I, once again, have the honor of working with Kaye Publicity. A while back, they had contacted me to review one of their authors, knowing that Mystery/Suspense is my favorite genre. Today we will have the pleasure to meet another one of their authors, and get to know her and her latest novel. For me, it is humbling, when an author wants to stop by my blog. So please help me give a very warm welcome to Ms. Sheila Lowe!

     After analyzing handwriting professionally for more than thirty years, I was ready to kill someone. I’d already published two non-fiction books about handwriting (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis and Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous), and loads of articles and monographs; I’d helped create the Handwriting Analyzer software. But mystery was always my first love and I’d wanted to write a novel since my teens.
     I was sitting in the dentist’s chair, trying to take my mind off the sound of the drill, when I thought about a woman I knew who had died suddenly. The police ruled the death a suicide, but several mysterious elements swirled around the circumstances, such as the 300 butter wrappers found in her house, and the little black book that suggested she was not the person she appeared to be. So I wrote Poison Pen, a tale of psychological suspense where I made this woman a Hollywood publicist—the type you love to hate—and began the story at her funeral. The question that draws my main character, Claudia Rose, into the plot concerns a supposed suicide note found near the body: did the dead woman actually write it? Like me, Claudia is a forensic handwriting expert who authenticates handwriting in cases of suspected forgery, and a handwriting analyst who uses handwriting to develop behavior profiles.
     I hadn’t planned to write a series, but when POISON PEN didn’t sell right away (it took seven years and numerous revisions), I started writing WRITTEN IN BLOOD. This story, too, had elements of a real-life murder. I added an emotionally troubled fourteen-year-old named Annabelle Giordano, who becomes attached to Claudia when they work on a graphotherapy program together. It’s really Annabelle’s story.
     After POISON PEN received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and won a couple of awards, I was offered a four book deal with Penguin. The third book was DEAD WRITE, which took Claudia to New York to work for the eccentric owner of a very expensive dating service where people were suddenly dying. I actually did a lot of work for an expensive dating service, but as far as I know, none of the clients were murdered.
     The fourth book, LAST WRITES, just came out. The story centers around the search for a three-year-old who goes missing in a fundamentalist religious cult. When Claudia gets an invitation to analyze handwriting for the cult leader and becomes one of the few outsiders to be allowed into the Ark, their remote compound, she gets to see firsthand what happens when people give away their power and stop thinking independently. She has only a few days to uncover the truth before the prophecy of a secret parchment can be fulfilled and a child’s life is written off for good…
     Although handwriting plays an important part in my books, Claudia doesn’t solve crimes through handwriting analysis. She’s not a detective (her boyfriend Joel Jovanic is), but she is drawn into the stories through her clients, and she uses her knowledge of psychology and handwriting to better understand the people who populate the books. Readers often email to say they’ve become fascinated with handwriting analysis through my stories. I also welcome emails from readers who say my books have kept them up reading late into the night—the best compliment an author can hear.
     For now, at least, my handwriting analysis practice continues to be my “day job,” and with at least ten thousand handwriting samples already in my files, there is plenty of fodder for future books. I love writing my forensic handwriting series and will happily produce as many Claudia Rose stories as my readers allow me to.
Website – www.ClaudiaRoseSeries.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/Sheila_Lowe

      Forensic Handwriting expert, Claudia Rose, returns this summer in another page-turning thriller by critically acclaimed author, Sheila Lowe.
     Claudia’s friend Kelly learns that she’s an aunt when her estranged half sister, Erin, shows up at her home in desperate need of help. Erin and her husband have been living quiet lives as members of The Temple of Brighter Light in an isolated compound. But now her husband and young child have disappeared, leaving behind a cryptic note with a terrifying message. Seizing an opportunity to use her special skills as a forensic handwriting expert, Claudia becomes one of the few outsiders ever to be invited inside the compound. She must uncover the truth about Kelly’s missing niece before the prophecy of a secret ancient parchment can be fulfilled and a child’s life is written off for good…
     As the fourth book in the series, LAST WRITES demonstrates Sheila Lowe’s ability to captivate readers, build suspense, and keep the pages turning.
Discover more Forensic Handwriting Mysteries at www.ClaudiaRoseSeries.com
Watch for my review of Last Writes in the coming weeks!!

I, once again, have the honor of working with Kaye Publicity. A while back, they had contacted me to review one of their authors, knowing that Mystery/Suspense is my favorite genre. Today we will have the pleasure to meet another one of their authors, and get to know her and her latest novel. For me, it is humbling, when an author wants to stop by my blog. So please help me give a very warm welcome to Ms. Sheila Lowe!

