Book Reviews: Black Site by Philip Mudd and November Road by Lou Berney @RoguePhilMudd @LiverightPub @Lou_Berney @WmMorrowBooks

Black Site
The CIA in the Post-9/11 World
Philip Mudd
Liveright Publishing, July 2019
ISBN 978-1-63149-197-9
Hardcover

Here is an eye-opening, compelling inside narrative of our premiere intelligence agency during one of the most upsetting periods in the life of our nation. Remember that the Central Intelligence Agency was not very old when Al-Qaeda flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and literally shocked the American public to its core. In intelligence and political circles especially, the question arose: is there a plan to protect us against a second attack?

None of the law enforcement and counter-intelligence operations in our government could answer that question with any assurance and the political organizations of the nation were peopled with a lot of very nervous individuals.

Written in the third person, by a former executive in the CIA and at the White House, and also at one time an executive at the FBI, the author has a deep experience with the changing mores and culture of the intelligence world pre- and post-9/11 world. He draws on his knowledge of the important players at all levels from the Oval Office to some of the regular workers at Langley, striving to make sense of ever-increasing flows of information.

The Central Intelligence Agency was never planned as a keeper of prisoners. It had no jails and it had no protocols to deal with high or low value prisoners who had been members of the CIA’s principal target, Al-Qaeda. Author Philip Mudd follows the torturous path of interrogation techniques through the Department of Justice, the politicians and the operators, agents and analysts of the agency, the creation of black site jails and much of the rising and falling tension and shifting attitudes throughout the nation.

From it’s very first incident to the final conclusion this is a riveting exploration of the secret and the prosaic world of intelligence gathering.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, August 2019.
http://www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
The Case of the Purloined Painting, The Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky.

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November Road
Lou Berney
William Morrow, October 2018
ISBN 978-0-06-266384-9
Hardcover

A powerful, engaging crime novel of unusual breadth and perception: the story is a kind of road novel, involving a savvy canny New Orleans mob facilitator named Frank Guidry and an ordinary Oklahoma housewife and mother of extraordinary grit and talent.

Charlotte, mother of two small girls, is married to a husband who seems stuck in a bottle of booze and she’s frustrated with her work limitations and life in general.

It’s November 1963, and readers may remember what happened in Dealey Plaza in Dallas. The assassination of President Kennedy sends Guidry to Dallas to retrieve an unused get-away-car he assumes was parked there to be used by an assassin. Real life interfered with mob plans and Guidry is expected to clean up loose ends. He divines that he is a loose end to the New Orleans mob and takes a runner.

In Oklahoma, one more drunken episode with her husband and a putdown by the local newspaper editor is the final insult and Charlotte packs up her children and departs for the west coast.

Weather and fate bring these two adults together down the road and new adventures ensue as Charlotte and Frank meet and grow ever closer. The time period is the weeks immediately after the Kennedy assassination and Charlotte still plans to make it to Los Angeles with her daughters. Of course, other forces are at play, other characters have different plans. Carefully and thoughtfully with excellent attention to pace and environment, the author carries readers along and steadily draws us into his unique world.

This is an excellent crime novel in every aspect. NOVEMBER ROAD is not a bang-bang-shoot-up with ever increasing time-sensitive tension. The tension, and there is plenty, lies in the author’s attention to important detail and the smooth artistry of his narration as well as the thoughtful and understandable conclusions.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, December 2018.
http://www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
The Case of the Purloined Painting, The Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky.

Book Review: Glitter Bomb by Laura Childs with Terrie Farley Moran—and a Giveaway!

Glitter Bomb
A New Orleans Scrapbooking Mystery #15
Laura Childs with Terrie Farley Moran
Berkley Prime Crime, October 2018
ISBN 978-0-451-48954-8
Hardcover

From the publisher—

It’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans and scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand is excited to be attending the Pluvius Parade along with her best friend Ava. Carmela’s ex-husband Shamus rides by the duo on his float at the head of the parade, when suddenly the revelry turns to disaster. Shamus’ float crashes and explodes, and although Shamus escapes unhurt, a member of his krewe is killed.

Carmela and Ava plunge into an investigation of the krewe-member’s death, but as they dig deeper it starts to look less like an accident and more like a murder….and Shamus seems less like a victim, and more like a suspect.

