Today I am reviewing We by Michael Landweber for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

About the book: After an accident, forty year old Ben Arnold regains consciousness in the kitchen of the house he grew up in. Only he feels different, lighter somehow. Something is horribly wrong. Ben is swept into the arms of his mother, who he hasn’t seen in twenty years. She calls him by his childhood name, Binky. He sees a younger, unbroken version of his father. His estranged brother is there, reverted back to his awkward teenage self. Finally, adding horror to his confusion, he glimpses his older sister Sara as she runs out the door to meet her boyfriend.

Sara, whose absence he has felt every day since her death.

Ben is a mere hitchhiker, a parasite in the brain of seven year old Binky, and his younger self is not happy to have him there.

It is three days before his sister will be attacked. Ben knows he has to save Sara but first he must gain Binky’s trust. Even if he can get Binky to say the right words, to do the right thing, who will believe that a young boy can foretell the future?

My review: Where do I begin? This book blew me away with its beauty and heart. The premise of going back in time to change the course of events has been the theme for many a novel and movie. But this book tweaks that premise. What if going back involves residing in the mind and brain of our younger self? And from there, the story unfolds. Binky and Ben are ‘We.’

There is so much to love about Landweber’s writing. He explores the world through a child’s eyes, along with the observations of the adult version of that child. He writes about familial relationships beautifully and about the difference between what we perceive as children and what we perceive as an adult. He takes us on a journey into the brain, with its ‘rooms’ and ‘caves’ and Id and Superego. His protagonist, Ben, happens to be gay. What I love about the way he is written is that his sexuality is no big deal. It’s just a part of Ben’s story. It’s not an issue.

Landweber writes beautifully, with soaring imagination, heart and soul.

Ben’s beloved sister, Sara, will be brutally attacked in three days. His family’s world will be changed forever. He has to try to stop the attack from happening and he can only do that through Binky, through his younger self.

How many of us have wondered about a tragic event in our past? If only this or that had been done, it might not have happened. So many lives are affected by a tragedy, but if that tragedy had never happened might the course of those lives have been different? Might they be different people, perhaps even happier people, at their very core? Might their choices and roads taken and relationships forged have been very different indeed?

We is a wonderful mix of psychological thriller, science fiction, and love story – love of self, love of family, love of life.

I find myself at a loss for words (a rare thing) when describing the beauty and profound meaning of this novel. It has touched me deeply. It should be on every best seller list.

There is no giveaway for this book, unfortunately. I briefly considered giving away my copy, but I have to be honest here, I don’t want to give it up. So I will simply urge you to buy it. It’s available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions at a very reasonable price.

About the author: Michael Landweber is the author of the novel, We, which won a ForeWord First award for best debut novel. His short stories have appeared in a variety of places, including Gargoyle, Fourteen Hills, Fugue, American Literary Review, Barrelhouse and Ardor, and have been listed as Notable in The Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology. He is an associate editor at the Potomac Review, and writes TV and movie reviews for Pop Matters. Landweber also worked at The Japan Times, the U.S. State Department and the Associated Press. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two children.

Happy Friday.

Today I am reviewing The Alligator Man by James Sheehan for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

About the book (from the publisher): Roy Johnson, the former CEO of Dynatron, preyed on smaller companies, swallowing them whole and spitting them out after taking huge profits. He left Dynatron with a one hundred million dollar golden parachute before the company took a nose dive, wiping out the jobs and benefits for all its employees. When Johnson goes missing and pieces of his clothing are discovered in alligator-infested waters, it is assumed he was murdered, and he’s dubbed the Alligator Man by a New York Times columnist. Billy Fuller, a former Dynatron employee who lost everything, including his wife, is just one of many who have a motive to murder Johnson.

Kevin Wylie, a lawyer in Miami, learns that his father, legendary trial lawyer Tom Wylie who he hasn’t spoken to in 28 years, is having surgery for cancer and may not survive. Kevin decides to visit his father in St. Albans, and hopefully, get some answers on why his father abandoned him. While there, Kevin learns that his childhood friend Billy is the chief suspect in Roy Johnson’s murder. All the evidence points to Fuller’s guilt, but both Kevin and his father believe in Billy’s innocence. They decide to reunite to fight the courtroom battle for Billy’s life.

My review: The Alligator Man is a thoroughly engaging story and one that I got hooked on immediately. Sheehan, a former trial attorney, knows his subject. He also knows Florida and his descriptions of Miami and the fictional towns of St. Albans and Gladestown are full of the kind of details that create a vivid picture of the novel’s world. Kevin Wylie is at a crossroads in his life after having worked for a law firm that tends to defend drug dealers. He’s also in a long-term relationship with a woman that just might be on its last legs, so he is more than ready to leave town and see his father once again. And that’s where the story begins.

