Burying the Truth

The Society #1

by J. Stark

Ruthless assassins. Secret Societies. Missing VIPs.

When a billion-dollar corporation attempts to commit the crime of the century, an investigative reporter, Nathan Hughes, and his beautiful ex-girlfriend, Jenny Mars, begin to hear rumors of fraud, payoffs, and secret societies through a frightened whistleblower.

Skeptical at first, both become the target of a ruthless assassin as they dig deeper into the business dealings of JVK Inc., an international company whose CEO is a cool and calculating manipulator.

Soon, people associated with the case turn up missing and the FBI joins to assist in taking them down. Death lurks around the corner and lies spring up from every crack in the wall.

Someone is burying the truth.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2021

About the author

J Stark, a life-long adventure seeker, lives in Tennessee with his beautiful wife, three kids, and two grandkids. After all the adventures experienced and planned, he felt it was time to create some thrills, this time in the world of books.

Enjoy this new line of thrillers with heart-stopping action and a touch of humor. If you're ready for an edge of your seat read, grab a book and let’s go!

Reviews

[John Miller-Crispe · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pathetic book. The "hero" and Heroine constantly made stupid decisions, refused to reveal information, the facts would not have lead to an arrest in most cases, their ignoring of danger but in a stupid way; these were constant and repeated things throughout the book. If I could have given it minus stars I would have.
Don't waste your time or money.

[Ishan Gadkari · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot of this book is weak overall. The author tries hard to make the plot mysterious but is never able to do so. The character development is amateurish and so is the writing. There are a lot of dialogues which only a teen would utter and not mature characters.

Major Takeaways - Never Read a book which is free on the Apple Book Store.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since it’s the first of six in a series, you know there will be no fully satisfying ending. The story as far as it went had some good action and suspense. It also had some glaring holes in the plot and some typical stupid behavior by the main characters in order to advance the story. Their on-again off-again relationship got tiresome fast, and I really have no interest in spending more time with them.
I have to remember not to start these long drawn out series when I have no intention of completing the set.

[Kerry Fine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this story. In some ways I DID like this story. But I hated the characters - nearly all of them. The main character was a terribly sexist man, which in and of itself is kinda normal in the world and would have been ok in a book. It would have, maybe, if his love interest and supposed partner in this adventure didn't feed into it. She was, of course, the stereotypical beautiful woman, but then she needs protecting. All the time. She's smart enough to start her own business, but not smart enough to realize she's worth more than this? Not likely. At least, I would hope not, and I definitely don't want to read about her. One or the other might have been tolerable, but the two characters together are not. I won't be reading the sequel.

[Jeni Kostova · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I understand that this is fiction, it’s kind of boring when the plot has no resemblance to how thing work in real life. An investigative journalist and his PI ex girlfriend follow a lead, cross roads with an FBI agent, apparently, and he proceeds to call them and regularly update them on the progress of the official investigation as well as to enlist their help…. In what universe would that make sense???
Other than the gaping holes in the plot it wasn’t a terrible book (I mean, I still enjoyed it) but I wouldn’t rush to get the next one in the series.

[Weiping Yin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shallow

Both story and characters are shallow enough that the book read like high school boycott adventure. Plots are very much predictable.

[Janet Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow Jacob for a first time author you've hit it out of the old proverbial ballpark. The main character is Nathan Hughes and he's an Investigative Reporter for a Newspaper and Jenny Mars is his Ex and she's kind of like a Private Investigator only for the State.
Late one night Nathan gets a frantic phone call from a guy who works at VJK Inc. saying he has proof there is major fraud, etc, etc. going on and he wants to meet to hand it over now. Of course the guy ends up dead and Nathan gets threatened to stay away, which means he wont. More people die and Jenny starts to help out, stuff happens and it gets exciting, and scary. Great book now I'm on to reading Book 2 in the 2 book series I need to know how it all ends. Great start though. Love it. Easy read. Book 1 of 2 book series. Story continues.

