Tag: #thriller

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: War Machine by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson

Book Description

After a shootout in Dubai left Hamza al Saud dead and elevated brilliant aeronautical engineer Qasim Nadar to hero status in England, everyone assumes the terrorist threat from al Qadar has been eliminated. Everyone except JSOC counter-terrorism analyst Whitney Watts. But when she decides to help MI6 penetrate Nadar’s secret network, Watts she gets a little too close to the truth and finds herself in a deadly situation not even her teammates from Tier One can save her from.

As Lieutenant Commander Keith “Chunk” Redman and the rest of Tier One fan out across London in search of Watts, Nadar prepares to unleash his most dangerous weapon yet—an advanced drone with artificial intelligence and stealth technology. To stop a horrifying attack on London, Chunk and his Navy SEAL brethren must seek help from an unexpected ally and find a way to stop a war machine that was designed to be unstoppable.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Sons of Valor, War Machine, the third book in the series, by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson finishes the overarching story of terrorist Qasim Nadar. They use their vast experience to write engrossing thrillers.  Andrews worked as a nuclear engineer on naval submarines, while Wilson was a trauma surgeon embedded with the East Coast Navy SEALS.

In the stories, Nadar fools everyone and is considered a hero in England.  Everyone that is except counter-terrorism analyst Whitney Watts.  After getting a call from her MI6 counterpart Lucy Kim she flies to England to work with Lucy to try to out Nadar as a terrorist.  Unfortunately, their investigation turns upside down and they are kidnapped by the terrorists. As Lieutenant Commander Keith “Chunk” Redman and the rest of Tier One travel across London in search of Watts, Nadar prepares to unleash his most dangerous weapon yet, an advanced drone with artificial intelligence and stealth technology.

The authors know how to keep the tension high with the suspense growing on each page.  Readers will not want to put this epilogue down.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the series?

Jeffrey Wilson: We hope to continue the series as long as people continue to read them.  This is a spin-off, a shared universe with the “Tier One Series.” The eighth book comes out next year. There was a minor character in the previous series, Chuck Redman, who was widely popular with the readers.

EC:  What is the premise of the “Tier One Series?”

JW:  The entire SEAL team gets wiped out because of leaked intelligence.  The sole survivor gets a new identity, John Dempsey, and now is part of a covert operation task force.

Brian Andrews: The first book of that series came out in 2016. John Dempsey, the main character of that series, is not in the “Sons of Valor Series.”  Although in the second book there are a lot of references. But there are other cross-over characters.

Elise Cooper:  Did you base Chuck Redman on the real retired SEAL Jay Redman?

JW:  He is a good friend of ours and we wanted to honor him.  We do it a lot where we put those who we had a professional and personal relationship in our books. Chuck does not represent Jay, but we did it to honor our friendship.

EC:  How did you get the idea for the current book, Sons of Valor III: War Machine?

BA:  We tend to write our military thrillers as trilogies. The Qasim Nadar thread wraps up in this book. In the real world we like to give the antagonist characters some leeway to flush out their motives and organization. There is a great line, “Every villain is the hero of their own story.” We embrace this in our writing. It is not our point of view, but the character’s thoughts and actions.. 

JW: We do not like our bad guys to be two-dimensional cookie cutters unlike Dr. Evil.  The risk is do readers have sympathy for a terrorist. We wanted to explore will Qasim do the right thing or take the path of evil. People will see his evolution through the books on becoming a Jihadi.  In book 2 there was a clear path for him to take, but the one he takes should cause someone to hate him.

EC:  Book 1 has this quote, “It is a shame that it takes personal losses and suffering for most men to find their courage.” This seems so relevant for those families that brutally lost loved ones in Israel on October 7th.  Do you want to comment?

JW:  This is a timely quote referencing how someone’s tragedy is tested under fire. It would be great if no one had to discover this about themselves. Think about the stories that came out of 9/11 and how heroic actions were displayed. I read amazing stories of how people were so incredibly brave on October 7th. A young female army officer went out in her PJs with her gun, joined up with someone else, and held off the terrorists, protecting their little village.  There is such inspiration in these stories.

