Fiction

Title: King of Hearts
Author: Tom Seligson
Genre: Fiction Sub-Category: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewed by: Lee Boyland

ISBN (for Amazon store): 1453851372

The world’s most wanted man
A billion dollars in stolen cash
Elite soldiers turned professional killers

Those are the elements behind this new hard-to-put down thriller by long time author and television producer Tom Seligson. The story begins on a quiet suburban street. A mother is murdered while jogging. Called in to investigate the homicide is Ric Hill, a former New York City cop and veteran of the Iraq war. Murder is uncommon enough in the suburbs, but discovering that the killing has all the signs of a professional hit, Ric realizes he’s dealing with something bigger.

In fact, what begins as a simple case leads Ric back into the underbelly of the war he left behind, a world where honor and patriotism are for sale, and the difference between a fellow soldier and the enemy is not always so clear. With the help of Sharon, a beautiful fellow veteran rebounding from a devastating combat injury, Ric draws on his New York City street smarts to find an elusive killer, a quest that ultimately involves a pursuit of the world’s most wanted man, one of the biggest bank robberies in history, and an international conspiracy ranging from the streets of Baghdad to the back rooms of our nation’s Capitol. To solve the case, Ric and Sharon must both confront the demons they brought home with them from the war.

Title: Tales Mark Twain Would Have Loved to Steal [Revised Edition- 2010]
Author: Glenn Wasson
Genre: Fiction Sub-Category: Short Story Collection
Reviewer: Robert Ruehrdanz

ISBN (for Amazon store): 0971043558

Revised edition of a colorful collection of stories from the author's years in the military during the Viet Nam War, as well as anecdotes from the Gold Country.

Book Title: Camp Angels
Author: James L. Curry
Reviewed by: Stephen Phillips
Genre: Fiction Sub-Category: Historical Fiction

ISBN (for MWSA Amazon store): 1598867776

Edward Weinstein is an actor about to play the most important role of his life! Edward and a small group of resistance fighters find themselves caught up in the midst of a web of intrigue with potentially wide-reaching consequences. With this assignment, they will each have to draw on every ounce of their being in order to endure what they will witness and be a part of at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Come and go along with these brave men and women as they risk their lives to correct what they know as unbearable atrocities against mankind, and endeavor to save the lives of as many prisoners as possible!

Book Title: Prelude to Reveille: A Vietnam Awakening
Author: S.D. Sawyer
Genre: Fiction Sub-Category: Historical Fiction
Reviewed by: Rob Ballister

Lt. Tom Barrington believed fighting in the Vietnam War might be the hardest thing he’d ever be called upon to do. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe coming home was. Prelude to Reveille: A Vietnam Awakening, S.D. Sawyer’s emotionally raw novel, mines the personal histories of returning soldiers like Tom. It presents a hard contrast between the repeatedly tested valor of these heroes and the chilling response to them from this once-proud country. Inspired by real-life experiences of the author and her husband during this turbulent era, the narrative begins in December, 1967, when newlyweds Tom and Meg Barrington reported to his first military station, The Old Guard, the Army's ceremonial unit, in Arlington, Virginia. A platoon leader, Tom performed honor burials for fallen soldiers, many killed in Vietnam, most his age or younger. Meg juggled her career as an enthusiastic new teacher with the unfamiliar regulations required of an Army wife. Within months, Tom received new orders— Ranger School, then deployment to Vietnam. Meg's role transformed into that of a Waiting Wife and a soon-to-be mother. Wounded half-way through his tour, Tom went from combat on a jungle trail in Vietnam to surgery in Japan, to enrollment at a small college back home. Anti-war demonstrations and protests cordoned off him and other veterans from even their peers. Soldiers' pride was quickly replaced with feelings of guilt, anger, and betrayal. Ignored by institutions and support networks that had offered care to returning veterans in past decades, these soldiers could never have prepared for a peacetime home front that would prove as perilous and haunting as the theater of war they had faced in Southeast Asia. Prelude to Reveille: A Vietnam Awakening possesses a sense of time and place that foreshadows issues still facing military families. Its tone and details make it resonate with those who lived during this era as well as future generations who will only learn of these conflicts from a history book. Bravery and commitment to America are not limited to times of triumph and national celebration, but remain steadfast and true in the face of protracted engagement, ambiguous mission and uncertain outcome. In this tribute to our soldiers, Sawyer invokes a wake-up call for the America of today to at long last make things right for Vietnam veterans and their families.