Reviewing: "Classic Southern Desserts" by Editors of Southern Living magazine

Recently released by Oxmoor House, Classic Southern Desserts is a cookbook that is both a treat for the eyes and taste buds and a curse against losing weight. The choices are many in this 344 page cookbook that features over 200 recipes from Southern Living magazine. These are the highest rated ones according to the book jacket copy and are based on their research in their test kitchens.

 

After a brief forward from executive editor Scott Jones, the book opens with a section in “Luscious Layers & Other Cakes starting on page 8. The first recipe is on something titled “New-Fashioned Blackberry Chocolate Spice Cake.” (page 13) It looks awesome. Of course, just about anything can be made good with the liberal use of chocolate and this item is heavy in the chocolate zone.  “Chocolate and spices mingle with sweet blackberries under a robe of chocolate fudge icing drizzled with blackberry sauce.” After that mouthwatering description which is reinforced by a large picture of the delectable offering in its ready to eat glory, there is the recipe that also includes how many servings it makes (12 they claim), how long it takes to prep, cook and finish. Also included with the directions is an ingredient list and a tip that can be applied as a general baking tip to other items. This same format follows for this 80 page section and pretty much the entire book. When necessary, there are detailed instructions on how to make the frostings. Such as starting on page 34 with the recipe for their “Red Velvet Layer Cake” that is followed by the “5-Cup Cream Cheese Frosting” for the cake.

If cakes won't do it for you, how about “Crunchy Cookies & Chewy Bars” beginning on page 88. Not just such classics as drop cookies and lemon bars but such items as “Chunky Chocolate- White Chocolate-Espresso Cookies (page 93), “Turtle Cookies” (page 113) or “Bourbon Balls” page 124) among other delectable. The same formula of picture, recipe, serving numbers and cook/prep time is used along with detailed ingredient list and directions.

Starting on page 140 it is “Cheesecakes to Die For.” The name of the section pretty much says it all. But, for something really different, take a look at the “Uptown Banana Pudding Cheesecake” on page 153 or the “Blueberry Mini cheesecakes” on page 157.

I have always had a fondness for cobbler. My mom made an absolutely incredible blueberry cobbler. “Old-Fashioned Pies, Cobblers & Tarts” begins on page 162.  Surprisingly they did not choose to include a recipe for a blueberry cobbler in the book through they did include ones for apples, cherries, blackberries, and others.

“Sweet Breads & Coffee Cakes” comes next starting on page 240. The section gets going with a “Praline -Apple Bread” on page 245. If that does not appeal, take a look at the “Blackberry-Peach Coffee Cake” on page 256, the “Orange Coffee Rolls” (page 267) or the many other delectable choices. Some are tagged with the “bake and freeze” designation making planning ahead easy. For those already thinking about Mardi Gras, there is a recipe on pages 268-269 for “King Cake.”

“Bread Puddings, Custards & More” follows with lots of choices beginning on page 276. The “Blueberry Bread Pudding” on page 282 looks really good as does the “Ultimate Chocolate Pudding” on page 306.

Page 314 marks the start of the section on “Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts” that begins on page 314.  The classic “Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream” on page 318 is followed by such temptations such as ‘Toffee-Coffee Ice-Cream Torte (page 322) and “Simple Peach Sorbet” (page 328) among others. This is the shortest section of the book and features lots of season specific recipes.

The last part of the book is all about how you can duplicate what you see in the book. It includes a list of essential baking equipment, tips for making perfect pies and cakes, what can be frozen, a metric equivalents chart and other helpful info. An index of four pages brings this section and this 344 page book to a close.

While Classic Southern Desserts is a very good cookbook, it has a major drawback in this day and age of obesity awareness. This book has been published with zero nutritional information. The recipes included make no mention of healthy substitutes or recipe changes you could implement to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Granted, this book is designed to ignore such concerns and features recipes that are heavy and as an every now and then temptation that works for most people. But, one is left to wonder why in this day and age such information is left out and how many workout hours it takes to shed the pounds gained from consuming anything in this book.

Lovingly photographed and full of delectable treats, this recent release from Oxmoor House would be a great gift for any cook that does not have to worry about the health complications of any of the recipes.

Classic Southern Desserts: ALL-TIME Favorite Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Puddings, Cobblers, Ice Cream & More

Southern Living Editors

Oxmoor House

http://www.oxmoorhouse.com

2010

ISBN# 978-0-8487-3330-8

Hardback

$29.95

344 Pages

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

Hope Clark at the Writers Chatroom --Tonight!

