In this 18th book in the comical 'Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery' series, the amateur sleuth Magdalena Yoder - a Mennonite woman who eschews things like television and dancing - is on the trail of bank robbers. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Magdalena Yoder, who owns the PennDutch Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania, is married to a Jewish doctor named Gabe Rosen and they have a 4-year-old son called Jacob. Gabe's eccentric mom Ida is the Mother Superior at the nearby 'Convent of No Hope' run by the 'Sisters of Perpetual Apathy'.....who do nothing useful.
As the story opens, Magdalena and little Jacob are in the bank when three men dressed in Amish garb stage a robbery.
Jacob inadvertently foils the heist, and a teller named Amy Neubruder is accidently winged with a bullet before the criminals escape.
Magdalena is furious about her offspring being endangered, and since the police haven't caught the miscreants, she determines to find them herself. Magdalena gets no help from the bank employees, however, who seem oddly reticent about discussing the stick-up. Thus Magdalena and two of her friends stake out the bank manager's house, to learn what he knows.
The mission goes badly wrong however, when one of the snoops bursts into song right outside the banker's window.
Meanwhile, several mismatched couples from New Jersey - and an exotic Russian woman - check into the PennDutch Inn. Magdalena shrewdly entices the new guests into having an 'authentic Amish experience' which includes making your own bed; cleaning your own room; waking at dawn to milk the cows; eating plain food; etc....for an extra charge. LOL 😉
To add to the mayhem, Magdalena learns that her nemesis, the thief/killer Melvin Stoltzfus (who's married to Magdalena's imprisoned sister), is in the area.
Melvin wants to harm Magdalena and her loved ones, so the innkeeper is constantly on the lookout - hoping to catch Melvin and send him to jail.
When things get too hot for the bank robbers, a murder occurs, so Magdalena has at least two crimes to solve. She does catch the perp(s) after experiencing some serious - but farcical - peril.
The usual array of recurring characters makes an appearance, including: Freni - Magdalena's Amish cook who constantly quits and has a unique vocabulary (she thinks Magdalena has post pardon depression and needs to go to the Clooney bin); Doc - an old Amish gent who likes to proposition women; Grandma Ida Rosen - who speaks in Yiddishisms….Oy Vey!; Magdalena's cousin Sam the grocer; and more.
I like this series and got a laugh from the story, but the puns and jokes are overabundant this time around. IMO the author sacrificed story for jocularity. Still, if you enjoy comic mysteries, the book is worth a few hours of your time.
FBI Special Agent Nick Pellisante, head of the organized crime unit in New York City, has been after elusive mob boss Dominic Cavello for a long time.
Cavello is the worst of the worst - a sadistic vengeful brute who knows no limits. So it's a red letter day when Nick and his team nab the disguised Cavello, who's pretending to need a wheelchair, at his niece's wedding.
Nick is avidly anticipating Cavello's trial, where he's sure the killer will be convicted and put away for life.
The potential jury pool includes a single mother and aspiring actress named Andie DeGrasse. Andie, who has a young son and auditions to go to, schemes every which way to get out of jury duty.....but is chosen in the end.
As Andie and her fellow jurors hear testimony from 'rats' that have sold Cavello out, it looks like the crime lord will probably be found guilty.
Meanwhile Cavello, who has criminal contacts all over the world, wants to make sure he'll never be convicted. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say the book is divided into several sections, two of which are 'first trial' and 'second trial.'
The story has an interesting set of characters, including an eastern European thug who lives in Israel with his wife and chess prodigy son;
a mob killer who cracks jokes during his testimony.....and makes the jury laugh;
a woman who picks up the wrong guy at a bar;
and an array of judges, jurors and criminals.
The book was zipping along just fine until somewhere after the second trial, where the plot went over-the-top and entered unbelievable land. I don't want to give away spoilers so I'll just say Cavello is more evil than Satan and an untrained civilian goes after deadly mobsters. These exaggerated plot points make it impossible (for me) to suspend disbelief.
