The Coded Crucifix: An Aaron Thornton Thriller
David A. Dummer’s The Coded Crucifix opens with a killer slipping into the crowds at Pamplona’s San Fermín festival, then rewinds a week to show how he got there. FBI psychologist Aaron Thornton has been summoned to England by MI5 because a former patient will speak only to him. The man warns of an IRA operation in Spain involving a mercenary known as El Gocho. Thornton and MI5 analyst Sarah Maylor head to Pamplona with little more than a date and a name, and their search leads them from a struggling bull ranch to a crucifix marked with coded directions. Dummer gives the investigation a firm deadline: each day brings the festival, and whatever the plotters have planned, closer.
The novel gets much of its energy from watching people with different pieces of the story act on what they know. Thornton and Maylor chase records and interview witnesses; El Gocho studies their movements and changes his appearance; a rancher fights to protect a family legacy whose history is surfacing in nearby fields. Dummer makes Pamplona feel busy and physical, with packed streets, church interiors, bull pens, and mountain paths all shaping what the characters can do. The details of bull breeding and the running of the bulls give the chase its distinctive setting. At times, the briefings and explanations slow the momentum, especially when several institutions must be introduced in quick succession. Even so, those details make the search feel like work carried out by people who have to earn each useful clue.
Readers of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code will recognize the pleasure of following an old religious object toward a hidden location. Dummer pairs that puzzle with a modern intelligence operation, and the crucifix matters because different people read its marks, history, and whereabouts in different ways. The Spanish Civil War and its aftermath run through the mystery as living concerns for families in the present. A recovered object can offer a lead to investigators and news about a missing brother to someone who has waited decades. That human connection gives the historical material weight. It also makes the novel’s wide cast easier to follow: beneath the changing leads and loyalties, many characters are trying to decide what they owe the people who came before them.
Thornton’s own history gives the thriller another source of tension. His earlier ordeal in Belfast still affects his sleep, his judgment of danger, and his need to keep control when the case grows personal. His partnership with Maylor develops through shared legwork and growing trust, which helps ground the larger conspiracy. The Coded Crucifix builds toward a vivid pursuit through the bull run, where the geography and customs Dummer has spent time establishing become part of the action. The closing chapters leave consequences for several characters still unfolding, in keeping with a series built around Thornton. It’s an involving, research-rich thriller for readers who enjoy a clue trail with a strong sense of place and investigators who have personal stakes in where it leads.
Pages: 402 | ASIN: B0GX2ZZG39
King of the Lair
Suzé DiPietro’s King of the Lair, based on the rock opera Grendel’s Lair, plunges readers into a world of pounding guitars, black leather, dangerous attractions, and power struggles. At the center is Grendel’s Lair, a gritty rock club ruled by Vlad, the charismatic frontman of Vlad and the Impalers. When Johnny, a young guitarist with a fierce independent streak, walks through its doors, he finds himself drawn to Jenny, a woman struggling to escape Vlad’s possessive grip. Their connection threatens Vlad’s control and sets off a volatile chain of events involving jealousy, obsession, betrayal, and violence. The story unfolds over a single tumultuous night, with the club itself taking on an almost supernatural presence, influencing everyone who enters and consuming those who surrender to its pull.
I think one of the book’s most distinctive features is the way DiPietro weaves music into the storytelling. Originally conceived as a rock opera, the story retains its theatrical roots, with song lyrics emerging naturally from the characters’ confrontations, desires, and private struggles. The performances become an extension of the drama, turning romantic tension into musical competition and emotional revelations into moments that feel designed for the stage. DiPietro’s descriptions of the club are intensely physical. You can practically feel the sticky floorboards, smell the cigarette smoke, and hear the guitars cutting through the crowd. Her prose frequently lingers on these sensations, creating a hypnotic, sometimes deliberately oppressive atmosphere. The recurring imagery and extended descriptions occasionally slow the action, but they also establish the Lair as a living force whose influence reaches far beyond the music.
