Listen Inside - Daily Book Previews From Readers In The Know By Simon Denman

Synopsis A psychological legal crime thriller A lawyer, a murderer and a policeman – caught in a tangled web of love, loss, terror and intrigue in this driving psychological thriller.  When criminal lawyer Julia Grant interviews Sam Smith who has been charged with a vicious murder, she feels a strange connection to him.  Has she met him before? Does he hold a key to her lost childhood memories?  He feels a connection too. 'Julia, you are the only one who can help me,' he pleads.  Is it the same connection? Does he know something she cannot recall?  When he is duly convicted despite her best efforts, he suddenly turns on her in the courtroom and threatens that one day he will make sure to wreak his revenge on her.  But why?  What has she ever done to him? From the best-selling author of Golden Sapphire Excerpt The door to the jury room swung open. The seven men and five women filed in and took their seats. Julia glanced at the dock. Perched behind the thick protective glass Sam Smith looked immaculate in a fre

Synopsis A true life story of four generations of a family plagued with kidney disease and death. Finally through the miracle of organ transplants, Harry was the first member of the family to live and have his transplant for forty one years. When their son Joe was inflicted with the disease, his transplant should have been highly successful in this day and age. It was however turned into a nightmare by the incompetence of the Cleveland Clinic hospital. The permanent injury to Chris, the donor, and the near death of Joe, the recipient, brings this family to the depths of despair and near suicide. Through a miracle of God they were given a copy of the surgery and made the shocking discovery of how these so called "world class surgeons" performed this surgery, and then tried to cover it up. As Joe and Chris suffer and their health declines, the family desperately searches through the medical cover up to save their lives. Only their faith and perseverance help them to ultimately triumph. Excerpt When we came back

Synopsis Celebrate the ancient and powerful magic held within the Wheel of the Year with this clear and well-ordered guide. This book is much more than a guidebook; it offers everything needed to mark the changing of the seasons in a meaningful and fulfilling way. Within these pages are suggestions for activities, spells, guided meditations and lists of correspondences for each of the eight Sacred Festivals. Learn something of the role of the Goddess and her Consort and gain an understanding of the important role the Festivals played for our ancestors. Also included are guidance on Casting a Circle and collecting and cleansing the basic tools used for Craft work. Although aimed at those new to the Craft it will give the more knowledgeable tried and tested ways to celebrate these ancient and beloved Festivals. Excerpt Prepare for meditation in the usual way. When you are ready enter your forest. Take the time to feel the earth beneath you and the breeze on your skin. Smell the trees and plants that surround y

Synopsis Hym and Hur are a young couple who never age and have been in love for more than a century.  They also possess an array of magical abilities, two of which are either to play pranks on humankind or to perform good deeds.  Enacting both at the same time is now what gets them into trouble, especially since it's the unruly character of Death they must deal with to bring their plans to fruition. The prank Hym and Hur have come up with must first be agreed upon by Death, who happens to be a rambunctious, difficult character.  Once agreed upon, the prank is set in motion.  Hym and Hur soon discover Death had tricked them into a contract with dire consequences for all of us. During their attempt to break the contract, Hym and Hur try to save the relationship of an earthbound couple, knowing they are truly meant for each other.  A good deed that will bring Hym and Hur even more trouble. Excerpt A bright flash lit up the restaurant window. The waitress snapped her eyes shut, thinking it was the sun bouncing of

Synopsis The Field of Blackbirds begins when Arben Shala disappears in Eastern Europe. Jeff Bradley, a recently retired special forces soldier, promises Arben’s wife to uncover the mystery behind his disappearance and bring her husband home. Jeff travels to the UN administered Serbian province of Kosovo still in a state of political uncertainty after the Yugoslavian conflict. With help from American Morgan Delaney, Barry Briggs an Australian working with the UN and the enigmatic Lee Caldwell an agent for the world’s largest private security firm, Jeff uncovers a criminal conspiracy responsible for a series of bombings across Europe.  Ignoring death threats Jeff and Morgan dig deeper and when the shocking truth behind Arben’s disappearance is finally uncovered it sets in motion a chain of events that brings Kosovo to the brink of civil war and NATO troops onto the streets of Kosovo’s major cities. 

