First Book of the Year!! Happy New Year Everyone!

Another year has begun today and I was able to sleep in!  What a delight after a month of being up at 3:15 am to work at the hour of ridiculous (5:30 am).  You see, I work in a bookstore and supervise the team in charge of putting out product, signage for promotions, changeovers and such.  It's early but you get used to it and for a month, it's not too bad.

Raclette (courtesy of Amazon)

How was your New Year's Eve?  We spent it together, most of us, enjoying Raclette, eating chocolate and munchies and playing cards.  I, however, being a tired woos, was falling asleep playing cards so I gave up and went to bed at 10:30 and was woken just in time to bring in the new year with family.  It was a delightful evening and a few friends stopped in briefly to wish their new year greetings.  We did the countdown with a local tv station, cheered, hugged and kissed and the merriment ensued without me as I retired to bed.

Today it is cloudy, threatening more snow and the roads are slick (at least they were last evening, so I don't expect they've miraculously changed for the better.).  We have a lot of snow but it is warming at week's end to highs of -1 and -7 Celsius, Thursday and Friday respectively, with a risk of freezing rain Thursday.  We've had more freezing rain this winter than I've ever seen in the last 13 years we've resided here in the Edmonton area.  Rather treacherous for walking and driving. (I got the cleats for my boots, it's that bad!)

When Sheila at Book Journey posted a 1st Book of the Year join in, I decided now would be a perfect time to read a book I've wanted to read for two years.  It's Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.   It's the story of a young orphan, Liesel, and her love for books, a love that begins with acquiring a book left behind at her brother's graveside.  In her foster parents' home, a young Jewish man stays hidden from the Nazis during the beginning of World War II.  Oh, the possible ramifications if he were found. It is also about a love of books and words during a terribly tumultuous time in history. I invite you to watch the extended trailer below with an introduction by the actress who plays Liesel.

It is 1939.  

Nazi Germany. 

The country is holding its breath.  

Death has never been busier, 

and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger finds her life changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden int he snow.  It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.  So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read.  Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times.  When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish man in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(from the book cover)

I'm so excited to be able to fit this book into my reading schedule... finally.  The movie of The Book Thief is out in theatres now and I can't wait to see it but first I must read the book!!  Are you the same way? Must you read first before watching the movie?

What is your first book of the year?

Murder on the Orient Espresso by Sandra Balzo

Murder on the Orient Espresso
Author:  Sandra Balzo
Published:  December 2013
Publisher:  Seven House Publishers Ltd
Pages:  200
Genre:  Mystery
Edition:  ARC

Source:  A thank you to the author and her publisher for a complimentary advanced reader's copy to facilitate this review.  Receipt thereof bears no influence over my opinion nor my review.

Wisconsin coffeehouse owner Maggy Thorsen accompanies her main squeeze, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, to South Florida, where he's been asked to speak at a mystery-writers' conference.  Maggy is anticipating a romantic arrival in their hotel suite, but when the opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express, the couple reluctantly sets off on a night train into the Everglades.

The idea is to solve the "crime" and return, but the troupe soon finds itself embroiled in a real-life murder mystery as creepy and baffling as any work of fiction.

My thoughts:

I just have to say I hate snakes!!!  Even more than spiders do I hate them!  So when I read Murder on the Orient Espresso I learned far more than I ever wanted to learn about pythons, their choice of foods and how the everglades have become home to some including the African rock python which can grow a horrifying 20 feet long!!  (Shudder!!!)

Alright, I digress.  Murder on the Orient Espresso takes place on a train mimicking the story of Murder on the Orient Express written by a favourite author of mine, Agatha Christie.  A group of mystery writers, both established and up and coming, a sheriff, a coffeehouse owner, and a book reviewer contribute to the small list of participants in a writing conference aboard a train re-enacting the mystery in Agatha's novel.  However, and you can see this coming, someone ends up dead and there are several people aboard who bore grudges against the deceased.  

