Book 3 of Prayer Slayer with Clare Revell

Say a Prayer Whodunit Crime Thrillers by Clare Revell

Serial, 4 books

c. 2020

Pelican Ventures LLC

Ebooks, $5.99

Print, $15.99

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins.

Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.

She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars.

She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell
http://telscha.blogspot.co.uk/
https://uk.pinterest.com/ClareLRevell/
https://www.instagram.com/clarerevell/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005NZT2O2
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005NZT2O2
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index....

Before I Wake, book #3

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About the Book

With trouble on the streets, DS Zander Ellery is under even more pressure to solve the case of the Prayer Slayer. His partner DC Isabel York is convinced she is being targeted, as all the postcards the Slayer sends are addressed only to her.

With Zander and Isabel pulled in different directions, the body count escalates, until the case explodes in a direction no one could foresee—Something that will test everyone to the limits of their experience and faith.

My review

Murder in Headley Cross, a typically quiet community in the English countryside has everyone on guard. The police don’t seem to be able to not only find the killer, they can’t seem to figure out how he seems to be playing the detectives on the case. Isabel and Zander, the assigned detectives, know the lines of the prayer and speculate on the number of murders the killer plans based on other evidence of stolen artwork, but deaths that don’t fit the pattern throw everything off.

Answers to questions about Isabel’s past creep from home life directly into work, and when other pieces of the puzzle begin to point in her direction as a target for murder, she struggles to convince anyone of her suspicions. Worse yet, Zander seems to be out of control, the whole case spins in a direction that surprises the readers. Following the clues first one direction, then another, will have mystery lovers tied up in knots waiting to see how the author deftly pulls it all together. Told through both Zander and Isabel’s eyes, we grow suspicious as each detective begins to piece the evidence and motives together in different angles. The story comes to a conclusion in book four.

 

Pushing Robby by Kimberly M Miller

                                             

Pushing Robby: An encore of music, life, and love

Kimberly Miller

 

June 15, 2020

200 pp

Contemporary inspirational

Ebook $.99

Print $7.99

Buy on Amazon 

 About the Book

Rock and roll’s bad boy is back!
After rehab, losing his band, and nearly ruining the one relationship that ever meant anything to him, Robby Grant is finally on the right track. A new career, band, and most of all a perfect wife named Daisy can only mean one thing- the worst is finally behind him.

Until the honeymoon ends.

It only takes one phone call for the dark shadows of Robby’s past to threaten his newfound peace. Will Daisy’s love be enough to lead him, again, back to where he belongs?

Pushing Robby revisits the fun (and drama) from Picking Daisy- with most of the cast making a return to walk with the singer and his favorite lyricist through their wedding, and everything that comes after. Get ready for some fun with Robby, Daisy, Jazz, Sadie, Warren, and Uncle Nick—along with a few new characters to spice things up.
Time to Rock and Read!

My review

I adored this encore story to the very charming first story featuring Daisy, a shy, wounded wheelchair-bound songwriter who's introduced to the bad boy of rock 'n roll fame and their journey toward healing (Picking Daisy).  This book is the story of their new marriage and how far they still have to go, separately and together.

Although their story is somewhat idyllic as Robby has money to do whatever he wants, he's still a wounded child under all his bravado and newfound faith. Something from his past comes back to entangle his new life with his new bride. It's true: no good deed goes unpunished.

Lovingly written, joy oozes from each page. Even the punches, real enough, don't hurt long in this gorgeous story of music and redemption, and the "two are better than one" principle of learning and living life together, even when it hurts, and especially when we don't get our own way.

Told from both Robby and Daisy's perspectives, this summer read is a nice vacation with a moral. Suitable for teens and up.

About the Author

Kimberly Miller enjoys the seasonal weather in Pennsylvania with her husband, two daughters, and one ornery cat. She teaches writing and film courses, and in her spare time loves reading, watching movies, making jewelry, drinking coffee and eating one of God’s amazing gifts—chocolate and peanut butter.

