BLOOD MONEY

BLOOD MONEY

PETER SCHWEIZER

Review by Author Roy

The composition of this non-fiction is so well-developed that the reader will come away thinking - Wow, I did not know that. And, most likely, the reader is correct.

I am well-read and knew many of Schweitzer's topics just by the headline theme. Thank you, MSM and the press, for the information.

According to detailed information by the author, China is attacking our young through social media (TikTok), the motion picture industry, and video games. Using cut-outs, China has already killed Americans with drugs (Fentanyl derivatives) and did control their information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

This propaganda war by the CCP is, in some respect, payback for the Opium Wars - Please look it up. And the CCP believes that the West's, especially America's, decadence will destroy the world.

Schweitzer's narrative includes how our leaders do not pressure China, knowing they are doing what they are doing. This is a mind-boggling financial circle.

This book is what readers, my followers, consider a book for the INQUISITIVE MIND. It is a must-read if you care about your children and grandchildren.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3Vrs5DZ

 

FLIGHT OF THE SPARK

FLIGHT OF THE SPARK

Book 1 in The Outlawed Myth Series

EVELYN PUERTO

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Despotism vs. Freedom is the central theme of this award-winning Young Adult Fantasy. It is how the Villages and Riskers unite or stay apart; a Villager can never question it.

Iskra, a fifteen-year-old girl, is a resident of the Villages. A nail-biting event brings her into the Riskers' homeland, where people can ask questions and do as they wish - it is another world.

In the Riskers' camp, there are sparks between Iskra and Xico. However, she must go back home. It is the rules.

The risky adventure begins. The leader of the Villages knows and must stop for all the villagers' safety and fairness.

She returns many times, the sparks become love, and a deadly adventure begins. The twists and turns of this whole story will have the reader thinking about current events.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3TfIGZH

Cavaliered to Death

CAVALIERED TO DEATH

A Barkview Mystery

C.B. Wilson

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Catalina, CAT, is the only cat lover in the dog city of Barkview. She is the producer of her Aunt Char's Dog Show, an entertaining TV program that teaches people how to train their canines.

Everyone in Barkview has a dog, many with Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. A Champion dog competition has come to Barkview.

Two famous canines cannot be found, and the owner is dead. All indications say Aunt Char did the crime.

CAT is an investigation report in her past life; her new friend Russ is with the FBI, and Uncle G. is the sheriff with two dogs who follow him around.

The three's investigative skills are used in a long dog-days night crime wave, including a kennel burning. CAT's past explodes in the present with a deadly ending.

C.B. Wilson's writing is crisp and colorful but a little too detailed for me. However, if you love dogs, you will love CAVALIERED TO DEATH.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3wxeZKY

SLICE OF MURDER

SLICE OF MURDER

Rosie A. Point

Review by Author Roy Murry

SLICE is a fair setup for the series 'A Pizza Parlor Mystery Book 1.'  There needs to be more minor character development to make the story interesting.

However, the reader gets to know Gina, the main character, a bit. The author needs to be more in-depth in book 2 for the series to move on.

Gina returns home and fires the chef in her sick uncle's pizzeria after determining the place is mis-run. The next day, the chef is found dead in the closed shop with a piece of pizza in his hand.

Gina becomes a sleuth to no avail, finding a note and coming close with gossip. The participant in the crime unveils herself after her son confronts her about an explosive event.

A short read, 110 pages.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3Iopq6h

SEASONABLE DOUBT

SEASONABLE DOUBT

A Cass Leary Legal Thriller

ROBIN JAMES

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

This novel is a courtroom drama to prove that Santa did not do it. Cass is hoodwinked into a case to free a small town's favorite Santa Claus from spending years behind bars.

Santa is captured on video leaving the crime; he is fighting with the victim a few minutes prior, and the victim's government committee will take away his life's enjoyment.

Lastly, the case is tried two weeks before Christmas, with only those weeks for Cass to prepare a defense. Everything happens so fast that the reader will not put down the book.

The ending surprises Cass, the authorities, the client, the town, and the reader.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/4bGupwd

Hope in Hot Chocolate

The HOPE in HOT CHOCOLATE

Poppy Creek Novel

RACHEL BLOOME

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

CHOCOLATE is a typical romance - boy and girl do not initially like each other's lifestyle or philosophy. Sadie makes chocolate candies and loves the process.  Landon is a wealthy young man who is an anti-sugar crusader for personal and business reasons - his mother is ill, and he is starting a new sugar-free food venture.

He is opening a business next door to Sadie's shop. They compete in a town food fair and must share a booth directed by the mayor. 

The battles begin and end unusually. It is meant to be.

Each story stands alone in this Poppy Creek series, as this cute one does. The banter between Sadie and Landon is well-written and sometimes funny.

