Lust, Money, and Murder, by Mike Wells Is a Fast-Self-paced Thriller

Do you like stories about deception, mystery, international espionage, and the lengths to which men will go in the name of power and greed? If so, then Lust, Money, and Murder, by Mike Wells may be a book for you.

Lust, Money, and Murder was the first novel I've read by Mike Wells, and I'm glad I did for several reasons. Mr. Wells writes in a style that grabs ahold of the reader and does not easily let go. Without a lot of emphasis is unnecessary details, the story hits you like a passenger jet landing on the tarmac. You're off and running and not going to stop or get bored until it's finished. And even after the long ????????????????, it's not quite over yet, and I'll explain that shortly.

While the title, Lust, Money, and Murder may seem stereotypical of books you've read or movies you've seen, this story has some unique components. It starts off very mysteriously, an older sugar daddy with a young woman, and they're traveling around Europe, having one big party. But there's something going on, an undercurrent beneath the charade of cordial and passionate behavior that's impossible to put a finger on. This short story comes to an abrupt end, but we find out that the theme of this little introduction is actually the main thrust behind the novel's storyline.

The narrative focuses on a young girl who grows up under very challenging circumstances. Without a mother, she copes as well as can be expected. Her father wants the best for her, but is doing things they shouldn't be to help her get not only the things she wants, but the best education. Trying to grow up quickly and find herself, she makes a terrible mistake and inadvertently pulls her father into it. One thing after another goes wrong, and we find ourselves watching this girl set out on a lifelong mission of revenge. Sound Celine yet?

One of the main components to this story is the counterfeit money. Before reading this book, I had no idea what was the intaglio printing. But by the time I was finished, I knew quite a bit about it and the process by which official currency is printed.

True to its title, ' Lust, Money, and Murder, "at its core, is about characters and motivating behavior. And this is really what keeps you going-for-seeing who is going to what next, as well as who is hiding what. Again, the story moves fast, and along the way there are many unexpected twists. Just when you think you've got things figured out, the story takes a sharp turn and sends you down another path. This makes it a swift page turner of a novel.

Warning to potential readers--it all ends in a huge cliffhanger. If you poke around and see what else Mike Wells has written, you'll see that one of the things he does is write the series. You can acquire several of the "Book 1 's" for free for your Kindle or Nook or whatever you like to read the free eBooks. But at the end of the story, you'll want to find out how things go and you just may purchase Book 2. It's up to you. But whatever you do, know that you may find yourself so wrapped up in Lust, Money, and Murder, you'll probably be looking for more.

Kelly Libatique is a professional speaker, technical trainer, and author. He holds a master's in Education and a Bachelor's in Psychology. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Anne, and two sons.

Visit http://www.libatique.com/or Contact Kelly at: Kelly.Libatique@gmail.com

Young Blood - Crime Never Pays

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Title: Young Blood

Publisher: Kwela Books

Year: 2010

Young Blood is a crime fiction novel. It is about a young man named Sipho. He is caught up in the world of easy money, booze, dagga, and greed. He lives in the sprawling township of Umlazi, south of Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. In the geography of crime in KwaZulu-Natal (Durban), Umlazi criminals specialise in car hijackings and in Kwa-Mashu is murder.

The story of Young Blood begins with Sipho dropping out of school. He dropped out of school thirteen days before he turned seventeen years old. He started helping his mechanic Dad doing odd jobs underneath the bonnets of wrecked cars. But, that did not provide the lifestyle his long-time school friend Musa had - BMW's, designer clothes, and beautiful girls always hanging on his arms. In no particular order and for no other reason except for Sipho's love for fast cars; he soon found himself engrossed in stealing cars, hijackings, drugs, booze, girls and dagga.

Sipho started by fixing or should it read dismantling stolen cars for parts, and graduated to driving gateway cars, buying stolen cars, murder, hijackings, selling mandrax, and bribing cops to avoid jail time. During his crime excursion, members of his gang were found dead after a robbery gone wrong. Sipho's child hood friend also died in the hail of bullets from the rival gang, the Cold Hearts. Sipho's mandrax supplier and buyer of stolen cars left town after he survived the violent clash with the Cold Hearts. These events had a profound impact on Sipho's outlook of life. He reconnected with his family, registered in a technical college and turned his life around.

Author Sifiso Mzobe offers a detailed account of thug life in South Africa. Young Blood is a universal story of out of school, and out of work youth lifestyle in South Africa. Mzobe tells a story vividly and honestly as if he was the main protagonist. It reads like memoirs of a well heeled thug. However, beneath beautiful prose lies the real South African story - social problems occasioned by urban decay, dysfunctional education system, unemployment, absent and inadequate parents amongst others. Because Mzobe is not JM Coetzee, he believes in humanity's capacity for redemption, he allowed our protagonist Sipho to mend his evil ways. This is the most comforting part of the book.