Prayer Slayer Soul to Keep with Clare Revell

Say a Prayer Whodunit Crime Thrillers by Clare Revell

Serial, 4 books

c. 2020

Pelican Ventures LLC

Ebooks, $5.99

Print, $15.99

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins.

Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.

She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars.

She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell
http://telscha.blogspot.co.uk/
https://uk.pinterest.com/ClareLRevell/
https://www.instagram.com/clarerevell/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005NZT2O2
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005NZT2O2
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index....

Soul to Keep, book #2

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Pelican Store

About the Book

As the body count increases and more paintings are recovered, DC Zander Ellery and his partner DC Isabel York are under increasing pressure to catch the killer the press have dubbed the Prayer Slayer.

A few tenuous links are all they have between the deaths of three young, pretty women. The new Chief Superintendent is only adding to the pressure and seems to be picking on Isabel more than any other officer.

Torn between his urge to protect his partner and his need to solve the case, Zander sits his sergeant's exams, hoping once they are over, he won't be so distracted. But a rocky relationship with his girlfriend and one more murder only adds to his stress.

My review:

In the continuing serial crime thriller by Clare Revell, Headley Cross is still under attack by a murderer who seems to be choosing his victims based on a prayer and paintings that represent famous scripture. Since the media got ahold of the case, they’ve named the murderer the Prayer Slayer, giving attention the police don’t want him to have. But they’ve held back certain pieces of information, especially clues that Isabel is uncovering.

There’s more to life for detectives Zander and Isabel than solving this murder, and when life begins to get in the way; namely Isabel’s past abusive boyfriend and current living situation, and Zander’s girlfriend justifiably demanding his time, the line between work and home begins to blur. A new voice is added to the mix of misogynist police folk, and Isabel isn’t sure she can continue to work well when few people respect any progress she seems to make.

The partners have determined the pattern the killer follows, but no matter how fast they work, the killer dodges their every move. In a strange twist, the deeper Zander delves into the case, the more unhinged he begins to sound. Told in alternating viewpoints from Zander to Isabel, the tension mounts. The story continues in book three.

Memoir of a child refugee

The Boy Refugee

by Khawaja Azimuddin 

Memoir

160 pages

Published June 20th 2020 by Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

ISBN13 - 9781645361206

 

$3.99 eBook

$10.95 paper

$24.95 Hardcover

 

Buy on Amazon

Barnes and Noble 

About the Book

The Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of a young refugee boy in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The story chronicles his escape from war-ravaged Bangladesh to the relative safety of a barbed-wired internment camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, his day-to-day life as a civilian prisoner of war, and his thousand-mile, two-year-long journey back to Pakistan.

My review

This memoir takes the reader to a not-so-distant frightening episode in world history. Told from a grown-up emigre physician’s point of view, Dr. Azimuddin shares the story of his childhood spent as an innocent bystander caught up in war in the early 1970s.

Dr. Azimuddin makes the point that this period of world history is little-discussed or taught. I was in junior high when I learned about the new country of Bangladesh erupting from the former East Pakistan; how the Pakistani people had been divided across the expanse of northern India, and how they’d grown apart, almost into separate people with their own customs, language, and culture. But, eclipsed by the atrocity that was Viet Nam, not to mention upheaval in almost every other corner of the globe, attempted genocide in this out-of-the-way region has been pretty much treated as a civil war in world history.

Tensions had been mounting for years, but by the early 1970s, Pakistani people, some of whom had migrated from west to east a hundred years earlier, living and working in East Pakistan, were suddenly cast into the role of usurpers. The Bengali people, as those who lived in East Pakistan preferred to call themselves, decided they were being treated unfairly and rose up to split from Pakistan and form the new nation of Bangladesh. People who weren’t Bengali, even if they’d lived there for generations, were attacked in a genocidal campaign, and many businesses closed. Pakistani troops were sent, and India had little choice but to get involved. Those who could, fled, leaving behind every part of their lives—home, jobs, friends and sometimes relatives, as well as their future.

