Review: The Princelings of the East by @jemima_pett fantasy #MG #giveaway

BOOK INFORMATION

TITLE – The Princelings of the East
SERIES – The Princelings of the East  
AUTHOR – Jemima Pett  
GENRE – MG/Fantasy/Scifi  
PUBLICATION DATE – November 2011 (paperback June 2015)  
LENGTH – 158 Pages/ 37,300 Words  
PUBLISHER – Princelings Publications  
COVER ARTIST – Danielle English

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

The Princelings of the East
is an adventure set in a world of labyrinthine castles, bustling inns, and the curious Isle of Hattan.

Princelings George and Fred leave the security of their isolated castle to solve the problem of the Great Energy Drain, meeting the dubious businessman Hugo, the young barkeeper Victor, the impressive Prince of Buckmore, and other movers and shakers. Who should these two innocents trust? Their wits and teach other, for sure, but when something comes between them, each is left to his own devices, and some of those devices are very strange indeed – and time is of the essence.

The Princelings of the East is the start of a saga where friendship and intelligence are rewarded, even in the face of treachery and deceit.

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EXCERPT

Fred sat staring at the tunnel, lost in thought. George waited. This might take a while. He could hear soft sounds of crackling flames in the fire on the other side of the wall, and in the distance the occasional pitter-patter of footsteps echoing down the corridors. He wondered what would happen if they ventured out of this castle into the tunnels. When he had been out in the marshes, he’d never gone a long way from home; the castle was always visible in the distance, light glinting on its spires. He’d never been out overnight, either. He identified a strange feeling inside him. They might be on the edge of a Great Adventure, but he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t rather be safely tucked up in bed.

Fred stirred. “We need to go and investigate this Great Energy Drain,” he said. “We must find out whether it is a widespread phenomenon, and whether the causes are known.”

George nodded; this was elementary procedure for an investigation. “And then?” he asked.

“And then,” answered Fred, “we shall come up with some ideas for how to solve it.”

“Good idea!” said George, knowing that you can never know exactly how you are going to do something until you have made the preliminary investigation and tested out a few theories. But the aim was set, and all they had to do now was decide... to go or not to go?

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My Review ~ 5*

The Princelings of the East is the first installment of a fun fantasy trilogy chronicling the adventures of twin time-traveling young royals Fred and George.

The year is 2009. Or is it 2021? Hm... whatever the year, no one can argue there are Strange Doings afoot. The King's birthday celebration has been ruined by a mysterious Energy Drain. Princelings Fred and George, two bright kids with too much time on their hands to just sit and Think (in Fred's case) or build ingenious machines (that would be George), decide their august adult counterparts have leapt to all the wrong conclusions, and they want to take matters into their own hands.

The question is... how? They are just two mere (if industrious in their own ways) lads; what can they possibly do to solve this Vexing Problem for everyone's benefit? Especially when they have trouble convincing anyone to listen to them, let alone to believe what they say. To say nothing of the possible consequences if they make too much trouble for the King—perhaps even banishment from the only home they have ever known!

In the midst of their ruminations, they find a mysterious tunnel, which in due course leads them to all manner of amazing wheres and whens and whats and whos, many of whom are not who they seem. Most amazing of all, they meet adults who not only listen but even value what they have to say.

Fred and George, in essence, get to live every ingenious, thoughtful kid's dream.

In the book's synopsis on Amazon, it's likened to The Wind in the Willows, and I can most assuredly see that in the characters' interactions and relationships to one another. However, the literary similarity that struck me most, from the very first page, was A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. Everything from Fred's propensity to sit and Think (Pooh), to various characters' fussing (Rabbit) and pontification (Owl) about the cause of the Energy Drain and how to solve it made me smile all throughout my reading of the book.

The main—and laugh-out-loud zany—scientific issues presented in The Princelings of the East, especially regarding how the world's diet cola becomes "diet" and the process's effect upon the environment, pleasantly brought to mind The Starlight Barking by Dodie Smith, sequel to her much more famous work, The Hundred and One Dalmatians.

The synopsis also describes The Princelings of the East as being "suitable for good readers aged 10 and over," emphasis mine. Girls as well as boys will enjoy following Fred and George's adventures to other castles and eras, but it does require some mental calisthenics to keep everything sorted.

