Gsmc Book Review Podcast

Sarah speaks with returning guest Stephanie Kane about her book, True Crime Redux: "'More than a witness but less than an active participant, I was a bit actor whose role in the crime shaped my life.' So writes Stephanie Kane, who here recounts the dramatic events that forever fractured the lives of the Frye family as well as her own. The murder of Betty Frye goes unpunished for decades. Kane, ex-wife of Betty's son Doug, finally decides to tell her story by fictionalizing the events she witnessed as well as those about which she simply speculated. The result is the novel Quiet Time. She shortly finds out, however, that fiction can oftentimes accurately mirror reality… In her new true-crime non-fiction, True Crime Redux, Kane artfully describes the chain of events that followed the publication of her novel and brings a forgotten cold case back to life. She dives deep into the inner-workings of modern crime and punishment through the retelling of events she played an involuntary role in.

Sarah speaks with returning author Louise Marburg about her collection of short stories, You Have Reached Your Destination which "captures turning points in the lives of twelve disparate women. Marburg's crisp, clear-eyed prose, infused with dark humor, reveals the inevitable collapse of pretension beneath the struggles of loneliness, death, and the all too human need to be seen. From a pre-teen attempting to understand her father's suicide to a ninety-year-old caught in shadows of past marital abuse, each of these women is made to confront the reality that change is the only certainty. This collection invites us to face ourselves and our own life journeys with sympathy, humor, and courage." If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscribe and give us a nice review. This way you will always be among the first to get the latest GSMC Book Review Podcasts. We woul

Sarah speaks with her friend Elizabeth Romero Stanley about her middle grade novel, I Love This Game: "I Love This Game is a must-read for children of all ages. It is not only a highly enjoyable and entertaining story for the reader, walking alongside the lovable Peyton throughout her journey and rooting for her the whole way, but what stands out to are the values that are highlighted throughout this wonderful story from beginning to end. There are elements that demonstrate the importance of inclusion, respect, kindness, family, commitment, and more. Peyton is a great kid who is learning some valuable lessons. As we all know, growing up, even in the best of circumstances, has many challenges. Navigating the landmines of family, friends, school, insecurities, and responsibilities, is rarely easy. This is especially true for Peyton, a smart and thoughtful middle-school girl, who is always trying to do the right thing. With the support of her ever-loyal dog, Atticus, and her best friend, Mikayla, will P

Sarah speaks with Linda Hurtado Bond about her novel, All the Broken Girls: "Crime reporter Mari Alvarez was never able to solve her mother’s murder ten years ago. But when a woman is gunned down on the doorstep of her West Tampa neighborhood, Mari can’t shake the eerie sense of connection. Now there have been two murders in two days. Each crime scene awash with arcane clues—and without a trace of DNA from the killer. And for each victim, a doll. The first is missing an eye. The second is missing a heart. But are these clues leading to the killer…or messages for Mari? Caught up in a maelstrom of Old-World superstition, secrets, and ties to her own past, Mari has only one option. Put the puzzle together before someone else dies—even if it destroys her career. But there’s no escaping the hungry spider’s web when it’s been made just for you…" If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please reme

Sarah speaks with Coco Picard about her novel, The Healing Circle: "A mother abandons her family in California to pursue a miracle cure in Munich. Once she gets there however, she wonders if she might have already died. Bedridden with a terminal diagnosis, memories, nurses, immoral doctors, foreign television broadcasts, and phone calls from children intrude upon her consciousness. An aloe plant called Madame Blavatsky is her primary companion." If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscribe and give us a nice review. This way you will always be among the first to get the latest GSMC Book Review Podcasts. We would like to thank our Sponsor: GSMC Podcast Network Advertise with US: https://gsmcpodcast.com/advertise-with-us Website: https://gsmcpodcast.com/gsmc-book-review-podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gsmc-book-review-podcast/id1123769087 GS