Azimuddin’s father had decades earlier moved from West Pakistan and found work in a jute factory, eventually becoming a manager. The family, parents and three children, watched the growing unrest, but chose to stay until they were forced to go into hiding. They eventually found shelter in an army cantonment, then were part of a rescue operation by the Indian government that began to move refugees back toward Pakistan. When Pakistan hesitated to receive its 93,000 rescued citizens back, the Indian government set up camps across northern India and treated the refugees, both civilians and Pakistani military personnel, as Prisoners of War. It is here that Azimuddin spent two years while Pakistan hemmed and hawed about accepting its people. Meanwhile, a vast number, as many as a quarter million non-Bengalis, or Biharis, were left in Bangladesh to their fate, only recently gaining some recognition.

As a child, Azimuddin’s perception of life in the refugee camp is perhaps colored by his innocence. Imagine going from a large home with servants to take care of one’s needs to a six by eight-foot bare cement floor for your family of five, walled off by your three suitcases and sleeping bag, and a couple of sheets. You share a large area with several families, and common bathrooms for women and for men, and a common tap for water. You are fed basically gruel three times a day. You are under guard day and night, surrounded by barbed wire which, if you touch, you are punished. You long for a chance to go on wood and coal runs that, even though constitutes hard labor, is at least a chance to get outside the compound. Azimuddin recalls the experience certainly not pleasant, but not overtly harsh. Most of the Indian guards were decent folk, and though rations, warm clothing, and education were barely adequate, it was enough. Social life, faith practices, rudimentary government carried on. The older children were allowed some rudimentary volunteer education; a tiny stipend was given out to spend at the canteen, mail was available; even an opportunity to hear some basic radio news broadcasts. But the people were faced with uncertain futures if they ever were freed from the camp.

Eventually the standstill ended and Pakistan lukewarmly welcomed these POWs. Azimuddin’s father had to begin life all over, having lost everything, including pension. Dr. Azimuddin says their years of deprivation changed them, and made them tougher, perhaps better able to withstand a slow jumpstart back into the workforce. The family was in somewhat better circumstances than others, since they had outside family support, but it was no less traumatizing.

This memoir is a fascinating read, and highly recommended for those interested in under-told world events.

About the Author

Dr. Khawaja Azimuddin is a gastro-intestinal surgeon in Houston, TX. He specializes in minimally invasive robotic surgery for colon cancer. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh. Though he has authored numerous scientific research articles, medical book chapters, and a surgical reference book, this is his first non-scientific work. In his free time, Dr. Azimuddin is an avid ceramic tile artist and many of his large-scale murals are installed in public places. He uses his passion for arts to help build bridges between communities.

New Murder series with Clare Revell

Say a Prayer Whodunit Crime Thrillers by Clare Revell

Serial, 4 books

c. 2020

Pelican Ventures LLC

Ebooks, $5.99

Print, $15.99

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins.

Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.

She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars.

She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell
http://telscha.blogspot.co.uk/
https://uk.pinterest.com/ClareLRevell/
https://www.instagram.com/clarerevell/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005NZT2O2
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005NZT2O2
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index....

Down to Sleep, book #1

ebook, 286 pages

Published May 7th 2020 by Pelican Book Group

ISBN13 9781522302773

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

Pelican book store 

About the Book:

DC Zander Ellery isn't sure which he dislikes the most: New partners, rookie female officers, or cases he can't solve. Right now he has all three.

DC Isabel York is fresh out of uniform and out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire as her personal and professional lives clash with her first case—ten stolen works of art.

When a postcard arrives addressed to Isabel with a cryptic message on it, it's just the beginning. The mystery deepens as the first of the stolen paintings is found alongside a dead body—bound and gagged and left posed in prayer at the place depicted in the postcard.

Are nine more murders coming? Can Zander and Isabel find the missing paintings and solve the murder before another victim falls?

