What do you think?
Rate this book
Levant Mirage
Levant Mirage exposes more than fifteen hundred years of religious turmoil. The world faces a grim choice–submit to the demands of terrorists or face mass obliteration. Adam Michaels, son of a jet-setting mother and a heroic Syrian father is exonerated for his part in the bloodiest day of America’s longest war. Yet when he returns home, neither forgiveness nor understanding greet him. His ambitious and politically connected wife files for divorce, a conspiracy in the halls of the Pentagon places a target on his back, and a Broadway actress falls in love.
When a top secret PhD dissertation is inexplicably declassified, Adam becomes the most hated man in the terrorist’s world. Believing he alone holds the key to thwart a theocratic society of subjugation, a splinter group of ISIS attempts to kidnap or at the very least, kill him.
With a billion lives in the balance as the planet crumbles, Adam makes a choice that few understand and fewer will forgive. Nations collapse under the weight of suspicion. Economies face ruin and a clock threatening to reset by a thousand years. Countries close their doors to isolate an America fighting wars on multiple fronts leaving only the people willing to sacrifice their lives and treasure to stop the madness.
When a top secret PhD dissertation is inexplicably declassified, Adam becomes the most hated man in the terrorist’s world. Believing he alone holds the key to thwart a theocratic society of subjugation, a splinter group of ISIS attempts to kidnap or at the very least, kill him.
With a billion lives in the balance as the planet crumbles, Adam makes a choice that few understand and fewer will forgive. Nations collapse under the weight of suspicion. Economies face ruin and a clock threatening to reset by a thousand years. Countries close their doors to isolate an America fighting wars on multiple fronts leaving only the people willing to sacrifice their lives and treasure to stop the madness.
ebook
First published October 15, 2015
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Oliver F. Chase
11 books12 followersNever tell a hormone-infused college kid that he cheated on a take-home exam. That’s what happened to Oliver F. Chase at a small college in central Florida. The essay was pretty innocuous and easy but his grades before were dismal. The fix was in, or so believed the professor. Oliver was promptly awarded a D and given a stern warning with no appeal. The next semester, he chose the same professor, took the same take-home exam (in the classroom this time), and earned an ‘A’ in thirty minutes. He didn’t give a wit about the subject but was out to prove something.
Oliver graduated and would be able to fly, which was really all he ever wanted. The war was on and the Marines offered a way. He took it. Some five years later, Oliver was a vet with a Distinguished Flying Cross and a long list of combat missions – even a couple in that dark, secret world of political deniability. In his opinion, he was only trying to get out of a bad situation in one piece. The Marines saw it differently. Seemed like a pattern was emerging.
Oliver spent five years in a police department working narcotics and SWAT, and the next 22 in the FBI. In all these years, he never stopped writing. Publishing, however, was not an option. Way too many complications and compromises, and besides, rebel streaks only go so far in the FBI. Times are different now and even though old loyalties and friendships will never go away, no one is watching over his shoulder.
Oliver F. Chase and his wife eschewed the exotic and chose instead a small farm along the Gulf Coast near New Orleans. There he finds great flying weather for his little Grumman Tiger, friendly neighbors with difficult accents - although he may have the accent now, fifteen chickens, neighborhood dogs, and a host of barn cats that all share his space. “Life has never been more interesting,” he contends, as he sneaks away to that little room full of memories and imagination.
Oliver graduated and would be able to fly, which was really all he ever wanted. The war was on and the Marines offered a way. He took it. Some five years later, Oliver was a vet with a Distinguished Flying Cross and a long list of combat missions – even a couple in that dark, secret world of political deniability. In his opinion, he was only trying to get out of a bad situation in one piece. The Marines saw it differently. Seemed like a pattern was emerging.
Oliver spent five years in a police department working narcotics and SWAT, and the next 22 in the FBI. In all these years, he never stopped writing. Publishing, however, was not an option. Way too many complications and compromises, and besides, rebel streaks only go so far in the FBI. Times are different now and even though old loyalties and friendships will never go away, no one is watching over his shoulder.
Oliver F. Chase and his wife eschewed the exotic and chose instead a small farm along the Gulf Coast near New Orleans. There he finds great flying weather for his little Grumman Tiger, friendly neighbors with difficult accents - although he may have the accent now, fifteen chickens, neighborhood dogs, and a host of barn cats that all share his space. “Life has never been more interesting,” he contends, as he sneaks away to that little room full of memories and imagination.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 15, 2015
I received a copy of this book for an honest review and I'm glad I did. After having read it, I almost want to send him a check.
