Thrillers and Suspense

A Colossal Injustice

A Colossal Injustice
Title: A Colossal Injustice
ASIN: B0BLT6VB3N
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Published: 7 Nov. 2022
Author's Twitter: @iammahjr
Griffin Knight hasn't even been in the city for 48 hours, and it’s already obvious that the information in front of him doesn’t add up. As a homicide detective, he's seen it all, but this murder is different. To kill someone in this manner is often a crime of passion or a deeply personal attack, and yet the evidence suggests otherwise. Why was he targeted? How is it connected to Seattle’s biggest megacorp? Was it someone he already knew? What if this is the start of something so much bigger? The only thing Griffin Knight does know is that he needs to find out who did this fast in case others are also at risk!

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

When a Stranger Comes

When a Stranger Comes
Title: When a Stranger Comes
ASIN: B075MR6JVG
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Publisher:
Published: 13 Sept. 2017
Author's Twitter: @KarenSueBell
Author Alexa Wainwright vows to do whatever it takes to attain the heady ego-stroking success of her debut. But is she really? Witnessing an out-of-the-blue lightning bolt whose giant tendrils spread over the blue sky and city streets below her loft window, Alexa doesn’t realize just how this vow will be tested as she’s magically transported to an alternate reality. In this universe, the characters from her books are given the breath of life and she meets publisher, King Blakemore, who just might be the Devil himself. At first, she shrugs off her doubts about this peculiar publisher and very lucrative book deal offer because the temptation of riches and refound fame is too strong. Alexa's pact with the Devil is an allegory for the evil lurking in our midst. The social decay of modern society with its excessive greed, the ignorance of our political leaders, and our indifference toward the survival of all species from the effects of climate change, among other environmental pressures, are perhaps brought forth by the darkest forces of human nature.

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Award

The Bit Dance

The Bit Dance
Title: The Bit Dance
ASIN: B0765QLBVZ
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Published: October 4, 2017
Author's Twitter: @TilmerWrightJr
What happens when millions of tiny minds find a way to work together? At what point do they become one? At what point are they no longer merely machinery, but actually alive? Kayla Henry is a genius. She has a grasp of technology that far surpasses that of people three times her tender age of fourteen. She has mastered every skill she has attempted to acquire – except the ability to impress her father and appease his overbearing perfectionism. The eBot is the newest offering from her father’s employer that will set the company’s course for as much as a decade. It is a revolutionary toy endowed with groundbreaking technology and an online community that will encourage consumers to share their experiences. Kayla is fascinated by it and longs to be a part of it in any way she can. When an ex-KGB officer appropriates the technology for his own nefarious purposes, it responds in ways no one could predict – or even imagine.

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

Assessor 43881 : 5 Stars.
Assessor 44305 : 5 Stars

 

 

The Children in Hiding Trilogy

The Children in Hiding Trilogy
Title: The Children in Hiding Trilogy
ASIN: B07V46MMF6
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Published: September 8, 2019
Author's Twitter: @Entlover27
Get on Board Little Children, Come on Home Children, and City of Hidden Children now available in one volume.An unborn infant. A toddler. A teenager. What these three have in common: they are all being hunted by the enforcers of the Bureau of Population Control in the years following the passage of the No Unwanted Children Act. The law made it a felony in Washington state to carry to term an unlicensed pregnancy. Any such children who escaped the net became subject to confiscation, to be raised and trained in the education/labor camps.In Get on Board Little Children, Sophie and Josh must make the right choices and make them fast, under pressure from the Bureau to submit to their harsh demands or face imprisonment and worse.In Come on Home Children, Willa’s four-year-old daughter has been seized by the same arrogant arm of the state as an unlicensed child. Unless Willa can rescue her, Katy faces a life of stigma, toil, and despair.In City of Hidden Children, Katy is now an adolescent, and memories of her confinement in the labor camp are beginning to surface. She realizes that her two best friends are still imprisoned there and determines to let nothing stop her from finding and freeing them.Dystopian thrillers set in a future Seattle, each tale tests whether love can outwit bureaucratic greed in a future that is all too conceivable.

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The author has combined her three Awesome Indies Seal of Excellence and Approved  books, Get on Board Little Children, Come on Home Children, and City of Hidden Children into a trilogy, The Children in Hiding Trilogy

 

The Butcher’s Block

The Butcher's Block
Title: The Butcher's Block
ASIN: B074HD7KM6
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Publisher:
Published: August 1, 2017
During a routine patrol, police arrest two men in possession of human body parts intended for sale to the dissecting rooms of a London teaching hospital. Bow Street Runner and amateur pugilist Dan Foster makes the grisly discovery that they are the remains of fellow officer George Kean. The arrested men are charged with Kean’s murder, but Dan is not convinced that they are the killers. In pursuit of the real murderer, he investigates the unhallowed activities of the resurrection men – bodysnatchers. The bodysnatching racket soon leads Dan to something bigger and much more dangerous. In a treacherous underworld of vicious pugilists, ruthless murderers, British spymasters and French agents, Dan must tread carefully…or meet the same terrible fate as Kean. 'The Butcher’s Block' is the second Dan Foster Mystery. 'Bloodie Bones', the first in the series, was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016.

