A gifted trainer in a time women are not allowed to race, Nora Fenton prefers horses to men. They’re easier to handle, they’re more reliable, and they never tell her what to do. After her father’s passing, Nora is determined to save her struggling horse farm, starting with entering her prize colt into the harness races at the 1905 Mississippi Fair. If she wins, she may have a chance at independence. But when a stranger arrives and starts asking disconcerting questions, she suspects he may have other motives than unseating her in the training job that is rightfully hers.
Silas Cavallero will do whatever it takes to solve the mystery of his father’s death–even if it means training an unwieldy colt for Nora, who wants nothing more than to see him gone. But when mysterious accidents threaten their safety and circumstances shrouded in secrets begin unlocking clues to his past, Silas will have to decide if the truth is worth risking ruining everything for the feisty woman he’s come to admire.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Secrets of Emberwild by Stephenia H. McGee is a great read combining mystery, some romance, and historical facts about the South in 1905. There are secrets, manipulation, and roadblocks that the characters must confront to solve the mystery.
Silas Cavallero has long doubted the sheriff’s account of his father’s death 15 years earlier, that Silas’s father was accidentally trampled by his prized stallion, never to be found. He decides to investigate which leads him to Mississippi’s Emberwild Horse Farm. There he is he hired to train Arrow, a harness racing horse, but must contend with the horse’s owner Nora Felton. She prefers her horse to people and makes it known that she should be training Arrow. Unfortunately, after her father died, her uncle and mother conspire to wed Nora since they believe she should be a proper lady and leave the horse training and racing to men. Yet, Nora is determined to save her struggling horse farm, starting with entering her prize colt Arrow into the harness races at the 1905 Mississippi Fair. If she wins, she may have a chance at independence. With Silas’ support and encouragement, he and she team up to prepare Arrow for the harness races. But after mysterious accidents threaten their safety and circumstances shrouded in secrets begin unlocking clues to the past, Silas must decide if the truth is worth risking and endangering the feisty, gritty woman he’s come to admire.
This story will captivate readers from page one. The characters are very relatable and believable. The insight into how women were treated is eye-opening. Regarding the mystery there are many surprises that keep readers on their toes and guessing as to what really happened.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Stephenia McGee: I have a degree in animal science and equestrian science. I worked as a horse trainer. Because my back went out, I could not do any horse training anymore. I wanted to write a story with the horsemanship skills I used, having a heroine who would face difficulties because of the time, the early 1900s.
EC: There is a mystery thread?
SM: Yes. Silas is trying to find out what happened to his father, never believing it was an accident. He is also looking for the horse that disappeared. The readers know there is a connection somehow between all these characters. One of the bad guys have motives that are suspect, the Uncle Amos. He is overconfident, a liar, uncaring, manipulative, and does not have much regard for women.
EC: How would you describe the heroine, Nora?
SM: She is a little bit older and has led a sheltered life. She is trying to learn how to be independent. Nora is headstrong, curious, very opinionated, and struggles with the society pressures of the time. Her own family wanted her to be quiet, soft-spoken, act like a lady, and get married. This goes against everything in her personality. Nora is a spitfire, rebellious, defiant, and coy. She is like a horse whisperer.
EC: How would you describe Silas, the hero?
SM: Quiet, gentle, and easy-going. He is confident, sincere, protective, and honorable.
EC: Why the setting?
SM: I put her in Neshoba County Mississippi because of the fair. It started in the late 1800s. It is a huge deal. People take off a week to go, staying in cabins. One of the big events is the harness racing, the only legal horse racing track in Mississippi. I thought it would be fun to put Nora there so she could be a racer.
EC: Women in the early 1900s?
SM: They had to have their place, following orders, and being seen and not heard. They were stifled and had no say in their marriage. Nora had a tug and pull with the way women were treated in the times. Although, she had some freedom since it was in the middle of the suffrage period.
EC: What role does Arrow the horse play in the story?
SM: Arrow plays a big part in the story. He is a character. Like Nora, he is headstrong, ornery, high strung, temperamental, high energy, and wild. Silas tempers both Nora and Arrow. Ever since Arrow was born, he became Nora’s best friend since she was so lonely. She loves him and spills her problems out to him. I was able to use my experiences with my horse, Rona, for Arrow. Rona is retired after she broke a bone in her hoof.
EC: There is a book quote comparing Arrow and Silas. Please explain.
SM: I put in this book quote, “They are like two stallions. They assess one another looking for weakness, while at the same time offering due respect to one another.” Nora is watching how Silas will handle Arrow. He is not rough with Arrow and does not man-handle him. They both give each other mutual respect.
EC: What about the relationship between Silas and Nora?
SM: When he is first hired, she does not want anything to do with him, having the feeling he is taking over her duties. She is trying to establish her position. She slowly gains respect for him, watching how he handles the horse, people around him, and even her. They share a passion for horses, develop a friendship, and then it turns to love. In a sense they are kindred spirits. He finds her fascinating, becomes intrigued with her, and is never overbearing. He takes her for what she is.
EC: What about Nora and her mother’s relationship?
SM: Nora and her mom are complete opposites who hardly agree on anything. Her mother wants Nora to have a stable life, to do feminine things like cook and sew. This causes mother and daughter to butt heads. After the father died, they try to understand each other more. They each want the bond and friendship that goes beyond parent-child.
EC: What about your next book?
SM: This current book is stand-alone. The next book is called The Swindler’s Daughter, set in 1918 in rural Georgia. A girl finds out her dad just died in prison even though she thought he died a long time ago. She has been left an unusual inheritance. It comes out in May 2023.
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.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for ORPHANS OF WAR by Sylvia Broady on this Books ‘n’ All Promotions Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Kingston Upon Hull, 1941.
German bombs are raining down on the city. Racing to the nearest air-raid shelter, Charlotte hears an almighty explosion. Her mother’s haberdashery shop has taken a direct hit, reducing the shop to a pile of rubble — and killing her mother outright. Suddenly sixteen-year-old Charlotte is all alone in the world.
