I confess that I use “the Google” when reading. Mostly it occurs when I read historical novels, but it can strike at any time if there is something I just have to know or see. In the past few months I have looked up recipes for food that was mentioned in a book, dresses by a a famous dress designer, buildings/landmarks that books are set in and around, and characters that lived in real life. Sometimes I can stray down rabbit trails, but I eventually return to the book until another Google-fancy hits me. This week I am featuring the last 10 books that caused me to Google. I hope one piques your interest.
If you like mysteries, check out the first book in the Brentwood Women Mystery series by W. H. Adair, Deliver Us from Evil . . . And The 6 O’Clock News.
Hildegard “Hildy” Brentwood, a 50-year-old University PR executive at Gulf State University, is faced with her toughest assignment–discover who killed her faculty friend Adrienne and student assistant, Bobby, before the university and the police shut down the investigation labeling Adrienne guilty of murder/suicide.
She enlists the help of her CEO mother Victoria and her investigative journalist daughter Grace to comb through the possible suspects–Adrienne’s misogynistic department chairman, her violent ex-husband, a smarmy journalist, or perhaps someone from her past involved in her 20-year-old rape. They uncover myriad secrets in both Adrienne’s and Bobby’s past, any of which could have been motive for murder.
Taking on the university leadership and the campus and Houston Police departments, Hildy is attacked and threatened before they uncover the truth behind the violent deaths.
Hildy and her family look into the highest and lowest realms of Houston to find answers, with a little help from their fur-buddies: Victoria’s greyhound, Minuit; Hildy’s white schnauzer, Shasta; and Adrienne’s Russian blue feline, Catrina, who is adopted by Grace.
From author W. H. Adair:
I began a lifelong love of reading before kindergarten. My earliest memories include going to the library or bookmobile and bringing home a box of books…every week. I was raised on Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Wizard of Oz, Black Beauty, and other works of mystery and wonder. Not surprising I would work to solve mysteries and answer questions in my own writing.
My connection to words led to a career in public relations and marketing. Armed with degrees in communication, business and library science, I held senior management positions in higher education, winning numerous local, regional and national marketing awards while working at both the University of Houston and Texas Southern University.
After forty years writing non-fiction, including a 175-page history of the University of Houston, I retired and finally turned to creating fictional worlds. With the help of a Writer’s League of Texas five-day retreat and the eighteen-month long Online Certificate in Novel Writing program at Stanford University, I embraced both retirement and novel writing. The result of which is The Broken Hallelujah.
When I’m not slaving over my computer, I spend time in my backyard garden and with my crazy fur babies, Jade, my yappy but huggable white schnauzer, and her best friend, Yara, a gorgeous and unflappable Russian blue feline.
Currently, I’m working on a couple of mysteries. One set at a university…involving three generations of strong women determined to clear a friend of a murder/suicide charge. The newest one involves a woman who was a foundling and now works for a tabloid newspaper, trying to work her way into mainstream media. I’m have a great time sending up some favorite academic places and people in my fictitious university. My forty years in academe opened many doors, introduced me to an amazing variety of characters, took me around the world from Houston to Alaska and Nigeria to Beijing, and offered many an outrageous tale to provide a plethora of plots.
Happy Tuesday! It’s a Love Freebie on TTT, and boy did I have a hard time coming up with a topic! I have done a lot of these posts — Love Letters, Love in The Title, Kiss in The Title, Heart in The Title, etc. I’m not a big romance reader, so finding inspiration from my shelves seemed fruitless. With a little brainstorming I came up with a bouquet of books. My husband often gives me roses (my favorite) on Valentine’s Day, but he never gives me books. LOL! Roses die unfortunately, but books are the gift that keeps on giving. So my list is a book bouquet you can give yourself today, tomorrow, and forever!
Happy Tuesday! Whew! The inaugural Turning A New Page Book Festivalis officially in the books 😉 . If comments from readers and authors alike can be trusted (and they can) it was a roaring success! Over 40 authors shared their books and writing journeys with 200+ attendees. The board members are all pooped, but eager to get on with the planning for 2025!
Today’s TTT topic is new-to-me authors in 2023. My list today features the writers I discovered while working on the book festival planning. I hope you find a new author to increase your TBR!
I loved this month’s book club pick, Better Watch Out by Natalie Walters! It had all the things I could want in a Christmas-y romantic suspense — action and danger, sizzling romance, and all things Christmas. The NYC setting brought back great memories of a trip my husband and I took one December. Plus it added to my bucket list (IYKYK).
