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After completing the biggest case of his career, private detective Hank DeShear returns home to start treatment for a disabling genetic condition that could end his life, but he learns his partner on the prior case has just been murdered. Was he wrong to conclude the secretive killer known as The Greyhound had declared a truce? Or have disciples of The Greyhound surfaced to carry on with the murders? DeShear is able to attach himself to an overseas goodwill mission headed by the U. S. Vice President, enabling him to pursue leads in foreign hospitals he thinks could be offshoots of Angelus Genetics’ illegal organ harvesting programs and human trafficking operations. Determined to pursue the truth wherever it leads, DeShear must also keep a low profile so he doesn’t become the next murder victim—but the onset of his debilitating condition may kill DeShear before the murderer gets a chance. FANS OF ROBIN COOK, MICHAEL CRICHTON, AND AG RIDDLE WILL LOVE THE LATEST ADDITION TO THIS WELL-WRITTEN AND SUSPENSEFUL SERIES.
PRAISE FOR ROGUE ELEMENTS:
“WOW”
“Grabbed me right away and soon after got an actual “WOL” (WOW’D-Out-Loud)… seriously, I only stopped reading to feed the dogs and heat up a bowl of soup for myself. You’ve outdone yourself .”- Claire Nevins Reviews
“A MASTERFUL THRILLER”
“A riveting thriller by Dan Alatorre, the fast-paced plot is loaded with suspense, intrigue and chilling implications for the future of genetic research. I cannot wait for the next book in this spine-tingling series!” – J Barr Reviews
“ANOTHER WINNER”
“Another winner! 5 stars. What a surprise ending. Didn’t see that coming. Can’t wait for book 3. ” – Shirley Boerstler Review
My review
Rogue Elements is the second book in this series and I have read book 1. I am of the view that while it is nice to read the books in order as it gives you back story to the characters, it is not necessary to have read The Gamma Sequence to enjoy this book.
Rogue Elements gets off to an exciting start with private investigator, Hank DeShear, and his partner returning to the USA after the conclusion of their investigation in Indonesia. Hank is just about to start his life saving treatments to prevent the Gamma Sequence from triggering and killing him, when he gets a phone call saying that his partner has been brutally murdered on her way home from the airport. Hank believes that a killer called The Greyhound may not have died in Indonesia and may be the perpetrator of the murder. He prepares to leave for the murder scene having persuaded Maya, the lady who must administer his treatments, to accompany him and provide the treatments remotely. This is the start of another investigation which will take the pair to the United Kingdom and Hank on to Europe.
This is an exciting and fast paced book with plenty of intrigue and red herrings. There is lots of political intrigue with the Vice President of the USA once again offering to aid DeShear in the pursuit of his objectives and behind the political scenes corruption and profiteering. The genetic engineering premise in this book is well research and fresh, providing an exciting and horrifying new angle on this theme.
Who is the woman called Jaden Trinn and how does she fit in with possible further illegal activity by Angelus Genetics? I was pleased to see the introduction of a new strong willed and agile minded female character into this series and I also enjoyed the tiny flame of romance that seems to have ignited between Trinn and DeShear by the end of this book. Trinn is tough and clever with her own objectives and plans. She is loyal and determined and DeShear couldn’t have a better companion for this adventure.
DeShear lives up to his previous reputation of being a hero who allows nothing and no-one to stand in his way of saving innocent victims. It was an interesting twist to have him fighting a life threatening illness in this book and having moments of vulnerability and weakness.
If you enjoy exciting thrillers with a medical theme and strong and interesting characters, then this is the book for you.
Every story starts with a stranger in town or a journey. “Pa, we’re takin’ the wagon to Virginian City,” every story ends with “Golly gee, Wally. I thought we were goners.” True or False?
Tolstoy Said
“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”
Leo Tolstoy
I love Tolstoy’s stories, but do I agree with his observation?
I must be honest, when I first saw this prompt I had no idea what it was about. It was only after I visited Lela Markham’s post that I understood what the prompt was about. I copied the Tolstoy quote above out of Lela’s post which you can read here: https://aurorawatcherak.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/bring-on-the-tropes/
I realised the other day that all three of my books for older children and adults are about war and conflict of some kind or another. While the Bombs Fell is about a young child growing up in the small town of Bungay, East Anglia in the UK during WWII, Through the Nethergate is about a possible third world war incited through the use of targeted technology and the murder of leadership figures to stir up the masses, and my forthcoming book, A Ghost and His Gold, is about the Second Anglo Boer War in South Africa. I have recently started writing After the Bombs Fell, the sequel to While the Bombs Fell and this is about the end of WW2 and the aftermath of the war in Britain.
