Winner of two INDIEFAB prizes: Gold for Literary Fiction and Bronze for Historical Fiction

Readers’ Favorite Gold medal for Literary fiction


Spanning a century and three continents, Even in Darkness tells the story of Kläre Kohler, whose early years as a beloved daughter of a prosperous German-Jewish family hardly anticipate the harrowing life she faces as an adult- a saga of family, lovers, two world wars, a concentration camp, and sacrifice. Based on a true story, Even in Darkness highlights Klare’s reinvention as she faces the destruction of life as she knew it, and traces her path to survival, wisdom, and unexpected love.

In his second novel author Eric Peterson dishes up a riotous spectacle of self absorbed chefs backstabbing politicians and devious publishing magnates set against a backdrop of haute cuisine presidential politics and an endless supply of top shelf liquor and wine Fresh from a public humiliation and in search of his true calling former college football star Jack Marshall enlists as bartender and steward aboard Horace Button s vintage private railroad car the Pioneer Mother which is transporting the legendary food writer and social critic across the country in opulent style Decked out in a white jacket mixing perfect cocktails Jack is immersed in a style of living and dining he d assumed was extinct While striving to appease the eccentric finicky Horace and Wanda the Pioneer Mother s enigmatic chef Jack falls under the spell of Giselle Lebeau a gorgeous celebrity chef whose designs on him test his self control and his loyalty But when tragedy rocks Horace s insulated white linen world Jack must take charge of a simmering stew of quirky yet powerful personalities all while staying in Wanda s good graces and keeping an eye on their newest passenger A story of service serendipity and second chances The Dining Car is more than a delectable read it s a marvelous exuberant work of fiction

WINNER: Bronze, Reader's Favorite. On November 23, 2000, one hundred inmates hold twelve guards hostage in the laundry dorm of The Indiana Penal Farm. Emergency squads are massed along the fence, awaiting the order to attack, while sharpshooters are perched like crows on top of the administration building. Tom Hemmings, a dorm counselor, has been conscripted to defuse the standoff. But the inmates are divided into rival gangs, the guards into feuding unions. And the prison administration has sparked the standoff by forcing cut-rate services upon the facility. As he enters the prison, Tom's heart starts to hammer. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad? And how will this nightmare end?

A thoroughbred race horse collapses and dies after finishing last in a race he was favored to win. Hours later the stallion's trainer, a young woman with a promising career, is found dead on a suburban Chicago beach. The police draw a facile solution - murder-suicide. A woman to blame? Mike Hegan, a veteran police detective being forced to retire on medical disability, refuses to believe the official version. His search for the truth leads him to a promontory on a Caribbean island where scores are settled and lives lost.

Rohan grows up in a middle-class family in a small town in Goa, India. He asks himself many life questions like we all do every day. Is our life and death an end in itself, or do they have a much deeper implication in a gigantic universal process? Is each human life also someway connected to the chain of events unfolding every day in front of our eyes? We all have different thumbprints; but why? Are we all a part of big numbers game, or does each one of us really matter?

Chased by these and many such questions, Rohan leaves his lucrative job and his family in search of the truth. The journey gets complicated when he meets Adeline, a 23-year old vivacious girl in Vienna. Love, again? That brings him back to question his failed marriage. Is marriage an end of the road for love? Do all marriages come with an expiration date?