Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Toxic Soup by R.R. Rowley

Toxic Soup

by RR Rowley

May 23 – June 17, 2022 Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for TOXIC SOUP by R.R. Rowley on this Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, and excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy and good luck on the giveaway!

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Book Description

The Poisoning Must End

Toxic waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has been poisoning the environment, human beings, and wildlife for more than six decades. When her brother dies a horrible death at Hanford, Casey Long, a kayaker and windsurfer by day and bartender by night in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon/Washington, swears to put an end to the upriver contamination. But, how can she possibly take on the entrenched fortress of a facility?

After she confides in Little Bear, a bitter Native American fisherman, they contrive a dangerous plan. Joined by a peculiar mishmash of collaborators, they risk everything to save the environment and achieve justice for all injured parties, past and present.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60205349-toxic-soup?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=h160rRTxFo&rank=1

Toxic Soup by R.R. Rowley

Genre: Environmental Thriller
Published by: The Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: April 11, 2022
Number of Pages: 272
ISBN: 1509241167 (ISBN-13: 978-1509241163)

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

TOXIC SOUP by R.R. Rowley is an environmental thriller set in the area around the Columbia River Gorge with a protagonist on the path of revenge for the death of her brother.

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation has been slowly poisoning the environment in the Pacific Northwest for over six decades. The government has the facility locked down, but the volatile waste is unstable and continually escapes in the air and water. Casey Long receives a life-changing call that her brother and only sibling has died in a terrible accident while he is working on the nuclear waste site on the border between Oregon and Washington. Casey is devastated and after seeing her brother’s remains and the treatment of the men in charge she must deal with at Hanford, she decides she will not rest until she has revenge for her brother.

The once easy going and friendly bartender devises a plan for revenge. She cannot get into Hanford, but she can get to the men in charge. With the help of one of her roommates, her lover, an ex-con bar regular and Little Bear, a Native American fisherman who also hates the facility and its poison, she looks for justice for her brother and hopes to bring to light the environmental nightmare that the facility is to the area.

I enjoyed the scenic descriptions of the area and the watersport scenes that Casey and her roommates enjoyed in the beginning of the story. I felt the author did a lot of research and was able to intertwine it seamlessly throughout the story to get the ominous human and wildlife environmental foreboding into the story without being just an info dump. The plot moves at a steady pace throughout much of the story with the predicted climax, but with a tragic twist ending. As much as this thriller is an environmental wake-up call, it is also a tragic story of revenge. Casey changes into a person that you can feel sadness and sympathy for, but I lost my empathy for her. The secondary characters are interesting and unique, but none are able to or attempt to change Casey’s path of revenge.

I found this environmental thriller intriguing and sad, but well worth the read.

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Excerpt

When the abandoned reactor sites came into view, they swung their kayaks into a backwater eddy. Spooked ducks sprang into flight in front of them. Boats gliding, they studied the depth of the water, avoiding the chance of running aground. Before them, some sickly grasses appeared at the edge of the river. Was this it? Casey paddled closer, excitement rising. Pointing to a spot upon the bank, she called to Rex, “See that? See that? Is water trickling out of the ground over there?”

He removed his sunglasses and squinted. “You’re right. There is a wet spot over there.”

Straggly, yellowed grasses drooped away from the seeping water. They moved even closer to get a better view. A foam rose from the trickle of liquid and spread to a nasty orange and pink gunk smeared over exposed rocks. “I see it!” Rex cried out, a jolt of fear zapping through him. “Radioactivity!” he screamed, quickly backstroking. “You’ve got your evidence. Let’s get out of here! I don’t want to be anywhere near that stuff.”

She had her proof. Toxicity flowed into the river. How many other places existed? Perhaps beneath the water, the contamination was much worse. Untouchable Hanford is getting away with whatever they want. Something needed to be done, but what? Something not only for Charley but for the birds, the fish, and all the little creatures suffering at the hand of man’s dereliction of duty. She knew what she had to do.

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Author Bio

R R Rowley has lived coast to coast in the USA, in London, UK, and has spent many years on his farm in Grenada, West Indies. He has owned and operated several companies and was involved in start-ups. Currently, he resides in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State.

Social Media Links

RRRowley.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @robroyukusa
Twitter – @rrrowleywrites
Facebook – RR Rowley/Author

Purchase Links

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads

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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY

https://kingsumo.com/g/t8mdoq/toxic-soup-by-rr-rowley

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Bones of Amoret by Arthur Herbert

Hi, everyone!

Today is my turn on this Blackthorn Book Tour and I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE BONES OF AMORET by Arthur Herbert.

Below you will find an about the book section, my book review, and about the author section with the author’s social media link. Enjoy!

