THE SECRET WITNESS (Shepard & Gray Book #1) by Victor Methos is the exciting start to a new crime thriller series set in Utah and featuring a former prosecutor and the new female county sheriff. This book starts off with a bang and keeps the chills and twists coming.
After three vicious murders, Tooele County Sheriff Elizabeth Gray believes she is facing the same serial killer her father, the former sheriff was never able to catch. The Reaper was responsible for a string of vicious murders without leaving any evidence. Elizabeth calls on the friend and retired prosecutor her father trusted while working The Reaper case.
Former prosecutor Solomon Shepard knows about psychopathy. He wrote a preeminent reference book on the subject. He is retired from the Major Crimes prosecutor’s office after a courtroom attack and has become almost a hermit in his apartment. Elizabeth asks for help on the one case that has always haunted Solomon and is the only one with the ability to pull him back into his old life.
As Shepard and Gray investigate the body count grows and they are not sure if they are dealing with the return of the original serial killer or a copycat. They soon find themselves face-to-face with a killer neither expected.
I loved this thriller! The main characters were fully drawn with interesting backstories and a chemistry that worked as well as their partnership. I am very glad this is the start of a series because I really am invested in these characters and looking forward to following them in future books. The subplot with Solomon’s neighbor was heartbreaking and I hate to say realistic. The killer was a surprise, but believable even without the surprise twist at the end. I am always interested in the Nature vs. Nurture psychological arguments in serial crime books. The plot moves at an even and fast pace throughout with plenty of twists and surprises to keep the reader turning the page.
I highly recommend this new crime thriller and I am looking forward to more books in this series!
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About the Author
At the age of thirteen, when his best friend was interrogated by the police for over eight hours and confessed to a crime he didn’t commit, Victor Methos knew he would one day become a lawyer.
After graduating from law school at the University of Utah, Methos sharpened his teeth as a prosecutor for Salt Lake City before founding what would become the most successful criminal defense firm in Utah.
In ten years Methos conducted more than one hundred trials. One particular case stuck with him, and it eventually became the basis for his first major bestseller, The Neon Lawyer. Since that time, Methos has focused his work on legal thrillers and mysteries, earning a Harper Lee Prize for The Hallows and an Edgar nomination for Best Novel for his title A Gambler’s Jury. He currently splits his time between southern Utah and Las Vegas.
The discovery of an Amish bishop’s remains leads chief of police Kate Burkholder to unearth a chilling secret in The Hidden One, a new thriller from bestselling author Linda Castillo.
Over a decade ago, beloved Amish bishop Ananias Stoltzfus disappeared without a trace. When skeletal remains showing evidence of foul play are unearthed, his disappearance becomes even more sinister.
The town’s elders arrive in Painters Mill to ask chief of police Kate Burkholder for help, but she quickly realizes she has a personal connection to the crime. The handsome Amish man who stands accused of the murder, Jonas Bowman, was Kate’s first love. Forced to confront a painful episode from her past, Kate travels to Pennsylvania’s Kishacoquillas Valley, where the Amish culture differs dramatically from the traditions she knows. Though Bishop Stoltzfus was highly respected, she soon hears about a dark side to this complex man. What was he hiding that resulted in his own brutal death?
Someone doesn’t want Kate asking questions. But even after being accosted and threatened in the dead of night, she refuses to back down. Is she too close to the case―and to Jonas―to see clearly? There’s a killer in the Valley who will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. Will they get to Kate before she can expose the truth? Or will the bishop’s secrets remain hidden forever?
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Hidden One by Linda Castillo proves why she is one of the best mystery writers. She has done it again with a riveting plot and exceptional characters. In this novel, the main character, police chief Kate Burkholder, is taken out of her element and acting as a private investigator because she has no jurisdiction in the state where the murder took place.
