Once again Marilyn Meredith has woven an intriguing mystery and laid it over the delicate balance of an incongruous relationship. When Christian Church Preacher, Hutch Hutchinson, tears his part Yanduchi Indian wife, Tempe Crabtree, Deputy Sheriff, away from her work for a second honeymoon, he makes her promise she won't even think about work He has chosen a remote inn in the mountains where they are sure to be alone. But the inn fills rapidly.

Ambitious screen writer Mallory Benoit, will use the isolation of the inn to pitch the idea of a new play. Her guests are her current and her ex paramours, producer and director respectively, along with a temperamental, mature actress with her own play-write/companion. Mallory's party is crashed by an obnoxious, actor who wants a part in the play and her ex-husband who wants custody of their children. A blizzard arrives with the guests, the telephone goes dead and the electricity fails as the storm worsens, so everyone turns in for the night. In the morning Mallory is missing, there's still no phone service or electricity and they are snowbound.

The blizzard would have given Hutch the perfect way to keep Tempe for himself, but Tempe has no choice but to look for Mallory. After she finds the frozen mutilated body of the screen writer in a snowy grave, Tempe tries to convince Hutch that no one else will be in a better position to observe and interrogate the guests than she. By the time the detectives can get there the trail will be cold, the murderer will have had time to fabricate an alibi and cover his or her tracks, if the snow doesn't. There is a murderer among them, no one can leave, there is no way to communicate with the outside world–and Tempe doesn't have her weapon with her, a fact she doesn't share with the rest of the guests. Over Hutch's objections she interviews one after another of the suspects. Why did Mallory hate the old actor? Would he kill her because of it? What reason did she have for thrusting both her present and past lovers together? Did one of them kill her in a fit of jealousy? When the actress found out the men were persuading Mallory that she was too old for the part, could she have killed Mallory even with the help of her companion? Did her ex-husband kill Mallory to avoid another ugly custody battle? There is no lack of motive or opportunity and no weapon on the scene.

Ms. Meredith's characters are all well fleshed out with wide ranging motives, especially her lead characters with their fully developed opposing personalities and egos. With sensitivity and insight, she brings them together in love and respect for each other, never melding the two personalities, never subjugating one to the other, but gently reconciling the differences in their religious cultures.

As tense as a snow laden power line the INTERVENTION roars to the solution like an avalanche, keeping the reader book-bound until the very end. Thanks for a superb read.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale ©9/2002

STONE JUSTICE: CASTING THE LAST STONE

by Lawrence King

A STORY HARD AS STONE

Ever heard it said the way to hell is paved with good intentions? Sometimes the way to prison is paved the same way. STONE JUSTICE written by Deborah McMartin & Evelyn Morgan w/a Lawrence King is the story of the abuse, the life, the struggles, the redemption and the execution of Toni Jo Henry. Abused by her father, she left home at the age of thirteen. Though intelligent, the highest grade in school she attained was the sixth and she repeated it three times because she had to work instead of attending class. Nevertheless she tried to make something of herself, but she was thwarted by the great depression and prejudice. That she found true, honest, deep, consuming love and eventually salvation are the only bright spots in the life of this humble, kind, loyal, sweet and charitable woman. Toni Jo Henry never had a chance. Circumstances or people always intervened to crush her every opportunity, her every hope.

This glimpse into the scandalous abuses that abounded in early twentieth century American society is so harsh, so raw, so unforgiving as to be unbelievable. Surely this couldn't happen in America.