It is no wonder; Young Blood won the 2011 Sunday Times Alan Paton award for best fiction writing.

Bhekisisa Mncube is a specialist web-content writer, media relations specialist and managing director of B74 Media Lab. He is also a columnist at the Witness Newspaper as well as a Media/Political Commentator at the Gagasi99.5 FM. He is a member of the Book Review Panel at the New Agenda academic journal in South Africa. Mncube has been a writer for 12 years. He is a widely published in newspapers, magazines, websites and academic journals. You can network with Bhekisisa through LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook or write to info@b74.co.za.

Book Review: Prairie Dog Blues

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Fiction
Prairie Dog Blues
Mark Conkling
2011
Sunstone Press
230 pages

In his first novel, Prairie Dog Blues, writer Mark Conkling tells the complicated story of the Corley family. With each member of the clan struggling with their own problems, the Corleys decide to sell part of the family land. The hope of the family's matriarch, Mom Corley, is that the money will improve their lives individually and bring all of them closer together. As it turns out, prairie dogs elevate the family beyond their personal concerns to fulfill Mom's dreams of a strong, unified clan.

Mom and Pop Corley (their given names are Janice and Roy, but everyone in the community calls them Mom and Pop) attend the final signing for the sale of fifteen acres of their property in Albuquerque, New Mexico with their three children, Jeff, Ida, and Junior. The goal of the sale is to fund Mom and Pop's retirement and to provide each of their troubled children with seed money that will allow them to restructure their lives. Jeff, the oldest, is a dentist with a gambling problem and all of the debt that goes with that lifestyle. The middle child, Ida, is a nurse who, when not dreaming of earning a master's degree, uses her looks to attract the wrong kind of attention from men. Junior is the youngest and the most troubled with a nearly debilitating drinking problem. Mom believes the multi-million dollar sale of the property to a developer will solve all of their problems. But that dream is threatened by a new city ordinance that will restrict development on properties where prairie dogs live. This news halts the sale and heightens the level of desperation for each of the Corleys.

The initial attempts Pop and Junior make to remove the prairie dogs are awkward and violent. News of the city ordinance and the delayed sale of the Corleys' fifteen acres draws protestors from the Forest Guardians, a group of environmental activists. The Forest Guardians, led by Donald Pressman, fight the Corleys' efforts to remove the prairie dogs by taking legal action and bringing in a prairie dog expert to bolster their cause.

This is a story that takes several unexpected turns, which is fantastic for holding the reader's attention. As each attempt to salvage the sale of the property is initiated, the author reveals more of the inner workings of the main characters. Conkling shares the struggles of each member of the Corley family and the steps they take to save their lives from destruction. While Mom holds on to the hope she believes the money will bring until the very end, her husband and children ultimately find their way to better lives and a renewed sense of family as a result of the crisis the prairie dogs' presence causes.

This is a delightful story. It is well written and ambitious in its display of the human condition. Conkling, a former professor of psychology and philosophy, skillfully applies his knowledge of human behavior to create multidimensional characters that conjure up an array of emotions in the reader.

Prairie Dog Blues is a dynamic read; brilliant. I highly recommended it.

Melissa Brown Levine
for
Independent Professional Book Reviewers

Melissa Brown Levine is a writer, book reviewer and manuscript consultant. She is the author of "I Need to Make Promises: A Novella and Stories." Read an excerpt at http://www.melissabrownlevine.com/.

Perspectives on History - A Division Of The Spoils by Paul Scott

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Start with two major religions, Islam and Hinduism. To a history of one ruling the other, add the complication of a determinedly, in part evangelical Christian colonial administration that lords it over both and in recent memory has massacred innocents. Calls for independence are frequent, but the detail of "from what" remains negotiable. There is civil disobedience in a state whose imperial government can only function by virtue of local cooperation. But should independence lead to a unitary state, religiously mixed, or should it divide along ethnic lines in an attempt to avoid conflict of interest?

Then there's a World War against an invading Japanese army to be coped with. And when a new kind of independence is called for, one that not only politically rejects the colonial masters but also wages war against them, new complications emerge. Those who deserted to fight alongside the enemy risk courts-martial and death sentences for treason, despite their being viewed locally as freedom fighters by those who desire independence at any cost, whilst remaining traitors in the eyes of anyone seeking any form of accommodation with the status quo.

