Sunday Salon: Reviews To Share

It’s Sunday Salon and time to share our thoughts on books we’ve read.

I have several wonderful books to share with you today since I’ve been away from blogdom. I’ll still be absent for a bit more, but thanks for all your kindness and concern for my mother-in-law’s recovery. She continues to be in good spirits and is getting a bit stronger each day.

As for books, once again I have a diverse selection of books to recommend. I hope you will find at least one, if not all of these for your reading pleasure.

WHERE DANGER HIDES by Terry Odell

Obsessed with finding a Columbian drug lord, Dalton didn’t expect to be stateside searching for people missing from a shelter.

Dalton works for Blackthorne, Inc. doing special ops all over the world. He’s pulled back to the states and put on a task he feels is a waste of his time. While on the assignment, Dalton comes in contact with Miri Chambers, who is on her own mission.

Later when Dalton is assigned to help Miri, he’s upset at first but quickly gives the mission his full attention when he discovers 3 people are missing from Galloway House, a shelter where Miri serves as administrator.

As the two begin to search for the missing residents, Miri’ sister also disappears. The more they search, the more twists and turns they encounter. Along the way readers learn Miri has secrets of her own, while Dalton is haunted by his past.

Despite the dire situation, Miri and Dalton find they are drawn to each other. Author Terry Odell weaves you into the lives of Miri Chambers and "Just" Dalton. Within the first few pages you're hooked and off on a heart-pounding ride of adventure, suspense, intrigue, and undeniable romance. WHERE DANGER HIDES is an adrenaline rush that will capture your heart. A tender romance with bits of humor is woven throughout the story to give readers a chance to catch their breath.

Author Terry Odell’s website is www.terryodell.com

Where Danger Hides, A Blackthorne, Inc. Novel by Terry Odell, Five Star, @2011, ISBN: 9781432825126, Hardcover, 374 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - An e-book version of this was sent to me by the author in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

MIND YOUR OWN BEESWAX by Hannah Reed

Story Fischer seems to find herself in more sticky situations than her bees ever do.

When Story’s bees take off to find a new hive, she follows determined to return them to her backyard. What she didn’t expect to find was a dead body. It turns out the body is that of Lauren Kerrigan, a former resident with a criminal record. When the authorities arrive, a second body is soon found nearby. It’s Hetty Cross, known locally as ‘The Witch.’

Discovering Lauren’s body puts Story back in the crosshairs of Police Chief Johnny Jay, who has had a grudge against her for sometime. To make matters worse, Lauren was convicted years ago of running over Johnny Jay’s father, who was the police chief at the time.

Story begins to think Johnny Jay may have killed Lauren to avenge his father’s death. She sets out to prove her theory. She discovers the current murders are linked to what happened years ago on The Lost Mile leading up to Lauren running over Johnny Jay’s dad.

Author Hannah Reed has created an intriguing and lovable group of characters that live in Morrine, Wisconsin. They will have you laughing one minute and trying to figure out who the killer is the next.

MIND YOUR OWN BEESWAX is the second installment in the Queen Bee Mystery series, but is a stand alone book. The book also provides lots of useful and informative details about bees and their benefits. In addition, a number of delicious honey-based recipes are included.

MIND YOUR OWN BEESWAX is a tasty read that will whet your appetite for murder, excitement, fun and loyalty.

Author Hannah Reed’s website is http://www.queenbeemystery.com/

Mind Your Own Beeswax, A Queen Bee Mystery by Hannah Reed, Berkley Prime Crime, @2011, ISBN: 9780425241592, Paperback, 304 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

PUMPED FOR MURDER by Elaine Viets

After working her share of dead-end jobs, Helen Hawthorne is finally opening her own business.

Helen and her new husband, Phil, have returned from their honeymoon and opened a P.I. Agency in Miami, FL. They plan to specialize in families with private problems.

Their first client believes her husband is cheating on her. To find out, Helen has to go undercover working as a receptionist at a local gym. With this dead-end job, Helen has to be fit and use the gym’s workout equipment.

Meanwhile, the couple’s second client wants them to solve a decade old murder that was ruled a suicide.

Helen and Phil have their hands full with twists and turns in their cases, especially when dead bodies begin showing up. Helen has a way of uncovering the truth, but will the killer take her out first?

