Title: National Security

Author: Marc Cameron

Genre:Military Thriller

ARC: Audiobook

Series: Jericho Quinn Thillers

Books in series: 8

Book in Series: 1

Publisher: Pinacle

                                     Published: January 6, 2015

                                     Rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

They can strike at anytime, anywhere.  A public landmark, a suburban shopping mall.  And now, the human body itself.  Three Middle Eastern terrorists have been injected with a biological weapon, human time bombs unleashed on Americal soil.  They are prepared to die.  To spread their disease.  To annihilate millions.  If America hopes to fight this enemy from within, we need a new kind of weapon.  Meet Jericho Quinn, Air Force veteran, Champion boxer.  Trained assassian.  Hand picked for a new global task force that, officially does not exist, Quinn answers only to the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. President himself.

His methods are as simple, and as brutal, as his codename.  The Hammer.

My Thoughts:

Although the build up to the climax was a little slow, I truly enjoyed this book.  The author takes us into depth each character so that we can get to know each one, and also shows us from each characters point of view the events leading up to the actual final climax.  

Jericho Quinn is a very quiet laid back man, but he is very good at what he does and he does it well.  Hence why he is called The Hammer.  He has a very special skill set and the government need him for it. He and his team battle to find the terrrorist and the author showed us how he went about doing it.  

This was well written, and definitely a book I will read or listen to again.  

About the Author:

A retired Chief Deputy U.S Marshall, Marc Cameron spent nearly thirty years in law enforcement.  His assignments have taken him to Alaska to Manhattan, Canada to Mexico and dozens of points in between.  He holds a second degree black belt in Jujitsu and is a certified scuba diver and man-tracker.

An avid adventure motorcyclist, Cameron's books heavily feature bikes and bikers-from OSI Jericho Quinn's beloved BMW to Harley Davidsons, Royal Enfields, Ducatis and most everything on two wheels,

Cameron lives in Alaska with his wife, blue heeler dog, and BMW GS motorcycle. 

Vist him at www.marccameronbooks.com

 

 Title: North of Nowhere

Author: Allison Brennan

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 360

ARC: Audiobook/ Kindle

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Published: Augusy 8, 2023

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen and Ryan McIntrye have been dreading has arrived.  Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them,  They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfires hits the fuel line.  The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, mamges to crash land in the middle  of the Montana wilderness.  The siblings hike deep into the wood, searching desperately for safety- unaware of the severity of the approaching storm.

Boyd's sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the Army years ago, cutting  off contact in order to keep her niece and nephew safe and free from the horrors of the McIntyre clan.  So when she gets an emergency call that the plane has gone down with the kids inside, she drops everything to try to save them.

As the storm builds, Ruby isn't the only person looking for them.  Boyd has hired an expert tracker to find and bring them home.  And rancher Nick Lorenzo, who knows these mountains better than anyone and doesn't understand why the kids are running, is on their trail too.

But there is a greater threat to Kristen and Ryan out there.  More volatile then the incoming blizzard, more dangerous than the family they ran from or the natural predators they could encounter.  Who finds them first could determine if they live or die.

My thoughts:

Allison Brennan did an excellent job with writing this thriller about two children who are hiding from their father because he is the head of a criminal family, but there is a plot twist that even I didn't see. I was shocked but it was an excellent story. We follow the teenagers as they hide out in the mountains of Montana to not be found by their father, as numerous parties search to find them to either keep them safe or to kidnap them. This author and narrator kept my attention through out the whole book. I would definitely recommend this book to others. Hence my rating of 5 stars!

About the Author

Allison Brennan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling award winning author of three dozen thrillers and numerous short stories.  She was nominated for Best Paperback Original Thriller by the International Thriller Writers, had multiiple nominations and two Daphne du Maurier Awards, and is a five-time RITA finalist for Best Romantic Suspense.  

Allison believes that life is to shore to be bored, so she had five kids and spends all her non writing time as a sports spectator, chauffer, and short-order cook for her children.  She has a dog, two cats, and three chickens.  Allsion and her family live in northern California

Title: Dark Corners

Author: Megan Goldin

Genre: Mystery/ Suspense

Pages:352

Publisher; St. Martin's Press

Published: August 8, 2023

                            ARC: Kindle

                            Raiting: 4 stars

Synopsis:

Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have suspected him in the murders of six women.  As his release date approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot young influencer with a huge social media following.  Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she's been kidnapped- or worse is Maddison's disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey?  And why was she visiting him in the first place?

