#Goodreads – Page 13 – Rosepoint Publishing

Guardian of the Crossroads: A Novel by Melanie Forde #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Catherine Devine briefly becomes a minor celebrity in Fauquier County, Virginia, when she saves a child from an oncoming truck. Cate is an unlikely heroine, stuck in a dead-end job as a school crossing guard and part-time art teacher. Stalled in her early forties, she lacks sufficient faith in herself to craft any plans—grand or small. But Cate harbors an extraordinary secret—she occasionally experiences psychokinesis. As she ponders just how she stopped that truck, she comes to believe her mind can move more than just physical objects. Perhaps she can move time itself. Melanie Forde’s riveting sixth novel takes readers on a journey of discovery as Cate explores not only her paranormal quirks but artistic talents that can heal old wounds. Accompanying her on this journey is her faithful wolfhound, Hecuba, an old soul who has always considered her mistress someone very, very special—perhaps even a goddess.

My Review:

This is not an author who churns out one series installment every six months. Ms. Forde takes her time to deliver a complex plot line and crafts a spellbinding literary novel.

Thoughtful storylines may take a bit longer to build but are rewarded by deeply moving and thoughtful characters wrestling with life and circumstances the best they can with the gifts they were born with. Such is the story of Catherine Devine of Fauquier County, Virginia.

The author generates a raw and emotional main character in Catherine who, following the extraordinary save of a young girl from being killed by a run-a-way vehicle in her school crosswalk, begins to question her ability to have moved that fast and effectively. As Cate begins to reflect on obscure memories in her life, she instigates a plan to solve what might be an act of psychokinesis.

Essentially without family, Cate does have a few friends but she begins an earnest investigation into her abilities and consults a professional. Single, her closest ally is a giant wolfhound named Hecuba. I loved this character! I could picture and invest in her.

In the study of her background, Cate comes across her old paintings, something she’d loved years ago and was very good at.

There is one very dark, ugly, but powerful painting she comes across that stirs strong emotions and she realizes that is the direction she must follow. She also remembers the catharsis her artistic abilities brought her and dives back into it with abandon, wondering what secrets she has long repressed will be revealed.

Yikes! The storyline turns dark, a startling surprise for me. Definitely caught off-guard, the plot becomes so compelling, you’ll have to follow to the denouement.

“The law of unintended consequences.”

It’s an intelligent and sensitive writing style that pulls in the reader. The themes examine the loss of familial trust, sexual deviation, paranormal and kinesis abilities, along with Greek mythology.

“…physical abuse breaks bones. Sexual abuse breaks the spirit.”

The author is a powerful storyteller. This is one of those stories that is laid out carefully, quietly, and then bestows a “wow” mystical factor at the end when the readers’ mind catches up. Whether or not you believe in paranormal or psychokinesis abilities, the narrative will leave you satisfied.

I greatly enjoyed The Quarry’s Girl, my last read by this author. Each of her novels is totally unique. I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. While there were some edit misses, they will be corrected. These thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Literature & Fiction
Publisher: D Street Books, a division of Mountain Lake Press
ISBN: 1959307436
ASIN: B0DSQ98DL1
Print Length: 471 pages
Publication Date: January 9, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble

The Author: For most of her writing career, Melanie Forde ghosted on international security issues. She published her first novel, Hillwilla, in 2014, followed by On the Hillwilla Road in 2015. Her West Virginia trilogy culminates in Reinventing Hillwilla, 2018. Twenty years in the making, her Irish-American family saga, Decanted Truths, was also released in 2018. In 2022, Forde mined the stories about her French Canadian ancestors, to publish another period novel and family saga, The Quarryman’s Girl. Legends about the goddess Hecate were the starting point for her sixth novel. Published in 2024, Guardian of the Crossroads combines paranormal, psychological and literary themes.

AI generated Irish Wolfhound courtesy Freepik.com

Valley of the Wolves: Book 1 by Brock Farrow #BookReview Teen & Young Adult Historical Fantasy eBooks

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Book Blurb:

Fifteen-year-old foster child Josh Redford’s only friend in the world was an old Algonquin trapper who taught him the secrets of the wilderness. When the trapper dies, Josh runs away to a remote area of the rugged Laurentian Mountains, where he soon discovers that the trapper’s tales of animal spirits are true, and that not all of them are friendly. Caught in an ancient war between good and evil, Josh’s escape from grief quickly becomes a harrowing struggle to survive. Desperate and alone, he soon discovers the one secret the trapper never revealed.

