New Release! The Diabolist by Layton Green

The third book in the Dominic Grey series, The Diabolist, was released on June 4th. Publisher Thomas & Mercer is re-releasing The Summoner and The Egyptian. All three novels are available now as ebooks and paperbacks. As are the others, The Diabolist is a standalone work and can be read independently of the others.

About the book:
In this gripping thriller, the bizarre murder of a Satanic priest in San Francisco draws Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, private investigators of cults, to the scene. Witnesses claim a robed figure, seemingly able to appear and disappear at will, set fire to the priest. When the leader of another Satanic cult in Paris dies under similar circumstances, the case only grows stranger… and more dangerous.

Convinced that a charismatic New Age prophet is behind the murders, the investigators undergo a perilous journey into the world of the occult as they try to penetrate the prophet’s inner circle. From the catacombs of Paris to London’s nefarious East End, from the haunted walls of York to a monastic fortress in the Sicilian wilderness, the case plunges Viktor and Grey into a vortex of black magic, ancient heresies, and the dark corners of their own pasts.

The Diabolist is a chilling novel that not only pulsates with action and suspense, but also mines a trove of fascinating historical, philosophical, and paranormal research to probe some of our closest held beliefs. From the opening pages to the astonishing conclusion, this latest installment in one of today’s most original new thriller series is not to be missed.

Get your copy at Amazon.

About the author:

In addition to writing, Layton attended law school in New Orleans and was a practicing attorney for the better part of a decade (even though he still resents having cut his hair for that first interview). He has also been an intern for the United Nations, an ESL teacher in Central America, a bartender in London, a seller of cheap knives on the streets of Brixton, a door-to-door phone book deliverer, and the list goes downhill from there.

He has traveled to more than fifty countries, lived in a number of them, and has a burning desire to see every country, city, beach, moor, castle, cemetery, twisted street and far flung dot on the map. Religion and cults, as well as all things spiritual and supernatural, have also been a lifelong interest. Combine the travel and the religion with fifteen years of Japanese Jujitsu training, and the Dominic Grey series was born.

Visit his website.

Watch for my review...coming soon!

Read my review of The Egyptian.

Cat Thursday--Kittens

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

This week is dedicated to kittens!

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HFVBT: Review--Murder As A Fine Art by David Morrell plus {Giveaway}

Giveaway winner--Tammy/The Self-Taught Cook

My thoughts:
Murder as a Fine Art is exactly the kind of book I love. An historical mystery/thriller with just the right elements for it to have one leg in the horror genre. The opening chapter of the book is so shocking, it's like reading about a murder committed in our modern times. Hard to believe that it occurred in Victorian times. From the moment I started reading, I knew this was the book for me.

What I found most interesting was the criminology aspect of the book. The action takes place just ten  years after the newly established detective bureau of the Scotland Yard had its detectives educated in France by the father of modern criminology, Eugene Francois Vidocq. There is a reason that all of these television shows, such as CSI and the new Hannibal, are so popular. We are fascinated by the solving of crimes. Morrell fills the bill with his meticulous investigator, Sean Ryan and his assistant, Constable Becker.

It is also the allure of Victorian times with the gaslight and the fog that make for great storytelling. Conjuring images of a dark figure intent on malicious acts walking the streets of London gives the reader a feeling of dread in the pit of the stomach. The palpable fear of the public as they live in fear that they might possibly be the next victim. This is edge-of-the-seat reading!

Morrell has impressed me previously with his thriller, Creepers--a book that has stuck with me since the day I finished reading it. There is no doubt that he is a masterful storyteller and this new foray into historical mysteries is something I hope he plans to continue. If you are fascinated by Victorian London with all its dark underbelly, then I highly recommend that you read this book...now!

About the book:
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Mulholland Books
Hardcover; 368p
ISBN-10: 0316216798

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL'S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

Praise for MURDER AS A FINE ART

“Murder As a Fine Art by David Morrell is a masterpiece—I don’t use that word lightly—a fantastic historical thriller, beautifully written, intricately plotted, and populated with unforgettable characters. It brilliantly recreates the London of gaslit streets, fogs, hansom cabs, and Scotland Yard. If you liked The Alienist, you will absolutely love this book. I was spellbound from the first page to last.”

—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Monster of Florence

“London 1854, noxious yellow fogs, reeking slums, intrigues in high places, murders most foul, but instead of Sherlock Holmes solving crimes via the fine art of deduction, we have the historical English Opium-Eater himself, Thomas De Quincey. David Morrell fans -- and they are Legion -- can look forward to celebrating Murder As a Fine Art as one of their favorite author's strongest and boldest books in years.”

