Review: The Missing Teacher II: The German Connection by Jeremy E. Owen

The Missing Teacher II: The German Connection

by Jeremy E. Owen

Recent high school graduate Dorothy Reine has dreams of studying to be an architect in America. But her father's disappearance two years earlier has put a damper on those plans. Frustrated by people who tell her to let the authorities handle his case, she decides to take matters into her own hands. 

As she discovers about her father's Stasi past, redemption, and suffering, will she be able to pursue her dream? Maybe, but not in any way that she ever expected!

My Take:

Dorothy Reine works hard at her Great Uncle Trotz' restaurant in Berlin, marginally aware of his past involvement in the Stasi, a neo-Nazi secret police operating in East Berlin shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her father's disappearance two years earlier is the biggest obstacle in the way of fulfilling her dreams of going to America to study to be an architect.

As people at every turn stymie her efforts to uncover the truth of her father's disappearance, she discovers a secret room in the restaurant basement, revealing troubling clues to Herr Trotz' involvement in nefarious operations that might have something to do with her father's mysterious absence.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG - Alcohol is consumed a few times, there are a few scenes at a bar.

Violence:

PG - Torture is threatened multiple times, and occurs once off screen. While danger lurks in the background, actual violence rarely appears onstage.

Language:

G - None.

Adult Content:

PG - Dorothy is propositioned a few times, by various suitors, and her desire to give interested men the cold shoulder is discussed and rebuked a few times. She has trouble reconciling the bible and good friends who came out as gay. 

Christian content:

Pivotal decisions are made by characters based on the testimony of Deitrich Boenhoffer, and the main character struggles with her faith, due to her father's disappearance, among other things. Faith plays a backseat role through most of the book, though providence is visible in how things progress. Characters are encouraged to pray when doubting. Family loyalty is preferred over monetary gain.

Final analysis:

Dorothy appeared rather clueless as forces swirled around her without her notice. The action was gripping, though, and the plot kept me involved. I finished much of the book in one sitting, it was that engrossing. The settings were realistic, the action intense. The characters somewhat believable. All in all, an enjoyable and gripping high stakes adventure story. Five Stars!

About the Author:
Jeremy E Owen is the author of the Missing Teacher Trilogy and the Tim Cauling, Amateur PI series. He grew up in a small town in North America, but presently is an associate professor in South Korea, where he lives with his wife and two amazing daughters.

Review: Hope of Home by Samuel Cronin

Hope of Home

by Samuel Cronin

It's finally Christmas Eve. The entire Straw family has gathered to celebrate the best day of the year. But there's a problem. Grandpa Straw, a wounded veteran of World War II, on the brink of retirement, and facing cancer, has lost the spirit of their tradition. When the family goes caroling, he stays home alone. And perhaps he wants it this way, where he does not have to face the season with all its promise of good tidings and joy. But when his family does not come back, events transpire that encourage him to confront his bruised past and embrace his family, becoming the warm grandpa everyone longs to love. A story within a story, Hope of Home is a novel that Grandpa Straw has penned and gifted to his estranged grandson Marcus, written in the hope of helping him reunite with his family and bring him home. 

My Take:

Marcus Straw has been estranged from his family, living as far across the United States as he can get from his strict and distant grandfather Douglas Straw, and his eccentric family. But shortly before Christmas Eve he receives an unexpected present from Grandpa Straw, a book, and an invitation to please return one final time to his home to face his past and the unreconciled pain residing there.

As Marcus takes a long train ride across the country, he reads the story his grandpa Douglas Straw has written about a family Christmas gone terribly wrong. Dealing with an aggressive form of cancer and a short and certain lifespan, Grandpa Douglas alienates his entire family and they leave him to go out and look at Christmas lights, just as an EF3 tornado rips through the valley, destroying everything, and taking away Douglas' entire family in a moment.

As Douglas deals with the unbelievable grief and confusion, his friends help him unwrap the Christmas gifts left by his missing family, and rediscover the burdens and triumphs of the past. But as he tries to make peace with his loss and his estranged family, can Douglas make peace with the Maker that took them away?

Content:

Drug Content:

PG-13 - Alcoholism and alcohol-induced violence play a pivotal role in this poignant novel.

Violence:

PG-13 - The aftermath of the tornado, and the carnage it leaves behind, is rather graphic. Many people plead for help and die while waiting for assistance.

Language:

G - None.

Adult Content:

G - Squeaky clean.

Christian content:

The importance of family, the despair of catastrophic loss, reconciliation, redemption, and salvation are broad brush themes that permeate this dramatic tale of loss. Scripture is used in several places by the characters to encourage or admonish.

Final analysis:

The main character in this story within a story begins as a completely unlikable, unredeemable crotchety old rich man who never had time for his doting family or his patient and caring wife. As the story progresses, he grows less and less likable, until his despair and impotent rage reaches a critical mass. But his story is three dimensional and gripping, and his raw emotion and struggle is very real. The characters in this tale are real and the drama gripping, the character arc encouraging, and the conclusion satisfying. Five Stars!

