Dangerous Amish Showdown and Snowbound Amish Survival by Mary Alford are suspenseful action-packed mysteries involving Amish characters. Love, dedication to family, trust, and faith are prevalent themes in both books. Danger, thrill rides, and romance will leave readers on the edge of their seats.
Snowbound Amish Survival begins with an intense scene after armed men burst into a house. They are looking for Amish midwife Hope Christner who is tending to her best friend, Naomi, because of her numerous miscarriages. After realizing that Naomi’s husband has been shot, Hope and her friend barely escape the bad men and must contend with the weather, barely making it to Hunter Shetler’s home. He is her ex-fiancé who Hope broke up with after their fathers’ family feud. But after the bad men arrive at Hunter’s house all three escape into the woods. Now they must stay two steps ahead of the men determined to find and kill them, while facing barriers at every turn.
Dangerous Amish Showdown also begins with a shooting scene. US Marshal Mason Shelter, his partner Erik Timmons, and a precocious six-year-old named Samantha under their care are running for their lives. The little girl is a member of the witness protection program after seeing the murder of her parents. The bad guys are after her since she can identify Lucian Bartelli, a drug kingpin as the killer. His people are doing everything possible to find Mason’s young witness and silence her permanently. Running from them leads Mason, his partner, and Samantha to West Kootenai, the Amish community of his youth and the place that he fled thirteen years earlier. Specifically, he flees to the home of his childhood friend, Willa Lambright. Both Willa and her mother Beth agree to keep all safe, while risking their lives as all face overwhelming odds.
Both books have vivid scenes where readers feel they are on the journey with the hero and heroine. There is a non-stop roller coaster ride of danger.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Can you tell us a little about the series?
Mary Alford: There are five books in the series. These are the third and fourth books. I like that it is set in a very remote community in Montana. The West Kootena community does exist, but the town of Eagle’s Nest is fictional. There are five brothers that have had issues come up in their lives including some that lost their wives. There is a lot of conflict and tension. I want to build and build the suspense where it looks like the bad guy might win until the last stand-off. They end up falling in love after meeting the right heroine.
EC: How did you blend danger with the Amish?
MA: The Amish are very simple and very “pure.” As we learned there can be bad things that happen in an Amish community. There are bad influences that can cause danger. I want to put the Amish characters into circumstances where they do have to deal with danger and situations that they are not used to. In this innocent and simple setting, after peril comes, it disrupts everything. Although the Amish are pacifists, if the community is put in danger, they would do anything to support their loved ones. Family and loved ones would go beyond faith, doing what they must do to help those they love.
EC: In both books you found weapons other than guns?
MA: Yes. I wanted to use other instruments as weapons beyond guns. I used fires as a weapon, seeing it as a living thing. They happen and spread quickly. I also used cars that attempt to ram someone off the road.
EC: Weather also played a role in the plot?
MA: Yes. In Dangerous Amish Survival the fog helped to hide the hero and heroine. In Snowbound Amish Survival it was the snow, the cold, and the visibility. I think it increased the suspense. It helps to add to the atmosphere.
EC: In Snowbound Amish Survival how would you describe the heroine Hope?
MA: She is a mid-wife that gives her a purpose in life. Hope is very strong, yet heart-broken because of the father family feud. She can stand on her own two feet. Hope is loyal, stubborn, headstrong, determined, caring, and optimistic. She is not meek and mild like most Amish women.
EC: How would you describe Hunter?
MA: Supportive, loyal, and caring. He is strong emotionally, a hard worker, protective, and generous.
EC: How would you describe the relationship?
MA: Both are young, in their mid-twenties. They both have a perception of being betrayed by the other. As the story progresses, they come to realize they are still in love. In the beginning Hunter was resentful and angry that she sided with her dad over him.
EC: What about Huntington’s Disease that was in the book, Dangerous Amish Showdownl?
MA: In researching I knew I wanted to have it in the story. It can be hereditary, and it does not skip generations. I hope this makes a little bit of an awareness. It affects the brain, motor skills, and thinking process. It is a serious degenerative disease that I gave Willa’s mother, Beth.
EC: How would you describe Willa?
MA: She is very strong and a caregiver for her mother. Willa is considerate, kind, and loves animals. She has gentle strength and a tender heart.
EC: How would you describe Mason?
MA: He left the faith when he was younger. He had issues he had to resolve including his friend Chandler’s death and the fact the girl he thought he was in love with chose his brother, Eli. Mason became a US Marshal but was haunted by his past. He is strong, protective, a fixer, and courageous.
EC: How about the relationship?
MA: Willa and Mason were friends and grew up together. He never saw how close he and Willa were when they were younger. After seeing her again all his feelings about Willa come to the surface. There were barriers in the relationship including Mason leaving the Amish faith, Willa thought he loved her sister, not her, and Willa was afraid she would get Huntington Disease.
EC: Role of the little girl Samantha?
MA: She is a six-year-old girl who saw her parents murdered. She lives in fear, terrified, and brave, but a sweet girl. She becomes attached to Mason, Willa, and Beth who try to protect her and show Samantha love. She brought Mason and Willa together. There are little moments when readers see her personality come out, especially when she interacts with Golden Boy, Willa, and Beth’s Golden Retriever.
EC: What about your next book?
MA: I just signed a four-book contract. I will be writing Fletcher and Ethan Connors’s stories. Probably they will come out mid-summer next year. I will explain the military angle in Ethan’s story because that is so important to who he is. I will be writing a new book, Among The Innocence coming out this June. It is an Amish story, but the main characters are not Amish. A murder happened ten years earlier and now haunts the heroine.
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.