Beneath the rock-and-roll spectacle lies a dark story about emotional manipulation, addiction, personal freedom, and the devastating consequences of obsession. Johnny’s confidence and belief in his independence are tested as he becomes entangled in the very world he hopes to challenge. Jenny’s struggle is especially compelling because her attraction to Vlad is bound up with fear, painful memories, and the difficulty of reclaiming control over her own life. Delilah adds another dimension to the story, with her jealousy and desperate need for Vlad’s affection driving her toward increasingly destructive decisions. Vlad, meanwhile, embodies the seductive nature of power, commanding the stage and the people around him with equal intensity. As the night spirals toward tragedy, the novel becomes increasingly concerned with the choices people make when love, survival, and self-worth collide. Its conclusion is particularly interesting, offering three possible paths for Jenny that invite readers to consider the very different forms that escape, surrender, and survival can take.
King of the Lair will appeal most to readers who enjoy dark and emotionally charged fiction with a strong musical identity and a flair for theatrical drama. Fans of classic hard rock, glam metal, and rock operas will appreciate the larger-than-life personalities, lyrical exchanges, and atmosphere of a live performance where every song raises the emotional stakes. There’s also plenty here for readers drawn to complicated relationships, psychological tension, and stories about people struggling to break free from destructive attachments. The book’s treatment of coercion, addiction, violence, and self-harm makes for an intense reading experience, especially as the story approaches its branching conclusions. For anyone who enjoys fiction that feels like a rock concert and a psychological drama unfolding on the same stage, DiPietro has created a vivid and unsettling world that continues to resonate after the final song.
Pages: 134 | ASIN : B0H3DY2Q58
All in a Moment: Innocence Lost, A Mother’s Murder, and the Power of Forgiveness
All in a Moment begins with a devastating absence. When Mallina Wilson is fifteen, her mother, Amina, leaves their Seattle home after tucking her into bed and never returns. Nearly two years later, Amina’s remains are found, and investigators associate her death with the Green River killings. That event gives this true crime memoir its most urgent question, but Wilson takes time to show us the woman and family behind the case. She traces her grandmother’s guarded history, her mother’s restless search for freedom, and a childhood spent moving among communes, relatives’ homes, and schools across two continents. The result is an intimate account of how a daughter comes to know her mother more fully after losing her.
Wilson is especially good at remembering what adult choices felt like to a child. A beloved dog is given away while she’s living in Paris; a school day begins with her mother sending her little brother along for show and tell. Other memories hold warmth: music filling a car on a long drive, fresh bread coming out of the oven, and hours exploring beaches and woods. These details give the family memoir its texture. Wilson loves her mother’s imagination and generosity, and she’s candid about the hunger, instability, and exposure to danger that shaped her own childhood. Her affection and anger can occupy the same page, which makes their relationship feel real.
After Amina disappears, Wilson searches Seattle’s alleys and posts missing-person flyers with a friend. As the years pass, she also describes her struggle with alcohol and drugs, her fierce love for her daughters, and the difficult work of changing her behavior. Those chapters make All in a Moment a recovery memoir as well as a story of grief. Wilson recounts choices she regrets with unusual directness, including the ways her drinking affected her children. She brings the same scrutiny to the investigation and the news coverage of her mother’s death. The case takes a painful turn when Gary Ridgway is arrested but isn’t charged with Amina’s murder. Her killer remains unidentified. Wilson lets that uncertainty stand, even as she describes the damage done when an incomplete story about her mother became public fact.
The book’s later chapters spend more time on prayer, amends, and forgiveness, culminating in Wilson’s solo walk along the Way of St. Francis in Italy. Some reflections return to lessons she’s already expressed, though the scenes on the trail give those ideas fresh footing. A wrong turn, a frightening encounter with a bull, and an unplanned stop at a monastery show her practicing the trust she’s spent years trying to learn. As a spiritual memoir, All in a Moment is most persuasive when Wilson stays close to moments like these and allows the reader to see her thinking change. Her story carries its unanswered questions into a life built around her daughters, her faith, and her continuing effort to meet people, including herself, with compassion.
