The Cradle In The Grave by Sophie Hannah

A killer is on the loose in England and he has very specific targets. He is obsessed with the topic of women accused of killing their babies. Some of these women have been convicted, some found not guilty. Some have been released on appeal to a general consensus that they were innocent, while others have been released but may well have done the crime. The obsession spreads further to doctors who testified either for the prosecution or the defense, especially one doctor, who is about to have her license revoked due to her testimony in scores of these cases.

Fliss Benson becomes entangled in this web due to her work. She works in television documentary production and is an assistant producer at a company whose star is determined to tell the story of these women. He perceives them all as innocent, and is instrumental in getting several released on appeal and in hounding the doctor who was instrumental in putting them behind bars with her expert testimony. Suddenly, the star decides to leave for another company and the documentary is dumped in Fliss’ lap.

One of the released women is terrorized on the street and then another one is killed. The killer leaves a card with four rows of what appear to be random numbers on each of their bodies. Fliss is pulled even further into the mystery when she begins to receive the same cards with the same numbers. Can she solve the mystery before the killer targets her?
Sophie Hannah has written a series of taut, engaging mysteries. The characterizations are fresh and striking. The interplay and politics in the police department are worth reading the book for, with the interesting character of DC Simon Waterhouse, a detective who can figure out the most complex motivations. This book was originally published in England as A Room Swept White. Readers of mysteries will be captivated and rush to read more of Hannah’s work.

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

In Berlin, between World War I and II, jazz was the thing. Black musicians flocked there and to Paris, fleeing the discrimination at home. One group formed then had members from all over. There were Sid and Chip, the bass player and drummer, childhood friends who came over from Baltimore. Ernst was a German, son of a rich and powerful industrialist. Big Fritz was also German, as was Paul, the group's only Jewish member.

Then there was Hieronymus, or Hiero Falk, the band's trumpeter. Hiero is young, barely twenty, a decade or so younger than the rest of the band. He is also German, but most people would be surprised to learn this. Born of a German mother and a Senegalese father, he is one of a handful of 'half-bloods' born in a region where Senegalese troops had been stationed. These children were not accepted but shunned and singled out for unfair treatment. But Hiero has a gift; he plays the trumpet in a manner that rivals the king of all trumpeters, Louis Armstrong.

By 1939, things had gotten bad in Berlin. The SS were everywhere, targeting Jews first, but also blacks and other minorities. Jazz was denounced as savage music not worthy of a true German's attention. As tensions mount and the men start to fear for their lives, a woman appears. She is Deliliah Brown, the singer in Louis Armstrong's band, and she wants them to come to Paris and play with Louis. After Paul is captured on the streets one day, the men decide to go there.

Once there, things are better for a time, but not for long. Dissension starts to strain the band as members vie for Deliliah's attention and time to record. The group falls apart when Hiero is swept up and sent to a camp, but Sid manages to sneak out one precious recording, 'Half-Blood Blues' when he and Chip go back to America that makes the group's reputation. Hiero survives the war, but dies soon afterward.
As the book opens, Chip and Sid are on their way to a Hiero Falk Festival in Berlin, put together by a German documentary maker who wants to reestablish the glory of those days when jazz ruled the music scene. This is surprising enough, but Chip has a shock in his pocket. It turns out that Hiero did not die, but has been living in obscurity for forty years. The men are reunited and all the old disagreements and tensions are resolved.
Esi Edugyan has written a glorious book. The reader is transported into the world of jazz musicians, where the music is the thing, the only thing that matters. The tension and danger of the Nazi government is strikingly portrayed, and how it swept apart friends and families and whole generations of people. There is friendship and betrayal, sacrifice and pain along with a determination to survive and make the music survival. This book was long-listed for the Mann Booker Prize and is recommended for all readers.

Scarlet Rose by Julia Madeleine

In her day, Sylvia had it all.  Men adored her and flocked to see her dance.  She was a stripper known as Scarlet Rose and she basked in the admiration.  After all, it was no more than her due; she was made to be rich and adored.

