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Review: Double Blind, by Brandilyn Collins

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Double Blind cover artDouble Blind, by Brandilyn Collins (B&H Publishing Group, 2012)

Lisa Newberry is a wreck. In recent years she’s had three miscarriages, lost her husband in a car accident, and barely survived a mugging. Depression is crushing her and she’s desperate and alone.

Her last hope is a clinical trial for a revolutionary new treatment for depression: a tiny electronic chip implanted in her brain. The chip works. But it also gives her visions—memories—of a murder.

Who is the dead woman? Has her body been found? And who killed her? Does he know Lisa has his memories through the tainted chip? Is he coming for her next?

As a suspense novel, Double Blind rates highly—no surprise for Brandilyn Collins fans. It’s a page-turning, bedtime-delaying read. The plot is fast, believable and nicely convoluted. But it’s more than just an exciting story. This is one of those potentially life-changing novels for a lot of readers.

Lisa’s recent life events have only added to self-worth pain from her childhood (raised by a single mother who found fault instead of praise). Negative thought patterns and emotions have deepened the original hurts. She doesn’t feel God anymore and believes He’s left her.

Her mother barges back into her life and learns about the visions. While the two women try to solve the mystery, they’re also repairing their relationship.

Lisa learns (and teaches us by example) to stand up for herself and to reject self-defeating behaviours. She learns to trust that God is always with her, even when her feelings disagree. Her mother learns a few parenting skills. All these are minor threads, rising naturally from the characters’ personalities and experiences. Double Blind is not a preachy novel, nor one filled with plastic-perfect examples that shame readers in our imperfect states.

It may seem odd that Lisa wasn’t under a doctor’s care for depression in the first place. I think it’s because the traumas were so recent and she’d withdrawn herself. Even her closest friend didn’t realize how bad things were.

Double Blind is the newest novel from Seatbelt Suspense® novelist Brandilyn Collins. You can learn more about the author at her website or find her Facebook page. You can also read an excerpt from Double Blind.

[Review copy provided by The DeMoss Group for a fair review.]

 

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Review: Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus, by Joyce Magnin

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Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus cover artHarriet Beamer Takes the Bus, by Joyce Magnin (Zondervan, 2012)

Harriet Beamer is a 72-year-old, independent-minded widow who lives with her super-sized hound, Humphrey. She’s agreed to move in with her son and daughter-in-law, but she doesn’t have to go quietly. Or conventionally.

All her life, Harriet has lived a conventional life. The only unusual thing she’s done is collect salt and pepper shakers. She’s never travelled, never had an adventure. So she sends her dog to their new home by air and sets out to join him by bus. Local transit where possible, Greyhound or train at a last resort. All the way from Pennsylvania to California.

Her journey is a hoot. Think of something funny that could happen: odds are, it does. A few not-so-funny things happen too.

As she travels, and as her writer son Henry and his wife Prudence wait and worry, each one reaches a change in thinking that should let them live happily ever after.

This is a fun summer read that prompted a lot of snorts and laughter. I have no idea if the details of various transit stations are accurate, but they’re fine for an armchair journey. And Harriet’s feistiness is inspiring.

It’s a Christian novel, and because of the sensitivities of some within the faith I’ll issue two warnings: 1) Harriet has been known to place small bets. Selling her house is actually the result of losing the only high-stakes bet she’s ever made. 2) Harriet uses words like “dang” and “geeze”. This won’t bother most readers at all, didn’t bother me although the gambling surprised me, but if either of these things are on your don’t fly list, you’ll want to choose a different novel.

It’s not a preachy novel, although Harriet meets more believers than a realistic slice of US demographics would produce. It’s the sort of book you can read, enjoy, and share with a friend. And if it encourages your own sense of adventure, so much the better. The world needs more Harriets.

Joyce Magnin is the author of The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow, Carrying Mason and the Bright’s Pond Series. To learn more, you can visit Joyce Magnin’s blog or her Zondervan author page.

[Review copy from my personal library.]
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The LaTisha Barnhart Mystery Series, by S. Dionne Moore

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The LaTisha Barnhart Mysteries Series, by S. Dionne Moore (Spyglass Lane Mysteries)

Murder on the Ol Bunions cover artLaTisha Barnhart and her husband, Hardy, are a middle-aged black couple living in the fictional town of Maple Gap, Colorado. They’re still very much in love after almost 40 years, and the amount of sass they fling at one another to cover it up is funny.

