Sunday Salon: A Climbing Thriller and a Romantic Comedy

 Currently reading:

Breathless (click on title for my review). 

by 

Amy McCulloch 

Published May 3rd 2022 by Anchor Books

Setting: Manaslu, Nepal - the eighth-highest peak in the world

About the book: A high-altitude thriller that will take your breath away--Journalist Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above sea level on a mountain in Nepal. But the elements are nothing compared to one chilling truth: There's a killer on the mountain.

I'm half way through, and find it very suspenseful and informative about the dangers and thrills of alpine climbing and mountaineering. 

And now for another rom com, 

Bad Cruz

by 

L.J. Shen

Kindle Edition, published November 10th, 2021

I'm enjoying this  romantic comedy on Kindle Unlimited. 

About the book: Two unlikely people - a quarterback turned beloved small town physician and a single mom with a bad reputation - find themselves thrown together on a pre-wedding cruise meant for their entire families. Several factors could prevent them from getting along.

See my goodreads review. 

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday  

Book Review: The Witchdoctor's Bones by Lisa de Nikolits

The Witchdoctor's Bones by Lisa de Nikolits
Published May 21, 2014 by Inanna Publications.
Genre: fiction
Objective rating: 4 out of 5 points.

The sangoma," Jono said,"or the witch-finder, is the one who sniffs out the witches. Sangoma is a Zulu word for the traditional healer and he or she will be invited to cleanse an entire village of witchcraft..." (p. 68)

Background: A group of tourists in South Africa travel by bus with a tour guide and a cook, setting out on a long trek, camping and sightseeing, starting from Cape Town in South Africa and heading north into the desert and jungles of Namibia. Jono the driver and Treasure the cook are in charge of the tour group made up of mainly Americans and Canadians from various backgrounds - some traveling as singles, others as couples.

About the group: The tourists are a mixed bunch of personalities. We learn right off which ones are average travelers and which are secretive, obsessive compulsive, and even mentally ill. The main character is a young Canadian woman Kate, who is on the African trip to get over a broken romance with a boyfriend back home. She teams up with Marika as her tent mate and quietly observes all the members of the group. They are such a varied group but they all try to put up with each other's foibles and quirky behavior.

The main action: One of the tour members dies, others are injured, some leave the tour on their own, and another tour member is killed in what seems like an accident. Kate decides to stick with the tour even as others leave. Jono the driver and tour guide swears this is the last time he will take tourists on this particular trip.

What I got from the book: I learned about the Bushmen tribe, about some African folk beliefs and mythologies. I found out more about local witchcraft and the local beliefs in the power of the supernatural. I saw vicariously a part of South Africa and some of the tourist sights and places to see wild animals in Namibia, and also learned about the dangers of the land - poisonous plants being one of them. I liked that the novel included a map of the places on the tour. 

This is a tense but interesting story of a group of people stuck together in an unusual situation, on an African tour in this case, some of them having pretty murderous intentions. This is not a beach read. A few of the characters and situations are truly frightening, but then all ends well (as well as can be expected in the situation) in the end. Well told and developed, this is a book for mystery lovers, adventure lovers, and those curious about Africa.


The author: Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits of Canada has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy and has lived in the U.S.A., Australia and Britain.

Her novels: The Hungry Mirror, won the 2011 IPPY Awards Gold Medal for Women's Issues Fiction. West of Wawa won the 2012 IPPY Silver Medal Winner for Popular Fiction. A Glittering Chaos tied to win the IPPY Silver Medal for Popular Fiction, 2014. 

For more reviews of the book, visit Partners in Crime Tours. Thanks to PIC Tours and the publisher for a review copy.

Book Review: Gaijin Cowgirl by Jame DiBiasio

Gaijin Cowgirl

Title: Gaijin Cowgirl by Jame DiBiasio
Published March 8, 2013; Crime Wave Press
Genre: adventure, mystery, international crime fiction

My comments: I enjoyed the daredevil actions of this "cowgirl" working in Tokyo as a bar hostess. Though the daughter of a U.S. Congressman, Val Benson is avoiding her father from whom she is estranged and has fled to Tokyo, where she meets a strange but powerful Japanese man who wants to paint her for an enormous amount of money, which she finds hard to refuse. A shootout at the man's home leads to Val finding and keeping an old map that leads to treasure stolen by the Japanese man in Southeast Asia during the war.

