Spotlight on "A MATTER OF TIME"

Book Blurb:
The world's greatest evil stalks the world's greatest ship, and the only one who can stop him hasn't been born yet.

Jamie Collins is a junior at Santa Clara University in 1986. He has friends, a professor who mentors him, and a promising future as a writer.

Then the dreams begin - nightmarish memories that transport him back to a time and place fifty years before he was born: Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912.

When Jamie discovers a foreign cell in his blood that links him to the famous vessel, the two timelines begin to overlap and he realizes an unimaginable truth - something supernatural stalks the ill-fated ship, something that will kill him if he can't stop it first. And the only way to stop it may be to prevent Titanic from sinking.

But even if he can figure out a way to do that, should he? What will be the effect on history if he succeeds? And what about the lady he wasn't supposed to fall in love with? As her destiny becomes entwined with his, Jamie discovers the value of friendship, the power of love, the impact of evil, and the vagaries of Fate.

Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $12.95 paperback, $14.95-$21.83 Audible
Genre: Historical Fiction, Suspense
Pages: 340
Release: March 2, 2012
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 9781432787110

Amazon buy link:
https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Time-Michael-Bowler-ebook/dp/B007GOAC9C?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20

Barnes and Noble buy link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-matter-of-time-michael-bowler/1109296752?ean=9781432787110

iTunes buy link:
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/a-matter-of-time-unabridged/id1035392958?mt=3

http://www.michaeljbowler.com/

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http://amatteroftimeblogtour.blogspot.com

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Forget the Nutcracker - Try "Danse Macabre"

It's always nice to revisit familiar characters to see how they've grown and changed over time, to discover what's happened to them during the interim and to see the impact events have had as life gradually takes its toll.  That's what we have today in the third book of the Neve & Egan Cases - Danse Macabre.

I've had the pleasure of reading and reviewing the prior two novels in Cristelle Comby's series, so when Tribute Books contacted me about reviewing the third, I jumped at the chance.  Plus, as a former ballet dancer myself, the cover intrigued me with where the case would lead.  Hmmm...

So with no further wondering, let's get started.

Book Blurb:
Private investigators Alexandra Neve and Ashford Egan are hired to succeed where the police have failed, to safely return home a missing ballerina. With no lead to pursue and no idea who could be behind the young woman’s kidnapping, they soon find themselves at a loss as to what to do.

To make matters worse, the heart of England seems to be caught in the middle of a little Ice Age. With snow endlessly falling and Tube lines either too cramped up to use or out of service, it is a pain to do any legwork in the huge metropolis.

Oh, and because trouble never comes alone, there may also be a serial killer on the loose in the streets of East London...

My Review:
From the outset, I have to tell you that of the three novels released thus far in the Neve & Egan Cases, Danse Macabre is my favorite.  The characters have gelled together as a team and have each come into their own as individuals as they've faced their own demons.  The case they find themselves on this time is also much deeper, darker, and more complex.

And we all know I like deep, dark, and complex.

Alexandra Neve (Lexa to her friends) and Ashford Egan (who has few friends) are coming to the close of their first year as a private investigative team with twenty-four solved cases.  As winter sets in upon the streets of London, their most horrific and gruesome case comes home to roost.

A desperate mother has nowhere else to turn after the overworked Metropolitan Police Department classifies the case involving her missing daughter as a simple runaway.  But why would a young twenty-something dancer, with the world waiting to worship at her talented and pointe-shoe clad feet, run away when everything is so right with her world?  The mother is convinced something more sinister is afoot and hires Lexa and Ash to discover the truth and bring her daughter home.

When Lexa's budding relationship with DS Matthew Stenson reveals connections to other kidnappings and murders, she realizes they have a serial killer on their hands - and her client's daughter may just be the next victim.  Thus our reluctant duo trudge through the snowdrifts of London and into the underbelly of life beneath the streets in search of a kidnapper, racing against the clock before time runs out on the life of a starlet.

All the while, they've got someone on the force working overtime to foil their efforts - and the Sorter reveals his hand once again.

In Danse Macabre we once again have a stand-alone novel of mystery and intrigue.  The bringing forward of just enough information from the previous novels, and how Lexa and Ash developed the unlikely friendship of university student and professor turned PI team, provided appropriate background for any new readers coming into the series without bogging pacing down.  However, I still recommend reading the Neve & Egan Cases from the start just because it is a wonderful little series (Russian Dolls, Ruby Heart).  There is also a tiny thread woven as a continuum, hanging out along the periphery throughout the stories - the mysterious Sorter.  Also, there is something that occurs at the end of this novel that will make you want to read the next - this was new to the series, but now I'm dying to know what transpired (though I have my suspicions already).

We also find out additional information in our characters' backgrounds - particularly Ash, the cantankerous, middle-aged former university professor whose blindness becomes particularly useful for discerning the lies surrounding this case.  With Ash having left the security of his university position in book two, he's now much more involved in the day-to-day of each case - and I liked that because one of my complaints about book two was that there was little of Ash's involvement with that case.  Now that they're both working the business full-time, it's also added a new and fun layer to their interactions - a great repartee that adds some laugh-out-loud humor to this novel that was not present in the first two.  This element was fabulous, refreshing, and added twinges of lighthearted moments necessary to keep this much darker case somewhat balanced.

Pacing moved along at a steady (heart-pounding at times) clip and, as mentioned above, these characters really came into their own within the pages of this particular novel.  Good showing instead of telling, with first person point-of-view once again from Lexa's continual perspective.  There were only a few instances of missing small words, unnecessary commas, and one incorrect word used (rapport instead of report), but these were not enough to detract from the story.

Content warnings:  There are few concerns with this series, usually just your typical few curse words, so it's appropriate for all teens in that regard.  However, this particular novel contained some particularly gruesome murder scene details that might cause a few nightmares.  No sex, drug use, or anything else some might consider offensive.

Like I mentioned, Danse Macabre is my favorite thus far in this mystery series - for that I'll give it a rare five stars.

