The Price Of Freedom is the final book in The Price Of Trilogy by Michael C Bland and it satisfied all my reading needs. It was a brutal war…and they lost…but did they? Sure, they have Dray and his family locked up and they are killing off all the rebels, but, even though they are down, they are not out. Mina and Talia will never give up. I love these characters.
I love all the science fiction elements, nanobots, robots, hovercrafts and so much more. I love all the characters that put their lives on the line. They suffer horrendous injuries that are often cured with nanobots. I found that fascinating, but they can’t bring back the dead. Michael C Bland does not hesitate to kill off his characters. We know they can’t all survive, but I mourned with the characters at their loss.
If you are as enthralled as I am at thought provoking science fiction, The Price Of Trilogy may be for you. It is a fast paced read that kept me flipping pages, having to know what comes next. Who will live? Who will die? I feel confident that the rebels will be victorious, I’m just not sure who will be left standing or how it will come about.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
It’s 2047. The rebellion has been crushed. The Agency is reestablishing control.
Rebel leader Dray Quintero languishes in his cell, struggling against his captors’ manipulations. His daughter Raven’s cries torment him at night. He has doomed them both.
When given an unexpected chance to escape prison, they break out–but they’re not safe. No one is. The Agency is still in power. And they’re tightening their grip. As dangers mount, Dray is haunted by an impossible flee and survive, or gamble his last chance for freedom by taking a stand against impossible odds.
He tried running. He tried fighting. This time, he must try something radically different. Something no one will see coming.
The Price of Freedom is the adrenaline-fueled final installment in The Price Of trilogy from multiple-award–winning author Michael C Bland.
Genre: Apocalyptic, Dystopian, Fiction
Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 8, 2025 by World Castle Publishing, LLC
ABOUT MICHAEL C BLAND
Michael C Bland is a founding member and the secretary of BookPod, an invitation-only, online group of professional writers. He pens the monthly BookPod newsletter where he celebrates the success of their members, which include award-winning writers, film makers, journalists, and bestselling authors.
His novel, The Price of Safety, was chosen as a Finalist of the 2020 Indie Book Awards for both Science Fiction and Thriller, and is the first in a planned trilogy.
Michael currently lives in Denver with his wife Janelle and their dog Nobu.
For The Loved And Lost is the conclusion of the The Tucker Clan Saga by Ethan Warrener and it did not disappoint. It seems that all is lost for the Tucker Clan. Ella is a prisoner and knows what the Americans have in store for them. It’s hard to distinguish the good from the bad. Not all the characters will survive and I do love an author that’s not afraid to kill them off. Many of the characters have their own agendas. Will the traitor in their midst be their downfall? It sure kept me guessing and I was drawn in from the opening pages. I must say, it was a fitting end for the trilogy, even though I am going to miss them.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
All is lost.
The Tucker clan teeters on the brink of annihilation. The hand of friendship extended by the Americans concealed a dagger, and now Ella Holland languishes in captivity, separated from her homeland, knowing the true extent of the Americans’ wicked intentions and powerless to stop them.
While the Americans’ iron-fisted control of the Tuckers nears its apogee, the Pied Piper waits in the wings. Against their multitudinous enemies, the Tuckers must use every ally and resource they can and resort to every tactic, no matter how savage.
Yet even then, a long-hidden traitor lurking in their midst may prove to be their undoing.
First published December 1, 2024 by Ethan Warrener
ABOUT ETHAN WARRENER
Ethan Warrener grew up in Southwest Missouri, which resembles West Virginia if you really squint. If he’s not writing or teaching, he’s spending any extra free time with his wife and kids or playing too many video games. As you might expect from a Midwesterner, he’s an occasional farmer, a regular churchgoer, and a huge metalhead. For Home and Hearth is his first novel fit to see the light of day.
The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen is the second book in The Martini Club series. The group of ex CIA operatives will be called on to help find a missing teenager that strikes close to home. The police chief, Jo Thibodeau, and The Martini Club have an uneasy alliance and I’m hoping that the more they work together, the more cohesive they will become. Maybe Jo will become a member of The Martini Club.