And I view that as a Very Good Thing. In today's culture where the propensity is to dumb down children's programming and literature, the world could do with more Princelings to help our kids hone their mental faculties while presenting fun puzzles and fascinating scenarios. The good news is that there are several more Princelings novels in this series!

Brava, Jemima Pett, and do please keep up the great work.

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BUY & TBR LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE US | AMAZON KINDLE CA | AMAZON KINDLE UK | AMAZON PAPERBACK | BARNES & NOBLES NOOK | SMASHWORDS | ITUNES | GOODREADS | SHELFARI | BOOK DEPOSITORY PAPERBACK

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AUTHOR BIO

I’ve been writing since I was 8 years old. I still have a small booklet I found in my mother’s box of treasures, written in a very childish hand, entitled The Little Stream. It reads very much like the story of Smetana’s Vltava, or The Moldau as it was called when I was young, so I must have been into classical music at an early age (I blame my brothers’ influence). My early fiction attempts failed for want of suitable inspiration: I couldn’t get characters or plot that seemed interesting, and my first attempts were derided by a ‘friend’. I had the bug for writing, though, and wrote articles and event reports for newsletters and magazines whenever I got the opportunity. My career in business and in environmental research kept me chained to a desk for many years, but also gave me the opportunity to write manuals, reports, science papers, blogs, journals, anything and everything that kept the words flowing. Finally the characters jumped into my head with stories that needed to be told…

I now live in a village in Norfolk, UK, with my guinea pigs, the first of whom, Fred, George, Victor and Hugo, provided the inspiration for the Princelings stories.

AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE | WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOOGLE+ | PINTEREST | GOODREADS | SHELFARI

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GIVEAWAY PRIZES

1 x $25 gift card/PayPal cash (paypal cash is much easier for me to deliver) 1 x set of the six Princelings of the East paperbacks 5 x 1 signed print of a chapter illustration of the winner's choice (approx. half letter-sized/A5, unmounted)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

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TITLE – The Princelings and the Pirates
SERIES – The Princelings of the East
AUTHOR – Jemima Pett
GENRE – MG/Fantasy/Scifi
PUBLICATION DATE – January 2012 (paperback June 2015)
LENGTH – Pages 181 / Words 39,000
PUBLISHER – Princelings Publications
COVER ARTIST – Danielle English

BOOK SYNOPSIS

The second book of the Princelings of the East series shows our heroes, Princelings Fred and George, enjoying life with their inventions at Castle Buckmore. Oblivious to the kidnap of a princess from Chateau Dimerie, they are despatched there by Prince Lupin to discover why the wine hasn't been delivered and solve the case of the missing messengers.

What follows is the stuff of nightmares. Captured by pirates, sent off on different ships, Fred endures hardship and shipwreck while George has a dangerous night escape. They discover treachery at their home castle, and lead the people they have rescued to safety, only to end up fighting for their lives in the Battle of Dimerie.

EXCERPT

“Right, you lubbers!” said the black guy. “My name’s Frankie and if you know what’s good for you you’ll listen hard, work hard and keep your mouths shut.”

He passed round eight bits of stale biscuit and a bucket of fairly clean water and a scoop. They each took a drink, and some of them nibbled the biscuit. George found his stomach settled down a bit, and tried to see whether Fred and Victor were among the party in the darkness. He rather thought they weren’t, and frowned. The haughty guy refused the biscuit, saying it was disgusting, and one of the other guys took it off him, and wolfed it down.

Frankie waited for them to recover their senses a bit more, then started talking again.

“You are now aboard the Golden Guinea, the prettiest barque that ever sailed the seven seas. You will do as you are told, you will work hard, and if you don’t, you will walk the plank. That means you will find yourself swimming, possibly in shark infested waters, a thousand miles from the nearest land. You won’t last long.” And he laughed again. It was not a pleasant laugh.