Available on paperback or as an eBook by clicking on Amazon

Author Bio:
Cristelle Comby was born and raised in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, in Greater Geneva, where

she still resides.

Thanks to her insatiable thirst for American and British action films and television dramas, her English is fluent.

She attributes to her origins her ever-peaceful nature and her undying love for chocolate. She has a passion for art, which also includes an interest in drawing and acting.

Danse Macabre is her third new-adult novel, and she’s hard at work on the next titles in the Neve & Egan series.  Visit her website at http://cristelle-comby.com/

Follow the Tribute Books blog tour:

http://dansemacabreblogtour.blogspot.com

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Searching for Spare Change w/ Ken Dalton

It's welcome back time here at the blog!

Author Ken Dalton has written a hilarious series of books - the Pinky and Bear Mysteries - that I've had the pleasure of reading and reviewing.  When the Tribute Books call went out for his latest offering, I immediately chimed in and claimed a spot on his blog tour.  It's always nice to revisit fun and enjoyable characters and read the sharp wit with which Ken writes them.

And this time you, dear readers, can help determine the outcome of the cliffhanger at the end of Brother, can you spare a dime? - but you've got to read it first.

Cliff hanger contest:
Brother, can you spare a dime? ends with a prize winning cliff hanger that defies all logic.

Let Ken know how you would answer the question and he will choose the two answers he likes the best.  Both winners will receive a complete paperback set of his Pinky and Bear mystery series.

The Bloody Birthright
The Big Show Stopper
Death is a Cabernet
The Tartan Shroud
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Five books, each one personally inscribed!

Email your cliff hanger answer to ken@kendalton.com and in a couple of months Ken will post the winners' names on his Facebook page.

So now that we've got this little contest to whet your appetite, let's move onto the novel, shall we?

Book Summary:

Bear’s planned afternoon of beer and baseball is interrupted by a phone call from a man he hardly remembers from their years at Elko High. So begins the tale of a cold-blooded murder and the theft of a dime worth two million dollars!

Faced with bi-coastal murder suspects, Pinky hands Bear, and Flo the sweaty task of tracking down one of the suspects along the hot, humid North Carolina shoreline while he chooses to pursue the other on the Kona coast of Hawaii. But Pinky, after imbibing too many Mai Tai’s with a bevy of sky-goddesses, and a moved-up court date, is forced to return to Carson City, sans suspect.

Bear and Flo hit pay dirt and with the identity of the killer in hand they fly across the Pacific Ocean to the smoggy Beijing airport where they meet Joe, the uncle of Pinky’s Chinese secretary. The enigmatic Joe quotes Confucius and Shakespeare as he purposefully guides the dynamic duo to their final destination— oxygen sparse Lhasa, Tibet.

My Review:
Like I said before, it's always nice to revisit familiar characters I've grown to love.  We've got J. Pincus Delmont - or Pinky - that narcissistic, blowhard of a lawyer or enjoys nothing more than fleecing his clients in order to afford his favorite blend of expensive coffees.  Then there's Bear, the loveable oaf of brawn and little brain who likes nothing more than beer, baseball and staring at Flo's boobs.

Who's Flo you ask?  She's the feminine side of the dynamic duo with the smart-as-a-whip mind and equally smart and acerbic tongue to go with it.  Flo is the love of Bear's life and the bane of Pinky's existence.  She's a force to be reckoned with because only she can slip greenbacks out of Pinky's tight fist faster than a Midwestern tornado.

And in this book, Flo is given some major page time.

Which did make this story feel a bit different from the prior novels in the series.  The mystery really isn't a mystery that has to be solved but more of a chase as they cross the globe to bring the assailant back and save Pinky's client - and Pinky's perfect acquittal record.

But it's still a ride worth every second.

Once again, Bear's perfect afternoon of watching his beloved Red Sox while Flo is spending a day at the spa is interrupted by a murder.  An old high school chum calls to beg help after visiting his coin collector brother only to discover a bullet through said brother's brain.  The news gets worse when the chum admits to touching the gun, stepping in the blood, and leaving all sorts of forensic evidence all over the crime scene.

Oh, and there's a dime missing.  Not just any dime.  A rare dime.  A very rare dime.  A dime so rare it's worth two million dollars.

At that price, it's well worth Pinky's time to take on a new client, even though the interruption just put a damper on Pinky's lunch with Willow, his favorite ex-wife and Carson City's District Attorney.  With the DA nearby, just speak in hypothetical terms, please and thank you, until the brother is officially a suspect.

Brother captured, Pinky, Bear, and Flo jet set across the fruited plain to track down two possible suspects to protect Pinky's precious reputation and record.  But Willow throws a wrench into Pinky's plans and forces him to return from Hawaii, providing Bear and Flo carte blanche to take a little vacay from North Carolina to Hawaii then China and Tibet, with Pinky yelling along the way about the cost of business class.

Will they capture the real criminal in time, or will Bear die first from oxygen deprivation among the ridiculously high altitude of Tibet?  And when will Pinky ever be able to keep a legal secretary longer than a week?

The back and forth among the characters is always the best fun when reading a Pinky and Bear novel.  It was also nice to see Flo actually get a point-of-view scene when Bear took a nasty turn in Tibet.  But as I said before, this novel did feel a bit different from the priors in the series due to the focus shifting more toward Bear and Flo and not as much with the haughty Pinky.  There was really no mystery to solve either, but the globe-trotting to China and Tibet was amazing - especially with the fact that Ken Dalton wrote these scenes from personal experience.  Can I have an oxygen mask please (and not just for Tibet)?

 One thing I also appreciate going into a book by an author I've previously read is that Ken knows proper structure when it comes to showing vs. telling and proper point-of-view delineation.  The only thing negative I'd say is that this novel had quite a few more editing errors than I'm used to seeing in this series, but these could easily be fixed in later editions.

