Title – The Gravedigger's Moon
Author – John Schmierer
Genre – Mystery/Suspense
242 pages
Rating - 5 stars out of 5
No. 04 - 2019
Posted 3/9/2019
Main Characters:
Logan Bigelow- billionaire,
Benjamin Holt - Lawyer
This is the best story I've read in quite some time.
Logan Bigelow is an entrepreneur whose business holding are estimated to be worth nearly one billion dollars. A few months after his wife's death, he asked his lawyer to locate an illegitimate daughter he fathered thirty years ago. He wants to give her ten million dollars. Weeks later, the private jet Logan is piloting crashes into the ground and all onboard die.
Benjamin Holt is Logan's friend and lawyer who is charged with locating Logan's long lost child. Ben is under pressure at his firm to complete the search post haste or be fired. But Ben has his own personal issues to deal with while he chases after the long lost heir that Logan has had no contact with since her birth.
Ben contacts Alan Kane, the first person he finds with a link to the missing daughter. Alan is a pot smoking drunk who gives golf lessons at a local country club. Alan harbors a grudge against his family because his deceased father passed the family business to his younger brother and left him nothing. He's always out for a fast buck and hustles the rich clients he gives lessons to. Through devious manipulation, Alan manages to become more involved in the search than Ben had intended.
Then we meet Alan's off and on girlfriend, Ashley, and his quirky friend, Gunnar. Finally, a big, middle-aged but menacing and intimidating acquaintance of Ashley's named Wentworth Tellington injects himself in the search and the plot takes off with a vengeance. There are twists and turns and dead ends to please even the most hardcore mystery fans.
To top it off, the ending is a complete surprise as the person who created the mess, Ben has to deal with receives a startling revelation that is justice served at its best.
A note to those of you who demand perfect grammar; there are a few editing errors, missing, extra and misspelled words among several other minor editing boo-boos. There is also some minor cursing.
I highly recommend this engaging story and thank the author for requesting a review.
This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Author – John Schmierer
Genre – Mystery/Suspense
242 pages
Rating - 5 stars out of 5
No. 04 - 2019
Posted 3/9/2019
Main Characters:
Logan Bigelow- billionaire,
Benjamin Holt - Lawyer
This is the best story I've read in quite some time.
Logan Bigelow is an entrepreneur whose business holding are estimated to be worth nearly one billion dollars. A few months after his wife's death, he asked his lawyer to locate an illegitimate daughter he fathered thirty years ago. He wants to give her ten million dollars. Weeks later, the private jet Logan is piloting crashes into the ground and all onboard die.
Benjamin Holt is Logan's friend and lawyer who is charged with locating Logan's long lost child. Ben is under pressure at his firm to complete the search post haste or be fired. But Ben has his own personal issues to deal with while he chases after the long lost heir that Logan has had no contact with since her birth.
Ben contacts Alan Kane, the first person he finds with a link to the missing daughter. Alan is a pot smoking drunk who gives golf lessons at a local country club. Alan harbors a grudge against his family because his deceased father passed the family business to his younger brother and left him nothing. He's always out for a fast buck and hustles the rich clients he gives lessons to. Through devious manipulation, Alan manages to become more involved in the search than Ben had intended.
Then we meet Alan's off and on girlfriend, Ashley, and his quirky friend, Gunnar. Finally, a big, middle-aged but menacing and intimidating acquaintance of Ashley's named Wentworth Tellington injects himself in the search and the plot takes off with a vengeance. There are twists and turns and dead ends to please even the most hardcore mystery fans.
To top it off, the ending is a complete surprise as the person who created the mess, Ben has to deal with receives a startling revelation that is justice served at its best.
A note to those of you who demand perfect grammar; there are a few editing errors, missing, extra and misspelled words among several other minor editing boo-boos. There is also some minor cursing.
I highly recommend this engaging story and thank the author for requesting a review.
This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Title – Mud Pie
Author – Emma Lee Bole
Genre – Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Word Count 102,200 Not at Amazon, download at Smashwords.com
Rating 5 stars out of 5
No. – 3 - 2019
Posted 3/1/2019
Mud Pie is a British mystery. I've read many British stories in the past and have grown accustomed to the most common slang terms used. But Mud Pie brought slang words to a whole new level. It was interesting, but it necessitated using the dictionary quite often.