PUMPED FOR MURDER is the 10th installment in the Dead-End Job Mystery series, but is a stand alone book. Author Elaine Viets keeps Helen entertaining and unpredictable. The unusual group of eclectic friends from the complex where Helen and Phil live returns to help them.

For an interesting cozy mystery, plus action and adventure, catch up with Helen and the gang.

Author Elaine Viets’ website is www.elaineviets.com

Pumped For Murder, A Dead-End Job Mystery by Elaine Viets, Obsidian Mysteries, @2011, ISBN: 9780451233202, Hardcover, 304 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

What have you been reading? Please check back tomorrow when author Jean Henry Mead stops by.

Author Dorte H. Jakobsen on E-Booking It

I’m delighted to welcome author Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen back to Thoughts in Progress today as the special guest blogger as she makes a stop on her virtual book tour for her second release.
 
Dorte, who is also a fellow blogger, recently published her second e-book, LIQUORICE TWISTS. It’s categorized as mystery and detective short stories. It’s a collection of 20 flash fiction stories (from 100 to 2,500 words). While her first volume, CANDIED CRIME DJ’S DAIM STORIES VOLUME I, was crime for fun; these may be called ‘her darker materials.’

As e-books and self-publishing is gaining more and more attention, Dorte was kind enough to explain about ‘E-booking it’ for me and offer a special treat for those dropping by to read her post.

First, I´d like to say thank you to Mason for your kind invitation to visit you during my blog tour.

The established book business seems to have figured out that e-books have come to stay, and while some regard the new technology as the doomsday of the paper book, others embrace it and imagine that in a few years, writers will neither need agents nor traditional publishers.

But does self-publishing your works in the form of e-books mean you are slumming it, that your books are not good enough for the traditional market so now you are struggling desperately to earn a few cents despite lack of talent? Or are e-book writers the pioneers about to conquer the world of the reader anew?

As usual, the truth is probably somewhere in between. Lately we have heard titillating accounts of writers who self-publish their books and sell millions of copies, but my experiences may be closer to what you should expect if you are no Stephen King or James Patterson.

After several years of writing I have learnt to live with - and admit - the fact that I have not landed the big contract yet. In the beginning each rejection felt like a personal defeat, but they did not make me give up writing. So today I know I have much more to offer my readers, better plots, more credible characters and far better language. Yet, even though I am a Scandinavian, I am just not the next Stieg Larsson. I don’t write thrillers at all so even though I write just as well as several crime writers in my part of the world who had their debut before the financial crisis, it is next to impossible to find a publisher who dares take on a traditional crime novel from the pen of an unknown writer.

So for me it was a rather spontaneous decision to take things in my own hands. In February I published CANDIED CRIME, my first volume of flash fiction, forty-eight hours after getting the idea. You might call it a trial run, something I did to find out if anyone would want to buy my stuff. This time I have tackled things a bit more professionally, preparing the launch of LIQUORICE TWISTS in advance, making a proper cover and arranging a blog tour.

Do I expect to gain wealth and fame in the next few months? No, not exactly. I expect that I will sell more copies this time round, and I quite enjoy not having to ask anybody before I publish. I have not given up the goal of publishing paper books via a traditional publisher yet, however. I am still doing what I can to find an agent for my mystery novel, THE COSY KNAVE, set in a Yorkshire village. I would like the feel of security, knowing that my book was in professional hands, leaving me time to write instead of spending lots of my resources selling the stuff.

But if I don´t succeed - well, there is always that tempting self-publishing button. Doing everything my way is hard but also fun, and the idea does not scare me any more.

If I have made any of you curious, you might want a free taste of my writing style. During the launch period of LIQUORICE TWISTS (May and June) I offer free copies of HEATHER FARM, a short story which is a bit unusual for me because it contains elements of the supernatural and lots of romance.

You can find the story here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55375. And the free coupon code is EP59D.
Dorte, thanks for including Thoughts in Progress on your blog tour. It’s always fun to have you guest posting. I think the world of self-publishing is opening lots of doors for authors, but also giving readers the opportunity to find new authors they might not have otherwise.

Just a little background on Dorte, who teaches English at upper secondary level. In her spare time she reads and writes crime fiction in English and Danish, and in 2010 she sold her first flash stories to American magazines and publishers. For more on Dorte and her writing, check out her blog DJ’s krimiblog.

What are your thoughts on e-books and self-publishing? If you’re a writer, have you given it a try yet?                