This story allows readers to understand Kate’s earlier life, as she works out feelings from her past. Kate is approached by the Amish elders of Kish Valley Pennsylvania, asking her for assistance. They believe the local police have arrested the wrong person, Jonas Bowman, for murder. His old muzzleloader was found next to the body and worse, he confessed to it being his gun. With a lot of circumstantial evidence, including the fact that Jonas accosted the dead bishop, Ananias Stoltzfus, the police arrest him. Normally Kate would shrug it off, but she has a past relationship with Jonas. He was her childhood friend, someone she confided in, and her first love.
Hoping that being a Chief of Police will give her an in with local law enforcement, she finds just the opposite. The local police do not want her interfering, refuse to answer any questions, and want her to return to Painter’s Mill Ohio. But she knows Jonas and feels deep in her heart that he would never kill anyone. As the investigation progresses the persons of interest increase since the bishop had a very dark past and was cruel. Because there are also people who do not want her looking into the case, she is attacked multiple times. But the attacks make Kate even more determined to uncover the bishop’s secrets and the killer. As usual, the Kate Burkholder novels have compelling mysteries set in an Amish community. The story was engrossing and gripping with the bonus of finding out more of Kate’s childhood.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Linda Castillo: I wanted readers to get to know more of Kate and her personality. To do this, I wrote the crime as a cold case. I did some dark research for this book regarding the backstory of the villain, Ananias Stalzfus. I loved the idea how Kate figured it out. Back in 2019 my good librarian friend, Denise, at the Dover library and I had lunch along with an Amish man named Mark. He told me about the Kishacoquillas (Kish) Valley in central Pennsylvania and how the Amish there were “weird.” I was very intrigued since what Amish dude says that about another Amish.
EC: What is so different about the Kish Valley Amish?
LC: It is an extremely diverse Amish population including the strict Swartzenruber Amish, with grey buggies. Another sect, the Byler Amish, had lemon yellow buggies. The other type of Amish there is the Nebraska Amish. I had a scene in the book where Kate sees a buggy in the driveway that was colorful.
EC: In your books you depict the Amish as having some traits as other people?
LC: I wrote in this book, “The Amish are decent, hard-working people. They are good neighbors and good friends. All of that said, the Amish are not perfect. They’re human and they suffer with all the same failings as the rest of us. They lose their temper. They make mistakes. They behave badly. They break the rules. Sometimes they break the law.” I wanted to show that a culture should not be lumped into a box and pigeon-holed.
EC: How did you get such detail about the action scenes where Kate is put through the ringer?
LC: I had her beaten up, a car rammed her off the road, she was thrown into a raging river, and had hay bales thrown on her. My husband and I have three horses. We load hay bales all the time. This is where I thought about the hay scene. I love writing action and danger scenes. This is where my imagination comes into play.
EC: How would you describe the bad bishop, Stalzfus?
LC: He was a very wily individual. I did a lot of research on the medal that Kate discovered. This was a big clue on how he was responsible for the deaths of many, many people. He enjoys the power of running people’s lives, and if they do not follow his orders he ruins them through the Bann, excommunication, and silencing them. He is very strict, has tunnel vision, and he is stubborn. Stalzfus enjoys being a bully, is vindictive, violent, and cruel. He also does not want attention drawn from the outside world. He was a totalitarian person with complete control.
EC: How would you describe Jonas?
LC: He is a very typical Amish man. He is charismatic, charming, persuasive, and a family man.
EC: The relationship between Kate and Jonas?
LC: They shared a teenage tragedy. They knew each other when she was twelve. As she became a teenager when she was fifteen, he was nineteen. He was an adult, and she was underage. He did not know about the trauma that happened to Kate when she was fourteen. Without the trauma she might have stayed and married him, living the Amish life, and having children. They had a sad nostalgia for each other, but they were not going to give in to any past attraction. When she looks at Jonas’ wife there is one point in the story where Kate thinks what might have been me. There was no jealousy and friction between Kate and Jonas’ wife.
EC: Jonas understood Kate?