This is India in the 1940s, and as yet there has been no mention yet of the princely states, each with its Nawab or Maharajah at its head, ostensibly independent but land-locked in their geographical and political dependency, surrounded by colonialism that, if anything, has nurtured them. Which way would these august gentlemen lean?

A Division Of The Spoils by Paul Scott is the last novel in his Raj Quartet. It is set against this backdrop of complex social, political, military, even geo-political considerations, all of which interact and thus influence one another. The novel's story features a group of British colonials, perhaps locked in time, adherents of assumptions that no longer apply, who have to cope not only with all the complications of war and changing India, but also of their own lives, their forcibly limited aspirations and their enforced change of identity.

A Division Of The Spoils is such a vast project that a reader might suspect that the pace might flag somewhere within its six hundred or so pages. The reader would be wrong. By shifting the focus from one character to another, by changing the narrative's point of view, the book not only enthrals from first to last, it also brings to life the dilemmas that face these people, often tragically, but never without compassion or empathy.

Paul Scott has not written a novel that reaches, or even tries to offer solutions or analyses. The only end products are history, itself, and the deaths of some of the characters, whom, when deceased, we realise we may not have known very well at any time. Perhaps they themselves did not really know who they were, why they were playing the role of the ruler, acting out superiority whenever a suitable minion or perhaps target might be identified. They might have been sure what disgusted them, but they were never sure of their own motives, or their motivations, even when these ran to an overtly paternalistic, perhaps patronising attitude towards the ruled.

Yet, through all the confusion of politics, war and change, people must live their lives. Hopefully, they are the subjects of this change because, if they are its objects, they are in danger. Just ask Ahmed Kasim, who was never very political, or even very Islamic. Ask Susan Layton, then Bingham, then Merrick. Ask those who stay on or those who leave, those who sign away their independence and power, or those who manipulate events to their advantage. And finally, if you ask me, I would conclude that The Division Of The Spoils, and the Raj Quartet as a whole, represent an achievement in writing through the medium of fiction that has certainly never been surpassed. When piles appear, look for this one at the top.

Philip Spires Author of Mission and A Fool's Knot, African novels set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk/ Migwani is a small town in Kitui District, eastern Kenya. My books examine how social and economic change impact on the lives of ordinary people. They portray characters whose identity is bound up with their home area, but whose futures are determined by the globaised world in which they live.

A Higher Court, by John L Betcher, Is a Gripping Intellectual and Spiritual Journey

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Bravo to writer John L. Betcher for his outstanding achievement with A Higher Court. Once started, I had a hard time putting it down. After two and a half days pouring through this work, I felt like I had taken an intellectual and spiritual journey from the beginning of creation to where I am today, and even beyond.

Set as a "trial" in a surreal court room with almost thirty jurors, this book puts you in a sort of Twilight Zone, where time and space are put on hold. As a reader, you become one of the jurors in this altered reality. Our judge is unusual, not what one would expect, but he has complete authority and command.

The trial we're all partaking in deals with the question of whether or not God exists. You may be thinking, I've heard this before. Well, most of us have, but probably not like this. Reading this was like watching a full-length and unrestrained conversation at a round table--Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens on one side, William Lane Craig and Ravi Zacharias on the other. The dialog was fascinating and it covered just about every subject and approach. Mr. Betcher's research is quite thorough and he covers not just the old contentions of this subject, but everything that is at the vanguard of today's science and thinking.

As we go through this trial, there is a counsel for the existence of God and a counsel for the repudiation of God. Each counsel is given the opportunity to present witnesses, ask questions, and then cross-examine. The witnesses are experts in their various fields and a wide variety of subjects are covered--theology, cosmetology, astronomy, philosophy and even psychology. If you're curious what the latest arguments are for how this universe came to be and how life started and evolved on planet earth, you'll be educated and enlightened with this work.

After a couple witnesses or testimonies, the jurors would gather in small groups and deliberate. I have to give kudos to Mr. Betcher for his balanced approach to this. Among the jurors at this trial we have a Native American, a Muslim, an agnostic, and of course an atheist. These different people give their perspectives on who and what God is to them based their upbringing and experiences. As a whole though, the focus is on the Judeo-Christian faith. Later, the reader will find out why Christianity is very much different from all other faiths.

As comprehensive as it all was, there is one element I thought was missing. At one point in the trial, witnesses came forward and gave their testimonies as to why they chose not to believe in God. Later, more witnesses came forward to tell why they do believe in God. There were two powerful and moving testimonies for each side, and each one dealt heavily on various forms of suffering. As we all know, pain either drives a person away from God in anger, or drives a person to God for comfort. But the testimony that was missing was the one of a totally changed life for the positive. I personally know people who in literally one instant, were radically transformed and healed of everything from substance abuse to physical and emotional trauma. Science will never explain that. It would have been nice to have added this component to the story. I do understand though why the problem of pain was focused on as this is a huge issue with so many.