     After analyzing handwriting professionally for more than thirty years, I was ready to kill someone. I’d already published two non-fiction books about handwriting (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis and Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous), and loads of articles and monographs; I’d helped create the Handwriting Analyzer software. But mystery was always my first love and I’d wanted to write a novel since my teens.
     I was sitting in the dentist’s chair, trying to take my mind off the sound of the drill, when I thought about a woman I knew who had died suddenly. The police ruled the death a suicide, but several mysterious elements swirled around the circumstances, such as the 300 butter wrappers found in her house, and the little black book that suggested she was not the person she appeared to be. So I wrote Poison Pen, a tale of psychological suspense where I made this woman a Hollywood publicist—the type you love to hate—and began the story at her funeral. The question that draws my main character, Claudia Rose, into the plot concerns a supposed suicide note found near the body: did the dead woman actually write it? Like me, Claudia is a forensic handwriting expert who authenticates handwriting in cases of suspected forgery, and a handwriting analyst who uses handwriting to develop behavior profiles.
     I hadn’t planned to write a series, but when POISON PEN didn’t sell right away (it took seven years and numerous revisions), I started writing WRITTEN IN BLOOD. This story, too, had elements of a real-life murder. I added an emotionally troubled fourteen-year-old named Annabelle Giordano, who becomes attached to Claudia when they work on a graphotherapy program together. It’s really Annabelle’s story.
     After POISON PEN received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and won a couple of awards, I was offered a four book deal with Penguin. The third book was DEAD WRITE, which took Claudia to New York to work for the eccentric owner of a very expensive dating service where people were suddenly dying. I actually did a lot of work for an expensive dating service, but as far as I know, none of the clients were murdered.
     The fourth book, LAST WRITES, just came out. The story centers around the search for a three-year-old who goes missing in a fundamentalist religious cult. When Claudia gets an invitation to analyze handwriting for the cult leader and becomes one of the few outsiders to be allowed into the Ark, their remote compound, she gets to see firsthand what happens when people give away their power and stop thinking independently. She has only a few days to uncover the truth before the prophecy of a secret parchment can be fulfilled and a child’s life is written off for good…
     Although handwriting plays an important part in my books, Claudia doesn’t solve crimes through handwriting analysis. She’s not a detective (her boyfriend Joel Jovanic is), but she is drawn into the stories through her clients, and she uses her knowledge of psychology and handwriting to better understand the people who populate the books. Readers often email to say they’ve become fascinated with handwriting analysis through my stories. I also welcome emails from readers who say my books have kept them up reading late into the night—the best compliment an author can hear.
     For now, at least, my handwriting analysis practice continues to be my “day job,” and with at least ten thousand handwriting samples already in my files, there is plenty of fodder for future books. I love writing my forensic handwriting series and will happily produce as many Claudia Rose stories as my readers allow me to.
Website – www.ClaudiaRoseSeries.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/Sheila_Lowe

      Forensic Handwriting expert, Claudia Rose, returns this summer in another page-turning thriller by critically acclaimed author, Sheila Lowe.
     Claudia’s friend Kelly learns that she’s an aunt when her estranged half sister, Erin, shows up at her home in desperate need of help. Erin and her husband have been living quiet lives as members of The Temple of Brighter Light in an isolated compound. But now her husband and young child have disappeared, leaving behind a cryptic note with a terrifying message. Seizing an opportunity to use her special skills as a forensic handwriting expert, Claudia becomes one of the few outsiders ever to be invited inside the compound. She must uncover the truth about Kelly’s missing niece before the prophecy of a secret ancient parchment can be fulfilled and a child’s life is written off for good…
     As the fourth book in the series, LAST WRITES demonstrates Sheila Lowe’s ability to captivate readers, build suspense, and keep the pages turning.
Discover more Forensic Handwriting Mysteries at www.ClaudiaRoseSeries.com
Watch for my review of Last Writes in the coming weeks!!

“What is it, Ash? What’s wrong?”
“You must hurry. You don’t have much time.”

     This week’s Question:Once you begin a book, do you feel compelled to finish it? Or have you been known to give up in the middle of a book, to walk away from a book that is just too annoying, boring, etc.?

     My answer:For the past year of reading requested reviews, I have had to put some books aside into the DNF pile. I will read, at a minimum of 50-100 pages and if I haven’t been pulled into the story line by then, I give up. There are so many books to review and read, that if I am struggling to read a book that does not interest me, my thinking is, that I am wasting time where I could be reading the next book in my pile.