Once again, thumbs up on a job well-done in this latest installment of the Pinky and Bear Mysteries.  Now if I can just figure out how the cliffhanger should continue in the next release.  Hmmm...

Prices/Formats: $4.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 310
ISBN: 9780578140391
Publisher: Different Drummer Press
Release: April 9, 2014

Kindle buy link ($4.99):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKBPZDM?tag=tributebooks-20

Amazon paperback buy link ($14.95):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/057814039X?tag=tributebooks-20

KenDalton.com paperback buy link ($14.95):
http://kendalton.com/
personalized inscription and free shipping

Author Bio:
Ken was born in 1938 at Hollywood Hospital. He grew up in Los Angeles with his parents, his older sister

and younger brother.

In a turn of bad luck, the dreaded Polio virus attacked Ken at the age of five. By the age of sixteen, after eleven years of operations, therapy, and braces to mitigate the effects of Polio, Ken’s luck changed when he met the girl of his dreams. A few years later they married, produced three wonderful children, and settled into a happy life in Southern California.

In 1966, Ken and his family moved to the green hills of Sonoma County where they bought a home surrounded with apple trees.

Some time later, Ken, designed, built, and operated a small winery that produced award winning Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Then, in a moment of madness, Ken began writing. His first article was published in Golf Illustrated. Many more golf articles followed in national and regional magazines including Golf Magazine and Fairways and Greens. Eventually Ken felt the urge to write his first novel.

Now, after the publication of The Bloody Birthright, The Big Show Stopper, Death is a Cabernet, and The Tartan Shroud, Ken has published his latest Pinky and Bear mystery, Brother, can you spare a dime?

Follow the Tribute Books blog tour:

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Diamonds All the Rage in "The Hard Way"

Do you wanna ski the slopes in Las Vegas?  How about strap on a pair of ice skates and slide across the outdoor rink?  You could do all that and more at January Resort and Casino, the luxurious locale in Cathi Stoler's novel The Hard Way.

The Hard Way Summary:
Private Investigator Helen McCorkendale’s childhood friend, Jimmy Scanlan, has just opened January, the most lavish casino and hotel resort on the Las Vegas Strip. After attending the grand opening, Helen returns to New York and encourages her friend, Laurel Imperiole, Senior Editor at Women Now magazine, to create a get-away contest for readers offering a weekend at the hotel as the grand prize. The winner, Dawn Chapman, a jewelry store employee from Cincinnati, denies entering the contest and initially refuses the trip. Finally persuaded by Laurel to accept, she arrives at the hotel and nearly faints when she passes the hotel’s elite meeting rooms where the International Diamond Dealers Consortium is holding its annual meeting. She insists on returning home immediately.

Suspicious of her behavior, Jimmy visits her suite to encourage her to attend the Saturday afternoon pool party, saying she can leave on his private jet the next day. Later in the afternoon, he finds Chapman’s dead body by the pool. She’s been murdered—an unusual double poisoning by cyanide and diamond dust.

Dawn Chapman was not who she appeared to be, and therein lies a mystery. But to Helen and Laurel, the main task is to take Jimmy Scanlon off the suspect list and clear his name. Will their luck hold? Or will it be a crap shoot, as they roll the dice and do it ‘the hard way,’ going for doubles when the odds are against them. Losing may mean losing their lives.

My Review:
We open with a lavish affair as Jimmy Scanlan, New York PI Helen McCorkendale's childhood friend, whisks her away to Las Vegas for the grand opening gala of his flagship January Resort and Casino.  Rub shoulders with the likes of music moguls, politicians, famous actors, and Keith Richards as they take in the incredible array of an indoor ski resort, an outdoor ice rink, the Igloo restaurant, and the Blue Ice Nightclub - January's soon-to-be-famous watering hole made entirely of ice.  Accommodations are fabulous.  The food to die for.  Success is certainly on the horizon.

Until death threatens Jimmy's precarious empire.

Laurel Imperiole, editor of New York's premier magazine Women Now, thought she had a great idea to help Helen's friend get his new casino off to a great start - a spread featuring the winner enjoying a free weekend trip to January.

But no one expected the contestant to be murdered - and right in the middle of the International Diamond Dealers Consortium.

All the while Jimmy's arch enemy, Clive Drummond, hopes he'll get first dibs at the dying carcass that was once January.  After all, he had big plans for that location until Jimmy swept it out from under him.

The Hard Way is the third book in a series, but it's pretty much a standalone as far as the mystery, with only a little bit of some of the side stories from events in the first two coming into play.  The first novel in the series was pretty much focused on Laurel with Helen's character more of an afterthought.  The second had more equal parts with Laurel and Helen, but Laurel was still the driving force leading the story.  This third novel was focused primarily on Helen, which felt a little more accurate since she's supposed to be the private investigator here.  Helen is also a bit more refined and likeable than Laurel, which is why I somewhat liked this one a bit more than the first and second.

The story here is pretty simple.  There's not really a whole lot of tension.  It's easy to figure out where everything is headed and who the bad guys are, so it's relaxed reading for those who like a cozy mystery that doesn't require much thought.  I typically like something with a bit more grit.  But then again, I'm a little weird for a girl.

My biggest issue with The Hard Way is that it is written in very passive voice.  It consists mostly of telling instead of showing, which frustrated me.  Most scenes started out with a character rehashing what previously happened while the reader apparently had their eyes closed or took a nap.  Such as one character was getting ready to head into a dangerous situation at the end of one chapter, and then the next chapter opened with that character waking up the next morning and reviewing the events of the previous evening either in their mind or over coffee with someone else.  This happened over and over throughout the story.  Why did I as the reader not get to experience said events as they were happening instead of merely having a character tell me about it later?  This deflated any semblance of tension or character empathy throughout the entire novel, leaving me feeling like a good storyline idea never lived up to its potential.