Pages: 472 | ASIN: B0HHWJQRWB
Fate of the Helios: Over the Edge
Kevin Hakala’s Fate of the Helios is an ambitious military science fiction novel that blends space exploration, interstellar warfare, political intrigue, and cosmic horror into a sprawling story about humanity’s place in the universe. Set in a future where Earth has united under the militaristic United Earth Coalition (UEC), the novel follows the crew of the Helios, an aging but formidable spacecraft whose mission takes a catastrophic turn. A devastating attack on the alien world of Sighten leaves the crew stranded on a mysterious planet, where they encounter dangers that challenge everything they understand about life, death, and reality. What begins as a story of military duty and survival gradually develops into something far stranger, exploring the consequences of humanity’s relentless pursuit of power and its tendency to treat the unfamiliar as a threat.
The novel’s characters give its enormous fictional universe a human dimension. Lieutenant Lauren Andrews, a gifted weapons officer whose upbringing has prepared her for a distinguished military career, occupies a particularly interesting position in the story. Her struggle with duty, personal responsibility, and the consequences of following orders becomes increasingly important as events unfold. The relationships among Andrews, Ortaga, Roth, and their fellow crew members bring warmth, humor, resentment, and genuine affection to an otherwise unforgiving environment. Major Henderson’s leadership and the tensions within the UEC introduce questions about loyalty, ambition, and the morality of military action. Hakala is especially interested in what happens when people who have dedicated their lives to an institution begin confronting the consequences of its decisions. The crew’s increasingly desperate circumstances bring those conflicts into focus, making their personal relationships as consequential as the extraordinary dangers surrounding them.
I enjoyed the extraordinary amount of attention Hakala gives to worldbuilding. The UEC has its own elaborate military hierarchy, specialized equipment, political factions, scientific developments, and social customs. Technical descriptions of spacecraft, weapons, and military operations sit alongside accounts of everyday life, giving the fictional society a substantial sense of history. The supplementary material, including technical specifications, descriptions of alien species, and additional accounts of life under the UEC, expands that world even further. Hakala’s prose is dense, highly descriptive, and frequently graphic, particularly when the story ventures into body horror and the disturbing possibilities of alien biology. His storytelling also moves between different periods and perspectives, gradually revealing the decisions that brought the Helios to its predicament. The combination of military detail, philosophical reflection, dark humor, and increasingly surreal encounters creates a distinctive atmosphere. At times, the extensive exposition and elaborate vocabulary slow the narrative, but they also reflect the sheer scale of the universe Hakala has constructed. The later chapters introduce fascinating ideas about consciousness, time, and existence that give the earlier events additional significance.
Fate of the Helios: Over the Edge will appeal most to readers who enjoy immersive, detail-heavy science fiction and are willing to spend time learning the history, technology, and complicated social structures of an unfamiliar universe. Fans of military science fiction will appreciate the attention to spacecraft operations, combat procedures, and the relationships between officers and enlisted personnel. Readers drawn to cosmic horror will find plenty to interest them as the story moves beyond conventional warfare into encounters with entities whose existence challenges human understanding. The novel’s graphic violence, unsettling imagery, and morally complicated characters make it particularly suited to an adult audience comfortable with darker fiction. There’s also a substantial philosophical dimension for readers interested in questions about free will, authoritarianism, humanity’s relationship with other civilizations, and the possibility that our understanding of existence is profoundly incomplete. Hakala has created a vast and often disturbing fictional universe, and the book’s combination of military adventure and existential mystery gives readers plenty to think about after the final chapter.
Pages: 500 | ASIN : B0C5Z3K9VK
Fireline
Peter Berk’s Fireline is an environmental thriller that begins with a scientist in prison and widens into a national emergency. Kyle Bonham, a young chemist at GreenTech BioLabs, has been convicted after an explosion kills three colleagues. He accepts responsibility even as his fiancée, Melanie, insists the evidence leaves room for doubt. Kyle’s former mentor, Dr. Noah Warner, then unveils Otizium, a self-replicating compound designed to clean polluted waterways. Kyle discovers that it could react disastrously with chemicals already in the water, but Warner presses ahead with a public demonstration on the Potomac. The ensuing fire threatens cities far beyond Washington. Berk gives the catastrophe a personal origin: the person best placed to understand it has lost his confidence, his freedom, and the trust of the man who taught him.
