Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

Seeds of the Pomegranate
By Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

Publication Date: September 2nd, 2025

Publisher: Sibylline Press

Pages: 409

Genre: Historical Fiction / Women's Crime Fiction

A gritty story of a woman learning to survive in 20th century Gangland New York

In early 20th-century Sicily, noblewoman Mimi Inglese, a talented painter, dreams of escaping the rigid expectations of her class by gaining admission to the Palermo Art Academy. But when she contracts tuberculosis, her ambitions are shattered. With the Sicilian nobility in decline, she and her family leave for New York City in search of a fresh start.

Instead of opportunity, Mimi is pulled into the dark underbelly of city life and her father’s money laundering scheme. When he is sent to prison, desperation forces her to put her artistic talent to a new use—counterfeiting $5 bills to keep her family from starvation and, perhaps, to one day reclaim her dream of painting. But as Gangland violence escalates and tragedy strikes, Mimi must summon the courage to flee before she is trapped forever in a life she never wanted.

From Sicily’s sun-bleached shores to the crowded streets of immigrant New York, Seeds of the Pomegranate is a story of courage, art, and the women who refused to disappear.

Praise 

"A riveting and intelligent novel with a powerful message."

Kirkus Reviews

"Samuels has created a thoroughly engrossing historical novel from aspects of her own family heritage, weaving complications and danger into the narrative with admirable skill and effective writing. A gripping story, from the first page to the last, and very highly recommended."

Margaret Porter, bestselling author

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Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

Suzanne Uttaro Samuels is an award-winning legal scholar, lawyer, and college professor turned novelist and essayist. Her debut historical novel, Seeds of the Pomegranate (Sibylline Press, 2025), follows Mimi Inglese, a young Sicilian noblewoman whose dream of a new life in America collides with an elaborate counterfeiting scheme.

Samuels writes stories of resilience, family secrets, and hidden histories of immigration, illness, and resistance. Born and raised on Staten Island, she spent most of her life in and around New York City and now lives in a cottage in the Adirondack Mountains with her husband, dog, and two cats.

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The Bookseller's Ghost by Sharon Bradshaw

 

The Bookseller's Ghost
By Sharon Bradshaw

Publication Date: 7th December, 2020
Publisher : Independently published
Page length : 77 Pages
Genre : Ghost Fiction/Ghost Horror

Shall you sleep tonight? Perhaps your thoughts will turn instead to a boy calling from beyond the grave? His shadow could easily walk across your bedroom wall, if you close your eyes. There won't be any explanation for it... Not in the darkest part of the night.

The Bookseller's Ghost explores the spectres that haunt us. Glimpsed in dark corners, and ancient places like Calvington Hall in The House On The Fens. Or the churchyard in The Curse Of Ezekiel Marlow. An Archaeologist meets someone he knew long ago, but is all as it seems? Paranormal love also lives on in Lost On The Moor, and Ben's Tale. Children play with Imaginary Friends. Whilst other spirits exist only in memory, or the inexplicable. Reaching out, to touch the fear within us.

"When the candle is burning low, the wind howling beyond the window and door, it is time to read The Bookseller's Ghost. Montague Rhodes James (1862 - 1936), the master of ghost stories, was the inspiration behind the eleven tales in this collection. Also, Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), and Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)." Eerie, dark, and chilling... The Bookseller's Ghost is the first book in The Ghosts From The Bazaar series.

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Sharon Bradshaw

Sharon Bradshaw is a Historical Fiction Author, Storyteller, and Poet. She lives in the United Kingdom with her family, and a large collection of books. 

Tradition and folklore have their roots in the tales told around the fire, thousands of years ago. Or beneath the stars on warm, summer nights. Tales which have been adapted across the years in their telling, and re-telling. Until possibly all that remains is a grain of truth from the original version. Often these were about real people like King Arthur, and the lives they led; their battles, and warriors; the women or men they loved, and the children. 

Sharon writes the 8th century Durstan series, which begins on Iona in 794 AD. You will find a brief History of the early medieval period in the prequel, A Druid's Magic. Written from the research she did into the time we used to call the Dark Ages. Followed by The Monk Who Cast A Spell, and Passion And The Monk which takes place on Lindisfarne. Durstan Of Iona, book 4, will be coming soon. 

Her first collection of faery stories, again based on folklore and tradition, has been published in The Woodcutter And The Faery Queen. She is also passionate about writing ghost stories. Those which are eerie, and make you want to check that you really are alone when it's almost dark. Eleven of which are in The Bookseller's Ghost, followed by Old Meg And The Fox, with others coming soon in 2024. Whilst you'll find her first collection of love poetry in: From Now 'til Then.

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Rough Diamond - Rough Justice by Avien Gray

 

Rough Diamond - Rough Justice 
By Avien Gray

Publisher: Avien Gray

Page Length: 446

Genre: Political Thrillers & Suspense / Historical Fiction

After a first kill, MI5 Agent and erstwhile photographer Cain becomes an undercover, extra-judicial killer for a secret Bureau.

Recovering from injuries sustained protecting the Royal Family, Cain embracesa new life and romance in sun-drenched Australia, leaving his past life behind.

But when tragedy strikes, he is on the move again. This time to a new career in the world of diamond dealings in Florida.

Curiosity takes Cain to the diamond world in South Africa, where his past finally catches up with him, the criminal world allies against him and he becomes a killer again.

In Cain's action-packed escapades, a spectacular betrayal takes him into the rigours of a Chinese prison where the truth about his past begins to unravel.