—Dan Simmons, New York Times bestselling author of Drood and The Terror

“Morrell’s use of De Quincey’s life is amazing. I literally couldn’t put it down: I felt as though I were in Dickens when he described London’s fog and in Wilkie Collins when we entered Emily’s diary. There were beautiful touches all the way through. Murder As a Fine Art is a triumph.”

—Robert Morrison, author of The English Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey

“I enjoyed Murder As a Fine Art immensely. I admired the way Morrell deftly took so much material from De Quincey's life and wove it into the plot, and also how well he created a sense of so many dimensions of Victorian London. Quite apart from its being a gripping thriller!”

—Grevel Lindop, author of The Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey

About the author:

David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener, Ontario, who has been living in the United States for a number of years. He is best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become a successful film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. More recently, he has been writing the Captain America comic books limited-series The Chosen.

For more information on David Morrell and his novels, please visit the official website. You can also follow David on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Visit other blogs on the tour--Tour Schedule
Twitter Hashtag: #MurderAsAFineArtTour

GIVEAWAY:

One copy of Murder as a Fine Art to a winner in the U.S. only. Please leave a comment telling me if you are fascinated by Victorian London and why. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you win (email address, Twitter handle, etc). Last day to enter is Wednesday, June 26 at 11:59pm CST. Good luck!

A copy of this book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for providing it.

48 Hour Challenge and Library Books Read-a-Thon

Thanks to my friend, Whitney, for posting about this. Of course, I can't resist. I probably won't be able to read the entire weekend because I have a meeting with my attorney on Friday and a library sale on Saturday, but I'll give it the ole college try, as always! 

Details from the host blog:

• Choose any 48-hour time period between 7am (EDT) Friday and 7am (EDT) Monday.
• Sign in with Ms. Yingling with a starting line post.
• Read and blog, read and blog, read and blog...
• Report in at the end of your 48-hours with a finish-line post (and filling out the handy dandy reporting form).
• You might win awesome prizes!
• You will DEFINITELY have fun being part of a community of people reading and writing and cheering each other on!!!

Ms. Yingling Reads is hosting. 

I'm signing up for Rachael's (Rachael Turns Pages) first read-a-thon because...well, it's her first one...and I just happen to be reading a couple of library books. I joined the Summer of Jest Infinite Jest read-a-long and I'm reading another book I checked out called The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Roach. Rachael is also being very generous by saying she doesn't mind if we read our own books so I just might do that too. Who knows!

To sign-up, go HERE.

HFVBT: Review--Of Fathers and Sons by Evan Ostryzniuk

My thoughts:
Evan Ostryzniuk has written a meticulously researched book of historical fiction. Not only has he done this, but he has given us characters that we can really care about. Niccolo of Este is probably one of the most endearing characters I've read and it was interesting for me to learn about the Italian house of Este. And Geoffrey is also a great character. Putting these two together in the story is storytelling at its finest.

As I've said previously, what I think is important about historical fiction is the introduction of historical  events/people that we might not have otherwise encountered. It leads us (or, at least, me) to the further investigation of these events/people in history. In my opinion, historical fiction makes us amateur scholars of history as we actively seek further information. Ostyzniuk has written an inspiring book in this avenue. I can't wait to go back and read the first book (the author has generously supplied me with a copy), Of Faith and Fidelity, and I look forward to the future books in the series.

About the book:
Publication Date: March 6, 2013
Knox Robinson Publishing
Hardcover; 330p
ISBN-10: 1908483156

Of Fathers & Sons is the second book in the English Free Company series set in the late Middle Ages. The English Free Company is led by Geoffrey Hotspur, an orphan-squire and ward of the mighty Duke of Lancaster, whose driving ambition is to become a knight and serve a great lord. Anyone who enjoys the stories of Bernard Cornwall and Jan Guillou will find more than an echo of their exuberant prose and lively characters in Of Fathers & Sons: Geoffrey Hotspur and the Este Inheritance. Supported with extensive research done by a professional historian, Of Fathers & Sons utilizes true personages and events to weave a vivid tapestry of this exciting time of transition.

Of Fathers & Sons: Geoffrey Hotspur and the Este Inheritance takes place in 1395 when the conflict between rival branches of the mighty Este family over the succession to the strategic Marquisate of Ferrara reaches its climax. The Este lands are vulnerable. The unexpected death of the powerful Marquis Alberto d'Este in 1393 has left his ten-year old son, Niccolo, as his sole direct heir. Though born out of wedlock, the pope himself legitimized the boy’s birth, but in an age when great lords ruled by the sword as much as by the laws of inheritance, having a boy lead the family can be a sign of weakness.

Made unhappy by the father, several Este vassals want to humble the son, and they see their opportunity in the essential weakness of Niccolo’s minority rule. Championing their cause is the head of a humiliated branch of the Este family who is not only a famous condottiere, but also a powerful captain of the ambitious lord of Milan. Fearing that civil war will lead to a shift in the already fragile balance of power in favor of the hated Milan, the city-states of Florence, Venice and Bologna combine to keep the Este inheritance in Niccolo’s hands. If Niccolo falls, the great powers of Italy will be plunged in to war.

