U.S. Finally Elects Woman President - Only to Have Her Kidnapped! At Least According to Edward Galluzzi...

It was nearly three o'clock in the morning when a barely audible muzz was heard from the phone. The lovers were still intertwined in their embrace. Harrison free himself as gently as he could so as not to awaken Hannah. He reached for the phone and half-jokingly hoped it was a wrong number. Harrison was as alert as anybody could be when awakened abruptly during the early morning hours.
Harrison switched on the nightstand light and picked up the phone. He managed to mumble, "Hello." "We have a special-coded message for Hardware" was the terse reply. Hardware was Harrison's designation assigned specifically to him by President Ashton. Harrison said abruptly, "One moment" and gathered paper and pen to transcribe the message. He returned to the phone and uttered, "Ready." Harrison listened intently to the message as he translated its true meaning. A look of horror transformed his groggy facial expression as he decoded the incoming dispatch.
Harrison hung up the phone slowly without looking at the bridge base for the receiver. He stared at the deciphered message as if he had surely made an error in his transcription. Harrison read the message aloud as if hearing it would provide credibility to its content: "Whereabouts of Software unknown. Report home immediately." Software was the designation that President Ashton assigned for herself.
Harrison stared intently at the message, as he stood motionless in the silence. He closed his eyes only to have them reopen to the same insane reality. He phoned the Rome airport and asked for his private hangar number. Harrison requested that his private jet be readied for a flight to the United States and that he would be there within the hour to file his flight plan...
Numerous scenarios and their contingencies raced through Harrison's mind since he received the flash message. In all the yearss of service with the U.S. government, there never had been a severed link between the President and those sworn to protect the temporary occupant of the oval office. How could Software disappear without a trace? thought Harrison. Brushing aside the political realities of the office for the moment, he wondered how Elizabeth Ashton--the woman, wife and mother--was faring. Harrison was aware of his growing sadness for Software, but he knew that he must try to remain focused...

~~~

Mirror, Mirror at 1600 D.C.

By Edward Galluzzi

Galluzzi begins his novel in Rome,where Harrison, the President's personal body guard, is preparing for his wedding to Hannah, a journalist for the Washington Sun. It's a wonderful little story in itself about Harrison being personal friends with Pope Josetta--Josetta having saved Harrison's life before he had his name changed...and, of course, he had many assigned interactions on behalf of the President. It is a time of great happiness looking forward to his marriage, but also a great sadness for Harrison because the Pope is very ill. In fact, Harrison and Hannah are scheduled the next day to introduce Hannah to the Pontiff.

It is, indeed, Harrison who is the main character in the book--there are just a few scenes where the President even appears... and that, shall we say, set the whole hierarchy in Washington abuzz! I'm not even going to go into...Why? The only hint is the novel's title...

"I won't waste your time. Domestic attacks against our government had increased markedly over the past five years displacing priority concerns about the risk of foreign insertions. Much like our war on drugs, our campaign to curb domestic terrorism is falling short of its objectives. We cannot continue our present course and survive as a democratic government. It is time to review our current objectives...No, it is time to scrap our failed approach at counteracting domestic terrorism...and implement a bold plan that seeks to reach a compromise with some of the more tenable ideals of our country's 'dissidents.'"
~~~

Harrison reports to "Mentor" who is never identified as to position he holds in the government. The one thing we do know is that the two men have become close and normally have a good working relationship. However, this time, Mentor is being very closed about  what he is willing to share with Hardware. Difficult to swallow is what Harrison thought of this since he was the one who was being asked to take the assignment to track the President down! He was especially upset over the directive given by the President. Even this Mentor was not willing to discuss--just what was really going on?!

There was only one connection that would be explored first... A leader of a dissident group who had challenged the President directly many times. Great, Harrison was on his own, with no real hope of any timely backup. But he'd sworn to protect the President and he'd follow through, no matter what. He needed to bring her back--dead or alive!

Harrison noted a quieting in the room as Mentor
made his appearance. The man with a heavy
weight on his shoulders nodded to the men and
women gathered in the room. Mentor made eye
contact with Hardware and gazed unflinching
at his colleague and friend. Harrison saw a
disturbance in his supervisor's eyes, something
rarely seen given the asserted personality of
the man...

