Laura Freeman's Blog, page 22

Lost & Found

Lost & Found by James Hunt 2020 Thriller

This is the third book in the North and Martin Abduction Series. I didn’t feel the need to read the previous books first because the author did a great job of explaining the past, but the story was good enough to make me want to read the earlier books in the series.

Jim North and Kerry Martin are detectives and partners in the missing persons division. They each have a tragic and violent past which makes their involvement in this story personal. The stakes are high for both characters which is important in a story where the hero’s life is put on the line.

The story begins with the abduction of 11-year-old Chris Benson as he rides his bike home from a baseball game. The man pretends to be hurt and lures the boy toward him. It’s every parent’s nightmare, and this story hits home for anyone with children. As soon as they begin the investigation into Chris another child, Daisy, is abducted from a chess tournament. The third child is Jake Martin, Kerry’s 6-year-old son, who is taken from his school.

Hunt shows us the anguish and anger Kerry goes through as she frantically tries to find her missing son and the other children. The kidnapper sends three timepieces showing the hours left for each child. He also leaves clues that point back to Jim’s own childhood abduction and escape. He has to remember the details of his ordeal in order to save the children.

The timepieces is a nice touch to keep the pressure on to find each child. The detectives have to rely on every tool with forensics, cold cases, and interviews to find their kidnapper. Hunt also adds a nice twist by providing a red herring that actually leads to a break-through in the case.

Hunt takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions as the detectives figure out some clues only to face disappointment and failure with others. Both North and Martin are stretched to the limits of their sanity as they get closer to the kidnapper only to have him elude them. Although they make a few mistakes, they also act intelligently and logically. You root for them as they take you along the chase and want to see more of them in future stories.

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The Blessed Plot

The Blessed Plot by M.R.D. Meek 1992 A Worldwide Mystery Mystery

This is the third book I read starring Lennox Kemp, solicitor and former detective. The books span several years with large gaps in between and Kemp ages without too many changes. He falls for the wrong lady and is obsessed with class differences.

In this story Julie Sorrento and her two children need him to help her receive legal aid because her husband, Luciano, has abandoned them. The little clues mean a lot in this story so pay attention.

He is invited by Lettice Warrendeer to a party at Courtenay Manor where twins Vivian (male) and Venetia (female) have inherited after the long 90-year life of Uncle Silas comes to an end. Silas was old fashioned and they go into the hereditary laws that are confusing, but the end result is that the oldest male heir inherits everything, which is Vivian.

A lot of people are introduced. Arnold Crayshaw is the solicitor from the London office and handling the Courtenay estate. Blanche Courtenay, mother of the twins, doesn’t inherit because her husband died before inheriting. Lydia Beresford is researching the gravestones and tells Lennox about an American. The body of Luciano is found, but Kemp dismisses it as the reason he was missing.

After prodding from his secretary, Lennox starts to look deeper into the death of Luciano and shares his concerns with Inspector Upshire, who appears in other books. Together they uncover the fact that Luciana, Julie and the kids returned to Sicily so who is the dead man?

Lydia falls or is she pushed down the stairs at a masquerade ball at the Courtenay Manor, and Lettice shows Kemp a secret room where a French prisoner was held for ransom. Blanche confesses a secret her husband had and the small details fall into place.

Kemp puts himself in the path of danger that no police force would allow, but he manages to stay alive. There are probably more books in the series.

The motive was an old one with a modern twist which writers need to take advantage of when plotting stories. Take an old and tried storyline but add some twists, modernizations, or a different cast of characters to give it a new feel for the reader.

Some writers will take a book in the top 10 sellers list and write their own version. Think Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Twilight. Sometimes they can profit from the popularity of the genre or it can end up being a pale shadow of the original.

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Ruby: Daughter of the Dagger

Ruby: Daughter of the Dagger by Elizabeth Rose 2013 historical romance

Symbols are important in a story for tying together or an idea. Ruby is the eldest of four sisters, Sapphire, Amber and Amethyst, each with a gem name that ties the series together. Their mother bought four daggers that would bring true love to each of them. When their mother died in childbirth with a son, their father, Talbot, got rid of the daggers.

