A Murder Mystery with Fishing on the Side

“Blue Heron Marsh” by Douglas Quinn
ISBN: 978-0-595-45822-6
Publisher: iUniverse

“Blue Heron Marsh” is a unique mystery told from the perspective of a loner Webb Sawyer, who must deal with his difficult past to bring him into today’s world in order to solve a series of murders.

We learn about quiet life and fishing though Webb’s life. He lives for fishing and shares this passion with all that touch his life throughout this novel. We also see a transformation in Webb Sawyer as he deals with the difficult situation presented to him while serving the US. His closest friend looses trust in Webb and he is forced to reconnect with an old friend Bly after making several bad decisions. Bly helps to ground Webb, bringing him into the technological age and finds him the perfect fishing and hanging out buddy that he desperately needs.

Begrudgingly, Webb assists a soon to be Private Investigator, Amanda, as she hunts down clues across the state of NC trying to free her friend Clara from jail and find the true murder of a well known business man. Amanda believes that she has found convincing clues that prove her friend is innocent and seductively begs for Webb to help her and present her case to her former boss and an old friend of Webb, the prosecutor, Randy Fearing. After reviewing Amanda’s research and following her lead, Webb gives in and agrees that something is not right about this case.

After Amanda leaves the case, Webb continues to follow his gut feeling and seek additional information about other murders around the state that occurred in the same fashion. His research leads him to confront the killer and he finds that he is perplexed as to what to do once he knows the past and truth.

The twists and turns and unexpected events in this novel will continually make you second guess who is at fault and what should be done about the evidence that is uncovered.

Syracuse, NY Zoo - A fun day for the family :)

My Local Mickey Mouse Club

My Local Mickey Mouse Club :) Little clips from this past week of the twins... enjoy!

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Book Review: "Darkfall" by Dean Koontz

One of Koontz’s earliest novels that was originally titled “The Pit” by his persona Owen West, has been retitled “Darkfall” and is now published along with other Koontz titles. I picked up this paperback after reading and enjoying Koontz’s “Odd Thomas” series. The writing of “Darkfall” is just as dark and evil as I had expected.

Koontz’s use of imagery throughout the novel is outstanding. I was able to (unwillingly) step into the novel and be part of the action. I truly felt as if I was traveling with the characters throughout the story.

The demonic characters where slowly revealed to us as the gates of hell were opened through a glowing pit dug by the evil character Lavelle. Lavelle practices voodoo, but other than a few references to his rituals, I found that there was much research lacking by Koontz.

The characters Jack and Rebecca were well developed and I felt a strong connection to them, even to the evil forces of Lavelle. There was a strong story line of good vs evil that was carried through the entire book. A lesser love storyline was also present and I found myself enjoying the character development through this route.

Having a 12 year old child, I found one character, Penny, who is 11 years old to be unbelievable. See seemed to present the maturity and dialogue of a much older teen. This was especially evident at the end of the novel.

Overall, this was a fun read, which you should probably not read before bedtime.

Book Review: “The Paper Doorway” Poetry by Dean Koontz

I recently gave my 12 year old son the assignment to reflect on poetry that he had recently read. His response was that he could not do the assignment, as he did not like poetry and had never really read any poetry.

My response to him went something like this “but you love poetry, and you recently were telling me about all the great little ‘stories’ you were reading in your Dean Koontz book.”

His response “That’s not poetry, I liked that book. It was full of funny little stories.”

We had a long discussion after about how poetry takes on many forms and brings many different emotions. The emotions that were felt with Koontz’s poetry made my son feel happy. All poetry is not like that and my son did later admit he enjoys poetry, especially Koontz’s poetry.

“The Paper Doorway” is filled with humorous, whimsical poetry for children of all ages. There are wonderful illustrations on nearly each page and each illustration contains a mouse for your child to find.

This is a must have book for all young readers which will expose them to the joys of poetry.