Maggy, the coffeehouse owner, is a bit of an amateur sleuth who has accompanied Sheriff Jake Pavlik, a guest speaker for the conference.  I like Maggy and not just because she hates snakes as much as I do.  She is a very real member of this cast with desires and fears who cannot help speculating and investigating the murder.  When she is left aboard the train while her boyfriend, Jake (aka Sheriff Pavlik) leaves to go for help, Maggy is confronted with the murderer and a snake...again!  Yikes!! 

Murder on the Orient Espresso author Sandra Balzo has been compared to other illustrious mystery writers including Joan Hess and Janet Evanovich.  Murder on the Orient Espresso is a new twist on an old classic which is fun and interesting and somewhat unexpected, snakes aside. I'd like to investigate her other mysteries which include Uncommon Grounds, Running on Empty and Dead Ends to name just a few.

Meet the author:

Sandra Balzo is an award-winning author of crime fiction, including ten books in two different mystery series from Severn House--the Wisconsin-based Maggy Thorsen Mysteries and Main Street Murders, set in the High Country of North Carolina and featuring journalist AnnaLise Griggs.  Balzo's books have garnered starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, while being recommended to readers of Janet Evanovich, Charlaine Harris, Mary Daheim, Joan Hess and Margaret Maron. A Wisconsin native, Sandy now splits her time between South Florida and North Carolina.

Not your typical Christmas song

Not your typical Christmas song

A Literary Christmas: Bookish Gingerbread Houses

A Booklicious Blog shared this wonderful post of book related gingerbread houses that I just loved so had to share with my readers as well.  Thank you to Booklicious for the inspiration and sheer enjoyment of such delicious creations!

[The Nutcracker by Cake Power and Baked Ideas]

Click the link below to see the entire post consisting of Hogwarts, Hansel and Gretel and the above to name a few.  I have new ideas for our very own cake lady for upcoming special occasions now!

A Literary Christmas: Bookish Gingerbread Houses

The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom

The First Phone Call From Heaven
Author:  Mitch Albom
Published: November 2013
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Genre:  General Fiction
Edition: Advanced Readers' Copy
Pages:  336 (hardcover edition)
Source:  I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and TLC Book Tours to facilitate this review.  Receipt of same bears no influence over my opinion nor this review.

One autumn day, in a small town on Lake Michigan, the phones begin ringing. The people calling are all deceased. They talk about heaven. They say they are safe and happy. Each call is greeted differently—some with relief, some with love, some with religious zeal, some with fear.

On that same day, Sully Harding is released from jail for a crime he may not have committed. During his time behind bars, his wife, Giselle, passed away, leaving him a single father filled with heartbreak and regret. He returns to his hometown hoping to rebuild his life. Instead, he finds a community increasingly gripped by miracle fever. As the mysterious phone calls become more frequent, outsiders begin flocking from all over the world to be part of the blessing, changing the small town indelibly, and turning local citizens into worshipped heroes.

When his own son begins to carry a toy cell phone awaiting word from his mother, Sully has had enough. He sets out to prove that the phenomenon is a hoax. But is it? Or could this be the world’s greatest miracle? Do the calls give people hope, or do they imprison the receivers to a never-ending cycle of grief?

The story follows several residents whose lives have been irrevocably touched when they are confronted with evidence that heaven exists. This remarkable novel takes us on a journey both of individual healing and society’s response to the question of life after life.

Part mystery, part allegory, The First Phone Call from Heaven is a heart-racing page-turner and a soul-fulfilling tale of faith, hope and love.

My thoughts

What would you do if you received a phone call from a loved one who is deceased?  How would you feel and act?  Would you keep it a secret?  Would you believe it if you were told they were calling from Heaven?

A select few residents of Coldwater have received those phone calls.  Do they dare believe it to be true?  A sister calls her sister to let her know she is happy in Heaven.  A son calls his dad and then later his mother to let them know he is in Heaven and happy.  Another resident receives a call from a deceased former employee.  Hearing from a deceased person in this case is not reassuring, only stirring up the pain of the past.