Even after reading the first two books I felt no connection to the characters.  The decisions they made to lie to those around them and to hide evidence from the police (and then wonder why the police weren't able to do their job) really kept them in the doghouse for me - and yet, neither Helen nor Laurel pay any sort of price for their constant deceptions.  The main storyline is quickly wrapped up with little to no resolution of many other outstanding questions.  I closed out The Hard Way feeling rather dissatisfied.

However, point-of-view usage was spot on.  Change in character POV was properly delineated with a scene or chapter break - very refreshing to an anal nut like me.  Descriptions of the casino were vivid and I could easily imagine what it would look like in real life.  Editing was fairly clean with only a few noticeable moments (IDCC instead of IDDC a couple of times - very understandable considering the close proximity on the keyboard) and formatting was just as clean.  I appreciated that, and wished very much that the story would have flowed better with more showing instead of so much telling.

But again, if something simple is your fancy and an escape from reality tickles your brain, you might enjoy the vast descriptions of January Resort and Casino enough to take a gander.  Now that's a place I'd like to check out some day - if only it existed in the real world.  Sigh!

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 280
Release: April 15, 2014
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603819497

Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JJZLWPO?tag=tributebooks-20

Barnes and Noble buy link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hard-way-cathi-stoler-stoler/1119132580?ean=2940149257706&itm=1&usri=the+hard+way+stoler

Smashwords buy link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/427292?ref=camelpres

Author Bio:
Cathi Stoler’s mysteries feature PI Helen McCorkendale and magazine editor, Laurel Imperiole. The Hard

Way is the third book in the series. The first, Telling Lies, took on the subject of stolen Nazi art. Book 2, Keeping Secrets, delved into the subject of hidden identity. Stoler’s short stories include: “Magda,” in the Criminal Element Anthology Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, “Out of Luck,” in the Anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices, “Fatal Flaw,” a finalist for the Derringer for Best Short Story and “Money Never Sleeps” both published at Beat to A Pulp. Cathi is working on a novella, Nick of Time, which features International gambler, Nick Donahue. She is also starting a new series, Bar None, A Murder On The Rocks Mystery, with female bar owner, Jude Dillane. Cathi is a member of the New York/Tri State chapter of Sisters In Crime. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America.

Connect with Cathi at http://cathistoler.com/

Follow the Tribute Books Blog Tour:

http://thehardwayblogtour.blogspot.com/

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"The Terminals" Blog Tour Review

Once again, I'm pleased to host a spot on the Tribute Books blog tour of Michael F. Stewart's forthcoming release The Terminals.  Previously I've read and reviewed the first two books in his Assured Destruction YA series and enjoyed them very much.  But today is different.  We walk down a dark and lonely lane into the underworld.  Join me as we journey.  No seriously - with this novel, I'd rather have company to face it together instead of alone.

Book Summary:
Sometimes the dead don’t want to talk.  You need Terminals to make them.

Terminals solve crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.

Lt. Col. Christine Kurzow, fresh from a failed suicide attempt after she cost 11 of her soldiers their lives, is recruited into the covert unit of Terminals as a handler. It's an easy sell. If she's really determined to die, it’s a chance to give her death meaning.

But her first case—convincing a monk to chase Hillar the Killer into the afterlife to find the location of a missing bus and the children it carried—has her wondering how to make a dead psychopath talk.

Christine must follow the clues sent back by the shotgun-toting monk, who tracks Hillar through the seven deeps of hell, so she can find eleven kids before it’s too late.

Maybe this time killing a man will give Christine a reason to live.

My Review:
The Terminals is touted as a thriller, but it's by far more horror than thriller.  I don't like horror.  Don't do horror if I can help it.  I'm not a good judge of the genre.  It's disturbing on more levels than I can count (in Spanish, that is).  It's emotionally and even physically exhausting to read.  My imagination is too vivid.  Horror keeps me up at night, so I avoid it at all costs.

But lovers of the horror genre will absolutely flock to The Terminals.  In fact, I have a good friend who needs to read this ASAP (Brian, are you reading?  Are you reading, Brian?).

Christine is a colonel in the Army who, on more than one occasion, attempted suicide after she let her feminine side detract her while on a mission.  Eleven soldiers under her command died as a result of her inability to take out a suicide bomber - a child.  She doesn't suffer from PTSD, depression, or even survivors' guilt.  Just guilt, plain and simple, for reacting as a woman instead of a soldier in a combat situation.

Now she has a chance to restore balance by assisting in the rescue of eleven children kidnapped by a psychopath and his sidekick - one child for every one of her men.  All she has to do in this covert government project is agree to convince terminally ill patients to die a little sooner under her watch and to communicate back to Attila, the resident psychic, from whatever hell in which they find themselves.

When we first see Christine after she's stateside, she awakes in the terminals unit to three old farts, who are waiting for their turn to die, playing cards on her stomach as if its a table.  Cracked me up!  I thought it was also setting a tone with a little lighthearted humor.  Boy was I wrong!

Christine succeeds in convincing Charlie, a Gnostic monk who has inoperable cancer, to be a terminal in the program to track Hillar the Killer after he is shot dead in a police raid before they determine where he stashed the eleven kids.  They only have a few days in which to find the children left in the "care" of his sick accomplice.

And this is where the horror starts and never lets up.

Over and over again, we experience the traumatic and horrifying ways in which Charlie is "cleansed" as he passes through each level of his hell as he races after Hillar.  From having his flesh stripped away and his spine bent backward until it snaps, barbs sinking into his body and again ripping bits and pieces of him until he's nothing but bone or wolves eating his flesh and tearing him apart, to eating and eating and eating the putrid larvae of bat-type creatures before they can hatch and suck the marrow from his bones...  Ugh!  Please stop you say?  Glad to.

The hardest thing for me was reading the ways in which the children were tortured.  I'm a mother, for crying out loud!  I don't want to imagine what some psycho could possibly do to my little boy (who isn't so little anymore, but still).  I can't even bring myself to describe what happens to them.  If you are like me and have trouble with picturing children in such hands, you're going to have problems here too.