Hardy has retired from the workforce, but as the series opens, LaTisha is fighting empty-nest syndrome by taking an online degree in police science. She quit her last job—or was she fired?—and when she finds her ex-boss murdered, she’s afraid she’ll be suspect number one. That’s book 1, Murder on the Ol’ Bunions.

Book 2, Polly Dent Loses Grip, takes Polly Dent Loses Grip cover art place in a nearby town as the Barnharts try to get Hardy’s elderly mother settled into a retirement residence. Management dismisses an on-site death as accidental, but LaTisha sees murder in the mix. As well as Polly Dent (whose hands may have slipped on some powder), there are other amusing names in this book: Sue Mie is an angry young woman with attitude, and Thomas Philcher is rumoured to be a bank robber.

Your Goose is Cooked cover artYour Goose is Cooked is book 3. LaTisha and Hardy are back in Maple Gap and they’re the new owners of a restaurant called “Your Goose is Cooked.” Their cook overhears a threat on the mayor’s life but is afraid to go to the police, leaving LaTisha to investigate. Add a murder and an attempted hit-and-run on LaTisha herself, throw in small-town rumours and an election campaign, and things get a bit wild.

This is a fun, light-hearted mystery series, and I recommend starting with book 1. The stories build on one another, from Murder on the Ol’ Bunions to Polly Dent Loses Grip to Your Goose is Cooked. They’re 99¢ each for Kindle and at Smashwords, so why not collect all three?

I won an e-copy of Your Goose is Cooked at Lena Nelson Dooley’s blog, A Christian Writer’s World, and liked it so much I bought books 1 and 2.  The draw is over, but if you click here you can read an interview with S. Dionne Moore and an excerpt from book 1, Murder on the Ol’ Bunions.

S. Dionne Moore writes historical romance and cozy mysteries. To learn more about her and her books, visit her website.  Your Goose is Cooked is only available in electronic format, but her previous books are in print as well as ebooks.

[Book 3 provided by S. Dionne Moore and Lena Nelson Dooley, with no strings attached. Books 1 and 2 purchased from Smashwords. The choice to write a review was mine.]

Review: Zinovy’s Journey, by Ginny Jaques

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Zinovy's Journey cover artZinovy’s Journey, by Ginny Jaques (Millennium Journeys Press, 2011)

When the world ends…
Zinovy’s journey begins.

Zinovy Kozlov was a successful assassin. Then he was running for his life. Now the earth itself has changed and his enemies are dead or out of reach. As he tackles the physical pilgrimage to the one remaining city on the planet, he doesn’t see that he and his companions are on a spiritual journey as well.

Zinovy’s Journey is “a speculative novel in three parts: The End, The Journey, and The Beginning.” It offers a little bit of just about everything: action, intrigue, suspense, a spacewalk, relationships, revenge, philosophy, end times, a whole new world, and surprises at every turn.

Author Ginny Jaques has envisioned a richly wondrous world set during Revelation’s thousand-year reign of Christ, and I’m sure the real thing will be all that and more than we can imagine. Reading about it made me wistful.

The author has chosen to interpret biblical references “as literally as possible in creating the setting, because that approach made an interesting physical backdrop for Zinovy’s journey.”

People have many different expectations about the end times, and if you read this novel checking it against your own understanding you’ll probably find differences. But you’ll also miss the story. Readers who take it as fiction and not doctrine will engage the universal story of human choices on the journey to a relationship with God.

One of the many things I appreciate about the novel is it doesn’t end with Zinovy accepting Christ. That happens in the middle section, and then we get to see his struggles as he learns what his choice means – and what it costs. For a rational man like Zinovy who has always dismissed Bible stories as fables taught by his mother, the path to faith is indeed quite a journey.

I found the pace slower in The Journey section, because there’s a lot of philosophical discussion among the travellers. Readers who enjoy deep thinking will be satisfied, and the characters touch on all the heavy-duty spiritual questions. To the characters, it’s not slow; it’s a necessary part of working through their concerns. And the action never stops, it just happens between conversations. There’s still danger lurking.