Just as New Orleans scrapbook shopkeeper Carmela Bertrand and her best friend, Ava Gruiex, are gleefully getting into the Mardi Gras festivities, all hell breaks loose when the Pluvius parade’s King Neptune float explodes with a huge plume of glitter. Carmela’s ex-husband Shamus Meechum goes flying and lands practically in front of them, battered and shaken but alive, unlike the captain of the krewe, Hughes Wilder, who’s quite dead .

Very soon, evidence points towards a deliberate bombing and Shamus begs Carmela to investigate before he gets arrested by Carmela’s boyfriend, Detective Edgar Babcock. It seems that Shamus has a good motive because he made a dodgy investment with Wilder, CEO of a hedge fund, and used bank funds to do so but there are several other potential suspects. Against her better judgement, and not because she’s overly fond of her philandering ex, Carmela agrees to look into who’s the real Neptune Bomber with Ava’s excited assistance and despite Edgar’s objections (useless, as he well knows from previous investigations) and a pond full of hungry alligators.

Scrapbooking tips and delicious recipes help make Glitter Bomb as charming and fun as the earlier books in the series and I’m already counting the days till Carmela’s and Ava’s next adventure.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, November 2018.

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To enter the drawing for a print copy
of Glitter Bomb, just leave a comment below.
Two winning names will be drawn on Sunday
night, November 18th, for one Advance
Reading Copy and one hardcover copy. This
drawing is open to the US and Canada.

Book Review: State of Emergency by Mary Hallberg

State of Emergency
Mary Hallberg
CreateSpace, August 2017
ISBN 978-1548327958
Trade Paperback

From the author—

17-year-old Dallas Langdon is fighting off zombies with a pizza cutter.

Dallas has always loved zombie movies. But when she catches a real live (erm, dead) musician eating a man’s intestines backstage after the show, she knows her movies have become a reality. And what do characters in zombie movies do? Seek shelter. Fortunately, Dallas’s eccentric uncle owns a farmhouse in Chattanooga, an eight hour drive from New Orleans. It’s on top of a steep mountain, surrounded by electric fences, and cut off from the worlds of the living and the dead.

Dallas’s parents, still safe at home, laugh at her idea over the phone. Her friends only agree to join her because it’s fall break and they could use a mini vacation anyway.

But then Dallas’s best friend is killed by a zombie horde when they’re attracted to her ringing cell phone. Civilians think their reanimated loved ones simply have the flu, leaving them alive (well, undead) and rapidly increasing the zombies ranks. And since minors can’t buy guns, Dallas’s only weapon is a giant industrial pizza cutter she swipes from a gas station. George A. Romero never mentioned anything like this. With one friend dead and no zombie survival guides to help her, Dallas and her friends must get to Chattanooga before joining the ranks of the undead themselves.

Be honest…if someone told you a zombie outbreak was going on “out there”, would you believe it? I’m pretty sure at first I’d think somebody had come up with a great prank but, the first time I saw one, I’d believe my own eyes. Or, at least, I hope I would so I’d have enough time to run like hell 😉

Fortunately for her pals—sister Talia and friends Ashleigh, Sam and Pierce—Dallas knows right away that she’s looking at a zombie and, better yet, knows how to deal with it, having grown up with zombie movies. Dallas and Talia have an Uncle Jack who has a fortified compound in Tennessee and they all agree to head there as long as it’s just for the weekend. After all, they might be on fall break but they’ll have to get back to school on Monday. So, off they go on a race to find safety, led by a seventeen-year-old girl armed with an industrial-sized pizza cutter.

This was a fun little story  and I found the characters very appealing in one way or another. The brevity of the story meant that there are plot holes here and there but no matter, it’s still a good tale for zombie lovers 😉

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, May 2018.

Book Review: Louisiana Catch by Sewta Srivastava Vikram

Louisiana Catch
Sweta Srivastava Vikram
Modern History Press, April 2018
ISBN 978-1-61599-342-9
Trade Paperback

From the publisher:

A grieving daughter and abuse survivor must summon the courage to run a feminist conference, trust a man she meets over the Internet, and escape a catfishing stalker to find her power.

