Review -- The Newsmakers by Lis Wiehl

 When Erica Sparks lands a dream job as a reporter for Global News Network in New York City, she’s ecstatic. It’s a chance for her to turn her life around, make a success out of an almost-scuttled career and perhaps even get shared custody of her daughter Jenny.

Ready to make her mark in the cable news game, Erica is on her first assignment for GNN when a horrific ferry accident occurs. Erica’s skills are highlighted as she reports live from the scene, scooping every other news service. Another incident occurs when she’s interviewing a top political candidate live on-air. Once more, Erica is spotlighted and she’s soon offered her own show­­­—a real coup in the cable news business.

But is it coincidence that these things have happened, or is there a sinister plot afoot to create the news…and a news star?

From humble beginnings to the top of the cable news business, Erica Sparks has the brains, beauty and talent to succeed. But can she get beyond her own past and how it haunts her? Can she discover the truth behind her biggest news stories? Can she survive the journey? Will she find love with Greg Underwood, the handsome former war photographer, now her on-air producer?

Author Lis Wiehl ratchets up the tension and suspense page by page as Erica Sparks digs in with her outstanding investigative reporter instincts to find out what the real story is.

An addictive read! Five stars. 

Review -- Wedding Cake Murder

Wedding Cake Murder

By Joanne Fluke

Kensington Books

Fans of Joanne Fluke’s Minnesota-set mystery series have been anticipating the nineteenth whodunit, Wedding Cake Murder, complete with tasty recipes as always.

As Hannah Swenson prepares to marry her college sweetheart, Ross Barton, she’s also competing in a nationally televised baking tournament. Talk about pressure for Hannah, but with the support of her family and friends, she’s ready to take it all on—competition, a wedding and cooking on television.

In New York City to tape the first leg of the contest, Hannah meets the judges and other competitors, then wins the Hometown Challenge and brings the final rounds of the competition home to Lake Eden. Just as the rivalry heats up, one of the judges turns up dead in Lake Eden Inn’s walk-in refrigerator with a knife in his chest. Celebrity chef judge Alan Duquesne’s spiteful reputation means there is more than one person with a motive to murder him, including some of the contestants in the Food Channel’s dessert chef competition.

I’m a fan of the Hannah Swenson cozy mysteries, but I will admit I’m not thrilled with her marriage to Ross in this book. Perhaps the author has something in mind for a mystery going forward and this is part of that story arc, but Ross seemed to come out of left field after readers invested many hours following Hannah’s efforts to decide between Mike and Norman, rooting for one or the other to become Hannah’s partner in crime!

Readers will not be disappointed with the mystery or Hannah’s sleuthing escapades in Wedding Cake Murder. It’s an easy read and it’s nice to visit with the Lake Eden residents once again.

Review -- Last Prophecy of Rome

Last Prophecy of Rome

by Iain King

Publisher: Bookouture

When Oxford military history lecturer Myles Munro and his cable news reporter girlfriend Helen Bridle are vacationing in Rome, Myles is pulled into a potential terror threat to bring down the United States of America. With the clue that the US will fall for the same reason the Roman Empire did, Myles is soon on the track of a former love turned terrorist, Placidia, and her African warlord husband, Juma. Throw in a powerful US senator, his son who thwarts a bomb attack on Wall Street, poison, an ancient plague, and plenty of locales from New York to western Iraq, and you have all the elements needed for a story that will keep you turning pages quickly.

Will Myles and Helen solve this puzzle in time to stop the devastation of a modern superpower or will they be too late to stop a catastrophe like the one that brought an ancient empire to its knees?

It is clear author Iain King is familiar with the geography of the Middle East and zips the reader along desert roads to ancient Roman ruins in Iraq, as well as into Turkey, to the heart of New York City and into the centre of modern Rome and its ancient ruins.

The reader of this thriller will be racing with Myles Munro to try to figure out what the terrorists have planned. What brought down the powerful ancient Roman Empire—can the same thing happen, or be forced upon, the modern United States?

An engaging read!

Review -- The Forgotten Room

The Forgotten Room

by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig

Penguin Group Berkley, NAL/Signet Romance, DAW

 Three women, one mansion, a tangled history. The Forgotten Room traces three generations of women in a family, the secrets they’ve concealed and what has been hidden from them through the decades. From 1892 to 1944, the secrets are slowly revealed through the stories of these women linked to a mansion on East Sixty-ninth Street in New York City.

The architect who designed the house couldn’t know his daughter Olive Van Alen would end up working as a maid in the the Gilded Age mansion he created. The choices Olive made, what she’s hidden, would drive her daughter Lucy Young to travel to Manhattan from her home in Brooklyn in search of answers to questions about her past. Lucy’s daughter Kate Schuyler would work as a doctor in a private hospital in the converted home during World War II, caring for a mysterious, critically wounded patient to whom she is inexplicably drawn.

Why does Kate’s patient Captain Ravenal have a miniature portrait of a woman who resembles Kate? And why does it appear she is wearing a pendant that belongs to Kate, handed down to her by her mother?  How does this tie into the lives of Olive and Lucy?

Combine romance, misunderstandings and the secrets of a forgotten room at the top of a New York City mansion and you, too, will be drawn into the narratives of Olive, Lucy and Kate. Moving back and forth from one era to another over five decades, the reader gets to know these fascinating women and their mysteries. Richly layered with complex characters and their intriguing tales, The Forgotten Room is an addictive read.