A little boy carries around a toy phone hoping his mom will call him.  Strangers arrive and camp outside of town hoping to get that precious phone call, just to hear their loved one's voices one more time.  A resident is followed around town by a journalist and the news carries her story which goes viral.  

The message from the deceased is: tell everyone the good news.  Heaven exists and those who go there will find happiness.   What joy this message could bring.  What turmoil it also has the potential to bring.  One man, Sully, sets out to find the true source of the messages because he doesn't believe.  He sees the impact this announcement has made on the town but most of all on his young son who carries a toy phone, waiting for his mother to call him.  The pain of her passing becomes as fresh as it was when at first it happened and Sully cannot endure it.  He must prove the truth, one way or the other and in his efforts the reader becomes so caught up in the story that it passes too quickly.

The First Phone Call From Heaven will make you think about your own beliefs about death and heaven.  Albom doesn't preach, this is fiction after all, but he opens up the mind to possibilities. He sets the stage for conversation.  His novel makes you ask, what if?  That very question that becomes embedded in your mind keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens, what if it were true?  

The First Phone Call From Heaven is a great choice for a book club selection because it begs to be discussed and pondered.  The plot will remain in your minds long after that last page is turned.  If you open your mind and your heart to ponder, to question, to engage; then Albom has achieved a truly remarkable feat in offering a work of fiction that makes you ponder your very existence.  What if......?

"As happens with all miracles, once life goes on, those who believe

retell them with wonder.  Those who do not, do not." (Mitch Albom,

 The First Phone Call From Heaven.)

Meet the Author:

Mitch Albom is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold more than 35 million copies worldwide; have been published in forty-eight territories and in forty-four languages around the world; and have been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.

Find out more about Mitch at his website, connect with him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and sign up for his newsletter.

The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman

The Color of Light
Author:  Helen Maryles Shankman
Published:  October 2013
Publisher:  Stony Creek Press
Pages:  573 Advanced Readers Copy
Genre: fiction

A complimentary copy was provided by TLC book tours and the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

NEW YORK CITY, 1992. At the American Academy of Classical Art, popular opinion has it that the school’s handsome and mysterious founder, Raphael Sinclair, is a vampire. It is a rumor Rafe does nothing to dispel.

Scholarship student Tessa Moss has long dreamed of the chance to study at Rafe’s Academy. But she is floundering amidst the ups and downs of a relationship with egotistical art star Lucian Swain.

Then, one of Tessa’s sketches catches Rafe’s attention: a drawing of a young woman in 1930s clothing who is covering the eyes of a child. The suitcase at her feet says Wizotsky. Sofia Wizotsky, the love of Rafe’s life, was lost during the Holocaust.

Or was she? Rafe suspects Tessa may be the key to discovering what really happened.

As Rafe finds excuses to interact with Tessa, they cannot deny their growing attraction to one another. It is an attraction forbidden by the Academy Board and disapproved of by anyone familiar with Rafe’s playboy reputation and Tessa’s softhearted innocence.

But Tessa senses the truth: despite his wealth, his women, and his townhouse filled with rare and beautiful treasures, Rafe is a haunted man…for reasons that have nothing to do with the rumors they whisper about him at school.

Intensely romantic and deeply moving, The Color of Light blends fact and fantasy in an unforgettable tale of art and passion, love and war, guilt and forgiveness, spanning the New York art scene, high-fashion magazine publishing, the glittering café society of pre-World War II Paris, and the evil stalking the back roads of Nazi-occupied Europe.

My thoughts:

This isn't Twilight's vampire story.  Not at all.  This is more how I envisioned vampires. Mysterious with mesmerizing eyes, regal carriage, handsome features, and charismatic.  Rafe (Raphael Sincair) is that suave charming protagonist and, yes, he is a vampire.  At times his appetite is cruel and deadly but his appetite for young Tessa is different.  He comes off as a bit of a playboy until Tessa touches that heart that may no longer beat but is still there.

