Vocal Expressions

This is the first thriller I’ve read by Nick Stephenson and it certainly won’t be the last. I’m a huge fan of thrillers and I found that this author truly delivered on action, suspense and a gripping tale of greed and betrayal.    Let’s meet Leopold Blake, a billionaire and an expert criminology consultant for the FBI. He is hired by Jean Dubois, the Louvre’s senior art director to perform a full security sweep of the place. However, Leopold discovers the theft of a painting (The Virgin and Child with St. Anne) and sets out to find out who stole it.  Unbeknownst to Leopold and his bodyguard, Jerome, Jean Dubois and a few others are gunned down by a ruthless German assassin. The assassin plants Leopold’s fingerprint onto the abandoned rifle and leaves the scene, making Leopold a wanted man by the French police for questioning.   The stakes ramp up when NYPD police sergeant, Mary Jordan gets caught up in the chaos, thinking she’d enjoy a vacation with Leopold ...

Author’s Bio: A ward-winning novelist John DeDakis is a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis is the author of six novels in the Lark Chadwick mystery-suspense-thriller series. In his most recent novel, Enemies Domestic, Lark is a White House press secretary forced to make her extremely personal abort-or-not-to-abort decision in a highly toxic and polarized political fishbowl—all while dealing with an attack on the presidency itself.    DeDakis, a former White House correspondent, is a writing coach, manuscript editor, and regularly teaches novel writing at literary centers and writers’ conferences around the country. He is also the host of the live video podcast “One-to-One with John DeDakis” on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Website: www.johndedakis.com      Deliah Lawrence: What inspired you to write your book? John DeDakis: I was intending to go in an entirely different direction with the book until the Supreme Co...

Author’s Bio: L inda Murphy Marshall has a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing. Her memoir, Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery received a starred review from Kirkus. She is an Associate for the National Museum of Language and a docent at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.  Her second memoir , Immersion: A Linguist’s Memoir , comes out September 24, 2024 and has already garnered a gold medal (2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in Travel/Travel Guide) and has been reviewed by Kirkus ("A fluent and far-reaching celebration of communication and world travel.").  Her essays have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Review, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, The Catamaran Literary Reader, Maryland Literary Review, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, and elsewhere.   Deliah Lawrence: What inspired you to write your book? Linda Murphy Marshall: I wanted to write the truth about my life and my chil...