Mentor stood for the first
time. He walked toward
Hardware with an out-
stretched hand. "Be careful,
Harrison, and God's speed."
Harrison said nothing, but
reached for his friend's
outstretched hand. He
knew the extremist would
stop at nothing. Harrison
was aware of the risks
involved and knew he may
not see his friend again.
He may not see Hannah
again. Harrison firmly
shook the hand of Mentor
and then his superior was
off into the darkness...
~~~

While the mystery and suspense surround the kidnapping of the President and the events regarding that action keeps readers into highs and lows as information is disclosed, the majority of the novel reads as an exciting action thriller. Harrison is truly hero material and reminded me of my favorite hero from Russia in the Talanov series by James Houston Turner. But the first man who came to mind most was our favorite TV one-man show, MacGyver. Just because Harrison was able to head in on his own and do what he needed to do. 

It took guts to go out on his own, especially since two other special agents on his detail had been killed! One of the sad events when he actually got to the compound was to find a woman locked up in a trunk... She was one of the wives of the leader! Harrison helped her and stole some wine to give her, and help her not to have to die alone, unfound... But he couldn't help being relieved that he had not found the President! And one thing she'd been able to do is tell him a little about where he should be headed... because he promised her he would avenge her death...

A man of faith and honor, Harrison did not lightly choose to destroy another man's life. He did it when it was necessary... And the type of men who had beaten a woman, their leader's wife, and placed her in a trunk to die, would be somebody needing dying...

One issue to  mention...You may note in my excerpts that the writer does not break for dialogue as is normally done. The material was presented in a routine topical paragraph and I had no disruption in reading. Otherwise, I had no problems with the format and writing by the author. I was able to guess the outcome but that did not take away from the major action by Harrison. In fact, he is capable of starring in his own series, in my opinion. Do check this one out!

GABixlerReviews

The interest, drive and motivation to become a writer often have their roots early in life even though one may not realize at the time. I was an 8-year-old third grader when I had some conscious awareness that writing is a good thing. It was then that several friends and I started a neighborhood newsletter.

With typewriter in hand, the newsletter was born and essentially shared much about nothing that went on in the neighborhood. However, our neighbors were kind enough to give us 25 cents for each newsletter... and most paying customers could actually read the carbon blur caused by a dozen carbon sheets.

As the years passed, I took several courses in writing and things didn't seem so blurry ... to date, I have published the following books (all books and details at www.galluzzibooks.com:

"Mirror, Mirror at 1600 D.C."

"Beginnings"

"Side Stepping the Rules: Broken or Not"

"Twelve Upon A Time..."

"Twelve Upon A Time... Bedside Story Collection Series" - 12 books for each month of the year in color.

As with all my books, I hope the reader enjoys the read as much as I enjoyed the write... Ed

Book One of the Huntress Moon Series by Alexandra Sokoloff - A Totally Unexpected Thriller!

A Hunter's Moon doesn't create the illusion of two suns, isn't a miracle, occurs annually, and online images purporting to show this year's Hunter's Moon are actually much older.

Chosen Purely for Atmosphere...

...all morning Roarke had had a bad feeling. He'd woken from an old childhood dream of a lurking monster, and it was the damn dream that had him most spooked; it always came up in times of extreme stress or anxiety and it never boded well.

He didn't think of any of this as psychic or precognitive; he'd been an investigator for far too long not to know that the human brain processes information too fast for the brain's owner to be aware of exactly where those subtle signs and warnings are coming from. Something had been off about Greer's last reports and had triggered early warning bells in Roarke's head. Cops called in "Blue Sense" or "Spider Sense--"

A horn blasted in Roarke's ear, startling him back to the present. He'd almost stepped straight into traffic on the busy street.

He lifted a hand in apology to the car that had just missed him, then breathed in and waited five more seconds for the light, and sped through the crosswalk toward the appointed meeting place.

It was a Peet's Coffee, perched halfway down the block of a steep incline, one of those streets that give San Franciscans some of the most toned asses and thighs in the continental U.S. Roarke slowed his pace slightly to cushion the shin-jarring descent.

The Peet's had a fences in outside seating area with wrought-iron tables and chairs, set off from the curb with flowering planters. The meeting was arranged to look like a chance encounter, two random businessmen in suits, bumping elbows at the counter.

Roarke started to turn into the cafe, when something made him turn his head--and he saw Greer on the sidewalk across the street, about to cross mid-block. The men did not acknowledge each other in any way; that was not the plan. But Roarke felt a tidal wave of relief, seeing him.

Safe, he thought, and thanked whatever God was out there.

But Roarke didn't turn away, because that was when he saw her, standing on the sidewalk, just a bit behind Greet.

She was medium height, tall in boots, and slim, with long, lithe muscles like a cat. This Roarke could see because her arms were bare, even in the brisk air; she wore a form-fitting black top with a turtleneck. There was something fetishy in the combination of bare arms and high neck that was arresting, bt so was everything about her, her past-the-shoulder blond hair and black sunglasses, the way she stood in tight black pants and boots. The city was full of striking women, that was not what drew him. And for that weird second, he felt that he knew her, too.

He would remember every detail of that moment for a long, long time. The sun of her hair, The stretch black of her turtleneck and the taut muscles of her arms. The gleam of chrome on the truck. The violent purple irises in the flower stand behind Greet. The smell of exhaust and coffee.

Roarke was still looking at the street, at her, when the truck rumbled by, a huge semi-which momentarily obscured his view of the woman in black. And then there was the screeching of worn brakes straining against the downward plunge of the hill. and Roarke turned just in time to hear a sickening thud and see blood exploding over the truck's front grille and a man's body flying, and then there was screaming, one scream on top of another, and male shouting, a building wave of panic. And then the woman was gone and the sidewalk was crowded with people turning away or shrieking in horror... and through the chaos and the screaming Road realized he had just watched his agent obliterated by a seventeen-tone commercial truck.

