FALLEN ANGEL by Major Jeff Struecker and Alton Gansky

Review By Nike Chillemi –

This is one of the best, if not the best novel I’ve read this year.

A United States spy satellite, Angel 12, has dropped from space and is headed for the interior of China. However, when Space Command at the Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska takes a second look, they realize the Chinese have deliberately knocked the satellite out of orbit, intending for it to fall on their soil.

Space Command manages to make some adjustments to the orbit just in time and the satellite crashes in Siberia not far from the sea, which is a much more accessible location. Now it’s up to Sgt. Major Eric Moyer and his elite Special Ops team to find the satellite and retrieve it’s technologically advanced nuclear jet fuel that cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of the Chinese or the Russians. And both nations are on the hunt for it.

From the beginning the team has an uphill battle. First of all their mission puts them on Russian soil, a hostile nation they have no permission to be in. Second of all, since the breakup of the USSR, this particular part of Siberia is controlled by insurgents. These insurgents have already captured one US team and are torturing them.

As I turned the pages, there was always a silent clock ticking. Would our special ops team find Angel 12 in time? That was often in doubt. At one point it seemed as if both the Russians and the Chinese were ahead of Major Moyer’s team.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sub-storyline showing the difficulty of Army special ops families who get little to no notice that their husbands and fathers are shipping out to parts unknown. All they know is the mission is super dangerous. In this novel the team doesn’t even get to say goodbye to their families face-to-face, but is only allowed to make a few quick phone calls before they ship out. When a family member is kidnapped, that means there is an intelligence leak somewhere in the military chain of command on this operation…perhaps even treason.

I had no trouble understanding the military jargon. I enjoyed the competitive banter the members of the special ops team constantly threw back and forth – up to a point. But eventually it put strain on the suspension of my disbelief. I thought, it’s not like this on an actual military special ops mission. There would be at least a few off color remarks. For my part, I would’ve liked a tad less jocular banter and would not have minded a few, only a few, mild “bad words.”

This is a must read for anyone who is a fan of military action-adventure stories. Suspense fans will also greatly enjoy this story. There’s no romance in the usual sense of the word when we speak of the different genres. But these special ops soldiers and their wives share deep love stories which the authors depict in a multi-facetted way. Not to mention the love they bear for their children. It becomes obvious what type of sacrifice this type of soldier makes to keep the American public safe and secure.

Shadowed in Silk by Christine Lindsay

Review by Nike Chillemi –

SHADOWED IN SILK by Christine Lindsay won the 2011 Grace Awards in the Action-Adventure/Western/Epic Fiction category. This story is a page-turner packed with action and suspense. It’s a dramatic love story much more than a romance. The writing is lush, transporting us back in time to the Raj period in India. The research done on the time period was outstanding. The descriptions of Indian life, exquisite and detailed.

Main characters Abby Fraser and Major Geoff Richards have been thrust into a situation that is complex, awkward, and sometimes brutal. These two engaging characters meet aboard on ocean liner bound for India. Major Richards is returning from the battlefields of Europe with what is left of his brave Indian troops to rejoin his regiment. He’s shell shocked and mourning the loss of his men. The daughter of a British officer, but having spent her teen years in America, Abby is returning to her childhood home where she and her young son Cam will rejoin the husband she has been separated from during the war.

When they disembark, sadly, Abby’s husband is not on the pier to meet her and the boy. Geoff is about to help her when they bump into Miriam, an old friend of Geoff’s, an Indian Christian woman who runs a shelter for widows and orphans. To her surprise, Abbey discovers her hard drinking husband is so much less than the man she thought he was. The treatment she received for years at the hands of her neglectful father and aunt has made Abby feel invisible and now her husband’s rude treatment only serves to reinforce that. Abby and Geoff are drawn to each other and he would like nothing better than to help her and little Cam. However, he is a Christian and would never allow himself to become involved with a married woman. Inadvertently, he pulls back at times when she is most desperately in need of a friend. Left adrift, she becomes the pawn of a Russian spy dedicated to stirring up unrest in India.

This is at the time when Gandhi is organizing his “peace revolution.” The reader is deftly brought into what life was like in the 1990s in India…Indian culture, food, clothing, customs, wilting heat and humidity. The British and the native characters are three dimensional, well crafted, and believable. My only problem is with the numerous Indian words. A glossary is provided, but I eventually gave up looking them up and simply guessed at the meaning. The reader gets a wonderful glimpse of the world of missionaries and native-Christians at that time. In fact this makes it easy to care deeply about these characters, especially Miriam, who had a committed and gentle walk with the Lord.

I highly recommend SHADOWED IN SILK. This story has enough twists to keep readers up into the wee hours of the night turning pages. It you’re a lover of historical fiction, especially novels in exotic settings, this is a must read.

HARVEST OF RUBIES by Tessa Afshar

Reviewed by Tammy Doherty –

You know it’s a good book when you finish and you don’t want to start reading another book—you want this one to keep going. I read this book in four days. It was really hard to put it down to do the stuff that needs doing—like making dinner, taking care of the family, sleeping.

Tessa Afshar breathes life into history. In her first novel, PEARL IN THE SAND, she brings the story of Rahab and the fall of Jericho alive. In HARVEST OF RUBIES, the main characters are not taken directly from the Bible, though Sarah’s cousin is Nehemiah. Yes, that Nehemiah. Throughout the novel, Sarah and Nehemiah mention people and events that we now know as Bible stories. They both also refer frequently to the Psalms, though in this story they are a “collection” of the writings of King David just recently written for posterity. They talk about the Psalms, King David, and Queen Esther the way we talk about literature, the Alamo, or President Kennedy—as if these things still affect their daily lives.

