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August 17 2008
All in all, our reviewers were quite happy with what they read this week. Well, there may be a few grumbles, but on the whole there were lots of smiles.
Let's begin with the thrillers, of which there was a bumper crop. J.B. Thompson found Rachel Billings' SCORCHED very tense, while Ayo Onatade thought BREAKING COVER was brilliant, even if it doesn't star Jack Keller. MISSION CANYON, the second Evan Delaney adventure to see the light of day in its author's native land, found favour with Angel L. Soto.
Maddy Van Hertbruggen was intrigued with the unconventional metier of the protagonist in THE CLEANER (hint: it doesn't involve Windex), while Luke Croll recommends that thriller fans not miss WE KNOW.
On the other hand, Christine Zibas would have liked Andrew Klavan's quasi-Christian EMPIRE OF LIES a lot better without the political rant.
Bondage and discipline showed up in two novels this week. Our reviewers found themselves engaged by Jonnie Jacobs' THE LAST VICTIM and David Skibbins' THE HANGED MAN, contrary to their expectations.
Denise Pickles thought THE LEMUR, by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) somewhat claustrophobic. On the other hand, it's quite short.
These may have been a bit dark, but there were many rays of sunshine too. (Not so much where I live, but certainly in the books.) PJ Coldren was very enthusiastic about Carl Brookins' THE CASE OF THE DECEIVING DON, while a trio of amateur sleuths were well received. A VINTAGE MURDER, DOUBLE DOG DARE, and MURDER OF A CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRY all entertained their reviewers. About BAD PRESS, our only British police procedural this week, Sharon Wheeler declares that in a fairer world, its author, Maureen Carter, would be a household name like Ian Rankin.
Finally, we welcome the return of Sally Fellows, who found the treatment of both ancient and modern cults in THE NIGHT VILLA wholly engrossing.
We are obliged to suspend our book drawing for the time being. We expect to resume it shortly, so do check back.
Best, Yvonne
PS: For guidelines on how to submit books for review, please go to the ABOUT section of our site.
Our mascot and masthead is Smokey the Cat. Smokey the cat went to the great playground in the sky on April 29, 2008, at 3:30 p.m. He was about 13 years old, had diabetes and only 11 teeth left. He is much happier now. He will remain as our masthead and mascot.
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JUNE 18, 2008.
This week, we are giving away three copies of each of the following books: BIG MONEY by Jack Getze, CLUBBED TO DEATH by Elaine Viets, and MASTER OF THE DELTA by Thomas H. Cook
In order to enter the draw, just click in the proper place, and your email will be addressed correctly. Just please watch your formatting. I can't promise to be able to decipher the message if it has extraneous material in it and you may miss out on a chance to win. The publishers also require a street address, rather than a PO box. If you leave out your mailing address entirely, you will be disqualified if your name is chosen, since we do not have time to track you down.
PLEASE, do not send in multiple entries. These are weeded out and at some point I will lose patience and eliminate ALL names that appear more than once. So take care.
Keep an eye on the left sidestack where our 'Sixty seconds with...' feature will appear weekly.
Thanks to all who have contributed to our success.
bf
MASTER OF THE DELTA by Thomas H Cook
Book Description
In 1954 Mississippi, Jack Branch returns to his father’s Delta estate, Great Oaks, to perform an act of noblesse oblige: teaching at the local high school. Conducting a class on historical evil, Jack is shocked to discover that his unassuming student Eddie is the son of the Coed Killer, a notorious local murderer. Jack feels compelled to mentor the boy, encouraging Eddie to examine his father’s crime and using his own good name to open the doors that Eddie’s lineage can’t. But when Eddie’s investigation leads him to Great Oaks and to Jack’s own father, Jack finds himself questioning Eddie’s motives—and his own.
As the deadly consequences of Jack’s actions fall inescapably into place, Thomas H. Cook masterfully reveals the darker truths that lurk in the recesses of small-town lives and in the hearts of even well-intentioned men.
In this drawing we are giving away three copies of MASTER OF THE DELTA. Send an email to competition@reviewingtheevidence.com Please put the words DRAW THE MASTER OF THE DELTA as the subject and only your name and mailing address within the e-mail.
