Skizzer by A J Kiesling

Claire Trowling's sister Becca has disappeared from the country, leaving only a cryptic note behind. Her husband has no idea where she went. As Becca's big sister, Claire feels an obligation to keep her out of danger. Claire looks for answers in their past and discovers a strange family situation that took root two generations before her. The deeper she digs, the more interesting the mystery gets, even leading her across the Atlantic to England.

My summary of Skizzer mirrors how short the book actually is. Without the flashbacks Claire has, the book wouldn't have even been published. It's barely long enough to be interesting at all.

The plot is a typical missing person setup. Find a clue here, find a clue there, do a little research, travel here, travel there. Nothing interesting or surprising is contained within the novel.

There is no villain in this plot. While I think it's good that Becca was not kidnapped and that we were spared a cheesy showdown scene, the lack of a villain makes the plot sappy. While this is realistic, I feel like more everyday things should have occurred. The plot is too straightforward.

The best thing about the book is its good characters. They all have personalities, which is a good start for a debuting author. Not many authors have figured this out even on their fifth book, but A J has crafted good characters in her debut novel. This will be a great asset to her down the road.

Skizzer

seems like a rough draft an author sends into the publisher. Only, this rough draft actually got published. While Skizzer is a lot better than some of the other things on the market, it still has some work to do. But this also means it has potential.

I am interested to see what AJ Kiesling will do in the future.

2.5 stars

For the Rest of My Life by Harry Kraus

Claire McCall is living the life of a country doctor-busy, harried, and frustrated. As she waits for test results to see if she is positive for the Huntington's disease gene she may have inherited from Wally, her father, her mother has to daily deal with the stress of a Huntington's patient. Wally cannot control a majority of his actions, now including bodily functions. Della has turned into a new person ever since her husband's change.

But Claire doesn't have time to think about this with patients constantly coming in with any number of ailments. A recurring theme of rapes among several female patients bothers her when she hears the rapist wears a surgical mask. She fears for herself and for the women she knows.

John Cerelli is still struggling with his relationship with Claire. He wants to get re-engaged to her, but he wants to wait until she reads her test results. Claire believes he is holding back on her for this very reason and descends deeper into depression and frustration.

Lena Chisholm lives a rough life with her ever-drunk husband. When he's not drunk, he's a saint; when he is drunk, he's a devil. He drinks almost every night. Lena is fed up with it. She confronts him after he attacks her one night, and their relationship takes a strange twist.

Harry Kraus has done an excellent job at making the Claire McCall series extremely realistic and believable. Only someone who is in the medical field daily like he is could pull this off. Many frustrating things happen to the characters, and Harry does a good job of not bombarding the reader with tragedy after tragedy.

The characters remain to be imperfect, as usual. Harry does a good job at keeping this cast of characters realistic. I especially like the way he develops John Cerelli. Normally, an author would make a male lead like him perfect, but Harry does the opposite.

The identity of the rapist wasn't all that surprising to me, but it was appropriate because he had a good explanation behind him.

A few too many tragedies occurred at the end of the book, but this does nothing to detract from the rating. The point is, not everything turns out perfectly in the end like some authors would have it. This is Harry's specialty and the reason we like his books.

5 stars

Literary Trash

The following is a list of overused aspects of novels that need to be thrown away and never retrieved.

Plot Ideas:

(The following section focuses on plot ideas that we believe have been overused.)

Serial killer chases:

This idea is worn out. There is virtually no way to end this type of plot except for the ways authors refuse to do. But even in these ways, the serial killer usually has to be found out. However, this is not a closed genre if authors will use it originally.

False death scenes:

This has been used since day one of suspense. One of the heroes gets captured by the bad guys. Everybody thinks they're dead. They find out that they really are alive. Blah, blah, blah. It's not realistic that people hardly ever die in situations like that. However, to reverse this Trash would be original.

Hostage situations where the hostage miraculously escapes:

Practically the same as the one above, just more specific. This type actually shows the hero getting away by using a technique they learned earlier in the book or by being rescued by another hero.

