Scott A. Lerner - The Fraternity of the Soul Eater - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

It’s been a while since Samuel Roberts was called upon to save mankind, and he’s getting restless. His girlfriend Susan thinks he’s a danger junkie, and he’s worried he has a hero complex. He’s back to his usual small-town lawyerly duties in Champaign-Urbana, handling divorces and helping people beat DUI raps. But then a young fraternity pledge calls. During an initiation ceremony he witnessed the live sacrifice of a young woman, but he had so much alcohol in his system that no one believes him. Except Sam. Lately Egyptian lore has been creeping into his life, his dreams, and his movie preferences, and he’s pretty sure he knows why. Evil is knocking on his door again.

Is the call welcome? Why can’t Sam be satisfied with his comfortable legal practice and gorgeous redheaded girlfriend? Maybe it’s because he knows that, as inadequate as he may feel to the task, he and his friend Bob may be humanity’s only hope against ancient supernatural forces combined with modern genetic engineering. Come hell or high water. Or in this case, the underworld or subterranean pyramids.

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is the third book in the Samuel Roberts Thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons.

My Review

The supernatural always seems to find Attorney Sam Roberts.

At first, he didn't go looking for it—it found him. But now it's different. Now it's become a bit of an obsession with him because his life seems boring and meaningless whenever his latest case isn't putting him in mortal danger.

He asks:

"Why would anyone willingly choose to go from the Technicolor world of Oz to the dusty black and white world of Kansas?"

Tangling with demons has turned this mild-mannered lawyer into something of a thrill seeker, a true adrenaline junkie. Sam doesn't want to be ordinary anymore. And that's a problem, because his girlfriend, Susan, certainly does.

When a college student solicits Sam's counsel, saying that his fraternity killed a young, innocent girl during some kind of ancient Egyptian ritual, Sam immediately believes the kid's telling the truth—because he wants to believe him. Who cares if it the boy was drunk at the time? Who cares if it was just some hazing stunt meant to scare him off? Sam is all in from the word go.

He even admits:

"I was imagining a conspiracy based on my own desire to reenter the world of the supernatural. I was as delusional as my client."

But as the clues start to mount, Sam knows he's not crazy. There's something strange going on here. Every time he approaches a current or former member of the fraternity, he's met with hostility and violence. A mummified falcon is even left on his doorstep, wrapped in a piece of papyrus containing the curse found on the entrance to King Tut's tomb.

But it's not until a young woman named Lark approaches him, and discloses that she thinks the frat murdered her sister on its altar of human sacrifices that things start to get real. No one ever took the disappearance seriously and Lark feels that it was hushed up on purpose by the rich and powerful alumni who claim prior affiliation to the fraternity. These guys aren't just millionaires—they're billionaires.

Sam knows he has his work cut out for him, taking on such a powerful organization, but Lark's story makes an impression on him. Now he feels personally responsible for protecting all of the innocent women out there from meeting such a terrible end.

He states:

"Unlike the ancient Egyptians, I place more value on the living than the dead." 

Especially when he finds out that the frat is planning to mummify their first human being on the eve of the next full moon—in their brand new hidden pyramid, no less.

The clock is ticking, and things take a sinister turn when the woman, whose organs they hope to harvest, is someone Sam actually knows.

***

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

Formats/Prices: $4.99 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 218
Release: June 1, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603812894
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts Thriller, Cocaine Zombies, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is Ruler of Demons. The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is book 3. Book 4, The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest, will be released on Halloween, 2015.

Links to connect with Scott:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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Michael J. McCann - Sorrow Lake - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Detective Inspector Ellie March of the Ontario Provincial Police is called in to investigate when a man from the village of Sparrow Lake is found shot to death, execution style, in a farmer's field in rural eastern Ontario.

Leading an inexperienced team of detectives, she probes beneath the wintry surface of the township to discover the victim had a dark secret--one that may endanger others in the community as well.

For young and enthusiastic Detective Constable Kevin Walker, the chance to work with Ellie March is an honour, until the situation turns ugly and unexpected betrayal threatens to destroy his promising career.

