All the Young Warriors (Anthony Neil Smith)

Jilbriil and Adem, two American immigrant youths wanting to become Islamic Jihadists, are on their way to the airport so they can wend their way to Mogadishu, Somalia, for training.

It's winter in New Pheasant Run, Minnesota, and driving conditions are so bad they are swerving on the road. They are stopped by police, initiate a gunfight, and leave two cops dead in their wake. One of them is Cindy Holm, policeman Ray Bleeker's pregnant lover.

The boys' education isn't easy; Adem soon discovers his heart isn't as hard as Jibriil's. His father, Mustafa, aka Bahdoon, former leader of the Menneolus-St. Paul Somali Hardcore Killahs, knows that as well, revealing Adem's whereabouts to a distraught Ray.

The story shifts back and forth between Minnesota and Somalia, separated by half a world, figuratively and literally. Ray and Mustafa join forces in New Pheasant Run, initiating a search for Adem and Jibriil, who are fast losing their "spoiled" ways that they once enjoyed in America. What the adults see and go through – surviving and watching each other’s backs in the dark world outside of normal town life – parallels what the boys are going through in Mogadishu.

Then, a break. Ray and Mustafa come across a Dutch news video from a port city in northern Somalia. There's Adem, acting as a bilingual negotiator, having arranged a settlement between a Dutch shipping company and Somali pirates. A few days later, they're in Bosaso. Unfortunately, there's another player that messes up their effort.

But they hook up with Adem, save him from certain death, actually, only to return with him to Mogadishu, where they find true closure.

All the Young Warriors is basically a pretty good story, a condemnation of radical Islam, but Author Smith has some problems in his writing: Using "you're" for "your," forgetting an auxiliary verb ("he seen"), placing periods and commas outside the quotation marks, confusing "phase" for "faze" and "drug" for "dragged," to name just a few. It's an embarrassment and almost brought down the bookmark rating.

All the Young Warriors (2011)

Anthony Neil Smith

Blasted Heath ($.99 digital edition)

ISBN-13: 978-1908688002

Addicted to Love (C.J. West)

A commotion outside Wes Holliday's house and blood on the ground interrupt his plans for a romantic evening, sending him to the Sheriff Scott's house just down the street. He finds the sheriff dead, stabbed in the chest.

Wes is appointed interim Highland Falls sheriff and with sheriff-wannabe and high school friend, deputy Finn Mahoney, he does his best to keep an intelligent investigation going while skating precariously through town politics.

It turns out that Sheriff Scott's wife Suzanne was the one outside Wes' house; she's found hiding, brandishing a carving fork and hysterically lashing out at all who come near her. She's obviously had a traumatic experience and is terribly frightened. Well, more than that – it becomes obvious that she's the one who killed the sheriff. Case closed.

Except that ... it happens again. This time, Finn's mother does a number on his father. Then the sheriff's son, Rick, is bludgeoned by his fiancée. Next thing you know, Wes' sexy lover attacks him in bed – and not in a good way either. Someone or something is turning loving women into murderous psychos.

And what's with all those men buying flowers all the time at the florist? And the whipped cream? And the strawberry sauce? Or the chocolate sauce? And the brisk business at the flower shop? Do all these guys have sex on their minds? What gives? Does it have anything to do with his girlfriend, hairdresser Leah Donovan, always having the hots for him?

Addicted to Love is okay. Maybe there's too much sex in it, but then, isn't that the point of it all?

Addicted to Love (2011)

C.J. West

22 West Books (paperback, $14.95 list)

ISBN-13: 978-0976778851

Pushed Too Far (Ann Voss Peterson)

He can't believe his eyes. The last time fireman and ice rescuer David Lund saw his wife Kelly Ann was two years ago, when her remains were found in a burning barrel.

Or so he thought, because there she lies, drowned, frozen in the icy wintery waters of Lake Loyal, Wisconsin. David thought it was all behind him, but there it is – he's a suspect once again.

Police Chief Valerie Ryker, who as a sergeant had linked the cruel Dixon Hess to the murder and sent him to prison, is flummoxed. She has 48 hours to figure out what happened before Hess is released from Waupun Prison.

