Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "thrillers"
Book Review: The Guns of Bridgewood: A Western of Modern America by Aaron Cooley
For readers who might wonder how I’ve been able to post so many reviews this month, the answer is simple.
I wrote up some of these reviews back in 2016 before the titles went up at Amazon. So these reviews have been sitting in my files until the book’s publication. Like this one:
The Guns of Bridgewood: A Western of Modern America
Aaron Cooley
Publisher: Melnore Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2017)
Publication Date: January 19, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01N5N3MDE
https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Ridgewood...
Aaron Cooley’s new novel opens with this dedication:
“This book is supposed to be at its heart a novel about three daughters;
and so I dedicate it to my own, Beatrix Hope.”
This dedication might suggest three daughters would be major players in the story, but as two of them are dead, one is disabled and unable to speak due to gun violence, they serve more as inspirations for the action, not living participants in it.
However, the subtitle is a strong signal of what will happen. The story is indeed a modern Western, featuring central character Clayton “Sour” Manco, a former FBI agent who dislikes guns. He was drummed out of the bureau under a cloud, but is drawn again into hunting violent killers by Congressman Homer Blunt. As a result, Manco is a literary descendent of all those legendary gunfighters who seek to put their pasts behind them but become enmeshed in the need to fall back on their old deadly skills against their will.
In this modern setting, Blunt wants Manco to hunt down and kill three assassins who’ve murdered three fellow congressional representatives for, at first, unknown reasons. Blunt’s head of security, Jill Creete, is assigned the task of being Manco’s shadow. She too lost her former employment in the government under her own cloud and doesn’t think much of Manco until he shows off his investigative chops.
The story is full of such psychologically wounded warriors, especially the trio of assassins with murderous vengeance coursing through their veins. To reveal what their motives are would be a spoiler, but I will say two dead school girls are very much at the heart of their anger. I will also note the irony of their using gun violence to react to what they perceive is a lack of gun control and any willingness by our leaders to restrict access to guns.
Cooley is especially good at drawing complex character portraits with none of his characters portrayed as simple black-and-white figures of good or evil. Most are very dark indeed, no matter what side of the law they are on. In particular, his anti-hero, Manco, is able to see the flaws in Blunt and the reasoning of his quarry despite their bloodlust.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading two previous Cooley novels, the Bond homage, Shaken, Not Stirred, and part of his Supreme Court legal saga, Four Seats: The Full Docket. While I have no quibbles with his previous work, I do think The Guns of Bridgewood is more sharply drawn with a richer depth in his characters. It’s also easy to see his script-writing experience as this novel unfolds like it belongs on screen.
I think the novel is a fine way for Aaron Cooley to begin 2017. It’s thought-provoking and an obvious leap forward in one novelist’s development.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan 17, 2017:
goo.gl/CzeEnf
I wrote up some of these reviews back in 2016 before the titles went up at Amazon. So these reviews have been sitting in my files until the book’s publication. Like this one:
The Guns of Bridgewood: A Western of Modern America
Aaron Cooley
Publisher: Melnore Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2017)
Publication Date: January 19, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01N5N3MDE
https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Ridgewood...
Aaron Cooley’s new novel opens with this dedication:
“This book is supposed to be at its heart a novel about three daughters;
and so I dedicate it to my own, Beatrix Hope.”
This dedication might suggest three daughters would be major players in the story, but as two of them are dead, one is disabled and unable to speak due to gun violence, they serve more as inspirations for the action, not living participants in it.
However, the subtitle is a strong signal of what will happen. The story is indeed a modern Western, featuring central character Clayton “Sour” Manco, a former FBI agent who dislikes guns. He was drummed out of the bureau under a cloud, but is drawn again into hunting violent killers by Congressman Homer Blunt. As a result, Manco is a literary descendent of all those legendary gunfighters who seek to put their pasts behind them but become enmeshed in the need to fall back on their old deadly skills against their will.
In this modern setting, Blunt wants Manco to hunt down and kill three assassins who’ve murdered three fellow congressional representatives for, at first, unknown reasons. Blunt’s head of security, Jill Creete, is assigned the task of being Manco’s shadow. She too lost her former employment in the government under her own cloud and doesn’t think much of Manco until he shows off his investigative chops.
The story is full of such psychologically wounded warriors, especially the trio of assassins with murderous vengeance coursing through their veins. To reveal what their motives are would be a spoiler, but I will say two dead school girls are very much at the heart of their anger. I will also note the irony of their using gun violence to react to what they perceive is a lack of gun control and any willingness by our leaders to restrict access to guns.