Tessa, meanwhile, is in one of those one-way relationships with Lucien.  She works for him, practically saved his life even, and yet he disregards her, overlooking her for another.  Tessa is still infatuated with Lucien despite how he treats her, only minding when he feels he might lose her.  I cringed to see her still so set upon Lucien, despite everything, but she is young and naive. I've been there, young and naive.  I can see how her eyes may be clouded to what is happening before her and so I was grateful for the interventions of Rafe.

Rafe is drawn to Tessa.  She reminds him of his former love, a love that lived before he became the undead, and he can't shake the attraction regardless of it being inappropriate as he is the headmaster of the art school wherein Tessa studies the masters of art and the techniques they practiced.  

Ms. Shankman's love for the arts, including a tantalizing tango scene near the beginning of the book, is evident.  She infuses the story with her knowledge of art and technique and creates a genuine atmosphere within the old somewhat decrepit building that houses the school.  You can feel the draft, see the architectural details, hear the creak on the stairs.  Helen does a very good job enabling the reader to envision the school as if it were a character as important to the story as the main protagonists.

The characters come alive in the pages of The Color of Light making this book hard to put down. It gets a little wordy with descriptions as the author builds a background as a foundation for the present.  But that aside, The Color of Light practically breathes, sweeping the reader back to Rafe's past to a time of war  and anguishing separation, to a time of eternal change for Rafe. It's a kaleidoscope of events, of the bleakness in black and white and then color in love.  A metaphor.  It is in turns hauntingly beautiful, sad, and joyous.  And this is her debut novel.

Meet the author:

Originally, when Helen Maryles Shankman moved to New York, she thought she wanted to be an illustrator, to tell stories with paint.  A few years later, she discovered that what she really wanted to do was paint with words.

Her stories appear in The Kenyon Review, Cream City Review, Gargoyle, Grift, Danse Macabre, and JewishFiction.net. She was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

For now she lives in New Jersey, with her husband, four kids, and a blue-eyed Australian Shepherd named Sky.

Her debut novel, The Color of Light, is coming from Stony Creek Press on Halloween, 2013.

Follow Helen on Twitter @hmshankman

“Like” THE COLOR OF LIGHT on Facebook

Visit Helen’s blog at helenmarylesshankman.com.

The Reckless Engineer by Jac Wright

The Reckless Engineer

Author:  Jac Wright

Published:  November 2013

Publisher:  Soul Mate Publishing

Pages:  340

Genre: Classic mystery, legal thriller

ISBN 9781619353213

Edition: e-book (PDF format)

Source:  A copy was sent directly to me by the author to facilitate an honest and unbiased review.

Jack Connor's lives an idyllic life by the Portsmouth seaside married to Caitlin McAllen, a stunning billionaire heiress, and working at his two jobs as the Head of Radar Engineering at Marine Electronics and as the Director of Engineering of McAllen BlackGold, his powerful father-in-law Douglas McAllen's company in extreme engineering in Oil & Gas.  He loves his two sons from his first marriage and is amicably divorced from his beautiful first wife Marianne Connor.  Their idyllic lives are shattered when the sexy and alluring Michelle Williams, with whom Jack is having a secret affair and who is pregnant with his child, is found dead and Jack is arrested on suspicion for the murder.

Jeremy Stone brings in London's top defence attorney, Harry Stavers, to handle his best friend's defence.  While Jack is charged and his murder trial proceeds in the Crown Court under Harry’s expert care, Jeremy runs a race against time to find the real killer and save his friend, if he is in fact innocent, in a lurid saga of love, desire, power, and ambition.

My Thoughts:

The Reckless Engineer is a relatively short novel as an e-book at 182 pages, but it is packed with drama beginning with a phone call to Jeremy from Jack Connor.  The two men had worked together previously in an engineer firm, with whom Jack is still employed, and had become friends.  Jack had Jeremy's back during a dark time and now he was requesting a return favour. Desperately seeking help after being arrested under suspicion for the murder of his pregnant mistress, Jack turned to Jeremy who hooked him up with a top defence attorney.  It doesn't end there for Jeremy though.  His curiosity finds him sleuthing the countryside in compromising situations in his efforts to clear his friend.  It's his path to discovery that keeps you turning the pages.