~~~

huntress moon

By alexandra sokoloff

The back blurb for this novel is sufficient to provide the overview of the story. A haunted FBI agent...and a female serial killer... Rare, but they do exist, at least in the Debut of the series now out again after receiving awards in 2012 when it first came out. Only problem I had? I wanted to immediately go out and get the entire series, but my prior commitments stopped me. The unique angle that the author presents readers makes for great reading. I was drawn into the life of the killer just as FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke was...

Roarke had earlier been a member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit but had transferred out when it began to affect him personally. Now, one of his men who had been undercover is dead...and he knows that he was murdered. As a senior agent, he is able to seek approval from his boss to find his agent's killer, and he's starting with the woman he had seen directly behind him when Greer had died by a seeming accident.

For me, the book was clearly driven by the characters...Roarke as a child was immediately drawn to the FBI and retained his desire to join through school and into adulthood. It did surprise him that he chose to move into a different department. But as he started "hunting," he met with a former mentor of his and was once again aware that he had a special knack for the work. He found he was getting excited as he started back out on his own, searching where to begin and then following the trail.

One of the first things he tried was to have a search made on other deaths that had certain key words highlighting what had happened. He discovered two previous deaths! The hunt had begun!

She sits in the rough-riding BART train, headed to San Francisco International Airport. No need for a rental car in this city; the public transportation is faster than any other vehicle and there is no parking to be found anywhere, anyway. Parking tickets are dangerous, to be avoided at all cost; they leave a time-stamped trail. So after disposing of the bleach-soaked bedding in a restaurant dumpster she'd descended one of the escalators on Market street, to a BART stop and bought an eight-dollar ticket to SFO.

She wears a tailored charcoal overcoat, her hair is tucked up on a black, short wig, and she carried nothing but a rolling carryon bag, which gives her the appearance of dozens of others on the train, just another business traveler on her way out of town.

She feels a profound calm; there is always that feeling of respite when an encounter goes so perfectly, to its highest and best conclusion.