Sarah speaks with Mark Chesnut about his memoir Prepare For Departure: "At an early age, award-winning travel writer, Mark Chesnut, learned to dodge discomfort by jumping on the nearest plane, bus or car. That tactic proved especially useful when his single mother made it clear that there was no room for discussion about his gay identity. Mark, overwhelmed with wanderlust, shoplifts in airports, avoids Southern Baptist salvation, acts like Hillary Clinton in a nursing home, and dresses in drag with his grandfather. He even creates an imaginary airline and flies away. Now, as 89-year-old Eunice Chesnut moves to a New York City nursing home to be near her son, Mark's obsession with travel takes a backseat as he embarks on the most emotional journey of all. More than an end-of-life memoir, more than a collection of childhood memories and travel stories, Prepare for Departure showcases what happens when a permissive mother and a misfit son face death while revisiting life. Buckle your seatbelts for a

Sarah speaks with Scott Russell Sanders about his book, Small Marvels: "In Limestone, Indiana, a city tucked away among forested hills, peculiar things happen, often in the vicinity of a jack-of-all-trades named Gordon Mills. Centaurs and nymphs shelter in a local cave, alligators lurk in the sewers, warm snow falls on the Fourth of July, cornstalks rise higher than chimneys, and the northern lights shine down on the municipal dump. Gordon takes such events in stride and deals with them as part of his work on the city maintenance crew. He earns just enough to support a boisterous family, which includes his formidable wife Mabel, their four children, Mabel's parents, and his widowed mother―nine souls packed into an old house that falls apart as fast as Gordon can fix it. Part folktale, part tall tale, part comic romance, Small Marvels revels in the wonders of everyday life. So, welcome to Limestone, Indiana. You won't find it on a map, but you may remember visiting the place in dreams, the rar

Sarah speaks with Donna Gordon about her debut novel, What Ben Franklin Would Have Told Me, which "explores the story of Lee, a vibrant thirteen-year-old boy who is facing premature death from Progeria (a premature aging disease); his caretaker TomÁs, a survivor of Argentina's Dirty War, who is searching for his missing wife, who was pregnant when they were both "disappeared;" and Lee's single mother, Cass, overwhelmed by love for her son and the demands of her work as a Broadway makeup artist. When a mix-up prevents Cass from taking Lee on his "final wish" trip to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia to pursue his interest in the life of Ben Franklin, TomÁs--who has discovered potential leads to his family in both cities--offers to accompany Lee on the trip. As one flees memories of death and the other hurtles inevitably toward it, they each share unsettling truths and find themselves transformed in the process. Set during the Ronald Reagan presidency, this lyrical novel trans

Sarah speaks with R. V. Minkler about his post-apocalyptic novel, The Redeemed: "Eleven years after a virus swept through the world, small, spread-out gangs are all that's left of humanity. Veena Osborne and her mentor, Abraham Jones, lead the Tierrans through the daily trials of surviving in post-apocalyptic San Diego. Together, they cling to the daily disciplines of faith and life that keep them safe and alive. When Nate Sinclair stumbles out of a NASA-sponsored suspended animation experiment and into a world changed by catastrophic fires and pandemics, he finds his way to the Tierrans, and to Veena. The miraculous preservation of Nate through all the trials of the world might be enough to keep a sterile humanity alive, but the spreading knowledge of his immunity threatens to push the surviving humans into all-out war." If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscr

Sarah speaks with Sue Mell about her novel Provenance: "Still grieving his wife's early death, DJ has spent the last three years-and the money from her insurance policy-collecting guitars, composing music, and continuing to shop the Brooklyn stoop sales and flea markets they'd always enjoyed. When his building is sold, he takes refuge in his younger sister's half-finished basement, imagining a comfortable and solitary retreat in Hurley, the small Hudson Valley town where they grew up. Instead, he finds himself caught up in her troubling divorce, drafted as caregiver for his 11-year-old niece, and unable to face or afford a storage unit crammed with hundreds of vinyl records and every other scrap of his former life. DJ gifts his niece a marbled glass egg, a porkpie hat, and one of his prized guitars. But what's asked of him, on his return to Hurley is not to give the perfect object-it's to give of himself." If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you c

