Book Spotlight & Giveaway: A Cloud of Fraud by Linda Ferreri

 

A Cloud of Fraud

by Linda Ferreri

on Tour June 1-30, 2019

Synopsis:

A man is shot dead in front of City Hall in Philadelphia where his family is tangled in a bitter lawsuit. One brave woman, drawn there by a work of art, finds herself following a twisted trail to the hills of Le Marche in Italy to learn why. All the while, the cloud of fraud grows thicker and darker around her. But, as C. S. Forester said, perhaps the scandal of fraud enhances the flavor.

This thrilling story grabs and holds the reader from the first chapter through unexpected twists all the way to the richly satisfying ending. Art expert Claire Bliss and police Comandante Baldo are joined and antagonized by unforgettable characters in both Philadelphia and Italy. The authenticity of Ferreri's players and their territories give special vibrance to the novel.


Lovers of the Renaissance will be drawn in immediately by the book's cover, a painting of Mary Magdalene by Carlo Crivelli (ca. 1480) in the Rijksmuseum. Inside the book, a great art crime story unfolds together with a gem of a murder mystery.

A Cloud of Fraud is colorful, fast-moving entertainment.

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

Published by: Linda Ferreri Trustee

Publication Date: May 7, 2019

Number of Pages: 315

ISBN: 978-0-578-47624-7

Purchase Links: Amazon | Kindle | Apple Books | Goodreads

Read an excerpt:

Early on in the Hard-heads case, at one of the bar association luncheons, Judge Pirandello had positioned himself next to one of his former clerks who was now a successful litigator in the Probate Court. Biggers, by name. There was the introductory chat about the wellbeing of their family members and the joke about the latest case here or there. The dialogue was familiar to both of them. The Hard-heads plaintiff was a problem person, the judge had learned, and he needed to be squashed to put an end to mostly frivolous claims, driven by greed. Everybody in the family knew it, the judge heard. He knew the type. The Probate Court was littered with greedy relatives, angry children with buxom young stepmothers wearing expensive jewelry their fathers had bought. He knew it all. The judge wanted rid of this case, and so he was pleased to learn that it was not worthy of His Honor's dignified much less close attention. The Hard-heads case had to go.

It would have gone long before now, the judge was thinking to himself as he growled into the cup of black tea, but these damned people had refused to take the hint, refused to be cowed or put in their places. Here and there at the few hearings he had conducted over this motion or that, he had seen a shrug of the shoulders by one or another lawyer.

"What could we do?" They might as well have said that out loud. The judge understood.

His knee was throbbing, but Judge Pirandello refused to have it replaced. The fact that cold weather was coming on made it worse. The goddamned orthopedic surgeon was another money-grubber. Were there no professionals left in his world who were not money-grubbers? He stretched his corpulence forward over the edge of his chair to reach for his footstool, then winced as he elevated the bad leg. He yelled out for Mary to bring him another cup of tea. Then, he opened the enormous file on the small table beside his chair.

In Re the Estate of Seri. He hated even the name. Italian people should not behave in this fashion, he thought. His own father would have come back from the dead to beat the daylights out of his heirs if they had behaved as these people were behaving. Suing one another. Claiming fraud. All of it. Disgraceful, he thought. They were each poised to receive a generous amount of money but no, that wasn't good enough. As with errant children, the Judge was both angry with and ashamed of the parties.

***

Excerpt from A Cloud of Fraud by Linda Ferreri. Copyright 2019 by Linda Ferreri. Reproduced with permission from Linda Ferreri. All rights reserved.

Linda Ferreri is the author of several art crime novels as well as witty illustrated iBooks. She is a highly respected international art law expert who divides her time between the United States and Le Marche in Italy.

Sometimes she says her most amusing book was her first, The King of UNINI, a sophisticated little romance set in Paris.

Catch Up With Linda Ferreri On:

acloudoffraud.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Twitter, and Facebook!

Tour Participants:

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This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Linda Ferreri. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card. The giveaway begins on June 1, 2019 and runs through July 2, 2019. Void where prohibited.

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Book Review: Appointment in Prague by Michael McMenahim & Kathleen McMenamin

A thrilling historical novel with a non-nonsense heroine is what you'll find in Appointment in Prague by Michael & Kathleen McMenamin.