This incredible story will make you laugh, it will make you appreciate the progress of the past fifty years in social programs and criminal justice, and it will make you cry; it's a good strong five star story.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale ©2/2001

Prodigal Logic

by Paul Petrucci

A five star puzzle in a class by itself, Paul Petrucci's Prodigal Logic has it all. Ray Gabriel is writing a software program that will teach a computer to reason. Ray lives on a houseboat, and when he's stumped he kayaks to shore for a walk on the University of Washington Campus to think. He witnesses Father Peter's fall from the gargoyle atop the University Cathedral. Ray doesn't believe in religion; it isn't logical, but to complete his program Ray needs the help of an expert in psychology and belief systems. He seeks an appointment with Dr. Dexter, a professor at the University. Ray doesn't need to complicate his life with romance, but the way to Dr. Dexter is through his assistant, Zelda; Miriam Towson is in charge of the restoration work on the Cathedral, and Ray's wife, Regina, has left him for a house on a firmer foundation, but would like Ray to join her.

Ray becomes embroiled in the investigation into the deaths, desecrations and black masses in and just outside the cathedral. When he meets Dr. Dexter, they become adversaries in a duel of egos. Dr. Dexter will write a story and Ray will win only if his computer program can solve it. Ray names his program Sherlock-in-a-Box and begins keying in "thumbrules," Conan Doyle rules-of-thumb as used by Sherlock Holmes. Ray tries to solve the University Cathedral crimes using Sherlock-in-a-Box and then he and Dexter face off.

Paul Petrucci is a master author of mystery, character and plot tension. His research and professionalism is apparent in his five star mystery, Prodigal Logic, whetting the reader's appetite for the next "Ray Gabriel Floating Home Mystery."

Reviewed 5/2002 by Evelyn Gale©

SADIE'S SONG

by Linda Hall

Sadie bravely tries to maintain the facade of the perfect family that her husband demands while raising four children under the age of nine in a marriage fraught with fear, abuse and financial insecurity. Because of his rages, her husband Troy has never been able to keep a job. Sadie is afraid to tell him she is carrying their fifth child. An elder of their church, the charming Troy is seen as the perfect father/husband with a scatterbrained, inadequate and emotionally unstable wife who hasn't trained her children properly, can't keep her house clean, doesn't participate in church events or programs and is physically out of shape and unattractive. Her faith in God never wavers as her husband turns her church against her, taking away any emotional support she might have received there. As domestic abuse cowers behind the glowing facade of the picture-perfect Christian family another crime is perpetrated on little girls in the community.

Another little girl is missing. In a clandestine excursion into her husband's locked garage, Sadie finds Troy's briefcase filled with condemning pictures. She uses his computer to search for all the information available about the abductions. Only Sadie knows of Troy's lies and his rages and she becomes convinced he has killed the missing girls. Only she knows what Troy is capable of and there is no one who will believe her.

As Sadie searches for proof of her husband's crime, she must protect herself and her children from his rages while the women of her church attempt to teach her how to be a better wife and mother. One beautiful saint, a survivor of marital abuse herself, recognizes the signs of abuse, releasing Sadie from her isolation and freeing her to play her beloved piano again -- until Troy secretly sells it.

This novel starts very slowly and Sadie, Christian or not, is just too subservient; she is too unbelievably accommodating. And then the reason becomes clear slowly, timidly, as the truth peaks around the around the edges of this too-perfect family picture and the insidiousness of abuse begins to show it's effects until, like Sadie and her children, the reader is drawn into a relationship from which they feel there is no escape. This story is so well crafted, the pernicious machinations of abuse so well woven into the plot, that the reader becomes drawn into Sadie's hopelessness, understanding why she can't leave, how she has been made to feel guilty for being abused.

Sadie's Song should be read by anyone who suspects a friend or relative is a victim of abuse. Linda Hall reveals the enigma of abuse as she takes the reader down the slippery slope of no return, slowly at first, just the way abuse starts, and then accelerating to a deadly crescendo. I give this novel FIVE STARS, more if possible; it is a Must-Read.

Review by Evelyn Gale © May 2001

BURIED IN BALTIMORE

by Louise Titchener

If Toni Credella had helped Alice when she asked, would Alice still be alive? Driven by guilt, Toni can't wait for the Baltimore Police Department to find her neighbor's murderer. The death of a street woman isn't as high on their priority list as that of the thirty year old corpse found two days earlier in the same area. Toni's priorities are different: Alice was her friend and lacking a motive for her death, Toni searches for a link between the two murders.