“What is it, Ash? What’s wrong?”
“You must hurry. You don’t have much time.”

     This week’s Question:Once you begin a book, do you feel compelled to finish it? Or have you been known to give up in the middle of a book, to walk away from a book that is just too annoying, boring, etc.?

     My answer:For the past year of reading requested reviews, I have had to put some books aside into the DNF pile. I will read, at a minimum of 50-100 pages and if I haven’t been pulled into the story line by then, I give up. There are so many books to review and read, that if I am struggling to read a book that does not interest me, my thinking is, that I am wasting time where I could be reading the next book in my pile.

Rules Of Betrayal by Christopher Reich
Published by Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-53154-2
At the request of Doubleday, a HC was sent, at no cost to me for my personal opinion
  Synopsis (from book’s jacket): In 1980 an American B-52 bomber transporting a top-secret weapon crashes high on the peaks of a remote mountain range on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Nearly thirty years later, deep in the unforgiving, Taliban-controlled Lashkar Province of Afghanistan, Dr. Jonathan Ransom is making amends for the violence in his past. The woman he married, Emma Ransom, a.k.a. Lara Antonova, is in fact a spy and an assassin who used his job with Doctors Without Borders as her cover story. Now she is missing-most likely in the hands of a charismatic and violent arms dealer who goes by the name Lord Balfour. Emma is also being hunted by two conflicting shadow agencies-Division in the U.S. and the FSB in Russia.
  After Ransom is nearly killed in a stunning double cross in Tora Bora, he is summoned by Frank Connor, the power broker a the helm of Division, and presented with an impossible choice. Jonathan must undertake a harrowing one-man mission into Balfour’s lair to save Emma or stand by while a weapon of mass destruction is acquired by the most dangerous terrorist in Afghanistan-an unforgettable true believer known as The Hawk.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: I wasn’t a big fan of government espionage storylines, but when I read the synopsis, I thought that I might enjoy this read. I was surprised that within the first few pages, I was not only enjoying it but was also pulled in. I didn’t realize, when I accepted the request for review, that this was the 3rd book in a series. Not having read the first two, I feel that this book can stand on it’s own. For a spy thriller, it did hold my attention at times but then, there were some parts where I lost interest. This is my opinion, and my opinion only, rating this book is difficult. For those that enjoy this type of novel, it would probably receive a 4/5. But since I am not a big fan of espionage, I would give it a 2/5 because I did struggle through some of the book. So to be fair to the author and those that enjoy the double agent storyline, I will average it out.

Rules Of Betrayal by Christopher Reich
Published by Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-53154-2
At the request of Doubleday, a HC was sent, at no cost to me for my personal opinion
  Synopsis (from book’s jacket): In 1980 an American B-52 bomber transporting a top-secret weapon crashes high on the peaks of a remote mountain range on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Nearly thirty years later, deep in the unforgiving, Taliban-controlled Lashkar Province of Afghanistan, Dr. Jonathan Ransom is making amends for the violence in his past. The woman he married, Emma Ransom, a.k.a. Lara Antonova, is in fact a spy and an assassin who used his job with Doctors Without Borders as her cover story. Now she is missing-most likely in the hands of a charismatic and violent arms dealer who goes by the name Lord Balfour. Emma is also being hunted by two conflicting shadow agencies-Division in the U.S. and the FSB in Russia.
  After Ransom is nearly killed in a stunning double cross in Tora Bora, he is summoned by Frank Connor, the power broker a the helm of Division, and presented with an impossible choice. Jonathan must undertake a harrowing one-man mission into Balfour’s lair to save Emma or stand by while a weapon of mass destruction is acquired by the most dangerous terrorist in Afghanistan-an unforgettable true believer known as The Hawk.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: I wasn’t a big fan of government espionage storylines, but when I read the synopsis, I thought that I might enjoy this read. I was surprised that within the first few pages, I was not only enjoying it but was also pulled in. I didn’t realize, when I accepted the request for review, that this was the 3rd book in a series. Not having read the first two, I feel that this book can stand on it’s own. For a spy thriller, it did hold my attention at times but then, there were some parts where I lost interest. This is my opinion, and my opinion only, rating this book is difficult. For those that enjoy this type of novel, it would probably receive a 4/5. But since I am not a big fan of espionage, I would give it a 2/5 because I did struggle through some of the book. So to be fair to the author and those that enjoy the double agent storyline, I will average it out.