Alternate Cover Edition for this ASIN B00EP0UQEQ can be found here and here
Jessica Norton is a woman on the run, a sensational lead item on the nightly news, accused of the murders of four staff members of a U.S. Senator. Jon Harper is a grieving father whose life has crumbled over the death of his young daughter. When Jon picks up Jess hitchhiking on a deserted Texas highway one rainy night, it pitches him into the middle of a massive conspiracy, one that threatens the very future of the United States. From having nothing to live for, Jon suddenly finds himself the protector of someone with everything to live for, someone desperate to uncover the conspiracy that has ruined her life. Staying two steps ahead of the police, and barely one step ahead of the powerful organization that wants Jess dead, Jon discovers that Jess is harboring a secret of her own, a strange inner "voice" providing cryptic clues for them to follow. Part political thriller and part chase novel, Wisdom Spring takes readers on a fast-paced, suspenseful ride along the highways of the U.S. and Canada, into the far reaches of the Alaskan wilderness. Along the way, the two unlikely heroes transition from helpless prey into proficient hunters as the mysterious clues eventually lead them to a violent final confrontation with corrupt forces at the highest levels of government.
Andrew Cunningham is an Amazon bestselling author of 22 novels, including The Alaska Thrillers (Wisdom Spring,Nowhere Alone,The 7th Passenger, and Lost Passage); the "Lies" Mystery Series (All Lies,Fatal Lies,Vegas Lies,Secrets & Lies,Blood Lies,Buried Lies,Sea of Lies, and Maui Lies); the terrorist/disaster thriller Deadly Shore; the Yestertime Time Travel Series (Yestertime,The Yestertime Effect,The Yestertime Warning, and The Yestertime Shift); and the post-apocalyptic Eden Rising Series (Eden Rising,Eden Lost,Eden's Legacy,Eden’s Survival, and Eden's Fury). As A.R. Cunningham, he has written a series of 5 humorous children's mysteries in the Arthur MacArthur series for middle-readers. Formerly an interpreter for the deaf, an independent bookseller, and a freelance writer and copy editor, Andrew was a long-time resident of Cape Cod. He and his wife now live in Florida. Visit his website at www.arcnovels.com, and his Facebook Page (Author Andrew Cunningham).
This is a great political and conspiracy thriller. I got it Free from Amazon, but you can read it FREE on KU. It mostly takes place in Alaska.... beautiful Alaska. In today’s world on political upheaval, I don’t know what other word I can use, this certainly is a great book to read and ponder on. ‘The Voice’ at first kind of threw me for a loop, but I, like Joe, finally ‘got it’, and you will have to read and find out what I’m talking about. For your romantics out there... yes.. there’s a romance that happens also which will warm your heart. Oh... you have a little bit of everything.... Ukraine, training camps of young children, killings everywhere taking place everywhere. Why did I give it 5 stars? Well, it was fairly easy to understand even with quite a few players, it really hit home with our present day political scene and made me stop and wonder... could this really happen, or has it already happened? My favorite character was Max and his running mate Slopp. Goodread no matter what your political party is.... and this book doesn’t even go into who belongs to what party very much. The main person actually had belonged to all 3 at one time or another!
Frankly, I don't know why I even finished this book. Yes, there were plenty of twists and turns, yes, the good prevailed over the bad... No, it didn't end as I expected. But seriously, the plot was so completely outlandish as to be more of a joke than a possible reality! Do conspiracies exist? Of course? Are our leaders corrupt? A lot of them. Maybe I would have rated this book two stars if I had actually read it instead of listening to the audiobook. The narrator really just didn't cut it for me. No attempt a voice changes (so much so that at times it was questionable as to whom the voice belonged to), no feeling, curt, clipped words... Sorry folks, I just can't give this one more than one star. Hope someone else can enjoy it more than I did.
I somehow stumbled across this book. I had never heard of it, and to be honest, from the title I would probably not have given it a second thought, except for the write-up. I read a sample of it on Amazon, and I immediately downloaded it. I was completely hooked as soon as I found out the reason Jess was running - This is my kind of story and I loved it! It was different from the mysteries I normally read and very interesting - a conspiracy story that's not too hard to follow. I will be purchasing Deadly Shore by the same author shortly.
As in all of Andrew Cunningham books you take a trip that you have no ideal were it will go. As always you are thrown into the story at the first word and hooked. In this one a father thinking he be helping daughter uses a new drug for cancer but does not work and she dies. His wife divorced him. he looses his job and everyone turns against him. He takes off to figure what he needs to do but in the back of his mind he considered killing himself. The next main character is Jess who is on the run from everything and everyone due to being accused of murdering four friends. And the final character is a voice who seems to guide her, correct her and help her solve problems. Put these three characters together and you have the perfect murder, assassination and the will and attempt to over throw the government mystery ! I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did.
