Into the Fire

Left to Loathe by Blake Pierce is Book 14 in the Adele Sharp Mystery Series.

Special Agent Adele Sharp continues to suffer in guilt for her part in the death of a serial killer who called himself "The Painter". The guilt haunts and taunts her and she needs to tell her partner and love interest Agent John Renee what she's experiencing, but she keeps postponing the encounter. After getting the courage to confess her struggle to him, she's stunned by his reaction, but he follows up with a troublesome confession of his own. 

The two of them are thrust into what has grown to be a serial murder of prostitutes that sends them first to the depravity of De Wallen, Amsterdam. They have very little to go on, and it only gets worse as the clues and information are slow-going but move them to Germany after another death. Adding to their frustration, the killer has a type. That they happen to resemble Adele is just an added side-effect in figuring out why he's selecting them. 

When one of Adele's suspicions turns out terribly wrong, it eventually leads to other sources of information that prove to finally be valuable. 

There is one parallel hidden underbelly of this story that no one, especially John and Adele, will ever see coming much to the dismay and absolute danger for both of them, leaving this novel in a desperate cliffhanger.  

The growing closeness of Agents Renee and Sharp is well-written and rewarding. The "American Princess" as John likes to call Adele and the dashing French rogue Renee are very different in their cultural beginnings, backgrounds, crime-solving, and former lifestyles, but they mesh and Adele gets to see the best of John which he's growing more comfortable making available to her. That she decides to reveal her conscience to him is a big deal for her, and he lightens her burden with his honesty. There's a key element in her same confession to her father, and it doesn't appear to end well. 

I love this series, but I'm not a huge fan of these types of cliffhangers. I would rather read a longer novel to have the extent of these events resolved rather than dangling them at a critical point only to have to wait for the next edition of the story. 

Father, you know hearts, minds, souls. We can hide nothing from you, try as we might. Lord, bless Blake and provide what's needed for more stories. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

"In that day," declares the Lord,

   "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,

   men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified,

   and everyone in Esau's mountains

   will be cut down in the slaughter.

Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,

   you will be covered with shame; 

   you will be destroyed forever.

   . . ."

Obadiah verses 8-10 (NIV) 

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV) 

No better application for this verse than in literature. Plots have been done and redone hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. There are millions of novels offered by almost as many authors. To write a unique story is more than a challenge, it's almost impossible.

So what will make a novel different, a story more enchanting, scarier, more engaging, funnier, more thrilling? What will it take to make a book stand out to a devoted reader of fiction?

The easiest and most probable example to be made is in the genre of romance. How many ways can love go wrong or right? How many timelines or time traveling can be used and manipulated to tell the stories of people in all kinds of places who fall in love, stay in love, or experience the sorrow of being "star-crossed" lovers? It's all been done over and over again. 

And yet we continue to read those novels that lure us into those basically-the-same stories because . . . why? Because they entice us by the way they introduce us to the premise or we fall instantly in love with one of the characters, or we are tantalized by the action incurred by some courageous hero, or we dread the trap set by the antagonist? Whatever it is that takes place to cause us to finish a story, to find an absolute favorite, to keep reading a series, to continue in a genre we don't normally enjoy – all those sometimes indefinable nuances of a story, a style, a plot we just plain like – this is what makes us select certain favorite authors and commit to reading whatever they write. 

And that commitment is the desire of every one of us who writes fiction and longs to share our versions of "nothing new under the sun". 

Father, you own my novels. Apart from you, I couldn't have written even one of them. You give me inspiration and words, characters and stories. I can't thank you enough for each one of them. May I always honor you with my novels. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Experimentation with my brand new Konica 35mm camera shortly before traveling on the trip of a lifetime to Great Britain and Europe which lasted almost 3 months. Two American girls jaunting across the Atlantic from Washington state to some parts unknown until we got there. Amazing memories from so long ago . . . 

Father, you protected me before I knew your Son. Thank you is never enough for rescuing me and so much more. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

In the Blood is Book 5 in the Jack Carr James Reece Thriller Series. 

James Reece (aka James Donovan) is a hunter. Of men. A sniper. An assassin. A killer. When necessary. When promised.

When another sniper, Syrian Nizar Kattan killed James' friend Freddy Swain, James vowed to his widow that he would get the person responsible for his death. When another friend from his past was brought down in a commercial flight, that same Syrian proved to be responsible for her death as well. That person would die – or James Reece would die trying to kill him. The question remained: Why were they killed? Totally unrelated incidents. The only thing they had remotely in common was James Reece. 

