Reviewed by Trudi LoPreto for Readers' Favorite

"The Seneca Scourge" by Carrie Rubin was impossible to put down. The story takes place in a normal hospital but it is told with a touch of science fiction and a hint at romance. Dr. Sydney McKnight is forced to deal with a killer influenza. Dr. Casper Jones is the new virologist at the hospital arriving at the start of the pandemic. The influenza is spreading through the States and reaching across the ocean to Europe and has the ability to kill billions of people. Everyone is affected including nurses that Dr. Sydney works with, small children, teenagers and parents. In fact, the pandemic is touching all walks of life and everyone is frightened they will be the next victim. Sydney begins to think Dr. Casper is hiding something and becomes concerned when she finds him injecting some strange substance into one of the dying patients. She begins to check him out and watches him very carefully. What she discovers is both amazing and scary. How she deals with her discoveries is admirable, dangerous and life changing.

"The Seneca Scourge" is a page turner that will keep you reading late into the night. Carrie Rubin grabs your attention on the first page and keeps it through all of the twists and turns of "The Seneca Scourge". If you enjoy reading medical novels, science fiction novels or just a good thriller, this is the book for you. Carrie Rubin has written a very realistic, believable book with strong characters and plot. I really liked this book and highly recommend it. "The Seneca Scourge" has all the markings of a best seller.

Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

Controversial but dedicated U.S. Senator David Kursten, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Crime, Drug Trafficking and Terrorism, is in Peru to see if the cocoa fields which are producing cocaine can be eradicated. As they fly above the Huallaga Valley in Peru, Senator Kursten and Peruvian Colonel Vargas are killed along with the pilot of their plane by the plane's co-pilot, Major Spancheck, a U.S. Army horticulturalist. A missile is found in one of the panels of the plane's fuselage so leftist guerrillas are blamed for the crash and deaths. But a local man and his grandson witnessed the plane crash and saw a man parachute from the plane as it fell. They kept his parachute which was stenciled with a "U.S. Army" insignia. Steve Collins of Samuel Polsky's small newspaper, Lima Tribune, is sent to Tingo Maria in the Huallaga Valley along with Jennifer Strand, a reporter for Reuters, to meet with Cesar Montalvo, head of leftist Peruvian insurgents who claim that they are fighting corrupt the Peruvian military and drug lords. What is really going on and are there ties to a powerful drug industry in the United States itself?

Author Michael Segedy's Evil’s Root is a powerful and very well-written thriller. This book has a complex plot that offers suspense, twists and turns, and violence as it works to story's conclusion. Steve Collins, Jennifer "Arielle Stiglow" Strand, Cesar Montavo and all characters both major and minor are believable and add to this story's telling. Readers will surely be awaiting Michael Segedy's next book. Evil’s Root is one of those unforgettable stories filled with characters that will stay with the reader for a long time.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

"Letters from the Dead" opens in a nursing home where Mary Jane MacIntyre is reminiscing about her sister and gazing at the picture of herself, her sister and a young man at the beach many years before. George R. Hopkins's book is not just Mary Jane's story, however; this is a mystery tale with a crazed serial killer and the dedicated police officer, Detective Thomas Cavanaugh, who must find him. This search is not solely a professional obligation as the killer has also targeted everyone Detective Cavanaugh cares about. The murders revolve around a small private school on Staten Island. One of the students, a young woman, killed herself, and a young man, also a student, was blamed for causing her death by bullying. Cavanaugh's role in blocking an indictment against the young man led to his reassignment to Staten Island, where, ironically, the murders take place.

This is an exciting mystery that offers plenty of red herrings to mystery fans as they watch Cavanaugh and his step-brother, Jack Bennis, try to find the killer. Mystery buffs will also enjoy Cavanaugh's habit of quoting Charlie Chan throughout the work. There is a lot of action and entwined plots to keep them thinking and a number of possible suspects to consider. Cavanaugh is an intriguing character, one who I'd like to see in other mystery tales as well. His step-brother, Jack Bennis, ex-soldier and current Jesuit priest, is also compelling. Their interaction throughout the work is fun to watch. I recommend this book -- it's a lot of fun.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Jarret, "Shadow Game"'s hero, is the consummate hit-man. When we first see him, he is getting up from a straight-backed chair in a small hotel in Paris and putting on latex gloves before drinking water from a glass. The glass and gloves are safely stowed away in a trash can as he travels to his current hit. On the way back from a successful and surgically precise assassination, Jarret falls, sharply striking his head on the hard concrete of the subway stairs, and everything changes. Besides leaving him with a sore and swollen lump on his head, the fall seems to have affected his brain -- he now sees colors emanating from people's heads. He decides to retire, but Helen, his contact, persuades him to take on just one more assignment. She overrides his reluctance by telling him her own life would be endangered if he did not come through. This job takes him to Jakarta, where his target is a political candidate standing up against a ruthless, military dictator.

