I absolutely LOVE finding an incredible author that generates such an interest in their novels, that once you begin them, not only are you transported into the story as a bystander, but you simply can't put it down. Such is the case with my introduction to Jon Land's series of Caitlin Strong novels, with his latest, number nine by the way, Strong to the Bone. This is my first experience with this author and let me tell you, he can weave a story so compelling, you won't be able to put it down, until you know how it all plays out, and finally an author that doesn't convey the plot line too soon, so you have to stick it out.

In Strong to the Bone, the novel toggles between the Strong family, both in present day and also during 1944. The connection point between the two time frames is unforgettable in how they simply traveled together over the time passes to impact a Texas Ranger family, first the grandfather, Earl Strong and then subsequently the daughter, Caitlin Strong who originally didn't want to follow in her grandfather's footsteps. However when she was a victim of a rape, it changed her mind dramatically to take charge of her role in finding out who did it since she was drugged at the time and can't remember who handed her the drink initially. Now she is working a case that links her own crime to another rape victim and the DNA results tie it to the same perpetrator.

Once more the storyline will reach back into the past when Earl Strong's initial prisoner during WWII left behind three fatalities in a POW camp that also set the killer free. It was the one case he would never truly solve and one that kept him awake at nights. Now with a biological weapon posed to strike the US, could this have a connection from the past, and will Caitlin be able to solve the one missing piece of the puzzle her grandfather was unable to?

I received Strong to the Bone by Jon Land compliments of Partners in Crime Tours and Forge Books. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and love how I was able to jump right in without missing anything from the previous eight novels. That to me, is a sign of a truly talented writer. While this book does contain some profanity and sexual content that might be offensive to some readers, the overall story line is amazing. For that reason, I easily give this novel a 4 out of 5 stars based on my own review criteria and can't wait for more from this author.

For more information about Strong to the Bone, Jon Land or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Strong to the Bone by Jon Land

You can find Jon Land on Facebook to stay up to date on all his latest novels.

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12/04 Review @ The Book Divas Reads
12/05 Review @ 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too
12/06 Blog Talk Radio w/Fran Lewis
12/06 Review @ CMash Reads
12/06/18 Review @ Just reviews
12/07 Interview @ CMash Reads
12/07 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
12/08 Guest Post @ Loris Reading Corner
12/08 Showcase @ The Bookworm Lodge
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12/11 Review @ Reviews From The Heart
12/11 Showcase @ Chill and read
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12/13 Review @ A Bookaholic Swede
12/14 Excerpt @ Suspense Magazine
12/15 Interview @ A Blue Million Books
12/16 Showcase @ Books, Dreams, Life
12/17 Review @ Mythical Books
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01/07 Showcase @ Brooke Blogs
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01/10 Review @ Its All About the Book
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01/22 Review @ Mystery Suspense Reviews
01/23 Guest post @ Mystery Suspense Reviews
01/26 Review @ Celticladys Reviews
01/30 Review @ A Room Wihtout Books is Empty
01/31 Review @ The Avid Book Collector

Strong to the Bone

by Jon Land

on Tour December 4, 2017 - January 31, 2018

Synopsis:

1944: Texas Ranger Jim Strong investigates a triple murder inside a Nazi POW camp in Texas.
The Present: His daughter, fifth generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong, finds herself pursuing the killer her father never caught in the most personal case of her career a conspiracy stretching from that Nazi POW camp to a modern-day neo-Nazi gang.
A sinister movement has emerged from the shadows of history, determined to undermine the American way of life. Its leader, Armand Fisker, has an army at his disposal, a deadly bio-weapon, and a reputation for being unbeatable. But he s never taken on the likes of Caitlin Strong and her outlaw lover, Cort Wesley Masters.
To prevent an unspeakable cataclysm, Caitlin and Cort Wesley must win a war the world thought was over.

"Strong to the Bone is another fine effort by Jon Land, who manages to mix character development with gripping, page-turning plots. This is his best novel yet."
— StrandMagazine

Book Details:

Genre: Thriller
Published by: Forge Books
Publication Date: December 5, 2017
Number of Pages: 368
ISBN: 0765384647 (ISBN13: 9780765384645)
Series: Caitlin Strong Novels (Volume 9)
Purchase Links: Amazon  | Barnes & Noble  | Goodreads | Macmillan 

Read an excerpt:

