Kindle Book Reviews

  "Drift: A Mystery Thriller" by L.T. Ryan and Brian Shea is the first installment in the Rachel Hatch Mystery Thriller series. This fast-paced, action-packed thriller introduces readers to Rachel Hatch, a former military investigator, as she grapples with her troubled past and embarks on a mission to uncover the truth behind her brother’s mysterious death. Plot Overview The story starts with Rachel Hatch returning to her small hometown after her brother's death. The official report claims it was an accidental drowning. Still, Hatch’s investigative instincts tell her otherwise. Determined to uncover the truth, Hatch uses her military skills and background in covert operations to dig deeper into the case, unraveling a web of deceit, conspiracy, and corruption in a town where everyone seems to be hiding something. Key Themes and Elements Strong Female Protagonist : Rachel Hatch is a compelling and challenging lead character. As a former mil...

 My latest book, Vegas and the Chicago Outfit , took a little longer to finish researching than I had hoped. Instead of a year to research, write, and edit, my plan for October 2020 somehow went south. That's my way of saying I'm two years late getting my most detailed compilation of the rise of the Chicago Outfit and their inexhaustible takeover of every money-making casino in Las Vegas down in book form. If that description sounds exaggerated, it's not. The Chicago Outfit came to the party in Las Vegas a bit later than the New York families. Still, by the late 1940s, the Windy City group had firm control of a half-dozen casinos from the Flamingo to the El Rancho, Thunderbird, and others.  By the 1960s, they had skimming operations in the Sands, Dunes, Aladdin, Riviera, Mint, Fremont, Stardust, Desert Inn, and of course, Caesars Palace. The Chicago Outfit simply took the reins and shook harder than any other families, even with Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, Kansas City...

I've heard the saying that revenge is a dish best served cold, meaning it has more impact if it's well past the harm done. Well, sometimes Karma doesn't work fast enough to suit us, and that's the setup to The Grifter,  a novel by Ali Gunn and Sean Campbell. Gunn most recently released The Career Killer , Campbell has a dozen books available. All are based in the UK and revolve around police detectives and, well, psychopaths. Hank Marvin, our story's protagonist, is bent on revenge. So much so that he watches the younger and seriously more successful (soon to be a billionaire fund manager) Kent Bancroft every day from across the street, bundled in a sleeping bag, or standing on his one leg, leaning up against a tiny stoop. When the two interact early in the novel I'm reminded slightly of the discussion of a major player on Wall Street and a homeless wretch on the street in Bonfire of the Vanities . There's a flavor there, the language, and definitely the bri...

  Michael Allen's The Deeper Dark is a military-political thriller with a haunting forecast of what could happen when our political system controls just a tiny bit more of our lives than it already does. Our story starts with a pilot's worst nightmare: being forced down over enemy lines. Then, like John McCain and other real-life wartime pilots, his nightmare comes into even scarier focus as he is met immediately by the opposition forces who are armed and most certainly dangerous. In Deeper , pilot Haven Kayd is taken to a dank and soon to be dark cell that has housed many other prisoners. The fact that he's the only one there is less than comforting. For months Kayd fights away the psychological fears his captors impose on him and manages to escape, only to find that his nightmare continues when he returns home to find his wife and daughter shocked to see him. They've been told he's dead. The message finally dawns on him: Fear the Deep State. Kayd asks questions a...

  If you've been waiting for John Grisham to deliver another solid book, the 2019 issuance of The Guardians is probably your best bet. Grisham, of course, has made a habit of taking small-time or at least small-town lawyer story's to breakneck-speed endings while spinning a vast (if not luxurious) web of possible plots across a reader's mind. I'm a fan, but there have been a few stumbles in my opinion, such as The Whistler , and Camino Winds , that move slowly and lack the thrill of the chase I found in earlier books. Fortunately, Grisham's on the ball with this book, and I was happy to get trapped for hours inside the covers of my bed and the book itself. In this "wrongful conviction" story, lawyer Cullen Post takes a series of cases as far as he can, saying "I have five cases...., I've watched one of my clients die. I still think he was innocent. I just couldn't prove it in time." Such is the pressure and turmoil of a pro-bono lawyer a...

Author Ali Gunn brings us the first in her DCI Mabey series, with The Career Killer , a smart detective-mystery novel. Set in London, the main character works at London Yard, where her father wrote many of the training manuals. She may be her father's daughter, but her fellow detective would have preferred her father's son to be the heir apparent to his legacy. Newly-minted Detective Chief Inspector Elsie Maybe takes her new promotion in stride until she inherits a wonky tribe of underlings and a murder at an old church. She's not fast to gather clues, not because she's moving at half-speed due to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but because the nature of the new string of murders has some ring of normalcy or familiarity to her, starting with a young woman in a wedding dress found in the ruins of an ancient London church. She doesn't move like Columbo or Hercule Poirot, asking questions and sifting the carnage over in her mind. Instead, she seems to plot the next...