The plot is full of pain and despair; the main character has been condemned to death by gangsters. At times Lannie is so distraught she converses with the dead owner of the house she lives in and then with a murdered bar maid.
Lannie Herron is a twenty-seven year old pastry chef who gets crossways with the Manchester, England, criminal mob. After several attempts to kill her fail, she leaves Manchester to hide out. At about one third into the book we learn the full story of why she has been marked for brutal death.
Lannie's new life in hiding centers around a rural rugby club and the country pub where she cooks. Her new bevy of characters soon begin to open up to her and she learns all have something to hide, and not all are the friends they purport to be in public.
There is conflict and suspense galore. The mobsters are still after Lannie, and a murder at the rugby club elevates Lannie to the head of the suspects list. But then she compiles her own list of suspects with reason to commit the murder and slowly includes most of her new group of acquaintances.
By halfway through Mud Pie, I was intrigued and knew I had to finish.
The writing quality is above average with only infrequent editing errors. A few scenes were lumped together without breaks, and I felt a few sentence structures were clumsy. But these were few and minor and barely distracted from the overall quality of this engrossing story.
I rate Mud Pie a 5.0 out of a possible 5.0 and heartily recommend it.
This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Author – Emma Lee Bole
Genre – Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Word Count 102,200 Not at Amazon, download at Smashwords.com
Rating 5 stars out of 5
No. – 3 - 2019
Posted 3/1/2019
Mud Pie is a British mystery. I've read many British stories in the past and have grown accustomed to the most common slang terms used. But Mud Pie brought slang words to a whole new level. It was interesting, but it necessitated using the dictionary quite often.
The plot is full of pain and despair; the main character has been condemned to death by gangsters. At times Lannie is so distraught she converses with the dead owner of the house she lives in and then with a murdered bar maid.
Lannie Herron is a twenty-seven year old pastry chef who gets crossways with the Manchester, England, criminal mob. After several attempts to kill her fail, she leaves Manchester to hide out. At about one third into the book we learn the full story of why she has been marked for brutal death.
Lannie's new life in hiding centers around a rural rugby club and the country pub where she cooks. Her new bevy of characters soon begin to open up to her and she learns all have something to hide, and not all are the friends they purport to be in public.
There is conflict and suspense galore. The mobsters are still after Lannie, and a murder at the rugby club elevates Lannie to the head of the suspects list. But then she compiles her own list of suspects with reason to commit the murder and slowly includes most of her new group of acquaintances.
By halfway through Mud Pie, I was intrigued and knew I had to finish.
The writing quality is above average with only infrequent editing errors. A few scenes were lumped together without breaks, and I felt a few sentence structures were clumsy. But these were few and minor and barely distracted from the overall quality of this engrossing story.
I rate Mud Pie a 5.0 out of a possible 5.0 and heartily recommend it.
This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Title – Blackspoon
Author – Daniel Eagleton
Genre - Thriller
201 pages
Rating 5 stars out of 5
No. – 02- 2019
Posted 2/22/2019
Main Characters: Charlie Wetherspoon – RAF mover
Geddis – RAF Military Police
Baker – RAF Military POlice
RAF member Charlie Wetherspoon flew from Afghanistan with five kilos of heroin taped to his roiling stomach. He'd agreed to be a drug mule for a fee of $10,000. But then, Charlie got greedy. However, more money wouldn't erase the mess Charlie soon found himself being dragged into. Charlie's pathetic, short sighted focus blinded him to coming events as they exploded around him. Soon he was in the sights of the military, the police and drug dealers.
The writing style, pace and slang used in the story are U.K. English. The story telling is crisp and well done while being depressing.
The story is free of obvious editing errors and the plot is dark and dangerous. You can sense from the beginning that things are not going to end well for Charlie's pathetic, dreg of society character.
Charlie and the lazy, crazy sub-characters are well developed to where I'd not want to waste any time getting to know them.
Sentence structure was out of the norm of American English authors but typical and acceptable for UK writing. The plot was fresh and held my interest; but at times I wanted to put the book down because there are no heroes here. Losers and criminals abound, and it was hard to accept the dismal futures of those characters. But those people have a life too, and it was realistically portrayed in Blackspoon.