**Sorry that I won’t be able to drop back by today and will still be away from the internet for a bit more. Thank you for your continued support for this blog and especially your concern and caring for my mother-in-law. She continues to improve and we are slowly getting into a routine that will make things easier. She is getting a little stronger each day and her attitude continues to be good. She is ready to get out and work in her flowers. Again, thanks so much. I hope to have several book reviews for you in the coming days. 

Author Ed Lynskey Guest Blogs

It’s my pleasure to welcome ‘new-to-me’ author Ed Lynskey to Thoughts in Progress as the special guest blogger today as he makes a stop on his virtual blog tour.

Wildside Press will bring out Ed’s stand alone Appalachian (TN) noir, LAKE CHARLES, in late June. Here’s a brief synopsis of it: Brendan Fishback coming home from a rock concert ends up the next morning in bed with a corpse, his dead girlfriend Jodi Sizemore. He has no idea how she died. But the local sheriff closing in targets Brendan as the prime suspect for Jodi’s murder. Times is running tight.Going on a Lake Charles outing with his twin sister Edna and best pal Cobb Kuzawa, Brendan mulls things over. That night when Edna turns up missing, Brendan and Cobb take off to find her. Events heat up after they stumble on a well-guarded pot farm. Blood spills in the violent clash. Staying one jump ahead of the local authorities and an enraged drug cartel, Brendan picks up unexpected aid.

Cobb’s dad Jeremiah is a decorated Korean War vet and ex-CIA operative who applies his own rough ideas of justice. Veera Grant, a tough lady DEA agent working under cover, also joins in Cobb’s quest for the truth. Told in a stylish, taut prose, LAKE CHARLES set in the vibrant Great Smoky Mountains tells how a young man when pushed to the extreme defends himself against overwhelming forces on both sides of the law -- and wins, but on his own terms.

Ed was kind enough to answer some questions about his current release, as well as his writing in general.

Mason - What inspired you to write this book?

Ed - LAKE CHARLES was borne out of some desperation more than eight years ago. I’d written several hardboiled male detective books in the P.I. Frank Johnson mystery series. Frankly, I’d almost—not entirely, but almost—OD’d on Frank. He’s always going to be my main most man, and I’ll probably always be tied to him when thought of as a writer since there are now seven books starring him. But I needed a break from him and vice versa also held true. Today I went back and looked in my records. “Lake Charles” was first a short story published in an ezine called DEAD MULE in April 2001. The story became essentially the first chapter to LAKE CHARLES novel. So, LAKE CHARLES took me ten years to write.

I wanted to set LAKE CHARLES in the same time period when I was a young man. So,    1979 was the right year. My protagonist is Brendan Fishback. He’s from the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee where I’d fond memories from my travels there. He’s a little different, as the reviewers have noted. He experiences dreams where he converses with his dead girlfriend while he powers through a self-detox from pot. The dreams may or may not be supernatural. The reader can decide on that part. But as I just said, I sought to write something different than what I’d been doing up until LAKE CHARLES.

Mason - Do you have a writing schedule, a favorite place to write or a favorite time to write?

Ed - For some reason, the early morning—up at 4 a.m.—suits me the best. I shoo the cat off my chair seat after I’ve started to perk the coffee. I like to have 300 new words down before I hear the plop of the newspaper—Washington Post—hitting the foot of our driveway from the carrier making his appointed rounds. The freelance work is sandwiched in the middle of the day, but not before I fit in my two-mile walk. That’s it. If I listen to music, it’s usually jazz. Miles Davis is my current favorite. Right now I’m promoting two books—a small town cozy titled QUIET ANCHORAGE and LAKE CHARLES, my Appalachian noir. I hope soon to get back to my regular schedule of writing. That’s when I’m the happiest of all.

Mason - What type of research did you do for the book? Is research a process you enjoy or just something that is necessary?

Ed - I’m not sure what scope of research I did for Lake Charles since I wrote the first  draft eight years ago. No doubt I consulted a regional map, though the immediate area where the novel takes place is fictitious. No Lake Charles exists in Tennessee. No town of Umpire is there. The pressmen’s strike did occur. I see there’s a bibliography of reference works in LAKE CHARLES, including about the pressmen’s strike, so I must’ve consulted them. I had contact with people from the Kingsport area where the pressmen’s strike occurred so that provided me with the background. Years ago, Kingsport did much of the printing for books. You can see their stamp in the back of old books if you look for it. The strike turned bitter and vengeful. The scabs and union people fought each other. Families didn’t speak to each other. Anyway, the strike plays a significant part in the back-story to Lake Charles. 

