Book Review: The Quick and the Thread

Title: The Quick and the Thread

Author: Amanda Lee

Series: Embroidery Mystery

Book in Series: 1

Genre: Mystery

Format: Kindle

Publisher: Berkley

Published: August 3, 2010

Pages: 324

My Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: 

When Marcy Singer opens an embroidery specialty shop in quaint Tallulah Falls, Oregon, she throws a soiree and a Stitch-In. Soon Marcy's sign up sheet for embroidery classes fills up and everyone in town seems to be willing to raise a glass-or a needle up to support the newly opened Seven Year Stitch.

Then Marcy finds the shops previous tenant dead in the store room, a message scratched with a tapestry needle on the wall beside him.  Now Marcy's shop has become a crime scene, and she is the prime suspect.  She will have to find the killer, before he puts a stitch in her.

My Thoughts: 

This book is the first in the series, I am a little late in the game in reading this.  I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book.  I have to tell you this book was excellent.  It is nice to see a mystery that also includes a needle specialty shop for cross stitch.  I am an avid stitcher and this was right up my alley.  The story and the plot were very well written, and the whole story just flowed.  

We follow along with Marcy to help her find out who killed someone in her storeroom.  It takes us on a journey into cross stitching and murder.

This is definitely a must read mystery, especially if you are a cross stitcher, or even a crafter.

I give this book a rating of 5 stars!!!!

About the Author:

Gayle Trent (and pseudonym Amanda Lee) writes the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating Series and the Embroidery Mystery Series.  The cake decorating series features a heroine who is starting her life over in Southwest Virginia after a nasty divorce.  The Embroidery Mystery features a heroine who recently moved to the Oregon Coast to open an embroidery specialty shop.

Readers will be looking forward to future adventures.  RT Book Reviews nominated The Quick and Thread for a 2010 Book Reviewers Choice Award in the Amateur Sleuth Category.

Gayle Trent lives in Virginia with her family which includes her own "Angus", who is not an Irish Wolfhound, but a Great Pyrehees who provides plenty of inspiration for the character Mr. O'Ruff.

 

Book Review: Centurion Witness

Title: Centurion Witness

Author: Ed Mitchell

Genre: Historical Fiction/Thriller

Format: Kindle

Publisher: California Coast Publishing

Published: October 20, 2021

Pages: 185

My Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

The centurion is a seasoned warrior of Rome's frontier army, decorated for saving the lives of the ambitious generals, yet haunted by the harm caused during the recent battle.  His last assignment is, to again, be a body guard for the powerful.

 Quickly he is entangled in the security conflicts between Rome's governor in Judea and its religious leaders who want Jesus of Galilee killed for sedition.

The immediate political and religious struggle for control of the body of Jesus propels the centurion to guard his tomb.

My thoughts:

This book is very will written.  It takes us into the era of when Jesus is alive and right before he is crucified. It takes on a journey of the centurion who guard is his tomb, and how he came to guard his tomb and the events leading up to that and also what occurred after.  I was raised in a Methodist home and have always believed in Jesus and God.  I loved this book as it gave us another point of view into the events, and how the centurion strived to do five good deeds to redeem himself.  This book was excellent and I would most definitely recommend this book to everyone.  Hence why I gave it five stars.

About the Author:

Ed Mitchell was a foster child who later graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  He went on to be an Airborne Infantry Ranger, a RAND Corporation Fellow, an aerospace systems engineer and community activist fighting to protect water resources in California.

Along the way Ed became a national award winning author by weaving his real world experiences from foxhole to space into his contemporary adventure/thrillers.

 

Book Review: Shock Wave

 

Title:  Shock Wave

Author: Al Pessin

Genre: Thriller

Format: Kindle

Publisher: Pinnacle

Publication Date: January 25, 2022

Pages: 368

My Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:

Vital seaports in Jordan and Israel erupt in fire and destruction.  It's the first strike from a terrorist organization determined to increase hostilities throughout the Middle East.

There's only one way to combat the threat. It's Operation Shock Wave...

Saddiq Mohammed al-Assali is America's most wanted terrorist.  His cells in Israeli and the Palestinian territories are ready and eager to usher in a maelstrom of violence between the two nations.  Each will blame the other.  Iran will be implicated.  And the United States will be drawn into yet another Middle Eastern war.