Hmmm! I definitely like reading, researching, and writing about war. When presented with the topic for this prompt, I gave it some thought, and realised that most war books fit into the ‘a stranger comes to town’ concept. In the case of a war, however, its not one stranger who comes knocking on the country’s door, but a whole army of them.
While the Bombs Fell features the German pilots and their bombing of London and other major cities in the UK, including Norwich, which is the closest city to Bungay. The little girl in the story [my mother] imagined Hitler as a wicked witch dressed all in black and knew that the German’s ate black bread. This made them strange and unfamiliar and increased her fear of them.
After the Bombs Fell continues to feature the German’s as invaders, but the strangers have evolved into faceless machines called Doodlebugs and V2 rockets. This book will also feature the Italian prisoners of war who occupied a camp at Flixton. Many of them worked on farms in East Anglia. The Italians were also ‘strangers’ in the eyes of the little English girl. They ate different foods, spoke differently, and had different customs. My mother remembers the Italian POW as being kindly and friendly.
Through the Nethergate has the stranger comes to town theme in the form of firstly, Hugh Bigod’s evil ghost, and then Lucifer coming into the lives of a variety of different characters in the book. This book also includes the concept of a man goes on a journey, as Margaret goes to a number of places, including hell, in this supernatural fantasy.
A Ghost and His Gold features both concepts too. Robert is the English soldier who is stationed in Mafeking in the Cape Colony when the war breaks out. He is a stranger to South Africa and an invader of the two Boer Republics. The other two ghosts, Pieter and Estelle, are both Afrikaners who were born in South Africa. As a result of the war, these two characters both end up going on journeys. The three ghosts are also strangers who enter the lives of the modern main characters, Michelle and Tom. The modern couple embark on a strange and horrifying journey to defeat the poltergeist, Estelle, and regain their normal lives.
Having analysed my stories in terms of these two concepts, I can see they both feature strongly in my books. They are not, however, the only types of stories I have read. I read a huge array of books and genres and there are a lot of stories that don’t fit into these two storylines. Romeo and Juliet, for example, doesn’t involve a stranger coming to town, all the characters know each other. I also doesn’t involve anyone going on a journey in the literal sense of the word. Unless one views first love as a journey. Memoirs and comedies also may, or may not, include these two storylines.
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PS I wanted the doll in pink but I got the doll in blue.
My muse is the ghost of Robbie past.
I see the ghostly shadow of my younger self peeking over my shoulder, watching my fingers move over the keyboard of my laptop and reading the words as they appear on my screen.
I recognise her as the little girl who used to sit quietly on a beanbag with a glass of milk and a book, and read all afternoon, every afternoon.
She was also the girl who traded sister #1 a pile of writing paper [we used to trade it at school] and an empty vanilla essence bottle [it smelled lovely] for her three library cards. Hers, when combined with my four cards, enabled me to borrow seven books at a time from our local library. This reduced my trips to the library to twice a week from three, or even four. The library was about four kilometres away from our house at this time. It doesn’t sound far, but I was eight years old at the time, so the eight kilometre round-trip, with a basket packed with seven books, took me a while.
Sometimes my younger self reminds me of the games I used to make-up as a young girl. I remember the time I involved my entire class in a mad game of catch the witch and got into a lot of trouble with my teacher when the raucous game became so loud we missed the end of break bell. My teacher, Sister I’ve Forgotten her Name but not her Fierce Expression, was extremely cross with me for master minding that one. She threatened to send me to Mother Superior’s office. Somehow, I think that game may have been a lot like ‘kikery’ from What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. Katy got into a lot of trouble over that game too.
Ghost Robbie shares flashes of memory of sister #2 and I sitting on the roof of the garden shed [no, my mother didn’t know I led her up there] making creations for shells we gathered on the beach [no, my mother didn’t know we crossed the railway line to get to the beach either], or making baskets out of clay gathered from a ditch next to the road, or running through the veld in long dresses with plastic buckets playing Little House on the Prairie.
She reminds me of my two live dolls, sisters #s 3 and 4, who I dressed up and played with. They were my patients when I was the doctor, my children when I was the mother, Jack and Jill when we played nursery rhymes, and many other imaginary people when we played our many different games.
Sometimes, she whispers to me, reminding me of favourite scenes from well loved books from the past. If I get stuck, she’ll suggest I take a peek at one of the hundreds of books we’ve read and find inspiration. It works every time.
