Alexandra Wolfe's Blog, page 20

Books On My Radar

I’m really looking forward to reading all of these kickass books: DEEP DARK NIGHT — Steph Broadribb THE SHAPE OF NIGHT — Tess Gerritsen COLD STORAGE — David Koepp THE SUMMER QUEEN — Margaret Pemberton THE FOUNTAIN OF SILENCE — Ruta Sepetys GOLDILOCKS — Laura Lam JADE WAR — Fonda Lee RED SNOW — Will ...

Book Review: THE SILENCED

Title: THE SILENCED Author: Anders de la Motte Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 9781443436366 Genre: Crime Fiction BACK COVER BLURB When a badly mutilated body is found in the waters of a large government-owned estate just outside of Stockholm, Detective Julia Gabrielsson is put on the case. Who is the deceased? And why has someone gone to ...

Interview: Steph Broadribb

The first question has to be, how did a girl from Birmingham (in the UK) end up training as a bounty hunter, in the US? It was all in the name of research! Once I knew that Lori Anderson would be a bounty hunter I knew I needed to find out as much as I ...

Sally Kaplan, TV Producer

“Just do it!” That’s what they all say, isn’t it? Well for writers who also have to make a living to support their writing habit, coming back to that blank page is not always easy. Especially if the gig you have to pay the bills “in between” your writing projects requires ten hours a day ...

Book Review: THE THICKET

Title: THICKET, THE Author: Joe R. Lansdale Publisher: Mulholland Books ISBN: 978-0316188449 Genre: Western  BACK COVER BLURB Jack Parker thought he’d already seen his fair share of tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five years old. His parents have just succumbed to the smallpox epidemic sweeping turn-of-the-century East Texas—orphaning him ...

Fantastical Friday #1

Hello everyone, it’s a fabulous Fantastical Friday up here in the Frozen North, and listed below are my three picks of weird and wonderful books, for the month of September. THE BLOOD GOSPEL by James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell (William Morrow, 2012) Backcover Blurb: Some books should never be found, never opened—until now. An earthquake in Masada, Israel, reveals a tomb buried in the heart of the mountain. A trio of investigators—Sergeant Jordan Stone, a military forensics expert; Father Rhun Korza, a Vatican priest; and Dr. Erin Granger, a brilliant but disillusioned archaeologist—are sent to explore the macabre discovery, a subterranean temple holding the crucified body of a mummified girl. But a brutal attack at the site sets the three on the run, thrusting them into a race to recover what was once preserved in the tomb’s sarcophagus: a book rumoured to have been written by Christ’s own hand, a tome that is said to hold the secrets to His divinity. But the enemy who hounds them is a force of ancient evil directed by …

Book Review: A Killing in the Hills

DETAILS Title: A Killing in the Hills Author: Julia Keller Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN: 9781250184351 Genre: Murder-Mystery BACK COVER DETAILS What’s happening in Acker’s Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas of the country just like Acker’s Gap? Or were Dean Streeter, Shorty McClurg, and Lee Rader targeted somehow? One of the witnesses to the brutal incident was Carla Elkins, teenaged daughter of Bell Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV. Carla was shocked and horrified by what she saw, but after a few days, she begins to recover enough to believe that she might be uniquely placed to help her mother do her job. After all, what better way to repair their fragile, damaged relationship? But could Carla also end …

Book Review: TATIANA

DETAILS Title: TATIANA (Arkady Renko #8) Author: Martin Cruz Smith Publisher: Simon & Schuster ISBN: 9781439140215 Genre: Thriller BACK COVER BLURB The reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow the same week that a mob billionaire is shot and buried with the trappings due a lord. The trail leads to Kaliningrad, a Cold War “secret city” that is separated by hundreds of miles from the rest of Russia. The more Arkady delves into Tatiana’s past, the more she leads him into a surreal world of wandering sand dunes, abandoned children, and a notebook written in the personal code of a dead translator. Finally, in a lethal race to uncover what the translator knew, Renko makes a startling discovery that draws him still deeper into Tatiana’s past—and, paradoxically, into Russia’s future, where bulletproof cars, poets, corruption of the Baltic Fleet, and a butcher for hire combine to give Kaliningrad the “distinction” of having the highest crime rate in Russia. WHAT I THOUGHT This chess-inspired 8th outing for the cranky melancholy …

Book Review: THE POPPY WAR

DETAILS Title: THE POPPY WAR Author: R. F. Kuang Publisher: Harper Voyager ISBN: 9780062662583 Genre: YA Fantasy BACK COVER BLURB When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising. WHAT I THOUGHT I had such high hopes for THE POPPY WAR, the first in a trilogy from R. F. Kuang, especially given how much coverage this novel was receiving across social media. Sadly, for me at least, it didn’t live up to the over inflated hype and praise that has been heaped upon it. And that it was nominated for …

A Touch of Purple

A tint of royal purple just adds a whole other dimension to this already beautiful Dahlia. Which was in full bloom here, at the Jehanne D’Arc gardens.