The Book: Maddog and Miss Kitty

The Author: Bert Carson

The Story: The story of Gerald and Kathleen, a helicopter crew chief and a U.S. Army Nurse, who meet in Vietnam after Gerald is seriously wounded. Gerald is transferred to Brooke Army Hospital near San Antonio, for rehabilitation. Kathleen is transferred to Brooke because she has served three tours in Vietnam and is on the point of total burn out.

Gerald recovers, leaves the Army, and tries to return to civilian life. Kathleen leaves the Army, opting to stay in San Antonio, working at St. Mary’s Hospital.

For twenty years they experience the aftermath of war, something we now call PTSD. Finally they begin separately traveling the roads they hope will take them home.

A Review by Gae-Lynn Woods:  “MADDOG AND MISS KITTY is a great read and one that I highly recommend. Through a well-written in-your-face tale of love and war, Bert Carson weaves the full experience of the Vietnam veteran – from enlistment to deployment to their return home and struggle with PTSD. This is a grisly war story full of action and urgency. Mr. Carson’s ability to craft characters whose behaviors and words ring true made me gasp in some places, and brought me to tears in others.

“Although Mr. Carson assures the reader that MADDOG AND MISS KITTY is a work of fiction, his experience as a Vietnam veteran gives the book the eerie quality of non-fiction. Mr. Carson describes events and emotions with a confidence, a certain vividness, that can only come from someone who has walked this particular walk and experienced first-hand that which he writes about. I know a few of those who served in Vietnam – warriors and medics – and this was a difficult book for me to read. It gave me an insight, beautiful and painful, of what they might have experienced both abroad and on their return home to the United States.

“In spite of its sometimes harrowing content, MADDOG AND MISS KITTY is an uplifting read – an earlier reviewer described it as transforming, and I agree. The four short stories that Mr. Carson includes at the end of the book are equally enjoyable. Give MADDOG AND MISS KITTY a try – you won’t be disappointed.”

A Review by Frederick Lee Brooke: “You don’t have to be a war veteran yourself to fall under the spell of this elegiac novella by Bert Carson. I’m the proof of it. Carson is a southern storyteller par excellence whose previous books Fourth and Forever and Another Place, Another Time, already hooked me. Maddog and Miss Kitty continued the series and fully lived up to my high expectations.

“This is the story of a helicopter door gunner named Gerald who fought in Vietnam, then came home to find the world had changed. If you’ve ever wondered what it is that troubles our returned soldiers, what really goes on in their minds, and why they are so troubled, you will understand it much better when you have read Gerald’s story. Gerald earns the moniker Maddog on his first day in Vietnam because of his grit and determination.

“The novella alternates between Maddog’s point of view and that of one Katherine Timmons, who has been christened Miss Kitty during her years as a medic saving lives in Vietnam as soldiers are helicoptered back from bloody battles. Like Maddog, Miss Kitty is no perfect person with no flaws; the author puts the spotlight on both characters’ flaws, and they become real.

“Our country has been at war in faraway countries for the last ten years, and has been almost continuously at war for the last seventy years, if you consider our declared and undeclared engagements in Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan and Libya. There is no more topical issue for modern fiction than the issue Bert Carson is exploring in Maddog and Miss Kitty and his other books: the human costs of war. I can think of no better way to begin your own exploration of this theme by spending a few hours reading this book.”

The Book: A Lethal Time

The Author:  Peggy A. Edelheit

The Story: Lethal Time, a Samantha Jamison Mystery, is volume four in a series that includes The Puzzle, set in Highlands, North Carolina, Without Any Warning, set on the Jersey Shore in Ocean City, New Jersey, and 86 Avenue Du Goulet, set in the French Riviera.
NOW IT’S MOTORCYCLE WEEK, AND THE SERIES CONTINUES…
I was beginning to question a lot, including my sanity for trying to find something I didn’t know anyone would steal in the first place. How did I end up in another complicated mystery involving a motorcycle rally, horses, a hidden collection, antique books, unexpected alliances, extortion, and threats upon my life? And how did I become a target? It was A Lethal Time and my time was running out. What secrets were they all afraid of me discovering?

A Lethal Time has been edited by renowned author and editor, Winslow Eliot.

A Review by J. Trudel: “I was eagerly awaiting the release of the latest book in the Samantha Jamison series, and the wait was certainly worthwhile! It was so much fun with all of Samantha’s escapades and those of her lovable, zany cohorts getting themselves into all sorts of predicaments! I couldn’t put the book down, read late into the night and stole any minutes I could during the day as I sped towards the finish. There were so many twists and turns and the author wove everything into a great ending! I highly recommend this book and you won’t be disappointed!

“Can’t wait for the next installment in the Samantha Jamison series and to see where we are going next! Will we need a passport, a driver’s license, a motorcycle license or a horse and buggy?!! Can’t wait!”

A Review by Romayne Diucuollo: “Peggy Edelheit did it again. I really enjoyed her latest book, A Lethal Time. It was so nice to have all the characters appear in this book also. I have become attached to them and can picture each one.

“Love the little escapades they manage to get themselves into. As with the previous books I thought I could figure out the ending. And just like the other mysteries it ends with all kinds of surprises. Since I find it difficult to put the book down I end up finishing it much too soon.”