Glass Demon - A Young Adult Novel Review

When the first thing that happens to you upon moving to a new town is discovering a corpse perhaps that should be taken as a sign of things to come! When you are a teenage girl moving to Germany from England, at the behest of your father the professor, and he doesn’t want to call the police to report the finding so he won’t get delayed, it becomes the worst thing that has ever happened to you.

In this Young Adult novel Lin, a teenage girl and her family move to a small burg in Germany in order that her father, the Professor of Medieval Studies, could be the next Indiana Jones; or at least in his mind. Never mind it meant uprooting his two teen daughters, their step-mum and the new baby while he chased the myth of Bonschiarant - the Glass Demon. The town of Baumgarten was part of German folk-lore that linked the Allerheheilgen Abbey to the five-hundred-year-old masterpiece of stained glass that to a Medievalist was a kind of Holy Grail.

Intent on discovery the family settle in to their new rural surroundings while accidents happen around them including the death of a local historian, a brush with death for her half-brother and the murder of her sister. With the help of a local boy, Michel, who lived on the farm up the road, and who had developed a crush on Lin, the teenagers do what the parents can’t, discover the glass and discover the deaths in the area are all depicted in scenes on the stained glass. With both their lives in jeopardy the two move quickly to solve the real mystery behind the demon in the glass in order to bring some sense to the tragedy it had caused in both their families.

A Question of Belief - A Review

Ms. Leon’s work is not the in your face thrill-a minute storyline that I am accustomed to reading bit a slow burning smoldering story that builds in intensity as the book progresses. It comes at you like neighborhood gossip caught at wisps and gestures over the garden fence, like returning for a cup of coffee to a an old and trusted friend as little by little the whole story emerges and you tell yourself ‘of course why didn’t I see it coming.’


I actually started the book before I left on vacation to England, came back and picked up the book and carried on without missing a beat. The slow moving police officers, hampered by the sweltering summer in Venice, go about their business , while looking for shade or heaven forbid actual air-conditioning while laying out two stories for our enjoyment. Inspector Brunetti aides his fellow officer with concerns he has over a charlatan of a palm reader, tarot waving soothsayer that his mother appears to paying a rather unsightly sum to and then the two of them become embroiled in what appears to be a scam in the making involving a lady judge and her bailiff.

When the inspector’s vacation is interrupted to the point of him having to change trains on the way out of town with his family to return to oversee what is the untimely murder of the afore mentioned bailiff does the storyline suddenly take on overtones of menace. The sudden lull in crime in Venice is over-ridden with blackmail, fraud and charges of indecency and Brunetti’s skills are bought to task as he ably puts our fears to rest.

A most delightful tale told at the pace of the hot summer with enough sizzle to the action to keep one intrigued to the last.

The Silent Girl - a review

In Chinese mythology the immortal Monkey King is born from stone, and is skilled in the secrets of Martial Arts. He is also to fight for justice, to avenge a death and to cause havoc while doing so. When monkey hairs are found clinging to the clothing of the corpse of more than one killer-for-hire homicide cop Jane Rizzoli brings in rookie detective Johnnie Tam to help unravel the mysteries, the culture and the language to the legend behind the murders at the Red Phoenix restaurant, in Boston’s China Town, over a decade ago.


On the anniversary of the slayings an unsigned letter arrives at the relatives of the victims of this mass murder. The common belief of most of the families is that the letter is sent my crazy Mrs. Fang, the wife of the murdered restaurant owner, who runs The Dragon and Stars Academy of Martial Arts. The investigation unearths this cold-case and when the forensic lab gets involved hidden footprints are discovered to show that there was a witness to the crime that no-one was ever aware of.

If that was not enough two of the families, the Fang’s included, also had a child go missing in the years surrounding this crime and when the now retired homicide detective, who led the investigation originally, comes up dead after passing on information that there where perhaps more missing girls the detective find themselves chasing an elusive prey that swings through the night as if not human, almost ape-like. Are they chasing a spirit God that is avenging the deaths of the Red Phoenix?

Of course Rizzoli is never alone in her investigations; there is always the presence of Maura Isles, the forensic pathologist Maura Isles – the team up on the TNT television show known as Rizzoli & Isles - who works in the medical examiner’s office. With Isles team backing up all the new discoveries that link up to the past investigation you can bet the two of them find a way through the red-herrings and puzzles thrown their way to unearth the scandal that threatens the families still after all these years.

Gerritsen’s background as an internist greatly enhance the details of the story and help bring to life the reasons of how and why such a mystery could have led the Boston PD astray for so long. This will not be the last Rizzoli & Isles mystery I read. I definitely will have to go back and dig out Gerritson’s past works too.

One Rough Man - A review

Taylor has developed a character in Pike Logan that is ready ready to stand up and fight alongside the likes of Higgin’s Sean Dillon or Flynn’s Mitch Rapp, who definitely are rough men.

The Taskforce is made up of a group of hardened paramilitary men culled from the ranks of the SEALS and Delta-Force and used in two teams, at the discretion of the US President, to take on and take out bad guys wherever it is deemed necessary to protect the welfare of the United States.