BUY & TBR LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE US | AMAZON KINDLE CA | AMAZON KINDLE UK | AMAZON PAPERBACK | BARNES & NOBLES NOOK | SMASHWORDS | ITUNES | GOODREADS | SHELFARI | BOOK DEPOSITORY PAPERBACK

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TITLE – The Princelings and the Lost City
SERIES – The Princelings of the East
AUTHOR – Jemima Pett
GENRE – MG/Fantasy/scifi
PUBLICATION DATE – May 2012 (paperback June 2015)
LENGTH – Pages 270 / Words 58,600
PUBLISHER – Princelings Publications
COVER ARTIST – Danielle English

BOOK SYNOPSIS

Book 3 in the Princelings of the East series is the completion of the trilogy. A mystery is uncovered in the Prologue (which is unravelled in Book 5), then the story moves to more familiar territory as our heroes, Princelings Fred and George, wait at Castle Buckmore for the arrival of Princess Kira from Dimerie in a flying machine. George's power plant invention is overtaken by his enthusiasm for flying, but Fred is upset by Kira's strange behavious after the visit a legendary 'lost' castle in the middle of a forest.

What is the secret of the Lost City? Are the old wives' tales, of a civilisation ruled by females where no male dare set foot, true after all? Will Fred and his friend escape with their lives? How many times can Princess Kira be kidnapped in one story? The path of true love runs anything but smoothly in this tale of love, bravery, cruelty and loss.

EXCERPT

A strange noise crept into their consciousness, a sort of buzzing. It changed tone, skipped a beat and sometimes stopped altogether. The princelings looked out, straining to see what was making the noise. Fred stared down the road as far as the bridge; George gazed up into the sky as if he was dreaming.

“There… there… they… ther…” he stuttered and pointed for Fred to locate.

“What?” said Fred, following the direction and wondering why he was pointing into the sky. There was some sort of bird flying towards them.

“I w-wond-ered … a ffly-ing ma-ma-sheen.” In his excitement, George was having trouble getting any words out at all. He slipped off the window seat and went over to a pile of papers beside his bed. He selected one near the top of the pile and brought it back to Fred.

“M. Bleriot demonstrates flying machine at Fortune,” read the headline. Underneath was a picture of a very dashing French person with a helmet and goggles standing next to a funny tube with two boards sticking out of it on either side.

Fred glanced at it, held it close to look at the machine in more detail and dropped the paper to look at the sky. A very similar machine was now approaching the last stretch of road before it turned to come into the castle itself.

“Oh my goodness,” said Fred, his eyes wide in panic. “She’ll be killed!”

BUY & TBR LINKS

AMAZON KINDLE US | AMAZON KINDLE CA | AMAZON KINDLE UK | AMAZON PAPERBACK | BARNES & NOBLES NOOK | SMASHWORDS | ITUNES | GOODREADS | SHELFARI | BOOK DEPOSITORY PAPERBACK

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Author @Jemima_Pett Reviews #KASIWC by @KimHeadlee time travel #SFF Twain sequel

Whatever is a queen of
magic and minions to do?

Next week on The Maze I am excited to introduce you to the first installment in the wonderful middle-grade kids' fantasy-mystery series, The Princelings by Jemima Pett, titled The Princelings of the East.

Jemima and I "met" this past May during my blog tour for King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court (#KASIWC), wherein she posted her terrific and amusing review, reblogged here for your reading pleasure:

May 13, 2015
I confess that my knowledge of Arthurian legend is not as good as some people’s; mine is heavily biased by the musical Camelot, by Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, and by, er, not finishing The Once and Future King.  Maybe I should finish it.  But I have the basics.  I wasn’t entirely up to speed with Morgan Le Fay’s part in proceedings.  I may be closer now.

Queen Morgan is in the middle of some critical negotiations when she gets waylaid and moved forward in time to a mediaeval pageant.  She quickly works out that this is false… in fact it’s being put on for her benefit to settle her in – she’s actually way in the future, about 2079, in fact.  I was disappointed to discover that the power suit with high heels is still the armour of the successful businesswoman, but style and practicality aside, I love the developments of both technology and society that Queen Morgan aka Morganna encounters, and her rationalisation of them to parallels with her own universe.  In fact, this rationalisation is so good, for us poor beings in the middle of UK Election fever, it leaves me positively in favour of Morganna’s solutions to all sorts of political nonsense.  Vote Morganna – or at least, vote President Malory for life!

For someone allergic to baseball (and pretty much to all overpaid sports that are worshipped by people spending too much money for a pathetic seat in a stadium for the benefit of an already superrich owner) the emphasis on the sport and its game play could be tedious.  Note the ‘could be’.  I give Kim Iverson Headlee 5 stars for managing to write a baseball book I enjoyed, let alone the superb world-building, dry wit and sarcasm of the political shenanigans, and the heady combination of gangsterism, time travel, social insight, and historical fiction.