EC:  What do you want readers to get out of the books?

JW:  This is why we write these books, hoping people will have a new appreciation for the toll it takes on the operator: the relationship with one another and their families. We feel there is a higher reason we wrote the books, to honor the men/women we served with and to share that world.

EC:  How would you describe Qasim?

BA: Qasim is cold-hearted, diabolical, and evil. He cares about his cause. He cemented himself as a person of significance in the local culture. In book 3, he has drunk the Kool-Aid, taking a leadership role in a terrorist organization. He must deal with personal problems, money, motivation, logistics, and must keep secrets. He wants a Caliphate where there must be a shift of power and take control.

JW: We want to show how the technology and information is different now.  There is an information war going on the same time as a covert war.  The operators are new but also the terrorists are more sophisticated. This is a different dynamic post 9/11.  We wanted to explore what a new generation of terrorists looks like. They are multi-educated, bi-lingual, and tech savvy. It is also an infiltration of culture and society that is no longer just in the Middle East. This is a change in the real world which we wanted to write about. These are the battlefields of the 21st century.

EC:  How would you describe Chuck Redman?

JW:  Highly intelligent, tenacious, intuitive, mission and team before self.

EC:  How would you describe Lucy?

BA: Whitney saw her as sad, intense, brave, focused, loyal, and cared about others concerns. When she faces mortal danger, she stands her ground.

EC:  How would you describe Whitney?

BA: She takes initiative in this book. She found a lot of strength from Lucy. Her goal is to be part of the team.

JW:  Both Lucy and Whitney are tenacious. We did not want to write Whitney as a one-woman killing machine taking out the bad guys single handedly or a mousey analyst who fades in the background. We pushed her out of her comfort zone, which she hated, but realized it made her tougher. She is someone who never quits. She is one of my favorite characters.

EC:  What about the relationship between Whitney and Redman?

BA:  They are both mirrors of the other. They recognize in the other characteristics they admire.  Both are confident. There is a scene in the book where she is on the verge of physical collapse and starts to think about who the person would be she could rely on to get her out of this situation.  Her subconscious understands it is Chuck because she does not realize her own inner strength.  Over the first two books she grasps how much she admires and respects him. Chuck also tries to think what she would do when trying to rescue her.  They both try to do what the other person would do when the other person is not there.

EC:  Is the piece of equipment, Valkyrie, true?

JW:  It is a drone and manned from the ground. There is technology in development that has the capability. We wanted to explore how much autonomy should AI have:  should it include a kill decision?

BA: There are drones that can fly along fighter jets that augment pilots on missions.  It is a stealth drone, with a vertical takeoff from anywhere. We had in the book what safeguards would the military program?

EC:  Next books?

JW and BA: 

         The next Sons of Valor book does not have a date yet but there will be one.

         There is a techno-thriller coming out in April, titled Four Minutes. A task force collects  

         Intelligence from the future to stop attacks in the present.  They use this information to

         try to stop the bad guys.

         We will be writing the next Tom Clancy book titled Act of Defiance, coming out on the 40th 

         anniversary of the book Red October. A Russian super weapon is deployed at sea

        and it’s up to Jack Ryan to find a countermove.

         The next Tier 1 book comes out in July titled Ember, the name of the taskforce. The

          taskforce does covert operations.

          The fourth book in the Shepherds series comes out next fall. We explore combat and faith 

          with a speculative element.  There is a supernatural spiritual warfare element that

          blended into a covert ops’ thriller. This includes using scriptures of the Bible. It has  

          demons possess bad guys.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Beautiful and the Wild by Peggy Townsend

Book Description

The dangers of Alaska aren’t limited to storms, starvation, and grizzly bears. Sometimes the most dangerous thing is the person you love.

It’s summer in Alaska and the light surrounding the shipping-container-turned-storage shed where Liv Russo is being held prisoner is fuzzy and gray. Around her is thick forest and jagged mountains. In front of her, across a clearing, is a low-slung cabin with a single window that spills a wash of yellow light onto bare ground. Illuminated in that light is the father of her child, a man she once loved. A man who is now her jailor. Liv vows to do anything to escape.  