Only one thing mars the feeling of peace. The man she saw across the street is law enforcement. Too observant to be anything else, too vigilant; it was in his clothes, his posture, his eyes. She thinks back over every moment, fixing each second in time, examining it. Not police; the cut of the suit said FBI. And he had seen her...but then, there had been nothing to see. The truck had been too big, too fast. Nothing too much to concern her.

Still, she will not stay another second in the city. She will find a car and take a circuitous route, go along some way where there are no people, just her and the car, no need for contact. Everything will be revealed, as it always is.

It is, after all, a whole week until the day.

As she sits, rocking slightly with the movement of the car, the train screeches metallically on its tracks, a surreal and disturbing sound. A weathered man is staring at her from several seats away, unkempt and on drugs at least, probably homeless, but he has the look that she knows so well.

She is more and more tense as he stares, her breath coming harsh in her throat. The sound of the train feels like screaming. Her hand goes to her coat pocket, slips inside to finger the straight razor concealed there.

As the train slows at the next stop, the man rises clumsily, smiling vacantly, his eyes burning, and walks straight for her.

As he reaches to touch her she slashes the razor across his fingers. It happens so fast she can barely hear the shriek as he realized his hand is dripping blood and fingers to the dirty car floor--

The man in the aisle veers away from her as if he knows what she is thinking and she rouses herself from the fantasy. Of course she has not cut him. This is a trap, part of the Game, put in front of her to taunt her, to trick her into making a mistake. There is no way to take care of him, not now, not here, there are too many people, and she must concentrate on getting clear, leaving with as few ripples as humanly possible. He staggers off the train and her heart quiets again. Her hand stays in her pocket, loosely gripping the razor.

~~~

I have to admit I felt sympathy for this serial killer. Even knowing what she had done...Her MO was using a straight razor on both sides of the neck, cutting the carotid arteries... Shall we say she had considered how she would do it, and came up with an excellent effective method? No, I wasn't excited by the killing. It was the reason. I wanted to know why... And so did Roarke... So I followed each step he made, each conclusion he reached...and I watched as he, too, became possessive about this woman...

As I read further, I began to think about an old movie, titled "Laura" where an investigator falls for the painting of a woman and becomes obsessed. Could Roarke have seen something in her as she stood on the street that day while he waited to meet his agent, Greer." Or is it just my imagination that attached a personal connection between the killer and her hunter...Is she, after all, the true huntress? The suspense is thick with emotion as we witness some of the actions of the mystery lady. But there is also something taunting us not to believe all that we learn about. Then with the surprising ending, there is no real satisfaction. There is a need, a desire to move on... into the next book!

Alexandra Sokoloff left me wanting, needing to know what happens in this series. I don't think any other series has affected me quite so much in this particular way. I don't want the murderer to be caught... Quite a dilemma for me, don't you think?! What?!!! There's no doubt for this one...Get the book and tell me what you think?!

GABixlerReviews

I'm the Thriller Award-winning and Bram Stoker and Anthony Award-nominated author of the Amazon bestselling crime and supernatural thrillers The Harrowing, The Price, Book of Shadows, The Unseen, The Space Between, and the new Thriller Award- nominated Huntress/FBI thriller series: Huntress Moon, Blood Moon, Cold Moon. Bitter Moon. The New York Times Book Review has called me "a daughter of Mary Shelley" and my novels "some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre." 

I'm a California native and a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, where I majored in theater and minored in everything that Berkeley has a reputation for. After college I moved to Los Angeles, where I've made an interesting living doing novel adaptations and selling original thriller scripts to various Hollywood studios.

In my stories I like to cross the possibility of the supernatural with very real life explanations for any strangeness going on, and base the action squarely in fact. THE UNSEEN is based on real paranormal research conducted at the Duke University parapsychology lab, and BOOK OF SHADOWS teams a Boston homicide detective and a practicing Salem witch in a race to solve what may be a Satanic killing. THE SPACE BETWEEN, is an edgy supernatural YA about a troubled high school girl who is having dreams of a terrible massacre at her school, and becomes convinced that she can prevent the shooting if she can unravel the dream.

I also have written paranormal romance (THE SHIFTERS, KEEPER OF THE SHADOWS) and the non-fiction workbooks SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS and WRITING LOVE, based on my internationally acclaimed workshops and blog (http://screenwritingtricks.com) 

I live in Los Angeles and in Scotland, with Scottish crime author Craig Robertson.

When I'm not writing I dance: jazz, ballet, salsa, Lindy, swing - I do it all, every chance I get. 

Maggie Kast is Back at Book Readers Heaven as Guest Blogger and "What She Ate!"