CHAPTER 1

Austin, Texas
“What the hell?”
Caitlin Strong and Cort Wesley Masters had just emerged from Esther’s Follie’s on East 6th Steet, when they saw the stream of people hurrying down the road, gazes universally cocked back behind them. Sirens blared off in the distance and a steady chorus of honking horns seemed to be coming from an adjoining block just past the street affectionately known as “Dirty Sixth,” Austin’s version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
“Couldn’t tell you,” Cort Wesley said, even as he sized up the scene. “But I got a feeling we’re gonna know before much longer.”
* * *
Caitlin was in town to speak at a national law enforcement conference focusing on homegrown terrorism, and both her sessions at the Convention Center had been jam-packed. She felt kind of guilty her presentations had lacked the audio-visual touches many of the others had featured. But the audiences hadn’t seem to mind, filling a sectioned-off ballroom to the gills to hear of her direct experiences, in contrast to theoretical dissertations by experts. Audiences comprised of cops a lot like her, looking to bring something back home they could actually use. She’d focused to a great extent on her most recent battle with ISIS right here in Texas, and an al-Qaeda cell a few years before that, stressing how much things had changed in the interim and how much more they were likely to.
Cort Wesley had driven up from San Antonio to meet her for a rare night out that had begun with dinner at Ancho’s inside the Omni Hotel and then a stop at Antone’s nightclub to see the Rats, a band headed by a Texas Ranger tech expert known as Young Roger. From there, they’d walked to Esther’s Follies to take in the famed Texas-centric improve show there, a first for both of them that was every bit as funny and entertaining as advertised, even with a gun-toting woman both Caitlin and Cort Wesley realized was based on her.
Fortunately, no one else in the audience made that connection and they managed to slip out ahead of the rest of the crowd. Once outside, though, they were greeted by a flood of pedestrians pouring up the street from an area of congestion a few blocks down, just past 8th Street.
“What you figure, Ranger?”
“That maybe we better go have ourselves a look.”
 

CHAPTER 2

Austin, Texas
Caitlin practically collided with a young man holding a wad of napkins against his bleeding nose at the intersection with East 7th Street.
“What’s going on?” she asked him, pulling back her blazer to show her Texas Ranger badge.
The young man looked from it back to her, swallowing some blood and hacking it up onto the street. “University of Texas graduation party took over all of Stubb’s Barbecue,” he said, pointing in the restaurant’s direction. “Guess you could say it got out of hand. Bunch of fraternities going at it.” He looked at the badge pinned to her chest again. “Are you really a Texas Ranger?”
“You need to get to an emergency room,” Caitlin told him, and pressed on with Cort Wesley by her side.
“Kid was no older than Dylan,” he noted, mentioning his oldest son who was still on a yearlong leave from Brown University.
“How many fraternities does the University of Texas at Austin have anyway, Cort Wesley?”
“A whole bunch.”
“Yeah,” she nodded, continuing on toward the swell of bodies and flashing lights, “it sure looks that way.”
Stubb’s was well known for its barbecue offerings and, just as much, its status as a concert venue. The interior was modest in size, as Caitlin recalled, two floors with the bottom level normally reserved for private parties and the upstairs generally packed with patrons both old and new. The rear of the main building, and several adjoining ones, featured a flattened dirt lot fronted by several performance stages where upwards of two thousand people could enjoy live music in the company of three sprawling outdoor bars.
That meant this graduation party gone bad may have featured at least a comparable number of students and probably even more, many of whom remained in the street, milling about as altercations continued to flare, while first responders struggled futilely to disperse the crowd. Young men and women still swigging bottles of beer, while pushing and shoving each other. The sound of glass breaking rose over the loudening din of the approaching sirens, the whole scene glowing amid the colors splashed from the revolving lights of the Austin police cars already on the scene.
A fire engine leading a rescue wagon screeched to a halt just ahead of Cort Wesley and Caitlin, at the intersection with 7th Street, beyond which had become impassable.
“Dylan could even be here, for all I know,” Cort Wesley said, picking up his earlier train of thought.
“He doesn’t go to UT.”
“But there’s girls and trouble, two things he excels at the most.”
This as fights continued breaking out one after another, splinters of violence on the verge of erupting into an all-out brawl going on under the spill of the LED streetlights rising over Stubb’s.
Caitlin pictured swirling lines of already drunk patrons being refused admittance due to capacity issues. Standing in line full of alcohol on a steamy night, expectations of a celebratory evening dashed, was a recipe for just what she was viewing now. In her mind, she saw fights breaking out between rival UT fraternities mostly in the outdoor performance area, before spilling out into the street, fueled by simmering tempers now on high heat.
“You see any good we can be here?” Cort Wesley asked her.
Caitlin was about to say no, when she spotted an anxious Austin patrol cop doing his best to break up fights that had spread as far as 7th Street. She and Cort Wesley sifted through the crowd and made their way toward him, Caitlin advancing alone when they drew close.
“Anything I can do to help,” she said, reading the Austin policeman’s nametag, “Officer Hilton?”
Hilton leaned up against an ornate light pole that looked like gnarled wrought iron for support. He was breathing hard, his face scraped and bruised. He noted the Texas Ranger badge and seemed to match her face to whatever media reports he’d remembered her from.
“Not unless you got enough Moses in you to part the Red Sea out there, Ranger.”
“What brought you boys out here? Detail work?” Caitlin asked, trying to account for his presence on scene so quickly, ahead of the sirens screaming through the night.
Hilton shook his head. “An anonymous nine-one-one call about a sexual assault taking place inside the club, the downstairs lounge.”
“And you didn’t go inside?”
Hilton turned his gaze on the street, his breathing picking up again. “Through that? My partner tried and ended up getting his skull cracked open by a bottle. I damn near got killed fighting to reach him. Managed to get him in the back of our squad car and called for a rescue,” he said, casting his gaze toward the fire engine and ambulance that were going nowhere. “Think maybe I better carry him to the hospital myself.”
“What about the girl?”
“What girl?”
“Sexual assault victim inside the club.”
Hilton frowned. “Most of them turn out to be false alarms anyway.”
“Do they now?”
Caitlin’s tone left him sneering at her. “Look, Ranger, you want to shoot up the street to get inside that shithole, be my guest. I’m not leaving my partner.”
“Thanks for giving me permission,” she said, and steered back for Cort Wesley.
“That looked like it went well,” he noted, pushing a frat boy who’d ventured too close out of the way, after stripping the empty beer bottle he was holding by the neck from his grasp.
“Sexual assault victim might still be inside, Cort Wesley.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Got any ideas, Ranger?”
Caitlin eyed the fire engine stranded where East 7th Street met Red River Avenue. “Just one.”
 