Still, this is an imaginative thriller, good entertainment for a few hours. Oh.....and there's a spot of romance, for folks who like that kind of thing. 😊💜💕
Rating: 3 stars
In this 3rd book in the 'Rosato and DiNunzio' series, lawyer Bennie Rosato defends a young man she tried to help when he was a child in juvie. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato first met Jason Lefkavick thirteen years ago, when he was a sweet 12-year-old boy. Jason had lashed out at a middle school bully named Richie Grusini, who was calling Jason's deceased mother names. The resulting fight landed both boys in juvenile hall, and Jason was sentenced to several months in juvie jail.
Jason's father Matthew hired Bennie to try to get Jason out sooner.
Bennie discovered that Jason and his dad were manipulated into giving up Jason's right to consult an attorney before he pled guilty. Thus Bennie entered an appeal for Jason, which appeared likely to succeed. However, it would take longer than Bennie had hoped.
In the meantime Bennie started dating the bully's uncle, a good-looking state trooper named Declan Mitchell. Bennie and Declan were soon smitten with one another, and Bennie had to give up Jason's case. As a result, Jason's appeal was aborted and - after serving his sentence - Jason emerged from juvie angry and disillusioned. In the end, Jason's entire childhood was blighted.
A subsequent exposé revealed corruption among juvenile court judges. Some of them - including Jason's - were 'on the payroll' of private detention facilities, and were sentencing kids to jail for the tiniest infractions. Unfortunately, this scandal broke too late to help young Jason.
Jump to the present and Jason, now a 25-year-old man, is accused of murdering his old enemy Richie Grusini. There's a LOT of evidence against Jason, but he claims he was framed. So Bennie, who feels like she failed Jason when he was a kid, takes the case. Bennie gets some assistance from the employees of her law firm, Rosato and DeNunuzio, especially the firm's investigator Lou.
The fact that Bennie is representing Jason upsets Richie's uncle Declan, who's now a lawyer. Declan doesn't want Bennie to use her formidable skills to get Jason off.
So - though Declan hasn't seen Bennie in over a decade - he comes to her house and implores her to drop the case. Of course Bennie refuses, despite the fact she still has feelings for Declan. (In my opinion Bennie is way too soppy about Declan and mentions his very handsome face a few too many times. 🙄)
Jason's case goes to court, and the jousting between Bennie and the prosecuting attorney is a highlight of the book. Though Jason seems reluctant to participate in his own defense, the truth eventually comes out.
In the course of the story we learn a bit about Bennie's past, and see more of her personality - which is tough, but caring and concerned. The book also points up an inherent problem of private prisons, which garner the most profit from holding the maximum number of prisoners - a factor that could put pressure on the justice system.
I think the dual timelines of the story work well, and I'd recommend the book to fans of legal mysteries.
Rating: 3 stars
This 2nd book in 'The Legacy of the Watchers' series, opens soon after the final events of the first book, "The Hidden Ones."
After predicting an imminent Armageddon, Asmodeus eludes the Raphaelians (Will, Gordon, and Clive) and disappears. However a mysterious formula on his computer and a one-way ticket to Alaska indicate that Asmodeus had been planning to go there.
Asmodeus in modern guise
Nadia Adeire and her Raphaelian colleagues think there might be a connection between Alaska's military research installations and Asmodeus' prediction. Certainly something is happening in Alaska.
Amanda Fioretti, a seductive woman who works for Tactical Defense Mechanisms Research (TDMR) in Fort Greely, claims she's being stalked by an unseen presence.
Meanwhile, Gordon has secretly obtained the ring that captured (and contains) Ornias, a djinn who worked alongside Asmodeus to help construct the ancient Temple of Solomon.
Ornias
As before the story is told from several perspectives: Nadia and her associates want to locate and stop whatever may be about to cause Armageddon; Ornias tells tales about the ancient world, his somewhat disreputable past, and his relationship with Asmodeus; and Amanda is hounded by the djinn Lilith.