The cast of characters, including some quirky eccentrics, is fully drawn. Using his words with care, Sheehan sometimes simply gives a few well-written details that manage to make the characters spring to life. Kevin is the protagonist, but we also hear the story from the point of view of the supporting cast, which I love because it creates a multi-layered story. The book is well plotted with rather short chapters that keep the action moving. Sheehan manages to do something gracefully that I often see other writers do clumsily; he weaves all the ‘legalese’ into the story naturally. You aren’t even aware that you’re getting valuable and necessary plot points about the law, the courtroom, judges, clients, briefs because Sheehan does it all so artfully. Often I see that kind of information presented as a kind of lecture that is tiresome and has the effect of taking me out of the story. Not with Sheehan.

Comparisons are not always helpful, but in this case, I think they are. Sheehan’s book reminds me of the best of John Grisham. They are both writers who write legal thrillers with compelling characters; the plot is always character driven. And back to the world of the novel: Sheehan has written it so deftly, so completely, that you can’t imagine the plot taking place anywhere else but in Florida.

I really enjoyed this book. I was throughly caught up in its pages right from the start. I think you’ll enjoy it, too.

About the author:  Born and raised in New York City, Sheehan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida to attend Stetson Law School and was a practicing trial attorney in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area for 30 years. He is now the Director of the Tampa Law Center at Stetson University College of Law and is also a Visiting Professor of Law. Stetson is the author of three acclaimed legal thrillers, the best selling Mayor of Lexington Avenue, The Law of Second Chances and The Lawyer’s Lawyer.

Good news! One of you will win a copy of The Alligator Man. Simply leave a comment on this post and I will draw the winner’s name on Thursday evening. Good luck!

Happy Monday.

Today I am reviewing The Stranger You Know by Andrea Kane for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

About the book (from the publisher): It begins with a chilling call to Casey Woods. And ends with another girl dead. College-age girls with long red hair. Brutally murdered, they’re posed like victims in a film noir. Each crime scene is eerily similar to the twisted fantasy of a serial offender now serving thirty years to life – a criminal brought to justice by Forensic Instincts.

Call. Kill. Repeat. But the similarities are more than one psychopath’s desire to outdo another. As more red-haired victims are added to the body count, it becomes clear that each one has been chosen because of a unique connection to Casey – a connection that grows closer and closer to her.

Now the Forensic Instincts team must race to uncover the identity of a serial killer before his ever-tightening circle of death closes in on Casey as the ultimate target. As the stalker methodically moves in on his prey, his actions make one thing clear: he knows everything about Casey. And Casey realizes that this psychopath won’t stop until he makes sure she’s dead.

My review: One of the benefits of reviewing books is that I often encounter new-to-me authors that I might not have discovered otherwise. My reading horizons are expanded. I love a good thriller or mystery, as you well know by now. But if I had encountered this book in the mystery section of the bookstore, I would probably have passed it by. Why? Because the team behind Forensic Instincts is predominantly young, beautiful and/or hunky; the same formula I avoid like the plague when watching television shows with impossibly beautiful young things working as CSI investigators or lawyers or doctors or FBI Agents. That’s a formula concocted for mass appeal and has very little basis in reality. In fact, this Forensic Instincts series of thrillers is practically screaming for some screenwriter to develop it into a pilot. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that happens. (That’s not a bad thing, by the way.) Anyway, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to review this book because my initial assumptions would have kept me from a very good read.

Andrea Kane is a very good writer. Even though I was at first skeptical, I found myself caught up in the plot, which is tightly written and compelling. Kane knows how to build suspense, leaving tantalizing clues for the reader as she constructs a plot that careens toward the final pages. The story is told from the point-of-view of each of the members of the Forensic Instincts team as well as that of the killer, giving us rich, taut character development and a back-and-forth that is tightly edited, almost cinematic in quality.

The idea of a team of maverick investigators who, at times, cross lines that the police cannot is ingenious. While they often work alongside the police, this group is full of specialists (a former Navy SEAL, a retired FBI agent, a behaviorist, a tech wizard, an intuitive) who work out of a brownstone in New York City. Kane’s descriptions of NYC and the surrounding area of New Jersey and New York State (including some settings very near to my home!) are right on the money. It’s a compelling read. I couldn’t put it down.

I really think you’ll like this book. As I said before, it’s part of a series; two other books preceded this one. If you like to escape into a thriller that grabs you and takes you on a wild ride, you’ll like The Stranger You Know.

About the author: Andrea Kane’s psychological thriller The Girl Who Disappeared Twice became an instant New York Times bestseller, the latest in a long line of smash hits. With her acclaimed signature style of developing unforgettable characters and weaving them into carefully researched story lines, Kane has created Forensic Instincts, an eclectic team of maverick investigators. Recruited because of their special talents and dynamic personalities, the high-energy members thrive on blatantly disregarding authority. Armed with skills and talents honed by years in the FBI and Special Forces and with training in behavioral and forensic psychology, this unstoppable team solves seemingly impossible cases while walking a find line between assisting and enraging law enforcement.

With a worldwide following and novels published in more than twenty languages, Kane is also the author of numerous romantic thrillers and historical romances. She lives in New Jersey with her family, where she is busily crafting a new challenge for Forensic Instincts.

Lucky you! I am giving away one copy of The Stranger You Know. If you are interested, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll pick a winner on Thursday evening.  Good luck!

Happy Monday.