John Winters hoped things would get better. But an unfortunate turn of events led him down a terrifying slippery slope in more ways than one. Reminiscing about his childhood, he rediscovered memories that would come back to haunt him. All he wanted was to find warmth and hope. In his race against time, John was forced to face his affliction and combat his fears. As he struggled, an unlikely saviour came in the form of a close friend, providing at least some solace and understanding. The question was whether it was too little, too late.
Category: May 2022 Reviews
Review: Overdoses in Olympia
Nick O’Flannigan thought he was just starting out on a freelance photography assignment.
But when he arrives in Olympia, he learns that there have been two overdoses in hospitals in the last week, both seemingly connected. With his keen eye for detail, he notices something in the photos that no one else sees.
But how will he, an out of town photographer and amateur sleuth, get that information to the right authorities before another patient dies?
“A good whodunnit read.” (John Hussar)
You won’t find the answer until the very end of this powerful pause-resister of a travel mystery. If you love Jack McEvoy, you’ll love this debut in the Capital City Murders series.
Review: Musings of the Muses
Sing O Muse, of the rage of Medusa, cursed by gods and feared by men…
From the mists of time, and ages past,
The muses have gathered; hear now their songs.
A web of revenge spun ‘neath the moon;
A poet’s wife who breaks her bonds;
A warrior woman on a quest of honor;
A painful lesson for a treacherous heart;
A goddess and a mortal, bound together by the travails of motherhood.
And more.
Listen to the muses, as they sing aloud…HER story.
Musings of the Muses, 65 stories and poems based on Greek myths, is an anthology of monsters, heroines, and goddesses, ranging from ancient Greece to modern day America. They, like the myths themselves, cast long shadows of horror, fantasy, love, betrayal, vengeance, and redemption. This anthology revisits those old tales and presents them anew, from her point of view.
Review: Sharad (Short Stories From Antaloor)
In Antaloor verbergen sich viele Geheimnisse abseits der Pfade, die Sie als Abenteurer im Two Worlds Universum durchstreifen. Freuen Sie sich auf ein Wiedersehen mit bekannten Städten und Charakteren – oder lernen Sie Antaloor völlig neu kennen, unabhängig von der Spielwelt. Mal düster und voller menschlicher Abgründe, mal humoristisch und überraschend – die Novellen atmen den Geist der beliebten Quests des Rollenspiels – und sind doch etwas ganz Eigenes. Erleben Sie in vier Kurzgeschichten mörderische Intrigen aus der Perspektive einer fahrenden Theatergruppe (Der große Auftritt), verfolgen Sie die wendungsreiche Beschwörung eines Flaschengeistes (Ganz nach Wunsch) und lassen Sie sich kalte Schauer über den Rücken rieseln in der Gruselgeschichte “Sharad”.
Review: The Wayfarer
The Wayfarer stands on the rim of insanity. Forgetting everything. Everyone.
He doesn’t know when the forgetting began, but the Shadow does. A doppelganger wreathed in darkness; a figure only he can see; it claims to know both why he is losing his mind, and the way to restore it. Wary, desperate, with what seems no other way open to him, the Wayfarer submits himself to the Shadow, its warning compelling him forward:
Move on.
Or wither.
As the Shadow leads the Wayfarer through sentient forests, the graveyards of dragons, and realms between realms, so too does it lead the way into his forgotten past, restoring fragments of memory throughout the journey. Only the memories are distorted, nightmarish. In them he sees his friends, his family — dead. Impossible. His friends are alive, aiding him on his journey. His family is safe, awaiting his return.
Disillusioned by these perversions of past, the Wayfarer decides the only way to salvation is within himself. Aided by a psychoactive mixture, he descends into his subconscious, seeking the truth of his unravelling mind, the memory of his madness’ beginning.
You are not ready.
Though the Wayfarer can sense the truth lurking within the abyss of his subconscious, something in the Shadow’s words waylays him. Something in the Shadow’s words holds a truth of its own, warring with the truth within himself.
Frustrated, fearful, his mind fraying at its seams, the Wayfarer stands now on the rim of a choice: to trust the Shadow, to hope on a fool’s hope that its way was the way to remedy; or to forsake it, to do as he willed and seek resolution his own way, risking that it may very well be the way to ruin.