The past secrets will be exposed. There are plenty of suspects, but Tess Gerritsen muddies the water so much, I had a hard time seeing through the murk. The mystery grows, and The Martini Club struggles along with me as we all try to solve it.
With each book, I get more involved with the characters and the mysteries seem to become more difficult to solve. Tess Gerritsen creates some complex characters and the more time I spend with them, the more I like them. The pacing and suspense kept me flipping pages, eager to know what comes next. It looks like I’ll have to wait until November 2026 to join them for the third book in the series, The Shadow Friends.
From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen comes a chilling follow-up to The Spy Coast, plunging the Martini Club into the search for a missing teen—with a startling connection to their own pasts.
When former spy Maggie Bird retired to the seaside hamlet of Purity, Maine, she settled in for a quiet life with breathtaking views. But enemies from her past soon threatened to destroy everything.
Maggie survived, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club. Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have an uneasy alliance.
After a teenager vanishes—and Maggie’s neighbor becomes the prime suspect—she joins the investigation, determined to prove her friend’s innocence. But the girl’s wealthy family pushes for an arrest. And when authorities discover a long-dead corpse in a nearby pond, the case becomes doubly complicated, with unthinkable ties to long-buried secrets.
As Jo grapples with two unexplained mysteries, the Martini Club races to uncover the truth behind shadowy secrets…before more lives are lost.
Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.
While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift”, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.
Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), and The Bone Garden (2007). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.
As well as being a New York Times bestselling author, she has also been a #1 bestseller in both Germany and the UK. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon.) Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen”.
Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine.
Well, let’s start with the fabulous cover for The Crisis by T O Paine. It encompasses many elements of the story inside. How does an armadillo come in to play? Look closely and you may see a clue.
What does a convenient store worker and a Cuban rebel have in common? A young girl with a tattoo. What makes her so important?
It all starts when a bald man enters the convenience store with a young girl. Mattie had lost her cousin to human traffickers and felt this young girl was in the same kind of trouble. So, she jumps into her beat up car and follows them, determined to save the girl.
I do love stories with multiple points of view, showing individual character’s motivations for the actions they take. It gives the story more depth and detail. The Crisis unfolds slowly, filling the pages with suspense and tension, keeping me flipping the pages, having to know what will come next.
I am super excited to have found a new author to follow.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
She wants to quit smoking. He wants to start a nuclear war. They both want the girl with the cryptic tattoo.
“A suspenseful thriller filled with vivid characters, mounting tension, and explosive twists that keep readers guessing until the final page.” ★★★★★ – Readers’ Favorite
Stuck working at a backwater convenience store in the middle of northern Florida, Mattie longs for a cigarette. She longs for her days as a marine biologist at the Queen Aquarium down south. She longs for her best friend—Hank the Manatee. Her colleagues blamed her for his death, and now, she blames herself. She should have done something sooner.
Today, a nervous couple enters the convenience store. The man is big, bald, and has a tight grip on the girl’s arm. The girl is small, young, and has a number tattooed on her leg. It looks like a brand.
Today, a nervous couple enters the convenience store. The man is big, bald, and has a tight grip on the girl’s arm. The girl is small, young, and has a number tattooed on her leg. It looks like a brand.
When they leave, Mattie finds a note on the floor.
“. . . Blue Honda mini-van going to Salt Springs. Someone named Stanley.”
A similar thing happened to Mattie’s cousin. This girl is being kidnapped. Trafficked. The note isn’t enough for the police to care, but Mattie does. She jumps into her decrepit Toyota wagon and flies onto the highway, wasting no time. She’s got to stop that mini-van before it reaches Salt Springs. She’s got to save that girl before she’s sold to the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, in Cuba, a militant rebel has sent his men to the US. He’s been searching for a young woman with a cryptic tattoo on her leg for over ten years. When his men bring her to him, he’ll finally have the negotiating power he needs to overthrow the Cuban government. He’ll have the power to make the United States listen to Cuba for once.
It’s only a matter of time.
His men are already in Salt Springs, waiting for her.
The Crisis is a breakneck thrill ride guaranteed to pique your imagination and thrust you deep into a fun-filled, action-packed, international conspiracy.