It’s been years since the Gray Man’s first mission, but the trouble’s just getting started in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.
Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team.
In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, but at a terrible price–the life of a woman Court cared for. Years have passed and now The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he’s remarkably energetic for a dead man.
A decade may have gone by but the Gray Man hasn’t changed. He isn’t one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Sierra Six by Mark Greaney is not one story but two stories in one book. Readers are treated to a double helping of the Gray Man, told from a dual point of view, today and 12 years ago. Both stories per usual are compelling and dramatic where readers are treated to a rollercoaster ride of vivid action, a lot of intrigue, and fantastic dialogue.
Twelve years ago, after the Special Activities Division of the CIA loses a man on an assignment, Court Gentry (The Gray Man) is called in as a replacement and given the designation Gulf Sierra Six. Because he had no military background and always worked alone, the members of the team resented him at first. But overtime he proved himself and gained the respect of the team and its leader, Zach Hightower.
Twelve years later Court is hired as a freelance intelligence operator to infiltrate the Turkish embassy property in Algiers and plant a listening device. There he comes face to face with Murad Khan, the head of KRF who is responsible for death and destruction years earlier. This terrorist had been reported killed at the time. Now Court is once again on the hunt to stop Khan as he plans another major attack involving dirty bombs in India.
The story and ending are typical Gray Man, a lot of action, suspense, and tension. As with all his books there are scenes that put the reader in the middle of the intense fight. This book shows why Greaney is one of the best thriller writers today.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Netflix series?
Mark Greaney: What I hear is that it’s coming out in July. They already have done a test screening in LA, last week. They bring in those who sign up for it and have them fill out a questionnaire of what they liked and did not like. I have only seen fifteen seconds of footage, but I did read the script. I thought it was terrific. It is based on the first book, The Gray Man, but bring in elements that were in later books.
EC: How did you get the idea for the story for this book?
MG: I had talked to my editor for years about writing an origin story where readers could see Court Gentry as he develops. I decided to write something that relates in the past and present. Readers can see Court as a younger man and then twelve years later. The stories have two different timelines, two different objectives for the hero, and two different ticking clocks.
EC: How would you describe the young Court versus the older Court?
MG: The young Court is 25 years old. He has been trained his entire life to operate firearms and move tactically, without any other skills. He has no people skills and is not James Bond with the ladies. At this stage of his life, he does not have a lot of world experience, yet comes across cocky and sure of himself. He gets brought down a few pegs in this story. He does missions he is told to do by the CIA. He is a soldier and a spy.
In the present Court is older, wiser, a little laid back, but not as sure of himself. He seeks justice. Now he will go against the wishes of his bosses. He will break away if necessary, playing to his own tune. He has expanded his skill levels with a lot more years and tradecraft behind him. He is much better at what he does.
EC:Zach was in the past story, but not the present story?
MG: I do not want to ever be tied to having to bring all the secondary characters into every story. There are some books that will not have Zoya, and some not to have Zach. In the present Court is very much on a solo mission although he does call Hanley and Brewer for some help. I do not want to get into a trap into designing my story surrounded by a cast of characters. Instead, I want to pick and choose.
EC: How would you describe Julie Martinez, part of Court’s team as a CIA analyst?
MG: Chatty, nerdlike, direct, attentive, persistent, has integrity. She feels like an outsider. She is focused and has attention to detail. Like Court, she does what she feels is right.
EC: Julie, his first love versus Zoya, his recent love?
MG: I think these two characters are so different. Julie is a young CIA officer analyst who is incredibly intelligent. She is also on the Autism spectrum. She and Court become friends and then more than friends throughout the course of the novel. His naivety and her directness were interesting aspects to put together. Zoya on the other hand is in the same profession as Court, an operative. She is older and a rougher personality. Because he has changed in the past twelve years Julie and present-day Court would not have worked out so well. Both women and Court feel like outsiders. Zoya has integrity but gets there only at the end. She and Court both live lives where they must be distrustful, paranoid. She is a different version of Court, but both are attracted to one another.
EC: Why the War on Terror returning?
MG: I wanted to showcase how different things are today than twelve years ago. Many Gray Man books did not deal with Middle East terrorism. This was a conscious decision because almost all other thriller writers wrote about the ticking timebomb. Now I feel we are removed from it. I wanted to take a recent pass and see how my hero deals with it.
EC: How would you describe the bad guy, Murad Khan?
MG: He is a Kashmirian who went against his own country. He is a member of their intelligence agency but has also created his own organization to fight. Now he is fighting India, his true passion. When I write a villain I must get into their head. He is against humanity and very cruel, a terrible person.
EC: The setting also dealt with CIA bases in Khost and Chapman?
MG: I did some research on where we were twelve years ago regarding the War on Terror. The geography was important. Camp Chapman was a place where very terrible things happened. The other bases including Bagram, Jalalabad, and Salerno are all close to the Pakistani border. I wanted to show how Pakistan is not a real ally of the US.
EC: The Indian Mafia?
MG: The biggest one is D company, which I changed to B company. The real head lives in Pakistan, not India. He has a real chip on his shoulders, bombing government buildings and airlines. They did most of their stuff twenty years ago. I thought that my mafia would form an alliance with a Muslim group. I saw the movie “Hotel Mumbai” and read some books about the terrorist attack there. It played into my story, where a terrorist attack happens at a shopping mall in India.
EC: How would you describe Priya Bandari?
MG: She is someone Court teams up with, out of necessity. She is very wet behind the ears as an intelligence specialist and reconnaissance technician on Court’s freelance job. She is directly out of college. She is motivated for personal reasons to stay in the fight. I hope readers begin to understand her and see her point of view. I hope to use her character in other books. She is brave, somewhat defiant, and daring. None of this comes naturally to her but Priya does rise to the occasion.