Mattie McGary has a grudge. Though she has promised her husband not to volunteer for any other dangerous assignments, she decides to assist in her godfather Winston Churchill's operation to execute SS General Reinhard Heydrich. Her godfather would never have approved of her involvement either. She now has six-year-old twins to consider. When the operation fails, Mattie conceives her own plan to kill Heydrich, putting herself in greater danger than even she realizes.

Wow! This is an action-packed, intense story that brings the reader right into the world of WWII espionage. Well-developed characters, a tough heroine, and great attention to historical detail fills these pages. The cliffhanger ending lets you know that Mattie's story is far from over and that new dangers lurk behind the corner.

My only gripe is the omniscient narrator telling me things that will happen in the future. It's a personal bias of mine, so I can't fault the authors. I just find it draws me out of the story and away from the present happenings.

That aside, this is a superb read and I would want to go back and check out previous Mattie adventures.


Paperback: 158 pages
Publisher: First Edition Design Publishing (June 11, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1506906338
ISBN-13: 978-1506906331

I received a free copy of this book from the author through Pump Up Your Book. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Interview with Michael McMenamin, Co-author of Appointment in Prague

Michael McMenamin is the co-author with his son Patrick of the award winning 1930s era historical novels featuring Winston Churchill and his fictional Scottish goddaughter, the adventure-seeking Hearst photojournalist Mattie McGary. The first five novels in the series—The DeValera Deception, The Parsifal Pursuit, The Gemini Agenda, The Berghof Betrayal and The Silver Mosaic—received a total of 15 literary awards. He is currently at work with his daughter Kathleen McMenamin on the sixth Winston and Mattie historical adventure, The Liebold Protocol.

Michael is the author of the critically acclaimed Becoming Winston Churchill, The Untold Story of Young Winston and His American Mentor [Hardcover, Greenwood 2007; Paperback, Enigma 2009] and the co-author of Milking the Public, Political Scandals of the Dairy Lobby from LBJ to Jimmy Carter [Nelson Hall, 1980]. He is an editorial board member of Finest Hour, the quarterly journal of the International Churchill Society and a contributing editor for the libertarian magazine Reason. His work also has appeared in The Churchills in Ireland, 1660-1965, Corrections and Controversies [Irish Academic Press, 2012] as well as two Reason anthologies, Free Minds & Free Markets, Twenty Five Years of Reason [Pacific Research Institute, 1993] and Choice, the Best of Reason [BenBella Books, 2004]. A full-time writer, he was formerly a first amendment and media defense lawyer and a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent.

Kathleen, the other half of the father-daughter writing team, has been editing her father’s writing for longer than she cares to remember. She is the co-author with her sister Kelly of the critically acclaimed Organize Your Way: Simple Strategies for Every Personality [Sterling, 2017]. The two sisters are professional organizers, personality-type experts and the founders of PixiesDidIt, a home and life organization business. Kathleen is an honors graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and has an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. The novella Appointment in Prague is her second joint writing project with her father. Their first was “Bringing Home the First Amendment”, a review in the August 1984 Reason magazine of Nat Hentoff’s The Day They Came to Arrest the Book. While a teen-ager, she and her father would often take runs together, creating plots for adventure stories as they ran.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL LINKS:

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Did you like Historical Fiction growing up?

I liked a lot of genres generally, but fiction set in the past always attracted me e.g., Eric Ambler’s spy novels; C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series; Sax Rhoemer’s Fu Manchu books, etc.

What is the first historical fiction you wrote?

The DeValera Deception was both our first novel written and published. An earlier—and much longer—iteration of The DeValera Deception titled The Last Apostle was submitted by our agent to quite a few publishers without success. Same basic plot, characters, etc. except DeValera is much shorter.

What is your favorite part of writing?

I love it when readers understand the story and our characters the same way we do. The comments below from reviews of our 5^th Churchill Thriller, The Silver Mosaic, illustrate this.

From an Amazon review: “One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. It’s detailed, nuanced and beautifully written. Historical fact and fiction were so seamlessly woven together that I wasn’t sure which was which!”

[Exactly! That’s why we always include an ‘Historical Note’ at the end of every book so that readers can sort fact from fiction.]

From an Amazon review: “I’ve read and enjoyed all of the books in this series and I vote this one as the most exciting yet, full of twists and turns and I really cared about what happened to the characters. It was a most believable page-turner right to the very end. I can’t wait for their next book.”

