Review: A Murder at Cheeseburger by David Vizard

 

Genre: Mystery/Crime Fiction

Description:

“When beloved Bay City nurse Terry Powers dies during Caseville's famous Cheeseburger Festival, his twin sister refuses to believe it was an accident. When his body goes missing after exhumation, reporter Nick Steele agrees with her.

Somebody killed Terry Powers. Somebody moved his body. And somebody is hoping Nick Steele minds his own business.

He won't.

The deeper Nick digs, the clearer it becomes — the greed and depravity behind Terry's death reach further than anyone in Caseville wants to admit. This story runs through layers of corruption, exploitation, and secrets that someone is willing to kill to protect.”

Author:

“Dave Vizard is a former award winning newspaper and magazine writer and editor. He has taught journalism and writing at the college level. Each of his murder mysteries is rooted in Michigan and revolves around the exploits of news reporter Nick Steele.”

Vizard and his wife live in Michigan’s Thumb region where his books take place.

Appraisal:

The latest mystery featuring newspaper report Nick Steele. Figuring out what happened along with Nick is an interesting experience as a reader. I like that many of the books in the series, this being one of them, happen in the “thumb region” of Michigan and have a lot of focus on the landscape and culture of that area which adds a lot to the story. I’ll admit that when Nick gets to the bottom of this story, what he finds isn’t something I’d have guessed, but the clues were there. If you’re into mysteries, this one might be worth checking out.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Review: The Building by Kevin G. Chapman

 

Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Description:

“For ten years, the Utopia Tower experiment has been a resounding success. Conceived by a tech billionaire, the state-of-the-art apartment complex offers a life-changing opportunity: rent-free living for residents who adhere to the ‘Five Pillars of Harmony’ and maintain the building's pristine reputation. It is a tight-knit community where neighbors look out for one another, ensuring that nothing endangers their sanctuary and their right to continue living there.

Antonio, a young lawyer, moves into the tower to care for his grandmother, eager to join this idyllic social experiment. But the veneer of perfection cracks when two young men—both considered bad apples and threats to the community's serenity—die in unusual circumstances within a single month. Despite warnings to leave well enough alone, Antonio suspects a connection and digs deeper. He discovers that, in a building designed for total harmony, asking the wrong questions can make you the next problem to be handled. Is there a killer hiding among the residents? Is the billionaire founder protecting his investment? Or is the truth far more terrifying?

In an environment where preservation of the collective is the prime directive, how far will the community go to protect itself?

Author:

A lawyer specializing in labor and employment law by day, Kevin Chapman describes his real passions as playing tournament poker, rooting for the New York Mets, and writing fiction. For more, visit Mr Chapman’s website.

Appraisal:

I’ve read and enjoyed many of Kevin Chapman’s thrillers featuring detective Mike Stoneman, so I was eager to give this one a try in spite of it being different. Literally after reading the first sentence, I made a note that the person it was talking about, the tech billionaire Jameson Z. Conrad, sounded evil. Yet when I saw what he was behind, The Building at the center of this book, it seemed like its name, Utopia Tower, was an excellent description. Mr Conrad was obviously doing what few billionaires are good enough to do, helping others, in this case by providing affordable housing for people who otherwise would at best be living in a slum and in many cases homeless and living on the streets. In addition, the rules of the community are designed to help lift everyone up and to encourage mutual support of others in the community.

But like many things that seem great on the surface, with the cosmetics on the outside hiding the rot on the inside, we find out that all is not as good as it seems. Antonio, a new resident who is helping his grandmother as he’s just starting his career in the law starts to question the things he’s seeing. Maybe utopia is more of a dystopia. But is stirring things up going to backfire in the worst way possible for Antonio? Or maybe he’s seeing things wrong. Possibly any issues will get fixed. That’s the mystery that kept me turning pages to the very end, enjoying every word.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Review: Cipher by Allison Boley

 

Genre: Espionage/Thriller

Description:

“A burned out young scientist. An unbreakable code. Time counts down to an impossible choice.

Forget computers. How do you break a code based on human expertise?

Patrick’s life is upended when he’s recruited to decipher messages between two experts in his niche field, messages encrypted with a code they made up. But as he works undercover, he rediscovers the joy of curiosity and friendship, and the cipher reveals the bad guys may not be who he originally thought. Can Patrick reconnect with himself in time to know what to do when he finally breaks the code?”

Author:

A resident of Arizona, Allison Boley worked for a time in Los Angeles in various jobs relating to movie making before returning to Arizona and school, eventually earning a PhD in Physics. This is her first novel. For more, check out her website.