Levant Mirage takes snapshots from the headlines of the past few years to build a character and combines it with frighteningly realistic levant miragepossibilities to give a story you pray never happens.
35 year old U.S. Army Major Adam Michaels is no James Bond, nor did he ever set out to be. What is he? He’s a man who rejects the easy path that being the heir to a shipping empire gives him in order to join the military, serve his country, and be a father. Right, no money other than what he makes as a Major in the Army. You don’t see jet flying, limousine riding, womanizing and all of that. I would trade in the 10 year old Corolla for something a little better though. Tap into the trust fund already.
Finding himself used as a scapegoat for a foreign relations nightmare, Michaels works out his days in the Pentagon pushing papers, and paying alimony, child support and the mortgage on his rising political star ex-wife’s house. You see the everyday life to some extent leading up to the changes in life the military can throw at you. You don’t control you in the Army. And there are times when that twists the guts out of Michaels.
Michaels is of a dubious parentage, with his father not being who he thought he was, but upon finding out explains a great deal. This in part leads to his choice of path in life. He wants to be his own man. He doesn’t want to be identified with a past that isn’t really what he thought it was.
But part of that past comes back in one night and changes a quiet world into a search to find the defense against a missile guidance system he created that is now in the hands of terrorists. Which terrorists? Who is the enemy? You won’t believe it. Or you will believe it but be surprised.
The believability of Levant Mirage is what makes it so freakin’ scary at times. Perhaps the guidance system isn’t real, or I hope it’s not. But I’m sure there is something like it out there. The enemy Michaels must fight against is out of this world. If he fails, billions die. If he succeeds?
Chase writes with detail and a knowledge base that gives the story realism. You are able to submerse yourself into Levant Mirage and you don’t get pulled out by oddities and unbelievable scenes. Some scenes are high energy and amped up, but still possible.
Being honest, the amount of detail is incredible at times and I could have done with a little less of the technological speak, but it doesn’t take away from the story. In truth, it adds the believability—you don’t have these leaps from action to intellect in the span of a few seconds. Okay, maybe you do but for a whole different reason, but I’m not giving those parts away. Ah, that does remind me of one scene that did cause me pause and have to reread in order to get it clear. In part, that was due to the surprise of those involved.
I enjoyed the handling of the terrorists. As you read you’ll develop ideas but never get to comfortable, you never know what is going to happen next, who is going to happen, or what the truth is until it’s almost too late. But there are clues along the way.
RECOMMENDATION
I would recommend Levant Mirage to those who like believable action thrillers. Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt and other NUMA series books come to mind, but not that fantastical or off the charts. Where Cussler takes you over the edge of believability at times, Chase keeps you here on earth and scares the life out of you with reality you can find in your neighbors living room.
Levant Mirage takes snapshots from the headlines of the past few years to build a character and combines it with frighteningly realistic levant miragepossibilities to give a story you pray never happens.
35 year old U.S. Army Major Adam Michaels is no James Bond, nor did he ever set out to be. What is he? He’s a man who rejects the easy path that being the heir to a shipping empire gives him in order to join the military, serve his country, and be a father. Right, no money other than what he makes as a Major in the Army. You don’t see jet flying, limousine riding, womanizing and all of that. I would trade in the 10 year old Corolla for something a little better though. Tap into the trust fund already.
Finding himself used as a scapegoat for a foreign relations nightmare, Michaels works out his days in the Pentagon pushing papers, and paying alimony, child support and the mortgage on his rising political star ex-wife’s house. You see the everyday life to some extent leading up to the changes in life the military can throw at you. You don’t control you in the Army. And there are times when that twists the guts out of Michaels.
Michaels is of a dubious parentage, with his father not being who he thought he was, but upon finding out explains a great deal. This in part leads to his choice of path in life. He wants to be his own man. He doesn’t want to be identified with a past that isn’t really what he thought it was.
But part of that past comes back in one night and changes a quiet world into a search to find the defense against a missile guidance system he created that is now in the hands of terrorists. Which terrorists? Who is the enemy? You won’t believe it. Or you will believe it but be surprised.
The believability of Levant Mirage is what makes it so freakin’ scary at times. Perhaps the guidance system isn’t real, or I hope it’s not. But I’m sure there is something like it out there. The enemy Michaels must fight against is out of this world. If he fails, billions die. If he succeeds?
Chase writes with detail and a knowledge base that gives the story realism. You are able to submerse yourself into Levant Mirage and you don’t get pulled out by oddities and unbelievable scenes. Some scenes are high energy and amped up, but still possible.