But life doesn't always turn out the way a young girl dreams of.  Now, Sylvia is middle-aged, fat and dumpy, living on handouts from her daughter, Fiona.  She was dragged down by motherhood, kept from what she knew was her rightful place by the demands of three kids.  Now that they were grown, they owed her.  She put Fiona out as a stripper and prostitute at age sixteen.  Suzanne escaped to the streets and drug addiction while her son is in prison.  There there was her angel, her baby, another son who was kidnapped when he was four, perhaps by a former lover, perhaps by a stranger.  He is now back in town, ready to be reunited with his vision of a perfect mother and willing to do Sylvia's bidding.

When her use of her son goes awry, Sylvia flees town, forced once again by a cruel world to figure out how to survive.  Never mind that she tried to force her son to kill her daughters, ingrates that resented supporting her lavish ways.  She should have been able to get enough money from her schemes to live as she wanted.  Now, she will have to figure out a new way to get her dreams, and in Sylvia's world, if you stand between her and what she wants, your life has a short shelf life.

Julia Madeleine has created a woman in Sylvia who the reader will not soon forget.  Totally self-absorbed, the picture of narcissism, she blunders from situation to situation, using others to meet her goals and fulfill her self-image of what life owes her.  This book is recommended for readers of suspense novels.

Raylan by Elmore Leonard

Fan's of FX TV channel's hit show, Justified, will be excited to read Elmore Leonard's new book, Raylan.  Justified is based on a short story by Leonard where the characters in the show were introduced.  Raylan Givens is a U.S. Marshall who grew up in Harlan County, Kentucky.  He worked in the coal mines as most men did, but got out as soon as he could and ended up in law enforcement.  After a showdown in Florida where he shot and killed a fugitive, he is transferred back to Kentucky.

Raylan is back with the folks he grew up with; his family and former friends, but things are not the same.  Many of those he knew break the law routinely, and he is now responsible for bringing them in when they do so.  The book is full of shady characters, from pot-growing and Oxcy selling drug dealers to a female coal-mine owner's thug, from poker players to men who will do anything for a buck.  One of the more interesting characters is Boyd Crowder, a former miner who is now The Head of Disagreements for the coal mine owners.  There are female bank robbers and a kidney-stealing ring who steals kidneys from the owners and then ransoms them back.

Raylan is a laconic Marshall who speaks little but what he says others need to listen to.  He is known for his ability to outdraw and shoot to kill when needed.  The violence is casual but deadly, and the stories in the book contain betrayal and loyalty, shifting alliances and an underworld of criminals who are determined to rule the area.  This book is recommended for crime novel readers. 

Not Untrue And Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin

Owen Simmons has a comfortable life these days.  His work as a foreign correspondent over, he potters around in the newspaper's home office, doing little real work but a fixture nonetheless.  The death of an office mate and the discovery of an old file of Simmons' stories from his time in Africa leads him to wonder why his colleague was interested in his time there and forces him back in his mind to relive those days.

Owen went to Africa as a stringer, a journalist who wrote articles hoping to sell them afterwards to someone.  He falls in with the journalist circle there, those with full-time jobs, photographers, TV journalists, print journalists.  Although they are all after the same story, they become a society, helping each other and making friends and lovers within the group.  Owen travels and befriends various members of the group, including a woman journalist he loves but feels he knows little about.

Owen spends several years there in the 1990's, covering the Rwandan genocide and the various national uprisings.  The group becomes hardened to violence and death as they move from one hot spot to another, seeing how little any one death meant in the grand scheme of things.  Owen leaves when he is caught in an ambush and gravely wounded.  Several of his friends are also in the ambush, and what happened that day and their various fates are the mainspring of the book. There is also a secret associated with the ambush that serves as a focal point of the novel.

Ed O'Loughlin writes from first-hand experience, as he himself spent time in Africa as a correspondent for the Irish Times.  Readers will be interested in this subset of war, those who document it so that most of us can experience it comfortably in an armchair.  He accurately portrays the suddenness of violence and death in a war zone, and how banal it all becomes when it is an everyday occurrence. Not Untrue And Not Unkind was a Mann Booker Prize nominee in 2009.  This book is recommended for adult readers interested in how world events are reported and the lives of journalists.

Over 55? Check out Novel Seniors!

Indie Book Collective, a grand group of folks, has started a website and giveaway program for seniors; anyone over fifty-five.  Each month you can choose an e-book as a free gift; to keep and read at your leisure. 

The books are in the categories of mystery/thrillers, science fiction/fantasy, fiction, paranormal romance, historical romance and romance.  Each categories has subsets, so there are a ton of books!

