Book Beginning: Written in Blood by Layton Green

Written in Blood, courtesy of author Layton Green
Publication: November 7, 2017, Seventh Street Books
Detective Joe -Preach- Everson, a prison chaplain turned police officer, tracks a literate killer of a bookstore owner in North Carolina. 

Book beginning:

The body was lying face up on a sheepskin rug, the top of the head caved in like a squashed plum, Detective Joe "Preach" Everson kneeled to view the corpse. To him, the splayed limbs suggested an uninhibited fall, rather than a careful arrangement of the body.  

Which didn't fit with the two miniature crosses, one wood and one copper, placed side by side on the slain man's chest.

Page 56:
"Just Damian, please. Grown men don't need to call each other by their last names."
The author delivered the soft rebuke with a smile. 

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

The Resurrector by Layton Green: Book Beginning

The Resurrector, author Layton Green
Published June 29, 2017
Genre: thriller, fantasy
A Dominic Gray novel, #6

Book beginning:

KHAYALANGA TOWNSHIP WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICAPresent Day
The light of a full moon illuminated the couple huddled around a rusty oil drum in the center of the township. The trash fire in the barrel doubled as a source of warmth and as an oven for roasting corn.Behind them was the storage container they called home. A good space. Unlike most of the neighboring shacks, it had a metal roof instead of tarpaper. More resistant to wind and floods. Just beyond the township lay the gentle swells of wine country. Golden fields and sprawling manors steeped in the wealth of the old Boer families. The inequalities of life in the Western Cape used to  motivate the couple, inspire nightly political discussions with their neighbors while quaffing sour umqombothi beer, but they no longer cared for such things. 

Page 56: 

Solomon had drawn a single face for the sketch artists, the only person he could identify from his captivity. 

Book description:
A modern day Dr. Frankenstein, probing the secrets of life and death. Two men racing against the clock to stop the spread of a horrific virus. As the victims mount..., the world's only hope rests in the hands of Professor Viktor Radek and Dominic Grey, a broken warrior and a relentless professor, facing the darkest of forces.

I'm definitely intrigued by the beginning and the setting of this one, having read other suspense/thriller/fantasy novels by Layton Green. 

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

It's Monday: Here's What I'm Reading

Visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. Also visit Mailbox Monday. 

The Resurrector, author Layton Green
Published June 29, 2017
Genre: thriller, fantasy
A Dominic Gray novel, #6
A modern day Dr. Frankenstein, a secret society spawned by the greatest evil the world has ever known, two men racing against the clock to stop the spread of a horrific virus. 

Written in Blood, ARC, author Layton Green
Publication: November 7, 2017, Seventh Street Books
Genre: police procedural, crime fiction
Detective Joe -Preach- Everson, a prison chaplain turned police officer, tracks a literate killer of a bookstore owner in North Carolina. 

A tale of two kitties by Sofie Kelly
Publication: September 5, 2017, Berkley
Genre: cozy mystery in a series
Two magical cats have powers of detection that prove indispensable to librarian Kathleen Paulson…

I am still reading Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, 
                            Skeleton God by Eliot Pattison
                            Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
and a borrow from NetGalley, 
                            Walking With Peetey: The Dog Who Saved My Life by Eric O'Grey

What are you reading this week?

The Diabolist by Layton Green

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers. First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.  

Title: The Diabolist (Dominic Grey #3) by Layton Green
Published June 4, 2013; Thomas & Mercer
Genre: thriller, phenomenology

They called themselves the House of Lucifer. Thirty minutes before midnight High Priest Matthias Gregory swung wide the doors to Red Abbey and one by one the members filed inside.

Publisher description: "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.

The Diabolist is a chilling novel that 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."

This is the third in the series. I especially liked his first novel, The Summoner.  I have also reviewed his The Egyptian. 

Book Review: The Egyptian by Layton Green

Title: The Egyptian: A Suspense/Thriller
Author: Layton Green
Format: Kindle Edition, Amazon Digital Services
Publisher: First Ward (August 21, 2011)
Source: E-book provided by the author for review
Comments: The story involves the discovery of a formula for extending life and one man, the Egyptian, who wants to use this formula to extend control over the whole world. The novel is a mixture of science fiction and the occult. Though I am not a fan of this genre, finding it hard to "suspend belief," I think the suspense and the thrill of the hunt and the chase is worth it for those who enjoy books with a good thriller plot.

Product description:  At a mausoleum in Cairo's most notorious cemetery, a mercenary receives a package containing a silver test tube suspended in hydraulic stasis. An investigative reporter tracking rogue biomedical companies is terrified by the appearance of a mummified man outside her Manhattan apartment. A Bulgarian scientist who dabbles in the occult makes a startling discovery in his underground laboratory.

These seemingly separate events collide when Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, private investigators of cults, are hired by the CEO of an Egyptian biomedical firm to locate stolen research integral to the company's new life extension product. However, after witnessing the slaughter of a team of scientists by the remnants of a dangerous cult, Grey and Viktor turn from pursuers to pursued. From the corridors of visionary laboratories to ... Eastern Europe to a lost oasis in the Sahara, Grey and Viktor must sift through science and myth to uncover the truth behind the Egyptian and his sinister biotech - before that truth kills them.

 About the Author: Layton is also the Kindle bestselling author of the suspense novel The Summoner (first in the Dominic Grey series of stand-alone novels), as well as the mystery novella Hemingway's Ghost. Please visit him at http://www.laytongreen.com/.

Book Review: The Summoner by Layton Green

The Summoner: (The Dominic Grey Novels) (Volume 1)
Paperback: 332 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (March 7, 2011)
Source: review copy from the author
Genre: thriller
Objective rating: 4.75/5

Comments: This thriller was compelling. I learned about black magic in its many forms in vodoo, juju, candomble, and especially the Yoruba culture and magic of Nigeria. The novel is set in Zimbabwe, where a Yoruba witchdoctor from Nigeria has formed a cult of followers, using sorcery and sacrifice in its secret ceremonies in the empty bushland.

I also learnt about the power a figure can have over others using persuasion and by preying on the minds of followers to believe in what they see and hear. The novel is gripping and the setting unusual, perfect for this story.

Product Description: "A United States diplomat disappears in front of hundreds of onlookers while attending a religious ceremony in the bushveld of Zimbabwe.

Dominic Grey, Diplomatic Security special agent, product of a violent childhood and a worn passport, is assigned to investigate. Aiding the investigation is Professor Viktor Radek, religious phenomenologist and expert on cults, and Nya Mashumba, the local government liaison.

What Grey uncovers is a terrifying cult older than Western civilization, the harsh underbelly of a country in despair, a priest seemingly able to perform impossibilities, and the identity of the newest target.

Himself . . . "

Other reviews of the book: Reflections of a Bookaholic, Fiction Books