But then mysterious Aunt Hilda comes forward — an aunt Charlotte never knew she had — and offers her a home in the sleepy Yorkshire village of Mornington where she runs the local pub with her husband George.
Charlotte doesn’t mind helping out in the pub, but she can’t understand why her Aunt Hilda seems to resent her so. Nor why her mother never revealed she had a sister.
Everything changes when a group of French orphans are brought to live in the big house. Charlotte volunteers to help look after them — and finds a new purpose in life.
Then a band of Free French soldiers is billeted in the village, including a handsome young officer with the deepest brown eyes . . . But Emile has a tragedy in his past — and Charlotte must uncover both his and her own family’s secrets if they are to have a chance of happiness.
ORPHANS OF WAR by Sylvia Broady is an emotional YA historical fiction story set in the English countryside during World War II featuring a young protagonist and her tumultuous life during the war years. This is an easily read and engaging standalone book.
Charlotte is a happy sixteen-year-old who assists her mother in her haberdashery shop in the port city of Hull. As the Germans begin bombing England, their city is a prime target with its port and factories. Charlotte’s mother is killed in a raid and their business destroyed. Her father died when she was young, but a mysterious aunt shows up to take her to her home in the country where she works in the pub her aunt and uncle own.
Charlotte finds her uncle and aunt cold and indifferent, but she does not mind the work. When she has been there for a year, county aid workers open a large, abandoned mansion for rescued French orphans. She volunteers and finds she loves working with the children. At the same time a group of Free French soldiers are training on tanks just outside the village and she becomes attracted to a young French officer.
As the war continues, Charlotte finds her purpose in life working with the children and finds young love with Emile before he is sent back to the war. Over the next years of the war, Charlotte will learn many life lessons that will affect her, friends, and family.
I loved reading about Charlotte’s life. This is not a WWII set in the war zone, but a story of a young girl’s life at home in England and how the war affected her life over the five-year period and how much she matured, changed, and found love. All the characters were fully drawn, believable, and memorable. The romance between Charlotte and Emile was realistic. The story deals with family, friendship, hardship and hope during perilous times. Even with the war in the background of the story, it is still full of interesting historical details. I was pulled into Charlotte’s life and story.
I highly recommend this YA historical fiction!
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About the Author
I’m Sylvia. Hull is the city of my birth, but I have lived in the Beverley area for the past 20 years. I have a family in Hull and a family in Australia. Travelling to shores, both near and far, is often on my agenda. What keeps me young at heart? My grandchildren and my zest for life.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for HERO HATERS by Ken MacQueen on this Partners In Crime 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 Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
He seeks redemption, others want revenge
Jake Ockham had a dream job, vetting nominees for the Sedgewick Medallion-the nation’s highest civilian award for heroism. His own scarred hands are an indelible reminder of the single mother he failed to pull from a raging house fire; her face haunts him still. Obligations drag him back to his hometown to edit the family newspaper but attempts to embrace small-town life, and the hot new doctor, are thwarted by unknown forces. The heroes Jake vetted go missing and he becomes the prime suspect in the disappearances. Aided by resourceful friends, Jake follows a twisted trail to the Dark Web, where a shadowy group is forcing the kidnapped medalists to perform deadly acts of valor to amuse twisted subscribers to its website. To save his heroes, Jake must swallow his fears and become one himself…or die in the attempt.
Genre: Adult Thriller Published by: The Wild Rose Press, Inc Publication Date: October 2022 Number of Pages: 366 ISBN: 9781509243853 (ISBN10: 1509243852)
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
HERO HATERS by Ken MacQueen is an exciting thriller that was impossible to put down! The Dark Web has a new pay per view site where a man who hates “heroes” makes kidnapped proclaimed heroes perform heroic acts for their lives. Make time for this one because it will keep you turning the pages. I believe this is the author’s first thriller and I hope it is not his last.
Jake Ockham works as a journalist on his family’s small-town paper and on the side investigates people nominated for the Sedgewick Medallion which is the nation’s highest civilian award for acts of heroism. Jake, himself was nominated many years previously, but never felt himself a hero because while he saved the son from a raging house fire, the mother perished right before his and the surviving daughter’s eyes.
As Jake tries to impress the new and beautiful doctor in his small town, he finds himself becoming not the hero, but the villain in the eyes of law enforcement as Medallion winners go missing. With the help of his college roommate, Erik who is a brilliant cyber investigator, the friends follow a twisted path on the Dark Web and Jake must face a shadow man while also facing his own fears in an attempt to become a hero once again or die trying.
Twisted, scary and dark and yet also completely believable. The back and forth between the different characters about what makes a hero and who should be considered one is very thought provoking. Jake is a flawed and yet likable main character, and the antagonists are truly evil. I loved this fast-paced plot, and it just became more and more intense as it reached the climax. Absolutely riveting thriller with great characters.
I highly recommend this thriller and cannot wait to see what Mr. MacQueen writes next!
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Excerpt
Prologue
Spokane, Washington, August 2019
Local hero Anderson Wise can’t remember the last time he paid for a drink at Sharkey’s.
Nor can he remember an embarrassing assortment of the women who selflessly shared their affection, post-Sharkey’s.
As for that last blurry night at the gin mill, he wished to hell he’d stayed home.
The bar’s owner, Sharon Key, hence Sharkey’s, took joy in chumming the waters on Wise’s behalf for a regular catch of what she called “Hero Worshippers.”
She saw getting him laid as partial repayment for saving her eleven-year-old grandson Toby’s life some eighteen months back.
A disaffected dad, high on crystal meth, stormed into Toby’s classroom to take issue with his kid’s latest report card. He showed his displeasure by shot-gunning the teacher, then reloaded and asked all A-students to identify themselves. Being A-students, they dutifully raised their hands, Toby among them.
As the high-as-a-kite shooter herded the high achievers to the front of the class, Wise, the school custodian, charged into the room armed with a multipurpose dry-chemical fire extinguisher. He blasted the shooter with a white cloud of monoammonium phosphate, to minimal effect, then slammed the gun out of his hands. It discharged into the floor sending several pellets into Wise’s left foot. Thoroughly pissed, Wise ended the drama by pile-driving the extinguisher into the shooter’s face.