Don't have a Kindle?  Don't worry.  If you have any kind of electronic device (computer, IPad, smartphone, etc), you can download the Kindle reading application to it and take advantage of this great offer.  There are directions on how to do this on Amazon's Kindle page. 

Interested?  Go to the website, http://novelseniors.com/  to sign up on the right hand side.  You can view this month's books, get your questions answered, and find out all about this marvelous opportunity.  Thanks to IBC, what a grand idea.

Blue Eyes by Jerome Charyn

Detective Manfred Coen is a product of the streets.  Raised in the '40's in New York City in the Bronx, he grows up with Jewish gangsters, con men, policemen and politicians.  Most guys gravitated either to the police or the gangs, and Coen ends up in the police.  He is the protege of Captain Issac Sidel and is disliked by the rank and file both for his mentor and for his blond hair, blue-eyed Hollywood handsome good looks.

But times change.  Sidel is now out of the force, disgraced in a bribery scandal.  Coen floats from precinct to precinct, never finding a home but still the most effective cop the force has on the streets.  His world is full of Chinese Hispanic gunman, a clubfooted confidential informer, a gangster's son who is a man with the mind of a child, a rich girl who ends up as a porn star and stripper, an ex-wife who married a dentist the second time around, a ping-pong club owner.  All have roots in Coen's past and he moves among them, taking what he needs from each to solve the case while protecting them all the best he can.

There are hints of a white slavery ring operating out of New York and sending girls to Mexico to become brides.  There are currents and cross-currents of shakeups and realignments in the gang structure that has held true for decades.  Coen seems to be the one who can solve the cases; but is he also being manipulated behind the scenes?

Jerome Charyn is an important figure in American literature.  Two of his thirty books have been New York Times Notable Books.  Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”  Blue Eyes was released in 1974 and is a gritty representation of the world Charyn grew up in.  The language can be jarring with street talk and name-calling, but the sense of place is done superbly.  There are picturesque characters, loyalties and betrayals that stretch across decades, plots and counterplots.  This book is recommended for mystery readers and for those interested in reading about the streets of New York City in the '60's and '70's.

The Last Romanov by Dora Levy Mossanen

Darya Borodina is one hundred and four years old, living in the old Russian Entertainment Palace among the ruins, haunted by her life and her time with the Romanovs.  Born of royal parents who were close friends with the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Darya lost her parents as a teen and was brought to live in the royal household.  There she became a companion to the royal children, the four Duchesses and the heir apparent.  Darya had healing powers which were important since the heir had hemophilia and could die at any moment.

We watch royal life through Darya's eyes.  Drawn to the arts, she and the Empress create an artistic salon to showcase the talents of Russia's sculptors, artists and ballet masters.  We see the strife and pain that comes as Russia starts to awake and decide that being ruled by the royal aristocracy will not work.  Darya is torn between these two worlds.  She is loyal to the royal family, but madly in love with one of the artists, a Jewish painter she knows she can never acknowledge publicly.  Through him, she starts to see the turmoil that will soon tear the country apart.

After the Revolution and the assassination of the Royal Family, what keeps Darya alive is her belief that the heir was not killed that horrible day with the rest of the family; that her magic portions kept him alive.  She spends decades searching for him, and now she receives word that 'the last Romanov' has been found.  This starts her final journey to determine the truth once and for all.

The Last Romanov is a marvelous book.  Steeped in history and full of the haunting brooding history of the Russian Empire, the reader is transported to another time and place.  Mossanen has created an interesting heroine in Darya to portray both sides of the Revolution and the pain that the conflict between the sides brought to both.  This book is recommended to historical fiction readers and those interested in the strong women or Russian history.

True Love Way by Nancy Scrofano

Marlo Spencer's dreams are about to come true.  Twelve years ago, the love of her life, Josh, abandoned her to attend chef school in Paris and stayed in France since.  While Marlo has dated, there's been no one serious as she can't get over Josh.  She spends her time with her best friend, Savannah and her daughter.  Savannah was also abandoned by a high school sweetheart and has been a single parent for eleven years.  Marlo's other mainstay is Savannah's brother, Nik.  Nik was too much older to hang with the girls in high school but now that he and Marlo are living in the same city away from their families, they have formed a close friendship.