This review was made in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Author – Daniel Eagleton
Genre - Thriller
201 pages
Rating 5 stars out of 5
No. – 02- 2019
Posted 2/22/2019
Main Characters: Charlie Wetherspoon – RAF mover
Geddis – RAF Military Police
Baker – RAF Military POlice
RAF member Charlie Wetherspoon flew from Afghanistan with five kilos of heroin taped to his roiling stomach. He'd agreed to be a drug mule for a fee of $10,000. But then, Charlie got greedy. However, more money wouldn't erase the mess Charlie soon found himself being dragged into. Charlie's pathetic, short sighted focus blinded him to coming events as they exploded around him. Soon he was in the sights of the military, the police and drug dealers.
The writing style, pace and slang used in the story are U.K. English. The story telling is crisp and well done while being depressing.
The story is free of obvious editing errors and the plot is dark and dangerous. You can sense from the beginning that things are not going to end well for Charlie's pathetic, dreg of society character.
Charlie and the lazy, crazy sub-characters are well developed to where I'd not want to waste any time getting to know them.
Sentence structure was out of the norm of American English authors but typical and acceptable for UK writing. The plot was fresh and held my interest; but at times I wanted to put the book down because there are no heroes here. Losers and criminals abound, and it was hard to accept the dismal futures of those characters. But those people have a life too, and it was realistically portrayed in Blackspoon.
This review was made in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Title – Into Hell's Fire
Author – Douglas Cavanaugh
Genre – Action / Spy Thriller
326 pages
Rating 5 stars out of 5
No. 01 - 2019
Posted 2/16/2019
In the opening chapters of Into Hell's Fire we meet the antagonist, Serbian General Stevan Parenta. The Bosnia war is being fought in the early 1990s. Before the conflict, the General was a low ranking bank employee, but through ruthless acts against the Croatian and Muslim peoples he has advanced in only two years to head the Serb Army.
Across the world, retired, middle-aged Lucas Martin has retired and is living in Thailand. Before retirement, Lucas was a go-to fixer for the U.S. State Department. He is an expert on Yugoslavian politics and worked under-cover as a free-lance reporter to gather information. He stays in good physical shape and isn't averse to killing when necessary.
Into Hell's Fire is a well written and intriguing account capturing the horrors of war between the Serbian, Croatian and Muslim citizenry. The politics of war are soon overshadowed by the personal greed for power and money by government officials and high ranking military officers. That's when the gist of the story unfolds.
Lucas accepts a lucrative offer to go back into Yugoslavia to document suspected war crimes being committed by the Serbian Army. He is soon drawn into the heart of the conflict where the action is plentiful and vividly staged.
The plot of this story is captivating, and the editing is very well done; it's not perfect but the errors are few and minor.
Sentence structure is good, and the details are painted with vivid color to build clear images of the people and their surroundings.
Main and supporting characters are artfully developed and leave lasting impressions of the good guys vs. the bad.
I heartily recommend this thrilling account of a senseless war.
This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
Author – Douglas Cavanaugh
Genre – Action / Spy Thriller
326 pages
Rating 5 stars out of 5
No. 01 - 2019
Posted 2/16/2019
In the opening chapters of Into Hell's Fire we meet the antagonist, Serbian General Stevan Parenta. The Bosnia war is being fought in the early 1990s. Before the conflict, the General was a low ranking bank employee, but through ruthless acts against the Croatian and Muslim peoples he has advanced in only two years to head the Serb Army.
Across the world, retired, middle-aged Lucas Martin has retired and is living in Thailand. Before retirement, Lucas was a go-to fixer for the U.S. State Department. He is an expert on Yugoslavian politics and worked under-cover as a free-lance reporter to gather information. He stays in good physical shape and isn't averse to killing when necessary.
Into Hell's Fire is a well written and intriguing account capturing the horrors of war between the Serbian, Croatian and Muslim citizenry. The politics of war are soon overshadowed by the personal greed for power and money by government officials and high ranking military officers. That's when the gist of the story unfolds.
Lucas accepts a lucrative offer to go back into Yugoslavia to document suspected war crimes being committed by the Serbian Army. He is soon drawn into the heart of the conflict where the action is plentiful and vividly staged.
The plot of this story is captivating, and the editing is very well done; it's not perfect but the errors are few and minor.
Sentence structure is good, and the details are painted with vivid color to build clear images of the people and their surroundings.
Main and supporting characters are artfully developed and leave lasting impressions of the good guys vs. the bad.
I heartily recommend this thrilling account of a senseless war.
This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