Appraisal:

This was an interesting read that while a thriller and a bit of a spy novel also gets into scientific issues that are pertinent in our current world and for nerds like me will really get you thinking and possibly learning a bit as well. Even for those just looking for a good spy thriller it will stretch your mind trying to figure out what is going on and how our hero protagonist can figure it out. For those who finish reading and have an urge to know more about the details of what happens in the story, there is an appendix that can help you go down that rabbit hole, but if you’re not interested, you’ll still get a good read and can move on to the next book.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four Stars

Review: A Bad Deal in Mormon Land by T.I.M. Wirkus

Genre: Historical Fiction

Description:

“It’s 1908, and itinerant spirit medium Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann is at the end of her professional rope, facing down two unappealing options: join an ill-conceived commune founded by some fellow trans ex-vaudevillians, or take on a high-paying but mysterious job offered by a religious extremist in Salt Lake City. Madame Ilsa opts for Utah and the employ of one Roger Marsh who, it turns out, wants her to summon the ghost of Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, to give his blessing to Marsh’s fledgling offshoot of the mainstream church.

Unsure how she’ll pull off this near-impossible task, Ilsa finds an ally in Francie Bream, an East Coast journalist in town to profile Mormon women at the dawn of the twentieth century. Bream’s motives remain obscure to Ilsa, though she begins to suspect the journalist has an agenda far more sinister than she could have imagined. Complicating the situation further are an inept and volatile henchman, a relentlessly orthodox Mormon apostle, a copper magnate with a fetish for polygamists, Marsh's rogue third wife, and a vengeful private investigator from Ilsa's past. As dead bodies accumulate around her, Madame Ilsa worries less and less about saving her career, and more about making it out of Salt Lake City alive.”

Author:

T.I.M. Wirkus (they/them) is an award-winning author with several novels and novellas available as well as some short stories that have appeared in various publications.

Appraisal:

This story takes an interesting blend of historical reality (the early 1900s in Salt Lake City, a growing town, and the Mormon culture that permeated it) with some interesting twists and scams being perpetrated by Roger Marsh and others, like our main protagonist, Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann. Those familiar with Utah history and Mormonism will be amused in spotting the clever mashup of reality (some of which many would assume wasn’t true) with things that really are fictional. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than the fiction. I was never sure where the story was going to go or how it would resolve in the end which is what I’d expect from a story of this type. A fun and interesting read that isn’t quite like anything I can remember having read before.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

I’m sure some devout members of the Mormon aka LDS Church would be triggered reading this if they’re bothered by mixing things not so true (aka fictional) into a story about their church. They might also be triggered by some things that are true. The author has some references to articles at the end of the book that point to those.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Reprise Review: Secret Relations by Rebecca Forster

 

Genre: Police Procedural/Thriller

Description:

“They're illegal. They're undocumented. They're disappearing. The last thing Finn O'Brien wants is to come between his partner and her daughter, but Amber Anderson is desperate for his help. Her new boyfriend, an undocumented immigrant, is missing. Uneasy about keeping a secret from his partner and hindered by the prejudice and politics of the LAPD, Finn is tempted to turn a deaf ear to the girl's plea - until the first body is found. Fighting a system that wants to turn a blind eye, Finn tracks a serial killer who preys on the most vulnerable, one with a gruesome secret that has been buried under decades of shame. To stop him, Finn O'Brien must navigate a shadowy world where life is cheap - even his own.”

Author:

The author of numerous thrillers in multiple subgenres, USA Today bestseller Rebecca Forster lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

Appraisal:

This is the third book in this series. I raved about the first two and this latest installment is no different. LA police detective Finn O’Brien and his partner, Cori Anderson, are great characters. They have faults and at times make questionable decisions that show they’re imperfect, but both strive to make their city a better and safer place.

The story in Secret Relations is an intense thriller that had me on edge throughout. Much of the story is focused on the undocumented alien population, targeted by the serial killer, and I found the story thought provoking as I considered their situation.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

While part of a series, each book in the Finn O’Brien Thriller series can be read as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Review: Temperament by K. Aurum

Genre: Literary Novella

Description:

“The stroke took his hand. The implant gave it back. Then it kept going.

Jon Finn was a violinist before a stroke stole his right side and his voice. The experimental device his doctors offer is a quiet miracle: it restores his hand, his speech, his playing. His recovery astonishes the hospital. His bowing has never been cleaner. He and the woman he loves have never fought less.

