Review: Chimera Catalyst (Finder#1) by Susan Kuchinskas

Chimera Catalyst (Finder #1)

By Susan Kuchinskas

 When Finder is hired to locate charismatic, green-haired Miraluna Rose, it seems like an easy job. Crack into corporate databases, brew up some biologics to enhance his thinking, and get the job done with the help of the Parrot, a bird/dog chimera with the finest traits of both species.

The search takes Finder and the Parrot to the sun-broiled streets of Laxangeles, the canals of Seattle and the weirdly mutated vegetation of the Area. It turns out that it's not a simple missing-person case after all.

Finder discovers that ReMe, a corporation providing medical cloning services, is illegally breeding human/animal chimeras. ReMe is selling these exotically beautiful female creatures, branded as ArcoTypes, as playthings to the wealthy and ruthless.

Miraluna Rose is its finest creation, but she has other ideas. She's holed up at Refuge, a haven for runaway ArcoTypes, where she's planning a future of freedom for her sisters.

To help the ArcoTypes fight ReMe, Finder and the Parrot will need the help of a couple of sympathetic AIs, the CEO of the world's largest advertising company and a posse of highly modded, celebrity-crazed media kids.

My Take:

When Finder is hired by Thin Man to hunt down a woman named Miraluna Rose, he knows it's no ordinary missing person case. On the surface, it seemed she was going out for the evening, but she never came back. The breathtakingly beautiful green-haired woman must have been snatched, and Finder and his genetically crafted parrot-dog Parrot must follow a confusing trail of bread crumbs using high tech gadgetry and computer wizardry to rescue her.

But as Finder pursues, he comes up with more questions than answers. Who, or WHAT, is Miraluna Rose? Why does it seem like maybe she doesn't WANT to be found? What is Thin Man hiding, and what does ReMe, a genetic cloning corporation, have to do with this? 

Suddenly, Finder finds himself the target of a manhunt, and keeping one leap ahead of the corporate goons is almost all he can handle as he uncovers secrets they are trying desperately to keep hidden.

Content:

Drug Content:
R – Wow, so much. In the future, it appears oxytocin is an over-the-counter drug, and walking around with an IV-port to fast-track performance-enhancing meds is common.  (BTW I appear to have confused oxytocin with oxycodone, which is a controlled substance, my bad).
 
Violence:
PG – This thriller has some violence, and some death and torture mentioned but not on screen. 
 
Language:
R - The F-bomb is dropped quite a bit. This isn't something I'd give an early teen to read.
 
Adult Content:
PG-13 – Sex trafficking is a major thread of this story. Clones are manufactured for pleasure. Gender parts are mentioned in a few places, but no real action occurs on screen. The human-animal genetic hybrids hinted at a bit of bestiality hiding in the shadows, but again nothing occurred onscreen.
 
Christian content:
None. There's a church, but it's pretty much New Age, and involves what amounts to a skin-on-skin touching orgy. (not sexual, just... touching.)  

  

Final Analysis:
I found Chimera Catalyst to be a fast-paced, well-written thriller. I liked the plot twists and the characters, especially the Parrot and Finder and their interactions. The stakes were high, the world-building phenomenal, the characters enjoyable, the humor engaging. Five Stars!

About the Author:

As a kid, Susan Kuchinskas spent hours catching toads, watching rabbits and starting ant wars -- and reading, reading, reading.

She's never lost her love for creatures of all kinds. In fifth grade, she discovered the bookmobile's science fiction section and read nothing else until she got to college.

After the usual writer's mix of odd jobs – gogo dancer, housepainter, office temp – she happened into journalism. As a technology journalist, she covered the rise and fall of the dotcoms, the move to digital and mobile, and the ascendance of social media.

She's the author of two previous books, Going Mobile: A Guide to Real-time Mobile Applications that Work (CMP Books 2003), and The Chemistry of Connection: How the Oxytocin Response Can Help You Find Trust, Intimacy and Love (New Harbinger 2008).

Her short stories have been published in anthologies and journals including Deep Space Dog Fight and Chicago Literati. This is her first novel.

To exercise the parts of her body and mind that don't get a workout from writing, Susan is an organic gardener, beekeeper, sculptor and DIY re-modeler. She enjoys uncovering exotic cultures at home and abroad.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her mate, Mike, and their socially challenged dog and super-chill cat.
!