Click  to Read My Review!

After a lifetime career in modern dance, Maggie Kast received a Master of Theological Studies from Catholic Theological Union and began teaching, choreographing and performing liturgical dance. She received an M.F.A. in fiction from Vermont College in 2001 and has published fiction in The Sun, Carve Magazine, Kaleidoscope, Nimrod International, Paper Street and others. Her essays have appeared in America, Writer's Chronicle, Image and others. A chapter of her book, published in ACM (Another Chicago Magazine), won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and a Pushcart nomination. 

What She Ate

When I was a child I liked to spend recess sitting in the crook of a tree with a friend and making up recipes: chocolate pie, lemon meringue, puddings. Now I love to cook and read about food, not just recipes but food ways and how they relate to culture, what happens when people break bread together, how meals fit into rituals of family and group.

There are many wonderful novels based on food, some including recipes. Among my favorites are Henry Kressing’s classic The Cook, a funny and terrifying sort of fairy tale; the magic realist novel, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; and John  Lanchester’s The Debt to Pleasure, with its foodie turned murderer. In Babette’s Feast, both book and movie, a meal becomes a sacrament

that reconciles a community.

More recently J. Ryan Stradal’s debut novel, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, had huge success with a story of that region structured around a recipe for each chapter. It’s on my to-read list.

When I began to write, in the early ‘90s, the first thing I learned was to use sensory detail: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Sight comes easiest. The writer knows her character is five feet five with long, brown hair, but other sensory information may tell the reader more. The odor of her perfume and the smell of that brown hair might make the reader feel attracted, while the song that 

played on her first date may tell the reader how she felt. Wet tears on her cheek would communicate more than saying she was sad or touched, especially when her date’s rough but gentle fingers wiped them away.

Many realistic novels, full of other sensory detail, neglect to tell us what she ate and how it tasted. If it was hamburgers and fries, were they just fodder to fill stomachs or were they juicy, greasy, or crisp? Food traditions in the modern U.S. vary from town to town and era to era, so that meals in novels are wonderful ways of marking time and place. In my own lifetime I’ve seen rare ingredients from foreign shores replaced by local; farms replaced by factories and then replaced by farms again; butter replaced by margarine replaced by butter. I’ve experienced a shift from packaged pudding yes to packaged pudding no, sushi from no to yes. I remember when there were two kinds of wine: red and white.

My novel, A Free, Unsullied Land, takes place in Chicago 1930. My protagonist, Henriette Greenberg, has given up on eating because of painful conflicts at the family table, where her mother uses food to exert control while her brothers conspire to break the rules. Henriette buys a Tango bar each day on her way home from school so she won’t be hungry when dreaded mealtime arrives. Doesn’t sound like much of a scenario for food! But Carl, Henriette’s brother, fights the rule-bound meals by learning to cook himself. He gets government pamphlets that advocate low-temperature cooking for meat and corrects his mother’s practice. He hangs out in Chinese restaurant kitchens and picks up tips, buys Mu Shu pancakes and roasts a duck at home. When he is asked to make canapés to sell at a political rally on Haymarket Square, he makes up rounds of rye bread covered with salmon and topped by two little fish, lying head to toe like children sharing a bed. He discovers the Home Delicacies Association founded by Mrs. William Vaughn Moody, the widow of the poet, and learns from her to make bouillabaisse. To Henriette, her brother is a brilliant mentor who introduces her to delicious, sharp tastes, to the jazz music just then

arriving in Chicago, to the mysterious new discipline of psychoanalysis.
At the University of Chicago, Henriette meets Dilly Brannigan, a grad student in anthropology, and a whole new food world unfolds. He comes from a small town and, to Henriette’s horror, he hunts to live. Summers his family eats vegetables from the garden; winters they subsist on venison and potatoes. His mother is proud to serve the new lime jello and takes for granted the rich apple dumplings, swimming in syrup, that she learned from her own mother. Eventually, Henriette learns to prepare the meat that Dilly hunts, cooking on a wood stove, making rabbit stew with sour cream and bacon.

 

During the anxious days before the novel’s launch I took advantage of my love of cooking to prepare foods from the novel for a reception, each dish accompanied by the appropriate text. I discovered the joy of making Mu Shu pancakes (photos and recipe at www.maggiekast.com) and replicating Carl’s canapés. I converted those apple dumplings into tiny, individual tastes for a crowd, and caterer Blair Carothers figured out how to make something palatable out of Mrs. Moody’s “The Lion and the Lamb”: creamed seafood and chicken livers. Doesn’t sound like a happy marriage. But if Dilly and Henriette can get along as well as those ingredients finally did, the story will have a happy ending. Whatever happens, we’ll know just what she ate.

