my picks

GALLIMORE by Michelle Griep

2009-01-26T15:51:00.007-07:00

Under a peaceful sky, scattered about an English meadow, huge rocks testify of a disappeared civilization. Gallimore Castle. Jessica Neale wanders through these ruins as she awaits her companion. Without warning, a storm arises.
In her rented car Jessica attempts to escape the raging weather but she loses control of the unfamiliar automobile and crashes into a tree.
When consciousness returns, Jess finds herself surrounded by men attired in medieval garb. Some sort of enactment, she thinks, but time proves her observation incorrect. This is for real. Somehow, she’s alive two hundred and fifty years before she’s born.
In GALLIMORE, Michelle Griep leads her readers on a brutal, yet fascinating journey through medieval England. She captures feelings and thoughts of knights that history books find impossible. She exposes how these mighty men react to a modern day young women who holds more disdain than reverence for them. Yet loves grows.
This book is a must read. Like a beautiful piece of music, it starts soft and alluring, then ends with a deafening crescendo.
I give GALLIMORE five dog ears out of five.

THE SANCTUARY by Raymond Khoury

2008-11-03T16:24:00.003-07:00

Archaeologist, Evelyn Bishop had no idea she was about to open an abyss that would pull her into its bowels when she agreed to meet a former employee. Within hours of that meeting she was kidnapped at gunpoint from a busy street in Lebanon and taken to an institution chillingly similar to an experimental facility she’d explored in Baghdad years earlier. The same circular image she’d seen in the first place was engraved in the wall of her cell. A snake eating its tail.
Mia, Evelyn’s daughter and an FBI agent embark on a deadly journey to find Evelyn. Every lead they follow ends with one more person being killed and the symbol of the snake eating its tail.
In THE SANCTUARY, Raymond Khoury follows the intricate and bloody trail of an old, half burned manuscript from Portugal 1705 to modern day Iraq. Into black market antiquity trading. Into experimental laboratories where you feel the same pain coursing through your veins as each victim does. Just when you think the story can’t get any worse, and they have to locate Evelyn, Khoury takes you down another horrifying alley.
The opening of this story grabbed and pulled me into itself the way no other story has. I give THE SANCTUARY 5 dog ears out of 5.

THE ROOK by Steven James

2008-11-03T15:39:00.004-07:00

Special Agent Patrick Bowers flies to San Diego to investigate a string of arsons but finds himself on a case where even the obvious is a lie. A simple arson turns into a suicide and a kidnapping ends in murder, but not of the kidnapped victim. All these incidents have a common denominator, and Agent Bowers is determined to locate it. Every lead he follows finishes in a dead end. And to complicate matters further, his teenaged stepdaughter, whom he brought along for a holiday, challenges every rule he insists she obey.
Then someone makes a simple mistake, and Agent Bowers finds the common denominator. All the incidents line up, exposing an unbelievable crime. But even that has a twist.
THE ROOK kept my toes curled up from beginning to end and I read around the clock, unable to set the book aside. I give The Rook 5 dog ears out of 5.

The Calm Before the Storm

2008-11-03T11:25:00.007-07:00

In THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM, Janice Dick weaves together love, adventure, and mayhem in a politically unstable Russia. A desire to see the world beyond the borders of his small village strikes Johann Sudermann, a Mennonite school teacher. He accepts a position as a tutor for a wealthy man’s children in a distant settlement. On a journey to Moscow, he is thrown into the midst of a deadly political movement when he meets his boyhood friend. Stalin will save Russia from oppression he is told, but he escapes Moscow with little more than what he wears. Just when Johann realizes he’s attached his heart to the wrong young woman he is called to serve his duty in World War 2. He is trained as a medic and shipped to the front line. By the grace of God, he survives his time surrounded by death, desease, and suffering to return home to the woman he loves.
I give The Calm Before The Storm 41/2 dog ears out of 5.

Standard of Honor

2008-10-11T20:01:00.006-06:00

Standard of Honor

by Jack Whyte

Sprinkled throughout most European history books are an elusive group of men called The Knights Templars. In STANDARD OF HONOR, Jack Whyte, through his protagonist, Andre St. Clair, pulls his readers into the secret lives of the Knights Templars.

Andre joins the third Crusade to the Holy Land in order to locate documents belonging to this ancient brotherhood. His birth and ability puts him in Richard the Lionheart's inner circle but his dreams keep him in the humble monk's quarters. As he journeys across Europe, Cyprus, and finally the Holy Land, he finds his greatest enemy is not the people he's going to free Jerusalem from, but those whom he is forced to trust.

I give Standard of Honor five dog ears out of five.

A BRIDE SO FAIR by Carol Cox

2008-08-30T19:08:00.004-06:00

A Bride so Fair is a book for a rainy day, a fireplace, and a warm quilt. Carol Cox brings you into an innocent, God-centered lifestyle, then throws in incredible complications.
Emily Ralston, who grew up in an orphanage obtains work in the Children’s Building at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Stephen Bridger, a young Colombian Guardsman at the fair, finds a lost child and brings him to the Children’s Building until his parents are located. When no parents are found, Emily is told by her supervisor to call the authorities and place Adam into their care. Knowing how an orphanage is run, Emily sneaks the child to her own home.
Stephen is so smitten with Emily he returns to the Children’s Building the next day using Adam’s whereabouts as and excuse to see her again. Caught off guard, Emily tells a half-truth that leads Stephen to believe the child’s parents picked him up. Then Adam’s mother is found murdered in a shed on the fair grounds.
For a while Emily’s lies cloud Stephen’s feelings for her, but eventually he understands why she behaved the way she did and falls in love with Adam as well as Emily. But Adam’s father enters the story bringing mayhem and threatening murder.
This story is so well crafted, you will not put it down until the last page is finished. I give A BRIDE SO FAIR 4 ½ dog ears out of five.

BLOOD BROTHERS by Rick Acker

2008-08-29T20:44:00.002-06:00

Blood Brothers is not a book for the meek. Intrigue, greed, or murder seep into every scene, leaving me gripping the arm of my chair with numb, white knuckles. Acker brings sibling rivalry to a new dimension in this gripping, fast moving tale.
Gunner and Karl Bjornsen led their successful family business, Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals, until Gunner discovers a miracle drug worth billions.
After Karl’s conniving removes Gunner from the company, he turns to lawyer, Ben Corbin for help. During his investigation Ben finds an unusual file that takes him and his wife to Oslo. Sweden.
With the help of the accountant at the subsidiary office of Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals in Oslo, Ben unravels a skein of embezzlement, fraud, and drug smuggling. But when anyone steps uninvited into the underworld, there is always a price to pay.
If you like suspense, I give Blood Brothers five dog ears out of five.