One Hand Killing: An Alex Sullivan Zen Mystery by Nancy O'Hara

 One Hand Killing: An Alex Sullivan Zen Mystery. Nancy O'Hara. Amazon Digital Services - Kindle Edition. 428 KB. ASIN No. B006LAA9WW.

Alex Sullivan has a Zen ability when she's in the middle of a crime scene in her role as an NYPD homicide detective. Going inward, she turns around and looks around a room, activating a sense for what is unusual and central to solving the mystery of a crime. But little does she know as she wearily travels upstate to a Zen monastery where she hopes to spend ten days reviving her inner spirit that this skill will be sorely needed very soon. Will it be to strengthen her for her job or is it time to be thinking about retiring? It turns out she won't be thinking about either, for upon arrival she senses an unusual tension among the community and not from the preparations for a Buddha birthday party to be held the following weekend!

Alex doesn't really get a chance to find out the problem when it is discovered that one of the monks is missing. The monastery is situated in the center of land surrounded by forest and mountains, so this monk could be anywhere. Almost before one can absorb the shock, the monk is found - dead - with a written message or Koan about a man hanging upside-down from a tree with a branch in his mouth - with a puzzle posed for the appropriate Buddhist response.

Things begin to spin totally out of control with two more deaths, a cat slaughtered, and a severed hand, all of which indicate a passionate killer. Two detectives are assigned to the case initially after the first death and it takes them a while to overcome their distrust of a female detective who is out of her precinct and has no authority in upstate New York. However, she's got what they need of which she for once can't seem to make sense as there are so many potential community members and non-community members who might be the guilty party or more than one guilty party.

Nancy O'Hara's got what it takes - She has crafted a terrific mystery with plenty of clues slowly revealed and with characters who exude both innocence and guilt. The calmness of the Zen Master and spiritual practices are a fascinating counterpoint to the increasing brutality and tension of the murders, with all beginning to worry about their personal safety as well as who is the killer and and how do these trained professionals, including Alex Sullivan, plan to solve the crimes before more happen? Finely done, with more captivating details, Ms. O'Hara!!!

 

Storytellers - The Druid - A Short Story by Frank Delaney

Storytellers: The Druid: A Short Story. Frank Delaney. E-Book Edition. 339 KB. ASIN: B006M594JK.

Frank Delaney begins this story with a preface about the well-known Bards of Ireland, their various names, their powers, political connections, place in the community, and their wonderful story-telling abilities. Frank Delaney here continues the tradition in this series of short stories, the first being "The Druid"!

This is a truly magical story about a crazy Druid who also knew how to manipulate the people he served with his powers. It's such a short story and not to be ruined by telling too much about it. It contains the proverbial phrases and comments that helped expand a bard's story, but most of all it tells of how much the common Irish farmers trusted the Druid with their present and future, even down to the focus of this story, the possible wedding of a beautiful daughter to one known and one unknown suitor! Every utterance of advice was honored as if it came from the divine!

The Druid is an annoying but funny guy whose end will delight every reader! Frank Delaney is a true Bard sharing his love of fable, legend and stories in the 21st Century, and readers are privileged to enjoy every literate story and novel he writes. Lovely!

The Land of Darkness by C. S. Lakin

The Land of Darkness. C. S. Lakin. AMG Publishers. November 2011. 272 pages. 13-17 years old recommended - YA. ISBN #:9780899578910

Jadiel has a horribly wicked stepmother who literally wants Jadiel to die. But before she dies, she must find a certain combination of herbs and flowers to make a concoction that will give the evil greater power than one could imagine. First she sends Jadiel off to find bark and leaves from a certain tree. Jadiel knows this is wrong and fears for her father who is besotted with his new wife, actually a hag in the finest sense of fairy tales of the past!

Then Jadiel meets a young man who is highly skilled in woodworking and is off on an adventure to seek a bridge with apparently beautiful and strange etchings worked into it. Now, however, Jadiel and Callen will learn what is truly good and evil within and outside of themselves through the help of a prophet and other adventures they experience on this adventurous journey.

C. S. Lakin writes in the style of C. S. Lewis, having children journey to a wicked city and battle the enemies they meet along the way, including learning about what true sacred living is all about. This author does a wonderful job conveying a sense of the sacred in an allegorical manner, a moral delight to any reader who may or may not believe! 

M. C. Higgins The Great by Virginia Hamilton

M. C. Higgins the Great. Virginia Hamilton. Reissue. Aladdin Publishers. 288 Pages. ISBN #: 9781416914075.

M. C. Higgins loves where he lives, Sarah Mountain, a land in Ohio that has belonged to his family for a very long time. He has a huge pole with wheels on which he sits and can see the entire mountain and even beyond to the nearest town. But what he most loves about the mountain are the trees, animals, rivers, everything about nature with its own moods and beauty surpassed by nothing or no one.

His Dad is very harsh with him but it's a loving harshness. But his Dad just doesn't get the message that the strip mining on the mountain is leading to a natural disaster and M.C. doesn't know how to stop it or how to save his family. He hopes maybe the man coming to hear his Mom sing can get them out of here in time but isn't sure about that.