CHAPTER 3

Austin, Texas
Four firemen were gathered behind the truck in a tight cluster, speaking with the two paramedics from the rescue wagon.
“I’m a Texas Ranger,” Caitlin announced, approaching them with jacket peeled back to reveal her badge, “and I’m commandeering your truck.”
“You’re what?” one of the fireman managed. “No, absolutely not!”
The siren began blaring and lights started flashing, courtesy of Cort Wesley who’d climbed up behind the wheel.
“Sorry,” Caitlin said, raising her voice above the din, “can’t hear you!”
* * *
The crowd that filled the street in front of Stubb’s Barbecue saw and heard the fire truck coming and began pelting it with bottles, as it edged forward through the congested street that smelled of sweat and beer. What looked like steam hung in the stagnant air overhead, either an illusion or the actual product of so many superheated bodies congealed in such tight quarters. The sound of glass braking crackled through Caitlin’s ears, as bottle after bottle smashed against the truck’s frame.
The crowd clustered tighter around the fire engine, cutting off Cort Wesley’s way backward or on toward Stubb’s. The students, their fervor and aggression bred by alcohol, never noticed Caitlin’s presence atop the truck until she finally figured out the workings of the truck’s deck gun and squeezed the nozzle.
The force of the water bursting out of the barrel nearly knocked her backward off the truck. But she managed to right and then repositioned herself, as she doused the tight cluster of students between the truck and the restaurant entrance with the gun’s powerful stream.
A wave of people tried to fight the flow and ended up getting blown off their feet, thrown into other students who then scrambled to avoid the fire engine’s surge forward ahead of its deafening horn. Caitlin continued to clear a path for Cort Wesley, sweeping the deck gun in light motions from side to side, the five hundred gallon tank still plenty full when the club entrance drew within clear view.
She felt the fire engine’s front wheels mount the sidewalk and twist heavily to the right. The front fender grazed the building and took out a plate glass window the rioting had somehow spared. Caitlin saw a gap in the crowd open all the way to the entrance and leaped down from the truck to take advantage of it, before it closed up again.
She purposely didn’t draw her gun and entered Stubb’s to the sight of bloodied bouncers and staff herding the last of the patrons out of the restaurant. Outside, the steady blare of sirens told her the Austin police had arrived in force. Little they could do to disperse a crowd this large and unruly in rapid fashion, though, much less reach the entrance to lend their efforts to Caitlin’s in locating the sexual assault victim.
She threaded her way through the ground floor of Stubb’s to the stairs leading down to the private lounge area. The air felt like it was being blasted out of a steam oven, roiled with coagulated body heat untouched by the restaurant’s air conditioning that left Caitlin with the sense she was descending to hell.
Reaching the windowless sub-level floor, she swept her eyes about and thought she heard a whimpering come from a nest of couches, where a male figure hovered over the frame of a woman, lying half on and half off a sectional couch.
“Sir, put your hands in the air and turn around slowly!” Caitlin ordered, drawing her SIG-Sauer nine-millimeter pistol. “Don’t make me tell you twice!”
He started to turn, without raising his hands, and Caitlin fired when she glimpsed something shiny in his grasp. Impact to the shoulder twisted the man around and spilled him over the sectional couch, Caitlin holding her SIG at the ready as she approached his victim.
She heard the whimpering again, making her think more of the sound a dog makes, and followed it toward a tight cluster of connected couch sections, their cushions all stained wet and smelling thickly of beer. Drawing closer while still keeping a sharp eye on the man she’d shot, Caitlin spotted a big smart phone lying just out of his grasp, recognizing it as the object she’d wrongly taken for a gun. Then Caitlin spied a young woman of college age pinned between a pair of couch sections, covering her exposed breasts with her arms, her torn blouse hanging off her and jeans unbuttoned and unzipped just short of her hips.
Drawing closer, Caitlin saw the young woman’s assailant, the man she’d just shot in all likelihood, must’ve yanked them down so violently that he’d split the zipper and torn off the snap or button.
“Ma’am?” she called softly.
The young woman tightened herself into a ball and retreated deeper into the darkness between the couch sections, not seeming to hear her.
“Ma’am,” Caitlin said louder, hovering over the coed while continuing to check on the man she’d shot, his eyes drifting in and out of consciousness, his shirt wet with blood in the shoulder area from the gunshot wound.
Caitlin only wished it was her own attacker lying there, from all those years before when she’d been a coed herself at the Lone Star College campus in West Houston. Some memories suppressed easily, others were like a toothache that came and went. That one was more like a cavity that had been filled, forgotten until the filling broke off and raw nerve pain flared.
Caitlin pushed the couch sections aside and knelt by the young woman, pistol tucked low by her hip so as not to frighten her further.
“I’m a Texas Ranger, ma’am,” she said, in as soothing a voice as she could manage. “I need to get you out of here, and I need you to help me. I need to know if you can walk.”
The young woman finally looked at her, nodded. Her left cheek was swollen badly and one of her arms hung limply from its socket. Caitlin looked back at the downed form of the man she’d already shot once, half hoping he gave her a reason to shoot him again.
“What’s your name? Mine’s Caitlin.”
“Kelly Ann,” the young woman said, her voice dry and cracking.
Caitlin helped her to her feet. “Well, Kelly Ann, I know things feel real bad right now, but trust me when I tell you this is bad as they’re going to get.”
Kelly Ann’s features perked up slightly, her eyes flashing back to life. She tried to take a deep breath, but stopped halfway though.
Caitlin held her around the shoulders in one arm, SIG clutched in her free hand while her eyes stayed peeled on the downed man’s stirring form. “I’m going to stay with you the whole way until we get you some help,” she promised.
The building suddenly felt like a Fun House Hall of Mirrors. Everything distorted, perspective and sense of place lost. Even the stairs climbing back to the ground floor felt different, only the musty smell of sweat mixed with stale perfume and body spray telling her they were the same.
Caitlin wanted to tell Kelly Ann it would be all right, that it would get better, that it would all go away in time. But that would be a lie, so she said nothing at all. Almost to the door, she gazed toward a loose assemblages of frat boys wearing hoodies displaying their letters as they chugged from liquor bottles stripped from the shelves behind the main bar on the first floor. How different were they from the one who’d hurt her, hurt Kelly Ann?
Caitlin wanted to shoot the bottles out of their hands, but kept leading Kelly Ann on instead, out into the night and the vapor spray from the deck gun now being wielded by Cort Wesley to keep their route clear.
“’Bout time!” he shouted down, scampering across the truck’s top to retake his place behind the wheel.
Caitlin was already inside the cab, Kelly Ann clinging tight to her.
“Where to, Ranger?”
“Seton Medical Center, Cort Wesley.”
Before he got going, Caitlin noticed Officer Hilton and several other Austin cops pushing their way through the crowd toward the entrance to Stubb’s.
“Don’t worry, Officer, I got the victim out safe and sound,” she yelled down to him, only half-sarcastically. “But I left a man with a bullet in his shoulder down there for you to take care of.”
“Come again?”
“I’d hurry, if I were you. He’s losing blood.”
***
Excerpt from Strong to the Bone by Jon Land. Copyright © 2017 by Jon Land. Reproduced with permission from Jon Land. All rights reserved.