EC: Next book?
MG: I am currently plotting out the story. It will come out this time next year. Court, Zoya, Zach, and Brewer will be back along with Hanley to some degree. In July I have another book coming out based on an audio play that was released in December. It is titled Armored. It is about military contractors in Mexico fighting the drug cartel. Josh Duffy is a wounded veteran whose job is to protect a UN delegation that is trying to negotiate a peace deal with a drug lord. There will be a second book, but I do not know what happens after that. Duffy’s wife, Nicole, is a former army officer and a helicopter pilot. I could see Duffy and Nicole taking a lead in another book.
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.
I am excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on this HQN Books blog tour for the first book in a new historical romance series – LAST DUKE STANDING (A Royal Match Book #1) by Julia London.
Below you will find an author Q&A, a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Author Q&A
1. Tell us about your latest book. Who are the main character(s) and what can readers expect when they pick up Last Duke Standing?
Princess Justine Ivanosen is going to be queen of Wesloria sooner than she hoped—her father, the king, is dying from tuberculosis. Because he is declining, a marriage becomes very important. The Prime Minister is dead set against having a young woman ascend the throne without a man to guide her, and her mother is still smarting over Justine’s disastrous affair with a charlatan, the reveal of which has left her without great prospects at home. The Prime Minister convinces the queen that they ought to employ a matchmaker to make quick work of it. They can ship her off to England to apprentice with Queen Victoria, bring some suitors around to court her there instead of here, where all of Wesloria will be watching, and give strict instructions that she is to return with a fiance. The prime minister won’t leave the selection of the lucky fellow to chance, and persuades one of his old cronies to send his handsome son to London to keep an eye on the selection process.
William Douglas, the future Duke of Hamilton, has been flitting around Europe for ages. He’s met the princess before, but she was hardly more than a snippy girl who didn’t like losing parlor games. The last thing he wants to do is babysit that child. But he discovers the girl in his memory is now a very attractive grown woman. She’s still a challenge, however—she likes to be called Your Royal Highness a lot more than he likes saying it, and expressly forbids him from offering his advice. He’s one of those people—if someone says don’t do it, he’s going to do it. And he has some advice about every man that comes to meet her.
Lady Aleksander, the matchmaker, sees that these two might be perfect for each other. The only way to find out is to bring some gentlemen around that she knows will unite Justine and William. But they are too busy pretending they aren’t falling in love to even notice.
2. Who was your favorite character to write in THE LAST DUKE STANDING and why?
I like all the main characters. Justine and William were so meant for each other. Little sister Amelia has some growing up to do. Beckett Hawke and Donovan are back from A Royal Wedding series. But I really enjoyed creating Lady Aleksander, the matchmaker. She is the third point of view in this book, and her observations of what is happening is like the Greek chorus—she can see clearly what the leads can’t see. It liked that she’s in her forties, very much in love with her husband, and she just wants everyone to have what she has. She makes no apologies for who she is or what she does and she has the patience of Job. She also likes to eat. We have that in common.
3. What do you like about writing in the historical subgenre? What are the challenges?
I fell in love with historical fiction when I was a girl. Castles and princesses were a long way from a ranch in West Texas, but I loved the stories of balls and gowns and the idea of a rich gentleman. I was surrounded by farmers and ranch hands, so the idea of a pretty dress and fancy dinner had a fairy-tale appeal. I loved history in school, and I minored in British history. The fairy-tale appeal still persists—through the last election and the pandemic, it was a great relief for me to slip off to another world where people were genteel and the biggest problem they had was the strict rules of etiquette putting a damper on their moves. The challenge of writing historical romance today is to make it interesting for the new generation of readers. There is a lot more competing for their attention than there was for mine at a similar age. But a good love story is a good story, no matter the era.
4. Who are some authors you look to for inspiration?
One of the best romances I ever read was Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. It is a history of Wales, and of King Llewellyn and his very young wife Joanna. The history is dark and bloody, but they truly loved each other.
I have also found a renewed admiration for Julia Quinn. I can look back at her Bridgerton series now and see how clever she was at giving us a large family with a lot of issues to enjoy for years. She must have taken excellent notes from her own books to keep up with all the twists and turns in that family.
5. What is your writing routine like? Do you have a specific place you write? Time of day?
My routine is to do it every day. I usually do some physical exercise in the morning, but once I’ve done that, and picked up the house, and done my Wordle, I get to work. I write every day. I have an office, but the pandemic has made me sick of it. So I move around the house now. I am done with the day’s work by the time school is out—I used to be able to keep my head in two places (the book and family) but I can’t do that anymore. I don’t know what happened to my ability to multi-task, but it has been obliterated. So I work as much as I can during school hours and then hit the wine fridge like any red-blooded working mom.
6. What’s next for the Royal Match series?
I am just finishing The Duke Not Taken. It’s about Princess Amelia, who is also sent to England under Lady Aleksander’s care to find a husband. Amelia really wants a husband and a family. Her problem, however, is she’s too much of a straightshooter for most people. And she’s not willing to settle. Enter the Duke of Marley, who has to be the only man in one hundred square miles who is not the least interested in a beautiful, rich, young princess. He has his reasons…
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Book Summary
When Crown Princess Justine of Wesloria is sent to England to learn the ropes of royalty, she falls under the tutelage of none other than Queen Victoria herself. She’s also in the market for a proper husband—one fit to marry the future Queen of Wesloria.