M.C. will then meet a young girl who will awaken a part of him he never knew existed, even giving him new eyes and heart toward his friend, Ben's family, shunned because of their "witchy" powers. Yes, this is a coming of age book but mostly for those young adults (8-12 years recommended) who love the outdoors and want to learn about how being different can be the best and most heartbreaking thing to happen to any human being.

I thought this book was rather drawn out in points but all in all it's a very nice story and worthy of its Newberry Award!

A Dry Creek Bed by Avery Flynn

A Dry Creek Bed. Avery Flynn. Evernight Publishing. January 2012. 297 KB. ASIN #: 9781927368008.

Beth Martinez relied on her "abuela" for most of the wisdom she acquired in life. But then a horrific tragedy occurs in her life and then a deep disappointment in love, and now she is determined not to get involved with anyone or anything, believing that these bad events were her fault and that she carries tragedy with her. It's a protective shell she's built that works until now - when she meets one good-looking, hunk of a guy, Sheriff Hank Layton!

The sexual, electric tension between them rises from day one. Hank as well wants to be careful because he's been hurt as well, but he can't stop being so turned on when he's around Beth that he can't think or even breathe.

Beth is hesitant to tell Hank about the phone call threats she's receiving. It has to do with the land on which she lives being ripe ground for a bordering Indian reservation that could rake in millions of dollars in gambling. But she doesn't understand why they need her property and she hasn't a clue who is actually attempting to hurt her and maybe even to kill her!

The mystery behind the threats as well as the steamy passion between Beth and Hank grow proportionately to one wild ride!

A Dry Creek Bed is one hot mamma of a book, and the reader doesn't have a clue to the end about how the mystery behind the threats or the secret Beth is holding back from Hank will resolve. Great romance novel and sure to delight lovers of the romance fiction genre!!! Great story, Avery Flynn!!! 

Gods and Fathers by James LePore

Gods and Fathers. James LePore. The Story Plant. February 2012. 300 pages. ISBN #: 9781611880298.

Matt DeMarco is not too happy with his life. He has finally begun to be successful in his law career but has the lousiest possible relationship with his son, Michael. His ex-wife has married an Arab who is very rich and she's turned his son against him. Michael is a spoiled brat who all of a sudden is in very, very big trouble. He is arrested for rape and murder of his own girlfriend. Matt decides no matter how big the rift is between them, he must do all he can to find out what has really happened!

Before the police really gets going, Matt and his friends start to take charge of the investigation into his son's alleged crimes, but all of a sudden someone else higher up, very high indeed although not named, starts canceling every avenue Matt attempts to travel. It also seems Michael has been hanging around two very suspicious Arab young men. No, this isn't racial profiling; these two guys just walk and look like they're up to no good. Connections begin to click and Matt is almost 100% sure Michael isn't guilty of any crime other than having a fight with his girl but that takes a long time to come out.

Innocent and guilty characters will die in the course of this quest to solve a mystery that involves Arab money, oil, and some devious persons determined to wreak revenge. When it finally comes out who is involved and exactly how this all came to pass, the reader is amazed, after flipping pages and wondering when the twists and turns will end, if they will at all!

James LePore has become an even better writer with this political thriller. He has definitely mastered the craft of depicting the machinations of both the innocent and guilty. The evil grows so large that one begins to doubt it will ever end.  In many ways, this is a rather timely story, given the growing problems in countries fighting for an "Arab Spring."

Awesome, James LePore and a must read for lovers of this genre and those who would like to have a phenomenal read!!!

Home by Morning by Alexis Harrington

Home by Morning. Alexis Harrington. Montlake Romance. December 2011. 240 pages. ISBN #: 9781612182056.

Jessica Layton, a medical doctor in the early 20th Century when women were frowned on for becoming doctors, is on her way to Seattle, Washington to take up a new position. She's been working in New York City and been overwhelmed by the poverty and needless illness bred from dirty and malnourished conditions. Now she stops off in her hometown of Powell Springs, Omaha and the sparks immediately start flying. First she ticks off the town quack with her useless remedies. Then she has to face her old boyfriend, Cole, now a successful horse breeder and who is supposedly courting Jessica's sister, Amy. Some sharp words pass among all of them but Jessica shrugs them off, knowing this is a temporary visit. Add to that the town is celebrating the town's one son who is about to go off to WWI. Pride in America is strong and anyone not patriotic is deemed a suspicious person worthy of being arrested. All that is about to drastically change!

A young soldier falls seriously ill with what later came to be known as the 1918 epidemic of influenza. This is no ordinary flu however and the contagion becomes so severe that Jessica agrees to stay a few months, ill-prepared though she is. Fighting exhaustion, she forges on with patients who both die and recover, helped by Cole; even though it seems the more they meet, the more they fight, never saying what each really wants to say.

But this illness and the enmity it breeds from Cole and a would-be suitor grows to crisis proportions. Fighting begins to take on more dangerous tones, and a secret will shock everyone around Jessica, bringing the novel to a surprising climax.

Alexis Harrington starts her novel slowly; but once it takes off, one is flipping the pages faster and faster to see what will happen next. It's a well-told romance story but also a historical novel in the sense of the war and the illness, two major events that drive the plot of this adventurous, action-packed yet endearing story!!!

Very nicely done, Ms. Harrington!