Valley of the Wolves is a four-book series full of action and adventure that is rooted in Algonquin mythology. It is also the story of how colonialism nearly destroyed a beautiful people and their culture.

His Review:

Moving from group home to foster home wore heavily on Josh. His heart yearned to be free and away from adult guidance. Certainly, many of the homes were nice but they were not his family and he never seemed to fit in. He longed to be free and disappear in the Laurentian mountains of his ancestors. His only true friend is a dying Algonquin who is teaching him the old ways.

He is very proficient with a canoe and escapes on a foggy night and heads downstream. He will cross into Canada and leave the Foster Child Systems behind. His Indian name is Crazy Otter given to him by Stumbling Moose who tries to teach him the old ways. He knows that the officials will be looking for him and will put him in a juvenile detention facility until he is of age if he is caught. He stays in the darkest parts of the forest and continues northeast towards Canada.

As a child, I often thought of running away and making my own way heading north to Canada. Josh is much smarter because he read all of the books he could find on wilderness survival and how to exist in the wild. Building traps and foraging for edible foods and tubers, he could teach military survival. The further he melts into the wild, however, the more he becomes the hunted instead of the hunter. This is a great book for young scouts and others to read. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

The first book in a new series that launches an enterprising and magnetic main character and is a great start to the series. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Teen & Young Adult Historical Fantasy eBooks, Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction eBooks
ASIN: B0DLGM9F21
Print Length: 179 pages
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
Source: Author and NetGalley
Title Link(s): Valley of the Wolves – Amazon-US
Valley of the Wolves – Amazon-UK

The Author: Brock Farrow is an avid outdoorsman and survivalist with a deep love for the Laurentian Mountains. He holds a profound respect for Canada’s Indigenous peoples, especially the original inhabitants of the Laurentians—the Algonquin Nation. He believes that they have much to teach us about our relationship with the planet and each other. The Valley of the Wolves series is his first attempt to share his knowledge and admiration with others.

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From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough #AudiobookReview #GriefandLoss

in Grief & Loss

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook-2024 Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Memoir-2024

Book Blurb:

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.

A PEOPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

My Review:

Once again, confirmation that fame and fortune can be tragic. I do appreciate that we had Riley’s voice of calm reason and reflection to add to the tale and, of course, Julia Roberts (yes, Julia Roberts) narrates Lisa Marie’s portion of the audiobook. There were intermittent bursts of taped narrative by Lisa Marie as she attempted to recall and write her memoir. Unfortunately, for the most part, I was unable to understand them.

Of course Lisa Marie was Priscilla’s daughter and the only Elvis offspring. I greatly enjoyed the memories of her early childhood, stories of Graceland. But Lisa Marie had little adult supervision and is allowed free rein and she uses it in her teens to begin experimentation with booze and drugs.

As an adult, Lisa Marie finds love; Danny Keough (Riley’s father), compulsiveness, and a wide range of men from Michael Jackson to Nicholas Cage. (Riley, btw, is now the sole trustee of Graceland. Riley played a credible Daisy Jones in Daisy Jones and the Six in 2023.)

Yes, there is a lot of name dropping, they certainly ran in the inner circles which only confounded Lisa Marie’s place in life even more—was she merely a shadow of her father carrying his name? Her memories of him were loving and impactful, his early death a blow from which she only gradually lived with, but not well.

Priscilla Presley is painted as a stern, hands-off mother and figures in the book probably about the same way she did in Lisa Marie’s life—almost as a footnote. Riley does a good job using her mother’s tapes and memories to fill in the blanks and does so with a loving perspective. While her mother became deeply flawed and she lost her brother largely as a result, she struggles to tell their stories truthfully. She believes this is the way it was. A fine tribute to her mother as she completed the memoir her mother left upon her death in January of 2023.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. It’s sad, tragic, and a grim epitaph.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Grief & Loss, Grief & Bereavement, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CRSDK1Q8
Listening Length: 5 hrs 42 mins
Narrator: Riley Keough, Julia Roberts
Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Lisa-Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley was a singer and songwriter who was born in Memphis and raised at Graceland as the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She released three studio albums throughout her music career—To Whom It May Concern, Now What, and Storm & Grace, the first of which was certified gold. Lisa Marie passed away in January 2023.

Riley Keough

Riley Keough is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award–nominated actress. She is known for her work in Daisy Jones & the Six, Zola, and more. She also co-directed War Pony (2022), which won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at Cannes, and cofounded the production company Felix Culpa with Gina Gammell. She is the eldest daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and sole trustee of Graceland.