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About the Book

In this enigmatic follow up to his critically acclaimed debut novel The Cuts that Cure, Arthur Herbert returns to the Texas-Mexico border with this saga of a small town’s bloody loss of innocence.

Amoret, Texas, 1982. Life along the border is harsh, but in a world where cultures work together to carve a living from the desert landscape, Blaine Beckett lives a life of isolation. A transplanted Boston intellectual, for twenty years locals have viewed him as a snob, a misanthrope, an outsider. He seems content to stand apart until one night when he vanishes into thin air amid signs of foul play.

Noah Grady, the town doctor, is a charming and popular good ol’ boy. He’s also a keeper of secrets, both the town’s and his own. He watches from afar as the mystery of Blaine’s disappearance unravels and rumors fly. Were the incipient cartels responsible? Was it a local with a grudge? Or did Blaine himself orchestrate his own disappearance? Then the unthinkable happens, and Noah begins to realize he’s considered a suspect.

Paced like a lit fuse and full of dizzying plot twists, The Bones of Amoret is a riveting whodunit that will keep you guessing all the way to its shocking conclusion.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60578363-the-bones-of-amoret?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=KMnwsKkSlr&rank=1

THE BONES OF AMORET: A NOVEL

By Arthur Herbert

Genre: Crime
Print length: 431
Age range: This is an adult book but suitable for mature teens age 16+
Trigger warnings: Homicides briefly described; murder of a child; brief drug references; discovery of a suicide; natural death of an adolescent

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE BONES OF AMORET: A Novel by Arthur Herbert is an intense read from start to finish with an intricate mystery plot set in the small Texan border town of Amoret in the early 1980’s. This is a suspenseful standalone novel.

Doctor Noah Grady is the 84-year-old protagonist of this story, and he is relating his tale from forty years ago to an unseen reporter which lends itself to comparisons from 1982 to present day in landscape, immigration, and medicine. Noah is educated, compassionate and a man ahead of his time, but by no means perfect. Not only Noah, but the majority of characters are written in a way that makes them neither fully good nor evil as in some mysteries, but as flawed humans who are doing what they believe is moral or necessary.

The mystery begins with the disappearance of a prominent local citizen and from there the suspects, as well as the dead bodies begin to pile up. The author’s intricately woven plot threads had me guessing and changing my opinion on the suspect throughout. The entire story flows at a steady pace that continues to build on itself with a final twist that was a complete shock, but it was also believable as I sat there and looked back on what I had read previously.

I highly recommend this extremely well written, compelling mystery with a memorable protagonist that I will not soon forget.

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About the Author

Arthur Herbert was born and raised in small town Texas. He worked on offshore oil rigs, as a bartender, a landscaper at a trailer park, and as a social worker before going to medical school. He chose to do a residency in general surgery, followed by a fellowship in critical care and trauma surgery. For the last eighteen years, he’s worked as a trauma and burn surgeon, operating on all ages of injured patients. He continues to run a thriving practice. He is the author of the acclaimed novel The Cuts that Cure, which was toured by Blackthorn last year.

Arthur currently lives in New Orleans, with his wife Amy and their dogs. Arthur loves hearing from readers, so don’t hesitate to email him at arthur@arthurherbertwriter.com.

Purchase link: http://mybook.to/Amazon_BonesOfAmoret

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: When She Dreams by Amanda Quick

Book Description

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

In spite of the verbal fireworks between them, they are fiercely attracted to each other, but each is convinced it would be a mistake to let passion take over. They are, after all, keeping secrets from each other. Sam is haunted by his past, which includes a marriage shattered by betrayal and violence. Maggie is troubled by intense and vivid dreams–dreams that she can sometimes control. There are those who want to run experiments on her and use her for their own purposes, while others think she should be committed to an asylum.

When the pair discovers someone is impersonating Aunt Cornelia at a conference on psychic dreaming and a woman dies at the conference, the door is opened to a dangerous web of blackmail and murder. Secrets from the past are revealed, leaving Maggie and Sam in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance.

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Elise’s Thoughts

When She Dreams by Amanda Quick, is a story with lies, murder, blackmail, and drugs. This series takes place during the 1930’s in the small town of Burning Cove, California with some recurring characters.

The opening scene sets the atmosphere for the rest of the plot. Maggie Lodge enters the office of Dr. Oxlade for a session about her lucid dreams. Unbeknownst to her, he gives her a drug called the enhancer. He is hoping to control her dreams, actions, and mind. As Maggie is fighting the effects of the drug, she barely escapes from the office.

Lucid dreams become almost a character in the story. People dreaming are aware that they are dreaming. During the dream someone may gain some amount of control over it to try to become aware of their consciousness.