However, Michael Stewart knows how to write.  His manuscripts are structurally clean, have good point-of-view usage, and definitely show instead of tell (and show, and show, and show...).  Even though difficult for this reader, the descriptions are vivid and emotionally gripping.  You'll feel Christine's pain, Charlie's anguish, and be angered at the manner in which life is treated here.

So again, if you're like me and don't read horror, this Bud ain't for you.  But if you are a lover of the horror genre and enjoy the nausea of being creeped out, run out and grab a copy of The Terminals as soon as it is released.

But you can't say I didn't warn you!

Author Bio:

Michael F. Stewart is the author of the Assured Destruction series, which sprawls across 3 books, 2 websites, 1 blog, 7 Twitter accounts, tumblr, Facebook, and 6 graphic origin stories. He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia and New Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. He has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s award winning Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights published by Rubicon Publishing as well as early readers with Pearson are all forthcoming in 2014 and 2015.

For adults, Michael has written THE SAND DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS—a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next. This series has already been optioned for film and television.

Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he runs free writing workshops for teens and adults.  Visit his website at http://www.michaelfstewart.com/

Format: ebook
Pages: 229
Release: 2014

Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/Michael-F.-Stewart/e/B003GUK4X4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
 
Barnes and Noble buy link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/michael-f-stewart


Follow the Tribute Books blog tour:

http://theterminalsblogtour.blogspot.com/

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Release Day for "The Infinity Program"

Title: The Infinity Program
Author: Richard H. Hardy
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback available at: Amazon





Book Description:

Jon Graeme and Harry Sale are unlikely friends. Harry is a world-class programmer, but his abrasive personality alienates co-workers. In contrast, Jon is a handsome and easy-going technical writer, the low man on the IT totem pole.

Sharing a love of nature, the men set out together, planning to go their separate ways--Jon on a hike and Harry, fly fishing. Three days later, Jon arrives at the rendezvous point, but his friend is nowhere in sight. When Jon finds Harry unconscious on the floor of a cave, Harry claims to have been lying there the entire time. But he is neither cold nor hungry. What Jon doesn't know is that Harry fell into an underground cavern, where he came into contact with an alien quantum computer.

Back at work, Harry jettisons his regular tasks and concentrates exclusively on inventing new operating language to access the alien system. In the process he crashes his office's Super Computer and is fired. Jon convinces the company to give Harry a second chance, arguing that the system he has invented will make them millions.

Jon has no idea what havoc Harry is about to unleash.


Excerpt:

About the Author:
Richard H. Hardy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, during a week of relentless bombing raids just before the close of World War II. The day he was born an incendiary bomb fell on the church across the street from where he lived, so he is fond of saying that he entered the world with a big adrenaline rush.

His family later moved to England and then on to America.

After college Richard bounced through a series of temporary jobs as he traveled around the country, wanting nothing more than to write fiction. A job driving a library van allowed him free time to write several short stories and work on a novel.

He and his wife moved to New Hampshire, where he took an entry level job at a software company. He was soon promoted to the technical writing department and ended up producing over 500,000 words of online documentation. After a few years he was promoted to the programming department and ended up as the Senior EDI Programmer, creating EDI maps and writing UNIX scripts and troubleshooting on AIX systems throughout the U.S. and Canada.

After he retired, he started writing fiction again. The Infinity Program is his first published novel.


Where to find Richard H. Hardy:

Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog
Website

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Review a Dangerous Past

We've got another Tribute Books blog tour happening this month, and I picked up a copy of A.F. Ebbers Dangerous Past to review.  Let's get started.

Book Blurb:
Senior Airline Captain Frank Braden is being stalked in his home town of Austin, Texas, by unknown assailants who must arrange his death to look like a suicide or an accident before a specific deadline. The assassins almost succeed several times, in the air and on the ground. In fact, Braden’s surgeon wife, Nicole, saves his life twice from ground assailants. Both of them don’t know why people are trying to kill him.

Later, he receives a message warning him not to attend a forthcoming Senate hearing in Washington. If he agrees he will receive a million dollars and his wife’s life. When Braden turns to the FBI and local police for help, they doubt his stories since they have been led to believe he is schizophrenic and suicidal, exactly what his assailants want the authorities to think.

Dangerous Past is a story of a man who must choose between doing what ought to be done or keeping his family alive by allowing a murderous and powerful Washington VIP to escape his past.

My Review:
Dangerous Past opens with a flashback to Vietnam with events surrounding Jack Braden.  Then we jump forward to the present day where younger brother Frank Braden is conducting himself in his everyday existence as an airline pilot.  Then all you-know-what breaks loose.

The next few chapters are explosive (literally) and exciting as Frank holds the lives of over a hundred passengers in his hands when attempting to navigate the landing of his damaged plane.  It isn't until later he discovers that it wasn't merely structural damage that brought down his plane - but a bomb.

And all fingers point to Frank as the culprit.

So not only is Frank having financial difficulties after huge market losses, relational difficulties with his wife Nicole, and facing an empty nest with both of his children off to college, but now he's grounded from his job and fighting an uphill battle to clear his name.  Then there's the question of who would be trying so hard to frame him, and why?  There was good development of the mystery surrounding Frank's credibility.

But after this is where the story started losing steam for me.  Inconsistencies started popping up starting with simple things like a green and yellow taxi shifting to a green and white taxi to bigger inconsistencies like the CIA destroying all records of an operation known as "Dragnet" but then Nicole brings up remembering Newsweek or Time breaking the "Dragnet" story back in the seventies, so obviously there are still records out there (plus CIA wouldn't be able to completely destroy files - they'd be "lost" or severely redacted, unlike what you see in the movies).  Senate hearings were presented more like a courtroom trial hearing.  Then the reader is asked to suspend reality too much when in broad daylight a helicopter is landed in Frank's backyard, and no one driving by the area or neighbors will notice?  Even if the neighborhood is divided up into three or five acre parcels, neighbors will notice when a large helicopter drops down from the sky and lands nearby - they'd hear it too, so the fact that there would be no official record of the flight doesn't mean there won't be witnesses who report it.