But now Marlo has a decision to make.  She receives an email after twelve years from Josh.  Josh says he is back in town and has never forgotten Marlo.  He reminds her of the pact they made in high school to get married to each other if neither was married at age thirty, and asks her to come back to town to visit and get reacquainted.  Marlo is overjoyed and nervous all at once.  Will things be the same?  Will Josh explain why he left her alone?

She goes back home, accompanied by Nik who is ready for a family visit.  Once there, she meets up with Josh, but things seem a bit off.  As the week goes on, secrets her friends have been keeping from her start to emerge, along with a sense that she may need to reevaluate her true feelings.  Will true love's way make the decision for Marlo?

Nancy Scrofano has written a breezy, interesting romance that keeps the reader turning the pages to see what choices Marlo will make.  Marlo is a quirky character, loyal to a fault, but determined not to change.  Her favorite things are from the past; old TV shows from the 1960's and 1970's, when life was simpler and every issue could be solved during a half hour sitcom.  Will her life follow the same path, or will Marlo discover that real life is more complicated and more rewarding?  This book is recommended for readers who like romance and modern day relationships. 

THe Superhero Book By Gina Misiroglu

The Superhero Book by Gina Misiroglu is an encyclopedia of all the known superheroes.  At over four hundred pages, it is an exhaustive survey of this genre as well as being a colorful and accessible entry into the superhero world. 

Each superhero is given an entry that talks about the media (TV, comics, graphic novel, etc) as well as a full-color image.  The background of the hero is given, as well as their entire team if they work with someone else.  Supernatural powers are explored along with any moral code or any weaknesses.  A timeline of appearances is given, and if the hero was killed off, an explanation of their demise.  Superheros from Superman to The Powerpuff Girls are explored.

Gina Misirouglu, also known as The Taskmistress, has authored or edited more than three dozen books in the genres of popular culture, biography, American history, folklore and women's studies. 

Graphic novels are becoming more and more popular with the advent of the entire anime genre.  Superheroes are a constant in every time period; only the media used to tell their stories changes.  Humans need to believe that there is a balance in the world between good and evil, and that there are those who stand ready to right that balance when it is askew.  This book is recommended for readers who follow these heroes and anyone interested in learning more about them. 

Return Of The White Deer by Robert Sells

The land of Mercia is uneasy.  It has been ruled for twenty years by a king, Cearl, who is cruel, caring nothing for his people.  Cearl is power-hungry and obsessed by thoughts of those who might try to take his place.  For Cearl doesn't possess the one thing that makes a Mercia king legitimate and beloved.  He was not chosen by The White Deer, a mythical creature who legend says appears when Mercia needs a new king to choose the man best suited.

Pen is a twelve year old boy raised on a farm in the countryside of Mercia.  He is drawn to two strange habits.  Pen can communicate with all types of animals, both the horses, cattle and sheep on the farm and the wild creatures of the forest.  He has even seen the White Deer, although he knows he must keep this a secret. He is also drawn to learn the skills of a soldier, how to use a sword, bow and knife.  He is lucky enough to find a skilled teacher in the nearby village, although he hides his lessons from his farmer father.

When Cearl learns of Pen's existence, he is determined to eliminate him, as he suspects that Pen may be the next Chosen One.  Pen is kidnapped and thrown into Cearl's dungeon after Cearl meets him and decides his suspicions are correct.  When Pen is rescued by his father and his friends, it sets up a situation where a battle will determine the fate of Mercia and who will lead it going forward.

Robert Sells has written an engaging, rollicking tale of fantasy.  The characters are interesting, and the action is brisk enough to move the plot along without dragging.  This book is recommended for readers of fantasy.

The Quaker State Affair by Dan Romain

What would happen if the Chinese decided to write off their American debt and create a fiscal world pegged not to the American dollar but to a gold standard?  How long would it take American to implode without dollars, or the oil it buys?  Could we live without oil as an energy source?

These are the questions that Dan Romain explores in his explosive action thriller, The Quaker State Affair.  As the book opens, it becomes obvious to the American security forces that China is racketing up worldwide tension as a prelude to attempting to take over as the world's most powerful nation.  Reaction by the American President escalates the tension as he implies that America has an alternate energy source which would make oil obsolete. 

