Holiday spirit summons ghosts of past deeds

China Bayles is a gutsy woman. She walked away from a lucrative, high-profile career as a big ticket criminal defense lawyer in Houston, traded her high heels for sensible shoes, and used the contents of her 401K to buy an old stable in the heart of the little Texas Hill Country town of Pecan Springs. She opened an herb shop, Thyme and Seasons, on one side of the dwelling and rented the other side to Ruby Wilcox, a new age maven who China describes as “a hoot, that’s all anybody can say—and we certainly say it often enough.” Ruby’s shop, the Crystal Cave, offers books on astrology, tools for divination, and classes on getting in touch with your inner self.

China and Ruby are more than just business neighbors. They are best friends and co-owners of a catering company and they have an affinity for insinuating themselves into the middle of murder investigations, much to the chagrin of China’s new husband, Mike McQuaid, a private investigator and faculty member in the Criminal Justice Department at Central Texas State University. McQuaid has custody of his teenage son, Brian, and the couple is also raising China’s eleven year old niece, Caitlin.

Holly Blues, Susan Wittig Albert’s 18th China Bayles mystery, is set in Pecan Springs during the Christmas holidays. Sally Strahorn, McQuaid’s mentally ill ex-wife and Brian’s biological mother, appears out of the blue claiming to be penniless and homeless. Sally has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and her alter ego, Juanita, is a trouble maker.

Despite the fact that Sally has caused serious problems for the McQuaids in the past, in a burst of holiday generosity China impulsively encourages her to spend time with Brian and invites her stay with the family over the Christmas holidays. China soon realizes that her beneficence is sorely misplaced when Sally begins receiving menacing telephone calls from a stalker who is tied to the murders of her parents nearly a decade ago. When Sally’s sister, Leslie, is found dead in her home town of Lake City, Texas, Sally is named a person of interest.

Holly Blues, is a fast-paced whodunit packed with murder and mayhem, spiked with humor, and laced with uncommon sensibility. Albert’s characters are often quirky, but they are believable, warts and all. Her prose is tight and flows easily with details that give her characters depth and authenticity. For instance, the description of the Pecan Springs Chief of Police, dubbed “Smart Cookie’ by the author, is classic Albert:

“Sheila was uniformed in her usual natty blue and gray jacket, shirt, pants, and cap, her blonde hair scooped into a bun at the back of her head. Even so, and with a radio on one hip and a holstered weapon on the other, she’s beautiful. Somehow, it doesn’t seem fair that there’s so much firepower—intelligence, competence, confidence, and damned good looks—loaded into one woman. But while Smart Cookie might look like Miss Dallas costumed for the cover of Law Enforcement Magazine, I wouldn’t mess with her, if I were you. She can outshoot any of her officers, any day. And she don’t take no sass, as the locals say.”

While Holly Blues is part of a series of herbal mysteries, it can stand alone. The author inconspicuously weaves background information about her recurring characters into the first chapters of each book.

Albert earned her PhD in English from the University of California at Berkeley. She served as an Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin, and later became the first woman dean of Newcomb College in New Orleans. After a few years she returned to Texas as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Texas State University in San Marcos. She did not feel fulfilled as a college administrator and professor and one day walked out and never looked back.

Says Albert in her memoir, Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place, “And on that day I walked out of the university, I felt astonishingly, astoundingly free—as free as those wild birds—and I could sing my own glorious hurrah. It was only a step, but it was the first, and it was necessary.”

In addition to the China Bayles mysteries, Albert is the author of  The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, a mystery series featuring author Beatrix Potter. Albert and her husband, Bill, collaborated on the The Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries from 1994 – 2006. Albert is currently working on a new mystery series, The Darling Dahlias, the first of which is due out in July. She has also authored several non-fiction books.

Like I said, Susan Wittig Albert is a gutsy woman.

You can read the first chapter of Holly Blues at http://www.abouthyme.com/China/CH1HOLLYBLUES.pdf.

China Bayles fans can subscribe to Albert’s weekly newsletter, “All About Thyme” at http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001QhuZciaLI3XkXzIeiZE9mJAVHXYTEZdWkFq6OIvsnvq6DvRTlz-m4P_3qH8qtY10IuLxxEhZgm5mNOrS-pqeCc7xiC3MRiQg_ZnuZjiv-dioPuuiI8iVJhgOq-vFDIpNS-w0QwQtwHE%3D

This review was originally published in the San Antonio Express News on April 11, 2010 and in the Boerne Star on April 15, 2010.

Diane Fanning's "Mommy's Little Girl" will break your heart

There is no crime quite so heinous as the killing of one’s own child. In recent years the headlines have been riddled with names of child-killing mothers such as Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, Darlie Routier, and Casey Anthony. New Braunfels true crime writer Diane Fanning analyzes the case of Casey Anthony, the young Florida mother accused of murdering her two year old daughter, Caylee Anthony, in her new book Mommy’s Little Girl.

When two-year old Caylee Anthony was reported missing by her grandmother in June, 2008, there was an outpouring of public sympathy from across the United States. When the little girl’s body was discovered five months later by a utility worker just a quarter mile from the Anthony home, public sympathy was transformed to public outrage. And then when chloroform and gasses from human decomposition were found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car, the young mother was arrested for capital murder.

Anthony claimed that little Casey had been kidnapped a month earlier by her babysitter. When she pointed out the babysitter’s apartment to the police, the officers discovered that it had been vacant for months. When asked why the kidnapping had not been reported when it happened, a month prior, Anthony was unable to provide a coherent response.

