Book Review: The Sinai Secret (Lang Reilly Thrillers) by Gregg Loomis

An enjoyable experience

This is the first book by Gregg Loomis that I've read and I discovered that the protagonist, Lang Reilly, had featured in some of his previous works as well. However, I was not left in the dark about how Reilly's previous escapades influenced what happened to him in this tale, as it was expertly woven into the storyline without interrupting any events.

Someone in Reilly's research organization discovered an old parchment that certain people are prepared to kill for, and they do too. Soon, they are following Reilly and are trying their utmost to do him in, but he is always one step ahead of the antagonists. Reilly leaves a trail of action thrills as he tries to get to the bottom of this.

Gregg Loomis interlaces the suspenseful action with plenty of international settings, ancient mysteries, science, discoveries and even a bit of romance. Reading this book was an enjoyable experience, and the only problem I had was that I had read a thriller by another author just before this book, that had used some of the same science and ancient mysteries (a lot of which is public knowledge, you can Google the stuff), therefore I could anticipate certain events in the story. That said; it is not Gregg Loomis' fault that I read the other book just prior his novel - I certainly look forward to read more of his work.

Book Review: The Murder Artist: A Thriller by John Case

Scary, spellbinding thriller

The plot is about investigative TV reporter Alex Callahan's identical twin 6-year-old sons who go missing at a Renaissance fair. He soon learns that they have been kidnapped. However, there is no contact from the abductor(s) and soon the police's investigation also slows down from lack of leads and evidence.

This is where Alex starts to take matters into his own hands and plays private investigator. His investigation leads him all over the US and he learns that magic and voodoo is involved. The more he learns about the abductor, the scarier it becomes and he knows that he has to find his sons as soon as possible, or they may depart this life in a terrifying way.

The novel's pace slows down towards the middle of the story, but picks up towards the end. However, Alex's quest to find his sons is still a captivating read.

My only quibble with this book is that some loose ends are left untied at the end, but maybe the author wants the reader to use his/her imagination and figure out how he/she wants it to work out.

Book Review: Ice Station by Matthew Reilly

Action all the way!

This thriller novel is full of non-stop violent action. By page 100, I was out of breath just from reading the book, and I don't know how the characters kept up the pace without tiring. And that is the trend through all 689 pages of my copy of the book. That said, I know it is fiction and things can get a bit far-fetched sometimes, but it still makes for an enjoyable reading experience, since the pages just keep on turning automatically. One of my first thoughts before hitting page 100 was that this author might be writing with a movie in mind, so vividly were the action scenes described.

The premise of the story is that US Scientists at a remote Antarctic ice station find a strange and fascinating large metallic object buried deep under the ice for millions of years. This object seems to be of military value and a first-class team of US marines, led by the accomplished protagonist, Lt. Shane Schofield a.k.a. Scarecrow, is sent to Antarctica to secure the object. And this is where the action starts - other countries also show an intense interest in this object and everyone is literally prepared to fight to the death for it. There are also plenty of suspense and near-death escapes in this novel to satisfy any lover of action-packed thrillers.

However, I have a few problems with this book; one being the fact that NATO allies, such as the British, the French and the US fight tooth and nail over this object, without any plausible reason supplied why they would want to fight their allies. Another problem is that there was an incident where two guys jumped into the ocean, and after some fighting with the enemy in the water, they land up on a large iceberg drifting in the ocean - and this iceberg just happens to have something buried under the snow and ice that would help them further on in the story - a large coincidence. But then again, like I have mentioned earlier, this is fiction, and if it keeps the pages turning, who cares?

Film Rights: Strike of the Black Mamba

A while ago, I was approached by a South African film company regarding the film rights of my thriller novel Strike of the Black Mamba. They said it was only an enquiry, and so I did not put too much hope in it.

Seeing that they have not contacted me again, I'm sure that it's not going to happen (this time).

Feeling that the book will make a great action-packed, suspenseful thriller movie (I'm the author, I should know - ;-)  -no I'm only joking - but a few people have actually mentioned this to me), I would like to appeal to all hollywood (or other) filmmakers, movie directors or scriptwriters to take a look at the novel.

Well, one can only but hope!

Book Review: Treasure by Clive Cussler

A gem amongst thrillers

Treasure's protagonist is again the indestructible, larger-than-life, and incurable Casanova, Dirk Pitt. This time he is on the search for treasures from the ancient Library of Alexandra. And these treasures are to be found in a place where nobody would expect them to be!

While searching for the treasure, Dirk has to contend with hardened international criminals, terrorists and other unsavory characters. Dirk's own father is taken hostage in a conspiracy to take control of Egypt and Mexico and Dirk has to rescue him and some other world-influential people out of the situation.

This thriller novel is a real page-turner filled with over-the-top action, adventure and suspense and I would think the best of Clive Cussler's books that I have read thus far.

Book Review: Trading Reality by Michael Ridpath

Excellent Whodunit-type Thriller

This book can be described as a modern whodunit murder mystery with thriller and technological elements thrown into the plot line.

The brother of a bond trader in London is murdered and the bond trader turns into CEO and entrepreneur when he takes over his brother's company. The company was on the verge of a technological breakthrough in Virtual Reality and this technology plays a major role as the story unfolds. Suspense mounts towards the end as the protagonist has to deal with managing the company, keeping it afloat and learning about the technology, while he also tries to discover who murdered his brother at the same time. His life is not made any easier by attempts at hostile take-overs, attempts on his life and terrorism.

