Behind Closed Doors by A.L. Smith

Description
"For Sierra, Alex and Latrice, the innocence of childhood was lost at an early age. Choosing significantly different paths, they struggle to deal with the psychological effects of abuse. The three are eventually driven apart and they transition into womanhood carrying a secret that would influence their lives and threaten to destroy their family. Through a series of unlikely circumstances, the three are reunited. The meeting would ultimately set the stage for atonement."


Behind Closed Doors is a thought provoking, heart wrenching look at the long term effects of abuse.
Three cousins Sierra, Alex, and Latrice, come from a family with a history of sexual abuse that spanned generations. All three women suffered sexual abuse as children by the same family member. Years after the abuse Sierra tried to tell her mother what had been done to her, but was met with nothing but blame as her own mother asked "How could you let him do that to you" As if Sierra at 4 years old should have been able to prevent any of this. Latrice turns to drugs, Sierra to prostitution. Alex becomes a successful attorney, but is never able to form lasting relationships with any man. All of them carry their grief and shame and the pain of what has been done to them in their own private way, choosing not to speak of it, until at long last they are brought together by a single event that forces them to speak out to protect another family member.  This was a very emotional read. I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

I was given a complimentary copy for review.

Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke

Description
"At first glance, Phil Pendelton and his son Adam are just an ordinary father and son, no different from any other. They take walks in the park together, visit county fairs, museums, and zoos, and eat together overlooking the lake. Some might say the father is a little too accommodating given the lack of discipline when the child loses his temper in public. Some might say he spoils his son by allowing him to eat candy whenever he wants and set his own bedtimes. Some might say that such leniency is starting to take its toll on the father, given how his health has declined.

What no one knows is that Phil is a prisoner, and that up until a few weeks ago and a chance encounter at a grocery store, he had never seen the child before in his life.

A new novella from the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE TURTLE BOY and KIN"


This was a quick and creepy read that will make you think twice about that quick trip to the WAL-MART or those shrieking kids in the aisles. Phil Pendelton was having a pretty good day up until he went to the store. He was planning nothing more than a day off spent with his girlfriend and couldn't wait to get back to her. That all changed in the candy aisle. All poor Phil wanted was to indulge his girlfriend's need for chocolate but that is not at all what he came home with. I personally wouldn't take candy from strangers but after reading this I may run away screaming if anyone offers me sour candy. However this is one delicious story. I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Desperate Passage by Ethan Rarick

Description
"In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened--and what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion--remained shrouded in myth.
Drawing on fresh archeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity."
A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, Desperate Passage casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront."

This is a work of non fiction, and I would recommend it whether you already know the gist of what happened to these people or whether you only think you know, Whether you have heard very little about it other than cannibalism was involved, or whether you have watched documentaries on the subject this is by far the best and most detailed account of events that I have come across. The Donner/Reed Party is an important part of American history. “Of the eighty-one people who had been trapped by the early autumn snow at the eastern edge of the Sierra, thirty-six had died and forty-five had survived. No one remained at the high camps. For the Donner Party, the journey was finished.”
But their story lives on.

Dark Fantasy: A Mike Angel Mystery by David H Fears

Description
"In late 1966, the world’s richest man, Howard Hughes, took occupancy of the top two floors of the Desert Inn on the Strip in Las Vegas. After his time was up he refused to vacate the space, and wound up buying the Inn for thirteen million dollars from the Mob.

Earlier that year Mike and Rick were called to an empty apartment where the body of a world-famous glamour model, a twin, was posed with flowers. The scene tipped Mike’s equilibrium, and when the surviving twin hit town he struggled with his darker fantasies.

Mike crosses the line when he breaks into a gallery’s back office and dark room to discover a strange pornographic film involving the dead twin and an underage boy. After viewing the film with Rick and Molly, Mike is persuaded to turn it over to the police, and take the heat for his actions. The film mysteriously disappears from the police evidence locker.

Hired by the surviving twin, also a model who makes Molly a bit jealous, the case leads Mike to Las Vegas, connections to local racketeer Big Jim Elkins, L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen, and then to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas. Can Mike gain entrance into the Hughes penthouse and verify Hughes’ possession of the porno film involving the dead twin? He’ll need an ingenious plan, which is supplied by a sexy Swedish blonde he meets at the newly opened Caesar’s Palace. If the plan to get in works, can he escape alive and get out of town? He cannot trust the Vegas authorities or even the FBI, who have been surveilling Hughes for bigger issues and offer no help.

Another complex novel, this set in Portland and Las Vegas in 1966, Dark Fantasy is the 7th in the Mike Angel Series, and follows Dark Moon. Just over 72,000 words. Warning! This is a Noir Novel complete with sarcastic humor back when PC wasn't eroding logic. If you find yourself laughing occasionally, that's okay. It's not a comedy."




Dark Fantasy is the 7th book in the Mike Angel series, and while you may want to read them in order I find I had no trouble getting into the story even though I have a haphazard way of jumping from book to book out of the order in which they were written. One of the things I love the best about the Mike Angel series is the way that facts are woven through the fiction, for example this story touched a bit on Howard Hughes bizarre and OCD-like behavior in his later years. It adds a great deal of realism to the story and more than once I found myself googling dates and names of gangsters to see what else was true, sort of like a bit of a history lesson wrapped up in an entertaining story. I also love how it all comes together at the end, nicely tied up with no loose ends to leave you hanging.

I received a complimentary copy for review