Ahana, a wealthy thirty-three-year-old New Delhi woman, flees the pain of her mother’s death, and her dark past, by accepting a huge project in New Orleans, where she’ll coordinate an annual conference to raise awareness of violence against women. Her half-Indian, half-Irish colleague and public relations guru, Rohan Brady, who helps Ahana develop her online presence, offends her prim sensibilities with his raunchy humor. She is convinced that he’s a womanizer.

Meanwhile, she seeks relief from her pain in an online support group, where she makes a good friend: the mercurial Jay Dubois, who is also grieving the loss of his mother. Louisiana Catch is an emotionally immersive novel about identity, shame, and who we project ourselves to be in the world. It’s a book about Ahana’s unreliable instincts and her ongoing battle to determine whom to place her trust in as she, Rohan, and Jay shed layers of their identities.

 

This book is a thoughtful contribution to the examination of a couple of societal issues, one as old as time, domestic violence, and one quite recent, online deception. Savage men have used the women in their lives as punching bags throughout history. These women have been coerced to remain in a vicious and often fatal environment by economic and societal factors, leading lives of abject misery and raising children who believe brutality at home is the way everyone lives, thereby perpetuating the cycle of fear and hurt into the next generations.

Internet friendship, on the other hand, is something our grandmothers never had to cope with. Social interactions were generally limited to individuals known by family and friends so misrepresentation by anyone was unlikely. As countless people have learned the hard way during the past 20 years, it is possible, if not downright simple, to create a credible fictional persona on the Internet that stands up to superficial investigation. Ahana’s naivete about both of the men she meets on the Internet is not new.

This book offers a view into daily Indian life and customs that helps foreigners like me understand the country and its people a bit more. The book’s action is spread across New Delhi and New York and New Orleans, three lively but quite different cities. All of the characters, from the protagonist to the bit players, of which there are many, felt authentic and none of them seemed to blend into each other. The ending is predictable but I enjoyed watching Ahana find her sense of self and a new direction for her life.

Prospective readers need to know that sexual abuse is described in a matter-of-fact but graphic manner. Some sections may be difficult to read.

Reviewed by Aubrey Hamilton, March 2018.

 

About the Author:

Sweta Srivastava Vikram (www.swetavikram.com), featured by Asian Fusion as “one of the most influential Asians of our time,” is an award-winning author of eleven books, five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, mindfulness writing coach, wellness columnist, global speaker, and certified yoga and Ayurveda holistic health counselor. Sweta’s work has appeared in The New York Times and other publications across nine countries on three continents. Louisiana Catch (Modern History Press) is her debut US novel. Born in India, Sweta spent her formative years between the Indian Himalayas, North Africa, and the United States collecting and sharing stories. A graduate of Columbia University, she also teaches the power of yoga, Ayurveda, and mindful living to female trauma survivors, writers and artists, busy women, entrepreneurs, and business professionals in her avatar as the CEO-Founder of NimmiLife (www.nimmilife.com). She also uses her holistic wellness training to combine creative writing strategies with Ayurveda and yoga to help poets and writers improve their writing. She lives in Queens, New York, with her husband, Anudit.

Book Review: Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper by Ana Brazil

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Title: Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper
Series: A New Orleans Gilded Age Mystery #1
Author: Ana Brazil
Publisher: Sand Hill Review Press
Publication Date: November 1, 2017
Genre: Historical Mystery

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Purchase Links:

Barnes & Noble // Amazon // Indiebound

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Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper
A New Orleans Gilded Age Mystery #1
Ana Brazil
Sand Hill Review Press, November 2017
ISBN 978-1-937818-63-0
Trade Paperback

From the publisher—

Gilded Age New Orleans is overrun with prostitutes, pornographers, and a malicious Jack the Ripper copycat. As threatening letters to newspaper editors proclaim, no woman is safe from his blade.

Desperate to know who murdered her favorite student, ambitious typewriting teacher Fanny Newcomb launches into a hunt for the self-proclaimed Irish Channel Ripper.

Fanny quickly enlists her well-connected employers—Principal Sylvia Giddings and her sister Dr. Olive—to help, and the women forge through saloons, cemeteries, slums, and houses of prostitution in their pursuit.

Fanny’s good intentions quickly infuriate her longtime beau Lawrence Decatur, while her reckless persistence confounds the talented police detective Daniel Crenshaw. Reluctantly, Lawrence and Daniel also lend their investigative talents to Fanny’s investigation.