Because he knows simply everyone, William, Lord Douglas (the notoriously rakish heir to the Duke of Hamilton seat in Scotland, and decidedly not husband material), is on hand as an escort of sorts. William has been recruited to keep an eye on the royal matchmaker for the Weslorian Prime Minister, tasked to ensure the princess is matched with a man of quality…and one who will be sympathetic to the prime minister’s views. As William and Justine are forced to scrutinize an endless parade of England’s best bachelors, they become friends. But when the crowd of potential grooms is steadily culled, what if William is the last bachelor standing?
LAST DUKE STANDING (A Royal Match Book #1) by Julia London is a charming enemies-to-lovers historical romance story start to a new series. I look forward to historical romances by Julia London for the witty dialogue and endearing characters and this one did not disappoint.
Crown Princess Justine of Wesloria is sent to England with her younger sister to find a suitable husband before her sick father, the king, dies. Justine not only has to put up with a matchmaker, she believes is incompetent, and servants always reporting back to her mother the Queen, but a gentleman from her past she is not happy to see again shows up to be an escort of sorts.
William, Lord Douglas has been recruited to spy on the Crown Princess and her prospects by the Prime Minister of Wesloria to make sure her new Prince Consort will be sympathetic to his views. William met Justine eight years previously, but the Justine he is sent to escort is a woman now and the more he discovers about her, the more intrigued he becomes. As their friendship grows, so do the faults of Justine’s suitors.
When it appears William may be the perfect match and the last bachelor standing, a scandal from his past may ruin any chance for a Happily Ever After match.
This is a fun and entertaining read with delightful banter between William and Justine and an entertaining plot that has a great twist at the end. William is an endearing hero throughout. Justine was a little more difficult to warm up to until you realize how her whole life has been manipulated and one small mistake in judgement as a young girl has led to constant supervision. All the secondary characters were fully fleshed, and I will be looking forward to meeting some in future books in the series.
I enjoyed this historical romance and I will be looking forward to reading more in this new series.
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Excerpt
PROLOGUE
1844
When Justine was fourteen, her father took her to the mountainous north country of Wesloria. He said he was to meet with coal barons because they were restless and in need of appeasing. Why? Justine had wondered.
“Because coal barons are always restless and in need of appeasing, darling,” he’d said, as if everyone knew that.
She’d imagined large, heavily cloaked men, faces covered in soot, pacing their hearths and muttering their grievances. But the coal barons were, in fact, like all well-dressed Weslorian gentlemen with clean faces.
They peered at her with expressions that ranged from disgust to indifference to curiosity.
“Don’t mind them,” her father had said. “They are not modern men.”
Justine and her father were housed at Astasia Castle. It was a fortress that jutted out forebodingly from a rocky outcropping so high on the mountain that the horses labored to pull the royal coach up the steep drive. It was purported to be the best of all the accommodations in the area, afforded to Justine and her father by virtue of the fact Justine’s father was the king of Wesloria, and she was the crown princess, the invested heir to the throne.
Justine said the castle looked scary. Her father explained that castles were built in this manner so that armies and marauders could be seen advancing from miles away, and runaway brides could be seen fleeing for miles.
“Runaway brides?” Justine had been enthralled by the idea of something so romantic gone so horribly awry.
“Petr the Mad watched his bride run away with his best knight, and then watched his men chase them for miles before they got away. He was so angry he burned down half the village.” Her father did not elaborate further, as the gates had opened, and the castellan had come rushing forward, eager to show the king and his heir the old royal castle he proudly kept.
Sir Corin wore a dusty blue waistcoat that hung to his thighs, the last four buttons undone to allow for his paunch. His hair, scraggly and gray, had been pulled into an old-fashioned queue at his nape. He kept a ring of keys attached to his waist that clanked with each step he took.
He was a student of history, he’d said, and could answer any question they might have about Astasia Castle, and proceeded to exhibit his detailed knowledge of the dank, drafty place with narrow halls and low ceilings. A young Russian prince had died in this room. An ancient queen had lost her life giving birth to her tenth child in that room.
Sir Corin showed them to the throne room. “More than one monarch’s held court here.”
Justine was accustomed to the opulence of the palace in Wesloria’s capital of St. Edys. This looked more like a common room of a public house—it was small and dark, the king and queen’s thrones wooden, and the tapestries faded by time and smoke.
Another room, Sir Corin pointed out, was where King Maksim had accepted the surrender of the feudal King Igor, thereby uniting all Weslorians under one rule after generations of strife.
“My namesake,” her father said proudly, forgetting, perhaps, that King Maksim had slaughtered King Igor’s forces to unite them all.
They came upon a small inner courtyard. Stone walls rose up on three sides of it, but the outer wall was a battlement. Sir Corin pointed to a door at one end of the battlement that led into a keep with narrow windows. “We use it for storage now, but they kept the prisoners there in the old days. Worse than any dungeon your young eyes have ever seen, Your Royal Highness.”
Justine had never seen a dungeon.
“Is this not where Lord Rabat was beheaded?” her father asked casually. To Justine, he said, “That would have been your great-great-uncle Rabat.”
“Je, Your Majesty, the block is still here.” Sir Corin pointed to a large wooden block that stood alone, about two feet high and two feet wide. It looked to have been weathered by years of sitting in hard sun and wretched winters.
“Oh, how terrible,” Justine said, crinkling her nose.
“Quite,” her father agreed, and explained, with far too much enthusiasm, how a person was made to kneel before the block and lay their neck upon it. “A good executioner could make clean work of it with a single stroke. Whap, and the head would tumble into a basket.”
“If I may, Your Majesty, a good executioner was hard to come by. More miners in these parts than men good with broadswords. Fact is, it took three strikes of the sword to sever Rabat’s head completely.” Sir Corin felt it necessary to demonstrate the three strikes with his arm.
