Ann Tonsor Zeddies Blood and Roses

Blood and Roses

Ann Tonsor Zeddies

Phobos, Nov 2005, $14.95, 286 pp.

ISBN 0992002669

After spending three years in France as a relief worker, Jayne Taylor goes one step beyond her usual heroics when she kills a German soldier who is holding Sister Madeline hostage. Madeline looks like she is suffering from radiation poisoning but she receives medical attention and recovers. When the war ends Jayne adopts five war orphans and with Madeline brings them home to America. Needing to earn some money she convinces a mobster to let her drive the truck carrying liquor during prohibition. On her first run, she and another end up in a flying ship heading towards Japan.

They land on Sado Island where they become separated. Carmeron is held prisoner by sentient insects that look like monsters while Jayne is in the same underground chamber of caves trying to find Cameron with the help of a mysterious stranger who knows more than he should about the bugs and their plans. The Japanese warlord Noriyama wants to use the same substance that the alien prisoners are mining to make a weapon that will give the Japanese dominance in world affairs. Jayne, Cameron and the mysterious stranger will do everything in their power to stop them.

Combine the action of a Lara Croft movie with the premise of H.G. Wells book War of the worlds and readers will have some idea what BLOOD AND ROSES is all about. Jayne is a modern day heroine who is living in the 1920's doing things that are usually the province of men including saving the world. The audience will like Jayne for her loyalty, her humanity, passion and bravery but they will find themselves paying attention to the mysterious stranger and hope he and Jayne will have more adventures in future books. The premise of this tale would make a fantastic movie.

Harriet Klausner