Carrying her own secrets and a fierce need to protect her young son, Liv must navigate a new world where extreme weather, starvation, and dangerous wildlife are not the only threats she faces. With winter’s arrival imminent, she knows she must reckon with her past and the choices that brought her to the unforgiving Alaskan landscape if she is ever going to make it out alive.

A story of survival in the wilds of Alaska, The Beautiful and the Wild explores the question of whether we can ever truly know the person we love—or ourselves.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Beautiful and the Wild by Peggy Townsend is a riveting suspenseful mystery. There are secrets, the haunting terrain of Alaska, as well as hope.  It is a fight for survival by a mother who dearly loves her son.

Liv Russo thought she was happily married until one day she became a hero.  This opened knowledge of her past where she was shunned by all.  Then her husband leaves to supposedly go on an outing and never returns.  A detective informs Liv that her husband committed suicide.  But this was also not true when she finds clues that he was alive and living in Alaska. She travels to a compound there with her developmentally disabled seven-year-old son Xander. 

But her return is not a happy reunion.  Mark has been shacking up with a young woman, Angela, and another woman, Diana who had a son with him, Rudy, ten years ago. Liv feels betrayed and angry and threatens to leave and go to the police to tell them he faked his death.  Mark, her husband, locks her in a shipping container for weeks until she appears to acquiesce and agree to his lifestyle of an open relationship. But in truth she is biding her time until she can escape with her son. She must learn how to survive and navigate the Alaskan wilderness of extreme weather, possible starvation, and dangerous wildlife. 

This is an exciting book that might remind readers of a “lock room” story that takes place in the Alaskan wild. There are some twists and turns with each character having secrets revealed as the story progresses.

Author Interview

Elise Cooper:  How did you get the idea for the story?

Peggy Townsend: I am a journalist and have written about secrets:  those who tried to conceal and those who tried to reveal. I was in our cabin and listening to a podcast about a guy who was a former Marine who stopped the assassination of Gerald Ford, someone in the “closet.” He was outted by the media with the result that his family shunned him. I thought how secrets can be so damaging.  It spurred me to think what if someone did something heroic and it caused the darkest secrets to be revealed.

EC: Why the Alaska setting?

PT:  I love Alaska.  My husband and I spent seven weeks in our van traveling in Alaska.  I was thinking how Alaska is the perfect place because it is so remote.  If someone was to hide secrets that is where they would go. Having spent a lot of time in the wilderness and the back country.  What I learned it to be in tune with nature and be aware of the surroundings. As the main character, Liv, develops she became more attuned with nature.

EC:  How would you describe Liv?

PT:  She is wounded and flawed.  Liv is determined, resourceful, and gritty.  All of this comes from her tough childhood. At times she felt humiliated, trapped, isolated, anxious, and yet was able to find her strength. Hardship was good for her because she discovered her true self. I was like that. 

EC:  How would you describe Mark?

PT:  He is based on someone I once met. Someone I did not like very much.  He was super handsome, charismatic, but had a hubris that brought him down.  Mark is very manipulative and has the women bend to his will. He is aggressive, dark, obsessed, a loner, selfish, uncaring, chauvinistic, cocky, paranoid, and conceited. Yet, he was such a good dad and very creative.

EC:  How would you describe the relationship between Liv and Mark?

PT:  She felt betrayal, anger, and thought of him as a liar and cheater. He berated her. He liked to make her jealous.  When they were first married, she was a follower.  She did love him. Although he was flawed, he did have some good qualities. She made excuses for him at first.  Later she saw how wrong she was. 

EC: Role of the fox?

PT:  I liked the idea that a vixen is used to describe a woman in unflattering terms, hard to manage.  A fox is a beautiful creature.  After Liv sees this fox, it gives her hope and inspiration.

EC:  Role of the prison?

PT: I wanted her to have been in prison because of what happened to her mom, inspired by a true story.  I wanted her to be able to survive being imprisoned in a container.  Having been in prison she learned the terrible lesson, but this enabled her to find ways to cope, make a routine, avoid confrontations, and to figure out how to escape.