Review: Sickness in Time by M.F. Thomas, Nicholas Thurkettle

Sickness in Time

by 

M.F. Thomas,

 

Nicholas Thurkettle

In 2038, the human race is in a death spiral, and most people do not even know it yet. Technology that was supposed to make us better and stronger instead is birthing a strange and terrible plague we may not be able to stop. When the young daughter of Josh Scribner, a wealthy tech entrepreneur, starts to succumb to the illness, he dedicates his fortune in a desperate effort to save her life. Working with a friend & celebrated physicist, Josh develops the ability to send objects back through time. Their goal to recruit an agent in the past who might change our fatal path.

In our present day, a broken and traumatized Air Force veteran finds a strange message in the woods, drawing her into an adventure spanning decades. All humanity is at stake, as she and her small group of friends become the unlikely heroes taking up the secret fight against our future doom.

My Take:

In 2039, A plague that attacks the brain is spreading across the globe, and wealthy tech entrepreneur Josh Scribner is convinced that the tech he developed to make the human race better is at fault. As more and more cases come in of the strange and deadly plague, Josh realizes that warning the public is the only choice, even if it ruins him. 

But his warnings have come too late to save the human race. Until he joins forces with a close friend and celebrated physicist. Together they develop a system to send messages back in time and change the past, eradicating mankind's fatal future.

In 2015, Maria Kerrigan, a traumatized Air Force veteran, finds a strange message in the woods, plunging her into a gripping fight against a dark and determined evil foe to save mankind from certain doom.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG-13 - Most of the main characters drink, some to intoxication, and one is a recovering alcoholic who falls off the wagon into a destructive spiral. Brain-altering tech and mind-enhancing drugs are pandered in the future.

Violence:

PG - There is a scene where a man is tortured without any real physical harm, but with a brain implant. Discussion is made how an extended or increased level of this procedure has killed multiple people. A man is shot to death in his own home. A stalker kills a person with a rock. A person is strangled. Several are killed by remote control. Bruising and blood are mentioned, but none of the violence is graphic.

Language:

R - The D word occurs about 25 times, GD is there 3 times. The F bomb is dropped 4 times.

Adult Content:

PG-13 - Four of the main characters, although involved in platonic friendships, are repeatedly mistaken as gay couples. One of the main characters has several drunken sexual encounters, though the action occurs off-screen. Urination is mentioned a few times. 

Christian content:

Nope. God doesn't really get discussed even in an offhanded way here, nor attendance at church. This is a great adventure story, with some overarching moral themes of self-sacrifice, the greater good, loyalty, duty, and persistence in the face of insurmountable odds. It takes a hard look also at mental health and the hubris mankind sometimes has in the violation of ethical standards for monetary gain and power. Good and evil were clearly delineated, save for certain minions led away by duplicity.

Final analysis:

Sickness in Time was an amazing adventure story. I found it an action-packed dystopian page-turner. The main characters were very real and raw. Character development and setting were excellent. The stakes were as high as they come, and the antagonist, though relatively two-dimensional, had his own dark stakes that were quite real. Though I could do without the language, I found the book gripping and couldn't put it down, losing sleep several nights. Not one I'd recommend for the kiddies, but it's a great adventure for the adult crowd. Five Stars!

About the Authors:

MF Thomas has lived and worked in over 20 countries. He is very happy to be home in the United States. His website is www.MFThomasAuthor.com.









Nicholas Thurkettle is a writer, actor, and filmmaker currently living in Southern California. Born in Los Gatos, California, he grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, turned teenage in Huntington Beach, California, and studied at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he earned B.A. degrees in Theatre Performance and Music. He has worked, among many other jobs, as a feature film story executive, a limousine driver, a film critic, a luggage salesman, a teacher of screenwriting, a professional smeller for a Sanitation Department, and something called a "data migration project supervisor."

His first novel, Seeing by Moonlight (co-written with MF Thomas), debuted in autumn 2013 and was called "an intriguingly dark thriller, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning pages up until the rather surprising conclusion" by IndieReader. In August 2015 he published a collection of 15 short stories entitled Stages of Sleep, which was praised as "immediate, lyrical, and lean". A second sci-fi thriller novel written with MF Thomas, A Sickness in Time, was released in August 2016.

As an actor he has an extensive resume of on-stage Shakespeare and roles in upcoming independent feature films including "The Revelator", "Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine", "Aventura!" and "Reclaiming Friendship Park". He is a member of the Writers Guild of America for his screenwriting work in Hollywood, and is the producer/writer/director of two short films. The first, "Samantha Gets Back Out There", had its world premiere at the 2015 Laughlin International Film Festival and received an Honorable Mention from the IndieFEST USA Film and Music Festival. The second, "The Retriever", is currently in submissions to the film festival circuit for late 2016 and early 2017.

