(R. Ira Harris, Island of the White Rose, Bridge Works Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9816175-5-8)

“We’ve been duped—we’ve all been duped, I tell you!” says Harris’ character, Maria Guerra, summarizing her frustration with Castro’s revolution to her friend and lover Father Pedro Villanueva.  These protagonists sink deep into intrigue as they plan to aid the guerrilla and topple Batista.  They soon learn that revolutions often only exchange one set of despots for another, especially in Latin America.

The Castro brothers’ duplicity and the bloodlust of the folk hero Che Guevara remind us of modern day Latin American regimes where constitutions are rewritten by fiat and organized opposition to the people in power is not allowed and often leads to torture or death.  The author also portrays the Batista regime’s similar brutality and the ineptness and apathetic attitude of the Church, reminding us of things to come in Argentina and Chile.  There are also tragic and comic moments like when Ed Sullivan interviews Fidel Castro.  (I saw that interview—we were also duped into thinking that Castro had finally brought democracy to the troubled island.)

(more…)

(E. F. Watkins, Dark Music, Amber Quill Press, 2013, 978-1611248944)

While this book might be considered more appropriate for winter reading—sitting by a crackling fire with spirits at hand as you become spooked by the author’s spirits—I read this after the Fourth and thoroughly enjoyed it.  “What?  Steve’s reading paranormal now?” you ask.  It’s true that the last ghost story I can remember reading, and for the umpteenth time, was “A Christmas Carol,” just after I saw Patrick Stewart’s rendition of Scrooge.  But I’ve even written one ghost story, “The Town Hall Gang,” so I’m not a teetotaler with respect to frothy, ectoplasmic brews.

I had an agenda, of course.  I met the author at BooksNJ (a local book fair) a few weeks ago.  She was kind enough to do an interview for my blog.  Consequently, I thought I’d be kind enough to read her book and write a review of it.  The music and house renovation themes permeating the book also attracted me.  Don’t get the idea that I write a review of every book I read—I wouldn’t have any time to write if I did that.  But I want to signal to my readers that this book is an interesting read, any time of the year!  Moreover, it’s almost a manual on the art of story-telling.

(more…)

(Darden North, Wiggle Room, Sartoris Literary Group, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9889474-7-4)

This thriller is full of oddities, but in the positive sense.  I often said to myself, “Sure, why not?” when they popped up, as the author takes us from the Iraq War battlefields to Mississippi.  Even that’s an oddity.  Iraq is not needed.  Except for a few regional meals, the rest of the book could take place anywhere in the U.S., so Mississippi is not needed either.

The plot is simple: good (blanks) discover bad (blank) among their midst.  There are thrillers where (blank) is cop or lawyer, but here (blank) is filled in with doctor.  Nevertheless, the book is fun and maybe just what you need for your summer reading.  I finished it over the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. but officially a time to honor our war dead.

Another oddity: Major Brad Cummins, an Air Force surgeon, is nominally the main character.  The story begins with his failing to save GI Giles while saving an Iraqi instead, both wounded in the same IED explosion.  Good and bad nurses and docs meet up in that battlefield operating room.  But Brad turns out to be mentally challenged (his twin brother sounds like the better half of the egg, but he becomes a victim—one of the first of many).  Dr. Diana Bratton, nominally the protagonist’s love interest, comes into the story late back in the U.S., but is more essential to the plot.

I didn’t need the Iraqi terrorist.  You can safely ignore him.  He only provides a contrived twist as the reader is misdirected to think that all the violence is about him.  He’s also a stereotype.  This book is not about terrorism and efforts to deal with it, although I’m terrified to think some of this stuff is going on in my local hospital.

The nurses are a nice touch.  Elizabeth Cossar and Stacy Lane are nurses in that same battlefield operating center.  The first has Cummins’ back, although he often seems too dumb to know it, and some mystery surrounds her as the story unwinds.  Stacy Lane, GI Giles’ love interest, is manipulated by both the Iraqi and a bad doctor, in different ways.

Another oddity:  This is not a medical thriller, but a conventional thriller about some medical professionals.  There are a few technical terms and Michael Jackson’s favorite sleep-aid plays a role, but you’ll find enough action and suspense to forget what kind of work these people do.  Or, you’ll want to forget—NIMBY, please.

The final oddity:  In spite of the ones mentioned above, I liked the book.  Most people will get past the oddities.  Bratton and Cossar are strong, intelligent, and interesting women.  The men in this story suffer in comparison, especially Cummins.  This is Diana Bratton’s story, in fact.  She can be my surgeon any day.