My Review

Ellie March is "the unhappiest person, like, ever."

Since she investigates gruesome murders for a living, her job probably has something to do with it. She's quite good at what she does, so good that the men she's in charge of, know it and don't necessarily like it. It's hard being the team leader, especially when:

"You're supposed to be perfect. The margin of error in this line of work is slim, at best. Forget the pity party."

But sometimes, she's still not taken seriously by her male colleagues. When they call her "our own palace princess" or make snide comments like, "she's not much to look at, but she seems pretty smart." She just tries not to let it show that it bothers her because she's sacrificed everything for her work. She's lost touch with her elderly parents after they went into a nursing home. Her ex-husband remarried, and their two daughters resent her for never making time for them. She has very few friends and doesn't have a boyfriend or a significant other. She's completely and utterly alone.

And with the grueling type of work that she does, it really gets to her sometimes. She has no one to come home to and cuddle up next to in bed and talk out her problems. She's left to her own resources. She practices tai chi to calm her nerves and methodically cleans her gun every morning, even though she's never had to fire it in the line of duty. In order to function on a day-to-day basis, she compartmentalizes, shutting out all the personal stuff and focusing only on the case at hand. In fact, she enjoys the silence her life provides because she has the time to sort out all the details of the case in her mind in order to catch the killer as quickly as possible.

But Ellie doesn't completely slip under everyone's radar. Her new partner, Kevin Walker, respects her crime-fighting abilities. He's young, and together they're working on his first homicide case. He knows he can learn a lot from her, if he just follows her lead and pays attention to the way that she handles herself. She even encourages him to continually ask questions, and not to make any assumptions, just so he can appear smart in front of his superiors.

Kevin even introduces her to his favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant in town, The Silver Kettle, and that's where Ellie meets Skinny Jimmy, the gourmet chef who's now stuck being a short order cook. Skinny Jimmy rarely acknowledges anyone, and speaks to practically no one. He's a loner just like Ellie, but he takes a shine to her when she comes in with Kevin to pass out some police sketches of the murder suspect. He admires her no-nonsense demeanor and when she becomes a frequent customer, he has her Christmas dinner delivered to her door before a blizzard hits with detailed, handwritten instructions on how to serve it. When Kevin finds out about Skinny Jimmy's thoughtfulness, he's impressed since not people receive such one-on-one attention from him. Ellie broke through his shell.

Ellie's dedicated, and the people around her come to appreciate that. She wanted to be in law enforcement ever since her parents' shoe store was robbed when she was eleven years old. She felt terrified and helpless then, and she never wanted to feel that way again.

Sure, she may often hear, "never send a girl to do a man's job," but she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She gets up every morning and enjoys being a free agent, unencumbered to do what she does best—nailing the bad guys to the wall.

***

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Sorrow Lake can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $19.99 paperback
Pages: 316
ISBN: 9781927884027
Publisher: Plaid Raccoon Press
Release: April 30, 2015
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Michael J. McCann was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) with a major in English Literature from Trent University in Peterborough, and a Master of Arts in English from Queen's University in Kingston, ON.

He served as Production Editor of Criminal Reports (Third Series) at Carswell Legal Publications (Western), where he was also Co-ordinator of Law Reports, before joining Canada Customs, now the Canada Border Services Agency. While at CBSA he was a training specialist, project officer, and national program manager before leaving public service to write novels full time.

Mike now lives and writes in Oxford Station, Ontario. He is married to supernatural novelist Lynn L. Clark. They have one son.

Mike is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada and the Horror Writers Association.

He is an author of crime fiction and supernatural thrillers. His Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series includes Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder, The Fregoli Delusion, and The Rainy Day Killer. He is also the author of the supernatural thriller The Ghost Man. His most recent novel, Sorrow Lake, is the first book of his new March and Walker Crime Novel series set in eastern Ontario, Canada.

Links to connect with Michael:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog (mystery)
Blog (paranormal)
Pinterest
YouTube
Blog Tour Site


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