Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 167
August 15, 2015
August 13, 2015
August 5, 2015
Library Journal's Pick of the Month! Noire's Stone Cold Liar!
PICK OF THE MONTH
Noire. Stone Cold Liar: The Misadventures of Mink LaRue. Dafina: Kensington.
Noire (Dirty Rotten Liar; Red Hot Liar) once again makes it a pleasure to spend time with that sneaky Mink LaRue, now living in Texas but still Harlem to the bone. Pay no mind to that apprehensive feeling this series might be growing stale. Noire keeps things moving by grabbing our attention in the first paragraph: “Me and Big Suge got buck-naked and alligator-wrestled around in his big ol’ bed.” From that you-go-girl tryst we’re off and running and nobody has sass like Mink who calls herself “Harlem’s number one stunna.” She just might be all that as she has the entire Dominion clan and their wealth on lock. Of course there’s trouble all over the Texas prairie including kidnapping, torture, revenge, harsh beat downs (both male and female), and smoking weed but not for medicinal purposes. Buckle yourselves in. This is one wild ride. VERDICT Noire has created one of the liveliest urban fiction series headed by a most memorable protagonist. Fans will get a hoot out of the biting insults and dark humor marking practically every page. This is a no-brainer purchase. If you haven’t already done so, collect the whole set.
Noire. Stone Cold Liar: The Misadventures of Mink LaRue. Dafina: Kensington. Noire (Dirty Rotten Liar; Red Hot Liar) once again makes it a pleasure to spend time with that sneaky Mink LaRue, now living in Texas but still Harlem to the bone. Pay no mind to that apprehensive feeling this series might be growing stale. Noire keeps things moving by grabbing our attention in the first paragraph: “Me and Big Suge got buck-naked and alligator-wrestled around in his big ol’ bed.” From that you-go-girl tryst we’re off and running and nobody has sass like Mink who calls herself “Harlem’s number one stunna.” She just might be all that as she has the entire Dominion clan and their wealth on lock. Of course there’s trouble all over the Texas prairie including kidnapping, torture, revenge, harsh beat downs (both male and female), and smoking weed but not for medicinal purposes. Buckle yourselves in. This is one wild ride. VERDICT Noire has created one of the liveliest urban fiction series headed by a most memorable protagonist. Fans will get a hoot out of the biting insults and dark humor marking practically every page. This is a no-brainer purchase. If you haven’t already done so, collect the whole set.
July 24, 2015
July 13, 2015
KIRKUS REVIEW: David Angsten's The Assassin Lotus
Buy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Local Bookseller
In Angsten’s (Night of the Furies, 2008, etc.) latest thriller, an American living in Italy searches for his brother and the sacred, much-desired lotus before a team of assassins can find them.
Jack Duran’s relatively quiet life as a tour guide in Rome takes a drastic turn when someone tries to kill him. A few someones, actually, who want to know about the lotus flower Jack’s paleoethnobotanist brother, Dan, sent him. Jack doesn’t know why several factions, including the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, are interested in the lotus, but they’re sure he knows where Dan is. He doesn’t, but with a group of Iranian assassins on his tail, he decides to hunt for his brother, beginning in Turkmenistan. Jack and his brother’s girlfriend, Dutch archaeologist Phoebe Auerbach (with whom Jack was once infatuated), reconnect to track down Dan and the lotus—if they can stay alive long enough. Angsten certainly knows how to kick-start his story: Jack is on a date with mysterious Maya, unaware he’s being followed by at least two unknown parties. Angsten further establishes suspense right away with one assassin in particular, Vanitar, who blames Jack for his brother’s death and is fueled by vengeance. The book is rife with nail-biting tension, as when Jack must duck into an airport restroom before even getting out of Rome, before his and Phoebe’s search takes them inside a dark crypt. The action rarely stops. Jack (and eventually Phoebe) bounces all over Central Asia while traveling by plane, train, boat, and car. He’s also chased by professional killers, hotel security, and police in a variety of places, from a hospital to the desert. Love connections—between Jack and Phoebe as well as Dan and Phoebe—are teased, but Dan, his fate uncertain, isn’t around to ignite potential melodrama. On occasion, Angsten threatens to saturate the plot with detail—the purpose of the lotus, for example, is fairly simple and explained a bit too often—but these discussions among Jack and others are never tedious, since it’s only a matter of time before they’re back to evading murderous baddies.
Angsten hits all the genre highlights—action, suspense, mystery—in this worthwhile thriller.
July 12, 2015
Noire has a new deal at Book Bub!
Noire has a new deal 
Natural Born LiarBy Noire $1.99 Originally $5.99 Available through July 31 View Deal Publisher Description What happens when beautiful, 20-year-old petty thief and ex-stripper Mink LaRue finds out she’s a dead ringer for the age-progressed photo of the missing oil heiress Sable Dominion?Harlem-born Mink LaRue makes a beeline... Read More >
July 11, 2015
July 10, 2015
Jerry Amernic Author of The Last Witness on Voice of Israel!
Jerusalem Diaries with Judy Lash Balint
VOI's Judy Lash Balint hears from author Jerry Amernic on 'The Last Witness,' the book he wrote to counteract ignorance about WWII.Amernic, a Canadian journalist, interviewed college students and discovered they knew nothing about the Holocaust or WWII. He explains why he thinks his novel about the last living Holocaust survivor may help preserve this important historical memory.
Listen Now
