Language of the Bear - Tomahawk and Saber - Volume One by Evan Ronan and Nathaniel Green

Language of the Bear – Tomahawk and Saber – Volume One.  Evan Ronan and Nathaniel Green. Calhoun Publishing. July 2015. 260 pp.  ISBN#: 9780996495800.

An English soldier, Lieutenant Hugh Pike, and a Native American Susquehannock warrior, Wolf Tongue (named as Isaac for a Christian name although he is clearly not a Christian), are thrown together on a mission.  They are both disconcerted by the ultimate act they must commit – the assassination of a violent, capable killer who is trying to recruit fighters to defeat the English.  Sounds simple, but it’s anything but easy!

To begin with both men have asked for a prize for the risk and completion of their task, a beloved lady – Damaris and Fox’s Smile respectively – each will wed after completing their job.  But their task is an almost impossible one in which they will encounter and perhaps survive every possible danger in the Pennsylvania mountains and country.  Their goal in this first of what will be a series is to find and deal with a man named Azariah or Storm-of-Villages. 

What is fascinating, as this novel progresses are three aspects.  One is the description of the beautiful land Pike and Wolf Tongue traverse, sometimes easily and sometimes with great challenges like climbing cliffs and fording fiercely moving rivers.  One can almost smell the turning colors of leaves and pine of the forests.  Both men are rugged enough to clear paths and camp comfortably even in the fiercest of cold weather.

The second intriguing portion is that Azariah actually has many supporters who believe in his mission to be rid of the English and restore the land to its native status.  His charisma and cruelty bring his supporters to unbridled obedience and fear and it is believed that he is unconquerable.

Friends are really foes and vice versa in this plot that grows complicated because of our main characters never knowing who can be trusted and the crafty movements of their enemy.

The third engaging aspect is the relationship that develops between Pike and Wolf Tongue which includes what they truly believe.  That difference both divides and eventually unites them.  As they journey back and forth between their home territory and that of Azariah, they develop a friendship that will endure physical wounds, struggle in the territory that is untamed and their wavering, private reflections between courage and doubt.

All in all, Language of the Bear is a terrific read whose fans will be looking forward to the next novel in this story of pre-Revolutionary colonials and Native American residents. Nicely crafted, Ronan and Green!

Minute Zero: A Novel by Todd Moss

Minute Zero: A Novel.  Todd Moss. Penguin Group (USA). September 2015. 368 pp.  ISBN#: 9780399168680.

Judd Ryker has given up the life of an academic and become a State Department troubleshooter.  He’s come up with a theory of action called Minute Zero, which is a plan to take action quickly in the moments of a country’s chaotic crisis.  It’s a plan which gives control to American policy and mandates immediate action.  While that theory and its subsequent program worked well previously (see The Golden Hour by the same author), times have changed.  America’s State Department is now reacting to a diminishing economy and is looking to make budget cuts.  Judd is told he has forty-eight hours to prove his theory and program again or his program will be cut. His wife and other colleagues are supportive, even insistent that he take on this new challenge which involves elections in Zimbabwe in forty-eight hours, even less by the time he gets there!

Winston Tinotenda has ruled Zimbabwe through six elections.  Now he is running against a woman lawyer, Gugu Mutonga, but it’s far from a fair election.  Indeed Tinotenda has child and adult soldiers who literally walk into the election booth to ensure that the people vote for him.  Violence against the opposition is the norm but ironically there is no proof by which he can be incriminated by foreign governments or the United Nations.  Money is funneled to both candidates from powerful groups inside and outside Zimbabwe.  Judd’s wife is not the agricultural water researcher and mother she claims to be, and the gradual revelation of her more important role is stunning!

Judd’s job is to monitor and report on fair elections but he is rather simplistic in thinking it’s so easy.  He really doesn’t even seem sure his own theories about Minute Zero will work here so entrenched is the corruption and military muscle running the government and elections in Zimbabwe.  Add to the mix a mysterious massacre occurring years ago and a diplomat who believes it has something to do with a secret mine. 