Logan suffers undue hardship on a fire-fight gone wrong and drops out of the unit, disappearing into an alcoholic haze into never-land. Rescuing a damsel-in-distress, Jennifer, in a local college bar he finds himself pulled back into the game when two hired-hands show up to rough-up the girl and he uses his defensive prowess to dispatch of them with extreme prejudice. The two of them find themselves chasing an Arabic hit-man with a purported WMD, an ancient curse that if placed in the wind could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths. The plot is to use the weapon on Israel, blame Iran and start a full- fledged aggression with America leading the charge.

Pinned down in a battle that is too much for the two of them to handle, and a mercenary hot on their tail with a bounty on both their heads, Taylor finally calls on the one man that can save him and Jennifer so a team from the Taskforce is sent to the rescue. The hunter and hunted roles change so often and so rapidly as we are jolted across the world in the chase of a lifetime, that the book leaves you physically exhausted. You better be a rough man (or woman) to hang in to the last page.

Potsdam Station - a review

With the Russian advancing on the burned out husk of Berlin, what little was left after the Allies had bombed it to hell, young Paul made his way back into town to try to shed his German uniform so as not be recognized as a German soldier, while at the same time avoiding marauding gangs of let over SS who were rounding up and shooting deserters.

His father, John Russell, who had fled Germany for the United States at the beginning of the war, abandoning his wife and young son to avoid his own arrest, has come back in into Berlin as part of the Press Corps and is trying to arrive ahead of the troops hoping that his son, and former girlfriend Effi have somehow miraculously survived the war.

Effi, has survived well enough, harboring fugitives, mainly Jews, as they made their escapes out of Germany, but has been arrested as the surrender of Berlin is inevitable. Along with a young orphaned girl, Rosa, the two barely escaped with their lives from the camp as the commandant decided to not kill off the remaining Jews in hope to curry favor with the conquerors.

The path of these three individuals is steadily drawn together in this suspenseful World War II yarn skillfully woven by Downing on the brink of the final days before Hitler’s death. The details of the layout of the town and its surrounding countryside lead the reader to a greater overall knowledge base and draw a fine photograph of the war-torn city on the verge of collapse. Downing does a fine job of creating suspense above the already stress-filled carnage that the war has created and shares with the reader the constant threat of annihilation each survivor of the war felt on a continual basis.

Due Diligence - A Review

A debut novel that like Grisham brings the world of torts and spreadsheets alive with intense stress and tension; who knew the corporate board could be so exhilarating?


When Mike Wilson, CEO of Louisiana Light set his mind on a new acquisition there were no boundaries he wouldn’t cross to get there, especially in a billion dollar takeover of one of the largest power companies in Great Britain.

Pete Stanzy, the patsy Wilson sets up as the fall guy at investment bank Dyson Whitney, only sees the seventy million dollar commission and is happy to ignore suspicions of infractions for the almighty buck. When junior partner Rob Holding sees this is going to be the next Enron he is told to button it by Dyson Whitney’s upper management and go with the flow.

The secret deal is accidently discovered by an investigative journalist who overhears a brief conversation with Downing and a local DA. When Downing inadvertently verifies those secrets, and then is given more information by a secret inside agent, his life is in jeopardy as Wilson pulls out all the stops, including dealings with an underworld boss he owes a bundle to, in order that this deal of a life time goes through.

Although Rush takes his time in letting us know who the real protagonist is once we cotton to it, get past the inner workings of corporate deals and recognize that this is a familiar plot that follows the expected storyline, the how-it-all-goes-down comes flooding out and drags us through the whole saga with a wild rush of hide-and-seek.

A highly entertaining and electrifying ride

Mind Storm - a review

Twenty years after the child prophet Aisling foresaw the future the human mutant psions, Threnody Corwin and her partner Quinton Martinez are dispatched to what remains of Los Angeles, now known as ‘The Slums of the Angels’ on a suicide mission for failing to obey orders on Corwin’s last mission. The two are part of the Strykers Syndicate, enslaved solders contracted out on the most dangerous missions.


Psions came in various class and strengths, armed with telepathic strengths with the ability to teleport at a moment’s notice. This time they were to hunt down and eliminate Lucas, the rogue son of Nathan Serca, a high-level, gene-trash human who was posing as a genetically-registered human. Serca, who was in charge of gathering the humans for a journey on the Arc to Mars. Earth was seriously depleted of all its natural resources after The Border Wars. The World Court convened and decided who is worthy to travel to the colony and Earth will be left to the mutants and unregistered masses.

Lucas has another plan in mind, rescuing those that deserve to be, those who will make this world a better place. Once he can arrange to have the neurotrackers cut out of the necks of the four Strykers he recruits, once he convinces them that his powers and skill levels are superior to theirs, they take on the project of protecting the followers Lucas has gathered together.

Serca pulls out all stops to get the remaining Strykers to bring in the fallen four and a pitch battle over human rights on Earth takes place during the twenty-fourth century. With the help of matron they raid the Gene Bank and the Seed Bank in an effort to save humankind. Will the destiny that Ailing prophesized come to pass or was it just the ramblings of mad child?