Monday, April 30, 2018

A Work Of Love by Connie Connally



The Songs We Hide
By Connie Hampton Connally
               
                What we play for the world are the songs that the world wants to hear from us. The music that shapes the soul and reveals who we really are, those are The Songs We Hide, lovingly written about by Connie Hampton Connally.

                Evoking stunning emotions, this author conducts a magnum opus of incredibly beautiful historical fiction. Her writing brings to life the people of stark, brutal, 1951 Hungary. Katalin and Peter are young adults and upon their shoulders they bear the brunt of post World War II, where survival is made so much more difficult by the brutal regime suffocating freedoms. As Katalin realizes, “during the war she had held out hope, because some day the war would end. Now the war was over, but what was there to hope for?”

                Katalin was singing a wonderful duet with vibrant Robert, ‘Caro Mio Ben’, ‘My Dear Beloved’.  Now the same notes pained her to the core, as a loving single mother of her one year old daughter, whose father had suddenly disappeared. The government and secret police made terrifying disappearances common place. Robert hadn’t even known he was going to be a father, and she had no idea which one of the too many horrifying places he was held. That’s if he was still alive.

                Peter’s family had been rocked by the travesties of war, and then “The Collective” had confiscated what little their hard work had been able to achieve. They lived under the constant threat not only of starvation, but of their family’s separation and loneliness. Peter and his brothers had lost their mother, and their weary father had to try and carry on with his broken heart. Peter shyly sings his songs quietly to the beloved horse who works with them on what’s left of their beloved family farm. But they can’t make a living any longer on the farm alone. Peter must go to work in the city, where he meets Katalin who is waiting, for her beloved Robert. The lives of Katalin, Peter, and the people around them in this story will deepen the reverberating drum beat of your heart.

                The author, Connie Hampton Connally, became interested in Hungary’s turbulent history from her love of music. Through music she was inspired by the story of Zoltán Kodály, a twentieth-century Hungarian composer who spread music in his nation despite totalitarianism and two world wars. This author writes such memorable turns to a phrase, and such noteworthy descriptions that range the full spectrum of human emotions from despair through hope. In The Songs We Hide she’s composed a stirring tribute to the incredible strength of people, in a brutal time in Hungarian history, and the desperate need to create hope. As the crescendo builds, the reader will wonder, and hope – Can people withstand, can they be stronger than the hatred and betrayal surrounding them?

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Matching Wits With the Devil of Delphi

Devil of Delphi
Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery Series
By Jeffrey Siger

                “The shooter was a pro. . . . You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and only by the grace of God didn’t end up with a bullet in your brain.” All is not sunshine and beauty in the Greek Isles and in present-day Athens. Central Police Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis and his team are kept busy, especially in this seventh book in the series as they match wits to solve the mystery driven by the Devil of Delphi, and those who have made a deal with the devil.

                The legitimate world market is threatened with a flood of counterfeit, sometimes deadly alcohol. When some consumers suffer fatal consequences because of poisons included in the “bomba”, it catches police attention. When a member of one of Greece’s richest and most feared families is dramatically shot dead, political pressure is sudden, intense and vicious that the police solve the case. Chief Inspector is under the gun in this exciting police procedural. They are up against a fearless crime syndicate that’s driven by an unquestioned ruler. Her followers call her Teacher, and she is now the one who enforces the cardinal principle of those who had enslaved her in her younger life:  Do as I say or die.

                 This author, Jeffrey Siger, writes incredibly interesting and complex characters. You learn so much about the incidents in their lives that shape their actions and the impacts those actions have on so many others.  He shows how his villainous characters live their lives through their own sort of moral code that they’ve twisted from their personal histories. Their correlating actions show the reader a darker side. One of the assassins, known by his chosen name of Kharon, demonstrates his penchant for the way he takes out his targets. He “preferred the up close, personal approach to ending a life, one that allowed him the opportunity of affording a potential victim a reasoned means for survival.” Just as interesting are the personalities and motivations of the Chief and his team’s members.

                Jeffrey Siger is a Pittsburgh native and former Wall Street lawyer and name partner in his own New York City law firm to write mystery thrillers that tell more than just a fast-paced story. His novels explore serious societal issues confronting modern day Greece, and still touching on the country’s ancient roots and gloriously picturesque setting. I recommend the series; the ninth is now available, An Aegean April.

                And if you want to hear more from the author listen on YouTube to Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Jeffrey Siger