaining cooperation from local police departments spread across Western Europe. As the Judgment Day seemingly commits impossible acts of atrocities, Inspector Anders and Detective Matucci do not seem to have made much progress on solving the case. The insights into the political rivalries even at local police precincts add depth to the exciting tale, but also slow down the action. The case is fun to follow as Anders and Matucci as they did in The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders conduct a through investigation in which the lack of cooperation hinders their efforts more than the terrorists. Fans who enjoy a realistic insightful look at European police (and for that matter American law enforcement too) will relish Browne Marshall's latest tale, Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools.

Skeletons
Kate Wilhelm
St. Martin's Press
July 2002, $23.95, 364 pp., ISBN 0312300751

She is the ugly duckling in a family of swans. Her mother has three doctorates; her father is a Ph.D. who advises world leaders; while her brother is an internist. Lee Donne has changed her major three times and in four years she doesn't have enough credits to graduate. She takes her grandfather up on his offer to house sit for five months while she regroups but when she settles in, a strange man tosses gravel at her house at night. Lee and Casey set a trap to catch the man but it backfires and he dies. Lee decides to find out what she is looking for but when she discovers a hidden door in the floor of the photo lab. There she discovers her family's darkest secret, their ties to the Klan. She also finds existence that a third party candidate running for the president once participated in a Klan lynching. Lee has the journalistic story of a life time but she has to live through various attempts or her life to see it in print. Kate Wilhelm is the mistress of psychological suspense and she proves it with Skeletons, an electrifying tale filled with so many serpentine twists, readers are always taken by surprise by the plot developments. The maturation of the heroine from innocent protected schoolgirl to fugitive from a well hidden cell of fanatics rings true and shows the depth of the author's skills.

Legacy
D.W. Buffa
Warner
Jul 2002, $25.95, 448 pp., ISBN: 0446527386

In San Francisco, someone assassinates US Senator Jeremy Fullerton. The police spot a young black fleeing the scene. They fire, wound, and arrest Jamaal Washington for killing Fullerton. Surprisingly, without any obvious let alone remote connection to the accused, elderly local lawyer Albert Craven brings in Portland, Oregon attorney Joseph Antonelli to defend Jamaal. After hearing Jamaal's story on why he was there and how he ended up with the Senator's wallet, Joseph thinks the youngster is an easy fall guy taking the rap for a devious soul. Joseph quickly learns that Fullerton had presidential aspirations and built a cadre of cronies and supporters in the Bay area. A former KGB agent Andrei Bogdonovitch informs Joseph he has damaging information on the senator linking him to his former Soviet employer, but the informant is killed with an office bomb. The trial looks hopeless for the defense unless Joseph can pull off a last second Perry Mason-like miracle. Legacy starts off as an incredible legal thriller, but loses steam when it jumps the tracks into a conspiracy tale. The story line is at its best when Joseph investigates the senator and during the trial. The personal side of Joseph that frequents the plot slows down the story line while leaving the attorney not behaving as expected. Though the eyes of the world will pass Judgment that Joseph is a strong egg, the exciting tale seems just off kilter.

Quietus
Vivian Schilling
Hannover
Jul 2002, $24.95, 596 pp., ISBN: 0963784617

The plane heading for Boston crashed in the New Hampshire White Mountains. Rescuers save five survivors including Kylie O'Rourke and her spouse Jack trapped inside the doomed flight. Kylie relates a strange story that just before crashing, she noticed a raven perched on the plane's wing. Kylie also insists that she and the other four survivors were restlessly hiking the mountain though they were found inside the fuselage when they were rescued. No one else who lived to talk about his or her harrowing experience substantiates Kylie's claim. Kylie's psychologist insists what she says she saw and believes happened was caused by post-traumatic stress combined with drug stimulated hallucinations. However, Kylie continues to see a raven with human eyes and turning paranoid insists that the malevolent beings she saw on the mountain are after her while people in good health that she knows start dying. is a strong suspense that has readers resolving questioning whether it is a psychological/medical thriller in which Kylie is losing her mind, a horror tale where the spirit domain has entered the living realm, or a combination of both. The story line is exciting but the wide use of psychological, medicinal, and spiritual elements enhances the audience's perceptual guesses yet slows down the pace of the plot. Still, Kylie is a wonderful lead protagonist walking a thin line between insanity and real danger, which is what makes Vivian Shilling's novel hauntingly work.

Perfect Trust
M.R. Sellars
Willow Tree Press
July 2002, $5.95 369 pp., ISBN 099678219X

Ten months have passed since Rowan Gant, a self professed witch who practices Wicca, brought down serial killer Eldon Andrew Porter. Everyone else, including the police, thinks Porter is dead, but Rowan knows he's alive and when the time is right he is going to go after him again. In the meantime Rowan and his wife Felicity are doing their best to live a normal life. Up until two months ago, Rowan was largely succeeding but now he suffers fugue states where he loses hours of time and goes to sleep in one place and wakes up in another. Things get really bizarre when he arrives at a crime scene with no memory of driving there. Homicide detective Ben Storm accepts the fact that Rowan is able to channel the dead and he uses him to see if there's a connection to another death. Unfortunately a very angry cheerleader who wants vengeance on her killer is preventing Rowan from seeing things clearly. The Rowan Gant mysteries just keep getting better and better. The hero's powers are increasing with each crime he becomes involved in and it's fascinating to watch him learn to cope with them in his everyday life. Perfect Trust is as good as the sub-genre gets because of its many unexpected twists and turns and that keep readers on their toes. M.R. Sellars is a creative storyteller who knows how to keep his audience interested from start to finish.

Number, Please
Sheree Petree
Oak Tree Press
915 W. Foothill Blvd # 411, Claremont, CA 91711-3356
July 2002, $9.95, 280 pp., ISBN 1892343258

In 1965 Santa Cruz, California during the worst storm of the season, Trish Malcolm, a less than three-week management hire by Ma Bell, is forced to work the switchboard, devices she knows nothing about. Inadvertently, she accidentally overhears a part of a pay phone conversation placed by someone named Jay Jay. The next night a telephone operator is run down in the parking lot and Trish believes it was no accident but a killer gunning for her. She locates the street where the phone call was placed and sees only one building in the vicinity. There's a sign in the window saying there's a room for rent and Trish decides to take it thinking she can find the killer. During the course of her investigation, somebody shoots at her, kills a tenant living in the building and set fire to the place. Only when she comes out in the open and enlists the help of her co-workers does she have a chance of exposing the killer. Sheree Petree has written a very clever amateur sleuth novel that captures the ambiance of the 1960's America. The heroine is an admirable and determined young woman who acts according to her own convictions, not caring if everyone thinks she's a fool though taking matters in her own hand as opposed the police seems today as foolish, but remember the time and generation involved. The mystery is so well constructed that readers won't guess who the killer is until the author chooses to reveal him.

The Apprentice
Tess Gerritsen
Ballantine
August 2002, $24.95, 452 pp., ISBN 03454447859

The Surgeon aka Walter Hoyt has been in prison for over a year but the Boston police detective who put him away still bears the emotional and physical scars he inflicted on her at their last meeting. She is not confident in her abilities anymore and she uses three locks on her front door to keep out the predators that she knows lurks out there. A copycat killer emulates the crimes of The Surgeon and Jane is the lead detective on the case when Walter escapes from prison. He joins his copycat associate with both perpetrators focusing their attention on Jane and making very sure she knows it. FBI agent Gabriel Dean, who is working on his own agenda, tries to get Jane to remove herself from the case but the feisty detective is determined that she will bring down Walker and his partner with him. Tess Gerritsen can always be counted on to give crime thriller fans a fantastic reading experience and she succeeds with her latest novel The Apprentice, which is heading to all the bestseller lists. Her wounded heroine is very likable and readers feel as if they share a bond with her because of her emotional scars. Ms. Gerritsen's works appeal to readers who love the novels of Patricia Cornwell and Linda Fairstein.

One Hit Wonder
Lisa Jewell
Dutton
Jun 2002, $23.95, 358 pp., ISBN: 0525946535

Though she had not spoken with her half sister in a dozen or so years, reticent Ana Willis still worshipped Bee Bearhorn as her idol like she did when she was a teen. Thus she handles it badly when she learns Bee died in a dingy London flat with the police calling it a suicide. Ana travels to London to close Bee's estate, but is stunned to learn that her sister not only adored her, but also talked in glowing terms about her to the neighbors. Ana is unable to resist learning more about Bee's groovin' life in London and what really happened to drive her sibling to take her own life. Back in the eighties, Bee had a major rock hit, but she apparently never recaptured her fifteen seconds of fame. Now Ana meets some of Bee's friends who also seek the truth. Soon the trio begins to uncover secrets about Bee that make them wonder if suicide occurred even as the country bumpkin begins to flourish in her deceased half-sister's lifestyle. Lisa Jewell shows she is no ONE HIT WONDER with a warm witty Brigit Jonesque like chick tale. The story line contains a bit of a mystery, but is more a coming of age story as the shy Ana leaves the cocoon to finally embrace life. Fans of the young single English female will find this novel is a jewel of a tale.

The Best Is Yet To Come
Judith Gould
Dutton
Aug 2002, $24.95, 320 pp., ISBN: 0525946594

Everyone who knows Carolina Mountcastle has to feel a bit of envy even as they like and admire the almost fortyish woman. Caroline is happily married to a stud Lyon, who loves her as if they just met. They have a wonderful adjusted teenager Richie. Finally she runs a very successful florist shop in Manhattan that is thriving, as the elite seem to always want her to do their functions. Perhaps the only downturn is that Lyon spends a lot of time conducting business in Amsterdam. However, Carolina's ideal world crashes when she receives the call from Dutch police officer Verhoeven that her spouse suffered a fatal heart attack. Thinking she hit rock bottom, Carolina's comfort zone collapses further when she learns her beloved husband kept a woman in Amsterdam and sired a child with her. As she struggles to adjust to the betrayal, her florist business comes under attack from a ruthless foe with no scruples. Only her brother, and to a lesser degree her son, and Seth Foster appear in her court unless she can forgive and forget in order to embrace the future. The Best Is Yet To Come is an exciting relationship drama that focuses mostly on Carolina, but indirectly on Lyon through the thoughts of several cast members. The story line is at its finest when the tale centers on Carolina and those close to her. The characters are well written except for the unnecessary devious competitor who makes Cruella de Ville seem like Mother Theresa in comparison. Still, readers will take pleasure from Judith Gould's inspirational tale.

Justice Betrayed
Daniel Bailey
Silver Dagger/Overmountain Press
August 2002, $23.95, 186 pp., ISBN 1570722099

Life is quiet in the small South Carolina town of Winslow, situated five miles from the Georgia border. The sheriff's office is located in a mall because there is not much crime in the peaceful town that is until Richard Welch arrives on the run from DEA officials and kills state trooper Dan Colby. The residents are horrified that such a crime could happen in their area and eagerly await the trial to see justice done. On the day when Richard Welch is to have his day in court, he escapes and a search of the area yields no sign of the former prisoner. Cassie O'Connor, a television reporter based in Columbia, sees this story as a way into the big leagues but her investigation seems blocked at every turn. She doesn't know that the killer is tied to a drug lord's cartel or that federal investigations have special plans for Mr. Welch. Justice Betrayed is a fascinating tale of how far the federal government will go to win the war on illegal drugs. The story line is fast-paced and is so realistic that readers will think they have a front row seat to a riveting thriller. Daniel Bailey has a distinct and refreshing writing style that leads this reviewer to conclude that he will have a long run as a successful author.

Home Where The Murder Is
Carolyn Rogers
Silver Dagger/Overmountain Press
August 2002, $23.95, 187 pp., ISBN 1570721742

San Antonio Police Lieutenant Rachel Grant is injured in the line of duty and is shot in the knee by the local drug lord. He gets away and starts a terror campaign against her thirteen-year old daughter, Lauren. Mother and daughter travel to their hometown of Saddle Gap where they can feel safe and Rachel can continue with her physical therapy. Her return home yields a few surprises including the fact that her family has sold the family guest ranch Tumbleweeds to entrepreneur Stanley Fletcher. Rachel's peace of mind is shattered when Stanley is found murdered at Tumbleweeds. She isn't sure if the killer is local or the San Antonio drug lord who shot at her and her uneasiness increases tenfold when her cousin is found murdered in her grandfather's home. Unable to remain on the sidelines, Rachel decides to start her own investigation especially when she finds out that for some unknown reason Stanley left tumbleweeds to her. Home Where The Murder Is captures the ambiance of a small Texas border town to perfection. Rachel's relationship with her ex-husband and old friends as well as family rings true and makes the reader feel as if they know the characters that populate the book. Carolyn Rogers has written an excellent amateur sleuth tale and it is hoped that this is just the first installment in a new series.

Where Darkness Lives
Robert Ross
Pinnacle
July 2002, $6.99, 384 pp., ISBN 0786014814

Ever since Kate was a little girl, she saw ghosts but her parents never believed her and she finally learned to say nothing about the spirits who drifted in and out of her life. When Russell came into the video store in New York City, it was a case of love at first sight. They married three months after they met but she never told him about her ghosts and he remained silent about his first wife. Russell's twin sister Rosalind convinces him to move back to the family home in Wrightsbridge, Connecticut. When he broaches the plan to Kate, she eagerly agrees thinking that she will finally have a chance to write her novel. From the time they enter the door of Russell's ancestral home, he becomes distant and moody, a stranger to Kate. She believes the ghosts that inhabit the place are playing tricks with their minds. She intends to exorcise them, not realizing how powerful they are and that they mean her harm. When Darkness Lives is a good old-fashioned gothic ghost story that is very scary. The audience really doesn't know if it is the ghosts or a human presence that is trying to hurt Kate. That makes the finale all the more satisfying. Robert Ross is the latest rising star in the horror galaxy. Bentley Little fans are going to love this book.

Night Moves
Janelle Taylor
Zebra
Jul 2002, $6.99, 352 pp., ISBN: 0821771450

Out of the blue, Phoebe, her best friend from her Pennsylvania hometown, arrives at Jordan Curry's DC home. Jordan would do anything for Phoebe, her former maid of honor who helped her get through being jilted at the alter. However, Phoebe's request is a shocker especially since the woman provides no explanation as to why. Phoebe begs Jordan to watch her four-year-old son Spencer for a while. Jordan agrees assuming that Phoebe's desperate need has something to do with the work of her spouse Reno. Soon afterward, Jordan's blind date Beau Somerville arrives. Seeing the kid shakes Beau up as it reminds him of his loss, that of his wife and child. When the media announce the murders of Phoebe and Reno with the disappearance of their child, Beau decides to help Jordan keep Spencer safe. As they fall in love, a stalker closes in on the little boy, leaving two adults with no time to ponder their baggage obtained from the past as the demon haunts Spencer in the present. Night Moves is an exciting romantic intrigue that is brimming with action. Jordan is an intrepid heroine who conquers her fears to do the right thing. Though why Beau got involved is not as easy to accept, fans will feel for a traumatized Spencer, whose apprehension of an attack seems so real that the audience will want to comfort him. Though the romance takes a back seat to the suspense, readers will delight in Janelle Taylor's latest thriller.

Promises To Keep
Kathryn Shay
Berkley
Aug 2002, $6.99, 416 pp., ISBN: 0425185745

For the past five years, widow Suzanna Quinn has diligently worked as the principal of Fairholm High School in New York. Her philosophy is openness and honesty with the faculty, students, and parents. Until recently that has proven quite successful, but popular student Zach Riley changes the climate when he shockingly commits suicide leaving a note behind that warns Suzanna of a threat to her. Secret Service Agent Joe Stonehouse pushed the formation of the School Threat Assessment Team after a gunman killed his beloved niece and four other teenagers. Now he believes Fairholm High School could be in jeopardy based on Zach's suicide note and an alleged hit list. He goes underground as a crisis counselor at the school. However, he finds himself very attracted to Suzanna and knows he violates everything she believes in with his covert activity. With all the incidents in schools over the past decade and the post 9/11 homeland security question, Promises To Keep is a timely romantic suspense. The story line is well written as Suzanna epitomizes the struggle when community safety tramples on individual rights and the need to know. The romance between the lead protagonists augments the dispute between Joe and Suzanna on what needs to remain cloaked in secrecy. Kathryn Shay provides no easy answers to the safety and security vs. freedom debate, but the audience will feel they have reader a thrilling complete tale.