Romance in general:

Romance is not just a genre. It consumes all of Christian fiction. Nearly 95% of Christian books have a romantic subplot that always turns out right. This is not realistic. People don't find their perfect match just anywhere. Some people don't even get hooked up at all. It's not realistic to fall in love at every turn. If people really did that, think of the mess we would be in.

Demon possession and exorcisms:

This used to be an original idea, back when Frank Peretti started writing his supernatural thrillers. But books have completely worn this idea into the ground time and again. It's gotten to the point where I don't even want to hear about it anymore. Exorcisms have become sensational at best are often unnecessary to the plot as well.

Mysteries and suspense with an obvious villain:

I've even heard other reviewers say they were tired of reading this one. I can't even imagine why these types of plots sell. Certain types of characters and plot devices should be obvious to readers as to how the author will use them. And the authors do use them over and over and over again. When will someone surprise us?

Legal battles in which one down-on-their-luck lawyer battles insurmountable odds and wins the impossible court case:

This was probably interesting once. Like demon possession, this Trash has been used a hundred too many times. Why do authors use this over and over again? Because people like it. You would think that people would begin to figure out that copying the same plot over again isn't suspense.

Two twin brothers get separated at birth and are reunited later in life by some strange circumstances:

This plot has been used since the beginning of time. Thankfully, it has died out over the past few years. The whole "like looking in a mirror" analogy sounds interesting at first, but when you really think about it, it's not.

Custody cases where the good guys always win and the bad guys are monsters in the closet:

Since custody cases usually have a predictable end, why not make it unpredictable by making both sides good or both sides bad? Why not confuse the reader a little. Change things up. Make it unpredictable. Why not?

Genetic and other medical suspense:

Unfortunately, having viruses and mad genetic scientists threaten to take over the world isn't all that suspenseful if you aren't going to actually have it take over the world. Every time I read a description of a book that says something about DNA, an airborne virus, or cloning, I tend to roll my eyes. Why? Because this genre has been abused. It's time for somebody to bring it back.

Save-the-world situations:

The Trash category above fits into this category, but it does not fill it. There are other situations such as bomb threats, terrorism, and other weaponry that can be used as plot devices to make the plot "suspenseful". Again, suspense is truly not knowing what's going on. Most of the time, the books that are marketed as suspense are more predictable than books that are not marketed as suspense.

Forced suspense:

Some plots just don't need the kind of drama other plots need. Sometimes, an author just needs to write a normal plot. Why? Because life is not all guns and explosions and villains. Sometimes life is just normal. Fiction does not portray life correctly sometimes. Needless to say, some situations need suspense. But not all.

A female lead is being chased by a killer who wants her for some reason and a perfect man she doesn't like is trying to protect her:

Female authors invented this plot style in order to keep their emotional readers happy. There's something about female readers that like perfect male leads. They also tend to root for the downtrodden, dramatic female lead. I guess one of the main reasons I don't like this plot style is because I'm not emotional, but the number one reason is because it's not realistic.

Coincidental connections between unrelated plot devices:

This has been around since the beginning of mysteries. The lead or leads find something early on in the book that has something to do with the ultimate answer. Another form of this Trash is having two leads work on two unrelated cases that end up having to do with each other (The Reluctant Thief series by Jill Nelson). Coincidental connections are not only worn out, but they are unrealistic.

The Nephilim:

Every Christian spec author has tried to invent an explanation for that mysterious passage in Genesis about the Nephilim. There are so many versions it's ridiculous. One author wrote something about it, and all the rest followed. There are so many different ideas, it's hard to know which one to believe. The Nephilim have been morphed into aliens, hairy giants, six-fingered people, vampires, half-human\half-demon people, and more in fiction. The biggest problem is that spec authors are trying to make something out of nothing in order to sell. As with most of these this was original once but is now worn out

Finding the Ark of the Covenant:

Ever since Indiana Jones found the Lost Ark, Christian fiction has been trying to copy it. It seems like every author has their own idea about where the Ark is, and how to find it. But every one of these books has something in common: the Ark is always found. This notion is ridiculous because I don't even believe the Ark can be found. I think God destroyed it so people wouldn't worship it. When it disappeared from history, it probably really disappeared. I don't understand why people want to keep bringing it back up. The Ark of the Covenant is part of the old ways, anyway. We don't need the Ark anymore. We don't need to read about either.

