Reviewed by: Steve Capell

Nine-year-old Jess Hall and his  brother Christopher, nicknamed “Stump,” get caught spying on their mother, Julie,  who is secretly meeting with Carson Chambliss, her pastor. Chambliss has lived a life that has physically scared him both from an outward appearance and also internally scared morally, but this hasn’t stopped the people of Marshall, North Carolina of accepting him has their scarred and charismatic preacher.

Stump has been mute from childbirth, but Julie believes that pastor Chambliss can heal her son, but she finds out that kind of trust only leads to a disastrous conclusion. The people that have placed their trust in Chambliss would never say anything to discredit his authority even though his cultish actions are a hidden secret by newspapers that have been hung over all the windows in the small church … after all if your not a member you have no business knowing what goes on every Sunday. Chambliss has a godlike authority … not because God gave it to him, but because the congregation has willed it to be and Chambliss knows he has the power.

Clem Barefield, Madison County Sheriff, makes it his mission to find out what has happened behind all the closely held secrets, but his work isn’t going to be easy amidst the evil that exists within the cultish church. Clem finds his first clue to the evil persona that exits inside Chambliss when he speaks to Adelaide Lyle, the towns midwife. Adelaide knows Chambliss power over the people of Marshall because she had personally witnessed Chambliss’ evil power in her own life. Clem is determined to bring justice to the town of Marshall, but sometimes justice isn’t delivered the way one might expect.

My thoughts:

I have found some amazing debut works of literature and Wiley Cash’s debut novel A Land More Kind Than Home has met the challenge and as such this novel will be allowed to reside on a special book shelf along side a few other books because this book will be one I will want to keep in my library and read again.  

So why does Cash’s novel garner such select book shelf real estate? There are multiple reasons but first and foremost is the brilliant plot that took root inside my soul much like the dust that found every pore on my body while bailing hay on a hot August summer day in Kansas back when I was helping my uncle on his farm. No matter how much I tried to shower the sweat and filth away it seemed to cling to my living body and this novel will cling too your emotional core and not let go as well. I believe the one way that Cash is able to achieve this is through his character development and use of multiple first person narrators throughout his novel. The dialog between the characters allowed me to see the human faults and defects that exist with each character. I didn’t know who I felt the most empathy for as each character brought their own set of ideas and troubles to this fast paced emotional plot.

The second reason that this novel has overwhelmingly got my endorsement is the rich descriptive language that drew me into the text. I am going to share with a small portion of Cash’s writing so that you can read the richness that is exhibited throughout this novel:

“I sat there in the car with the gravel dust blowing across the parking lot and saw the place for what it was, not what it was right at the moment in the hot sunlight, but for what it had been maybe twelve or fifteen years before: a real general store with folks gathered around the lunch counter, a line of people at the soda fountain, little children ordering ice cream of just about every flavor you could think of, hard candy by the quarter pound, moon pies and crackerjack and other things I hadn’t thought of tasting in years. And if I’d closed my eyes I could’ve seen what the building had been forty or fifty years before that, back when I was a young woman: a screen door slamming shut, oil lamps lit and sputtering black smoke, dusty horses hitched to the posts out front where iceman unloaded every Wednesday afternoon, the last stop before he headed up out of the hollar, the bed of his truck deep with cold water.”

The novel is about good and evil, social integrity and decadence, and how love sometimes isn’t enough to overcome the hatred that dwells deep inside the human soul. My final thought as I closed the cover of Wiley Cash’s novel and placed his book on my bookshelf is I hope he continues to write because society would be robbed of great literature if we only had one novel to read from this author.

I have given this book a 5 rating out of 5.

(5/5)

Reviewed by: Steve Capell

This novel starts out with a dead body in a funeral home and while a dead body in a funeral home isn’t unusual it becomes a homicide when the body is the funeral director Ozzie Driesden. Susanne who is in business with Toni and Petra now find themselves as amateur detectives trying to determine the who, what, and why of Ozzie’s death.  The three of them will find that the cracking of this case is not as easy as cracking eggs at Cackleberry Club for one of their favorite dishes.

My thoughts:

This is the first Cackleberry Club Mystery I have read and I would say that it was an enjoyable read but not one that kept me on the edge of my seat. The character development was good. The overall plot was well thought out and kept me wondering who the killer might be until the very end. I would of liked to seen some additional suspense around some of the scenes.  

The novel ends up with some very tasty recipes and I have listed the titles of these below:

Eggs Benedict Arnold

Frozen Lemonade Pie

Carrot-Pecan Tea Sandwiches

Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Cackleberry Club Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Petra’s Cinnamon Date Scones

Cheese and Honey Bruschetta

Upside-Down French Toast

Blueberry Breakfast Squares

Chocolate Flapjacks

Chicken Croquettes

I have given this novel a 3 rating out of 5.