Sharon Key, a widow in her early sixties, subsequently replaced the beer signs and dart board with blow-ups of the laudatory press Wise earned during the tragic aftermath. The front of the next day’s local paper held pride of place. It carried a photo of Wise, extinguisher in hand, under the headline: Greater Tragedy Averted as Hero Janitor Extinguishes Threat. The story contained a pull quote in large font which Wise came to regret: “ ‘It’s a versatile extinguisher,’ the modest 30-year-old explained, ‘good for class A, B and C fires—and meth-heads’.”
Said famous extinguisher now guards the top-shelf booze behind Sharkey’s oak-and-brass bar.
New stories were added to Sharkey’s wall five months back after Wise was awarded, with much publicity, the Sedgewick Trust Sacrifice Medallion— one of the most prestigious recognitions of heroism that American civilians can receive.
Wise’s liver and a lower part of his anatomy took a renewed pounding in the weeks thereafter. So much so he declared a moratorium on visits to Sharkey’s for reasons of self-preservation.
He was back in the saddle a month now, but his attendance was spotty. “This hero stuff,” he confided to Key one night, while slumped in his chair. “Maybe it’s too much of a good thing?”
“Ya think?” Key muttered as she took inventory of that night’s limited offerings.
It wasn’t just the women. Men often bought him drinks too, happy to bask in the reflected glory of a proven manly man.
Two weeks ago, some weedy academic from back east interviewed him at Sharkey’s and staked him to an alcohol-fueled dinner at the city’s best chop house. The brainy one expected Wise to opine on such things as “neo-Darwinian rules for altruism.”
Asked him if he’d been motivated by “a kinship bond” with anyone in the room?
Er, no.
Wondered if Wise knew that a disproportionate number of risk takers are working-class males?
Nope, sorry.
And had he calculated in the moment that a heroic display of “good genes” would make him a desirable mating partner?
Cripes. Really?
“Don’t know what I was thinking,” Wise said, swirling a glass of something called Amarone, a wine so amazing angels must have crushed the grapes with their tiny, perfect feet. “Heard a gun blast, grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall. Saw the dead teacher, all those kids, and a nut with a shotgun. Did what anybody would do. I spent three years in the army after high school, mostly in the motor pool. Much as I hated basic training, maybe some of it stuck. Who knows?”
The academic gave a condescending smile and called for the bill, his hypothesis apparently confirmed.
Wise fled to the restaurant toilet and took notes on the back of his pay slip. Back home, he Googled the hell out of studies on “extreme altruist stimuli,” on “empirical perspectives on the duty to rescue,” and after many false starts, on theories of “Byronic and Lilithian Heroes.”
He kinda got the concept of “desirable mating partner”, but he was pretty sure his dick didn’t lead him into that classroom. Did it?
While not a reflective guy, Wise had to admit it was creepy to reap the fleshy benefits of his few seconds of glory while his dreams were haunted by visions of teacher Adah Summerhill slumped over her desk, blood pooled beneath her. So much blood. With the shooter sprawled unconscious, Wise gently lifted Adah’s head.
She had no pulse and her eyes, once so vibrant and expressive, were as empty as an open grave. She’d always been nice, and totally out of his league.
So, here he was, back at Sharkey’s, mind made up.
Key arrived at his “courting table” and set down his Jack and ginger ale.
“Gave my notice at the school,” he told her. “Getting outta here for a while. Got that Sedgewick money to spend. Someplace they don’t know me. Mexico, maybe.
Or Costa Rica.”
Key patted his hand. “Knew this was coming, Andy.
You banged every eligible female in town, pretty much.
And some who shoulda been out of bounds. I’m amazed the Tourist Bureau doesn’t list you as a top-ten attraction, up there with the botanical gardens.”
“All I want, Shar, is to be liked for me, not for something I did because I happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. Or is that the other way ’round?”
“Hey, you’re a good-looking guy. Still got that shaggy blond baseball player thing going for ya.
Might’ve taken a run at you myself if my hips weren’t shot.” She patted his cheek. “Made you blush. Now don’t turn into a beach bum down there. Always thought you aimed too low, mopping floors and washing windows for the school board. Time to stretch—”
She craned her neck toward the door after it opened with a bang. “My, my, here’s one for the road. She was in earlier, asking after you.” Key aimed a nod at the door and whispered, “Don’t strain anything.” And headed to the bar.
Wise looked up and…sweet Jesus.
Early twenties, he guessed. His eyes roamed from strappy sandals, up a long expanse of tanned bare legs to a glittering silver dress that started perilously high-thigh and ended well below exposed shoulders. The ripe promise of youth was on full display, like she’d dipped her bounteous curves in liquid lamé.
She drew every eye in the place as she undulated to his table. Full red lips, high cheekbones, chestnut hair piled high. Up close now, her gimlet eyes were at once innocent and knowing, like a debauched choirgirl.
“Hi, hero.” Her voice was low and sultry, as he knew it would be. She remained on her feet, hands on the table, leaning low to full effect. “When you finish that drink, I really want to see your medal.”
**** He remembered her mixing drinks back at his apartment while he retrieved his medallion from the sock drawer in his bedroom. He remembered her running a sensuous thumb over the bas-relief portrait of Philip Sedgewick as she read aloud the inscription: “The most sublime act is to set another before you.”
That wondrous voice lingering over “sublime act,”
like it was lifted from the Kama Sutra.
And like too many times, post-Sharkey’s, damned if he could remember her name—that evil bitch. He awoke, bouncing in the back of a van, hands and legs cuffed to rings set in the floor. A broken-glass headache served notice of every bump in the road.
Another lost night at Sharkey’s.
Wise had a dreadful feeling he’d never be back.
Chapter One Aberdeen, Washington, July, one month earlier Jake Ockham was one kilometer in, one kilometer to go and already in a world of pain. Lungs, legs and palms, always the damned palms, screaming enough already.
