Wednesday 31 December 2014

My Review: Falling For Cindy Fellars By Regina Puckett






Falling For Cindy Fellars
By Regina Puckett

I managed to devour this short story in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. 
It all starts when the leading protagonist, Cindy Fellars is leaving her night class in a mad hurry to relieve the babysitter of her twin sisters.  However her plans soon change as she stumbles upon an expensive shoe and hears signs of struggle coming from the nearby parking lot. Without further hesitation Cindy slides the safety off her Taser gun and goes in search of where the loud moans are coming from, unaware she is about to witness a brutal mugging of an innocent man.  Cindy fires her Taser at one of the muggers who she manages to incapacitate, however the other mugger soon flees the scene while Cindy manages to alert the police and an ambulance crew for the unknown victim, unaware she has saved a man who will then go on to save her and change the course of her entire existence.

This is a delightful little mystery with a number of unexpected twists.   The dialogue itself was easy to follow and understandable which leaves me to conclude this is written by a very competent author and a real credit to Regina Puckett. 

For more of my reviews:
Amazon & Goodreads


Thursday 18 December 2014

My Review: Smokescreen By Khaled Talib

http://www.amazon.com/Smokescreen-Khaled-Talib-ebook/dp/B00H4CVRL8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418912095&sr=1-1&keywords=Smokescreen+By+Khaled+Talib



Plot
The scene of the story is set in the Island of Singapore, where the Israeli government are seeking to put an end to the Palestinian conflict; however several Israeli officials want to kill their own leader and plan to assassinate him by framing an innocent reporter called Jethro Westrope, commonly known as Jet West, who works for the country’s leading lifestyle magazine.
Jet initially thinks that one of the men that is chasing him is the husband of the wife he has been sleeping with and has no idea until Niki Kishwani, a public relations manager of the Singapore Tourism Board tries to warn him that there are some men who are following him and want to fame him for the murder of an important person.  Jet finds himself in a situation where he is being chased by Chan’s henchmen while at the same time trying to clear his good name as Yung kills Niki, in an attempt to set Jet up for the murder.  Jet is forced to go into hiding and meets Michael Dexter, who offers him refuge in his mansion.  Michael encourages Jet to contact Nikis best friend, Nicole Wong   and convince her he didn’t kill Niki, and that’s when even more dangers await as Jet goes from one threat to yet another and the smear campaign to make him a scapegoat for further murders only multiplies as the dead body count increases.
Will Jet be able to clear his name in time before he is framed for the Israelis Prime Minister premeditated murder, or will Chan and his men achieve their ultimate mission that will in effect change the course of all their paths?     
Main Characters
Chan Boon Seng – Chief protocol officer of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Characteristics – A big brusque man who doesn’t care if people like him or not, black eyes, black hair that’s shaved along the sides, streaked with white sleeked back.  A graduate from the London School of Economics, exceptional military career, rising to the rank of Colonel, trained by the Israeli army.
Captain Eli Aviram – A tall lean man in his forties with a thin scar across his left cheek, Chan’s long time Israeli friend.
X – An old mysterious man, a former Israeli spy who is now a military consultant.
Jethro Westrope – Well-toned good-looking Eurasian, reporter, age 35, assistant editor at one of Singaporeans leading lifestyle magazines, half Irish, half Chinese.
Niki Kishwani – Public relations manager of the Singapore Tourism Board, age 28, a law graduate from a local university, a covert operative for Chan, a double agent.
Mary Yeo  - Niki Kishwani assassin. Yung murders her in cold blood in a church she was seeking repentance.
Nicole Wong - Niki Kishwani best friend, a deputy public prosecutor.
Yung – A remorseless assassin, who was sentenced to a mental institution for observation and then to be hanged. Chan paid for his freedom after Yung had spent two years in prison, in return Chan expected absolute loyalty. A special operations force solider gone wrong, trained in counter-terrorist actions.  
Michael Dexter – United States Ambassador to Singapore, a CIA official, his specific mission is to save the Israeli leader from assassination.
De Angelo – Loyal colleague of Dexter’s.
Dialogue
The dialogue is natural and flows well throughout the whole book with no signs of forced and unnecessary speech patterns with little or no reference to the use of profanity.      
Writing
Smokescreen is undoubtedly one of the best written espionage thrillers I have had the honour of reading. I have read numerous spy novels but this book is in a league of its own as one of the greatest fast-paced, gripping and thought provoking plots that involves high-level politics, government cover-ups, covert missions and a high pursuit chase of an innocent man trying desperately to prove his innocence. 
Khaled Talib is a master of depicting real life scenarios such as the current connections between Israel and Singapore into a work of unforgettable fiction that will leave you breathless and wanting more.  I highly recommend this book to readers of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy. 
My Rating:
5 stars
Superbly Written Espionage Thriller

     

Wednesday 3 December 2014

REVIEW: DEAD AND BURIED BY C S DIXON







DEAD AND BURIED
BY C S DIXON
Linda and Alex fancy a change of scenery and decide to venture into a derelict cemetery to enjoy their first session of outdoor sex.  Shortly after their fun fornication they both realise their flip-flops have disappeared from the spot they left them in but their backpacks and mobile phones are still there as Linda discovers her phone buzzing with a spooky message that reads, “You walk among the dead.” Alex presumes the message is off one of Linda’s friends messing around but Linda’s not convinced.   Soon after the atmosphere around them begins to change as there is a strange noise coming from one of the trees nearby that looks like a ghostly white outline of an owl perched on a large oak tree.  They soon both discover they have no signal on their iPhones and make an attempt to get out of the cemetery as quick as possible as they both sense something of a sinister nature following them. However their many attempts to flee in the dark in their bare feet across broken glass and debris results in ending back at the same spot to where they started. . . Unaware there are even darker forces at work that will prevent them ever leaving the cemetery alive. . .
I managed to devour this short story in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed the suspense, mystery, tension and fear.
C S Dixon is a master of depicting things of an unnatural nature and injects plenty of twists and turns to grip the reader from the very onset.
High stars and highly recommended.
For more of my reviews:
Amazon & Goodreads