Too late. He's out legally, and his presence is wreaking havoc among some people in town, especially Val. And he knows it. Oh boy, does he know it. Then, Val has to cope with her old boss, Jeff Schneider, coming out of retirement to do her job when she finds herself suspended from duty because she's "stressed."

Hess has nothing but revenge on his mind. His targets begin piling up – his defense attorney, the prosecuting attorney, the prosecution's star witness. Everything goes to hell in a hand basket.

I thought I'd figured it out halfway through. I was wrong. Then, I figured it was someone else. Wrong again, so I quit trying to guess and just went with the flow.

I learned something as well, thanks to a very interesting and simple explanation of the physical science of fire.

Val Ryker's friend, "Jack Daniels," is homage to J.A. Konrath's character, Jacqueline Daniels, Chicago P.D. detective. I first met Daniels in Konrath’s 65 Proof collection of short stories, and she is the principal character in his series of eight drink-inspired novels.

Pushed Too Far (2012)

Ann Voss Peterson

Amazon Digital Services ($13.95 list)

ASIN: B007V98EPG

Knockdown (Emerson Doering)

Owen Chancellor is into "garage biotech" (home-based genetic lab work), altering RNA sequence through nanotechnology. Self-experimentation has greatly enhanced his sense of smell, but why did he inject himself?

Confined to a wheelchair, his brother, Zach, has Lou Gehrig's disease. Owen is trying to save his life by testing a "delivery system" on mice and himself that will deliver the altered RNA to cells.

Things are getting scary, however. His professor and advisor, Dr. Gary Masterson, has been murdered, and it seems someone is framing him, setting him up for a fall. Whoever's behind this isn't taking any chances. Masterson's murderer, it turns out, has been assigned to eliminate Owen as well.

Meanwhile, Virgil "Gunner" Barrera, an investigator for Homeland Security's Biological and Chemical Division's "Operation Ant Trails," is asking around about Owen and his work, to see if any of it is related to biological warfare. His only solace and comfort comes from his girlfriend, Bronwyn Sky.

Oh, and here's a mystery: Of the 33 mice Owen had stolen and was working on in his lab, a third are missing. Where did they disappear to? Owen's search for answers takes him from Chicago to Arizona, where he finds Max Griebling, the man who developed the RNA delivery system.

It all culminates in a Chicago showdown.

Author Doering should have had more eyes on his drafts. He has some big trouble with homophones, incorrectly writing bare for bear, passed for past, they're for their, suite for suit, you're for your (the worst kind ever), etc. He is confused about the difference between nauseous and nauseated, and between drank and drunk, There are no such words as "sweeped" or "grinded." Also, I found a double-negative, and a noun/verb non-agreement: "Neither were" (the word "neither," as we all know, is singular).

I gave up looking for errors a third of the way through the story; it was too distracting, although they kept grabbing my attention anyway. Why focus in on word-usage errors? Because by publishing one's work and putting it in the public eye and charging people to read it, an author purports to be a professional. Egregious errors such as these are definitely unprofessional.

That's too bad. I might have given him at least one more bookmark if not for the errors.

Knockdown (2012)

Emerson Doering

Amazon Digital Services ($2.99)

ASIN: B007O5D0CY

The Brotherhood of Piaxia (Michael Drakich)

The Brotherhood of Warlocks rules the Kingdom of Piaxia, 23 years after Lord Ramtok led the revolt that deposed the previous ruling clan. Sixteen-year-old Tarlok, young man of Rok, son of Jurg, brother of Savan, trained and taught by Master Capoliduis, is the Brotherhood's newest member.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring town of Lia, young Tessia and her parents prepare to leave. Somewhere between the two towns live the old hermit shepherd Bron and a band of thieves led by Grott. Bron, it turns out, is more important than he appears to be. Much, much more. (Grott reminds me of a pirate because he talks like one. The only thing missing is the "Avast, me hearties!")

