The Grave of Marcus Pauly – Wayne D. Dundee

© 2011 Western Trail Blazer (Smashwords, ebooks)

Since I said I wanted to read some more of Wayne D. Dundee’s work, I found another short western novel (novella), just waiting for me to download to my Nook. And I’m glad I did. For one thing the story’s dedication note is to three of my favorite writers (James and Livia Reasoner and Bill Crider). What better endorsement (at least in my opinion) to read someone’s work than that they enjoy and are acquainted with the same authors that you read.

Annabelle Heath wants nothing more than to fulfill her dying mother’s last wishes—to find her uncle’s (Marcus Pauly) bones and retrieve them for a “proper Christian burial” back at the home plot in Missouri. The big problem is that the only one who knows where the body was buried is the man who buried him—Marcus’ riding partner who was with him when the deceased uncle was shot escaping from a botched bank robbery.

Ford Ramsey had served his time after having been caught by the posse following that same bank robbery. He has found a menial job in the livery and just wants to live out his life. But when Miss Heath shows up with a story of a prison-penned, heart-felt promise, Ramsey decides that he has nothing if not his word. In deciding to help the young lady find her uncle’s body to return him home, Ramsey destines them both for more than just a rough week’s worth of camping, and discovers that old rumors die hard.

This little story reads fast and well. If you like a good western, download a copy to your eReader of choice and spend a couple of hours in the old west. Four out of five reading glasses.

 

—Benjamin Potter, December 20, 2011

Christmas Jars – Jason F. Wright

©2005, Shadow Mountain, Salt Lake City

Christmas books should touch your heartstrings. You know, like The Christmas Box, The Christmas Shoes, or The Christmas Wish. Here’s a little novella that won’t disappoint. But you’d better have a box or three of tissue handy. The tears start early on and increase until the end of the book.

Hope Jensen is an abandoned child who excels in all she does as a journalist after being adopted by a lonely housekeeper. Just as Hope’s career seems to be taking off, she loses Louise to cancer (just after Christmas). Upon her first Christmas without her mom, Hope returns to her apartment to find it ransacked and burglarized. And then she finds the jar of money left unheeded by the police crew doing the investigation—“It wasn’t there thirty minutes ago . . .”

She spends the bulk of the book discovering the secret behind the mysterious “Christmas Jar” (as it is marked). She finds the origin and the reasoning that started it all in an unassuming family led by the father Adam Maxwell. And then she writes the story, only to find it’s too late to make up for the lies she’s been feeding Adam and his family.

This book has everything you want in a Christmas novel—death of a loved one that makes you think about what you want to be like as a person, selfless giving that keeps on giving, and finally gives back. Don’t pass up this book this year. But don’t forget the tissues.

In the spirit of the season, I give Christmas Jars a full five reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, December 12, 2007

The Leper – Sigmund Brouwer

Inspired by the art of Ron DiCianni, Sigmund Brouwer weaves a story that will have even the hardest hearted men weep. The Leper tells of outcast, Nathaniel, who returns to 19th century England only to discover that he has contracted leprosy while stationed in India.

Now, without contact with his family, he takes refuge in a single room away from society and all the people he loves. Gabrielle enters his life, a small loving girl. She provides for him the touch that allows his spirit to soar. He discovers a reason to seek survival instead of solitude and even death.

This novella will take very little time to read and provide a lifetime of memories.

—Benjamin Potter, March 2007