LC: He always came to her defense. Even though he did not agree with her he knew she was going to walk a hard road because she stood up for herself and got into fights. Even though he is a pacifist, part of him admired her actions. He accepted who she was, knowing she was unlike most Amish girls who were described as meek. Kate was never meek. He treated her as an equal. He knew Kate was a force to be reckoned with. Kate sensed he understood her and that she was going to be true to herself. He accepted her even after she left the Amish.
EC: The disaster Kate went through molded her personality?
LC: She became a non-conformist and is not a pacifist. She was able to overcome any bitterness toward the Amish. She can move beyond it to where she has a healthy respect for the Amish now. This is where her head is. She is not a quitter, hard-headed, and a sore loser.
EC: Why have Kate play hockey and baseball as a young teenager?
LC: I love those scenes. I was a tomboy as a child. It is a great feeling to hit a homerun with an aluminum Louisville slugger bat. You hear that “tank” and say, “yeah a homerun.” By playing these sports I think there were some hints that Kate would not have stayed Amish even if she did not have the trauma at fourteen. I really enjoy writing the scene with Kate and the baseball diamond.
EC: Any movie or TV series?
LC: Entertainment One bought an option. They have two years to pursue making a feature film or a series.
EC: The next book?
LC: The likely title will be An Evil Heart, coming out this time next year. Kate is now back at Painter’s Mill in Ohio. There is an unusual murder and Kate is trying to figure out what happened. There are some good twists.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for DEATH AND THE CONJUROR (Joseph Spector Book #1) by Tom Mead on this Partners In Crime Virtual Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
A magician-turned-sleuth in pre-war London solves three impossible crimes
In 1930s London, celebrity psychiatrist Anselm Rees is discovered dead in his locked study, and there seems to be no way that a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, the Scotland Yard detective on the case calls on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. For who better to make sense of the impossible than one who traffics in illusions?
Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colorful cast of suspects among the psychiatrist’s patients and household, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets―or motives for murder. When the investigation dovetails into that of an apparently-impossible theft, the detectives consider the possibility that the two transgressions are related. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realize that the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon.
A tribute to the classic golden-age whodunnit, when crime fiction was a battle of wits between writer and reader, Death and the Conjuror joins its macabre atmosphere, period detail, and vividly-drawn characters with a meticulously-constructed fair play puzzle. Its baffling plot will enthrall readers of mystery icons such as Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, modern masters like Anthony Horowitz and Elly Griffiths, or anyone who appreciates a good mystery.
Genre: Historical Mystery Published by: Mysterious Press Publication Date: July 12th 2022 Number of Pages: 254 ISBN: 1613163193 (ISBN13: 9781613163191) Series: Joseph Spector #1
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
DEATH AND THE CONJUROR (Joseph Spector Book #1) by Tom Mead is an entertaining throwback historical locked-door mystery set in 1930’s London and featuring a retired stage magician turned amateur sleuth.
Joseph Spector has retired from his job of mystifying audiences with his magical illusions, but still is available for consultation to his friend, Inspector George Flint from Scotland yard for assistance when the scene of a murder seems impossible. Psychiatrist Anselm Rees in found murdered in his home office by his daughter and one of his patients. The door and windows were locked and there was nowhere for escape, so Flint takes this impossible case to Spector for his assistance.
There are many suspects and a lot of misdirection in this locked-room mystery. When a second murder occurs, Spector must sort the truths from illusions for this murderer to be brought to justice.
This was an enjoyable read which reminded me of my love of the old style of murder mysteries especially Christies’ Poirot series. Spector was a wonderful character with his past profession being the perfect set-up to be of use to Inspector Flint. I also enjoyed when Spector explained how some of his illusions and slight-of-hand tricks were accomplished. All the suspects and secondary characters were well drawn to keep me guessing all the way to the end. The plot was well paced and full of red herrings and twists.
This is the first book in new this historical mystery series and I will be looking out for more stories featuring Spector in the future.
***
Excerpt
Olive already had the phone in her hand. “Two three one, Dollis Hill,” she announced. “Dr. Anselm Rees has been murdered.”
While she provided a few scant details, she looked around the room and noticed something.
