Blog Tour de Force Review of Touch of Deceit by Gary Ponzo

Review by Bob Moats on Apr 13, 2011

There is a fine line between right and wrong. The FBI goes by the book, but would it hurt to look away and bend the rules a bit when it comes to terrorist who would destroy our freedom and our lives. I have said in another review that I wouldn't be upset with vigilantism if done by people who knew how to do it right. The plot of "A Touch of Deceit" features FBI special agent for counter-terrorism Nick Bracco, and his sharpshooting partner Matt McColm and their quest to find Kemel Kharrazi the world's most dangerous terrorist. Kharrazi is a leader in the Turkish Kurd's fight for freedom or so he says, but does he have another agenda?

I liked Nick because he wasn't some super special agent, just a guy with a beautiful wife and a lot of baggage in his life. He has a nervous condition, is being treated by a psychiatrist and has doubts about his career. He is also related to some underworld people in the form of a mob family. His cousin is part of that mob and a person close to him. When it comes out that Kharrazi is going to blow up a lot of people and their homes to force the President to remove troops from Turkey, Nick and Matt are on the trail. Kharrazi's people make a wrong move by blowing up the home of a head of the mob family and the mob isn't happy. The story is exciting and believable as Nick tries to find Kharrazi before he can carry out his threat to blow up the White House. Intrigue ensues and the mob is quietly drawn into the action to help find Kharrazi's stronghold and the detonator.

Lots of twists and turns along the story and lots of action, killings, bombings and humor. I liked all the characters and the story was easy to read, very few diverting back stories to murk up the plot, just all good adventure.

Gary Ponzo has a winner here and I hope the ending of this book will carry Nick and Matt into further adventures.

Book is available on Smashwords.com and at Gary's website http://www.garyponzo.com

Heaven Falls written by Winslow Eliot

Review by Bob Moats on Apr 13, 2011

I'm not one for reading romance novels, but I had met the delightful Winslow Eliot through Twitter and when she offered her book on Smashwords.com for a good price I bought it. I was reading John Locke's latest book "Saving Rachel" so had Winslow's book on the burner. The book is called "Heaven Falls" and I have to say now that I recently finished it, I am impressed. It's isn't totally a romance novel, but the flavor of the book is romantic, and then a mystery, then excitement. It revolves around an exclusive health spa that caters to people looking for the romance of love, not sexual but romantic love, just to hold hands and share romantic thoughts with another person and get a good spa treatment. Sounded good to me.

Tess is an ordinary woman with an 11 year old daughter, Freya. Tess had a brief fling with a man, Max, from a powerful family and the owners of Heaven Falls Spa, and Freya was born from that brief liaison. Years later Tess is approached by Jason, the brother of Max telling Tess that Max had died in an accident and his family wanted to meet Freya, Max's daughter. An offer is made to Tess to move to Heaven Falls, an offer Tess takes to heart being she is nearly broke and recently lost her beloved Aunt who she lived with. Too many details to cover here, but Tess does eventually move with Freya to the huge estate of Heaven Falls and becomes involved with the very strange family who runs the spa and now her new found relations.

As I said I'm not overly excited about reading romance stories, but this book took so many twists and turns it became more of a mystery novel to me. Tess had to fear for her life after she inherited the family business when the matriarch of the family passes, and the assortment of crazy relatives now want a piece of the wealth. She starts to fall in deep love with Jason but will they be destined to sort through the myriad of problems that come up. Who is the mysterious Ari, and what is his reasons for hovering over Freya and Tess. What is the story behind Phillip, the scarred, wheelchair confined brother who wants to marry Tess? Mystery abounds, and doesn't give an inch till later after murder attempts, kidnapping across the globe and deceitful goings on in the family.

I give this book a resounding endorsement, definitely a wild ride.

For more about the book go to Winslow's website: heavenfalls.com

Plain Jane: Brunettes Beware
By Cristyn West (@CristynWest on Twitter)

Review by Bob Moats on Apr 13, 2011

I've read most of the Alex Cross novels by James Patterson to be grossed out by graphic descriptions of cutting up bodies by psychopaths, so it should have been no problem getting through Plain Jane by Cristyn West. I was still queasy after finishing this book.

