Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Click to purchase

Charlotte Cates is still reeling from the loss of her son when she starts to experience strangely prophetic dreams. The dreams coincide with the offer of a book deal that would send her to the famous Evangeline plantation in Chicory, Louisiana – the site of the long unsolved disappearance of Gabriel Deveau. It’s a job Charlotte is ready to refuse until she dreams of Evangeline and a boy she believes might be the missing child.

Though the book is being done with the full support of the family, Charlotte soon realizes that the Deveaus are keeping more than a few secrets. First and foremost, the ailing Deveau matriarch believes the project to be one on the architecture of the home rather than her son’s disappearance, a lie her grown children are adamant that Charlotte maintain at all cost. Charlotte isn’t certain her visions can help solve the case, but she’s promised the boy in her dreams that she’ll try. And it’s a promise Charlotte intends to keep.

The Gates of Evangeline is a great mystery. Charlotte, the Deveaus, the history and secrets of Evangeline, and the overall setting come together to create a tale that’s irresistibly compelling. And the hint of paranormal with Charlotte’s dreams – and the bit of romance – added just the right amount of suspense and steaminess.

I was quite pleased too that Hester Young’s debut is actually the first in a new trilogy. I did so love getting to know Charlotte and will be anxiously looking forward to more of her story.

11/15 Becky LeJeune

THE GATES OF EVANGELINE by Hester Young. G.P. Putnam’s Sons; F First Edition edition (September 1, 2015).  ISBN 978-0399174001.  416p.

Click to purchase

Jake Carter, a former Special Forces operative, now works as a New York City subway electrician. As the book opens, Jake is contacted by a woman that he hasn’t seen or talked to in over a decade to advise him of an international plot to take over the world.

Almost immediately he encounters two young men apparently spreading graffiti on the subway walls. He realizes that the graffiti are actually messages in a lost language and that the “Hidden” are communicating with each other. He finds that the Hidden are groups of the richest and most powerful people on earth that his ex-girlfriend alluded to, and the messages are a call to arms for them.

A raid is launched against Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn by a band of terrorists supported by the Hidden. At the same time thousands of birds begin falling out of the sky. Dogs begin running wild and howling on the streets.

Jake begins an investigation of his own which is seemingly against all logic with his life being threatened at every turn. How do you fight against an enemy that can’t be seen? How do you stop the richest and most powerful people on the planet from taking what they want?

A conundrum almost impossible to solve but Jake goes against these impossible odds. The book is pure entertainment which requires more than a little stretch of the imagination to imagine that one person can prevail against the might stacked against him. Given this stretch makes Sunfail an entertaining read and one that will keep the reader going until the end.

11/15 Paul Lane

SUNFAIL by Steven Savile. Infamous Books (November 3, 2015).  ISBN 978-1617754067.  300p.

Click to purchase

Brian Freemantle comes out with an intricate novel concerning attacks on both the U.S. and Great Britain by Al Qaeda. An Iranian computer genius launches attack after attack on both countries via the Internet and social media.

Sally Hanning, a brilliant MI5 agent, is seconded to the CIA task force to help in finding and stopping the Iranian attacks. She meets with and works with the CIA’s master code cracker Jack Irvine in finding answers to the continued onslaughts. The pair find an unusual communality in that Jack’s father  instigated an ambush in which Sally’s parents were killed. In spite of this past event while in the course of foiling attack after attack the two develop a sort of love affair, which while attractive to both, does not develop into something major.

Attack after attack by the Iranian terrorist and master computer expert is defeated until it appears that one final attempt looks like it is going around MI5 and the CIA’s best efforts and will be successful.

I found that Freemantle’s propensity to delve deeply, very deeply into the thought processes of the protagonists becomes a spoiler when one deviation after another is described ad infinitum losing me at times in the wordage. The action that should be constant and breathtaking is not present in a plot that calls for it.

A book that in the hands of an author with the talent of Brian Freemantle should be an exciting read, but is held down by the overabundance of description after description.

11/15 Paul Lane

THE CLOUD COLLECTOR by Brian Freemantle. Thomas Dunne Books (November 3, 2015).  ISBN 978-1250066237.  352p.