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The Fatal Coin

The Fatal Coin
Title: The Fatal Coin
ASIN: B0725QQBC1
Published: May 16, 2017
Author's Twitter: @LucienneWrite
Missing treasure. Murder. One ruthless criminal. And one Bow Street Runner determined to stop him. In the winter of 1794 Bow Street Runner and amateur pugilist Dan Foster is assigned to guard a Royal Mail coach. The mission ends in tragedy when a young constable is shot dead by a highwayman calling himself Colonel Pepper. Dan is determined to bring Pepper to justice, but the trail runs cold. Four months later Dan is sent to Staffordshire to recover a recently excavated hoard of Roman gold which has gone missing. Here he unexpectedly encounters Colonel Pepper again. The hunt is back on, and this time Dan will risk his life to bring down Pepper and his gang. 'The Fatal Coin' is a prequel to 'Bloodie Bones', the first Dan Foster Mystery, which was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016.

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Not Without Risk

Not Without Risk
Title: Not Without Risk
ASIN: B077C6Z1XP
Publisher:
Published: November 10, 2017
Author:
Author's Twitter: @PeterTrewin
When Martin Bennett, the backroom brains in a regeneration company charged with bringing back Merseyside’s former prosperity, sees an ex-friend murdered on a hospital escalator and discovers that the body was too hastily cremated, he feels compelled to investigate.   In order to discover the truth about the murder, he must navigate the Merseyside underworld peopled by bent solicitors and coppers, corrupt politicians and violent thugs. He forms an alliance with the mayor’s right hand woman, who is out of favour with her corrupt boss, and uncovers not only the surprising story behind the murder but also a conspiracy to carve up Merseyside’s green belt.   The journey will not be without risk. For both of them.  

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Class Of ’59

Class Of ’59
Title: Class Of ’59
ASIN: B01LFS490W
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Published: April 10, 2017
Author's Twitter: @johnheldt
When Mary Beth McIntire settles into a vacation house on June 2, 2017, she anticipates a quiet morning with coffee. Then she hears a noise, peers out a window, and spots a man in 1950s attire standing in the backyard. She panics when the trespasser sees her and enters the house though a door to the basement. She questions her sanity when she cannot find him. In the same house on March 21, 1959, Mark Ryan finds a letter. Written by the mansion’s original owner in 1900, the letter describes a basement chamber, mysterious crystals, and a formula for time travel. Driven by curiosity, Mark tests the formula twice. On his second trip to 2017, he encounters a beautiful stranger. He meets the woman in the window. Within hours, Mary Beth and Mark share their secret with her sister and his brother and begin a journey that takes them from the present day to the age of sock hops, drive-ins, and jukeboxes. In CLASS OF ’59, the fourth book in the American Journey series, four young adults find love, danger, and adventure as they navigate the corridors of time and experience Southern California in its storied prime.

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Poison Heartbeats

Poison Heartbeats
Title: Poison Heartbeats
ASIN: B01MG1F1WV
Published: October 20, 2016
Author's Twitter: @templewms
Poison Heartbeats by Temple Emmet Williams is a contemporary fiction novel about a terrorist plot that deals with real-world entities including the US Department of Homeland Security and ISIL. An introductory passage by the author lets us know that for the most part, his fictitious interpretations of these entities are accurate, although he has taken some liberties by extending the sphere of influence of the Department of Homeland Security. It becomes clear within the first few chapters that this is a book that is well-researched, and the author’s use of real-world facts compliments the ambitious adventure we are brought on. We are also told before the story begins that this book is the second in the Heartbeat series (Wrinkled Heartbeats being the first, which AI gave 4.5/5 Stars) but that they are standalone novels and can be read independently of one-another. A number of sharply-written characters cross paths throughout the narrative, and special mention needs to be made of the author’s use of space and setting. The author takes the reader on a globe-trotting tour that highlights both the differences and parallels of each environ. This is a book that paints a thrilling picture with its words, which is only slightly dampened by some odd structural choices. Each chapter is named and comes with an image and a short statement that sets the stage for what is about to happen. In some of the chapters, these pictorial clues and scene settings help the reader visualize what is happening, but on a whole seem unnecessary for such a well-written and descriptive novel. While reading, I couldn’t help but wonder if seeing the characters and environments of the story in a picture didn’t ruin my own imagining of them when they were described to me a few pages later. Some of the images and introductory clauses are also redundant. This is a minor negative in a magnificent story, and it’s hard for me to fault an author for giving the reader something extra, but this is a story that can easily rest on its own skillful story-telling, rather than on pictures. Aside from this unnecessary distraction, the book is well-structured, well-paced, and often hard to pull yourself away from. As mentioned earlier, this is a book that deals with a number of characters and presents the reader with many different viewpoints. The book is not guilty of head-hopping, though, and while you get a number of perspectives, the author weaves them into and out of the story easily, and when things culminate in an epic final act, each storyline is satisfied in one way or another. The ending of the book is fantastic and drums up the action leading to a thrilling climax. It’s a fun journey that is at times reflective and poignant and at others gritty and tense. There is humor and romance alongside the grim depiction of modern terrorism. While, at the end, the story lines are all satisfied, not all of them come to an ultimate coda, leaving the door open for some future adventures for some of our key players. The author’s follow-up, African Heartbeats has already been announced and the Heartbeats series itself will comprise of six novels total when finished. I recommend Poison Heartbeats to fans of contemporary fiction who enjoy action, suspense, and the kind of story that could easily take place in our current political climate. 4.5/5 Stars.

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