Genre: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
440 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 2025 by Dark Swallow Books
ABOUT T O PAINE
T.O. Paine is an award-winning author of fast-paced thriller suspense novels. He is a member of International Thriller Writers and holds a master’s degree in computer information systems. When he is not writing, you can find him running and cycling through the mountains of Colorado, USA. T.O. has run fifty marathons in fifty states, ridden his road bike over 10,000 miles up 10,000-foot mountains, and completed an IRONMAN.
He resides with his wife, two children, and two Boston terriers: Fiona the Ogre and Rudy the Trickster.
T.O loves to hear from thriller readers. Visit his website for information on upcoming releases, free stories, giveaways, and other thrilling content.
Beautiful Mistakes by Cora Kent is the first book in the Twisted Sisters series. After reading it, I can hardly wait to see what Cora will come up with next. The first book is Raiden and Lucrezia’s story and to say it is a dark romance is putting it mildly.
Lucrezia was born into the Catiglione family, the most powerful of the Midwest mafia, but her father and brother never had an ounce of respect for her. She was shipped off to a convent in Italy, and now she’s back with a vengeance. She recruits Raiden Drake.
“I need the best the Destroyers have to offer…And I’m told that’s you.”
I love Lucrezia. To say she is a firecracker is to underestimate her. She is more like a bottle rocket. She has no fear. I wondered about Kristopher. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I got a lot more than I anticipated. I love how Cora Kent handled the situation.
When God made me he broke the mold.
I love that The Twisted Sisters series have recurring characters and each story can stand alone. Beautiful Mistakes is told from multiple characters points of view. It’s an enemy to lovers romance. There are lots of triggers, so beware. Myself, I love the dark. I definitely have my eye on Cora.
I want to thank her for the opportunity to read and review Beautiful Mistakes.
4 Stars
GOODREADS
I was born a Castiglione—once the most powerful name in the Midwest mafia. But that all changed when my brother banished me to a convent in Italy, erasing me from his empire like I never existed.
Five years later, I’m back. And I’m not here to beg for forgiveness—I’m here to destroy everything he built.
But I can’t do it alone.
Raiden Drake is dangerous and untouchable—the Destroyers’ most ruthless enforcer. He doesn’t follow the rules; he bends them, and anyone who defies him bleeds for it. Relationships and loyalty mean nothing to him unless they’re earned in blood. He’s exactly what I need: the man who will help me bring Saverio to his knees.
There’s just one problem—Raiden doesn’t take orders. He wants everything. My body. My mind. My soul. And once he claims them, there’s no going back.
In the game of vengeance, there’s only one rule: never fall for the devil you’ve unleashed. But what happens when the devil is the only one who can save your soul?
Each book in The Twisted Sisters series can be read as a standalone novel.
Note: Beautiful Mistakes is Raiden and Lucrezia’s story.
Genre: Dark Romance, Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Thriller
ABOUT CORA KENT
Cora Kent fell for her first villain before she even knew what romance was. Ever since Scar was denied a happily ever after, she’s been on a mission to give all the dark, dangerous anti-heroes the endings they deserve. If the Big Bad Wolf had swept Little Red off her feet, it might have saved the fairy tale—so that’s exactly what Cora does in her novels: grants her bad boys redemption through passion, power, and the women who can handle them.
When she’s not spinning tales of morally gray heroes and forbidden desires, you’ll find her snuggled up with her cat, sipping a margarita, and watching Grey’s Anatomy.
Immortal Gifts by Katherine Villyard is a fresh take on a familiar tale. These characters quickly drew me into their story and I found myself rapidly flipping pages to see what the future had in store for them.
We have two timelines and multiple character point of views. It was easy to follow along and the pacing kept the story flowing smoothly. I did read late into the night, but I didn’t finish it in one sitting.
Abraham is a vampire and he’s Jewish. He follows his religion as much as possible, considering he is a vampire. He is married to a human, Destiny. She’s a veterinarian. I love that he loves cats. He even nurses kittens, whenever Destiny brings them home. Can you picture a big bad vampire bottle feeding a tiny kitten? The animals have their own complex personalities that develop as the story unfolds.
