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Comment by Peter Klein on July 2, 2012 at 11:50am

Book Review

www.allbookreviews.com

Genre: Espionage thriller
Title: The Exiled Element - A James Becker Thriller
Author: John L. Betcher
The Exiled Element is first and foremost a fun read. This is an espionage thriller you can easily imagine being made into a movie with some well known actors and some great special effects.
A husband, James "Beck" Becker who is a former special operative, and wife, Beth Becker, former CIA computer guru, team up in an espionage thriller that moves between Red Wing, Minn., Washington D.C. and Cairo, Egypt in this fast paced, well plotted espionage thriller.
At first the Becker’s don’t realize they are working the same case in different parts of the world. Things get dicey when Beth is captured as a spy in Egypt and Beck leads the rescue attempt after helping a friend in the local police track down a sniper.
When the action involves the wife, the story is told in the first person. When the action involves the husband, the story is told in the third person.
For the most part, the story takes place during current Egypt after the fall of Mubarak. But there are flashbacks scattered to show light on what led to the Becker’s becoming involved in an assassination plot to kill a U.S. Senator and the theft of Top Secret Air Force design plans.
The cast of characters are likeable and the story is as believable if not more so than movies and TV programs of this type.
To say much more would only take from your enjoyment but I will add this much. The story confirms what you suspect. Not all the smart people in government are all that smart and lives are put at risk because of it.
About the author
Author, John L. Betcher, holds a Bachelor's Degree, cum laude, in English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a Jurist Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis. He has practiced law for more than twenty-five years in the Mississippi River community of Red Wing, Minnesota. Betcher has published an award-winning series of "Becker" suspense/thriller novels. The first four are The 19th Element, The Missing Element, The Covert Element, and The Exiled Element. He has also authored the award-winning spiritual phenomenon, A Higher Court.

Summary: Highly Recommended, especially for those who love espionage thrillers.
Reviewer: Peter Klein Allbooks Reviews.

Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Title: The Exiled Element - A James Becker Thriller
Author: John L. Betcher
Publisher: CreateSpace (May 6, 2012)
ISBN: 10: 1475180586
ISBN-13: 9781475180589
Pages:
Price: $16.95 paperback
Price:$8.99 Kindle

Comment by Justina Wheelock on April 21, 2012 at 5:48pm

• March 20, 2012 8:53 am  Bil Moore

  Ms. Wheelock is perhaps my most favorite author, next to Moses. I love the way she can jerk my emotions at her bidding and makes me lash out at fictional characters as though they had entered into the room and confronted me personally.

  Keep ‘em coming, Tina. Can’t wait to get my eyes on your Pentateuch.

  Bil

• http://www.jwheelock.com

Comment by David Cooper on January 6, 2011 at 2:39pm

Jewish Literature 101: Recommended Jewish fiction and poetry books ...

 

Now that another secular calendar year is beginning I would like to share my recommendations of Jewish fiction and poetry books published last year. This is not a "best of" list, merely a list of Jewish themed books published in 2010 that I have actually read and reviewed at my other writing gig as a book reviewer atNew York Journal of Books.

 

Read the entire article on examiner.com

 

Comment by Holly Weiss on November 25, 2010 at 8:43am

A Lady's Slipper - Innocent Wildflower or Telltale Evidence?
A Review of The Lady's Slipper by Deborah Swift

Author Deborah Swift took a summer walk near her home in the woods of the mountain district in England. She discovered Britain’s rarest wildflower, the elegant lady’s slipper, and wrote a poem about it. Feeling the poem paid insufficient homage to the rare orchid, she fashioned a chapter where it could be admired by characters. Chapters blossomed into a book, The Lady’s Slipper, featuring main character, Alice Ibbetson, a botanist and artist.

After years in theater as a costume designer, author Deborah Swift has an uncanny ability to set a scene so the reader feels a curtain has just been opened on a new act of a play. She has a knack for attaching an attitude to a description. Water is “as soft as a horse’s muzzle.” A stew is “grayish meat and kale swimming in a greasy liquid that should have been gravy.”

Weary of reviews where the plot line is endlessly copied from other sources, this reviewer prefers to whet your appetite for some characters you will meet in the pages of this engrossing book. Herbalist, spy, skank maid, traitor, botanist, artist, soldier turned peacemaker, prisoner, perjurer , flibbertigibbet , murderer, cook, thief, arsonist and accused witch all join hands to populate this romantic historical fiction novel.

Early 17th century England is reeling after its Civil War and struggling to return to a sense of normalcy with its new regent, Charles II. The Lady’s Slipper takes a magnifying glass to the era’s societal and religious changes. Its characters wear the turbulence of the times on their sleeves as their personal lives dip in and swirl, intermingling with unexpected turns in the plot.

The novel’s concept is unique. An orchid that bloomed for thousands of years is stolen, disturbing the natural order of things. Characters surprise us. Plot twists are accomplished in a sentence or two. The reading is challenging, but rewarding. Concentration is required to keep track of myriad plot lines and new characters, but The Lady’s Slipper is worth your time and attention. The most touching scenes are those in the cell shared by Alice and Hannah. Alice’s character growth is noteworthy. The writing is impressive and believable until a peculiarity in the plot toward the end disturbed the narrative’s rhythm.

The Lady’s Slipper is published in a “Reading Group Gold” edition which enhanced my enjoyment of the book. Sneak an early peek at these end materials which include an author interview, historical background, recommended partner reading and readers guide.