Death Medicine
Kat Goldring
Berkley
August 2002, $5.99, 272 pp., ISBN 042518580X

Teacher Willi Gallagher is taking an early bird Amtrak train from Austin to her hometown of Nickleberry. She leaves early to avoid running into Texas Ranger Lassiter except he boards the same train. Things go downhill from there as Willi witnesses a vitriolic fight between Congressman Van Bauer and his ex-wife BeeBee. She also observes a heated exchange between the Congressman and the train porter Uzell Speer. When the train is forced to stop because of a blizzard and ice on the tracks, the seven passengers are lodged in a nearby motel. On their very first night there, the Congressman is brutally murdered and all of the guests have a reason to want to see him dead. Willi and Lassiter continually butt heads over her role in his investigation. Death Medicine is more serious in scope than the first novel in this series, All Signs Point To Murder. Still the novel contains a humorous side as the bickering between the two protagonists masks an attraction that neither will acknowledge. The mystery is cleverly constructed and will have readers guessing who the actual murder is. Kat Goldring is a fresh new voice in the amateur sleuth sub-genre.

The Suitor
Sandy Hingston
Berkley
Jul 2002, $6.99, 416 pp., ISBN: 0425185435

In 1813, the Regent of snobbery is Katherine Deveraux, daughter of a marriage between a duke and an heiress to a dukedom. Her superior airs turn ugly when she avenges a slight from a fellow student at Mrs. Treadwell's Academy for the Elevation of Young Ladies. Though her actions could have ended tragically, Katherine shows no remorse. The school's secret partner Countess Christiane d'Oliveri worries about her charge's indifference while Katherine's father and stepmother visit Russia. As she heads home from London after rectifying Katherine's actions, Christiane notices Alain Montclair enter a gentleman's gambling hall. She asks for his help with bringing Katherine down a couple of pegs by getting her to fall in love with him before he deserts her. Kent sounds perfect for the part when an irate spouse decides to skewer Alain for cuckolding him. Alain turns on his charm on Katherine, but she ignores him. Soon he realizes that the superiority complex hides a lonely woman seeking the love she lost when her father stopped mourning her mother with her. The French wastrel and the English parvenu fall in love, but can he can overcome her formidable mental defenses? The Suitor is an amusing Regency romance that cleverly provides a subtle message on the strengths of women intertwined into the plot. The lead couple is a delight and the return of Treadwell and d'Oliveri (see How To Kiss A Hero)add a feel of homecoming to the humorous story line. If any Regency author has a right to act snobbish it is Sandy Hingston who always furnishes superior novels.

The Torso In The Town
Simon Brett
Berkley
August 2002, $22.95, 352 pp., ISBN 0425185028

Although Carole and Jude are both in their fifties, single and live right next door to each other in the West Sussex Coastal town of Fethering, they are total opposites. Jude is a free-spirited extrovert with an easygoing personality while Carole is conservative, prim, and down in the dumps because a relationship didn't work out. Jude attends a small dinner party in Fedborough, eight miles upriver from Fethering. The party comes to a complete halt when the torso of a human being is found. The police soon identify the body as that of Virginia Hargreaves, a woman who walked out on her husband Roddy three years ago. Thinking that a murder investigation will lift her neighbor's spirit, Jude involves Carole in an investigation that puts them in danger from a person who needs certain secrets to stay buried. The latest Fethering mystery is an amusing tale where the town takes on a life of its own and is perceived as a separate character. The two female amateur sleuths complement each other and make a believable investigative team. Simon Brett has written a classic British style cozy that rivals the best of Agatha Christie.

The Uninvited Countess
Michael Kilian
Berkley
August 2002, $6.50, 272 pp., ISBN 0425185826

Former newspaper columnist turned art dealer Bedford Green is not financially solvent. Greenwich Village in 1925 New York City is jumping even if the gallery Bedford owns is not. Through his assistant, the beautiful Sloane Smith, Bedford is invited to a Vanderbilt society event in Newport, Rhode Island. The family wants him to find out anything he can about a Hungarian using the name of Countess Zola. All his New York contacts never heard of the woman and when he reaches Newport, the Vanderbilts refuse to discuss her. When Sloane and Bedford skip out on the party to go to the beach, they come across the naked body of a female floating in the water. It turns out to be the body of the mysterious countess and Bedford finds himself investigating who she really was and why somebody wanted her dead. The second installment in the Jazz Age mystery series is very atmospheric and gives the reader a glimpse of the culture of that period in Greenwich Village. The hero is a very likable and colorful chap who easily hobnobs with the rich and powerful as much as the infamous. The mystery is very complex and multi-layered, making for an enjoyable reading experience.

Unnatural Instinct
Robert W. Walker
Berkley
August 2002, $21.95,320 pp., ISBN 0425184927

FBI Agent and medical examiner Dr. Jessica Coran enjoys some downtime with Richard Sharpe, who resigned his position at Scotland Yard to become an FBI consultant. Their romantic interlude is interrupted when Appellate Judge Maureen DeCampe is abducted from an underground garage in Washington DC Jessica is put in charge of this political hot potato of a case. She immediately concludes that the judge knew her attacker and didn't feel the culprit was a hazard to her. The judge when confronted by Isaiah Purdy did not feel that he was a threat to her. She knew him from her days as a judge in Texas when she sentences his son to death in the electric chair for a series of rape-murders. After his son was killed Isaiah claimed the body, drove to Washington DC and abducted the judge. She is now naked tied to Isaiah's son rotting decayed corpse and she will surely die if Jessica and her team fail to find her rather quickly. There are very few crime writers to day who consistently write compelling and exciting thrillers. Robert W. Walker is not only of those very few, he is elite amongst them. Hopefully he obtains what he deserves having Unnatural Instinct on all the bestseller lists for its powerful story line with a strong cast. The heroine, a brilliant workaholic, might have finally met her match in Richard Sharpe. They make a good pair personally and professional and it is hoped that there will be more novels starring this couple in the not too distant future.

High Water
Lynn Hightower
Holt
Jun 2002, $24.00, 336 pp., ISBN: 0805067566

After leaving the marines due to an exercise scandal leaving seven soldiers dead, former drill Sergeant Fielding Smallwood accompanied by his family relocates in Beaufort, South Carolina. Fielding almost immediately starts an affair with a local widow even as his wife Lena is dying. His adult children detest Fielding, who has treated his family like he did his units, but feels they are his failures. His son Hank returns home after doing the worst deed by going AWOL two years ago. His youngest daughter Claire is a loser divorcee with three children. His other son Ashby is an unacceptable gay. Finally, Fielding blames all his trouble on his fourth child Georgie. They become even angrier with him when, without consulting his four adult children, Fielding has his spouse taken off life-support. As the children commiserate with one another, they all wish Fielding was dead. They got what they asked for as someone murders the former marine. Law enforcement believes that one or more of his chidlren committed the crime with Claire being the one arrested. This leaves it up to Georgie to uncover the truth because she cannot accept that brittle Claire had the iron to kill anyone. High Water is more than just a fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery. The story line focuses on a dysfunctional southern family struggling with self-images and interrelationships, of which none of the siblings seem capable of maintaining. The story line is fast-paced as expected from a Lynn Hightower tale, but the plot clearly belongs to the Smallwood family, as the author strips their souls bare for the audience to understand them inside a strong mystery.

Reunion At Mossy Creek
Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Donna Ball, Debra Dixon, Nancy Knight, & Virginia Ellis
Belle Books
P.O.Box 67, Smyrna, GA 30081
Jul 2002, $14.95, 400pp, ISBN: 0967303532

With the twenty-year reunion at Mossy Creek, Georgia coming soon, Creekites wonder who burned down the town's high school back then that has forced locals to attend nearby rival Bigelow High School? Apparently the arsonist is taunting the Creekites by having sent to the town the ten cent fortune telling machine used during that homecoming day when the fire changed so many lives. Though not even born yet, wallflower Josie McClure knows the impact of the fire because her mother was the homecoming queen who never celebrated her victory and forced her to compete for the Bigelow High School Homecoming Day Queen, which she humiliatingly lost. Rainey Ann Cecil thinks back to that fatal day in 1981 when she was twelve and with Robert Walker and Hank Blackshear believed they caused the fire. Amos Royden is now the sheriff and would like to solve the case that his now deceased father always felt blemished his law enforcement record. Other are impacted by either the fire or the upcoming reunion. Will the reunion complete the destruction of the Creekites or refurbish the civil pride of being a Creekite? Written as a series of vignettes tied together through the reunion, the story line is humorous and sad focusing on how a pivotal event can change lives forever. Though an ensemble, the characters come across as genuine leaving readers to understand their pain, loneliness, and their need to belong. Fans will enjoy Reunion At Mossy Creek and want to read the previous slice of small town southern living, Mossy Creek.

Absolute Certainty
Rose Connors
Scribner
August 2002, $24.00, 304 pp., ISBN 0743229061

The assistant district attorney for Barnstable County on Cape Cod believes heart and soul that Manuel Rodriguez is guilty of murdering Michael Scott, a bright college student with his whole future ahead of him. She is so convincing that a jury eventually finds Manuel guilty of murder in the first degree. One year after Michael's death on Memorial Day, a second person is murdered, a nineteen-Navy man home on leave. A roman numeral II is carved on his chest just as the number I was carved on Michael's chest. Assistant DA Marty Nickerson thinks the same killer murdered both men, but her superiors dismiss her concerns until a third person is murdered and the Roman numeral III is carved on his client. Marty knows she must do something to trap the serial killer before anyone else gets killed. Absolute Certainty is an absolutely fantastic legal thriller. Readers get an up close and personal look at the judicial system as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, a woman who goes from being an idealistic to a cynic over the course of the novel. The perpetrator is hiding in plain sight but readers won't be able to recognize the essence of evil hiding behind a well-liked and respected person. Rose Connors is clearly a gifted storyteller.

The House Of Seven Mables
Jill Churchill
Morrow
August 2002, $23.95, 240 pp., ISBN 0380977362

After her husband died, Jane Jeffrey was left to bring up their three children alone. Now her eldest son is in his second year of college while her only daughter is a senior in high school and the youngest child is in ninth grade. She along with her neighbor and best friend Shelley suffer from a form of empty nest syndrome and want to do something interesting with their free time. When Bitsy Burnside contacts them to decorate a dilapidated old Victorian house, Shelly is intrigued and Jane sees the possibilities. However from the first day they enter the house things go wrong. When the contractor is found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs, Jane knows that somebody killed her. However, whom is nearly impossible as the victim was such an obnoxious individual, there is a plenty of suspects. Soon a series of malicious pranks occur and nobody knows who is behind them or if it was the same person who killed the contractor. Anyone who likes a cerebral amateur sleuth novel with little violence will want to read The House Of Seven Mabels. This is a lighthearted cozy, the perfect book for beach reading. The friends of Jane and Shelly come across as real and believable while the story line is filled with enough unexpected twists and turns to keep readers turning the pages. Jill Churchill imbues her plot with enough humor to have her audience chuckling out loud.

Do No Harm
Greg Andrew Hurwitz
Morrow
August 2002, $24.95, 400 pp., ISBN 0060008865

Dr. David Spier is in charge of the UCLA Medical Center emergency Room and he takes his responsibilities very seriously. When someone sprays lye on the face of one of the nurses standing in the outdoor vestibule, the E.R. is shocked. The victim's brother is a cop who vows revenge on the person who blinded and disfigured his sister. When a second nurse is also victimized, the police conclude that the perpetrator has something against nurses. When the police find and arrest him near the hospital, the perp is covered in lye. The police take him to the emergency room where David treats him and prevents the officers from doing him bodily injury. Fearful that if the police take him out of the hospital he will never arrive at the prison alive, David delays his release and in doing so inadvertently gives him a means to escape. When the perpetrator hurts a third nurse, David vows to track him down and bring him in because he feels guilty that his actions enabled the nasty deed to occur and the woman attacked means a lot to the idealistic doctor. Gregg Andrew Hurwitz is the heir apparent to Robin Cook if this medical thriller is an indicator of the chill level that leaves readers reconsidering any visit to an emergency room. The protagonist is a heroic figure with strong ethics, but is vilified by the press and his peer's for his role in the antagonist's escape. This makes him endearing, empathetic as well as sympathetic to the audience who will hope he triumphs. Do No Harm is a compelling read.

Goodbye Dear, I'll Be Back In A Year
Patricia Abbott
Five Star Books
Jul 2002, $25.95, 320 pp., ISBN: 0786240776

In April 1941, the Ohio Selective Service Board sends a "Greetings" letter to an elated Jack Andrews. Feeling a bit embarrassed because he looks forward to joining the military, Jack tells his girlfriend, an upset Ginny Fairfax that he will be home in a year. Her younger sister Carey seems more mature about Jack's situation so he keeps to himself his belief that America is probably going to join the war and he will serve a lot longer than one year. Jack is stationed in Hawaii when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. He sees combat and his one-year of duty turns into four years at war with the thought of seeing his Ginny keeping him alive. However, back at the home front a bored Ginny seeks solace when and where she can and that is not in Jack's letters home, which to her describe much less than the ones he sends to her younger sibling. What will happen to this couple so in love before the war when Jack returns home to his Ginny after seeing the underbelly of the world while she remained a good time Charlotte? Goodbye Dear, I'll Be Back In A Year is an exciting World War II drama that provides incredible insight into the period as few novels have. The story line paints a powerful picture especially in the American Midwest during the war. Jack and Carey are wonderful characters, but Ginny seems too shallow as if the Greatest Generation contained a loser amongst these heroes. Still, Patricia Abbott provides a deeply enlightened look at a bygone era of champions.

Coming To My Senses
Addie Marsh
Five Star Books
Jul 2002, $26.95, 265 pp., ISBN: 0786230347

Her son Joe worries about his septuagenarian mother living by herself in the Colorado mountains above Bear Lake especially since her eyesight is beginning to fail her. Her deceased husband Jacob encourages Addie Marsh to hang in there. So she refuses to relocate to an assisted living facility when she feels her health is fine except for the macular degeneration that makes seeing so difficult. Moving in the cabin next to her is Sybil, a pregnant teenage runaway. With Sybil is her abusive boyfriend Stony. Rather quickly Addie and Sybil form a grandmotherly-granddaughter bond starting with the baking of a cake. Though she has vision problems, Addie still has her faculties and realizes that Stoney is abusing Sybil. Addie knows she must intercede by bringing in the authorities, but she fears what will happen to herself and Sybil. Coming To My Senses is an insightful human drama that touches on several current problems facing different generations. Senior citizen Addie does no want to give up the loving home she shared with her deceased spouse. Joe wants to do what he considers best for his dear mother, but wonders if tough love intervention forcing her to move might be the best answer to keeping her safe. Sybil represents the issues of abuse and unmarried children bearing children. Though there is too many issues for mere mortals to deal with as the reader is overwhelmed at times, Addie Marsh provides a powerful melodrama showcasing the frailties and mortality of her fine cast.

Wives And Lovers
Jane Candia Coleman
Five Star Books
Jul 2002, $25.95, 174 pp., ISBN: 0786243074

This collection of fourteen tales celebrates or castrates depending on your perspective female-male relationships that contain stay at home women. The sensitive starlets of each tale regardless of the diverse time and locales between stories write down their inner feelings that they hide from their mate. As individual tales each contribution is well written and insightful, but taken as a one sitting anthology the lead characters of each tale show the identical traits along gender lines as every key woman is interchangeable and so is every prime man. Though the parts are greater than the whole, read over several weeks, the audience will appreciate Jane Candia Coleman's lyrical wit.

