Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

A very tightly written and  plotted novel about a young man working for the Israeli government.  For personal reasons he makes the decision to approach the American government via their embassy and offer to provide them with information about secret Israeli activities.  The offer is snapped up by the agent that he talked with and Alon  the young man  is interviewed and accepted as a contracted mole.  In a completely unexpected turn of events the man accepting Alon is actually a mole in his own right working for the Soviet government.

Alon rises up in the ranks of the Israeli government and becomes a key adviser to the Prime Minister.  All the while he has been feeding information to his handler thinking it is going to the Americans when it is actually being  sent to Moscow.  Suddenly a hint that a spy is entrenched within the high ranks of the Israeli government causes a team to be assembled to catch him and if possible his handler as well. The chase takes the team from Tel Aviv and Moscow into the United States.

The pursuit of the spy by the team’s members is extremely well depicted with reactions of all involved ringing true in the settings of the novel. De Shalit has another book coming out shortly and due to his previous real life position as a high ranking official in the Israeli intelligence community it is a safe bet that that novel will be equally as mesmerizing as “Traitor.”

KINDLE

2/18 Paul Lane

TRAITOR by Jonathan de Shalit. Atria/Emily Bestler Books (January 30, 2018).  ISBN 978-1501170485. 320p.

Killer Choice is Hunt’s first book and certainly highlights the entrance into the literary world of a very promising author. The plot is indicative of a fascinating story about ordinary people caught in a horrible situation and their reactions to their quandary.

Gary Foster and his wife, Beth, have been trying for many years to get pregnant, then when Beth finds that she is pregnant, that news makes a happy marriage even better.

Suddenly their joy is destroyed when it is found that Beth has an inoperable brain tumor with only a short time to live.  The couple are devastated with the news and Gary is horrified to think of having to live the remainder of his life without his love.  They do not have an estimated $200,000.00 to try the only possible solution that may help  Beth.  That is, a new treatment being tested by a company in Germany which has proven  helpful in some cases.  The Fosters receive gifts from many kind people but the funds received do not even come close to the amount needed.

Enter an offer made by someone to Gary.  The money will be given to him; but only with the condition that he has to kill someone. Gary’s anguish on facing a normally total unacceptable choice is well described here. The actions and reactions of all the characters in the novel are well delineated and make a good book much better.

A very well done novel about normal people caught in an abnormal situation not of their doing.

Snow is a typical novel by the very prolific Mike Bond.  It has bad guys and good guys set against each other in an environment, to say the least, hostile for all involved. And that environment is definitely snow and lots of it.

Zack, a former NFL star and currently renowned sportscaster and his friend Steve a successful wall street broker meet every year in Montana with their guide and friend Curt to have a boy’s time out and go hunting for elk.  This year each has a money problem – that is a lack of it, and a need for it sooner than later.

Introduced is the discovery of a crashed private plane with a cargo of two coffins.  The coffins filled with high grade cocaine multi millions of dollars worth even at low end street pricing.

The three individuals each have thoughts about what selling the drugs will do to get them out of their monetary problems. They find that someone survived the crash and walked out of the area certainly to get help in transporting the cocaine to a place where it could begin its normal journey into the hands of the people addicted to it and desperate to get it.

Diego is the name of  the individual tasked with taking care of bringing the drug to Maria Christina the lady that is in charge of the cartel’s operations in the US. Diego has a crush on her and imagines that if he is successful in handling the tasks given to him by Maria she will someday decide that he is worth her devotion and marry him.  These five people are the main players in the novel and Bond does a good job in fleshing them out a process also including those that love them.

The book is not overly complicated and the reactions of all those involved are easy to follow. The ending is a predictable one for those taking part in the story and provides a more than satisfactory ending. Well done and certainly continuing to enhance Bond’s reputation as an author of captivating novels making his next works eagerly waited for.

1/18 Paul Lane

SNOW by Mike Bond. Mandevilla Press; First Publication ed. edition (October 1, 2017).  ISBN 978-1627040372. 268p.

Alice Campbell and her husband Todd have moved to the well to do section of north Palm Beach county in Florida.  Todd is an architect and has found  a position in the area.  Alice was a professor of logic at the university level forced to give up her job in the move to Florida.

