Raider's Vendetta - Karen Arnpriester

Publisher:  Createspace

Pages:  334

Source: Review copy from author

Genre:  Adult, Christian Suspense

Synopsis

Charley knew what God wanted from her. She was willing to trust and obey as she protected the others in the bank. Then He would save her from her captor.
There was no way she could have anticipated the rage that would be unleashed in response to her prayers and her faith in God.

Raider was desperate, hardened, and his past had set the stage for an insane game of survival and spiritual warfare. The vendetta was in motion and Charley discovered that she needed her God to provide extraordinary miracles to keep her alive.

My Thoughts:

What makes one person feel that people are on the wrong track when they start talking about God?  What can we do to help them find the path to God?  Read Karen’s book to find out what a difference one person can make.

Once I started reading this book  I had difficulty putting it down.  We are introduced to a scenario we see too often on the news.  A robbery gone bad and hostages taken.  In Raider’s Vendetta we meet God fearing Charley, an elderly woman who finds herself one of the hostages.  When things go wrong the second robber takes hostages.  Charley decides to call him Raider because of his baseball cap.  She feels God’s presence even in this situation.  She comforts and helps the other hostages.  Raider is able to think on his feet.  He plans his escape.  He will need one hostage.  God makes it clear to Charley that she should be the one.  From this point on in the book the reader is treated to one suspenseful even after another.  Charley is tested beyond what most people could endure.  God sends a protector and miracle after miracle.  How far will God allow things to go?  Will Charley be able to make a difference in Raider’s life?  Will either of them survive?

This is a must read book.  My daughter came in to pick up her kids and took one look at the tears running down my cheeks and asked, “Good Book?” to which I replied, “No, Great Book!”

This is a book I will reread again because I know there are lessons I can learn about my walk with God.  I loved the way Karen brought in a character from her first book.  I am honored that she asked me to review her book.  This is so good.  I believe it would make an excellent movie. 

Check out Karen’s website where you can order her book and watch her book trailer.  This is one book that should be in every Christmas stocking.

A Case for Solomon - Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright

Publisher:  Free Press

Pages:  464

Source:  Review copy from publisher

Genre:  Adult, Non-fiction

A CASE FOR SOLOMON: BOBBY DUNBAR AND THE KIDNAPPING THAT HAUNTED A NATION chronicles one of the most celebrated—and most misunderstood—kidnapping cases in American history. In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, the son of an upper-middle-class Louisiana family, went missing in the swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recognizable, in the pinewoods of southern Mississippi. A wandering piano tuner who had been shuttling the child throughout the region by wagon for months was arrested and charged with kidnapping—a crime that was punishable by death at the time. But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South. Amid an ever-thickening tangle of suspicion and doubt, two mothers and a father struggled to assert their rightful parenthood over the child, both to the public and to themselves. For two years, lawyers dissected and newspapers sensationalized every aspect of the story. Psychiatrists, physicians, criminologists, and private detectives debated the piano tuner’s guilt and the boy’s identity. And all the while the boy himself remained peculiarly guarded on the question of who he was. It took nearly a century, a curiosity that had been passed down through generations, and the science of DNA to discover the truth.

A Case for Solomon is a gripping historical mystery, distilled from a trove of personal and archival research. The story of Bobby Dunbar, fought over by competing New Orleans tabloids, the courts, and the citizenry of two states, offers a case study in yellow journalism, emergent forensic science, and criminal justice in the turn-of-the-century American South. It is a drama of raw poverty and power and an exposÉ of how that era defined and defended motherhood, childhood, and community. First told in a stunning episode of National Public Radio’s This American Life, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic struggle to determine one child’s identity, along the way probing unsettling questions about the formation of memory, family, and self.

My Thoughts:

This is one of those books that sticks with you for a while.  I was horrified to learn the role the press played in this whole fiasco.  We really have not learned from past mistakes.  When Bobby Dunbar went missing, no stone was left unturned.  Yet when a boy was found who was similar in looks, the press was there to “get the story”.  I felt like they were willing to make the story fit a happy ending no matter what. 

My sympathies went to Julia Anderson who had no resources due to her financial circumstances.  I was pleased to learn the truth had been found but saddened by the pain everyone involved in this case suffered.  The authors have done a tremendous amount of research and have successfully told the story in a way that carried the reader along, making them want to know what happened next.

We are given a look at the time period and how things worked for those who had and those had not.  In this day and age we have the benefit of DNA testing.  Yet I wonder how much  the press would be able to skew the opinions of all parties involved.  It is sad that so many lives have been destroyed.  Yet I feel that a mystery was left unanswered in this story.  I don’t know if anyone will ever solve that mystery.  This is definitely worth the read. 

Two Great Mysteries by Penny Warner

Mystery of the Haunted Cave  

Publisher:  Meadowbrook Press

Pages:  102

Source:  Review copy from publisher

Genre:  Middle Grade Mystery

From Goodreads:

Thirteen-year-old Becca and her friends Sierra, CJ, and Jonnie are determined to win the gold medal for Troop 13 at the Gold Rush Jamboee. But they face stiff competition from the other troops -- especially Troop 7, whose members love to pull pranks on them. When a mysterious clue hints at treasure buried in Camp Miwok's Haunted Caves, Becca and her friends are determined to get their hands on that, too -- even if it means sneaking from camp, hanging out with bats, and being threatened by robbers...

Mystery of the Missing Mustangs

Publisher:  Meadowbrook Press

Pages: 112

Source:  Review copy from publisher

Genre:  Middle Grade Mystery

From Goodreads:

The four fearless scouts from Troop 13 are back again for another wild adventure, this time at a dude ranch in the western plains of Nevada. While learning how to care for horses, thirteen-year-old Sierra and her three best friends CJ, Becca, and Jonnie learn about the mysterious disappearance of government-protected wild horses, one of which was supposed to be adopted by their new friend Devyn. When the four friends decide to help Devyn find her horse, they discover it won’t be easy, not with a suspicious rodeo owner standing in the scouts’ way and leading them to believe someone is stealing the horses and using them for illegal purposes....

My Thoughts:

 I have to say I really loved these books.  They reminded me of reading The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew when I was a child.  I loved how much knowledge about the area or subject was put into  each story.  In The Mystery of Haunted Cave the girls not only had to earn their badges, but they had to search for a treasure they weren’t sure existed.  They had to rappel, solve a puzzle while making their way through caves and then set a trap that would not harm the animal they caught.  Readers get an insight into scouting and mining.

In The Mystery of the Missing Mustangs the girls are taken to a Dude Ranch.  They learn all about taking care of horses.  They learn from the bottom up.  They must learn to muck out stalls, feed and care for their horses, then learn to ride.  It is while they are there they meet Devyn the Ranch owner’s niece. She is adopting a wild mustang.  There is a problem, Silver Star the horse she is adopting has gone missing along with several other mustangs.  The girls must do their best to help solve this mystery.

If you are looking for clean, fun, reads then this is an author you need to check out.  The mysteries are fulfilling, not too hard.  I liked learning about mining and wild mustangs and how they are protected.  These are books that will definitely find a place on my shelves at school.