The characters came alive to me, especially Zinovy, Sara, and the boy Caleb. The day after finishing the story, I caught myself wondering what was happening in their world now. It was a bit disappointing to remember I couldn’t pick up the book and read more!

Zinovy’s Journey is Ginny Jaques’ first novel, and I really like her writing style. The novel is available through the Zinovy’s Journey website, where you can also view the trailer and read a sample chapter. Those who’ve already finished the book are invited to visit the About the Novel page for background information and deleted scenes. You can also read my interview with author Ginny Jaques.

Author’s Warning: Some scenes in this book contain violence, strong language, and religious ideas.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Dying to Read, by Lorena McCourtney

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Dying to ReadDying to Read, by Lorena McCourtney (Revell, 2012)

Cate Kinkaid is working for her Uncle Joe, “dipping her toe into the world of private investigation” until she can find a real job. Her past work experience, and her ex-fiancé, have left her feeling like a failure.

Her first investigative assignment seems to be more of the same: all she has to do is verify the address of a young woman named Willow, but Willow’s gone. Instead, Cate finds a dead body and ends up saddled with the deceased’s cat.

But Cate has spunk and some good instincts, and the official verdict of accidental death doesn’t feel right. Plus, she’s determined to find Willow before her uncle discovers the assignment’s still unfinished.

Suspects abound: Willow, the dead woman’s book club, her niece, her boyfriend. It’s not all bad, though. Cate meets a handsome handyman, Mitch, who appoints himself her bodyguard. Even that’s troublesome, because she still wonders if God will bring her ex-fiancé to his senses.

Dying to Read is book one in Lorena McCourtney’s new series, The Cate Kinkaid Files. After enjoying her Ivy Malone books, I was eager to give this one a try, and I look forward to reading more of Cate’s adventures.

Lorena McCourtney’s characters are always a treat, blending humour and eccentricities with hearts that are surprisingly real. Cate doesn’t trust her intuition, but she’s wiser than she knows, and she’s too stubborn to quit.

To learn more about the author and her books, visit Lorena McCourtney’s website. At the publisher’s website, you can read an excerpt of Dying to Read, or if you’ve already read the novel, check out the discussion questions.

[Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.]

Review: Nick of Time, by Tim Downs

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Nick of Time cover artNick of Time, by Tim Downs (Thomas Nelson, 2011)

“The Bug Man is getting married on Saturday … if his fiancée can find him.”

Nick Polchak is a forensic entomologist: he studies bugs, specifically the ones attracted to corpses. One thing these bugs do is help him pinpoint the time of death.

His fiancée, Alena, trains rescue dogs for work sniffing out drugs or finding cadavers. They’re her family. She lives in a locked compound outside of town, and she doesn’t encourage visitors.

For all his eccentricities, Nick shares one thing with most engaged men: the whole wedding preparation thing bores and scares him. Maybe that’s why he insists on leaving town for a cold-case meeting with his colleagues.

It’s the week before the wedding, but he can back the next day. Except one of his friends dies, he clashes with the responding police officer, and things progress from there. Suddenly Nick is following clues that take him farther from home—and his wedding date is getting closer.

When he doesn’t phone her as promised, Alena sets off after him with three of her best dogs. She’s a formidable tracker and good at getting the information she needs, but Nick is on the move and she’s always one step behind.

Page one of the novel hooked me, and page four had me laughing aloud. Yes, Nick works with gross bugs with fancy Latin names, but the story doesn’t have a significant ick factor. (If you hate bugs, you might disagree…) It does have a lot of funny bits, usually to do with Nick’s words and actions.

Nick and Alena are blunt-spoken, borderline socially-dysfunctional characters. I loved reading about them—I want to go back and start the series at the beginning—but I sure wouldn’t want to live with either of them. They’re a good match.

Nick of Time picks up where Tim Downs’ previous Bug Man novel, Ends of the Earth, left off. I was able to pick it up cold and enjoy. If you want to start with book one in the series, look for Shoofly Pie. At Tim Downs’ website, you can read the first three chapters of any of his books.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: Words in the Wind, by Yvonne Anderson

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Words in the Wind cover art Words in the Wind, by Yvonne Anderson (Risen Books, 2012)

Words in the Wind is book 2 in the Gateway to Gannah series. Book 1, The Story in the Stars, introduces Dassa, the sole survivor of planet Gannah, and Dr. Pik of planet Karkar. Dassa looks like most humans, but Karkars are taller, with six fingers and toes per hand/foot, and the only emotions they show are through their ear movements. The two planets, Gannah and Karkar, have a bloody history.