HARVEST OF RUBIES is the story of Sarah, a young Jewish woman living in ancient Persia. Since her mother died, Sarah has tried desperately to connect with her father. His seeming indifference gives her a feeling of rejection, that she is a bother to him. When she learns to read and write, unusual for a girl, it is their one connection. Yet even this doesn’t seem to be enough. When Sarah becomes the Queen’s senior scribe, the belief that she can never be good enough, that she will always be found lacking, shadows her daily life. The Queen, however, loves Sarah and is always pleased with her work.

Then Sarah is married to Darius, a Persian noble. She is not an aristocrat and makes many mistakes that bring shame to her husband. Darius thinks Sarah connived to marry him for his riches and that she deliberately shamed him. He leaves her behind at his estate, alone but for a few servants. Sarah must learn both the value of friendship and her own worth. But even if she can regain her faith and truly believe in God’s love, that He loves her just for being her, there seems no hope that Darius will ever love Sarah.

Political intrigue and uncovering a plot to harm the Queen got Sarah into this predicament. When a new mystery presents itself, Sarah dives into the investigation. Her sleuthing provides not only suspense but also comic and heartfelt emotional tension. HARVEST OF RUBIES is a tale about God’s love, a romance, and full of suspense. All set in 5th century BC Persia. The only complaint I can make against this novel is that I have to wait for the sequel.

Pattern of Wounds by J. Mark Bertrand

Reviewed by Nike Chillemi –

I was so looking forward to getting my hands on J. Mark Bertrand’s PATTERN OF WOUNDS, the second in the Roland March series. I certainly wasn’t disappointed. It’s Christmas in Houston, TX, but don’t be fooled. This is not your typical jingle bells and deck the halls Christmas who dun it.

March is investigating a series of murders characterized by a certain pattern of knife wounds. The bodies of attractive women have been brutally stabbed and theatrically positioned. In addition, these current murders are eerily reminiscent of a murder committed by a man March put behind bars ten years ago. Did March arrest the wrong man years ago, or do they now have a copycat killer?

To further complicate things, March starts getting taunting emails from the killer. This cruelly demented killer is making it personal and forcing March to deal with his complicated and painful past. On September 11, 2011, he solved the original murder investigation that mirrors this one. That awful and infamous day was also the date when a drunk driver killed his only daughter. The new investigation becomes even more personal when March’s wife is brutally attacked in their home. In this novel, just as in the first, nonbelieving March wrestles with the question how could a loving God let brutality like this happen.

In this novel, March is in a healthier frame of mind than in book one. He’s more adept now at handling the sordid side of life his job forces him to deal with. His marriage is in better shape, though he’s not at all sure he likes his wife’s new found faith. The characters are well developed and have depth. March and his wife are an ordinary couple who face true-to-life situations and have realistic problems.

Internal police politics is about the same as in the first novel, a complicated minefield. The original serial killer gets wind of this new case and starts and appeal. A police officer in another jurisdiction tries to further his own career by making it look as if March bungled the original case. Of course, March’s superiors don’t back him up, but instead lean toward the other officer’s theory. In addition, a true crime writer betrays March in an attempt to get a crack at putting out a best seller.

This is a fascinating read, a true thriller-chiller. The reader has a sense of foreboding. Something horrific could happen to the main characters at any time. There is a race against time before the killer strikes again. Bertrand weaves a fine murder mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the very end.

The Rook by Steven James

Reviewed By Nike Chillemi –

FBI agent Patrick Bowers is an environmental criminologist who specializes in the use of spacial factors to hunt criminals who commit major serial crimes. He’s been called to assist the San Diego police investigate a series of seventeen unusual fires. This is the second book in the Patrick Bowers series. The first one was THE PAWN.

What Bowers discovers is a well-orchestrated plot to steal a new top-secret prototype for a new weapon the navy is working on. The planned use for this weapon, explained later in the story, is a mind boggler. This novel examines an area that the author delights in exploring: who are the good guys and who are the bad guys…and what does it take to make a good guy go bad?

A mastermind fiend named Shade has recruited an equally evil ex-con named Creighton Melice to help pull off his grand scheme. But what do they have to do with Project Rukh? This novel is chock full of violence and there’s no shortage of evil, although it’s not as gory as the first book in the series. The plot has a lot of twists and turns and covers a wide spectrum: from the inner city homeless population, to kidnap, to a rare disease, to spiders, to sharks.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Agent Bowers is struggling to be a father to his moody teenage stepdaughter. To further complicate this relationship, Tessa’s intelligence quotient is way higher than Patrick’s. So he not only has a smarmy kid to deal with, she’s also a lot smarter than he is, but has little practical experience or common sense. There were times I wished Tessa would just go away…not leave the novel. It’s just that she reminded me too much of my own at times whiny and annoying fourteen year-old daughter. Just a mom being honest here.

Add into the mix, a budding relationship with Agent Lien-hua Jiang a profiler Bowers often spars with professionally. In this novel, they must work together to save a exquisite young woman Creighton Melice has kidnapped and is torturing in the most diabolical manner. Time is short if they plan to save the beauty’s life.

This is a high-paced suspense, plot-driven story and the ride is terrifying at times. The Patrick Bowers character is the most sympathetic and the easiest to bond with but I can’t say I absolutely loved him. He’s interesting and I liked seeing his mind work on the case. The relationship between Patrick and Lien-hua to my mind lacked passion. When she’s in danger, of course he sets out to save her, but I was confused by how desperate and driven he became. I thought where did these deep feelings come from?

If I didn’t already know, would I be able to tell Steven James is a Christian author? Yes, I think so, but the Christian message is very subtle, a fine thread woven throughout as Bowers struggles to figure out the meaning of life and come to terms with evil.

« Previous Page — Next Page »