Despite obstacles, the group puts down stakes in Rok. They befriend Tarlok, who turns out to be the best hope for Piaxia after treachery reigns at the annual winter solstice. The lords are vanquished by Lord Kurmia, who proclaims himself emperor, and only a few faithful survive to rally the leaderless cities together.

Amidst this maelstrom of fear and confusion arises a rumor that not all of the ruling family were eliminated when the Brotherhood revolted. There is another. A princess. And as soon as that is mentioned, we all can figure out who the princess is going to turn out to be, don't we?

I'm not a great fan of fantasy novels, but when author Michael Drakich sent me a link to a complimentary copy so I could review it, I just couldn't resist. My problem with fantasies is that I have a difficult time relating to the unusual names of the characters and places. And if there is additional mythology involved, that makes it even more confusing. Heck, I even have a hard time keeping up in time travel movies when two or more different actors play the same character.

The Brotherhood of Piaxia is not a bad read. It's not as gripping as I hoped it would be, until the final battle is at hand, but it was okay. If you're into fantasy, you will probably like it more than I did.

The Brotherhood of Piaxia (2011)

Michael Drakich

Traanu Enterprises ($4.99 digital edition)

ASIN: B007KPS442

Invisible (Lorena McCourtney)

Ivy Malone is a new addition to the "nosy old lady" mystery genre, joining the ranks of characters such as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Murder She Wrote's Jessica B. Fletcher. She is a self-described "well-bred old lady," a retired Missouri librarian who drives a 1975 Thunderbird with 62,000 miles on it.

She's got an inquisitive mind and a black thumb – any plant she tries to grow simply withers away.

Searching for a raison d'être after her best friend dies, she takes on the task of discovering who's been desecrating headstones at Country Peace cemetery.

Nighttime stakeouts only result in seeing a man taking a pee, and someone dumping something in Hangman's Creek. (The problem is, I had to read through almost a fifth of the story before author McCourtney got to the point of her story.)

Then, a young woman's body is found in the river. It's Kendra Alexander, who boarded in Ivy's friend's basement before mysteriously disappearing. Thanks to Ivy, investigations turn up all kind of interesting things about Kendra – mostly that she isn't who she claims to be, and isn't familiar to people she claims to know. There once was a real Kendra, but this isn't her. It turns out there was some kind of scam going on, one that cost the ersatz Kendra and her brother their lives.

Ivy is on to something; she must be ... her home is vandalized. Her search takes her to Arkansas, where she and a new friend spend some quality time together. Things get pretty dicey after that, as she solves a crime that frankly has the police baffled. Her life is in danger now.

I was taken by McCourtney's creatively imagined metaphors – a subtle crafting of humor presented effortlessly and eliciting involuntary chuckles (e.g., "Thea's knuckles stood out like parchment-covered marbles as she clutched her purse," "the whine and chop of mosquitoes," "mental dust motes of guilt dancing around in my head," "a cowboy hat rode her hair like a bronc buster caught in a sea of cotton candy" and "trying to make myself as skinny as a grease smear").

Invisible is written in what could be called "wander weave" – you know, it wanders around the periphery while weaving together the fabric of the story. If you're a straight-to-the-point kind of reader, it might be disconcerting (as it was occasionally for me), but if you take the time to read and reflect, well, it's rather delightful.

Invisible is the first of four books in Lorena McCourtney's Ivy Malone crime fighter series. It topped the Inspirational Division of the 2005 Daphne du Maurier Mystery/Suspense awards.

By the way, the book's title refers to Ivy Malone's feeling that sometimes she feels invisible, that people often don't notice her (or other little old ladies, for that matter). So she uses that quality to poke her nose into places, a useful technique for garnering information from unsuspecting people.

Ivy describes herself as a LOL (meaning “Little Old Lady”), but the acronym also stands for “Laughing Out Loud,” so I had to make a mental adjustment every time LOL appeared in the story, which was quite frequently. Quite a distraction, to be sure.

McCourtney's a writer in the Christian genre, so prayer and allusions to God are quite evident in her prose. It didn't bother me at first, but eventually, I had to skip over religious references and try to ignore them when they became too numerous.

Invisible (2004)

Lorena McCourtney

Revell ($12.99 paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-0800759537