Celeste Ng grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and plots her story, Little Fires Everywhere in the same town. In between Shaker Heights and her story, Ng attended Harvard University and earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Michigan. While we are talking about her writing chops, this latest book is also a Hulu original series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. As for the book, it’s available on Kindle, in paperback, and on Audible. And, you might want to take a look because the story Celeste Ng draws us into is powerful and complicated. The story starts with the nearly idyllic setting of Shaker Heights and Elena Richardson, who we think might be close to a Stepford Wife. Ng sets a somewhat long and winding road, giving us new hints and grudgingly providing backstory only as it’s needed to justify Elena’s latest movements across town while renting her and her husband’s starter home to a single woman, Mia Warren, and her daughter Pearl....

In Jack Binding's latest horror story, Perfect Anastasia , twenty-something Andy Moretti asks himself a question that a million other men are currently asking themselves. "Why can't I find a nice woman to spend my time with?" Well, be careful what you ask for! As if Andy's questions have been miraculously answered by a benevolent Genie, he meets the perfect woman at a party. She's funny, she's beautiful, and she's actually interested in talking to him. That should be a good sign, right? Author Binding uses the need for companionship as a crutch in short story. The need, the hope, the sweet nectar of promise and desire. Binding's written words are straightforward and to the point, leaving the reader with little doubt as to where the story is headed, but the outcome, while not necessarily anticipated, is every young person's nightmare and much more. The writing reminds me a bit of clive Barker as he starts a story you think you kn...

From A Series of Ghastly Things comes the latest book by Nicholas A. Price, The Hideous Child . This is book 3, in Kindle Edition, and is aimed at children ages 3 to 9. The author has been hard at work with a full group of children's books coming out. Illustrated by Demi Art, children will love the pictures that accompany the story. In The Hideous Child , a mother sits quietly and watches her daughter prepare her own meal. What a wonderful and quaint little child.  It's good to see her taking care of herself, but whatever is she making? Why a plate of beetle larvae and butterfly guts. Is this an everyday occurrence or has mother's little one gone stark raving mad? Did you know that beetles and grasshoppers are a mainstay of villages in Africa and South America? They do provide much-needed nourishment. A few of these facts about what people in different countries regularly eat follows the story. This book is available on pre-order right now (re...

Anyone who loves Harry Potter is going to find great reading in The Sorceress' Prophecy . The land conceived by author Carson Watson is filled with nightmarish creatures that stalk the night and a coven of students trying to learn enough magic to fend off the advances of Satin, the worst of the lot. At the forefront is Kaia, who's mother has disappeared, and her friend Vittorio, who work with those at the Fraternity to try and understand their mutual enemy, the Amphisbaena, a kind of super vampire. The land of Londou is also inhabited by werewolves, who as a pack, also want to gain power over the strewn wasteland that is their home. Only Kaia and her friends hold the key to stopping the carnage. The author does a good job of setting up the fight, giving us plenty of characters to watch develop or fold away in the coming pages and keeping up enough interest to make those pages magically dissolve as we read through chapter after chapter. There is little breakdown in th...

In the simplest terms, Kim Hemphill is a survivor. That's all he knew, that's all he had. And, he's a Seattle Mariner's fan, so things are still tough since the Mariner's have never made it to the World Series, but he's still rooting for them. And, I'm a Mariner's fan, so I know what it's like rooting for the underdog when there's no help in sight. Of course, that's what Kim's life was like for years. The car he was riding in what hit by a train when he was three years old. The result was cuts, scrapes, bruises and 105 stitches across his face and his scalp. Just an early turning point.  His family life was rough and tumble, and they were so poor he bought himself his first toothbrush when he was 14, shortly before he lost his brother to the Vietnam war. If you are ready for a tough read, a story of homelessness, a story of learning to live with what you've got on your back and nothing more, then I Remember the Time , ...

Author Nicholas A. Price stimulates the magination of children through his stories. In The Moon Has A Big Head , children learn what happens when anyone, even a stellar superstar like the moon, takes themselves too seriously. There's always someone bigger, faster, and stronger, but that doesn't mean we can't all be friends and still reach for the stars. This story is published by Demy Books and slated to be available on Kindle February 15, 2017. Delightfully illustrated by Gigi Art, children will love the story and the pictures. At the end of the book, Price offers many interesting facts about the moon, such as the moon's distance from the earth, information about gravity, the earth's tides, and temperatures on the surface of the moon. The book is $2.99 and available for pre-order, but is also part of Kindle Unlimited, so take advantage of your KU benefits and get a copy for your little ones! Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Akasha Garnier is a writer, producer, and activist who has led an exciting and balanced life as a radio production director and PR manager. She's traveled and worked in places like London, Paris, Los Angels, New York, and Hawaii. Good for her, right? Well good for us too, because she has now added a book, Secrets to Shine Through the Noise , to help readers choose a direction in life. As she says, "use the GPS factor to align with your inner compass and passions." Part self-help, part motivational, Akasha's stories of the road help the reader see that anyone can achieve what they truly want, as long as they are willing to really ask themselves what it might be. There is no sense being unfulfilled. The first step is making a plan for the future, even if it is just a tiny first step! This book was published September 8, 2016, and it's getting hot. Right now, it's on sale for just 99-cents, but you've got to act quickly before the price goe...

