Monty's Book Reviews

  Blaze Returns by Bill Runner 330 pages, Kindle Edition Published December 1, 2021 Publisher's Blurb “I wasn’t expecting trouble when I pulled off the highway.” Ex-deputy US Marshal Axel Blaze is doing what he knows best – dealing with trouble. Ten years in the special forces and five years in the US Marshals have made Blaze a trained investigator and expert in combat. Blaze does not fight his opponents; he puts them down. He strikes first. And hard. Takes them out. Fast. Deputy Marshal Carter has gone missing in Little Butte, Nevada. The Dawsons own the town. The Mexican cartel is moving in on their meth business. A gang war is coming to town. Director Flynn asks Blaze to return for one last assignment. It is up to Blaze to find Carter before all hell breaks loose. Review What do you get when you mix up the genetic material from Johns Rambo & McLane and add a dash of Jack Reacher….Axle Blaze that’s who Deputy Marshal Carter has gone missing in Little Butte, Nevada and form...

  The Killing Crew by Murray Bailey Rating: 5 Stars Kindle Edition ,  340 pages Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Heritage Books Publisher's Blurb Ash Carter and Bill Wolfe are in Israel hunting a group of British Army deserters known as the Killing Crew. Some people think they were a myth, others believe they were the most hated of British soldiers. In the newly formed state that’s at war with the Arab nations, hated by Jews and despised by Arabs, the two SIB officers think they face an uncomfortable task. But when they become targets they realise this is more than just a job. It’s life or death Review In this follow up to ‘Cyprus Kiss’ Ash Carter is posted to post-war Israel on a clandestine mission to track down and apprehend the mysterious ‘Killing Crew’ who are rumoured to be composed of pro-Arab British Army deserters. This is a great sequel to ‘Cyprus Kiss’ and is full of the author’s trademark twists and turns which keep you guessing right to the end. In fact it ...

Cyprus Kiss (An Ash Carter Novel) Murray Bailey Rating: 5 Stars Publisher: Heritage Books Pages: 357  Format: Paperback Publisher's Blurb Help Me!  Those were the words on the back of a woman’s photograph. And yet she vanished six months ago. It’s 1948 and military investigator Ash Carter has arrived in Cyprus. A gang has been operating for two years, leaving a mark known to police as the kiss of death. Is this something to do with them? And why ask him for help? After a murder, Carter begins to realize this is personal. In a race against time, Carter must work out the connection between the gang, the missing woman and the murder, before it’s too late. Review Wow! I just spent my entire Saturday reading Cyprus Kiss as it was completely impossible to put down. Set a few years after the end of WWII. Lieutenant Ash Carter is has a new assignment on the island of Cyprus and stumbles upon an execution style killing that drags him into a roller coaster ride of murder, abduction, gan...

  I Saw The Elephant Elizabeth Iola Loveless Rating: 5 Stars Publisher's Blurb —A wry satire of the Mormon church—past and present. Back in my time, everybody knew what seeing the elephant was all about—experiencing and, better yet, surviving new and often horrific situations. All us brave emigrants who traversed the Oregon Trail saw the elephant at least once during our overland journey. In July of 1852, I called upon my friend Polly but never made it to her family’s farm. Instead, I encountered the all-fired pachyderm in all his monstrosity. Quicker than a power of lightning, I went from farm girl on the Oregon frontier to the new kid at Forestview Middle School. Of course, there’ll be naysayers who claim that I fabricated my memoir, but I most certainly did time travel from 1852 to 2015. Habituating myself to iPhones, automobiles, computers, and other such-like things was disquieting and arduous in and of itself. However, just when my life had settled down, I discovered Mormons ...

  Buenos Aires Triad F.E. Beyer Rating : 4 Stars Publisher's Blurb A grounded, realistic noir featuring the Venezuelan and Chinese gangs of Argentina's capital...  When an armed robber shoots a British tourist in Buenos Aires, Lucas's life changes forever. A humble watch-seller moonlighting for the gang behind the robbery, Lucas picked the British woman as a target. After she dies from her wounds, the Argentine President orders the police to find the perpetrators at all costs. Lucas wants out of the gang. Instead, he becomes more entangled. He joins gang-leader Gustavo in extortion work for the triads. Under orders from Boss Ping, Lucas collects cash from Chinese-owned supermarkets and throws Molotov cocktails at those who don’t pay. But then police arrest Ping at her home... "A searing portrait of the tourism industry and how the tourists and natives view each other. It reminded me of Michel Houellebecq's novels." ----------- Review Lucas runs a watch shop in...

  A Fair Warning Dianna Roman Rating : 4 Stars Publisher's Blurb Poppy All I wanted was to throw a little bag of dog poop at my ex's door to release my divorce demons. Is that too much to ask? Just my luck Deputy Hillbilly Upchuck Duke catches me in the act. That creep's been on me like germs on a buffet since we were kids. I have a bar to run, a beer garden to build, and moron cousins and patrons to wrangle. I don't have time to be stalked by this idiot. If he thinks showing back up in Grand Valley with a star on his inbred chest, sans mullet, will make me forget the hell he put me through, he's dumber than he was when he left Illinois.  Chuck Poppy Prince hates my guts. Always has. It's cute she thinks those nicknames bother me, almost as cute as how clueless she still is about her sex appeal. It takes a special kind of man to put up with her crap. I'm going to show her once and for all that no one's as special as me. -------------- Review Romantic nov...

      The Interest : How The British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery By Michael Taylor Publisher's Description For two hundred years, the abolition of slavery in Britain has been a cause for self-congratulation – but no longer. In 1807, Parliament outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire, but for the next quarter of a century, despite heroic and bloody rebellions, more than 700,000 people in the British colonies remained in slavery. And when a renewed abolitionist campaign was mounted, making slave ownership the defining political and moral issue of the day, emancipation was fiercely resisted by the powerful ‘West India Interest’. Supported by nearly every leading figure of the British establishment – including Canning, Peel and Gladstone, The Times and Spectator – the Interest ensured that slavery survived until 1833 and that when abolition came...