Cooley is especially good at drawing complex character portraits with none of his characters portrayed as simple black-and-white figures of good or evil. Most are very dark indeed, no matter what side of the law they are on. In particular, his anti-hero, Manco, is able to see the flaws in Blunt and the reasoning of his quarry despite their bloodlust.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading two previous Cooley novels, the Bond homage, Shaken, Not Stirred, and part of his Supreme Court legal saga, Four Seats: The Full Docket. While I have no quibbles with his previous work, I do think The Guns of Bridgewood is more sharply drawn with a richer depth in his characters. It’s also easy to see his script-writing experience as this novel unfolds like it belongs on screen.
I think the novel is a fine way for Aaron Cooley to begin 2017. It’s thought-provoking and an obvious leap forward in one novelist’s development.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan 17, 2017:
goo.gl/CzeEnf
Book Review: Blood Run (Emma Caldridge Series Book 5) by Jamie Freveletti
Book Review: Blood Run (Emma Caldridge Series Book 5) by Jamie Freveletti
Blood Run (Emma Caldridge Series Book 5)
Jamie Freveletti
Print Length: 297 pages
Publisher: Calexia Press (November 14, 2017)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B076NLBB5F
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076NLBB5F/...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Emma Caldridge, a bio-chemist and international ultramarathon runner, debuted in Jamie Freveletti’s 2009 Running from the Devil. Thereafter, the character has starred in the thrillers Running Dark, The Ninth Day, Dead Asleep, and the three-part novella, Risk (4.1), Gone (4.2), and Run (4.3). Along the way, Freveletti was commissioned by the Robert Ludlum estate to contribute two outings in the Covert-One franchise, The Janus Reprisal (2012) and The Geneva Strategy (2015).
Now, Caldridge returns in Blood Run where she’s invited by billionaire CEO Jackson Rand on a humanitarian mission to deliver vaccines to refugees in Africa. But two weeks into the mission Emma, Rand, and his secretary are ambushed on the road to Dakar by a band of assassins. In short order, Emma learns about vials of live smallpox virus a ruthless African government wants to buy as biological weapons. Another group of insurgents kidnaps an expedition of U.S. diplomats. Yes, all this is a rather complicated set-up—and this is just the beginning of the story.
For help, Emma calls Edward Banner, a defense contractor, even as her party learns they are surrounded on four sides by deadly insurgent armies wanting to kidnap any Westerners and make it impossible for them to break through to Dakar. Aiding camps of refugees, Emma enrages the insurgents who want to maintain the illegal practice of slavery. So trapped in the West African Sahara Desert, Emma and her allies must look for some means of escape, protect the vials of smallpox germs, rescue the kidnapped diplomats, help what refugees they can, and simply survive with minimal supplies and limited weaponry.
Aficionados of such international thrillers should expect a certain number of familiar tropes in these stories. For one, settings should be exotic and vividly painted, and Freveletti is excellent in providing her readers detailed descriptions of locales and the natural enviorenment. Often, there’s a deadly virus or disease involved in these novels, and smallpox is but one element in this story. The action must be fast and furious, and that’s certainly the case in Blood Run. Some “techno-thrillers” revolve around cutting-edge weaponry or surveillance devices, but Blood Run is exactly the opposite of all that. What matters here is how quick thinking and resourceful Caldridge is, not to mention the talents of the rest of her compatriots. For example, her restrained, sort of love interest, sharpshooter and drug agent Cameron Sumner, is an ideal partner as the pair take out a small fleet of heavily armed insurgents using, of all things, explosives built into cars and trucks that set off airbags.
Emma’s trademark ability is running, and run she does for long distances in the arid desert despite little water or food for sustenance. This is the one aspect of our heroine that pumps in a thread of originality into the proceedings. Of course, originality isn’t the point but rather how engrossed a reader can get in the story line as it opens up from beginning to end. If you’re a fan of this genre, you may find Jamie Freveletti is a surprisingly pleasant scribe of hot adventures that don’t require fantasticaly armed ships or mind-bobbling computers.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Oct. 30, 2017 at:
http://dpli.ir/FDqFjj
Blood Run (Emma Caldridge Series Book 5)
Jamie Freveletti
Print Length: 297 pages
Publisher: Calexia Press (November 14, 2017)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B076NLBB5F
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076NLBB5F/...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Emma Caldridge, a bio-chemist and international ultramarathon runner, debuted in Jamie Freveletti’s 2009 Running from the Devil. Thereafter, the character has starred in the thrillers Running Dark, The Ninth Day, Dead Asleep, and the three-part novella, Risk (4.1), Gone (4.2), and Run (4.3). Along the way, Freveletti was commissioned by the Robert Ludlum estate to contribute two outings in the Covert-One franchise, The Janus Reprisal (2012) and The Geneva Strategy (2015).