I suspect all the people who enjoy the more offbeat books I review on my blog will love this!

Thanks again, Jemima—Vote Morganna, indeed! :)

Next week on The Maze: my review of The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett.

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All this month, you are invited to...
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DAWNFLIGHT's 50th Amazon Review! #ASMSG #IARTG #MFRWOrg #BZBooks #BYNR

Okay, so 50 reviews on a single platform for one book might not seem like a big deal for anyone who has seen (or has been fortunate enough to write) books with reviews numbering in the thousands, but I am very proud of the fact that these are fifty honestly obtained reviews.

And by "honestly" I mean that no arms were twisted (at least, not too strenuously :D), no reviews were swapped, and no reviewers were paid any remuneration other than receiving a free copy of the e-book.

This could explain why it took nearly sixteen years—yes, years—to log 50 reviews for my award-winning debut novel, but such is life in the publishing biz!

Oh, and what does reviewer #50, Sara S., say about Dawnflight?

5* Awesome Arthurian romance

Love this! Great characters. Very hard to put down. I want more.

Good news, Sara, there is more!

In The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, of which Dawnflight is the first installment, we have:

• Morning's Journey (book 2) which picks up the morning after Dawnflight leaves off
• The Challenge, a stand-alone novella that takes place about ten years after Morning's Journey
• And, if you would prefer to try before you buy (though at 99 cents, it's nigh impossible to go wrong on any of my titles :), there is my perma-free (in the US) stand-alone novella excerpted from Morning's Journey titled The Color of Vengeance.
• Book 3, Raging Sea, is still a work-in-progress, and its most recent excerpt may be read on this blog post. I hope to have it available for sale by the end of the year.
• Full-length books 4-8 also exist in various stages of completion, and I may elect to publish other novellas set in this world as well. Stay tuned!

Other novels in my corpus include:

• Liberty, winner of the 2015 BooksGoSocial Best Book award, a historical romance featuring a female gladiator and her impossible love for the son of the Roman governor of Britain
• Snow in July, a paranormal romance set in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings
• King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court by Mark Twain as channeled by Kim Iverson Headlee, my sequel to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, a science fiction/fantasy futuristic time-travel comedic political satire

Thank you for stopping by today, and I hope you've found something to pique your interest. Perhaps you can be my 50th reviewer for another of my titles! If you review books on your blog and you're interested in having a go at one or more of my books, the following review tours still have openings:

• Liberty (Aug. 24 only), sign up by leaving a comment on this page. Yes, I understand this is late notice but I figure the mention couldn't hurt!
• Dawnflight (Sept. 14 for sure, possibly another spot Sept. 28), sign up page is this one.
• The Challenge 3-Day Release Blast (Sept. 16-18); sign-up sheet TBA.
• Morning's Journey (Oct. 12, Oct. 26), sign up by leaving a comment here.
• King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court (Nov. 16, Nov. 30), sign up on this page.

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All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Add Kim to Google+
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter and/or YouTube follow
...and each action this month is good for one chance to win an e-book copy of Snow in July. Please enter often, and good luck!

MC Simon's 5* Review of Snow in July by @KimHeadlee YA paranormal historical romance #MFRWAuthor

Here is what one of many reviewers is saying about Snow in July, my first foray into paranormal historical romance, reblogged from MC Simon Writes:

"A direct descendent of 20th century Russian nobility and married with a descendent of the 7th-century proto-Viking king of the Swedish colony in Russia… my mind was hooked by Kim Iverson Headlee, long before reading her first book.

When I had the chance to read Snow in July, the hook became a powerful harpoon. I felt this from the very first moment and while starting to read the book, I realized that it would unfold deeper and deeper. The author possesses the gift to keep you locked in with her book in your hands, while your eyes move inside its pages, left to right, up and down from the first page to the last one; all along Kim Iverson Headlee gives your heart an adrenaline boost.

The book starts describing the two main characters, Alain and Kendra who, for political reasons, were meant to marry each other. Before their first meeting, both of them had their fears and reasons to reject the marriage, but were incapable to refuse the King’s order.

