Michael A. Draper's Blog, page 25

Family saga with events from 1860-1900 in their new life in Texas.

This is a family saga of the Tolivers who made their fortune with their cotton plantation.

This historical novel is carefully researched and follows Silas Toliver who was left out of his father's will after his father left the estate to Silas's older brother. Silas resolves to move to Texas with his best friend, Jeremy Warwick and the woman he plans to marry.

Jessica Wyndham is an eighteen-year-old who is an abolitionist. She has just returned from Boston to her family home in South Carolina. She tries to help a slave escape via the underground railroad and when the slave is caught, Jessica's part in his escape is revealed. Her father, Carson is one of the wealthiest men in South Carolina and tells his daughter she has the option of being sent to a convent or marrying Silas Toliver and going to Texas with him.

Silas was engaged to another woman and Carson does something that makes Silas come to him to help fund this wagon train to Texas. He tells Silas that the price of his loaning Silas the money is to marry Jessica.

Silas ponders his choices and chooses to follow his dream with Jessica. Because he is not marrying the woman his mother wanted for a daughter-in-law, his mother tells him that his marriage to Jessica will be cursed.

Jessica and Silas have an interesting relationship and they eventually fall in love.  The wagon train continues to Texas at the time of the Texas - Mexico war. With the story dealing with the time of 1860-1900. The reader learns of the Texas war for independence and events through the Civil War.  Silas and his followers form the town of Howbutker, Texas which becomes very successful via cotton growth, commercial enterprises and the lumber industry.

I enjoyed the family saga and seeing history through the eyes of the Tolivers. There is a lesson about love and following a person's dream with the novel being well written and enjoyable.

I received a free book with the promise of a fair review and the ideas and opinions are my own. The book is scheduled for publication February 4, 2014.

Rachel tells a story that should be a lesson for us all.

Rachel is a family counselor. From the start of the story we can see that she cares deeply for the people she is trying to help.

On the way home from the rehearsal dinner for her best friend, Rachel and the future groom flirt with each other in the car. As they reach her home, the man, Jack, manages to come into her home and once there, they become intimate.

After the incident, we can see what a moral person Rachel is and imagine how devastated she must be at the betrayal of her best friend. She is torn between telling her best friend or not, luckily her brother gives her some solid advice.

The wedding goes off as planned and then Rachel has to deal with her emotions and her husband. She considers if she should tell him and wonders how they could have relations after her admitted transgression.

The author does a good job in letting us see how one mistake can ruin a person's life.

Then we find Rachel helping a teenage girl who is having trouble with an older man she had been dating.

Something amazing happens and the remainder of the story is told by Rachel's brother and the girl, Sarah that Rachel had been helping.

The novel is very readable and I enjoyed Rachel as a character. I also liked the development of the characters of Rachel's brother, Ben, and of Sarah. There was good suspense in the story and the author provided a major surprise to keep the reader's interest.

Bull River, wait 'till the sun shines through.

Lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hutch bring a wanted man to jail in a Texas town. They learn that the local bank has been robbed by the president of the bank who then escaped with his wife. The outlaw who they had brought to trial, Capt. Vasquez claims to know who the president of the bank really is and where he's headed. He forges an agreement that if he's let out of jail, he will lead the lawmen to where this robber is hiding.

The story appears like an old time western with the heroes similar to those in "Lonesome Dove."    They are competent and brave and have little use for lengthy sentences. A typical response to a question might be "is."

The agreement with Capt. Vasquez is met and the trail leads to Mexico where authorities are convinced that the lawmen are after a reward for finding the bank president's wife. They want in on the reward money. The lawmen see through the Mexican official's goals and realize that they have to watch their backs.

The plot moves nicely as we read descriptions of the south Texas and Mexican towns, the new railroads and whorehouses that populate the areas. Later, they are joined by another lawmen whose sheriff was killed by the bandit group they are after.

The author is Robert Knott and the characters taken from Robert Parker. They are well described and refreshing. The conclusion is nicely done and the story is fast moving and easy to read.

I'll be your king, dilly dilly, you'll be my queen.

I've been a fan of David Baldacci since reading his novel, "Absolute Power."

In "King and Maxwell" the story is tightly knit with the heroes finding a teenage boy running down the road with a gun. They learn that the boy is distraught because there are military men at his home to inform him that his dad was killed in Afghanistan.

King and Maxwell are former Secret Service agents and want to help the teen since the boy refuses to believe that his father is dead. When the boy learns that they are PIs, he wants to hire them to look into his father's case.

In a subplot, we learn that the boy's father, Sam Wingo, was delivering something in Afghanistan and something went wrong. He is accused of taking the cargo and he feels that he was set-up.

King and Maxwell show their intelligence and make headway but are warned off the case by military police and a man from homeland security.

The story unfolds gradually as we learn of the person who hatched the plot but not his name. The author does a good job of keeping the man's motives a mystery.

The author's talent for story telling is evident and the characters ring true but are somewhat stereotypical.

What is J.K. Rowling doing now?

This complex novel opens when Cormoran Strike hires a temporary secretary for his PI business.

Shortly thereafter Robin Ellacott begins work, a distraught man comes to the office and wants to hire Strike to look into the man's sister's suicide.

Robin finds that she loves being a PI's secretary if she can't be the one solving the crimes herself. The customer is John Bristow who knew Strike from boyhood when Strike was a friend of John's brother who died in an accident.

We follow Strike as he takes the case with reluctance and then begins questioning possible witnesses. We also learn that Strike was a former soldier who lost part of his leg in Afghanistan.

