Customer Reviews

Healey's Cave

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I love how Aaron Paul Lazar has drawn the characters in his book. He sketches the relationship of man and wife in soft strokes, like a lovely pen and ink drawing on fine paper. A grandparent taking delight in the love of his grandchildren is a pastel portrait framed in gold. Childhood friendships drenched in sepia tones are like old photographs in a long forgotten album taken from the shelf. I also like the pace of the book. Nothing is rushed. There is no leap headlong into a maze of frantic action nor is there a plunge into needless back-story. There is a gracious and soft unfolding of detail, layer upon layer, as if one were looking at a painting of a lush landscape. Characters reveal themselves and the story unfolds easily, effortlessly. Sam Moore is a methodical man, used to figuring out mysteries in life by using tried and true principles. He has honed his solid intellect during many years as a physician and isn't prone to imagining things. But when Sam discovers a marble in the soft friable earth of his garden, he begins to think he may be going crazy. The glowing cat's eye marble seems to flash scenes of his boyhood before his eyes, scenes with his younger brother Billy, who had been so dear, the brother whose disappearance had left behind an unsolved mystery and a hole in Sam Moore's heart. Was his brother speaking to him from across the void? As we look over Sam Moore's shoulder into the fire of the green marble, we are drawn with him into an experience of the paranormal, seeing into the unseen worlds he unearths, never to rest until we know the whole truth about what happened to his brother Billy- and to the others. The sense of intrigue never dims in this book. I love a good story and this is one of the best I have read in a very long time.

My thanks to the author's wife who proposed that the author write a book from the killer's point of view...

And a new series was born! Healey's Cave by Aaron Paul Lazar, who is known for his LeGarde Mystery series, declared he was just minding his own business when his wife spoke...In fact, he laughed!

Now his wife loves psychological thrillers which I do too, so I knew she was on to something...especially since, at that time, I hadn't read any of Lazar's books! I had met Aaron at a Facebook Reviewer's Roundup Author Interview and immediately knew I would like the man...you know, one of those guys that is fun and easy to talk to...so that's how he wound up as my December Spotlighted Author at Book Reader's Heaven and I was invited to have a Lazar marathon...hmmm, maybe I even volunteered, not sure now!

Anyway, Healey's Cave is his latest book, as well as being the first Sam Moore Mystery. I loved it!

Lazar has a style of writing that pulls readers into the lives, as well as the setting of his books; he's a natural storyteller. He spends time sharing about nature and talks knowledgeably about the plants, flowers, and, in this case, the caves that you can tell he has explored.

In fact, the "green marble series," was conceptually created when he found a green marble, a cat's eye, unearthed while he was rototilling! As with many of us, the marble took him back to childhood and he started to wonder about the little boy or girl who lost it...

And that is how the main character was whisked back in time...

Sam Moore was himself a grandfather when he found the marble. His first thought was whether it might have belonged to his brother who had disappeared 50 years ago. It had been 50 years of longing to know the truth of what had happened to him. Was he dead or alive? Had he fallen and died somewhere, all alone, never to be found, or had he been kidnapped, perhaps raised by somebody else and still alive somewhere. While he had always hoped for the latter, he knew that if at all possible, now after this long, he would have come back to find his family...

Sam was a little worried that he would become entangled in his memories, for now he had retired from his practice and he was used to being active most of his days. So he had turned to the outside to work his time away doing what he loved. Besides, his wife, Rachel, needed him to keep out of her way. She was wheel-chair bound and needed extra rest, but she also needed to continue to maintain her home and do the things she had always managed in the past. Sam owed Rachel his love and her space...

It was Billy's birthday; he would be 61. Sam silently wished him "Happy Birthday, buddy," and, for the first time, reached into his pocket and fingered the green marble...

That first visit to the past took him onto his orange school bus...Sam and Billy had just gotten off and were waving at the remaining kids. It didn't take long before Manfred Healey speeded by in his car, screaming for them to get out of his way...

Sam had been in the past for an hour and a half...when he realized time had gone by; he thought he had fallen asleep...

But it brought back memories even more and he thought about his friends from that time and how Billy, though younger, had always been his best friend and went wherever the others went. And, of course, Healey was hated by all of them. Even now, Sam believed that Healey had taken Billy!

Now, for various reasons, all the players from that year were back in town. And Sam was being taken back to the past, finally realizing that the time travel seemed to be telling him something and that Billy was trying to communicate!

But...things were also happening in the present. Sam's house had been broken into, for instance, and all of Billy's toys had been stolen from the attic! Now, they were being used, apparently, to play with Sam's mind--make him think he was experiencing a breakdown... Nightmares had returned and it seemed that he was learning more and more about what had happened...just not who had been responsible!

Someone murdered little boys, and Sam was now afraid for his grandsons!

What a great start to the green marble series! Sam is a wonderful, older lead character, whose love of family is clearly primary to his life. The touch of the paranormal and time travel just makes a great book more interesting. One of the things I quickly noted is that Lazar's books can be considered "G" rating...and I'll cheerfully pass them on to my younger family members to enjoy!

By the way, I'm halfway into the first LeGarde book...All I can say is that, thankfully, I don't have to choose which I enjoy more! Lazar has already made it to my personal must-read author list! Watch for reviews of more of his books as December continues...You may find that you'll want to use Lazar's books as stocking stuffers! What a cool gift for anyone in the family who loves mystery and suspense...and so much more!

Book Provided Via
Facebook Reviewers Roundup

G. A. Bixler

Sam Moore is a gardener extraordinaire. But when he finds a marble in his knotweed patch, life changes. The strange green marble carries Sam on wild excursions into his past, where a long-time mystery just waits on being answered. But will Sam live long enough to unravel the case of his missing brother?