He is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America for his screenwriting work, as well as the Orange County Playwrights Alliance; an Artistic Associate/Casting Director with Shakespeare Orange County, and a producer/writer/performer with the award-winning audio drama podcast Earbud Theater.

Review: The Space Between by Shawn D Brink

The Space Between

by Shawn D Brink

When Hunter and his wife Nora begin to have nightmarish visions of evil and death, they feel driven to find what truth lies behind them. But the truth that they find is terrifying. The enemy they must face is powerful and unless defeated, will mean the end of the world as they know it.
Only by standing firm and relying on each other as well as on God, can they achieve victory. But is victory even possible? For Hunter and Nora, only time can reveal these answers. 

My Take:

Hunter, a debilitatingly OCD office worker and stalwart Christian, has been having a frightening recurring dream. An ancient lady stands before him, stating, "I am the 100 year old woman in the 100 year old store guarding the 100 year old door." The door opens and something flies out and nearly kills him. Something evil.

Realizing that the dream portends rapidly approaching events, Hunter desperately searches for the woman and the door, not knowing whether it will spell his doom. Unbeknownst to Hunter, his wife Nora has been having similar dreams, leading her to the ancient antique shop of Nancy Love, just moments before Hunter arrives.

The door opens and sucks them through, into a fight to the death against the world's oldest and most powerful enemy - an enemy bent upon the end of the human race. Only by standing firm in their faith and relying on one another can they have any hope at all of destroying the monster in the Space Between.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG - A minor character has a seriously alcoholic mother. Another is a drug addict, alcoholic and prostitute.

Violence:

PG-13 - This book has a series of vignettes where lone victims are violently attacked and their brains consumed in a bloody mess.

Language:

G - squeaky clean.

Adult Content:

PG - One woman, as mentioned before, is a prostitute.  

Christian content:

Hunter and his wife are both believers, as is Nancy Love and several other characters in this novel. The main plot is based on end-times prophesy, and the spiritual enemy is very real. Faith and reliance on prayer plays a major part here, and the entire dark path is lit by an incandescent hope for the future.

Final analysis:

I found Hunter and his OCD to be endearing, and his wife Nora to be enchanting. While the back and forth plot and vignettes were a bit hard to follow, and the work needs polish, it was an intriguing and enjoyable high-stakes thriller. The three main characters were the best part of this novel, though the supporting cast and the main enemy were somewhat two dimensional. The split worlds idea was interesting, and the pace, although slow at the beginning, picked up pace about a third of the way through, accelerating downhill like a water slide. While I found the plot solid, the world-building intriguing and the main characters real, the pacing issues at the beginning and the polish needed kept this at a reasonable Four Stars.

About the Author:

Shawn D. Brink was born in Clovis New Mexico, but has lived in Eastern Nebraska since he was five. He holds an undergraduate degree in Secondary Education from Wayne State College and a graduate degree in Management from Bellevue University. His interests (besides writing) include church, playing guitar, and spending time with his wife and four children.

You can follow his writing adventures at his WordPress.

Review: The Missing Teacher II: The German Connection by Jeremy E. Owen

The Missing Teacher II: The German Connection

by Jeremy E. Owen

Recent high school graduate Dorothy Reine has dreams of studying to be an architect in America. But her father's disappearance two years earlier has put a damper on those plans. Frustrated by people who tell her to let the authorities handle his case, she decides to take matters into her own hands. 

As she discovers about her father's Stasi past, redemption, and suffering, will she be able to pursue her dream? Maybe, but not in any way that she ever expected!

My Take:

Dorothy Reine works hard at her Great Uncle Trotz' restaurant in Berlin, marginally aware of his past involvement in the Stasi, a neo-Nazi secret police operating in East Berlin shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her father's disappearance two years earlier is the biggest obstacle in the way of fulfilling her dreams of going to America to study to be an architect.

As people at every turn stymie her efforts to uncover the truth of her father's disappearance, she discovers a secret room in the restaurant basement, revealing troubling clues to Herr Trotz' involvement in nefarious operations that might have something to do with her father's mysterious absence.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG - Alcohol is consumed a few times, there are a few scenes at a bar.

Violence:

PG - Torture is threatened multiple times, and occurs once off screen. While danger lurks in the background, actual violence rarely appears onstage.

Language:

G - None.

