More Deaths Than One

by Pat Bertram

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in Southeast Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. He attends her new funeral and sees . . . himself Is his other self a hoaxer? A doppelganger? Or is something more sinister going on? Even worse, two men who appear to be government agents are hunting him for no reason that he can fathom. With the help of a baffling young woman Bob meets in a coffee shop, he uncovers the unimaginable truth.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

302 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2009

About the author

Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels MADAME ZEEZEE'S NIGHTMARE, UNFINISHED, LIGHT BRINGER, DAUGHTER AM I, MORE DEATHS THAN ONE, and A SPARK OF HEAVENLY FIRE. Bertram is also the author of GRIEF: THE GREAT YEARNING, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.”

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Deaths Than One
Author: Pat Bertram
Reviewed by Fran Lewis



What would you do if you saw your mirror image right in front of you? What would you do if that person was living your life as you but it was not you or maybe it is? What would you do if you read an obituary in the paper and the death was your mother’s that happened 23 years ago? Enter the world of Robert Stark one man living in a state of suspense and whose world might resemble that of an episode of the Twilight Zone. Can someone die more than once and be buried more than once? Can someone take over your life while you are still living it with you name and appear to be you? Well, author Pat Bertram will take the reader on a journey you definitely won’t forget as I review a very unique, suspense filled novel titled “More Deaths Than One.”

Standing in a room whose walls, ceiling, floors and windows are mirrors allowing you to see yourself or reflection from various angles. Each mirror creating a different image of you depending on its angle, direction you are facing or distortion due to any enhancement created by the type of mirror. As you see yourself in these mirrors, one thought invades your mind: Which One Is Really Me?

Robert Sparks lives each day with reoccurring nightmares that haunt his days, nights and every waking hour. The cause: years in Vietnam, an accident that occurred while there and maybe more. But, Robert’s troubles are only beginning as he learns that his life, as he knows it is about to change. Identity take over is not uncommon. Hackers can get into your credit card information without too much trouble creating a whole new life for themselves using your name and information. Frightening to say the least. But, what if someone literally took over your life, identity both physical and without your knowledge. Imagine seeing yourself right in front of you but it’s not really you.

Spending many years overseas and returning to the states the last thing Robert Stark expects is to find his mirror image but not his looking back as his reflection. Could it be that you are watching your life, as you might have lived it right in front of you? Could it be that you just don’t remember how you got there and why your days and nights are haunted by horrific dreams, pain and severe headaches that are totally debilitating? Robert Stark lived in Southeast Asia for 18 years to return to his normal life. But, what he really returns to is an undercover, underhanded government investigation or is it? Plagued with debilitating headaches, nightmares, visions, and dreams that haunt his waking hour and reliving many of the experiences in his mind, Robert Sparks is no longer a free man.

Enter Kerry Castillas, a smart, alert and sassy waitress who works nights at the Rimrock Coffee Shop in Denver where our Bob Stark frequents at night. Plagued by nightmares he often finds himself in this shop to escape his dreams. Yes, she is smart and quite perceptive and together they team up to find out what and who is behind the obituary in the paper, who put it there, and who this other Robert Stark really is and what part does he play? Even more mindboggling is watching a replay of his mother’s funeral or burial service at Mountain View Cemetery while hiding in the bushes unseen.

Not being a passive man he seeks the answers he needs but his physical disabilities hamper him and medical attention is needed. But, the end result of his seeking this attention will frighten the reader even more. Searching for these answers he seeks out his brother, Jackson but decides not to enlist his help not knowing whether he is on his side or not. But, there is much more to this nightmare that must be solved before we find out just who this Robert Stark is and who the other man might be. Added to this Robert recounts to Kerry his time in Thailand, his affiliation with a man named Hsiang-li and his antique business selling stolen merchandise. What does this have to do with Robert being stalked by unknown men and how does his working for this man come to play with the fact he is now running for his life? That still remains to be seen.


As our main character begins to remember some of his past and relives event in his mind in the present, we learn the truth about his identity, the link to his past life in both Vietnam and Thailand and why he is being hunted for the past 16 years. His life in Vietnam was filled with brutality, danger and much more. Friends with investigative journalist would prove dangerous to him and learning about mind altering experiments on soldiers in the war and in the present helps enlighten the reader as to who might be after him and why. Although the reader is caught up in this make believe life of his, and who might be after him and why, the real clues and revelations are found in his profuse headaches, his unexplained reappearance back in Denver, his paintings and their true meanings, and the help and guidance of one Kerry who proves to be more than a love interest and friend. Elusive, nondescript in appearance, our Bob Stark is able to blend into the woodwork of almost any place he needs to explore and find information. Hiding in plain sight of those who want to capture, possibly torture or kill him he is anything but what they described as geeky or stupid. Quick on his feet, fast on the uptake our “Bob” will hopefully lead us and help find the answers he needs to puzzle of his life that seems to be disjointed.

Like the mirrors he sees his images in: Fragile glass that can shatter at any moment: Will Bob’s crack and become unrecognizable or will they all finally fit together showing him the image of the real person he is?