The Narrator:

Julia Roberts

“I was so moved by Lisa Marie’s incredible memoir,” Roberts tells PEOPLE, in an exclusive statement. “It was a real privilege to give voice to her wild and beautiful life and I deeply appreciate Riley entrusting me with her mother’s story.”

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Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung #AudiobookReview #BiographiesofJournalists

Best Biographies & Memoirs

Book Blurb:

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ PICK
NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024 • A LA TIMES BESTSELLER AND BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH
TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 • KIRKUS BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR
WASHINGTON POST 50 NOTABLE WORKS OF NONFICTION FOR 2024 • A PEOPLE BOOK PICK AND A BEST CELEBRITY MEMOIR OF 2024

In a sharp, witty, and definitive memoir like no other, iconic trailblazer and legendary journalist Connie Chung delves into her storied career as the first Asian woman to break into an overwhelmingly white, male-dominated television news industry.

Connie Chung is a pioneer. In 1969 at the age of 23, this once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and soon thereafter began working at CBS news as a correspondent. Profoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions, yet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centered world. Overt sexism was a way of life, but Chung was tenacious in her pursuit of stories–battling rival reporters to secure scoops that ranged from interviewing Magic Johnson to covering the Watergate scandal–and quickly became a household name. She made history when she achieved her dream of being the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor any news program in the U.S.

Chung pulls no punches as she provides a behind-the-scenes tour of her singular life. From showdowns with powerful men in and out of the newsroom to the stories behind some of her career-defining reporting and the unwavering support of her husband, Maury Povich, nothing is off-limits–good, bad, or ugly. So be sure to tune in for an irreverent and inspiring exclusive: this is CONNIE like you’ve never seen her before.

My Review:

Connie, as she did with her journalistic endeavors, tells it like it is. Sometimes warts and all. She explains her father’s position and the times her family lived under in China that was instrumental in moving her family to America and her birth here. Interesting childhood and background in Chinese traditional culture. Connie appeared driven early, fortune and timing steering her into ever-increasing opportunities but she had two large blocks to the glass ceiling: she is a girl (gasp!) and a minority.

Not just driven, but smart, she watched how the men conducted themselves and worked to emulate them. Coming from her background, she was shy and quiet. She had to learn to dump both as there were few men willing to accept women in their domain. As a rookie reporter, and a woman to boot, she was given fluff assignments when she was itching to gather real stories that made a difference.

Connie details the years with the different networks, the assignments, her accomplishments, her interviews, and the clashes with Newt Gingrich and Dan Rather. She reports what really happened and then defends her position. There were a number of occasions that recounted both sexism and racism in her dealings with the good ole boys club. The armor she wore got thicker as the years passed in the industry.

Connie also mentions the graphic story of responding many years later to her own experience with the “you too” movement as well as the men she welcomed into her life, including the long-distance relationship she formed with Maury Povich who would finally become her husband. The account of their struggle with infertility hits home; for them with the adoption of son Matthew. And I must say, her stories of Povich have me seeing him with different eyes and a great deal more respect.

After the years of crashing the glass ceiling, her storyline chills a bit and the pace slows. Still, I enjoyed hearing so much “inside” info in the news biz, knew it was cut-throat, and a battle only for the very strong. She was obviously that strong.

I borrowed the audiobook from my library and love it when the memoir is narrated by the author. So much fun to actually hear the voice behind those words and adds such depth to the book for me. These are my honest thoughts and think you’ll also enjoy.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of Journalists, Editors & Publishers
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ASIN: B0CS3TQNW7
Listening Length: 11 hrs 35 mins
Narrator: Connie Chung
Publication Date: September 17, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Connie – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: (The book is her bio.) A google search of Ms Chung gleans the following public information: Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich was on born August 20, 1946) and is an American journalist who was a news anchor and reporter for the major U.S. television news networks. Born the youngest of ten children and the first to be born in the US, she was named after singer and actress Constance Moore and attended Maryland schools. Chung was only the second woman and the first American of Asian descent to anchor a major nightly news program in the U.S. She has been married to talk show host Maury Povich since 1984 and in 1995 adopted a son, Matthew Jay Povich. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Chung]

#TuesdayBookBlog

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The Investigator by John Sandford #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

A Letty Davenport Novel Book 1

Best Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense

Book Blurb:

By age twenty-four, Letty Davenport has seen more action and uncovered more secrets than many law enforcement professionals. Now a recent Stanford grad with a master’s in economics, she’s restless and bored in a desk job for U.S. Senator Colles. Letty’s ready to quit, but her skills have impressed Colles, and he offers her a carrot: feet-on-the-ground investigative work, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security.

