Author: Christopher Rice
Published: February 2019 by Thomas & Mercer
Category: Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Book Review
Kidnapped and raised by serial killers, Charlotte Rowe suffered an ordeal that made her infamous. Everyone in the world knew who she was. But no one in the world has any idea what she’s become…
Author: Charlie Laidlaw
Published: September 2017 by Accent Press
Category: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Book Review
The Things We Learn When We’re Dead is about how small decisions can have profound and unintended consequences, but how we can sometimes get a second chance.
On the way home from a dinner party, Lorna Love steps into the path of an oncoming car. When she wakes up she is in what appears to be a hospital – but a hospital in which her nurse looks like a young Sean Connery, she is served wine for supper, and everyone avoids her questions.
Author: Christopher Rice
Published: 1st March 2018 by Thomas & Mercer
Category: Thriller, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Book Review
Charlotte Rowe spent the first seven years of her life in the hands of the only parents she knew—a pair of serial killers who murdered her mother and tried to shape Charlotte in their own twisted image. If only the nightmare had ended when she was rescued.
Far ahead in the twenty-second century, libraries as we know them are a thing of the past. In this brave new world, they’ve been replaced by audio-visual pods that deliver a full sensory experience, so much safer that all those germ-ridden bundles of paper people used to read. But to the despair of Jane, who’s worked in a library for thirty years, some borrowers aren’t as grateful as they should be. Her dissatisfaction increases when glamorous Sarah is appointed manager over her head. Surely, the job should have been Jane’s? Then she discovers that Sarah has a dark secret. It’s payback time…
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Author: Alan RussellSeven years ago, young Stella Pierce vanished from the face of the earth. Now her grieving, broken family—along with Detective Orson Cheever, who never stopped working her case—is stunned by her mysterious return.
Set in California, Alan Russell opens the story with several couples and their children having a Valentine’s Day BBQ at the beach. A ghost story told by the fire, sworn to be true by the teller, fascinates Stella but makes the adults uncomfortable. Introducing Jason’s story lays the groundwork for what was to come.
Love isn’t something you need to capture in a picture. It just is.
After such a lovely get together Eleanor and Duncan Pierce had no idea their lives were about to shatter. That night seven year old Stella Pierce disappeared from her bedroom. Stella’s bed didn’t look slept in and nothing was out of place. She had disappeared without a trace. Continue reading
Author: Richard Phillips
When Mark and Heather Smythe saved Earth from the conquest-hungry Kasari Collective, they thought their work was done. But the world’s vast new government continued its quest to make extraterrestrial contact. And now, as a new gateway is activated to welcome the Kasari, whom world leaders take to be benefactors, only the Smythes stand a chance of countering their planet’s invasion and subjugation by a race of ruthless conquerors.
The Altreian Enigma continues the ongoing saga and again, three main storylines run concurrently in three different worlds. Jennifer, now a crack soldier and General Dgarra’s aide-de-camp, is involved in the Koranthian battle with the Kasari, while Raul maintains command of the appropriated Kasari space ship, ready and waiting to help out when needed. Continue reading
Author: JD Robb
As NY Lt. Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke are driving home, a young woman—dazed, naked, and bloody—suddenly stumbles out in front of their car. Roarke slams on the brakes and Eve springs into action.
It amazes me that with a series containing this number of books, evil can appear in so many varied forms. The subject matter is grim, abuse – both physical and sexual, by someone targeting young and happily married couples (with the exception of the first.) Continue reading
Author: Richard PhillipsJennifer Smythe escapes Earth’s invasion by the insidious Kasari race, hijacks an alien starship, and survives the deadly passage through a wormhole.
But escape is short-lived…
Back on a divided Earth, Jennifer’s brother, Mark, and Jack “the Ripper” Gregory wage their own war against the Kasari.
Although this is the first of the Rho Agenda Assimilation trilogy, the books do follow on from the Rho Agenda Inception and the Rho Agenda series, both of which give lots of insight into the development of the characters and, of course, fill in the previous storylines. Continue reading
Author: Brett Battles
Something happened that night in the woods at Camp Red Hawk. But all Joel and Leah can recall is sneaking out for a late hike with five camp friends, and that only the two of them and their friend Mike returned.
In July 2005 a group of friends from Camp Red Hawk decided to go on a night hike. The camp’s security was weak, the counsellors more interested in drinking beer and smoking pot after curfew than keeping an eye on the kids. Joel Madsen, Leah Bautista and Mike Hurst, along with four other friends, hiked into the woods. Dooley, one of the group, had found an old, restricted government property the previous summer, which was surrounded by a chain link fence. Now they could see an opening. Despite some slight reservations they entered. What they found there changed their lives forever. Three of the group returned with no memory of their leaving camp or anything that happened afterwards. And they have no memory of each other or their other friends. Continue reading
Author: Carol HedgesWill’s father dies in a work-related accident. At least that’s the official story. But Will knows it isn’t true. Someone wanted his father dead – and he’s determined to find out who, and why.
