Fiction

Title: Once a Knight: A Novel of Aerial Combat & Romance in World War I
Author: Walt Shiel
Genre: Fiction, Historical Event
Reviewer: Stephen Phillips

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): I1934631515

World War I: Air combat is invented in the skies above the battlefield.

May 1917: America is gearing up to enter the brutal conflict, and the Sopwith Camel is entering combat service. Many individual Americans, however, have long since signed on to fight the war.

In 1916, Everett Ross quit the Texas Rangers and traveled to England to join the Royal Flying Corps, trading his horse for a Nieuport pursuit biplane. No stranger to violence and death, now-Lieutenant Ross duels with German pilots in the pristine skies above the grimy trenches where foot soldiers fight for victory foot by bloody foot.

Between dogfights, Ross loses his heart to a young French beauty whose domineering mother fights her own battle to protect Geneviéve from this American cowboy wearing a British uniform. Ross soon must decide between love and duty, between orders and necessity.

This fast-moving story combines romance and combat action in a land knocked out of kilter by a deadly war often seemingly without objectives.

As a pursuit pilot in the War to End All Wars, Ross struggles to maintain his own sense of honor and valor in the midst of chaos and death.

The combat sequences are told as only an experienced military pilot and historian can. Walt Shiel, long fascinated by the rapid evolution of aerial warfare in the First World War, has studied innumerable books and articles written by the men who flew and fought in the Great War. His understanding of aviation, combat tactics and their development brings the aerial scenes to vivid life. His knowledge of how those knights of the air lived, loved and died puts the reader in their flying boots and cockpits, complete with the emotions that drove them, the doubts that haunted them, the death that stalked them.

Title: I Know Why the Dogwoods Blush
Author: Bill Cain
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Reviewer: Paul Decker

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1432745360

When love turns to hate, there’s Hell to pay!

Jeremiah “Jerry” Bronson was an abandoned newborn baby discovered by Sheriff “Big Ben” Spear in Timmons County, Georgia during the annual Dogwood Festival of 1950. Raised by the entire town, Jerry grew to become the hometown hero in every area: high school football star, Vietnam war hero, and pacifist reverend. His mentor, “Father” Roman Spindola, thought of him as his own son.

Upon returning home from Vietnam in 1972, Jerry vowed to never harm another human being again and became a respected minister. He married high school sweetheart and local entertainer Angel Andrews. Life was good. Then came the Dogwood Festival of 1979 when sadistic biker Roscoe Parker and his “Broken Bones” gang rode into town on a murder and pillage spree. Jerry saved the town and was elected sheriff. His star continued to shine.

Jerry, Angel and their dog, Blueblood, were murdered by a Russian mob cartel during the Dogwood Festival of 1995. Avenged by Dick Spear, the old sheriff’s son who now stood poised to become the sheriff himself, the little town of Timmonsville has moved on beyond these tragedies. The Dogwood Festival of 2010 is about to begin.

During the week prior to the festival, the grave of Jerry Bronson is desecrated and his body taken. Strange events are occurring around town. And to the west … in Louisiana, Kansas and Washington, former Timmons County residents are meeting with violent deaths. As more and more unexplained events take place, “Father” Spindola fears the dead are about to walk the earth, bringing about the long foretold end of days. Sheriff Dick Spear wants to believe these events are just pranks carried out by misguided teens. But both men carry secrets from the past: Spindola with his supernatural visions of death and Spear with his knowledge of what really happened the night Jerry Bronson died. Waiting in the shadows, watching his decades long plan finally come into play, is the evil Vladimir Buchinsky. He’d failed twice before in his efforts to destroy the town. But this time, he had a secret weapon: a spell so powerful it could resurrect the dead and usher in a new dark age for mankind.

As the events of the Bronson murders of 1995 are revealed, things appear worse than ever. Has Jerry Bronson returned from the grave to save the town? Or has the real threat to the survival of Timmons County ... and all of mankind … been Jerry Bronson from the start? The blushing Dogwoods know the answer. Their secret will change the world!

I KNOW WHY THE DOGWOODS BLUSH is a crime drama/thriller with a supernatural flourish. It is intended to be a stand-alone tale but with threads linking it to potential follow-on stories told in the same universe and time line. If you think you know the legend of the dogwood tree, think again!

Sometimes, what you don’t know can kill you!

Title: Loose Ends Kill
Author: Bob Doerr
Genre: Non-Fiction, Mystery
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1590957180

In this new Jim West novel, West comes to the rescue of an old friend suspected of killing his own wife. West rolls up his sleeves and begins to dig deep—perhaps too deeply—as someone begins to follow and target him.

It’s not long before West discovers that he didn’t know his friend’s wife as well as he thought. Everyone but West and his friend knew that she had had many affairs. Any of her lovers could have had a motive to kill her.

As he investigates one lover after the other, West ignites an outbreak of more deaths and mayhem. The killer wants him dead. His friend’s lawyer wants him to go back home, and the police threaten to arrest him.

Feeling the pressure to solve the murder quickly, West sets a trap for the killer—using himself as bait. However, he soon learns he may have only outsmarted himself.

Title: Laos File
Author: Dale A. Dye
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Reviewer: Bob Ruehrdanz

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982167008

The death of a salty old senior NCO who ran special operations in Vietnam leads Marine Gunner Shake Davis on a shocking and potentially lethal quest to find out what happened to hundreds of American POWs. Written by the bestselling author of 'Platoon,' Dale A. Dye.

Title: For Love of Country
Author: William Hammond
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Stephen Phillips

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 159114373X

The novel opens with the capture of the Cutler merchant brig Eagle by Barbary pirates. Young Caleb Cutler and his shipmates are taken as prisoners to Algiers. Richard Cutler is sent to North Africa to pay the ransom demanded by the Dey of Algiers to free his brother and the others. After the dey rejects the ransom, Richard must defend his family's fortune from Algerian pirates who try to take it by force. Victorious in a fierce battle at sea, Richard travels to Paris to report to John Paul Jones, his former naval commander, who will serve as America's emissary to the Barbary States. In Paris, amid the tumult of the French Revolution, Richard engages in a desperate attempt to save his former lover, the beautiful Anne-Marie Helvetian, and her two young daughters from the guillotine.