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It is 1914 and Sam Carter is a young American with a taste for adventure, but also a strong sense of self-preservation.  He'd joined the Foreign Legion but has now, somewhat impulsively, abandoned his unit and is on the Orient Express headed to Constantinople. Also on the train, among the French and German businessmen, is British diplomat, Lucas Avery. Avery is resentful of his assignment to deep in the Ottoman Empire and is well into his drink and cigar when Carter joins the train. A scream one night brings both men to investigate and what they see defies common sense. Is there really a vampire riding the train? The more the pair look into it, the more this seems to be the case. Now, as the train screams through the countryside, Carter and Avery rush to uncover the identity of the mysterious vampire and protect the unsuspecting riders. Author Shane Carrow does a really fine job of keeping this story moving at locomotive speed from the moment of the scream through to the end of the...

Larissa Kenders lives in a dystopian future where the real world and the AI world co-mingle in such as way that it's often difficult to know what is real and what isn't. When her partner ("husband" is such an archaic term) disappears, Larissa escapes her depression into an AI world called Nirvana where she can continue to connect with him and live a fulfilling life. But it is here that she learns some dark secrets about Hexagon - the agency that controls Nirvana. Andrew - Larissa's partner - was apparently onto something that could hurt Hexagon. Now, with the help of some friends and unexpected allies, Larissa will fight a battle with this mega corporation - her greatest challenge will be in trying to determine what is real and what is generated by the corporation. I do admit that I was, in part, suckered into this book by the gorgeous cover. The ethereal, brooding nature of the cover suggested the story that this does attempt to be (don't get me started on th...

Simran is the do-no-wrong, smart girl in school. She's every parent and every teacher's dream child. Good in school, she also volunteers her time tutoring those who struggle, specifically in mathematics. In their immigrant community, Simran is much respected and when her mother begins to struggle with her health, Simran gets much sympathy. Among those Simran tutors is Rajan. Rajan comes from a troubled home. He's known to run with a gang and he's been to juvie for killing someone. Everyone tells Simran to stay away from Rajan, that he's nothing but trouble. But Simran sees something in Rajan that nobody else sees, or is even willing to look for. After high school, at the instance of his probation officer (who perhaps finds Rajan of interest, personally), Rajan takes up some community classes to get some education and learn a skill, and he looks for some tutoring help and ... you guessed it ... Simran, who's now in school in this town as well, is his tutor once a...

It's been a long, tough road for bird conservation. Some of the biggest names of those who took an early interest in birds, made their observations primarily by killing the very birds they were interested in reporting on. Many birders ('birders' is the approved term for avid bird watchers) today still talk about the extinction of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (every now and then there will be an unconfirmed report that someone's seen one) and the Passenger Pigeon - a bird once so plentiful it was hard to imagine it could every become extinct. But of course when someone offers a bounty for a particular bird's body, that will hasten their demise. James H. McCommons' book, The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America's Birds , is almost more a series of short biographies, detailing the many different men (yes, they were almost exclusively men), in chronological order, who played a part in protecting birds and bringing America to where it is today in bi...

 Lost no longer! Picket Line is billed as Elmore Leonard's "lost novella" and the introduction by C. M. Kushins explains the story behind the story (and why it was considered 'lost'). A couple of factors make this novella interesting. First, it was written as a proposal for a film based on a 1965 grape strike that brought Cesar Chavez fame. Second, this is neither a crime story or a western - the two genres Elmore Leonard is noted for. Chino and Paco Rojas are pulled over for littering by a local sheriff after tossing something from their car as they drove from California to Texas. The sheriff finds them to be polite and lets them off with a warning and encourages them to check out a local farm that's hiring workers. What Chino and Paco discover is a farm that seems to be the hot spot for a growing a strike with strikers laying on a constant verbal barrage to those continuing to work for very low wages. I really got caught up in Leonard's writing with this...

 Paloma is a fan of old horror films. She's watched the Grand Vespertilio Show for as long as she can remember. Grand has been an absolute master of all things film and horror. So much so that when Paloma's husband - a homicide detective - mentions an obscure movie posted  stuck to a mutilated body in the Chicago Theater, she knows that Grand might be the only person who can help her (and the police) solve the mystery and reveal the murderer. It seems even more important to get Grand's help when a second body is discovered in yet another old movie theater with another connection to an old, silent film.  But as they work, Paloma's fan-girl attitude toward Grand takes a slight turn as she realizes that his knowledge goes well beyond horror and film - maybe too far? And the deeper they get into this mystery, Paloma may have to sacrifice everything she's ever loved about old films in order to save her on-the-spectrum son.  The concept of this book looked like something ...

The Time Traveler's Passport collects six short stories commissioned by Amazon or their Prime readers. I recently read/reviewed a collection of horror stories written/published in this same vein. This collection centers around - you guessed it - time travel. While I recognize a couple of author names in this collection, the only author I've read prior to this is John Scalzi. If this collection were a shopping mall, Scalzi would be the anchor store - the one that gets people interested in looking through the whole thing. It is interesting, then, that his work would lead off the stories. "30 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years" by John Scalzi While I do really like reading Scalzi's work, I wasn't sure, going in, how this would go. I've not read much of his short fiction and I was afraid it was going to be gimmicky. It was quite straight-forward, nearly all of it an info-dump, setting us up for the gotcha ending. But I liked it. It was a fun, quick read. Entertaining, a...

 I am (slowly) working my way through a very long backlog of old (decades, in some cases) ARCs. I want these books off my Kindle and off my dashboards on the different book sites I log into. Every book was something I wanted to read, but for one reason or another (and in some cases, for many reasons) the book(s) fell off my reading radar. Followers of my reviews may note a number of older books appearing this year. Credara: Rise of the Kraylen by J E Henderson is one of these above noted books.  The Kraylen are fallen angels. They were cast out of heaven and now act as part of Lucifer's army. The Kraylen, led by Licronus - evil incarnate that rivals Lucifer himself - are angry about how they've been treated and seek revenge on God and all His chosen creatures. They are prepared for a battle to end all battles and take back heaven One man - a MAN, not the Archangels Michael or Gabriel - is God's chosen leader. Agean is a simple monk and hardly prepared for such a holy war, b...

Sarah is an adopted member of the powerful Price family. The Price family have a long history of giving aid to InCryptids ("An animal or other being whose existence has been suggested but is not scientifically proven.") and adopting many into the family.  The Price family also has a long, Hatfield/McCoy type battle going with "the Covenant" - an anti-InCryptid 'Klan'-like group. Of course Sarah is a Cryptid, of a species known as "cuckoos" and she is a very powerful telepath. She is also now the Queen of Cuckoos.  But in the process of becoming the queen, Sarah made a lot of enemies, hurt a few people, and generally caused some damage - including erasing/changing/overwriting Artie's identity. As a result, those on her home planet - known as the Johrlac - aren't too happy and they bring her back to stand trial for her crimes. They also grab Artie to be witness against Sarah for what she's done. But she's a Price family member now and...