To top it all, he also falls in love with one of his new employees! The author brings the book to a masterful conclusion when all the suspects are gathered in one location, as in true classical whodunit fashion, and the technology is employed to force the murderer to expose him/herself. The story flows well and the book is very difficult to put down.

Book Review: Pandora's Clock by John J. Nance

Great thrill ride!

I had seen the movie on TV before I read the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it - it literally kept me on the edge of my seat all the way. So, when I stumbled upon the novel in a bookshop, I just had to buy it.

This book really makes you think: what if? There is a passenger on a plane with a contagious virus; no airport wants to let the plane land there, and some fighter plane is trying to shoot the passenger jet down. What to do?

Usually I find books of the type where you have many characters thrown into a calamity of sorts a bit boring. In many of this kind of book, the author would get carried away with the emotions of all the different characters and cause the pace of the story to become sluggish. This is fine if the book is not a thriller novel, but in a thriller the author must keep the pace up and actually increase it as the story progresses. Well, John J. Nance has masterfully succeeded in making this an excellent thriller by keeping the pace and suspense at very high levels. At the same time, he created engaging characters, but not too many of them, and did not focus too much on all their emotions, but just enough so that I could actually sense the fear and hopelessness amongst them.

This was a great thrill ride that kept me on the edge of my seat, just as in the movie.

Namibia Visit

My week-long visit to Namibia at the end of April was just too short. I enjoyed it so much! And I think the family too, since it was their first visit to Namibia. We took a flight from Johannesburg's OR Tambo airport (it's very close to my home), rented a car at Windhoek airport and drove the nearly 400 km to the coast, enjoying the view, especially the Spitzkoppe near Usakos. Unfortunately, our time was limited and we could not take a detour to views along the way.

We stayed at Longbeach, between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund and visited Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, obviously ;-), as well as Hentiesbay and Cape Cross, the large seal colony where the Portuguese discoverers Diego Cao and Bartholomew Dias planted their 1486 and 1488, respectively.

We also made some short excursions into the desert, namely to the Swakop river bed, the age-old Welwitschia plants, Vogelvederberg, Rooibank, the Kuiseb river bed, and, of course, Dune 7.

And it was great to meet up with old school friends again, many of whom I last saw 30 years ago!

Book Review: Death Match by Lincoln Child

In a previous post I mentioned that I am doing some book reviews, especially of thriller novels that I have enjoyed. I decided to place these reviews also on my blog, so here is the first one:

Pleasantly surprised!

Having recently felt the urge to read thriller novels that would keep me awake all night, I tried a few novels by some authors I had not read before. Most of these books I did not even finish, since they bored me so much that I felt I would rather sit and watch the grass grow. I must add that they were real insomnia-busters (I'm not going to name them, though!).

Then I picked up Death Match. I have actually delayed reading the book, since the cover on the paperback version that I possess really did not look very inspiring. But, boy, was I surprised! Eventually I found a thriller novel that would fulfill the premise of keeping me awake all night. I have only read one work of Lincoln Child in conjunction with Douglas Preston, which I thoroughly liked, but since this one was a solo effort, I did not know what to expect.

It 'turned' out to be quite a page-turner, and although it started off a bit on the slow side, the pace was quickly stepped up and became more frantic towards the end. The plot was well-crafted and the characters engaging. I especially liked how Mr. Child developed the main character, Dr. Christopher Lash, and how he brought in some ghosts of his past life in the FBI to start haunting him again in his investigation of the suicides of the so-called "super couples" of Eden Incorporated. I also found the female character, Tara, very interesting, and seeing that she played a very prominent part later on in the book, I would have liked to see her developed a bit further.

All-in-all, I want to congratulate Lincoln Child on an excellent thriller, and providing me with a story that I found very hard to put down.

Trip to Namibia

Some time last year I mentioned that I am working on a new thriller novel which of which the largest part will play out in Namibia (in the Namib desert, to be exact). I am going on a trip to Namibia very soon for a high school reunion, but I will have ample time to do some research for my book in the desert.

I'm looking very much forward to this trip, as I haven't been there for a number of years!

Get Strike of the Black Mamba with Free Shipping!

"Strike of the Black Mamba" is available with free shipping from The Bookdepository. It is currently selling at $11.69 on their site. Please check out if they ship to your country before buying. They are shipping to about 90 countries free of charge, but unfortunately South Africa is not included in the list.

So, if you live in the US, Canada, the UK, nearly anywhere in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Andorra, Maldives, or wherever, and you have always wanted the book - now is your opportunity to go get it with free shipping!

It just seems they are not shipping to Africa, South America, Russia and Antartica ... I wonder why?

Buy Strike of the Black Mamba at a Discount!

Currently Tower.com is selling "Strike of the Black Mamba" at a discount (only $9.49). Please check their shipping rates first. You can find the book here: Tower Books.

My Squidoo Lenses

Recently, I decided to join the Squidoo fraternity and make my own Squidoo lens. I'm still experimenting with the content that I will put on there. Feel free to check it out!

I've also made some other related Squidoo lenses about book reviews, etc. You will find my other lenses here.

Where to find Strike of the Black Mamba

As I've mentioned in an earlier post the paperback version of my thriller novel "Strike of the Black Mamba" (ISBN: 9781920265137) is now available at most online book retailers. Here are some of the sites where you can find the book:

USA: Amazon.com
UK: Amazon.co.uk
Canada: Amazon.ca
Australia: Booktopia.com.au
South Africa: Kalahari.net

These are just a few examples -- there are many well known online book retailers that sell my book. Just go and search for it in your favorite store!