“Ah…” Justine swallowed down a swell of nausea.
“Three whacks?” her father repeated, rapt. “Couldn’t get it done in one?”
Sir Corin shook his head. “Just goes to prove how important it is to keep the broadsword sharp.”
“And to keep someone close who knows how to wield it,” her father added. The two men laughed roundly.
Justine looked around for someplace to sit so that she could put her head between her legs and gulp some air. Alas, the only place to sit was the block.
“Steady there, my girl. I’ve not told you who ordered the beheading,” her father said.
Sir Corin clasped his hands together in anticipation, clearly trying to contain his glee.
“Your great-great-aunt Queen Elena!”
Queen Elena had beheaded Lord Rabat? “Her husband?”
“Worse. Her brother.”
Justine gasped. “But why?”
“Because Rabat meant to behead her first. Whoever survived the battle here would be crowned the sovereign.”
“Ooh, a bloody battle it was, too,” Sir Corin said eagerly. “Four thousand souls lost, many of them falling right off the battlement.”
Justine backed up a step. A quake was beginning somewhere deep inside her, making her a little short of breath. Her knees felt as if they might buckle, and her skin crawled with anxiety, imagining the loss of so many. “Could she not have banished him?”
“And have him slither back like a snake?” Her father draped his arm around her shoulders before she could back up all the way to St. Edys. “She did the right thing. Why, minutes before, she was on the block herself.”
“Dear God,” Justine whispered.
“But at the last minute the people here saved her,” her father said. “She sentenced her brother to die immediately for his insurrection and stood right where we are now to watch his traitorous head roll.”
“Well,” Sir Corin said. “I wouldn’t say it rolled, precisely.”
The two men laughed again.
“Don’t close your eyes, darling,” her father said, squeezing her into his side. “Look at that block. Elena was only seventeen years old, but she was very clever. She knew what she had to do to hold power and rule the kingdom. And she ruled a very long time.”
“Forty-three years, all told,” Sir Corin said proudly.
“Queen Elena learned what every sovereign must—be decisive and act quickly. Do you understand?”
“I don’t…think so?” Justine was starting to feel a bit like she was spinning.
“You will.” Her father dropped his arm. He wandered over to the block to inspect it. “We almost named you Elena after her. But they called her Elena the Bi—Witch,” he said. “And your mother feared they might call you the same.”
“You said she was a good queen.”
“She was an excellent queen. But sometimes it is difficult to do the things that must be done and keep the admiration of your people at the same time.”
The spinning was getting worse. She gripped her father’s arm. “Why?”
“Because people expect a woman to behave like a woman. But a good queen must sometimes behave more like a king for the good of the kingdom. People don’t care for it.” He shrugged. “No king or queen can make all their subjects happy all the time.” He suddenly smiled. “You look a bit like Queen Elena.”
“The very image,” Sir Corin piped up.
Later that day Justine saw a portrait of Queen Elena. She wasn’t smiling, but she didn’t appear completely unpleasant. She simply looked…determined. And her dress was elegantly pretty, with lots of pearls sewn into it.
Later still, when her father and his men had retired to smoke cigars and talk about coal or some such, Justine returned to the courtyard alone. No one was there, no sentry looking out for marauders or runaway brides. She looked up at the tops of pines bending in a relentless wind, appearing to scrape a dull gray sky. She walked up the steps to the battlement and gazed out over the mountain valley below the castle. She spread her arms wide, closed her eyes and turned her face to the heavens.
That was the first time she truly felt it—the pull from somewhere deep, the energy of all the kings and queens who had come before her, rising up to the crown of her head, anchoring her to this earth. She felt the centuries of warfare and struggle, of the people her family had ruled. She felt the enormous responsibilities they’d all carried, the work they’d done to carve a road to the future.
Her father had often said that he could feel the weight of his crown on his shoulders. But Justine felt something entirely different. She didn’t feel as if it was weighing her down, but more like it was lifting her off her feet and holding her here. She didn’t believe this was a conceit on her part, but a tether to her past. She would be a queen. She knew that she would, and standing there, she felt like she should be. She felt born to it.
A gust of wind very nearly sent her flying, so she came down from the battlement. She paused just before the block and tried to imagine herself on her knees, knowing her death was imminent. She imagined how she would look.
She hoped she would appear strong and noble with no hint of her fear of the pain or the unknown.
Being queen was her destiny. She knew it would come.
Julia London is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over fifty novels of historical and contemporary romance. She is the author of the popular Highland Grooms series as well as A Royal Wedding, her most recent series. Julia is the recipient of the RT Bookclub Award for Best Historical Romance and a six-time finalist for the prestigious RITA award for excellence in romantic fiction. She lives in Austin, Texas. Visit her at www.julialondon.com.
Today is my turn on the Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour and I will be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for VICE & VIRTUE (Parker City Mystery Book #2) by Justin M. Kiska.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Parker City, 1984…
Three years after the Spring Strangler case rocked the historic Western Maryland city nestled at the foot of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, life has returned to normal for Detective Ben Winters and his partner, Tommy Mason. With a new chief now leading the department and the city slowly crawling out of its economic distress, everything seems to be moving in the right direction.
Until one sweltering summer day, a killer begins targeting police officers. Ben and Tommy find themselves once again leading an investigation the likes of which Parker City has never seen. The detectives quickly come to realize that until the shooter is found, everyone wearing a badge is in danger. To complicate matters even further, when a recently unearthed skeleton mysteriously connects to the string of police homicides, Ben and Tommy begin to think their current case may be tied to events twenty years earlier.
