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Literary Masters, Inc.
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                         a division of  Brand Masters, Inc.     100 Croatan Road     Hertford, NC     27944
                             
The Starfish People
Author:                           Leann Marshall

Paperback:                                306 pages
List Price:                $17.95

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Synopsis:
Mike Lot served twenty-nine years for murdering the one
he loved “more than anything,” yet even now, Ruby has not
relinquished her hold on him. Something sinister threatens
her, even in death, and he will never be free of the past until
he can find a way to help her. But first he must find her lost
spirit. His search leads him from a backwoods dowser to a
small-town P.I. to a dying young artist, and culminates in a
psychic battle on the brink of hell itself.

Part mystery, part supernatural thriller, The Rendering
above all is a quest driven by love that rewards both Mike
and the reader with a poignant message of hope.
Best of Fall 2009

A great story well told:

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 and hearts 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 (flowers) 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
towns person 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.*****__Barbara
Milbourn
Love and the power of fantasy:

While waiting for my car to be inspected, I
decided to finish the final chapters of this
great piece of imagination. My decision was a
good one because my focus was to stay
involved in the final sweep of events. I wanted
to see how this writer could pull a love story
all together . . . not on my impending negative
inspection report. Of course, I was somewhat
distracted, a bit, by an exotic, absorbed young
woman in the waiting area who had activated
an impressive laptop. Toyota the comparison
because I saw a connection between one
person, alive, solving a business solution, and
another woman, a writer with the ability to
grant life to major characters - empowering
them to alter events that can and should be
altered. Today's technology will do that with
the right hookups with the right person at the
right time. Oh, by the way, our Toyota passed
with flying colors, as did The Rendering!
*****__ John Casey
The inspired new writing of an
accomplished author:

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 Amazon, I asked for a
copy wherein I encountered these great
passages about the "aura phenomenon,"
which I accept as those "electrical pulses"
emanating from all of us that most people
believe to be our "souls." I am not as familiar
with the definition of the many colors, but I
am very aware of the influence of auras. 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