Then there's the fact that the antagonist is up for this big presidential appointment - but Frank thought he'd long died in Vietnam.  So for almost forty years this bad guy has been alive and in a position of power and yet no public references have been made of this man either in print or television.  This stretched credulity too much for me.

Point-of-view was all over the place within a scene (and we all know by now that is a hot button for me as a reader).  There were occasional shifts between present and past tense, and a few grammatical errors and missing words all writers tend to miss after staring at a page for months on end.  I can forgive that.  There were moments when I enjoyed the jumps back to Vietnam as Frank and his witness relived some of their mutual history.  Reliving a bit of history in fictionalized form was interesting to this reader.  But by the time we got to this back half of the novel, the story had already lost me and by the end it all felt anti-climactic.

But if you have any interest in the machinations of the Vietnam War (in fictionalized form) behind the scenes and that explosive opener of what an airline pilot goes through in an emergency, pick up a copy of Dangerous Past.

Author Bio:

A. F. Ebbers, a journalism graduate of Ohio University was a reporter/writer for major newspapers, ad agencies, and in public relations for Cessna Aircraft Company. He also graduated from Army Flight School and flew for the Ohio and Kansas Army National Guards. Later he was called to active duty and served two flying tours in Vietnam. After retirement from the military, he flew for corporations and for regional airlines. A dual rated ATP pilot, he has written for numerous national magazines, Sunday supplements and trade and travel magazines and has written screenplays and short stories. Today he lives with his wife in the Austin, Texas area and, when not writing, enjoys tennis, flying and piano. Dangerous Past is his debut novel. Visit his website at http://afebbers.com/


Formats/Prices: Ebook ($0.99), Hardcover ($10.00)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
ISBN: 9780978948238
Pages: 240
Release: May 1, 2007
Publisher: SilverHawk Books

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Stay Out of the Rain - A Killer is Loose!

"Sunshine...on a cloudy day."

Or wait - I guess I'm talking about a rainy, cloudy day on a sunny day.  Hmmm.  So much for my feeble attempts at humor.  There is little humorous about a serial killer stalking unsuspecting women across the United States.  That's what we have here today, dear readers, from Michael J. McCann's The Rainy Day Killer.

Book Summary:
A man in a business suit offers the protection of his umbrella to an unsuspecting woman, and several days later she turns up dead on a river bank, raped and strangled. The terrifying serial killer known in the press as the Rainy Day Killer is now hunting new victims in the city of Glendale ... whenever it rains.

Homicide Lieutenant Hank Donaghue leads the investigation as the killer begins to communicate directly to him through phone calls and grisly packages containing body parts of his victims. Assisted by FBI profiler Ed Griffin, Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer pursue an elusive predator who leaves no physical evidence behind.

The timing couldn't be worse, however, as Karen Stainer's attention is divided between the investigation and preparations for her upcoming wedding. Distracted and uncertain about her future, Stainer is furious when she learns that the Rainy Day Killer has followed her to Virginia, where the wedding will take place, and that he intends to make her his next victim!

My Review:

Hank Donaghue is a square peg in a round world.  He's a smart and savvy homicide detective, only saying something that's worth saying and yet constantly chewing on his cases like a dog trying to obtain the last edible morsel from a bone.  Precinct politics don't interest him, and he works hard to stay out of the fray after several hits against his character that continue to haunt him (though charges were baseless and from which he was exonerated).  Still, with the support of his team and the entire homicide division, he's forced to weigh the possibility of a move up the food chain, if only to protect the integrity and the very lives of those beneath him.

Hank's been hand-picked by a serial killer to be his spokesman.  The killer has moved around the country and is now taking up space in Hank's town.  Hank will play his game, if only to get him closer to a killer who thinks he's way too smart for anyone to catch - and he has been thus far.  Now the killer is upping the ante, because Hank is proving to be a more worthy opponent.  

I really liked the character of Hank.  When it came to the d--- measuring of office and city politics, I could sooo relate to his desire to keep his head down and do his job to the best of his ability and avoid too much notice from higher-up's.  Unfortunately, doing a good job tends to get one noticed - and sometimes by the wrong people.  Then he has to put up with the short-term interim captain, Helen Cassion, as inept, head-strong (not in a good way), and self-centered, knee-jerk reactionary woman as I've (almost) ever seen.  McCann did a very good job in playing the dichotomy of these characters and their abilities - and lack thereof - against each other.

Karen Stainer - I want to know more.  I like her tough-girl, take-no-prisoners attitude.  She's a woman with tragedy somewhere in her past.  We get just a sniff of it here, but it is never really addressed.  That bothered me because I think knowing her a little deeper would have helped me connect with her on some other level.  Perhaps this was dealt with in a previous book, but coming into the series mid-stream, I'd have liked getting more of this part of her than what was offered here.  It left me feeling like she was not quite fully fleshed-out.

Though I love the interplay between her rough and tumble, street-smart cop attitude (with a vocabulary to boot) and her almost southern belle, wealthy and refined with all the right connections soon-to-be mother-in-law.  When the killer sets his sights on Karen as his next victim on the eve of her wedding (and before I forget, the to-die-for wedding dress shopping scene - you'll know it when you read it), the cake flies between Karen's actions to prove she can protect herself and those around her and the mother-in-law.  The only, truly laugh-out-loud moment in an otherwise serious novel.

The mystery itself isn't too complicated.  I had no trouble "seeing" the killer when he'd make appearances.  This frustrated me somewhat because it was too easy to spot the issues early on and I didn't expect it would take so long for the detectives to put so many of the elements together, though I do understand that there would not have been a story otherwise.

From the first few pages, there were so many names and characters tossed into the fray that I had trouble keeping track so much of the time.  There were several points throughout the story where fully named characters were thrown in but really didn't have much to do with the story.