Mason - What was the best and worst thing about writing?

Ed - The best thing about writing, for me, is the creation of a novel’s first draft from scratch. I don’t know if I can cite any worst thing. There are aspects that don’t appeal to me as much. I feel lucky and thankful to have my health and the time to write fiction. The most gratifying thrill to me is when readers finish my books and tell me they enjoyed the experience. 

Mason - What message would you like readers to take away from your book, if any?

Ed - I don’t write my fiction with any hidden agenda or political slant that I’m aware of putting there. I like for there to be some development in the main character. He or she has changed or learned something important about life after the story is completed. I can’t believe they can go through a major crisis or traumatic event in their lives and not be affected by it in some way. Of course, the men in LAKE CHARLES, including Brendan, are a stoic, watchful, and standoffish mountain clan. They aren’t like today’s sensitive males given to crying and spilling their troubles. They came from a different time. Mr. Kuzawa is a decorated vet from the Korean War. Think of the Mike Hammer generation. That’s just how the men acted back then. I don’t know. Maybe you had to know and talk to such men in order to understand and portray them.    

Mason - What can readers expect next from you?

Ed - Frank Johnson will return in two more installments: THE ZINC ZOO and AFTER THE BIG NOISE. A pulpy science fiction titled THE QUETZAL MOTEL should be hitting the streets. I’ve written and published a number of speculative fiction short stories so QUETZAL isn’t too out there for me. A few other projects are making the usual rounds, so I won’t mention them until they find a good home.

I’d like to say before I close out my discussion how I appreciate the opportunity to speak on your weblog about my writing and books. Thank you for your interest and for keeping the written word alive and a part of the cyber mainstream.   

Ed, thanks so much for guest blogging. I’m always delighted to feature authors and their work here at Thoughts in Progress. I‘m sorry that I won‘t be able to drop back in today, but I hope you enjoy your visit and please come again. It’s always interesting and fun to learn about the background of how a book (and character) comes to life.

Now for a bit of background on Ed. He is the author of the P.I. Frank Johnson mystery series (including THE ZINC ZOO out in 2011) as well as a small town cozy mystery, QUIET ANCHORAGE, also now out for sale. Ed can be found on Twitter @edlynskey and by email at e_lynskey@yahoo.com. He’s also on Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/692283.Ed_Lynskey/blog and at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/692283.Ed_Lynskey

You can also read the first chapter of LAKE CHARLES to learn more about the book and Ed at http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/254944-lake-charles

LAKE CHARLES is up for pre-order sales at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lake-Charles-Mystery-Ed-Lynskey/dp/1434430464/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300115352&sr=1-7

As a reader, do you enjoy stories with a little different plot line? If you’re a writer, have you ever gone back to a storyline you started years ago?

**Just a quick and huge THANK YOU for all the prayers and positive thoughts concerning my mother-in-law. We came home from the hospital late Friday and have been doing fairly well so for. We had decided against surgery for her since she will soon be 90 years old and we thought that might be too much for her. The surgeon was in agreement. It will be a long and sometimes difficult road, but so far she is doing well and has a positive attitude. I’ll be away from blogdom a bit more until I can get internet set up at my in-law’s home . I do have several authors guest blogging this week, so I hope you’ll come back and visit with them. Again, thank you so much for your thoughtfulness.

Author Kelly O'Connor McNees On Louisa May Alcott

Please join me in welcoming author Kelly O’Connor McNees as the special guest blogger here today on her virtual book tour.

Kelly’s book, THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, was released yesterday by Berkley Trade Paperback. Here’s a brief synopsis: Deftly mixing fact and fiction, Kelly O'Connor McNees imagines a love affair that would threaten Louisa's writing career-and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women. Stuck in small-town New Hampshire in 1855, Louisa finds herself torn between a love that takes her by surprise and her dream of independence as a writer in Boston. The choice she must make comes with a steep price that she will pay for the rest of her life.

An added bonus - Kelly will have a book signing and discussion in Georgia this week. She will be at the Foxtale Book Shoppe on Saturday, May 7, at 3 p.m. The store is located at 105 E. Main Street, #138 in Woodstock. Be sure to stop by and see her if you can.