“The windows are locked,” she said as she hung up the phone.
“Mm?” Della sounded startled.
“The windows. They’re locked on the inside.” To prove this, she gripped one of the handles and rattled it. It would not move, and the key protruded from the lock.
“So?”
“Then how did the killer get away?”
“What do you mean?”
“He can’t have come out through the hall. I was there the whole time. And not five minutes ago—not five minutes—I can tell you that the doctor was alive and well in this room because I heard him talking on the telephone.”
Della thought about this. “It can’t be locked.” She reached out and tried the handle for herself. But the windows did not budge.
“It’s locked on the inside,” said Olive, “just like the door.”
Della turned and looked at the corpse. He had sunk down in the chair like an unmanned hand puppet.
In the far corner of the room lay the wooden trunk. Olive caught Della’s eye and nodded toward it. Della frowned incredulously. Olive shrugged, as if to say, Where else would he be?
The two women crept across the soft plush carpet toward the trunk. Olive looked at Della and held a finger to her lips. She seized the poker from the fireplace and raised it above her head. Then she gave Della a quick nod.
Della leaned forward and wrenched open the trunk.
Olive let fly a fierce war cry and swung the poker like a tennis racquet. But all she hit was empty air. The two women peered inside the trunk. It was perfectly empty.
Olive led the way to the kitchen—but not before pulling shut the study door behind her, sealing in the late Dr. Rees once again.
They both felt slightly better after a tot of brandy. No less horrified, but more prepared to deal with the practicalities of the situation.
“What I don’t understand,” Della said, “is where the killer could have gone.”
“Nowhere,” said Olive. “There was nowhere for him to go.”
***Excerpt from Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead. Copyright 2022 by Tom Mead. Reproduced with permission from Tom Mead. All rights reserved.
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Author Bio
Tom Mead is a UK crime fiction author specialising in locked-room mysteries. He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association, International Thriller Writers, and the Society of Authors. He is a prolific author of short fiction, and recently his story “Heatwave” was included in THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR 2021, edited by Lee Child. DEATH AND THE CONJUROR is his first novel.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for DEAD DROP (A Detective Nathan Parker Novel Book #1) by James L’Etoile on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Hundreds go missing each year making the dangerous crossing over the border. What if you were one of them?
While investigating the deaths of undocumented migrants in the Arizona desert, Detective Nathan Parker finds a connection to the unsolved murder of his partner on a human smuggling run. The new evidence lures Parker over the border in search of the truth, only to trap him in a strange and dangerous land. If he’s to survive, Parker must place his life in the hands of the very people he once pursued.
Border violence, border politics, and who is caught in between. The forces behind it might surprise you.
Genre: Thriller Published by: Level Best Books Publication Date: July 19, 2022 Number of Pages: 300 ISBN: 978-1-68512-114-3 Series: The Detective Nathan Parker Series, Book 1
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
DEAD DROP (A Detective Nathan Parker Thriller Book #1) by James L’Etoile is a mash-up of fast-paced thriller, Federal and local police procedural, and southern border crime mystery. This is the first book in this new series and the first book I have read by this author.
Detective Nathan Parker is called by an eccentric local named Billie about four 55-gallon drums off the side of the highway she discovered while searching for scrap. She has opened one of the drums and found a body stuffed inside. This dead drop is not the first found and all contained illegal immigrant males. The coroner discovers they have all died from fentanyl poisoning.
When Parker gets to close to several cartel operations, he is carried across the border to meet the head of the cartel and faces a horrible death, but Billie has followed him. Billie is not what Parker first perceived and he soon learns to survive, he is going to have to put his life in the hands of the people he once pursued and looked down upon.