Keep your eye on Louise Titchener's Toni Credella, Baltimore's most unlikely PI:

She is smart --

street smart, that is. No slick, jet-setter, Toni's not a tougher-than-Hammer super woman, she doesn't bumble comically, she has no cat and never mentions knitting.

Toni is very loveable --

but she's on the outs with a lot of people: she's estranged from her family and almost all of Baltimore's finest because she shot her drunken policeman husband when he nearly beat her to death.

She's profoundly dyslexic--

a high school drop out and unable to read or drive a car, for transportation she uses her own strong legs and a bicycle.

Only sporadically employed--

as an interior decorator, she lives just slightly better than her neighbors, Baltimore's street people: she has a home -- a derelict she bought from the city and is redecorating with other people's cast-offs.

Toni Credella has some pretty strange friends:

There's Randall, her gay attorney and O'Dell, one Baltimore Policeman who believes Toni's husband deserved what she gave him.
There's her new boss, Maloney a former cop turned PI who is still hung up on his ex-wife.
And there are her friendly neighbors Alice, Jimmy and Harmony of Baltimore's street community.
Add to this mix a sister Sandy who disapproves of Toni, her home, her friends, her past, her present and her future, but who cries on Toni's shoulder whenever she has a problem with her husband Al, another Baltimore policeman who detests Toni.

The way Ms. Titchener writes, the reader forgets he's not right beside Toni on the streets of Baltimore, in the soup line or at the docks in this colorfully peopled story told in rich, full-bodied, yet concise detail. She weaves the complex personalities of the characters into the fabric of the story so adroitly that the reader would recognize them from across the street and rush over to drop a dollar in a cap or slink away hoping to remain unnoticed.

As the story unfolds, Toni tries to put together a life for herself after being acquitted of killing her husband. She has to balance her desire for love with her desire to make a living, learn self confidence as well as self defense and find absolution for her guilt. In the process she escapes attempts on her life and ultimately proves her mettle as a PI -- Toni is an over comer.

This incredibly well crafted story keeps the reader riveted with its intrigue and expressive writing. It's impossible to read Buried in Baltimore without clamoring for the next Toni Credella adventure. I give Buried in Baltimore by Louise Titchener a full five stars; it's an outstanding PI mystery.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale© 6/01

NIGHTMARE RUN

by Christine Janssen

FIVE STARS

Billy Malloy was kidnapped from his home while his mother was having her hair permed. His elderly babysitter, bludgeoned and bound by a delivery man, could give very little information about the kidnapper. Just down the road from financially strapped Bill and Marge Malloy's house is wealthy J. Williams Mallory's spread. Lots of people get them mixed up. Was Mallory the target instead of Malloy?

Baby boy Atkinson was kidnapped from the hospital nursery before he was even named. Ambrose and Peggy Atkinson have three grown sons; Peggy was looking forward to a girl to take care of her in her old age. She got a boy and now someone has taken him. In the same nursery in his grandfather's hospital lay the Ives baby. Foster Ives, "a self-made millionaire with several chips on his shoulder," knew without a doubt that his grandson and not the Atkinson boy had been the target.

Jeremy Buckman, career investigator with the Prosecutor's Office, a local boy whose wife left him after ten years of marriage and three miscarriages, is in charge of the cases. His beloved wife Tricia, remarkably healthy, a runner and a graphic artist had retreated to her boss's cottage in the woods. Tricia is brought in to Warren Hospital as a Jane Doe "wearing green running attire and Nike sneakers, suffering from exhaustion." She is also suffering from amnesia and nightmares of babies and cleavers and fire in fireplaces.