Synopsis Jules Finn and Szaja Trautman know that sorrow can sink deeply--so deeply it can drown the soul. Growing up in her parents’ crazy hippie household on a tiny island off the coast of Boston, Jules’s imaginative sense of humor is the weapon she wields as a defense against the chaos of her family’s household. Somewhere between routine discipline with horsewhips, gun-waving gambling debt collectors, and LSD-laced breakfast cereal adventures, tragedy strikes a blow from which Jules may never recover. Jules’s story alternates with that of her grandfather, Szaja, an orthodox Jew who survives the murderous Ukranian pogroms of the 1920s, the Majdanek death camp, and the torpedoing of the Mefkura, a ship carrying refugees to Palestine. Unable to deal with the horrors he endures at the camp, Szaja develops a dissociative disorder and takes on the persona of a dead soldier from a burial ditch, using that man’s thoughts to devise a plan to escape to America. While Szaja’s and Jules’s sorrows are different on the s

Synopsis It is the year 1586. England is awash with traitors, plotting to assassinate the Queen and bring about a foreign invasion. The young physician Christoval Alvarez, a refugee from the horrors of the Portuguese Inquisition, is coerced into becoming a code-breaker and agent in Sir Francis Walsingham’s secret service. In the race to thwart the plot, who will triumph – the ruthless conspirators or the equally ruthless State? Excerpt I was washing alembics when he came. Often, in the months and years that followed, I wondered how things might have turned out, had I been away from home. My father had been summoned to one of his private patients and I had pleaded to go with him to the great man’s house, for I had never even stepped over the threshold of the mansion in the Strand, but the winter had been severe, we were short of many remedies, and I must stay at home and wash the alembics so that we might spend the evening distilling. I did not like being alone in the house, with the dark afternoon heavy in th

Synopsis Dr. Jack Gallagher, one of Marietta, Montana's most eligible bachelors, hasn't been serious about a woman since his wife died five years ago. He's been content to date occasionally, practice medicine and raise his teenage daughter. Then happily divorced former fashion model, Maya Parrish, moves back to Marietta, with her own teenaged daughter in tow forcing Jack to rethink his casual dates only rule. Maya, Jack's high school girlfriend and almost fiancée, may have broken his heart the night of their high school graduation, but the moment Jack and Maya meet again, all the sizzle and sparks, and then some, come rushing back. Maya is ready to give love a second try. Jack isn't sure he can take that chance again. He knows how quickly happiness can be ripped away, leaving heartbreak in its place.   Can a mad, passionate affair last or will it burn itself out as quickly as it began? Excerpt Marietta had grown, of course, but it was still a small town, with that lovely small town flavor. Of course, there w

Synopsis When she was a child, the author happily identified with all the male heroes she read about in stories that began, "Once upon a time, a young man went out to seek his fortune." But she would have been delighted to discover even one story like that with a female protagonist. Since she never did find the story she was looking for all those years ago, she decided to write it. In Book I of the trilogy, Tamras arrives in Merin’s house to begin her apprenticeship as a warrior, but her small stature causes many, including Tamras herself, to doubt that she will ever become a competent swordswoman. To make matters worse, the Lady Merin assigns her the position of companion, little more than a personal servant, to a woman who came to Merin’s house, seemingly out of nowhere, the previous winter, and this stranger wants nothing to do with Tamras. Excerpt In ancient days, when only women were warriors, lived a young girl and her mother in a cottage at the edge of the forest. All around the cottage were meadows wh

Synopsis Professor Kompressor is an inventor. He is excellent at inventing, but the inventions are not always excellent. The first book in the series about Professor Kompressor, an ever-so-slightly misguided inventor, contains 12 entertaining episodes from the Professor's inventing career. When the Professor sets out to improve the world, unexpected things happen. Making your mechanical helper too clever might be an obvious mistake, but who would have known that tinkering with an old Volkswagen Beetle could turn out to be so dangerous?  And who would have thought that a time machine would turn out to be such a waste of… well… time?  Professor Kompressor is a fictional character but his adventures are inspired by ideas from science and the modern world. They show that you can have a lot of fun with science and technology, especially if you allow for a little bit of creative mis-interpretation. A book that entertains children of all ages from Professor Nils Andersson, award-winning author and an authority on ma