He’d whaled away on his Concept II rowing machine for thirty minutes, building up to this. Stripped off the sweatshirt after ten minutes, the t-shirt after twenty-five. Down now to running shoes and gym shorts, his torso gleaming with sweat despite the morning chill.
He’d rested after a thirty-minute warm-up to gulp water and to consider the need to reinforce the pilings under the creaky wooden deck before it dumped him and the ergometer into the Wishkah River below. Might leave it in the river mud if it came to that.
Full race mode now, one kilometer in, another to go.
The erg’s computer showed the need to pick up the pace to break the six-minute barrier, something he’d regularly shattered a decade ago during his university rowing days.
Thrust with the legs, throw back the shoulders, arms ripping back the handle. Return to the catch and repeat.
Five hundred meters to go. Eyes fixed on a duck touching down on the river, looking anywhere but the screen.
Two hundred and fifty meters. Faster. Harder. Don’t lose the technique.
Fifty meters. You can do this.
A final piston thrust of legs, shoulders, arms and…six minutes, thirteen seconds.
“Fuck!” His roar startled the duck into flight.
He slumped over the machine, gasping for air, ripping at the Velcro tabs of his gloves, throwing them on the deck in disgust. Hated those damned gloves, so essential these days.
Head bowed, he heard the cabin’s door rasp open.
“Such language.” Clara Nufeld, his aunt, and technically his boss as publisher of the Grays Harbor Independent, leaned against the doorframe.
He didn’t look up. “Don’t bother knocking. Make yourself at home.”
“I did, and I am. Got a couple of things to show you.
Right up your alley. Might be pieces for next week’s issue.”
She was lean and tall, in tight jeans and a faded Nirvana sweatshirt, her spiked white hair cut short. At sixty-four, she still turned heads. Jake knew her age to the day, Clara being his mother’s identical twin. Connie, his late mother, fell to breast cancer at age forty-five.
So much of his mother in Clara. So much that when Jake finished high school and rode his rowing scholarship east to Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, his father, Roger Ockham, moved his accounting business to Bend, Oregon. Said it was for the golfing, but Jake suspected the sight of his late wife’s twin was a constant reminder of his loss.
Connie and Clara, fresh out of university, worked for their father at the Independent, Clara on the advertising side, Connie as a reporter.
They took the helm of the paper after Derwin Nufeld—their dad, Jake’s grandfather—collapsed and died mid-way through crafting a fiery editorial on a mule-headed decision to pull The Catcher in the Rye from the high school library.
After Connie’s death, Clara did double duty as editor and publisher until she succeeded six months ago in luring Jake home to Washington State from Pittsburgh to take over as editor-in-chief.
This five-room stilt home, Clara’s former cottage on the tidal Wishkah, was his signing bonus.
One of the dwindling numbers of real estate ads in the Independent would describe the cabin something like: “A cozy oasis on the Wishkah, surrounded by nature and just minutes from the city. Fish from your deck while contemplating the possibilities for this prime riverfront property. A bit of TLC gets you a rustic getaway while you make plans for your dream home.”
After years in urban Pittsburgh, he awoke now to bird chatter and the sights and scents of the moody, muddy Wishkah—its current pulled, as he was pulled, to the infinite Pacific.
Jake gathered his shirts and gloves and cringed at a sniff-test of his underarms. “I’ll keep my distance.” He waved Clara inside. “What’s up my alley?”
She waved two dummy pages, the ads already laid out, plenty of blank space for him and his skeleton staff to fill with stories and photos.
Jake was still adjusting to small-town journalism, covering at least one earnest service club luncheon every week, puffy profiles of local businesses, check presentations, city council and school board meetings.
And jamming in as many names as possible. He’d done some summer reporting for the weekly during his high school years, but rowing had occupied most of his time.
Clara handed off a page proof with a boxed advert already laid out. “A new doctor is taking over old Doc Wilson’s practice, thank God. I swear the last medical journal that old man read was on the efficacy of leeches and bloodletting.”
Jake nodded. Worth a story for sure. A few words from Wilson about passing the scalpel to a new generation, then focus on Dr. Christina Doctorow. No hardship there.
The ad for her family practice included her photo.
Rather than the cliché white coat and stethoscope she wore hiking shorts and a flannel shirt with rolled sleeves, thick dark hair in a ponytail, a daypack hanging off a shoulder. A husky at her side gazed up adoringly.
Smart dog.
Jake put her at early thirties, his age more or less. He nodded approval. “Sporty. A fine addition to the Grays Harbor gene pool.”
“The woman’s a firecracker. Spent ten minutes haggling down the price. I finally caved. Said I’ll bump this up to a half-page, but you owe me a free checkup.”
“Seriously?”
“What she said, too. Also asked ‘Is that ethical?’ I said, ‘darling, I’m in advertising. You want ethics, deal with my nephew on the editorial side.’ “
Jake laughed. “Pretty good at bloodletting herself.
What else you got?”
“This is so up your alley.” She handed him a classified ad page-proof. “You being an expert.”
Jake slumped onto a kitchen chair. “On what?”
She tapped a one-column boxed ad in the lower left, “Heroes.”
“Not hardly.”
He looked closer and reared back. The heading read: “For Sale. Rare Sedgewick Sacrifice Medallion. $100 OBO.”
There was a thumbnail photo of the medal’s obverse, showing the craggy face of Philip Sedgewick, a leading member of the long-dead school of industrialist robber barons. He’d amassed a fortune in textile mills, newspapers, and exploitive labor practices. Awash in cash he came to philanthropy late in life. Like others in this elite group—Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, et al—their names and reputation-burnishing generosity live beyond the grave.
Sedgewick, at his wife’s urging, chose to celebrate extraordinary acts of heroism. He used eight of his many millions—an enormous sum in 1901—to endow a family trust to award exceptional heroism with the Sacrifice Medallion and needs-based financial assistance. Over the past one hundred twenty years, the trust awarded some eleven thousand medallions, an inspiring legacy of courage, and yes, sacrifice.