In The Shadow Of The Green Line
Sophia Petrou
Five Star Books
Jul 2002, $25.95, 309 pp., ISBN: 0786241160

Her mother inherited the estate from her own father years ago, but did nothing with it because the land is in Dhereria, Cypress while she and her husband live in Florida. However, when her spouse becomes so ill with cancer that the medical bills leave the family bankrupt, her mother decides it is time to sell her inheritance. She gives Alexa Karras power of attorney so that the former University of Miami researcher can sell the property. Alexa flies to the Mediterranean island to sell the land. However, her cousin Nick, a former member of an organization trying to remove the Turks from the island, opposes the sale and reluctantly seems to help Alexa though he creates barriers instead. Nick's wife Eve is much friendlier with the visiting second generation American. Eve asks Alexa to search for the origin of a Byzantine crucifix, but that leads to the police interrogating her. Soon Alexa meets fellow Yank Peter Winters and a romance begins. In The Shadow Of The Green Line provides a tremendous look at Cypress, a tumultuous spot that is quiet especially when compared to Afghanistan and the nuclear poker over Kashmir. The story line is a powerhouse when it focuses on how Alexa sees the island and its people. The romance is an unnecessary detour away from a deep unique look that shows Sophia Petrou has the talent to entertain and education, but needs to stay on the critical path.

The Apple Orchard Bed And Breakfast
Ron & Caryl McAdoo
Five Star Books
Jul 2002, $26.95, 230 pp., ISBN: 0786242345

Wealthy recluse W. G. Preston advertises for a woman to serve as manager of a bed and breakfast. In fact the B&B is a front as Preston really seeks a wife and plans a competition among eight female applicants where one each month will be sent home packing. Preston plans to marry the final survivor. The women are a diverse lot. The widow grandmother Marjorie is witty and friendly yet naive. Vicki hides her enchanting vulnerability with queenly persona armor. Audrey is a great listener yet can be quite moody. The cute Natalie cannot make friends. The beautiful Virginia acts snobbish. The energetic Holly can lift anyone's spirits, but ruined her wholesome image with the implants. Charlotte is knowledgeable but make sure everyone else knows it. Dorothy is quite a leader, but Preston does not need a manager, he wants a wife. Which one of this octet will win the prize? If the audience can hurdle the moral questions of a spousal elimination contest, the story line of The Apple Orchard Bed And Breakfast is actually an amusing character study. The plot hooks readers through the depth provided to the cast, which enables the novel to avoid the pitfalls of How to Marry a Millionaire. Each of the key players can be distinguished from one another, a difficult accomplishment when describing eight women and a few other prime members. The story line uses a journal entry approach with Preston providing his perspective on the players. Ron & Caryl McAdoo furnish the audience with an engaging but rather different romance.

Double Bluff
Michael A. Hawley
Onyx
August 2002, $6.99, 400 pp., ISBN 0451410775

Leah Harris is a detective in the Seattle homicide unit when she catches the call about the multiple stabbing death of a young Spanish woman. When she investigates the scene, her first thought is this is a crime of passion. However, things become much more complex when a picture of her lover, narcotics detective John Darby is found there. She immediately calls her superior officer who gets Internal Affairs involved. Sergeant Frank Milkovich immediately insinuates himself into the investigation and discover heroin behind the stove and a million dollars in cash in the closet of the dead woman's apartment. Frank thinks they stumbled upon a cell of a Colombian drug cartel. The victim's father is persona not grata in the United States and no record of a John Darby exists. Leah and Frank realize they have muddled into something deadly that could get them killed if they are not extremely careful. Double Bluff is a fascinating police thriller starring two great protagonists who each deserve their own series. Michael A. Hawley gives the reader an insider's look about what confronts a police officer on a recurring basis. The story line is multi-layered so that when the reader peels one subplot off, there is something ever darker and more shocking underneath it. This crime thriller is great escapist reading.

Manhattan South
John Mackie
Onyx
Jul 2002, $6.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0451410459

Ukrainian hitman Andrew Karis is a pro who never makes a mistake or leaves behind a loose end. His current assignment takes place in La Florentine, a Manhattan bar just before closing. He kills forty-five years old Candy Mayhew, her mid thirties lover miner mobster Donny Cesare, and the bartender Hugh Byrne. However, coming out of the bathroom is private detective Tony DiLeo, doing surveillance on Candy for her spouse. Caught off guard, Andrew shoots the sleuth, but the last victim barely survives and is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Manhattan South homicide detective Sergeant Thornton Savage and his team head the investigation. On first look the cops eliminate robbery as the motive. The case appears either to have been a mob hit on Donny or a cuckold husband killing his wife and her lover. However, the investigation begins to take strange twists that reach the highest level of political power in this country leaving a good caring cop in jeopardy of his job and reputation as nothing stands in the way of ambition. Fans of police procedurals will welcome John Mackie into the sub-genre after reading the powerful Manhattan South. The story line is fast-paced, loaded with action, and filled with twists caused by external pressures. Thornton and his crew comes across as individuals yet a professional team while the villains include a great hitman and a Lady Macbeth type character. Though the NYPD brass is politically stereotyped, readers will enjoy this tale that starts faster than a colt and retains the speed and action until the tight end.

Fatal Death
Robin Burcell
Avon
August 2002, $6.50, 288 pp., ISBN 0061061239

Kate Gillespie is a homicide inspector in the San Francisco police department. Her brother worked in the same department, but a dozen years ago while an Internal Affairs investigation was going on into his activities when he died of an overdose. Now Kate works very hard to make up for her brother's mistakes. When a snitch calls her to set up a meeting, she goes to the meeting point only to find her mark gunned down in cold blood by another police officer. She calls the one officer she trusts, police officer Mike Torrance. They meet at a local cop bar when they find out that the officer who killed Kate's snitch is now dead, the victim of a hit and run. Kate is assigned to investigate the officer's death and it doesn't take her long to learn there are other officers that are dirty and this case ties back to her brother's suicide. Fans of police procedurals and crime thrillers will definitely enjoy reading Fatal Death. The heroine is a person who obeys the rules except when the lives of her family are at stake, a situation that immediately endears her to the audience. Robin Burcell, a police officer herself, shows the gritty work involved in policing a big city.

Man At Work
Elaine Fox
Avon
Jul 2002, $5.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0380817845

In DC, personal injury lawyer Marcy Paglinowski has worked hard to achieve the professional success she has attained and has a goal to continue to climb the legal corporate ladder. While seeking evidence to support a negligence case, Marcy intercedes when a nasty construction foreman kicks a dog. However, worker Truman Fleming needs to rescue the Good Samaritan from his boss. For his efforts Truman is fired. Marcy offers to help him, but he rejects her attempt. Unbeknownst to the attorney is that Truman is extremely wealthy, but he is tired of the social whirl and thus seeking solace by using his hands. Marcy tries to persuade Truman to assist her on her case against his former employer. He assumes that like him she was born with a silver spoon and rejects her materialism. However, love still surfaces though neither has enlightened the other about their true background. Using miscommunication, misinterpretation, and misconceptions caused by omission, Elaine Fox provides an amusing romance with serious undertones involving work place safety and stereotyping. The story line engages the reader who wonders when the truth will surface. The lead couple is interesting to observe the way they stereotype and consequently put down the other, but on the other hand this leads to questioning how a relationship can form when the foundation's material is made of uncorrected falsifications. Man At Work is fun and will leave readers pondering when Ms. Fox will release her next work.

When Night Falls
Cait London
Avon
Aug 2002, $5.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0060001801

In Madrid, Oklahoma, the four women have met once a week for several years at Piggy's Ice Cream Parlor. Thirty-six year old Uma Thornton is divorced and has lost a child to crib death. Shelly Craig was an unwed teenage mother refusing to divulge the identity of the father even years later. Successful Realtor Lauren Howard is married to a philandering indolent husband. Pearl Whitefield lacks a few electrons but thrives as "Mrs. Perfect". Everything changes when a drive by shooting results in the murder of Lauren. One year later the homicide remains unsolved and the three surviving females cope with their loss differently especially with Mitchell Warren returning to Madrid to reside in Lauren's home after an absence of almost two decades. Townsfolk loathe Warrens, but Mitchell needs to find something to fill the void in his soul so he came back anyway. Uma and Mitchell are attracted to one another and fall in love. Mitchell resolves to keep the woman who has filled his soul with joy safe and to protect her two friends as well from a killer who has murdered again. Fans of romantic suspense will thoroughly enjoy Cait London's latest tale that focuses as much on the tension as on the two love stories. This makes for several subplots, which Ms. London effortlessly brings the various themes back into the prime plot though the climax wraps up everything to perfectly. The cast is strong and inviting while the identity of the killer is impossible to name. On top of that are two beautiful romances that lead to a pleasant time for the audience.

One Night Of Passion
Elizabeth Boyle
Avon
Jul 2002, $5.99, 377 pp., ISBN 0380820897

Her guardian whom she has never met signs the document that forces his ward Georgiana Escott to marry a vile old geezer. However, before they wed, her fianc‚ requires proof that he is marrying a virgin so he hires a physician to examine Georgiana. The night before her nuptial physical, Georgie visits the infamous Cyprian's Ball to insure she fails the test. Branded a traitor, former navy hero Colin Danvers is a man without a country. Needing to escape his troubles, Colin goes to the Cyprian's Ball where he meets Georgie. Both share an incredible night unaware that he is her guardian. Georgie's ploy works in terms of marrying the geriatric, but fails because she cares deeply for her one night stand lover with no hope for a future with him. One Night Of Passion is an engaging Regency romance that picks up steam from the moment Georgie and Colin meet at the ball. From that point on Georgie comes out of her virginity in several ways that make her into a mature individual that the audience will like. Colin is an interesting hero because his disinterest in what happens to his ward fits a person with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Though the story line depends on the coincidence of a rather petite sized world, fans will enjoy Elizabeth Boyle's entertaining historical.

A Game Of Scandal
Kathryn Smith
Avon
Jul 2002, $5.99, 384 pp., ISBN: 0060502266

In 1818 London, Viscount Blaine Underwood asks his long time friend Earl Gabriel Warren for help. At a gentleman's club, Mallory, run by a woman, Blaine's son insists he was cheated at cards. Blaine knows Gabriel's cause to ban gambling throughout England and wants his friend to close this joint before some other idiot is fleeced. However, just the name shakes Gabriel to the core. Ten years ago, Gabriel and his beloved fiancee Lilith Mallory made love, but she vanished and he never found her as his only information source her father died. At Mallory, Gabriel and Lilith see one another for the first time in a decade. She wants to hate the man who compromised her, forced her into exile to avoid scandal, but never came for her. He wants to detest the woman who deserted him and his love without a look back. However, the feelings run deep in spite of their mutual hatred, mistrust, and misconception of the other. Soon they both realize that they still love their beloved enemy. A Game Of Scandal is an amusing Regency romance that is at its lofty best when the lead couple exchange barbing double entendres that subtly rip skin. Though a subplot involving a businessman is exciting, it takes away from the strong gender war between two foes that intimately know one another. As she did with A Seductive Offer and this novel, Kathryn Smith provides an engaging tale starring intriguing bantering protagonists that hopefully will soon follow with the third buddy Gabriel and the person he does not wish to see.

Rain Fall
Barry Eisler
Putnam
Jul 2002, $24.95, 352 pp., ISBN: 0399149194

American-Japanese John Rain once served in Viet Nam as part of the Special Forces. The military taught him one skill that of the art of the stealth assassin. For the past twenty-five years, John has resided in Tokyo behind the guise of a loner businessman whose core product is murder by natural cause with a 100 % guarantee. John's current target is bureaucrat Yasuhiro Kawamura, vice Minster of Land and Infrastructure. On a commuter train, John completes the hit using a remote device to destroy the pacemaker of his victim. However, nothing else goes right as a Japanese speaking Westerner "robs" the corpse and soon John believes he is he focus of several tails. Working with his only friend, Harry, John learns what is really happening, which leads to his rescuing Kawamura's daughter Midori from some thugs. Everyone wants a missing disk that the deceased possessed with information that would shake the foundations of the Japanese government and global implications as an aftermath. Rain Fall is an exciting thriller that succeeds because fans will be fascinated by the lead protagonist. The story line is well executed almost as polished as one of John's hits. The support cast provides a taste of modern Japan and depth to the deadly competition, but Barry Eisler's novel belongs to his seemingly amoral antihero who beguiles the audience with his activities so that readers will demand a torrent of sequels.

Eleventh Hour
Catherine Coulter
Putnam
July 2002, $24.95, 400 pp., ISBN 0399148779

It's midnight in San Francisco and Father Michael Joseph is in his church to hear confession from a man who killed twice and intends to go on killing. Father Michael plans to inform the police because he feels the killer is not truly repentant, but only confessing to brag about his murders. When the culprit realizes what the priest intends to do, he kills Father Michael, not realizing there was a witness in the church who saw what happened. FBI special Agent Dane Carver flies to San Francisco to find out what the police know about the killing of his identical twin. While there he meets the witness Nick Jones, a woman posing as a homeless person because she fears somebody is trying to kill her. Dane sticks to Nick like she is the magnet and he is steel. The case takes a bizarre twist. The killer has patterned the murders out of the episodes of a new television program so they reason he must be somebody connected to the show, a wild bunch of characters capable of anything. Readers of Catherine Coulter's suspense thrillers will be pleased to know that FBI agents Savitch and Sherlock play a key role in the Eleventh Hour. The story line is vintage Coulter: exciting, enthralling and totally mesmerizing. The burgeoning relationship between Dane and Nick is cleverly interwoven into the fast paced and utterly absorbing plot. This novel is heading straight for the New York Times bestseller list.

Once In A Lifetime
Gwynne Forster
Arabesque
Jul 2002, $6.99, 352 pp., ISBN: 1583141936

Alexis Stevenson believes her ex-husband Jack is an idiot for giving up all rights to their daughter Tara so he would not lose half their estate to her in the divorce. It did not matter to Jack that he cheated on her and that his former wife cooperated with the divorce. Instead, he leaves his spouse, who spent much of her time in support of his career at the cost of her own profession, with monetary problems while he continues to live the good life. Still Alexis pities him for not understanding what is truly important. Alexis obtains work as the home manager for the three Harrington bachelors. However, she worries that she finds herself quite attracted to one of her employers Telford. As they begin to fall in love, encouraged by her precocious daughter, Jack, having repeated the same error several times, begins interfering causing a distrustful rift between Alexis and Telford. You don't know Jack if you have not read Gwynne Forster, one of the best contemporary romance writers of the last few years. Her latest tale, Once In A Lifetime, is a marvelous story starring a strong cast who makes the tale work on several levels. Though Jack seems unreal at times, Telford and Alexis are a great lead duet and the support provided by Tara and his two siblings enhance the audience's understanding of the protagonists and the significance of love in anyone's life. Ms. Forster beguiles readers with this strong novel that requires loving sequels.

The Pirate Hunter: The True Story Of Captain Kidd
Richard Zacks
Hyperion
Jun 2002, $25.95, 400 pp., ISBN: 0786865334

This book is a surprising treasure that brings to life more than just the shocking life of Captain Kidd. The biography also takes an up close look at the late seventeenth century on the high seas and in the major harbor towns. Digging into the documentation, author Richard Zacks contends that Captain William Kidd was not a cutthroat killing pirate; but instead he was a family man renowned as a New York sea captain. Thus, merchants and politicians like the governor of the New York colony hired Kidd to chase down pirates like Robert Culliford to reclaim the booty they stole. The Pirate Hunter: The True Story Of Captain Kidd is a fabulous historical biography that never slows down and worth reading for as much as learning the real record as for how well Mr. Zacks tells a nonfiction adventure tale.