Fanning skillfully traces Casey Anthony’s string of lies, deceptions, and erratic behavior to a logical conclusion: the young mother is the most likely killer of her two-year-old daughter.
Anthony had claimed to friends and family that she was employed by Universal Studios in Orlando when actually she had been fired by that company months before. She repeatedly stole checks and money from her mother, grandmother, and friends. During the one month interlude during Caylee’s “secret” disappearance, Anthony got a tattoo “Bella Vita” (beautiful life) on her shoulder and partied and drank incessantly. When asked by her friends the whereabouts of her daughter Caylee, Anthony claimed that the toddler was with her nanny.

This is a dark and gruesome tale of an unthinkable act of a mother whose cunning and duplicitous acts destroy everyone unfortunate enough to be in her path. It is also a story of a family so dysfunctional that the month-long disappearance of a toddler went unnoticed.
The Casey Anthony trial is set for next summer. Florida prosecutors are asking for the death penalty.

Fanning based her book on a careful review of more than 6000 pages of transcripts of police interviews, police reports, and other official documents, as well as audiotaped and videotaped conversations and interviews, plus information gathered from on-site research and personal interviews.

Fanning is the author of the Edgar Award finalist Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart, as well as nine other true-crime books, the Lucinda Pierce mystery series, and a Molly Mullet mystery.

Fanning will be discussing and signing her book at Read All About It Bookstore in Boerne on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 5:00 pm. Light refreshments will be served. Call Read All About It at 830-249-7323. You can check out Diane Fanning’s web site at http://dianefanning.com.

Book Details: Mommy’s Little Girl by Diane Fanning, ISBN 978-0312365141, St. Martin’s True Crime, November 3, 2009. paperback, $6.99. Available through all booksellers.

Susan Wittig Albert's 'Together, Alone' is an amazing book

Boerne Star, Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I have enjoyed Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles mysteries for many years. I relish Albert’s quirky plots, savor her droll sense of humor, and laugh out loud at her eccentric characters. For me, tucked within these page-turners is an enormous amount of insight into the human psyche, an element often lacking in series fiction. I was delighted, therefore, when Wittig Albert’s memoir, Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place, was recently released. It did not take many pages of reading to become totally absorbed in her personal narrative. Together, Alone embodies a rare power and intensity, a raw honesty, if you will, that elevates the ordinary and mundane of everyday life to a noble position of human existence within the context of time and place.

Growing up on a farm in Illinois made an indelible mark on Wittig Albert’s psyche. Her greatest desire was to live as her grandparents had.

“My dream, when I was a girl, was to live as my grandparents lived: in a small white house on a low green hill, with woods and fields and streams holding me in a sweet, enduring embrace through summer sun and winter blizzards, easy times and hard.”

That idealized life, however, was not to be, at least for a while. Immediately after high school graduation Wittig Albert got married and gave birth to three children in rapid succession. A full-time mother and wife, she carved out enough time to enroll in the University of Illinois where she earned her bachelor’s degree. She then accepted a fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley where she was awarded her Ph.D. in English. Divorced with three children, life was a whirlwind when she was offered a teaching post at the University of Texas at Austin and a few years later a full-time administrative position at Newcomb College in New Orleans, followed by another administrative job at Texas State University in San Marcos.

“Before long,” Wittig Albert writes, “my dreams and daytime imaginings were full of remembered landscapes, and I began to think of having a small place in the country with chickens, a garden, fruit trees. I could drive back and forth to the university—many people did, and it satisfied them. But that wasn’t what I wanted. I couldn’t really live in the country, in a full, whole-hearted way, if I had to divide my day between home and work. In order to have the kind of life I wanted, I had to leave the life I had. And on that day I walked out of the university, I felt astonishingly, astoundingly free—as free as those wild birds—and I could sing my own glorious hurrah. It was only a step, but it was the first, and it was necessary.”

Shortly after leaving academia Wittig Albert met Bill Albert, a software engineer who was also at a crossroads in his life and ready to move on. Albert owned five acres of Texas Hill Country land and the two married and moved to his secluded place which they named Meadow Knoll. They set up housekeeping in Wittig Albert’s eccentric old RV, Amazing Grace, with an uncertain future before them.

For Wittig Albert, achieving a balance between marriage and her need for solitude was critical for her success both as a writer and a human being.

Together, Alone is an amazing personal narrative. Through Wittig Albert’s self-examination and metamorphosis she empowers women of all ages and stations to similarly discover their own place in their own time.

Over the years, Wittig Albert has proven to be a prolific writer. With 20 China Bayles mysteries, 12 novels written collaboratively with her husband under the name of Robin Paige, six Beatrix Potter mysteries, and numerous non-fiction projects she is a compelling literary presence in the Texas Hill Country.

Book Details:
Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place, University of Texas Press (2009), $24.95, ISBN 978-0-292-71970-5

'Scribbling kid' Cary Clack publishes memorable columns

If you have never read Cary Clack’s columns in the San Antonio Express News, you’re in luck. Trinity University Press has just published 84 of more than 2000 of Clack’s columns in book form, Clowns and Rats Scare Me (ISBN 978-1-59534-037-5, Trinity University Press, 2009, $16.95). Clack’s thoughtful and often humorous commentary examines national issues such as terrorism, politics, civil rights, and culture and scrutinizes the mundane—Martha Stewart, strip joints, clowns, rats, and snakes.

Clack credits the late Maury Maverick, Jr., legendary civil rights lawyer and journalist, for jump-starting his career. “Were it not for Maury,” Clack writes, “I wouldn’t have this column. He’s the one who took some of my scribblings to the editorial board a few years ago, and that led me to getting a column on the op-ed page and eventually getting hired.”

Some of Clack’s most soul-searching and provocative commentaries focus upon September 11, 2001. In 12 days at Ground Zero he hammered out 12 heart-breaking, poignant columns that seized the surreal tragedy that brought our nation to its knees. “The world as we know it ended Tuesday,” writes Clack. “The two airliners that destroyed the World Trade Center not only changed the geographic landscape but also forever altered the nation’s psychological and emotional landscape.”

