In Ireland, a “keener” is one who sings at a wake, but these aren’t pretty songs to guide the dead to their immortal rest. Rather, they are wrenching laments, crying for a future cut short and family left behind, before the song... Read More

“So this is war.” This nascent realization is uttered more than once by characters in this historical novel. Readers are privy to the woes and grief of ordinary folk as they are thrust into the maelstrom of a most difficult... Read More

In 1809, composer Franz Joseph Hayden’s head was stolen from his grave. This was not an isolated incident. The skulls of artist Francisco Goya, composers Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, philosophers Rene Descartes,... Read More

Sharon Potts does such a solid job in the first half of "In Their Blood" (Oceanview, 978-1-933515-62-5) that the second half, especially the superheated climax, suffers by comparison. Young, spoiled Jeremy Stroeb returns from Europe and... Read More

What do we know about China, the enormous nation that will most likely dominate the next century? Already most of us are clothed by China, shod by China, supplied with hardware by China, effectively in debt to China. And yet most of us... Read More

Keep sweet or you will go to hell. Never forget the core teaching. Perfect obedience produces perfect faith. So said the leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FDLS) to their women and children. But... Read More

Military fiction is one of the oldest genres—look at Homer. Societies keep engaging in new wars so writers willing to do the necessary research have lots of material to mine. Soldiers and sailors supply them with real heroes cowards... Read More

Modern times have created soldiers in both the male and female variety. Both carry heavy guns. Both are involved in firefights. Both are wounded. Both are killed. But the female version, a growing percentage of the US armed forces, is... Read More