When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel Krall's help in finding the missing influencer.  Maddison seems to only exxist on social media, she has no family, no friends, and other than her posts, most people have never seen her.  Who is she really?  Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.

When the police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, identical to a tattoo Rachel had seen on Bailey's hand-the FBI must consider a chilling possibilty:Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel.  Suddenly the target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confron the very dangers that lurk in the darl corners of the internet.

My Thoughts

This book was awesome, aside from the fact that it kept going back and forth between the killers point of view and then Rachel's.  I got confused at first because I wasn't sure whose point of view it was until later in the book.  

It was well written, but it could have been a little more specfic on whose point of view it was or wasn't.  

The plot was excellent and it definitely kept me reading and hoping Rachel and the FBI could find the killer.  

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves mysteries.

I am giving this 4 stars!

About the Author

MEGAN GOLDIN worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia. She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs. She is the author of The Escape Room, The Night Swim, and Stay Awake.
 

 

Title: Who Killed Jerusalem

Author: George Albert Brown

Genre: Mystery

ARC: Audiobook

Publisher: Galbraith Literary Publishers

Published: February 6, 2023

Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:

In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco's golden boy poet laureate, is found dead in a locked first class toliet on an arriving red-eye flight.

Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet's death.  Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with members of Jerusalem's coterie.

Ded soon realizes that to find out what happened, he must not only collect his usual detective's clues but also, despite his own poetically challenged outlook, get into the dead poet's mind.  Fighting his way through blasphemous funerals, drug-induced dreams, poetry-charged love=making, offbeat philosophical discussions, and much more, he begins to piece together Jerusalem's seductive, all encompassing metaphysics.

But by then, the attempts to kill Ded and the others have begun,

Before Ded's death dodging luck runs out, will he be able to solve the case and perhaps in the process, develop a new way of looking at the world that might allow him to replace his unhappiness with joy?

My Thoughts:

While I enjoyed the story and the plot, I am not a fan of mysteries with comedy.  Don't get me wrong, the story was really great, but the narrator sounded like a robot, and the comedy side of the mystery was not appealing.  As a result, the audiobook is only getting 3 stars

About the Author:

George Albert Brown is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law.  He started as a hippie in San Francisco's Haight Asbury, and retired at age 40 after having co-founded a successful international finance company.  Following stints thereafter as a humorous auth and an angel investor in over a score of high-tech university spinouts, he built a catamaran in Chile anf for more than a decade, cruised it across the globe with his significant other.  

Today, as a father of three grown children, a grandfather of four not yet grown children, and an involuntary lover of stray cats, he continues his peripatetic lifestyle by other means.

Book Review: Weapons of Opportunity

Title: Weapons of Opportunity

Author: Dale Brown

Genre: Thriller

Arc: Kindle

Series: Yes

Series name: Nick Flynn

Book in series: 3

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Publication Date: May 30, 2023

Pages: 405 pages 

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

    When Nick Flynn eft the US Air Force to join the Quartet Directorate, he did so with the full knowledge that no one could ever know.  This covert private force-called Four by its members-promised him the chance to lead his own missions and make his own decisions, though the risks are high.  When a former senior CIA executive goes dark, Flynn and his team-including the daring Laura Van Horn-are ready to step in.  What begins as a quiet check on his home turns into a firefight against a familiar enemy who is more dangerous than ever.

    Russian oligarch Pavel Voronin and his shadowy Raven Syndicate are back in action, supported by Russia's aging and autocratic president. Voronin intends to unleash a new force of advanced stealth aircraft against the US in order to make Moscow supreme and cement his own rise to power.  With millions of lives at stake, Flynn and his team must track Voronin's opeartives and mount a risky counterattack deep hostile territory.  If they fail, the consequences will be horrifc.  But failure isn't option-not for Nick Flynn.

My Thoughts:

    This was an excellent book..  I loved the storyline, and have grown to love Nick Flynn.  There was a lot of action and it was very intense read. It is one of the best action adventure books that I have read. This is definitely a must read book.  Dale Brown wrote an awesome book.

About the Author:

Former U.S. Air Force captain Dale Brown is the superstar author of 29 action-adventure "techno-thriller" novels.