Aided by a loyal band of friends from the shadowy world of intelligence, he delivers his own particular brand of rough justice.

However, with enemies closing in on all sides, will Cain prevail?

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Rough Diamond, Rough Justice 
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Avien Gray

Avien Gray, the English author behind Rough Diamond – Rough Justice, brings a wealth of experience to his gripping debut novel. Born in the UK, Gray has led a dynamic, bachelor’s life marked by an impressive array of skills and global adventures. He has a driver’s license, motorbike license, and pilot’s license. His physical discipline extends to martial arts, where he earned a karate black belt, complemented by a lifelong passion for photography that captures the world through his discerning lens.

Gray’s rumoured travels paint the picture of a man unbound by borders. He is said to have spent many months in Saudi Arabia, Australia, the USA, South Africa, Europe and China. This rich tapestry of experiences infuses his writing with authenticity, lending a vivid, worldly edge to the thrilling narrative of his complex protagonist: a man called Cain.

Avien and his best friend shared a flat and went out with various female friends together. They had a great time. As it says in the book when Cain is talking with his best friend: a Royal Protection Officer.

 ‘We will have to write that book when we retire,’ Cain said.

 They looked at each other with knowing smiles – for a long few seconds.

 ‘All those secrets,’ said Jerry. ‘Perhaps we will.’

 And time moved on.

But in real life, his best friend tragically died – leaving Avien to write their book alone.

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At the Corner of Hitler and Goering by Joseph Kovler

 

At the Corner of Hitler and Goering 
By Joseph Kovler 

Publication Date: 1st August 2023

Publisher: Historium Press

Page Length: 84

Genre: Historical Fiction

Dealing a Blow to Nazi Ideology

In 1938, against a backdrop of the war in Europe, German Max Schmeling loses to the American Joe Louis in the first round of a fight at Yankee Stadium. After watching the defeat of his national hero to a "schwarze," and to Max Baer, a Jew, a few years earlier, Karl Seger decides to stage a boxing exhibition at Camp Siegfried, the Nazi youth camp he runs on Long Island, inviting three Jewish boxers, trainer Jackie and his proteges Ruby and Moe, to serve as sacrificial lambs in a display of German superiority.

For Seger, the exhibition is a way to advance his career and to restore his wounded pride and the pride of his people. For the Jewish boxers it is a chance to physically take a stand against anti-Semitism and deal a blow to Nazi ideology.

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At the Corner of Hitler and Goering 

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Joseph Kovler

Joe writes historical fiction based on Long Island’s varied and rich history. He has written a number of award-winning scripts including a science fiction/love/pirate tale set in the 1700’s about Captain Kidd’s wife Sarah. The plight of three Jewish boxers at a Nazi summer camp in Yaphank, NY, as World War II developed in Europe, was the basis for his award-winning script and first novella of the same name, “At the Corner of Hitler and Goering.” The dramatic accounting of the experiences of two Cuban refugees sponsored by the CIA and the Catholic Church as part of “Operation Pedro Pan” and sent to live at the Camp Hero Air Force Base in Montauk, NY during the Cuban Missile Crisis was the inspiration for his script, "Camp Hero," and the novella, "Dangerous Crossings."

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The Trials of Arthur Whitty ( Short Stories) by Tim Walker

 

The Trials of Arthur Whitty ( Short Stories)
By Tim Walker

Publication Date: 14th July 2025

Publisher: Independently Published

Page Length: 137

Genre: Short Stories

This novella is the story of plain old Arthur Whitty, a man whose dreams are never dull and whose vivid imagination and sense of humour carries him through a series of sometimes challenging situations. Arthur has retired to a pair of slippers in a quiet cul-de-sac in Berkshire, England. He walks his dog, Max, and lets his mind wander to a series of dreams in which he is more daring, skilful and adventurous that his real-life humdrum self. He is an irritant to his orderly wife, Emilia, and has succumbed to irksome cancer treatment following a run-in with skin cancer.

Once a date has been set for corrective surgery, Arthur sets his mind on organising a real-life adventure – a bucket list trip to Machu Picchu in Peru. Arthur’s bullish nature carries him through a series of situations but there is little the retired couple can do about the onset of dementia. But Arthur is well supported by Emilia and their daughter, Holly, as the family rally round to make his declining years as comfortable as possible. And there’s always escape to his secret world of risk, responsibility and danger.

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Tim Walker

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, he grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years.

In the mid-90s he opted to spend a couple of years doing voluntary work in Zambia through VSO, running an educational book publishing development programme. After this, he set up his own marketing and publishing business in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, then managed a mineral exploration company before returning to the UK in 2009.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2014, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. In addition to short stories, he researched and wrote a five-book historical fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. The series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of Arthur in an imaginative narrative. It starts with Abandoned, then Ambrosius: Last of the Romans; Uther’s Destiny; Arthur Dux Bellorum and Arthur Rex Brittonum, the last two books charting the life of an imagined historical King Arthur.

More recently, he has written a dual timeline historical novel set at Hadrian’s Wall, Guardians at the Wall. His two books of short stories, Thames Valley Tales and London Tales combine contemporary and historical themes and are now available as audiobooks. Somewhere along the way, he co-authored a three-book children’s series with his daughter, Cathy, The Adventures of Charly Holmes.

Thank you for reading The Trials of Arthur Whitty. Please leave a star rating and review on Amazon and/or Goodreads so others can benefit from your experience.

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