Naomi Shihab Nye’s foreword to Clowns and Rats Scare Me pays homage to Clack’s skill in capturing his readers’ attention. “Cary Clack has a brilliant knack,” Nye writes. “More than one, actually. He writes in strong, surprising sentences, with an uncluttered, sparely elegant tone.”

Clack’s knack, however, occasionally arouses contentious feedback from his readers. One column he wrote on ethnic cleansing in Bosnia generated a heated comment that called him “a scribbling kid.” Instead of responding negatively to that characterization, he embraced it. “The truth is,” says Clack, “that growing up in San Antonio, Texas, I’ve always been a scribbling kid. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Wyatt, who was also my mother’s first grade teacher, told my mother I would be a writer. I don’t remember not writing.”

“The Hidden Treasure of the Forgotten Pharaoh” is a whimsical contemporary fairy tale

Time travel and treasure hunting are universal wishful fantasies in our contemporary world. Lee Ann Johnston-Thomas has crafted a delightful magical story that combines both in “The Hidden Treasure of the Forgotten Pharaoh,” (Iuniverse, New York, 2008, ISBN 978-0-595-47552-0, $ 11.95).

Fifteen year-old Nikki Weston has travelled to Egypt with his parents, his personal tutor Tiggy, and Ian, a family friend. While his parents are involved in their daily business routines, Nikki, Tiggy, and Ian spend their time exploring Egyptian ruins. One day they stumble upon some ancient hieroglyphics on an old wall. These ancient drawings speak of the hidden treasure of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Before this female pharaoh died, she had her trusted servant, Hapuseneb, hide her wealth from her successor, Tuthmoses III. The hieroglyphics offer clues as to the whereabouts of the Pharaoh’s treasure and the three adventurers set out to find Hatshepsut’s riches.

One morning, after discovering Dier-el-Basahari, the funeral temple of the Pharaoh, Tiggy has a vision of ancient Egypt. They enter the temple and she has another vision of a young woman who claims to need Tiggy’s help. Suddenly, they are transported back in time to 1458 BC where they meet Princess Merira, the youngest daughter of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Merira is to wed Tuthmoses III, the successor to her mother’s throne who will steal her mother’s wealth. The Princess needs the help of Tiggy, Nikki, and Ian to save Pharaoh’s Hatshepsut’s riches.

The time-travelers are delighted with the beauty of ancient Egypt. Where there were ruins just a short time ago in their own time, now there is rich, verdant land laden with olive trees and other lush vegetation. Egyptian slaves bring them platters of food and drink and musicians entertain them. Pharaoh Tuthmoses III becomes smitten with Tiggy and decides that he will marry her. Tuthmoses’ evil magi is afraid that if Tiggy marries Tuthmoses she will prevent him from squandering the riches of the lost Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Tiggy, Nikki, and Ian must find their way out of this dangerous ancient Egypt and get back to their own time.

Lee Ann Johnston-Thomas has masterfully composed an enchanting story that will appeal not only to youth between the ages of 9-15, but to the adult members of their families, as well.

Johnston, a sixth grade math and science teacher at Kendall Elementary School, began telling her students a story of ancient Egypt. She would write parts of the story at home at night and read the developing adventures of Tiggy, Nikki, and Ian to her students the next day. In fact, the characters in the book are named after the children in her classes and they even helped Thomas design the cover of the book.

Thomas, currently in her 14th year of teaching, has taught underprivileged children for 13 of her 14 years’ tenure. She plans to return to her disadvantaged students next year.

While Thomas focuses primarily on math and science, she certainly displays an exceptional talent for writing. She initially began this project as a team-teaching leader when challenged by English and writing teachers who complained that their students could not read or write at their grade levels.

“This book motivated the kids to read,” says Thomas. “They are constantly asking for more.”

Thomas has written another book of stories for her school children and plans to write a sequel to The Hidden Treasure of the Forgotten Pharaoh.

The Hidden Treasure of the Forgotten Pharaoh can be ordered from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

‘The Color of Lightning’ is a disappointing read

Despite the fact that it was widely known that Native American Indian tribes often wreaked havoc upon early settlers, in mid-1800’s Texas became a refuge for Americans escaping “the war between armies and also the undeclared war between neighbors.”

If Britt Johnson, a freed slave with a wife and children, had known in 1863 that migrating to north Texas would be worse than enduring the dark clutches of slavery he might have chosen the latter. In her ‘Author’s Notes’ Paulette Jiles (“The Color of Lightning”; Harper Collins; March 31, 2009; ISBN 978-0-06-169044-0; $25.99) notes that Johnson was a real person and is mentioned in several historical accounts of the settling of north Texas as well as several oral histories. Jiles’ latest book, “The Color of Lightning” chronicles the life of Johnson and his explosive relationship with the American Indian tribes who populated the area.

Writes Jiles, “This book is a novel, but it’s backbone—Britt’s story—is true. Britt’s story returned to me repeatedly as I read through north Texas histories over the years, and I often wondered why no one had taken it up. And so I did.”

Armed with idealistic illusions and a desire to build his own freight business, Britt, his wife Mary and their three children join a wagon train of twenty migrating Americans—fifteen white and five black Americans. They settle in Elm Creek just west of Ft. Worth; a small colony subject to invasion by harsh environmental elements as well as warring Kiowa and Comanche Indians.
While the colony’s men were away purchasing supplies, Indians swooped down upon the settlement and killed women and children alike before capturing Britt’s wife Mary and two of their children. They brutally murdered one of the couple’s sons. The remainder of the saga focuses upon Britt’s solid determination to re-capture the remaining members of his family from the Indians. When Britt successfully gets Mary and his two children back from the Indians, he is faced with rehabilitating their new alien personas.