[Until our next book The Liebold Protocol is published in late October 2018, readers will find a preview of six chapters of that book at the end of our short novella, "Appointment in Prague," where our ultimate evil character from earlier books, Reinhard Heydrich, finally gets what’s coming to him in 1942 Prague.]

And my favorite one, this from a Goodreads review about our main female character: “Mattie McGary is what every woman wants to be: strong-willed, the ability to take care of herself, and who doesn’t take crap from anyone.”

[Exactly! Mattie is a Scottish version of the Irish-American actress Maureen O’Hara in the classic film The Quiet Man and any other film in which she co-stars with John Wayne, right down to her red hair and fiery temper.]

Is there an author in the genre you admire?

There are so many I both read and admire that I can’t single one out. In no particular order, they are:

Ken Follett’s historical thrillers, Alan Furst’s 1930s spy novels, W.E.B. Griffin’s OSS novels, George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels, Clive Cussler’s Isaac Bell novels, Upton Sinclair’s Lanny Budd novels, Michael Dobbs’ WW II Churchill novels Susan MacNeil’s Maggie Hope novels; Rebecca Cantrell’s Hannah Vogel novels, David Downing’s John Russell novels, James Benn’s Billy Boyle novels, Stephen Hunter’s Earl Swagger novels, Robert Harris’s Fatherland, Enigma and Munich, Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels, Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs novels, Robert Goddard’s WW I novels, Kerry Greenwood’s Miss Fisher mysteries, Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness novels, Joseph Kanon’s post-WW II novels.

What is up next for you?

The Liebold Protocol, a Mattie McGary + Winston Churchill 1930s Adventure will be published in October 2018. It is set mainly in Nazi Germany in the days leading up to the ‘Night of the Long Knives’ on 30 June 1934 where the SS murdered most of Hitler’s political enemies. It was written with my daughter Kathleen McMenamin who thinks she knows more about fiction than her brother and me because she has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from NYU and we don’t. We (modestly) point out that we have literary awards and she doesn’t, but—to be fair—she and her MBA sister have written a critically acclaimed book, Organize Your Way: Simple Strategies for Every Personality [Sterling, 2017], where they give organizational advice based on personality types. They have more TV appearances to talk about their book than we do, but that’s a low bar.

My daughter Kathleen and I are currently at work on The Prussian Memorandum, another Mattie + Winston adventure that will be published in 2019. It is set in America, England and Nazi Germany in 1934 and tells the true story about the legislative process in Germany that led to the 1935 Nuremberg laws making German Jews second-class citizens and forbidding their marriage to Aryans. The Nazis used American state legislation and case law re racial miscegenation and second-class citizenship in the U.S.—what the Germans called ‘The Prussian Memorandum’—as models to do the same to Germany’s Jews. Neither the Americans nor the Nazis want this made public. Any journalist—like Mattie McGary—who attempts to do so will be placed in peril.

Do you have anything else to add?

Sure. Here are the best ways to connect with us or find out more about our work:

Email: wsc_mcmenamin13@yahoo.com

Amazon Author’s Page: http://amazon.com/author/mcmenaminbooks

YouTube: http://reason.com/reasontv/2012/09/02/mcmenamin-interview

The following two links have some really good stuff, but they are not current. It’s more fun to write books than to update the links. Volunteers to do so will be gratefully accepted.

Website: http://winstonchurchillthrillers.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WinstonChurchillThrillers

Want to Read: Still Life with Murder by P. B. Ryan

Book #1 of P.B. Ryan’s bestselling historical mystery series featuring Boston governess Nell Sweeney and opium-smoking former battle surgeon Will Hewitt. Long thought to have died during the Civil War, Will is arrested for murder, and it's up to Nell to prove his innocence.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it?

E-Book Bargain: The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

A chilling and spooky Gothic historical thriller reminiscent of Rebecca and The Turn of the Screw, dripping with the dark twists and eerie surprises that are the hallmarks of Edgar Allan Poe, from the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Citadel.

In a remote village near the English coast, residents gather in a misty churchyard. More than a decade into the twentieth century, superstition still holds sway: It is St. Mark’s Eve, the night when the shimmering ghosts of those fated to die in the coming year are said to materialize and amble through the church doors.