Most of all, she reminds me of Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery which we read when we were about ten years old. I remember how much we loved that book and how inspired we were to write poetry and descriptive passes.
We are a team and we are glad to be working together to write our children’s and adult fiction.
Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).
Edinburgh Castle is a historical fortress situated on Castle Rock in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. These are a few pictures I took of doors during our tour of this famous castle.
Entrance to the castleOriginal prison door in the dungeonsEntrance to see the Scottish crown jewels
The three pictures below are of the view of Edinburgh from the castle. Lots of doors.
The Vintage Egg (Postcards From Tomorrow #1) by A.C. Flory
What Amazon says
Six short stories. Six sneak peeks into the lives of people living in Australia at the end of the 21st century. Six postcards from the future.
Although each one of these science fiction stories stands alone, together they tell a story about a time and a world very different to our own.
Like the present, the future will be a mix of good and bad, but to the people living in it, the late 21st century will just be ‘now’. What they make of it is up to them. However our now is up to us. We are the ones who will decide, in a million little ways, whether their future comes true or not.
My review
This is the first book by A.C. Flory I have read and I will definitely be reading more. Originality and uniqueness rate highly on my rating list for a book, and these six science fiction stories certainly meet that criteria. The stories are all well written and easy to read, which makes this book a great choice for most readers.
All of the stories assume a futurist world after an undisclosed event or series of events which turn Earth into a hot and arid desert. The surviving people of the world are forced to live in underground cities. Food sources have changed and meat is scarce and expensive. The population, forced to live this unnatural life, are kept entertained with digital games which are so realistic they are almost life experiences. There is, however, a limit on gaming time to prevent people from starving to death while playing. These are indications of how the unnatural lifestyle is impacting on people.
The Vintage Egg and The Egg Run are interlinked stories, with the former presenting the beginning and the later the ending, of one story idea. Both stories are complete and can be enjoyed as standalone reads. This is the tale of an elderly man’s dream of finding a way of exploring the ruined Earth above ground through the restoration of a vintage machine he acquires. He involves and interests his young grandson in his project and it becomes something they do together. The Egg Run depicts stage 2 of the project through the eyes of the grandson.
The Gamer and Brehak are another pair of stories, each told from a different characters point of view. This story is fascinating as it explores the lack of reality and truth presented in digital worlds and how both of the participants in this ‘life like’ game are totally deceived by the other’s digital avatar and how this lack of truth impacts on their lives.
The To-Do-List is an interesting peak into the differences between older and younger people when it comes to adapting to fast changing technologies. It is an entertaining, but frighteningly realistic, look, at the older generations determination to hold on to the past and they world they knew when they were younger, versus the younger generations easy ability to adapt to change.
The Christmas Roast was truly horrifying for me. The concepts explored in this short story about a world where food is short and improvisations have become the normal, was quite overwhelming for someone like me who has always bought milk in a bottle [does it really come from a cow?] and meat neatly packaged with few reminder that it was one a living, breathing creature.
A great book of short stories and one I have unhesitatingly given a 5-star rating.
Purchase The Vintage Egg (Postcards From Tomorrow #1) by A.C. Flory
Frugal Seeds Christmas Edition: 101 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season on a Budget by Charlie Lee Austin
What Amazon says
The holiday season can be such a busy and expensive time of year. This book provides you with ideas for celebrating the season on a budget.
My review
This little book is packed with fun and economical ways of celebrating Christmas with children, friends and family. It has a strong Christian orientation and some of the activities relating to the Bible, but there are many other ideas that can be enjoyed by people of any religious orientation.
Reading the ideas presented in this book reminded me of two of my favourite childhood books. Little Women when the girls decide to play a variation of pilgrims progress and also when they celebrate Christmas without their father, who is fighting in the war, and all decide what gifts to buy their Marmee. I was also taken back to the glorious days when I read What Katy Did for the first time. My favourite scenes in this book are when Katy decides to make all sorts of Christmas gifts for her siblings and best friend. She creates a Christmas tree decorated with home-made decorations like popcorn strings and they children have a poetry reading evening where they all read a poem they have written.
The suggestions in this book are simple and yet so much fun to make. The ideas include making a pinata from clay pots and paper mache, making Christmas crackers from toilet roll innards, and making Christmas candles.
A great book of activity ideas to entertain young young children over the holiday period.
Purchase Frugal Seeds Christmas Edition: 101 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season on a Budget
This is a second edition with updates on the state of this historic church. In the original publication files were lost then resurfaced with content altered along with missing photos during transition from one publisher to another. Such is the fate of an Independent Author.