Patrick McDaniels, a Nobel winner for his work in physics, has in fact, been thinking about this issue.  In fact, he has done more than think about it, but he realises the risks that come along with such groundbreaking ideas.  The man who can harness cheap, renewable energy that will never run out will be rich beyond dreams, but also in enormous danger.  Nations would war over who controlled such energy or the mind that could conceive of it.  How can McDaniels give his thoughts to his chosen country without becoming a target?

Dan Romain has written an interesting book that is both a page-turning thriller and a book that gives the reader pause for thought.  Readers can see echoes of Romain's predictions in the news media and scientific articles.  Oil is the mainspring of the economy, leaving America in ransom to other countries that can produce it.  Scientists are pursuing alternate energy sources that would make the discovering country the new world leader for centuries.  Readers will finish this book and find their thoughts returning to it time and again, as they read the news and ponder what the average person can do to safeguard in the event some of these issues occur.  This book is recommended both for readers of thrillers and for readers interested in what may occur in the next few decades to our country and to the world.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

In Freedom, Jonathan Franzen has given the reader the quintessential Boomer novel. The novel tells the story of Patty and Walter Berglund. It picks up their story in college as they meet and fall in love. The reader learns about their backgrounds and how each person’s experiences growing up in their specific families and their parental and sibling relationships made them the person they were as an adult. It then follows them over the next thirty or so years, through two children, several moves, and the cycles that make up a marriage.

What is it about? It would be more accurate to ask, what isn’t it about? Freedom is about love, envy, jealousy, betrayal, steadfastness. It is about the relationships between parents and children, between adult friends, the balance between work and home. It contrasts liberalism and conservatism, a focus on business vs. a focus on the environment, the value of old friendships vs. the power of letting new people into one’s life. It is about how we wound each other and how we can heal these wounds. It talks of the dilemma of raising strong independent children who then as adults have little need for their parents. It talks of the difficulty of keeping love strong for decades, and how old hurts can rear up time and time again, sometimes destroying the love that still endures beneath the surface.

Franzen is one of the country’s strongest novelists, and this book enforces that accolade. The writing is dense and detailed, as one would need to reveal someone else’s entire life, motivations and joys. The reader is unable to tear themselves away from this story of two people whose lives and struggles exemplify an entire generation. Franzen shows that no matter how much each generation hopes to be different from the one before it, members come to realize that human nature is fairly fixed, and the same big forces control all of our lives, no matter when we lived. This book is a masterpiece, and the reader will close the last page, satisfied, hopeful and feeling more accepting of their own struggles. This book is recommended for all readers interested in human nature and how we live our lives among other people.

The Best Science And Nature Writing, Edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger

Each year, a series of best of writing books are released in various categories such as travel, short stories, mystery, etc.  This year's edition of the science and nature writing genre was edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger.  Mary Roach has made the focal point of her writing life in the science field, popularizing the research into fields such as sex, death and various other topics.  Tim Folger is a contributing editor at Discover magazine and is familiar with a wide range of scientific fields.

The articles range across many scientific fields of inquiry.  There are articles about the problem of space debris, the emergence of bears as pest animals into residential areas with the disappearance of their natural habitats, the issue of organ transplants.  There are more difficult articles such as ones on the space-time continuum and discoveries in that area.  Introduced species that later become predators, crowding out the native animals, get an article, focusing on a species of fish that nature scientists are trying to prevent from reaching the Great Lakes.  There is an interesting article on face-blindness, a condition in which people never become familiar with the faces around them daily and who don't recognize people they deal with daily. 

The series is well done.  The articles are written to educate but the reading level is such that anyone can read and understand the concepts.  There are a wide range of topics, spanning the various areas of scientific inquiry.  This is an anthology that can be dipped into for food for thought, a way to expand understanding of the natural world around us.  This book is recommended for readers interested in how the world works and the discoveries made by scientists.

The Meerkat Wars by H.S. Toshack

The Meerkat Wars is the third adventure in this series about Sheena, a little black and white cat who lives in Africa with her family.  In this book, the family is going on vacation, camping on the great African plains.  Sheena goes along as a stowaway.  She is stranded away from her family and on her way back to the campground, encounters her next big adventure.