(3/5)

Reviewed by: Steve Capell

I really enjoyed reading Adam Hamilton’s book Making Love Last a Lifetime. Adam tackles the problems that marriages encounter and thoughtfully brings answers to these problems from a biblical perspective. While I found this book to mainly deal with married couples I could see where this book would be a must read for anyone that might be considering marriage.

The chapters are listed below:

Chapter 1 Venus and Mars in the Beginning

Chapter 2 What Women Wish Men Knew About Women

Chapter 3 What Men Wish Women Knew About Men

Chapter 4 After the Honeymoon Is Over

Chapter 5 The Habits of Unhealthy Marriages

Chapter 6 God’s Plan for Sexual Intimacy

Chapter 7 The Ministry and Meaning of Faithfulness

Chapter 8 Making Love Last a Lifetime

I highly recommend this book for all my readers … you will not be disappointed.

(5/5)

Melikian earned a Master’s in International Relations from American University, Washington, D.C. He also studied mathematics at Harvard and elsewhere. However, he eventually abandoned both politics and mathematics in favor of literature and dedicated his life to writing. Melikian lives in Los Angeles.

Reviewed by: Steve Capell

Raylan, a U.S. Marshall, finds himself hunting down dreadful men and women. Raylan is out to apprehend or kill those that are harvesting illegally. Some of characters are harvesting kidneys from live people, others are trying to harvest coal from a mountain top that they do not own, and finally there are characters that are harvesting stolen cash from banks. This novel is really a collection of three different short stories that are loosely tied together by the protagonist Raylan.

I will not go into the each of these stories as they are short enough that I would come close to writing a review with a spoiler. Readers that have read my reviews in the past know that I refrain from writing any spoilers.

My thoughts:

Elmore Leonard has written a book that is rich in dialog. The three different stories are full of characters and the plot moves forward mainly with the use dialog between those characters. I would have liked to experience little more character development especially the main character Raylan.

I was getting into novel about someone harvesting kidneys for money when the story line stopped about a third of way into the novel …  I found this to very unexpected and awkward. Leonard tries to bring the three stories together by having some characters briefly written into each of the three stories, but the attempt is obvious and does little to weld the three stories together at the seams.

I am still recommending this novel as a worth while read because the book is fast paced and the three stories are intriguing and engaging.

One final comment … reader beware. Some of the language is very much adult. The graphic language is like cutting into very rare steak … crusty on the outside and totally raw on inside. This novel is not for young adults.

I have given this navel a 3.5 rating out of 5.

(3.5/5)

Reviewed by: Steve Capell

This novel opens up with Gerta Rosen, a survivor of the Second World War, looking at a painting hanging in the Art Institute of Chicago. Gerta and becomes very emotionally charged because she remembers that painting belonged to her neighbors, the Berger Family, in Berlin. She reads on the plaque that the painting was donated to the Art Institute by Woodmere Family Foundation. The reason Greta is so emotionally charged is that she is sure the painting was stolen by the Nazis. This revelation tarnishes the name of Woodmere Family Foundation.

The novel then flashes back to Taylor Woodmere and to the year 1937. Taylor goes to Europe for family business leaving his girlfriend, Emily, waiting for his return.  While in Europe he meets Sarah Berger, and falls in love with her. Also while in Europe he sees and buys a painting by Artist Henri Lebasque and buys it for his Emily who is waiting in Chicago for his return. But when Taylor falls in love with Sarah he decides to give the painting to her.  I will not go into the details of how the painting tied the story together, but Deby Eisenberg weaves the two plots together for a fantastic ending.

My thoughts:

I will say up front that I am not huge fan of novels that use flashbacks; however, Deby Eisenberg masterfully handles the flashback between 2004 and 1937 with such ease and eloquence.

I love Pictures of the Past and how it ties family, friends, and romance during that era of time during and after the build up of Nazi Germany. This novel is exquisitely written, fierily emotional and at the same time exhibiting a touch of romance that delicately settles around the reader like a gossamer fog at daylight.  

Deby has created  wonderful rich characters that just seem real to me. Each character had their own human flaws and the dialog between the characters fit perfectly. I felt the character development is one of Deby’s strongest writing characteristics.

You’ll be astonished, grateful, and ready to recommend this book to a friend by the time you’re done.

I have given this book a 5 rating out of 5. I do not rate many novels with this high of rating. I only give a 5 rating to novels that I would consider reading a second time. This novel will be read again.  

(5/5)