As the story winds down, we are presented with a nice summary of issues that have plagued the human race and why the dilemma over the existence of God continues. It may surprise you how the trial ends and what it was really all about. There is also a huge and unexpected twist, one that really makes a person think. I highly recommend A Higher Court and wish all readers well on their own journey to finding our Creator.

Kelly Libatique is a professional speaker, technical trainer, and author. He holds a Master's in Education and a Bachelor's in Psychology. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Anne and two sons.

Visit http://www.libatique.com/ or Contact Kelly at: Kelly.Libatique@gmail.com

Deepti Naval - An Indian Author

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Deepti Naval is an avant-garde actor, director, poet, painter and writer. Born on February 3, 1957 in Amritsar, she moved to the United States and studied at the City University of New York. She specialized in Fine Arts and received her degree from the Hunter College at Manhattan. She made her debut in Bollywood with Ek Baar Phir in 1979. Since then she has worked in more than 70 movies! She is famous for the versatile roles that she has played in parallel cinema. She has earned a lot of accolade for her roles in films such as Chashmebaddoor, Kamla, Mirch Masala, Ankahi, Main Zinda Hoon, Panchvati, Leela and Freaky Chakra. In the recent past, her role in Leela was widely appreciated; in 2002, it was screened at the IAAC IFA, Commonwealth IFA in Manchester and Reel World IFA, Toronto. It won the Special Jury Award at the Reel World IFA. In 2007, she was acknowledged as the Tribute Honoree of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. She had also taken a break from films as a result of her dissatisfaction of the film offers she received.

Deepti Naval wrote Thodasa Aasman and directed it as a television series. It is a women-centric drama. Lamha Lamha is her anthology of poems that was published in 1983. Recently, she published another anthology titled 'Black Wind and Other Poems'. She also brought out the book, The Mad Tibetan - stories then and now. She is also an avid trekker and she is known for trekking across the Himachal and Laddakh. The television show The Path Less Traveled has been produced by her. Some of her well-known series and collections of fine art have been the Kumaon Series, Landscapes, Nuns, and Reflections. She has also worked on photography. Some of the best collections are: In Search of Another Sky, Shades of Red, Himalayan Road Builders and Images of a Frozen River.

Deepti Naval is also working on cinematic projects directing Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish starring Manisha Koirala and Sanaj Naval. It has not been publicly released as yet. It is a Bollywood film and it was screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival. It is expected to be released on March 8, 2012 in India. It was recognized as the 2009 Best Feature Film at the Indian Film Festival of Houston, 2010 Best Screenplay at the New York Indian Film Festival (MIAAC) and in 2010, Rajit Kapoor won the Best Actor Award at ImagineIndia.

Anju K Batra is a writer based in India. She like to write on Social and cultural subjects. She has written lots of Articles on the subject of Deepti Naval, Deepti Naval Books.

Underworld Journey: Comparative Study Between Aristophanes' The Frogs and Virgil's Aeneid (Book VI)

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The descent to the underworld is a mytheme of comparative mythology found in a diverse number of religions from around the world, including Christianity. The hero or upper-world deity journeys to the underworld or to the land of the dead and returns, often with a quest-object or a loved one, or with heightened knowledge. The ability to enter the realm of the dead while still alive, and to return, is a proof of the classical hero's exceptional status as more than mortal.

Virgil, the greatest of all Roman poets, modeled his masterpiece, The Aeneid (30-19 BC), on the ancient Greek epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, written by Homer. On the other hand Aristophanes (448-385 BC), Athenian playwright, is considered one of the greatest writers of comedy in literary history. The Frogs is one of his masterpieces. The ingenuity of the plot, incidental extravagances, the fresh and sparkling wit, the delicate literary criticism, the sweet bursts of lyric song, and the unrivalled snatches of parody make Aristophanes' The Frogs the greatest literary satire in any language. The Aeneid is divided into different books. Of them, Book VI is very significant because it gives an account of underworld which is visited and experienced by Aeneas, the Trojan hero after the fall of troy. However, the story of Aristophanes' The Frogs can be related to that of Virgil's The Aeneid (Book VI) regarding journey to the underworld especially regarding theme, characters, places, description of the underworld etc.

