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The Callaghan Septology #1

The Lost Identity Casualties

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Coming out of a coma, Matthias Callaghan finds himself tied to a hospital bed, wrapped in bandages and suffering from amnesia. As he gradually recovers his memory, Callaghan discovers that he – in a case of greed and mistaken identity – has been mutilated and subject to a full face transplant while comatose.
After being released from the hospital, Callaghan spends months in solitary depression using his intelligence to plot revenge on those who have caused him the loss of his identity and former privileged life.
He eventually learns that a full revenge must include the Russian Mafia, a treacherous lawyer named Rathbone, his former business partner Allan, his estranged father and the wife he has recently divorced.

“This is a very captivating novel with a very good plot. The beginning immediately draws the reader into the complex web of mystery that surrounds the situation that Matthias is in. The author has done a lot of careful preparation and planning by researching many technical aspects of the plot and by cross-checking the logistics of Matthias’s different identities and his interrelationships with other characters.” Amazon Editorial Review

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 16, 2014

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Kim Ekemar

58 books7 followers

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
7 reviews1 follower
September 24, 2016
I’m amazed how this author has managed to tie together all story threads, both in a coherent way and with surprising twists. I haven’t read anything by him before, but I can’t wait to start on the second book in the series! Although the main story is about a terrible loss of identity due to the indifference, cruelty and greed of others, I also found other real-world present-day themes included: the trafficking of vulnerable people, Internet scams, illegal immigration, syndicated crime activities and much more. But, most importantly, it’s a psychological portrait of someone who loses his face, his identity and his life. I think his reactions to his fate are very human ones (depression, anger, bitterness, calls for revenge), and he deals with his identity crisis in an intelligent (albeit sometimes morally reprehensible) way as he demands an eye for an eye, etc. (To avoid any spoiler, it will suffice here to mention that his personality changes considerably in the process, which is what makes his character so interesting.)
At the beginning there’s a note that “the spelling is British English”. As an American I had to adjust to what could be perceived as errors, but it wasn’t too hard to get used to it.
As a side comment I found the dialogues between Callaghan and his father, and also with the gangster Flint, quite witty. The Lost Identity Casualties is a fast-paced, clever novel that kept my lamp burning well beyond midnight!
Profile Image for Christeena.
6 reviews
February 3, 2019
Slow read with numerous grammar errors

The preface led me to expect a well-written book. I was greatly disappointed. This book was a slow read for me with numerous grammar errors. Some of the flashbacks to the past provided unnecessary details. Overall, I do not recommend.
Profile Image for Madilynn Dale.
Author 25 books344 followers
August 18, 2016
This book was riddled with grammatical errors and was extremely graphic in how the main character was tortured.
Profile Image for Jan Anderegg.
25 reviews3 followers
June 3, 2019
The Lost Identity Casualties by Kim Ekemar, is a page-turning psychological thriller. Written for the most part in first person narration, it grabs the readers attention from the first page.

The main character is Matthias Callaghan, who awakes to find himself in a terrible physical state, complete with amnesia. He has been brutally attacked and mutilated but unfortunately is unable to remember why.

As he recovers his memory, and his physical health improves, he becomes determined to seek revenge on those responsible for his shocking plight. And seek revenge he does, in some shocking and clever ways.

In the Preface of this first book in the series, the author alludes to the face transplant, and loss of identity Mathias has suffered as a result. The shocking reality of how this situation came about filters back to Matthias, and he begins to plot his revenge, and a pathway to recover some semblance of a normal life.

The plot has incredible twists and turns, and while the reader may recognize some stereotyped bad guys, nothing is boring or dull at all about this novel. It can be quite gruesome in some descriptions.

As we follow Matthias Callaghan into his world of revenge, his multi-faceted personality development continues, and this reader was happy she'd never had reason to cross someone like this protagonist.