Darryl Sollerh's thriller is easily one of the better books I have read this year. Jarret is a complex and multi-dimensional hero whose limited world of personal interactions with Helen, his handler, expands as he prepares to take on the final assignment. While much of the action is centered on the political demonstrations, the police brutality rocking the city and the abject poverty of the city's residents, there is a lyrical beauty in the tale as Jarret discovers himself and his soul. I loved this book and will, most likely, read it again in the near future.

Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

Brenna Spector is a missing persons investigator gifted with the ability to recall every detail of her own past. She has a "tape recorder mind" and has been written about in a book by her psychiatrist. Brenna uses this ability to psyche out clients and the people around her. Brenna and her "colorful" assistant Trent are drawn into a case by Tarry Ridge, New York Police Detective Nick Morasco. A missing woman's wallet has been found in the long-empty house of the Neff family whose young daughter Iris disappeared on Labor Day of 1998. What is disturbing is that Brenna's name and telephone number are found on a slip of paper inside that wallet. Brenna, Nick and Trent are drawn into this old cold case, chasing down a deadly killer who drives a blue Subaru Vivio and has ties to wealth and power. Was this the same person who kidnapped Brenna's sister Clea years ago? Will Nick Morasco be able to save Brenna as she finds about Iris' death and confronts who caused a series of needless deaths?

"And She Was" is a well-written, well-edited thriller that will keep the reader glued to each page as main character Brenna seeks the truth about a little girl's disappearance. The plot flows smoothly to the story's conclusion with the twists and turns expected in a thriller. All characters, both major and minor, are believable and complex making "And She Was" a first rate read. A strong point is that Brenna still has ties to her former husband who left the marriage as he did not like Brenna's risk-taking career. I would like to point out one thing, the author has stereotyped the librarian. Having been a librarian for many years I would like to to assure the author that we no longer seen as grouchy women that spend their time telling people to be quiet. That a sequel is coming out to this remarkable book is extremely good news for the literary world.

Reviewed by Jean Brickell for Readers' Favorite

The book deals with the discovery of a cave with Caucasians mummies that were hundreds of years old, dressed like Native Americans, gold, and something that could not have been discovered by these people. Or had it been made by them? The story starts here with murder, suicide, and the killing of an anthropologist. This was only the beginning of a tale of history and science combined with a story of fiction that pits the Sigma Force with a group known as the Guild that goes back beyond the beginning of our country. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were focused on combating the Guild. The book is full of action and clashes between the two groups that take the tale to Kentucky (Fort Knox), Iceland, Yellowstone Park, Utah, Japan and in and out of caves and Volcano vents. The Sigma group all the while fears that this mysterious substance hidden for centuries could lead to the destruction of the earth.

The phrase "action packed" is much over used but this book really lives up to this. The author takes us back to the early years of this nation and all the way up to modern times with the Sigma Team pitted against the long-time enemy of this country known as the "Guild". Huge caverns filled with gold, more mummies, statues and religious symbols are discovered. The guild is after all the treasures and seems to be able to anticipate where Sigma will be next. This is a skillful combining of fiction with history and science.

Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

Strangler figs are rainforest plants that wrap their roots around a host tree, eventually killing it. So, Ramona Ortenga Alterhood Jackson is born to a dead mother and is left by a priest at a local California hospital where baby Ramona is adopted by Sophie and Frank Jackson. When she grows up, she works for a California newspaper, The North County Times, where she works for Mark and with Aleko, both of whom she trusts and feels are her friends. Then Ramona finds her life is in danger when she investigates a horrific double murder of a young Native American girl and a priest. Mark takes her to a local artists' colony where she'll be supposedly safe, but she is not and is brutally attacked by a man called Pango who was the waiter when Mark took Ramona to dinner one night. Ramona is descended from the original Ramona of the famous Helen Hunt Jackson novel and she knows that supposedly she has inherited the Ortenga jewels but it would seem there is a shadowy group that is after something else hidden with the jewels.

"The Strangler Figs" is a first-rate thriller with Dan Brown overtones as the heroine, the main character Ramona Jackson, finds that she is up against a group that will choke the life force of religion as it is known. Characters are well-created and totally believable. Some of them are downright scary and unpredictable. Ramona finds that people she thought were friends are not so at all. The plot is intricate as it goes into religious beliefs and the complexity of a numerical code at the core of this thriller. Well-written, well-edited and eye-opening, "The Strangler Figs" is a must-read book.