The only person who believes him is strange, beautiful loner Amber. But she’s hardly ‘normal’ – always hearing voices and seeing terrible Apocalyptic visions in her head.
In a dystopian future, Earth’s environment has completely changed following a spate of natural disasters which claimed a huge percentage of the populace and caused extreme climate change. Plus a total cybercrash wiping the data from every chip, memory board and circuit on the planet. This new world is governed by just one president who revitalised the world and improved life for the remaining population. Seemingly. Continue reading
Audiobook Review
A centuries old plan unfolds.
Pippa, Charlie, and the rest of humanity will have to fight for survival, sacrificing the life they’ve known to protect Earth from an ancient and previously dormant enemy. Even that might not be enough as this new enemy exacts a plan that will change the course of humankind forever.
Critical Dawn is an apocalyptic ride to the very edge of human existence. Factions will battle for control of the Earth—if they can avoid the threat of extinction.
Archaeologists and historians Charlie Jackson and his boss, Pippa Quinn, are investigating a site of particular interest and on the verge of a huge discovery, although it turns out to be not quite what they were expecting. Pippa has found some unexplainable and disturbing evidence in undisturbed graves at the dig site of a deserted settlement on Roanoke Island. Items were found under the skeletons which could not have been added after the burials and it was obvious to Charlie and Pippa they were dealing with advanced technology. As they try to draw some conclusions from the artefacts and information found at the dig, storms are gathering around the world. India has been hit with a tsunami and California by a hurricane. Continue reading
The story of one man’s attempt to live a normal life, even though he is not normal.
The United States government is under siege. A secretive cabal of super rich elitists, The Krakow Klub, has initiated the final phase of its long-range plan to take over the USA from within. They have achieved control of the Presidency and the military. Their puppet in the White House has declared martial law. The Congress, The Supreme Court and many other political leaders not under their control are slated for elimination.
Only one man has the power to stop The Krakow Klub. His name is John F. Scott and he appears to be an ordinary human being. But he is part alien. His power is based on alien technology. Can he be trusted to stop the takeover and return power to a lawful government afterwards? Can he control his power once he unleashes it? Can he control himself during the process? Will he take the risk? If so, at what price? Continue reading
Author: Katy HayeZan knows she’s different. Today she discovers why …
Zanzibar MacKenzie knows she’s a freak. She has EHS – electrical hypersensitivity – which leaves her trying to live a Stone Age life in the twenty-first century: no internet, no phone, no point really. Then Thanriel knocks on her door and the dull summer holiday becomes maybe too exciting. Zan discovers fairies and angels are real beings from other planets, she herself is half alien, and the future of life on Earth rests on her shoulders.
Up until the day of her 17th birthday, Zanzibar MacKenzie lead a very sheltered life. She always knew she was different, home schooled, no electrical appliances whatsoever in her life or environment and isolated by her EHS. Just how different, she was about to find out. While spending time with her only friend, Em, who lives nearby, and Em’s boyfriend at the beach, Zan thinks she spots a stranger on the cliff watching them. Continue reading
Author: Richard PhillipsIn this page-turning sci-fi adventure, the NSA’s most brilliant hacker is abducted and the world stands on the brink of cyberwar. The Ripper and his ghost team commandos are called to action, battling a host of enemies ranging from a genius tech-billionaire and the Chinese government to an emerging superintelligence capable of bringing the world to its knees. With every threat in play, Jack must confront his alien passenger and regain some semblance of self-control. As the origins of the Rho Agenda come to light, Jack struggles to embrace his destiny. But how can even one such as he prevail against an existential threat to humanity?
Jamal Glover is the best of the NSA’s elite team of hackers, known as the Dirty Dozen, who work in the War Room at the NSA headquarters, keeping the country safe from cyber attacks and a lot more besides. Nineteen years old and straight out of MIT, Jamal loves his job. He also loves his girlfriend, Jill, and is on his way home to have dinner with her. What awaits him will change his life and if the Chinese government’s plans succeeds it will spell disaster and the threat to humanity will be immense and devastating. Continue reading
Author: Richard PhillipsEx-CIA assassin Jack Gregory has been hired for a singular mission: to journey to South America and rescue an imprisoned shaman. Beloved by the struggling masses and feared by the ruling elite, shaman Tupac Inti is destined to unite Bolivia’s indigenous people and bring down the corrupt government.
The second of the Rho Agenda prequels centres around a very powerful and ancient Incan artefact known as the Sun Staff, formerly held by Pizzaro after conquering the Incan empire hundreds of years ago, now being hunted for the mystical and alien powers it’s believed to possess.
Tupac Inti, a shaman in the Quechua tribe, is currently in Palmasola prison, Bolivia. Only he knows the whereabouts of the Sun Staff. Jack Gregory has been hired to keep Tupac alive and out of the hands of an evil group of Neo-Nazis led by Conrad Altmann, the bastard son of Klaus Barbie, who needs Tupac in order to gain control of the Sun Staff. Barbie realised the Sun Staff had mystical power and had managed to return the artefact to Bolivia. Now Altmann was about to lay claim to the reality.