The roundabout journey from DC to Israel to Montenegro to establish the whereabouts of the killer and the reasons for the deaths of his friends lead James to a man in a wheelchair who has a vendetta of his own. 

The sniper hunters' face-off and paths to get there provide a hard-hitting (literally) search with the help of a serious dose of drug-induced information.  

In the Blood is an eye-opener to the cyber world. An introduction to "Alice" will allow you a glimpse into James' best personal asset in this hunt. One thing he learns toward the end of this particular journey is maybe old hidden information that he has no way of locating is better left behind – or so he contemplates.

His girlfriend Katie has become very important to him and causes him to contemplate leaving his old life to start focusing on living the one he imagines with Katie.

But with a solid twist at the end, Carr has left us dangling for his next story as to the fate of James Reece.

(Some profanity.)

Father, only you know hearts and minds. Only you. Please continue to bless Jack as he writes these stories, give him what he needs to tell them well. Thank you for your writers. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

  Glory Hallelujah. His Truth Is Marching On. 

God. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 (NIV)

May the Lord of heaven and earth provide the comfort for those who've lost all manner of loved ones in service to this One Nation Under God. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;

   the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.

The Lord takes vengeance on his foes

   and maintains his wrath against his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power;

   he will not leave the guilty unpunished.

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,

   and clouds are the dust of his feet. 

He rebukes the sea and dries it up;

   he makes all the rivers run dry.

Bashan and Carmel wither

   and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. 

The mountains quake before him

   and the hills melt away.

The earth trembles at his presence,

   the world and all who live in it.

Who can withstand his indignation?

   Who can endure his fierce anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire;

   the rocks are shattered before him.

Nahum 1:1-6 (NIV) 

Breath of Life was my third self-published novel. It came out in 2011.

I would say it is my most "literary" style of all of them so far but wouldn't qualify as a literary novel.

Some of my friends hated the ending but loved the story. 

It was my first attempt at using "first-person" point of view, and it was written from a male perspective. Many years ago I absolutely hated to read novels with first-person POV. I don't mind them anymore. Good thing because there are a lot of them. 

The protagonist is intelligent but worldly until he meets the introverted heroine whose suffered loss and sheltered herself within her writing world until the protagonist inserts himself into her narrow reach. 

Father, every good and perfect gift comes down from you. Thank you for giving me writing. May I always use it to point to you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. 

                       A Throwback Thursday review in 2020. 

Ghosts by Mark Dawson is Book 4 in the John Milton Series. 

John "Smith" has made it to Texas but turns out as he's preparing to leave again for wherever, he winds up arrested at a bar fight and is rescued – or intercepted – by a beautiful woman (Anna) posing as an FBI agent. Turns out she's anything but that kind of agent, and she's equipped for everything John might need for what she has in mind for him. She knows way more about him than he does about her. 

Since John needs to know where this offer she presents is going, he willingly – although begrudgingly – accompanies her on a very long flight to an eventually remote "dacha" to hear what her boss has to offer. The request is in exchange for a rescue and requires some serious stealth before it's all said and done. First to Hong Kong with Anna to see the "ghost" he never expected to see again: Beatrix Rose, Number One who recruited him into Group Fifteen. When his first job with her goes terribly haywire, he never learns what happened to her after it. He assumed she might be dead – especially after his brush with Number 12 in The Cleaner. As he quickly learns, she's as good as dead when he meets with her. 

And once again John stares death in the face, and it's only a matter of seconds away in the mayhem that erupts after the rescue is complete. 

Mark Dawson has created a fascinating character in John Milton. Never looking for a fight but sizing up everyone in his path with the skills that come naturally after all the operative training and executions he's conducted over the years, somehow those fights come looking for him. Most of the time he's victorious, but he's had his share of close calls and temporary defeats with the multiple scars to prove it. 

Mark's writing is heavy on location, scenery, description. His dialogue, or lack thereof when John chooses not to respond, is crisp, interesting, and often provocative. There is occasional profanity. 

I find the John Milton Series very entertaining with only the occasional "rant". Do recommend you start at the beginning, and you'll find a pile of books in the series to keep you involved. I've found I also really enjoy the simplicity and colors used for the covers. The depiction of John Milton on the covers is perfect. 
           

Father, please continue to bless Mark, encourage him, and meet his needs as he writes. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.