I thought I was getting a straightforward southern border drug cartel crime story, but this story with its many twists and surprises is so much more. Nathan Parker is a man who has been in law enforcement for some time and has preconceived notions. He is also carrying a lot of guilt over the death of his partner. As Parker progresses through the story, he has his eyes opened and is discovering an empathy he did not have previously. Billie is a big part in helping Parker see the other side of his prejudice against illegal immigrants and in helping him fight and survive the antagonists. I liked Nathan and his character’s growth, but I really loved Billie. This is the first book I have read written by this author, and I will be looking for others in his catalogue. Great characters, fast-paced, surprising and a realistic ending had me reading this book way past my bedtime.
I highly recommend this first thriller in this new series, and I cannot wait for more!
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Excerpt
Chapter 1
With one good score Billie Carson hoped she could begin to repair the damage from her past. But after three hours kicking rocks in the sweltering North Phoenix sun, all Billie had to show for the effort was a bag of beer cans and three Jeep lug nuts. She knew most folks wrote her off as a scavenger, but Billie fancied herself as a treasure-hunter. It was a romantic notion, in her mind—always looking for that one big find. She’d dug up wallets, rings, car parts, and good scrap metal out here. Not the crap you tripped over in the bottom of a desert wash, but leftover copper wire from building sites and steel tire rims left behind on the side of the asphalt. The recycling yards paid you good money for that shit, but money could never really make up for the broken lives she’d left behind. How could you repay the ghosts of men you’d led to their death?
Billie looked at the meager haul in her black garbage bag and calculated she wouldn’t be able to buy a cold beer at Paula’s Roadhouse on the way home, let alone help anyone else. Besides, the Roadhouse made her sit outside on the patio with her beer, on the days she could afford one. Paula told her once she made the regulars uncomfortable and wasn’t welcome inside. The beer was cold out on the patio and she figured she wouldn’t like the company inside anyway.
She knew there were treasures out here among the Saguaro cactus and creosote brush waiting to be discovered. Hell, she found her Maui Jim sunglasses out here, you could barely see the crack in the left lens after you got used to it. If she had the money, she’d buy one of them fancy electronic metal detectors that beeped and chirped when you found the good stuff. Paula would let her inside the Roadhouse then, for sure. Until Billie found her big score, she’d keep her head down and kick some more rocks.
Dry, spindly brush dotted the roadside. Thin branches cracked when you knocked up against them. The broken limbs were sharp and left red welts if you ventured too far off the beaten path. Motorists tossed, or lost, most of the good stuff she found a few feet off the road. Billie couldn’t imagine a world where you lost hard earned jewelry out your window and didn’t bother to stop and go find it. If tourists on their way to Cave Creek, or Sedona, were so well off they didn’t need their stuff–that was fine by her.
Billie spotted a set of tire tracks off the asphalt and her heart began to race. What if she found a broken refrigerator dumped in the brush? She could eat for a month on what she’d pull for scrapping a hulking appliance. She’d figure a way to drag it out of the desert before someone else grabbed it. The wide tracks bent behind a rock outcropping digging three inches into the sandy desert floor. Billie knew the vehicle was laden with treasure if it left tire tracks up to her ankles.
She slipped a dingy blue bandanna from her head and wiped the gritty sweat at the back of her neck. A makeshift canteen, fashioned from a Gatorade bottle and a length of drapery cord hung from Billie’s neck. She unscrewed the plastic cap and poured the last of her water on the bandanna. The soaked cloth cooled her head for the climb to the top of the hardscrabble rock outcropping.
The view from the small rise looked down into a deep, sandy wash where the memory of scant seasonal rainfall from the monsoons faded into chalky dust. Patches of tinder-dry brush lined the edges of the dry bed. The heavens hadn’t seen fit to nourish their shallow roots for months. A moonscape of tumbled rocks, sand, and broken branches, left behind by a distant flash flood, lined the bed. At the center of the sandy basin, the deep ruts ended. A second set of tire tracks painted a story of a stop before backing into the middle of the sand. At the end of the tracks no prize waited for her; no refrigerator, no mattress, not even a crumpled beer can. Whatever it was, Billie figured someone else got here first. She crawled down the rock ledge to the floor of the basin, kicking smaller rocks and watching for rattlesnakes along the way.