But how could a skeleton buried two decades ago hold the key to solving their current case?
Genre: Mystery Published by: Level Best Books Publication Date: February 15, 2022 Number of Pages: 288 ISBN: 978-1-68512-069-6 Series: Parker City Mysteries, #2 || Each book is a stand alone novel.
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
VICE & VIRTUE (A Parker City Mystery Book #2) by Justin M. Kiska is an engaging and gripping mystery/crime thriller/police procedural in the Parker City Mystery series. I am very surprised after reading the first book in this series, Now & Then that there is even a second book. (When and if you read the first book, which I highly recommend, you will understand my surprise.) This book is easily read as a standalone.
As Parker City begins to revitalize and rebuild, a skeleton is found under an old, condemned warehouse. Detective Sergeant Ben Winters and his partner Detective Tommy Mason are called to the scene.
Just as they begin to investigate the discovered skeleton, they are called to the murder scene of a fellow law enforcement officer. The old case goes on the back burner when a second and third officer are killed. As Parker City is just getting over the serial killer case from three years ago, Ben and Tommy now have a cop killer on the loose.
Ben and Tommy realize until they solve this case, all of their fellow officers are in danger But what they only come to realize as they work the current case is that the old skeleton from the warehouse may be tied to their present day murders.
I am as impressed with this second book as I was with the first. Mr. Kiska is very adept at plotting two timelines that intertwine with plenty of plot twists and are as equally important to the solution of the detectives’ current cases in the 1980’s as the older case from the 1950’s. Both main characters, Detective Sergeant Ben Winters and his partner, Detective Tommy Mason are fully fleshed, realistic, and likable. Their dialogue and banter is believable and enjoyable. A few of the secondary characters are a bit cliché, but not so much as to detract from my enjoyment of the story.
I highly recommend this mystery/crime thriller with two detectives I want to continue to follow in any decade in future books.
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Excerpt
Tall and athletic, Tommy Mason always reminded Ben of Tom Selleck’s Magnum P.I. character from television. Tommy always had that whole ruggedly handsome thing going for him. Mixed with a little bit of a “bad boy” vibe and he drove the women wild.
Next to Ben’s clean-cut, buttoned-down appearance, their pairing caused many to do a doubletake. At first glance, they appeared to be complete opposites. But as one got to know them, they were very much alike. Each brought out the best in the other and at the end of the day, it was all about getting the job done. Sure, each had his own style, but that’s what made them such a formidable team.
Tommy’s apparent willingness to skirt the rules was always offset by Ben’s ability to find ways to use the rules to their benefit. Just as Ben’s refusal to play the internal politics game allowed Tommy to use his charm to keep too many feathers from getting ruffled amongst the powers-that-be. They each knew the other’s strengths and weaknesses and how to adapt them to their own, which is why they’d been so impressive in getting the PCPD’s Detective Squad off the ground.
“What are you doing here?” Ben asked, more than a little surprised to see his partner.
“Shirley from Dispatch called me. She thought I’d be interested,” Tommy explained. “And before you say anything about what I’m wearing, I just want to remind you, it is our day off, so I didn’t think I needed to get dressed up to come to a potential crime scene. Especially when we don’t actually know this is a crime scene yet.”
He was referring to the fact he had on a T-shirt and comfortable pair of jeans, as opposed to the full suit and tie Ben was wearing.
“Besides, now you don’t have to worry about getting your fancy suit muddy. I have no problems getting down there in the dirt,” Tommy smiled, pointing at the fresh mud stains on his knees. With that, he knelt back down to take another look at the exposed skeletal remains under the floorboards.
“So, tell me. What do we have?” Ben asked, crouching next to Tommy so he could get a better look.
“You can see there’s a pretty big cavity here under this part of the floor,” Tommy pointed out. “It’s got to be a good ten by ten area where the ground has been eaten away, even though it’s not too deep, less than a foot in some places. It’s definitely because of water…there’s a lot of mud down there. As the earth under the floor eroded, it uncovered the skeleton. Partway, at least. Of course, no one could see what was happening under here until our friend Mr. Haggarty had the unfortunate experience of stepping on a board that was rotted through and it snapped, sending him falling through the floor. You can see where he landed in the mud.
“And right there,” Tommy pointed, “you see the skull and top portion of the skeleton sticking out of the ground.”
“You came face-to-face with that thing, man?” Tommy looked over at the construction worker who was leaning against the wall. “Not a good way to start the day.”
“Yeah. You’re telling me,” Haggarty answered.
Turning back to the skeleton, Tommy said, “I’m no expert, but that hole in the skull right there…see it, it looks like it could be a GSW from a pretty heavy caliber gun.”
Leaning down and twisting his head so he could try and get a better look at the skull, Ben saw the hole and wondered if his partner was right. Finding a skeleton buried under the floor was one thing. Finding a skeleton buried under the floor with a bullet hole in its skull was something else. It took everything to a different level.
Standing and stretching their legs, Tommy said, “When Shirley first called me, I thought this was going to have been some kind of prank. Some kids snuck into the site on a dare and left a skeleton for the crew to find.”
“You thought kids somehow buried a skeleton under this building in the hopes someone would fall through the floor and find it?” Ben asked, raising an eyebrow. “Not to mention having to figure out how to bury the thing under the floor?”
“In my defense,” Tommy started, raising a finger and shaking it at his partner, “I didn’t know the skeleton was buried under the warehouse. I just knew they’d found a skeleton at the warehouse.”
The first thing that needed to happen was to get the skeleton out of the ground. That would be up to the crime scene techs. Even though he could easily reach in and pull the skull out to get a better look, Ben didn’t want to disturb anything more than it already had been when Lance Haggarty crashed through the floor. Thankfully, he hadn’t actually landed on the skull itself.
