Review of Planet Janitor by Chris Stevenson

Planet Janitor
Custodian of the Stars
By Chris Stevenson

Excerpt
Meet the Crew

About The Book:
Captain Zachary Crowe and the crew of Planet Janitor Corporation are adept at handling environmental clean-ups and close system jumps to pick up precious ores and space trash. The problem is they have yet to complete an assignment without a mishap to add to their not so stellar record. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Orion Industries contracts Planet Janitor for a clandestine operation that no one else wants, offering them more money than they could spend in three lifetimes. The mission entails a 12 light-year trip to a newly found habitable planet in the Tau Ceti system. The crew will lose 26 years on Earth due to the cryo jump, but that is the least of their problems. What they find on Tau Ceti will test their wits, and threaten their very survival.

My Review: 
FIVE STARS:  Chris Stevenson writes a believable Sci-Fi story, not an easy feat in itself. But more than that, he makes the whole thing edge-of-your-seat adventurous from the very beginning. Every character is uniquely fleshed-out so that each one is vital to the plot. When all the characters in a story are important and the author makes you connect with them through insightful storytelling, it's impossible to find a part of the plot that isn't strong and compelling. I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last. When the storyline called for fear, I was afraid. When it called for frustration and hopelessness, I was in despair. When it called for hard decisions, I voted along with the rest of the crew. Great Job Mr. Stevenson!

Review of Broken Birds by Jeannette Katzir

Broken Birds
The Story of My Momila
By Jeannette Katzir

About the Book:
World War II has long since ended, and yet Jaclyn and her brothers and sisters grow up learning to survive it.  Having lived through the Holocaust on the principle of constant distrust, their mother, Channa, dutifully teaches her children to cling to one another while casting a suspicious eye to the outside world.  When Channa dies, the unexpected contents of her will force her adult children to confront years of suppressed indignation.  For Jaclyn and her siblings, the greatest war will not be against strangers, but against each other.

My Review: I will start by saying that I gave this book FIVE STARS, I enjoyed it immensely. Through the eyes of Channa, a preteen, who survives the Nazi invasion of her homeland, suffers atrocities, and lives to raise a family of her own, the author gives a glimpse into a time and place so shocking and so revealing, that it made me shudder and rethink my perspective on post-war consequences to the human condition. Environment shapes our personality, and sorry to say, we pass those traits on to our children as if it were locked in our DNA. Some strengthen, some destroy. What an outstanding recounting of such a life and the indelible ripples it produced.

Review of Song of Renewal by Emily Sue Harvey

Song of Renewal
by Emily Sue Harvey

About The Book:

The Wakefields seem to have everything. Garrison is a hugely successful graphic artist. Liza is an active member of the community and a patron of the arts. Their 16-year-old daughter Angel is bright, beautiful, and a gifted dancer. At the same time, though, they have traded away many of their dreams. Garrison gave up a future as an accomplished painter to make money. Liza suspended her own dancing career to raise a family. And Angel is setting aside her ambitions to live her mother’s dream.

When Angel gets into a car accident that kills her first love, the Wakefields’ lives turn on a dime. While Angel lies in a coma from which even the best prognosis is devastating, Garrison and Liza sit by her side, their once-passionate marriage in tatters. As their heartache over Angel builds, Garrison and Liza struggle to rediscover who they once were—and who they were meant to be. They come to realize that it will take everything they have within themselves to heal Angel, heal their hearts, and renew the power of their love.

My Review:  I'm of two different opinions on this story. On the one hand, it had a promising story line and did provide several scenes that offered insight and emotional clarity, but on the other hand, the characters seemed too self-absorbed at a time when the very nature of crisis forces ordinary people to break through the shallow me-isms of our nature. Mom and Dad didn't seem quite real from the beginning, and therefore, never really reacted to their daughters tragedy in a believable way. The story is not a wash-out, though. I liked the authors voice and the regional and domestic flavor was very real and well done. The dialogue is also richly written. I give this book THREE STARS, and hope you'll judge it for yourself.

