November's Book Reviews & Previews

Happy Holidays and welcome to the November edition of Book Reviews & Previews.  This month, we have reviews of a fantasy, a couple of thrillers, and even a how-to book.  Hopefully, something for everyone. 

Red Wrath (Blood of the Masked God Book 1) by Gerhard Gehrke

Superhero Abilities with Supersized Character Flaws Make this Book Fly

Once superheroes were unswervingly virtuous, while supervillains were, without exception, rotten to the core.  It was all so simple – pure good vs. absolute evil.  But that hasn’t been true for a while, with even Superman, the archetype for all superheroes, turning evil multiple times, sometimes from necessity, sometimes from choice.  Author Gerhard Gehrke in Red Wrath focuses on that gray area where a superhero (Chronos) who is adored by the masses also has a dark, alter ego.  And the main character, Lily (aka Jade or Red), is obsessed with getting even with him after he killed her parents in one of his dark fugues.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2RR6EYK


CRISPR by Lincoln Cole

An intricate plot woven around a potential, technological nightmare

In terms of doomsday scenarios, editing human genes with horrifying, heritable results has to be near the top of the list.  That, in a sentence, is the scientific terror featured in Lincoln Cole’s latest technothriller, CRISPR.  And in case you think this is all in the imagination of a creative author, note that if you search for CRISPR in Amazon books, his fiction will appear right alongside the laboratory manuals and academic tomes on this gene-editing methodology.  There’s more truth to Cole’s fiction than we might want to admit.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2ONiVvq

City of Endless Night (Agent Pendergast series) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

A Familiar Formula that Fails to Yield Drama this Time

City of Endless Night is the seventeenth installment in the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  It follows a formula found in several of their earlier works, as FBI Agent Pendergast faces a previously unknown type of foe, which has been shaped by forces in the gray area between science and the supernatural.  But unlike the monsters he pursues in the museums and caves of earlier books, Pendergast’s adversary in the City of Endless Night seems little more than a man.  An intelligent, cunning, and extremely disturbed one, but a man nonetheless.  There is science run amok in the book and it was apparently intended to provide the ‘disfiguring’ stresses on this individual, but it never achieves Preston and Child’s trademark blend of the bizarre, the natural, and the paranormal that keeps the pages turning.  Basically, the story ends up being a murder mystery.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2Q0jgQJ


Now, something for would-be authors out there:  A Wordy Woman's Guide for Writing a Book by Dawn Husted

A Guide for Succinct Guys, Too!

I admit to being drawn to this book initially by the title – just what kind of guidance does a ‘wordy woman’ need to write a book?  Don’t get lost in subplots?  Of course, I suspected the title was intended to be catchy rather than descriptive of the intended audience.  And after reading it, that’s true – succinct guys could use this guide as well.  The work is, simply put, a solid, beginner’s guide for writing a book.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2RxUW4W

Feed Your eBook Reader - Black Friday Edition

Get limited-time prices on these great reads.  As always, please verify all prices before purchase.

Start Date: NOWEnd Date: 11-29-18

Of Half a Mind

By Bruce M. Perrin

Psychological Thriller
Usual Price: 2.99 Sale: 0.99

When you talk to yourself, there's but one voice.

Psychologist Sam "Doc" Price had always held that principle to be true ... at least under normal circumstances.  But as he studed the work of Dr. Ned Worthington, a brilliant but troubled neuroscientist, he discovered a device that created a reality that was anything but normal.

Amazon US |  Amazon UK (just 99p)

Start Date: 11-27-2018End Date: 12-04-2018

Glitter, Greed, and Gatecrashers

By Emily Selby

Cozy Mystery
Usual Price: 3.99 Sale: 0.99

The church fete has closed for the night and everybody is looking forward to another day of fun, except one uninvited guest... Katie finds his lifeless body, covered in glitter in the storage room. Will she find who's done it? Book 3 in the series

Amazon US

Start Date: NOWEnd Date: 12-25-2018

Homicidal Holiday (Gainfully Employed Mystery Book 1)

By Sam Cheever

Cozy Mystery
Usual Price: 3.99 Sale: 0.99

It was a simple holiday getaway…a chance to regroup and figure out how to move forward after losing the man of her dreams…then she witnessed a murder on the beach…

Amazon US |Kobo Link|BN |Google|Apple iBooks

Start Date:  NOWEnd Date: 11-30-2018

Books and Brews (Back Room Bookstore Cozy Mystery Book 1)

By Susan Harper

Cozy Mystery
Usual Price: New Release Sale: 0.99

Monica Montoya is the new owner of the Back Room Bookstore, an ordinary bookstore with a back door to the supernatural realm. With the help of a little magic, she seeks to bring the killer to justice. Can she keep her secret and protect her friends?

Amazon US

Start Date: NOWEnd Date: 11-29-2018

Best in Show

By maria grazia swan

Cozy Mystery
Usual Price: 3.99 Sale: 0.99

Mina Calvi, Italian transplant to Southern California, thinks her love life might finally come together, just as her professional life has. Her Furry Friends Foundation, a no-kill shelter for rescued cats and dogs, is a success, and Mina hopes she may find a loving forever home for herself, in the arms of Diego Moran, her elusive, frustratingly mysterious, on again-off again, lover.

Amazon US |Kobo Link|BN|Apple iBooks

Start Date: NOWEnd Date: 12-31-2018

The Bow of Destiny (The Bow of Hart Saga Book 1)

By P. H. Solomon

Fantasy-Urban Fantasy
Usual Price: 2.99 Sale: 0.99

Haunted by his past. Hunted in the present. Uncertain what is real.This unique epic fantasy will keep you turning pages as Athson discovers his destiny is both inconvenient and unavoidable. Athson has seen things that aren't there and suffered fits since being tragically orphaned as a child at the hands of trolls and Corgren the mage who serves Magdronu the dragon. When a strange will mentioning a mysterious bow comes into his possession, Athson's not sure it's real. 'Solomon has his own signature touch that gives us not only something original and unique but will leave many fantasy readers waiting for more.' --- Fantasia Reviews, 2016 Book of the Year

Amazon US

NEW RELEASE

My fourth book, Killer in the Retroscape:  A Near-Future Mystery is now live on Amazon!

“A compelling mystery set in a superbly-constructed future world.”
    - A Wishing Shelf Book Review

In 2068, Doug Michaels finds his friend, Josh Unger, dead in his home.  When law enforcement concludes his death was a suicide, Doug is dumbstruck – what could explain such a violent death in a future where such actions are unimaginable.  Trying to unearth a killer, Doug creates a mental landscape of Josh’s past, a retroscape, starting in the mid-2030s.

Among its landmarks are:

-  An illness, sensationalized in the media as the “zombie pandemic”.

-  A mysterious phrase uttered at the attack on a government official.

-  Josh’s machine-intelligence wife, Julia, who may hold the secret … if she can only remember.

In the end, determining guilt in a retroscape littered with suspects tells Doug more about humanity, technology, and himself than he ever could have imagined.

Pick up your copy today:  https://amzn.to/2Cn7xE0