What I didn't like about this book: The main character, Matthias Callaghan certainly had every good reason to exact revenge, and most of the people he went after no deserved it without a doubt. But not all of them. I did find him a little difficult to connect with as a character with his eye-for-an-eye, cold-hearted revenge mindset. This might be necessary when dealing with the criminal element, but I felt the author might have considered giving him a little more empathy or compassion when it came to people in his personal life.

I'm not going to deduct any stars from my rating of this book because of my personal beliefs about revenge - which is based on the ancient quote by Confucius; "Before embarking on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."

I found the end of this book quite satisfying. It could easily stand alone, and yet, the author leaves us with an intriguing hook, that left this reader/reviewer quite curious about the next book.

I recommend this book for anyone who likes to read a complex, fast paced, page-turner with plenty of action.

Profile Image for Angela Westmoreland.
10 reviews1 follower
July 27, 2018
What a suprise

I usually don't enjoy loss of memory stories,however this was a suprise ! I must say I got lost in the story and found it very hard to say who was the villain . I will say karma was very busy. I can't wait to go back and read the authors other books!
Profile Image for Joseph Ferguson.
Author 14 books158 followers
December 13, 2015
After Russian mobsters sever his fingers and slash his face, Matthias Callaghan is rushed to a clinic in Switzerland where doctors equip him with prosthetic hands and a face transplant. He then uses the anonymity of his new face to exact revenge on all involved; losing his humanity in the process.
In this first volume of The Callaghan Tetralogy, Ekemar, who penned a number of previous books (The Crimson Blueprints, 2004, etc.) presents a fresh and intriguing take on the Jekyll/Hyde meme. Through an intricate weave of character, circumstance, mistaken identity, and coincidence, Ekemar constructs an engaging and original plotline for this classic theme. Rather than a potion, it is his new persona that changes Callaghan– a face coincidentally transplanted from the corpse of a man out of his wife’s past. The author deftly uses Callaghan’s dry, emotionless voice to characterize the development of his protagonist’s evolving personality. “I entered into a frenzy of activities to execute the plan I’d nurtured during the last months. (121) Early on we see Callaghan is methodical; he even says so numerous times. At the same time, his participation in a credit card scam early in his career suggests a smoldering ember of criminality. Callaghan’s disciplined, systematic approach allows him to track down all the players involved in his abduction and to construct elaborate cons in order to execute retribution. “My motivation was absolute…I wanted to see those who had destroyed my life suffer like I had.” (115) But payback doesn’t end there. He is compelled to bring down peripheral actors such as his former partner in crime Allan, and his ne’er-do-well father, also named Matthias. Even his wife Julia, (at worst a victim of circumstance), must pay. Ekemar plays the diverse elements beautifully. He contrasts past and present chapters in well-thought-out juxtaposition, and incorporates symbolic ideas (which can also serve as plot devices) such as a genetic mutation placing Callaghan hearts on the right side.
This unique, many-layered tale - perfect for those who like new twists on classic ideas - will have readers spoiling for the next installment of the four-book series.
Profile Image for Jennifer Allsbrook.
28 reviews
December 27, 2016
Kim Ekemar's first installment in the Callaghan Tetrology, The Lost Identity Casualties, is a complex tale that follows the aftermath of a catastrophic attack of the story's main character, Matthias Callaghan. This attack led to a face transplant and readers follow Matthias through the psychological and emotional journey that follows. From wishing for death to seeking revenge, Matthias must overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable. Being smart, rich, and daring, Matthias uses his new identity to track down those responsible for his torture and dedicates his energies to the total destruction of anyone who played a part in creating his current reality.

What does Matthias find? Intertwined are the past and present fates of so many characters including his father, his wife, his business partner, the Russian mob and more. The twists and turns of the plot take readers for a surprising ride of suspense and intrigue. As the title implies, there will be casualties, but who exactly will be most affected by Matthias's lost identity?