If you are a fan of Christmas cheer, mystery/suspense, and/or sweet romance, here’s some more reading recommendations:
Last to Know by Brandy Heineman
All she wants for Christmas . . . is an end to this terrible year.
Silver bells are ringing, but family drama and flaky finances have Nadine Notaro wrung out. The only bright spots this holiday season are her job at the Blissford Historical Society and her cheery, dependable co-worker, Chase Garren—until the City Council cuts their funding. The lost income will be bad enough, but what about Chase? Though quick to remind everyone they’re just friends, she can’t stomach losing him, too.
While packing up the Society’s record collections, Chase and Nadine discover a journalist’s cache of negatives pointing to a decades-old scandal and cover-up. Entanglements with the City’s biggest power players pull their strings, but every clue brings them closer to the truth—and each other—until Nadine finds evidence of a betrayal she never thought possible.
Casting light on the lies may ruin Christmas and their friendship, but it stands to cost them much more.
The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham
Will the magic of Christmas bring these two newlyweds closer together, or will the ghosts of the past lead them into a destructive discovery from which not even a Dickens’s Christmas can save them?
Mistletoe is beautiful and dangerous, much like the woman from Lord Frederick’s Percy’s past, so when he turns over a new leaf and arranges to marry for his estate, instead of his heart, he never expects the wrong bride to be the right choice. Gracelynn Ferguson never expected to take her elder sister’s place as a Christmas bride, but when she’s thrust into the choice, she will trust in her faithful novels and overactive imagination to help her not only win Frederick’s heart but also to solve the murder mystery of Havensbrook Hall before the ghosts from Frederick’s past ruin her fairytale future.
Whiskers, Wreaths, And Murder by Kathy Manos Penn
If it were up to her, they’d be singing carols and baking cookies. Instead, they’re stockings-deep in a murder investigation…
Leta Parker is looking forward to her first holiday season in the Cotswolds. Prepping for the town’s tree-lighting ceremony, the village is enraged when the new American earl announces plans to develop his family’s estate into a resort. And when the brash successor is found dead in a ditch, it’s obvious this car crash was no accident.
Determined to unwrap the truth behind the tragedy, Leta enlists the help of the Little Old Ladies Detective Agency and her talking dog and cat. But with everyone in the charming hamlet a suspect, it’ll be tough to discover who’s not on Father Christmas’s naughty list.
Will Leta and friends deliver the gift of justice?
Whiskers, Wreaths & Murder is the third book in the delightful Dickens & Christie cozy mystery series. If you like clever senior women, deep friendships, and animals of the talking variety, then you’ll love Kathy Manos Penn’s yuletide whodunit
I am so excited to read the Juliet Code, the third book in the oh so fun Freddy And Grace Mystery series by PepperBasham. These books are full of historically, romantic, mysterious goodness! My review will be posted in January, but for now here’s the first line (it’s so Grace!):
Grace Percy had always dreamed of being part of a dashing pursuit of some villain; she’d just never imagined doing so in a gondola with a complete stranger.
Newlyweds Lord and Lady Astley Finally Reach Their Honeymoon Destination Only to Encounter a New Mystery in Need of Solving
Frederick and Grace Percy finally make it to Italy to enjoy a delayed honeymoon and explore the beauties of the historic city of Venice. To their surprise, their friend, Detective Jack Miracle, is also in the city, investigating a series of art heists starting at the house of eccentric millionaire, Laraby Covington. Drawn into a world of boat races, mysterious houses, and parties of the rich and unusual in Venice, Frederick and Grace learn of the existence of the Juliet paintings, (Renaissance paintings feature Shakespeare’s tragic heroine) rumored to hold a secret code to an underground vault of similarly treasured artwork assumed lost over the centuries. As Freddie and Grace are pulled deeper into the mystery and their beloved Detective Jack disappears, can they use their wits and work as a team to find the thieves and Jack before it’s too late.
The Juliet Code is a Freddie and Grace Mystery, sequel to The Mistletoe Countess and The Cairo Curse.
Pepper Basham is a best-selling author who writes romance “peppered” with grace and humor. Writing both historical and contemporary novels, she loves to incorporate her native Appalachian culture and/or her unabashed adoration of the UK into her stories. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is the wife of a fantastic pastor, mom of five great kids, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus. She loves connecting with readers and other authors through social media outlets like Facebook & Instagram.