Meant to mention this earlier and it slipped my mind. Hope Clark, who does "Funds for Writers" and lots of other things, is back at the Writers Chatroom tonight. Always informative, the chat starts at 7pm EASTERN time. You can find it at:  www.writerschatroom.com

Review: "And Every Man Has To Die: River City Crime Book Four by Frank Zafiro

Possibly the most complicated and hard hitting novel in the series, “And Every Man Has To Die” currently scheduled for May release is the fourth book in the River City series. A series that began with “Under A Raging Moon” moved into “Heroes Often Fail” and last year’s release “Beneath A Weeping Sky” has provided lots of action, crime, drama and occasional romance through the lives of the men and women of the River City Police Department in eastern Washington State. While the novels and numerous short stories that bring this fictional world to life may be just that, fiction, there is universal truth in them. Beyond that, the hard hitting series provides hours of quality reading as does this latest book.

It's July 1998 as the novel opens and Officer Katie Macleod and others are being dispatched to a report of violent domestic abuse. Officers Battaglia and O'Sullivan arrived mere seconds before she did and are quickly inside the victim's apartment. Forced to confront the male suspect as he attempts to escape down a flight of stairs, Officer Katie Macleod quickly becomes involved in a fight for her life.

A fight that will have major repercussions in obvious and not so obvious ways. Against the back drop of an increasingly strong and always ruthless Russian mob suffering its own not so obvious power struggle, author Frank Zafiro once again brings home the truth of what it like to be a police officer day after day. While the Russians may have “plans within plans within plans” to gain control of not only just River City but much more, the men and women of the River City Police Department are just trying to hold the line.

And survive.

Author Frank Zafiro has created another gem in a series distinguished by numerous short stories involving these characters as well as the three preceding novels. Those of us of a certain age can remember the TV series “Hill Street Blues” which, for its time, was not only ground breaking but brought police officer reality home to the average viewer. Author Frank Zafiro does the same thing through words and creates images that will linger in the brain long after the final pages detailing a shocking conclusion are finished.

AND EVERY MAN HAS TO DIE: RIVER CITY CRIME BOOK FOUR

Frank Zafiro

http://frankzafiro.com/

Gray Dog Press

http://www.graydogpress.com 

May 3, 2011—Scheduled Release Date

ISBN# 978-1-936178-41-4

ARC

Material provided by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

FFB: "Case of the Vanishing Beauty" by Richard S. Prather (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

It is Friday and that means it is time for another Friday’s Forgotten Books Review. (For the complete list, surf over to http://pattinase.blogspot.com/ Lots of  good reading there and not just on Fridays.) Barry Ergang made his FFB debut here last week with his review of Killers Are My Meat. This week he reviews Case of the Vanishing Beauty by Richard S. Prather.

Case of the Vanishing Beauty (1950) by Richard S. Prather

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Released in 1950, Case of the Vanishing Beauty was Richard S. Prather's first published novel but the second one he wrote. The first, The Maddern Caper, was subsequently published under the pseudonym David Knight but retitled Pattern for Murder. Still later it was retitled The Scrambled Yeggs and published under Prather's own name. (All of this is explained by Prather in an interview conducted by Linda Pendleton.)

Case of the Vanishing Beauty begins when private detective Shell Scott is hired by Georgia Martin to find her missing sister Tracy. She also insists that Scott accompany her to a less-than-respectable L.A. nightclub called El Cuchillo (Spanish for "the knife"), but beyond saying she might need his protection, she won't tell him why.

At El Cuchillo, Scott and Georgia watch the feature act: the knife-throwing Miguel Mercado and his beautiful assistant/target Lina Royale. After Scott has an altercation with Mercado, he meets the club's owner, the equally repellent Maggie Remorse.

When he and Georgia leave the club, they're tailed by someone in another car who's not reluctant about shooting at them. Scott fires back and the shooter takes off. But Georgia has been fatally wounded. She's able to say "I killed...Narda" before she dies.

Determined to see the case through despite—and because—of the loss of his client, but with very little to go on, Scott talks to his friend Captain Phil Samson, head of L.A. Homicide. When he mentions Narda, Samson tells him a man by that name is the head of a religious cult called the Inner World Society of Truth Believers.