I enjoyed this story. Readers are introduced to Callaghan as he wakes in the hospital with no memory of what has happened. Ekemar proceeds to string together the required back stories of the people and events that have led to Callaghan's attack. We then get to follow Matthias on his path of discovery and eventual revenge. Along the way, Ekemar drops little gems of wisdom. My favorite is that "...time is the only thing that you live for, and the only thing that kills you. Nothing is forever. (p131)"

Overall, I rate this story 4 out of 5 stars. The story is very complex and there is a large host of characters. The plot required me to reread sections in order to understand the relationships among them. There were some editing issues as well. The story also includes a graphic description of the torture of Matthias Callaghan that some readers could find disturbing. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy surprising plot twists and intrigue.
Profile Image for Zahra Karbelkar.
5 reviews
September 8, 2016
I read all four books of this Tetralogy in one go and I enjoyed it immensely. I don't usually read crime thrillers but this book opened my eyes to a whole new genre.

What happened to Callaghan is horrible. To have ones face, which is so essential to their identity slashed away, and a foreign face transplanted in its place must have had some serious psychological implications. I cannot imagine what I would do if I was in the same position as him. Usually people would choose one of two routes - depression or anger - and it seems like he chose the latter.

The characters in this series are well developed, the story-line is intricate and complex, and there are a lot of characters to remember which may confuse some readers. However, there is a page at the beginning of the book which outlines all the main characters and their roles in the story so that readers may refer here if they get lost.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime thrillers, and those who love to read books full of action and drama.
Profile Image for Vier (Ri).
81 reviews22 followers
March 30, 2020
This review first appeared on and was written for OnlineBookClub.org. It has been trimmed here and the rating has been adjusted for a 5-star system, which is more common.

Kim Ekemar's The Lost Identity Casualties was too painful to read but even more painful to finish. First of all, this book was all about revenge. There were gory and violent scenes that called for proper trigger warnings. And if my memory serves me right, there were none.

Second, it was downright sexist. This book is dripping with testosterone and sure, there were a few women in the story but all of them were merely shadows.

I honestly am very generous when it comes to ratings but this one crossed the line more than once and I am so curious how this book even won an award. I should have known better than to finish it but I did commit in writing a review so here we are.
Profile Image for Allison A.
304 reviews5 followers
September 28, 2018
Good time filler...

This was a decent read. Don't read the intro though, it is off-putting because the author comes across as surly. You certainly don't like any of the characters introduced in this novella and that makes it a little tough to get into the story. You don't emotionally invest in anyone because they are all jerks, more or less.
Author 5 books14 followers
June 7, 2021
The Lost Identity Casualties begins with the stirring of an unidentified man. He is in the hospital, face and hands wrapped in bandages, unable to remember himself and what happened to him. As his recollections return, both of his life, Matthias Callaghan, and the events which have maimed him, we read a man's cold fury turn to plotting revenge.

It is difficult to review specifics in this book without spoiling anything, but I shall do my best.

This story is fascinating. The pacing is well done. You are brought into the situation as confused as the protagonist and as he recalls, the reader is brought a short history lesson about his life. Back and forth between his current state of affairs to the nitty gritty that brought him to the hospital, you become as curious as Matthias is about what happened and, more importantly why.

When it comes to what Matthias decides to do for his revenge is truly where the story comes into his own. It doesn't matter if you agree or not with his actions, how he plans to try to take the control he lost back, how the other people involved in the situation act around him and in considering their own goals? Some people might not be as fond of shifting points of views - from Matthias' 1st person POV to every other characters' limited 3rd person - but I will implore them to take a crack at this anyway if they are interested in thrillers.

In the preface, Kim Ekemar states how numerous the cast is in the book and even has a cast list at the back of the book. Yet I hardly had issue following the amount of names presented. Each cast member was introduced to the story in a way that I could follow their path, and when I had forgotten a very short while into the next time they were introduced I had recalled their position in the tale in full.

However, their is an inconsistency of comma usage during dialogue. More precisely, that certain times the commas comes after the second quotation mark, instead of before it. This isn't a consistent error, but I would be willing to say half of the time it is done in this way as opposed to properly. Most of the time this wasn't distracting, so I wouldn't take too much off the book's grade because of it.