Abraham’s biggest danger is Thomas, a blowhard vampire that rouses the masses to bring hell down on him. Abraham became a vampire when Ludwig impulsively saves him from death due to consumption. Thomas thinks that Abraham does not deserve immortality because he is Jewish, but Ludwig sees Abraham’s talents with a violin as a gift from God. There will be a reckoning.
There is a lot of historical information about Judaism and I trust that Katherine did her research. I do love the blending of religion and vampires that Katherine handles so well.
Immortal Gifts is Katherine Villyard’s first novel and I feel that she is a rising star. I loved Immortal Gifts and I can hardly wait for what comes next. After all, Abraham is Jewish and there are a lot of Nazi war criminals hiding out in South America.
My thanks go out to Katherine Villyard for the opportunity to read and review Immortal Gifts.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
He lied about his identity. Two hundred years later, he’s still paying the price…
Prussia, 1841. Abraham only ever wanted to play violin. Hiding his Jewish status so he can study at the prestigious Berlin Academy of Music, the eager young man is delighted to find a patron who believes in him. But he’s mortified when his new friend turns him into a vampire… and Abraham earns the fury of an ancient antisemite who vows to see him permanently dead.
Fleeing the hate-mongering fiend across the decades, the sensitive violinist at last settles in twenty-first-century New Jersey with a mortal woman. But when he discovers his relentless tormentor has tracked him down yet again, Abraham despairs he’ll never find true happiness.
With everyone he’s ever loved at risk, can he escape the rage of a ruthless bigot?
In a complex tale woven through history, Katherine Villyard delivers a fresh and insightful twist on the vampire novel. Infusing the narrative with profound themes of love, betrayal, and the nature of monsters, she crafts an unforgettable saga of surviving prejudice that will keep readers turning pages deep into the night.
Immortal Gifts is the thoughtful first book in the Immortal Vampires contemporary fantasy series. If you like well-drawn characters, dual-timeline storytelling, and pulse-pounding suspense, then you’ll adore Katherine Villyard’s compelling read.
Published February 1, 2025 by Flower Feather Press
ABOUT KATHERINE VILLYARD
My parents met singing opera and started taking me to choir practice when I was six weeks old. I attended four elementary schools and four high schools before getting master’s degrees in art and library science. So naturally I work in IT, abusing SQL Server for fun and profit. When I’m not working or writing, I’m probably playing the Sims or spoiling cats. My greatest ambition is to rule the world.
If you’re looking for “Becoming,” you can find it here.
The gorgeous, eye catching cover is only the beginning of the deliciousness of Golden Blood: A Vampire Story by Tim Vee. I grab any vampire books that come my way and Golden Blood is a fresh take of a familiar tale. It’s pretty hard to come up with a new slant, seeing there are thousands of books out there. Good job ,Tim.
Balthazar Jiménez de Quesada’s greed has him transformed into a vampire, one of the most grotesque I have ever come across. He’s definitely not sparkly. He turns the wrong person when he slaughtered Yvette’s family and left her for dead. She plots her revenge.
She devotes her vampiric life to finding Golden Blood, the rarest type of blood. It can break the vampire curse, turning her back into a human. There are some bloods that can give a vampire the human feeling for a short period of time, but she wants Golden Blood. So does Balthazar, after he gets his first taste. He wants to kill her and take over her ‘company’.
I love what Tim Vee has done with Golden Blood. I would not change anything. These are not your Twilight vampires. Tim has some of the most vivid descriptions and I can see the flies buzzing, skin sloughing off…
We have a bit of a history lesson with our horror and I was all in. The more I read, the more engrossed I was in the story. I would have read it in one sitting, if I could have, but I did read until the wee hours of the morning.
5 Stars
BLURB
In 1540, conquistador Balthazar Jiménez de Quesada embarks on a quest for gold but encounters an ancient evil in the jungles of Colombia, La Pastola, transforming him into an immortal vampire. Centuries later, as Napoleon’s army clashes with the British in 1815, a brutal massacre near Walloon births a new vampire desperate to break her curse. In present-day Los Angeles, a man with the rarest blood type—Golden Blood—enters a dangerous world where the line between predator and prey blurs, as a secret society of vampires hunts for the key to their salvation…or their destruction.
