The Age of Miracles by Karen Thomas Walker ★ ★ ★ ★

A Time Stealer

Since I first saw the 1971 apocalyptic film “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston, I’ve been fascinated with the end of the world.  How many times can you read about the world ending and still find it interesting? It’s endless because the books are never really about the end of the world but about the characters and their struggles with their new lives.

In “The Age of Miracles”, first time author Karen Thomas Walker tells her apocalyptic vision through the reminiscences of an adult Julia, who as an introverted, only child of eleven, experiences the events of the world which became known as The Slowing.  With little warning, the earth’s rotation slows causing, initially, only a few extra minutes in the day and some mild concern. 

But as The Slowing continues and the days and nights become increasingly longer, the entire population begins to realise that they will need to alter their lifestyle.  Midnight can be in full sun and dawn doesn’t necessarily arrive early in the morning.  Decisions must be made as to whether the population sticks to clock time or lives according to the cycle of daylight and darkness.

The scientific facts and worsening health of the entire planet is a backdrop to the central story of Julia coming of age.  Julia’s parents seem to be growing as far apart as the day and night.  Seth, a class mate, for whom Julia has increasingly strong feelings, doesn’t know she exists.  Even her best friend has deserted her and moved with her family to Colorado.

What is most interesting is the layering of the story with the politics of school life, the principles of family and the broader divide in society as each new day dawns a little different from the one before.  When uncertainty is certain, some will abandon their current lives and others will make a stand.

Susan Beth Pfeffer stole a weekend from me when I read her YA novel ‘Life As We Knew It’ with a similar premise and a young protagonist.  So, too, now Walker steals another weekend.  But there is no better way to lose time than watching the world end in the hands of a stunning debut talent like Karen Thomas Walker.

            To read more about the book or this author please click over to http://www.theageofmiraclesbook.com/

About the Author

Karen Thompson Walker was born and raised in San Diego, California, where The Age of Miracles is set. She studied English and creative writing at UCLA, where she wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin. After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the San Diego area before moving to New York City to attend the Columbia University MFA program.

A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she wrote The Age of Miracles in the mornings before work—sometimes while riding the subway.

She is the recipient of the 2011 Sirenland Fellowship as well as a Bomb Magazine fiction prize. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

'12.21' by Dustin Thomason ★ ★ ★★

An Antidote to Sleep

It’s ironic an apocalyptic novel, where the world is threatened by a disease causing fatal insomnia, should have me up at 2am in the morning. As well as creating sleepless nights this book will fascinate you with facts about fatal familial insomnia disease. Yes it is real—you can die from not sleeping.

‘12-21' also delves into the sometimes bloodthirsty stories of Mayan history and culture. Add this, to a list of rich characters battling their own demons fighting to save a world sliding into oblivion, and you have the ingredients of a successful novel.

Best selling novelist, Dustin Thomason has given us his version of ‘The Andromeda Strain’ with all the key elements that made Michael Crichton novels such an entertaining read. There’s science, drama, well-drawn characters and above all an unrelenting pace that builds until the last pages of frantic struggles.

The quality is not surprising, as Thomason’s 2004 novel, ‘The Rule of Four’, co-written with Ian Caldwell, sold over four million copies worldwide and he was crowned best selling debut novelist of the decade.

In ‘12-21' our journey begins in an undiscovered ancient Mayan temple, in the jungles of South America, where a codex filled with seemingly indecipherable hieroglyphics is discovered by a looter. Travelling to the USA he sells his valuable artefact on the black market.

The Codex falls into the hands of Chel Manu, Antiquities Curator of the Getty Museum, and a world authority on ancient Mayan inscriptions. Chel risks everything in not alerting the authorities to the illegal find as she is desperate to translate the Codex herself.

In an LA hospital, in December 2012, a man muttering in an unknown language is admitted, suffering from the incurable, ‘fatal insomnia disease’. Dr. Gabriel Stanton, an expert on highly contagious diseases, quickly realises they have a deadly virus on their hands.

When Chel is brought in to translate the dying man’s utterings, she and Stanton find themselves inextricably united in a frantic quest to discover the geographical origins of the disease through the deciphering of the Codex.

‘12-21’ is a science thriller of the highest calibre, written with a flair that will certainly place it on the best seller lists. Warning: This book will create insomnia but once the last page is read you will recover.

'12-21' is available in Australia on 22nd August, 2012.  It's a highly recommended read from me. 