(I was provided an ARC for this review, which was written for Book Pleasures.)

In libris libertas….

(If you enjoyed this post, support this blog: please buy, read, and review some of my books.)

(D. M. Annechino,  I Do Solemnly Swear, ISBN B007NN52IM, Thomas and Mercer, 2012)

This is my second review of a book penned by Mr. Annechino (can we say that nowadays?  do authors still use pens?).  I also reviewed They Never Die Quietly.  They are very different books, which shows the versatility of the author.  I enjoyed this mystery/thriller more.  Let me state up front that it was fast-paced, suspenseful, and entertaining.  A real page-turner, as they say (again, can I use this cliché when reading with my Kindle?).  I sailed right through it in one session and smiled at the ending (definitely room for a sequel here).

That said, I want to scold the author a wee bit.  He could have done so much more with this plot and character list!  It’s a Tom Clancy plot-boiler in miniature (Executive Orders has a similar plot, for example).  I was always a sucker for early Clancy—not so much for his later work.  Clancy’s books were like 24-ounce prime rib with too much fat—he had a wealth of interesting detail and many participating characters (Red Storm Rising is worse than War and Peace in that regard).  Mr. Annechino had his chance with this one to do the same, but he preferred to release a book with minimal plot depth.  You also don’t have the chance to know many of his characters very well.  His book is like a very thin and lean strip steak.  Tasty, but I wanted more.

(more…)

(William F. Brown, Winner Lose All, ASIN B00CEOKUR8)

Eyes play an important role in Bill Brown’s historical thriller and romance, Winner Lose All.  It’s his third historical novel; I reviewed his first for Bookpleasures.  Except for the fact that they take place during and after the final days of WW II, they are not related.  For the historical thriller part, here we have OSS spy Edward Scanlon, with the penetrating gray eyes, traveling to Leipzig and honing his spy skills with NKVD agent Hanni Steiner, a bright blue-eyed blond, whose allegiance is to a new Germany, her father, and Beria, the Russian spy-master.

Scanlon is captured and tortured.  Hanni helps him escape and flee the country.  From that moment, the OSS agent finds that he can trust no one—not the British, not the Americans, and certainly not the Russians or Nazis.  His second OSS mission, handled personally by Allen Dulles, is to obtain the plans and personnel associated with the Nazi experimental program to develop a new jet fighter, its prototype already playing havoc with the Allied bomber squadrons.  Stalin also wants those plans and personnel, so Hanni is given the same mission.

I’ll not spoil the rest of this thrilling story nor give away the poignant ending, but let me say there is also plenty of romance here in the relationship between Scanlon and Hanni.  I first thought that much of the dialog and description here was a bit schmaltzy, but I then thought back to those old classic films.  Yes, they talked like that back then.  Men wooed women and suffered in silence too, from Romeo and Juliet to Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca (that movie plot is similar, in fact).  This is great stuff.  I’m a sucker for it, although I don’t read many war stories anymore (and certainly can’t write them).

My one historical nit to pick: Allen Dulles might have been a brilliant chess master in the OSS and early CIA, but he and his brother’s paranoia toward world communism (partly justified, of course), as exported by the Soviet Union, definitely led to some bad choices.  One of these, the overthrow of the duly-elected government of Iran and the installation of the Shah, still haunts us.  Other gaffes in South America make it hard for me to put him on a pedestal as is done in this book, the last scenes of which take place in 1959, after that Iranian overthrow.  This is an insignificant item, however, within the broad landscape painted in the book.

This is the best book I’ve read so far this year.  In fact, it goes in the list on my webpage “Steve’s Bookshelf” in the “Stealth Reads—Books by New and Promising Authors” category, although Mr. Brown is certainly not a new author.  He has confirmed his subgenre-niche in writing this excellent historical thriller.  I hope he continues to keep writing them.

(Mr. Brown kindly provided me this ebook in return for an honest review.)

In libris libertas….

[If you enjoyed this review, please support this blog: buy, read, and review of some of my books.]

(Bob Adamov, Sandustee, ASIN: BOOBMZNCMU)

Here’s another great Indiana-Jones/Da-Vinci-Code-style adventure, and it’s arrived on my Kindle just when I thought I’d seen the last of them.  Many readers still enjoy a good tale along these lines.  I do too, if it’s done well.  H. Rider Haggard could do it well.  Dan Brown at least receives credit for reviving this adventure subgenre while managing to infuriate Catholic orthodoxy.  Problems occur when readers, or authors, start taking these books too seriously.

