Click to purchase

After learning of the death of their mostly absentee father, Aaron and his sister Bridget (Bridge) Quinlan are summoned to a vast property in the Pacific Northwest in order to hear details of Dad’s will. There they meet their mother and another sister. The will indicates that their father left a good deal of money to be divided up among the family. There is one unexplained condition, which is to stay on the property without leaving the grounds for 30 days. Can’t be that bad so they agree. But totally unexpectedly another group shows up the following day and is another group of Quinlan children. The discussions among both groups gives rise to the obvious conclusion that the frequent absences by the father are explained by the apparent fact that he had two separate families with one not knowing about the other.

The two groups get to know each other when something out of the ordinary happens. A very tall man-like figure and apparently an old lady are spotted wandering around in the forest surrounding the property. On top of that there is a group of buildings found in semi repair which looks like it was a camp.

The reader at this point could come to the conclusion that this is a ghost story. The reality is that Pyper has created something much more imaginative than a simple tale about wandering ghosts. None of the events in the beginning of the novel point directly at the ending. When it does occur it is something so out of any conclusions reached by the reader that the obvious idea is that it wasn’t prepared for by any action Pyper describes. But it is and so well done that the long hours spent reading the book are rewarded by one of the most ingenious stories that I have read in a long time.

My final reaction is that I want more, but based on the events and the finale this may not be possible. Even so this book is a must read, as is any future works by Andrew Pyper.

2/19 Paul Lane

HOMECOMING by Andrew Pyper. Simon & Schuster (February 26, 2019). ISBN 978-1982108977. 368p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

This is Rob Jung’s first published book and it is a good introduction for the new author. The book is a fast read, has a very interesting theme and incorporates several factors that normally do not appear in most novels.

Terry Castro, an anthropology professor has been leading summer school programs into the Peruvian rain forest. In his latest trip he literally stumbles upon an unknown tribe of tall, white skinned people. They flee the site where the quick contact takes place but not before a freak accident causes Terry to become infected with the poison that the tribe uses to facilitate hunting when he touches a dart aimed near him to scare him off. He is airlifted from the area and put in the hospital back home.

As the infection he received via the dart is analyzed it is found that an interesting side effect of the poison used could be to prolong life. Terry is too sick to leave the hospital but the pharmaceutical company examining the poison arranges another expedition to Peru in order to obtain samples of the material used by the white skinned tribe. The novel brings in many factors that cause the story to become a very wide spread tale of high adventure. First, and of great importance a medium is brought into the picture in order to try and make contact with the comatose Terry Castro. Carrie Waters, the medium, does make the connection and even beyond that a connection to the tribe in Peru. A beautiful love story takes place literally between Terry and Carrie’s minds and even succeeds when Terry’s ex-wife shows up to help take care of him.

We meet the arch villain of the piece, Vikter Glass, who is managing the pharmaceutical company and only wants to milk the drug for great profits and a personal fortune. He actually brings in the Russian mob sending some of their agents to Peru to get a sample of the poison first and deliver it to him.

Jung manages to tie all the factors he brings into the story quite well. The book is one that will keep the reader glued to the pages until finished. He or she will come to the realization that they have read the first novel of a man with an excellent imagination and be ready for more in the near future.

2/19 Paul Lane

CLOUD WARRIORS by Rob Jung. Roundfire Books (February 22, 2019). ISBN 978-1785359187. 312p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

Cumming’s novel is a throwback (and a welcome one) to the spy and espionage stories of the near term past. Kit Carradine is an author who’s forte is writing well received spy novels. He is known for researching locales for the books he writes. He is also known for being bored with his sedentary life and envies the spies he creates for their extremely active existences Instead of writing about them he would really enjoy being one of them. And that is where he is taken.

Kit is approached by an officer in MI6 who he has never met before with a proposition. He is asked to travel to Morocco and find a woman MI6 wants and just point her out to that officer. She has last been seen in the city of Marrakesh. ​Kit is offered a large sum of money for the job which is indicated as being one with no real danger involved. He jumps to take it and journeys to Morocco. Upon arrival he quickly is made aware that the woman,Lara Bartok, is actually a fugitive with ties to international terrorism. She is apparently a member of the “Resurrection” terror group that has attacked persons and places all over the world with murder as part of the scenario.

The author depicts Kit traveling all over Morocco after arriving in Casablanca as well as other cities in that country in order to locate Lara. The action is typical of the stories and happenings in many of the best spy novels of the past. Danger, a lot of it, with other spy agencies as well as “Resurrection” relentlessly after Lara.
There is a vast difference between Kit and other principals involved in spy and espionage tales. He is not infallible, he can be hurt, is bewildered by the actions of the different groups after Lara. He does have moments when he responds to a situation as many people would do if confronted with it showing strength and bravery. All and all Cumming gives us a good picture of a real hero in others. He has created a real person moving into the world of spies and agents and coming to grips with it as realistically as most of us might do in a like situation.

I am like most people in expecting leading characters in spy novels to behave like supermen. But certainly the change in pace depicted in “The Moroccan Girl” is a welcome one. The reader is of course faced with the question of what would they expect in a future novel about Kit Caradine in a situation again involved with spying and espionage. The ability of the author to create a book that is concerned with a situation involving spy-craft leads me to think that he would have Kit adapt to situations as they arrive; again as a normal individual, but with more real experience under his belt.

2/19 Paul Lane

THE MOROCCAN GIRL by Charles Cumming. St. Martin’s Press (February 12, 2019). ISBN 978-1250129956. 368p.

Kindle

Audible