Lord Nyle Dacre from Sheffield comes to Talbot to marry one of his daughters. He chooses Ruby when he sees her practicing with a lance and decides she can defend herself. He has lost three wives in the past two months, each on his wedding day before consummating the marriage. Ruby tries to escape marriage to the Lord of Death but they complete their vows and barely survive the wedding night.

Their differences are resolved too quickly and I would have liked more conflict between the lovers before they settle into life as husband and wife.

Nyle reveals why he needs to marry so quickly. King Edward III has an illegitimate son he wants Nyle and his wife to raise. Nyle thinks the boy may be his since he shared the bed of Lady Jocelyn who was banished from London by the king. Because of the subplot and a need for a motive for the murders, the villain is obvious, but no one seems to put the pieces together.

This story has the beginning of a good romance/mystery but could have been developed in both genres to create more conflict and suspense. The motive of the villain wasn’t clear. Did she want her son back? Did she want Nyle for her own? If she wanted her son to be happy, why did she hesitate to hold him? Her actions were confusing. She had killed three women and intimidated several men to keep her identity secret before they died. I would have liked her character to be drawn more clearly. In the end, she just seemed crazy.

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Dark Soldier

Dark Soldier by Katherine Myers 1983 Avon Books

The story begins with two children switched in England before the Revolutionary War. Thomas and Elizabeth trade their son, Seth, 10, for Peter’s daughter, Saura, 1 year old. Lawrence resents the new child and kicks and pinches her. This reveals his character and foreshadows the trouble he will bring Saura later in life.

Saura travels to the colonies when she is 14 with her Comstock cousins, who are part of Boston’s trade families. Meanwhile, Seth, travels to England and a commission in the British army. This story relies on fate and the reader knows these two will meet, but it seems forced.

When Thomas dies, a letter from Elizabeth tells her to visit Peter, who takes her in. He shares his views about the Sons of Liberty, which she accepts. When Peter cannot deliver a secret message, Saura dresses as a boy and takes it the inn. Only redcoats are all around the place and she hides in a wagon. She is discovered and forced to shine boots by Capt. Seth Adams. When her hat falls off, her disguise is discovered and the chaplain decides she needs a firm husband’s hand to control her. The single men line up, and she blindly points to the end where Seth is standing. They are legally married and consummate the marriage although Saura regrets it the next morning and escapes home.

I didn’t like the fact that Saura chose Seth at random and any of the British soldiers would do. I think it would have worked better to have her choose Seth since she knew him and he was handsome and a gentleman. We have seen enough reality shows to know marrying a stranger rarely works. The encounter with Seth, although brief, would have made him her choice over the other men.

Saura can’t forget Seth and he visits, keeping their marriage a secret. He won’t have the marriage annulled, and she is falling in love with him in spite of the fact she vows not to love a Lobsterback or Tory. A good conflict is waging the mind against the heart. Her mind says she can’t love someone with such opposing political views but her heart says otherwise.

Lawrence visits and proposes marriage. She tells him no but he is obsessed with having her and won’t give up. Seth gives her a wedding ring. Jealous of Molly, who flirts with Seth, Saura announces she is married to Seth but was forced. He uses the “Taming of the Shrew” to woo her and they declare their love. Classical literature can be used in modern stories to help establish a theme. I used a “Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens in my “Impending Love and Death” to compare Paris and London to Washington D.C. and Richmond during the Civil War.

Saura visits her mother in Boston, and Lawrence kisses her but Seth hits him. She fears the war will tear them apart because they are on opposite sides. He hints of having a secret. They announce their marriage to her side of the family. As one problem is resolved, bring another into the story. Saura’s fears for their future happiness shadow their present happiness.