As the murderer sets a date for his next heinous crime, can Fanny Newcomb and her crew stop the Irish Channel Ripper before he kills again?

In yet another foray into the world of young women in historical times who flaunt the “rules” of the day and pursue lives of their own creation, Fanny Newcomb enters the scene. Fanny is a bright, appealing teacher of immigrant women, attempting to help them attain better lives in a city that has its own brand of shadiness.

Fanny doesn’t believe it when Karl, a German carpenter of her acquaintance is accused of murdering Nora, an Irish prostitute (maybe) and one of Fanny’s favorite students. Neither her beau or the local police detective want to really listen to what she has to say so Fanny enlists the aid of her employers, the Giddings sisters, to make their way through the seediest and most dangerous parts of New Orleans in search of the truth, eventually gaining a little help from the reluctant Lawrence Decatur and Detective Daniel Crenshaw.

Fanny and the sisters, Olive and Sylvia, are a smart and endearing trio and I thoroughly enjoyed their intrepid adventures in pursuit of justice. They’re especially appealing in their determination to live life by their own rules rather than being hemmed in by the ruthless requirements of the Victorian period and I also appreciated the author’s skillful evocation of New Orleans in its wild and wooly days. I really hope that more adventures are to come.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, March 2018.

About the Author

A native of California, Ana Brazil lived in the south for many years. She earned her MA in American history from Florida State University and traveled her way through Mississippi as an architectural historian. Ana loves fried mullet, Greek Revival colonnades, and Miss Welty’s garden. She has a weakness for almost all things New Orleans. (Although she’s not sure just how it happened…but she favors bluegrass over jazz.)

The Fanny Newcomb stories celebrate the tenacity, intelligence, and wisdom of the dozens of courageous and outrageous southern women that Ana is proud to call friends.

Although Ana, her husband, and their dog Traveller live in the beautiful Oakland foothills, she is forever drawn to the lush mystique of New Orleans, where Fanny Newcomb and her friends are ever prepared to seek a certain justice.

For more information, please visit Ana Brazil’s website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Goodreads.

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Follow the tour here.

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Giveaway

A paperback copy of Fanny Newcomb
and the Irish Channel Ripper

Enter here.

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Book Review: Girl Divided by Willow Rose

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Girl Divided is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel infused with magical
forces. If you like immersive worlds, strong characters, and a tale
that reads like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King combined, then
you’ll love Willow Rose’s provocative story.

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Purchase Link:

Amazon

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Girl Divided
Willow Rose
Buoy Media, January 2018
ISBN 978-1973279426
Trade Paperback

From the author—

They think she’s a monster, but she’s their only hope…

In a divided nation, 14-year-old Jetta belongs nowhere. Her face is split right down the middle: half-black and half-white. The non-white residents of her New Orleans camp call her a demon. The white oppressors who took over during the 2nd American Civil War have called her much worse…

After years as an outcast, Jetta uncovers her true heritage as the daughter of an African storm god and a Finnish death goddess. As she attempts to harness her terrible new abilities to turn the tide in the war, trouble comes to those she tries to help. Only Jetta has the power to heal her divided homeland… or destroy everything in her path…

It’s always nice to see diversity in fiction but Willow Rose has taken it to a new level by having a protagonist who is not only biracial but who also literally looks the part with a face that’s white on one side and black on the other. As you might anticipate, this makes life difficult for Jetta because, even in her future world, bigotry is still rampant. Whether the author’s choice to do this evidences her understanding of both white and black lives I’m not sure because I can only speak for the white side. To that end, I don’t think it quite works because, in this story, white people are almost universally bad.

I do think I might have connected better if I really understood the circumstances of this very different society (or is it so different?) Unfortunately, worldbuilding is a little weak so some answers are missing. What I did find especially interesting is the concept that two deities have created Jetta with the intent of causing vicious racial tension in America…and succeeding to the point of civil war. As a harbinger of what might come in reality if we don’t pay attention, Girl Divided is quite effective and thought-provoking.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2018.

About the Author

The Queen of Scream aka Willow Rose is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author and an Amazon ALL-star Author of more than 40 novels. She writes Mystery, Suspense, Horror, Supernatural thrillers, and Fantasy.

