Review: American Angst

I couldn’t help myself, I had to read American Angst by Laurel Osterkamp, a story about two cousins-in-law, Lucy and Robin Bricker. I’d met them before—I’d read and loved The Holdout, Starring in the Movie of My Life, and Blue State—so I was looking forward to hearing more from them. I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed, and I was right. The story is an intrigue, a perfect summer read, a romp and dig, a surprise through the lives of two cousins-in-law and their significant others.

The structure is pure Osterkamp, each chapter weaving Lucy’s story and POV with Robin’s. Although at one point the characters meet in a believable and humorous situation, most of the time the chapters concern either Robin or Lucy. In addition to the structure, what I love about the book are syntax, plot, its unique American flavor, and above all, the way Laurel Osterkamp’s characters grow—or not.

American Angst is an unputdownable read. It’s about young adults who grow and slip, who love and suffer, who are together in their being part of—and apart from—the same generation in the same family. It’s about married Lucy and single Robin. It’s about the push and pull of family, the impact of public events on private lives. If you love drama and humor, surprise and sorrow, you won’t want to miss American Angst.

About The Author:

Laurel Osterkamp gets very attached to her characters. Scared Together is her newest story starring Lucy, who debuted in Campaign Promises, a free novella Laurel released to thank all her awesome readers. Then Lucy’s story continued with November Surprise and Blue State, both available on Amazon. Most recently there’s The Holdout, also featuring Lucy, but the main character is Monty’s cousin Robin, and it’s about love, justice, and reality TV.

You can find Laurel on Twitter but she doesn’t tweet super often. A better idea is to follow her blog, www.laurelosterkamp.blogspot.com, or Lucy’s blog, www.novembersurprises.blogspot.com, where you’ll read about Lucy’s career, marriage, and politics.

Laurel teaches in Minneapolis, MN. She enjoys her boot collection, spending time with her husband and two chatty children, and finding time to write.  Her other novels are both award winning –  Following My Toes and Starring in the Movie of My Life. Visit her at www.laurelosterkamp.com.

And you can find her books at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

See my review of Laurel Osterkamp’s The Holdout.

Review: FATAL WHISPERS by Sandra Nikolai

Mesmerizing and unputdownable, Fatal Whispers, the thrilling new mystery by Sandra Nikolai, stars the romantic duo of Megan Scott and Michael Elliott as they attempt to unravel the steamy secrets behind three shocking murders. Set in Portland and Falmouth on Maine’s craggy coastline, Fatal Whispers will sweep you away by its wealth of intriguing suspects and breathtaking action. You’ll be guessing to the last page of this nail-biter.

Megan Scott travels with Michael Elliott to Portland, Maine where they stay with Bianca, Megan’s cousin. Michael, an investigative reporter has been assigned to uncover the facts surrounding the strange death of a woman living rough. The woman is well-known to residents as Glad Rags Gladys and she is found dead from a mysterious substance close to Bianca’s flower shop. Events take off and very soon there are three murders.

The book is a fascinating mystery. It’s about the logical steps taken to unravel the puzzle of three seemingly benign and unrelated deaths, and we meet some engaging characters on the way as they struggle to stay alive–Megan’s cousin, Bianca and her husband, Victor, and George are among my favorites, along with the setting which has such a strong presence in the book that it’s a character.

But the book is also about the relationship of Megan Scott with Michael Elliott, the gnawing back and forth of it. As a recent widow, her hesitation is understandable and folded into the plot so well by Sandra Nikolai: should Megan become romantically involved with another man, Michael, so soon after her husband’s death?

I must add that I loved Bianca’s flower shop where much of the action takes place. And the final scenes brought me to the edge of my seat as Megan and Michael realize a deadly killer is on the loose.

If you like action-packed mystery and thrillers with characters who grow as they come to grips with what is happening to their relatives and friends before there are more murders, you will love Fatal Whispers, the second book in the Megan Scott and Michael Elliott series.

My Rating: 5 Stars

Fatal Whispers is available on Amazon,  Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, Smashwords Premium, and Sony.

About the Author: 

Mystery author Sandra Nikolai weaves ordinary characters into extraordinary, life-threatening situations. If you enjoy the challenge of solving mysteries, you’ll love the Megan Scott/Michael Elliott Mystery series. FALSE IMPRESSIONS (2012) and FATAL WHISPERS (2013) are the first two books in the series.

Visit Sandra’s website and blog at http://sandranikolai.com/ and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @SandraNikolai

Review: Behind The Walls by Elaine Orr

Behind The Walls by Elaine Orr, Sixth book in the Jolie Gentile Mystery Series 

Jolie Gentile, that lovable sleuth, never disappoints. She’s the protagonist in Elaine Orr’s Jolie Gentil Cozy Mystery Series. It takes place in and around Ocean Alley, a fictitious town on New Jersey’s coast.