I am again twisting the TTT topic this week. Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful for books and the wonderful authors who write them. But after 10+ years of blogging, I have posted on this a lot. So today I am bringing you books that are set/begin at Thanksgiving. This list gives you a variety of books to read between now and Christmas. I hope you find one to be thankful for!
Top Books Set During Thanksgiving And After
Another Way Home by Deborah Raney
Sometimes God’s ways are not at all what we expect . . . and exactly what we need. Grant and Audrey are adding grandchildren to their family left and right, but middle daughter, Danae, and her husband, Dallas Brooks, have been trying for years with no baby in sight.
Though Danae is ready to consider adoption, Dallas will not even discuss it. Despairing of ever having a family of her own, Danae decides to pour her passion and energies into volunteer work with a newly opened women’s shelter in town. Looking for a good cause to fill her lonely days, she never expects to give her heart to the hurting women she meets there. She’s finally learning to live her life with gratitude, but then heart-wrenching events on Thanksgiving weekend threaten to pull the entire Whitman clan into turmoil—and leave them all forever changed.
Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzman
Following the tragic death of his wife, Jill, Morgan Spencer retreats to his brother’s Rocky Mountain ranch to heal and focus on the care of his infant daughter, Olivia. Two years later, Morgan begins to make plans to return to his home in Santa Barbara to pick up the pieces of his life and career. Quinn Riley has been avoiding her past for four years. Standing up for the truth has forced her into a life of fear and isolation. After a “chance” first meeting and a Thanksgiving snowstorm, Quinn is drawn into the Spencer family’s warm and loving world, and she begins to believe she might find freedom in their friendship. The man Quinn helped put behind bars has recently been released, however, and she fears her past will endanger the entire Spencer family. As the danger heightens, she determines to leave town for the sake of the people who have come to mean so much to her. Fixing problems is what Morgan Spencer does best, and he is not willing to let Quinn run away, possibly into the clutches of a man bent on revenge. But Morgan’s solution sends him and Quinn on an unexpected path, with repercussions neither could have anticipated.
Darkness Rising by Lis Wiehl and Pete Nelson
The evil in East Salem is no longer content to hide in the shadows. The stakes—and the darkness—are rising.
Dani Harris thought there wasn’t much left that could surprise her after serving as a forensic psychiatrist in East Salem. And Tommy Gunderson has faced few challenges in his life that he couldn’t overcome by either physical strength or his celebrity status.
But as they race to uncover what’s really happening behind the high walls of St. Adrian’s Academy, it becomes clear that supernatural forces have been at work here for generations. And now their focus is on making sure Dani and Tommy don’t interfere.
When the unseen becomes seen, faith is the only weapon strong enough to fight in a battle involving not just murder and betrayal—but angels and demons.
Dearest Dorothy, Who Would Have Ever Thought by Charlene Baumbich
Charlene Ann Baumbich has won a loyal following of readers with the first three books in the Dearest Dorothy series, featuring the amusing and touching adventures of the townspeople of Partonville. Now Charlene Baumbich uses her wonderful gift of storytelling to celebrate the simple pleasures of life in this heartwarming and hilarious story. The fourth book in the series finds the residents of Partonville preparing for a festive Thanksgiving dinner at the local church. Amid assigning duties and preparing recipes, everyone tries to ignore bossy acting mayor Gladys McKern. Meanwhile, Jessica Joy struggles with an unexpected turn of events, Katie Durbin considers another real estate project, and Dearest Dorothy doles out advice and love in equal amounts to everyone.
Grace in Autumn by Lori Copeland and Angela Hunt
It’s November, and as the island residents prepare for the coming months of cold and snow, they are surprised by God’s unexpected lessons of humility, trust, and hope. Authors Lori Copeland and Angela Hunt revisit the Island of Heavenly Daze in the second book of the highly acclaimed series about a small town where angelic intervention is commonplace and the Thanksgiving feast a community affair.
*****
I Shall Not Want by Debbie Viguie
Charity work can be murder!
It’s Thanksgiving and Joseph Tyler, one of the members of Cindy’s church, has organized a new charity that provides homeless people with rescue dogs to love and care for. But one by one, the homeless recipients are being murdered and their dogs stolen. Could an overly competitive millionaire with his prize-winning pooches and a grudge be behind the crimes? Or could it be someone much closer to Joseph who has something sinister to hide? Cindy and Jeremiah must rush to find a killer before he strikes again.
