Ace Collins: The Fruitcake Murders

By Kelly Bridgewater

Back Cover Copy:

From Amazon

As Christmas 1946 draws near, thirty-something marine officer-turned-homicide detective Lane Walker has his hands full. Three men with seemingly no relationship to each other have been murdered, including the powerful District Attorney. The only connection between the crimes? The weapons: twenty-year-old unopened fruitcake tins manufactured by a company that is no longer in business.

While some foods may be to die for, fruitcake isn't one of them! This heaping helping of murder will be no easy task for Walker, and he certainly doesn't need the determined and feisty Betsy Clayton, the political reporter for The Chicago Herald, getting in the way.

My Thoughts:

Personally, I have never read anything from Ace Collins. I have heard of his mystery books, but I have never gotten around to fitting them into my crazy to-be-read pile. After reading The Fruitcake Murders, I am glad that I did finally read something of his. Collins story features everything a great mystery should have. A daring cop. A nosy reporter. A love triangle. And three dead bodies with the ties to the mob.

The mystery centers around a fruitcake tin. No one I know will even eat the stuff, so I thought it was neat for Collins to create a complete mystery that deals with a fruitcake tin. The mystery is a interesting and has many different layers to it. I couldn’t wait to find out who the bad guy was. There were moments of me wanting to read faster so that I could figure out who done it. Just when I think that Tiffany, Lane, or Bret Garner would solve the mystery something awful would happen and change my perspective. Collins does a great job at hiding the identity of the villain until the last moment. I was surprised.

I really empathized with Tiffany, the reporter who wanted nothing more than to be loved and make her name known in the news reporter world. What person now days doesn’t want to succeed at their chosen profession? I completely related with her.  On the other hand, Lane and Bret Garner also wanted to succeed in their missions to help Tiffany solve the two crimes. But along the way, both of them believe they are falling in love with Tiffany. Don’t be threaten by my last sentence, there really isn’t any of the gushy romance stuff that happens in romance books. The story handles the mystery for the most part.  

The plot of the novel takes place in 1946. Christmas 1946 to be more accurate. I felt the biting wind across my cheek as Tiffany ran through the snow to be free of the bad men chasing her. I got nostalgic as I pictured the holiday decorations and lights in the store windows (it is my favorite time of the year). But I had a hard time believing the story took place in 1946. As for the historical accuracy of the time period, I think it should have had a little more attention to detail. This story could have happened in the middle of the fifties during the age of decents where everyone wanted to have the new and latest things. It doesn’t take away from the mystery; I still completely enjoyed it.

I received a complimentary copy of The Fruitcake Murders from Abingdon Press and the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

God-given Gifts and Talents

By Kelly Bridgewater

In my Married with Children Sunday School class, we spent the summer going through Stormie O'Martian's book The Power of a Praying Parent. I found some good advice on what to pray for my boys. I have been praying for their future spouses and for them to fall in love with God and keep that childlike faith. But O'Martian gives 29 other tips and areas for lifting your children up in prayer.

Here our a few:
Releasing My Child into God's Hands
Securing Protecting from Harm
Feeling Loved and Accepted
Honoring Parents and Resisting Rebellion
Developing a Hunger for the Things of God

Plus, many more.

The one chapter that really stuck with me was: Identifying God-given Gifts and Talents.

My oldest loves to build things and mathematics. So what could I do, as a parent, to give that love and watch it grow. We have signed him up for Lego club, where there is competitions all over the state. Plus, he does advanced Math over the summer to improve his skills.

My middle child is a loving child who is all boy. He loves to ride his bike and get dirty. He loves to hunt, fish, and listen to loud music.  A perfect clone of my husband. Pray that your child will develop and excel in the gifts and talents God has given him and let him know he has a unique purpose and significance in this world.

My youngest is very competitive. He turns everything into a competition. From chores to eating his dinner first. For Christmas, he received a soccer ball, so we go to the nearby park and run some drills.Our city has a soccer league, but all their games are on Sunday. We won't sacrifice church for a sport. Sorry!