Other than conflicts with Indians, there is very little action in this book. Jiles has a brilliant opportunity to thoroughly develop her characters to give them a richness that comes from knowledge but she only offers sketchy descriptions at best. Throughout the entire book Jiles disparages and denigrates the American Indian. About the Native American man she writes, “The men in a state of war from the moment they were born as if there were no other proper human occupation.” The U.S. government rounded up our Native Americans and attempted to hold them in small reservations. They were here before us. Who would expect them to be anything other than angry? They were and are not intrinsically evil people.

Jiles use of incomplete sentences is so pervasive as to make the book annoying. The restrained use of such a technique can serve to make a novel more interesting and more readable. Not so in this case.

A successful poet, Jiles has written two other novels, “Stormy Weather” and “Enemy Women.”

Lashner scores a home run with 'Blood and Bone'

A forlorn little boy whose greatest desire is to get to know his absent father faces the ultimate sorrow—he must attend the funeral of a man he barely knew, a man whose legacy consists only of a few cloudy memories and a hole in the child’s gut that can never be filled with anything but heartache, dejection, and regret. When the boy, Kyle Byrne, arrives at the funeral chapel with his mother and uncle, he is greeted with scorn and told to leave. All Kyle wants is for someone to tell him that they are sorry about his father dying. To be ordered to leave his own daddy’s funeral is more than Kyle can bear. The little boy spots the urn that contains his father’s ashes. He wants that urn. He wants his dad.

“The . . . man in the dark suit came up the aisle, slowly, jerkily, like in an old movie. Kyle charged right at him, threw out a straight arm, bounced off toward the front of the chapel. He sprinted up the aisle, snatched the urn, popped a spin move before dashing to the side door.”

Growing up, Kyle spots his deceased father everywhere he goes. He sees him at baseball games, in crowds, or just walking down the street. On the occasions that Kyle follows him, he is always disappointed. The shuffling old man with a “bob” of gray hair never turns out to be his dad. He reads obituaries and attends funerals, paying homage to his lost father’s memory.

One day, Kyle attends the interment of Lazlo Toth, his father’s former law partner who has been murdered. There, he meets Robert Spangler who claims to know certain things about Kyle’s father.

“Things that might surprise you,” Robert tells Kyle. “Secrets.”

With this meeting, Lashner’s tale of mysterious deaths, missing files, and human misfits, complete with nefarious characters and a plot that twists and turns with each page, unfolds at breakneck speed.

In addition to a clever, absorbing plot, Lashner has created engaging and endearing characters with whom the reader can identify and who successfully capture the reader’s imagination. His dialogue flows with ease and he imparts a feeling of familiarity through his successful execution of a tale that leads to the pinnacle of political power and the unraveling of dysfunctional family relationships.

Blood and Bone is a captivating read. It has broad appeal for suspense, mystery, and thriller aficionados.

Out with the old, in with the new? Not so fast!

My husband, John, and I have a long-standing tradition of celebrating the Christmas holidays at home with our brood of five. Over the past few years the kids have married, procreated, and settled down all over the country. To get even one or two of them to land in one place at one time has become an impossible feat. When we discovered that three of our grown children would be congregating in the New Orleans area for part of the Christmas holidays we decided that this was a road trip we couldn’t miss.

Obviously, as a book critic and writer, I love to read. We are a family of readers and we love to travel. Road trips and audio books are made for each other. On our way out of town we stopped at our local bookstore and surveyed their inventory of audio books. A really good one, preferably a thriller, was an absolute necessity to temper the miles and miles of Interstate highway. Brad Meltzer’s first novel, The Tenth Justice, a book that we both read and enjoyed more than ten years ago was our mutual pick. Sorry Brad, but we have consumed more books than hamburgers during the past ten or twelve years and our memories of the characters and plot had become rather thin.

We were half way through David Sedaris’ latest release, Engulfed in Flames, and the remainder of that audio book accompanied us to Baton Rouge. While the first half of Engulfed in Flames was funny and clever, the second half of the book proved repetitious and laborious. I’m happy that Sedaris was able to kick the habit, but three hours of tired ramblings about his 90 day junket to Japan to go cold turkey off of cigarettes was annoying and downright boring. Nevertheless, we listened, hoping that the author would get off the subject. What a disappointment.

The Tenth Justice and its addictive plot captured our full attention on the nine hour trip home. Even though memories of the characters and story line began coming back we weren’t bored or disappointed. This thriller has all the right elements—Supreme Court intrigue, the fragility of long-standing friendships, a plot with more twists and turns than we encountered on the highway, and, of course, romance. Scott Brick, who has also read the unabridged versions of Meltzer’s The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, and The Book of Fate, held our attention with his engaging voice. The 13 CD’s, however, represented fourteen hours of playing time. We turned into our driveway at nightfall in the middle of a romantic interlude between protagonist Ben Addison and his co-worker Lisa, bailed out of the car, and raced inside to our home office/library. John pounced on the book and we spent the remainder of the night taking turns reading out loud until we finished the last page. Now that’s a good book!

Authors' Guild President Roy Blount urges "Let's mount a book-buying splurge"

"We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance! " --Roy Blount, Jr.

Texas Hill Country authors were busy this year creating dazzling cookbooks, knuckle-biting fiction, memorable memoir, gruesome true crime, and some delightful non-fiction books about Texas and the Hill Country. Books are thoughtful, inexpensive, and lasting Christmas gifts that can be matched to the receivers’ likings.