The Preacher Wore Black Leather by Loree Lough
Matt Maxwell wondered a lot about changing his first name to Former: Former Marine. Former minister. Former husband. One by one, he’d lost them all. After losing his wife to his church deacon, he’d packed his battered military duffel, gassed up his ancient motorcycle, and put Baltimore in the Harley’s rearview mirrors.
On an unusually cold and snowy Texas night, the Sportster breaks down along the Interstate. Out of luck and nearly broke, Matt’s lured by a bright red sign that reads SUNDOWN DINER. Inside, he meets the owners, the town’s three-man sheriff’s department, and a mechanic who thinks he can fix the old bike.
Icy weather and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday make that impossible, and Matt finds himself stranded in Reliable, where everyone seems determined to keep him from the road to anywhere that isn’t Baltimore. Once the Harley is roadworthy, will he put Reliable behind him? Or does God have other plans for the down-on-his-luck pastor?
Remembering Christmas by Dan Walsh
Rick Denton lives his life on his terms. He works hard, plays hard and answers to no one. So when his mother calls on Thanksgiving weekend begging him to come home after his stepfather has a stroke, Rick is reluctant. He’s never liked Art, despite the fact his own father abandoned them when Rick was twelve. Rick’s attitude sours even more when a couple of days helping at the family bookstore turns into weeks of cashing out old ladies and running off the homeless man who keeps hanging about,
Slowly but surely, the little bookstore and its quirky patrons—as well as the lovely young woman who works at his side each day—work their magic on him, revealing to Rick the truth about his family, his own life, and the true meaning of Christmas.
You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Toni Shiloh
It’s the most wonderful time of the year–for everyone except Starr Lewis.
As if going home for the holidays jobless and single wasn’t bad enough, she’s dragged into a holiday season full of activities leading up to her sister’s uber-romantic Christmas Eve wedding–to Starr’s ex-boyfriend. But when her brother’s best friend, Waylon Emmerson, attends their family Thanksgiving, she starts to wonder if maybe coming home for Christmas isn’t so bad after all.
As Starr finds the perfect distraction in helping Waylon make over his late mother’s Christmas shop, the most wonderful time of the year works its magic and the spark between them grows. But with the holidays fast approaching, Starr must decide what she wants out of life after the gifts are unwrapped and the ornaments are put away–to go back to New York City or to open her heart to a love that will last beyond Christmas Day?
Happy Tuesday! Today’s TTT topic is titles that would make good newspaper headlines. I chose to turn the books featured today into titles of magazine articles also. Profuse apologies to the authors for this — you’ll see. 😉
Title: Jane and the Final Mystery Series: Being a Jane Austen Mystery (Book 15) Author: Stephanie Barron Genre: Historical Mystery, Austenesque Fiction Publisher: Soho Crime (October 24, 2023) Length: (312) pages Format: Hardcover, eBook, & audiobook ISBN: 978-1641295055 Tour Dates: October 16 – 31, 2023
The final volume of the critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Jane Austen as amateur sleuth March 1817.
As winter turns to spring, Jane Austen’s health is in slow decline, and threatens to cease progress on her latest manuscript. But when her nephew Edward brings chilling news of a death at his former school, Winchester College, not even her debilitating ailment can keep Jane from seeking out the truth. Arthur Prendergast, a senior pupil at the prestigious all-boys’ boarding school, has been found dead in a culvert near the schoolgrounds—and in the pocket of his drenched waistcoat is an incriminating note penned by the young William Heathcote, the son of Jane’s dear friend Elizabeth. Winchester College is a world unto itself, with its own language and rites of passage, cruel hazing and dangerous pranks. Can Jane clear William’s name before her illness gets the better of her?
Over the course of fourteen previous novels in the critically acclaimed Being a Jane Austen Mystery series, Stephanie Barron has won the hearts of thousands of fans—crime fiction aficionados and Janeites alike—with her tricky plotting and breathtaking evocation of Austen’s voice. Now, she brings Jane’s final season—and final murder investigation—to brilliant, poignant life in this unforgettable conclusion.