Maggie must also deal with the fact that someone is blackmailing her employer, Dear Aunt Cornelia, an advice columnist. She hires private eye and former policeman Sam Sage to help find the blackmailer. The investigation leads them to a conference on psychic dreaming where Maggie realizes Dr. Oxlade is also attending. It seems some women who were lucid dreamers are being killed. As tensions rise and the murders increase, Maggie and Sam realize they are in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance. They enlist the help of the series recurring characters Raina Kirk, a private detective and investigator, plus Luther Pell, to find information that will help to connect all the murdered women.

The relationship between Maggie and Sam is a delight. Their snarky, intimate, verbal fireworks conversations are enjoyable. But they also realize there is a passionate chemistry between them. What they must overcome are the secrets kept from each other. Both are haunted by their pasts.

Once again readers will not be disappointed with this 1930s mystery. This intriguing and suspenseful story is full of twists. A bonus is how Quick intertwined the information about lucid dreaming into the story.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Amanda Quick: The story idea comes from the fact that I am personally intrigued with dreaming. One of the most interesting types is lucid dreaming where someone knows they are dreaming. The goal is to control the dream and solve problems that someone could not solve while awake. For example, rewrite nightmares or sad dreams to find peace. This was a hot topic in the thirties. Now on online there are many people looking it up. It is like waking up before falling off a cliff or in my case learning to fly.

EC: There are all types of dreams in the book, what are the differences?

AQ: Lucid dreaming is real. Astral projection is junk science, pure fantasy. It is when someone thinks they can travel in their dreams as their soul moves to another location. Latent psychic senses have someone believing they have a psychic vibe yet are not aware of it. This is also a scam.

EC: How would you describe Maggie?

AQ: Maggie is a lucid dreamer who can control her dreams, which allows her to see things in a different light. She is adventurous, outgoing, and a modern woman. She is very smart, independent, bold, a little reckless, unpredictable, and confident. Maggie wants to do the right thing and wants to find answers.

EC: Why does she have an aversion to marriage?

AQ: She had a very close call when her fiancé wanted to marry her for her money and then he was going to send her off to an asylum. In those days it was not hard to get a woman committed against her will. This is why she is wary of marriage.

EC: Sam Sage versus Sam Spade?

AQ: I did not even try to hide it and had fun playing off the character. I was going for the iconic 1930s hardboiled private eye. My character Sam Sage is much nicer and a lot more honorable. Sam Spade is from The Maltese Falcon, an American icon. I put this quote in the book, Sam Spade is “arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic ass, with the moral code of an alley cat…he isn’t interested in justice…and a lousy detective.” His goal is to prove he is the smartest guy in the room. I wanted my character to be in the same occupation but with better personality traits.

EC: How would you describe Sam Sage?

AQ: He is really interested in justice and doing the right thing. Sam is the classic good guy, very protective. Some people see him as world weary and wise cracking.

EC: What about the relationship between Maggie and Sam?

AQ: They play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses. She is reckless and he is a ‘by the books guy’. They are very passionate about each other. Each sees the underlying strength of the other and trusts each other.

EC: Next books?

AQ: It will be another Jayne Castle Dust Bunny book, a futuristic romantic suspense novel, titled, Sweet Water and the Witch, coming out September 30^th. The next Amanda Quick book is out a year from now, titled The Bride Wore White. A woman wakes up in the honeymoon suite with a dead body next to her. Raina Kirk and Luther Pell have become the anchor characters for the series and will be in every book as cameo players.

Thank you!!

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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.

Book Review: Let Justice Descend by Lisa Black

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

LET JUSTICE DESCEND (A Gardiner and Renner Book #5) by Lisa Black is another exciting addition to this crime thriller series featuring a forensics expert and a detective who takes justice into his own hands. The crime plots in each book stand on their own, but I feel to understand the dynamics between the main characters, these books are best read in order.

With only three days before the contentious November election, Maggie and Jack are called to a unique crime scene. The current U.S. Senator Diane Cragin is dead on her own doorstep from electrocution. Cragin’s chief of staff is quick to blame the Senator’s Democratic contender, Joey Green Cleveland’s city development director.

With almost a million is cash found in the Senator’s home safe, Maggie and Jack must follow the money through the double-dealing politics of Cleveland and D.C. which only leads to more suspects. The investigation into the pending election exposes corruption at the highest levels and leads to more dead bodies as Maggie and Jack work to put the pieces together and catch a killer.

I love Maggie and Jack and the twist at the end of this book! The pace of the plot moves quickly with the election so close. Ms. Black does a good job of keeping the political players equally good and bad without favoring one side or another. The two political projects were good examples of how corrupt government officials and dark money work for the participants, but not the public and the government employee who was looking out for the public really had limited power. This story brings elements of political intrigue, police procedural and forensics all together into a thriller read.

I loved this addition to the series, the entire series and cannot wait for the next book to find out what Jack does next!