The beginning part of these two journeys can be compared. Before starting the journey to the Underworld, Aeneas, the Trojan hero visited Cumaean Sibyl. She in her prophetic vision told Aeneas that very soon he would have fight in a battle in Latium. It was Sibyl who instructed Aeneas to pluck the Golden Bough. Aeneas was escorted by her to Hades through the cave of Avernus. They reached the river Styx, on the one side of which they could see the ghosts of the unburied dead. In The Frogs we see that Dionysus, the patron god of Drama as the hero of the play starts journey to Underworld accompanying with his slave Xanthias. Unsure about the best way to break into the Underworld and ever unsteady in his valor, he devises an ingenious plan. He will put on the disguise of Heracles who in the last and most spectacular of his famous labors forced his way into Hades' realm and stole the watchdog of Hell, the three headed hound Cerberus. Dionysus figures that, if Hades' guards see "Heracles" coming again, they will all run away and let him enter without a fight. However, dressing himself up lion's skin and club complete, as Heracles and accompanied by his slave Xanthias with the baggage, he starts on his perilous journey. If we compare The Frogs with The Aeneid, we see that Dionysus acts as a hero in The Frogs who actually is a god (god of drama) while Aeneas; a human being acts the role of a hero in The Aeneid. The Golden Bough which has a magical effect for rescuing oneself from any danger can be compared to the dress of lion's skin wore by Dionysus.

The main purpose of their underworld journey is to get instruction of building (Aeneid) or saving country (The Frogs) from the dead who were great in their lifetime. We can see that in both journeys there is presence of Charon who is the aged boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across a river separating the world of the living from the world of the dead and brought them to the gates of the underworld. In both pieces protagonists have to request Charon to carry them throughout the river Styx (Aeneid) which is also called the lake Acheron (The Frogs) and the river is same to both journeys though in different names. In Aeneid we can see that Aeneid is suggested about the precondition and procedures of the journey by Helenus. Similarly, Dionysus is suggested by Heracles who is his semi brother.

In both journeys protagonists meets many souls, phantoms, ugly cretures. Cerberus, a monstrous dog is found in both journey. Cerberus, a three-headed, dragon-tailed dog that guards the entrance to the lower world, or Hades. The monster permitted all spirits to enter Hades, but would allow none to leave. Sibyl who gives the guideline and stays with Aeneas as a companion in the journey can be compared to both Heracles (from whom Dionysus gives suggestion before starting journey) and Xanthias. Xanthias is a comic figure who works as a servant of Dionysus. Sibyl is a female prophet who guided the Trojan prince Aeneas through the underworld to visit his father Anchises and her role in the journey was very noteworthy because without her prophecy and assistance.

The experiences Aeneas and Dionysus gathered in their journey to the hell is not same. But in both The Frogs and The Aeneid Hell is described as dark and muddy, ugly and full of dangerous creatures ever seen. Aeneas' experience in the journey is bitterer than Dionysus' experience. In the epic Aeneid the underworld journey performs serious purpose and in the other writing we can find that throughout the comedy seriousness is absent and it is replaced by humor, irony and witty remarks. There can be found many comic incidents throughout the journey made by Dionysus like Dionysus' disguising himself as a slave and Xanthius' disguise as a master which is made because of the fear of Dionysus of Empusa.

We can see that in Aeneid the hero Aeneas acts bravely and remains determined and confident throughout the Journey. On the other hand in The Frogs the hero Dionysus is found coward, self-seeking, carnal, unmanly person and in throughout the journey to the Hades. In Frogs we observe chorus is present throughout the journey and in The Aeneid there is no chorus. We can find that Aeneas is prophesized to establish roman empire and to descend to the Hades to meet his dead father Anchises to get suggestions about what to be done. But in the case of the frogs there is no existence of prophecy about Dionysuss' underworld journey.

A striking difference between the journeys of these two pieces is the difference of the treatment of nature in the description of two journeys. In the Aeneid we can find an elaborate description of the environment and natural scenery of the Hades. For example there is a description of Dis with shadow and light like a wood land in a moonlit night. On the other hand there is no such description in the frogs of the journey made by Dionysus.Another important dissimilarity is that in the description of journey made by Aeneis there is elaborate description of the creatures faced by Aeneas. I Aeneid Charon is described as old man having the vigor of ever young with beard of fiery red color. We can find the presence of song and dance in the journey of Dionysus in the frogs but there is no such item in the journey made by Aeneas in the Aeneid.

Although The Frogs and Aeneid are different type of literary work a number of some similarities between this two pieces regarding journey to the Underworld are noticeable. In The Frogs the situation was very much funny and satirical but in The Aeneid it was serious. Indeed, it is Patriotic zeal which is common similarity in both pieces.