Author Bio:

Jon Land is the USA Today bestselling author of 43 books, including eight titles in the critically acclaimed Caitlin Strong series: Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance, Strong Rain Falling (winner of the 2014 International Book Award and 2013 USA Best Book Award for Mystery-Suspense), Strong Darkness (winner of the 2014 USA Books Best Book Award and the 2015 International Book Award for Thriller, and Strong Light of Day which won the 2016 International Book Award for Best Thriller-Adventure, the 2015 Books and Author Award for Best Mystery Thriller, and the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Award for Best Mystery. Strong Cold Dead became the fourth title in the series in a row to win the International Book Award in 2017 and about which Booklist said, “Thrillers don’t get any better than this,” in a starred review. Land has also teamed with multiple New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham on a new sci-fi series, the first of which, The Rising, was published by Forge in January of 2017. He is a 1979 graduate of Brown University and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Catch Up With Our Author On: Website , Goodreads , Twitter , & Facebook !

 

Tour Participants:

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Giveaway:

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Jon Land. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com gift Card AND 5 winners of one (1) eBook copy of Strong To The Bone by Jon Land. The giveaway begins on December 4 and runs through February 2, 2018.

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Fans of Jason Bourne or Ethan Hunt will absolutely LOVE Matthew Dunn's series of novel revolving around Will Cochrane, the ultimate intelligence operative and most lethal most wanted man by our own government. While he had faked his own death, to avoid being captured on many fronts, he is now gone into deeper uncover to avoid being killed, arrested or tortured by those who want what secrets he knows. There is only a handful of trusted individuals whom know that Will is alive, and when a mission that involved Will's skills three years ago, suddenly surfaces, the body counts begin to rise.