Adult Content:

PG - Dorothy is propositioned a few times, by various suitors, and her desire to give interested men the cold shoulder is discussed and rebuked a few times. She has trouble reconciling the bible and good friends who came out as gay. 

Christian content:

Pivotal decisions are made by characters based on the testimony of Deitrich Boenhoffer, and the main character struggles with her faith, due to her father's disappearance, among other things. Faith plays a backseat role through most of the book, though providence is visible in how things progress. Characters are encouraged to pray when doubting. Family loyalty is preferred over monetary gain.

Final analysis:

Dorothy appeared rather clueless as forces swirled around her without her notice. The action was gripping, though, and the plot kept me involved. I finished much of the book in one sitting, it was that engrossing. The settings were realistic, the action intense. The characters somewhat believable. All in all, an enjoyable and gripping high stakes adventure story. Five Stars!

About the Author:
Jeremy E Owen is the author of the Missing Teacher Trilogy and the Tim Cauling, Amateur PI series. He grew up in a small town in North America, but presently is an associate professor in South Korea, where he lives with his wife and two amazing daughters.

Review: Dark Water by Simon Thould

Dark Water

by Simon Thould

A girl goes missing – but has she been lost, or taken? Her frantic mother begs for help from the one man with the ruthless skills to track her down. Alex Rafter, former sniper, sees Madeleine Finch as a bad, erratic mother, and is reluctant to go back to a life he is trying to forget. But his own nightmares compel him to search, for the girl's sake.

Rafter embarks on a murderous hunt, aided by Gabriel Montero, another former soldier, that leads through the wilds of the New Forest to the squalid back streets of Southampton. Rebecca Grant, local veterinary, drug addict and would-be lover, offers help, but her own agenda threatens to send Rafter astray. It becomes a race against time to find the girl before she is lost forever to the heartless world of people traffickers.

My Take:

When Alex Rafter, former sniper for the British military, settles down in his old Uncle Max's cottage, Dark Water, in the New Forest community, he's expecting a tranquil change to the surgical killing he was used to. The last thing he really is looking for is more opportunities to use his deadly combat skills. That's a past he'd rather leave behind.

But when Madeleine Finch, local Mercedes dealership owner and erratic mother, begs him to find her missing teenage daughter, he reluctantly agrees to take on the task, for the girl Jac's sake.

Rafter relentlessly pursues the missing girl, stymied by local police and assisted by ex-military bar owner Gabriel Montero. The chase leads him from the wilds of the New Forest to the squalid seedy back streets of nearby Southampton, in a race against time to find her before she is lost forever in the dark world of sex trafficking.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG-13 - Ketamine, used by vets, is trafficked. Alcoholism is common here, with vodka, beer, and whisky consumed pretty much whenever people gather.

Violence:

PG - There are several battle scenes, with gunfire and methodical killing. Nothing gratuitous.

Language:

R - The F bomb is dropped 25 times. Other profanity is sprinkled lightly throughout

Adult Content:

R - This is a book about sex trafficking. There is one sex scene, not overly graphic or prolonged. There is a conversation about a sexual encounter, and there is some discussion about sex trafficking and the chances of the girls caught in it. Prostitution and pimps are discussed in a couple conversations. While the subject matter involves sex, abuse, and slavery, there's only casual come-ons, other than the one scene.

Christian content:

Um, not at all. There are no mentions of faith, praying, any gods, or church. God's name is used about 10 times but only as an epithet. On the other hand, there is camaraderie under fire, persistence, and an overarching theme of right and wrong. The lines may be off center. They say that in Texas, 'Your honor, he NEEDED killing' is an admissible defense. There is a bit of that here.

Final analysis:

Well, this one isn't for the little kids. The language is a bit rough for even teens. If you are looking for an adventure story, though, wanting to experience the bad guys getting taken down, this is a good read. The pace is slow in starting up, but the action held my attention and it grew rather gripping by midpoint. The internal struggles in the main character and the interactions between him and the ladies around him, and the friends on his team, made this a bit of a guilty pleasure, and I'm a fan of black ops and insurmountable odds rescues. There's plenty of that here. I'd love to give this a full five stars, but the pacing dragged in the beginning, and it was a bit tough getting started on the actual adventure. Four Stars!