Coleen Grissom’s memoir, A Novel Approach to Life, is an uplifting, humorous, and delightful glimpse of one of Kendall County’s most interesting residents. Her collection of speeches reveals her passion for life, her devotion to Trinity University, her unbridled enthusiasm for teaching English, and her faith in “humankind.” As dean of students, Vice President for Student Affairs, and English professor at Trinity University for over fifty years, Grissom witnessed the birth of the feminist movement, dealt with campus social upheaval, and adroitly handled the special challenges of each decade with aplomb and vigor. Grissom has enjoyed the company of some of the great writers of our time – Margaret Atwood, John Updike, John Irving, Toni Morison and others too numerous to mention. She has shared in the joys and successes of her students and has endured heartache along the way, as well. Grissom’s book is available through most book stores.

My pick in the cookbook category this year, especially for friends who like to cook and travel in the Hill Country, is Terry Thompson-Anderson’s The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover’s Paradise. Thompson-Anderson chose some of the most interesting “foodie” destinations and included information about the locale as well as recipes. The book’s photography is spectacular. Copies can be acquired through most bookstores and the publisher’s web site http://www.shearerpub.com/.

New Braunfels writer Diane Fanning was busy this year with her psycho-thriller The Trophy Exchange and her true crime book The Pastor’s Wife.

In The Trophy Exchange, investigator Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce must overcome not only emotional scars of her childhood but severe facial disfigurement from a shotgun blast. Pierce has allowed her work to overcome her life, blurring the distinctions between private and public. When two innocent little girls, Ruby and Charley, discover their mother’s brutally bludgeoned body in the basement of their home, Pierce finds herself drawn into the middle of a chilling investigation of a series of serial murders with the childrens’ own father as the prime suspect. The Trophy Exchange is a fast moving, knuckle-biting thriller, perfect for curling up with on a cold winter night.

Fanning’s true crime account of Pastor Matthew Winkler’s murder at the hands of his wife Mary in The Pastor’s Wife is a shocking chronicle of a family divided by violence and tragedy. Within a seemingly “perfect” marriage grew a kernel of domestic violence fueled by deceit, misplaced values, and duplicity. With great skill Fanning guides the reader through the bizarre destructive events of a dysfunctional family culminating with Mary Winkler’s murder trial.

Fanning’s books are available through national and independent booksellers. For more information about this prolific author check out her website at http://www.dianefanning.com./m./

On a humorous note, Ben Rehder’s Holy Moly, his sixth Blanco County mystery, takes on prosperity theology with a vengeance. His confluence of motley characters in this comedy of errors manages to disassemble an entire Dallas mega-church, strewing chunks of theological waste, murder, and mayhem in its wake. Rehder’s characters are always memorable, as are his satirical plots. His Hiasenesque style is entertaining and fun to read. Rehder’s books are widely available through major booksellers and his website http://www.benrehder.com./

Another memorable novel this year is A Tale Out of Luck, collaboratively written by Mike Blakely and Willie Nelson. Nelson and Blakely deliver an action-packed who-done-it that provides far more substance than the average western novel. Added to the mix of intrigue and suspense, the enduring qualities of the characters make this book a good read. Blakely and Nelson are currently busy adapting their novel to the big screen. The book is widely available through booksellers and through Blakely’s web site http://mikeblakely.com/

Rounding out fiction for the year is Jo-Ann Power’s political romance, Baring Arms: A Me and Mr. Jones Mystery. Touted by Janet Evanovich with “My vote for the fastest, funniest and sexiest mystery series ever to hit Washington, D.C.,” Baring Arms is a delightful mix of Washing politics, murder, chick-lit, and romance. Power previously worked as a lobbyist in Washington D.C. and is the author of seventeen novels. Power’s books are available in most bookstores. Check out her web site at http://www.jo-annpower.com/

In the non-fiction category, Candice DuCoin chronicles the lives of her ancestors, the Jones family, in her book Lawmen on the Texas Frontier: Rangers and Sheriffs. In her epic account, there are numerous references to the lure of the Texas Hill Country followed by hardship and strife. DuCoin’s epic saga of her Texian ancestors is meticulously researched. She includes end notes with each chapter as well as several appendices of the Jones’ lineage, letters, and other interesting additions. She also provides a full bibliography and index. Her academic approach does not detract from the general readability of the book and the inclusion of photographs and old documents greatly enhance the enjoyment of the story. Ducoin’s book is available through Riata Publishing at http://www.riatabooks.com/

Laurie Jasinski’s Dinosaur Highway: A History of Dinosaur Valley State Park captures her readers’ imaginations with her descriptions of Texas dinosaurs that existed 144 to 65 million years ago. Dinosaur Valley State Park is situated on both sides of the Paluxy River in Somervell County, just four miles west of Glen Rose, Texas where dinosaur tracks are abundant and visible on the river bottom. The Glen Rose tracks probably belong to Acrocanthosaurus, a large intimidating carnivorous creature that left footprints up to two feet long. Four-legged herbivore sauropods co-existed with the Acrocanthosaurus and were given the name Paluxysaurus in 2007 after the Paluxy River where its tracks are found. As of this year, Dinosaur Valley State Park encompasses a total of 1,588 acres. It boasts two hundred thousand visitors annually and ranks among the top ten of the most-visited parks in the Texas State Parks System. Camp sites are available with forty-six water and electrical sites and forty picnic areas. Dinosaur Highway is available through major book sellers and the TCU Press at http://www.tamu.edu/upress/TCU/tcugen.html.

For Kendall County history buffs, Tommy Titsworth’s Early Comfort, Texas Cabinet Makers: A History of Hill Country Furniture provides a wealth of historical information about the early cabinetmakers in Comfort. He spent five years photographing these hand crafted pieces of furniture in homes of Comfort residents and has included 154 color photos in his book, from large armoires, tables of every description, chairs, cradles, desks, and the even the tools used by these early craftsmen. The book is organized by artisan and includes photos of furniture made by Edward Steves, Emil Serger, The Brinkmans, Christian Lindemann, Andres Voigt, Charles De Ney’s, Max Lange, Paul Dryden, Paul Karger, Herman Wille, and William Wiedenfeld. Titsworth also included some of the pieces that he has created from old long-leaf pine. You can obtain a copy of Early Comfort, Texas Cabinet Makers: A History of Hill Country Furniture, by emailing Titsworth at mailto:hsiltom@hctc.net.