~~~

Nani's Tale by Corey Fair - Let's Look at it Together...What do you Think?

When I was very young, an uncle of mine died. At his funeral, I roamed his home where viewings were held, crying... I cried because I was glad he was dead...

I know that he had touched me, abused me in some way, but I couldn't remember anything more than I was afraid of him and glad he was gone...

That time was not the last relative to touch me inappropriately throughout my childhood, especially when I grew older...

I started reading this story with my own background but also have read many stories written by others who were abused as children.

This book didn't follow most of those stories much, which are normally in the self-help genre... This story is fiction...

Nani's Tale

By Corey Fair

I don't know whether this book is based upon a true story--it is listed on Amazon as fiction. And I believe it is fiction...

Why did that bother me? Well, because child abuse is so prevalent in today's world, that it didn't seem right to me to write fiction about that reality, even if it is intended to help... Mainly it bothered me that there was one scene, which I found to be incongruous...a young boy supposedly goes into a bedroom where Nani is sleeping with her mother, climbs up far enough to place his mouth where it shouldn't be...and then he is discovered, chased out of the room, runs into the streets and is killed. Once that event happened, the stepfather becomes even more abusive because he has lost his son...

Sure it makes for great drama and added greatly to the story. But I just couldn't believe it could happen. The value of the story for me was greatly diminished.

The story is written in first person which implies the girl is telling her own story. She specifically goes into details about what happened when she was just two and then three...I remembered my childhood experience--or rather that I couldn't remember the details of my own experience, and thought, again, this was not true, but had been written to suggest what a two-year-old might have said or thought.

The beautiful little girl on the front cover certainly is someone who we would all want to be happy and cherished with love. We would all want to have that child taken in by a teacher, pastor and their son, who immediately becomes a big brother and protects her. What I did believe was everything related to the child's introduction to church and Jesus. It rang true and was well presented.

It is my impression that the author acted in good faith to write a story that could be inspirational. And many will find this story to be. I believe, however, she needs to read some real-life stories and work to make her work more in line with what could actually happen. Once one issue is questioned, it limits the value of the book...

What started me thinking about this? It was the preview of her next book, Bully Me Badd which was again written in first person...with a different child, different mother, etc. One thing that could salvage this problem could be by writing in third person and placing some of the thoughts for the child in italics in a "voice" appropriate for the age of the child... But no matter what, abuse is almost always done in secret and scenes cannot be created which probably just wouldn't happen--no matter how much drama it might add to the story line.

I applaud the writer for wanting to "educate on a mental and spiritual level." More reading and research in the field would start the writer moving in this direction on a more solid basis. Her writing is good and could continue on for some great inspirational books. I hope my personal opinion may help her move forward. In the meantime, please consider that this book is fiction as you consider it further. It does have much to offer...just not enough for me to recommend.

