The Silence Of Children by Chris Lewando @westcorkwriter

partial image heroine on street at night
partial image heroine on street at night
partial image heroine on street at night
The Silence of Children

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I love stories about vigilante justice and psychological thrillers. This is my first Chris Lewando book and I am looking forward to reading it.

Deidre is a solitary creature. She cracks me up and I can totally relate to her. She studied psychology, but switched to law. She had stepped into her job not even knowing she would be good at it.

She’d had all she could want as a child, a privileged life, until her dad, a pediatrician, was pushed out because of a baby snatching scandal. There had been children, boys and girls, disappearing. Now, someone is asking questions. Why now?

Her sister has a busy life, a husband and children, so an impromptu visit is not a simple thing. But there is more to the visit than just catching up. These questions and Deidre’s need for answers has her worried.

This is one of those books I find hard to share, because I don’t want to spoil anything for you I will say, we have our share of bad ‘guys’ and good ‘guys’. How it will al unravel I cannot say, but I am definitely eager to find out. We have subterfuge, danger, some trying to do the right thing and some trying to stop them.

Children’s lives are on the line. Kidnapping, sex trafficking, unfit parents that hate their children they brought into the world…and who is going to stand up for them, save them from evil?

It’s not easy to tell who to trust. I have a good feeling about one man, because she needs someone to love, someone to show her the good things in life. Someone to show her there is more to life than work and a glass of wine while reading vampire romances. Love that touch. Now, maybe you can see why Deidre speaks to me. 🙂

Chris Lewando has kept the pacing moving right along with mystery, suspense and, yes, some disgusting villains who I wished the worst. The one surprise I figured out pretty early, but I still loved the twist. I will definitely keep my eye on Chris Lewando.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Silence of Children by Chris Lewando.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos
4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

Twenty year ago, Deirdre’s father, a paediatrician was implicated in a child-abduction scandal that cost him his job, forcing him to change his identity. As an adult, in discovering her father is involved in something decidedly shady, she confronts the horrific possibility that he is linked to a paedophile ring. When two men enter Deirdre’s life, she’s sure they’re seeking her father. But are they paedophiles or FEDs? Loyalties torn, she feels compelled to learn the truth and stumbles into a conspiracy that threatens her own life. Is she prepared to save a child’s life at the risk of her own? Even Deirdre doesn’t know the answer to that, until confronted with its reality. (

ABOUT CHRIS LEWANDO

Chris Lewando

I trained as an English teacher, but the planned storyline drifted off-track. I landed in an office, producing management statistics – a different kind of fiction. I have been writing for many years, with quite a few mainstream genre novels and short stories published while I was still working full time. I gained a Creative Writing Masters (hons), and have been a novel-writing tutor since lessons were sent by snail mail and the nearest thing to a mobile phone beamed Captain Kirk onto the Enterprise. I live in rural South West Ireland, play Irish music in pubs for tourists, drive a camper the same age as me, and self-publish standalone novels with multiple viewpoints and complex characters.

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Giveaway – Unchain My Heart by Nadia Blair @XpressoTours @NadiaBlair16

UNCHAIN MY HEART—DELETED SCENE

This is a deleted scene from early in the novel. I hope readers enjoy!

The journalist followed Natasha’s bodyguard across the empty restaurant. As he approached, she smiled up at him from her cushion at the low, Asian-style table.

“Miss Bernard.” He leaned down to shake her hand. At least he didn’t try to kiss it; Americans could hardly ever carry off such an affectation.

“Andrew, right?”

“You can call me Andy.” As he dropped onto a cushion opposite her, Natasha studied him. Dark, shoulder-length hair. Blazer and jeans. Intense dark eyes. Pretty hands, with long, tapered fingers.

The server came with their appetizers. They spent a few minutes sipping tea and nibbling spring rolls.

Finally, Andy leaned forward. “So, Ms. Bernard, what made you decide to reinvent yourself?”

“I think it’s time to move past the slinking villainess thing. I have much more range than some of my recent roles have showcased.” And whose fault was that? Listening to her agent’s bad advice? Or was she just getting lazy?

“It has nothing to do with a certain looming milestone?”

