The Late Night Call A Samantha Leary Short Story
A late-night call shatters Samantha Leary’s sleep. A woman has reported rape, and Samantha must step into the darkness to witness a story that demands truth.https://wearewisethinkers.com/2026/03/16/the-late-night-call-a-samantha-leary-short-story/
Unravel The Gordian Knot, a gripping crime thriller full of mystery, suspense, and sharp detective work that keeps you hooked to the last page.
🔗 davidthomasthegordianknot.com/book/
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Unravel The Gordian Knot — a gripping crime thriller of mystery, suspense, and relentless pursuit. Dive into this intense detective story today.
🔗 davidthomasthegordianknot.com/book/
#CrimeThriller #MysteryNovel #SuspenseReads #DetectiveFiction #TheGordianKnot #DavidOThomas #BookRecommendation
Explore Underground Crime Network — a gripping crime thriller of hidden worlds, intense suspense, and detectives battling secrets beneath the surface.
🔗 davidstewartbooks.com/underground-crime-network/
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Dive into The Gordian Knot, a gripping crime thriller from David O. Thomas about detectives chasing a relentless killer with heart, grit, and suspense at every turn.
🔗 davidthomasthegordianknot.com/book/
#CrimeThriller #MysteryNovel #PoliceProcedural #DetectiveFiction #BookRecommendation #TheGordianKnot #DavidOThomas
ICYMI
Blunt Force Kharma
In a colonized world ripe for corporate development, Kelly Kharma is a private investigator struggling to make ends meet. Her former police training and disregard for rules sets her apart from the pack, allowing her to help those who can't find it in the system.
But as her relentless search for justice continues, Kelly may find something more than just the truth - a chance to redeem her own soul damaged from past mistakes.
Blunt Force Kharma is a tense and thrilling urban sci-fi noir collection of stories that will leave readers on the edge of their seat. If you enjoyed Blade Runner or Altered Carbon, you'll love this book.
Explore Jeanne Riedel Books — home of Murder Most Deadly, thrilling mysteries full of twists, secrets and unforgettable characters. Read more: https://www.jeanneriedelbooks.com/ #JeanneRiedel
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The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld
”That was the thing about the butterflies. They could be kind when Celia felt bitter. They could encompass all the beauty of this world even when the skies smarted gray”
Rene Denfeld, “The Butterfly Girl”
I was only a few paragraphs into the first chapter when I knew, without question, that I had discovered an extraordinary book. Rene Denfeld’s “The Butterfly Girl” could only have been written by someone who had experienced what her characters endured, the profound sense of the loneliness, the fear, and the delicate hope that keeps her character’s alive. “The Butterfly Girl” is not just a story. It is a revelation of what happens when imagination becomes a means of survival.
The Butterfly Girl by Rene DenfeldAt the heart of the novel is Naomi, a private investigator with a haunted past who is searching for her missing sister. Her path crosses with Celia, a twelve-year-old runaway living on the streets of Portland, Oregon. Through these two intertwined stories, Rene Denfeld explores what it means to be lost and what it means to be found. She allows readers to feel the restlessness of those who search. Naomi for her sister and Celia for safety. Beneath the surface of the mystery, there is a deeper story about endurance. How stories, even imagined ones, keep us alive when the world feels too hard to face. The novel moves between danger and tenderness, grief and renewal, with a quiet current of hope running beneath the darkness.
The butterflies of the title are more than a symbol; they are a saving grace. They represent transformation and the capacity to change, to lift out of darkness, to find beauty in the midst of struggle. Their wings carry both vulnerability and strength.
What impressed me most about “The Butterfly Girl” was Rene Denfeld’s ability to enter the mind of a child, not through sentimentality, but through truth. She understands that imagination is not a retreat from reality but a way of surviving it. She does not romanticize the children’s lives, yet she never strips them of dignity. Her gaze is steady, respectful, and filled with compassion, her words come from a place that only lived empathy can bring. She enters the mind of a child not to dramatize pain, but to show how imagination, that fragile, shimmering thread, can hold life together when everything else falls away.
The contrast between the “street people” and the “day people” was a brilliant way to describe the gulf between children on the street and people who move through their routines, caring about the world but often unable to look directly at its deepest suffering. It is difficult to face issues of homelessness, addiction, lost childhoods, especially when there does not appear to be way to help.
“no matter how hard she tried, she could remember nothing more of her past. Terror had wiped her memory clean.”
René Denfeld, “The Butterfly Girl”
Rene Denfeld is an American author and investigator who has worked extensively with victims of trauma, including survivors of violence and those on death row. She has also served as a therapeutic foster mother. Her life’s work, which transforms her own hardships into compassion for others, gives her fiction its unmistakable authenticity. She has an ability to make these children visible, not as symbols, but as individuals with dreams, humour, and astonishing courage. They form their own communities, caring for one another when the world does not.
“The Butterfly Girl” is not an easy book to read, but it is an essential one. It reminds us that seeing is an act of love, and that the imagination is humanity’s greatest refuge. Reading “The Butterfly Girl” reminded me that awareness is not enough. Compassion must begin with respect. And respect begins with truly seeing.
Until the next page turns, may your days be filled with warmth, wonder, and a good story to share.
Rebecca
Postscript: Rene Denfeld is the award-winning, bestselling author of four novels: “The Enchanted” (2014), “The Child Finder” (2017), “The Butterfly Girl” (2019), and “Sleeping Giants” (2024). Her writing has been praised by Margaret Atwood as “astonishing.”
Her forthcoming literary thriller, “The Talking Bone”, will be published in July 2026 by HarperCollins. Inspired by her own justice work as a death row investigator, it promises to continue her exploration of trauma, truth, and redemption.
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