Westerns:

There was a time and a place for westerns, but that time and place are now gone. Not only has the public lost interest, but so have we. Westerns were never very original anyway. The perfect leads fought the evil bad guys every time. There was a great redundancy on the TV shows with other plot devices such as gold, gunfights, showdowns at high noon, and romances. Thankfully no one in Christian fiction has ever tried to resurrect this genre.

Finding the "bones of Jesus":

This is a pointless plot because if the bones are Jesus' bones, than the book is no longer Christian. If they are not Jesus' bones, than the reader learned nothing. The only way to end this plot is to have the bones be phony, so why even write the plot at all?

Finding the Garden of Eden:

The Garden of Eden no longer exists on earth as we know it. God took that away from us. What makes authors think their characters can find it again? God sealed it off from humanity. Eden is gone. There is no plausible explanation for characters finding the Garden, so why even write the plot?

CRT's (Convenient Rescue Techniques):

This is probably the most well concealed of any piece of Literary Trash. But it is unquestionably the worst of them all. If I remember correctly, James Bond invented this one. At the beginning, Q would give him a device that he would end up using later to get out of a sticky situation. In modern fiction, the characters no longer use tangible devices as much, but plot devices such as last-minute rescues by perfect leads. Using tangible devices is even more cheesy, especially in a fantasy setting in which the characters use an imaginary device to get themselves out of a rut. (Oh look a magic stone, etc.) CRT's were only created to try to make suspense interesting yet still please the public in the end by getting the heroes out alive. Not only are CRT's overused, but they are also highly unrealistic and make for bad fiction.

Lines:

(The following section is a list of lines that need to be discarded from characters' dialogue. Please note that some words can be changed and the line will still mean the same thing.)

"Wait! Come back! Don't leave me!"

"You'll never get away get this!"

"I'll be back! You won't get rid of me!"

"You killed my father!"

"I am your father!"

"We shall meet again."

"What! You're alive! I thought you were dead!"

"I'll never leave you again."

"Do what I say or you'll never see him\her again!"

"Unbelievable!"

"It's a miracle!"

"I'll get you for this! You'll never get away from me!"

"You're all meddling with my plans!"

"Go ahead. Kill me."

"I'm not a man like you!"

"You're my hero."

Characters:

(The following section is a list of character types that have been overused.)

Evil villains:

Villains, in my opinion, don't need to be clear cut and purely evil. They need to be more ambiguous and realistic, even seeming good at times. This makes for good fiction because you're hard pressed to find a truly evil villain in the real world.

Genetic scientists:

I'm not completely opposed to genetic scientists per se because the can be very good characters. I am opposed to them right now because everyone always portrays them as evil. Why can't they be simply misguided or even good? Why do they always have to have a plan to take over the world?

Perfect heroes:

This is the other side of the evil villains spectrum. In the past, plots has evil villains and perfect heroes, hands down. Now we have evil villains and perfect heroes with troubled pasts. Somehow, the troubled past bit is more excepted by the public than having the hero be completely perfect. The worst part about the troubled past is the author usually makes it not the hero's fault at all. Thus the hero becomes a victim that the public sympathizes with. However, there is a movement in the world of fiction using imperfect leads. This is the movement we endorse because it is the most realistic.

Healers, especially small children:

The healing genre has been opened and closed. We've all heard the story: a healer comes to town and begins taking people's money all in the name of God. But authors have also created a genre of young children healers. I don't know how many books have been about this subject or why some are so obsessed with it.