Sheena makes the acquaintance of a colony of meerkats, the Duwara, after helping one of their members who was stung by a scorpion.  She stays with the colony for a few days, learning about their ways.  She is there when another Meerkat colony, the Utongo, raid the Duwara tunnels and kidnap their pups.  As Sheena talks to both colonies, it becomes apparent that they are divided not by any reasonable event, but by their belief that each colony is living under the One True Sun.  Meerkats start their day standing and basking in the sun, so the sun is the prime event in their world.  Those who doubt the supremacy of the sun are enemies.  Can Sheena bring the two groups together in the realization that there is one sun that shines for all?

This is a children's book, skillfully educating while entertaining.  Several of the animals of the African plain are introduced along with their habitats, feeding habits and general behavior.  In addition to the meerkats, there are seval cats porcupines, chameleons, water buffaloes and elephants.  The underlying point, that we are all more similar than we are different, and that our separateness is often just self-generated, is brought home without a preachy tone.  This book is recommended for middle school readers and for parents interested in getting good books for their children.

Dirt by David Vann

Galen is twenty-two and still living at home without a job, totally dependant on his mother. His only interest is philosophy and he considers himself an 'old soul', without much evidence to back up his assessment. His mother's interest is in keeping Galen dependant on her. To that end, she dribbles out a meager allowance but tells him there is no money for college or anything that would encourage him to make a life on his own.

Mother and son live alone on a walnut farm in California, the family farm and the basis of the financial trust that keeps them going. Galen's grandmother is still alive, but his mother has moved her to an assisted living home. Galen's aunt and teenage cousin live close and visit, but only to try to extract money from the mother. Galen, with no other exposure to women, develops an unhealthy attraction to his cousin, Jennifer.

The family endures day after dreary day, the same arguments and history revisions visited daily. Things change, however, when all five, grandmother, mother, aunt, cousin and Galen, go together to a cabin for a weekend. Things occur there that change the relationships and bring old resentments to the fore. As Galen makes a final attempt to break free from his family, he learns the extent to which he will go, and the actions he is capable of.

David Vann has received a lot of positive attention for his writing. He is the winner of multiple literary prizes, a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and a professor at the University of San Francisco. Dirt is another success in his string of novels such as Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island, A Mile Down and Last Day On Earth. This book is written in sparse, compelling language as the action alternates between Galen's view of himself as a higher being and the base actions he actually performs. Readers should be aware of graphic violence and sexual matter. This book is recommended for readers interested in family relationships and what the human spirit is capable of. It is a harrowing tale not easily forgotten.

Author Event for In Leah's Wake by Terri Giuliano Long

In Leah's Wake by Terri Giuliano Long is an upcoming review.  Here's a quick blurb:

The Tyler family had the perfect life - until sixteen-year-old Leah decided she didn't want to be perfect anymore. While Leah's parents fight to save their daughter from destroying her brilliant future, Leah's younger sister, Justine, must cope with the damage her out-of-control sibling leaves in her wake. Will this family survive? What happens when love just isn't enough?  Jodi Picoult fans will love In Leah's Wake - a heartbreaking, ultimately redemptive story about family, connection and our responsibility to those we love.

The author is having a Book Club Event Week in late April.  Below is an outline of what will take place:

MONDAY 23RD APRIL: WELCOME TO IN LEAH’S WAKE

Terri shares a candid introduction to the book and her success so far and talks about the role of book bloggers and reviewers in boosting In Leah’s Wake up the charts

TUESDAY 24TH APRIL: THE CHARACTERS OF IN LEAH’S WAKE

Terri invites readers and bloggers to share their thoughts on their favorite characters within In Leah’s Wake and talk about the moments they loved most.  In the evening enjoy a live Q&A session with two pivotal characters from the novel: Zoe and her daughter, Leah.

WEDNESDAY 25TH APRIL: THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

An interview with Terri looks into the story behind the story: how Terri came to write In Leah’s Wake and how it came to be the “little indie book that could” selling over 100,000 copies so far!

THURSDAY 26TH APRIL: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Answering questions by submitted book clubs, readers’ groups, readers and bloggers, Terri will share her thoughts on the novel, the writing process and what lies ahead. 
In the evening enjoy a Q&A session with Terri Giuliano Long and the chance to put forward your questions live

FRIDAY 27TH APRIL – SUNDAY 28TH APRIL: IN LEAH’S WAKE: IN DISCUSSION
Share your views on some of the discussion topics raised in the In Leah’s Wake reading guide. We’ll be publishing your thoughts along with any new discussion topics you suggest.