The second part of the book moves faster as Strike meets and overcomes obstacles to his investigation. During this time he meets a number of interesting characters who work with models and entertainers.

As the story moves toward its conclusion, Strike realizes how important Robin is to his work and he is able to get answers to what really happened to the man's sister.

The novel was written by J.K.Rowling writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and she does a good job in keeping the reader guessing about the outcome.

Hi ho the cherry o, a hunting we will go.

"Hunting Shadows" is a police procedural in which two murders take place outside of London at the end of WWI. The action is at the end of the war but has connections to the battlefield.

Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is sent to investigate. One death takes place at a wedding where the victim was a guest. The other person shot with a rifle was a politician about to give a speech.

There are many people to be interviewed with both men killed in the same manner. However, Rutledge can't find anything connecting the men. He thinks it might be connected to the war and asks local police to gather the names of war vets.

The story follows Rutledge's investigation and we learn more of the population and habits of the time. At one point Rutledge is in a village and there is a copper, a hurdle maker, and an ironmonger among other occupations and businesses.

The characters are unique and refreshing as is getting a literary picture of the life at that time in history.

The story moves along at a liesurly fashion which is appropriate. In some stories it's easy to guess who the villain might be but Charles Todd keeps the reader guessing to the conclusion. I enjoyed the novel and recommend it to historical mystery fans.

You'll be gone on this tragedy

Details in "Tragic" are what I would imagine if I were reading a New York newspaper and an article about the happenings of a union of dockworkers.

Robert K. Tanenbaum gives a good description of the characters as we learn of three men who were part of a 'hit' on a union official who felt that the last union election was rigged and he wants an audit of union funds.

Gradually, we learn of the victim's life and his wife and infant son. We also learn of the hit men, in particular two men who were talked into joining the third who is a half crazy Russian mob wannabe.

There are many characters in this complex novel and the crooks try to save face and turn on each other when things go badly. We read of the police evidence and justice is served. In developing the characters two of the men who were persuaded to join the Russian are well described as we follow their journey from a small time hood to a part in a murder.  Their descriptions are done so well that it makes them someone the reader really gets to know about their motivation.

The courtroom scenes are also very realistic and filled with legal details but the chief antagonist is described in a way that makes him seem stereotypical.

Because of the temperament of the thieves, there really wasn't much suspense in the story and the outcome was predictable. However, the readers who enjoy legal mysteries should enjoy this book very much.

Police as you've never seen before.

In a suspenseful novel, we find Harry Hole who was seriously wounded at the conclusion of the last Jo Nesbo novel and some readers couldn't tell if he survived.

In this story, someone is killing police officers at the scenes of a murder they had investigated but not solved.

Surprisingly, Harry doesn't make an appearance until well into the story.

He is now a lecturer and in love with Rakel. He seems torn between devoting himself to her or, continuing policing investigations and putting evil people in jail.

The bodies pile up as more police officers are killed. Additionally, these murdered officers are killed in vicious ways. Finally, Harry is enticed to join the investigation.

Also, there is a badly wounded man in a hospital under police guard. It is not until deep into the story that who this man is and why he's being protected by the police.

The story is set is Oslo, Norway with author Jo Nesbo doing an excellent job in keeping the reader guessing as to who is the murderer. We also feel the tremendous tension as a new target is chosen by the killer.

"Police" is an excellent, multi-layered crime story with characters who are well described and an exciting plot. While the story is complex, it is believable and written by an author who is one of the best at his game.
His writing has been compared to the great Steig Larsson and I believe that the comparison is justifiable.

Murder in London at the start of last century.

 This story is set in London and takes place at the turn of the 20th century.

At a party at the Spanish Embassy, a confrontation takes place resulting in a young woman falling to her death.

Later, we learn that one of the guests' wife was raped and appears to have been murdered.  Thomas and Charlotte Pitt investigate along with his former boss at Special Branch, Victor Narraway who is now a member of the House of Lords.

 This story is cleverly written. Pitt must prove that there is a connection involving England's benefit since his department handles state issues.  The woman who fell to her death is the daughter of the Portuguese ambassador.

We also learn of other rapes that have happened. At this point in history women seemed afraid to report rape because they would be held to blame and their reputation ruined.

There is also a connection to Leander Starr Jameson's raid in South Africa and money spent in financing the raid.

 The end result is a well plotted, complex mystery packed with historic and interesting characters. The conclusion is well done and clever.

Anne Perry is a master of this genre and this is the 28th novel in the series. I enjoyed her writing style and the story which held my attention throughout.

A ride and a love story

Ninety-one-year-old Ira Levinson crashes his car going around an icy curve. His car goes down a snow packed embankment and his injuries make him unable to get out of the car. Besides the snow, the road is isolated and Ira fears that he won't be found.  He feels helpless but is visited by the spirit of his late wife, Ruth.

 The novel tells two stories that are interwoven around each other. In the second story, Sophia Danks, a college student interested in art history falls in love with a cowboy who is a bull rider. His name is Luke and these seemingly unlikely pair fall in love.

Like many of Nicholas Sparks's books,. there is detailed descriptions of the characters and their lives. In Ira's case, we observe his father's haberdashery business and how Ira falls in love with Ruth from the moment she comes into the store to buy a hat for her father. Her family was from Vienna and we also learn that those who were left behind were facing the persecution of the Jews under Hitler.

Many of Sparks's novels have been turned into films and it is easy for the reader to close their eyes and imagine the action unfolding on a screen before them.

There are no surprises and some of the action seems like it's been done before but still an enjoyable novel and a fine romance, just right for romantic literature fans.