Modern day prophets:

This is not a completely closed subject, as long as authors will use it in an original way. Usually these "prophets" are just messengers of Satan, and while the Bible says these will come, I'm really tired of reading books about it.

Waking Lazarus by T L Hines

The first time Jude Allman died he was eight years old.

That has got to be one of the best opening lines ever.

Anyway...

Jude Allman has died three times. Three times he has been inexplicably raised from the dead. Once when he was eight, once when he was sixteen, and once when he was twenty-four. He is now thirty-two and lives an undercover life as a janitor. He must live under the alias of Ron Gress because one can become a celebrity for dying three times. He is divorced to his wife and son and lives alone. But he has a gift. He has know idea where it came from. All he knows is that it works. By physical touch with a person he can know what is going on in that person's life or what has gone on in their past. This gift comes in handy when his son is kidnapped.

Because this book comes before The Dead Whisper On, I wasn't sure whether it would be good or not. But clearly, The Dead Whisper On was a major slump for T L Hines.

Jude is a very interesting and surprisingly realistic character. Every morning he disengages his elaborate alarm system, searches the house for intruders, and sweeps the house for bugs. This is the reason his wife left him. His paranoia has driven him from the outside world. He is paranoid because everywhere he goes, people recognize him as the dead guy who was raised to life three times.

None of the characters are perfect, in fact. They are all normal people except for the fact that they lack true personality.

The villain, though at first he seems like a mindless serial killer, is not who you would expect it to be. He is not a typical villain, even though he uses random capital words like Quarry and Normal. He is very intriguing and his identity is surprising.

The end of the book is ambiguous if not slightly predictable. There is one part I knew Hines would do, but there are other parts he surprised me with.

So what keeps it from being five stars? The predictable part of the end, and the lack of personalities in the characters. Otherwise, T L Hines has produced an unexpected Elite novel.

Since T L started out this well, I expect him to do more great things in the future like this one and less horrible things like The Dead Whisper On.

4 stars

Daisy Chain by Mary E DeMuth

Jed Pepper is a loyal friend. He does the best he can as a young teenager in a strange family situation. His father is spastic and, most of the time, abusive to his family, even though he pastors the local church in Defiance, Texas. Most of the time, Jed just wants to be a man and stand up to his father, but every time he does, he gets more punishment. His mother is too timid to do or say anything about Hap's abuse.

Jed finds solace in his relationship with a girl his age. Her name is Daisy Chance. She is the one who sought him out and started the friendship, because she is convinced that Jed will marry her one day. Jed becomes very dependent on her company, but when she mysteriously disappears from the town leaving only her shoe behind, Jed begins to blame himself for her disappearance. Why? Because he was the last one who was with her.

Daisy Chain

is a plot based completely on raw characters. And they are good characters at that. They are imperfect and realistic, because they have personalities, something not many authors can seem to grasp.

The setting of the book is a small town called Defiance, yet the town is not full of hicks. Many authors have made this mistake when writing about their fictional small town, yet DeMuth has avoided this mistake and has created a town full of believable people.

Jed has a very interesting view on life. His mission is to be a man, and in the end, it's hard to tell whether he achieved his goal or not. But nevertheless, DeMuth gives the reader an interesting perspective on life by looking through his eyes.

Daisy is not your typical "little girl" character that has been overused so many times. She seems like a real person you could meet anywhere.

The only reason DeMuth got away with the highly original end this book has was by marketing it as a tragedy plot. This book appeals to the emotional crowd, to say the least. Though I do not consider myself one of them, I thoroughly enjoyed the original end. I praise DeMuth for her bravery.

Because of this, I see great things from this author in the future.

5 stars

A Slow Burn by Mary E DeMuth

Emory doesn't know how she's going to live without her Daisy. Daisy was the one who took care of her during the drug highs and after the parties. Daisy called the ambulance when she tried to commit suicide. Emory took her daughter for granted because Daisy always took care of herself.

But now there's no more Daisy.