Alone in the crowd is Constantia Gifford, the taxidermist’s daughter. Twenty-two and unmarried, she lives with her father on the fringes of town, in a decaying mansion cluttered with the remains of his once world-famous museum of taxidermy. No one speaks of why the museum was shuttered or how the Giffords fell so low. Connie herself has no recollection—a childhood accident has erased all memory of her earlier days. Even those who might have answers remain silent. The locals shun Blackthorn House, and the strange spinster who practices her father’s macabre art.

As the last peal of the midnight bell fades to silence, a woman is found dead—a stranger Connie noticed near the church. In the coming days, snippets of long lost memories will begin to tease through Connie’s mind, offering her glimpses of her vanished years. Who is the victim, and why has her death affected Connie so deeply? Why is she watched by a mysterious figure who has suddenly appeared on the marsh nearby? Is her father trying to protect her with his silence—or someone else? The answers are tied to a dark secret that lies at the heart of Blackthorn House, hidden among the bell jars of her father’s workshop—a mystery that draws Connie closer to danger . . . closer to madness . . . closer to the startling truth.

File Size: 1229 KB
Print Length: 423 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; Reprint edition (March 29, 2016)
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
Language: English
ASIN: B01122BYHC


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Book Spotlight: The Kept by James Scott

Set in rural New York state at the turn of the twentieth century, The Kept is the superb literary debut by James Scott —a propulsive novel reminiscent of the works of Michael Ondaatje, Cormac McCarthy, and Bonnie Jo Campbell, in which a mother and her young son embark on a quest to avenge a terrible and violent tragedy that has shattered their secluded family.

In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Twelve-year-old Caleb must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.

A scorching portrait of a merciless world—of guilt and lost innocence, atonement and retribution, resilience and sacrifice, pregnant obsession and primal adolescence—The Kept introduces an old-beyond-his-years protagonist as indelible and heartbreaking as Mattie Ross of True Grit or Jimmy Blevins of All the Pretty Horses, as well as a shape-shifting mother as enigmatic and mysterious as a character drawn by Russell Banks or Marilynne Robinson.

Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (January 7, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062236733
ISBN-13: 978-0062236739

Order here!

Book Spotlight: When the Sky Falls by Joseph Bendoski

“What makes you believe a lie? I’m not asking how you know someone is lying. What makes you believe? Because if you don’t understand how that works, then you won’t know when you’re being manipulated.”

In 1938 the War of the Worlds hoax panicked millions of Americans, then in 1988 another fictional media broadcast convinced nearly half of Portugal that sea monsters had risen from the ocean to destroy their cities. A team of CIA agents was sent to study the aftermath of this 6th Skyfall Event in the hope that they could turn it into a weapon of war. When the team consultant turns up dead, everyone scrambles to be the last man standing: the one who will decide if or when the sky falls.

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Book Spotlight: The Competition by Donna Russo Morin

In a studiolo behind a church, six women gather to perform an act that is, at once, restorative, powerful, and illegal. They paint. Under the tutelage of Leonardo da Vinci, these six show talent and drive equal to that of any man, but in Renaissance Florence they must hide their skills, or risk the scorn of the city.

A commission to paint a fresco in Santo Spirito is announced and Florence’s countless artists each seek the fame and glory this lucrative job will provide. Viviana, a noblewoman freed from a terrible marriage and now free to pursue her artistic passions in secret, sees a potential life-altering opportunity for herself and her fellow female artists. The women first speak to Lorenzo de’ Medici himself, and finally, they submit a bid for the right to paint it. And they win.

But the church will not stand for women painting, especially not in a house of worship. The city is not ready to consider women in positions of power, and in Florence, artists wield tremendous power. Even the women themselves are hesitant; the attention they will bring upon themselves will disrupt their families, and could put them in physical danger.

All the while, Viviana grows closer to Sansone, her soldier lover, who is bringing her joy that she never knew with her deceased husband. And fellow-artist Isabetta has her own romantic life to distract her, sparked by Lorenzo himself. Power and passion collide in this sumptuous historical novel of shattering limitations, one brushstroke at a time.