Kelly stopped by today to talk about ‘stumbling on a story.’

THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT grew from a question: Where did Little Women’s Teddy “Laurie” Laurence come from?

I have always loved Louisa May Alcott’s most famous novel, about the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, and their coming of age during the Civil War. I reread the novel many times over the years, seeing it from new perspectives as my own life changed. But I never knew much about Louisa herself until one day, on a whim, I picked up a biography of this iconic writer.

What I read sent me on a long and fascinating path. Louisa, it turned out, had written hundreds of stories and several novels, many of them under a pseudonym. She hadn’t really wanted to write the mild and moral Little Women. She loved sensational thrillers—what she called “blood and thunder tales”—but these weren’t the sorts of books nice young ladies were supposed to write. No one was more surprised by Little Women’s success than Louisa. She had thought it was boring. But it made her very famous.

She became so famous, in fact, that she knew biographers and reporters would dig through her papers when she died. And so she decided to burn portions of her letters and journals to keep her secrets safe from the public eye.

What did those letters and journals contain? This is the question that sparked my novel. I began to read everything I could about Louisa’s life: biographies of her and her philosopher father, books about New England and the Transcendentalists, the letters and journals that remain, which were collected by a family friend after Louisa’s death. I speculated—the very enjoyable job of the historical novelist—about what kind of story I could tell about the missing information, and whether it might have any connection to the origin of Little Women’s Laurie.

The result of my journey through Louisa’s secret past is THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. I hope you will check it out!

Kelly, thanks for guest blogging. What an intriguing thought. I’ve always liked Little Women but never thought very much about it’s author. You’ve grabbed my attention.

Now for a bit of background on Kelly. She is a former editorial assistant and English teacher. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived in New York, Rhode Island, and Ontario and now resides with her husband in Chicago. THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT is her first novel. For more on Kelly and her writing, check out her website
http://kellyoconnormcnees.com/contact.

What are your thoughts on Louisa’s past? Did you know you enjoyed writing ‘blood and thunder’ tales more?

Author Douglas W. Jacobson On The Katyn Order

Please give a warm welcome to author Douglas W. Jacobson as he visits Thoughts in Progress as the special guest blogger on a stop during his virtual blog tour with his latest release.

Doug is the author of THE KATYN ORDER. Thanks to Doug and Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book!, I have 1 copy of THE KATYN ORDER to giveaway to one lucky visitor. Please see giveaway guidelines at the end of this post.

Doug has stopped by today to tell us about his book.

The German War Machine is in retreat as the Russians advance. In Warsaw, Resistance fighters rise up against their Nazi occupiers, but the Germans retaliate, ruthlessly leveling the city. American Adam Nowak has been dropped into Poland by British intelligence as an assassin and Resistance fighter. During the Warsaw Rising he meets Natalia, a covert operative who has lost everything—just as he has. Amid the Allied power struggle left by Germany’s defeat, Adam and Natalia join in a desperate hunt for the 1940 Soviet order authorizing the murders of 20,000 Polish army officers and civilians. If they can find the Katyn Order before the Russians do, they just might change the fate of Poland.

THE KATYN ORDER is an historical novel set in Germany and Poland toward the end of World War Two. The story opens in the middle of the bloody urban battle of the Warsaw Rising where Adam and Natalia first meet - young battle-hardened freedom fighters both jaded by enormous personal loss. Their relationship is a tentative one, soon torn apart as the German forces put down the insurgency and demolish Poland's capital city. But they are destined to meet again in an even more dangerous mission - the search for Joseph Stalin's Katyn Order.

The secret murders of thousands of Polish officers at the hands of the Russian NKVD in the Katyn Forest in 1940 is without a doubt one of history's most heinous war crimes. Covered up for more than fifty years by Russian communists, the true facts about Katyn, and the infamous order signed by Joseph Stalin authorizing the murders, did not see the light of day until just a few years ago.

The Warsaw Rising of 1944, in which fighters of the Polish armed Resistance attempted to re-gain control over their capital city, is without parallel in human loss and destruction. The sixty-day struggle to the death resulted in more than fifty thousand casualties and the complete destruction of one of Europe's finest cities.

Caught up in the vortex of these two cataclysmic events, Adam and Natalia struggle to stay alive, fighting for freedom and clinging to an uncertain future in a world gone mad. The Katyn Order is a story of intrigue and danger, of human courage under extraordinary circumstances. But above all, it is a story of love and the quest for personal redemption. 