Sarah speaks with David Ellis about his novel, Look Closer: "Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure … absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer. When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and obsession with revenge. These are just a few of the lies that make up the complex web...and they will have devastating consequences. And while both Vicky and Simon are liars, just who exactly is conning who?" If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscribe and give us a

Sarah speaks with Kim Hays about her novel, Pesticide: "Bern, Switzerland—known for its narrow cobblestone streets, decorative fountains, and striking towers. Yet dark currents run through this charming medieval city and beyond, to the idyllic farmlands that surround it. When a rave on a hot summer night erupts into violent riots, a young man is found the next morning bludgeoned to death with a policeman’s club. Seasoned detective Giuliana Linder is assigned to the case. That same day, an elderly organic farmer turns up dead and drenched with pesticide. Enter Giuliana’s younger—and distractingly attractive—colleague Renzo Donatelli to investigate the second murder. Giuliana’s disappointment that they’re on two different cases is tinged with relief—her home life is complicated enough without the risk of a fling. But when an unexpected discovery ties the two victims into a single case, Giuliana and Renzo are thrown closer together than ever before. Dangerously close. Will Giuliana be able to handle the

Sarah speaks with returning author Carter Wilson about his novel, The New Neighbor: "Aidan holds the winning Powerball numbers. Is today the best day of his life... or the worst? Aidan Marlowe is the superstitious type—he's been playing the same lottery numbers for fifteen years, never hitting the jackpot. Until now. On the day of his wife's funeral. Aidan struggles to cope with these two sudden extremes: instant wealth beyond his imagination, and the loss of the only woman he's ever loved, the mother of his twin children. But the money gives him and his kids options they didn't have before. They can leave everything behind. They can start a new life in a new town. So they do. But a huge new house and all the money in the world can't replace what they've lost, and it's not long before Aidan realizes he's merely trading old demons for new ones. Because someone is watching him and his family very closely. Someone who knows exactly who they are, where they've

Sarah speaks with returning author Laury A. Egan about her novel, Once, Upon an Island: "A sixteen-year-old girl, Olivia, who feels guilty about her younger brother's death. Her mother, Evelyn, a glamorous artist. Travis, the charismatic owner of the Pink Fancy Hotel. A mysterious Czechoslovakian widow, Sofiya. A sojourn on St. Croix, a tropical island. Two love affairs. Secrets. Nazis. Ravensbrück concentration camp. Conflict, jealousy, kindness, tenderness. A rescue and a resurrection. All woven together in a haunting work of literary fiction set in 1966." If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscribe and give us a nice review. This way you will always be among the first to get the latest GSMC Book Review Podcasts. We would like to thank our Sponsor: GSMC Podcast Network Advertise with US: https://gsmcpodcast.com/advertise-with-us Website: https://gsmcpodcast.com

Sarah speaks with Rich Davis about his Cult of Dracula graphic novels: "From the nightmares of Rich Davis comes a unique re-imagining of perhaps the most famous tale of gothic horror ever written. Davis weaves vampire mythologies & occult traditions from around the world into the tragic tapestry of a fallen bloodline. It's Witchy! It's Wyrd! It's Helter Skelter within a hippie cult dedicated to an ancient blood goddess! You may know Bram Stoker's horror classic by heart, but you have no idea where Cult of Dracula will take you! Synopsis: Special Agent Malcolm Bram arrives at the House of the Rising Sun. This secluded compound is the home of the secretive Ordo Dracul and the scene of a horrendous crime coined, "The Cult of Dracula Mass Suicides". Mina Murray leads a documentary film crew to uncover the secrets of the mysterious cult by interviewing its enigmatic leader, Robert Renfield. Neither investigator is prepared for the gravity of the truths they will uncover.&quo

