Your Move

Carol Golden #7

by Alan Cook

Somebody is killing people who work for subsidiaries of conglomerate Ault Enterprises and playing some kind of game while doing it. Carol Golden is called on to help identify the killer because she has experience in breaking codes and playing games. Amy O’Connor, a former scam artist and long-distance hiker with an eye for men, becomes her partner by accident, and together they search for clues in interesting places. The hunt takes them to the tops of significant mountain peaks in the United States, including Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental U.S., and to other unusual locales such as the thinly populated Lost Coast region of northern California. Carol finds that incidents in her past that are lost to her because of her amnesia may come back to haunt her before she can win this deadly game.

245 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 11, 2018

About the author

Alan Cook is an author of mystery/suspense novels and young adult/Children's books. However, his latest novel is a comedy, ROCKY ROAD TO DENVER, set in 1968. His novella, DEATH AT MONKSREST, takes place in England in the 1960s and is the third book of the Charlie and Liz series. EAST OF THE WALL takes places in East Germany in 1963 when the Berlin Wall was up. It is the second book in the Charlie and Liz series. TRUST ME IF YOU DARE, the first Charlie and Liz novel, takes place in 1962 in the U.S. and Cuba. YOUR MOVE is the seventh Carol Golden book. A serial killer is on the loose. FOOL ME TWICE is the sixth Carol Golden book. It deals with scams, and we've all been fooled. GOOD TO THE LAST DEATH is the fifth Carol Golden novel. It deals with junk science. HIT THAT BLOT, with a backgammon theme, is the fourth Carol Golden novel. DANGEROUS WIND is the third Carol Golden novel. It takes place on all seven continents. RELATIVELY DEAD and FORGET TO REMEMBER, the first two, are about a young woman who loses her memory and calls herself Carol Golden. His short story, "Checkpoint Charlie," is in the anthology, MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS ICE COLD: TALES OF INTRIGUE FROM THE COLD WAR, edited by Jeffery Deaver and Raymond Benson. PICTURELAND, is a Young Adult novel that takes place in a dystopian world. DANCING WITH BULLS, his first children's book, takes place at Knossos Palace on the island of Crete 4,000 years ago. YOUR MOVE is he seventh Carol Golden book, in which Carol is asked to help track down a serial killer. RUN INTO TROUBLE has won a Silver Quill award from the American Author's Association and was named best Pacific West book by Reader Views. It is about an ultra-marathon along the California coast in 1969, during the Cold War. But is the Cold War about to heat up? HONEYMOON FOR THREE, has received a Silver Quill award from the American Author's Association and was named best Mountain West book by Reader Views. WALKING THE WORLD: MEMORIES AND ADVENTURES has been named one of the "Top 10 Walking Memoirs and Tales of Long Walks" by walking.about.com

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Melinda Hills for Readers' Favorite

Seemingly unconnected murders are occurring across the United States and only the head of Ault Enterprises realizes they are not random. Your Move: Carol Golden Book 7 by Alan Cook has Cynthia Sakai, alias Carol Golden, helping Kyle Robertson figure out the elaborate game this killer is playing in order to prevent further murders. With murders of Ault employees taking place on some of the highest mountain peaks in the US and strange clues accompanying each one, Kyle turns to Cynthia to engage the murderer and try to beat him at his own game. Through careful deduction and the help of a new friend, Cynthia tracks down names and faces from her past. Police are reluctant to become involved since the crimes occurred in three different states and they don’t see a connection, but all the victims worked for subsidiaries of the same parent company, Ault Enterprises. Traveling from site to site, the situation begins to make sense to Carol and Kyle. It is just a matter of time before they can flush out the killer or, that is, until a real surprise challenges their theories and puts them in danger.

Alan Cook’s tight writing draws you into this delightful mystery from the first page and holds on to you until the very end. Great characters, realistic dialogue and plenty of action as well as the unique addition of a ‘game’ distinguishes Your Move from many other books in the genre, giving you plenty to enjoy. Carol Golden is a deep woman with an interesting past, making her a special type of heroine. Even though this is book 7 in the series, it is quite readable as a stand-alone story with just enough background to fill in some blanks without leaving you confused. Cook has a great handle on pleasing readers and you are sure to enjoy this murder/mystery story and all the others that come before and after

[Michael Hartnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Mystery of Prodigious Games
Your Move (A Carol Golden Novel) by Alan Cook is clever and intriguing cat-and-mouse mystery where the hunter is often the hunted. A heroine with a rich and slightly sordid past, Carol is brought into murder investigations at Ault Enterprises specifically for her ability to play games and crack puzzles. A mathematician by training and a detective at heart, Carol has to find the connections among victims who work for subsidiaries of Ault, are found in the mountains, and are marked with the titular note: “Your Move.”
Indeed, Carol is the type of investigator who will climb Mount Whitney just to get her hands on a small clue. Against her ingenious target, she is thrown in the obscure mathematical game of Nim, a game that will hurtle her back to amnesic past. Your Move is quite engaging as there are terrific hiking scenes and many interactions of romantic tension between old flames and new men of interest, not only with Carol, but with her beautiful free-spirit sidekick Amy.
As the plot twists and turns, the surprises keep coming. Carol is constantly vulnerable as she doggedly pursues the case. And yet she forges ahead. The climactic scenes at the cabins are quite original for subversive gamesmanship. Simply put, Your Move is loads of crafty fun.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes a clever author to bring a reader up to date in a series of novels with the same protagonist. Alan Cook sneaks in tidbits of background for his heroine in this series, Carol Golden, who uses aliases based on prior adventures that sometimes bend the rules. At one point, Carol (and the reader) is presented with an ethical question: How far would you go, and what would you do, to prevent a murder? The author resolves this dilemma neatly.

Although the plot involves a tricky game favored by mathematicians, Mr. Cook is able to present it clearly to readers who are not math-inclined. His extensive experience in hiking and rock climbing is brought into the story line, adding a realistic level of detail that enhances the action.

I hate clichés, but “page turner” fits here. I chose this novel at random after enjoying his travel book Walking the World. Now I am eager to savor more of his fiction writing. You might say I’m “Hooked on Cook.”

[Wildbriar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book Alan Cook has written, in my opinion. It has more twists and turns than a mountain road. Carol (whose real name is Cynthia) finds out that the serial killer she is helping to find may have some connection to the past that is lost to her because of her amnesia. Although most of the violence is off-screen, there is plenty of suspense to keep one turning the pages. As a (retired) hiker I enjoyed the mountain scenes on Mt. Whitney and Mt. Washington. I couldn't always follow the puzzle-solving parts, but I appreciated the working of Carol's mathematical mind.