'SKYRING WATER'......SLAMBANG GLOBAL THRILLS THAT TURN UP THE TEMP ON THE COLD WAR......

  Skyring Water by Louis L'Amour and Beau L'Amour (2026)

     For anyone who only associates Louis L'Amour's name with westerns, this book, revised, expanded, co-written and restored by his son Beau will come as a huge revelation.

     Often I felt overwhelmed reading this thrilling, exhaustively researched adventure. By the time I finished I felt like I'd plowed through enough geo-political chicanery, graduate level physics,, death defying, breathtaking escapes, battles and explosive violence that could fill over 50 books by Alistair MacLean, Clive Cussler, James Rollins and Frederick Forsythe. At times, this book just plain wore me out.

     We're back in 1961 where some remnants of World War II still simmer and fester and the new Cold War grows hotter by the minute. Surviving hardcore Nazis, still holding dreams of a Fourth Reich, have inserted themselves back into the society, politics and scientific communities of the many countries around the world.......awaiting to seize their opportunity to achieve world domination.

      Amid the perils of this new nuclear world, the expected clashes that come with the rise of emerging nations serve as the bread and butter of former OSS operative, expert diver and arms dealer Mike Fowler.. He's partnered with (and at times mentored by) former Nazi commander and scientist Anton Voss, a man with no end of secrets in his past. And now they're in hot pursuit of the greatest potential prize for soldiers-of-fortune such as themselves.......a hidden, sunken German U-Boat supposedly holding a cargo of 30 million dollars in stolen Nazi gold.......(try to imagine the value adjusted for 2026 inflation.....)

     But Fowler and Voss are far from alone in their quest. Hot on their heels come a host of enemy-rivals....... - the most vicious 'Fourth Reich' cabal imaginable along with Israeli Intelligence, Mafia thugs and a duplicitous CIA officer whom MIke Fowler has despised since their World War II experience together. The search for the gold laden Nazi sub finally leads all of them to the arctic waters at the southern tips of Chile and Argentina.......but there's way more than mere gold awaiting them.

     I have to admit there are more than a few times when the L'amours' staggering amount of research into history, weaponry international espionage and science threaten to bring the overall propulsive momentum of the book to a dead stop. But one thing nobody has to wait long for here........the rip-roaring, bloody gun battles and hand-t0-hand combat that erupt on a regular basis.

     Readers who loved and dearly miss those clock-is-ticking, global high adventures that dominated bestseller lists and films throughout the 1960's and 70's, 'Skyring Water' provides a one stop shopping bonanza. Top notch for this genre.

      4 stars (****).

 

'MAN OF MY DREAMS'.....HOW DID HER FICTIONAL GUY TURN REAL? AND WHO'S STALKING THE AUTHOR?........

 Man of My Dreams by Olivia Worley (2026)

     I can always depend on a swiftly paced twist-filled read from author Olivia Worley. And this one not only delivers that well, but comes up with a wild wild triple-whammy of a final revelation.........which I had to stop and read extra carefully to make sure I was fully comprehending it after picking my jaw up from the floor.

     Romance writer Ivy Harcourt, currently basks in the success of her new bestseller, a modernized re-invention of "Wuthering Heights" (but with a happier ending that she'd wistfully dreamed for Heathcliff and Cathy.). Her new work-in-progress features a charming dreamboat architect named Liam. And, as the strangest of fates would have it, whom does she encounter one day in a meet cute but a charming dreamboat architect named.......well, do I even have say it out loud?

     So how is this far-fetched life-imitates-art coincidence even possible? How did this guy manage to literally walk right off of Ivy's rough-draft pages and into her real life, capturing her heart so quickly? All manner of suspicious, unsettling little things begin to pile up in her mind about too-perfect-to-be-true Liam and something even more anxiety inducing plagues Ivy. She's being stalked by someone with knowledge of her darkest long repressed family tragedy......someone who appears to know the terrible truth of that nightmarish moment she's managed to block out of her mind.

     Suspense, dread and surprises start quickly tumbling through the storyline, which made 'Man of My Dreams' a lightning fast one day read for me. And then topped off by that super Jumbo twist......which to be honest, requires you either go with it or stare at the book muttering "you gotta be kiddin' me, right? Seriously?"

     But personally, in a book like this, I'm not looking for hardcore, down-to-earth reality and I love it when thriller authors take a swing for the fences to come up with a finale to knock a reader upside and down and sideways.. So thank you, Ms. Worley for taking that grand slam swing that had me shaking my head for its sheer outrageous daring. Had a fine time with this one.

     4 stars (****).

'ROAD TRIP'......ROMANCE, MYSTERY, SISTERLY BONDING....AND GREEN, GREEN IRELAND....

  Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews (2026)

     Mary Kay Andrews arrives just in time with a refreshing summer cooler of a book. It's a warmhearted cocktail mixed with budding new romances, mysteries to solve, even a slight touch of mayhem and all of it transpiring in a cozy Irish town right out of "The Quiet Man".

     We start back in Savannah Georgia, where estranged sisters Maeve and Therese Dunigan face a sea of troubles following the death of their beloved mother. On the eve of her tenure, Maeve's lost her position as a college professor., a cruel blow for someone who's spent her life as a strict rule follower. Therese, her complete opposite in outlook and personality lives her life as a freewheeling would-be actress almost always in a state of unemployment. The sisters discover their dementia-afflicted mom donated her life savings to a shady televangelist, forcing her take out an all new second mortgage on her house.......which neither of her daughters could ever hope to now pay. Their last hope lies in selling a forgotten, family heirloom potentially worth millions......a portrait by a distinguished, famed artist that somehow connects back the sisters' Irish roots.

     In their quest to authenticate the painting, the Dunigan sisters travel to Tarrytown Ireland to unravel the many mysteries surrounding their great-grandmother and the aristocratic family who accused her of murder after she'd been compelled to sail off to an adventurous new life in America.

     Though like oil and water together, Maeve and Therese rediscover their sisterly bond and make a formidable team, piecing together a tale of love, courage, brazen criminality and even murder most foul. And it surely doesn't hurt that Maeve's helped by Liam, that personable maker of Irish whiskey she's fallen for......and vice versa.

     Leave it to Mary Kay Andrews to smoothy weave all these characters and plot elements into one comforting and charming package, making the book as much of a scenic, heart-filled and eventful vacation for her readers as it is for Maeve and Therese. And who can resist an armchair trip through those lush green Irish hills and valleys?

      4 stars (****).