[Jennifer Soppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge potential to blow things apart

Nathan, an investigative journalist, is contacted about a story and hates that he has to enlist the help of Jenny, his ex-girlfriend and a private investigator, to help him. As the story progresses a tentative agreement is reached, a trail of blood follows, and finding who to trust is harder that they think. J. Stark’s first book Burying the Truth has huge potential to blow things apart from the very beginning. Nathan is a hard driven, stubborn man while Jenny is an equal match for him in both areas. They have their whole history to work through as they muddle through the story at hand. With seeming dead ends, conspiracy theorist, goons, and the chance to break another story of the century, Nathan and Jenny have their work cut out for them.

[Marilyn Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of a whistleblower that goes to a an investigative journalist with information. He gets his ex girlfriend to help him investigate the information but he never expected what happened next! This billionaire dollar corporation is more than it seems. Who’s secrets and things that can’t be know the whistleblower ends up dead. When things get worse the FBI needs called in. Will he live long enough to get all the answers to get an article published? I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tricky one to rate and review. To start off with the writing wasn’t great and didn’t keep me interested but I’m not one to stop reading a book. It did get better and the plot began to thicken. It was well over half way before I got into the story. Nathan and Jenny are ex’s and come together to join forces to crack a story. I would have rated 3 for the first half and 4 for the second half, so went with a 4 overall.

[Kenneth Lingenfelter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nathan Hughes is an investigative reporter who receives a call at night from an employee of JVK, Inc. He claims he has information of criminal activities at the company and his life is in danger. He also says police are involved. This informant is killed in a car crash before they could meet. Nathan enlists his PI, ex girlfriend to help investigate. Their lives are in danger. This is a thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.

[Billie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I read a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What happens when a billionaire dollar corporation isn’t what it seems? Nathan who is a journalist is approached by a whistleblower. The information is huge so in turn he has to get his ex Jenny involved. Will they live long enough to see justice?? A good storyline that keeps you at the edge of your seat wanting more. This is book 1 in the series.

[Dwight Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another secret society with graft, murder and greed.

A secret society spends millions setting up a company and greasing palms in city hall. However greed overcomes the local guy and a cleaner is sent in to use a reporter and P.I. To deal disclose everything and put an end to the local company.

[Cody Blocker]

This is a perfect book for those who love conspiracy thrillers. J Stark did a great job here of setting up a series that plays on all the best conspiracy thriller tropes. There is a lot of world building and history and this conspiracy goes back a long ways. He also ties in current events. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating story of Nathan an Investigative Reporter, and his ex, Jenny. Through a secret source, they find out dangerous things. Now they’re a target from the Assassin. Fast paced, suspense that will keep you hooked forever.

[bella parello · Rating 1 out of 5]

it actually sucked. at first i thought “maybe this could be a mystery book” in fact i was wrong. the mystery story was boring and the attempts at romance were even worse. i feel like the characters would be fighting one second and flirting the next. i’m very confused

[John Hansford]

I enjoyed this book very much. The characters Nathan and Jenny have good chemistry together. I look forward to reading more about their interactions with “The Society “.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a first book. Nathan is a reporter and comes across a story that will put his life in danger and his ex Jenny. Will they find out about the secret society or will it be a dead end?

[Roland Andrew Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

truth be told…

A good book, but a short one. Could have been expanded a little more, but then it may have included too many irrelevancies.

[Linda Sterner · Rating 5 out of 5]

No time

It took me no time at all to whiz through this story and I am eager to get started on the second of the series right away.

[Christine Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story line and a good pace but far too many clichés. It's book 1 of a series so I may try book 2 to see if the writing improves

[gwen graves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok

It was ok, but really not the kind of story I like. In fact it was really campy. The characters need a little work to be likeable.

[Mailmanr5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is disjointed and doesn't make a lot of sense. Not particularly we'll written. Dialogue could be better. Characters don't really come alive.

[Rebecca O’Dell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great first book in a series. The characters were like real people vs superheroes.