After reading this for a bit I checked the author’s information because I thought maybe this was a debut novel. It is not.
The story idea is good, but the conversations don’t flow and conversations wrap up all the information into a neat little bow, usually a single sentence to wrap up all the information needed immediately. It leaves almost nothing to the imagination because every little questionable circumstance leads into a character describing all the details in the next conversation. Even when the characters are confronted with difficult choices they go about them and then describe their crimes to anyone who will listen. It becomes wholly unbelievable pretty quickly, which is a shame because the story idea is one that would keep my interest.
Jon Harper picked up hitchhiker Jess Norton on a lonely stretch of road in Texas and their lives changed forever.
Jon had buried his daughter. His wife had filed for divorce. And he was contemplating suicide.
Jess had been a researcher for a popular U.S. Senator and was on the run, after being accused of killing four of her workmates. And she hears a Voice in her head that no one else can hear.
Now Jon and Jess have found each other and, as they travel from Texas north to Alaska, they are on the trail of one of the biggest conspiracies in U.S. history and they're leaving a trail of bodies behind them.
I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller with a paranormal touch. It was kind of way out there but it's fiction so that's allowed.
The romance is predictable, but I like Jon and Jess. The "voice" is integral to the story, but it's totally unrealistic. The conspiracy isn't all that believable, either. Given enough suspension of disbelief, this is a well told story with plenty of suspense.
Greg Hernandez's performance leaves much to be desired. He makes virtually no distinction between character voices. Also, his timing and phrasing is sometimes a little off.
NOTE: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for this unbiased review.
Our story begins in Boston after a horrible tragedy has occurred in our main character Jon's life. The story is told in first person from Jon's viewpoint. I don't want to actually give any clues to the story because it is full of surprises and the plot is different and often intense. The pacing is good and I was interested in Jon and the other characters he encountered and what would become of them. There is conspiracy, emotional angst, a bit of romance, "voices" and suspense, plus traveling through lots of states in the country. There's one brief sex scene that I skimmed since I prefer such things to be private, but otherwise a good read.
This book has been sitting in my kindle library for honestly who knows how long. My husband picked it out for me to read and I was not disappointed!
This is a mystery/thriller of political conspiracies, death with elements of supernatural. I really enjoyed it. It kept me engaged from the first page and it was easy to finish it quickly!
The conspiracy is so entwined and intricate that you never know who exactly is at the top or even who knows what, and the fact that the FMC does most of the investigating was excellent!
This book displayed a violent side of terrorism inside our government. It made me scared while reading it, that it could happen today. We must fight for freedom and truth like the heroine Jessica did in this story.
I had read Andrew Cunningham and loved a couple of his Lies Series I happened upon, and just yesterday finished reading that entire series in order - what a rush! This series, at present only two deep, involves the exploits of a pair of Harper brothers, Jon, a married man and father living in Boston, and Scott, two years younger, in Alaska. Jon accidentally kills his cancer-ridden teenaged daughter with the injection of an experimental drug, and picks up a hitchhiker on his way to his brother Scott's place in Homer to mourn Karen and await the divorce papers. Hitchhiker Jess has her own problems, which will soon enfold them all in a political conspiracy with worldwide repercussions. It's rather hard to hide in Homer, Alaska when involved in a worldwide conspiracy. It does help that Scott has a little old for-hire Piper Airplane and a retired police dog named Sam. Gonna be another very interesting ride, folks. You will want to climb aboard. (The Alaska Thrillers Series Book 1) REVIEWED on March 4, 2024, at Goodreads, AmazonSmile, Barnes&Noble and BookBub. Not available for review on Kobo.
I've read all Cunningham's books that are available on Kindle format and I have loved and enjoyed all but this one. I have made the assumption that this may be we his first book. It has a good storyline, but suffers from a lack of proper proofing and attention to detail.
His later books have improved a lot. But this one was only passable at best.
It started out promisingly, but I think that the supernatural (paranormal?!) aspect was so strange to have in a book that could absolutely have been a brilliant one without it. It feels like a story that would do better as a film than a book. The conspiracy as well seemed far-fetched and the end was just such a quick one... tied up too conveniently. Such looooong passages of explanation 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
"...conspiracies within conspiracies. The worst kind of corruption. Corruption that could have a lasting effect on this country. The scary part? I almost bought into it. In fact," she looked away, "I did buy into it." [Chapter 3]
This is a political thriller, a mystery with the intrigue and evil of conspiracies and their profound effect woven throughout. It was published in 2013, well before the conspiracies/conspiracy theory in politics and deep-pocketed business interests that have mad the news since 2016. Wow! But it's a novel. I found it to be a compelling theme, and I appreciated the excellent writing of this fast-paced story.