The story of Val's treasure hunt is exciting and interesting as it has the Japanese occupation of Burma and Thailand during WWII as its historical background. The book weaves cultural traditions into the plot, such as Thai kickboxing, the songkran festival (the Thai New Year), the Buddhist religion and its statues and relics, with atmospheric descriptions of the locations.

Expect this noir novel to be tough in violence and sex, in parts.  A book for those who love adventure and mystery.

Book description: Working Tokyo nightclubs is easy money for troubled American Val Benson – until a client with a rather unusual hobby – painting the private parts of his female liaisons – reluctantly gives up a map that leads Val on a treasure hunt for Japanese war loot hidden  along the Thai-Burmese border. The Congressman’s daughter is not the only one interested in the map: yakuza, bent cops, human traffickers, rogue CIA agents and her father are hot on her trail.

So begins the dark, epic journey of a new anti-hero of Asian Noir, a protagonist both ambiguous and courageous, and utterly unreliable. Together with her best friend, the equally unreliable nightclub hostess Suki, Val travels through Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok to the Thai-Burmese borderlands for a dramatic showdown with her pursuers. (publisher)

For other reviews of the book, visit the tour schedule by Premier Virtual Author Book Tours

Author info: Jame DiBiasio is an award-winning financial journalist and editor. He is author of the non-fiction The Story of Angkor. He lives in Hong Kong. Twitter: https://twitter.com/JameDiBiasio
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamedibiasio.author

Thanks to Premier Virtual Author Book Tours and the author/publisher for a review copy of the book. 

Book Review: Sanctus by Simon Toyne

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"So," he said at length, "we have a renegade monk standing on the very summit of the Citadel, forming a deeply provocative symbol, one that has probably already been seen by hundreds of tourists and the Lord only knows who else, and we can neither stop him nor get him back."

"That is correct." Atannasius nodded. "But he cannot talk to anyone while he remains up there, and eventually he must climb down, for where else can he go?" (ch. 10)

Comments: The renegade monk, Brother Samuel, has escaped confinement in the Citadel after balking at the ceremony of the order, where he had witnessed "awful scenes" and learned "terrible secrets." We are later told of the existence of a heretic Bible and an ancient relic called the Sacrament that the Citadel and the order of monks are protecting with their lives. The secrets of the Citadel are jeopardised when Brother Samuel jumps to his death from the top of the mountain, in full view of television media, tourists, and the world.

The book made me think of the DaVinci Code, which had secret groups and secret religious rites. Sanctus seems to take this further, with a new version of religion whose symbol is the sign of the tau.

Described as an "apolacyptic conspiracy thriller", this is a book for those who didn't want The DaVinci Code to end, another book of suspense based on religion.

Title: Sanctus by Simon Toyne
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published March 31st 2011 by HarperCollins
An ARC of the novel was provided by the publisher. 

Opening Sentences: The Taba Convention by Stephen W. Ayers

Each week I'll introduce a book using its first paragraph(s). Here's The Taba Convention: A Jordan Kline Thriller by Stephen W. Ayers:

Alp Grum, Canton Graubunden, Switzerland, Friday August 10th

A crisp, high-altitude summer breeze took the heat out of the relentless sunshine. The crystal clear visibility and views were breathtaking. Two thousand meters up, Alp Grum was the highest point reached by the open tourist trains that left St. Moritz. The train climbed the mountains before making its laborious way down into Tirano in Italy. The view was picture-perfect, a Swiss postcard - even down to the cows with bells grazing in the lush green pastures on the mountainsides.

The morning had been excruciatingly boring for Yuval Eisenstadt of the Mossad. He had followed the Palestinian activist since leaving Israel, catching the same flight two days earlier out of Ben Gurion International to Kloten Airport. Since arriving in Zurich, the Palestinian had done nothing to arouse suspicion.
(ch. 1)

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace, June 4, 2011
Genre: political thriller
Source: author, Smith Publicity

Book description: Two deadly adversaries, one horrific conspiracy against Middle East peace. Disillusioned with the continued killing in the agency, Jordan Kline resigns to take up hotel management studies. Now the General Manager of the Sands Eilat hotel, Jordan enjoys life with his girlfriend Irit in the Red Sea resort town. An ex colleague is taken out on the Arava road, the long desert road leading from the Dead Sea to Eilat. On his way back from Tel Aviv, Jordan witnesses the dying man’s last words. They are words that will push Jordan reluctantly back into the world he had turned his back on. Jordan unravels a deadly conspiracy that threatens to engulf the Middle East in war. He becomes the most hunted man in Israel... (T)ime is running out as the historic date of The Taba Convention approaches.... The future of the Middle East is in doubt right up until the climax at the Taba Hilton Hotel in Taba, Egypt. (Amazon)

This is Book I in a three-part series.

Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Alli, spellbound in horror, felt for her tongue cleaving to the roof of her mouth. She could not utter a word.

"What, no shock, no hysteria, not a tear shed?" Flatfood said with a voice like an ice floe.

Title: Blood Trust: (Jack McClure-Alli Carson Novels)
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Genre: political thriller
Publication: Forge Books (May 10, 2011)
Source: publisher

Product description:
Alli Carson has been through her own personal hell. With her father, the President of the United States, recently dead and her mother in a coma from a terrible accident, she has poured herself into her training to become one of the best FBI agents at the Fearington Institute. Her inspiration and solace comes from the one man with whom she has ever felt a kinship, National Security Adviser, Jack McClure. But when Alli becomes the prime suspect in a murder at Fearington, a wide ranging investigation is triggered, involving local homicide detectives, the secret service, the FBI itself, and Alli’s own uncle, the billionaire lobbyist Henry Carson. And yet nothing is what it seems.

What follows is a treacherous journey that leads Jack and Alli into a complex web of lies and deceit. Using Jack’s unique gifts to see the through the labyrinth of manipulation, their investigation leads them into the dark heart of the international slave trade, tied to a powerful Albanian crime lord whose ability and influence in global terrorism grows with each day.

Book Review: Night on Fire by Douglas Corleone

Night on Fire

Night on Fire by Douglas Corleone; April 26, 2011; Minotaur Books

Location, location, location! One of the things I liked about this new legal thriller set on Oahu among lagoons, beach resorts, houses with lanai overlooking ocean and gardens, stirring sunsets. Okay, so the plot was quite good as well, and the main character, a lawyer called Kevin Corvelli, a sympathetic and kind-hearted guy, though liable to fall in love with the wrong kind of women.

A fire on the upper floors of a beach resort kills ten people. Nine die in the fire but one was found with a fatal knife wound in the stomach and gasoline accelerant in his room where the fire was started. Kevin decides to defend a woman on honeymoon who was seen and heard fighting numerous times with her new husband, the knife wound victim. All the evidence points to Erin, the young wife, as the arsonist and mass murderer. Kevin falls for her and fights for her defense, against the advice of his law partner.

Kevin also gets caught up in the life of Josh, a four year old whom he rescued from that hotel fire and whose grandmother died in the fire.

Found this four to five star read at the library. I recommend it for those who enjoy legal mysteries and thrillers and armchair travel.

Amazon link
Goodreads link

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

Book Review: The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doetsch

Title: The Thieves of Darkness
Author: Richard Doetsch

Publisher: Pocket Star Books
Paperback edition: Feb. 22, 2011
Genre: thriller, adventure
Source: review copy, Simon and Schuster
Objective rating: 4 out of 5

"Michael's heart plummeted his mind spun into confusion by the unexpected sight of the woman before him, the woman who sat on death row, the woman he had held in his arms less than two weeks ago.

Michael was left speechless as he stared into KC's eyes." (Ch. 1)

Publisher's description:

WILL A TREACHEROUS MISSION LEAD THEM INTO ANCIENT PARADISE . Reformed master thief Michael St. Pierre thinks his criminal days are behind him when his best friend Simon is sentenced to die in a brutal desert prison. Breaking into jail for the first time in his checkered career, Michael frees his friend only to discover his own girlfriend in the next cell.. . .

OR STRAIGHT TO A RUTHLESS ENEMY?
With a madman on their heels, the trio plots a series of daring thefts inside the world’s most celebrated and heavily guarded sanctums to find the mysterious artifact that landed them behind bars: a map to a secret holy place predating Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. From the glittering banks of the Bosporus to the highest peaks of the Himalayas, they embark on a globe-trotting adventure to preserve the priceless relics at stake and protect the fate of humanity.

