Architect Vance Nolan designed Eagle’s Talon as condos afloat on a peninsula jutting into the Rondeau River. Developer Tony Dean made Nolan’s dream reality. Now the construction is almost finished and some of the residences are occupied.

Vance senses something wrong but the usual suspects seem okay until he realizes no longer is there any bird sounds. A sinkhole has begun to form; made worse by horrific storms and subsequently flooding. The survivors huddle in one building arguing over what to do. Nolan says to wait for help to arrive while Dean says leave before it is too late. Single mom Danielle Clement wants to keep her son Simeon safe so insists they remain together.

Afloat is an exciting thriller that grips the audience once the key cast each provides their opening perspective as the trapped people struggle to survive against nature and each other. Although the rotating viewpoint slows down the pace, readers will enjoy Erin Healy’s enjoyable disaster tale that would make an engaging Irwin Allen-type movie.

Harriet Klausner

In 1861 Abraham Bellamy dedicated his life to the Confederate cause. In 1865 after his side lost, a despondent Abraham proved his dedication by suicide.

In the present, Abraham’s descendent Abner Bellamy believes the federal government is a sham tramping on the rights of the states. His mission is to resurrect his ancestor’s dream of for the people being not one size fits all but 50 diverse ways and has begun to find powerful supporters who agree with his assertion the government is too powerful. Though their motives differ from Abner as avarice is their driver, wealthy George and David Blinder join the cause. Fundamentalist Daniel Keenan also enlists as he knows the atheist DC government has destroyed religious and family values. Other also throw their lot in with the Sovereign Citizens group whose mission is de-evolution or if need be revolution.

CIA agent Max Grabel and contract workers (and lovers) Marie LeBrun and Samantha Stranger uncover a viable conspiracy to overthrow the United States government and return it to pre-Civil War states domination. Evidence implies this threat unlike previous ones has money, arms, and a wide range of influence. They must identify the diverse cabal of enemies of the USA before it is too late for the Union.

This is an exciting thriller that extrapolates the rage many have against the federal government turning into action to tear down DC. Although a sequel is set up that will disappoint fans wanting a final confrontation, readers will enjoy this fast-paced tale while trying to identify who’s who.

Harriet Klausne

Emotional fragile, mythologist Jac L’Etoile was fourteen when she met fellow teen patient Theo Gaspard at the Blixter Rath Clinic and though neither knew the other’s surname they were attracted to one another. Now a grieving widower, he explains he read her book and found an intriguing 1855 letter that discusses Druid activity. Theo invites her to join him on Isle of Jersey to find a Hugo missing journal describing his contacts with the Shadow of the Sepulcher; his conversations with Jesus and other notables having been published.

Fascinated by Hugo’s efforts to contact his deceased teenage daughter and seeing Theo for the first time in years at his home front, Jac decides to go over the warnings of her therapist. On Jersey, the intrepid but troubled pair begins to unravel the mystery of Victor Hugo and the Shadow of the Sepulcher, but will either mentally survive solving this paranormal case.

The second Jac L’Etoile mythological thriller (see The Book of Lost Fragrances) is an exhilarating tale that rotates between the mid-nineteenth century and the present. Fast-paced in both eras, danger mounts then and now as evil stalks the past and the contemporary human seekers.

Harriet Klausner

As successful attorney George Burden reaches his double-5 birthday, he seems to have the perfect life with a wonderful caring family especially his adoring wife Julia and is a highly regarded member of upper class society in Jackson, Mississippi. However, George feels differently as he knows everything came too easily.

George does the unthinkable by leaving his safe zone to begin an affair with Becca Talbot, divorced mother of a five year old son who is also younger than his youngest child. When George falls in love with his paramour, he decides to obtain a divorce to marry his beloved. He is stunned when Becca refuses his proposal. Raging George goes berserk when he sees his Becca with a man her age and will do anything to make her his wife.

Taking place in under 100 hours, Confession is a taut psychological suspense starring a fascinating violent protagonist who tells his Confession by letter to a priest. Ironically as he confesses his sins (and readers learn his history from his perspective) George has everything except spiritual connections. Richard Freis provides a strong character-driven thriller; as George has achieved the four lower steps of Maslow’s Hierarchy, but fails at Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendence leading to his placing his (and his family) Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, and Esteem at risk.

Harriet Klausner

Crossing to France on the Phantom, American adventurer Ethan Gage feels he owes his one-time employer Napoleon for nearly killing his wife Astiza and kidnapping their young son Harry (see The Emperor Storm). He plans to destroy Napoleon while his spouse schemes to prevent the little dictator from becoming crowned Emperor by using the Crucifixion Crown of Thorns.

When their effort fails to prevent the coronation, the married couple returns to England. Gage stops in Walmer Castle where he joins Sidney Smith, inventors Robert Fulton and William Congreve, and smuggler Tom Johnstone to keep Napoleon from invading England. This escapade soon leads Gage to the Battle of Trafalgar.

The latest Ethan Gage Napoleonic Era thriller (see The Barbary Pirates) is an exciting over the top of the Admiral Nelson Statue and column in Trafalgar Square (built decades after the famous battle). The storyline is fast-paced though the hero’s swashbuckling role seems diminished as he is less actively involved than usual with him on the sidelines for the most part during the coronation. Still fans will enjoy this engaging mix of history and action as The Barbed Crown is an enjoyable early nineteenth century tale.

Harriet Klausner

When Warner Insurance downsized her public relations position, Kristan “Stan” Connor, accompanied by her significant other Nutty the Maine Coon cat, left West Hartford for a simpler life in Frog Ledge, Connecticut. While her boyfriend Richard wonders if she lost her mind by leaving the big city for Sleepy Hollow, Stan hears the neighbors brawl while she moves into her Victorian.