EC:  Diana versus Angela?

PT: These two women and Liv are very different in how they approached the world. Angela is naïve, needy, young, and insecure.  Diana is very independent.  Liv is a caring mom. These women never became a sisterhood. I did a lot of research regarding open relationships. There was always a tension and jealousy underneath because of the open relationship.  Diana did not care, Liv felt betrayal and would not go along, and Angela would do anything to get Mark’s approval and love.

EC:  What about the book Mind, Self, Love by Kai Huang?

PT:  I made this book up but did do research and reading on self-help books. Mark manipulated the women to seek his pleasure.  He enjoyed having the power.

EC:  Next book?

PT:  It is also set in the wilderness.  A young runaway meets a female recluse in the woods.  Both are being hunted for different reasons. They are both trying to survive.  My working title is Nobody is Missing. It will be released next year some time.

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Danger on the Island by Stewart Giles

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for DANGER ON THE ISLAND (DI Liam O’Reilly Mysteries Book #11) by Stewart Giles on this Books ‘n’ All Promotions Blog Tour.

Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, and the author’s bio and social media links. This series never disappoints. Enjoy!

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Book Blurb

The Island of Guernsey isn’t exactly a favourite destination for adrenaline junkies.
But it does have one thing that attracts a new breed of adventure freaks.

Cliff jumping is taking off on the island, and June appears to be the best time of year for those that way inclined to choose to partake in the sport.

When a young woman is killed after a jump, her death is judged a tragic accident, but when her body is retrieved, and the remains of another corpse is found on the rocks below, the Island Police are brought in.

It’s the last thing Detective Liam O’Reilly feels like. Still feeling the effects of a case that almost broke him, he really doesn’t need this.

But when he drags himself back to where he once was, and starts to understand what he’s dealing with he wakes up enough to realise he’s dealing with something much more dangerous than the cliffs that people are jumping off.

There is someone on the Island who likes to take things to the extreme, and O’Reilly is damned if they’re going to do it on his island.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127541869-danger-on-the-island?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Z2JAu9hEPC&rank=1

DI O’REILLY MYSTERIES

Book 1 – Blood on the Island

Book 2 – Lies on the Island

Book 3 – Fear on the Island

Book 4 – Malice on the Island

Book 5 – Revenge on the Island

Book 6 – Christmas on the Island

Book 7 – Silence on the Island

Book 8 – Secrets on the Island

Book 9 – Chaos on the Island

Book 10 – Sadness on the Island

Book 11 – Danger on the Island

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DANGER ON THE ISLAND (DI Liam O’Reilly Mysteries Book #11) by Stewart Giles is an exciting, intricately plotted serial killer mystery featuring the feisty Irish DI Liam O’Reilly and his police team on the island of Guernsey. This book can be read as a crime mystery standalone, but the main characters continue to evolve with each book, and I feel they are best read in order. Every book in this series is amazing and will not disappoint.

Guernsey is usually a laid-back place to live and vacation, but this summer a new phenomenon for thrill-seekers is occurring on the island – tombstoning – which is the activity of jumping into the sea from high cliffs or other high points. When a group goes out early for a jump, the first girl off the cliff hits the jagged rocks instead of the sea and when the Coast Guard go to retrieve the body, they find a second female body impaled on the rocks.

O’Reilly is back to work after a terrible motorbike accident because he refuses to sit at home. As more bodies are found at the farthest points of the island with no identification, O’Reilly and his team are at a loss. No clues but footprints until a young boy films one of the murders, but the perpetrators are wearing masks. O’Reilly knows he and his team are being led and he is determined to turn that around and find what is really going on with this sudden bout of murders on the island.

I absolutely love every time I get to take a book trip to Guernsey and revisit all these characters. O’Reilly and all the recurring characters after these eleven books are fully drawn and I feel as though I am visiting old friends while also trying to figure out a well plotted and always surprising crime mystery. I was on the edge of my seat, as usual, reading this book and could not put it down. I know when I get an Island book that I had better have several hours to sit and get immersed because I never stop until the last page.