I can’t review book 2 without giving spoilers for book 1, so if this is a new series to you, click over to my review of The Story in the Stars. You may want to read that novel first.

[Scroll down for the rest of the Words in the Wind review]

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Words in the Wind takes place 20 years after Dassa, the last Gannahan, is rescued, and 10 years after she and Pik have married. They’re leading a settlement of humans whose goal is to repopulate Gannah according to the Old Gannahan customs, culture and language.

It’s a harsh culture in some ways, based on honour, truth and communal living. Many of the Old Gannahans had embraced Christianity when it was shared from Earth, partly because God (they call Him the Yasha) spoke directly to them. The settlers are Christians as well.

True Gannahans have a meah organ in their brains, allowing them to hear one another as well as God. A Gannahan was never truly alone, until Dassa became the last survivor.

In Words in the Wind, Dassa is stranded on the far side of the planet when her shuttle crashes. The impact damages her meah and she’s cut off from her children and from her God. She must survive in harsh surroundings and find a way home if her people can’t locate her. And she needs to learn to live her faith the way other races do, relying only on the words in the Bible and on God’s providence.

Pik has no contact with her but he’s convinced she’s still alive. Weather and equipment foil his rescue attempts, and the harder he tries to keep the settlers together and to lead in her absence, the worse he seems to do.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Dassa’s journey is an adventure, and while it’s dangerous, I wasn’t afraid for her. And then there’s the whole rediscovering Gannah aspect: this amazing planet with habitations and archives ready to be explored and put to use. Plus there’s the trust these people (most of them) have in their God to be with them in the hard times and to make a way.

When I reached the end I kept wanting to turn pages but there were no more! I’ll be eagerly waiting for book 3, Ransom in the Rock. In the mean time, if you like Christian science fiction that’s light on the science and more about the people and the planet, I highly recommend the Gateway to Gannah series.

You can learn more about Yvonne Anderson at her website, Y’s Words. Or follow this link for more about the Gateway to Gannah series. Yvonne is also part of the team at Novel Rocket.

[Review copy provided by the author in exchange for a fair review.]

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Review: Death of a Highland Heavyweight, by Jayne E. Self

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Death of a Highland Heavyweight cover artDeath of a Highland Heavyweight, by Jayne E. Self (Harbourlight Books, 2012)

Gailynn MacDonald designs artisan jewellery and works as a medical receptionist in the small seaside town of Hum Harbour, Nova Scotia. She’s perky, impulsive, and afraid of the ocean. And she can’t seem to stop getting involved in murder investigations.

She doesn’t go looking for them, but she does walk the beach each day looking for bits of seaglass to use in her jewellery. That’s how she found the first body (Mystery in Hum Harbour), and it’s what now brings her within earshot of screams from Hunter Hall.

Heavyweight champion Claude Oui (affectionately dubbed “Wee Claude” because of his large size) lies dead in the Hall, his wife Carrie Hunter-Oui helplessly trying CPR.

Claude suffered from post-concussion syndrome, and Gailynn’s fiancé Geoff, the town’s doctor, is afraid he missed a clue that could have saved the gentle giant’s life. Or did Claude trip on the stairs? Or fall victim to the burglar who stole some of Carrie’s collection of frog ornaments?

This last frightens Gailynn most of all, since her young cousin Ashleigh’s boyfriend has been stealing other frog ornaments as gifts. Josh seems like such a nice guy. But what if he’s a murderer?

Gailynn tries to leave the murder investigation to her police officer brother and his team, but she can’t help her suspicions. And she can’t stop asking questions, even though she’s supporting the grieving Carrie (including chairing the Hum Harbour Daze committee) and trying to plan her own wedding.

Death of a Highland Heavyweight is a cozy mystery with a strong sense of place and with characters who could be ordinary people like you or me. Well, not the athletes, but Gailynn, Geoff, Ashleigh and their families are everyday people.

I like Gailynn, with her kind heart, gentle spirit and overactive imagination. I like Geoff, too. He’s a decent man. And I like reading stories set in my home province. Locals like me can hear little things in the dialogue that authenticate Jayne Self’s right to write about us. This was true in Murder in Hum Harbour too. She knows this setting, despite living “away”, and that knowledge adds depth.