O'Martian says, "When God gives you a glimpse of your child's potential for greatness, love and pray him into being that. The Bible says, 'Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not excel before unknown men" (Proverbs 22:29). Pray that your child will develop and excel in the gifts and talents God has given him and let him know he has a unique purpose and significance in this world.

Each child has special gifts and talents. We need to pray for them to be identified, revealed, developed, nurtured, and used for God's glory" (111).

As a young child, I was always reading books. From the many trips to the library to check out books. From heading to the local bookstore at the mall, I was always surrounded by books. My father and grandfather had a love of the written word and education, so they passed that love onto me.

Writing. I would sit under the tree in our front yard with a notebook and write away the hour, allowing my imagination to roam free. Writing has been a part of my life since I was nine years old. I can't imagine not writing. It is like breathing. Happens all the time.

Your turn: How old were you when you discovered your passion of writing? Looking back as a young child can you trace your love of writing and reading?

O'Martian, Stormie. The Power of a Praying Parent. Eugene: Harvest House, 1995. Print.

DiAnn Mills: Deadlock

By Kelly Bridgewater

Synopsis from Amazon:

From Amazon

Two murders have rocked the city of Houston. Are they the work of a serial killer, or is a copycat trying to get away with murder?

That is the question facing Special Agent Bethany Sanchez, who is eager for her new assignment in violent crimes but anxious about meeting her new partner. Special Agent Thatcher Graves once arrested her brother, and he has a reputation for being a maverick. Plus, their investigative styles couldn’t be more opposite: he operates on instinct, while she goes by the book.

When hot leads soon fizzle out, their differences threaten to leave them deadlocked. But an attempt on their lives turns up the heat and brings them closer together, and a third victim might yield the clue that will help them zero in on a killer. This could be the case of their careers . . . if they can survive long enough to solve it.

My Thoughts:

I truly enjoy DiAnn Mills’ writing. Her catch phrase is Expect an Adventure and that is exactly what I hope for when I open one of her books and plop down in a chair with my toffee nut latte. I want to be taken away, hunting for a killer while watching the police hunt for evidence. Read my thoughts on Firewall and Double Cross, the first two books in the FBI: Houston series. Mills’ latest Deadlock fits right into the suspense genre even though it was completely conventional.

The first thing I love about Mills writing is all the accurate police details. I have followed Mills on Facebook for a while, and I have seen all the research with the Citizen’s Police Academy’s, so I know her research will be spot on. There is not a moment in the story that I don’t believe her telling how the police do their jobs. I trust it all. Plus, the officer’s authenticity kept me engrossed in the story.

Bethany and Thatcher make an interesting partnership. First, Bethany wants to see justice done with her brother, Lucas, and refuses to allow him to roam free after creating deadly mistakes for his life.  Bethany is pushed out of her family because of her choices to put him behind bars for his troubles. I really liked Bethany’s strong values and determination to solve the murder and help her brother at the same time. On the other hand, Thatcher had a bad relationship with his father, who died before he could fix it. Thatcher became a Christian weeks before the story started, so he tries hard to show his Christianity, not preach at others. That is what all of us Christians should aim for.

The conflict was original but slow. I like a mystery that keeps the readers and the characters on their toes. Deadlock was really formulaic. The story starts with a dead body. Interview the family members. Interview employees. Another dead body. Try to find a connection. Something happens to the hero or heroine. More interviews. Almost death experience. Incident or struggle with the bad person. Bad person overcome. Marriage proposal.  I had a hard time wanting to return to Deadlock. Plus, the romance was pretty cheesy. I really didn’t believe Bethany and Thatcher were falling in love. It just made for a good romantic suspense.

In conclusion, DiAnn Mills’ Deadlock missed the mark for me as a mystery because it was totally predictable and formulaic. I would like to have seen the story push the limit on the originality. Even though the idea and the reasoning behind the story were original, I still had a hard time getting lost in the plot.

I received a complimentary copy of Deadlock from Tyndale Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Purchase Deadlock

Bonus Material:

Tyndale kindly provided a video of DiAnn Mills talking about what inspired her to write Deadlock. Enjoy!