Senseless and Merciless by Mary Burton

Senseless
By Mary Burton

When an explosion and fire destroys Hannah’s House, the homeless shelter where Eva Rayburn works as a night attendant the body of a tortured woman is discovered in the yard.  She has been branded.  Four pointed stars encircle her navel, a hallmark dating from the Sorority House Murder, a decade-old case that ended Eva’s life as she knew it.  Charged for the killing of Josiah Cross, the man who raped her, she bears a star branded on her shoulder, as well as a memory that fails to recall what happened that fateful night, and the legacy of a ten year prison sentence.

Detective Deacon Garrison is sure the murder at Hannah’s House has something to do with Eva, who, is not only under scrutiny by the Alexandria police force, she is also back in the media spotlight, thanks to journalist James Dillon who branded her as a jealous and enraged ex-girlfriend when he wrote about the Sorority House Murders.  After another killing, Garrison isn’t the only one who wants answers, Eva does too.  She’s ready to do whatever it takes. She’s ready to fight—even die, to find out what happened that night ten years ago.

Merciless
By Mary Burton

Detective Kier Malcolm and high-profile criminal attorney Angie Carlson come up against a brutal and brilliant psychopath who leaves behind only the gleaming white and perfectly preserved bones of his victims.  Kier—and most of the Alexandria law enforcement—believe the murderer is Dr. James Dixon.  Angie recently defended Dr. Dixon in an earlier murder trial—and won.  With the entire police force blaming her for Dixon’s freedom, she too has doubts as to whether he was in fact innocent, and is becoming more and more convinced that the police may be right—she helped let loose a killer. 

 As lead after lead dead-ends, a young man claiming to be Eva Rayburn’s half-brother shows up, bringing with him the diary of her dead father.  Suddenly, two things become shockingly clear—the killer has always intended to make Angie his ultimate victim, and the madness has roots going back to the Sorority House Murder over a decade ago.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

                A Virginia native whose family’s Richmond roots run as deep as the nation’s, New Your Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Burton has only resided in one other place—Alexandria, Virginia, where she lived for a few years and which is now the setting for her novels SENSELESS (January 2011) and MERCILESS (February 2011).  She graduated from Virginia’s Hollins University and began a career in marketing.  After a decade she left her job and began writing.  Her first novel, a romance, was published in 2000.  It was also the first manuscript she completed.

                Following that book, Burton wrote several novels for Harlequin and Silhouette before entering the dark world of multiple murderers and their motives with Senseless, Merciless, Dying Scream, Dead Ringer and I’m Watching You, as well as her novella Christmas Past, which appears in the 2008 New York Times best selling holiday anthology Silver Bells.

                Her commitment to realism has led to eye-opening interviews with local law enforcement, to forensic seminars and to the firing range.  She is a graduate of the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy and the Richmond FBI Citizen’s Academy, and has participated in the Sisters in Crime’s Forensic University program and, recently, the Writers Police Academy in Jamestown, North Carolina.  There she attended seminars on autopsies, undercover work and why people kill.

 

 

MARY BURTON TALKS ABOUT HER NEW BOOKS, HER NEW

HOMICIDE DIVISION, AND WHY SHE LEFT HOME

TO START KILLING PEOPLE IN ALEXANDRIA…

First of all…

In your new books, SENSELESS (January) and MERCILESS (February), you’ve left behind the characters and the Richmond setting of your last three novels.  Why?  And why Alexandria?

I lived in Alexandria for several years and fell in love with the place.  It is not only very rich with history but it’s in the heart of the bustling DC metro area and the perfect setting for a little murder and mayhem.

What challenges did you face in creating a new team of detectives? 

The new team was much like meeting strangers.  I knew a little of Detective Malcolm Kier (I’M WATCHING YOU) but detectives Deacon Garrison, Jennifer Sinclair and Daniel Rokov were all blank slates.  The best way for me to get to know them was to throw them into tense scenes and see how they react. 

Family seems to play a strong role in the relationships between your characters from book to book—especially the bond between sisters, such as that between Eva and Angie. Is this true?  And, if so, what pulls you to explore those bonds in so many different ways?

Family can be your best ally and your greatest burden.  Families, especially sisters, can be complicated and complications means conflict and conflict means a page-turner of a story.

What difficulties do you face integrating strong relationship subplots alongside the hard edged suspense writing you’ve become known for?

