Lisa's Friday Reviews on a Monday

   Technology is wonderful when it works, right?  It is even better when we (I) know how to use it.   So, I set up my blog to publish while I was on vacation out in the middle of nowhere and totally off-the-grid. I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to do this. I giggle with delight all the way to The Center of the Universe, Bemis, West Virginia.

Of course, the joke was on me. Nothing posted.

The good news is that I have several reviews ready to share AND I read some pretty awesome stuff while holed away in my mountain paradise. So... get ready to be overwhelmed with reading suggestions. No

                                       INTRIGUE

When Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Shawn Shaw visits his favorite haunt looking for sustenance and creative inspiration, the owner shoves the day’s headline at him.   “French Professors Raise Gifted Children in Dungeon” Enough to elicit conversation between the two friends, but not enough to animate Shaw’s latest investigation of insider gambling in professional baseball. Enter James Berk, well-dressed stranger to Parnell’s but obviously interested in conversing with Shaw. As a Trustee of The Destiny Foundation, Berk has tracked down Shaw to represent and help the foundation in finding the one great mind that offers the key to medical magic.  The three hundred year old Foundation facilitates the work of the world’s greatest scientific minds and with the help of Saw’s award winning investigative skills, they are willing to compensate the journalist with a hefty monetary prize. With the assistance of Parnell’s owner and his illegal alien wife, Shaw and his idiot savant ward Emma, a.k.a. Miss Tinsley, Shaw is thrown into a story to beat all stories. But how was he chosen for the role does not become clear until all the smoke clears.

Packed full of witty dialogue and fast paced across-the-country action, The Girl in the Freezer by Douglas Keil is clearly overlooked if not on the best seller list NOW. Sure to attract the attention of mystery, sleuth, and crime readers, do not allow the genre to sway your decision to pick up this fun read. Fall in love with Emma, root for the underdog, and be surprised at the inner workings of the genius population existent in our world.

                               

                                                      
                                                          

NEED A LITTLE GUMSHOE FUN?

Henrietta, eldest of eight children, often feels the burden of trying to keep her family afloat after the death of her father. While her mother takes in mending and her younger sister does the same, most of the living expenses falls on Henrietta’s shoulders. Henrietta does not complain, though, as her assortment of jobs gets her out of the small home filled with children and misery. Her employers are kind folk and always willing to do what they can to help Hen, but times are difficult and the economy suffers. So, when her friend Polly announces that Hen really needs to apply for an usherette position at the Promenade, Henrietta is forced to lay aside good judgement in lieu of the extra money she can earn working at a job of which she knew her mother would not approve. All goes well until Mama Leone, the proprietor of the Promenade, is found dead, putting everyone under suspicion and the careful eye of detective inspector Clive Howard. With oward n thHoward on the case, Henrietta is alarmed when she realizes that this is much bigger than one dead woman. As the body count grows, so does Hen’s feelings for Clive Howard.oward.H

Reminiscent of clandestine affairs with a Philip Marlowe vibe, A Girl Like You: A Henrietta And inspector Howard novel by Michelle Cox, will transport the reader into that golden era of gumshoe romance. Cox’s use of literary detail brings scenes in full focus as the reader anxiously races through the pages of this deliciously written cloak and dagger affair.

I will see you tomorrow for some more Friday Reviews on the wrong day. I promise it is worth the wait!

Lisa