In BEHIND THE WALLS, Jolie stumbles into a mystery and a murder when she buys a chest of drawers from an auctioneer for her newly purchased home blocks from the Shore. A drawer is missing, and that’s not all. Jolie encounters smooth-talking Clive Dorner, fresh from the city and hoping to scarf up bargain homes in Sandy’s wake. Meanwhile, when Jolie and Scoobie find hidden treasures behind a wall in her new home, the plot thickens.

In addition to Jolie, there are the usual cast of characters I’ve grown to love—Aunt Madge, the cranky Sergeant Morehouse, Scoobie, Lester, and George, Jolie’s erstwhile flame. And I won’t soon forget Elaine Orr’s depiction of the Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy, bruised but not beaten, a character in its own right, adding a strong sense of place to this series. Of course my favorite character is Jolie Gentile, real estate appraiser with a facile mind and sparkling wit who cannot let go once she’s gotten hold of a mystery.
Adding to the character list is a memorable cast of animals including Pebbles the skunk (devoid of scent glands, thanks be) who befriends a homesick Jazz, Jolie’s cat. But the animals in Behind The Walls aren’t just window-dressing—they reflect what Jolie’s feeling and have a special role to play toward the end of the story.

BEHIND THE WALLS is light, captivating, entertaining and wonderfully written. It swept me away to a place I love. Throughout the book, I could hear the waves and the gulls and taste the taffy. Be careful, though, the story, which never strays from being a cozy, still has sudden twists and turns, destruction and death. And although the mystery is solved in the end, the story leaves us guessing about the fate of George and Jolie. Will they ever get together again?

From the first page I delighted in this whodunit, in watching endearing characters struggle or romp through Elaine Orr’s magical words onto pages full of humor, suspense and surprise. If you like tightly plotted cozy mysteries, don’t miss this series. I’ve read four of them and plan to read the rest.

My rating: 5 Stars

About the author: Elaine L. Orr has written, edited, and published for more than 30 years in business and popular fields. In addition to writing, she also does presentations on writing-related topics such as
electronic publishing and using social media to promote books.

Fiction includes short stories, novellas, and novels.  The Jolie Gentil Cozy Mystery series debuted in 2011, and the five books in the series have garnered good reviews (and sales!).  Elaine has also written screenplays, and her play, Permission to Hope, received a staged reading at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Biding Time was one of five finalists in the National Press Club’s first fiction contest, in 1993.

Nonfiction book-length works includes Monett (Arcadia Publishing), Caring for Treasures: Helping Your Parents Through Life and Death and Words to Write By: Putting Your Thoughts on Paper. Caring for Treasures was revised and reissued in 2012. In 2011 she published Orr, Campbell, Mitchell and Shirley Families: Descendants of Paul Orr and Isabelle Boyd in Ireland and America.

A disciplined freelance writer and editor, Elaine’s more recent nonfiction can be found on Yahoo Voices.

Elaine graduated from the University of Dayton with a BA in Political Science and from the
American University with an MA in Government. She has done journalism coursework at the
University of Maryland and taken many fiction courses from The Writer’s Center in Bethesda,
MD, Georgetown University’s Continuing Education Program, the University of Iowa Summer
Writing Program, and Midwest Writers Workshop.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime.

Behind The Walls can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Find out more about her on her website, elaineorr.com

Review of Reese’s Leap

REESE’S LEAP by Darcy Scott is about five longtime friends who meet for their annual, all-female retreat on a remote Maine Island. They are forced to put the party on hold to host the hard-drinking, bachelor botanist, Gil Hodges, who just happens upon them one afternoon and winds up stranded there by fog for what could be days. A hopeless womanizer, Gil is secretly pleased to be there but soon finds the island’s deeply forested interior deceptively bucolic and the women a bit too intriguing for comfort. It stirs his glorious if libidinous memory and his profound regret for his past.

When a ruthless, diabolical stranger appears out of nowhere, insinuating himself into the fold and bent on a twisted revenge, fear blooms as basic necessities on this rustic island mysteriously begin to disappear. And when a spare cell phone and their means of escape to the mainland also vanish, it falls to Gil to keep the women safe, despite their dawning awareness that not everyone will make it off the island alive.

The book is lyrical in its sense of place and dark in its depiction of the human condition. It has a complexity born of many rounded characters following their own arc—for instance, Gill Hodges, a Don Quixote with the besottedness of Falstaff, the buoyant volubility of Augie March, and the tenacity of Jack Reacher. Gil is a lovable main character, fascinating to watch. I wouldn’t get near him, not for anything; but just watch him in a crisis, how he always kicks the ball in a different direction.

Like MATINICUS, the book’s predecessor, the voice and technique of REESE’S LEAP are unique. The book is often savage and raw, not a cozy. It’s a fast-paced knuckle-biting mystery, but it is also a book about secrets and an almost insurmountable dislocation born of catastrophic events and the impossibility of knowing the truth of the past or the mystery of the present.

And if in his loss and misery, Gil Hodges has a hint of growth beyond his days-old stubble, the novel contains no easy answers.