Down in the wash, the dry brush was taller than it seemed from the view up on the rise. Thin dried fingers of creosote bush towered over Billie’s five-seven height, and the vegetation screened off access to the dry bed. The brush lay crushed and broken at the edge of the parched earth where the vehicle punched through the barrier. Billie hiked the plowed path, where dry shattered twigs snapped under her boots releasing the acrid resin smell from the creosote bush.
Hidden from the road, Billie knew this was the perfect spot for a quick illegal dump. Yet, there was nothing here. Maybe it was a quickie dump of another sort, she thought, a make-out spot for a couple of hormone-engorged teenagers.
She turned and spotted a bright white patch in the brush at the bottom of the draw. A few steps closer and Billie made out four fifty-five gallon drums partially hidden under a layer of broken creosote branches. She wouldn’t have seen them if it weren’t for the blue and white stripes emblazoned on the sides of the containers.
“Well, shit. This don’t get any better.”
Billie swiveled around and tried to catch a glimpse of anyone who might be keeping an eye on the barrels. She knew she wasn’t the smartest woman, but what she did know was people who stashed things in the desert, generally don’t want them found. She also knew you dumped things out here to get rid of them fast.
Billie got on her knees next to one of the barrels, tossed off the layer of broken branches, and the hot metal surface burned her palm. She wrapped her bandanna around her fingers and forced the barrel upright. It was heavy, but she felt the contents shift as the barrel moved. She figured a land developer or machine shop owner needed a place to dump used oil, or chemicals they’d have to pay the county to take off their hands. Billie figured the empty drums would net her ten bucks a piece, easy. She’d dump the oil, or whatever was in the cylinder, back in the dusty wash. Her daddy always poured his motor oil out in the desert and Billie never even saw so much as a sick coyote.
She strained with the locking ring on the lid. It wouldn’t budge. Billie ran a finger across dark marks where tack welds burnt the paint away from the locking ring.
Something good was in this barrel, for sure. Why go through this effort for used motor oil? If it was old pesticide, maybe she could wrangle a reward from one of them cactus-lovin’ environmental places.
Billie grabbed a rock and hammered it against the welds. They chipped away after a few blows, and the bent locking ring fell at her feet. With the blade of a folding knife Billie kept on her belt, she pried under the lid. The lid popped and released a strong odor from within the sealed container. Billie grabbed her bandana and held it over her nose. The stench was unmistakable–decomposing flesh.
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Author Bio
James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, facility captain, and director of California’s state parole system. He is a nationally recognized expert witness on prison and jail operations. He has been nominated for the Silver Falchion for Best Procedural Mystery, and The Bill Crider Award for short fiction. His published novels include: Black Label, At What Cost, Bury the Past, and Little River. Look for Dead Drop in the summer of 2022.
THE NURSE’S SECRET by Amanda Skenandore is a historical fiction novel with romantic elements featuring a young female protagonist set in 1880’s New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. This is a standalone novel with great characters, a bit of sweet romance and a suspense murder mystery plot intertwined throughout.
New York City’s Bellevue Hospital is the first hospital in the U.S. to initiate a nursing school based on the principles of Florence Nightingale. The young ladies must be of high moral character, educated and from upper class homes. There is a strict code of decorum, discipline and work ethic that must be followed to remain in the program. Una Kelly is none of these things. Una is a con artist, pickpocket and thief who is found at the scene of a murder, arrested, and then escapes. She cons her way into the nursing program with the help of a friend to hide from the police.
With the help of her roommate, Una finds she is capable of pulling off this deception and even finds she is good with the patients. A young doctor in training is interested in the unique nurse probationer, but Una is afraid to admit she is not who she seems. But when a woman from her past shows up and threatens Una’s ruse, she is killed in the same method as the man Una is accused of killing.
Una knows someone is killing in Bellevue and it is like the murder she is accused of. She sets a trap, but she may end up the victim of this serial killer.