I long ago learned that despite the difficulties of family you still have to get up each day and go to work.  Family conflicts only add to the job tensions.  And I do work to balance the family/relationship moments of suspense.  You need both to make a romantic suspense and it’s finding the right mix that is the trick.

You’re extensive research of law enforcement and forensic procedures includes course work  with the Henrico County Citizens Police Academy, the Richmond FBI Citizens’ Academy and the Writers Police Academy in Jamestown, North Carolina.  Has that made you a better writer?  Does trying to stay grounded in fact make it harder to let you imagination soar? 

Staying grounded in fact forces me to solve problems as a real policeman might.  I know sometimes the truth must be stretched a little for the sake of story but I do my best to solve the crimes with good detective work vs fancy DNA tests or high tech forensic equipment.

You’ve said that your fascination with law enforcement, especially those who hunt serial killers, began during the twenty years that three different multiple killers—the Southside Strangler, D.C Sniper and Hampton Roads Killer—stalked your home state of Virginia.  How does that influence your writing and research? 

I’ve never written a novel that’s straight from the headlines.  But I do pay attention to many aspects of serial killer cases. I pay attention to how the media covers an event.  I pay attention to what people in the community say and how they react to the case.  I pay attention to the killer when he’s captured and the reasons for why he did what he did.  All these details can add a human element to a story that makes it all the more interesting.

The Hampton Roads Killer didn’t fit the profile of a serial killer, which may have delayed his capture. Do you consider the characteristics profilers attribute to certain types of killers when you create your murderers?  

When I’m creating a killer the first and most important question I ask myself is why does he/she kill?  Is a character pure evil?  Or is he simply very troubled or misguided?  Or is he All of the Above?  The why tells me so much about the person behind the evil deeds and it sets the tone for the whole book.

Detective Joe Horgas, the first police detective to solve a serial murder case with DNA evidence, is rightly credited for the arrest of the Southside Strangler. It’s been said that Horgas had a “personal quest to stop a serial killer.” Do you think that many in law enforcement do “make it personal?” Is that a good thing? Do any of your protagonists share that trait? 

The detectives in my books do make catching a killer very personal.   This passion to solve a case is what makes a character or person interesting.  Often a driven person who is laser-focused can effect great change, such as catching a killer that no one else can.  However, that same focus can also create problems in their personal lives.  It’s only natural that if you funnel energy from one part of your life into another, the part that’s been short-changed will suffer.

I like to think that what makes a character great can also destroy him.   My characters are searching for balance even knowing that only extreme drive will catch a killer.  And that to me is the beginning of great conflict.

If you were able to choose any job in law enforcement, which would it be?  Why?  And do you think you would still write about crime? 

I would go into forensics.  The folks who collect data can be so critical to a case.  I’ve talked to enough real forensics people to know the work can be very unglamorous and painstaking.  But the work is so fascinating that I’d be willing to traipse through waist high weeds, jump in a dumpster or photograph blood splatter patterns.

Some writers have the harsh, gorier plot elements occur “off stage.”  You don’t and yet you also manage to blend a strong relationship story into your romantic suspense without it seeming awkward or out of place.  How do you achieve that balance? 

It’s tough.  It’s hard to make time for the romantic moments when the characters on the trail of a killer.  But I think it’s so important to make time for the human moments.  Those are the moments that readers often carry away with them.  Those moments make readers care about what happens to your characters.

Real life is scary enough.  Yet people gravitate to crime fiction in it’s multiple forms—books, television, and movies. Why do you think it’s so amazingly popular?  

Real life is not only scary but it is also unfair at times.  In real life, the bad guy isn’t always captured and victims don’t always get closure.  However, crime novels and crime TV give their audiences a sense of justice and closure.  The bad guy is almost always caught. I like to give my readers a glimpse into my character’s futures.  These futures may not be perfect, but they are happy.  My suspense stories not only offer justice but hope as well.

Your earliest books were traditional romance novels, another hugely popular genre of fiction.  Do you still believe in “happily ever after?” 

I sure do.  And that’s why I always end on a happy note.  These ending notes may not be as sweet as the romances, but there is always a sense that ‘tomorrow will be a better day.’

