REMEMBERING DRESDEN, by Dan Walsh

When Jack Turner rents a lakeside cabin near Culpepper University to work on his doctoral dissertation, he expects to escape all distractions and focus on his goal. But like so many of us (me included), he begins to seek ways to avoid what he's supposed to be doing. When he decides to look through a bookcase in the living room, he makes a surprising find. Eventually his curiosity leads him to uncover further material, and now his surprise turns to shock.

Dissertation all but forgotten, Jack and his girlfriend, Rachel Cook, start on a dangerous course to learn how Jack's discoveries might relate to current-day citizens of the Culpepper area. As the WWII bombing of Dresden weaves its way into the fabric of the documents Jack discovers, he and Rachel have to decide between their personal safety and pursuing the links they've unearthed. Which choice is the right thing to do?

Dan Walsh has created another page-turning mystery-suspense to follow When Night Comes, though it's not necessary to have read the first book to love this one. I thoroughly enjoyed Remembering Dresden. The story caught me on the first page and didn't let go until the harrowing climax.

I give Remembering Dresden two thumbs up and recommend it highly.  My thanks to the author for providing my review copy.

My review of WHEN NIGHT COMES, by Dan Walsh

    Successful author Jack Turner returns to Culpepper to work on a new book and to serve as guest lecturer on World War II topics for his former history professor at the local university. By coincidence, Jack hits town on the same day a university student is found dead under disturbing circumstances.

    On his first evening in Culpepper, Jack has dinner with his former professor, then returns to his apartment--and experiences a shattering and inexplicable event. Forces beyond Jack's imagining are at work on the formerly peaceful campus.

    Dan Walsh's unique plot twists keep the surprises coming at breath-taking speed. When Night Comes had me in suspense with every turn of the page.  There’s much I'd like to add to this review, but I don't want to post any spoilers.

    When Night Comes is a must-read for suspense lovers. The official release date is November 1, but it's available for pre-order on your Kindle right now. Don't miss this one!

WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS, Lynette Eason

            Alexia Allen is on enforced leave from her firefighter job in Washington when she receives a phone call from a high school friend inviting her to their tenth reunion. Impulsively, she decides to return to the town she fled on the day after graduation ten years ago.

            Her homecoming starts off with an almost-literal bang when she discovers a murdered classmate in her mother’s basement. And the action is just beginning. As Alexia battles secrets from her past, she finds she’s become a target.

            The detective assigned to investigate the murder makes her heart flutter when she recognizes him as someone she had a crush on when she was in school. But by his reaction to her, she knows he suspects her of the crime.

            When the Smoke Clears is filled with plot twists. I couldn’t stop myself from reading on (and on) when I should have been sleeping. If you enjoy mystery/suspense with a touch of romance, you’ll love When the Smoke Clears.

            My thanks to the author and Revell for providing a copy for review purposes.

LESS THAN DEAD, by Tim Downs

Imagine a suspense novel featuring a forensic entomologist--a "bug man." Then imagine a suspense novel that keeps you chuckling--when you're not holding your breath wondering what will happen next. If you've got that picture in your mind, you're ready to dive into Downs' Less Than Dead.

A portion of Virginia countryside is being cleared in preparation for the building of a regional shopping center. In the process, a bulldozer uncovers an ancient graveyard, with a less-than-ancient corpse buried atop an existing coffin. Enter Nick Polchak, an entomologist who should have been a stand-up comedian.

As the investigation progresses, Nick calls on the help of a woman believed by the locals to be a witch who is able to talk to dogs. Nick's meeting with the witch, and their subsequent encounters, add depth to a story which has a timely political side. Less Than Dead kept me turning pages way past my bedtime.

This is one terrific story, and fortunately it is part of a series. I wish I'd discovered author Tim Downs a long time ago. I can’t wait to read more of Nick Polchak's adventures, along with Downs' other novels.

Less Than Dead is written for the inspirational market, so is blessedly free of objectionable material. Read and enjoy.

VANISH, by Tom Pawlik

I have to search for words to describe Vanish. It is such a gripping story that it defies description, at least by me.

