Reading Around the Clock- part one

Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith is the prequel to the best-selling Quirk Classics Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. In it we discover how and why Elizabeth Bennet evolves from an innocent young lady to a zombie-killing martial arts warrior. As one reviewer stated ” Finally a book the Jane Austen fans and Night of the Living Dead fans can agree on”.

In Karen Kingsbury’s Sunrise the Baxter Family is back, following the Redemption and Firstborn series. This first novel in this series addresses alcohol abuse and the price that is paid by the abuser, family and friends.

What happens when you finally are pretty satisfied with your life? Well, usually someone (or something) will throw a wrench into your plans. In Marlo M Schalesky’s Shades of Morning, Marnie Whittier is left guardian of her nephew, a 15 year old down syndrome boy. How she makes life less “bumpy’ will inspire you.

I know that a lot of people have started their day with TV weatherman, Al Roker. Together with Dick Lochte, Rocker has taken his insider’s knowledge of televison and written the novel, Morning Show Murders. This cozy mystery satirizes both celebrity chefs and television personalities.

What do you get when you throw together the setting of Nunavet, where the darkness can come at noon, the RCMP and the FBI , a murder or two plus an international conspiracy? You get a story that blends together history, mystery and current events to a satisfying conclusion in Darkness at the Stroke of Noon by Arthur Ellis Award Winner, Dennis Richard Murphy

Short-listed for the Man’s Booker Award, I’ll Go to Bed at Noon, is by Gerard Woodward. Second in a trilogy, the novels follow the self-destructive Jones Family, a London based family, through their struggles with addiction. The characters are not necessarily likable but their tragedy makes compelling reading.

I must admit what got me interested in Tears on a Sunday Afternoon by Michael Presley was a description in another review. ” I was born beautiful, a product of three white prison guard’s rape of my mother….my beauty got me everything, especially women”. Donald’s tale is one of sex, lust, greed and betrayal will lure the reader in and not let go until the last page!

One Oprah’s favorite author’s, Kaye Gibbons, has written another tale of dysfunctional families. In On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon. Emma Garnet Tate suffers from emotional abuse from her father, Southern plantation owner, Samuel P. Tate. He, in turn, fights his own internal battles to overcome his poor beginnings. When his daughter marries a Yankee doctor the battle within family becomes worse as the Civil War rages on.