A thoroughly entertaining story. It's hard to put down. As someone who grew up devouring CS Forster's Horatio Hornblower series, I went in wanting to enjoy this nautical tale set in 1803 and was NOT disappointed.
Bush knows his foc's'le from his fife rail, his sheets from his shrouds, and it shows. His attention to detail is outstanding, but he doesn't pile it on with details not germane to the story or how a sailing ship is handled.
The characters are solid and believable. Jamie Sharpe is instantly likable as a talented young sailor whose sense of right, wrong, and duty often gets him into trouble, putting him and others in peril. The story proceeds without delay and has a beautiful structure, pace, and tension.
In 1803, cocky Jamie Sharpe graduates top in his class from Bullard’s Academy, aiming to become a ship’s captain like his long-at-sea father. Unfortunately, wealthy slave trader Captain Cutts produces a note he holds on the Sharpe family fortune. He demands immediate payment or, in lieu, Jamie’s mother’s virtue and her daughter’s hand in marriage to his son, Simon. Only a small fortune can save the family. Racing to secure the money, Jamie is ambushed. He awakes aboard a slaver bound for Africa, at the mercy of his old enemies, Simon Cutts and BIlly Scars. Jamie will need to grow…
Rich with detail of setting and sense of place, thoughtful, provocative, and often lyrical and poetic, WKK tells a marvelous coming-of-age story and the relationship between a father and son in the face of tension and animosity in a world about to change drastically.
Krueger gently teaches readers about Indian culture and the history of the oppression that has existed since Europeans first landed in North America and how the native people were, in many ways, treated worse than the enslaved Africans and their descendants.
This is a book you simultaneously can't put down and don't want to end. The epilogue is shocking and heart-wrenching. The story sets the reader up for the adult Cork O'Conner, who carries on his father's legacy as sheriff of Tamarack County in Krueger's much-heralded series.
The author of the instant New York Times bestseller This Tender Land returns with a powerful prequel to his acclaimed Cork O'Connor series-a book about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever.
Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota's Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to twelve-year-old Cork O'Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from…
It's a heck of a good first novel in a series. Rushmore McKenzie is instantly likable. Not the usual hard-bitten ex-cop who's now a PI. McKenzie's got a more positive outlook on people and life in general. He's a smart mouth, but quick-witted and always wants to do the right thing, even in the face of temptation.
The concept is unique: find the sister of a young girl who needs a bone marrow transplant and ask her to donate. But the search quickly turns into a murder investigation that gets McKenzie in big trouble and danger.
The pace is page-turning fast, lots of tension from the beginning, and some nice side characters and subplots add to the richness of the story.
Edgar-winner David Housewright's new P.I. series features ex-cop Rushmore McKenzie, who has more money, and more time, than he knows what to do with. In fact, whether he's willing to admit it to himself or not, Mac is downright bored. Until he does a favour for a friend facing a family tragedy: when Stacy Carlson is diagnosed with leukaemia, the only one with the bone marrow to save her is her older sister Jamie. Trouble is, Jamie's been missing for years. Mac combs the backstreets of Minneapolis and finds her, only to realize that what he's looking for, and why,…
The first book in the Matt Lanier series, Straight River throws professional musician Matt Lanier into the improbable roles of amateur detective and unlikely “superhero” against a powerful and deadly enemy. It’s a mystery-thriller set during the emotional and financial depths of a farm crisis in America’s heartland.
Two mysterious deaths compel Matt Lanier, a professional musician by trade, into a search for the killer. With no superhero skills other than his brilliant musical mind and razor-sharp hearing, Lanier uncovers a land-grab conspiracy that could mean financial ruin or death for thousands of farmers . . . and for himself.
If you're a fan of unique characters who defy all odds and stand up against powerful, ruthless foes, then you'll love this story of a musician/hero who marches to a different drummer.
Buy STRAIGHT RIVER--the first book in the Matt Lanier mystery-thriller series--and start your music-laced thrill ride today.
2019 Kindle Book Review (KBR) Awards Semifinalist, Mystery/Thriller 2019 Chanticleer Book Review CLUE Awards Finalist, Suspense & Thriller Fiction 2023 Book Bloggers Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) Semifinalist
