Broken Glass by J.M. Sullivan

Wonderland has never been more horrifying!

J.M. Sullivan has done it again. Broken Glass is the sequel to Alice, her re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. The war with the Red Queen has become personal and desperate. Alice finds new allies in her fight for survival and the hunt for her sister, Dinah who has been transformed into a monster.

With more action than many thrillers, Ms. Sullivan keeps the pages turning till the last page. It had me cheering during the climax and chilled with the final outcome. All your favorite characters are here and the story has been modernized for today’s readers without losing sight from the original tale. 

Don’t start reading this when you have to work in the morning.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

A Triumph of the Human Spirit

This is an insider’s story of survival during the Holocaust.  Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew becomes the tattooist of the infamous death camp, Auschwitz. It is he who marks his fellow Jews with the green-tinted numbers that identify them to the Nazi as something less than human. He spends three years living the worst nightmare imaginable, but finds friendship, hope and love. 

This incredible story exposes the evil of mankind but also best that men and women can be. Selfish sacrifice, ingenuity, and a real desire to survive push these average people to band together for the good of all.

Aided by three years of interviews, the author pulls the full story from Lale and shares it with the world so that his story and the reality of the Holocaust can never be forgotten.

Redemption Road by John Hart

If you are tired of run-of-the-mill mystery/thriller stories that recycle all the same thrills and chills, you might want to take a read of anything that John Hart has written. This guy writes beautifully, but the story is so fast paced that I as a fellow writer have a hard time slowing the reading down to analyze his writing. You need to know what happens next.

With multiple plots and interconnecting plots and character lines, there is no way to determine who is on the right or the wrong side of his story.

The story opens with a serial killer dealing with his latest victim. The killing happens just as a former cop is released from prison for the same crime thirteen years prior. When released, he is confronted with the child of the women he was convicted of killing. The child tries to kill him. It does not end well.

Another side of the story finds us dealing with another police officer who has rescued a local rich child from two rapists. Although the child has been rescued, she finds herself as part of a political witch hunt because the forensic evidence showed that she killed the two assailants using eighteen bullets in an act that cries out torture. The fact that she is white and the assailants are not, adds to the political outcry.

This is a story that could climb out of today’s newspapers. The pace is set at full-speed ahead and you better have your seatbelts on.

The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

The premise of this thriller is as real as it gets. It is only a matter of time before someone hacks the internet and if their goal is destruction, it will be on a global scale. It is both terrifying as well as happening as you read the book. With rigged elections, stolen data and breached firewalls, the story falls out of today’s headlines.

There is more suspense and action for the diehard thriller junky and I enjoyed the ride.

I really enjoyed the personal touch of the President’s routine and dealings with members of his inner circle. It had the authentic touch that only a past-sitting President could bring to the story.

What I did not enjoy was the multiple page manifesto of the Democratic Party and the naivety that anyone would think that any President could get all parties working for the common good regardless of ideology, race, or class is absurd. I would love to see this happen, but I think that America would have to really fall before the entire country would be willing to pull together for the common good. The last 15 pages ruined a perfect score for me.