I also like the humour. It’s dry, understated, and slips in when you least expect it, adding yet another thread of pleasure to the story. I hope there’ll be a Seaglass Mysteries #3 in the works soon.

Visit Jayne E. Self’s website for more information on the author and her books. You can also find her on Facebook and at Canadian Christians Who Write, where she does regular interviews (including one with me).

[Review copy provided by the author in exchange for a fair review.]

Review: The Soul Saver, by Dineen Miller

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The Soul Saver cover artThe Soul Saver, by Dineen Miller (Barbour Publishing, 2012)

Sculptor Lexie Baltimore has an unusual spiritual gift: some of her creations are commissioned by God. She wakes in the night with a face and possibly a location in her mind, and sculpts that face before the image fades. That person is her next assignment, someone God wants her to help.

Her husband, Hugh, doesn’t share her faith, and he’s swamped by duties at the university where he’s pursuing tenure. He and Lexie don’t have a lot of common ground anymore. When God sends her to meet an attractive, widowed pastor, is she really on the right path? The spiritual battle that ensues has more at stake than the participants realize.

Lexie is stronger spiritually than many of us, but she’s carrying so much pain (and occasional petulance against God) that she never feels unattainably perfect. She, Hugh, and Pastor Nate are so deeply tangled in their own hurts and perceptions that readers can’t help but care about them.

Part of the ammunition Lexie needs to fight this battle comes from a Bible study she attends for women whose husbands don’t share their faith. This is one of Lexie’s deep hurts, but she’s always thought she was the only one in this position. The friends she makes, and the insights she gains in how she’s been relating to Hugh, may well be the difference between the success and failure of her mission.

Some spiritual warfare novels are scary or borderline horror. Not this one. It’s compelling and hard to put down and I wasn’t keen on reading about the demon character right before bed, but I’d call it a safe read. If you like relationship stories or know someone who’s the only Christian in a marriage, this is a novel for you.

Visit Dineen Miller’s website to watch the book trailer or to read an excerpt from The Soul Saver. Dineen Miller is also the co-author, with Lynn Donovan, of Winning Him Without Words, a non-fiction book on how to thrive in a spiritually unequal marriage.

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Review: A Tumbled Stone, by Marcia Lee Laycock

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A Tumbled Stone cover artA Tumbled Stone, by Marcia Lee Laycock (Word Alive Press, 2012)

Andrea Calvert grew up on the Canadian prairies with foster parents who provided for her but were never able to show their love. Now 19 and pregnant, Andrea would rather take her chances alone than live with their silent reproach.

She finds a job and caring friends at Evie’s Diner. Evie, the owner, is a Christian who welcomes the strays she says God sends her. At the moment, that includes Andrea and a young mentally challenged man named Benny, who makes it his mission to protect Andrea’s unborn baby.

Author Marcia Lee Laycock writes with a contagious compassion for her characters. Andrea feels real, as do her foster parents. Edna and Earl aren’t cardboard, rigid people. They’re silent because they’re trapped behind walls of hurt from the past. As Andrea tries to find her own way and the brother she doesn’t know exists tries to find her, this wounded couple move toward finding one another.

The first book in the series, One Smooth Stone, tells the story of Alex Donnolly, Andrea’s older brother, whose experience in foster care was horrific. In A Tumbled Stone it’s good to see how far Alex has come in recovery and in his new Christian faith. He’s a work in progress, and the urgency he feels to find Andrea brings more pressure to bear.

The characters in A Tumbled Stone drew me in. The word “tumble” in the title refers to rock tumbling, which smoothes a stone’s rough edges and texture. Evie makes jewellery from stones, and she tells Andrea “God is always doing things in our lives, but it takes time. He knows exactly when to take the pressure off or to increase it. He knows  just how much tumbling we need.” (p. 76)

Andrea faces more “tumbling” before the book is done.

A Tumbled Stone is a good read that kept calling me back to finish. Marcia Lee Laycock is a gifted writer, and I hope we’ll see more fiction from her. She’s also the author of the non-fiction books Abundant Rain, Spur of the Moment and Focused Reflections. You can learn more about Marcia Lee Laycock and her books at her website.

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