I also felt that probably a hundred pages could have been culled from the story.  So much of the book got into rather unnecessary description of procedure and too detailed of scene that it really slowed the pace to a crawl at times.  There was an awful lot of telling rather than showing.  Showing allows the reader to be in the immediacy of a scene while it is happening.  Telling just explains to us what happened after the fact, like more of an omniscient point-of-view post event.  Being in the midst of the action, while it is happening (showing), increases pacing and speeds the story up in order to get the reader's heart pounding.  Hurry!  You've gotta find the killer and fast!  At the end I did get a sense of immersion in the action.

Which brings me to my last issue - really more of a personal one.  I admit, I'm rather a purist when it comes to point-of-view, as it helps the reader truly feel immersed in the story and the character as if they are living it right there inside the character's head.  Because there was so much telling of events after the fact, in many scenes it was difficult to know which character's head I was supposed to be in.  But again, this is a big issue for me since I typically read thrillers.

In the end, overall I liked The Rainy Day Killer.  It has some interesting aspects to the story, but mostly because I enjoyed the main characters, particularly Hank.  I also really liked the cover and the rather sepia blue effect.  Really cool.  I'm also considering checking out some of the earlier works in this series to see if I can get to "know" Karen a bit better.  The hint of a back story intrigues me.

I'd give it three and a-half stars.

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, $19.99 paperback
Pages: 290
ISBN: 9780987708786
Publisher: Plaid Raccoon Press
Release: August 30, 2013

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Author Bio:

Michael J. McCann was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He earned a B.A. (Hons.) in English from Trent University and an M.A. in English from Queen's University. He has worked as an editor and a project and training consultant and manager with the federal government. He is an author of crime fiction and supernatural thrillers. His Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series includes Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder, The Fregoli Delusion, and The Rainy Day Killer. He is also the author of the supernatural thriller The Ghost Man and is currently working on another supernatural novel.  Visit his website at http://www.mjmccann.com/


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Take a Walk on the Dark Side

There are days in life where everything falls into place and all is good.  But then some days it all seems to crumble at our feet.  It's in those moments when the &%#@ hits the fan that we find out who we really are - when we take a walk on the dark side.

Join me in that walk today as we explore Scott Lerner's Ruler of Demons.

Book Summary:
Only eleven shopping days till Christmas. And less than a week to save the world.

Three nuns—in Chicago, Paris, and Jerusalem—have been killed in a religious ritual. The choice of victims and the macabre details of their deaths indicate that someone is following a recipe provided on an ancient text—a recipe to unleash the forces of hell on earth. The final sacrifice must occur on the Winter Solstice.

Samuel Roberts, a small-town attorney in Urbana, Illinois, knows a bit about the supernatural, having triumphed at least once over the forces of evil. Thanks to a friend who is aware of Sam’s little known previous efforts on behalf of mankind, Sam is hired by a big Chicago law firm to take on a sensitive case. His mission? Nothing less than halting the impending apocalypse.

Sam and his good buddy Bob travel first to Jerusalem then Paris in a desperate race to save mankind.

My Review:
Ruler of Demons was fast-paced, full of dry humor and took me on a whirlwind tour through Chicago to Israel and then France.

Sam Roberts takes a very light view of life.  As an attorney, he's not out pounding the pavement searching for his next client.  Circumstances - I'm assuming from the previous book, which I did not read - have allowed him to relax and not worry so much about how he's going to pay the bills.  And he takes advantage of that.

Until he's offered a very unusual case by a large, well-financed firm.  The harried friend who works at said firm urges him to leave the case alone.  But Sam is intrigued - or has a death wish.  So after meeting with Alexy Smart, the last surviving founder of the firm, and official representatives of the Catholic Church and witnessing first-hand the human flesh scroll authored by the Prince of Darkness, Sam decides to accept the case.

Oh, and it doesn't hurt matters that someone left him a human tongue on his kitchen table.

I must admit, I had mixed feelings about this book.  Dry humor isn't my forte, but I found the beginning to be intriguing and it pulled me into the story.  I was curious about the deaths of the nuns and how it all tied together.  I like a book that makes me think and surprises me.

Unfortunately I discovered few surprises here.  As usual, the priests, church, and military personnel were easy targets to spot early on, as they are utilized as the "bad guys" throughout so many novels these days.  I'd actually hoped to be surprised that maybe they were going to be the red-herrings but was disappointed to find this wasn't the case.  Plus Sam internalizes over and over again throughout the story how he doesn't believe in God/religion, which presents quite the dichotomy since he's dealing with demonic and supernatural forces here.  Logic says if there is evil then there must be good.  I don't mind an agnostic or atheistic character, but the fact that it gets brought up constantly leaves nothing to guess who the baddies are going after.  All-in-all these factors made it just too darn easy to figure out and left nothing to guess.

Then there are the travel moments.  I was looking forward to Sam and Bob's visit to Jerusalem and the dig site, but it felt like they were in and out so quickly, I as the reader didn't get to experience "being there" or anything.  Same thing with their jump over to France.  Yes, it answered some questions in the overall story and fit some puzzle pieces together, but it was like "poof" they're in and then "poof" they're out.

The story also lacked any real emotional connection to the characters or events.  When faced with a demon, Sam and Bob rather brush it off like it is an everyday occurrance and no big deal.  There was no fear or concern.  This also played into lack of internal motivation for why they did anything or went anywhere.  The overall lack of emotion and internal motivation made the characters and the story feel very wooden and somewhat disjointed.

I hate to say it, but after muddling through I felt as if I'd been offered an entire loaf of melba toast with nothing to drink.  It was a struggle for me to finish Ruler of Demons.  But perhaps if you like and understand very dry humor, you might consider checking out the book for yourself.  There were a few moments that offered up a chuckle even to someone like me.

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Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Pages: 202
ISBN: 9781603819053
Publisher: Camel Press
Release: December 15, 2013

Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/Scott-A.-Lerner/e/B008WXJWSS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Author Bio:

Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Mr. Lerner lives with his wife, their two children, and their cat Fern. Lerner collects unusual antiques and enjoys gardening, traveling, reading fiction, and going to the movies. His first novel, Cocaine Zombies, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards.