No matter what happens in our economy, no matter which electronic book-reading gadgets flood the market, books are irreplaceable. Roy Blount, President of the Authors’ Guild, said it best in his holiday message.

“I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards. We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild."

Cookbook author captures the essence of the Texas Hill Country

“Who needs Europe? The Texas Hill Country, west of Austin and north of San Antonio, might be the next best thing to crossing the Atlantic. The region is lush, colorful and, unlike much of the pancake-flat state, dotted with beautiful green hills that are evocative of Tuscany or the south of France,” states the New York Times in a recent article describing that newspaper’s 31 favorite tourist destinations. The Texas Hill Country is the Times’ number one pick mostly because of our diverse multicultural heritage—a heritage rich in culinary traditions.

Terry Thompson-Anderson captures the essence of the cuisine of our eighteen-county region in her book The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover’s Paradise.

According to Todd Staples, Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture and author of the book’s Foreword, “Within the pages of this book you will see firsthand the true heart and soul of the region and all the resources it has to offer. You’ll come face to face with the proud pioneering spirit for which hardworking Texans are known.”

Thompson-Anderson begins her alphabetical tour in Bandera at the Diamond H. Ranch, home of the “finest tasting quail available” and The Grotto Grill and Coffee Bar. Then it’s on to Blanco, then Boerne where she highlights Leslie Horn’s “Aurelia’s Chorizo,” Bear Moon Bakery, and the Cypress Grill. From the Camp Verde General Store to the Blue Bonnet Café in Marble Falls and Poodie’s in Spicewood, Thompson delights the reader in a mouth-watering journey rich in history and food. She includes recipes from many of these landmarks, such as Shrimp and Crawfish Bisque from the Huisache Grill and Wine Bar in New Braunfels, Sausage and Cheese Kolaches from the Sandstone Cellars Winery in Mason, and our very own Bear Moon Bakery’s apple cake.

Complementing the culinary odyssey through the Texas Hill Country are stunning color photographs by Sandy Wilson “which capture the diversity of the Hill Country eating experience, with its berry patches and orchards, roadside stands, artisan bakeries, boutique wineries, and vast array of restaurants serving both traditional and haute cuisine.”

Thompson-Anderson is a professional chef, cookbook author, culinary instructor, and restaurant consultant. She will be signing copies of her book The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover’s Paradise on Thursday evening at Read-All-About-It Bookstore, 305 South Main in Boerne, at 6:30 pm. Thompson-Anderson will have samples of many of the recipes in her book for tasting.

The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover’s Paradise (ISBN# 9780940672796, 156 pages, paperback with flaps, $19.95) is available through Read-All-About-It Bookstore in Boerne, major booksellers, and through the publisher’s web site at http://www.shearerpub.com/.

Coleen Grissom ‘keeps on keeping on’ with "A Novel Approach to Life"

I have looked forward for over a year to the release of Dr. Coleen Grissom’s book, A Novel Approach to Life, a collection of five decades of her speeches. When I finally got my hands on a copy I settled in with a cup of tea and a pint of Crème Caramel frozen yogurt and dove into the life of one of Kendall County’s preeminent residents. If you have not had the pleasure of attending an event with Dr. Grissom slated as a speaker, you have most certainly missed out on one of life’s special treats. Her collection of speeches reveals her passion for life, her devotion to Trinity University, her unbridled enthusiasm for teaching English, and her faith in “humankind.”

As dean of students, Vice President for Student Affairs, and English professor at Trinity University for over fifty years, Grissom has witnessed the birth of the feminist movement, dealt with campus social upheaval, and, with an even hand and with some humor, handled the inception of the sexual revolution played out in the Trinity dormitories. She has enjoyed the company of some of the great writers of our time – Margaret Atwood, John Updike, John Irving, Toni Morison and others too numerous to mention. She has shared in the joys and successes of her students and has endured heartache along the way, as well.

In a section of speeches to Trinity faculty, staff, students, and alumni, Grissom writes “. . . it still disturbs me to recall even having to write remarks about the AIDS Quilt Collection, the acknowledgment of date or acquaintance rape on our lovely campus, [and] the death of a first-year man from hazing by a fraternity . . . “

While Dr. Grissom is revered and treasured for her oratory skills, her prose flows as smoothly and as naturally as her spoken words. I was shocked when I read in her introduction that she’s never really liked public speaking. Words seem to flow effortlessly from Grissom, gliding through the air with authority and proficiency without a hint of pomposity or pretension. Grissom is down-to-earth and accessible with a quirky wit.

“Although I found the delivering of my remarks onerous, what I did and do love is the process of composing, of writing . . . thinking of what I might say, organizing my ideas . . .”

Grissom’s speeches in A Novel Approach to Life are organized by “occasion” or “purpose.” The book is not all-inclusive, but rather a sampling of presentations delivered primarily during her tenure at Trinity University as an administrator, 1958 to 2000. It also includes examples of talks to other organizations such as the McNay Art Museum Docents, The Graham Ladensohn Memorial Lecture, the Texas Sod Association, and some gripping “Tributes, Toasts, Farewells.”

Although the speeches cover an array of topics, they all share a common thread. Grissom approaches each of them with a great deal of quirky humor and prodigious insight. She implores her audience to think rationally, to view and appreciate life in all of its glory, and always “figure out what you care about and live a life that shows it. Do attempt brave and important things, and, for heaven’s sake, make time in your hectic, sometimes frenetic lives to read and then make time to read some more.”