But Jack still had to meet the man. And then he had to get them both the hell out of here. In this part of the world, bribery was the best option for making something like that happen. The trick was to find the right people to bribe, and then to make sure that they feared Jack more than they feared the UJC. He’d accomplished the first part before getting in here. Yesterday’s violence closed the deal. Now, if Jack could avoid being poisoned in the meantime, so much the better.
Janet Price is employed by the NSA and accountable to Admiral Jonathan Riles, who has been working towards the opportunity to study the Sun Staff for the last three years, although he doesn’t subscribe to the theory claiming the activation of the Sun Staff will be the catalyst to bring a master race back to earth. Janet’s assignment is to get to Tupac Inti before Jack.
Jack is slowly succumbing more and more to the entity known as Anchanchu, and understanding more of it’s interaction with human hosts makes it vital that Jack controls Anchanchu rather than the other way around.
Jack is no stranger to dreams of a past not his own but now vivid waking visions plague him, of memories that also aren’t his, about Pizzaro and the Sun Staff. They give his mission a new meaning when he realises what they imply. It’s more than just a job to Jack now, it’s a matter of survival. Can Jack free himself from the being that controls his mind and wants to kill him? The ever more violent emotions Anchanchu evokes in Jack threaten his state of mind.
The characters, and Jack and Janet’s relationship, continue to develop as more of their back story is revealed, along with an extraordinary and well thought through storyline full of action, suspense, Neo-Nazis and corrupt officials. The writing is descriptive, detailed and powerful and it’s really a confirmation of that writing, and narration, that I was totally engaged in the story.
And again, each short and compelling chapter is from different characters’ perspectives, which works extremely well. I always enjoy MacLeod Andrews’ excellent, and wonderfully voiced, narrations and I’m looking forward to the third instalment to see how it all plays out and ties in with the Second Ship.
Author: Richard PhillipsJack Gregory, the CIA’s top assassin, went rogue after a mission gone wrong. When a confrontation leaves him bleeding out on death’s doorstep, he is faced with an offer from a dark figure named Anchanchu. If Jack is willing to act as a human host for Anchanchu, the entity will revive him and give him another shot at life. Jack takes the deal…but he must now face the consequences of having the same dark creature in his head as some of history’s greatest villains. Struggling with desires and memories that are not his own, Jack is not the man he once was.
One year later, he is known internationally as The Ripper, assassin for hire, and is faced with having to wrest control of his dark compulsions while preventing a nuclear attack on the United States.
All through The Rho Agenda I was intrigued by the characters of Jack Gregory and Janet Price. What was their story? Why did Jack’s eyes sometimes seem to have a red glint? In this first of three prequels we get to learn much more about Jack and Janet and what makes them who they are.
Jack, a CIA agent on the trail of his brother’s killer, finds himself facing Carlton ‘Priest’ Williams and a gang of knife wielding thugs in a Calcutta alley. After a bloody fight Jack, well outnumbered and badly wounded, is found by a nun. Taken to a basic clinic and unable to be saved, Jack is pronounced dead. Until, that is, he’s visited by the demon, Anchanchu. Jack has an unimaginable decision to make.
Doctor Misra had filled out and signed the death certificate for one Jack Gregory, the name on the identification card in the man’s wallet. Sister Mary Judith watched as he took one last look at the chiseled face of the dead man on the table, shook his weary head, and departed……As the sheet settled over the dead man’s face, she saw something that sent a shiver up her spine, a shallow billowing in the sheet where it covered his mouth.
Jack has been freelance since his revival and it’s his latest client who inadvertently involves him and Janet in a plot, masterminded by an accomplished scientist, the Russian mafia and corrupt members of the CIA, which threatens the safety and security of the United States. Once again the integrity of intelligence agencies and governments, and the way they operate at the highest levels, is called into question.
I love the supernatural twist in the story and how it relates to Jack and his deadly skills. Richard Phillips has created a fascinating and compelling protagonist, fulfilling the promise which began in the Rho Agenda. The narrative pulled me into the story totally and, as always, MacLeod Andrews gives a superbly delivered performance whilst actually raising the bar. As each chapter comes from a different point of view so the narration reflects that person’s characterisation. It works really well. Significant character development and an extremely fast-moving plot kept me hooked until the end. This was well worth the wait.
About the author
Born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1956, Richard Phillips graduated from West Point in 1979, qualified as an Army Ranger, and served for several years as an officer in the United States Army. In 1989, he graduated with a Master of Science degree in Physics from the Naval Post Graduate School, completing his thesis work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He then spent three years as a Research Associate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, before completing his tour of duty as an Army Officer. He now lives in Phoenix, with his lovely wife, Carol, where he develops simulation software for the U.S. military and writes science fiction.