Note: You are welcome to visit Mary at www.maryburton.com and on Facebook.

Review: Both books have riveting, scary, edge of your seat criminal investigations. Mary Burton knows how to create, maintain, and escalate suspense. Her characters could be part of your family, and her villains could be one of your neighbors. Well plotted with enough originality to keep a reader guessing. FOUR STARS

Final Vector Virtual Book Tour

Final Vector
By Alan Leverone

Air traffic controller Nick Jensen’s life is in a shambles. His wife Lisa has died following a horrific automobile wreck and the authorities suspect foul play. He finds evidence suggesting Lisa, a Pentagon auditor, had discovered potentially treasonous material on a fellow employee’s computer, a man who also winds up dead.

Desperate to escape the pain, Nick throws himself into his work and is on duty at the radar ATC facility serving Boston’s Logan Airport on the night U.S. President Robert Cartwright is scheduled to fly into Boston. Armed terrorists storm the facility, killing the security staff and taking Nick’s fellow controller hostage as he works.

Nick escapes capture, but with time running out, must use the information from his murdered wife to unravel the terrorists’ plot and stop an assassination while outnumbered, unarmed and on the run…

Between the Pages is thrilled to welcome Allan Leverone and his character, Nick Jensen

Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist whose short fiction has been featured in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Mysterical-E and many other venues, both print and online. His debut thriller, titled FINAL VECTOR, is available February 2011 from Medallion Press. For details, please visit www.allanleverone.com or his blog at www.allanleverone.blogspot.com.

Hello, Nick, and thanks for joining us. I see here that you are employed as an air traffic controller working airplanes into and out of Boston’s Logan International Airport, but your lovely wife Lisa works in Washington, D.C. at the Pentagon. How do you manage that?

Thanks for having me; it’s a pleasure to be here. As you can imagine, it’s not easy for the two of us spending so much time away from each other. But Lisa works ten hour days in D.C., Monday through Thursday, then drives home to New Hampshire every Thursday night after work, so we are at least able to spend two full days together each week. We’re hoping that after a couple more years of this, we will have put enough money aside that Lisa will be able to quit her job at the Pentagon and stay home here in New Hampshire to raise a family.

Isn’t there any way you could move down to the D.C area and work at one of their airports, to avoid all that travel and time apart?

I could probably get a hardship move approved, but Lisa and I have always viewed our current situation as temporary, despite the fact we’ve been doing it this way for years now. Both of us grew up in New England and this is where we really want to raise our children, so as difficult as this semi-long distance marriage sometimes is, we feel the struggle will be worth it in the long run. Neither of us is going anywhere; we will have a long life together after our current situation is just a memory.

Don’t you worry about your wife driving hundreds of miles from Washington to New Hampshire and back every week?

Absolutely, but Lisa is a very careful driver and although her car has racked up a lot of mileage, it’s extremely reliable. I really don’t think my wife is in any more danger driving up and down I-95 once a week than she would be, say, commuting from our home in Merrimack, New Hampshire down to Boston and back every day.

They say air traffic control can be a very stressful occupation. How do you deal with that constant stress?

I’ve been a controller at Boston for a long time, and I like to think I’m pretty good at my job. It’s like anything else; after you’ve been doing it for a while, most days are fairly routine. Sure, there’s stress and excitement every now and then—as is the case with any job—but it’s not like I come to work every day and have people pointing guns at me or anything. That would be some serious stress.

What is the favorite part of your week?

That’s an easy question to answer. The moment I hear the front door open at about two o’clock every Friday morning and Lisa steps into the house after coming home from D.C., my week gets a lot better. We have a few little rituals we like to enact to get reacquainted, but I can’t tell you about them here!

You two seem very dedicated to each other.

Lisa is the best thing that ever happened to me. I can’t imagine any scenario where she would not be a part of my life. Quite honestly, I don’t know what I would do without her.

You appear to know exactly what your future has in store for you and where your little family is headed. Don’t you have any regrets with how your life has turned out so far? Anything you’d do differently?

Nothing. I couldn’t be happier. I’m just an ordinary guy living and average life. No excitement, no drama. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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