The grainy photo in the classified ad was too small to read the inscription under Sedgewick’s stern visage, but Jake knew it well. It was a quotation by the English poet William Blake: “The most sublime act is to set another before you.”
Below the photo was a post office box address, and “mail inquiries only.”
Jake shook his head. “This is nuts. The price is insanely low, insulting really. The medallions are kinda priceless.”
“I wondered about that,” Clara said. “The ad cost fifty dollars so not much of a profit.”
“The rare few that get to auction can fetch in the thousands. We try to buy them back, prefer that to having them land up in the hands of the undeserving.”
Clara cocked an eyebrow. “We?”
Jake shrugged. “I still do the occasional freelance investigations for Sedgewick. The thing is, there’s never a good reason to sell these. Either the recipient is dead broke, or dead without relatives to inherit it. Or it’s stolen.”
“Or,” Clara said, resting a hand on Jake’s shoulder, “the hero feels undeserving.”
He flinched. “Was there a photo of the medal’s back? It’d have the recipient’s name and the reason it was awarded.”
“Don’t even know who placed the ad. Arrived in the mail: a photo, the ad copy, and a fifty-dollar bill. No return address but the post office box.”
“Pull the ad, Clara. I’ll buy it and return the money.
There’s a story here, something’s not right.”
Clara toyed with her car keys. “I feel bad sometimes, guilting you back. Do you miss it, your old life back in Pittsburgh?”
His pause was barely discernable. “Great to be back in the old hometown.”
“Great to earn half the salary you did in the big city?
Great to prop up the family business? Great to be stuck with your old aunt?”
“Aunt doesn’t cover it. I was twelve when Mom passed. You stepped up for Dad and me.”
She looked like she was about to say something, then shook her head and flashed an enigmatic smile. “A topic for another day. Gotta run.”
She leaned across the table, took his hands in hers, running her thumbs lightly over his scarred palms. She raised his hands to her lips for a kiss, then turned for the door.
Excerpt from Hero Haters by Ken MacQueen. Copyright 2022 by Ken MacQueen. Reproduced with permission from Ken MacQueen. All rights reserved.
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Author Bio
Before turning to fiction, Ken MacQueen spent 15 years as Vancouver bureau chief for Maclean’s, Canada’s newsmagazine, winning multiple National Magazine Awards and nominations. He traveled the world writing features and breaking news for the magazine, and previously for two national news agencies. Naturally, he had to make Jake Ockham, his hero, a reporter, albeit a reluctant one. MacQueen also covered nine Olympic Games and drew Jake’s athletic prowess from tracking elite rowers in training and on podiums in Athens, Beijing and London. He and his wife divide their time between Vancouver, and British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for BE YOUR EVERYTHING (The D’Angelos Book #2) by Catherine Bybee.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee comes a romance about childhood friends who marry in Vegas and embark on a wild ride to find their happily ever after.
With two protective older brothers and a traditional Catholic Italian mother, it’s surprising that Chloe D’Angelo can manage a date without someone in the family naysaying her romantic choice. And Dante Mancuso…oh, no. Her brother’s best friend is not a dating-app right swipe.
But when they are left unsupervised on a late night in Vegas, all of that changes. Add in a Vegas wedding chapel and a couple of “I dos” and Chloe wakes up with a ring on her finger and a hangover. Dating Dante was always a secret desire, but marriage? The rift that this news would cause in her family has the both of them keeping their nuptials to themselves as they scramble to undo their Vegas mistake.
Dante knew the rules: Chloe was off limits. Only he can’t stop once his mind starts to believe she might be his forever. Just as their attraction deepens, Chloe flees to Bali, desperate to clear her head.
All Dante has to do is keep her brothers from killing him and convince her that they are meant for each other. But first, Dante has to find her.
BE YOUR EVERYTHING (The D’Angelos Book #2) by Catherine Bybee is another wonderful contemporary romance about members of the D’Angelo family who are a traditional Italian family. This story features Chloe who is the baby of the family and her brother’s best-friend, Dante. While this is the second book in the series, you can easily read it as a standalone, but you will love this family so much, I know you will want to go back and read the first book When It Falls Apart.
Chloe D’Angelo loves working at her family’s restaurant, but she has bigger dreams. Her dream trip to Bali must wait until after her oldest brother’s wedding. The entire bridal party is off for a Las Vegas weekend to celebrate before the wedding. Chloe has always had a crush on her middle brother’s best friend and now in Vegas, she is ready to show Dante what he has been missing by avoiding her as they grew up together.
Dante Mancuso is like a third brother to the D’Angelo brothers. While growing up, he was known as a player, and he has kept the reputation even as he works in Italy and only returns to visit his family and the D’Angelo’s. Now, home for the wedding and looking to set up a branch of his business at home, Dante is finding Chloe difficult to resist even as he knows he is breaking the brothers’ code of not dating their sister.
But crazy things happen in Las Vegas and Dante goes all in and he and Chloe run into a Vegas wedding chapel. The next morning, they know they are going to cause family upheaval, so they decide to keep the marriage a secret. As their attraction grows, Chloe flees to Bali and Dante is going to have to prove to her they are meant to be together.
I loved this story and the entire series to-date is entertaining and fun. I lived in an Italian neighborhood for many years and the traditions and family bonds are very accurately portrayed in this series. From the nonnas keeping an eye on everyone and the close-knit families and Sunday mass, these stories take me back to this neighborhood. Chloe and Dante are fully drawn characters and their relationship is believable and the sex scenes were not gratuitous. All the characters are realistic and make me want to be a member of their family and community. This book has everything I am looking for in a contemporary romance and I did not want it to end.
I highly recommend this contemporary romance, this series, and this author!
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Excerpt
“Go! I don’t want to see any of you back here until Monday.”
Chloe stood outside the back door of their home in Little Italy, surrounded by both her brothers and her soon-to-be sister-in-law. They all had small suitcases at their feet as the Uber van pulled up to take them to the airport.