Scott returns to El Cuchillo and later tails Miguel Mercado, who practically leads him to the IW's door. It seems pretty clear the cult is somehow involved in the events that led to Georgia Martin's murder and the disappearance of her sister. Consequently, Scott attends a service, pretending to be a philanthropic sort and using the name Francis Joyne. Narda, he discovers, is very much alive.

As events unfold, Scott eventually finds and rescues Tracy, but there are still multiple mysteries to be solved—among them why Georgia was killed and how Narda, the IW, Miguel Mercado, Maggie Remorse, and twin gunmen Peter and Paul Seipel fit into the picture. Solve them Scott does, of course, and in a fairly-clued manner, with plenty of physical action in the process. 

I first read Case of the Vanishing Beauty when I was in my teens—more than forty years ago—so apart from recalling that Scott's term of endearment for Lina was "pepper pot," I had no recollection of the story during my rereading. But when I was a teenager, I didn't read the early Scott novels in order of publication—gave no thought to doing so—I read them in whatever order my father or I purchased them or as the whim took me. I mention this only because, remembering certain things about the series even after all these years, Case of the Vanishing Beauty has some of the earmarks of an early series novel in the way it establishes scenes, descriptions, and authorial tendencies that will recur in later books. Among the latter is Prather's habit of having first-person narrator Scott tell the reader at some point during his cerebrations that there's something tickling at his unconscious which, if he could only pull it out, would completely elucidate and solve the case at hand. The technique serves the dual purpose of offering a challenge to the reader, letting him know that he now has all the information Scott has and can solve the mystery himself if he can put all the pieces together; and allowing the author to protract the action and suspense so he can build to a "sock finish."

There have been many Shell Scott novels with sock finishes. Case of the Vanishing Beauty is not one of them. Oh, it's satisfying as far as wrapping up the mystery is concerned, but it doesn't have the wild action and comedy Prather became famous for in later works. Nevertheless, it's a long way from the weakest in the series, and stands up as a fast-paced piece of entertainment.

For more on the Golden Age of Detection as well as about this book follow the link

http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Case%20of%20the%20Vanishing%20Beauty

Barry Ergang © 2007, 2011

Winner of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2007 Derringer Award in the Flash Fiction category, Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. For links to material available, see  Barry’s Smashwords offerings http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cassidy20

and Barry’s webpages

 

Urgent Request from Tony Burton owner of The GenReView

I am Tony Burton, the owner of The GenReView, a review website that specializes in genre fiction: science fiction, romance, horror, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and so forth.  In the past year or so, my cadre of reviewers has shrunken from over a dozen to only two.  Two reviewers, honestly, cannot keep up with the usual number of requests.  

At the present time I have six requests for review, and three in progress.  But because of the shortage of reviewers, I recently decided to shut down the site.  It is very frustrating to me to have requests for review to come in, and to be forced to tell the publicist, publisher, or author, “Sorry, I don’t have a reviewer available.”

My good friend Kevin Tipple, who has his own review site with a broader focus than my own, graciously offered to put out the word for me that I am looking for reviewers because I simply don’t want to let the site go down the tubes.  I believe a books review site, especially for small press books, is very important.  The number of “traditional” review venues has shrunken so much, and continues to shrink—and the number of books being published each year continues to grow!  These two trends are not compatible, so I’d like to help by keeping the site up and running.

Here’s the way it works.

1. Any reviewer must agree to accept at least one book per month, if offered.  The truth is, sometimes I am covered over, and some months I only get one or two requests.  But I need people I can rely upon.

2. Generally I send out a request for review to all the reviewers, and the first one to respond by email gets that book.  (Of course, if the person who responds first already has a book in their clutches, they are disqualified.)

Past that, the reviewers have these responsibilities:

To give the author(s) of the book a fair shake by actually READING the book.
To form their own opinions and give them honestly, rather than using someone else’s ideas about the book.
To review every book fairly and honestly, whether written by friend or enemy, unknown or literary superstar.
If the book has problems, to name the problem(s) specifically, with examples.  Conversely, in the places where the book shines, to make note of those places as well.
To state in clear, jargonless terms what they think of the book.  That means a “Joe Everyman” sort of review, not a literary review about the deep philosophical symbolism of the empty inkwell and the death by strangulation with the victim’s own argyle socks.
If you think you might be interested, drop by the site: www.thegenreview.com .  Take a look at some of the books we have reviewed there, look at the requirements for a book to be reviewed, etc.