I highly recommend this gripping and exciting serial killer crime mystery book! I never miss one of these DI Liam O’Reilly Mysteries books.

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Author Bio

After reading English at 3 Universities and graduating from none of them, I set off travelling around the world with my wife, Ann, finally settling in South Africa, where we still live.

In 2014 Ann dropped a rather large speaker on my head and I came up with the idea for a detective series. DS Jason Smith was born. Smith, the first in the series was finished a few months later.

3 years and 8 DS Smith books later, Joffe Books wondered if I would be interested in working with them. As a self-published author, I agreed. However, we decided on a new series – the DC Harriet Taylor: Cornwall series.

The Beekeeper was published and soon hit the number one spot in Australia. The second in the series, The Perfect Murder did just as well.

I continued to self-publish the Smith series and Unworthy hit the shelves in 2018 with amazing results.  I therefore made the decision to self-publish The Backpacker which is book 3 in the Detective Harriet Taylor series which was published in July 2018.

After The Backpacker I had an idea for a totally new start to a series – a collaboration between the Smith and Harriet thrillers and The Enigma was born. It brought together the broody, enigmatic Jason Smith and the more level-headed Harriet Taylor.

The Miranda trilogy is something totally different. A psychological thriller trilogy. It is a real departure from anything else I’ve written before.

The Detective Jason Smith series continues to grow. I also have another series featuring an Irish detective who relocated to Guernsey, the Detective Liam O’Reilly series. There are also 3 stand alone novels.

Social Media Links

Website: www.stewartgiles.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stewart.giles.33

Twitter: @stewartgiles

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: American Girl by Wendy Walker

Book Description

Charlie Hudson, an autistic seventeen-year-old, is determined to leave Sawyer, PA, as soon as she graduates high school. In the meantime, she works as many hours as she can at a sandwich shop called The Triple S to save money for college. But when shop owner, Clay Cooper—a man both respected and feared in their small economically depressed town—is found dead, each member of his staff becomes a suspect in the perplexing case. Before she can go anywhere, Charlie must protect herself and her friends by uncovering the danger that is still lurking in their tightknit community.

Based on the #1 bestselling audio, American Girl is a riveting thriller told through the eyes of an unforgettable protagonist.

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Elise’s Thoughts

American Girl by Wendy Walker is a character study that begins as a murder mystery that then turns into a psychological thriller with elements of danger and twists. It is a story of good versus evil and life versus death. It about friendship and relationships between women surrounded by solving the crime of murder.

The story begins with the owner of a sandwich shop where Charlie Hudson works found murdered. Each member of the staff becomes a person of interest except Charlie who was hiding behind the counter. These people she works with have become her family, and she would go to any length to protect them.

Charlie is clever, thoughtful, resourceful, sensitive and has developed coping mechanisms for her autism that allow her to function.  

The author is a master of suspense. The story has many twists and turns and readers will not want to put the book down.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Why did you take the audio book and make it into a printed book?

Wendy Walker:  I worked with Audible for a novella of mine, Hold Your Breath. Once it went to Audible there were changes made to the story. The main character, Charlie, never had her condition spelled out. Readers could tell she was Neuro-divergent. This story became number one for Audible across all fiction. Since it was doing so well, I decided to revise the story sightly to make it for print.  And here we are. It is an ode to a woman’s life that starts at seventeen.

EC:  How did you get the idea for the story?

WW:  The summer of 2019 I was at a restaurant bar with a friend.  When the song, “American Girl,” came on I got up to dance. There were young people there who were flirting with each other, in their little packs.  I had a lot of images in my head.  I had a visceral that transferred me back to what it was like to be seventeen. As I was seeing women in different stages of life in this restaurant everything came together in a perfect storm. I had an acknowledgement on the realities of life. I thought of all the dreams I had. I became obsessed in writing a story. This was the first plot of mine that came from a character with all the other supporting characters giving life to Charlie. All the characters were written to express what I had experienced, the trajectories of a woman’s life.

EC:  Why did you make Charlie autistic?