Several oil companies in Texas have reported thefts of crude, Colles tells her. He isn’t so much concerned with the oil as he is with the money: who is selling the oil, and what are they doing with the profits? Rumor has it that a fairly ugly militia group might be involved. Colles wants to know if the money is going to them, and if so, what they’re planning.

Letty is partnered with a DHS investigator, John Kaiser, and they head to Texas. When the case quicky turns deadly, they know they’re on the track of something bigger. The militia group has set in motion an explosive plan . . . and the clock is ticking down.

My Review:

My second novel for this author, although the first was a Virgil Flowers series, a macho male protagonist apparently a spin-off of the Prey series. I don’t think this is another spin-off, but it almost feels as if it’s the same protagonist, just that now she’s a twenty-four-year-old recent Stanford Master’s graduate on her first job (Sheesh!) and she’s bored. Poor baby. Not sure how she got the job for a US senator, but it’s not law enforcement.

Coming from a horrific childhood, one of which had her tracking and killing animals for food and money, she definitely hit the lottery at age twelve. Yes, her particular adoption was more than luck, and they must have really spent some bucks cause now she’s too smart for twenty-four, too sophisticated for name brand jeans, and pushing rude and obnoxious.

Also, the book published in 2022 smacks in the middle of quite the immigrant conundrum. Letty is assigned a Homeland Security investigator, and she and Kaiser head to Texas.

A large militia group headed by a woman is focusing her troops and efforts on stopping a contingent of immigrants heading for the border. Their tactics are deadly. Letty subtly leads the more experienced Kaiser in infiltratation, as they fall into step as a team. Meanwhile, it becomes clear Letty has her equal in the antagonist, who is almost equally developed.

The pace gains speed as it nears the conclusion of the book which culminates with a cliffhanger into Book 2.

Yes, Letty is badass, but her field experience is not that of ex-military or an agent experienced under fire. She was educated in economics—not combat. She was…just too much. Interesting narrative, kept my attention, but also a story we have been living with for years. I can almost predict Book 2—so—I don’t think so.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Fiction, Mysteries, Suspense
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B09B4FT7L2
Listening Length: 13 hrs 2 mins.
Narrator: Richard Ferrone
Publication Date: April 12, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Investigator [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK

The Author: John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of the Prey novels, the Kidd novels, the Virgil Flowers novels, and six other books, including three YA novels co-authored with his wife Michele Cook.

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The Crossing Places: The First Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths #BookReview #ThrowbackThursday

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Ruth Galloway Series Book 1

Book Blurb:

The first entry in the acclaimed Ruth Galloway series follows the “captivating”* archaeologist as she investigates a child’s bones found on a nearby beach, thought to be the remains of a little girl who went missing ten years before.

Forensic archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties. She lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy.

Is it the same killer? Or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?

My Review:

Dr. Ruth Galloway is a forensic archeologist at the University of North Norfolk. Don’t ask me why, but I liked this protagonist almost immediately. She is in her late thirties, lives with her two cats on an ancient spit of land between sea and land on the Saltmarsh coast. She is very isolated and seems to love it, despite the almost daily miserable gray and stormy conditions battering her small cottage.

When she is asked to accompany DCI Nelson to a desolate area near the area where bones are found, he is hoping she can identify a missing child in his caseload. He is enormously magnetic and catches Ruth’s eye, but she can discern immediately that the bones are probably Iron Age. Still, there is another missing child and he’s back.

Ruth is an interesting MC, easy to invest in, and will no doubt be more deeply developed in succeeding installments. The support characters are developed only as far as need be, but the overwhelming star of the show is the area. The writing chills, planting horrendous scenic storms in the mind’s eye. The area is desolate, wet, cold, foreboding.

I loved the detailed description of the Saltmarsh, the Henge Circle, the old legends and ancient myths. Lots to learn, love that history.

“Herbs picked on St John’s Eve have special healing powers.”

“The past is dead. She, as an archaeologist, knows that better than most. But she knows too that it can be seductive.”

It’s dark, creepy, and the writer takes her time with divulging little nuances, secrets, clues. I suspected the ultimate perp, was right, but wanted to see how it all played out. Yeah, I’m hooked and apparently this series went on audiobooks, so I’ll be looking for those next.