GABixlerReviews

Traveling to Mongolia with Bradford G. Wheler's, Mongolia and The Golden Eagle...with special artwork by Jenna Paddey

Jenna Paddey Art

Aspiring illustrator, currently taking commissions. For inquiries, email me at: ofthesedaydream@gmail.com

Something a little different today...When I saw the cover for Brad Wheler's book, and then saw the above beautiful painting on Tumbler, I had to ask to use. The young girl reminded me of a younger version of  the female lead who we first met in Inca's Death Cave (See my review).  Together with the professor...

Now They're Back!

Mongolia and The Golden Eagle:

An Archaeological Mystery Thriller

By Bradford G. Wheler

Did you ever wish that you had a professional reputation that was well known all over the world? Well, our professor, who just received a $10Million Grant to travel to Mongolia is not too sure about that. He's never been there, knows nothing about the country...and, worse, knows nothing about the archaeological history or background! What?!

Mongolian eagle hunter on horseback.

Four horsemen appeared on the ridge above us. Each had a golden eagle perched on his arm. The air was clear and crisp. The horses snorted puffs of steam into the early morning air. The sky seemed very blue.

The lead horseman held up his arm and the eagle stirred. He removed the hood from the eagle's head, whispered something to the bird, and released him. The eagle leaped into the air and spread its eight-foot wings. As it began to circle upward, the other horsemen released their eagles and the wolf hunt began.

I once again wondered how this small nation of herders had built one of the biggest empires known to mankind. It stretched from Korea south to Vietnam, across most of China, northern India, the middle East, into Eastern Europe and much of Russia. It was far larger and longer lasting than the conquests of Alexander the Great or the Romans. Surpassed in area and population by only the British Empire at its peak.

The Mongols developed a road system across the empire, commonly called the Silk Road. Commerce flourished, science, medicine, and the arts advanced, weights and measures were standardized, paper money was introduced, religious freedom and tolerance expanded.

This Great Empire of the  Mongols was weakened by leadership infighting and then destroyed by the Black Death that came out of Asia and traveled over the Silk Road killing over 100 million people.

~~~

The Professor's Dean had been the one to tell him that he would be leaving for Mongolia. And he wasn't pleased about it, mumbling about not even being able to get $50,000 in response to his small request. He explained that the administration had approved his grant, but the professor had not applied for one. 

Of course, the Professor immediately knew that there was only one person who would involve him in a grant worth $10M, especially since he had nothing in his background regarding Mongolia. Walter Falone had funded his trip to Peru. He was founder and CEO of Falone Advanced Technologies and a lover of Archaeology. Surprisingly, however, he learned later that it was actually the Minister of Mongolia that had suggested him, due to his work in Peru. He went looking for Abbey. Abbey had been just 15 when he'd met her, a gifted woman who now had her PhD and was on the faculty. She not only did not know anything about the grant, she also didn't know that she would be going too!

Soon Ned joined them and later the professor learned that most of the team from Peru would be there. Ned, he's the computer and communication genius, but he was mostly excited by the fact that there were two-hump camels to be ridden! Actually, they all would have to learn to ride horses to go where they would be headed! One cute sideline was when a team member arrived on site riding a white camel...Everybody was very excited to see one...she only told a few that the camel's hair got to be white the same way hers had...LOL

After they had the comforts in Peru, what

they would be facing was difficult, and sometimes downright spooky!

The Professor wanted to know more, but nobody was willing to share much of what was going on...What were they getting into?

Traditionally dressed Mongolian
singer playing an igil.

...she pulled out a flyer and handed it to me. I looked at it. "Alash master Tuvan throat singers," they were playing tonight. I looked up at Abbey.She said, "I bought you a ticket...We can learn something about the culture."

I said, "It says Tuvan not Mongolia."

"Technically it is in Russia but it borders Mongolia and historically was part of a larger Mongolia. People tell me they are amazing...

I said I would. Not having any more info on what we were going to be doing in Mongolia we finished our drinks and left.

~~~

Preparation for their work began with meeting relevant people in the United States and getting letters of introduction for those in Mongolia. Much of the work done by Professor Summers' group is done by computer and as many other electronic gadgets that are needed. The work is very hi-tech and even the exploration of potential archaeological sites are done by drones and other mapping systems. It's all quite interesting and anybody who enjoys History and Archaeology will find the novel worth checking out... 