What Steven James Means to Me

By Kelly Bridgewater

This is the seventh session of me writing about the authors who have influenced me as a writer. If you missed any previous posts, please return to them and read up on how these certain authors influenced me. There were C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, and Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Today I will be talking about a contemporary author who I personally met in February 2014. He was the keynote speaker of the Advanced Writer’s Boot Camp Conference in Asheville, North Carolina. I attended with my husband and loved listening to Steven James talk about his rejection letters. He read snippets of them, having the audience rolling in laughter. It made us feel better about the rejection letters we receive.

I was first introduced to Steven James when I was roaming the bookshelves at my local library. If I don’t have a certain author whose book I want to read usually I scan the spine for books by the Christian publisher. I found the Revell Publishing symbol on a book spine, which read The Rook  James. I had never heard of Steven James, but the book was published by a Christian company and the book was thick, so I withdrew it from the shelf and took it home.

I was hooked.

Luckily, for me, The Rook was the second book in the Patrick Bower’s series. The Pawn and The Knight were already published and The Bishop was just about to come out. I loved how Patrick Bower used a unique system to hunt for the serial killers. The killer surprised me in practically every book. When I met James in February, 2014, he was impressed by my copy of The Knight because I had scribbled all over the margins and highlighted key phrases with post-it notes sticking out of the top. I was studying how James crafted a story where the killer was a total shock.

Steven James taught me to push the limits when it comes to writing Christian suspense. Not all Christian suspense books have to be completely planned out and PG for the “saved” audience. We are like the secular audience in that we like a story that grips us and tightens more and more as the story progresses. Likewise, he encouraged me to not choose the first bad thing that happened to our characters. Make a list and allow them to squirm. As a writer, you don’t want the reader to guess the ending before they arrive there.

Have you experienced any of Steven James’ Patrick Bower’s series? If so, what is your favorite book of the series? Have you ever studied a book so much that you have marked up your copy of their book in order to improve your own personal writing?

*This first appeared on the Indiana Chapter of the ACFW, Hoosier Ink. *

Rick Barry: The Methuselah Project

By Kelly Bridgewater

Synopsis from Amazon:

Nazi scientists started many experiments. One never ended.

Roger Greene is a war hero. Raised in an orphanage, the only birthright he knows is the feeling that he was born to fly. Flying against the Axis Powers in World War II is everything he always dreamed—until the day he’s shot down and lands in the hands of the enemy.

From Amazon

When Allied bombs destroy both his prison and the mad genius experimenting on POWs, Roger survives. Within hours, his wounds miraculously heal, thanks to those experiments. The Methuselah Project is a success—but this ace is still not free. Seventy years later, Roger hasn’t aged a day, but he has nearly gone insane. This isn’t Captain America—just a lousy existence only made passable by a newfound faith. The Bible provides the only reliable anchor for Roger’s sanity and his soul. When he finally escapes, there’s no angelic promise or personal prophecy of deliverance, just confusion. It’s 2015—and the world has become an unrecognizable place.

Katherine Mueller—crack shot, genius, and real Southern Belle—offers to help him find his way home. Can he convince her of the truth of his crazy story? Can he continue to trust her when he finds out she works for the very organization he’s trying to flee?

Thrown right into pulse-pounding action from the first page, readers will find themselves transported back in time to a believable, full-colored past, and then catapulted into the present once more. The historical back-and-forth adds a constantly moving element of suspense to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

My Thoughts:

What would happen if the Nazi’s invited a medicine that could make someone live for a thousand years? What if they experimented on American soldiers? What if one survived and escaped? That is exactly the type of story that The Methuselah Project is. The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry is a mixture of mystery and intrigue. Even though the synopsis on the back cover really doesn’t do the book justice, I really, really enjoyed this book. If you are a fan of World War II history and love a good suspense book filled with chase scenes and bullets flying, then I highly recommend you buying this book.

