Spotlight Archives
A Plague of Zombies: An Outlander Novella
By Diana Gabaldon
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Renée Miller
Publish Date: May 14, 2013
Lord John Grey, a lieutenant-colonel in His Majesty’s army, arrives in Jamaica with orders to quash a slave rebellion brewing in the mountains. But a much deadlier threat lies close at hand. The governor of the island is being menaced by zombies, according to a servant. Lord John has no idea what a zombie is, but it doesn’t sound good. It sounds even worse when hands smelling of grave dirt come out of the darkness to take him by the throat. Between murder in the governor’s mansion and plantations burning in the mountains, Lord John will need the wisdom of serpents and the luck of the devil to keep the island from exploding....more
Lord John Grey, a lieutenant-colonel in His Majesty’s army, arrives in Jamaica with orders to quash a slave rebellion brewing in the mountains. But a much deadlier threat lies close at hand. The governor of the island is being menaced by zombies, according to a servant. Lord John has no idea what a zombie is, but it doesn’t sound good. It sounds even worse when hands smelling of grave dirt come out of the darkness to take him by the throat. Between murder in the governor’s mansion and plantations burning in the mountains, Lord John will need the wisdom of serpents and the luck of the devil to keep the island from exploding....more
Live by Night
By Dennis Lehane
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Carlos J Cortes
Publish Date: May 07, 2013
From the front flap.
Boston, 1926. The ‘20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world.
Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city’s most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw....more
The Bitch
By Les Edgerton
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Renée Miller
Publish Date: April 30, 2013
The Bitch explores the dark choices that Jake, as a two-time offender faces to save both his life and his soul—life imprisonment if caught for the third time under the federal ha-bitch-ual criminal law—known to outlaws as "The Bitch." Choices that may cost him everything and everyone he loves. What are the limits of loyalty? What is the spiritual process by which a savvy hair designer deteriorates into a mass murderer? A work in the cold existentialist tradition of Sartre and Camus, and the transgressive fiction of Celine, The Bitch struggles for answers and, on finding them, a way out....more
The Bitch explores the dark choices that Jake, as a two-time offender faces to save both his life and his soul—life imprisonment if caught for the third time under the federal ha-bitch-ual criminal law—known to outlaws as "The Bitch." Choices that may cost him everything and everyone he loves. What are the limits of loyalty? What is the spiritual process by which a savvy hair designer deteriorates into a mass murderer? A work in the cold existentialist tradition of Sartre and Camus, and the transgressive fiction of Celine, The Bitch struggles for answers and, on finding them, a way out....more
Our Kind of Traitor
By John le Carré
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Carlos J Cortes
Publish Date: April 23, 2013
The plot of Our Kind of Traitor, John le Carré’s thriller, has the vintage spy novel structure convoluted in the style of Alfred Hitchcock; a couple of innocent civilians caught in a high-stakes espionage intrigue. If you add the British Secret Services, the Russian Mafiya, exotic surrounds and a dash of Cold War atmosphere, you have the ingredients for this edge-of-the-seat thriller where the baddies are international bankers, organized crime, and money launderers, not the K.G.B....more
The Wives of Henry Oades
By Johanna Moran
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Renée Miller
Publish Date: April 16, 2013
When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children....more
When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children....more
The Rapist
By Les Edgerton
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Renée Miller
Publish Date: April 09, 2013
The Rapist introduces us to Truman Ferris Pinter, an amoral man occupying a prison cell for a heinous crime committed years earlier. Master storyteller Les Edgerton guides us on a haunting journey inside the criminal mind to show that no matter how depraved a person appears to be, there might still exist a spark of humanity.
It is these lines (Well, after the startling title and image that made me read the back cover.) which tempted me into buying “The Rapist.” The quiet dare that hides inside “…no matter how depraved a person appears to be, there might still exist a spark of humanity.”...more
The Rapist introduces us to Truman Ferris Pinter, an amoral man occupying a prison cell for a heinous crime committed years earlier. Master storyteller Les Edgerton guides us on a haunting journey inside the criminal mind to show that no matter how depraved a person appears to be, there might still exist a spark of humanity.
It is these lines (Well, after the startling title and image that made me read the back cover.) which tempted me into buying “The Rapist.” The quiet dare that hides inside “…no matter how depraved a person appears to be, there might still exist a spark of humanity.”...more
I Am Not a Serial Killer
By Dan Wells
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Katrina Monroe
Publish Date: April 02, 2013
I Am Not a Serial Killer is the first novel in a trilogy that follows the fifteen year old protagonist, John, as he discovers the presence of a real serial killer in his small home town. The reader has to decide who is the more frightening presence – the serial killer or John. Diagnosed as having “antisocial personality disorder,” John easily identifies with the actions of the serial killer and becomes elated at each new kill. ...more
I Am Not a Serial Killer is the first novel in a trilogy that follows the fifteen year old protagonist, John, as he discovers the presence of a real serial killer in his small home town. The reader has to decide who is the more frightening presence – the serial killer or John. Diagnosed as having “antisocial personality disorder,” John easily identifies with the actions of the serial killer and becomes elated at each new kill. ...more
The Angel's Game
By Carlos Ruiz-Zafón
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Carlos J Cortes
Publish Date: March 26, 2013
I cracked open the first page of The Angel’s Game to read:
A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price....more
I cracked open the first page of The Angel’s Game to read:
A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price....more
In One Person
By John Irving
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Katrina Monroe
Publish Date: March 19, 2013
A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love – tormented, funny, and affecting – and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp.
His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving's In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy's friends and lovers – a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”...more
Dark Places
By Gillian Flynn
Reviewed by OFW editor:
Katrina Monroe
Publish Date: March 12, 2013
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“I have a meanness inside me, as real as an organ.” From the first line, Gillian Flynn establishes Libby Day as the unlikable protagonist. She is lazy, harsh, selfish and immature. But as the story unfolds, the reader finds herself......more
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