FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS
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December 2008
Blood Island
H. Terrell Griffin
Oceanview Publishing
December 1, 2008, $24.95, 264 pages
ISBN: 978-1-1933515-21-2
Matt Royal has retired from being a lawyer and lives much like a beach bum in Longboat Key, Florida. Trouble seems to find him. His ex wife Laura, whom he still loves, comes down to Florida asking him to search for her stepdaughter. Although the stepdaughter is eighteen, she hasn’t called home in three weeks and this is not like her. Laura tells Matt that she never stopped loving her, but she also loves her current husband. He knows it and agrees to try and find Peggy.
Enlisting the aid of his friend Logan he begins to search and the bodies begin to pile up. Then Laura pops up missing as well.
A hang up traced to a bar in Florida gives Matt and Logan their first real clue. This leads to Yardley who claims he is a wealthy lonely man who picks up younger people and pays their way for a few days and then goes on his way. Yeah right. No one believes that one. Especially when Yardley is shot shortly after talking to Matt and Logan. Not to mention as Matt and Logan leave Yardley’s they are shot at and have to ditch the car and run for their lives. What is going on? Is this all over a missing girl? What did Peggy step into? The trail leads to an evangelist. What does he have to do with this?
I was hooked on page one, when Matt finds a body in a friend’s Bird Sanctuary. BLOOD ISLAND is a fast paced, easy read, action packed thriller. It can be read in one sitting, such as in an airport. It is a little hokey, but the overall excitement and pace of the book make up for it! I loved it!
On a scale from 1 to 5, I give it a 5.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., CHt
Conspiracy of Silence
Martha Powers
Oceanview Publishing
$24.95, 325 pages
ISBN: 978-1-933515182
Clare Prentice thought her mother a tad bit strict, but she was her mother or was she? After Rose Prentice died of breast cancer, Clare has her own breast lump checked out for cancer. The news she receives from the doctor is shocking. She doesn’t have cancer and Rose isn’t her real mother.
After searching through Rose’s things, Clare finds a class ring from a Grand Rapids High School. Clare’s life is in a head spin. She breaks off her engagement and goes on a mission to find out who she is.
Her editor, knowing she is going to Grand Rapids to research the ring suggests that she interview the successful but reclusive writer Nate Hanssen. The perfect cover.
Clare stays in the cottage of her best friend’s grandmother and before long she discovers that her mother was a young woman named Lily Gunderson and she was murdered! And what is worse, her father did it! Clare is crushed.
The newspaper articles on the murder are scant. And there is the account of her father’s death either accident or suicide by jumping in front of a train. But Clare wonders if it is reality? Yes, her mother was murdered, but was it as reported? Did it happen in Nate’s house or somewhere else? Did her father kill her mother?
And then there is handsome, brooding Nate. When Clare first sees him at a town event she is immediately drawn to him, but she sees how protective his twelve year old daughter is.
As Clare researches her mother’s murder, dreams, more like nightmares begin to form stronger than they have been all these years. Are they nightmares or memories? And of the murder was solved all those years ago why is someone trying to hurt Clare?
Who killed Lily Gunderson? Who is trying to kill Clare?
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE is wonderfully crafted exciting thriller. It’s the kind of book that if you can’t read it one sitting then you can’t wait to the next time you get to read it. It’s like a spa bath indulgence – delightful and invigorating. Martha Powers has done a great job!
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., CHt
Sheep and Wolves
Jeremy C. Shipp
December 2008, $13.95, 164 pages
ISBN: 978-1-933293-59-2
SHEEP AND WOLVES is a collection of short stories. They are defined as “bizarro.” Granted they are different – from daring to pushing the envelope in the horror arena. I found a recurring theme of power - searching for power, relinquishing it, all within the realm of the bizarre. The stories are short, many can be read in a few minutes. Some are written, it seems for shock value. Some are written to make you think about the greater issues in the world. Some just make you go, huh?
I would discuss some of the stories, but it would be far better for you just to read them for yourself! And as I said, they are short and easy to read! This is a book you could read in one sitting as I did, or read at your own pace story by story.
Jeremy Shipp has a style of writing that flows. He is energetic and bright. Horror has a new star.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.9.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., CHt
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