A Guest From Outside the Box - Claire Gem Today I have a very special guest with me on Emotional Journeys. Author John McKenna, who sometimes goes by the name Garritt O’Dwaine, writes nonfiction, crime fiction, and is also the mastermind behind the review website, Mysterious Book Report. Read the rest of the interview HERE. Claire Gem's links: FaceBook Twitter Amazon
Ultraluminous by Katherine Faw Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25.00, 199 pages, ISBN 978-0-374-27966-0 This weeks MBR is one of those which are unclassifiable . . . it’s hard-boiled, cutting edge, semi-pornographic, unapologetic, compelling and utterly fascinating . . . but don’t say we didn’t warn ya. Ultraluminous, by Katherine Faw, comes four years after her astonishing and powerful debut, Young God. If Ms. Faw took the literary world by
Robicheaux by James Lee Burke Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 445 pages, ISBN 978-1-5011-7684-3 Whenever a new book by James Lee Burke is released, I can’t wait to get my hands on it and promptly read it cover-to-cover. It’s been that way since the early 1990s, when I heard him speak on NPR about a character he’d created; a fictional Cajun detective from New Iberia, Louisiana. He was unique, this
Mysterious Book Report No. 324 Illegal Holdings by John Dwaine McKenna Serendipity is the ability to make fortunate discoveries by accident . . . which is what happened here at the MBR when our mailbox, (P.O. Box 2406, Colorado Springs, CO 80901) yielded up an unsolicited new publication from a small independent press in Seattle, Washington, which brought a unique new character and a superb writer to our attention.
The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 429 pages, ISBN 978-1-5011-0172-4 Who doesn’t dream of sunny, warm days with an ample supply of cold drinks and an ocean to play in, when we’re up to our ear-muffs in icy roads, snow and sub-freezing temperatures, day, after day, after day . . . and if we can’t actually go there, we can at least escape in literature
False Flag Mysterious Book Report No. 322 by John Dwaine McKenna In the world of espionage, The business of spies is lies, which makes it impossible at times, to distinguish between friend and foe . . . because all covert operations are designed to advance the interests and objectives of the spying country. Put it another way and the axiom becomes: TRUST NO ONE. They all lie all the
Night Blind by Ragnar Jonasson Minotaur/ St. Martins, $25.99, 213 pages, ISBN 978-1-250-09609-8 Iceland sits just below the Arctic Circle, about midway between Greenland and Scandinavia. At the northernmost point of the volcanic island is the city of Siglufjördur . . . where in late November, “The darkness comes and curls around you like a furry black cat,” and it doesn’t even think about getting light again until sometime
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke Muholland Books/Little Brown & Co, $26.00, 303 pages, ISBN 978-0-316-36329-7 One of 2017s most outstanding novels was first released in the last quarter of the year, and we were so inundated with other books to review that we weren’t able to report on it. The MBR regrets that and intends to rectify things immediately. Bluebird, Bluebird, by award-winning author Attica Locke, took the reading
The Quantum Spy Mysterious Book Report No. 319 by John Dwaine McKenna It’s indisputable that the next war will be fought in cyberspace. Some scientific and military experts believe in fact, that World War III has already begun . . . that the opening skirmishes are evidenced by the endless hacking attempts on the most secure of websites . . . where our adversaries are going after America’s
Paradise Valley Mysterious Book Report No. 318 by John Dwaine McKenna Our author this week needs no introduction, as his name has become synonymous with the modern American West. We’re referring of course, to the prolific and award-winning Wyoming writer C.J. Box, and his beloved character, Joe Pickett; the iconic Wyoming Game Warden, all-American good guy and dedicated family man. Now, Mr. Box has another character that the MBR