Golden Blood is a gripping tale of horror, history, and the eternal struggle for redemption, spanning from the New World’s blood-soaked jungles to the underbelly of modern L.A.
Golden Blood is the story about one vampire’s search for Golden Blood that can reverse the vampiric curse and her need for revenge against the vampire that slaughtered her family and turned her into a vampire centuries before. Set in the jungles of Colombia in the 1500s, the Caribbean in the 1700s, Europe in the 1800s and 1900s, and present-day Los Angeles, Golden Blood is a dark, bleak, and gothic story.
EXCERPT
He seemed to feel lightheaded and rocked on his heels. And then he became aware that something, someone, was behind him. He slowly turned.
A tall, pale-skinned woman stood before him. Her skin was white and bloodless, and her face was gaunt. Her eyes were dark, and her hair was as white as snow, tied back in a bun. Her rich, full, red lips were the only color on her face.
The woman looked to be about 40. Her pale skin was translucent on her cheekbones and forehead and smooth and creaseless. It was as if her face were made of thin pale parchment, with painted cherry red lips.
She was dressed in a doctor’s gown, a black dress, black stockings, and black stiletto shoes.
Rico stared at the woman and gasped. He staggered backwards and fell into the examination chair.
The woman strode over and stood over Rico. “Mr. Hernandez, what a true pleasure to meet you!” The nurse reclined the chair. Rico collapsed backwards as he stared at the doctor, still gasping.
“Prep the patient for the procedure,” she said. She sat on the stool and smiled at Rico, showing her perfect white teeth. The nurse left the room.
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Tim works in digital marketing in Toronto and is well-traveled, having visited over 80 countries. When he is not working or writing, he likes to spend time with his family and German Shepherd and go cycling.
Tim has written fifteen other books: The Secret Policemen and The Secret Service, both dystopian dark comedies, and eight science fiction novels: Extinction, Annabelle, The Three Lives of Mr. Amazing, Fission, The Children of the Third Reich, The Child of Mars, The Children of Andaalwaald, Angel, and Janus.
Tim has also written Magpie – a dark and intense journey into the world of international espionage and terrorism, The Killer Who Loves Me, a suspenseful, thrilling detective story about the hunt for a serial killer, Golden Blood, a dark, gothic vampire story, and Christmas Inc., an anarchic, subversive, and satirical Christmas story.
Website: http://www.TimVee.com.
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/golden-blood-a-vampire-story/id6736947021
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Xc4dEQAAQBAJ
I love romantic suspense novels, so reading Defending Kiernan by P J Fala was a joy. Sure, the premise is familiar…a lady in distress and the hunkalicious man that will come to her rescue. When a cute kid is added to the picture, it becomes that much more enjoyable.
I love that Defending Kiernan is a lead in to a new GHOST series that is a perfect fit for me.
Defending Kiernan moves along at a steady pace, supplying plenty of suspense and danger along the way. The characters hold their own. We even have a touch of the paranormal, adding a little something extra.
I feel I am being a bit generous in the rating, but that’s because I love the genre and I am able to overlook some of the issues with the writing. I feel the story could have been developed more and the characters become more complex. That being said, I am looking forward to some GHOST stories in the future.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
All Keirnan Vickers ever wanted was to be a teacher. Having realized that dream, she’s focusing on helping the local library with desperately needed repairs so she has a place to host her growing reading program. Just when her life is beginning to look like a storybook, an enemy of her father’s threatens her very existence.
Single father Dane Copeland has known his share of heartaches. He put love on the back burner to finish his career as a special operative with the Army and raise his daughter. Fate intervenes when he meets Keirnan, who brings a new zest for life and the promise of a new start. But it all comes crashing down when she is kidnapped and local law enforcement is unable, or unwilling, to mount a rescue.
Partnering with Auggie Vickers, GHOST is born, and all of their lives are irreparably changed as the details behind Keirnan’s abduction are revealed and time becomes their enemy.
First published April 21, 2020 by Rolling Thunder Publishing
ABOUT P J FALA
USA Today Bestselling Author
Writing has been a desire my whole life. Once I found the courage to write, life changed for me in the most profound way. Bringing stories to readers that I’d enjoy reading and creating characters that are flawed, but lovable is such a joy.
