Category: book reviews

I read and reviewed Not Gonna Die in the Dark by Adam Archer, and I recommend it to you very highly!

The main character really pulls you into this story. Suspenseful scenes keep you turning pages. It’s very well written too. Make sure to read the excerpt from the next book at the end, it gives you some info about Maggie’s situation that you, if you’re anything like me, have probably been hoping for.

It’s the story of a girl in high school who’s in the process of emancipating herself from a disinterested father when she’s attacked by a mysterious stranger. Scary things start happening to Maggie, and there’s a whole series after this free series starter for you to learn about them.

I’ve read Back to Bienville, and I recommend it. It’s not a typical book for these pages — it’s a non-fiction memoir about a woman’s healing experience with God. But it is a moving testimony, and since it’s free today (April 22) and tomorrow (4/23) why not grab a copy?

The Author, Melinda Matthews, is also a leader and powerful encourager in the tribe of clean authors on twitter, so if you’re on twitter and like books without explicit sex, follow her!

As an added bonus, her book Romeo, Juliet, Petie & Me is also free. It’s a short story about a dog. Download your copy today!

The writer of fiction must dance a delicate ballet with realism every time he sets pen to page. The words must be different enough from the humdrum world in which we live to send the reader on a voyage of escapism. At the same time, they must be believable enough to make it easy for the reader to begin that voyage.

Most readers don’t know what an FBI hostage negotiator feels as she does her job. Most readers don’t know what a special ops veteran feels as he raids an enemy base. The writer must create those “unrealistic” (for most of us) experiences as “realistically” as possible so that we can believe them enough to take the voyage.

In the first two instances — the FBI profiler and the soldier in a covert operation — Betrayal by Tim Tigner performs exceptionally well. These parts of the novel pull you in and make the pages seem to turn themselves. I love those portions of the book.

However, there’s a third major storyline: that of a candidate for Vice President and, he hopes, later President, and his campaign manager. The problem is, I am a campaign manager. In my day job, I help political candidates get elected — or at least I used to. It’s a stressful occupation that involves reading voter registration spreadsheets, planning parties, writing fundraising letters, and more.

Here’s what we don’t do: sneak into the candidate’s bedroom at night and chloroform his girlfriend so we can get a conversation alone with him about how he has to dump her because she’s too tall.

Which is, of course, exactly what the shadowy campaign manager does in this story. It destroyed my willing suspension of disbelief so badly that I just couldn’t fully enjoy the other — much more awesome — threads of the story. It makes me suspect maybe the portrayals of the soldier and FBI agent are as questionable as the portrayal of the politician, but I don’t know that because I’ve never done those jobs.

Betrayal by Tim Tigner is a lot of fun to read when it’s about action heroes taking and saving lives. Read it if you love those things and don’t care about politics much. But if you know too many details of how politics really works, this might not be the book for you.

I wanted to mark this book down. I had a lot of fairly good reasons. But the story telling and writing are simply good enough that it has to have five stars. If you like mile-a-minute thrill rides, frame-ups, and black ops, check out Hidden Agenda by Mick Bose.

Dan Roy is a special forces soldier who stumbles on a secret no one else has seen — a secret that points toward corruption at the highest levels. Before he can do anything about it, he’s accused of misconduct by his chain of command and headed home. It’s not longer after that that people start trying to kill him. To survive, clear his name and uncover the evil scheme behind it all, Roy will need all his talents and all his experience.

The language gets a little salty at times. There are some editing issues, and I think the author has room to grow in terms of his knowledge of firearms. But the closest thing to a sex scene fades to black after the first kiss, and I think strong language makes sense in stories of soldiers in crisis.

Read Hidden Agenda today! You won’t be sorry.

Regular readers will know I usually focus on my fellow independent authors in my reviews, rather than the big time guys. However, I recently discovered the writing of Joel C. Rosenberg. Apparently I am somewhat rare among evangelical Christians in this, so many readers may not find much new in this review. For those few who, like me, managed to miss out on this gem, I heartily recommend The First Hostage by Joel C. Rosenberg.

The President of the United States is kidnapped by Isis. Wow, what an opening! It verges on being a parody of itself, and might have become such in the hands of a less-capable author. But Rosenberg pulls it off with aplomb, making the story believable and suspenseful. He does it all in a way that’s not offensive to the family audience. Rosenberg’s writing reminds me a bit of Clancy from the good old days, but with less focus on technology.

If you like good old fashioned thrillers and action & adventure, read The First Hostage by Joel C. Rosenberg.