Synopsis A Letter to My Mother is the harrowing, true story of Nomanono Isaacs, a young girl born at the height of South Africa’s cruel and oppressive Apartheid regime. Forced to endure cruelties that were beyond measure, the brave young woman manages to fool the brutal Special Branch police force and makes an arduous and dangerous getaway to neighbouring Swaziland, where she hopes for a brand new start. Told as a long and loving letter to her mother, this book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to experience the strength of the human spirit at its finest. Excerpt LOVE UNDER A WILLOW TREE    Mama, the year is 1992 and the month is May. We are thousands of miles apart. You are in South Africa and I am in England. It was twenty-four years last Christmas since I saw you. Do you remember the Christmas of 1967? I remember it as though it was yesterday! It was the last time we spent together. There are so many things that I always wished I could tell you about. I always hoped we would meet soon. But soon has turn

Synopsis The book’s   title, Clouds in the Wind, is an expression that means futility, and nothing is more futile than war.  In the 1970s  in Southern Africa, successful business man Andrew Mason is drawn into the Rhodesian bush wars. With great narrative energy and a keen visual sense of detail, Ian Mackenzie guides us into the fray. He describes skirmishes with blood-curdling accuracy where the Rhodesian side wins every battle, but as we all know, they eventually lost the war. White supremacy is defeated. Excerpt The laboured rasp of Stuart’s breathing sounded like the dregs of a milkshake being repeatedly sucked from the bottom of a glass through a straw. The sound was unmistakable – Stuart had taken a lung shot and was breathing through his own blood. Twenty metres farther ahead, Rob had gone down and the manner of his falling indicated that he was dead – probably without ever knowing what had happened. Sergeant Andrew Mason had taken cover thirty metres away and, in the time he’d been lying there – some

Synopsis Dave Currick was everything Matty Brennan wanted for as along as she could remember. Right up until he broke her heart six years ago. Now that she's returned to Wyoming for good, what she wants more than anything is to save her family's ranch. Even if that means swallowing her pride and asking Dave to marry her. Matty's up to something - Dave knows that much. Just as he knows that Matty needs help, so of course he'll provide it, just as he has all her life. Doing what's best for Matty is second nature, and part of the cowboy code. Even when it comes to marrying her in name only. Although he can't resist one hot-blooded kiss after the I-dos. Maybe - just maybe - his Matty will become more to him than Almost a Bride. Excerpt She took a breath and leaped. "I want to marry you." For a second, she could almost believe she'd really jumped into the swimming hole. She felt the same shock of cold surround her and the same sensation that all sound in the world was muffled and distant. The only thing she could

Synopsis Forced out of the DEA after twenty years, Hardin Steel, Stainless to his close friends, has managed to get himself elected Sheriff of Cameron County, Texas. Twice divorced, with a bit of a drinking problem, he’s now dating Rory Roughton, a fiery sixth-generation Texan who’s as rich as she is beautiful—and hell-bent on keeping Steel on the straight and narrow. But then his best friend, Wes Stoddard, is nearly shot down flying in a load of pot, Rory is kidnapped by a Russian mercenary working for the most dangerous cartel in Mexico, and the Cuban Mafia decides they’d like the former DEA agent—dead. Steel is forced to take unsanctioned, unconventional—and mostly illegal—action in order to save himself and those closest to him . . . Excerpt Two days later, I put on some civvies, jumped in my Jeep Laredo, and headed for Matamoros.   Wes was supposedly in the produce transport business and kept an office and condo in Brownsville, but he was seldom there. He felt more comfortable south of the river. He’d bo

Synopsis This sparkling memoir gives a personal view of Irish rural life from the Economic War of the 1930s to the farming boom and recession of the 1970s. It describes the upbringing of a Protestant only child on a farm in north Tipperary-an idyll interrupted by two years at school in Dublin during the 1940s. Taking over the farm on her father's death, working the land and animals the author recounts with great humour, acuity and poignancy her dealings, from the age of seventeen, at fairs throughout the country-Limerick, Kilrush, Cahirmee, Ballinasloe, Spancilhill -a lone woman in a man's world. With rare brio and eye for character, incident and idiosyncrasy, Quarton lovingly documents a world of country people, eccentric relatives, home cures and recipes, and unaffected living. Breakfast the Night Before is both entertaining and enduring. 'It makes riveting reading and I was desperately disappointed when I reached the final page. Marjorie Quarton is a natural storyteller'-Grania Willis, The Irish Field. 'I