WW:  I wanted to explain why she is perceptive of the world.  When she narrated the story, she is analytical and a little bit dispassionate even when things around her are very emotional and chaotic. She was atypical at that age. Most teenagers at that age are consumed with their own lives, their friends, but not the adults around them.  I remember thinking how the adults were irrelevant to me when I was seventeen, that parents could not understand me. I did a lot of research and spoke to specialists in the field, advocates of autism. It was really an education for me about autism. I learned how autistic people are all so different, and unique, especially the way their brains work.

EC:  How would you describe Charlie?

WW:  She has a good memory, good at math, but not good at relating to people.  She does not like loud noises or bright lights. She concentrates, an observer, loyal, and protective. She was diagnosed at age eleven. This helps to understand why she is different. She found the diagnosis very liberating and made her divergent. She can navigate the grown-up world.

EC: Charlie had a bunch of rules, why?

WW:  It is a story about an autistic girl and how any person put in Charlie’s situation would handle it differently based on their set of skills. The most important rule, “there are no rules when it comes to love.”  Love is a central theme to the book. The love between Charlie and her mom, between Charlie and her best friend Keller, and between Keller and her boyfriend Levi. Love is the one thing that throws off all the predictors. It causes all the other rules to fall away.

EC:  What was the influence of Charlie’s mom?

WW:  She felt trapped which is why she escaped from her parent’s clutches. She tells Charlie how love would destroy her.  She tries to be supportive. She was rejected by her parents.  She applies the lessons of what happened to her to everything for Charlie. All her dreams were stolen and now she has no dreams.  What is important to her and for Charlie is getting out of their town, Sawyer and to focus on survival. 

EC:  How would you describe Keller?

WW:  She is all consuming and passionate. She is an idealist, fragile, and harassed by the victim.  She drinks and smokes.

EC:  How would you describe one of the co-workers Janice?

WW:  She once had dreams. She is devoted, affectionate, proud, a worrier, and a mother figure.

E:  How would you describe one of the co-workers Nora?

WW:  She is resigned to life and feels pride in her work. She is a managerial type who is honest, loyal, disciplined, and a loner.

EC:  What about Ian, the policeman?

WW:  He was a childhood friend she was in love with. He is wound tightly and is trustworthy, sarcastic, and understanding. He is conflicted about his life’s circumstances.  He has unresolved issues and is shackled to the town. Charlie wants him to get over his past.

EC:  Readers feel no sympathy for the victim-correct?

WW:  He is not a good person.  He had a persona of what he wanted people to think of him versus his real persona. He was power hungry, greedy, lusted, and was not caring. He represents the bad things of this small town.  He enjoys humiliating people and takes advantage of people.  He is corrupt. He exploits his employees and takes away their dignity and self-respect.

EC:  Why the phrase, “lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions”?

WW: I worked in a sandwich shop at seventeen through college. The way the sandwich shop is described in the story is based on this shop. It was a chain called D’Angelos that have been around forever and puts those items on the sandwich. I had bosses who were sleeping with the teenage employees.

EC:  Next book?

WW: There will be an Audible book, an audio play titled Mad Love.  I describe it as Dirty John meets the Tinder Swindler meets the psychological thriller. It takes place in a wealthy suburban town.

EC:  Will this be made into a movie or TV show?

WW:  It has a TV series option.  All my stuff had been optioned.

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Feature Post and Book Review: Code Red by Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for CODE RED (A Mitch Rapp Novel Book #22) by Kyle Mills. This is the last book that Kyle Mills will be authoring in this series started by Vince Flynn, but the series is continuing.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Mitch Rapp hates owing anyone a favor—especially when it’s the world’s most powerful crime lord. But when Damian Losa calls, Mitch is honor-bound to answer.

The Syrian government appears to have created a highly addictive new narcotic that it plans to distribute throughout Europe. It’s a major threat to Losa’s business and he’s determined to send someone to keep him on top by any means necessary.

Rapp is the perfect choice for the mission. Not only does he have extensive experience operating in the Middle East, but he’s also entirely expendable.