Series: Da Vinci's Disciples (Book 2)
Paperback: 268 pages
Publisher: Diversion Publishing (April 25, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1682308065
ISBN-13: 978-1682308066

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The Brass Compass by Ellen Butler Book Blast

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We invite you to Ellen Butler's THE BRASS COMPASS Cover Reveal! Please leave a comment to let Ellen know you stopped by and don't forget to order your copy!

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Title:
THE BRASS COMPASS

Author: Ellen Butler

Publisher: Power to the Pen

Pages: 362

Genre: Historical Thriller/Suspense

A beautiful American spy flees into the night. On her own, she must live by her wits to evade capture and make it to the safety of the Allied forces.
Lily Saint James grew up traveling the European continent, learning languages as she went. In 1938, her mother’s abrupt death brings her back home to Washington, D.C., and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Lily comes to the attention of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Her knowledge of German, French, and Italian makes her the perfect OSS Agent, and her quick thinking places her as a nanny in the household of an important German Army Colonel, where she is able to gather intelligence for the Allies. After her marketplace contact goes missing, she makes a late-night trip to her secondary contact only to find him under interrogation by the SS. After he commits suicide, she flees into the frigid winter night carrying false identification papers that are now dangerous and a mini film cartridge with vital strategic information. In order to survive, Lily must make it out of Germany, into the hands of Allied-controlled France, through a path fraught with peril.

Pre-order Links:

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Book Excerpt:

Chapter One

Into the Night

February 1945

Germany

“Was ist sein Name?” What is his name? The SS officer’s backlit
shadow loomed over his victim as he yelled into the face of the shrinking man
on the third-story balcony. “We know you’ve been passing messages. Tell us, who
is your contact?” he continued in German.

Lenz’s gray-haired head shook like
a frightened mouse. With his back to me, I was too far away to hear the mumbled
response or the Nazi’s next question. I pulled my dark wool coat tighter and
sank deeper into the shadow of the apartment building’s doorway across the
street from where my contact underwent interrogation. The pounding of my heart
pulsated in my ears, and I held my breath as I strained to listen to the
conversation. In front of Lenz’s building stood a black Mercedes-Benz with its
running lights aglow, no doubt the vehicle that brought the SS troops. None of
the neighboring buildings showed any light, as residents cowered behind locked doors
praying the SS wouldn’t come knocking. This was a working-class neighborhood,
and everyone knew it was best to keep your mouth shut and not stick your nose
in the business of the Schutzstaffel.

Their presence at Lenz’s home
explained why my contact at the bakery was absent from our assignation earlier
today. I dreaded to imagine what they had done to Otto for him to give up
Lenz’s name … or worse, mine. Even though I’d never told Otto my name, a
description of me could easily lead the SS to their target.

“Lügner!” Liar!

I flinched as the officer’s ringing
accusation bounced off the brick buildings. A young SS Stormtrooper stepped out
onto the balcony and requested his superior look at something in his hand. I
should have taken their distraction to slip away into the darkness and run;
instead I stayed, anxiously listening, to hear if Lenz would break under the SS
grilling and reveal my identity. Clearly, they suspected he was involved in
spying and would take him away. They probably also knew he had information to
spill and would eventually torture it out of him, which was the only reason he
hadn’t been shot on sight. It was only a matter of time before he gave me away.
My friends in the French Resistance had been directed to hold out for two days
before releasing names to allow the spies to disband and disappear. I wasn’t
sure if the German network applied the same rules, so I remained to see if he
would break before they took him.

“Where did you find this?” the
officer asked.

The trooper indicated inside the
apartment.

“Zeig es mir.” Show me. He followed his subordinate through the
doorway into the building.

Lenz turned and braced himself
against the balcony. I watched in horror as he climbed atop the railing.

“Halt!” a bellow from inside rang out.

Lenz didn’t hesitate, and I averted
my eyes, biting down hard on my cold knuckles, as he took his final moments out
of the hands of the Nazis. Sounds of shattering glass and buckling metal ripped
through the darkness as his body slammed into the SS vehicle. In my periphery,
a neighboring blackout curtain shifted.

“Scheisse!” the SS officer swore as he and his subordinate leaned
over the railing to see Lenz’s body sprawled across their car. “Search the
apartment. Tear it apart!”

The moment they crossed the threshold,
I sprinted into the night.