The novel hooks the reader on page 1, and clues to the mystery are dropped along the way—making for fun reading! The plot is thought provoking. It’s written in first person and third person. Yes, I recommend this one to those who enjoy this genre, strong 4.5 stars.
Characters: Jon Harper, Jessica Norton, Scott Harper, Joe Gray, Mill Colson, Gary Hillstrom, Ben Fremont, Mel “Hutch” Hutchinson, Corbin Mays
This is the first book I’ve read by this author. Cunningham is a great storyteller who set the story convincingly in different scenes on a road trip from Massachusetts to Alaska – surprising, since he’s actually English! I look forward to reading more by this author.
Far Fetched Enjoyable and entertaining. A thriller, action filled, as two fugitives are chased across the country looking for evidence to clear their names and discovering a major clandestine organisation that has infiltrated the government and is poised to take over the presidency.
Jon is a successful salesman who has inadvertently killed his terminally sick daughter by injecting an unapproved drug, Jess is an unassuming research assistant accused of killing her co-workers. Jon agrees to help Jess who is also being guided by a ghostly voice only she can hear.
The story flows between action, close escapes and deadly fights. Their journey takes them to Alaska where they unite with underground militia and there is a grand finale to take down the bad guys.
The use of 'voice from the dead' and unbelievably incompetent bad guys are poor literary devices and it seems shameful that they are used; the existence of detailed historical records in an abandoned mine was also very unsatisfactory. The two main characters transition from mild mannered unassuming office workers to serial killers; and despite the trail of bodies, the good guys murder with impunity and without police investigation.
This author was recommended to me by a great friend-turned author, Mike Slavin, for our monthly thriller book club. This book is truly scary, because it seems highly plausible of evil players in business and government. Thoe story moves very fast, with lots of twists and turns. The protagonist, is flawed, and at the emotional bottom, with his daughter’s death who he at least partially caused, he lost his job, his wife is divorcing him. And Cunningham utilizes one of the most imaginative plot device since THE SIXTH SENSE. As Jon, the distraught father is contemplating suicide, he ends up “rescuing” Jess – not realizing he is going to tracked, and framed, and targeted for assignation The duo goes across the US, Canada, and into Alaska – generally just a step ahead of bad guys who are trying to kill them both. This book is a real page turner, and very hard to put down before the last page. The characters are very interesting, and well developed, and the reader ends up caring a lot about Jon and Jess. This is certainly the best thriller I have read in the pat year.
Wow, wow, wow. This novel is a read that keeps you up right from the 1st page till the last page. Thriller in every sense. Jon is fed up of his life after his daughter's death and currently from his wifes's divorce suit. He is on the road in his car not knowing where to go and still uncertain of his life. He finds a lady by name Jess on the road and accepts to give her a drop. He asks her as to why she's on the road in the middle of the night. She says that she was dropped off by another person when she said that she HEARS FROM THE DEAD. From theren Jon & Jess exchange their life stories. However the story of Jess gets Jon intrigued and he's ready to kill anyone who comes in the way of Jess. Jess's story reveals a very big conspiracy that can be very detrimental to America. What's the story? Why is Jess running off? What's Jon going to do? Read this goos bump thriller to find out.
There were several times that I had to set the book down and walk away.
The story is interesting.
The love relationship is so hoaky and juvenile that it was hard to buy in to and made me not want to read anymore. The main character was just not believable to me. They meet, they kill for each other, they fall in love and get messages from the dead. Wait. What?
Once they get to Alaska, I enjoyed the brother and the former cia agent much more. I also enjoyed the Ollie gang.
And then it all just kind of crumbled and was solved in one swoop. While I enjoyed the ending, I find it hard to believe that a group that had a special grooming school for 40years where they also trained assassins didn’t have good enough people to avoid the setup at the quarry.
Bottom line, I enjoyed the story enough to finish it. But hated the way the love relationship was portrayed, loved the Alaskan brother and his pose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The premise is interesting. I especially appreciate the development I’m seeing from Jess, but the writing suffers from telling. As the reader, I’m really deep in Jon’s thoughts, and sometimes it takes away from physical reactions, or from what’s happening outside of Jon’s head.
This book gets more entertaining the further you go into it. That being said, it takes a minute to get into it. I almost DNF’ed it at one point, but there is a lot of action in the second half of the book. The second half is very fast-paced, almost to the point where you can’t keep track of the twists and turns, but you have to be able to do the work to get to that point.
I’m not sure how I feel about the romance. It’s very clear Jon and Jess are meant to be a romantic couple, but there are moments where Jon compares Jess to his late daughter, and it makes the relationship appear more parental than romantic.