As a suspense book, Barry hits what I look for in a great thrill ride. First, there are plenty of characters going under disguise to throw off the enemy. Captain Roger Greene, the pilot, has to take on a number of disguises to escape his physical prison and return home to Indiana. With the help of two different ladies, Sophia and Katherine, Roger wakens to a new world in 2015. Second, I loved the idea of The Methuselah Project and what it actually does to Roger. It was a complete original and unpredictable story. I couldn’t read the book fast enough. I started it and finished one hundred pages, went to bed, and woke up and finished the book in two more hours. It is fast-paced and rich with action.

I believe it is so good because I got wrapped up in Roger’s plight that I wanted to see how it ended. Does he go home? Does he return to a normal life? What happens to him? Do people actually believe him? I held on to the plot, anxiously turning the pages waiting to see what happens to a character that I wanted everything to turn out for him. I felt bad for his struggles and wanted to see justice done.

Romance fans will even be interested. As a man who has been locked up for seventy years with only seeing the male doctors, of course, he is going to be interested in the female doctor, Sophia and Katherine, the accomplice in America. There are moments of high emotions, but nothing that true suspense lovers will cringe at. It is not over the top and cheesy. Very mellow. 

Another one of Barry's strength is his descriptive writing. I felt like I was in the airplane during 1943 when the story started. Barry's amount of research into the workings of these old airplanes really made the story ring true to me. I, however, enjoyed spending time in Plainfield, Indiana and all the details Barry had to look up.As someone who grew up just east of Plainfield, well actually Avon, Indiana, it sparked a little bit of homesickness in me. I loved growing up in Indianapolis. 

Briefly, near the end of the story, there is even a moment where I had to bat my eyes to keep tears from falling. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone if you have to keep some tears at bay too. Our secret.

Fans of suspense in any time period and fans of World War II novels will lose themselves in the plot. I highly recommend this book.

The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry is a fast pace non-stop action story that begins during World War II and brings Roger and me to the present day. This is a gem of a story, and I honestly can’t wait to see what else Rick Barry plans to write. I am hooked on his writing.

From Rick Barry's Facebook page

I received a complimentary copy of The Methuselah Project from Rick Barry in exchange for my honest opinion. All the statements in this review are mine, and I was not forced to leave a good review.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Purchase The Methuselah Project

Rick Barry's Writing Bio:

Rick Barry is the author of The Methuselah Project, Gunner's Run, Kiriath's Quest, plus over 200 published articles and fiction stories. In addition to being a World War II buff, he is the director of church planting ministries at BIEM, a Christian ministry operating in Eastern Europe. He holds a degree in foreign languages, speaks Russian, and has visited Europe more than fifty times. Rick and his wife Pam live near Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Contact Rick Barry
Facebook
Goodreads

What draws you, as a reader, into suspense books? What is your opinion on World War II suspense books?

Lisa Carter: Beyond the Cherokee Trail

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

When Linden Birchfield arrives in the Snowbird Cherokee community to organize the 180th commemoration of the Trail of Tears, she runs head on—literally—into arrogant former army sniper Walker Crowe. A descendant of the Cherokee who evaded deportation by hiding in the rugged Snowbird Mountains, Walker believes no good can result from stirring up the animosity with the white Appalachian residents whose ancestors looted the tribal lands so long ago.

Though at odds over the commemoration, Linden and Walker must unite against an unseen threat to derail the festival. Together they face an enemy whose implacable hatred can be traced to the events of the Trail, a dark chapter in America’s westward expansion. When called to resurrect his sniper abilities, Walker must thwart the enemy who threatens the modern-day inhabitants of tiny Cartridge Cove—and targets the woman who has captured his heart.

My Thoughts:

I took an undergraduate course at the university and really loved reading books in the Native American Culture. I have found some new writers, such as Louise Edrich, Sherman Alexie, Leslie Marmon Silko, to add to my shelf. It was one of the hardest classes I took, besides Shakespeare, but Dr. Baker’s love for the Native American culture shone in her lectures.  This class has spurn my love of my heritage and using examples from the Native American culture in other classes. As a direct descendent of the Cherokee Indians, I was fascinated by reading and learning more about other tribes that formed our great nation.