Before long Nadia, Will, Gordon, and Clive travel to Alaska to do some on-site investigation.
They come to suspect that djinn control a number of people involved with potentially dangerous military research and hope that Ornias' information will help them locate these individuals. Meanwhile Amanda is possessed by Lilith and is forced to behave strangely and do unspeakable things.
The description of Amanda's being possessed - especially the manner in which her 'soul' experiences it - was credible and eerie.
Nadia and her crew eventually discover what kind of research is being done in Alaska and the potential hazards of this work, a scenario that's not unrealistic in today's world.
There's some lively personal interaction among the characters: Nadia and her boyfriend continue their love affair and verbal sparring; Amanda obsessively chases after her sexy co-worker Tommy Gerard; and severe friction develops among the Raphaelians when Gordon refuses to follow rules.
The story kept me reading as I tried to figure out who was being controlled by djinn, what terrible event might be planned, and whether Nadia and the Raphaelians would be able to stop it.
On the negative side, the motivation for some of the Raphaelian's illicit and potentially disastrous actions - to help Nadia learn more about Asmodeus - seems implausible and Ornias' story isn't as compelling as that of Asmodeus and Lilith (related in the first book).
Moreover, the behavior of the characters strikes some false notes: the dialog among Nadia and her friends, especially when they joke with each other, seems unnatural; and the characters are constantly gazing/staring at one another, their eyes and facial expressions being overused to denote emotions and reactions.
All in all it's a good story, and a satisfactory follow up to the first book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3 stars
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In The Hidden Ones Nancy Madore deftly crafts a tale that encompasses present day terrorism, myths about the ancient world, and mystical scrolls found in Qumran in the late 1940s. As the story opens Nadia Adeire, CEO of a charitable foundation, is kidnapped by a cryptic group of men who believe she has knowledge of roaming djinn (spirits of the dead) who mean to unleash terror on the world. The men who abduct Nadia are anxious to learn about her grandmother Helene.
In 1948, at the age of 16, Helene traveled to Qumran with her father to witness a ritual meant to raise Lilith, an ancient warrior, from the dead.
Qumran
Lilith - tall, beautiful, headstrong, cunning, and cruel - was the first of the female Nephilim, the offspring of unions between male angels and human women.
After the Qumran ritual Helene was orphaned and forced to marry an Arab man, a distressing event that completely changed her life.
Helene eventually became ill and died but she left her descendants a legacy of stories about Lilith. These tales - which stir debate among the characters about truth vs. myth - fascinate Nadia's kidnappers. They fear the djinn left behind by Lilith and other Nephilim are currently planning murderous attacks on humans.
Djinn
The story is told from three points of view: Nadia in the present, Helene in the mid-1900s, and Lilith in ancient times.... but the reader can easily follow the threads. I found the stories about the ancient world engaging, with massive Nephilim battling for control of cities and forests, and benevolent angels at first helping mankind and then becoming harsh masters trying to evade the wrath of God.
Helene's life in a strict Muslim household was also absorbing and instructive. Nadia's storyline was the least developed, largely being a vehicle to talk about Helene and Lillith.
The book is described as partly science fiction but I didn't find much evidence of this genre in the story other than speculation that the 'angels' may have been aliens. Some of the characters, such as Lilith, ancient warrior/king Asmodeus, and immortality-seeking Gilgamesh are captivating and memorable. Others, like Helene's father and his traveling companions, are more two-dimensional and functional.
Asmodeus
Gilgamesh
There's a bit of romance in the book, some of it not quite credible in the context of the story. I also felt that Nadia and her abductors got unrealistically chummy and that the ancients incongruously spoke in very modern lingo. Overall, though, I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the sequel. I'm curious to see what happens to the remaining characters and to learn how the conflict between humans and djinn plays out. I recommend the book to all readers, especially fans of adventure, legends, and myths.
Rating: 3 stars