I received a copy of this book from my library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths
Publisher: Mariner Books: First Edition
ASIN: B003UV90G6
Print Length: 306 pages
Publication Date: January 5, 2010
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Elly Griffiths - author — Elly Griffiths – author

The Author: Thank you for visiting my Amazon author page! I’m the author of two crime series, the Dr Ruth Galloway books and the Brighton Mysteries. Last year I also published a stand-alone, The Stranger Diaries, and a children’s book, A Girl Called Justice. I have previously written books under my real name, Domenica de Rosa (I know it sounds made up).

The Ruth books are set in Norfolk, a place I know well from childhood. It was a chance remark of my husband’s that gave me the idea for the first in the series, The Crossing Places. We were crossing Titchwell Marsh in North Norfolk when Andy (an archaeologist) mentioned that prehistoric people thought that marshland was sacred ground. Because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, they saw it as a bridge to the afterlife; neither land nor sea, neither life nor death. In that moment, I saw Dr Ruth Galloway walking towards me out of the mist…

I live near Brighton with Andy. We have two grown-up children. I write in a garden shed accompanied by my cat, Gus.

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Half Moon Bay: A Novel by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Clay Edison #3

Book Blurb:

Clay Edison has his hands full. He’s got a new baby who won’t sleep. He’s working the graveyard shift. And he’s trying, for once, to mind his own business. Then comes the first call. Workers demolishing a local park have made a haunting discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a child. But whose? And how did it get there?

No sooner has Clay begun to investigate than he receives a second call – this one from a local businessman, wondering if the body could belong to his sister. She went missing 50 years ago, the man says. Or at least I think she did. It’s a little complicated.

And things only get stranger from there. Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.

My Review:

I really like the way the authors suffuse the professional with the personal. So many times, we see a technician going about their business and wonder what their home life looks like: six kids, a spouse equally harried, and a mortgage whose interest rates keep climbing?

In this case, Clay Edison is a new papa. The baby, as most, doesn’t sleep. Clay is working the graveyard shift so his wife can be home and she works days. It should work—doesn’t always.

Unfortunately, his call out is to the discovery of a very old skeleton—that of a small child. Whose? And how did it come to be buried in a park?

Clay might be the personification of a new dad, his baby girl Charlotte has a lot to teach him. The stark difference between his anxious self and his professional self is often laid bare by his self-talk, his first person POV.

The development of the characters in this series has been fun, and each new installment has brought growth and get-to-know-you sessions. I like Clay. He’s smart, dominating, and a strong personage around his peers, though he can be soft and sympathetic with the loved ones he must deal with in his professional capacity.

It doesn’t help that the park and the site of the skeleton is located in Berkeley, always a hotbed of political turmoil and protests. He may have a major development in the phone call from a man claiming that it may be his sister…but he can only supply a minimal amount of background to interest Clay further into the investigation.

The storyline wavers a bit with a couple of small branches off the main plot, but then I wouldn’t expect this would be Clay’s only case. It might create a slight lull in the pacing of the main plot, but there is always another tiny clue.

I’m not sure it would be classified as a slow-burn story as there is usually a lot going on and the characters, including Clay’s wife, Amy, supply a lot of lively dialogue. (I still haven’t warmed up to Amy though.) Of course, the flashbacks to the 60’s and 70’s drew me in. There are twists, divulged secrets, and evil doers as these things are never just simple straight forward…who is the skeleton.

Personally, I really enjoyed the novel and this series, one to go (Book 2), and just got it. I’ll recommend again. If you haven’t checked out this series yet and you found Alex Delaware a bit stodgy at times, you might find the collaboration between this father and son might be just what you were looking for.

I received a copy of this audiobook from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
ASIN: B0863359SD
Listening Length: 9 hrs 35 mins
Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than three dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored The Golem of Hollywood and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California, New Mexico, and New York.

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

Jesse Kellerman has written dozens of plays and published seven novels, two of them cowritten with his father, Jonathan Kellerman. He has won numerous awards, including the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting (“Things Beyond Our Control”) and the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle (“The Genius”/”Les Visages”). His novel “Potboiler” was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. An essay, “Let My People Go to the Buffet,” was included in Penguin’s Best American Spiritual Writing (2011). His next book, Crime Scene, was also cowritten with Jonathan Kellerman and will be published in fall 2017. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and children.

