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My Missing Book Review – A Crying Shame by William W. Johnstone

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Leave it to me to completely leave out the actual book review from the last post I did about William W. Johnstone. So; my apologies, and here it is!

A Crying Shame Cover Image

Sheriff Mike Saucier has his hands full when the Links stop keeping themselves hidden, and start taking revenge on the townspeople. They seem to have been infected with some sickness, and these half-human beings are going mad and no longer concerned about staying hidden.

Jon Badon is a mercenary brought to Fountain Parish, home to the Crying Swamp, by Paul Breaux. Paul had discovered what he since named the Links, as in “the missing link”. Part human, part animal, the Links had been around for hundreds of years.

As a genetic mutation took hold, they could no longer have female children, so in order for them to not die off, women of the parish were kidnapped and used for childbearing. Any babies that were human enough were left on doorsteps in town, to be raised with, and by, humans.

Jon Badon is determined to do what he was paid to do; get rid of the links. His Scientist and Doctor friends disagree. As Jon grows closer to Linda Breaux, he promises both of them that after this last mission, he will retire, and they will get married and start a family.

Can humans and half-humans really exist together? It may not always be necessary to fear something just because it is different than you.

I would love to tell you how it ends, but you know my policy; no spoilers if I can help it. This is a quick read, and a great story! I hope you give it a try!

Sweet Dreams – William W. Johnstone

Angela2 Comments

I have to say for not having read this story in at least 20 years, it took less than 2 pages into it that I remembered the story, the main characters, and numerous other things I should have long ago forgotten.

Sweet Dreams

I either read this book more times than I could even guess when I was a teenager, or I have a place in my brain where I lock things away that are safe from my forgetfulness.

Heather and Mark are young teenagers who are both new to the same small town. The same small town where very strange things are happening with some of the residents. There is no rhyme or reason. Young or old, boy or girl, random members of the town are behaving in ways that are very disturbing to a couple of the adults who see what is happening.

Sweet Dreams Autograph.png
Almost 30 years ago when I received this in the mail!

 

Jerry is the town doctor, and Maryruth is a psychiatrist. And the numerous side characters are easy to follow, and you quickly get a vested interest in them.

It is all about Satan, and pure evil, and I will tell you right now, this book is very graphic in the horror department, so consider yourself warned. And my Mom bought this for me when I was 11… 🙂

It is a good read, and you will not be sorry you picked it up. I highly recommend it, and I would have recommended it 30 years ago before I reached out to the author and began a snail-mail communication.

Mr. William W. Johnstone are you done turning in your grave?

Angela12 Comments

I was so excited to see that my favorite author, who I had written to and had much communication, was having his family re-release all of his books.

I have all of these books, somewhere, but have rebought many on my Nook.

And whomever edited for ebook release needs to be shot.

Miscellanious 7-7-2014 164
William W. Johnstone

I started reading Sweet Dreams, a book he wrote in the 80’s, and sent me an autographed copy of, and the spelling errors are horrible. I fear that the family is so intent on making money, that they are not paying attention to the quality of his work.

Miscellanious 7-7-2014 163

I was a 13 year old girl who read his books, and literally wrote him a letter. I received many letters back, and autographed books. But the fact that they would re-publish his work, so fast and haphazardly, is really sad.

He stopped writing the horror books I loved as a teen, and started writing westerns. But he always replied to my letters, and encouraged me to write, and never give up.

Good gracious, I would edit these ebooks for free rather than see the crap they are putting out.

Mr. Johnstone, thank you for being kind to a teenager, and encouraging me.

Meet the Author – Frank Westworth!

Angela2 Comments

FrankW Porlock posterV2 (1)

For further information, you can also visit:

Murder, Mayhem and More: Thrilling Crime and Sci-Fi Fiction

www.murdermayhemandmore.net

Murder, Mayhem and More on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/pages/Murder-Mayhem-More/352110654929546

If you are able to make this event, I would love to hear how much you enjoyed it!

Bittersweet Dreams – VC Andrews

Angela3 Comments

Okay, I have to say I got sucked into this book just like I would get sucked into any VC Andrews’ book when I started reading them 30+ years ago.

Mayfair Cummings is a 16 year old with an IQ that would make Albert Einstein jealous. She had the perfect family life, until her mother died from an aneurysm. Her father got remarried, and she suddenly had a step-mother and a step-sister.

Bittersweet Dreams Cover Image

I like to avoid spoilers, but this is the standard fare that you expect from VC Andrew novels. It is full of suspense, and I definitely had it read in record time.

Now; about the grammatical errors. There were a few, and they were too ridiculous to even ignore. Nothing frustrates me more than spelling and grammatical errors in a book I spent good money on.

I’m just going to give you one example, and it is a single sentence. Although I am not including the sentences before or after it, this sentence is not going to be misunderstood because you don’t have those sentences with it. This is a sentence that was meant to stand alone, and make sense.

Chapter 5, Page 81

I have this tendency to compare Julie to animals often.

That’s it. That one sentence. Maybe I am being too picky, but there are so many other correct ways that sentence could have been constructed. There are a few of these poorly written sentences throughout the story.

With all of that said, I will definitely be reading some more VC Andrew books that I have not read before.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries-John Taylor

Angela5 Comments

This was my first attempt at an audio book. I will be honest right from the get-go in stating that if Benedict Cumberbatch was not the reader, I may not have made this purchase.


I am a huge fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,  and all things Sherlock, so I was willing to see what author John Taylor would do with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. 

There is a total of 4 stories included, and although they are not of the caliber of Doyle, I did like them. 

I had the hardest time with the whole audiobook concept. For some reason, I had a very difficult time picturing the story in my mind as I listened. This is never an issue when I am physically reading a book.

Do you listen to audiobooks? I will definitely give more of them a try, but I was certainly expecting a better experience from it. How do you compare it to actually reading a story?

The Last Anniversary – Liane Moriarty

AngelaLeave a comment

I really enjoyed this book by Liane, and I believe it is her third story I have read. The first one I did not care for, the second one I loved, and I definitely liked this one.

The Last Anniversary Cover Image

I am still trying to get a feel for her style of writing, and it is not something I have been able to pinpoint yet. I do not get that familiar feeling I have from other authors who have multiple books that I have read. Her style of writing seems to change with each book, but I do not think it is done intentionally to help set the tone of the story.

So after all of that complaining, I really did like this story. I promise! I did have the initial problem of keeping all of the characters straight, because there were several, and they all seemed to be introduced very quickly, and very briefly. This does seem to be her method-of-operation when it comes to writing.

A small island with a small population and a big mystery seem to be the only thing keeping some of the characters going. Introduce a new person to the mix, and see what begins to happen. It seems that everyone knows everybody else, and there are some long-stretched ties connecting basically every single resident to everyone else. It can make things familiar, and also very interesting. You would think in this type of environment there would be no secrets. It seems as if every resident has secrets falling out of their ears, they have so many.

Without giving away any spoilers, this is definitely a book full of suspense, mystery, laughs, and some romance. It is a page turner, and I think you will be glad to have read it!