Kyle’s first-person narration keeps the novel close to his changing sense of responsibility. His declaration from prison, “I’m exactly where I belong,” captures how completely guilt has shaped his judgment. Once the crisis draws him into an emergency team, his scientific skill matters, but so does his willingness to listen. Raji Kumar’s work in microbiology, Cora Mankus’s expertise in nanotechnology, Jordan Daniels’s coordination at the EPA, and the efforts of responders all contribute to the search for a solution. The collaboration gives the escalating disaster a human scale. Kyle’s relationship with Melanie provides another measure of his progress: she asks him to face what has happened before he can take his place in their family, and their conversations retain a directness amid the extraordinary events.
Berk builds momentum through a series of changing conditions. Fire moves along rivers and through groundwater, weather complicates evacuations, and a promising experiment may solve only part of the problem. The image of colored flames traveling through water is memorable, and the movement between laboratories, burning facilities, and threatened streets gives the novel its brisk rhythm. Humor surfaces in Kyle’s nervous remarks and in his exchanges with Raji, offering brief relief without removing the danger. Some scientific solutions arrive quickly, and the repeated last-minute obstacles push the story toward the exuberant scale of an action film. That speed is part of the reading experience: Fireline follows the pressure on people trying to make consequential decisions while the conditions around them keep changing.
I think the novel’s most compelling relationship is between Kyle and Warner. Warner’s care for his protégé is genuine, yet his determination to leave an environmental legacy compromises his judgment and deepens the harm Kyle has already suffered. His claim that “there is no progress without sacrifice” exposes the moral logic Kyle must confront as well as the chemical threat he must contain. Berk carries that tension through the book’s public and private reckonings, from the response to the fire to Kyle’s hopes for a life with Melanie and their child. Fireline is a fast-moving story about ambition, accountability, and the shared work of repairing damage. Its spectacle has force because the disaster begins with decisions made by people who know and depend on one another.
Pages: 160 | ASIN: B0H7NMS7LN
The Runaway Girl
Andrea Barton’s The Runaway Girl, the fourth book in the Jade Riley Mysteries, takes readers into the bustling, unpredictable streets of Lagos, Nigeria, where a journalist’s determination to help three missing teenage girls draws her into a dangerous world of corruption, exploitation and organised crime. Australian expat Jade Riley is struggling to reclaim her professional identity while juggling motherhood, marriage and life in a foreign country. When she learns that two girls from a remote fishing village have disappeared after taking jobs in Lagos, she agrees to investigate. Her search leads her to a charismatic nightclub owner, a powerful criminal figure known as Gardi and a network of people whose loyalties are difficult to untangle. As the threats escalate and Jade’s own family becomes a target, her commitment to finding the girls is tested in ways she could never have anticipated.
Running alongside Jade’s investigation is the story of Yinka, a fourteen-year-old girl who leaves her impoverished village hoping to earn enough money to support her family and eventually fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor. Instead, she finds herself trapped in a succession of increasingly dangerous situations. Yinka’s chapters are among the novel’s most affecting, bringing readers close to a young woman whose resourcefulness, fierce loyalty and determination to survive are extraordinary. The alternating storylines build suspense while offering two very different perspectives on the same world. Jade has the resources and freedom to investigate injustice, while Yinka must find a way to survive it. Their eventual meeting gives the novel some of its most powerful moments, particularly as the balance between rescuer and rescued begins to shift.
Barton brings Lagos vividly to life, from its chaotic traffic, colourful markets and luxurious expatriate compounds to its lively nightclubs and remote coastal communities. The city feels wonderfully immediate, alive with music, food, humour and the daily negotiations that shape its residents’ lives. Barton’s personal experience of living in Nigeria lends authenticity to these details, while her background in dance adds an unexpected pleasure to the story. Jade’s salsa lessons become both an avenue for her investigation and a means of rediscovering a part of herself she’s neglected since becoming a mother. Her relationships with her husband, children and Nigerian friends add warmth and complexity, grounding the escalating danger in the ordinary concerns of family life. Throughout, Barton explores the circumstances that leave vulnerable young people exposed to trafficking, alongside the courage and solidarity of those determined to help them.
