Title: Shadow Laws
Author: Jim M. Hansen
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Dark Sky Publishing
Pages: 396
ISBN: 9780976924340
Price: $13.95
Publishing Date:Dec 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is the second crime thriller I have read by this author. The first, Night Laws, was superb and this new one is even better. There must be something in the mountain air around Golden, Colorado just west and north of Denver that produces such fine writers of mysteries and thrillers. Several ones I have reviewed share common backgrounds and talents, and Jim Hansen is no exception. The current story is about unintended consequences and a wily serial killer who takes having his proclivities used by others who need to get rid of a little excess baggage rather resentfully. There are so many twists, turns, and gottcha’s in this story, that it keeps the reader guessing and surprised all the way to the end. It even includes a homicide detective chief who isn’t above a little frontier justice every now and then. The author is especially ambitious to juggle two protagonists—the detective and a smart lady lawyer who seem at times to be working at cross purposes. We rated the author’s second book five hearts of heart stopping action.
Title: Ageless Tear
Author: Linda Gale Vettel
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Action Novels 4U
Pages: 304
ISBN: 0-9716996-2-3
Price: $12.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Ageless Tear is a romantic thriller in which an undercover agent adopts a baby girl to enhance the believability of his cover and hires the child’s birth mother as a nanny. They travel the world, experiencing all kinds of adventures together, while living a platonic marriage of convenience. The inevitable development of true love between all involved eventually brings joy and happiness to all. We rated this book three hearts.
Title: Golem
Author: Greg Vilk
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Ricochet Press
Pages: 170
ISBN: 0-9772189-0-2
Price: $13.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
A US Army Ranger unit straight out of the school of the “Dirty Dozen” is pulled out of the Pacific Theater during World War II to jump into Northern Greenland to fight against a monster which has taken over an SS base—a golem, which has the ability to form itself out of any convenient material. It keeps growing bigger and smarter and more dangerous to the world. There exists a secret coded message that gives out the secret to effectively countering this threat and a beautiful lady scientist to decipher it. Will she de-code it in time?
This is a classic Hollywood thriller and reads like a screen treatment. Full of action, it reads like “The Dirty Dozen” meets “Indiana Jones.” The pace is non-stop. There is action, violence, romance, secret codes, and Nazi threats. At the same time, there is an excellent mix of flawed characters who have to work through both the problems of countering the golem and dealing with their own character flaws. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Sledgehammer
Author: Paulo J. Reyes
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: iUniverse
Pages: 200
ISBN: 0-595-66984-0
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
An emergency room doctor suspects a bio-terrorism weapon in the form of smallpox has been introduced into his hospital. He finds himself torn between nailing down the identity of the disease with certainty and fighting with naysayers which include the business administrator of his own hospital. This conflict and uncertainty builds throughout the story, bringing the reader to the edge of his chair.
The author, himself an emergency room physician, brings us inside the high pressure, overworked environment of the ER. He also gives us a glimpse of how unready this country is to deal with bio-terrorism. We rated this medical thriller five hearts.
Title: Superior Position
Author: Evan McNamara
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Berkley Publishing Group
Pages: 370
ISBN: 0-425-20390-5
Price: $7.99
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
The author of this fast moving suspense thriller is an ex-Army officer and commander of snipers. His unique background allowed him to write this story about a returned soldier/sniper who becomes a deputy sheriff in a small Colorado mountain community. Protagonist Bill Tatum is out for an early morning run when he discovers a woman’s body in a small river by his trail. He calls for backup, and the sheriff and another deputy respond. As they begin to examine the crime site, a sniper shoots the other deputy. This kicks off the steady elimination of some of the community’s most important people. Tatum is put in charge of finding and stopping the sniper.
The story is filled with excellent sniper/counter-sniper tactics. The pace is blindingly quick, and the hide and seek maneuvers between protagonist and antagonist are spellbinding. The author makes his story come alive. We rated this book a very high four hearts.