Alain was thinking, “Marriage meant making more vows… vows to love and honor and protect. Vows too easily broken”.

Kendra promised to herself that she will find happiness “but it would never be in the arms of a man whose race was responsible for her brother’s death”.

I have to admit that the author succeeded to give me a bundle of feelings to cross, while reading Snow in July, from cover to cover.

I started admiring Alain’s reasons and my heart ached for any experience that he had, which made him think the way he did. At the same time, seeing Kendra’s reason, I almost hated her anticipating that all the conflict in this book will be based on her promise.

And… yes… it was in this way… many times I was against Kendra but that was not all. The author possess the ability to play with the reader’s mind, so I found myself so hooked by the book, almost fascinated by the way in which the events were advancing. The second I relaxed thinking I was reading a calm portion of the story, the next moment something unexpected would arise and my heart would start to race again.

I recommend this book to any reader who wants to feel something while reading. The bucket of feelings you find yourself trapped in, makes the reading act with curiosity. For not even one moment was I wearied. The plot, the characters, the twisted situations, everything succeeded to make me read without a break.

The fact that Kendra was “wishing yet again for the gift their mother was rumored to have possessed, the ability to heal with a simple touch”, made the action even more interesting for me. Being passionate of this aspect of life, called by some people “paranormal”, made me pay special attention to the moments when the author described and included this kind of action. Not giving all the details about such a healing procedure, the author managed to hook the reader even further. But… who needs details when one’s heart will anyhow understand what it is all about? This, only for the reason that Kim Iverson Headlee, really knows to dose any information; she knows how, when, what and how much to give, so it make things attractive but without giving it all away.

A scene that greatly involved my brain and heart in the action was the one in which Alain is saving Kendra after her abduction. I knew that he was supposed to succeed but… my heart raced a great deal while Kendra herself tried to escape, being afraid that she will mess up everything.

However, what I loved even more inside Snow in July, were in fact the secondary characters. I am that kind of reader who usually finds herself attached to the protagonists, but the author made me love many other characters here. I will mention only a few: Ruaud, Alain’s friend for so many reasons which can’t be counted here; Alain’s and Kendra’s brothers, who were gone in other worlds since the beginning of the action, but still so very present until the last act; Snake, Kendra’s predator who succeeded to melt my heart even if he was one of the bad guys in the book. I will stop the list here, adding only that because of these secondary characters, Snow in July is that kind of book which I want to read twice, being sure that not even than will I be able to grasp all the details behind the words.

My eyes were full of tears and joy, I was smiling and I was sad, my heart raced a lot while following the action step by step. The author really knows how to play with your adrenaline level. I even hated the author when she left me in deep frustration on Alain’s and Kendra’s first kiss. I liked what was described so much, that when it stopped I had the feeling that I was robbed by something that never happened and I didn’t even know what it could be.

To make things short, because I am sure the reader will enjoy reading the book more than my words here, I will conclude by saying that…

I totally recommend the book to anyone who wants to dig inside a medieval romance, placed in a moment in time when many twisted events happen, where the protagonists and secondary characters provide you contradictory feelings, using any phase between a good laugh and a deep cry, all being described with a mix of old and new English, French and Saxon words.
I recommend this book for all these reasons and maybe for others more.

The book left me with a huge desire to find all about the Glastonbury thorn’s secret. The moment after I turned over the last page, I was running to discover the secret behind the words “to heal the pain, you must endure the thorn”. Whether you can find or not what I was talking about… I will let the reader in you discover it, after Kim Iverson Headlee’s words will have touched your heart." —MC Simon, MC Simon Writes

MC was not a member of Kim's All-Stars Street Team when she wrote this review back in October—in fact, the group didn't start up until December—but she is now, and I'm very thankful for her support and the support of all the other members. If you love this book or other novels of mine, I invite you to join the All-Stars and receive exclusive peeks at my works in progress, mentions in my forthcoming books, and more!


Please check out this gorgeous, movie-like book trailer:



For the rest of the month, you are invited to...
— Add me as a Favorite Author on Amazon.com
— Follow me on Twitter
— Add me to Google+
— Subscribe to my YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Amazon, Twitter, and/or YouTube follow
...and each action this month is good for one chance to win an e-book copy of Liberty. Please enter often, and good luck!