In one sitting, a romance lover will read.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3SKqypu

MELUSINE

MELUSINE

Book two of

The Heirs of Anarchy

 

G. LAWRENCE

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

"It mattered not my birth, experience, or my intelligence. What mattered was that I was less than them because I was a woman, not a man." Matilda, Lady of the English, 1135 AD. The Lady's Journey continues from Book One, which I read in 2020.

G. Lawrence's prose flows with these little nuggets throughout this novel of King Henry the First Daughter's battle to be Queen of England. In her mid-twenties, her father directs her to marry a newly knighted fifteen-year-old for political reasons - she is property, and her son is heir.

Matilda's fictional words include historical drama. Her psychological development moves into philosophy, which is sometimes wordy.

The novel is long but worth the historical adventure read.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3SQ5wXy

Can't Judge a Book by Its Murder

Can't Judge a Book by Its Murder

A Main Street Book Club Mystery

Amy Lillard

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

I have read many cozy mysteries, and this one hit some of the right buttons. However, the Book Club concept members will not continue in my readings.

Arlo owns a bookstore and receives a call that a man died in front of her establishment. The man committed suicide, or was it murdered, says the local police.

Chloe, Arlo's friend and partner in the bookstore, is arrested - all clues lead to her being the killer, says the police chief. Arlo and the club members go about investigating the crime.

Small-town relations go amuck and conflict with the dead man's wife and assistant. These quarrels and investigations lead to a tongue slip, revealing the unlikely killer to Arlo.

Ms. Lillard's writing is good, but I needed a timeline I could follow. Also, the characters of the book club needed more depth for Book #1 in the series.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/49nGbdf

Great Delusion

THE GREAT DELUSION

Liberal Dreams and

International Realities

JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

Mr. Mearsheimer gives a clear and fluid explanation of Liberalism, Nationalism, and Realism in this thesis on how countries use them to place themself in the world hierarchy. The United States has been promoting liberal homogeny for years as its foreign policy, and it's not working.

Mearsheimer's arguments against liberal foreign policies are compelling. Reality needs to change how a unipolar power like the United States involves itself in other countries' business, which is how I read his hypothesis.

This dissertation goes into multipolar examples, which include China's and Russia's participation in global power struggles. The reader can decide whether the status quo of the United States's spreading liberal homogeny should remain.

Lastly, Obama and Trump bucked the foreign elites on the matter, but Hilary Clinton and Biden followed the elites' playbook. Obama gave in. Trump is still fighting for Nationalism in the country and Realism in foreign policy.

John J. Mearsheimer has written an engrossing description of how the modern-day political world evolves. GREAT DELUSION is a vital read you should notice if you care about the USA.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3OFQzVR

 

AMNESIA on NANTUCKET

AMNESIA on NANTUCKET

TARYN DANIELS

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Melanie and Adam go on their honeymoon to Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Pleasant is their love feast until Melanie has a life-changing accident that sends her mind back five years.

Who is this man, Adam? She asks this and many other questions that she cannot answer without faith and love. The story between them goes back and forth with little twists and turns of humor.

When Melanie comes to terms with her fate, the story turns for the best. AMNESTIA is a cute love story.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3O9pvh8

Madame Pommery

MADAME POMMERY:

Creator of Brut Champagne

Rebecca Rosenberg

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Ms. Rosenberg does an excellent job of using facts and fiction to bring a remarkable woman to life. Pommery crossed into a world in the 1850s that few had - male domination in war, peace, and wine development.

The male world placed conflict after conflict before Pommery, but she found the strength to reach her vision. Ultimately, her beliefs and desire to produce the Brut brand, a dryer, less sweet champagne, succeeded.

This story, written by Rebecca Rosenberg, is inspiring and well-developed. The twists and turns keep the pages moving.

I recommend it to everyone, especially young college and high-school-age women.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/48NdjL2

Poppy Perkins in BOOKED for MURDER

BOOKED for MURDER

Jasmine Webb

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

This is a Poppy Perkins Mystery book #1, where we learn the background story for her next adventures. Her famous legal family has disowned her, and she learns something about her best friend. A man dies after Poppy fights with him, and she loses her job in a donut shop.

The video of Poppy fighting with the man went viral, and the police believe this was the motive. In walks Ophelia to save the day, she and Poppy begin their investigation.

The duo's search goes around in circles, looking into the victim's background until one gets an epiphany. The finality leads to many changes in Poppy's life, which is the pull-in to read book #2.

MURDER was a fun read with extended conversations, which the lady readers will enjoy.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3TLJTbO

WALDEN

WALDEN and

Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

According to Henry David Thoreau, Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." Readers, think about this statement for a moment.

I read Thoreau's words in a Massachusetts High School, in an American Lit college class, and now at seventy-five years old. They resonate more now because one gets wiser with age.

However, you must read his words at any age. The simplicity of Thoreau's living philosophy at WALDEN, Massachusetts, in the 1850s, applies to many complicated situations in modern society.

The prose is uncomplicated to a reader who takes his time - a Thoreau axiom. Walden is an important story that every High School or college student should read, including us older adults.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3veLzR0