Mari, their mother, had a hand on Francesca’s shoulder as they saw the bachelor/bachelorette party off.
“Mama, are you absolutely certain?” Luca, the husband-to-be, her over-worried oldest brother, couldn’t stop the concern that crossed his face anymore than he could the love he had in his eyes for the woman at his side.
He and Brooke were the real deal. Head over heels, all in . . . completely lost in each other.
Chloe couldn’t be happier for them.
They needed Vega. Boy, did they need two nights in Vegas.
“I ran this restaurant before you were born and after with all three of you jumping around. I have it, Luca. Go. Just don’t get married. Wait until you come back for that.”
“What about babies?” Gio, the middle child and smart-ass in the family, asked.
“That you can do,” Mari said with a wink.
Brooke knelt to Franny’s level and gave the eight-year-old a kiss. “Listen to your nonna.”
There were hugs and waves as Giovanni, or Gio, as he was more often called, shoved all the suitcases into the back of the van.
Gio took the front seat as the rest of them climbed into the back.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Luca said to his brother. “Busiest time of the year.”
“It is not. That’s in the summer,” Chloe argued. It was the last week of November. The family restaurant was fully staffed and ran like a well-oiled machine, even with three of their employees out at the same time. “It’s going to be nothing but family and friends, celebrations and ceremonies from here on out. This is the last chance for you two to let loose until it’s all over.” Chloe reminded them.
“You mean until after Christmas,” Gio said.
“Right.” They weren’t taking their honeymoon until after Christmas. After they returned a week into the new year, then it would be Chloe’s turn to get out of town. Her long-awaited tickets to Bali were burning a hole in her pocket.
This was her last opportunity to cut loose until it was all over as well.
Chloe watched their family home disappear from sight. It was a four-story building with the family restaurant on the bottom floor. The second story was the family home where they’d all grown up, and the third floor was where LUca, Brooke, and Franny now lived. On the very top was what used to be guest quarters but now was the bachelor pad that Gio took over. Secretly, Chloe was hoping Gio would find Mrs. Right and move on himself so she could occupy the upstairs apartment as her own space. She loved her mother, but living with her was getting old. As an Italian, Chloe wasn’t going anywhere until she married, that’s just the way things were done in her culture.
“Franny is going to be okay, right?” Brooke asked Luca as they settled in for the short ride to the airport.
Chloe rolled her eyes.
Francesca, Luca’s daughter from his first unfortunate marriage, was probably already elbow-deep in gelato and milking Mari for all the attention and goodies a nonna could give her.
“She’ll be fine,” Luca said, kissing Brooke’s forehead.
The ride to the airport took less than ten minutes, a perk when you lived in San Diego and everything was close.
Getting through security and waiting in the airport would take longer than the actual flight to Vegas, but it beats a long drive across the California desert any day of the week.
“Thanks again for inviting Mayson to join you guys,” Brooke said to Gio and Luca.
“He’s a friend of yours. He’s a friend of ours.”
“Besides, we need even numbers,” Chloe added. As she said that, she saw Salena waving them over to her side before they entered the TSA line.
“Vegas, baby!” Salena all but yelled for everyone to heard.
Chloe tossed her arms around one of her dearest friends for a hug. They’d known each other before braces and periods. As ride-and-die friends went, Salena was someone Chloe could count on to be there.
“We could have picked you up,” Gio said.
Salena, who lived in Little Italy as well, shrugged. “It’s okay. I had JOey take me.”
“Joey? Do I know Joey?”
She waved a hand. “Flavor of the month.”
Gio narrowed his eyes. “You’re worse than me.”
“No one is worse than you,” Chloe and Salena said in unison.
The three of them fell in line behind Luca and Brooke, who were arm in arm and whispering in each other’s ears.
“They do know that we have separate rooms, right?” Chloe asked her brother.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think that’s going to matter,” Salena added.
“Divide and conquer. Once everyone arrives, we have dinner, pull straws on who is in charge for the night, and go to our separate clubs.” Gio lowered his voice. “We’ll give them tomorrow afternoon to knock it out.”
Chloe laughed. “We may never see them again.”
Salena nudged Chloe’s shoulder as they inched their way up the line. “Is Dante flying directly from Italy?’
Just hearing Dante’s name had Chloe standing taller. Gio’s best friend, and the one boy that had always been “off-limits” for oh so many reasons, was the cause of many sleepless nights.
The man only grew more beautiful with every year that passed.
And he knew it.
And the women knew it.
All the women!
“He’s already in the States. New York, He’ll be in Vegas about an hour after we land.”
Salena nudged Chloe again with a grin once Gio turned around.
Stop. Chloe mouthed the word without sound.
Once they moved through security, they found their gate for the forty-five-minutes wait to board the plane.
Salena and Chloe sat with their luggage while the others went to find coffee and water for the flight.
“Are you prepared for a weekend with Dante?” Salena asked once they were alone.
Chloe shook her head. “Listen to you. It was a high school crush.”
Salena laughed. “I’m pretty sure it started in fifth grade and never ended.”
“He’s lived in Italy for the better part of five years.”
“And every time he comes home, you forget how to speak.”
“That’s not true.”
Salena glared.
Okay, it was a little bit true. “I did better last year.” It helped that she stayed out of his orbit that time around and he was only home for a month.
“How long is he staying this time?”
“No idea,” Chloe said. Her cell phone pinged, grabbing her attention.
She opened her messages inside a dating app she’d been on for a few weeks.
“Who is that?” Salena asked, looking over her shoulder.
Chloe glanced at the image on her screen, the one she’d swiped right on. He was thirty, no kids. Worked somewhere in La Jolla. “His name is Eric. We’ve been texting for a few days.”
“He’s cute.”
“I thought so.”
His text came through, asking what she was doing. She started typing.
“Have you met him yet?”
Chloe shook her head, finished her message about the bachelorette party in Vegas.
“Are you going to?”
Three dots indicated he was typing.
:Only if he asks.” As progressive as she was, she found it necessary for the man to take the first steps.