Villain Vanquished

All writers have a different style – some are plotters, some write by the seats of their pants, some work with a combo of the above or their very own construct. It doesn’t matter how the author creates, but what the author creates – and what the writer creates is a story filled with characters we root for and against.

There is a great deal of information available about heroes – alpha or beta, romantic or hard-boiled. Is he tall, athletic and handsome, or do the ladies adore his geekiness?

Our favorite heroines are generally smart, funny, and accomplished. But then again, there are the Stephanie Plums of the world, too! She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s klutzy!

But villains – where do the villains come from? Are they archetypes, constructs from our days of hearing fairy tales and myths? Are they the product of nightmares or do we pick our boss’ least appealing characteristics and make them bigger than life? Do we build him or her from people we read or hear about in the news? In documentaries? Or are they only a product of the writer's fertile imagination?

As far back as man has created, the villain has been a crucial component of the storyteller’s craft. The villain – or villainess, as the case may be – creates a great deal of stress and angst for our lovely hero and heroine. The villain will thwart them at every turn for a while, and then their brilliance, bravery and moxie will shine as the villain is conquered.

What was our bad guy’s fatal flaw – hubris, stupidity, inexperience? Whatever it is, it brings him down in the end.

And isn’t that what we all want – to see justice done, the villain stopped and our hero or heroine win the day?

Who is your favorite fictional villain and why?

Libby
Libby McKinmer
www.libbymckinmer.com
Romance with an edge
Find me on Facebook, Twitter & Goodreads

Conflict & Tension -- It Makes a Mystery Work

There is an essential need to up the ante in a mystery – your reader expects it. It's part of what you've promised as a writer of a mystery. If there’s a murder, is there the threat of a second or a third? Could the investigator be at risk? Someone near and dear to him or her? If there isn’t the threat of a murder, could it be that the villain will “get away” with his or her plan? What effect will that have on the hero, the investigator or innocent bystanders? You want your readers to keep turning the pages, wanting to know what's going to happen next…and you want them to really be cheering on the hero/heroine. 

The author must increase the conflict and tension to have a satisfying denouement that the reader can believe in and be happy about. We can have conflict between characters if the investigator and the villain come face-to-face. Or the villain and another victim. Or the investigator and authorities, if the detective isn’t law enforcement.

How dark are the woods?

Writers can also increase the tension in a story with setting and atmosphere. A dark, deserted urban setting is much more intimidating than a peaceful country trail on a sunny day with dozens of hikers around. A dwelling with no power versus a homey bed & breakfast with a grandmotherly owner. A storm (whether wind, rain or snow) versus the perfect sunny day with puffy clouds. A cute cuddly kitten is much less tension-inducing than a hungry lion or tiger.

I find it a “fun” part of the process to increase the tension and conflict – maybe because there are so many options.

What makes you keep reading a mystery title?

Welcome Guest Marilyn Meredith

Please welcome guest blogger Marilyn Meredith today as she discusses the heritage of her wonderful heroine Tempe Crabtree. You can also learn a bit about the newest Tempe mystery -- Not As It Seems.  Marilyn shares with us some info about Tempe and her heritage that plays such an important part in her series.

How Important is it that Tempe Crabtree is Indian?

I wrote three books that I thought were about Tempe before I realized that the fact she was an Indian had no importance at all to the story.  (The books were changed to totally different books with new characters and settings.)

In the fourth book, which became the prequel, Tempe’s Native American heritage began to emerge. Because Tempe wasn’t raised as an Indian, the only reference she had besides her appearance, were the stories told to her by her grandmother. Her lack of knowledge about being an Indian is pointed out by Nick Two John.  He becomes her mentor and introduces her to the legends and spiritual side of being a native person in many of the books.

Every mystery has something to do with Tempe being an Indian, whether it is about customs of the Bear Creek tribe, legends that have been passed down through the years, or spiritual rituals that Tempe uses to help solve a crime.

The fact that Tempe is married to a non-Indian who is also a Christian pastor has added some conflict to an otherwise loving marriage.

Tempe being an Indian has been an important fact in each book, and in most cases has created or added to the plot. I’ve been able to find quotes by different Indians that have given me titles for a few books. Some of the legends have added to the plots in the stories.

Though the tribe Tempe belongs to is fictional, I borrow a lot from the Tule River tribe which is nearby.  The Bear Creek reservation is much like the Tule River Reservation, and the imaginary tribe Tempe belongs to is part of the Yokuts.

In the latest mystery, “Not as it Seems,” Tempe is affected by the appearance of spirits of Chumash and Salinan Indians of the past.

If Tempe weren’t Indian, the series would have ended long ago.

--Marilyn Meredith

Not as It Seems Blurb:


Tempe and Hutch travel to Morro Bay for son Blair’s wedding, but when the maid-of-honor disappears, Tempe tries to find her. The search is complicated by ghosts and Native spirits.

Character Naming Contest:       

Once again, I’ll name a character after the person who leaves a comment on the most blogs.
Tomorrow I’ll be stopping by Marja McGraw’s http://marjamcgraw.blogspot.com  and talking about promotion—a necessary evil, or is it?

Bio:

Marilyn Meredith now lives in the foothills of the Southern Sierra, about 1000 feet lower than Tempe’s Bear Creek, but much resembles the fictional town and surroundings. She has nearly 40 books published, mostly mysteries. Besides writing, she loves to give presentations to writers’ groups. She’s on the board of the Public Safety Writers Association, and a member of Mystery Writers of America and three chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Central Coast chapter.