“So much for our day off,” Ben said, looking at his watch, wondering where the crime scene guys were.
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Author Bio
When not sitting in his library devising new and clever ways to kill people (for his mysteries), Justin can usually be found at The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, outside of Washington, DC, where he is one of the owners and producers. In addition to writing the Parker City Mysteries Series, he is also the mastermind behind Marquee Mysteries, a series of interactive mystery events he has been writing and producing for over fifteen years. Justin and his wife, Jessica, live along Lake Linganore outside of Frederick, Maryland.
In The Doomsday Mother, bestselling true crime author John Glatt tells the twisted tale of Lori Vallow, accused of having her two children murdered to start a new life with her new husband, doomsday prepper Chad Daybell.
At first, the residents of Kauai Beach Resort took little notice of their new neighbors. The glamorous blonde and her tall husband fit the image of the ritzy gated community. The couple seemed to keep to themselves—until the police knocked on their door with a search warrant. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had fled to Hawaii in the midst of being investigated for the disappearance of Lori’s children back in Idaho—Tylee and JJ—who hadn’t been seen alive in five months.
For years, Lori Vallow had been devoted to her children and her Mormon faith. But when her path crossed with Chad Daybell, a religious zealot who taught his followers how to prepare for the end-times, the tumultuous relationship transformed her into someone unrecognizable. As authorities searched for Lori’s children, they uncovered more suspicious deaths with links to both Lori and Chad, including the death of Lori’s third and fourth husbands, her brother, and Chad’s wife.
In June 2020, the gruesome remains of JJ and Tylee were discovered on Chad’s property, and the newlyweds were arrested and charged with murder. And in a shocking development, horrifying statements revealed that the couple’s fanatical beliefs had convinced them the children had become zombies–a belief that may have led to their deaths.
Bestselling author and journalist John Glatt takes readers deeper into the devastating story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell in an attempt to unravel the lethal relationship of this doomsday couple.
THE DOOMSDAY MOTHER: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of the American Family by John Glatt is the true crime account of the lives of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell and their twisted religious beliefs that became the theological justification for the murder conspiracies which led to the deaths of their spouses and Lori’s two minor children.
Lori Vallow had a turbulent young life. Even being a devout Mormon, she was married several times and moved continually. Finally with her fourth husband, she begins to find stability and happiness for herself and her children. But it was not to last. Lori began to study and follow extreme preppers and doomsday zealots that preached the end days were upon us and one of these people was Chad Daybell.
Lori begins her extreme belief in everything Chad teaches. Both lose their spouses, who are at first deemed natural deaths, and within two weeks of Chad’s wife’s death they are married to each other with no children in sight.
In a multi-jurisdiction investigation, the authorities begin to uncover a web of deaths surrounding the couple and then the remains of Lori’s children are found buried on Chad’s land.
Mr. Glatt’s writing brings you into Lori and Chad’s lives and beliefs with even handed descriptions that let the reader make their own conclusions of the crimes. They both had many supporters until the day the children were found. Some felt Lori was brainwashed and this was all Chad’s doing while others believe that Lori was just as guilty and smart enough to manipulate her brother’s involvement in the deaths and set up financial gains from every death. There is no conclusion to this horrific story currently with Chad still awaiting trial and Lori in a mental health facility unable to contribute to her own defense at this time.
I feel this true crime book is full of interesting information that I did not get while the case was in all the headlines. It is also heartbreaking and scary in this case and many more the way religion can be twisted with cult-like beliefs and destroy so many lives.
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Author Bio
English-born John Glatt is the author of Golden Boy Lost and Found, Secrets in the Cellar, Playing with Fire, and many other bestselling books of true crime. He has more than 30 years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. Glatt left school at 16 and worked a variety of jobs—including tea boy and messenger—before joining a small weekly newspaper. He freelanced at several English newspapers, then in 1981 moved to New York, where he joined the staff for News Limited and freelanced for publications including Newsweek and the New York Post. His first book, a biography of Bill Graham, was published in 1981, and he published For I Have Sinned, his first book of true crime, in 1998. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including ABC- 20/20Dateline NBC, Fox News, Current Affair, BBC World, and A&E Biography. He and his wife Gail divide their time between New York City, the Catskill Mountains and London.
Meet Linda Shantz, extraordinary artist and author of the Good Things Come series. All the books’ details are authentic with characters and events realistic and engaging. The author uses her own experiences to write captivating stories. She currently manages a small herd of retired racehorses, with enough time off to paint and write. She lives on a small farm in Southern Ontario with horses and her Border Collie. To view her artwork and all six books plus a novella, Merry Little Thing go to her website, www.lindashantz.com
The main characters Liv, Nate, Faye, Will, Emilie, Dean, and the horses Chique, Claire, and John Jay will tug at the readers’ hearts. They will fall in love with the characters, both horse and human. Schantz takes people on a journey throughout each story. It is not only a horse racing drama but also a story about family, friendship, and relationships. All the books will conjure up feelings from sadness to anger to laughter. People do not have to enjoy horses or horse racing to read this page-turner.
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Elise’s Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the series?
Linda Shantz: For me, it is somewhat embarrassing. When I was a child, my mother read to me The Black Stallion. At the age of eight I started to write my own book. I did not get the idea from the “Heartland” series about horses since I developed this series before Heartland ever happened.
EC: Were you ever involved with horses?
LS: Yes, most of my adult life. I started working with them at the age of thirteen. At eighteen I galloped them. I also spent some time on a farm. The last fifteen years I have my own farm where I have a breeding operation with clients and help raise the babies. I have delivered horses. It is a combination of excitement and stress.
