Women with Big Eyes – Angeles Mastretta, (Translated from the Spanish by Amy Schildhouse Greenberg)

Posted on June 7, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “A shiver ran down Paulina Trasloheros’s back. This man was horrible, excessive, outrageous. To exorcise him, she would have to commit a string of sins for which she could never repent. Not even when he decided to return to New York, where they lay success, a success that could not diminish…

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Fatale – Jean-Patrick Manchette, Afterword by Jean Echenoz, (Translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith)

Posted on June 2, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) " I don’t tell them I’m a killer. I’m a woman, and they wouldn’t take me seriously. I tell them that I know a killer. Sometimes I let them assume that he is my lover. That makes them jealous. It’s fun." This thirty to thirty-five year old woman-we'll refer to by…

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Madame Alexandra’s Rules of Business: The Enduring Principles of Business Success – Claude Roessiger

Posted on May 29, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “…money brings the only worthwhile thing it can bring: freedom…it being only the medium of exchange between a man’s labor and his freedom. Labor is not dishonorable, nor is the money which is only the comestible fruit of that labor; the two are one. Those however who mistake money for a…

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The Dangerous Edge of Things – Tina Whittle

Posted on May 27, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Lee Nelson) I am a Trey Woman and I cannot lie! I just finished Tina Whittle’s debut novel, The Dangerous Edge of Things and fell madly in love with her style, her characters, and her ability to truly weave a solvable mystery. The story centers on Tia Randolph, a southern girl who, along…

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Rupert: A Confession – Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, (Translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison )

Posted on May 25, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “She was my martyrdom, my masochism, and my sugar-sweet, shimmering Mira. She appeared like a reflection before my eyes the first time I saw her, she killed me when she was mine, and she finally brought me back to life when she’d murdered me for good." Rupert: A Confession is sordid…

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From the Ashes – Sabrina Flynn

Posted on May 22, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Lee Nelson) Let’s get the elephant out of the room: I've known of Flynn from my membership in Letters of Mary, a fan-fiction group devoted to Laurie L. King. I met her at 2014 Bouchercon in Long Beach and I wanted to give her book a try as I really love discovering new…

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Cascade Falls – Bruce Ferber

Posted on May 20, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) What does it take to be happy? Finding oneself in this time of uncertainty is a constant theme in Bruce Ferber’s second novel, Cascade Falls. This novel features a host of interesting characters that could be any family in 21st century America. We have Ted Johnson, the patriarch of the family…

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Upper Cut: Highlights of My Hollywood Life – Carrie White

Posted on May 18, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Cathy Carey) “George Masters had done another one of his disappearing acts from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills more than a month ago. George had a reputation for being unreliable and outspoken. My favorite George story was about a lady he was styling who kept changing her mind on how she wanted…

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Five Night Stand – Richard J. Alley

Posted on May 11, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung)     “There are four people as similar as they are unique—one at the end of his career, one lost in the middle, one who dreams of beginning, and the fourth, a child, not knowing what is ahead of him. None of them know for sure what awaits them; they’re all…

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Married to a Stranger – Nahid Rachlin

Posted on May 8, 2015 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Did that futile look that so frequently came to her mother’s face point to shattered dreams?...Minou could see the sky turning blood-red. Another day lost, bringing her closer to nothing. She floated in time and space. She would wind up like her mother.” Minou’s mother got married at age fourteen to…

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