Bob Adamov’s investigative journalist Emerson Moore (no relation) is much more believable than Dan Brown’s Harvard professor.  The larger-than-life characterization might trouble a few readers, but I enjoyed the swashbuckling and somewhat ingenious Emerson Moore and his nemesis (who the latter works for is one of the nice twists) as they both follow the clues that lead them to the Nazarene’s code (contents never completely divulged).  The settings and clues were carefully researched as near as I could tell—Masonic symbols are not as prevalent as in some books in this subgenre (and not a Gnostic reference was to be had).

(more…)

(7 Lessons On Irish Whiskey, 27Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9887705-2-2)

I don’t usually write about commercial products, but what 27Press offers is more services than products.  Moreover, one needs to take a break from the seriousness of this blog’s op-eds from time to time.  Not that Irish whiskey isn’t serious…it’s serious fun to be had, although only legal fun for those over twenty-one.  If you’re under twenty-one, keep on reading, but don’t imbibe until you’ve reached that ripe old age.  (That ends my legal responsibility, I believe.  I know, how do you tell that to a U.S. marine who’s eighteen and fighting for his country, for example?  Seems unfair, but who said life is fair?)  Also, if you’re over twenty-one, explore Irish whiskey responsibly.  You’ll appreciate it better, in fact, if you have a clear head, clear from both the alcohol and any cold or flu viruses, in order to appreciate both nose and flavors.

David J. Kosmider, founder of 27Press, was kind enough to point out this little book to me.  At the time he did so, it was one of those KDP Select give-aways, but I waited too long and paid (oh!  The horror of it!) $0.99.  It’s well worth it at that price too.  Maybe not quite the bargain as my YA sci-fi thriller The Secret Lab or detective anthology Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java, but we’re talking $1 here, folks—let’s not quibble.  The swill sold by Starbucks will set you back more (“swill” is just my opinion, of course—some people like it, both the traditional and the watered-down “blonde” version).  By the way, 10% of all author royalties are donated to non-profit organizations.  What a great idea!

(more…)

(Thomas Wm. Hamilton, The Mountain of Long Eyes, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., 2012, 978-1-62212-028-4)

Depending on how you count them (see below), this anthology contains twenty-seven short stories of science fiction and fantasy.  There are only three fantasy stories, as I classify things, all three entertaining—the title story “The Mountain of Long Eyes,” “The Coming of the American Sun,” and “Red Blood” (the latter perhaps is more like a humorous horror story—I tend to classify anything with vampires or werewolves as fantasy, though).  The remainder, all sci-fi, run the gamut from space opera and alternate history to tongue-in-cheek stories that poke fun at our cultural hang-ups.

This collection is stylistically varied.  This is not uncommon with anthologies because the stories are often written over a long period.  There is some hard science here, mostly astronomy—the author is an ex-astronomer and has an asteroid named after him.  The best stories remind me of the acerbic and wry humor found in many of Phillip K. Dick’s and C. M. Kornbluth’s short stories, but Hamilton’s have settings that are usually more modern.

(more…)

(Stephen H. Banks, Chaos Theories, CreateSpace, 2013, ISBN: 978-1482023770)

This debut novel is a sci-fi thriller.  It employs intense and suspenseful action, tight plotting, interesting characters, and chaos theory to weave an Aladdin’s magical rug of a story that will leave you breathless once you hop on it.  It is my kind of novel—profound, yet entertaining.

The style, where interludes of quiet beauty are sprinkled with startling violence, reminds me of old Dean Koontz before he detoured into rewriting the Frankenstein myth.  In spite of the title, the mathematics of chaos theory is replaced by a more philosophical treatment.  The butterfly scene with Tali, a precocious two-year-old who intuitively understands how probability and stochastic processes continuously reshape our world, reminds me of the butterflies in Cien Años de Soledad.  In fact, Tali is the fountain of magical realism in this book, although she’s not the main character.

(more…)

(Chris Angus, London Underground, Iguana Books, ISBN 978-1927403020)

As the Brits would say, this book is smashing fun and fiendishly clever.  How to categorize it?  It’s a sci-fi horror tale, a strange double romance, and a war story.  It’s an overseas adventure, at least for U.S. and Canadian readers—readers in Great Britain will have fun recognizing places in new and old London and possibly remembering the horrors of the V-2 bombings; readers in Norway will be pleased to see their country featured even if the narrative reminds them of the dark days under the traitor Quisling.

(more…)