Jac Wright gathers together a group of possible suspects but you will likely not guess who did the deed and framed Jac.  That twist comes at the end and you realize Wright had dropped cleverly disguised hints all along.  I love to see that ability, especially in a new to me mystery author.

Engineering is not commonly found in mysteries.  You find writers, police officers, elderly spinsters, journalists with cats, and a myriad of others but never before have I come across engineers in this genre.  Jac Wright intends to change that with this series, of which The Reckless Engineer is the first.  He brings to the series his own personal knowledge as an engineer, expounding upon situations in his realm of experience thus introducing the mystery enthusiast to an entirely new and interesting facet to the genre.  If you're a mystery lover sleuthing out something new, check out Wright's series, engineered to reaffirm your love.

WestJet Christmas Miracle: real-time giving

Excerpt From The Man in the Snow by Rory Clements

The Man in the Snow

Rory Clements

December 10, 2013

Witness Impulse

A Harper Collins Publishing Imprint

Electronic book text

FICTION / Crime

$0.99 US / $0.99 Can. / 0,73 € EU

A riveting novella set in Elizabethan England-perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and The Tudors.

Just a few days before Christmas, a reluctant John Shakespeare-brother of a rising playwright-answers a plea for help from Joshua Peace, Searcher of the Dead, but he has no idea the kind of menace he will face. A naked man has been found in a snowdrift, a wreath of holly crowning his head and a bullet in his back.

As all around him prepare for the festive season, Shakespeare must unravel a complex plot of passion and treachery and confront a cold-blooded murderer who will not hesitate to kill again.

*I thank Harper Collins Publishing, Witness Impulse, for the following excerpt provided for this special posting for The Man in the Snow by Rory Clements.

2 JOHN MURRAY

Even the best riders would not manage the hundred-mile highway to Stratford-upon-Avon in such conditions. A letter would have to suffice and the courier would have to deliver it as and when he could.

Sitting back from the table, he looked at what he had written: news of the girls, Mary and Grace, both thriving in health and their lessons. He was about to move on to his adopted son, Andrew, when there was a knock at the door and Boltfoot Cooper limped into the room, his club- foot scraping across the rush-matted boards.

‘Mr Peace is here to see you, master.’

Peace? A visit from Joshua Peace was a rare event indeed. Rare, but most welcome. ‘Bring him in, Boltfoot, and ask Jane to fetch us brandy, if you would.’

He put down his quill and rubbed the wet ink from his hands on the rag he kept at the side of the table as Boltfoot ushered Peace in.

‘Well met, Joshua. Are you hail?’ Shakespeare took his old friend’s icy hand, then embraced him, struck by how gaunt and ill at ease he appeared.

‘As well as any of God’s creatures in this bleakest of winters, John. I swear the cold would freeze a man’s very soul.’

‘Well, take brandy with me. You will find some warmth there.’

Peace managed a faint smile. ‘Brandy indeed. Yes, that is what a man needs. If not to warm him, then at least to numb the pain in the long, dark nights.’

‘So have you come to cheer me up, to drink and make merry? Are we to go wassailing?’

‘You make jest of me.’ Peace took off his ice-coated felt hat and ran his hand across the smooth peak of his pate. His hair was nothing but a rim around the edges, a pauper’s crown. ‘Forgive me. It is getting to me.’

‘Then I shall have to cheer you. Let us trudge through the snow to the Old Swan and sink into mellow oblivion together.’

‘No, John. I have no temper for the company of strangers. Let them carouse without me. Work and sleep are my lot this season.’

Shakespeare’s maidservant, Jane, appeared with a salver holding a flagon of brandy and two goblets. He poured two large measures of the spirit and handed one to Peace.

‘Then what has brought you here?’

‘I have care of a corpse that I wish you to look at. In truth I am at a loss as to what to do with it.’

