Monty's Book Reviews

Sticky Fingers :  Confessions of a Marginally Repentant Shoplifter Tom Bentley Pages: 176 Genre: Autobiography, Memoir Published: 21 July 2022 Publisher:  The Write Word Publishing Publisher's Blurb There’s only one thing more excited than a kid in a candy store: a kid in a candy store who can steal as much candy as he needs. The same kid later realizes that budgeting for high school is so restrictive—why not just steal all those shiny little (and big) things that caught his eye? Tom Bentley was that kid. He was a dedicated, accomplished shoplifter through his high school years, so much so that he treated it as a business, taking orders for record albums, tape recorders, clothes, liquor and all sorts of glittery little gewgaws from his peer clients, and instructing a small team of fellow five-fingerers in matters of the trade. During the four-year period between age 15 and 19, Bentley was a lunatic thief, and became more and more brazen: He dribbled basketballs out of stores, march

  An Empire In Time Thief of Time Book 8 Cidney Swanson 5 Stars Pages: 278 Genre: Time Travel, Romance, YA, Teen, Historical, Sci-Fi Published: 09 August 2022 Publisher:  Williams Press Publisher's Blurb Jillian and Everett’s wedding plans are upended  when fellow time-traveler Dr. Duval steps out of the shadows and into their lives. Removing the Eiffel Tower as part of an experiment, Duval inadvertently creates a new timeline where the United States of America disappears in 1804 and is replaced by a French monarchy. Duval may not care whether America is a kingdom or a democracy, but he’ll stop at nothing to understand how spacetime operates. Desperate for information he needs, Duval hunts down Dr. Littlewood. Jillian and Everett’s wedding is on hold, and before long their lives are in danger. To stop Duval, Everett secretly travels to 1802 where he is jailed in the famed Conciergerie prison as an English spy. Jillian has a terrible choice. Will she play it safe in the American kin

  Mad, Bad And Dead Judi Westerholme Thriller Book 3 Sherryl Clark 5 Stars Pages: 320 Genre: Crime Thriller Published: 23 August 2022 Publisher: Verve Books Publisher's Blurb A dead employee. A missing child. Anonymous phone calls in the dead of night. Judi Westerholme's troubles aren't over... Already struggling to juggle co-running Candlebark's pub/bistro along with her new childcare responsibilities, what Judi doesn't need right now is more stress. Yet, as usual, it arrives in spades: she starts receiving threatening, late night phone calls before discovering one of her best employees, Kate, shot dead in her bed. Once again, Judi finds herself at the center of a murder investigation, as well as the hunt for Kate's fourteen year-old daughter who has been missing since the murder. Add in the uncertainty of her relationship with D.S. Heath and the fact that her estranged mother's nursing home keeps calling to urge her to visit, and Judi might finally be at b

The Sand Fiddlers A Rogue Green Beret's Escape From the Memories of Vietnam Les Burns 4 Stars Pages: 94 Genre: Mystery, Romance Published: 13 Sept 2021 Publisher's Blurb Alex Driscoll, a US Army Special Forces combat veteran, seeks solitude on an isolated section of beach while awaiting a discharge forced upon him due to an unauthorized eighteen-month mission to avenge the torture and butchering of his teammates at the hands of a Viet Cong death squad. A mysterious blonde-haired woman shows up unexpectedly and ruins his plans for seclusion. Suspecting she is either a war protester or sent by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Army’s Military Police, he tries to keep her distant. His suspicion dissipates when she reveals her lack of modesty and disclosure of childhood sexual abuse, retaliation, and possibly murder in a past as dark as his own. She claims she only seeks answers about the demons possessing a former friend who didn’t return from the same jungle. The strange

Rook Takes The Queen Mandrill P.I. Vol.1 Christopher Brimmage 5 Stars Pages: 284 Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Comedy Published: 22 August 2022 Publisher's Blurb Who stops cartoons when they turn criminal? MANDRILL P.I., that’s who! MANDRILL P.I. is a hardboiled, hard-drinking private detective, and in this tale, he must solve the case of a beast that's devouring people at night. But as he investigates, he learns the obvious suspect may not be the culprit, and a monstrous conspiracy festers behind the scenes. Will he stop it in time? Or will were-beasts unleash their vicious appetites on everyone in the city? If you enjoy werewolves, Noir Urban Fantasy, Hellboy, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, then this is the book for you. Review Mandrill P.I. is a monkey on a mission. Something is terrorising the city, a killer beast is on the loose and the hard-boiled gumshoe is on the case. This is a really fun novel that mixes a great plot with a range of strange characters as it follows Manny, our

The Anonymous Scribe The Vatican Chronicles Book 2 John I. Rigoli & Diane Cummings 4 Stars    Pages: 376 Genre: Historical Mystery, Thriller Published: 15 March 2022 Publisher's Blurb When the lie is two thousand years old, who, exactly, will the truth set free? While analyzing parchment fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, grad student Susan Bauer pieces together text that indicates the existence of a stolen Secret Temple Scroll that was penned decades before the gospels. If discovered, this document could free the Jewish people from the centuries’-long blemish that they are responsible for Yeshua’s death. It could also turn Christianity on its head. From the basement of the Israeli Museum to a basilica in a picturesque French village to the ruins of Herculaneum, ex-Mossad Yigael Dorian and blacklisted archaeologists Valentina Vella and Erika Simone journey on a transcontinental chase, dodging thieves, kidnappers, cardinals, and enlisting mobsters to uncover the truth behind t

Terror's Sword Kevin Kuhens 4 Stars Pages: 364 Genre: Thriller Published: 15 March 2022 Publisher's Blurb The fate of America—and the entire world—rests in the hands of one man: Kyle McEwan. A terrorist known only by his nom de guerre is barreling toward America to attack it with an undetermined biological weapon. With millions of his citizens facing certain death, the president unleashes elite counterterrorism case officer Kyle McEwan, the desperate last measure America’s chief executives use when all other conventional methods fail to eliminate national security threats. McEwan’s blistering international pursuit links murders and kidnappings, allowing him to identify the terror mastermind and bioagent. With the terrorist on the verge of striking, can McEwan unravel the plot in time to prevent an apocalyptic global pandemic? As only an insider can convey, Terror’s Sword unveils the deep state machinations that test McEwan’s courage and perseverance and vividly depicts the extr