Vanish begins as an almost other-worldly experience. Lawyer Conner Hayden senses he's being watched while working in his Chicago office on a Friday afternoon. That night, a powerful storm rocks the city, and when he awakens the next day Chicago is deserted.

Vanish concerns Hayden's efforts to find his daughter and make sense of what has happened. The story rolls forward as rapidly as the gray mists containing whispering silhouettes that follow him everywhere. To say more would take away from the many surprises that spring forth from each chapter. I was totally unprepared for the way Pawlik concluded the story. To call it thought-provoking is an understatement.

In 2008, Pawlik won Operation First Novel from the Christian Writers Guild, as well as a Christy award for Vanish. The awards were well-deserved. I can’t recommend Vanish highly enough.

HUNTER'S MOON, by Don Hoesel

Hunter's Moon is a near-perfect story of a family hiding a dark past. Hoesel's hero, CJ Baxter, is a bestselling novelist, so as an author I especially enjoyed reading this book. CJ's ups and downs with his agent, critics, and sales numbers added an extra dimension to an already enjoyable plot.

The story opens with CJ leaving his home in Tennessee to travel to New York state to visit his dying grandfather. He leaves behind a fractured marriage and a lawsuit brought against him by a critic he assaulted. Once he reaches the family mansion overlooking his hometown, his return after seventeen years is met with barely veiled hostility.

CJ knows something that his brother, Graham, and their father have kept hidden since CJ was a boy. Graham is running for the Senate and isn't eager to have the family black sheep dig into family secrets. As the plot unfolds, we see how far the Baxter clan will go to hide those secrets.

In Hunter's Moon, Hoesel has given us a look at a believable protagonist—a man with flaws, doubts, and the courage to face his past. I look forward to reading more from this author.

WINTER HAVEN, by Athol Dickson

Winter Haven has all the ingredients for a suspenseful read--an isolated setting, a woman alone, and strange happenings--apparently supernatural. The characters are as rock-ribbed as the island they inhabit. Only one person shows the protagonist, Vera Gamble, any kindness, but she's been warned away from him by all of the villagers. Is he who he says he is, or part of a conspiracy to prevent her from learning what happened to her long-missing brother?

I have to admit the first third of Winter Haven pushed my limits for scary. I don’t like to be so frightened by a plot that my sleep is disturbed, as some of Stephen King’s books have done. The factor that kept me reading was the knowledge that Athol Dickson writes for Bethany House, an inspirational publisher, so he wasn't going to go too far afield. Or was he?

The plot concerns Vera Gamble, who goes to an island off the coast of Maine to claim the body of her brother, Siggy, whom she hasn't seen for thirteen years. When she’s shown the body, she's stunned to find Siggy unchanged from the boy he was when he ran away from home all those years ago. Dickson weaves one mysterious happening after another to thwart Vera from discovering the truth about her brother’s death.

As Winter Haven speeds to a conclusion, Dickson neatly explains each of the phenomena in ways I'd never have guessed. I loved the ending, and recommend this story. Just don't start it late at night.

Just One Look, by Harlan Coben

What can I say about a book by Harlan Coben? Exciting, page turning? Yes, but after reading one or two of his novels I find they're all cut from the same mold. It's like going to McDonald's for a meal. You know what you're going to get, so that’s why you go there.

Same with Just One Look. Having read a couple of other of Coben’s books, I knew this would follow a pattern. That’s why I picked it up—when I’m in the mood for a fun, escapist read, there’s no one like Coben to provide it for me.

The plot line of Just One Look concerns Grace Lawson, who discovers a mysterious photograph mixed in with her order from Photomat. (Remember film developing? This story has a 2004 copyright date.) The picture is of a group of young people, and one of them looks like her husband. Mystified, she shows him the photo, and that evening he disappears.

The fast-moving story follows Grace’s efforts to find him. The police think he simply left, as husbands sometimes do, and don’t take her concerns seriously. There are multiple plot twists, and one very creepy bad guy. Coben twisted this plot like the gears of a clock—it was impossible for me to put it all together until the last cog fell into place at the end of the book.

Just One Look is a great airplane read—you won’t notice how long you’re stuck in that uncomfortable little seat because you’ll be so busy racing through the story.

Enjoy!