Dale Brown was born in Buffalo, New York on Novemeber 2, 1956.  He graduated from Penn State University witha degree in Western European History and received an Air Force commission in 1978.  He was a navigator-bombardier in the B-526 Stratofortress heavy bomber and the FB-111A supersonic medium bomber, and is the receipient of several military decorations and awards including the Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Combat Crew Award, and the Marksmanship ribbon.

    Dale supports a number of organizations to promote law enforcement, education, and literacy.  He is a Life Member of the Air Force Association, U.S. Naval Institute, and National Rifle Association.  He is a command pilot for Angel Flight West (www.angelflightwest.org), a group that donates their time, skills, and aircraft to fly medical patients free of charge. 

    Dale, his wife Diane, and son Hunter live near Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Book Review: Tom Clancy's Op-Center:Fallout

Title: Tom Clancy's Op-Center Fallout

Author: Jeff Rovin

Genre:  Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Series: Tom Clancy's Op-Center

Book in Series: 22

ARC: Audiobook

Publisher: St. Martins Griffin

Publication date: May 30, 2023

My Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

After successfully extricating one of Bejing's top scientists from captivity and escorting him to America, the Black Wasp commandos find themselves targeted by Chinese assassins.  The killers are not only highly trained but invisible and is aware of every move Black Wasp makes.  Complicating matters, the new president of the United States seems willing to let Op Center take the fall for the mission that precipitated the crisis.

The shocking murder of one of their own forces the surviving team members to seek both a safe haven and an ally in the fight for survival-- an unexpected partner who might , in fact be part of the problem.

My Thoughts

The author did an excellent job following what Tom Clancy envisioned in this series.  It is well written, and the narrorator did an excellent job capturing all the charactors in the book.  The story flowed really well and the plot was very well written.  It kept me on the edge of my seat praying that Black Wasp would find the people behind this.  There was also a lot of political  intrigue, and so forth, but all in all it was an excellent book.  I give this book 5 stars.

About the Author

Jeff Rovin is the author of more that one hundred books, fiction and non fiction, both under his own name, under various pseudonyms, or as a ghost writer, including numerous New York Times bestsellers.  He has written over a dozen Op-Center novels for the late Tom Clancy.  Rovin has also written for television and has had numerous celebrity interviews published in magazines under his byline.  He is a member of the Author's Guild, the Science Fiction Writers of America, and the Horror Writers of America.

 

Book Review: The Syndicate Spy

 Title: The Syndicate Spy

Author: Brittany Butler

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press

Published: March 21,2023

ARC: Audiobook

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Synopsis:

In the near future, Earth's oil reserves are depleted.  Nations grapple to find an alternative energy source.  Terrorists race for control over world resources.  And the Syndicate-a conglomerate of allied intelligence agencies-struggles to maintain peace.

Syndicate operative Juliet Arroway and her best friend Mariam, a progressive Saudi princess, are tasked with hunting down terrorists and putting an end to the global energy war, the same mission that cost Juliet's father his life.  But when multiiple terrorist attacks result in devasting losses, including the death of Juliet's  longtime boyfriend, and the Syndicate begins to suspect that Mariam's family is somehow involved, Juliet must rise above her heartbreak to discover the truth.

In her quest, Juliet is paired with Graham-a dashing yet arrogant FBI agent-and embarks on a dangerous journey toward love and survival as they race to obtain the formula that could solve the energy crisis.  but when peace demands a stunning betrayall, Juliet must decide how much she is willing to pay for the success of her mission.  

My Thoughts:

Butler tells a story that is seldom told- how female heros and heroics can change the course of war.  Although I enjoyed the story and how this book focused on females heros, I was not that thrilled with the narrartor.  She didn't sound like she was into the book if that makes sense.  

The story relvolves around Juliet, and her friend Mariam as they both try to find out who the terrorists are and also find a way to fix Earth's problem about not having an energy source.  They face some nasty men and then they rise above and save they day.

About the Author:

Brittany Butler spent ninc years as a targeting officer within CIA's Directorate of Operations, Counterterrorism Center.  Both at Langley and on temporary assignments in the Middle East, Brittany spearheaded operational efforts to achieve some of the most sensitive foreign intelligence objectives abroad.  She has both first hand knowledge of targeting methodologies used in the recruitment of spies and extensive field experience in working with foreign liasions to discover and apprehend terrorists abroad.

She is a staunch advocate for women's rights in the Middle East and has worked for human rights campaigns in Afghanistan to protect and promote the rights of disenfranchised Afghan woman and girls.  Today, she assists Afghan refugees by helping them thrive in her local community.