BIG MONEY by Jack Getze
Book Description
THREE WOMEN WANT HIM DEAD... Left in charge of a one-office Jersey Shore investment firm, suspended stockbroker Austin Carr becomes the prize in a war between two crime crews and a powerful state investigator. Trying to stay alive with mobsters, beautiful cops, and a hit-man he calls the creeper chasing him, Carr stumbles into the secret lives of three desperate women. One becomes a victim, one a murderer. And Carr is her next victim... -I stuff the DVD under my laptop and work hard to put on my three-o'clock-in-the-morning, full-boat Carr grin. Not exactly a simple trick. And definitely not sincere. I mean, how am I supposed to be calm and forthright when this DVD suggests last night's love interest-the lady headed this way-could be a killer. Clever of me to wake her up. I gasp when I see her. Oh, my. And oops. Oh, my because she's wearing nothing but white athletic socks. Oops because she's using both hands and all ten red-nailed fingers to grasp a pump action, single barrel shotgun. "You found the DVD, didn't you?" Ms. Shotgun says. "DVD?" If it wasn't for rhyming consonants, I'd be pretty much speechless. My gaze is tightly focused on her bare breasts and that shotgun in the same close-up. Visually and emotionally, it's a lot to absorb.-
In this drawing we are giving away three copies of BIG MONEY. Send an email to competition@reviewingtheevidence.com Please put the words DRAW BIG MONEY as the subject and only your name and mailing address within the e-mail.
CLUBBED TO DEATH by Elaine Viets
Book Description
The national bestselling author who turns “minimum wage into maximum hilarity” (Nancy Martin, author of Murder Melts in Your Mouth) reveals the lifestyles of the rich and murdered…
Helen Hawthorne’s latest dead-end job is in a country club’s complaint department, dealing with the gripes of the rich and spoiled. Then Rob, her deadbeat ex-husband, sails back into her life aboard the yacht of his new lady, Marcella—known as the Black Widow for her string of dead spouses. The next day Rob’s reported missing. If the Black Widow has such a murderous reputation, then why is Helen led from the club in handcuffs?
When Marcella helps Helen get released, the two form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened. Helen’s barely begun digging when a club patron is discovered beaten to death with a golf club —his membership permanently expired. Someone got more than a little teed off and it’s up to Helen to get to the truth—without getting clubbed herself…
To enter the drawing for CLUBBED TO DEATH send an email to Send an email to competition@reviewingtheevidence.com Please put the words DRAW CLUBBED TO DEATH as the subject and only your name and mailing address within the e-mail.
If you just can't wait to take a chance on winning a copy and want to order from Amazon, just click on the book cover.
This draw will end at midnight PDT on Tuesday, June 24. The winners and new draw will be posted on Wednesday June 25
A random number generator will be used to select the winners.
The books will be sent directly from the publicist or the author to the winner. If you have a limited amount of space in your mail box, please be sure to keep it clean so you can be notified if you win. Also, if you are monitoring your mail, some spam filters will not allow me to email you. In that case, you will also not be notified. I reserve the right to disqualify those I cannot contact.
This competition is not open to RTE reviewers or their families.
We will have three new books to give away every week, and perhaps some of you new people would like to read our reviews. We do answer all email, so suggestions and comments are happily received.
The winners of the drawing for a copy of MONSTER OF FLORENCE by Douglas Preston are: Elaine Rosser, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA, Christian Brothers, Dearborn Heights, MI' Jean Morrison, Lavallette, NJ
The winners of the drawing for a copy of SAIL by James Patterson and Howard Roughan are: Amy Matthews, Pasadena, MD; Ken Follett, Wolcott, NJ; Elizabeth Foust, Conrad, IA
The winners of the drawing for a copy of SPIES OF WARSAW by Alan Furst are:Lee Cochenour, Fort Worth, TX; Kristyn Martin, Monroe, NC; Jeanne Knight, Minneapolis, MN
Thanks to all who entered.
If you haven't been lucky enough to win a copy of the book in the draw, just click on the cover to purchase from Amazon, or go to your local independent bookseller and buy a copy and help keep the indies alive. If you buy from Amazon, please use the cover or the click through on http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com, as we get a pittance from each sale
All names, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses of those who entered the previous competitions have been purged from my mailer. The same will be done for this drawing.
I will attempt to keep to our Wednesday schedule of new draws, however, for the next few weeks, things may get a bit erratic and I have just been diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer and will be undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for the next 3-5 weeks. Things shoud settle down after that.
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Contact: bf@reviewingtheevidence.com
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