I knew Lisa Carter had written a couple of other books that feature different Native American tribes, but my local library doesn’t have them, and I haven’t seen them anywhere to purchase them. When I found out Netgalley had her newest release up for grabs, I jumped at the chance to get a copy.

I enjoyed how Carter draws a connection to the famous Trial of Tears to the modern story. The story is told from two different perspectives. We have Sarah Jane’s who lived in 1838 and took the horrible journey with the Cherokee Indians, and Linden Birchfield who lives in the future. 2018 to be exact. Carter does a good job at intertwining the historical aspect with the modern story. I really enjoyed how Sarah Jane kept reminding Pierce that the Cherokee’s rituals to their god was really the same thing as modern Christians did to our God. I think a lot of people forget that aspect of the Cherokee’s culture.

While the conflict centers around the Cherokee’ removal, the story does have a number of love stories for the romance fans. There is a love story in the past between Sarah Jane and Pierce and Touch the Clouds and another woman. In the future story, Linden falls in love with a fallen sniper named Walker. There is no violence or sexual content, so the story is safe for fans of any age.

I had a couple of issues with the story. While the historical background was deeply researched, which is proven with the historical timeline, I wondered why Carter allowed the present part of the story to take place in 2018, which is three years from now. Why not just title it the present day? I’m sure Carter wanted to stay with the seventy years from the movement, but it was odd for me. Second, as an avid fan of Native American writings from someone on the inside of the Native American culture, this story did not really ring true to that genre. I could tell this story was written by someone on the outside looking into their culture and trying to tell a story about the past. Not that it ruined the story. It was different than what I was expecting.

I received a complimentary copy of Beyond the Cherokee Trail from Abingdon Press and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Purchase Beyond the Cherokee Trail

Time to Write? What's That?

By Kelly Bridgewater

As a mother of three rowdy boys, I am always asked how I find the time to write. I have to take care of the house, make sure three boys get to school on time, pick up the boys from school, supervise homework and chores, and have dinner on the table. My oldest son is in chess club. My middle son is in Boy Scouts. While my youngest son just started chess club. I also attend church on Sundays and Wednesdays and make sure my oldest son attends youth group activities. But that is only one part of who I am.

I am also a avid book reviewer for Booktalk.Fiction411 where I review four plus books a month, so I help my Senior Editor, Amy Drown, as we upload the completed reviews and schedule new reviews when possible. While doing the editorial side of the job takes A LOT of time, I still have to produce reviews of my own. Currently, I try to do four to five DIFFERENT  books a month here. 

Plus, I have my own blog to keep up with, which is where you are reading this. I do Book Review Tuesdays and Writing Advice Fridays. It keeps me busy. All the books to review and upload. I try not to overlap my reviews because I like to do different books in different places. Sometimes I have giveaways and interviews with published authors, so I have to keep track of who has responded and who hasn’t. On the other hand, I blog two other places. The Indiana ACFW chapter, Hoosier Ink, and Sleuths and Suspects.

With all this, I still find time to allow my imagination to roam free and work on my own writing.

How? You might be asking.

Here are some of my tips:

     
      1.) All three of my boys attend school for seven hours a day (Not right now because it is summer break, but they will return in about six weeks.) I wanted to homeschool when the oldest started school, but I’m glad I didn’t. I enjoy my “ME” time. It keeps me sane and produces a lot of writing.

2.) On the weekends, I spent time with my family and write in the evenings after everyone else has gone to bed. It is a sacrifice, but it helps to focus those two days on my family.

3.) I plan ahead. I am pretty good at writing at least three months ahead on all my blogs, so that I can keep that far out scheduled. You never know what might come up. I might have some huge disaster that I have to work on with my family. Except for the book reviews because I have to do them around the time the books come out, I pretty much write all my writing advice so far ahead that I have time to work on my writing.

What do you do to keep writing even though you have a forty hour a week job, plus a family to keep track of? I would like to hear some stories of inspiration.