reviews
REVIEWS
Biography
Hardcover
$26.95
A VERY GRIPPING STORY
THAT DOES NOT DISAPPOINT
In 1917, Czar Nicholas II of Russia was
deposed by the Bolshevik revolution and
exiled to Siberia with his wife and five
children. Within a year, the Red Army
executed the entire family and several of
their servants but did not reveal the
location of their graves. In 1920, a young
woman named Anna Anderson claimed
to be Anastasia, the youngest of the
czar’s four daughters. She said she had
survived the attempted assassination, and
she had the terrible scars to prove it. For
the next fifty years, she would fight in
international courts to prove her identity.
I Was Anastasia is a very gripping story
that does not disappoint.
~Rosemary Fifield, TopShelf Reviews
Mystery
Hardcover
AN INSTANT CLASSIC
From the desk of Greg Iles, comes the
sensational, sultry, and somber Mississippi
Blood (Morrow, 688 pages, $28.99) the
voluminous final chapter in his Natchez
Burning trilogy. At its heart, this is a father and
son tale, chronicling stalwart lawyer Penn
Gage’s dogged efforts to defend his self-
destructive father, Tom against murder
charges. Tom Gage’s willingness to take the fall
for the crime is rooted in a long-hidden past
involving a deadly and secretive branch of the
Ku Klux Klan. This is a tale rooted as much in
the present as the past that confronts our very
psyche with the moral ambiguities that straddle
the two, and Penn’s efforts to reconcile them.
Isles’ mastery of Southern mythos and societal
mores has made him the modern day, pop
culture version of William Faulkner and the
successor to Pat Conroy as our finest, similarly
Southern novelist bar none. Mississippi Blood is
a dark and brooding tale, rich in neo-gothic
overtones, about the nature of truth and the
deconstruction of myth. An instant classic.
~Jon Land, TopShelf Reviews
www.TopShelfMagazine.net
$28.99
Children’s
Paperback
$9.95
A BRILLIANT
CHILDREN’S STORY
Twelve-year-old Mickey Branfield has asthma,
and does not play sports like other kids, instead,
playing video games, reads and is a wiz on the
computer. Being incredibly smart and with few
friends, the kids often called him a nerd. His
parents, not wanting him to read or play video
games all summer, sign him up for a ten-week
summer camp, much to Mickey’s dismay. While
at the camp, Mickey meets Jackson, a
downtrodden plow horse that is much an outcast
as he. Feeling an immediate bond, Mickey draws
closer, and upon touching Jackson, something
magical happens that changes both of their lives
forever. Beautifully written with a timeless
message, this tender coming-of-age tale explores
overcoming adversity, courage in the face of your
fears, and learning who you are. Highly
motivational with relatable characters, Mickey and
the Plow Horse is a brilliant children’s story about
finding the thoroughbred in each of us and
following your dreams.
~Kris Miller, TopShelf Reviews
TOPShelf magazine
APRIL2018 31