Rebecca Forster
A Finn O’Brien Thriller, Book 2
Police Procedural
ASIN: B071RJZ4LD
ISBN: 9781547170173
Miraculously surviving torture Takrit, a political activist, smuggles evidence of human rights atrocities out of her home country of Eritrea and she escapes to the United States.
Also in the U.S., both hunting for Takrit, and hoping to close a lucrative business deal for a port of trade that will cement his power and his fortune is, Emanuel Dega Abu, the President of Eritrea and . . . the man responsible for the human rights abuses, and Takrit’s torment.
If Takrit’s video evidence goes public, Dega Abu’s empire will come crashing down and so will he. He must find Takrit and eliminate her. She must find a way to stay alive and tell the world her story.
In Foreign Relations, book 2 of the Finn O’Brien Series, Rebecca Forster immerses us in the world of political wheeling and dealing at home and abroad, and the disparate parties that the matchmaker, Money, unites with ease.
When the first dead body turns up, Finn O’Brien starts to fit the pieces together. He gets too close to the source so a local congresswoman, with her sights on a seat in the Senate, deters him by shutting down the case. But Finn is haunted by what he’s discovered. And the spirit of the dead body ‘sits on his shoulder asking him to put it to rest.’
Never one to back down or cringe before the brass or the most degenerate criminal, O’Brien tackles crime, money, and politics. With help from where he least expects it, he plows through the mire of government contracts, kickbacks, and money laundering, and dents the unbreachable wall of diplomatic immunity.
Intriguing. Thrilling. Page-turning. With Finn O’Brien on the scene, crime doesn’t pay.
Both heart-rending and heart-warming, Rebecca Forster assures us that despite the reality and the odds, justice, loyalty and love, still reign and rule the day.
A fantastic read you will never forget!
See you next time on May 22nd.
The Day Bailey Devlin’s Ship Came In (Book 3 of the Bailey Devlin Series)
by Rebecca Forster
Amazon Digital Services 2015
ASIN: B013XNYKMY
Meanwhile…
If you’ve been with us through books 1 and 2 of the Bailey Devlin series, by now you love Bailey, want to shake some sense into her, or both.
In this last of the three book series, Bailey’s ship comes in . . . in more ways than one.
You might think she married Jeffery. After all, he helped care for her grandpa, loves her nuttiness, took her home to meet his parents, threw a wonderful party for her, and proposed in front of both their families. So who else but Jeffery, right?
We’re talking about Bailey, remember? Nothing ever goes according to plan. Horoscopes can be misleading, pennies aren’t always lucky, and love can sometimes sail away.
In book 3, The Day Bailey Devlin’s Ship Came In, Bailey realizes that her heart might belong to someone else: Ethan, her musician neighbor. Problem is, Ethan doesn’t live here anymore. He’s traveling on cruise ships with his band. Bailey can’t bring herself to marry Jeffery until she’s absolutely sure which of two she truly loves. So, she makes a Bailey Devlin decision. She tracks Ethan down and boards the ship where he is currently employed.
Complications arise when Bailey discovers she’s on a Single’s cruise and has to keep dodging the same guy. Confusion jumps on board when she sees Ethan with a woman, assumes he has a girlfriend, and convinces herself that her chances with Ethan have sunk. She spends the rest of the cruise trying to avoid Ethan . . . until she sees “his” girl with another man.
Worried about Bailey; Jeffery, Grandpa, Bailey’s boss, and his flirty daughter arrive on the ship.
Determined to warn Ethan and rescue him from the woman’s clutches, Bailey goes overboard . . . literally, and has to be rescued by none other than . . . .
To find out which of the two her heart belongs to, you’ll have to read, The Day Bailey Devlin’s Ship Came In.
If you haven’t yet read any of the books, you’re depriving yourself of fun, laughter, and warmth. A modern day I Love Lucy, and with a motely cast of characters and situations that rival a Seinfeld episode, Bailey’s a riot!
See you next time on April 22nd.
Veronica
0 0 Read moreThe Day Bailey Devlin Picked Up A Penny
Book 2 of the Bailey Devlin Series
by Rebecca Forster
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2015
ISBN# 978-1517072728
When we first met Bailey Devlin in, The Day Bailey Devlin’s Horoscope Came True, (see my review posted on Dec. 22, 2018), Bailey was struggling with the unexpected arrival of her grandfather, studying to pass the bar exam, and conflicted about her feelings for two guys.
In The Day Bailey Devlin Picked Up A Penny, book 2 of the Bailey Devlin Series, our heroine is on a weekend getaway with Jeffery to “meet the parents.” Driving through the pouring rain, Bailey spots a woman stranded on the roadside and urges Jeffery to turn the car around and go back to help her. Bailey braves the downpour to help the woman into the car. The three of them arrive at the mansion with Bailey drenched and looking like something the cat dragged in . . . and then threw away. Not the great first impression she was hoping to make on Jeffery’s family.
The stranger turns out to be Jeffery’s childhood friend, now drop-dead-gorgeous . . . Penny. And this is one penny Bailey can’t toss away! In Bailey’s mind, Penny is a rival who threatens her potential future with her true love. And to make matters worse, Penny has a secret that no one but Bailey seems concerned about.