It was the title that pulled me in on this one. Ok, ok and the price. Wow it turned out to be a jewel of a find. Normally I don’t care for a political storyline. The beginnings gave no inkling the author was headed that way. Once he turned down that road, I was hooked for the ride. The character development is excellent. I knew them. I liked them. Oh and Max the dog, on a mission himself that one was. A very endearing and genius addition in the story was the paranormal character of “The Voice.”
This book received The Seal of Good Writing Award. It’s easy to see why. Cunningham's writing allowed me to “see” the story as a movie in my mind. That's the mark of a good writer. Alaska in all its splendor took on a characterization unto itself. So then, a very interesting, enjoyable tale with a beautifully orchestrated ending indeed. I highly recommended this book.
Five Stars for the original story line, which made for a well-paced, exciting and entertaining novel. Kudos to the author for his skilled writing, not to mention excellent character development, including that of the dogs and the remote areas of Alaska. This novel had it all: murder, mystery, action, suspense, sort of serial killings, conspiracies, paranormal experiences and a soupçon of romance. Add to that an uncomfortably realistic corruption scheme which brings to mind the current political situation in the US. Re: the Audible edition, I sometimes had problems figuring out which character was speaking, so when three or more characters were together, I had to switch to reading Kindle. That made the narrator annoying, so I knocked off a star for the Audible review.
This is a true page-turner. Jon,distraught about his daughter's death, contemplates suicide. A divorce and loss of his job drives him to escape reality. Where would he go but to visit his brother in A!aska? That is if he doesn't use the gun he brought with him first. Along the way he picks up a hitchhiker, Jess, who seems to have just as many problems. When they become targets of not only the authorities but shadow figures who want them dead, a journey by car across the country becomes a seemingly impossible cat and mouse chase. Before long their trek draws national attention further putting them in jeopardy and stressing them to the max. Once they finally reach their destination trouble doubles down bringing a gaggle of professional killers bent on ending their existence. Help is on the way but will it be enough and will it be in time?
More truths are revealed in fictional story telling…over the centuries. I found this thriller/novel to be intriguing, entertaining and well-written, all while potentially enlightening other readers to the realities of the world we live in and the challenges to saving humanity. It also touches on the spiritual connectiveness we have with each other when we discover our full capabilities. Farfetched or not, the plot thickens and holds you captive till the end. With wonderful character development, twists and turns and thought provoking content no one should be disappointed – I highly recommend this book, in fact, I am already reading another novel by Andrew Cunningham…I am grateful I had this opportunity to read and review Wisdom Spring both honestly and voluntarily.
A Powerful Organization that Attempts to Control Everything in the US
I’ve previously read the five Lies Mystery Series by Andrew Cunningham and enjoyed them immensely but Wisdom Spring is by far his best work. It is thrilling and timely with the Trump Administration’s emasculating many of America’s important Institutions such as the EPA. Like his Lies Mysteries, the main male character is not a very remarkable or happy person that is given new life and grows exponentially through his interaction with the heroine. The heroines in both the Wisdom Spring Book and the Lies Series are rather unremarkable women but after the encounter with pure evil they become fearless adversaries.
Another book that is hard to put down and puts the reader constantly on edge.
This was my first exposure to this author. Although distant from the genres I usually read, this was a great book. I read to allow myself to escape current events-by focusing in on a book, the things going on in my life seem to “balance” their order of importance-all without my conscious effort. The plot twists, excellent character development and real life places well represented all create the need to keep reading till the end. When I finish a book, be it 3 in the afternoon or 3 am, my batteries feel recharged, I can see what really matters and what is unimportant in my life. That peace is a gift from a talented author and a good read. I highly recommend this book and now it is time to look at the author’s other works!
Luck dictates much of how our lives turn out. Or is it actually serendipity in some cases? There’s a lot of luck and serendipity in Wisdom Spring. But it results in an absorbing plot line throughout, even though disbelief must be suspended on a number of occasions. But that’s an element of many excellent books and movies. The story compels the reader to move quickly through to see what will happen next. It’s a love story wrapped in a fast-paced, and often violent, thriller and mystery. Characters are interestingly drawn and the fact that a good deal of the story is set in the beautiful wilds of Alaska adds an element most readers will like. Cunningham knows well how to invent and tell a story well worth reading.
What a refreshing, enjoyable experience. Good storyline, good pace & an actual end to the story rather than a cliffhanger. How shocking is that?! Just that... A logical end to the story. All loose ends tied up. Mind you, the events written about were pretty unbelievable, but I was able to suspend disbelief & just enjoy the book. This makes me want to see what else the author has to offer, instead of alienating the reader with an egregious, unending series of cliffhangers. It's apparent that a stand alone book can capture new readers & tempt them to buy more.
Another thing: kudos to the author for apparently hiring a real proofreader & a real editor. I found very few gaffes.