TopShelf Magazine April 2017 | Page 19

cruel and unusual reviews convicted serial killer reaching out to someone outside the prison in which he will (probably) spend the rest of his life. Roscoe Lee Marcks actually claims more AN INTRIGUING TALE THAT ENDS WITH A TWIST! AVAILABLE TODAY! Malcolm is serving his sentence in a cruel and unusual way. Banished to a remote island in Alaska, he has no contact with the outside world. His only outlet is through his art. Constantly painting the woman he lost the day he committed his crime while defending her honor. Then one day his routine is changed when a C. E. Wilson very small young woman with metal wings falls off his roof and into the bushes. Is she a fairy, a robot, a sophisticated doll, or some sort of high tech spy drone? She claims to have been once human, but her memories are faulty. She could be his one chance at an early pardon out of his sentence, but the more time he spends with her, the more he learns to care for her. One of the things I really enjoy about C.E. Wilson's stories are her characterizations. She has the ability to www.TopShelfMagazine.net ~Kris Miller, TopShelf Reviews the darkness of evil “THE DARKNESS OF EVIL Nobody nails this kinds of book better and more consistently than Alan Jacobson.” write extremely compelling characters that are not only believable, but move you. You feel as they do, the highs and the lows. Another thing I always appreciate is the diversity and adversity that her characters struggle with. In every story that I've ever read by this talented author, she has presented a story in which the characters are up against that which is outside the norm, and therefore left open to ridicule by others. The hidden gem is often how they stand up to society in spite of the hurdles placed in front of them. While this is the second book in the 'Somewhere in Between' series, it can be read at any time. It is definitely a standalone novel and so far has no relation to the first in the series. Overall an intriguing and sweet story with an interesting twist at the end. REVIEWS victims to his credit than even Hannibal Lecter, but as a letter to his newly published daughter indicates, he may not be done yet. Enter the stalwart Vail racing the clock in a fiendish game of wits with a killer who’s every bit her equal. Other thriller writers dabble in the “profiler” sub-genre. But nobody nails this kind of book better and more consistently than Jacobson. He continues to reach for more in each successive title, The Darkness of Evil being his biggest and most ambitious yet. ALAN JACOBSON CHANNELS HIS INNER THOMAS HARRIS! AVAILABLE February 21 Our old friend, FBI profiler Karen Vail, returns in the pulse-pounding The Darkness of Evil (Open Road, $16.99, 486 pages) that finds Alan Jacobson channeling his inner Thomas Harris. That was my first thought, especially in comparison to Red Dragon, when the book made a Alan Jacobson plot point out of a ~Jon Land, TopShelf Reviews TOPShelf magazine APRIL2017 19