Our grant territory is to focus on the western provinces Bayan-Olgii and Khovd. Most of the people in Bayan-Olgii are Kazakhs not Mongols. In Khovd there are more than 17 nationalities and ethnicities. Each of these groups has its own distinct traditional dwelling and settlement pattern, dress and other cultural distinctions, literary, artistic, and musical traditions. It is important that the central government be seen as directing resources to these areas and being sensitive to their resources to these areas and being sensitive to their cultures and traditions. That is why I suggest our grant focus on this area of the country. The Minister agreed that it was not only worthwhile work but it would be useful politically.
There was more going on than a simple archaeological project. Being in a remote corner of the country was fine by me. Perhaps I could find an obscure archaeological site and spend my time excavating that. At least I know how to run a proper dig site.
~~~

Re-creation of a Mongol warrior on
horseback.

It was interesting that the first expert they talked to, Sir Harry Padsworth suggested that the most famous leader, Genghis Khan, was not a good choice for research since it was selected so often. He noted that their research should be aimed toward bringing the people closer together. The Professor's heart must have jumped since he knew nothing about the people, except what he thus far had read in guidebooks. Once again he was feeling insecure being responsible for this gigantic grant... But at least they were able to get full agreement on a specific area to be further explored... They would concentrate on the western provinces Bayan-Olgii and Khovd. Even though everything was still being kept quite mysterious...

But at least they started sharing when they discovered that spies were watching and following...and...more. And meeting poaches on the way wasn't part of the plan... And one other character I want to introduce you to is Beast who became the Professor's constant companion...and more... I did not, however, enjoy meeting this giant Mongolian death worm...LOL!

There is always lots of details about equipment, guns and other technical gadgets that are used. But you will also learn much about the history and present cultural activities of Mongolia. Because the entire trip was couched in such secrecy, the issue of what is actually going on is quite intriguing... And the ending was quite a surprise for me! Still I enjoyed the actual triumph for the Professor's team and think readers interested in archaeology will too but I must say I preferred the first book of the two... Most pictures were provided by the author and also appear, along with others, in the book. Seeing the beautiful Ibex, a species of wild goats and the Mongolian Bankhar, which is a similar breed to the Tibetan mastiff, led to some of my favorite scenes in the book. Do check this out and have a Great Trip to a very old country!

GABixlerReviews

Bradford G. Wheler author of "MONGOLIA AND THE GOLDEN EAGLE An Archaeological Mystery Thriller" and President of BookCollaborative.com.
BRADFORD G. WHELER is the former CEO, President and Co-owner of Allan Electric Company. He sold Allan Electric to a New York Stock Exchange listed company. After staying on as President during the transition, Brad retired.
Brad's lifelong love of history, art, books, and the inherent humor in man's nature led to the founding of BookCollaborative.com and the publishing of MONGOLIA AND THE GOLDEN EAGLE: An Archaeological Mystery Thriller, as well as INCA'S DEATH CAVE An Archaeological Mystery Thriller, LOVE SAYINGS: wit & wisdom of romance, courtship, & marriage, GOLF SAYINGS: wit & wisdom of a good walk spoiled, "CAT SAYINGS: wit & wisdom from the whiskered ones, HORSE SAYINGS: wit & wisdom straight from the horse's mouth, DOG SAYINGS: wit & wisdom from man's best friend, and SNAPPY SAYINGS: wit & wisdom from the world's greatest minds.
His community involvements include being a Trustee of Community General Hospital in Hamilton, NY, and chairing their Finance Committee. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Cazenovia College, and former Chairman and member of the Board of Directors and Alumni Association and President of the Sigma Phi Society at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce and several other boards.
Brad played polo on the Cornell University men's polo team for four years and was a member of the Cazenovia Polo Club. In 2012 he was inducted into the Manlius Pebble Hill Athletic Hall of Fame.
He holds a BS and ME in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY as well as an MBA degree from Fordham University in New York, NY. He is a licensed Professional Engineer.
Brad, his wife, Julie, and their golden retriever Finlay live in Cazenovia, NY and Fort Pierce, FL.