To stop aal-Assali, the Defense Intelligence Agency's Bridget Davenport assigns Lieutenant Faraz Abdallah to infiltrate the terrorist's cabal.  But as Faraz uncovers and sabotages al-Assali's plans one by one.  Bridget herself becomes a target and Faraz must take decisive action in a deadly game of international deceit.

My Thoughts:

While I love political thrillers, I just couldn't get into this book.  While it was well written, the plot was very slow starting.  That is why I am giving this 3 stars.  That is my honest opinion.

About the Author:

Al Pessin's first novel, the thriller Sandblast was published by Kensington in March 2020.  The book was short listed for the 2017 Bosque Fiction Award, and was a top five selection among all unpublished book length submissions in the 2018 Royal Palm Literary Awards.

Al was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years based in Hong Kong, Islamabad, Bejing, Jerusalem, and London.  In all he spent thirty nine years as a TV/radio broadcaster, editor, and manager at the Voice of America. His most recent assignments had him reporting from the war zones, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and East Ukraine.

Al lives in Florida with his wife Audrey and their precious labrador Rory.

 

Book Review: The Starless Crown

 

Title: The Starless Crown

Author: James Rollins

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure

Format: Audiobook

Series: Moon Fall

Book in Series: Number 1

Pages: 560

Publisher: Tor Books

Publication Date: January 4, 2022

My Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:

A gifted student foretells an apocalypse.  Her reward is a sentence of death.  Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts;

A broken solider, who once again takes up the weapons he's forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home.

A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a purpose of his own.

An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe.

On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover anicent secrets that hold the key to their salvation.  But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.

My Thoughts:

I love books by James Rollins, and while I am not into this kind of genre, I enjoyed it.  With that being said, the plot was a little slow, but a very well written story line.

About the Author:

James Rollins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers. His writing has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than 20 million books. The New York Times says, “Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together.” NPR calls his work, “Adventurous and enormously engrossing.” Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets matched with stunning suspense. As a veterinarian, he had a practice in Sacramento for over a decade and still volunteers at local shelters. Nowadays, Rollins shares his home up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with his two golden retrievers, Echo and Duncan. He also enjoys scuba diving, spelunking, kayaking, and hiking. Of course, he loves to travel and experience new places around the world, which often inspire his next globe-trotting adventure. 

Book Review: A Simple Choice

 

Title: A Simple Choice

Author: David Pepper

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

Format: Kindle

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Publication Date: August 22,2022

pages: 432

My Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: 

When one of the nation's most prestigious senators jumps from a cliff in Maine, it is no surprise that the political elite and the media flock to the story, determined to uncover what has happened- and whether foul play was involved.  Palmer Knight, a fast rising TV news correspondent, is sent to cover the mysterious death, and finds himself embroiled in a plot that goes far beyond the Senate and onto the global stage.

Meanwhile, Army veteran and former Supreme Court clerk Amity Jones thought she had left the fast lane behind when she moved to Ohio to care for her cancer- stricken mother.

But her dogged pursuit of a local medical mystery places bring her back to the world of politics, and ultimately into Palmer's investigation of the senator's death.  The unlikely duo, brought together by seemingly unconnected events, soon find themselves enmeshed in a political conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power, and places their lives, and many others in terrible danger.

My Thoughts:

Amity's mother is dying from cancer, and there a "cure", but it comes at a cost. 

While reading this I was trying to see how a senator's death was related to Amity's mother dying from cancer.

The plot was very well written.  It takes us on a roller coaster of emotions, intrigue and suspense.  We go along with Amity and Palmer Knight, who is a reporter, as they weave through a conspiracy, and a mystery to figure out who is behind a death, and also this "cure".

This is a definite must read book.  I would definitely recommend this book! Hence my rating of five stars.

About the Author:

David Pepper is the author of Laboratories of Autocracy, as well as four novels including A Simple Choice , which is forthcoming in 2022, and the Jack Sharpe series, including The Voter File, The Wingman, and The People's House.

He earned his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.  He has clerked for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals.