As he crosses into war-torn Syria, Rapp quickly discovers a shocking truth. The new drug isn’t being produced by Damascus to prop up the government’s collapsing finances. Instead, it was created by Russia’s asymmetrical warfare unit, not for profit but as a weapon against the West.

With far more than Damian Losa’s interests at stake, Rapp devises a desperate plan that forces him and his team onto a battlefield where the United States is virtually powerless and allegiances shift almost hourly. Further, if Russia uncovers their plot, it will set off a confrontation between the two countries that could change the course of human history.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/109238891-code-red?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=AJbfuoNeEt&rank=2

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

CODE RED (A Mitch Rapp Novel Book #22) by Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills is another exciting addition to this political/terrorism thriller series. This is Mr. Mills last book in this long-standing series, but the series is continuing with another author. While this book begins with the repayment of an obligation from a previous book and the main characters continue to evolve, it is still easily read as a standalone thriller. I am privileged to be a chosen Ambassador to this series.

Mitch Rapp owes a favor to one of the world’s most powerful drug lords, Damian Losa, for the help that only he could provide in locating a threat to Mitch’s family. Losa is calling in his marker and sends Mitch undercover into Syria, but things do not go as planned. When Mitch is double crossed, he considered his debt paid and he goes after a Russian developing a designer drug that could easily destroy Western civilization as we know it.

Off the official books, Mitch and his team come together in Syria to take down this latest threat before Russia uncovers their plan and it turns into a major international incident.

I really love this series, but not this one until about a quarter of the way into the plot. I found Losa using Mitch the way he did just not what I expected, and it just did not fit the Mitch persona, so I did not really buy it and it dragged. The plot with the Russians making a new drug that could destroy Western society is when it grabbed my interest and the action took off with what I have come to expect in a Mitch Rapp book and that made it a good addition to the series for me. The book satisfied me by the end when Mitch and his team do what they do and made up for the slower beginning. I love this series for the intriguing political/terrorism plots that are not out of the headlines, but almost seem like the author can see into the horrors of the future. While I do not feel this is the best Mitch Rapp in the series, it is still an action roller-coaster thrill ride to the end.

I have loved this series since book one when Vince Flynn started it, and Kyle Mills has been an excellent choice to continue it and hopefully it will continue to be one of my favorite action thriller series as the author changes once again. Thank you for your stewardship, Mr. Mills.

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About the Author

Kyle Mills is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two political thrillers, including Enemy at the Gates, Total Power, and Lethal Agent for Vince Flynn and The Patriot Attack for Robert Ludlum. He initially found inspiration from his father, an FBI agent and former Interpol director, and still draws on his contacts in the intelligence community to give his books such realism. Avid outdoor athletes and travelers, he and his wife split their time between Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Granada, Spain.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.kylemills.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KyleMillsAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KyleMillsAuthor

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kyle-mills

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: A White Hot Plan by Mike & Ayan Rubin

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for A WHITE HOT PLAN by Mike & Ayan Rubin on this Coffee and Thorn Book Tour.

Below you will find an about the book section, my book review, an about the authors section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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About the Book

A group of alt-right terrorists decides that now is the time–and New Orleans is the place–to make an explosive statement that will force the world to acknowledge the superiority of the white supremacist movement.

Disgraced former New Orleans homicide detective Starner Gautreaux is now a poorly paid sheriff’s deputy relegated to writing his weekly quota of speeding tickets in a sleepy south Louisiana parish. His mundane life is all-too-predictable until several unusual events cause him to suspect something is seriously amiss. While the local coroner classifies the resulting deaths as accidental, Starner’s prior experience leads him to believe that not only are they homicides, but also that they signal something far more sinister.

Taut action bubbles up from the swamps of Louisiana to the hidden haunts of underworld bosses, from small-town life to urban grit, and from a high-speed highway shootout to a terrifying confrontation in the heart of the French Quarter. White supremacists seek to impose their will on a city swamped with carefree tourists, but Starner Gautreaux is determined not to let that happen.