About the Author:

Simon was born in 1945 in Somerset, England. He played sports at school with more enthusiasm than he studied but did manage to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor and practised for twenty years in London and throughout the south of England.
He completed two creative writing courses at night school and one correspondence course in his spare time. He also worked as a restaurant and bar manager in Hampshire before moving to Spain with his two cats for a year and a half where he wrote his first novel. He then moved back to the UK and took a position as resident groom/housekeeper in Kent and wrote a second novel.
Simon relocated to Charleston, South Carolina in the '90's for several years working in warehouse stock control, he sold insurance and artwork in a Thomas Kinkade gallery downtown.
Returning to the UK again, he worked as a mailman and in several retail positions and wrote a third unpublished novel.
Moving to Gozo in the Mediterranean in 2014, Simon wrote, 'Dark Water', a thriller introducing Alex Rafter. After a lifetime of rejections from publishers and agents with only minor success selling magazine articles, he made one more push to get published and sent sample chapters to more than fifty UK agents and was lucky to be picked up by David Haviland of the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency in London. 'Dark Water' was published in August 2017.
In the same month, Simon suffered a stroke and spent a week in hospital and for several months underwent tests and examinations before being singed off by the consultant at the Stroke Clinic, Blackpool where he now lives. Sucking down six pills a day, Simon continues with his recovery and therapy and has returned to writing work.
Simon's passion include horseracing, reading USA hard-bolied, noir novels and watching classic black and white movies.

Review: Lost Hunters, Second Edition by Deanne Devine

Lost Hunters, Second Edition

by Deanne Devine

"Amberly County would be a great place to live if it weren't for this stupid curse."

Jake Nichols, televised interview, "Peculiar People and Places." WYOY TV, May 28, 1979.

The tale of John Barker's Hunt has been handed down for generations in Amberly County. Stories about the Hunt are mostly told around campfires, but there are some who claim it to be true. According to the old timers, the county is cursed, and once every generation the ghost of John Barker returns to hunt down the person who killed him. Oddly enough, roughly every 20 years the county does suffer a cluster of bizarre deaths. 

Nineteen years have passed since the last Hunt, but the citizens of the quiet town of Miltonville are too absorbed in their own problems to take notice. Cindy Swift is preoccupied with her upcoming suicide; Troy Ivers is worrying about the midnight ceremony he plans to hold in a rural cemetery; and Leslie Vickers is very concerned that the mannequin down the hall wants to kill her. 

Ed Philips is the one person in Amberly County who is aware that trouble is about to arrive. It approaches in the form of a phantom, walking in the body of a dead man. Ed knows the real story behind the legend of the Hunt, but has spent most of his life denying the truth. Now, with the fate of a young woman in his hands, he must decide whether to continue feeding his demons of cowardice and regret, or face them head on, and attempt to put an end to John Barker's Hunt. 

My Take:

Every 20 years or so, Amberly County experienced a brief and puzzling string of deaths, linked, at least in some people's minds, to the massacre of John Barker and his bizarre commune over 200 years ago. Legend has it that Barker returns every 20 years to hunt down and kill the descendants of his old rival, Lucas Vanderkellen. 

Only Ed Phillips knows the truth, a truth he has been denying his entire life, a truth involving Leslie, daughter of his best friend, who was brutally murdered in the last hunt. Entrusted with the only means to end the deadly killing sprees carried on by the tormented angry spirit of John Barker, Ed must confront his own inner demons and defeat John Barker once and for all, before Barker regains his life and releases a horde of demons on an unsuspecting world.

Content:

Drug Content:

R - There is a tremendous amount of underage drinking and drinking to excess by most of the cast. It would almost appear to be the norm in this county. Marijuana is almost as common as the alcohol, harder drugs also make their appearance, and a stolen drug shipment plays a pivotal part in backstory. 

Violence:

R - The ghosts possess individuals, who end up dying during possession. The ghosts continue to animate the dead until they are unable to move. Most of the deaths do not involve blood, and appear to be brain aneurysms. One character's neck is snapped, several are shot, but most just... die.

Language:

G - While some of the things said seem pretty violent, curse words are almost completely absent.

Adult Content:

PG-13 - A drug scene involves a man coming home to his naked girlfriend and her naked friend. Several couples pair off for a tryst, but their antics don't appear on screen. Several affairs are discussed, a marriage is dissolved because of infidelity. One minor character is addicted to porn and is heavily harassed by a flock of demons. 

Christian content:

YES. I originally would not have thought so, and much of the book seemed so dark it was irredeemably demonic, several characters overcome the demonic influences by the power of Christ. Demons and angels fight in the spiritual realm, the afterlife is clearly discussed, the existence of God and the power of forgiveness, redemption, and self-sacrifice play central roles. The perils of a life yielded to demonic influence and inebriation show up in stark relief, and satanic rituals, curses, tarot cards show up, but are cast in a negative light.