Will was asked to take out a known financier who had connections to fund known terrorists groups with whatever capital they needed to complete their nefarious acts on unsuspecting countries. He is only provided with enough information to complete this task and go back into hiding. When he is given the signal that the man is confirmed for the hit, Will takes him out and vanishes into the darkness while others cover up the scene of the crime. Without Will's knowledge this was a government conspiracy that involved those in the FBI, CIA and others. The man who was heading up the entire operation, has taken the money and vanished without a trace. Those that know about this operation are simply hoping he has no hopes of returning. They know that more than just their careers are on the line.

Yet Will is contacted by a trusted member of that group as it appears this rogue agent has reappeared and plans on removing those who know all about his activities. Before Will has a chance to talk to him, he is murdered and slowly one by one, each of those responsible are being killed before they have a chance to speak about their involvement. Will is in a race against time to stop the one man who just might be his equal, but in doing so, he might have to give up his anonymity and risk being tried, convicted and killed by his own government authorities.

I received Act of Betrayal by Matthew Dunn compliments of Partners in Crime Tours and William Morrow Publishers, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. This is the seventh novel in the Will Cochrane series, and once again, it is action packed and never a dull moment and those who are involved seek to run and hide hoping they will survive somehow. It is like a spy versus spy novel and I easily inhaled this one in a few hours. It is simply that good. I don't think I could turn pages fast enough. Love all the deep undercover stuff and the rudimentary ways people are being killed without being able to stop it. Crazy stuff I had never imagined before. Makes one wonder about the true inner workings of our own government and special operations forces. Worth every one of 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information about Act of Betrayal, Matthew Dunn or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Act of Betrayal by Matthew Dunn

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10/23 Showcase @ Books Can Be Deadly
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11/25 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews

 

Act of Betrayal

by Matthew Dunn

on Tour October 23 - November 30, 2017

Synopsis:

In this riveting entry in the celebrated thriller series, former intelligence operative Will Cochrane—a "ruthless yet noble" (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram) man from whom "Bond and Bourne could learn a thing or two" (Madison County Herald)—comes out of hiding to expose a conspiracy involving a past assassination that reaches to the highest echelons of the U.S. government.

Three years ago, intelligence officer Will Cochrane was brought in by a Delta Force colonel to assassinate a terrorist financier in Berlin. After the job, the commander vanished, and hasn’t been heard from since. The details don’t quite add up, and one of the CIA agents who was involved has been investigating the mission. He reaches out to Will for help, but before they can connect, the CIA man is poisoned.
Will is determined to uncover the truth about Berlin, even if it means putting himself in the crosshairs. Framed for multiple murders, the skilled former spy has gone deep underground to evade his enemies and the feds. But honor and loyalty to his old colleague thrust him into danger once again.
When Marsha Gage at the FBI discovers that Cochrane—one of America’s Most Wanted—has resurfaced, she immediately launches a manhunt, and she won’t stop until she brings the former CIA/MI6 operative in.
With time running out, Cochrane will use all of his training and formidable skills to outmaneuver the FBI and uncover a shocking conspiracy that will rock the foundations of our nation . . . if he can stay alive.

Book Details:

Genre: Thriller
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 24th 2017
Number of Pages: 320
ISBN: 0062427229 (ISBN13: 9780062427229)
Series: Spycatcher #7
Purchase Links: Amazon  | Barnes & Noble  | Goodreads 

Read an excerpt:

IT WAS PAST midnight as wind and rain pounded the exterior of the tiny bookstore in Chicago. The store was closed and its owner was sitting at his desk checking the week’s receipts. The task wouldn’t take long—his store specialized in rare works that he sourced from around the world. He had some loyal customers, but they were few. This week seven people had made purchases.
The only light in the room came from his green desk lamp, old-fashioned in design to match the ambience of the shop. Aside from some electronic devices on his desk and recessed lights that cast a discreet yellow glow when turned on, the place looked like it could have been a purveyor of fine works established and un- changed since the eighteenth century. He’d constructed it that way: dark maple bookshelves; many of the books leather bound, all of them hardcover; two armchairs for customers to sit in when perusing potential acquisitions; an urn for his more discerning patrons who valued his loose-leaf tea collection; and a cage for his two lovebirds.
He was an old-fashioned guy at heart.
And though he could have done with more cash coming in, he’d deliberately established a business and identity that drew little attention. He playacted a shy man, his trimmed beard intended to put up barriers between him and others, his shoulders artificially stooped during the day as if he were ashamed of his six-foot-four physique, his cropped blond-and-gray hair functional because he had no woman in his life to impress, and his unneeded glasses covering one green eye, one blue. He was always in a smart three-piece suit because the attire was good at hiding his athletic frame and scars. Customers thought he was Edward Pope, a gentleman scholar from the South. They’d probably estimate his age was late forties. They’d be wrong about that and most other things. He’d led a hard life and was forty-five.
His name wasn’t Edward Pope.
It was Will Cochrane.
The assassin. The one Sapper and Kane were terrified of.
He wasn’t from the Deep South. He was raised in Virginia and earned a double first-class degree at England’s Cambridge University. And he’d been a bookseller for only under a year.
But he had to be Pope. In the eyes of the world, Will was a murderer. He’d killed people as a special forces French Foreign Legionnaire and assassinated targets in French intelligence black operations. He had been the West’s prime joint operative with the CIA and Britain’s MI6 for fourteen years, until he went crazy and killed a lot of cops and civilians in the States before throwing himself off the Brooklyn Bridge and dying.
His death was essential. He was America’s Most Wanted. He wasn’t what some thought of him—a psychopath. But he was a former special operative and killer. Had been all his adult life. It started when he was seventeen and walked in on four criminals suffocating his mother and about to kill his sister. His mother died; sister didn’t, because he grabbed his mother’s carving knife and ended the criminals’ lives before fleeing to the Legion. He wished he didn’t know how many people he’d killed since. It would be a lie. He knew every victim. Their souls lingered around him, taunting him, reminding him of who he was.
All 263 souls.
But the souls of the people they say he killed in the States didn’t hassle him.
Because he didn’t kill them. He never killed innocents, only those who needed to be killed.
But in the eyes of the law, that’s not the case and that’s why he had to fake his death and reinvent himself. A year ago, his situation was desperate, despite all of his training and covert operations experience in hostile countries. He’d received only one bit of help, but it was significant. Russia’s most formidable intelligence officer, code name Antaeus—now, thanks to Will, a defector living in the States—had cleverly managed to get $300,000 into Will’s pocket. Will didn’t know exactly why he’d done it. After all, Will had accidentally killed his family with a car bomb when in fact he’d intended only to kill the spy. But he suspected he knew why the Russian had become his benefactor: Antaeus wanted his generosity to plunge the knife that was Will’s guilt deeper.
Regardless of Antaeus’s motives, the cash helped set up Will’s new life.
Will’s family and close acquaintances were all dead. He’d be given the needle if cops found out who he was. The West he’d served with unflinching duty had hung him out to dry. He thought of himself as a scavenging dog, kicked out of its owner’s backyard and left to fend for itself. He was resigned to that, every day expecting the Feds to rush into his store and put a bullet in his skull. That’s what they’d do. No attempt to arrest. No negotiations. Execution only. Will wouldn’t blame them. They knew he’d cause carnage if given the slightest of chances.
He finished his accounts, took a swig of Assam tea, and frowned as he heard the female lovebird make an unusual sound. Like her male companion, she resembled a small parrot, her plumage green and yellow, face and beak red, large eyes pure white with black pupils. He’d taken the birds off the hands of an old lady who frequented his store. Her son, a merchant marine officer, had brought them back from exotic climes, though she couldn’t remember where because she was suffering from dementia. And she could no longer look after them, particularly now that the male had broken his wing. Will hated seeing animals in cages. But the female wouldn’t leave the male’s side. And for the time being, the male had to be kept in the cage until he was fully recuperated. Then Will would release them to a large aviary or the wild.
Their previous owner couldn’t remember their names, so Will called the male Ebb and the female Flo. Flo was now agitated, hopping about as opposed to what she usually did, which was nestling her face against that of her lover. Will opened the cage, knowing Flo wouldn’t go anywhere while Ebb was there. The former special operative bowed his head. Ebb was all wrong, flopping on the base of the cage, his good wing twitching, his broken one immobile. Will knew he was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. What goes through a bird’s brain? He didn’t know. And he didn’t know whether lovebirds were in fact lifelong lovers or if that was a myth. But Will knew how he felt. He had to give Flo closure, let her be free, not allow her to think there was hope that Ebb would return to her. Gently he lifted Ebb. His body was warm but now limp. He carried him to the store’s backyard. Flo followed him. Will had hoped she would.
Will looked at Flo, who was perched close by on the branch of a tree. She was watching. It seemed she and Will didn’t know what to do.
“I have to let you know this is the end,” Will said to her. Actually, he was saying it to himself.
He snapped Ebb’s neck and buried him.
Flo looked at him before flying into the darkness. As tears ran down his face, he wondered if she hated him. Or maybe she understood. Of course, he’d never know.
He returned to his desk and stared at the birdcage. After brushing soil off his fingers, he looked at his laptop and saw he had a new e-mail. Nobody sent him mail apart from spammers.
But this one was different. And shocking. It was from CIA officer Unwin Fox, the man who, alongside Will, had been one of those involved in the Berlin operation. Aside from Colonel Haden, Will didn’t know who the other people on the small team were.
His heart was beating fast as he read the mail. Its tone was desperate. There was no way Fox could know that Will was alive. Something was terribly wrong. Fox wanted to meet. Tomorrow. In Washington, D.C.
In all probability it was a trap. Lure Will out, then bam! Swooped on by cops. But then again, Will knew what happened in Berlin. The law didn’t. This would have been far too implausible a tactic to entrap him.
What to do?
He looked at the lovebirds’ empty cage. The door was open. He glanced at the entrance to his store.
What to fucking do?
He opened the drawer in his desk, pulled out his handgun, grabbed his bag containing all he needed if he ever had to run, and left.
He knew he’d never return.
***
Excerpt from Act of Betrayal by Matthew Dunn. Copyright © 2017 by Matthew Dunn. Reproduced with permission from William Morrow. All rights reserved.