Synopsis WHEN YOU’RE A BRAIN WITHOUT A BODY, CAN YOU STILL BE CALLED HUMAN? Marc Gregorio wakes up paralyzed. He can’t feel his own body, and he doesn’t know why. Accident? Stroke? Did someone slip him an overdose of Botox? The answer, he discovers, is much, much worse. He’s only a copy of Marc, a digital brain without a body, burdened with all Marc’s human memories, but without access to human sensual pleasures. Now he has to find a reason to keep on, um, “living.” The Mindclone (Adam 2.0 as he dubs himself) meets the real Marc Gregorio--and Molly Schaeffer, the prickly, brilliant cellist Marc met and fell in love with just days before his brain was scanned. Adam loves her, too. But how does a digital entity experience love? He can’t even experience pizza, the aroma of fresh-baked apple pie, the burn of exercise, a plunge into an icy stream, sex. But there is one compensation: his digital brain can instantly absorb, understand and remember peta-, exa- and yettabytes of data. He keeps himself busy sulking and

Synopsis Like any significant career move, this one happened by accident. Karen spent a lot of time planning what she was going to do with her life, but Fate had other plans for her, as she often does for most of us. As a single mother who’s struggling to make ends meet, Karen stumbles into the worst job on earth: transporting souls into the afterlife. To make matters worse, she is contractually bound to continue the job indefinitely, and her difficult employer is none other than Fate. It doesn’t take long for Karen to learn that Fate may be fashionable, but she’s also heartless. In bondage to Fate, but in love with Fortune, Karen struggles to find a way out. Excerpt Karen studied the coffin she had just uncovered. The lid, once a shiny lacquered surface, was now partially decayed and fell apart as Karen pried it off. Bits of wood turned to dust in her hands as she worked diligently to make an opening. Her arms were tired from digging and the fatigue made it more difficult to be gentle with the rotting wood.

Synopsis Ten-year-old Dina Frydman lives a comfortable middle class life with her family in Radom, Poland in the summer of 1939, just weeks before the Nazi invasion. The love of family and friends offer no protection against the menace of the Nazi regime that begins to siphon off the worldly and spiritual goods of Radom’s Jews. We witness Dina’s battle to survive and understand the deadly apocalypse that transforms her from an innocent child to a teenage/adult. When her family is deported and murdered at Treblinka she finds safety at a forced labor facility where she experiences her first taste of love when she at thirteen meets Natek Korman, a passionate sixteen year old who rekindles her will to live. Forced by the Nazis to separate, the young lovers vow to find each other after the war. From work camps to death camps, Dina survives against all odds. The aftermath of six years of death and destruction presents a new obstacle, how to live? With the war over Dina travels from a German castle to a DP facility

Synopsis Six science fiction short stories written by the author of Pearseus, the epic fantasy series that has reached #1 on Amazon. This edition includes one extra story, written by Amos M. Carpenter. Although they seem to be concerned with various themes, there are certain passions that run through them, almost obsessively.  What is the nature of reality; digital and corporeal?  Is there more to the world than we can see?  How far can we trust our senses?  What are the consequences of our actions, and is it possible to change them?  And if so, would we simply repeat same mistakes, or make new ones?   The anthology includes “I Come in Peace”, an award-winning short story that deals with a tortuous question: how far would man go to alleviate his loneliness?  Readers of Pearseus will certainly recognize here the birth of the Orbs. Humorous and poignant, these short stories are exciting, intriguing and imaginative. Excerpt The bartender rubbed a soiled glass with a dirty towel, not quite sure which one was clea

Synopsis Joshua is small for his age. He has been bullied relentlessly for years, and all of his friends have drifted away from him. Eve is a pretty girl who has just been recruited into the popular clique. The two couldn't be more different.  As they begin their final year of middle school, the unlikely pair find themselves partners in Science class. At first reluctant to work with him, Eve soon discovers hidden truths about not only Joshua but their school that turn her world upside-down.  The two form a relationship that will teach them both the true meaning of friendship, loyalty, and love... a relationship that will end up changing not only their lives, but the entire complexion of their school. Excerpt I was on the ground writhing in pain from two gut-punches within seconds. They were there, all four of them, laughing at me. I didn’t look at their faces; as terrified as I was, I always tried to never let them see it. I just clutched my stomach, trying like hell not to vomit.   I looked around to see who