‘Is there foul play?’

‘Most certainly. The man has been shot in the back.’ ‘Then it must be a matter for the justice and the sheriff.’ ‘They are not interested.’

‘The justice is not interested in murder? In God’s

name, why not?’

‘The victim is an Ethiop. They presume him to be

either slave or deckhand from some foreign vessel. No one cares enough to inquire into his death. Anyway, they are all too preoccupied with the prospect of feasting.’

Shakespeare wished he were surprised by the reac- tion, but nonetheless murder was murder, whoever the victim. ‘How did he come to be entrusted to you?’

‘The watch brought him to me. They had no idea what to do with the body and said they did not want to bury a heathen in hallowed ground.’

‘A shameful business.’

‘Indeed it is. One of those who brought him to me suggested he was shot escaping, another that he hadn’t paid some quent merchant for use of his whore. Either way, they said, he had got his deserts.’

‘Drink your brandy, Joshua, and we will see.’

The stone walls of the crypt beneath St Paul’s dripped with water. The cacophonous sounds of teeming com- merce above were muted here. This was where Joshua Peace worked alone as Searcher of the Dead.

Shakespeare was a tall man and his long hair hung about his face as he stared down at the mound on the trestle table. It was covered in a stained sheet that had once been white. Peace pulled back the covering to reveal the corpse, which lay face down, showing the wound.

Even in death, the skin had a wonderful, dark sheen, its beauty cruelly marred by a hole in the middle of the back, just beneath the delicate arc of the shoulder blades.

‘Could his death have been an accident?’ Shakespeare asked.

‘Look more closely, John. See the scorch marks around the entry wound. That tells me he was shot at close range. Most likely with a dag. This was murder.’

‘A dag?’ It was not that easy to get hold of a wheel-lock pistol. Such weapons were costly. Shakespeare sniffed the air. ‘How long has he been dead?’

‘You notice the absence of stench.’

‘Which must mean the death is recent.’

‘No, not in this case. The body was found beneath a

drift of snow, somewhere close to Bishopsgate, just outside the city wall. It had frozen solid. The bitter cold has delayed putrefaction. In truth, I cannot give you a time of death, except to say that it occurred some time in the past three weeks, since the snows came.’

Shakespeare reached forward and touched the skin. It was so luminous and bright, he half expected it to be warm, but it was as cold as ice.

‘It still hasn’t thawed through, John. It was brought to me this morning, rigid. The blood is frozen in the veins. Let me turn him over for you and show you his face.’

Peace put his practised arms beneath the slender body and turned it over.

Shakespeare took a step back in shock and then came closer again, to be sure. It was a face he had not seen in almost ten years, but he was certain. ‘His name is Giovanni Jesu. He attends upon the Earl of Oxford. Attended ...’ he trailed off.

‘You know him, John?’

‘I met him once when the earl was engaged as a com- missioner at the trial of the Scottish Queen.’ He had been struck even then by the man’s remarkable beauty.

‘What was he? Servant?’

‘Difficult to say precisely. I know there was a scan- dal. The earl brought him back from his tour of the great Italian cities. Siena or Padua, I believe. No, no, it was Venice. That is where Giovanni came from. He must have been a youth then, barely out of childhood. They arrived in 1577 and he was about twenty-two when I met him, so that would make him thirty-one or thereabouts now. I think the earl was captivated by his exquisite skin and his perfect features. If he saw something beautiful, he collected it. Giovanni was like a diamond or pearl to him. There were others, of course ...’

Joshua Peace nodded. ‘Yes, I have heard of them. But what are we to do about this man?’

‘At least we have a name now.’

‘But that does not tell us why he is dead nor who killed him.’

‘The motive is, perhaps, the least of our problems. We also have troublesome connections.’ Shakespeare grimaced at the thought. The Earl of Oxford was always trouble. Most difficult of all was his link to the Cecils. He had been ward to Lord Burghley, and had married his daughter. The history of the Earl of Oxford and the Cecil family was as strained as a galleon’s sheets in an easterly gale. Yet even more difficult was his history with the Queen. One moment he was her favourite, the next he was banished. Shakespeare began to sift the possible political complications through his mind, and did not like the dangers he perceived.