Pepper worked in St. Petersburg, Russia for the Washington based center for Strategic and International Studies.  He served as Chairman of the Democratic Party of Ohio from 2015-2021.

Book Review: The Midnight Lock

Title: The Midnight Lock

Author: Jeffrey Deaver

Genre: Mystery

Format: Kindle

Series: Lincoln Rhyme

Book in Series: 15

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Published: November 30, 2021

Pages: 448

My Rating: Five Stars

Synopsis

When a woman arrives home to her Manhattan apartment to find her personal items have been rearranged while she slept, police initially dismiss her complaint.  Nothing was stolen, and there's no sign of breaking and entering.  

But when the same woman turns up dead, Lincoln Rhyme and Ameila Sachs are brought in to investigate and soon learn that the sociopathic intruder who calls himself "The Locksmith" can break through any lock or security system ever devised.  With more victims in the horizon, Rhyme, Sachs and their stable of associates must follow the evidence to the man's lair, and discover his true mission.

Their hunt is interrupted when an internal investigation in the police force uncovers what seems to be a crucial mistake in one of Rhyme's previous cases.  

He is fired as a consultant for the NYPD and must risk jail if he investigates the Locksmith case in secret.

My Thoughts:

As soon as I picked up this book and started reading, I knew this book was going to be hard to put down.  The plot was really well written, and also the story.  

Lincoln Rhyme and his wife Amelia Sachs race to solve a couple of strange break ins, that seem to not really look like anything has happened,  hence the Locksmith.  They race to stop the suspect and also race to make sure Lincoln doesn't go to jail.  

There are plenty of twists and turns in this story, and the book is very hard to put down.  

Jeffery has always written excellent books, but this one is at the top of the list.  It is a definite must read.

I would absolutely recommend this book! That is why I give this book five stars.

About the Author:

Jeffery Deaver is the New York bestselling author of nineteen suspense novels, including The Blue Nowhere, and The Bone Collector.  He has been nominated for three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and is a two time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers Award for the Best Short Story of the year.

Jeffery lives in California and Virginia.

 

Book Review: Dead City

Title: Dead City

Author: Sean Platt and Johnny B. Turant

Genre: Mystery/ Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Series: Dead World

Book Number: 1

Format: Kindle

Publisher: Sterling and Stone; 2nd edition

Published: March 12, 2017

                                           Pages: 448

                                           My Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis

Rising star Ian Keys has climbed to the top rungs of pharma giant Hemisphere-creator of Necrophage, the drug that paused the necrotic outbreak that allowed the infected to live among us.

Ian's new position gives him access to dangerous information that could ruin the company when ominous hints from an anonymous insider set him on the hung for the biggest secret of all, he discovers that the "cure" the company gave the world might not have been a cure at all.  

Now men are watching Ian's house.  They are following his wife wherever she goes.  When he is called to CEO Archibald Burgess's office, he is taken by armed guards, then plied with threats.

What would happen if Necrophage failed? Burgess asks what would become of our society if the disease were allowed to progress again, and all of our well behaved patients slowly turned feral?

There is only one person Ian can take his case to, reporter Alice Frank, who has been trying to blow the whistle on Hemisphere for years.

My thoughts

As I started reading this, at first I thought this was going to be an awesome book.  But as I was reading, I realized that it was basically a zombie like story plot.  Don't get me wrong, the plot was okay and interesting, but because it was a zombie sort of plot, I just couldn't see myself reading more of these books.  It started slow, and it felt like a soap opera.  Thus why I am only giving this a rating of 3 stars!

About the Authors

Sean Platt is an entrepreneur and founder of Sterling and Stone, where he makes stories with his partners, Johnny B. Truant and David W. Wright.

Sean is the best selling author of books that include Yesterday's Gone, and Invasion Series.

Sean is originally from Long Beach, California, but now lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two children.

Johnny B. Truant is co owner of Sterling and Stone.  He spends his days creating cool stuff with his partners Sean Platt and David W. Wright.

Johnny is the best selling author of over 100 books under various pen names, including the Fat Vampire and Invasion series.

Originally from Ohio, he now lives in Austin, Texas, where he is surrounded by creative types as weird as he is.