Jeremy's socially connected boss reminds him of the kidnapper's profile: "Anyone who just lost a baby and may be mentally --" Jeremy can fill in the rest: "a woman with several stillbirths or miscarriages, perhaps distraught enough to leave home and husband like Tricia."

As Jeremy tries to help Tricia regain her memory, he learns things about his wife he had never suspected. Could she have taken the babies? There is no evidence; there are no clues. If Tricia regains her memory can she shed some light on the cases?

Figuring out this fast-paced psychological mystery is only a small part of the enjoyment of reading Nightmare Run. Christine Janssen submerges the reader into the thoughts, emotions, desires and fears of her finely drawn characters to such a degree that even the guilty evoke feelings of pity, sympathy and sometimes empathy. Nightmare Run is a five star read and I look forward to meeting the intriguing characters in Christine's next book.

Reviewed by ©Evelyn Gale 7/01

MAGNOLIA HOUSE

by Lyn Lawrence

After the death of her self-serving mother, Cindy Lynn agreed to house-sit for Miss Flowers. Magnolia House, a solar house built by Cindy's father high in the Louisiana hills, sheltered by huge magnolia trees, would give her "a solitary place to mourn her mother's death and her father's disappearance, a solitary place to rest and recover from recent surgery to her vocal chords." What Cindy Lynn found at Magnolia House was disturbingly attractive Dell Comeaux.

From beginning to end, from the description of the softly lit indoor garden to that of the arm protruding from a grave, Ms. Lawrence has penned a novel of concise word pictures that places the reader in haunted Magnolia House. Instead of rest, Cindy Lynn finds romance, legends, superstition, international intrigue, death, deception, a treasure and ghosts.

Ms. Lawrence has created a hauntingly clever, roiling plot in a fragrant setting. A five star story of contrasts of characters and setting this reader didn't want to close the book on, even at the end.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale© 1/02

THE SILENT SCREAM

by Betty Sullivan La Pierre

Seventeen-year-old Richard Clifford returns to his isolated ranch home from a motorcycle ride to find his mother and dog both slaughtered in their kitchen. Not having a telephone, he rides his motorcycle to the Zanker house ten miles away. The Zankers are gone and the only other neighbor, old Jerome isn't home either. Richard is deaf, his father died of cancer a year ago, he doesn't know where his only uncle is, he knows of no other neighbors but the Zankers and Jerome.

The smell in the house becomes nauseating. Richard buries his dog under his mother's favorite tree. After washing his mother's violated body and dressing her in a clean dress he wraps her in a quilt and a plastic table cloth and seals her body in a granary to protect it from rodents and insects. Richard cleans up the rest of the mess in the house and anxiously awaits the return of his neighbors. As soon as the crime is reported to the authorities he can begin to search for the murderer himself.

Private Detective, Tom Casey, better known as Hawkman assists the sheriff's office in their investigation. He alone is convinced of Richard's innocence. The boy does show an unusual ability with a knife, proven when he's attacked by a mountain lion and kills it, skins it and tans the hide. He becomes a focal point of abuse by an gang of outlaw bikers and since he can't hear, he can't anticipate the approach of predators whether two or four legged. Richard does perform his mundane chores as usual, milks the cow, does the chores, tends his mother's garden–appears to be going about life as usual, intent on staying on his own land. But he's a minor and unless his uncle can be found Richard will become a ward of the court.

Once again Betty Sullivan La Pierre has involved me in the lives of her characters to such an extent that after beginning, I didn't have the option of closing the book until the surprise at the end. Having a hearing disorder myself, I can attest to the authenticity of her character's struggles. This author consistently writes good clean, captivating mysteries peopled with substantial characters in sensorially credible scenes and settings that live in the reader's memory after the solution. I give THE SILENT SCREAM five stars.