Aaron Lazar has crafted a truly wonderful tale of suspense, nostalgia, and supernatural occurences. I loved the time in the garden, written by a man who obviously knows his stuff and felt like the trips back into his past were well-done and moved the story forward to its tense conclusion.

This was my first Sam Moore mystery but it won't be my last!

Just finished Healey's Cave and was not sure how the author would do in switching to different characters and plot after reading Tremolo Cry of the Loon. Many times I have found that authors write a series because that is what is in their writing aresenal and basically that is all. They try to step outside of their "other" literary world and somehow there is something missing or only the names have been changed to protect the secret that "this is all I have". This is so not true with this author.

I read Tremolo's Cry of the Loon just before this story. There was a past innocence with it and adolescent coming of age that I was sure would just be repeated in Healey's Cave. In a way it was in the "flashbacks" that were an integral part of the story but it was in support of what was happening today. It instilled in the reader a bittersweet ache for times gone by that is shared by the protagonist. The author writes in a way that coaxes out memories, feelings and an association with times gone by that I have not found any other author able to accomplish with such perfection.

The darkness in this book is a bit darker than the young Gus series but I believe that it would not offend the lovers of cozy style wrting. I look forward to reading more "Moore" mysteries in Terror Comes Knocking and For Keeps to be released in 2012 and will now go to the next Lazar book waiting in the wings on my kindle. His writing is so satisfying I plan on reading all his books available on my kindle before switching to another author.

Mr. Lazar, I also look forward to Double Forte and Upstaged to come to kindle from the LeGarde series.

Also, BTW, I also would like you or Sam to come for a visit to help with my garden. Please call!!

;>

Healey's Cave

Loved the book. Just read the last chapter. I was crying in the scene where the childhood friends are in attendance at Billy's funeral. It was hard to read through tears. -:) Great mystery and suspense, well-written. Beautifully descriptive, the characters were real, dialogue totally believable, exciting action and at the same time, insightful and thought-provoking. I'll put a brief review on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and also Barnes and Noble. I knew you had to be a gardener even before I read your bio. I couldn't write about flowers like you do. Wonderful.


I just read Aaron Lazar's Healey's Cave and I loved it. Edge of the chair stuff. I enjoy reading in bed, and I kept putting it down to go to sleep and picking it back up again, telling myself I'd read 'just one more chapter'. The suspense builds slowly but surely, and the mystery is sustained until the end of the book, which comes as a shocker. I challenge you to guess who the killer is. But the book is more than a thriller: the dialogue is so believeable, the description and sensory detail so strong you feel like you are right there, in the story. The characters are real. You care about them. You will love baby Timmy, and you just know the author has grandchildren, and is also a gardener, even before you read the bio at the story's end.

He really knows how to draw on the reader's emotions. At one point in the book, I was wiping my tears away. Some of the scenes with the boyhood friends reminded me of Stephen King's 'The Body'. You may be more familiar with the film 'Stand by Me' adapted from the story. I can easily see Healey's Cave as a movie. I recommend this book highly. I'll be reading more of Mr. Lazar's books.

With the introduction of his newest series, Sam Moore Mysteries, Aaron Lazar has given his many fans another cause for rejoicing. I've just finished reading Healey's Cave which so engrossed me on a busy traveling holiday that it commanded every free second.

Sam Moore, the protagonist, is a just-retired small town family doctor, loving husband, devoted grandfather, avid gardener, and enthusiastic chef. On his first morning of retirement Moore sets out before breakfast determined to eradicate the 12-foot high invasive Japanese Knot wood "jungle" threatening to overtake his gardens and unearths a cloudy green marble known as a cat's-eye. The marble reminds him of those his younger brother Billy and he played with as children. Fifty years earlier, Billy mysteriously disappeared on his 11th birthday. The marble exerts a strange pull on Moore's psyche, alarming him with strange experiences as he starts to plum the questions surrounding his brother's disappearance Might the marble have been Billy's, he wonders. Was Billy really dead? Was he a victim of a serial killer that had been murdering 11-year-old boys every five years? Was Moore's own grandson the next victim? Or was Billy still alive and trying to reach him?

Lazar has aptly named this mystery Healey's Cave, for its pages hold many a surprise tunnel and twisted turn. The warm portrayal of Moore's love for his family, the insights into the MS that crippled his wife and the details of his work in gardens rife with blooms and in kitchens redolent with scent bring to this mystery a dimension of humanity I found very appealing. Lazar has woven an intriguing tapestry of secrets that kept me guessing until the end. I look forward to the next in the series and more of Lazar's writing.

A deep black cover with a haunting image of a cave invites the reader into this slightly paranormal mystery about surprisingly genuine and normal people. Healey's Cave by Aaron Paul Lazar tells of a local doctor just entering retirement, looking forward to working on the land round his childhood home. The place holds plants with weeds that threaten to overcome, and memories with sorrows that threaten to destroy them all.

When Sam was twelve, his eleven-year-old brother disappeared. Sam never came to terms with the loss, always feeling like an outsider, left behind and alone, till he fell in love and married the beautiful Rachel. These days Rachel's dealing with losses of her own as her health fails. But delightful grandchildren lighten the couple's days and give meaning to the future. Till Sam finds a marble and falls into memories and fear.

The mystery of Sam's loss blends with the scents of a summer's day barbeque and the sound of friends laughing over drinks. The joy of the present blends with guilt from the past and fear of the future. Suspicion falls on friend and foe alike, and the marble glows.

The prose is lyrical, the dialog just right, the characters intriguing, and the sense of present and past times very real. A pleasing mystery, easily read and comfortably satisfying, Healey's Cave brings cozy mystery to the great outdoors of the Genesee valley and the smoky feel of a camp-fire tale.



Disclosure: I read this as a judge in the mystery section of the Dan Poynter Global eBook Awards