 

Author Bio:

As an MI6 field officer, Matthew Dunn recruited and ran agents, coordinated and participated in special operations, and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the world. He operated in environments where, if captured, he would have been executed. Dunn was trained in all aspects of intelligence collection, deep-cover deployments, small-arms, explosives, military unarmed combat, surveillance, and infiltration. Medals are never awarded to modern MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a rare personal commendation from the secretary of state for work he did on one mission, which was deemed so significant that it directly influenced the success of a major international incident. During his time in MI6, Matthew conducted approximately seventy missions. All of them were successful. He currently lives in England, where he is at work on his next novel.

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Vengeance

Sometimes when you finish a book and lay it down, it can be hard to imagine that it is simply all a story. That it hasn't happened. But also that it could very well happen just as it is laid out in the book you just read. Vengeance by Newt Gingrich is a chilling political suspense novel that once more pits Major Brook Grant against her nemesis known only as the Falcon. He has sworn a death threat against those she loves before he targets his attacks directly on her. While an unknown terrorist breaks through barricades at her wedding, she didn't realize that the President would make a last minute appearance. Even though all attempts to stop the rental truck from drawing too near to the event, Oklahoma would be remembered after this deadly explosion that would claim the lives of more than 300 people and barely leave Brooke alive with only her daughter as the last remaining family she had left.

Now that the President has been killed, the Vice President moves into the Oval Office and he isn't going to take any chances now that a nuclear device has been bought on the black market and known terrorist groups like the Falcon are planning on making America pay for all the retribution and Muslim lives that have been lost while trying to turn America away from being the once great nation it claims to be. The Vice President is about to use some unorthodox methods of catching the Falcon and locating the nuclear device and now it is time for vengeance to rise to the top. He doesn't want them brought back alive, he wants all of them dead and the device recovered before it can be used against American's.

Brooke is just the right candidate for the team known only as KTB or Kill the Bast**d. She just isn't prepared to work with agents from other countries that have their own reasons for wanting the Falcon dead including an Israeli Mossad agent and a Saudi intelligence officer and this time all bets are off. There is nothing keeping this team from accomplishing what needs to be done and with full authorization from the White House, Brooke is about to take the game to the Falcon's playing field and this time the game is about to change.

I received Vengeance by Newt Gingrich compliments of Center Street Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Groups. This is a chilling look at what could quite possibly be going on in the dark shadows in our own country with countless groups looking to take down our political leaders and turn this county into one of great fear and submission. Yet like all good novels, our goodness rises to the top and for Brooke, it will be a duality of sorts, coming to terms with her own personal vengeance and saving the country she has vowed to serve so valiantly even if it costs her everything. She truly has nothing more to lose and the action never lets up until the last page. This is what draws me to novels like this, a true adrenaline rush and an unforgettable roller coaster ride of emotions. Another 5 out of 5 stars in this reader's opinion. This is the third novel in the Brooke Grant series.

For more information about Vengeance, Newt Gingrich or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Vengeance by Newt Gingrich 

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Rule of Law

Did the President knowingly send Navy SEALS to their death?

That is the very answer people want to know, especially the twenty families of the Navy SEALS that died when a rescue mission went horribly wrong. Did our own government know facts ahead of time that would have spared lives or were they simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Veteran trial attorney and critically acclaimed, award-winning author Randy Singer takes us into the heart of political corrupt, legal battles and underhanded deals in his latest political thriller Rule of Law. Using his expert knowledge of law he spins a novel based on critical issues lurking on the horizon in 2016. Is the president above the law in matters of foreign policy? Should the CIA be fighting shadow wars with drones and Special Forces in countries where we have not declared war? And what happens when the lives of service members are sacrificed for political gain?

While the characters in the novel are complete fiction it is hard to match the entertainment value of the real world. All historical references, political, military and legal, are based on actual events. Most of his stories are inspired by real life and because he has filed counterterrorism lawsuits on behalf of clients who were kidnapped and tortured by the Houthis. This is what makes this novel believable to the point you find yourself questioning if this didn't happen already? Perhaps during Benghazi? In this novel a team of twenty Navy SEALS is sent on a covert mission monitored real time in the situation room in Washington, and suddenly it goes horribly wrong.

The team find themselves clearly outnumbered and their intel is flawed. All twenty members lose their lives but before they can send in an extraction team to claim the bodies, the president pulls rank and abandons them. Washington is more than shocked when the bodies of those men are suddenly broadcast on TV in the most horrible way. Suddenly information winds up coming to a team of attorneys that the president may have had for knowledge that this was a suicide mission and she chose to proceed anyway. The novel is the based on that courtcase that plays out in front of everyone in the nation. Will they be able to take the president to court over her mistake at putting men's lives at risk acting as if she is above the law? Find out!