My review

It’s always a little crazy jumping into a new series, but with Revell’s thrillers, you’re at home in Headley Cross, a place in the English countryside her fans have come to know and love well. Revell tackles a dark series of murders based of all things on a prayer tied to frightening imagery supposed to represent the bedrock of faith in gruesome artwork. Learning the ins and outs of British police departments is almost as intriguing and frustrating as trying to dig newly promoted Isabel York’s in-basket. No longer a beat cop, she’s a detective assigned to work with male colleagues who are a bit unsure of themselves and act out inappropriately. One prank they play is stuffing her desk mail with dozens and more junk, making it a chore to paw through. Missing a crucial piece of evidence makes it harder to start on a long and irksome, challenging case to beat a killer who is always one step ahead.      

Alezander Ellery, Zander for short, is in need of a new partner, though he hopes not for long as he studies for a test that will give him a career boost and a potential move to a new department. He’s willing to give Isabel a chance, but eventually learns that trust and respect have to be mutual to work. Things are going so well, and the pressure is on when the victims become people they know.

Told in alternating viewpoints, readers get an inside look at the pressure of solving a case of serial murders in a small community. This is a true series, and plays out over four books.

 

 

Healing Faith by Pamela Gossiaux

Healing Faith

Pam Gossiaux

June 20, 2020

Tri-Cat Publishing

$4.99 Ebook

$14.95 Print

Buy on Amazon 

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About the Book

A heartwarming story about trusting in your heart, even when it has been broken. By international bestselling author Pamela Gossiaux!

Faith is believing in something when the outcome seems impossible…

Rachel Walker’s husband left her for another woman, her parents are disappointed in her, and she is struggling with her job as a child psychologist. The only place she feels valued is at Three Hearts Ranch, the equine-assisted therapy center where she volunteers. It’s her safe space from the world.

Until Christopher Adler walks through the barn door. 

Christopher Adler is the only survivor of the attack that took the lives of the other men in his Humvee in Afghanistan.  Several years later, he has left a string of bad relationships and buried himself in a bottle until one cold night when he met God. Now, trying to turn his life around, he seeks help for his PTSD at Three Hearts Ranch. But he wasn’t counting on Rachel Walker – the girl he had hurt in high school– to be assigned as his therapist. 

Rachel detests Chris, and working together isn’t an option. But then Faith, an abused palomino mare, is brought to the farm. As they try to save her, old feelings resurface, and they start to question whether wounds can be healed and hearts restored. 

My Review

I love it when a story makes me cry. I’m not even a pet person. Gossiaux’s latest western Michigan-based horse therapy tale is much more than light romance. She touches on the very real trauma of adult-onset PTSD, as well as unfortunate consequences of teen angst and parental dysfunction. We all have choices, but sometimes I wonder what God is doing when He gives us enough room to…you know.

Rachel Walker is a psychologist whose specialty is working with children by day in a clinical setting, and volunteering on the side at an equine therapy center. The horse farm, her safe haven, grounds her when life overwhelms even the toughest human. Rachel’s friend/boss Gretchen at the clinic has given Rachel a lot of latitude to work out the lifelong anger that’s pretty much ruled every choice she’s made. Stemming from a devastating let-down in high school, Rachel has blamed every bad development on the one person who left her out to dry. But when that person, Chris Adler, shows up again a dozen years later and needing her help professionally, she faces more impossible choices. Now, Rachel’s boss/friend Kim, owner of the horse farm about to go under from potential financial ruin, isn’t about to let Rachel wiggle out of a responsibility to use her talent to help others. Especially when she’s Chris’s only hope of regaining a functional life.

When these lost and hurting souls team up to bring a special rescue horse named Faith back to face the world, they learn together that even if they can’t find a way to fix everything and everyone, a greater Presence will always have their backs.

Told in alternating viewpoints from Rachel and Chris, this story encompasses great love and the value of forgiveness no matter how hard it is to let go of anger, assumptions, and particularly the expectations we place on those we love. Beautiful story, well told, and highly recommended for those who enjoy chewy redemptive books.