“You know . . . if you stack the desk with dates while Dante is in town, it might be easier to be around the man.”
Salena had a point.
Chloe’s phone buzzed.
How about meeting for coffee when you get back? Wednesday enough time for you to sleep off the hangover?
Chloe showed the message to Salena.
“Say yes.”
Her friend was right. Chloe needed all the help she could get when Dante was home. If her attention was elsewhere, maybe he’d lose his appeal.
She agreed to coffee with Eric on Wednesday and told him she’d get in touch when she returned.
“I have a feeling this weekend is going to be one for the record books,” Salena said as she watched more passengers arrive for their flight.
“It’s likely the one and only time I’ll be in Vegas with both my brothers.”
“Considering how they’ve helicoptered you since your papa passed, that’s not a bad thing.”
She’d been seventeen when their father died. Luca became the head of the family while he had a one-year-old and a failing marriage. What a crappy couple of years that had been. Now, things are looking up. For all of them.
She’d finished her college classes and earned her business degree. But instead of working for someone else, she wanted to do something on her own. She blamed her family for that. Yes, she waited tables at their restaurant and, honestly, liked the job. But what she loved more than anything was teaching yoga. Her trip to Bali was supposed to happen the year the world shut down, and it was only now that time and the world’s health were giving her the opportunity to go. She knew, somehow, that the trip was going to guide her to whatever her path was going to be. Maybe she’d start her own studio or her own online channel. Brooke had a boatload of knowledge about marketing and was on board with helping her start up. Financially, Chloe had banked nearly everything she’d earned from the first day she started working and was more ready than most to begin her future.
Her father, in all his wisdom, had taken out a life insurance policy that their mother had divided and put into investment plans for each of them. Luca immediately put everything in his name to his daughter. Giovanni was itching to invest in a vineyard. The resident sommelier wanted to spend time in Tuscany as much as she wanted to spend time in Bali. So, while they did pull shifts waiting tables, doing what had to be done to make the family restaurant run, it wasn’t their lifelong ambition. Well, Luca was the chef, and that was his life’s choice . . . and she and Gio were thankful for it.
“They promised not to act like big brothers in Vegas,” Chloe said.
“Yeah, well, they aren’t going to the same strip clubs we are.”
The image of her brothers holding a hand over her eyes made her smile. “Thank God for that.
***
About the Author
Catherine is a #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Indie Reader bestselling author. In addition, her books have also graced The New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. In total she has written thirty-six beloved books that have collectively sold more than 10 million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full time and has penned the Not Quite series, The Weekday Brides series, the Most Likely To series, and the First Wives series. Learn more about Catherine and her books at www.catherinebybee.com
When a cold case in Texas leads to a sinister string of disappearances, a newcomer to the small town helps a detective piece together the clues in this new romantic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.
Corporate lawyer Ava Burch has had enough of the big city and the daily grind. She grew up with her father, who raised search-and-rescue dogs, in rural Texas and has moved to the small town of Cuervo to spend time in the dry, rugged wilderness near Big Bend National Park. When she and her dog, Huck, discover an abandoned campsite on a volunteer search-and-rescue mission, she’s perplexed, but she carefully photographs it all the same.
All Grant Wycoff can see when he looks at Ava is a city slicker—with her designer jeans and shiny car—who has no business on a serious team made of seasoned outdoorsmen and retired cops. But when she tells him of her findings on the trail, he sees there’s more to her than meets the eye.
Ava’s discovery reminds Grant of the unsolved case of a young woman who went missing two years ago. As they look into the campsite further, another woman disappears under odd circumstances. With time running out, Ava and Grant must work against the brutal heat from both the Texas sun and their own electric chemistry to solve the case.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Vanishing Hour by Laura Griffin shows why she is the master of suspenseful romance. This plot has cold cases, search and rescue missions, and a loveable black lab.
Corporate lawyer Ava Burch has had enough of the big city and the daily grind. She grew up with her father, who raised search-and-rescue dogs, in rural Texas and has moved to the small town of Cuervo to spend time in the dry, rugged wilderness near Big Bend National Park. She is also a volunteer working search and rescue with her dog Huck. On a SAR mission, Ava becomes aware that women are missing annually from the hostile desert environment around the town and decides to pursue her own investigation, finding out that there are three missing women, all unsolved cold cases.
Grant Wycoff deputy sheriff and lead investigator reluctantly is paired with Ava since she and Huck can lead him to where there is evidence of the missing women. He does not want her working his case because she is a civilian and might endanger herself. The two of them don’t see eye to eye about the case. They butt heads digging their boot heels in to see who’s stronger willed. Grant sees her as a city slicker, wearing designer jeans and a driving a shiny new car. He thinks she has no business on a serious team made of seasoned outdoorsmen and retired cops. She is too stubborn to listen to him and eventually shows him her worth. In addition, they both realize there is chemistry between them.
This plot has it all: a gripping mystery, a sizzling romance, and plenty of action. It will keep readers on the edge of their seats with plenty of red herrings placed strategically throughout the story along with real clues.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Will this be a series and why a rescue dog?
Laura Griffin: I don’t have plans to make it a series, although the secondary characters have been teed up for more. I might come back to them, even years later. I became a dog owner about ten years ago. My dog is a Weimaraner. We adopted this sweet dog. I did some research for a previous book I wrote, Alpha Crew Dogs, about bomb sniffing dogs. From there I learned about search and rescue dogs. I really wanted to write a story about this type of dog.
EC: What about Huck, the dog?
LG: I started the story with writing about Huck. I wanted to make him an intricate part of the story. Huck is a black lab because I read a book about a park ranger who does search and rescue work. Labs are smart, sweet, good with people, can be playful, and trainable. Yet, I did not write Huck as having the personality as a human. But Huck is so intelligent with very powerful smelling abilities and great instinct. Huck was seen as a danger to the bad guys who tried to eliminate him. Just as with military dogs, the enemy knows they are in trouble because the dog can find ammunition, guns, and bodies. Huck became a threat.