If you are STILL interested after that, contact me at beirdd@gmail.com and let me know.  But do it soon—as I said, I have people waiting to have their books reviewed, and I’d rather not tell them that I’m going to shut the site down.

Thanks much!

Tony Burton

Event: C.J. BOX booksigning in Dallas

Mystery author C. J. Box will be at the Barnes and Noble, 7700 W. Northwest Highway, Saturday at 2 pm to sign and talk about his latest novel in the Joe Pickett series, COLD WIND. This time around Joe must clear his mother-in-law of a murder charge. Should be interesting to read and I have to wait for my turn via the library.



Event Location:

Barnes and Noble (Lincoln Park across from North Park Mall)
7700 W. Northwest Highway
Suite 300
Dallas, Texas 75225
Phone: 214-739-1124

Review: "P. Allen Smith’s Seasonal Recipes From The Garden: A P. Allen Smith GARDEN HOME COOKBOOK "

Despite having a small apartment patio which limited my gardening area, I used to grow quite a few things that later wound up boiling, simmering and on occasion, burning, on the stove. These days I can’t do either, but I still review the books for my monthly column in the newspaper SENIOR NEWS. 

Thanks to the recent push the last couple of years towards growing food locally, there has been a rash of cookbooks and gardening books devoted to the subject. Whether this type of deal is going to be meaningfully sustained for years to come or flame out in a few months like most fads do remains to be seen. In the meantime, P. Allen Smith's latest book is part of that movement.

This 256 colorful page book is organized into four sections named for the seasons of the year. After a short introduction that covers how the book is organized, how the recipes were considered and other information. The book starts off with “SPRING” on page 14. Since section headers, recipes titles, etc. are displayed in all caps, this review will follow the book’s format.

The “SPRING” section opens with “STARTERS” such as “STRAWBERRY LEMONADE” (pages 16-17), “GREEK SALAD” (page 18) or “SMOKED BLUE CAT PATE” (page 20) made from catfish among other recipes. “SOUPS AND SANWICHES” follows in the section and opens with “GRILLED SALMON SANDWICH WITH LEMON-DILL MAYO on pages 26-27. Several more suggestions follow before the section moves into “SALADS” such as “POACHED EGG AND SPINIACH SALAD” (pages 30 -32) among others. Also present are various dressings one can make instead of buying something at the store.

“MAIN DISHES” comes next in the “SPRING” section and starts off with a recipe for “BLACK BEAN AND SPINIACH BURRITOS” on pages 40 and 41. That leads into “GRILLED PORK CHOPS IN ZUCCHINI AND PEPPERS” on pages 42-43, “CRAWFISH (OR SHRIMP) ETOUFFEE” on pages 45-46 and others. If you have a main dish, you need “VEGTABLES AND SIDES” and that comes next and opens with “RADISH TOP PASTA” on pages 50-51 before moving on to “GINGER-SESAME STIR-FRIED ASPARAGUS” on pages 52-53. Personally, I am not sure enough of anything could be done to make asparagus edible enough for me to eat it.

A couple more vegetable recipes lead the reader to “BREAD AND SUCH” starting on page 59. Of course, there is a french toast recipe. This one is on pages 60-61 and titled “PINEAPPLE –ORANGE FRENCH TOAST” and uses your oven for the cooking process after you soak your bread in his concoction. There are a couple of other recipes in this section but it is one of the shorter deals in the book.

“DESSERTS” are also covered and start with “BANANA DELIGHT” on pages 64-65. It features the required bananas, pie crust, cream cheese pudding, coconut and pecans among other items. Several other dessert recipes bring this section to a close.

Each recipe features simple instructions, an ingredient list, and the number of servings it makes. Most recipes also come with tips on making the item or growing the ingredient(s) needed along with a colorful picture of the finished item either by itself or at a lavishly decorated table clustered with several more versions of the same dish. This same format is followed in terms of opening with “STARTERS” and progressing through “SOUPS AND SANDWICHES” etc., followed through the remainder of the book in the seasonal sections titled “SUMMER,” “FALL,” and “WINTER.”

Growing your own vegetables and hers is a key point in the book and sometimes that creates recipes that are absent meat and rely on cheeses for protein. One such way is in “THE GARDEN SANDWICH” on pages 88-89 where bread, herbs and salad items, goat cheese and a couple of other things combine together to make one heck of a sandwich. Fresh herbs, greens and vegetables are a key ingredient in nearly every dish and are presented in many different ways to please the most finicky eater throughout the book.