Unable to connect to another teaching job, Alice spends time going around the area to various functions trying to develop a social life.  She meets Katherine (Kat) Grant, and the two women quickly form a strong friendship meeting for lunches and get-togethers. Kat is the daughter of a very wealthy family and every bit the socialite with Alice a woman involved with her husband in the suburban routine of trying to make ends meet.  Kat is quick to invite Alice to lunches and even short getaways indicating that she is doing this because she enjoys the rapport she has with her and has enough money to do so.

Kat confides to Alice that her marriage to Howard, a financier, is a horror. Howard is a drunk, a bully,  a philanderer and proves himself a wife beater. Than while Kat is away on a trip to England, Howard falls to his death from the second floor of their mansion.  Looks like a freak accident, but the police,  out of the blue, arrest Alice on a murder charge. Was the fall a murder? Wouldn’t Kat be a more logical suspect if it were?  The relationship between Alice and Kat becomes distant with doubts about what is going on.

Hunt expertly takes the story to an ending that is logical but not readily foreseen, and gives us a novel that is mesmerizing as well as skillfully keeping the reader guessing and glued to the book.

Set sometime in the  future, T.S. Nichols’ novel imagines an fascinating development in the lives of mankind. It is the scientific transfer of memories from one person to another. Based on this achievement the book touches upon two recipients of memories. One is by police detective Cole who has been able to get memories from murdered individuals and with this as an aid catch the killer. He is the Memory Detective of the novel’s title.

The other is someone with the money that can afford to receive memories of say, great athletes, those individuals that have traveled and seen the world, and others whose backgrounds would interest him to get their memories.

The persona of Detective Cole is a well thought out study of a person who has literally been murdered many times with all the trauma that would be part of those crimes.  His skill has cost him dearly since he mixes memories with people he loves and finds that they cannot tolerate a relationship with him.  This certainly is the case with his girlfriend of several years who finds that there is no closeness due to memories of others intruding on their relationship.

The one murder that is paramount in this novel is one suffered by a young girl from Kansas that has been thrown out of her home by her father and  migrates to New York the locale of the book. Cole sees her coming to the city, her hopes, her dreams and her meeting a person that she falls in love with.  He also sees the killing which was the battering to death by the murderer with a hammer.  Based on the memories that are present allow the police to interview several suspects in working the case.

The description of the second individual includes memories from a  surfer who has enjoyed the sport at most of the world’s great surfing sites.  The person now wants to buy other memories in order to enhance his experiences.  Is there a connection between the millionaire enjoying great adventure vicariously and the case of murder being investigated by Cole?  In addition to memory transfer  being a concept well described T.S. Nichols has the definite ability to present a very tightly woven tale.  The ending is logical and stems from what we learn about the individuals described.  A very well done novel and of course, one that will keep the reader up all night thinking about the fascinating theme and the drama that stems from it.

NOTE: Movie tie-in edition comes out in March 2018. as does the film. Used copies of previous editions are available.

A short novel created to be a tie-in to a movie starring Joaquin  Phoenix and certainly one that will shout out – See This Film!!! Joe is a former Marine and also previously an FBI agent. A very abusive childhood has left him mentally damaged beyond any real chance of repair. He lives with his grandmother in the borough of Queens, New York city and is as much a loner as any human can be. He earns a livelihood through the act of rescuing young girls from kidnapping and being forced into prostitution.

The novel opens as he successfully completes one assignment and receives another job rescuing the daughter of a New York State senator. The senator himself talks to him and advises that the girl is being held in a brothel in Manhattan by the mob. The assignment leads Joe into a situation that involves criminal mobs, and high level conspiracy.

Ames successfully paints a picture of a world very different than the one most of us inhabit. It is brutal, unforgiving and violent to a degree unknown to the average person. The novel in addition to being a tie-in to the film is definitely one that is leading to another book continuing Joe’s activities in this violent underground world.  A very well done lead in to further novels by Jonathan Ames and certainly one that will promote the movie.

1/18 Paul Lane

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE by Jonathan Ames. Vintage (March 20, 2018).  ISBN 978-0525562894. 112p.