Aubrey is a painter on the
cusp of success when she
receives a life-changing diag-
nosis: very soon, she will be completely
blind. She’s still reeling from the news
when she runs into Jeff, an old friend, at a
gallery opening
featuring her
paintings and
accepts his spon-
taneous invitation
to travel the world
and see its won-
ders before it’s too
late. The journey,
which follows the
pair through
Jordan, India, China, Brazil, and Peru, is
believable in its attention to detail—from
children’s games to Peruvian porters’ foot-
wear to the details of the facade of the Taj
Mahal—but it remains somehow flat,
providing information about each setting
without bringing it to life. Likewise,
Aubrey’s crisis—as a visual artist who is
losing her sight—is described, and its
psychology explored, but with an emo-
tional distance that might leave readers
feeling more like uninvolved observers
than intimates: Aubrey mentions that she
is grieving and afraid, though she shows
few signs of actually having those feel-
ings. Despite the distance, those who are
reading for Aubrey and Jeff’s journey will
find a memorable adventure.
The Captain’s Bluestocking
Mistress
Erica Ridley. Intrepid Reads, $2.99 e-book
(206p) ISBN 978-1-939713-30-8
Ridley’s second Dukes of War Regency
(after The Earl’s Defiant Wallflower) proves
that intellect doesn’t have to consign a
woman to a lonely
life. Jane
Downing is tired
of being for-
gotten, but she’s
come to terms
with her future as
a spinster. When
she encounters
handsome Capt.
Xavier Grey, she
makes the rash decision to leave her
London home, travel to his country cot-
tage, and seduce him into a secret affair.
While he details all of the reasons that she
shouldn’t become involved with him, she
learns the innermost secrets of his war-
time days and tries to prove to him that
she wants to understand the man behind
the heroic image. It soon becomes
apparent that succumbing to lust might
lead to greater emotional involvement.
While the plot is somewhat predictable,
the characters are affable, and humor is
ever present thanks to a chaperoning cat.
Cool Jazz Spy
Paul J. Bartusiak. CreateSpace, $10.50 trade
paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-985-91622-0
CIA agent John Angstrom, the hero of
Bartusiak’s chilling novel about a cyber-
terror attack, has had his life transformed
by the relationship that has developed
between him and an attractive Russian
defector, Anna
Czolski. But his
romantic life is
put on hold when
various sectors of
the U.S. come
under attack from
sophisticated mal-
ware that over-
whelms all the
defenses the gov-
ernment has put into place. Meanwhile, a
shadowy figure, who may have some con-
nection to Anna, is quietly embarking on
a murderous campaign of terror, begin-
ning with an operative who retired from
the game decades before. Diagrams and
footnotes add to the story’s credibility, but
readers should be prepared for some tech-
nical jargon (“with fpxe installed on the
network card, and after a subsequent
reboot of the computer, fpxe causes the PC
to boot off of the remote BIOS from a
C&C server, thereby bypassing the valid
BIOS of the computer”).
The Dead Man’s Treasure
Kris Bock. Pig River, $9.99 trade paper
(220p) ISBN 978-0-692-37167-1
Bock adds a clever interactive twist,
tempting recipes, and endearing charac-
ters to this chaste and somewhat formu-
laic romantic thriller, which is linked to
The Mad Monk’s Treasure but stands well
on its own. Instead of leaving each of his
grandchildren a tidy sum, Rebecca
Westin’s millionaire grandfather left
them a series of winner-take-all clues to a
buried fortune. Camie Dagneau and Erin
Mayer (familiar to
readers of the first
book) have plenty
of treasure-hunting
expertise, and
Rebecca, estranged
from her relatives
because her father
abandoned her,
needs all the help
she can get. Camie
and Erin’s friend Sam offers to help with
the search, and it’s all good, suspenseful
fun as Rebecca and Sam traipse the New
Mexico desert, deciphering clues and
trying to outwit Rebecca’s half siblings.
Though the plot is spare in the romance
department, there’s plenty of suspense, as
well as abundant touristy tips and tastes
of the Southwest.
The Devil Will Come
Glenn Cooper. Lascaux Media, $11.69 trade
paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-692260-55-5
In a suitably ominous prelude to this
imaginative thriller set in 1139 C.E.
Rome, Bishop Malachy observes an
unusual celestial event known as the
Devil’s Tail, leading him to prophesy that,
after 112 more
popes, the world
will end. In 2000,
Elisabetta
Celestino survives
a murderous
assault in Rome,
carried out by a
man with a tail. In
response, she
becomes a nun,
but 12 years later she leaves her convent
when a former professor asks her to help
him explore some catacombs that may
contain ancient astrological symbols she
could decipher. To her shock, what she
finds instead are the skeletal remains of
almost 100 human bodies, all with bony
tails. Cooper prolongs the suspense of the
modern-day plot with flashbacks that
portray the Emperor Nero and playwright
Christopher Marlowe in surprising ways,
which provide novel explanations for the
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