Peace said nothing but walked through to the adjoining room, returning with a trencher. There was a circle of holly on it.

‘What is that, Joshua?’

‘The watch told me it was around our corpse’s head, like a coronet.’

‘An emblem of martyrdom. Christ’s crown of thorns.’

‘The possibility had occurred to me. Though what it might signify in this case, I have no idea.’

‘What clothes was he wearing?’

‘Nothing else. The body was naked. He had, however, been clothed when he was killed, for I found a fragment of woollen cloth in the wound.’

‘Show me.’

Peace held out the trencher with the holly crown to Shakespeare. A jagged piece of cloth shone at the side of the platter. It was small and dark with dried blood, but there was enough to show that it was of high quality, with a cross-weave of gold thread.

‘Thank you, Joshua. I have no idea what is to be done about this, but I will put my mind to it.’

As Shakespeare hastened through the icy streets towards the river, he thought back to his only meet- ing with Giovanni Jesu. It had been in an anteroom at Fotheringhay back in the year 1586. Shakespeare had been taken off his intelligence work to help Walsingham prepare his case against Mary Queen of Scots. His job was to safeguard and organise the mass of secret docu- ments from the Babington conspiracy that would be used to prove Mary’s guilt and lead to her death. It had been a menial, unpleasant task and Shakespeare had wished himself anywhere else, but he had nonetheless been irritated to be interrupted by a stranger who entered the room without knocking ...

Shakespeare looked up from the endless documents. The man was a blackamoor. ‘I am afraid this room has been taken over as Sir Francis’s private office. Who do you want?’

‘Edward ... the Earl of Oxford.’

‘Well, he is clearly not here.’

‘Do you know how long the commission will last?’

‘It will be finished soon enough.’

‘And so will the Scots Queen, yes?’

Shakespeare had looked at him sternly, hoping he

would go away.

But the man made a comment about the impossibility

of having two queens in one country, then added in his fluent but accented English, ‘In truth, sir, it is like having two wives in one bedchamber or kitchen, a thing that is always likely to lead to death.’

Shakespeare found himself laughing. ‘It would be wise, sir, to refrain from any more jests about the Queen or her cousin, unless you wish to join Mary on the block.’

‘If a jester can’t make jests, then who can?’

‘Are you a jester?’

The young man had shrugged. ‘Jester, bedfellow, curiosity, dog. People have called me all those and more.’ ‘Then what are you?’

‘I am Giovanni Jesu, a man.’

‘And I am exceedingly busy, so I would be grateful if you would please leave me to my work.’

Jesu had grinned, bowed very low and retreated from the room. It had been the only time they met, but Shakespeare had never forgotten the encounter. He thought now of the cruel holly crown and the corpse on Joshua’s slab. How had this vital, witty man come to this? 

Author Rory Clements

The Reckless Engineer Excerpt and Note From the Author

The Reckless Engineer

Author:       Jac Wright

Published:  November 2013

Publisher:   Soul Mate Publishing

Pages:        340

Genre:        Classic Mystery, Legal Thriller

ISBN           978-1619353213

Can you forgive betrayal?

The aftershocks of an affair reverberate out to those in the lives of the lovers, who will  NOT take it lying down.

Jack Connor lives an idyllic life by the Portsmouth seaside married to Caitlin McAllen, a stunning billionaire heiress, and working at his two jobs as the Head of Radar Engineering of Marine Electronics and as the Director of Engineering of McAllen BlackGold, his powerful father-in-law's extreme engineering company in oil & gas. He loves his two sons from his first marriage and is amicably divorced from his beautiful first wife, Marianne Connor. Their delicately balanced lives are shattered when the alluring Michelle Williams, with whom Jack is having a secret affair, is found dead and Jack is arrested on suspicion for the murder.

Jeremy Stone brings in a top London defence attorney, Harry Stavers, to handle his best friend's defence.  While Jack is charged and his murder trial proceeds in the Crown Court under barrister Harry Stavers' expert care, Jeremy runs a race against time to find the real killer and save his friend's life, if he is in fact innocent, in a tense tale of love, friendship, power, and ambition. 

Excerpt: 

5

Saturday, October 16 – One Day Later

Despite the comfort and luxury all around him Jeremy was woken from a night of disturbed sleep by the sound of the dogs barking. It was 8:20 Saturday morning. There were voices downstairs in anxious chatter. His room (huh, he thought of this as his room now, did he?) was a first-floor en-suite with a bath. Actually it had a shared bathroom separating two twin rooms, but the second one had never been occupied whenever he had been here.

Jeremy washed his face quickly and hurried to the cupboard. Caitlin had laid out some clean clothes. He set his oversized laptop case, in which he carried a sleek laptop he had enhanced to pack in massive processing and memory power, so compact it hardly took any space, on the bed. Into the remaining space he generally packed various gadgets and electronics equipment he needed at client sites, including some “emergency” underwear and socks.

He pulled on a pair of black slacks and a blue Polo T-shirt from the cupboard. They must be Ronnie’s. Being slightly over 6 feet tall and having a wider frame, he did not fit so well into Jack’s clothes. He stepped out of his room and followed the voices downstairs.

One of the boys who worked in the stables and on the land, a brown lad in muddy Wellington boots, was talking animatedly to Caitlin, who was still in her dressing gown, in the kitchen.

‘There is police again at the front gate, sénora,’ he said with a heavy Spanish accent. ‘I put Molly and Max in the stables, ha?’

Caitlin and Jeremy hurried to the front reception with little Bubbles the puppy Lab running circles around them. There were two police cars at the gates.

‘If you could open the gates, Caitlin, I shall handle this,’ he said, thinking how lovely and vulnerable she looked with no makeup on and with tousled dark brown hair some length between short and medium. Something about a damsel-in-distress in silks stirred a man’s loins.

Jeremy went back to his room, splashed his face with icy cold water, and put on his shoes. He stepped out as the police cars pulled up outside the front door. 

From the Author

I wanted to create an engineering hero and a series centred around an engineering firm. The last hero in fiction who was an engineer was Barney in Mission Impossible (the TV series). There is Q in the Bond series, but he is an old and geeky supporting character working from a bunker. There are so many legal and medical dramas, but where are the dramas centred around engineering firms?  I want to bring an engineering drama to life treated for an audience not from the profession the same way that legal and medical dramas are.

The environment of an engineering firm in reality is just like in the book, so much so that this could be non-fiction but for the murder set in the middle of it.  The characters are very realistic. Jack Connor, for instance, is of a somewhat smaller physique, who seems to over-compensate for it by going after glamorous women. Women are somehow attracted to his brilliance and confidence at his work and well as the security and the respectability society assigns him because of his profession. Then there are people like Alan, Jack and Jeremy's boss at Marine Electronics, who make it to management positions because they have more people skills, are extrovert, and are better looking. Jeremy's character is still coming into its own and is in transition through the book and the series. He is emerging as a manager and a leader from the subordinate position he has been in so far. And then you have the super rich owners of these engineering businesses like the McAllens. There is also the occasional female engineer like Sally who is very introverted, outmanoeuvred at every opportunity by the much more glamorous and outgoing Michelle. These characters are a cross section of people you get in an engineering firm in reality.

One important reason I wanted to create a hero like Jeremy was to attract youngsters to the field.  I know that this particular story is not suited to a YA audience because it deals with infidelity. If I had a younger sister I wouldn't particularly want her rosy world clouded by such gritty (though realistic) subject matter; I would want her to read of gallant and loyal heroes only.  The future books in the series, however, will be very YA suited. I want young adults to know how entertaining, satisfying, powerful, and glamorous the engineering field is so that they will be attracted to the profession.