My breath puffed out in small
plumes of smoke as I dodged through alleys, in and out of darkened doorways,
moving on the balls of my feet. Silently, I cursed the cloudless sky as the
moonlight bounced off the cobblestones, its brightness clear enough to land a
plane. Unless waiting at midnight at a
drop zone for needed supplies, a spy preferred the inky blackness of cloudy
skies. Especially when escaping the enemy.

A few kilometers from Lenz’s
apartment, I paused behind the brick rubble of a bombed-out building. My gaze
searched the area for any sign of movement. Standing alert, I held my breath,
attuning my senses to the nighttime sounds, and listened for the whisper of
cloth, the click of a boot heel, or heaven forbid, the cock of a gun. The
thundering of my heartbeat slowed, and I balled my fists to stop my shaking
hands. All seemed quiet … for the moment.

My fingers curled around the tiny
film cartridge, filled with information vital to the Allied cause, nestled in my
coat pocket. Dropping down to one knee, I slipped the heel of my right boot
aside and tucked it into the hidden cavity. The coded message I’d planned to
pass to Lenz would have to be burned, but I couldn’t take the chance of
lighting a fire right now. It would have to wait until morning.

<!--[if !mso]>

About the Author

Ellen Butler is a novelist writing critically acclaimed suspense thrillers, and award winning romance. The Brass Compass was inspired by the brave women who served in the OSS, British Special Operations Executive and French Resistance. Ellen is a member of The OSS Society and her fascination with WWII history originally piqued when her grandfather revealed his role as a cryptographer during the war. Ellen holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Policy, and her history includes a long list of writing for dry, but illuminating, professional newsletters and windy papers on public policy. She lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

WEBSITE and SOCIAL LINKS:

WEBSITE
| TWITTER | FACEBOOK

New Release: Holy Spy by Rory Clements

For fans of CJ Sansom and SJ Parris, Holy Spy features the Queen’s Intelligencer John Shakespeare in the latest of Rory Clements’s acclaimed and bestselling series of Tudor spy thrillers

In London’s smoky taverns, a conspiracy is brewing: a group of wealthy young Catholic dissidents plot to assassinate Elizabeth, free Mary Queen of Scots—and open England to Spanish invasion. But the conspirators have been infiltrated by Sir Francis Walsingham’s top intelligencer, John Shakespeare.

Shakespeare, however, is torn: the woman he loves stands accused of murder. In a desperate race against time he must save her from the noose and the realm from treachery. And then it dawns that both investigations are inextricably linked—by corruption very close to the seat of power…

File Size: 1289 KB
Print Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Witness Impulse (February 2, 2016)
Publication Date: February 2, 2016
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
Language: English
ASIN: B015WXSNFI


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Coming Soon!: The Tide Watchers by Lisa Chaplin

In the tradition of Jennifer Robson, comes this compelling debut that weaves the fascinating story of a young woman who must risk her life as a spy to help stop Napoleon's invasion of Great Britain in the winter of 1803.

Though the daughter of an English baronet, Lisbeth has defied convention by eloping to France with her new husband. But when he breaks her heart by abandoning her, she has nowhere to turn and must work in a local tavern. Her only hope for the future is to be reunited with her young son who is being raised by her mother-in law.

A seasoned spy known by his operatives as Tidewatcher, Duncan apprenticed under Lisbeth's father and pledged to watch over his mentor's only daughter while he searches the Channel region for evidence that Bonaparte has built a fleet to invade Britain. But unpredictable Lisbeth challenges his lifelong habit of distance.

Eccentric, brilliant American inventor Robert Fulton is working on David Bushnell's "turtle"--the first fully submersible ship--when he creates brand-new torpedo technology, which he plans to sell to the French Navy. But when his relationship with Bonaparte sours, he accepts Tidewatcher's help to relocate to the French side of the Channel, but he refuses to share his invention. With an entire army encamped in the region, blocking off all access, Tidewatcher must get that submersible, along with someone who knows how to use it, to uncover Bonaparte's great secret.

When Lisbeth is asked to pose as a housekeeper and charm Fulton so she can learn to use the submersible before the invasion fleet sails, she will be forced to sacrifice herself for her country--but is she willing to sacrifice her heart when she's already lost it to another...?

A fast-paced, deeply-researched, and richly imagined novel, The Tide Watchers explores a long-hidden, chapter of Bonaparte's history.

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 30, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062379127
ISBN-13: 978-0062379122

Pre-order here!