REESE’S LEAP is master stroke from a very talented writer. It is haunting; it is scary. The storyline is taut, the characters, surprising and unforgettable, and if you love mystery, and clean, lyrical prose, you won’t want to miss it.

The Reese’s Leap launch is tonight, April 4, at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. Friday night, April 6, Darcy Scott will be reading and signing books alongside fellow novelist Jen Blood as part of the monthly “Lit: Readings and Libations” program at the Slainte Wine Bar & Lounge in Portland ME (http://www.slaintewinebar.com/). On Monday evening, April 8, she’ll be on the Literary New England Radio Show on Blog Talk radio (http://www.litnewengland.com/).

Her website, www.DarcyScott.net, contains all kinds of information, including audiofile excerpts and a link where readers can order personalized books. Her FB address is www.Facebook.com/Author.Darcy.Scott, and I tweet @Darcy_Scott.

REESE’S LEAP and MATINICUS are available select independent bookstores in Maine and New Hampshire, and online at Amazon in both softcover and Kindle. They’re also available in Nook and all the other e-formats.

Review: All The Blue-Eyed Angels

ALL THE BLUE-EYED ANGELS by Jen Blood is popular lit at its best.

It took me a day to devour it, the first book in a pentalogy, and I have to tell you that there’s nothing else with quite the allure of the story of Erin and Stein and Diggs and Jack, nothing with its particular brand of humor, its touching love story, its sense of place, nothing with its sometimes lovable, often grizzly cast of minor characters, nothing that compares with the action and exhilaration that Jen Blood packs into this character-centered story.

Investigative journalist Erin Solomon returns to her roots, a small fishing village on the coast of Maine. With the help of her trusted dog Einstein and her lifelong more-than-friend Diggs, she risks everything to uncover the truth behind a tragedy that has haunted her since childhood—a fatal fire that destroyed the fundamentalist island community where she and her father lived for the first ten years of Erin’s life, a fire immortalized in Erin’s memory and the beginning chapters with such fury that I thought my kindle was going to explode.

Toward the end of the book, Erin discovers that honing in on the culprit only uncovers the hint of a more powerful devil behind him, someone elusive and hidden and unnamed, someone controlling the strings. Call him the angel of death or the puppet master, this embodiment of evil is unstoppable and cries out for more from Erin and her loyal companions—more strength, more questing, more pain. And while the ending swept me away in its bone-chilling action and I felt a sense of closure, ALL THE BLUE-EYED ANGELS also compelled me to read the next book in the series.

So if you like mystery with sometimes dark and graphic detail, an intricate plot, a love story that is elegiac in its beauty, even as the story’s action is unrelenting; if you long for smooth, clean writing with a unique sense of humor, then ALL THE BLUE-EYED ANGELS is for you.

ALL THE BLUE-EYED ANGELS is free for Nook for a limited time.

The Erin Solomon Mysteries are available on Smashwords and Amazon.

DEATH IN A WINE DARK SEA by Lisa King

A Can’t Put It Down, Classic Mystery

When Diane asks her friend, Jean Applequist, to help investigate the murder of her spouse, Jean does so with gusto, consulting with friends and stopping to savor food, wine, and sex up and down California’s coast, in and out of San Francisco’s restaurants.

The pace of DEATH IN A WINE DARK SEA by Lisa King is fast; the plot, pleasingly intricate, the storyline surprising from the start, the suspects numerous and humorous. Reading the book, I could feel, see, and smell the damp San Francisco fog rolling in over the hills. Read the rest of the review.

Giveaway & Review of CRACK

GIVEAWAY COMING MONDAY JUNE 4

Tomorrow I’m reviewing Chris Barraclough’s novella, CRACK. It’s an amazing literary thriller and I had a lot of fun reading it. To celebrate, Chris is giving away one ebook, so be sure to stop by, read, and comment to enter!

THE EVELYN PROJECT by Kfir Luzzatto

Nothing is as it seems in this breathtaking adventure that catapults an Italian professor and his lover, a beautiful French actress, into the heart of northern Italy and Switzerland in search of a century’s old formula before it gets into the wrong hands. Read the rest of the review.

THE TESTAMENT OF JUDITH BARTON: An Engrossing Psychological Thriller

THE TESTAMENT OF JUDITH BARTON by Wendy Powers and Robin McLeod is the story of Judy Barton, a minor character who plays an important role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In the novel, she steps out of Hitchcock’s psychological masterpiece to tell her story. But whether or not you’ve seen Vertigo, you will enjoy TESTAMENT.

Like Vertigo, TESTAMENT deals with obsession. But unlike the film … Read the rest of the review.

Sins of the Fathers

THE WEIGHT OF GLASS: Sins of the Fathers

An exhilarating, provocative read, THE WEIGHT OF GLASS by Stuart Heatherington is about sins of the fathers, the ineffective love of a mother, and the destruction of a family. Read the rest of the review.