Doug, thanks for guest blogging. THE KATYN ORDER sounds like a fascinating novel with a mixture of everything needed to keep readers captivated from beginning to end.

Now a bit of background on Doug. He is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast. Doug has traveled extensively in Europe researching stories of the courage of common people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. His debut novel, NIGHT OF FLAMES: A NOVEL OF WORLD WAR TWO was published in 2007 by McBooks Press, and was released in paperback in 2008. NIGHT OF FLAMES won the “2007 Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Wisconsin Library association.

Doug writes a monthly column on Poland's contribution during WW2, has published articles on Belgium’s WW2 escape organization, the Comet Line and other European resistance organizations. Doug's second historical novel, THE KATYN ORDER, which will be released this month, focuses on one of history’s most notorious war crimes, the Katyn massacre. For more on Doug and his writing, visit his website at www.douglaswjacobson.com. 

Now for the giveaway. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and will run until 8 p.m. (EST) on May 31. To enter for a chance to win a copy of THE KATYN ORDER, just comment on this post and be sure to include your e-mail address if it’s not included in your profile.

What are your thoughts on this terrible time in history? Do you enjoy historical novels?



      

Your Prayers Are Needed

During the next few days I will be away from blogdom a bit as my soon-to-be 90 year old mother-in-law fell yesterday and suffered several broken bones.

She fell shortly before lunch on Sunday. We rushed her to the emergency room where she was x-rayed and found to have four breaks on her right side. Her arm where it goes into the shoulder, right at her wrist, and two breaks in her pelvis. She was admitted to the hospital and we are scheduled to talk with the doctor this morning about surgery.

At her age and with the early stages of Alzheimer’s, we are concerned if she can undergo surgery without any serious side effects. One doctor has already recommended letting the breaks heal on their own.

We want what is best for her with the least amount of pain and suffering so hopefully the second doctor for will have some news for us.

Author Douglas W. Jacobson will be guest blogging here tomorrow (with a giveaway) and author Kelly O’Connor McNees will be here Wednesday. Please drop back by to check out their interesting posts. I’ll try to drop updates on the sidebar as soon as I can.

Thanks so much and please keep us in your prayers.

Sunday Salon: A Hard Death and Crunch Time

Sunday Salon is a place and time to relax, unwind and discuss the latest books we’ve read or received.

The 2 books I want to tell you about today are both mysteries, but fall into entirely different sub-genres. The first book could be called a hard core thriller. It’s very fact-based with detailed graphic descriptions of the murders and some adult language. The second book is a cozy murder mystery. While there is murder and violence, it’s not as graphic and recipes are included.

So make sure you have your cup of coffee (or tea) handy, sit back and let’s take a trip to a small Florida coastal town.

A HARD DEATH by Jonathan Hayes

Dr. Edward Jenner is one character I wanted to grab by the shoulders and try to shake some sense into.

But sometimes it doesn’t pay to get to close to the doc. People around him keep turning up dead. He’s a brilliant forensic pathologist who seems to have a knack for finding trouble and murder.

Jenner is called to Port Fontaine (Florida) by his mentor, Dr. Marty Roburn, the Douglas County Medical Examiner. Roburn wants Jenner to fill in for him while he takes his wife on a much-needed and long overdue vacation. Jenner’s had some problems in New York so he goes to help out his friend.

A couple of weeks on the job and Jenner is on the scene of a car pulled from a canal with a decaying body inside. Jenner finds a second body in the trunk. This one, a female, is bound and leads to the couple’s identity - Dr. and Mrs. Marty Roburn. While trying to sort out why his boss was tortured and killed, Jenner is lead to 4 bodies tortured and hanged in the heart of the Everglades. The case gets even more twisted and deadly as Jenner continues to put the pieces together.

Meanwhile, the doc’s love life is another series of twists and turns where you know he’s going in the wrong direction, but can’t seem to help himself.

A HARD DEATH will keep you in suspense with murders, cops on the take, drug dealers, and slimy sex offenders. There’s non-stop action from Jenner’s first run until the boats circle in the swamp for justice. This is not a cozy murder mystery, but a gritty look at the seedy underworld of drug dealers and the many lives they touch. Author Jonathan Hayes pulls the reader in and doesn’t let them go.

