Book Reviews

Title: Project Dragonslayers
Author: Kathy Rowe
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: jim greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1935605070

US Air Force Lt. Col. Eagle Tryggvesson got more than she bargained for when she tangled with Navy Rear Admiral Richard Westland over a proposal for an elite Special Forces unit. Eventually losing the battle, Westland swore that she would fail- he would make certain of that. Eagle must fight against discrimination and corruption to put her highly unorthodox team together. She arrives at China Lake Naval Weapons Station to find the beginnings of Westland's sabotage. It would be up to her and the members of her team to beat the deck that had been stacked against them.

Her second in command is the handsome and brilliant Maj. D.M. Elliott who falls in love with her despite their difference in rank and the prohibitive chain of command. They must work together to keep their team and their love alive. The team battles terrorists, violent gang members, and their own personal demons along with the frightening bouts of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that haunt many warriors.

Title: Look Long Into the Abyss
Author: A. R. Homer
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1605945315

The Third Reich is collapsing. The rules have changed.
There are no rules.

Nazi Germany, 1945. Hitler Youth on suicide missions…old men hanged for desertion …marauding slave laborers…homeless Germans clogging roads…and looted art hidden all over.

As Hitler’s Germany thrashes in its death throes, Lt. Gina Cortazzo follows close behind the American front to rescue art stolen by the Nazis. Her success awaits the capture of Alt Aussee, the salt mine where the thousands of stolen masterpieces in Hitler’s private collection are hidden.

But SS Brigadeführer Reinhard Hofmann is also heading there with his crack forces, on his way to establish a final fortress where Nazism can hold out. And he is ready to carry out the Führer’s final order: destroy the entire collection, should it be in danger of falling into enemy hands.

Look Long into the Abyss paints a chilling and vivid picture of the last days of World War II. The cast of characters includes Sgt. Bill Terrill, who saves Gina’s life as they cross paths with suicidal Hitlerjugend; Frieda, the mother of a Hitler Youth fighting with Hofmann; Stanislaus, the Polish slave laborer with whom Frieda and her daughter form an unlikely alliance; and Father Hieronymus, the abbot whose monastery harbors more than one dangerous secret.

Throughout the chaos, Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man weaves a spell. Thieved from thieves, lost then found, the priceless work alters the lives of Frieda, Stanislaus, and Gina…and others caught in the maelstrom.

Title: The Corydon Snow
Author: Richard Whitten Barnes
Genre: Fiction, Historical Event
Reviewer: Carmen Stenholm

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1597055484

The white hot story of a WWII freighter, loaded with high explosive fuel, its heroic crew and navy gunners drawn face to face with the most dangerous battle areas of the Pacific. A young Japanese Naval Air cadet trains for a mission that will bring him to in direct conflict with the star-crossed SS Corydon Snow.

Title: Beyond Those Hills: An Officer and a Lady - Private Battles of a Female Warrior
Author: M.H.A. Menondji
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Bob Ruehrdanz

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1441485309

Entrusted with the well being of his late best friend's daughter, Laura, former C.I.A. operative Jim Marshall had kept his promise well beyond what was expected of him. Now an accomplished young woman, Lt. Laura Armitage is the unlikely candidate to an elite US Navy unit. A tragedy shadowing her days, she reports for duty to face discrimination and the cover-ups of the Iran-contras scandal. Struggling to assess her allegiance to the flag, she stands her ground through every mission aware her tenacity may not be enough to earn her respect, including that of her jaded commanding officer, Lt. T.J. Wilkins. Beyond Those Hills: an Officer and a Lady is a multifaceted self-discovery journey amidst the power struggle against then USSR and the rise of terrorism on the world scene. It depicts three lives intertwined by love, death, lust and a sense of duty that rises above politicians' corruption. It is a compelling tale of redemption woven into the private battles of a female warrior. A selection of the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards MWSA 2011 Awards Nominee for Historical Fiction.

Title: My Friends & Heroes
Author: Allen F. Hooker
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
ISBN 978-1-61663-223-6
Reviewed by: Joyce M. Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1616632232

Imagine... It's Thursday, December 4, 1941. You've just started a welding job at a secret facility inside a mountain on Oahu. As you leave the tunnel entrance on the seventh, you see Japanese torpedo planes, followed by bombers, fly by about level with you. They are diving down to attack US warships at Pearl Harbor. You are a reporter in a Blackhawk helicopter flying toward Mogadishu, Somalia. Smoke is observed from another downed helicopter, so the pilot and crew drop you off and proceed to assist the other aircraft. This same helicopter you exited is shot down--with no survivors--just a short time later. Helping others as a corpsman in Korea, you are under intense enemy fire while attending to wounded comrades. For your effort you are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by president Dwight D. Eisenhower. My Friends & Heroes: One Veteran's Quest to Share America's Living History relates the true stories of men and women who have served our country in times of crisis. Weaving together a fabric of living history, the result of many one-on-one interviews, author Allen F. Hooker seeks to honor and record these heroes' tales, representing the millions of others to whom Americans owe a debt of gratitude.