At a party, Molly, who left Peter’s town, is married to a rich old man, but is stabbed in the library. This introduces a new problem that affects the couple. On his way to report, Seth is shot, and Saura goes to him. Elizabeth reveals that she is his mother and tells her about the trade of Seth for Saura. She also reveals he is a loyalist and was ordered to join the British Army by Samuel Adams. This resolves their being on opposite sides politically, but the stakes are raised with the attempt on Seth’s life. Saura learns of other accidents surrounding Lawrence which puts her life in danger.

This book has a lot of description of everyday life in colonial times and is a good book to read if visiting Hale Farm or Colonial Williamsburg. The story focuses on their relationship. Molly makes Saura jealous and the young men courting Saura make Seth jealous and forces them to admit their true feelings.

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The Widow Wore Scarlet

The Widow Wore Scarlett by Adele Clee 2019 Regency

I have found that it can be more fun writing about the villain than the hero or heroine. Clee gives us two outcasts in Regency England with Damian Wycliff, the illegitimate son of Marquis of Blackbeck, and Scarlett, an actress with a mysterious past and someone trying to kill her. They are broken people who find each other.

Scarlett hears Damian crying out for help after he has been beaten and stabbed near her home on Drury Lane. She takes him in, stitches the gash on his leg, and tends to him for three days. They reveal their inner needs and feelings but do not make love. He is grateful for her kindness and respects her so he only holds her. Scarlett knows if she becomes Damian’s mistress, she will be heartbroken when he replaces her, so she keeps her clothes on.

Three years pass and Scarlett goes to Damian for help. She married Lord Stone who beat her and treated her viciously instead of protecting her. He died bedding his mistress. Several attempts have been made on her life, and she enlists Damian to help her find the person who wants her dead.

The supporting cast incudes two of Damian’s friends who are also illegitimate. Sequels involve each of them. Other characters in the book play important roles in the lives of the main characters with several twists in the plot.

Clee does an excellent job taking the two broken people, who mistrust everyone, and slowing thawing their broken hearts as secrets in both their lives are revealed. She uses the Regency setting with more notorious locations than in a G-rated romance and this one is rated R for language and sex, but captures the decadence of this darker side of a traditional regency.

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A Worm of Doubt

A Worm of Doubt by M.R.D. Meek 1990 Worldwide Mystery Mystery

Lennox Kemp is a lawyer who worked as a private investigator after losing his license to practice law for stealing from the firm he worked for in order to pay his wife’s gambling debts. He is now a confirmed bachelor.

Frelis Lorimer wants to hire him. Her husband, David, is cheating on her with his secretary, Eileen Dolan, and she wants him to do something about her, hinting at something darker as she clumsily tries to blackmail him over his past history.

Her refuses her offer but sets up the sequence of events that follow. Lennox meets David, a nice chap, Eileen, who wants to get ahead, and her cousins, who because of their Irish roots are under suspicion of doing no good. The setting is Newtown, England and class plays a big part of good guys and bad guys classification.

Eileen is found dead in a Jacuzzi at the hotel where she was to meet David, but he claims his car was stuck in a snow drift. The reader knows Frelis was close enough to walk to the hotel. The police investigate but can’t pin the murder on anyone.

The hotel owner Ronnie visits David at his Tollhouse (gas station) and says he has a note that he left at the hotel for Eileen the night she was killed. They fight but he goes to pick up his son Alistair. Ronnie is found beaten to death in the Tollhouse after an anonymous caller warns the police of the crime.

David is arrested and Frelis hires Lennox to defend him. This allows him to question everyone and line up suspects. Lennox and the reader must sort out what is the truth from the lies.

Meek give the reader plenty of guilty characters to choose from for the murders and adds several twists. The ending is nail biting as the stakes are raised to save a life.

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How To Capture A Duke

How to Capture a Duke by Bianca Blythe

This regency novel has all the traditional characteristics with a highwayman robbery, a kidnapping, and an arranged marriage only it’s not the beautiful young girl who endures all the adventures but the hero, Percival Carmichael, who has become a duke after his cousin saves his life and loses his own on the battlefield at Waterloo. Percival has agreed to marry his cousin’s betrothed, the beautiful Lady Cordelia sight unseen and has gone home to retrieve the family jewels and engagement ring. On his trip back to London he encounters the Scarlet Demon.