About the Author:

Samuel Cronin was born in Burns, Oregon, and grew up in John Day, 70 miles north. He attended Corban University before transferring to Oregon State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in English. He later attended Eastern Oregon University to obtain his Master in Education. In 1999 he sailed as a deckhand aboard Schooner Roseway, whose port of call was Camden, Maine. This experience laid the groundwork for his novel "How Well the Sailors Run". Growing up in Grant County, where gold was discovered on June 8, 1862, captured his interest in prospecting lore and romanticized his view of gold mining. These experiences helped shape his historical novel "Warm Gold". Golfing with his father and brothers helped fuel his interest in golf, forming the basis for "A Season for the Blessed." As a boy he remembers traveling to his grandparent's house at Christmas to experience a tradition on Christmas Eve that forms the groundwork for his fourth novel "Hope of Home." He lives in Idaho with his wife and son.

Review: Dark Water by Simon Thould

Dark Water

by Simon Thould

A girl goes missing – but has she been lost, or taken? Her frantic mother begs for help from the one man with the ruthless skills to track her down. Alex Rafter, former sniper, sees Madeleine Finch as a bad, erratic mother, and is reluctant to go back to a life he is trying to forget. But his own nightmares compel him to search, for the girl's sake.

Rafter embarks on a murderous hunt, aided by Gabriel Montero, another former soldier, that leads through the wilds of the New Forest to the squalid back streets of Southampton. Rebecca Grant, local veterinary, drug addict and would-be lover, offers help, but her own agenda threatens to send Rafter astray. It becomes a race against time to find the girl before she is lost forever to the heartless world of people traffickers.

My Take:

When Alex Rafter, former sniper for the British military, settles down in his old Uncle Max's cottage, Dark Water, in the New Forest community, he's expecting a tranquil change to the surgical killing he was used to. The last thing he really is looking for is more opportunities to use his deadly combat skills. That's a past he'd rather leave behind.

But when Madeleine Finch, local Mercedes dealership owner and erratic mother, begs him to find her missing teenage daughter, he reluctantly agrees to take on the task, for the girl Jac's sake.

Rafter relentlessly pursues the missing girl, stymied by local police and assisted by ex-military bar owner Gabriel Montero. The chase leads him from the wilds of the New Forest to the squalid seedy back streets of nearby Southampton, in a race against time to find her before she is lost forever in the dark world of sex trafficking.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG-13 - Ketamine, used by vets, is trafficked. Alcoholism is common here, with vodka, beer, and whisky consumed pretty much whenever people gather.

Violence:

PG - There are several battle scenes, with gunfire and methodical killing. Nothing gratuitous.

Language:

R - The F bomb is dropped 25 times. Other profanity is sprinkled lightly throughout

Adult Content:

R - This is a book about sex trafficking. There is one sex scene, not overly graphic or prolonged. There is a conversation about a sexual encounter, and there is some discussion about sex trafficking and the chances of the girls caught in it. Prostitution and pimps are discussed in a couple conversations. While the subject matter involves sex, abuse, and slavery, there's only casual come-ons, other than the one scene.

Christian content:

Um, not at all. There are no mentions of faith, praying, any gods, or church. God's name is used about 10 times but only as an epithet. On the other hand, there is camaraderie under fire, persistence, and an overarching theme of right and wrong. The lines may be off center. They say that in Texas, 'Your honor, he NEEDED killing' is an admissible defense. There is a bit of that here.

Final analysis:

Well, this one isn't for the little kids. The language is a bit rough for even teens. If you are looking for an adventure story, though, wanting to experience the bad guys getting taken down, this is a good read. The pace is slow in starting up, but the action held my attention and it grew rather gripping by midpoint. The internal struggles in the main character and the interactions between him and the ladies around him, and the friends on his team, made this a bit of a guilty pleasure, and I'm a fan of black ops and insurmountable odds rescues. There's plenty of that here. I'd love to give this a full five stars, but the pacing dragged in the beginning, and it was a bit tough getting started on the actual adventure. Four Stars!

About the Author:

Simon was born in 1945 in Somerset, England. He played sports at school with more enthusiasm than he studied but did manage to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor and practised for twenty years in London and throughout the south of England.
He completed two creative writing courses at night school and one correspondence course in his spare time. He also worked as a restaurant and bar manager in Hampshire before moving to Spain with his two cats for a year and a half where he wrote his first novel. He then moved back to the UK and took a position as resident groom/housekeeper in Kent and wrote a second novel.
Simon relocated to Charleston, South Carolina in the '90's for several years working in warehouse stock control, he sold insurance and artwork in a Thomas Kinkade gallery downtown.
Returning to the UK again, he worked as a mailman and in several retail positions and wrote a third unpublished novel.
Moving to Gozo in the Mediterranean in 2014, Simon wrote, 'Dark Water', a thriller introducing Alex Rafter. After a lifetime of rejections from publishers and agents with only minor success selling magazine articles, he made one more push to get published and sent sample chapters to more than fifty UK agents and was lucky to be picked up by David Haviland of the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency in London. 'Dark Water' was published in August 2017.
In the same month, Simon suffered a stroke and spent a week in hospital and for several months underwent tests and examinations before being singed off by the consultant at the Stroke Clinic, Blackpool where he now lives. Sucking down six pills a day, Simon continues with his recovery and therapy and has returned to writing work.
Simon's passion include horseracing, reading USA hard-bolied, noir novels and watching classic black and white movies.