A bigger issue is one instance of contrivance which I couldn't suspend my disbelief for. Its reveal was a dramatic change in the novel and was a tool for how the rest of the story went. However, it didn't have to be exactly what it was to have still allowed Matthias to go on as he did for the rest of the book. It was there solely to create more drama between Matthias and Julie where there really didn't need to be.

I also couldn't wrap my head around why certain scenes were supposedly in characters' heads as opposed to not. Matthias' sections are always in first person, in which case it seems odd that some sections are in italics while others are not, because they are all first person. I also didn't see a point for Julie to have one section of first person (in italics), when she never had another and her bearing on the story became admittedly less and less important. Especially when the information conveyed in that section arose later in a natural way.

I certainly will consider picking up the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Claire Tanner.
160 reviews
January 9, 2025
Interesting read.
You meet the main character in hospital after a kidnapping and almost fatal interrogation. Through regaining his memories, you find out although he was invested in illegal enterprises, the kidnapping was a mis-identification.
He goes on a revenge vendetta to punish those who have changed his life forever.

Interesting insight into how life changing events and injuries could change a person, but a lot of huge coincidences, for example that his new face would be that of his wife's rapist. The revenge also seems very mild for some of those very involved and very harsh for those minorly involved.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
219 reviews3 followers
October 22, 2018
Rose

An unusual and beguiling story written by Kim Ekemar. When a man is named after his father and grandfather and looks exactly like his father unusual things begin to happen. Such as mistaken identities and others not knowing who they are talking to. This story tells all.
4 reviews
November 13, 2018
Good choice

I chose this book to read something entirely different. I was not disappointed. I read it in an entire sitting, although I did figure out the end early. Revenge was never sweeter.
Profile Image for Dawn Ireland.
Author 97 books70 followers
May 17, 2021
Kept me awake

This was a unique story that was told very well. There were a couple of characters histories that rambled, but let me tell you... the bones of this story were strong.
Profile Image for Sarah.
4 reviews
Read
July 17, 2022
What would you do if you woke up in a strange hospital, bandages on both hands, arms strapped to the bed and an aching headache with no recollection of the past?

For Mathias Callaghan, that’s exactly what happened. He had no idea how he had gotten to the hospital or why he was there. After the doctors told him that he’d been in a horrid accident which resulted in the loss of all his fingers and an emergency face transplant, Mathias was even more distraught. His beautiful wife Julia, who he does not remember, stays by his side but is quiet about the events leading up to now.

As his new face heals and he starts to regain memories from his saddened past, he finds himself involved in a twisted web between his father, his best friend, his wife, and the Russian mafia. Will he be able to find out the truth of the torture he endured and exact revenge on the enemies he didn’t even know he had?

Callaghan Vol. 1 by Kim Ekemar will have you at the edge of your seat during a highly fast paced ride into the Russian Mafia, coercion, gambling, fraud, mistaken identity, murder, and revenge.
The Lost Identity Casualties. I enjoyed the page turning, fast paced storyline that kept my mind buzzing with the next turn of events. I was constantly surprised and couldn’t guess what would happen next.

I noticed no grammatical errors and it looked like it was professionally edited. I’m excited to continue reading the remaining six volumes and see what the next chapters hold for Mathias Callaghan.

I recommend this to anyone who loves a fantastic thriller filled with excitement, danger, secrets, and the desire for revenge without foul language or detailed sexual situations.
Profile Image for K.S. Agustin.
Author 1 book
September 6, 2016
I just love this book. It is a fast-paced, action-filled suspense thriller that kept me reading way past my bed time. The plot is totally riveting, the story telling is very engaging while the characters are all well-developed. I enjoyed the story immensely and I recommend it to all fans of suspense and thriller novels.
576 reviews6 followers
June 3, 2022
An excellent but gruesome story

This story would probably interest both men and women. I found it to be enthralling, easy to follow, despite the rather complicated plot, well-written with no editing issues, but fascinatingly horrific.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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