Early on it is revealed that a serial killer called Plain Jane has stolen a woman's uterus, actually lots of women, and it is up to another psychopath in the form of an FBI profiler named Kent Harbinger to catch him. I call this FBI profiler a psychopath only because he is so focused on the crime and getting into the head of the killer, he shreds apart the feelings of other agents who are also trying to stop Plain Jane. He has this single-minded desire to be right and perfect in his profiling of the killer that he keeps alienating everyone, but mostly a female agent who was once his lover, before he was commited to a mental hospital for, well read the book.

The guy is also a loose canon, he constantly goes off on his own to do the deed and he cares not if others want to help. The female hero, an agent named Nicole Usher, is trying to keep everyone happy, but Kent is not making it easy. Plus her present amour and partner Ruben Torres, is in a power struggle to prove Kent is a nut and should be put away again. He also doesn't like the Svengali hold Kent has on Nicole. There's a bit of in fighting amongst agents which doesn't help them stay focused on catching the real killer, well other than Kent's one track focus.

The story followed very well through the plot to catch the killer and a few red herrings were thrown in to mess with your mind, and who the actual Plain Jane is was a surprise. There was one part of the ending, I won't reveal, that had me amazed. It's something I have never seen in a story or even a horror film, you have to read it for the ultimate in twists. There are many plot devices I want to comment on but the whole thing depends on these surprises to carry the story so I can't reveal them. All I can say is read the book, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by this first time novel for Cristyn West. I recommend this book and it can be found on Smashwords.com, go check it out.

Blunt Force Trauma, by Danielle Monique, (@22DanielleM on Twitter)

Review by Bob Moats on Apr 13, 2011

I really can't call this a book review, because there is no book. Just a story that was sent to me from a perfectly delightful woman who I met on Twitter, lives in Western Australia and I was honored (honoured, as they spell it in the Queen's English) to be the first to read the entire manuscript of her very first full length novel. The story was written by Danielle Monique, a drama teacher in Western Australia who loves to write laughingly funny poetry about creatures who make stew from little children and a Peanut that ends up in a few places that peanuts shouldn't. She has a new blog she is starting for her musings and poetry, I'll give the link later.

As I said there is no book in the sense of this work being "published" or printed on paper, just words on the computer in digital, which seems the way to go now days. Whatever the method, this story was a very good crime novel. The opening reveals a woman's body being dumped from a highway overpass, slams into a car then being bounced onto the road harshly, but she survives! Although she ends up in a coma for a good many months, she has survived being beat on the head several times by unknown assailants and, as I said, dumped on the highway. What follows is the girl's attempt to remember what happened the night she was attacked and along the way discovers some very strange facts, like that she has left her husband for a woman and a mother who she hasn't spoken to in years suddenly reappears. These are very strange facts to a woman with a fragmented memory. Oh and it should be mentioned that this woman is a writer of crime novels.

The story follows with a Detective who has been working the case having no luck and now that the woman has come out of the coma he tries to help her to piece back the night in question. The story takes many twists that make sense and she slowly starts to remember small details. Many people are involved but the story is never bogged down by unnecessary plot lines, just straight to the point answers about the crime. There are a number of action sequences that are well played, and a few murders that cause the criminal's to start revealing themselves.

I have read tons of crime fiction, although American crime fiction, and I can say this story kept my interest, had me wondering and never went sour on plot or characters. I honestly enjoyed it. If I didn't honestly enjoy it I would just say it was good and leave it at that. The story takes place in and around London, England and the writing has that cultural difference from American slang and terms that I'm used to, but after a bit I was comfortable with the difference and just enjoyed the story. Besides I have seen enough Canadian and British humor and shows on PBS to have a small command of the culture.

As I said, this is not a book, and it's not available anywhere, it has be polished a bit to fix a very few grammatical errors and maybe, just maybe Danielle will let the world read it. If it were a book, I would not have been disappointed to have purchased it. Dani's blog can be found at: http://somedayandnever.wordpress.com and be sure to read her heartfelt posting about her twitter friends. You can find her on twitter as @Danmon22, say hi to her.

Maybe if you sweet talk her, she'll let you read her story too.

