Joylene Nowell Butler

While grieving from the tragic death of her two sons, Sally Warner was now forced to discover the bloody body of her husband on the kitchen floor! Numb with shock and grief, she called 911 and kept her distance from the body. She had talked with him only a couple of hours ago! How can this be. Now she had no one left.
Corporal Killian was assigned to the murder investigation of former Cabinet member, Leland Warner. The pressure was intense in this high profile case. Every lead seemed to go nowhere. Was he given this case because his new department was sure he would fail? Could he keep himself objective and not allow the grieving, sweet widow to look to him for friendship?
This is a tale of beaurocracy, mystery, family dysfunction, prejudice with a touch of romance. The story is steadily paced and has several twists. The characters are realistically developed and the scenes are created in an easily visualized manner.
It was hard for me to "get into" at first but soon I was able to put it all together. The Title fit but it and the cover image is not eye-catching to the "browser". The Cover is not a great "fit " for the story.
*Reader Beware, there is some profanity and slight sexual situations.
**I was gifted this book but am under no obligation to do a positive review.
I offer a Three and a Half Stars rating for this book… (more)

Dead Witness – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

‘A long, narrow building, beyond the small shed, blocked her view. Valerie inched past a rusty engine leaning against the hut and peeked around the corner. Two men in black tee shirts and black pants stood at the stern of the sleek cabin cruiser docked at the wharf. Three more men stood on the pier: One young, one old, one dangerously attractive. Facing her, she could see he was perfect, in fact. Except, why was he wearing a long, tan raincoat? Maybe she wasn’t the only unprepared foreigner. No way would she interrupt their business. Two of them walked way. Mr. Perfect, the handsome Latino in the tan raincoat, smiled after them. His sensuous, slightly accented voice broke the silence. “Gentlemen, please. It has been my experience that even in times of indecision, a solution exists.” His arms spread wide as if to embrace them. The two men stopped and turned back. Still smiling, the Latino reached inside his raincoat and pulled out a gun. Valerie gawked at him. She heard a pop. The older man fell backward onto the wharf. Pop. The younger man’s head exploded. The man in the tan raincoat leaned down and fired a third bullet in the older man’s head. The body twitched, then lay still.’

Valerie McCormick is the mother of 3 beautiful daughters and wife to Ed. Ed owns a timber business in their home town of Prince George, Canada. In the process of trying to secure the business he runs across a possible client who has his eyes set on a boat docked in Seattle, Washington, so when Valerie wins a trip to Seattle, what better time to take pictures of the boat with hopes of scoring brownie points with the client. But when Valerie witnesses the murder of 2 men she decides she must do her duty and report it to the police. To her relief, the police ended up arresting Miguel DeOlmos on a traffic violation and now had him in jail. To her disappointment, after the American FBI talked her into testifying against DeOlmos, he ends up escaping during his trial. And to make matters worse Miguel DeOlmos is the leader of one of the largest drug cartels in the both North and South America. DeOlmos will stop at nothing to keep from being tried in the US due to its death penalty and it’s not beyond him to kill the only witness the FBI have against him.

Author Joylene Nowell Butler took me on a ride from Canada, Seattle, Nevada, California and then to Baja as FBI agent Mike Canaday chases DeOlmos while still doing everything in his power to keep Valerie alive. Valerie comes up with her own ideas of how to capture DeOlmos and ends up in the clutches of his psycho brother Vincente. Dead Witness is a superbly written murder mystery that has everything from greed to murder to deceit and of course love. I thoroughly enjoyed myself reading Dead Witness.

Dead Witness

2008
Published by Joylene Nowell
278 pages
ISBN# 978-0-9810-3050-0

Review Stir, Laugh, Repeat at Amazon.com Stir, Laugh, Repeat… (more)

Valerie McCormick believes in family above all else, a fact that’s obvious when she wins a trip to Seattle and ends up spending it doing research on a boat for her husband’s company. However, on her free trip she witnesses the murder of two FBI agents and is thrust into a multinational court case against a cartel that puts her life in terrible danger.

Dead Witness is a self published debut thriller with a touch of love story. Valerie is understandably upset by her predicament, and surrounded by daughters who seem sweet, but oblivious, a husband who is using her and various FBI agents who bumble around and ruin her life. The bad guys are evil. The heroes are not quite perfect and over all the book is close, but not quite ready to be on the must read shelf.

Butler is a solid writer, with good potential, but there are several things that end up distracting from the story. To begin with it’s hard to connect with Valerie, the lead character. Her personality seems less than three dimensional and while she’s understandably emotional, hearing her upset over being in protective custody, and her willingness to be dead rather than without her family made her hard to sympathize with. The FBI procedure in the storyline isn’t entirely convincing, leading to mistakes that certainly add to the plot, but can make a reader question the storytelling. Readers will likely also wonder why Valerie’s brother, an intelligent, skilled investigator, is smart enough to consistently break through the FBI’s cover, but doesn’t consider that the bad guys might be watching him.

Finally, it’s clear that Valerie is the main character, not just because the story is her story, but because all the secondary characters seem to reiterate what she thinks and feels, as well as that she’s a strong, lovely person, in the sections of the story told from their point of view as if they, too, are trying to convince the reader of Valerie’s worth. Unfortunately, this ends up feeling insincere, contributing to a disconnect between the picture readers have of Valerie, and the picture Butler is trying to paint.

Butler shows promise, however, and is likely to show up with a stronger work down the road.… (more)

The beginning of the book jumps into action when Canadian Valerie McCormick witnesses the murder of two FBI agents while on vacation in Seattle.

The FBI has been trying to track down this evasive Miquel DeOlmos. Witnesses end up dead when they try to testify against this Latin drug lord. Valerie agrees to help, but she has no idea what's in store and ends up in a witness protection program only to find out it’s not enough. When her children's safety is at risk, she takes matters into her own hands by hunting down DeOlmos herself.

My only complaint was I didn’t completely believe all of the FBI procedures. Keep in mind, I’m not expert and all of it might be true. As a reader, I wasn’t convinced.

Although the story was about the FBI and witness protection, it had a CSI Miami feel to it. I loved the story. The characters were crystal clear with depth. Once I got started, I had trouble putting the book down.

Joylene Nowell Butler is an author to put on your watch list. Her books are packed with non-stop suspense and I look forward to reading more.

More reviews can be found on http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/… (more)