Independent Website Honors Author Donan Berg with Firsts

 Independent website www.authorsden.com honored Author Donan Berg on May 12, 2021 with four top most popular ratings for four of his novels.

More than a week later on May 20, 2021, the most popular novels, yes, the top six in reader appeal at www.authorsden.com are written by Author Donan Berg.  They include the below listed four.  Find the Girl, A Fantasy Novel, has been a top pick since April 16. A Body To Bones, his debut paperback novel that recently joined the e-book ranks, like cream, has risen to the top. 

Top fantasy - Find the Girl, A Fantasy Novel

Top mystery/suspense - Into the Dark

Top action/thriller - Aria's Bayou Child

Top romance - Alexa's Gold (Author Berg's Abbey Burning Love earned a second.)

Click here to Find Donan Berg novels .

In a statement, Author Donan Berg said he couldn't be prouder of his readers. "They are the most important persons," he said.  "Honors are fantastic, but the underpinning is to write for the enjoyment of readers. That, in all humility, is best. To be a part in a win/win spurs my passion to write even better."

After his statement, word was received that a new five-star review has been issued into the literature world. Read a review of Aria's Bayou Child, A Thriller at www.featheredquill.com.

Five-star review of Donan Berg's novel Into the Dark

A Complex Mystery That Keeps You Guessing

Very late in Donan Berg's  exciting crime mystery Into the Dark, a line metaphorically serves as emblematic of our protagonist's quest for what often appears to be the murkiest of truths: "His weakened flashlight batteries strained to illuminate the unknown."

From the exciting opening, Donan Berg's Into the Dark relentlessly builds a thrilling mystery centering around election tampering, a stack of money, a counterfeiting operation, and a dead body. In order to reveal the truth, Sheriff Jonas McHugh finds himself compulsively returning to a rustic cabin with hidden compartments and trap doors and to a cave that is the source of more than its share of secrets and disturbing activity. As Jonas simultaneously investigates the money and counterfeiting issues, the election fraud angle, and the death of operative Ed Telling, the reader follows along; plot threads first complicate and then eventually align to great satisfaction.

Methodically and doggedly, Jonas edges toward insight. "Bonnie's statement of the obvious unleashed within Jonas a mental lightning bolt to illuminate what had been dark." A novel smartly riddled with Biblical quotes and allusions, Into the Dark follows Jonas's journey toward enlightenment, one that paradoxically will send him into a fair share of hellish, subterranean places.

At the heart of the mystery is the beautiful, mercurial Kayla, for whom Jonas possesses contrary feelings of attraction and mistrust. Her presence and Iowa's political environment's home of high-stake caucuses inform the novel with layers of compromised motivations and machinations.

Throughout Berg peppers the story with terse phrasing that echoes Jonas's mindset: "Telling's killer is still free. Bogus bills infest Silver County wallets. Unfed, unclothed teens flood rural roads."

Berg's skillful sorting out Jonas's complicated thoughts as he reaches disturbing conclusions makes Into the Dark a smart, engaging novel.

Michael Hartnett, author of The Blue Rat.