Author Pat Bertram has created a character so unique and different with traits that most authors cannot develop enveloping the reader in the story, the action, the inner most being of this man and his actions that you are transfixed on each word, page and event until the last page is read and the final words are spoken.

Who is Robert Sparks and what has become of the real him? What is behind the disappearance of several marketing consultants at Information Services Incorporated and what kind of research are they really doing? What mind altering drugs and techniques are being used to wipe a person’s thoughts, memories and feelings? Mind control, fear tactics, disappearances, research and experimenting with the minds of men in the infantry and war veterans are just part of the equation. Frightening, scary and definitely keeping the reader transfixed to the plot and asking one major question: Who is the real Robert Sparks? As the final revelations are recounted and the truth behind his life revealed there remains many unanswered questions that you will have to decide and learn for yourself. Would you want to have your memory erased in order to live a more peaceful life? Would you want the feeling of lost limbs eliminated at the cost of losing part of your memory? It started with one journalist: William Henry Harrison. It continued with one man who is so clever, so mild mannered, so ordinary that he blended into the world, the war zone and more in plain sight. One man whose memory was borrowed and given to another man and forced to live without any real connection to anyone needs to find a place for himself. As Robert and Kerry travel to many places, find out the unspeakable and learn the many unspoken truths, what happens will astound the reader; instill fear inside of everyone that this might really be happening. Author Pat Bertram takes us on an inside journey in the mind, soul, dreams and inner thoughts of one man who is tormented by his dreams, whose realities are haunted by headaches, pain and uncertainty, but whose faith in the future will not wane as he and Kerry find out if a someone can have More Deaths Than One. Well defined characters, events vividly created helping the reader picture what each character endured author Pat Bertram is definitely a first rate novelist, mystery writer right up there with Patricia Cornwall, Steve Berry and James Patterson.
As the old program To Tell The Truth would say after all the affidavits were read and the questions asked of the three imposters: Will the read Robert Stark stand up! Look at each reflection in those mirrors: Which One Belongs to Robert Stark?

This book was sent to me as a gift by the author of School of Lies, Mickey Hoffman. What a great book and what a wonderful gift.

Fran Lewis: Reviewer

[Mickey Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What are you waiting for? Read this book. Now. "More Deaths" is much better than any "bestseller" out there. The plot is constantly surprising and intricate, the characters draw you into the tale and the overall writing is top notch.

[L.V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt a little anxious before I even turned that first e-page of More Deaths than One.

I had never read a book written by anyone I knew before.

While I’ve never actually met the author, Pat Bertram, in person I do consider her to be a good online friend and a valuable writing ally.

What feels even odder to me than reading a published book by someone I know is sitting down and writing a review of a book written by someone I know, and one I count as an e-friend to boot. It’s even worse than that initial “What will they think?” phase of writing subject matter you perhaps wouldn’t want to write home to mother with.

And, perhaps, I should feel a little bit of guilt in not actually buying the book. I got the e-book when she was offering it up free to anyone who wanted it. But, I don’t regret it. Pat also never asked me to do a review on it. This, I do of my own volition – much to her chagrin or delight, all depending on what she thinks of my review I guess.

And so, with a small amount of trepidation, I turned that first e-page and eased my way into what may conceivably have turned into a dead man’s life.



Our hero, Bob Stark, is mostly notable for his very essence of being un-notable. In fact, he is so un-notable that even the people who know him seem to have trouble recognizing him when they first see him. This very plainness draws you in, making you like him for his simplicity and empathize with him for that unwanted feeling of invisibility that we all share at times.

His ordinariness also proves to be essential to the story. In fact, his very plainness plays you right into believing the possibility of the truth that comes out later in the story. You’ll have to read the story to find out why.

The story starts with the very ordinary Bob Stark having a very ordinary hot chocolate in the Rimrock Coffee Shop, where his solitude is intruded on by his waitress making a rather ordinary attempt at flirting with him.

Unfortunately for Stark, the ordinariness of his life ends there.

Stark learns from the newspaper that his mother, Lydia Stark, has passed away – again. Yes, after burying his mother once already, the woman apparently has died a second time, 22 years later.

Convinced it has to be a hoax, Stark decides to show up for his mother’s second funeral.

All the usual people are at the funeral, friends and family, including Stark’s old college girlfriend Lorena Jones. Stark watches the funeral as an outsider only to find himself with more than one shock. Not only does the funeral appear to be entirely real, the man his old girlfriend is with comes as a big shock too. Bob Stark finds himself staring at none other than Bob Stark. But how can this be? How can he be watching himself at his own mother’s second funeral?

Stark soon finds himself pulled along an inevitable series of events, his newly befriended waitress Kerry Casillas at his side.

Stark’s search for the truth draws him deeper into a web of secrecy, and deeper into danger as the pair find themselves trying to stay one step ahead of someone who seems intent on catching them.

He soon learns that the road to the truth lies in his own past, a past he in part has to rediscover as if learning it for the first time.

Bob and Kerry travel to Thailand in search of answers that lead only to deeper questions.