EC: What if the breeding goes wrong?
LS: There is a lot of money involved with racing horses. In Book 3 of Good Things Come one of the young horses, Feste, died of heart problems during a race. I think it is less than 1%, but every now and then it does happen. A lot of times during post-mortem they cannot determine the cause of death. There is no pattern to figure out what causes it. There is no correlation between the way the horse is bred and the young ones dying. A dog has a litter with many puppies where a horse has one foal, once a year. It is harder to get feedback on the breeding than dogs.
EC: In your later books you discuss ovarian cancer and abuse. Why?
LS: Ovarian cancer is directly related to a friend of mine. She was diagnosed and has survived. Those scenes in the book are a tribute to her. With the abuse I wanted to explain why the female lead, Liv, is an introvert.
EC: How much of you are in your characters?
LS: I am an introvert like Liv. Part of me is Liv and part of me is Nate who has my humor. They are both horse people like me. I put in these characters some of my personality and some of my experiences. I am not so lucky to have found a new Nate yet.
EC: How would you describe Liv?
LS: Very serious and responsible. Horses is something she understands. She is reserved, aloof, prefers animals to people, sarcastic, guarded, compartmentalizes, sometimes lacks confidence, and has a sly sense of humor.
EC: How would you describe Nate?
LS: He feels too much. He tries to hold himself back. He has a case of imposter syndrome because he has lost his confidence and direction. He is a gentleman because he is willing to wait for Liv. Nate is also steady, reliable, friendly, and loyal.
EC: Interesting quote by Liv about women jockeys?
LS: You are referring to this one, “The constant security by the trainers, the owners, the horseplayers in the grandstand…all of them sure they could ride a horse better than her.” I wanted to be a jockey but at twelve years old I was 5’6 and 120 pounds. This option was not one for me. Everyone tends to be a Monday Morning quarterback. Women jockeys have it better in Canada than in the US. I just finished a biography about one of the very first women jockeys, Diane Crump, and the hell she went through in the sixties. It is better than it was but there is still attitude and push back.
EC: It is great how you put tidbits about horses in the books, blending the facts into the story.
Horse care versus the sport?
LS: It is sad because I have been involved with racehorses for forty years. There are still people out there who care more about the money. It is part of why I am not so involved anymore. Those directly involved with the horses are the ones who care versus the big trainers who want to win at all costs. Liv would put the horses before the sport.
EC: The horses Claire versus Chique?
LS: Claire is the horse that was not to be special, not well bred. Her personality is like my favorite horse. She is laid-back. She is Liv’s extra special horse. She is big and gentle. Physically Claire is like the horse a friend of mine trained and has the personality of a horse I raised. While Chique is a little bit C-C-Crazy, temperamental, unpredictable, a wild card, gutsy, brave, and erratic.
ES: Relationship between Liv and Nate?
LS: Liv is not aware of her physical attraction and spent a lot of time in denial. There is a long burn. They both spend a lot of time fighting the attraction. He comes to the realization a lot sooner than she does about their feelings. He is willing to give her space. She has a hard time expressing her feelings and trusting. They have this bond around horses, the common ground. They have the same passion for the horses. The starter point for their meeting in the first place was horses.
EC: How would you describe Faye, Liv’s best friend?
LS: She likes to protect her heart and comes across as a girl who just wants to have fun. She had a rough past when she lost her parents and brother. She appreciates a horse but is also afraid of them. She is little lost because everyone she knows are horse people including her older brother. She is bitter, resentful, outspoken, protective, direct, and has fears about tying down. She is pretty much the direct opposite of Liv. Faye might have found her soulmate in Will. They work together with a restaurant.
EC: How would you describe Will?
LS: A nice guy, reliable, funny, caring, and a music person.
EC: How would you describe Liv’s sister, Emilie?
LS: Liv is the one who runs the farm while Emilie is the entrepreneur. Her major is physiotherapy, and she applies it to the horses. She is more stable and had a clearer picture of life than Faye and Liv. She is direct, self-sufficient.
EC: Why the Labrador retriever in the novella?
LS: Emilie latched on to a rescued lab. There were characters in the first books who had labs. I think they are amazing dogs. I did train dogs. They are the best dogs. I have had border collies, but I do want to have a lab, a black lab. I guess I live vicariously through Emilie.
My music taste can be blamed on my brother. When I was about fifteen, I heard the songs he listened to. The music I like is now called Alternative. I have never been a country fan. Some of the groups I enjoy are Panic at the Disco, Counting Grows, and Killers.
EC: Painting versus writing?
LS: I do both. They are different and I use a different part of my brain. When I write I do not paint. I started painting when I was four. When I was eight, I started writing stories. Professionally painting is easier, and I have more confidence in doing it. I feel more vulnerable when I write. I operate a small thoroughbred lay-up time, and when I’m not busy with the kids in the barn, I’m in my studio painting them or writing about them. I like to use my artwork, when I can, to support the retirement group in my area: LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement. In my books and paintings, I hope to capture the part of the horses and dogs that touches our souls. My paintings are in oil, oil pastel and pencil, where I strive to capture not only accurate anatomy, but the spirit of the horse as well. When I write and paint, I want to show how horses are not the workhorses and war horses of the past, but are confidantes, teachers, comedians and much more. It is my goal to share these traits with the viewer.
EC: Next book?
LS: It will be more of Emilie’s story where she will get a romance of her own. Her passion is re-training horses, which will be in the plot. I am also thinking of writing a prequel to bring readers into the story, maybe late spring.
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.