EC: How would you describe Ava?
LG: Determined, smart, and underestimated. She is a woman who grew up in a man’s world of law enforcement. Her dad was a game warden, so she had experience with law enforcement although she is a civilian. She can be overly sensitive
EC: What about the relationship?
LG: Since her dad was in law enforcement she reflects on if she wants a relationship with someone in that profession. The job can be wearing on people, her dad was always working, many times preoccupied by the grim facts of his work, and her mom had to raise the children by herself. This caused a conflict between herself and Grant because he is a workaholic. Ava can read people and is guarded.
EC: How would you describe Grant?
LG: His home and family are important to him. He is protective, wants his town to be a better place, very dedicated and committed. He is sweet with a big heart, at times condescending, has a big ego, and stubborn.
EC: What role did the setting play?
LG: It takes place in West Texas, which is very remote. The town is in transition, going from a little town to a tourist town with more people. There is a lot of outdoor activities in the plot including, climbing, hiking, rock climbing, a dude ranch, and shooting a crossbow. During Covid a lot of people shifted to the National Parks. Many times, they did not understand all the dangers of these types of settings. For example, people don’t take water or the correct supplies. They are a little bit careless with their safety considering the natural dangers, which is why Ava and Huck helped to rescue people who got themselves in trouble. I learned about rock climbing when I did the research for Stone Cold Heart.
EC: Next book?
LG: It is the next book in the “Texas Murder Files Series” and titled Deep Tide. Leyla is the heroine, who runs the coffee shop. It will be out in the spring. Leyla finds one of her employees murdered in the alley behind her coffee shop. The hero is Sean Moran, who is on an undercover mission. Together he and Leyla are trying to solve who murdered her employee and why.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for CLEOPATRA’S VENDETTA (A Stryker Thriller Book #1) by Avanti Centrae on this Black Tide Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, the author’s bio and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Royal secrets. Epic lies. This “dangerous” and controversial standalone thriller from international bestselling VanOps author Avanti Centrae is a fast-paced bombshell of a story about truth and courage.
Born a goddess, Cleopatra died a prisoner. But the cobra’s deadly kiss was just the beginning…
Global Thriller First Place Winner — Chanticleer International Book Awards Runner Up — Paris Book Festival
Bari, Italy, present day. Think tank Special Ops leader Timothy Stryker and his wife Angie, a self-made CEO, haven’t exactly been seeing eye-to-eye. They take a much-needed Italian holiday, but it comes to a shocking end when Angie and their daughter are kidnapped.
Still raw from the death of their infant son, Stryker is desperate to rescue Angie and reconcile their differences. As he works to locate the captors’ lair, he discovers the kidnappers are behind a string of recent assassinations and attempting another high-profile hit in only seven days. But when he learns their plans for his only remaining child, the scab on his heart tears open and blood begins to spill.
Working from inside her brutal captors’ high-security compound, Angie realizes the cabal is hiding an ancient secret using modern propaganda techniques. And as Stryker races hitmen across India, Egypt, and Greece to thwart the next assassination and save his family, he has to connect a series of deadly dots tracing all the way back to the time of Cleopatra. Ultimately, the estranged pair must shake the deeply buried pillars of western civilization to save their four-year-old daughter from an unspeakable fate.
Fascinating, provocative, original, and timely, Cleopatra’s Vendetta is a sizzling novel that paints a disturbing picture of some of the most intricate issues that have plagued humanity’s past…challenges that color our days and provide the blueprint for our future.
CLEOPATRA’S VENDETTA (A Stryker Thriller Book #1) by Avanti Centrae is an edge-of-your-seat contemporary thriller full of history and conspiracies featuring a high-tech, highly trained team of military misfits. I read this first book in hopefully a future series very quickly and was unable to put it down.
Tim Stryker, his wife, Angie and their young daughter, Harper are on a much-needed vacation in Italy. It has been a year since the death of their infant son from brain cancer and the family is still suffering. While Stryker has been using meditation and avoidance to deal with his pain, Angie has been abusing alcohol to bury her pain.
Stryker is the lead commander of a group of specialized military operatives who are all highly intelligent, but all also have some reason they do not fit into regular service. He is called away from the family vacation when intel is uncovered that another head of state is marked for assassination which has become a string of assassinations no one has been able to stop.
While away, Stryker’s wife and daughter are kidnapped. They are held in an island prison with many other women being sold into a sex-trafficking operation, and while Angie knows Stryker will come for them, she is CIA trained and determined to protect Harper. While she looks for a way to escape, she uncovers a conspiracy that ties the current assassinations to the historical Cleopatra and her plot to destroy her enemies even after her suicide.
I loved how this exciting thriller weaves two intertwining historical and present-day cabals in an eternal battle and search for treasure and power. The plot is a mystery/conspiracy thriller with plenty of action that blends fact and fiction seamlessly and leaves the reader contemplating many beliefs and mores in our current society. Stryker and his team are all well drawn special ops warriors and I enjoyed the twist of each having some flaw that makes them unable to work on a regular team but binds them all together perfectly.
I highly recommend this exciting thriller!
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About the Author
International multi-award-winning and Amazon #1 bestselling author who blends intrigue, history, science, and mystery into pulse-pounding action thrillers.
Avanti Centrae is the author of the international multi-award-winning VANOPS thriller series. An instant Barnes and Noble Nook bestseller, THE LOST POWER took home a genre grand prize ribbon at the Chanticleer International Book Awards, a bronze medal at the Wishing Shelf Awards, and an Honorable Mention at the Hollywood Book Festival. SOLSTICE SHADOWS won a bronze at the competitive Readers’ Favorite Awards, the Global Thrillers Genre Grand Prize at the most recent Chanticleer Awards, and was a #1 Amazon bestseller in both the U.S and Canada. Her father served as a U.S. marine corporal in Okinawa, gathering military intelligence during the first decade after the Korean War. Her work has been compared to that of James Rollins, Steve Berry, Dan Brown, and Clive Cussler but has a voice all its own.