While recipes are located in specific sections dishes such as “RUBBED BEEF TENDERLOIN” (pages 213-214) among others would work any time of year. After 242 pages of often mouthwatering recipes, the book moves into the “RESOURCES.”

Here P. Allen Smith opens the “RESOURCES” on page 242 with specific instructions regarding growing your own produce in three 8 foot by 8 foot beds. While specific plans are not drawn out for you, there is plenty of information on what to grow and how to grow it and contains lists of specific plants. This section is written from the novice stand point and may be of little interest to the experienced gardener other than the fact he shares some information on how he handled specific situations. He also provides tips on what to plant depending during the seasons though you would need to do your own research as he points out on your local growing situation. These helpful tips end with some suggestions for those of us with limited space and/or readers with short growing seasons. There is also some general information on how to keep weeds and critters at bay before a three pages index brings this helpful book to a close.

Overall, the book is well done and presents well despite a complete lack of nutritional information. Like many cookbooks published recently, the “obesity epidemic” is completely ignored as no nutritional of any type is provided. Something that is rather surprising since the author has spoken out on the subject on his television show and other forums.

Despite that issue, the cookbook is a visual treat and well done overall. It features lots of information, plenty of recipes, and multiple ideas for your entertaining pleasure making sure something in here should suit everyone.

P. Allen Smith’s Seasonal Recipes From The Garden: A  P. Allen Smith GARDEN HOME COOKBOOK

P. ALLEN SMITH

http://wwwpallensmith.com

BEN FINK, Photographer

http://www.benfinkphoto.com/

Clarkson Potter/Publishers (Crown Publishing Group/Random House)

http://www.clarksonpotter.com

December, 2010
ISBN# 978-0-307-35108-1

256 Pages

Hardback

$32.50

Material supplied by the Plano Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

Cooking with "Taste of Home: Slow Cooker"

 Featuring 403 recipes contributed by Texas cooks as well as residents of other states, this 256 page book has meal and/or snack time covered. With specific sections devoted to beef, pork, poultry, pasta, as well as soups and various chilies, there are a number of easy to use recipes sure to tempt the taste buds. Also included are sections devoted to sides such as “creamy macaroni and cheese,” snacks such as “sweet tangy chicken wings” and drinks such as “hot spiced cherry cider.” 

A ten page index brings this colorful and helpful book to a dose. While the recipes are plentiful and varied in terms of content and difficulty in preparation, no nutritional information is included in this otherwise good cookbook.

Taste of Home: Slow Cooker

Reiman Media Group

http://www.tasteofhome.com 

2010

ISBN 978-0-89821-802-2

$15.95

Paperback

256 Pages

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

Review: "Staubach: Portrait of the Brightest Star" by Carlton Stowers

When one listens to the sports commentators and alleged experts mentioning the greatest quarterbacks ever, one almost never hears the name “ Staubach.” Roger “The Dodger” Staubach was the man long before ESPN granted immortal fame each week based on highlights. Carlton Stowers makes that point crystal clear for readers in his latest book.

Filled with anecdotes and reminisces along with plenty of statistical facts, the former Dallas Cowboys beat writer with the Dallas Morning News makes the case why Staubach might have been the best ever. An elven year career ended by concussions saw the Cowboys come back from the brink of defeat many times and win championships. The Cowboys were never the same when Roger Staubach had to retire. This book shows his life both off and on the field and details why he was so great in an era when the rules and the game itself were far different than both are today.

A compelling read for Cowboys fans, this read also works for those who are not, as it delves deep into the history of the NFL.

Staubach: Portrait of the Brightest Star

Carlton Stowers

Triumph Books

http://www.triumphbooks.com

2010

ISBN 978-1-60078-389-0

Hardback

238 Pages

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

Friday's Forgotten Books: "Black Maps" by Peter Spiegelman

In this debut novel, author Peter Spiegelman has created a complex and entertaining character, John March, who hopefully will be at the center of many mysteries to come. John March is now a private investigator three years after his life collapsed with the death of his wife thanks to a serial killer he was stalking on behalf of his employer at the time, the FBI. The pain is still fresh as are the constant and well-meaning efforts from family concerning his chosen profession. After all they reason, when one is born to money one should stay in a money field to make more and what he does for a living is so unseemly.