A Novel Approach to Life is more than a collection of speeches. It is also a memoir of an extraordinary human being and is as multi-faceted as its author. In her speech “Opening Pajama Party, Class of 1970,” Grissom includes a letter written by a freshman student to her parents after her first three months at Trinity. The letter is priceless and one of the funniest passages that I have ever read in any book.

Over the years Grissom has reached beyond Trinity University and has shared her time and talent with various community organizations. In addition to teaching three courses per semester at Trinity, she also participates in various programs sponsored by Gemini Ink, a San Antonio non-profit organization that promotes the arts, and she serves as Master of Ceremonies for the annual Cancer and Research Therapy Center’s “Book and Author Luncheon.” She’s been known on occasion to auction herself off for charity with the winner receiving lunch and literary discussion.

A Novel Approach to Life is filled with astute observations of life, heartwarming stories of students and teachers, references to literary influences, and glimpses of Grissom’s unselfish devotion to all that she holds dear. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

A Novel Approach to Life (Trinity University Press, September 2008, ISBN-13: 9781595340559, 256pp, $25.00) is available through all major booksellers and directly from the Trinity University Press.

This review appeared in the Friday, October 3, 2008 edition of the Boerne Star.

Superman holds the truth in Brad Meltzer's "The Book of Lies"

Book of Lies
By Brad Meltzer
Grand Central, $25.99

This review appeared in the San Antonio Express News on Sunday, September 7, 2008

According to the fourth chapter of Genesis, Cain and Abel were the first children born of Adam and Eve. Cain killed his brother Abel and in doing so unleashed murder upon the world. God forgave Cain and marked him with a sign that protected him from enduring the same fate as his brother Abel, and Cain was left to wander the earth for all of time. The Bible does not reveal the weapon used by Cain to kill Abel, and it has been speculated that the armament could have been a rock or a jaw bone or horn of an animal.

In 1932, Mitchell Siegel was murdered with a hand gun. Consumed with grief, his son Jerry created an immortal, bullet-proof superhero, "Superman." To this day, the murder of Mitchell Siegel has never been solved.

So how could the murders of Abel and Mitchell Siegel possibly be related? This is the mystery at the core of Brad Meltzer's new thriller, The Book of Lies.

Nineteen years ago, Lloyd Harper accidently killed his wife as his 9-year-old son Cal watched, losing both his mother and his innocence. Harper served eight years in prison and Cal never laid eyes upon him again — until one extraordinary night when Cal, a rescuer of the homeless, and his co-worker Roosevelt, a defrocked Methodist pastor, discover Lloyd Harper bleeding from a gunshot wound in a public park.

In their excitement of stumbling upon Cal's father and transporting him to a hospital, the two good Samaritans fail to notice the evil zealot Ellis and his Caanan dog Benoni closely observing them from the security of his phony police car.

While his long-lost father is receiving treatment in the emergency room, Cal rifles through his bloody, discarded clothing and finds a commercial driver's license and a bill of lading for an unspecified shipment to be picked up at the Port of Miami. Cal, an ex-agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calls a former buddy from ICE and they plot to intercept the shipment. Little do they realize that this particular cargo is destined to change the course of history.

Meltzer deftly weaves a story of suspense and intrigue as he connects the dots between the biblical murder of Abel by Cain and the unsolved homicide of Mitchell Siegel, father of the creator of "Superman." The relationship between these two seemingly unrelated events is presumed to be revealed in the shipment that Lloyd Harper is to pick up at the Miami Port, a shipment that holds the world's greatest secret, The Book of Lies.

The only real truth would come from ripping open Lloyd's shipment. It was no different a century ago with Mitchell Siegel. No different than with Adam and Cain. It was the first truth in the Book of Lies: In the chosen families, the son was always far more dangerous than the father."
Thus begins the race for the world's most glorious treasure — a pursuit cleverly orchestrated by an anonymous prophet for a prize speculated to be hidden in the Book of Lies, a cache reputed to hold the weapon used by Cain to kill Abel and to also harbor the secret of immortality.
As characters pop out of the woodwork, Meltzer seamlessly weaves them into the plot. And all the while the evil Ellis is one step behind them, strewing debris from murder and mayhem in his relentless attempts to hijack the Book of Lies.

In their pursuit of treasure, all of the players rush to Cleveland to the modest former home of Jerry Siegel, creator of the ultimate superhero, Superman. But the journey doesn't end there. The quest becomes a personal odyssey for Cal, a search not only for the Book of Lies, but an examination of the truth upon which he has based his life.

Meltzer writes in the foreward of his novel, "Every writer has a story they've been waiting their whole life to tell. This is mine. The book is fiction, but it is based on fact. Most important, ‘The Book of Lies' isn't just a thriller about hero and villain. It's a story about us — the idea that all of us, in all our ordinariness, can change the world. The best stories are the ones we believe in. This is one I hope will challenge your beliefs."

Meltzer does challenge his readers’ beliefs and he never lets his audience down in this clever, intriguing new thriller, The Book of Lies. . .or should it be called The Book of Truth?

Meltzer’s book tour will take him to Austin on September12, Dallas on September 15, and Houston on September 16. Details are on his web site, bradmeltzer.com. A companion soundtrack to The Book of Lies is available for download at iTunes and Amazon.com.

Review: "A Tale Out of Luck: A Novel"

By Willie Nelson with Mike Blakely
Center Street, $21.99

reprinted from the San Antonio Express News, Sunday, August 31, 2008

No one disputes that Willie Nelson is a Texas icon, a rugged individualist and master of his own fate. So there should be little surprise that this music legend is blazing another trail, this time in the literary world.