I loved this book and all the characters. Una is street smart and thick skinned due to her upbringing, but she also knows how to use her natural intelligence to get along in her ruse and she begins to really care about her patients. Una’s gradual change in caring for her roommate, Dru and the step-by-step acceptance of her friendship really emphasized her emotional changes. The sweet romantic elements worked to also show a side of Una where she is slightly vulnerable. I felt all the secondary characters were fully fleshed and believable for the historical period. The descriptions of 1880 New York display the research involved in this story along with all the historical medical treatments and techniques for both doctors and nurses. The suspense plot of this story is paced well throughout and has a believable ending.
I highly recommend this engaging historical fiction!
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About the Author
I’m lucky. I come from a family of diehard scientists—the kind who tell jokes about irrational numbers and use the Vulcan salute instead of waving goodbye. But there was always room in our house for the arts too. My sisters—one a conservation biologist, the other an astrophysicist—paint and play the flute. My father, a physicist, is also a movie buff. My mother, a mathematician, dabbles in everything from theater to stained glass. Me, I’m an infection prevention nurse. But first and foremost I’m a writer. Even when my pen is still, my mind is aflight with stories.
I’m lucky. I come from a family of readers. Books filled our shelves and trips to the library were routine. Even though I struggled with dyslexia and was slow to learn, my parents insisted I not give up. Now, I don’t read fast but I read often and wide—fantasy, scifi, paranormal romance, YA, literary, and of course, historical fiction.
I’m lucky. I married a man of great character and enduring flexibility. When I told him at thirty I wanted to quit my job and try to be a author, he said go for it. When I’d gone five years without selling a book or finding an agent, he said try a little longer.
I’m lucky. I finally found an agent, the wonderful Michael Carr, and sold my book, along with three others yet to be published, to Kensington Publishing.
My husband and I live in Las Vegas, NV with our pet turtle, Lenore.
An intimate and light-hearted memoir by viral sensation and three-timeEmmy-nominated musical comedian Randy Rainbow that takes readers through his life—the highs, the lows, the lipstick, the pink glasses, and the show tunes.
Randy Rainbow, the man who conquered the Internet with a stylish pair of pink glasses, an inexhaustible knowledge of Broadway musicals, and the most gimlet-eyed view of American politics this side of Mark Twain finally tells all in Playing with Myself, a memoir sure to cause more than a few readers to begin singing one of his greatest hits like “A Spoonful of Clorox” or “Cover Your Freakin’ Face.”
As Randy has said, “There’s so much fake news out there about me. I can’t wait to set the record straight and finally give people a peek behind the green screen.” And set the record straight he does. Playing with Myself is a first-hand account of the journey that led Randy Rainbow from his childhood as the over-imaginative, often misunderstood little boy who carried a purse in the second grade to his first job on Broadway as the host at Hooters and on to the creation of his trademark comedy character. In chapters titled “Pajama Bottoms” (a look back at the days when he wore pajama bottoms on his head to pretend he was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz), “Yes, It’s My Real Name, Shut Up!” (no explanation necessary…) and “Pink Glasses” (a rose-colored homage to his favorite accessory), Playing with Myself is a memoir that answers the question “Can an introverted musical theatre nerd with a MacBook and a dream save the world, one show tune at a time?”
PLAYING WITH MYSELF by Randy Rainbow is an entertaining and heartfelt audiobook memoir with the author himself narrating, because who else could do it justice? If you want to laugh and deal with the occasional tissue worthy tears, then this is the memoir for you.
Like many people, I discovered Randy Rainbow, yes that is his real name, on my social media feed during the previous administration and pandemic and was immediately addicted. He made me laugh and sing along to his videos through the scary and unbelievable. This audiobook is his life story to date narrated by himself. He tells stories of his grandmother always believing in him, his difficulties with his father and his unconventional path in the entertainment industry.
There are many ups and downs that are both humorous and heartbreaking and I felt it was all told from his soul. There is also plenty of name dropping and stories of Randy himself being a crazy fan as he meets his all-time favorite Broadway and entertainment stars. I enjoyed listening to him tell his story to date.