Sarah speaks with Faye Snowden about A Killing Rain, the follow-up to A Killing Fire (the first book of a 4 book series): "After former homicide Raven Burns returns to Byrd’s Landing, Louisiana to begin a new life, she soon finds herself trapped by the old one when her nephew is kidnapped by a ruthless serial killer, and her foster brother becomes the main suspect. To make matters worse, she is being pursued by two men— one who wants to redeem her soul for the murder Raven felt she had no choice but to commit, and another who wants to lock her away forever." If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscribe and give us a nice review. This way you will always be among the first to get the latest GSMC Book Review Podcasts. We would like to thank our Sponsor: GSMC Podcast Network Advertise with US: https://gsmcpodcast.com/advertise-with-us Website: https://gsmcpodcast.com/gsmc

Sarah speaks with returning author Mary Keliikoa about the first book in her new Mystic Pines mystery series, Hidden Pieces: "Sheriff Jax Turner is staring down the barrel of his broken past. On the brink of ending it all, he feels like a failure following his daughter's tragic passing and his subsequent divorce. But when a schoolgirl vanishes and her backpack is found in a sex offender's backseat, the weary lawman drags himself into action and vows to nail one last sociopath. Shocked to discover the teen's aunt had lost her life in an abduction years prior, the devastating outcome that he's taken personally, Jax believes the killer has returned with a vengeance. But as the desperate cop frantically hunts down a mysterious relative in search of a suspect, the girl's time keeps ticking away... Can the jaded sheriff take down the culprit in time to bring the young girl home alive?" If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or o

Sarah speaks with Davida G. Breier about her debut novel, Sinkhole: "Lies from the past and a dangerous present collide when, after fifteen years in exile, Michelle Miller returns to her tiny hometown of Lorida, Florida. With her mother in the hospital, she's forced to reckon with the broken relationships she left behind: with her family, with friends, and with herself. As a teenager, Michelle felt isolated and invisible until she met Sissy, a dynamic and wealthy classmate. Their sudden, intense friendship was all-consuming. Punk rocker Morrison later joins their clique, and they become an inseparable trio. They were the perfect high school friends, bound by dysfunction, bad TV, and boredom―until one of them ends up dead. Forced to confront the life she turned her back on fifteen years ago, she begins questioning what was truth and what were lies. Now at a distance, Michelle begins to see how dangerous Sissy truly was. An ingenious debut from editor and publisher Davida Breier, Sinkhole is a mesm

Sarah speaks with Annette Libeskind Berkovits about her historical fiction novel, The Corset Maker: "A Parisian Count, a Moroccan arms smuggler, and an orphaned Spanish boy test the convictions and tug at the heart of Rifka Berg, a young Jewish corsetiere from Warsaw. The Corset Maker follows the enthralling life of Rifka Berg leading up to, during, and after WWII. Born into a pious Orthodox family, Rifka yearns to read forbidden literature and to explore the world beyond the confines of her small community. Her wishes come true, albeit harrowingly, when the tumultuous events of the 20th century take her on a journey for survival. Faced with life and death situations, Rifka must take immense risks. What decisions will she make? Or will circumstances choose for her? The Corset Maker is written in honor of the author’s mother and her close friends, all women of immense courage and integrity. Rifka’s personal struggles and dilemmas go to the heart of the major ethical issues and challenges of our times.&q

Sarah speaks with Anna J. Stewart about Exposed, the first book in her Circle of the Red Lily series: "Working as a Hollywood photographer means Riley Temple has seen it all. But then she finds herself staring at the chilling image of a dead woman. When her questions about the film lead to violence, she reluctantly turns to the only person who can help. Detective Quinn Burton, the police commissioner’s son. Her history with the LAPD is complicated, her trust in authority, tenuous. But to find those responsible and protect those closest to her, she’s willing to do anything. Even trust a cop. After more than a decade on the job, Quinn knows a dangerous situation when he sees it and Riley Temple is up to her ears in trouble. But not for the reason she thinks. The pictures she’s stumbled on call into a question a notorious murder conviction—one that powerful people have a vested interest in keeping in place. Seeing this case through means betraying someone: his job, his family, or the woman he’s falling in