Stan likes her new neighbors; especially Char Mackey, homeopathic animal nurturer Amara Leonard and “Pet’s Last Chance” director Nikki Manning while they seem to welcome her and her special food that she makes for Nutty and soon the other town pets. Town veterinarian, Dr. Carole Morganwick visits Stan demanding she bring Nutty in as a patient before office hours. Though her stomach churns and her mind tells her not to, Stan and Nutty arrive for the early appointment only to find unpopular Morganwick buried dead in kibble. State trooper Jessica Pasquale and the locals look at the newcomer as the suspect when their pets become poisoned; so Stan seeks answers especially the source of what is harming the animals.

The first Pawsitively Organic Gourmet Pet Food amateur sleuth is an engaging whodunit with two mysteries for the heroine to resolve. Although the love of pets feels like a hammer used to frequently to even a cat and dog lover like me, readers will enjoy Stan’s investigative asides into the poisoning of pets and as a byproduct the vet’s homicide.

Harriet Klausner

Northumbrian Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope enters the sauna at the Willows Health Club in Newcastle only to be greeted by the corpse of social worker Jenny Lister. Someone strangled the victim. Stanhope and her team interrogate employees at the club and talk with residents of Lister’s village Barnard Bridge.

The prime suspect is temporary cleaner Danny Shaw though several other employees and villagers surface with motives for killing Lister. Heeding local gossip, Vera finds a connection between Jenny’s work with foster kids and adoptions, and the villagers; which obfuscates the case by increasing the list of potentials who is the killer.

Relocating from the Shetland Islands to Northumbria, Ann Cleeves provides readers with an enjoyable British police procedural (see The Crow Trap). The investigation is a fun mess that makes no sense yet is entertaining due to the crusty, at times irritating alcoholic heroine. Vera keeps the whodunit focused as she and her team works the homicide inquiry using unique listening devices, ears.

Harriet Klausner

In Phoenix, Arizona, Felix Smith visits the office of private investigators David Mapstone and Mike Peralta. The former historian and ex-deputy sheriff, and at one time sheriff notice how much the elegantly garbed Smith stands out in their dumpy office. He retains the partners with $10,000 in cash to look into the reported suicide of Grace Hunter.

In San Diego the retired hooker leaped from a nineteenth floor balcony to her death. Smith admits there is no evidence to the contrary to make a case for an accident or murder. The client leaves only to have his face blown up by an AK-47 in their parking lot. The two sleuths begin their inquiry in San Diego seeking Grace’s boyfriend Tim Lewis in Ocean Beach where Mapstone once lived. Tim says Scarlett, as Grace was called in America’s Finest City, is his girlfriend and mother of his child; unaware she is dead. He also admits that he and his Scarlett have deadly financial trouble with America’s Finest Pimp.

This tense David Mapstone mystery (see South Phoenix Rules) is an exciting whodunit that keeps the audience in suspense wondering what next. Although the bad guys are out of casting 101, readers will relish the two Night Detectives’ superb investigation.

Harriet Klausner

In Pittsburgh, the FBI quietly asks psychologist Dr. Daniel Rinaldi to help former FBI special agent Lyle Barnes deal with his experiences of hunting serial killers. Barnes was the best because he could get inside the heads of these predators, but now in retirement they get inside his head every time he tries to sleep. Adding to his Night Terrors is a serial killer targeting anyone involved in ending John Jessup’s homicidal reign; which includes Barnes who captured the psychopath and by extension Rinaldi may be on the murderer’s list.

At the same time, Wes Currim confesses to decapitating businessman Edward Meachem in Wheeling. Wes refuses to show the body unless the shrink who works with the Pittsburgh PD accompanies them. Thus at the request of Chief Block, Daniel arrives in nearby West Virginia as an obviously disturbed Wes takes him and WPD to the severed corpse. Wes’ mom Maggie believes her troubled son never killed the victim and pleads with Rinaldi to prove her contention while in Pittsburgh, the Jessup body count rises and Barnes vanishes from federal protective custody.

The third Daniel Rinaldi mystery (see Fever Dream and Mirror Image), is a fabulous police procedural as the protagonist struggles between patient confidentiality and law enforcement needs. Fast-paced throughout, readers will relish this twisting thriller as Wheeling and Pittsburgh keep Dr. Rinaldi and two police departments overworked trying to prevent further homicides.

Harriet Klausner

In 27,000 BC in what is now France, Nim leads his Neanderthal tribe as they tracked reindeer. However, he soon finds the Dead Man Cro-Magnon also hunting the reindeer. Nim knows the enemy has reach and size but his people have stamina. However, the magic of what happens in the sky tips the war towards the Dead Man.

In present day Los Angeles, biologist Emily Flint struggles with an auto accident, her upcoming wedding and an argument over the use of prenatal vaccine and existing conditions. However, also in California, Emily’s woes seem irrelevant when Marcus Wolsinger discovers an increasing level of solar flare activity not seen in several millenniums assaulting the earth. At the same time in the South China Sea, Naval Lieutenant Commander Drew Haldane flies his fighter jet to investigate a Chinese electromagnetic pulse weapon. As the world stands on the brink of total collapse into a new Ice Age, Marcus begins to lose control between being a modern man and a Neanderthal throw-back; while Emily’s eight year old autistic nephew P.J. suddenly becomes the Southern California Neanderthal leader.

Interrupt is an exhilarating end of the world thriller that takes a whack at science drawing absolute conclusions by filling Grand Canyon size theoretical gaps with speculation. The storyline is fast-paced though the transitions are not smooth. Still readers will enjoy the dawning of a (not so) new dominant species as survival of the fittest takes a strange twist in Jeff Carlson’s exciting Ice Age thriller.

Harriet Klausner