Thank you to Penguin Australia for the E-book review copy.  Read on my wonderful Kobo.  For purchasing information on the book, please visit here Penguin Australia "12.21".
About the Author

Dustin Thomason co-wrote the number one International and New York Times bestseller, The Rule of Four. He earned his BA in Anthropology from Harvard College and his Medical Degree from Columbia University.

He co-wrote the 2004 novel The Rule of Four, [1] co-created the 2006 ABC drama The Evidence and has executive produced numerous television series, including Fox's Lie to Me.

The Rule of Four reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for more than six months. The book was a number-one national and international bestseller and has been translated into more than 25 languages. It has sold more than four million copies worldwide, and was the best selling debut novel of the decade.

Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May ★ ★ ★★

Australian and New Zealand Book Lovers

Win a copy of Life! Death! Prizes! at Myshoppinglist.com.au

Competition open until 19th August 2012

We have a Winner!

‘Life, Death, Prizes’ went to the bottom of my ‘to read’ list—not really my cup of tea. It’s a great gig reviewing books but the downside is that many times you receive books that are just not to your taste.  The books that rock my world involve thrills, spills, psychopaths, and if you have a spare monster or ghost, I will take those as well. 

Now the upside of being a book reviewer—besides the lovely, free unreleased books—is the same as the downside.  Let’s just say I am forced to read outside my comfort zone and, sometimes,  I am pleasantly surprised.  On occasions, I am absolutely blown away.

So, where does ‘Life! Death! Prizes! fall?  If my voice sounds like an echo it’s because I’ve been blown away to Kansas by this book.  Not my usual fare but it proves a book well written, no matter what, is a good book.

Billy is a nineteen-year-old dealing with the emotions of, well, being a nineteen-year-old, and all the associated grottiness and self-consciousness.  His Mother has died pointlessly in a recent bungled street robbery leaving him parent to his little brother Oscar.  There are plenty of pedestrian books on kids whose Mother has died but author Stephen May has voiced Billy with uncommon clarity. 

The two brother’s home life becomes a blend of unscheduled lives, unsuitable film watching, and uneaten healthy food stacked in the freezer whilst they dine on takeaway.  When well-meaning relatives, teachers and Government bodies question Billy’s ability to care for his little brother he must add ‘fighting the establishment’ to his list of duties.  

There is, also, the smouldering mystery of the missing killer’s life, as Billy’s paranoia of his whereabouts grows, and we are offered a glimpse into what makes a criminal. Events are not neat or expected and an extraordinary ending will literally take your breath away.

Whilst the tag for the book claims it is funny, bittersweet, unforgettable; a story of grief, resilience and brotherly love, that is not the whole story.  It is probably the most intriguing book I’ve read in a long time.  Put it at the very  top of your ‘to read’ list.

PURCHASE THIS BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

         Stephen May is a novelist, playwright and TV writer. His first novel TAG (Cinnamon Press – 2008) was one of ten books long-listed for Welsh Book of the Year and went on to win the Media Wales Readers' Prize – an award voted for by the general public, as the best book on the list.

His plays Back The World and Still Waiting for Everything toured nationally to good reviews. He also had an unhappy stint working as a storyline writer on A Top ITV continuing drama.

Stephen also wrote the best-selling how-to guide Teach Yourself Creative Writing (Hodder and Staughton) and his second novel Life! Death! Prizes! is his second novel and is published in 2012 in the USA, Australia and Germany.  He is also working on new plays and TV projects both on his own and with the writer Mark Illis.

Stephen May was brought up in Bedford and now lives in West Yorkshire. Visit his website at  http://www.sdmay.com/ 

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for my review copy of this book. Visit Bloomsbury ANZ for more information on their other fabulous titles.

The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal ★ ★ ★ ★

Australian and New Zealand Book Lovers
Win a copy of The Golden Scales at Myshoppinglist.com.au
Competition open until 15th July 2012

A Thrilling Place to Visit

A mystery set in Cairo is not my traditional fair. Throw in a plot involving football and you’ve almost lost me.  However, as I read this first paragraph, I realised my visit to Cairo via The Golden Scales was to be thrilling, led by a writer who knows how to open with a punch.

“The bright light struck her full in the eyes and for an instant she was blinded, as if struck by some ancient curse. Liz Markham reared back, completely stalled by the human mass that confronted her.  Her heart racing, she began to run.  Her child was somewhere out there, lost in this madness.”

By the time I’d turned the first page, I knew another thing, London born author Parker Bilal (pen-name of  Jamal Mahjoub) could write and pace with the best mystery thriller authors.  This from an writer classified as a literary novelist—which I usually take to mean ‘can turn a beautiful praise but the pace is slow.’ 