Fiona Amberly lost her parents in a tragic carriage accident at Christmas times and now dreads the holidays. She spent only two months in her first season but her red hair and lack of dance partners forced her home and the life of a spinster. Her dear grandmother is ill and to ease her worry, she invented Captain Knightly who was away fighting in the war. Unfortunately, Napoleon has been defeated and she needs someone to pretend to be her imaginary Knightly.

Fiona loves archeology even before it becomes a science. She goes out in the evening to visit her dig and sees a tree fallen in the road. Remembering her parents’ death, she stops a coach before it encounters the obstacle. The driver thinks she is a highwaywoman and Percival thinks she wants to steal the jewels he has retrieved. Fiona thinks Percival, even with a wooden leg, is the perfect man and wants him to pose as her fiance so her grandmother won’t worry about her future.

It seems like a simple plan, but Fiona makes a complete mess of everything as the driver rides off on her horse. She threatens Percival with her knife and makes him drive the coach to a tavern where he escapes but she enlists the men to track him down in a sleigh because he is her “husband” and has abandoned her and the children. Nobody believes Percival when he tells them he’s been kidnapped. Fiona tells one lie after another and they end up sharing the best room at the Tavern as man and wife.

She finally tells him the truth and they are attracted to each other but Percival’s brother comes to rescue him in response to a letter he sent and everything goes wrong, including Fiona being arrested as the highwaywoman.

Blythe takes an innocent ant hill problem of Fiona finding someone to pose as her betrothed and turns it into a mountain of misunderstandings. When you think one problem is solved another pops up. Happiness is followed by sorrow, and Blythe knows how to wring out emotions for her characters. The reader will keep turning the pages hoping the happily ever after comes sooner than later.

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Liberty’s Lady

Liberty’s Lady by Caryn Cameron 1990 Harlequin Historical

This story covers 1775 to 1776 of the American Revolution where Libby Morgan, 20, has inherited her godfather’s printing press and supports her family by writing the Liberty Gazzette.

Cameron Gant, 24, is the younger brother of Charles Gant who is in England. Libby’s father always admired the Gant mansion, Melrose Manor. Libby and her sister Merry had snuck onto the property when they were girls and chased by dogs. She has a hatred of the Gants because of the incident and meets Cameron with hostility when he calls on them after the death of her father which also took her godfather’s life.

Bricklayer Eddie Tiler wants to marry Libby but she doesn’t love him. Quentin Simpson feels the printing press should have been his and is bent on revenge. She is attracted to Cameron but he is an avid Tory while she is a Whig and she suspects he may be a spy. She uses her paper to speak out against the British and their occupation of New York, gaining her enemies, including the rival paper’s owner James Rivington.

When Quentin comes to the paper drunk and attacks Libby, Cameron rescues her and secretly hires men to watch her because she won’t listen to him. He kisses her and sparks fly. After a raid at Turtle Pond, he kidnaps her to protect her and they end up in bed. Their relationship swings from hot to cold in a heartbeat.

She doesn’t trust him and he doesn’t confide in her that he is loyal to Washington and is acting on his orders to gather information about the British so who can blame her for misreading his motives. Every time they make amends, something happens to tear them apart.

Cameron also thinks he can make Libby his mistress but then proposes marriage without any explanation for the change. Then she shows her love by coming to his rescue when they want to tar and feather him and again when his captured by the British as a spy.

I wanted more development of their relationship than the two lovers falling in bed.

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Chasing Life

Chasing Life by Brandt Legg 2020 Science fiction thriller

I don’t usually read science fiction but this one caught my attention because of the gene therapy. I interviewed a young man who had a genetic disease that would kill him in his twenties. In the past, genetic diseases could not be cured, but as part of my story, I interviewed a doctor who was researching gene therapy where a virus carries the missing protein to the body and targets a specific gene sequence. The protein acts like a dominant trait that masks the mutated or diseased trait and the symptoms of the disease disappear.