Being honest, the amount of detail is incredible at times and I could have done with a little less of the technological speak, but it doesn’t take away from the story. In truth, it adds the believability—you don’t have these leaps from action to intellect in the span of a few seconds. Okay, maybe you do but for a whole different reason, but I’m not giving those parts away. Ah, that does remind me of one scene that did cause me pause and have to reread in order to get it clear. In part, that was due to the surprise of those involved.
I enjoyed the handling of the terrorists. As you read you’ll develop ideas but never get to comfortable, you never know what is going to happen next, who is going to happen, or what the truth is until it’s almost too late. But there are clues along the way.
RECOMMENDATION
I would recommend Levant Mirage to those who like believable action thrillers. Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt and other NUMA series books come to mind, but not that fantastical or off the charts. Where Cussler takes you over the edge of believability at times, Chase keeps you here on earth and scares the life out of you with reality you can find in your neighbors living room.
February 3, 2016
A few months back Oliver shot me an email. I had given his previous book, Marsh Island, an honest and fair review. He asked if I would be interested in giving his new book a read, and possibly reviewing it for him. At the time, I had given up reviewing books, but since I had reviewed his book once, I thought why not. I replied that I would be interested and sent me a copy of his newest novel, Levant Mirage.
The book follows Adam Michaels, a Major in the Army, who after an incident on the battlefield sees his once promising career derailed as punishment. It’s not until an attempted kidnapping that his career is mysteriously rehabilitated, he’s promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, then summarily retired and sent on an undercover assignment, all stemming from a Ph.D. dissertation he worked on some ten years prior. His question is why?
He is thrust into a world of intrigue, of betrayals and half-truths, a world where he forced to survive by his skill, and blind luck. His life is put at risk, not knowing what’s truly at stake since those in the know refuse to tell him the whole story. He finds colleagues murdered, sees one assassinated in front of him. He soon uncovers the horrible truth, of a terrorist plot to use his technology to bring about the end of civilization as we know it.
Michaels is in a race to save America and mankind from a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. He turns to his grandfather, a titan of industry, and familial friends to assist him, not knowing who else to trust. The normal rules of government and diplomacy no longer apply, so he enlists his former commander, a new representative in Congress to circumvent normal procedures. With annihilation closing, he puts everything on the line as he puts his last ditch effort to save humanity, battling traitors and saboteurs unknown, risking everything, including his life.
But will it be enough?
At first, I’ll admit, I had a hard time following what the story was about. Military and political intrigue, to be sure, but so what? Sure, there was a love interest thrown in to complicate the issue, but it would become clear what the story was about.
Levant Mirage is a story of its time. Oliver F. Chase wrote a timely novel of religious and political upheaval, of groups that would pervert the name of God in order to usher in their vision of the apocalypse and the world. There’s also the element of how the political game is played, a government that doesn’t trust itself, of various agencies holding on to secrets that threaten America’s survival, incapable of doing anything else but follow an obsolete protocol, to its own detriment.
At its center is the protagonist, whose research has been hijacked in order to create a world-ending weapon, and therefore is the only man who can save the world. As such, he becomes a target of terrorist groups and governments seek to destroy the west, especially Christianity and the democratic powers.
It’s a scenario that’s all too real given our time in history. There’s no lack of men and women who become radicalized and take up the anti-democracy mantel to betray their fellow countrymen. It’s a story that’s all too often on the evening news as of late.
While the book is a work of fiction, there’s enough truth that it is in a way a warning, that our freedom and our lives hang precariously in the balance. With this in mind, I absolutely recommend this book to all my readers. It’s gripping, chilling in its delivery, and leaves the reader on the edge of their seats, needing to know what comes next, and how the world could possibly survive.
I mean, from what I read, I’m sure I’d be dead, but I won’t hold it against the author. I just hope it remains a work of fiction.
http://joehinojosa.com/book-review/
The book follows Adam Michaels, a Major in the Army, who after an incident on the battlefield sees his once promising career derailed as punishment. It’s not until an attempted kidnapping that his career is mysteriously rehabilitated, he’s promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, then summarily retired and sent on an undercover assignment, all stemming from a Ph.D. dissertation he worked on some ten years prior. His question is why?
He is thrust into a world of intrigue, of betrayals and half-truths, a world where he forced to survive by his skill, and blind luck. His life is put at risk, not knowing what’s truly at stake since those in the know refuse to tell him the whole story. He finds colleagues murdered, sees one assassinated in front of him. He soon uncovers the horrible truth, of a terrorist plot to use his technology to bring about the end of civilization as we know it.