When not writing, I’m with my family doing something fun. My husband, Gene, and I are bikers and enjoy riding to new locations, meeting new people and generally enjoying this fabulous country we live in.
I come from a family of veterans. My grandfather, father, brother, two sons, and one daughter-in-law are all veterans. Needless to say, I am proud to be an American and proud of the service my amazing family has given. In trying to give back, I’ve started a foundation, Authors4Veterans, with my friend and fellow author, Stacey Joy Netzel. Our charities will rotate but will always support our military and their families.
I know it might sound odd, but I love serial killers….I mean reading about serial killers. I love getting into their minds, searching for the reasons they do the things they do…and Wayne Adam Ford deserves a close look and the sentence that was handed down to him. I am also intrigued by the legalities. Why does it take years?
I got ticked off at those who felt empathy for him. I don’t believe there was anything wrong with him, other than he is a monster that gets off on killing women. I believe that he was able to manipulate people, never letting them see the real him, until they take their last breath.
Body Parts has been updated by Caitlin Rother and I think she did have some things I didn’t like. The story was easy to follow along, but I don’t believe it was family or a brain injury that was the cause of him being a serial killer. That is where the nature or nurture question comes into play. I am not an expert, so I can’t say what is what, but I feel they will use whatever excuse they can come up with to make themselves less of a monster.
My thanks go out to Caitlin Rother for the opportunity to read and review Body Parts.
3 Stars
BOOK BLURB:
BODY PARTS takes a deep psychological look at serial killer Wayne Adam Ford. A long-haul trucker, Ford confessed to picking up dozens of prostitutes and troubled women along California roads. He tortured and repeatedly choked them during sex, revived them with CPR, then did it again. Only four of them didn’t survive, he said, claiming that was an accident. After dismembering two of his victims, he dumped their bodies in the California Aqueduct and other waterways in Humboldt, Kern, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties. Ford’s complex death penalty case made national news because he is one of the only serial killers to turn himself in and help authorities identify his victims. He was recently transferred from death row at San Quentin to a state prison in San Luis Obispo.
Originally released in March 2009, this new edition of BODY PARTS has been updated with 32 pages of new developments about the identification of Kerry Anne Cummings, Ford’s first victim, whom he dismembered and who went unidentified for 25 years. If there is such a thing as a happy ending to a book about a serial killer, this is it. The new material takes the reader through the investigative process involved in solving a cold case like this one so many years after the fact. Kerry now has her name back and her family has closure after so many years of not knowing what happened to her, after being prevented from reporting her missing to police because she was using drugs. Rother is the first to interview the Cummings family about Kerry and her troubled life before she went missing in late 1997.
Overall, the book is based on exclusive information Rother uncovered during her extensive research and exclusive interviews with Ford’s father and brother. She also interviewed, the prosecutor, sheriff’s detectives from all four counties, the defense’s sole investigator, and a woman who survived after being raped and tortured by Ford. By obtaining a court order to release sealed court files and digging through boxes of evidence and investigators’ reports, Rother was able to paint comprehensive and compelling portraits of Ford, his family and his victims. Rother’s book shows readers how Ford’s family dynamics, his severe head injury, his bouts of mental illness, and his compulsive sexual perversions led to his tragic killing spree, tearful confessions, and dramatic trial.
This is a re-release with 32 pages of new developments about the recent identification of Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings, through genetic genealogy 25 years after her murder. So, now she has her name back and her family has closure.
Kathie Cummings had recently moved from the Seattle area to the small town of Addy in northeastern, Washington, after leaving a job with the University of Washington as the director of operations in finance and research.
The new number Detective Fridley tried for Kathie went to voice mail, so he left her a message, saying that he was calling from the sheriff’s department in Eureka.
Kathie immediately assumed that he was calling about her long-missing sister, Kerry, though she was expecting him to say that Kerry had overdosed, and they had finally identified her. But when they connected, she didn’t mention any preconceived notions. “I let him do the talking,” she recalled.
“I’m calling about an unusual situation,” he told her. “Can I ask if you have any family members who are missing?”
“Yes, I do, my sister.”
“How long has she been missing?”
