Book Reviews

Title: My Peaceful Dad
Author: Ross H. Mackenzie
Genre: Poetry
Reviewer: Hodge Wood

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B007K1V2X6

My Peaceful Dad presents practical lessons on life – its challenges, joys, and hopes – in easy-to-understand and approachable ways while also offering the reader biblical references to investigate more about Christ’s original teachings, making them realistic and tangible. My Peaceful Dad is perfect for anyone facing transition in life, from pre-school through grad-school and from puberty through retirement. “Your actions and your state of mind / Can influence all mankind.”

Title: Beware the Jabberwock
Author: Chester D. Campbell
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Lee Boyland

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0984604464

As the Cold War sputters to a close and the Soviet Union disintegrates, international telephone intercepts trigger a CIA investigation into the nebulous codeword "Jabberwock." Burke Hill, whose tarnished FBI career ended years earlier after dismissal by a surly J. Edgar Hoover, is recruited to help an old CIA buddy, Cameron Quinn, whose superiors doubt Jabberwock's dangerous potential. When an accident stops Quinn in Hong Kong, the CIA brass warns Hill to drop the investigation. Knowing Quinn's fears about the operation, Hill and Quinn's daughter, Lorelei, continue the chase. Rogue elements on both sides of the old Iron Curtain work to stop them, along with a relentless Federal bureaucracy. As the clock ticks down on Jabberwork, Burke and Lori realize they alone are the only hope of stopping a plot to assassinate the American and Russian presidents.

Title: The Team
Author: David M. Salkin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Terry Shoptaugh

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1479275247

Enrique Antonio Vega runs one of the largest cocaine cartels in South America, deep in the rain forest of the Tri-Border region. With a tribe of cannibalistic Guarani Natives as his personal army, he operates with impunity. That is, until he takes part in the murder of the U.S. Ambassador. When a small army is needed, but the operation must remain covert, the President calls on The Team—a very special ensemble of Marines, Rangers, SEALs and CIA operatives who make up one of the most lethal fighting forces in the US arsenal. Based loosely on a true operation run in Southeast Asia in the sixties, The Team is guaranteed to keep you turning pages!

Title: The Complicity Doctrine
Author: Matt Frick
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Joe Epley

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1479222070

Three bombs explode in Manhattan. The targets: a church, a synagogue, and a deli. On the surface, there is no ready explanation for the bomber's objectives, but when Casey Shenk, an analyst for the private geopolitical consulting firm Intelligence Watch Group discovers an altered report from the Congressional Research Service, he begins to put the pieces together. A murdered Government employee, the rantings of a presidential candidate, and a Senate resolution to take the People's Mujahideen of Iran off of the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations all point to something sinister at work inside the Washington power structure. With the help of a New York Police Department detective and the other analysts at IWG, Casey works to uncover the truth behind a network of conspiracy that is operating outside the law, where the ends always justify the means...no matter how many people die.

Title: Alexander's Lighthouse
Author: Don Westenhaver
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Terry Shoptaugh

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1478231181

In 92 AD, the imperial city of Rome rules Western civilization, but the city of Alexandria Egypt is the unchallenged pinnacle of Western intellectual achievement. Its prestigious Museum and Library are magnets that draw the world’s most important philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, physicians and geographers.

Alexandria also draws a young man named Marco from Corinth, who joins a small team of brilliant engineers working on secret projects. Titus, the Roman Prefect of Egypt, knew Marco’s father so he sponsors the young man, who then promptly falls in love with Titus’ daughter Paula. Populated by native Egyptians, colonized by Greeks, settled by Jewish immigrants, and ruled by the Romans, the huge city of Alexandria is a cultural melting pot that frequently boils over. At least once a month, highly organized insurgents emerge to harass the Roman Army occupation forces and then quickly disappear back into the alleys and apartments.

Titus orders Marco’s team to find a new weapon to help defeat the rebels. They create a shockingly powerful device, but before they can deliver it to Titus, the rebels obtain it and begin murdering the engineers to keep the device secret from the Romans. A mysterious woman named Nebit, young, beautiful, and wealthy, befriends Marco, but he tries to stay faithful to Paula. He also questions her true intentions because of her past history and her belief that she is the reincarnation of Egypt’s last Pharaoh, Queen Cleopatra. Suddenly cut off from Paula and from Roman protection, Marco goes into hiding at Nebit’s estate, not knowing she is the widow of the former head of the rebel forces. The rebels, who have spies even in the Roman administration, kidnap Paula and commence full-scale production of the new weapons, planning to overthrow the Romans on the very day that Emperor Domitian comes to visit.

Marco, desperate to save Paula and prevent the rebels from using the new weapons, finally gains access to Titus. Together they discover the rebels’ hiding place, but it’s too late. They now know the power of the weapons, but not how and when the rebels will use them.