Michaels is in a race to save America and mankind from a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. He turns to his grandfather, a titan of industry, and familial friends to assist him, not knowing who else to trust. The normal rules of government and diplomacy no longer apply, so he enlists his former commander, a new representative in Congress to circumvent normal procedures. With annihilation closing, he puts everything on the line as he puts his last ditch effort to save humanity, battling traitors and saboteurs unknown, risking everything, including his life.
But will it be enough?
At first, I’ll admit, I had a hard time following what the story was about. Military and political intrigue, to be sure, but so what? Sure, there was a love interest thrown in to complicate the issue, but it would become clear what the story was about.
Levant Mirage is a story of its time. Oliver F. Chase wrote a timely novel of religious and political upheaval, of groups that would pervert the name of God in order to usher in their vision of the apocalypse and the world. There’s also the element of how the political game is played, a government that doesn’t trust itself, of various agencies holding on to secrets that threaten America’s survival, incapable of doing anything else but follow an obsolete protocol, to its own detriment.
At its center is the protagonist, whose research has been hijacked in order to create a world-ending weapon, and therefore is the only man who can save the world. As such, he becomes a target of terrorist groups and governments seek to destroy the west, especially Christianity and the democratic powers.
It’s a scenario that’s all too real given our time in history. There’s no lack of men and women who become radicalized and take up the anti-democracy mantel to betray their fellow countrymen. It’s a story that’s all too often on the evening news as of late.
While the book is a work of fiction, there’s enough truth that it is in a way a warning, that our freedom and our lives hang precariously in the balance. With this in mind, I absolutely recommend this book to all my readers. It’s gripping, chilling in its delivery, and leaves the reader on the edge of their seats, needing to know what comes next, and how the world could possibly survive.
I mean, from what I read, I’m sure I’d be dead, but I won’t hold it against the author. I just hope it remains a work of fiction.
http://joehinojosa.com/book-review/
November 2, 2015
An Imaginative and fun read!
I took the thrill ride and was captivated by the action that unfolded in the first pages. Chase's latest is an all encompassing military techno thriller that has no bounds. The characters are engaging and true to life and the extraordinary plot line moves at a pace that will keep you hanging on by your fingernails.
Army Major Adam Michaels is a combat veteran with a tainted record relegated to an unfulfilling position as a staff officer in the Pentagon. That is until a cyber attack on a top secret program opens old wounds. Michaels is in the unique position to leverage the relationships built on a PhD dissertation he'd nearly forgotten about. He's also a man with the distinction of having been bred in a family of wealth and means along with a sour relationship with his father and a cold war with an ex-wife. The one bright light in Adam's life is his commitment to do his best by his daughter. These are the resources he draws on to thwart an adversary intent on establishing a global caliphate that will drive civilization back several centuries.
Not to blow all the fun, but anyone vaguely interested in space operations and orbital mechanics will be really impressed with how the author incorporates an asteroid in a nearby orbit as a main player in the story's climax. For me, the best part of a thriller is the build up of suspense and Levant Mirage does just that, the suspense builds all the way to the last pages. Oliver Chase has hit his stride. Now that I've discovered my new "go-to" author for fast paced adventure and suspense, I can't wait to read Chase's next release.
I took the thrill ride and was captivated by the action that unfolded in the first pages. Chase's latest is an all encompassing military techno thriller that has no bounds. The characters are engaging and true to life and the extraordinary plot line moves at a pace that will keep you hanging on by your fingernails.
Army Major Adam Michaels is a combat veteran with a tainted record relegated to an unfulfilling position as a staff officer in the Pentagon. That is until a cyber attack on a top secret program opens old wounds. Michaels is in the unique position to leverage the relationships built on a PhD dissertation he'd nearly forgotten about. He's also a man with the distinction of having been bred in a family of wealth and means along with a sour relationship with his father and a cold war with an ex-wife. The one bright light in Adam's life is his commitment to do his best by his daughter. These are the resources he draws on to thwart an adversary intent on establishing a global caliphate that will drive civilization back several centuries.
Not to blow all the fun, but anyone vaguely interested in space operations and orbital mechanics will be really impressed with how the author incorporates an asteroid in a nearby orbit as a main player in the story's climax. For me, the best part of a thriller is the build up of suspense and Levant Mirage does just that, the suspense builds all the way to the last pages. Oliver Chase has hit his stride. Now that I've discovered my new "go-to" author for fast paced adventure and suspense, I can't wait to read Chase's next release.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews