GUEST REVIEW: Afric by Eileen Enwright Hodgetts

A drama ripped from today’s headlines.

1963: As European colonists flee the Congo, a witchdoctor finds an abandoned child and teaches him the power of hatred. A hundred miles to the east, six American hippies on a joy ride across Africa, crash their VW bus in to a cemetery. While they wait for repairs they scandalize the local missionaries and Brenda Carter impulsively marries an African student.

2013: Brenda Carter brings Sarah, her deeply troubled granddaughter to Africa to explore her roots and meet her grandfather; the man Brenda married and abandoned fifty years before. When a Peace Corps worker is murdered, a baby is kidnapped, and all contact with the outside world is severed by a torrential rain storm, Sarah becomes an unwilling investigator making the connection between the abandoned boy from the Congo, the truth behind her grandmother’s marriage, and fifty years of undercover CIA involvement in the politics of Africa.

A compelling tale of Africa today where witchdoctors co-exist with modern medicine, where warlords carry cell phones, and where one small nation stands at the cross roads of America’s War on Terror.

Book available from the following sites....

Amazon.com    Amazon.co.uk    Barnes and Noble

GUEST REVIEW: Guest Book Review from Crystal Beck at So Fly: My Life With Flyball Dogs

Afric is an engaging book, with strong, well developed characters set against a historical fiction backdrop of kidnapping, rape, and murder.

Sarah, aka Swot, is visiting Africa with her grandmother, Brenda, who went as a young woman years before and is bringing Swot back now to meet her grandfather, a powerful and well respected African man. Swot is a genius and has just finished college at age 18. When a white man is murdered, Brenda convinces Swot to put her smarts to solving the murder.

Against a backdrop of the beauty and strange culture of Uganda, the plot weaves an intricate story around Swot's investigation and crimes going back fifty years. Some people may not like the presence of such crimes as rape, murder, and other violence in this story, but the sad fact is that these crimes have been reality in Africa for years.

While not for the faint of heart, if you suspence and history, this book has the right combination for you.

'An excellent read, I love the fact that it is centered around a country and continent which has a lot of mystique and tradition, which we are still trying to understand.  I cannot praise this book high enough, this is my favourite read of the year,' - Beck Valley Books

'This is a riveting tale that will provide background and depth to some of the news stories about African events today. Highly recommended.' - review from Amazon

'The book has so many levels. It was a fantastic read and although there were moment I wanted to stop because of the sheer level of scary evil, I am glad I pressed through. I am, once again completely astonished and awed at this author's ability to take me on such a amazing adventure. BRAVO! Really well done. Amazing. Read it.' - review from Amazon

Read a sneak peak of Chapter 1 from Afric HERE

About the Author

Eileen Enwright Hodgetts is a much traveled writer. Brought up in England and Wales, she has also lived and worked in South Africa and Uganda. Eileen and her husband, Graham, now make their home in the USA. Eileen’s life experiences allow her to use exotic backgrounds for her novels and to understand how an adventure can begin with just one small incident. For ten years she directed a humanitarian mission in East Africa as an employee of Christ Church at Grove Farm in Sewickley, PA. and her whole family continues to be involved in Uganda through the Ugandan Gold Coffee project bringing coffee to the United States and returning the profits to Uganda to be used for drilling water wells.  Much of her writing reveals not only her great fondness for the British Isles, but also her British sense of humor which still sees the funny side of most situations.

In addition to writing novels, Eileen Enwright Hodgetts is also an accomplished playwright with a number of national awards to her credit. Her novel, Whirlpool, began life as a stage musical about a free-spirited woman and her desire to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The musical played at the Niagara Falls Convention Center in Niagara Falls, New York. In 1993 the Mayor of Niagara Falls, NY, proclaimed the summer of 1993 as Whirlpool Theater Days in honor of the production.

When she is not writing novels, or staging plays, she is exploring the art of cheesemaking.

Find the author on the following sites...

Author's Website   Goodreads   Google+   Amazon Page

Follow the book tour

The Angel of Losses, by Stephanie Feldman

Synopsis: When Eli Burke dies, he leaves behind a mysterious notebook full of stories about a magical figure named The White Rebbe, a miracle worker in league with the enigmatic Angel of Losses, protector of things gone astray, and guardian of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God.

When his granddaughter, Marjorie, discovers Eli's notebook, everything she thought she knew about her grandfather--and her family--comes undone. To find the truth about Eli's origins and unlock the secrets he kept, she embarks on an odyssey that takes her deep into the past, from 18th century Europe to Nazi-occupied Lithuania, and back to the present, to New York City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli's past.

Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can-and cannot-escape.

Thoughts: This book did not appeal to me as much as the above synopsis. The folktales interwoven into the story were fascinating, but the story of the present day family was more than just a little too far out in left field for me.  I didn't care about any of the characters, with the exception of Holly's newborn son, Eli. The rest of them had so many annoying, irritating personality traits that I couldn't find any reason to get involved in their story.

My rating: Two stars

Killing Jesus,by Stephen Mansfield

Synopsis: TORTURE -- INFANTICIDE -- BRUTALITY -- MURDER

The World Would Never Be the Same

"The execution of Jesus was a crime born of the streets, the barracks, the enclaves of the privileged, and the smoke-filled back rooms of religious and political power brokers. Its meaning lives in these places still."

It is the most fiercely debated murder of all time. Its symbol is worn by billions of people worldwide. Its spiritual meaning is invoked daily in time-honored rituals. In Killing Jesus, New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield masterfully recounts the corrupt trial and grisly execution of Jesus more than two thousand years ago.

Approaching the story at its most human level, Mansfield uses both secular sources and biblical accounts to bring fresh perspective to the human drama, political intrigue, and criminal network behind the killing of the world's most famous man.

Thoughts: This is one of the most in-depth, graphic accounts of the events of Holy Week that I have ever read. The description of the scourging, for example, was even more graphic and upsetting than the depiction of it in the movie Passion of the Christ. I may well end up buying myself a copy of this one in the near future.

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen:Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey, by Leanda de Lisle

Synopsis: Born into aristocracy, the Grey sisters were the great-granddaughters of Henry VII, grandnieces to Henry VIII, legitimate successors to the English throne, and rivals to Henry VIII's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Lady Jane, the eldest, was thrust center stage by uncompromising religious politics when she briefly succeeded Henry's son, the young Edward VI. Dubbed "the Nine Days Queen" after her short, tragic reign from the Tower of London, Jane has over the centuries earned a special place in the affections of the English people as an abused child and a "queen of the public heart." But as Leanda de Lisle reveals, Jane was actually more rebel than victim, more leader than pawn, and Mary and Katherine Grey would have to tread carefully in order to avoid sharing their elder sister's violent fate. 

Navigating the politics of the Tudor court after Jane's death was a precarious challenge. Katherine Grey earned the trust of Mary I, only to risk her future with a love marriage that threatened Queen Elizabeth's throne. Mary Grey, considered too petite and plain to be significant, looked for her own escape from the burden of her royal blood—an impossible task after she followed her heart and also incurred the queen's envy, fear, and wrath. 

Exploding the many myths of Lady Jane Grey's life, unearthing the details of Katherine's and Mary's dramatic stories, and casting new light on Elizabeth's reign, de Lisle gives voice and resonance to the lives of the Greys and offers perspective on their place in history and on a time when a royal marriage could gain you a kingdom or cost you everything.

Thoughts: A very informative book on one of my favorite periods in history. Learned a few things about the Grey sisters I hadn't been aware of previously. Amazing how many people were imprisoned for years, just because their marriage and children might threaten Elizabeth's role as queen. It definitely wasn't a good time to be part of the royal family.