Since our Bailey rarely takes the easy or direct route to confront her problems, she lets her fears and suspicions lead her into trouble and grief. The only foot she’s able to put forward is the left one, usually into her mouth.
Navigating a maze of confusion and misunderstanding, Bailey finds herself wallowing in self-doubt and treading the waters of low self-esteem. She questions whether luck and love are well-matched and wonders if maybe it’s like her mother said, ‘luck encompasses those things and events that can change the course of one’s life.’
To find out if the events in this book change Bailey’s life and confirm her true love, you’ll have to read, The Day Bailey Devlin Picked Up a Penny. It just might be your lucky day!
See you next time on, March 22nd.
I was surprised when I had the chance to receive an advance reading copy (ARC) of award-winning author Debra H. Goldstein’s first book in her new Sarah Blair Mystery series, ONE TASTE TOO MANY (Kensington Books), available for purchase on December 18.
Full disclosure: I know Debra, having been on panels with her at writers’ conferences and having published some of her short stories in my capacity as Executive Editor of Bethlehem Writers Roundtable . One of her stories was nominated for an AGATHA AWARD in 2018 and another received an Honorable Mention for the 2018 BETHLEHEM WRITERS ROUNDTABLE SHORT STORY AWARD. (See Short Story Award hfor information about our 2019 competition which opens January 1.) Obviously, I already knew Debra to be a talented writer, so when this opportunity to get a sneak peek at her latest novel arose, I jumped at the chance.
As with her previous mysteries, MAZE IN BLUE (2012 IPPY E-Book Regional Bronze Award Winner) and SHOULD HAVE PLAYED POKER (Five Star Publishing, 2016), her new book is definitely of the cozy variety. Cozy readers know that means that the main character is an amateur sleuth, the story is usually set in a close community (e.g. a small town, a nursing home, a ski lodge, a cruise ship, a school, etc.), and there is no graphic language or violence. Some follow a theme, such as a particular craft or profession, and they often include a pet. As the cover of ONE TASTE TOO MANY promises, we get both a theme and a pet.
The main characters are Sarah Blair (nee Johnson), a twenty-eight-year-old recent divorcee and her fraternal twin, Emily. The Johnson twins are as different as any two siblings could be. Growing up in small town Wheaton, Alabama, a Birmingham suburb, one is fair haired; the other is a brunette. One is reserved and pragmatic; the other outgoing, talkative, and a bit of a risk taker. One is a “convenience” cook; the other is a gourmet chef.
Sarah married her high school sweetheart, Bill Blair, right after graduation and stayed in Wheaton. For ten years, her natural reserve was exacerbated by her husband’s unrelenting undermining of her self-esteem. Meanwhile her sister Emily, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), worked in restaurants in Birmingham and San Francisco. When Sarah’s husband leaves her with little more than the cat, RahRah, he inherited from his mother (to which he was allergic), and Emily moves back home to take a job at the Southwinds gourmet restaurant owned by her previous mentor from San Francisco, their lives intertwine in new ways that neither could predict.
Sarah’s ex-husband holds a controlling interest in Southwinds, and the woman who had stolen Bill away from her, Jane Clark, works at the restaurant and is Emily’s chief competitor for the open sous chef position. The competition heats up when Southwinds chefs compete against each other and other gourmet chefs from around the region at a Food Expo at Wheaton’s Civic Center.
When Bill is found dead late one evening at the Civic Center, with Emily at his side and her rhubarb crisp, which contained nuts to which he was deathly allergic, on his fork, foul play is immediately suspected. Everyone knew that Bill would never willingly take a bite of Emily’s rhubarb crisp, so the police chief identifies her as the prime suspect in Bill’s apparent murder. Fortunately for the twins, Sarah works as a receptionist for a lawyer who takes the case pro bono.
Jane makes a perfect foil for the twins. Not only is she Emily’s rival for sous chef, she claims to have papers that give her the right to take Sarah’s cat, RahRah. The tangled plot thickens when development schemes, an animal trust, and divided loyalties twist the sisters in different directions, looking for the person responsible for framing Emily. The more they learn, the less certain they are about whom to trust. The author also sprinkles in a hint of romance and finishes with an unexpected ending.
As with many culinary cozies, there are recipes at the end. But don’t worry if you’re not a gourmet chef—they are Sarah’s “convenience” recipes.
Debra Goldstein is the perfect person to write this book as an Alabaman, the mother of twins, a retired federal judge, and a convenience cook herself. Since this is promised to be the first in a new series, it should be very interesting to find out what Sarah Blair is up to next.
Carol L. Wright escaped a career in law and academia for one in writing. She is the author of the Gracie McIntyre Mystery series, the first of which, DEATH IN GLENVILLE FALLS, was a finalist for both the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and a Next Generation Indie Book Award in 2018.
In addition to her mysteries, she is the author of short stories in several genres that have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including the award-winning Bethlehem Writers Group’s “Sweet, Funny, and Strange” anthologies in an assortment of themes.
She is a founding member of the Bethlehem Writers Group, a life member of Sisters in Crime and the Jane Austen Society of North America, and a member of Pennwriters and SinC Guppies. She is married to her college sweetheart, and lives in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania with their rescue dog, Mr. Darcy, and a clowder of cats. You can learn more on Carol’s website, or by following her Facebook page.
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