Coming February 15 (and currently on Preorder) is Nicholas A. Price's children's book Hop On Board . Written for children 5 to 9, this story carries the tagline "We are the Germ family and you love to carry us around everywhere!" Colorfully illustrated by Gigi Art, Price's story centers on the tough life germs lead, especially when silly children use soap, which particularly irritates germs. Children will enjoy the many pictures, especially the ones of rogue germs who try to hide out in places too small for the human eye to see. If the story and pictures don't convince your children to wash up before meals, then the Ghastly Facts presented near the end surely will. They include such scary things as "Fifty thousand of the largest virus germs could fit on a pinhead!Ten thousand could fit on a grain of salt," and "Viruses can only survive inside a living plant, person or animal, yet they can still live on a dirty surface for a while and ...

Roger Doss is a Computer Geek with a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Still, he understands that many people choose their stocks based on nothing more than gut instincts. Inside the pages of  Trader’s Intuition , Doss explores how choosing the right stocks, for short-term or long-term holdings, can have a profound effect on each investor's long-term wealth. Instead of devoting long chapters to how the stock market works, how stocks are bought and sold, Doss gets to the nitty-gritty in quick order. He starts with a precursor on stock brokers and stock brokerage firms and then moves on to costs involved for online investors. Trader's Intuition was published January 11, 2017, and is currently available for $2.99 on Kindle. For those with limited background in the stock market, Doss makes it easy to understand how stock patterns work, what to look for, and how to select specific industries and individual stocks according to your investment needs: short-term and long-term inc...

First-time author Beverly Herr gets many things right in her debut novel Written in the Stars , a historical fiction about a young woman living 150 years ago in the Midwest. Her life is hard, enduring the abuse of her grandparents after the death of her mother. And, she's never seen her father, and man from Italy, not in the picture. At least that's the story she's been told her whole life. At sixteen, the truth comes in the introduction of Timber Wolf, a Lakota warrior who aids in her abduction from the home of her uncles, where she has been staying. Scared, but thinking back to her many dreams of an old warrior trying to get her, Emily learns her given name translates to Little Fawn, and her father is the Chief of the Bruele village. This is a good, long read, 315 pages, published August 18, 2016, on Kindle. Currently, the novel is available for $5.99. This story reminded me of the female lead in Dances With Wolves , who is abducted at about four-years of ...

Once upon a time, an author from far far away wrote a story about Keira, aka Sleeping Beauty, and her Prince Philip. A story where Keira and Philip meet things that go bump in the night in their not-so-friendly dark forest of yesteryear. Beyond that, author Laura Greenwood has produced a very readable type of fairy tale, a story where there is much more to Hansel and Gretel than a daring escape from the wicked witch. In this story, young women from a nearby village go missing. Fortunately, the siblings (and Keira and Philip) are a lot tougher than ever, ready to do battle with whatever dark forces arrive, although Keira does struggle with throwing knives! Still, what would you say if your mother said, "My Dear Gretel,  “Advisor to a King, confidante of a Queen. Breaker of curses. Your destiny is great, but to attain it you must suffer.” Sounds a little ominous to me, but then again, this is, after all, the dark forest. The pacing is steady, with enough action and susp...

Gum on My Shoe: Fran Opens Her Copy of High Tide, Low Tide : Fran shares her excitement as she opens her copy of our book, High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder .   ...

Author Emily Kendricks has penned a very exciting Suspense novel in Badge Without Honor . The story starts innocently with the introduction of John Bocello, a tough New York homicide detective who's just trying to keep his life together after a divorce. Fortunately, his badge puts him in constant contact with the dregs of society and keeps him busy. And, when the murders slow down, there's always that stack of cold cases to work on. Bocello banters with his partner, Detective Steve Parsons, does a little socializing, and then all hell breaks loose when a series of murders leave the victims looking like bloody jigsaw puzzles. Badge was put out by Sarah Publishing and is available in paperback (250 pages) as well as Kindle at Amazon. The formats aren't listed together (oops), but trust me, they are both available. The kindle edition is 605 kb at just $2.99. The novel is well formatted and edited. The story builds slowly, moving forwards past police work, ...

Roger Stelljes is a very successful writer. The author of Deadly Stillwater , with over 3,100 reviews, has developed quite a following of late. The book is currently available for FREE on Kindle and  it's a good size read, 378 pages, or 5461 on Kindle. The writing is good with a quick pace, and the majority of the reviewers at Amazon like the book very much, with 88% of the reviewers giving it either 5 or 4-stars. Obviously, Stelljes is doing something right. The best thing about the book and the McRyan mystery series is that it does get tense. As a crime novel, I believe that readers are truly intrigued by the crimes themselves and by the suspense that Stelljes installs from chapter to chapter. Several of the characters are paper thin, and while other writers bring the characters to us slowly, Stelljes actually adds a few pages of brief introductions near the start of the book. Again, that's against tradition, but nobody seems to care. As for the rest of the writin...