Showing posts with label Tall Pines mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tall Pines mystery. Show all posts

Friday, November 27, 2015

First Five Free Books by Award-winning, Bestselling Kindle Author Aaron Paul Lazar



Never before and perhaps will never be done again, award-winning author Aaron Paul Lazar is offering the first five books in each one of his series for FREE! 





Gus LeGarde’s life essentially ended four years ago, when his beloved wife leapt to her death. Today, Gus lavishes love on his family, trying to bury the pain. But trouble arrives when his arrogant son-in-law’s business partner goes missing, and Gus’s innocent friend is set up to take the fall.

Available here!




When Marcella Hollister’s prize parakeet gets zapped by a wayward power line in the same pool as her mother, the ensuing psychic link helps Marcella chase her mother’s kidnappers through the Adirondack Mountains, where she unearths a fifty-year-old secret about her dear father with shocking links to a hidden treasure.

Available here!


After two years of brutal captivity, Portia Lamont has escaped and returned to her family’s Vermont horse farm—only to find her parents gone to New York to try an experimental treatment for her mother’s cancer, and her childhood friend Boone Hawke running the farm.

Like the rest of her family, Boone has never given up hope that Portia would return. But when she turns up battered, skinny as a twelve-year-old boy, afraid of everything and unable to talk about what happened, he does the only thing he can—try to help her heal. He summons the town doctor and Portia’s parents, and sets out to put this beautiful, broken woman back together again.

Through her family's love and Boone's gentle affection, Portia gradually comes back to herself, and starts to fall for her old friend in a whole new way. But one thing threatens her fragile hope for recovery: The man who took her promised that if she ever escaped, he'd kill her. Slowly. And someone is definitely watching her...waiting to make his next deadly move.

Note: Sexual content. Adults only.

Available here!


When Sam Moore discovers a peculiar green marble in his garden, it links him to his vanished little brother and thrusts him back in time, where he battles a faceless serial killer to untangle the maddening mystery and stop the murder of his beloved grandson.

Available here!


They say it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Finn McGraw disagrees.

He was just seventeen when he had a torrid summer affair with the girl who stole his heart—and then inexplicably turned on him, just before being sent to boarding school. Finn may have moved on with his life, but he’s never forgotten her.

Now, ten years later, he’s got more than his lost love to worry about. A horrific accident turns his life upside down, resurrecting the ghosts of his long-dead family at the same time it takes the lives of the few people he has left.

Finn always believed his estranged brother was responsible for the fire that killed their family—but an unexpected inheritance with a mystery attached throws everything he knows into doubt.

And on top of that, the beguiling daughter of his wealthy employer has secrets of her own. But the closer he gets, the harder she pushes him away.

The Seacrest is a story of intrigue and betrayal, of secrets and second chances—and above all, of a love that never dies.

Available here.

Monday, July 15, 2013

First Chapter Review: For the Birds by Aaron Paul Lazar




When I first posted this First Chapter Review at The Book Connection, I toyed around with the format a bit. 

Aaron graciously sent me this book months ago, despite the fact that I hadn't reviewed the other book he had sent me before--FireSong. This man has the patience of Job, so he is to be commended. We  know each other online from the MurderBy4 blog, which I visit from time to time. Wish I had more time to visit blogs like that one, since I would love to write a mystery one day.

TITLE/AUTHOR:  For the Birds/Aaron Paul Lazar

BLURB:  What happens when a parakeet named Ruby gets an unexpected mind-meld with Marcella Hollister's quarrelsome mother, Thelma? After Thelma is kidnapped from her hospital bed, Marcella must find her -- somewhere in the tall pines of the six-million-acre Adirondack Park. With the help of her Native American husband Quinn and bizarre "tips" from Ruby, Marcella butts heads with quirky bird psychic Earl Tiramisu, much to the chagrin of the FBI, who wants her to stay out of the investigation.

Why is Tiramisu asking questions about Thelma's past and the money she's been spending? The FBI agents hint that it may be related to an unsolved fifty-year-old bank heist, but Marcella can't believe her annoying, but honest-to-a-fault mother could be involved.

Across the rugged Adirondack park landscape, a brutal scenario evolves, where the good guys aren't what they seem, and only Ruby's newly acquired talents provide slim hope for survival.

COVER: This is a neat cover. Based upon what I know from the first chapter, the rustic landscape is perfect. The orange bird ties into the title, and according to the blurb I know it has something to do with the plot. Except for suffering from looking way too computer generated, I like it.

FIRST CHAPTER:  Driving down a remote Adirondack dirt road, Marcella and her husband, Quinn, are looking for a hotel. They're lost, they're sweaty, and Marcella thinks her hubby is a bit of a control freak. Snoring in the back, oblivious to all the bumps in the road is Thelma, Marcella's mother. This doesn't look like a good way to start their adventure.

KEEP READING:  Definitely. Lazar manages to give the reader a lot of information in this first chapter without making her feel overwhelmed. Within a few pages, we learn Marcella is a bit of a cheapskate and a control freak. Her husband calls her babe, a lot. He's the calm and patient pitter to her hyper and impatient patter. There's even a hint that the relationship with her mother might not be perfect.

The author does a fine job of describing the setting and painting a picture for his reader, so that she feels like she is riding in the van alongside Marcella and Quinn, having her own teeth rattled going over each pothole.

My tiny nitpick, and it's really more a pet peeve, is that the main character's name isn't made known to the reader in the first chapter. You know it's Marcella from the back cover blurb, but Quinn only refers to her as babe, so you don't know her name until the second page of chapter two, when her mother talks to her. Here I am supposed to connect with this character on some level, and I don't even know her first name. Why does it bother me? I guess it's because I like to remember people's names and for them to remember mine. Silly? Yes.


Paperback: 242 pages
Publisher: Paladin Timeless Books (November 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1606191667
ISBN-13: 978-1606191668
SRP: $16.95

I received a free digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation of any kind for this first chapter review.

This post first appeared at The Book Connection.