I've only known Al Lamanda a short while through Val Brooks, who edits my book
chapters for me. Val recommended this book so I gave it a look-see and purchased
it from Smashword. I only buy ebooks from Smashwords as they allow the books to
be downloaded in various formats and without the stupid DRM that locks books
into readers like Kindle. I read my books on various devices, my Palm TX or my
Pandigital Novel reader.
...
Anyway, I started to read this book and found it to be a very good read. I
liken it to David Baldacci's books, the Camel Club, in that there is a mysterious
man who has abilities that can not be easily explained. Okay to explain, the story
is about a mysterious man named John Tibbet, a homeless person in New York, who
keeps to himself to an extreme, until one night while he has left the shelter and
is out walking late to beat the heat, he comes across a mugging of a New York
Police officer by three homeless and ruthless thugs. They want his gun to commit
robberies and John finds them beating the young officer to an inch of his life.
It's then that John takes the men down in an orderly and professional fashion,
killing them. He calls for help on the officer's patrol car and he becomes a
media darling as the hero of what could have been a tragic incident.
Now John doesn't want the attention that the press is trying to give him and
the recovering officer's uncle, a police captain is curious about John's abilities
to take out three men with what amounts to military training. But, the big but
here, is that John has amnesia and doesn't know who he was or why he has these
special skills. There lies the key to the rest of the story.
After the news story breaks, John is now the target of a team of unknown
assailants bent on taking John down. Why? Read the book.
Okay, my opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it read very well for a book
by an indie writer, as I said it could have been written by Baldacci or Patterson,
well written and the dialog was believable. The biggest problem I had was the
ending. It was very good if you like conspiracies about government or black ops
missions and it left the plot wide open for a sequel. This is good, I will read
the sequel when it comes out, hopefully soon. I like my story endings to tie up
and be happy, but life doesn't work that way. When I finish writing one of my own
books I try to tie up all loose ends, while this book with it's very surprising
twist ending left it open for further adventures. I really liked the main character
and Al Lamanda gives him great depth and a humanity that creates sympathy, making
you care for the man. I hope to see him again, regaining his own life in the world.
Just read the book, you'll like it.
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