Now, Caldridge returns in Blood Run where she’s invited by billionaire CEO Jackson Rand on a humanitarian mission to deliver vaccines to refugees in Africa. But two weeks into the mission Emma, Rand, and his secretary are ambushed on the road to Dakar by a band of assassins. In short order, Emma learns about vials of live smallpox virus a ruthless African government wants to buy as biological weapons. Another group of insurgents kidnaps an expedition of U.S. diplomats. Yes, all this is a rather complicated set-up—and this is just the beginning of the story.
For help, Emma calls Edward Banner, a defense contractor, even as her party learns they are surrounded on four sides by deadly insurgent armies wanting to kidnap any Westerners and make it impossible for them to break through to Dakar. Aiding camps of refugees, Emma enrages the insurgents who want to maintain the illegal practice of slavery. So trapped in the West African Sahara Desert, Emma and her allies must look for some means of escape, protect the vials of smallpox germs, rescue the kidnapped diplomats, help what refugees they can, and simply survive with minimal supplies and limited weaponry.
Aficionados of such international thrillers should expect a certain number of familiar tropes in these stories. For one, settings should be exotic and vividly painted, and Freveletti is excellent in providing her readers detailed descriptions of locales and the natural enviorenment. Often, there’s a deadly virus or disease involved in these novels, and smallpox is but one element in this story. The action must be fast and furious, and that’s certainly the case in Blood Run. Some “techno-thrillers” revolve around cutting-edge weaponry or surveillance devices, but Blood Run is exactly the opposite of all that. What matters here is how quick thinking and resourceful Caldridge is, not to mention the talents of the rest of her compatriots. For example, her restrained, sort of love interest, sharpshooter and drug agent Cameron Sumner, is an ideal partner as the pair take out a small fleet of heavily armed insurgents using, of all things, explosives built into cars and trucks that set off airbags.
Emma’s trademark ability is running, and run she does for long distances in the arid desert despite little water or food for sustenance. This is the one aspect of our heroine that pumps in a thread of originality into the proceedings. Of course, originality isn’t the point but rather how engrossed a reader can get in the story line as it opens up from beginning to end. If you’re a fan of this genre, you may find Jamie Freveletti is a surprisingly pleasant scribe of hot adventures that don’t require fantasticaly armed ships or mind-bobbling computers.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Oct. 30, 2017 at:
http://dpli.ir/FDqFjj
Book Review: Bitten by Alan Moore
Bitten
Alan Moore
Paperback: 440 pages
Publisher: Independently published (February 7, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1980200890
ISBN-13: 978-1980200895
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Bitten is one of those novels that’s very difficult to try to pigeonhole. Yes, it’s dystopian in that it’s set in the future when the consequences of global warming are affecting the earth. But much of the story has absolutely nothing to do with any normal science fiction trope. True, many passages can be best classified as horror. Others are best defined as belonging to the thriller genre. In short, many of the plot lines take us to places and down roads no reader could predict. I think that’s a good thing.
One major character is ecologist Claudia Mattioli, one of the world’s most important experts on mosquitoes. That’s a key role to play as climate change has produced a horrifying increase in the size and potency of all species of mosquitoes. Bearing all manner of deadly and incapacitating diseases, they’re attacking humans and animals in swarms that are eating up flesh in major cities all over Italy. At first, Claudia’s job is to gather samples of the types of mosquitoes in various regions before she’s asked to come up with a plan to eradicate them. Problem: Claudia doesn’t think humans should declare war on mosquitoes but rather find a way to live with them.
Claudia’s much older lover is New York publisher and editor Scott Lee who wants to make a deal to produce high-quality art books of Italian painters. As author Moore spent twenty-five years as a publisher and considering many of the pleasures Lee enjoys in Bitten, it’s hard not to wonder if Lee’s experiences are a bit of wish-fulfillment for his creator. Whatever the case, Lee is on hand with Claudia threw a series of shocking adventures, including a human-set fire that destroys much of Venice. That’s before Lee is tempted to go over to the dark side by the alluring femme fatale, Francesca Maruichi.
A third important player is Lee’s friend, Lawrence Spencer, an Italian intelligence officer using the cover of being an art expert. He’s called on by the Mafia in Florence to certify whether or not a certain painting reputedly by Raphael is genuine or not. After all, the criminals are very familiar with the black market, arms smuggling, sales of plutonium to Iran, but not art reportedly stolen in World War II by the Russians. An ongoing mystery involves those who have the painting wanting to set up a silent auction without anyone actually seeing the merchandise before the stolen art is stolen again.
