Able Danger by Kensington Roth

BOOK TOUR REVIEW by Betty Gelean

Covert groups, spies on spies, countries with strange bedfellows, this first book in the Able Danger series will keep the reader country-hopping worldwide. It opens with what appears to be a nice normal American suburban household which is suddenly disrupted in a very peculiar way. The family has become an unwitting test subject.

Kensington Roth has taken a political debacle and run with it. His protagonist is a black-ops spy, Harrison Court-006. Building around actual political decisions, Roth's book is a very compelling work of fiction that ties into reality very well. The style of writing is unique and very descriptive, the reader can picture whatever Court sees and encounters.  The author's sense of place and time is exquisite, the characterizations believable and consistent.

The action builds all the way through the book. Court's discovery that there is some kind of super-weapon, "Gravvox" being tested, and that one of their own, an ex-CIA agent has gone rogue, propels him with the extreme urgency of a runaway train to hunt down the ex-agent, stop him and learn the who, what, and when.  A plausible scenario, with a great and terrible surprise ending. Fortunately Roth is on his toes and the next book "Danger for 2" will be out soon, because I can't wait to find out what direction the sequel will take.  
4 1/2 stars

April 17, 2010: Just out, story-board type movie trailer for Able Danger on YouTube

Stuff to Spy For by Don Bruns

Reviewed for "Review the Book"

Don Brun's characters come into the story fully fledged, at least they appear to be, although from the Prologue it would suggest the story is being told by a dead man. Nevertheless, the characters at the beginning are definitely like comfy socks, well-worn and comfortable, and so they should, this is the third book in the "Stuff" series.

Still acting in their high school personae, these two bumbling lifelong friends are still chasing the American Dream.  Even with Skip's Business School training he is still floundering in the security business he is now working for, while James works for Cap’n Crab.

An underachiever, Skip is put in charge of installing security for a government department (a big secret everyone seems to know), the Department of Defense, and it begins to look like they may finally be getting somewhere in life.  He hires his crew, including James, and as an afterthought he also hires their neighbour who has not particularly been of interest to them, but seemed to have some knowledge of the equipment.

Skip's first order of business though is to play the part of boyfriend to the boss' girl-friend to throw his wife off the scent of infidelity.  The plot is complicated and fun, I loved the interaction of all the characters, including those who have made their first appearance in this book.  I am at a slight loss because I have not read the first two, but this works just as well as a stand-alone and is a very enjoyable and fast read.

However, Skip is no sooner introduced to the project than the first body turns up his feet under his desk and is found laid out behind said desk, very dead. Then they learn that other people on the government project have gradually gone missing. To complicate matters more, there are some very strange characters populating the book, and more spy intelligence equipment is soon purchased, or borrowed in order to get to the bottom of things.  Skip is overwhelmed with women wanting his attention, not a common state.  James is the Hardy Boys fan who is the catalyst to getting the equipment, but who to spy on? There are so many possibilities, not to mention that they are being tracked themselves. 

Overall, this is definitely an entertaining book, complete with espionage, mystery, murder, spies spying on spies, and a romp that kept me reading. It was hard to put the book down. I most certainly will read the first two in the series.   5 stars

Invisible Armies by Jon Evans

Originally posted on My Space, Aug. 1, 2007
Reviewed for Harper Collins My Space

This is the first Jon Evans novel I have read. What an adventure in reading! This book is positively vibrating with intensity and action. If you want a book that you will not want to put down, this is the book for you. The action is constant with occasional breaks where you can catch your breath before again boarding that rollercoaster ride through the pages. I found that with all the switchbacks and turnabouts I was holding my breath. This book spun me around and topsy-turvy with every change in direction. At first I found the narrative bits a bit unsettling, somewhat like watching a TV program with voice-over narration for the blind, but I soon overcame that feeling with the dialogue and action.

The story begins with a somewhat typical girl, Danielle, doing a favour for a friend. She is soon literally fighting for her life and for humanity. Nobody is who they seem, nobody wants to trust anyone else. This book will amaze you in how far the world has actually come in technology, but don’t concern yourself with whether you will understand technobabble; it will usually be explained. I guess you could say technology is one of the heroes. Jon Evans has built a brilliant story which includes the best and worst in people, greed, awareness, and the survival instinct in all of us. It takes us to different countries and in dark places and communities which seem worlds away. I highly recommend this book, it is outstanding in its genre. If it weren’t for the few calm spots in the book, I would have had to read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. In fact, I finished it at 3:00 in the morning. You will not be unaffected. 5 stars

The Dyodyne Experiment - a novel by James Doulgeris & V. Michael Santoro

Originally posted Saturday, August 8, 2009
Reviewed for Front Street Reviews

You know you are onto a unique story of plausible future when you check out the authors of this book. James Doulgeris, an expert in the healthcare industry for twenty-five years, and V. Michael Santoro, VP of product development for C-5 Biotechnologies with over twenty-five years in the high tech industry. This appears to be their first novel although Santoro is an established non-fiction author. A powerful debut novel!