Reviewed by Anne Boiling for Readers' Favorite

The Six O'Clock Rule "If you're thinking of doing something that might make you look like a dumbass on the six o'clock news, here's a tip. Don't."

The setting is Jacksonville Beach, Florida

The Six O'Clock Rule begins with an action packed shoot out. After a teen dies from a lethal mixture of heroin and cocaine Detective Clay Randall and his team go after the drug dealer. The dealer fires on the team striking Randall. Danny brings down the dealer in a barrage of bullets. Ty and Three Rivers were driving a drunken Bobby home when they spotted former cop Roy Connor man handling a woman. Connor worked for Tony Savoy a slimy defense lawyer. Savoy used drugs to obtain what he wanted. He had been married several times and kept a mistress, Kayla, on the side. That's just the beginning of this action packed thriller.

I was hooked from the first page. I eagerly turned the pages to see what would happen next. The plot is exquisitely well developed and believable. Bruce Thomason is a master at character development. He has included enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing to the last page. Fans will be thrilled with the latest Clay Randall mystery.

Reviewed by Fiona Ingram for Readers' Favorite

When the Valero refinery complex in Texas City is sabotaged, forensic evidence seems to point glaringly to one culprit-- Iran, which had recently expanded its nuclear program. Instead of bombing Iran's nuclear facilities like they did in Iraq, the vacillating Israeli government has done nothing to crush this potential threat to their national security. In fact, Matan Irian, a former Israeli Army Colonel whose family was killed years ago in a PLO terrorist attack, created this strategy to protect Israel: sabotage a refinery complex in Texas City, plant evidence that incriminates Iran, and sit back while an enraged United States strikes back in retaliation.

However, the President of the United States hesitates to act without a complete forensic investigation. There seems to be no logical reason why Iran would willingly antagonize the United States, calling down upon itself the wrath of a much mightier nation, and one that instantly mobilized its two carrier battle groups off Iran's coast in readiness to strike back. The perpetrators of the covert black ops have made one tiny, but revealing, error: they left behind a minute piece of evidence that traces the operation to Israel. When the real culprits are revealed, the USA turns on its former ally and demands that Israel makes reparations and finally recognize Palestine's right to exist. Israel rejects this demand as naive. When the USA immediately withdraws all economic and military aid, Israel must either seek peace with the Palestinians or maintain an ongoing war.

This is a great read, a real page-turner. The author lays bare the deep-rooted hatreds, as well as tribal rivalries that dog the composition of the Middle East, and preclude a possible resolution. From the start, the author draws the reader into a world where modern and historical animosities are twisted together in a knot that seems impossible to untangle. The actions of two men, Namir Bethan (Director of Metsada) and Matan Irian, the man who proposes a drastic solution to the nuclear terrors that threaten his county, cut this Gordian Knot.

The author draws on current events, such as international fears of a nuclear-capable Iran ready to hit the red button at any time, to the natural anxieties of the USA bigwigs, to the defiant and entrenched recalcitrant attitudes of the Israelis towards any attempt at removing what they perceive to be their God-given rights. The author also eases the unversed reader into the technical and forensic aspects of explosives and armaments, as well as laying bare the complexities, the chaos, and the internecine rivalry that dominate government departments in the delicate interplay of politics and war. I enjoyed the development of the characters and the dialogue. Each character came with his or her history and motives, created in a believable and natural way. The author also has an excellent eye for visual detail to paint the picture of different environments for the reader. This is a must for lovers of political thrillers.

Reviewed by Lynette Fowlston for Readers' Favorite

Fragments of a Social Conscience by Natasha R. Stultz is a suspense-filled book that will leave the reader spellbound. When Felicity Angelina's father was killed, it was thought she was destroyed also. Living with an alcoholic mother who really, in a way, hated her, Felicity (Litty) committed her first murder. Now she is out to get those responsible for the death of her father...ten people to get rid of, ten people to torture. As each is discovered, the police and FBI realize they have a serial killer on their hands, but how do they manage? The clues they have include: she's a redhead, goes by the name of Angel, and she is contacting one reporter to keep publishing the exclusive news she sends to her. Can they catch this sadistic killer before she reaches her goal of ten?

This is quite a thriller that is not for the faint of heart. The book is quite graphic in nature and also contains quite a bit of coarse language. It takes the reader into the world of a psychopath who feels she is cleaning the world of corruption and evil deeds and to get justice for her father. The prologue alone was enough to spark my interest. This is a fast-paced thriller, and while the reader knows who the killer is, he is left wondering when and where is she going to strike next...leaving bodies behind from Oregon to California, from Las Vegas to Texas. With the nature of this book, I would recommend it for adult readers only.