So what has all this intrigue in the art world have to do with climate change and the theme Moore tells us is the important purpose of his book, that of demonstrating how nature will have revenge on humanity in response to thousands of years of poor stewardship of the planet? Are mosquito swarms but the opening shots of Mother Nature giving humanity fair warning of what she can do?
I can’t answer that. I can say I was continually kept interested in the various plot twists and turns because of the engaging, well-sketched characters, the vividly described settings, and the surprises at the end of many of the passages. That sometimes-kinky wish fulfillment Scott, Claudia, and Francesca enjoy is a bonus for, at least, male readers until the kinkiness goes a bit over the edge. One genre Bitten doesn’t fit in is YA.
In addition, Moore adds verisimilitude with an obvious familiarity with colorful Italian cities, the process of authenticating Renaissance paintings, and gives his science credibility by occasionally referring us to the two non-fiction appendices at the end. Bitten is a book for readers who like the unexpected and who don’t need their stories defined by a particular genre. It’s a page-turner with Moore keeping reader interest with a fast pace and all the ingredients spelled out above.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on March 1, 2018:
https://waa.ai/zp53
Alan Moore
Paperback: 440 pages
Publisher: Independently published (February 7, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1980200890
ISBN-13: 978-1980200895
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Bitten is one of those novels that’s very difficult to try to pigeonhole. Yes, it’s dystopian in that it’s set in the future when the consequences of global warming are affecting the earth. But much of the story has absolutely nothing to do with any normal science fiction trope. True, many passages can be best classified as horror. Others are best defined as belonging to the thriller genre. In short, many of the plot lines take us to places and down roads no reader could predict. I think that’s a good thing.
One major character is ecologist Claudia Mattioli, one of the world’s most important experts on mosquitoes. That’s a key role to play as climate change has produced a horrifying increase in the size and potency of all species of mosquitoes. Bearing all manner of deadly and incapacitating diseases, they’re attacking humans and animals in swarms that are eating up flesh in major cities all over Italy. At first, Claudia’s job is to gather samples of the types of mosquitoes in various regions before she’s asked to come up with a plan to eradicate them. Problem: Claudia doesn’t think humans should declare war on mosquitoes but rather find a way to live with them.
Claudia’s much older lover is New York publisher and editor Scott Lee who wants to make a deal to produce high-quality art books of Italian painters. As author Moore spent twenty-five years as a publisher and considering many of the pleasures Lee enjoys in Bitten, it’s hard not to wonder if Lee’s experiences are a bit of wish-fulfillment for his creator. Whatever the case, Lee is on hand with Claudia threw a series of shocking adventures, including a human-set fire that destroys much of Venice. That’s before Lee is tempted to go over to the dark side by the alluring femme fatale, Francesca Maruichi.
A third important player is Lee’s friend, Lawrence Spencer, an Italian intelligence officer using the cover of being an art expert. He’s called on by the Mafia in Florence to certify whether or not a certain painting reputedly by Raphael is genuine or not. After all, the criminals are very familiar with the black market, arms smuggling, sales of plutonium to Iran, but not art reportedly stolen in World War II by the Russians. An ongoing mystery involves those who have the painting wanting to set up a silent auction without anyone actually seeing the merchandise before the stolen art is stolen again.
So what has all this intrigue in the art world have to do with climate change and the theme Moore tells us is the important purpose of his book, that of demonstrating how nature will have revenge on humanity in response to thousands of years of poor stewardship of the planet? Are mosquito swarms but the opening shots of Mother Nature giving humanity fair warning of what she can do?
I can’t answer that. I can say I was continually kept interested in the various plot twists and turns because of the engaging, well-sketched characters, the vividly described settings, and the surprises at the end of many of the passages. That sometimes-kinky wish fulfillment Scott, Claudia, and Francesca enjoy is a bonus for, at least, male readers until the kinkiness goes a bit over the edge. One genre Bitten doesn’t fit in is YA.
In addition, Moore adds verisimilitude with an obvious familiarity with colorful Italian cities, the process of authenticating Renaissance paintings, and gives his science credibility by occasionally referring us to the two non-fiction appendices at the end. Bitten is a book for readers who like the unexpected and who don’t need their stories defined by a particular genre. It’s a page-turner with Moore keeping reader interest with a fast pace and all the ingredients spelled out above.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on March 1, 2018:
https://waa.ai/zp53
Book Review: December's Soldiers by Marvin Tyson
December’s Soldiers
Marvin Tyson
Defiance Press & Publishing
Release date: May 14, 2018
ISBN-10:1941948035065
ISBN-13: 978-1948035064
https://www.amazon.com/Decembers-Sold...