Think of what a second September 11 event even more momentous than the original would escalate to. Think of amazing advances in biotechnology and DNA. Here you have the setting for amazingly devastating possibilities and perhaps probabilities. The time period appears to be perhaps as few as 2 decades or several decades in the future, and the first event is scheduled to coincide with the original September 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. The story is action-packed, character-driven, and told as a real-time scenario which keeps the pace of the book moving full throttle.

The discovery of a way to link DNA and biotechnology in this new future has created a “marking” or “tagging” method by which known terrorists and associates can be pinpointed anywhere in the world at any time, and as the story progresses further tweaking even allows interaction with the known and the suspected through their immune systems and general health within seconds. The change the world is facing is rushing at full speed ahead and everything must mesh minute by minute.

If you want a high speed international thriller, then this is the book for you. I applaud the authors on putting together such a diverse and frightening book. Many readers will find themselves revisiting the terrorism of today and will find that this book will get them thinking seriously of the roles involving several countries. There are unique methods used in this roller-coaster ride that will be unexpected, for instance the sometimes use of non-nuclear warfare. The book goes way beyond what our normal fears are and takes us on an unexpected journey of just who are the allies of the U.S.? Which countries are forming previously unnoticed alliances? Who or what governments can be trusted?

Slightly out of my normal reading genre, I found it exhilarating, frightening, believable in many ways, and a very good read. Because of the genre, I hesitate to say it, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could hardly put it down. I have a feeling there will be a follow-up to this book and if so I will certainly be one of the readers who will be waiting to read it.
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There were 3 comments posted when this was on my "accidentally split" version of my blog (R&B: Reading and Blogging), now hopefully combined forever! ;-) I am adding these comments here because I don't think I can do it on-line myself:

Anonymous said...
I loved the book too. Very edge of your seat stuff. It read like an action movie.
August 12, 2009 5:04 PM

Anonymous said...
Funny how you can find the exact same review on sooo many different sites by supposedly different people. Makes you wonder who really wrote the review....
September 13, 2009 7:36 PM

nightreader said...
In response to Anonymous re "...who really wrote the review..." Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I can assure you that I wrote this and all my reviews 100% myself. Some confusion may exist on different sites where my chosen ID name was already taken, hence I am mothergoose3, readerbynight, or simply Betty. If you can find me a sample of any other that does not appear to be me I would like to know about it. My words are my own. I review books on GoodReads, LibraryThing, Chapters Community, am a reviewer for FrontStreetReviews. Some of my shortened reviews show up on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca & ChaptersIndigo, sometimes at Barnes&Noble. Some of the reading sites happen to link to Facebook automatically. Some authors and bloggers have asked permission to use my review on their blogs, which I am always happy to approve. My profile can be found on almost every site I have personally reviewed on and should prove that I am indeed the person who wrote the review. In fact, by the way I have written this response should prove the truth as I tend to be wordy sometimes. I am not a professional reviewer, I am not paid, I apply for advanced reading books and contests and if I am lucky enough to get books (they are mostly draws) I get to keep them; the rest are books I've purchased myself. I do not read other reviews of the same book until after I have submitted my own so I won't be influenced and often find I am in disagreement with others to my surprise. ;-) I would definitely like to know if someone is using my reviews and taking credit for them.
September 20, 2009 9:51 AM

Santa Claus Is Coming by M.J. Rodgers

This book was a pleasant surprise to me. M.J. Rodgers has concocted a warped version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” in this suspenseful and fast-paced foray. The tension, both physical and mental, builds constantly to an ending that took me completely by surprise. “Santa Claus Is Coming” brings two totally opposing personalities together working as movie critics in point and counterpoint, a good description of their interaction. They are drawn together in this rapid chase to find the person who is threatening Belle Breeze at the TV station and at home. I read this entire book in one go, something I don’t often manage. This is a Harlequin Intrigue, copyright 1993. 4 stars