Final analysis:

Not gonna lie, this is a horror story, and is pretty dark. The people throughout the story are alcoholics, drug addicts, and seem almost hopeless in their meandering through life in this small town. The evil ghosts, the satanic ritual close to the beginning, the depression, almost had me put this one down. But several scenes in the story gave me a glimmer of hope for it, and I kept plowing through to the exciting and glorious end. Glad I kept at it.

While the story was good and the action was gripping, the stakes were very high and the scenery well-developed, I found the characters to be a bit two-dimensional, and the pace a bit slow. I found the second half to be gripping, and hard to put down. The pace was racing at the finish, and the action enthralling, but not enough to give this one more than Four Stars.

About the Author:
Deanne Devine is a native of southwestern Ohio, a region rich in the everyday peculiarities and ordinary oddness that make good food for an overactive imagination. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in several small press magazines, back in the day when such publications actually came from a small press, and the original editions of her novels Lost Hunters and Live Armadillos were published in trade paperback by The Lighthouse Press, Inc. Currently, she is working on the ebook version of Live Armadillos, as well as filling her desk drawers with screenplays and short stories.

Review: Elimination (The Mind Breaker #1) by Marina Epley

Elimination (The Mind Breaker #1)

by Marina Epley

For fans of The Hunger Games, Maze Runner and X-Men. Immerse yourself in a gritty YA dystopian adventure with telepathy, hypnosis and mind reading.

Eighteen-year-old Rex is trying to survive in a dangerous world where the government hunts down, imprisons and even kills those with psychic abilities. He’s a mind breaker, considered not only a deviation from the norm but the biggest threat to society.

Once he reveals his abilities for hypnosis, the deadly hunt begins…

Rex has to flee across the devastated countryside while an entire army of resistant soldiers searches for him. Worse yet, by going on the run, he’s endangering his one and only friend Kitty.

Rex soon realizes that together they make a vulnerable target. And the only way to save Kitty is to allow himself to be captured, thus diverting attention while his friend escapes. But nothing goes as planned, and his actions only serve to push Kitty into an even worse situation than a life sentence in prison. With his world falling apart, Rex must figure out how to fix his accumulating mistakes and regain their freedom before it’s too late.

What Rex doesn’t yet understand, is that he may soon play a major role in preventing all-out war between ordinary humans and mind breakers, a war which could lead to total extinction of the entire human race.

My Take:

Rex is an eighteen-year-old with a terrible secret. He is part of a subset of a post-apocalyptic population that have special mental abilities - hypnosis, telekinesis, mind-reading, and more. He's a mind-breaker, and that amounts to life in prison or worse, just because of who he is.

Lies permeate the media that society watches, tagging mind-breakers as nothing but deadly threats bent on raping, murdering or using their powers to take other advantage of the population at large. Their top-rated show involves watching mind-breakers being hunted down and exterminated by Elimination, a jack-booted black-ops group of specially trained commandos who gather mind-breakers and gather them into research facilities and death camps.

Rex tries to eke out an existence as a 'normal', but the lie he is living crashes around him as the bank he works at is robbed, and he has to use his powers of hypnosis in order to escape. Now, on the run for his life, he has to separate from his sister, Kitty, in order to save her, even if it means capture and death.

As society continues to pursue the annihilation of this enhanced race of beings, aided by the lying media and the merciless Elimination, there's going to be a reckoning - one that just might spell the end of everyone.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG-13 - Several characters do a significant amount of drinking or drugs to ease guilt or pain. Drugs are administered to control or subjugate.

Violence:

R+ - This is extremely bloody. Genocide is a good term. This dark, dystopian novel has torture, bullying, slaughter of innocents, torching of schools and hospitals. Threats and murders of loved ones for leverage or revenge. Street fighting and skull crushing abound. Noses and arms, legs and ribs are broken throughout for the joy of inflicting pain or dominance, for some of the psychotic villains.

Language:

PG - The D-word is used a bit, but nothing else.

Adult Content:

PG - There's not much, but there are some suggestions of rape and such. One of the bad guys intimates considering having his way with a girl who is not yet an adult.   

Christian content:

None. There's not much talk about an afterlife, and there's not any concept of hope beyond surviving the next 30 minutes or just escaping from one bad situation into another. There are some points in the book where characters consider the concept of good and evil, or bad and worse, or who is deserving of death more than someone else. Family and loved ones appear to be the main motivating force, and on the antagonist side, apparently there is no level too low to stoop, no line too bad to cross, in a sadistic pursuit of the destruction of a new race. There are a few characters who learn about forgiveness and reconciliation, and there are some that ardently argue for peace and coexistence. 