She chuckled. “You mean my birthday?” In just over two weeks, she’d be thirty. “I suppose that’s part of it. At some point, I outgrew the wide-eyed ingénue, and I could never be the girl-next-door. So I ended up falling into the classic femme fatale role.”

“For good reason, if you don’t mind me saying so.” His admiring glance took in her perfectly made-up face, her long, auburn hair, and the silk blouse that displayed her figure to good advantage.

“You know that tired old saying?” she said. “Don’t judge a book by its cover? I’ve always found it ironic how untrue it is. We’re all judged by just how good our packaging is.”

“So, you want to rebrand?”

“Exactly.”

Andy glanced at his notebook. “It seems you’ve been staying busy.”

“Indeed.”

“Your recent bruising pace seems to have come about at just about the time of your break-up from Sloan … and Richard Mac.”

Natasha took a sip of tepid tea and wished a black hole would swallow Andy. “I never dated the Bastard—I mean Richard.” She waited for Andy to correct himself. I mean, your affair with Richard Mac, which resulted in the breakup of your marriage to Sloan. As if Richard the Bastard ever would have touched her. He’d always loathed her.

“Excuse me,” Andy said smoothly. “Maybe it’d be safer to say you’ve had a, um, complex association with the members of Mephisto.”

          Not bloody fair. A two-year-old scandal, and they still hounded her about it. She swallowed against the shriek rising in her throat. No one had believed her when she’d tried to set the story straight. Rather hard to deny it when Sloan wrote a song that pinned the scarlet “A” squarely on her chest. And Richard said nothing. Not a word to set the story straight. As if he didn’t care if the entire world thought him the sort of man who’d betray his best friend. Ha. Not that it mattered; if anything, the scandal had only enhanced his bad boy image.

          Focus. Andy was still waiting for a response. “As thrilled as I am to speak about my personal life, I’m afraid any response I might make would be unprintable.” She softened her words with a smile. “In any case, it’s old news, hmm?” In other words, change the bloody subject.

          “Well, it might be, only …” Andy’s dark brows lifted. “I’ve heard rumors that a tell-all exposé of the band is in the works. Word has it there’s an entire chapter about the rock-and-roll love triangle.”

          Natasha gulped her tea. All that time and effort spent reinventing herself, only to have it all come unraveled thanks to some trashy book.

          Not. Fucking. Happening.

As she changed the subject, she promised herself that tell-all would never see the light of day. Even if she had to confront Satan—AKA Richard Mac—himself.

Unchain My Heart
Nadia Blair
(Mephisto, #2)
Publication date: May 10th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

What’s a bad girl to do when the world won’t let her be good …

With her thirtieth birthday looming, actress Natasha Bernard wants to reinvent herself as something other than Hollywood’s favorite villainess. When she hears rumors that a tell-all exposé reveals details of her love life with her rockstar ex, she decides to put a stop to it. Even if that means confronting his bandmate, Richard Mac—the man who let the world brand her with a scarlet ‘A.’

She’s his nemesis … his secret obsession … and the only woman who can incinerate his life …

Guitarist Richard Mac is a control freak, whether he’s working on a new album or using his custom leather toys in the bedroom. When “Hurricane” Natasha storms back into his life, he risks everything to claim her. But he can’t risk losing control and letting her guess his darkest secret … that she’s the one woman he’s always wanted and could never have …

Goodreads / Amazon


Author Bio:

Nadia Blair writes steamy contemporary romance featuring outrageous bad boys and gutsy girls who give as good as they get. She has a thing for snappy dialog, humorous situations, and swoon-worthy happily-ever-afters.

When she’s not having conversations with fictional people, she enjoys summer thunderstorms, top-shelf whiskey, and rockin’ out to a classic guitar solo.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Amazon


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Giveaway – To Kingdom Come by Claudia Riess @GoddessFish

To Kingdom Come by Claudia Riess

GENRE: Mystery

BLURB

Amateur sleuths, Erika Shawn-Wheatley, art magazine editor, and Harrison Wheatley, art history professor, attend a Zoom meeting of individuals from around the globe whose common goal is to expedite the return of African art looted during the colonial era.  Olivia Chatham, a math instructor at London University, has just begun speaking about her recent find, a journal penned by her great-granduncle, Andrew Barrett, active member of the Royal Army Medical Service during England’s 1897 “punitive expedition” launched against the Kingdom of Benin. 