Check out his website http://scottlerner.camelpress.com/ and for a taste of his writing, check out the excerpt http://www.scribd.com/doc/181544210/Ruler-of-Demons-by-Scott-A-Lerner-Chapters-1-4

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Reviewing the "Ruby Heart"

It may be a cold day outside, but inside I'm warm and toasty.  Winter is here.  Christmas is coming.  My heart is full.

Heart did I say?  Well yes, because today we're gonna talk about hearts.  Not warm hearts.  Not cold hearts.  But ruby hearts.  Cristelle Comby has released the latest in the Neve & Egan series - Ruby Heart - and it approaches one of my most favorite history topics, World War II.

Ruby Heart Book Summary:
When elderly client Doris Hargrave informs private investigator Alexandra Neve that her beloved antique ruby heart necklace has gone missing for the second time in a period of over sixty years, Alexandra knows this is no ordinary jewellery theft. The ruby heart is a family heirloom and the only thing that connects an ailing Mrs Hargrave to her parents, who were murdered during the Holocaust.

To solve the case, Alexandra and her business partner, blind history professor Ashford Egan, must sift through obscure Holocaust documents to find out the truth. It’s that way that they learn of a secret World War II-era love affair which could hold the key to all the answers they are looking for. Meanwhile, Egan is under immense pressure from the university to quit his private investigating business, and Alexandra is afraid that a man she trusts will leave her. Again.

When Alexandra begins to receive anonymous threats and her flat is vandalised, this all becomes personal. Knowing that there is someone out there to hurt her, Alexandra vows to find that elusive ruby heart if it’s the last thing she ever does.

My Review:
First off, I'm finding the Neve & Egan series to be quite charming.  The first book, Russian Dolls, was offered to reviewers to obtain the introduction to this unlikely sleuthing pair.  However, I think Ruby Heart gives enough backstory to be able to follow it without having first read Russian Dolls, though I would still recommend reading the series as a whole just because it is good.

After the events of the first book, including the loss of her best friend, and the subsequent media frenzy, Alexandra - or Lexa to her friends - decides to leave the university life behind for the life of a PI.  Part-time university history professor and her blind business partner, Ashford Egan, is a prickly character to both students and faculty alike.  But Lexa is able to see beyond the candy-coated shell to the soft chocolate center.  Thus the friendship and business relationship begins.

At first I was worried this would devolve into a middle-aged professor meets much younger student - you get the picture.  But I've been very pleased to see the relationship grow more like a father/daughter scenario (Lexa's father died years before) and it's very sweet to "see" played out in the pages.  Ash gets onto Lexa when she lets her frustration and mouth get the better of a situation (I can sooo relate to her that way), and Lexa helps Ash to express emotion and better relate to others.  Plus in their business relationship, Lexa can explore where Ash can't, and Ash's other senses are heightened due to his blindness and can detect intentions and what isn't being said by the people they interview.

So getting back to Ruby Heart.  Lexa is visited by Doris Hargrave, an ailing, old woman with an urgent plea.  Mrs. Hargrave emigrated to England in the nineteen-thirties as a young child from a wealthy German family of jewelers - and they were Jewish.  During the events of the Holocaust, she lost her entire family and a precious family heirloom, a pendant made from the finest rubies and diamonds and fashioned into the shape of a heart.  The pendant turned up recently when a home in Italy was demolished, returned to it's rightful owner, and subsequently stolen from Mrs. Hargrave once again.  Now she's desperate to recover it to pass on the hope of a happy marriage to her beloved granddaughter.

If a half-century old mystery isn't enough pressure for Lexa, Ashford is being forced to decide between being a blind detective or remaining with the university (and guaranteed income).  Lexa knows what Ash should do and is torn by what she wants him to choose.

To discover the reason for the current theft, Lexa and Ash have to follow a cold trail that forces them to explore the horrors of the Holocaust through the pages left over from the path through Germany to Italy - and possible ties to the Mafioso. 

At times, just when they have no further leads to go on, something pops up to turn them in the right direction.  A time or two this almost felt too easy and contrived, but since I was already invested in the characters and the story, I didn't let it bother me too much. 

I liked the bit of play between Lexa and Stensen, a young officer she's worked with on her cases, and I suspect a bit of foreshadowing of a possible relationship building for later in the series (wink-wink).  Then there's the fact that those with whom Lexa is close seem to be getting hurt - namely in this one, her mother.  But one thing I find interesting is that even though it is Lexa and Ash doing the investigating, Lexa's home is the only one that seems to get invaded.  The bad guys never seem to know where Ash lives so that feels a bit odd to me.  I've just chalked it up to the fact that Lexa seems to be the one doing the majority of the footwork.

Through the series, I really enjoyed the variety of characters Ms. Comby has created in this series.  Ashford's "friend", Dimitri, provides a little more backstory on how he came to be indebted to Ash - very interesting.  And I'm especially liking this mysterious underworld character who we never see but who is lurking in the shadows behind the series.  Oh, and this character is the one REALLY responsible for Lexa's best friend's death in book one.  His only name?  The Sorter.

Ooooo!  So if you're looking for a mystery series that isn't too deep (but has the promise to be), has some action, and threatens to teach you a bit about history, pick up Ruby Heart.  Better yet, just start with book one of the Neve & Egan series.  You'll be glad you did.

Author Bio:

Cristelle Comby was born and raised in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, in Greater Geneva, where she still resides.

Thanks to her insatiable thirst for American and British action films and television dramas, her English is fluent.

She attributes to her origins her ever-peaceful nature and her undying love for chocolate. She has a passion for art, which also includes an interest in drawing and acting.

Ruby Heart is her second new-adult novel, and she’s hard at work on the next titles in the Neve & Egan series.  Check out her website http://cristelle-comby.com/

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