One has a hard time knowing who is honest and who is deceptive.  Little by little Judd brings together a team who will relentlessly expose all hidden agendas and put broken pieces of the puzzle together, but not before much violence, threats and false promises are made to the people of Zimbabwe, America and even England.

Minute Zero… is a nail-biting, tension ridden novel that will delight all who love the political and international thriller genres.  The plot is finely constructed and contains many elements of reality as well. What a movie this would make! Nicely crafted, Todd Moss!

Killing Maine by Mike Bond

Killing Maine.  Mike Bond. Mandevilla Press. July 2015. 391 pp.  ISBN#: 9781627040303.  

Special Forces Pono Hawkins veteran is leaving Hawaii to help his former peer, Buddy Franklin.  Hawkins has a checkered past, having been imprisoned for killing a woman.  The circumstances were merciful, but that’s not how others saw it. Up to now, after he’s released, he’s a Hawaiian surfer who teaches others the sport and the atmosphere it brings, thrills and peacefulness at the same time. Now he’s off to help this fellow veteran although there’s no love lost between the two of them.  Franklin’s got a hatred for the powers-that-be who control the industrial wind power turbines being built across the northern Maine lands. 

Wind power is an interesting topic treated in a careful manner in this novel.  The detrimental side effects are categorically stated as illness and death surround the animals and humans living around these wind turbines.  Franklin has taken on the issue in his own way, shooting the turbines so they can’t function.  But now a high-up exec behind the wind power business has been murdered and Franklin is the one who is accused of the death of Ronnie Dalt.  The goal is obviously to get Franklin out of the way and end the trouble he brings with his vehement hatred of those who are in the wind power business or Wind Mafia, as it’s called, for financial gain regardless of the consequences that follow.

There’s another matter that complicates things.  After Hawkins was imprisoned, he told his girlfriend to forget about him.  Now she’s hooked to Franklin.  No spoilers here; Hawkins plunges into his investigation as one never leaves behind a fallen, fellow soldier.  The search brings politicians, lawyers, and other important people into the limelight and someone out of these rich connections is trying not only to stop Hawkins but to kill him.

There’s more than plenty of high-paced action and thrills as Hawkins’ prey get closer.  Read it and root for those who would “save Maine” from the devastating effects of what was originally publicized as an energy source that would tip the scales to energy independence.

Nicely paced and plotted, Mike Bond!  As an aside it just might compel readers to look into its underlying issue as well!

Summer at Hideaway Key: A Novel by Barbara Davis

Summer at Hideaway Key: A Novel.  Barbara Davis. Penguin Group (USA). August 2015. 416 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451474582.

Betrayal after betrayal, all in the name of protecting a beloved sibling! Like a hurricane that grows in strength in between landfalls, the cataclysmic events that caused a lifelong rift between Lily Mae and Caroline began with a seemingly innocent trip.  Their mother was abandoned by her husband and she in turn left them alone and defenseless in a home for the poor in a small Tennessee town, a place that left horrific scars in Lily Mae.  Caroline never believed that what happened to her sister was a loving act and from that day the wound between them grew exponentially.

The girls survived by becoming models and then the trail grew cold after Caroline spent years with her husband Roland and daughter Lily.  Now Roland and Lily Mae are dead and Roland has left Lily a small beach cottage in Hideaway Key, Florida.  Imagine her shock when she finds a rundown shack filled with boxes, papers, magazines, fancy furniture and the finest of crystal and other formal dinnerware.  This then is the journey of truth that begins for Lily, a series of revelations through the diaries left by Lily Mae, comments made by neighbors, news articles from New York papers and magazines, and letters written by the characters involved in years of secrecy.

Lily meets her nearest neighbor, Dean, an architect who on his first visit wants to buy the cottage left to Lily by her aunt.  At this initial meeting, they are really like-minded individuals who do everything possible to avoid any semblance of commitment in order to protect each one from being rejected and abandoned.  The past rules their thoughts and feelings on a daily basis.  This is another journey of discovery and shedding of hardened skin layers that are more destructive than constructive. 