The Art Of Deception
Ridley Pearson
Hyperion
August 2002, $23.95, 464 pp., ISBN 0786867248

Lieutenant Lou Boldt of the Seattle Police department is back in the field and enjoying every moment of it except that two women have disappeared and the police don't have a clue what happened to them. One of the women is his wife's friend so it is very important to Lou that he solves the case so the families can have some kind of closure. Police psychologist Lieutenant Daphne Matthews finds herself deeply involved in a case that might tie in to Lou's. The brother of a woman who was killed and thrown off a bridge insists he has some knowledge about the two missing women. The problem is that he wants to deal on his own terms with only Daphne with whom he has taken an unholy interest in. Readers of this long running and popular series will feel very comfortable with the way the characters are evolving, especially Sergeant La Moia who is in control of his sexual and drug addictions. His relationship with Daphne is also evolving into something more personal and the audience will think this pairing makes for a better story. The mystery is complex, intricate and totally absorbing, a one sitting read that shows why Ridley Pearson is the grandmaster of the police procedural.

Eclipse
Richard S. Wheeler
Forge
Jul 2002, $27.95, 384 pp., ISBN: 031287846X

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson assigns his friend fellow Virginian Meriweather Lewis to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. Lewis asks William Clark to co-command the daring expedition. When they complete their mission, a country is dazzled by their accomplishments and worships the courageous duo as heroes. Clark goes on to live a productive life basking in the glory of a living legend. However, Lewis goes into a state of mental decline that culminates in 1809 when he apparently committed suicide speculated by this novelization of their post expedition lives as caused by third-stage syphilis induced dementia. Eclipse is a wonderful biographical fiction that uses Lewis and Clark to narrate alternate chapters as their lives following the expedition is vividly described. The novel is well written and brings a slice of a bygone era to life through an in depth psychological drama. Fans who prefer action-packed non-stop action will find the book a tad slow, but those in the audience who want to hear the rest of the story will appreciate this early nineteenth century Americana novelization.

Louisiana Big Shot
Julie Smith
Forge
Aug 2002, $24.95, 304 pp., ISBN 0765306591

Talba Wallis now has her private detective's license and works for E.V. Anthony Investigations. When her day job is finished she writes poetry and reads it in her persona as the Baroness de Pontalba. One day when she is tailing a cheating husband she gets into a car injury and feels pretty banged up. She pays a visit to healer Babalu Moya who make Talba feel as good as new. The next time she hears about Babalu is when her boyfriend invites Talba to investigate his fianc‚'s supposed suicide. Since Talba doesn't think her friend was suicidal, she agrees to take the case. The answers she needs are in Babalu's hometown of Clayton and the residents there are engaged in a conspiracy of silence. The deeper Talba digs, the more feathers she ruffles until it reaches the point that she either quickly finds out who killed her friend or expect a life expectancy no longer than a week. Julie Smith has written another exciting private detective thriller starring a colorful and clever protagonist who thinks she has all the answers or knows where to find them. The author is a master at characterizations, so much so that the audience will pity some of the minor characters for their weaknesses. The story line is fast paced and intricately plotted, a roller coaster rider of thrills and chills.

The Bishop In The West Wing
Andrew M. Greeley
Forge
Jul 2002, $24.95, 288 pp., ISBN: 0312868731

United States President John Patrick McGurn has enough to deal with between the eastern established media and the Republicans. However, the Irish- American from Chicago, dubbed rancorously by the press as "Machine Gun Jack" and want to tie him with the Irish Mafia, has a poltergeist wrecking havoc in his new home, The White House. Jack asks long time friend and successful amateur sleuth Father Blackie Ryan to exorcise the spirit by discovering who is really behind the shake, rattle, and roll in the Oval Office, West Wing, and Lincoln Room, etc. Unable to mount more than a weak argument to remain in the Windy city, Blackie travels to Washington DC upon the orders of his superior Cardinal Cronin. Blackie quickly concludes that the ghost is more likely a young female suffering from unrequited love or vengeance against a President detested by his enemies as he begins eliminating the candidates one at a time. The Bishop In The West Wing is the best Blackie Ryan novel in several years as Andrew M. Greeley provides insight into the White House from a guest's perspective while satirizing the seemingly endless attacks on Bill Clinton, obviously Jack's model. The story line is fun for everyone except right wing Republicans and the so-called liberal "muckraking" press as Blackie looks for a more mundane solution to the poltergeist question. Father Greeley makes no bones about his feelings towards the previous president with an engaging amateur sleuth tale that Mr. Clinton and many other fans will enjoy.

White Male Infant
Barbara D'Amato
Forge
Jun 2002, $24.95, 336 pp., ISBN: 0765300249

Surgeon Dooley McSweeney and his wife Claudia worries about the health of their adopted son as they fear he has leukemia. Thankfully, the infection turns out to be mononucleosis. However, they also learn that Teddy's bone sample displays evidence of the antibiotic tetracycline, a drug the McSweeney never provided to their son nor could the dirt-poor Russian orphanage be able to have obtained it. It seems that Teddy never came from Russia so Dooley begins a quest to learn more about Teddy's past. In Moscow, celebrity reporter Gabrielle Coulter is stunned when someone kills her video-photographer and destroys their tapes that expose horrid conditions at a local orphanage. Though the circumstantial evidence points towards Mother Russia zealots, Gabrielle believes the motives are more evil and economic. Soon her search for the truth joins the McSweeney efforts, but a bottom line only adoption factory mill do anything even murder of innocent little ones to keep the profits high. This is an exciting thriller that will shake readers with what feels like a modern day Charles Dickens tale of child abuse caused by an orphanage manufacturing plant. The story line is action packed yet quite emotional as the audience will feel for the children and the McSweeneys. Fans of taut thrillers that provide a deep message will want to read D'Amato's tale.

Dorsai Spirit
Gordon R. Dickson
Tor Books
Jun 2002, $25.95, 430 pp., ISBN: 0312877641

"Dorsai". Among the fourteen worlds, Dorsai provides one export that is in great demand. The planet consists of the best military mercenaries known in the cosmos. Donal Graeme is about to go off planet with abilities never seen before as humanity has taken a quantum leap up on the evolutionary path. This reviewer read "Dorsai" in the sixties and found it to be a fascinating tale. Though a powerful introduction to the Dorsai culture, the military tactics seem weak in a post Star Wars world. Still Donal is a great character struggling between his differences and his human frailty. "Spirit of Dorsai": "Amanda Morgan". While the men go off planet to fight, women remain behind to defend Dorsai. Amanda Morgan faces an enemy with one goal in mind, the destruction of the Dorsai culture. "Brothers". Ian Graeme feels guilt for living, grief for his dead sibling, and anger for not being able to keep his brother alive. Preferring to avenge his brother's murder, Ian must first prevent a major catastrophe from occurring. This novella ("Amanda Morgan") and short story ("Brothers") provide more of a historical perspective to the Dorsai, especially Amanda's story furnishing insight into the role of women in the culture. Dorsai Spirit is a compilation of two previous Gordon R. Dickson's books from his Childe Cycle. The stories remain interesting and old fans will rejoice to read them while newcomers will find the tales entertaining. Yet this reviewer wonders why the memories of Mr. Dickson as one of the standard bearers of military science fiction seem weakened at least from re-reading this part of the saga.

Stories Of Your Life And Others
Ted Chiang
Tor Books
Jul 2002, $24.95, 331 pp., ISBN: 076530418X

As far as this reviewer knows, Ted Chiang has never written a novel and has never had his short stories published in one volume until this collection. Though a multi-award winning science fiction author, short story writers rarely gain the acclaim of novelists however, Mr. Chiang deserves that and more. The eight stories that comprise Stories Of Your Life And Others are incredible tales that are fresh, unique, and well written while deploying ideas to represent deep social problems facing individuals and society. The octet runs much of the gamut of science fiction. Regardless of the sub- genre exemplified each contribution shares in common with the other stories, the author's uncanny ability to entertain an audience that ponders concepts rarely seen as deep in so few words as Mr. Chiang accomplishes with this worthy anthology.

The Veil Of A Thousand Tears
Eric van Lustbader
Tor Books
Jul 2002, $27.95, 667 pp., ISBN: 0312872364

Riane as the prophesied redeemer Dar Sala-at saved Kundala from extinction by obtaining the Ring Of Five Dragons. Riane thought her quest would end with the ring. Though she and her friends have temporarily saved their world, their adventures have only started because the ring failed to unseal the spell of sisters Giyan and Bartta that closed the magical Storehouse Door allegedly containing the secrets of the Goddess Minna. The spell merged Annon Ashera's male V'ornn essence into Riane's dying female body saving two lives, but at the cost of providing an exit from the Abyss for deadly daemons. Trapped daemons flee the Abyss committing atrocities in Kundala. The only chance to stop the daemons resides with The Veil Of A Thousand Tears. Thus Riane and associates must complete an intermediate sidebar quest before they can continue their efforts to open the magical Storehouse Door. Part Two of the Pearl Saga, The Veil Of A Thousand Tears, is a complex fantasy tale that showcases Eric van Lustbader's ability to make magical alien realms seem real. The key cast members appear as genuine individuals through the depth provided by the author to enable the audience to comprehend their beliefs, philosophies and religions that motivate each one's actions. The story line is action packed, well written, and can stand alone, but easier to follow if the reader recently read the Ring Of Five Dragons as much of the first tale's activities impact the second saga.

Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict: Legacy
Glenn R. Sixbury
Tor Books
Jun 2002, $21.95, 335 pp., ISBN: 0765300397)

Archeologist Waneta Young uncovers a strange looking red crystal infixed inside a piece of pottery found at a dig on a sacred mountain in the Eastern Cherokee Nation. The crystal contains an ancient destructive power guarded by anointed Cherokee shamans against those who will abuse the frightful force. However, the human freedom resistance and the competing Taelon factions learn of the find and each struggles to take control of the red crystal. Each group assumes possession means world domination. However, unleashing the genie from the bottle may prove more dangerous and deadly than any of the competitors realize as only the Cherokee Nation understand this doomsday machine that the red crystal contains. Emancipated from the crystal prison will mean the end of the world unless Waneta the chosen one retains control of a force that none of the triad will be able to direct. This reviewer planned to invoke the fifty-page rule expecting to waste a half an hour reading GENE Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict: Legacy because long running TV series adaptations into novels usually lose steam after a few novels. However, instead this reviewer finished a great tale in one sitting. Glenn R. Sixbury does the impossible of adhering to the nature of the TV cast while enhancing their known personality quirks and traits (Zo'or's depiction is amazing) yet provides freshness with a strong tale that includes the trifecta conflict and a deep look into Cherokee mythos. Fans of the series will relish this powerful action-packed tale while those not familiar will enjoy a strong speculative fiction novel.

Conan The Liberator
L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter
Tor Books
Jun 2002, $24.95, 256 pp., ISBN: 0765300702

A fortyish Conan leads an army trying to overthrow the maniacal tyranny of king Numedides of Aquilonia. Conan believes his rebel force has a great chance of defeating the king's forces led by General Procas and consequently expects to topple a monarch who abuses children and kills concubines on some of mad whim. Conan and his advisors anticipate and plan a war they expect fought in which blade goes against blade. Instead, the evil sorcerer Thulandra Thuu and his servant Alcina intercede. Soon a mysterious illness threaten to do what the king's forces have failed to do, destroy the rebel army unless Conan can find some way of saving himself, his soldiers and ultimately the people of Aquilonia. This is a reprint of an exciting sword and sorcery tale released over two decades ago. The story line is fast-paced and loaded with non-magical and esoteric action as expected from the novels starring the pre-history hero. Conan remains dauntless while trying to do what he believes is right while his deadly foe Thuu will return for another day (or is that novel if this reviewer's memory holds see Conan The Swordsman).

Archform: Beauty
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Tor Books
Jul 2002, $25.95, 330 pp., ISBN: 0765304333

Four hundred years or so into the future, technology and climate has changed the world, as we readers know it. The North American east coast mostly resides under the sea so that the capital of NorAm has moved to the center of the nation Denv. No one lacks sustenance, as there is an abundance for everyone. However, problems remain mostly with self-actualization since people do not need to accomplish much to insure a full belly and a roof. In Denv, police lieutenant Eugene Chiang studies crime statistics seeking patterns when he observes an apparent link between seemingly unrelated events including suicide among the under twenty five crowd. Music professor Laura Cornett struggles with today's popular music that makes her style antiquated and unacceptable with the fad being resonant amplification of the emotional impact causing behavioral conditioning that would shock Skinner. Senator Elden Cannon adheres to his values trying to do the right thing, but his re-election is in trouble due to unknown forces wanting the do-gooder out of the way. Media expert Jude Parsfal learns some questionable things about the Martian Republic. Businessman Chris Kemal deals on anything to make for money for his family's business. These five people will clash in a dangerous convergence. As highly regarded L. E. Modesitt, Jr. is for his speculative fictions, Archform: Beauty is his best work to date and perhaps the science fiction tale of the year. Satirizing the art vs. science war, the author provides a powerful insight into society through his five narrators. His ability to provide distinct lucid voices for each members of the quintet makes the action packed story work.

Charisma
Steven Barnes
Tor Books
Jul 2002, $24.95, 384 pp., ISBN: 0312870043

The thousand plus minority children are worse than at risk with the probability of even one of them making it astronomical. Thus, the theory of copying the behavior patterns that led to the incredible success and wealth of Alexander Marcus seems a likely winner to overcome the ravages of their environment. The sociology experiment works as the children copy the key traits of their mentor to include his ambition, focus, and determination. However, along with the so-called positive imprints, the group also learns how to use and hide Alexander's ruthlessness and even darker secrets. Now each member of this select thousand possesses the skill, ability, and inclination to turn into a serial killer. This novel is based on the premise that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The story line grabs the reader from the start because of Steven Barnes' uncanny talent to make each member of his cast appear different so that the world becomes relative when seen through the different characters. Psychological horror fans will have a field day with this powerful tale that reveals nothing until the final period is struck by an author that is at the head of the class in 2002.

Argonaut
Stanley Schmidt
Tor Books
Jul 2002, $25.95, 336 pp., ISBN: 0312877269

In the twenty-first century in New York State retiree Lester Ordway enjoys spending time in his garden. However, his repose ends when a weird bug stings Lester right between the eyes. Lester becomes dizzy and sees his memories flash past him before grabbing the insect. Lester regains consciousness in a hospital where he releases the bug, which has multiplied into several insects. Medical lab technician Pilar Ramirez grabs one of the bugs so that entomologist Maybelle Terwilliger can study it. Maybelle declares that the insect is mechanical and probably otherworldly gathering information about humans. Soon a stranger comes after Pilar planning to silent her and her cohorts before they can persuade a skeptical government that an alien invasion is imminent. Few stories start as creative as Argonauts begins with its intelligent but strange alien invades the earth premise. The story line bites the audience from the moment that the weird bug stings Lester through Maybelle's pronouncement that the bug is a form of a listening device. However, the tale loses its sting when it becomes standard "David/Davidettes" saving a disbelieving world from an alien invasion. Though overall unique and intriguing, fans will feel a bit disappointed that Stanley Schmidt turns this distinctive tale into typical sub-genre fodder.

A Scattering Of Jades
Alexander C. Irvine
Tor Books
Jul 2002, $25.95, 428 pp., ISBN: 0765301164

In 1835, the great fire destroyed much of Lower Manhattan's wooden tenements. A stunned resident Archie Prescott knows his world has gone up in the inferno with his wife and their four-year-old child Jane dead. Unbeknownst to the grieving father, the child's corpse is not that of Jane. Instead a MesoAmerican witch Lupita abducted Jane for use in a sacrifice to Thloc, but instead caused the deadly fire. Jane received deep burns especially scarring her face. Lupita sells Jane to Riley Steen, owner of a mummy needing virgin blood to bring Thloc to the human plane. Timing is everything and seven years must pass before he can accomplish his deed. Seven years later, Riley travels to Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, where another mummy of the malevolence has been found. In New York, an eleven-year-old girl with a damaged visage keeps following Archie, insisting he is her father. Jane has escaped Riley for now, but his thugs are coming to recapture her because she is the critical element in the reanimation. Only if Archie can accept the truth, will she have a champion and may survive the final ordeal. A Scattering Of Jades is an incredible accomplishment that combines a powerfully insightful nineteenth century historical novel with easy to believe paranormal elements. The complex story line works on several levels as Alexander C. Irvine ties his varying subplots back into a prime theme through his key cast members. A strong dose of Dante's Inferno stood upside down is blended with Aztec myths and Americana personage and events into a great historical fantasy tale that announces the arrival of a talent worth following.