A HARD DEATH is a sequel to PRECIOUS BLOOD, but is a stand alone read. Readers are given glimpses into Jenner’s past, but not enough to make it difficult to keep up. For a heart-pounding, nail-biting, take-your-breath-away ride, check out A HARD DEATH.

Author Jonathan Hayes’ website is www.jonathanhayes.com

A Hard Death by Jonathan Hayes, Harper/HarperCollins, @2011, ISBN: 9780061691768, Hardcover, 432 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - The publisher sent me this book in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

Once you catch your breath, let’s head to Colorado and visit the folks of Aspen Meadow north of Denver to see what’s cooking

CRUNCH TIME by Diane Mott Davidson

When it comes to caterer Goldy Schulz, I think Julia Child, Jessica Fletcher and a bit of Lucille Ball all combined together.

While Goldy can cook like Julia and has amateur sleuthing abilities like Jessica, she tends to have Lucy’s habit of getting into trouble. CRUNCH TIME is no exception to the rule.

Goldy sets out to help her friend and fellow chef, Yolanda Garcia, out of a sticky situation. Yolanda’s rental house is torched by an arsonist and she and her uncontrollable aunt, Ferdinanda, move in with Ernest McLeod, a former cop turned P.I.

When McLeod is murdered and his house burned, Goldy invites the 2 ladies to stay with her and her family. In true Goldy fashion, the twists and turns keep you guessing what will happen next and who the killer really is.

CRUNCH TIME is the 16th installment in the Goldy Schulz Mystery, but is a stand alone read. Author Diane Mott Davidson gives readers an added treat by sharing several of Goldy’s delicious recipes in the back of the book. Crunch Time Cookies (click on the name for the recipe) is among the yummy tidbits shared.

Drop by Aspen Meadow and see if Goldy can catch the killer before the killer serves Goldy up on a platter.

Author Diane Mott Davidson’s website is www.dianemottdavidson.com

Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson, A Goldy Schulz Mystery, William Morrow, @2011, ISBN: 9780061348150, Hardcover, 480 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

Have I caught your attention with either or both books? What have you read this past week? What are you reading now?

Author Ron Fritsch On Influences In Writing

It’s my pleasure to welcome author Ron Fritsch to Thoughts in Progress as the special guest blogger as he makes a stop on his virtual blog tour.

Ron’s latest release is a historical fiction, PROMISED VALLEY REBELLION. Here’s a short synopsis of it: Prehistoric farmers inhabit a fertile river valley they believe their gods promised them in return for their good behavior and obedience. Their enemies, hunters roaming the mostly barren hills beyond the mountains enclosing the valley, believe their gods gave it to them.

When the farmers’ king refuses to allow the marriage of the coming-of-age prince to the daughter of the farmer who saved the king’s life in the last war with the hunters, her brother decides he has to help his sister and the prince, his boyhood friend, correct the flagrant injustice.

That decision leads them and their youthful allies into a rebellion against the king and his officials, who rule the kingdom from their bluff-top town. The far more numerous farmers in the villages below, who despise the officials but not the king, and who admire the prince, are in a position to determine whether the rebels will succeed or face execution for treason.

Ron joins us today to talk about influences on his writing.

Readers have asked me how extensively Jean Auel‘s Earth’s Children series of novels, beginning with The Clan of the Cave Bear published in 1980, has influenced the writing of my Promised Valley novels. The question is especially pertinent in view of the March 29, 2011, release of her sixth, and presumably last, novel in the series, The Land of Painted Caves.

As the most prominent writer of prehistorical fiction—which is a subcategory of both historical and speculative fiction, but perhaps most like scientific fiction in its need to posit alternative worlds—Auel has without question laid down a path I’ve followed like a child into a realm far more fascinating to me than the one in which I live.

If I were asked whether I’d rather be, with all their prehistorical limitations, any of my characters—or at least the ones I wish the reader to sympathize with—than the person I am, I’d instantly answer I would.

I haven’t yet read The Land of Painted Caves, but I’ve seen, once again since her fourth novel in the series, that Auel faces criticism for what reviewers describe as repetitious details and lack of plot.

Those points of views haven’t bothered me as a reader. When you fall in love as deeply as I’ve done, you can never cease being a lover. I care what her characters do and what becomes of them.

As a writer, though, I’ve taken an approach different from Auel’s. One difference is obvious. Auel’s Earth’s Children series is set 25,000 to 28,000 years ago and deals with interactions among Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon humans. My Promised Valley series is set 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, near the end of prehistory, and deals with conflict between hunters following a traditional way of life and farmers pursuing, as we do today, the new.