Reviewed by ©Evelyn Gale 2/2002

MIND GAMES

by Alan Brudner

FIVE STARS

Mind Games by Alan Brudner holds the reader hostage in a world of manipulation and mind control. The inept can empathize with technologically challenged, Cliff Lightman, as he's dumped into the world of techno-nerds, geniuses, monopolies, holographs and subliminal suggestions. Cliff isn't really interested in the computer his genius son Sky brings home for him, but attempts to learn so he can communicate by e-mail with Sky. The machine is programmed to lead him into the computer age gracefully, but neither of the men has any idea how quickly the fear of losing his son can make Cliff computer literate. Sky, a computer programmer for Avery Kord in Portland, Oregon, disappears days after setting up his father's computer in New York.

Cliff puts his new computer to use along with good old fashioned gum shoe investigation to find his son and uncovers a cesspool of technology designed to make and break governments, sway elections and influence court decisions without leaving a trace. Using the special avatar Sky programmed for him, Cliff learns how helpful, intelligent, comforting, resourceful, invasive, controlling and dangerous computer technology can be -- and maybe already is.

Mind Games is what block buster movies are made of. It kidnaps the reader's mind on the first page and reluctantly relinquishes it at the end impregnated with seeds of . . . fear, wariness, uncertainty?

Review by Evelyn Gale © October 2001

FRIENDS IN NEED

Circle of Friends #3

by N.J. Lindquist

FRIENDS IN NEED is a young adult novel about a group of highschool seniors who are faced with decisions concerning sex, absentee or overly demanding parents, peer pressures, betrayal, guilt, depression, love, loyalty and other problems of maturing to adulthood. The answers don't come any easier for these young friends than for the teens you know. What they learn is where to go to find the best solutions for today's tests and courage to face the uncertainties of the future.

When the story begins we learn that Glen likes Nicole and they had been dating for six weeks. Nicole thinks she likes Charlie who has dated nearly every girl in school. Charlie has been dating Nicole's best friend Joyce who likes Charlie a lot, but he is only dating her to get close to Nicole. Nicole, whose father is a pastor, had rebuffed Charlie until he became a Christian.

Then Nicole dumps Glen for Charlie, so Joyce and Glen decide to be seen together as friends to save face for both of them. This alliance makes Nicole angry and jealous. The problem is they all must see each other daily in school, at youth class after church and some of them attend meetings of a small group of adult believers who meet to share and pray for each other every Wednesday night. At the same time nonthreatening anonymous hate-letters begin to arrive in the daily mail for Glen. The letters always call him a loser and Glen begins to believe them.

Marta with her long, straight, black hair and witch-like black clothing tricks Glen into taking her to the school Valentine's dance. Marta acts so weird, she has only a very few friends and Glen is not one of them, but he honors his commitment. Marta, too, has dated Charlie, but she is too weird for most guys. Then Glen rescues her and her grandmother from their burning home and doesn't understand why Marta is angry at him for doing it; the rest of the town thinks he's a hero.

Glen's best friend Phil is in a rehab hospital in another city learning to adapt to life as a paraplegic after being crippled in a drag race with Charlie. Glen tries unsuccessfully to encourage him through e-mail messages and then goes with Phil's old girlfriend Lisa to visit him in the hospital.

Glen discovered several months ago that God loves him and wants to have a friendship with him. Not only has this new friendship changed Glen's life in a number of ways, but it has put him at odds with Phil, Lisa and Marta. His parents' concern about his new spiritual friends leads them to try to find out why Glen's so interested in church and the Wednesday night small group.

You'll just have to read this spellbinding novel to find out who the anonymous letter writer is and why Marta insists Glen must go with her when she visits her father and who is Glen dating now, Lisa? .... Marta? .... Joyce? .... Nicole? But don't even start this page turner until you have the time because you won't be able to put it down until you've finished it. FRIENDS IN NEED is so fast paced though, you'll probably be able to read the whole two hundred eight pages in a half day. When you're finished you'll be satisfied for now, but anxious to find out what happens next in the lives of your new friends. Five stars.

