Month: November 2020

Against Blood by Jack King

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Against Blood (A Detective Cliff Husto Thriller Book 2) by [Jack King]

About the Book:

Against Blood by Jack King is the second of his mystery series that has Detective Cliff Husto on the case. This time, Detective Husto is faced with a web of conspiracies and vendettas entangling Desert Storm veterans suffering from PTSD, a group of Islamic college students on the path to radicalization, and hard-line racist American nationalists.

My Review:

Just like Beyond Blood, Jack King’s first Detective Cliff Husto novel, Against Blood’s first few chapters introduce a lot of characters in a lot of settings, so Detective Husto readers need to be alert. However, after the first few chapters, it becomes clear that all of these characters in all of these settings are connected, and in this case, are all set in Houston, Texas.

As much as I enjoyed Jack’s first book, Beyond Blood, I was delighted to see improvements in Jack’s writing in Against Blood. Where I struggled to care about the characters in his first novel, there were certain characters in this story that I understood, cared for and rooted for right from the start. Of course, there were also a couple characters that I wanted to see get what was coming to them.

Just as in Jack King’s first Detective Husto novel, Against Blood kept me turning pages and held me in suspense as I tried to determine who the murderer was before reaching the end of the book.

One of my favorite things about Jack’s Detective Husto novels is that they have short chapters that are fast paced, and each one leaves the reader wanting more. Each lures the reader to keep reading. I’d reach the end of a chapter and think, “aw, the chapters are short. I have time for one more,” which then became one more and one more and one more.

I have to admit, there were times where I caught myself holding my breath as I read and waited to see what was going to happen in the suspenseful scene I was fully engaged in. Jack kept me guessing as to who the killer was almost to the very end. I changed my mind a couple times as new evidence seemed to point to someone else – exactly the kind of mystery I enjoy most.

I will caution readers that there is some profanity sprinkled in parts of the book, and of course, there is violence. However, the violence isn’t graphic or overdone. It is tastefully done.

If you enjoy a good, fast-paced, suspenseful mystery and a likeable, intelligent detective on the case, you will enjoy Jack King’s Detective Husto stories. Either story can be read alone and it doesn’t really matter which one you read first.

I give Against Blood 5 stars, and I look forward to more Detective Husto mysteries from Jack King.

Lander’s Choice by C. S. Wachter

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

As a reviewer, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Lander’s Choice, the sequel to Lander’s Legacy by C. S. Wachter is a great read! C. S. Wachter stories improve with each book she writes.

About the Book:

Lander’s Legacy was a great read, but Lander’s Choice is even better. Lander, Castor, Desma, Becky, and Michael remain in the Core under the control of the men who partnered with Aurelius Hunt sixteen years ago and have risen to power over the people of the core. As they are taken on a kind of tour of the Core, Lander notices that the people have been segregated into communities of “gifted”, those with special powers who get to rule and keep order over the communities of the “ungifted”, those with no special powers who are treated as slaves. Soon, Lander is separated from all of his friends because he is “gifted” and they are not. Lander is torn between his mother’s words about him helping to bring peace to the Core and his loyalty to his friends.

My Review:

C. S. Wachter does a great job of showing Lander’s internal struggle between his feelings for Becky and his loyalty to her and Michael along with the promise to get them back to the Surface, and his desire to learn more about this beautiful and unusual place that he came from and his mother’s words that he would play a part in bringing peace back to the Core.

The story is filled with adventure, struggle, and suspense as Lander and his friends are often in danger and Lander is forced to “play along” with the “gifted” until he can come up with a plan to try to make everything right. There are battles and lost lives. There are emotional struggles. There are twists and surprises.

C. S. Wachter grabbed my attention on page one and held it in a tight grip until the end of the very last page. I couldn’t stop reading until I knew if Lander would succeed in making difficult choices and succeeding in the things he most wanted to accomplish. And, in the end, would he choose to remain in the Core or return to the Surface? And what would happen between him and Becky?

The characters C. S. Wachter created in this two book set were well developed and endeared themselves to my heart. Even the bad guys had some redeeming qualities, which was a refreshing change from the norm.

So far, I have read every book that C. S. Wachter has written and I have not been disappointed, but I have to say that Lander’s Choice is my favorite, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next because this two book series, though still fantasy, is very different from her first longer series, “The Seven Words Series”. It will be fun to see how different her next story will be.

Lander’s Legacy and Lander’s Choice are appropriate for middle grade, YA, and Adult readers who enjoy fantasy adventure stories.

I give this book 5 stars.

No Place to Hide by Opa Hysea Wise

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No Place to Hide Book Cover.png

As a reviewer, I received a request for an honest review and an ebook copy of No Place to Hide by Opa Hysea Wise.

About the Book:

This book is advertised as a riveting page-turner, a suspenseful page-turner, and a thrilling fast-paced new mystery. It also mentions that Smythe, the main character, seeks to find meaning in the events that threaten her life, and that she uses her past experience to find meaning in her present, and she begins to see beauty in the midst of chaos.

My Review:

This was not a riveting, fast-past, thrilling page-turner. There were a few moments of suspense, but the action was not well written or descriptive enough to create substantial suspense. Yet there were in depth detailed descriptions of rooms. The majority of the book covers Smythe’s internal struggles and includes mostly narrative and dialogue.

The mystery begins the story, then is left out, for the most part, until the last third of the book. However, the mystery is never resolved to my satisfaction.

I found the majority of the story repetitive and slow-paced. It was also filled with a lot of New Age and Eastern Mysticism ideas. It mentions Christianity in a critical light and pretty much dismisses it.

A lesbian relationship begins to develop between Smythe and her hired protector. Thankfully, the author didn’t make this a main point or present it in detail.

There were several places where the author changed character point-of-view without any warning and I found myself having to go back and reread one to three paragraphs to figure out whose point-of-view I was reading.

Therefore, in conclusion, I was mostly disappointed with this story, and I give it three stars.