Fiction Review

Irreparable Damages
by Karlene Heinkel
ISBN-10: 0595443222
Review by Heather Froeschl



Reunions with the past don’t always bring fond memories. What we do with our reminiscences can sometimes be a matter of life and death, happiness and sorrow. In Karlene Heinkel’s novel, “Irreparable Damages,” the past and the present commingle with the ease of memory replayed.

Michael Stanford is on top of the world one minute…wealthy, a partner is his own business, a loving member of a large family, and recently engaged, yet moments later his world comes crashing down as his fiancé reveals that she’s pregnant. Why should this be so shocking? The next day finds him murdered in cold blood on his office floor. With so much going for him how could this happen? The family, and the town, is devastated. Charlie Whitman is a little too close to the case. As sheriff, he has only been back in his home town for a number of years after escaping it in the military and FBI. Michael wasn’t exactly his best friend back in high school but they were in the same circles and Charlie knew things that only one of the guys would know. Investigating this murder would bring back all of those memories, and the feelings that ran rampant with them.

What would Michael’s business partner, in the small town of Hillcrest, have to do with a Vegas-connected casino owner? Why would Michael’s fiancée remain living in his home after his death…with her ex-husband for company? What does Shelley Bowden, a girl both Michael and Charlie had feelings for back in the day, have to do with the whole tragedy? These things all bubble to the surface as the truth is revealed. Will Charlie lay the past to rest? Will justice be delivered?

The book is full of characters you will recognize in life. There are many different personalities to contend with that it all seems very real. The plot is rich with a past that is spelled out right in front of you, and a future that is not revealed until the very end. This guessing game is what many mystery readers love. I enjoyed the book and trying to work out the case along with Charlie. “Irreparable Damages” is a reminder that there is always so much more than meets the eye in everybody’s story.

Fiction Review

Unholy Penance
by Roberta Ideus
ISBN-10: 142417029X
Review by Heather Froeschl

What if vampires were real? How many unsolved deaths and missing person’s cases would be revealed as blood thirst? Roberta Ideus offers an interesting twist in her novel “Unholy Penance.” Nothing is ever as it seems, even to a detective and her Sheriff boss.

Kaci Robinson is starting her life over, back in a town she knew well, with family and friends around her. Having been betrayed by her husband, she realizes it was a necessary life lesson. When she is offered an investigative position by her former police academy classmate, synchronicity seems at play. She dives right into the work of trying to solve a series of mysterious murders around the lake. The victims are drained of blood, yet not a drop can be found at the crime scenes. There is no sign of struggle, or even approach. Kaci and David are at a loss, until a well known author of vampire books arrives, Evan Cain. He suggests that the killings are the work of a vampire.

Scoffing at first, there seems no other logical explanation, if vampires can be seen as logical. There is something about Cain that draws Kaci to him. She becomes rather involved in a way that can only be attributed to fate. There is a bigger story here. Cain is not revealing all that there is to know. Will the killing stop? Will penance be done for five hundred years of murder? Is it punishment to kill a vampire, or a blessing?

Ideus suggests things about vampires that you may not have thought of before. This interesting twist will keep readers guessing. The work is nicely plotted, with fantasy, romance, and crime, all rolled up into one. You just might leave this book believing in the unknown…or at least thinking about it. Well done!