Shadows of Lancaster County, by Mindy Starns Clark

The cover picture makes the story look like an Amish tale, but for the most part I'd call Shadows of Lancaster County a mystery/thriller. The plot concerns Anna Bailey, who fled Lancaster County to escape a painful past. She's in California making her living as a skip tracer when she receives a phone call from her brother's wife informing her that her brother, Bobby, has disappeared.

Anna realizes she has no choice but to go back and help find him.Even though she's disguised her appearance, it's not long before she's recognized as part of a notorious crime that took place when she was a teenager. Her search for Bobby takes her back into the Amish family of her sister-in-law, then draws her deeper into the mystery surrounding his disappearance. Following the trail her brother left, she’s drawn into the high tech world of DNA research and cutting edge gene therapy.

As Anna digs deeper, she begins to suspect that nothing is quite what it seems in the peaceful world her brother inhabited. Shadows of Lancaster County builds to an exciting climax, both in the current mystery of what happened to Bobby and in revelations about the crime of which Anna and her brother were accused eleven years earlier.

The fast-paced story has many moments of high tension, but it seemed to me that it peaked too soon. The last chapters read more like the denouement than a climax. This is not to say that I didn’t like the story. Clark’s sharp research into DNA and genetics gave a gripping air of authenticity to Shadows of Lancaster County. I recommend the book, and would love to hear from other readers as to their opinion of the way the story lines were concluded.

Harvest, by Tess Gerritson

A review of one of Tess Gerritsen’s novels may seem as though I’m straying from my original "debut author" theme. After all, to date Gerritsen has sold more than 15 million copies of her books worldwide.

Let me explain: In an interview in the September, 2008, issue of The Writer magazine, Gerritson shared that after years of writing romantic suspense, she got the idea for a thriller based on the idea of a black market for human organs. Like most writers, a conversation sparked the "what if" neurons in her brain, and the book that was originally called The Harvest was born. For Tess Gerritson, it was her debut into the field of medical thrillers.

Harvest features Dr. Abby DiMatteo, a surgery resident on a cardiac transplant team. She's an appealing heroine, with just enough quirks to take her beyond the typical woman-on-the-run genre that most thrillers seem to require. She and chief resident Dr. Vivian Chao, make a bold decision to direct a crash victim’s heart to a seventeen-year-old dying charity patient instead of a wealthy forty-six-year old woman. That decision and the way they carried it out was heart-stopping (pun intended).

But in the aftermath, another available heart suddenly turns up for the waiting woman. Where did it come from? Who was the mysterious "doctor" who delivered the heart to the transplant unit at midnight?

Harvest kept me breathless until the very last, and that doesn’t happen often. There were still surprises coming within three pages of the ending. If I had a star system of ratings on my blog, I’d give Harvest five big ones.

One thing I wish, though. I want another novel featuring Abby DiMatteo, so I can learn what happened to the characters after the story ended.

Rose House, by Tina Ann Forkner

Tina Ann Forkner's second novel, Rose House, is an engrossing and worthy successor to her outstanding first book, Ruby Among Us. In Rose House, Forkner revisits La Rosaleda, a fictional town set in the beautiful Sonoma Valley of California.

I'd call the plot of Rose House "a mystery wrapped in an enigma," to paraphrase Winston Churchill. The main character, Lillian Diamon, is mourning the loss of her family when she finds herself drawn to the fabled Rose House in La Rosaleda. Forkner starts the pages turning right away, with a mysterious photographer who is spying on Lillian. From there the story spins out question after question. We walk in Lillian's shoes as she lives through her grief and confusion--each new revelation deepening the mystery of what happened to her family.

As always, Forkner evokes emotion with her skillful phrasing. One line I particularly loved has Lillian reflecting, "My house is worse than an empty shell. It is full and overflowing with what is missing."

The story is filled with a sense of menace. We share Lillian's doubts about whom she can trust. The reader is drawn further into Rose House to answer questions raised about each of the fully-drawn characters that Forkner introduces. As the plot lines converge, the book sweeps to a heart-stopping conclusion.

The characters became real to me--I'm still thinking about them. I loved the way this novel resolved. I had tears in my eyes when I read the ending.

I recommend Rose House!