The Golden Scales introduces us to Makana, an exiled Sudanese private investigator, living on a run-down Nile houseboat.  Hired by wealthy Hanafi, owner of Cairo’s star football team, he finds himself investigating the team’s star player Adil Romario.

Everything is a closely held mystery until the last few pages: What happened to Makana’s wife and daughter years before? Why did the powerful Hanafi hire the lowly Makana?  What does a twenty-year-old case of a missing child and her English mother Liz have to do with his investigation?

As layers of sub-plots and colourful characters are paved, you are drawn into a fascinating world of the wealthy and glamorous of Cairo and just as quickly plunged into the dark and cutthroat life of the criminal underworld.  The links between the two revealing themselves the deeper Makana pursues his leads.

This is Egypt without the pyramids but peopled with dark characters, intriguing back stories and a stoic, intelligent lead character, who carries himself with credible assurance.   

Bilal has created a character and setting thriller lovers will be eager to visit again and again.  The Golden Scales is the first of a detective series featuring Makana and this is one reader who looks forward to my next visit to Egypt, with our without pyramids.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub has published seven critically acclaimed literary novels, which have been widely translated.

Born in London, he has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo and Denmark. He currently lives in Barcelona. Visit http://www.jamalmahjoub.com/ to learn more about this author.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for my review copy of 'The Golden Scales'. Visit Bloomsbury ANZ for more information on their other fabulous titles.

Purchase this book from Allen & Unwin 
Available Now RRP $29.99

An Unfamiliar Murder ★ ★★ ★- Jane Isaac

The DNA of Murder 

            You know it is going to be a page-turner when in the first chapter a strange body turns up in the home of the protagonist, Anna Cottrell, who is not a spy but just your average school teacher. 

            After the police accept Anna is not the murderer and release her, she then discovers that she and the murder victim are linked and that perhaps her past is not exactly as she was led to believe.  What is even more frightening is that those past secrets could quite possibly place her and her boyfriend Ross in extreme danger.  When he goes missing Anna determines she must uncover those secrets or she may never see Ross again.

            “I am fascinated by what happens when extraordinary things happen to ordinary people,’’ says Author Jane Isaac.  “Apart from the odd parking fine or speeding ticket, most of our lives are untouched by law enforcement. For ‘An Unfamiliar Murder’, I played with the idea of a perfectly normal person finding themselves out of the realms of normality.  I wondered how Anna would feel and react to finding a dead body in her flat and spending a night in a cell.”

            Also attempting to unravel the secrets is investigating officer, DCI Helen Lavery, an ambitious woman who juggles her very demanding job life with that of a single Mom to teenage sons.  When Anna Cottrell’s murder case lands on her desk, she soon realizes it is far more complicated than she first expected.  After DNA evidence leads her on a chase through Anna’s family tree, she begins to fear that if she cannot find the killer soon there will be more victims.

            Readers are certainly taken on a merry chase following DCI Lavery as she solves the murder. Isaac felt that very early on in the writing of her debut novel she could do a lot more with Lavery’s character and is currently working on a sequel to ‘An Unfamiliar Murder’, and there are also plans for a third book in the series. It would seem that for the new found fans of Helen Lavery, she will become very familiar to readers in the next few years.

About Jane

Jane Isaac lives in rural Northamptonshire, UK with her husband, daughter and dog, Bollo. Jane studied creative writing, and later specialist fiction with the London School of Journalism.

Jane blogs about her writing experience, 'Diary of a Newbie Novelist' at www.newbiewriters.com. She is also co-author at the Pyjama Club.

Two of Jane's short stories, Duplicity and Perilous Truths, will appear in Crime Anthologies released in 2012 by Rainstorm Press and Bridge House Publishing. An Unfamiliar Murder is her first novel.

An Unfamiliar Murder is available from

Paperback US: An Unfamiliar Murder

Kindle US:         Kindle Version only $3.99

On a Dark Wing by Jordan Dane ★ ★ ★

Cheating death but not the reader

The idea that fate and death can be manipulated has haunted mankind for millennia. The Ancient Greeks, seeing death as inevitable, did not portray him as evil but represented by a bearded and winged angel or sometimes a young boy. 

That Death is more than a biological event forms the basis for ON A DARK WING, the latest book from Jordan Dane and her second Young Adult novel.

            “Death would be my willing teacher,” reflects Abbey Chandler, thinking back on the death of her Mother five years before in a terrible car accident for which Abbey feels responsible. She survived whilst her Mother did not and she pays the price every day with guilt. In between her thoughts of guilt we follow Abbey’s obsession with Nate Holden—a boy who doesn’t know she exists.