A White Hot Plan

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

A WHITE HOT PLAN by Mike & Ayan Rubin is an intricately plotted, gripping thriller featuring a disgraced former NOPD homicide detective now just going through the motions as a rural sheriff’s deputy in his hometown South Louisiana parish. This is a standalone thriller that does leave an opening in the final chapter for the possibility of more books featuring this protagonist in the future and I am hoping that does happen.

Sheriff’s Deputy Starner Gautreaux is leading a predictably mundane life in his hometown until people begin to disappear and others are found dead. While the coroner calls them natural deaths, Starner’s experience has him believing otherwise. Starner refuses to ignore what is happening, but he will have to move quickly to stop a plot that could destroy the French Quarter during a festival.

This is a timely plot with the rise of domestic terrorism and white supremist groups currently in the news. Starner has grown up in this racially charged area, but treats all equally, but is not blind to the racism all around him. He has had a horrific life since Katrina and yet he still has a sense of justice that he cannot let go. The parish comes to life with the author’s descriptive writing of the bayou, the small town, the corrupt sheriff, and the fanatical delusions and cruelty of the white power group. The plot is fast paced and captivating as readers get to follow not only Starner’s point of view, but also all the members of the racist group. The short chapters moved the plot quickly and made me not want to stop reading until the end.

I highly recommend this engrossing crime thriller and I hope P.I. Starner Gautreaux will be back in more new books.

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About the Authors

Mike and Ayan Rubin are a husband and wife writing team.

Their debut novel, THE COTTONCREST CURSE, is a historical thriller published by the award-winning LSU Press. Its story line takes place from the 1860’s through the 1960’s and follows the exploits and travails of several generations of five families who own, work, or reside near the eponymous South Louisiana plantation.  THE COTTONCREST CURSE garnered the Book of the Year Gold Award at an annual meeting of the American Library Association where it was named the top thriller/suspense novel published by a university or independent press. A German edition has been published by Suhrkamp and is for sale in Europe.

Their second novel, a contemporary legal thriller entitled CASHED OUT, is now in its second edition.  It won the coveted Jack Eadon award as the Best Contemporary Drama and was shortlisted for the Silver Falchion Award as the best thriller. Combining page-turning action with a distinct sense of southern locale, the Providence Journal raved that it features “a lawyer down and out enough to make John Grisham proud. He’s culled from the likes of Michael Connelly by way of James Lee Burke. A gem of a tale.”

A WHITE HOT PLAN is their third novel.

A nationally known legal ethicist, public speaker and humorist, as well as a full time appellate attorney, Mike has had a varied career. He has been a professional jazz pianist in the New Orleans French Quarter, a radio and television announcer, and an adjunct law professor. He won the Burton Award for Outstanding Writing given at the Library of Congress and is a member of the Author’s Guild, the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and the International Association of Crime Writers.

Ayan has had an equally varied career, having been a classroom teacher, an education administrator, a prolific grant writer, a developmental book editor, a nonprofit consultant, and, for almost three decades, the Coordinator of the Educational Services Division of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, a statewide television network, where she was responsible for initiating and then shepherding a wide variety of video projects from concept through script development and production to statewide and national broadcast.

Mike’s breadth of knowledge about the intricacies of the law and his penchant for devising dramatic situations, combined with Ayan’s unique ability to visualize and bring characters and scenes to life, make for taut tales with unrelenting twists and turns.

Because Mike’s full time legal career and numerous speaking engagements keep them hopping, they write early in the morning or late in the evening, often discussing plot lines and character development during their daily 4:30 a.m. power walks. They are just as apt to draft and revise chapters while sitting in airports or hotel rooms as they are to do so in their adjoining home offices.

Together, Mike and Ayan Rubin have developed a unique literary voice that has captivated devotees of their page-turning thrillers. A WHITE HOT PLAN is their third novel..

The protagonists and primary characters in each of their contemporary novels are descendants of the protagonists and primary characters in THE COTTONCREST CURSE, and the intoxicating action in all of their fiction plays out amidst the backwoods, bayous, big cities, and body politic of their beguiling home state of Louisiana.

Social Media Links

Website: https://mrubinbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100036882297081

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelHRubin

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6187123.Michael_H_Rubin