The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
Little, Brown
Jun 2002, $21.95, 328 pp., ISBN: 0316666343

Teenager Susie Salmon looks down from her heaven to observe her family suffering from grief over her disappearance. She also sees her killer trying to cover his odious deed. As the next few weeks pass, Susie continues to watch as her parents' marriage seems to disintegrate as neither can cope with not knowing whether she lived; her sister turns into an unfeeling rock to be strong; and her little brother cannot understand what happened to Susie. Her heaven is a playground, but the swings are perfect. Counselors help Susie and other newcomers cope and she makes new friends. However, heaven cannot give her what she most desires. She wants to be back with her loving family as they seek closure in different ways. Any reader lucky enough to peruse The Lovely Bones will know how fortunate they are to be in on the early stages of what appears to be a super talent. The creative story line is deftly handled so that the audience can follow how various key players, especially the Salmon family insuring Susie, cope or not with their loss. Alice Sebold provides a tremendous character driven tale that though melancholy yet optimist makes reading a heaven on earth.

The Beach House
James Patterson and Peter De Jonge
Little, Brown
Jun 2002, $26.95, 368 pp., ISBN: 0316969680

Columbia University law student Jack Mullen is stunned with the drowning death of his younger brother Peter. The police conclude that Peter died when he smoked pot and drowned on the Amagansett estate of the wealthy Neubauer family. However, Jack looks at his sibling's corpse and sees the obvious marks of a beating. He feels someone killed his brother. Jack wants the truth and with the help of some friends begins asking questions. However, as he turns up the heat on the local law enforcement officials and the Neubauer family, thug Rory "Fixer" Hoffman makes life frightening and miserable for Jack and associates. Soon Jack loses his girlfriend (a Neubauer), and his internship at a prestigious law firm as the influence of one of Long Island's most powerful families come to bear on him. Still he presses on because justice will only be served if he takes matters into his own hands including abducting the Neubauer patriarch. As they did with Miracle On The 17th Green, James Patterson and Peter De Jonge combine their talents to provide a stirring thriller filled with non stop action. The tale focuses on a David like hero that the audience cares about fighting a modern day Goliath in a seemingly implausible plot. Reality aside, the novel ensnares the audience including this reviewer to cheer Jack on even when victory seems impossible, ultimately leaving fans relishing this invigorating tale.

Whisper Of Evil
Kay Hooper
Bantam
July 2002,$7.50, 408 pp., ISBN 0553583468

The small Louisiana town of Silence is anything but quiet these days. Four men in eight months have been killed and the townsfolk are afraid; they want the police to catch the killer quickly. The only problem is the police are totally stymied so the mayor has asked the FBI to come in since their profile suggests that the murderer is a local cop. Nell Gallagher ran away from Silence when she was seventeen, but has returned twelve years later to settle the family estate. Since she is also a FBI agent, she is able to work undercover without anyone questioning her motives. She must deal with rancher Max Tanner, who needs to know why Nell closed the door on their relationship to run away after they made love for the first time. Kay Hooper's, psychic thrillers are always a delightful reading experience and Whisper Of Evil is no exception. Characters from previous works lend a sense of continuity to the story line and readers will be glad to reunite with favorites who feel like friends. The plot is complex and has so many unexpected twists and turns that readers won't be able to predict what happens next. This is a one sitting read that will find its' way to the reader's keeper shelf.

And Justice There Is None
Deborah Crombie
Bantam
Aug 2002, $23.95, 336 pp., ISBN 0553109731

Deputy Inspector Gemma James and Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid are finally getting their act together. With a baby on the way, Gemma agrees to buy a house with Duncan so that his son and her son from previous marriages, and their son to be born baby from can live together as a family. In her professional life, Gemma is assigned a high profile murder case to solve as quickly as possible. Dawn Arrowood, a trophy wife married to a rich antiques dealer twice her age, is brutally killed near her home, her throat slit. An autopsy shows that she was six weeks pregnant and since her husband had a vasectomy the probability is it was her lover's child. As Gemma burns the midnight out, Duncan joins the inquiry because there are similarities between this case and one he was investigating a few months ago. The romantic relationship between the two protagonists is developing naturally and creates a sense of continuity throughout the whole series. Deborah Crombie has written a delicious mystery with so many viable suspects that readers really won't have a clue as the identity of the killer is until the stunning climax. And Justice There Is None is a clever police procedural as well as an exciting relationship drama.

Unfit To Practice
Perri O'Shaughnessy
Delacorte
August 2002, $24.95, 422 pp., ISBN 03850348452

After years of struggling, attorney Nina Reilly has established a very good practice on the California side of Lake Tahoe. She has gotten innocent clients off and is currently being courted by a very big corporate law firm. Everything is going great until the September night that Nina brings the case files home and forgets to bring them into the house. When she goes to get them the next day, her car is stolen and her files with them. They contain information that can hurt Nina's clients and somebody is using them to do just that. While Nina and her significant other Paul are trying to do damage control, one of her clients sets in motion before the bar to have her licensed revoked. The lawyer needs an attorney steeped in the ways of the California Bar and Paul finds the expert: Nina's ex-husband. The latest installment in the Nine Reilly series is fascinating because the audience gets to see another side of the feisty lawyer when she is on the defensive in her professional life. The mystery about who is out to destroy Nina is cleverly done and believable because the perpetrator's motives ring genuine. Readers who like legal thrillers that are fit to read will want to pick up novel rather quickly.

Slow Dollar
Margaret Maron
Mysterious Press
Aug 2002, $23.95, 295 pp., ISBN 0892967641

Judge Deborah Knott of Colleton County, North Carolina first meets Tally Ames in the courtroom when the carnival owner presses charges against three local men who damaged one of her rides. The judge finds in favor of Tally and orders the men to make restitution. The next time the two women meet is at the harvest festival carnival where Deborah is taking in the sights with friends and family. The evening ends abruptly when Tally's son is found murdered, his face stomped on and his mouth stuffed with quarters. As the police investigate the carny workers, the judge learns that Tally is her long lost niece, even though Deborah's brother refuses to acknowledge her as his own. When another carnival worker is killed, the carny people close ranks against outsiders but none of that fastened tight community ever dealt with the likes of an obstinate individual like the judge. The latest installment in the Deborah Knott's here comes the judge amateur sleuth investigation mystery series is a well written novel starring a secondary cast that is colorfully eccentric. The judge agrees to marry a local man who has loved her secretly for a very long time and it will be interesting to see if she, in future books, chickens out before she gets to the altar. Slow Dollar is as much a family saga as it is a clever regional mystery.

Dead Midnight
Marcia Muller
Mysterious Press
Jun 2002, $24.95, ISBN: 089296765X

In San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone does not know which feeling rips her guts worse. Is it the guilt for not realizing how depressed her brother was or is the grief that Joey killed himself? Though reluctant to investigate the suicide of Roger Nagasawa, Sharon believes work is the best thing to keep her mind off of Joey even if there appears surface parallels. Roger worked for a popular Internet magazine that highlighted the in happenings in the Bay area. Her inquiries lead Sharon to conclude Roger was going to expose the management of his magazine that is somehow failing in spite of strong loyalty and plenty of capital. However, Roger's proof is missing. Other key players also have vanished as McCone works the West Coast to keep other participants from leaping off of a bridge. In spite of the underlying suicide theme that is handled reasonably well though overkilled (bad taste pun), Dead Midnight is a fun who-done-it for those readers who want a story line faster than a world class 100 yard dash or even a quarter horse race. McCone races faster than speeding Flash as she overcomes her feelings of inadequacy and self-culpability with Joey's death to follow the clues. Marcia Muller furnishes an interesting McCone entry.

Harriet Klausner
Reviewer


Cindy Penn's Bookshelf

Becoming Angel
Jim Cherry
Xlibris Corporation
436 Walnut St., 11th Floor, The Independence Building, Philadelphia, PA 19106
ISBN 0738845388, Mass Market Paperback, 216 pages , $21.99

"I'm a beautiful wreck, a becoming angel," John Beckett informs his audience. Indeed, Beck, as he prefers to be called, struggles with the demands of a job he hates, frequent drug and alcohol abuse, and too casual sex. Outwardly, Beck's life seems normal to friends and coworkers. Inwardly, he struggles with useless encounters with his psychologist and frustrated relationships. Yet he maintains a fa‡ade of normality until love is added to the equation. Paige Welles relocates to Chicago, accepting a job where Beck works. Their initial meeting seems rather mundane. Soon she joins Beck's buddies meet after work for beer and darts, and sexual attraction brings them together. Paige instigates their relationship, initially taking it far more seriously than Beck. When ex-girlfriend Carolyn reenters his life, the added complications force Beck to reevaluate the past and present. As his life spirals on a downward path, Beck will confront the dark night of his soul. I confess to having difficulty writing this review. On the one hand, Becoming Angel portrays wonderful philosophical insight and extraordinary depth of perception encapsulating a lost of generation. Indeed, author Jim Cherry displays a dazzling skill with words, penning passages that border on poetry. On the other hand, I may have encountered a lifestyle/generational gap I have difficulty comprehending. Hanging out in drug dealer's basements and living in a state of morbid self-pity, not to mention weekend recreational drug use, is beyond my experience and understanding. While he does find eventual redemption and self-understanding, Beck only achieves it in the last page and half, leaving the reader with an unexpectedly sudden resolution to meandering problems and self-delusion. Therefore, as a portrait of the challenges and struggles of the twenty-something crowd, Becoming Angel works well, but probably not for the audience already past the angst of youth. Recommended with reservations.

Body Electric
Susan Squires
Leisure Books/Dorchester Publishing Co, Inc.
276 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10001
ISBN 0843950366, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages , $6.99

In a world of a not too distant future, Visimorph monopolizes the computer software industry by replacing all of the world's operating systems with PuppetMaster, a system that insures fat profits for owner Bob McIntire. Every time he issues an upgrade, customers must repurchase their current software or risk not being able to function in society. McIntire draws upon the greatest talents in the industry, including Vic Barhardt, a hacker he rescued from prison. Vic turns her gift for hacking into security systems impregnable against hackers like herself. Using Visimorph resources, Vic creates program, a form of Artificial Intelligence, that she calls Jodie. Vic dreams of imbuing the program with the gifts of femininity without the cultural hassles. Vic feels uncomfortable with her own femininity, disguising her looks with asexual attire so that she might be taken seriously in the computer world. Only late at night in a dangerous world of anonymous sex does Vic indulge her feminine needs, and then only with a mask of leather and control. Then late one night, a miracle occurs. The breath of life transforms Vic's code to a sentient being. As Jodie grows, the AI takes space on the latest Visimorph's server Neuromancer. Soon Jodie expands across other servers as well, including libraries, AT&T, even the IRS. But fragmentation brings about corruption in Jodie's programs. In addition, Jodie declares himself to be male. When McIntire comes to realize that Vic has been working on an AI, he makes plans to use the code for his own purpose. Author Susan Squires plays marvelous word games in Body Electric, drawing from classical literature and contemporary science fiction to create a dazzling world of possibility. The dangers suggested by Hal in 2001 A Space Odyessy, echoes from Ray Bradbury or William Gibson remind readers of the dangers inherent in a highly technological society. But beyond the fight between the controllers of the world like Bob McIntire and everyman, Squires strikes at the heart of the challenges to women,from issues of femininity to the need to connect to someone. Vic, a woman of intelligence and beauty who denies her femininity, learns to treasure it when the mask is suddenly ripped away by events beyond her control. Jodie's struggle with emotion and a desire to become something "more" adds dynamic tension as well. Rich in nuance, Body Electric is one of those rare novels that readers may read for simple entertainment, or for much, much more as it explores questions of sentience, humanity, and self-identity. I confess to wishing Body Electric had been on my graduate reading list rather than William Gibson, although Squires gives me a new appreciation for his novels! An electrifying novel that belongs on everyone's keeper shelf.

For The Last Time: A Sharyn Howard Mystery
Joyce and Jim Lavene
Avalon Books
160 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
ISBN TBA, Hardback, 192 pages, $19.95

Deep in the woods, Old Bell's Creek campground, nicknamed Devil's Campground, undergoes renovation to prepare for reopening. The campground shut down twenty-five years ago following the stabbing a young girl in her bunk. No one saw the perpetrator, and when the victim's cabin mates found her body, pandemonium resulted. Whispers of the devil's work closed the camp under the orders of Sheriff Howard. Now his daughter Sharyn holds the Sheriff's badge. When a reporter stumbles over an old suitcase, the murders of the past suddenly become dangerously relevant. Inside the small suitcase are a bloodstained dress, a ring, and a locket. The dress is too small to have belonged to the girl murdered in the cabin. Consequently, Sharyn knows that not one, but two murders occurred twenty-five years ago. And somewhere close lurks the perpetrator who seems willing to protect himself even he must kill again. Authors Jim and Joyce Lavene create a marvelously multi-layered plot certain to satisfy mystery lovers in For The Last Time. Sharyn struggles with the decision to run for reelection or to take the bar and practice as a lawyer. Her personal life adds delicious complications with the addition of the growing attraction to Nick Thomopolis, the medical examiner. Further, she refuses to yield to the politics wielded by her mother's fianc‚, state senator Caison Talbot and his cronies. The result is a woman whose characters grows and strengthens with each addition to this popular mystery series. The strength of this talented writing duo, combined with a fascinating plot replete with twists and a rich understanding of human nature round out this terrific novel, making it come very highly recommended.

I Love Bad Boys
Lori Foster, Janelle Denison, Donna Kauffman
Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing Corp.
850 Third Avenue, New York NY 10022
ISBN 0758201346, Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages, $11.20

Six years ago Gabe Mackenzie foolishly left Chloe Anderson hanging both physically and emotionally. Now Gabe intends to prove to Chloe how much he wants her in his bed, in life, and in his future. But first he needs her forgiveness. Then a poker game provides the impetus for Chloe to gain control over her still raging desire for Gabe. Four nights of fantasy enacted to her satisfaction should rid her of this bad boy rebel who starred in her every guilty, erotic fantasy since high school. A brief sexual fling, and she will be rid of this overwhelming obsession. Author Janelle Denison proves raging passion does not necessarily lend itself to control no matter how many years have lapsed in Naughty By Night. Chloe's bold statement, "For the next four nights you're mind to do with as I please," sets a highly erotic tone. Indeed, with her characteristic flair for capturing the emotional implications of erotic encounters, Denison creates a heated short story worthy of motivating readers to purchase this collection just for her sexy tale. Bold, daring and endearing, Naughty By Night comes very highly recommended.

Call Down The Night: The Macinnes Legacy
Sandy Moffett
Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing Corp.
850 Third Avenue, New York NY 10022
ISBN 0821772724, Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages, $5.99

A hundred year old curse unconsciously draws Alexandra Gables to Salem, Massachusetts. While she has always been aware of her intuitive gifts, her arrival in Salem seems to greatly magnify them. A woman who defies convention, Alexandra carries a three-foot iguana in a birdcage that manages to make his presence known at the most opportune moments. Her summer plans to remain in Salem cataloguing several scientific collections for a friend of her father turn into quite an odyssey, however, when she meets the son of her host, Pierce Williams. Pierce's conventional views of women belonging to home and hearth take quite a beating as he comes to respect Alexandra's abilities. Her insight in the past or future, however, takes a bit more persuasion. But when she saves the lives of neighbors, predicts a lightening strike and prevents a possible shipwreck, Pierce becomes a believer. When Alexandra's research into an ancient legend threatens danger to him, Pierce cannot deny the strength of her claims, or the power of his own emotions. With paranormal elements, lurking danger and passionate romance, Call Down The Night has something for everyone. Alexandra is a remarkably intelligent and resourceful woman filled with a zest for living and unwilling to hide her abilities just to suit society or the man she loves. While Pierce does not recognize women as equal to men until Alexandra proves herself again and again, he does valiantly defend her intellectual gifts a way that proves quite endearing. Further, the suspenseful and paranormal elements are nicely offset by humorous attempts of the town witch to assure her daughter's marriage to Pierce. Each time Alexandra circumvents the matchmaking machinations, she does so in ways both humorous and adept. Indeed, author Sandy Moffett utilizes the setting of Salem to great affect, making her tale both ingenious and believable. Without revealing too much, I also feel compelled to share that the twist at the end that leads to the additional books of the series is rather convention defyig and absolutely delightful. I eagerly await the next of the series, To Touch The Sky to be published in September 2002.