Geoffrey and Niccolo are confronted by the same questions: How can an orphan find his place in a society informed by patriarchal relations? For how long must a son honor the wishes of his father? When does the boy become the man?

Before Henry won his miraculous victory at Agincourt, before the Borgias became infamous, before Constantinople fell to the Turks, there was Geoffrey Hotspur, a man as tall as Charlemagne and armed with a sword that rivaled Excalibur. With little money, fewer friends and no name, Geoffrey Hotspur has little choice but to forge his own path towards knighthood.

A thrilling continuation of the story of Geoffrey Hotspur and his English Free Company, Of Fathers & Sons: Geoffrey Hotspur and the Este Inheritance is at heart a squire’s tale of hope, adventure and ambition in a time of great uncertainty.

About the author:
Evan Ostryzniuk was born and raised on the prairies of western Canada. After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan with a B.A. in History and Modern Languages and an M.A. in Modern History, Evan crossed the ocean to do post-graduate work at the University of Cambridge, concluding four years of research with a doctoral thesis on the Russian Revolution. He then found his way to Eastern Europe, where he took up positions as a magazine editor, university lecturer and analyst in the financial services sector before rising in the ranks of the local publishing industry to become Editor-in-Chief of a popular weekly.

Evan Ostryzniuk currently resides in Kyiv, Ukraine near a very large candy factory. He has travelled extensively, including the locations of his novels. Of Fathers and Sons: Geoffrey Hotspur and the Este Inheritance is his second novel.

www.evanostryzniuk.com

Visit other blogs on the tour--Tour Schedule
Twitter Hashtag: #FathersAndSonsTour

Be sure to check out the author's guest post and enter the giveaway for a copy of Of Fathers and Sons HERE.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro--Read-a-Long Wrap-Up and Final Review #cceventsched

This is the end of the Post-2000 "Modern Classic" Read-a-Long of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I hope you enjoyed the book and I look forward to your thoughts on it. I'm going to share my final thoughts in a kind of analysis/book review style.

What does it really mean to be human? Are we human only if we were born to other humans, or can we also be considered to be human if we were created in a laboratory from another's DNA. This book confronts this question in a radical way. What if, in the future, clones were created for the sole purpose of saving the lives of the sick, i.e. via organ donation? In Never Let Me Go, the clones are created and educated as "students" in boarding school type institutions. At Hailsham, where much of the story takes place, a certain emphasis is made on the artistic endeavors of these students. What we later find out is that these students are, in fact, clones and when they leave their schools, they will go out into the world first as "Carers", those who take care of the donor clones as they go through their various donations, and then as donors. Upon donation number four, we learn they complete, or die, which basically means that a life giving organ was taken. However, sometimes the donors complete before donation four due to complications which is not surprising. The importance of Hailsham in all of this is that the way they educated the "students" and emphasized their artistic qualities was their way of proving to the world that these children (and later adults) do indeed have souls and so are human. What we learn through Ishiguro's masterful storytelling is that these people are very human...that they do possess souls. Which makes it all the more tragic.

I do have to admit feeling a bit irritated during much of the book. One of the characters (Ruth) is one of those people who would be absolutely exhausting to be friends with. And Kathy is so frustratingly complacent much of the time. I would have gone off on Ruth much more than Kathy, and even Tommy, ever did. I guess that's what made Kathy such an excellent Carer. Her ability to be understanding of other points of view, however frustrating or irritating. But this is just a little glitch in the reading of the book. Ultimately, I feel that each of the characters...Ruth, Kathy, and Tommy...behaved the way they did as their own special way of coping with what they knew was their inevitability. So very sad.

I must examine the moral implications of the idea behind this book. I used to think that cloning would be a good thing. That it would be good to have clones in case we got sick or our loved ones got sick. But when we are thinking such things, do we really consider that these clones are actually people? Even if they are genetic copies, they are made from the same stuff we are. Who says that you have to be born to be given a soul (if you believe in the human soul, as I do)? How do we know how we really get our souls in the first place?

Books that make me really think are my favorites to read. This doesn't change the fact that this book is very sad and I cried and cried at the end. Definitely well worth the read though.

So, what did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments or leave me a link to your blog post and I'll stop by. Thanks for reading along with me!

Cat Thursday: Nicknames

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

This week is all about the nicknames we have for our cats. I'll start...

 Alice Anne

aka

Al

Allie

Big Al Steak & Onions

Fatty (we're mean)

Arya Snow

aka

Munchkin

Munch

Boop 

Ar

More nickname fun...

Image Credit

What do you call your babies?

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