Each year, as homage to Abbey’s Mother, her Father takes them to their holiday cabin in the wilderness. This year Abbey doesn’t want to go. She wants to stay with her paraplegic friend, Tanner Lange, and follow Nate’s latest expedition on Tanner’s broadband radio. But go to the Cabin she must, with all her teenage rebellion and the still smoldering anger at losing her Mother, on full throttle.

When Nate starts to climb Alaska's Denali, with his experienced mountain climbing Father and a close friend, he cannot realise his fate is intertwined with Abbey’s long ago brush with death.

The story moves back and forth between Nate, and his drama unfolding on the mountain, and Abbey, thousands of miles away, pining for him. Dane brings these two young people together in a surprising twist that finds Abbey in a desperate struggle to save Nate. The page-turning pace increases until we ultimately discover what really happened on that fateful day of the car accident five years ago.

Although, this book appears to be a romance at the outset, it is more an entry into the question posed by so many writers: “What are the repercussions of cheating death?” In the case of ON A DARK WING, the answer is frightening and a little heart-breaking and a page turning read.

About the Author

Publishers Weekly compared her intense thrillers to Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag. This national best selling, critically acclaimed author’s debut novel NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM was named Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2008.

Dane’s first Young Adult book is IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS (Apr 2011, Harlequin Teen) with ON A DARK WING released January 2012. Her next YA books with Harlequin Teen will be a series –THE HUNTED, release slated for fall 2012 through 2013.

Formerly an energy sales manager, she now writes full time. Jordan and her husband share their Texas residence with two cats of highborn lineage and two very lucky rescue dogs.

            Learn more about Jordan DAne and her books at Jordan Dane Website

The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton ★ ★ ★ ★

Eternally Talented

‘The Forever Girl’ should come with a warning, “This book will transform you into an Urban Fantasy fan”.  After reading the Twilight books, I decided that I am not a fan of romance between humans and creatures of the night.  I like my vampires full of bite and without compassion. 

The Forever Girl is published through Immortal Ink Publishing and available from: 

Amazon US (Kindle e-book)

Amazon US (Paperback)

Barnes & Noble (EPUB e-book)

Barnes & Noble (Paperback)

Apple iBooks (EPUB e-book)

Amazon UK (Kindle e-book)

Amazon UK (Paperback)

Fipkart.com India (Paperback)

Kobo (EPUB e-book)

Diesel (Paperback)

Amazon DE (Kindle e-book)

Amazon DE (Paperback)

Amazon FR (Kindle e-book)

Amazon FR (Paperback)

Amazon ES (Kindle e-book)

Amazon ES (Paperback)

Amazon IT (Kindle e-book)Amazon IT (Paperback)

What makes ‘The Forever Girl’ by Rebecca Hamilton a cut about the average urban fantasy is the writing.  She has a talent for weaving words.  “I tilted my chin closer to his face, the distance between our lips shrinking to nothing more than a breath.”  That is a neat phrase. Throw in intriguing plot twists and you have a good read no matter your genre taste.

Sophia Parsons has a lot on her mind.  She’s a practicing Wiccan and a cult in Belle Meadow wants her out of the community, vilifying her at every opportunity. Then there is the hissing noise and voices in her head that won’t go away. She discovers one of her relatives in the sixteen hundreds was slaughtered as a true witch which sets her on a path to discover how this heritage is impacting her modern day life.

Her search takes her one night to Club Flesh, encouraged by her friend, Ivory, who tells her a friend there possesses an antique book which may help. There she meets Charles—a mysterious and seductive man—and is later chased by strange creatures through the forrest and almost killed.  She learns that these are the Cruor, vampire types, who’ve existed secretly for thousands of years.

As the romance between Charles and Sophia grows—and trust me, it is page-turning—it is clear that Sophia’s past and present are going to collide in a dangerous way.

Hamilton explains that ‘The Forever Girl’ grew from the characters who took over the story.  She says, “As I explored the mythology of this world more and more, the trilogy soon turned into a series.”

 It was a wise move by this first time author to follow her characters. The fantasy world is rich, the characters fascinating, and Hamilton’s skill very capable of holding a reader’s interest through many more books of Sophia’s journey.

About the Author

Rebecca Hamilton writes Paranormal Fantasy, Horror, and Literary Fiction. She lives in Florida with her husband and three kids, along with multiple writing personalities that range from morbid to literary.  Learn more about Rebecca Hamilton and her books at Beccahamiltonbooks.com 

Also visit the very cool website of www.theforevergirl.com for more information on the series.