PRAISE FOR JANE AND THE FINAL MYSTERY “Poignant . . . Elicits deep emotion out of Jane’s struggles against her own mortality. This is a fitting send-off for a beautifully realized series.”— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Barron developed Jane’s narrative voice by reading Austen’s collected and published letters, and it is neither spoiler nor surprise to say that series readers will be sorry to say goodbye to Jane Austen, amateur sleuth.”— Booklist
“[Barron] has brilliantly combined authentic historical and biographical details with skillful plotting and a credible evocation of Austen’s wry, distinctive voice. She brings the English author’s final investigation to a poignant, unforgettable close. Fans of this historical series will not be disappointed.”— First Clue
Stephanie Barron is a graduate of Princeton and Stanford, where she received her Masters in History as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow in the Humanities. Her novel, THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN (Ballantine, January 22, 2019) traces the turbulent career of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s captivating American mother. Barron is perhaps best known for the critically acclaimed Jane Austen Mystery Series, in which the intrepid and witty author of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE details her secret detective career in Regency England. A former intelligence analyst for the CIA, Stephanie—who also writes under the name Francine Mathews—drew on her experience in the field of espionage for such novels as JACK 1939, which The New Yorker described as “the most deliciously high-concept thriller imaginable.” She lives and works in Denver, CO.
I am so sad that the wonderful Being A Jane mystery series has come to an end. I was captivated by Jane Austen as an amateur sleuth from the very beginning. Stephanie Barron has always delivered a faithfully-drawn Jane as she navigates the more mysterious side of Regency England society. Accurate depictions of the time and place, as well as Jane and the Austen family and friends, bring authenticity to a thoroughly enjoyable mystery series. In Jane And TheFinalMystery, the reader and Jane know that her time is short. Though modern readers would consider her young, Jane is a spinster who depends on the meager revenue from her writing as well as a small stipend supplemented by her brothers and has few prospects for bettering her life. It would be easy to feel sorry for the historical Jane, but through Barron’s depiction we see a woman content with how her life has run. Jane And The Final Mystery finds Jane struggling with illness but still keen to discover just whodunit in the cathedral town of Winchester. I loved the historical details Barron uses — food, fashion, education, medicine, judicial practices — to bring early 19th century England to life. Characters, both historical and fictional, play a part in the story, making this book very believable. While there is no historical proof that Jane was a successful sleuth, this book (along with the entire series) makes my Jane-loving heart believe. 😉 The pace of the mystery kept me turning the pages as I strove with our heroine to solve the case. Barron kept us both on our toes!
For those who have been faithful followers of this series, you will love the poignant ending. And if you are new to these mysteries, you are in for a treat — 15 books to savor! I recommend you start at the beginning of this wonderful mystery series.
Recommended.
Audience: Adults.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Happy Halloween! Today’s TTT topic is a Halloween Freebie. While some might find zombies, vampires, and werewolves frightening, I find books that present chillingly realistic plots truly scary! So today I give you novels with scenarios that just might induce nightmares — cyber attacks, pandemics, lab accidents, AI gone wrong, terrorists. I hope you find one that will send shivers down your spine. 😉
In her new role as Emergency Operations Center director for Fairbanks, Alaska, Darcie Phillips prevents disasters. But none of her training can prepare her for the terror that’s coming.
As a cybersecurity specialist, Jason Myers is determined to ferret out any threats to the town he now calls home–and that includes his reckless brother and his ecoterrorist friends.
When an old woman’s wild prediction–widespread destruction as soon as the Fairbanks temperature falls to 26 below–hits national headlines, neither Darcie nor Jason sees a real risk to anything but tourism.
Then the bodies start dropping.
Darcie is relying on her experience and intelligence to stop a killer; Jason is relying on God to guide the way. They’ll have to work together to find the truth and prevent their Alaskan town from becoming a city of nightmares. The first in a thrilling new suspense series from best-selling author Kimberley Woodhouse, 26 Below will delight fans of Lynnette Eason, Irene Hannon, and Lynn Blackburn.
Airborne by DiAnn Mills
Heather Lawrence’s long-awaited vacation to Salzburg wasn’t supposed to go like this. Mere hours into the transatlantic flight, the Houston FBI agent is awakened when passengers begin exhibiting horrific symptoms of an unknown infection. As the virus quickly spreads and dozens of passengers fall ill, Heather fears she’s witnessing an epidemic similar to ones her estranged husband studies for a living ― but this airborne contagion may have been deliberately released.
While Heather remains quarantined with other survivors, she works with her FBI colleagues to identify the person behind this attack. The prime suspect? Dr. Chad Lawrence, an expert in his field . . . and Heather’s husband. The Lawrences’ marriage has been on the rocks since Chad announced his career took precedence over his wife and future family and moved out.
As more victims fall prey days after the initial outbreak, time’s running out to hunt down the killer, one who may be closer to the victims than anyone ever expected.
An Air That Kills by Christine Poulson
The atmosphere in the lab is toxic.