Final analysis:

Wow. Where to begin. There are some editing issues, and this book is far darker than my usual fare. As described above, there is a lot of sadism in between the covers of this novel, but the book is a fast-paced thriller that had me glued to it from the shocking and depressing start to the action-packed end. The world-building was stark and realistic. The main character spent far too much time soul searching and pondering his path, waffling in decisions until he focused on a destiny. The antagonists, and there were quite a few, were very dark and very bad. They seemed somewhat one-dimensional, unredeemable, and completely unlikeable.

I would have liked to have known more about the backstory of Wheeler and some of the evil villains like him, to get a better understanding of their motivation for hatred and sadism. A good 'bad' guy has reason and stakes or history that motivates him to be like he is.

The novel was realistic, if disturbing, gripping, a real page-turner. It sets up for a nice dystopian world war, and the world building was solid, but the character building and there were a few pacing issues that kept me from awarding the story the five stars that the plot deserved. Four Stars!

About the Author:
I’m a former journalist turned full-time author who began writing at an early age. Growing up on science fiction, horror and action movies more than cartoons, where the stuff of my dreams (or nightmares) quickly evolved into the short stories I shared with classmates. Well, nothing much has really changed since, except nowadays I write for your enjoyment and reading pleasure.
​
I published my first YA dystopian trilogy The Mind Breaker in 2016, and I’m currently working on a new series. I mostly write science fiction with plenty of action and adventure, but appreciate any good stories with lots of unexpected twists and turns.

Visit my website https://www.epleymarina.com/

To hear about new books first, sign up for my mailing list http://eepurl.com/czyC4H 

Stay updated with my new releases at: 
https://twitter.com/MarinaEpley

The Unlikely Adventures of Race & Cookie McCloud: Volume 1 by Tom Hoefner

The Unlikely Adventures of Race & Cookie McCloud: Volume 1
by Tom Hoefner
Illustrated by  Kevin Gillespie


A superhero with anger management issues! A living stone idol with a love for pop-culture trivia! Fist-pumping vampires! These are but a few of the nefarious (and ridiculous) challenges facing awful private investigator Race McCloud and his teenaged niece, all-star spy-in-training Cookie McCloud, as they scour the globe in search of their missing secret agent family. Stuck together by Cookie’s parents under the pretense of ‘babysitting’ (who is sitting for whom is left largely unclarified), the pair find themselves the target of special forces who are out to capture Cookie and KILL RACE! With nowhere left to turn, they seek the aid of Green Suit Jacket Man, the night-stalking vigilante that Race has been hunting for six months and that Cookie finds in one night. With the hero’s reluctant support, the dysfunctional duo are off! To find Cookie’s parents, spies of a Bond-ian sort! To find Margolis McCloud, a tomb-raiding treasure hunter! To find Nyte McCloud, a monster slayer and practitioner of badassery! Through it all, our two heroes must figure out why the military is so hellbent on capturing Cookie, how to act like partners and, most of all, how to be a family.


My Take:
If you like adventure stories with nonstop action, werewolves, vampires, zombies, mafia, superpowers, gadgetry, lost civilizations, mummy curses, and ninja skills, this one's for you.

When Race McCloud, private eye, agrees to babysit his sixteen-year-old niece Cookie, he knows it's not going to be an easy task - after all, she's in training to be a super-spy like her parents, and all of her extended family as well. And the clandestine way her parents dropped her off, with strict instructions not to take her back to 'school', make it clear that somebody's coming to get her, and probably kill Race in the bargain. Without the protection of her spy extended family, I might add... all of whom seem to excel at something exciting and deadly.

The only, well, reasonably 'normal' one in the family is Race, a never-even-has-been with a penchant for collecting useless bits of trivia on comic books and video games, who lives in a hovel rent-free as the janitor. Yeah, THAT guy.

With the help of the mysterious hero Green Suited Jacket Man, who Race has been hunting for six months, and who Cookie finds in one night, they attempt to stay at least one step ahead of their pursuers as they attempt to reassemble their over-powered family and save the world.

Content:

Drug Content:
PG - Several scenes in this book occur in a nightclub where there is some drinking.

Violence:
PG - Like in any YA Spy novel, there's quite a bit, but not gratuitous or explicit in its description. Bones are snapped, jaws are broken, some thugs get killed. Lots of high-velocity chases and some explosions occur. A lot of violence is done to a werewolf and a bar full of vampires.