In Legg’s story, the Chinese are way ahead of the USA in gene therapy research and are experimenting on humans, not to cure genetic diseases, but to create a super human race. Former MSS agent Wen Sung and billionaire technology nerd Chase Malone enter China to find proof of the experiments and force world pressure to stop the Chinese.

Legg provides rollercoaster action from start to finish so buckle up when you read this book. The body count is high, but Legg balances the violence with the personal stories of his lead characters. He also brings in an interesting supporting cast of characters who may or may not be able to help them. Nobody knows who can be trusted or who will turn on them if tortured. No one expects Wen and Chase to make it out of China alive.

I liked all the characters, even the bad guys, who agonized over the ethics of the program they were involved with and whether to raise concerns to the all-powerful government. The theme of rewriting life and manipulating human traits is on the edge of technology. Legg introduces some other scary topics. He mentions the Chinese hacking into DNA databanks and diluting the gene pool of enemies by introducing defective genes that would make them less intelligent, prone to diseases, and cause early death. This is weaponizing gene therapy with all its horrible implications.

Legg uses the term “Sky Net” from the “Terminator” to connect this technology to the destruction of the human race. The Chinese have cameras everywhere, satellite surveillance, facial recognition software, and artificial intelligence data. The goal of ruling the world is not far-fetched, especially when Legg says wars aren’t between countries but corporations who want control of goods and products and can dictate prices and distribution to consumers. Fewer and fewer corporations own more and more companies.

Wen and Chase are independent spies trying to keep technology from being used for harm. They have a lot of people trying to stop them and there are eight books in this series. If you’re curious about Chinese government and espionage, you need to read this book. If you want to read about the “good guys” battling evil in the world, you should read the series. But you may have to remind yourself it is fiction or you may not be able to sleep at night.

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This Business is Murder

This Business is Murder by Joyce Christmas 1993 Fawcett Gold Medal Book Cozy mystery

This is a variation of the cozy mystery because the heroine has not pets, no kids, is 63 and a business woman forced into retirement. Betty Trenka moves to a small town in Connecticut to start over after she loses her old job of office manager when the bosses’ son takes over and gets rid of the old workers.

Betty advertises for a part-time job in the local store, and Denise hires her for a week at the Zig Zag computer business while Denise is away in New York.

Betty unpacks her belongings and gets to know the neighbors, Penny with several boys and the mysterious Edward Kelso who is in a wheelchair. Molly at the drug store fills her in on all the local gossip.

Denise is killed by a hit and run before she can leave for New York. Alan Brown, who once dated Denise, found the body. He lives with his mother and a teenage neighbor, Eve, may have witnessed the “accident” that turns into a murder.

Betty meets her geek boss, Jerry, and the office staff of Marsha, Tanya, Eileen and Amanda. Starting a new job is another great way to introduce a lot of suspects in a murder, and Betty has no emotional ties to any of them, so she makes a good objective judge of character.

She is curious about Denise since she is the woman who hired her and goes to the crime scene and encourages other to share their morbid curiosity. The police are investigating but in the background. Betty also joins forces with Kelso who was good friends with Denise.

Christmas uses red herrings to throw us off the trail, but when Betty finds Amanda, dead in Denise’s office, and Eve has run away from home, she renews her investigation into fining the killer. Kelso encourages her to solve the crime.

Betty is given a key to the front door so she an open the business while everyone attends the funeral and discovers the key opens every door. It comes in handy later, but things are pretty lax when no one asks for the key back and it seems too convenient.

But for every problem, like office security, a writer can find a solution. Christmas makes this a small family business where people come and go. Half the time, the door isn’t locked at all. If a writer can suspend the state of disbelief, the story becomes believable.

Betty begins to lose brain cells toward the end when she puts herself in danger, but she is persistent and at an age where it can be believable she would throw caution to the wind.

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