Foreign Involvement: A Chuck Winters Thriller

Chuck Winters Thriller #1

by Robert E. Smith

San Francisco Homicide detective Chuck Winters, accidentally strikes it rich with his criminal software database program, retires and takes his money and runs. He soon gets caught up with a nemesis character that spews death and destruction, hiding throughout the world like a chameleon---causing Winters to leave his serene retirement and take chase.

Genres: Ebooks

664 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 18, 2018

About the author

Robert (Bob) E. Smith writes and manages his successful commercial real estate investments. Married with five children and many grandchildren. Splitting time between Lake Shasta, CA., Honolulu and permanent residence in Sandy, OR.

His business career has taken him from the jungles of Guyana to the busy streets of Tokyo, along with major exposure to the criminal side of the New Orleans and Baton Rouge judicial system. Along the way, he has met some interesting and scary individuals---from "claim to be" former CIA, to the Yakuza and Russians in Japan. All with an angle---all with a story---for another time.

Now five books are complete with a sixth on the way in the Chuck Winters series.
Foreign Influence, Ghost in the Night, Steps Ahead in Morrocco, Zurich Connection and the most recent, Gone to Goa.

Reviews

[Bettye McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder and mayhem

This is an interesting plot, poorly presented. It involves the theft of a computer software program which is in turn sold to a Hong Kong company for $10M. The chase is on for both the thieves and the money.

First of all, the book is too long, almost 700 pages. The characters are good, but I didn't feel invested in any of them. There was danger and death, but it wasn't thrilling or "edge of your seat" suspenseful.

Secondly, there were way too many errors, more than 300. I didn't find any copyright or publishing information, but even if self-published, it should have been cleaned up before marketing.

The inconsistency of the names was confusing. The switches between Brian and Bryan are approximately equal at 14 and 18. The same is true with Christine and Christina. Then there's Rosa and Rose. Verto and Verta, then Vertos. Chi and Che. Rene and Renee. Paul and Peter.

I liked the plot but hesitate to recommend the book in its present state.

302+

[Marty Langenberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not finish

One star because this story has so much potential. Getting to just over half way through I’ve given up. The numbers of grammar and spelling errors, the irrelevant changes of tense, the confusing names, all became too much. Please, please, please, find an editor.

[Judy A. Hathaway · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plot was okay, but this book was very poorly written as far as grammar, spelling and punctuation. I can't believe any editor ever looked at this book before it was published: repeated use of "to" where "too" was what was required, "whose" instead of "who's", numerous typos of "form" instead of "from." Many sentences lacked verbs and/or prepositions, which made it difficult to read. And the repeated lack of the use of commas made me have to read a lot of the sentences multiple times to understand what was being conveyed. All of this made the book difficult and long to read. I would not read another book by this author.

[John Molloy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very convoluted plot, with too many characters to start with, and you just can't get to grips with what they are selling illegally and to whom and for what? The moving around the world was interesting, especially Hong Kong was enjoyable, but the high setting finance and the great detective characters who just happened to be handy to help solve the crime was very fortuitous and unreal. Mason disappearing at the end and of course will not have been killed as one would be led to believe, as he will have to survive to be hunted down in the next series. Not a book I would recommend, nor would I read the folow on.

[Carole D Hutchison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a good start for the author. Slow start but some good parts of mystery and excitement. Author used some humor to break the slow parts. Overall it was okay. I read a book a day and did finish book, but took longer because I lost interest but loved the ending. Keep up the good work. If ever looking for someone to review your works, I'd like to do that.😉🙎🔰🔰

[Paulette Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been a good book

This started out as a good story. However the long, drawn out descriptions of even minor details became very tedious. That, and the lack of a proofreader made this book rather annoying at times. It really could have been a good book.

[Karen Heiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange Book

This book had the makings of a good thriller, but had many flaws. Trite dialogue, endless grammatical mistakes, way too many plots. The author, in an attempt to keep the reader guessing, just kept on going and going. A good editor would have been helpful.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action thriller

Chuck has sold his computer software company for millions and retired to a simple life living on a houseboat until a friend asked him to investigate another company he had invested in. When Chuck started investigating someone started trying to kill him to stop the investigation.

[Subhajit Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title and cover are justifying but I was expecting a little more gripping and compact story according to the plot it based upon. I won't say that it was disappointing but it definitely could have been more grasping. Overall, I enjoyed and would recommend as well.

[Burry F Bessee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast moving suspense!

Chuck is a believable investigator with lots of character. The various script lines kept me guessing as to who is truly the “bad guy”, and the twists were really good.

[Sienna S'Zell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave it 5 stars for creativity -- interesting plot, twists and turns -- but the thousands of typos were very distracting! It's kind of like a travelogue mixed in with a mystery; lots of dead bodies; but overall a good read.

[John Karlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never finished it

Started out ok, got lost mid book and never got back on the travcks. Sorry, just lost me - you might like it but I have up hag way into it. Do not recommend.

[Ralph Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

Well paced, good character development, great story line...
I look forward to reading more books by this author. Very enjoyable!

[Jack Sundholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn’t put the book down

Lots of action and intrigue. Just when you have it figured out...surprise, a new turn of events keeps you turning pages.

[Christine Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent story but bad grammar and spelling mistakes spoilt it.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intrigue, exciting and loved the characters. Could be a tv series!!!

[Vusi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foreign Involvement

Quite a great read. However, just too many countries used as location and could be confusing to the uninitiated. Any sequel in the not so distant future?

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should have known

Yes, the good thing about this book are the descriptions of everything! Easy reading! Loved the characters! Just a long, every enjoyable book!

[Dianne]

So badly written with such poor language construction, bad grammar and so many editing errors, and more, that this has to get 0 *’s. Spoiled what was a good storyline. By the way, I’ve lived in South Africa all my life and I’ve never heard Table Mountain called Table Top EVER! There is no St George’s Mall and neither are there 4 lane highways/freeways in Cape Town proper!