Olivia is about to disclose what she hopes the sleuthing duo will bring to light, when the proceedings are disrupted by an unusual movement in one of the squares on the grid.  Frozen disbelief erupts into a frenzy of calls for help as the group, including the victim, watch in horror the enactment of a murder videotaped in real time.

It will not be the only murder or act of brutality Erika and Harrison encounter in their two-pronged effort to hunt down the source of violence and unearth a cache of African treasures alluded to in Barrett’s journal.

Much of the action takes place in London, scene of the crimes and quest for redemption.

EXCERPT

He wondered now why had it taken such an effort to decide which of his plans to set in motion. Walking off with an artifact or two from Franks House, the British Museum’s storage facility in East London, may have given him his political statement, but at what cost? The place was crawling with workers in lab coats and masks—conservators, project managers, photographers, interns, auditors, volunteers—the lot of them engaged in the end goal of moving 200,000 objects from the museum’s collection of Africa, Oceania, and the Americans to its nearly spanking new World Conservation and Exhibition Centre. True, it would not have been an insurmountable task, entering the quiet road where the quaint redbrick warehouse lay and unobtrusively blending into the workforce, but then what? Would he have been forced to shoot his way out of the place at the risk of being gunned down himself? How sordid and at the same time mundane to mow down an uncalculated number of individuals, only to find himself a mere casualty sprawled among them. Hell no, he was neither a loony terrorist nor a crack- head martyr. The plan in place was the more sensible course, no question about it.

It was restful, hearing below his thoughts the rhythmic phrase of train wheels clacking against the tracks in lulling repetition. His calmness surprised him a little, given what lay ahead. His scenario had been well choreographed, but only on an imagined stage with players moving about under his ironclad direction. In real life, even the most meticulous plan is apt to be disrupted by unforeseen circumstances. He knew that it was exactly 1.6 miles from Effingham Junction Station to the mansion on Ockham Lane in Cobham, Surrey, but was he certain that he would not be accosted by a madman or struck by lightning on his walk to the place?

If he allowed his thoughts to ramble on in this manner, his nerves would start acting up. He must lean into the physical moment and move with it into his destiny. He looked out the window past his reflection and focused on the indifferent stars.

AUTHOR Bio and Links

An award-winning author of seven novels, Claudia Riess graduated from Vassar and resides in Manhattan and Westhampton Beach. Her most recent novel is the fourth book in her art history mystery series. “To Kingdom Come” will be released in Spring 2022 by Level Best Books.
Last year, Riess signed a second three-book contract with Level Best Books to continue the series that began with “Stolen Light.” The plot involved murder, the Italian Renaissance, and the Cuban Revolution—as well as a love story. The book was chosen by the Vassar travel program coordinator and the Vassar Latin American professor for distribution to the participants in their 2017 “people-to-people” trips to Cuba.
The latest suspense novel set in the art world, sleuths Erika Shawn, art magazine editor, and Harrison Wheatley, art history professor. Now married, the couple is caught up in a multiple-murder case involving the repatriation of African art and artifacts seized by the British in the late nineteenth century during the colonial era. Much of the action takes place in London, scene of the crimes and quest for redemption.
“Riess uses words as an artist uses a paint brush; the pages come to life.” –Joseph Epstein, Ph.D

“Mystery. Passion. Crime. What more could a book-lover want!”
–Elizabeth Cooke, author of the Hotel Marcel Series

An engaging speaker, Riess has recently given several author talks via Zoom for libraries* and is scheduled for future Zoom and podcast events at more venues. Subjects include “Anatomy of a Murder Mystery,” “Dangerous Liaison: Fiction and History,” and “The Joys and Perils of Creating a Mystery Series.” Her talks are of interest to both authors and readers.
*“Thank you for a fun evening. It was very interesting to hear about the process of writing.”

–Jocelyn Ozolins, Head of Reference, Shelter Island Library

Claudia Riess has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker magazine and Holt Rinehart and Winston. She has also edited several art history monographs. For more about Riess and her work, visit www.claudiariessbooks.com.
All four books in the art history mystery series are available through Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com,IndieBound.org and at independent book stores. For bulk discount purchases, contact https://levelbestbooks.wordpress.com.

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