Toughest Battle
Regina Pride
iUniverse.com
5220 S 16th, St. 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN 0595185908, Paperback , 255 pages , $14.95

The day when he woke to fifteen empty beer cans surrounding him haunts Brian Clark. Brian had thought his heedless pursuit of his college dreams would meet his needs. Instead, he buried the pain of the family he left behind in alcohol. A year of recovery in rehab facility brings clarity of direction, and now Brian returns to Akron, Ohio. He hopes for a reunion with brother Tommy, the sibling he raised and abandoned in adulthood. He also longs to meet the daughter he has never seen, and he dreams of second chances with the woman he still loves. Brian plans to remain in Akron, rebuilding relationships and asking Pam's forgiveness for abandoning her while she was pregnant with their child. Pam's engagement to another man only spurs him to further dedicating himself to regaining her love. The chemistry is still strong between them, but Pam does not trust easily. And just as she learns, dark secrets of the past threaten to destroy them all. Readers who have not experienced the first book of the series, Small Sacrifices will find that Toughest Battle reads quite well as a standalone. This powerfully compelling tale of second chances will touch the reader's heart as Brian struggles with his addiction and the consequences of his past decisions. Pam's osculation between her fianc‚ and Brian provides tremendous tension, especially as her daughter grows to love them both. As Brian faces his Toughest Battle yet, his growth becomes a message of hope and redemption. Add this one to your keeper shelf; a compelling read that leads to the third book of the Clark/Carlyle saga, Toughest Battle comes very highly recommended.

Losing Gemma
Katy Gardner
Riverhead Books
375 Hudson Street, New York NY 10014
ISBN 1573229334, Paperback, 368 pages, $10.40

In 1989 two best friends, Esther and Gemma, leave England to seek exotic backpacking adventure in India. Ester defines herself a woman of excitement, a lover of movement with no regard to consequences. Gemma is her opposite with her reticence and muddleheaded anxiety. Although Gemma's stolid presence counterbalances Ester's impulsivity, she still does not dissuade Ester's perchance for impetuous danger seeking. Fate, kismet, or perhaps destiny intervenes as Ester tosses a tour book into the air, planning their destination by the page that falls open. Ester and Gemma plan to travel to Agun Mazir, Orissa, the strange little shrine of a Sufi mystic and martyr whom spontaneously combusted in 1947. The shrine has become a holy sight for pilgrims seeking miracles. Disregarding cautionary voices, for this is the time of great unrest over Salman Rushdie's novel Satanic Verses, Ester and Emma embark upon a train ride Calcutta on the beginning leg of their journey. Between their bickering and petty complaints lie the truths they don't speak. Meeting veteran backpacker Coral on the train heightens the unspoken tension of their relationship as Gemma draws close to her even as Ester pulls away. Then foreboding promises of transformation and combustion lead to a stunning loss that reaches beyond the grave. Debut author Katy Gardner pens a haunting tale of loss of innocence, friendship, and tragedy in Losing Gemma. The gripping tone and powerful drama will weave a spell over readers as layers peal away revealing the "truth" beneath the every day illusions. Careful revelation of motivations, secrets and jealousies expose their vulnerabilities and underscore the distance between people regardless of how close they profess to be. A poignant and powerfully penned work, Losing Gemma provides a stunning look at this promising author. Very highly recommended.

Real Allie Newman: Superromance No 1079
Janice Carter
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710798, Mass Market Paperback, 296 pages, $5.25

When her picture appears in a national magazine for an act of heroism, Allie Newman receives an unexpected visit from a private investigator. Her wealthy grandfather recognized the remarkable similarity of appearance of her photo to her mother, and sends Joel Kennedy to discover the truth. Allie believes that her mother ran away with another man when she was three. But Joel brings proof that it was not her mother ran away, but her father, taking her with him. Allie is not the first woman whose dreams he had shattered, or whose life he would change forever. Allie's grandfather has been diagnosed leukemia, and hopes that Allie can provide bone marrow for a transplant. A woman who comes to rescue of those in need, Allie does not hesitate to offer blood for testing of compatibility. But her trusting nature also lands her in the lap of a family with their own agenda. Her cousins view with her suspicion, concerned that their grandfather might change the will in her favor. Others in the household drop innuendo and suspicion in her lap, forcing Allie to learn the truth regarding her mother. Even Joel seems to have his own agenda, one he does not openly reveal to Molly. Issues of self-identity become a powerful theme in Janice Carter's The Real Allie Newman. While other authors have addressed this theme, Carter maintains an unusually even hand, never allowing her mature heroine to sink into the self-pitying quagmire that many heroines experience when discovering that the story of parentage had been concealed. The book occurs during the course of a single week: a short period of time for such profound revelations. Nevertheless, Allie approaches the revelations regarding her father and mother with grace. She demonstrates profound maturity and remarkable self-assurance as she examines the ramifications of the discovery that her father has a past and she has a family of which she had no previous knowledge. Rather than being angry regarding the secrets of the past, Allie accepts the opportunity to meet her extended family andto learn about her mother, even if it is a rather unsavory view. Hero Joel is a bit tougher to grow close to, concealing his identity and struggling to maintain distance from Allie because of a conflict of interests. Nevertheless, he does provide an anchor when Allie feels cast adrift, and his role adds a dimension of intrigue that keeps the plot moving nicely along. An interesting afternoon's read, The Real Allie Newman comes recommended.

Her Baby's Father: Superromance No 1078
Anne Haven
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 037371078X, Mass Market Paperback, 298 pages, $5.25

The loss of her mother left Jennifer Burns bereft during Christmas, so when her high school boyfriend Drew looks her up after nine years, she easily agrees to meet for dinner and a chance to catch up. He assured her that he was unmarried. When she learns of her pregnancy, Jennifer tries to call him, only to learn he left a number that does not exist. When she looses her job and her apartment, Jennifer heads back to the town where it all began nine years ago. She quickly learns that the phone number was not the lie. The father of her baby is married and is wife is pregnant. Years of guilt have left Ross Griffin stoically accepting his younger brother's bad behavior. When his own marriage ended in divorce, his brother married his ex-wife. Ross learned to live with it, treating her appropriately as a sister-in-law at family gatherings. But now his brother has crossed the line by getting Jennifer pregnant and denying his responsibility. Ross' own unresolved feelings for her only complicate the situation when he invites her to stay with him until she get on her feet. But too many lines have been crossed already for Ross to willing give in to his heart's desire. Anne Haven's Her Baby's Father examines the boundaries of ethical behavior and the definitions of fatherhood. The plot may seem a bit overburdened with the number of stunning twists, from infertility to brothers having been married to the same woman at different times, but the strengths of characterization and gentle handling of extremely delicate family matters reveals a deft authorial touch. Haven's smooth writing style, multidimensional characters and strong emotional conflicts make for a evocative read. Recommended.

The Man On The Cliff: Superromance No 1077
Janice MacDonald
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710771, Mass Market Paperback, 296 pages, $5.25

From the moment of her arrival in Ireland, Kate Neeson experiences a sense of otherworldliness. Directions and signposts take her away from her destination as fog shrouds the sharp edges and planes of reality. So meeting a sexy stranger on a cliff, sharing a kiss before a name, and poetic courting all seem appropriate to the moment. Then Kate learns the man from the cliff is unfortunately the same man she has come to seek an interview from. The same man who reputedly murdered his wife. Although the trip maxed out her credit card, Kate will deem the expense worthwhile if she can uncover the truth of folksinger Moruadh Maguire's death. But meeting Niall Maguire in person casts doubt on the rumor and innuendo that runs wild in the local village. Niall refuses to discuss his wife's death, or even to defend himself against the gossip. Yet Kate cannot reconcile the tender romantic man from the cliff with cold-blooded murder. In his cliff side castle lie the dark answers and secrets Niall determinedly keeps if Kate dares to risk the fates and destiny to find the answers. Author Janice Macdonald beautifully blends the mystery of Ireland with an entrancing romance in The Man On The Cliff. An otherworldly quality pervades the novel, influencing characters to act on their impulses and believe in the magic of destiny. The clash of differences between Californian Kate and Irishman Niall highlights far more than a simple geographical distance. As Ireland works its magic, however, Kate and Niall find commonalities and attraction that threaten to either pull them apart forever, or link their destinies forever. Further, the truth regarding folksinger Moruadh's death also lurks within the concealing shrouding fog, along with those determined to maintain the secrets of the past, adding danger and intrigue to the plotting. Macdonald pulls these varying elements together with finesse, creating a novel rich in atmosphere and filled with fascinating characterizations. The Man On The Cliff comes highly recommended.

Disappear: Superromance No 1074
Kay David
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710747, Mass Market Paperback, 296 pages, $5.25

Harsh words flung between Alexis Mission and her parents regarding her choice to follow a young social worker to Peru effectively shut down communication between parents and child. When her mother sends a Thanksgiving invitation a year later, Alexis is willing to concede her parents' wisdom. Rather than writing or calling, she simply shows up at their home, anticipating a warm welcome. Instead, she finds an empty house, the Thanksgiving turkey dreadfully overcooked, and a place set for her at the table. Her family has simply disappeared. A few hours later she also finds a stranger waiting, who whisks her away to a new life and a new identity. Ten years later, Alexis has never forgotten that stranger or the horror of that day. She still longs for answers, and as she comes to believe someone watches, she calls government agent Gabriel O'Rourke, the stranger from that night. She hangs up before anyone answers, but he finds out, reappearing in her living room once again. She was the case that haunted his sleep; the one he could not forget. Layers of lies separate them as he refuses to tell her the truth about her family, and the guilt threatens to destroy whatever they might build between them. In a world where the only truth that exists lives in their hearts, it hardly seems possible that Alexis and Gabriel can span the world of hurt between them, but hearts seem to find answers where least expected. Author Kay David pens a riveting tale of murder, intrigue and revenge in Disappear. She captures the essence of the challenges Alexis faces with grace. The struggle to establish a new identity, while forcibly rejecting the old definitions of self, forces Alexis to grow in directions few people must ever experience. Gabriel's own culpability in a mission gone wrong, and his attraction to Alexis, only heightens the tension between them. With a fascinating plot and unexpected twists and turns, David keeps the pages turning. Disappear comes very highly recommended.

Cowboy At The Crossroads: Superromance No 1075
Linda Warren
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710755, Mass Market Paperback, 297 pages, $5.25

A year ago Cordell Prescott's wife committed suicide, leaving behind a traumatized family. Five-year-old Nicki has yet to begin recovering from the loss of her mother, and after an endless cycle of doctors and psychologists, her father Cord feels desperate. So he asks his brother's friend Becca Talbert for help. Becca understands family trauma, having survived her own share of it. With a month off before beginning her medical practice, she welcomes the opportunity to work with Nicki, using a tough love approach that brings almost immediate results. The attraction between herself and Cord is just as immediate. But bearing undue responsibility for his wife's suicide, Cord does not believe he deserves a woman like Becca. Author Linda Warren pens a touching romance in Cowboy At The Crossroads. Warren has a gift for portraying delicate family relationships and the effect of guilt. But I must confess that Cord's bullheadedness did grow tiresome. There are times when he belabors issues to such an extreme, their age difference for example, that I just wanted to shake him. Nicki's refreshing personality and the unique cast of secondary characters, however, more than compensate for the impatience I felt with Cord. An altogether satisfying read, Cowboy At The Crossroads comes highly recommended.

Child Of Her Dreams: Superromance No 1076
Joan Kilby
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710763, Mass Market Paperback, 299 pages, $5.25

Throbbing techno music, the excitement of modeling Milan's newest designer, too many cigarettes and pills, and not enough food brings supermodel Geena Hanson crashing down on the catwalk. Her spirit rises, viewing the chaotic scene as if from a distance on its journey to the light. But this is not Geena's time, and she returns to a harsh world of recovery with new insight. Suddenly her glamorous world seems superficial, and she wants more. Serving the most poverty stricken of humanity in Guatemala transforms Dr. Ben Matthew's life. With his two-year stint complete, Ben takes a temporary position stateside where he meets Geena. But Ben has little patience with a woman that makes her living solely with her looks and often treats her condescendingly. Despite his attitude, however, he cannot deny his attraction to her. Then he learns of her life after death experience, which, as a man of science, he dismisses. Geena's belief in her experience seems to epitomize their profound differences and the impossibility of their relationship. Child Of Her Dreams presents an interesting hero and heroine who are total opposites, which thereby places them at cross-purposes. Geena's life after death experience adds an extraordinary element to the novel. While the subsequent tension between characters maintains the reader's interest, the momentum of the tale unfortunately peters out during the second half of the novel, allowing the ending to fall a bit flat. I found myself feeling a bit impatient that she settles for so little after proving her abilities. Nevertheless, I confess to admiring a heroine who swallows her pride to seek a GED while also working hard to overcome a potential eating disorder, which makes reading Child Of Her Dreams a worthwhile read. Child Of Her Dreams comes recommended.

A Husband In Her Eyes: Silhouette Romance No 1577
Karen Rose Smith
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 037319577X, Mass Market Paperback, 190 pages, $3.99

Four years ago a Christmas tragedy deprived Melanie Carlotti of her husband, her daughter, and her sight. After months of recovery, she finally receives the cornea transplant that makes sight possible. She also receives dreams of a compelling man, a mountain and baby booties. The haunting dreams drive Melanie to seek answers, so she hires a private investigator to discover if the person who donated the corneas was somehow linked to her dreams. Zach Morgan has not looked at another woman since his wife died. Then Melanie shows up to apply for a job for decorating the interior of his company. She wins the position, but not before Zach becomes away of the odd connection between them. The job provides Melanie the opportunity to figure out what the cornea donator Shelley has been trying to convey, a way to reach closure. She never expected to fall in love. And Zach certainly never expected her startling story of what brought them together. Readers willing to suspend their disbelief regarding transplants that allow the deceased memories to be shared with the transplant recipient will discover a delightful read in Karen Rose Smith's A Husband In Her Eyes. Melanie's compelling need to provide closure and forgiveness regarding Shelley's death becomes a tender, touching story of healing and redemption. The delightful child Shelley left behind immediately bonds with Melanie in a relationship that is both bittersweet and attention-grabbing. Zach's need to learn to trust again, and the opportunity to find healing reveal his vulnerabilities even as he demonstrates his remarkable control and coping skills. In addition, the seeming impossibility of Melanie's claims regarding Shelley's memories maintains a subtle tension throughout the story, culminating in an entrancing climax. Smith's charming characterizations and subtle plotting reveals a powerful story-telling skill. A Husband In Her Eyes comes highly recommended.

Skin Deep: Harlequin Temptation No 890
Tori Carrington
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373259905, Mass Market Paperback, 218 pages, $4.25

When he witnesses Kyra White's public humiliation at the hands of her latest short-term boyfriend, Michael Romero cannot passively watch. In the four years of their friendship, Michael has witnessed more than a dozen men pass through Kyra's life. Despite his feelings for her, Michael refuses to be added to Kyra's short timers until her remarkable transformation inspires his own risk taking, adventuresome spirit to emerge. Following her public humiliation and Michael's rescue, Kyra picks up a copy of Sex Kitten 101 and uses its tips to transform her life. New clothes, new hair and a new attitude attract men like crazy, including the one that has always treated her as a best friend. Certainly, Kyra never expected the complications that would evolve when Michael expresses his desire for her. Nor does she know how to reconcile the sultry siren with the strengths of the old Kyra in a new relationship. Writing team Tori Carrington has a knack for seamlessly blending both the male and female perspective in red-hot reads that keep the pages turning. As Skin Deep once again proves, sensuality and emotional complications receive remarkably deft treatment, resulting in unusually rounded characterizations and a fun plot. Indeed, Skin Deep is a light-hearted, playful romp that provides just the amusing read readers have coming to expect from Carrington. Highly recommended.