Liberty by @KimHeadlee #Mustread #Review & Character Bio #MFRWOrg #beezeebooks

I am pleased to report that Liberty is garnering several great reviews! Here is one of them, originally shared on the Arthurian Romances and To Be Honest blogs maintained by Jill Roberts:

"Liberty is a captivating novel with so many variables that make it a true masterpiece. Our main character Rhyddes, which translates to mean Freedom daughter of Red (thus Liberty), is sold off to the Romans due to a tax debt. Here she must fight in the Gladiator arena. Fortunately Rhyddes fights well, it’s that ancient Celtic warrior blood that runs through her veins that makes her fierce. Although Rhyddes is plagued with captivation and yearning for the Roman governor’s son, Aquila. He too is irresistibly drawn to Rhyddes and vows to renounce his wealth and power for her. The charm of this novel kept me intrigued from the start. The savagery, ferocity coupled with the longing and purity of true love makes Liberty a captivating must read!" ~Jill Roberts, Arthurian Romances

CHARACTER BIO

I am Rhyddes ferch Rudd, which in your tongue means Freedom daughter of Red. The blood of ancient Celtic warriors flows in my veins, though I am a farmer's daughter by the circumstance of my birth. My life spans much of the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of a very few men ever to claim that title who did not abuse his power for personal gain—but I care not who rules and who dies in this gods-cursed empire.

More than anything—even more than my freedom—I yearn to be my lover Aquila’s equal. As a foreign slave in an empire where citizenship stands paramount, where an arena fighter such as I can only be considered the equal of other gladiators, actors, undertakers, and whores, this goal seems impossibly remote. Although Aquila is the son of a powerful Roman, he has declared that he would renounce his aristocratic status, wealth, and power for me, but I cannot in good conscience allow him to destroy himself on my account.

And yet the gods have granted the impossible to other mortals. I pray that I am worthy to receive such a boon from them, for surely divine assistance is the only way for Aquila and I to bridge the vast social chasm that separates us from enjoying a future together.



Next blog tour is January 30 - February 28, 2015. 
Please sign up here, thanks!

BUY LINKS

Amazon Kindle US – UK  – CA – AU – BR – DE – ES – FR – IN – IT – JP – MX – NL –
Other E-readers NOOK – INKTERA – ITUNES – KOBO – SCRIBD – SMASHWORDS

For the rest of the month, you are invited to... — Add me as a Favorite Author on Amazon.com — Follow me on Twitter
— Add me to Google+
— Subscribe to my YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Amazon, Twitter, and/or YouTube follow
...and each action this month is good for one chance to win an e-book copy of Liberty. Please enter often, and good luck! 

BOOK REVIEW: The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie

The Mistress of Mystery has done it again! Raise your hand if you're surprised.
 
I thought not.

On a deserted, foggy stretch of road one night in southern Wales, a man runs his car into a ditch. Fortunately, a nearby manor house offers the prospect of assistance. The driver traverses the grounds to the French doors of a ground-floor study. After knocking fails to rouse a response from within, he tries the doors. Finding them unlocked, he cautiously lets himself in -- and comes face-to-face with an invalid man slumped in his wheelchair, sporting a bullet hole in his head. The corpse's attractive young widow stands in a corner holding a revolver and readily confesses to the deed.

End of story? Not by a long shot (pun intended). The unexpected guest, moved by the woman's tale of emotional abuse at her husband's hands, decides to manufacture evidence to point the police to a different suspect. But even that doesn't play out in an expected manner as other members of the household take the stage. Several harbor their own reasons to see their cruel master dead.

Who is this unexpected guest and how did he happen to strand himself near that particular house shortly after the murder? Why did he knock at the study rather than the front door? And why, against all logic, did he choose to help the widow, risking implication as an accessory after the fact?

The answers to those questions and many more, dear reader, I leave for you to discover.

The Unexpected Guest began life as an original play at the Duchess Theatre in London, where it opened in August 1958 and enjoyed a respectable 18-month run. This novelization, the second by world-renowned theatre and opera critic Charles Osborne, continues the series he began in 1998 with Black Coffee. With 19 original plays to Christie's credit, ample opportunity exists for extending the series beyond Osborne's third installment (Spider's Web).