Lethal People by John Locke

Review by Bob Moats on Apr 13, 2011

The main character in the "Lethal" series of novels by John Locke (no, not the guy on Lost) is an enigma, at first it took me a while to warm up to his purpose in the plot of the book. Donovan Creed is his name, a strong mysterious man reminding me of John Carr from David Baldacci's Camel Club Books, and both men share almost the same background. They are or were both assassins for the government. While Carr hides from life, Creed goes forth doing his work. Donovan Creed has many paths that he follows, he explains his job as being a killer for hire, whether it is for the secret agency he works for or hiring out to private contracts and even has a tie to a mob boss. He doesn't question why he is hired to kill people, he says he is not the Judge, Jury or prosecutor, he calls himself the executioner. I slowly started to like the guy when he began to show a good sense of humor and a good heart.

Creed has a small number of associates that help in his quest to dispatch people he is hire to … well, dispatch. His main partner, Augustus Quinn, is a monster of a man who has a disfigured face but a good sense of who he is and his place in life. He also helps Creed stay alive by watching his back from men hired to kill Creed, or from the bevy of hookers Creed lines up to … well, dispatch or take to bed, then dispatch. I really started to like this guy after he made it his mission to help a little girl who was seriously burned in a home fire that was set by unknown criminals and killed her entire family. Creed also has to placate his ex-wife while trying to protect her from a wife-abusing fiance. Creed's daughter is trying to cope with her father's constant absence, although he keeps in touch with her as often as he can. He also starts falling in love with a woman who is the ex-wife of his ex-wife's abusive fiance. Confused, read the book. Creed already has so many irons in the fire, and it's even compounded by having to hire out to a strange voice on the phone with complex murder requests and then having to hook up on a mission with a band of little people clowns. No, this book isn't silly, it is has good intentions that work.

The writing is smooth and easy to read, I like books that don't challenge me to know all about the childhood of a character if it means nothing to the plot, just put there for padding. I like a book to go on with the plot and keep the action going. This book has plenty of action including gun battles in a restaurant, blowing up hotels and an attack with little people carrying fortress destroying weapons, it keeps you moving. The sex is gratifying and frequent. Oh, speaking of sex, there's Callie, a super sexy and lethal killing machine who is another of Creed's stable of collaborators who pops in to help out. The complex plot of this book is sorted out by the end and everyone is happy, except those who were… well, dispatched.

I read this book on my Palm TX in EReader form that I purchased from Smashwords.com, but the paperback edition is available for those who like to flip pages. It's a good, enjoyable read and continues in the next book, "Lethal Experiment" which I am reading now.

John's books are available on Amazon and Smashwords.

The Addict by Bob Kuykendall

Review by Bob Moats on Apr 13, 2011

I met Bob Kuykendall on Twitter and we both shared the love to write crime novels. Bob's book, "The Addict" is an intriguing tale about a special agent for Homeland Security and his mission to find a killer who is poisoning drug users with a bad mixture of a street drug. Along the way he runs into a former classmate and football team player, Esposito, but the friend is now an addled drug user who can't seem to get his life together without lying and using. Cade is the agent who tries to reform his now attached friend all while trying to track the killer, but his own inner turmoil is getting the best of him. He feels conflicted with being away from his family and his own self-doubts about the people he comes in contact with, both the police he has to deal with and the leads he tracks down in his case.

This is an interesting story about a man on the edge and how he deals with it. Bob's use of his past and present occupation in law enforcement adds to the authenticity of the book and sometimes it seems his character is going in circles by the real world rules and not those in fiction where the agent can just bust down doors anytime he feels like. Bob's real world says there is tons of paperwork before and after a door busting which ties Cade's hands often. I won't spoil the ending, it is a head turner, but read carefully this book before you get to the ending. I was given a "Teen Copy" of the book to read since the adult version, with all the good words and stuff, is in the process of being edited for future publishing through Bob's Literary Agency.

This is definitely an enjoyable read, and thought provoking. It's also a two tissue ending, I'm big on happy endings in the books I write, but Bob's ending works. Check out the story on http://www.yournextconference.com for Bob and the real man the book character of Esposito was based on.