I received Rule of Law by Randy Singer compliments of Tyndale House Publishers and Litfuse Publicity. This is a lengthy book so be prepared to spend some time getting familiarized with all kinds of law terms and court protocols pertaining the the government and military campaigns. There is simply so much the American public doesn't know about the branches of government and where those executive powers begin and end. I thoroughly enjoyed it although I believe it could have been a bit shorter. Some processes just kept repeating themselves and found myself wishing it would just get on with it already. For that reason I am giving this one a 4 out of 5 stars in my own opinion. Fans of anything legal and military based will love this one!

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Rule of Law by Randy Singer

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Forty Autumns

What would it feel like to make a decision in one moment that would forever affect your life for the next forty years? Imagine your family having to make that decision for you? To lead a life of freedom or one of tyranny and oppression. I believe more of us need to learn the stories from those who lived without freedom. A historical journey into Germany's blackened past where at one conjuncture to defy freedom, a wall went up to separate one region of Germany for another. For what reason? Could it happen again?

In the novel Forty Autumns by Nina Willner, she shares her grandparents history which undoubtedly became her own legacy of a tough choice they had to face when totalitarian leaders ran Germany the way they saw fit. All about control. Taking away from the people at the conclusion of WWII, Germany tried to find a way to rise to the top again. In a nutshell all it did was point the world's eyes to the atrocities it was trying to hide while saving face to the world. Families were separated overnight. While others tried to escape in droves, most were shot without any sense of compassion or empathy, believing the propaganda they were being spoon fed made it justified. Overnight the wall went up in hopes of preventing any more East Germans from fleeing the country. With it any viable means of labor went with it.

This is one families journey through forty years. How they survived against the odds. How they learned to accept what was happening in order to stay together even though they didn't agree with it. How they managed to save one daughters life in an effort to give them the truth that could only come from the outside world away from East Germany. How one patriarch of the family Opa, vowed to do whatever he could to keep his family safe and protected even if it went against everything he believed and how one matriarch, Oma was the driving support behind keeping the family strong and loved, well-fed and held together in a city of their own that was falling apart.

I received Forty Autumns by Nina Willner compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. I believe everyone needs to read this book, because it seems like our current nation is slowly striving to rewrite the history that needs to be told and shared, otherwise we will be doomed to repeat it. I clearly see signs in the works that this world might be headed to the very thing that should be left behind and that communism doesn't work. The power does not lie with the government but with the people. We need to know their stories and that is why this is such a critical book to be read and studied. I am horrified at the things we never studied in history. I guess to glaze over it in our history books in a very subtle paragraphs is an easy way to take out what should be known to those who faced it. These are the stories that should be shared. For this reason I am giving this book, a 5 out of 5 stars. There are some great historical notes following the book and some epilogues that highlight what happened later to those featured in the book. This has some amazing photos the author shares so you can honestly feel what it was like in those times.

For more information about Forty Autumns, Nina Willner or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Forty Autumns by Nina Willner

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For more reviews on Forty Autumns, please visit Harper Collins Publisher's website. 

How Would Jesus Vote?

The elections are coming! We've gotten the phone calls, our mail boxes are being filled with all kinds of ads for the propositions and candidates, and on television, we have witnessed the debates coming from both sides of the spectrum for this presidential election. As a believer in Christ, we find it hard to sort through all the propaganda being streamed in from all kinds of sources. It seems no matter how much you research it, you can't get a straight answer on what you should vote for in order to line up with biblical standards.

So you find yourself wanting to fill in the blank or opt out of voting when no real candidate meets our criteria and perhaps that is the problem. In fact it makes you wonder, How Would Jesus Vote? Darrel L. Bock has written a great novel that digs into the meat of what makes our country what it is. How did our founding fathers so long ago deal with differences in both religious beliefs, race and a diversity that seems to be driving us apart more than united us together? He tackles all that and more in this wonderful book that gives us a different perspective using the Bible as a source of reference on how we look at such topics like racial conflict, economics, poverty, health care, immigration, gun control, foreign policy, war, education, sexuality, abortion and so much more.

Using the Bible to help us see things from Jesus' point of view really gives us something to consider when we look at what direction we want our country to move in and how to deal with difficult task of not only dealing with citizens, but also dealing with illegal immigration and the influx of refugees wanting to enter the country. I love how well thought out and researched this is and before reading it I was pretty resolved on several issues, however this one had me really rethink what I believe and more so, how I can debate with others and still respect their differences and love them as Christ would.

I received How Would Jesus Vote by Darrell L. Bock compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest and personal evaluation. I really wanted to read this novel to get a better understanding of how as a voter who believes in Jesus should vote when we find ourselves challenged to know what to do. This really helped and would be a great resource to anyone before this next election in November! I would rate this a 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion.

For more information about How Would Jesus Vote, Darrell L. Bock, or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

How Would Jesus Vote by Darrell L. Bock

You can find Darrell L. Bock on Facebook to stay up to date on all his latest books.

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How Would Jesus Vote by Darrell L. Bock:

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Howard Books (May 17, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439190704
• ISBN-13: 978-1439190708
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.4 inches