Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson

PAUL FALCON AND ANN SILVER: A LOVE STORY

Ann Silver is a cop's cop. As the Midwest Homicide Investigator, she is called in to help local law enforcement on the worst of cases, looking for answers to murder. Hers is one of the region's most trusted investigative positions.

Paul Falcon is the FBI's top murder cop in the Midwest. If the victim carried a federal badge or had a security clearance, odds are good Paul and his team see the case file or work the murder.

Their lives intersect when Ann arrives to pass a case off her desk and onto his. A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter he is tracking. Paul isn't expecting to meet someone, the kind that goes on the personal side of the ledger, but Ann Silver has his attention.

The better he gets to know her, the more Paul realizes her job barely scratches the surface of who she is. She knows spies and soldiers and U.S. Marshals, and has written books about them. She is friends with the former vice president. People with good reason to be cautious about who they let into their lives deeply trust her. Paul wonders just what secrets Ann is keeping, until she shows him the John Doe Killer case file, and he starts to realize just who this lady he is falling in love with really is....

My review:

I was working at a Christian bookstore when Dee Henderson came on the Christian suspense with her O'Malley series, which if you have never read - you should. It became a measuring stick for other such novels. Customers would ask what else we had similar by other authors.

It has been way too long since Dee has written a new book. Six years, if I am correct. It was worth the wait though. She has come back with a great suspense novel that is top notch and although different in some ways from what she has previously written, I really enjoyed the book.

Something that really stood out to me in this book was her character development. She spent a lot of time on bringing out the complexity of her two main characters, especially of Ann Silver. And she didn't do it in a dull way, she wove it seamlessly into the story.

There wasn't much fast paced action in the book, but it was a great story and Henderson did a outstanding job of portraying the work of the FBI on a long standing case. There were some surprises in the book and I didn't know where the story was going next. I got the feeling that Dee took her time on this book, and though it wasn't as fast paced as a lot of suspense novels, it flowed very well and a lot happened in the book.

One neat thing, Dee wove her popular O'Malley novels into the story, but in a different way than I would have thought of or expected. It makes me want to read the series again.

Hopefully this novel means Dee is back to writing more often and we don't have to wait six years for her next novel.

Read the first chapters here.

Visit the site devoted to the book.

About the author:

Dee Henderson is the bestselling, award-winning author of 15 previous novels, including the acclaimed O'MALLEY series and UNCOMMON HEROES series. She is a lifelong resident of Illinois. Learn more at www.deehenderson.com.

Full Disclosure will be available from Bethany House Publishers on October 2, 2012.

Thanks to Bethany House for the review copy.

Chasing the Wind by Pamela Ewen

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingChasing The WindB&H Books (August 1, 2012)

byPamela Ewen



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Until recently retiring to write full time, Pamela Binnings Ewen was a partner in the Houston office of the international law firm of BakerBotts, L.L.P., specializing in corporate finance. She now lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, James Lott.



She has served on the Board of Directors of Inprint, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the literary arts in Houston, Texas, as well as the Advisory Board for The New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans; Pamela is a co-founder of the Northshore Literary Society in the Greater New Orleans area. She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women.



Pamela’s first novel, Walk Back The Cat (Broadman & Holman. May, 2006) is the story of an embittered and powerful clergyman who learns an ancient secret, confronting him with truth and a choice that may destroy him.



She is also the best-selling author of the acclaimed non-fiction book Faith On Trial, published by Broadman & Holman in 1999, currently in its third printing.



Although it was written for non-lawyers, Faith On Trial was also chosen as a text for a course on law and religion at Yale Law School in the Spring of 2000, along with The Case For Christ by Lee Stroble. Continuing the apologetics begun in Faith On Trial, Pamela also appears with Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, Darrell Bock, Lee Stroble, and others in the film Jesus: Fact or Fiction, a Campus Crusade for Christ production.



Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana family recognized for its statistically improbable number of successful authors. A cousin, James Lee Burke, who won the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove At Morning.



Among other writers in the family are Andre Dubus (Best Picture Oscar nomination for The Bedroom; his son, Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, a Best Picture Oscar nomination and an Oprah pick; Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy); and Alafair Burke, just starting out with the well received Samantha Kincaid mystery series.



ABOUT THE BOOK

At 8:47 A.M. on Wednesday, October 12, 1977, new-to-town businessman Bingham Murdock flew his small plane into New Orleans, banking it in such a way that a ray of sunshine shot through the city at light speed.