A Perilous Attraction: Harlequin Historical No 621
Patricia Frances Rowell
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 037329221X, Mass Market Paperback, $5.25

When her uncle squanders her inheritance, Catherine Maury must either give up her work of helping London's orphans to live a life of destitution or she must marry the enigmatic Earl of Caldbeck. When she refuses to see him, Charles breaks the latch on her bedroom door to gain her audience and offer his proposal. He offers Catherine financial support and the means to continue to work with the orphans. In return, he admits to his desire for her beauty, her energy and her elegance. Indeed, he admires her ability to express her passions in contrast to his always calm and cool demeanor. Charles' arrogant exterior with his carefully restrained responses makes Catherine want to break through the surface, at one exasperating her and challenging her. Fortunately, his teasing banter lightens the tone, although Catherine initially is uncertain if she should take his remarks seriously. But just when all seems to be perfect as they settle into marriage together, a dangerous man watches. His evil intent upon destruction haunts the women of the area, and soon it becomes obvious he intends Catherine to be next victim. Author Patricia Frances Rowell pens an intriguing historical romance in A Perilous Attraction. The sharp contrast in characterizations makes for delightful reading as Catherine's impulsive, emotional nature provokes reactions in her new husband. Rather than the typical exasperated response, however, Charles admires Catherine's temper and joy in living, seeking her out for the emotional reactions he finds impossible to express. The result is a tender romance tempered by humor as their natures clash. Remarkably, Rowell never falls into the predictable plot devices such contrasting personalities suggest, thereby lending the novel an unexpected freshness and strength. Further, as the ominous foreboding of danger lurking ever closer, readers will find it impossible to put down this terrific read. Very highly recommended.

Just Kiss Me: Temptation No 889
Kathleen O'Reilly
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373259891, Mass Market Paperback, 218 pages, $4.25

Amanda Sedgewick enlists Joe Barrington's aid to dissuade his brother Avery. For twenty-one years Avery has assumed that he and Amanda will wind up together and refuses to believe her blatant discouragement. So Amanda hopes that involvement with younger brother Joe will send Avery packing, and perhaps lead to a bit of wild fun. After all, Amanda is not looking for a commitment, although a passionate affair with Joe would certainly fill her fantasies. Amanda's cool looks have never caught Joe's eye. He likes his women hot and passionate. But her harebrained scheme regarding brother Avery replaces his misconceptions with expectations that exceed his wildest fantasies. Suddenly he finds himself swept away by her playful sensuality, inspired to become more than just Dr Avery Barrington's airline mechanic younger brother. Unfortunately, that inspiration can also lead to his downfall. A message on a cocktail napkin transforms lives in Kathleen O'Reilly's newest romance Just Kiss Me. But don't let lively romantic romp fool you; O'Reilly understands the insecurities created by conflicting careers and lifestyles. The strength of this fabulous tale is its confrontation with contemporary challenges and values, and its ability to find a resolution without compromising the strengths of the characters. On one hand, Joe's determination to blaze his own path flags when he does not believe he is worthy of a wealthy lawyer on the fast track to partnership. On the other hand, Amanda treasures the spontaneity and freshness Joe brings to her life, loosening her inhibitions and allowing her to reevaluate priorities. Together their romance is fiery, daring and often humorous. Readers will be watching for a sequel as the proper brother Avery seeks his path to love. Very highly recommended.

The Seven Year Secret, Superromance No 1069
Roz Denny Fox
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710690, Mass Market Paperback, 299 pages, $4.99

Six year old Liddy Forrester's kidney transplant brought about eight months of miraculous normalcy before her body's rejection plummets her into ill health and dialysis. Doctors remove the kidney that her mother Mallory donated, and place her on the national donor waitlist. Now Mallory will do anything for her daughter, and decides to contact her child's father to ask for a miracle. Seven years ago Connor O'Rourke accepted his dream opportunity to develop an early warning system for hurricanes. He left before Mallory told him that she was pregnant. When her letters went unanswered, Mallory moved on with her life. But now she must track Connor down, announce his fatherhood, and ask him to donate a kidney to save his daughter's life. Inadvertently interrupting his bachelor party only proves to be the beginning of their renewed and tumultuous relationship. Author Roz Denny Fox has a knack for tackling hard-hitting topics and presenting them with flair - a talent she dazzlingly displays with The Seven Year Secret. Having lived with a transplant patient, I've experienced first hand the challenges Fox so deftly describes, particularly as a patient's body rejects a much-needed transplant. In The Seven Year Secret, such frightening issues are sharply compounded by this patient's tender age. On one hand, the child's mother Mallory consequently displays the sharp protectiveness of a lioness any time she believes her daughter to be affected by the actions of her previously absent father. On the other hand, Connor responds with shock and love when he learns of his child, and persistence in the face of Mallory's resistance to his efforts - right to the bitter end. And while I occasionally grew impatient with Mallory's tunnel vision, her preoccupation with her daughter's health certainly justifies her attitudes. The Seven Year Secret comes very highly recommended.

The Notorious Mrs. Wright: Superromance No 1068
Fay Robinson
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710682, Mass Market Paperback, 299 pages, $4.99

Her father's tutelage resulted in Emma Webster's extraordinary skill with illusion. Until she ran away from home as teenager, Emma ran cons with her father, transforming herself into various characters with amazing skill. Twenty years later, living under an assumed identity, Emma must confront the past when her brother sends Private investigator Whit Lewis to find her. Emma now lives as Susan Wright, proprietor of Illusions, a successful restaurant with marvelous themes enacted with costuming she inherited from a friend. She has never told her son the truth of his parentage, of her identity, or of the past. Whit's arrival in her life forces Emma to face the moral and ethical dilemmas her life chooses have created. Author Fay Robinson creates a delightful read in The Notorious Mrs. Wright with its unusual combination of opposites, secrets and danger. The skillful manipulation of ethical and moral dilemmas force Emma to confront the past in order to create a future. Her concerns for her teen son particularly reveal an endearing vulnerability; her ability to survive extraordinary circumstances with her resourcefulness and skill reveals her incredible strengths. Whit's nonjudgmental acceptance proves to be refreshing even as he struggles with his own ethical dilemmas. With an unusual and fast paced plot and these eccentric, yet charming characterizations, The Notorious Mrs. Wright comes highly recommended.

Return To Crystal Creek
Vicki Lewis Thompson, Bethany Campbell, Cathy Gillen Thacker
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373835108, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages, $6.50

Authors Vicki Lewis Thompson, Cathy Gillen Thacker and Bethany Campbell have made this reviewer a new fan of the delightful small town of Crystal Creek and its charming citizens. As it faces the radical changes of moving into the new decade, Crystal Creek's determination to maintain small town closeness provides a delightful refuge to readers longing to escape the hurried pace and impersonal feeling of big cities. "I'll Take Texas" by Bethany Campbell: In the midst of May Madness, a stranger moves through evaluating the landscape and its inhabitants. Nick Belyle brings the promise of radical change in the guise of progress with his representation of Castle Enterprises. But his mysterious errand and its consequences promise to affect all of Crystal Creek. Worse, the last thing Nick expected was to confront the girl he never forgot, or the explosive passion they could share if their interests were not so divided by his job. Author Bethany Campbell pens a powerful tale of lovers caught in star-crossed purposes, confronting the desires of the heart and the demands of loyalty in a story both tender and passionate. Shelby Sprague mistrusts slick men with big city values. Nick is loyal to Castle Enterprises and the miracles the owner made possible. While progress must continue, Campbell pens a solution that shakes the small town of Crystal Creek without destroying it. "Made for Lovin' You" by Cathy Gillen Thacker: Claire Page left her groom standing at the altar after a stunning disclosure left her unable to marry her blue-blooded fianc‚. Now she seeks refuge from the gossip in Crystal Creek, planning to stay away from another relationship until she has time to heal. However, her fierce independence only serves as a challenge to veterinarian Dusty Turner, who cannot resist this sexy city-girl. The more she pushes him away, the more Dusty becomes determined to prove that time has no meaning in matters of the heart. Cowboys, pick-up trucks and spicy Tex-mix make for a flavorful combination with Cathy Gillen Thacker's pen Claire wisely refuses to salve one broken romance by springing immediately into a new one. Her feistiness and sassiness make for a lively read, especially when Dusty is equally determined to enjoy the magic of love, despite the unfortunate romantic circumstances that drove them both to Crystal Creek. Thacker presents a lovely tale of small town values, healing and enchantment. "She Used to be Mine" by Vicki Lewis Thompson: Teague Sloan Jr. returns to Crystal Creek on a traitor's mission. Once an employee of the Hole in the Wall Dude Ranch, now he has been contracted to move their exotic animals elsewhere to prepare for Castle Enterprise's extreme changes. Kendra Lynn Burton fell in love with Teague during their time there, but refused to follow him to the big city when he left. Instead, she makes plans to dig her roots even deeper, no matter how Teague uses his return visit to lure her away. Vicki Lewis Thompson uses her skills to blend hot passion with tender emotion to great effect in "She Used to be Mine." Teague's carefully planned seduction that goes awry will touch reader's hearts, even as his determination to win the woman he loves puts him directly at cross-purposes with her dreams. With a shared history but different goals, Kendra and Teague seem to find themselves at an impasse that only the charm of Crystal Creek can overcome. Small town Crystal Creek confronts traumatic change when Castle Enterprises lures sellers with millions. From the first moment Nick appears in town, Crystal Creek will never be the same. Nevertheless, authors Thompson, Thacker and Campbell confront those changes with unique voices even as they all move through the transitions gracefully. Readers who have not yet enjoyed a quiet afternoon in Crystal Creek will treasure its memorable citizens and new friends. Readers who've treasured this town through the previous twenty-seven books will take great pleasure in this Return To Crystal Creek.

The Apple Orchard: Superromance No 1073
Linda Barrett
Harlequin Retail Inc
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373710739, Mass Market Paperback, 299 pages, $4.99

Devoted to her job, Abby Mackenzie loves Mondays when she begins yet another week as a psychologist. Then one Monday morning she walks into her office to find blood spattered everywhere - a police officer she had been counseling committed suicide in her office. Now traumatic shock syndrome plagues her life, forcing her to reevaluate her chosen profession. After all, if she cannot help herself, then perhaps she cannot help others either. So she abandons her office for the temporary physical labor in apple orchard, hoping the hard work will bring the exhaustion of much needed sleep. Two years ago Dr. Jake Templeton and his daughter Stacey suffered the loss of his wife. Four therapists have not been able to bring joy back to his daughter's eyes. Believing Stacey has suffered enough loss, Jake cautions Abby to keep her distance from his vulnerable daughter. Despite his determination to remain stoically uninvolved with Abby, Jake finds himself drawn to both her strengths and her vulnerabilities. Traumatic shock syndrome brings three characters together in an unforgettable tale of trauma and healing in The Apple Orchard. Abby's flashback paralyze her career, leaving her questioning her abilities. Her need for healing opens the path for young Stacey to find her own path to healing. As mistrust of therapists gives way to hope, Jake alters his opinions of psychologists and his plans for the future. A beautifully written, character driven romance filled with hope, The Apple Orchard comes very highly recommended.

Lone Rider
Lauren Bach
Warner Books
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 044661114X, Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages, $6.99

Bikers, handcuffs and danger - Very highly recommended With the brilliance of the twinkling stars of the Montana sky inspiring her creative edge, jewelry designer Tess Marsh did not notice the light on her dash indicating low fuel until it was too late. An out of area cell phone and a chance encounter with lone rider Dallas Haynes thrusts her into danger when his motorcycle gang tops the hill and he stakes his claim. Within moments Tess finds herself on the back of Dallas' motorcycle, a hostage in the care of a dangerous man who carefully conceals with concern with harsh bravado. Dallas' educated humor sharply contrasts his hoodlum appearance, and as danger escalates, Tess finds herself trusting him. Dallas claims Tess as his exclusive property, effectively keeping other bikers at bay. Meanwhile, she witnesses a brutal murder, knowledge of which puts her in extreme danger. The following weeks are spent handcuffed to a bed by day, and alone with Dallas at night. Dallas does not explain his mission, or that abducting her and holding Tess hostage is the only way to save her life. Lone Rider by Lauren Bach is one of the most unusual romantic suspense novels I have ever encountered. Readers seem to either love it or hate it, especially when Dallas moves midway from alpha male biker to carefully cultivated government agent. Indeed, the transition may feel a bit concerting. Nonetheless, Dallas is the ultimate bad boy fantasy come true, complete with bike, leather and heart. His extraordinary world of drug trafficking, leather bound bikers, and biker chicks provide a harsh and startling backdrop for socialite Tess. Her determination to survive and resourcefulness makes her a strong character in the face of extreme adversity. With a fast placed, surprising plot, strong emotion and never-ending danger, Lone Rider provides an extraordinary read that comes very highly recommended.

Hidden Heiress: The Secret Clan
Amanda Scott
Warner Books
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 0446610321, Mass Market Paperback, 432 pages, $6.99

In 1540, citizens on the borders of England and Scotland find their alliances sorely questioned. To assure his position, King James takes Patrick MacRae's liege Mackenzie of Kintail hostage. In exchange for Kin's eventual release, Patrick risks his life to spy for Cardinal Beaton while quietly searching for the missing heiress Bessie, whom most assume to be dead. At every opportunity, Elspeth escapes the drudgery of Farnsworth Tower to enjoy the solitude of the woods. She has no memory of her well-born status or the life she might have led. Instead, she spends her days in service to the family that raised her. Then an unexpected encounter with a stranger fleeing the baying of dogs transforms her life. She leads him to safety, and provides information that opens the opportunity for Patrick to become the falconer for Farnsworth Tower. Through most of their adventure, Elspeth and Patrick are unaware of the well-intentioned magical help they receive. Nor does Elspeth recall the secret sign from her mother that provides a link to her true birth and her link to the Secret Clan. This marvelous supernatural element provides both comic relief and zest to bring this romance charmingly alive. The sequel to Abducted Heiress, Amanda Scott's Hidden Heiress will delight fans of the Highlands and all things fae. Scott's characterizations are richly developed and endearing, her prose so natural that it seems to as if you are witnessing the story rather than reading about it. Both Elspeth and Patrick struggle with misplaced loyalties, lending both fascinating conflict and opportunity for character growth. In addition, Elspeth's story echoes the traditional Cinderella tale with unusual twists that lend it striking originality. Patrick's gift for falconry, with unwitting assistance of a magical nature, also provides an unusual yet fascinating element. Indeed, Scott's seamless blending of historical detail, stunning characterizations and intervention of a magical nature, for both good and ill, all combine in a memorable tale that ears its place on the keeper shelf. Very highly recommended.

The Legend
Kathleen Givens
Warner Books
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 0446610526, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages, $6.50

A lightening strike divides a mighty oak yet lives. Consequently, a seer tells the legend of the MacCurries: three generations of lairds will be born and will die on the same date. Then twins will be born to the third son and they will lead their people to both war and to fifty years of peace. The twins of three generations of men who died on their birth dates, nothing has ever come between brothers James and Neil except a woman. Ellen refuses to settle for less than a passion that transforms if she is to ever marry. She certainly does not expect to find that passion on the road Dunfllandy Castle as she flees her family home to warn her cousin John of a plot of murder. The would-be assassins pursue Ellen until James MacCurrie comes to her rescue. But he cannot even reveal his true identity since he is taking his twin's place at the gathering of clans. Even as passion draws Ellen and James together the coming war keeps them divided in this tumultuous account of an exciting era of highland history. The Legend begins with James story and leads to the sequel that will follow Neil's quest for love. The richly developed characterization, especially the strength of the bond between the brothers and Neil's jealousy when that bond weakens, lends the novel a marvelous depth. In addition, the tightly woven plot draws readers into a dangerous world of loyalty and betrayal. A must read for historical romance lovers, The Legend comes very highly recommended.