The answers to the mystery prove to be as shocking as looking at yourself at your own mother’s second funeral.


In More Deaths Than One, Pat Bertram has woven an intriguing tale of what can happen when the wrong people are given control over another’s life.


More Deaths Than One is published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC.

More Deaths Than One

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picture this: You return to the U.S. after an extended overseas trip and who do you see? You. Not in the mirror, but out there in the world. And bad guys are looking for you, the you in the mirror while the other you goes about his life with the past you remember.

Welcome to the world of Robert Stark, who goes by the name "Bob," the starkly mannered, dream-haunted protagonist of Pat Bertram's intricate novel about a man who returns to the United States after 18 years in southeast Asia only to find that he appears to be under investigation by a shadowy government or quasi-government agency.

Welcome to the world of Kerry Casillas, the good natured and intuitive-reader-of-people waitress who works the graveyard shift at the Rimrock Coffee Shop in Denver where Bob Stark comes to escape from his nightmares.

It will not take you long to guess that Bob and Kerry are likely to become increasingly significant in each other's lives. In this matter, your guess will be correct. You will be tempted to guess again, primarily about where this mystery is heading and how, logically, there can be more than one Bob Stark, and just what it is that the man sitting there in the Rimrock Coffee Shop reading his mother's obituary in the newspaper has or has done that might place him within the cross-hairs of increasingly rough operatives.

The obituary is problematic, for Bob Stark's mother died and was buried years ago. Keeping himself well hidden within lilac bushes, Bob attends the burial service at Mountain View Cemetary. His brother Jackson is there. Robert Stark is also there, married to Bob's former girlfriend Lorena. "Bob stared," writes Bertram. "The other Robert Stark seemed to have aged a bit faster than he, seemed more used, but the resemblance could not be denied. He was looking at himself."

Also there, just past the casket is a new headstone for Bob's long-dead mother. Bob wonders "What the hell is going on?"

When you reach the end of the book, you will see just how perfectly the puzzle pieces of Bob Stark's dangerous and shattered world fit together. Until then, you will ask the same questions Bob Stark is asking, and you will experience the same limbo he feels as the answers elude him. All of this will happen because Bertram has crafted a suspenseful story where everything that's real isn't what it seems.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first three pages of “More Deaths than One” have to constitute a serious contender for the best opening scene of a novel. Two main characters are introduced, a garrulous waitress and a taciturn hot-chocolate customer. They meet. She talks, a lot. He reads the paper. “And Lydia Loretta Stark was dead. Again.” With two such immediately real and appealing characters, and a line like that, I’d challenge anyone not to want to keep turning the pages.

And then, even though the characters are already fully formed, the author proceeds to add layer upon layer of depth and history. The taciturn Bob has nightmares, paints pictures with mysteries inside, and tells stories as if he’s reading them from a book. His faithful sidekick Kerry teases out information and ideas. And a hint of the truth pokes its head up enticingly. I wondered, could he? Maybe…

Particularly well done is the scene near the end where the real story unfolds. Kerry switches from misplaced to well-placed anger with hardly a pause, her reaction so humanly believable, and the truth so strange it leaves the reader wondering, even after it’s been told.

Read this book in the knowledge that Pat Bertram is a skilled story-teller. No hint, no strangeness, no odd surprise or character is wasted, but everything points to and leads to the final conclusion. A masterful tale that truly fulfills the promise of its beginning.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a First Reads winner!!

I enjoyed reading this book. It was action filled and fast paced. The characters were likeable and well described. It was located in Denver. Nice writing style. Easy to read. A simplified Bourne.

What I didn't like... The cover is SO UGLY. If I saw this book in a store I wouldn't even pick it up to read the back. So sad.

I also wouldn't recommend this to anyone who wasn't married. Some of the sex descriptions are quite graphic. Also wouldn't recommend it to anyone with Vietnam War issues. Controversial topics, lots of flashbacks and conspiracy theory stuff.
Then again, if none of that bothers you... this would be your book.

[Pat Bertram]

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in Southeast Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. He attends her new funeral and sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on? And why are two men who appear to be government agents hunting for him? With the help of a Kerry Casillas, a baffling young woman Bob meets in a coffee shop, he uncovers the unimaginable truth.

[Second Wind Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who has stolen Bob Stark's identity? Why is he being pursued by the henchmen of a shadowy multinational corporation? What does it have to do with his old friends from his brutal days of service in Vietnam?

[Norm Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pat Bertram's "More Deaths Than One" is a great read. The international plot kept me guessing right up to the end. I especially liked the initial hook of Bob's mother's second funeral. It required reading the entire novel to figure that out.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Good conspiracy thriller if you like that sort of thing. But too much unconvincing narrative dialogue, and the romance, although well placed in the plot for a change, comes out of nowhere and I don't really buy it.

[Pat]

Wow! What a ride! A page turning novel of suspense: lost identity and government espionage. From Denver to SE Asia--the suspense never lets up with a man of mystery and a delightful heroine.

[Jim Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unputdownable! The writing style, the amazingly gripping story, characters I truly cared about all conspired to keep me from doing anything until I reached the end!