Upon the death of Muriel, Hixon hears a call from God to go and make Emory his wife. Hixon obeys reluctantly and soon finds his work cut out for him. Emory plain doesn't like him. She just wants to stay to herself and not be bothered by anyone. She wants no contact with the world. All she cares about is going to meet Daisy on her drug trips.

More and more deception and intrigue enter Defiance as Daisy's father returns, Daisy's killer lurks, and Emory's life spins more and more out of control.

A Slow Burn

deals with the broken people of Defiance. Emory is broken by her choices, Hixon is broken by his past, and even Jed is broken by his family life. None of the characters are perfect; all of them are guilty of something. Daisy's death has brought a lot of heartache on the town of Defiance, Texas.

A Slow Burn

shows Defiance through a new set of eyes and lets the reader know several previously unknown things about Emory's messy life.

The characters remain to be as imperfect as ever, some of them even getting worse. The characters are not the typical characters you would think would fill a small town novel. Defiance is not a town full of hicks, as so many authors portray small towns, but a town full of real people with real problems.

The only thing keeping this from being five stars is an unnecessary, sensational scene toward the end of the book in which characters that were already dead begins speaking to Emory through a fire. This only appeals to the public and keeps them interested.

However, DeMuth writes her share of key character deaths into this novel, which is her speciality. I am interested to see how the Defiance, Texas Trilogy will end and where the characters will end up.

Mary E DeMuth has found a way to write original books, and I applaud her for that.

4 stars

The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson

Mary-Margaret is a teenage girl who lives a religious sister on an island off the coast of Baltimore. She is not a nun, for she does not reside in a convent. Yet she is a religious sister, who is married to Christ and must do all she can to spread the gospel to those who need it. All she wants to do is honor God and be like Jesus.

But then she met Jude, a wayward teenage boy who lives a wild life. Her heart goes out to him because of his situation, but she doesn't want to do anything drastic to help him. She prays for him and talks to him often, but she begs to differ when she hears what Jesus has in store for her and Jude.

The book is written by Mary-Margaret as an old woman looking back on her past, therefore the reader gets snippets of the present as well as the past. However, the book seems like it really is written by an old woman, and while this is a nice change from Samson's typical female leads, this also makes for bad character development, a surprise for Lisa Samson. Mary Margaret does not have a very good outlook on character's personalities, and while this is a creative touch, it makes for a slightly unprofessional writing style.

Samson insists that this book is not a paraphrase of Hosea, and that it is not meant to be read that way, but there is really no other way to read it. It's a backwards version of Hosea; instead of having the male pursue the female, the female is pursuing the male. This is the most original touch to the book.

This novel is an epic of sorts because it covers a majority of Mary-Margaret's life. Things work out; some things don't work out. It's realistic in some sense, but in other ways, it's not so realistic.

For example, Mary's father keeps appearing in the present. This means that he would have to be over one hundred years old, if Mary is eighty at the time. This is a plot hole and is very strange for Lisa Samson.

If there were a book that stood out from Lisa's other books, it would be this one, mostly because of the lack of good characters. After Embrace Me, I thought she was going to write more original plots like it. The Passion of Mary-Margaret is original, but it's strange for her. Though this novel is fine, I only hope her next release, Resurrection, is better.

4 stars

Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson

Heather has it all-a heart surgeon for a husband, the perfect boy for a son, a spacious house, an extensive property complete with a swimming pool and tennis courts, popularity in the community-yet she still yearns for something. She yearns to be as thin and to look as beautiful as all her friends. She tries to fill the void by giving hefty pledges to charities, yet the next day she spends twice the amount at the department store. She and her husband are still church shopping-they still haven't settled down.

But then an encounter with two ancient Quaker sisters and an old nun begins to point her in the right direction. She spends the summer with these three women while working at a homeless shelter. Slowly, she begins to learn what she needs to do.

What Samson has done with this book is she has taken one of her typical crazy female leads and has given her a lot of money. This equals a dangerous yet comedic combination.

