LAURIE WOOD - BLACK ICE REVIEWS
 |
Reading and writing have been a passion for Laurie Wood since winning city-wide writing contests in Grade Five and Eight. Her favourite genres are romantic suspense, mysteries, and a good spine-tingling thriller. She loves to judge contests as well as enter them, and is active in several RWA Chapters. Although published in non-fiction articles, she's yet to grab the golden ring of being published in novel-length fiction. Until then, she writes at home and takes care of her two special needs children, an alpha male husband who inspires her heroes, and a golden retriever who thinks she's just a kid in fur. |
 |
|
|
||
THE
CITY OF THE GOLDEN SUN
Author: Marilyn Peake
Paperback: 139 pages
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
ISBN: 1-55404-201-1
THE CITY OF THE GOLDEN SUN is the second book in THE FISHERMEN'S SON Trilogy,
by Marilyn Peake. The story follows immediately upon the ending of the
first book, in which the hero, Wiley O'Mara, had just rescued six boys
from an underwater city with the help of his friend Elden, a talking dolphin.
Arthur, Calder, Nevin, his little brother Neil, Kingston, and Keegan,
the son of the King of the City of the Golden Sun, have been returned
to Earth for a time.
Marilyn
Peake pours together her same lyrical mix of fantasy, fairy tale metaphors,
and mythology to bring along this tale of six boys from another culture under
the sea. Their city had been hit by a falling meteor thousands of years ago
and fallen deep into the ocean. They are lost in time, and after an encounter
with the magic Lucinda at the magic lake deep in the Forest, they retreat
back to the ocean and descend again through the deep, black, waters on the
backs of Elden and his friends. Elden leaves Wiley with a cryptic comment,
"Wiley, you are a servant within Keegan's householdÉYou were taken in
when your father, a fisherman, lost his life at sea."
Book
Two is more complex than its predecessor. The premise of moving all seven
of the boys through time, their relationships with each other, and their relationships
with the marine life are all developed and brought to life by an author who's
grown much more comfortable with her storytelling. It's a pleasure to see
Wiley make friend's and to find out more of his story, as well as discover
the fantasy world that he lives in. Peake is developing this world more fully
and naturally, so much so that we can look forward to Book Three with anticipation.
These
books are recommended for the age 7-9 crowd who will be mesmerized by the
vivid imagery, and introduced to beautiful symbolism and structure.
They
can be bought at Amazon.com through these links:
THE
CITY OF THE GOLDEN SUN
THE
FISHERMAN'S SON
Reviewer: Laurie Wood
TWO
FOR THE MONEY
Author: Max Allan Collins
Paperback: 378
Publisher: Dorchester &
Hard Case Crime
ISBN: 0-8439-5353-5
HARD CASE CRIME is a new line of Noir novels published by Dorchester and
Winterfall LLC. I mention this because TWO FOR THE MONEY is named because
it is really the first two books written by Max Allan Collins, a now famous
author who brought us the movie "The Road to Perdition" in 2003
with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.
The first novel, BAIT MONEY was written in 1971 and was his first published
novel. On the heels of that he wrote BLOOD MONEY which sold quickly although
he published another novel in between them. They both feature an anti-hero;
a criminal named simply "Nolan", who's on the outs with a mobster
named Charlie from the Chicago Mafia. To get this guy off his back forever,
one of Nolan's gangster buddies brokers a truce – pull off one last
bank heist and hand over the haul to the Mob.
Naturally, as in all noir novels, things go from bad to worse and Nolan
must use both his fists and his wits to come out alive. He's double-crossed
from the beginning and it's Collins fantastic writing, even at the very
beginning of his career, which keeps us on edge and turning every page.
We fall in love with this master criminal and are in awe of his street-hardened
career, his friendship with a lifelong partner, and his feelings for the
guy's nephew. The characters in these two novels (novels back then seemed
to come in at about 65,000 words) are easy to visualize as they work their
way through the depths of the novel.
This book is a must-have if you're a Collins fan. Check out www.HardCaseCrime.com
to see their selection and order yourself a copy. It's worth the price
just to enjoy the opening chapter. Their newsletter is worth signing up
for too. They're reviving old pulp classics as well as printing new works
by strong writer's such as Lawrence Block. If you love noir, you'll love
TWO FOR THE MONEY.
Reviewer: Laurie Wood
Laurie's Archived Reviews
All rights reserved.
Contact Lida: publisher@fmam.biz
Website contact: webmaster @ fmam.biz