The Narrator:

Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

He can be heard in over 160 audiobooks and has received eight Audie Awards and two Best Voices of the Year Awards from AudioFile Magazine.^[14] He was voted Best Narrator of the Year by Amazon for The Gene.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

Graphic by Canva.com

All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

When Mattie Taylor’s twin brother was killed in Vietnam, she lost her best friend and the only person who really understood her. Now, news that her mother is dying sends Mattie back home, despite blaming her father for Mark’s death. Mama’s last wish is that Mattie would read some old letters stored in a trunk, from people Mattie doesn’t even know. Mama insists they hold the answers Mattie is looking for.

1942. Ava Delaney is picking up the pieces of her life following her husband’s death at Pearl Harbor. Living with her mother-in-law on a secluded farm in Tennessee is far different than the life Ava imagined when she married only a few short months ago. Desperate to get out of the house, Ava seeks work at a nearby military base, where she soon discovers the American government is housing Germans who they have classified as enemy aliens. As Ava works to process legal documents for the military, she crosses paths with Gunther Schneider, a German who is helping care for wounded soldiers. Ava questions why a man as gentle and kind as Gunther should be forced to live in the internment camp, and as they become friends, her sense of the injustice grows . . . as do her feelings for him. Faced with the possibility of losing Gunther, Ava must choose whether loving someone deemed the enemy is a risk worth taking, even if it means being ostracized by all those around her.

In the midst of pain and loss two women must come face-to-face with their own assumptions about what they thought they knew about themselves and others. What they discover will lead to a far greater appreciation of their own legacies and the love of those dearest to them.

My Review:

It hasn’t been that long since I read and reviewed Appalchian Song in August 2024, my first from this author. She used a dual timeline then, as in this novel as well, dividing two main POVs between WWII and Vietnam. Seems I always gravitate more to one timeline and character than the other, and in the case, it was the 40s with Ava Delaney.

Guard Tower at Camp Forrest courtesy US Air Force and Densho Encyclopedia

Ava Delaney is the more liberal, befriending a German classified as an enemy alien during WWII. She secured a job at Camp Forrest in Tullahoma following her husband’s death at Pearl and finds herself attracted to Gunther (who for a short time has his own POV), a medical student prior to his delivery to the internment camp that was part of the massive base in Tennessee. Granted, she didn’t really know her husband and honest in her reason for the marriage, was more for security than love.

Mattie Taylor loses her twin brother to the war in Vietnam a little more than a generation later. She left her parents’ home shortly after the funeral, furious with their lack of opposition to his joining the Marines with his best friend through childhood. Her brother doesn’t come home, his best friend does but with the loss of an arm.

She has returned home following time on the West Coast where she had turned on, tuned out, and dropped out as so many did during the 60s in protest to the war most thought we had no business being in. More than bitter, she seethes fury at anyone backing the government’s involvement that led to her brother’s death and except that she returned to say goodbye to her now terminal mother, would otherwise have continued the life of a “hippie” in a San Francisco commune.

She is developed as petulant, spoiled, ignorant, selfish, and lacking the ability to support anyone other than those who agree with her ideology, which she repeats—more than once.

(This one hits hard since I lost a brother and both he and my husband were conscripted at the same time. Not like they had a choice back then. Whether or not we agreed with the US position (and we didn’t), we tried hard to support our boys, which was made difficult by those who didn’t.)

So, yeah, I did get very weary of Mattie’s position; the loss is devastating no question. But she got very tiresome.

What I did enjoy was the slow discovery of Amy’s story. Again, not sure I could put myself in those shoes, but the measured delivery of how it all came together became obvious.

The writing style is gripping. There are a few twists. There are themes of the futility of war, the physiological and psychological damage to those involved and the resulting damage to the family unit as well as the community, terminal illness, and hope.

Does Mattie ever relax that resentment, begin to see others first, discover ways she can make a difference in their lives as well as her own? You’ll have to read the book and determine for yourself. It just might be the binge-reader you’ve been looking for!

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Southern United States Fiction, Southern Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction
ISBN: 1496484177
ASIN: B0CW1M4P8D
Print Length: 359 pages
Publication Date: October 1, 2024
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS, winner of the 2023 Christianity Today Book Award in Fiction, and UNDER THE TULIP TREE, a Christy Award and Selah Award finalist. As a woman of mixed heritage–her father’s family is Hispanic and her mother’s roots go back to Germany–she has always celebrated diversity and feels it’s important to see the world through the eyes of one another. Learning from the past and changing the future is why she writes historical fiction.