It is only a matter of time before there is a flu pandemic with the potential to kill billions. Or so wealthy entrepreneur Lyle Lynstrum believes. That is why he is funding research into transgenics – the mechanism by which viruses can jump the species barrier — at a high security lab on a tidal island off the North Devon coast.
A suspiciously rapid turnover of staff has him worried. He sends in scientist Katie Flanagan as an undercover lab technician. Something is clearly very wrong, but before Katie can get to the bottom of what is going on, a colleague is struck down by a mysterious illness.
Has the safety of the facility been compromised, allowing a deadly virus to escape? Katie begins to suspect that the scientists are as deadly as the diseases – and that her cover has been blown.
Then the island is cut off by high seas and a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse begins . . .
Fatal Code by Natalie Walters
In 1964, a group of scientists called the Los Alamos Five came close to finishing a nuclear energy project for the United States government when they were abruptly disbanded. Now the granddaughter of one of those five scientists, aerospace engineer Elinor Mitchell, discovers that she has highly sensitive information on the project in her possession–and a target on her back.
SNAP agent and former Navy cryptologist Kekoa Young is tasked with monitoring Elinor. This is both convenient since she’s his neighbor in Washington, DC, and decidedly inconvenient because . . . well, he kind of likes her.
As Elinor follows the clues her grandfather left behind to a top-secret nuclear project, Kekoa has no choice but to step in. When Elinor learns he has been spying on her, she’s crushed. But with danger closing in on all sides, she’ll have to trust him to ensure her discoveries stay out of enemy hands.
Natalie Walters sucks you into the global race for space domination in this perfectly paced second installment of her SNAP Agency romantic suspense series.
The Influenza Bomb by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore
Masses of people are dying from a mysterious flu. While the TSI team searches for a cure, a notorious eco-terrorist group, Return to Earth, uses an influenza bomb to poison the water. It’s a race against time — with the outcome impacting the entire world.
By the time the team discovers that the terrorists are using the water supply to infect people, the sickness is spreading worldwide and no one has a cure. When Return to Earth makes off with a mysterious device called the influenza bomb with the intent to destroy all of mankind, Dr. Hutchinson must stop the contamination from being spread before it’s too late.
Outbreak by Davis Bunn
The waters off the West African coast are a menacing red, full of algae thick enough to stand on in places. In nearby villages, mysterious deaths start to occur — and the panic mounts. But before an alarm can be sounded, the sea currents shift, the algae vanishes, and the deaths stop. Everyone is relieved when things return to normal, and local government officials are happy to sweep the publicity nightmare under a rug.
An American biological researcher, Avery Madison, is dispatched by his employer to piece together exactly what happened, having long feared an ecological disaster just like this could occur. He’s had little evidence to go on before now, and what he finds in West Africa is rapidly disappearing. But Avery knows the danger hasn’t disappeared — it has just moved on.
The Paris Betrayal by James R. Hannibal
After a rough mission in Rome involving the discovery of a devastating bioweapon, Company spy Ben Calix returns to Paris to find his perfectly ordered world has collapsed. A sniper attack. An ambush. A call for help that brings French SWAT forces down on his head. Ben is out. This is a severance–reserved for incompetents and traitors.
Searching for answers and anticipating a coming attack, Ben and a woman swept up in his misfortunes must travel across Europe to find the sniper who tried to kill him, the medic who saved his life, the schoolmaster who trained him, and an upstart hacker from his former team. More than that, Ben must come to grips with his own insignificance as the Company’s plan to stop Leviathan from unleashing the bioweapon at any cost moves forward without him–and he struggles against the infection that is swiftly claiming territory within his own body.
Synapse by Steven James
Thirty years in the future, when AI is so advanced that humans live side by side with cognizant robots called Artificials, Kestrel Hathaway must come to terms not just with what machines know, but what they believe. Is hope real for them, or merely an illusion?
Soon after experiencing a personal tragedy, Kestrel witnesses a terrorist attack and is drawn into a world of conspiracies and lies that she and Jordan, her Artificial, have to untangle. With a second, more brutal attack looming on the horizon, their best chance of stopping it is teaming up with federal counterterrorism agent Nick Vernon.
But the clock is ticking — and all the while, Jordan is asking questions that Artificials were never meant to ask.
Deftly weaving suspense and intrigue into a rich, resonant tale that explores faith and what it really means to be human, Steven James offers us a glimpse into the future and into our own hearts.
Synapse is an unforgettable, gripping story of dreams shattered, truth revealed, and hope reborn.
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