At first the book's artless prose, curious dearth of descriptive passages and detached viewpoint annoyed me. However, I came to realize this is the best approach for adapting a stage play. It allows a reader who saw a live dramatization to relive the experience. For those like myself who missed the show, it allows us to cast our own actors and mentally supply the props. Most importantly, the style allows Ms. Christie's brilliance -- especially with respect to dialogue -- to shine through.

I knock off half a point because, in spite of a couple of twists as unexpected as the guest himself, the plot unfolds in a simplistic manner. The book's 258 pages of relatively large type hardly provide a meaty read. Unless I were a collector, I wouldn't bother purchasing the hardcover edition.

However, if you seek a quick diversion into Christie's fascinating world of murder and mayhem, where appearances are guaranteed to deceive, this paperback well rewards the investment of your pence.

(Originally published in Crescent Blues. Reprinted with permission.)

BOOK REVIEW: Race the Wind! by Chris Platt

If Chris Platt had been publishing when I was a kid, I never would have let my parents talk me out of taking jumping lessons, the next step I yearned to pursue in my equestrian training. Adolescents can use all the encouragement and inspiration they can get, and Race the Wind! provides plenty.
 
Thanks to the faith and hard work of Katie Durham, the racehorse named Willow King no longer suffers badly twisted legs. After painstaking training, mostly depicted in the award-winning prequel (Willow King), the Thoroughbred from an unknown Oregon stable finally gains the strength and heart he needs to compete in major races. Katie determinedly sets out to prove to the world that Willow King possesses the stuff of champions.

Katie, too, wants to prove herself. Born with one leg shorter than the other, she always felt as if people doubted her physical abilities. Already granted permission to gallop Thoroughbreds in workouts, she seeks to become a licensed jockey in time for the Kentucky Derby. She knows the dangers of the profession but believes she can master the tricks of the trade. But can she master her own doubts and fears, and guide her beloved Willow King into the winner's circle?

The answer may surprise you.

Solid storytelling, a clean prose style and well-rounded characters make Race the Wind! enjoyable for adults and youths alike. Even Katie's nemesis, the stable owner's bratty daughter, demonstrates a heart in the latter half of the book. I knocked off a quarter-point because I wanted to see a tad more development in their relationship at the end. Another quarter-point came off because some of the jargon, such as "hotwalker," did not come with sufficient explanation for the non-insider. If Platt covered this turf in the prequel, then it constitutes the only point at which my reading experience suffered for not reading Willow King first.

I wish my daughter were old enough to read Race the Wind! for herself, and I definitely plan to keep it for her. Platt touches upon many teen issues with deft sensitivity, including self-image, boy-girl and parent-child relations, and helping others to overcome their own handicaps -- emotional as well as physical. I dub this book a prime candidate for mother-daughter book clubs for, whether we realize it or not, we all live with some form of handicap.

The author, who pursued her passion for horses to become one of the first female jockeys, counts among her literary heroes Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley. As a horse- and book-loving young girl, I shared her idols -- and consider Platt worthy to join their ranks.

(Originally published in Crescent Blues. Reprinted with permission.)

MOVIE REVIEW: The Patriot (Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, 2000)

From turn-of-the-13th century Braveheart, Mel Gibson advances more than five centuries to examine another hero reluctantly drawn into a fight for independence from England, America's favorite national villain.
 
Retired French and Indian War hero Benjamin Martin, widower and father of seven children, found a measure of peace as a South Carolina plantation owner. Then the Revolutionary War comes to call. Benjamin's oldest, 17-year-old Gabriel, enlists in the fight for independence against his father's wishes. The war hits even closer to home when a battle erupts on Martin's land, leaving Gabriel wounded and turning the plantation house into a field hospital.

Enter the inhumane villain, Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs), a British cavalry commander of colossal arrogance obsessed with advancing his career, even at the expense of non-combatant civilians. When Tavington shoots Gabriel's 15-year-old brother for trying to rescue Gabriel from hanging, the war becomes personal for the anguished Benjamin.

Will Benjamin and Tavington duke it out during the final battle of the film? You bet. Three guesses as to who wins, and the first two don't count.

However, Benjamin Martin's journey to that final confrontation proves emotionally fascinating as he battles not only the British but himself. Benjamin's previous combat experiences against the French and Cherokee pushed him beyond the brink of humanity. The love of Benjamin's wife redeemed him then, but who will save Benjamin now that she's dead? Will Benjamin's faith in God be enough to restore his humanity a second time? Can "The Cause" -- the great fight for independence -- serve as turning point and salvation for Benjamin as well as England's American colonies?