 But March goes his own way as most loners do and at the request of a friend takes the strange case of Rick Pierro. Rick is wealthy by anyone's standards and is being blackmailed. From documents the blackmailer supplied and is threatening to use, it appears that Rick was a small part of a massive money-laundering scheme years ago. Part of the scheme has come to light in the last year or so and multiple investigations are underway. While Rick admits to doing business deals with the principals named in the documents, he claims that the documents themselves are fakes and that all his deals were and still are legit. With his job on Wall Street in jeopardy, Rick wants to pay off the blackmailer once, if the person can be convinced not to come back for more. Rick can't afford a hint of scandal should anything come out but has no intention of being bled dry either.

March thinks the whole deal is strange and problematic at best but agrees to do what he can. Before long, he suspects that Rick is lying to him and that Rick isn't the only one that the blackmailer has blackmailed. But the blackmailer, who takes offense at being looked for isn't the only one that has resources to deal with March. So too does a Federal Prosecutor and her task force which have to show result from months of investigation and at this point, they don't care how they go about it.

Hammered from all sides, March works the case in this complex and enjoyable novel. March is multi layered and complex as are many of the supporting characters. These characters were not cut out from cardboard but are instead created and soon come alive in the reader's imagination as the work moves forward.

At the same time, the storyline continually twists and turns as the novel works towards a conclusion hidden in the shadows. Nothing is what it seems or appears to be and as things move forward, events and characters get murkier and murkier in this gritty novel. This is an amazing book that this review does not do justice and is well worth the read.


Kevin R. Tipple (c) 2004, 2011

Reviewing: "EUROSTORM" by Payne Harrison

In Libya, a weapon is in terrorists hands and must be recovered.

In Chicago, a pedestrian is killed one beautiful April morning. It was an accident. According to his finger prints he died more than fifty years ago.

The noontime bombing in Wellington Square in London kills and maims without consideration of gender, race or economic portfolio.

 From those storylines, Texas author Payne Harrison (author of the bestseller Storming Intrepid and others) returns to publishing after a thirteen year absence with EUROSTORM. At its heart, and as noted on the jacket copy, the book is about a lethal substance being sent by the British government to France on the Eurostar train. Unfortunately for all involved, the train is captured by terrorists and it is up to an elite group of French commandos to take back the train and its contents.

Thrillers are, by definition, supposed to thrill and they do that by relentlessly moving forward on a global scale. To do that, from a writing stand point, there are lots of people doing lots of things, in many locations all at the same time. Character development beyond the basic level necessary to identify the character in terms of strengths and weaknesses is often sacrificed to move the characters quickly in and out of various conflicts. This can result in clichéd stick figures and unfortunately that is the case here. The commandoes, as are all those on the side of right defending the planet, are amazingly strong, sexy and can perform at a super human level doing amazing feats of strength—or die. Nothing in between. The same is true of the evil doers.

The evil doers are doing evil for one of the most clichéd reasons known to mankind. A plot device that has been done to death by one thriller writer or another for decades. It also is not possible to explain what that is without destroying the main reason to read the book.

What readers are left with, if they can get by that, is a novel that starts off well before soon grinding to a near halt for a considerable stretch in the first half of the book. The second half moves much quicker and provides a lot of action before reaching a successful climax high in the Alps heavily reminiscent of Alistair McLean’s “Guns of the Navarone. “ (And if you have not read it, you absolutely should it and pretty much anything else Alistair Mclean ever wrote.)

As compared to the numerous books the author has done before, EUROSTORM  is a serious disappointment. On its own, the novel is average at best and a disappointment in terms of overwriting, sense of pace, clichéd characters, clichéd plot and other issues. That is a crying shame as the novel could have been so much better.

EUROSTORM

Payne Harrison

http://www.payneharrison.com/

Variance Publishing

http://www.variancepublishing.com

2010

ISBN#978-1-935142-14-0

Hardback

326 Pages (book includes six page ad preview of The Emperor’s Tomb by Steve Berry

$25.95

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011

A Year Later

Having fallen twice in the last 24 hours, I can't help but think about how today marks one year since my health issue started. A year later, I am unemployed, less mobile, in constant pain, and worse off  in every single way than I was and begging for help from government agencies and others.

As frustrating and painfully bad as it has been, it could have been worse.

One hopes that long before another year passes, things will start getting better.