Nelson enlisted acclaimed Texas singer/songwriter and novelist Mike Blakely to co-author his debut novel, a tale of the Old West

And yes, a movie is in the works.

In A Tale Out of Luck, the disappearance of retired Texas Ranger Hank Tomlinson’s prized thoroughbred mare in the middle of the night sets off a chain of events central to the plot of any good Western, involving murder, rustling, Indian fighting, saloons and saloon women. There are plenty of shootouts and cowboy music.

But the similarities to the standard Western novel stop there because Nelson and Blakely introduce us to a kaleidoscope of eccentric characters who keep the story moving at a fast clip.

Tomlinson’s sons, Jay Blue and Skeeter, must prove to their father that they are capable of finding the missing mare. They enlist the help of an albino escaped slave, Jubal Hayes, who has a reputation as an accomplished mustanger and horse tamer. Hayes’ bizarre appearance makes him a pariah around Luck, Texas. The Indians are terrified of him, believing that he is a ghost.
While Jay Blue, Skeeter and Jubal search for the missing mare, gunslingers from a rival ranch, the Double Horn, massacre an innocent band of Comanches.

A surviving warrior, Wolf, vows to avenge the murders:

"The warriors had donned headdresses made from the horns of bison, the heads of wolves or lions, the antlers of deer. Most wove eagle feathers into their black braids. The feathers, like those affixed to their shields, would flutter with the speed of their horses, spoiling the aim of their enemies’ weapons."

While Tomlinson is distracted by the search for his missing mare — and with fighting Indians — Max Cooper, a reporter with an ax to grind from the Austin Daily Statesman, rides into Luck bent on exposing a torrid secret from Tomlinson’s past.

In the frenzy of fighting the outraged Comanches, Tomlinson is forced to struggle with his personal demons.

Nelson and Blakely deliver an action-packed page-turner with far more substance than the average Western novel. While the mix of intrigue and suspense will keep readers on the trail, the enduring qualities of the characters are what set this novel apart.

Of course, A Tale Out of Luck was written with an eye for the big screen. After all, Nelson has the false-front Wild West town, also named Luck, that he built just outside of Austin. The set has been used for a variety of productions, including an array of television commercials and for the music video Beer for My Horses. With aspirations for adapting A Tale Out of Luck as a motion picture, Nelson and Blakely are working on a screenplay.

Copies of A Tale Out of Luck signed by Mike Blakely will be available at TexAmericana Fandango, Mike Blakely’s book and music festival set for Sept. 12-14 in Luckenbach.

"Stories from Berkeley" chronicles 1960's and 1970's counter culture

According to my Social Studies-teacher-daughter, very little about the counter-culture of the 1960’s and 1970’s is taught in secondary schools in Texas. Nathan Spooner’s new release, Stories from Berkeley: Adventures in the Slow Lane, preserves a part of our history which, unfortunately, is becoming lost.

Spooner chronicles his life as a philosophy student at Berkeley and a street performer in the Bay area including his relationships with Joadie Guthrie, son of Woody Guthrie; renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz; various house-mates in the communal house in which he lived; and fellow musicians. Although Spooner does not emphasize the turbulent political tenor of the times, he does put the anti-Viet Nam war effort in perspective.

After Berkeley, Spooner moved to Alaska for ten years where he and his wife raised their children. Upon returning to Berkeley the Spooners no longer felt at home there and moved to the Central Coast of California. Nathan Spooner is now a special education teacher with grown children and grandchildren.

Spooner successfully captures an era of American life that should be preserved. Stories from Berkeley has a nice rhythm to it and is an interesting read. This book is appropriate for high school students and would make a wonderful adjunct to Social Studies programs in both secondary schools and in college curriculums.

Stories from Berkeley (ISBN 978-0-9701698-1-5, US $16.95) can be ordered from Barnes and Noble online and is also available from the author at http://www.nbspublish.com/pages/ordering.html.

Rick Riordan's 'Battle of the Labyrinth' a must read for summer

Imagine a vast maze underneath the earth, a labyrinth created by the mythological Greek architect and inventor Daedalus who is rumored to reside in the center of the great maze. This formidable labyrinth, seemingly without beginning or end, constantly shifts its shape and is so tricky to maneuver that is it credited with driving its explorers insane. Now imagine that within this underground web is an infestation of all sorts of nefarious evil-doers such as demons and monsters. The truth is that the vicious Titan Lord Kronos and his wicked army are sequestered in the underground labyrinth and are planning to attack and destroy Camp Half-Blood and all of the half-breed children who reside there during summer vacation.

The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan’s fourth installment in his “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series, finds demi-god Percy, son of Poseidon (Greek god of the sea) en route to Camp Half-Blood after a major fiasco at freshman high school orientation.

Percy succinctly puts it this way. “The last thing I wanted to do on my summer break was blow up another school.”

Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood with his half-breed friend Annabeth in tow only to discover that the camp is in imminent danger of attack and destruction by the evil Kronos. Fearing that the diabolical Titans will make a deal with Daedalus to manufacture an army of automatons, Percy and his friends set out on a quest to find Daedalus before Kronos does and stop the evil-doer before he destroys Camp Half-Blood.

Riordan has once again created an action-packed masterpiece by re-introducing Greek mythology and making it relevant to young adult readers Children and adults alike have embraced the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series because all of these books are full of action, endearing characters, and humor. Riordan infuses his characters with all kinds of magic: Percy’s ball point pen, Riptide, morphs into a three foot long sword and his friend Annabeth’s baseball cap provides a cloak of invisibility to the wearer. Half-breed children must avoid cell phones as they let monsters know where they are.

Riordan plans to release only one more book in the Percy Jackson series. Battle of the Labyrinth, his fourth in the collection, is a must for summer reading for children and adults alike.

You can find out more about Rick Riordan and his books at his web site rickriordan.com.