Review by Evelyn Gale © April 2001

MURDER IN FOUR PART HARMONY

by Lori Ham

Lori Ham's Murder in Four Part Harmony is a chatty little first novel with a strong plot. The narrator, Alexandra Walters, is a divorced single parent and a traveling Gospel Music Soloist. She returns home from an engagement expecting to spend time with her four-year-old daughter Jennifer and finds that her first love has been charged with murder.

From then on Murder in Four Part Harmony rocks along, sprinkled liberally with glimpses into the Gospel Music Scene including a unique look at life on a touring bus. Alex was raised on the road with a family group, but her protective bubble of delusion was broken when at the age of fifteen she fell in love with a married singer Jerry. Away from his wife and family, lonely and adored by Alex, Jerry broke her heart. He kissed her, but it was only an accident; happened in a moment of weakness. Disgusted with the moral decay and hypocrisy abounding in the group, Alex quit.

After her marriage failed Alex trained to become a reserve police officer, but quit to go back on the road as a solo act. She bought an old house and at the time of this story has several rooms rented out to other people as poor as herself; in some cases they trade babysitting for rent.

Alex arranges for Jerry to be released from jail and invites him to move into the apartment over the garage with one of her borders. She gets her attorney cousin to represent Jerry and her PI friend Stephen to help her prove Jerry's innocence. The proximity of this old unresolved romance between Alex and Jerry with the emerging relationship between Alex and Stephen charges the atmosphere with jealousy and distrust. Stephen, the son of a Mafia Don uses his considerable resources to find the truth and get Jerry out of Alex's life as quickly as possible exposing philandering, murder, deception and blackmail in the Gospel Music Industry.

Murder in Four Part Harmony is generously laced with Alexandra's maternal duties and opinions on a multitude of things including certain California cities, the architecture and decoration of several churches and the sincerity and integrity of the most prominent Gospel Music groups. All the while the incredibly complex plot of this story keeps the reader guessing until the very end. I give it a four star rating.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale© 7/01

DEATH'S DOMAIN

by Alex Matthews

When Cassidy McCabe, a psychotherapist, reads her own obituary in the morning paper she begins a journey of fear, deception, and uncertainty. Cass and her reporter husband Zach Moran follow a lethal trail of electronic greeting cards, through her mother's ransacked apartment to threats on Zach's life, broken windows, disabled door locks and dead bodies. Somebody knows a secret from Cassidy's past: a secret she hasn't even shared with Zach, a secret she thought only two other people knew, and one of them is dead. Someone knows a secret and wants Cassidy to suffer before she dies.

In order to protect her husband and in order for him to help her unmask their stalker, Cassidy must tell Zach everything. Zach and Cassidy fortify themselves with alcohol, and their cat Starshine struts imperiously through the melee as patients come and go. Cassidy's mother is afraid for her life, but her cool-headed grandmother pitches in to help. When it's all wrapped up with a bang even Cassidy is surprised to discover the identity of the sick mind that has held her life hostage.

A quick, easy, four star mystery that is hard to put down until the end.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale © 10/01

JOY TO THE WORLD?

by Deborah Milton

JOY TO THE WORLD? by Deborah Milton is a leisurely story about the everyday life of a mother of three boys who just happens to have a penchant for trouble. Who but Delaney Roberts would find a newborn in her car when she returns home after delivering charity Christmas packages?

The bane of Detective Johnson's career, Delaney is intent on learning where the child came from. She does her own sleuthing in spite of and occasionally with the help of her husband, her police officer nephew, her neighbor and her own small boys. And then Delaney notices a teenage girl hanging around and follows her. That's when she finds a several-days-dead woman in an apartment. Delaney takes the teenager, Angela, home with her also and petitions Social Services to allow her to keep Angela and the baby girl she names Joy, at least until Joy's parents are found.