And, note by note, word by word, he is vanishing.

The implant doesn’t take his life. It takes his self: smoothing the edges, finishing the sentences, choosing the notes he used to reach for. Everyone sees a man restored. Only Jon feels his own wanting drain away.

Spare, unsettling, and quietly devastating, Temperament is a debut novella about identity, illness, and the hidden cost of being made better; a story that grows shorter and quieter as its narrator disappears.

Written by a practicing physician, it lingers where medicine can’t answer: when everything you can do remains, and only the you is gone, is that still you?”

Author:

“K. Aurum is a physician and computer engineer who can’t sit still. Medicine, music, tech, games, books, he’s obsessed with all of it: one day perfecting his chess openings, the next drilling holes in wood to build a virtual pinball cabinet. Now, somehow, he’s writing books of his own.”

Appraisal:

This is an interesting read that should get you thinking. I’d just read a few nonfiction books about AI prior to reading this book and while from a technical standpoint the medical technology imagined in this story isn’t AI, it raises some of the same issues those who pay attention to such things are pondering. How far is too far when integrating new tech into a process currently performed by humans or, in this case, actually into a human body. If the choice is allowing a person to die or come back with greater skills obtained using artificial or unnatural means, is that okay? Where is the line? I don’t have the answers, but this story certainly started me pondering the questions.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reviewer copy so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words

Review: Fractured Dawn by DV Berkom

 

Genre: Thriller

Description:

“When elite close protection operator Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Reynolds learns her father didn't die in a Bangkok bombing three years ago, everything she thought she knew shatters.

A captured CIA asset delivers an impossible message: Chase Reynolds is alive and has gone to ground while he hunts a rogue intelligence network powerful enough to manipulate governments from the shadows.

Following a trail across Central Europe, Mac and her mentor, former Special Forces operator Jackson Jones, uncover Project Eclipse, a deadly conspiracy run by ruthless arms broker Victor Hale. With assassins closing in and allies becoming suspects, every move could be their last.

To stop a global catastrophe, Mac must decide who she can trust—including the CIA officer who also happens to be her mother.

Because if Hale succeeds, nations will fall.

And Mac may lose the last chance she has to save her father.”

Author:

“DV Berkom is the USA Today bestselling author of action-packed, riveting adventure and crime thrillers. Known for creating resilient, kick-ass female characters and page-turning plots, her love of the genre stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, action/adventure stories, and thrillers.”

For more, visit her website.

Appraisal:

Mackenzie Reynolds (but we’ll call her Mac like most people do most of the time) works in an interesting job. It’s to protect people who may be in danger from spies and the like. Both parents work in government intelligence so the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Unfortunately, her dad disappeared a while ago and she assumed he was dead. Then she finds out that might not be true … at least not yet. Mac gets involved in the effort to find him due to clues that someone, it appears to be her dad, have setup for her to find, but the deeper she gets into this search the more fatalities and unexpected stumbling blocks there are. Plus, the relationship Mac has with her mom, already stressed, becomes even worse, reaching the point where Mac isn’t sure her mom isn’t one of the bad guys in this whole mess. This story delivered on what I’ve come to expect from the DV Berkom books I’ve read in the past, intense reads that draw you in and just when you think it can’t get any scarier, it does. How it all shakes out, well, telling you would be a spoiler, but it’s an intense adventure to the very end of this book and sets things up well for the final book in this trilogy too.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

This is the second book in the Mackenzie Reynolds thriller trilogy. While it would probably work as a standalone read, I would advise reading the first volume in the trilogy to understand what has come previously for an even better read.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Review: Turquoise Walk by Melissa Bowersock

 

Genre: Paranormal Mystery

Description:

“When Sam unexpectedly receives a beautiful yet incomplete Navajo cuff bracelet, he realizes very quickly that there’s a story behind it. In order to piece out the tale, he and Lacey must travel to Flagstaff, Arizona, where they are led to a fractured family, a labyrinth of lies, and a years-old murder case gone cold. The bracelet yearns for completion of its impassioned purpose, but is it too late? Only the spirits know.”

Author:

“Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy, spiritual, and satire.”

For more visit Ms.Bowersock’s website and follow her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

If you’re familiar with this series and read very many of the prior books you’ve probably come to expect certain things. At a high level, Sam and Lacey will be called or otherwise exposed to a situation that Sam recognizes as a situation where a spirit has been unable to move on to the next life due to unresolved issues in this life. Through a combination of Sam’s ability to communicate with these spirits and Lacey’s detective skills, they help resolve the issue, whatever it is, in a way that allows the spirit to move on.