Summer at Hideaway Key… is a delightful summer read filled with shocks and secrets that never allow the reader’s interest to lag.  It’s a novel about telling honest truth rather than convenient truths designed to insulate one’s feelings, the latter truths which really never succeed in their conscious or unconscious designs.  It’s about the sacrifices one makes and endures to express and protect real love.  It’s quite simply a well-crafted, evocative, poignant and beautiful story.  It’s name belies the beautiful love behind all the misunderstandings, gossip, machinations and petty acts that desperately need forgiveness and redemption.  This is highly recommended contemporary, romance fiction – so nicely crafted by Barbara Davis.  A fine job done, indeed!

The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne - A Verlaque and Bonnet Provencal Mystery by M. L. Longworth.

The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne: A Verlaque and Bonnet Provencal Mystery.  M. L. Longworth. Penguin Mystery Original. September 2015. 320 pp.  ISBN#: 9780143128076.

“He couldn’t help walking. He loved it: it took him places where nature’s shapes showed him what to put on the canvas.”  This, then, is the magic and inspiration that can be seen in every painting by this artist who was early in his career jeered at, ignored and rejected.  Color always blended into the objects and nature behind each scene, a technique that some saw as a kind of Impressionistic style but which seemed to go far beyond that artistic school.  One painting that was rather unusual color is the object of the mystery within this novel, a portrait of a woman who lived in Aix, France and who seemed dynamically alive in color and facial features in a way that was not evident in any of Cezanne’s other paintings.

The story begins with the relationships of our main characters, Antoine Verlaque, a Magistrate Justice, and his girlfriend and friends.  He loves his life in this small city of Aix, the place where Cezanne worked and painted.  The residents appreciate art because of this connection and also have an especial love for certain foods that are so well-described herein that one can taste their delicious components and smell their delightful fragrance, such as the “gallettes des rois.” 

Now a friend in Verlaque’s cigar club asks him to visit Rene Rouquet who seems highly excited about a canvas that he has found rolled up in his apartment which was once owned by Cezanne.  When Verlaque arrives, he finds a stranger art history professor standing over Rene’s dead body and there is no canvas to be found.  So begins the complex mystery that Verlaque and his friend and investigator, Bonnet, pursue. 

The mystery involves the beautiful art history professor, a woman who looks like a beautiful fashion model, who always seems to appear where she is least expected and is always dressed in a style that defies her academic salary.  It also concerns a former art auctioneer who claims a Cezanne painting that is found is really a very good fake copy.  A man reputed to be a mobster also has an eclectic but very expensive art collection.  And finally there will be another death associated with the art of Cezanne that is now worth millions of Euros. 

Interspersed within this mystery are chapters in which Cezanne meets a very special lady who fully appreciates the forms and intentions in his paintings, a woman who makes him relax and who truly understands his expression of beauty and form in nature and all who blend into its presence.

The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne… is a fine read that never gets ahead of its quest.  Verlaque and Bonnet get along and are more than highly capable of detecting clues that the average person would miss but take time to connect motivations and connections that will reveal the surprise discovery of who is really the guilty party!  In the process our heroes will grow to appreciate the loved ones in their own lives – an unexpected but delightful addition to the central puzzle herein!

Fine mystery reading that lovers of this genre will find intriguing and highly enjoyable!  Nicely done, M. L. Longworth!

The Gates of Rutherford Park: A Novel by Elizabeth Cooke

The Gates of Rutherford Park: A Novel.  Elizabeth Cooke. Random House Publishing Group. September 2015. 384 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780425277195.

Today is the day Charlotte Cavendish will marry!  Charlotte has always been the feisty one who takes on any challenge with zest, but today she’s teary and not at all sure she’s made the “right” choice.  It’s a family habit, it seems and this third Rutherford novel has a more reflective tone than the previous two stories in this engaging series that has frequently compared to the TV series Downton Abbey.  It certainly has enough life and death scenes, dramatic and conflicting dialogue and overwhelming consequences to deep the reader flipping the pages and abandoning all other work or chores.