She lives on Florida’s Space Coast with her husband and two daughters. When she is not writing or reading, you will find her surfing and watch the dolphins play in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

Willow’s books are fast-paced, nail-biting pageturners. Several of her books have reached the Kindle top 20 of ALL books in the US, UK, and Canada. She has sold more than two million books.

 

Website // Facebook // Twitter // Bookbub // Amazon // Goodreads

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Follow the tour here.

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Giveaway
$25 Amazon Gift Card
Enter here

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A Passel of Teeny Reviews Part 1

Once again, big surprise, I find myself with
an overload of books read but not yet reviewed
so I think it’s time for a roundup or two.

Don’t Get Mad, Get Even
Colin Goodwin
2QT Limited, July 2015
ISBN 978-1-910077-60-3
Trade Paperback

This book had me chuckling quite a bit with its premise—blackmailing an English village’s cricket club to either win  a trophy or lose its playing ground. Along with this audacious crime, we have village ladies who truly appreciate the hired ringer’s skills and a shady real estate development plan. It’s all great fun even with sabotage and perhaps a little murder.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.

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Cat in an Alphabet Endgame
The Midnight Louie Mysteries #28
Carole Nelson Douglas
Wishlist Publishing, August 2016
ISBN 978-1-943175-05-5
Trade Paperback

I confess, I put off reading this as long as I possibly could, so long I’m really embarrassed but I just did NOT want to see the end of this series I love so much. I didn’t want to know who Temple would marry, didn’t want all the little loose ends tied up in neat bows. Midnight Louie is the alpha and omega of feline sleuths and I adore his hardboiled, attitudinous self and, even knowing he was going to continue in different adventures sometime in the future, letting go was so very hard. But…I eventually had to give in and, of course, I enjoyed this book as much as all the others. Temple is distracted by thoughts of saying yes to one guy or the other, the mob has reared its ugly head, there are hints of terrorism and Louie and his Cat Pack are on the case(s). When it’s all said and done, Louie leaves us—and multitudes of Las Vegas felines—with a rousing speech and an offer of appetizers. Ah, Louie, Temple and the rest, I’m going to miss you (until you show up again).

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.

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Memory
Sharon Ervin
The Wild Rose Press, March 2017
ISBN 978-1-5092-1290-3
Trade Paperback

Mistaken identity takes on a whole new meaning when a woman is killed and everyone thinks it’s Memory Smith. She hasn’t been run over but somebody certainly has thrown a punch at her and Assistant DA Mac McCann wants to know what’s going on with his former classmate. Did someone really mean to kill her? Memory is an odd woman but Mac is drawn to her and the mystery surrounding her supposed death. As you might expect in romantic suspense, an emotional attachment between the two of them soon takes on a life of its own but Memory may not survive long enough to see what might develop with Mac.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.

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Crepe Factor
A Scrapbooking Mystery #14
Laura Childs with Terrie Farley Moran
Berkley Prime Crime, October 2016
ISBN 978-0-425-26670-0
Hardcover

Ms. Childs and Ms. Moran continue their collaboration in a charming mystery featuring the death by fork of a food critic (stick a fork in me, I’m done, anyone?) practically right in front of Carmela and Ava, sleuthing duo extraordinaire. Carmela’s previous relationship with the #1 suspect makes sticking her nose in a little dicey and her current boyfriend, police detective Edgar Babcock really wants her to stay out of his investigation but she and Ava can’t resist. A nifty whodunnit and characters that feel like old friends, not to mention a few recipes and scrapbooking tips round out this entertaining entry in the series. I always enjoy these two, especially the slightly loony Ava, and for a few hours while I’m reading one of these books, I can’t help wishing I had the patience and dedication to get into scrapbooking…but the urge passes until the next book 😉

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.

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The Locket
On Dark Shores #0
J.A. Clement
Weasel Green Press, December 2016
Ebook

Every child gets excited and exceedingly nosy when Yuletide approaches and the seven-year-old Nereia is no exception. Her father has brought her a special surprise, her Godmother, stopping off for a visit before returning to her diplomatic duties in the midst of war and a beautiful silver locket marks Nereia’s first time taking part in the Yule ceremony. This is a sweet story, very short, and a prequel to Ms. Clement‘s On Dark Shores fantasy series. I think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew anything about the series and I don’t understand the description’s reference to “there is mystery in the air…” but I spent a pleasant few minutes with this small family.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.