As usual, all her characters are up to par. They are all realistic and imperfect; they are just believable people. Samson seems to be able to capture that with her plots.

Heather spends most of the book musing and analyzing life during her wanderings. This becomes very intriguing because it makes the reader think. I've heard people say that this is depressing, but life isn't all cream puffs. You have to think about the tough stuff sometimes.

Samson finds creative ways to keep the book interesting. This seems like a hard task since the theme of the book is not very appealing to some people. Yet she found a way to make the issue comedic yet thought provoking.

The only thing keeping this book from being five stars is a highly unnecessary scene that makes one of the characters stereotypical, even though he was beginning to not look so clear cut. This scene could have been easily cut and not missed by the reader, because following the scene, the characters make no mention of it.

I regret that Samson put this scene in the book because I wanted it to be five stars. Yet Samson did not let other things turn out perfectly that could have been that way. That is why it is rated what it is.

All in all, Lisa Samson is one of the best authors on the market.

4.5 stars

Lost Mission by Athol Dickson

Fray Alejandro lives in Mision de Santa Delores, an idyllic Spanish mission located in southern California. But in the eighteenth century, the mission collapsed, and only now are people beginning to unearth it. But caught in the middle of its unearthing are a Mexican shopkeeper who moved to America to preach the gospel, a pastor who feels he is failing his congregation, and a desperate man who feels he married the wrong woman.

Most of the book is spent in the past, telling from Alejandro's perspective how the mission collapsed and why. It eventually transitions to the present within each chapter, but not in a very obvious way.

Lost Mission

is a very hard book to review because it is spread out over time. In the past, it spans a century, yet in the present, only a few months. The vague transitions between past and present confused me at first. I do believe the book could have been better with more obvious transitions.

The best thing about Lost Mission is that Dickson set out to make the book full of imperfect characters, and he succeeded in doing so. They all suffer consequences for their wrong choices in the end. I love plots that are set up in this sort of way.

But why then did I not make it Elite? Here's why: Dickson made mostly everything turn out perfectly in the end. However, he disguises it very well. But he does nonetheless.

In the past, I have not fully known what to think about Athol's works. I like some of them; I scratched my head at the others. But there is a reason why Athol has never received a five star award from us: he has a penchant for making things turn out unrealistically perfect in the end. This is why his works appeal to the public.

Unfortunately, Lost Mission is one of those such works. I hate to say it. This book had a lot of potential, and I do not regret reading it. I only wish I could have made it Elite.

3 stars

Deadfall by Patricia Rushford and Harrison James

Detective Mac McAllister is back working on a new case with the homicide department of the Oregon State Police. A ski instructor has disappeared, and his parents refuse to believe in the option of suicide. They believe his girlfriend had something to do with his disappearance, but Mac won't say anything until he delves deeper into the case.

Mac has also been having trouble with his fiancee. She wants him to come to pre-marital counseling sessions at her church, but Mac doesn't have any use for church or religion. An even bigger strain is put on their relationship when Mac begins to have feelings for a woman he works with.

The rest of the plot progresses like any other mystery plot would-investigate a little, find a clue here and there, interview people-but nothing very special or ground-breaking. That's the biggest problem with this book. There's nothing that makes it stand out from any other mystery books on the market. It's very run-of-the-mill.

Another problem with this book is the lack of good characters. While Mac is an imperfect lead, there are several other typical plot devices, such as the old Christian mentor he works with.

Some parts of the investigation are realistic, but they are mostly boring. However, I am glad the authors avoided forcing this plot to be suspense. I don't know if I could have taken any of that.

The authors avoid a typical showdown with the criminal at the end, but this leaves several plot holes. For one thing, key things happen at the final scene, but nothing is ever said about them. This only leaves the reader scratching his head, wondering whatever happened to them.

While there is one unresolved issue at the end of the book, a majority of the issues are fixed at the end, making for an unrealistic plot. Basically, I just didn't see anything that made this book special. Maybe the authors will do better in the next book.

2.5 stars