Language:
PG - I don't recall any swear words at all, except perhaps the D-word tossed in a couple times, but nothing that I took note of.

Adult Content:
PG - I would have kept this at G, but there are a few innuendos tossed around and some mention of a gay vampire, and a few scantily clad succubusses. There's also some discourse about the objectifying of women and a brief discussion about the physical discomforts of females battling without proper attire.

Christian content:
Apart from some mention of holy water and silver crosses, and a slight nod to a side character who if I remember correctly is a priest, there's no mention of scripture or prayer anywhere. The characters depend solely on their own admittedly adequate power to overcome significant obstacles. There's no real discourse on life after death or a higher power.

However, Race tries very hard to be a protector for his niece, and in his bumbling way is clearly depicted as better than the rest of his amazing family. Cookie begins the novel with nothing but contempt for him but in the end realizes his true value and character. Issues like character, diligence, family, self-sacrifice, and consequences, are pretty well depicted here, in a manner that, after the laughter dies down, will make you think.

Final analysis:
Race and Cookie make an unlikely 'odd couple' but the combination works wonders not only for the plot but the flow. Their interactions are priceless, and Race plays the part of comedy relief well. The author transitions him smoothly into the part of a real three-dimensional hero. Pace, setting, world-building, action, dialog - it's a solid, complete package of fun as a fast-paced laugh-a-minute getaway.
The book was well-edited and kept my attention pretty much cover to cover. Five Stars!

About the Author:
Tom Hoefner is a writer, director, and teacher (not necessarily in that order) who lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jaime, his daughters Gabby and Audrey, and their cat Zelda. In his spare time he stages college and high school musicals, plays too much Nintendo, and roots for the Mets.

Review: The Scorpion by John A. Autero

The Scorpion
by John A. Autero

You watch the TV news every night and think you know what’s going on… think again.

Three friends stumble upon information that describes an underwater excavation site and refinery that processes a newly discovered source of energy. Who built the site? What is the fuel used for? What happened on December 26, 2004? The friends are determined to reveal the truth about their findings to the public and realize that just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s right. 

“The Scorpion is a Techno-Thriller on steroids!”

My Take:

Who knew digging in the dump could thrust you into the middle of the biggest government cover-up in the USA's history? When Bruce and his two friends find an unmarked computer server drive while reclaiming electronics equipment for their day job, they decide to keep it to store music and movies on. But the top secret government data already on the drive isn't the kind of information you can just ignore. 

When the drive contacts the NSA, government agents come running to reclaim the data and anyone who has seen it. But the three friends aren't going down without a fight. What ensues is an edge-of-the-seat race against time to expose the disaster and cover-up with the help of an underground conspiracy-exposing podcaster known only as the Folsom Street Avenger.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG - The three friends make it a weekly habit to visit a local bar. One plays designated driver while the others get a bit wasted. The effects of a hangover are described in some detail. Some drugs are used to obtain the truth, Illegal street drugs don't show up in the book. 

Violence:

PG - A sniper is used at one point to take out a target. His expertise is described at some length, as well as some of his past activities. NSA agents discuss eliminating people rather blandly. An agent considers the pros and cons of several methods of killing an unarmed target. No gratuitous violence.

Language:

R - There's a significant amount of cussing in this book, from the first page, where the F-bomb is dropped quite a few times, to late in the book. The first few pages are actually the worst, and if you don't have a problem there, the rest of the book is much better.

Adult Content:

PG - I don't really recall any adult content in the book, and actually few females show up in the work, other than moms and aunts. 

Christian content:

Ah, pretty much nada. The aunt(?) seems to have a level of faith, and gives some good advice, but there's no scripture that I remember in the novel, and while the central message seems to be one of exposing truth, it's driving force is the public's right to know rather than any moral accountability.

Final analysis:

The Scorpion is a well-written, fast-paced techno-thriller, with believable characters and high stakes on both sides of the fence. I was put off a bit by the language, and the missed opportunity to drive the story's main message by the need for a moral accountability in government, but in retrospect the story stood well on its own, with even room for a fast-paced sequel? Five Stars!

About the Author:

John A. Autero is an indie author of techno-thriller adventure novels. An engineer by education, John employs a technical style of writing that combines existing technologies with those that are yet to be developed. John enjoys anything sci-fi, automotive, heavy metal and ballistic. Always a fan of government conspiracies and black-ops, stories like "The Terminator" and "The X-Files" are always on his list of favorites. John was born in the United States and has spent his entire life there, where he happily lives with his wife and pets.