The Healer's Daughters Book Review & Book Tour Giveaway

Today, I am excited to share my review of the thriller, The Healer's Daughters by Jay Amberg. Read my thoughts, learn about the author and enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.

Book Title:  The Healer's Daughters by Jay Amberg Category:  Adult Fiction, 312 pages Genre:  thriller Publisher:  Amika Press  About the Book A terrorist bombing in Bergama, Turkey kills twenty-three people including three children. Modern Bergama is built on the site of ancient Pergamon, a city whose art and wealth and culture rivaled Athens. It was also the home of the Aesklepion, the world’s greatest healing center, and the birthplace of Galen, the Roman Empire’s most famous doctor. Tuğçe Iskan, a Turkish Ministry investigator, finds evidence that links the terrorism to a powerful criminal family and to Galen’s life and Pergamon’s lost treasures. But Iskan is alone, an outcast in the Ministry because she is honest, diligent, and a woman. As Iskan delves more deeply into the heinous attack, she needs allies outside the Ministry. She must turn to Özlem Boroğlu, a local archeologist, and Boroğlu’s daughter Elif, an artist with an affinity for ancient Aegean goddesses. Can these three women defeat ISIL terrorists, criminal oligarchs, and corrupt officials? Can they even survive? My  Review The Healer's Daughters is a well paced thriller with strong characters.   The cast of characters in The Healer's Daughter is large. It took a bit of time to sort all of the characters into individual roles and discover their individual voices and personalities.  Once I was able  to organize the characters in my mind and settle into the author's writing style, the pace of the novel flowed really well as the author moved back-and-forth between the different lives and the different subplots feeding the main storyline. Greed, cultural exploitation, terrorism, history and political corruption  blend well in this thriller.  The author creates a very modern story as he looks at subplots dealing with terrorism, political corruption, greed, and cultural exploitation as ancient artifacts are stolen and sold to the highest bidder.  The story brings together different cultures and characters with an array of good vs evil qualities as motivations are revealed and the plot becomes more complex. Would I recommend The Healer's Daughters by Jay Amberg?  I loved the characters and the realistic glimpses into their fictional world.  Readers and fans of political thrillers and historical fiction will find a lot to love in this novel. The author weaves cultures, lives, families, and an assortment of motives into a well crafted mystery/thriller that is difficult to put down. Praise for The Healer's Daughters: "Amberg...shines at creating distinctive characters. Elif and others, for example, conduct a ritual to remember lost lives, which is a striking contrast to others who use the "Bergama Bombing" to boost their political careers. Moreover, Amberg deftly shows how viewing unfamiliar cultures as exotic can be insensitive; Özlem confronts a crass British photographer who thinks nothing of snapping pictures of praying mourners... A large, memorable cast augments this dramatic mystery/thriller." --Kirkus Reviews "Keep[s] readers on their toes. With its powerful blend of Turkish cultural explorations, international intrigue, a treasure hunt, historical references, and characters who hold their own special interests close to their hearts, The Healer's Daughters is an exceptional thriller that proves hard to put down." --Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review "All the elements [of] a compelling thriller--international terrorism; a greedy, powerful and ruthless criminal family; a group of inept, corrupt and "bought" government officials; a secret, elite, and clean anti-terror department of the said, corrupt government; and a principled, high-minded academic who will stop at nothing to ensure her country's past and valuable heritage is preserved for the ages." --Grant Leishman, Readers' Favorite "Drama, pressure, and tensions mount in a plot with great descriptive writing and scene setting.... A glimpse into different cultures, beliefs, and economies [and an] adventure filled with fear, danger, and discovery." --K.J. Simmill, Readers' Favorite Buy the Book Amazon.com ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Amika Press Add to Goodreads

Meet the Author   Jay Amberg is the author of twelve books. He received a BA from Georgetown University and a PhD from Northwestern University. He has taught high school and college students since 1972. His latest book, The Healer’s Daughters, is now available from Amika Press. Amberg has also published Bone Box, Cycle, America’s Fool, Whale Song, and compiled 52 Poems for Men. Prior to Amika Press, Amberg published thriller novels Doubloon (Forge), Blackbird Singing (Forge) and Deep Gold (Warner Books). Among his books on teaching are School Smarts and The Study Skills Handbook, published by Good Year. Amberg wrote The Creative Writing Handbook (Good Year) with Mark Henry Larson and Verbal Review and Workbook for the SAT (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) with Bob Boone. Connect with the author:   Website  ~  Twitter ~  Facebook BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE: Sept 9 – Working Mommy Journal – book review / giveaway Sept 10 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway Sept 10 - Mystery Suspense Reviews - book spotlight / guest post / giveaway Sept 11 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / guest post / giveaway Sept 12 – Literary Flits – book review / giveaway Sept 13 – Life as Leels – book review / giveaway Sept 16 – A Fountain Of Books – book review / author interview / giveaway Sept 17 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book review / giveaway Sept 18 – JBronder Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway Sept 18 - Books for Books - book review Sept 19 – My Reading Journeys – book review / author interview / giveaway Sept 20 - The Avid Inspri - book review / guest post / giveaway Sept 20 - Reading is My Passion – book review  ENTER THE GIVEAWAY: a Rafflecopter giveaway