The Runaway Girl combines the tension of a crime thriller with the emotional depth of a story about survival, friendship and finding the courage to act. Barton handles the difficult subject of child trafficking with compassion, giving the girls individual voices, ambitions and an essential role in their own fight for freedom. Jade is an engaging protagonist whose stubbornness, compassion and occasional recklessness make her thoroughly human, while Yinka’s journey provides an emotional center that lingers beyond the final chapter. There’s plenty of danger, a satisfying mystery and some exhilarating action, but the novel’s greatest strength lies in the connections forged between women whose lives might otherwise never have crossed. Barton gives courage two unforgettable faces: a mother who refuses to look away and a girl determined to fight her way home.
Pages: 306 | ASIN : B0GTQ32H63
It’s all part of the flow.
Beware the Golden Tigers follows the Protectors as they uncover histories spanning centuries and realities, challenging the Golden Tigers’ conviction that the Hunger Witches must remain enemies. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wanted both sides to have a point. Right or wrong – none of that matters. A person’s point of view is backed by reasons they find perfectly valid. Stealing from human history of waging wars or even killing so-called witches in the name of religion, I used the Bhaskari to reflect those ideals while having the Soma to very naturally fight back in force. There are wars going on right now and all sides think they’re right. As long as that’s the case, people cannot come together. The Bhaskari and Soma are victims of that same rigidity. And that melded well with the Protectors having a witch group member, forcing Ishan and Bombastus to act accordingly in reverence to their faith. Any time a reader tries Ishan and Bombastus for a heinous act, I want them to consider how we humans did, and do, the very same thing. Regularly.
How did you decide which parts of Torvinia’s history to reveal before readers could see their consequences in the present?
It’s all part of the flow. When I wrote “Protectors Of The Light Crown,” I vaguely touched upon that reality’s Middle Ages, knowing I wanted to dip back into it with “Beware The Golden Tigers.” And I’m using various bridges to connect both eras. Easy was part of the team in modern times in the first book, but in book two, he’s been transported to medieval days. Oath is the leader of the team in the present, but he’s the king’s cabinet member Peneth Ralston in the past. I include a number of links every time I jump timelines. There are many clues as to what the reader should look for next. In book one, Harlan the Arm and Roguesheart seemed to have a familiar relationship. Book two efforts to explain why. And so on. I’ve had people tell me how much they enjoyed re-reading the books in order to uncover certain Easter Eggs that pointed them down hardened paths. Torvinia’s history reveals, as with all the others, not only move the story along, but they also reward the reader. One person told me she liked how the more she reads, the more she finds out. That’s by design. And I’m ecstatic that she noticed.
What drew you to make Dexter’s meditation with Nadaniel a source of change in how he judges his enemies?
You write what you know, and that’s part of my own personal spiritual journey. As a student of theology, esoterics and science, I studied for years on how I could prove to myself that they were all saying the same things using different words. In trying to level myself up, I decided I would become a better person by taking the words of Jesus Christ to heart and love everyone. I couldn’t do it. I failed. So, I thought deeply about the process. It seemed to me that if I could stop judging others, I could readily accept them. If I could accept them, I could understand them. If I could understand them, I could learn to like them. And ultimately love them. With that, Dexter is mirroring my own personal journey.
How did you approach Ishan’s centuries of experience while allowing the Protectors to question the beliefs he formed from it?
I had to accept that, as Ishan developed spiritually, albeit via questionable means, he also had to gain particular insights. As the story goes on, Ishan is shown to have endured the hateful ways of the Lavandra as a means of following the path of his religion. Then, he lived through the unabashed hedonism of Vati Carnelia. When he became Citri, he and Bombastus were deeply duty-bound. But as a consequence of advancement toward the lighter traits of their color-coded progression, there must have been minute sparks of divinity sprinkling before their feet. As dead-set stubborn as both Ishan and Bombastus were when it came to their faith, they also couldn’t deny the bits of evidence flashing right before their eyes. I like to think that, during those times, both of them could listen to morsels of reason. Perhaps that came from being golden Citri, as “reason” is seemingly nonexistent to the red Lavandra and orange Vati.