About the Author

Pamela Gossiaux is the international bestselling author of the Russo Romantic Mystery series, the romantic comedy Good Enough, the YA novel Ordinary Girl, and the inspirational books, Why Is There a Lemon in My Fruit Salad? How to Stay Sweet When Life Turns Sour, and A Kid at Heart. She is also a keynote speaker, freelance writer, and teaches writing workshops. She lives and writes in Michigan near a wonderful university town with her husband, two sons, and three cats. Visit her website at PamelaGossiaux

Book Review WWI Canadian fiction with Jenny Knipfer

 

Silver Moon, By the Light of the Moon series, book 3 by Jenny Knipfer

Inspirational Historical fiction

self-published, June 30, 2020, 409 pp

Buy the book

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Print: $15.99

EBOOK: $2.99

About the Book

Silver Moon, the third book in the series: By the Light of the Moon, paints a stunning and poignant picture of life on the home front in Webaashi Bay, Ontario, and of three men who are a part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WWI.

Shamed into joining the war, the tide turns for Luis Wilson when he is steered into the depths of espionage. Injured and presumed missing, will he lose his heart to the very woman who presented him with a white feather?

Oshki and Jimmy offer a grim perspective on life in the trenches. They despair of ever returning home to the women who hold their hearts.

Meanwhile, Lily fights for the cause in her own way and rallies the female troops at home as prejudices run high and the local cafe owner is accused of being a spy.

Will the women of Webaashi Bay receive their men back unscathed? Can the power of love win out over insurmountable odds? All this drama and more plays out under the light of a silver moon.

My Review:

The third book in Knipfer’s By the Light of the Moon series draws the reader into World War One on the European front and at home in Webaashi Bay, Canada. Although this story stood alone quite well, readers will be intrigued to see how the family drama developed in the first two stories plays out. This story felt comfortable for a first-time reader to the author, more like being welcomed by new friends. The setting, a time of need, camaraderie and survival, brings the large cast and reader together. I enjoy history, and Knipfer’s research and literary replay put me in place in Canada and the trenches of France and Belgium. 

Told from a dramatic starting point, Knipfer leads her readers through a web of time and place that slowly draws us toward a meeting point when all the timelines and character threads meld and move forward together. Three soldiers share their stories from the war front while the reader is pulled back in time to explain what led up to the events. I admit that the number of family members of each character and the time jumps from the start of the war at home to periods in between up to 1917 were somewhat jerky until I settled into intimacy with their unique voices and perspectives. In this case, I recommend that the reader simply let the stories unfold in their own time.

Luis is an artistic soul who joins up when challenged by a stranger, much to the surprise and dismay of his family. His First Nation friend Oshki then jumps on the bandwagon primarily to make sure his buddy stays safe. Their stories twine is precious ways. The third hometown boy’s story comes about some ways into the story when Luis’s sister Lily takes up a community effort to support the valiant men and begins not only a letter-writing campaign, but establishes a women’s civic club for mutual benefit among the citizens of the small Ontario community.

Knipfer’s sense of place and era were lovingly recreated as little-known facts emerge, such as placing citizens of German descent in internment camps during the war, much like was done to Japanese-descent citizens during World War Two.

Ultimately, Silver Moon is a story of forgiveness, second chances, prayer and patience. Although told through multiple characters, Lily and Luis carry the main threads. An epilogue wraps up this story line. Harvest Moon, the fourth in the series, is scheduled for release later this fall and I look forward to reading it.

About the Author

Jenny Knipfer lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Ken and their pet Yorkie, Ruby. She is also a mom and loves being a grandma. She enjoys many creative pursuits but finds writing the most fulfilling.

Jenny’s education background stems from psychology, music, and cultural missions. She spent many years as a librarian in a local public library but recently switched to using her skills as a floral designer in a retail flower shop. She is now retired from work due to disability.

She authored and performed a self-published musical CD entitled, Scrapbook of a Closet Poet. Jenny acquires joy in the journey as an author. Ruby Moon, the first title in her historical fiction series: By the Light of the Moon, earned a five star rating from Readers' Favorite. Her books are available in eBook and paperback formats through Amazon and Ingramspark.

Jenny holds membership in the: Historical Novel Society, Wisconsin Writers Association, and Midwest Independent Booksellers Association.

Jenny’s favorite place to relax is by the western shore of Lake Superior, where her novel series is set.