Review: The Running Wolf
It is 1687, and German swordmaker families seek refuge in England. This is the tale of the Shotley Bridge swordmakers.
When a German smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne’s powerful right-hand man, the Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest? At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, and brother against brother. Beneath a seething layer of religious intolerance, community suspicion, and political intrigue, The Running Wolf takes us deep into the heart of rebel country in the run-up to the 1715 Jacobite uprising.
Hermann Mohll is a master swordmaker from Solingen in Germany who risks his life by breaking his guild oaths and settling in England. While trying to save his family and neighbors from poverty, he is caught smuggling swords and finds himself in Morpeth Gaol facing charges of high treason. Determined to hold his tongue and his nerve, Mohll finds himself at the mercy of the corrupt keeper, Robert Tipstaff. The keeper fancies he can persuade the truth out of Mohll and make him face the ultimate justice: hanging, drawing and quartering.
But in this tangled web of secrets and lies, just who is telling the truth?
Review: Everyone Is an Entrepreneur
Westerners today grow up with abundant opportunities to determine their own values, identities, and roles in society. But for generations, millions who lived under Soviet rule in the USSR had these essential freedoms withheld, determined instead by a central authority that claimed the right to choose for them and enforce their compliance. Thirty years after the Soviet Union’s decisive collapse, the old communist paradigm continues to limit those who come of age in a post-Soviet world.
Everyone Is an Entrepreneur showcases the experience of an American author acclimating to life in the developing post-Soviet economy of Armenia. Along the way, he examines how the intelligent and hardworking people he lives among are stuck in a state of transition away from all-encompassing, bureaucratic control. They struggle to adjust to the responsibilities of economic self-determination because they have never learned how to see the world through entrepreneurial eyes.
Entrepreneurship is a principled way of seeing the world, a paradigm that applies to people in all cultural and economic circumstances: artists, office workers, doctors, teachers, farmers, and laborers alike. By adopting this universal outlook, anyone can produce more wealth, accomplish bigger goals, and take control of their life like never before.
Review: Death of a City: Birth of a Curse
Thousands of years before Roland, Eldryn, Dunewell or Silas would walk the surface of Stratvs other heroes battled for the soul of a nation. Take a brief glimpse into the past of the peoples of Stratvs as these historic events unfold. Join the adventure as axe clashes with sword and dwarf clashes with man. Look on as legends are born and events give rise to villains.
Review: Sunwise
Sunwise is the sequel to Helen Steadman’s best-selling novel Widdershins. Both novels were inspired by the Newcastle witch trials, where 16 people were hanged. Despite resulting in the largest mass execution of witches on a single day in England, these trials are not widely known about.
Sunwise continues the story of women’s struggle for survival in a hostile and superstitious world. Spurred on by the successful execution of 17 proven witches, the witchfinder travels north to Berwick, where he continues his quest to rid the world of evil. But will he hoodwink the Berwick authorities as easily as those in Newcastle?
Sunwise begins after the Newcastle witch trials as Jane Chandler’s lover, Tom Verger, returns from the navy to find her unhappily married to his betrayer. Jane is caught in an impossible situation. Still reeling from the loss of her mother at the hands of the witchfinder, Jane has no choice but to continue her dangerous work as a healer while keeping her young daughter safe. As Tom seeks a way for him and Jane to be together, the Scottish witchfinder is still at large. Filled with vengeance, John Sharpe will stop at nothing in his sworn mission to free the world from the scourge of witchcraft.
The Historical Novel Society said of Sunwise: “The novel is rich in fascinating details: Jane’s remedies and the village customs, partly Christian, partly pagan. Ancient names for plants and festivities, both seasonal and Christian, add colour to the narrative. Jane’s story is based on true events, and Jane represents the many women whose healing gifts made them victims of superstition and violence.”
Recommended for anyone who has enjoyed Stacey Halls’ The Familiars, Beth Underdown’s The Witchfinder’s Sister, AK Blakemore’s The Manningtree Witches, Elizabeth Lee’s Cunning Women, Louisa Morgan’s A Secret History of Witches, Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate, Madeline Miller’s Circe, or Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches.