Cathi Stoler - The Hard Way - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Private Investigator Helen McCorkendale’s childhood friend, Jimmy Scanlan, has just opened January, the most lavish casino and hotel resort on the Las Vegas Strip. After attending the grand opening, Helen returns to New York and encourages her friend, Laurel Imperiole, Senior Editor at Women Now magazine, to create a get-away contest for readers offering a weekend at the hotel as the grand prize. The winner, Dawn Chapman, a jewelry store employee from Cincinnati, denies entering the contest and initially refuses the trip. Finally persuaded by Laurel to accept, she arrives at the hotel and nearly faints when she passes the hotel’s elite meeting rooms where the International Diamond Dealers Consortium is holding its annual meeting. She insists on returning home immediately.

Suspicious of her behavior, Jimmy visits her suite to encourage her to attend the Saturday afternoon pool party, saying she can leave on his private jet the next day. Later in the afternoon, he finds Chapman’s dead body by the pool. She’s been murdered—an unusual double poisoning by cyanide and diamond dust.

Dawn Chapman was not who she appeared to be, and therein lies a mystery. But to Helen and Laurel, the main task is to take Jimmy Scanlon off the suspect list and clear his name. Will their luck hold? Or will it be a crap shoot, as they roll the dice and do it ‘the hard way,’ going for doubles when the odds are against them. Losing may mean losing their lives.


My Review

There are cozy mysteries. There are grisly mysteries. But I'd dub this one a glam mystery. Why? Because of its setting. Stepping inside the January Resort and Casino is like watching an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Tuxes, diamonds, caviar, you name it, all come together in one spectacular Las Vegas showcase that attempts to turn the unforgiving heat of the desert into a winter wonderland for the affluent, connected and good-looking. They'll have their cake and eat it too, even if it means fashioning a roaring fireplace out of ice.

But the extravagance doesn't stop there. With the International Diamond Dealers Consortium in town, anything is possible. The de Groot family has long been associated with the luxury trade, and they're about to unveil the discovery of a precious red diamond once owned by the last Russian tsar. But before that can happen the reluctant winner of a magazine contest turns up dead at a Polar Cap Pool Party. Why was she reluctant to stay at such a fabulous and exclusive hotel? Maybe it was the cause of death—death by diamond dust, to be precise.

It seems such a pretty way to die, but it's really not. Mixed with cyanide, the victim's organs were shredded internally as soon as she swallowed the lethal dosage in her comped drink. Her skin turned pink. She couldn't breath and eventually went into cardiac arrest. Dawn Chapman didn't want to go on this trip, and she shouldn't have. Because it turns out that Dawn Chapman is really Deirdre Thornhill, international jewel thief extraordinaire, not the salesperson for a family-run jewelry store in Ohio that she was passing herself off as.

There are a lot of suspects in this whodunit. There's Jimmy Scanlan, January's owner, who may or may not be covering up a shady deal gone bad. There's Jimmy's main competitor, Clive Drummond, the owner of The Florentine, who could be setting Jimmy up to take the fall and destroy his business. There are many players surrounding the diamond dealers themselves, especially the nefarious members of their security teams some of whom look and act more like stone cold killers than the threats they're supposed to be protecting their illustrious bosses from.

Stoler sets up her thriller brilliantly. It hooks the reader from the get go with its opulence and sophistication. Her distinctly imaginative setting is one that transports mystery fans right into the action, gripping them with fur-covered ice stools and poolside chalets. The January Resort and Casino is a place anyone would love to stay at, but being that it's confined to the page gives readers the added benefit of being able to leave this must-see destination alive. When it comes to faux snow, some things are better left to the imagination, especially when there's a killer on the loose.

***

The Hard Way can be purchased at:
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 280
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Release: April 15, 2014
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603819497
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Cathi Stoler’s mysteries feature PI Helen McCorkendale and magazine editor, Laurel Imperiole. The Hard Way is the third book in the series. The first, Telling Lies, took on the subject of stolen Nazi art. Book 2, Keeping Secrets, delved into the subject of hidden identity. Stoler’s short stories include: “Magda,” in the Criminal Element Anthology Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, “Out of Luck,” in the Anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices, “Fatal Flaw,” a finalist for the Derringer for Best Short Story and “Money Never Sleeps” both published at Beat to A Pulp. Cathi is working on a novella, Nick of Time, which features International gambler, Nick Donahue. She is also starting a new series, Bar None, A Murder On The Rocks Mystery, with female bar owner, Jude Dillane. Cathi is a member of the New York/Tri State chapter of Sisters In Crime. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America.

Links to connect with Cathi:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog
Blog Tour Site


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DJ Wilson - Ride to Redemption - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Righting another's wrong landed D in WITSEC, the witness protection program and cost him family, friends, and everything of substance in his life.

Loneliness is his constant companion until he meets Candi, the girl of his dreams. He and Candi embark on a three-week ride to redemption where they deal with mind-numbing deceit, perilous treachery, their overpowering lust for each other and their personal demons.

Nevertheless, new opportunities bring a chance to begin again. And, it doesn't hurt that he's got 200 pounds of illicit diamonds to use to ease the pain of those wronged. He will continue the redemption process by way of a well thought out plan involving a 5,000-mile adventure through the Western United States and Canada.

When D meets Candice, aka Candi, she captures his heart, mind and soul the instant she 'inadvertently' almost runs him down in the Starbucks drive-thru. Candi joins him on his three-week, two-wheeled ride to redemption, where they're forced to face their personal demons, while dealing with wanton lust, mind-numbing deceit and perilous treachery.

Spectacular scenery and a cast of unforgettable characters they meet along the way makes the journey memorable, but nothing prepares them for the sacrifices they must eventually make midway in the ride.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," sadly, does not ring true for Candice and D throughout this first of a two part series. Lust and greed are forever game-changers, even for those who desperately seek redemption.


My Review

I hopped on the back of D's motorcycle and went for the ride of a lifetime! I loved spending three weeks with him through the western U.S. and Canada. I felt the explosive rush of a geyser in Yellowstone. I could see the icy blue of the lake in Glacier National Park. I got a first hand look at Montana's Beartooth Highway through Montana, named one of the most scenic roads in America. Let me tell you, D did a great job playing the role of tour guide extraordinaire.

This is a travel book and I love when an author can take me places I've never been before. The way Wilson writes it's like he's letting us in on the tricks of the trade - the restaurants with the best food, the most comfortable places to stay, the most picturesque routes to choose. I think anyone would enjoy taking some time off and seeing the sites with this guy. He's the real deal.

But while D might be an expert when it comes to booking B&Bs that feel like a home away from home and finding the tastiest grub in town, he's clueless when it comes to dating. He wants a woman in his life, he's just not sure which one. He's just starting something new with Candi, a pampered princess he hopes he can "train" into the type of girl he wants. But then there's Victoria, the seductive, dirty-mouthed attorney he can't stop thinking about and who lets him know that she's available at every opportunity.

He wants to make it work with Candi, he's just not sure she can give him what she needs. Sure, she's a handful in the sack, but why is it so hard for her to open up to him about her past? If she can't be forthcoming with him from the beginning, D doesn't know if they have what it takes for the long haul.

Victoria is more his match both in terms of age and lifestyle. They're both risqué and rather promiscuous. Yet they're not ashamed of it, it's what attracts them to each other. Victoria teases D for remaining faithful to Candi and repeatedly turning her down, but deep down she knows that all it's going to take is one slip up by Candi and she'll be replacing the young tart in D's bed in a heartbeat. She just has to wait it out and eventually her young rival will mess up.

The novel ends in a cliffhanger with just that particular scenario. After a long, scenic bike ride through Native American reservations and Wild West towns, all three end up in Canada when a motorcycle collides with a moose and an unexpected accident turns D's world upside down. A chain of events is set in motion that can't be stopped. Through shootouts and double crossings, D doesn't know who's on his side and who's not.

By the final pages, he ends his trip right back where he started - looking for love in all the wrong places.

***

Ride to Redemption can be purchased at:
Amazon, Smashwords

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, $10.95 paperback
Pages: 282
Genre: Erotic Romance
Release: December 2, 2013
Publisher: Fideli Publishing
ISBN: 9781604147773
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Raised in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, I graduated from Cumberland University, located in a small town you've never heard just inside Kentucky quite a few years ago. At the present, we're living beside beautiful Dale Hollow Lake.

Blessed to travel, blessed with health, blessed with second chances, too numerous to list here.

As a blogger, featured on many sites, including the Huffington Post, I have been humbled beyond measure, more times than not, by all that life has thrown our way.

Successful, that's me, catastrophic failure, that's me too. We've been there, done that and have the life changing scars to prove it.

Our writings reflect life through the throes of heartache and loss, as well as through the joys redemption brings.

"Life is not waiting for the Storms to Pass, It's Learning to Dance in the Rain."

Links to connect with DJ:
Web Site
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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Ken Dalton - Brother, can you spare a dime? - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Bear’s planned afternoon of beer and baseball is interrupted by a phone call from a man he hardly remembers from their years at Elko High. So begins the tale of a cold-blooded murder and the theft of a dime worth two million dollars!

Faced with bi-coastal murder suspects, Pinky hands Bear, and Flo the sweaty task of tracking down one of the suspects along the hot, humid North Carolina shoreline while he chooses to pursue the other on the Kona coast of Hawaii. But Pinky, after imbibing too many Mai Tai’s with a bevy of sky-goddesses, and a moved-up court date, is forced to return to Carson City, sans suspect.

Bear and Flo hit pay dirt and with the identity of the killer in hand they fly across the Pacific Ocean to the smoggy Beijing airport where they meet Joe, the uncle of Pinky’s Chinese secretary. The enigmatic Joe quotes Confucius and Shakespeare as he purposefully guides the dynamic duo to their final destination— oxygen sparse Lhasa, Tibet.


Cliff hanger contest

Brother, can you spare a dime? ends with a prize winning cliff hanger that defies all logic.

Let Ken know how you would answer the question and he will choose the two answers he likes the best. Both winners will receive a complete paperback set of his Pinky and Bear mystery series.

The Bloody Birthright
The Big Show Stopper
Death is a Cabernet
The Tartan Shroud
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Five books, each one personally inscribed!

Email your cliff hanger answer to ken@kendalton.com and in a couple of months Ken will post the winners' names on his Facebook page.


My Review

I like an author who writes what he knows and pays attention to detail. Ken Dalton is a connoisseur of the human experience. He captures those little tidbits of life that make us laugh, that make us shiver, and holds them up to the light for all of us to enjoy and examine. He picks up on signature personality traits and oddball behavior as well as the sights, smells and sounds of a location that are the things we remember the most about the people we meet and the places we've been. It's the stuff we tell others about when we get back from a trip or how we explain the impression someone makes on us when we encounter someone interesting. It's all about those small, stand out moments that not many writers write about. And that's why I like Ken Dalton.

For me, the plot was secondary. I know that in a murder mystery it should be of the utmost importance, but I had a feeling that Bear and Flo would solve the case for Pinky and every wrong would be righted, so I wasn't too concerned about the outcome. I just liked following them all around the world whether it was from Nevada to North Carolina or from Hawaii to China. I laughed at Bear getting sick of having hushpuppies at every meal in the South while tracking a lead at what seems like a hole in the wall coin shop. I enjoyed soaking in the perfect air temperature with Pinky poolside in Hawaii while he inwardly bemoaned his failed marriage while trying to hit on a bevy of young flight attendants. I admired Flo's knowledge of Buddhist customs and communist history while trying to find one woman in the midst of a billion people. These three proved to be just as enlightening as they are entertaining.

But I was thrilled after finishing BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? to read that Ken Dalton traveled to China and even visited Tibet. I loved how he included pictures from his trip in the author's notes at the end of the book. For me, this added such a layer of authenticity to his story and one - as a reader who hasn't seen much of the world - I deeply appreciated. He made me yearn for a glimpse of the sun through the pollution laden air of Beijing. He left me gasping for breath amid the dizzying heights of the Himalayas. He had me cringing at encountering a dried-up bat on a stick. The clash of cultures is vividly portrayed even as our guide, Joe, keeps assuring us that everything is, "five stars, top class, very American" while the stench coming from the public restrooms makes it clear that it's anything but. I have an inkling that Dalton was told much the same thing during his Asian excursion, and nothing makes for great fiction like the stuff of life.

***

Brother, can you spare a dime? can be purchased at:
Amazon, KenDalton.com (personalized inscription and free shipping)

Prices/Formats: $4.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 310
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Release: April 9, 2014
Publisher: Different Drummer Press
ISBN: 9780578140391
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Ken was born in 1938 at Hollywood Hospital. He grew up in Los Angeles with his parents, his older sister and younger brother.

In a turn of bad luck, the dreaded Polio virus attacked Ken at the age of five. By the age of sixteen, after eleven years of operations, therapy, and braces to mitigate the effects of Polio, Ken’s luck changed when he met the girl of his dreams. A few years later they married, produced three wonderful children, and settled into a happy life in Southern California.

In 1966, Ken and his family moved to the green hills of Sonoma County where they bought a home surrounded with apple trees.

Some time later, Ken, designed, built, and operated a small winery that produced award winning Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Then, in a moment of madness, Ken began writing. His first article was published in Golf Illustrated. Many more golf articles followed in national and regional magazines including Golf Magazine and Fairways and Greens. Eventually Ken felt the urge to write his first novel.

Now, after the publication of The Bloody Birthright, The Big Show Stopper, Death is a Cabernet, and The Tartan Shroud, Ken has published his latest Pinky and Bear mystery, Brother, can you spare a dime?

Links to connect with Ken:
Web Site
Facebook
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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Diane Daniels Manning - Almost Perfect - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

An old woman who has given up hope and a boy who believes the impossible wonder if life would be perfect at the Westminster Dog Show.

Seventy-year old Bess Rutledge has dreamed of winning the Westminster Dog Show all her life. Despite her decades-long career as one of America’s top Standard Poodle breeders, she has decided she’s too old to hold on to her foolish dream. She sells off all the dogs in her once famous kennel except for the aging champion McCreery and his mischievous, handsome son Breaker. Part of her senses they might have been the ones to take her to Westminster, if only she’d dared to try.

Bess meets Benny, a teenager with mild autism who attends a therapeutic special school, and learns he has a dream of his own: to impress his self-absorbed mother. Benny is drawn into the world of dog shows and becomes convinced he has found the perfect way to win his mother’s attention. If he can win Westminster with either McCreery or Breaker, he just knows she will finally be proud of him. Getting Bess to go along with his plan, however, is not going to be so easy. . .

Up to 100% of the author’s profits will be donated to charities serving animals and children.


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My Review

I love New Englanders. They're a stalwart people with a stiff upper lip. They don't complain when the going gets tough, instead they put their nose to the grindstone and work even harder. They're resilient, surviving long, harsh winters, always keeping a hopeful eye toward spring even in the midst of a raging blizzard.

That type of mindset best explains the character of Bess in ALMOST PERFECT. She's been experiencing a lot of dark days recently. She's closing her kennel. She's birthing her last litter of pedigree poodles. After that, she's done. She's washing her hands of a lifetime of work. She's doing what no self-respecting New Englander would do - she's quitting.

It turns out Benny knows a thing or two about quitting. He can't even be depended on to empty the dishwasher, never mind train a top prospect dog, but that's what Bess entrusts him to do, much to her chagrin. She can't help herself, she likes the kid. He gets through to her when no one else can. He revives her almost extinguished hope in herself, and in her dogs.

Bess and Benny live in an area steeped in Revolutionary War history that celebrates a bunch of rebel soldiers who took on the greatest military powerhouse of the era, and won. Many would say the American patriots were the biggest underdogs of all time, so it's not surprising when two long shots like Bess and Benny think they can beat the odds when it comes to pulling off a championship at Westminster.

Benny's an unseasoned rookie handler, and Bess is a has-been, a respected one, but a has-been nonetheless. No one thinks that they'll be able to pull it off and score a victory. In the dog show world, things like that just don't happen, or do they? Without giving away the ending, Bess and Benny do make history in their own special way. Between a dog kidnapping and a puppy going through an ill-timed "ugly" stage, the two of them persevere to be champions in their own right - because Benny got Bess to try - and sometimes that's all that it takes in order to succeed.

***

Almost Perfect can be purchased at:
Amazon

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, $8.99 paperback
Pages: 330
Genre: Pet Fiction
Release: January 29, 2014
Publisher: Beltor
ISBN: 9780578136394
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Diane Daniels Manning is the co-founder and director of The New School in the Heights, a therapeutic school in Houston, Texas which helps children dealing with social-emotional challenges find success in school and life. She has a Ph.D. in Education and a post-doctoral M.P.H from Harvard and is a practicing child psychoanalyst certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association. Formerly, she was the Director of the Reading and Learning Disabilities Clinic at Tufts University, Lecturer and Research Associate in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Harvard, and Chair of the Department of Education at Tulane University. She learned the inner workings of dog show kennels by writing an authorized oral history of a lifetime President of the Poodle of Club of America. Her writing awards include the Faulkner-Wisdom Novella Prize and the Women in Film and Television Short Script Competition.

Links to connect with Diane:
Web Site
Facebook
Goodreads
Blog
YouTube
Blog Tour Site


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