So to begin with we experience Charlotte marrying a man who was blinded in the War; it is 1917 and England has certainly seen its share of wounded warriors the brutal and unrelenting war has produced.  There’s irony here in that everyone believes Charlotte has the normal wedding jitters while others like Charlotte’s mother, Olivia, have abandoned their own spouses for a happier relationship.  But Charlotte’s tears are really about something she doesn’t realize yet, a horrendous secret (at that historical time anyway) not to be uttered.

Olivia is living with her lover, American John Gould, and her husband, William, is recovering from a heart attack and seems a shattered man, albeit still stuck in his cold, aristocratic ways that are such a turnoff to his wife and children.  For now, though, his daughter Louise is providing him the comfort he needs right now.

There are several juxtaposed characters who give unique perspectives on the course of post-traumatic stress syndrome, a consequence pitied yet scorned by many at home as just lazy dallying.  The descriptions are heart-rending but also beautiful in the revelations each suffering character shares, more powerful and searing than any anti-war demonstration or speech.  A former groom at Rutherford, tends healthy and wounded horses, mules, etc. in the war until his mind and body have had enough.  A German prisoner of war cannot hold any objects without dropping them and is scorned by his captors for shirking his work.  On and on it goes with no available medical treatment or understanding for these victims.

David Cavendish is not ready to relinquish flying in spite of his wounded leg.  Another character is powerless to stop David from proceeding in a very famous WWI battle.

There is so much more than what is described above that makes this novel a comprehensive, horrific and beautiful rendition of all aspects of global and familial conflict. Interestingly, its scenes are far from stereotypical because the author takes us to the more intimate and honest aspects of love, pain, death, joy and peace.  It’s a story you will never forget, and its author, Elizabeth Cooke is one very talented craftsperson who has provided a very special historical account that this reviewer oh so highly recommends.

The Gilded Hour: A Novel by Sara Donati

The Gilded Hour: A Novel.  Sara Donati. Penguin Group (USA). September 2015. 752 pp.  ISBN#: 9780425271810.

1883 – What’s it like to be a woman doctor, a female doctor of color, a defenseless orphan unable to speak English, a physician working with poor women who are unable to practice birth control and more?  The Gilded Hour… is a novel about individuals who are willing to do anything to guarantee justice, who will attempt the impossible in order to assure integrity and control for those least likely to possess or receive either. 

Dr. Anna Savard and Dr. Sophie Savard are adult survivors.  They were fortunate enough to be orphans who were cared for by strong-minded people who gave them unlimited opportunities.  But they are still fighting a system that would deny them practicing among the poor and disenfranchised female population of New York City.  Anna, a respected surgeon, is first moved to care about the plight of Italian immigrant children when she visits children who need to be vaccinated in order to be granted entry into America, who are separated from each other by a system that seeks to profit from children who have no one to protect their best interests.  Rosa is the child who haunts Anna for Rosa will not be cajoled into silence about her missing brothers.

Sophie, a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist, refuses to marry Cap, a tubercular patient in the latter stages of the disease. Initially he rejects her because he does not wish to spread his contagious disease and she rejects him as she does not want her eventual children to be scorned as children of color. Eventually, however, when Cap receives the opportunity for experimental treatment, they will both reconsider their options, only to be thwarted initially by formidable circumstances. 

Anna begins to care about Jack but is extremely hesitant to allow herself to care and perhaps have a different future because of her own past history.  Their search for the missing Italian boys and then search for justice during a medical trial offers them both a chance to control their own destinies rather than be bound by inner lies. 

It’s fascinating to see how organizations operated and manipulated the medical community by making birth control, abortion, etc. criminal acts that could not only guarantee jail time for said physicians but ruin bright, caring careers.

The Gilded Hour: A Novel is fascinating reading about a very volatile historical period as well as a fine, engaging read, with a little romance added as a quietly but poignant touch! Nicely done, again, Sara Donati!