Mailbox Monday – January 21, 2013

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme started by Marcia at Mailbox Monday in which bloggers can ramble on about the books they received/bought/stole over a given week.  Each month a new blogger hosts the meme, and this month it’s Lori’s Reading Corner.

We got quite a few books for review this week, so let’s can the jibber jabber and get down to business.

--- The Books ---

The Witches of Jericho by Sam Hammack – The Witches of Jericho is the first in the four-part Edenwitch series set in a fantastic world known as Eden—but it’s not the Eden of Genesis.  Not by a long shot.  It’s a fantasy/paranormal/steampunk-ish type world with Victorian-era technology (think steam power and locomotives) and witches.  In this world, witches have been hunted nearly to extinction, and those that are left fight tooth and nail for their own survival.  At the same time, explorers search for a way through what is known as the “Eastern Edge” into another world, and a new railroad under construction will unite the land like never before.  Most disturbing of all, the Devil (yeah, that old coot) tempts Eve (don’t ask, ‘cos I don’t know) with the device of knowledge and power as he plots his escape from the Land Beyond Eden.  I don’t know what half of that stuff means, but it sounds cool as hell.  If all this has piqued your interest, learn more at edenwitch.com.

Dillinger by Jack Higgins – If you don’t know much about John Dillinger, it’s safe to say you’ve at least heard of him.  He was a notorious outlaw and bank robber who operated in the depression-era Midwest.  He was called “Public Enemy Number One” by J. Edgar Hoover, and his multiple prison escapes inspired the name of the band Dillinger Escape Plan.  Dillinger is a fictionalized account of the months following John Dillinger’s 1934 prison escape.  How he spent his time during these months has always been hazy for historians, and there were Dillinger sightings in all corners of the U.S., which has lead to speculation about what really happened.  Jack Higgins’ 1983 novel cashes in on this speculation, imagining Dillinger as having fled to Mexico to escape the heat from the law.  Higgins’ book follows Dillinger as he navigates a land full of corrupt federales, savage Indian tribes, devious banditos, and one Mexican robber baron hell bent on mastering the notorious outlaw.  The book was republished in 2010 by Open Road Media (whom I love).  I got my copy as an audio book from my local library.

The Wicked Wives by Gus Pelagatti – Gus Pelagatti, a lawyer by trade, has penned a novelization of a fascinating and gruesome event in local Philadelphian history.  The native Pennsylvanian tells the story of the 1938 Philadelphia poisoning scandals in which 17 women were arrested for poisoning their spouses for insurance money.  The novel follows the Philadelphia district attorney as he starts the prosecution of the wives accused of poisoning their husbands.  The twist?  All of the women have been having affairs with the same man, a local tailor and womanizer who hides a dark secret.  The Wicked Wives may not be 100% historically accurate, but it sticks pretty close to the real events.  And from what I can tell so far, Pelagatti does a great job of bringing these historical events to life.  For more info, check out the author’s website, guspelagatti.com.

Blood Money by Doug Richardson – For a writer you’ve probably never heard of, Doug Richardson has a pretty stellar resume.  He was a screenwriter in Hollywood for a while—wrote the screenplays for a couple little movies called Die Harder and Bad Boys.  More recently, he wrote the screenplay for the movie Hostage.  And now that he’s writing books, he’s got four titles under his belt—thrillers, all of them.  Blood Money is set to be released in April of 2013 (which is why I don’t have an Amazon link for the book).  It’s the tale of a former marine who concocts a plan to steal a truckload of frozen blood product and sell it for a million dollars.  But in the process he manages to kill a bunch of people, and a county sheriff’s detective’s brother is among those killed.  The detective, Lucas Dey, goes after his brother’s killer, but the plot is further complicated by a knee-breaking private detective, the feds, an LAPD detective tasked with babysitting Dey, and an entertainment mogul whose daughter has just been murdered.  Like I said, complicated—but promising.  Very, very promising.  Check out Doug’s work at www.dougrichardson.com.

Kaleidoscope World by Tomica Scavina – A collector of kaleidoscopes and lousy relationships, Dahlia Kasper leaves her possessive alcoholic mother and moves from New York to Barcelona. In search of lost bits of her childhood, she starts living in an apartment where her father was murdered when she was four. As soon as she enters the apartment, strange things begin to happen.  Her favorite kaleidoscope becomes a gateway to another dimension where she encounters a ghost of a famous physicist from the 19th century who tries to persuade her that reality is like a moth-eaten sweater - full of holes. He needs her to help him plug up these holes and save the world from vanishing, while the only thing Dahlia really wants to save is her sanity.  I love “trippy” novels that distort the line between sanity and insanity, and Kaleidoscope World looks like it’s right up my alley.  For more info about the author, visit tomicascavina.com.

And now that we’ve shown you ours, it’s time to show us yours.  What did you get in your mailbox this week?