This book evolved out of years of frustration at the total disregard and lack of respect for the contributions of Black Catholics in the city of Detroit. The author says, “We are not mentioned in the pages of history along with the other Catholic churches that sprung up during the World War II era, and that needed to be corrected.” The author did fulfill one dream since publication … that this church can now be found on the web even though it has merged with another church. It is now called Presentation-Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church.
After last week’s bird adventure I wasn’t expecting to have anything more to do with the birds for a while. The loeries have taken fright and not returned to my garden.
We have been experiencing heavy rain and it rained all night on Friday and most of yesterday, last night and this morning. This afternoon, the sun came out and the garden was bathed in bright sunshine. I decided to go for my daily five laps around the garden [5 000 steps] and see what changes the lovely rain had brought.
As I walked past our scruffy little retaining wall near the garage, I caught sight of a tiny bird out of the corner of my eye. It was completely still with only its bright little eyes moving. I moved a bit closer for a better look and the parent birds went crazy in the tree above, telling me sternly to stay away from their baby.
Of course, I was worried. Could the baby fly? Where was my cat? Push-Push is a lovely cat but she is fond of a bit of bird for her supper. I left Terence around the corner keeping an eye on the baby, and went in search of my little tiger. Fortunately, she was taking a cat bath in the rotting peaches under the tree – yippee! She’s now lovely and stinky of spoiled fruit.
Leaving her to enjoy her rolling, I went back to the driveway and saw the mother standing on the tap and encouraging the baby to fly. The little thing was flapping around furiously and making short flights.
After a lengthily period of trying, the baby managed to get back into the tree and the mother was much happier. Meanwhile, daddy bird had sat in the tree watching.
I was relieved it worked out and the baby got back into the tree. Baby birds are a lot of work to raise and there was the risk of it ending up in Pushy’s tummy if I undertook the task.
My garden is looking rather amazing. Here are a few new flower pictures:
I love my day lilies. You can see the raindrops sparkling on the bottom petal.
I had a rather strange experience yesterday morning. I went outside early, at about 7.15 a.m. to hang out the washing. The line is behind my dad’s office and near our two plum trees. There is a large olive tree next to the second plum tree. When I arrived at the line, there was a collection of birds in the olive tree and they were going crazy, screeching and making a huge noise.
I went over to the trees and, as I drew closer, I saw that not one, but two Loeries (a large grey fruit eating bird), were trapped under the net over one of the plum trees. The trapped birds were in a state, flapping around all over the place and unable to find their way out from under the net. I am way to short to pull the net off the tree, so I rushed inside and grabbed the kitchen scissors. Slash! Slash! I cut a huge hole above one of the birds and it flew away. A few of the birds in the olive tree rose up into the air and followed the escaped bird.
Several remained in the olive tree and they had become very quite as they watched. The remaining trapped bird was still in a panic, fluttering everywhere, and I was battling to cut in the right place to free it. One of the birds in the olive tree started to coo, a soft crooning coo. The trapped bird stopped flapping about and I was able to cut another hole in the net and set it free. The remaining birds in the olive tree then all took off and they disappeared back to the nearby bird sanctuary.
I believe that the birds definitely all communicated, initially expressing great anxiety at their trapped companions and then, the cooing bird, tried to calm down the last trapped bird so I could free it. It was a strange and surreal experience. I know for sure that birds have feelings and express emotions.
I wonder how long it will take my dad to notice the giant holes in the net? I think the holes are a great improvement. Little doors for the birds.
When we were in the Drakensburg during September this year, I also saw a bird romance. The hotel had a few peacocks roaming around and the peacock was romancing the peahen. I took these pictures:
Here is the peahen on the verandah watching the peacock on the grass belowHere is the peacock showing off for the peahenI love this picture with the rays of the sun shining down and the peacock feathers fanned out in the opposite directionThe tables have turned and the peahen is chasing after the peacock who is disappearing around the corner
Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).
In September 2018, Terence went to Finland and Birmingham for work. I decided to tag along as I hadn’t been to either place and we decided to spend a few days in London before travelling to Finland.
We chose a hotel close to Paddington Station so that we could get around easily. I love UK trains, they are so orderly and nearly always on time. I took some pictures in the station and in a small park a few blocks form the station, across the road from our hotel.
In the park near Paddington StationPictures of the doors to a hotel across the road from the park. This is not where we stayed.Entrance to Paddington StationDonut store in Paddington Station with sliding glass doors.
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