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From an alternate universe, witch hunters of the Bhaskari priesthood arrive, not as legend but as forces of reckoning. Their presence brings a conflict that threatens to unravel everything Aeril’s heroes fought to protect.
In an earlier timeline, Faden the Liar faces execution for a long trail of crimes, his fate sealed by King Greith of House Frays. But when a divine mercy is offered unexpectedly, the kingdom of Torvinia will be forever changed.
In Aeril, peace is fleeting and sacrifice is inevitable in both eras.
The Many Lives of Adam Capello
M. W. Taylor’s The Many Lives of Adam Capello is an ambitious work of speculative fiction that combines reincarnation, historical exploration and philosophical inquiry into a story about identity and the nature of human existence. Set in a future where a process known as Awakening allows people to recover memories and abilities from previous lives, the novel follows sixteen-year-old Adam Capello as he begins exploring his own extraordinary past. What starts as a journey of personal discovery gradually develops into an investigation of consciousness, immortality and humanity’s place in the universe. Through Adam’s first-person journal, Taylor imagines a society fundamentally transformed by the ability to retrieve the experiences of countless generations. This intriguing premise raises the question at the heart of the novel: as people accumulate the knowledge and personalities of their former selves, “do we lose ourselves?”
Much of the novel’s appeal lies in the variety and historical detail of Adam’s recovered lives. His experiences range from Victorian Britain, where he inhabits the body of pioneering photographer William Umpleby Kirk, to the brutality of plantation slavery, the philosophical debates of ancient Greece and encounters with medieval alchemists. Taylor uses these contrasting experiences to explore how historical circumstances shape individual personalities, beliefs and moral judgments. The vivid descriptions of Victorian photographic techniques are particularly engaging, while Adam’s traumatic experiences as an enslaved man demonstrate the profound psychological consequences of Awakening. The book’s journal format gives Taylor considerable freedom to move between periods, introducing historical figures and examining the social implications of rediscovering the past. Adam’s conversational voice, youthful humour and growing self-awareness provide continuity throughout these journeys, making his development as a character central to the narrative.
Beyond its historical adventures, the novel examines the ethical and emotional complications of a world in which death has acquired an entirely different meaning. Questions of criminal responsibility, romantic relationships, religious belief and personal freedom emerge naturally from the premise of reincarnation. Adam’s encounters with his former identities also expose him to grief, depression, love and violence, forcing him to confront aspects of himself that he struggles to reconcile with his present personality. His relationships with Millie, his family and his Awakening facilitator, Mike, provide an important emotional foundation as his experiences become increasingly unsettling. Taylor’s willingness to explore these ideas at length gives the book a distinctly philosophical character, with some chapters reading almost as personal essays interspersed with historical adventures. As the recurring mystery of the crystal skulls develops, the narrative shifts toward a larger science-fiction story involving ancient civilizations, advanced intelligence and the possibility of accessing both past and future lives.
The novel’s final chapters bring its historical, philosophical and speculative elements together as Adam’s unusual abilities attract the attention of Martin Kale, the scientist responsible for developing Awakening. Their investigations expand the story beyond individual reincarnation into questions about time, dimensional existence and the future of humanity, culminating in discoveries that open the way for further exploration. Yet the emotional significance of Adam’s journey remains rooted in his present life. Reflecting on the importance of his family and friends, he observes, “They are the ones who help glue my present identity, keeping me in the here and now.” This sentiment captures one of the book’s most compelling ideas: that the accumulated wisdom of many lifetimes acquires meaning through the relationships and choices of the person experiencing them. With its combination of historical detail, accessible philosophical discussion and increasingly expansive science-fiction concepts, The Many Lives of Adam Capello offers a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human when a single lifetime is only a small part of existence.
Pages: 300 | ASIN : B06ZZXBMHN