“Since 1997 or 1996,” Kathie said, feeling a little dizzy from the stress of the call and unable to remember exactly.
“Does your sister have any identifying marks?”
“She has a ring of flowers around her left ankle, a nose piercing, and her ears are pierced.”
“Can you tell me, did your sister ever give birth?”
“Not to my awareness,” she said, but inside, she was thinking, oh, s***. She knew he was talking about Kerry, so she started to panic, jumbling the chronology of events in her mind. There’s a baby out there. No, there’s an adult now.
Just the thought of a baby she never knew about broke her heart, especially not knowing if the child had lived.
“We may have connected her DNA to a close relative,” Fridley told Kathie, clearly trying to be sensitive and careful with his words. “Jeff Cummings, do you know him?”
“Yes, he’s my cousin.”
“I would like to talk to you about what we know, but first we’ll need to get DNA confirmation that the person that we have here matches your sister.”
Hearing that said so directly, Kathie felt faint. “I’d been expecting it, but I hadn’t been expecting it that day,” she recalled.
“What do we need to do?” she asked. “We need to get a copy of your DNA and compare it to the DNA that we have.”
After determining the location of the nearest police agency, Fridley said he would arrange for her to get tested.
Over the next three days, Kathie went even further down the rabbit hole than Jeff had. Not only did she read all the news stories she could find, but she listened to podcasts and downloaded the first edition of this book, published in 2009, on her Kindle.
“When I searched on the internet and all those pages came up with him, I went into complete shock. I never imagined, honestly, that this would be the kind of information and news I would get.”
She had to read this book three times, because she couldn’t absorb all the gruesome details on the first go. “The first time I just read through it, and I could hardly remember what I read, other than a few identifying markers that convinced me that this was the right person. I went back for pieces that I missed, [thinking], what did I read? I just kept going through it.”
She kept wondering why Ford had started off “so gruesome,” by cutting up her sister so violently, but then didn’t do the same thing to his next victims, other than slicing off the woman’s breast that was in his pocket when he surrendered.
“Knowing my sister, she was willing to be intimate with him,” Kathie said. Based on her last conversation with Kerry, when she “was more wasted than any other conversation I’d had with her, I figured she was on something new, so he suggested, ‘Let’s try this,’ and she said, ‘Okay, whatever,’” until she choked, passed out, and died.
– Excerpted from Body Parts by Caitlyn Rother, Citadel Press, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored 15 books, ranging from narrative non-fiction crime to thrillers and memoir. Among her recent titles is an updated edition of BODY PARTS with 32 pages of new developments about the Wayne Adam Ford case, and DEATH ON OCEAN BOULEVARD, the story of the Rebecca Zahau death case. Coming out in June is DOWN TO THE BONE, about the McStay family murders, and in 2026, DOPAMINE FIX, the first in a two-book deal for a new crime fiction series with Thomas & Mercer. An award-winning investigative reporter for 19 years, Rother’s stories have been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The San Diego Union Tribune, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and The Daily Beast. Her more than 250 TV, radio and podcast appearances include 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Crime Watch Daily, Australia’s World News, and numerous shows on Netflix, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, HLN and REELZ. A popular public speaker, she also works as a writing-research coach-consultant and website designer. For fun, she binges on limited series, swims, and plays keyboards and sings in a jazzy bluesy trio called In the Lounge with her partner. Rother earned a bachelor’s in psychology from UC Berkeley and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University.
Shawn David Brink writes some of the best Christian Horror fiction I have read. He never fails to have me tearing through the pages, having to know how the story ends. Pets For Legion is another hit. The battle between good and evil is fierce. The feeling of menace lurks on every page. The story flows smoothly, quickly, having me feeling like I can’t wait for what happens next. It pulls me along like a toddler with a string toy. I love Shawn David Brink’s ability to give me a unique look into the world of Christian horror.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
When local school paraprofessional Sasha James rescues a child from a mysterious assailant, she unknowingly marks herself as the next target. To survive this supernatural foe, she will need to search deeper than the physical, pray for power beyond the natural, and fight like there’s no tomorrow.
Genre: Christian, Fiction, Horror
242 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2021 by by Tell-Tale Publishing Group
