The Rendering by Leann Marshall

A new thriller by an accomplished writerby J_M_Humperjohn

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October 11, 2009: Leann Marshall's "The Rendering" is first and foremost a robust recognition of her growth as a fine and accomplished writer. When she told me it was available at Barnes & Noble, I asked for a copy where I encountered these great passages on aura, which I believe to be "electrical pulses" emanating from all of us as what most people believe to be our "souls." I am not as familiar with all the colors, but I am very aware of the influence. If you are a believer, you are going to love this book.

Jam-packed with strong characters and an even stronger core philosophy praising life and the power of love, Ms. Marshall knows how to spin a tale of suspense and non-stop action. A huge step forward as a complete author and a welcome read. Enjoy! __ John E. Cashwell

I Also Recommend: Stone Cold, The Lion's Game, Toishan, A Son of the Game, Culture of Corruption.

A great story well toldby BarbaraMilbourn

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September 10, 2009: Move over Southern writers, there's someone new among you, and she's good-really good.

I'm not sure Leann Marshall wants to be called a Southern writer, but her first book, The Starfish People and now her second, The Rendering, both take place there and she lives there as well. She's a whiz at Southern dialogue and getting her readers into the heads, hearts, and laps of her Southern characters.

Don't think for an instant though that you'll feel stifled by or anchored to a specific region. She has supplied both books with big wings that transport the reader from the flars down home to lofty and deep-reaching themes.

In The Rendering, Mike Lot is released from 29 years in prison for the murder of the one he "loved more than anything." He'd never talked of her to anyone the whole time there and he'd done well to keep his thoughts of her sequestered in a place he called the Dream Safe. But he feels her around him; it's almost as if she were not dead, and when the prison gates close behind him, the one thing he wants to do is to see her again.

While he makes that journey, the reader's attention turns to an art studio in which something speaks in first person of becoming, of being created, of seeking to see and understand itself. It discovers its power to not only think and to feel emotions of love, loneliness, fear and desire, but its power to move things, to break things, to transfer its self into people and stuffed animals. It observes and comes to question and then conclude which is greater in this "round world"-good or evil, love or anger.

Mike returns to the time and place he first met his love and there encounters and old dowser woman who dowses for more than water. She knows things and wishes to teach him so he can find his love again, save her, and send her home. There's a spirit tree, an artist, a terrific storm, a lightning strike, and events that change things forever. There is a private eye that sets Mike upon a road and a townsperson from Ash Creek who discovers a secret. There is opposition in many forms and another surprise near the end that makes the book even greater than the sum of so many already wonderful parts.