Amalise Catoir saw the flash from her sixteenth floor law office window. Finally feeling alive after the death of her abusive husband, she imagined seeing the plane was a fate for her eyes only; a special connection between the unknown giver and she, the recipient of light.



But someone else saw it, a six-year-old Cambodian refugee in foster care for whom a sudden burst of brightness reminds him of artillery fire.



Destined to cross paths with the man and the child, Amalise doesn’t yet know the deeper spiritual lesson she will learn: that we are responsible not only for the things we do, but also for the things that we don’t.



If you would like to read an excerpt of Chasing The Wind, go HERE.

Over the Edge by Mary Connealy

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingOver The EdgeBethany House (August 1, 2012)byMary Connealy



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:







Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys. She is a Christy Award Finalist, a Carol Award Finalist and an IRCC Award finalist.



The Lassoed in Texas Series, Petticoat Ranch, Calico Canyon and Gingham Mountain. Petticoat Ranch was a Carol Award Finalist. Calico Canyon was a Christy Award Finalist and a Carol Award Finalist. These three books are now contained in one large volume called Lassoed in Texas Trilogy.



The Montana Marriages Series, Montana Rose, The Husband Tree and Wildflower Bride. Montana Rose was a Carol Award Finalist.



Cowboy Christmas—the 2010 Carol Award for Best Long Historical Romance, and an Inspirational Readers Choice Contest Finalist.



The Sophie's Daughters series. Doctor in Petticoats, Wrangler in Petticoats, Sharpshooter in Petticoats.



She is also the author of; Black Hills Blessing a 3-in-1 collection of sweet contemporary romances, Nosy in Nebraska, a 3-in-1 collection of cozy romantic mysteries and she's one of the three authors contributing to Alaska Brides with her Carol Award Winning historical romance Golden Days.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Seth Kincaid survived a fire in a cave, but he's never been the same. He was always a reckless youth, but now he's gone over the edge. He ran off to the Civil War and came back crazier than ever.



After the war, nearly dead from his injuries, it appears Seth got married. Oh, he's got a lot of excuses, but his wife isn't happy to find out Seth doesn't remember her. Callie has searched, prayed, and worried. Now she's come to the Kincaid family's ranch in Colorado to find her lost husband.



Callie isn't a long-suffering woman. Once she knows her husband is alive, she wants to kill him. She's not even close to forgiving him for abandoning her.



Then more trouble shows up in the form of a secret Seth's pa kept for years. The Kincaid brothers might lose their ranch if they can't sort things out. It's enough to drive a man insane--but somehow it's all making Seth see things more clearly. And now that he knows what he wants, no one better stand in his way.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Over The Edge, go HERE.

Abducted by Janice Cantore

After solving the mayor’s murder and exposing corruption among the top brass in Las Playas, Carly Edwards is happy to be back on patrol with her partner, Joe, putting bad guys behind bars. For once, everything in life seems to be going right.

But then everything starts going wrong. Slow to recover from an injury, her ex-husband, Nick, begins pulling away just as they were starting to get close again. Meanwhile, when Joe’s wife lands in the hospital with a mysterious illness, their baby is kidnapped. As Carly chases down every lead in a desperate search to find the baby, her newfound faith is pushed to its limits.

 

My review:

 

Awesome book. Janice Cantore is still a fairly new author, and she is doing an excellent job in the Christian suspense market.

 

This book is even better than the first in the series. It has a lot of suspense, action, drama, romance, and God. It is refreshing to read a book like this that is definitely Christian in content. It isn't preachy, yet has a great message. The two main characters are new Christians who are trying to rebuild their broken marriage while still struggling with their faith. I really liked that, and the author did a great job of showing the struggle and the solution. She also did a great job of portraying the emotions of parents whose child has been kidnapped.

 

Janice was a police officer for twenty-two years, and knowing that makes the book all the more enjoyable, since she knows what she is talking about with police procedure and actions. And on that note: I had a an author that writes Christian suspense defend the bad language in his book by saying you cannot write these types of books and be realistic without curse words. Well, here you have a former police officer writing books with no bad language, so it can be done.

 

I had to read this book in one sitting. It is just that kind of book: a real page turner. I highly recommend this author and series to lovers of suspense. And these books do need to be read in order.

 

About the author:

 

A former Long Beach, California, police officer of twenty-two years, Janice Cantore worked a variety of assignments, including patrol, administration, juvenile investigations, and training. She's always enjoyed writing and published two short articles on faith at work for Cop and Christ and Today's Christian Woman before tackling novels. A few years ago, she retired to a house in the mountains of Southern California, where she lives with three Labrador retrievers, Jake, Maggie, and Abbie.