Bargain Ebook: Murder Bay by David R. Horwitz

No one noticed anything suspicious about the death of a wounded soldier at the height of the Civil War—not, that is, until almost a hundred years later.

In 1957, a young Washington, D.C. police sergeant, Ben Carey, heads up a team of officers in a dilapidated house three blocks from the Capitol. Though Carey's career is on the rise, his marriage is circling the drain, and as he spends more time at the office, he discovers there is something not quite right about this decaying old home. It harbors some dark secrets—connecting him to the long-dead soldier and others in ways he can't understand. With his personal life in shambles, and forces from within the house vying for his attention, Carey casts reason aside and begins an investigation to uncover the truth about what happened in this haunted place. As he peels back the layers of history, he finds courage and love, but also deception, greed, jealousy, and murder.

Twisting through time—between an America torn by Civil War and the prosperous 1950s—Murder Bay is a mystery that spans eras and the gulf dividing what can and cannot be explained.

"The impressive first in a historical series, which effortlessly alternates between Washington, D.C., in 1862 and the same city 95 years later...this debut shows definite promise." —Publishers Weekly

"Very nicely done...Recommended." —Library Journal

"An involving, period-perfect story. The action is fast-paced and convincing...the characters are expertly drawn." —ForeWord

File Size: 1108 KB
Print Length: 285 pages
Publisher: Top Five Books (April 1, 2008)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B001JQLT04


David R. Horwitz was born in Washington, D.C., the son of a D.C. police officer and a piano teacher. Raised in suburban Maryland, David read voraciously, wrote short stories, and biked into the city whenever he could. He studied journalism and Russian in college, wrote for the school paper, and earned a degree in information systems. In 2000, he and his wife moved to rural Minnesota, where he programmed computers by day and wrote on nights and weekends. David's dream of writing full-time ended when he died in 2004. He left behind his wife of ten years, parents, siblings, and the manuscripts that would become the Ben Carey mystery series. Murder Bay was his first book.

File Size: 1108 KB
Print Length: 285 pages
Publisher: Top Five Books (April 1, 2008)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B001JQLT04


Purchase for only 99 cents at Amazon!

Book Spotlight: The Whitechapel Virgin by Carla Acheson

Catherine, a fifteen year old runaway, stumbles into a seedy brothel-house tavern in the back streets of Whitechapel, London. She hesitates at the scene before her, one filled with low class prostitutes and drunkards, but it is late, and the dimly-lit labyrinthine alleyways are filled with deviant fellows and petty criminals.

Weary and hungry, she meets Eddie, the rugged young tavern boy who shows her to a room for the night. She settles down only to be awoken in the early hours by piercing cries from the room next door. Arising to find the cause of the commotion, she becomes witness to a gruesome abortion.

Filled with revulsion, Catherine decides to flee as soon as daylight arrives, but Eddie quickly soothes her fears and convinces her to stay, arranging for her to meet Madame Davenport, the nefarious brothel-mistress who employs Catherine as a serving girl, under the proviso she begins work ‛servicing’ men once she is settled in.

Difficulties arise, however, when Eddie’s growing romantic affections for Catherine clash with her sudden infatuation for the dashing middle-class gent, Mr Cross. Unknown to Catherine, the lothario is keeping a diary of his affairs with Whitechapel’s whores, with the dishonourable intention of turning his writing into a successful ‛gentleman’s, publication.’ Mr Cross quickly seduces the fresh young virgin, allowing his sexual fantasies to escalate into an unfathomable obsession.

As Catherine tries her hardest to fit into the ways of life at the lodging house, she encounters only jealousy from Eddie, and resentment from the other prostitutes who reside there. Annie, in particular, dislikes the new girl who has blossoming beauty and youth on her side.

Unexpectedly one night, a crime occurs within the narrow landing of George Yard Buildings. Local prostitute Martha Tabram is found brutally hacked to death by a cruel assailant. The police can unearth no explainable motive. The Victorian crime stuns the entire Whitechapel district, causing widespread panic amongst the prostitutes who each fear for their own lives.

Catherine’s anxiety increases when Edward Cross begins to show signs of ‘odd’ sexual behaviour and mental decline, as he brutally tries to expunge the girl of her virtues. When two more gruesome murders occur in the area, the prostitutes realise that there is no escape from the vicious killer who calls himself Jack The Ripper. But who is he? And who will be the next Jack victim?

