The Widow and the Warrior Reviews

MWSA Review
by Valerie Ormond (February 2024)

Author John Wemlinger’s The Widow and the Warrior takes readers on a thrilling ride from Washington, D.C., to Michigan and through the deep south. The story keeps readers on the edge of their seats, not sure where the next hit will come from. With a cast of both likeable and remarkably unlikeable characters, the plot includes interesting and unexpected twists that keep the pages turning.

A family mystery, a large inheritance, and political intrigue come together to bring out the best and the worst of people in this story. Old and new military and intelligence alliances deepen to help pinpoint players across the country involved in an elaborate scheme for power and control. The author has some of his characters act in unpredictable ways, which keeps readers guessing throughout. I highly recommend this suspenseful military and political thriller.

Michigan in Books Review
by Tom Powers 

Anna Shane is the national political editor for the Washington Post and is busier than a hamster on a treadwheel trying to keep up with a President that seems to thrive on chaos and sets policy and runs the country via Twitter. But Anna's life is about to change forever when her mother dies and she returns to Frankfort, Michigan to bury her. She meets with her mother's attorney and to her surprise learns the lawyer's sole client was her mother and she died a billionaire. That is not the only surprise in store for Anna in Wemlinger's hopelessly addictive and immensely readable novel.

The author has boldly woven a novel that combines elements of a variety of genres. It is family history with a dark past, a political thriller, and the rise of armed militias that could have been ripped from recent Michigan headlines. If that's not enough to keep you frantically turning pages there's the contract killer hired to keep Anna from getting her mother's money, Anna learns who her father was, and finally, there is the moving plight of families' who lost loved ones in Iraq and Afganistan and a noble plan to help them. After all the above, be ready for a jaw-dropping twist in the last few pages. This novel is the literary equivalent of dipping a spoon in a memorable bouillabaisse.

A hallmark of any Wemlinger novel is the creation of believable and interesting characters, even the minor ones are well-drawn and attention-grabbing individuals. Once again John Wemlinger has demonstrated that he is one of Michigan's most under-rated and under-appreciated authors. His last two novels are on my own personal list of Michigan Notable Books.