Poetry
Marshland Dusk - John Philip Johnson
The Wedding Room - Shanan Ballam
Fiction
Angle Side Angle - Mary Lynn Reed
There Is Always More Work to be Done - Dave Barrett
The Relief Printer - Jessica Rae Hahn
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The Nine Scoundrels by Deanna Reiter
Whistling Shade's Literary Cafe Review
Memoir
My Meeting with Mengele - Maryla Neuman
Essay
Eating Your Words in a Prague Cafe - John-Ivan Palmer
John Dos Passos, a View from Left Field - Hugh Mahoney
Lost Writers of Minnesota: Clifford D. Simak - Joel Van Valin
Columns
Shading Dealings - Race-based Literary Journals
Elisha's Bones by Don Hoesel
(Bethany House Publishers)
One wonders what excitement is missing in our day-to-day, that adventure and intrigue repeatedly draw our attention. The outrageous, the improbable, keep us reading. If you loved The Da Vinci Code and wanted more of the same, you’ll enjoy Elisha’s Bones.
This romp across continents, starting with a tired archeologist professor in the US recalling an assignment years prior wherein he lost a beloved brother, carries us to Venezuela, North Africa and Australia in a breathless pace. Of course, he has the requisite female companion who is a little smarter than he is. The mission is no less than one step beneath the Holy Grail (whatever that is). The chapters are short and tense. The characters are drawn cleverly enough so that we care what happens.
It’s one of those books we read because we really want to know what happens next, then reconsider the outrageousness of it all. This most simple and humble of scholars runs across the globe and leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever he goes; innocent friends and colleagues fall by the wayside, and we are left to believe that nobody in any of the worldwide law enforcement society is questioning car bombs and house fires. Bethany House surely accepted this because of a vague nod to a religious conversion at the end.
Being hauled out of reality in a book is a wondrous thing, but it’s good to know that is the expectation at the start. If a reader wants characters they can empathize with and is willing to see them die for an undefined cause, this novel will offer all the excitement required to keep the pages turning.
- Beadrin Youngdahl