A fire bombing, being forced off the highway and two kidnappings pick up the pace of an otherwise tedious holiday season. Not only is she looking for Joy's parents, but now Delaney's determined to find out why and by whom their lives are being threatened.

JOY TO THE WORLD? is light reading with an unusual plot. I give it four stars.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale © 12/01

GREED, GOLD & TURTLE GRASS

by J. Hal Forbes

Expect to see Greed, Gold and Turtle Grass coming soon to your local theater or as a made-for-television movie. It has greed, romance, drugs, buried treasure, multi-culturalism, the full gamut of law enforcement agencies, a lawyer, a nurse, a psychotic killer, a crime-land family complete with patron; all in a setting that sparkles in the Florida sun.

J. Hal Forbes has peopled his suspense/thriller "Greed, Gold and Turtle Grass" with dynamic characters dropped into the morass of a multi-channel plot melding contemporary and ancient greed for Spanish treasure. Anglo, Indian, Spanish, Cuban and Haitian players vie for the treasure once borne by ship-wrecked Spanish galleons long since covered by silt and sand.

It is not unusual for PhD candidate, Professor Rick Dunn, to spend weeks away from his Cedar Key apartment on a dig as he pursues the unexplored Pre-Colombian cultures of the Florida Gulf Coast, between the Crystal and Steinhatchee Rivers. When he finds the ironwood chest and its gold plate engraved "Felipe De Santiago" he enlists the help of Forster, his attorney, and CPO Walter "Salty" Peacock, USN retired.

Salty in turn seeks the expertise of a Cuban expatriate salvor who laments over his rum that he has been cheated out of his share of the profits on too many salvage jobs after he's established their bona fides. Thus the news of Rick's find trickles down to Cuban mobster Niño and the bodies begin to hit the water.

Rick goes missing and Forster teaches Anna, Rick's sister, the fine points of sailing his motor-sailor Solace while they search for her missing brother. Their search turns up more bodies than gold. But romance blossoms between Forster and Anna as it had in the late sixteenth century between Felipe De Santiago-Ortiz, the King's liaison with the mines in the interior, and Maria de Fidelis, descendant of a people inhabiting the central plateau long before the Aztecs. Forster & Anna learn Felipe's ship was thrown upon a reef off the twentieth century Big Bend where Rick found Felipe's hand carved chest.

The search for gold is eclipsed by the agendas of the various characters involved as J. Hal Forbes ties up the loose ends and leaves the reader, if not all his characters, satisfied. I give GREED, GOLD AND TURTLE GRASS four stars.

Review by Evelyn Gale © 2000

PATH OF THE JAGUAR

by Vickie Britton & Loretta Jackson

Path of the Jaguar is an enjoyable recreational read -- it is light and fast. There are a couple incongruities in it, but that’s the way with recreational mysteries. The authors are obviously not trying to compete with John Grisham, but they have obviously done a good bit of research that establishes the setting and plot anchors. From there the story progresses with gripping suspense.

Path of the Jaguar is reminiscent of a Nancy Drew story; a quick enjoyable book to be read in one sitting. I would recommend it for early and mid teens as well as adults looking for relief from the deeper, more serious mature fiction that is common today. I give this delightful read a four star rating.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale © 2/01

BLACK DOG

by Stephen Booth

Stephen Booth's BLACK DOG is peopled by physical, emotional, psychological, three-dimensional, characters the reader would recognize walking down the street. They are framed by settings the reader can see, feel, smell and hear in a story with an impossibly twisted plot that grips you like the black dog. Unlike the usual plot or character driven quick-read, BLACK DOG's steady tempo is carefully restrained, never hectic. Once established, the cadence never falters, but tugs the reader relentlessly toward the unexpected conclusion.

A gripping novel that whet's the reader's appetite for more, BLACK DOG is not just a story, but a memorable experience. Stephen Booth is an author to watch. I give his BLACK DOG a four star rating.

Reviewed by Evelyn Gale ©2/2001

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