Comment by Holly Weiss on November 7, 2010 at 5:11pm

The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent: A Review

Contentious Martha is sharp-tongued spinster who falls in love with mysterious hired-hand Thomas Carrier after he saves her from a wolf attack. Safety is not, however, prevalent in the 17th century rugged wilderness of colonial Massachusetts. Human wolves cloaked as people living in plain sight in the surrounding area arrive in the New World to hunt the assassins of King Charles I during the Cromwell years in England. The author deftly crafted this intrigue into this historical fiction novel while Martha navigates the difficulty of being a servant her cousin’s home.

The author’s intention to show the brutality and volatile nature of the early colonies is admirable, but the novel is dark. Depictions of everyday life such as using an injured lamb for bait and detailed descriptions of dog fighting are chilling. I respect the integration of the political ramifications brought on by the assassination of King Charles I, however felt tossed to and fro from scenes which did not exactly hang together set in England and on shipboard to colonial America. A firmer hand in editing would have benefitted the writing. Secondary characters called by various names such as “Duchess,” Keeper of the Privy Council” forced me to turn back to previous mentions to determine to whom the author referred. Editing the many sentences beginning with “it” would have been helpful. Most enjoyable and clearly set forth are the scenes at the Massachusetts farm with Martha and Thomas.

Author Kent is a tenth generation descendent of the Carrier family. She grew up listening to stories of the Salem witch trials and reading Poe, which may explain the darkness of her writing. She calls her book a “love story” to her family and a “tribute” to those accused as being witches. Ms. Kent plays well with literary genre by mixing and morphing romance, political intrigue and historical fiction. The Wolves of Andover aroused my interest to read Ms. Kent’s first novel, the Heretic’s Daughter, told from the perspective of a ten-year-old daughter witnessing the witch trial of her mother.

Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont

Comment by Holly Weiss on November 3, 2010 at 7:22pm

You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know by Heather Sellers
Prepare yourself for sorrow and stark reality in You Don’t Look like Anyone I Know. Illness propels this memoir, but the author’s self-discovery of her face blindness and demands that her neurologist properly diagnose her far outweighed any disquietude experienced by this reader.

Coping with face blindness, the inability to recognize faces reliably seemed to me a secondary theme of this incredible memoir. Ms. Sellers’ real triumph was surviving the war zone created by the illnesses of her parents. Her mother’s paranoid tendencies, magnified by her protective instincts toward her children, were bizarre. Desperately desirous but fearful of seeing her father, Sellers manages to come to grips with his philandering and cross-dressing.

In her book trailer, Ms. Sellers explains that prosopagnosia is a memory not a visual problem. She writes charitably and honestly about the family that branded her the crazy one. I didn’t mind that her writing lacked cohesion at times. I thought it accurately reflected the chaos of her childhood. She manages to keep enough distance between herself and her story that I saw no self-pity. Rather she spoke graciously of her parents. At the end of her memoir she states that “deeply flawed love and deeply flawed vision can coexist.”

Reviewing a disturbing book is difficult. Many other reviewers have complained about yet another “disturbing childhood/dysfunctional family memoir.” I agree many of those exist, but I submit that a book review is just that—a comment on the world the author has painted, not a woe-is-me about the reviewer’s reading history.

Despite the title, I found this memoir less about face blindness and more about the strength Ms. Sellers gleaned from her survival and her courage to trust her own perceptions.

For a comfortable, relaxing read, find a romance novel. To unearth hard-hitting reality, sink your teeth into You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
http://www.hollyweiss.com

Comment by Micki Peluso on November 1, 2010 at 6:42pm

Holly,
For readertoreader, Vickie requires a summary of the story and author opinion and prefers 3-450 wds, but The New York Journal of Books is much more exclusive,in that reviewer intrusion ( I ) is not allowed and I am expected to find some flaw with each book as they believe no book is perfect.It's exciting to write for them as we review pre-released books from all the big houses and best sellers. They give us a byline and short bio with each review so it's a promo for me as well. They are taking new reviewers so if you'd like to check them out and also read some of my reviews, the link is below.
thenewyorkjournalofbooks.com. Let me know if you have trouble withthe link.
Regards, Micki Peluso

Comment by Holly Weiss on November 1, 2010 at 8:31am

Thank you, Micki. Can you tell me more about your reviews?

Comment by Micki Peluso on October 31, 2010 at 5:49pm

Hi Holly,
I enjoyed both your reviews--you're a talented reviewer!! I review for readertoreader and the New York Journal of Books.

Micki

Comment by Holly Weiss on October 31, 2010 at 1:59pm

The Quickening by Michelle Hoover: A Review

Haunting – Brutal – An imperative read…

Michelle Hoover sat me at the kitchen tables of her characters in her stunning novel, The Quickening, and served me a slice of the human condition I will never forget.
Her book is a brutally honest narrative of Edwina Current and Mary Morrow, neighbors who are thrown together because of their need for companionship on the isolated Midwest plains in the early 20th century. In it we hear out-of-tune piano music in a tiny church; we smell the blood of the slaughtered sow; we feel the singe of a prairie fire. The birth of a child, the harvest of a crop, a successful batch of pancakes – nothing could be taken for granted for these women.
For those of us accustomed to supermarkets, air conditioners and cell phones, it is an uncomfortable read. Convenience and connectedness were hard to come by the characters in Michelle Hoover’s story. However, the deeper I dove into The Quickening, the more I realized the story was real and profoundly important. I couldn’t stop turning the pages of this exquisitely written novel. I deeply respect Ms. Hoover’s courage in telling a tale of isolation, loss, betrayal and desperation on the unforgiving land her characters long to tame.
Most highly recommended. An excellent book for book club discussions.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
http://www.hollyweiss.com

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