To me, more importantly, the story is everything. I imagined and wrote mine, from its beginning to its end, before I dared bring its beginning to light.

I’m as interested as Auel is in what archaeologists have to say about the people and times we’re writing about. As a writer of realistic fiction, though, I rely upon their findings only to make certain that what I’ve written could’ve happened—and might’ve led to a far better world for humans to live in than the one we inhabit today with its endless, mindless wars.

Ron, thanks for guest blogging today. Your take on writing is quite interesting.

Now a bit about Ron. He grew up in rural northern Illinois. Because he inherited the gift of a good memory he obtained a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Illinois (major: history; minor: English literature) and a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

After his abrupt dismissal from the upper reaches of the legal profession, he became a public-service attorney representing indigent and disabled persons, and—at the end and most challenging part of his work—abused and neglected children. All during his life as a lawyer, he spent most of his time writing arguments on behalf of his clients, in the trial courts as well as the higher appeals courts.

Ron is writing and publishing a tetralogy asking whether history and civilization might’ve begun and proceeded differently than they did. He’s doing it not because he hopes to become rich and famous but because he wishes to share his story with the world. For more information about Ron, you can visit his website at www.promisedvalley.com

What are your thoughts on stories dealing with civilizations that might have lived thousands of years ago?

Guest Blogger: Nell Thomas on Writing

Please join me in welcoming author Nell Thomas as the special guest blogger here today as she stops by to talk about her latest release and writing in general.

Nell is the author of THE TWIN. Here’s a brief synopsis of the book: Detective Ray Webster assumes he is taking on another average investigation when he flies to Nebraska to interview a man concerning a missing person’s case; however, what he encounters there is a mystery far more complicated than he ever imagined in Nell Thomas’ new thriller, THE TWIN.

When Ray arrives at Jeff Vance’s house to interview him, he is met by Jeff’s wife, Jessica, who informs Ray that her husband has died in a fatal car crash. Furthermore, she tells the detective that he is nearly identical to Jeff in appearance. After investigating deeper into the matter, Ray discovers that Jeff is the twin brother he never knew he had. 
 
Against their better judgment, Ray and Jessica are immediately drawn to one another. For Jessica’s sake, Ray embarks on a journey to find out as much as he can about the fatal car accident that claimed Jeff’s life. Was it really an accident – or did Jeff know too much about the disappearance of the missing person?

Nell has answered some questions for me about her writing process, as well as her book.

Mason - What inspired you to write this book?

Nell - I read a lot, and love to read romance or romance with intrigue. I started thinking that maybe I could write just as well or better than some of the authors I'd read. So I began writing and the stories just seem to more or less write themselves.  I love happy endings!

Mason - How did you go about doing research for your book?

Nell - The setting for my book is Nebraska where I live, so I knew the area. My knowledge basically came from a combination of reading a lot, life in general, and since the book is fiction, my imagination. There really wasn't a lot of research involved.

Mason - What was the best about writing this book and what was the worst?

Nell - The best thing about writing this book was that it was something I could create that was uniquely mine. It was a good feeling of accomplishment to be able to complete a novel. The worst part about writing this book was the length of time it took to write it, and being patient with myself when things went slow.

Mason - Do you have a writing schedule, a certain place you like to write, a certain time, do you listen to music or need quiet?

Nell - I don't have a particular writing schedule since I also have to work for a living. I just have to fit the writing in when I can. I do like to find a quiet place where I can work. I actually enjoy sipping a cup of coffee in a coffee shop while I work on the rough draft for a novel.

Mason - What can readers look for next from you?

Nell - Since I have Turner's Syndrome, sometime I would like to do a Christian romance in which the main female character has Turner's. It would be something unique, and although fiction, would address those issues that can be very real for girls and women with TS. I also have an inspirational/autobiographical/motivational non-fiction piece in mind. My ideas seem endless.

Nell, thanks for guest blogging today. Your plot for THE TWIN sounds intriguing.

Nell currently resides in Eastern Nebraska. With a degree in Biology, she has been a lab assistant for the last 15 years. Readers wishing to contact Nell with questions can reach her by e-mail at  exile1004@juno.com.

What are your thoughts on featuring twins in a mystery? Have you read a book featuring twins in a good or bad way?