Other characters face their own issues. The personal story of each man, woman and child poignantly intertwines with Benjamin's. Rene Auberjoinois (Odo of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) deserves particular praise for his portrayal of a minister-cum-militiaman ("Someone has to tend the flock--and fight off the wolves.")

Naturally, some stories receive more attention than others. For instance, I would have preferred to see Benjamin do more "processing" with his youngest sons, who early in the film witness Benjamin's grief-induced battle frenzy against the unit detailed to transport Gabriel to the gallows.

The failure to provide an on-screen closure for Benjamin's youngest sons, plus Tavington's one-dimensional character and some minor logic disconnects make me wish I could knock a quarter-point from my rating. I give The Patriot full marks, however, because its excellence far outweighs its flaws. Amazingly accurate details abound, including Benjamin's guerilla exploits, based upon those of Sir Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and other renowned freedom fighters. Mel Gibson also deserves a hearty "bravo" for delivering the first non-animated film I've seen in decades that doesn't rely on profanity and sexuality to titillate the audience. Nevertheless, I strongly caution parents to preview The Patriot to decide whether they wish to expose underage children to its extreme violence.

As a viewer I look askance at anything labeled a "must-see." Therefore, as a reviewer I rarely dole out such distinctions. But if you consider yourself a history or warfare buff, a parent or a patriot you must see this film.

(Originally published in Crescent Blues. Reprinted with permission.)

BOOK REVIEW: Never Lie to an Angel by Kate Welsh

Never Lie to an Angel by Kate Welsh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had the privilege of judging this book for a contest shortly after it was published, and it is the most outstanding example of Christian fiction I have read to date. Excellent action, well-drawn characters, and a good message without being preachy. That last point, in fact, is the make-or-break with me in this genre.

My original review, published in Crescent Blues and reprinted here with permission, read as follows:

Author Kate Welsh accomplished two things with this inspirational romance: she shattered my inherent dislike of contemporary crime stories and kept me up way past my bedtime. Each one deserves a hearty round of applause. To achieve both in one novel is nothing short of miraculous.

Angelica DeVoe sacrificed the good wishes of her socially elite family to minister to the destitute flooding the North Riverside Mission. Appalled by her life choices and personal commitment to the hungry, Angelica's parents conspire to deprive Angelica of the fortune willed to her by her beloved grandmother -- a fortune earmarked for the mission.

Undercover cop Greg Peterson vowed to avenge the deaths of his brother and partner by doing everything in his power to rid Riverside of drug traffic. Greg bears a burden of guilt heavy enough for any six human beings.

The paths of cop and "Angel" converge during Greg's investigation to determine whether the "Angel of North Riverside" is in fact the local drug kingpin. Greg establishes Angelica's innocence quickly, realizing her zeal to save their corner of Pennsylvania burns as fervently as his. As kindred spirits united in a common cause, they cannot deny their growing physical attraction for each another. But neither innocence nor love can shield them from the drug-spun web of violence and corruption ensnaring local residents, gang members, police and beyond.

Often in romances, the plot would dry up and blow away if the hero and heroine ever sat down and talked with each other at the outset. Not so with Never Lie to an Angel. Greg cannot blow his cover, even with his Angel, and, knowing how deeply she despises lies, he despises himself for perpetuating the deceit. Angelica tries to draw him out, and he divulges what he can, but those snippets are, at best, half-truths. And the flip side of every half-truth is half a lie.

Welsh pulls no punches with her stunning portrayal of real people battling real issues of violence, deception, betrayal, failure, guilt, temptation, forgiveness, faith, hope and love. The main characters' riveting outer and inner battles hit painfully close to home. Nothing comes easily, even for those choosing to make life-transforming decisions. Never does Welsh rely upon the fairy-tale platitude of "love conquers all." All too often, love needs a generous dose of courage to look beyond the ugliness around us, in each other, and within ourselves. Thank you, Kate Welsh, for reminding us the ugliness can be dealt with in a decisive, practical and ultimately redeeming manner.

(Originally published in Crescent Blues. Reprinted with permission.)

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