Comments: Reminds me of books like The DaVinci Code with plots in holy places, secret maps, mysterious relics and a dash to find holy sanctums. For those who love adventure, a thrilling and dangerous ride through exotic locales, and a search important enough to affect the future.  

Book Tour/Review: The Mountain Place of Knowledge by Marshall Chamberlain

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Today, I'm including the book tour by Pump Up Your Book Promotions and a review of Marshall Chamberlain's adventure/thriller,.

The Mountain Place of Knowledge takes place in Belize and involves the mystery of a Mayan mountain, a Mayan diary, and unusual hi-tech devices within the mountain which are coveted by different nations and groups. I read this as a sc-fi and fantasy thriller similar to the Raiders of the Lost Ark series. Set in the jungle and mountains, it has magical qualities with a hi-tech twist.

My comments: Those who like sci-fi adventures and paranormal thrillers lightened by some romance will enjoy the thriller, first in the Ancestor Series of books by Mr. Chamberlain, printed by Grace Publishing Group. I read this as an E-book, provided for the tour by the author; it's only the second online book I have ever reviewed. For me, E-books lack the personal quality of a paper book, but many people read them with ease, especially because of the convenience and speed of reading. Chamberlain's books are available in hardback, paperback, and Ebook form.

You can reach Marshall Chamberlain at author@gracepublishing.org  and information on the book and E-book at the link, The Mountain Place of Knowledge. His guest post is in the previous post, in which he describes the idea of his book in detail. Chamberlain has also written a sequel, The Ice Cap and the Rift and is working on his third book.

During the week I also reviewed the audio version of The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, the book on Downs Syndrome, Making a Case for Life: A New Definition of Perfection by Stephanie Wincik, and Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger. I also joined the Japanese Literature Challenge IV hosted by Dolce Bellezza.

Guest Author: Marshall Chamberlain, adventure-thriller writer

Thanks, Marshall Chamberlain, for telling us about your adventure/thriller,
The Mountain Place of Knowledge.

Chamberlain:  "I thank the host for inviting me to write this guest-post as part of introducing The Mountain Place of Knowledge, Book I in my Ancestor Series of adventure-thrillers."

"Although I’ve labeled the books in the Ancestor Series adventure-thrillers, they would fit well in one or more of the other thriller sub-genres: action, suspense or mystery. BOOK I, The Mountain Place of Knowledge, centers on discovery of a mysterious place of knowledge created by “The Ancestors” 180,000 years ago and located inside a mountaintop in Belize. The plot focuses on two feisty scientists, unable or unwilling to acknowledge they care for each other, who are recruited to investigate the mysterious death of a UN administrator vacationing in Belize.... The unfolding adventure turns perilous with the discovery of an ancient Mayan codex, describing the secret entrance to a mountain and unfathomable wonders inside."

"Some readers have asked me...why I choose Belize as the setting for Book I, The Mountain Place of Knowledge....the beginning of the first draft of Book I was originally about Myakka, a young girl on her path to becoming a powerful sorceress. I got the name from a river in Southwest Florida. The name sounded Mayan, so I set the first book in Belize because 600 years ago the area supported several powerful city-states."

"The STORIES IN THE ANCESTOR SERIES contain scatterings of plausible technological gadgetry, are sprinkled with eastern metaphysical philosophy, and run for readers like raging rivers. Themes of the existence of mythical ancient races, adventure in strange inhospitable environments, discovery of arcane ancient technology and instruments of immense power, encounter with various forms of evil and heedless slaughter, and attraction and growth of a young man and woman sharing experiences of hazardous sojourns are ageless attractions for avid thriller readers."

        Tell us a little about yourself:

"Way before taking up the pen, I received graduate degrees from Michigan State University and The American Graduate School of International Management, served as an officer in the USMC, and spent many years in investment banking and finance. Today I live and write on Estero Island, better known as Fort Myers Beach, in an apartment near the water I refer to as 'The Writing Rock.'”        

Chamberlain's Book Tour through Pump Up Your Book Promotions will be posted tomorrow, June 6!  

Thanks for visiting, Marshall. The series sound fascinating for lovers of adventure!

You can reach Marshall Chamberlain at author@gracepublishing.org  and at the links, The Mountain Place of Knowledge and Sample Chapters.