This novel was up for several literary awards.  Not my usual reading genre as I usually have to plod through the prose.  I nearly gave up on this one early as nothing really happens, there’s no suspense or tension, and barely a plot.  The story centers around an 11-year old boy and his pals on a passenger ship from Ceylon to England shortly after the turn of the last century.  There are good character descriptions and imaging.    The boys are mostly unattended and roam the ship at will discovering secrets surrounding the passengers.  I’m mostly an adventure/mystery/suspense/ action kind’a reader so this was on the edge of boring.  I’d give it 2 stars.

Slow going story with a lot of good characters in a small town. A jailbird returns to his hometown to be with his dying mom. Lennox is a good writer but I think he’d be a great one if he could pick up the pace.

T.J. is one of the better American mystery/suspense/action writers.  The Iron River is the flow of guns heading over to Mexico from the U.S.  Essentially, the Americans are helping destabilize Mexico by doing this.  Lots of cops, pleany of bad guys, Mexican cartels, weapons, kidnapping an ATF agent, gun manufacturing, and some nail-biting action.  What more could you want?  ATF brings in U.S. Marshal Charlie Hood for Operation Blowdown.  Hood is a good character and tries his best to stem the flow in his own small way but is caught up things that almost overwhelm him.  I liked him and liked the story a lot.  Give this puppy **** out of ***** stars.

This is an earlier novel by Mr. Archer.  Dumb title, but I picked it up at a garage sale.  I enjoy his recent stuff much more.  It has a slow start about the KGB and bankers and a British Army officer (plenty of background).  The story has to do with an art forgery and a document hidden in the original: about the Russkies getting back Alaska from the Americans in some old deal.  The Americans and Russians really want this art and the British officer is the one who gets his hands on it first by accident.  There’s a chase across France and a Russian KGB killer.  If you stick with it getting past the slow start it’s an OK read.

When Juliane flew over Peru with her mother the plane encountered a wild thunderstorm and the plane exploded.  Juliane, still attached to her seat was flung out and plummeted 10, 000 feet into the Peruvian jungle.  Freaky, indeed.  She followed the #1 rule of survival which is follow the water courses.  There isn’t much here on her actual survival except for maggots in her wounds and that she was in shock for some of the 10 day ordeal that she spent floating down a river.   Most of the book is about her rescue, the rescue searching for more survivors, and her life between then and 27 years later when a film was made on the event.  The story jumps around between going back for the film and her post survival after being found and her family life after.  It is an interesting story with facts about the Amazon and how the journalists dialed in much of her story when she was found.  Didn’t really care for her relationship changing areas in regards to her father.  I’d give this about 3 stars.

I’ve decided to try and increase sales of my eBooks by reducing their prices. My firefighter mystery/suspense novels are $4.99 and my juvenile/chapter eBooks are $2.99. I also have a juvenile for .99 cents until June. Why? Well, everyone’s downloading the Hunger Games @ $5.00 so I have to compete and undercut Suzanne Collins. Sorry to do this dear, but here I come.
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