This newest book in the series throws a few twists into the previous high-level formula while ultimately staying true to the spirit of the series, combining the paranormal into a mystery that engages the reader and has them pulling for Sam, Lacey, and those poor spirits stuck between worlds. I never fail to enjoy reading these books and immediately start looking forward to the next one which, fortunately, always comes fairly quickly. If you’ve read and liked these in the past, grab this one. If you haven’t read them, you’re missing out.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words

Review: The Circus of the Vanishing Elephant by Tim Schooley

 

Genre: Historical Fiction

Description:

This is a story about an American circus in the Eighties (or thereabouts). The author’s first jobs were working as a clown with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circuses. The publisher of this interesting work of fiction is HTF Publishing, an imprint of History Through Fiction, which “seeks to provide readers with engaging historical narratives that are rooted in detailed and accurate historical research”. Schooley absolutely knows whereof he writes. The novel feels truly authentic. The vanishing elephant is a clever McGuffin: when the reveal finally comes it is worth the wait.

Author:

We’ve seen what Schooley did when he left school, but (as the novel makes clear) you need a particular mind set to want the live the circus life year after year. So Mr Schooley went to university and became an appellate lawyer: ta da! How’s that for a career swerve? He has been writing throughout his working life, but now that he has retired from the law he is putting his back into it. He has already published legal thrillers. And an historical novel which won prizes (The Wool Translator in 2022) But this is Something Completely Different.

Appraisal:

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this. As a document of circus life during a particular period of the twentieth century, in America, it is delightful. As a story of how a peripatetic family copes with itself (or doesn’t) it is fascinating. As an early consideration of why animals finally disappeared from circuses it is wise. The strong bonds between the animals (elephants in particular) and their handlers are beautifully drawn for us by someone who understands them, but the downsides are shown to us too – the chains, the bull hooks, the tiny cages, and (from the other side of the ring) the occasional mauling.

An intriguing novel, well worth your time.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

As this is an advance reviewer copy we can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Reprise Review: The Death and Life of Dominick Davidner by Shawn Inmon

 

Genre: Science Fiction/Time Travel

Description:

“How many lives would you spend to find your beloved?

Dominick Davidner was murdered. Then things got worse.

Instead of going on to the afterlife, Dominick found himself back in his nine year old body, all memories of his previous life intact. All he can think about is Emily, the love of his life, left behind when he died.

Unfortunately, she is now thousands of miles away. How can Dominick find his way back to the woman he loves, and what will he say if he finds her?”

Author:

Former DJ, business consultant, and real estate agent, Shawn Inmon is now a fulltime author. A regular contributor at Indies Unlimited, Inmon can't seem to decide whether to write fiction (Rock'n Roll Heaven), or non-fiction (he’s written two travels books). Then there are his first two books that were novels based on truth or fictionalized memoirs or … I don't know what to call them, but they were somewhere in the middle.

Appraisal:

This is the third book in Inmon’s Middle Falls Time Travel series. Each book can be read as a standalone novel because while each of the protagonists spends some time living in the fictional town of Middle Falls, Oregon, knowing what happened in a prior story isn’t needed to follow newer books in the series. The main thing each book has in common is the protagonist dies. Upon his death the character is shocked to discover that they’ve gone back in time, to some point in their childhood. They have the body of a child, but retain memories of the life they led before, which gives some clue as to what might be coming, both for them personally and for the world in general.

The first two stories in the series focused on second chances with the main characters trying to live their lives better the second time around. In one case this was by avoiding a big mistake. In the other it was mainly by trying to prevent someone else from making a major mistake that effected many others.

This installment of the series is different in that Dominick, the protagonist, has only one goal when he starts his life over, to meet and marry his spouse once again. Easy, isn’t it? Just do everything the same as you did the first time around and it should work out fine. But it seems foolish to take the same boring route through life, especially when there is an obvious shortcut to get where you want quicker, right?

The premise of this series makes for some entertaining and thought-provoking stories. As they illustrate, maybe if we had life to live over again, knowing what we know after having learned a thing or two from the school of hard knocks, it may not actually be as easy as we think to get a better result. Just like my rewriting that sentence didn’t result in one that ran on less, sometimes things don’t turn out better, just different.??

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

This is the third book in Inmon’s Middle Falls Time Travel series. It can be read as a standalone novel.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words