Janice writes suspense novels designed to keep readers engrossed and leave them inspired. Accused is the first book in the Pacific Coast Justice series, featuring Carly Edwards. Janice also authored the Brinna's Heart series, which includes The Kevlar Heart and A Heart of Justice.

Visit Janice's website at www.janicecantore.com and connect with her on Facebook.

Abducted is available from Tyndale Publishing.

Thanks to Tyndale for the review copy.

Lethal Legacy by Irene Hannon

A determined daughter . . .

A skeptical detective . . .

A deadly secret . . .

The police say her father's death was suicide. Kelly Warren says it was murder--and she has new evidence to prove it. Detective Cole Taylor doesn't put much credence in her claim, and nothing in his case review suggests foul play. But when he digs deeper (delete dash) and discovers startling information linking her to a long-buried secret, the danger escalates. Is history repeating itself? And who wants Kelly silenced?

My review:

Irene Hannon has fast become one of my favorite authors. Her books are a guaranteed good read, full of suspense. And this book is a great example of it.

The plot was excellent: A young woman convinced that her dad's death was not a suicide as it was ruled. I also enjoyed the characters in this book and in the whole series.

Hannon is an author who is not afraid to make her books blatantly Christian and refrain from cursing and vulgar language, and I appreciate that in an author. Her characters are often flawed, struggling with their own Christianity, and she weaves a great suspense story around them.

I had a hard time putting t his book down once I started it, and read it through in one afternoon. Great book, terrific ending. I was sad to see the series end, and am looking forward to her next series.

About the author:

Irene Hannon is the author of more than 35 novels, including the bestselling Heroes of Quantico and Guardians of Justice series. Her books have been honored with two coveted RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America, a Carol Award, a HOLT Medallion, a Daphne du Maurier Award, and two Reviewers' Choice Awards from RT Book Reviews magazine. Booklist also included one of her novels in its "Top 10 Inspirational Fiction" list for 2011. She lives in Missouri.

For more information about her and her books, Irene invites you to visit her website at www.irenehannon.com.

Available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Jonah

Most of my family (myself, my parents, 3 nieces, 3 nephews, and one sister and brother-in-law)  took a 2 day trip to Lancaster County, PA to visit the Sight and Sound Theater to see their performance of Jonah.

They have also opened a theater in Branson, MO. We go to the one in Lancaster County. What it is, if you are not familiar with it, is put on productions of Bible stories on stage: Jonah, Daniel, Noah, In the Beginning, Abraham and Sarah, and a Christmas and Easter production. The shows are expensive, but these are not a high school play. The acting is top notch, the props are as professional as you can get, and the music is pefectly tailored to the story.

I have seen Daniel, Abraham and Sarah, Noah, and now Jonah, and have to say Jonah is the best yet. They added some things not in the Bible, but it only helps the story. They presented a powerful message of the Gospel that I had never seen in the story of Jonah.

This was the first time my nieces had been to a show there, and they were absolutely thrilled and kept saying it was better than going to the ocean (their yearly vacation).

Jonah had a lot of humor woven into the story, and I was amazed at how real they made it with the props and backgrounds. This show features the biggest single prop they have ever used in a show, the ship. It is 28 feet high and 50 feet long and moves by use of a GPS.

We packed a lot into two days and did some other things while out there, but we all agreed hands down that Jonah was the best thing we did. It was a totally awesome experience.

Remember Me by Penelope Wilcock

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingRemember MeCrossway Books (July 31, 2012)byPenelope Wilcock



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

PENELOPE WILCOCK is a full-time author living in Hastings, Sussex, on the southeast coast of England. Her blog, Kindred of the Quiet Way, is about a simple and spiritual Christian lifestyle. Her other books in The Hawk and the Dove series are The Hawk and the Dove, The Wounds of God, and The Long Fall.













ABOUT THE BOOK

Remember Me is the third of a trilogy of books focusing on the character of William de Bulmer, his conversion of life and heart, and the flowering of his ability to love. After the brothers of St. Alcuin take William into the abbey (in The Hardest Thing to Do), he falls in love with Abbot John’s sister (in The Hour Before Dawn) and now has accidentally lost all of the abbey’s money (Remember Me). Seasoned author Penelope Wilcock unlocks the story of one man’s struggles, mistakes, and heart’s longings, and traces the possibility of what it means to get things wrong and begin again. As with each novel in this series, the reader is encouraged to explore a universal aspect of the Christian faith—in this case, the cost of allowing God to do what is necessary to make one whole.



If you would like to read a chapter excerpt of Remember Me, go HERE.