SUNDAY 29TH APRIL: LOOKING AHEAD: NOWHERE TO RUN

Terri shares her thoughts on her upcoming novel, Nowhere to Run, and talks about what it’s like to work on a very different kind of story.

Booksie's Blog readers are invited to attend.  Enjoy!

Daddy's Home by A.K. Alexander

Detective Holly Jennings of the San Diego Police Department has worked on a lot of murder cases, but this one is getting to her.  A serial killer is kidnapping single mothers along with their children, and killing both.  That scenario hits home to Holly, as it describes her situation.  Her husband was killed in the line of duty when Holly was pregnant, so it has been her and her seven year old daughter, Chloe, ever since.

The killer is escalating, and it's up to the police to determine his motivation in order to stop him.  Holly believes that the killer is attempting to build a family of his own, and then killing the victims when his fantasy of them loving and accepting him is revealed as a mere dream.  This kind of core drive means that he won't stop until Holly and her team can stop him.  Things devolve when it becomes apparent that the killer has his sights on Holly and Chloe as his next chance at a perfect family.  Can she bring this killer to justice before he takes away everything she has?

A.K. Alexander has written a suspenseful novel that will keep the reader turning the pages.  Holly is a strong, resourceful woman who has the reader cheering for her.  The killer, "The Family Man", is a chilling depiction of evil.  The plot has a great pace and the finale is excellent.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.

Blue Monday by Nicci French

Dr. Frieda Klein is a psychotherapist who practices in London.  Intensely private and reclusive in her private life, she is insightful and able to help those few patients she agrees to take on. 

London is abuzz with the latest crime story--five year old Matthew Farraday has been kidnapped from the street and is missing.  The police are trying everything they can, but Matthew has just vanished into thin air.  Drawing on his years of expertise, Chief Inspector Karlsson believes that this crime may be related to one that occurred twenty years ago where five-year-old Joanna Vine was also taken from the street. She was never found, her body never identifed although common wisdom says she is long dead.

Frieda meets Karlsson when she is moved to break a patient's confidence; something she has never done.  This man, a new patient, has recurring dreams of having a child; specifically a son.  That son looks exactly like Matthew Farraday.  Dr. Klein is disturbed enough by the resemblance that she has her patient checked out.  His alibi for the time of the disappearance is solid, but as Frieda continues to probe she uncovers the shocking secrets of his life.

This is the first book in a new series by the writing team of Nicci French, the writers Nicci Gerrald and Sean French.  Readers will be immediately drawn to the reclusive Dr. Klein and interested in both the Chief Inspector and the flow of the investigation.  The writing is brooding, mysterious, compelling.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers.

Wide Open by Deborah Coates

Hallie Michaels is home from Afghanistan, but not for a good reason.  She has been given ten days compassionate leave to come home to bury her sister, Dell.  She arrives home full of grief and straight from the war zone where she was recently involved in a firefight that left her dead for seven minutes.  Hallie was brought back to life, but you can't say it didn't affect her.  She can now see and feel ghosts, and her combat friend and Dell both go with her everywhere.

Hallie doesn't understand anything, it seems.  She doesn't understand why or how Dell died, and there seems to be controversy about it at the sheriff's office.  Some people are saying that Dell committed suicide and Hallie knows that can't be true.  She doesn't understand why there are a series of mysterious fires in the area; fires that seem intentional and focused like arson but are started by lightning.  She doesn't understand how a man she dated a few times before entering the military is now the head of a new company that is employing more and more people in the area, but none of the employees can describe exactly what the company does.  She can't understand whether she likes or dislikes the new deputy in town, Boyd, who seems a part of it all.  Most of all, she can't understand why so many women in the area have gone missing in the last few years while she has been away.

Deborah Coates has written a knock-your-socks-off story in this debut novel.  It is hard to characterize, as there are elements of feminism, of magic, of life on the ranches and farms of South Dakota.  Coates has created one of the strongest heroines imaginable in Hallie, a women who has seen a lot and is not ready to roll over and give in to despair.  It has crime and fantasy, all the elements mixed into a glorious tale that grabs the reader by the throat and won't let go.  The story builds to a gripping finale, one that leaves the reader gasping.  This book is recommended for both mystery and fantasy readers.