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About Lisa Black

Lisa Black’s books have reached the NYT bestsellers list, been translated into six languages and have been optioned for film. Perish was shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award by Putnam and Mystery Writers of America. Lisa will be a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.

She is a certified crime scene analyst in Florida and a former forensic scientist for the Cleveland coroner’s office. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and has testified in more than fifty homicide trials.

She still aspires to drive Nancy Drew’s convertible and marry Ellery Queen.

Website: https://lisa-black.com/

Book Review: Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

RUN ROSE RUN by Dolly Parton and James Patterson is an exciting suspenseful story of a young singer/songwriter trying to make it in Nashville with a mysterious past that she refuses to share with anyone. It has been a while since I read a book from the prolific Patterson co-author line, but I could not pass up a book co-authored with the fabulous Dolly Parton and I am so glad I didn’t.

AnnieLee Keyes has dreamed of making it Nashville. She writes and sings her own songs, is naturally beautiful and more than willing to put in the work to make it, if only someone will give her a break. She shows up broke, homeless and on the run but when a local bartender finally gives her the chance to sing, she shocks everyone with her talent including Ethan Blake who is sitting at the bar and who plays studio guitar for the bar owner and famous retired country legend Ruthanna Ryder.

Ruthanna takes the feisty and proud AnnieLee under her wing and helps her navigate the music business and Ethan helps with her protection, but AnnieLee still keeps her past a mystery even as her feelings for Ethan grow. When Ethan opens up about his painful past, AnnieLee gives him a small amount of her own past, but not everything. After another attack, AnnieLee runs away back to her hometown to settle the mystery from her past to be able to grab hold of her promising future.

I really enjoyed AnnieLee and her rise from nothing. Her character pulls you in as you follow her from running away to becoming a rising country music star. Later in the book, when you know her complete backstory, her survival is truly heartbreaking, inspirational, and realistic. Ruthanna and Ethan are both fully drawn, and you become as engaged in their personal stories as you do with AnnieLee’s. The plot moves along at a good pace as the reader follows AnnieLee’s rise in the music industry, the mystery of her past and romantic elements with Ethan all coming to a satisfying conclusion.

I really enjoyed this engaging suspense book with a memorable protagonist with a mysterious backstory and romantic elements.

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About the Author

Dolly Parton is a singer, songwriter, actress, producer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. The composer of over 3,000 songs, she has sold over 100 million records worldwide, and given away millions of books to children through her nonprofit, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

About the Author

JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. His books have sold in excess of 375 million copies worldwide. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past two decades – the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club, Detective Michael Bennett and Private novels – and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers.

James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books for young readers including the Middle School, I Funny, Treasure Hunters, Dog Diaries and Max Einstein series. James has donated millions in grants to independent bookshops and has been the most borrowed author of adult fiction in UK libraries for the past eleven years in a row. He lives in Florida with his wife and son

Book Review: Suffer the Children by Lisa Black

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

SUFFER THE CHILDREN (A Gardiner and Renner Novel Book #4) by Lisa Black is a gripping addition to the Gardiner and Renner series set in a juvenile facility with memorable characters. This police/forensic procedural can easily read as a standalone, but to understand the complex relationship between Gardiner and Renner this series is best read in order.

Firebird Juvenile Center is a prestigious Cleveland secure facility for damaged juvenile offenders who have committed minimal to serious offenses and cannot be remanded back to their homes, if they have one, without serious counseling and rehabilitation. Forensic expert Maggie Gardiner and homicide detective Jack Renner are called to the facility when fifteen-year-old Rachel Donahue is found dead at the bottom of a stairwell. The initial coroner’s findings lead to a judgement of misadventure.

As Jack and his partner Riley are finalizing their investigation, another young resident is found dead in the infirmary. Maggie and Jack are soon caught up in a secure facility with its residents ending up dead and a search for the killer among the many suspects.

Maggie and Jack also must worry about Maggie’s ex-husband discovering Jack’s secret life.

I really love this series and its main characters! I find Maggie’s forensic procedures and techniques always interesting and informative. With every book, the readers learn a little more of Jack’s back story and the lines he will or will not cross for justice. The attraction between these two continues to grow and is just fascinating because they started so far apart. Maggie’s ex-husband’s investigation into the Vigilante Killer is getting much to close to exposing Jack’s secret and Ms. Black’s twist to keep Jack safe for the moment is great. The crime/thriller plot is fast paced and almost reads like a locked room mystery since main the suspects are locked down in the Firebird Center. I found the information interspersed throughout the plot about juvenile justice and rehabilitation interesting and at the same time sad. It truly is a complex social problem which lends itself to interesting twists to this story.

I highly recommend this addition to the series and these main characters!

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About Lisa Black

She still aspires to drive Nancy Drew’s convertible and marry Ellery Queen.

Website: https://lisa-black.com/