It should be no surprise that December’s Soldiers was published by Defiance Press this year. Not only does the house champion Texas writers, but a month before they issued Marvin Tyson’s fictional account of what might happen after Texas secedes from the U.S., they published Daniel Miller’s non-fiction Texit: Why and How Texas Will Leave the Union.
Tyson’s new sequel to his 2015 Fall of the Western Empire opens when an ex-president of the U.S. is drawn into a scheme by a group of rich Chinese underworld figures who will take care of his massive gambling debts if he’ll help ignite a war between the U.S. and the newly created Republic of Texas. They hope such a war would distract all eyes from their planned takeover of all the crude oil leases in Texas.
Ex-president Jackson isn’t the only political leader working for the Chinese. An important senator and the Attorney General are also mixed up in the plot. Opposing them are the presidents of the U.S. and Texas who want a smooth transition for Texas from statehood to independence. A more than capable group of Texas investigators try to connect the dots between troublemakers in Texas and Washington, the leaders of the conspiracy, and the Chinese bosses. And that takes some risky and deadly doing.
The stakes couldn’t be higher in this fast-paced tale of political intrigue. Both Texas and the U.S. are called on to help out Europe in its current economic crisis, the U.N. is concerned about any potential war, and a number of states in the American heartland announce they wish to follow Texas’s lead and secede from the union. The U.S. government says that simply can’t happen.
The rich well of main and supporting players includes the movers and shakers at the top of the political heaps as well as the investigators in the trenches who engage in gunfights and prison escapes in their quest to avert any larger wars. As a result, Tyson has us in locations in or near Austin, Texas and Washington. as well as important scenes set in Macau, China, and the mountains of Kurdistan. In short, Tyson paints a large canvas that isn’t confined within the borders of Texas.
December’s Soldiers is a thriller that should appeal to readers well beyond those interested in any potential Texas secession. It’s, in part, a page-turner of an espionage tale as well as a layered and very believable political thriller. It’s refreshing to meet so many positive political leaders in a story with no shortage of optimism.
I have to admit—I have no idea what the title means. I can’t connect it with anything I read. For now, consider December’s Soldiers a hot summer read for hot summer nights.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 1, 2018
https://waa.ai/am61
Marvin Tyson
Defiance Press & Publishing
Release date: May 14, 2018
ISBN-10:1941948035065
ISBN-13: 978-1948035064
https://www.amazon.com/Decembers-Sold...
It should be no surprise that December’s Soldiers was published by Defiance Press this year. Not only does the house champion Texas writers, but a month before they issued Marvin Tyson’s fictional account of what might happen after Texas secedes from the U.S., they published Daniel Miller’s non-fiction Texit: Why and How Texas Will Leave the Union.
Tyson’s new sequel to his 2015 Fall of the Western Empire opens when an ex-president of the U.S. is drawn into a scheme by a group of rich Chinese underworld figures who will take care of his massive gambling debts if he’ll help ignite a war between the U.S. and the newly created Republic of Texas. They hope such a war would distract all eyes from their planned takeover of all the crude oil leases in Texas.
Ex-president Jackson isn’t the only political leader working for the Chinese. An important senator and the Attorney General are also mixed up in the plot. Opposing them are the presidents of the U.S. and Texas who want a smooth transition for Texas from statehood to independence. A more than capable group of Texas investigators try to connect the dots between troublemakers in Texas and Washington, the leaders of the conspiracy, and the Chinese bosses. And that takes some risky and deadly doing.
The stakes couldn’t be higher in this fast-paced tale of political intrigue. Both Texas and the U.S. are called on to help out Europe in its current economic crisis, the U.N. is concerned about any potential war, and a number of states in the American heartland announce they wish to follow Texas’s lead and secede from the union. The U.S. government says that simply can’t happen.
The rich well of main and supporting players includes the movers and shakers at the top of the political heaps as well as the investigators in the trenches who engage in gunfights and prison escapes in their quest to avert any larger wars. As a result, Tyson has us in locations in or near Austin, Texas and Washington. as well as important scenes set in Macau, China, and the mountains of Kurdistan. In short, Tyson paints a large canvas that isn’t confined within the borders of Texas.
December’s Soldiers is a thriller that should appeal to readers well beyond those interested in any potential Texas secession. It’s, in part, a page-turner of an espionage tale as well as a layered and very believable political thriller. It’s refreshing to meet so many positive political leaders in a story with no shortage of optimism.
I have to admit—I have no idea what the title means. I can’t connect it with anything I read. For now, consider December’s Soldiers a hot summer read for hot summer nights.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 1, 2018
https://waa.ai/am61
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“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
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