When Night Falls: Intimate Moments No 1170
Jenna Mills
Silhouette Books
300 East 42nd Street, New York, New York, 10017
ISBN 0373272405, Mass Market Paperback, 251 pages, $4.75

When his daughter Emily disappears, William Armstrong's past returns with a vengeance. Seventeen years ago his girlfriend disappeared without a trace, leaving a legacy of speculation and rumor. Based on circumstances, speculation, and political alliance, police chief Wallace Clark was determined to prove murder but never successful. Now his daughter investigates the disappearance of Liam's daughter, ever aware of possible connections to the past. Like any good cop, Detective Jessica Clark knows emotional involvement equates with disaster in an investigation. Seventeen years of hearing her father rant about Armstrong made it difficult to separate Liam from his past. Now Jessica suddenly finds herself confronted by another side of the man - the father convinced his daughter has been kidnapped. She also feels an odd kinship for the seventeen-year-old she has never met. Soon she realizes that compassion mixed with attraction can be dangerous with danger lurking ever nearer. Author Jenna Mills pens an outstanding tale of intrigue in love in When Night Falls. With consummate skill, she weaves a tightly woven plot that will keep readers guessing until the last page. In addition, these vividly created characters come alive. On one hand, Liam lives a life that is driven, isolated, and dangerous, softened only by his love for his daughter. His carefully guarded heart, however, is defenseless against the beauty with a badge. On the other hand, Jessica struggles to reconcile rumors of the past with the father she sees in front of her. Further, Jessica lives her father's shadow until Liam forces her to follow her instinct and her heart. Add this one to your keeper shelf!

Cowboy Boss: Desire No 1457
Kathie DeNosky
Silhouette Books
300 East 42nd Street, New York, New York, 10017
ISBN 037376457X, Mass Market Paperback, 187 pages, $4.25

A bit of matchmaking leaves Faith Broderick stranded with Cooper Adams on a dilapidated ranch without electricity, phone service or transportation. While there might not be anything for her at the Triple Bar Ranch, there certainly is nothing to return to in Illinois. Faith may have arrived to accept a position as housekeeper, but she soon wants to stay when she finds love amid the cobwebs, mice, and a bucket fed calf. Cooper finds the magnetism between them irresistible. But it will be years before the Triple Bar Ranch becomes profitable, and right now he cannot even offer running water. Too bad he underestimates the power of old-fashioned bathtubs and candlelight - on both himself and Amanda. But a man wants more to offer the woman he loves than falling plaster and leaking roofs. Author Kathie DeNosky's pens a sparking romance in Cowboy Boss. Amanda's queasiness regarding creeping critters lends just the light note of levity to keep Cowboy Boss a lively read. Amanda's disillusion with marriage and her challenge to overcome the scars from the past neatly match Cooper's challenges. Once again DeNosky demonstrates a dazzling gift for creating a character driven tale with emotional depth balanced by the heart. Very highly recommended.

Haiku Used And Abused
Patricia Spork
Writers Graphic Image
Rt. 1 Box 180-CC, Tatum, TX 75691
ISBN 0971293929, eBook/PDF format, 32 pages, $3.95

Three lines and seventeen syllables express the height and depth of emotion in Patricia Spork's Haiku Used And Abused. Rain clouds on a cotton-candy flight, barren land after a forest fire, wind across the western plain, and moonlight on a starry night each earn a place of majestic beauty. Fertility contrasts bleakness, nature's rhythms in the midst of civilization, harsh temperatures and startling discover all wait for discovery in this extraordinary collection of verse. As commonality of experience brings smiles to the reader with fire ants and grasshoppers Spork's gift with words resonates throughout these pages, but never so profoundly as in the acceptance of personal grief and national pain. Death lingers on the road, in tragedy and inevitable. Yet the note of acceptance and the contrast with living gives an unexpected message of hope. Whether a simple observation of small animals and insects or a child in a bubble bath, or a thoughtful statement of grief, each haiku brings a vision of life to light in a voice unique to this fabulous author. Taken together, these verses are powerful and perfect to provoke each reader's own thoughtful reflection. Very highly recommended.

Manchukuo Gold
Bob Haller
Leister & Sons
6 Forest Glen, Lake Ariel, PA 18436
ISBN 0961823445, Paperback $14.95, eBook $5.95, 332 pages

Tommy Chong offers Randy Rawlins and Vince Volcano, ex-Navy SEALS and business partners, the perfect job. They will retrieve a fortune in gold hidden in a cave in remote Manchuria by Tommy's grandfather at the end of World War II. During the subsequent fifty years, the valley has been flooded, and Randy and Vince will use their diving expertise to retrieve the gold and smuggle it out of the Peoples Republic of China. Tommy mistakenly believes that no one alive knows of the treasure. He is wrong. Major Nazaka made an agreement with Tommy's ancestors to hide the gold. The Japanese major and his vicious granddaughter want their legacy and will stop at nothing to obtain it. But others match their single-minded determination, including Nikki Moore, a New York fashion designer who does not mind using romance to obtain her desires. Her business associate Oleg Chenikoff likewise pursues a dangerously hidden agenda. A treasure hunt in China leads to excitement and danger in Bob Haller's Manchukuo Gold. The fascinating cast of characters heightens the difference in cultural attitudes as east meets west in this stunning tale of adventure, danger and murder. Haller has a gift for treating these diverse cultures with realism and respect, resulting in a gripping read filled with ethical and moral dilemmas. While the nonstop action lives up to the intensity of Tom Clancy, Haller's unique voice delivers an outstanding read with unexpected twists and turns that will leave readers ready for more from this talented author's pen. Very highly recommended.

Light Plays: Light Play Trilogy, Book 2
N. D. Hansen-Hill
Clocktower Fiction
ISBN 0743300122, e-Book $4.80, Trade Paperback $15.25

Dr. Caroline Denaro's breakthrough experiment backfired, transforming her into a being with the combined DNA of human and plant. Her touch transformed Rick Lockmann as well, and although she has died, her legacy has only just begun. There are many unscrupulous players who would pay well for the part of her body and the secrets to her transformation. Whether their motives are altruistic or predatory, they all represent a danger to Rick as well. Some people will do anything to possess the DNA of his mutated body. Rick no longer breathes or consumes food; instead, he has become photosynthetic. As he struggles with his mutant changes, so do those around him. His bodily changes isolate him even from his closest friends, leaving him without casual invitations, playful fun, and social interaction. Agents from the DSO shadow his every movement in an effort to shield him from outside threats, but unfortunately denying him all but the illusion of privacy. Meanwhile, others watch, waiting their opportunity and when they take it, a bullet rips Rick's life apart, thrusting him into a deadly game of intrigue and suspense. A touch of irreverent humor provides comic relief in an otherwise very dark tale in the second book of the Light Play Trilogy. Light Plays brings characters vividly to life, even more rounded and fully developed than in the first of this trilogy, allowing the novel to work well as a stand-alone as well as part of the series. As Rick continues struggles with what it means to be human, others also become infected, calling into question the meaning and limits of friendship and loyalty. Author ND Hansen-Hill explores these issues with grace, yet never backs away from the most difficult demands of friends or enemies. Rick's out of body experience is especially potent, especially given the similarity to his nemesis' experience. Readers who have not read the first installment of this trilogy will find themselves scurrying to do so as the originator of the viris is to horrifying to miss. A gripping read that grabs th reader by the throat and never lets go, Light Plays comes highly recommended.

The Light: An Alien Abduction
Michael L. Thal
Adventure Book Publishers
ISBN 1553130944, eBook, 148 page, Approx $4.33

His marriage in tatters, a final altercation drives Lewis to violence when his wife's acts of cruelty and carelessness eradicate his last shred of patience. That impact, flesh against flesh, brought him a raw sense of power that only ends when his eight-year-old son bites him. Fleeing his own violence, Lewis goes to his brother Steven's home. They walk late at night beneath a Southern California sky until a pale green beam of light takes them away. The brothers awaken on an Oceanic spaceship. After testing, the Oceanians determine that Lewis will make the better subject, returning his brother to earth with no memory of their experience. Lewis becomes a member of the crew, traveling to Oceana and learning of their need for a new home world. Technologically advanced, their civilization suffers from reverse discrimination, proving that discrimination can exist no matter the cultural and technical advances. The Light: An Alien Abduction by Michael L. Thal presents a fascinating cast of characters and contrasting civilizations that are more alike than different in their prejudices. Thal presents a convincing argument for end of nationalism and the need for global unity, and scathing social commentary guised as fiction regarding sexual discrimination. While the tone becomes a bit preachy at time, it also offers a hopeful view of our future. The exploration of consciousness not bound by physical limitations also provides a fascinating subplot. Thal's gift succinct writing style brings this tale vividly alive. Recommended.

Chasing The Demons
Susan Shelley
The Fiction Works
P.O. Box 1066, Corvallis, OR 97339-1066 (Free HTML download from publisher)

Chasing The Demons begins with a gripping line: "Instead of being so amiable and demure on our first date, I should have taken a gun with me and shot him." Fixed up by her twin sister, Susan dates Frank Perez out of defiance of her parents and a desperate need to get out of her family home. A quick "I do" begins a lifetime of misery, however, with a man driven by his own personal demons. Frank struggles with his relationship with his parents, his wife, and his children. His bible-thumping father cannot satisfy his mother, and their subsequent separation places a tremendous burden on their son, who passes his responsibilities to Susan. When she and her two young children finally escapes the hell her life has become, Frank reenters her life with promises of changes and transformations. Promises do not last long when faced with brutal reality. Their teen son becomes rebellious and angry, getting into trouble with school and eventually the law. The worse their problems become, the more Frank professes a selfish need to be in control of his family. But control has spiraled out of all of their hands, and Susan and her family faces profound challenges they are ill equipped to handle. I admit to being a bit torn as to how to approach this review. According to my review copy of the novel, Chasing The Demons is the second novel of a trilogy, but a search on the web does not turn up the first of the series: Dance With The Demons. According to publisher's web site, this is the first of the series. Regardless, there is no traditional climax and anticlimax; instead, the novel clearly leads to the next with repeated references to upcoming nightmare situations. The consequence of such a global problem is that Chasing The Demons does function well as a standalone. Nevertheless, author Susan Shelley does exhibit a strong talent for creating dysfunctional characters drawn from her own painful life experiences. Susan's determination to keep her family intact in spite of her husband's irrational behavior, which boarders on mental illess, is excellently portrayed. Frank's instability echoes the serious consequences of undiagnosed instability. Indeed, Chasing The Demons provides a fascinating account of a family's internal self-destruction and comes recommended.

Fan Letters To Joanie Weston
Timothy G. Patten
Energizer Promotions
296 Church Street, San Francisco CA 94114
eBook, $24.67

Joanie Weston, The Blond Bomber, captured the hearts and imagination of roller derby fans during its heyday. In the 1950s Joanie skated as a member of the San Francisco Bay Bombers, proving her athletic finesse, yet typifying the much-ignored female athletes of her day. Women who did not appear in proper tennis whites or with ice skates then athletes like Joanie simply were not recognized for their tremendous talent, especially if they were part of roller derby. Estimates of twelve million weekly viewers suggest the popularity of Joanie during her fifty-year reign as the Queen of Roller Derby. Letters, cards, even artwork poured in as fans followed her on grainy black and white television sets. As technology improved, so did Joanie's letters continue to pour in. These letters provide a fascinating glimpse into how an athlete like Joanie could profoundly touch lives during her nineteen seasons in roller derby. One of the biggest gripes that I have of many eBooks is their lack to take advantage of the technology to present their stories in ways that are new and interesting. Fan Letters To Joanie Weston defies those weaknesses by linking to copies of the original letters and envelopes on the web. In addition, a number of photos and drawings that load quickly are also included in the book. One need not have been a roller derby fan to appreciate this extraordinary compilation of letters and photos. Very highly recommended.

Interview with The Raven and Marie Claire:

A Glimpse of Russia Through the Eye of The Raven:

"The Raven" was born in Baku City, Azerbaijan, in the Former Soviet Union. In 1975 he was stricken by an unusual childhood disease. The incorrect treatment by doctors damaged his nervous system and led to hearing loss. Although school officials wanted him to attend a special school, The Raven persisted in the regular school system. He arrived in the US in 1999 and now works for a computer company as a software licensing representative.

Marie Claire is The Raven's friend and co-author. She is a fan of German, Greek and English literature. She inspired him to first write Russian Experiences and helped add things along the way.

Cindy Penn: How did The Raven and Marie Claire meet? What led to the decision to collaborate on Russian Experiences: Life in the Former USSR and Post-Soviet Russia?

The Raven and Marie Claire: We met first online in MSN Zone (in the chess playing area) and later in person. Some time after that, Marie suggested The Raven should write this non-fiction book because his russian experiences were indeed very interesting.

CP: What kinds of challenges did you encounter in writing this book and how did you overcome them?

TR and MC: It was not very easy to start writing this novel (we just didn't know how to do that, what to begin from and what to finish by:- )), but once we started we found we could finish it easily enough.

CP: How long did it take to write Russian Experiences? Describe your writing process with the two of you contributing to the work.

TR and MC: About 3 months. The Raven scanned his memory and wrote the text (he used his computer for this), and Marie corrected it when needed and added things along the way.

CP: What was the most important thing the both of you learned from this writing experience?

TR and MC: That once you have firmly decided to write a novel, the rest is more or less easy.

CP: Tell me about the research that went into this project, and how you wove the historical elements into the memoir.

MC: The historical elements were in The Raven's memory (except some data in the chapter 1, which he has taken from public sources, like the data about Soviet losses in World War Two, "assertions" of Marx' manifest, or the fact that the Russian Army nowadays has about 39,000 tanks, in comparison with say the entire NATO's some 20,000 tanks. Equally, the rate of say warfare rotorcraft is also impressive: only US Airforce have some 10,000 of them, while Russian Airforce about 1,200); he is well educated and he has an excellent memory.

CP: What advice do you have for other authors who wish to collaborate to write a memoir of this nature?

TR: Well, they should like each other very much -- as do The Raven and Marie Claire :). It was painful for The Raven to recall his russian experiences sometimes :-(...

CP: How did you select a publisher for this work?

TR and MC: We just emailed a number of publishers with a standard proposal, and the contract offered by this publisher was more appropriate than those by others.

CP: Do you plan to collaborate on more books?

MC: Yes, this novel will have a sequel. Also The Raven has written a new book, on a different subject, but still wants to keep this in secret until the book is published.

CP: After publication, authors must work at promoting their novels. Can you share some of the things you've done to promote your novel?

TR and MC: Some of the things we have done: we requested several reviews including those by: WordWeaving.com, RebeccasReads Review, and The Compulsive Reader. In addition, reviewer Denise M Clark published her review in Midwest Book Review; specifically, in the Reviewer Recommendations column of the Midwest Book Review's Reviewer's Bookwatch of June 2002 issue, where it will be also be included in "Book Review Index", an interactive CD-ROM series for corporate, academic, and public library systems (more info on MBR's website, start page). As you can see from the The Compulsive Reader page, Russian Experiences is the most read non-fiction review at this website among other non-fiction reviews published there; hopefully reviews of Russian Experiences will be published in some other review editions as well. Also, book reviewer Dan Murr published his review with Huntress Book Reviews in the Non-fiction section and WordWeaving.com. These listings are just the ones we are aware of; because reviews can be freely published, there may be other reviews of which we are not aware. More reviews by other reviewers to come soon :-)!

CP: What else would you like to share that we've not yet touched upon?

TR and MC: As we have stated, we will some time later write a sequel for this book; when it is done you will be able to read it:). We are always open to discussions. If you have any ideas or suggestions, email us at justmarieclaire@linkeseite.zzn.com.

Where can our book be purchased? At Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or at your local bookstore.

Cindy Penn
Reviewer


James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


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