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Carla lives in Gibraltar with her family and is a member of the Freelance Writers Association. She works as a book reviewer and has interviewed and published book reviews and articles for best-selling and award-winning authors. Her articles and reviews have been featured in various press publications, as well as Waterstones Quarterly UK Magazine.

Her debut fiction novel ‘The Last Gift’ released October 2012, is available on both Kindle and paperback.

Carla is also the founder of the Rock Writers Group formed in Gibraltar in 2009.

Music production, singing, reading and writing have always been the main essential ingredients in Carla’s life.

Carla's Website / Goodreads / Facebook

From My TBR Pile: Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL'S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

First sentence:

London, 1854

Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyke, it is said, always practiced their art in full dress.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Mulholland Books; First Edition edition (May 7, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316216798
ISBN-13: 978-0316216791

First Chapter Review: 30 Pieces of Silver by Carolyn McCray

I picked up a Kindle copy of this book for two reasons: it was free and its subtitle is, "An Extremely Controversial Historical Thriller." Who doesn't enjoy a bit of controversy? Historicals and thrillers are two of my favorites, so picking up a book that combines them seems the right thing for me. In addition, the Amazon description says you shouldn't read the book if you're disturbed by The DaVinci Code or The Passion of Christ's revelations. I remember the broowaha that surrounded the former, so I had to take a peek into McCray's book.

TITLE:  30 Pieces of Silver

AUTHOR:  Carolyn McCray

BLURB:  Frustratingly enough, I couldn't find an official blurb for this book, even at the author's website. Pretty much, it looks like review blurbs are what is being used to compel readers to buy the book. I did, however, find this overview on Amazon -

A Christian suicide bomber.

John the Baptist's bones inscribed in ancient Greek.

A dark secret carried from the foot of the crucifixion.

Can science solve the world's greatest mystery?

COVER:  Love it. The deep red cover with a slice through it that reveals coins definitely makes one think thriller and maybe some sort of mystery. The font used definitely gives the inkling that this is an historical novel. I don't believe this is the original cover, though. The one at the right is posted at Goodreads and also used in blog interviews, so I'm thinking the cover was redesigned at some point. Good thing. This other cover never would have attracted my attention, and for the most part, when I am scanning for free e-Books, I go by the cover and then read the blurb if the cover caught my eye.

FIRST CHAPTER:  I can't reveal too much about this opening chapter because it would ruin some of what transpires. What I can say is the reader meets Dr. Rebecca Monroe, who has been captured by maniacal warriors in Ecuador. She is currently staked to a pole, bleeding, and eagerly awaiting her end.

KEEP READING: I really don't know, but I'm leaning toward no. Writers are told that readers don't bother with prologues. I've always read them, but when they are overdone, I get irritated. This one spans a few pages. In order to fully grasp some of what this book is about, however, you need to read this prologue. And before you read the prologue, you have to read the short piece that precedes it, where the reader meets Judas Iscariot, who is considering the role he played in the arrest and Crucifixion of Jesus. So, before you even get to the first chapter, you have a bunch of reading to do, and what happens in the two parts that precede the first chapter have different characters and situations than it does.

Any author worth her salt will connect these pieces. Toward the end of the first chapter we see it already happening, but having so many characters tossed at you quickly and not immediately connected, leaves the reader with a disjointed feeling. In addition, the reader is told that Dr. Monroe's vision is blurry from a blow to the head, yet, the reader gets detailed descriptions of everything and everyone around her. It seems as if this is being told from her point of view, so either she can clearly see what's happening or she can't. A tiny nitpick, but it aggravated me as I read the descriptions. That said, McCray definitely knows how to paint a picture for the reader. You feel like you're right there.

After reading the three sections, I am intrigued by where this is going; how the dots are going to be connected; and what controversy might lie ahead, but I don't know that I am intrigued enough if the story is going to remain disjointed. I might be willing to give the next chapter a read before fully deciding to continue or not.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 940 KB
Publisher: Off Our Meds Multimedia (December 22, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
ASIN: B004HB1W82
SRP:  $3.99

I downloaded a free copy of this book to my Kindle. I received no monetary compensation for my review.

This post first appeared at The Book Connection.